The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Patrick Mahomes, Philp Rivers, Lakers, Patriots-Steelers, and the blazing 5
Episode Date: December 14, 2018Colin brings Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes down to Earth, explains why Los Angeles Chargers QB Philip Rivers is special, why the Los Angeles Lakers loss last night was good for the team, why P...atriots-Steelers isn't a real rivalry, and his blazing 5 picks for the weekend. Guests include Eric Dickerson, Chris Broussard, Stephen Jackson, Derrick Johnson, and Jason McIntyre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
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 headlines.
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 hiring.
You just understood.
That's how personal it got.
Wow.
Then after that game seven, Marquis come until 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 Heard at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the Iheart Radio app by searching
heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
On a Friday, here we go. This is The Herd, wherever you may be, and however you may be listening,
live in Los Angeles. Home of the Chargers. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1,
Joy Taylor has got the coolest ski sweater available on the market.
It's actually a dress, but yes, it does kind of look like.
I just want to slip in that this is the home of the Chargers, huh?
The Chargers have a home now?
Now I like them.
Now they can host a parade in Los Angeles.
What a game that was.
Got a huge number last night.
A massive game.
Fishating drove me nuts, but a great game and a great win.
So I said yesterday going into the game, like I like Patrick Mahomes and I love Andy Reid.
But can we add some context to this thing and slow down on Patrick Mahomes?
He is flash to this point, some substance, but a lot of flash.
and this morning I read the USA Today's sports section
and they compare them to Dan Marino.
No, I'm serious.
They compare him to Dan Marino.
Apparently nobody on that staff saw Dan Marino play.
I'm going to go with Dan Marino's way better than Patrick Mahomes
and it's not close.
Patrick Mahomes' first year as a starter is now 0 in his three biggest games.
And Philip Rivers with his shot put style was the better quarterback late.
By the way, Patrick Mahomes got the ball with three and a half minutes left,
fourth quarter, lots of weapons at home, officials giving Kansas City some calls late.
Three and out.
Three and out.
That's your game.
Could have sealed it.
But hey, he did try a left-handed pass, and he's got snazzy hesban, and his arm is Superman,
and at the end of the game, you know who the better quarterback was?
Philip Rivers.
Just like the end of the game, Tom Brady was better.
End of the game, Jared Gough was better against him.
Remember that?
That was Goff's best game.
For the record, the best Patrick Mahomes driving the second half was aided by two awful calls against the Chargers.
Now, for the record, Kansas City got hosed on a couple of first half calls, but late, they were all going against the Chargers.
The media does this.
Philip Rivers, I want you to, the biggest play of that night and one of the biggest of the season,
Philip Rivers on a fourth down, Keenan Allen's been hurt, they have no running game, makes the throw of the year.
he did it with his right hand, not his left. Here it is. Fourth and eight with a minute, 11 left.
Rivers throws, passes caught. Benjamin sets up a first down and a conversion on fourth down and eight.
26-yard completion. Watch this route. Kendall Fuller is in coverage, and Phillip Rivers just lays this
ball perfectly. He knows he's got to get it out. I don't even know how Benjamin even saw. That ball was in the
air halfway to him before Benjamin even got to the top of his route and just lands right in his
hands.
Throw of the year by Philette Rivers.
In one of the biggest games of the year, that's the throw of the year.
But he doesn't have a headband and he doesn't throw left-handed.
Maybe if we just put a headband on Philette Rivers, let's do that.
Let's put a headband here on Philip Rivers.
You know what?
I've got to be honest.
I'm watching this.
I like him more now.
I think that headbands the difference.
He's more of a bolo tie guy.
Folks, I'm going to take Andrew Lucks neck beard and Philip River shot put.
And 5 and 11, Drew Brees and Russell Wilson, give me substance.
I don't want no look passes.
Give me a break on the headband.
Give me a break.
Look at the rookie quarterbacks have had the deal with this year.
Baker Mayfield's coach and coordinator got fired.
Sam Darnel, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, have defense.
coaches and terrible offensive lines.
And Lamar Jackson starting and his backup, you think his backup would help him?
He's rooting against him, Joe Flacko.
That's overcoming.
Patrick Mahomes has gotten every break in the world.
He gets drafted by a playoff team to a legendary play designer, gets to sit under a really
cool veteran Alex Smith and learn for a year.
Then he gets the fastest player in the Cheetah.
Kareem Hunt, Travis Kelsey, weapons everywhere.
They bring overpay for Sammy Watkins in a division.
with the dysfunctional raiders
and the historically kind of dysfunctional chargers.
I'm not saying I don't like Patrick Mahomes.
I like him a lot.
But USA today compares him to Dan Marino today.
The hell?
What?
Stop.
He's only three in his biggest three games.
We do this all the time.
The media falls in love with hype.
Westbrook, Hardin, Derek Rose.
No, LeBron.
Agassie.
No, boring.
Pete Sampras was way better.
Betta O'Rourke.
Now he lost the election.
Settled down.
I like Patrick Mahomes.
I like him a lot.
But we're going, slow down.
Give it context.
Andrew Luck came into this league with a shipwreck of a roster.
No pro bowlers.
Replacing a legend.
Defensive head coach.
A GM that got tossed out.
No running game.
Horrible O-line.
couldn't keep teams under 28.
And he went 11 and 5, 11 and 5, 11 and 5.
Patrick Mahomes had it perfectly laid out.
The coach, the roster, the weapons, a year to learn, under a veteran,
in kind of a dysfunctional division.
I like Patrick Mahomes.
But you know what?
From now on, whenever I show Philip Rivers,
let's just put a headband on him.
Because apparently that's what everybody's falling in love with.
That in the left hand pass.
But at the end of that game last night,
shot putter from North Carolina State, who's had his arse kick for 15 years in this league
and has never gotten the credit he deserved, made the throw of the year to his fourth best receiver.
How many times do you think they even practice that?
That's his fourth best receiver.
He didn't have his best running back, Melvin Gordon.
He didn't have Keenan Allen by the end of the game.
He was on the road with a non-legendary head coach, with a young head coach.
that we're not quite sure.
Is he good?
Is he not?
What is he?
That was guts on an imperfect night
when he had struggled early
with some bad throws,
tip of the cap to the headband now,
previously unheadbanded,
now headbanded in the herd,
Philip Rivers.
What a night.
Blazing five in 50 minutes?
My best blazing five of the year.
Seriously.
I may put my entire 401k on all my picks.
Let me shift to this, though.
Tom Brady is going to face the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend.
I just want to remind you this is not a rivalry.
Tom Brady is 11 and 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They are extras in Tom Brady's movie called My Trip to Another Super Bowl.
They're extras.
He's never lost to Pittsburgh in the playoffs.
They've never denied him anything.
In fact, Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets and Rex Ryan beat New England in
New England, they were 14 and 2.
They have denied Tom Brady more.
Mark Sanchez and the Jets than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If this is a rivalry, it's a rivalry between a seal and a shark.
I'm sorry, but they occasionally meet.
Sometimes the seal escapes, but I don't remember any big wins for the seal against
the shark.
I don't.
We think it's a great rivalry.
We've been waiting for it to be a rivalry for 50s.
15 years, and it's not a rivalry.
Pittsburgh, they're on, I would say this.
New England, again, is on the road to a Super Bowl.
And Pittsburgh's their speed bump.
And it's a little discomfort.
Make sure you got your coffee in the holder,
because you could spill some coffee.
It may be a little bumpy.
You slow down for it.
You pay attention for it.
But did you know there is no Wikipedia page
for the Steelers Patriots rivalry?
We looked it up this morning.
There's a Wikipedia page for Ollie and Frazier, Celtics and Lakers, Federer and
at all.
There's a Wikipedia page for Red Sox Yankees.
Do you know there's a Wikipedia page for the Ravens Patriots rivalry?
I'm not joking.
There is no Wikipedia page for Tom Brady against the Steelers and the big rivalry,
because it's not a rivalry.
Auburn, Alabama's a rivalry.
Duke Carolina's a rivalry.
I've watched tennis rivalries.
This isn't one.
And oh, by the way, and I've told Joyce from Pittsburgh, I like watching the Steelers.
They drive me nuts, but I like watching them.
Tom Brady yesterday said, I've got to be honest with you.
I think I feel better today than I have all year.
My body feels great.
I mean, in the 14th week of the year, you know, I would say I feel 100%.
I go out to practice.
I practice as hard as I can.
You know, I feel great.
You know, I'm ready for the next day.
And I don't feel any different from day to day.
So it's really encouraging.
I know what I do works, you know, and it's just such a great advantage for me, you know,
as I move into later parts of the season when I know other guys, you know, aren't feeling as great as I am.
For our radio audience, I'm going to read these, and for our TV audience, I'm going to put them on the screen.
Here's Tom Brady's career against the Steelers, including the playoffs.
11 and 2, 70% completions, 30 touchdowns for interceptions,
And a passer rating of 113.
That is not Ollie Frazier.
He's not getting hit.
That is not Maconroe Borg.
He's not, they're not winning sets.
You got to win some in order for it to be a rivalry.
Yeah, some.
This is just a game that the Patriots play.
Wikipedia does not have a page for the Steelers Patriots rivalry,
at least on the Google we use here at Fox.
We have a great show today.
Blazing 5 in 50 minutes.
My best Blazing 5 picks of the year.
I have two things I want to talk about.
Number one, it was the best night of the year for the Los Angeles Lakers.
They got beat and James Harden went off.
It was actually the best night of the year.
A great night for the Lakers.
Magic Johnson and LeBron.
That, and it didn't take the Oscar for us to realize
Leonardo DiCaprio was a really good actor.
What that has to do with Andy Reed and Philip Rivers 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 IHeart Radio app.
Oh, great to have you back, Eric Dickerson.
Chris Broussard, Derek Johnson, former Chief Enrater, a great linebacker,
Stephen Jackson, Blazing Five Top.
This is the best show of the week.
So Andy Reid last night, it's getting blown up on social media, which is a fun house mirror.
Whatever the Twitter says, the opposite is true, of course.
And they're like Andy Reid's a bum.
They lost the game.
They blew a 14-point leap.
Did you watch the Dolphins Patriots on Sunday?
Did you watch how bad the Patriots were situationally?
You've seen Mike Tomlin make gaffes, Pete Carroll, and Super Bowls.
They can't coach either.
Folks.
It was ironic last.
night. It was very unique. We had the one coach in the NFL with an incredible resume
that gets the most heat because he can't win the big one, against the one quarterback in the
league that's a Hall of Fame or he will be, he should be, with a great resume, but many people
will deny him that because he can't win the big one. It was a classic matchup of Andy Reed,
to me a Hall of Fame coach and Philip Rivers Hall of Fame player. Let me ask you something.
Andy Reed, a Super Bowl appearance, five NFC championship appearances, resurrected Kansas City,
top NFL play designer, and by the way, his disciples, Doug Peterson won a Super Bowl,
and Matt Nagy will win coach of the year.
You don't think he can coach.
Are you better at your job than him?
You don't think he can coach.
You're dumb and I can't help you.
Did you watch Philip Rivers play last night?
You don't think he's great?
Pre-snap, fourth down, two-point conversion?
Under pressure, got helmet to helmet hit late in the game, would knock most of us into Mars.
He got up, argued with the ref, came back and played his best football.
And you don't think he can, you don't think he's great.
Folks, Andy reads a better coach than Brian Billick and Mike Ditka and Barry Switzer and Gary Kubiak and Gary Kubiak and John Gruden and Doug Peterson.
And they all have Super Bowls.
And Philip Rivers is better than Eli Manning and Nick Foles and Brad Johnson and even our friends.
Trent Dilfer would admit he is, and they have Super Bowls.
You do get, you can't do it on an island in life.
You can be the best car salesman in the world, but if you have crappy cars,
I'm an average car salesman, I'll beat you if I'm selling the BMW.
You get how the game works, right?
Like in Hollywood, they celebrate nominations.
Like nobody needed Leonardo DiCaprio to win an Oscar to go,
God, that guy's good.
In fact, Revenant's not even my favorite Leonardo DiCaprio movie.
I like Wauville Wall Street.
They got a lot of them I like.
But in sports, if you don't win the game, you're no good.
If Andy Reed and Philip Rivers were attorneys, we're doctors, we're teachers,
we're actors, we're landscapers, were anything else, you'd be like,
God, they're great employees.
They win 70% of their cases in the courtroom.
Well, they didn't win the OJ trial, so they're no good.
That's not really how we look at law and education and everything.
But sports is different.
I get it.
But this argument that Andy Reid and Philip Rivers aren't great, they're fantastic.
They're not even great.
They're fantastic.
But because of circumstances, it just so happens that, you know, Andy Reed when he had
the Eagles, there were a lot better quarterbacks he was facing like Brett Fav.
And it should be noted that in the AFC, Tom Brady.
is still there and Big Ben and Andrew Luck and now we got Deshawn Watson's really good and
Philip Rivers and a bunch of great coaches and this is called life.
Just because you're the second best realtor in Los Angeles doesn't mean you're not a world-class
real-class realtor.
Just because you're the third biggest real estate developer in Dallas doesn't mean you're
not a world-class real estate developer.
We were watching two all-time greats last night, whether people realize it or not.
Andy Reed and Philip Rivers.
Here's Joy Taylor with the news.
No, no, no, no.
Turn on the news.
This is the herd line news.
In the words of Bricky Bobby, if you're not first, your last, Colin.
That's why that was just pretending a movie.
I don't know. I think it's words to live by.
So the Chiefs had 28 to 14 lead over the charges in the fourth quarter,
but allowed them to climb back in the game with two late touchdowns,
then lost after a successful two-point conversion attempts with four seconds to play.
In the end, Chief's head coach, Andy Reid,
cited the team's penalties 10 for 66 yards as a reason for the last.
us. Listen, we've shot ourselves in the foot here. So with the penalties, you can't do that
in a game like this. You know, it ended up haunting us in that fourth quarter. In the National
Football League, you've got to be a bit resilient. That's what you do. You learn from your
mistakes. That's real. And then you get yourself, you know, become a better team.
Let me just say this. It was not a well-officiated game. In the first half, the Chiefs,
Chiefs got hosed on several calls.
And in the second half late, the Chargers got hosed on two awful calls.
So in the end, it all worked out.
I say, I don't get too worked up on officiating.
It was not good last night.
But in the end, it still came down to one team made a plan of two-point conversion
and one team whiffed on the coverage.
That's what it came to.
The game came down to that play.
I actually think it came down to before that.
Patrick Mahomes has to get a first down and drive the ball down and keep the ball out of Philip
River's hands.
That would help.
I mean, it's not, I'm not putting that.
that game on Patrick Mahomes, actually.
I think he was great.
And in the end, like you said,
Philip Rivers was great tur.
What kind of coverage is that?
Yeah.
I don't even know if Philip Rivers was great tur.
I think that you've got to, you have to play defense.
Patrick Holmes doesn't play that side of the ball.
Yeah.
You kind of got to cover someone in that spot.
It's two-point conversion.
But really, the officiating got to a point where I felt like every play
had a flag on it.
Yeah, there were like 17.
Can they play?
Yeah, it was not great.
And by the way, we've seen this in some big games.
I think Dean Blandino was sorely missed.
We hired him.
They need to hire him back, and I love Dean, but they're missing his leadership.
It's like anything else in the world.
We find this all the time in sports at every level, high school, college, and pro.
Leadership is worth what you pay it.
You can complain about Nick Saban's $11 million a year.
They're not the same program without him.
Leadership is worth paying for.
So all you bosses out there, I mean, people who complain about bosses, the NFL lost Dean Blandino,
and they're not the same sport.
Like the officiating is not as good.
It's a lot.
It's hard to watch, honestly.
I don't care about this penalty.
It's too much.
But I do think the Chief has to be better
in situational.
Yeah.
Like, that's just, that's not acceptable.
They would have clinched the AFC West
and had a first round by with that win,
and now they put themselves in a bad situation.
They're still the one seed,
even though they have the same record as the Charger
because they know the tiebreaker,
but they've got Seattle and Oakland coming up.
So last night, the Lakers lost to the Rockets,
1-211.
James Hardin had 19 free-throat attempts,
double with the averages for the season.
And Lonzo spoke after the game, speaking officiating.
He was a great player, and it's very hard to guard him.
You know, you can't touch him.
So the biggest thing is not to foul him, and I'd let him get easy threes.
But he got hot towards the end.
I'm going to say it's tough.
You know, he shot multiple three throws today.
So you just can't touch him.
A couple possessions where you were defending with your hands behind your back,
we were trying to kind of make it a point to the officials to like.
Shout out to foul.
They was calling a tight today, so I was just trying to get my.
get my hands out of there.
So LeBron and Lonzo were guarding the rockets with their hands behind their backs.
Yeah, it was a joke.
It was bad officiating.
And, you know, for the record, it's in Houston.
The crowd gets going.
Hardin's hot, and the officials get swayed.
And, you know, the officials in basketball, the fans are right on the floor.
You see it in college and pro where a guy gets hot and the officials kind of get into the momentum of the player.
And Hardin was just, it was a joke.
Like, it was, by the way, it was worse officiating in that game than the other football,
the football game, but nobody was watching this one.
Right. Well, Luke Wall and in Kyle Kuzman both got
called for texts for arguing with the reps.
But this is a league-wide thing.
This isn't just in Houston.
Like, they get a ridiculous
amount of calls. Now, if you look at the numbers,
the Lakers actually got more fouls.
But Hardin gets treated.
Hardin, it's ridiculous
the way that Hardin gets treated. They are right.
Like, it's impossible to guard him.
Everything gets called.
He has a stepback move that a lot of people in the NBA,
I mean, coaches,
executives in the NBA have said
you're not officiating that play
correctly. He's traveling, he's fouling.
So there's always been an NBA player.
Carl Malone had a couple
of moves where he throw his body at you
and he weighed 270 and he would initiate
contact and Carl Malone lived at the
free throw line. There's always an NBA
player who has an odd style
and the officials get so
it's such an overpowering style.
They just allow it. Michael Jordan
by the way traveled
magic polo.
the ball, his whole career. Michael traveled constantly, but the official's sort of like,
you're the artist. It's a created, established move. I mean, I don't think that they should
overcall it, but I think this is a league-wide complaint with James Hardin and the Rocket. So, like,
it's obviously something you need to look into. Finally, Tom Brady is 41 and the patients of the two-seat
and the AFC. He was the MVP last year at 40 years old. And Drew Bledsoe gave his thoughts
on why Tom Brady just can't quit football. He said he's not playing because he needs to prove
anything he's playing because he wants to play.
You do it as long as you can. There's nothing more that he enjoys in the world than playing and
preparing to play if he was worried about legacy. He would have retired a long time ago.
I don't understand the obsession with talking about Tom Brady's retirement. What is that?
By the way, Drew Breeze is doing the same thing almost as old. Let's let him play. They're having fun.
I just don't, well, I mean, perhaps he was asked about it, but we've been doing this for like five years.
Listen, Joy, I'm going to do this until my teeth fall out.
I'll do this.
I will be on there at 84 and I'll be like,
vision, congratulations to Zion Williamson.
He just won a 30-second NBA championship.
Coming up, a spot by Legal Zoom.
I really hate or no whippersnappers wear their hatch backwards.
And my teeth will fall out.
Like, if you do something, you're paid for it and you love it.
They'll have to get a crane and pull me out of here.
He's not 84.
He won the MVP last season.
I just, it's been going on for like, I think, a solid five years now, and it's enough already.
And then when he's retired, you're all going to be talking about how much you wish he was back.
Like, just let him play.
I will be doing this show so long.
At some point, my lead story will not be the NFL.
It will be e-sports.
And I'll be like, let's talk about Jackson against Bobby, who played in their mother's basement, Atari.
And that'll be my lead story.
E-sports is very...
It's growing.
It's very popular.
All right, Joy, with the news.
Well, that's the news.
And thanks for stopping by.
The Hurd Lie News.
Let's bring him on.
Oh, he is a former ram.
It must have bothered him last night to see the new team in town.
The Chargers, the best team in Los Angeles.
Come on, admit it.
It stings a little.
The Rams were the second best team this morning in Los Angeles.
How do you sound, Colin?
You sound ridiculous.
Come on, man.
The Chargers are a good football team.
Good.
They don't have many fans, and they are a really good football team.
And you know what?
They should really consider, I mean, I just have to say,
Anthony Lynn should be possibly right now, coach of the year.
They're playing in a soccer stadium.
They have lost star.
They didn't have Joey Bosa until week 11.
That's what I'm saying.
He's playing with a lot of backups guys.
I mean, Melvin Gordon has been out.
I mean.
His backup was out.
His backup was, Eckler.
Yeah, he was out.
He was out.
So, I mean, they haven't had a team, like their team, their whole football team together, pretty much the whole season.
Bosa just came back a couple of weeks ago.
I'm sure he's playing great, but he's not playing.
I don't think he's playing 100 percent.
But, I mean, they're doing a great job over there.
I just have to give the, I have to give the Chargers credit.
And I said that they would win that game last night.
I mean, I had an argument, not argument with the discussion of Willie McGinnis.
We were over there.
We were shooting a show last name, SWAT.
Yeah.
I was trying to be an actor last night.
And he said, man, nah, they're going to win.
And he said, what's the score? I said, I'm going to tell you.
There's Chargers can score points and they play great defense.
No, the best defense last night.
You know, the Chargers don't blitz.
They don't have to.
They don't have to.
They literally are what, I think they have the second lowest blitz rate in the league.
They just line four dudes up who nobody's heard of outside of, you know, Bosa, and they can all play.
I mean, them guys, they get to you big time.
You admit this, though.
They have more depth of talent than the Rams have Aaron Donald and Todd Gurley.
Right.
But in terms of the Chargers have no.
No, they're... None.
The only thing the charges have is injuries right now.
Yeah.
But when they get healthy, I mean, you know, you hear me say this.
I think you stole my line, too.
You know, they're getting hot at the right time.
I mean, it's all about what time you're to...
And they're hot right now.
And they don't even have all their guns back.
So imagine when everyone gets healthy.
Oh, my God, this is this team...
They're going to bring back Melvin Gordon, Keenan Allen,
and by the way, Hunter Henry, their tight end.
They're tied in, right.
Who's a stud who got hurt in, like, camp.
So they have three elite...
players that didn't play at the end of last night's game, they'll all be coming back.
By the way, are you one of these guys that's going to tell me the Steelers Patriots is a rivalry?
When it's a robbery, the other team has to win.
And then they don't have robberies work.
You win, we win.
You win, not we win, we win, we win, we win.
Brady's 11.
This is essentially the Steelers against the Bengals.
Yeah, this is no rivalry.
I mean, I think it's a big game because it's Ben Rothensburg and Tom Brady.
I mean, that's what makes it the big game.
But other than that, it's not a right.
And I grew up a Steeler fan because why?
Because they used to beat the Cowboys.
I hated the Cowboys.
But I hate to say, this is no robbery.
I mean, this is a lot.
This is Lopside.
I mean, and right now, the Steelers aren't playing really good football.
I mean, the Patriots, they got to be last week on a flu play.
But they're running the football.
Yes.
They're doing what they generally do, Ben not break, good situationally.
They had a bad weekend.
The Steelers have had like a bad month.
You got it, yeah.
But where are they at?
Then it's Pittsburgh or then New England?
It's Pittsburgh.
No, it's Pittsburgh.
It doesn't mean any.
Are they going to be?
I hate to say it.
I'm going to go with the, and I hate to say this, God, bite your tongue.
I'm going to go with the Patriots on that one.
Yeah, I like New England too.
A blazing five and 25 minutes away.
I want to throw, I don't like this about sports.
I love sports.
Here's what I don't like about sports.
It's one of the only things I don't like about sports.
where if you don't win the game, you're a bum.
Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl.
Yeah.
Okay. Andy Reid's a better coach than Barry Switzer.
Okay.
Pro coach.
Well, yeah, we're talking pro.
Nick Foles and Brad Johnson won Super Bowls.
Philip Rivers is significantly better than both.
No doubt.
Okay.
So why are we always crushing Andy Reed?
This morning, all I read is Andy Reid's a bum.
You know, and I disagree with you.
that Andy Reese, a great coach.
I think because he hasn't won the big one.
You know, when you think, when I think of the Kansas City Chiefs,
and I told him to my friend Christian and Cori, when the Rams played them,
I say, y'all are like this.
You know, all of a sudden it goes,
Shush, Choo, Choo, Houston, we're breaking up.
We have a problem.
They start falling apart.
You never trusted them.
No, never trust them.
At the end of the season, you know, if they can play nine games or seven games, they're good.
But they can't play.
Even in your time.
Yeah.
You cannot trust them.
And I don't know if it's Andy Reed.
You know, it's just some, some teams are like that.
Cincinnati.
Exactly.
Chargers.
I mean, the charges.
Houston Texans.
There are teams in sports.
I've said this, Eric.
There are cultures in sports.
The Yankees have always been, they're better in the big games.
Yeah.
There are, this is the way, I would say, New England is better.
Tom Brady's had bad games.
He's never had a bad Super Bowl.
Neither is Joe Montana.
Never done an exception.
Russell Wilson has often been better in primetime games than a game that's not a.
Kirk Cousins is good in everything but primetime games.
So I think the criticism here is a reasonable one.
There are teams, for years and years, the Red Sox couldn't get over the hump.
Then they got Manny Kurt Schilling.
They won huge personalities.
They got over it.
Now we think of them as clutch.
For 75 years, we thought they were the opposite of clutch.
Now, there's also a game this weekend.
I want to talk about this.
A Sequin Barkley is a rookie running back.
He is really good.
is a chance, Eric, that he is going to break your record for scrimmage yards.
So I imagine you're very happy you'd like your rooting for him to break your record.
That's a chance Santa Claus might drop in here too.
It's a chance that might have, but I doubt it.
Man, no, I don't want to break.
Are you kidding me, Colin?
Look, no, I don't want my record.
Anyone who has a record, and let me tell you, they don't want their record broke.
All these guys out there, oh, yeah, I don't mind my record.
Liar because you talk, man, I don't want that record broke.
No. Have a great year, but don't break my record.
Well, he's not going to break the one that really counts.
That's the 1800 yards.
You have some scrimmage. That's cool.
I mean, I'll say this much year.
Fantastic player.
I think he's a great player.
And you've heard me say this before.
Never thought much of Penn State running backs.
To me, the greatest Penn State running back was Kurt Warner back in my era.
Cajonna Carter?
No.
Just, no.
I hate to say it.
I like Cajana, but no.
And Franco Harris.
Those are the two.
Those two I think of.
After that, it was like, it's,
off the edge. And then this kid here, I hadn't seen him play much in college. I saw him play more
in the pros. I'm like, I never heard him and say, you never saw him play? I said, no. Then I
watched him play. Man, he's a fabulous player. But you don't want him to break your records?
No, I don't. Why do I? Let me ask you a question. What am I going to get out of it? You know,
when he breaks the record? Then they'll be talking about him. They're talking about me.
That's why I want to keep that record. You know what? You're keeping it as they say 100.
I keep it. I keep it real. And another real one I want to get to? I want to get my $400.
Double or nothing on the Super Bowl
Here we go, Joy.
All right.
Double or nothing on the Super Bowl.
You know, can I get some interest?
Because it's been too long.
How about 425 now?
There we go.
Yeah, that's fair.
How about 475?
All right.
I'll just throw this out to you.
Cowboys have locked up pretty much their division.
Colts at home are fighting for their life.
We know Andrew Luck's better than Dak Prescott.
One of my favorite games of the year,
I love the Colts.
in this spot this weekend.
I have a feeling after major emotional wins,
Dallas going to pull back big Sunday.
You know, I don't think they're going to pull back big.
I think Frank Wright knows the Cowboys.
Good point.
He knows the Cowboys.
You know, it's like he'll be paying the Eagles all over again.
I mean, you think about this year.
The Cowboys played the Eagles.
They had 400-something yards passing, 200 yards on the ground.
And you got to go in overtime, that should be a crushing.
I like the coach in this football game.
This is a really good point by you, Eric.
Frank Reich, the Colts coach, has faced Dallas for years.
He knows. He knows them very well.
And I really don't think that people give Andrew Luck a lot of credit sometimes
because you can understand.
Andrew Luck has played behind some terrible offensive lines.
With no running game until this year.
With no running game.
His coach before was an offensive-minded coach.
Now he has an offensive-minded coach.
And I like Andrew Luck.
I mean, I think I'm I say the coach is going to win this too.
I like this.
I see it 24-21.
Great senior.
I love your honesty that he does not want
Seyquan Parkley to break his records.
You know, how great you do, but don't break my record.
I think that's awesome.
Me too.
All right, thanks.
I like that.
Good seeing you.
Blazing five in about 20 minutes.
Coming up next, why last night's Laker loss
was the best night for the Lakers in five years.
I'll tell you why.
Next.
What I'm going to say may sound counterintuitive,
but it is, of course, true.
and anybody that's older than like 23 years old knows this.
You will learn a lot more about yourself in life on the bad days than you will, the good ones.
And that's just the way life is.
You're going to have a lot of good days in your life and very few bad ones.
But those 12 to 15 bad ones, you'll learn who you are.
And in sports, we often think that a win solves everything and a loss is nothing but trouble.
but you learn a lot about your team in losses and how you handle it, how you react to an action.
The Lakers lost last night, and I would argue it is easily, easily their best night of the year.
James Harden scored 50.
He had one of those triple doubles.
I learned nothing about James Hardin last night.
He's a great player.
He'll be a Hall of Famer.
He can score one of those nights where he spent a lot of it at the free throw line.
he's a great free throw shooter.
I learned nothing about James Harden.
That game disappears into the NBA ether in 15 minutes.
But the Lakers found their number two.
And that is what they spent the last two, three months trying to figure out.
LeBron's the one.
Who do we keep?
Who do we trade?
They figured it out last night.
Kyle Kuzma's last 10 games is a lot.
officially the number two player. Twenty to a game, 50% from the floor, seven rebounds, plus minus is
good, eight 20 point games. And they discovered this because Brandon Ingram's been out, so he doesn't
have to share time with him. Lonzo ball, too hot and cold, can't be a two. Brandon Ingram, often
injured, too frail, no dog or alpha, cannot be a number two. And in the last four without Ingram,
has been fantastic.
Last night, here's a look, was maybe one of his best NBA games.
What recovery there by Kuzma, Kuzma on the drive.
What I'm talking about.
I know the league loves three, is this okay?
But when they take away the three, why not dump on somebody?
Quick play by Kuzma.
Folks, two things with Kuzma.
Number one is he's what they thought Brandon Ingram would be.
Long, athletic, and can shoot.
Except he shoots better.
And here's the second thing about him.
He is what most young NBA players aren't.
A dog.
They grow up in AAU.
They're all friends and buddies.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
He's an alpha.
He's a dog.
He's aggressive.
He doesn't want to be friends with everybody.
They found him.
This was a huge night for the Lakers.
They now realize Magic Johnson and Rob Polenka and Luke Walton.
You can deal Brandon now.
You can deal, Lonzo.
LeBron's your one,
Kuzma's your two.
Now, he will not be a two next year.
When they land at Anthony Davis
or whoever they land, he will move to a three.
But if Kyle Kuzma's your three,
and if Ingram moves, he's a 20-point-of-game guy,
you can win a title.
LeBron, another great player,
Kuzma's your three.
But in life and in sports,
don't think winning solves everything,
and don't think losing ends everything.
That game showed me, told me, proved nothing about James Harden.
We all knew he was great.
But what this four-game stretch,
what these games without Ingram have proved,
and last night was the exclamation point,
they've got a keeper.
This is the guy you absolutely don't move.
I said this a week ago.
The Lakers are LeBron and 12th
pending transactions.
They are now LeBron and Coosma and 11 pending transactions.
Good night for the Lakers, actually.
Blazing five, top of the hour, the best blazing five I think I've had this year.
And we've had a very good year, four and one last week.
The AFC is Crazy Town.
I'm watching the Chiefs and the Chargers last night.
It is Crazy Town.
It's still wide open.
The number one AFC seed could become a,
wildcard team within two weeks. I have no idea. I am more confused about the
AFC this morning than I was before the game. If I tried to rank, and I'll give you an example
here, I'm going to, and I don't think, I sat down this morning to rank the eight best
AFC teams in order. Currently, I put the Chargers won narrowly over the Chiefs,
then to New England barely, then I like the Colts, Houston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and
Miami. It should be noted Miami has beaten the Bears and the Patriots. And in the most bizarre stat, perhaps in the NFL, when Ryan Tannahill's quarterbacking and Adam Gase is coaching in their last 16 games, they're 12 and 4. And I'm just throwing them out. By the way, I'm not even including Tennessee who hammered New England. We are tossing aside Tennessee and Miami like they don't count.
by the end of this weekend, it's very possible that all four
NFC divisions will be clinched,
and all four AFC divisions will be completely up in the air.
And again, I'll say this.
In the top eight, I didn't mention Tennessee.
They destroyed the Cowboys and they destroyed the Patriots.
I have never in my life.
We are in what?
week 15. I mean, the NBA, we already know the number one C is going to be in the West.
We know who the number one and twos are going to be in the east. It's going to be Boston and
Toronto. We're in week 15. I have no idea about the AFC. I don't have a clue. And, I mean,
I would say Kansas City and the Chargers, I like the Chargers roster better. But,
but, I mean, that's inches not feet. I like the Chargers a little bit. I like the Chargers a little bit.
And when they're fully healthy, Hunter Henry comes back.
I get Melvin Ingram back, Keenan out.
Then I like them.
Then I think they're just a better team.
But NFC, I know who's good in the NFC and I know who's not.
I can tell you, Bears' defense is for real.
There's no arguing.
Saints are really good.
Let's not argue.
Rams' offense, very potent.
Let's not argue.
Cowboys front sevens, excellent.
Let's not argue.
I could argue about everything in the AFC.
It is wide open.
But even the teams I like Pittsburgh's unraveling.
A New England doesn't have a pass rush.
Houston, I don't trust in big games.
The Colts are still largely rebuilding.
I don't know what I'm getting in the AFC.
And that game offered absolutely no clarity.
I mean, it was, I mean, it really did come down to a two-point conversion.
By the way, you got to love the Chargers going for it.
The old rule in football is, if you're in a big game and you're at home, play for overtime.
play for overtime.
You feel like you should win it home,
but on the road, if you can win a game,
two-point conversion, go for it,
and that's what the Chargers did.
Blazing 5 coming up next.
Christmas around the corner, 1-800flowers.com,
releasing their best-selling holiday arrangement,
best-selling.
It's called the Holiday Flower Tree.
Get 20% off the Holiday Flower Tree right now.
1-800flowers.com code heard.
Holiday Flower Tree.
Ah, this.
This is The Herd on a Tuesday, Friday, excuse me, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles.
I heart radio, Fox Sports Radio on FS1.
Don't scare everyone like that.
I was just reading something about a Tuesday and I messed up.
We worked hard to get to Friday.
We certainly did.
There's no reason anybody would want it to be Tuesday.
It is Friday.
I swear to God it's Friday.
And Joy Taylor is joining me.
Derek Johnson, former Kansas City Chief Star, will be joining us.
multiple-time Pro Boulder, Derek Johnson will be joining us.
Monday's headlines today.
By the way, I don't want to pat myself in the back,
but we have had a rather extraordinary year of football picks.
I don't know, like 60% or something.
I don't know.
Don't mean to get into it, but doing really well off a red-hot week.
Blazing 5 is sponsored by Chili's.
Take your three for $10 to go.
starter entree coke, 10 bucks, makes the holidays easier.
Game time, family time, three for 10 to go.
Blazing 5 sponsored by Chili's.
And here are our picks.
That's a hot one.
Let's blaze it up.
It's Collins, Blazing 5.
Browns and Broncos.
I love Cleveland Plus 3 at Denver.
It's a Saturday game.
Browns have won three of four.
And since week 10, when they got rid of that mess between Todd Haley and
Hugh Jackson in the infighting and the family feud and the impending divorce.
Baker Mayfield leads the NFL and pass yards for attempt.
They are throwing the ball and throwing it downfield, baby.
He is also, and this is key, only been sacked once over the last four games.
That is fewest by any quarterback.
He's got good running backs, a couple of nice receivers, and the offensive line is protecting him.
I'm going to take what I think right now is the better, more optimistic locker room.
Browns plus three win 2423.
Raders and Bengals.
Listen, I've been critical of John Gruden, but they're great in this spot.
The Raiders plus three, I'll take them.
The Bengals defense is, I'm not joking here, last in about eight different categories.
It's one of the worst NFL defenses of all time.
And Derek Carr, don't buy into the hype.
Watch the games.
Hasn't thrown a pick since week five.
And over the last two games, Derek Carr is completing 75%
of his passes and averaging 300 yards.
John Gruden and Derek Carr are clicking right now against an awful defense.
I'll take the better team in the points.
Raiders win 27-21.
Cowboys at Colts.
Like it, I love it.
I'll take the Colts at home minus two and a half.
They've won six of seven.
They have a lot to play for in this game.
They're in a dog fight to earn a wild card spot and the Cowboys already off emotional games
are locked in.
Also, Andrew Luck this year is absolutely a monster, and this is still without a number two or three receiver.
Dak Prescott, for the record, has been sacked 48 times this year.
You're talking about a quarterback, Andrew Luck, that used to get hit that isn't, and one that shouldn't get hit that is.
I'm going to take the Colts to win 2420.
Titans at Giants
Titans Plus 2.5 against the Giants.
team that will not have Odell Beckham. This is an easy one. First of all, slow down on the Giants,
suddenly hot Giants winning streak. They've beaten Ryan Fitzpatrick, Chase Daniel, Mark Sanchez,
and Nick Mullins. Let's slow down a little. The Titans have the significantly better defense.
Eli's still been sacked 43 times, third most in the NFL. The Titans are an incredibly
physical team up front. They're the best.
better team. Now, they're not great on the road, which worries me a little, but I'm going to take
the two and a half. The Titans win straight out. Eagles and Rams. I don't call blowouts on this show.
I'm calling one. This was minus nine. Now it's Rams minus 11 because Carson Wentz is out. Rams are going to
roll and win this thing by a ton. First of all, they're 5 and 0 after a loss with Sean McVe. They're
also 6-0 at home. This is a team that's very good when comfortable. They're facing a backup
quarterback. They're at home. They're after a loss. They're ticked off. And the Eagles have not won a
game this year when they don't rush for 100 yards. Without Carson Wentz, they're going to try to
run the football and the Rams know it. This is going to be ugly. And if the Rams, because golf has
struggled in the last couple of weeks, if the Rams get ahead, they're going to pour it on to give
golf confidence in this game because he's really struggled last couple of weeks.
Rams a blowout, and I don't call these much, 41 to 26.
The Blazing Five sponsored by Chili's three for $10 deal.
Just order from the app.
Take it home, quick easy score, starter entree Coke,
Chili's three for $10 to go.
And for the record, I love those picks.
Love them.
I may bet a dollar or two myself.
That's how much I love them.
I want you to pay attention.
Here's what, I think we're pretty good at this.
I don't think a lot of fans are good at this.
Fan's short for Fanatic.
Fanatic is emotional.
We don't add context to sports.
Some players have better supporting casts.
Some players don't.
This weekend, the Cowboys will face indie.
Dallas has a great roster with an average quarterback DAC.
The Colts have a rebuilding roster that's average with an incredible quarterback in Andrew Luck.
Dak will face very little pressure this weekend and will have a world-class running back.
He'll be comfortable for most of it.
Andrew Luck has a spotty running game and will be under siege for three and a half hours.
If you switch rosters and gave Andrew Luck Zeke in this defense, Lord, Lord.
It would be a blowout.
The Colts have better tight end than the Cowboys, and that is it.
And I'm not joking.
That is it.
I love where the Colts are going, but they need another seven or eight players out of a draft.
They have cap space, and they need to go get four or five more players.
They need a pass rusher.
Colts don't have it.
They need a number two and three receiver.
Colts don't have it.
They need a pop running back.
They need another corner or three.
both these quarterbacks, Dack and Luck, have had their teams trade away a first round pick.
Dak got the great Amari Cooper, Andrew Luck got Trent Richardson, who was a bust.
Let's add context to this game.
One quarterback has a loaded roster and is never asked to lead it and pull it.
One quarterback has a somewhat rebuilding roster and is asked to carry it.
Dak Prescott this weekend is driving a Lamborghini.
Andrew Luck's driving a Camry, which is a nice car,
but if you had your option, it wouldn't be perhaps to many people, number one.
Dak has an elite left tackle, a Hall of Famer, an elite running back,
an elite wide receiver, two elite linebackers, an elite edge rusher,
maybe the second, third best corner or first best corner in the NFL.
They're all elite on the market.
There would be bidding wars for them.
The Colts have a really nice wide receiver who drops the ball too much,
an excellent tight end in Eric Ebron,
who appeared to be a bust in Detroit,
a tremendously good offensive guard rookie and offensive defensive linebacker.
Yes, they're very good players.
They're babies.
And I'm going to pick the Camry this weekend.
Fan is short for Fanatic.
We are not good in adding context.
But just know, DAC is driving a Lamborghini to this game, and Andrew Lux driving a Camry.
And a Camry is a fine car.
I drive to work every morning.
I see Camry's everywhere.
And Lamborghinis, oh, never.
Even in L.A. never.
Why?
Because very rarely can somebody have a Lamborghini afford it.
And most people, most families can afford a Camry.
But just watch this game with some context.
One of these quarterbacks has less to work with and is going to have less time.
to throw. One of these quarterbacks has a world-class running back, unbelievable left tackle,
better field position defense, and we'll have more time to throw and more support.
Coming up next, I contend it was a massive night for the Lakers. They have found LeBron's number two.
Chris Broussard, Derek Johnson, former chief, great show today. Still a long way to go. Monday's
headlines today next hour.
Welcome back. Chili's three for $10.
Blazing 5.
Browns, Raiders, Colts, Titans, Rams.
So good to have Chris Broussardin who played football.
Football is your favorite sport.
It is my favorite sport.
How good was that thing last night?
Oh, fantastic game.
Going for two.
How much would you be killing Anthony Lennon in the charges if they didn't do that?
No, I wouldn't.
No, my theory is, by the way, do we have the Phillip Rivers bite going for two?
I want to say this.
You know this.
guy. On the road, you go for two. The feelings always been, if I'm home, I'm comfortable,
we'll go to overtime and I'll win overtime. But if you're on the road, you want to get the
hell out of town. And so Anthony Lynn, who most people in the NFL, I mean, he's in the same city
with Sean McVeigh and in the same state with John Gruden. So he's like, who's Anthony Lynn?
Here's what Philip Rivers said last night about going for. This is great.
He's going to sideline. It's going to overtime. And Coach Lynn said, let's go win it right
now. Let's go for two. Let's go win it right now.
And when he said that, there was so much conviction from him, it was, yeah, let's go win
it right now. I mean, it was immediately turn around and let's go win it. I mean, and if we didn't
win it, we didn't win it. But I think his conviction, it wasn't like, it wasn't. It was no.
Let's go win the game. I love that. I loved it too. And you know, you're also going against a
defense that's weak and knows it's weak. So now they got, wow, they just disrespecting us
going for two. And you're also an offense.
that has mismatch advantages
at almost every wide receiver spot.
So you're on the road,
you've got the right personnel,
you've been mowing them over
for about the last 10 minutes.
Yeah, I've got to tell you something.
The charters are a bizarrely fun team to root for.
They don't have a home.
I mean, seriously, they should be down the road,
and I find them so likable.
They play every game's a road game.
No, they're very likable.
It's hard for me to believe in them
just because of their history, you know what I mean?
It's like the Houston Tech.
Right. It's like, I just can't believe, but they're playing great football.
And they're balanced. They're more balanced than most of the elite teams in the league.
Good call, Chris Broussard. Okay, I said this to start my show is I didn't learn anything about James Harden last night. He's great. I know it.
But I learned something about the Lakers. Brandon Ingram got hurt again left. In the last four games without him, Kyle Kuzma has established himself.
I had an NBA scout tell me a year ago. Just keep watching Kuzma. He's got dog. Ingram doesn't have
dog.
Kuzma's got dog.
Coaches are all looking for dog.
Am I nuts here?
No, no.
LeBron found his two.
Certainly for this year.
Kuzma is a better fit with LeBron than Ingram.
There's no ifs, or buts about it.
Well, one, he can catch and shoot.
Bingo.
And like you said, he has that dog because LeBron does, is such a facilitator that his
second guy, think of the best fits with him as a second guy.
Kyrie Irving, dog, Dwayne Wade.
dog. Like when they get it, they
just go and get it. Kuzma, I mean,
sometimes you're like pulling it back a little bit.
But you like that he's so
aggressive in terms of trying to score.
And a lot of these young guys, these Andrew
Wiggins guys, they're talented,
but there's no alpha.
Kuzma's aggressive to a fault.
For the record, LeBron loves aggressive
guys. He loves Rondo.
He likes J.R. He likes kind of
the crazy aggressive guy.
Look, I'm not
saying Kyle Kuzman is not as good
as Scotty Pippin. I don't think he'll be as good as Scottie Pippin. They're totally different
types of players. Pippin was better playmaker, defender. Cusma's more of a scores mentality.
But watching Cusma learn and grow under LeBron, I feel like I felt when I watched Pippin.
Pippin didn't just come in the league as great. He average eight points as a rookie.
14, the next year I think. Then 16, 17. All-Stars third year. Every year you could see improvement
with him under Jordan.
And I used to sit there and think, I can just see how he's learning.
He's like a pupil at Michael Jordan's feet.
And he improved every year, really every month.
And Kyle's doing that.
I see the same thing with Coosven.
So that tells me that, and I'll go back to this, you think I'm nuts.
Kuzba can hit threes.
LeBron's a better three-point shooter.
They have an identity if they get Bradley Beale.
I'm just saying, now they're an elite three-point shooting team with Josh
Hart off the bench.
you can shoot threes. There's an interesting situation here because the players they would have to
use to get Bill, they're not, they want to use to get Anthony Davis. Okay. Anthony Davis is obviously
a better player. Yes. The question is how good of a fit is he with LeBron? Beal's a great fit.
He's a great fit. He's not as good as Davis, but he's a great fit. I think they're going to go for
the shiny toy, and it may work because, look, Kyrie wasn't the perfect fit.
Wade wasn't the perfect fit with LeBron, but the two of them were just so good individually that they won.
That would be the Anthony Davis model.
I don't think he's going to be a perfect fit with LeBron, but they're both so good that you'd think they could win.
The better fit, though, is Bill Kuzma, LeBron, but is that good enough to win championship?
I think it is.
If the Warriors break up, maybe.
All right, let's go.
I've got to go to two things here.
Number one, Kevin Durant is talking, podcast, banging on LeBron, and you.
I love it. I love it. And I don't know that he's taking shots at LeBron because they are good friends.
But he's laying down the gauntlet. Like I told you, I've always been told he doesn't want to play with LeBron. He thinks he's better than LeBron. And this goes back years. This isn't just since he started winning championships.
He thinks he's better than LeBron and has for a long time. So he wants to compete against him. And he is laying down the gauntlet collar.
Like now, you can sit back and say, oh, easy to do when you got Steph and Clay and, you know, you joined the 73 win team, which is legitimate.
However, he is laying it down and maybe, you know, if he really wants to one up LeBron, don't just keep winning it in Golden State.
But if he went to the Clippers, which there's obviously all this talk about, and he won over LeBron or made the Clippers better, then that really would be Kevin
to Rant sticking it to LeBron. One of the things I said, what bothers me, you don't have to be the
best NBA reporter ever to be great. You don't have to be the best talk show host ever to be great.
But in sports, Andy Reed and Philip Rivers are not great because they don't have the ring.
Barry Switzer has a ring. Andy Reid's a better coach. And that's no shot at Barry Switzer
because Barry did it, was a legend in college and won a ring in the NFL. But the same thing
I've been told gets you hot in the NBA. That you have to be, you have to win the ring.
or it invalidates your life.
I know when it changed.
Because look, Jerry West made it to nine finals, one, one.
One and eight.
And lost his first seven, okay?
And he's the logo.
And his nickname's Mr. Clutch.
And look, I love Jerry West.
There's nothing against him.
But today, if a player got to nine finals,
one only one lost his first seven,
there's no way.
He'd be known as the opposite.
We would mock you.
would be getting crushed daily.
He doesn't have it.
He's not a winner, this and that.
It changed.
It began to change with Bird and Magic.
Okay, Bird and Magic, because they were so obviously just about winning,
didn't care about the individual statistics.
Bird never led the league in scoring, even though he was a great score.
Magic only averaged 19 points a game, but they were all about winning.
And they won right away.
Yes.
Magic as a rookie.
Bird in his second year.
I mean, think about now when the guy's in his fifth, six year, we still think he's
growing. By their fifth or six year, it was like, man, they're in the finals every year. And then
Jordan took it to another level. Thank you. Because he won so much, he set the standard and the bar
so high. And he won those six in a condensed time. Like Kobe won five, Duncan won five, but it was
over a much longer period. And now that's when winning became the end all, be all in the NBA.
And now if you don't win, I mean, it is really held against you. It really is. It really is.
and it's unfortunate.
By the way, I said this earlier,
there are tough jobs in sports.
This moment, it's not the Cowboys.
By the way, there have been a lot of average seasons
by Jason Garrett keeps his job.
Keeps his job.
John Farrell kept his job in Boston for several years.
I want people to think about this.
Luke Walton's won 6 of 8, 7 of 11,
is about two games out of first,
with LeBron and mostly pending transactions.
He's got Magic as a boss, Kobe's agent as a boss, Jerry West in the building.
He's got Phil Jackson's ex owns the team and LeBron on the team.
And I am hearing regularly he's going to get run out of the building by the trading deadline.
This is the toughest job in American sports today.
I'm not saying it will be in 10 years.
We are being ridiculous with Luke Walton.
Are we not?
I think he's doing a good job.
So do I.
This team is what, a game and a half, two games out of first place in the West.
Like you said, I agree.
Everything you said is true.
It's a tough job.
The question, I don't think you'll get, I think he'll survive this year.
The question is, will he be back next year?
That's the question.
And if they go deep in the playoffs, which, why shouldn't they?
If they don't go deep in the playoffs, I don't think it's going to be Luke Walton's fault.
It'll be on the players.
Like, because the West is there for the taking in terms of getting to the conference finals.
You got OKC, you know, after.
after the Warriors, of course.
OK, see, and who?
I mean, Houston's having all sorts of troubles.
You got LeBron James and Kuzma's coming,
and you got depths, you got Rhonda,
you have veterans who've been there.
We'll see how Luke does in the playoffs,
but I think he's going to survive this year.
I don't think he's gone before the trade deadline.
I heard Stephen Jackson on here, though, say he couldn't play for Luke.
Here's the challenge for Luke,
and this is probably why you hear some of the things you hear.
Luke is coaching players and against.
players that he played against.
And they know, forget he wasn't great.
We know he wasn't great.
Most of the ex-players that are good coaches weren't great.
But Ty Lou, who's doing in the same boat as Luke,
coaching the, yes.
He was viewed as a dog.
He wasn't a great player, but people respected him players as, yo, he goes and gets it.
He's a warrior.
Derek Fisher, same thing.
He's a dog.
He's a warrior.
He hit big shots.
Luke didn't have that.
That's why a guy for, but here, Phil Jackson, not a great player.
Pat Riley, not a great player.
But guess what?
By the time they started coaching, pretty much everyone they competed against was done.
And it was a younger generation that didn't really remember them as players and all that.
And they could build themselves up as these great coaches.
That's what Luke is fighting with some of the guys that are his age.
I mean, he was in LeBron and Ways draft.
That's good point.
Good senior.
Who do you like Cowboys Colts?
That's a tough one.
Cowboys have wrapped it up.
They've wrapped it up.
And the Colts are fighting for their life.
I think I'm going to go with the Colts.
I love the Colts this weekend.
Don't hold me to that, but I think I'm going to go with the Colts.
You know I'm 40 and 20 in my picks this year?
What?
40 and 20.
With the spread.
What?
40 and 20.
That's right.
What is that you in Park?
I could be making millions.
Yeah, me and Parker.
You're 40 and 20.
I'm 40 and 20.
I'm not going to tell you what he is, but I'm, he's, I'm crushing.
I'm not even competing against him anymore.
Yeah.
I'm just competing against myself.
You're like Alabama and he's temple.
I mean, he's under 500.
I'll just put it that way.
I'm 40 and 20, man.
Well, that's the reason I, well, I always ask you football questions.
Hey.
You know your stuff.
People listen to me and bet, and you might win some money.
There you go.
Thanks, buddy.
Joy with the news.
No, no, no, no.
Turn on the news.
This is the herd line news.
Sounds like you, we might need to consult.
Chris Broussard on our 2005 fix.
No kidding.
How's your record?
After last weekend, I'm at 57.5%.
So if I finish it, 61's my highest percent.
We usually try to get to 57-58, which means I could be a professional gambler.
If I had the stomach for it, which right now I don't.
All right, Joe Montana is 4-4 in Super Bowls.
Tom Brady is the only quarterback to win five Super Bowls.
Montana's Super Bowls only span eight years.
Brady's have spanned 15 years in the discussion about the goat.
continues. Joe Thaisman had his take on the difference between the two. He said Brady is the
greatest who ever played the game. Joe Montana is definitely in that conversation. But the thing I
look at with Tom is Joe had a fairly consistent group around him. That football team pretty much
stayed intact for a while. Tom has had so many different receivers, so many different line combinations,
so many different running backs. This is the thing about Brady that nobody, I mean,
again, Troy Echman's great. He mostly had the same seven-star players. Terry,
Bradshaw's great. Mostly had the same
seven-star players. Same with Joe Montana.
It is really remarkable
that Tom has done it.
You know, Tom has thrown a touchdown pass.
I could be wrong here. I think 78 different
players have caught a touchdown pass.
It sounds right. Now, in Bradshaw
and Aikman's era, people didn't trade as much.
So there wasn't all this mobility, just like in society
today is more mobile than it's ever been. So I'm not
blaming Akeman or a Bradshaw or a Dan Fouts
at great Joe Montana. But
Brady is just, and like in the NBA, generally magic Kareem Worthy, that's the group.
Shaq, Kobe Fisher, that's the group.
I don't think there's ever been a superstar that's been this great, that has played with more people.
I guess LeBron would be the only thing that compares.
I thought we locked up the goat conversation.
We're still doing that?
No, it's over.
It's done.
I thought we all agree that that was done.
All right.
So last night, great win by the Chargers.
It came back from 14-point deficits.
Of course, they beat the Titans 2019 in London, week seven after the Titans failed to convert a two-point conversion to win the game.
And the charters are infamous for having kicking problems.
But they did go for it.
They went for the two-point conversion.
And Philip Rivers said that Coach Lynn was very confident about what to do.
Two-point conversion.
Talk about that.
Were there any talks of doing that before the drive?
No, no.
It was a surprise.
I was coming off to kick the PAT and go to O.T.
I hope we win the coin toss.
And Coach Lynn said, hey, let's do it.
go win it right now. And we went right back out there. Mike caught a touchdown on the very same
play in the other corner of the end zone in the first corner, or first half, and then we dressed it up
a little bit and threw it to him again. I like it. I like that it was aggressive. So do I. I, I am big,
you know, you and I have talked about this. In the world today of sports, aggressive wins. The Houston
Astros didn't have to have Justin Verlander. They went after him. J.D. Martinez,
they went after him. The Rams didn't have to have in dollars.
And Sue, they went after him. Philadelphia.
If you look at what's happening in sports joy, being a little overly aggressive is much better than a little passive.
And it just pays off.
If you go out and get a player, take it.
I think what it does too, it really buoys the locker room.
Like what a coach is basically telling you is, we got better players than them.
I don't give a rip we're in their place.
Let's go win the game.
And that they believe in you.
When you're on the road, you have the momentum.
you have Philip Rivers. He now has 11 comebacks of 14 points or more in his career. That's the most by any active quarterback.
So if you're going to have confidence in anybody coming back in that spot, it's Philip Rivers.
And win the game. And they really have nothing to lose because they're up three games on the wild card anyway.
So now they're in basically the driver's sea if the chiefs lose either of these last two games.
We may have the two best teams in the entire AFC in the AFC West.
It could very well be the Chargers and Chiefs. I think this morning,
Those are the two best teams in the AFC in the same division.
We could have like a 13-win team be a wild-card team.
It's really bizarre.
It is.
We could have a 13-win team on the road.
And I think the most talented, last year I thought the Eagles had the best roster in the league,
and then it fell apart physically.
I think the Chargers have the best overall roster in the national football.
We've been saying it for about a month now.
It was a really impressive one by them.
And that was the real deal brought to you by Carl's Jr.
And Hardee's and the Chargers.
are the real deal.
Finally, the Saints sent a broom to Cam Newton last year after they went 3-0 against
Carolina.
The Panthers are 6 and 7, and I've lost five straight games, and the Saints are first in the
NFC South at 11 and 2.
Here is Cam on that gift.
And they sent a broom to, so, you know, I ain't take the pack out, so I'm going to send
to the sender.
if everything gets taken care of the way we know we can do it.
It's been a rough month for Cammy.
Cammy's had a rough month.
Well, they have the Saints at home this week,
and then they play the Saints again in week 17.
So they can still get in.
They have to win both.
They can still get in.
They're not going to win either,
but they could still get in with two wins over New Orleans.
I feel like this year has just been like this.
Well, that's Cam.
Cam's never had back-to-back winning seasons.
If you're an inconsistent personality,
you'll become an inconsistent player.
And I always think with LeBron, he's a very consistent guy, works his tail off.
I mean, he's into his body.
Like Brady.
I mean, I'm not saying that Cam Newton doesn't work hard.
I think he really does.
But it's just bizarre.
And this year especially, it's been like, I feel like it started weird.
And then we were like back on the bandwagon.
He's playing consistently.
And then we're back here.
Roller coaster.
Roller coaster cam.
And I think that's, when we look at Cam, his legacy will be roller coaster
And it's just frustrating because he's really a superstar.
And it's just the league is better when he is playing great.
By the way, league is better when Blake Griffin was getting on TV.
Blake Griffin's the same thing.
There's no question.
He's a superstar.
Westbrook's a superstar.
But do I get the first quarter, Westbrook or the fourth quarter, Westbrook?
Do I get mid-season Westbrook or first round playoff getting angry at fans?
I think Westbrook is great all the time.
But I do see what you're saying about Cam.
All right.
Joy with the news.
Well, that's the news.
And thanks for stopping by.
The herd line news.
To touch on something Joy just talked about.
I think the Chargers have the best roster in the league.
I thought Philadelphia did last year.
Eight key statistics.
Now, they were on the road.
They were missing their star running back and their star receiver for a big chunk of the game.
Eight keys to stats all went the Chargers way.
First downs, total yards, yards per play passing, yards per pass, rushing, yards per rush possession.
And they won all of those stats on the road.
And just think about this.
is that they were missing their top two running backs,
and at the end of the game, their best receiver.
Now, think of what that means.
Seattle last week was missing their best receiver, Doug Baldwin.
They couldn't move the ball.
The Rams lost receiver Cooper Cup, their second best receiver,
have not been the same offense.
Philadelphia lost two running backs and a wide receiver, Mike Wallace.
It tanked the season.
When you can lose, not just your two best running backs,
but one of them, Melvin Gordon,
is a top three running back in the league.
Keenan Allen's not available late.
You don't have Hunter Henry the Titan hasn't played all year.
You just got Joey Bosa back.
They are stacked.
I mean, this roster is absurd.
The Rams have more star players, but not a lot of depth and holes.
The only hole in the Chargers to me,
I don't love their guard play.
Their center pouncy is a pro bowler.
Their tackle's really good.
Their guards interior blocking is really, really average.
outside of that, they go four receivers and three running backs deep.
Two pass rushers.
I mean, they are a loaded team and will probably open and close the playoffs on the road.
Holidays are here.
Derek Johnson, former Kansas City Chief, Anne Rader and a Pro Bowl,
or one of the great college football players have ever seen.
He's joining us next.
Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.
Twin brothers defend their titles in a huge night of championship fights on
Fox. Jamal Charlo takes on
Willie Monroe Jr. while Jermel Charlo
defends his belt against Tony
Harrison, PBC, December 22nd
only on Fox and the Fox Sports
These twins are 58 and O.
I don't even know, has there been another
twin tandem like this?
It's pretty remarkable. I mean, can you imagine the
NBA if you're like, yeah, these guys are twins.
One average is 28 a game, 129.
This is LeBron's twin
brother. You'd be like, what? And they've never lost.
I think you could pull that
outfit off, though.
That's not...
That looks not like me.
No?
No, that's not...
You're a little more subtle?
No.
I want to bring on via the Coward Global Satellite Network.
Derek Johnson,
decade and half in the NFL, is going to be a Hall of Famer, multiple pro bowlers,
Pro Bowls, Chiefs all-time leading tackler, played against Philip Rivers multiple times.
Andy Reid offered him a job in Kansas City.
He turned it down, played with the Raiders until week six this year they cut him.
So first of all, Derek, I want to ask you about Philip Rivers, because you faced him a lot,
had success against him, but I'm watching him last night, and he throws it weird, he's a
trash talker, he's a different, he's a different dude. What was he like uniquely to face?
What did he offer that others didn't? You know what? I love going against Phillip Rivers,
and we go back and forth since I'm the middle of the defense, kind of like the quarterback
of the defense, as far as eye control and trying to trick each other, as far as jumping,
jumping his eyes as far as different routes that he possesses out there with his great offense.
Man, you know what? Over the years, he's been so good, man. He's been so consistent.
And early, my first half of my career, he beat me a lot. He beat me a lot, I have to say.
But the second half of my career, you know what? I think I'm about even with him, especially when
Andy Reid came aboard. Let's talk about Patrick Mahomes, who is obviously very gifted. He does
the left-handed throw and the no-look stuff.
Owen three in his biggest games, do you worry about this that he's flashy?
And flashy's fine, but if you look at the history of Derek of this league, Tom Brady's
not flashy, Manning's not flashy, Breeze and flashy, you know, do you worry that Mahomes
sometimes is a little bit of a hot dog, a little bit of a flashy player?
You know what?
You got to give credit.
You got to give credit to Pat Mahomes.
I mean, you kind of got to put him in his own category right now.
He's a guy that's throwing, he's throwing some balls that nobody's ever seen before.
And he is flashy, but that's his game.
And sometimes it's okay to hold your breath at times when he rolls out because most of the time,
he's going to make that flashy throw or throw across his body or make that great throw down the field to Tyreek Hill.
But he's a guy that last year, he was our scout team quarterback, and he would mess up the defense every time by
looking off, throwing a ball this way.
And I just kind of thought he was just, you know, hot dogging, just kind of playing around.
But this is what he does.
I mean, he's really good at what he does.
And I wouldn't slow it down at all.
I would keep him right where he's at and just go with that.
Kansas City seems like they're always good, but struggles to win the big one.
Andy Reid, by the way, who I think is one of the great coaches.
Unbelievable resume has struggled to win the game.
Do Chiefs players sort of feel at hanging over them?
Do you kind of feel in Kansas City?
We got it.
We got it.
Like the Red Sox before they finally beat the Yankees.
Is there a feel in Kansas City of we got to break through this wall?
You know what?
There's a little bit of pressure when it comes to that far as traditionally over the years,
not being able to win that playoff game.
But I tell you what, man.
I just think things are coming together for Kansas City.
I mean, last year, I go back to last year and just,
being up 21 to 3 against Tennessee in the second round of playoffs and to give that game up like we did.
But I tell you what, each year they're getting, Kansas City is getting better and better.
And what better coach do you want driving the bus than Andy Reid?
So I think they'll get over that.
I mean, this year, this is the year that Kansas City would probably go to the Super Bowl
and Pat Mahomes will probably win MVP.
So this is a, this is a lot of big things going on.
Yeah, for the record, Andy Reid offered you a coaching job.
And you turned it down because, and Annie Reid has a history, his disciples are successful.
Any reason you turn it down?
You know what?
I want to further my career in football.
I still think I have some things left to do on the football field.
Didn't quite work out with the Raiders and John Gruden.
And I'm wishing him good luck.
I'm still working out, by the way.
So hopefully this month I can get on a team and a playoff team.
It's a playoff team to help somebody.
Hopefully it's cheap, that'll be good.
But at the same time, I'm going to turn down that coaching job right now.
And I'll further that a little bit later on.
But that just lets you know what Andy Reid thinks about me and my mental aspect of the game.
And Andy Reid's best head coach I've ever been a part of.
And you always have had a great reputation as a learned player, a coachable player.
you're in Oakland briefly with John Gruden.
They let go at Khalil Mack, let go Ovalmari Cooper.
I've been very critical of John Gruden,
although I still think he's a pretty cagey offensive guy.
Is it fair for me to say the locker room,
the whole things felt a little toxic.
They just fired Reggie McKenzie.
Was it the strangest locker room you'd ever been in?
You know what?
Strangely, it wasn't strange.
It was weird.
It was one of those things where a lot of stuff was going on,
media-wise.
John Gruden did a great job and not letting that spill over into the locker room or spill over into his speech or his talking to the player.
But at the same time, a lot of things going on as far as, of course, different talks were going on with not signing Mac back and different guys.
When you lose, it's hard.
It's a hard deal.
So when you lose the way the radius was losing and when I was there, you kind of got to retract and go back to that rebuilding mode.
So that's why they started cutting some older players and kind of put.
more young players in, but I tell you what, I like John Grude. He's a guy that's, he's tough,
he's gritty. He reminds me of a defensive guy, but he's an offensive-minded coach,
that eventually something will happen for him, but right now, he, you know, he's got a little
work to do. What if the Chief's rival, the Patriot, said, come play with us in the playoff
run. Would you become a Patriot? You know, well, yes, I would. I'll be, look, I'm already
stretching now, getting ready, you know what I'm saying that?
You know, that's one of them things, man.
You know, my mental aspect for the game is this game is a passing league.
So when it comes to that, you've got to have a quarterback type of person on the field as a linebacker like myself.
And, man, it's really a mental game out there.
And I know a lot.
And I still can run.
So I just want to put that to use right now before the next stage of my career.
Well, Derek, you were a great college player.
Go horns.
amazing NFL career.
You got a little left, you believe,
and I think you'd be a great addition.
You're a credit to the game.
You'll be a Hall of Famer.
Chiefs All Time leading tackler and multiple Pro Bowls.
Good talking to you, buddy.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Great. Derek Johnson.
Free agent linebacker, by the way.
Yeah, you know, there's another guy.
He goes, yeah, Annie reads the best coach I've ever had.
Of course, Andy reads great.
We've got to get over this stuff.
You got to five NFC championship games.
You can be great.
You can't be the great.
greatest. I would say this. Yeah, you can't be the great test unless you win. That's fair.
Yeah, I mean, Bill Russell, but I will say, okay, you know, Jabbar, great. So, so
LeBron, Magic, Bird, Wilt, Russell, Jordan, they've all won title. So then, so they all,
so can you be, you don't think you can be great without a ring. No, no, no. I think you can be great.
I think you can be all-time great without a ring.
But you can't be the best.
You can't be the greatest, no.
That's why Dan Marino, that's fair.
So Dan Marino.
No one argues Dan Marino was
absurd.
Was one of the greatest quarterbacks ever played.
But he can't be the greatest because he didn't have a championship.
Whether that's entirely on him or not, it's a team game.
So if you were in the tour to France and you finished second 80 times out of 80 years
and nobody else ever was even close to that,
some guys, one guy won two races, one guy won two races, one guy
won one tour to France. I can't be
the greatest racer ever for finishing
second 80 times. No.
You might be if you're in the tour to France
at 100 years old.
I mean, you're very impressive.
If I say, we, I finish second
again. The rest of these
young people do nothing.
You don't have to be French
to be in that race. I just think
that there is something in sports
to winning. So I can't be
the greatest actor unless I have an Oscar.
No, because that's based on opinion.
At the end of the day, that is someone's opinion.
I don't like your rules in life.
They are restrictive.
If you're not first or last.
I mean, what do you mean?
Hour three next.
Hour three, here we go.
This is the herd, wherever you may be.
And however you may be listening.
We are live in Los Angeles.
Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1.
Joy Taylor, joining me.
I love these Thursday games.
I didn't get it when the media complained a couple years ago.
I think they've been great.
I think Fox is amazing.
Let me just say this.
At Fox, we do the NFL really well.
We win the most Emmys on it.
We do really, really good things with the NFL.
It's like animation with a Simpsons family guy.
We're really good at that.
Politics, you may not like our politics, but we know what we're doing with politics.
We run a really good political business.
We do football really well.
Thursday games always felt second class.
And then Fox took over the Thursday games.
They're great.
They feel like playoff games.
We do football at this company really, really well.
We have 40% of NFL games.
They feel bigger.
They feel louder.
The production's amazing.
Our announcers are great.
Last night felt like a playoff game.
It felt huge.
Not going to call out any other networks, but we do football, professional football,
better than anybody that's ever done it.
We do.
And also the game was huge.
And it was huge.
And we make it feel big.
Big implications, especially if the chiefs don't.
win these next two games.
All right.
Coming up in 15 minutes, NBA champ, Stephen Jackson on a couple of NBA thoughts.
Best for Last today.
Friday, Best for Last is the best best best for last.
We do Mondays headlines today with Jason McIntyre,
who called the Raiders beating the Steelers last week.
He is bizarrely accurate.
That's in 45 minutes.
But I actually saw the USA today this morning.
And they're blaming the supporting cast of the Chiefs.
Is it maybe time we look at the quarterback?
Patrick Mahomes' first year as a starter is now
Owen three in his three biggest games
and Philip Rivers with his shot put style
was the better quarterback late.
By the way, Patrick Mahomes got the ball
with three and a half minutes left,
fourth quarter, lots of weapons at home,
officials giving Kansas City some calls late,
three and out, three and out.
That's your game. Could have sealed it.
But hey, he did try a left-handed pass,
and he's got snazzy hesband,
and his arm is Superman, and at the end of the game, you know who the better quarterback was?
Philip Rivers.
Just like the end of the game, Tom Brady was better.
End of the game, Jared Goff was better against him.
Remember that?
That was Goff's best game.
For the record, the best Patrick Mahomes drive in the second half was aided by two awful calls against the Chargers.
Now, for the record, Kansas City got hosed on a couple of first half calls, but late, they were all going against the Chargers.
The media does this.
Philip Rivers.
I want you the biggest play of that night and one of the biggest of the season.
Philip Rivers on a fourth down.
Keenan Allen's been hurt.
They have no running game.
Makes the throw of the year.
And he did it with his right hand, not his left.
Here it is.
Fourth and eight with a minute, 11 left.
Rivers throws.
Pass is caught.
Benjamin sets up a first down and a conversion on fourth down and eight.
26-yard completion.
Watch this route.
Kendall Fuller is in coverage, and Philip Rivers just lays this ball perfectly.
He knows he's got to get it out.
I don't even know how Benjamin even saw.
That ball was in the air halfway to him before Benjamin even got to the top of his route
and just lands right in his hands.
Throw of the year by Philip Rivers.
In one of the biggest games of the year, that's the throw of the year.
But he doesn't have a headband and he doesn't throw left-handed.
Maybe if we just put a headhead.
Headband on Philette Rivers?
Let's do that.
Let's put a headband here on Philip Rivers.
You know what?
I got to be honest.
I'm watching this.
I like him more now.
I think that headband's the difference.
He's more of a bolo tie guy.
Folks, I'm going to take Andrew Luck's neck beard and Philip Rivers shot put.
And 5 and 11, Drew Breeze and Russell Wilson, give me substance.
I don't want no look passes.
Give me a break on the headband.
Give me a break.
Look at the rookie quarterbacks have had the deal with this year.
Baker Mayfield's coach and coordinator got fired.
Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen have defensive coaches and terrible offensive lines.
And Lamar Jackson starting and his backup, you think his backup would help him?
He's rooting against him, Joe Flacko.
That's overcoming.
Patrick Mahomes has gotten every break in the world.
He gets drafted by a playoff team to a legendary play designer, gets to sit under a really cool veteran Alex Smith and learn for a year.
year. Then he gets the fastest player in the Cheetah. Travis Kelsey, weapons everywhere. They bring
overpay for Sammy Watkins in a division with the dysfunctional raiders and the historically
kind of dysfunctional chargers. I'm not saying I don't like Patrick Mahomes. I like him a lot.
But USA today compares him to Dan Marino today. The hell? What? Stop. He's owing three in his
biggest three games. We do this all the time. The media falls in love with hype.
Westbrook, Harden Derek Rose.
No, LeBron.
Agassie.
No, boring Pete Sampras was way better.
Settled down.
I like Patrick Mahomes.
I like him a lot.
But we're going.
Slow down.
Give it context.
Andrew Luck came into this league with a shipwreck of a roster.
No pro bowlers.
Replacing a legend.
Defensive head coach.
A GM that got top.
out. No running game. Horrible low line. Couldn't keep teams under 28. And he went 11 and 5, 11 and 5, 11 and 5.
Patrick Mahomes had it perfectly laid out. The coach, the roster, the weapons, a year to learn,
under a veteran, in kind of a dysfunctional division. I like Patrick Mahomes. But you know what?
From now on, whenever I show Philip Rivers, let's just put a headband on him. Because apparently
that's what everybody's falling in love with. That in the left hand pass.
But at the end of that game last night, the shot putter from North Carolina State,
who's had his arse kick for 15 years in this league and has never gotten the credit he deserved,
made the throw of the year to his fourth best receiver.
Let me shift to this, though.
Tom Brady is going to face the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend.
I just want to remind you this is not a rivalry.
Tom Brady is 11 and 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They are extras in Tom Brady's movie called My Trip to Another Super Bowl.
They're extras.
He's never lost to Pittsburgh in the playoffs.
They've never denied him anything.
In fact, Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets and Rex Ryan beat New England in New England.
They were 14 and 2.
They have denied Tom Brady more.
Mark Sanchez and the Jets than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If this is a rivalry, it's a rivalry between a seal and a lot of,
a shark. I'm sorry, but
they occasionally meet.
Sometimes the seal escapes,
but I don't remember any big
wins for the seal against the shark.
I don't.
We think it's a great rivalry.
We've been waiting for it to be a rivalry
for 15 years, and it's not
a rivalry.
Pittsburgh.
They're on...
I would say this.
New England, again, is on the road
a Super Bowl. And Pittsburgh's their speed bump. And it's a little discomfort. Make sure you got your
coffee in their holder because you could spill some coffee. It may be a little bumpy. You slow down
for it. You pay attention for it. But did you know there is no Wikipedia page for the Steelers
Patriots rivalry? We looked it up this morning. There's a Wikipedia page for Allie and Fraser,
Celtics and Lakers, Federer and Eddard. There's a Wikipedia page for Red Sox Yankees.
Do you know there's a Wikipedia page for the Ravens Patriots rivalry?
I'm not joking.
There is no Wikipedia page for Tom Brady against the Steelers and the big rivalry,
because it's not a rivalry.
Auburn, Alabama's a rivalry.
Duke Carolina's a rivalry.
I've watched tennis rivalries.
This isn't one.
And oh, by the way, and I've told Joyce from Pittsburgh, I like watching the Steelers.
They drive me nuts, but I like watching them.
Tom Brady yesterday said, I've got to be honest with you.
I think I feel better today than I have all year.
My body feels great.
I mean, in the 14th week of the year, you know, I would say I feel 100%.
I go out to practice.
I practice as hard as I can.
You know, I feel great.
You know, I'm ready for the next day.
And I don't feel any different from day to day.
So it's really encouraging.
I know what I do works, you know, and it's just such a great advantage for me, you know,
as I move into later parts of the season when I know other guys, you know,
aren't feeling as great as I am.
For our radio audience, I'm going to read these, and for our TV audience, I'm going to put them on the screen.
Here's Tom Brady's career against the Steelers, including the playoffs.
11 and 2, 70% completions, 30 touchdowns for interceptions, and a passer rating of 113.
That is not Ali Frazier.
He's not getting hit.
Yes, I will take the Patriots with an established running game.
against the Steelers who have now become utterly one-dimensional in Pittsburgh.
I'll take the Patriots winning by about a touchdown.
Stephen Jackson, Monday's headlines today.
I think the Lakers found their number two in Kyle Kuzma.
He has what many young players don't.
Dog and Alpha and Toughness.
We got a lot of show today.
We got a lot of show today, 50 minutes.
One more herd?
The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days of
week within the IHeart radio app.
Search heard to listen live or on
demand whenever you'd like.
Vic Synex nasal spray.
Cold seasons here. Works up to 12
hours. Use as directed.
For the record,
the NFC, I kind of
feel like I know who are the good teams.
You know, I think the Rams and Saints are really good
teams. I think the Bears and the Cowboys
defense are exceptional. I kind of feel like I
know the NFC. AFC is
wide open. I mean, last night's
even more confusing. I mean, Chargers
won the big game, which they never seem to win.
Chiefs, Patriots, Texans, Steelers lead their division.
I think the Chargers, a wildcard team are better than all of them.
I think the Ravens were better than a couple of them.
Colts, Dolphins, and Titans are in the hunt.
The Titans have demolished the Cowboys.
I mean, demolished them and the Patriots.
The dolphins have won 12 of the last 16 games that Ryan Tannahill and Adam Gase have been together.
And by the way, they have beaten the Bears and the Patriots.
And I think the Colts are going to beat the kids.
Cowboys this weekend, and Andrew Luck, in my opinion, I would give him the MVP, I think.
I think he's playing out of his mind.
What, Joy?
What?
Why can't I be honest?
God.
You just love Andrew Luck.
I also love spaghetti, because it's great.
Okay, but that doesn't mean spaghetti is the best food.
I got to be honest with you.
This year.
Andrew Luck is doing more.
I've never seen you eat spaghetti.
I see you eat spaghetti.
every day.
I love soup.
Soup really should be your MVP.
Here's what's crazy.
This is the world I live in now.
When I say Andrew Luck's amazing, I get pushback.
No, he is and he's had a great season.
Does everybody else's television set not work on Sunday?
Does the whole body of work count, Colin?
Does the entire year count?
Because the first eight games, not MVP calendar.
His soup bone wasn't working for eight weeks.
His arm.
Andrew Luck, MVP.
People, if I suggest,
it. People are like, whoa.
It's not crazy talk,
but he's not the MVP.
The first eight games in the season count
and Patrick Mahomes is the MVP.
I don't root for, I really don't root for teams.
You and I both are the same. We root for interesting.
You and I talk about this off the air. We root for chaos
and interesting. For the first time in my
life, I am begging. I want
the Colts to run
through to the Super Bowl. And I
am going to taunt my audience.
I am so tired of having to defend.
It's like defending pizza. Why the hell
do I have to defend pizza. Everybody likes it.
I don't know that the cults are pizza. Oh, they're good.
They're delicious in so many different ways.
All right, get Stephen Jackson. I hear Stephen Jackson said this this week on the show,
and people freaked out. Play this.
It would be hard for me to play on that team and respect Lou Walt.
Why?
I played against him.
What does that mean?
I mean, I play, he wasn't, I don't respect him.
What?
I mean, he won championships.
If I was on Steve Kerr's coach staff, he got hurt and I coached that team.
Would I still be a great coach?
He got considered a great coach after that.
I don't think he's a coach for that team.
I think LeBron is doing all the coaching over there.
Oh, Lord.
Do you stand by that?
I never said nothing I don't stand by.
So you're standing right in the middle of a room,
right next to those comments?
Yeah, on top of them, but I have to.
You just don't like Luke?
No, it's nothing personal.
No, I know that, but you just don't think he's a good coach.
I just don't think the guys they have on the team,
he's a coach that they'll respect.
to go out there and play the way they need to play.
By the way, you know this because you're in the league.
Not all wins mean you're great.
Not all losses mean you're bad.
Right.
Last night, to me, was a big night for the Lakers.
They have established now, and all these players, they're going to move.
Kyle Kuzma is the number two to LeBron.
Really?
You don't think so.
You don't see it?
I think if they had a number two, they wouldn't still be worrying about bringing guys in.
I think they have a whole bunch of young guys.
You don't think Kuzma.
better than all these young guys.
25 the game since Ingram got hurt.
He can shoot.
I don't think he's that much better than Hart.
I think Hart just, his shot is not falling right now.
I think they have a great whole bunch of young guys with a lot of talent.
You don't buy Kuzma.
No, I love Kuzma.
But I don't think you can just give him the number two yet.
I'm saying, so right now you're still up in the air on Ingram, Lanzo, Hart, Kuzma.
Yeah, you don't know who's going to be the number two yet.
Oh, I think Kuzma's established himself.
A lot of people said that Kuzma has definitely established itself as a professional.
but number two to LeBron James, I can't give him that yet.
What does he got to do?
He has to be a number two type player.
Number two type players are the guys that we're talking about
bringing to play with LeBron, Kauai, KD, AD.
Those guys can be one or two guys.
He's not on that level yet.
Is he like a four?
He can be a good third.
He's a solid third guy right now.
He's not the second guy.
He's not the robin to the Batman right now.
So like on the Celtics comparably,
you would have Kyrie, Gordon,
Hayward, Jason Tatum. He's in the Jason Tatum thing.
No, he's more
Gordon Hayward. Jason Tatum's better than Gordon Hayward.
And Gordon Hayward's probably the fourth
best player on that team right now. I would
go Tatum, then Hartford
then Kyrie first.
Man. What do you
make, so last night, you were a
very physical player.
And you were a tough guy.
I don't like that. Why?
Because people twist that
tough guy stuff with a gangster thug.
I don't say that. You're tough.
I just played basketball.
I appreciated the game every night.
I would call Dwayne Wade a tough thing.
Okay, well, you might say it the right way, but people tend to twist that.
No, I think you were just no BS.
You're just a tough guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, you would, if a fight started and you walked over, people wouldn't throw punches.
I'm jumping in.
If I'm with you, joy, whoever else, I'm jumping in.
I may need you.
I'm jumping in.
If I ever see Baker Mayfield again, I may need you.
Now, Baker's my guy.
I'm sorry.
Okay, but LeBron did something last night you didn't love.
Yes.
tell me.
Didn't this one, this what separates him
when you get put to talk about the Jordan and Kobe
category.
Jordan and Kobe, if you have a guy like James
that's basically unstoppable
every night, but he's having a night where he's going
off almost 50.
Kobe is going to switch on that man without the coach
saying anything. Jordan's going to take that
that they're going to compete.
They're going to want to compete and take the challenge that stopping James.
James is a guy you can't stop. Let me say that.
He's hard.
he's unguarable.
But take the challenge.
Try to make it hard on him.
Kobe would have took the challenge.
Jordan would have took the challenge.
I think LeBron kind of half took the challenge.
We're putting his hands behind his back,
while he was guarding him and all that type of stuff.
And this is the killer instinct that you expect him to have, but we never see.
That has been a knock in LeBron's career that maybe psychologically LeBron feels like,
I'm bringing you enough.
You can't make me guard the other best player.
I mean, and he's right.
He does everything.
He has a great game almost every night.
But at the same time, when you're that great, when so much expected of you,
you've built like no other athlete ever.
You have the skills like no other athlete ever.
You should be able to go out there and be a great defender as well.
And that's all just hard and wanting to stop a guy.
You can't really teach that.
And you have to have that energy to go out there and do it.
By the way, I want to throw this out at you because we've got a bunch of stuff to do.
It's obviously a big football day.
Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram.
So when I look at the Lakers, it's LeBron.
I think Coosma's been established as the two.
He will be the three eventually when they get somebody else.
But I would move everybody else right now.
Like I've seen enough of Lonzo.
I like him, but he's too inconsistent.
I've seen enough of Brandon Ingram.
I like him, but I think he'll never be an elite shooter.
Three years in the league, he's still not.
Would you move even Coosma?
To you, is it LeBron and you'd trade anybody?
If I told you, Lonzo, would you move him?
Yes.
Ingram, would you move him?
No.
You wouldn't move him.
No. Kuzma would you move him?
But sure not.
So you think those guys, you're keeping.
You know what?
I would definitely keep Kuzma.
I honestly think Lonzo is the point guard for the future there.
I think he can build with LeBron.
I think LeBron can help him grow and become a great point guard.
If anybody, I will get rid of Ingham.
before we let you go, you have a connection with Kevin Durant. You talk a lot and text a lot.
And I love Durant, but he tends to think if you criticize him, you hate him. I actually like
him. I think he's the second best player in the league. Have you talked to him in the last couple of
days? Yeah, I mean, it's not that. It's just, he feels like why does, when everybody speak
about their best players, why is it wrong if LeBron's not on the list? Like, you have the right
to have your own favorite players. But when people speak about their big, great, their favorite players,
and LeBron's not on that list,
they feel like he's automatically hating.
And that's so far from true.
So he doesn't hate LeBron.
Not at all.
I've said it many times.
We have many conversations about LeBron.
He speaks high level.
I haven't heard him say one bad thing about LeBron.
But he thinks he's better than LeBron.
He should.
Who are you better than in the NBA?
Give me a guy that you think you're better than.
That it'll be a Hall of Famer.
Oh.
Ray Allen?
Ray Allen.
Definitely Ray Allen.
You're better than Ray Allen.
And Ray Allen going to say, well, Rayleigh, out, shoot the ball, all this.
Manu, Genoblee.
I definitely think I was better than Genoble.
Oh, definitely.
I went to a lot of teams.
If I stayed in that system in San Antonio, people would have been talking to him.
But I went to a lot of different places and put up 20 points.
Blake Griffin.
No way.
That's a whole different animal.
I'm not better than Blake now.
Blake just does a lot of stuff.
Now, hold on.
I can compete with anybody, but I'm being honest with you.
Blake, no, I'm not a better basketball.
That's fair.
Anybody, I want to throw one more out there?
This is going to be a headline in some newspaper.
I was definitely not Tracy McGrady.
What, even close, but I competed with all those guys,
and I had good nights against every guy you named.
Great nights.
Give me one.
Vince Carter.
I think as a player, yes.
As a legacy, my legacy, not even close to his legacy.
Well, he's 60 now.
He's still playing, yeah.
But I'm saying he's probably the best dunk of all time.
Yeah, yeah, I think he is.
I don't have none of those.
none of those accolades but I have the best accolade
Duane Wade
Tupac at the NBA that's my that's my
favorite I'm Tupac at NBA
your Tupac? Yep
which means
I'm an outlaw
alright that's good
yeah that's pretty good
I'll take that
I don't know that I made an all-star game but I'm respected
by my peers so I take that any day
what did you say? What about
a meta?
Meta yeah
yeah you're better than him
how about Mello
I locked Mello up some nights
We like Mello got the best to me some nights
But like I said
I was better than Mello some nights too
He was better than me some nights
But you know
It ain't too many people
Even the stars
Can't say that they dominated me
Every time they played
Even the star players
You know you got to remember
They talk
Shack talked a lot about his team
Beating the Warriors
Hey Big fella
We knocked y'all off in 03
So
If you feel like you can beat the Warriors
Then we should feel like we can beat them too
Good stuff
Joy with the news.
No, no, no, no, no.
Turn on the news.
This is the herd line news.
So KD appeared on Bill Simmons' podcast.
He said he's been on the podcast tour.
Yeah.
And he talked about Zion Williamson.
Now, Zion is widely considered to be either the number one or number two pick in the 2019
NBA draft.
He's averaging 20 points per game and nine rebounds for Duke.
And here is Kevin Durant on Zion.
He's a once-in-a-generation athlete.
I've never seen somebody like that before.
Zion Williamson, I've never seen somebody that's lefty
that can dunk with his right hand like that.
And cocked the ballback so far and
jumped so high off two feet.
I've seen people jump high, but not that way.
You know what I mean?
Durant and Zion are not really the same type of player.
No.
Zion has...
Zion's physical...
Duran 6-9, Zion 6-7, but Zion is 285 pounds.
Yeah, no, I mean, there are players.
A Jadavian Clownie walked into sports,
and you were like, nobody looks like that.
I remember when Big Ben came into the NFL.
I'm like what? A 6-6-260-bound court.
Nobody looked like...
There's never been a quarterback that looked like Big Ben.
Well, I think sometimes because of that,
and this is not a discredit design,
obviously he's a great talent.
He's going to go very high in the NBA draft.
This is kind of what we got into with LeBron.
Like, they're just different physical beings.
Yes.
They're just dominant.
And he's so athletic at that size.
And generally those kind of guys can withstand
more hits, they last longer.
I mean, Big Ben,
that Cam's physically close,
but Big Ben came into the sport,
there had never been a quarterback that looked like.
Big Ben was bigger than the defensive ends that year
in the NFL draft.
So, I mean, this kid is going to be,
as long as he have a good work ethic,
I mean, as long as he loves the game and works at it,
he's going to be an all-timer.
And he definitely has the attention to the guys in the league already.
So the Chiefs had a 28 to 14 lead
over the Chargers in the fourth quarter.
They lost it, we'll climb back into the game with two late touchdowns and then lost it on two-point conversion.
And in the end, Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid cited the team's penalties as a reason for the loss.
They had 10 penalties for 66 yards.
Yeah, not great.
Listen, we shot ourselves in the foot here.
So with the penalties, you can't do that in a game like this.
You know, it ended up haunting us in that fourth quarter.
In the National Football League, you've got to be a bit resilient.
That's what you do.
You learn from your mistakes, that's real.
And then you get yourself, you know, become a better team.
It was an over-officiated game.
The reps were making it rain last night, and it was obnoxious.
It was borderline hard to watch.
As great as that game was, almost every play at the end of the game was a penalty.
Let me say this about football, though.
There's no huddles.
The game's faster.
It used to be football was played in a small box.
Now everybody's got four wide, six secondary people.
The game is faster.
It's more spread.
out. I do think it's a harder game to officiate today than it was four years ago. I really do.
Now, they have about 25 full-time officials and 120 total. I'd love to see and get up to about
75 full-time officials, about three-quarters of the officials are full-time. But I will defend the
refs here. This is a really fast game with the best athletes in the world who are getting faster.
There's no huddles. It is a really, really complicated. And by the way, they're changing the rule book
every 15 minutes.
Sure.
So this is not an easy game to officiate.
It's not like baseball where the catcher the pitcher and the batter are not moving.
You're standing there watching a ball come in and go strike.
You're running full speed to keep up with players and make, you know, bang, bang plays.
I'm not going to put that game on the officials last night.
I'm just saying it wasn't the best officiated game.
That's right.
That's fair.
And the Chiefs have to be better at the end of the game.
You can't blow coverage like that on a two-point conversion.
Finally, the Lakers lost to the Rockets, 126, 11th last night.
James Hardened at 19, free three.
throw attempts double what he averages for the season.
And Loran and Lonzo decided to put their hands behind their back while they were guarding the
Rockets.
Lonzo talked about it after the game.
He was a great player and it's very hard to guard him.
You know, you can't touch them.
So the bigger thing is not to foul them and I'd let him get easy threes.
But he got hot towards the end.
I'm going to say it's tough.
You know, he shot multiple free throws today.
So you just can't touch them.
A couple possessions where I think you were defending with your high hands behind you?
your back, we're trying to kind of make it a point to the officials.
Shout out the foul.
They was calling it tight today, so I was just trying to get my hands out of there.
So, LeBron and Lonzo were literally guarding the rockets with their hands behind their back.
Luke Wall and Kyle Kuzman both got technicals.
Yeah.
But this is a league-wide complaint when it comes to rockets, especially James Harden, the amount.
It's borderline impossible to play defense against him.
It is.
He's difficult to defend.
And gets every call.
Especially at home.
Joy with the news.
Well, that's the news.
And thanks for stopping by.
By the way, I did this earlier this year.
Remember the week, Joy, when I predict, it was like week three, I said all the rookie
quarterbacks are going to win.
Remember that?
John, look out who Buffalo plays.
Oh, yes.
So for the week.
For the week.
I said, okay, so put that down on the glass.
Watch out this weekend.
I think we have the second week.
I want to put my name on it.
Put some respect on it.
Okay.
I want to put my name on this.
I think we're going to have another weekend where the rookie quarterbacks can go 5 and 0.
Baker Mayfield is going to go to Denver and win.
Denver doesn't have its best corner and two best receivers.
Okay?
Baker's going to win.
The Bills host the Lions and Buffalo's playing their arsoff right now.
They're not a great team, but they have a very good defensive coaching staff.
I think Buffalo is going to win in Josh Allen.
Arizona, Josh Rosen, they're a coach.
is fighting for their jobs here.
They're going to go to Atlanta and watch them pull off the upset.
Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are going to beat the bucks at home.
And the only one I'm not sure about Sam Darnold tomorrow host the Texans.
I will say this.
Vegas likes the Jets.
Getting a touchdown.
That's neither here nor there.
I think I will say this.
I'm going to put my name on it.
Very good weekend for the rookie quarterback class.
We've never seen this before where five guys could play.
Okay, we've never seen this.
None of these guys look like a bust.
Now, Josh Rosen needs an offensive line.
He's not athletic enough to get pounded.
Darnold and Baker and Lamar and Josh Allen can move around.
Josh Rosen is a pocket quarterback through and through.
The other four, they're mobile guys.
They can avoid it.
They can deal with a little less dominating offensive line.
But I think it's going to be a big weekend for rookie quarterbacks.
Baker's going to win this weekend.
Lamar's going to win this weekend.
Rose is going to win this weekend.
Josh Allen's going to win this weekend.
And Donald's going to be close because he faces the best team, the Texans.
Coming up next, I think it's one of my favorite segments of the week.
Monday's headlines today with J-Mac, Jason McIntyre.
That is next in Best for Last.
Jason McIntyre and after us, Jason Whitlock, just crushing Andy Reed.
It's almost like you guys had money on or something.
I'm not crushing Andy Reid.
I mean, he's just not a good coach.
Oh, God.
Come on.
He's a great regular season coach.
What is that mean?
You can have.
He dominant when it doesn't matter in September and October and November.
Oh, yeah, it doesn't, last night's game didn't matter.
Well, in the grand scheme of things, do you now trust the chiefs in the postseason?
Do I trust the Chargers?
Do I trust the Texans?
I've got the team for you.
Baltimore Ravens.
telling you. Do I trust the cowboys? I mean, outside of the Patriots, who the hell do you trust in football?
I mean, I mean, I mean, Aaron Rogers can't win a road game.
I'm starting. That's a good point. I mean, no, I mean, when you talk about the word trust, who do I trust?
I trust the Bears defense in January? No, no, no. I trust the Bears defense. I don't trust
Trebiskey. I trust Drew Brees at home. I do, yes. So I trust New England in Foss. Sam Darnold.
Sam, I had to get into debt. Do you trust New England on the road? No. No, no, no.
I mean, everything's situational.
Who do I really trust?
I trust New Orleans at home and Brady at home.
Outside of that, I don't trust Houston.
I don't trust the Chargers.
Most of these teams, I don't have a Pittsburgh.
They have no running game.
Oh, my gosh.
We're going to hit on some of these here on headlines.
We call it Monday's headlines today.
What will the newspapers in America say?
Patrick Mahomes took a step back in the MVP race.
Monday.
Who will be Jason McIntyre?
The quarterback being talked about?
Well, the door is open, right, for the MVP award.
Mahomes did not look great.
All he did it was a first down late.
I think Monday's headline will be Russell Wilson, the forgotten MVP.
Colin, right now, Russell Wilson is playing lights out, having the best year of his career, career low in interceptions,
highest career passer rating, and he's not doing it on the ground, which is interesting.
No rushing touchdowns for Russell Wilson.
Look at these numbers and nobody's talking about him.
Remember, when the Legion of Boom departed, me and a lot of other people said the dynasty's over.
They're done.
This team is looking scary heading into the playoffs.
You know Jerry Joan wants no part of Seattle, Dallas in the postseason.
This Seattle team already beat Dallas once.
I think Russell Wilson's sneaky MVP candidate.
I like it.
Packers at Bears, Green Bay trying to keep playoff hopes alive.
Monday's headlines today?
Well, I got good news for Aaron Rogers.
Great news for Aaron Rogers because Monday's headline will be
Rogers gets eight months to relax.
It's over.
They're done this weekend when they lose to the Bears.
And Aaron Rogers can tune out you and everybody else in America.
Greg Jennings, boy, Greg Jennings is bringing the heat on him, huh?
And I think Aaron Rogers is just going to go into relax mode,
hang out with Danica Patrick and get away from basically what has been an awful two-year run for the Packers.
You know, this is the first time in 20.
57 years they've had back-to-back losing seasons.
If they lose this weekend, 27 years.
This is amazing.
Brett Far have had an amazing run.
Maybe we don't give him enough credit.
I mean, and Aaron Rogers has gotten too much credit.
I mean, I've compared Aaron Rogers to LeBron.
Like, I love Aaron Rogers as a player.
But what a disappointing run this season.
I know they have six defensive players on IR.
But, Colin, I think it ends this weekend with a thud.
I mean, we've talked about this.
Why would you want to go coach
a 35-year-old guy set in his ways,
whose ornery with teammates,
I just don't think it's a great job right now.
No, I've said that.
It is like USC football here in L.A.
I don't think it's nearly as good as five or six other jobs
because it's very political.
You've got all sorts of people you have to appeal to.
The fans only care if you win.
The Packers job, I agree,
is not as great as you would think.
Although I will say historically,
they treat you like gold,
They'll name streets after you.
Except when they fire you mid-season the way they did Mike McCarthy.
But, you know, that's neither here nor that.
All right, Cowboys put a five-game winning streak in the line against the Colts.
Monday's headlines today.
Hottest team in the league, five straight wins.
Monday's headline will be DAC to Earth.
I think the Cowboys plummet back this weekend.
Don't laugh too hard.
I just, Cowboys are overvalued.
You know the advanced analytics guys.
They rank the Cowboys' the 17th best team in the league.
I was reading.
The Colts are 10th.
The Colts are a better team.
They're favored this weekend.
The public is all over Dallas.
Have you noticed Zach Martin yet to practice this week?
They're all pro-guard.
Ezekiel Elliott.
He's got that stinger.
They're 99% into the playoffs.
Now they've got to go out of conference on the road.
I think this is a let-down spot for the Cowboys.
I totally agree.
I like your guy, Andrew Luck.
Yeah.
And I will say this is that the Colts don't have any star defensive players outside of
Rookie Darius.
Leonard. Kenny Moore's a good corner. They really play on a string. They play very, very
disciplined football. And Frank Wright knows the Cowboys having been in Philadelphia. So he has
lined up with this team. Let me add this. A lot of people defending Dak Prescott. He had a 400-yard
game, game-winning touchdown. We saw that game, okay? He was not very good for three-quarters.
He's the reason it was close. No, Goulet, I followed you on Twitter that night.
DAC was awful for three quarters.
He was bad. The fumbles, the awareness, the interceptions.
I'm telling you, everybody wants to pay him franchise quarterback money Monday.
When they say Andrew Luck carve up this Cowboys defense,
we're going to see folks talking about, well, maybe Dak's not the guy.
I don't think he is.
That's just me.
Dact to Earth.
All right, Steelers face the Patriots, Monday's headline today.
So Mike Tomlin, feels like he's been on the hot seat for a couple years now, right?
And I think fairly on the hot seat.
They're not a buttoned-up team, way too emotional, and they play down to their competition at an alarming league leading rate.
For the record, their special teams this year are the most penalized special teams in the league, so they're not buttoned up even on special teams.
Undisciplined, and the headline Monday will be Mike Tomlin updates his LinkedIn profile.
I know this is the biggest laugh.
This is a funny segment and everything, but in all seriousness, Mike Tomlin, I mean, I think he's lost that team.
I feel like they're so one-dimensional
Big Ben taking some pot shots at Antonio Brown,
the undisciplined with the penalties.
I mean, we did call the Raiders lost last week in this spot.
Yeah, let's give him credit.
And you said for the same reason,
it would be a game in which they played down to the Raiders
looking forward to the Patriots.
Joy made a good point earlier about the Patriots on the road.
You can't trust him.
But I'm going to give you one stat.
The Patriots have Rob Grankowski had a good game last week.
The Steelers are 31st in the league.
defending tight ends. Gronk killed them last year in the big game, over 160 yards receiving.
I think he has a big game. I like the Patriots to finally win on the road. And Mike Tomlin
update that LinkedIn profile. You know, what's interesting is that Brady is 11 and 2 against
the Steelers. We were saying this earlier. It's not really, there is not a Wikipedia page.
There isn't for the Steelers Patriots rivalry. There is for the Steelers Ravens.
So it's the... Oh, why? Because it's a one-sided.
Yeah, I mean, the Ravens have gone into Foxborough.
And by the way, they've not only won years ago, the Ravens, a receiver dropped it in the end zone.
I forget his name.
That's right, yes.
He played it.
Lee Evans played at Wisconsin, or they would have beaten the Patriots again in Foxborough.
So Baltimore was, oh.
Is somebody who lived in New England, my friends who are Patriot fans hated playing Baltimore.
Yeah.
They hated it.
I'm telling you could put a couple shekels on the Ravens to win the AFC Conlin with this running game.
They're just going to keep Brady off the field.
keep Big Ben off the field.
Keep an eye on the Ravens.
All right.
Browns at the Broncos.
All right.
You know, we had to.
Headlines today.
We had to wrap up with your boy.
Baker Mayfield.
I believe, I've been talking up the Browns a lot.
Monday's headline will be Broncos get baked in Denver and Colin.
The Cleveland Browns have less than a 1% chance to make the playoffs.
But I'm saying there's still a chance.
If they win out and the schedule is fairly favorable,
They do clothes with the Ravens.
I'd like to make a wager with you.
You've got to wear a Baker-Mayfield t-shirt on this show
if the Browns, less than a 1% chance to get to the playoffs,
actually get there.
Will you do it?
Do it for Joy and me and Baker and Joel Clatt.
Okay, how about this?
Yeah, what happens?
What's the win for me if they don't?
Well, you get to laugh at Baker-Mafield for not making the playoffs.
I've got to get something in all these bets.
You ever notice that, Joy, I don't get anything.
I just look stupid.
Well, you know, we're not concerned about your happiness in the spot for being fair.
Is she going to do it?
No.
Oh, geez.
Come on, Colin.
You know the Cleveland folks really dislike both of us.
I mean, they can't stand you because of how you went after Baker.
I'm going to say this, though.
Baker has looked awesome in the last month.
And they're going to actually have a decision to make with this new head coach they've got filling in.
Yeah, Freddie Kitchens is very interesting because...
You don't want to keep him as head coach.
No.
But you don't want to lose that guy because him and Baker have some chemistry.
Oh, there's no question. And also, this Freddie Kitchens guy likes to throw the ball down the field,
and Baker's a very accurate thrower. Last week, I thought he had his best throw as an NFL player,
the deep touchdown pass, in a double coverage. I thought it was the best throw he's ever made.
Just for the viewers and listeners out there. Saturday night's a big Christmas party night.
We've got two of them. I know Baker. I told my wife, I got to watch Baker Mayfield in prime time.
I have a feeling he shows out like 300 yards. This Denver team is beat up. No Chris Harris in the
secondary. Case Keenham doesn't have much.
Throw this at you because I know you're a Jets fan.
I am.
Sam Darnold in the second half last week was the best he's ever been.
Phenomenal. He's 21. Can we ease up?
No, no. He's two years younger than Baker.
Half the college starts.
And they have, unlike Baker, Jets have nobody on offense.
They're a disaster on offense.
Their line, their backs, their receivers.
They have a young tight end I kind of like.
People have forgot this.
Donald's 4 and 6, two road wins.
If Darnold upsets the Texans this weekend, it's under a touchdown.
Vegas likes the Jets this weekend.
What do you?
What do jet fans feel about Darnel today?
Well, they want Darnel to look good like he did in Buffalo,
but I don't want to sound wrong, but they don't want the win here.
They want the number one pick.
It's not because there's a player, Nick Bosa,
but they want to trade down and pick up the picks that they lost in the Darnel trade.
You know, they got no second round pick.
And you just said there's not a lot of skill position players on this team.
They need a lot, so winning is not as important as just looking good.
and like a professional.
I mean, Baker Mayfield
shredded the Texans in the second half.
There's no reason that Donald can't
look pretty good at home.
Yeah.
Good seeing you, bud.
Thank you.
What a great.
We had Eric Dickerson, Chris Broussard,
the great Derek Johnson,
the former Chief and Raider,
J. Mack, Stephen Jackson.
Monday, I've got Michael Vic on the show.
Sean Merriman always brings it.
He is brutally honest.
Oh, yeah.
Where Colin was right,
where Colin was wrong.
Don't forget a couple of NFL games.
Baker and Sam Darnold both
playing tomorrow on Saturday.
Saturday. That is awesome. And then Cowboys Colts on Sunday. How good is that? We'll see you
Monday. Be safe. It's 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.
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. In every episode,
we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the beach.
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 Slicelife Life 12 in 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
Codenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.
This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
What's up, guys?
This is Cliver 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?
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 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.
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 hungry.
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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
This is an IHeart podcast.
Guaranteed Human.
