The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 11/01/2018

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

Colin thinks the Tom Brady/Aaron Rodgers comparisons are way off and instead thinks that Rodgers’ career stacks up closer to a different future Hall of Famer. He is tired of the media pushing Cam Newton as an MVP candidate when he isn't one. Plus, Greg Cosell of NFL Films talks about Aaron Rodgers being tough to coach and why James Conner is more productive than Le'Veon Bell. Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

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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, coming 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 iHeartRadio app by search heard. 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, right here, FS1.

Joy Taylor, hope you had a great and safe and happy Halloween. Go to the dentist now. I avoided eating too much candy, but it was fun. How was your Halloween? Good. A couple of kick-cat bars I'm ready to go, get back on the treadmill. I'm fine. Great to have you in today. We have a pack show. One hour from now, Greg Kossel. I have the greatest segment and the greatest of my career. John's been with me for years,

and my staff won't let me lead the show with it. So I think it's going to come up in 15 minutes. They don't think it's lead worthy. I thought the show was called The Hurd. I have a little pull around here. I got nothing. So I can't lead with this segment, which I think is great and fascinating and interesting, and we can talk about it for five days. Yeah, and that's what my... staff said voted off the island for this segment so 15 minutes i want to start with this brady and rogers meet sunday and um once again is all talking about how great erin rogers is and he is great i'm not saying he's not this is not here to bash erin rogers

bill bellichick was the latest the lava train here it comes down the hill lavishing praise on erin rogers killed us the last time we played him so i mean he's a great player he does does everything well. He's Reeds coverage as well. Very accurate throwing the ball. This is one of the great quarterbacks. You know, in National Football League,

no question about does everything good. I'd say playing against Aaron Rogers is very, very difficult. You know, he's as good as anybody that I've faced. And we faced a lot of good ones through the years.

Okay. They're going to face off Sunday. There is no comparison between Brady and Rogers. Let's get past that. Tom has blown way past him. And let me give you an example here. And this is not a criticism of Aaron because who I'm going to compare him to is great as well. For a long time, the first seven or eight years,

the first seven or eight years of LeBron James career, he was compared to Carmelo Anthony. And those were fair comparisons. They were both all-stars. They were both great. They were both scoring a bunch, and they were both growing. But by about year 9, 8-9, the comparisons no longer held true. That's not to say that Rogers doesn't have a better arm than Brady,

and Carmelo's not a more natural score than LeBron all time. He is. But after about year 8, it's like it's so lobsided. Stop comparing Carmello to LeBron. First eight years, you have. had arguments. Because remember, LeBron didn't win his title until year eight.

LeBron was just an all-star. Carmelo was an all-star. In fact, Carmelo got his Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference Final. And LeBron had got his team to the Eastern Conference Final. As a fair comparison. And then it started getting, like, lobsided. And nobody compares Mello and LeBron anymore. Here's who you should compare Aaron Rogers to.

Big Ben. Big Ben and Aaron Rogers are very, very comparable. Let's talk head coach. Mike Tomlin, Mike McCarthy. They both have a good head coach. Neither one of those coaches is Bill Belichick, Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh. They're both very good coaches, though not consider the best coach in the game. Both franchises are Blue Bloods, Packers, Steelers.

They both went to non-traditional college football programs. Cal? In fact, junior college, Cal for Aaron, Miami of Ohio for Big Ben. Neither was taken number one in their draft class at their, position. In fact, both have used that as a chip on the shoulder. Aaron fell in the draft, and Big Ben was the third quarterback taken in his draft. Both are very, very outspoken against their very popular franchise. I mean, Aaron Rogers has taken not even thinly veiled shots at the Packers bosses, and Ben has taken multiple shots at the Steelers and Mike Tomlin. Both have had really,

really, really nice weapons, both better than Brady. Ben's had, uh, Plaxico and Heinz Ward, Santonia Holmes, Aaron Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster, that's Big Ben. Aaron's had Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, Devonte Adams. Those are really above-average wide receivers. Both generally have good offensive lines. In fact, if you look at their playoff histories, it's very similar. Aaron Rogers' playoff losses.

He's lost to some really good quarterbacks. He lost to Russell Wilson's going to be a Hall of Famer. Carson Palmer, maybe a Hall of Famer, and Matt Ryan's very good. But he's also got some stinkers. Aaron Rogers lost as a huge favorite to Eli Manning. He lost to Colin Kaepernick twice, and he lost to an old, old Kurt Warner. Big Ben the same. He's got some playoff losses two times to Brady and to Peyton Manning.

But Big Ben's also got some stinkers in the playoffs. He lost to Tebow, David Garard, Blake Bortles. Ben and Rogers are both elusive and scramblers and ad livers. That creates all-time highlights. And it creates improvisation, which can drive teammates and coaches crazy and bad interceptions and plays out of the pocket where you get hurt. In fact, both are always playing at about 90 percent. health. Aaron's increasingly banged up. Big Ben last three years increasingly banged up.

You're giving me these Rogers Brady comparisons. Stop it. It's like Mello and LeBron. It worked for about seven years. And then by 8, 9, 10, 11, there's no comparison. They're both Hall of Famers. Mello and LeBron are both Hall of Famers. Mello's probably a better natural score in his first eight years than LeBron. But when you start piling up trophies, Tom Brady doesn't have a trophy case. He's got a trophy room. He doesn't have a trophy wall.

He's got a trophy room. Their personalities aren't the same. Brady is more coachable, more humble, less condescending, not as aloof. Aaron is Big Ben. And by the way, both will be first ballot Hall of Famers. To Aaron's credit, he no longer wants to hear

about the comparisons to Tom Brady. You look at MJ and LeBron, you know, it's tough to settle any of those debates because there's the what-if game and the situation game and who you played for and what area you played in. I'm just worried about winning right now, and he's got five championships. So that ends most discussions, I think. That's very appropriate, very accurate. It shows Aaron Rogers' intelligence, understanding, self-awareness.

This is not a bash Aaron Rogers segment. But LeBron and Mello only worked for about seven, eight years. Then it got silly. Rogers Brady now has moved into silly territory. Rogers is Big Ben, from the franchise to the coach, to the style, to the outspokenness, to the banged up, to the ad-libbing, to the playoff failures. They're right aligned with each other. and they are two of the greatest quarterbacks I've ever seen.

But they're not close to the greatest quarterback I've ever seen. And that's Tom Brady. By the way, right now is when I should move into the greatest topic I've ever created. Yeah, but bosses, staff gave it a big thumbs down. So let's move to my second segment, which won't be the greatest segment ever created for radio and television. But I think it's worthy of talking about in the first 15 minutes of our show. Lakers won last night, had a couple of big leads, almost blew the game. I'm not going to break down an NBA regular season November-October game. I'm not going to. But I will tell you this.

It once again proved Lonzo Ball's better than Rondo, and I've been on this for two weeks. Lonzo Ball played twice the minutes of Rondo last night. The Lakers won again when that happens. That's happened four times. They're three-in-one. and the only loss was in overtime. Lonzo, by the way, was three for three on threes. Lonzo, by the way, had seven assists and no turnovers. And Lonzo has separated himself defensively. He is much better than Rondo.

For all the Lonso ball haters, he is better than Rondo, and the Lakers are better when he plays more minutes than Rondo. Rondo is moody and inconsistent. Rondo picks his spots, TV games, TNT, what he wants to play well. Last night was not a big TV game. They played the Mavericks. It was a Wednesday. Nobody watched.

And Rondo was two for seven and had a minus 21 plus minus. Lonzo should be playing three minutes for every minute Rondo plays. Lonzo is better than Rondo. And Lanzo's the future, not Rondo. And here's the other thing is that Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and Lanzo, they're boys, their buddies, their friends. Rondo isn't friends with anybody. In an article a year ago, he said, quote, I'm not really into people, unquote.

Rondo is the NBA's transient, moody vagrant who shows up in a town, doesn't make friends, sometimes helps you win, and then people tire of him. Watch the Lakers with Lanzo last night. Better communication, cleaner, the ball moves better, the team is better. and they win. Now, Rondo will have big television games. At this point in his career, that's what he is. But the NBA regular season has a lot more Wednesday night at home against the Mavericks and Thursday night on the road against Phoenix

and Monday night at home against Portland than it does big TV games with the Warriors. Lonzo is better than Rondo. Lonzo should be playing significantly more minutes than Rondo. Lonzo is easier to get along with than Rondo. This was always the question coming into this season. We knew LeBron was good. We knew they didn't have three-point shooters. We just didn't know who was going to get the minutes with LeBron.

The veteran Rondo or the kid Lonson. Last night once again proves what the answer is. Lonzo played more minutes and the Lakers had huge leads, though they almost blew it. That's the NBA. Everybody either comes hard late. It's the new revolution of the NBA. Leeds evaporate fast.

Happens to the Warriors. Happens to the Jazz. Happens to the Celtics. So it's going to happen to the Lakers. Last night, once again, Luke Walton, I think he's figuring it out. Lonzo is better for the team, better for the results,

and Lonzo is better than Rondo. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. You know, our president often uses the term fake news. And the reason it kind of works is because there is some fake news out there. Most organizations aren't making stuff up. But I've seen this in my 25 years in my business.

I've seen increasingly, I used to be a young guy, and I looked to newspapers for the truth, and I looked to the media for the truth. There was less opinion, more truth. I'm in the opinion space, but I still try to give you data with all my arguments, because when I got into this business, you couldn't just have opinions. You had to report stuff and fact check stuff. But I found over time that the media is more rooting than reporting. The agendas and biases are, you know, obvious.

Now, in politics, it can hurt votes. and hurt our country. I think bad reporting can hurt America. In sports, you know, it's just stuff you argue about over a Heineken with your buddies. But I saw this headline this morning. Cam Newton should be among the front runners at quarterback in the MVP race. Stop rooting and start reporting. Cam Newton's passer rating is fourth in his own division.

He's tied for touchdown passes in the NFL with Ryan Fitzpatrick. He's 22nd and passing yards, but they're running. It's called quarterback, not running back. You will be judged eventually on the pocket. And if you compare him to Patrick Mahomes, it's not even close. It's like they're playing two different. It's not, you're talking yards per game, touchdown to pick, pass a rating. It's a blowout.

And by the way, I think I would say Cam is having an MVC year. He's the most valuable cam. This is the best cam I've ever seen. His leadership's been good. His coachability's been good. His running is always good. And his passing's been better. So he's having an MVP year.

He's the most valuable cams ever been. I think he's more valuable now than his MVP year. Because I think he's a better passer and more coachable now. And he's more mature now. And he has more snaps now. But statistically, wins and losses, he's the second best quarterback in his own division right now to Drew Brees. And by the way, Matt Ryan's numbers are better than CAMs. So fake news works because it's often right.

Even my job as an opinion guy, and I'm an opinion guy, you've got to give me some data. And I'll give you an example of this about Cam's stats to MVP. We do this about once a month. We call it the blind resume where I'll put Cam Newton to the left. and for our radio audience, I'll try to make this as consumable as possible. Passing yards, Cam on the left has 235. The guy on the right has 260. Touchdowns, Cam on the left has 13. Guy in the right has 15.

Passer rating, a real stat. Cam 974. The guy on the right, 978. Rushing yards, almost even. Cam's got 15 yards more rushing. So I'm being told by this that can't, those numbers, and these are things that matter, your touchdowns, yards per game, pass-er rating. And let's put in rushing yards because that's the big argument for Cam.

So there's Cam on the left. Who's the guy on the right? Mitch Trubisky. Less rooting. More reporting. Cam's having an NVC year. This is the best I've ever seen Cam. In fact, I thought his quarter on the road against Philadelphia was the best quarter he'd ever had.

I watched every snap of that game. And I was like, man, and I said it the next day, I'm like, that's the most coachable. That's the most efficient. that's the most person. Plus, I get Cam's, you know, he's running, his size, his gravitas. That's always been great. But, you know, this is not, Mahomes, if you took out Mahomes, Brady, Breeze, Gough, and Philip Rivers. Just, I'm not even going to mention Gurley, Khalil Mack, just quarterbacks. There's five guys who are in a different galaxy right now. He's more closely in line to Mitch Trubisky, which, by the way, their styles, Trubisky and Cam have a very collegiate feel to them.

That's okay. That's what works for them with their abilities. But let's get out of the MVP stuff. Let's get into the NBC stuff. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. I understand when coaches walk to a podium and they're emotional after a loss, they're angry after a loss.

I totally get it. Herm Edwards, Denny Green. I get it. It's entertaining. Jim Morris, Sr. I get it. Coaches are human. they have a right to be.

I also understand when coaches before games, trading deadline, get prickly with the press because they don't want to give out information and the press's job is to get information. Pat Schumer's been kind of prickly with the press. Bill Belichick through the years, prickly with the press. I get that. So I get when coaches are a little rough before a game when they don't want to give out information and the reporters are seeking information. I get it.

I get after games when a coach is pissed. He's angry. He's defeated. And he can pop and snap and report. I get all that. This one is the strangest reaction by a coach I've ever seen. It is a Wednesday. It's the Detroit Lions.

It's the middle of the week. It's a question about nothing. And here's the Lions head coach. Well, you know, do me a favor. Just kind of sit up and just like have a little respect for the process. Every day you come and ask me questions and you just kind of like, you know, give me this. But I mean, like, just to be a little respectful.

I'm asking just to be a little respectful in this whole process, okay? So ask me a question professionally and I'll answer it for you. That's the strangest reaction I've ever seen. He's lecturing somebody on being professional. Wasn't that the number one criticism when Matt Patricia was hired? That he didn't look like a head coach. unkept, the goofy t-shirts off the plane. On Monday night football, his first game on the sidelines,

he had his hat on backwards, which by the way, I ripped him for. I had three league executives, DM me, text me, and say, you're right on the money. It's the talk of the league this morning. I mean, of all the things in the world for Matt Patricia to beat on, that would be like Bobby Knight lecturing a media member, control your temper.

I mean, it's kind of inappropriate. Like, who are you to tell someone how to sit in a chair when they're speaking to you? By the way. They don't work for you. Unless this is a picture of the reporter while Matt Patricia was asking him a question. Sorry, radio audience, but if it was that, I get it. Okay. It was the, I don't even know where to go.

Matt Patricia, the knock on him was he's super smart. He's a little sloppy. he doesn't quite, you know, he's just not buttoned up, he's kind of a mess, which by the way, the reason Rob Ryan has struggled to get head coaching jobs, people say the hair, the appearance, he's not, that's a thing in the NFL. I don't know, I just, I don't even know where to go on that. I mean, Patricia showed up with a hat on backwards and changed it by the second week and has never been seen wearing a hat on backwards since.

So clearly Matt Patricia heard guys, I'm not just saying me, heard the criticism of dude, quit being a frat boy. You're a three and a half, four and a half million a year coach. You're not a frat boy. I think that's one of the strangest things that I've ever seen. I mean, I don't like to get into people's appearances and whether that has anything to do with their job, obviously.

I mean, as a woman, that's something like we have to deal with every day. But, I mean, what does someone's posture have anything to do with what they're asking you? So I've seen coaches blow up and be crazy. 99% of it I totally get. That I don't have an explanation for. And I don't think he's

done a terrible job. I actually think Matt's done a pretty good job. They look kind of like the lions usually look. They're not quite as good as I think they should be. That felt a bit personal. That's exactly what it felt like to me. It's like Belichick's a jerk to everybody. Gruden's intense with everybody. Mike Tomlin's got energy with everybody. They're consistent. That felt like a guy getting personal. Because the question wasn't even, was not out of line. Yeah, it was just a nothing. It was a Wednesday question. Right. It was, it was not even very specific. By the way, by the way, if he had done that, if somebody was, if he was suppressing information, I get the prickly. Had he just come off a tough loss, I'd get the prickly. That was just personal Wednesday, nothing.

And the Lions, I'm not banging on the guy. I don't think he's been a disaster. He's been fine. He's kind of, I don't think he's the best new coach. I think Frank Wright in Indianapolis has really done a good job. But Matt Patricia has not been a disaster. Well, what did you say before? Have a plan when you go to the podium. Have a plan. That wasn't a plan. That was making it up and looking jerky. That was just bad. 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. All right. Let's move to my guy, NFL meat sandwich, 30 plus years at NFL films. His name is Greg Kosell. Greg, how are you this morning? Colin, what's going on? How are you?

I feel like here we go. We're getting to the halfway point. some things have been established. You know, one of the things that's been established to me is, oh, wow, the Colts took two offensive linemen in the draft. People said they overdrafted the line, but I've watched every snap of the Colts in the last three weeks, Greg. Andrew Luck's not getting hit.

Andrew Luck's got time. Andrew Luck looks like he's back. What does the film say on the Colts offense and the protection now Luck is getting? I think there's a number of factors. One is the run-pass ratio. They are running the football, and they can run the football because what stands out on film, Colin, is their interior three, which is Nelson, it's Kelly. And I'm trying to think of who the right guard is.

They move Braden to the outside. Yeah, Braden is playing right tackle. But their interior three are very, very athletic. And they're very good in the gap scheme run game where you pull. They're very good. They run sprint draw where you pull as well and get people outside. So they are very athletic inside. It's Gloewinsky, by the way.

He used to be with Seattle. And this is a perfect example of coaching. The O-line coach for the Colts is doing a great, great job. Mark Lewinsky was a play some tackle in college, and then was a guard with Seattle, and he never made it. And now Gluenski looks very, very good playing right guard for Indianapolis. The other factor, and this is coaching. is there's a lot more quick game stuff.

So the ball is coming out by design. That's the way they're running their offense. And that always helps an O-line, and luck is really taking to this system. He's not holding the ball anywhere near as long. You notice he's not running very much. There's a rhythm and timing to their past game. Yep. And by the way, they're limited personnel-wise on defense.

They need an edge-rusher. They could use a corner or another linebacker. But there is no question. He's second in the NFL in touchdowns to Mahal. Holmes and their tight ends have played well. Andrews finally, for the first time in his career, has time to throw and he's tearing it up. Now, here's a team with a young quarterback who's also been beat up that doesn't have a lot of weaknesses on the defensive side. The Houston Texans and Deshawn Watson. He had a play last week when he moved left. It was so clever. It was so

Deshawn Watson. I know he's playing hurt. You know, you told me before he can be a little hot and cold. Are you seeing improvement? One reason for improvement and one reason why I think you'll see more efficiency is if they can stay with the formula that they played within their last two wins, which is he drops back fewer times. I think the more he drops back, the fantasy numbers might be good, Colin, but I don't think that benefits him or the team. You know, I think they work in progress and does not have great players will always look better when you run the ball more. They've been running the ball more. And I think that that will help to Sean Watson. Now, he may always be a guy that moves around a lot, and he'll certainly make plays

doing that because he's athletic. But ultimately, you want to get him to the point where he's efficient. And, you know, for instance, I'll give you great example, that 49-yard touchdown he hit to D'Andre Hopkins, where Hopkins was wide open. It was a schemed play that got Hopkins wide open, but DeShan was about three beats late with the throw. But Hopkins was just so wide open that probably people didn't notice that. Those are the little details and nuances of playing quarterback. I guarantee that he was told that by the coaching staff. Let's shift to generally free agent signings are overrated. They don't have the impact. I don't really buy into them. I think it's fun for me as a radio TV guy to do the trading deadline stuff.

But I thought that Golden Tate to the Eagles feels like, oh, this will make their offense a little cleaner and a little smoother. He's almost like an additional running back. I like the move. It didn't feel like you're, you know, you're just kind of throwing a guy out there trading a pick. Do you think Golden Tate, Carson Wentz, it could click pretty quickly and have an impact? I do because of Doug Peterson's offense. I think Doug Peterson's offense is very much built on the short pass and the run after catch. And I think by making this trade, they've told you that they're not quite happy with Nelson Angler's progress in that regard, because they have a great tight end in Zach Gertz, who is a match-up weapon. They can move him all over. They've got a solid wide out in Alshon Jeffrey. And then beyond that, they're really lacking in the skilled positions. And it's an offense, as I said, with the short pass and the run after catch. And one area, at Tate is terrific, which the Eagles use a lot. It's part of their offense is the screen game. They're very multiple with their wide receiver screen game.

And Tate, as you said, he's built like a running back. A strength of his game is run after catch. And I think he will help this team, and he'll probably help them right away because they have to buy this week. All right, two quick ones. Alex Smith wins everywhere. The Redskins are at the top of the division. But are they essentially the Alex Smith chiefs, which they're efficient? with a really low ceiling. Do you buy the Redskins?

Again, now you get into what one's view of the quarterback is in relation to, let's say, getting to the Super Bowl. They're clearly old school. And I think Alex Smith forces you to become old school because he has limitations as a passer. But you can't have it both ways, not you, but people in general. You can't say that the quarterback is the most important player on a team and then dismiss the fact that Alex Smith since, what, 2011 maybe, or somewhere around there, with his winning percentages. At the end of the day, they're old school.

The last three games, Adrian Peterson, 67 rushes averaging 5.2 yards of carry and their defense. No one's talking about their front seven. It is one of the best front sevens in the NFL, so they're playing old school football. By the way, I was critical at Kirk Cousins. I don't play fantasy football. It doesn't interest me,

but I like that my audience does because it gets them kind of viscerally emotionally connected to football. So I support fantasy football. I get fantasy football. I don't play it. so I don't care about yards and stats. Kirk Cousin sometimes comes out, for me, when I watch him as empty calories. I get the yards.

I get the completions. The fantasy people love him. But he's like four and 21 last 25 games against good teams. I mean, again, against the Saints, I'm told he's great. It's not his fault. What does the film say with Kirk? I think the film shows in quarterback. I think people are responding to the money that he was given

and therefore assuming that he's now a top, top echelon quarterback. If you're ultimately asking, and then there's no way to answer this specifically, but if you're ultimately asking whether Kirk Cousins can be the quarterback of a team that gets to a Super Bowl, my answer to that would be that he needs team around him, as most do. You know, there's only a few guys that you could truly say can put a team on their back. Most need team around them. So right now they're not running the ball particularly well or very much. I think their defense has not played as well at times this year.

I think he's been asked to throw the ball too much. We're getting into that issue in the NFL where so many teams, you know, 40 plus times, they're asking their quarterback to drop back. Even Aaron Rogers, and you can say what you want, we know he's super talented, but he's average more than 45 dropbacks per game this year. That's too many dropbacks. Yeah. A team that's going the opposite way is Seattle.

They're running. Old school, too. Yeah. And by the way, I was wrong on this. I said, listen, Pete Carroll, I didn't. like their draft. I think they overdrafted the running back out of San Diego State. They were loose. I thought politics and it just, the whole vibe didn't work for me. I got to tell you something. They're not turning the ball over. They're running the football. No mistakes. And they're

playing good defense. Now, they haven't played great competition. Is a little fool's gold because of their competition or do you buy Seattle? Well, you'll have to play. And I think that arguably the best hire of this offseason was Mike Solari, is their offensive line coach. He's been in the league 30 years. He's highly respected. This offensive line, which by the way is a high pedigree offensive line, has gone from being a sieve to being really, really efficient. And one reason they are is because they run the ball. Offensive linemen much prefer that. Russell Wilson has become a complimentary piece. Russell Wilson, for someone who started every game this year, has far and away the fewest pass attempts per

game of any starting quarterback. They're not asking him to do very much, which might seem counterintuitive, given what he's done in previous years, but they are so much more efficient on a week-to-week basis. Yeah, when I watch them, I just see, now they're not as explosive as Pete's earlier Seahawk teams. They don't look like as USC early Seahawks teams. They're grinded out. I thought that one in Detroit was very impressive.

Yes. They don't make any mistakes. The penalties down. The turnover's down. The takeaways are improving, so it feels real to me. Earlier today, I said, I saw a story that Cam Newton should be MVP, and I, I I said, give me a break. He should be MVC. He's the most valuable cam I've seen. I think he's his leadership, his coachability, he's obviously coachable, he's more precise. He's not Patrick

Mahomes. He's not Brady golf numbers wise. But it, to me, and I don't know what the film says, I do feel like this is the best cam has been, even with his MVP year. What's the film say? I will say the pair for and defend as any in the league. with all their different personnel packages, their formation looks, their multiple backfield actions, with a quarterback who must be accounted for in the run game, I think Norv Turner has done an unbelievable job sort of expanding his worldview, because coaches normally coach what they know, but he's expanded his worldview. He's made Cam Newton clearly a much more efficient player, and we can say what we want about Cam, but he's a very difficult guy to defend.

Will he ever be Drew Brees or Tom Brady in terms of passing efficiency? You know, precision, ball placement, every throw? Probably not. But he's a very difficult guy to defend when he's part of your run game, and their offense could be the toughest in the league to defend. Yeah, and I thought that quarter against the Eagles a couple of weeks ago in the fourth poised. It was phenomenal. That was the best I've ever seen, Cam.

And that was from the pocket, by the way. Yes, all from the pocket. And I came out the next day. I'm like, that's as good as I've ever seen him play, including his MVP year. You know, this week, Brady takes on Rogers. And I said, you know, for a long time, we compared LeBron to Carmelo. And then after about eight years, you're like, okay, we've got to stop this because LeBron's, he's putting up all these trophies and these titles, and Mello's just talented.

And listen, I think Brady Rogers, in terms of accomplishment, we've got to stop comparing them. I made the comparison that from their outspoken personality to their improvisation, to their elusiveness, to their arm strength, to kind of their, you know, dramatics. I think Rogers has a lot of similarities to Big Ben. They both got overlooked. Neither went to a juggernaut college football program. Both are increasingly banged up as they're older due to their improvisation, and they both have world-class arms. I see some similarities a little bit to Aaron and Big Ben. Does the tape say anything like that? Well, you know, I think Aaron Rogers, for me, has always been a fascinating guy to evaluate because the talent level throwing a football is arguably off the charts and his movement

ability and then throwing off movement is tremendous. He's always been a guy that, and the way I've described him, I've said this to you in the past, but it's been a while. He plays more like a jazz musician than a classical pianist. You know, he's an improvisational guy. Now he's very capable of playing from the pocket. There are times he does not. And I would bet that that can be frustrating to the coaching staff at times, but he's so gifted that he can do special things. So I've always found him tough to evaluate. I think Ben has actually played a little more, certainly laid more of a sort of stable pocket guy than Aaron Rogers. Okay. All right. That's good. That's what the film says. All right. So with that,

let's stay with the Steelers. It's time for Greg Kossel's play of the week. And I, is it a running play? We're going to do a running play this week because James Connors. it to me has played exceptionally well. And his numbers, you know, we can get into comparisons of players. That's always fun. That's always easy. But teams look for production. And James Connor has more productive right now than Elevian Bell was, which again, but let's start

this play. This was a touchdown last week against Cleveland. And this was your basic shotgun power scheme. This is what we call a gap scheme run, which is power. And what you have here is you have Connor offset. that. You have David DeCastro is going to be the puller across the formation. But let's start front side because these three offensive linemen have down blocks. They've got to clear out the play side. And what they do with their down blocks, and you can see this, is they seal all

these defensive linemen away from play side. That has to happen for this play to get into. Once they do that, is that now allows DeCastro, one of the best pulling guards in the league, to pull across the formation. Now, Jesse James, the tight end, he has to get the second level play side linebacker. Now, no one can block Jamie Collins. The front doesn't all on the front side,

play side have to happen, and Connor, he has to beat Jamie Collins, because Jamie Collins, as you can see, is clean into the hole. So if you're Greg Williams, you're saying Jamie Collins has to tackle him, and if you're the steel, as you're saying, great, great run by James Connor.

But this is just classic shotgun power, Everybody runs it really well executed. By the way, it doesn't look like they missed Labian Bell on that run. No, and the numbers, you know, obviously he's had three straight 100-yard rushing games. He's got a lot of catches, good if not better. Well, when I got Juju Smith, Antonio Brown, Pro Bowl offensive lineman, and Big Ben, you can't glom on to one guy. So a running back should have a little more space with the Steelers than he would have on less talented offensive rosters.

So this kind of bears it out. that they have so much talent on the perimeter that it's going to take certain guys out of the box. Most running backs that are capable should succeed with the Steelers. And personnel, too, so there's three wide receivers on the field, and that lightens the box. Yep, yep, and James Connor delivers. Greg CoSell, NFL meat sandwich, NFL films over three decades.

Great talking to you. All right, Colin, thank you. 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. When I drive to work every morning, I always feel it's my responsibility to bring a lot to the table. I can't just come in and say, okay, guys, what do you have for me? So I usually come, I drive at 5.30 in the morning. I drive here, and I kind of, in my head, what's the lead story?

And Steve Nash had an interesting comment yesterday when he talked about Steph Curry. And you know how I feel about Steph Curry. He's changed the game. There's been a lot of great basketball players. Steph Curry has changed the game. The game doesn't even look like it used to look. like. Steph Curry is getting coaches fired, presidents fired. Steph Curry has changed the spacing. By the way, you can argue who the best basketball player

is, the best center is, the best coach is. You can't argue who the best shooter is. There's not even a second place. He's first. I don't even know who's second. Maybe Steve Nash. So he is, and Steve Nash had this quote yesterday. He said he's the evolution of basketball, man. we're watching basketball of all and it's Steph. Now, I just want to start with that premise, because I agree with that. If you literally, if you, now, from that, I talked about Mount Rushmore. And this is where my staff pushed back.

My staff said that's so hacky. You're beyond doing Mount Rushmore topics. Mount Rushmore topics are the four greatest in, you know, who are the four greatest quarterbacks, four greatest this. I've always had this theory that in any Mount Rushmore argument, the first three are easy, and we start arguing and throwing haymakers and bottles at each other over the fourth. And I'll give you an example.

You can do it with anything. You can do it with a hamburger, fast food hamburger places. McDonald's Burger King Wendy's. We argue over the fourth. You can do it. NFL head coaches all time. Lombardi Walsh, Belichick. Then we got a lot of arguments. I mean, hell, even Mount Rushmore itself,

it's Washington, Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and they got Teddy Roosevelt, is the guy, that shouldn't be there, but he got there because he built it. I mean, if I built radio, I'd be on the Mount Rushmore. Teddy Roosevelt's not even the best Roosevelt. FDR is the best Roosevelt. You would never take out Washington, Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson.

They're guaranteed. But this guy got in because he created Mount Rushmore. Again, Marconi did radio, so he gets on the Mount Rushmore. If I did, I'd be on the Mount Rushmore. But he shouldn't even be the one you argue about, it's the fourth. And I was thinking about this about Steph Curry and about Mount Rushmore arguments. They're kind of hacky, cliched arguments. But think about this.

In baseball, much like fast food, football coaches, and presidents. Baseball, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays. You can't argue. You argue about the fourth. Ted Williams, the greatest pure hitter ever. Babe Ruth, at the time for 75 years of the sport, greatest player. Willie Mays say, hey, kid. And if you go to the NFL, Jim Brown, many people still think is the greatest player ever.

Jim Brown, Montana Brady. Yeah, Lawrence Taylor. But he's a defensive player And it's mostly a scorers league He's the best defensive I mean he's transformed the game though Well he's a defensive player They're buying jerseys for offensive players

Here's the other one Hockey Gordy Howe Gretzky Bobby Orr Then you argue about Bobby Hole Lemieux Okay you go to golf Ben Hogan Jack and Tiger You can say Arnie No no Ben Hogan won more than Arnie

And has a significantly shorter career Who you argue over is Bobby Jones and Arnie If you go, though, here's where it's interesting. Because it's always this way on these Mount Rushmore. You get to three really quickly and you can't figure out a four. And this whole point was about how great Steph Curry is. If you go to basketball's Mount Rushmore, this tells you the greatness of LeBron. It is Wilt M.J. Magic and LeBron, and you can't even argue Steph Curry, who was revolutionary

the game is the greatest shooter of all time, is going to end up with more championships than LeBron, is in the greatest team that's ever played, and it would be embarrassing not to have LeBron on there. First of all, Wilt changed the rules. Michael's the greatest player. Magic saved the league, and it's probably the most transformative player in the history of the biggest brand in America outside of the Dallas Cowboys, and then it's LeBron. And my point is, all these Mount Rushmore's, you can't argue this one. First of all, people say Kareem. When Magic arrived on the Lakers with Kareem,

Kareem was suddenly the best player, second best player in the Lakers. How the hell are you on the Mount Rushmore? When Magic arrived to the Lakers, Kareem's profile shrunk. You had, he was an enigmatic, score, aloof, not really a team leader, but he had a hook shot. Magic came and stole the franchise. You can't put Bill Russell in. Bill Russell wasn't even the best player at his position center of his generation.

Wilt was. So my point is the greatness of LeBron that he's on the Mount Rushmore. He's still got five years to play. The most revolutionary basketball player, the only one closest Wilt is Steph Curry, and you couldn't put him near Mount Rushmore. Is that a great topic or what right there? I don't see the flaw in this topic. What was the major pushback?

Because they said it was a Mount Rushmore topic. I don't care about Mount Rushmore. We're above being hacky now? Yeah, no kidding. We're in a vampire with... I built my career. Smoke coming out of it. We were a giant pumpkin next to my desk for a week.

If you go Mount Rush... I've always had this theory that you can't go on a camping trip with guys and you can't go to Vegas with four guys. You can only do it three. Because you find your best friend... Yeah, once you have even numbers, people split off. Yeah, and for guys, you go with your best friend and then you find one guy you can get along with.

By the time you get to a friend... fourth, you're three days through the camping trip and you're like, I had no idea, Bob did meth. You can't take a fourth guy. You can't, you can never get a fourth. The fourth is impossible. Always, he's a. I'm with you on the fourth becoming the arguments because once you get to the fourth, it starts to become more of a preference.

Or over a fact. Right. So there's more of an opinion once you get to the fourth of whatever. You can't argue back. Okay, Will Chamberlain literally scored 100 points. He scored 80 multiple times. He's the greatest physical force in the history. the league. Bill Russell was known as a defensive center and couldn't stop him.

Yeah, I mean, there's so many people that you could put in there. I mean, Shaq. Oh, gosh. Shack is a dominant player. He couldn't beat Elijah one. Come on. It is what we're saying. Like, this is what we'll do. We'll go back and forth on the fourth one. Nobody put Shaq on the mountain. People, there are people who would put Shaq up there. No, not not. Shack, Kareem. I'm sure people would argue Larry Bird. The Mount Rushmore? It's a preference. And you get to the fourth one, it becomes a preference. I would put him on the bird. I would put Sparrow, Robin, Larry Bird, and an eagle.

We're not going to fall into this trap. Did I oversell? No, you did not oversell it. I think that you oversell the pushback on it because if it was just the Mount Rushmore argument. I'm just going to say it for our show, if we're being too up to you right now, we are not above doing Mount Rushmore. By the way, the Laker Mount Rushmore's Wilk-Kareem, Wilt-Kareem, Magic, Kobe. Certainly people would argue, Kobe. That is a fact.

I got to get out of this. I got Jordan Palmer around the corner. I don't know. Maybe the public thought that was idiotic. Tomorrow, why don't we debate if Pete Rose is the Hall of Fame or not? 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 SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and 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. Street or Seidel, help an acapella 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 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 walks up to me. and he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, 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 playoff.

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 crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to him, 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.