The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Bad MNF Product; Stuck With Cousins; Teddy B Backup Plan; Pats' D; Patricia Game Mismanagement; Weekend Wrap

Episode Date: October 1, 2019

In this episode, Middlekauff on the lackluster Monday Night Football product; how locking up the wrong quarterback - like Kirk Cousins - can break paralyze a franchise, why Teddy Bridgewater is worth every penny of his premium price for the Saints, Josh Allen getting schooled by the Patriots'secondary, and his issues with Matt Patricia's time management inf Detroit's loss to Kansas City. John also answers listener questions in Middlekauff's Mailbag. Follow John on twitter @JohnMiddlekauff and go to theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season, and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. you just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming till he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Teathing can be a real nightmare for your little ones. Highlands, natural's baby oral pain relief tablets can help ease the pain. It's gentle, natural active ingredients like chamomile and arnica, soothe your baby's mouth and gums, made with ingredients derived from plant, minerals, and other sources.

free of harsh chemicals, you can count on Highlands for serious pain relief for your teething baby. Highlands is a kinder way to care for teething. Visit highlands.com slash kind. That's H-Y-L-L-A-N-D-S.com slash kind. Claims based on traditional homeopathic practice, not accepted medical evidence, not FDA evaluated. At Safe Farm, they're focused on the belief that diversity makes safer, stronger, smarter neighborhoods where everyone is welcome. Safe Farm does believe to make a better world for our future generations, we need to amplify and celebrate. But more important, importantly empower black creators today. So this is why I am telling you, State Farm is committed to providing services, platforms, and longstanding actions to help build strong neighborhoods for the black community. State Farm knows that being good neighbors means uplifting communities wherever their customers find themselves, no matter where you are. It's not about a policy. It's about being a partner. Because with over 19,000 state farm agents, they reflect the diversity of America. Like a good neighbor, state farm.

is there. Millions of Americans are getting back to work. CareerBuilder calls it the great rehire. And we want to help you get the best jobs before everyone else. CareerBuilder gives you the competitive edge to get the job you want, at the salary you want, with the benefits you want. We even send job alerts, so your perfect job lands right in your inbox. Go to careerbuilder.com today or get left with whatever jobs are left. Find your next job fast. At Career, RearBuilder.com. What is going on, everybody? It's me. John Middle Gauth, 3 and Out podcast, back at it again. Wooee! I'm recording this. There's some time left in the Monday night football game.

It's unwatchable. I don't even know if I'm going to have a take for the game. I actually do have a take, but it's not necessarily about what happened on the field. We'll get into that in a second. A lot going on, paying the right quarterbacks, Gough, Dach, Cousins. We'll dive into all that. Teddy Bridgewater is the ultimate. commit contingency plan for the Saints is working out pretty well, despite social media just

crushing them. The Patriots and the Bills, the game was pretty kind of a throwback to like the mid-80s, a physical defensive game. Brady struggled a little bit. I mean, the entire Patriot offense struggled, but Patriots just do what they do. They win. And then Matt Patricia, just borderline inexcusable with his timeouts at the end of the game, some thoughts there, and then I'll just kind of dive around.

I was thinking to myself, I sat around literally all day Saturday. and Sunday. I mean, I barely moved. Ordered food a couple times, went to get food once. My physical activity for a 48-hour stretch was was borderline embarrassing. Now, granted, I got to watch the games. I got to speak to the people. And I can't give my good takes if I don't watch the game. So I had to put in the time. Part of it, I was a little hungover. I went to Cal ASU. It was just a football frenzy. Started Friday night. Started at Cal ASU, went to the game. Cal quarterback got knocked out. ASU, Herm, got a big win. And then I just consume football, basically sunup till sundown, and still up until Monday, watching this

Monday night football game. And I'll talk, I'll just go over to everything I saw, and then we end all the podcast, Middlekoff mailbag, at John Middlecock is my Instagram handle, same as my Twitter handle. The DMs are always wide open, slide right in, and I'll answer your question here. I don't have much to say about the Monday night football game. I really don't. The Bengals are terrible. Mason Rudolph looked a little more comfortable at home.

than he did last week against the 49ers. I guess we'll learn more about, this is kind of a big game this upcoming week, Steelers Ravens. You know, I mean, can the Ravens, who I thought were good, kind of got their butt kicked the last two weeks. Are they good?

I don't know. Lamar Jackson, back to Earth. Can the Steelers make a little run here? You know, they can win some games at home? I'm about to find out. But I'm pretty disappointed in this, like I've come to a breaking point with this Monday night broadcast.

and you know certain things in life you just expect i went to pick up some food earlier today at in and out actually like an hour ago and when you go pick up food just like when you go to the grocery store you just assume the food's going to be clean it's going to be healthy in the sense of you're not going to get food poisoning or anything and 99.99% of the time you don't but we just become accustomed you don't even think twice about it you just go order food and you eat it right you just get on the airplane you just think everything's going to be fine occasional plane crashes but 99.99% of the the plane's cool. You just become accustomed to it.

Well, part of big broadcasts, you just think they're going to give, like the network is going to give you high effort, right? You get Fox threw their hat in the ring on Thursday night football. Well, what happens? You get Troy Aigman and Joe Buck. NBC, the biggest game of the night, right? It's the highest rate of game.

You get Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth. Even CBS, afternoon game of the day. You get Tony Romo and Jim Nance. They're all big. They feel big. The broadcast crew feels big. You got guys that have been, like, Buck's been doing it forever.

Akeman's a superstar. You get Al Bichols, who's probably the most famous play-by-play guy ever. Collinsworth. Some people don't like him. I don't mind them. Obviously, Nance and Romo are kind of the star-studded new group, even though Nance has been doing it forever, but Tony's throwing his hat in the ring as this up-and-coming superstar.

And he's got some media juice because he played in the Safeway Open. If you would have made the cut, he would have got the day off. But you get what I'm saying. Like, we expect big time, like Major League Baseball playoffs are about to start. Do you know who's going to call them? You know who's going to call the games? Bob Costas, Joe Buck. You know, they don't roll out some random announcer from like Cincinnati, right?

When the NBA playoffs happened, who calls the games? I don't know, Marve Albert, Kevin Harlem, Mike Breen? Like, we get the star crew. How do I watch this Monday night crew? And listen, I talk for a living. I attempted to do play-by-play one time in college. It's impossible. My partner on my other podcast, Guy Haberman, has done,

his pack 12 games he's done golden state warriors games in oklahs game it's really hard he's really good you know it's difficult i i have nothing but admiration for how good he's able to be at just like all these other young guys from joe davis who's a star to dave fleming in my area that can do them all it's a difficult job to do so i'm not even pretending that i could do it just like i i have no aspiration and i would never even want to do it to be an analyst that game that's really hard to. You see because the majority of analysts over the years, there's a lot more crappy ones than there are good ones. I think we can all agree on that in all sports. But the crew that this Monday night that ESPN's rolling out is officially an embarrassment. It's unwatchable. Joe Tessitore approaches all

these games like it's game seven in the Super Bowl. Like bro, it's Monday night football. It's the NFL. Let the game breathe and just call the game. Not everything is the miracle on ice. Take a deep breath. And when I was at Fresno State and a GA, Joe Tessitore used to call the WAC games. And he approached it with a fervor and an enthusiasm, as Jim Harbaugh would say, unknown to mankind. And it was cool.

It'd be Fresno State, Boise State. Nevada, Boise State. You know, Boise, New Mexico. And he approached it like a Super Bowl. And everyone in the Wack Conference appreciated it. The NFL is the NFL. The game speaks for itself. You know, just let the game play.

And Booger McFarland, he was at the SEC Network, immersed in it. Because he's from the South, went to LSU I liked him on the SEC network but when you come when you're not paying attention in the NFL

living breathing and sleeping it I know when I worked in the NFL I remember like a year in thinking this is overwhelming there is so much stuff going on so many players in this league so many coaches in this league it is hard to keep a grasp on it

that's such a huge advantage guys like Andy Reid Tom Coughlin Sean Payton obviously Belichick that have been in the league for year every single player that's come through the league, they've evaluated. Every single coach they've coached against. There's a huge advantage to just experience around the league, separate from playing, like thinking about it from a bird's eye view. And that's why John Gruden and John Madden,

guys that have been great entertainers on Monday Night Football, were so good. One, just they're natural at it. And two, they've just been around the league a long time. They know what's going on. They know what's talking about a defensive coordinator, talking about a player, giving me some nugget, something. I get nothing. If anything, I just get angry watching this broadcast. This is Monday Night Football. As a kid that was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s, back when we only had three or four channels. For you younger millennials that are listening to this, we used to just have NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC. So when you got Monday Night Football on Monday, it was a big deal, because you might have watched a couple games over the weekend.

You got your local game. For me, it was the Niners. You got maybe a college football game over the weekend. This is before I even had cable. Because in my neighborhood, we didn't even get cable until my dad ordered direct TV. in like 2000. We never had cable. So I really valued games like Monday Night Football.

It was a big deal in my home. Now, I understand where it's not as big a deal in the sense that we have so many games. But still Monday Night Football, it's a standalone game on Monday. There are no football games. And we're getting like a F might be too mean, but a D-plus crew. It's a joke.

I mean, I get text all the time for people in the NFL, my friends, DMs from you guys. It's terrible. It's just not good enough. You know, Clay Hilton, who lost over the weekend of Washington, has given his heart and soul to USC. He has truly tried, but at the end of the day, it's USC. And their standard is to attempt to win national championships.

So Clay Hilton's tried really hard. That's great. But he's not good enough. It's a black and white position. You either win or you lose. And Clay Hilton loses a lot more than he wins, right? That's the great part about pro football. You just get judges.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves.

Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose. On my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliver Show, I'm bringing you. conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Come on out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series. because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us

on the night-to-night bases on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah,

you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Coach, on winning and losing. All the other fluff and the BS is meaningless. Like, it's a little harder to quantify who's good and who's bad. Obviously, the ratings will be decent because it's the NFL and people watch the NFL.

But the broadcast is just an unbiased opinion. I don't have nothing to do with any network. People are always like, you work for Fox. No, I just do a podcast for Colin Coward on his podcast. podcast network. So I have nothing to do with any of them. But this ESPN broadcast, and I like a lot of ESPN broadcast, but this specific one is unwatchable.

And I have nothing but respect for the profession. I understand how difficult it is to talk for a living and definitely understand and begin to comprehend how hard it is to call a game live and nothing but respect for the play-by-play guys and understand how difficult it is for the analyst. and just know that this is a low-level operation. ESPN should be embarrassed and ashamed. And the NFL, who clearly is not high on ESPN, because they keep giving them crappy games,

has to just be like, what the hell is this? Really, what is going on? You shoving this down our face Monday night after Monday night, we just can't take it anymore. And I'm trying to be a more positive person. You know, I'm not, I don't live in negativity. This is becoming uncharacteristic of this new light I've turned over as a positive man.

But tonight, now the game was terrible, but it has nothing to do with the game. The game could have been great. And just hearing those two talk, drive me nuts. Want me to, again, as a text I got from an NFL scouting buddy that said, this is so bad,

I'm going to have to mute the television and just turn on music. And I said, I agree. I'm going to do the same thing. And I did. Teathing can be a real nightmare for your little ones. So are you looking for the best relief to soothe teething pain?

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Hey, everyone. It's Dramos from Life as a Gringo podcast. I Heart Radio's sounds of my culture is brought to you by State Farm. At State Farm, we know how important it is to celebrate Hispanic heritage every day. That's why we support My Coutura and invite you to continue enjoying all its great podcasts. We also know what it takes to manage money, no matter the budget. That's why it's a good idea to consider State Farm and their surprisingly great rates. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

All right, I am here with the one and only Nadi Natasha, and I wanted to ask. ask you, you know, how do you feel like your work has impacted your community and culture? I feel like my work has impacted my community and my culture in a very big way because back in the day, it was not that common to see a girl, especially from the Dominican Republic, to be having success in the music industry, in the urban industry, especially where it was not common. It was not accepted for a girl to even belong there. And for for like me, my example, to be so explicit with the things she says. So having that freedom of speech is definitely something that was not common. Support Coutura all year long

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be and represent us, you know? Obviously, there's always room for improvement. I always want to look better. I want to work out. I want to lose weight. But in reality, this is the body God gave me, and I've never really been skinny. Listen to the My Culturahatta Podcast Network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Okay, let's dive into the quarterbacks. And let's dive into some starting quarterbacks that are being highly paid or about to be highly paid or that are underachieving. And I think you have to look at them all a little differently. The reality is in the NFL. If you have a young quarterback that you draft and then you win games, whether you win because of them, you know, kind of like they're doing with Mahomes or Deshaun Watson,

or whether you kind of carry them, and he plays a role in it, like a golf, like a DAC. Remember, Russell Wilson's first several years were kind of like that, and we didn't know you have no choice. You were going to break them off at just an enormous rate. Just the going rate, it costs a premium, it is what it is. and you hope with a lot of these guys that they're going to improve. And I've kind of broken it into two guys. And we're going to dive it ultimately into Kirk Cousins.

You want one of two things when you're giving them this $100 to $130 million. You want either an elite guy, like the Packers a couple years ago when they paid Aaron Rogers. Like the Seattle Seahawks, was it this? I think it was this offseason. They paid Russell Wilson. Yeah, it was right before OTAs. And they know that they know that. that individual can carry their franchise to the playoffs consistently.

You just know, this guy's one of the best in the league. In Rogers case, one of the best, probably second best or the best in franchise history. However you want to look at it, I'd lean far, but you catch my drift. And you just don't even really hesitate that much doing it. Now, it costs a lot, and you know your margin for error as they get older is a little smaller, but it just is what it is. Like, I got the Warriors right down the street. They didn't even flinch giving Steph Curry $200 million.

Now, there are a lot of other players in the league getting $200 million, and they don't feel quite as good. But just like Matt Ryan got $100 million. Given Matt Ryan $100 million and given Aaron Rogers, $100 million feels a little different. Same with Russell Wilson. Those two run circles around Maddie Ice. And as you see the outcome of it, it proves week in, week out.

And then there's the other level of guys that you go, who can be really good. And I would put, whenever Mahomes gets paid, he's one of the unique younger guys that's probably going to have a resume, like after four seasons that's just stupid. You're like, well, those guys won two MVPs. Hell, by the end of this year, might have won a Super Bowl. It will be the easiest contract you'll ever do.

But most of the young guys are Carson Wentz. You know, there's a lot of unknown because he's been hurt. Jared Goff, Dak Prescott. You're like, how much is the team's really good? How much is him? I've always argued Carson Wentz, his upside is so high that it's easier to do. I think you struggle more with guys like Dak and Gough, though when you have them in the building,

you feel really good about it. You're like, this guy's a great guy. I'm about to invest $110 million guaranteed. I trust the human. I like being around him. I know if we build it around him correctly, it's going to be right. Now, the thing is, like Carson Wentz,

he can elevate you. He can carry you, like Russell Wilson, like Rogers, like we're seeing a little bit with Mahomes. They still have a really good team. But they can put you on their back and carry you to the promise land. And when I say the promise land,

I'm not talking Super Bowl. I'm just talking, get you into the playoffs, and then anything can happen. And I trust those guys in big games to have the talent to win. That doesn't mean you're always going to win. Brady doesn't win every single year.

But they're going to give you a chance. And then there's this group of players like Dak, Goff, and even Jimmy Garoppelo, and I think Derek Carr a couple years ago, I think my voice just cracked, where you go, these guys are good, they're really talented, but you're not quite,

and you like them a lot, You love them in the building, you like their study habits, but you're not quite sure how much is them, right? It's like, well, is it the teammates? Is it them? But you really don't have a choice. So you kind of put all your eggs in a basket. Well, if it's like Jared Goff, who we're seeing struggle a little bit, one of their big issues is Todd Gurley's not the same.

And they made an enormous investment in Goff, but they also made a very, very strong investment in Todd Gurley. And if they would have not paid Todd Gurley, they would have a lot more money to mess with other positions. They also paid Brandon Cook's a premium. I'm not sure Brandon Cook's is a premium player. Despite being traded for first round picks back-to-back years, is he a double-digit million, 10 plus million dollars a year guy?

Not for me. So they've invested poorly. Now, the Cowboys are a good example of, Dak's going to get a stupid amount of money. He's a little like Jared Goff that needs good players around him. At this stage, I think hopefully you've envisioned both guys one day taking a Russell Wilson jump. Now, I'm not saying that either guy

will be as good as Russell, but improve so much over the next several years that they'll be able to carry a team midway through their second contract. Do you go, Dex, the difference between the Cowboys and the Rams is the Rams haven't, or I mean the Cowboys have not signed a Todd Gurley-type deal.

All the players they've signed are sweet. Jalen Smith, badass. Zeke, badass. All their offensive line, badasses. They haven't really missed. And Amari Cooper, a little like a better version of Brandon Cooks, also traded for a first round pick. You're like, is he a true one? I think he's really good.

The way I would describe Amari is an elite number two. In a perfect world, I'd want a number one. But I can be an excellent team with just two Amari Coopers. Right? But I can't just have, he's not Julio, he's not Hopkins, and then you can have a big drop off. They're going to need Michael Gallup to be really good. So I think that becomes a little question, how much do I invest in Amari Cooper? because the moment you pay Gough or you pay Dak Prescott huge money you have less margin for error

about the guys around you. That's what I think makes the Minnesota Vikings so unique. If you had put Jared Gough or Dak on the Minnesota Vikings last year, I think it's safe to say they are a lock playoff team. We know that because we've seen the Rams and we've seen the Cowboys go to the

playoffs with similar little rosters. Now, I don't know if those guys ever, once the rosters gets worse, you know, time as you have less money, they can carry you. I don't know that, but I know when you give them a top flight roster, they're worth it. So we have the elite guys, which are the Rogers, the Russell Wilson's, Peyton in his prime, right? We know who those guys are. Then we have the guys that are kind of ascending who we've seen them on a good team and we've seen them have success. There is unknown how they'll look as the team gets worse. We don't quite know, but you bet on

the come when you like the guy. And then you have Kirk Cousins, who we've seen start in this league, this is going on in six year. The evidence is there. The resume is there. I never hold it against the player for signing a big contract when they're not worth that contract. So America, someone puts a contract in front of you, sign the deal, especially when the money's guaranteed in any industry. Take the cash. Smart move. If it's for just, you know, generational money. He was in a unique position, unlike all these other quarterbacks, that their teams would never in a million years let them hit free agency. And the Washington Redskins for being arguably the most dysfunctional team in the NFL currently, they did do one thing right is they did never sign this

guy to a big deal. And the deals they offered them were kind of team friendly. Because you know, at the end of the day, what we're learning about Kirk Cousins, he's a team friendly type quarterback. When you invest the farm in them and you have a champion... Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you content. and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible. incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important

to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This is Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game.

His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the, iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He'll let you down at every turn, every single turn. Because the more and more evidence that we learn about this guy, he's just not good enough. The Minnesota Vikings had this team that was locked and loaded, had a Super Bowl caliber roster.

I don't think anyone would argue with me listening to this. Whether you're a Patriots fan, whether you're a Chiefs fan, whatever team you like, their roster is top-notch. It's in the mix, the top five or six teams in the league. They're loaded in it. They have elite running back. They have elite wide receivers. They have a good head coach.

They have talented defensive guys at every single level. And you signed Kurt Cousins to not, people forget, because we're now two years removed. He was coming to an NFC championship team. So they signed him to get over the hump. And in the NFL, regular season games matter, especially against division rivals. And when you play the Chicago Bears and they lose their starting quarterback early on in the game, and they're also missing multiple starters, you pay Kurt Cousins $28 million to swing that game. Because he should be, you know, even the Bears have a ton of good players, the Vikings.

I mean, he should have a major impact in that game. He didn't belong in that game. Adam Thielen after the game, I don't have a quote in front of me, but basically to summarize what he said, we're not going to be able to run it down everywhere. everyone's throat. CC, teams like the Chicago Bears. We're not going to be able to run for a buck 80 against them. We might run for 40 yards like we did.

We have to be able to hit deep passes. He's specifically talking about a pass where he beats the corner and he's open and Kurt Cousins overthrows him. Why? Because in big games, when all the chips are on the table and it's nut cutting time, Kirk Cousins never completes that pass. So Kirk Cousins didn't change. just the way we viewed him changed when he signed this historic contract.

But he's the same player that he was in Washington, just a guy, and the differences in Washington, they were a terrible team. So we didn't see them in important games. Well, what happens when he comes to the Vikings? Every game they play, specifically against the Packers and the Bears, is going to be magnified. Because we view those in the National Football League as playoff games in the regular season.

because they dictate who's going to go out of that division. It's pretty clear. The NFC North's really good. The Lions, hell, we'll get to them and Matt Patricia a little later, are not bad. The Bears' defense is dominant. Packers, pretty damn good team. Kirk Cousins was supposed to be the guy to get them over the hump. And anytime a quarterback ever just hits free agency

when he's between the ages of 28 and 32 in this modern-day NFL, that should be the biggest red flag you should possibly have. In a league where teams are starved for quarterbacks, specifically good ones. Top 15, top 12 guys. Because if you have a top 12 guy and you build a good team, Cowboys, Rams, you're going to be in the mix. Everyone's crushing Jared Goff.

Rams are 3-1. They'll win 10, 11 games at the end of the year. And Jared Goff is the $110 million quarterback? I've said over and over. I didn't like that number. I like probably more in the mid-80s. But it is what it is. It's the going rate for these guys.

The teams, it's the one position where the player and his agent and his camp have some leverage. And they took care of them. But I do know if Jared Gough's just a round good player. Like, do you think the Minnesota Vikings wouldn't rather have Jared Gough? I'll promise you this. He's going to hit Adam Thieland more times than not. Because we have seen him in those positions the last couple of years with Sean McVeigh with the talent team. And he's hit those guys.

Kirk Cousins can't hit those guys. He gives Minnesota no chance. And I've been someone that was banging the drum that I thought Minnesota was really good. I thought if cousins could just play under control, how are they not going to win 10 plus games and be in the playoffs? I don't feel that way anymore. He can't be good teams. He has no chance against good defenses. Well, who has good defenses?

He's got to play, I don't even have their schedule in front of me right now, but I do know for a fact they play the Packers, and they play the Bears four times. Are we looking at four Ls right there? The Packers already beat him. The Bears already beat them. why aren't those two teams going to beat them again? I think the Minnesota Vikings are in major trouble. The problem is it's not like, you know, in business, oh, it's a sunk cost move on.

You can't really. I mean, it's your quarterback. You're just kind of all in on this guy. You just, the ship's going to go down with him leading it. Or they're somehow going to make me look like an idiot and just start rattling off some wins. Because there's no benching this guy. You're in bed with this guy until the Titanic goes under.

And right now the Titanic is doing. skull chance. And it's taken on some water. The fans know it. The coaches know it. It's pretty clear now the players know it. You can't pay the wrong guy in the National Football League when you have a really good team. Because it magnifies and looks way worse. The Vikings are in major trouble right now. These days, it can be hard to find and hire the right candidates for your small business. That's why LinkedIn jobs made it easier to find the people you want to talk to faster and for free. Create a job post in minutes on LinkedIn Jobs to reach your network and beyond to the world's largest professional network of over 770 million people. Focus on candidates with the skills and

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It's Geicoe easy. Visit geico.com today. That's geico.com. I'm a sucker for any sort of Army, Navy, Navy, Seal, book, or movie. I find them fascinating. I've been to the theaters like twice in the last five years. One of them was to see the Bradley Cooper American sniper movie. I just, you get me a movie like that, I'm in. You give me a book like that, I'm in.

I still believe a lone survivor by Marcus Luttrell, about the four guys, he was the one guy that survived in Afghanistan. It's one of the best books I've ever read. I think I read it in under 48 hours. It was riveting. I think that's a good example of, you got to have some contingency plans because sometimes things don't go right.

And in that lone survivor movie, they were dropped in to carry out this mission. They ran into a farmer and they let them live and it cost them. And it cost three guys their lives. Now, there are consistency plans that you can't even be ready for. But I think a lot of times, like you're going to go in on Osama bin Laden, that mission. They had an idea of what the house looked like, but there still were unknowns, right? When they open up different doors, who was going to be there, how many guards in there?

Would Osama have a gun? Would he fire back? You just don't know. So you have different contingency. plans to make sure that you can get the mission finished. And I think coming into Teddy Bridgewater, I think some of this relates to that. Part of paying a backup quarterback, $7 million when you have a Super Bowl-level team, is to have a contingency plan.

Now, if Drew Brees goes out for the season, you're probably screwed. But if you do get into a situation where he messes up his thumb and he's going to miss three, four, five, six games, can you win? Four out of six of them, and just keep the ship above water? Because look how many teams in the NFL do not have a contingency plan, and their starter goes down, and they're screwed. If Matt Ryan went down, now the Falcons stink, and Matt Schaub had to play, they could not win a game.

We've seen several times Aaron Rogers' backup go down. They were done. They were done, right? A couple years ago, who had a contingency plan? The Eagles. They had this guy named Nick Foles. That was the best case scenario. They won a Super Bowl.

but even if they hadn't won the Super Bowl, if they just would have lost in that first round of the playoffs, he was good enough to compete. That's really all you can ask for, is your backup quarterback is a contingency plan. And I got a lot of people tweeting at me, Middilkoff, you get the same result for $600,000 from a rookie or second year guy.

Yeah, every once in a while you get a Gardner Minchew. For the most part, when you see an undrafted free agent or a six-rounder or whoever's the backup, even on a really good team, he's not only going to shift the bed, you're not going to be, your entire operation

won't be functional with that guy in the game. Again, Gardner-Minchu is much more of an outlier than something that we typically see. So what's $7 million, bought Sean Payton, the Saints, and even the fans now, is a peace of mind.

Because Drew Brees, who is 40 years old, if he did go down, it's pretty clear that this Saints team since they won that Super Bowl, this is probably their best team top to bottom. Defense, we saw, as I'm recording this last night, if you're listening to this Tuesday or Wednesday, on Sunday night football,

kind of took it to the Cowboys. They are really good on defense. What do they have on offense? They have a superstar running back in Elvin Kamara. They have, I don't know if he's a superstar, but he's a damn good player in Michael Thomas. They got a really good tight end in Jared Cook. They got weapons.

If you've just put a serviceable quarterback that knows what's going on, you can win games. What have they done in the last two weeks? Went on the road in Seattle, hosted the Cowboys. Two playoff teams from last year, beat them both. Beat the breaks off Seattle and had a really, really impressive win against the Cowboys. And Teddy Bridgewater is getting destroyed when I open social media. He stinks.

Well, you guys are looking at him the wrong way. You're looking at like Teddy Bridgewater, the former first round pick. He's not a starting quarterback anymore. Those days are over. He is a good backup. He is a backup that winning teams will want because if you put him on the field with a good team, you can function

with him. That's all the Saints want. And they feel comfortable with, yeah, as a little bit of an overpay, sure. But again, their head coach, who might be in the Hall of Fame one day, sleeps well at night. Their starting quarterback, clearly is probably pretty comfortable around Teddy.

Their team really likes the guy. And we've had a lot of backup quarterback talk in these last three years. Why isn't this guy in the league? Well, I don't know. Because there were some stories on a guy that continues to get talked about, and I'm not trying to go down the Colin Kaepernick road, but people forget.

A lot of players on the team didn't like him that last year. Eric Reed did. A lot of other players didn't. Remember those stories about how I'm putting on the headphones and him being just in a different world than the rest of his team? Like, that got remembered. Like, that happened. I know people don't ever talk about that.

I lived it. I live here in the Bay Area. Those stories happened every day. That was happening, even before the knee. It was ugly. So these guys really like Teddy Bridgewater. That matters when you're the backup quarterback. Do the guys like you?

And then can they win with you? And he's starting to prove they can. Now, is it pretty? No. He doesn't have a great arm. His leg almost fell off. So he doesn't move around that well. But in this offense, with what Sean Payton's asking him to do,

and being able to game plan all week long, they can win games against really good teams. That win against the Cowboys was eye-opening. That was really, really impressive. But the reason they're in this position, and this to me, I'm giving them a lot of credit, is they knew this offseason they needed a contingency plan

because the older Drew Breeze gets like sometimes you're going to drop in for a mission and there's going to be a guy that you didn't think was there. Like Drew Breeze didn't break an ankle this year. He didn't tear an ACL. He just threw a ball and his thumb hit Aaron Donald on the helmet. Kind of freaked deal. Something that if you sat down with Sean Payton

in the middle of the summer and you say let's list 10 ways that Drew Breeze could get hurt, you probably wouldn't list that. You'd list, you know, he gets hurt his ankle, someone rolls into him. He's just old. Maybe he just falls off a cliff. He's not good anymore.

Maybe he hurts his shoulder again. You would have listed a million things before you ever listed the way that it ended up going down. Well, actually, he's going to hurt his thumb, but it turns out he won't need surgery or he will need surgery. He'll go to this guy in L.A. It turns out probably only be out four or five weeks.

We're like, yeah, we definitely need to keep Teddy Bridgewater because remember, he almost went to the Miami Dolphins. The best thing Teddy Bridgewater ever did, The best thing he ever did was turn down the Miami Dolphins and stay with the New Orleans Saints. And he talked about it after the game, how winning means something to him. And last year as a backup, how cool it was to be around wins, wins, and just win. There is something special about that. And I give him credit, and you often don't see this in the NBA very often, is not everyone's a star player.

And one of the biggest reasons, I guess maybe not the biggest reason, but a separating factor which made the warrior so special these last five years. They obviously had the star power, but they had two guys, their fifth and sixth man, that were former stars. One guy was, you know, a former on the Olympic team, a former max player on multiple teams that were playoff teams, but he was never good enough to be the alpha. Turns out he wasn't even really a beta. He had to be like your fourth, fifths, or six best player.

And he was old enough in Andre Aguadal. He came to grips with that. Sean Livingston, he just was perfectly tight. He became a role player, and that separated the Warriors as they moved on. Well, the Saints, who at one point in time when Drew Breeze went down in that Rams game, he started thinking, man, is this team going to screw their chance? Well, then boom, go up to Seattle win. Host the Cowboys win.

You're like, God, is this team going to end up 12 and 4 and missed Drew Breeze for six games and not skip a beat? It's because they had a contingency plan. And when everyone's crapping on it, he's not a starting quarterback. He's the contingency plan, an expensive contingency plan, but worth that. every penny up until right now. Okay, let's dive into the Patriots. And first, I'm going to talk about the Patriots.

Second, I'm going to talk about their former defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia. And I just thought his end of the game was nuts. I thought it was crazy. Even though texting with a couple people in the NFL, they disagreed with me a little bit. But that's, you know, disagreement's okay. Let's start with the Patriots. And I think that the way in the NFL, and this is the great part about the sport, I say it all the time. there's a reason it runs circles around the other two sports in terms of popularity and just television ratings,

which means the amount of attention they get, is because every Sunday is really important. And yesterday, I mean, there were really two games, or maybe three games that I was really interested in. Ravens Browns, Chiefs. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer-beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys?

This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rec, my mama wants you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. podcast point game is about defining the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball.

Like, you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you. You get your podcasts. Lions and Bears Vikings. And the Sunday night game, kind of. And the Sunday night game, too. So four.

For the most part, though, kind of a dud weekend. But this game was kind of interesting, too. Bill's New England. Though I thought New England would take care of business, because they always take care of business. But if you play in a tight game on the road as a divisional game, that's okay. Like, the great part about the NFL is you don't get any style points.

This is not college football. A win's a win. This is not the NBA, where when you're the Warriors, you should blow out the suns or the grizzlies, or the Kings or whoever, I guess, is in your division, right? In baseball, if you have, if you're the Yankees and you have the Orioles in your division, and you play them what, 19 times or 17, whatever it is, you should win 85% to 90% of those games. In football, if you go 5 and 1 in your division, even in the Patriots case, where the division, the dolphins are terrible, the bill stink, and the jet stink,

they're probably going 6-0. But if they were to lose one, and typically they lose one a year, they're still 5 and 1. So if they win, you know, that's 6 games. If they win 8 of their other games, you're at 11 wins just off the bat. And usually they win like 9 games and go 5 in 1 or 6 and 0, and boom, they're at 12 or 13 wins. So I watched the game, and my first takeaway is, one, the Bill's defense is really good. Because we know Brady's the goat, this Patriot past defense is just stupid. Their D.Bs are making plays on the ball like their Randy Moss or their Terrell owns.

It really is just eye-opening to watch. But I have a watching that game this morning, I was like, whoa, you know what? The bills are for real. If they weren't playing the Patriots, they probably win this game. But one big problem, and I got into an argument a while back with someone on social media about their like, Biddlekopf, you're being so harsh on Josh Allen. Stop calling him inaccurate. I said no.

because I don't box score scout. I watch the games. And there's a select few of humans left anymore that can just give educated opinions off watching. I don't need a box score to shape my opinion. I've been doing this my whole life. This isn't something I just do for fun. This is not a passion project.

This is my life. So when I watch Josh Allen and I say he's inaccurate, it's because he's an inaccurate quarterback. You can be like, well, you're through for 64% against the Bengals. I don't care. because I judge you off the big games or in situational football when you got to get the job done. And Josh Allen was horrendous yesterday. One of his big knocks was he's an inaccurate quarterback.

Well, when you play the Patriots, even if you were, I think he was above 63% or whatever coming in the game, I don't care. Because this is a different animal. And what did he do yesterday? Through three picks, two of them that were just jaw-droppingly bad. and inaccurate guys, when they start playing good teams, like, yeah, okay, you beat the dolphins, or okay, you beat the Bengals. I don't even know if they play the dolphins,

but you beat the Jets. Woo-hoo, so are you a party. You want some dozen cookies for that one? Let's see how you play against the Patriots. And I would have had nothing but respect if he just played well, and they still lost. They were a big underdog, even at home. New England Patriots, defending champs,

feels like they've won 10 Super Bowls the last 20 years. They are the cream of the crop. So you're not even expected to win. win. But if you play well, I can leave the game going, you know what, this Josh Allen guy? He's coming into his own. He's got a chance, right? Like, you left the NFC championship game going, good thing the Patriots got Mahomes now, because if this guy gets better, you better watch out. What are we all saying now? Well, there's only one guy that can be the Patriots, is Mahomes. Well, maybe Josh Allen could like, in a couple years, be on, like, Josh Allen's

a long, long way away. The Patriots took him to pound down. You know, if it wasn't for the 70-year-old legend in Frank Gore, running his, you know, two little legs off, it wouldn't even have been close. And Brady threw a bad pick in the end of it. Brady didn't play that well. But it's hard to play well. You're going into a hostile environment.

Their defense is top-notch. Here's the other thing. I watch that game, and do you know what hit me? I get why the Patriots signed Antonio Brown. Because you know who they went to in multiple big spots yesterday? Philip Dorset, who was clearly their best wide receiver yesterday? Because Julian Edelman has broken ribs or something's wrong with him, right? He played in the game because he's one of the tough.

his SOBs and league history. And as Brady would tell you, Jules ain't missing time. And he won't. He's a patriot through and through. That's why Bill likes him and why he's not going to Wally Pip him because he's a war daddy.

But he was 60% max yesterday. Their first round pick is on injured reserve. It's hard to run against the bill. So it's going to be a very pass heavy game. Grankowski's long gone. They just, you know, Josh Gordon's been banged up.

Like they needed Antonio Brown. didn't just do it like the rich got richer because that's kind of what I thought and then you watch him play you're like damn now that Edelman's banged up and Gronk's not there there there are some holes in their passing game you can't just throw it to running backs every single play they need it A-B and just like they're going to need Neal Harry to get right and they're going to need them to come back now I'm not saying I'm not you're stupid if you're in the business of writing this team off or they have a flaw sometimes you know what brady would tell you and or bribe bellichick would tell you we've had many teams over this last decade that were much more,

our offense carried us the majority of the year. Remember some of those Patricia teams? And we're going to get into Patricia here in a second. Defense was awful. Didn't they lose a Super Bowl? Where Tom Brady threw for over 500 yards because their defense couldn't get a stop, had no chance to get a stop against Nick Foles.

Can you imagine if you put that defense with the defense right now with that team? They wouldn't have lost the game. But that's just the way the NFL is. Ebs and flow. injuries happen, the defense is carrying them. There's nothing wrong with that. And a win's a win. That's an impressive win. You go on the road.

It's Belichick, this defense is legit. And the big reason, it's not like they have some superstar pass rushers. It's their coverage unit is unstoppable. And Josh Allen, man, you can't just throw it up. This is, you are not playing UC Davis here, buddy. You are not playing UNLV. This is not even the Cincinnati Bengals. this is the New England Patriots.

You are better off taking sacks than throwing it up and throwing picks. You will lose every single time. I repeat, every single time. If you throw three picks against the Patriots on the road, at home, or on a neutral site, you will lose 1 million percent of the time. He didn't play winning football yesterday.

It's just that simple. The bill's defense, top-notch. Coaching staff, Sean McDermott, top-notch. Patriot team, pretty top-notch, even though a little flawed right now at the passing game. Josh Allen was kind of the outlier of that game. Like, bro, what are you doing? Imagine fighting climate change every time you buy groceries or pizza.

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But my takeaway is just because you're a smart guy doesn't mean you do smart things, right? Not saying that Matt Patricia is a bad coach, Belichick believed in this guy for a long period of time, though the majority of the time he was a defensive coordinator, their defense is nowhere near as good as it's been the last couple years. But I'll say this, watching the Detroit Lions this year, they look well coached, they look

talented. Their offense is good. Matt Stafford's playing well. Kieran Johnson, the running back they have from Auburn's playing well. They have a bunch of offensive weapons. Hockinson's a really good player, even though he got a concussion yesterday. Their defense has been solid. Like, I'm impressed.

But they were in a position to win the game yesterday or have a legitimate chance to win the game. They took the lead late. Mahomes got the ball back down, down three points, down three points with a couple minutes left. Drives them down to the field. The chiefs have one timeout. Here's the sequence. They get a first down to the three yard line with 30 seconds left. The Detroit Lions have three timeouts. The chiefs have one timeout. Meaning if you're at the three yard line, This is not college, so the clock does not stop on a first down. Mahomes has to run up. They're at like the 13-yard line.

You could run the ball right there, but if you're forced to use a timeout, you would need to be a little careful and then just take end zone shots from there on out because you have to make sure you're only down three, your kicker gets an opportunity to kick it. The lions call a timeout. And if you want to tell me the defense is gas, whatever, okay, call the timeout. There are 30 seconds left. You might as well just let him score on the next play then and have two timeouts getting the ball back,

but you'd be down forward still be really difficult. He then, and he runs the ball and he gets it to the one-yard line with 24 seconds left. Again, the Chiefs have one timeout remain. He calls a timeout again. Here's what the Chiefs would have had to do if they did not call a timeout. They probably had two plays called in the huddle.

So if they have two plays called in the huddle, the second play more than likely is not going to be another run. You're going to force their hand. Well, when did a situation somewhat like this happen? To the New England Patriots three years ago or four years ago against the Seattle Seahawks. Who was on the sideline then? Matt Patricia. I don't either let them score on the first play

and then just take your shots with two timeouts trying to get down the field, which would still be really hard, or just play some defense. I get your guys are gassed, but you might as well take a shot where you're kind of forcing, their hand to pass the ball. You know they're only going to be able to run it once with calling back-to-back timeouts.

Again, for this rocket scientist, if Matt Patricia took the Wonderlich score, he'd probably score a perfect 50 out of 50. The guy's really, really intellectually bright. I'm watching this guy coach. He did it last week against the Eagles. When he had terrible clock management, he did this game with the timeouts

where he put the advantage back into the Chief's hands where they already have an advantage because they have an elite offense, at least kind of forced their hand on the goal line where the field, like the Chiefs really kill you the 20 to 20 because their track speed. It's a little harder to use your track speed when you're at the one yard line because you can only run 10 yards. The field is much more wider than it is long. So force their hand a little bit, force them to pass because if they do run it,

they'll probably have to use the timeout and then they'll just have to kick. Or they'll have to run back-to-back plays or spike the ball. It'll just be a little more chaotic. Where you call the timeouts, you enable them to take a day breath, you allow Holmes to go over the sideline, talk to his head coach, which is also the play caller, you allow them to dictate the personnel they want in. There is no chaos.

Well, what did Belichick see several years ago? Even if the chiefs were not chaotic on the sideline, because that was a big reason right, Bill Belichick did not call a timeout in the Super Bowl, because he said he looked across and saw them chaos. Well, even if I look across and don't see chaos, there's just natural chaos given that the time is ticking. you only have the one timeout and you're down three.

This is not a tight game. You're down three points. So they do have to call multiple plays in the huddle. If they do run the ball and get stuffed, you have a good defensive line, then you force their hand of throwing on the next down because if they run twice, they've got to be very careful.

You stuff them again. They're going to have to use the timeout and then they'll probably just have to do an end zone shot then kick the field goal. You complicate matters. But when you call back-to-back timeouts, you enable them to be in the driver's seat. And that's what the Chiefs were

because they ran it once, after he called timeout with 30 seconds left, down to, I think 24 seconds, got down to the one-yard line, calls a timeout, boom, they just run it again and score. It's like, Patricia, what are you doing? It baffled me watching it live. And I'm rooting for the Chiefs.

I wanted to see the Chiefs win. And I couldn't believe he did it. Especially when he's a Belichick guy. He saw it firsthand. Even if they're, again, back, I don't even need. need to look over there, even if they're not freaking out, there's a nature of just a freak out when times against you.

And you only, it's not like, if the chiefs had unlimited timeouts, then it would not matter. Then I'd be like, I get it. But they didn't. They had won, and they had to make sure they had a chance to get a field goal off. And Patricia just kind of gave them a lay up. Now, you can argue, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. I get that. But if that's the case, you might as well just let them score on the first play.

You might as well just let them score and then take 27 seconds with two timeouts. and attempt to, you know, get into Hail Mary situation. It really was baffling. Matt Patricia, his team's pretty solid. They have a lot of talent. He almost cost him the Eagles game a couple weeks ago when the field goal got blocked. And I think he cost him this game with his timeout usage.

Okay, well, Friday night I went to the Cal Arizona State game. I got after it a little bit with some buddies. And that enabled me to literally do not. Nothing. Now, nothing for me is I get paid to watch football. So Saturday, Sunday, wasn't the most active run of my life. I didn't do much, if anything. And I think let's just go through all the things I saw. Really quick on Saturday, a couple things really stood out to me.

The passing offense for the Alabama Crimson Tide is just stupid. The NFL level talent they have in their passing game with the wide receivers and the quarterback is jaw-dropping. It's eye-opening. It's elite. It really is. And Ohio State, I'm not the biggest Herbert Meyer guy as a person. I just, to me,

he might as well be a politician. He says one thing, does another. But as a coach and as a recruiter, he's as good as we've ever seen. The talent on Ohio State right now is kind of like the Alabama passing game is eye-opening.

They beat the living, you know what, out of Nebraska. And I also think there's a reason football has three years and then you can go pro because i watched a lot of adrian martinez the nebraska quarterback coming out of high school he's a fresno guy he was a big time recruit went to nebraska then scott frost got the job i thought he was going to be like a better version of marcus marriota he's not any good he he didn't belong in that game with ohiole state

justin fields the blue chipper ran circles around him that's what an nflb guy looks like adrian Martinez and this is why we see so many busts in the NBA, it's hard to determine how good a guy's going to be at 18 years old. I mean, I do this for a living. I love watching this crap and I thought God, this guy's going to be awesome. He's just not. I thought the same thing about J.T. Daniels and went to USC. Clay Hilton's done. Like, it's over. You know, it's inevitable now. Now, I get a lot of questions who's going to be the next coach at USC. I don't know. But it's, it's cash money for him. He's just riding out this season. They're going to lose more games. They're not very good. They're just not very good. And it's sad to see that USC's falling. I've said this before and I'll say it again.

I think Chip's stealing right now from UCLA. They lost Arizona, but I don't even think he tries. He's so stubborn in his offense. He doesn't like recruiting. I do respect Clay. I think he's trying. He recruits his ass off. I mean, he attempts to land players. Yeah, I think he spends the night in his office. He's given everything he has. Now, at the highest level of any business, sometimes the best you have just is not good enough. And I think that's the case with Clay Heldon. It's just not good enough. But I do respect his effort, unlike Chip who's mailing it in, who's one in four and who's not going to make a bowl game in back-to-back years at UCLA.

The guy's not at Cal Poly here. You know, he's not at Nevada. He's at UCLA. He's getting, I mean, he lost to Arizona. That's a bad loss. Washington, I think right now, Washington and Utah have the clear two best teams out west. Oklahoma, Lincoln Riley's a stud. He made it.

What I just watched, 10 minutes of Oklahoma, he made Jalen Hurst, like Aaron Rogers. Guys, God, I mean, Oklahoma. There are six or seven teams. This is the first time in a while where some really, really good teams. It's going to be termined on the field with Penn State, with Georgia, with LSU, with Bama, with Auburn, with Clemson, with Ohio State, maybe Wisconsin. There are going to be some really good teams to get left out of this playoffs.

I think there are eight to nine teams that could win the national championship. championship. I'd go Bama, no particular order. Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, Auburn, who looks awesome, LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma, that's seven. That's a pretty damn good seven. You could probably throw Penn State in there, not quite sure about them and Wisconsin. So there's some really, really good teams. College football is just, I'm an NFL guy, I love college football. I'm just going to fire through some of these games that I haven't touched on. Titans. Falcons. Titans are what they are. Probably eight, nine wins, blue collar, win a couple games, lose a couple games, be right around 500. Solid operation. Marriota kind of holds him back.

Falcons are a disaster. An absolute dumpster fire. I don't know if you've seen that video that went viral of the fan screaming at the players. Of course, some of the media people like, this is over the line. B.S. That's what the fans are saying. That's what everyone in the media was tweeting. This guy's just speaking real words. Falcons are an embarrassment. I've used the stat on here before. He was the first head coach to fire all three coordinators and keep his job since 1989. That's as big of a red flag as you're ever going to see.

It's been 30 years since a guy didn't get fired and was able to fire all three coordinators. Of course, it's a dumpster fire. I'd say the biggest shock of the weekend was the Raiders beat down the Colts. They destroyed the Colts. Outplayed them, start to finish. The Colts were missing some players. Ty Wye was out, Darius Leonard was out, but it was a beat down. It really was.

The score is not indicative of the game. It was a two-score game. Final score was 31-24, but it was, you watch the game start to finish. It was a two-score game. Now, were the Colts already overlooking them? I don't know. It's kind of a trap game. They got the Chief Sunday night coming up.

Maybe. I don't know if the Colts are quite good enough to be overlooking teams, but they got beat down. That was shocking. You know, that was shocking. Someone that falls the Raiders for a living, I would have said, The Raiders have no chance. I don't care if Ti is in a suite or on the field. It doesn't matter.

They're not going to win. They played their best game of the season. It might be the best game they play this year. Now the Raiders are going to get a little bit of a wake-up call playing the bears now on the road. Like it's in London. A little different animal. Chargers dolphins, no thoughts. I mean, the dolphins, you don't deserve to be talked about.

When you actively tank, you get beat by 20 plus points every week. I even thought the point spread was a little small this week. It was like 16 and a half last time I saw it. They got beat by 20. Just the dolphins are an embarrassment. I refuse to even give them my takes. Redskins Giants, I'll be the first one to admit. I did not watch one snap of this game.

Under no circumstances, would you get John Middilkoff's time on a Sunday morning watching this game? Now, granted, I wasn't going to like watch it on my iPad. I know Danny Dimes threw a couple picks. The Redskins, you know, Kevin Clark had one of the tweets of the year. Just realize the Miami Dolphins are actively trying to lose. The Washington Redskins are not attempting to do this. They are trying to win games. And they're in major trouble.

I mean, Josh Norman's shot. Case Keenham stinks. You put in DeWain Haskins, he's got no shot. Not on this team anyways. Somehow the Giants are two and two. Their defense, when you play the Giants and who have one of the worst defenses we've ever seen and can only manage to score three points,

you know, I know some of the stories were kind of, coming out that Jay Gruden was going to be relieved of his duties. I think Jay Gruden will be so happy the moment they tell him to go home. I think it will be the best thing that ever happens to him is when they fire him. I'd say the second most shocking outcome of the weekend, beside Colts Raiders, was not just the Browns winning, because the Browns do have good players. They kick the crap out of the Ravens. And Ride Nick Chubb, he's a star.

Baker was much more under control. Every time I've watched the Browns, Steve Wilkes has done a really good job. You know, we saw two head coaches get fired last year, and then they become defensive coordinators, Steve Wilkes and Vance Joseph. Vance Joseph has no shot. The Arizona Cardinals' defense is awful. Steve Wilkes' defense is pretty good.

They tackle well in space. They've been impressive. Run the ball, play defense. That's kind of the formula. Listen, I'm rooting for this guy. I root for high character players, even if I don't like him. But Lamar Jackson's come back to Earth.

And Lamar Jackson was not good in that game. You just missing open guys. Just kind of the knock on him coming out. That was, it's one thing to lose divisional opponent on the road. It's another thing to kind of get worked. And it was 40 to 25, and the Ravens scored 15 points in the fourth quarter. So kind of like last week against the Chiefs, the score is not indicative of the game. This was pretty kind of shocking. Kyle Allen's now 2-0. It's something we need to keep an eye on.

Ronnivir ain't going down easy. And this is why Cam Sucking was such a big deal. This is not three or four years ago. This team has weapons. McCaffrey is probably right up there with Alvin Kamar and Zeke, is the best three-run back's in the NFL. DJ Moore is a stud. Greg Olson can still play. Samuel's a good player. Luke Keekley still making plays.

Revere and his coaching staff are solid. But to score 10 points against the Panthers at home, you know, I know there was the clip of Deshaun Watson staying after and working with the quarterback coach. I like Deshaun Watson. To me, that's a little too like for social media type move. But, you know, it is what it is. It's, you know, it's what kids do these days.

But, you know, come on, man. Texans, just kind of a weird team. I don't really know what to make of them. Like the Texans and Panthers are both two and two, but I don't know. I don't even know what to say about those two teams. Like, are the Panthers really going to keep winning with their backup quarterback? Are the Texans really going to lose the teams, like the led by Kyle Allen?

Seahawks Cardinals, I can't say anyone's shocked. The Cardinals are a disaster. You know, they're lucky they tied that opening week because I don't see how they're going to win many games. Their quarterback, to me, is the least of their worries. Kyler Murray runs around. He makes some plays. Yesterday, he was 22 with 32, 240 yards. He added another 27 on the ground, had a rushing touchdown.

He's not that big of a disaster. They can't cover anybody. And just Cliff Kingsbury, when he's a head coach, they don't win very often. It's just that simple. And Russell Wilson, when I watch the Seahawks, they're a little like an NBA team. They have a star player in Russell Wilson. They have some other good role players, like Clowny, Bobby Wagner. I mean, those guys are better in role players, but you know what I mean.

And they just, they got three. or four impact players. The rest of their roster is pretty random, and they just win. When the dust settles, they'll be 10 and 6. They'll be 11 and 5. Because that's just what Seattle does. Big Thursday night games, Seattle hosting the Rams. That's actually a fan.

We've had great back-to-back Thursday night games. Vikings Bears touched on that. I mean, Kirk Cousins go away. Gardner Mitch, there's something special about the guy. He was, I watched just about every snap of the Broncos Jaguars, and they were getting their butt kicked in the first half. And Gardner meant you, man. He just makes plays in the second half.

Leonard Fournett, I think some people talk about him like he's a scrub. And I was texting with a buddy in the NFL yesterday. I said, if Leonard Fournett had been the 29th pick or the 34th pick, I think we'd be like, this guy's pretty solid player. And say he was the fourth overall pick. So when you're that high, you expect Zeke Elliott. You expect Adrian Peterson, you know, Marshawn Lynch, a superstar. And I don't think he's that.

But he's pretty damn good. And you saw yesterday he's got good moves in the open field. He runs hard for a big back. He can break tackles. He gets north and south. Like he's not some wuss who tiptoes. We used to call him Brandon Jacobs after they won a Super Bowl with the Giants when I was in Philly. The tiptoe burglar.

He didn't want any of the contact. That's not. Leonard Fournette is lowering his shoulder and hitting folks. So that's an impressive win for the Jaguars, who I've been saying, my two teams that I am not quite right now are the Jaguars and the Buccaneers. The Jaguars this weekend Go to Carolina You don't think they can win Against Carolina?

Short little trip Then they get the Saints, Then they get the Bengals Jets So they could be Three and two, Three and three I mean they could be five and three You'll look up

The Jaguars could be five and three I'm telling you Them and the Buccaneers Them and the Buccaneers baby Okay let's fire off some questions With technology always advancing To providing viewers with a more interactive experience in sports,

catcher cam and baseball, for example. How long until we get a POV, like that word POV, camera feed from the quarterback position in football? Will we ever? I would say probably not for a while just because, I mean, business is so good for the NFL,

ratings are so high, you know, I don't know. I mean, I think part of the camera angle is you're able to see most of what's going on. It would be pretty cool. I would say never say never. I don't know if many people listening have ever tried the Oculus. I know there are multiple virtual reality.

That's the only one I've ever tried. They're pretty cool. They're actually really cool. I've actually looked at them on Stanford's campus. They have them for the quarterbacks. I just, maybe that'll change once VR becomes a bigger deal in our life, which still might be years away. But it's coming, I mean, one day.

So I would say when virtual reality becomes a big... Is there a chance when I'm about to be third? When I'm like 55 and, you know, I'm sitting there with my kids and we're watching football. We don't even sit there and watch football together. We all just have on our oculuses or whatever the VR is and we're just watching, you know, Tom Brady's probably 60 still playing against, you know, 40-year-old in Mahomes. Is that what we're watching? Maybe. Brown's fan currently living in Washington, D.C., coming out to the Bay Area for Monday Night Football

game in two weeks. Any advice is on plays to go before the game at Levi Stadium. praying to God Baker can figure it out this weekend. Well, he did. Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I live about an hour north. You know, if you're staying in the city, go to the city. I'm not too well-versed on the Santa Clara area.

If I were you and you're staying down there, I'd shoot up to Palo Alto where Stanford's campuses, have dinner somewhere on Stanford's campus, just Google some nice restaurants. You know, you know what's crazy? And I think L.A. is probably a little bit like this. I've only lived in a couple big cities in my life. I grew up around Sacramento and Davis, and we come to the Bay Area a lot, but we just go to the city.

My grandparents lived kind of by Cal Berkeley's campus. Once now the traffic is so bad, I think L.A. is like this on a much, much bigger level. But, like, I only go to Santa Clara, one, for football reasons, and two, only if it works for my schedule and I can avoid traffic. Because if you go, I know a lot of people that, like, live where I live, and I live 20 minutes away from the city, kind of, you know, 10 minutes north of Oakland. On the east side, we call that the East Bay. If you go at the wrong time, it could take me two hours to get to Santa Clara,

even though I live 45 minutes away, and then two and a half hours back. So I'll be honest, I just go kind of to Levi Stadium. That's the only reason I've ever gone down there. Like, if I met some beautiful girl that lived in San Jose, I don't even think it'd be possible to date. I mean, seriously, we would never see each other, because I ain't driving down there.

I wouldn't want her to, well, I wouldn't mind her driving up here, but, uh, let's see. Last few years, we have seen NFL teams try to hire young offensive-minded head coaches, Shanahan McVeigh, and more. Although when I look at the best offenses and defensive total yards after three weeks, many of these offensive savants have a better ranked defense than offense. Can you explain this phenomenon? Teams I've talked about. Rams, 16th offense, 3D.

Packers, 22nd offense. 13th E. Chicago, 29th, 8th, Cleveland, 25th, 10th. I don't, you equated this on yards, total yards? I don't put, I'll be honest, total yards are pretty meaningless. You know, I judge defenses on points, on third down percentage. I don't think yards means that much anymore. Like, for example, the Ravens the last couple years, I've put on, or I mean, the last couple weeks have put on a bunch of hollow yards late,

in the game. A couple weeks ago, Russell Wilson and Seattle threw a bunch of hollow yards against the Saints. To me, yards don't mean that much. I look much more at scoring defense. I also think it's usually just any time in football history, defenses are usually

head of the offense. Now that these starting quarterbacks don't play in the preseason, I think this month of September is a little preseason-ish. You know, it's just, it's hard to get it's hard to get the timing down when you don't practice. It's not baseball or basketball or you just get to play four, five, seven nights a week. You just get play once a week.

In football, you don't get to all the offseason. In the NBA, these guys can offseason play pickup games. Obviously, it's not the same speed as an NBA game, but you're getting a legit run. Like, there's no run in football. You just work out. You have OTAs, but you're in helmets and shorts and T-shirts. The main part of the game. The game is tackling, right?

Throwing, catching, and tackling. Well, you can't tackle when you're just in shorts and a t-shirt. So it's difficult. Digging the opening riffs. What's the name of the time? I don't really know what that means. If you mean the opening song, it's just some song that someone created. You might be asking about something completely different.

Maybe I just don't quite know what you're saying. Betting advice. I love the round robin. Take a four or five team parlay and bet each combination. of each parlay. It's a no-brainer. Well, we all want to win three of five. It accelerates your winning. Staggering better amounts,

equal, greater payouts. Before you discuss on the podcast, I'll show you. Well, I guess I wasn't supposed to discuss. Take four games you love. $50 straight up on all four lines. Then round robin. 30 on the two game parlayes,

20 on the three game parlays, and 20 on the four game parlays. Sounds fascinating. I might have to, it might be a little over my head. I don't even think I just followed that. I'm not even sure what that meant, but did you just figure out Vegas? I might have to read that again because it just sounded like you just figured out Vegas.

The problem with Parley's is I've hit maybe five big ones in my life, and I've lost, like most people, thousands, that it seems a lot easier than it actually is. Why hasn't Jack Barrett gotten any love yet? He has been the best defensive player so far, barely gets to mention it all. If he was on the Cowboys, yeah, I mean, the reality, is like, I love this statement, and we use a statement all the time. If he was on the Cowboys, if this dude was on the Yankees, if this guy played for the Warriors, like, yeah, I mean, if they played for those

teams, we were talking about them more. Like, if you're a wide receiver and no one's talking about you, and you're like, well, if that guy caught balls from Mahomes or Rogers, well, yeah, that's part of the deal. If you're playing in Buffalo, we ain't talking about you. This is all a numbers game. Like, who do I talk about? I try to talk about big markets. I try to take a kind of a cue from Colin, slash,

with things I'm fired up about. But if I just, every day, and this is not a shot at the bills, I like Sean McDermott. If I just talk bills, I also like the Jaguars, Fliott's my guy, and I love Gardner Manchu. I'm just using an example here. And I'm showing you, like, I don't just follow the numbers. Because if I just wanted to do, quote-unquote, the biggest number podcast, I would just talk about the Patriots, Cowboys, Packers, and Eagles. I mean, those would be the only, and I still talk, I try to make an emphasis to talk about it,

but I'll talk about whatever. I like Gardner Manchu. I'll talk about Gardner Minchew. Kirk Cusis, Minnesota, I'll talk about it. But there's a reason that guys like Shaq Barrett, you play in Tampa Bay, we're not really talking about you. But it's the NFL, we still will mention you. He's had an incredible start this season.

But the reality is that more people are going to talk about Cleo Mac because his season has been pretty damn good too, and he plays for the freaking Chicago Bears. So it's just, I get it. Listen, I grew up in Davis, California. I rooted for the Sacramento Kings for a long time. All we wanted was respect. And I understand, and I'm not really,

a Kings fan anymore. I'll actually like the Warriors now more. But I get why, you know, people talk about the Lakers more. I even get now looking back when Tim Donaghy, who I read his book, is actually a great read from Philly. I spent a lot of time at that Marriott where he got arrested in and used to meet with the mob. I get why the NBA, because it used to be piss everyone off in Sacramento. Why would the NBA want the Lakers? It just drove all of us nuts. And now that I do this for a living, of course I know why the NBA wanted the Lakers. I would too. I'd want to go be in the finals. I might have rigged the deal as well if I was David's turn.

I don't blame them. Though they claimed it was a rogue official, I'm going to claim BS on that, but I understand it. We talk about the big markets, because this is all a numbers game, and there are more people in the big markets. So if you talk about the 49ers and the Cowboys and the Eagles,

more people are going to listen than if you talk about the Arizona Cardinals, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's just simple mathematics. It doesn't mean I don't, like, about a lot of those teams because I do. I watch all teams and all sports,

but I've grown to like Alabama and Ohio State. They're just better. I've grown to like and be interested when the cowboys are good because when they are good, they are more interesting just because more people care. But if Shaq Barrett keeps playing like this, regardless of how many people talk about Tampa Bay every day, he will win the defensive player of the year

if he ends with like 25 sacks. I promise you that. He will get his recognition. Why don't broadcast show more of the announcer-player interests. Usually super high energy and cool to watch. I think it's just a time crunch. You only have so much time.

And the reason that broadcasts were able to watch them, right, is because of advertisements. So they have to get advertisers in. That's the way they pay for everything. You know, a lot of these broadcasters ain't making 50 grand here. So you've got to pay these guys a lot of money.

What's up, John? Big fan. And I have a Big 12 question for you. Why are the defenses in general so sloppy and not filled with equal talent compared to the team's offenses. Is it because most teams have offensive-minded guys, Riley, Gundy, Campbell, being the first to come to mind? Thanks a bunch. That's a good question. I've had Drew Hill, who's in charge of Oklahoma's recruiting on here before. I don't even know if we ask them that question. I think I've talked with

them before about it and just read a lot about the Big 12. I think you're starting to see this in the NFL. You build your personnel to who you're going to play. So if you're in the the NFL, you do kind of try to focus on who you have to beat in your division. Now, for like the Patriots, I don't know, they're just focused on the playoffs. Like, are they really waking up, sleeping about the jets and the dolphins? But you try to focus on, like, if Von Miller's in your division and Melvin Ingram's in your division and Frank Clark's in your division, you've got to get tackles. So Gruden got some tackles, right?

In college football, if you're in the Big 12, they're all running spread offenses. so you can't have a bunch of two-down mics and a bunch of nose tackles. You need to get smaller, quicker guys to cover and play sideline to sideline. And I think the NFL has been similar to that. Look at a lot of the defensive players that have been drafted. Non-DBs these last couple of years. The linebackers are smaller and quicker. A lot more just speed pass rushers.

The games changed. If you were playing Alabama and you were at Oklahoma, let's say Oklahoma moved to the SEC. and they put them in the SEC West, them and this hypothetical, them and Ole Miss switch spots. Well, Ole Miss would have to change the way they recruited on defense differently than if they were playing Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas. I think you just build it in college football to who you're going to play. And I see it out here on the West Coast. Herm Edwards, Utah, Cal, they're building teams kind of like Stanford has built for the last 10 years.

physical teams, they're going to play defense, low scoring games. They want to hit you in the teeth, which I like. I was at Will Cox, besides the quarterback play was terrible. The Cal Games Friday night. The defensive play in the Pac-12 has improved greatly. That's why Chip Kelly's getting smashed. Like Chip, some of these teams are playing defense, buddy. You might want to, this isn't just about offense, offense, offense, offense,

2019. Let's adapt. Recently started listening to your podcast after Colin, you are my next go-to, love your stuff. appreciate it. What are your thoughts on the Bills after their game against the patch yesterday? It wasn't for his special team's error. They held Brady to nine points, and I believe they outgained him on offense and time of position.

Although Josh Allen looked horrid, would have loved to see if he had any more magic in the fourth quarter. You're right. I mean, he didn't get to play in the fourth quarter, and he had some magic there. And I'm rooting for Josh Allen, but his accuracy was atrocious. I still feel really good about the Bills team.

They just need to continue to be patient and let Allen keep growing in the position. I'm telling you, They have to feel very, very good about themselves. I'd have to pull up the bill's schedule. But they've played the Jets. They played the Pats. They played the Bengals.

So I don't think, if memory serves me correct, I'm just doing this off the top of my head. I don't think they've played the Dolphins yet. So they still got a game against the Jets. They've got two games against the Dolphins. They're going to compete to win nine or ten games. Like the bills are in the playoff mix. That much is clear.

Their defense is elite. And they can run the ball. And if Josh Allen isn't playing the Patriots defense, which probably beside the Bears is the best defense in the league. You can give me all the stats you want. I'm just saying fantasy points, both those two events crushes it. Patriots defense fantasy-wise is dominated. But I think we'd all acknowledge that the Bears and the Patriot defense,

the Bears have a little more impact players. The Patriots just play so well as a unit. It's like, how are they doing this? But they do it as a group. I think that, you know, I think the bills can win. I think worst case scenario win nine games. If Josh Allen can play better against better teams beside the Patriots and just win a couple

games, like he can't turn the ball over. You can't play playoff level teams in these low-scoring affairs, which the bills are going to plan. The bills aren't going to play in these Kansas Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, L.A. Rams, 35 plus shootouts where, you know, if their defense just gets a couple stops, they're going to win 40 to 24. They aren't going to plan any of those games. They're going to play much more like the bears

But the bears have some more offensive weapons But when the bears get screwed is when Mitch turns it over If he does not turn it over they are tough to beat If the bills do not turn it over they are tough to beat But you can't have a quarterback Turning the football over You just can't Player empowerment is a form of capitalism

Still disagree with it Question mark Yeah I mean I don't mind if if players get paid in college, their likeness. But I also think Gavin Newsom and LeBron James making a big deal about this. I live in the state of California. We have a housing crisis.

We have a homeless epidemic. We lead the country in poverty. These are real issues. There is a small, small, small percentage of Division I college athletes relative to the population in the state of California. I've been to USC, been to Cal, players are living pretty good.

We also have information from the FBI in basketball specifically. They get paid a premium, as in six figures, the top basketball players. And for the most part, the state of California is a pretty pro-heavy state. Beside USC football, maybe UCLA basketball, I know at least the two Stanford and Cal up here mean nothing. No one talks about them. It's not a big deal at all. So, yeah, you want to make your money after you like this?

I don't care. But for the governor to get involved in it, when we have major, major issues. Like, people cannot afford to live. Like, we have a legitimate homeless crisis in L.A. and the greater barrier. Like, they're everywhere. It's sad to see. People have nowhere to live.

And yet, we have people getting richer and richer and richer in LeBron James, who's been in California for 10 minutes, trying to get on his high horse, talking about something like, he also is, like, taking credit for this movement. People have been talking about players getting paid forever. Also, players have been getting paid forever. It's called Under the Table. I know this. If someone's offering you $100 grand under the table and someone's offering you $150 over the table,

I pay taxes. I just got a property tax bill. I almost threw up in my mouth because I've always paid it through an escrow account, through my mortgage. I finally canceled that. My mortgage went down, but then I realized I got to pay the property tax. It's pretty big. So, like, LeBron, we got other issues in the state, my man.

I get it. You think all these basketball players, like a cow basketball team, I think won like five games. Stanford has a, made the tournament in years. These guys, like, yeah, good luck. Be become an Instagram influencer, I guess. This is an Alabama football or Duke basketball.

And we know in college basketball, these players get paid under the table. A lot of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which I'm four. I'm fine with. Doesn't bother me. I'm not the one, I'm not pounding on the table here. They shouldn't get paid.

I don't care. But they already do get paid. Can we acknowledge that under the table? Like, we have factual evidence. The FBI acknowledge it. People have gone to jail, which is stupid. But the players have been getting paid forever. Long before I was born, they'll be paid long after I'm dead.

Legally and illegally. Question. But I just don't care about the NCAA rules. I laugh at the NCAA. I hate the NCAA. I also think overreacting, also this law in California doesn't go into effect till 2020. California's, to think that they'll figure this thing out is laughable. We figure nothing out besides how to make money in business.

That's what we're good at around here. and collecting our taxes. Question. People talk about John Elway's failures at the quarterback position. When I look at the team overall, I don't really see much talent except for two or three positions. If Fangio can't get this defense to dominate, I feel like it probably doesn't have much talent overall outside of maybe three players.

Is it just the quarterback position or actually many positions that Elway has drafted poorly? Well, they had a devastating loss today in Bradley Chub. I mean, losing him to a torn ACL is... If I was a Bronco fan, I'd cry. Now, you'd cry anyway because you're 0 and 4, but that's probably your second best player beside Von Miller. I would cry. You could argue it might be your best player now that Vaughn's a little older.

That sucks. The Broncos aren't shambles. They're 0 and 4. And they're not just like an 0 and 4, like the Redskins or the dolphins where they just suck. I mean, they've been in now three of the four games. They're like, oh, they're right in. Hell, they should have beat the Bears game.

They were up in the Jaguars game. And they just can't win, man. They just cannot win. and I don't know if it's all Flacco, even though Flacco threw a terrible pick in that Jags game at the end of the first half with led to some easy points. Like you said, the defense,

if Fangio can't get the defense playing, I mean, Leonard Fournett had 225 yards on the ground. Leonard Fortinette. I like Leonard Fournett, and I'm more higher on Leonard Fortinette than most people, but 225 yards, this is the NFL. When you're at home and you're the Denver Broncos, you should never have a 200-yard rusher.

That's an excuse. usable. So yeah, Broncos aren't shambles. Is John Elway safe? I just some internet rumors, like the Reddits and just the internet streets, the Twitter streets. It feels like he's kind of on, shake your ground with every day the passes. What if they win two or three games? Are they going to draft a quarterback? Is Drew Locke the guy? I don't know. Time will tell. Appreciate everyone listening. Three-in-out podcast. Share with your friends. Adios, my people. Teathing can be a real nightmare for your little ones. Highlands, Naturals, oral pain relief tablets can help ease the pain. Its gentle, natural active ingredients like

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Brought to you by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports

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Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, guys, this is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this guy, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes,

hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, Brett, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Pol. Mark,

listen to The Cliffer Show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry.

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So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.