The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 1 - AFC, Seahawks, Cowboys, Rodgers

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

Order has been restored in the AFCThe Seahawks keep getting worse every yearThe Cowboys are good enough to win the Super BowlAaron Rodgers and the Packers are better togetherGuest: Jimmy Johnson Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on a packed Monday morning. It's the hurt. Wherever you may be. However you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, one hour from now, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, plenty of both. I got Jimmy Johnson on the show today. day. Ron Rivera, coach of the Washington football team that not only toppled but hammered Tom Brady.

Joy Taylor is joining me. Well, I'm at a point now where I go into weekends. I swear, just take underdogs. About eight of them, take underdogs, road dogs. My lions almost pulled it off in the ugliest game of the year. We had two really, really interesting examples of football to like explain to the aliens. Like if you watch this Ravens Dolphins game or the Steelers Lions game, don't judge the whole sport by these performances. The aliens would go, you people like this stuff. They were, they were interesting.

Although I think the Dolphins definitely at least got away with the Ws, so they're happy with that. Yeah. So let's talk about the first half of the NFL season and the AFC. It was like the parents, the grown-ups left for the first half, and the kids took over the house. There was white claws everywhere. Like the Bengals rolled Baltimore in Baltimore, and the Raiders had an interim coach,

and they were winning, and the Chargers were winning close games, and the Cleveland Browns looked smart and efficient, and were really good on both sides of the ball. And the parents were out of town, and oh, oh, uh-oh, the grown-ups just showed up. Oh, the SUV pulled in. The parents are here, and they brought some friends with them. Bill Belichick, Andy Reed, Mike Vrable, and Sean McDermott. You know, playoff coaches, they're back. Hide the white claws.

The grownups are back. Andy Reid's got his offense with him. Belichick's got his defense with him. Vrable's got his smarts and presence with him. And McDermott's got Josh Allen with him. The grownups are back. Let's start with New England. Baker Mayfield now has a third injury.

He's never been a big athlete, small for the position. His coaching staff does not trust. him only 21 attempts. That's obvious. And unless everything is perfect, if he's missing a running back or a right tackle, can we stop the debate if Baker Mayfield's an elite quarterback? The answer is no. Next question, please. This was a moment. I said this two months ago. Baker's going to be judge on these games against Mack Jones and Justin Herbert. So far against those two, he's Owen two. He's got a great O line, the coach of the year, top three roster, excellent pass rush. And Baker right now, is 500 for the year.

He's 27 and 27 in his career, and his passer rating is below Teddy Bridgewater this season. There you go. That's what Baker Mayfield is. Teddy Bridgewater. Oh, my bet, a little lower. Case Keenham came in yesterday, had more passing yards than Baker. Can we stop now?

Can we stop debating it? I won the argument. They may still make the playoffs. The roster's fantastic, but stop blaming OBJ. You can't blame the coach. That's what they always do in Cleveland. It's always the coach's fault. He won coach of the year last year.

In a passing league, in a quarterback league, when you don't quite have it right like Kansas City, you need your quarterback to step up and make it right. And Baker's not talented enough to do that. New England, meanwhile, here they are again. They look like New England with Brady three years ago. Maybe not a Super Bowl team. I'm not sure I'd count them out yet.

Mac Jones has been terrific. They hit on most of their draft picks. Christian Barmore from Alabama on the front is excellent. Mack Jones from Alabama. Ramondre Stevenson, the running back from Oklahoma is outstanding. So much like the Steelers did with their offensive picks, it looks like New England hit on their picks. They're infused with a little youth. The defense is back.

The coaching is brilliant. No freebies when time of possession and derail average quarterbacks, which is now what Baker Mayfield is. now let's talk Belichick and the SUV pulled into the driveway and Andy Reid got out back let's talk about the Kansas City Chiefs they were a little loose

things weren't firing and so what happens well Andy Reid's real smart Patrick Malm's real smart Steve Spagnola defensive coordinator's real smart and smart people eventually figured crap out and this offense for Kansas City that just net we kept saying

they're winning they're beating the teams they should Giants Eagles, Washington football team, but it's not pretty, but we said they're winning. You got to give them credit for that. We said that Friday. They're winning games. And they'll get it right because Andy Reid's smart and he always eventually gets it right. And last night, against the Raiders, they got it right.

And it was real clever. They were clever without being too cute. They went through the ball to running backs more. Let's get the stuff. Let's get our guys in space. It was tight ends. It was running backs. Let's not go crazy.

We got plenty of talent. here. Let's get them the ball. In fact, Darrell Williams was their leading receiver in terms of catches. And that's what they did. You could see it very early. Let's simplify the offense. Let's get the ball to tight ends in running backs and Travis Kelsey. Let's not be as home run driven. Let's not be as cute. Let's be smart. And a smart DC and a smart head coach and a smart quarterback took a deep breath. We're patient and the chiefs are back. Listen, it was a really adorable first half in the AFC, the Chargers were winning close games, the Bengals and the Browns and the Raiders. But the grownups are back. Patrick Mahomes after last night's impressive win.

Michelle came up to me and showed me this video with this kid and he was saying, I got my swagger back. And so that was something that was kind of my motto this week. And I think the whole team kind of got that swag back. And we're going to try to keep that thing rolling. That was like the mojo, the video of the week. Yes, it was. So Kansas City's right. The world's right in the middle of the country.

Belichick's defense is back. Once again, Tennessee inartistically wins another game. They've won six straight. Vrabels 3721 is a head coach. And Sean McDermott, to me, as good as any young coach in football, not named Sean McVeigh, Sean McDermott and Josh Allen look like they're fine. AFC. Order has been restored in the AFC.

All right. Let's talk Seahawks. and the Packers. By the way, it was weird. In the morning, it looked like a blizzard. By the night, it was beautiful. I don't know how they do it there. They're used to clean snow up because that looked fantastic.

So both quarterbacks, Aaron Rogers and Russell Wilson were rusty. Aaron had COVID. We've seen multiple players get COVID. They're not the same for a week or two. Russell Wilson been out. So they weren't good. They weren't great. So what did you see when the quarterbacks weren't great?

Well, from Green Bay, you saw a really well-run organization that does multiple things well and can win when their star quarterback isn't great. Remember I said before the season Green Bay's offensive line? This would be the worst. Oh, okay, we're eight games into the season. They're back to being very good. That's what Green Bay does. Patriots and Packers rebuild offensive lines. They've got depth that tied end. Lost their best tight end. Oh, they got a bunch of them. A. Running back Aaron Jones has hurt. Oh, AJ Dillon's good. Defense. This is the best Packer defense since the Super Bowl year to me. And they're still don't have Jaira Alexander, their best corner. Maybe the game's

best corner. Green Bay, when Aaron Rogers is not great, can be physical now. They can win with defense. They can run the football. They can play power football. They can still be pretty, Devante and Aaron. But when the quarterback wasn't right, Green Bay, and this is why I've said about Aaron Rogers, be careful about leaving. They draft well, they develop really well. Aaron's not good. Packers still win. Russell Wilson wasn't good either. And what did you see? A mess, a 70-year-old head coach that has the 31st ranked defense, and he's a defensive head coach. Seattle is just increasingly getting worse every year and more desperate. The play calling is predictable. None of their three draft picks have any impact. They have a safety in Jamal Adams, who's a terror against the run,

but can't cover in space. It's a poorly kept secret that Russell Wilson's frustrated. D.K. Metcalf, who's talented, is unhinged. What a shock. As Greg Olson told us, former Seahawk on this show, Pete runs a loose ship, players get unhinged, they get noisy. This is what they are. They're not good at anything beyond Russell Wilson.

So when Russell struggles, what do they go to? And by the way, we've seen Mahalm's struggle, Josh Allen struggle, Aaron Rogers struggle. Folks, everybody struggles. Everybody. Brady yesterday struggled. off a buy. So when your quarterback's not right, for whatever reason, he's sick, it's COVID, he's injured,

he's off, it's a pass rush. What else did you got? What's your second pitch? The Seahawks don't have one. They feel outdated on both sides of the football. I've been saying this for years. I'm not a backseat driver on this. I'm sitting in the front seat, been standing it for two years.

What do they do when Russell's not good? Nothing. So last night's an example is when the quarterback's not. on. Can you still win? Green Bay does a bunch of stuff right. And they're not even healthy on the defensive side. Seattle with a defensive head coach, 31st in total defense. It gets worse every year. Go look at their last six drafts. Wifts all over the place. Last four drafts, they've hit on two players. D.K. Metcalfe on Hinge last night and a punter. Just telling you, this is what we've been on now for years. You've got to be able to win when your great quarterback,

isn't great on Sunday. Green Bay, no problem. Seattle can't score. There you go. And it's getting worse and more desperate in the drafting. Cowboys look fantastic. Colin right, calling wrong. Jimmy Johnson stops by as well. And I am not somebody, I'm not a fire a coach guy. I've never have been. All you guys wanted Brian Kelly fired five years ago at Notre Dame. I'm like, are you out of your minds? That's a hard place. to coach in 2020. Y'all wanted Jim Harbaugh fired, right? You all want Jim Harbaugh fired.

If he wins one more game this year, it'll be his fourth 10-win season. Y'all want Sark fired. Everybody wants every coach fired. Now, Dan Mullen and Florida, you want fired. He's won two out of three games in the SEC. What are you doing? I'm not a fire, a coach guy. That's not my thing.

I never have been. But Pete 70, it's getting worse. The trend is down. Russell's not into him. And Russell, it's a poorly kept secret. is going to leave if things don't change. He wants an offensive, progressive coach. That was ugly last night.

All right, we got a lot of stuff today. Jimmy Johnson this hour. Trent Dill for next hour. There are no normal Sundays in the NFL. There's no normal Saturdays either, by the way, which is why we love this sport. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific

on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only league. but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast.

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Not kidding, wearing them today. Designed for comfort and performance business shoe with an athletic soul. Soul Wolf and Shepherd.com. Jimmy Johnson, the Hall of Fame around the corner. So what I'm about to say, I have not said many times in the last decade to 15 years doing this. I've been doing this for about 20 years, but I do feel like the Dallas Cowboys are capable of winning the Super Bowl. and I watched them yesterday and I had said last week, just bury the tape on the Broncos.

That's not who they are. We've watched them for seven, eight weeks. We know what they are. It's a bad Sunday. It's the new normal in the NFL. Something weird or three or four things weird happen every weekend. Dallas has a couple of things going for it. Let's start with number one.

They have multiple playmakers. You can't ask your coaches to coach perfect every weekend and can't ask your team to play perfect. It's hard. you have injuries. You need playmakers sometimes. You just get your Ws. Dak and Randy Gregory and Micah Parsons and Trayvon Diggs and C.D. Lamb and Amari Cooper and Zeke. This team has seven or eight special players. Maybe the coaching's off. Maybe you've got injuries. Maybe Dax's off a little. The schedule's tough. You get a bad officiating break.

You just can't ask your coaches and your team to be perfect every Sunday. Sometimes you just need playmakers. And Dallas has about seven guys who I think are special. And they're sprinkled all over the football team. Linebacker, corner, pass rusher, wide receiver, quarterback, running back. Number two is I think the Cowboys are built for football in 2021. A, they're great at skill positions. Some Sundays, you get into a track meet. Okay, you just got to be able to score.

And they can. Secondly, they have good pass rushers. We haven't even seen DeMarcus Lawrence return this year. And sometimes you're facing, you know, you're facing a Matt Stafford and Sean McVeigh, or you're facing an Aaron Rogers, you just need a pass rush to even things out. So they can throw it and they can get after your quarterback. The other thing is sometimes you need breaks to get to a Super Bowl. Listen, there's luck involved in everything, right?

They've gotten some breaks this year. San Francisco and Seattle are a little bit of a mess. Brady and Tampa are lost offensively. Kyler Murray is banged up again, second year in a row, and the Rams have lost Cam Acres and now Robert Woods for the year. And they cross their fingers on OBJ, learning the system quickly and staying healthy. I also think it's key for Dallas is that they're balanced. And this is important because if you lead, if you're too past-centric and you get a lead

and you want to kill the clock, it can be difficult. It's not difficult. Dallas has Pollard and Zeke. They get a lead. They want to eat eight minutes. They can go to the ground. they can keep it running. Or Dallas trails late and they got to play catch up and score fast.

They have the requisite wide receiver, tight end, running back talents. So the balance and the playmakers, they've got some breaks. I think they're built for current football. They're fast. They're athletic. I think it jumps off the television. And if you look at their schedule, they are still very much to me at 7 and 2 in the hunt for the number one seed. Look at their schedule going forward.

It really plays to the Cowboys. Now, they have at Kansas City next, that's a toughie. But even if you see that as an L, I get the Raiders, I get Trevor Simeon, Taylor Heineckee, Daniel Jones, Taylor Heineckee, Home Against Arizona, Jalen Hertz. Those are not, we view right now, elite quarterbacks, and you have one. You go in with an elite quarterback, you face a non-year-old. non-elite quarterback, there's usually a reason you're favored. So I think this Dallas team is real.

I haven't said this much in 10 years. Dak Prescott talked about the blowout win over Atlanta yesterday. Yeah, a resilient team, a team that's very aware of what we're capable of. And as I said, I don't want to say last week was, last week just wasn't us. And everybody in that locker room knows that. And it left a bad taste in our mouth. And I think it's a taste that we need, as I said, to understand that. how tough this game is, but tonight just showed that when we focus in, we take it one play at a time, when our heart and our minds are where our feet are, we're capable of doing some great things. Yep, good football team. Again, not saying a favorite, but you need some playmakers, you need some breaks, you need some balance. I watched Dallas. It's first time in a long time. I see it. Joy Taylor with the News. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News.

Well, a lot happened yesterday. A lot. One of the things that happened was Cam Newton was on the field for the Panthers. Well, we thought he would bring energy. He did. He did. Well, he brought more than that. And he spoke about his emotions he was feeling following the game. Well, I put it like this.

This time last week, I was eating a bowl of cereal. Like, you feel me? So I told Coach Ruehler would never happen again and it wouldn't. That wasn't on me. But yet, I mean, I was eating cereal last week. You know what I mean? So that just puts things to perspective. I'm back.

His first snap of the game led to a two-yard rushing touchdown for Cam. And then he proceeded to rip his helmet off and yell, I'm back, and got a penalty for that because you're not allowed to take your helmet off. But regardless, it was a fun moment, and we're showing it here. Ian Rabbitport said this morning, the Panthers would like to start Cam as soon as he's ready. Adam Schaefter said that Matt Ruhl will give Cam Noon most of the first team reps in practice this week, which would place him in line to start Sunday against the Washington football team. they host Washington and are currently three-point favorites, according to Fox Webb.

I think honestly I said this. If Sam Darnold didn't turn the ball over, which he didn't in the first month, it's a playoff team. It's a lower-end playoff team. I mean, I really believe that. I think Matt Ruhl's smart. I think the front seven's excellent. I really like their defensive personnel, most of it young.

They can run the football. No star receivers, but good receivers. When Darnold wasn't turning it over, they were winning. If Cam doesn't turn it over, I feel like this personnel, this is a bottom- playoff team, a eight and nine team, a nine and eight team. I mean, how many wins they have now? Five? Well, they are, this is the rest of their schedule. So they are five and five right now.

Yes, that feels like, again, look at, I got a Miami in there. I got, these are winnable games. They can't split with Tampa. They have Washington this week, at the dolphins, then they have a buy. Then the Falcons, at the Bills, against the Bucks and at the Saints and at the bucks. Listen, our thing last week on Cam was, well, it's better than what they have. And if you look at Darnold and Cam, the similarity between the two is they're athletic.

Neither we consider great throwers, elegant throwers of the football. But there's a recipe for them to win. Quarterback, get you in the 20s, don't turn the ball over. When Darnold didn't, they won. Cam comes in, just be efficient. This team is not led by the quarterback. It's led by the defense. Like we say with Cleveland, they're led by the O line.

Cam can win you games with this roster. I mean, they put up a lot of points yesterday. They were a very capable team, which is why they brought Cam in because they don't want to bail on the rest of the season just because they're in the quarterback situation that they're in, which is exactly why I always felt like Cam was going to get a job this year because we see this all the time. There's always a point about midseason where there's an unfortunate injury

or someone has gone off a cliff, and it's a borderline playoff team or someone that feels like they need to continue trending in that direction. and they're too good to just say, whatever, let's just give up the rest of the season and try and get a better draft position. They're not going to do that. That's not what they're building here. That's not what they are.

So it's a perfect situation. We'll see what Cam does for the rest of the season. But it was an exciting moment yesterday because this is not something any of us thought we were going to see if he did come back, but it's not going to be with the Panthers or potentially Washington football team because that's where Ron Rivera is.

And there he is, back with Carolina. Oh, the Patriots are good again. Yeah. So I hope you enjoyed that couple of months. They beat the Browns 45 to 7. Two games this year, I just my jaw dropped. Denver going to Dallas and destroying the Cowboys. And Cleveland, I think as a better roster, that game was never competitive.

That was like a jaw dropper for me. I never saw that coming. Yeah, this was a stinker. This was a stinker. This was really bad. Following the game, Mac Explan. why they've been able to string together a series of strong performances after, you know, starting a little shaky. I think just practice, just doing the little things right.

I think here we do a good job every week of preparing for what we want. And it just comes down to practice execution, becoming game reality. And when we practice well, we play well. And when we don't practice well, usually we don't play as well. So it's pretty much that simple. And we just have to keep doing that. He is so Brady at the podium. He doesn't say anything, but the coaches are probably like, perfect.

Yeah, I was thinking driving in this morning, just, you know, because we're at that point now. We're really starting to evaluate how these rookie quarterbacks are looking in their situations. And look, we felt that Mack went to the best situation. Oh, yeah. Because he did go to the best situation. By far. That's not even arguable. And you could argue that Tray Lance went to a good situation too, but he wasn't supposed to be the starter.

week one. Now, that's going to end up being a discussion at the end of the year as well, but he's doing what's being asked of him. Yes. It's not the simplest place to play. No. There's plenty of pressure coming in for a rookie quarterback. No one in, and the Patriots fans

don't care that he's a rookie. And by the way, he is making throws over the last couple weeks. I don't think he made in the first couple weeks. Like, he made a throw over the middle yesterday. So, so again, let's be patient is that he's growing into the system. But I do think, not that they're dialing up more stuff,

but he has a real relationship now with Hunter Henry. Like that's developed into a real relationship. And he did. Listen, he got a great coach. He got a great coordinator. He got a capable O line. And I'll say this, this New England defense, Bill does such a good job with the back end.

And now Baramore, the rookie from Alabama. They hit on a lot of draft picks this year. It's also a strong culture. and a good ownership. And it was his team from day one. That's the reason that Cam is in Carolina now. There is some value to, okay, so it's going to be a little rough start. It's going to be a little bumpy.

But we've got to ride through it and let him develop. You took him for a reason. Lean into what he does well. Support him in that. Don't ask him to do things that are outside of the scope of what he's capable of right now. And he's doing all that. And none of this is to marginalize him. He's playing great.

He is. There is no like by this rookie whatever. Like they are performing. Yesterday it was the best quarterback in the field. He made the toughest throws. He was the best quarterback in the field. And there's six and four now. They're second in the AFCs.

I mean, this is a good Scoundhog Day. This is what we live in in the AFCEs. They face Atlanta on Thursday nights and are currently six point favorites, according to Fox Bet, which is going to be a really interesting game. Because Atlanta is a capable team despite what happened yesterday. So also, the bucks lost to the Washington football team yesterday. It's 29 to 19. Off a bye. Off a bye. And Coach Bruce Ariens thinks they need to start looking deeper for the answers.

It's very alarming to watch the energy that we practice with and show up with the lack of execution and energy that takes the winning in this league on Sunday. We got a lot of soul searching to do. Energy and passion is very fixable. You know, the penalties, they got to get corrected sooner or later. I mean, first play of the game, we're shifting and we jump off sides. I mean, they don't even run a play and we jump off sides. That's just the stupidity has to go away if we're going to go anywhere. You don't often hear coaches use the word stupidity in a press conference, but that just kind of shows the frustration. They've committed 65 penalties for 623 yards this season. That's the third most penalty yards by any team this season. They had 11,

two weeks ago, against New Orleans and a loss. Brady only completed three. passes for more than 20 yards. He was intercepted twice. And the Washington football team, while they had a great defense last year, is ranked 30th in past defense this year. So they've really been struggling. So this was a very, this was a bad game, obviously, for the Bucks, but also had some bad news for Washington football team. We're still waiting to get the MRI result on Chase Young, but they are fearing that he suffered a torn ACL, so we're watching that throughout the day. And the Bucks host the Giants next Monday night. They're currently 11-5-point favorites, according to Foxxbet. But that will be a big game for them.

Yeah. Good stuff, Joy, with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. College Football National Championship, a couple of Super Bowls, one of the great coaches of my life. Fox Sports NFL analyst,

the Hall of Fame or two, Jimmy Johnson. We get him about once a month, and we always savor these. So, you know, it's funny. We said last week that this league's hard. Even when you had Aikman, it's hard. You show up on the road, the weather's crappy, you got right tackles hurt.

But it was funny. I said, you know, the chiefs were ugly, but they were beating Washington, Philadelphia, the Giants. I mean, even in your career, my thing is there's value in just getting out of town and getting a win. And then I felt last night, I'm like, okay, okay, now this is the team. Jimmy, talk about, you know Andy Reid well, talk about the course of a season. And like even with your great cowboy teams, you get into these. these three and four week stretches where it's just not right? Well, first of all, Colin, the last couple of years with the Cowboy teams, it was right every week.

We really didn't have that many problems. But as far as the Chiefs, you know, a lot of their problems, you know, came early in that everybody was playing a shell, too deep coverage, and, you know, Mahomes wanted to take the ball, do the top and get the big explosive plays and wasn't really satisfied with the underneath routes and running the football. And what ended up happening is they had a tremendous amount of turnovers and a lot of those turnovers were on tip balls. And so a lot of times with turnovers, you know, if you're not normally a turnover team, it'll even out over the year. And, you know, I think as long as they protect the football, you know, they're going to be able

to outscore most of the teams that they play. And they've got to be somewhat patient. They can't go for the explosive play down after down. Yeah, I noticed last night, Jimmy, a lot of throws to the running backs, a lot of throws to the tight ends. It was almost as if they said, guys, we're getting too cute. That's what it felt like to me. What did it feel like to you?

Yeah, that's kind of what I used to tell Michael Irvin on the one-handed catches. I said, don't be pretty, be good. And so I said, hey, if you can reach it with one hand, you can reach it with two hands. You know, be good. Don't be pretty. Right. But, you know, you started, they started off the game last night, and Kelsey was the number one receiver, all underneath routes. And, you know, the Raiders couldn't, you know, couldn't cover Kelsey.

Then they'd go to the running backs. And so they were able to take a lot of the underneath routes. And, you know, that opened up the whole offense for them. I said when Mack Jones came out, I mean, Joy and I said, he's getting the best place to go. Great coach, great coordinator, good, we knew that. I didn't see him as a dynamic kind of athlete off script, but this was going to be, I thought he would look the best early. But I got to tell you, made some throws yesterday, Jimmy.

The last, since the second half of the Houston game, he really is feet are, I mean, he looks calm. He looks, are you surprised at all by how good he is this early? Yeah, you knew the team was going to get better. And, you know, you knew that the defense was going to be solid. You know, Bill brought in some defensive guys that really helped them. And so they've got a solid defense. So he's going to get plenty of opportunities with the defense stopping the opponent. But he did make some outstanding throws.

You know, the throw across the middle, he threaded it right between two defenders. I mean, you know, that's a great throw right there for the touchdown. He had a nice touch, you know, throwing the ball not only on the middle, but over here on the corner route. You know, that's a nice touch. That's not an easy pass to complete. But, you know, he did it in college. He's doing it for Belichick. And I think the other thing, too, is as this year has gone on, you know, he's calmed down a little bit.

You know, he's playing with a lot more confidence. He understands what Belichick wants from him. You know, just protect the football. Don't turn it over. And to make those throw. And the other thing, too, he's getting outstanding protection because he's getting rid of the football so quick. You know, almost like when Brady was there, you didn't hit Brady because he got rid of the football. Well, that's what's happening with Mack Jones.

And Josh McDaniels has done an outstanding job with his rookie quarterback. You know, I was saying this earlier. You can't ask your coaches to coach perfectly and you can't ask your team to play perfectly. The one thing Dallas has is they've got some playmakers and they're sprinkled around to different units. and I look at them, Jimmy, and it's the first time, you know, it feels like the beginning of your Cowboys years where you're like, oh, they need a sack. They got a guy that can get one. Oh, they need a big play over the top. That's what I see through the television.

This is an athletic team with playmakers. What do you see? Yeah, they've got some great players. I think if you look at the starting lineup on offense and defense, there is talented, if not more, talented than anybody in the league. Sometimes they get in trouble when they have some injuries, you know, because, you know, the bottom half of the roster may not be as talented as some other teams. But as far as the star players, the playmakers, as you say,

they've got some great players in the starting lineup on both sides of the ball. And they're not just good players. You know, when I looked at players coming out in the draft, I wanted individuals that, you know, I called them playmakers. because it might be an offensive guard that always makes the key block. It might be an undersized defensive end. It's only 245 pounds, and everybody calls him a tweener. But he has strip sacks, he has the touchdowns, he has the interceptions,

ends up being an MVP, defensive MVP of the league and a whole of famer. You know, I wanted playmakers, guys that made play. I was looking at defensive backs one year, and they had one. One defensive back, everybody said, hey, he is the top defensive back in the league. But, you know, people didn't throw against him, and so he didn't have a whole lot of interceptions, didn't have a lot of pass breakups. Well, instead, I took Kevin Smith, who led, you know, set a record for interceptions at Texas A&M.

He also returned punts. You know, he was a playmaker. Ended up being a great player for us with the Cowboys. I wanted guys that touched the football that made things happen. Yeah. I was a little surprised by kind of the apathy. of the Buccaneers off a buy. And, you know, I mean, like everybody in Tampa this year got paid.

They got a ring. You know, I mean, it does feel like they're just not, the urgency isn't there. That's what I see. Off a buy. Well, I don't know about urgency. They had a bunch of injuries with their defensive backfield. And, you know, they like to play man coverage. So that's a problem playing man coverage when you have a bunch of hurt defensive backs.

The other thing is, you know, they didn't have, you know, somebody to take the top off the defense as far as Antonio Brown. They didn't have Tom Brady's favorite receiver, Grunkowski. So you take away two of his best receivers, the leading receiver with Antonio Brown and with Gronk, you take those two away. The big surprise Washington was able to set on all those underneath routes. You know, they surprised me because they've been so poor defensively in the secondary. that people have, you know, they couldn't stop anybody on third down. Well, they changed that yesterday. They played well on third down against the Buccaneers.

And so I think the big thing with Tampa right now is the injuries have caught up with them. Now, if they get some of those players back, you know, I think there's still going to be a force in the playoffs. Finally, OBJ to the Rams, Robert Woods out. OBJ's had about three practices. and I will say this about OBJ. Rams do a lot of 11 personnel. You can probably do some more things with OBJ, be a little creative with him.

Do you think he has an impact with this offense? Yeah, I think OBJ will be a contributor, I think mainly because of Sean McVeigh. He is such a good football coach at utilizing his talent. The problem was Robert Woods did so many things for him, blocking, crossing routes. He was the slot receiver. Well, OBJ is not the slot receiver.

That doesn't mean that he can't play in the slot, but it's going to be something different for him. I don't know that McVeigh is going to use him there. You know, he's an outside receiver. I think McVeigh will use him. I think he will have some big plays. But losing Robert Woods was more major than what people may think. It's not just a matter of OBJ replacing Robert Woods.

That's not going to happen. Yeah, by the way, you bring up a great point. Robert Woods was a great blocking receiver. He did everything. The tough catches, the blocking sweeps on and on. Robert Woods was a great player for him. Losing him's going to hurt. Jimmy, it's great seeing you go out and go fishing today.

You're on your own now. All right, Colin, good talking with you. All right, the Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson on a Monday. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mather, along with my trusty sidekick, David Gascon, would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name is the fifth hour? I'll tell you, it's a spinoff of the Ben Mather show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.

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A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

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our heart radio app, search Learn the Hardway, and listen now. Great to have you in on a Monday. So I was watching it was, the games you didn't think would be great, were great, and the Packer Seahawks was a snooze,

and Aaron Rogers didn't play particularly well. Russell Wilson did not either, but Aaron really does. One of the things I always try to think about, it doesn't really matter what I think. Ultimately, what is your locker room thing? I understand my place in the media.

I have opinions. I observe. And I, you know, there are people I like, people I don't. But I have no real influence. Obviously, the players, you know, players like Cam. So Cam works. I think he's a marginal quarterback. But players like him.

He gives teams energy he did yesterday. And so Aaron Rogers may not be loved by the media, but he totally has Green Bay under his thumb. You can't replace Aaron Rogers with Jordan Love. You can't. The gap is just too big. I mean, honestly, if Baker left and Case took it for a year, you'd be okay. Baker's better, but you could be okay.

You can't replace Aaron with Jordan Love. And Green Bay is terrified to be irrelevant like they were in the 80s. It's all they have. They are terrified to be irrelevant. And what trade package could you really get for Aaron right now that would seem reasonable? The league is now more quarterback dependent than ever. It is not a market that gets free agents. So you better have a great quarterback.

quarterback because you're not going to go out and get a great wide receiver or running back in free agency. That's not what Green Bay is. You got to be great at quarterback in Green Bay. And you got to draft him and develop them like Farvin Aaron Rogers. And also, Green Bay doesn't need a lot of draft picks because they don't have any holes except quarterback if they got rid of Aaron Rogers. It's a really well-built team. They're not bad anywhere. It's not like Seattle right now. They got multiple holes. Green Bay doesn't really have any. They'd have one. Aaron left town. And the other thing I thought about yesterday, and this matters, Aaron's a sensitive guy. That's okay. Aaron's somebody that doesn't like a lot of the smoke. The stories are well

documented now. He didn't like getting beat up by the media. So Aaron's brand, and maybe to some of his teammates, but to people in Green Bay, he's a California guys, Hollywood guys, a little bit of a diva guy. What could Aaron Rogers do that would solve, heal that wound, that he wouldn't look like a diva, a cavalier, independent, kind of narcissistic guy? What is the one move Aaron Rogers could make? And everybody would be like, that feel good in your heart. Resigned with Green Bay and his career as a packer. Farve didn't. Farve went out to your rival. Farve went to the Vikings. Farve went to the big city, New York. Aaron goes, all right, this is starting to look like Fav at the end. I'm making some enemies here. The organization doesn't love me. Rip up the contract.

Who cares if Jordan loves stays or goes? It doesn't matter. And just stay. And Green Bay is terrified to be irrelevant. Terrified. You know, a lot of big city teams, they take big swings. That's not Green Bay's DNA. They're the post office, man. Just just. get us the mail. We're not, we don't know take big risks here. And they can't go get superstar players in free agency like LA can get or other teams. That's a huge disadvantage. So you've got to be great at quarterback. And I think if I was the front office of Green Bay, I said this last week, I would just go to Aaron and say, what do you want? Let's move the money around. Let's play with it. We'll give every penny. We'll give you two extra years. We'll give you two extra years.

I'm going to tell you folks, Kobe scored 60 in his last game. When players get older, they may not give you their greatest performance as regularly, but Aaron's still great, and the organization's great. And whereas New England and Brady, like, they achieved so much together, like, you got the divorce. Like, it kind of topped out. You're like, okay, but are you going to win it? Even winning in our Super Bowl, it wasn't going to do anything for Brady. It wasn't going to do anything for Belichick.

Boy, a second Super Bowl for the Packers and Aaron, that's a second Super Bowl. feels big to me. That feels huge to me. I think they're better together. I'd rip it up. I'd say, Aaron, listen, we're small town, you're big city. We're not perfect. But you know what? It works. I've never even seen Dolly Parton's husband. I have no idea what he looks like. They've been together 30 years. It's a weird fit. But it works. We can say what we want about this whole Aaron Rogers thing. They get a lot of NFC championships. He didn't even play well yesterday. and I'm like, Green Bay is so well built. I thought their offensive line I'm going to stink this year.

We're eight, nine games in. I'm like, no, no, it's good again. I don't see any point in this. I can see the Russell Pete break up, but Pete stays. I get that. But you got Matt Lafleur. You got Aaron. You got the young offensive coach.

I mean, it really is good together. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? Just rip the contract up. Give Aaron what he wants. Give him more years. He's a little high maintenance. So what.

Superstar, Burbacks get high maintenance. Good old boy, Farve got high maintenance. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong next. 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. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing.

How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not. not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot,

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