The Herd with Colin Cowherd - BEST OF THE HERD – Dodgers Back In NLCS | Dak Prescott Saving The Cowboys | Why Brock Purdy Is Elite

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Colin Cowherd discusses the Dodgers advancing to the NLCS as they try to win their 3rd straight World Series. Colin points out the role players that shined for the Dodgers vs the highly paid superstars who often get all the attention. He also talks about Cowboys QB Dak Prescott prior to their game against the Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football and how Prescott has provided stability to an often-chaotic franchise. Plus, Greg Cosell from NFL Films joins the show to breakdown why 49ers QB Brock Purdy has been so impressive to start the season.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or stream us live every day in the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It is a Thursday. great night of baseball, at least for, you know, half the teams. Welcome in live in Chicago. It's the herd wherever you may be, whatever platform you're watching.

On one hour from now, we all get smarter. Greg Kosell. You know, in baseball, the regular season, so many games, is about volume. Show up every day. It's about volume, consistency. But the playoffs are different. The playoffs are about moments. situations. A lot of

playoffs sports are like that. Last night, two opportunity, backs against the wall. The Braves had a chance in the fifth inning and the sixth inning to alter and change the series. Atlanta was at home. Here it was. Fifth inning. Two runners on. Dodgers have to go to the bullpen.

Alex Pescia comes in. Braves hit a rocket right at Kike Hernandez. Opportunity blown. Sixth inning. Sixth inning. Tyler Glassnow had control problems. They had to pull him. Sixth inning.

They lead off with a double. Oh, that's great. But they couldn't do anything with it. The Braves were 0 for seven last night, runners in scoring position, and Matt Olson and Ronald O'Kunia Jr. They're two big sticks. O'Fer four with runners in scoring position.

Okay? So yet a Dodger role player once again, Andy Pahez, who was benched last year in the World Series, a guy making $800,000 a year, top of the seventh, bases loaded, bang, drives two in. The guys make an $800 grand a year. That's not even great NIL money. Benched in last year's World Series.

T. Hay, Hernandez, yesterday. This is what they do. regular season in baseball is elementary school, just show up and get good attendance. The playoffs in baseball are college. It's about midterms and finals. You got to ace those. The entire series, the Braves offense,

with runners in scoring position, hit 0.043, 28 runners left on. That's historically awful. And this is what L.A. has been doing year after year after year in the postseason. I mean, Mookiee, O'Tonnie, and, Freddie, O for 11 last night. So they needed Pahez, just like last year in the World Series. They needed Pahas and his defense. And so two nights ago, Kike Hernandez with the home run.

So, I mean, this Tommy Edmund back in 2024 was the NLCS MVP. It's not just the big guys. They also got on the road. This is tough. Six and a third of scoreless bullpen work. Glass knows got good stuff, but he was struggling with the control. So they had to go to the bullpen early. So, you know, I said this. It was a real crisis moment.

You're on the road and the Dodgers played nearly perfect baseball. They're hard enough to beat. You can't beat yourself. And for the record, all those complaining about payroll, here's the payroll. that remain in baseball. The Guardian's 30th, the Raise 28th, the White Sox 24th, the Brewer's 19th. What about the Dodgers? They do everything well.

Their farm system right now is top three in Major League Baseball. They defend, they do everything but steal bases, and they shouldn't steal bases. Because when you have that much power, don't run yourself out of innings. Dave Roberts. on the series win and a nearly flawless night of baseball, road baseball, where L.A.'s won nine of their last 10 road playoff games.

Everybody in this room help get us to where we're at, where we're going to go. We need every single person. We talk about this. There's no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's the best organization in sports, top to bottom. We're smarter. We're better and we're tougher.

And we're tougher. Think about that. A guy making $800,000 a year for the Dodgers delivered last night, and two guys, stars for the Braves making $39 million combined, did not. That is the difference. Kiki Hernandez, two nights ago, last year's World Series game seven, that's what they do. So, listen, the Yankee fans, there's going to be excuses slash reasons they lost. You could say, well, Aaron, Judge, wasn't available.

That's true. Well, the fan interference was a bad break. Absolutely true. Why did Aaron Boone drop Ben Rice in the batting order behind Trent Grisham? I would say that's ill-advised. But none of it matters. The lowest payroll in Major League Baseball is Tampa. They beat the Yankees and were better in the regular season,

and they were clearly better in this. Better defensively. They got better pitching. Their starters beat the Yankees great starters. So the slap hitting Tampa race, the slap hitters, more home runs, more extra base hits. And again, I've said this. Look at the Yankees. Defensively, mid.

Farm system, 25th out of 30 teams, according to people that rank farm systems. Defensively, awful, at least in this series. Aaron Judge, great. but let's be honest, he's 34, 35 by next season. So the Yankees to me have become Nike. You have this massive brand, but because of arrogance, I mean, let's be honest, smaller, sharper executives at other shoe companies have chipped away.

And you look up and you still make the playoffs, you still sell a lot of shoes, but you're not fundamentally the same company. Same execs, same arrogance, same manager, same general manager. and there are so many smart young people in Major League Baseball. Do the Yankees have any of them? Because I think they become the old guy that brags, that he still has a flip phone. A couple years ago, there was an article, Brian Cashman,

said, hey, we have the smallest analytics department in the American League East. Yeah, that's not a brag. Go to the website of the Yankees. One person has the title. of quantitative analysis, analyst, one. Dodgers have seven and several working under them. And the Yankees' GM is bragging, hey, it's in the age of information, we have less. I mean, seriously here. So, I mean, the Yankees' offense against the raise, these are all

lowest in the postseason series in franchise history, batting average 130, on-base percentage 192, slugging percentage 239. I know Aaron Judge wasn't available. I get it. But for the record last night, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, O'Tonnie went 0 for 11

for the Dodgers. Okay? Who got them the lead two nights ago? Kike Hernandez. Utility infielder at 4.5 mill a season. Who got them the big hit last night? Andy Paa has 800 grand a year. So you can make all,

By the way, the Braves stars didn't hit. The Dodgers stars in this series didn't hit. Outside of Ben Rice, no, the Yankee stars hit. So, I mean, just to me, it's not just fire this guy. It's beyond that for the Yankees. Same people, same front office, same arrogance. I'm telling you, it's Nike. They're still selling shoes, but, man, people have nibbled away on the margins,

and it's not the same company. and the Yankees aren't the same team. Here was A. Rod and Jeter last night. Something has to change. Something has a change. I'm not talking about personnel, but I'm talking about a philosophy. There has to be a philosophy change.

They played better than Yankees all season. They played better than Yankees in this particular series. In terms of what's next, I don't know. I think that's the best way to answer. I do not know what's next. How would you fix him? I don't know. How about lean into AI, bigger analytics department,

stop bragging about using a flip phone, like it's a 17-year drought. And I've said it's not that the Yankees are terribly run, but they're not well-run. There's a difference, right? They don't have any financial ceiling, and the Dodgers prove that you can have great role players, be excellent defensively. Dodgers don't commit a lot of errors.

You can have bullpen depth. Yeah, I mean, I admit that Dodgers have so much pitching depth. They don't really have to use like bullpen games anymore. They did a few years ago. They don't have to anymore. Tyler Glassdon, though, was not, didn't have his best stuff last night. He had major control issues. Walked, what, five batterers, Braves couldn't take advantage of it.

So there we go, J-Mack. It's one thing to lose. It's another to get swept by the smallest payroll in Major League Baseball. I'm not laughing, but it is. No, you're laughing. It's okay. It happens. The drought continues for my Yankees, but we still got the Dodgers in the mix to try to win a third straight.

So there's that. But overall, I like your take. The real one is, do you think Brian Cashman here gets fired within the week? Do you think Boone gets fired? There's a lot of chatter. Yeah, there's nothing that would lead you to believe that's the case. So they... Except for futility.

Well, they've been a very good regular season team and they haven't delivered. And it should be noted. The Yankees are struggling in a significantly weaker side. The American League isn't close to the overall talent and depth.

You look at the Phillies. Teams that get bounced early in the National League playoffs, I think would end up in the ALCS. So, I mean, the Cubs only had one star are not great pitching, but I mean, Milwaukee is strong. And San Diego is loaded at the top. They're not as deep as the Brewers, but they have great stars.

The Dodgers are excellent. Atlanta's really good. They're just, their stars could not hit in this series. So, I mean, the Dodgers would win either side, ALNL. But the Yankees have always sort of relied on the American League Central. If you go to the Yankee playoff wins over the last, you know, 10 years, It's been a lot of wins over the American League Central. The Twins.

That's the weakest division. Once they got lined up against the Rays, I mean, you watched it defensively, inferior. Even the Yankees starting pitching got out dueled by the Rays starting pitching. So you've got to look yourself in the mirror. This goes beyond like, fire that manager. A good manager gets you four wins a year. That's not the answer.

Do whatever you want with manager, but that's not really changing. a philosophical apathy that permeates the organization. There is another team in New York that had been budding up against, you know, getting to the finals, Tom Tibido with the Knicks. And I know it's basketball, but they run him out of town and they get Mike Brown in their championship. Now, obviously basketball and baseball different, but I do wonder, is there a war where they can see it just a different voice as manager?

The Yankees. The Yankees are the anti-Nicks. The Knicks were the best fourth quarter team since they've been tracking it. And they had unbelievable leadership. So to me, the coach didn't matter that much. I mean, they were an old, smart, deep veteran team. The front office and Jalen Brunson won that title. The front office for the Knicks, when James Dolan went to build the sphere

and let the guys in the front office for two years run the organization, the Knicks won a title last year, not because of coaching. They won it because of that front office, built a great roster, and Jalen Brunson is better than even the Knicks thought he would be when they brought him in from Dallas. Those were the two ingredients. So I said this about, I think it was yesterday or the day before, it all starts in every sport in the front office.

It all starts in the front office. That's really the people wearing the sunglasses, what you seem about once a series, the network will show them. Those are the guys winning this stuff. And it's not a lack of, you know, I'm not just, they fire a bunch of people. I think there's philosophies upstairs that dictate a lot in professional sports. And I think the Yankees are analytically, not even in the same stratosphere. They're not as intentional as the Dodgers in the offseason. I mean, when they signed John Carlos

Stanton years ago, my take was, what was the point? He couldn't stay healthy in Miami. I don't get it. Judge and Stanton, that's, I don't get, so I just don't, again, I don't think they're poorly run. They make the playoffs, which is something. I mean, they're in a division with the Blue Jays have money, the Red Sox have money, the rays are brilliantly run. Even Baltimore's got good players. So there is some value of what they're doing. But you know, you get to the playoffs, like I said, the playoffs are like college, got to eights to midterm in the final. Regular season is, we got a lot of money and a lot of players, you know, we're going to win 94 games or whatever it is. just, you know, over the course of time, our starting pitching is better than yours, but you get

postseason baseball is crisis management, situational. It's like the NBA playoffs. And that's where the Knicks separated, like all these mature veterans, bridges and towns and Brunson and OG. And it was all this maturity latent games that beat the very, very young Spurs, right? Spurs led in almost every game in that series, often by double digits. But, you know, Baseball, football, basketball, all have certain things that matter. Late game success, late game crisis management, like wins titles. So they got a lot to think about. But it was fun last night.

It was fun. Eric Caros, Greg CoSell stopping by today. In Chicago, it's the Hurd. 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. Hey, is Covino Enrich from Fox Sports Radio? Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific, on Fox Sports Radio. We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube channel for the show.

Yep, that's right. You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube every day. All you got to do, search Covino and Rich FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino and Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon, comment away. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name, exclusive shows.

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Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades today. The Dallas, Cowboys play Tampa tonight. The Cowboys are weird. Even when things are good, they're weird. I'll give you an example. The Cowboys are second right now in the NFL and total points, and yet dead last and offensive possessions. They're like a haunted house. Nobody can figure it out. And it took me a long time to figure out Dak Prescott. But Dak Prescott, if the Cowboys are the world's biggest rock band, he's the manager as they're trash in the hotel rooms, he's making the beds.

He makes sure he keeps it glued together. He gets everybody on stage as close to on time as you possibly can with the Dallas Cowboys. If he's your kid, you make him the executor of the will, a stabilizing force. He dealt with Des Bryant and Ezekiel Elliott's immaturity early. Jerry's vanity always. Now it's George Pickens' moodiness. It's the coaching carousel. It's, you know, Michael Parsons had some drama.

Even in his rookie year, even in his rookie year. this, that Tony Romo got hurt. Dak Prescott inserted in, and Tony Romo noticed immediately, to Romo's credit, the maturity. He held a press conference to say, there's no controversy here. This is Dak's job. Maturity, however, never shows up in highlights or a passer rating. You got to watch closely. Overtime, consistency, commitment, competitive nature.

He doesn't have the biggest arm. He's not the greatest athlete, especially post-surgery, two of them now. But the reality with Dak Prescott, this is not a normal quarterback job in the NFL. It's the biggest brand. It's got an owner that has to do radio hits and be front and center and sometimes starts fires that you have to put out. If DAC wasn't here, there'd probably be three or four interventions over the last decade the franchise would need. So I just think, and also I think, you know, it's not fair, but not everybody gets, you know, Sean McVey as a coach. Jerry, in my opinion, doesn't respect coaching.

And so I think this staff, once again, is pretty average. But if you go back to the year that Dak Prescott entered 2016, I looked this up. The Cowboys with Dak Prescott have averaged 27 points a game. That is the highest scoring offense in the league with an only only. that drives you nuts, immaturity from a star receiver and running back, drama, moodiness, average coaching sometimes. Jack this week asked about him proclaiming before the season. I mean, that's why we give him a pass when he proclaimed it's the best offense ever potentially.

I got no regrets. We're, what, four games in? I think we can get better. Am I complacent with what we've done? Absolutely not. Do I think what we've done? Is it enough? Absolutely not.

Do I still believe that that's who we are and that's who we're going to be? Damn right. I'll take Dallas tonight, but, you know, not because of coaching. Here's J. Mack with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, let's start with a little controversy in Philadelphia.

It's not the city of Brotherly Love for this. topic calling. Oh my gosh. So Nick Foles is like everyone else now. He's got a podcast. And he went on and took a shot at Jalen Hertz. He was breaking down a Hertz pass to Dantavian Wicks. And here is the breakdown. He was very late on this, very late right now. We're not playing high school football. We can't wait till they're wide open. The reason I say that is this. They get a completion. That's great. But if he gets it on time and rhythm, if he catches that ball right now, look how much grass is in the triangle of defenders. He's going to catch it and he's going to knife up field.

Most likely going to be a first down. That's not nice. We're not playing high school football. I wish more former athletes said stuff like that. That's absolutely realistic. That's a solid breakdown from a guy that has won a Super Bowl over Tom Brady. I have no problem with, I have a problem with athletes that come on the air. We pay him a lot of money and they say nothing.

Yeah. I have no problem with Nick Foles being like, you know, you're throwing this ball way late. In high school and college, you mostly throw to the open guy. In the NFL, you have to anticipate on a lot of throws. That is the difference. The back shoulder stuff, throwing to a spot, not necessarily a wide receiver. And that's the separate. That's why guys like Matt Stafford have 33 pick sixes.

Like, you are throwing to a spot. You are anticipating. Stafford's a great anticipator. Brady was a great anticipator. Tom's got a few pick sixes. Peyton Manning had a few pick sixes. You can be safe. Bo Nix right now to me plays it too safe.

Andrew Luckhead lots of interceptions. Darnold does. The NFL quarterback is not high school or college. It's just fundamentally, it's the difference between just getting a Bachelor of Arts and a PhD. It's another level, you know, cognitively of playing football. And I do think there are disadvantages being under 6'2. I think that's absolutely part of it. I think Jalen at times can struggle.

So some of it's not his fault. It's just his reality. Most of the great quarterbacks with the rings are bigger guys. Well, Hertz does have a ring. But yes, he over the middle has been his bugaboo. He's afraid. He doesn't want to do it. And in that pass, you know, I have wicks and fantasy.

I was watching that closely. I'll just say this, Colin. Usually, you know, out here in L.A., I'm not waking up super duper early on a Sunday. I want to sleep in. I will be up early for this game. I am loaded up on the Jaguar. I mean, listen, listen.

There's a world where the Eagles defense shows up, you know, and fights hard and keeps his close and maybe they lose by a field goal. It's possible. But they don't have the experience in London. They're leaving late. Right. A lot of things point to the Jags here. So Trevor Lawrence was the great big, tall.

He was the greater high school quarterback. He was the greater college quarterback, right? And it took him to find Liam Cohen. Jalen Hertz had more of a struggle at the college level. And he was a second round pick. But he got a great early Shane Steichen play caller, which really helped. But let's be fair to Jalen Hertz here. Because I think Jalen is an adult.

I think he's intentional. I wish he would run more. He doesn't want to. Whateves? But I would say we have to be fair to Hertz right now. This is the third week in a row where I feel there's a significant coaching advantage to the quarterback playing Jalen Hertz. And that's something we have to be fair here on Jalen Hertz.

Because I do think his size or lack thereof is an issue. I've said I like my quarterbacks to be six to and up. The history shows. Peyton, Brady, Ben, Marino, you know, these guys win more. But Hertz has to overcome some things like Dak on his staff, which are negative. Just look at Trevor Lawrence's career with Liam Cohen. And look at Tampa's offense since Liam's left. it is a different football team.

So coaching, this is the only sport. A major league bannager can win four games over a season. A football, Ben Johnson can take a hazmat spill to the playoffs in a year. Football is the coaching sport, and I don't think Jalen in fairness has ever had great coaching. And for the Eagles fans who are upset that we're all over the Jags, just go look up what Liam Cohen likes to do schematically and what Vic Fongio does schematically.

It's not a good setup. I like the Jacks here. All right, let's move on to the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson, increasingly looking like Lamar will not go. This has run out to all the way to Falcons favored by three and a half. This is a nine and a half point line swing in a week, Colin. This is crazy. However, Jesse Minter is optimistic that there isn't much of a change offensive-wise

when you go from Lamar Jackson to Tyler Huntley. Take a listen. I think the system of our offense and what we do doesn't have to change a whole lot. You know, a lot of the plays, especially whether it's when we're under center and running a lot of those types of things, he can do all that. He can make a lot of those same plays. You know, obviously Lamar's magic is what it is. And he's the, you know, the best quarterback in the league for a reason. But we got a lot of confidence in Snoop, if that's the way it goes.

Tyler Huntley, to me, is a top five backup in the league. I remember, was it last year? they played the Bears. Tyler Huntley won by two scores. Like I think Tyler Huntley is fine. And I do think stylistically, they play a little bit of the same game. I mean, there's one Lamar Jackson. Yes.

But I think Baltimore is more than just the quarterback. It's organizational. I, they just made a trade offensive line. That's not going to immaterialize perhaps yet. But I think Baltimore, I stayed away from this game. This is not in my pick. I just, you know, all of a sudden, I'm supposed to believe Baltimore is going to fold like a chair.

like that's just not the Ravens. Well, I don't know if Fould's so much a struggle, but he, Mentor makes a good point. Remember the Giants had the running quarterback in Jackson Dart? And then their backup is James Winston, who's a statue. Yeah. That is tough. You have to reshape the offense. And it's been a tough go for the Giants.

The Seahawks have Darnold and Drew Locke, both better than average arms and both can move. Like, that's the perfect situation. So this Raven situation does work, right? Lamarta Huntley. obviously it's a big drop off. They did not score in the second half. Now, I think there was like a math property I learned in like fifth grade where if X and Y, then, you know, A and B.

So the Saints went to Baltimore and beat the Ravens. The Falcons just went to the Saints and kicked their butts all over the field on Monday night football. Something's going to go down. I don't know what's going to happen. Can they continue? The Falcons have scored 80 points, Colin, in the last two weeks on the road. They're not going to keep doing that.

Remember, they're bringing out pennies. Nobody has tons of film on panics with Stefansky. You have two games of it. So like, Panics had been in the sport, but you didn't have, you don't have video. You don't have film of what Stefansky's doing with Panics. So you have these microburst moments, two and three and four game, you know, like, like what people just don't know what to expect. You're on your heels. And I think panic, you and I are both, I'm a big panics fan.

I like, I thought, I think he's a good kid. I mean, Kailen DeBore's offense is not simple. He was very good at Washington. Stefansky's offense is not simple. He's figured that out. So that's a kid that puts in the time, puts in the film study. I've met him before. He's a really nice kid.

There's no ego with panics at all. So I think it's going to work. But let's slow the jets a little bit. A lot of this is here's this new quarterback with this offensive coach. And everybody's on their heels because you don't. I mean, that first series Atlanta had against the Saints, I mean, it was clever. It was like zigzag motions and Bijon Robinson.

It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is fast and quick. And I don't know. It's exciting. You mentioned the first series. I thought when the Saints cut it to 14, like at late third, early fourth, and like, okay, Falcons, are you going to screw this up? And Stafansky came out and the first down, not a run, beautiful play action. Kyle pitched 20 yards.

Saints did not see it coming. And they're still throwing. I love what I've seen from Stefansky. Yeah. It's weird. With Cooper Rush, the Falcons. maybe look like 31 or 32 in the NFL. With Pennix, to me, they're closer to like 12 to 15.

Is that fair? Yeah, I think. Are they knocking on the door, the blades, hard hierarchy? I say this all the time. Everybody wins when we find another offensive coach with a franchise quarterback. Atlanta's fun to watch. By the way, they had this running back. They had this star receiver.

They had this offensive line, Priests DeFansky. And Panics, by the way, had 12. starts pre-Stefansky. He was average. Then you watch it with Stefansky and it's like, oh crap. All these guys were here. Atlanta was here. Same owner, same front office. I mean, Matt Ryan's in now. But everything was here. They just needed Stefansky to be able to like, you know, the maestro. Michael Panix needed an offensive guy between Kalin DeBore and Stifansky. You can do worse as a quarterback getting coaches. For sure. Final story. Aaron Rogers in Pittsburgh, Colin. A week ago,

we all saw Rogers F-bom his coach get to play in, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was ugly. Well, wouldn't you know it? But Rogers was asked about the exchange, and he had a little, I don't know if there's a dust-up, a brouhaha, a skirmish. Take a listen to him and a reporter. I'm not going to touch that one. Anybody else? Does that include the interaction with Mike about how to get him in quicker?

Yeah, Mike and I have talked. Hired out? It's always ironed up. See, that just the normal way you guys communicate? Sometimes, yeah. Have you found it to be effective?

Yeah, yeah. You've had a lot of success together. Have you found it to be successful? Yelling the F word at your coach in the middle of a Thursday night. I've said this. I wasn't here last Friday. That's right.

Oh, that's right. Yes, yes. Okay, I defend Aaron Rogers. I'm going to defend Aaron. Rogers. Here's why. If I'm a quarterback, get the play in. You've been coaching for 30 years. Get the playing. The faster a quarterback gets the ball, gets the play, the more Aaron can manipulate at the line of scrimmage. I have also defended quarterbacks for years barking at coaches. Brady barked at Josh McDaniel. Peyton Manning barked at Saturday and Saturday barked back.

Mahomes has barked at Eric B. Enemy. In the middle of a game, I have no problem. with Aaron Rogers or any professional athlete clearing the air and being confrontational. I have no problem. I have a problem when Aaron's passive aggressive when he was in Green Bay taking leads like bailed shots at people. That bothers me. I have no problem with Aaron lighting up McCarthy. Get the play in.

You've been in the league 40 years. So for the record, this was in the first quarter scoreless game, like six minutes into the game, Not in the red zone. You sure? You don't think it was an overreaction at all? I don't. I'm going to defend quarterbacks, coaches on the field, snipping at an OC, a teammate, a center.

By the way, you can snip back. But folks, you know, us in the media, we always stick a camera in or a mic in after a heated moment. I mean, that's because of all of our jobs mostly aren't on in public. Now, mine is, but most people are, you know, they're at work. law office in a hospital emergency room. It's okay to clear the air and bark. Once again, I'm defending Aaron Rogers. I can't believe I don't get Christmas cards from that guy. Jay Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Law. God, I haven't even gotten

to the Brewers win yet. I got Greg Kossel. Eric Caros around the corner. It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. This record is on. is having a moment. New name, shows. So Iheart Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood L. Tickets and $1,000 cash.

Listen to Iheart new music for 10 minutes a day on the IHart Radio app. And click enter. Every day you listen is another chance to win. Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. Here we go. Hour two, Greg Kosell, in three minutes.

We're live in Chicago. It's the herd. out of baseball. At least for the Dodgers and the Brewers, the Rays. The, um, it felt like last night, every time the Dodgers got into one of these crisis moments and absolutely needed and out they got it. And you kind of had a vibe early when Tyler Glassnow, who hadn't pitched much, right? He didn't have control, couldn't spot his pitches.

He had five walks. And when the Braves kept failing to take a difference. advantage of that. I mean, walks are killers. That's like rule number one in pitching. Don't give away free passes. When they could not take advantage of Tyler Glassnow's wildness, it felt like that was just a complete blown opportunity. Then they take him out, almost apologize to him. And boom, bullpen comes in, ball sharply hit, boom, out of the inning. And it was like, man, this is, because it's not like the Braves didn't hit the ball sharply. But generally speaking, if you give up five walks on the road early in a baseball game with a team with a bunch of guys that can rake,

you're going to lose the game. And, you know, Edwin Diaz now in the back end has his velocity back. I think the difference with the Dodgers, it's not in their bats. This team doesn't hit as well as last year. But this is the best pitching staff. Tariq Scouble acquiring him, obviously huge, with two legit aces. Blake Snell, great arm. But I think Yoshi's obviously great.

But Glassnow did not have its stuff last night, and the Braves did not take advantage. Freddie Freeman talked about this team being led by pitching. You see the smile go on my face when you say those names. We got a great pitching staff. Our starting staff is amazing. We've got Tanner, and we just need to score enough rounds for them. And the last two years, you have questions. Tanner, Scott, regular season, hot and cold.

You question the bullpen. They have solved it the last two years. later in the season or in the postseason. So this is just a different Dodger team. It's very much about pitching. Last year, much more about hitting. And with that, Greg Kosell, 47 years NFL films is now joining us live. Cowboys tonight play against Tampa, the wobbly bucks.

You know, I was saying earlier is that if the Cowboys are the world's biggest rock band, Dax the manager that makes sure they don't trash too many hotel rooms and they get to the stage on time, maturity and attitude and commitment don't always show up in highlights. But, you know, there's the vein owner. There's Des Bryant, Zeke early in his career. It took me a long time to appreciate DAC because a lot of it's not traits. It's just commitment, maturity. When you go back to his early years, to his mid years to now, has he always been the same quarterback to you consistently?

Well, I guess I'm wondering who's Robert Plant if they're a rock band, Colin. Who's Robert Plant on the Cowboys? You know, it's funny you mention that. And this is a conversation that I've had in my own mind and with other people as well over the last month or so. Because in some ways, DAC, and the conversation is about quarterback play. In some ways, DAC is he's a ball distributor and an executor. and he plays the position with refinement, with subtlety, with nuance, and those kinds of quarterbacks never look spectacular.

They basically sit in the pocket and they make throws. They throw it to the right receiver at the right time, you know, with the right kind of throw. And those quarterbacks tend to make it look like you and I could do that. Whereas the quarterbacks that do Josh Allen stuff or Patrick Mahomes stuff, we tend to look at those guys and think, wow, that is absolutely special. But the quarterbacks like Dak, like Brock Purdy, those guys are special because they're so refined in the way in which they play. I mean, you think about what happened last week, Colin, okay? Last week in the second half against a Houston defense that prior to the season, people were certainly talking about being the best defense in the league.

In the second half of that game, Dak was 20 for 25 for 248 yards. He was not sacked. And sacks very often, more often than not, are a function of the quarterback. If you're an on-time quarterback, you get sacked less. And that's the way Dak plays the position. Yeah, yeah. It took me a while to figure Dak out, but he's a joy to watch. Okay, Bill's Rams is a fascinating matchup.

So we said this. I like my young quarterback like a panic to have an offensive coach. I think it's different. I think that offensive coaches are better at solving offensive line issues. there's a language. They connect with young quarterbacks. So Joe Brady now is the lead guy. But I said it earlier this week. Maybe they miss Sean McDermott's conservative guard rails he put up.

Because the last couple of weeks, Josh is making more mistakes. What's the film say on Josh last couple of games? Yeah. You know, I don't think their offense is a big problem. I mean, we always focus on Josh Allen and the offense. Their defense has still not played well this year. And, of course, that had been a problem in recent years at times. You know, when I watch their tape, I always think to myself, and I think back to coaches I've known over the years in the way they talk about their really good players.

And one thing coaches always say offensive coaches is I'm never going to let the defense take away my good players. I mean, could you imagine, you know, Bill Wall saying, well, gee, I think they're going to try to take away Jerry Rice, so we're not going to throw him the ball. And I think one thing that's happened in the last two weeks is Dalton Kincaid after the first two games. In the last two games, he's really not been a part of the passing game. And this is not a knock because I'm not there every day, you know, as they game plan. But I think that it's really important that your good players each and every week are factors in your game plan. They need to be part of it regardless of what the defense does because there are always ways through schematics to make sure that your good players are involved. You know, I watch tape of every team, as you know, Colin, and you don't think teams try to take away Justin,

Jefferson and Jamar Chase, and they still get the ball to those guys. So now you have to be able to do that. And I think the last two weeks, the bills have not really done that as much as I'm sure Joe Brady would tell you that they want to. So maybe people didn't have this on their interesting game menu before the season, but Raiders at the Patriots, you get, you know, Vrabble sort of toughness, young quarterback. Raiders, you get the old quarterback, the offensive coach.

I think the Raiders have, that loss to Kansas City was about as good a loss as you can have for a first year coach and a roster that has had its holes. When you look at what the Raiders are doing and what the Patriots present, what jumps out to you? Well, let me tell you something about the Raiders, which is truly fascinating. I think this will blow you away. Bowers has played two games. In those two games, because of Bowers, they've only played with three wide receivers on the field. on seven snaps.

They play with tight ends. They play with a fullback. They do not play with three wide receivers because of Bowers. And it's a really interesting dynamic because now as a defense, you have to decide how you want to play from a personnel standpoint. So do you want to play your base defense? And this way Bowers gets opportunities perhaps against linebackers and safeties. Do you want to play your nickel defense?

I mean, the Saints two weeks ago played their nickel defense. and Jonas Sanker, who's their nickel slot corner, was on him, and Bowers beat him a number of times. So you just have to decide from a personnel standpoint. But I want to make one other point about this game that I think is really worth making. Will Campbell is really struggling at left tackle. And you know how we know that? Because the Patriots are helping him. And the Patriots are even playing six offensive linemen and putting the six linemen right next to Will Campbell.

And keep in mind that Max Crosby, while he normally lines up on the other side, he's lined up on the right side of the offense over 40 times this year. And I think that's something to look for in this matchup. All right, listen, two things can be true. I think Jalen Hertz is mature. He reminds me a DAC. Smart, mature, high EQ, committed, tough, plays hurt. There's a lot I like about Jalen Hertz.

I prefer my quarterbacks be a little larger. I do think seeing over the middle is very difficult with towering offensive lines. I wish Jalen would run more. I think he's kind of like, hey, I can do it from the pocket. I like my quarterbacks to move if they can. It's just an advantage innately that makes defensive coordinators lose sleep at night. We can point a lot of fingers at Philadelphia, but this three-and-out avalanche, the last two years, it's incredible. I mean, they're up there with the tightness.

Where do I point fingers with this offense? Well, they're in a bit of a, I don't want to say trouble because you never know how it. how games in the season play out. But right now they have a totally revamped offensive line. And that's a big issue, particularly this week. They play the London game. And they're playing against the Jaguars defense with one of the best young defensive coordinators in the league

in Anthony Campanelli. And he is really, really good with his pressure schemes. And when you're playing with a revamped all line that has not worked together, that is not going to have cohesion, that's going to be a problem. And the question is, because Jalen has, at times, throughout his career,

to drop his eyes and look at the rush and then run. And, hey, he can make plays doing that, but that's obviously not the way you want to play. And right now, there just does not seem to be a comfort level in the passing game. There's very little rhythm to their offense. And they are being blitzed a lot, and they're not handling it well at all, which is not just Jalen Hertz, by the way. I want to make that clear.

It's not all Jalen Hertz by any means. But they are really struggling with blitz. We saw the Rams go at them hard last week. and you can bet that the Jaguards will as well. So I watched Michael Pennix live in college with Kalin-de-Bor an offensive coach, and he was terrific. And then I watched him the last two games with Kevin Stavansky, and he has been terrific.

And I've been on this preaching to the audience for years. His young quarterbacks, I think, absolutely benefit with offensive coaches. It's a different language. So the 12 games in the NFL without an offensive head coach, he just struggled. now some of its injuries. But how much of what I've seen in the last two weeks, it looks real to me. Like I watch it and I'm like, well, I like their old line.

I like Bijon. I like Drake London. I loved panics out of college. Is it the element of surprise because there's not a lot of tape on panics? How much of this stuff is real in Atlanta? Well, I think your point about the offensive coach is a good one because we know Kevin Stefanski at his core wants to have a quarterback under center. And he's not always under center, obviously.

but he wants a play-action pass game. And by the way, the last two weeks, the two games he started, Colin, he's 12 for 16 for 236 yards in the play-action pass game. And we know about Bijon Robinson. He's the best back in the league. Everything starts with outside zone. And you know the thing about outside zone in the play-action pass game? Everybody thinks about second-level defenders and their reaction to run fakes.

But if you run outside zone, it's also the defensive line, because the defensive line's first step becomes lateral, not vertical. And in a league of milliseconds, that is a big deal. So the outside zone play action pass game is really, really effective. And Pennix has always been a really good throw over the football. So with London, you know, being a factor now, I mean, this is an interesting offense to watch because the run game is really good. Yeah.

Penix throws a, it is a beautiful ball to watch. It's just perfect spiral. It's beautiful. So I saw a stat last week on Joe Burrow. I could not believe it. My friend Ryan here, our producer on the staff, loves the Bengals. It's a sad life, but he loves the Bengals. Joe Burrow is 1 in 35 when he trails with eight minutes left.

Now, it's hard to play from behind. He's had very bad defenses. Some of this is just like, you can't win track meets consistently in this league. I love watching Burrell. But the stat jumped out to me. Now, again, his offensive lines haven't been good. His defenses have been subpar. Is there anything with Burrow that, you know, I didn't like that fumble?

I mean, he threw in front of the sticks. What's the film, say? I don't know what to make of that stat. I really don't. I'm being honest. But I know this year, they're out of whack offensively. I mean, they have the second fewest rushes in the league, the second fewest rushing yards in the league.

And you can't play like that. I mean, I think if you spoke to any offensive coach in the league, they will tell you that they really like Joe Burrow. I don't think there's a problem with Joe Burrow as a quarterback, but you just can't play like that. You know, and it's not just the quarterback, Colin, it's the offensive line. You know, pass blocking is a reactive kind of thing. You're going up against better athletes, and you're reacting to them. Whereas run blocking is proactive. You're attacking them.

So it's just hard to play when you don't run the ball with any kind of real volume. And I think they're just so out of whack with their run-pass ratio. It's just too hard to play that way. And I think their offensive line is better. I think the right tackle Mims, the Georgia kid, who is very young when he came in the league, is going to be a really, really good player. But it's just too hard. You know, you can't ask your quarterback, let's put it this way.

You can't say that our quarterback has to be great every week or we can't win. You can't play like that on a weekly basis. So, Brock Purdy, now again, the competition hasn't been great, and I've said this,

I think sometimes because they get banged up, we forget how good San Francisco's talent is. I mean, Mike Evans will get a Hall of Fame boat, so will Fred Warner, Trent's going to get in, so is Kittle,

McCaffrey Will, Shanahan's great. There's a lot of talent here. Debo now is a different kind of chess piece, but he's exceptional at what he does. I mean, even Kyle Hughes check. And they've got pro bowlers

everywhere in Hall of Fame guys. And now it's Seattle. So the schedule is tougher. It's on the road. But the Seahawk defense doesn't quite feel as good. Is there something with Brock when you put the film in? And if it was just a silhouette, you didn't know who it was. It was just a silhouette.

Is there something Brock does that you, Greg Kossel, look at and go, man, he may be a seventh round pick, but that is top of class. Oh, without question. And it almost refers back to what we. talked about with that Prescott. It's just the refinement with which he plays. I mean, he does, you know, ultimately quarterback is a position of nuance and detail. It's not a position of, hey, let's roll the ball out and let's run around today and see if we can make a play in the fourth quarter. It's nuance and detail. And the guys who play it that way, Colin, it makes it seem like it's easy

to do what they do. And we never look at that and think, wow, that's special. But you know how hard it is? I mean, I'm not making comparison here. Okay, I don't want people to think I am. But when you watch Tom Brady all those years, you know, it looked like, gee, he was just dropping back and he was thrown into the right receiver. And, you know, like a lot of people could do that. But it's so much more than that about understanding everything. I mean, two things Purdy does that you don't see on college tape because the college game doesn't demand that is his sense of timing and anticipation is phenomenal. anticipation in the NFL is, is the receiver going to be open?

That's what anticipation is in the NFL, and that's not, you don't see that in college. And the other thing you don't see in college is defense is changing the picture much from pre-snap to post-snap. And he just has such an innate feel for seeing that and recognizing that in a game of milliseconds. You know, you're not thinking that through, you're just seeing it. And he sees it so exceptionally well and so quickly. you can't even calibrate it. And those are things that when you, they just don't,

they don't show up as spectacular plays. He makes the little plays that seem little and they're big look so easy. So the game of the week happens to be on Foxes. Niners going up to Seattle. And that's just a classic, great coach, is great everything. Let's talk about Sam Darnold's performance.

What are you seeing? Yeah, I like Sam Darnold. a lot. I know you do as well. You know, people because of this year, I love when I hear people say as someone regressed, I mean, Sam Donald's not any different today than he was two weeks ago. He's the same quarterback.

You know, it's just games play out differently. And each week is a different game in the NFL. Players, at this point in their careers, don't change. They are what they are, but the games change, and that dictates certain changes in the way people perform in a given game.

But I really like Sam Donald. And I want to show this play because, again, this is a play that is very reflective of how to play the quarterback position. So we're going to show this play, it's from last week, and you can see it now. It's a 28-yard pass to Smith and Jigba. And obviously, Smith and Jigma is great. We know that. But there's so many elements to this play, and you can see, Darnold's going to be in the shotgun. And it's going to be what we call a three-by-one set, three receivers to one side, and Smith and Jigma, the single receiver, what we call the boundary.

And look what he's seeing right now, Donald. It's kind of a muddied four across. You don't know what the coverage is going to be right now. So let's just talk about the route concept and just focus on two guys. We're going to focus on JSN, who's going to run kind of a bender and Kopp, who's going to run kind of a sit route at a more shallow level, because essentially they're doing a high, low here. Now, what this is going to become is cover two. The safety's going to retreat, and the corner is going to stay low.

and there's a hook defender here in cover two. So you see as this develops now, now what's going to happen here is Darnal really is going to throw this ball off the hook defender and to avoid. But if you look at Donald, look when he separates his hands. Look at the anticipation.

You can't be late with this throw. And these are the kinds of things. This is the nuance of playing the position, Colin, that I talk about so much. You asked me about Purdy. We spoke about Prescott. This is what anticipation is at the NFL level. You have to throw the ball well before against zone, I'm talking about, well before receivers get into that void area.

Otherwise, you're far too late. So those are the kind of throws. You ask me what gets me excited when you ask me about Purdy. Those are the kinds of plays that are where I say, you know what, that's high-level quarterbacking. But it looks like to a fan, I'm sure, oh, you threw it to the open guy. But it's really high level. And not everybody can do that. Take my word for it.

I get excited anytime we just talk Sam Darnold. It doesn't matter what you show. We could show. I know you do. But why do you think we wanted to do it this week? I wanted to get you fired up. Good seeing you as always, Greg. Thanks, Colin.

You bet. You know how gratifying it is? All the crap I took for years on Donald. And I'm like, no, he can play. He can play. Coachable, athlete, big, deep ball, mobile. He can play. It's like Justin Herbert.

I'm getting all the traits. I know he can play. And then he hoist a trophy. I'll be honest. I did not see hoisting a trophy for Donald just because it was like, you know, you need breaks. You got to get a great head coach. Well, then he gets Kevin O'Connell. I mean, think of the last three coaches he's had.

Shanahan, Kevin O'Connell, and then Mike McDonald. So some of it is he's had three great coaches in a row. And just like anything, when you're young, the quality of mentorship and guidance. It doesn't matter if you're 8, 18 or 28 or playing quarterback or whatever you're doing. It matters a lot. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.