The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom Brady, tackle rule, Patrick Mahomes, & Jon Gruden

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

Colin explains the attention to detail of the New England Patriots offense, another reason why he is in full support of the new tackle rule, why we shouldn't get too excited about Kansas City Chiefs Q...B Patrick Mahomes, and why HC Jon Gruden has the Oakland Raiders trapped for 10 years. Guests include Rod Woodson, Trent Dilfer, and Tony Gonzalez. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:02:20 Find your local station for the Hurt at Fox SportsRoddrador.com or stream us live every day on the iHartRadio app by searching Hurd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1, hour from now, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, and the O is entertaining Trent Dillford, a breakdown what we watched last night, and over the weekend, Joy Taylor is joining me in a Monday. Morning. Good morning.
Starting point is 00:02:56 That was crazy last night. That was wild. that was surgical. You know, you're talking 40, 340, all these points. It was exactly what the NFL wants its football games to look like. And I want to show you something. I want to take my time on this. So there was a moment in that game last night.
Starting point is 00:03:14 Don't roll the tape yet. There was a moment in that game last night. And obviously, you all saw it. But it needs to be shown again. And let's tell a little story. In the history of the NFL, it used to be called the two-minute drill. you went without a huddle and you rushed to the line and it was fairly chaotic. And the good quarterbacks were like John Elway was like 50-50 at it.
Starting point is 00:03:37 Tom Brady last night got the ball with two minutes and 23 seconds buried in their own territory. And let's roll the tape and here we go. Here's the two-minute drill. Tom Brady gets it. All right. Got a receiver out today. Okay, they run it right into the line. All right, all right, all right.
Starting point is 00:03:55 Let's get in one more play, one more play before the two minute. Tom walks off the field, basically. Okay, we're, we're, that, that was the play. They just, they just, they didn't even run another play. That, that was it. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now, let's stop for a second. Okay, let's stop.
Starting point is 00:04:17 Hold on. Okay. So now you kind of just wasted 15 seconds. I was just a run into the line. Now what I want to see, now what I want to see is, um, The two-minute warning, now, now it starts in earnest. Okay, let's go to the play outside of that now. They come back, here's the next point.
Starting point is 00:04:32 Now we're getting the ball up the field. Now we're, well, they ran the ball into the line again. They're just wasting time here. I mean, this is ridiculous, right? They're just wasting time. These are two dives, two plays, one yard. Come on, guys, we've got to get up fast. Oh, they're not getting up fast.
Starting point is 00:04:50 They walk to the line for the next play. Okay, here's the next play. Okay, now this puppy, Now we're going to, all right, out to the flat. Get out of bounds. Get out of bounds. Oh, no, the running back stays in bounds. Okay, rush to the line.
Starting point is 00:05:03 Let's hurry. Let's get. Oh, they're huddling. They're huddling. Oh, wait a minute. I get it. They're trying to eat clock. It is not about if they'll score.
Starting point is 00:05:16 They're going to take the clock down to zero. They have three timeouts. They didn't need to use any of them. This is how a veteran pilot lands in turbulence. You're freaking out in row 19, and they're saying, this is what I'm trained to do. This is what a surgeon does with blood flying all over an emergency room. You're freaking out. This is what I've been trained to do.
Starting point is 00:05:46 31 other NFL teams will we score. For Tampa, excuse me, for Tom Brady, it was not if. It was, we want to score and there'd be zero seconds on the clock. They didn't use timeouts. The only one they used, they could have spiked. They huddled. They didn't run out of bounds. They run back-to-back dive plays.
Starting point is 00:06:11 You know how they say great athletes are in a zone? Tom Brady appears to now be in a 10-year zone. He's taken citizenship in a zone. This should be an instructional video on a two-minute drill. It was not that long ago when no huddling illustrated the lack of composure for an overwhelming number of teams outside of teams with veteran quarterbacks.
Starting point is 00:06:36 That should be in the Hall of Fame. They are eating clock. They are not using timeouts. They are walking to the huddle. They are huddling. They are staying in bounds. They are completely manipulating another NFL team. The nonchalance of that two-minute drill is something I've never seen.
Starting point is 00:07:00 It is staggering. What you're watching is absolutely staggering. Tom Brady has mastered quarterback. A couple years ago, he interviewed with R.J. Glazer, and people were talking about retirement. And Brady, in a moment of clarity and honesty, and it was actually, some would say hubris, but it didn't come off that way. ever what he said to Glazer? Every time I go on the field, I like, I feel like, all right, well, I know what to do. I know how to do it.
Starting point is 00:07:30 I know where to go with the ball. And, you know, football is in some ways easier now for me than it ever was because, you know, it's just I've been doing it longer. I've had the experience. And, you know, hopefully that experience can pay off. I mean, I'm watching that last night. I've never seen a two-minute drill like that. They were huddling.
Starting point is 00:07:47 They weren't getting out of bounds. They were running dive plays. They were in their own 30-yard line. Here's another play I want to show you. another play I want to show you. So I want to switch to this. Coming into the year, there were four teams that we thought were going to have great defenses. Saxonville.
Starting point is 00:08:03 They were going to be great. Great last year. They were only getting better. Minnesota Vikings. Those young guys are only getting better. And we thought Philadelphia Eagles. Oh, they got Michael Bennett. Their pass rush is going to be ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:08:17 Fletcher Cox. You can't block him now. And then once Chicago got Khalil Mack, we were like, okay, you're looking at mini-Philly. Jacksonville, Chicago. Those defenses, who we, I wouldn't want to face them. And they all got pushed around kind of over the last couple of weeks. There are no great defenses. Last night, what you watched was 43 to 40, wildly fun. The skill players dominated the game, and you can't turn it off. There is a play. I want to show you, though. Five-20 left fourth quarter. Defensive lineman, Breeland speaks, wraps Tom Brady up. And he thinks Braille.
Starting point is 00:08:54 has thrown the ball. And so he lets go of him. Brady then moved toward the end zone runs in. Breland Speaks thinks he has him. But then when Tom motions, he lets go of him. And I could just hear everybody watching that game. Colin, this is what is wrong with the NFL. That a defensive lineman had a sack and let go of him.
Starting point is 00:09:17 And to that I say, oh, you mean defensive linemen now have to be thoughtful? and strategic and contemplate, it's just not eating up to 340 pounds and squishing people. Yes, we are now asking our defensive linemen to be thoughtful and mindful and strategic and aware of where the ball is. Yes. And by the way, the one team that's had no issue with that late hit quarterback penalty, well, it just happens to be the most mindful, thoughtful, strategic football team in my life, the New England Patriots. The result is six weeks in, one quarterback has hurt Jimmy Garoppolo. Multiple times yesterday.
Starting point is 00:10:02 I'm talking a dozen times yesterday. I saw a defensive end or a defensive lineman grab a quarterback, hold him, play is over, and everybody gets paid the same, nobody gets cut, nobody gets yelled at, nobody gets screamed at. Yes. We've always made our quarterbacks think. our corners and our Mike linebackers and our safeties and our coaches and our coordinators think and our centers and our left tackles think all sorts of shifting on
Starting point is 00:10:31 offense tight ends choreography move up go over double motion oh now we actually ask the defensive lineman to think strip the ball perhaps grab and hold not drive Aaron Rogers into the turf tackling now in football when it comes to tackling the quarterback is like sound mixing at the Oscars. Necessary, but a means to an end. Okay, as long as nobody gets hurt. Ratings are up, quarterbacks are healthy, and oh, by the way, Sunday night football was Mahomes and Brady putting on a clinic.
Starting point is 00:11:09 And the reason Monday night football will not be as good tonight, it could easily be Garoppolo and Rogers, but it'll be Rogers and C.J. Bethard. Now, Garoppolo did not get hurt in the pocket, and not every quarterback does get hurt being squished by a defensive lineman. But it takes two or three to ruin a Monday night football game. If Garoppolo wasn't hurt, we'd go from Brady and Mahalms to Rogers and Garoppel. That's exactly what the NFL wants.
Starting point is 00:11:43 And if it means a couple of times a year, a defense's, lineman thinks he has a sack, let's go, and the quarterback runs in for a score late in a fantastic NFL game, then so be it. I will take, Breeland speaks, messing up, feel bad for the kid, good young, talented kid from, I think Ole Miss, I feel bad for him. I do. He didn't, he thought he was done. I'll take that every weekend. In fact, I'll take that 30 times a year over watching watching C.J. Bethard against Aaron Rogers tonight, which I'm not even sure by halftime, if you'll want to keep watching it. Football at its best is thoughtful and strategic, and you watch as a fan and you play along with it, and we've asked everybody to always do that.
Starting point is 00:12:37 Gosh, how terrible. Now we ask the big uglies up front defensively, they've got to be thoughtful to. coming up next, you don't want to get trapped, and one NFL team is, and there is absolutely no way out, none, which is a frightening scenario for one fan base. That is coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio,
Starting point is 00:13:06 FS1, and the IHard Radio app. When shopping for car insurance, consider Geico, been doing it 75 years, Geico.com. when you think of bad contracts in sports, you generally think of baseball where you sign, you know, a guy to a 10-year contract. John Carlos Stanton for the Yankees was a horrible contract in Miami. It's slightly better in New York, but it's a terrible contract. Robinson can't know 10 years.
Starting point is 00:13:28 He's already in trouble. You got like eight years left. NBA, you can get trapped by horrible contracts. But in football, you really can't. I mean, even Tom Brady could be cut tomorrow. You take a little cap hit for a year. But in the NFL, you rarely get trapped with a terrible contract. This is why the NFL is the sport of hope.
Starting point is 00:13:46 It has always been the sport of hope. In the NBA, if you don't have stars and you have bad contracts, you're done. Seven years. Bye-bye. In baseball, don't have the money, not big revenue, two bad contracts. Bye-bye, you're done. NFL? You can cut anybody and start over.
Starting point is 00:14:00 You can replace 40% of your roster year-for-year and your coaching staff completely and your GM. It's the sport of hope. There is one NFL team, though, that is trapped. It's the Raiders. John Gruden 10 years, 100 million. This is the poorest NFL franchise. It is in terms of revenue. They cannot boot him after a year, pay him $90 million,
Starting point is 00:14:20 and then go pay another five for another guy. They can't even pay top dollar for coordinators now. They are trapped. I don't know if it's going to work, but they don't have any options. It has to work. Read the tea leaves. Many people believe they passed on Khalil Mack
Starting point is 00:14:39 because they couldn't afford him. now they're looking to trade Amari Cooper. They don't know where they're playing next year. Vegas, eventually, we are pretty sure. They are the rare NFL team. And it all comes down to this. Why are they trapped? Because sports does something that is fascinating.
Starting point is 00:15:03 Pro sports are overwhelmingly run, driven, played by men. and when you lose, it saps you of your dignity. This was the team that was the team of the decade in the 70s and 80s. Then 10 to 15 years of losing. Do you think Bob Kraft would ever give Belichick a 10-year deal? Oh, God, no. But the poorest franchise would? Do you think Jerry Jones has given anybody a 10-year deal?
Starting point is 00:15:32 Stan Cronkey? No. This is what we see time and time again from people with low self-esteem. in sports. The Buffalo Bills. The quarterback has a good September. Let's sign Ryan Fitzpatrick. A huge deal. Oakland Raiders, John Gruden. I remember Gruden. A huge 10-year deal. I mean, Baker Mayfield right now has more interceptions than touchdowns, 55% completion rate, 72 quarterback rating, getting outplayed by Sam Darnold, and they'd sign him to a 10-year contract right now in Cleveland. He's average so far. Sports for men in
Starting point is 00:16:08 Pro sports. It is remarkable how desperation creeps in. The best organizations let the top players go. Are reluctant to sign even great players and coaches to long deals. Buffalo? Ryan Fitzpatrick had a good September. Let's give him a lifetime contract. John Gruden's been out of the sport 10 years.
Starting point is 00:16:32 Let's sign him forever. Man, it's not hard to figure out. There are four or five organizations in pro sports in America, Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, New York Mets, L.A. Clippers that I've watched my entire life make moves out of desperation, a lack of self-esteem, lose utter confidence. And the Raiders used to be, quote, commitment to excellence. But they are trapped, and it rarely happens in the NFL. And it happens a lot in the NBA and regularly in baseball.
Starting point is 00:17:06 Sometimes I imagine in hockey, but in the NFL, it almost never happens, and Oakland has no way out of this. None. At least the bills could eventually get rid of Ryan Fitzpatrick. This is amazing. This is utterly amazing. You are watching the worst team in the league, giving players away, report now that Amari Cooper's on the trading block. It has to work. They have no options.
Starting point is 00:17:40 There is no way out here. It's just, it's staggering what desperation does and losing does to otherwise seemingly very smart, successful men, saps them of their dignity, lose all common sense. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So, Paul, and we knew the Chiefs Patriots game last night was going to be a fun one.
Starting point is 00:18:07 excited about it all last week. There were lots of big plays late and one of the most entertaining games of the season. But a disappointing moment came with three minutes left. Tyreek Hill scored his third touchdown on the game. He tied things up at 40. And then he ran full speed into the wall and met some of Boston's finest. Oh, God. They delivered him several middle fingers and someone also threw a beer in his face.
Starting point is 00:18:31 Here's the video of it right here. Very exciting play. You know, it's interesting. I didn't see this until this morning. Yeah, well, they kind of cut it off in the at the end of the broadcast. Obviously, they didn't want to keep re-showing it. That's the actual play.
Starting point is 00:18:44 But at the end of it, he runs into the wall. And then there's all the fans, basically, that are in front of his face, give him a middle finger. And then somebody throws a full beer in his face. You know, I used to get so bummed out about that. But I've just come to terms with people that go to NFL games, especially on a Sunday night.
Starting point is 00:19:00 Yeah, it is there. Yeah. Sunday night, after hours in the parking lot, I actually think, This is a weird thing to say. It's obviously inappropriate. I think the players now are so used to it, are so used to that bad behavior
Starting point is 00:19:13 that if you look at the chief players, they were like taunting back. Like this has become, it's almost like international soccer. The players are so numb to it now. They almost play along it's so disgusting. Right. Well, I mean, this is why
Starting point is 00:19:26 when we were talking about the McGregor Habib thing. I'm like, I'm sorry, bro. I just don't feel bad for you. Like, maybe I'm jaded, but like, this is what you deal with. This is part of the territory. people are going to yell at you. And I think this is incredibly disrespectful and inappropriate.
Starting point is 00:19:38 And those fans should not be allowed back. You don't pay money to get to assault players. If you did that in the street, that would be assault. You can be arrested for assault. You can't throw things at people. No, no. And again, it's awful. But I'm seeing this now.
Starting point is 00:19:52 This is just how they treat players in the end zone. It's unbelievable. It's disgusting. But this is what I'm saying. This is why. Now, if he climbs into the sands and starts throwing haymakers and not all those people are going to be able to, I would guess that none of them could take a punch from Tyree Kil if I was assuming it correctly.
Starting point is 00:20:09 Then what? It's on him. Nobody's going to say, oh, well, the fans, you know, they were inappropriate. It's just, it's not right. And I know a lot of people were bringing up his domestic violence pass before. Well, regardless of that. One has nothing to do with the other. And don't try and pitch me with, oh, the fans were real. Oh, yeah, I'm sure those fans in that moment with Tyree Kil running up to them were like, yeah,
Starting point is 00:20:27 this guy's domestic violence passed when he came back by throwing a beer in his face. I think this has happened forever. I think there's more cameras now and we see it all. Oh, of course. And I also think you don't see... I just think what's happened when I watch sports and what has happened. Players make so much money now.
Starting point is 00:20:44 It is given a lot of people the belief that they can go into a stadium and hey, you're worth $100 million. Yeah, I can behave however I want to. I can be an absolute nightmare to you as long as I don't touch you is that the wealth of the players has given a green light to some unruly fans to be completely obnoxious. I watched that this morning and for the first, I'm like, oh yeah, this is the way it is now. And no way am I pinning this all on Boston fans. Like this happens everywhere.
Starting point is 00:21:09 So before everyone starts flipping out, it's not because of that. It's just inappropriate. It's just not respectful behavior. So Jalen Ramsey has never been one to shy away from Trashchalk, especially after he told you Q two months ago. Doc Prescott, he's good, he's all right, he's okay. And he had a chance to put his money where his mouth is. And the Jags defense came up pretty short yesterday, 40 to 7 lost. So let's take a listen to Ramsey after the game.
Starting point is 00:21:34 How much of a shock is it that this defense comes out and gets their ass to be considering the talent he doesn't know Yeah, you have played together a lot as a second year how do you kind of explain some of the Blown assignments that you guys had early in this game? Mm-hmm. That's fun Coach said that he felt like it wasn't an effort issue. It was a miscommunication issue. Do you agree with that?
Starting point is 00:21:54 Oh, no. If you're going to be cocky, you got to stand up. The defense usually plays with a lot of swagger and confidence. When needs to happen to kind of get you guys a motion? I don't know. See, so Jalen Ramsey wants to talk trash, but then he doesn't want to answer any questions. You can't have it both ways, dude. Yeah, you can't be the biggest.
Starting point is 00:22:14 If you're going to be the biggest trash talker in the world, that this is Jalen Ramsey not understanding the game. Like, dude, this is why there are legends in this game. And right now you're just a talented player because the legends get it. That's the territory. If you talk trash, by the way, this is also a cautionary tale why you shouldn't talk trash. Well, I have no problem with him talking trash. And especially his position kind of lends to, you know, hyping things up. And they have the ability to talk trash and, you know, stir the pot a little bit.
Starting point is 00:22:45 But then at the end, if you, you know, lose the way you did to the Cowboys with the 30th ranked scoring offense. Stand up and take it. You got to give them some credit. That's how it works. Finally, yesterday was James Connor's last game as a Steelers starting back. So he got a send off. He ran 19 times for 11 yards and two touchdowns. So he's still running well.
Starting point is 00:23:05 And here's been Rothesberger with a little joke after the game. And James, I thought he was a bowling ball today. He was all over the place. What a great game. But I know it's his last game for us. Because Leveon is coming back. But I thought he did well in his last one. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:22 So they have a bye this week. And Levelyne said he's going to come back before weeks. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers look fine. I think Cincinnati at home is a tough out. And Andy Dalton shrunk. and I thought that at the end of the game, when they were driving down at the end of the game, I had full confidence they were going to score,
Starting point is 00:23:42 even though they were on the road. Cincinnati's got real good defensive personnel. I think the Steelers are in good shape. I don't think they're great in the secondary, but I watch that team and I'm like, they're good. And they're going to get Levian Bell here real quick. Well, they did a good job of terrifying all of us in the month of September because it was looking like a real disaster.
Starting point is 00:23:59 But, yeah, I mean, look, the Steelers are a consistent franchise. So it's not like I thought that everything was going to fall apart. Leveon was eventually going to come back. And look, James Conner's running great. So obviously Leveon is better. It's going to change things. But it's going to be interesting when he comes back, that dynamic. Last couple of weeks, though, they've gone up against good talented teams.
Starting point is 00:24:20 They dominated one. And they've gone on the road. That's a rivalry game on the road. Good team. And since now he's been playing great. Great. So that's a huge win for Pittsburgh. Joy Taylor with the news.
Starting point is 00:24:31 Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. By the way, I do believe fans have always been rough on players, especially when you're close at the NFL or you're in the outfield wall. But I do think the elevation of wealth to players make some fans think more than ever, hey, you can take a little beer on you. Let's talk to a Hall of Famer in our studio, six-time all-pro defensive back. Rod Woodson, Super Bowl champ, defensive player of the year in the 90s.
Starting point is 00:24:59 Okay, I know at some point in your career in the division you played and you got beer thrown on you. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's, you know, it's a part of it. I mean, if you're on the road and you make a play and you run into the stands, what do you think is going to happen? They're not going to like say, oh, we love you even though you're not our team and kiss you. Do you feel threatened Rod or do you think it's somewhat? I think it's funny.
Starting point is 00:25:29 See, now that's what I... Can I play it in the old dog pound now. The old dog pound, they weren't playing around because they were going to throw snowballs. They would put batteries inside the snowballs. And you know how you get the snowball wet? Yes. And then it freezes with the battery inside.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Don't win. If we're winning, you'd never take your helmet off because snowballs are going to be coming. Okay. So this is my thing is, listen, it is jarring to see the video, middle fingers and stuff being thrown at them. But I look at the players who have helmets, and I watch the players' reaction to it.
Starting point is 00:26:04 And they almost know this is part of the territory. It's going to happen. Like I'm not encouraging it, but I'm saying I got a helmet on. Fans are drunk and obnoxious. And that first couple rows, this is, I mean, again. I mean, what is? That is a group of people who have never had hands put on them before in their life. But, you know, it's not real life.
Starting point is 00:26:27 All right, this is not real life. We're playing, first of all, it's a game. All right? Everybody gets paid a lot of money to play this game. It's not changing the world, so to speak, okay? Right. And I think we're having fun with it. And I think all players understand it.
Starting point is 00:26:41 That's my point. I do think players get, we're on the road, I'm in the end zone I just scored, I'm going to get crap. I'm not saying they shouldn't, that they, I told you before it was probably worse back in the day. The battery thing is well known. It definitely was.
Starting point is 00:26:56 And I remember walking off, I'm with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We play the Los Angeles Raiders. Oh, good Lord. We're getting off the bus. We're just getting off the bus going down into our little tunnel. And the women, the stuff that they were saying, they're like, you MFF, you suck. And I'm like, that's a woman talking like that. Right.
Starting point is 00:27:18 I was like, you know what? We have to get into the locker room because they might beat the crap out of us. You know what I think it is? Joy, do you remember the show Jerry Springer? Yes, of course. Okay, it was vulgar. It was vulgar. But the audience was in on the joke.
Starting point is 00:27:34 Right. I think the players are in on this garbage behavior. And it's as long as you don't put your hands. Exactly. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. You can say whatever you want to. You can throw the beer on me because I've had beer thrown on me.
Starting point is 00:27:48 That's okay. But don't touch me. That's my thing. If you touch me, then we got a problem. You get into two piece. How about? Now, okay, so I'm watching the Cowboys, and, you know, I was thinking about this. People are like, Jack Prescott's career doesn't make a lot of sense.
Starting point is 00:28:05 He comes into the league, everybody passes on three times, and then his rookie year, he's amazing, and the next year and a half he's no good, and then last night he's amazing. Couldn't I just say this, Rod? You played in this league forever. This is what average quarterbacks are. He's absolutely telling us what he is. Okay, when Breeze has a bad Sunday, it's an outlier. Brady, Rogers, Ben.
Starting point is 00:28:24 This is what Ryan Tannehill gives us. It's what Dach gives us. It's what Andy Dalton gives us. This is, DAC is telling us, in our confusion to figure out what he is, he's telling us what he is. He's an average quarterback, and they have backups and average quarterbacks. Ryan Fitzpatrick, hot in September, dead by October. When I watch Dak, I'm no longer angry or disappointed.
Starting point is 00:28:46 If you go look at him after his rookie start when nobody had any video on him, he's a little above 500, completes about 62%, which, is average considering the time now, has 17 picks. He has a mid-80s quarterback rating. That's with Zieg. That's with stability. That's with a better-than-average offensive line. What do you?
Starting point is 00:29:05 I just see an average quarterback. You know, when you look at, you know, his rookie year was really good. He struggled last year. To me, I think you start evaluating players in their third year. This is his third year. He is who he is. I enjoyed watching him play last night because I think he even realized who he is. He's going to get the first read.
Starting point is 00:29:28 He's going to look at the second read. And then he's out. And then he's done. That's right. Get out of there. He's done. That's who he is. But that's okay because they can win that way. As long as you give Ezekiel Elliott to football at least 25 to 30 touches through carries or catches, he has to touch the football. If they can do that because the defense is a lot better than I thought was going to be. They really are. So him being average, they can win that way because the Deemots can carry this football team. Dak, I just don't think he needs to be embarrassed about it.
Starting point is 00:29:58 He's not going to be a guy that sits back there and have 300-yard games. That's not who he is. He's had three in his career in a passing era. And they don't need it for them to win. So as long as he takes care of the football and he can make some great play, scrambling and throwing the ball to his playmakers in space, which he doesn't have that many playmakers in space. But the guys he does have, as long as he gets them to football, they're going to be fine.
Starting point is 00:30:22 I thought that was at his best. A lot of Cole Beasley, a little bit of scrambling, a lot of Zeke, and that's what they do. And I thought last night was like, that's what Dak at his best is. Oh, he runs about a dozen times. Yes. He has a good running game. He has a good slot, dependable slot receiver, high percentage underneath throws. By the way, Brady makes a living off Julian Edelman.
Starting point is 00:30:42 There's nothing wrong with a great slot-wide receiver. That's the world we live in. So everybody's complaining that you can't hit anybody in football. But I would argue this is that... I love great football players. I want Rod Woodson to play forever. The fact that we now force big, violent defensive players to be more thoughtful and mindful, I watched that game last night.
Starting point is 00:31:05 None of the stars got hurt. By the way, still great defensive play. It's still a pass rush. I mean, it's not like football players defensively have always been offensive choreography, defenses blow stuff up. We're just now asking defensive players, oh, you have to be strategic too. I'm okay with it. Yeah, you know, it's tougher to play in today's game than when I played.
Starting point is 00:31:28 Because I was a physical player. Yeah. I wanted to pick up guys, slam him. I want to hit guys as hard as I can. You have to be careful. But the key is you can't let the flags be enthroned dictate to you as a player how you're going to play. And speaks who had Tom Brady in his hands and then let him go and then he scored. He will remember that forever.
Starting point is 00:31:49 And he will always bring down a quarterback nowadays. Right. For the rest of his career, however long he plays, every time hits a quarterback, he's not going to let him go. He's going to tackle the quarterback and bring him to the ground. The hardest thing is when you watch guys play is like, you know, where do you, you understand there's a strike zone. So when you're teaching your DBs or your linebackers to hit people, hit ball carriers, there's a strike zone. You can't hit them too high. You can hit them as low as you want to.
Starting point is 00:32:18 But what you're seeing today is tackling is terrible right now in a national football. It is absolutely awful. I mean, guys are going to their knees, they're tackling ankles. Hit them in the numbers. Hit them in the numbers. We used to teach the rugby style tackling, so heads behind the ball. So if you both put your head down, there's no head collision. So you're not going to have any penalties.
Starting point is 00:32:41 That's what we taught in Oakland. And, you know, I think there has to be a way where you still can be physical, but you can't be too physical because if it's a violent hit, they're going to throw the flag. They're going to throw the flag and say it's head-to-head contact. By the way, you watched last night. You enjoyed last night. What did you make of the? You know, I said this to start the show.
Starting point is 00:33:00 Whenever you, have you been on a turbulent flight, I'm sure, many times in your life. Oh, yeah. And when you're sitting, it doesn't matter if you're first class or the last seat and coach, you get a little nervous. You're flying over, you know, Nebraska, and you're getting tossed and there's lightning. four times in the cockpit, is that the two-minute drill in most of your career, there was chaos at the end of it. To watch the precision and the nonchalance last night of Brady, it feels like Rod, he has mastered it.
Starting point is 00:33:37 Oh, he has. He has completely mastered the position. There's nothing that he could see from the defense aside that he's never saw before. That's the first thing. Secondly, I think they started the two-minute drill with 303. o'clock, about three minutes on the clock, with three timeouts. That's the world, especially the Tom Brady. And they ran the football.
Starting point is 00:34:02 And then I remember they ran it. And it was probably going right before two-minute warning. They came out and ran it again. And ran it again. And then Tom walked off and let 15 seconds run off the clock. But he was at around the 35-yard line. That's a lot of time with three timeouts for Tom Brady, let alone any other person. But my entire life, when you're at the 30, your own 30,
Starting point is 00:34:21 you are literally get to the line, spike the ball. They were milking the clock. They were staying in bounds. And I think it would have been different if the game wasn't tied. The game being tied, you just kick a field goal, you win. Now, if they're down by four, you've got to get a touchdown, it would be more hurry up because you've got to get down there to have better opportunities. Three or four shots at the end zone.
Starting point is 00:34:45 Absolutely. So being tied made it a little bit easier for Tom Brady. but then watching him just go through the motions, it was so easy for him. So easy. Because there's nothing that he hasn't seen. He's been in the league for so long. He's gone through so much, so many
Starting point is 00:35:01 coordinators, and I'm pretty sure he has a really good idea what coordinators do. And when he saw the matchups. Bob Sutton, he's gone up against Bob Sutton multiple times. And I'm telling you what, soon as a ball was snapped, when he hit Grunk, his eyes went straight to Grunk. And when he was
Starting point is 00:35:17 backing out of it, when he saw Grunk, like, get to the outside, his eyes lit up. And he just threw it. I'm like, he's wide open. And that's something that most quarterbacks cannot do. Most quarterbacks can't find the matchups that benefit their offense. Tom finds it before the ball is snapped. And that is terrifying when you can give God that good, when he can see everything before the ball snapped.
Starting point is 00:35:42 Yeah, at one point, Andy Reid turned to Bob Sutton and just went, he was just like, what can you do? What can we do? They're completely controlling us. Rod Woodson, Hall of Fame are good seeing you. Coming up next, I do think I've come to a conclusion having watched every team play four and five times. We're down to about nine teams, I think, can win the Super Bowl and a couple others.
Starting point is 00:36:03 I just need another week or two on. That's coming up next. It's the herd. Car shopping's confusing, a lot of terms, dealer price, invoice, list price. Here's what not. Go to Truecar.com. New car use car. Doesn't matter.
Starting point is 00:36:15 Save three grand off MSRP. Be a more confident. car buying consumer. All right, top of the hour, good stuff today. Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Trent Dilfer next hour on what was a crazy night. So I've watched all the games. What I do on Sunday, Joy, you probably do the same.
Starting point is 00:36:30 I sit, I watch in the morning. I live out west, 10 o'clock. I get my notepad, I watch the red zone. And then I put two games on live. And then at four, I watch a little red zone, but generally the last two big games. So I usually miss, like, one game a weekend. I don't spend a lot of time. There'll be a bad, like, 4 o'clock game, you know, a late game.
Starting point is 00:36:48 game. Then I watch Sunday night. Then I watch Monday night. I will watch the night, although I think Green Bay rolls over San Francisco with C.J. Bethard being overwhelmed by Aaron Rogers, who's got his receivers all healthy. But I've watched every team play, virtually every game, except a handful. And my conclusion is, we've got to me nine teams that feel like they can string together multiple playoff wins and win the Super Bowl. I think New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City and the Chargers and the AFC can string together multiple wins against good teams and win the Super Bowl.
Starting point is 00:37:23 And then I think in the NFC, the Rams, the Eagles, the Saints, and the Vikings can do the same. Now, I like Kansas City a little more than I like, let's say, Minnesota. I like New England more than maybe, say, the Chargers. But there's nine teams that I think can string it together. Now, there's two other teams, Carolina and Green Bay, I just need to see more. Okay, Carolina is at Philadelphia this week. I'm either joining them to this group or not. If they go in there and lay an egg, they're out.
Starting point is 00:37:51 If they go and they're competitive win or lose, I probably put Carolina in. Cam's improved. Norve Turner's a good fit. They've got a running game. Don't like the way they played yesterday, a little overwhelmed. But Cam, by and large, outside of a late decision in the game, was pretty good. He looks comfortable, calm. Now they're healthier on defense.
Starting point is 00:38:10 And the other team is Green Bay. My gut feeling on Green Bay is I'm not going to include them. But if they're good tonight, they got to buy in a couple of weeks, then they go to the Rams, to the Patriots. And if they chop it up and look pretty good, win or lose, they chop it up and go to L.A. and New England. They win competitive. They lose competitive.
Starting point is 00:38:29 So I got nine teams that I think look like they can win multiple games against good teams when the Super Bowl. Two more Carolina and Green Bay are close. I need to see more. And then there are four other teams that I don't think. think are good enough to win the Super Bowl. But they're good enough to beat all these teams on any given Sunday, Bears, Seahawks, Bengals, and Atlanta. Now, I don't see them going back.
Starting point is 00:38:54 I don't see Cincinnati going to Foxborough, you know, and then like to the Chargers, and then to Pittsburgh. And I don't. But I think they could beat all those teams on any given Sunday. So the way to win a Super Bowl here isn't about just being talented. It's about being consistently, sustainably excellent. Got to win a road game in the playoffs. Got to win a home game or two.
Starting point is 00:39:15 Got to win the Super Bowl. So I think the Bears, Seahawks, Bingles, Falcons, lack the consistency, maybe the depth, the star power coach or quarterback. So of all those teams combined, my nine plus Green Bay Carolina plus these four is 15 to 32. It's half the league. That's half the league.
Starting point is 00:39:33 NBA's got two teams this year, I think, can win it. Maybe three. Baseball, you look around, it's about six. I think half the league is in the conversation. They can beat anybody, they can string together wins, or they're damn close. So that's a good spot. Now, you may be saying, where are the Cowboys? I don't have them in it.
Starting point is 00:39:54 That doesn't mean Dallas. This speaks to the parody of the NFL. Dallas has a lot of things going for it. I love their young linebackers. I love their pass rushers. I think Ezekiel Elliott's a top five running back, and their own lines better than average. Dallas is not a bad team.
Starting point is 00:40:11 I don't have Dallas, even in the Bear, Seahawks, Bengals, Falcons group. And the reason is they're averaging 12 points on the road. They haven't won a road game. They don't have a two-game winning streak. They're just not good enough consistently. But I think it shows you the power of the NFL that I've got, I don't have Dallas in this 15 and Dallas smoked Jacksonville yesterday. I just don't think they're consistent. So that's kind of where I am after watching every team play multiple times at the top of the hour where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong.
Starting point is 00:40:47 You know, going back to the Cowboys about Dak Prescott. I was talking to my friend Nick Wright over the weekend. And he goes, you know, Dak Prescott's career makes no sense. It just makes no make any sense. He said, nobody liked him out of college. Then everybody loved him after his first year. And then nobody likes him again. And then yesterday he's great.
Starting point is 00:41:05 And I thought about that. And I thought, actually, it makes perfect sense. If you went to a restaurant five times, first time it was great, second time, it was really mediocre, third time it was good, fourth time it was bad, fifth time, you're not sure. It's an average restaurant. It's just an average restaurant. There's 8,000 restaurants, you know, in your area code. Most of them are average.
Starting point is 00:41:28 So when I look at Dak last night, it doesn't shock me. He is an average C quarterback. C plus. night's B, but like an average restaurant, you're not quite sure what you're going to get visit to visit. You're not quite sure what you're going to get. Dack, after the game, some taking tough questions after the game from his critics. As poorly as you've played overall leading up to this game and some of the questions going around outside that you have this level of performance as a really,
Starting point is 00:42:08 Yeah, we haven't questioned anything inside. We leave the questioning to y'all. I've told you all from after the first week or second week that we weren't forming to our standards that were one, two, three plays away. The difference was the night we made those plays. So, Dax's pretty stern in his belief. You know, I thought last night was the perfect game for him. He ran about a dozen times, a lot of Cole Beasley underneath.
Starting point is 00:42:29 He had a good running game helping him. I will say this for Dallas, and it's a very encouraging thing. The hardest thing to find in the NFL is a great quarterback. I could argue the second hardest thing to find in this league are great pass rushers, and Dallas has drafted linebackers and pass rushers extraordinarily well. They've got a lot of good components. They really do. Their linebackers are really athletic.
Starting point is 00:42:54 They're young, they're talented. They're going to be around for years, and their edge rushers are fantastic and young and talented. But at quarterback, it's very explainable. Dax, good enough for now. It's the herd. This is the herd, wherever you may be, however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. What a great Sunday night.
Starting point is 00:43:23 Tonight Packers take on the 49ers, Green Bay, a heavy favorite. Joy Taylor is joining me today. It is a Monday. We are packed this week. After our show, by the way, Brewers, Dodgers, the NLC. moves to Los Angeles. The series is split now. So we have great baseball after our show later today on FS1.
Starting point is 00:43:43 I want to start spending about a minute and a half, two minutes on this. I played sports. I still work out every day. I almost find it like a responsibility to be marginally athletic because I'm covering athletes. And I think if you cover politics, you have to spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. And if you're a stock broker, you have to go to New York a couple times a year. I feel it's, I've always felt this. It's my job to be athletic, to run an occasional marathon, to work out, to feel the pain of an athlete.
Starting point is 00:44:11 I don't want to look like I'm some guy, you know, glasses, pocket protector, lecturing from the hill on how to be an athlete. I do think sometimes in the sports media, people who didn't play in sports sometimes don't get sports and they overreact to stuff. I see that all the time in the media. Like, listen, man, the athletes get it. So last night, Tyree Kill catches a touchdown, goes down, and New England fans pour beer on him and flip him off. I don't like it. If my son did it, I'd be furious. It's not my cup of tea.
Starting point is 00:44:43 But I think the athletes in the NFL get it. People that sit in those first two rows, caveat M-Tor, buyer beware. They seek those tickets. This is the experience they want. And players on the road know when they score a touchdown and go into the end zone. fans are going to be all over them. You see this sometimes in international soccer. This is not golf.
Starting point is 00:45:08 This is not tennis. The NFL is a party. It is rowdy. It is loud. It is not baseball, which is more serene and gentle and more gentlemanly. Listen, man, this is the way NFL stadiums are. On a Sunday night, people get liquored up.
Starting point is 00:45:25 Those first two rows are outrageously loud. I don't want to enable the behavior. I am in no way encouraging it. I would be disappointed if my kids did it. But as Rod Woodson said, the players get it. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that this is something that's exclusive to Boston, like I said. No, God, no. And I do think players get it, that you're going to be yelled at.
Starting point is 00:45:47 The occasional beer is going to get thrown or the snowball if it's snowing. But just none of it's okay. There's a lot of things that happen. Right. That just because they happen a lot, we become conditioned to them happening. Yeah, we normalize it. We normalize and it becomes accepted behavior. Those fans should all be kicked out and not be allowed back in the stadium.
Starting point is 00:46:06 I'm sorry. Whether Tyree Kill decide, like, first of all, he's running into the edge of the stadium. He doesn't jump into the stands. It's not like he's doing a Lambo leap in Foxborough. He's running and he's stopping himself. He is completely within bounds. It's just not acceptable behavior. It isn't, but I don't want to overreact to it.
Starting point is 00:46:25 I'm not overreacting. I'm just saying this, the reason that I've even like highlighted, this to me or it stuck out to me because of course I've seen this a million times. Oh, your brother? Well, my brother, yeah, of course. And like, look, I'm not going to get into it. But if I was down there and somebody threw beer on my brother, it would be, you know, it's hands-on time. But like, that's a different situation. Right. I'm just saying we were talking about Habib going into the stands and how we were talking about that's, you know, that's a crazy
Starting point is 00:46:48 environment too and that might happen. You're putting crazy people in a cage and then you expect to not be crazy. If Tyree Kill decides he doesn't appreciate having a beer thrown in his face, what happens now? It's all going to be on Tyree Kill. Nobody's going to say anything about the fan. He's going to be totally in the wrong. He's going to be suspended. By the way, I get people. I get people taught me. It's still on me. The player has to be more responsible. The player does have to be more responsible. I'm just saying if something were to happen, I couldn't find it within myself to feel bad for that fan.
Starting point is 00:47:17 You can't throw beer on somebody. I don't care if you yell. I don't even care if you flip them off. But you can't. Like that's taking it to another level. All right. Here we go. Colin is right. Colin is wrong. Monday. Here we go. Where Colin was right. The New York Giants passed on Sam Darnold. How ridiculous do they look now? Sam Darnold is crushing it for the New York Jets. Yesterday, 24 of 30, 280 yards, 114 passer rating. Congrats New York on getting a running back. Who's really, really good, but he's a running back. And there were 20 drafted. And half the league star running backs seemingly are undrafted. Listen, Darnold has scored.
Starting point is 00:47:58 Jets' offense have scored over 40 twice and over 33 times in six games. And this is with an offensive line that pro football focus rates as one of the bottom five in the league, with a bottom five wide receiving core, a bunch of marginal running backs, and a rookie tight end who's talented from Miami, but that's about it. You whiffed. You were afraid of offending the Manning family. How ridiculous do the New York Giants look today passing on Sam Darnold? where Colin was raw. My Blazing Five was terrible.
Starting point is 00:48:31 I was lucky to be two and three. First of all, I liked the Colts, the Jags, and Cleveland. They all got killed. The games weren't even competitive. I was on the wrong side of all three of those games. Now, I'm 58% for the year, which is, if I can end up there, I'll be very happy. The Brown's loss was inexplicable. They were playing an L.A. team flying out east for an early game.
Starting point is 00:48:53 I never liked that one. They were so incredible. incredibly Cleveland. This could be the game. And Cleveland didn't give you eight minutes of energy. It was, to me, it was shocking how bad it was. It's not that they lost. They didn't bring any energy. They lost very badly. But I still, like, I think people underestimate the Chargers. Yeah. All right. Where Colin was right. Oh, gosh, Jim Harbaugh, six and one. Jim Harbaugh's pretty good. Michigan rolled Wisconsin. And oh, by the way, their offensive line and their quarterback situation, which didn't look good at, Notre Dame? It looks pretty good now. Can I give Harbaugh some credit here? You do realize that even
Starting point is 00:49:32 though he knew he was going to play Wisconsin, he knew he had to go to Ohio State, he knew we had to go to Michigan State, he still was willing to schedule, you know, Notre Dame on the road. Unlike Alabama, which won't play an out-of-conference road game against a legitimate team, Harbaugh, knowing his schedule years ago was brutal, was like, yeah, I'll go to Notre Dame still. The bottom line is Harbaugh's always been able to coach. They control their own fate. I don't know if they're a Final Four team, but they're certainly worthy of being in the discussion
Starting point is 00:50:03 of a Final Four team, and they were reeling when he took the program over. Where Colin was wrong. Brock Osweiler threw for 380 yards against the Chicago Bears, and I watched that game as I picked my jaw off the floor for three hours. First of all, it was just a beautiful mess. They're going to do a documentary about that game.
Starting point is 00:50:25 game 10 years from now. It was a mess and it was beautiful and it was wild and there were fumbles at the one inch line. But Osweiler made was in control, did not get sacked, was confident, made a couple of incredibly important throws down the stretch. And I said on NFL kickoff yesterday, I'm like, oh, this is going to be a nightmare. I was, Brock Osweiler got a call in the morning you're starting and I thought played as well as he has played in the last couple of years. Tip of the cap to Brock Oswiler looked like a real NFL quarterback. Where Colin was right? We predicted Jacksonville, Saxonville, was a one-year story.
Starting point is 00:51:02 That they wouldn't be great again. That this would not last. Is that Blake Bortle, sometimes he had an easier schedule, and Andrew Luckin, Deshaun Watson got hurt in their division. The bottom line is, they've been downhill since losing in New England. They've lost three or four. They're literally pathetic on the road, and you can't tell me that any player in that locker room thinks Bortals is a franchise guy. In fact, you can't tell me any coach on that
Starting point is 00:51:28 staff thinks Blake Bortles is getting us to the Super Bowl. I never bought into a team that gives itself a nickname, gets real loud and cocky. Their schedule was going to be harder. It was going to be a first place schedule. And frankly, the AFC, as we predicted, was going to be a lot better this year. It is. And Saxonville is no more. Where Colin was wrong. Ed Orgeron, the coach at LSU. I mean, Joyce heard me say this. I never took him serious. as a head coach. I thought he was a great recruiter. I think Jimmy Johnson once told me he'd be one of the first guys he'd hire on his staff. Great guy, great recruiter, great family guy, but I never really took him seriously as a head coach. Well, they blew out Georgia,
Starting point is 00:52:07 they beat Auburn, they beat Miami, and they've looked composed, they've looked organized. You know, he bombed at Ole Miss, and he just didn't look the part. USC passed on him. But I've got to be honest, when I watch LSU, it's not just that they're winning. They look good. situationally, they look good and organized offensively, and Ed Orgeron has been terrific this year. Good enough to beat Alabama? I don't know. But they have beaten Georgia, Auburn, and Miami, and those are good teams, and they beat all of them, and that Georgia win was thoroughly impressive. Where Colin was right? John Gruden's one in five, and the quarterback guru, Derek Carr has more picks than touchdowns. Listen, I got nothing but angry Raider fans when I'm
Starting point is 00:52:53 I said before the season. There are certain places in the world, Silicon Valley in the NFL, you can't take a decade off. You can't. It changes. It's too fluid. He's got the personnel wrong. They look like they quit at the end of that game.
Starting point is 00:53:07 He can't get the quarterback right. Don't ask me how Cleveland lost to this team. I mean, they have some very talented offensive personnel, and that was embarrassing. And they're stuck with his 10-year contract. It better work. It has to work. work, but we kind of predicted it would be a dumpster fire, and that's what it's been so far. Where Colin was right? Once again, Andy Dalton shrunk in a big spot. He always shrinks in a big
Starting point is 00:53:35 spot. No touchdown passes in the second half. Quarterback rating in the second half of 77. Once again, big brother, Ben, feels like he's toying with the little brother Andy. Dalton's fine, but it's kind of the Kirk Cousins thing. You're not making touch. 20 million a year to beat Cleveland. They're paying you to beat Pittsburgh. And every time he gets into one of these games against the Steelers, no matter how well he's playing, he shrinks. And in the second half, Andy Dalton didn't make big throws. And Big Ben, like he's done throughout the history of this series, made all the big throws late to win it. Where Colin was wrong. Just when I gave up on Dak Prescott, he had his game of the year. It was Dak at his best. He ran, Zeke ran,
Starting point is 00:54:29 and underneath stuff to Cole Beasley. His passer rating was 107.5. He looked incredibly confident. You could tell the coaching staff tweaked the game plan to make it more DAC friendly and more about DAC running. He had 11 rushes, including two. Probably would have had another one, but fumbled it and it came back to him. In the end, you know, I'd pretty much bailed on DAC. I think this is the way Dak Prescott at his best plays, and you watched it. Where Colin was right? I bailed on Marcus Marietta about a year and a half ago. John Goulet, you were here.
Starting point is 00:55:02 I said, listen, he's a nonverbal person at the most verbal position. You cannot keep blaming other people. I'm watching Sam Darnold chew it up, surrounded by a bunch of meh in New York. You can't have me wait four and five years. You can't. If I got to wait four years, like Blake Bortles, before you have the year, then you're not the guy. They were one for ten on third down. By the way, he was sacked 11 times.
Starting point is 00:55:25 Some of those are on you. There's a reason Brady doesn't get sacked. He audibles out. He gets rid of the ball. You can't keep me guessing if you're the man four or five years into a career. Then you're officially not. I bailed on him a year ago, and I feel justified today. Where Colin was right?
Starting point is 00:55:43 Just roll the tape. Hills have the ball at the 25-yard line. Peterman picked off. Joseph. The Texans have scored 10 points in the last 11. 11 seconds. And that is a look. You've seen a lot from Nathan Peterman in his career.
Starting point is 00:56:05 A couple of weeks ago, I called him Nathan Pearlman, and people said, you can't get his name right. And I said, throw more touchdowns than interceptions and I'll get your name right. Do you realize he has three TDs and nine career picks? He's got three career TDs and two pick sixes. He should be a safety. He leads the NFL in interceptions. Okay. I know.
Starting point is 00:56:25 I don't want to be mean. So I'm just going to stop talking. But listen, you're keeping it real. It's not good. This is hard. It's a hard league to be a quarterback. It's hard. It's really.
Starting point is 00:56:36 Now, it's easier today. It's easier today than it's ever been. Do you know the last 13 quarterbacks drafted? One guy appears to be a guy that you just, you can't put behind the center in a big spot. That would be Paxton Lynch. The other 12 are working, varying levels, but I'm not saying this is easy. I'm not saying this is easy. It is hard.
Starting point is 00:56:57 but it's not three touchdowns nine picks hard. No. It's not that hard. Colin right, Colin wrong. Trent Dilfer's around the corner. Tony Gonzalez packed. And I saw something this weekend.
Starting point is 00:57:08 I'm going to make a proclamation. I think I'm watching the best player I've ever seen at a certain position. And it's not Tom Brady. That's next. It's the hurt. The MLB postseason continues tonight with game three of the NLCS. It's time for Dodgers Stadium to come alive as a series shifts to L.A. Mani Machado and the Dodgers look to take a two-one lead on Christian Yon.
Starting point is 00:57:27 and the Brewers in front of the hometown crowd. Coverage begins at 6.30 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. Each game decided by a run. Brewers and Dodgers are both pretty much the same team home or away. Dodgers have quite a lineup. The Brewers have the bullpen. So that'll be big tonight at Dodgers Stadium, one of the really refined, classy places in Major League Baseball,
Starting point is 00:57:46 where they don't throw beer at you like in New England. With that, via the Coward Global Satellite Network, one of my favorite guys, almost a decade and a half in the NFL, a Super Bowl champ of Pearl Buller, a buddy of mine, Trent Dilfer. Okay, you watched last night, you and I have talked ad nauseum about Brady. Let's talk Mahomes. Like, listen, New England did a good job forcing him out of the pocket more than Tom was forced out of the pocket.
Starting point is 00:58:07 Do you worry a little bit with Mahomes, though, Trent? There's a lot of hero plays here, a lot of out of the pocket. And generally over a course of 15 years, you've got to make hay in the pocket, not superstar plays out of the pocket. What do you make of Mahomes? I would be concerned if the bulk of his work this year hadn't been from the pocket. Now, we're a highlight educated football. And so what most of the country has seen is his spin around touchdown pass.
Starting point is 00:58:36 They saw him last night in prime time. The highlight showing him do the stuff out of the pocket. But he's played the bulk of the season with great rhythm, great timing from the pocket. So because of that last night, I didn't think he resorted back to what. he's most comfortable doing. I think he was forced to do a lot of that by a highly aggressive New England Patriots game plan. They really took some chances coverage-wise, blitz-wise. They played casino blitz, which is a cover zero, bringing everybody four or five times. They brought extra rushers, played man behind it. It was obvious that the New
Starting point is 00:59:13 England coaching staff didn't think they could just line up and play coverage against this player and this team. And they were right. I mean, Kansas City, went in there and put up 40 in Foxborough with two turnovers and only 53 plays. So again, I think the Patriots are and still are the class of the NFL for a bunch of reasons. But I was more impressed with Kansas City last night for their ability to only get 53 plays on the road with that kind of crowd noise and put up a 40 piece on the Patriots. Pretty impressive.
Starting point is 00:59:45 Listen, you grew up Fresno, Bay Area, you watched Montana, you know Brady. sometimes I watch Tom in the two-minute drill and Trent, some of it's not coaching. I almost think some of it is an inner confidence. You're either built to be good in two minutes or you're not. Brady is so good at it. Maybe it's all the years. Maybe it's coaching.
Starting point is 01:00:09 But you were around this league. There are guys who, when it gets noisy, it gets quiet. Tom's the best I've ever seen at that. Am I being too hyper on that? It's just, it's almost like he was built for two-minute football. I don't think I can say any better. I think there are just certain guys in every sport that their minds get quieter, the busier the environment is, the more chaotic, the more stressful.
Starting point is 01:00:34 They find that gear where they can get quiet, they can get calm. They're supremely confident. They've been playing the game in their mind the whole night, the whole day, so they're prepared for that moment. I thought Chris Collins, which did a great job last night, talking about how they were being very stubborn with the run. They were forcing Kansas City and some looks. And at some point, Tom Brady was going to take advantage of it to Gruncowski.
Starting point is 01:00:59 Sure enough, play action, backside, pay that he audited to get Grong open. He audible to the play to get Grunk down the sideline to put the game away. He was just fantastic. And the thing that doesn't have the same sex appeal, but to a football dork like myself, I thought was masterful as well was how he handled the run game. This is obviously a New England team that wants to have more balance this year. This is not the spread of mal option route to Edelman team. This is an offense that wants to run the football.
Starting point is 01:01:29 They want to be physical. They want to use the size of that offensive line, which they have for the first time in years. They want to lean on you. They have multiple backs they can give the ball to. And then they want to be opportunistic in the passing game with Tom Brady and strike you. What he did in the run game, audibly into good looks for his runners, adjusting the four. formations, adjusting the run packages is as good as I've
Starting point is 01:01:53 seen in a long time. By the way, you know, you know I like Darnold, and it was more about traits. He's a bigger, stronger kid than Baker, but I like his traits. I don't like the nonsense. I think he's built to fail, win, fail, same personality, touchdown pick,
Starting point is 01:02:09 same personality. I like that. Baker, I can see two guys. I see Plant the Flag guy, head down guy. So I tend to like Donald more, plus he's bigger and stronger. What did you see from Baker because Baker didn't have a very good day yesterday. Is there anything that concerns you with Baker? Yes.
Starting point is 01:02:26 That concern me coming into this draft. I worked hard on this trap. I've known these kids forever and really wanted to give balanced analysis going into this year's draft. And Sam was my number one guy for a couple of reasons. Number one, he has that five to him that makes everybody around can feel better. Good, bad, in different situations, you're going to feel better when Sam Donald's around. He has that every intangible trait you're looking.
Starting point is 01:02:49 looking for. I think physically he can get away with more bad things happening around him. A pocket collapsing in the middle. He's big, strong enough, athletic enough to manipulate that and still make throws. I think his downfield accuracy when you look at his entire career, USC was phenomenal. The ability to push the ball all over the football field into tight windows, too, not just wide open receivers. Those are all the reasons I thought Sand would be great. Now, I think Baker is going to be a good quarterback. But me and you talked about this a few weeks ago, Baker's guy decide what kind of quarterback he's going to be
Starting point is 01:03:24 because he's got a choice now, and you're seeing the bad decision come to fruition, when he tries to be a playmaker, when he tries to do too much, when he's not willing to give up on a play, bad things happen. He is not a good enough athlete to be a full-time playmaker. He is a guy that must play the game like Drew Brees,
Starting point is 01:03:44 has played it for years. on time from the middle of the pocket before it gets muddy in there. The Cleveland Browns have to do a good job of building their offensive line, like the Northern Saints did with Drew Brees, where they built it center guard guard. They weren't as concerned with the tackles. Baker needs a clean interior of the pocket. He needs to play on time, and he can be deadly.
Starting point is 01:04:06 He can absolutely slice and dice you. But what you're seeing is the same thing you saw happen against Georgia last year. When you're able to rush Baker in the middle, get him moving laterally or moving backwards, his brain rights checks, his body can't cash. He tries to make plays that physically he is unable to make, and they turn into interceptions. That's what you saw yesterday. I think Baker can fix it, but it's on him to decide how he's going to play the game. Trent Dillfer joining us.
Starting point is 01:04:36 I said there's nine teams that I look at, five in the AFC, four in the NFC, that I think are good enough, personnel coaching quarterback, to string together multiple wins in a row, get to a Super Bowl, win or lose, who knows, but get there. That's part of it. And then there's two teams, Carolina and Green Bay, I need a couple more weeks. That's kind of how I feel today,
Starting point is 01:04:59 that I feel the Patriots, Chiefs, Rams, Eagles, Steelers, Saints, Ravens, Chargers, Vikings, they can string together multiple wins against good teams. Panthers, Packers, darn close, give me two more weeks. Any pushback on that? Do you see teams I don't? Are there teams you don't like or do like that I don't have? You know, I saw the list earlier today. I wanted to push back on you.
Starting point is 01:05:22 I really wouldn't. Maybe I would take the Steelers out, put the Texans in, but it's probably too early to tell on either. I think what's interesting about this, though, is a bigger conversation around the teams that most likely would be your favorites. And that would be the Patriots, obviously. I would put the Eagles in there because they did it last year and they're starting around into form,
Starting point is 01:05:42 and Carson's only going to get better, and then obviously the Chiefs and the Rams. Of those four teams, three of them are playing with quarterbacks on their first contract. Therefore, they're allowed to spread the money around and have a better 53 than these teams that have so much of money invest in their quarterback and maybe a quarterback in the alpha receiver. It also makes me admire how the Patriots have done it even more because they've been paying Tom Brady a lot for a lot of years.
Starting point is 01:06:10 and they haven't drinking the Kool-Aid of going and having to pay other signature players too much to keep them. They've been able to spread the wealth around. They have value at receiver. They look for value at every position. Trent Brown, getting him to become their left tackles or the great off-season moves we've seen. It just makes me continue to say they are so much better than everybody else at looking at it from 30,000 feet and managing a quarterback that eats up a bulk of their salary cap, where these other teams panic.
Starting point is 01:06:44 And once they pay the quarterback, they feel they have to pay the receiver, then they feel have to pay the running back or the quarter. And there's just not enough money to be spread around until they take the quarterback out of the salary cap and put them aside and say, yeah, there's going to be a salary cap on quarterbacks, but they're not going to count to the rest of the cap. Then you're going to see more examples of the chiefs, the Eagles, and the Rams that say, hey, we did pretty well in the draft, getting the quarterback.
Starting point is 01:07:08 Let's take advantage of this in this four-year window and go pay a bunch of other dudes and make a year or two run at this. Let's try to get to the championship game because you're not going to see what I don't like about the Packers and the Saints and some of those other teams, the Steelers, is their 53s aren't that good. They have a lot of sizzle, the guys they're paying, but they don't have a lot of depth. And that guy coming in playing the dime quarter isn't very good. And eventually he's going to get exposed.
Starting point is 01:07:36 Finally, I was going to say something today. I told my staff as we were preparing for the show, I said, Todd Gurley may be the best running back I've ever seen. I know that's crazy. But he's faster than Emmett. He's bigger than Marshall Falk. He can catch better than Adrian Peterson. And I'm like, God, he is so good.
Starting point is 01:07:53 And then my staff said, oh, Trent's going to push back on that. So what are you going to tell me when I say, Todd Gurley looks as good as any running back I've ever seen? I think he's fantastic, but I don't know if he's the best running back in L.A. I think Melvin Gordon is as good as Todd Girl. I think they're two best backs in football and they're both in L.A. When you watch the Chargers play and you watch how he is also the centerpiece of their offense and how many people he makes miss in open space and then is a ability to accelerate into contact when it is a scrum.
Starting point is 01:08:28 I don't know. I think it's either or Todd Gurley or Melvin Gordon, but Todd gets all the attention right now as he should because the Rams are undefeated. But people need to start paying attention to the San Diego Chargers and Melvin Gordon. They have a great quarterback. Guy's been great for a long time. But now they've surrounded him with a defense that can get after you. They can get the ball back for you.
Starting point is 01:08:50 An offensive line that's better been in years. A great runner. And now they've established that other perimeter threat to Keenan Allen. They really have all the pieces. I think in the AFC, you have Pat's, Chiefs, And then I think it's Chargers. Trent Dilfer. Great talking to you on a Monday, man.
Starting point is 01:09:08 I got smarter. Thanks, buddy. Always fun, pal. See you. All right. Trent Dilfer, decade and a half. Got a Super Bowl ring as you saw behind him,
Starting point is 01:09:16 that beautiful trophy. Joy Taylor with the news. No. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So last night's game was fun. It went right down to the wire.
Starting point is 01:09:26 I had to watch every second of it. And the Chiefs, they scored quickly at the end of the game to tie it. Yeah. 75-yard bomb, Tyreek Hill. But they left a little bit of time on the clock. Brady had three minutes and three seconds left to do what he does, lead a game-winning score, and he knew it. We had confidence.
Starting point is 01:09:45 I think, you know, I'm glad when he was running, Tyreek was running the score. I said, good, you know, score quick. Because then we had, you know, enough time. They had one time out left and give us a little time to go down and kick the field goal. Look, Brady's done this a time or two. And obviously, that is a lot of time for Tom Brady to drive down the field. and win the game. But I never buy into the don't score fast thing.
Starting point is 01:10:07 Like, I feel like you've got to score when you can score. There's no guarantee, especially for a young quarterback, that he's going to be able to drive down the field and slowly burn time off the top. There are certain rules in football. Like one of the rules, one of the things that cracks me up about football, we have so fallen so far in love with touchdowns. It's like field goals don't count. It's amazing how often a coach is like, oh, I got a 38-year field goal.
Starting point is 01:10:32 I'm going to go for it. And I'm like, you do get two field goals are pretty close to a touchdown. Like, points are points. Yeah, I did not like the way that the chiefs handled the end of the first half. Like, they forced them to try and make a play there through an interception. I would have calmly handled that situation. Throw it out of bounds and kick the field goal. Like, get the points.
Starting point is 01:10:54 You don't have – I understand you want to get the touchdowns against the Patriots, but you also have to manage the game. And look how differently the end of that game would be had you done that and not force the turnover. And look, Malmes is young. Like, he's going to make mistakes like that. But I just don't like the idea of, don't score yet. Huh? Like, score when you can score. It's not that simple.
Starting point is 01:11:13 Everybody is in Tom Brady's and make that happen. So Todd Gurley had an epic game against the Broncos yesterday. You were just talking about him. He set a career high with 208 rushing yards, which was the Rams' first 200-yard rushing game since Marshall Falk back in 2001 against the Panthers. And after the game, Gurley credited his blockers with paving the way. But Robert Woods heaps and praise back on
Starting point is 01:11:32 early. He said he's been running wild ever since I got to this team. It's a credit to this line, this game plan, and his work ethic. He's a beast. You know, he's doing well when defenders are saying, man, he's getting five yards a touch, five yards of touch. He's pretty much unstoppable right now. You know, it's funny. When you watch the Rams, you see the fireworks show. If you really watch the Rams, they're a power running team. There's a lot of noise on the outside, but at their core, they are a power running football team. That's what they are. But again, there's so much noise, and they're so much symmetry, and golf is such a beautiful thrower with the football that you can very easily see them.
Starting point is 01:12:05 You know, it's like the Chicago Bulls with Jordan. You think about Jordan and Pippin. What they were was the best defensive team I've ever seen. Rodman, Harper, Pippen, Jordan. They were so long and so athletic and so physical that you forgot. The Bulls were really built. You couldn't. If the Bulls locked you in late, it was over.
Starting point is 01:12:26 and I think sometimes we look at all the noise and Jordan's dunks and all the Rams passing they just power run this thing for three hours every Sunday. Great. I think he should be in the MVP conversation. So do I. So Baker Mayfield had a rough day against the Chargers. Yeah. He tweaked his ankle in the first half and took five sacks and threw a pick in the 38 to 14 loss.
Starting point is 01:12:48 But just as I'd expect, Baker took full responsibility. Let's hear this. Anytime you don't do your job, you know, I'm, I'm at fault for the majority of that. You know, I'm going to be very hard on myself, but you're not always going to have a perfect day. You're not always going to have, you know, the day you envision. But you've got to be a great in-game adjuster at this level. And, you know, to whatever they're throwing at us, we have to react to it and play well.
Starting point is 01:13:13 And I'll be the first to tell you I didn't do that today. In fairness, he didn't have a ton of protection, especially in the first half. And he was also playing from behind. So once you play behind and you're facing a pass rush, the Chargers knew, okay, you're down 17 here, rookie. We're pinning our ears back. If Baker plays with a lead and has a running game, he's got more time. But once Cleveland's defense gave up all those points,
Starting point is 01:13:41 Baker's now playing behind against the good pass rush, pinning its ears back. So there's a big difference, and I've said this before with quarterbacks, is you really arrive in the NFL when you play from behind, and come back and win. Everybody looks good with a two touchdown lead. And you have a running game going, and the linebackers have to be honest, that was a worst-case scenario.
Starting point is 01:14:04 I'm trailing against a great pass rush. That is no fun for any rookie quarterback. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Coming up next, pump the brakes.
Starting point is 01:14:20 I know you're going crazy. something needs to be said about Patrick Mahomes just to offer a little context on what we're seeing. That is coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 40 grand. Do you need to pay off credit debt? Lendingclub.com slash sports. Lending club.com slash sports. I want to thank Trent Delfer and Rod Woodson for joining us earlier today. First of all, you know, I hear people in Kansas City complaining, no penalties on the Patriots.
Starting point is 01:14:56 Yeah, there were also no punts. Like, that's sort of on you. I thought the game last night, I mean, Kansas City only had one punt and five penalties. When you consider Patrick Mahomes as a baby, how loud Foxborough is, how inexperienced Mahomes is, what you watched last night was not only great quarterback play, was great coaching. It's pretty remarkable to send a baby quarterback into Foxborough against Belichick. and Brady and only have five penalties and one punt? I mean, New England's defense is situationally really good.
Starting point is 01:15:26 They have a great secondary, and they got a pass rush last night. It wasn't just that New England didn't have a penalty. Belichick, Brady, don't get penalized much, home or away because they know what they're doing. But I thought it was an exquisite performance by both coaching staffs. But they both, Kansas City made great adjustments in the second half. That came, could have gone sideways fast for Kansas City, and it never did. did. Here's the thing, though, before we fall in love with Mahomes, listen, his talent's great. You can't deny it. But you can make an argument. Dak Prescott had a great rookie year because
Starting point is 01:15:59 it was the perfect storm. Running back, receiver, Jason Witten, Zekeel Elliott, schedule. Okay, Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes will never have a wide receiver that fast the rest of his career, period. He'll never have a tight end as talented as Travis Kelsey. He may never have a back as good as Kareem Hunt. And Andy Reid's probably was sure. Sean Payton, the best play designer in the NFL. Mahomes is really gifted. But you know what impresses me? Is that Tom Brady's doing this with his 75th and 76th wide receiver.
Starting point is 01:16:31 He's doing it with his 59th and 60th running back. And that Gronks often not healthy and Edelman wasn't here for September. Listen, man, could Patrick Mahomes take Corderell Patterson who can't remember plays, Philip Dorset, who disappears, Josh Gordon, who can't stay clean? and a revolving door of running backs and do this. Like, I understand being in love with Mahomes' talent. He's going nowhere. He's a terrific young kid.
Starting point is 01:16:58 But, God, is Kansas City loaded offensively? Hang on. I mean, Tyree kills the fastest NFL player in a decade. Travis Kelsey's unbelievable. I mean, Travis Kelsey is every bit as good as grunk. He's not as strong, but he's faster and he's athletic. Kareem Hunt's terrific, and he reads amazing. And by the way, Mahomes last year got Alex Smith to learn from
Starting point is 01:17:22 and Matt Nagy, the offensive coordinator. So what blows me away is Brady, new left tackle, rookie running back, Corderole Patterson, Josh Gordon. Folks, you ever watch the TV show, The Cooking Show Chopped? You ever watch that cooking show chopped? I love that show. It's unbelievable. Instead of getting perfect stuff, they give somebody,
Starting point is 01:17:44 here's some vegan pasta, a lollipop, a popsicle, some licorice and some beats. And Brady's like, here's a five-star meal. It's just a revolving door of cast-offs. Even Julian Edelman wasn't here in September, wasn't here last year. And Edelman's a receiver that needs, he runs precise routes, and you have to put a ball right in a spot for him to be effective. He's not, if they didn't have hash marks in football,
Starting point is 01:18:09 Julian Edelman's not in the league. He needs hash marks to play inside of him. So, I mean, I'm just blown away by, And, you know, it was funny because a lot of times the Patriots were up 24-night at halftime and give Andy Reed and that staff a lot of credit. And Mahomes. They didn't panic. They readjusted.
Starting point is 01:18:28 They were great. But, you know, the other thing is when you watch these games on Sunday, and I think this is really good, that certain sports are comfortable with change. If you watch an NFL game on TV, Joy, it doesn't look like 15 years ago. A baseball game, today, the Dodgers, Brewers play on Foxx. Sports 1. It looks like a baseball game 30 years ago on TV mostly. Same camera angles, same stuff, basically. When you watch a football game, the NFL's always been incredibly comfortable with change. They change rules. Every year, they make major rule changes. The number
Starting point is 01:19:04 one thing that's happening in the NFL right now, and it's great for fans, is the NFL is taking college concepts and using them in the pros, and it's allowing these young quarterbacks like Mahomes to feel incredibly comfortable. Sam Darnold yesterday, and I'm not joking on this, I watched every snap for Sam Darnold at USC. Sam Darnold looked more comfortable yesterday as a pro quarterback at 21 years old than he looked his last year at USC.
Starting point is 01:19:32 I mean, Patrick Mahomes, I saw him in college. Hell, he didn't look this comfortable. Patrick Mahomes is a better NFL quarterback than he was in college. I saw him in college. I didn't watch every game, but he wasn't this good. So the NFL that's always been willing to change, modify, amplify their rules, has really brought a lot of the college concepts over to the pros. These college quarterbacks, they look as comfortable in the NFL as babies as they did their last year in college.
Starting point is 01:20:04 I mean, Mahomes, it's just, he's just fantastic. For the record, I know, I know what you're all. saying, Donald had a very good day, and Baker Mayfield did not play well. Listen, I don't want to keep going back in comparing him. But the reality is that Baker Mayfield and Sam Donald will always be compared on my show because I love Darnold since I saw him as a freshman at USC, and I didn't like Baker's nonsense grabbing his stuff in the police video. So they're always going to be compared on this show.
Starting point is 01:20:42 I think it's kind of unfair. I mean, right now, Baker's got better running. backs, better receivers, but Sam Darnold, I think, has an easier division. One has a defensive coach. One has an offensive coach. You know, I mean, obviously, Brady's benefited greatly from having Bill Belichick, obviously. Josh Rosen right now has a defensive head coach and a super conservative offensive coordinator and a bad offensive line. I think Josh Rosen's terrific so far, but I didn't have a ton to work with. But if you want to compare, remember, I said this. Baker's two years older than Donald and has double almost double the college starts.
Starting point is 01:21:21 Baker should be better now than Sam. I predicted Sam would be a roller coaster. Right now, completion percentage, touchdown interception, yards per attempt, passerating wins. Donald's working with less, a defensive coach, and frankly, he looks better. Not just bigger and stronger. He looks more composed. He's more under control.
Starting point is 01:21:42 He looks to be a little more comfortable. coachable, less willing to make stuff up as he goes. Donald looks better than Baker. But I will say this. We can do this game every week. Donald is better. I strongly believe it. But what I always liked about Donald wasn't the stats.
Starting point is 01:22:02 It was that I liked his traits. Touchdown interception, Donald, same guy. Win loss, same guy. Personality never changes. That is Brady. That is Montana. That is Manning. That's what I like.
Starting point is 01:22:19 It's not the stats. We can compare them all week. Every week. I think I'm going to win that game. It's traits. I always prefer Darnel's personality and traits, long-term 15 years over Bakers. Hour 3 coming up.
Starting point is 01:22:32 Hour 3 live in Los Angeles. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Joy Taylor, joining me. So many things this weekend I loved. So many things that if you take Alabama out, college football has got about nine teams that can win the national championship. Sort of like if you take the Warriors out, there's about eight teams that can win the NBA championship.
Starting point is 01:22:56 Jim Harbaugh won this weekend. I'm very happy. Suddenly Jim Harbaugh can coach again, give Michigan credit they actually are willing to go on the road and play Notre Dame's and Utah's and good teams. So occasionally you'd lose. Okay. Nick Sabin, Alabama won't do that. So tonight, Dodgers, Brewers, that's game three, Fox Sports, Sports, Sports one at 730 Pacific, 430 Eastern.
Starting point is 01:23:17 So the nationally championship series moves out west. Brewers Dodgers, both home and away. Same teams, both very good. Fifteen minutes, Tony Gonzalez stops by. We have best for last. But the Patriots, we all watched, I don't know what the number was, but I'm sure the TV writing was huge. We all watched it last night, a wild one.
Starting point is 01:23:34 Patriots over the Chiefs on Sunday night football. So let me start with this. In the history of the NFL, it used to be called the two-minute drill. you went without a huddle and you rushed to the line and it was fairly chaotic. And the good quarterbacks were like John Elway was like 50-50 at it. Tom Brady last night got the ball with two minutes and 23 seconds, buried in their own territory. And let's roll the tape and here we go. Here's the two-minute drill.
Starting point is 01:24:05 Tom Brady gets it. All right. Got a receiver out to that. Okay, they run it right into the line. All right, all right, all right. Let's get in one more play, one more play before the two minute. Tom walks off the field, basically. Okay, we're, we're, that, that was the play.
Starting point is 01:24:23 They just, they just, they didn't even run another play. That was it. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now, let's stop for a second. Okay, let's stop. Hold on. Okay. So now you kind of just wasted 15 seconds.
Starting point is 01:24:36 It was just a run into the line. Now what I want to see, now what I want to see is, the two minute warning. Now it starts in earnest. Okay, let's go to the play outside of that now. They come back. Here's the next point. Now we're getting the ball up the field.
Starting point is 01:24:49 Now we're, they ran the ball into the line again. They're just wasting time here. I mean, this is ridiculous, right? They're just wasting time. These are two dives, two plays, one yard. Come on, guys, we've got to get up fast. Oh, they're not getting up fast.
Starting point is 01:25:06 They walk to the line for the next play. Okay, here's the next play. Okay, now this. puppy. Now we're going to, all right, out to the flat. Get out of bounds. Get out of bounds. Oh, no, the running back stays in bounds. Okay, rush to the line. Let's hurry. Let's get. Oh, they're huddling. Oh, wait a minute. I get it. They're trying to eat clock. It is not about if they'll score. They're going to take the clock down to zero. They have three timeouts. They didn't need to use.
Starting point is 01:25:40 any of them. This is how a veteran pilot lands in turbulence. You're freaking out in row 19, and they're saying, this is what I'm trying to do. This is what a surgeon does with blood flying all over an emergency room. You're freaking out. This is what I've been trained to do. 31 other NFL teams will we score? You know how they say great athletes are in a zone? Tom Brady appears to now be in a 10-year zone. He's taken citizenship in a zone. This should be an instructional video on a two-minute drill. It was not that long ago when no huddling illustrated the lack of composure for an overwhelming number of teams outside of teams with veteran quarterbacks.
Starting point is 01:26:31 That should be in the Hall of Fame. They are eating clock. They are not using timeout. They are walking to the huddle. They are huddling. They are staying in bounds. They are completely manipulating another NFL team. The nonchalance of that two-minute drill is something I've never seen.
Starting point is 01:26:54 It is staggering. What you're watching is absolutely staggering. Tom Brady has mastered quarterback. A couple years ago, he interviewed with R.J. Glazer, and people were talking about retirement. And Brady, in a moment of clarity and honesty, and it was actually, some would say hubris, but it didn't come off that way.
Starting point is 01:27:18 Remember what he said to Glazer? Every time I go on the field, I feel like, all right, well, I know what to do. I know how to do it. I know where to go with the ball. And, you know, football is in some ways easier now for me than it ever was because, you know, it's just I've been doing it longer. I've had the experience. And, you know, hopefully that experience can pay off.
Starting point is 01:27:35 So I want to switch to this. Coming into the year, there were four teams that we thought were going to have great defenses. Saxonville. They were going to be great. Great last year. They were only getting better. Minnesota Vikings. Those young guys are only getting better.
Starting point is 01:27:50 And we thought Philadelphia Eagles. Oh, they got Michael Bennett. Their pass rush is going to be ridiculous. Fletcher Cox. You can't block him now. And then once Chicago got Khalil Mack, we were like, okay, you're looking at mini-filly, Jacksonville, Chicago. those defenses, who we, I wouldn't want to face them. And they all got pushed around kind of over the last couple of weeks.
Starting point is 01:28:15 There are no great defenses. Last night, what you watched was 43 to 40, wildly fun. The skill players dominated the game, and you can't turn it off. There is a play, I want to show you, though. 520 left fourth quarter. Defensive lineman, Breeland speaks, wraps Tom Brady up. And he thinks Brady has thrown the ball. And so he lets go of him.
Starting point is 01:28:37 Brady then moves toward the end zone runs in. Breeland speaks thinks he has him. But then when Tom motions, he lets go of him. And I could just hear everybody watching that game. Colin, this is what is wrong with the NFL. That a defensive lineman had a sack and let go of him. And to that I say, oh, you mean defensive linemen now have to be thoughtful and strategic and contemplate, it's just not eating up to 340 pounds and squishing people.
Starting point is 01:29:11 Yes, we are now asking our defensive linemen to be thoughtful and mindful and strategic and aware of where the ball is. Yes. And by the way, the one team that's had no issue with that late hit quarterback penalty, well, it just happens to be the most mindful, thoughtful, strategic football team in my life. The New England Patriots. The result is six weeks in, one quarterback has hurt Jimmy Garoppolo. Multiple times yesterday. I'm talking a dozen times yesterday. I saw a defensive end or a defensive lineman grab a quarterback, hold him, play is over,
Starting point is 01:29:51 and everybody gets paid the same. Nobody gets cut. Nobody gets yelled at. Nobody gets screamed at. Yes. We've always made our quarterbacks think and our corners and our Mike linebackers. and our safeties and our coaches and our coordinators think, and our centers and our left tackles think.
Starting point is 01:30:09 All sorts of shifting on offense, tight ends, choreography, move up, go over, double motion. Oh, now we actually ask the defensive lineman to think. Strip the ball, perhaps, grab and hold, not drive Aaron Rogers into the turf. Tackling now in football, when it comes to tackling the quarterback is like sound mixing at the Oscars. necessary, but a means to an end. Okay, as long as nobody gets hurt. Ratings are up, quarterbacks are healthy, and oh, by the way,
Starting point is 01:30:43 I'll take that every weekend. In fact, I'll take that 30 times a year over watching C.J. Bethard against Aaron Rogers tonight, which I'm not even sure by halftime if you'll want to keep watching it. football at its best is thoughtful and strategic. Now we ask the big uglies up front defensively. They've got to be thoughtful too. Tony Gonzalez around the corner on a loaded Monday show.
Starting point is 01:31:14 We got baseball playoffs. Dodgers now hosting the Brewer series tied at one. Later in the afternoon, the NBA season starts tomorrow. Interesting moment from LeBron James over the weekend. If you did not see it, we'll have it. Want more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHard radio app. Search Hurd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Don't be the guy in the room with the long, sloppy looking on tuck shirt, untucket.com. Code Herd, 20% off.
Starting point is 01:31:42 GQ calls imperfection on tuckett.com code her. By the way, I'm watching that cowboy Jacksonville game last night. And I honestly believe what I'm about to say is that you can't lie to players. Like players know who can play and players know who can't play. If you're trying to convince all those Jacksonville Jaguar defensive players that Blake Bortles is taking you anywhere, you're kidding yourself. There's not a coach on that staff in Jacksonville. There's not a player in that locker room that watches Brady and Mahomes and the young guys like Donald and Breeze, Ben and Locke and Deshaun Watson and, oh yeah, Blake Bortles will get us there. You can't keep selling me a $5 steak and charging me 50.
Starting point is 01:32:26 Okay, Blake Bortles is average. I think his last 35 games in the road, he's like 9 and 26. It's terrible. You give him any stress. If he's trailing in a game, he's done. I'm watching Jacksonville last night. They fall behind in that game, and I'm not kidding you. The defensive effort cratered.
Starting point is 01:32:45 Like, I've heard this before. That defensive players play harder when they feel like, listen, if we can give our quarterback one more chance, the better the quarterback, the better the defensive. effort laid in games because your team feels like, hey, give our guy two minutes. Give Tom Brady two minutes. We can win. Jacksonville looked like to me when they got in a hole last night, like Jalen Ramsey at one
Starting point is 01:33:07 point didn't even tackle a guy going into the end zone. Like it felt like they quit. I mean, seriously, there was some quit on that team. Nobody buys Bortles. Like nobody is buying it. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.
Starting point is 01:33:22 This is the herd line news. So it was a wild weekend in college football. Top 10 teams outscored their opponents by an average of just 1.5 points. Wow. And contenders like Georgia, West Virginia, Washington, and Penn State all lost Saturday. Yep. Which pumped a day shake-up in the rankings. The Bulldogs fell from 2 to 8.
Starting point is 01:33:41 The Mountaineers fell from 6 to 13. Husky fell from 7 to 15. Ah, there's Notre Dame 4, Michigan 6. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I thought Jim Harbaugh couldn't coach. Felt from 8 to 18. Can I just give Harbaugh a little credit?
Starting point is 01:33:56 Yes, you may. Joy, in college football, a 30-year schedule is dictated by the coach. The coach can sign off or not. Nick Saban will not go on the road out of conference. He'll play at a neutral site. Harbaugh has signed off on out-of-conference tough road games. So when he loses at Notre Dame in week one by a touchdown, Notre Dame appears to be an excellent team, you can't bury Harbaugh in Michigan.
Starting point is 01:34:22 Let's give credit to guys like Tech. Texas and USC and Michigan and Notre Dame and Wisconsin historically that are willing to play tough out of conference games and reward us fans in September. With good games. Alabama's student section is not even full anymore because they're over it. Who are they playing Panera? I mean, it's like three times a year they're playing a truck stop. Like stop it. Go to Wisconsin.
Starting point is 01:34:46 Notre Dame should be going to Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State all every year. By the way, if you lose, so what? win the next 11 you always do anyway. Right. So Kirk Cousin's pregame speeches have been getting a lot of hype lately. Yeah. Let's take a little look at his latest one. I got a question for you.
Starting point is 01:35:05 How did you feel after last week's victory, man? Right, right? And because it was earned, man. Nothing in this league is free. Nothing to give. You can't just roll your helmet out there every play. You got to go out to every plate and earn it. And you've got to take it, man.
Starting point is 01:35:19 You've got to take it back. I'd been a rookie quarterback before. You can suffocate him. You can suffocate him miserable. All game long, get us to ball back. I love that. I love that. That's my favorite Kirk Cousins moment ever.
Starting point is 01:35:36 I thought that was great. Yeah. He's so funny. I love it when the voice cracks. I thought that was great. It's funny. Come on. Now, that was good.
Starting point is 01:35:46 Andy Dolan's like, All right, Cups Scout on three. Andy Dalton pregame speeches, no disrespect, all time worse. All time worse. I thought that was great. Listen, Kirk's not, he doesn't have the Aaron Rogers arm, the Cam Newton size, but you know what? I'd want to play for that guy.
Starting point is 01:36:02 He's got the fire. I like that a lot. He's a dude. All right. So finally, this is a little bit of breaking news. Last night's game was a fun one. But a disappointing moment happened in the last moments of the game three minutes left. Tyree Hill scored his third touchdown on the game to tie things up at 40.
Starting point is 01:36:18 Yes. And then he ran full speed into the wall and met some of Boston's finest who delivered. several middle fingers and threw some beer on him in his face. Yeah. Right there. Yeah, this made you very upset. Well, look, I don't think that it's uncommon. I don't think it's exclusive to Boston.
Starting point is 01:36:39 I don't think that it's something that players aren't used to. But now he's done. Yeah, so this guy, I said that this guy should be banned, which he, of course, should be. And the Patriots did. Gillette Stadium Security has identified the fan who violated the fan code of conduct by tossing a beer onto a player during the game last night. The matter has been turned over to local law enforcement, and the fan will be sent a letter of disinvite to all future events at Gillette Stadium.
Starting point is 01:37:02 So the fan did get banned for throwing the entire place. Yeah, that's fine. I'm okay with that. My only thing is I don't want to overreact and go crazy, because I do think players are used to it. But listen, there is no room for throwing anything on anybody at an event. There's no room for that. Now, I think Liquid has gotten to a point in the NFL, first two rows. You're going to get it.
Starting point is 01:37:22 But I have no problem them kicking them out. But I do think players now are just used to this crap. I don't think that it's something to overreact to because it's something that happens a lot. I just don't want to normalize it either. Like, just because you spend money to go watch a sporting event doesn't mean that you in any way get to cross over the line and participate in it. And by that, I mean, throwing beer at someone. Like, I don't care if you flip the middle finger or yell at someone.
Starting point is 01:37:45 How about no throwing anything? How about just don't throw things? Can you imagine? Like I said before, this is a group of people. people who have never had hands put on them before because it's the behavior is just so outrageous you know you're you're so fearless there's no way you've ever been met with any actual adversity when I always think see bad behavior from a 20 year old I think to myself who were their parents like my daughter wouldn't my daughter would be like wouldn't do that in a million
Starting point is 01:38:11 years like I never had hands on them before or just crappy parents like who goes to an event someone who is ridiculously dumb ridiculously entitled Because if you feel like because you pay money to go to a sporting event, that you then have a right to assault the person who you have paid for their entertainment. And you are paying for both teams, obviously. People with a lower IQ have worse judgment. That's just dumb people. Like who would go to an event and throw things at people?
Starting point is 01:38:41 You just can't be that smart. At some point, you're just not a very smart person. Well, he's no longer going to be there to have the opportunity to do it again, which is just the right thing to do. Brutal. Joy breaking story there. Joy Taylor with the news. Let's bring on.
Starting point is 01:38:54 That's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The third line news. Second most catch is in NFL history, Tony Gonzalez. I want to hear stories about this. Hey, Joy. How are you? Now, Kansas City's the middle of the country,
Starting point is 01:39:06 so people are very nice. Kansas City's got nothing but nice people. There are certain places in America. Indianapolis, people are nice. Green Bay, people are nice. Who are the worst fans you ever dealt with? The most verbally abusive? of doubt it's the the Oakland Raider
Starting point is 01:39:22 Raider Nation fans by far. Oh, appalling. First got in the league. I remember I'm down there. We're playing in Oakland in the black hole, that little area where they actually, I bet it they can't even, they couldn't get away with it now. But I remember Chester McLaughton was on our team
Starting point is 01:39:38 and they put his number on a jersey and a noose. And they're hanging it on like a dummy over the side. And then they did it to me. They had 88 one year. Not very nice. But then so I was sitting there and we're pinned deep in the territory and all of a sudden, I feel like,
Starting point is 01:39:55 you know, I got my helmet on and I hear this, ding! My heads and ears start ringing. And I look up and I look down. First of all, I see quarters and batteries. They're throwing batteries and quarters and empty beer cans onto the field at us in that little thing. So I'm used to what happened last night. Were there fans that were ever nice?
Starting point is 01:40:14 Yeah, of course. Green Bay. Green Bay. Hey, good luck to you. I love it. There's there. Hey, how you doing there? Is that the Wisconsin accent?
Starting point is 01:40:22 Yeah, how you doing there? Oh, good luck to you. Like Fargo. Good luck to you there. Hey. Yeah, so Green Bay is almost collegiate. Collegiate fans, by the way, I've been on the road to Iowa, Wisconsin, Big Ten Cities.
Starting point is 01:40:33 Fans are great. Yeah. Now, Ohio State's obnoxious, but I've been everywhere else outside Ohio State, fans are great. Buckeye fans are just, they're like, they're not obnoxious. Yeah. I don't know why, but they just are. Nebraska's got the nicest people in the world.
Starting point is 01:40:45 Nice, nice. Now, as a player, Joy and I went back and forth on this. I think players are now used to. to it. Like first couple of rows on the road, it's like you just know get through the tunnel and get to the locker room. Absolutely. You know, what did you expect? I mean, first of all,
Starting point is 01:41:00 we were just talking about it offstage. You ever been a UFC match? Oh, God, yeah. I mean, the testosterone in there. I go to the bathroom at one of those events one time and there's fights. There's people fighting because they're ready to go. And that's how it is at the football game. And these fans
Starting point is 01:41:16 are, you know, they start tossing a couple of those soda pops back. Yeah. They get into it and then you go to the front row. I would never, I would never even go near that right there. I think Tyree Kale probably learned his lesson. Don't go over there because you might get, you might get beer poured on you. Okay, so the Raiders go to London. It's not easy to play in London. And it's, you know, I said before the season, I don't think you can be out of football for 10 years and come back in this league. Ten years ago, if you'd have walked into a locker room as a coach and said, no politics, it's understood. You say that now you offend half
Starting point is 01:41:44 the locker room. The world's changed. But you don't think it's man overboard in Oakland yet. I don't think so. Like I told you, a couple weeks ago on the show. I mean, the batter, you know, they're just making the batter, let alone putting in the oven yet, and then you're putting in the ice and all that stuff on. I think John Gruden, I really believe he's on this 10-year contract, so that affords him time, and he's going to do it his way. And with that, he's getting rid of players, obviously, Khalil Mack is obviously the big story. It's getting, you know, picks, first-round picks for that. I would not be surprised if David Carr is not there next year. Maybe trade him and get more picks. Jay Glazer
Starting point is 01:42:19 reported that Amari Cooper's on the block. Amari Cooper's would be on the block. I think he's really building towards the future and he's going to hit Vegas running and he's going to do it his way. Now, we'll see if that plays out, but I really do believe that he's got a plan in place right now. I don't think it's just saying, hey, he can't coach anymore.
Starting point is 01:42:35 Don't you think it's kind of a wrist? I mean, I watch Derek Carr. I think he's pretty talented. Yeah. Don't you? I do, but if you look at his career numbers, besides that one year and you know I'm not big on just one year in a player's career if you're truly an elite guy he's he's struggled it's not like he's put up
Starting point is 01:42:53 these huge huge numbers over his career and so maybe this is just who he is I don't know it without the players running he's not he's not a huge he doesn't have a huge arm he's not a huge great athlete he's talented there's no getting past that and he works his tail off and he's super competitive I like Derek Carr I just don't
Starting point is 01:43:12 I guess my takeaway in Derek Carr is do you think he's as good as Dak? I think he's better than Dak. I think he's better than Dak. Okay. Dak has fallen on my thing too. He's falling down the ranks. So what do you make of Dak right now? Dak right now is just
Starting point is 01:43:25 can he throw over 200 yards? I think in this league the benchmark for a good quarterback is almost 275. You should have at least 250 is what I would say. That's the minimum. Yes. With the rules and everything's set up for the success of these quarterbacks.
Starting point is 01:43:42 We don't have to go down that path. And so quarterbacks that can't consistently do that, and Dak really can't do that. I think he's had one game over 200 yards this year. I don't know if I might be wrong with that. But don't get me wrong, he's a good player. I think he's going to have a 14, 15 year career. I just, as a franchise quarterback, I have not seen that out of me. And I want to because I like the guy.
Starting point is 01:44:02 I got to know him a little bit. He's a great guy. I hope it works out for him. I want you to take our audience into the two-minute drill for the Patriots. Now, before we show tape, Tony, so, odds. Obviously, you practice two-minute drills all week. You know, these days, almost no pads. There's a lot of situational football at practice.
Starting point is 01:44:20 You guys probably early in your career, it was more beat-down, beat-down, beat-down. But when you went to Atlanta for the second half of your career, that's a high-functioning, smart offense. The Patriots look so composed last night in the two-minute drill. Matt Ryan's a very good quarterback. So when you go into that two-minute drill, tell my audience, do you kind of have eight plays you always run? How much is ad-libbed?
Starting point is 01:44:46 How much is off-script? And how much is practice? Because New England looked like, they practiced every one of those plays for that moment. Yes. Most of it, first of all, there's only about 10 plays. I remember one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. He'll just call this, or he'll call out code names or whatever, Cincinnati,
Starting point is 01:45:01 Boston, for two-minute drill plays. For two-minute drill plays. And so there's a limited, maybe a little bit more. And you practice that all week. I mean, we opened it up in Atlanta. The first drill that we went to was two-minute-0 against two-minute defense. And you've got 10-set plays. 10-set plays.
Starting point is 01:45:19 And so you know this. You've been practicing this all summer. You've been practicing in the off-season. You've got because two-minute drills. That's how you win football games. This is what it comes down to. And you've got a master, a Jedi master in Tom Brady, who's done this. I mean, 19, whatever it is for him, he's going to be comfortable and poised.
Starting point is 01:45:35 That means fearless. And that whole team feeds off of him. And he's just so relaxed. Were there quarterbacks in your career that, when you did get to two minutes, you know, I said this to Trent Dillfer. Some guys just there, some guys are anxious as humans.
Starting point is 01:45:50 Some guys are calm. Who was your best two-minute quarterback and why? Probably, I would say Matt, Maddie Ice. That's where he gets that nickname from. I think he's just cool, he was cool under the pressure. For the most, I mean, he's had a lot of comeback wins.
Starting point is 01:46:04 Yes. As far as that I played with, yeah, absolutely, Matt, Matt. Because when he got into the huddle, I remember we're in a preseason practice, I think against Jacksonville, when I first got there, it was my first seat. We were doing a night practice, and we had a two-minute drill, and he comes in the huddle, and we got a couple first downs,
Starting point is 01:46:22 then we killed the clock, and so we're in the huddle, and he calls the play, and he goes, hey, and he looked me right in the eyes, and he goes, and we're going to freaking score, except to use the other word, and we're going to freaking score right here, be ready for it, right down the middle. And I love that. I love that confidence in the huddle, and then sure enough, I went down the middle, boom, over the top, touchdown,
Starting point is 01:46:40 we win the practice scrimmage, two-minute offense. So some guys are simply better at it. Some guys, yeah, absolutely. Quarterback is an emotional position. People underestimate that. You need to connect your brain with your heart. And the guys that can do that the best are the best in the business. Maybe that goes for anything.
Starting point is 01:46:58 Maybe that goes for you. Yeah. Your brain and your heart are so connected. I have a huge heart. Yep. And Joy and I have a massive brain together. And so between the two, it's impossible not to watch the show. When you, you know, you played in Kansas City and you watch Mahomes,
Starting point is 01:47:12 he's kind of an ad libber. He kind of moves around a lot. Yeah. I mean, what do you make of him? He's got a little bit of Aaron Rogers where he's not a huge guy, but he's got a strangely good arm for his size. I mean, you understand if Ben or Cam have a huge arm. Aaron Rogers, you wouldn't think if you picked everybody out of the lineup,
Starting point is 01:47:31 that guy, that 6-2 guy that weighs 2-18 has the best arm. What do you see when you look at Mahomes? I see a guy does a lot of ad living I feel like we are watching him grow up now because of he had that obviously that huge success all eyes are on him
Starting point is 01:47:47 when he has the ball in his hands you can't tell me honestly out of anybody in the NFL I get the feeling when I watch Drew Breeze too I just like something special is going to happen it's just it's waiting to uncork they're big play guys the big play guys like it's something
Starting point is 01:48:01 especially maybe it's with this whole offense and he left some plays at that first quarter He didn't play well. He did not play well. Like the game was too big for him. No, no, no. He missed two guys.
Starting point is 01:48:11 He missed Travis Kelsey. And I think Tyree Kale early on a slant. They were wide open. Those are 14 points. Instead of six points, you get 14 points. They win the game last night. And maybe they can explode from there. But I love him right now.
Starting point is 01:48:23 Out of all the young quarterbacks in the league, I'm looking at him. I'm saying he's going to be, he'll be the best in five, six years. He'll be the best guy in the league. He is definitely, you know what's cool about all the young quarterbacks? It's really a cool thing. Mahomes is the wizard. He's the gifted arm talent.
Starting point is 01:48:40 Darnold is sort of the stoic, rock solid, like, he'd be, of all your 20-year-old friends, he'd be the one you give the keys to the car to. He wouldn't drink. He's kind of got that Brady grown-up in Tom, we trust. Baker's got a lot of personality and a lot of Wiggle-doos game, a little undersized. And then Josh Rosen throws this stunningly beautiful football, a little, Orderline arrogant. And then Lamar Jackson, who we haven't seen as a starter, is like dynamic and electrifying.
Starting point is 01:49:12 Yeah. Like they're, and then Jared Goff is a little Montana. Yeah. Doesn't talk, tall, feathery. Like, they're all different. Yeah. And Mahomes, though, is the one that's like, oh, God, his arm is ridiculous. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:49:27 His arm is ridiculous. Athletic. I mean, the way he can contort his body. Isn't that weird? And he doesn't, I think he feels more comfortable doing it. that way. It's like he's not even getting his feet set. Honestly, I never played the quarterback position, but
Starting point is 01:49:42 you look at his mechanics when he gets outside of the pocket. And even when he's in the pocket, there's nothing like Tom House, the quarterback guru, you know, they were talking about it last night how Tom keeps his arm in tight and all that stuff. I mean, Mahomes is like a base, like playing shortstop
Starting point is 01:49:58 throwing people out at first base. It's so much fun to watch. Maybe that's why we're so excited to watch him play. Okay, here are the nine teams. I said, I think there's nine teams I've seen, five in the AFC, and four
Starting point is 01:50:14 in the NFC, that I believe look like they're capable of getting to the playoffs, winning multiple games and getting to the Super Bowl. So I've got nine of those teams. And then there's two other teams, Carolina and Green Bay, I just need to see more. So the nine teams are Patriots,
Starting point is 01:50:30 chiefs, Rams, Eagles, Steelers, Saints, Ravens, Chargers, Vikings. Panthers, Packers, I need to see more. Yeah. And then there's four teams, Bears, Seahawks, Bengals, Falcons. They can beat any of those teams, but I don't see them winning three or four straight against elite playoff teams.
Starting point is 01:50:46 Yeah. Does anything jump out on that list that you buy, you don't buy, like Green Bay plays tonight. Yeah. I want to see them go to the Rams in New England later early November. Do you expect Green Bay? Do you have them, when I watch them play, sound down, I don't see the past. rush. I don't see the power running game. I don't see enough dynamic
Starting point is 01:51:10 guys. I just see Aaron the super creative dude without much creativity around him. That's what my eyes tell me. Yeah. And I would think that between Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rogers, that they could get that fixed. Don't you think? I mean, from an offensive standpoint,
Starting point is 01:51:27 I mean, Aaron Rogers, we talk about him. He's the best quarterback in the world. So he should be able to figure out. But the Panthers, that team... No, you know, Canada. played pretty well yesterday. I thought he played well.
Starting point is 01:51:38 I thought with the addition of Greg Olson coming back to go with... They need to run the football, though. Listen, we know what Cam is. Cam's a little like Dak, like, listen, I want to see Cam run and his running backs run, and then throw it 24 times a game. That's the recipe for Cam to win. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
Starting point is 01:51:56 That's what his recipe is. By the way, before I go, and the staff put this down, okay, Travis Kelsey Gronk, which one are you more like? The best two tight ends in, football today. That can't be argued. Travis Kelsey Gronk, which one did you play like? You know, it's funny, there's like two of you. In Kansas City, it felt like you got, you were big. Yeah. And then in Atlanta, the last few years, it's like you trimmed down. I did. On purpose, though. Okay. So you look, you were like 260 in Kansas City. Yeah. And they were quite that big,
Starting point is 01:52:30 but yeah, I was in my 50s for a while. So who, of the two, which do you like and prefer? Which do you play more like? Honestly, I'm kind of a little bit of both. The only thing that I love Travis Kelsey, first of all, I think with him with the ball in his hands after he catches the ball,
Starting point is 01:52:49 oh good God. He's better than me. He was better than me. But I think with the route running and catching, I think I hold my own there. And with Gronk, what he's better than me at is the blocking. He can block. He's a big old guy.
Starting point is 01:53:04 Travis Kelsey does not want to block. Now, Travis is a pass, is Jimmy Graham. Yeah, he's Jimmy Graham. Yeah, did you like to block? We had no toys back then. When I played tight-in, you better, and I did. I actually did not mind block because I didn't want to come off the field. I played goal line.
Starting point is 01:53:18 I played short yardage. I was at the point of attack. We weren't running away from me. So that pretty face, you were a blocker. I put on the tape, okay, for the first, even in Atlanta, I tried to get off the field. I was like, can you put, can you bring a big tight-in in here so I can just run routes? I mean, I'm 30, you know, I'm 45 years old. Let me, let me, I just want to come out here and catch balls.
Starting point is 01:53:40 Can you bring that big blocking tight end? And sometimes that big blocking tighting couldn't do it. So they'd like, well, you keep it out there. You know, we need you out there. Blocking is about desire, first of all. Do you want to do it? It's not about can you do it. It's will you do it, you know.
Starting point is 01:53:54 And a lot of those big tight ends, 250 pound, Jimmy Graham, 250 pound, Travis Kelsey, not a knock against them. They don't block. But they don't want to block because it's hard. It hurts. It's not fun. It really is not fun. It's not fun. It hurts. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts. It hurts your hands. It hurts your hands. It hurts your head. Ed Cunningham played in the NFL. He's a documentary filmmaker one time. And when he got out of the league, he goes, listen, man, it just hurts. He goes, your hands cold weather.
Starting point is 01:54:22 He's like, I played in Arizona. He's like, it's just, he goes, you play in 32 degrees and you grab linemen. Like, your hands are sore all week. Charles Barkley If we talk about the first of all he tells me If he wanted to play football He would have been the best tie-in ever But he says he went out for football And the first day
Starting point is 01:54:39 As tough as Charles Barkley is He was like man you can have this football He said he went out to one practice Coach said hey you coming back And he's like hell no I ain't coming back Because I'm going to play basketball Because football hurts Everybody I'm sure people can understand
Starting point is 01:54:54 Six times more practice than playing in football It's the only sport Where you practice six times more than you play And football practice is not fun. No. It's hard and it smells and it's repetitive. It's repetitive. Basketball practice, by the way, is great.
Starting point is 01:55:09 Baseball practice is batting practice and infield. Baseball practice is great. Tony Gonzalez, good stuff, bud. Thanks. The MLB postseason continues tonight with game three of the NLCS. It's time for Dodgers Stadium to come alive as the series shifts to L.A. Mani Machado and the Dodgers look to take a 2-1 lead on Christian Yelich and the Brewers in front of the hometown crowd.
Starting point is 01:55:30 Coverage begins at 630 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. Series tied at one. Sleep on a Casper. You'll pick it over every mattress. Casper.com code herd. Terms apply. That's 50 bucks if you put in the code herd on select mattresses. Dodgers, Brewers, Brewers, Brewer's Brewers, Revez, Reveen, Series tied at one. Brewers, Dodgers, home away, mostly the same team. Dodgers have the better bats. Brewers have the better pen. So that'll be on FS1 tonight. Rod Woodson, Trent Dilford, Tony Gonzalez, all stopped by today. Well, let's not waste any time. Let's get the best for last.
Starting point is 01:56:06 After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last. Well, you know, obviously there's a lot of complaints. The NFL is soft. If you look at technology, all technology in the world is trying to make life easier and more efficient. and the NFL is simply doing what is common sense. Make the game safer so your star players are healthier.
Starting point is 01:56:34 But I don't even know why fans push back on this. There's a certain machise mode of football, mostly by guys who have never played it or been hit in their life. But by and large, I want to see skill players separate. And like last night, I want to see great players be great. So tonight it's the 49ers and the Packers. And this is why the NFL doesn't want their quarterbacks hurt. here's Gallopolo,
Starting point is 01:56:57 Jimmy Garapolo on your left in eight starts, and here's C.J. Bethard on your right in nine starts. Now, this is nothing against C.J. Batherd. He's a very competent backup quarterback, but it literally is two different games. So if Garopolo wasn't hurt, for the second night in a row,
Starting point is 01:57:14 we would get two star quarterbacks in the NFL. Instead, the rating for Monday Night Football, will lose a lot of punch, especially if the Dodgers' Brewers game is good, because you're getting a star, Aaron Rogers, against a backup being C.J. Bethard. This is why they're doing the rules. So just to give you an example, bills and Texans played yesterday. Well, I want to watch because of Deshawn Watson for the Houston Texans, an emerging star,
Starting point is 01:57:41 and Josh Allen, who's a rookie and going to be really good for the Buffalo Bills. But Josh Allen got hurt. Then late in the fourth, guess what happened when they put in his backup Nathan Peterman? Bill's have the ball at the 25-yard line. Peterman picked off, Joseph. The Texans have scored 10 points in the last 11 seconds. And that is a look. You've seen a lot from Nathan Peterman in his career.
Starting point is 01:58:14 So this is where, you know, sometimes, most of the time I agree with fans. I do not get the pushback on the roughing the quarterback penalty. what fans are telling you, I watch football for 300-pound men to hit quarterbacks. No, you don't. You don't buy the jerseys of defensive linemen not named Khalil Mack. So you don't buy tickets because of those guys. You don't generally buy their jerseys, although in Houston, J.J. Watt sells a lot of jerseys, obviously. He's been a great citizen and a great player.
Starting point is 01:58:48 But, you know, last night in the New England game right here, a Chiefs rookie let go of Brady. And the knock is, well, see, that's a great player. what's happening. And my takeaway is one of the things I've always loved about football is that when I watch a football game, I can play along, like I'm coaching. You can kind of play along. There's
Starting point is 01:59:07 strategy involved. All football is asking now is defensive linemen to be part of the compilation of strategy. We're not going to ask you to just go grab guys and drive them into the ground. You have to strategically know how to tackle. I'm okay with that. You ask our tight ends, our running backs, our corners, our safeties, our linebackers to communicate, why can't defensive linemen?
Starting point is 01:59:29 There's ways to tackle, evolve, refine your tackling. But tonight, the reason the rating for Monday Night Football will probably be down year to year is because C.J. Bethers playing not Jimmy Garampalo. So there you go. That's why. And backup quarterback play is what it is. It's crappy. By the way, a big story today, it's breaking.
Starting point is 01:59:57 The fan who flipped the bird to Tyreek Hill of the Chiefs and the fans who threw beer on him, one of the fans has been identified and will not be allowed back. Good luck trying to execute this. But the fan will, they say. Well, he might have had season tickets. I still think you could sneak in. It's, yeah.
Starting point is 02:00:16 I mean, it's hard to enforce that. Yeah, they don't check IDs in the NFL. If you're not a season ticket holder. I mean, they don't. Yeah, they don't have facial recognition. So, you know, those Boston dudes to me in the end zone all look like, you know, Jimmy from the South End. I mean, I can't tell.
Starting point is 02:00:30 So I don't know how you're going to keep a guy out for the next 10 years at a pay. No, but it's the principle of it. Yes. You know, if this is somebody who's, you know, assaulting a player, then they need to be removed. Like, it's just, that's all there is to it. And look, like, I'm not trying to be the get off my long guy, but, yeah, I mean, you feel comfortable. Don't throw stuff. You feel comfortable bringing a kid to that game?
Starting point is 02:00:49 Oh, God, no. By the way, Rod Woodson on earlier today. of 17 years in the NFL talked about fans and the times he dealt with it. I played in the old dog pound now. The old dog pound, they weren't playing around
Starting point is 02:01:03 because they were going to throw snowballs. They would put batteries inside the snowballs. And you know how you get the snowball wet and then it freezes with the battery inside? Don't win. If we're winning, you'd never take your helmet off.
Starting point is 02:01:19 As long as you don't put your hands, don't touch you. touch me. You can say whatever you want to. You can throw the beer on me because I've had beer thrown on me. That's okay, but don't touch me. If you touch me, you're getting a two piece. Yeah. I also, you know, one of the things about it, I tend to think that fans are actually better today because phones, most people realize everything is taped. So I'm sure that, I'm sure they are better than they were. The media leads you to believe that everything's worse. By the way, poverty is way down in America,
Starting point is 02:01:54 hunger's way down in America. Most things over time are getting better or not worse. The quality of life today is significantly better in the United States for the average citizen that it was even 15, 20 years ago. So I tend to think we're in a better spot now than we were 20 years ago.
Starting point is 02:02:12 Now, I still think there's idiots, but there's cameras everywhere. There's more security at games. There's more warnings. People have more information and transparency on if you do stupid stuff, you get thrown out of the games. So I think the games I go to, it's not as salty as it was 20 years ago. And they throw you out if you're that bad.
Starting point is 02:02:31 Cliff Averill, former Seahawk, outspoken guy, he'll be great. He's on our show tomorrow. Peter King is joining us as well as the Niners. Good luck are hosting Green Bay tonight. My guess is Aaron Rogers fully staffed. Receivers are healthy. Packers win going away. Radio audience. See you tomorrow.
Starting point is 02:02:49 TV audience. Stick around. 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 SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise,
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Starting point is 02:03:21 And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest,
Starting point is 02:03:38 SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella 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. It's Michael and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward.
Starting point is 02:04:11 At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know.
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