The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 09/28/2018

Episode Date: September 28, 2018

Colin says that Rams Head Coach Sean McVay deserves a lot of credit for what the team is doing but its not all his system, its Jared Goff too. He thinks Tom Brady and Gronk watched that game Thursday Night and can't believe the lack of talent they have on their roster compared to the Rams and Vikings. Plus, Peter King of NBC Sports talks to Colin about Dak Prescott and the potential stardom of Baker Mayfield Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or stream us live every day on the iHeartredo app by searching herd. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is the herd on a Friday, wherever you may be and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me on a Friday. Good morning.

It's a great Friday. It is a, we got our blue on for last night's wild game. And one hour from now, Blazing 5, hottest start of my. life. Winning week, winning week, winning week, this week, best picks I've had. Not sure how the stars are lining up, but another great winning week of blazing five picks in one hour from now. And I got to start with a spectacle last night in Los Angeles. You know, I come on the air and I talk about games. Very rarely do I talk about a game. And it turns out exactly like I thought. And I said, the Rams corners are hurt. The Vikings going to pass the ball. It's going to be a great

wild shootout, a lot of yards, a lot of points. But in the end, Jared Goffs better than Kirk Cousins. is he's going to make a couple of throws. You're going to go, wow, and that's what you saw last night. And the Rams are going to win a close, wild, crazy game with a lot of yards, and that's exactly what you got. And the other reason I could predict that is because this is what the Rams have been giving you every Sunday for the last two years. Yeah, 10 yards of play, 13 yards of pass, multiple weapons. Folks, this is the best offense.

I have seen in the NFL top to bottom, coaching. to punt her to kick her for a decade. This is it. Left tackle, great, right tackle, great, quarterback, running back, tight ends, coach, coordinators. Great, great, great, great. They had six third downs all night. They don't even get to third down. Minnesota had a bunch of yards. They had 16. Late in the game, they had only three third downs all night. By the way, Jared Goff had the highest quarterback rating ever. Perfect quarterback. rating. Let me look this up. This is noteworthy. Yes, he had 158 quarterback rating and the most pass attempts for anybody ever with a perfect passer rating. And here's what's interesting.

So many people in the NFL are calling him a system quarterback. And here's why. Because when he first came into the league, he inherited Jeff Fisher's high school coaching staff, a terrible offensive line, no weapons. And he was on hard. hard knocks and the optics. He looked skinny. He looked lost. He had to learn to take a snap under center and the optics were terrible. And then they brought in Sean McVeigh and they went heavy on receivers and left tackle. And suddenly you're like, oh, but everybody's giving McVeigh all the credit on this team. No, no, it's a 50-50 deal here, folks. McVeigh's not making those reads and McVeigh's not making those throws. And he did it again. We predicted it.

He'd make a couple of throws and you would go, oh my God, that's why he's the number one pick. And he made a couple of perfect throws last night that 90% of the guys who have ever played this position can't make. It just proves nobody can do it alone. Michael Jordan before Scotty Pippen was 0 and 6 against the Celtics. Kobe Bryant after Shaq left and before Gasol, a seven seed and missed the playoffs. Bill O'Reilly. did nothing in his career for 20 years. He found Roger Ailes, then dominated cable for 25 years. Everybody understands how good Mahomes is because you didn't watch him on hard knocks,

and he wasn't terrible, he sat the first year. And everybody understands how good Carson Wentz is because he had some success in the first year. And we get how good Andrew Luck is. It is not an insult to say system quarterback. All the great ones have a great coach. mostly offense. Now it used to be defense. But this is the way it works.

When you get a super clever, creative high IQ football coach and you put him with a tall, good arm, smart, driven, aspirational, coachable quarterback, this is what happens. This is as good an offense as the NFL has had, and I can't remember the last time. But the media and the fans, because of the optics of hard knocks, and that Jeff Fisher High School coaching, staff. They think this is all McVeigh. No, by the way, Andy Reid, he wouldn't putting up these numbers

with Alex Smith. It's Mahomes. And by the way, Matt Nagy is super smart, but he's limited because it's Mitch Trubisky. You do not do what happened last night with most quarterbacks. You don't. You go look at Sean Payton's career. He didn't put up these numbers with the other quarterbacks. He's putting him up with Drew Brees. Kyle Shanahan had his best. year as a coach, not with Matt Shob, it was with Matt Ryan. So I think you know, Brady, Belichick,

Greg Popovich, Tim Duncan. We all knew Belichick was smart pre-Bradie. We all knew Popovich won pre-Duncan. But when they became legends, they had the guy. So for all the fans and all the media that are sitting around before last night going,

you know, it's mostly McVeigh. No, no, no. You put Trubisky in that Rams offense. You You put Kirk Cousins in that Rams offense. You put Andy Dalton in that Rams offense. You're not getting that. You saw those throws last night. This is not a 75-25 McVe-Maville.

It's not. It's a 50-50 split. And this is how it works in the NFL now. You're seeing the formula. Clever, high- IQ coach with a coachable world-class arm talent. I mean, Joe Buck and Troykeman told a great story last night when they first saw Jared Goff and Troy compared it to his early career. You and I watched him at practice, and we came out in 2016 out of the practice, like, this guy can't throw the ball at all.

And now he gets under the guidance of Sean McVeigh. I mean, he's lethal. Yeah, well, that day he couldn't even throw a spiral. It was a tough day watching him, and then he struggled, and you thought, well, you know, I don't know. Surely these evaluators know more than what we know watching him in one day. But I can tell you, Joe, from experience, you bring in a guy, an offensive guy. I had Norv Turner. He came to the Dallas Cowboys in 19.

1991. And it changed my life. It changed my career. Give them credit for taking a chance on a young up-and-coming offensive coordinator and letting him be the head coach. And it has paid huge dividends for what they invested in that first round pick. And by the way, I've talked to Jimmy Johnson about this. He goes, you know, everybody was killing Aikman out of college because his first year in the NFL, he was terrible. And Jimmy Johnson said, no, no, no, we saw the talent. Just like Jared Goff. We saw the talent, but we had to get him the right guy. Michael Jordan needed Pippin. Belichick needed Brady. Pop needed Duncan. Bill O'Reilly needed Roger Ailes. Like Patrick Mahomes needs Andy Reid, but Andy wouldn't be putting up these numbers without Patrick Mahomes. And so Aikman's story last night

is right on. Jimmy Johnson told me, he goes, we knew Aikman was special. But he needed a left tackle. He needed a running back. He needed a deep threat. And he needed a mentor because Jimmy's a defensive guy that got him one and you have a Hall of Famer. Let me segue to this, though. Let me segue to this. So not just the Rams, but the Vikings' wide receiving core. Last night, there were five guys who play wide receiver, five different players who had

over 100 yards, Brandon Cooks, Cooper Cup, Robert Woods, Adam Thieland, Diggs. I'm not sure I've watched a game in the NFL with more. wide receiver talent than last night. And I can't be the only person that's thinking what I'm going to say. The Rams number three receiver is significantly better than Brady's number one receiver. Were Tom Brady and Gronk last night watching that game, you know they were, and you know they were texting each other. And they were saying, can you believe this?

Can you believe what's going on? I mean, last night, Rams in Minnesota, that was an auto show. That was an auto show. There were Maseratis and there were Aston Martins and there were Bentleys and there were Lamborghinis. And those were good defenses and they tore them up. Tom Brady's over here saying, I got a Honda Civic. I got a Dodge Neon. Can I get some help over here?

You know Brady was watching that thing last night. and he is bitter. I mean, the leading receivers for New England against Detroit, Chris Hogan had three catches for 31 yards, Cordorrell Patterson had a catch for 17, and Philip Dorset was targeted five times, and he had no catches. And Bill Belichick's blind spot,

drafting in college, has been wide receiver. He's not good at it. And he drafted a receiver once Chad Jackson High, and he was a complete nutter whiff. He just doesn't do it. He goes and gets his wide receivers from the NFL. because Belichick's gunshot, a draft a receiver high, he doesn't do well with it.

He goes in the league and finds guys. But I don't remember the ball hitting the ground last night other than when the Rams punter through the ball, and I wouldn't be surprised if the 49ers are not making a call to get him in their quarterback rotation. I've been saying for years

that wide receivers are icing on the cake. The cake is the offensive line, the coach, and the quarterback. But with two rule changes this offseason, we talked to, about this, Joy. There's been two rule changes. Both were very pro-wide receiver. The catch rule, we haven't had one discussion so far this year, what's a catch? Instead of the discussions we used to have, which were, what's a catch? The discussion now is, wow, what a catch. That is a massive rule change and the late hit penalty. So you can't touch a receiver off the line. You now can't

hit them, they now got the catch rule flipped toward their advantage. And I always said that wide receivers were icing on the cake. They make the cake better, but it's the cake. You know what they are now? Wide receivers, due to those two rule changes, are icing on a cupcake. They matter more. They matter a lot. Cuccapes are fine, but the icing goes a long way to make the cupcake.

And you're seeing it right now. We have not had a single discussion that I can remember in the first month of the season about what's a catch? It's all now. Whoa, what a catch. There's a reason GM's in this league. Remember, Joy, we talked about this in August. Why are wide receivers getting massive money now by smart NFL teams? This is why.

You can't touch the quarterback. You can't touch the receiver. You can't hit them. and they flipped the catch rule in favor of the receiver instead of in favor of the defense. And since Belichick's arrived in 2000 in New England, they've never drafted a receiver in the first round. They've only taken four in the second round, and three of the four were absolute whiffs. So he's not good at the college-wide receiver thing. He'll go get a Chris Hogan.

He'll go get a Wes Welker. He doesn't draft receivers well. They don't. And look, Brady and Gronk had to be watching that. auto show last night. I mean, that was just Maseratis and Lamborghinis. That was Bentley's. And Brady's over here texting Gron. I got to dodge neon. Well, they're

relying on Brady to make it work. And, I mean, you were watching that game last night. That was a Pro Bowl set of wide receivers. I mean, it was just like great catch, great route, wide open, on the run. I don't remember the last NFL game I watched with that many good wide receivers.

possession guys, speed guys. Good Lord. There's no way Brady and Gronk watched that and don't just go. This is why when Brady lost to Detroit, he had that sound bite. He wasn't angry. He was defeated. He sees what he's dealing with here. God, that was an auto show last night.

God, that was impressive. 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. We go from numbers to a brilliant writer, broadcaster Peter King, Football Morning in America, Peter King, NBCSports.com. All right, let's join us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Last night was as much fun watching a football game as I could possibly have, and I know, I know it's too offensive, it's too Canadian Football League,

the showcase of athletes and play calling. I mean, I watched the Rams. I said this an hour ago, Peter. from coordinator to coach to quarterback to left tackle to running back to receivers to kicker. The Rams are about as stacked offensively as any team I remember in years here. I don't want to be hyperbolic, but what did you see with the Rams last night? Well, the first month of the season has been played for the Rams and they've scored 33, 34, 35, and 38. And none of those have been fluky games.

It's not like they've struggled in any one of them or getting gifts in any one of them. And the thing that I saw last night is everybody in the ballpark knew, most likely, that Kirk Cousins, if he got even a short amount of time, if he got 2.2 seconds per dropback, you know, he was going to be able to exploit the Rams secondary because Marcus Peters was wounded. Akeeb Talib is out. They have average safeties, far below average backup corners. So you look at it and you say, this is a great situation for the Minnesota Vikings to come in to be able to make some hay. And the Vikings almost made enough hay to win.

But what it showed me is that when the Rams know that they need to score in the mid and high 30s, they've got a very good chance to do so even when they're playing a powerful, offense with a good front seven. And even though Minnesota's front seven has not played great this year, it's still a good front seven even without Everson Griffin. You know, I said yesterday is that stardom is hard to explain in America. A Kendall Jenner doesn't sing, she doesn't act, she doesn't dance, but in Hollywood, a city of stars, she'd get the biggest crowd. You can't explain a lot of stardom. Tebow was a faith-based backing and became a superstar overnight. I I remember when I worked at the other place, the Tebow articles would get four to five times the readers as the other articles.

And it was hard to explain. I watched Baker Mayfield. I've got a college career. He's a little cocky. I had a police video. Cleveland's this kind of cubs of the NFL. They can't win. I got to tell you, he's top ten in Jersey sales.

He's never started a game. Peter, I feel like we're on the precipice of Baker Mayfield becoming must-see TV in this national football league. I could not turn the Browns Jets game off. I couldn't. And I kind of feel like we're on the precipice of something real special with Baker. Do you sense that? Colin, you know, there's one game really, I mean, there's a bunch of interesting games on Sunday. You know, I really like the dolphins going into New England.

Yeah. Just for drama value. I want to see if the Saints can play well on the road. again, second straight week. They should be able to. They should be able to put up in the 30s against the Giants. And always, I love the Steelers and the Ravens, even though both teams are down a little bit,

but it's a great rivalry game in Pittsburgh. That's fun. The best game, most compelling game, in my opinion, this weekend is Cleveland at Oakland. Yep. You know, Oakland being 0 and 3. And Cleveland, having this guy who every, he's only played 32 minutes in the end.

NFL. But those 32 minutes, he comes in down 14 nothing and he ends up winning the game on national TV. Baker Mayfield's afraid of nothing. He's confident. He borders on the cocky, but he's very confident in what he can do. He doesn't care what people think about him. I think he's really one of the five or six or eight most compelling figures in the NFL right now. Yeah. Yeah. And he's only played 32 minutes. No, I said this. I don't think he's Carson or Andrew Luck is a talent. I don't think he's Russell Wilson, maybe not Matt Ryan. But interesting. Oh, God. Yeah, he is a fascinating NFL player. And by the way, the NFL's... And you know what, Colin? I think he's better than you think because I think the one thing that people don't realize him yet,

about him yet. I cover the Browns on draft weekend. And I remember Elliot Wolf, you know, the number two guy to John Dorsey saying to me that all four of their guys watched him independently. Alonzo Highsmith, Elliot Wolf, Scott McLuhan, and John Dorsey. Dorsey said, I want you to watch all the quarterbacks independently and then come back and report to me. Middle of February, they all watched all of the games of all the quarterbacks. Every one of them had Mayfield first. And the biggest reason is, has nothing to do with height, you know, leadership, any of that stuff. Every one of them thought, this guy really throws a good, deep ball.

And if you play in Cleveland, you're going to need a sort of. strong arm. That's the one thing that has been totally underestimated. Not, you know, the gumption hasn't been the guts, the leadership, all that stuff. Everybody knows that about Mayfield. But this guy, I don't care that he's six feet tall. He can throw the ball downfield, you know, in the top 12 or 15 quarterbacks in football right now. Yeah, I said this a couple of days ago. His arm strength has been a little bit of a shocker to me. He's got real zip on the ball. Right now it's a better arm than Darnold, who's a big. athlete. Okay, so for years and years, Belichick's worst month has been September, and he kind of

sees September sometimes as a little bit of an extension of the third preseason game. He tweaks, he teaches, he's a mentor, I get it. But I got to tell you, I'm watching that Rams Vikings game last night, and I'm like, Brady had to watch that thing and think I got Chris Hogan over here, Cordarell Patterson, and I'm watching that auto show last night with Maseratis. If they lose to Miami. Okay, I got to tell you, Peter, it does feel different. It does. If they, if Miami goes in there and beats them, it kind of feels like the dynasty, it's in San Antonio when Duncan retired. They're still good and competent, but they're not the same. I kind of think this weekend tells us a ton about New England going forward. Your thoughts? I think it does, but barring a 38-0 loss, I'm not going to

still, I'm not shoveling dirt on this team. I've seen too many times late in seasons. There's no coach and no team that improves from September to December as much as the Patriots. And so that's why I say, you know, let's wait and see what happens. Let's say at the trading deadline. What if, who knows? What if the Packers fall out of it and they get Randall Cobb? What if the lions fall out of it and they get Golden Tate?

And I'm just pulling those names out of a half. Demarius Thomas. Who knows? But what if they go out and get a receiver at the trading deadline and Josh Gordon is still standing? I mean, who knows? But I will say this. Here's what feels a little bit different. Every year, the Patriots have basically let high-paid, you know, especially offensive players go. Yes. This year, it was, you know, Brandon Cooks. And the reason why that is particularly noticeable this year is that there really isn't anybody behind him to take his place. That's right. Chris Hogan and Julian Edelman, when he comes back, they are intermediate slot-type receivers. Brandon Cook's last year accounted for 43% of all of Tom Brady's throws more than 20 yards

down the field. Wow. Half of Tom Brady's deep balls are gone. Yeah. They're gone, and they have not been replaced. That's a great. So I blame Belichick. I blame Belichick for basically saying, oh, don't worry, we'll get it fixed, we'll figure it out. And he always does. So we always say, I think he's going to do it. And maybe he will. But Colin, you were right in sort of sounding the clarion call. I'm not burying them if they lose this game.

But being three games behind on October 1st, that's a weird, weird feeling for the New England Patriots. You know, I supported Hugh Jackson at the end of last year. I said, folks, the Browns. have to, this is symbolism. Show people that you just don't fire coaches. If you kept Hugh Jackson at Owen 16 and you get a quarterback, quarterbacks need offensive

guys. And you may have hired Matt Patricia. I don't think he's a better fit for Baker Mayfield than Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley. I look around the league right now. They made the, the catch rule has been flipped to help receivers, the helmet rule, the roughing the passer. This

feels like, I was watching that game last night and you know what I thought, Peter? I thought NBA is that the three-point shot has been a revolution for the NBA, where linear ratings are going down, but not the NBA. And I think the NFL has smartly watched its rival NBA and said, you know what, we're going to allow celebrations. We're going to bring Eric Reed back in. We're going to be very heavy, wide receiver.

I'm watching that game last night, and I think it's symbolic of the league. I think the league office last night watched that game and thought, this is what we want our league to be going forward. Again, I can be hyperventilating here. But the NFL this year, Peter, has been NBA-ish. It's been very fun and very dynamic. And I think this has been in the works for the last couple of years. Just your thoughts on that. Maybe I'm going overboard. But boy, that's what I saw last night. One of the things I'm writing about for Monday is going to be whether the NFL has gone too far. And I agree with you. That was a very, very, very entertaining game last night. But I will also say, Terry McCauley, the new NBC rules analyst,

the longtime NFL referee who's done three Super Bowls, who said to me, every rule you make in the NFL and in all sports really is a balancing act. You don't want the offense to get too much of an advantage. You don't want the defense to get too much of an advantage. He said he feels like with the emphasis in the roughing the passer area this year, the NFL is becoming more and more like college football. And Colin, I will do the numbers at the end of this weekend, but the numbers so far going into this weekend or that, you know, that scoring per game is up quite a bit. And so maybe that's great. But I still think that there needs to be an emphasis on the balancing act of the rules. And you can't allow what Clay Matthews and Kendricks did in week three to be, I'm

sorry, in week two, to be called roughing the passer because then every quarterback is going to feel like he's always playing with the red jersey. And he's not going to get hit unless he's possessing the ball. And I think that's dangerous for defense and a balanced game in the NFL. Good stuff. Peter King. I want you to check him out, NBCSports.com. time national sports writer of the year. I've been reading him for a couple of decades. Love having you on. Peter. Have a fun weekend. Thanks, Colin. Hi, everybody. It's the herd. Here's why I'm a big fan of Simply Safe home security. Simply Safe is ready for anything that gets thrown at it. If a storm takes out your power, an intruder cut your phone line, Simply Safe is ready. Say they destroy your

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We recommend SimpliSafe to everybody we know. Check it out. Go to Simplysafe.com slash herd today. SimplySafe.com slash H-E-R-D. Family assets protect both. Simplysafe.com slash H-E-R-D. The Cowboy game's fascinating because yesterday, Cole Beasley came out and said, you know, we're wide open.

The receivers here, we are open, by the way. So you got a little turmoil there. But, you know, the Cowboys are funny because they're 31st in their passing offense. And it's funny because Jared Goff was a number one pick. and Carson Wentz is a number two pick and by the way, Kirk Cousins is a fourth round pick. You watched golf and Kirk Cousins last night. Who looked like the number one pick?

Folks, I know my job is to accumulate as many trustable sources as I can. So when I come on the air and have opinions, they're backed not by like message board guy, but by people that work in the NFL. I got four GMs on my phone. I have six scouts. I have scouting directors, former players.

There's a reason for it. Talent evaluators are overwhelmingly right. They really are. They're overwhelmingly right. Dak Prescott got passed by all 32 teams three times. And people say, what about Brady? Think about this. Since the Super Bowl era, the Super Bowl in 1967 until now.

So from the first Super Bowl, Packers, until now, there have been, and I counted this morning, roughly what you would call 30 great quarterback. I mean, I'm talking great. Two have been drafted later than the third round. Kurt Warner and Tom Brady. Stop using the exception to be the rule. Jack Prescott was 135th pick, fourth round for a reason.

I watched them in college, and I said coming out, he's a better version of Tebow. He's not a big-time thrower. Greg Kosell was on this week. He gave us an incredibly honest assessment of him. Here it was. Right now is not a very comfortable player in the pocket. I would say that there's too much necessary movement that he does, and that results

in creating his own pressure at times and losing his ability to make throws. And so I think that it's a combination of a number of things. I could show you specific plays from this week where he miss throws. Jared Goff number one pick last night, did not miss throws. Carson Wentz doesn't miss throws. They're better players. So talent evaluators, Cole Beasley came out yesterday and he's like, you know, we're open. We have film. We are open. So it's nothing. I think Dax's a franchise quarterback, but I think he's closer to 15 that'll ever be to 10.

And that's okay. You don't want to be chaotic at quarterback. Dak provides stability. You do not want to be Andy Dalton, as much as I criticize him, create stability. You don't want to be chaotic at quarterback, like the Buffalo bills in the first two weeks.

You want to be stable as you look for the next guy. If I was Dallas, I'd keep drafting guys. Justin Herbert, Oregon. I'd keep drafting guys. And you won't be chaotic. with him because Des is stable and mobile and available and he can make some throws. But, I mean, it's like presidents. Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College.

That's the exception. Since Reagan, every president's gone to an Ivy League school. Don't take the exception and say, you know, you go to Eureka, you become president. No, you go to Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, that's, you know, Cornell. That's generally how you become. By the way, all our commissioners right now in all the sports went to Cornell. There's a reason. They're the Ivy League.

That's the rule, not the exception. 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. Clay Matthews complaining, I can't tackle, I can't do this, I can't play the way I want to play. I want to show you the play last night that sealed the win.

It was a rookie for the L.A. Ram sealing the W for Los Angeles. Here's the play. Cousins has his arm hit. Ball is out. I think it is a fumble, Joe, and now it's a matter of who's on it. Rams have it. Yeah. Super Bowl.

Eagles beat the Patriots. Here's the play that sealed it. Second and two. He gets hit. The ball is out. And Philadelphia has it. Brandon Graham was one of the guys who got in there. And it's the England's only turn.

Turnover of the game. Interesting. And it's the first sack of the game. No question. That ball is out. Yeah, went for the ball. By the way, Super Bowl 50. Cam Newton was going to win.

Denver did. What was the play by the Denver Broncos Vaughn Miller that reshaped Super Bowl 50? Here it is. Panthers have a third in 10. There comes pressure, and they've gotten to him. The ball is out in the end zone, and it's recovered by Malik Jackson for the touchdown it was Vaughn Miller with the strip sack and Jackson with the recovery strip sack strip sack strip sack strip sack Khalil Mack Vaughn Miller no penalties

Clay Matthews adapt evolve the new kill shot is stripping the ball Vaughn Miller and Khalil Mack are having no problems with this new rule surgeons landscapers you know pilots media people, mayors, adapt, evolve, new laws, new rules, new regulations. Stripzac is the new kill shot in the NFL. Learn it, live it, love it. 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.

This is a huge weekend for college football and not the reason you think. College football has gotten too regional. I'm occasionally asked by fans, you used to talk so much more college football, and I say, yes, I did when it was less regional. Once a sport gets local or regional as a national host, I can't talk it as much. The last 10 national championship games, let's put it up for our TV audience. I'll read it for our radio audience. Bama, Glema, Bama, Glemson, Florida State Auburn, Alabama, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Oregon, Bama, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, see a pattern. The highest rated game is the one I didn't read.

2014, Ohio State Beats Oregon. No Southern team. That's the highest rated. Folks, the South will always watch any college football. It doesn't matter who you put in big games. They live, breathe, eat, and sleep it. Buckeyes, Oregon, SC, Texas, the South loves college football. The West has more protein.

teams. They will not watch college football unless they have representation either from a pack 12 or a big 10 team Michigan, Ohio State that they have played in the Rose Bowl for years and have huge fan bases out here. This weekend you have two games. Notre Dame's in one, Ohio State's in one. They need to win. It's important. The sport is getting lopsided. I remember telling Doug Gottlieb 15 years ago, 10 years ago, dude, college basketball is dying. It's dying. I watch this stuff. I said the one and done's killing it.

People don't know who the players are. It's an apartment complex. Nobody that's any talent really wants to live there. It's an airport. They land, they want to go to the NBA. College football is getting really regional. Ratings are down again this year. NBA ratings aren't down.

It's global. NFL ratings are down. They're up this year. College football needs Notre Dame. They need Michigan. They need Ohio State. Otherwise, Denver West doesn't watch the sport. They just don't watch it.

I hate to break it to you, but there's big states out here, like California and stuff. Arizona, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, big cities. College football. Let's go to our picks of the week right now. 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, here are the two big football games. Let's start.

Let's go Ohio State Penn State. You want to do that one first? I don't think this game is close. I think you get one of the great offenses in the country in Ohio State. And I think this is the best quarterback that Urban Meyer has ever had. Dwayne Haskins, he's going to play on Sundays. J.T. Barrett was a nice college quarterback. Chris Leak at Florida was a nice college quarterback.

Dwayne Haskins, he's going to stay for one more year in college and has a chance to be a top five pick. He's ranked top 10 passing yards, most accurate completion percentage. He's a stud. That's an NFL quarterback. He's not ready yet. He's a young kid, but he's a star. And this offense is ranked number three in the country, and Penn State's defense is 45th ranked in terms of yards allowed.

Ohio State's going to have, I know they're on the road, but they're going to have multiple explosion plays. This Ohio State team is one of five that I believe looked like they can win a national championship. Ohio State has 58 10 plus yard plays. And I do love McSority, the quarterback for Penn State. They're a lot of fun to watch. They will not be able to go blow for blow against the Buckeyes.

And I think the Buckeyes, I know it's a roadie, but they'll win 4326. Spoiler alert. Yeah, spoiler alert. Sorry, I just gave way the end of the game, 4326 Ohio State. Now, the next big game is Notre Dame Stanford. And by the way, I think Notre Dame needs to win this game, and Ohio State needs to win that game because it's good for college football. Stanford's defense is very vulnerable through the air. You're not going to run a ton on them, but they've allowed 200 plus yards of passing in their last three games.

You can throw on Stanford, and Notre Dame can throw. Notre Dame's been sneaky good at home, three and one against ranked teams when playing at home the last two years, nine at one at home against all opponents in the last two years. Notre Dame's a good home team. They really play well at home. And Notre Dame is doing a really good job. And you'll notice this. They looked the part in their front seven defensively.

They are big. Those are NFL bodies. Remember, the top two offensive linemen in the NFL last year out of college were Notre Dame guys. Quentin Nelson went number three to Indianapolis or number four. And then the tackle went to the San Francisco 49. The best two offensive linemen in football came from Notre Dame. They've got Morgan offensive lineman. They're very good defensively in the box.

They're allowing only 3.45 yards per carry, and that's Stanford's bread and butter. The rushing offense for Notre Dame is heating up. I think Notre Dame is a complete team. They've made a change of quarterback. Spoiler alert. I think Stanford's got their hands full after that Oregon circus. It was a great wild game. I'm going to take Notre Dame 31 to 20 over Stanford.

So Ohio State wins comfortably, and Notre Dame wins comfortably. And I think, frankly, that is great. for college football. Again, I love college football, but I'm in a business. This is what I do for a living. This is a business. I don't talk about what I just feel like talking about. You drive the bus. College football is getting very regional. The highest rated national title game in the last 10 was the one game without a southern team, Ohio State, Oregon. The southern part of the country will always watch the college football's big bowl games. The ratings are fantastic. But the rest of the country won't watch if year after year after year it's the same southern

teams. And I think Ohio State and Notre Dame looked apart and both win this weekend. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. So last night, Kirk Cousins, Minnesota lost. Kirk Cousins now is 4 and 20 against teams with a record better than 500. Meaning when he faces another elite quarterback, Kirk Cousins is 4 and 20. And last night, there's a reason Kirk Cousins' fourth round, Jared Gaw first round. You can see it. Jared's bigger. He's got a little better arm. made more great throws. So it was funny last night when you're watching the game and the worst career records against teams above 500 are Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Stafford, Blaine Gabbert,

Kirk Cousins, Blake Portals. Stafford's the only one where people go, wow, he's got a great arm. And there has been some dysfunction in Cleveland. But when that game happened, let me ask you an honest question. If you live in Minnesota, you like the Vikings, let me ask you this. So there was two minutes left. You trailed 3831, right? You can tie the game or you can go for the win. You have the ball. You had time. The punt was awful, so your field goal position was good, and you had timeouts, and you had great weapons. It was first and 10 at the 34, two minutes left. Let me ask you, did you really feel like you were going to tie it? You didn't. So everybody that defends Kirk Cousins, you had the ball, you had the weapons, you had some offensive momentum.

You had the ball first and 10, 34. You had good field position. I mean, you've been moving the ball the whole game. Did you feel like he was going to lead you? Because if that is Breezer Brady, you know what you're thinking? You're on the sidelines. You're on the sidelines. thinking, okay, it's going to be even. We're going to be tied here. Are we going to have 40 seconds left? You're thinking about overtime. The Rams, fans, it didn't feel like in Los Angeles,

Kirk Cousins was going to tie it. And this is eventually the play that decided the game. Cousins has his arm hit. Ball is out. I think it is a fumble, Joe. And now it's a matter of who's on it. Rams have it. We saw it last week.

We've seen it a lot throughout Kirk Cousin's career. He just, he's got it. room to kind of slide up, but he just does not feel that pressure coming around the other side. What can you say? And that's the play. He just didn't feel it. So it's not anti-Kirk cousins. And I think he deserved the contract he got because Minnesota has the roster. They've got it all set for about three more years until those defensive players and those receivers either get hurt, leave.

I mean, these windows close. so windows last longer in the NBA because players don't get hurt as much. So in the NBA, you know, I mean, Minnesota, if they kept Carl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, they got about nine years, ten years here, but these guys are going to be great players, and if they put the third good guy in, they can win a title. It doesn't work that way in the NFL. Even if you have the, you know, Minnesota has this group of defensive players, and they're going to get hurt, they're going to get traded, they're going to leave for free agency.

They got three years here to make it work. and win a title. So I got overpaying for Kirk Cousins, but you felt it last night. Like that was the moment. That was the game. You had the field position. You had the weapons. You had the momentum, man.

You knew it wasn't going to happen. You just kind of knew it wasn't going to happen. So he has 4 and 20 against teams that are better than 500. And again, I think he's a franchise quarterback. And I've always said in the NFL, you just don't want to be in chaos. Andy Dalton, Kirk Cousins, assure stability. What you don't want to be is Buffalo for the first two weeks. you don't like like in the last couple years we've had these teams that are at utter chaos at quarterbacks

I mean last year before garoppolo like san francisco they were just a mess at quarterback what you want to be even Dallas right now DAC offers stability and what you keep doing is drafting a guy every year even if you pay DAC at the end of the year you keep drafting guys because remember even if you got Justin Herbert number one and you're only paying DAC 16 and you're only paying your rookie 10 to 12 that's okay you can do that for a couple years before you trade dacker move off him but you can't be and kirk cousins provide stability but the ceiling you can win case keenum stability they can win but are you going to win a super bowl are you going to get that last night was a prime example you had everything field position weapons momentum protection all night it worked for you two minutes left you just knew it wasn't going to work last night a blown call changed a game this morning the internet lost its mind and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports 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 Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, guys, this is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The 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 kid.

This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Come on out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker.

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

Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.