The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 1 - The Chargers Do Not Have An Identity

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

In this hour of The Herd, Colin pleads with New York Giant fans to enjoy this playoff win—and celebrate head coach Brian Daboll's transformation of quarterback Daniel Jones. Also, it's clear to Colin that the Los Angeles Chargers do not have an identity, and that allowed the Jacksonville Jaguars to creep back into their eventual playoff win over Los Angeles. Plus, Colin worries that the absence of former Buffalo assistant Brian Daboll is affecting Josh Allen's quarterback play. Finally, Colin sees Viking quarterback Kirk Cousins as "Minnesota Nice," but he needs to be "Boston Angry."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Oh, it is a Monday, a cowboy buccaneers tonight Monday, live and live. Los Angeles, it's the herd, wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, one hour from now, and there's a lot of both, where Colin was right, where Colin was Ron plus Sean Peyton, stops by exclusively on our show. Next hour, yes, J. Mac showed up to my little local hangout. We watched the Chargers blow a lead. I was around Charger fans all night. Wow, that fan base is beside themselves.

Devastating, Colin. It was an incredible weekend. NFL, me personally, my family. It was just an awesome weekend. Great to see you out and about with football fans. It was a fun little weekend to start the playoffs. It was. It's weird, but there's no NFL team that has a formula like the New York Giants.

They were missing it for a decade. But the formula, when they're good, is always the same. they have an excellent coach. Parcells, Tom Coughlin, and now Brian Dable. They always have a really good defensive coordinator, Belichick, Spags, Wink Martindale. They're led by their defense. It's got more talent than their offense.

And they have a quarterback who in big spots can flourish, although he's not a superstar. Phil Sims, Eli Manning, the second best Manning, Daniel Jones. And to top it off, they'll have a star or two offensively, but many of the big players and the big games are forgettable. Mark Bavarro, Phil McConkey, Dave Megget, David Tyree, Mario Manningham, and yesterday Isaiah Hodgins.

Like, nobody has a blueprint. This is the Giants. A great coach, a great defensive coordinator, led by a defense, a quarterback, Phil Sims, Eli Manning, Daniel Jones. may take in a while to pop, and they'll have an occasional Saquan Barkley, but it's somebody that doesn't go down as an all-time great offensively making plays.

That's my first takeaway. That looks like the New York Giants. And to top it off, and I don't know why this is, they're often better on the road than they are at home. A lot of the great giant teams, it's crazy. My second takeaway is, like I understand, I don't play the lottery much, occasionally when it gets up to like $5, $600 million,

but it's kind of gross, right? Somebody ends up with half a billion dollars and they didn't really work for it. What you watched yesterday was Daniel Jones in three hours probably making himself $50 to $70 million. If Daniel Jones would have gone out with a clunker, I don't care what the Mara family says. If he was 17 for 32 with two picks and a fumble,

boom. The New York media, the talk radio, the fans are over him. Instead, he played his best game as a pro. he was easily the best quarterback on the field, and Kirk Cousins isn't bad. Jones was bigger, more confident, more mobile, made big throws. And the giant staff deserves a lot of credit because about four weeks ago, they started coaching him differently. They started trusting him more, and you can see it pay off.

We talk about it all the time. Even great athletes have to feel they have the trust and the belief of the coaches. It was about four or five weeks ago. They started letting Daniel Jones go out and let it rip, and he has responded. Now the bad news. Two of his best three games this year have been against the Vikings, and that defense is atrocious. His other great game was against the Lions defense.

Philadelphia is next, and if you look at the box score, I'm going to guess Daniel Jones and the Giants don't have almost 30 first downs. They don't throw for 300 yards. They're not 60% on third down, and they don't dominate time of possession. Some of this is, let's be honest, Minnesota's defense often looks like, it's playing with nine or ten guys. There's acreage after completions. But the big picture is, if you're a Giants fan, this is the formula.

Daible's a great coach, runaway coach of the year. Great defensive coordinator. Parcells had one. Coughlin had one of his best, and now Dable's got one. Some forgettable offensive pieces, but you got a star in Sequin Barclay, but it's about Dexter Lawrence, it's about that deba-do, it's about that defensive front, and the giants are kind of back. Now, that formula in the 80s, that won Super Bowls.

In 2023, there's a great coach and a great defense and limited offensive weapons. and a solid quarterback, does that win Super Bowls? I don't think so, but baby steps. This is the best Monday for a New York giant fan in, what, 11 years? So here's the good news. It's a quarterback coach league. And Dayball is just fantastic. That team has an absolute identity, and they had it early.

They took Daniel Jones to me a reach at number 6. six, took the mistakes away, elevated the accuracy, and it's been a slow process. And then, as they reduced the mistakes, as they elevated accuracy, about a month ago, they said, all right, kid, let it rip. They let him go a little bit. Go ahead. Let it rip. And what you're seeing now is the best version of Daniel Jones.

Good enough to beat Kirk Cousins on the road. Huge, huge win for the G-Men. Here's the coach after. I've said it all year. He's been good for us. He continues to be good for us, and he played a good game. And I think there's a lot of other people that play good games, too, to help him play a good game. He'll be the first to admit it.

But as the leader of our football team, you know, I'm proud of him. All right, now let's go to Saturday night's disaster. So I have been lamenting for a year about Brandon Staley of the Chargers. What's your identity? Now, you could say, well, Colin, I mean, he's only in his second. year. But as we just noted, Brian Dayball created a giant's identity in six games. Mike McDaniel created a Miami offensive identity in two. Jaguars, Doug Peterson. It took him about till Thanksgiving, but they've got an identity. And sometimes you can get away with not having a great identity

for chunks of the season against average teams. But Saturday night is when you need an identity. tough physical second half adjustments the chargers are bad at all of them they're a bad second half team he's a defensive head coach and their defense never feels like it's buttoned up a year ago they were into analytics this year they scaled back he's not great with the clock or situationally and to his players respective remember when he grabbed the bosa helmet and bosa slammed it down again would you do that in front of bellichick or andy reed they led 27 nothing at half. And that's when you need an identity. Kyle Shanahan would have stopped throwing. Even Andy Reed would have run the football. But they're 27th in the NFL in running in his two years. They're one of the worst second half teams offensively in the league.

And that's with Mike Williams usually. Kenan Allen, Austin Eckler, Justin Herbert. Why are they so bad offensively in the second half? I think he's a young coach. Young coaches often are good in the film room. They're good at building a game plan. They don't adjust terribly well. It's been one of my knocks early in Matt Lafleur, the Packers head coach career.

They're good early, not great late. But I'll ask you again, what Daible's done in New York, or Doug Peterson is done in Jacksonville, or Mike McDaniel, who again out coached Sean McDermott third time this year. They create a belief. and you really, really need that when fit hits the shan, when stuff goes sideways. And here were the chargers, reeling. Defense couldn't make a stop. Trevor Lawrence starts heating up.

And what were they? Run game? No. Physicality? No. Adjustments? Uh-uh. I don't doubt he's smart.

This is not saying that Brandon Staley's not smart. A lot of smart people get jobs. They interview well. They have an expertise. but being a head coach is a presence and building a culture and building an identity. Now, are they going to fire him? I doubt it. If you look at the history of the Spanos family, look at their last four or five coaches,

they've given a lot of first-time coaches an opportunity, like Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley. Would they hand over the controls to Sean Payton? I don't know. It doesn't feel like it's in their DNA. Years ago, the late Marty Schottnheimer was a terrific coach. he coached. He wanted to have a son on the staff, if I recall, they don't want that either. Spanos family wants checks and balances. They want the power spread out in the building,

and Sean Payton would demand more. But what you watched is my big criticism for two years. What are you? Justin Herbert being talented is not an identity. What do you do well? It's not adjusting. Look at the data. It's not running the football. It's not creating turnovers, although they had a great first half of that against Jacksonville, but holistically, the last two years, they don't create enough turnovers. What are they?

Well, whatever they are, they'll probably be the same thing next year. Justin Herbert says, I want my coach back. We believe in Coach Staley in the front office 100%. Everyone would be lucky to have a coach like Staley. He's been an incredible leader.

He's got the respect of everyone on our team. It didn't go our way this year, but We took a big step forward, and we believe in this coaching staff, this team. We've got the right pieces. We just got to put them together. That's a good roster. And in fairness, in football today, it's much easier to score 27, 30 points in a half than it felt like it was years and years ago. Everything now is built for the quarterback.

Can't touch him. Wide receiver can't touch him. Receivers now love going over the middle. it does feel easier to blow a lead in football today than it used to be. It does. So in fairness, you know, Trevor Lawrence is good. Doug Peterson out dual Belichick in a Super Bowl. Jaguars have some good players.

But what are you? I watch the Giants. I know what they are. There's limitations, but I know what they're trying to do. Mike McDaniels on a third quarterback, but it's that identity that allows them to go back to what they are and almost with a third string quarterback, go into Buffalo and knock off the bills. All right, got a lot of good stuff today.

Sean Payton, Colin Wright, Colin wrong next hour. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. 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, 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball.

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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Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new weekend. 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, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So one of the stranger games of the weekend was Buffalo and Miami. so it's inexplicable. Miami had only 16 first downs. They were awful on third down. They averaged under four yards a pass. They had almost four times the penalties of Buffalo. It was in Buffalo. They're a warm weather team.

And they had the bills on the ropes. I'll tell you, Mike McDaniel can coach. I felt for the third time this year, Buffalo faced Miami and has more talent, especially at quarterback. And I felt for the third straight time, Miami out-com. coached him and outsmarted him. Is Josh Allen, who I love becoming Brett Farrve, wildly entertaining and sometimes just too wild?

When you have a remarkable talent, they're generally at their best when they can be reined in. Mahomes with Andy Reed. Farv with Mike Holmgren. Lawrence Taylor with Belichick. Randy Moss with Brady, Belichick, and Josh McDaniels. Josh Allen is that kind of talent. He is a Lawrence Taylor, a Randall. Andy Moss. He's 101. 6-6, their best runner, huge arm. I mean, more than any quarterback this

weekend, he is throwing the ball over the top any opportunity he gets, almost to a fault. That's why I say Buffalo reminds me of the late Mike Tyson. They'll have a knockout punch always as long as Josh Allen's there. But they'll lack nuance, they'll get sloppy, and they're built to blow you out, not for the later rounds. And the more I watch this team, I wonder, So Josh Allen in college was unbelievably talented but wild and erratic. And then in the NFL, similarly, wildly gifted, jumping over people, huge downfield arm and erratic. And Brian Daibol now has done with Daniel Jones what he did with a much more talented Allen. He refined him.

He got the accuracy up and the mistakes down. but the longer day bowl is apart from Josh Allen, it's getting worse. He's regressing by the month. More picks, more fumbles, more mistakes. He was scrambling around this weekend, carrying the ball out here, missed a couple of guys. Listen, if you go back and look at the history of the great quarterbacks in this league, Staubach, Aitman, Bradshaw, Stabler, Fouts, Montana, Brady, Breeze. All of them had great mentors.

And that's not a knock on Sean McDermott, but he's a defensive guy. I feel he's been outcoached three straight games against Miami. They lost Brian Dayball. And, you know, it's becoming a lot of Brett Farve. The highs are insane. The downfield throws and completions are awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping. But the lows, Brett Farv cost himself multiple playoff wins. Brett Farrve lost those games.

And so I feel we're getting, and Farrv was at his best when he had Mike Holmgren, who refined him, lowered the mistakes, take some layups. So as I watch Josh Allen, I see this just unbelievably gifted thrower of the football. I was seeing some, I forget what stat it was this morning. But, you know, there's nothing against Daniel Jones and Kirk Cousins and Brock Purdy and a lot of the quarterbacks this weekend. one guy is just howitzer, a cannon throwing the ball down the field. It was a lot of Skyler Thompson and Brock Purdy and safer. You know, Daniel Jones had a great throw, rolled left, down to Hodgson, up the sideline. Josh had like eight of those.

I mean, he's just a complete difference maker. But boy, the longer he is away from Day Bowl, the sloppier he gets, fumbles, picks, decisions, misses some easy ones. I don't know if you can win a Super Bowl doing that. because Mahalms and Burrow give you so much of the upside without the mistakes. J-Mack with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

Interesting, Colin, I was just tallying some numbers here. So the Jets and Dolphins face the bills five times this season. Jets and dolphins combined covered the spread, five and O against the bills. With bad quarterbacks. Well, that's because of Josh Allen making mistakes, keeping the opponent. Didn't you watch that game? There were three different times that I thought, Buffalo, put him away. And mistakes let the dolphins back in.

I'll tell you something. I saw something on the internet yesterday. Somebody said, you know, Mike McDaniel's job could be in peril. What are you talking about? I thought he was, I mean, he's on a third quarterback going to Buffalo, a two-touchdown underdog, and there was about a 10-minute stretch there. I thought, is Miami going to win this football? ball game?

17-0-0 leading you blow it. By the way, if they want to get rid of McDaniel in Miami, because the owner's a little impetuous, go for it. The New York Jets will pick up McDaniel in a heartbeat. Rosala and McDaniel, obviously friends from San Francisco. Pick him up in a heartbeat to be a OC. And they're such a smart coach.

And they get revenge on Miami twice a year. All right, let's get to the first story. 49ers, Colin. First game Saturday, they shook off a bit of a rocky first half against Seattle. Even the end to the half was kind of ugly. But second half, they pull away. Brock Purdy.

probably the second best quarterback this weekend after Daniel Jones. Well, and don't they have what the Chargers lack? A total identity. So at half, they're in crisis. The first half looked like what I thought it would look like, sloppy. Back and forth. And what happens when you're in crisis? They go in at half, they have an identity, and they go right back to it.

That's the difference. That's the difference between coaching. Buffalo eventually went back to what they do well. And the Niners did. I got to tell you, that second half. by Purdy was about as well as you can play the position. They didn't ask him to make a lot of difficult throws, but what a machine this team is. Purdy gets a lot of credit.

We'll get to the defense in a minute, but Purdy did have four total touchdowns in his first playoff start. He looked a little shaky first couple drives, and then he settled himself. Linebacker Fred Warner had a lot of praise for Purdy after the game. He's the reason why we have a chance at the whole thing. And the way that he's come in and the poise, the confidence, his performance week in week in and week out is amazing. And we need them to play big in the second half.

That's when it counts. You know, it's going to be tough all the way through. But how are you going to perform in the tough moments? And we got to just keep supporting them. So Purdy was excellent. Debo Samuel, Christian McCabe. I mean, we diagnosed this game pretty well last week on the show. I will point out something that's starting to emerge online today.

So the 49ers are going to be hosting Tampa or Dallas. The San Francisco defense second half has been awesome all season. Seattle did nothing in the second half until a garbage time touchdown. But the defensive coordinator, Damiko Ron. They just announced he's going to be interviewing for four head coaching jobs this week. Oh, boy. Colin, Denver, Colts, Texans, Cardinals. Ahead of a playoff game?

To me, that's a little insane. Now, I don't know if some are going to be virtual or in person, but we're talking about Tom Brady or Dach Prescott in a pretty good offense. I'm a little nervous to see Domingo Rons. Listen, he's a great coach. I think he's going to be a head coach. Yeah, I don't like that at all. According to Schaefter, four interviews this way.

week. Does that not seem weird? Divisional playoff game? You can't wait. Demigo Ryan's very good coach, but, you know, good luck, San Fran. All right, next up, oh boy, Ravens. Again, another game we kind of nailed. That's a 14-point play. Unbelievable. Unbelievable stuff. I mean, I, I love Joe Burrell, but I will say Tyler Huntley until that moment, you know, he'd been your classic Taylor Heineckee. Kind of a gamer, kept you in the game. And this, you know, the quarterback sneak works often. but we're talking about Huntley, a backup. Also, he's smaller.

You're Jake Dobbins in the backfield. I don't, listen, I don't love, now Trevor Lawrence had one of these. I don't love these snap it and reach overplay. There's a lot of risk there. Why not just burrow in through the line with the guy pushing behind you? That the league has made it legal to just get behind the guy and push him in. I must have seen at least a dozen times this weekend. An offensive lineman or a back push somebody for a first down.

What is this small quarterback, a yard and a half out, lunging with a ball out? It wasn't the six-inch line, you're right. It was like a yard and a half. That's a long stretch for a guy who's, what, six feet tall? Maybe. It's a bad call. Listen, now it gets a little worse after the game, Colin, because after the 2417 loss, Ravens running back, J.K. Dobbins.

I saw this. Extremely critical of the call, his usage rate, not being involved. Here's what J.K. Dobbins had to say. Tyler should have never been in that situation. I don't get a single carry. I believe I would have put it in the end zone again. I should be the guy. I'm tired of holding that back.

I'm a playmaker. I'm a guy that my teammates feed off of when I'm on the field. He's not wrong. Hold on. This is this line. I wanted a little pregnant pause. If we'd have had Lamar, we would have won two. So you got your start running back being critical.

There's a team that's struggle to get wide receivers and free agency to Baltimore. And Colin, what is up with Lamar Jackson? Hold on. traveling to Cincinnati week 18 with the team and not traveling for the playoff game? I can't. I could not believe that. You toss in the fact that he's the one who announced his injury on social media, not the team. It's usually the other way around.

And you wonder if maybe Harbaugh said, hey, stay home. You're a distraction. We don't want the media focusing on it. The cameras would have been all over Lamar Jackson in that game. Right. Something is not good in Baltimore. We've been on this for a while. It seems a little shaky.

Yeah, I was the biggest fan of Lamar. And I said he doesn't throw the prettiest ball, but his intangibles and his leadership, how are you not there? That's odd. And by the way, I don't think it was his choice. That's my guess that they probably told him, hey, you know what? Just stay home. Now, final note, there was the, I thought the biggest injury of the weekend was Jonah Williams.

Now they have three offensive linemen. And you know what else that hurts is that because they have three offensive linemen out, it takes away the vertical passing game. So Burrell doesn't get three and a half seconds. He gets two. So now with Cincinnati, you don't, I mean, one of the weapons is Burrell loves to go. Like, he's like Allen without quite the arm and Mahalms. Joe loves to go downfield.

You can't now. Yeah. Because with three missing, with three backups on the O line, you just have to become much more efficient and precise underneath throws. So it takes out Cincinnati's firepower. Do we know if Jonah Williams is out for the- The only thing I saw was he was on one. One crutch in the locker room. No, it's too early to know.

But that would obviously be a big injury, a third injury on the offensive. I'm not going to Buffalo. My question is, I'm going to be honest. Can the bills even take advantage of it? I mean, Vaugh-Miller's not there? I haven't been impressed with the bills down the stretch. That Patriots game to close the season, that was like back and forth for until like the fourth quarter, I think. I don't know, Colin.

I don't have a read on Bengals bills. That's going to be a hell of a game. Final story, after much speculation, Sean McVeigh informed the Rams on Friday. He's going to return as head coach in 23. The Rams finished 5 and 12, the worst since McVeigh joined the team. It was the worst record for any defending Super Bowl champ. He currently has a contract that runs through 2026. Now, I don't want to get conspiracy theory on you.

All right. But we saw Brady retire and then come instantly back. Could we see a reverse of that with McVe? Or you think he's definitely coming back as Colin? Well, for two weeks, every reporter who covers the NFL said McVeigh is going to be leaving. he's going to be stepping down. Everybody, every single person. But what did I say on the show last week?

So this story has been fluid for three to four weeks. So last week, I made calls. And I set on the show last week. I initially thought several weeks ago he'll go to television. But the more calls I made last week, nobody inside the Rams would tell me he was leaving. So my question is, did he want something? Did he want more leverage in personnel, although he's got a ton of it?

Did he want more power during the draft? Did he want more money? So I was told last week I could not get a definitive he's leaving. And a lot of respected reporters, people I lean on, said he was. I never heard that, and I said it on the air. So my takeaway is I think in this league, what I would do, I would trade Jalen Ramsey, get a first and probably a fourth, and then you'd have a first, second, third, fourth, bunch of sixes and sevens, you can rebuild this team.

They need an edge rusher because they didn't resign Vaughn. They've got to clean up the O line a little and another receiver. But the idea, if I told you there's four to five teams that'll make the playoffs next year that didn't this year. Detroit, I think we both... In the NFC? No, just overall. Because remember, seven new teams will make the playoffs. I think we both like Pittsburgh and Detroit.

Okay. Those feel like momentum. You really think McVeigh is going to be down again? a division now where Seattle may stick with Gino. Arizona is a mess. Arizona is a mess. And San Francisco is going to have a quarterback situation, whatever it is. Let's see what happens with Washington.

I think they're a QB away. Right. But I think my point is, people as smart as Andy Reid, the Sean Payton's. They're not down very long. And this league has proven. It's proven. You can gain draft picks with one or two moves. Cam Acres.

Jalen Ramsey, suddenly you get three good picks. Who's falling out of the playoffs in the NFC? That's the only problem. It's a really... I'll give you one. Minnesota? Yeah. This was a perfect storm.

They won every close game. We'd agree Tampa falls out, but somebody's got to win that. Tampa's out. Minnesota's out. You know, Green Bay should be in. We forgot about Green Bay. Well, we'll see what happens with Rogers. Green Bay in Detroit.

Come back. Listen, I just... I'm just going to say I'm not fully buying McVeigh. I like your negotiating ploy theory, but negotiating for what? I'm sure he's one of the highest-paid coaches in the league. I texted a GM this weekend and I asked him. I said, does he want more power?

And the GM said he's got power. I don't know what it was. I thought McBay actually in the last month had a great month of coaching. I thought he did a terrific. He didn't win a ton of games, but he did a good job with what he had. Hey, that Seattle game, it was the worst officiated game of the year. It was terrible. The league came out and apologized.

That was eight. Rams, even though they were out gained, the Ramsey call, the block punt, egregiously bad calls. They should have won that game in Seattle. Detroit should have been the playoff team. So it's fun. The Alan Robinson mistake in the agency. But is that McVeigh?

It was a mistake. That looks like a whiff. A big whiff. Looks like an expensive. Understated. Yeah. J-Mack with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Colin right, Colin wrong. and Sean Payton next hour. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Polly Fusco here with Tony Fusco. Yo.

As you all know, we're the host of the number one rated show in all the sports talk, the Polly and Tony Fusco show. Numero Uno. Yeah, and we know why millions of people tune in every week. Yeah. They want to hear us talk sports, not our idiot guests who think they know more about sports than we do.

Yeah, listen to these dummies. You don't know crap about sports. You don't know nothing about football. This is the worst thing I've ever been to football. Wait, he's still on the line. Off the show. Up to show. You don't know basketball.

If you want to hear how sports talk should be done, yeah. Listen to the Polly and Tony Fusco show on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clever 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. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. 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, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to bowl your mind on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't talk on a day like today much about the losing teams, although the way the Chargers

lost is worth noting. So here's my three or four minutes on Kirk Cousins. and the Minnesota Vikings. There's a term, my wife used to be in PR, and she had to work sometimes in Minneapolis, and there's a term called Minnesota Nice. People are very pleasant and they're very cordial. Kirk Cousins is a perfect Viking quarterback. He's Minnesota Nice.

I wish he was Boston angry and New York tough and had the ego of somebody in Dallas and L.A. cool. But he's not. He's a nice guy. He always makes plays, but never the play. And so on Fourth and Eight, when he goes to an underneath tight-end route against man-to-man for a veteran quarterback. It's just something you should never throw.

That is a useless play. So predictable, it hurts. But this is what we've had with Kirk Cousins for eight years. He makes plays. Never the play. If you go to the box score, he's 31 or 39. Two touchdowns, no picks, 113 passer rating. What I would worry about if I was Minnesota, isn't the fans,

they're loyal, they'll be back. Isn't that Kirk Cousins will suddenly get terrible? Eight years, it's the same guy every year. What I would worry about, Stefan Diggs said, get me out of here. I'd worry about Justin Jefferson saying, get me out of here. I don't know waste my career. I got five more great years. What's the point of this?

So Stefan Diggs just said, get me to a star quarterback. That's what I worry about is that he starts to lose the locker room, lose trust of star receivers. You know, Minnesota is, they're the annuity of the stock market. You know, they're just, they're bonds instead of stocks. You know, it's super conservative, safe and predictable. I just worry that free agent stars look at it and go, there's a ceiling. That receivers in the building like Stefan Diggs say, there's a ceiling.

That's what I worry about. You're going to get the same Kirk Cousins next year. He's going to give you the same numbers he gave you this year. He's got an offensive coach. They've got nice weapons. The fans are going nowhere. It's one of the great sports towns in America. They're loyal.

But I do wonder if a little bit of he's a nice guy. But you know what? They say nice guys finished last. Tom Brady's a nice guy too. He will do anything to win. Right? Like the reality is, Kirk Cousins, I just feel like the words out, the story's out, the brands out and I worry how it plays in the room or with free agents.

It's a great place to live, great fans, stability, but the division is getting very interesting now. Detroit, to me, is a playoff team next year. If Aaron comes back and they get him some weapons, they're a playoff team. You want to move off stuff earlier than later. They've drafted quarterbacks in later rounds. You know they're not totally happy with it, but they feel a little trapped. Here's nice Kirk Cousins after. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts. I'm probably missing one, but this is probably the toughest loss of that in my career. So it hurts. Why is that? I mean, all the obvious reasons. All the obvious reasons. Even his sweater was nice. He's just a nice guy. So tonight, it's the Cowboys against Tom Brady and the

bucks. I like Dallas. The wise guy. guys all like Tampa. Who do you like again? You like Tampa? I'm with you on the Dallas County. I like Dallas. I really do. I think it's I think they're going to, Dak Prescott generally after a stinker plays well. So I like Dallas tonight. But the sharps and the wise guys, uh, you know, they all, they all, listen, I, my, my, my, my two winning bets this weekend were the Ravens, I took the points and the Jags I took the points. So I don't want the points. I think the favorite here wins. But this is interesting. So, you know, whenever you have a divorce, it doesn't matter if it's sports or life, somebody gets blamed.

And a lot of times, it's really nobody's fault. You wear each other out. I mean, Belichick and Brady had a lot of success. Shack and Kobe had great success. Kobe was a lot to deal with. Shack was fun. They got three titles. Probably should have had four. Carl Malone got hurt or they have four. It's okay. Divorce happens. It's not the end of the world. But when Mike McCarthy and Aaron got divorced. One side took a hundred percent of the hit, Mike McCarthy. So if Mike wins tonight, should we reevaluate that divorce? Because they gave Aaron the handsome head coach, Matt Lafleur, and he has died back to back to back years in elimination games. He got outplayed at Lambo by Gough, fourth quarter,

outplayed by Garoppolo, fourth quarter Lambo, out played by Brady, fourth quarter. Mike McCarthy in Dallas, when DAC is healthy, is 21 and 12. With a top five offense. Oh, yeah, he went four and one with Cooper Rush. So, you know, that's fine. You can pick sides.

But when Dak has been upright, and he will be tonight, and if they win, let's revisit this, that it wasn't all Mike McCarthy's issue. the real chance for a flex tonight for Mike McCarthy. Hey, I always thought he and Aaron were different vibes. I've said I've compared Aaron to Kyler Murray. He's not going to work with every coach.

I think Brian Flores is a perfect fit with Kyler Murray. Tough will not take any of his BS and he'll build a run game in a defense. You know, Aaron's slick and is kind of doing his own thing. McCarthy's sort of old school. It just didn't work, right? It just looks like Aaron and Matt LaFlemore. work better. But it really hasn't when the games count. So I find myself, not because I'm anti-Aren, but I'm like, we kind of bullied myself included. We kind of bullied Mike McCarthy like he's just this

incompetent boob and can't. I don't know. Four and one with Cooper Rush, 21 and 12. If he goes and beats Brady tonight, he does what Aaron couldn't in Lambo. Aaron couldn't beat old Tom in Lambo. What if Mike goes and beats Tom in his backyard? It's something, right? I mean, and so, and Jerry Jones, to his credit, usually starts fires. He put it out. He said, Mike McCarthy is coming back, and Dak talked about the rumors that McCarthy, if he loses, could be in trouble tonight. It's comical in a sense. I mean, first, what, back-to-back, 12 games, 12 wins, and y'all tell me how long,

and we're talking about a guy's job in jeopardy. That just shows you when you play for this organization, what comes with it. You know, so I'm thinking about, it's interesting I watch this weekend. And I always try to put things in context because as I sit and watch football, these games were all different. Like the Niners Seahawk game looked exactly like I thought for a half. And then it was unbelievable, shocking how good Brock Purdy was. The Chargers game ended up like I thought, but the way in which it got there, the Jags winning, was bizarre. Miami had Buffalo in trouble.

Didn't predict that. The Baltimore Cincinnati game sort of looked like I thought it would look. So one of the four games kind of looked for the entirety of the game. It looked like I thought it would look. My guess is tonight, here's how it looks, is that DAC plays pretty well. Eventually, you're asking Brady to throw 45 times. I don't care if it's Mahomes, Alan Brady.

You start getting into that 45, 47, 48 throws for a quarter, back. That's just hard to sustain. You're going to make mistakes. I think Dallas is going to get pretty good pressure on Tom. And I think Dak will play a mostly air-free game. He'll have better balance around him. Pollard, Zeke, they'll have a little bit a semblance of a run game. You know, and Dallas is going to win at 2420. That's kind of my gut feeling. But the only game this weekend that looked exactly like I thought overwhelmingly was Baltimore, Cincinnati, where Baltimore's defense and run game kind of kept Cincinnati off balance. That looked like I thought. San Francisco Seattle looked like I thought it would look for a half. But Buffalo, Miami didn't look anything like

I thought it would look like. And I don't even know how to explain Jacksonville Chargers. I mean, the result was what I thought. I predicted Jacksonville wins by a point or two. How they got there was the crazy. The first half is the craziest thing I've ever seen. But I don't think tonight is going to be a wild shootout. I don't think Dax's going to struggle again. the Dallas recipe this year has been about once a month they play a stinker. Right? They become a little

behold into DAC throwing 40 times. Whenever they do that, if Dallas can establish a decent run game tonight, they'll win the game. Colin, isn't this less about McCarthy's job and how he loses or wins the game? Because we saw that Brandon Staley. When you're up 27-0 and you have a 5-0 turnover margin advantage,

you can't lose that game. for me, if McCarthy just wins, great, outstanding. But if you blow a big lead, you lose in the fashion. Like, Brandon Staley kicked field goals inside the 10 twice. He's like one of the most aggressive coaches. He was coaching scared. Fourth and three punting in the fourth quarter, what are you doing? That you are afraid.

And that's why I'm with you on, you got to move on from silly. If McCarthy totally blows it here and is coaching poorly in a tough game or they blow a big leader, they get blasted 30 to 10. Well, it's interesting because I was talking about this with a friend who's a New York giant fan. And I said, it's easy for the Mara family and everybody to say we're in on Daniel. What if he went this weekend to Minneapolis and laid a complete egg? You start losing the locker room. Forget media.

You start losing the locker room. Daniel Jones in three hours changed his career. Generational. You know they're going to give him a good extension. Okay. That's the question. And so Staley, had he won that game after that first half, you would say, oh, my God, that's the best defensive game plan ever. So, you know, it sounds crazy.

But career, I've noticed this in a lot of situations in broadcasting, in politics. Howard Dean's career as a politician came down to a weird scream. And people said, ugh. I thought it was funny for it. So did I. But the voters thought he was weird. And so Daniel Jones, stinker, Daniel Jones three hours. changes the momentum of your career.

Brandon Staley probably survives, but the way in which he lost is brutal. But how much does it change Jones? Because all of a sudden, you're going to give it because he beat a bad defense. And Jones was great. I think they had four drives over 70 yards for touchdowns or something like our scores. He's only had three games this year over 300 yards. Two against the Vikings. I like him.

But if you franchise tag him, he's making like over 40 million. I know. So you probably don't want to do that. But remember, you're not paying your tackles. and you're not really going to pay a receiver. So what do you do? Are you giving them a three-year deal for $100 million? I don't know.

Is he getting a Derek Carr three for $120 or whatever? Why can't you do this? So you're not paying your tackles. That's something. You've got to pay Dexter Lawrence. You're not paying Fibito yet. You're not paying your tackles. You're going to draft the tight-end receiver.

You're not paying them. So you're paying Sequin Barclay. You're paying a couple of your defensive linemen. So the truth is you give him a good contract. You franchise tag him, right? So you have a certain number you hit. you go out if you go look at who they're going to draft they're going to get another corner they're going to get a tight end they're going to get

a receiver he's surrounded by a lot of guys that don't make any money and what you do is with daniel jones you draft a quarterback fourth round fifth round every other year with him if daniel jones how many teams are clamoring for daniel jones be real about this colin not many no it's a brian dable story no you're right that that's that's the best question the herd 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 I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey,

or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.

Listen to the Clippert Show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.