The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD – HOUR 1 – 49ers HUGE Win Over Seahawks | Jordan Love’s MASSIVE Day vs Bears

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Colin Cowherd discusses the 49ers getting a thrilling win over the Seahawks in a battle that felt like an NFC Championship Game showdown. He credits Brock Purdy, Mike Evans and the San Francisco offense for delivering on the road in front of an intense Seattle fanbase. Colin also talks about the Packers crushing the Bears in a NFC North battle. He believes both teams see themselves as contenders through 5 weeks by getting key players like Caleb Williams and Micah Parsons back from injury.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's the herd. Wherever you may be. Whatever platform, however you may be watching or listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. If I had told you before the weekend started, Seahawks 49 or seven turnovers, you're like, yeah, I don't care. That was three hours and 45 minutes. of fantastic football. Toughness, coaching, the crowd, resilience.

I mean, if you go, look, those are the two best teams in the league. We don't even have to argue about it. Those are the two best teams in the league. I don't even care about the seven turnovers. If you go look at the box score, first downs, time of possession, total yards, it was a heavyweight price fight. I mean, it was just unbelievable. For San Francisco, we said it Friday, it was one of my picks.

I like San Francisco. got bullied by the Seahawks twice last year, humiliated, and San Francisco takes pride in toughness, and they got punched in the forehead last year, and they came out, and I mean, they were on fire. They came out on fire. And the game came down to basically Cooper Cup on the sideline. I mean, it's a judgment call. That's a perfect way for it to end. San Francisco wins barely.

But between these teams, it felt like an NFC all-star game. I mean, San Francisco alone, Mike Evans, is going to make the holidays. of Fame. Trent is, Kittle is, Fred Warner is, Christian McCaffrey is. Now, they're old, and they hobble around, and they're limping half the time. But the key to this new San Francisco team is Mike Evans. He brings a new dynamic to the team. We all know this. The Niners have old guys that get beat up. They'd become incredibly over-reliant on Christian McCaffrey, who had 413 touches last year, a career high. And it's like, okay, guys, he gets banged up. Give McCaffrey a break. So Mike Evans has been dialed in day one with Brock Purdy, completely dialed in.

And here's what I like about Mike Evans. What the Niners do really, really well is scheme stuff open. That's why you're always like, how's Kittles so open? How's Christian McCarr? How's Debo so open? That's what they do better than anybody. They scheme guys open. But Mike Evans isn't, that's not necessary.

Because when you face Seattle, A, they're so young, twitchy and fast, even if you're you scheme it open, they have catch-up speed. You know, you'll get 12 yards against everybody else. Seattle, you get five. The second thing is Seattle will sniff out a lot of your schemes because they have maybe the best young defensive coach. So you can't just scheme your way going to Seattle and win. You got to win mono-a-mono. You got to win guy on guy, talent on talent. And Seattle has an answer for everybody. And they didn't have an answer for Mike Evans. It's like, yeah, we got an NBA guy on the sideline, throw it up for him. They couldn't stop him. And I got to say, Brock Purdy was absolutely sensational late in the game. He had two bad breaks go against him. There was a grounding call that was

horrific. That was one of the worst calls of the day by any officiating crew. And then he gets a touchdown, but Seattle called a timeout, so it negated it. Didn't matter. March them right down, undeterred, got a touchdown. I thought Brock Purdy's decision-making on a couple of those drives late were fantastic. I mean, Seattle had a choppy first half, a bunch of turnovers, and then San Francisco, you know, takes command that Seattle shows incredible resilience to come back, bang on Sam Darnel all you want. I mean, if JSN doesn't drop that ball, they're probably going into win the game. But there was a lot of a bad football around the NFL, like a lot of bad game management. I don't care about the seven turnovers. That was fantastic. San Francisco's a little older.

you cross your fingers on their health. Seattle's a little younger. San Francisco driven by a brilliant scheme-centric offensive coach. The Seahawks driven by a brilliant, aggressive defensive coach. But what you watch for three and a half hours is this is the way the game is supposed to be played. It was just collisions and intensity and physicality and toughness, great coaching and quarterback. Hey, listen, when you play against defenses like this, you know, Brock Pretty get a bad pick, Darnel had a couple. This isn't perfect. You go be perfect against the Jets.

You can be perfect against bad football team. You play the Niners. You play the Seahawks in Seattle. You're not going to be perfect. You know, Fred Warder's going to punch a ball out if you play the Niners. That's just the way it's going to go. So I'm sitting there watching this and I'm like, you know, you just said Thursday or Friday, seven turnovers.

I mean, I just, I mean, to me, it's like that's what football should be. flawed drama intensity, toughness. And Mike Evans, scheme or not, Seattle couldn't stop him. Here's Shannie after. When you get the right looks and Brock can recognize it, he goes there and he did it a lot today. You know, they do a really good job with their coverages, when to take people away and stuff like that. But every time they didn't, I felt like Brock founded and Mike rewarded him for it.

Mike and Brock to be able to get us back in there with some explosives and be able to get in the end zone was huge. That's exactly why I'm here. Well, the surprise of the weekend, I guess the Packers aren't dead. We learned two things about the Packers' Bears game. One, Green Bay stabilized their season. And number two, the Bears need to get Caleb Williams back. Nothing against Tyson Baygent, but you can only drive on a spare tire so long. He's a backup.

You know, he's a Division II guy that's undrafted. he's had six starts in the NFL, four of the six. He's had more interceptions than touchdowns. You know, this game was about Jordan Love. Is he ever going to be far? Is he ever going to be Aaron Rogers? I don't know. But you can see why they love him.

I mean, first of all, they've drafted wide receiver very, very well. That's why they can let go of guys like Wix. That's why they can win when Reed's banged up or Romeo Dobbs doesn't turn out to be the player they thought. But I said it last week, Chicago's dominance in time of possession. because of their run game with Ben Johnson has amassed a reality about the Bears. It's not a very good secondary. They got a rookie out of Oregon at safety.

He's going to be a really, really good player. Malik Muhammad from Texas rookie could be a better player. But I mean, right now, their pass rush isn't bad, but you saw, you can tell when you watched the Packers yesterday what Matt LaFleur was preaching all week at practice. This is what we call an intentional game plan. They're like, fellas, we're going to attack their. corners because our receivers are better than their corners and Jordan Love and he does this every year is Mr. October. Forget Reggie Jackson. Jordan Love is Mr. October. He struggles every September

and I mean, he was, he throws as effortless and as beautiful a deep ball as the league has. So he completed, it was weird to watch this. You ever watch it and you're watching the red zone and they're showing highlights and you're like, is that a replay or did they just do that again? They had six completions over 25 yards. I thought it was 10. They just kept going back and back and back. So it was very much for Green Bay a rinse and repeat performance. They clearly found something in the film.

They're like Watson is going to beat him over the top and we're just going to keep doing it over and over and over. And the Packers hadn't run the ball particularly well. So, and for the record, the two times the Chicago Bears this year, have played a team with a good quarterback and very capable big receivers. Carolina scored 37 on the Bears. That was week one. And Green Bay yesterday scores 31 in the Bears. So if you got a quarterback and big receivers that can go deep and beat average corners,

Carolina, we talked about Carolina last year, what they did to the Rams. They gave the Rams who had bad corners last year, fits. This ended up being a very intentional, very impressive. And so now, today, this morning, Green Bay is three and two, and they're saying, we're getting Micah back real quick. But the bears are three and two. And they're like, we're getting Caleb back real quick. And they need him. Again, you can only drive in a spare tire so long.

Here's Ben Johnson on the performance of his quarterbacks. credit to Green Bay, they came out. We knew we were going to get their best shot, and we sure did. And, you know, I thought we had our opportunities to get back into that game, and we didn't maximize those opportunities. Tyson just could never feel like he got in a rhythm here today. And so we'll look at why that was the case, and, you know, the second interception happened, and we just felt like,

let's give a case a chance out there and see if we get different results. Yeah, that was what you call humble pie. for the Chicago Bears. So tonight's a great one. Rams hosting the Buffalo Bills, game two of the World Series. Brewers, low payroll brewers. What do you know?

A lot of low payroll success in baseball. Jay Mack, I will say that San Francisco Seattle game was, you know, whenever you watch a great football game, like with two really, really good teams. And I was talking to our buddy John Middilcoff,

when Big Ben was in his prime, and the Ravens were great, they'd have these rivalry matchups, and they looked and sounded different than other games, like even the warmups, even the pregame, it was like, and when you got Greenlaws going to the sideline, and he's battling and headbutton people, and I'm like, okay, this is not, this is not Carolina against the Saints. Like this thing feels like, it felt like a playoff game. Did it not?

Pretty much. I mean, Seattle doesn't feel right now like the defending Super Bowl champs. No, can't run the ball. They've given up a lot. And, you know, frankly, Sam Darnel, without the, that run game looked pedestrian at best. By the way. They need Zach Charbonnet back.

Whoa, they're missing their top two running backs. By the way, let me give you a quarterback the previous two years without a run game who struggled. Patrick Mahomes. The bottom line is, it's not like the Seahawks are missing like a guy. They're missing their two top running backs. They got an undrafted guy and a guy you don't trust because he fumbles too much. Like, they don't have a run game. That's why I said Friday, like this was one of my.

favorite choices. I'm like, San Francisco's run game is exceptional. Seattle doesn't have one. And so now you're going to put one a great quarterback. It doesn't matter who it is. When it's like, okay, you've got to throw. And you're going to be in third and six, not third in two. It totally changes everything. And then by the way, you got a running back that fumbles in the end zone. Oh, we, that was bad. By the way, Jalen Hertz lost his third string running back. Sequin Barclays out. Yeah. Eagles, they have like 300 yards of offense, I think, in the last two weeks combined. But I will say this.

They should have won that game because Liam Cohen's a great coach in Jacksonville, and he had his worst game as a coach. It was awful. By the way, are we going to do any Jets today? Because when we were talking yesterday, I had to drop the phone in the middle when the Brown screwed up the pun. I was so excited, Colin. That Jets got to win.

I will say this. That was entertaining. Those aren't great teams, but Cleveland Jets was entertaining. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9-8-8-8-8-7. AM Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. The real story isn't told on the field. It's written in the lives of the people who left here who started as students in Happy Valley and became forces in the world.

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an intimate pre-show performance and Q&A. And then stay for the full show. Lily Pierce, live in Toronto. Enter now for your chance to win at IHartRadio.com. Stream Carly's new album, Honest Woman, available now. I've been talking about this last week. Owners are now richer than ever, more impulsive, and so you're constantly changing coordinators and coaches,

and I think we have some people right now that should not be head coaches in the NFL, and in previous generations would not have been, but everybody gets fired faster now. Everybody reacts too quickly. We got coordinators like the one in Dallas. He's just not ready yet. could be in two years. He's not ready yet. So Philadelphia, stop me if you've heard this before. The Eagles and Nick Seriani were dreadful with clock management. So first of all, it was typical

Philadelphia. Three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, you know, second half late in the game. This is what they are. It's embarrassing. It's been like this for two years. But the Eagles fought their butts off. We can look at some highlights. Jalen Hertz has moving them downfield. Again, Hertz is I mean, every year it's a different coordinator because Siriani can't design or call plays. I'm not sure what he does. They fought their way down the field courageously. Again, it was a parade of three and outs, but they took the lead with 0.08 seconds left. So Siriani, congrats to Philly.

You got to win, right? There's eight seconds left. So Siriani allows, he kicks the ball and he makes it returnable. This guy's got a strong leg. Kick it out of the end zone. Jags have no time out. force them to use time off the clock. They got no timeouts left.

Instead, the guy gets a big return. Cam Little comes in, probably the strongest leg in the NFL and boots it. I mean, this was the clumsiest exit in England since Brexit. What in the name of bad clock management are you doing? By the way, the last week, third quarter led by 10, they went for it in a fourth down at his own 38. Like, he doesn't call a place.

he does design plays. So at least be great situationally. Whiff, whiff. Siriani, to his credit, manned up and acknowledged he blew it. Our guys fought their butts off today. Defense had an outstanding game, keeping us in that game.

Offense did enough at the end to go win us that game. Special teams did a nice job kicking there. You know, I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game. And that's what I said to our. guys. And what hurts there is that, you know, the guys fought so hard. And then I don't make the decision that, you know, that I should make it to end of the game. And I cost us that game. And I put that fully on me. What, what drives me nuts is you had all that time to think about it.

You know, you go to a commercial, right? Philly taking the lead. They have time on the headset. You know, sometimes it's tough. It feels like you're a newspaper guy on deadline in the NFL. The clock is taking. You got time. It's Cam Little to your homework. He's got a huge leg. You hadn't covered kicks very well. Okay. So then that wasn't shockingly the worst game management of the day. And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the one NFL coach that wears his hat backwards on the sidelines has the most inexcusable clock snafu in the history of the league. NFL's 106 years old. I've never seen anything like I've seen in the giant Washington game. They have no timeouts.

Jaden Daniels, Dan Quinn, what are you doing? 27 all. Clock's running. What, spike the ball. Do something. Throw it out of bounds. I've never seen that. And by the way, so in the last couple of weeks alone, I've seen Siriani

butcher it, Dan Quinn butcher it. Todd Bowles did that fourth in one, which analytically made no sense. Shottie with the Cowboys. What do they all have in common? Todd Bulls, Shottie, Dan Quinn, Siriani. they're not top of the market guys. You got them cheap or you got them where they'd failed elsewhere. But in Philadelphia, for instance,

Howie Roseman got burned by Chip Kelly in his mind. So he doesn't want to pay money to a guy like a Vrable or a Sean Peyton. You know, when you hire a Vrable or a Sean Payton or a Harbaugh like John Harbaugh, they got a point of view. They're going to push back on GMs. They're going to push back on ownership. They're not easy. Those are all the great coaches.

So what we've seen is Schottenheimer feels like he's over his skis. Siriani's over his skis. I think Todd Bowles is an elite defensive coordinator. By the way, I would hire Todd Bowles in one second to be my defensive coordinator. And by the way, every team that's undefeated right now in the league has a defensive coordinator. It's a former head coach. Like these defensive guys, there's room for them.

I'm not sure it's head coach all the time. But, you know, nothing against Dan Quinn, but his success in Atlanta was tied to Kyle Shanahan when he was his OC. Shanney leaves, they never recover. So was that the best coach on the market? I don't know. I mean, I wasn't an awful hire, but you have seen over the last couple of weeks terrible clock management. Brutal. Again, you know, Dan Quinn at least is owning it.

Leaving tonight with a tie feels like a loss. and the last sequence, you know, we throw it out of bounds, we clock it, you know, and give yourself a chance to kick it. And we pride ourselves some of those moments at the end of the game. And after the first down run, you know, still trying to game more for the kick. Right calls, honestly, we can go clock it early.

And don't put ourselves in that spot. And that is my responsibility, nobody else's. For the record, these billionaires don't like to pay anybody, especially coaches. So they'll pay the quarterback or the Star Pass Rush or the Star Wide Receiver. Hell, even Cincinnati paid money on players this year. But a lot of these billionaire owners, not all, not Robert Kraft, but a lot of them, they'll scrimp on coaching.

They'll take a guy that failed the first time. With very few exceptions, I would hire an offensive coach. Very few exceptions. Stefansky is going to work eventually if Pennix can stay healthy. but and then there's GMs like Howie Roseman, who's probably the most powerful GM in the league is Doug Peterson, you know, Nick Seriani,

those guys aren't going to push back. Those guys got jobs that, you know, it wasn't like they were knocking down, everybody was knocking down their door. So I don't have a lot of sympathy for general managers who are protecting their power and owners who are cheap. I mean,

you're going to have to spend money with VABEL. You're going to have to spend money on John Harbaugh. You're going to have to spend money on Sean Payton. some of that stuff is at Washington moment. I don't remember ever seeing anything like that. Ever. Jay Mack with the news. This is the Heard Line News.

Let's start with the NLCS. Dodgers take a 1-0 lead early against the Brewers, but it would not hold up. The Brewers' bullpen was fantastic. And Milwaukee wins 2 to 1. Pretty good ending there. Mookie Betts had a chance with a couple runners on late in the 19th. inning. But Milwaukee ultimately gets the win and they go up one nothing. I don't want to overreact,

Colin. It's not a huge deal. Yamamoto goes tonight. This is going to be a great series because Milwaukee is the Tampa of the National League where they can single you to death. It's not about power, but they have great pitching too. And what did Tampa do against New York? They shut down their big bats and also their pitching out-duled the Yankees great starting pitching. And so that's a little bit of what you saw last night. I think this is this Dodger team is not winning games at the plate. So when they get out dueled, when one of their stars gets outduled, they're in trouble. This has been a team, you know, Otani has struggled and been banged up. It is very reliant, you know, on some big bats. And it's hard. Those big bats can be silenced with great pitching.

So this, this series is going to look like this. You're going to get a lot of lower scoring, well-played games, but the brewers play real defense, death by a thousand cuts, they force you to play defense, and I mean, this is what, this is what it's going to look like. You're going to have six or seven games, it's going to look just like this. Yeah, it's a great night for LA Sports. You get the Dodgers with Yamamoto tonight,

four o'clock on Fox and FS1, and then, of course, the Rams bills later on in the evening. All right, let's move to the NFL, and Drake May has rebounded. He was on the struggle bus early. He rebounded big time against the Raiders this week. the Patriots. Colin, and a beatdown I didn't see coming.

45-17, just an all-around butt-kicking. Raiders were never in this game. Patriots did whatever they wanted. Remember, no A.J. Brown. Travian Henderson left injured. This was impressive. Here's Drake May after the win. Yeah, I'm just proud of these guys for stepping up.

I mean, offense, defense, overall is a football team. That's a, I think we talk about identity with, with Coach Verbal. I mean, that's a coach variable football team of stepping up. being ready to take advantage of your opportunity. And part of it, in the first touchdown of pop, I'm back there. You know, credit the offensive line eating a ham sandwich. So I got all day back there. And I think that's, you know, things I'm working on back there when I got time to sit in there

and find somebody open and credit those big guys. Well, first of all, people freaking out when Drake may struggle. It's like he didn't forget how to play football. I still don't love their offensive line. But in fairness to the Raiders, they came out of a ridiculously physical and emotional game from Kansas City. And I mean, they really stood toe to toe with the Chiefs. It was a great NFL game. We said it was the best loss, the Raiders that had in a decade. And it felt like to me, they were a little flat. You fly out east. It's an early game. And they, you know, the numbers will

tell you analytically, these West Coast teams that fly out for early games when they've come off a really big game the week before, they just don't, they don't do particularly well. I mean, we've seen the Seahawks lose to a backup quarterback against the commanders. It is tough. And I just felt, like sometimes, Jason, you just don't bring it. Like, you just don't have the energy very early. Couple series into the game, you're like, they had a couple of missed assignments defensively. The Raiders did.

And you're like, yep, it's just not going to be there. It's not going to be their Sunday. Patriots had a similar situation last week. Emotional game against the bills. They win it late. That's why I stayed away from this. I didn't really know what to make of either team. Patriots 8.1 yards per play, 530 yards of offense.

They're saying that some of the advanced stats have this is Drake May. one of the best games he's had in his career. So that says a lot. I don't want to go, I don't want to overreact. But hey, if the bills lose tonight, we have a tie for first place in the AFC East. Everybody thought Buffalo was going to run away with it. Remember two weeks ago? Yeah.

Well, tonight it's McVeigh against a rookie coach, Joe Brady. Vrable is a veteran coach, rookie coach, Joe Brady. You and I have said this, we're watching the experiment in Buffalo. They didn't go out and do a global search. They're like, we got this guy in a cubicle down the hallway. We're going to let him be the coach of Josh Allen. So it may work. Sometimes it works.

I think tonight will give us another example of the best coaches in this league. And we saw it with Shanahan yesterday. The best coaches are manipulating these close games. And coaching's never been more important in any sport in America than NFL right now. And you give Josh Allen a coach who's never been a head coach. We'll see. Tonight will be another tell. We'll wrap up with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That was a rare, no sweat winner for us. Pittsburgh takes down indie relatively easy fashion. Aaron Rogers was good. Jalen Warren, I told you guys two weeks ago. He's the best player on the Steelers. And they fed him. 80-yard touchdown catch. 50-yard touchdown run.

You see, there he is, elusively breaking some tackles. I like the cut of his jib. He is a nice running back. Well, Friarmooth, Bernard, Warren. Aaron moved pretty well. They said on the broadcast, Aaron had told the guys. This was the best he had felt. You and I for years criticized the Steelers. We like Tomlin, but they didn't have much of a nuance or a touch or a feel offensively. I think this team has a

fairly low ceiling, but could you not argue this is the McCarthy factor? They're at least functional, because they've always drafted well, but they look like a functional offense. What do I mean by that? They're getting the ball to the right people at the right time. Like, you know, I mean, like, I mean, D.K. Metcalf, I think, is on the downward. But when you watch this game, it's like Warren, Bernard, Friermouth, like they're moving the pocket enough for Aaron. It looks very functional. And for years, the defense was functional with Tomlin. But we'd be like, why isn't the offensive line getting better? Why can't they consistently run the ball? Why don't they get it more to?

I kind of feel like this is the touch of McCarthy. He did it with Cooper Rush and Dak and Dallas. his offenses are going to be, he's going to squeeze more juice out of the offense than Tomlin did. And I think you're seeing it the last three weeks. And Steelers defense was very good. Jonathan Taylor could not get going. I think we identified this.

Colts coming off London. They looked a little sluggish in the second half. It was the best bad of the week. Yeah. So Pittsburgh wins. That division's interesting. So Browns lose, Ravens win, Bengals win. I thought I had a good grip on that division earlier.

I don't know if Baltimore's the best I mean, we saw what Pennix did for most of the game. Pittsburgh could be the team in that division. It's not saying much. But again, the schedule is fortuitous. They're going to face a rookie quarterback this week on the road. I'm surprised that line's not higher.

Then they got the Saints. The Saints are the most overrated team in the league. Tyler Shuck, give me a break, 95 yards passing. And then the rematch against the Browns at home. And you got to assume Pittsburgh goes into the buy, Colin, probably six and two. And then they come out. and then the schedule toughens up.

So I think Pittsburgh's about to get hot here. I was impressed with him. Jay McLaughlin News. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. Well, when you're a parent and you're raising a kid or you're a coach and you're developing a young quarterback,

at some point there will be a reality check, like you think your son's going to be president, and he may just be president of a fraternity tapa, tap a kega. And that may be the top. And I watch Bo Nix and Sean Payton took over play calling duties. And they still punted on their first series. Like, this is what it is. And now they come back and win.

They do this a lot. I don't think it's sustainable long term. But Sean Payton's like, okay, I'm, I'm the one that wanted Bo Nix. I'm going to take over the play calling after a month. And against the abysmal LA Chargers, they had less total yards. Right now, their total offense is below the Miami Dolphins. They were one for 12 on third down, 3.9 yards of play. Bow was good in the fourth quarter.

But again, this is, they went and got Jalen Waddle, a very good wide receiver. He has been visibly frustrated in this game. And it's a very good offensive roster. They've got a great interior line and a good left tackle. Cortland Sutton, Jalen Waddle, Mims, they got players. It's not a player issue. It's not a Davis Webb. And Colin, but you liked Bo Nix.

Yes. And over time, everybody loves CJ Stroud after his rookie year. People get film. People see weaknesses. The defensive coaches in this league are very smart. But this offense should not be below the Miami Dolphins. So you can't extend Bo Nix. You let it play out, whatever.

You know, again, they won. but and you let the season play out. But I mean, Mike Tomlin always says, the broadcaster, former Steeler coach, two is a trend. Well, if you go to Bo Nix's last 20 stars, he's been awful in the first quarter and probably 17. So, I mean, they won,

but right now his first quarter passer rating is lower than Cam Ward. And everybody thinks Cam Ward is a bust. And I think there's, I don't even know, I'm not going to try to be a psychologist here. I don't know what it is early. He always feels a little burdened and anxious with the first quarter, you know, scripted play stuff. He's better kind of running around and being loose later when he has to throw and they're trailing. Here's Sean Payton on Bo.

Man, we as coaches, like I've said to him, I said, man, you're the guy we wanted here. Let's go. and you've done a ton of things well. But I think there's a lot that goes into that. It's important that in that old TV series, the bear, where they just said, you know, let her rip. You know, I want him to make sure that, hey, let her rip. Yeah, and again, you can't publicly berate him.

You want a confident quarterback. So let it play out. The chargers are amassed. The Raiders aren't there yet. Denver, very, very viable chance to be a wild card team. We knew Denver had a, we talked about this in July and August. Denver, first six, seven weeks, the schedule is brutal. It was just unfair. So we thought the charters were going to be great, and they beat them. The only break was Arizona. So we knew this. I remember, I think I said during the summer, I'm like, if they could go three and three with their first six, take it now.

don't just take it. So, but I mean, there's, it's okay to acknowledge, guys struggle with this. It's okay to acknowledge, we need a new flight plan. It's okay to acknowledge with one of your kids. They're not going to be a CEO of Navidia. Like, it's okay. I mean, here's the good news. The Kansas City game, this game, that game, this game.

Okay, now they got to face Seattle on Thursday night, awful loss. Not great. Okay. but then you get Arizona, you get Kansas City at home, it's Carolina. It feels like they're three and two. I mean, going to Seattle after the Hawks lost is the last like doomsday feeling game. But, I mean, there's discussion. Somebody told me this years ago.

It was an agent. He said, your bosses and your corporations will make decisions on you six months before you're told about them. And I think upstairs the GM and Sean Payton, you sell it positively, but it's become like beyond a trend. This is sort of what their offense has to be, which has come from behind late, and get out gained by abysmal offenses. Coming up next, what if this is just what Arch Manning is? And it's not all bad next.

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Available now. Anytime Sam Darnold loses, people always revert back to you. Oh, you can't trust it. Just a reminder, there's only five quarterbacks in this league currently who have ever, starting quarterbacks,

who have ever hoisted a Super Bowl trophy. And he's better than I think three of them. I'm not saying he's Mahomes. But right now, if you gave me a three-year plan, I'd take him over Stafford. So let's go to this kick. Sam Darnold was not the problem. If JSN,

doesn't drop that pass. And he never does. JSN is arguably the best receiver in the NFL. If JSN doesn't drop that pass, Seattle's got the ball, 55 seconds left with a chance that tied or go ahead. Also, he did not fumble. Donald did not fumble the ball in the end zone, giving San Francisco a free touchdown.

Also, the Seattle defense, by the way, got picked on. Mike Evans basically did whatever he wanted to. J.S.N. doesn't drop that ball. look what that's at and look at the time on the clock and again even the cooper cup play came down to an inch sam makes mistakes by the way in this game brock purdy 19 at 29 two touchdowns one pick sam 18 of 29 one touchdown two picks and you you can the difference is purdy had a run game and we said this last week the reason i like the niners seattle has no run game charbonnet and price are out of

out. I mean, they are bailing water. So that just puts, you know, third and longer, tougher offensive downs. I thought they played. And by the way, whereas Purdy has a Mike Evans and a George Kettle and a Debo and a McCaffrey. And that offense on the perimeter, not only are they missing their top two running backs, it's kind of JSN and then a gadget guy, Rashid Zaheed, kind of a gadget guy. So the reality is last year, and the year before, there was a quarterback named Patrick Mahomes with no run game. And all of his numbers came down. And he was not as efficient. And now Patrick has Kenneth Walker, Darnold's former backfield mate, the one Darnold won a Super Bowl with.

And now it looks like Kansas City is one of the two or three teams in the NFL that you'd bet on winning the Super Bowl. So running backs matter. But I don't think it's a darnold thing. I think that there's a Seattle corner they got picked on. They gave him a free touchdown. JSN. They would have had the ball at the 22, 20-yard line with almost a minute left. At home, I think they'd have been in good space right there.

Here is Darnold on the loss and the pick. You know, obviously can't turn the ball over. Got to be, you know, better on first and second down. You got to, you know, stay in those manageable down in distances. And you think if I, if we, as an offense if we clean that up. And if I, you know, keep taking, you know, I got to continue to take care of the football, but if we continue to do that, we'll be all right.

I thought he made seven or eight really good throws. I wouldn't be shocked if they, I mean, they are really reeling at running back, Charbonnet out, price out, like they're doing it with undrafted guys, you know, kind of a gadget guy they put in the back field. Like, that's just what they are right now. And this is a long season, and San Francisco is an older football team. even Niners fans going to cross their fingers on health. Debo was banged up.

It looked like Evans was hobbled a little bit. I mean, that's just what the Niners are. They'll be fine. So Texas lost Oklahoma. I swear to God, all SART games feel the same. Do some big stuff well. Sometimes attention and detail is not great. But there's a headline this morning.

Why is in Arch Manning improving? Because I think now I've seen enough starts. This is what he is. 6-4-22, good size. excellent mobility, Manning's smart, and he's kind of inconsistent. That's what he is. He gets a little tight. When I watch him thinking about the name Manning,

he's got the athletic ability of his granddad, Archie Manning, who I watch play with the Saints. He's much more athletic than Eli or Peyton. So I see the athleticism of his granddad, and I see the tightness of Peyton Manning. Peyton tended to be known as a teeth clencher early in his career. People forget this. If you go to Peyton Manning's first three playoff games, not only was he 0 for three,

he completed 47% of his throws and had a passer rating of 59. Peyton Manning's first three playoff games, he looked nervous, he made bad decisions, he overthought the room, he got a bit of a label, he gets tight, he gets tight. I see a little bit of that with Arch Manning. I can see a little anxiety. He gets a little tight. He's a little bit streaky, but I say his granddad's mobility. And I was talking last night about this.

This is kind of what he is. I mean, if you go to Brock Purdy, he obviously got better coaching in the NFL that he did in college because overwhelmingly NFL is better than college coaching. And so Brock Purdy, nothing against Matt Campbell, but he gets now Kyle Shanahan. And Brock Purdy doesn't make the mistakes he did in college. He was very inconsistent and very streaky in college. So was Josh Allen. Josh Allen gets much better NFL coaching.

And that's not a knock at Sark, but NFL coaching, on average, is much better than college coaching. And I think it's a college player because Sark's going to run the whole program. He can't spend all day in Archmanning. I kind of feel like I've got enough evidence. I've got enough starts. I know what he is. Good size, good arm, smart kid, moves well.

He's better in the pocket than people give him credit for. And he's not as great outside the pocket as everybody tells him. me he is. He actually does his best stuff in the pocket. He's a little streaky. But, you know, he takes chances. I have defended guys that throw picks. Andrew Luck, Brett Favreve, Sam Darnold, Matt Stafford leads the NFL all time in pick sixes. I will defend guys that throw picks forever. I remember Brock Purdy a couple years ago coming off an injury played Carolina and had two or three picks. I even defended Brock Purdy. I can live with picks. I want guys that throw the ball down the field. But my take is coaching in the NFL is on average much better than the college coaching.

And I kind of feel like his game has been established. Let's get him to better coaching. Not a knock on Sark, honestly. Here is Sark after the loss. Arch competed his tail off and he made some tremendous plays, you know, to the shots down the field, to the drives when we had to have him. you know he's made a lot of plays scrambling out of the pocket he you know and he went to make a play and the ball gets intercepted you know on the one they run back um i think you know you can ask him

but i think you know as the competitor in him he'd love to have that back but he was competing yeah and this is not any um knock but i mean there are some really really good college coaches i think marcus freeman kurt signetti you're like wow but on average you know there are 135 five division one programs. And there's maybe seven coaches. I'm like, those guys are great. In the NFL, there's only 32 teams, and there's 10 to 12 coaches, I think, are great. And another 10 coordinators like Brian Flores, I think are great.

So this is what he is as a college player. I kind of know what I get. He's going to get drafted pretty high. Manning, size, mobility, arm, a little streaky, gets a little tight. But, you know, sometimes there are a lot. lot of examples where guys are better in a pro system with better coaching than they are in a college system. That happens like, you know, Brock Purdy is the greatest example, is he can win MVP in the NFL.

Nobody was watching his games in college unless you're an Iowa State fan. So it does happen. And we know there's gaps in the NFL in coaching. But if I think, I think if he went to a NFL team that had an offensive coach and an older quarterback and he can sit for a couple years. He didn't have to come in and play day one. But I kind of feel, I think I know what I have as a college quarterback. The whole improving thing, he's not going to get bigger. If he stays at Texas, is he going to get bigger? Is he going to get more mobile? All the things. Is he going to be less streaky? I don't know. I've watched him

two years now. It's kind of what he is. All right, Colin right, Colin wrong next hour. Matt Hasselbeck as well. Isn't it funny? You watch the Packers and the Bears season. And it's been so optimistic for Chicago and so downtrodden for Green Bay. And then you go look at their records. And Green Bay just hammered them. That is the NFL. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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