The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Patriots-Ravens, Browns, Packers, and where Colin was right & wrong

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

Colin explains why the Patriots will be fine when it matters, what he likes about the Ravens, his huge mistake about the Browns, why the Packers are in trouble, and where he was right and wrong over the weekend. Guests include Eric Mangini, Trent Dilfer, Michael Vick, and Tony Gonzalez. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is 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.

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Thanks for listening to The Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeartRadio app by searching Herd. To Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on a Monday. What a Monday it is. This live in Los Angeles is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. One hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was right, where Colin. was wrong. Michael Vick, who's going to have a great breakdown in Lamar Jackson.

Obvious similarities. They're the fastest guys on the field. And it's just something the rest of the league doesn't do. Mike Vitt coming up this hour. Joy Taylor is joining us. What a crazy, crazy Sunday. There's a million storylines today. There are, and I'm very hurt because every time, you know, I've known this my whole life that I should not put anything, any faith in the Browns. And every time I do it, I am reminded of my roots. Thank you, Pittsburgh, for that. And your dolphins can't even tank right. Oh, no. I mean, I called that on Friday.

I told you and Jason McIntyre when you're walking out, like, hands-down dolphins are going to win this game, for sure. They did. They looked great. Let me start with this. Wow, Baltimore crushed New England. If not for a couple of fumbles, would have been far worse. But let me say this about New England.

I didn't understand how New England won the Super Bowl last year. I kept saying all last year. They have no vertical passing threat. Gronk's old and injured. Brady's just old. They were 21st in total defense. They didn't have an elite pass rusher. They were completely dependent on third down on Julian Edelman.

And oh, by the way, they didn't even have home field advantage last year. They had to go to Kansas City. I kept saying all year last year, they don't look like a Super Bowl team. And then they got to the Super Bowl against the Young Rams team. and I said, okay, they'll win. This year, they look even less like a Super Bowl team. Gronks retired. Now Brady's older.

They still have no vertical passing threat. They still don't have an elite pass rusher. They barely even acknowledge the tight end position. Their first round draft pick hasn't played a lick. And they lost their left tackle and their center, the two most important positions on the offensive line. Oh, my bad. Did I say they're also on their third kicker of the year?

year. They were always good at that. Now you can't rely on that. But come January in Foxborough, Baltimore in New England, who you got? I'll probably take New England. Listen, they have one loss by the by week. Last year, they had three. And Lamar Jackson has only beaten one time that's gotten a second look at him. Cruddy Cincinnati. 99% of the time, here's how I look at New England. My eyes validate a Dynasty. Serena Williams or Tiger Woods in their prime, they just look stronger and more powerful. The 70s Steelers. The 80s, 90s, 49ers, the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan, the Shaq and Kobe Lakers, Alabama football, the Miami Hurricanes for 15 years. My eyes told me they're bigger, stronger, faster, more powerful. But with New England, that's never the case. It's like they're

really good on a bunch of stuff I can't see, like offensive line coaching and situational football and trapping blocks and shifting from a too deep to a zero blitz. And they've been fooling me for years. They don't look like a dynasty should look like. That's why I don't take much from last night. Yes, nobody on this show thought New England was going to go undefeated. We all knew that their defensive stats were better than their defense, although I do think their secondary is phenomenal. They played a bunch of crappy quarterbacks. Here's what I took from last night.

A lot of stuff from Baltimore. Last night wasn't about New England. We know what New England is. Last night was about Baltimore. It was about John Harbaugh being disrespected for years. It was about the fact that Mark Ingram and Lamar Jackson are a pain to prepare for. in the new NFL world where practice, you use pads one day a week, good luck, preparing for the best rushing offense by a mile in the league that's super physical.

John Harbaugh, oh, by the way, he's now 10 and 2 off buys. And because they're so structurally excellent, some of their defensive issues and offensive issues early have been solved because that's what good teams do. Last night was about Baltimore. It wasn't about New England. It was about Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh and Mark Ingram saying, hey, we deserve to be in the Super Bowl conversation too.

Not just in it. We can win it. We went to Kansas City and beat Mahomes. We dominated New England. Nobody's done that in 10 games. Last night was about Baltimore saying, our coach is a top three coach. Our quarterbacks harder now to prepare for than an old Brady.

our organization solved our cornerback issue and our offensive line sluggishness early. It wasn't about New England. Last night was all about Baltimore. And there were two stats that jumped out. New England's defense is good. Their secondary is great. But these two are Super Bowl winning stats. Four for four in the red zone against New England.

Four appearances, four touchdowns. Couldn't say the last time that happened. And 37 minutes time of possession. And the NFL has always been about one thing. And this is something we talk about on this show a lot, but I don't hear it talked about on other shows. What's your identity? This matters for Fox Sports.

It matters for IBM. It matters for Apple. It matters for Starbucks. What's your identity? Is there any team in the NFL that has a stronger identity this morning than Baltimore's offense? We run a lot well. and score a bunch of points.

I mean, half the teams in this league, Cleveland's got the talent, they don't know what the hell they are. Baltimore, and they did this very early with Lamar Jackson. You can argue they did it the day of the draft. They said, we're going to get big, we're going to get powerful, we're going to support this kid,

and we're not going to force him to be what he's not. We're going to use what he's great at and develop what he can get better at. And once again, when it was all said and done, I don't get a loud, cocky, brash quarterback from Ohio. I get a kid that says, we're just starting here. I feel like our team already knew what we was capable of love, you know. We just had to show it, and we did that tonight.

We just have to build off that. You know, we can't just get on our hard horse feel like, you know, we just won the Super Bowl because we did it. That's just one regular season game. We got to continue to build. Just a win, just a W over the world's greatest football team. and his answer is, okay, good game next week.

I go get back in the wait room, make my traps bigger, did that in the offseason. My kind of quarterback. My kind of quarterback. All right, so let's talk now about Green Bay. So New England lost ugly. This is not college football. It happens.

Green Bay lost ugly. Here's the difference, though. I have seen Green Bay lose twice this year. It's not that they lost. It's how they lost. Philadelphia and the Chargers lined up and said, no, we're going to push you all over the field. And Green Bay had no answer.

Okay, now maybe it's their young coach. Young coaches tend to not be the great adjustment coaches like veteran coaches. Sean McBey in the Super Bowl, excellent coach, didn't adjust very well. 65-year-old Bill Belichick's a great adjuster. So is Pete Carroll. So's Andy Reid. So is John Harbaugh. But I don't think it's that.

I think it's the fact that, and I grew up watching Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard as fighters. They were both pretty and they were both dancers and they were both fun. But they could knock you out. They could knock you out. Green Bay is fun and they're flashy and they're cool and their quarterbacks in commercials. They don't want anything to do with tough guys. You ever watched one of those UFC fights? One guy's like, he doesn't look like he wants to be in.

in the octagon. You ever watch a high school fight? The bully picks on the little kid and the little kid. He's just looking for a teacher to come through the door and save him. Green Bay is not beating the Saints and they're not beating San Francisco. Forget about the other conference. Forget about if they had to match up with Baltimore. Green Bay against Philadelphia and the Chargers yesterday, they're a finesse football team. And by the way, this is my argument against Kansas City. I love watching the Chiefs. I love. love watching the Packers, but at some point you have got to impose your will on people in this sport. It's getting cold and windy. And yesterday, the Packers looked like they just flew out

to Hollywood, had a good time, ate at no boo on Saturday night, and then no show on Sunday afternoon. Now, Aaron Rogers said this actually was the problem. This is a good slice of humble pie for us. You know, we're kind of rolling at 7 of 1 and starting to, you know, listen to the chatter, maybe a little too much. So I think this would be a good thing for us. We're a group. Go back home and play another good team for the back. This wasn't about being cocky.

This was about you got punched in the mouth and you wanted no part of being in the octagon. You had no interest being in that fight. And I get it. Some guys are bigger and stronger. But the Saints and the 49ers, well, they can be fun and flashy too. Elle, run you over. Green Bay's offensive line mauled, defense. line, non-factor. Once again, their defense, opportunistic, not intimidating, didn't create

a turnover with an old, unathletic quarterback and a below-average offensive line. It's not that you lose in the NFL. Everybody does except the 72 dolphins. It's how you lose. No adjustments from the young coach and no interest being in that football game. No boo on Saturday night and no show on Sunday afternoon. Get tougher or get eliminated quickly in the NFC. All right, good stuff. Coming up next, I have to apologize. I did something, if you were a young sportscaster and were watching me Friday,

my low point of my football take career. I have to apologize. It was egregious. It's, frankly, it's embarrassing. If I didn't have all this makeup on, you could see my face. turning red. It's just an embarrassing, egregious mistake by me, and I have to reel it back in and own it. I was terrible briefly for only 90 seconds, but I was terrible Friday on something, and I'll apologize on that thing coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays

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What's this music? I don't know. What is that music? It's different. It is different. We're different. The whole world's different today, Joy. It is.

I made, I was horrible Friday, again, briefly. What did you do? Okay. So, here's the thing. I love football. We both love football. Of course. Your brother's a Hall of Famer.

You love it. I love it. I sit around on the weekends in the off season looking at mock drafts. Yes, you do actually do that. I have no life. I love football. And Friday, I forgot about everything I've ever preached about. I care about coaching and situational excellence and history and structure.

My tiny little brain loves structure and dependability. That's what I need. And I threw all of that out Friday because I started staring at NFL schedules. And I went, the Browns have an easier schedule. And Baltimore's gets hard. And I set on the air, seriously, in a month, Cleveland will be in first place and Baltimore will be in second place. I'm embarrassing. I apologize.

I have told my staff to take it off the archive. It is my worst football take ever. Everything that matters to me, I bailed on because I couldn't get over the schedules. And it's embarrassing. And as I'm sitting there last night watching Baltimore win in Cleveland implode, I'm thinking, timeout. I forgot some very obvious things. John Harbaugh is excellent. And Cleveland coach Freddie Kitchens is a bus boy at Applebee's.

I forgot that Lamar Jackson is coachable and hardworking and quiet and getting better. He's even changed his body. And Cleveland's quarterback is loud and cocky and thinks that's leadership. I forgot that Baltimore historically is a step-up organization. Two Super Bowls, two for two. They just win big games. They've never been intimidated by New England. In Foxborough and Baltimore, Cleveland's history, Chapter 1, were imploding.

Chapters 2 through 19, read Chapter 1. And I forgot all of it. Everything that matters to me, I've talked about the big four in the NFL. Who's your owner? Who's your GM? Who's your coach? And who's your quarterback? It is a clean sweep for Baltimore.

They've got a great owner and a smart GM. And then he retired and they got another smart GM. And they got a great coach who's 10 and 2-2-5s. And they found this quarterback and made an immediate pivot into, we're going to change the way we play football, a clean sweep. And once again, Cleveland is loud, cocky, young, and not very smart. Totally on me. If I was a stockbroker, I would have told you.

told you Friday to buy Bitcoin over Starbucks, to buy Blockbuster over Apple, to buy Enron over IBM. It's my worst football take ever. I'm watching Cleveland come out in the biggest game of the year. They're completely flat, which is hard to explain. OBJ and Jarvis Landry are more consumed with their shoes, according to stories, than the game. And Baker Mayfield shaved three times inside the stadium. What are you doing? What are you doing? And again, I know this is what I care about.

To a fault ad nauseum. I can be repetitive and boring. Who's your owner? Who's your coach? Who's your front office? Who's your quarterback? I want eight grownups. That's why I refused to bail on Philadelphia.

Why everybody bailed on the Eagles after the cowboy loss, I'm said, no, no, no, no, no. They're structurally too good. Let him get healthy. I'm not bail on Philadelphia. Yet I was willing to bail on Baltimore. my bad. Burn the tape.

Erase it. Archive it. Do whatever you got to do, Goulet. My worst football take ever. Agreedously bad. I'm going to apologize to Joy personally having to sit through that nonsense. Now again, I am usually brilliant, but for two minutes

I was a dope and I apologize. It's okay. You went a little far with predicting that the Broncos would end up first over the Ravens. But there's no reason why the Browns shouldn't have won that game. So that game prediction wasn't off. How can you come out flat?

Brandon Allen had never taken an NFL snap. Move the ball down the field, the running game. They did anything they wanted to in the first half. What's happening? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question. Micah Vic Brown in the corner, Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Let's stick with that game. The Brown suffered a 2419 loss on Sunday to Brandon Allen and the Broncos, A first-time starter, as you mentioned, had never taken an NFL snap. Not one. Following the game, Freddie Kitchens, head coach with the Browns, insisted that the calls for his job do not bother him in the least. No, it really doesn't concern me.

It's not my decision. And I've never worried about it before and I won't worry about it now and I won't worry about it in the future. I'll just do the best job I can do. You know, I feel for Freddie Kitchens because this is a tough situation for any coach. A veteran coach this would be a tough situation. And it's not any different than any other outcome that Brown's head coaches have. I mean, he officially has a worse record than Hugh Jackson did.

I mean, Hugh Jackson was fired with a two, five, and one record a year ago last week. He is now two and six. So what's the difference in the situation? Can any reasonable person tell me that Freddie Kitchens is a better head coach than Hugh Jackson? There's no reasonable person. Listen, you may not like Hugh Jackson. he's been a head coach and won games. Right.

And I think part of what, not to steal this onto Hugh Jackson, but I think the hard-knock situation did not help Hugh Jackson. Right. So had Hard Knocks not been there last year, I don't know that we would be having this conversation right now because that set a different tone. If anything, I would say this is worse, because this Brown's team had expectations

and they have a lot of talent. What Hugh Jackson was dealing with was not this. So I would argue that this situation is much worse. Now, as far as Freddie Kitchen's losing his job and all of that. Like, I don't think they should fire Freddie Kitchens in the middle of the season. For what?

I mean, why would you fire Freddy Kitchens in the middle of the season? That makes no sense. It's everybody in New York calling for Adam Gase's job. Yeah, no. Can we just let Sam and Baker get through their second coach? Yeah, let them get through the season before we make rash moves. I'm very anti-firing coaches in any sport in the middle of the season,

unless you are playing, unless it's some other, you know, circumstance. But firing in the middle season is going to solve nothing. So I don't even know why this is a conversation. But, I mean, there's no excuse for that. There's no longer an excuse for what's going on with the Browns. None. That was not supposed to be a loss by any measurement whatsoever. Even if it wasn't Brandon Allen out there, they should have won that game.

This is a Denver team that is acknowledging they have a battle line and a quarterback that never took a snap. This is the easiest game circumstantially on your schedule. That was the easy one. I mean, by the way, you go to Denver in November. sometimes it's snowing. The weather was nice. It was laid out for you. And listen, I get it. It's any given Sunday, but there's just certain expectations for certain teams, and that's not acceptable. Right. Well, I warned you this would happen. Dolphins were going to mess up that tank no matter what. Dolphins are no longer winless. They ended their 10-game losing streak with a 26-18. I'm sorry,

victory over the Jets yesterday. I told you on the way out of the show on Friday. They're going to win this game. I could feel it in my bones. Let me tell you something. Wildly entertaining for two cruddy teams. great watch. It was all sorts of fun. No matter how bad either of these teams are, that's going to happen with the dolphins and the Jets. Well, here is Fitzpatrick talking about the team's performance over the past few weeks. Things that we've had to fight through and all the, you know, negativity that is surrounding from the outside looking in, the way that guys have decided to be positive, decided to practice well, decided to come to work every single day and work hard. That's what makes this one so special.

And it's nice when something like that pays off and you can see the fruits of your labor. We talk about it all the time. The dolphins play hard. Hard. They play for Brian Flores. And you can tell that at the very least, they have energy and they're playing with purpose. It's not just a dead team. No.

And by the way, even when they lose, they've been good. Remember the Dallas game? They have been good in every first half. They have no. First of all, they have no depth. Right. They've traded away for draft picks. But I don't remember, even Buffalo,

good first half, Dallas, good first half. They come with a plan. They execute it to the level they're capable of. And then they usually run out of gas. I mean, I believe the points they scored in the third quarter yesterday, were the first ones they've scored in the third quarter all season. No, I mean, they just don't, they don't, they give you, they come out with a game plan, execute it, and they're limited.

But they play, that's a bad team that is well coached. And there is such a thing. Right. And as I say all the time, coach is important. Players don't tank, organizations tank, front offices tank. Players and coaches don't ever want to lose. Finally, the Lakers have won five straight games and are currently five in one and first in the West. One of the reasons for the Lakers' early success has been LeBron playing amazing.

He spoke following the 103-96 win over the Spurs and attributed his resurgence to being healthy. I'm playing injury-free. I'm not injured. My quick twitch is back. My speed is back. My strength is back. You know, playing with a torn and grown last year. even when I came back, it was still partially torn.

It was just difficult to be able to move and shift. Like, I'm capable of doing that defensively. And then for me, I just take the challenge. I love being challenged. Coach challenged me, AD challenged me. I challenged myself. He also went on to say that the Lakers are just scratching the surface and that they're a very good team defensively.

Do you know they lead the NBA in Blocks ATA game? I looked this up yesterday. Sometimes you can just see. Remember the Kobe Gassal teams? And they had MetaWorld people. and Kobe and Gassau. Very long. This team is long.

They get a lot of blocks and a lot of steals and a lot of knockaways and tip balls. They're a very long veteran team. I do like what I'm seeing from the Lakers to start the season because generally when LeBron's teams come in, I mean, all LeBron's teams come in with great expectations, obviously, but this is a different situation. It was like the first year in Miami and now, you know, he has AD at the Lakers. Like there's another level of what are you going to look like. So for them to come out in the season playing the way that they are,

huge for them because I mean that's that's you don't want to come into this season particularly with some controversy surrounding that so it's kind of a blessing in disguise that the season ended the way that it did for LeBron last year because he did have the extra time to get healthy and now it's paying off I mean we were just talking about the Mavericks Lakers game this weekend oh it was great incredible watch oh I watched I was over my skis Brooklyn and Rockets was great Houston plays no defense in the back court and Lakers Mavs was a great regular season game and the East is good this year, too. The Sixers

are looking good. Undefeated. Yep. Best defensive team in the league. Ambide was out and they won in Portland. Not easy to do. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. 13 years in the NFL, a remarkable career, a four-time

Pro Bowl, and now Lamar Jackson is embarking on breaking Mike Vick's records. What do we make of that? Mike Vick. As he moves like Lamar Jackson to the set, John... By the way, It is, there are, I remember when you came into the league, and I remember saying this, it's not that Michael Vic is a running quarterback.

Outside of Alan Rossum, I think he's the fastest Falcon. Yeah, I was. Yeah. And so. Potentially with DeAngelo Hall in the mix, too. So with Lamar, there's difference between, you know, he's a mobile quarterback and, oh, hell, he may be the fastest player. Do you see a little of yourself in Lamar? Yeah, I do.

Lamar's acceleration is amazing. When he takes off, when he puts his foot in the ground. And when he wants to make a guy miss and turn it up, he's the best in the league. The best I've ever seen since myself in doing that. And that's a special talent to have. And it's something that he'll be able to do for a long, long time. And it's amazing what he's going to be able to do. And just the circumstances, the tough situations,

he's going to put opposing defenses in moving forward. Let's talk about this. Mike, it's so important for young players, the two quarterbacks that are kicking butt that are young, Jimmy Garoppolo and Lamar Jackson. Yeah. They got great coaches. Great coaches. Let's go back to your career.

I think, and this is not a shot at Jimmy G. Yeah. And it's not a shot at Lamar. But Joy and I were talking about this this morning. If you had taken Joy and I in our first career broadcasting jobs and we had bad bosses, I can remember my first job. I was very lucky. I've had great bosses. Makes a difference.

Okay, you went to Atlanta. That team was not actually built for you. Right. Go back and tell people. That's why you initially, it was kind of a pass-happy team. Yeah, it was past happy. It was West Coast. Once Dan Reeves got fired, who I thought Dan was great for my career early.

He was very innovative, and he took advantage of my skill set, similar to what you see with Lamar. And then, you know, three years later, I get Jim Moore and Greg Knapp, West Coast System. Had to learn, you know, the ends and outs and how to, you know, go out in the field and win a game running that system with all the rules. and that was a lot of short passes. And decision-making. Yeah, it was short passes. And it wasn't run-oriented at all. If I had to take off and run,

it was because the play broke down or, you know, somebody with them protection. And, you know, at the time, I wasn't thinking I need an offense centered around me to help me, you know, showcase all my talents. It was just about doing what the coaches asked me to do, trying to do it well and trying to be the best at the position. Yeah.

Are you, when you look at New England, I don't want to, you know, listen, New England's defense will be fine. When you face Baltimore, did you look at New England and say, if they face Lamar again, they can't solve this? Like, what did you see that New England could get better at, improve at, and one of it's just problematic? Honestly, when I watched the game yesterday, I look at, you know, what New England did defensively. and I looked at, you know, the Baltimore Ravers' offense and the identity, which is, you know, they got their own set of rules, their own concepts, you know, their own identity. You know, this is an offense that's being built around Lamar, and it's going to be the called

whatever type of offense you want to call it in the future. But nobody's running it. Nobody's running it. You know, like I said, own identity, own set of rules. You know, it's one package that fits Lamar's skill set and the rest of the guys, you know, Ingram and John Brown, they all are sprinkled into the mix. But I'm watching it saying, okay, I see this game and it was different, you know, as far as what New England did than what I thought they would do. Mixed in a lot of zone.

I thought they would play more man. And I'm like, look, this is a team that know they're going to face the, both of these teams know they'll face each other down the road. Right. Do you show your cards right now? Is it much of a necessity to win this game? What does it do for both teams? I hate to give away anybody's game playing, but they'll see each other down the road. It's very interesting because Baltimore is going to win their division.

So is New England. Now, fans will say this. Patriot fans this morning are like, we didn't want to show our hand. Listen, Belichick wants to win the game. But that's an interesting concept that do you think New England potentially went in and said, we're going to try some things? We're not going to try everything. Does that exist in the NFL?

I think it has to a certain degree because when you're facing a guy like tomorrow, you can't go in with one game. plan and say this is what we're going to do all game you know i think you got to have to go on with a couple different coverages and a couple different looks and and kind of toy around even though this is not the league to be touring around when you eight no you know you can be you know a little lenient you know as far as the game plan and i i think you know they know they're going to have to deal with them all for years on then you know and at the end of the year at some point so why not try certain things, see what works.

And, you know, you keep the things in the game plan at work and you try to build upon, you know, some foundation that can contain the quarterback like Lamar because right now it's almost impossible to do. Yeah. All right. So we have a lot to address. I want to talk about a little bit about the Cleveland situation. It is a tire fire and it's getting bad.

It's getting worse. Yesterday, Landry, OBJ, are worried about. at halftime. I also want to talk about the Packers not adjusting. It didn't feel like they had a second layer. So Mike Vick is joining me. We'll take a break. We'll come back.

Also, top of the hour, Colin right, Colin, wrong. Trent Dilfer, 2, Eric Mangini, Tony Gonzalez. We are packed on a Monday. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. Opinions are flying.

and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants. answer. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live

them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing.

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

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office, blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam, this Isaiah Thomas.

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

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

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back, Mike Vic, 13 years, four-time Pro Bowl or comeback player of the year, still holds all those NFL records for yards rushing by a quarterback in a season. And if you watch Mike Vic play and I did, you watch Lamar Jackson. And there is, it's more than a mobile quarterback.

It's fastest dude on the field quarterback. All right, let's punch on three things here. All right, let's start with Cleveland. You know, I don't want to pick on Freddie Kitchens, but, you know, he'd never been a coordinator. Yeah. They hired him within his staff. I saw a stat this morning, the seven coaches in the NFL that were hired from within the staff, meaning the organization just said, let's elevate a guy on the staff.

All of them are struggling. What do you see with Freddie Kitchens? You know, honestly, I thought Kitchens was qualified. I looked at his background. A couple years where he was a quarterback coach for certain teams, I think, in Arizona. And then he was a running backs coach. And I'm thinking, like, to what benefit does that have for a guy like Baker Mayfield or a quarterback in any sense? You know, where's the experience?

You know, I think you have to draw from your personal experience, not just from what you learn, you know, when you're coaching running backs or, you know, short tenure as a quarterback's coach. You have to be able to give a quarterback everything and not because you played the position and you learn from experience. you know, you have to give them a little more than what, you know, the average coach can give. And I think Baker needs to be paired with a guy and not taking any credit away from kitchens. I'm only talking about the experience factor. He needs to be paired with a guy who has years and years of, you know, quarterback experience, you know, working with different quarterbacks or, you know, a guy who knows the quarterback position and played it and bent through, you know, the fire out there on the field.

I think that's the best thing for him. And I thought, you know, Greg Williams was a qualified guy because he's been around a bunch of experienced coaches. And even though he's a defensive guy, he could have helped out on the office side of the ball. He's been around, you know, yeah, his experience and what he knows and the people he's been around. I thought they got it backwards and I thought it would work,

but it's just not good for Baker. Let's talk about the Green Bay Packers. Now, you do go into games and clearly the Chargers, game plan was very successful early against Green Bay. My concern was Green Bay never really adjusted. Yeah. I mean, Bosa just ate him alive.

He's a great player, but when you watch Green Bay, it's not that they lost. Is it troubling to you how they lost, lack of adjustments? It was the same game for three and a half hours. It was troubling to watch. But what I do know is that sometimes you run into teams that, you know,

that desperate for a win, you're playing on the road. You come in thinking that you're going to pretty much wax them and beat them convincingly, and then those guys come to play. And then you get stymied and you can't move the ball and things are kind of haywire for a while. By the time you try to get, you start getting yourself together, it's too late.

I've been a part of a, not a bunch of games, but enough to know what that game yesterday was all about. It was about momentum for the charges. It was about the Packers being a little flat. And like Aaron said, this is something that we needed to humble us a little bit so that we know that we're not, you know, we're not where we need to be as of yet. You know, a game like that will make you be better in your next five or six games hands down.

You think so, really? Absolutely, yes. That game was, like he said, was very humbling. It was humbling for me to watch, you know, because I just knew that Green Bay would win that game convincingly. I know it would be tough. and I know how competitive the charges are. But eight minutes in.

The best team is going to win on that day, on that given day. The best team will come out with a victory. Yeah, don't forget last year, New England lost five games on the road to teams that didn't make the playoffs. This is the difference between the NFL and college. Absolutely. You don't bring it. Cleveland didn't bring it. You get down fast.

Yes. Let's go to a team. I was very critical of John Gruden. He'd been out of the sport for a decade. And I said, listen, there are just certain businesses. I always compare it to Silicon Valley. I mean, every year it feels like a different industry. And I'm like, football's the same thing.

It doesn't even look the same on TV year to year. I got to tell you something. That's a real football team, man. Derek Carr looks comfortable. Derek Carr's getting better. Josh Jacobs is a star. And there's something about Gruden. He's old school, but he's clever.

See, how about that fake punt yesterday? What do you make of the Raiders? You take John Gruton and Mayock and you put them together and Gruton from his past experience and being able to work with quarterbacks. That's what he's pretty much made a living off of. Sure. You know, outside of being a great personality and the hard-nosed coach, he knows quarterbacks. And I thought he would be a guy who needed some time to adjust to the game, being away for 10 years.

And I knew last year would be a trial and error period for him. him so I didn't judge him on that. But this year, this team looks totally different. They look confident. They look like they're starting to understand what the offense is about. By the way, tight-in. And guys are buying in. Multiple weapons.

Oh, yeah. Renfro, you know, you got Jacobs. I mean, you got guys that we don't really know or not marquee players. But, you know, I'm making, you know, making, hey, every time they step out on the field, and that's a credit to, you know, Mayok and what, you know, he knows and his, his eye for talent. and, you know, John Gruden putting these guys in positions. And I just think that Derek Carr's, he's always been efficient and one of the best to me. Yeah, he's always a high completion.

Yeah, I mean, he gets it done. You put players around him, you build a game plan, you know, around him that he can understand and go out and execute. And he'll do it. You know, I like his game. By the way, I thought of you yesterday. So I asked you before the best coach you ever had, and you said Andy Reid. Yes. So it's amazing.

So they don't have Patrick Mahomes. they don't have their left tackle. And they face a Minnesota defense, which has pass rushers, all pro linebackers, great corners, pro bowl safety. Yes. And they take Matt Moore, who was coaching high school. And they take Damien Williams, who, you know, we don't know much about. He ends up rushing for 100-some yards. How do you take Matt Moore, a high school football coach, and immediately simplify a game plan?

Matt Moore looked totally comfortable against, now you, again, you were with Andy Reed. How does Andy get you to consume a playbook and so quickly own it? Andy draws from his experiences with quarterbacks. He coached quarterbacks for a long time, and that's what I was talking about in regards to the Freddie Kitchen situation. You know, Andy, he worked with Gruten years ago.

I mean, up 10 years ago, but they had rapport with you know, Brent Fav and, you know, with Gruden to Cunningham. And, you know, that whole era was just, you know, it was quarterback-based and it was quarterback-driven. So Andy knows quarterbacks, you know, you can give him a guy like Matt Moore or you can give him a guy like Aaron Rogers. You can even give him Lamar Jackson,

and Lamar Jackson will flourish in the Andy Reeves offense because Andy is going to do what makes him this guy better than what he is. Now, you told me once, Andy doesn't try to make you fit into him. No, he's going to do what you like. He's going to ask you what you're comfortable with. He's going to give you a presentation on a Tuesday night. And then on Wednesday, you know, it's dissertation. You talk about it.

You talk about it. Yes, this is what I love this coach. This right here. I don't know if we can, I'm not comfortable. He'll say, well, try it out and see what you feel. Tell me what you feel at the end of the week. You know, it's always open. and end it. And, you know, his

concepts and the things that he see when watching film, he gets a kick out of. He loves it. And you best to believe a guy like Matt Moore who hasn't had an Andy Reed in his career loves everything that he sees in the game playing Wednesday morning. I guarantee you. And that's why he's able to go out and be efficient. Let's go back to Lamar Jackson.

So we're going to show some Lamar Jackson video. Yeah. When he made a run yesterday, made a bunch of guys miss, take me, I want you to just go back in your mind when you were like Lamar and you're running. Are you, Russell Wilson

once told me, he goes, when I run, I feel like a kid at a shopping mall. I'm just dodging shoppers. Are you thinking about it? Is it instinct? What takes over? You know, I can understand why Russell said that because, you know,

you actually making grown man miss. And the fact that I was doing it in the National Football League, college was one thing. When I was doing it in the NFL, I was like, look at me in the NFL making grown men miss. And I'm watching Lamar, and I'm like, he's making grown man miss. I watch Russell.

He make grown men miss. And these guys are professionals. They are the best tacklers in the world. It must give you confidence. It just gives you a kick. And it's almost funny. And you go back and watch film. And now you got the whole world laughing and the whole world watching and tuned in to what you're doing.

So now you become just this big show off. And that's what Lamar will come with you. Show off. That's what it turns into. Mike, it's great seeing you again. Four Pro Bowls, 13 NFL seasons. I love having you on our show, buddy. I love being up here. It's also Sunday Fox NFL kickoff.

That's a blast. By the way, cold and flu season, try Vic Synex nasal spray. It works up to 12 hours. Use only as directed VicSynex nasal spray. Colin right, Colin wrong on a Monday. Next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day,

seven days a week within the I-Hard radio app. Search heard 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. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, learn the hard way. with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

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

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? this is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, the Clivert 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, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to The Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on the only store at the chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Boe. On our podcast, inside American soccer, you'll get the real storylines.

I'm not worried about Policic. I'm not worried about Balagan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team.

It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

It's a Monday, live in L.A., this is The herd. Wherever you may be in, however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Trent Dillfer, Eric Mangini today, Tony Gonzalez as well. Joy Taylor is joining me on a kind of a crazy. It was a dead college football weekend. LSU, Bama, this Saturday is huge. By the way, an LSU star linebacker has left the team. We'll get into that later. That's a big blow to LSU. I like Bama anyway. Now I really like them. Joy is joining me. How are you? I'm great. Crazy weekend.

It was. So the Jets, by the way, lost in Miami, as Joy was saying. So what that tells you is right now, Cincinnati has the number one pick. I watch, I got to tell you that, Justin Herbert Kid for Oregon, whoever gets him, good shape. All right, we do it. I make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes I'm wrong.

And on Mondays, I like to go back and say, all right, this is something I've been saying recently, and I either nailed it or I whiffed. It's called Colin Wright, Colin Wrong. Here we go. Where Colin was right? Everybody bailed on the Philadelphia. Eagles when they lost to the Cowboys. And I said, hold on, hold on, hold on.

This GMA, head coach, a, quarterback A, they got to get healthy. They're too good structurally not to win. Well, guess what? They got Tim Jernigan back on the defensive line. D-line is better. They got Darby back at corner. Secondary is better. Their offensive line is getting healthier.

They're very good situationally. Red zone offense, third down offense, top 10 in the NFL. And again, leadership matters. I like their leaders. And here's the other thing. They found their identity. It took them a while. This is a team that needs to run the football and then on play action, throw to their excellent tight ends.

You can't rely on Deshawn Jackson's health. I'm not saying this team should go to the Super Bowl and win, but they are way better than everybody who bailed. They were unhealthy. They got healthy. I like where they're at. Where Colin was wrong. Blazing 5 is officially in a mid-season three-week. slump. I am now 24-20 on the year, which is 54%. I got the Raiders right. I took favorites this

weekend playing on the road, and I almost never do it, and I got burned. I was one and four. I like the Packers. They mailed it in. I like New England. They got blown out, and I liked Indianapolis a lot, and Jacoby Brousset got hurt in the first half, and down went the Colts. It's a crazy, bizarre old world season, and I'm in a slump. Where Colin was right? I like Derek Carr. I've always like Derek Carr. I didn't get the rumors a year ago. John Gruden doesn't like Derek Carr. Get a franchise quarterback. He's always reminded me a Tony Romo without the risk he throws. He's got good feet. He's accurate. He's got a good, not great arm. He's athletic. And he's a high completion guy. This last year, even with Gruden last year, he was 71%. And this year, he's like 73%. I don't

get the criticism. He's a grown-up. He can be a little sensitive on social media, but he reminds me a Romo. I get the Romo accuracy, feet, he'll throw the ball, he'll can squeeze it into a window, but he didn't have a big arm. And again, I'll say this again, the idea that you can just go find Derek Carr's. You guys watching football. I mean, every year, it's like we think we have all the quarterbacks we need, and eight teams every year are like, we got to get a different

quarterback. Derek Carr is a franchise quarterback. Get over it. And the Raiders are good. Where Colin was wrong. Gase is a disaster. The Jets do nothing well. You know what? Yesterday Sam Darnold had a terrible throw and went 27 for 39. That's not terrible considering that offensive line. They had 10 penalties through three quarters. He instills no confidence. They don't do anything well. Their special teams are a mess. Their defense gets gashed offensively, the optics, the penalties. Don't bank. You can bang on Darnold. He had a terrible interception. Darnold wasn't terrible. He's a

working coordinator with a weird, odd, rigid personality. He doesn't work. And I've whiffed on this. I watched him in New England beat Belichick twice. I watched him in New England have a winning record with Ryan Tannihil. Maybe Ryan Tannahill is better than I thought. But they don't do anything well. I don't believe in firing somebody mid-season.

This is not a darnal issue. This is a coach, strategy, offensive lines, a disaster. And I don't think those leaks last week in the press? That's going on. How do you have nine different players on the trading block? You can't keep any of that quiet? Where Colin was right? I'm a big Andy Reid fan, have been for years.

I think he's the great play designer, kind of of my last 10, 15 year, this generation. He takes, you know, a high school football coach. They have a backup left tackle. Those positions are sort of important. And they go up against the Minnesota defense, which is stacked. Minnesota may have the best roster in the NFL. and they go toe to toe to with Green Bay and then they beat Minnesota. I mean, they really know what they're doing.

This is a really, really good football man. And again, Damien Williams, he gets 12 carries 112 yards. Minnesota doesn't allow running yards to the great backs. Damian Williams gets 112. And football has always been the coaching sport. And Andy Reid doesn't have a Super Bowl. But does anybody gets quarterbacks ramped up to play at a high level, faster than Andy Reid ever.

It's amazing what they're doing right now. Where Colin was wrong. I have picked against the Oregon Ducks all year. I picked against them to start the year. I said they're flaky and they can't win on the road. I picked against them in Seattle and they dominated the fourth quarter from the Huskies. I picked against them this weekend. Listen, I had questions about their coaching staff.

I said it's a great recruiting staff. But every time they play outside of Ottson Stadium, they're a mess. they made great adjustments against Washington and USC. Justin Herbert should be the first quarterback taken, including to a big, tall, arm leadership. Again, if they're opportunistic, they're fast, they make adjustments, they have a great quarterback, they can play with power,

their only loss is to Auburn, a game in which I felt they were the better team for most of it. I was wrong, the ducks are for real, and right now I think their loss is better than like Oklahoma's. put him into the final four. Where Colin was right. GM John Dorsey traded his best offensive lineman to get a personality-wide receiver. It's not working.

I'm not saying OBJ's not talented, but he's a distraction. He's had a watch issue. He's had a visor issue. He's had a socks issue. He's had a cleat issue this weekend. He's had a I'm not getting the ball enough issue. The bottom line is, if you look, this year he's got one. touchdown pass, a couple of 100-yard games, but I've always believed you pay people.

Like Lamar Jackson played great, they won. That's the way football should work. If Stefan Gilmore had two picks for the Patriots, you'd be like, oh, they won. His production never equals wins. It didn't in Cleveland. It didn't in New York. Right now he's catching more flack than balls. He is in the red zone. Their fourth leading target. In fact, I think now he's just a huge distractions. Quarterbacks need help, not big personalities on the perimeter. I hated this move initially. I hate it more now. I would trade OBJ in the offseason and get an interior offensive lineman and a draft pick. Where Colin was wrong. When Joey Bosa came out of Ohio State, I said, I think he has a chance

to be a bust. In college, he was hot and cold, took plays off, a lot of ego, too inconsistent. Yeah, I was wrong on that. I mean, yesterday he went up against Brian Beluga, who's a pro-bolts. tackle, and it was embarrassing. God, it was awful. He leads the NFL in 11 tackles for a loss. Yesterday, he had a sack and a half and four quarterback hits. He's just been great. That's why when his brother came out to the Niners, I'm like, yeah, he'll be fine. You know, it's just, he's a monster. He's just incredibly, the Bosa brothers are rough. You know, there's the word relentless. They're just built to go 100 miles an hour. Their dad was a football player. They're great football players. I thought he was a hit and miss guy that took plays off at Ohio State.

He was unblockable yesterday. Where Colin was right? Three years ago, I kept saying there's this kid in New England named Jimmy Garoppolo. Eight teams need a quarterback. Could somebody go and trade for him? I didn't understand it. He was good when he played for New England. He couldn't get on the field because they have a guy named Brady. And through 18 games now, he's got the second best record with Dan Marino and Roger Staubach to ever play. He's good. He's got the it, the look, the feel, the mobility, the size, the arm.

I just didn't get this. I remember being, I had just gotten to this network, and I kept saying, okay, I looked at all these college quarterbacks, and I was like, Jimmy Garoppolo has Belichick. Every time I've watched him play for New England. In fact, I like Jacoby Brissette, the third guy, and I didn't think Brissette was nearly as good as Jimmy Garapolo. We kept screaming. It's the it factor. The look, the confidence, the arm, the mobility.

You're watching him, folks. Thursday night was the first time. First time. The Niners said, defense didn't show up. We can't run the ball. Take it over, Jimmy. He was spectacular. Where Colin was right.

One week into Kyrie Irving and Brooklyn, they're already saying he's different. Listen, defensively, he's abysmal. Offensively, he doesn't really share the ball with others. Again, he is an artist. He's a talent. He's spectacular. But this is my issue. Small athlete, hard to get along with.

LeBron's pretty easy to deal with. Frankly, most guys, I mean, LeBron doesn't have a lot of enemies in the league. Brad Stevens gets along with every player except Kyrie Irving. I'm not saying Brad Stevens is Popovich or Kerr, but he's not that difficult to get along with. Every other player seems to be fine with him. Horford liked him. Tatum likes him. Jalen Brown likes him.

Gordon Award likes him. Remember this. Brooklyn made the playoffs without Kyrie Irving. And he's a free agent so they didn't have to get anything, didn't have to give up. anything to get him. And now they're worse this year. They're worse defensively. They're not sharing the ball. He's just, he's a lot of work. This was a playoff team last year. Now they're worse with him and didn't give up a bunch of stuff. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong on a Monday. By the way, congrats to the Sixers. It's not a right or wrong, but the only undefeated team in the NBA, one in Portland

without Joel Ambide. Simmons is great right now. He's their best player. They let go, the Sixers have let go of their four best shooters last two years, which is, kind of the opposite of what you do in this league, and they got taller. They were already tall. They got taller with Al Horford, and they lost all their shooters, and they're the only undefeated team in the NBA, and Ben Simmons is playing great. Good for them. All right, coming up next. Trent Dilfer stops by, you know, what do you make of what you watch last night? What do you make of the Packers? Seattle had a huge come from behind win. Don't forget about Russell Wilson. He'd probably be my MVP today. Trent Dilfer is coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays and

noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast. Learn the hard way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month,

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

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

Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert 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 kid. 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 of 42. Hey, Brett, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss, Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

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

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

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball, like, After you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Thursday night football, it's an AFC West showdown as Phillip Rivers and the Chargers take on Derek Carr and the Raiders. It all starts at 730 Eastern 430 Pacific on Fox NFL Network and streaming on Prime Video.

That actually now is a great game. I love watching the Raiders play. They're absolutely a blast. That Josh Jacobs kid, nobody makes the first tackler miss like Josh Jacobs. He's so clever. Trent Dofer played for a decade and a half in the NFL. He's a buddy. He's a Super Bowl champ and a pro bowler.

And now he's part of Lipscomb Academy, the head football coach. They enter the playoffs. His sophomore freshman-dominated team's got a big one coming up this week. So he's only got 10 minutes for us before he gets back to the film. And he's joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So I'm hearing this this morning. Here's what I'm hearing. Well, you know, the Patriots all adjust, blah, blah, blah.

Well, you can adjust all you want. Lamar Jackson's not getting slower. Some of those things I watch, what do you do? I mean, Baltimore's kind of got what they do down, don't they? They really do. They're very unique. Well, in fact, the most unique offense in all of football because they're going to run their quarterback like a college runner.

They're going to play three tied ends. They've built their entire program around this style of quarterback, which is highly dynamic can still beat you in the passing game. If you give them to fine looks, the Patriots tried to play some covers zero and load the box, and he was able to take advantage of it. He's a rule breaker. I think that's the biggest thing as this discussion goes on,

like, okay, what if they play again? Well, even if they play again, and they have more of a book written on Lamar and this offense, it still breaks your rules. It still breaks all your defensive rules that you work all through OTAs on, all summer camp. Every single week as you're preparing for traditional NFL offense, all of a sudden, you play this offense and it breaks all your rules. You saw it on the option last night, a handful of times. The Ravens ran the true speed option.

The outside, the unblocked guy was unsure if you had quarterback or if you had pitch. It's very hard to recruit extra players when you're not practicing against that all the time. It's the same reason Navy has success in college football. Air Force has success in college football because you're not used to playing that type of option football at the time. So this is a problem for NFL teams as they prepare for the Baltimore Ravens. It's not going to get any easier. By the way, I don't love New England's pass protection. They will get one of their tackles back.

Is that something over the course of a season that if you got somebody back? Because I've noticed this the last two or three weeks with New England. You can have the best coach in the world in Dante Scarnacia. Can you upgrade midway through the season a problem like pass protection for an older quarterback? Typically, that answer is no, but I'm not going to doubt the Patriots ability to develop and improve week to week. Like I am one of those guys today saying this was kind of, it's not that big of a deal for the Patriots. Yeah, there are some issues. There's some flaws.

There are every year with the Patriots this time of year, and somehow they fix them. The left tackle play will get better, whether it's Newsom getting better or whether it's the other tackle coming back. They will find new schemes to protect them. They'll stay out of those must-pass situations more often and dictate terms on early downs with the passing game instead of wait until the third down. I mean, they just have this incredible ability to evolve and adapt throughout the last. the year. And I've made my mistakes, doubting them too soon. I believe that every single year, regardless of their talent, they take a developmental approach to the season. And because of that, that's why they're most of the time the last man standing. It's to me, it's not losing in this

league. This is not college football. These are the world's best football players and best coaches. Sometimes you show up and it doesn't work. What I worry about is how you lose. Both Philadelphia and the Chargers, point of attack have been super physical with Green Bay, and they look like the high school kid getting picked on that doesn't want any part of a fight. Physically, they don't push back. So I look at it, and I think

they're a good team. They'll probably win their division. Aaron's amazing. But are you worried a little bit that Philly and the Chargers just ran over them, and they didn't really have a second adjustment gear on that? I think it's a concern. I think it's something they'll address. I think they got a little

too spread oriented. Again, it worked for them on Sunday night against the Chiefs, and they got a little too spread against the Chargers. I do, like you said a couple weeks ago with the Eagles house, every once in a while there's that game that you just kind of write off as an aberration game. I kind of treat the Packers game yesterday that way. They played an emotional Sunday night game at home against the Chiefs. They adapted.

They came back. They did all these great things. And boom, they got to go West Coast and play the Chargers. A team that on paper doesn't look that good, but you forget, They have a veteran defensive coordinator and Gus Bradley who knows how to defend this type of offense. They're getting their runner back, Melvin Gordon, for realistically his first regular season game because he's come off the holdout, take his first four games, a somewhat preseason games. So they know who they are in the run game.

They hold the Packers to eight possessions offensively so they control the game. You have a veteran quarterback and Philip Rivers that's treating every game like it's the most important game of his life. So I think there's some circumstances around that Packers game going out to L.A. Then I'm willing to give them somewhat of a hall pass. But I do agree with you that if you take the fight to the Packers from a physicality standpoint, you really can minimize their impact on you. And I mean, if you looked at what the Chargers did, they only bliss, I think, one time in the entire game.

They continued to get to Aaron with three or four people. They did manhandle them up front. So it's something if you're the Packers, you need to address because you can't let that be the template that's written about you to stop you moving forward. Listen, I like Jimmy Garoppolo a lot and I like Lamar Jackson a lot.

But I don't think any human can deny that fit matters. And they have Kyle Shanahan and John Harbaugh and Darnold and Baker are man overboard and I think they're both talented. I mean, I don't want to take anything away from the quarterbacks.

But listen, when I watch Lamar and the identity and how they built around him. And I watched Garapolo where until last week, San Francisco never said carry us. Never. And then last week they're like, we can't run. Jimmy, we need you tonight. You got to be special.

Talk about fit and how Lamar and Jimmy, boy, this is really good treatment for a young quarterback. It is everything, Colin. And the day I went to ESPN, 11 years ago, I started saying it. But nobody wants to talk about it because the draft is so huge and it's about traits and talent and stats and hype on the quarterback and all these different things. And I always said, listen, I agree that there's different trait values to these quarterbacks. But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is where they go.

The only thing that matters is the organizational structure, the coach GM continuity on picking you, what system you're going into, does it fit you? What's the talent around you? What's organizational philosophy of supporting the quarterback? When do you play him? How long of a leash do you play them? How much offense do you give them early on? Do you food feed them or do you let him drink by a fire hose? I mean, there's all these different philosophies. But at the end of the day is the organization quarterback-centric. Is it completely committed to developing the young quarterback to the fullest of his ability? And if you're lucky enough to slide back in the draft, yes, lucky enough to slide back in the draft to an organization. that consistently wins, that's why they're drafting later, they have a better understanding of not just how to handle the quarterback, but to handle every player on the roster,

how to develop every player on the roster, well then obviously the quarterbacks have a better chance to succeed. But to reduce this conversation down to high, weight, speed, arm talent, accuracy, all that stuff is ludicrous, because I don't care how good you are if you go to a dysfunctional organization with a bad head coach that does know how to handle you or a bad offense coordinator that does know how to handle you, your chances to succeed are far less than the guy that has less talent than you,

but goes to a Pittsburgh Stillers or a Baltimore Ravens, whoever becomes the next New England Patriots quarterback or the San Francisco 49ers with Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch. There are just better situations for quarterbacks to go to and you see it happen every single year. Finally, I always judge when I wake up on a Sunday morning, What team do I want to watch? And I found myself yesterday. I woke up and thought, I got to watch the Raiders at home. They haven't played at home in a month.

They're a little bit old school. You know, John likes to pound the run. But I'll tell you, they're clever. I'm a little shocked offensively. Their free agents and their draft picks can all play. I'm a little shocked by it. Are you? Say whatever you want to say about Mike Mayock and John Gruden.

I have a great deal of respect for both of them. But at their core, both these dudes are old school. They are about toughness. They're about grit. They're about substantive things that matter with building a program. That's how they evaluated talent on TV. If you go back to their TV careers, look at their signature moments on TV draft day. They always talked about the players'

makeup and what they came from and what they overcame and how they were fits in the locker room they have built a program based on grit toughness physicality they don't care about the sizzle they don't care about what other people say about their players they know where they fit into their program and i think that's why you and i really enjoy watching the raiders i am a big fan of the raiders right now because i think they're building it the right way i love josh jacobs i think they're getting the most out of Derrick Carr. Derrick Carr is not a dropback quarterback. He is a run-action dude, and they figure that out early.

Given the rock to the runner, the run-action out of it, they're stealing a possession almost every single week. They're playing better defense. They're not very good on defense, but they're playing hard. They're playing tough. And I think it's a team that's probably going to be a 500 team this year, but they're building it the right way. They've got a ton of draft fix, and they're going to be a force here

for the next handful of year. Okay, Lipscum Academy head football coach. Trent Dilfer, playoff game this week. I don't want to jinx you because I've been ice cold on my blazing five, but I feel a close game and your young team is going to bring a ton of energy. I cross my fingers, my friend, and good luck. Thanks, but I appreciate it. We're going to need all luck we can get.

Trent Dilfer joining us today. By the way, guys, if you want to feel better, I do a supplement every day. It's called MDrive for Men.com. The code is heard. 20% off your first month. Here's Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Well, Lamar Jackson dominated in the Ravens 3720 win over the Patriots. Following his performance, Lamar Jackson moved up in the MVP odds. According to Fox bet, he is now the co-favorites with Russell Wilson at plus 300. And after the game, Raven safety Earl Thomas talked about how impressed he was with Lamar Jackson. The O-line played great. They gave a lot of time for Lamar. Lamar played MVP-type football.

He's separating itself. Big picture, man, we're getting better every week. You know, it starts with Lamar in their offense and the running game. You know, us on defense, we just try to give the ball back to them and create more stops and let the MVP do his thing. I'm right with the crowd. I mean that. Like, man, this man is the MVP's.

I'm right behind him. I'm backing him. He makes my job easier. I feel like the MVP. conversation has been flipping week to week. Last week, you know, Aaron Rogers is the MVP. This week you can't even imagine calling Aaron Rogers the MVP now. I mean, I think the one name that's been consistent, though, has been Russell Wilson.

Oh, by the way, nobody watched that game. He was absurd. Seattle's defense, this is rare. They don't play defense anymore. They're too young. They're secondary. Russell Wilson had five touchdown passes. Yeah, he was ridiculous.

He would get my MVP today. Despite the fact they were really trying, they were really trying to lose that. game. It felt like. Just finish this game. Please. But yeah, I mean, he's right now, I think Russell Wilson, just because of the consistency of his play week to week, should be a top and probably the favorite to be MVP. But that said, what Lamar Jackson is doing is incredible. And again, it's everything that Trent was just saying. This is a testament of what happens when you don't take, when you don't put the entire organization at risk in order to get one guy. Because that's not a functional way to build a team and football is the ultimate team sport.

Why are the Ravens as good as they are? Because they didn't bomb their entire organization to get Lamar Jackson and then he has no pieces around him to let him be successful. Thinking about this, Joy, you know how it's hard for teams to find their identity? The day, the day they drafted him, they also drafted an offensive tackle and two tight ends. So they were forming the identity of the offense draft day. Cleveland, the day they drafted Baker, went and got a small corner from Ohio State, and then soon after that, traded their best offensive lineman for a flashy wide receiver,

despite having David and Joku and Jarvis Landry. Baltimore's organization, the day they're picking Lamar's, like, okay, let's get him a tackle, let's get him two big targets. A year later, let's get him Mark Ingram. Like they figured out, let's help this young man. What he's good at, let's go. And what he could be good at, let's have patience and let him build toward that. Because what's the point of trying to change a quarterback whose skill is very obvious?

You could see what type of quarterback he was in college. So what's the point of trying to make him into something different? If you're going to take him, take what his raw skills are and put pieces around him that are only going to enhance that. And you obviously want a guy of character. Lamar Jackson clearly worked on his game in the off season. His body alone shows you that he was dedicated to improving from last year, which was, last year was impressive too. It felt a little raw.

It felt a little not sustainable. Right. But they've done everything that they needed to do to make him into an MVP candidate. I think the two teams in the NFL light right now that I wake up in the morning and I want to watch are the Raiders and the Ravens. They really are. Now, Kansas City gets my homes back. They'll go back. Right.

But I mean, I sat all day waiting for the Ravens. And in the early afternoon window, I'm like, I think the Raiders are fascinating. They're just, I think the Ravens, the Ravens noise. The Raiders' noise and the Ravens' uniqueness gets me to a TV set. And also, I feel like a lot of the Raiders' noise was just Hard Knocks. Right. And AB. Right, but that was the center of Hard Knocks. Like, imagine if we didn't have Hard Knocks and it was just the AB story.

I don't even think it would be as big. Like, Hard Knocks intensifies everything. You saw that last year with the Browns. So you've been talking about this a bit this morning. Odell and Jarvis Landry were told in the first half of the game against the Broncos that they were wearing non-conforming cleats. and they would have to change in half time or sit out the second half. So they both spoke about Shugate following the game.

I'm pretty sure that they changed the rule, and, you know, cleats wasn't a big deal. It's only a big deal with the people who were talking about it. You know, when I have cleats on my feet, they could be hot pink, lime green. It's never going to affect me. It's not something that I worry about while I'm running route, reading coverages, and trying to win the game. So it was just tough. They literally switched the jersey, so I had,

The cleats that I had was not for that jersey. I didn't see it as been a polymer distraction to anybody. You know, I'm just trying to play football. So Odell talks a little bit about it. He said basically before the season they know which jerseys they're wearing on which days. So they plan their cleats out accordingly with Nike based off of what they have available that week. They were supposed to wear, I think, white jerseys, and they switched to brown like a few days before the game.

Now, Jarvis Landry, I don't really see the issue. you with his cleats at all. Odell had some Joker, like, custom cleats on before the game. You can kind of see them there. So you're not supposed to wear the custom cleats for the game. You can wear them in warmups. You can't take them off before the game starts. All kinds of guys around the league have custom cleats.

You just can't wear them during the game. Landry shoes I don't understand the issue with. And the NFL does have the might cause my cleats week later in the season where you're able to wear custom cleats during the game that are pre-approved with a certain charity or foundation or cause. That said, I got to tell you, I'm kind of getting on O'Dell's side on this. Like, it's getting a little bit ridiculous. I've felt since this custom cleat thing started that the NFL should have just embraced it,

put together a few people that have to approve, you have to send your cleats in to be approved before the game. So, you know, no one gets crazy and no one gets offended or anything like that. But why is he the only? Let them wear them during the game. Like, there's little things, though. because you know people are following this now. So, like, the visor thing was an issue.

Guys wear visors all the time. The watch thing, I understand. The short pants, like Josh Gordon had short pants on before. They were higher than his knee didn't get fined. Everyone's going to pay attention to what Odell's doing. But I'm starting to get on his side with this. Like, it's, I feel like the NFL does this with the uniform sometimes. Like, we get it.

You want the whole thing to be very uniform. But the cleats thing, I feel like they should just let go and embrace it, let guys wear them during the game. I don't disagree with that, but they have. haven't, so just conform. Right, no, that I understand. You know what the rules are. So I don't have any sympathy in this case.

Like, you know you're not supposed to wear custom cleats during the game. Like, that's a very clear rule. I'm just saying it's getting to the point with O'Dell particularly, where it's like it's, you're kind of picking on him a little bit. Like, it's kind of enough already. I don't, I don't like to make O'Dell a victim. It's not a victim. It's just like, it just, it starts to feel very, like, stiff.

No, I'm not, I'm not doubting the rigidity, but it's always O'Dell. I mean, if they're defensive. It's always Odell that talks about it. But I do feel like there's, like, the internet's going to pay attention to this. You know it. So they're going to scour all the pictures. And this guy at this biser on that week, you didn't find him. And this guy, this pants on.

It's just, I think Odell is the one that talks about it. Finally, the Dolphins beat their former coach, Adam Gays, 2618 on Sunday. Gay spoke after the game about the disappointing season so far for the Jets. We're running seven. And everybody feel like crap. You don't put in all this time and effort. to come out here and lose. I mean, we've got to get things fixed.

That's what they know. And the NFL can't be embarrassed by this shit. Bad spot for Adam Case. Again, I don't think you should fire him or Freddie Kitchens. I just don't think it's, I mean, we can keep blaming the coach, but you have Jimmy Haslam owns Cleveland. Chris Johnson owns the Jets, and they're running through coaches. By the way, everybody, the Jets draft, two years later they trade. So, you can keep blaming Donald.

Donald was 27 and 39. With that old line, that's unbelievable. They don't have a number one receiver. They don't have a dependable tight end. These are really poorly run organizations. And I don't like Adam Gase, but if you run him out of town, Donald's on his third head coach in a year and a half. I don't think you should fire Adam Gase midseason.

I mean, Adam Gase is 24 and 32 as a career in his career as a head coach. That's not good. But he's the coach. He's who you hired. You have to give guys time. Didn't we already decide that the season was lost for the judge after Sam Darnock? was out with mono. Yeah.

So what's the big reaction here? Like obviously nobody wants to lose. But this was a loseable game. If you've been paying attention to the way the dolphins have been playing, someone was going to end up losing to the dolphins. And it makes sense. It's the Jess. I just, this panic and fire the coach thing, like it's so old.

And then it's like after a while, don't you just look in the mirror, like you said? It can't always be the coach's fault. It can't always be the players fall. At one point or another, how you're setting up your team and organization matters. Joy, the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd-Lie news.

Eric Mangini was on the defensive coaching staff of the Patriots for years. What are they thinking this morning? That's next. In L.A., it's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying,

and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations

with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't really really. that we are in possession of the thing, and we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross,

because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines,

as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show,

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

Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smart. hardest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

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

licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Eric Mangini was a former Browns head coach,

a defensive coordinator for New England and the 49ers. So I want to go to New England and the Pakey. Patriots. You know Greg Roman, who Baltimore brought in to be the offensive coordinator because you coached with him in the Bay Area. And he gave, I mean, is it the schemes that hurt Belichick or Lamar Jackson? You know him, though. Well, it's both. And you talked about it earlier saying this is a little bit different look than we've ever seen. I don't think so. When you look at that game back in 2012, San Francisco hung 41 on the Patriots. That's Kaepernick. That's Colin Kaepernick. When you look at those numbers from that game, Colin had a 108 quarterback rating. Lamar last night had a 107 quarterback rating. Colin threw for four touchdown passes in that game, and they threw for 40 more yards total, and last night Baltimore ran for 40 more yards. So this isn't something that's that different than what we've seen in the past.

It's a hard offense to get ready for because it's so unique. And Greg Roman is one of the best that I've been around in scheming the running game. And he does now there's also another layer to this where eventually Lamar will come up, he'll see the front, He'll check to the run based off the front. They're not quite there yet. This is still the early stages of the offense. But it's something that we've seen in the past and not very different than what we're doing in San Francisco.

I think the offense is spectacular when it leads. I worry about sustainability when it trails. It's absolutely a problem. If the other team, if they can play the game like they did last night where they are in control the game, they've got the lead, they can run the offense they want to run. that's great. If Lamar Jackson has to go and pass and win the game, throwing the ball, that's going to be a real problem. That was the Cleveland game. They got down, had to throw, and they were in big trouble. It's a totally, totally different offense, and he hasn't proven that he can do that on a consistent basis.

The other thing that makes this not sustainable is how long can you have your quarterback be a running back first and a quarterback second? if you're going to keep giving shots to defenses on your biggest asset, eventually it catches up to you. And I've said this before. I forget the quarterbacker said it. I've seen a lot of good young running quarterbacks, but not a lot of good old ones. Because you can't take that type of beating. And then the other thing that happens is once they get paid, they don't really want to run like they did before because they want to continue to get paid at a very high rate. Don't blame him for that.

Yeah, and Donovan McNabb, later on in his career, he would run in certain situations. He'd run in the red zone. He'd run on third down, and he'd run in two minutes. That was it. And that was a good compromise. You're putting your quarterback at a lot of risk, a lot of the time, the way they're doing it now. When it's good, it's fun, though. All right, Cleveland loses situationally, once again, not great.

Going for it when you could kick field goals. What jumped out to you? You live in Cleveland. You hear Browns talk. every minute of it. What bothered you yesterday? Well, we had the two decisions not to kick the field goal. Okay, we can live with those. But at the end of the game, they go for it on fourth down. They get stopped. Now, there's three minutes left. You assume your defense is going to be able to go out there and get a stop.

But they pan to the sideline and Baker sitting by himself, Odell Beckham's off to the side. There's no coaches talking to the offense saying, look, if we get a stop, we've got a chance to go have a game-winning drive here. What plays do you like? What do you want to do? This is what I'm thinking to start the drive. This is what I'm thinking to, you know, on the first key, third down. This is what I'm thinking to get out of bounds. None of that stuff was happening.

We're looking at it right now. They're all by themselves. They're all sitting around by themselves. This is the most critical time in the game. Shouldn't they be looking at pictures? Shouldn't they be talking about what potentially they could be running? Shouldn't they all be together so they're on the same page and understand, okay, what's our got to have it play?

If we get into a critical fourth down, what are we going to go? There's so many things that you'd want to discuss, and you've got that opportunity. Your defense is either going to go stop them or not. You can't control that. But if you get a chance to go out there, you can control what you do, and why not use those four or five minutes to talk about the things you want to do for the game-winning drive? I don't. That was the most compelling part of that game to me, or the most disappointing part,

is why weren't they planning in that moment? Especially for a young quarterback. Packers lose. A big deal, no big deal. Well, it's a big deal in the sense. When they lost to Philly, that was a big deal too. Because Philly really set the stage for everybody else on how to beat the Packers. Right.

And then you saw it again yesterday. If you run the ball and you're willing to stay consistent running the ball, they have a real problem. Now, they've been opportunistic defensively. They've been able to generate turnovers. You've got Preston Smith and Zadaria Smith. Very good. Who've been excellent rushing the passer. That's their strength.

When you run the ball, the pass rushers slowed down. When you run the ball, you keep Aaron Rogers on the sideline. And when you run the ball, they have not shown a good answer to stopping that. I'm more surprised that teams haven't just followed that Philly model similar to the way we saw yesterday. And that, that to me is what everybody should do moving forward. By the way, did you know when you were in the NFL? Well, there are certain teams that want to get in the octagon, and there are certain teams that don't.

Like, did you sense this team's not a physical team? Yeah, you would drill down. So there's certain teams, and then there's certain players. A lot of those elite pass rushers want nothing to do with the running game. So what do you do? You go get big, and you run at them, and you run at them, and you run at them, until they get sick and tired of having to hold up at the point of attack. The last thing you want to do is play a finesse game with a guy who's great,

finesse. The Packers feel finesse to me. They've tried to address the running game, but they haven't shown that they have a consistent answer, and sometimes you don't have a great answer. That's right. You don't have the personnel. You just don't have the personnel. So now you've got to try to scheme, and you've got to try to do things to cover up guys or to make a play, create a negative play on an early down

so that you get into a passing situation. But the concern that I would have is whether or not, they have an answer. But a lot of teams have shown the inability to follow a very clear blueprint that other people have put forward. By the way, let's go back to New England. You know them well.

Maybe the problem here is the New England offensive line because they couldn't sustain drives. We can talk about Lamarney's great. Nobody disputes that. He's terrific. I'm watching New England last night, and I'm like, last two weeks, Tom Brady's having to escape a lot.

How big of their issue is that? It's not just the last two weeks, Colin. It's been the whole season. Their O-line issues are real, and they are beyond fortunate to have Dante Scarnicier, because what he's doing is amazing, considering the turnover they've had. What is this, the fourth left tackle in the last two years?

They lose their starting center. They've had to move other pieces around on the offensive line, and that pressure is getting to Tom much more quickly than it has historically. Yes. And they haven't been able to run the ball very effectively, which has hurt their play action component. You don't have Gronk the blocker. You don't have Gronk the blocker. You don't have Gronk the even as a short area receiver as another outlet and compliment to Edelman.

You don't have that either. All right. Eric Mangini, great stuff. Hour three, Tony Gonzalez, three-word game. Let's go to steak dinner soon. It's the herd. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the I-Hard radio app.

Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. By the way, go further than ever with a Discover at Miles card. Limitations apply. They'll double your miles first year. Discover.com slash travel. Tony Gonzalez, Hall of Famer's a guy who travels. Where did you go this past year? I went to a lot of Croatia all over Italy.

You're Mr. Travel guy. You're a global citizen. As soon as football seasons, I'm out of here. I know you'll call them. Hey, you want to come on the show? you're a Dusseldorf. Can't get a hold of you. Okay, so I'm watching the Raiders yesterday.

And I said I'd buy two season tickets and give them to a charity if they went eight and eight. And I'm going to end up buying because the day got Cincinnati on the schedule. Whether or not they're great, my eyes are telling me that sideline, they're having fun. Yeah. I always had this argument. I played football. Practice is hard. Football's hard.

Basketball practice is a blast. Yeah. When you watch the Raiders, were you ever on a team that maybe even wasn't the best team you were on, but you love going to practice? Yeah, high school? Think about it. You know what? If it's not fun, it's really, really difficult. And I think that's what you're getting at there.

And I remember being out with the chiefs during some of our losing systems, but I always had fun with Dick Ramele. He was, it was fun. You were learning stuff. Learning stuff, but he made it a good atmosphere. Mike Smith, head coach Atlanta Falcons, like we do like the field goal games and we would do stuff, but it was still in a discipline atmosphere. That's what I feel with the Raiders.

Yeah. Is that Gruden's a funny guy. He makes you do your work, but I watch the Raiders and I'm like, there's a spirit about him. Yes. And I think that's why they are winning. First of all,

maybe that's what Gruden has learned too. I keep saying this, that he's kind of, you know, he's been up in that Monday night football box for the last 10, whatever 11 years it was, and he's been studying. He has no choice but to see the, blueprint for success and you're sitting with each

one of these great coaches and seeing how they conduct themselves seeing how New England conducts themselves. That's why I said looking at their model. They're drafting. They're not going out, getting those big free hands. I know they got A, B. You were on this. Yeah, I think he's doing that. A year ago, you said, I get

what they're doing with Khalil Mack. They were trying to get younger, cheaper, and develop their own style. Yeah. And it's paying off for them big time. You look at the now, not ever, you're not going to hit all the draft picks, but they're hitting on the draft picks. He's He's structuring an offense and a defense around what he has, not saying it's my system and you're going to do it. And then it's Chuckie.

It's Mr. Gruden. It's him out there just being himself, having fun. I think players are responding to that. And this is the team of the future. I'm telling you right now, I think they're going to make the playoffs this year. Looking at their remaining of schedule. No, it gets easy. It gets easier.

They only play one winning team, and that's Kansas City Chief. And by the way, Tony, they're playing at home now. Playing at home, too. So they're going to win a lot of games. I think they need that wildcard spot in the AFC. And then going forward, you look at all the draft picks that they have coming. They're going to keep stock pined, keep stock pying. I would not be surprised that they continue to say, we're not going to go out and get these big, huge free agents.

We're going to go get good free agents. People that are, you know, we're going to pay them good money, but we're not going to ever get those max players because we know that's how you win championships in the NFL and how you have sustained championships. By the way, he's got, it's called wide open with Tony Gonzalez. You like to interview successful people, and you've made this point with Gruden before. He had 10 years to study Belichick. And you cannot do Monday night football

and look at New England and not go, I'm going to steal some of their stuff. And their stuff is, we're going to pay a lot of people pretty good. We're not opening the bank for anybody, including Brady. And to your point, I think that's what the Raiders did. Now, I want to move to a situational moment that, you know, you forget that coaching is teaching. And just because you draft a college player,

Tony Gonzalez, out of cow, you still got to teach him. The good coaches teach. get better. So at the end of the Cleveland game, so the offense doesn't get it on fourth down, they go to the sideline. And Eric Mangini brought this up 45 minutes ago, the defense on the field. So here's Baker-Mayfield and all these young talented guys on the sideline, none are talking to each other. They're potentially getting the ball back. Yeah. Is this a thing? Is this bother you? It bothers me because I feel like if I was on that team, as I got older, as I matured, and that's what I keep saying about these Cleveland Browns.

They have no maturity right now. And I come from leadership too. Kitchens needs to be out there like in somebody's here. And where's the veteran? Go up to this guy. If I saw Matt Ryan sitting there like, say, hey man, we're going to be all right. We're going to get back into it.

Let's go. There's none of that on this team right now. And I feel bad for Kitchens because he inherited. He's a first year head coach. He's inherited these personalities galore. And he doesn't know how to handle it. He's never been there before. I mean, they're the most penalized team in the NFL.

By now brutal. And the second most penalized team is Arizona, which another first year head coach. Right. It's hard to command a locker room coming in there with big personalities. Not even with big personalities. This is the pros. I mean, these guys are grown men. They have thoughts and emotions.

And to be able to control that, it's falling apart for them right now. And I think it's going to get worse because I said it yesterday on the show. You don't change who you are in the middle of the season. When the heat is on, you always fall back to who you really are. You said it. I asked you yesterday in Fox NFL kickoff. See, I made the mistake. I said, okay, halfway point, let's go, let's change.

And your takeaway was players that get penalized a lot suddenly don't in week nine. Like they've established, see, we call it the Browns blame pie. I blame the front office mostly. The general manager hired a running back coach's head coach. Yeah. And I think I could crush Baker and I could crush Freddie Kitchens. But if you're young at quarterback and coach, and I have thrown you into the fire, some of it is, of course, you accept the job.

What's Baker's supposed to do? Don't draft me number one. Freddie Kitchens. First time in my life I can make $2 million a year. I'll turn it down. I don't blame guys for taking good jobs when they're offered. And when you take those jobs, you kind of lose yourself a little bit. Now, I don't know, Fredick, I don't know Kitchens, but I've heard that he's changed a little bit,

as well as you're supposed to. But when you first get thrown, when I first got drafted, okay, all of a sudden, and I'm this financial, you know, I'm poor. And then the next day I sign my name, I'm a millionaire. Okay. And there's pressure that comes. You see it happens all the time. All of a sudden, you get this label of status.

You kind of say, well, I have to start acting this way. I have to start being this way. And players were on that team last year when he was there. And a guy goes from here. I've seen it happen with coaches before. With coaches. With coaches. They get the job.

All of a sudden, hey, they were the offensive assistant last year. Now they're a position coach. They got promoted within. And all of a sudden, they're changing. And they said this happened with Josh McDaniels when he went to go be a head coach. At Denver. And Denver. It's like all of a sudden he changed.

It's like, are you trying to be Belichick? Why don't you just stick with who you are? And that's the hardest thing is to stay true to yourself when you have this success. And that's where I think with Baker, it's like, why would you do all those commercials? Why are you doing all that stuff? Just be quiet and go play and all that stuff will take care of itself. I just, I don't know. I have the whole generation of, of I have to be a certain way because this is what I

I think is expected of me kills a lot of guys. And it's going to keep continuing hurting people's careers. So when you got your first big check, were you, was you get a little into your head there for a year? Yeah, yeah. What'd you do? Well, you know, I thought you started spending. I look like, I got a lot of know people in my, in my life.

But not know people? Well, people that say, no. I don't have yes people. Oh, who? Like, my mom. What did she say? She'd be like, talking, Anthony. She calls me Anthony when she gets mad to me.

Anthony Gonzalez, I don't know, who you think you are. Like, you can get in there. You can take your dishes to sink, too. Still? Yeah. still for sure. Every time I go from my mom's house, she puts me to work. If I got a Hall of Fame jacket, I'd be like, I'm not doing dishes anymore. See, you might not be able to handle that. She never gave you money. I haven't. I used to be willing to sit in row eight of Delta. Now it's

row five or better. Yeah, there it is. Joy knows. I've totally changed. Not the same guy. Do you even know what coach looks like? You would, if they made. Football coach or coach in a plane? All right, one more thing. It's weird in the NFL. Like I said, in college football, you know, if Alabama got beat by 20, you'd be like, whoa, in the NFL, you do show up certain weeks. And it's just like, we just don't have the personnel. So I'm watching Green Bay yesterday, and I'm like, oh, they're, they went to Nobu last night. They got, they, you know, I said they went to Nobu last night. It was no show yesterday. Have you ever been in a game? When you just came out there and you're like, I just don't feel like getting into a wrestling match. And you fall behind and it's just over.

You get that feeling sometimes in a locker. You're like, man, something wrong. Really? Yeah. All the time. Even coaches come out. Coaches, I remember when I was out in Atlanta, my position coach would come to me and go, hey, I don't know. Something's up today. I just don't feel it.

I'm looking at the guys right now. They're overlooking this one. I can just see it, get them going. You know, go in there and talk to them. Like, we can't slip. And sure enough, we go out there and we just didn't play well. And we, you know, when we lose to a team, we should have beat. First two possessions for Green Bay, I'm like, oh, they have not matched the Chargers

intensity. They're not ready to play. It happens. It's so hard. That's why this game is so hard. It's not even, it's not about talent. It's about emotionally being able to stay at that level. That's why New England is so good.

That's why Pat Riley was so good. That's why, you know, all these great coaches of the past are so good because they can keep that even kill level of emotion that you need to play weak and week out because the season's long. And so when that weak team comes in, those are the ones, those good coaches are scared of the most. That's why Belichick always doesn't matter who he's playing. He's like, they're a good football team.

We got to prepare because that's how he's talking to his team. because, like, don't you dare take this team lightly. You go get her butts kicked. Well, players are also, you've got the internet, players aren't dumb when you're a 12-and-a-half-point favorite, and you look at their injury report and they're missing their left tackle. It is hard to get guy.

It's very easy for New England to play Baltimore again. Like, in a weird way, it's like, oh, no, no, no. For Baltimore, when you play that great at home against New England the second time, like, there is getting your butt kick's not terrible. It's not terrible. Sometimes they say it's the best medicine. And some coaches I've heard will come on here and go, No, it's not.

It's a loss. I think it is. There is a good loss. I don't care anybody says. It's good. In fact, that's when you learn the most about yourself. In New England, it seems like they do it every year. They go out and get their butt kicked to somebody and people say, oh, they're exposed.

Whatever. They're still going to play in the Super Bowl. I guarantee. I'm not a guarantee. If they play again against Baltimore, I got a feeling they're going to win that game. Because for whatever reason, they weren't. They didn't come out that. Remember you saw High Tower on the sideline last night saying, let's go.

what's wrong, wake up. You could read his lips. That's something that doesn't have with the New England team, but it happens to the best of us. By the way, what's your mother's name again? Judy. So Judy makes you do dishes.

What you make me do everything? I love that. Moop. Furniture, all that stuff. I don't like going over there sometime. Judy, he's soft, and a lot of it's going to his head. Look, I got manicures. I'm like, I don't want to do all that stuff.

Tony Goddallis Hall of Famer. Thanks, buddy, Joy with the News. No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Tough moms keep you in line. Oh, yeah. Let's say most successful people have had tough moms.

Yes. So the Brown suffered a 2419 loss on Sunday to the Broncos. And first time starter, Brandon Allen, first time ever taking an NFL snap, Brandon Allen. Following the game, head coach Freddie Kitchens insisted that the calls for his job don't bother him, though. No, it really doesn't concern me. It's not my decision. and I've never worried about it before and I won't worry about it now and I won't worry about it in the future.

I'll just do the best job I can do. A lot of those, see the pictures being taken when he's saying that? Like, that's, it's getting close there. Like, there's a sense this is, like, breaking. It's going to happen. It shouldn't break. I know. We agree with it.

Adam Gase. I know it's bad, but you can't fire guys in week nine. That's what? What's the point? What is the point? Like, who's on the staff that you feel like it's going to do a better job than Freddie Kitchens at this point? What did you fire Hugh Jackson for then at this point?

What's the difference? I remember when I said you're making a big mistake firing Hugh Jackson, and all I got, I went to my mentions that day. It was just Brown fans are like, oh, and I'm thinking, what elite coach is taking this job? I mean, what's the improvements, though? I mean, you're going to hear it today if just talking about Hugh Jackson is. I'm not advocating for Hugh Jackson to come back or anything.

I'm just saying what was the point? and this is why you build from the top down. You can say all you want about how the Browns are playing. They have an incredible amount of talent. There are people talking about the Browns with the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season, so don't forget that. Not now no one was being realistic about that, but this is not all on Freddie Kitchens.

Freddie Kitchens is doing the best he can do with what Freddie Kitchens is and the experience that he has. By the way, Baker again yesterday had lots of time and was high on a lot of throw. Something's up with his mechanics. Baker's accurate. His ball is sailing out. I don't know what's going on with the Browns, but yesterday felt like a game that they should have.

That's no disrespect to the Broncos, but if you look at the situation, they should have blown the Broncos out, or at least one convincingly and been in control of the game. So kudos to the Broncos going out there and getting that win. But that was, I mean, you had a first time starter. Like, it's not, it's not unrealistic to say that the Browns should have won that game convincingly. So to lose it in the way that they did,

bad. Not good. The Dolphins are no longer winless though. They ended their 10-game losing streak with a 2618 victory over the Jets yesterday. Ryan Fitzpatrick talked about his team's performance. Things that we've had to fight through and all the negativity that is surrounding from the outside looking in, the way that guys have decided to be positive, decided to practice well, decided to come to work every single day and work hard.

what makes this one so special. And it's nice when something like that pays off and you could see the fruits of your labor. Winning Day in South Florida, he getting a convincing winner for the Rockets. Here's that, this Preston Williams. They have a couple of a C. He got hurt late in the game. Is that him? That's pressed.

Boy, he is, he's came from nowhere. Yeah, DeVonte Parker had a good catch. Yes. I like the Dolphins energy and I have all season. So do I. They play hard. They don't feel. like a, despite the fact that everyone has assumed that they're tanking and I mean, they are tanking.

They don't come out with that energy. I want to be positive about their future, but obviously we have to see how they do in the draft and it's going to depend largely on what quarterback they end up with. I felt like yesterday's game was less about the dolphins because I felt like this was coming anyway and much more about the Jets. Yeah. I'll tell you, Miami, get that quarterback right. I like the receivers.

There was pretty good protection yesterday. It's not, I got to tell you, this is such a COVID. coaching sport. Miami leads. They always play great in the first half. Then they've got about 24 players. Then they'd run out of gas. Right. Yeah. That makes sense when you look at the way the team is built. But they're losing the right way. You're like, oh, they come play really hard. The Giants have way more talent. They fall into a 13-0-0 hole every first quarter. You're losing the wrong way. Miami is all in for about two and a half quarters and then just runs out of people. Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. I feel like yesterday's game was more about the Jets than it was

about the Dolphins. Yeah. So the Lakers have won five straight games and are currently five and one first in the West. And one of the reasons for the Lakers' early success has been LeBron. He spoke to Spectrum SportsNets following the 103.96 win over the Spurs. And he said it's because he's finally healthy. I'm playing injury free. I'm not, I'm not injured.

My quick twitch is back. My speed is back. My strength is back. You know, playing with a torn and grown last year. You know, even when I came back, it was still partially torn. It was just difficult to be able to move and shift. Like I'm capable of doing that defense. You know, and then for me, you know, I just take the challenge.

I love being challenged. Coach challenged me, AD challenged me. I challenge myself. They need one more guy off the bench. They got about eight NBA guys I trust. That's that Iggy, Andre Aguadala. Could I get him for 14 minutes a night, you know, like, like start of the fourth quarter. They need about one more guy off the bench and you're like, okay, they got eight to nine NBA players.

And that's why looking at the Lakers and comparing him to say the clippers, You still feel even the way that the Lakers are playing, you still feel more strongly about the clippers because of their depth. Now, I don't think depth wins in clutch situations and championships. You need the superstars. But to make it through the postseason and get to that point, you need depth and a high level of talent at that depth. So I like the way that the Lakers are playing.

I like that they're coming out strong. It's not a start of the season where it's all controversial and is Vogel the guy and all that stuff. Like it's a great start to the NBA season overall, I think, because we've been a lot of great basketball so forth. Yeah, no. I watched Friday night. I got home. Wife was out of town, and I turned on half time of Brooklyn. No, it was like late second quarter. I watched the rest of Brooklyn Rockets. Houston plays no back court defense. I watched the entire Laker map game. Luca Donchish and LeBron put on a show. That was your first time really watching the maps like that, right? They're fun. I feel the same way about him. Offensively, all sorts of good. Not sure they'll ever make a big stop. But offensively, they'll get to, if they, if you play them, first of all, Luca, just put 27 points a game rest of his. career. God, he's a hard stop. He's so fun to watch. I felt like that game ended the way it should have, though, like exactly what you're saying. Finish the game out and you're good, make your free

throws, but it was a fun watch. Oh, it was a great watch. I've watched a lot of NBA so far this year. All right, Joy with the News. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lide news. All right, the three-word game, we do it every Monday during the NFL season. Can you describe starting Thursday with the Niners over Arizona, every NFL game in three words? I think you can. We'll do that. Best for Last coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Don't be the guy in the room with a long, sloppy-looking untucked shirt. Untucka.com. Code heard, 20% off. GQ calls it perfection. All right, we call it,

joy. The three-word game. Every NFL game can be described in just three words. It's best for last, and here we go. 49ers Cardinals Thursday night. Finally, Jimmy's team. This is an organization that was led by their defense and their running game. And it wasn't until Thursday night when the running game struggled and the D-line wasn't dominant that they said, Jimmy, we need this one from you. That's how you develop a quarterback.

He had four touchdown passes a career high, 317 passing yards. This is how you develop a quarterback. We're not going to ask you when you're a young guy to take over the team. Sparingly, we're going to need you to save us. And it was Thursday night and the running game evaporated and they needed Jimmy G. to take over and he did. Nice job, Niners. Texans Jags, minced meat Minshew.

Gardner Minshu, not good. Second lowest passerating of his career. He leads the NFL with seven fumbles lost. I know he's a hipster. He's got the mustache. He probably drives a Corvette. I get all of that. But when you put him and Deshawn Watson on the same field,

I like Deshawn by a lot. Redskins' bills. Haskin too much. All right. Nice job, Redskins. Let's have him play Buffalo. Road. Third best defense in the NFL.

Could you make it a little easier? How about a home game? How about you ease him in? No, let's let him face the one team that Tom Brady couldn't move the Chains against. By the way, Washington scored 10 points just once in their last six games. Chiefs Vikings, don't trust the Vikings. Come on. Do you realize they're 0.13 and 1 outdoors against winning teams in the last three years? They're great at 1 o'clock at home as a favorite. Put them on the road outdoors against a good team. They stink. They were also one for six.

against playoff teams last year. Matt Moore carved them up. I just don't trust the Vikings. Love their roster. Don't trust them. It's like people. A lot of people I love. Love many trust few, right?

Love many trust few. Titans Panthers. All in on Allen. Listen, they're five and one this year. Only lost to the 49ers. And we can make all the excuses about Cam being hurt. last seven games with Cam, they're O and seven. Last seven with Allen, they're six and one.

He's a good distributor. He's got a, he made a couple of throws. He made that one throw down the sideline to Samuel yesterday. Oh, my. He's a distributor. It's a good roster and a well-coached team, and maybe going forward, they're looking for a distributor more than a superstar athlete.

Jets Dolphins, draining the tank. Miami lost 10 straight. How do you solve it? Face your former coach. Miami looks well-coached. have some nice perimeter players. They're going to have a bunch of draft picks. They're going to do the Raiders.

They're going to go out there and get a bunch of young players. People buy into Gruden, people buy into Brian Flores, and the Jets are a mess. Bengals, by the way, last winless team in the NFL. Bears Eagles, one first down in the first half, and that was due to a penalty. You can keep trying to convince me, Trebisky's your guy.

Come on. And this game was over eight minutes in. Come on. First half against the Eagles. They had nine yards. Less than half yards of play. I mean, this is a Philadelphia team that's got some liabilities on the back end. One first down.

Colt Steelers. Steelers still alive. They'd be seventh in the AFC. One game out of the wild card. And that's with a rash of injuries. They've only allowed eight sacks. Here's the good news. They got great offense.

of wine. I'm not into Mason Rudolph, but they got some playmakers. They get after the quarterback and you can't touch theirs. And their schedule is the fourth easiest going forward. They get to face. Cleveland a couple times. Cincinnati, Arizona, the Jets.

Lions Raiders. Home sweet home. Can you imagine this is the first home game for the Raiders since week two? They've been a Dusseldorf for the last two months. Josh Jacobs is a baller, breaking Bo Jackson's Raider rookie records. Derek Carr's comfortable.

He's had 100 plus passer rating in six of eight games. And if I lived in Vegas, I'd buy season tickets now. They are an absolute blast to watch. Good for John Gruden. Buck Seahawks, even more dangerous. Good Lord. I know you didn't watch. I know they're up in the Pacific Northwest.

Russell Wilson's ridiculous. This is a rare Pete Carroll team that, doesn't play any defense. Yesterday, five touchdown passes, 380 yards. I mean, he's just great. Does anybody throw a better deep ball and a better corner fade than Russell Wilson? Lowest interception percentage in the NFL? You know, it's, again, now this team's about offense.

This is not about defense. This is Russ saving him every week. That's why I'd say, you can say what you want about Lamar and all that stuff. Russell Wilson, if he's great, they win. If he struggles, they don't. I mean, he is really the MVP. of this league. Browns Broncos. Shaving

shoes. Could they have a week when there's not a non-football story? Baker shaved twice. He came in with a beard. And then before the game, he shaved to a foo man shoe or something during the game. Then after the game, he shaved

that's not the end of the world, but what are you doing? And then you got the Landry-Odell-Backham shoe thing at half. It's come, can we just, is football mean? I mean, let's, let's, the NFL uniform policy. Okay, you're being picked on. This was the biggest game of the year.

Came out flat. Stop building brand. Win football games. Packers, Chargers. Packed it in. Green Bay had 50 yards in the first half. That's with Aaron Rogers. That's with Aaron Jones.

That's what Devante Adams. I mean, Green Bay's got nothing but ballers on this team. And they, Trent Dilfer said it right. They were all spread out. It had worked the week before. Chargers said enough of that nonsense. Bosa was just ridiculous. He's great.

Patriots Ravens. Lights, camera, Jackson. Lamar Jackson is now 11 and 1 when he faces teams for the first time. And they're fun. Big tight ends, run the football. I find them fascinating. And, you know, we only have pads one day a week now in the NFL,

so good luck practicing. You know, we keep saying the NFC is better than the AFC. And nothing like this in the NFC. The NFC, all the quarterback set back in the pocket and throw it around. The AFC, I got to face Deshawn Watson. I got to face Lamar Jackson. If I was a defensive coordinator, I'd rather face other guys. Finally, Cowboys Giants, don't slip up.

Dallas, you're off a buy. This is a team that's giving you trouble. And you blew them out in the first game. Don't slip up, Cowboys. You already lost it in MetLife already this year against the Jets. Don't screw it up. Joy and I are back tomorrow. Speak for yourself next.

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 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 SportsSlyce on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, A ref. My mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, right. My mama want you to wave at her. What?

Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips.

high school. Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer?

They had a bogo. Well, then you got them. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.