The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Dallas Cowboys, Russell Wilson, Baker Mayfield and the New England Patriots

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

Colin wonders where the Dallas Cowboys team who won yesterday has been all year. He explains why Russell Wilson should be MVP, why he feels Baker Mayfield just isn’t that good, why the Patriots will most likely be punished hard for their recent scandal, and why the Rams need to move on from Todd Gurley.Guests include Michael Vick, Trent Dilfer, and James Harrison. 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,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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

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from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, and there is a lot of both. Joy Taylor joining me back from watching her brother in a state championship in Florida. How are you? Great. Congrats, Isaiah Mason and Jason and St. Thomas Aquinas, winning the state championship. Last play of the game. I have never been so stressed out in my life.

I'm standing. I'm banging on the seats. I was that hot mess auntie in the stands. But it was something else. It was like one of the proudest moments of my life. Oh, good for you. Congrats, guys. And, well, let's start with this. Lordy, Lordy Lou. Look at Dallas. That's the best team in the world. Everything clicked for Dallas. I mean, it was a showcase. They averaged nine yards a pass and six yards a run and 475 yards and no turnovers and had the ball for 36 minutes. It was just one of those NFL games where everything clicks.

You know, the kind Baltimore has every Sunday. Let me ask you, Cowboy fan. What took so long? All season we've been asking, where's the end? identity. What is Dallas? And yesterday they went all in on Zeke. And the great thing was, even when Zeke left the game, they went all in on Tony Pollard. They made a decision yesterday to pound the football. They have the best offensive line in the league. In a league, there are very few elite offensive lines. Zeke is probably best or second best running back in

the league. But do you trust Dallas to do this five more times and win? the Super Bowl, because I don't. I've always struggled in life giving people huge credit for things they should do. You know, the old Chris Rock joke, I love my kids. Yeah, they're your kids. You're supposed to love your kids, right? Dallas ran the ball yesterday. Yes, you've got the best offensive line in Zeke.

I'm not going to give you a ton of credit for that. It's what, week 16, you figured it out? Baltimore figured it out in week, I don't know, two. You know, I mean, my takeaway is. is Troy Aikman was the face of the Cowboys, but he only threw it about 24 times because they had Emmett Smith. They had a great offensive line. At that day and age, they didn't even have the best offensive line, arguably in their division. Washington had a great O line. But the truth is, they didn't depend on Aikman, but he was the face of the franchise. And I still think Dax's the

face of the franchise. But when you have maybe the best offensive line in the NFL by a mile and Zeke, you have to start with physicality. should be a physical football team. And too often they're clever and pretty and cute. And DAC's much better throwing on second and four and third and one. DAC is much better on play action. And my question is, why did it take so long? I mean, listen, you know how many times I've watched the Cowboy game in the last 10 years?

It's a highlight real game. They beat a good team. They beat him handily. Everything clicks. It's unbelievable. Let's start with seven times a year. But is it sustainable? Is it sustainable, tough, physical, pounded, point-of-attack football?

I mean, you can't give them too much credit for figuring out the obvious. Just say it out loud. Yeah, I got this football team with a great running back who can run over people and a tremendous offensive line in a sport without many. You should be a physical football team, not giving you credit for it. In fact, if I was a cowboy fan, I'd be discouraged this morning. I can still lose the division and miss the playoffs if I go next week to Philadelphia and lose a football game. Carson Wentz now is feeling it.

Philadelphia is getting sort of healthy. I like their head coach. They've been a good big game team last several years. Cowboys can still miss the playoffs. You found your identity too late, and I don't think you can sustain it over the course of five games. I don't think you can duplicate it six times. I mean, tip of the cap, slow golf clap. Congratulations for that.

Jerry Jones, oh, he was just going crazy in the box. He ran down to talk to the media afterwards. Just what the doctor ordered to get you out of the whatever you're in. You saw a lot of pride out there tonight, and I think, hopefully you'll see that as we go forward into our really second season here. Okay, Saints, they give me the same thing every week. Seattle, same thing every week. Green Bay, I've got my issues. Same thing every week.

Dallas was awesome yesterday for three and a half hours. Okay, going to Philadelphia, it's going to be cold, wet, sloppy, may snow, hail. Try to duplicate it. I don't think you can. Let me shift to this. As they say on Twitter, don't at me. Russell Wilson's my MVP. Seattle is now the number one seed in the NFC.

Seattle, Packers, Saints, Niners, Vikings. We don't need to talk about the Bears anymore. We don't need to talk about the Rams. We got all our teams. The only question is Dallas or Philadelphia. I don't know how they're the number one seed. Don't ask me how. Pro football focus in a passing league says they have the 30 first best pass blocking line.

Their defense is 29th against the pass, 29th in sacks, 27th in total defense, 21st in scoring defense. They're wide receivers. Don't get me started. And Seattle is the number one seed in the tougher NFC than the AFC. And they are number one for one reason, Russell Wilson. Listen, Lamar Jackson's fun is great and go ahead and vote for him. But he's got help everywhere.

Tight ends, O line, defense, corners. Russell has help nowhere. I mean, yesterday he puts on an average. absolute clinic in Seattle's defense is just giving up touchdown after touchdown to back up quarterbacks for Carolina. By the way, here's what's funny about Seattle. There's always been an understanding in the NFL since I've been a kid that for Western teams, Pacific teams, traveling to the Eastern time zone and playing in those early games is always a nightmare. Raiders, Seahawks, Niners, Rams going to the Eastern time zone, it's the abyss. It's the

Bermuda Triangle, except for one player in the entire sport, Russell Wilson. Seattle's the most geographically isolated sports franchise in the league. They have the furthest road trips, and Russell is 17 and 4 in the Eastern Time Zone. That's a better home record than everybody but New England in the NFL in the last 21 games. There's a play late in the game with Russell Wilson. It's classic Russell Wilson. It's third and 11. The defense is doing them no favors.

the offensive line breaks down, and he's got to go to his gadget guy or his undrafted receiver or D.K. Metcalfe. And this is classic Russell Wilson, making the play and winning the game, sealing it. So if the Seahawks pick up a first down and stay in bounds, they'll be able to run out the clock. As Wilson rolling to his right, now he throws and the catch is made for a first down. Not spectacular. just Russell Wilson. What does valuable mean? Valuable to me means important.

What other quarterback in this league is a number one seed in? What other team? Who could take this team over and make them a number one seed? By the way, I'm not saying Baltimore would be as good without Lamar. I'm not saying that. He's made him spectacular. I mean, they're just great. But he's got help.

he's getting coaching help and running back help and O-line help and defense help he's got the best kicker in the league I mean I watch Russell Wilson yesterday and I'm like his receiver is a gadget guy every receiver you give him works do you know this Seattle Seahunk number three wide receiver this year it's Will Disley

he's been out a month and a half it's like what Carson Winston yesterday he's got nothing to work with I am so impressed with this guy and Seattle is the number one seat in the NFC It is inexplicable. It is remarkable to me. It is just remarkable.

That's my MVP, because I've said this forever and ever and ever and ever. Like, what is valuable me? For years and years and years, I've been saying LeBron's been the most valuable NBA player for 15 years. James Hardin will score more points. Yonis will get more rebounds. But what's valuable mean? Valuable is what LeBron James has done to the L.A. Lakers. they're easily the best team in the league right now.

Nobody else could do that. Seattle's the number one team in the toughest conference in America. How? Go look at the numbers. Nothing would tell you that. Nothing. The old line atrocious, they can't pass block. Defense can't stop anybody.

Special teams, not as good as Baltimore. It's tip of the cap. Russell Wilson. Michael Vicks coming to join us this hour. Trent Dill for last hour and top of next hour where Colin was right where Colin was wrong. Okay. So coming up next, what do they always say? I had like my dad would say this.

It's a come to Jesus meeting. It's a, okay, you got to make, you got to be honest with yourself next. You've got to be totally honest with yourself next. No emotion. Take all your emotion out of it. And you've got to be brutally honest if you're a Cleveland Brown fan this morning. brutally honest. No pom-poms.

Put the pom-poms down. No cheerleading outfit. Man, come to Jesus meeting if you're Cleveland. I'm going to ask you a real tough question. And I'm not interested. And you're getting upset and you're mad and have a brown sweater on. Big boy question. I want a big boy answer coming up 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. 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. 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 in 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'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 iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th.

And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you. get your podcast. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, 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 Reed. 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.

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 going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, there are two types of quarterbacks in the NFL. And sometimes it takes you a while to separate the two. But there are two types of quarterbacks in the NFL. There are quarterbacks that can win games. Gardner Minshue can win your game.

Nick Foles can win you game. Case Keenham can have a really good season. And then there's guys, you give $300 million, too. There's the Aaron Rogers, the Patrick Malhomes. There's the Russell's. They're franchise guys. They can have downseason. But we all kind of, you kind of know, right?

So you have to have four things in 2019 for me to give you the big check. You got to have some athleticism. We have a deterioration of offensive lines in the league for now five years. It's getting worse. You got to be accurate. This is not college football. Guys are not wide open. Accuracies always been important.

A temperament. These franchises are now worth $5 and $10 billion. I need a grown up in the room. It's been my knock on Jameson, forever. And the other thing is, can't make a ton of mistakes. Even if you're productive, you can't make a ton of mistakes. That's second interception, boom, loss. You can make about one bad throw a game.

And after that, you're in big trouble. And then, got to be great at something. Something. Big, arm, size, fast. So I watched the entire game yesterday, Arizona, Cleveland, Kyler-Murrier, Baker-Mayfield, number one picks Oklahoma. Kyler's better in all four. Kyler's athletic.

Kyler's more accurate. Kyler's got a better temperament. Kyler makes fewer mistakes. and he's got a special. Are we sure Baker Mayfield's not just a guy who can win games? Yeah, you can win some games. Take out his three Cincinnati wins.

What is Baker? Not very good. A guy you can win games with athletic, way overrated. Accurate, used to be. Temperament, nightmare. Mistakes, too many of them. What is he? And what's the special?

Kyler throws a better ball. Kyler's got a better temperament. Tyler's a better athlete. Kyler makes fewer mistakes. And Kyler's got all sorts of special, baby. He has got special. He may throw the nicest ball I've ever seen. That baseball stuff translates.

So, you know, I ask it. Put the pom-poms down. I watched Gardner Minshue yesterday for Jacksonville. Baker's Gardner Minshue with a little stronger arm. That's what he is. A guy that can win your games. But I, and there's a report yesterday from Ian Rappaport. Now, I don't, this is not a knock on Ian.

He's a fine reporter. I don't believe this is going to be the case, but he has it sourced that Cleveland's going to retain Freddie Kitchens. He said that before the game yesterday. I think he's dead man coaching. I think it's done. I don't think they have a choice. I think general manager John Dorsey, if he doesn't get rid of Kitchens,

next year goes in, we see more of the same. He's out of work and he'll never get a GM job again because you get two chances in this league to be a GM. You fail at both. He got booted out of Kansas City. If he gets fired here and this mess doesn't get better. And clearly Baker and Freddie Kitchens, this is not exactly harmony. Something's happening that's not working for Baker. But it's, don't give me the excuses. Tyler Murray started fewer games in college. He's less experienced than Baker. He's a rookie. He's working with a rookie head coach. He's got a worse offensive line. He's got far fewer weapons. So I don't want to hear the, well, the coach, do you think Cliff Kingsbury's great?

You're going to tell me he's a great coach? Well, the offensive line. Arizona's maybe worse, probably is. Well, yeah, the weapons. Baker's got more. I mean, I'm sitting there yesterday and I'm like, listen, I've said this with Mitch Trubisky. He's not a number two pick. He can quarterback in this league.

You can win games with Mitch Trubisky. I'm not backing up the Brinks truck. Forget the draft order. Forget where guys get drafted. 2019. There's four boxes you've got to check. Kyler checks all of them. Baker checks none of them. Used to be an accuracy guy. Now that's regressed. I don't know what's happened there. Sales everything. Here's Joy with the News.

No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Eli Manning led the Giants to a 3620 win over the dolphins yesterday in what could very well be his final home start with the team. The fans gave him a standing ovation when he, He was taken out of the game. I know. And Eli got emotional about all the love that he's felt from the fans over the years. I don't know what the future is.

I don't know what, you know, lies next week, let alone, you know, down the road. But, you know, I think it's just, obviously, you know, the support and the fans and their ovation and they're chanting my name from the, you know, first snap to the end. I appreciate that. And, you know, appreciate them always. and just all my teammates coming up to me. So, you know, it's a special, special day, special win, and, you know, one I'll remember. You know, New Yorkers are tough people, right?

Boy, they got a soft spot for Eli. They love. They should. Well, it's like Jeter. I mean, Jeter to the very end could hit. I mean, Eli had like six years. He was struggling. Okay, he still won them two Super Bowls.

They love. Over the Patriots into Tom Brady, Lake. era. Like, they should love Eli Manning. That city loves Eli Manning. They should love Eli Manning. Look at them. He's just the nicest guy in the world. He is. So this video, I'm not going to lie. Like, when grown

men start crying, it's kind of a trigger for me. I'm like, I don't, oh, no. It's a nice, it's a really nice moment. I enjoy moments like these because they do remind you. One, not only the sports is an incredibly emotional thing. And, you know, it's part and woven

into our, you know, memories and experiences. Yeah. And it's, it's a legacy thing for Eli Manning. Like, first of all, don't, don't at me. Okay, Eli Manning is a Hall of Famer. Okay, he's going to the Hall of Fame. Yeah. Maybe not the first time, and it really doesn't matter.

He's going to be a Hall of Famer. And he deserves to. Like, yes, Eli Manning hasn't been great the past couple years. Yes, the Giants have been going through their struggles. That's for sure. But this was a nice moment. And it is a good reminder that Eli Manning did win two Super Bowls in New York. New York is softer than a warm.

They are not. They are absolutely not. But when it's real, it's real. Like, you got to keep it real. Eli Manning deserved that. Did he not deserve that? Yes. He's a, I know Cooper Manning. I know Eli. I know Archie. They're all, they're impossible not to root for. He's a, you know, I've said, there's a Philip Rivers thing I've seen for the last five years where I just too many mistakes, not athletic enough, deterioration, no lines. But he's a, I mean, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. And he's, he's, look, the Mannings are American football royal. They are. And I personally have a, even though he got a win over my dolphins yesterday, I'm willing to let it slide, because, you know, he saved us from having to deal with the Patriots' undefeated season and losing the 72 season for the dolphins, which is the only thing we have left. So, you know, I'll always respect Eli Manning. So the Raiders, on the other hand, did not get the win. What the hell happened? What was, the last seven minutes? What was that? It was a disaster, is what it was. They desperately wanted to get their win for the last home game in Oakland. They blew a 13. point halftime lead to fall to the Jags 20 to 16.

And after the game, John Gruden apologized to the fans for not sending them off with a win. I'd like to say, I wish we could have sent the Raider fans off with a lot better finish than that. I think most importantly, before we talk about the game, is I'd like to thank the fans. I'd like to thank the City of Oakland for support the Raiders and being faithful in all kinds of seasons. and I'll miss them. I love them. And I'm sorry about the outcome today, but I think that's something that needs to be said

and exclamation pointed, but really apologize that we weren't able to deliver a victory. I was sad for Oakland yesterday. They dominated the first three quarters of that game. They were the clearly, I'm very rarely bitter about a blazing five loss. It was like I knew I had the right side.

Yeah, I agree. I don't know what happened there. I really don't. The fans were obviously not pleased. They were booing and throwing trash in the field. Some were fighting in the stands. Yeah. You know, I mean, when you're really listening to John Gruden talk,

it's going to be bizarre to not have the Oakland Raiders anymore. Like, I'm fully supportive of Vegas and the NFL in Vegas. I think the stadium is going to be amazing. And I do think their Raiders fans travel well, so there will be that. But it's just so sad for Oakland. Finally, the NFL. NFL is still investigating the Patriots for the video taken to the Bengal sideline last weekend. Yesterday on Fox NFL Sunday, Jay Glazer revealed an exclusive portion of the video that was taken by the production staff.

And here's what was uncovered. And this is a piece you're filming on your advance scout? Yeah. Yeah. Come on, guys. I don't see the advance scout in this footage. No, it's not. We were trying to get some field perspectives like that.

Hopefully you can't. Guess not the fields would leave that. Why you even think you could take that? I didn't know. I have been. I didn't know. But I can delete this right here if you get. Damage is done, my friend.

No, it isn't because we delete it. Once again, it's gone. It's gone. I can't get that for a lot of 20 yards on the block. I can't get that for it. 29 yards. There's no way I can get that footage back. I'm being honest with you.

And I don't have a computer. If you'd like it to even put it down there. Once this card, that's it. Yeah, I don't see the advance scouting any of this video this shoot. It's pretty brutal. Well, the videographer took the footage has reportedly been suspended. It's against NFL policy for an employee to record a team's sideline from the press box. Obviously, the NFL is still investigating.

Patriots will likely be punished, reportedly could be up the six-figure fine loss of a draft pick. I don't know what people expected to see. Like, that's, when you see the video and you hear what they're talking about, it's the amount of ignorance in the video is kind of staggering. It's like, you can't say, I don't know. Right. Like, you, that's not, that doesn't work. It's always been my rule in life.

There's only one downside to being brilliant. So Belichick's considered like a football savant. You can't play dumb. And Patriots last week are like, oh, yeah, we don't. It's a contract employee. No, it's a full-time Bob Kraft, New England Patriot employee. You don't get the benefit of the doubt once you've already been caught. And really because of how big Spygate was and the ripple effect of that,

no team can really use that excuse anymore because everyone is fully aware of the rules. But again, I don't think that Belichick necessarily knew. That's just my personal gut feeling about it, but you don't get the benefit of the doubt on the spot. agree. Enjoy it with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News.

13 years in the NFL, four-time pro bowler, the league is changing to a Michael Vick league. Bring him on. Oh, people forget this. So when Michael went to Atlanta, the league was not nearly as interested in running quarterbacks.

So the offense wasn't, I remember this. It wasn't designed for you. You were just, your running stuff was icing. It was just bonus money. Yeah. Right. I was winging it. You were winging it.

And it's like that money you went in Vegas every year, four grand. You didn't plan for it, but you take it. House money. It's house money. So Lamar, Kyler Murray Russell Wilson, you can see offenses. Now, Josh Allen, they're building running plays for it. You're a humble guy. But if you would have got into the NFL and they would have just said,

Mike, do you, what do you think your career would have been like? Um, certainly would have been, uh, you know, even more fascinating, I will say, because, you know, earlier in my career, you know, years one, two, three, four when, you know, I was really flexible and my body could absorb a lot of hits. Yeah. I was willing to sacrifice and do anything on the football field. And when it came to running the football, uh, it was no holding back. So I almost looked at myself as if I was a running back, uh, in a quarterback's body. Um, but, you know, it was nothing that I would have held back from. So there were times where, I was like, you know, coach, I don't like this play. I think it makes me vulnerable.

You know, I don't want to run the quarterback draw. Let's try, you know, a short pass to the flat or a short concept. You know, something different, not trying to put my body in harm's way. But if I didn't hear all the chatter about staying on the field and not getting hurt and staying healthy and being out there for the team, I would have gave it up a lot more. and all I needed was a green light from my coach. Now, Dan Reeves gave me the liberty to run the football and listen, just be you, be yourself.

That's all he ever said. But it's hard when, you know, you're getting hit and you're getting nicked up and you're not feeling as well in your shoulder or your left shoulder. Right. You know, and that's your thorn shoulder. So I had all these intricate things that I was dealing with in my mind, which kept me from being that way. But it was also, you know, a lot of coaches, you know, say and protect yourself.

Now, Lamar's different. It's green light. They've built an offense. I mean, literally, that offense is built. He'll have two lead blockers. Yeah. So, you know, and I want to go, we'll get back to Lamar. I want to go to Russell Wilson.

So Russell Wilson style is not Lamar Jackson. No. It was a little bit near one. Yeah. I said yesterday, don't yell at me. He has the 29th best defense, the 31st best pass blocking line. A gadget guy is his star receiver. I don't know how Seattle wins without him.

Now, do you view Russell Wilson as a little bit of you? Because Lamar, we look at Lamar and we see you just dude's fastest guy in the field. Russell Wilson's not even close to the fastest Seahawk. How do you view him? When I view Russell and I've watched him for the last eight years since he's been a starter and he's been remarkable. I think Russell's a better quarterback than I was. You know, I think we all have our reasons to believe that we were the greatest and we were the best. But when I look at Russell, when I look at,

Lamar and, you know, even other mobile quarterbacks. I think to myself, why didn't I do things the way that they're doing it? Russell's like a point guard. Yeah, Russell's, I was going to make the comparison to Mark Jackson. When you think about Mark Jackson, you know, playing for the New York Knicks. And, you know, he was just a ball distributor. And that's what Russell does. It's not going to be fast-paced.

It's not going to be flashy, but it's going to be productive and it's going to happen. And the guys around them know that they're going to be involved at some point. So keep the play alive and don't give up. That's a real big thing. And that's one of the qualities that I wish I had. You know, sometimes I pulled it down and it was just full throttle go. And then your receivers were out of the play. And everything's a blur.

And sometimes I see my receivers and sometimes I didn't. So I wish I would have slowed down. And that's what I like about Russell's game. You know, it's under control. It's a thing of beauty when you sit back and watch, you know, his body of work over the last, you know, eight years. It's the way that I would want my quarterback to play. You know, so you can give me a guy like,

like Russell, who you can compare to, you know, Kyle Murray or a Lamar Jackson, who you can compare to a guy like myself, and you're going to get production all across the board. Let's, before we get to the Cowboys, let's talk about Kyler and Baker, and I said this yesterday. Yeah. There's guys in this league that can win games at quarterback. Gardner Minshue can win your games. I'm not building around him. Yeah.

Then there's franchise guys. Right. I watch Baker and Kyler. Kyler is accurate, temperament, fast, special. Yes. No mistakes. Baker doesn't check any of those boxes. Are we sure Baker's not just a, can win you games?

Yeah. Because Kyler, to me, is a franchise guy. Yeah. With Baker, what I would like to see is more offensive production. But I think he needs a coach around him that can help him be the best version of himself. I think Baker has a lot to give at the quarterback position. And his upside is tremendous. You know, he can throw the football.

But it still has to be some form of structure. That structure comes from your coach and your coaching. When you look at Kyle Murray with Cliff Kingsbury, you know, the system is spread out. You know, guys are all over the place, but they're doing good things within the offense that's helping him progress and taking advantage of his talent. So he does move outside of the pocket a little better than Baker,

and he's willing to, you know, take more chances. Is it that Kyler's just more talented? Therefore, Yeah, more talent. He's easier to coach. Yes, it's easier to coach. Lamar Jackson can do things I can't teach. I mean, I can coach 70%, 30%.

It's like, dude, go make a play. Yeah, like, Kyle is just, you know, he's giving it up. He's willing to go, you know, down the field, whether it's running the football or throwing the football. He'll sacrifice himself and he'll, you know, he'll use his God-given ability to make plays, and that's something the coach can't coach. Yeah, I think Kyler would be a much easier.

I mean, I just look, if I was a coach, I take Kyler over Baker, because Kyler can do stuff where I don't have to be a genius. The more talent you quarterbacks have, like Aaron Rogers sometimes, I'm like, touchdown pass. I'm like, yeah, that was mine. Right, yeah, right. Coach make a bad play call. They made a call that play. They tricked us. We're in the different, we're not in the right offense.

They're in the defense. The guy that's, and he makes a, you know, 10-yard run and makes you look good. I know my coaches appreciated that over the course of my career. Mike Vic joining us. All right. I'm supposed to be blown away by the Cowboys, but I said this at the top of my show. Yeah, it's week 16. What took so long? I don't think you can duplicate it five times. Baltimore figured out their offense in about an hour. Early. Dallas 16 weeks in. What did you make of the Dallas win?

It was a good win. It was what I thought the Dallas Cowboys would be able to do, even though the Rams were, you know, coming off a two-game win streak and sort of getting hot. I was nervous for the Dallas Cowboys, but I was rooting for him because I knew how big of the, game this was and I know what this season means to this entire organization right there's a lot on the line for these guys and uh you know for for them to to fall back on the ring game and um for deck to get going and I know he was injured a little bit um they made it all work they put it all together when they needed it the most and on both sides of the ball and even when they had to make their adjustments they did um everybody was sound and it was a good football game it was a good win this is the type of win that can get you rolling, especially in the last couple of weeks and later in the year.

NFC is crazy. Seattle, Dallas, Philly, Atlanta last several years of caught fire in December. Some teams figured out early. San Francisco figured it out very early this year. So did Baltimore. Other teams don't. Some teams never figured out, obviously. Now, I want to circle back to Lamar because he played Thursday. They didn't play yesterday, so we don't have the urgency. I want to ask you about going forward. They're going to be a top seed. This is something that happens every year. We fall for it every year. There's the regular season NFL, and then there's the playoff season.

And there's a chance Lamar is going to face a New England or a Kansas City, a Bella Checker and Andy Reid for a second time. Go back to your career. Do you have concerns about Lamar? Is that now it's intense, now the pressure's on Lamar. Yeah. We're done just saying how great you are. Do you think things change or Baltimore keeps steam rolling?

people? You know, it's so critical about this question and what can happen potentially in the postseason is that, you know, they faced Kansas City early in the year. They faced Kansas City last year and both times they lost to Kansas City. Kansas City also beat New England. So that's a team that you have to pay attention to, you know, come playoff time. And then playing them the second time around, it could work, you know, in the Ravens' favor or it can work in Kansas city's favor once again. But a part of me says that they're going to continue to steamroll.

It kind of feels like to me. It feels like they have that momentum and that mojo where it's like there's nothing that you can do to them. You have to play the perfect game defensively. Remember the cam year in 2015? It just felt different. It felt good for the Carolina Panthers

and it was fun and it was vibrant and those guys was leaning on one another but at the end of the day you still got to finish. You got to finish. They didn't finish. By the way, Philadelphia, Carson Wentz. I love Carson Wentz.

He's working with nothing. They are out of wide receivers. Do you ever remember coming into a game and thinking, I got nothing here? It was times early in my career when I was in Atlanta where. Roddy White. Yeah, it was before we drafted Roddy. And I had Sean Jefferson and Brian Finner. And sometimes I just had Brian Finner.

And sometimes Sean would be out. and Sean was in the latter stages of his career, and it was like, I got to do it all. But I accepted that responsibility and took it with a grain of something, and I didn't complain about it, but it was very difficult. You knew it midweek.

I knew midweek. I knew coming into the week, and even if your third guy goes down, your nickel, you know, your slot man goes down, it puts the team in a difficult situation offensively. So when I watched the Philadelphia Eagles, and that's why I said a couple weeks ago on our show, I felt bad for Carson because I know exactly what he's going through

and it's not ideal. You know, he needs weapons on the field. He needs some sort of help. And he can't do it all by himself, but I was appreciative of what Doug Peterson has been able to do for him. Yeah, I mean, they've spread it out. It's a lot of quick stuff, a lot of tight independent. Just let the running back, you know, gain some yards

and try to keep the offense just moving in a positive fashion. And that's what it's going to take tough challenge this week against Dallas. But we'll see how to handle it. Good stuff. Michael, Vic, 13 years, four-time Pro Bowl, or good having you on, bud. Thank you. Coming up next, there's only one team left in the NFL.

I cannot figure out. We'll tell you about that coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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, 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. 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 Sliced Life 12 in 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's two different levels of trust I want you to just really be a good person Join me, Keir 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, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to. wave at her. What? Come out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Rhett, Mom, I want you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron Heading and...

to 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 bases 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. Great to have you enjoy Taylor.

I'm Colin Coward. This is The HARD on Fox Sports One. And top of the hour, of course, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. So now we move into, what is it, week 16, a couple games left. We kind of have a sense of what everybody is. I mean, you know, there are no teams. Baltimore, as I said just a second ago, feels like Cam Newton in the Carolina Panthers. You had a very unique quarterback athlete.

People were kind of trying to figure him out. He was playing with a ton of confidence. The coaching staff had it all working. They were very, very healthy. The schedule worked out. And all of a sudden, you looked up and Carolina was in the Super Bowl. And it feels like that to me. New England will play them again.

I don't think they can beat them. Kansas City would have to go to Baltimore. I don't think they could beat them. So Baltimore feels like the team to me. But everybody, I mean, I know the strengths and weaknesses. I can see teams. I watch, except Green Bay. I'll make a stab at what I think they are.

Very good on script. They're the actor that can't add lib. But that actor can make a nice living for himself. But yesterday against the Bears, they had 12 first downs. That's with Aaron Rogers. They had atrocious third down opportunities. They had the ball 10 minutes less than Mitch Trabisky. Their defense couldn't get Mitch Trabisky off the field.

Aaron Rogers had 12 first downs. Aaron Rogers leads the NFL right now. First quarter passer rating and first quarter time. touchdowns. Do you know what Aaron Rogers is in the last six games after the first quarter? In 18 quarters of football, 57% completion percentage. Aaron Rogers, 81 passer rating, four touchdown passes. Okay, so what that tells you is they have a young coach. They're very good all week in the film room. And they come out with a couple of beautiful drives, 15 scripted plays, and their money. the coaching staff can clearly see opportunities and weaknesses.

But this is an adjustment league. You got to be able to do. That's what Pete Carroll does. And Sean Payton did. And Mike Tomlin's done. And that's what Harbaugh does. And that's what Pete Carroll and Belichick and Andy Reid. This team doesn't adjust.

It also tells me they're the opposite of Houston. Houston is not necessarily very good on script. And then Deshaun and their wide receivers and their playmaking linebacker. just kind of adjust and make plays. Green Bay doesn't have the ability off the script to make plays. Why? They're not that talented. Houston has a lot of talent.

They're not very good on script, but good God. They look like flagged football in the second half of games, making plays, running around, athlete better than your athlete. Green Bay, after the first quarter, so the coaching staff is great in the room all week. This is not an incompetent coaching staff.

But once they get off the script, they don't adjust. They're not good off the script. They couldn't get Tribisky off the field yesterday. And Aaron in the last 18 quarters, not in the first, got four passing touchdowns and is as accurate as Baker Mayfield. What? Without receiving core, with Aaron Jones. Even Aaron Rogers, I mean, he admitted it yesterday.

I don't know that we have the full respect of the entire league at this point, based on some of our performances, you know, where we got beat by a couple scores and kind of the reaction, I would assume, to those situations. But we're seven and one at home. You know, we have an inside track at the two seed. Obviously, we have an opportunity to wrap up the division next week, which guarantees a home game and probably in the third. seed at worst. I like our chances. I like our football team. I like them too. But am I wrong here? Am I nuts here? They're not talented enough to make plays

off the script. My athlete against your athlete. That's what Houston does. Gets out coached. It doesn't have good protection. Butchers the special teams game and Houston just finds a way to Sean Watson those receivers make plays. Green Bay can't do that because they're not that talented.

And at the coaching position, they're clearly competent Monday morning to Saturday night. They're good. But I don't know. I just, I can't get my arms around it. It feels like a team at Lambo. Boy, just say it out loud. Do you think they're good enough to beat Minnesota at home, San Francisco at home, Seattle at home.

I mean, they're definitely good enough to beat Dallas there, but Dallas and Philadelphia, whoever wins, will be playing a home game. I don't know. I don't. And, you know, I know everybody goes back to this. Well, they're 11 and 3. I'm not disputing.

I'm not saying they're poorly coached. I'm not saying they don't have any talent. But, man, by this time, I got to get, there's got to be, I got to get my arms around something. And it's, I, and for you, Bears fans, I love you. I love you, Bear fans. You got to stop with defending Trabisky. You got to stop.

He's a great kid. I've been told somebody in the room, he's a hard worker. Players love Trabisky. Come on. Come on. You got to stop. There's guys that can win games, Case Keenham, even win a division for a year. And then there are guys you pay $300 million to.

Come on, Chicago. you're a smart sports town. Stop running to Twitter. This is not a franchise, $15,000, $30,000, $33 million a year guy. But what's even more discouraging for Green Bay is he had the ball on the field

10 minutes longer than you did with Aaron Rogers. I mean, they controlled the line of scrimmage. What? All right, we're packed. Colin Wright, Colin wrong, top of the hour. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, iHeart radio app search her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Here we go.

Hour number two, live in Chile, Los Angeles. Yes, it gets chilly here. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor, who spent the weekend in Florida watching her brother Jason Taylor coach his high school team to a state championship as joining me. Congratulations to you. came down to the final play of the game.

Probably the most stressed out I've ever been in my life. Both of my nephews, Isaiah and Mason, played for St. Thomas Aquinas, and, yeah, it was stressful. Football power. Who did they beat? They beat Edgewater, which is a great team. So, congrats to Edgewater. They played a great game.

But it was, I'm getting nervous to talk about it. I'm telling you, like, it's, I mean, I don't have kids, you know, so my nephews and my nieces are like that for me. And, like, when you're rooting for your, you know, your nephew or your niece or your kid to, like, succeed in that moment, And, you know, winning a state championship, like in high school is an incredible memory. Unbelievable. And for the three of them to do that together on the same field.

Amazing. It was. It was amazing. Good for you. That's fantastic. Trent Dilfer is going to be joining us this hour. Football is just crazy, isn't it? I mean, I swear to God, it's just yesterday is sometimes you're just, that's the Cowboys and that's the Rams.

How about the 49ers? I mean, they're a little banged up, so you can see them trending down a little bit. So it's crazy. So here we go. I have big strong opinions. I do, you know, 15 segments a day. Sometimes I whiff. Sometimes I'm right.

Colin right, Colin wrong. Here we go. Where Colin was right. Been saying this all year. It's not a fad. Mobile quarterbacks are here to stay. Offensive lines are regressing. You've got to have a guy that can move.

This weekend, Lamar won, Mahalms one, Watson one, Aaron Rogers one, Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz, Dak, Prescott, Kyler Murray, and Josh Allen. You know who didn't? Philip Rivers. You got to be able to move. It is, we, listen, this is what high school now in college is giving the pros. So you can try to turn these guys into pocket quarterbacks, but instinctively, that's not how they play.

They want to move. They can move, and you've got to build an offense around it. And frankly, I think it's way more fun to watch. I like my quarterback moving around. I like watching Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz, even though occasionally you make it banged around a little bit. Where Colin was wrong. Blazing 5 went two, three, and one. we are 52% on the year.

Don't ask me how Seattle pushed. They were clearly the better team and dominating for most of it. Raiders, I'm in a bad mood over that one too. That is life. 52%. NFL is crazy. We got to get to 55% because that's my annual average. Where Colin was right?

You see Carson Wentz yesterday with three receivers? Two, I'd never heard of. One was pretty good in college. Wentz goes 30 of 43. They're asking him to throw now over 40 times a game. three touchdowns, 270 yards, 109 passer rating. Yes, he makes mistakes. There's nobody open half the time.

But that throw to Miles Sanders, good Lord, back-to-back weeks, game-winning drives. And again, I'm not saying he's flawless. I'm not saying there aren't issues. This kid is working with tight ends. That's basically the offense. And guys you've never heard. Look at that throw. Holy moly.

So, and again, I want my quarter bitch. Trubisky yesterday was good except when it counted. Carson Wentz wasn't always good, but was great when it counted. That's my kind of quarterback. Where Colin was wrong. Well, I've been calling Kansas City yesterday was spectacular in the snow, and I called him last week.

I said they're a windbreaker team. They'll be good as long as it's sunny. Yesterday, they played in a snowstorm, and Patrick Mahomes was brilliant. Travis Kelsey had 11 can. You wouldn't land a plane in that visibility. I mean, it's incredible. He was spot on.

27 to 30 for Mahomes, at times incredibly low visibility weather. Everybody caught the ball. Travis Kelsey, Tyree Kill. They played with unbelievable harmony and discipline in lousy weather. And I've said they can't run the football. They feel too finesse. They're a windbreaker team. I like winter coat teams like Baltimore.

But boy, they proved me wrong yesterday. Where Colin was right? Optics matter. I was never a Matt Patricia guy. Oh, he's a genius. I don't doubt that. Hat on backwards, sloppy. This guy's a mess.

And they can't even get the Lions defense, right? And he's a defensive coach. They don't take the ball away near the bottom and points allowed. Can't win games. Matt Patricia is now 920 and 1. And that division's got a bunch of good players and some really good coaches. And he feels like the fourth best coach in that division. Had on backwards, that Roger Goodell T-shirt he wore yesterday.

He looked like a frat boy. Don't tell me your coach is smart. A lot of these guys are really smart. You've got to be able to stand in front of millionaires and sell your message. And I never bought into this. I thought he was another really smart, really smart Belichick guy who would never own the room. Matt Patricia, it's not working. It's not.

He can't even get their defense right. You can miss, but you got to get your side of the ball right. They're not doing that three years in. Colin was wrong. I keep doubting the Minnesota Vikings and I keep saying, God, Kirk Cousins, but you know, they don't have any holes. They're 10 and 4. That game yesterday against the Chargers, that defense, I mean, you know, what can you say? That counts as a home game, by the way, if you heard the crowd. What are you going to say? They're very, very good. Kirk Cousins makes enough plays. I mean, yesterday,

Dalvin Cook gets heard it running back. They bring in a guy named Mike Boone, 13 carries two Dutch Who's Mike Boone? Daniel Boone I've heard of. Aaron Boone I've heard of. Who's Mike Boone? A couple touchdowns. That's who he is. I guess Goulet, get him on your fantasy team.

I got to stop doubting this team. Seriously. Where Colin was right? I also said, listen, it's time to move off Phillip Rivers. You can't be unathletic and mistake prone. You're going into a new stadium. You can't sell any tickets. Last five games, he's had 11 picks.

This isn't working. It's not working. He makes mistakes at veteran quarterbacks. You can't make that throw as a veteran quarterback. Cannot make that throw. Lamar Jackson's not making that throw. He's been playing for an hour. Kyler Marie's not making that throw. He's been playing for less than an hour.

It's time. Go get Justin Herbert. But you know what he's become? Philip Rivers has become a less productive James Winston. So I can't go on this show and bang on James Winston and support Philip Rivers. It's time to move on. Where Colin was wrong.

Joe Burrow, basically broke every Heisman voting record of all time. Highest percentage of first place votes, percentage named on ballot, margin of victory. In a year where there was a lot of good competition and a lot of good, Jalen Hertz, a lot of good emotional stories. More than anything, Ed Orgeron, I never thought Ed Orgeron would be the head coach of a team that's the most interesting offensive team in college football. He's a power guy, he's a great recruiter.

Ed Orgeron proved me wrong. You know, he bombed at Ole Miss. I never thought he fit in L.A. at USC. Well, I was wrong on that one. He's all alpha. He's a great motivator. He's an unbelievable recruiter. And that speech, here's what his star player thinks about him.

Wow. Cocho. Tocho. You have no idea what you mean to my family. I didn't play for three years. You took a chance on me. not knowing if I could play or not and I'm

forever grateful for you can you imagine a guy like Coach O giving me the keys to his football program he just means so much to me and my family and to LSU I sure hope they give him a lifetime contract he deserves it

good luck recruiting against LSU over the next month where Colin was right side line demeanor matters and I said Adam Gays and Sam Darnold this week It matters. Did you see yesterday, Cleveland, Freddie Kitchens, and Jarvis Landry? The Jets and the Browns, we've been saying this all year with Cleveland.

Something's wrong on the sidelines. Baker's over there. Objays over there before big drives. It matters. It's not superficial. If the sidelines up tight, then there's problems. I always say, if you go to a party and you see a couple and they're icy publicly, what's the drive home like with a couple?

What's the couple like in their place? You got to watch body language. Jet sidelines lousy, Cleveland sidelines lousy, and it becomes, in both instances, a wildly inconsistent football operation with the Jets and the Browns. Where Colin was wrong. I bought back into the Rams.

God, let's stop walking on eggshells with Todd Gurley. Just admit it. You can't get back-to-back games out of him. They weren't competitive yesterday. They got to, speaking to come to Jesus meetings, they got to acknowledge. They got to draft another running back. I know they got one last year.

They got to get another one. They're trying to fool all of us that they do one thing. They're trying to hide the Gurley thing, and everybody in the room knows. They can't run the football. They had 22 yards yesterday. They had 23 minutes of time of possession. Own your stuff. I fell into it.

I'm like, oh, they're moving golf around, and Todd Gurley. Yeah, Todd Gurley had a great game last week. Therefore, he can't handle too many carries this week. They've got to fix that fast. Where Colin was wrong. Remember when Kyler Murray was on the Dan Patrick show? And I was like, this video is damning. This is bad.

This guy, he's too small. I don't get his personality. I'm watching him yesterday. This kid's going to work. I mean, his instincts, his speed, the way he throws the football, he is gifted. Now, I still wish he was six-three. He is just flat-out gifted.

And that interview, maybe I looked at it through the wrong end of the telescope. Are you going to the combine? I don't know. Dad, is he going to the combine? Dad had no comment there. Pro day? I mean, that's after the combine.

Yeah, are you going to do a pro day? Yeah. Yeah. I guess. If you want to say, yeah, yeah. Is it possible he just didn't want to trap himself? He didn't want to say anything that would get him in trouble. He didn't want to make any promises.

I had huge, huge doubts about Kyler Murray. But I watched the entire game yesterday. I've watched them four entire games this year. That's going to work in the NFL in 2019. That works. Still wish he was taller. but that works. Maybe the temperament thing, he's the opposite of Baker.

He gives you nothing on the microphone. I'm not so sure that the future of the NFL quarterback isn't that on a microphone and not always having to win the argument on the microphone. Colin right, calling wrong on a Monday. Trent Dilfer's around the corner. I've got thoughts on the Patriots video and the thoughts on a city that has to reboot their football, college and pro. That's 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 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 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 Slic Life 12 in the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer 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 hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search learn the hard way and listen now. 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. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office, Blue, 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, 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 running 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 going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two great bowl games are coming your way on Fox and FS1. First, on December 27th, it's the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl is number 16, Iowa, battles number 22 USC on FS1. Then on December 30th, Cal faces off with Illinois and the Red Box Bowl on Fox. Both games are also available on the Fox Sports app. I like Iowa over USC and Cal over Illinois.

Those are very, very good games. I think the Pac-12 is an underdog in almost all their bowl games this year. SEC's a favorite in most of theirs. Guys, feel better with MDrive, a supplement. Go to MDrive for men.com. Code Hurd, 20% off your first month. Refine your prime with MDrive. He's my buddy known him for a long time.

14 years in the NFL. Super Bowl champion. with the Ravens are Pro Bowlers as well. Let's bring in Trent Dilfer via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So let's, I mean, you know, Dallas, I'm just going to let you have the floor on this. I wasn't blown away by it because I've seen this three times a year for the last decade. It all worked. I'm almost discouraged if I was a cowboy fan.

I'd be like, what took so long? What did you make it yesterday? Yeah, I mean, high ceiling, low floor. We've talked about that with the Cowboys. Their good is so good. but then their badges can be so bad. The one thing I saw yesterday that gives me hope was I think they found their identity defensively. Everybody's talking about their offensive identity.

They're an explosive offense. They can run it. They can throw up. But defensively this year, they've been very vanilla. They've been kind of, they line up and they play. And in the NFL, there's something to say about the X's and O's and some eye candy and making offenses think. And then yesterday, they're a little more multiple. They did some more things defensively.

It gave me some hope that maybe they're saying inside the building, hey, we got to show offenses more. We have to keep them off balance a little bit more. And I think that's why they had such good success against this Rams offense that was actually rolling going into this game. They showed them different looks. They came with different pressures. They disguised their base looks better.

And coming from somebody that got confused a lot in the NFL for 14 years, it's hard to play quarterback. It's hard to be consistent when the defense is more multiple. And yesterday the Cowboys defense was much more multiple. Seattle now wins. They're the number one seat in the NFC, which is fairly inexplicable. Their defense is ranked 27. Their offensive line pass blockings read at 31st.

They're wide receivers. It's D.K. Metcalfe who plummeted in the draft, a gadget guy, Tyler Lockett. You know, I said, don't at me, as they said on, say on Twitter. but that's my MVP. He's not working with much, and they're going to be a number one seed potentially. Let me ask you this, though, a more specific question. Brady struggles with new receivers. Everybody with Russell works. Everybody undrafted, drafted. Will Disley was a blocking tight end at Washington who had two catches one year. What is he do so that everything works with him on the perimeter? Well, I think it's a tough comparison.

What they do in New England, what Tom does is so rhythm-based, so timing-based. The receivers are reading a lot of coverages. There's got to be that sympatica relationship between quarterback receiver all the time. Seattle's more of a chunk yardage passing game, so the ball's in the air longer. The receivers are reading less as they're running routes. I'm not taking anything away from just two different styles. So I think with Russell, if they can run the ball well, if they can give a lot, Russell that extra half a tick in the pocket or he may he creates that time and space for himself

with his uh incredible athleticism and intuition um that ball's in there for a long time and and they need guys that can make plays on the ball in the air guys that can get down the football field guys that can run the deep crossing routes if you notice the seattle's passing game isn't a precision based it's more chunk based yeah and that's really why you can plug and play a receiver in a Seattle offense, as long as they have the traits, and you can't plug and play a guy in New England's offense. Oh, that's interesting. So that's why we have you on the show to explain that.

Well done. Okay, so Green Bay. You know, sometimes I look up, and here's something that just jumps out to me. They're very good on the script. No disputing that. Great first quarter team. Aaron Rogers' last 18 quarters, not in the first quarter, four touchdowns, 80 passer rating, 57%. explain that.

How can Aaron Rock, what does that mean? It's interesting. I don't know if I have an explanation. But I've seen this before where guys, offensive play callers, quarterbacks, the relationship between the two when it's scripted,

when they stay on script, when they rehearsed it, unstoppable. And then the defense makes an adjustment and they don't adjust their script. They don't adjust the game plan. I'm not saying it's bad coaching. I'm just saying I've seen it happen before. I think it's a very good coaching staff in Green Bay. Obviously, Aaron's is smart

and his talents as any quarterback's ever played the game. But sometimes you get so caught up in making sure your script is on point and you put so much time and preparation into what the defense should do that when they adjust mid-game, you kind of get paralysis

by analysis. This is not the first time I've seen it like I've said. It's definitely something they need to fix. Usually what fixes that, to be honest with you calling, is running the rock. When you can run the football, you can play action off of it. There's not a lot of defenses they can call. There's not a lot adjustments they can make. You know, we make this big deal about defensive adjustments all the time. If you're shoving it down their throat and then you're play action passing off of it, there's about

four defenses that can be played in the NFL. So I always look at when teams struggle in second halves, it's usually they're too past centric. They've gotten away from the run game. They've gotten away from the play action game. They've gotten to the dropback game. And that's where defense in the NFL can be super multiple, super confusing, and truly make some big time adjustments. Trent Dilfer joining us. I never want to be rigid guy. I like to look for new things. That doesn't mean every new thing works.

I do think we've talked about this. The erosion of offensive lines, you better have some athletic ability in that pocket. Minimum Daniel Jones kind of movement. So I watched Kyler and Baker yesterday. And the new NFL, and it's, by the way, three years ago, we thought Jared Gough was the ideal quarterback. So the league's moving fast, right? and I watched Baker and Kyler.

Accuracy, Kyler. Athleticism, secret sauce, Kyler. Temperament, Kyler. Mistakes. Kyler doesn't make a lot. I'm watching that game yesterday, Trent, and I said there's two types of quarterbacks in the NFL. Guys that can win you games, Gardner Minchu.

And then guys, you pay $200 million to. Mahomes. Are we sure, Kyler, I see back up the truck qualities. Baker, increasingly, I see can win you games guy. What boxes is he checking or am I just being too harsh?

I don't think you're wrong on Kyler. I think he's a unique talent, especially with the fit, the offense they're running, you know, kind of spreading the field, giving him space, allowing to have a real Saturday feel on Sundays.

I think he's the one guy that can pull it off all the time in the passing game. I do think he's an exceptional player with Baker. I'm still more bullish on Baker than you are. I think he's just a bad fit. I think him and kitchens are just a bad fit. It's not the right offense for him. I think Baker needs to be in the Sean Payton Drew Breeze mode.

It needs to be West Coast. It needs to be precision base. And needs to be on time that type of offense for Baker to succeed. He's uniquely gifted with his accuracy. But that's about where it ends. And a competitor. He's a great competitor. But he doesn't really have any other traits besides that precision with his passing.

So the offenses that maximize that are the ones to get the ball your hand quick, get five eligibles out into the round. give them a lot of choices to make right off the get-go and march the ball at the passing game. I have not seen them do that. They're trying to be this chunk yardage passing game, and that's just not Baker's deal. I've said this since day one. The longer the play goes, the worst Baker gets. It was that way in college and it's been that way in the NFL.

All right. So SpyGate 2, whatever you want to call it. I was telling Joy earlier. the downside to being brilliant is you suddenly can't play dumb. And I think Belichick, you know, he knows where every lug nut is screwed in in New England. And now with the spy gate too, it's like, ah, you know, who knows what these guys are? I'm a little cynical after watching that Jay Glazer video. Are you?

I don't know what to think. I would love to give you an opinion. I honestly don't know what to think. I can see both sides. There's been so much of this over the years that. it's easy to get skeptical or cynical. And then, but then some, the argument kind of makes sense to them. If they're shooting a documentary, you're going to be capturing content of everything.

I don't know where I sit on this one. Let's see how this one plays out. I'm sure the NFL will go very deep in the weeds on this one. I want to sit back and be a spectator on this one. Fair enough. Let's talk Niners. You know the organization well. Now, it's, there are teams that peak.

Kansas City's done this. Andy Reid a few times. They're a little banged up now. I do think they have the ability to beat you several ways, which I like. They're not beholden to any one thing. Their defense bails, Jimmy steps up. But we're seeing now teams move the ball late, Seattle, a mobile quarterback, Atlanta, a non-mobile quarterback. Are you seeing things that worry you about the Niners?

Yeah, giving up a game-winning drive to Atlanta Falcons team. It's been crudy the whole year concerns me. But I do, we've talked about this, too. there's excuses and there's reasons. There's no excuses in the NFL, but there are some legitimate reasons while why teams struggle for a week or two weeks. And they're banged up.

They have key people banged up. They've dealt with the injury bug. I think as they get healthier, they've shown that they have a lot of dimensions, like you said, a lot of ways they can beat you. I think yesterday we'll sit bad with them and they'll plant their flag and be like, never again.

Will this happen to this defense? since the defense has become very prideful in a good way. I'm still very bullish on the Niners, although when you sit there and you watch it yesterday, you're like, whoa, if they're truly great, they're not going to give up this drive. And yet they do. But again, I think it can serve them well too.

Like I said, they plant their flag and say, no moss. This has never happened to us again. We're too prideful for this. We're too good. We want to be the best defense in the league. And by the way, we're going to get healthier here in the next few weeks.

Yeah, it's amazing. Baltimore has been pretty much injury. free. San Francisco and Philadelphia have fallen apart. You were in this league forever. Were you ever on a team that just stayed healthy all year? Yeah, and we won the Super Bowl.

With things in Baltimore, that's the greatest defense of all time, and we didn't really ever get the injury bug. Wow. You know, they had that thing, no boo-boos. There wasn't time to be hurt. So that was a tough group of people offensive and defensefully. In Tampa in 99, when we made a run to the NFC. Champion,

championship game. I was hurt. But Sean King came in, did a great job. That team stayed very healthy outside of me getting hurt. So typically teams that make big deep run stay healthy. Yeah. Trent, great seeing you, but as always. Thanks, brother. You bet Trent Dilfer, head football coach at Lipscom Academy in Nashville, won a couple of games this year. Yeah, I mean, it's, I always tell the story about the New York Giants when they beat the Patriots. And I was going to the store to get a six-pack of beer at the house. And my wife said, hey, get a six-pack. We're a little. little light on beer and I turned on Bob Poppa was the voice of the New York Giants.

They were facing the Patriots. This was the unbeatable Patriot team, right? And Bob Popper was the voice of the Giants. And I go to the supermarket, I get in the car and he goes to his broadcast partner. He goes, do you realize how healthy we are? He goes, we're missing one special team's gunner from the opening day roster. He goes, I've been broadcasting, but I've never seen a team that's healthy. And I remember driving and thinking, oh, that's that's not great. Oh, it was wonderful. I disagree.

Giants were completely healthy. Baltimore this year? I mean, they are, I mean, I've had a couple of little nicks and cuts, but San Francisco's falling apart. New Orleans lost their quarterback for a month and a half, and here are the Ravens rolling. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Oh, these Falcons. The Falcons and the Cardinals, huh? We just can't figure them out. It's incredible. It is. Falcons are, I'll tell you this, they are playing their butt off for that coach. They are.

So Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a stunning game-winning drive over the 49ers to win 29-22. Crazy ending. So with eight seconds left, Austin Hooper seemingly caught a touchdown, but it was overturned. I felt like it was a touchdown when replay showed that it kind of hit the ground. I don't know. I thought that was a catch. I thought it was a catch, too. I was surprised they overturn it.

But on the very next play, Julio Jones caught a ball with the goal. line that was called short. Now you thought that was a touchdown. Yeah, I thought that was a touchdown too. Yeah. I actually thought that they were going to not give this to them as well. And then that would have been crazy because I thought both of them were touchdowns. But anyway, the review went Atlanta's way as the ball just barely broke the plane.

And this upset loss knocked the 49ers down to the fifth, down to fifth in the NFC. That's how good the NFC is. It's crazy. So now Seattle has taken over the top spot. So the 49ers's remaining schedule is against the Rams. next week at home, and then they're at the Seahawks. They can get back to number one if they win out, and neither San Francisco nor Seattle can clinch this weekend,

even if one team wins and one team loses. So it's really going to come down to that last game. Can you imagine if they didn't give Atlanta that touchdown? They'd have had two taken away. Yeah, that would have been rough. Oh, that would have been rough. Because I thought, like, you the first one, I'm like, well, it's a touchdown. Yeah, I thought the first one was a touchdown.

Yeah, he had the hand around the body. He was clearly palming the football. It kind of felt like I was leaning towards that. I'm like, I really feel like they're not going to give this to them. Even the second one with Julio Jones, I was like, they're not going to give this to them. And I was like it's kind of going to feel like Atlanta's getting screwed for the 49ers. Give the play-by-play and the color guy on that broadcast credit because they said Julio Jones are like, no, wait, that's a touchdown.

Yeah. They're like, that's a touchdown. I mean, it was. It would be it was. So, I mean, great job out of the Falcons. Got to give them credit because they were, I mean, a completely lost season and they were playing really tough. So both my teams lost yesterday.

The bills beat the Steelers last night, 17 to 10 to record their first 10. to record their first 10-win season since 1999. They also secured their second playoff berth in the last three seasons under Sean McDermott. And this is really, this is cool. So Bill's Mafia, obviously, is, you know, very notorious. They like to break tables. As of late, they've not been breaking many tables. But when the team returned home at 2 a.m.,

fans were waiting at the airport in 25-degree weather to greet the players. And I'm not talking about, sorry for our radio listeners, I'm going to try and explain to you. There's a fence with, like, Barb wires. surrounding the airport, obviously. I'm not talking about, like, a group of 20 diehards. There are, I mean, I don't know how long this line of fans. I mean, it's incredible.

There's, like, probably 200 people there. Just lined the fence of the airport at 2 in the morning to welcome the team back. That's incredible. Yes. I love watching that. Even though they're kind of ugly yesterday, I just liked the heck out of that game. Yeah, it was a good. I mean, look, I did not think that the Steelers were going to win that game.

I like Duck. It's a great story. I do think Mike Tomlin is coach of the year, what they've been able to do to spy everything that they've lost is incredible, but the bills are just a better team. They're fifth in the AFC. They travel to Foxborough to face the Patriots on Sunday. They have a chance to win the division if they win out, and the Patriots also lose to Miami in Week 17.

Watch that, because Miami is known to do that. It's usually in Miami when they do that. But the Steelers are still a sixth spot in the AFC, but they have to win out or get some help from the Texans losing to remain in the playoffs. The Texans are at the Bucks, and they have the Titans at home. Yeah. But Pittsburgh has to beat the Jets and the Ravens on the road. So it's looking kind of like Pittsburgh season is probably over either way.

Finally, as expected, LSU quarterback Joe Burrow took home the Heisman Trophy Saturday nights. And in a very tearful speech, he thanked Coach O. Coach O, you have no idea what you mean to my family? I didn't play for three years. You took a chance on me. Not knowing if I could play or not. I'm forever grateful for you. Can you imagine a guy like Coach O.

Give me the keys to his football program. He just means so much to me and my family and to LSU. I sure hope they give him a lifetime contract. He deserves it. It's really sweet. And he won the Heisman in record fashion. Voting members revealed that Burrow broke several records and it turned out to be the most decisive.

Heisman one of all time. That's hard to do because this is a very parochial voting system where the West people vote for the West and the Midwest people vote for the Midwest. And there was, I mean, great finalists this year. It's not like it was. Jaylen Hertz a great story. And Chase Young.

So it wasn't something. It's very surprising, actually, that this happened. So highest percentage of first place votes at 90.7, named on most of the ballots at 95.5%. And the largest margin of victory at 1,846 points. I'll still draft two of first. I'm on the total opposite side of you. I'm not saying Joe Burroughs, Tom Brady,

because I don't even think you should compare other NFL quarterbacks to Tom Brady. But I love Joe Burrow. And I'm just going to say it. I hope he doesn't go to the Bengals. I know. You saw Bumersaisen gave him a Bengals helmet on the show. It said for one bangle to another one, to the next bangle. Well, he's from Ohio, so, I mean, you know, that Cincinnati would probably.

And Cincinnati's likely going to have the job pick. Like, they have the job picked. He's a great story, and you hope he's a great player and a great story. One interesting thing, though, if the bengals aren't fully sold on Joe Burrow, because right now, if it ended today, it would be the Bengals, the giants who don't need a quarterback, the dolphins, and the Redskins. Never know what the Redskins are going to do. So the Dolphins have a lot of picks.

I know. They might make a little deal with the Bengals. I would feel much better Joe Burrell playing for the Dolphins than the Bengals. Yes, of course. Much better. Of course. And look, I don't dislike Tua. I just think if you're the dolphins, you need someone to come in and play right now.

We don't know how much longer Tua needs to develop. I think if Tua ends up dropping in the draft, it'll be great for him because then he might not have the same pressures to come out and perform right away. Yeah, joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. Let me address the Jay Glazer video on the Patriots, the Bingle stuff.

Listen, here's the only thing. Put the psalm-poms down if you live in Connecticut, Vermont, or Maine. If you were audited by the IRS a couple of times, Guess what? They're going to be watching you more closely, and even a small infraction, they're going to pound you. Because the IRS has the right to sort of make up their own rules. And so does the NFL. Spygate, deflategate, this gate, they're tired of New England, tweaking and tearing at the fabric of the league's integrity. I don't know what to make of the video. The guys sound incredibly guilty. You can't listen to this. and not feel like these guys are BSing the Bengals.

Listen. And this is a piece you're filming on your advance scout? Yeah. Yeah. Come on, guys. I don't see the advance scout in this footage. No, it's not. We were trying to get some field perspective.

It's my bad. That's not the field. Why you would think you could take that? I didn't know. I mean, come on. But I can delete this right half of you. Damage is done, my friend. No, it isn't, because we delete it.

Once again, it's gone. I can't get that footage back. I can't get that footage back. I mean, folks. There's no way I can get that footage back. I'm being honest with you. Whenever I hear I'm being honest with you, you're not being honest with me. Oh, Lord.

Once this card, that's it. Okay. All right. That's enough. The bottom lot. Multiple states have repeat offender sentencing. Okay, there's a reason. You got a little background.

We're going to make it harder. You have two or three affairs on your wife. Guess what? She catches you flirting. It doesn't matter if anything happened. You didn't have any wiggle room. The burden of proof for New England has. been eliminated. I don't know what to make of this video. But I mean, even when it first

came out, New England said, well, these are contract employees. No, they're not. Stop BSing. Stop pushing the envelope on this stuff. I don't know how it works out. I really don't. But you get audited two or three times. The IRS is going to come down harder on you because you know better and you can point all the fingers you want. I think they're going to lose a first round pick on it or a second round pick and I I I, you can't cry over it. Once you get it audited, they're, they're just going to put a microscope on you and, and even if it's just a little indiscretion, IRS is going to pound you. That's on you. That's a you problem. Coming up next, LA's got a football problem with all of its teams. Is there a reason, a singular reason that's

coming up? Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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, 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 moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters 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, 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'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 hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show,

I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, 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 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 bases 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, I said, 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. Football rewards tough and hard and disciplined and strong and punitive cultures. It is not driven by players.

It is not the NBA. I like the NBA. I prefer the NFL. NFL's tough. and they ask tough questions, and they cut you, and it's rough. And L.A. is not really a rough city. Right now, L.A. football's a mess. USC's fans are having a mutiny because they retained a head coach.

Why? He's a nice guy. The L.A. Chargers can't sell tickets. Quarterback situation's a mess. Why? Because Philip River's a nice guy. They don't want to move off him. And the L.A. Rams won't address a tough, cruel, hard, punitive decision. They've been walking on eggshells for a year and a half.

Todd Gurley is mostly shot. Deal with it. Own it. Big boy time. But the Rams came out and they were so L.A. Let's get stars and pro player and not practice very hard and keep our veterans out of pads. They don't do that in Baltimore or New England or Pittsburgh or Seattle.

That's not the way they do it. Football's tough. It weeds out soft. It eats finesse for breakfast. The Rams keep walking around on eggshells about Todd Gurley. 25 carries against the Bears following week he had six. Why? The knee.

Huge game against Seattle. Yesterday 11 carries. Why? Same reason. Football cultures that win are tough and punitive. Baltimore moved off Joe Flacco. That was hard. They did.

Seattle moved off Richard Sherman, hard, popular they did. Green Bay moved off Mike McCarthy, had a Super Bowl, did. New England moves off, everybody does. Football can be mean. It's not the NBA. It's not pro player. It's pro-production. Win, help us, or Seacrest out.

Own it, Rams. Get Baltimore-like, Seattle-like, Green Bay like, New England. like, Pittsburgh. Can you imagine the Rams have a little offensive line issue? Man overboard. The Steelers have lost A. B. Labian Bell, James Cotter, Juju, Smith. And keep winning games and fighting because they've created a tough to winter league, a tough physical, mental culture. NBA teams in town are great. They're pro player. That's a different league. And I think that league's great and I understand that league doing it their way. It's not the NFL. Outside of quarterback virtually, no player is worth more than a point. Gronk in his prime was worth half of one.

There's a big elephant in the room here. L.A. Ram football. Todd Gurley, stop making excuses and deflecting the story and you overpaid for Gurley. Go draft another running back. It's harsh. You got one last. year you won't play him, play them more, go draft another. Your draft pick should be a running back O line. The rest of your team is fine. Clean up the O line, make a couple trades. You may have to, you think I'm nuts on this. You may have to move some guys you really like. You may have to move a Robert Woods or a Cooper Cup or something, but you've got to fix the O line. This offense is built around a power running back, and you don't have it, and you're trying to convince yourself, and worst of all, you're trying to convince us, and I'm not buying any of it. By the way,

I've always had, you're going to think I'm nuts on this. I've always had this theory, is that if you go look at a map of the United States, outside of the New Orleans Saints, the warm weather franchises are awful, a mess, talented, but undisciplined and underachieving. Most of the best football teams in this league and the best operations are cold weather. Seattle, Green Bay, Minnesota, New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore. I don't think that's a coincidence. You do the Mason-Dixon line here.

I don't think it's a coincidence. I think the warmer the weather is, eh, you don't stay at work as long. It's a little softer culture. In pro football in America, the best cultures, crappier the weather. And I look at these LA teams, USC, they keep nice. And UCLA got the powder blues and the chargers don't want to move off Philip Rivers and the Rams don't want to talk about Todd Gurley.

Toughen up. Be punitive. Be harsh. Be brutal. That's the sport. It's been the sport forever. Who dominated the 70s? The Steelers.

I mean, ask yourself. Who dominate Vince Lombardi? Punch in the mouth, Packers. Then it's the Steelers. Then it's the Jimmy Johnson harsh cowboy. And then it's tough, bang, boom, bang. Not a lot of finesse last long in this league. You got to answer tough questions.

You got to deal with ugly situations. And sometimes you've got to be harsh. Stop trying to fool me on the girly thing. Draft running backs. It's over. It's over. hour three coming up james harrison loaded i'm fired up the herd 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 james harrison a decade and a half 15 NFL seasons multiple super bowls multiple time pro bowler the all-time steeler sack leader from kent state undrafted we love that story let's talk your your steeler's last night i mean they've been doing it with smoking mirrors. I think it's one of Mike Tomlin's better coaching jobs. They've lost last

couple years AB, Levian Bell, James Connor hurt, then he's back, juju's out, pouncy out. You know, last night felt like to me, this team was doing it with smoking mirrors anyway, right? I don't think so much they was doing with smoking mirrors. I think last night if they got more into just consistently running the ball and stop trying to have, you know, Hodges do all the passing that he was doing and, you know, targeting, you know, the best, one of the best cornerbacks in the game really wasn't, you know, the way to go. I think up until a certain point, you know, if they had ran the ball more, Connor was running the ball good.

They got a whole, you know, group of running backs over there that can run the ball well. The offensive line is doing well. I think they needed to just run a little more and stop looking for chunks. You know, he's a guy that wants chunks. I want chunks. Mike likes big plays. You don't need chunks. You need to win.

It don't, dude, style points don't matter, right? Get the win. Like, if that's, excuse me, if that's, if that's, you know, three, you know, three, four yards of, you know, running the ball in a cloud of dust, and that's what it is, you know, but have consistent, you know, good plays, stay away from the negative plays. And I think they just went to passing the ball a little too much. So New England video, once again, spy gate, deflate gate, whatever gate this is,

do you believe New England or do you think they're BSing us and they sent somebody to videotape scouts? The reason I have to believe it is because I don't think Belichick, Is that arrogant or stupid enough to actually go back in there and do that again after they went through all the other stuff that they went through? When you look at departments, you have a social media broadcast site, you know, people who's creating content, you know, stuff that is worthy for whatever it is they're doing. That's the group that was there. When you have your people that are actually football, people, operations that actually film games, those are two different people. And those two groups don't really communicate.

You know what I'm saying? So for them to know every rule is hard. Like it's no way that you could say that everybody in the organization of every NFL team that is in those areas knows every rule is not. Now this is something that everybody needs to put together and be like, especially over there and say, hey, these are the rules, you can't do this. I don't care what content you're creating. And I understand what they're saying as far as we needed to. We're getting this to get a perspective of what he's looking at, what they're looking at, because I did. something like that. And we shot for literally 10 hours. And I was literally on there for like less

than two minutes of actually showing. So they didn't use 99% of the video that we shot. It was just there just in case they thought something looked better here or there. And now you got a situation where they're actually filming a live game and you don't have time to go back and say, hey, redo that because it's a game going on. Right. So for me, I believe what they're saying, but that's not going to stop the punishment that needs to come down the pike. because you broke the rules. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You know, like I said before, if I'm driving 100 miles an hour

and the cop pulls me over, he says, why were you going 100? I say, I didn't know the speed limit. He goes not give me the ticket, no. He'll go give me the ticket and maybe take me to jail. So there's definitely going to be a punishment handed down. It's going to be harsher than what it would be for anybody else in that situation because you have a, you know, you have a record already of doing this. Were you blown away by the Cowboys last night?

Can they duplicate it? Is it sustainable? What did Jamaica that blowout win? I think that's what they need to do. I think they need to run the ball. They're supposed to have one of the best offensive lines, right? They're supposed to have the best run, one of the best running backs. You're spending your money there.

Let's run the ball and let Dak pass the ball 20, 25 times a game, giving high completion rate passes that are likely to, you know, be good for him and get the teams to where they're putting eight in the box. Now let's go ahead and get your pass out here and there. I just don't see them trying to. to win the way they've been or being able to win the way they're been trying to win with DAC passing the ball 30 and 40 times a game because he's consistently inconsistent. Yeah. No, I mean, I think when you have the best offensive line, you should,

people forget this with Troy Aikman. Troy only threw it about 24 times a game. They had Michael Irvin. They had Troy. But the reality is everything started with Emmett. They created from the very beginning of Dallas Cowboy Games, the line of scrimmage, the point of attack, we're going to own it. We're going to run the clock. Even with Troy Akeman. So I, to me, me, Dax the face of the franchise. Troy was the face of the franchise, but really the physicality started with Emmett and the physicality should, like you're saying,

start with Zeke. Right. Okay. So, Baker Mayfield was accurate and now he's not accurate. And unless you want to bail on Baker Mayfield, and I don't think Cleveland does at this point, they want to give him another year. What do you do with Freddie Kitchens? If you fire him,

that's your fourth guy in two full seasons. Your third year for Baker, head coach, interim or full time. Are you willing to make another coaching staff a new playbook, new language, or do you stick with Freddie? What was Freddie's statement about his feelings of being in there? Oh, yesterday, Freddie said, somebody asked him about his job security and he said, you know,

I want to win games. I don't care about my job security. Don't care about my job security. So up until that point, I would have held on to him one more year to see what he could do. That statement, I don't care about my job security means I need to fire you because you don't care about your job. You didn't go in there getting the job saying, hey, I don't care if I get this job, but hey, I'm here to interview for it. So that statement would make me think that if you don't care, how should my players feel? How much should they care? What should they give to this

if you don't care about your job security and being here with us for this team with something that we're trying to build? But isn't this the problem with the Browns? The Steelers are going to have Mike Tomlin and the Ravens are going to have John Harbaugh. And once again, Cleveland's on another head coach. Couldn't I make the argument just for continuity's sake? I'm just going to stay with a guy to show the league. I mean, basically you're telling the league, we give

you about a year and then we're out. You're not going to get a very good candidate, are you? Do you think their talents, they're good? I think the only way they get a very good candidate is give that candidate a very long contract something like, I'm not saying like Gruden got, but something along

those lines. Yeah, that is, you know, that's guaranteed. they're going to be, they're going to have time to try and build something in this franchise. Firing him, I don't, I would have to. I just don't like that statement. It bothers you. Yes, it bothers. And you like Cleveland's talent.

Oh, yes. On paper before the season, everybody's like, oh, Cleveland might be the winners of the division. You know, people were saying that. On paper, they look great. You know, and you got, you know, you got Odell. He's playing through injury. You know, he has been for a while, actually. So, yeah.

Let's talk about Lamar Jackson Thursday night. I think the league, I don't think mobile quarterbacks are a fad. I think offensive lines are getting worse. College is giving you more athletes at quarterback. You can only do with what college gives you. And we're seeing increasingly Carson Wentz moves and Kyler Murray moves and Russell Wilson moves. And this is what the league, Josh Allen's a great runner. The league is now giving you athletes at quarterback, so that's becoming the league.

So with Lamar, he is so unique. Is there a way, you face a mobile quarterback, is there a way to slow down the freight train? For me, personally, once he does the read option, they lose that protection. So you got a lot of guys coming in there and breaking down. When I'm going to tell my players is don't break down. If you got contained on him,

I want you to shoot at his outside leg from his hip down to his knee, and I want you to hit him. If you miss, you miss, but do not stop, do not break down. If he jumps, that gives whoever's on the other side a half second more to try and get there. If he cuts inside, that keeps inside where he should be or where you want him to be. But this is the thing. You still get to hit him because he went into the read option, which means he loses those protections. When he lose those protections, I get two, three, I get two, three steps now to hit him.

So I don't care rather he has the ball or not. When you get there, don't look for him to have a ball. I want you to hit him, tackle him, whatever it is. Because playing and play out, I'll talk to Michael Vick about this, actually, back. I said, once you start getting hit so much, you're not going to want to keep running that play. That's like when you do a fake to a running back and he goes through, and the lineback comes down and smacks him and tackles him. Those are the same thing that you could do to that quarterback now because he loses their protections once he does that play.

Guys that come in there and break down and shake with him, that's what he wants. You see plays all the time where, like the guy from Kansas City, don't break down. I want you to just shoot. So while he's trying to get you to break down, you're getting closer. Just shoot. Even if you miss, you got a 50% chance of missing anyway. Shoot. If you hit him, you get a little out.

And you get enough of them throughout the course of a game. You stop wanting to run certain things like Mike was saying. Yeah. So there's a team in the NFL. Go back to your history. I can't figure out. I am a believer. I know this sounds crazy.

that the best teams in the league are the best cultures. It's not always the best players. Most of the best cultures in the NFL, Seattle, Green Bay, New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore are cold weather cities. The warm weather cities are a mess. Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Houston Underachieves, Dallas Underachieves, Arizona, Chargers. There is something to be said about the winters are harsh, it's cold, you stay longer. The restaurants aren't open. I show the map all the time. Mason Dixon line. Only the

saints below the Mason Dixon line are really, really well run, often overachieve. And I would consider them a great, great football culture. And so when I look at the Rams and the chargers and I look at all this stuff, am I nuts on this? Like I, the L.A. Rams, I think, have to come to Jesus with Todd Gurley, either use him or move him, because you keep giving me 22 carries six, 24-11. It's my theory crazy. The colder the weather, the harsher, the NFL rewards tough guys and rewards hard and rewards punitive.

And you've got to make big tough decisions. Like Baltimore's got to let go of Joe Flacco, and the Steelers had to get let go of A-B. Do you think my theory is crazy? I won't say it's crazy. is some realness to it. I believe that teams don't actually have to practice and go through that grind, the rigors of actually going out there every day

and practicing in harsh, nasty weather. And to be honest, you, when I was in New England, like, we practiced when it was like negative 5, negative 8. Outdoors. They got an indoor facility. We're outdoors because that's what the game was going to be. That's what it called for. And even when the field froze, the field froze on us because they covered the field,

and I guess by the time they uncovered it, it was a little thin layer of water, and it froze as soon as they uncovered it. So he sent us inside on the turf. We played in the game stadium on the turf, and I'm talking, it was like negative 8. You know, the only time we went inside, it was a blizzard, and we couldn't see, and he was upset about that. How about Pittsburgh? Did you practice outdoors? Yeah, you practice outside. as long as the turf is still, well, the grass turf is still, you know,

pliable and you can dig your cleats into it. Okay, Joy. See, my theory's not nuts. Well, a lot of guys, you got guys like warm weather teams that come up there when I used to play in Pittsburgh, like San Diego, Miami. Sense it. What you mean?

They're sitting there. And they're shivering. Like, literally, they're shivering. Well, I mean, you don't spend your day. I mean, aside from the fact that you practice there, you're also living in that climate. It's not like you're like sitting outside on your front porch or anything,

but you wake up every day and you're like, you know, defrosting your car. When I played in Pittsburgh, I didn't even put on sweats until it was below 30 degrees. I went to practice with flip-flops, t-shirt, and shorts. In nine degrees. Until it got below 30, that's the only time I put on sweats. See, my, this is my theory on this league. Football rewards tough. And the NFL is a winter league and the cold weather, crappy weather.

teams that deal with weather issues. It's a hardened environment. Especially when you get home field advantage. You got it now, now you got, you got the weather that you're used to. You got a warm weather team. That's the thing I want. I want a warm weather team to come up there and, you know, get there on a Saturday. And all of a sudden, you know, they're dropped into, you know, five, 10 degrees and

the wind chill of negative something. I want them to have that because they can't, you can't get that in practice. It's part of the reason why. You can't make cold. You can make heat. Like we would go inside if we were going somewhere, and they turned the heat on, you know, and even when Bill was there, and we were playing cold, and we couldn't practice outside, we had to go inside.

He opened all the doors and turned all the fans. I'm talking about, New England. Bill Cowher. Oh, Bill Cowher. Yes. We had an indoor facility. So if we couldn't practice on a turf because it was froze, we like, you know, he's like, we're going inside.

So everybody like, yeah, yeah, we're going inside. You get in there, all the doors open the fans, blowing. It's worse in there than it is outside. That is so funny. My theory is not crazy. No, it's part of the reason why Miami usually sneaks a cold weather team towards the end of the season. Because you're used to it. Then you go down there, you've got the heat and the humidity.

Yep. Matters. Can't handle it. Good seeing you, bud. You so. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. All right, Colin. I might have been a little wrong about the Browns getting a wild card playoff spot this year. That was your big prediction. I said they'd get close. Well, the Browns are officially the only NFL franchise that will finish this decade without a winning season. Oh, my Lord.

The only team in the league? Only team in the league. Some other struggling franchises in the league right now, but not quite like the Browns. I watched this whole game yesterday. Tell you right now, James, Kyler Murray can play. Dude can play.

Yeah, he looked all right. I mean, of course, it's Cleveland, so, you know, that's a little. Well, their disappointing season continued yesterday in that 3824 loss of the Cardinals. And as you guys were just discussing, there's been a lot of speculation about if Freddie Kitchens will be let go after his first year as head coach in Cleveland. But according to Ian Rappaport, barring a horrific collapse or circumstance over the final week of the season, weeks of the season, Brown's management would stand by Kitchens and keep him as the head coach going forward. With a record of 42, 115, and one, they have the worst record in the NFL this decade. Look at the inaccuracy with Baker's throws.

Watch this. This is, he's at the 12. No, not this one. Watch the, now watch this. How is he that? There's something's not right here. He is too, and he's high on everything. Watch this.

That's not even close. That's a 23-yard throw. The thing I liked most about Baker coming into the NFL when he was drafted was that he was the most accurate thrower in college football. What happened? I don't think it's Baker Okay Whatever it is

Get a quarterback coach Because he has regressed badly It's not that he doesn't have the weapons obviously Not that Who is his quarterback coach Look at that It has to be Nobody goes

Look and see who his quarterback coach is though I think it's like a friend of something Really? Look and see, man Check it out It's not really somebody that has gotten to that position By actually earning it

earning it. Their sideline didn't look great yesterday either, and according to Mike Silver, he tweeted more follow out from the Jarvis Landry, Tyray, during the Brown's Cardinals game. I'm told by two sources that before the game ended, multiple Browns players yelled at the Arizona sideline to come get me, asking to go play for the Cardinals, and Landry, he was told, was one of those players. So it seems like it's falling apart a little bit in Cleveland. But Brown fans called, yelled and screamed at us for questioning whether Freddie Kitchen,

could put this roster in motion. Brown fans have all the answers. Of course, they're wrong consistently. Well, we talked about it earlier. I don't think it's all on Freddie Kitchens. I don't think it's all on Baker. There's a lot of circumstances that go into the Browns. But the biggest statistic is what I just read.

They are the only NFL franchise that will finish this decade without a winning season. I'm sorry, I would think it's all on the head coach. All on the head coach? Because the head coach is going to hire his stack. He's going to hire. the people who are going to do the things that he wants done. He's the one that's in that position to make him look good. I'm going to hire the people that's going to make me look good.

Does he have that power, though, or is Dorsey the one hiring those guys? Well, if that's the case, then maybe Dorsey need to go. Well, I think it's cultural because you can't have a decade of losing and it'd be all on Freddie Kitchens. Yeah, seven different coaches. Yeah. So Eli Manninglow, the Giants, to a 3620 win over the Dolphins yesterday, and it could very well be his final home start with the team

and the fans game of his standing evasion when he was taken out of the game and he got emotional about all the love he's felt from the fans over the years. New York's so soft. Well, it's just good to get a win. It's been a long stretch and a lot of ups and down, but to come out and the team that come together

and get a win, that's the most important and obviously these great fans. They were cheering all day from the first snap until the end and appreciate them always. Glad to give them a couple of Super Bowls to cheer on and appreciate them all these years. It's supporting me having our back and appreciate them coming out today

and cheering us on helping us get this win. That win got him back to a 500 career record and also snapped the Giants' nine game. Losing streak. I thought this was a very nice moment. I disagree. I do not think New York is soft. I think New York is real.

He won a Super Bowl. He won two Super Bowls and was a Super Bowl MVP twice. I will take that any day. Please. Please come do that. Yes. What do you mean? I mean he had a Hall of Fame career.

He deserved. that send-off. They benched Eli. I did not think that they should bench Eli for Gino Smith. Absolutely not. He had a game starting streak of 210 games started before that. That's third all-time.

Farv is number one and Philip Rivers is number two. If Brady threw four interceptions and Belichick benched him, New England would be like, yeah, get out of here. New York, I mean, God, it just... I mean, ungrateful. I honestly was offended. I was offended. They were booing him the other night. I was offended.

You have to appreciate the winning when you have it. Finally, I was sad about this. Raiders did not get the win they so desperately won in their last home game in Oakland. They blew a 13-point halftime lead to fall to 20 to 16 to the Jags. After the game, Gruden thanked the fans and apologize for not sending them off with a win. I'd like to thank the fans. I'd like to thank the city of Oakland for supporting the Raiders and being faithful in all kinds of seasons. And I'll miss them. I love them. And I'm sorry about the outcome today. But I think that's

something that needs to be said, an exclamation pointed. But I really apologize. We weren't able to deliver a victory. Yeah, Oakland fans were not happy after that game. Derek Carr got booed. Yeah. Yes, he did get booed. They also threw trash on the field. There were some fighting in the stands. I mean, look, I can't be mad at them. Oakland, like I feel bad for Oakland. They move the Warriors out of Oakland. Now they're losing the Raiders again. So losing that fashion, your last game in the Coliseum is, it's rough.

And then look, like, obviously the Raiders wanted to win that game, not just in general because they want to win, but also for the fans. It's just disappointing. But it was not a happy scene in Oakland yesterday after that game. New stadium is not going to have parking or a black hole crowd opportunity in the stadium. It's going to be different. It will be different. I think it will be successful, but it's just going to be different.

Yeah, enjoy it with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Saints hosting the Colts on Monday Night Football tonight. Of course, the Saints are at home. They play all their games at home. That's the new NFL rule.

They sent them to Seattle for a couple hours, then got them back home. Saints will play the Colts tonight. Colts, by the way, are going to draft a quarterback. Should be noted. You know they are. They like Jacoby Brissette, but from Andrew Luck to this, they sign. should.

They're another one. I think we're going to have six teams draft a quarterback in the first round. Everybody's telling me three. I think it's going to be six. Three? Cincinnati's going to draft a quarterback. Miami's going to draft a quarterback. I think Indianapolis is going to draft a quarterback.

Washington? I should. Not sure if they will. Well, the only reason we're not sure if they will is because it's Washington. Chargers. I think Detroit should think about it. Jacksonville should think about it. I'm at seven.

I mean, well, Chicago might not. I'll tell you the tough one is. Tampa. I mean, I'm over James Winston. I'm over it. But bro is totally productive. I mean, you know, people put their arms around Phillip Rivers. James Winston throws more interceptions before 115 Eastern than any quarterback. He always starts with a bad pick. And then he had 450 yards again this week. It's unexplainable. He's just a lot of stuff. Yeah. You ever gone to a crazy Christmas party? And it's just, I went to a party, a Christmas party one time, and they had open bars and they had celebrities and they had employees that were a little inappropriately romantic

and then they had a band from the 70s and then they had a jazz band and I remember walking out saying that party had just noise. They were doing the most. It was just they over-ordered on everything. There was a seafood corner, a state corner, a hot dog corner. That's James Winston. It's just, it's everything. I get fumbles and picks and touchdowns and. great plays and horrible plays.

You know, it's crazy what James Winston does. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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,

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. 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 Slicleaf 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. Tript 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'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 Hard Way. Open your free, Our Heart Radio app. Search learn the hard way and listen now. 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 walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office, Blue, 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano, 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 Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. man, 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. 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. Well, we call it the three-word game. We can describe dating back to last Thursday's games every NFL game in three words, best for last. Three-word game. Here we go. Let's start with the Jets and the Ravens. Lamar makes history. 86 rushing yards to pass Michael Vick for the most rushing yards by any one quarterback in a single season.

And he's going to add to it. Unlike Vic, this coaching staff all in and has built an offense centered around his unique offensive bursts and dynamic athleticism. Texans Titans, Music City Misery. God, you could see it coming from a mile away. Just when the Titans thought they had it, the Texans come in off a horrible loss and beat them. Titans' four-game winning streak is over, and the Titans were shut out in the first half,

a dud in their biggest game of the year. Patriots bingles, roll the tape. Belichick, Brady, no comment on SpyGate 2.0. They clinched a playoff berth. 11th straight playoff season for the Patriots and NFL record. They didn't comment on Jake Glazer's videotape that appeared to have two Patriot employees stammering. Bucks Lions, classic James Winston. So he's second in the NFL with 30 touchdown passes, but leads the NFL in interceptions.

He's a better road quarterback than a home quarterback. Sunday, 4 TDs, 460 yards, 125 passer rating. You just get everything with James Winston as he carved up the Lions. Bears Packers, by, bye, brisky, Trubisky, by, Biskey. Listen, Chicago's out. We knew they would be out. This team won a division last year on Smoking Mirrors from Matt Nagy, who's a great offensive coordinator.

Listen, Green Bay on script took a lead. Trubisky was on the field, did nice things. But at the end of the game, last two big drives, couldn't do anything. you cannot long-term dominate divisions with an average quarterback, and that's what Trubesky is, good kid average quarterback. Broncos Chiefs Frosty the Snow Mahomes. Okay, that's bad. Patrick Mahomes this year is completing 66% of his throws.

In the worst weather of the year against perhaps the best defensive coordinator he's face, Vic Fangio, he completed 80% of his throws. Again, I'm not sure you'd land a small plane in that. Travis Kelsey had 11 catches. Tyreek Hill had a couple of touchdowns. Mahalms was as accurate as he's been all year. The Windbreaker team played in a blizzard and looked incredibly efficient. Dolphins Giants, Eli's last stand, nine-game losing streak snapped.

Eli gets back to 117, 117 in his career. Eagles, Redskins. Wentz with nothing. Philadelphia was missing Nelson Aguilar, running back Jordan Howard, Lane Johnson, Alshon Jeffrey, Darren Sprouls, Corey Clement, an offensive tackle, Jordan Melada. And they won.

And again, late, Wence carries a bunch of unheard-of wide receivers, a rookie wide receiver from Stanford, and a bunch of tight ends do a win. I'll say it again. Wence is a remarkable talent, and this team's been an injury-riddled mess, but I would, look at that throw. God, is that a throw?

That is a cannon. Seahawks Panthers, don't at me. Russell Wilson now ties Tom Brady for the most wins through a quarterback's first eight years. He's never had a great offensive line. His running game's been hit and miss. Used to have a great defense, doesn't have it now. He's my MVP. He's my MVP.

O-line, 31st in pass blocking. I know he's not as fast as Lamar. Valuable? This guy does more with less than any quarterback in the NFL. Brown's Cardinals, better Oklahoma quarterback. Kyler this year with fewer weapons, much higher completion percentage, much higher passer rating, and a significantly better temperament to play the position.

Jags Raiders, fitting Raider end. led 16-3 at halftime, and then were outscored 17-0, and the fans booed Derek Carr as he left the field. Vikings Chargers, seven freaking turnovers? Philip Rivers has thrown 11 picks in five games. You can't be unathletic and turnover-prone, brutal. Rams Cowboys found the formula? Dallas had a season high in first downs, points, and rushing yards.

took a while, but this is what they should be. Physical at the point of attack. So were Aikman's Cowboys with Emmett Smith. Falcons Niners, upon further review, last two plays of the Falcons went to replay. The first one I thought was a touchdown to Austin Hooper. They said it wasn't. The second one to Julio Jones looked like a touchdown,

and they said it was to Julio Jones. Can you imagine if they wouldn't have given them either. That would have been remarkable. And finally, Bill Steelers, 10-win bills. Ugly, but I love watching them play. First 10-win season since 1999, well-coached, playmaker at quarterback,

second in the league in total defense. Congrats to the Bill's Mafia. 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. Last night, a blown call, changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the

noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo's Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys?

This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano.

It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was funny. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog.

You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.