The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 10/25/2018

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

Colin says Dave Roberts is not to blame for the Dodgers being down 0-2 because he doesn't make decisions, management does and it’s not great for baseball. He checks in on LeBron's old team and is shocked to find that they are struggling without him. Plus, Greg Cosell of NFL Films talks about how Aaron Rodgers is carrying a limited team and how the Cowboys will implement Amari Cooper. 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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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.

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

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to her, 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the best of Heard podcast.

Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRodio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeart Radio 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 and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio.

Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me on a Thursday. One hour from now, Greg Coasell, our NFL meat sandwich has good 10 to 15 minutes to football talk on the National Football League. as we have all week long. Joy, how are you this morning? I'm great. How are you? I am doing well. You know, everybody wants to assign blame.

And a company will tell you by who they pay the big money to. They'll tell you who should take the blame. Who's making the decisions? Who's really important? In the NFL, Pete Carroll makes $7.5 million. That's double what his general manager makes. Sean Payton of the Saints makes $9 million a year. That's triple what his GM makes.

But with the Dodgers, the general manager Andrew Friedman makes $7 million a year, and the manager Dave Roberts makes $1 million. So stop blaming him. He wasn't allowed to play his best players last night because the guys upstairs run baseball. Everybody wants to. Did Dave Roberts just get dumb? Didn't he make all the great moves against Milwaukee? No, he just got dumb in a week.

No. The difference between that game last night is the Red Sox played all their best players and their stars were allowed to be stars. And Mookiee Betts, a star, three hits. J.D. Martinez, star, huge RBI, 2 RBI single. David Price, star, sixth grade innings. Andrew Benendetti, great player, star, had a great catch. Dave Roberts went to his front office and said, I can't wait to, we're a home run hitting team.

I'm going to pay. Oh, no, you can't play your home run hitters. What would you mean? We were second in baseball and home runs. We led the National League in home runs, but the analytics overruled it upstairs and said, Cody Bellinger's not going to play. I want you to think about that.

Cody Bellinger was the National League Championship Series MVP, and he has not started for the first two games. Because he bets left-handed, and David Price is a left-hander, and the numbers and the projector and the nerds and the analytics and the... Dave Roberts wasn't allowed to... to play his stars. Can you imagine telling Mike Dantone of the Rockets? You can't start James Hardin and

play him. Can I play him later? Yeah, a couple minutes late in the game. Why? Well, analytics say he'll can't. Can you imagine Belichick being told by his general manager. Can't play Gronk. What about in the, no, no, no, no. Analytics say you cannot play Gronk. He doesn't match up. Folks, the Dodgers three leading home run hitters, none started. Their National League Championship Series MVP didn't get a start. They're three leading home run hitters. Got three at bats. A whole game combined. Come on.

You want to blame, listen, don't blame the bagel if you're overweight. And don't blame traffic if you're late to work. Leave earlier. Eat better. You're blaming the wrong guy. Joe Girardi, they should hire Joe Girardi. You mean the guy fired in Miami, then fired in New York? He's got all the answers.

He's got more money. He's got more stars than could have win in New York. So organizations tell you who matters. Companies, Amazon, Apple, Dodgers, Patriots, Chiefs, they tell you who matters. They tell you who should blame. That's why I blame football coaches all the time. I blame football coaches all the time. I blame Brady Hoke at Michigan.

They're paying you 5 million. Michigan's tell me who matters. I'll blame Pete Carroll. I'll blame Mike Tomlin because I know what you're making. I know what that means. Coaching matters in football. But in the NBA, I don't blame coaches. I get on Russell Westbrook.

I get on John Wall. I get on star players. And in baseball, it's ridiculous to keep beating up on these managers. To me, in October, Stars Trump analytics, I want Maniletics. And David Ortiz and Arod after the game were saying, basically, you didn't play Bellinger. What did you expect? They neutered their MVP. You can see it in his face.

You see the body language. He's got family. He's got friends. Texan. I'm saying, didn't you just win the MVP, bro? In the playoffs, nobody need a day off. You go with your tundle, no matter what. Nobody's their struggle or not.

The fans want to see that guy in the line up. And the longest, you don't have those guys in the line, no? You're not going to get to where you want to be. This is why I say, Joy, you've heard me say this. I get analytics. But in crunch time, I go man-aletics. I want James Harden on the floor. I don't care if LeBron doesn't shoot great free-throw percentages.

I want them on the floor. Well, there's a reason that we look at intangibles with athletes and not just what their numbers are. It matters. October. I want my stars on the field. Stars make things happen. Stars have more confidence.

Stars have more alpha. Stars have more dog. I want stars, not a slide ruler. Dave Roberts handcuffed last night by guys upstairs in a binder. And the guy upstairs is making $7 million and the manager's making a million. That tells me who should take the heat. and it's not the guy wearing the Dodger hat in the dugout.

It's the guy upstairs. Let me shift to this. We knew coming into this season for the Lakers, we knew some things. We knew LeBron was going to make the Lakers better. We knew they didn't have a lot of three-point shooters. The one question we had,

and I didn't have an answer for it, I had to see it pan out. I mean, I knew LeBron would make them better. He has. They won last night, B. Phoenix. And I knew they didn't have enough three-point shooters. That stuff was easy. But the one thing,

I said, I'm not sure. I got to watch it, I got to watch it pan out. Rondo or Lanzo? Who fits better with LeBron? Now, LeBron can make them both work, but you'd prefer one's easier to play with. Well, we have an answer. Lonzo Ball should be starting. Lonzo Ball, now that Rondo and Rondo's got nobody to blame but Rondo, Rondo gets into a fight, Rondo is the agitator, Lonzo is more of a lubricator. Lonzo's allowed to play now and getting more minutes. Why? Because once again, Rondo agitates gets into a fight.

And last night, 12.7 rebound, six assists. At one point, the Lakers had 30 assists to three turnovers. Lonzo's not a heavy turnover guy. He needs to start. And, you know, again, Rondo's got nobody to blame but Rondo on this. And the Lakers are playing intentionally fast because they don't have a bunch of shooters. They have a ton of depth. They had 76 at half. Their style this year, because of their limitations on shooting, is play intentionally fast. I mean, they're just flying up and down the

court. So if you're going to fly up and down the court, and that's the style that's going to work, and that's what Magic thinks, Luke thinks, LeBron thinks, Rob Polinka thinks. Everybody knows that. We're deep, we're young, we're athletic, we can run. We're not going to win a shooting contest. If that's the style you're going to do, Lonzo's got to be your guy. Because I just, I was talking about this yesterday. I had lunch Saturday with Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets. I'm not going to get into specific players, but we had this conversation at lunch, and it didn't include Lanzo or Rondo, but there's a lot of guys in the NBA, they over-dribble, over-dribble, over-dribble, over-dribble, over-dribble. When there's an assist available, then they do it because they want the assist.

Now, Rondo is very much like that. Rondo is a dribbler, dribbler, dribbler, dribbler, dribbler, he'll pass up shots, dribbler, dribbler, he wants the assist. He'll take the air out of the ball. Lonzo's not that kind of player. But Mori and I were talking about this. There are a lot of NBA guards that end up with eight assists, and they're really selfish players. Not all assist totals are the same. Rondo.

Rondo is a dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, I can get an assist. There goes. Lonzo is a get rid of the ball fast. I don't give a rip about my numbers. Rondo has always been, I'll play big in the playoffs, I'll play big in TV games, and I want the assist number. Lonzo doesn't give a rip.

And the Lakers four games this year, 130, 140, 115, 119, they're going to move the ball up and down the court. Lonzo fits better. And by the way, Lonzo now is stronger than last year and Lonzo is clearly a better shooter than last year. The two things we worry about Lonzo.

My two knocks on him last year were he doesn't look like an NBA body. He looked like a college athlete playing NBA basketball. He looks bigger now. He looks like he put on 8 to 10 pounds. He looks bigger and stronger. I always liked his length. I always liked his vision, but I'm like he doesn't look like an NBA guard needs to look.

He does now. Secondly, I said he's got to get the shot. I don't care if he fixes it. He's just got to hit more threes. And now he is. Here's a sequence last night, a sequence from who the Lakers should be starting alongside LeBron. Now, LeBron will bring the dribble across over to Lanzo. In rhythm for three.

Yes, sir. Assists to LeBron three-pointer for Lanzo. LeBron lobs it in. Lonzo in good position for the mismatch against Canaan. LeBron, he sought. Lonzo did two and one. Right wing. Lonzo, look at this.

Throw it down. Tomahawk, Coosma, on the beautiful shovel assist from Lonzo. Lonzo ball style fits the style the Lakers are going to play to succeed this year much better. He gets the ball, he gets it out, he doesn't care about assist totals. All assist totals are not the same. A lot of guys get nine a night, but they're selfish players. A lot of guys can get eight and they're less selfish.

Lonzo is an incredibly unselfish player who's taller than Lonzo. He's more a lubricator socially in the locker room than Rondo. And now he's a better shooter than Rondo. You just, the toughest decision all year. The one we knew they'd be better with LeBron. Nobody argued that. And we knew they don't have a ton of shooters. That'll be a liability.

This was the issue. Rondo Lanzo. We got our answer. By the way, you really think Rondo's going to be there in three years? I'm not sure he's going to be there about a trading deadline. I'm dead serious. This franchise going forward is LeBron and who fits with him. We got an answer.

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. There are things in your life I can't put a dollar value on, but they just seem way more valuable than what I paid for it. Let me give an example. TSA precheck. I paid $85. I went to the airport, $85 for TSA precheck. That covers a couple of years. I don't know what it's worth. I can't sell it to anybody. There's no tangible value. you, but I know that I'm in a better mood when I go to the airport. I know that I can pack differently. I can wear shoes, you know, that I don't have to take off. It changes my mood. It alleviates stress going to the airport. Forget when I'm in line. Driving, packing for the

airport. I don't know what TSA precheck is worth. A hell of a lot more than $85 is what I paid for it. So what is the value of things in your life? In football, we assess value based on fantasy points, because everybody plays fantasy football. So when Amari Cooper goes to the Cowboys, you're going to be like, well, unless he has like 85 catches and 12 touchdowns, he didn't do my fantasy team any good. The value is going to be different with Amari Cooper. The Cowboys right now average about 320 yards a game. and that's like 26th in the league. They're like 26, 29th, 30th on all their stats offensively.

Yet if 50 yards a game extra, just 50, they go from 320 yards to 370, they're in the middle of the pack, that's really successful. If the safety has to shade over to Amari Cooper, therefore allowing more running games in three to four more first downs,

remember this about the Dallas Cowboys. Remember what I'm about to tell you on the Dallas Cowboys. They are 3-0. when they score 20 points. They don't need this guy to be over the top to be successful. They've never lost a game this year when they score 20. Their defense is good.

They found their pass rushers. They found their linebackers. Their front sevens excellent. It's one of the best front sevens in football. If Amari Cooper comes in and doesn't reward your fantasy team, well, that's not going to be how the cowboys deem this successful. When I drive to an airport with TSA Pre, it is no longer a series of can'ts. I can't pack that.

I can't wear that. I can't wear that. I can't show up then. It's a series of, oh, I can wear that, I can pack that, I can show up later. I can go run this errand before I go to the airport. Amari Cooper is going to alleviate cants. He's going to give you cans. When Scott Linehan drives to the airport, drive to the game, when Jason Garrett drives to practice,

when DAC drives to practice, all those coordinators, all those coordinators, all those coaches, all those players, it's now can. Oh, we can throw deep. Oh, we can run these three trap plays because the safety now shades over to the right with Amari Cooper. Like, how do you define worth? How do you define success? If you got your franchise quarterback and you got your defense

and you can bring in a player who makes both better that you go from 26th in offense to 14th, just 55 more yards, four more four more, first downs. That's successful. I mean, don't kid yourself. If the Cowboys made that field goal against Washington on Sunday, they'd be four and three, and you'd be looking at this deal going, hell yeah, we got our guy. But they're three and four. Everybody's like, oh, by the way, have a buy this week? That's a perfect time for Amari Cooper to come in. They've got to buy, learn the playbook, how to buy by the way, his last week in Oakland had a buy. So we got two week buy, he's healthy.

he can learn the playbook and oh by the way next game up home money night football extra rest against tennessee not a good road team and also struggling in the secondary so just i don't know how to put a dollar everything can't be like well this this guy's worth this and this guy's worth that i just know in my life there are things like tsa precheck that i paid 85 bucks for and it feels a thousand times more valuable than that and amari cooper is going to show you real value you're not going to find all of it on your fantasy team. You get a safety to shade over. Ezekiel Elliott can run three more trap plays that they couldn't run

before because the box is jammed because nobody fears their perimeter weapons. It may be 50 yards a game. It may be three first downs, but I'll double down. I think he's going to work. I think you're going to be happy with it. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

Everybody's beating up on John Gruden in the Raiders. For the record, I did not like it initially as a move. Too much power, 10-year deal, but out of the sport too long. That said, they are accumulating a lot of draft picks, which if they hit home runs, then it would be a very good move. If you can nail, you know, the Rams got Todd Gurley, Jared Gough, and Aaron Donald in the first round over time. If you get three players that good, then they're good.

Raiders did draft Amari Cooper, good player in the first round, Khalil Mack. But let me give an example. So John Gruden yesterday, he likes to talk in the microphone. He's very good at it. He and Mike Tomlin and John Gruden are fun to listen to with the microphone. They're like, by the way, if Mike Tomlin ever gets fired, network hire him. greater to Mike. Gruden's greater to Mike. Most of these coaches are the pits. They're boring. It's cliches. Tomlin's a home run. And Gruden's as good or better. He was talking yesterday about

Derek Carr and trades. I don't see us making any more trades. I didn't see us making a trade the other day. I really did it. But I don't see us making any more trades. But I'll never say never again to anybody. So if somebody calls about Derek Carr, that's not. I'm not going to speculate about that today. I don't see us making any more trades. Certainly. I don't see us trading our quarterback. You know, all I'll say about this is, be very careful about trading him. Okay, I want to give you an example. John Elway's dad was a coach. He grew up in a football family. He went to Stanford. He ran an arena football team after playing to a league title. Stakehouses, car dealerships, super successful businessman. Oh yeah, he was the greatest quarterback that ever played until like

Montana and, you know, Brady. I would say that's qualified. I'm not saying John Gruden's not. John Elway's as qualified a man in America to figure out who's a good quarterback. He played with him. He was. He ran another league. And he drafted Brock Osweiler, got into a bidding war for him.

Thankfully, he lost, drafted Paxton Lynch and gave a bunch of money to Case Keenham. His number one hit was recruiting Peyton Manning, who he didn't have to scout. He already knew he was great. He just had a good dinner with him at one of his Steakhouses and Peyton Manning's like, you're a Hall of Famer, I'm going to be a Hall of Famer, I'm going to go play with the Broncos. So he's a great recruiter.

John Elway is struggling on the quarterback thing. Be very careful about giving up Derek Carr. Let me give you an example. Marcus Mariotta, James Winston. They're not as good as we thought they would be, are they? I'm out on Marietta and I'm about two bad games and another bad decision by Winston being out on him. By the way, Wentz is way better than we thought.

Mahomes is way better than I thought. Russell Wilson is way better than I thought. This quarterback thing is hard. Kirk Cousins was drafted in the fourth round. RG3 in the first by the same team. Would you have guessed RG3 out of the league? Kirk Cousins, highest paid quarterback in the league for about six months? Would you guess that?

This quarterback thing, even when you have them in-house, forget drafting them. Blake Bortles is in-house. And Tom Coughlin's like, I think we should give him a contract extension. six games later Tom Kaufland's like what the hell was I thinking that's when you got him in house you have film you know them you see him at practice this quarterback thing is hard to figure out I mean think about it when I say to you top 10 quarterbacks in the league you get to about number six and you start adding qualifiers well I like Matt Ryan but you know he can't he didn't have much of an arm I like Matt Stafford but he doesn't have a signature win you know I like Andrew luck but he

throws a lot of interceptions. I like Cam Newton, but it's not much of a precision. That's by about number six in the league. By about number six, there are things you don't like about him. Derek Carr's good. Derek Carr's really good. Derek Carr walked into this league, awful for a year. Then they got it rolling, had a very good offensive line, a little bit of a running game. He was real good. And the Raiders, did what the Raiders do. There's all sorts of dysfunction and chaos. But this is all you need to know. The five best quarterbacks in the NFL, I'm going to give them to you arguably.

Tom Brady, six-round. Russell Wilson, third round. Drew Brees, second round. Big Ben, third quarterback taken in his draft, and Aaron Rogers plummeted to the 24th pick. So all the general managers in the league,

those are the five best. Most of them went to non-football powers. So don't kid yourself. when you get the guy in house like Derek Carr and Blake Bortles, it's hard, man. This quarterback thing, John Elway, by the way, did you hear the story about John Elway yesterday? He had to release his backup, Chad Kelly. There's another guy he whiffed on.

Chad Kelly kicked out of high school team, kicked out of his college team. No, it's not like they used a very high pick on that one. No, but I mean, it's hard. Like there's certain things that are easy in the NFL, like quarterback is even when you have him in house. This is what I was talking about yesterday, though. I don't understand it. It is not necessary for you to say that you're never going to make any moves. No one expects that.

Literally no one. Fans don't expect you to not make any moves. They actually usually get mad at you if you don't. Don't say you're not going to trade anyone. It doesn't make any sense. Just don't. We talked about this earlier this week. Baseball managers and NBA and hockey coaches,

there are so many games. You can kind of say whatever you want at the podium, and it just disappears into the ether. You have a game the next night. When a football coach talks at his weekly presser, that's the only time he talks all week, and we will micro-analyze it. Gruden came from television.

He's a talker. He's highly verbal. He's wildly entertaining. He's a confident speaker. And the more he talks, the more trouble he gets in. What's up, everybody? This John Middlecalf on the three-and-out podcast brought to you by Colin Coward's podcast network.

If you like Collins Show, you will like mine. I talk a ton of football tonight. Today, whenever you're listening, I'm talking about Eli Manning. He's washed up via Mari Cooper trade from John Grood to Jerry Jones. You know that's spicy. Got a lot of opinions on that. You can listen to me wherever you find your podcast. Again, John Middlecock, the three and out podcast.

If you're busy, we're right in the middle of the World Series. We're very busy. You love baseball and you love football. And right now we got college football. You really haven't been updated on like what happened to LeBron and stuff. So let me just for two minutes just give you an update on, you know, how LeBron's doing. So he has a new team now. The staff found just a random piece of video from LeBron, still the best player in the world easily in his like 16th year.

Here's a random piece of video from LeBron last night with his new team. Here it is. Let's run it. Here he goes. It's off the rebound. He was my shovel pass. LeBron. No look. McGee, hello. Throw it down. Without question. LeBron around the back. LeBron in the lane. LeBron off the glass to himself to score it.

Oh, LeBron. It's almost like a, and then a steel and a try. And a chance and he nearly knocked it down. What a way that one is to end the half. A 44 point quarter for the Lakers. Well, 44-76 at half. He appears to be. very happy in doing very well. Well, let's just check in now. Again, you're very busy. Let's check in with his old team. Yeah, I mean, the Cleveland Cavaliers. They were in the final last year.

So Tristan Thompson was on that team. And they just kept going to the finals over and over and over. They just lost one player. Tristan Thompson, quote on Twitter, we're still four-time Eastern Conference champs. So until you take us down from that, teams ain't got much to say. You know, he makes a very good point. He makes a...

Well, he... The first part of it wasn't a lie. Yeah. So let's update us on their game so far. Ooh, ye. Well, they probably played the 95 Bulls, Showtime Lakers, Russell's Celtics. Who did they play in those first four where they got hammered? They played, oh, the Nets, the Hawks, the Timberwell.

Well, do we have some video? I mean, how do they look? You can, you know, a tweet and scores. Do we have some video how they look? Please. Yeah. Super. By the way, the NBA.

writers didn't think LeBron was the MVP. They should retroactively go to James Harden House, steal the trophy, take it to the Palisades here in Los Angeles, and give it to LeBron. By the way, the calves are four and 26 in their last 30 games without LeBron James. The MVP voting last year, he didn't win it. By the way, Kauai Leonard missed the season. Spurs made the playoffs. James Hardin missed 10 games. Rockets had a winning record in those 10 games.

the Cavaliers are four and 26 but he's not the most valuable that team you just watched he got to admit to the finals and you bag on him because he can't beat the Warriors the best basketball team ever, okay

we're so petty I'm rubbing off on you calling I'm very petty 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. Greg Kossel, over 30 years. NFL films is joining us. We have a very interesting, very interesting week. Greg, I know you don't care about point spreads, but Green Bay is a

nine and a half point dog to the Rams. That's like what the bills got at Minnesota. So, either the Rams are the greatest team ever invented or Green Bay's got limitations according to Vegas, which is it? I think Green Bay has limitations. Yeah, I think you're... I don't know if I'd say the Rams are the greatest team ever, but Green Bay has limitations. That's a tough either or a question. I didn't bring my number two pencil for that one. But they, let's talk about this. You're not a numbers guy in Vegas, but that number is telling you Vegas is like it's a one-man team. I mean, what do you see of the limitations? Well, I think that their defense is still a work in progress under the new coordinator,

Mike Patton. They've been missing some players due to injury. They've struggled a bit in coverage. It's a very detailed defense. with a lot of moving parts, and it takes time. And offensively, they really have given up on the run game. I mean, in the last two games, and he's a great quarterback. No one's arguing that point, but it's very hard to play that way. And it's also hard to pay too much pressure on your offensive line, and if they're going to play that way this week,

and they might feel that they have to, given who they're playing against, then they'll probably have some issues in pass protection. Good Lord. What a mess. You know, he was supposed to be now turning 35 in December. He was supposed to be the elder statesman. The guy that right now is playing better and has a better team is Drew Breeze. He's completing 77% of his throws, 13 TDs, no interceptions. How much of it, though, is Payton, Sean Peyton, delivering a system for him? Because I've never seen Breeze this good. Let's go from Rogers in his struggles to Breeze where a team went out and got, they traded two picks for Eli Apple. That tells us. me they think they can win this Super Bowl. That tells me they're all in on this year. What does the tape say on Breeze this year? Well, I think Breeze is in some ways like Tom Brady in that he's very willing to, I think that's built into his play, and they'll take their shots based on scheme, but I think he does not force the ball when it's not there, and he's very willing to take a six or seven-yard gain, knowing that that sustains. And I think based on what

I saw on tape last week, even though the numbers weren't there, the volume was, I think they're game is getting back to where we could see what it was a year ago. Yes. Where it was really the driving force of their offense because a year ago, Colin, as you probably know, I believe Breezed through the fewest number of past attempts that he has in any one of his years in New Orleans. And I think they're going to slowly move back toward that. Yep.

And I totally agree both Brady and Breeze this year have that foundational running game to support them, whereas Aaron Rogers, as you point out, does not. Very hard, Colin, to throw the ball no matter how great your quarterback is. And we know we're in an era of some great older quarterbacks in the NFL. It's very hard to ask your quarterback to drop back 40 to 50 times a game and really have a consistent, sustaining type offense. The numbers are there. The fantasy people love that, but it's very hard to play that way.

Yeah. Let's shift to Amari Cooper. You know, he's not going to be a big fantasy guy. He's not going to have 70 catches and 12, you know, touchdowns. But if he can get the safeties to shade over, open up some trap run plays for Dallas, I think he gives them an element they do not have, which is a very good athlete on the perimeter. I think it's an area of need. I like, I watch these games. You watch the film, Greg.

I like Dallas's front seven defensively. They're three and oh when they've scored 20 points. I think Amari Cooper, I don't know if he's worth a number one pick, but what does the film say? I think he adds real value. Well, here's what I like to play with one back and. and three wide receivers. So now you add that wide receiver, and he's very talented. We can talk about numbers, but he's very talented.

Michael Gallup, the rookie from Colorado State, has slowly been progressing. In fact, they've been using him as their single receiver to the boundary, their ex-receiver. Now, whether he stays there with Cooper, I don't know. But when you line up with three wide, you're also setting up your run game much better because you're spreading the defense out. It's very hard to consistently run into what we call a heavy box, where there's a lot of offenders inside the box for the defense. You spread the defense out, and now Zeke Elliott can become a more effective player as well. So it has that ancillary impact on your offense. You get more

talent and wide receiver, but you also can run the ball theoretically better. Yeah, I think it's going to work. And again, I don't play fantasy football. I'm for my audience playing it, but, you know, there are some things that I don't know if they're worth the money, but it seems to me when I look at Dallas, I see the defense, I see the left tackle. I see the left I see the running back. There's a lot of things I like about this team. I don't like them on the boundary. Now, suddenly I do.

I want to shift to an ingre... I am so happy for Philip Rivers. And I think, great... I am so... First of all, people aren't watching the Chargers play. Even in Los Angeles, they're watching the Rams. They are so aggressive. They are so good on the perimeter.

And they've been doing this without Bosa. I got to tell you, even in Los Angeles, I tell my friends, I'm not so sure the Chargers don't have better personnel. in a lot of spots than the Rams. What are you seeing with this offense? Well, they're very three big, wide receivers, and that really is helpful for a quarterback like Rivers,

Rivers, who's always been a turn-it-loose, aggressive thrower. He will throw the football. They attack the seams. They attack vertically. There's a lot of intermediate crossers. This is not a dink-and-dunk offense. They push it down the field. They can run the ball.

They can also line up in two tight ends and run the ball. they have a back in Austin Eccler, who's a terrific compliment for Gordon, who also can line up to attach from the formation. So they have every dimension you could want as an offense. And Rivers, just like Breeze and Brady, is outstanding before the snap of the football. He reminds me sometimes of Andrew Luck, where he lets go of a ball. And I'm like, oh, Andrew, what are you doing? And I want to shift to Andrew Luck because Chris Ballard took some heat,

the GM, for going with two offensive linemen in his first few picks. but here's what I notice. He's not getting sacked as much. In fact, I read something the other day. He hasn't been sacked on like 150 dropbacks. It looks like luck, at least. He may not have great weapons, but it does look like he's got more time to throw this year.

I think it's a quicker pass game. The ball is coming out. Therefore, the ball's not being thrown down the field as much. If you watch them carefully, you're not seeing the deep balls thrown a lot. And do you need to do that once in a while? Yes, but they used to really push it down the field. And that was actually a strength of luck as he was willing to do that. But now, with an understanding of an offensive line that's young and emerging,

they're going with a quicker pass game. Now, they're not going to play an offense like the bills every week where they're going to be way ahead. But the key is not too many dropbacks. Last week, I think he dropped back less than 25 times. That won't happen every week, but you have to control that. And if Marlon Mac can present some kind of running game, then their offense is actually pretty good.

Yeah, no, Marlon Mac has kind of flourished. I'm glad you brought him up. No, I watched him last week, and I'm like, you know what? This is not a great roster yet, but they've done it. It's not a great roster. And they have to get him more weapons. But what I liked was he's not taking the body shots. I want to segue to Patrick Mahomes.

And I get a lot of anger at this. Like Colin, you didn't buy Aaron Rogers when he first came in. Listen, I like Patrick Mahomes. I want to see him in sleet and hail. I want to see him when he has his offensive. line breaks down. I still think he plays flag football sometimes. The next couple of weeks, he's got some tough opponents. Do you have, I still have my doubts. I know he's great. I know he's a talent. But what do you think going forward do you want to look at with Patrick Mahomes?

Well, I think that, let's put it this way. I think he's a talented quarterback in a great offense because what I notice when I watch their offense, and this gets away from Mahomes, per se, but what I notice when I watch their offense is they feature multiple personnel packages, They feature multiple formation looks. They do a ton of shifting in motions, and there's such an emphasis on misdirection and deception in the play calling. So I'm not saying it's easy for Mahomes. Believe me, it's never easy for an NFL quarterback.

But the Chiefs do so much to cause problems for defenses. Look at what the Bengals did this week. The Bengals basically said, boy, there's too much going on. We're just going to play a basic, simple defense because we can't handle all this stuff, and we don't have enough good people to handle it because they've got weapons as well, obviously, the Chiefs.

So he is in a great, great situation. There's times in every game where he's undisciplined, but they have so much talent and they do so many good things, and their defenses started to play a little better that it's very hard for them not to put up some points over the course of four quarters. By the way, let's shift to Deshaun Watson, who has some weapons too, but I don't think he has the offensive line. No.

I mean, remember, he started hot, then this year he got beat up. I still like him. I do, too. I do. When I watch him, he was my favorite quarterback coming out of that draft, but I said, I don't know if he's a superstar, but there's too much to like. I would take him if he was available. Let's do an update on Deshawn Watson. What do you see?

I think that last week was another great example because their defense, which is actually can be very good, was able to take control of the game. And he dropped back in that game, I think, 25 or less times. You can't drop him back 45 times, Colin, at this point in his career for two reasons. The offensive line can't handle it. and he can't handle it because the more he drops back, the more he becomes a little too random. He has a tendency to drop his eyes. He has a tendency to leave the pocket prematurely. He can't get hit the way he's been hit this year. He's not a big body for a quarterback. He needs the game to be far more controlled, and then I think he can grow into that.

But I think he's a very good thrower, and he certainly has movement skills. But I like Sean Watson, and I think that he'll develop into a really fine player. Yeah, just got to get him some help. Andrew Luck, you can only take that beating for so long. That's correct. Yeah, and he's taking too much of a beating. But there's just, to me, there's too much to like with him. Plus, I don't get any off the field nonsense.

No, he's a great, great kid. Great kid, no nonsense off the field, which, by the way, at that position, it matters. Okay, finally, I watched every second of the Eagles and Panthers. It was wildly entertaining. Yep. And Cam and the fourth was Cam at his best. You know, I always struggle with his mechanics because he throws too much arm, not enough base. but I watched him in the fourth quarter.

I love the play calling. I loved he went over the top. I love the accuracy. Your play of the week is Cam. Yeah, and he was as refined and disciplined in the pocket on those three drives. I think as we've seen him over a stretch. Obviously, he's always had moments like that, but I thought he was terrific. And I want to show the final touchdown, and let's start it right now,

because these plays, when people see them, they always wonder why guys are so wide open. These plays are so hard to defend. And two factors immediately. The tight alignment of Greg Olson, that makes it tough for the defense. And then Chris Manhart, he's going to go in motion. Now, when you're down here at the goal line, teams play man to man. They have to Olson man to man. Okay, now Malcolm Jenkins, he has Manhart, who's the motion tight end, man to man.

But the problem is, as we switch the angle, and there's Reynolds on Olson, and you're going to see exactly what happens here, as you see Jenkins again on man to man. just so people can see the change in the angle. Everything about this looks like run, because what happens is you've got the ISO lead look, and then you have Cam Newton showing the ball to McCaffrey in the backfield. So what happens is Jenkins steps up to play Manhart. It looks like run to him. And then what Greg Olson does that's so good is he shows as if he's going to block.

And what that does is it gets Leroy Reynolds, his man coverage defender, eyes in the backfield. because everything says run and then it's too late. So these kinds of plays are really difficult to defend. The Saints scored a touchdown on the exact same play to Benjamin Watson this week as well. And then people probably say, why are guys so open? It's so hard down at the goal line because that man coverage when you have a pass run responsibility, it puts you in such major conflict. So good. Greg Kosell, 30-plus-year NFL films.

It gets smarter every time I watch and listen, Greg. co-selt. Nice talking to you, bud. Thanks, Tom. 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. After almost three

hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last. This is one of these sneaky NFL games. Dolphins are actually four and three, just one game back of the Patriots. The Texans lead their division, Deshawn Watson.

What's interesting is Brock Osweiler has been much maligned in the NFL. He got drafted by John Elway, didn't work, blah, blah, blah, blah. Went to Houston, didn't work, blah, blah, blah. But actually this year, two starts, three games, he's been pretty good. His stats are 67% completion, 6 TDs, 2 picks, 107 quarterback rating. So so far this year, he's actually been pretty good. And, you know, we have to, this game airs on Fox tonight.

So, you know, we have a promo department at Fox. And they, you know, I mean, listen, promotional departments are important. They want to get you jazzed up for the game. Sure. So our promotion department at Fox asked us if we would run a promo for tonight's Miami Dolphins Houston Texans game. So I thought that was cool.

It's not that it's quick. Okay. Like 10 seconds. So here you go. He's got more playoff wins than Dak Prescott, Matt Stafford, and Andy Dalton combined. It's Proctober. I don't think that's bad.

I mean, first of all, factually. We always want to make sure that you're saying facts because you don't want to get in trouble. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to come out here and just embellish. No fake news. No fake news. So that is, there's one more? All right. There's one more promo.

That's it. Go ahead. The Broncos bench Peyton Manning for him. He's solid as a block. Good song. Yeah, I mean, I guess they did bench him for Peyton Manning. But then they didn't they go back? to Payton Manning. It didn't work out.

But did happen. A little disingenuous. Ant, one. There's one more. They're telling me there's one more promo. Go ahead. He wants one to playoff game against the Raiders' third string quarterback. He'll brook you like a hurricane. That's not going to get me to a TV set.

That, to me, that doesn't work at all. Is that excite you? Another good song. The song makes me want to have margaritas for some reason. Oh, the ad? I mean, it is, yeah. I'm with you. Now they're getting aggressive.

They told me they have one more. One more. In his second career start, he beat Tom Brady. He is President Trump Obama. I mean, come on. I'm out here trying to be a company guy, and you're comparing him to Barack Obama. I do miss Obama.

Yeah, well, there's some people that do, yes. That's absolutely. Now they're telling me The last one Is the best one Okay All right We couldn't find any more interesting facts about Brock

Osweiler We've got writers Brock Okay That was not the best one The best one was the first one Which was accurate and had facts and stuff The other ones had facts So tonight is Brocktoberfest

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