The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Browns, Giants, Ravens, Cam Newton, & where Colin was right and wrong

Episode Date: September 23, 2019

Colin explains why the Cleveland Browns are the most predictable team in the NFL, why the New York Giants should be happy with QB Daniel Jones, why he's impressed with the Baltimore Ravens, why the Carolina Panthers might be better without QB Cam Newton, and where you was right and wrong over the weekend. Guests include Joe Thomas, Trent Dilfer, Michael Vick, and Tony Gonzalez. 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 Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this 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, Mark keep 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 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 Sports Radio.com Or stream us live every day on the IHeartRadio app by searching Her. We're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, what a Monday we'll have.

This is The Heard, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We are live in sunny and beautiful Los Angeles on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Could have our best shown a long time. One hour from now, Colin Wright, Colin wrong. 30 minutes from now, Joe Thomas, one of the great left tackles in the history of the NFL, and a Cleveland Brown lover and embracer and hugger. We'll be joining us in 30 minutes to explain last night. Joy Taylor is joining me.

Fun football yesterday. We got a lot of good young quarterbacks in this league. Wow, lots of them. It was a great college weekend, too. Wow. Not for Jim Harbaugh. Yes. That was awful.

Joy and I will be joining you for the next three hours. Let me start with this. Everybody's going to beat up on Cleveland because of the fourth down and nine. They ran a draw. No team in the NFL has done that in 12 years. So we could bang on Freddie Kitchens. But this morning is all about what I, I tell young broadcasters, do your homework, have strong opinions, and don't worry how it lands.

No reasonable person, no reasonable media person that I respect. And I'm not talking, you know, like blog guy. I'm talking about people that do this for a living have made a lot of money, 10, 20, 30 years. Thought the Browns were anything more than a potential wild card team that was fun, but had all sorts of And that's exactly what they are. And that's exactly what I predicted. And it wasn't like I'm patting myself in the back. This stuff was all predictable by Cleveland.

We told you they're going to be great at wide receiver. Very young, very fun. Check, they are. We said, offensive line will be the weakness of the team. And we think it will limit what they can do in some of their passing route, some of their passing game. Check. We told you, John Dorsey hired Freddie Kitchens because he can control him.

he would not have been hired as a coordinator for any other team. This in a coaching league is a mistake. He'll be over his head at least early. Check. We told you, their schedule's brutal until about November 15th, and they'll probably lose a lot of early games, but they have a chance if they stay healthy to win a bunch of games late. The first part of that, check.

And we also told you they're the youngest NFL team, the youngest NFL roster, so they're going to make mistakes, and they're going to lose games they should win and that this is going to be a team that's going to make a lot of mistakes, but they'll be fun to watch. Check, they lead the NFL in penalty yards, tied for most in penalties. None of these were wild proclamations.

None were great predictions. We told you individually that giving up your second best offensive linemen to the New York Giants with a young quarterback for Olivier Vernon, who's got no sacks in three games and only a handful of tackles was a big mistake. It has been. Olivia Vernon's not producing, and your offensive line is getting worked.

We told you that John Dorsey, the reason he got run out of Kansas City, which has been better since he left, is because he was loud, too much ego, intended to like flashy players and not to worry about character. What is Cleveland lack right now? Character. Penalties. No identity. Wearing watches in the middle of games. Guys looking for brand over performance.

and a control freak in Kansas City wouldn't give him control, and he wanted to control John Dorsey did. So he hired a Freddie Kitchens, a position coach. We also told you that don't overpredict and make a target of yourself. Be humble, hardworking. The wins will come, and at the end of the year, you're going to have eight or nine wins and be in the playoff discussion. And I still think that is true.

I also told you, Baker Mayfield is talented. But to be successful in Cleveland, he's going to have to overcome constant dysfunction. And my gut feeling this morning is Freddie Kitchens is going to have about two more games like that. And John Dorsey, whose career is tied to him, is going to start making calls and replace him by the end of the year. So that'll mean Baker will be on his fourth coach in three years. Check that box too. And again, these are not wild proclamations. These are not great, I mean, out of the blue.

where did you see it coming? Man, Colin, you know football predictions. Every reasonable person knew this. Plus when LeBron left, it left a gaping hole in Cleveland for a new hero. And people have wrapped their arms around Baker-Mayfield, but he's 5-11 and a half. You can actually make the argument. He throws the ball better moving out of the pocket than in it because he can't see over the line. And he runs too much for me because I don't think he's a great athlete. He's 5-11 and a half. He was a two-time walk-on. He's a good athlete. He's not special. he's Johnny Mansell. He's Tim Tebow. He's good. He's not Lamar. He's not Steve Young. You know, he's not Mahomes. He's not Kyler Murray. You know, you're not that kind of athlete, but he's a good athlete. Certainly, you know, better than, you know, a handful of guys. But the reality is none of what is happening to Cleveland was hard to spot. Baker's 30th in completions. That's what happens. He's also second most interceptions. That's what happens when you don't have time to throw in this league and you have a rookie head coach.

that's what happens. Don't confuse hater for accurate. I'm not a hater on Russell Westbrook. I was accurate. I'm not a hater on Baker Mayfield and Cleveland. But when you have a historically kind of inept franchise, when you give them a glimmer of hope,

they massively overreact. And this morning, I would say Cleveland is the most predictable team in the league. I predicted Tennessee would beat him. I predicted they'd beat the Jets. I predicted they'd lose last night. They are one and two. They're going to get rolled in Baltimore.

It's already a blazing five pick. I'll give it to you now. The line's five and a half. This stuff was predictable. Don't confuse accuracy for hate. Let me shift to this. New York City's got Daniel Jones fever. Football's hard.

It's really hard. Football practice is hard. OTAs are hard. You're wearing gear. It's hot. Yesterday was hard. You're in Tampa. You trail.

12 to 3. You trail 28 to 10. But what Daniel Jones gave the giants yesterday in that locker room, and this is really important, he gave them juice and he gave them hope. Even when they were down and Saquan Barkley got hurt, you could sense from the defensive effort, you could sense from the receivers, you could sense from the effort, the Giants thought they were in the game. you're down to Tampa 2810 with Eli. You've seen this for three years. There's no juice in the locker room. There's no juice on the field.

You're down 12 to 3 early with Eli. There were two plays in that game. And Daniel Jones and Eli are very similar players. Size, the way they look in a uniform, they throw the ball the same way. They even have a connection to David Cutcliffe, who was Eli's coach at Elmiss and was Daniel's coach at Duke. I mean, they're all sorts of similar.

Here's where they're not. feet. So Daniel Jones, this was a big third down, gets into a situation. They're trailing 12 to 3. And this is one of these moments in a football game where Daniel Jones scrambles outside. Look at him here. Eli can't make this play. And this ended up being a huge, huge momentum turner first in goal at the 8 to Saquan Barclay. Eli simply can't make that play. And that play is forgotten by the end of the night. It's forgotten. that's juice, that's hope. That's in a sport that's hard. That's the kind of play that guys go, we're back in it.

Because that 12 to 3 trailing right there, that could be game over. You're praying for a 42-yard field goal. And then there was a play after this later in the game. Now, Eli probably gets a field goal on this drive. But Daniel Jones got a touchdown on a zone read. Now watch this. Again, how many times of the New York Giants last three, years had the ball there and settled for a field goal.

Eli can't make that play. You get four more points than Eli. I'm not knocking Eli. But these guys have a lot of similarities. But when you have an average offensive line or a bad offensive line, Arizona, New York Giants, you know what you need? You need juice. You need legs.

You need mobility. You need hope. And that's what I saw with New York yesterday. That 28 to 10 with Eli, you're done. Guys don't play as hard. They don't run the routes is crisp. They don't block as hard for the extra second. Because in Tampa, it's 90 degrees.

You're trailing. You've lived this life. You don't feel you have juke. But all those Giants players have been on that practice field. They've been in these OTAs with Daniel. And they've seen how he can run. They've seen how he can run. I remember years ago, players tell me that about Michael Vic.

They're like, you could be down with Michael, but he was just crazy. And Michael would peel off a run and you're like, okay, right back in the game. With Eli, there were these games where you fell. behind and you knew we're just going to settle for field goals. And that's what Daniel Jones gives you is when your average offensive line and you're not a complete team and you're rebuilding. Kyler Murray's doing this to Arizona. And they lost yesterday, but Kyler Marie did this to Arizona.

Arizona was throwing haymakers until the last play of that game. Football is hard. You need juice, especially when you're rebuilding, when your offensive line is bad. And most of these plays, you will forget about. New York's talking about the Miss Field goal by the Tampa Bay kicker. It's those two plays that kept drives alive and got you a seven instead of a three that are going to keep the Giants playing hard, trailing on the road, inclement weather, hot as you know what, feeling hopeless the last three years.

And it was fun to watch, by the way, because I think the NFL, Joy and I said this, NFL's better when the Giants are fun. And the last several years, they've just been tired. It's just not fun. And they get down early and you're just like, unless you live in New York, you just turn the TV off. You're like, okay, they're down 12.3 early. Seacrest out. Oh, they're down 28.10.

This is ugly. I never, ever felt that yesterday. Giants have their quarterback. Coming up next, just because you lose does not mean you can't be impressive. There was a team that lost yesterday. And I got to tell you something, I would not. I would want no. Part of them.

I think this is a team that is going to be a headache for everybody in their conference and certainly twice a year for everybody in their division. That is coming up. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you.

exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust.

I want you to just really be a good person. person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva? where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood

as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45, how can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy?

That one's kind of hard, you know? Well, that's light. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, How Hard Can It Be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva

as part of My Cultura Podcast Network available on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam, Ms. Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us every.

everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, IZAD, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Guys, stop using your why for your girl. girlfriend shampoo. Your hair is different, so give it a different shampoo. Get your own Dove Men Plus Care, created a range, designed to give your hair the care it needs, available at Walmart. Dove, good to have you in. So, you know, the NFL's 16 games, and you always feel like you have to win 10 or 11 to get to the playoffs. And there's one game a week. So there's a sense of urgency and important of the games that baseball doesn't have or the MLS doesn't have or hockey or the NBA doesn't have.

You have this urgency, but you can lose all sorts of games. You can lose seven games and get to the playoffs. And you can learn a lot in losses. What I tend to do when my blazing five has been very hot, I look at teams that were good in losses and teams that were overrated in wins. San Francisco's 3 and O, but they're a mess, turnover mess. I'm going to tell you something. Baltimore has a chance to be scary.

If you go look at that box score against Kansas City, the fireworks show of the league. First downs, Baltimore had more. Passing first downs, Baltimore had as many. Fourth down efficiency, Baltimore was better. total yards close rushing Baltimore red zone both great possession Baltimore okay that's in Kansas City that's facing Andy Reed that's facing the best offensive personnel in the league 90% of the teams in this league walk in there and get run over yesterday Baltimore their offensive

line was better than Kansas cities their pass rush was more consistent their running game was better and their secondary was better yes they couldn't stop Patrick Mahomes congratulations. Nobody will for the next decade. That's why, by the way, that's why Belichick rolled the dice on Antonio Brown, because he knows his defense can't stop him, and his defense is the best I've seen in years. I mean, that New England knows they can't stop Kansas City. They couldn't stop him in the third and fourth quarter last year in the playoffs. And Baltimore does something. Now, Lamar was choppy. Lamar was inartistic. Lamar's got a long way to go. But they won time of possession. They've won time of business. They've won time of possession in every game this year. Baltimore does what you have to do to beat great quarterbacks. Make them watch the game like this on the sidelines. Baltimore had that ball.

And that's with a young quarterback. Now, Lamar has got a long way to go. But he did target nine different receivers. He throws a very nice over-the-top ball. He's super mobile. But when you watch Baltimore, don't get caught up on that loss. Physically, they completely passed the eye test. They have an excellent coach, a tremendous offensive line, all sorts of offensive weapons. They are hyper-aggressive upfront defensively. Their secondary was better than Kansas City's. And I say that knowing their secondary got burnt, but that's because Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, they're just different players right now. Mahomes is probably the best quarterback in the league, and Lamar Jackson's a young kid like Daniel Jones. He doesn't know

how to read the field yet. That's not where he's at. These young quarterbacks, Russell Wilson admits, third year, light went on. Takes a long time. So Baltimore blew me away. The eye test, the physicality, they were never out of that game. They were never, ever out of that game. And they're going to be very different. They're going to be more, they're going to be contrarian to the league.

They're going to be very physical. I loved yesterday the coaching staff going forward on fourth down. They're like, hey, we are going to own this time of possession thing, and they didn't get the two-point conversions. That's okay. In Kansas City, I love the, I love kind of. of their identity. Listen, when you watch Baltimore, you feel like, oh, I know what they are. When I watch Cleveland, I see all this talent offensively. I'm like, I don't know what Cleveland is. Why don't they run Nick Chubmore? I can't figure Cleveland out. I can figure Baltimore

out in two series. They've got a direction, a point of view. They've got a kind of a macro view on what they are. And watch out for Baltimore. They're a five and a half point favorite over Cleveland. I was guessing driving in today. I told the team as we prepared us, What's the line on that? My guess was six. Cleveland gets down on this team. They won't get the ball back. I mean, Cleveland won't get the ball back.

Because Baltimore may win time of possession in 15 to 16 weeks. Watch out for them. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, the Giants got the win yesterday, but they did have one major key injury. Saquan Barclay left the game in the second quarter and was diagnosed with a high ankle spring.

He will get an MRI today, but he insists this is not the end of him in 2019. But they have some winnable games coming out. I'm going to try to hopefully whatever I can do to get back as quickly as possible, and not just for myself, just for this team. That's the only day I continue to think about, even caught myself getting a little upset just on the sideline, just because I wasn't able to be out there for those guys. That's the only thing I'm focused on.

So, as you mentioned, they have some winnable games coming up. Washington. Washington at home. Then Minnesota at home. Then they go to New England. They have the Cardinals at home, and they're at Detroit. So those are, you know, New England's tough, but Joy, those are winnable games for this team. Right.

Well, he's going to be out for a couple weeks. So he in Rapid Port 2 this morning, the Giants are expecting him to miss several weeks. Before the injury, it eight carries for 10 yards, four receptions for 27 yards. And obviously, he's been huge for them this year. And this is kind of a year. It feels like the Giants can't get right. Like Daniel Jones comes out and gets this big win. you have all this momentum.

And, you know, they did get that win without him in the second half. No, that's a real thing. They came back without him. So, and that's, I mean, that's a killer injury. Like, that's something that sucks the air on the stadium for a team. But this is a good sign for the Giants overall with Daniel Jones leading them in the second half to get the win. So hopefully, Sakel will only be gone for a couple weeks. And he was obviously very excited after the game, you know, trying to get over there to celebrate with them.

And it was a nice little moment with Eli Manning and Daniel Jones, too. That's not hyper. We don't know what Daniel is. But God, for the first time in years, the restaurant had a good vibe. Like you walked in, you're like, oh, it's a fun place. No, but you know what? I don't like to get caught up in that whole, like, what? He's been great, but let's just, let's just, he had a great win.

Like when Lamar Jackson had that incredible game against the dolphins, yes, it's the dolphins, but he was also incredible. It's still a professional team. It might be the worst professional team ever, but it's still a professional team. Like, let him have his moment. Yeah. Now next week, we can maybe start evaluating. more and then get more perspective. But you have to start somewhere. And that was a big win for them.

Forget whatever happened with the kicker at the end of it. They had to be in the position to win the game and they did. Another big win was the Saints. The expectations were low for them after Drew Brees got injured, but they clearly weren't listening to critics. Teddy Bridgewater looks good for the first start of his season. 177 yards and two touchdowns. And they also took advantage of Seattle's mistake scoring two defensive touchdowns, which were huge for them. Alvin Camaro was obviously big for them as well, 69 rushing guards leading the team at two receiving yards leading the team in receiving and two scores. Seattle was, that was one of those games where Seattle gave up a big special teams play.

It was just one of those games where you ever watch a game and you're like, oh, this is not going to be our day. Like Seattle couldn't get their special teams right. They couldn't get their coverage right. And Alvin Kamara, maybe the best screen play running back in the league. He's incredible. And they're, I mean, they're very lucky to have him, especially considering the situation because he's, he's been huge for them anyway. But this is, that's a big win to go to Seattle is a very difficult place to play. That was the toughest. Joy, if you look at their schedule, that was the game I didn't know if they could win.

They've got some jags. They got some games. They have the Cowboys at home next week, then the Bucks at home. Then they go to Jacksonville, and they go to Chicago, and then they have the Cardinals at home. And that's the six weeks window that was projected that Drew Brees be out. And that was this was the toughest game on the schedule because they get Dallas at home? Yeah, I mean, I mean, at the Bears is going to be. That's going to be a rough game as well with their defense.

But it's not all hope loss for the Saints this year. And certainly if you look at what's happening with Pittsburgh, it's, I don't think the Saints are in a better position. Finally, let's get to it. Michigan and Wisconsin, 35, 14. The Badgers were up 28-0 at the half. Jonathan Taylor had an incredible game, 143 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone. And after the game, Jim Harbaugh talked about his team's poor performance. Yeah, we're outplayed.

Out prepared and out-coached. I've played the whole thing. To be able to run the ball, to be able to throw the ball, both equally effective and efficient, definitely little things we've got to do and we've got to do better. Michigan is now one in six on the road against ranked opponents under Jim Harbaugh. Now, I want to give Wisconsin credit.

Jonathan Taylor is the best college running back I've seen since Zeke, and that includes Sekewan Barclay. He's bigger and stronger. He's a track kid who plays football. Jonathan Taylor is an unbelievable college running back. Secondly, is Jim Leonard's the defensive coordinator for Wisconsin. He was a longtime NFL guy. That's the best Wisconsin defense.

And again, you think I'm, listen, I'm going to bang Harbaugh top of the hour. So it's a real Wisconsin team. But my takeaway is Harbaugh was an NFL quarterback. This offense for Michigan, it's going backwards. What is it? What is that offense? It just doesn't feel like they have an identity at all. At all.

That's exact what, even like Baltimore. I know what they are. Baltimore can be limited some, but they have an identity. Players know what they're reaching for. What is Michigan's offense? I don't know, but they've dropped to 20th in the AP poll now. Clemson is number one, obviously, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, run out the top four in Wisconsin, moved up from 13th to 8th in the poll.

So a lot of movement there. Yeah, LSU can actually throw the ball now, and Auburn shocked me going on the road and being Texas A&M. Auburn is, they should have lost to Oregon. Auburn is just kind of, this is the worst part of their schedule, and they're winning all of them. Yeah, it looks great. Wow, good stuff, Joy, thanks. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Hurd-Lie News. There are so many things for me to address today. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong at the top of the hour. Joe Thomas is going to show up here. 11 years in the NFL, 10 is a pro bowler. He'll be joining us. So, you know, I've been very critical of Cam Newton through the years, and I've said he's a lot like Russell Westbrook.

I'm not denying the talent, the athletic ability, the charm, the fashion, the iconic stature in America. I'm not denying that. But Oklahoma City at one point had to ask themselves, why are we in the Westbrook business? We're not winning. He's bad with the media. He's bad with the fans, and frankly, everybody that leaves gets better without him.

And that's what I wonder today as the new owner of Carolina was in his massive private jet flying from Arizona to Charlotte. Why am I in the camp business? Last eight starts, he's lost. Kyle Allen's last two starts, he's won. And stop telling me that Carolina doesn't have any good offensive players. Greg Olson, I haven't seen him look that good in years. DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel, Christian McCaffrey.

You've got to ask yourself at some point, is Cam hurting the team? And I said this with Westbrook. I'm not denying the talent. I'm not denying the charm. I'm not denying a lot. But popular doesn't interest me unless it comes with winning. And I don't think Cam right now, I keep saying this. You watched the game yesterday.

Those offensive weapons stop telling me they don't have offensive weapons. weapons. They are tremendous. Carolina's got DJ Morris tremendous. Christian McCaffrey is remarkable. Greg Olson, I would vote for him for the Hall of Fame. I'm not talking Joe Thomas Hall of Fame, Khalil Mack level, but Greg Olson gets my Hall of Fame vote. He's more Eli Manning. You can argue over it. But I mean, come on. Kyle Allen. That's what Carolina's offense should look like. So I think in OKC, they ask the question. Why are we in the Westbrook business? Popular is only good for me if we win. You're good with the media. You're good with fans. Teammates love playing for you. Carolina, to me, look better yesterday with Kyle Allen. All right, he's one of the all-time

great players in NFL history, and I don't say that about a lot of people that come on the show. 11 years, he was a 10-time Pro Bowl. Or in my life, there's been four or five left tackles, Anthony Munoz, Jonathan Ogden, Walter Jones. I go way, way, way back to John Hanna. He's a kid Sports Illustrated cover, New England left tackle, and Joe Thomas. And he is, one of the most respected guys in the league, and he does a podcast now, NFL Network stuff, the Tomahawk Show by uninterrupted. He is joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So last week, Joe, I thought you were very honest, and we patted you on the back for this.

It's very difficult to be in Cleveland. LeBron left. Baker is, he's the hero, and he should be. He's your franchise. But you said something last week about the offense, and we talked about it. You said it's unsettling. It's easy for me to criticize Baker, but I will say this. I don't like the play calling.

And here's my big problem, Joe. I don't know what they are offensively. That's my knock. You're in the city. You see practice. Does that, is that bother you? What is their identity on offense? Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I said that the offense has been a little bit unsettling

because they haven't got into a rhythm. And when they get into those moments where you have to have a play that's made at the end of a game, we don't know what they're going to do really well. And sometimes you can use that to your advantage because that makes you unpredictable. But when you get into those situations and you don't have something that you can fall back on that you feel good about calling, like, hey, we're a team that we can run the football on anybody or, hey, you know what, OBJ can get open against anybody. And we know we can throw it in tight windows. And that's what we're going to hang our hat on. And right now they don't have that. And so I think you're seeing a lack of rhythm on that offense. And that's causing a lack of long

drives for them and that's really hurt them because they don't have the ability right now to just move the ball steadily down the field and go get a score. It's been kind of a boom or bust mentality with that offense. Are you worried about Freddie Kitchens? Everybody this morning will clobber him on, you know, OBJ didn't get any targets down the stretch, but let me defend him there. Amari Cooper got seven targets yesterday. Devante Adams got four. Nick Chubbs good, Jarvis Landry. You guys got plenty of offensive player. Your backup tight end is a hell of a player. So I'm not going to bang on him for OBJ. But there are a lot of penalties. No kind of identity offense. Are you concerned about Freddie Kitchen being a little over his skis right now? Well, I think he's got a lot of really smart

coaches and that staff that can clearly help him out. But you are a little bit concerned just from what you've seen so far from the offense. It is a team with a lot of talent, especially on that offensive skill player position. And I think that's been part of the hard thing about finding that identity is when you have all that talent, you've got to figure out, okay, what are we going to do in crunch moments? Are we going to be a team that gives the ball to Nick Chub? Are we going to be a team that gives the ball to Odell Beckham? And they haven't really been able to sort it out just yet who is going to be their stud, who is going to be their war horse that they're going to ride in critical moments. And it'll be up to Freddie

Kitchens to figure that out because, like I said, they have a lot of talent. Now they just got to figure out how all that talent can fit together and become a team. Joe, you played hard every Sunday, and football, film is the truth, so I don't think teams rarely bail. I am concerned a little about the Jets. Are you worried with all these road games? Good Lord, at San Francisco, at Baltimore look good this weekend, New England, Denver. Are you concerned that this is a very young team, Joe, young players tend to be more emotional, that they could go sideways and unravel here if they go in a four-game losing streak?

Well, that was the concern when you look at this schedule in the summer and when the schedule came out was this is a really difficult stretch that they're going through right now. And with this young and inexperienced team, it is easier to get on that emotional roller coaster. But I do think that right now starting out the season one and two actually could possibly help them because Baker, his whole career has thrived on that underdog mentality. And I think he is a guy that wants that chip on his shoulder. He doesn't want anybody to give him any chance. And as Baker goes, this team is going to go. And so I think starting out the way they did and hearing the criticism nationally and even locally from how their offense is performed and the lack of rhythm that we've seen can really be a rallying cry where they can circle the wagons. And I do think that this stretch while it's going to be tough, they're going to find a lot about themselves.

And I think this is actually the type of situation that Baker wants to be in. He's not the guy, even though he enjoys this being the center of attention. I don't think he does his best work when he has all that hype. He does his best work when he's got his chip on his shoulder and nobody's given him a chance. I want to move off to Daniel Jones. And I said this yesterday. I love Eli Manning. I love Archie Manning.

Cooper Manning, Eli. I've never met Peyton. They're wonderful people. Their NFL royalty. But I did feel like with Eli in the last three to four years, when you got down in the road, it really felt hopeless. And when you give me the Kyler Murys and the Lamarge and the Daniel Jones that can make plays happen with their feet. There's a juice. There's a component that you got, you got a playmaker back there. What did you make, I mean, what do we make of Daniel Jones early?

What do you think he adds? I mean, your thoughts on a young guy that it seemed like yesterday, even down by 18 points, they were never out of that game. Well, they keep making the comparison with Daniel Jones saying he's, he's just like a young Eli Manning. But this guy can run the football. Nobody was going to be confused watching Eli Manning run thinking he was Saquan Barclay. And so when you're a one-dimensional quarterback, you've got to be really, really, really good, really, accurate and very good with your decision-making if you're no threat to run the football. And now at a different dimension with Daniel Jones, being able to be back there, run some of these RPOs, and give these defenses something else to think about and something to prepare for. And as a young quarterback who maybe doesn't yet have his Ph.D. in coverages and different. blitzes and looks that a defense is going to give him, to be able to run the football and escape

the pocket and buy a little bit more time with your feet, that's the recipe for success when you're a young quarterback. We saw it with Russell Wilson. We've seen it now with Daniel Jones, and you're seeing it with Garner Minchu down in Jacksonville. To be able to run with the football in your hand as a young quarterback, that gives you the opportunity for success. To be able to just stand back there and throw the football, if that's all you can do as a rookie quarterback, you're probably not going to have success because the level that the NFL has from a defensive standpoint is so much greater and so much more complex than what they saw in college, I do believe it's like getting a doctorate. You need three years of watching NFL film and being in those NFL meetings before

you can really confidently break down a defense and watch that secondary and not get confused on a consistent basis. So running with the football as a young quarterback is vital to success. And we saw Daniel Jones do a good job of that yesterday. Listen, San Francisco's three. you know, but they've been choppy and they're young. They're just making a ton of mistakes. Like Cleveland, sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot. Baltimore lost to Kansas City, Joe, but that offensive line and that running game, that time of possession, you guys go to Baltimore.

There are times when you lose games in this league and I come on the air Monday and I'm like, that is a good team. I was kind of blown away by Baltimore yesterday. What do you make a Lamar Jackson at this point and that offense? Well, if you're able to run the football in the NFL, you can keep up with anybody, especially when you're playing a good rushing defense on the other side of the football. The concern that I have right now in Baltimore is their secondary. The way that they're having communication issues consistently on a weekly basis, giving up all sorts of yards through the air, that's something that's going to be hard, even if they do run the football and they squeeze the football offensively winning the time of possession battle. when the other team's able to get back there and just throw it at will on your secondary,

that's going to be a big concern long term. But they've got the formula. As long as Lamar Jackson's able to stay healthy to be able to run the football, not only with Mark Angerman in their traditional running game with their running backs, but to have that threat of a quarterback who can run and then also some of the RPO's and some of the deep shots that they take off of it, they're going to be dangerous and they're different. And that's what makes them hard to defend.

and they're not going to be like any other team that these guys see. And so when they do match up against a New England or Kansas City, they're going to give them fits. And they could really realistically beat any team in the NFL on any Sunday. Finally, 30 seconds to a minute left. That's the best Wisconsin defense I think I've ever seen. We can bang on Harbaugh. I said this yesterday.

Jonathan Taylor's the best college running back I've seen since Zeke. And I include Sequin Barclay. I think he's more complete. I got to tell you, as a badger, is this the best Wisconsin team ever? Well, I hope you're right by saying that. I'm not sure I'm ready to crown them as the best team from Wisconsin ever, but certainly they have the makings of what a great Wisconsin team looks like. And since I was born, the best teams from Wisconsin were always teams that had a great running back.

They could run the football at will, and they had a really, really tough defense. But more than anything, they were kind of made up of no-name. guys, like guys that you hadn't been hearing about all year long. It was that blue collar mentality, almost like we were talking about with Baker. Wisconsin teams have always thrived when nobody's given them a chance and they have that blue collar mentality where they can kind of circle the wagons and use that as a rally and cry the whole year. Outside of Jonathan Taylor, who you mentioned, everybody in the country knows who that is. You can't really name a lot of guys on this team. And I think that just sets up perfectly for the type of team that Wisconsin always wants to be when they're really good.

Thomas, you were great. Played in 10,363 consecutive snaps and NFL record. You're a tremendous young broadcaster. Keep kicking butt. The podcast is called The Tomahawk Show Uninterrupted Weekly Podcast, NFL veterans, former teammates. Joe, you're going to be okay. Baltimore could be tough for your brownies, but after that, I think there's wins on the horizon.

Good luck. Well, I appreciate it. Hey, we went in Baltimore. We're in first place in the AMC North. So don't forget that, Browns, fans. All is not lost. All right, good stuff. And he's a badger and he should be proud because, man, that is as good as Wisconsin has looked in a long time.

Coming up next, I'm going to hand out my first ever Golden Pen Award. I know. Joy is like, don't get it. You will. It's borderline brilliant. That's coming up. Packers win it and I'll tell you why next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.

Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist,

Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth?

Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows.

Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stopped by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah. You figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking.

through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with the Adamania Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest is going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, Fupa's, sex drive. Wait, what sex?

Dating at 45. How hard can it be? Getting naked at 50 with the new guy. That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public.

Listen to how hard can it be with the Anna Maria Riva as part of Michael Doa Podcast Network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Discovered car key matchup this week. USC at Washington. Discover at Miles Car. They match miles. 35,000 becomes 70 in the first year. Sign up today.

Limitations apply. Discover.com slash travel. Discover.com slash travel. By the way, Joy Taylor's got some breaking news here, Joy, on Cam Newton. Yes. Shefter tweeted that the Panthers have ruled out Cam Newton from Sunday's game against Houston due to his foot injury. So Kyle Allen will be getting the start again.

Texan secondary, not great. Kyle Allen picked apart Arizona secondary, so that's a very winnable game. So Cam Newton's ruled out week four against the Texans. Or as John sarcastically said, he's been ruled out until Kyle Allen, what was your line there, John, Mr. Snarky? Until Kyle Allen's no longer better than him.

That is just unfair and uncalled for. I mean, clearly Cam Newton is literally injured. Yeah, I know. I'm not taking away from the fact that he has digressed a lot and he's not playing to the level that we expect of him, but he's also clearly injured. Yes. I just, I'm tired of people telling me, I'm tired of the constant, there's not enough players around him. They've had three different players be pro bowlers on the offensive line. They're two receivers now and McCaffrey are outstanding. I'd vote Greg Olson into the Hall of Fame.

Ron Rivera has given Cam in the last eight years, five of eight years, five of eight years, a top 10 defense. Stop telling me, they didn't have weapons. They've got weapons. Now, Cam is hurt. I'm not denying that. But you watch that game yesterday.

You're like, I haven't seen Greg Olson look like that in years. He gets really open if you throw it to him. Let me say this. I've never given this award out before. We get caught up in free agency in all sports. In the NBA, generally great players equal wins. In the NFL, a lot of these great free agents don't mean squat. They're just fun for us to talk about.

The Raiders signed a bunch of stars and the Jets signed a bunch of stars and they could be outside of Miami the two worst teams in the league. What I look for is your draft and mid-level free agent signings. And so I thought last year the Colts had the best off season. They went out and they got a pro-bowler offensive lineman, a pro-bowler linebacker. I thought they had the best off-season. But I got to tell you something. Green Bay went and got Preston Smith, productive, filled a need at a reasonable price. Zadarius Smith, productive, filled a need, reasonable price.

And then they got Amos, the safety. All three boxes checked. Then they went and got that safety out of college from Maryland. Right now, Green Bay's new pieces on defense have six sacks and a pick. and I'm going to give out my first ever golden pen award for the best signings of the offseason. Green Bay has nailed it. Like we get caught up on the Raiders and the jets and the fireworks and the Labian Bell. And this is a salary cap league.

That's all this is, man. It's a salary cap league. So if you're paying your running back 15, then you're paying your right guard less than you want to pay a high quality right. guard. Green Bay figured out two years ago. We're going to have to pay Aaron a fortune. So they started drafting two years ago defense. And it just went all defense in their drafts. And this year, they went all defense in their drafts outside of a, I think it was a tight end and a center I like. But I thought they did a really smart job to get productive guys at a good price who fit their system and their needs. And by the way, don't worry about Aaron Rogers. The scoring has gone

up every week. The passing numbers have gone up every week. They've played three of the top six, seven defenses in the NFL. Chicago could have the best defense. Minnesota may have the best overall roster in the league. They just can't get the quarterback right. And, you know, Denver is the best O and three team in the league. They got hosed by the officials at home against Chicago, and yesterday they were in this game. So the offense will be there for Aaron Rogers. Don't worry about that. But the best offseason signings, the Golden Pen Award, this is very, very prestigious. If you ask people on the NFL, okay, they've never heard of it. But they will, in time, they will hear about this.

It would be very prestigious in a very short order. I like this award. The Golden Pen Award. Yeah, and it's very deserving for the Packers to finally, you know, make those signings after realizing their bold strategy of completely ignoring the defense for a couple years, didn't work out. But eight. Yeah.

Yeah, for eight years, they lost their pens. Anybody got a pen around here? No, we don't have any. And in the last two years, and by the way, I think Joy and I both talked about this. these were not, I mean, Preston Smith is a great player. We said this all offseason. They're like, man, what a Washington? You pay Preston Smith.

That's like he's a really good player. And it was funny because when you looked at the, this morning we looked at the top 10 free agent signings in the offseason. None of the Packers guys were on there. None of those guys got any credit. But we kept saying, you know, I thought Indianapolis, by the way, went and got Justin Houston, again, didn't pay him anything relative to what good pass rushers make. So, and Aaron Rogers is going to be fine.

The defense is going to be the MVP of the Green Bay Packers until Thanksgiving. Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rogers, it's going to work. These are good defenses. Don't worry about it. Aaron Jones, they always produce good offensive lines, Devante Adams. But congrats to Green Bay. They figured out two years out. We got a pair of quarterback of fortune, and we're just going to go all in on one side of the ball,

and this is what you get. That Green Bay defense, and I know they faced Kirk. I know they've faced Trubisky. I know they've faced Flacko. And it'll take a while for it to kind of jive perfectly. But there's all sorts of speed now. Preston Smith and Zedaria Smith are just really, really good NFL players. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong next.

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. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answer. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keer Gaines,

as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing.

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, IZAD, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crime jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenapausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with the Adamania Arriva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden I'd had hanginess happening on my own.

I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupa, sex drive, wait, what sex? Dating at 45, how hard can it be, getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be?

I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura Podcast Network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or work. wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, here we go. First hour flew by Joe Thomas. Stop by his thoughts on the Browns. Trent Dilfer and Michael Vic this hour. This is The Hurd.

Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. It is so great to have you in. Got all sorts of thoughts today we have not addressed. Mondays during the football season are fun, easy, fast-moving shows. And Joy Taylor is joining us. just told us about Cam Newton's out for a while. Also, Joy will have the very latest 30 minutes from now on Saquan Barclay and all these stories.

The league is sort of taking shape now. Is that fair to say? Yes, we have a better idea of a lot of teams and what they're capable of now. There's one awful team, but even I'll defend Miami. They have a plan. They have a direction, and they played their butts off yesterday. They got beat, but they played hard yesterday. And I, that I'm not sure the Jets did.

So, all right, you guys ready to go. every Monday at this time, I have strong opinions. Many of you like them. Many of you do not. But when I'm wrong, I just say, okay, whiffed on that one. Here we go. Where Colin was right. Boy, I've been money on Blazing 5. 4-0-1 yesterday. Called the Giants up set, called the Rams over the Brown. I said the Lions would give Philadelphia fits and the Steelers lost but covered. Now, I got some breaks. The Niners basically gave that puppy away. They tried to anyway. I also do a Saturday podcast, and I do a bonus pick just on that. And my bonus pick was Saints would cover against Seattle. So in the last couple of weeks, we have been on fire. This is probably the early season is the hardest for me because a lot of teams have new coaches, new coordinators, and don't have an identity. So it's hard for me to get my arms around teams in the first couple of weeks.

In fact, I've already made my blazing five picks for this week because I think it's easier now to see what teams can do and what they can. so we're off to a really hot start. Where Colin was wrong. Not only, it's not just that Michigan lost, it's how they lost. 28-0. And again, Wisconsin has the best running back in the country, maybe the best offensive line, and this is the best Wisconsin defense I've ever seen.

But where I'm really wrong on this is I always felt Harbaugh came into a school and added a layer of toughness. He did this at Stanford, where it was a backyard, fight, you would take a Harbaugh team. But Urban Meyer, and I don't think he enjoyed doing this, called out Harbaugh on this very issue. It's all about toughness and effort. That's the first place you start. I'd have a team meeting. I'd go through every play. It'd be miserable. Forget spread. This conversation is well beyond that. This is, there's about a toughness and it has to be.

It has to be. How did that happen? I mean, it's got to be toughness and it's got to be effort. because you cannot start saying that there's NFL players all over that field. What are we talking about here? Yeah, they have no identity. And maybe it's Josh Gaddis, the new coordinator. I heard basically Harbaugh hired him without a face-to-face meeting. That's not great. And I understand as a college coach, you're losing coordinators constantly.

And Gaddis is known as a little bit of a self-promoter, whatever. That's Jim's responsibility at $7 million a year. You know, I had talked to Jimmy Johnson yesterday. He said the two things you got to get right is your football head coach. You got to get the offensive line right and the offensive coordinator right. And right now, it's not working for Michigan. Where Colin was right? I'll say it again with Cam Newton.

Stop telling me they don't have weapons. Carolina's weapons are excellent offensively. And Kyle Allen used all of them yesterday. Curtis Samuel's a great young receiver. DJ more to me is more talented. Christian McCaffrey's a little bug. Can't even see him and the guy's strong and runs. Greg Olson, he's a Hall of Fame tight end talent.

Cam, you've got to see him once in a while. I saw Kyle Allen do things like Audible, check down out of plays, check out of bad plays. Stop tell me Cam doesn't have weapons. Now, Cam's hurt now, and I'm not denying that. But this is not about a personnel issue. This is a Cam who's distracted issue. By the way, he's doing Instagram fashion shoots before the games on Sunday. Stop it already.

Where Colin was wrong. The Steelers season's over. Listen, I said it, then I said, no, I'm wrong, and then I watched them, and it's over. They've just lost too many good people. I mean, Levy and Bell, they have no running game now. James Connor has regressed. I mean, I like Judeo Smith-Schuster, not Antonio Brown. They've lost Big Ben.

They lost Ryan Shazir, and they've got good young players filling in Mason Rudolph and Juju Smith-Schuster and Devin Bush. But they're kids. You don't win in this league with kids. That's why I didn't like Cleveland as much as everybody else. And again, they can't run the foot. What do they do well? This morning. What does Pittsburgh do really well?

I can't put my finger on it. So I do think now the season's over. Where Colin was right? We said the Saints will be fine without Drew Breeze. A plus coach. Their defense is terrific. Teddy Bridgewater's a grown-up. His flaw is Drew Breeze's flaw,

which is he's not going to vertically extend. plays. And frankly, they've got Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas, better than average offensive line. This was never going to blow up. Their schedule, I thought this was the toughest game. They stayed on the West Coast and won. And I'm not saying Drew Breeze isn't good, but Bridgewater is a reasonable facsimile, same size, you know, situationally not Drew, but he's kind of got the same flaw, Drew. He doesn't hold the ball down the field big. but this is a very good organization. And we said, I don't have them winning their division,

but I didn't think the Drew Bree's six-week injury would be man overboard, and it certainly wasn't. Where Colin was wrong. Adam Gase, your team quit yesterday. I think it's the second time in two weeks they've quit. Listen, I'm not a body language expert, but it matters. Coordinator is about being smart. Head coach is about being a leader and sending signals

and messages to the troops. Adam Gase, I never see his eyes, pulls the hat down, and this guy's out, and this guy's out. Hey, Brian Flores is a big energy guy, is a bottom line guy. There's no hat. He's looking at me and saying,

we're not quitting. You quit, you're out of here. That at least permeates and echoes through the locker room. Adam Gase right now, I'm told, doesn't get along with Greg Williams. This downcast, this sort of negative energy, it's bleeding to the team.

You know, listen, when your bad teams overlook you, Miami should have let it half time yesterday. The advantage to being bad is teams don't get up for you. They occasionally rest a starter that's banged up a little bit. Adam Gase has been disappointing so far. Where Colin was right? We told you the number one issue with the Browns would be offensive line. We said, just watch out. They traded away a very good offensive lineman for Olivier Vernon.

And this has been the team's flaws. We can beat up on Freddie Kitchens. Baker sack three times yesterday, five times against Tennessee, three times against the Jets, constantly flushed out of the pocket. Now, it's a decent run blocking offensive line. It is not a good pass blocking offensive line. So again, there's a lot of ways to dissect this loss, but the macro take on this is we told you. You cannot have a bad offensive line and win playoff games in this league.

you got to have the quarterback right, the coach right, and the O-line right, and this O-line is a problem. Where Colin was wrong. Once again, I've whiffed completely on the Atlanta Falcons. Why do I keep defending them? I mean, seriously, they're a tip, they are a drop pass from O'N-3. Every year, I'm like Super Bowl. You do this.

I'm over them. I am just over them. I mean, by the way, they brought in Dirk Cutter as an offensive coordinator, very sharp guy, but Matt Ryan's already got six picks in three games. Last year, he had seven all year. Julio Jones is unbelievable. But outside of Julio, I don't see a lot of stuff on this team I love right now. They don't tend to play well away from home.

Boy, they've been off to, in a couple of their games, they've been off to really slow starts. Jacoby Brissette controlled them for most of the game yesterday. I can't get Atlanta right. I'm over Atlanta. Where Colin was right? We told you the New York Giants had a plan with Daniel Jones. They released that video in OTA. slow motion video with music.

He's unbelievable. Then in the preseason, they played the offensive linemen, the starters, more snaps to make Daniel Jones look good. Then they were going to play Eli, the first two weeks against good defenses. And then they bring him in against Tampa, which didn't have a pro bowler last year on defense. I felt from the beginning, this was an orchestrated plan. They would make him look good in OPEA's.

They would play starters, more snaps to help him look good. and then they would bring him in in a nice spot and Tampa's a team defensively that's got all sorts of issues. I do like Todd Bulls, the coordinator, but I felt from the beginning this was a setup to make him look good and they made him look good.

Where Colin was right? Deshawn Watson, I said it when he came out of Clemson. I said he's not a natural thrower, but leadership, humble, driven, playmaker. He's a magician back there, escape artist. The kid's incredible. I'm not sure there's another.

quarterback in this league that could deal with a chaos on the offensive line like him. He's the best quarterback in this division. He has a chance if he can stay healthy to win a lot of games and a lot of division titles. It is not a complete team. Their secondary is suspect and their own lines better on the left side but not complete. How he dropped to the third quarterback. I still, we joke about this sometimes off the air. People were trying to talk their way out of Deshawn Watson.

He played Nick Saban twice. Nick had six weeks to prepare for him twice, had a total of 20 NFL players on those defenses, and they couldn't stop him. Nick Saban doesn't lose with six weeks to prepare. He split with him and he couldn't stop it. Deshawn Watson's magic. Where Colin was raw. Finally, Game of Thrones dominated the Emmys again.

I guess ice zombies, dragons, and sorcerers are still cool. how can a show that nobody liked at the end of last year when how can a show that nobody can see one they shot this thing in a closet it's so dark I can never see the characters and by the way it's supposed to be in this amazing I don't know was it supposed to be like in a time far away like the 15th 16th century it's not a real time well they're trying to make you believe it's not based on

a true story okay but then how come there's a Starbucks cup in one episode they left on because it was the last season And then everyone was tired. Okay. And there was a Ford F-150 in another episode parked in the back. Again. And there was a water bottle. You can't win an Emmy if you can't take Starbucks cups off the set.

It's one of the greatest shows ever made in the history of television shows. Except for the fact that everybody hated it last year. It didn't hate it. They just would have liked it to end differently? If I left this on the set, would I win an Emmy? If I turned this in. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the herd.

and this was on the whole show and you couldn't see my face. In all fairness, it wasn't that obvious. And it's because half the world watched the show that they noticed that there was a Starbucks coffee.

You know? It's long shoots. Very cold. You can't see it. It'd be like turning the show off, turning our lights off here, and I win an Emmy. You can't see anything.

I just agree. I have seen every episode of that show. Barely. You have glasses. Otherwise you couldn't. Game of Thrones is amazing, Holland. It's not for everyone. I understand.

It's very divisive. We're going to turn in our Emmy reel this year. Everyone wants to act too cool for the dragons and stuff. I get it. I'm a nerd. All right. Great to have you. And Trent Dilfer is right around the corner.

Michael Vic as well. 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. Last night, a blown call changed. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer-beaters to controversy, to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions

everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClyce 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. Welcome to my new podcast,

Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Care Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking.

Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. Because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person.

Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life, one hot flash and hormonal crime. jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with the Adamanea Arriva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is

that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How hard can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try.

So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, How hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura Podcast Network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defining the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing.

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out. real quick. Oh, yeah. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thursday night football kicks off this week on Fox with a huge NFC showdown. Carson Wentz leads the Eagles into Lambo Field against Aaron Rogers and the Packers. It all starts at 730 Eastern on Fox and the Fox Sports app. By the way, Philadelphia, the way Dallas is playing, you've got to get it right. Now, they've had unbelievable. injuries on the offensive line.

And Philadelphia's other problem, they can't catch. Always an issue in the NFL. But Dallas is playing well. Philadelphia's got to get it right because Green Bay's defense now is a real thing. Trent Delfare played in the NFL for a decade and a half. Pro-Buller Super Bowls. He is now the head football coach in Nashville, Tennessee. What a great city that is.

At Ellipscomb Academy, they have 30-plus years of NFL coaching experience and playing on his staff. It's a great story, and he's joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. All right, so it would be easy for me to bang on Baker Mayfield today, but I'm not going to. There's very few quarterbacks in my life, Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, who can be effective with a bad O line. I also don't love their play calling. There's no identity to me. So I'm not going to bang on Baker. If I said to you, solve Cleveland's offense, and you're in the coaching business now, what bothers you with the Browns?

I'd point to the play calling. I'd point to the lack of identity. I point directly to the last drive of the game where you get down there, you have 40-something seconds, you have some timeouts and you don't have a running back. Nick Chubb in the backfield. That's a lack of planning. That's a lack of sophistication offensively to sit there and go empty and try to throw it in the tight red when you have timeouts, when you have a good back, or at least the three. of a run with runners in the backfield and using play action shows a lack of preparation, shows a lack of sophistication offensively.

I was always worried about this with that head coaching hire and him calling plays too, that it was going to be a little too gunslinger mentality oriented. It was going to be a little too flash and sizzle and not enough substance. We saw it in week one when they were trying to chuck and duck the ball over the football field and we saw it last night in critical moments that they're trying to play wide open instead of playing with physicality and soundness offensively. And it caught up with them. Daniel Jones was interesting.

Eli Manning is a giant was 024 trailing by 18. I don't know how good Daniel Jones is going to be, but I do think football is hard, both at practice and in the games. And when you get down big, it really helps the size. line in the locker room to know we got a little bit of a playmaker back there. And I think Daniel brings that in. There's a little Alex Smith component. Flat speed he can really run. What did you take away from his debut? I mean, it's as good as it could have been. And I agree. I don't know how good he's going to be either. I did not see this level of maturity, this level. Again, I'll use this

word sophistication in his game of Duke. Now, you did see the toughness. You saw the athleticism. he's a natural leader. I mean, people rave about his leadership qualities, but you didn't see that type of game at Duke where he could just put the team on his back. I mean, he was almost flawless. I haven't gone back and watched the game tape, but I've watched almost every snap on TV copy.

And he played the position as clean as anybody this weekend. For his first start, coming back from 18, you know, no one passed down, the defense knows he's going to throw. on the road. I mean, all these different elements that you're right, it's really hard. It's not overstating it to say that it is, it's one of the hardest things in all sport to bring your team back on the road in the NFL by that many points. And he was, he was fantastic. If he can carry over a build on this, then we're looking at a budding superstar. But consistency is what

makes you great in the NFL. And we'll have to see if he can maintain consistency. Listen, Baltimore is tough. They got some secondary issues to clean up. But, you know, Trent, you and I have talked about this off air. Not every win is beautiful. And not every loss is catastrophic. I don't think anybody's going to go into Kansas City and win. I watched them this weekend with Baltimore, and they're going to be a handful.

They may win time of possession all 16 games. Lamar is not quite there. But you know what? What he does, he does really well. I think Baltimore's really an interesting team. What did you take from that game? I can't say any better than you just did. I mean, they're going to be a nightmare for people.

They're physical. The mistake they made yesterday was they tried to play this kind of push the ball down the field game with the Chiefs instead of just sticking to their MO, which is going to be Ingram, physicality in the run game. Lamar creating offense both in the running game with his legs and extending play. you know, they're just a nightmare to prepare for because it's such a hybrid Saturday and tough Sunday offense. I was really impressed with them. The Chiefs are scary, good offensively, and if you get too far behind, they're going to take you out of your game.

But I'm with you. I think the Ravens, Chiefs, Patriots, obviously are kind of a cut above everybody else in the AFC. And at the end of the year, those are the three teams who are going to be talking out. What am I supposed to take from Dallas? I know they're really talented, but when you play a bad team, I mean, I've never been in locker rooms or in film rooms, but, you know, I'm sitting there thinking, I mean, how do you look at the film? I mean, you've got nine great players. They may not have one. Do I take anything from the Cowboys? Yeah, I take the first drive of the second half, because they were clunky in the first half, played down to their competition. Dak made a mistake here or there. Some, you know, just some things weren't going their way.

And then they come out in the second half of that first offensive drive, and you can see how explosive they can be. And then that's going to be the story of the Dallas Cowboys. This is what Kellynne Moore and John Kittner have figured out that the Cowboys have needed offensively for quite a few years, that when you can run the football like they can and they're going to be able to run it at will, then you must be explosive in the passing game.

You don't want to be a completion-march-the-ball passing game team. You want to have explosive qualities. and almost every play they call has an explosive quality to it in the passing game, and they showed that in the second half. They came out, made a big play right after the get-go, gets called back, and they just went chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, all the way into the end zone. So to me, the most impressive thing is that young dynamic defense is going to keep them in games, one of the best runners in football, and now a passing game that can knife you in a heartbeat.

And that's what they showed in that first drive of the second half. Aaron's got a new. Aaron Rogers has a new head coach. In your career, because I keep saying with Aaron, we just got to give it time to bake. I mean, he's playing Minnesota's defense and, you know, Chicago, Denver. Are you seeing the right stuff with Green Bay's offense? Are you seeing, I mean, their defense is clearly improved. Physicality.

And it's so hard because we're such a data generation. There's no data that kind of can quantify how physical you are, right? But your eye can if you've been in it. And watching Green Bay now for three weeks offensively, they're not as clean. They're not going to get the numbers aren't going to be the same because they're not running that West Coast completion offense. But they're more physical. They're going to be able to take the game to you. They can run the ball inside.

They're going to be able to play action. They'll score points because they'll pound people and wear them out. And then Aaron has obviously all the town of the world to push the ball down the football field. I think they're finding their identity offensively. But when you have that physicality, when you have that ability to run the ball and must run situations, what it does for your defense,

obviously it lets them play better, what it does for your locker room, the confidence it brings is immeasurable. And then eventually you kind of find your rhythm of who you are in your passing game. And trust me, Aaron's going to be up all night, every night trying to figure that out

because he does want to, you know, he wants to be the lead dog. And that's how he's wired and he should be. But now they have this element that they haven't had with the physical offense. I think it's going to complement this defense perfectly. Finally, we watch Cleveland in L.A. and we're used to the Rams winning last couple of years.

And, you know, Cleveland is the story today. But, you know, the Rams, Todd Gurley does not have the pop. They're good at a lot. I'm not sure outside of Aaron Donald how great they are at a lot of things. But, man, Trent, they win on the road. and that is hard in the NFL and that was the biggest game in Cleveland in 20 years. Just your thoughts on the RAM performance last night?

I think they're pretty darn good defensively. I mean, Aaron Donald obviously makes you incredibly explosive defensively. I mean, it's hard to say he's not the best player in football. I mean, him or Tom Brady. They impact a game more than anybody else. But I think defensively, they are a very, very good team and they're going to be in every game.

They can cover you. They can rush you. They can stop the run. Wade Phillips has been a great coordinator for a long time. So all they got to be is okay offensively. And with getting cut back, he is one of the best route runners in all football. He creates a lot of space. Jared's only going to get better.

They're going to run the ball with two different backs. One of them win healthy's as good as anybody. They're pretty good on the offensive line. They have speed at wide receivers. So I think the Rams, they might be a little clunky right now. I'll use that word again, but they're only going to get better to, and that defense is always going to give them a chance. And what you're seeing with them winning on the road is, I mean, this has been said for years. And it's true, defense gives you the ability to go on the road and win football games.

And that's why the Rams can go on the road and harsh environments. And like you said, the biggest game in Cleveland in forever and take it to them because that defense is their calling card. Trent Dillfer, a Super Bowl champ, by the way, his high school football program has a full-time nutritionist, academic coach, NFL strength coach. supposed to be an unbelievable weight room. And look at all this gear behind him. Holy, look at that. Can you take transfers or anything like that, or is it? I can bring them on.

We put up 63 the other night. So we're getting better. We have our archival coming up in two weeks. They've beaten us for seven straight years. So be thinking about me. I'm sleeping on this couch behind me watching tape every night. Trans good. One of my best friends in the best.

Frank, great talking to you, buddy. Thanks, buddy. All right, good for him. I love that story. Here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News.

There's an update on Saquan Barclay's injury. He had an MRI this morning, and it is confirmed that he will miss significant time. According to Schefter, he said MRI revealed giants running back, Sequin Barclays suffered a high ankle spring that could sideline him anywhere from four to eight weeks per source. longer timeline is considered more likely. The Giants have a buy in week 11, which could give him eight weeks to recover and return for the last six games.

So big loss for the Giants there coming off of a very significant win, especially for Daniel Jones. Wayne Galman is the backup running back. He had five carries for 13 yards against the bucks. But they did lose Seekoine in the second quarter and came out with a win. It does feel different, though.

When Seekoine leaves in-game, it's harder to adjust. Oh, the Giants don't have Seekwan Barkley. I mean, there's no replacing Saquan Berkeley. And of course, when you bring Daniel Jones in, Saquan Berkeley being the pulse and energy and consistent greatness of that, otherwise not great team,

it's significant. So we'll see what Daniel Jones can do now. We had his first win. The bomber. First start. It is. I mean, it's a huge letdown. And Saquan Berkeley is a star. So you obviously don't want to see a loss like this ever, but especially Saquan being the heart and soul of that team.

But the games that he's going to miss, I mean, pretty even either way. At home against Washington and the Vikings, then at the Patriots, home against the Cardinals, then at Lions, home against the Cardinals, at Jets, and then a bye. The last six games against the Bears, Packers, Eagles, twice, dolphins, and Redskins. So it's pretty even either way. It's not like they had expectations for this season anyway.

New England's figured this out. You draft a running back every year. By the way, New England drafted a quarterback every other year with Brady. You just have to draft running backs every year. because A, help she in leverage. Right. Okay, number two is they get dinged. And this is why the chargers lose Melvin Gordon and are still a competent offense.

So this feels like a real blow to Daniel Jones. Yeah, I mean, it's a massive loss, especially for a season where you want to see what Daniel Jones can develop into this year. But that said, they shouldn't rush him back. They should let him get completely healthy, see what Daniel Jones can do, and then have everyone be healthy and ready to go for a season with expectations. next year. You know, it's not like they were aiming for the playoffs this year, starting the season with Eli Manning. So the Packers improved a 3-0 with a 27-16 win over the Broncos. Yeah. And despite some preseason concerns that Aaron Rogers and Matliflor's relationship wouldn't work.

They played pretty well through their first three games. And Aaron Rogers even said there's a different feel to the locker room this season. It's just a different energy. You know, it is palpable. It's contagious. It's charismatic. and it's fun. It really is. They also have, they brought in a bunch of good players. Yeah, they're the winner of the Golden Pen Award. Well, good players have a little swagger, so I think their locker room prize, I mean, listen, they've got real players now. They don't, when I look at Green Bay, I don't see anything they're not at least solid on.

They're very New England. They've got a good back, a star receiver. They always develop good old lines. Their linebackers now are excellent. They solve their secondary issues with Amos and Savage. and it's a real team. Green Bay doesn't have a hole in their roster. Well, the important thing that you just said is that it's a real team.

The first time in several years, he actually has a defense. So he's not going into the season feeling like, I'm going to have to score 35 points to win this game or to keep us in the game. You have both sides of the ball. When you have a balanced team and you feel like Aaron Rogers can be on the sideline and I'll have to sweat the entire time, then you have, it will be fun because you're actually. playing as opposed to carrying the team and making decisions to put your body in danger.

Like, of course this is the best situation for him. Of course, it's fun. Winning is fun and knowing that you can rely on the other side of the ball is fun too. Finally, the Browns put up a good fight against the Rams last night, but they came up short in 2013 lost. I told you they'd win by more than a field goal. They had a first one goal at the four-yard line with 43 seconds to go and all three timeouts but couldn't convert and now the Browns are one and two, but Baker Mayfield and Odell

aren't worried because the team is still figuring things out. All right. Don't hit the panic button. I think we realize how close we are, but that's the frustrating part. You know, like I said, I don't want to give an excuse that we're a young team and we're fresh and new together, but we're still trying to find ourselves and find our identity. We're going to put it all together. We're just finding the pieces right now.

And I feel like once we discover exactly who we are in this team and everyone knows exactly who we are, we'll be able to close games like that. schedule is no day at the beach they have to go to baltimore to new england two denver schedule was going to be hard to start the season but and the concern was what are they going to do if they do start out losing you know is the locker room going to fall apart i do think faker likes to be the underdog i think he likes to be doubted but i don't think we know what the browns are oh i don't think they know either and i don't think they know either so what odel's talking about like, you know, you don't want to make excuses that to your young team, you haven't played together.

There is something to that, and we don't know what Freddie Kitchens is. So he doesn't have an identity, and the team doesn't have an identity, and that's part of the issue. Here's the unfair thing. Everybody is banging on Freddie Kitchens because you didn't target Odell Beckham on that final drive. But let me give you these numbers, Joy. Devonte Adams was only targeted four times yesterday. DeAndre Hopkins only seven. Amari Cooper, seven, Julio Jones, nine, and Odell Beckham nine.

Listen, you do get into drives late that if something is working, Jarvis Landry, Baker's moving, Nick Chubb, you can bang on Freddie Kitchens, but the idea if he had thrown one time to Odell, and it was incomplete. Would everybody be happy then? Like, I had issues with Freddie Kitchens,

the fourth and nine draw play I had a problem with. But I think they targeted OBJ nine times, and that's a really big number in the NFL for star receivers. Yeah, I don't have a problem with that either. I mean, you kind of, kind of feel like if you lost the game while trying to force it to O'Dell, the fans would feel better about it or everyone would feel better about it. But they're just, they don't have an identity yet. Like they're, it's hard to be there in that moment and win the game. Like that would be an

incredible win for them. Obviously, you want, you know, you want to get in the end zone. You have four tries, but for the right. We just don't know what the Browns are yet. For the record, Aaron Donald, Wade Phillips, they brought in Clay Matthews, Eric Weddell. They've got, I mean, it's like the Rams are a good defensive team. Let's slow down on this. It's a tragedy. The next two weeks, Rams in Baltimore. I thought they'd go 0 and 2. So, I mean, the game was competitive to the, it was a very good football game. It's a young team that made a bunch of mistakes. That's what young teams do.

The Rams were an old team. And they don't have an identity yet. Yep. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News. All right. How many guys using your girlfriend shampoo? Don't, your hair is different. And your hair deserves its own shampoo. Get your own dove men plus care. created a range designed to help your hair

get the care it needs available at Walmart. Michael Vick around the corner next. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions

everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession.

of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch life becomes about wins and losses Steve Burns Dustin Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that that's two different levels of trust I want you to just really be a good person join me Kear gains is we have real conversations about healing growth fatherhood pressure and purpose on my new podcast can't learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app, search Learn the Hardway, and listen now. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life

one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had had hanged happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive.

Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be?

I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Coutura podcast network available on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game.

His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall.

And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing That man, hell get the flying He ran up the court Licking his fingers why he got the ball

Like, after you go through a training camp With that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick Get your ass up and down the court And you're gonna get the ball So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Competing takes toughness, energy and drive To why I use MDrive every day

Boost healthy testosterone and burns fat Go to MDrive for men.com Refind Your Prime Michael Vick, four-time Pro Bowl or leading Russia and NFL history from the quarterback position. All sorts of guys running around right now in the NFL. It's fun. They're running all over the place. They are.

But let's talk about Daniel Jones because maybe not being Lamar Jackson. But when I watched him yesterday, I got to be honest, for a first NFL start, 90 degrees in Tampa, you're trailing big. I kind of liked it. I mean, versus a decent defense and a tough place to play down in Tampa. You played their twice a year. Yeah. I mean, when they was, you know, back in the heyday. Right.

You know, he showed us some things that we haven't seen before in New York in a long time. And I will say we haven't seen that before because it's been a long time since they had a mobile guy. Right. You know, a little RPO, you know, got the touchdown that he scrambled for. He's got straight line speed. Yeah, he can move a little bit. And I think that helps, you know, that's going to help Pat Sherman with his play calling moving forward. But it was just good to see, you know, Daniel Jones step in, really be confident.

and lead his team to victory and get that first win. By the way, was your first game home or away? My first game was... First start. My first start was on the road in Green Bay. And how's you do? And I played really well, but it was my second year. Now, my rookie.

And my rookie, I wasn't ready. Okay. I wasn't ready to compete. I wasn't mentally prepared to play the quarterback position. Were you nervous? I was very nervous. Okay, so Daniel's nervous. And nervous because the pressure of losing and...

In the back of my mind, I just didn't want to be a bus. That was a big thing for me. I'm like, everything I do moving forward is critical, and it has to be well calculated. And that's what I say for a young rookie to go out and get a win, that's paramount for him. So I was on Twitter last night, I said about Baker Mayfield, I said, you know, he's too prone to bail on the pocket.

But this morning I went on Twitter, and a lot of people I respect are like, actually, statistically, he's better throwing the ball moving than he is stationary. Now, again, I don't look at Baker and think of you, but I do think a lot of his best plays have been kind of ad-libbing. Yeah, Ad-libbing. Did you sometimes, when you watch Baker, is it possible he feels better moving and throwing?

Yeah, ad-libbing and outside of the pocket, when I think about some of his best plays, you know, I kind of see him just scrambling and winging it a little bit and, you know, being accurate doing it. But not a lot of highlights that, you know, I've seen inside the pocket. You know, which is why they should move them. And because of his height, they should move them around a little bit. Now, that's something that's not a small thing.

Yeah. Russell Wilson talked about this early. They needed throwing lanes for Russell to see through. Is it possible Baker's bailing because he's 5.11 and a half? Yeah, he's trying to find a lane or he just doesn't see, you know, the receivers downfield. And you don't look at the receivers, you look at the defenders. So you have to be able to see the defenders. And his pre-snap breeze are really, really good.

He does that well, but getting outside of the pocket, everything opens up. The field vision is open, and, you know, you got to clear a picture of what's going on down the field. So I think that's one of the things that plays into, you know, his game as far as how he delivers the football and how he spreads the ball around. He has to be able to see, and I think throwing lanes is something that he's looking for. By the way, I want to show we have a play, guys in the back. I got to bang on Freddie Kitchens a little bit. So they were running the football effectively.

Yeah. And then they were deep in their own territory. They had plenty of time. And they started running routes where, listen, their offensive line is not a good pass blocking line. And you had wide receivers running down the field back to Baker Mayfield. And Aaron Donald is eating you alive. Now, these are some of them.

I hated this offensive series by Freddie Kitchens. I mean, come on. By the way, when they did run, they picked up seven. Yeah. When you watch these plays, they're running like long crossing patterns. Look at the receivers. Now watch this, Michael. Jesus, they're running.

That's an all-go concept, and that means you're trying to hit something deep, but you can't do that without being in the six-man protection. That's a five-man protection, which means they're trying to block five on four, because most of the time you get four defensive alignment. You do gain an advantage with one offensive alignment in a five-man protection versus four. But you can do that with a better offensive line. But you can't do that versus Aaron Donald. And then you got Dante Fowler who was starting to turn into a game record.

So that should have been taken into account doing film study during the week. Let's stay out of these five-man-but-texas, more six-member Texas. Keep a back in. You can keep a running back in the back field and still accomplish the same thing they're trying to do now. Yeah, I hated this series. I hated it because. Yeah, that's horrible. Yeah.

I mean, you're throwing, you're looking for post patterns. Yeah. It's too much trying to develop. You know, they're trying to get too many things to develop down the field. I mean, look at these guys. They, you know, 30, 40 yards into their routes and not even looking back, like you said. I mean, you got Aaron Donald on the field. It should be more, you know, crossing routes.

By the way, the week before, they scored a touchdown on a slant pattern to OBJ. Yeah, I mean, and, you know, quick screens. Screens to the running back. You got to do things that negate the pass rush. You know, obviously baking and mix up its snap counts because that's one thing I would have been doing, you know, just in taking it's a consideration to keep the defensive line at bay. It's a lot of teaching and the correcting

needs to happen for this Cleveland Brown's team and doesn't get any better with Baltimore. Three things in the NFL I've watched and said, wow. New England's defense, wow. Kansas City's offense, wow. In Dallas's talent, just

everywhere, dudes, and they're all young and they're all healthy. I know Miami's crappy. When you see Dallas, what do you see? I see the same thing you just said. Talent everywhere. When you look at the receivers, they got guys who can run good routes and catch the ball.

They got a quarterback who's in total control. They got a running back who's arguably the best running back in the game. And then the defense that complements the offense and, you know, creates turnovers. They create field position. They do it all well. And they're very well coach. Kellermore deserves a lot of credit for what he's doing with Doc Prescott. But overall, just, you know,

personnel, you know, this team has been put together the right way. And it's showing. And whether it was the Miami Dolphins or whoever they beat, they line up and they be. Yeah, we can't just, we can't reduce the impact of the wins because the teams are bad. Your eyes don't lie. When I watched Dallas, I can make an argument, best young talent in football. Yeah. Two great linebackers, great corner.

Oh, man. Van Derress, he just reminds me of like a modern day Brian Earl. That's exactly what it reminds me. Like real talk. He's just, he's all over the place. He makes the other guys better around him. You know, DeMarcus Lawrence, he's, you know, been a force for years. And now he's starting to step up and be even better because he has two linebackers behind

him that can pick up the slack. They can blitz from anywhere. They got corners. You know, I don't know too much about the safety positions, but they got two good corners, this quality. This is the team that's going to go deep into the playoffs and could be one of the best teams in the NFC. I don't think you're nuts on that.

Michael Vick is joining us. So I said yesterday, you talked to Lamar. He clearly got bigger in the offseason. Yeah. Baker Mayfield was doing commercials. He was doing trap work because, dude, he is jacked. Stay focused. Man, they just run.

I got to tell you, when I watch him play, I think they're tough. I know Kansas City's better. But what did you make a Baltimore yesterday? Baltimore is going to be really hard to beat. That offense that they run could only be contained in the place. like Earlhead. And I don't think Kansas City has the best defense. The defense is good enough.

I think they're like one corner away from being really talented. They are, yeah. But they fell behind. Baltimore fell behind and their offense didn't look the way it looked, you know, over the last couple weeks. Anything you did remind you of Baltimore, or is the game changed? The game has changed a lot. You would have died for this. Yeah, depending on where I was at, you know, in Atlanta.

That offense, it was like staple, something that I would have thrived. then, you know, ultimately, you know, you have to be conditioned and you have to be in good physical shape to run an offense like that. Yeah. Which Lamar looked like he is, but, you know, I think at some point it has to evolve into more, you know, just like we were seeing with Baker Mayfield, they have to spread it out a little bit and give a different dynamic, different look other than that. You know, it becomes stagnant at times.

So that's the last thing they want, but I think they just got a recipe that they can follow for the rest of the year. It's a formula. It's a formula that's going to be very hard to stop and hard to guard. People always knock the two words in the NFL, system and formula. He's a system player. He's a formula player. This league's been dominated by formulas and systems my entire life.

It's the teams like Cleveland offensively. I don't know what their system is. Michael Vick, great seeing you. We go to a third hour. Car shopping's confusing, a lot of terms, dealer price, list price, invoice. Go to Truecar.com. Fees, accessories. You'll know them before you get to the dealership.

We saved $3,000. We did, my wife and I off MSRP. Hour 3, the three word game, Tony Gonzalez, and more. We're humming on a Monday. One more herd. The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the I-Heart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

Greatest tight end ever. Gets my vote, Tony Gonzalez. By the way, he's got a new podcast wide open with Tony Gonzalez. He talks about people in sports, out of sports, very bright, creative thinking people. It's right up your alley. And so I got tough questions for you. Sure.

Let's do it. Okay, let's say you had a quarterback that was your friend and you played with him for years. But, yeah, he's a little inconsistent. And then you brought in the backup and your career was way better for a couple of games with a backup. Kyle Allen replaces Cam. And Greg Olson had his best game as a pro in years.

would you feel guilty if you like the backup Kyle Allen more? No, not at all, not at all. I think when it comes out to playing football, you want to go out there and give your team and give yourself the best chance of winning. And, you know, people talk about loyalty, but no, that has to go out the window. If you can't cut it, then you've got to go as far as I'm concerned

because I want to win football games and I want to perform in football games. Kyle Allen, I thought, was brilliant. Now, it was number one high school player in the country. Athletic enough, really, really good arm. I'm sitting there if I'm Greg Olson. It's like, Cam, I love you. But you've lost eight straight starts. Kyle's won two straight starts.

Kyle right now wins more games when he plays. Yeah. Now Cam's hurt. I'm not denying that, but I've seen six years of Cam. Yeah. Yeah. They're in a tough position now. I think the Carolina Panthers.

It's like, okay, do we let Cam heal? you know, quote unquote, let's heal up a little bit. Joyce said he's out this week too. Okay, he's out this week now. Now if he goes back out there and he plays another good game, now you're in a position where you can say, all right, Cam's kind of in decline, he's had these injuries, or it could also push Cam to say,

okay, stop worrying about your wardrobe, stop worrying about the other stuff that's maybe taking away your focus and get back to being that old Cam MVP-style guy that was a mismatch nightmare. But I think Tereline Pants was in a good position with this kid playing the way he is, because to me it's a win-win situation, whether he stays the starter or Cam gets a light up his butt

and can go out there and start playing like he used to. Yeah, there's no question. They look really good. That was a wildly entertaining game between two men of teams. Here's another question. So New Orleans plays out west and loses to the Rams and says, we're not going to go home. We're going to stay out west.

And they were great against Seattle. Their defense was great. Their special teams were great. And I'm sitting to myself thinking, you know, maybe being with a team, eating out, working out. Did you ever feel in the NFL? Was there ever a moment in your career that you preferred the road?

Yeah, yeah, a couple times. I loved coming home, you know, from Canada. When I say home, San Diego, Northern California, where I went to school in all. So California, you like playing there. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I actually liked going on the road. I didn't mind going on the road.

It was a good change of scenery. I like being in the hostile environment. You did. I love it when the crowd's not yelling for me, yelling against me. I've heard that a lot. Yeah. Yeah, it gets me going. Gets it going. Well, guys would call out you in the, and you were so well-known, so guys would be all over you in the fans. Oh, if you could hear some of the things the fans would say to me.

It'd be like you. If you brought some people that don't like you in here and they could just yell at you while you're doing your show, I wonder what they would say. I would love to see your Twitter feeds at a time. Most of America loves me. I can't imagine what they would possibly say. All right, so let's talk about the Cleveland, Browns. It's obviously, I think it's fairly predictable, but I will say I don't sense an identity

with the offense. Now, talk about your career. Now, in Atlanta, I really felt an identity with that team. In Kansas City, your career, I didn't. Do you know, when you're an offensive player, and everybody's beating up on Freddie Kitchens' play calling, were you ever in a huddle and you thought, our play calling stinks? Or do you just get the play and do the play? I'm laughing right now. Yeah, all the time. That is a horrible call. Why are we calling that? You see that all that happens all the time, by the way.

We're taking inside the huddle right now. In Kansas City, in Atlanta, it doesn't matter all the time. You've got competitive guys out there. We know football. Sometimes we feel like we know football better than the coach. Sometimes we do know football better than the coach. Could you ever go to a coach and just say, coach, during the game and say, we're just off here?

Yeah. You could go to the coach and go, hey, well, that's up to the quarterback. Quarterback needs to take control of that huddle. Baker maybe he was a little young for that. Maybe he doesn't have the confidence yet. But his personality, I think for sure, if this happens eight years from now and he's still, you know, I think he's going to be around for a while,

he might say, uh-uh, that, that, I'm shaking that one off to the catcher. You know, the pitcher to the catcher, we need to call something else because that, that this third and draw stuff, that's not going to work. And, and I, but yeah, in the huddle all the time,

you'd get receivers, you'd get running backs. They would be cursing, yelling, what the, how's going on? Why are you? What a stupid play? So guys were, actively disgruntled.

They would yell at the sideline. They'd yell at the sideline. This happens all the time. All the time. And it should happen. Why not? I mean, coaches, you make mistakes too. Like, that wasn't a good call.

And Freddie coaches admitted that. All of us were watching that game going, what the hell is he thinking right here? That's, you got two great receivers, a good running back, good quarterback, and you're going to call draw. It was just, it was different. You didn't play with athletic quarterbacks.

Matt Ryan wasn't a runner. And who Kansas. city you had. Nobody. This guy named Tyler Thickman. Yeah, a little bit. He could run with the ball. Rich Gannon, but that was my second league.

So when I watch Lamar, and I watch Daniel Jones, one of the things I always think about, if you're a wide receiver, you've got to peel off some routes. There's a lot of ad-libbing. Would you rather have the pocket guy or Baker running around? Or would you rather have Goff? Would you rather have Daniel Jones or Eli? Because we all look at running quarterbacks and we're like, this is great. But you then have to peel off.

Some guys can, some guys don't. How did you look at quarterbacks who moved? Do you sometimes wish, I wish I would have had a mobile quarterback. I would have loved to have played with a mobile quarterback to try it out. I don't know if it would have worked, but it seemed great because I feel like I was really good. When the pocket did break down, that's when I always got a lot of catches out of that. Well, you're a basketball player. I was a basketball player.

Yeah, I got that background and I could just find that open spot in the zone or man, I could push them up and then come back. And I'm tall, too, and big. And so I always made a lot of big plays. when the play broke down. But I never got a chance to play with that guy. That would have been fun. That would have been fun. A guy like Aaron Rogers or I think one of the best in the business is Russell Wilson.

When the play breaks down, he gets out of there. And he's breaking it down to throw. He's not trying to run with the ball. And that would be somebody I'd love to play with. Yeah. Now, we talk, we'll show video of Lamar Jackson. They are a very run-centric team, but they do target their tight ends. you know, selfishly, you wanted your 80 catches.

But what if Baltimore had decided, and you were on Baltimore, listen, we're going to run the ball more than any team in the league. You didn't probably love blocking by the end. As an offensive skill player, do you think it would be hard to get free agents to Baltimore, knowing that they're going to be run-centric? Well, receivers, yeah, you don't want to go there. I mean, if you want the ball a lot. But, yeah, I did not want to play on the running team.

I had that. I mean, when we... Kansas City. Kansas City when Priest Holmes was going off, and we had arguably the best offensive line in the history of the NFL. Yeah, Al Sonders, our offensive coordinator, and we would go out at me and Al,

because I was like, I can catch two. Throw me the ball, please. I'm pretty good at this. Before you guys got here, and I'm going to be here after you guys leave. Like, you can throw me the ball sometime. So, yeah, you get a little frustrated if you're used to having those 80 catches a year, and all of a sudden it goes down to 60.

Yes. It's a little frustrating, but you win the game. and so you suck it up. If we're winning, then I guess I can't complain. And I didn't complain that much. I complained to my mom. What did you say to your mom? I was like, they don't want to throw me the ball, mom.

They're not being very nice. And what did mom say? She goes, I'm a mom, you know, I can do no wrong in front of my mom. I'm a mom's boy. I was, I was, yeah. I am too. Yeah. Good.

Does your mom think you can't do anything wrong? My mother was very protective of me. Uh-huh. Yeah, she was my girl, I had a girlfriend break up with me one time. and it was very emotional for me, and my mom just said, all right, that girl's off the list. Yeah, it's her fault. By the way, it was. Of course it was.

I was a wonderful boyfriend. Joy doesn't understand the pain of being dumped by a boyfriend. It's a girlfriend. It was very difficult for us. Did you ever get dumped? Yeah, I've always been done. I've never broken up with a girl. Never in my life.

Look at that. I don't like confrontation, though. It was hard. I would... How did they break out with you? You were just discussing this last week that men are terrible at breakups. Yeah. I'm not good at it.

Tony Gonzalez has had multiple women break out with him. It's difficult, isn't it? Well, not really, because sometimes I could sense the end was coming, and instead of me saying, let's have, we need to talk. You didn't like God, I hate that place. We need to talk. I would say, I would start acting up. Maybe I wouldn't call.

And then you let her break up with you. And then she'd like, we need to break out. I'm like, okay, great. Any of them really hurt? I had one of those. Yeah, I had a bad one. Yeah, I've had the heartbreak. You got to.

That's a right of passage as a human being. Let's get your heartbroken. Yeah, even a heart broken. Yeah, even a couple of winners like us sometimes. Joy just, you don't even know what to make of us right now. Joy's had, come on. I mean, you were just discussing this last week that men are terrible at breakups. You guys are no day at the peach out of me either.

Yeah. I mean, who's good at break? Is that a good thing to be good at breaking up with someone? It's a learning thing. It's like getting fired from a job for people out there that have not had their most people don't like to fire people either. I know. That's kind of a sick mentality.

Some people do. Yeah, there are some people out there don't like it. Tony Gonzalez, best tie-in never played the game. He's got a new podcast. What's it called? Wide open with Tony Gonzalez. All right, buddy. And drink Mandello.

It's his beer. It's fair. You switch me. I drink Medello. It's a refreshing beer. Refreshing is exactly what it is. Medella is the only beer that I drink. Yeah.

You got a lot of friends here. Yeah. That's a place not so much. Here, we love you. Oh, thank you. Joy with the news. No. No.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, the cowboys continue to dominate, and the dolphins continue to disappoint. Or actually live up to what their expectations are. You're a dolphin fan. Is it bother you or do you sense their plan? No, it bothers me immensely.

I hate tanking. I hate tanking in every sport. I think it permeates through the entire organization. It affects families and friends and everyone in the organization. Yeah, it's terrible. I'm very against tanking. I don't believe that anything positive can grow from a negative situation. I'm not going to ask that question again.

Yeah, very out on that. But Dallas beat Miami 31 to 6 to start season 3. 3-0 for the first time since 2008. Miami, on the other hand, falls to 0-N-3 for the first time since 2011, and has been outscored 133 to 16 this season. That 117 point differential is the worst in the NFL for the first three games since 1993. They should have let it half, though. They should have let it half. 1923, I'm sorry.

So you can say what you want. They're playing hard. They got a bunch of draft picks, and they should have let it half. Unlike the Jets who just didn't play with any passion. They had a nice first half. They did. And I'm excited that Rosen is out there. Let him go out there and play.

It's obviously not an ideal situation for him. I feel bad for him. He's not had a good break in the NFL to start his career. But he is out there playing now. But more importantly, the Cowboys to me, and again, I don't like getting into, like, who they beat, like, who you beat. Like the Ravens, we were talking about how good is Lamar Jackson, how, what kind of step up has he really had? Well, they played a good game against the Chiefs. It might not have been the entire, like, at the end of it wasn't the entire game playing.

wanted, but they kept Patrick Mahomes on the sideline, which is what you try and do when you play a high-powered offense. So they beat who they beat, and we can see what we, we can see the step up, the level up with the Cowboys this year, or at least I can. Like, I'm very high on the Cowboys. Seven three and O teams, I would say New England's defense, Kansas City's offense, and Dallas's pure talent are the three wow things in the league to me. Yes. So expectations were pretty low for New Orleans after Drew Brees got injured, but Teddy Bridgewater looked good for his first start of the the season, 1077 yards and two touchdowns. And the Saints also took advantage of Seattle's mistakes.

They scored two defensive touchdowns. Alvin Kamara is so good. Yes. Is he better in the NFL than he was in college? I watched him play in college. I don't remember him being this good in college. Terrell Davis played at Georgia and I watched him. Then he went to the Broncos.

I'm like, Terrell Davis is better in the NFL. Some guys developed late. I don't know the system, but Alvin Kamara, I don't remember being this dominant in college. I mean, he's just, he's crucial for. them. And he had 69 rushing yards, leading the team in rushing and 92 receiving yards. He fled the team in receiving as well with two scores. So losing Drew Brees and having Alvin Kamara play the way that he's playing has

been instrumental for them. Did you see Teddy Bridgewater said he cried before the game because he had been so long since he played in a meaningful game that before the game he like broke down. It was like, oh my God, I'm in a game that matters. That's nice. Yeah, I thought it was. Tracy Wolfson interviewed him. It was like, he got really emotional. Teddy's always been something coaches may not make him their number one quarterback. There's not a coach in a league that doesn't like Teddy Bridgewater. Now, a lot of them are like, he's not, they all want Mahomes, right?

He's not that. But he's a coach's quarterback, hardworking, smart, thoughtful, players love him, leadership skills. He didn't have a huge arm. He's a very limited thrower down the field. Alex Smith was the same way, right? But the Saints have big pieces. So if he can get in there and win a couple games while Drew Breese is out, while keeping that energy of, you know, crying before the game because it matters and caring.

Like that, those elements matter. They have the Cowboys at home and the Bucks at home next two games, and they're at Jacksonville and the Bears, and then they're at home against the Cardinals. If Drew Brees comes back in that six-week window, it's not really a bad situation for them. No, no, no. They're not out of it in any way. And that was a big win for them on the road. And by the way, you can't trust Atlanta.

I'm the only guy in Atlanta that trust them, and I've been burned two years. You won't even get it. You will never give up on Atlanta. I don't even get it. I don't even believe you. You said today, I don't believe you. I think a couple games from now. They get a win in there.

You're going to be like, no, I'm done. You watch out for Atlanta. I hate Atlanta. I'm never going. In fact, I won't even fly Delta. I won't even stop there. I'm going to go over it to fly directly to other cities.

I don't know. I'm not landing at that airport heartfield one more time. I'm over it. This sounds a lot like that whole coffee declaration. I have not been to what well, once. See? One time. Emergency.

Finally, Michigan was no match for Wisconsin on Saturday. 35 to 14 on the road. Wisconsin gets the win. Badges were up 28-0 at the half, and Jonathan Taylor rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone. God, he's good. He's great. He's electric to watch. He is a track star

who he is so... Perfect form. Oh, my God. He is a great... I mean, I think he's a stronger version of Saquan Barclay. I don't think he's Zique. I think he's the second best running... He's the best running back I've seen since Zique. Like, he is a track star who is Yote.

He is. He had an incredible game. And Jim Harbaugh spoke about his team's poor performance after the game. Yeah, we're out played. Out prepared and out-coached. I'll play the whole thing. To be able to run the ball, to be able to throw the ball, both equally effective and efficient, definitely little things we've got to do and we've got to do better. Michigan is now 1 and 6 on the road against ranked opponents under Jim Harbaugh,

and they dropped to 20 from 11 to 20 in the AP poll. And Urban Meyer is right. They've got players. Don't tell me they don't have players. They got Devin Bush played there. Roshan Gary last year. They're putting guys in the NFL first, second, third round. They got players.

That bell, that wide receiver bell, is really good. They might have players, but they're clearly missing something. Look at that is not a performance you want to put up there. Notre Dame played their butts off at Georgia. That was a, that was a, now Georgia at home doesn't lose. That Notre Dame team, that's another one. Baltimore Ravens and Notre Dame lost this weekend. I came away more impressed with them.

Yeah, they played a great game. I thought Notre Dame played great. That's Athens Saturday night. Biggest crowd ever there. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News.

One of my favorite games, the three-word game, I sum up every NFL game in three words, some pathetically, tragically, ineptly. But we'll do that best for last next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

This Saturday, Trojans at Washington, Discover card key matchup go further than ever with the Discover at Miles card. They automatically match the miles into your first year. Limitations applied. Discover.com slash travel. Good to have you in today. We call it our best for last. It's a three-word game.

We do believe you can kind of describe the fate of NFL teams, the direction or the current state of NFL teams based on three words. So here we go. Titans, Jags. That was the Thursday game. Mariotta can't throw Eota. Stop, bail, move on. There's too many good quarterbacks in this league. He's 28th in completion percentage. He's been sack nine times because he doesn't see the field particularly well. It's not because the Titans' offensive line isn't good. It's a top five offensive line. There's too many good quarterbacks in this league. All the teams moving off, their flackos and their Eli's are happy. It's time to move off Marcus.

Bengals, Bills, 3 and 0. Buffalo is undefeated. Nick Wright was right. Top eight in total offense. Gotta be honest, surprised. I did not think Josh Allen would move the chains to this level. Total defense. Their defense is good.

They're sixth. And it's their 3-0, first time in a long time. Jets and Dolphins aren't making the playoffs. Buffalo is going to be in that, I think, in that Cleveland charger space for a Indianapolis space for a wild card team. Bills did make the playoffs a couple years ago, so let's not go crazy here. It's a very good coaching staff. Dolphins Cowboys, losing on porpoise. Come on. Top five moment show ever. Top top 10. Okay, they traded Laramie Tonsel. They traded Kenny Stills. They traded Kenny Stills.

traded Minka Fitzpatrick, and they got draft picks. So there's a direction here. I know they're cruddy, but they're playing hard, and they're last and everything. But you're going to have at least that Steeler pick, by the way, it looking pretty good. You may have the first pick and the fifth pick. That Steeler pick is looking pretty good. Broncos Packers, Green Bay Sackers. They got after Joe Flacco six times.

Preston Smith had three. Zedaria Smith had two. Rishon Gary had one. This is a real defense by Green Bay. They went out and got mid-level free agents that can play. They drafted Rashon Gary, who was a great college player. Aaron Rogers finally has a legitimate defense, a defense that will get in the ball back. And one of the great things about having a pass rush is that when you do give up big plays,

you can make big defensive plays. You saw the Rams do that last night and take the Browns out of seemingly good drives by a nine-yard sack. So Green Bay is a different defense these days. Falcons Colts. Jacobi's a starter. I've been on this for two years. I'm not seeing he's a top 12 starter.

Big, strong, coachable. He has won three of his last four starts. Only loss was an overtime loss to the Chargers. He had one of his better games yesterday, 118 quarterback rating. Listen, Bill Parcell said when he came out, he's like, this kid can play. He's a starter in this league.

Now, again, where? but don't tell me he can't start in the NFL. And all he needs is a little protection. He's not a world-class athlete running around. He can run a little. But you give this kid a pocket. He's got a very nice arm. Ravens Chiefs, two excellent teams.

Listen, Mahomes has had two touchdown passes in 14 straight games. There is no great shame in going to Arrowhead and giving up over-the-top plays. And Lamar Jackson now, 10 games, 8 and 2 as a starter. and even the games he's lost, he's been in them. So this was the rare loss. Notre Dame did that this weekend in Baltimore where they lost, and I think I was more impressed with those teams losing games. Raiders Vikings.

Raiders rolling over. First of all, they'd lost six straight 1 o'clock starts. They're now not going to be home until November 3rd. And last year they didn't quit on Gruden, but the schedule is not only difficult, They're playing in like Dusseldorf and Winnipeg. It's just a goofy schedule where they're playing all over the globe. They're going to be road weary.

They're not a particularly deep team. I think Derek Carr keeps them in a handful of games, but they kind of felt like they rolled over yesterday. Jets Patriots, Varsity versus JV. First of all, they beat the Jets seven straight times. Six have not been competitive. Jets had 105 total yards. Listen, for all of those that don't like Sam Darnold,

you can say what you want last year. They were in the last month and a half outside of one game. They were competitive. They were competitive when they lost to Green Bay last year. They are, by the way, Patriots are the first team since 1951 to shut out five straight opponents in the first half. I mean, so New England's defense is just all sorts of no fun. Lions Eagles catch the ball. Lord.

Now I know Alshan Jeffrey and Deshawn Jackson were out. The Eagles had seven drops against the Lions. Dallas Goddard dropped a touchdown pass. Some of these issues for them are offensive line in health. Some are just Philadelphia does not have enough depth at wide receiver. Panthers Cardinals don't need Cam. I'm sorry. Cam had no touchdown passes this year.

Kyle Allen had four yesterday. Let's just be honest about it. Cam's not healthy. And even when he was, he was inconsistent. And I get to the point with Cam is, why don't I want to be in the Cam business? He's lost eight straight starts. Some of me's been hurt.

Most of me's been hurt. But I'm not buying into the Instagram fashion shows before games. I think you got your next quarterback in Carolina. At least for the time being, at least make sure Cam's healthy when he comes back. I mean, if you're going to sit, Well, then sit him until he's healthy because clearly you're fine at the backup quarterback slot. Giants bucks, giant step forward.

Listen, Eli was 0 and 43 in his career. Coming back down 18. Daniel Jones is 1 and 0 in his career doing that. Listen, now I'm looking at all these young quarterbacks. They can all play. I mean, and way sooner. Outside of Trubisky, I kind of like all of them. I watched Daniel yesterday.

I watched Kylery yesterday. I like that run by Daniel Jones, too. Eli wouldn't have made that run. So there's something there. I don't know the ceiling on it, but there's something there. Texans Chargers. Deshawn the magician. I mean, good Lord.

300 yards, three touchdown passes, no picks. By the way, Clemson the knock on Deshawn was, he threw too many picks. And I think it was a valid... Clemsen forces their quarterbacks to make tough throws. He's cutting down on the picks, folks. So if I don't have picks from him, I get a lot of upside without... The downside.

This play yesterday was just Houdini stuff, escape artist. St. Seahawks, Teddy's got this. We good. He's all good. Teddy's a grown-up. Alvin Camarro, Michael Thomas. Let's not freak out. He's all good here.

He's not Drew Brees. Very few are. But look at their schedule. I think they're going to go four and two now that they won in Seattle, and Teddy's fine. Steelers, 49ers. How'd they win? San Francisco.

three turnovers in the red zone and one. They had five turnovers. San Francisco was trying to give that game away. I will say this. Even in their mistakes, the Niners are a blast to watch. Kind of a mess, but a blast to watch. Finally, Rams Browns. Fourth down draw.

Fourth quarter. I like Nick Chub, but fourth and nine. That's the play call? This is a veteran defense. They added Clay Matthews, Eric Weddle. They're not going to be faking. out on draws. This is a smart ram defense. I didn't get that call whatsoever. We'll see you tomorrow. Joy and I'll be back. Speak for yourself. I'm on up next. Last night, a blown call

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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 lineback... You know these kids. This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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