Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Have A Sprong In Their Step

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk a big OT pre-season win versus the Flames in Abby (6:00), plus they set up Week 4 with SInow NFL writer Matt Verderame (29:10).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough. Daniel Sprong. Back in across the Calgary line. Makes a nice move. Sprong. To the goal, to the forehand. He scores!

What a goal by Daniel Sprong with 14.3 seconds left. I mean, that was a hell of a goal, obviously. We know we can do that. Oh, bigance scores! It's 3! Vancouver Whitecaps successfully defend their Canadian championship reign! Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and bruv of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

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Sorfie, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So who felt the shaken this morning? What? There was an earthquake this morning. No. 4.05. I thought it was just gassy.

Nope, it wasn't. You were wrong. No, you might have been right, my friend. It was that bean you had. It was the singular bean. There was a 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Sandwichton. And we're just, so Sonia from City News came in this morning, asked if I had heard. I said, no, I was also asleep, possibly gassy as well.

But no major damage reported. So that's a big sigh of relief for everyone. And it is pretty early in the morning. Most of you are probably waking up to this news like Jason Brough. We'll keep tabs on it throughout the morning. But we have some sports to get into today, my friend. Guest list begins at 6.30. Matt Verteram is going to join us, our NFL insider from Sports Illustrated.

Big game tonight, classic NFC East battle between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. So we'll talk a little bit about that. We'll look ahead to the week. Huge game for the Cowboys. They better win this one. So we'll talk a little bit about that. We'll look ahead to the week four. Huge game for the Cowboys. They better win this one. Massive game. They better win this one.

Yeah, it could be real grim if it's not already for Dak Prescott and Mike McCartney. You know what this is kind of reminiscent of? When the Oilers went down to San Jose, struggling early in the season, and you're like, they better win that one. Remember they lost that game? And then they lost it. It was like, oh boy. And then Jay Woodcroft was walking off the ice

and you could see him mouthing the words to his assistant. That might be it. And that was it. And you know what? He was right. It was it. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, MLB Network. The MLB playoff picture is coming more and more into focus with just a handful of games left

in the regular season. We'll talk to Adnan about that at 7. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk right here on Sportsnet 650. We will look back on another win for the Vancouver Canucks, this time 4-3 in overtime out in Abbotsford over the Calgary Flames last night. We'll talk to Drance about that. Just a loaded Flames team.

Just all the stars you want to see. It was like watching an All-Star game last night. I noticed Samuel Honzik was out there. I remember him from all the reads we used to do for the Vancouver Giants. Say something. I asked Adog if he was playing, and Adog said, I didn't watch the stream. That's why you listen to this show, for insight and analysis

and be up to the news like we are. He didn't know there was an earthquake. He didn't know Honzik was playing He didn't know Hansik was playing. We'll figure it out by the time this show is done, though. A reminder, at the end of this show, we're going to give away another four-pack of Monster Jam tickets. Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum, we're giving away a four-pack to the best of what we learned.

Start getting them in now. Why not start now? Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650. Hashtag it WWL and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Let us know. We'll pick the best one. You'll get a four-pack of tickets to see Gravedigger and

the one that's brought to you by Great Clips and El Pollo Loco. None of these are really accurate, but they're all going to be there on Saturday for the Monster Trucks. El Pollo Loco. Alright, I'm not even going to work in reverse on the guest list. We have so many things to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Jake DeBrusque scored his second goal. Second of two. 58 seconds into overtime on Wednesday night.

Vancouver Canucks rallied in the third period, won it in OT, a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames in Abbotsford on Wednesday night. Yeah, the game certainly finished better than it started. It was a bit of a sleepy affair, I think, through the first two periods. Quite a bit of star power out there for the Canucks. Hughes was out there.

Petey was out there. Deucks. Hughes was out there. Petey was out there. DeBrusque was out there. Daniel Sprong, as we'll talk about later, he was out there. The third period, though, saw the Canucks start with a 2-1 lead. That's good. But then they fell behind 3-2. That's bad. But then they tied it up late on a beautiful individual goal

by Daniel Sprung, a guy we've talked a lot about this preseason. This was his first game, and he really made an impact with a big goal. And he looked good throughout the entire game. He took on four flames and beat them all that's good i don't know yeah are we still doing that i don't know what the flames were doing on that the connects were actually on the power play so i don't know if they were like we got to box it up it's the pk yeah but this guy's just gonna go right around us they're like oh well it's much too late to adjust now because he's already scored. And then on a three-on-one in overtime, it went Hughes to Petey

with a nice little poke pass, I would call it, to Dabrowski. And Dabrowski's sitting there with an open net going, stuff's going to be easier. I already got two goals. Two tic-tac goals, two tic-tac-toe goals in two games for the Vancouver Canucks now. I'm sure he's going to look on the glass-half-full side of things with their second straight victory and two very nice goals in both games.

That's right, yeah, because the Holgländer goal was a really nice one against Seattle in the first game. The three stars were DeBrusque with two goals, Sprong with that beauty, and Quinn Hughes for just being amazing throughout the entire game. I think everyone watched him play and they were like, yep, still a good defenseman that reigning norris trophy winner um the normal stats by the way

weren't available from the game so we don't have a ton of to work with beyond goals assists and shots we don't have ice times or anything like that uh but let's start with uh with jake de brusque because he was very prominent. As mentioned, he scored twice. He looked like he might have even had the first goal when he was standing in front of the net. I thought he might have tipped it home, but it was actually Max Sasson's goal. But at least DeBrus was there, right?

In front of the net, that's where the Canucks need him. He then tipped home the Canucks' second goal of the game off a point shot from De'Arne. Petey got a third assist on that one. I don't count those, though. Third assist, though. It was a nice tip. He called it a little bit lucky.

And then, as mentioned, in overtime, he finished off a three-on-one rush with Petey, and he was for his second of the night. So it was a really good debut, even though it was just preseason against a really pared-one rush with PD and Hughes for his second of the night. So it was a really good debut, even though it was just preseason against a really pared-down Flames team. Although I don't even know if they have a full lineup, if you wouldn't call them pared-down, because they're not a very good team.

So Rick Talkett afterwards, he liked a lot of the individual stuff. He liked the games that DeBrusque had. He liked, obviously, the goal and the game overall that Daniel Sprong had. He liked Kiefer Sherwood was another guy that was everywhere. He was skating miles. He had a ton of energy, a ton of speed. And I think Tockett looks at Sherwood and sees a guy like, love this guy's tenacity.

And I think if we can harness this even a little bit better, teach him a little bit more, then we might have a real player here. But I don't think Tockett overall was thrilled with the performance. Again, the Canucks were losing this game in the third period, and if you look at that Flames lineup compared to the Canucks lineup, I think it's just going to be a slight adjustment for this team as they transition their game to more up-tempo. And Talkett said after the game, number one, some guys, not all guys,

some guys need to be in better shape because if you're going to play fast, if you're going to try and move the puck up the ice, you're going to get lots of rush chances, then you better be prepared to get back. Not unlike, to bring a little soccer in you, to wake you up, Jesse Marsh, the new gaffer for Canada, has got a very high-pressure, high-attack style press.

That was the word I was looking for. And you've got to be in shape to play it. So if the Canucks are going to play fast and they're going to try and create lots of rust chances well they better be prepared because if there's a mistake and Rick Tockett noted one mistake that even Jake DeBrasca made they need to get back and protect there were a couple of goals that and chances that went against them that you know almost almost brought us a little bit back to the Bruce era, which is not an era you really necessarily

want to go back to. But the Canucks won the game. They got some good individual efforts. And overall, I think Tuckett just, he's not worried, but he's not super impressed either. He knows there's still work to be done. Well, let's hear from the head coach himself right now because you brought up some good talking points

that I think we're going to hear repeatedly throughout this preseason until either the Canucks get it right or they get up to speed. Speed is the big takeaway here for me and for Brough listening to Talk It Speak last night. Here is the coach, Rick Talk It, last night. First, praising the newcomers. Greg, let's get this one going. That the newcomers, it's great that they got success

early, and then the tail end of this quote is, with a butt. So we'll play this now. Rick Talkett, nice for the newcomers to get some success early as the Canucks win 4-3 in overtime over the Calgary Flames. Well, this is the big event guys, right? Sherwood, the way he forechecks, he's a pest out there, but he's

here to puck a lot, and you go, obviously, Jake's a scorer, and Spronger's a big event guy. but he had the puck a lot. And you go, you know, obviously Jake's a scorer, big event. And Spronger's a big event guy. You know, it's good to have those guys at any time. They can do something for us. So, yeah, it's nice for them to get some success early. But, you know, on the other side, we've got to clean up some stuff. I thought we played a little slow in some aspects of our game.

We've got to make sure we play a little faster. I thought Calgary played a little slow in some aspects of our game. We got to make sure we play a little faster. I thought Calgary played a little faster than certain parts of the game. So that's where he started to introduce the speed factor. And then he followed up with another thing Jason alluded to. If they are going to play at a certain pace and a certain speed, certain guys are going to need to get in a little bit of better shape. Here's Rick Tockett on the fitness of some guys and the fitness that is going to be required

to play how fast they want to play this season. Rick Talkett following the win over Calgary. Some, yeah. And obviously, there's going to be some kinks. But to play fast, you got to come back fast. I thought we were coasting. You know, you got to be in shape to play this game. So we're going to continue to skate hard.

And, you know, if you want to play at this pace, you've got to be in shape. So I think we've got to get a couple guys up to speed, which is fine. But it's always nice to see the elements that we've been working on in the game. We just need to, you know, like I said, the two games were fine. I just think we've got to get a little bit faster,

thinking faster. So it's interesting because when we talked about in the off season you know what does the team need to improve or what's an area of their game that they probably need to get better at speed often came to the forefront of the discussions and it was in a lot of different ways we would go through the roster and be like which guys are really good skaters and prior to adding like sherwood and Heinen, I think both of whom add just pure speed to the team, there wasn't a lot of them, right? There was guys that were fine skaters,

but you wouldn't call the team collectively blazing fast based on the parts, right? So there's that. I think really what it comes down to is if you're going to play faster, there's three elements to it. One is like what we just talked about. You need fast skaters. That's pretty basic logic. You need guys that are going to be able to skate as opposed to

guys that can't then talk it spoke about it you need the certain level of conditioning and fitness so that's the second part and then the third part is a mentality you have to think and approach and attack fast you can do it in other ways right you can be more methodical you can be more plotting but it's still an attack mindset but to do it with speed means uh probably one there's a lot more north south and then what stuff we talked about yesterday knowing where you need to be and where you want to go and because yeah if you're trying to play fast but you don't know where you're going to go you're going to make a lot of mistakes and you're also going to run yourself out of shape. It's a lot of wasted skating.

Yeah, it's wasted energy. Yeah, like where are you going? So those are going to be the things to monitor in this preseason, at least from my perspective, because they've got a lot of the tenets and the staples of what they want to do as a team already set, right? They got their structure from last year. I think everyone, they've gone through enough practices

where everyone knows where they need to be on the ice right now what's the next evolution of a good hockey team that's probably a nice way of putting it and this one will be can this team get faster so that when it comes time to applying more pressure or not getting caved in for long stretches like we saw in the playoffs sometimes where they were in a defensive shell speed Speed, you know, counterbalances and counteracts, all these things. So I think they're going to see some better lineups now because in the preseason, what typically happens is if you've got a home game, you play some, if not all, of your stars. So we saw last night Calgary.

Not that they're loaded with superstars, but none of the veterans, I don't think, were in the lineup. If you go through the lineup, it was not star-studded. Now they go to Seattle on Friday, Calgary on Saturday, Monday is Edmonton. All those games. So that's three games in four nights starting Friday, all on the road. And then they have a few days off,

and then their final preseason game is Friday, October 4th against Edmonton. And that's the game we've been wondering if the Canucks will, okay, let's dress a pretty full lineup. And hopefully JT Miller is part of that. He hasn't played in the first two games. I don't know if there's anything going on there. I don't think there's anything too much to worry about.

But you never know with this team. And then they have, so they go Friday, October 4th, and then they don't play until, they don't open their season until October 9th. So it's not like you're going to be worried about fatigue or anything. So if Rick Tockett feels like he wants to, unless there's maybe a final battle that he wants to see between a couple of guys that are trying to make the team,

maybe that October 4th game is the full team. But I don't know. He's not telling me his plan for the preseason. But there's four games left. We haven't seen JT Miller yet. A lot of people will probably wonder, how did Petey look last night? Well, he made a great play on the game-winning goal, and Jake DeBrusque was nice enough to say afterwards that that winning goal was all Petey. It was a three-on-one. Quinn Hughes made a nice pass to Petey, who just kind of like poked it across the crease to DeBrusque,

and DeBrusque had a wide-open net. Petey also had a chance in the third period where the, I don't know, the seas kind of parted for him. I know Lekker-Mackie, he might have tipped it back to him, but Petey was in pretty much all alone in the high slot, and he got off a shot and he hit the post. Um, but I don't think he played so well that people were like, he's back baby. Right? Right. One preseason game guys. Yep. One preseason game. So just to, you know, just to stop anyone from texting in, it's preseason guys. Let's not freak out about it. You're still allowed to analyze. And, you know, I watched him play, and I thought there was a chance this season that he might come, like, firing out,

like, unbelievable. Like, oh, my God, this guy is just, like, he is ready to roll. He's looking to make a statement. You know, him and Hughes were out there in Abbotsford last night, and as good team leaders, I know they spent a lot of time out there

signing autographs, being the faces of the team, and that was good to see. Hughes was obviously very good. He was the third star of the game doing his thing. I still watched Petey, and I was kind of like, okay, let's go, let's go. And I wonder if he's one of those guys that maybe needs to get into a bit better shape because we heard him talk about his knee issues, the tendonitis that he had to work around in the offseason.

And maybe he's going to need to play himself a little bit more into game shape because the expectations are really high for this guy. Like the Canucks, based on their lineup last night versus the Flames lineup, they should have smoked the Flames. And in the end, they needed to score late on a really nice goal by Daniel Sprong and then winning it over time. Okay. I think you actually said something, actually said something important there where you're waiting and you're

waiting and you're analyzing Pedersen's game. And then you also had the self-awareness to note that it was game one of the preseason against basically Calgary's AHL team, right? I have the self-awareness to know what would happen if I were to say that Petey wasn't very good in his first preseason game. But this is the dynamic now. This is the Pedersen dynamic. I was actually thinking, should we set a bar of how many games?

How many games do we need? What does he get, 10 games of the regular season? Or what's going on here? When you have a second half of a season and a playoff like he had, and when it's very well documented from the management to the coach to the player himself that it was underwhelming, and if you want to throw out the word problematic, you can, you set this dynamic up.

You put the microscope firmly on your performances, even on September 25th, when you're playing Calgary's American League team in Abbotsford. So up at ESPN.com right now, Greg Wyshynski has his 32 bold predictions for each NHL team. And his one for the Vancouver Canucks, Elias Pettersson bounces back big. And he noted last season,

the Canucks star center saw his point production drop from 102 points down to 89 points, which it should be said, still made him a better than a point per game player for Vancouver. Pettersson had a bit of tendinitis in his knee, a rotating cast of wingers, and some jitters about his contract negotiation.

While he's reportedly still dealing with tendinitis, Pedersen signed an eight-year extension in March and appears to have a steady line mate in former Bruins scorer Jake DeBrusque. Petey is primed for a return to form and a monster season for the Canucks. So that's what the national media and friend of the show,

Greg Wyszynski, that's what they're saying about PD down South. So he is one of the main storylines, obviously for this team, this season. So he's going to get watched and people are going to analyze his game. Like I, I watch,

I think there's a little too much reaching in his game, too much reaching, too much poking. Right. And, and, well, but I'm obviously going to allow this to play out. You know, let's see how it does, but he needs to be good.

And don't forget, it was Patrick Galvin that said, let's not waste any time here. Let's get right to it. Let's start the season and start showing that we're one of the premier teams in the Western Conference. A reminder, if you want to get a hold of us on the show and you want us to dive into any topics on last night's game, the first two games collectively are moving forward in the preseason. Anything you want Canucks wise, this is your home of the Canucks Sportsnet 650.

Text to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket 650 650. Bubble Matthew, good name, did so this morning. He writes in, Guys, I am impressed by how shrewd this management group is. How refreshing it is that they held out to get Daniel Sprong and the new goalie low on one-year deals. So Sprong, let's focus on that for a moment here, because probably outside of DeBrusque's two goals,

and really the collective narrative last night was the new guys. It was Sprong, it was DeBrusque's two goals. And really, the collective narrative last night was the new guys. It was Sprong, it was DeBrusque, it was Sherwood. All three impressed in different ways. Sprong probably got the most buzz because of the highlight reel goal he scored with 14 seconds left to tie it up in the third period. I'm going to throw into some audio from Rick Talkett here. And Talkett obviously has some experience with the player they didn't really necessarily overlap all that much while they were in Pittsburgh but there was some alignment

there so they know what kind of player they were getting and this in very short clip but Talkett says this is kind of what you can expect from Sprong this is what he has a knack for here is Rick Talkett on Daniel Sprong yeah he's just got that he's just got that knack to do that sort of stuff. He can skate, so there's a lot of things we can work with him to really make him complete. But yeah, that's a hell of a goal, obviously. We know he can do that. So it's going to be interesting because for those that aren't aware of

the story and the narrative on Sprung it's high-end talent um like some would just say like an elite level shot elite level finisher creativity the ability to do the things you saw last night uh obviously not the well-rounded game what's going to be interesting here is kind of a talk it was speaking about there it's like can we take the tools that he has and harness them in a good way in a positive way now to me that's like, can we take the tools that he has and harness them in a good way, in a positive way? Now, to me, that's code for, can we put him in certain situations where he'll thrive and then shadow and hide him in the situations

where he'll get caved in? And it's an age-old argument we've had since the moment that they signed Sprung. It's like, can you do that and be a top six player? I mean, it's part of the reason why the guy's bounced around as much as he has with the numbers that he has. Let's just be dead honest about it. There's a lot to like creatively and offensively about his game.

But remember, you know, I don't want to be the glass half empty guy all the time. But the goal he scored last night, the highlight real goal was in the first week of the preseason against a bunch of farmhands from Calgary. Yeah, it is what it is. It was a beautiful goal. It is what it is. Okay. It was a beautiful goal. It was a beautiful goal. It was amazing. But, you know, talk to me.

And is he able to do that against, I don't know, a good defensive team in the National Hockey League in February? Yeah. It's probably not happening. And people who want him in the top six, there's a lot of responsibilities in the top six. Even Jake Dabruska got called up by the coach for making a mistake last night. Right.

And what Fockett liked about that was that he put DeBrusca right back out there and he made amends for it with some solid play. And, you know, Sprung is going to be a really interesting talking point for the remainder of the year because of these things. It looks like a shrewd management move. He's got high-end offensive talent.

And he's got some intrigue because no one can really make sense of why he's bounced around as much as he has with the numbers that he's put up. And if this thing pans out, the Alvin and Rutherford duo, between that, if they can get Sprong contributing for the contract that he's on, and Sheila is contributing big time for the contract that he's on, they're going to have two of the better values. I mean, they didn't come out of their boots to sign DeBrusque either.

They didn't give him a good contract, but it wasn't crazy. And if he meshes with Petey and he becomes that trigger man for Pettersson, you're talking about a manager. I think Sherwood's going to be a real fan favorite too. You know, you're talking about a management group now that's going to have a lot of ticks in the positives, which we haven't seen in a long time here. Like that many, right?

They're pro scouting from day one though. We'll see about this defense though. We'll see about this defense. Right. I think Hughes and Hronik are going to have to go back together. I think so too. I don't know what Juleson was doing on Calgary's third goal other than just weaving through the neutral zone.

He went over way too far to one side. Are you suggesting that Noah Juleson was out of position? And then he stumbled. Yeah, sometimes Noah Juleson gets a little too aggressive. He's a wanderer. He's a bolt and wanderer. He wants to see the world. Yeah, he's got a little backpack. And then he he's like there's some guy that i don't know he's on the flames and he has a breakaway and i think that was my guy yeah he has a bindle on the

back of a hockey stick and he just walks the train tracks all right he's a wanderer and i don't think that he's ever imagine he actually had a bindle well i don't think okay he got a bindle remember when he came in the playoffs i know we gotta't think... Remember when he came in the playoffs? I know we got to go for a break. Remember when he came in the playoffs last year? And I was like, you know what's going to happen. And you called it. He's going to run around. He's going to be all excited because it's the playoffs.

And it's like Noah Juleson. I'm going to do Noah Juleson things. And you love it because they're big collisions. He's going to step up on a guy and take himself out of the play in the process and give up an odd man rush. And that's like exactly what happened. The hit is going to be spectacular, but it's definitely an odd man rush. Do you remember we had our impression of watching Noel Juleson play?

It was like, oh yeah, great big hit. Oh, they scored ass. What's happening over there? Oh yeah. Oh no. And then during the regular season you're like whatever that was a good hit.

During the playoffs it's like goals are a little more important. Okay now we're going to go to break but before we do I need to tell you about Tile Town

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for details. Okay we're going to go to break when we come back Matt Verteram from Sports Illustrated NFL Insider priced in stock tile. Visit them at mytile town.ca for details. Okay. Uh, we're going to break when we come back, Matt Verdam from sports illustrated NFL insider is going to join us. We will look ahead to Thursday night football and everything from the weekend, including a big game for the Seattle Seahawks against the Detroit lions.

Their first and biggest real test of the season. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50. It's Canuck central with Dancio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Thank you. This song should not be free.

Guys, this song is amazing. Is unlicensed music better than licensed music? I'm starting to listen to this in my car. It's on its own. Boom. 634 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford and Brough, Sports Night at 6.50.

Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales financing service or parts we are in our one of the program Matt Verteram from Sports Illustrated NFL Insider is going to join us in just a moment here hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

To the phone lines we go. Matt Verderam joins us now on the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Matt. How are you? Doing well. How are you? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Let's start with Thursday Night Football. It is the reeling Dallas Cowboys going to New York tonight to take on the Giants, who got a win.

They got a win last week, so it's a pair of one and two teams. But I do want to focus on Dallas here. Jason and I were talking about this yesterday. After this game in New York, they got to go to Pittsburgh to take on the undefeated Steelers. Then they got to play Detroit. Then they got to buy. Then they got San Francisco.

So it's a pretty tough schedule right through the end of October, which leads me to the question, Matt. How important is this game tonight for the Dallas Cowboys? They have to win this game. I mean, I don't think that's an overstatement. They have to win this football game. The Giants are not good. And if you're the Cowboys, look, you're not just one and two.

You have looked horrific for most of the last two games. New Orleans do whatever they want to do the entire game. Baltimore, and that game was at one point 28-6, and then Dallas had a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, and to their credit, almost came back,

but fell short. You can't lose to Daniel Jones and the Giants in this game. That's the kind of loss that if it happens, I think you'll look at the Cowboys and go, okay, I know who they are now. I don't even see any more of the Cowboys.

And I'll tell you, if you're the Giants, you're just going to run the ball at them. You're going to run the ball at them nonstop. And you're going to hope that you can keep them off the field offensively and that that's enough. But the Cowboys, after looking very good in week one against Cleveland, have looked atrocious the last two weeks. Are their defensive issues surprising?

A little bit in the sense that Mike Zimmer is renowned in league circles as a very good defensive coach as a very good defensive line so you know when you look at them you know you think of you know quite a few names on that defense you have very good players obviously michael parsons leading the way you know guys like youon Bland, Trayvon Diggs. So it is a little bit surprising. Now, the second level of their defense, I think, is a big weakness. I think you're seeing that in the run game. I mean, teams can just line up and move them.

And Parsons, as great as he is, he's much more of a get-up-the-field, he's a great pass rusher. But, you know, against the run, he's fine, but he's susceptible comparatively to when he's rushing the quarterback. So I think it is surprising from the sense that when you look at him, you figure, okay, this is going to be a really good defense, and then offensively it's going to be a lot of Dak and a lot of CeeDee Lamb, and like, is that enough?

But to this point in the year, the defense has been bad the last two games. And the offense, really, again, other than one quarter against Baltimore, has just not done the job. So, look, it's been a failure all the way around, but the defense has got to be a hell of a lot better. What did you think of the contractual commitment that the Cowboys made to Dak Prescott? It's one of those deals you feel two ways at once. I understand why they

did it. At the same point, he's been the quarterback now in Dallas for the better part of a decade here. What have they ever done? And it's not like he hasn't had talent around him. It's not one of these deals you look at and go, well, you know, to be fair to him, they've never had talent. They've had a lot of talent.

They've had teams that people have thought were Super Bowl teams. And they haven't even really sniffed an NFC title game. So, I get it. I get if you don't sign them and he walks, what are you going to do?

At the same point, and I wrote a piece about this for Sports Illustrated a couple weeks ago, not about that, but just general quarterbacks. Paying these quarterbacks that aren't elite guys huge money. It just kills your team. You can't win like that.

And we're seeing that in Jacksonville. Miami looks a different scenario because of health, but it's still the same role applies. Like, you can't win when you're paying a guy who's a guy 55, 60 million a year. It's not going to happen. But I guess the problem is, what do you do about it? Because the Cowboys, the way they were constructed,

I mean, I don't think anyone looks at this Cowboys roster, both on the offensive, defensive side, and said, wow, it really lacks talent. Like there's a lot of talent there. And like you said earlier, if Dak leaves, then what are you going to do? So he kind of has all the leverage in this situation. Is there a workaround here? Do you, do you maybe draft a quarterback and just keep him in the, keep him? I have no, I have no idea, but I think this is just one of these really interesting issues that actually a fair number of teams have gotten themselves into. I think what a lot of teams should do is look like for an example,

let's take Jacksonville because Jacksonville is the perfect example. So Trevor Lawrence is there for three years, and they have been decent once. They've won one playoff game. Okay. Well, Trevor Lawrence is extension eligible. Great. I'm not giving you an extension just because you're eligible for one. That's great you're extension eligible.

I'm not giving you a record-setting amount of money just because it can. So I would have told Trevor Lawrence, look, we love you, but I'm not paying you yet. You've won one playoff game. Your record is well below 500. I understand Urban Meyer and that you're a part of it. But, you know, I want to see more. And I think there's this fear with teams that if they do that,

their relationship's going to sour. Believe me, if you give the guy $60 million in two years, he'll get over it. He'll be okay. He'll be fine. Nobody's holding out and missing a season. It's not going to happen. Guys don't do that. They're not giving up that kind of money.

Look, if you play it through four years, let's say, if the guy's first round pick, they still have a year of control, then you make a decision internally. Then you say, okay, look, we've say, if the guy's a first-round pick and still have a year of control, then you make a decision internally. Then you say, okay, look, we've got to draft another guy. And you do that, and you trade off the veteran that you had, and you get a ton of picks.

Or you say, okay, we like this guy. We think we can win a Super Bowl with him. But to me, to sign a guy who's not proven at all that he can win a Super Bowl, to give him $55 million a year, $60 million a year, you're signing yourself into purgatory.

There's nobody in the AFC right now who's sitting there going, I wish Jacksonville hadn't signed Trevor Lawrence for $275 million. Again, it's a different situation. You feel awful for him, but the Dolphins took a big risk knowing the health issues with Tua. Signed him. You don't know when he's coming back. You don't know if he's going to be able to fill that contract.

And now you're sitting there on call and, well, now what? Skyler Thompson? Tim Boyle? You're seeing some things where really box themselves in unnecessarily. We're speaking to Matt Verteram from sports illustrated NFL insider here on the Halpern and Brough show on sports net six 50, a quick look ahead to the weekend, man.

We got five undefeated teams in the national football league, the Vikings, the Steelers, the bills, the chiefs, and the Seahawks. Let's start with the Seattle Seahawks of all the three and0 teams, they're the biggest underdog heading in to this weekend, going into Detroit to take on a pretty good Lions team.

I have a hard time trying to figure out how good the Seahawks are and how real this 3-0 record is, in part because of the competition. Your thoughts on Seattle going into Detroit to try and get a win against the Lions on the weekend? I think Seattle is a decent team with potential to be good. Obviously, do I think they're a team that you look at and go, yeah, they're a Super Bowl team? No, I don't.

I mean, they've played Skyler Thompson, they've played Bo Nix, and they've played Kobe Brissett. I mean, I don't think you can find three quarterbacks you'd rather line up against than those three that being said I like Mike McDonald, I thought he was a really good hire I still think he's a really good hire

I think offensively there's some real talent there the line has played better than I thought it would I like the running game I like the weapons Gino's got his limitations but he's a good quarterback so offensively I like them a lot. And defensively, I think McDonald's going to continue to get them

to just round and perform over the course of the year. Not that so far, but I think they're just going to get better. I will also say this. If you're Seattle, you're in the right division this year because the Rams have injuries all over the place, as do the Niners. You know, look, we don't know a ton of information about Christian McCaffrey.

He's got Achilles tendonitis. He went to Germany. You're not going to Germany if rehab's just going great. I was going to ask, do you guys not have any Achilles specialists down in the United States? As far as I know, we do.

Apparently not enough of them and that would if you're a Niners fan you hear that deeply concerning why is he going to Germany for this so like to look at it you know the Cardinals they can score a lot of points

I don't know if the Cardinals are going to be right for a foul spot you look at the division the Seahawks are going look I mean we get the 10 wins. We've got a pretty good shot here. I don't know what's going to happen. Obviously, he's going to play a church.

Well, you're going to have to win a few games for the Seahawks against these teams. But, yeah, I think the Seahawks absolutely could be in play for the division. If they get a whole playoff games, that is a very, very hard place to go into and win it. So, I like Seattle. I think they've got some ways to go, but I think that the Seahawks could definitely be a team to play in January.

A lot of good games this weekend. By the way, Jason astutely pointing out the Monday night or it's when I lumped into the weekend there. But Sunday night football, the game of the week for me, it's the Ravens and it's the Bills. Ravens are favored in this one despite only having the one win on the board, although it was a pretty good win against Dallas. Buffalo, super intriguing to me because, you know,

it's the everyone eats philosophy, right? You can't just try and, you know, scheme for one guy because we're all going to beat you. And that was very much on display against the Jaguars last game. You know, Josh Allen is talking it up. Is this legit? Is it for real? Because through the first three weeks,

it does seem as though they've got, I'm not going to say it ironed out perfectly, but it definitely seems as though they're all on the same page that everyone eats, everyone plays, everyone wins. I feel that with Buffalo, three weeks are the most impressive team in the league.

Yep. But we do this, I feel like, every year, where some team comes out and looks unbelievable, and everybody and their mother is just like, that's it, they're the team. They're the team. And then, like, invariably by, like, week 10,

there's all these, like, oh, yeah, actually, they're who we thought they were. Like, now to be fair, I was high on Buffalo going through the year. I picked them to win the division. And I thought that they would not miss a lot of these guys as much as people thought they would. I thought a lot of the names that they had lost were older guys. Now, Diggs was different.

Diggs, obviously, you knew would be a loss. My question with Buffalo is very simple. They have played three teams so far that, quite honestly, I do not expect any of these teams to make the playoffs. And I felt that way about Miami pre-Toyotry. So, to me, they played a pretty soft schedule. They got Baltimore, Houston, and the Jets coming up the next three weeks all on the road.

If they go 2-1 in these games, then I'm all in on them. This is a team that is the biggest challenger to the Chiefs. There's no question about that. My concern with the approach of, like, everybody eats, is when everybody's eating, there's a reason. And it's because you don't have that one guy who you can be like, when we've got to have it, it's this guy. My question is, when they play really good teams,

there's going to be times you're not up 30 points. You're going to have to convert third and 10, and you've got to beat really good man coverage, not Jacksonville's man coverage, like actual man coverage. And you're going to have to be able to fit it in there. I know Allen can do it. I have no question about that. Can Keon Coleman do it in a big spot?

Can you get Curtis Samuel up in a big spot? Look, I think the Bills are unquestionably a playoff team. I think they're going to be a threat. Allen is Allen. He's always going to be somebody that any given Sunday can be unbelievable. I think you have to give them their due. They've looked fantastic. I just feel like

with the Bills, to some degree, we've sung this song before where the Bills are some degree. We've sung this song before where the Bills are unbelievable early in the year, and then we get into the playoffs, and they play Kansas City, or they play Cincinnati, and they get smoked.

So I want to see it, frankly, in January with Buffalo, but so far, you couldn't ask for a better start. We're speaking to Matt Verderam from Sports Illustrated here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Another 3-0 team, Pittsburgh. Where are you on the Steelers right now? I think the Steelers are fine. Like, again, credit to the Steelers. They went to Atlanta. I think Atlanta's a pretty decent team. They won that game. Denver, fine.

They did what they had to do. They won the game. And then the Chargers game, I kind of feel like the Chargers and the Steelers are basically the same football team, except the Chargers have a quarterback and the Steelers, you know, they have a little bit better here of a defense.

But same type of, like, you're going to be limited throwing the ball. The problem with the Steelers to me is the same problem they always seem to have. I just don't trust the quarterback. You're going to get to, again, you always seem to have. I just don't trust the quarterback. You're going to get, again, you're going to get in the games against really good teams where they're like, guess what?

You're not running the ball. You're not going to do it. And now you have to throw and you've got to beat me throwing the ball and you're not gonna. That's, I think the Steelers could very well be a playoff team with the way the Bengals have started, who knows? I mean, maybe they can even fight the division. I mean, they've got a huge lead.

So maybe they can even do that. Look, you know a few things with the Steelers. They are very good defensively. They've got a great pass rush, and they've got a really good coach. And when you've got that, if you don't beat yourselves by turning it over, you've got a shot to win just about every week. So, I think that their floor is high.

I think their ceiling is fairly low. I think they could be a playoff team. I don't think they're a threat to go deep in the playoffs. The week four slate of NFL games gets underway tonight for Thursday Night Football in a classic NFC East matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants.

Matt, thanks a lot for doing this today, Bob. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight and all the games on the weekend. Sounds good, guys. Take care. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Matt Vertoram from Sports Illustrated here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Some decent matchups actually this weekend. I'm looking forward to Vikings and Packers.

Vikings are 3-0. The Packers have, in my opinion, surprisingly, played really well without Jordan Love. Remember when you wrote them off? Yeah, I was like, they're done. And then that one guy was like, no, they're not. Sonny. Sonny. Sonny texted in.

He was absolutely right. They've won two in a row with Malik Willis. You know, by the way, just on that note, you know who's a good coach? Matt LaFleur. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To get Malik Willis to win two NFL games in a row. Because he's, I mean, he's not a great quarterback.

Like, there's real questions if he has, like, the throwing ability. You know, because he's a good runner. He's a good athlete. He's a great athlete. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he, I mean, that's very impressive what they've done without Jordan Love being in the lineup. So now they're going to host the 3-0 Vikings,

whose defense looks incredible, and they're getting really good play, solid play from Sam Darnold at quarterback. So I want to see the line in that one. The line is... Because it's in Green Bay, right? Yeah, Green Bay by two and a half. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you know another one I'm kind of looking forward to? I mean, not in a weird way at all, actually. It's the Bengals going to Carolina to play Andy Dalton and the Panthers. Great, great storylines. We're talking about this game tonight and whether or not the – I mean, the Cowboys better win this one. If they lose to the Giants on prime time to go to one and three.

Bill Belichick's the coach. And then you look at the schedule that they've got coming up. I mean, they're in big trouble. time to go to one and three. Bill Belichick's the coach. And then you look at the schedule that they've got coming up. I mean, they're in big trouble. If the Bengals lose this one and they go to 0-4, they're done like the Packers are. I know. That's the thing. Sonny's going to text in.

Sonny did just text in. He appreciated the shout out. The Bengals are interesting because they have this sense of calm with their slow start because they've done it so many times and have rallied start meeting pressure with pressure well are they not doing that are you embracing the hard have you no but they've got to meet pressure with pressure to get off to a good start to the season well it's true you know well here's, they do need to meet pressure with pressure. Everyone knows that.

The one thing I'll say, Joe Burrow was good last game. Very good. Their defense got torched by Jaden Daniel. That was the difference in that game. But Burrow finally came around, so that was a positive sign. There's a difference between your traditional slow start and going 0-4. If you look at it statistically, 0-4 is a tough hole to climb out of. Well, yeah, obviously.

Bills and Ravens is the Sunday nighter. That's the best game of the week. Bills look really good 3-0, and the Ravens are 1-2. They're not quite as desperate as Cincy, but they need this one. You know, 1-3 start would not be good, and they're two-and-a-half point favorites in that one. So there's some really good games. And then obviously Tennessee and Miami on Monday night.

It's must watch. Thank God there's another game. Will Levis and I think it's Tyler Huntley is going to get the start for Miami now. I don't think they're going to go back to Skylar Thompson. They traded for Tyler Huntley. Well, I think Skylar Thompson is like, I can't. Yeah, he's also unable to do this.

Part of the reason is because he's badly injured. Okay, so the tens of Whitecaps fans that have texted in to the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-650 and lamented the fact that we haven't even mentioned the Whitecaps game last night in the Canadian Championship and they're somewhat angry about it. We wanted to save this one for 7 o'clock. We got into the Canucks and then we had Matt as a guest,

so we talked NFL at 6.30. So we will talk about the Whitecaps game yesterday. Not an oil painting, but successful. I think that's the way you put it, about beating TFC in penalties. Any other texts or comments you've got, text them into the show at 650-650. The Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details

at DunbarLumber.com. You can talk about the Canucks, you can talk about the Whitecaps, anything. We have an open segment. No, we don't. We have to talk to Adnan at 7. 7.30. 7.30 is Adnan? No, 7 as per usual. No, talk to Adnan at 7. 7.30. 7.30 is Adnan?

No, 7 as per usual. No, 7.30 is the open. 7.30 is the open. Yeah, and then 8 o'clock is Thomas Trance. My apologies. My apologies. Okay, we will get to the Whitecaps eventually. Sorry, guys.

Good title, though. You're listening to the Alvin and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.