The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 09/14/2018

Episode Date: September 14, 2018

Colin says that this weekend's Packers/Vikings game is the biggest of Kirk Cousin's career because the Vikings signed him so they could could beat Aaron Rodgers. He realizes he thought he liked Dak Prescott a lot more than he actually does. Plus, former Pro Bowl WR TJ Houshmandzadeh comes in studio to talk about how good the Bengals actually are and why the Vikings will beat the Packers regardless of if Aaron Rodgers plays or not. 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 herd 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 Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeartRadio app by searching Herd.

This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is The Herd. Wherever you may be. However, you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. New graphics, new set. This is our best show of the week. Blazing 5 in one hour from now, Joy Taylor.

a winning week. Very excited. My strongest plays of the week in pro football in one hour from now. Good morning. Good morning. I've struggled through the years in week one. I had a winning week, week one. I love my peaks week two. It is great to have you here today. And there's two things. This one thing I try to do in this business, as a fan, be emotional. As a human being, as a father or as a dad, show emotion, laugh a lot, cry a lot. But as a sports, I try to take the emotion out of it. Oh, there's no crying in sports casting. Can't.

Because the more emotional I am, the less accurate I am. And you don't want some raving lunatic on the air. You turn to me and you want me to give you the straight skinny. So I want to tell you a story. Tuesday was the anniversary of 9-11, the darkest day in my life in American history, and for many Americans. I watch all these documentaries. I get very sad.

I get very emotional. And I was reading a story a couple of days ago where an NFL scout. An older NFL scout loved his country, and he had to do a job on 9-11, the week of 9-11. He had to go scout. And it was a rough time in America back then. We were very sad. The city of New York had been attacked. We lost friends.

We were under attack. And it was tough. Back then we weren't as divided. We loved each other that day. And the scout said he always tried to take emotion out of scouting. But he had to work that week. And he just wasn't in a good place emotionally. And he went and scouted, and he went and scouted a kid named Marcus Truffant,

very nice player for the Washington State Cougars. But he said, when he looked at all the players he scouted in college football, he gave Marcus Truffant the highest grade. Now, he was a good player. But all the players he scouted, best player in the country, he played at Washington State. And he said, I love that kid, but emotion probably played a part in that grade. So when I look at the early weeks of the NFL,

what I see is fans in media getting really, really emotional. Dallas Cowboy fans, season over! Dak Prescott can't play in San Francisco. Jimmy G had three sacks. We paid all this money for Jimmy G. And I'm watching Oakland, John Gruden. Oh, my Lord, it's the... Baltimore lost last night.

It was a standalone game. It was the only game on TV. Don't overreact to it. You're overreacting to how good you think the bears are. They're not. They're going to lose at home to Seattle. You're overreacting to Sunday night games and Monday night games and Thursday night games. Folks, Baltimore, short week, on the road, division rival against the veteran defense of star players.

You look at the stats from that game last night. First downs. Baltimore had more first downs. Total yards. Baltimore had more. Yards per play even. Third down percentage. Baltimore was better.

whoops, they had three turnovers. Why? Because Joe Flacko's dealing with two rookie tight ends and three brand new receivers. They're all these new shiny toys and they're not ready yet to go into Cincinnati and beat a team that has Carlos Dunlop and Gino Atkins, like pro bowlers on the defensive side in their home opener. Baltimore's next four games, Denver at home, get to play the Browns, Tennessee at home, they're going to be fine. Baltimore's a really good football team.

Forget this. When you put emotion in sports, you become less accurate. College football fans forget it because half college football fans went to the university, have a plaque on their wall, try to talk to an Ohio State Buckeye fan or an Alabama fan or an Oklahoma fan during a game. You know, it's absurd. NFL fans didn't go to the University of Philadelphia Eagles. At least you can talk some sense. Stand-alone game, Baltimore on the road, five new targets for Flacco. they outplayed Cincinnati for long spots. It's turned the ball over. They're not going to be throwing, having all those turnovers later in the year.

Never forget the final four teams in the NFL last year were the Jags in New England and the AFC and then Philadelphia and Minnesota in the NFC. They were all one-in-one after two weeks, and they were not only one-in-one after two weeks, three of the four teams, including the Patriots lost to the Chiefs, Three of the four had a horrible loss in the first two weeks. Looked ugly in the first two weeks.

The more emotion you allow in your sports, the less accurate you become. Baltimore's fine. Two rookie tight ends. Three new receivers. Flacco looks sloppy. Inaccurate, overthrows. They're going to be okay. Baltimore's a good football team.

I want to shift to this. My favorite game this weekend, In Minnesota Vikings, better roster, better team, better defense. Kirk Cousins goes to Green Bay and faces the Packers. Minnesota should win this game. Minnesota's got the significantly better roster. They're healthier. Aaron Rogers has not practiced this week.

His best receiver, Devante Adams, has not practiced this week. Minnesota's loaded and they're healthier. And they're better virtually every position. During this past off season, Minnesota had Teddy Bridgewater, and they traded him away. And Teddy Bridgewater can play. And they were 13 and 3 with Case Keenham. And they let Case Keenham go to Denver. And they paid Kirk Cousins like $28, $29, $30 million a year.

And they paid him for this game. Go to Green Bay. We'll give you the better roster. We'll give you the better defense. And beat Aaron Rogers. They did not pay Kirk Cousins to beat Mitch Trabisky at home. That's a given with this roster. Kirk Cousins got that money for this game.

This is it. The Redskins front office, they liked Kirk Cousins. But the reason they wouldn't pay Kirk Cousins was because of two games. And do you remember those two moments? They were defining moments, and they're the reason they wouldn't pony up the dough. The first game, they went to the playoffs, 2015. They hosted Green Bay with Aaron Rogers. And they lost 35 to 18.

They were one for four in the red zone. They couldn't sustain drives. They had to settle for a bunch of field goals. And Kirk Cousins, next to Aaron Rogers, looked really second tier. The second game that Kirk Cousins played, that in the eyes of the Washington front office, they could not give them big money. 2016.

They're at home. Week 17 playing the Giants. The Giants had already secured a playoff spot. That was the boat year. Remember the boat year? OBJ. So the Giants were in the playoffs, had nothing to really play for.

Eli played, but they had no motivation. Washington had to win the game to get in, at home against the New York Giants. And do you remember that game? Kirk Cousins, one TD, two picks, 74 pass-a rating. Awful. through a huge interception late.

In Washington's front office, those two moments, those two games, Aaron Rogers at home playoffs, giants with nothing to play for at home, and he kind of laid an egg, couldn't finish off drives, couldn't get it done in the red zone. This weekend, Minnesota goes to Green Bay. Minnesota has a significantly better roster. You can make an argument and you wouldn't get much pushback from me. It's the best overall roster in the NFL. And there is no doubt.

It is a significantly better defense. Aaron Rogers is not at 100%. I'm told he will play. Devante Adams, his best receiver, has not practiced. If you don't beat them now in Green Bay Lambo, you're not beating them. And that's why they pay to the big money. So Kirk Cousins, you know, you just think to your son, it's just week two. It's no big deal.

This is the moment. And you're 0 for two in those moments. Listen, we're not talking about October. No, these are the moments. Playoffs, week 17, get into the playoffs. Finally face Aaron Rogers, who, by the way, if you face him eight, ten more times, probably he'll have practiced every single week you play him. This is the week he hasn't practiced.

This is the week his best receiver hasn't practiced. Can't wait. Cannot wait. 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. So I'm sitting there and, you know, I've done this with weddings where you sit down, you do it with parties or you do it with weddings, you have minimum space. and so who you think you're going to invite to a wedding or you think you're going to invite to a party and all of a sudden you have to put pen on paper and write it down

because you only have limited space, right? So many seats in the church, some people, you can get into the church and some people they just get to the reception. And you start putting down cousins, relatives, really close friends, and all of a sudden you're like, wow, you're not inviting people that you really like. And so I've done this my entire, life. And I've talked about this. I get a yellow pad and a pen whenever I have to make big decisions.

I want to see exactly my list, my thought. Every time I've moved cross country six times. Every time I've done a pros, a cons list on a yellow sheet of paper. I want to see it. It's one thing to talk about it and imagine it. I want to see it. So you know I like Dak Prescott. Cowboys hosting the Giants. I actually like the Giants a little bit in this game. And I've always been a supporter of Dak, well, since week six of his rookie year when he played great in Green Bay. And my mind, as always said, he's middle of the pack. But so last night, I thought, no, no, no, no, I'm going to do this like I do weddings or parties. Not what I think, not what my imagery is. I'm going to grab a pen and I'm going to get a piece of paper. How good is

Dak in my mind? Okay. So, and I think about everything here. I do think who your coaches matter. For instance, I like Jimmy Garoppolo, but I really like him with Kodak. Isle Shanahan. Well, they're going to be together in a relationship for the next five years. So it's a joint deal. Same with Jared Goff. I like Jared Goff. I really like him with Todd Gurley and Sean McVey.

So I have him graded higher because of that. So here is my pen to paper and here's what's fascinating about Dak Prescott. And I hate like rating quarterbacks. But here we go. Brady's my number one. And Aaron's my number two and Bree's my number three. Precision League, the precision quarterbacks. And then I have Carson Wentz, who I think is the next great quarterback at four.

Russell Wilson loved him for years. Battle line still wins. Five. Andrew Luck. Big Ben's not as precise as I love. Matt Ryan, Jimmy Galavro, Derek Carr, Phillip Rivers. Cam Newton, about 12. Jared Goff.

Matt Stafford liked more than this, but I don't like his coaching staff 14. Deshawn Watson, 15. I'd just like to see more Deshawn Watson. Here's what happens. Kirk Cousin's 16th. I'm still not to DAC. Alex Smith, Andy Dalton, Joe Flack. I get to DAC Prescott at 20 and remember this.

I'm not counting Patrick Mahomes because I got two starts. Can we have like a minimum three start rule? Patrick Mahomes is absolutely more talented the Dak Prescott. That is not the better armed talent, better athlete. And I think he's got a better play caller and better talent around him. So I had DAC at 20 and I'm not counting Mahomes, nor am I counting Sam Donald, who I think is significantly more talented that Dak Prescott, but I'm not going to count a guy after one NFL start.

So if you go minimum three starts, I have DAC at 20. If I didn't do a minimum, I think I'd have him at 23. And that's not middle of a pack. So I like him, but I've done this with weddings and I've done it with parties. This is why I get the yellow pad out that I write stuff down. And by the way, I don't think, Joe Flacco is miles better than Dack. There's things about Dack like mobility that I like more than I do about Joe Flacco.

I don't think Andy Dalton is miles better than Dack, but he's better. You saw him last night. He's got a go-to receiver A.J. Green. They have a great symmetry. That's where I've got him. And I'm not counting rookies and Sam Darnal is better. And I'm not counting Patrick Mahomes and Patrick Mahomes is better. So you know what?

Dak Prescott is when I really get down to pen on paper. He just gets invited to the reception. He's the guy you invite to the reception. He doesn't get a wedding invitation. So this week he faces the Giants who have a better defensive personnel than the Dallas Cowboys. And my takeaway is Dach's O-1-2. And I like Dak. I don't love him.

Never loved him. I didn't really like him at all out of college. But it is interesting when you put paper and pencil together and you have to look at it. And you put it down and you make a list and you consider everything who really, gets invited to the wedding, the party, and where you put all these quarterbacks. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Well, T.J. Hushman Zaud was on this show last week, like 10 days ago. And he made this fairly gigantic proclamation that we, you know, we kind of rolled our eyes about the Cincinnati Bengals.

He played there. And here's what he said on our show. We have it. The Bengals will go to the playoffs this year. In a way, the Steelers are acting, the Bengals might win the division. No, no, no. Just remember I told you this. Retract that. I just don't want you to have to regret saying anything. Just spin that one back. If that happens, I just made a bad assumption.

The Bengals are going to be good this year. All right, let's bring him on. My guy, T.J. Husman, Zada. They're 2 and 0. For the record, they're not only 2 and 0. They've gone on the road to be to Andrew Luck. And last night, they beat up on Joe Flacco. Now, let me push back.

You were in this league a long time. Flacko's got two rookie tie. ends, short week and three new receivers. If you look at the box score, Baltimore was fine. Where they weren't fine is routes, timing, Flacco, balls thrown behind guys. Some of this to me is Flacko's got five new targets on a short week, week two. I think Baltimore in six, seven weeks is a really good football team. You know what I always tell people. What? Excuses only satisfy those who make them. That stings. But I will give you its rookie quarterbacks and young receivers.

But you have the entire offseason. You have training camp. They're on the same page. Baltimore didn't play bad last night. Flacco made a couple of bad. The interception of Jesse Bates, it was cover three. He thought the safety was going to stay deep on a deep post. He had the deep crossing route.

And the safety baited him. He stayed deep and then he came down last minute. It wasn't a bad read per se. I thought Jesse Bates, the rookie safety. I thought he made a really good play. he baited flack onto the throw. So take, you know, Denver, for instance, has always been good in the first couple of weeks of the year at home because teams aren't in elite shape and they have an altitude issue. So, like Denver, first two weeks of the year at home, if you have to go to Denver historically, good luck.

High altitude. It's early out of camp. Many guys are not in their best shape. There are certain things that happen. Weeks one and two, I always keep my eye on. So when you look at week one, two, go back to your career. you're heading into week two. Are you in great shape?

Do you have the playbook totally down? What do you feel great about? Week two, how is it different than week 10, week 12? You know, for me, the difference was once you get to the middle of the season, you start anticipating play calls in a huddle. You're down in distance. You start to anticipate what's going to be called. You anticipate, you just have a better feel for your offense.

The coaching, the rhythm. Much more. You almost anticipate everything that's going to happen because you prepared so, much you kind of get used to the preparation aspect of it of, okay, this is what we're going to do. Okay, this is what they're going to do. And so the comfort level is much higher. Yeah. Let me ask you this.

It's hard enough to get a rhythm in the NFL and offense. And offense is about choreography and a rhythm. Defensive guy just blow stuff up. I'm a defensive guy. I'm trying to blow stuff up. But offensive guys, you guys have to memorize playbooks. You guys have bigger playbooks than defense. You guys have to get into a rhythm.

I watched Joe Flacco play and like six times last night in the middle of a drive let's throw Lamar Jackson in there and I'm thinking come on now you're just trying to validate your pick and I got nothing against Lamar but if you're going to use him by the way

two point conversions after the touchdown 11 on 11 use him to insert him in the middle of drives if you were a quarterback would you like that? I'm sure pissed Flacco off I know Joe I used to sit up at the facility with Joe and we played cornhole all damn night. Yeah. Like we've been, I'm sure it really irritating, but this is what they, I didn't think it was

effective. It wasn't effective. It was second and 20 and I believe they got like a 15 yard run on one of the plays where Lamar Jackson was in. But outside of that one play, it was not effective. I'm, I'm almost certain Joe does not like it. But Flacco has brought this on himself by not playing well in years past. So it's almost like, why, why, why, cry about it now. If I hadn't been playing well, they wouldn't have drafted Lamar Jackson. Yeah, because they had utter needs. They could have used a tight end. They could have used a receiver. They have two rookie tight ends. So to me, it feels like they're validating. Remember when the Jets acquired Tebow? And they were always trying to figure out how to use Tebow. And you're like,

you already have a young quarterback who's struggling to get into rhythm Mark Sanchez. Like, don't pull Sanchez out in the middle of a drive to put in Tebow. Yeah, I know. You can just watching the game. Just look at Joe Flacco stance as a receiver. It tells you all you need to know. He's pissed. He just stands there like, why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? You just look at his stance.

He does not like it at all. So I was saying this about Kirk Cousins. There were two games. I think Kirk Cousins are real solid quarterback. Solid. Not special, but solid. Agree. You're not going to roll around like Russell Wilson.

He doesn't have the arm of Carson Went, but you win games with him. But there were two games in Washington that the front office watched and they bailed on him. home playoff game against Green Bay, couldn't get it in the end zone. Field goal, field goal, field goal, one for four in the red zone. Aaron Rogers looked great. He looked average.

Then they had a week 17 game, the boat year with the New York Giants, where the Giants were already in. Redskins had everything to play for, and they laid a complete egg, and he wasn't any good. And I believe those two performances, the front office in Washington said,

T.J, he's just not the guy. He's just a guy, not the guy. So when they paid him all that money in Minnesota and got rid of Teddy Bridgewater, who can play and Case Keenham who won 13 games. They got him for this weekend. Aaron Rogers hasn't practiced. Devonte Adams hasn't practiced.

Minnesota clearly has the better defense. Didn't they pay him for this game? Minnesota should win this game this weekend. They, number one, like, Zimmer is very underrated as a coach number one. You had him, didn't you? In Cincinnati a year. And he immediately our defense jumped and was drastically better. Defensively, this is the best team he's ever played on, Kurt Cousins, defensively.

You got Diggs as a receiver. You got Rudolph as a tight-in. You got Thielen as a receiver, and you got Delvin Cook. So his offensive skilled players are also really good. You may never in your, you know what it reminds me of? Remember Andy Dalton broke into this league and he had A.J. Greenson, New Marvin Jones. Good backs. And then he had a good tight-in from Oklahoma. Germain Gresham. Germain Gresham. Then they, got Eifford. Andy Dalton walked into this offense with all these guys, you're like, you may never have an offense like that again.

Kirk Cousins may never have an offense this loaded. He had, it's not even all. His defense is so sound. Like they're good at every level. They're good at the D-line. They're good at the linebacker spot. Best safety in the game, maybe. And so, I mean, they got what, three first round corners in Rhodes,

Trey Wains, I forget the other guy's name. Defensively, Minnesota. I honestly, whether Aaron Rodgers, they're winning the game. Whether Aaron Rogers plays or not, I see Minnesota winning the game, they're that good defensively. But if Kurt Cousins can't beat Aaron this week that he didn't practice, and his number one receiver didn't practice?

I don't think it matters that he didn't practice. I think it matters more so that he's hurt. If you can't win now, you're never going to win. Okay, T.J. Hushmanjada is joining us. So it's funny. The Jags play the Patriots. And I've always had this feat. you'll know this well, is that I've always had this feeling like emotional teams,

Seahawks, Steelers, play better at home. Like the new, if you're, here's some teams I think are unemotional, New England. Home and away, same team. Rams was Sean McVeigh. Last year, they were actually better on the road. But when you get young teams and emotional teams, like you watch them at home and away, they're a different team at home. Jacksonville is young and they're cocky and they yap, yep, yep, yep,

And I think this is their Super Bowl. I think they have circled the wagons all offseason. Week one didn't matter. It's New England's coming to our place. Brady's coming to our place. I think Jacksonville is going to, could lay it on them. It's going to this game, I'm looking forward to this game. When you've played in Jacksonville, you haven't been a good team.

And so last year was a surprise too many. And so they want to show everybody that, We can play, and they did that on the field, but they're going to talk. Football is a game of emotion. Like for people that, it's super emotional. I played with a lot of emotion. You played on a Bengals team that led the league into motion. If there was a stat, you let it for like five years. It's almost like you have to prove a point. You have to prove a point like we can play too. And I'm going to get you by saying it, but we got to back that up as well. If you, if Blake Bortles can be remotely good. Jacksonville is going to win his game.

You just don't know what Blake Bordels is going to give you. I mean, New England is good because they have 12. As long as he's back there, they're going to be fine. But his skill, I mean, outside of Grancowski. First of all, New England's running backs are all dinged up. Now, Jeremy Hill's out for the year. Burkheads hurt, concussion. So New England's got issues on the perimeter where Jacksonville, by the way, is loaded at corner.

New England has always done a great job of scheming you with their slot receivers and whatnot and just getting easy. Their short passing game is like a running game for them. But Jacksonville, me personally, I'm having Jalen Ramsey follow Gruncowski around the field the entire game. You have to. If you take Gronk out.

You have to now. They do have Miles Jackson, who's a really great athletic linebacker, but you have to put Jalen Ramsey on Grunkowski the entire game, whether it's manner zone. You just have to shadow him so that you don't give away the coverage. By the way, there's an analytic stat out there. that if you look at Gronk's history against safeties and linebackers, he eats him alive.

But Gronk's numbers come down against corners. And the elite corners, his numbers come way down. So if you're an analytics guy, Jacksonville probably puts Ramsey to your point. I mean, he's 6-2. He's over 200 pounds. By the way, didn't they put him on it last year? And he shut him down. He came out.

Gronk didn't play the second half of the game. Yeah. All right, T.J. It's great seeing you. This is a very, very interesting week two in the NFL. blazing five in 20 minutes from now off a winning week, T.J. Hushmanzada. Anything else? That's it? You know what else?

What? Tell everybody, don't get too excited about Sam Darnold. Because remember how we put Dack Prescott up here? Now, everybody saying, oh, Dack might not be that good. Sam Darnet's better than... No, no, no, no. I'm not saying he's not better. I'm saying it's just one game. It's just one game.

Because after one season, Dack Prescott was on Cloud 9. now it's like yeah but deck prescott had a line deswitten zeeke darnold's dealing with end tables okay what does deck prescott have now his line the main piece of his line is hurt he doesn't have it with what yeah and dach come back down to earth you cut as brine and it's like ah they're not playing cloud coverage anymore they got that safety support in a box they didn't take that into account

you don't think darnells significantly better than dac is a talent i'm not obviously everybody believes so because of his draft status i'm not saying that All I'm saying is... What are your eyes tell you? I like Sam Darnold. I don't like his... He throws too many interceptions. That's the only thing.

He has a tendency to turn the ball over a little bit too much. I played under Jeremy Bates for one offseason in Seattle. He did a great job with the scheming and his play calling to kind of get Sam Darnold in a rhythm. But I'm just saying it was just one game. I would like to see how he does the rest of the season. If he goes 2-0, I will vote for him to get into the Hall of Fame. 2-0.

He had 5 picks. So if they can get 5. picks every game. He'll go. Oh, he's going to have a great career. There you go. TJ, good seeing you. What's up, everybody? John Middlecough of the three and out podcast, brought to you by Colin Coward and his podcast network. If you like Collins Show, you like mine, I talk a ton of football. This week, fly all around the NFL, touch on Sam Darnold, and I tell you what Chip Kelly and John Gruden have in common. Again, if you like Collins' show, you will like mine, talk a lot of

football, John Middlecop, the three and out podcast. One of the things I try to pay attention to in sports is analytics and rule changes because they change not only outcomes but how effective players can be. And I'll give you an example. Steph Curry in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s would not have been as important a player as he as today. Steph Curry, and this is being generous, is listed at 6-4-190. I'm 6-1-195 and I'm thin.

He's about a 185-pound guy. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, Michael Jordan puts a hand on him. Gary Payton puts a hand on him. Steph Curry gets pushed all over the floor. It was a more physical game. You could have more contact. He gets hurt now and it's a cardio league. Steph Curry would not have been a dominant player.

He could shoot, but he wouldn't have been transformative in the 70s and 80s and 90s, but now you can't hand-check anybody so we can roam free. Now the game's all about cardio, back and forth in the three-point shot. You can't touch anybody. You can't stop guards now. It used to be centers ran the league and big wings ran the league. Now the little guys run the league.

If you put the hand check back in the league, you'd watch all the numbers and field goal percentages of the guards go down. Because it was centers that ran the league. But now the NBA, if you can't shoot, dude, you can't play. You can't be on the floor. So I'm always looking at rules, analytics, cultural changes. people think I don't like Cam Newton. This weekend, Cam Newton, Carolina faced Matt Ryan Atlanta.

They're the opposite. Cam is physically gifted but not precise. Matt is precise but physically limited. Both have won an MVP, but they're not annual MVP candidates. They're not that good. I would have liked Cam a lot more in the 70s and 80s and 90s. In the 70s, 80s, 80s and 90s you could grab a quarterback and drive them into the ground. small guys got hurt.

Guys like Matt Ryan, how long would they last? You wouldn't even draft maybe a Matt Ryan or a Teddy Bridgewater. They just couldn't take the beating. You can go look at old pictures of Terry Bradshaw being picked up and jammed into the ground. Joe Montana being grabbed and jammed into the ground. 70s and 80s, you needed a big, strong guy. It was not a precision league that could throw the ball through a battleship. Who did we love?

Joe Namath. Joe Namath had more picks than touchdowns, and we loved him. And Terry Bradshaw had a howitzer and threw a lot of picks. We loved John Elway. John Elway didn't get a Super Bowl until year 15, but he could run and he could throw, and he was big, and he was strong. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I was looking at arm, and I was looking at size. You would not have even drafted Johnny Menzel in the 70s, 80s, 90s.

He looked like the guy that runs out and grabs the tea after the kickoff. A little kid. But now it's different. Who are the quarterbacks we love now? Breeze, Brady Rogers. One of them's small. The other one's unathletic. And the other one's a combination of

played at junior college, Aaron Rogers. Not quite big enough. Not quite. It doesn't matter. It's a precision league. So today, when they play this weekend, I'll take the precision guy over the size and arm guy. But when people think, oh, you don't like Cam.

Cam really works in 70s, 80s, early 90s football. Take a hit, drive them into the ground. It was legal. I mean, I laugh at stuff now. In the last six or seven years, we have had such rule modifications in the back end of the defense. Folks, just go to, I'm not even sure if it's available. Go look YouTube, NFL hits in the 70s and 80s with quarterbacks. What they were doing to Bradshaw and Aikman and Montana, you could grab a quarterback and drive them into the ground.

this off season, they changed a rule that if you hit a quarterback, if it feels like you're adding your, think about this, this is a new rule in the NFL, if it appears, not even with a sack, like quarterback lets it go, you grab them, if they think you're driving your body weight into the quarterback, it is now an illegal hit.

You fall while they're on their side. If a quarterback's in the pocket and you get pushed into, his knee. You could be ejected. That is an illegal hit. So there's just different eras. Like, I love Steph Curry today. Love him today.

You know, it's funny. Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers does everything well, but shoot. And it's amazing how many critics. If Ben Simmons would have broke into the NBA in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and you're like, listen, there's this six, ten and a half point guard. As a rookie, he may be the best defensive guard ever as a rookie. He can finish at the rim. He shot 54%.

He never takes a bad jump shot. He makes everybody around him better. You'd be like, oh, my God. There's a Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson couldn't shoot. He took over the league. Ben Simmons, if you go on the internet, which is a lot of crazy people, it's like, guy can't shoot.

I can't pay him any money. Guy can't shoot. He does everything well. He's got transformative vision, transformative size, finishes at the rim, makes everybody better. But because he doesn't jack up threes, We're like, well, he just can't, you may be able to play. Folks.

I mean, I will acknowledge. If he could shoot threes, we'd be looking at a potentially better version of magic. Because he's a better defender of magic. He's a better defender of magic. He's got magic's vision. But it's just eras change things. Rules change. Today, I like Matt Ryan over Cam.

They play this weekend. 30 years ago, you'd take Cam. It would be no question. Bigger, stronger, better arm over the top. One more herd. The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. You know how they call, they talk about guys having a midlife crisis. You know, guy, I don't know what, like 40, 45 years old.

You know, and guys like go out and buy a red convertible. Yeah, exactly. Guy goes out and buys a red. Start tanning. Yeah, like tanning, going to the gym all day. We're in sandals. Being cool. You know, I'm.

I'm glad you said convertible because people do this. Guys will buy a convertible and it's expensive and they probably could have spent the money on other things. You know, a 5-2-9 for their kids, education. But they buy a convertible, midlife crisis, 47 years old. And to justify the convertible, they drive it like it's October and it's 47 degrees and there's a little drizzle. And you see midlife crisis dad driving his convertible in Indianapolis, I swear to you, it's not cold out. Oh, yeah, this is always somewhere cold. It's not somewhere reasonable.

like California. It's Kansas City, Indianapolis. You know, it's like Midnight Crisis guy trying to justify spending $72,000 for a convertible. You see this with breadmakers. People buy a breadmaker and they have to justify buying a breadmaker. So the kids are like, hey, what's for dinner? Sourdough bowls again. Dad, it's breakfast.

You put on like 15 pounds every time you buy a breadmaker because you have to justify it. You have bread every meal. Okay, the Baltimore Ravens now. Put the convertible away. stop buying breadmakers. You're trying to justify Lamar Jackson. You're trying to justify

drafting him as a first round pick. Let him watch. If you want to put him in, do it for extra points. He's a very clever red zone runner from the three-yard line. But it's hard enough to get momentum in the NFL,

and Flacco's not exactly the most efficient quarterback. You're yanking him out of the middle of series. The Jets did this with Tebow and Sanchez. It's hard enough for Sanchez to get into a rhythm. Now, Brady's in a rhythm like that. Breeze gets in a rhythm like that. Rogers gets in a rhythm like that. Flacco, Mark Sanchez, hard enough to get into a rhythm. Don't pull

them out for Tebow. But you justify that Jets track. We're going to get Tebow and we're going to justify it. We're going to Baltimore looks like they're trying to justify Lamar Jackson. What are you doing? Troy Aikman talked about this last night. You can tell. Flacco, they put him out wide receiver. He got no interest in that. Here's what Troy Aikman said. I will tell you, if I'm Joe Flacco, not happy about this. And I don't know, Joe's not going to say anything, but I can tell you deep down, he doesn't like it. You know, if you're a pocket passer, you're the quarterback, you do not like running out to the wide receiver position and letting somebody else play quarterback. It's as simple as that.

They talked to me about doing that at one time back when I was playing. The game has certainly changed, but that was not going to happen. And I don't think Joe's real thrilled about some of the things within that system with Lamar Jackson and the office. And again, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are not ready to play in the NFL. Now, Josh Allen, unfortunately, they're stuck. Baltimore's not stuck. They've got Flacco. Flacco needs to get these tight ends, these rookie tight ends and all these.

It's got five new targets. It's going to take them some time to do this. But, I mean, this is the classic you're trying to justify a move. Just let Lamar, if you want to use it. you score a touchdown. The drive is over. Let him be the two-point conversion guy a couple times a game. Now, that makes a ton of sense to me.

But in the middle of a drive, on the road, division rival, Flacco's moving, let's jam him in there. They had like six plays last night. Not one of them really clicked. The one that did click, he handed the ball off. It just feels like, I see this all the time. It's almost like college.

You can not do quarterback by committee in the NFL. You can't. And people try, and this, everybody knows. it's not a dual quarterback situation. But listen, look at Joe Flacco's body language when he goes out there. You're embarrassing him. Like, everybody's going like, come on. Well, that's what I'm saying.

You make the argument that you can't start a rookie quarterback because if he does bad and you take him out, you're hurting his confidence. What do you think you're doing to your franchise quarterback that's won a Super Bowl? Yeah, it was MVP of said Super Bowl. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1. and the I Heart Radio app.

Warning, Colin is about to reveal the outcomes of the biggest college football games this week. If you don't want to know exactly what's going to happen, turn away now. All right, LSU goes to Auburn, War Eagle to play the Tigers. I like Auburn in this football game. First of all, the home team has won the last five matchups here. Auburn's won 13 straight at home. They're 21 and 1 at home against ranked team. teams under Gus Mel Zon. That includes beating Bama, who was number one at the time in Georgia,

who was number two at the time. Listen, LSU's got athletes everywhere. In fact, they have a safety. That's the next Jamal Adams. But Auburn's quarterback to me, Jared Stidham, is the most underrated player in college football. Everybody knows about Alabama's quarterback. Jared Stidham has never lost a home game at Auburn, has completed 73 percent of his throws at Auburn. And Ed Orgeron is going to get a lot of love, and the TV cameras love. Love at Orgeron. Look at that throw by Jarrett Stidham. 12 TD's three picks at home.

Beat Alabama, Georgia. He is an NFL quarterback. You know, outside of the Manning family, I don't think of the SEC as quarterback territory on Sundays. Jared Stidham with Gus Malzon, an offensive mind, is a Sunday player. I'm going to take, here we go. Spoiler alert.

Auburn wins by a touchdown 2720. Next up. USC Texas. Listen, you got two young quarterbacks. You got this kid for Texas, Sam Ellinger, and then you got this kid for USC J.T. Daniels. Here's the game to me. Texas can run the football, and so far, USC can't stop it,

which is remarkable because USC brings virtually everybody back in their front seven. And they've been terrible against the run so far. Stanford ran against them, UNLV ran against them, J.T. Daniels, the quarterback for USC right now. He's a baby. It's completing 55% of his throws. He is super talented. He's a long ball thrower. But he locks on to one receiver. They have not created a highly creative offense for him. It is very pedestrian. It is very predictable. And I don't think, you know, Tom Herman's getting a lot of heat. If USC goes one and two, Lynn Swan's going to have a decision to make, and it's not a decision Clay Hilton's going to like. Spoiler alert, Texas wins by a field goal, 2623 at home. I just don't trust USC's offensive staff and J.T. Daniels, a freshman on the road in Austin, Texas. Well, you're just down on USC right now. I picked against them last week.

I'm picking against them now. And finally, TCU Ohio State. folks, Dwayne Haskins is Urban Myers' best quarterback ever. I don't want to hear about Cardell Jones. I don't want to hear about J.T. Barrett. I don't want to hear about Alex Smith at Utah. The best quarterback Urban Myers ever had is Dwayne Haskins. He's completing 80% of his throws.

Trows in a magnificent deep ball, big-time player. And, you know, Urban Myers known as a creative guy. Dwayne Haskins, at the next level, could be a lot better than Tim Tebow. And if you give Ohio State, I mean, Urban's made a lot of B&C guys look like like being A guys. Now, I do think TCU is really, really well coached, but Ohio State has been a tremendous road and neutral site team, unlike Alabama, which ducks road games. Alabama doesn't like to go on the road. You never see Alabama go out west. You don't see Alabama plan the road. They'll do neutral site stuff. Do you know Ohio State since 2012 is the best team in college

football away from home and neutral sight at 33 and 5. Their offense right now, it is, and this is without Urban Meyer on the sidelines, it looks fantastic. Turn away. Ohio State, two touchdown winner, 3320. 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 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. 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 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

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. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.