The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 02/04/2019

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

Colin talks about how the Rams took away almost every weapon the Patriots have and Tom Brady still found a way to win.  He explains where he was right and wrong about the Super Bowl including totally whiffing on the final score.  He says Tom Brady isn't chasing anyone but instead finds motivation from something that happened a long time ago.  Plus, former Patriots coach Eric Mangini was surprised by the Rams game plan and explains to Colin what they did wrong.  Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Monday. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We are live in Los Angeles on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio,

and FS1. One hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong on the Super Bowl yesterday. Joy Taylor is joining me in a Monday. Well, Well, well, well, I feel like I've been sitting in this chair before and a Monday after the Super Bowl. Several, several times.

So the Patriots, six Super Bowl wins. Brady, in all of them, in all of his Super Bowl wins, has led the game-winning drive in the fourth or overtime, six for six. But yesterday was inartistic. Yesterday wasn't pretty. Tom wasn't great. I'm not that impressed. Wrong. I'm blown away.

I'm going to talk about a word today that's always impressed me about. A lot of Americans, a lot of people in the world, resourcefulness. The Los Angeles Rams had an incredible defensive game plan. Tom Brady, you will not be able to throw the ball deep. Chris Hogan, he'll never be open. Tom Brady loves to throw to running backs. James White won catch. They took that away.

The Rams also led the NFL this year in defending the bubble screen. That's not available. Tom Brady won a Super Bowl throw. to one guy, a 5-9 slot receiver who was a quarterback in college who looks like Santa Claus. He won a Super Bowl with that. What separates Bear Grills from me isn't the fact that he can climb a mountain. It's that he can do it with a spoon and a gum wrapper. I would need nine goats, four tents, 13 explorers, and two SUVs.

He can do it with a ball of yarn. resourcefulness. I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed with rich people's kids who go to Ivy League schools and prep schools and then have a nice job and make six figures. I'm impressed with a kid who lived through divorces,

maybe drugs in the family, some abuse, and 25 years later, they run their own company. Overcoming. Life does not give you a linear path. It's not sunny every day with no traffic. And the kids slept through the night. And You slept perfectly, and the eggs were just right.

That's not life. That's a television show. That's a script. Life is having to overcome crap. Bad bosses. Average help. Late to work. A wreck.

You got to use an app to get there. That's what life's all about. Tom Brady yesterday. I've said this about LeBron James. The most impressed I've ever been with LeBron James in my life wasn't winning with the great Kyrie Irving. wasn't winning with Chris Bosch and the great D. Wade. When LeBron James lost Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving

and took the Golden State Warriors six games in the finals, and the best, most reliable teammate he had was Matthew Delavadova. And he took the Warriors six games with Matthew Delavadova. Are you kidding me? There's never been a basketball player including Michael Jordan, Kareem, Magic Kobe, Larry, MJ, that could take Matthew Delavad. Dova and get six games into the finals.

Overcoming stuff blows me away. That's why Hollywood makes movies about rags to riches, about people that don't get perfectly what they want. Yesterday, the game-winning drive, I read a story this morning that essentially with nine minutes to go in the game, Josh McDaniels went to the sideline, the Patriot offensive coordinator and said, I'm scrapping the game plan. Nothing's working. We're going to do something.

and we haven't practiced this in months. We're going to huddle every play. We're going to use two tight ends and a fullback and Mike Devlin and have an empty backfield. And they huddled every play because they hadn't practiced it. And they averaged on that drive 12 yards of play. The rest of the game they average four. By the way, I'm not saying last year's Super Bowl wasn't impressive for Tom,

who threw for 500 yards and everything worked. And Danny Amandola was open. and Edelman was open and Chris Hogan was open and I'm not saying that wasn't impressive. But what was impressive yesterday is the Rams took virtually everything away except Julian Edelman. And I love Patrick Mahomes and I love Russell Wilson and I love Andrew Luck and I love Aaron Rogers. They're all amazing. Those guys aren't winning a Super Bowl with Julian Edelman. Are you kidding me?

They didn't have a deep threat. They couldn't sort of running backs. Their running game was spotty. Chris Hogan was blanketed. Brady faced interior pressure. The Rams had an unbelievable game plan. And Brady with a 71 quarterback passer rating won. By the way, let me tell you the quarterbacks who have been able to win Super Bowls

when they didn't play great. Terry Bradshaw, 96 passing yards won a Super Bowl. John Elway, 51.9 passer rating won a Super Bowl. Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl with a passer rating of 56. Big Ben won a Super Bowl with a passer rating of 22. And Tom Brady yesterday won with a 71. What are they all of in common? They're Hall of Fame-level players.

Most quarterbacks in this league, Kirk Cousins, guys I like, Alex Smith, they need a lot of stuff to work for them to win big games. Nothing work for New England except Edelman. We're spoiled. We've had so many good Super Bowls in a row. that if it's not a firework show, if it doesn't go to overtime, if it's not 35, 34, oh, who cares? Yesterday was all about great defensive game plans, great defensive pass rush, great secondary play.

Defenses were unbelievable yesterday. Wade Phillips, tip of the cap, Belichick, Brian Flores, tip of the cap. But one player on offense was able to overcome that, scrap the game plan, be resourceful using just Julian Edelman and win the Super Bowl. Tom Brady. I'm sorry. Be impressed with a rich family's kid who has a nice, clean path to success.

I like people who get crapped on. I like people who overcome. Brady yesterday, it didn't feel good in the moment. He's probably bummed out in the moment. He'll look back 25 years. from now and go, how the hell did we beat that Rams team? I'm asking it this morning. I want to shift to this.

Great to have you in a Monday, really is. Great to have you in. I want to talk a bit about Julian Edelman because there's five or six patriots that create the core of their team, Gronk and Brady and Edelman, Devin McCordy, Dante High Tower, Shaq Mason. And not all of them are high paid, most are paid below kind of market value. they are the core of the team. And I'm all for free agents and I'm all for trades.

But realize when you get somebody via a trade or free agency, they often come to your team wanting something. Kevin Durant came to the Warriors wanting to elevate his legacy. Okay. The Warriors core is Steph Clay and Draymond. you don't hear a lot of talk about them wanting to leave. Kevin Durant walks into a perfect situation, and every time I open a sports page,

every time I read a blog, he's not totally satisfied because Kevin Durant came there with an agenda, came there wanting things. Steph Curry invited him and gave him things, gave him the ball, let him take the big shots, gave him more minutes, more fame, more headlines.

I tell my kids this all the time. There are very few people that will jump in front of a car and give their life for you. And there's a word for those people called family. And you can go get free agents and you can get stars. But who's there for you? The core of the Patriots is defined by Edelman. precise, tough as a cheap steak, plays hurt, imperfect, seventh rounder, never seeks attention, never demands the ball. I'm not saying stars don't have a place.

And I'm not saying free agents don't have a place. NFL free agency? I mean, they're trying to get more like NBA free agency, which is awesome. But when LeBron went to Miami, DeWain Wade's family. LeBron James was just really talented and rented. Chris Bosch was really talented. Udana's Haslam's family. Steff is family.

Edelman's family. Hightower's family. Gronk is family. Brady's family. Josh McDaniels now. He left for a while. He came back. He missed his family.

Is that when I watched that game yesterday, what really, really sticks with me is that, and it's not, Edelman's story is not just about, that he's, you know, a seventh rounder. And, but, but I go back to something I've always believed in sports, that sports are similar to like a house. You have a foundation and then you build the house, but when you drive down the street and you see a house being built, it all starts with the foundation. They don't build the roof first.

They don't build the kitchen first. They build the foundation. And then people come in from the county or the state, and if the foundation's not right, you can't build the house. Your foundation is who you draft. There's an old saying in sports, nobody loves you more than the team that drafts you. The Orlando Magic loved Dwight Howard.

Everybody else just saw him as a means to an end. Edelman, Steph Curry, they define their current dynasties. Drafted by them, mentored by them, coached by them, loved by them, willing to give.

Because when you're in the family, you'll step in front of that car for another family member. As much as you say you like your neighbors, as much as you say you like your friends, much as you say you like your college professor, your buddy, you wouldn't step in front of a car for him.

Edelman, Steph Curry, That's what you build around. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last year, one punt yesterday. Most of you wanted to punt the Super Bowl. But I will say this. LeBron James, middle of the third quarter, had a tweet.

And it was, man, where Shams, Woj, Haynes, McMahon? Those are NBA reporters. He was looking for something interesting, like an NBA story because, you know, the NFL, the Super Bowl was boring. And I wanted to tweet back, weren't you in the finals that was a sweep? Wasn't the World Series a total mismatch, Red Sox 1 in 5? Wasn't the college football national championship game decided by 30 points? The Rams and the Patriots were tied at 3 with a minute 16 to go or something? I mean, how much time would it go was 3 to 3 in the fourth quarter?

Yeah, it was early 4th. It was 3. It was a one possession game late. There was no fumbles, at least none recovered. There were not a lot of drop passes. Only 12 penalties. New England only had three. Defense was blowing stuff up.

Listen, the Super Bowl is where my wife watches. It's where fringe fans watch and they come in and they think they're going to get this wild showcase. Most Super Bowls, in fact, there was a period in the 80s. We went through about a 10-year period where eight of them were atrocious. Like Dallas would beat Buffalo by 40. Yesterday we had a tie football game in the fourth quarter. I'm okay with that. Now, it wasn't the most artistic, but I mean, you know, it's just like it wasn't a headline Super Bowl.

Last year was full of headlines. This was not a headline Super Bowl, but it was close and it was competitive. The World Series was unwatchable. It was a blowout. It was a mismatch. I mean, the NBA finals, after game one, the remaining three games were unwatchable. College Football National Champions. it was a blowout.

Yukon women's basketball. That dynasty's mostly been blowouts. We had a tie game in the fourth quarter. And, you know, it's just like, like most millionaires in America are not tech millionaires. Most of them have paid off their house. It's a husband and wife that both work and they have both healthy 401Ks. But that doesn't make headlines.

But that's 75% of American millionaires. They've paid off their house. They've paid off their cars. And they both have a 401k. And they're millionaires. They have about a million and a half net worth. They're not working at, you know, Facebook. They're not like 27-year-old Elon Musk genius-level dudes.

That's not really, that gets the headline. So I looked at yesterday, and I think defense wins a lot more than we think in sports. Pitching in baseball wins championships. Home run hitters do not win World Series. Who wins World Series of the Red Sox and they're pitching, the year before the Astros and they're pitching. Pitching is defense. Michael Jordan's Bulls were not the most gifted offensive team.

Michael Jordan's Bulls were the greatest defensive team I've ever seen. Both of our college football dynasties are based on defense. So do you know every single Super Bowl, New England is won. All six of them, their defense has been ranked no lower than eighth. New England wins these Super Bowls when they come into a Super Bowl and they're efficient offensively. They always are, but they're very good defensively, which when they win, they always are.

So I think the defense, you know, I've said a couple of things about Brady's legacy. He's almost always had good offensive lines. Dan Marino didn't. John Elway didn't. Brady's always had good offensive lines, but those don't make headlines. And the second thing, their defense is always better than we give him credit for. It is generally a bend, not break defense. Yesterday, New England's defense, hyper-aggressive.

They blitz statistically 50% of the time. Jared Koff could not get his feet under him. This is not a headline Super Bowl. This is not one of those eight or nine, you know, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Big Bend of San Antonio Holmes. This was all about defense. So was the World Series. So is our college football dynasties. And that's okay, too.

I'm not a fringe fan. I'm not somebody that just walks in for the Super Bowl. Joy is not a fringe fan. We watch these games all weekend. So when you watch them all weekend, I like. Otherwise, we'd have the Canadian Football League down here. I'm okay with, I'm okay. When Pittsburgh beat New England earlier this year, it was like, what was a score?

Like 1310. Did Pittsburgh celebrate any less? It's okay. Not everything has to be Rams, Kansas City at the Coliseum. I'm okay with that. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekday, at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. I always tell you when I'm right, because I know that most of my listeners listen once or twice a week.

So I remind you when we're right. But it's also important on Mondays to say, listen, we whiffed on a bunch of stuff too. So here we go on a Monday after the Patriot Super Bowl win. Colin right, Colin wrong. Where Colin was right? We had a great playoff run. There were 11 playoff games. We picked 10 right.

That'll never happen again. I mean, I pay attention to this stuff. care. The only game I miss was the Chiefs losing to the Patriots, and even that was in overtime. You know, the Super Bowl to me, and I bet just a little on it, it really turned out the way I thought. I said, if Todd Gurley is not a factor, and that means like 10 carries, not 18, then I just don't think the Rams can win. And very early in this game, late in the first quarter, I felt like Gurley is not a factor. and even though there wasn't any scoring, I did feel like the game was turning out to be a New England game.

So 11 playoff games, we picked 10 of them straight up, and we feel good about that. Where Colin was wrong. I did think yesterday we were going to have a lot of offense. I was shocked at the Patriots pass rush. Four sacks, 12 quarterback hits. They devoured the Rams offensive front. I was blown away by the Patriots pass rush.

And I'll tell you this, the Rams defense was money. I've never seen Tom Brady. Can't even find open running backs to throw to. They reduced Tom Brady to find Julian Edelman, hurry up, and get rid of the ball. The game was a complete defensive classic. I thought the teams would be like last year by the end of the year. The refs would let stuff go. You'd have a lot of big plays, and it was just not the case at all.

Where Colin was right? I did predict that Julian Edelman would have a day. I said a non-quarterback is going to win MVP here. And I'll say it again, whenever I read these lists of top 10 players in the Super Bowl, and I saw one this week, I had Edelman at 8, and I thought, how do you not put him top 10? Some people don't have him top 15. He is so productive.

He is the quickest player on the field yesterday. Now, I'm not saying the fastest. I'm not saying the tallest or the strongest. But in the NFL these days, the bubble screen and the short slot pass is every bit as big as the home run ball. So what I'm saying is quick is now as important as fast. It used to be it was a fast league. Now it's a quick league. And if you don't consider Edelman to be a great NFL player, I can't help you.

because he was turning Marcus Peters, Akeed to leave, like real players in circles. He wasn't just open. He was wide open all day. Where Colin was wrong. Jared Gough was not sharp. Now, a lot of this is he just didn't have time to step into anything. But Gough looked rattled. He looked nervous during the anthem.

And I thought he would be better here simply because I didn't think he had a lot of awareness either. He got pop going out of bounds. It's like, Jared, get down. get out of bounds. Listen, it's just one of those things, is that these young quarterbacks, I think were just unfair. We expect them to walk into these massive games

when they don't have a Todd Gurley and they don't have Cooper Cup. And we expect them to just be money. And listen, he looked a little overwhelmed. And he didn't have Todd Gurley, and he didn't have time to throw, and he didn't have Cooper Cup after week nine. And he's never quite been the same.

I thought he would be a little sharper. I thought a couple of his balls fluttered. I thought he missed a couple wide open receivers, didn't see him. I thought he'd play better. But again, a lot of this is their own line. Where Colin was right? Set all year. Stop hyperventilating.

Come December, come January, defense is going to matter. September and October, fool us every year. The weather's great. The stars are healthy. But here's what happens over the course of the season. Your running backs get hit more. Todd Gurley gets hurt more. Your wide receivers get hurt.

Who's getting tackled in football? Offensive players. You start getting tackled for three and four months. You're not healthy. Offenses slow down. Players don't have the zip. The running backs don't have the burst. They're not as dynamic.

And frankly, defensive coaches have seen your entire playbook by November, and you're not fooling them like you are in September and October. Andy Reid's stuff historically has been great early and struggled a bit more late because all the new stuff he introduces, people catch up to it a little bit. And if you look at these NFL playoff games, almost to a playoff game, defense was the key. Almost to a game, defense won the game. Where Colin was wrong.

I said going in, Wade Phillips worried me. Is that the young, sharp Sean McVeigh, 71-year-old Wade Phillips, I know he's wearing his dad's cowboy hat in the jacket and that's cool and everything, but I thought, is he just going to look like an old-timer? I thought he was the coach of the game. I thought Wade Phillips was unbelievable. I mean, I've never seen Brady that handcuffed. They had nothing.

First ball was intercepted. Brady, they literally had to shelf their entire offense at the nine-minute mark in the fourth quarter. New England went to the sidelines and said, nothing is working. So we're going to create an offense and a set of two tight ends in Rex Burkhead and huddle and empty backfield. I mean, Wade Phillips, to me, was the star for the Rams. Not a player. He was the star of the Super Bowl for the L.A. Rams. And I thought potentially he could be a liability.

Where Colin was right? I said, listen, everybody's falling in love with young coaches. Everybody thinks Sean McVeigh is this and that. I'll go back. I said, next year, I think Philadelphia is the best team in the NFC. Philadelphia. Doug Peterson's not a kid. GM Howie Roseman's not a kid.

Philadelphia out-coached New England. Okay, the Rams got. outcoached. I said before the Super Bowl, my pick for next year in the NFC is not the Rams. It's the Eagles. Philadelphia, by the way, should have beaten New Orleans, but they, you know, we're missing nine starters that everybody, everybody has anointed the Rams stars. And I said, no, Philadelphia is the team to watch out for next year. And what Philadelphia did last year out-coached New England, the opposite happened. The young offensive. coach for the Rams got out coached.

By the way, how'd you like to be Cincinnati today? You got the Rams quarterback coach. How did that work out yesterday? Where Colin was wrong. It's not that I don't like Gronk, but I've been saying all year, he's done. And you know what? He was great against the Chiefs, and he came out with the biggest play yesterday. And he's also become a very good blocker.

He had the last two games he had 18 targets. It's almost like the Patriots knew they were saving him until they really needed him. And it's not, I mean, Gronk's a great player, but he's always been a little goofy for me. He's always been a little silly for me. But you know what? He's matured nicely. After the game, he's like, I don't want to talk about my retirement. This is about the team.

And for a guy that walked into this game and was a goofball, he became a great blocker, a tremendous big game player. And this year was really. special. He didn't do anything all year. It's as if the Patriots knew he had about three, two, three big games left in him. I suspect, my guess is he will retire in about 10 days to two weeks. It's a good tight-end draft. The Patriots have 12 picks, six in the first three rounds. They will definitely draft, no question, a tight-in. Want more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, days a week within the IHeart Radio app.

Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. 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,

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and 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.

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Search learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. 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 guy, this linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Come on. Quarterback on office, Blue, 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramers sending on the Army Stewart for Chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Bo. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Polic.

I'm not worried about Balligan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the United. the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially

a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, inside American soccer with Tom Bogart and Tab Ramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, wherever you get your podcast. I think a lot of times, we, you know, We think that, you know, Kobe Bryant was good because he was chasing Michael Jordan or LeBron's good because he's chasing Michael Jordan or Michael Jordan's good because he's chasing Magic Johnson. I think a lot of that stuff is just hooey.

I think it all comes down to powerful childhood experiences. And when you're young, pre 25 years old, there's not a lot of data. You're young. Not a lot of has happened to you. by this point in my life i've been hired i've moved i've had kids i've been divorced has a lot of stuff packed into my life but when you're 12 13 14 15 years old and the prettiest girl in school says i'm not interested and you ask her out to the prom and she says no you don't have a lot of data that that puppy sticks and when your high school coach doesn't pick you to make the varsity that never goes away

it sticks because you don't have a lot to clutter up your mind and i'll give you two examples i don't think Brady's chasing anything and I don't think Jordan ever chased anything. They had unique childhood experiences where they worked really hard and somebody told them, no, you're not good enough. And I think it lasts forever. Here's Tom Brady after winning three Super Bowls, married to a supermodel, 500 million net worth, beautiful kids after winning, talks about draft day. and look how deep and powerful it is.

It was hard. I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block. It was just a tough day, you know. I just remember being there with my mom and dad. You know, they just were so supportive of me. And they take it as emotional as I do. Finally, when the Patriots called, I was so excited. You know, I was like, I don't have to be an insurance salesman.

But again, he's not chasing money. He's not chasing Peyton Manning. He's not chasing Joe Montana. He's proving people wrong. That gets you up every morning. Michael Jordan similarly. It wasn't about the pistons. It wasn't about magic.

It wasn't about the money for Michael. He tells a story during his Hall of Fame speech. And then there's Lerawr Smith. Now, you got to think that's a myth. Lerahua Smith was a guy when I got cut, he made the team on the varsity team. And he's here tonight. He's still the same. six, seven guy. He's not any bigger.

He's probably, his game is about the same. But he started the whole process for me because when he made the team and I didn't, I wanted to prove not just to Leroy Smith, not just to myself, but to the coach who actually picked Leroy over me. I wanted to make sure you understood, you made a mistake, dude. That stuff is deep and you're not overly cluttered in high school. And you don't have a lot of life experiences. So when you have a negative one at 16, or a negative one,

at 20. Man, it's up to... It's your whole world. It's your whole world and that stuff stays with you forever. I mean, it sounds a bit comical when you listen to it. It's like, dude, get over it. But the reality is, none of us do. We all have something that happened to us that moment where everything just shifted. And that's where you make a decision if you're going to let that drive you or consume you and or a mixture of both of it towards something positive or negative. You know what it is? it's the fear of that feeling that they had when they didn't make the team or that feeling that he had when he wasn't getting drafted coming back again. So it drives you every day to not experience that again. About 10 years ago, there was a 60-minute story with Larry Ellison who runs Oracle. Oracle's a massive Silicon Valley company. He's a billionaire. And he was talking about his childhood and nobody believed in him and his stepdad didn't believe in him. And he stopped and he said to the reporter, he goes, I had all the things necessary to be a billionaire. Nobody. believed in me. And you can go up

in Wall Street and Silicon Valley and our presidents and no, you can't do this. You'll never be able to do this. Michael Jordan and Brady, the two greatest team sport athletes of all time. It's a high school experience. It's a college

drafting experience that drives them not chasing money, fame, or all-time greats. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHard Radio app. Well, I don't think there's anybody that knows more about the Patriots and how they're run

that's not currently on their staff than my friend Eric Mangini. He was their defensive coordinator back 2005, Jets Brown's head coach, joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. First of all, just from your worldview, the actual game, what wrap a bow around what really impressed you? What really impressed me, look, when I heard Andrew Whitworth talk about the game afterwards, where he said that the Patriots played more zone than the man that they had been playing all season, to me that told me a lot about the Rams approach and where they went wrong.

It's not about how the Patriots played anybody else. It's not about their tendencies over a 16 or 18 game breakdown. It's about how they're going to play you. And to me, you've got to look at your weaknesses. You've got to look at your strengths to be able to anticipate what you're going to get. And that summarized where the Rams went wrong. That one quote to me summarized where the Rams made a mistake. Yeah, I mean, I really felt, I'll just throw this out there.

I felt New England believed if they mixed up coverages and created a little pressure, they saw golf as a weakness due to his lack of experience. When I watched the whole game, I thought it was built around, we're going to confuse Jared Goff, we're going to blitz more than usual. That's what my interpretation was. They take away your strengths in New England, and they also feast on your weaknesses, and they probably felt, in my opinion, that golf was kind of a weakness going in. Does that sound right? That was, to me, that's absolutely right. They had a loaded box.

They played borderline, goal line defense. Yeah. said Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson are not going to beat us, and golf is going to have to. And then when he did get step back to throw, they were going to mix in enough pressure so that he was uncomfortable. And even if it was just a function of someone putting their hand on his shoulder so that he knew that they were close, that's what they were going to do. And they were going to force him to make post-snap reads. Now, the other thing that I was surprised by is offensively you control the tempo. You control personnel.

you control shifts, motions, formations. I thought they'd do more to try to take back control of the game to New England. Instead of letting New England dictate what they wanted to do, you've got that control offensively. Use it. Attack their weaknesses. Go some no huddle. See whether or not the change of tempo can affect things.

And I just, I didn't see that at any point. No, I think GERLY, excuse me, I think McVeigh has created an interesting culture and the players buy into it, but there have been instances now. I've seen it against New England and Philadelphia. Two staffs, I think, are very good. When they've thrown wrinkles at McVeigh's offense, they have not been great at in-game adapting.

Now, I want to go to Julian Edelman. Why was he so, it's not just, Eric, that he was good. He was so darn open. Why? Why? I mean, they did a really good job. They put some pressure on Tom. They took away the deep ball.

They took away the running back, the pastor running backs very effectively. Whatever they did with Edelman didn't work. Why was he so open? Because New England does a great job of gathering information pre-snap. And then collectively, they understand what coverage you're in. And then based off the coverage that you're in, there's certain weaknesses that are inherent in those coverages. And there's certain leverages that go with each coverage. So Edelman can run.

Reed routes or even if he has a designated outside breaking route, he's going to threaten hard to the inside and attack leverage, threaten leverage, and be able to break away. And he's got such good short area quickness and he does such a great job of stemming the route and selling something different right up until the break point. And then when he does break, there's an incredible amount of separation. We saw four, five, six, seven yards between him and the defensive back because of the pre-snap breed and then the way that he attacks leverage and then his ability to come out of the brakes at the top of the routes some have suggested we could rename the lombardi trophy the

bala check i'll just say this is it harder could you make an argument what bill's doing is harder today than what lombardy did i absolutely think you can make an argument for that there's free agency everything is designed for parity uh the draft you move to the back of the drafts You're constantly in a state of flux. Your schedule is harder when you win. It's all built to make sure that there's a strong middle class and that everybody at the end of the year has a chance to make the playoffs. It's not like he's been able to hang on to his great players.

The Bill's done a tremendous job of being ruthlessly efficient, the way he moved on from whether it was Seymour or Vrable or lawyer Malloy or take your pick of any of those guys and making those tough decisions that you have to make. Yeah, plus the salary cap, that, you know, I mean, let's be honest, you just can't keep players. I mean, yeah, but, yes, it's, every year you've got to start over. You know, the Todd Gurley situation,

Joey and I have talked about this. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of sports topics. I can't figure it out. You know, it's like, where is he hurt? He doesn't look like he cuts as much as he did earlier in the year. But he plays, he's got some ability to pop. What do you make of the girly situation? Did they overuse him, Eric, in October and September?

Because, you know, the Rams are very top-heavy. They don't have a ton of depth. They didn't until C.J. Anderson have a second back they trusted. Is it possible they overused him early and he's just banged up? Well, there's a couple different concerns here. Obviously, he was very effective against Dallas. He averred 7.2 yards of carry in that game. So let's say he has hurt.

Well, that's a problem because there's a lot of people that, that place bets on this game, and if he was hurt and they told him he was healthy, you know, that's one problem. Let's say he's not hurt. If he's not hurt, then he's a guy that comes up small in big games. So he's okay in the regular season, but in the big moments, you can't count on him. And I think that's a really dangerous narrative. So you're going to have to get the truth out there because neither one of these looks very good for the Rams or for Todd Gurley.

Now, all that being said, his effectiveness at 15 and 20 carries is impressive. Why not give yourself a chance to see whether or not that tendency holds? Why not make sure that he gets at least 15 carries or gets at least 20 carries? And see whether or not what has happened the majority of the time continues to happen or whether or not it gets broken. But to go into the offseason, not knowing and giving the guy 10 carries, I can't imagine Anybody's happy about that? You know, I said this was the most impressive New England Super Bowl to me, and here's why.

You had an off-field controversy. You had the Josh Gordon situation. Edelman was suspended. You didn't really have a deep threat. The AFC with the Chiefs and the Chargers is, you know, you have a lot of young quarterbacks who are very good. I kind of felt like with 12 draft picks coming up, your number one pick, the lineman from Georgia got hurt. I kind of felt like this was the year to get New England. England and they were incredibly resourceful this year. I think next year they're going to be younger.

I think Gronk retires. They have 12 draft picks. I think they're going to be a little more dynamic offensively. Gronk will give them a little cap relief. That's how I feel going into next year that this was a down year and it was the most impressive Super Bowl to me. What was your takeaway on the season in full? Yeah, well, I disagree with being the most impressive Super Bowl. I think the first one where we were 14-point underdogs against the greatest show on turf was a little bit more impressive. And I may be biased. But yeah, the amount of things that they had to deal with. But that's every year for New England.

And I don't know if you heard Bill's pre-game interview, but he talked about the fact that each year is its own entity. And each year you go into the season with who you would like to be. But then the reality sets in of who you need to be. And New England does the best job of understand. who they need to be, who they are, and then really pouring resources into strengthening that, and pouring resources into minimizing whatever weaknesses that shapes up into. And it's hard.

It's hard. It takes a brutal honesty on the part of the coaching staff, and then a humbleness to say, yeah, we were wrong. We were on the wrong track, and we need to pivot. And you see it every year. Typically, they don't start as well, but they finish strong, and they keep getting better and better because of that self-awareness that so many other teams either don't have or are too arrogant to accept. Good seeing you, my man. Eric Mangini, you have a nice off-season.

We'll bring you around here. Why don't you stop by in L.A. We'll take out for a nice steak and you do some draft stuff for us. I'd love to see you soon. All right. I'd love to be out there. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

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