The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 01/21/2019

Episode Date: January 21, 2019

Colin says the Patriots were dominant on Sunday and the Chiefs are lucky the game even went into overtime.  He says the Saints have only themselves to blame, not the refs, for losing at home to the Rams.  Plus, Super Bowl Champion Trent Dilfer talks about the QB play in both championship games and explains why comparing Jared Goff to a young Tom Brady isn't crazy.  Presented by Perky Jerky. 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 headline. 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 Smigel 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 IHeart 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, Rhett, 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.

Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of, Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines

ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the best of Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1, Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeartRadio app by searching herd. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio.

Ah, here we go. Patriot Rams Super Bowl to Monday. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live in Sunny now again, Los Angeles. Angeles on Iheart radio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS1, Joy Taylor is joining me, Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, one hour from now. I am not overly religious, but I will say somebody upstairs is taking care of me. Patriots Rams, the local team. When I was in Connecticut for 10 years, I watched every snap. The local team in Los Angeles, I watched. You're the one who's

responsible for this. Wow. I see. I'm not going to lie. This is an amazing. amazing Monday. Thank you so much for stopping by. We are packed today. Trent Dillford, Josh Norman, Michael Vick, Eric Dickerson. Let me start with this. Football is complicated in its design. But when a game unfolds, it's rather simple. You prepare for seven days if you get a buy 14 and it's about imposing your will. I'm going to plan for seven days to do things and impose my will on you. And if I plan to do things and I can do more things than you can do, also preparing to impose your will, I win. It usually, in a close football game, I can do some things, you could do some things, I couldn't do some things. So let's, in review, look at Kansas

City. Here's what Kansas City likes to do and prepared to do. We're going to get the ball to Tyreek Hill, fastest guy in the league. He had one catch. one catch. We're going to get the ball to the best tied in in football. Travis Kelsey. He had 23 total yards. We are going to pressure Tom Brady. We led the NFL in sacks.

D. Ford. Chris Jones. Justin Houston. They almost didn't even pressure Tom. There were no sacks. We're going to get the ball to Patrick Mahomes. The key to this game is keep the ball in his hand and away from Brady. Oh.

He had the ball. for eight minutes in the first half. Oh, by the way, no mental errors. No mental errors. No Kansas City had the biggest mental error of the NFL season. Dee Ford lined up off sides. Does it sound like to you that Kansas City was able to do what they planned for a week? Hell, folks, they couldn't do anything they planned to do.

Tyreek Hill, one catch, Travis Kelsey, 23 yards. D. Ford, Chris Jones, Houston, no pressures. The mental error. Mahomes never had the ball for the first two hours. So now let's look at what New England prepared to do all week. What New England wanted to do. New England said a week ago, we want to get the ball to Edelman. He had seven catches for almost 100 yards.

We want to make sure Gronk plays a role. Six catches, biggest play of the game, arguably. We want to run the ball against Kansas. City, take it away from Mahomes. He had over 100 yards. We want to be great on third down to keep it away from Mahomes. 13 for 19. We want to protect

Tom Brady. He was rarely touched. And we want to make sure it's a ball control time of possession game. It was the most lobsided in league history. Everything Kansas City prepared to do, they

could do none of it. And everything New England plan to do, they did virtually all of it. The only surprising thing is this game went to overtime. Look at the box score. If I handed you a box score in Kansas City this morning and said, before the game, New England will have 36 first down, you'll have 18. They'll have 500, 25 yards. You'll have less than 300. They'll have the ball for 44 minutes. You'll have it for 20. That's the most lob-sided overtime game of my life. Folks, football. is complicated in its design. I could give you a playbook and you couldn't figure out a play in it.

But how a game unfolds is always very simple. I prepare to do several things. So do you. It's usually split right down the middle in an overtime game. This was never close. Last week I said something on Friday and I got a lot of pushback on this. I said the bills, the Jets, and the dolphins aren't dysfunctional. If you take away their games against the Patriots for 18 years, they're 500 teams. New England simply makes them twice a year look dysfunctional. Let me ask you, what did the chargers look like last week against New England?

New England with an extra week to prepare? Dysfunctional. What did the Chiefs look like when the Patriots got a second shot this year at him? Offensively dysfunctional. That's what great teams do, and it's what the Patriots do better than anybody in league history. Try being the Jets, Bills, and Dolphins, Kansas City, and facing them two times a year for 18 years. They take stuff away. Travis Kelsey, Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes, they take stuff away. Chargers look unprepared. Kansas City looked like offensively they didn't practice.

The entire NFL has gone to the vertical passing game, mobile quarterbacks and star receivers. New England has never, ever run the ball more. In fact, their wide receivers become backs. Their backs become wide receivers. Let's just be honest. They're sharper, smarter, and cagier than your team. Perfect? No. Brady had a bad red zone pick.

Nobody's perfect. The NFL's too fast. There's too many good athletes. But they continue to be one step ahead of the league. Ask yourself, would you rather be great in September or now? And I want everybody to just think about this. What is the day that you thought this year,

New England was the best team in the AFC? This year started in 2018. What was the day? The day is today, mid to late January, 2019. Let me add this about New York. New England because, you know, this is the way the world works. When you lose, you got to blame somebody. The past played at Gronkowski, which gave the Patriots a first down at the Chiefs 15 in overtime, was not in the game plan.

Peter King reported this morning, the Patriots put in eight new plays in the hotel lobby before the game, unheard of. Eight new plays. They use five. All five worked. That is unheard of. in the Western Crown Center in Kansas City. The offensive players for the Patriots were greeted at 11 in the morning. Eight new plays.

That is unheard of in any game. They use five. They all worked. Blame who you want. They're sharper, craftier, smarter than everybody else. Let's shift to the Rams exciting when an old. overtime two over the Saints. This morning I see a lot of blame, and that is America, right, when you're not successful.

Blame your ex-wife, blame your kids, blame the president, blame your boss. This became the blame the refs game. New Orleans had 50 yards rushing at home. That's it. They settled for two field goals early when the Rams after two possessions had more turnovers won than first downs. The Saints averaged 4.5 yards of play. easily the lowest and weakest of the final four teams.

Todd Gurley got benched, the best offensive player for the Rams, and Sean Payton inexplicably passed the ball instead of running it late to eat the clock. I still don't know what he was thinking. But hey, it's the refs. Yes, it's the refs. You do realize why I picked the Rams, Drew Brees in his first 11 games had 29 touchdowns and two picks and a passer rating of 127. But Drew Brees' last six games, he's had seven touchdown, five picks, and a passer rating of 88.

The Saints during and after the Cowboy games were never the same offense. They've been dink and dunk since. Fans demand perfect officiating, but Sean Payton got out coached late, and Drew Brees, and it's true, got out played by Jared Gough late. But, Colin, what about that penalty? Well, I'm so glad you brought that up. Let's actually run tape and sound of that egregious penalty. Take it to Anderson.

Out to the left, golf. Going to dive. You know, I don't think that running the ball was what he wanted to do. There's a face mask. Once he got outside the pocket here, he could have just gone after it. Oh, oh, you didn't mean that one, because that one actually took points off the board. that would have been a first and goal for the Rams at the one and the refs whiffed it.

But Colin, you could barely see that. Since when in pro football do you get bonus points for an egregious whiff? A whiff is a whiff. That was a whiff call. And that took four points away from the Rams who settled for a field goal. They would have a first and goal at the one. But it's called recency bias. That's what psychologists call it.

It's always the last blown call, the most recent that is outrageous and cost us the game. So let's talk about this blown call, which got everybody worked up. Quick snap, breeze. Pass is incomplete, no flag for Tommy Lee Lewis. Nikkel Roby Coleman delivered a hit, and the two officials talked to each other. Crowds going crazy as there's no flag right on the Saints sideline. That should have been a penalty. And John Payton is justifiably upset.

Yes, he should be. That was a blown call, too. And the one America is freaking out about. But the Rams, previous to that, would have taken a 2420 lead. Instead, they settled for a tie, which probably actually changes this drive. Again, in psychology, it's called recency bias. That last blown call, that's what lost it for us. Wasn't the fact that the Saints peaked in November.

that Breeze was outplayed and he was by Jared Goff, that Sean Payton in one of the strangest moves ever, even questioned by Buck and Ainkman, passed the ball on first down. Sean, at that point in the game, you're not facing the Rams. You're facing the clock. Sean Payton was out coach. Drew Breeze was outplayed.

By the way, it should be noted after that egregious call, and for some reason fans thinks egregious calls matter more than just previously whiff calls. You had the ball and threw a pick and got it first in overtime and couldn't score. You had multiple opportunities in that game, but you go ahead. You blame the refs on that final call. But those settling for field goals early, 50 yards rushing, outplayed, out coach late, the better team won.

The Rams traveled 3,000 miles, couldn't hear themselves think for the first hour, was completely discombobulated. But as we said Friday, over time, the team peaking now, and not in November, not against the Cowboys, would win this football game.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Overtime rules in the NFL suddenly because yesterday, both games went to overtime, and a lot of fans didn't like New England winning an overtime.

Suddenly the overtime rules are terrible. It would be interesting if Tom Brady lost an overtime and never got the ball back if everybody would be so outraged by it. I'm guessing no. Football, it should be noted, is built for home teams. The Rams equipment didn't work early. The Rams had the travel 3,000 miles. The Rams could not audible, huge disadvantage for an offensive-minded team.

The Rams couldn't hear themselves. You watched the game. They were discombobulated for the first hour and a half. So if the home team, with all the advantages, after 12 or 13 possessions, doesn't win the game, I'm not really interested in your sob story. I'm not going to tiger-proof football, Patriot haters. I'm not going to tiger-proof the course. New England's smarter, won again.

Sorry, New England's the team that always defers the kickoff, right? But in overtime, they take it. because they know what overtime is going in, and they don't have the ninth worst defense in NFL history. D. Ford lined up off sides. Is that overtime's fault? Patrick Mahomes had the ball for eight minutes in regulation. Is that overtime's fault?

The Patriots had 36 first downs. Is that overtime's fault? The reason Kansas City was so gassed at the end, they had the ball 21 minutes. Patriots had it over double that. I'm not tiger-proofing. the course. Win. Be better defensively. Score, I don't know, a point in the first half at home, Kansas City. Complaining about overtime rules is like complaining about you don't have enough

for retirement. Maybe you should not have a second sports car, Chief. Maybe you should have a 401k and a Sep IRA. Stop complaining you don't have enough for retirement. You knew it for 50 years and spent money you should have. Should not have. Do you know the overtime rule? The overtime rule is very simple. It's always been created with one thing in mind. Get this puppy over with fast. Why? Because players are tired. Brady said he was tired after the game. He's just a quarterback. And tired players statistically get hurt more. You don't want another quarter. You don't want those guys out there for another 35 minutes stacking up injuries. So one team goes into the Super Bowl with five starters missing. The second thing, you created overtime that you want to end quickly.

So the following week during the playoffs or regular season, you didn't play an extra quarter of football. That would be an unfair disadvantage for any team. You won an overtime game, had to play an extra 30 minutes, and you're exhausted and beat up. The overtime is created to not look like the regular season, not look like regulation. It is created to be urgent and final.

coin flip make a stop get it back go the rules are completely different everybody knows it going in it is created urgency and finality and that's what it gives you the patriots always give the ball up when they want to coin toss not here they'll take it and be hyper aggressive knowing they couldn't stop mahomes late either so everybody's outraged this morning but what you're really outraged about is New England won. You know what overtime does in football? It's a lot like money. You ever heard that saying and it's true?

That money exposes the real you. Wonderful people become more philanthropic. And jerks are bigger jerks. Money makes you more of who you are. And overtime in football similarly exposes who you are. The chiefs were the worst defense. of the final four, the ninth worst defense in NFL history. And by the end of the game in an overtime, Kansas City is not worthy of the Super Bowl.

If you can't even get marginal pressure at home on Tom Brady, I'm not asking for Lawrence Taylor. I'm not asking for Calio Mack. I'm asking for marginal pressure on Tom Brady. He sat back. 1001, 1002, 1003. What that? Sorry.

Money exposes the truth about people and overtime exposes the truth about teams. The more money and the more football you play, you find out who people really are at their core. And the chiefs are horrific defensively and did not deserve a game against the Rams in Atlanta. Hi, it's the herd. Almost half of Americans make a New Year's resolution every single year.

One resolution worth sticking to this year, keeping your home and your family safe. That's why I recommend Simply Safe Home Security. Now is the time to act and protect your home and your assets with Simply Safe Home Security. With Simply Safe, there's no contract ever. There's no price markup from any middleman. There's no installation window. Most importantly, their system is engineered to do one thing brilliantly. Protect.

If a storm takes out your power, Simple Safe is ready. Intruder cut your phone line. Simply Safe is ready. Somebody destroys your keypad or siren. SimplySafe will still get you the help you need. 24-7 home security, no contracts or catches. PC magazine named SimplySafe, both editor's choice and reader's choice for 2018. Just go to simplysafe.com slash herd. Protect your home, assets, and family today. Simplysafe.com slash heard. Simplysafe.com slash heard. I was just looking at this list. AFC quarterbacks in the Super Bowl since 2001. Brady, Gannon, Brady, Brady, Brady, Ben Manning, Brady, Ben Manning, Brady,

Flacko Manning, Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady. And they're nine times in 18 years. It's just unheard of. We're literally going to have something called a Tom Brady era. Well, for 20 years, because he'll probably play next year, I imagine. I disagree with Michael Vic. I think my gut feeling is New England. It's a good matchup against the Rams. and Eric Dickerson will talk about that next hour, Trent Dilfer. But I think a lot of things work in the matchup for the Patriots over the Rams. But New England is what sports should be. Do they have the most money?

No. It's kind of irrelevant in the NFL. Is their market size the most glamorous? You want to live in Boston? Do you ever vacation in Boston? Do they have the most superstars in free agency? No, they don't. In baseball, money wins titles.

Kansas City Royals are a complete outlier. It's the Yankees and the Red Sox and the Cubs and the Dodgers. In the NBA, there are just simply glamor markets. You rarely hear about free agents being fascinated with Memphis or Milwaukee. With New England, brains win, efficiency wins, doing your job wins. Don't get mad at New England. Be upset with the Pittsburgh Steelers' utter dysfunction. Be upset that the Chargers collapsed, or that the Ravens can't throw a football,

or the Texans couldn't block me, that the Colts showed up outside of a dome and vanished, that Kansas City had the inability to do anything for the first hour and a half. What New England does is all things we're capable of doing. In America today, if you're born red, and I'm born poor, there is a great chance I'll never overcome that disparity. If you're born in a great family and I'm born in chaos, there's a great chance I'll never overcome that. But the things the patriots do, we can all do.

They work hard. They're strategic. They ask players to simply do their job. They're smart, and we can all be smarter, myself certainly included. America, life is better if the things that win are things we are all capable of. The Patriots aren't the most glamorous team. How many people do you know outside of Boston that dream of retiring in Boston? It's not the most glamorous, it's not the richest, they don't have the most money,

it's one of the hardest stadiums to get to and out of. They don't pay players the most. This isn't the Yankee's salary cap advantage or lack of salary cap and baseball advantage. This isn't the Lakers, you know, the number one brand, sunny weather in the NBA, Silicon Valley in the NBA, Kevin Durant loves tech, let's go there and join a.

It doesn't work that way. Don't be mad at New England. Be mad at the collapse of the Chargers and the Texans can't block and the Ravens can't throw and the Divas in Pittsburgh and the Colts outside of a dome vanishing. That's the problem. It's not New England. Let me say this.

In the last two weeks, now I want you to think about this, Tom Brady has dropped back 90 times. No sacks. He's faced Joey Bosa, D. Ford, Melvin Ingram, Chris Jones, Justin Houston. Almost no pressures. 90 dropbacks, hit three times, hurried once, no sacks. Tom Brady has played without great offensive talent and without great defenses. But he has never played in 18 years without a formidable offensive line.

His name is Dante Scarnaccia. You couldn't pick him out of a crowd. He's 70. What they did yesterday to D. Ford, Chris Jones, and Justin Houston, is what they did to Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa. It should be noted that J.J. Watt has played the Patriot seven times. He's 0.7 with half a sack. Khalil Mack had his worst game of the year against the Patriots.

This is trouble for the Rams who have, as their linebacking corps, the weakest linebacking unit in this Super Bowl. they have a weaker secondary than New England. When teams come into a game against the Patriots and their stars are up front defensively, Aaron Donald and Domic and Sue, oh, that's not good news. The Rams linebackers, oh, they'll draft a couple more of those. Their secondary, incredibly, as Joey and I have talked about, hot and cold. Their defensive line is formidable.

Oh, stop me if you've seen this before. 90 dropbacks, three pressures, one hurry, no sacks. The one thing New England does better than anybody in football ever, reduce your great defensive front. And they've gotten better at it over the years. His name is Dante Scarnaccia. Tom Brady, W-E-E-I talks about him. Dante is the greatest offensive line coach in his.

history of the NFL. He gets those guys playing so well, so well together, their communication to go through yesterday's game without a penalty without a false start. And that crowd noise last night was, I mean, it was almost deafening on every play. The Rams were completely rattled for most of the first half. The Patriots at Arrowhead, not a penalty. Edge, New England, Atlanta. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Every Monday at this time, and we do this for a reason. I sit up here and I have strong opinions. I don't take phone calls. And so the audience, you know, they want me to come out and say, hey, I whiffed on that. I was wrong. So we created a segment that we do every Monday where I

come out and say, yeah, I was right on this. And I was wrong on this. And it's a lot of fun. That's our highest rated segment usually of the week where I come out and just a admit, man, I whiffed on that. So here we go. Monday, Colin right, Colin wrong. Where Colin was right? Best year I've ever had predicting playoff games. There were 10. I got 9 out of 10 right. In fact, the Patriot win yesterday was my only loss and you'd think I'd pick the Patriots. But we also went 7-2-1 against the spread. I think playoff games are harder to pick in the regular season because it's the best coaches, the best home field advantages. But they're very hard to predict. Yesterday, the home field advantage meant nothing. Previously, it meant

everything. So in the end, we were well over 60%. Best year handicapping in my career and easily the best playoff run in my career. Where Colin was wrong. I've been an Andy Reed supporter, the chief's head coach all the way back to Philadelphia, but to be great, you first got to get better. And Belichick and his staff really won the chess match yesterday. I'm not blaming Andy Reid for everything, but New England took away Tyree Hill, took away Travis Kelsey, took away the pressure, took Mahomes off the field

for an entire first half. And he's 1 in 5 in conference championship games. And again, he's faced great teams that often go on to win the Super Bowl. But boy, it felt like in that first half that the preparation of New England,

they basically, New England basically did everything they planned on doing all week. They ran, they ran Edelman, Gromk, Brady never got pressure. That was a chess match, and that chess match felt like it was over, about 45 minutes into it. Where Colin was right? Well, New England was the only team in the playoffs this weekend that scored more than their season average. We kept saying, not to be a wet blanket, but let's stop with all the belly aching about too much offense in the NFL.

Scoring came down all playoffs, as predicted. I mean, Ram Saints' first game was 45-35. This game, even with overtime was only 26, 23. We said it would be played mostly in between the 20s. And the first time New England faced Kansas City, it was big play, big play, big play, firework show. And this one was a lot of field goals early and one offense not showing up. Defense, the weather gets cold, players get hurt, defense always rises late. This is why sports leagues like the NBA and the NFL and hockey are right to make rules

very pro offense because the, The longer a season goes on, the more guys get hurt, the harder it is to score. Where Colin was wrong. I have been banging on New England's weapons the entire season, and I said coming into the playoffs, they have the worst weapons. But you know what? Route running matters, catching the ball matters, not making mental errors matters. Gronk was huge. Edelman was huge.

Can anybody take a hit like Edelman? Hogan was huge. Sony Michelle's a tremendous young running back. He's a tiny guy with a low center of gravity. It's hard to get a shot on him. James White is the best pass-catching running back in the NFL, and their offensive line is tremendous. I can say all I want that they're not dynamic,

and they're generally not, and they don't have a deep threat. But when you watch New England play, how big were the Chargers deep threats? How much did Pittsburgh's deep threats matter? In the end, football's about picking up first downs. New England's guys pick up first downs. 36 yesterday, and only one or two of those plays were dynamic. Where Colin was right?

Brady's not only the best quarterback ever, I've said, judge somebody on their impact. Michael Jordan had impact, magic had impact, LeBron's got impact. You do realize that Tom Brady's impact is so huge in the NFL that we're going to have a Tom Brady era. He's going to keep guys like Philip Rivers out of the heart. Hall of Fame. You do realize that Dan Marino and Brett Farr of are legends, and they look almost

insignificant when you now add a ninth Super Bowl appearance. We're going to have a 20-year run in the NFL that will be known as the Tom Brady era. And the minute he retires, we'll talk about, yeah, he would have won more except Tom Brady. It's not just about winning when you're a legend. it's also about who you keep from winning. Those Utah Jazz teams were great. Jordan never let him win. The Knicks were good. The Pacers were good.

And Jordan never let him won. Brady is easily the most impactful football player on the planet ever. Where Colin was wrong. I said on, I don't know what show it was last week, I thought Chris Jones, the defensive tackle for Kansas City was the football game. that if he could be disruptive to New England, Chiefs were going to win the football game. He was a complete non-factor.

D. Ford, a negative factor. Kansas City led the NFL in Sacks. I thought that this is what I thought would happen in the game. Brady would be just uncomfortable enough that New England would be off offensively. It was the opposite. It was Brady was completely comfortable from the opening series to overtime.

In fact, In overtime, Brady, I mean, it looked like a seven-on-seven drill. I was absolutely shocked by that. You know, New England won. That's not shocking. It surprised me. But the fact that the defensive line for the Chiefs put virtually no pressure at home on Brady was jaw-dropping. Where Colin was right?

Two years ago, Twitter in the Internet proclaimed the NFL is dying. And I said, oh, God. agenda from the media. NFL will be king the rest of my life. It's the sport we watch, the sport we drink beer to, have pizza to, where neighbors watch together, it's the

sport we play fantasy, it's the sport we bet on, by the way, more and more. Folks, more people watch the Pro Bowl than watch NBA playoff games not counting the conference finals. All right, this sport is rock solid and its

ability to be deft and nimble, and change rules year to year, which baseball can't, is one of its great strengths. Businesses die when they get arrogant. Give the NFL credit. They're not perfect, especially with some of their off-the-field rulings.

But in terms of their product, they address their problems, quickly and solve them, and this is the best NFL season I ever remember. Where Colin was wrong. Finally, when CBS hired Tony Roman, I said, he'll be fine, but he just played. He's never going to be a, you know, he's never been a broadcaster.

I've never heard him do a podcast. He'll be fine. Romo's been terrific, better than I ever thought. Funny, energetic, full of juice. Yesterday, he was like a wizard calling plays before they happened. Gronk is out wide. Watch the top of your screen. Watch this safety.

If he comes down, there's a good chance he's throwing out there. It's Grom for the first down. Oh, no, no. That wasn't like the only time he did it. Here's another. Kansas City's owned this so far in this game. They've got to go back to the Brady sneak or something, don't they? Oh, they're killing it.

Usually means a motion and a run out wide to the right. Here's the handoff and to the end zone. The Sony Michelle and the Patriots are back in front. Listen, Romo's always been a likable guy and a relatable. guy and the people I know that no Tony said he's a really good guy. He's been a terrific broadcaster. He's fun.

He's given Jim Nance kind of a second life. I thought that, you know, I like to give credit, not just to people at Fox because I think Buck and Aikman and our guys, Pereira and our sideline people are the best in the business. But boy, the CBS crew did

a nice job yesterday. Their analysis with all the controversial calls late was spectacular in Roma. has been an absolute home run for them. Good for the people at CBS. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app.

Search Hurd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Decade and a half in the NFL, a pro bowler and a Super Bowl ring as well. He's my friend and makes me smarter Trent Dilfer via the coward global satellite network. Let's talk about Tom Brady on the road. I mean, he brought in his pitching coach, his throwing coach, Tom House apparently in his by week. I thought the last two weeks the guy was as accurate as I've ever seen him. That throw to his

fullback, Devlin. It's a lot harder than you think it is. What did you make of his performance yesterday, Trent? I mean, it was a typical great Tom Brady performance. It was a clinic he put on, especially with the cold weather. I don't think people talking up about a California kid going to play at the

University of Michigan and now they're New England Patriots playing literally hundreds of games in brutally cold weather and the ability to pierce the ball in those conditions through the win. I thought Tony did a great job of explaining how hard those conditions are, especially going in certain directions on the field and how it affects throws. The whole Tom House thing doesn't surprise me.

I've known Tom Brady and Tom House forever, and I know their dedication to the craft. I do think it's funny that we still have archaic humans out there saying, well, throwing mechanics don't matter, and it's just a matter of making plays and all that stuff. I mean, the quarterbacking is a craft. Tom really was the pioneer of making quarterback training mainstream. Most quarterbacks, both in the pros and the college level,

now have personal quarterback coaches for this exact reason. I think it's a testament to always trying to get better. And that's Tom Brady's mantra is he's already the goat, and he still is trying to find that extra 1% any time he can to step not only on the Chief's throats, but everybody that's ever played football's throats. That's his mentality, and that's why I love him so much. How about Mahalms? What about him? You know, I thought Patrick was a victim of having to watch the game in the first half,

and that's really hard to do, especially in those conditions. It's cold, it's bitter, you get stiff on the sidelines. I thought the Patriots getting the ball first and having another one of these epic methodical drives is genius because it keeps that other team sitting over there, not just watching it happen, but their body's stiffen up, and you end up playing slower when you don't have that momentum from pregame. I think people forget that you go through a 50 minute pregame and you get your body primed to play. The NFL does a nice job of not making you wait too long from the end of pregame to the kickoff. But yet when you're when you don't get the ball first and you're on

the sidelines for an eight minute drive, that's like 30 minutes. And that's 30 minutes on top of the 20 minutes that you had to wait before. And so you've gone 50 minutes from the time that you've really warmed up and primed yourself physically and mentally to play to your first series. on the football field. So I thought he was a little bit of a victim to that. I thought he was great in the second half. I thought he is what we're going to see for the next 10, 15 years. Once in a generation type talent, creatively, incredibly intuitive, a guy that has no quitting

them, a guy that can make something out of nothing. So I know we're showing some of the bad stuff early on, but I thought the second half he was phenomenal. Yeah, it got into a rhythm. Let's go to the NFC. I said, when Jared Goff came out of college, I said his low end is Matt Ryan, his high-end is Brady, and I actually think I've seen a lot of Brady. And people are like, oh, give me a break.

But I'm like, I think you're forgetting what Brady was his first two years in the league. You saw Jared Goff at a high school or in high school, didn't you? Yeah, I think you nailed it. And when he was in high school at the Elite 11, we as a staff really made a lot of Brady comparables to him. A guy that has tremendous competitiveness, competitive fire, a guy has great mental toughness, is very precise in the intermediate type throws, the piercing type

throws, is a commanding leader, but most importantly, that that grit that he has. And that's something that not everybody understands. They don't get it. And they may think it's esoteric, but it's probably the most important part of playing quarterback. And I think he represented all of that yesterday. Overcoming what they overcame early and weathering the storm takes incredible resilience, incredible mental toughness, what their challenges were with communication and having no flow offensively and and giving the St. Short Fields. It had been really easy. And most people, most people would have sat over there on the sideline and said, oh, here we go again. You know, we're on the road. We didn't start fast. We didn't execute our game plan. This isn't going to be

our day and said they chose to make it their day. And that's kind of who Jared Gough is. He's had a lot of doubters, both in high school. He was too skinny. He wasn't strong enough. Only Cal recruited him. And then he's busted his first year at the Rams. And, He is not flinched through any of that, very much like Tom Brady. And then you see the physical traits, obviously, they have the same stature, same type of arm talent, same type of precision in their game. I think it's a great comparable. And if I think you want to be compared to somebody, I'd want to be compared to Tom Brady. I don't think Drew Breeze has played well in a month.

What did you see? No, I don't think. I didn't think he played very well yesterday. Now, again, he's one of the greatest quarterbacks that's ever played the game. So we're not making an indictment on him, the player, just on how he played yesterday. He threw the short stuff well. He made good decisions in the short intermediate stuff. He really capitalized on the linebacker, running back matchups which were in his favor.

But when the Rams adjusted and start playing more zone and took away those tight-end running-back matchups on linebackers and forced him to throw the ball into the zones, he wasn't very good. He missed some big third-down opportunities. He missed the give-mey touchdown to Thomas and ended up becoming a field goal. He throws the interception. People are going to say, well, what about the Ginn play? The Ginn play, he gets tricked on coverage. That ball should be picked 50% of the time.

And when that left his hand, I guarantee you he thought it was picked because he got fooled on the coverage and safety makes a terrible play. Ginn makes a play, gets him down there. I did not think Drew played his best football. I also didn't think they adjusted as well as the Rams. I think this, at the end of the day, I think this was the biggest thing that happened in the Rams Saints game, that Sean McVeigh and the Rams offensively. And it was because their defense kept them in it, but offensively, they made adjustments.

They went away from their game plan and went into a go play calling mode. I mean, you have go plays. You don't need to communicate the line of scrimmage. You're not going to audible. You're not going to make any adjustments. You're basically going to snap the ball and go against whatever look is there and played a high tempo. The Rams went to that with the run game and with the run action movement game. And that's what got them back into the game because they were able to make the adjustment.

The Saints didn't make as good adjustments. They were expecting a heavy dose of man, the heavy dose of five-man pressure, one-on-one coverage, and they dominated against those looks. But when Wade Phillips, one of the first times I've seen in Wade Phillips' career, adjusted and started playing softer passive zones and really add a character for what they do as a football team,

the Saints weren't able to adjust their play calling or their execution at the same level. The Rams were when the Rams had to make adjustments. Finally, I like overtime in the NFL. because I don't want my players exhausted or hurt. And statistically, the longer you play, the more tired you are, the more you get hurt. I like overtime because it creates urgency. Do you like NFL overtime?

I love it. I think it creates urgency. And it puts a premium on execution within urgent moments. And you see most often the better team, the team that has a higher level of sophistication, a higher level of intellect, a higher level of poise, win these overtime games, especially the one drive overtime games. And anybody that's whining about Kansas City not getting the chance, then what you missed was the level of excellence that the Patriots displayed in that drive.

Look at drive percentage, touchdown percentage on drives in the NFL. You don't get a touchdown on a high majority of your drives. So to be able to get it when you have one opportunity to do it, emphasizes excellence. And that's what overtime should do. It shouldn't be fair. It should emphasize excellence. It should put you in a position

to where if you are excellent, you have a chance to drop the mic and walk off. And that's what the Patriots did. And that's what any team that gets the ball first does. If you are that good, if you are that excellent, if you are that precise, if you're that poised, if you can handle that type of pressure,

that's what greatness is about in sports. And that's what the Patriots did. Always one of my favorite segments of the week, Trent Dilfer, a decade and a half. Nobody breaks it down as well, and yet he simplifies it so I always feel smarter. My friend, congrats on your new gig. We'll talk about that at a later date. And keep doing what you do, buddy. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it.

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 headline. 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 SportsSlyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicel 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, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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 Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys?

This is Cliver 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 with 42.

Hey, rep, 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. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Kunky, his best friend and business manager.

And we've got a new show called The 1021 podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.