Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Vikings Topple the Bills, Jeff Saturday Proves People Wrong, and Oregon... Oof

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are back on a loaded episode of Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You, and they're starting off with a recap of the Vikings win over the Bills on Sunday. Was this the game of the year? Are the Vikings Super Bowl contenders? Is Kirk Cousins better than Josh Allen? Probably not to all of those, but let's talk about 'em! Also, Jeff Saturday and the Colts get a surprise win over Josh McDaniel and the Raiders, and what does Oregon's loss to Washington mean for the Pac 12's CFP hopes?This week on Moving the Line, Geoff deciphers the Chargers, Gabe puts the Rams on the "Do Not Mention" list, and the boys craft the perfect all-media coaching staff.As always, be sure to leave a rating and comment to show what you thought of the pod, or tweet @geoffschwartz to tell the man directly!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday november 15th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz a smart new power by the varsity podcast network another wonderful weekend of nfl action up and down i'm not even sure we have a good team gabe we have some good teams we have some bad teams and then 28 teams in the middle we'll discuss where we stand after week 10. Also, does coaching matter? Does having a head coach even matter at all in this league anymore? And then I think we're going to address college football, but I'm over that sport right now. So we'll see.

Maybe, maybe not. How you doing, Gabe? I'm okay. Does anything matter, Jeff? That's really the question. Nobody knows. Nobody knows if it all matters. Here's my biggest question uh as we

come into the week yes what what's going on with your spoon did you attach a stick to your spoon what's what's what's going on yeah so for those of you who are new here i do breakdown videos on social media and i used a spoon for a long time right and the spoon's right here okay so i used to be i used to go downstairs and do this downstairs at the coffee table. I'd just be eating, you know, drinking coffee, spoon's there, pull it up. But I get the film sooner now. And so in the morning, I come to my office

where I'm doing this right now, and I have an actual remote that I can fast forward and rewind the film with. And so it's easier to do it in here. The problem is if I am right here, as you can see on the audio, I can't reach my, my arm is too far away from the screen. So I put the spoon on a pointer and I use the pointer with the spoon attached because people seem to like the spoon.

So that's how it's done. So you thought the spoon is so important. I'm going to attach the spoon to a long pointer instead of just using the long pointer because the spoon is now arbitrary it's i get more views when the spoon is out than when not so yeah it's it's a it's an algorithm man i mean maybe elon's got to call me to figure out how this thing works. I don't know. I feel like the spoon is an accessory to your brand. The way Pete Davidson is becoming an accessory to every beautiful woman in the world. We just date Pete Davidson all the time. We get the story about it. Yeah. I mean,

the spoon, I don't know, man, when I don't use it, people ask like, where's the spoon at? So I just did. And my daughter came in the other day. My office was like, dad, what is this? I'm like, don't ask. It's just, you're you're six just be cute and don't worry about the spoon yeah well hey uh you know who could use some spoon video review this week the bills these dudes need to figure some shit out fast all right now i know this story is supposed to be the vikings what an unbelievable comeback the vikings maybe look like a Super Bowl contender. Kirk Cousins is probably shirtless wearing chains somewhere. Cool. But man, the Bills are lost. And I don't think it's just a quarterback injury. I think there's some real

problems there. A very improbable win for the Vikings and a very hard to explain loss for the Bills. But please, Jeff, you're smarter than me. Explain it. Yeah, this is a pretty interesting game. Bills up 17 points in the fourth quarter at home against the Vikings. I think a lot of us are ready to kind of dance in the Vikings' grave. Because a lot of us have said, hey, the Vikings hadn't really beat anybody yet.

They have one win against a winning opponent. And that's when Tua did not play when they put the Dolphins. So they had not really beat anybody yet. And a lot of us looked at that first three quarters like, see, here we go. We told you the Vikings aren't any good. And they come all the way back.

They win that game in overtime. There obviously was some help there with a bad snap by the Bills. We gave the Vikings the lead there. And then some poor refereeing even gave the Vikings, excuse me, the Bills a chance to tie the game and head into overtime, which they did. Buffalo is interesting right now. So they entered this game, gave the number one seed in the AFC. They left this game third in the AFC East.

They have dropped very fast after one week because the Dolphins keep winning. Your Jets, your Jets, 6-3 on a bye. And the Chiefs,s obviously by the way everybody i'll take my pats on the back if you'd like to tweet me at jeff schwartz of the seven and two chiefs are number one in the afc conference right now so much for losing a white single wide receiver in the offseason the bills okay so josh allen has seemed to revert back to mistake prone josh allen and no one really knows why. There's no explanation.

He was good last season. He's been good a lot of this season. But he's reverted back to some bad decision in the red zone. And I don't know if he feels like he needs to do too much. If he feels like his defense can't get stopped, which I think is not true. I don't know if he's seeing things he's not supposed to see out there. I don't know if it's his elbow messed up.

Some have theorized that Brian Dable not being there, who's now in New York, is starting to show in the red zone, which is a very important part of the field. And Josh Allen's not as comfortable in the red zone. The Bills' lack of running the ball successfully does hurt more in the red zone. We talk about this often, more in the red zone. We talk about this often, that in the red zone,

because as the defenders kind of get closer to the line of scrimmage because there's less room to operate, you know, being able, excuse me, the throwing windows get smaller because there's, again, as we get closer to the end zone, the back of the end zone doesn't move, right?

So the closer you get to the end zone the closer the defense is to the ball being able to run the ball in this area is good you can create holes because again it's hard to pass the ball because everyone's so bunched together maybe that's affecting alan not having brian dayball there but that's a that's a big problem gabe they've scored zero second half touchdowns since week six. Yeah, they need to find ways to limit these. And it could just be Allen being better. But you lose to the Jets after being up double digits, and now you lose at home up 17.

Now, if they don't fumble that exchange and they win this game 27-23, we might not even have this discussion, right? I think that this is a discussion solely based on the fact they fumbled the ball in a rare situation. If they fumble the ball and get the two and it just falls at the one, we don't have this discussion, right? Right. But it fell back into the end zone.

It was recovered by Minnesota. I think the Bills are still, and they still are the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl. It may or may not change over the coming weeks. But they're third in the division, and the Dolphins are playing good football. I don't think the Jets survive this kind of place they're in right now with Zach Wilson.

But the Dolphins are a real threat, and you cannot lose games like this if you want to be the one seed in any conference and the bills kind of have two weeks in a row now a bad loss i still believe in them josh allen can fix obviously some of the turnovers and they're still good football team all right uh a few more things i want to ask you about so first of all i know you and matt were betting dolphins to win the division going into this weekend. You like the number. I was a big,

big fan of that idea. It looks even smarter now. So Mazel Tov, let's talk about the Viking side of it, which is normally the boring side. I'm not interested in, but almost everything had to go right. As you said,

like it was a 98% chance they were going to lose this game in the final minutes. And they somehow win on it. Some crazy plays, even some crazy plays even some crazy plays like that justin jefferson catch i know it ultimately like doesn't necessarily matter but all the stuff that happened was remarkable and shouldn't have happened and it did can they keep it up and are they doing anything that is sustainable or repeatable or you gives you more

confidence that they are for real if you look at the first three quarters and you look at the last quarter, right, and you think to yourself, well, which is this team, right? The team that played really well in the fourth quarter, that pressured Josh Allen, that forced turnovers, the offensive line played better. Finally, Cousins said, we're going to throw the ball deep and let Jefferson make a play. But it's your point.

The best catch of all time on fourth and 18, I think it was fourth and 18, to even extend the drive. And then they got stuffed at the one-yard line. Again, Buffalo should have won that game. So I think you could definitely say that they're trending in the right direction because they won a game they shouldn't have won. But again, I believe they won now six games from behind this season. They've won seven of their eight games by less than a touchdown.

Those numbers typically don't hold up over a season. They've won by three, three, eight, eight, seven, three, four, and week one they won 23-7. So that typically doesn't hold out all season game. You're going to start losing some close games here. But look, Cousins makes throws. They've stayed in the game long enough. They keep it close, and they've made enough plays in these games to win.

Cowboys, Patriots, Jets, Lions, Colts, Giants, Packers, Bears. They have, if I'm right, they have a three-and-a-half game lead right now. Excuse me, four-and-a-half game lead right now uh excuse me four and a half game lead right now in the north right they're eight and one the packers are four and six pretty crazy so a five game lead you know in the lost colony four and a half you technically say four and a half overall but they're winning the division game like if we think they're good or bad or indifferent they're winning that division yeah in the there's no real research to back up what i'm about to say but my feeling about the vikings for at least the

last decade has been huh they're better than i thought and then something unbelievably unlucky happens to them to end their season that's i feel like i've read that script three four times in the last 10 or 15 years and so i just worry for them if they're just using up all their good juju right now. Like they're getting lucky to win all these regular season games, man. You need this in the NFC championship game. You've been beat on some crazy ass plays in the postseason before. Save some of this good karma for them. Yeah, look, and then the Vikings, right?

They just seem to always sort of have as you mentioned weird things happen to them but also i think the hesitation for us all the time is that prime time kirk cousins is always living right like he's bad he's bad when it's nighttime 1 p.m game great 4 30 4 155, not as good, but still good. Night game, man. Monday night, Thursday night, Sunday night, bad, bad, bad, bad. And that's why I think we're like, yeah, he only goes so far with this team. First-year head coach as well, scheduling pretty well.

But they're 8-1, man. Like, at some point, kind of is what they are. And they have such a big lead in the NFC North. They're going to win that division. Isn't he, though? Isn't he like 7 or 8-0 in England? Didn't we learn that he's also great? Oh, Cousins.

Something like that, yeah. So maybe the key is, for some reason, his body clock is off. Maybe he can play the night games if he's across the pond. Let's just not let him play night games here in North America. I know. And your boy now, 1-0 in Germany, man. Like, we're starting to make some more records now out there. Oh, God.

We don't need to talk about my boy this week. Okay. Let's get into the most interesting topic of this week. I think it was the most controversial and fiery topic of last week. We were probably the first people to talk about it based on when we record. and fiery topic of last week we were the probably the first people to talk about it based on when we record now we've had a week to let it sink in and we've watched the cults led by jeff saturday beat the raiders i read this tweet from roger sherman who we've quoted before on this show i'm just going to read it word for word it's the take i want you to react to what if the jeff

saturday thing ends up revealing that being an an NFL head coach is actually way easier than everybody has claimed and you don't need to grind 90 hour weeks for two decades to be good at it. Now he might be kidding a little bit, but I think there's a really serious piece of truth in that tweet. Yeah. So Jeff Saturday, who we, we,

we didn't mock Jeff Saturday. I think we mocked the Colts in general this past week and then went up to Vegas and won. I mean, geez, Vegas is having some issues. I don't know how McDaniels – I saw Mark Davis come out and say he still has the job. I don't know how. They benched three players.

You're quarterback. I like the emotion. I'm fine with the emotion. Maybe I'm just heartless, but I know Carr is crying up there and being emotional. It's fine, but just win football games. Like, you're the quarterback. Like, go out and win these games.

Like, that's your job, right? Hank said as a tweet, they've had the ball six times this year with a chance to win the game, and they're 0-6. They're 0-6. So there's a lot of problems in Vegas. Gannon Jeff Saturday. There were some harsh words from Joe Thomas, especially Bill Coward, Cow-er. And we were talking, Matt and I, about this a little bit when me and you were on the

week about kind of this decision to go Jeff Saturday, what it meant. And I think we were right about those things. We were wrong, at least I was wrong, about the importance of maybe having an X and O's guy as head coach, right? Because we knew, and I agree with Jeff Saturday when he said he can motivate. I think there was no question he would be able to motivate the team. But the question I had was decision-making, X and O's, and being able to just put a winning team on the field. Now, going to Matt Ryan helped. They kind of did Frank Gregg dirty.

They benched Matt Ryan. Then they kind of used that excuse to fire him and then put him back in. That helped Jeff Saturday. The one thing that I will say, and I think this is important here, and Joe Thomas brought this up. He shared a story about seeing his former

head coach, Rob Chizinski. And he said he lived next to him in Cleveland and Rob only saw his kids once a week. All right. That was the story, right, Gabe? And what I thought about that wasn't, oh, Jeff Saturday didn't work enough to deserve this job.

I thought, should I see his kids a little bit more? Like the idea that you have to, as a coach, grind 24 hours a day, I think is very misguided. Now, there are certainly coaches who do that and it works for them, but not everyone has to do what works for other people, right? If you can get the job done in a seven to seven situation, Bruce Arians is famous for saying, if you're not home by seven, if you miss your kids' events, I'm firing you. Do your job and go home. I had a coach, one time, offensive line miss your kids' events, I'm firing you. Like, do your job and go home.

I had a coach one time, an office line coach, I asked him, like, what time do you leave? He goes, when the head coach leaves. And I was like, well, what if you're done for the day? He goes, I just sit in my office. Like, go home. Go home. This is what it might prove, is that you don't have to spend all these hours away from your family to win. Now, of course, this is one game, so it doesn't mean it's the season.

But if this gets coaches to see their families more, man, I'm all for it. And I understand what Bill Cowher is saying to a degree and Joe Thomas. Like, look, there's a path to this, right? Like, I get Bill Cowher saying, like, look, I was basically a GA, right? And then I was an intern. And then I was an assistant. And then I was another assistant. And you climb the ladder all the way up.

I get that. So I understand if you think Jeff Saturday got to hand this job because he's, quote, unquote, Jim Irsay's drinking buddy, which is what Joe Thomas said, right? I get those criticisms. But I don't get the idea that he hasn't earned this because he doesn't grind away at the facility 24-7. I don't get that game. That, to me, is a little much. So good for Jeff Saturday. What does this mean? I don't know, man. I don't know if he's going to win next week. They play the Eagles next weekend, so who knows if it... But it's definitely...

It piqued my attention on how coaching is done one game, very small sample size, but hey man, he got it done. So good for him. Yeah. Well, he got a lot of other people weighing in Tony Dungy among them, a lot of people pushing back on the idea that, you know, people, coaches can only see their kid one day a week to be successful. Tony points out, well, no, I saw my kids more than one day a week. And, you know, we know that some people can. I guess I would argue as a father now and a guy who works pretty hard professionally that the time you get to spend with your kids, if focused and truly engaging and exciting,

like I love coaching Little League. and truly engaging and exciting, like I love coaching Little League, if I give that, let's say two hours a week, that makes me better at all the rest of my professional life because I'm more focused and more plugged in. And I feel like I've checked the right box on the dad's side. Now I can go be the worker that I need to be. Do you think that that is also the case if you have very focused time with your kids as a as an nfl coach that that will help you in your job and more time with my kids i think if you have more time um being able to decompress on the job is a good thing like having more time to to sit back and not just be 24 7 running the film and focusing like being

able to have a downtime with your family for me and i didn't say you just mentioned like it's very good for you it's very good for your mental health to be around your family that look your kids don't care about your job like they're not they're not that your kids come home your kids are younger than mine but my kids kids are never like, hey, how was your radio today? They don't care. They just wanted you to be their dad. And I think that's good. And so, yeah, I always appreciated Bruce Arians.

He was like, yeah, go see your kid. Like go do your kid's events. And it would be – I just felt bad for Chum when I heard that, man. I just felt awful. Like, geez, man. I'm like – I just – I felt bad for his kids when i heard that man i just felt awful like geez man like like i just i felt bad for his kids in that moment all right well so then let's talk about the other side of this uh a lot of people dunking on josh mcdaniels which i'm all for the best joke i saw was every

week the nfl should hire a guy off the couch and see if he can beat josh mcdaniels my my idea which is only half a joke was when josh mcdiles daniels is fired jeff saturday should hire him because that would be hilarious so funny dude like what what's going on with josh mcdaniels why do we keep thinking this guy's a good coach oh no man i don't know he obviously isn't you know as i mentioned things aren't going well there. Your quarterback is getting up. And again, I don't mind the emotion. It's fine to be that emotional as a player.

You want to win, and it's very hard to win. It's very tough to win, and it takes a lot of time. And as he mentioned, all things you have to do to put in the work work but it doesn't feel good that in week 10 your quarterback is like hey we aren't bought in yet like guys and team aren't bought in they're not doing what we have to do to win it's a coaching problem coaching problem you know your quarterback is paid to win those some of those games for you it's not happening right davante adams you brought him in like he's probably better lately but has helped your offense very much where's chandler jones at like what's happening so it uh man it's not good there it ain't good man and i'm shocked he's gonna make it this season i think he will and then i'll get fired well i don't even know if he'll make it to the end of the year

and i don't know why people keep hiring these Belichick disciples. I mean, look, we got updated every season, how many guys who used to work under Belichick got some chance and then failed. But the record is not good. And Vrabel's pretty good, but he wasn't his coach, right? Correct. No, he was a player. Okay. So maybe there's something to learn from him as a leader on the team.

was a player okay so maybe there's something to learn from him as a as a leader on the team but my thing with with the belichick assistance is one i think that well we know this right they try to be bill belichick yeah it doesn't work because there's only one but i do wonder how much belichick oversees everything like and then you leave and you're like i don't have belichick there to help me anymore yeah Yeah, I don't actually know what I'm doing. Yeah, I wonder if Belichick, and we've seen at times they've done those behind-the-scenes shows, the hard knocks and whatnot, and one of them was basically

I saw him and Tom Brady were sitting in the meeting room going over the offensive game plan together. That's simply like an offensive coach's thing. I'm sure the offensive coach did it too, but yeah, it was he's just not a good coach he wasn't good in denver and um he's he's not good now yeah listen another year or two of this hank hank's gonna start thinking he's great at producing a show right you know and he's gonna be like i could do this on my own and then he's gonna realize belichick i'm pointing at myself

right now belichick's not around any longer man it's hard to get jeff schwartz to be smarter than me i need i need i need some help with this rundown oh the big guy's gone every time every time though that i get on the dock i'm like oh hope he did his job and has a rundown ready yeah and and he at the last second he always does this is probably how he hands his papers in. He's graduated. I tell you what, man, these, you know, these, hey, I cannot mock Gen Z right now. They get a big round of applause from me. So, Hank, thank you.

Thank you for being yourself. Yeah, thanks, Hank. Thanks for writing this sentence I'm about to read word for word. Oregon lost to Washington this weekend and fell all the way down to number 12 in the ap poll jeff what happened to the ducks this game there's your boy hank um that's his topic suck on that jeff i have radio later today i do packed off radio i haven't done one show since uh i've been on this since 2019 the station and i haven't done how to do one show with after organ lost to washington because it never happens um man it was bad defense just stunk dude um this is the the the reason complimentary football is very

important and i'm not saying anything that anyone doesn't know. But when you don't play complementary football, then all the mistakes get magnified, right? So, like, Oregon had very few offensive mistakes. They fumbled the red zone. Well, Washington had an interception in the red zone. So, it kind of evened each other out, right? But, you know, you're driving down that long 20-play drive, and your center, like, his shoulders effed up.

Like, you could tell he was in a lot of pain. He was gutting it through. But particularly one play afterwards, he's holding it. It's like, ugh, it's his right arm. And then he had a bad snap. Only time all year are the bad snaps. Had to derail the drive. It's like, ugh, bummer.

And then, you know, Bo Nix hurts himself. You know, the fourth down play. Look, I've been very clear about this. When we talk about NFL, college, be consistent, okay? Dan Lanning has gone for it in the fourth down all season long, and it's worked. Good, go for it. Right guard just misses his guy.

Otherwise, we score a touchdown, Gabe. We score a touchdown. He misses his guy. Even then, we get the ball back with 50 seconds left. But Bo Nix, a little beat up, can't move. We lose the game. Divas just got, Divas didn't play well.

Just didn't play well. And that's all being said. And we saw a chance to win the game. So I just, I hate, I just hate Washington so much. So losing this game is just, it's not fun.

I don't like losing this game. So it's a lot to play for. We're still playing for the Pac-12. Look, if you take the season on the whole, you're 8-2 right now, first-year head coach. You're pretty happy about it. I mean, the way the losses came aren't great. Georgia getting blown out of Washington at home.

But first-year coach, first-time head coach ever. No one thought they were a playoff team heading into the season. So we're kind of back to that same point right now. We're not a playoff team. But the crazy part is just the Pac-12 just keeps eating itself alive, man. It's going to happen this weekend. I'm telling you right now, UCLA is going to beat USC, and we're going to be in the place we always are

with no, no Pac-12 playoff team. All right. So I'm going to push back on that. I think you're just being salty. I'm concerned. I've said this for weeks now. USC can't,

this is the game. You cannot win a conference championship being like a hundred and first in the country in points per drive on defense. You just can't. USC can't. They have seven conference wins, Gabe. Do you know how many wins, their combined wins,

their seven conference opponents have that they've won so far, the games they've won? Not very many. 14. 14. Wow. You're playing UCLA, who just lost. The Arizona 14. Yeah. Like, you're playing UCLA, who just lost,

the Arizona game is embarrassing. Holy heck. Notre Dame, and then Oregon or Utah, like, you're just not, it's not going to win those three games in a row. UCLA is going to run for like 400 yards this weekend.

I'm just telling you. It's okay. It's okay. But, the Patto have no playoff team again. That stinks. And it's a year to get it in too because, look, Georgia's in, right? They're going to win the SEC.

Ohio State, Michigan, one of those two is in. TCU, if they lose one game, they're probably out, but they win, they're in. Like, if TCU loses one more game, any game actually, there's two playoff spots up for bid. Like right there, sitting right there. And Oregon could have had one. USC could have had one. UCLA, if UCLA doesn't lose to Arizona,

they beat USC and beat Cal and beat Oregon. Like Utah, whoever's in the Pac-12 championship game, they're in the playoff at 12-1. Like we had all these paths to get in and none of them were going to happen. Stinks. Well, I'm 3-0 at the Coliseum this year. So. This game is at the Rose Bowl.

Game's at the Rose Bowl, but I think that the SC crowd will travel better up to Pasadena. Are you worried about the die injury? Yeah, obviously. Good news is they got two guys at every position. And I'm more interested in what happens with

the Gentry and how they look on defense. Cause to your point, they, they don't stop anyone. Turnovers. Sure. Great turnover margins, actually getting stops on third down, just keeping teams from moving down the field. Not a specialty. Lincoln Riley does not seem interested in that.

So, yeah, it, the, your boy, man, he, Colin loves himself some USC. USC has the sack leader in college football. Yeah. On their defensive line. And they're terrible on defense. Yeah. They have Eric Gentry, who's been hurt, obviously. Shane Lee, a linebacker.

They have secondary pieces that are going to the NFL. It's not a talent issue. No. It's a coaching issue al scrunch wasn't good at oklahoma either it's the problem jeff in this make me a little smarter and then we'll move the line in the next segment to me it feels like they play four quarters of that prevent defense that's like you know you can give up 70 yards as long as they're eating clock they play the whole game that way.

But, you know, some teams score. All right. So here's, okay, here's the general way college football is played now from the defensive perspective in my mind, okay? I mean, not in my mind. I watch it happen each week. The way the game is played now on both sides of the ball, offense and defense, it's generating explosive plays on offense and limiting explosive plays on defense.

Because I'll use Oregon's 20-play drive, for example, right? It's hard in college football to have 10 to 20 good plays in a row. And one bad playoff, it can ruin a drive, okay? So Oregon has 18 plays in a row that are really good. They're driving down the field. They're getting steps and one bad snap. Oh, shit. Now it's third and five.

Run a QB, draw, only get two yards. A bonus gets hurt. Drive over, okay? Mm-hmm. So defensively, you want to set up to force the offense to make those 10, 12, 13-point drives. So it's the quote-unquote Ben, but don't break defense. Right. The problem is

USC can't stop the run. So bend-but-don't-break doesn't work because teams just ram it down their throat in the red zone. See, Oregon can stop the run. That's what Oregon does really well. So they are better

at this quote-unquote bend-but-don't-break because they stop the run. That's what they can do in the red zone. USC can't do that. They can't stop the run. One very nerdy thing, very quickly on USC.

So Al Scrincher, defensive coordinator, made his name at Washington State. And at Washington State, they had a very undersized defensive lineman, you know, 275 pounds, 250. And what you have to do when you play an offensive line with a smaller defensive line is move each play, right? So you have to move each play up front to find edges, right? Because you want to try to get us to go one direction, and then you work one of our shoulders, right? So you have to move each play up front to find edges, right? Because you want to try to get us to go one direction

and then you work one of our shoulders, right? Like one of our edges and you force, you know, the back to slow up and whatnot and you rally and get there. Well, at USC,

you shouldn't have to do that. Right. You have dudes. And what happens is USC has that same philosophy. We're going to move every play. Well, what happens is when you move a lot

on defense against a good offensive line and a good running attack and in the Pac-12 conference and really for most teams is you leave giant rushing lanes if you miss your gap.

If you're out of your gap, that's what happened. I feel like I'm getting in the weeds here. Washington ran the ball well against Oregon in one way. That was it.

They ran the ball to the boundary. in one way that was it they ran the ball the boundary when they knew oregon they it did happen the second half was oregon changed in the first half they were taking their defensive end oregon was and and and bringing him inside on kind of like a stunt and so washington was able to get to the edge because our defensive end just vacated right it wasn't even there there was no one there what's happened to usc too is like usc's moving so much that you can create a gap and just like boom right through the gap they should just play straight up they're good enough to do so and so that's i think an issue with and that's why i say it's a coaching issue not a player issue on defense you have pros everywhere you you have three pros uh you pose at every level in usc not three more than three pros but you have again the sack leader in the country on your defensive line,

and you can't stop anybody. Yeah. Well, it still makes for a fun game to attend. This weekend is going to be like, are you going this weekend? No tickets currently. Thinking about it. Thinking about whether it's worth the trip. I mean, I'm definitely watching.

I don't know if I'm going to go up to the stadium. It's a long journey for you. Yeah, it's worth the trip. I mean, I'm definitely watching. I don't know if I'm going to go up to the stadium. It's a long journey for you. Yeah, it's not easy. And I've been enjoying a couple adult beverages at each one of these games, and I don't want to do that. Have you been to the Rose Bowl? I've been to the Rose Bowl. I've been to a Rose Bowl, and I've been to games at the Rose Bowl.

It's gorgeous. Very nice. Yeah, it's perfect. I'd like to go. Just, you know, it's a babysitter balance, Jeff. Hey, let me ask you this real quick and then we'll move on. Normally, if the second and third ranked team in the country were undefeated SEC teams heading into a rivalry game where one of them's got to lose, we would all be talking about how. Yeah, but, you know, listen, even as the loser, if they're sitting home on championship weekend, they might get that fourth spot in the playoff.

That's what we would say if it was Alabama LSU or whatever. Ohio State and Michigan are two and three right now. They're both undefeated. One of them is going to beat the other with final week. But like – No, you're right. No, you're right. If it's just a three-point game, the loser might be in a playoff team.

No, this is what happens. If TCU and USC both lose at some point yeah and you're left with probably two sec teams and two big 10 teams god that'd be nuts because you know like the one loss thing right so you're gonna have 11 and 1 tennessee and 11 and 1 michigan ohio state you can't reasonably put in two loss oregon USC, UCLA, Utah. No. You know, I guess the argument would be you put in, you know, let's say TCU loses to Baylor but wins their conference. I guess a 12-1 TCU team would have an opportunity.

North Carolina. No, boy. It could be 12-1. I mean, they can't stop a soul, but Drake May is really good. So, you know, so Drake May went to the local high school here, my son's high school, my kid's high school. I watched him play. I went to one of the games when he played.

I don't even remember him. He's really good at college. I don't even remember him in high school. It's funny. I think they make some pretty good – they make college-ready quarterbacks over at UNC these days. I keep hearing about UNC quarterbacks. Drake May, I mean, if Drake May was at a better school,

he'd be up for the Heisman, I think. Like, we're legitimate. He's completing 70% of passes for 3,400 yards this season, 34 touchdowns, 3 interceptions. He's rushed for 584 yards. So nearly 4,000 total yards. He reminds me for 584 yards. Nearly 4,000 total yards. He reminds me of a guy named Tua.

I think we should talk about him next. I won't have to do that. Alright, Jeff, we're back. It's time to move the line. We are going to talk about Tua just quickly. Don't worry. Your boy Rg3 went on twitter and said two is the best quarterback in the league right now so where would you rank him over under three and a half ranking um so you have like mahomes yes and you put what alan

to yeah i think top three is right right now yeah you're giving you're giving it to him reluctantly right now who's who's better the mahomes gonna win the mvp he's won he should i don't know i mean lamar started out the season better josh allen started out the season better i think two was up there yeah okay the guy he's always compared to justin herbert didn't look great did not look great on sunday night uh he he didn't i thought he was okay what was wrong he was okay but the interception he got his arm got hit at the end right no the interception wasn't his fault but that the chance they had to go 99 yards but the chance to win was squandered badly like they couldn't get out of the shadow of the of the goalpost yeah but i don't know if that's a herbert problem or just the coaching

staff stinks there and they have no i don't know no receivers he makes him he made that incredible throw holy heck i still love him i just i i wanted him to be an mvp this year and he has not looked like an mvp yeah um all right well so whether or not herbert played well here's the next question over under 25 chance the chargers make the playoffs and the afc you're looking at so you have they still have decent odds i know so let me see here so you have um chiefs dolphins titans ravens bills are making it for sure. Yeah, probably. So you're going to have two teams between the Patriots, Chargers, and Bengals most likely, or the three. I don't think New York or Jets will be up there at this point. Yeah, I would say over. I mean, if you're giving me two of the three between New England, Chargers and Bengals will probably make it.

So I would say over is the best option here. Okay. You're basically telling me that the final spot in the AFC will come down to my current team, my former team, and the team I hate more than anything. Yes. Okay, great. I'll have something to root for down the stretch then.

Speaking of guys I don't love talking about, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers both got huge wins against playoff teams this weekend. stretch then uh speaking of guys i don't uh i don't love talking about tom brady and aaron rogers both got huge wins against playoff teams this weekend which team impressed you more i'm not even asking a gimmicky over under question rogers or brady oh um i'll give you a i'm gonna cheat on this one um i will give the uh the looking best award to both play callers because I thought they finally called a game that suited what they are on offense. Rodgers threw the ball 20 times. Finally, finally, use Aaron Jones. This season when Aaron Jones rushed the ball more than 15 yards, he's really good in a game. They haven't won all those games, but that's the best way to run the

offense right now. Watson played well, and then Tampa Bay after the first quarter was like, guess what, guys? We don't have to run the ball every first down. We pass the ball every down on the first down, but we play action pass. We do some things different, and they look different. Both of us look like they should, Gabe. I'm not saying that they've transformed

or they're going to be... Tampa will make the playoffs if the division stinks, but I'll give a nod to the coordinators for running offense that look like they have previously do you think the coordinator drew up the play where tom brady went out wide and uh tried to pass and fell and fell down and led to an intersection so i was doing radio at that time and i saw i saw the play where he went out there first no no one quote guarded quote, unquote, guarded him, right? But the corner was like, he saw where Tom was. And I saw Tom run free, and I'm like, the Bucs are going to throw to him soon.

And they did it the next drive. Like, Seattle was a bunch of idiots. They knew he was there. What a terrible play call. That was bad. That was really bad. Yeah, and Tom bailed on it. I saw the highlight of this.

I got to be honest. I don't know what the hell it was about i maybe geno smith and is the connection here why were german fans singing john denver um country home take me home mountain model i it's a story that i just did not click on on social media just do not care so you don't know even though you're smarter than me no idea sorry no hey this would be one of the very few times where i would love you to pop up in the chat with something why i don't get it john denver it had to be gino right gino went to west virginia but why would german fans know that who knows i just didn't i just story i just didn't care about uh can i give you um very quickly uh yeah a show that i just finished

watching that's good i know we talk about this every now and then um 1883 it's really good it's like a it's uh like a they claim it's like a prequel to yellowstone but there it's like basically a group that travels from te to Oregon in like 1883. It's really good, dude. Like it's, I looked up the ratings afterwards and it got like an 89 on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh,

I know that matters to you. It's on Paramount. I don't know who has Paramount. I started watching the airplane 10 episodes. Fantastic. I'd advise watching it. If you like the Western, you know,

travel across the country or the Oregon trail ish. A lot of, a lot of battles they're in life decisions to be made oh well i got a flight got a flight to london coming up so maybe you're going back thing going back buddy hopefully you're doing the show on the farm again in the farm that i haven't been at in two years that you still think i live at yes i will be doing the show from the farm for one week. Last question. Over under one and a half more weeks

until the Rams hit the do not mention list. Now. We're there. We don't have to talk about the Rams? Yeah, they're done, yeah. Okay, congratulations, Rams. And right when we thought the Colts were there permanently, we were forced to talk about them because of Jeff Satter.

If the Rams end up firing McVay and hiring Andrew Whitworth, we will talk about them. That would be awesome, by the way. And a very good comparison that you just made. Thank you. And I think now that Jeff Saturday has done it, I actually think people would not be annoyed with Whitworth if he got the job. I think we'd be happy for him.

Oh, I'd be pumped. Yeah. I mean, I never interviewed a head coach on my show before. It'd be a great opportunity for you. What would it take for, like, who has to get hired in a job like that for you to become somebody's offensive coordinator? Who's it got to be? Who's like, yeah, I'm taking over, and the first guy I'm calling is Schwartz.

Nobody. Orlovsky gives you some love, right? Let's say Orlovsky gets the job you gotta be the offensive line coach yeah my brother's not hiring me geez hank i mean he's not hiring me to do anything brother i mean i don't unless unless he's making you know golf simulator uh yeah videos i don't think i don't think that he's gonna be a head coach of an nfl yeah um oh let's do a harmony the offensive line coach just do a full like just he only hires people that are in

the media so like he has like dominic foxworthy's his secondary coach yeah it was all line coach mina will fit in there somewhere she knows more football than most i think we get mina and nick right in the front office let them make a like yeah. Nerd out with some Excel sheets or something. Okay. Yeah. That'd be, that'd be pretty good. Yeah.

I think you just make Stephen a, the head coach. I'm allowed to be on that team. I don't know. Oh yeah. Good point. I might be on your out. Yeah.

I'm out. I'm out. That guy, I don't know who that guy is. Whoever he is. We say that about a white person, a white guy. Yeah, I I don't know who that guy is. Whoever he is. We say that about a white person, a white guy. Yeah,

I would. Don't swing your helmet. Anybody. All right. We're done. Varsity podcast network. We back in a few days, went two and three,

but we're still in the green. What a weird way. It was a weird line week. So pack 12, the 27 and 17. I don't like when my team loses, but I win my wagers. It's not a fun feeling, but did I hear this right?12, though, 27-17. I don't like when my team loses, but I win my wagers. It's not a fun feeling.

Did I hear this right, Jeff? The Vikings are underdogs at Dallas? Yeah. No, at home. In Minnesota? Yeah. Hold on a second. I think they're like a point underdog in Minnesota.

How's that right? Yeah. dog in minnesota how's that right um yeah yeah it's at home and dallas is a one-point favorite so is this just an opening line that like everyone public is always all over the cowboys and the vikings no i think i think these lines obviously come from the power rankings of the odds makers and um they just they have dallas really good in minnesota not as good let's watch that number this week fill me in on that on thursday with matt we will you got it buddy all right guys a great couple of days