Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk Kirk Cousins and the Colts!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listen to Fox Sports. Off we go. What's up,
my man? It is Fox Sports Sunday, after another incredibly
busy day in the National Football League, and we're not
done yet. He from you know exactly where I sit
in the Bay Area, California. So getting ready for another
big Sunday night football game, which we will uh, we

(00:23):
will take you through. But I actually you know who's
on my mind right now as we get started in
good evening. It's always good to talk to you, my brother,
But um, someone who I know a career you followed
very very very closely, and follow me here as to
why he's on my mind tonight. But but Kobe being Bryant, Uh,
you know a thing or two about about Kobe, I imagine.

(00:47):
So here's why Kobe Bryant's on my mind tonight. And
I wonder if you sort of have seen anything that
was similar to this through the years. Kobe Bryant, maybe
more than just about any other athlete that I can
think of, at least in recent memory, did one heck
of an interesting job in terms of changing his reputation,

(01:12):
changed the narrative about himself, right, And and there may
still be plenty of opinions out there about certain things
that happened in Kobe's career. We know about Eagle Colorado,
but even just who he was, the way he treated teammates,
his relationship with the media, and then there was late
career Kobe, retirement Kobe, and then the unfortunate passing and

(01:35):
literally one of the funniest speeches at his uh his
ceremony came from his supposed teammate and adversary in Shaquille O'Neil.
They became great friends. The point is in bringing this
up from reputations are incredibly hard to change once you've
got one that's kind of it, and and even when

(01:59):
there's a little bit of evidence that would that would
that would sort of switch that up, you have to
have a whole lot of it before the world will go, Okay,
I'm gonna open my mind to a complete change in
the reputation. I bring up Kobe, because now I want
to bring up Kirk Cousins. You tell me, has he
change his reputation yet? Um? The big knock on Kirk

(02:25):
Cousins was the you know it just he couldn't get
him all the way there. Now, he's always been a
prolific passer. That's why. You know, at one point he
made more money than any of the quarterback in the league. Um, alright,
but he was never singing as a guy who can
take you there. And I don't think that will change until,

(02:50):
uh he actually gets them deep into the playoffs and
and really making a run and being champions. I think
that's what people will need to change. Uh, you know,
their perception of who Kirk Cousins is. Kirk Cousins has
always been a slinger of the football. He's always put
up numbers. Uh, he can throw a pretty ball. He

(03:11):
can make every throw. So what we're seeing him, what
we saw today in that game was vintage Kirk Cousins.
This was even back to you know, the Redskins now
Commanders Kirk Cousins. Uh, he just couldn't find the respect
because nobody wanted to, you know, commit to him really
and he was almost seem saw as like a guy

(03:33):
who could fill in and do a really good job,
but can't take you to the next level. This is
a prime opportunity for him to take the Minnesota Vivings
Vikings to that next level. You know. It's interesting too though,
because and I know what a lot of people who
are listening right now are thinking, they're like, hold on
a second, if Josh Allen just grabs a snap, then

(03:54):
this games exactly. And I know the way you look
at this because you and I have had enough conversations
not just through the years but even this year to
the ifs about the New York Jets and New York
Giants and the yeah, but they trail in every game.
Look that the bottom line is the bottom line, like
the reality is reality. I know a lot of people

(04:16):
will say that Kirk Cousins took his team all the
way down, had a chance for the game winning touchdown,
did not get it, and then the other quarterback dropped
the ball in his defense, had a miracle touchdown, but
take it to overtime, and the supposed best player in
the game and Kirk Cousins each how to drive, and
while Cousins didn't put it in the own he put

(04:37):
it down to the two yard line at one Minnesota
got points on the board. Josh Allen was the one
who threw the big pick that ends up ending the game.
I just felt like he from this was the game
that Kirk never wins. I know that it wasn't at
a night game. Cousins in prime time never goes but
this this is the game, though, Like they had won

(05:02):
six games in a row, but they had beaten the
Lions in the Saints, and the Bears, the Dolphins without
too uh and the Cardinals and the Commanders teams on
their schedule, but go ahead, teams that were on their schedules.
But listen, you know what you know, I get it,
I understand, and then you and then you get to
this game and you're down by seventeen points and it

(05:24):
was clockley, another Kirk Cousins effort in a big game.
But then then there was that fourth quarter and and
and he from there eight and one for crying out loud.
At the halfway mark of the season, they have the
second best record in the league. Kirk Cousins. The knock

(05:48):
on him was always he can't win primetime games. This
wasn't a primetime game. This was a Sunday afternoon game.
And he stepped in and he showed out win against
Buffalo Bills arguably one of the top you know a
lot of people's odds on favored to win not only
uh represent the NFC, but win the Super Bowl. And

(06:11):
he's stood told a toe And I tell you what
when you say you know the best player in the
league or they were the best player in the league
was out there, but it wasn't Josh Allen, I can
tell you who the best player in the league is.
That that is one Justin Jeffrey Jefferson. Hey, I'm gonna

(06:35):
tell you like this, I don't know what is going
on with that, man. I have never seen catches like that. Hey,
you want to talk about sometimes you need someone if
you want to win big games, and this is real,
especially in the NFL. If you want to win big games,
you need people to play unworldly and we're always looking

(07:02):
for the quarterbacks to be that person. But as a receiver,
making yourself available and catching passes, you have no business
catching at the biggest moments. That's how you play unworldly.
And one Justin Jefferson is brother, he is ten. Come on, man,

(07:30):
it was that fourth down catch there there there was
a ball, I mean it was it was. It was
beyond David tyree eske because it was actually it was
hand but it was interceptive, had two hands on it,
and it just came down and and and took it

(07:51):
from him. So, uh, look, I'm with you, and and
I feel for people who didn't actually get a chance
to experience this game on the play in and play out,
because I don't know. You know, there's always stats, and
there are amazing games and two hundred yards receiving games
and three touchdowns and all of the stuff that we
see in the staff book at the end. But justin

(08:12):
Jefferson today, I'm with you. From he affected a game,
I think as much as I've ever seen a wide
receiver do it before, he was Johnny on the spot.
When you talk about quarterbacks and struggling and needing to
get over the hump and all of that, you need
someone to be in the passenger seat with you because

(08:35):
you can make all the throws. But if you don't
have someone making all of the catches, then you're just
making all the throws, asked Aaron Rodgers. Right as Tom
Brady and in some aspect acts a lot of these
other quarterbacks who don't have a stable of receivers. But
what we saw today, uh in a heavyweight battle. It

(08:57):
was beautiful football. Took over time to to to figure
out who was gonna come away with this victory. But
what we saw from the Minnesota Vikings, not only Justin Jefferson,
but Dalvin Cook. The way they were able to run
the ball, it just it it felt like the playoffs.

(09:19):
Although yeah, one team from the NFC and one team
from the a F. It just felt like so much
was on the line here. And I and I will
say this to to to hark on your your your
earlier statement. This has changed the perception of Kirk Cousins
in a lot of people's minds because they you were right,

(09:42):
You're right, this is a game that he would normally lose. Yeah,
So and I know, yeah, go ahead. Going into the week,
because I think most people expected Josh Allen to not play,
it became a game it was like, well maybe, you know,

(10:03):
maybe not only did Josh play, Josh played well, Josh
looked like Josh. He looked It looked like Josh Allen
for the for the most part, which from every doctor
I listened to and everything I learned about throughout the
week with Josh Allen, I have no idea how the
hell he did what he did today. I have no clue.
But of course, all anyone's gonna remember is a fumbled

(10:26):
snap and then a pick in overtime. Um, but uh,
you know here, here are the Bills. Uh, Josh Allen
doesn't fall in my mind. The Bills don't fall in
my mind. But he from there in third place right now,
they're in third place in their own division. Yeah, look
for the Buffalo Bills. This crazy. This is a tough

(10:47):
one because they just happened to be in a division
where everybody's good. Right, everybody's over five d everybody's even
the teams that weren't ever good are are now not
only just competitive, they're really good. Miami, the Jets, New England.

(11:07):
They're finding ways to win. And I think that's important.
Now Buffalo has to get their their their act together.
That's two that's two losses in the row. That's two
losses in the row. Now, you can't stumble like that, right.
They had a tough game against the Browns next week,

(11:28):
and like you, what you don't want to do is
put put together a losing streak, not not now, not
going into the second half of the the season. People
aren't intimidated by Buffalo. People aren't afraid of Josh Allen.
And and they're playing them, they're playing them tough, and

(11:49):
and you know they're not you know it's it's not
bothering them. You look, look at what we'll look what's
happened to Buffalo just within that division? Right the Dolphins
beat him. Yep, it's like oh whoa, whoa, Okay, Jets
beat They haven't won a division game yet, so now

(12:10):
now it's like, okay, well, who's the toast of the town.
I mean it's gonna be Miami for the moment. I mean,
all of a sudden, Uh you know two a Tugby
Lowe's got the highest rated quarterback in the league. He's
winning fantasy games for everybody in three I mean they
are they are something. They got They got that old
forty night or backfield running them all over the place.

(12:33):
So um, it's getting crazy in the a f C
East with you from Salon Mark Willard, we are broadcasting
live from the ti rack dot com studios. Ti rack
dot com will help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,
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should be real quick. On that eve from also, uh

(12:55):
did the Bills play it right? Or would you have
tried to take a safety there? So that that it happened,
didn't happen? Now you play it right? You don't want
to do that. All I have to do is just
get the ball out of the endzone. That's it, right, right.
Who knew that he was gonna drop the snap? Uh?
I mean, of all miracles, that was unbelievable. Not only

(13:19):
that you have and you know, we'll talk about on
the other side of the break because you know so
much to talk about. There's so much to talk about,
including a big Sunday night game with the forty Niners
and Chargers are taking the field right now as we speak,
and because of what happened in Germany earlier today, the
forty Niners are in prime position in the NFC West.

(13:40):
Speaking of what happened in Germany today, in addition to
more on the Vikings and Bills, maybe the oddest play
call I've seen in the history of ever in any sport.
You were probably asleep. We'll have that for you coming
up next with me from salam Mark Whether on Fox
Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at

(14:02):
Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app search f s R to listen live. Hey,
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(14:22):
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Up on Game. We're going to be sharing our real
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(14:45):
or wherever you get your podcast from Alway Rocket and
Rolling on the Fox Sports Sunday Sunday Night Football just
about to kick off. We'll take you through it and
then much much more. We're gonna get to the cold tonight.
Everybody done lost their mind about an interim head coach?
I from I can't wait to hear what you have

(15:06):
to say about it. We're live from the Ti rag
dot com studios. But can we just have a quick
aside here for a second. Uh take me into the
lab from I want to know how they sit down,
how it looks. Is it a conference room? Is it um?

(15:27):
Is it a coach in an easy chair with a
big screen in his office? How on earth did somebody
sit down and decide, you know what we should do.
We should fly halfway across the world so that we
can throw a pass to the least athletic player in
the entire sport and almost and and and almost mess

(15:49):
up a game that was that was going really really well.
If you are a West Coaster where you asleep when
Leonard Fournette try to throw a pass to Tom Brady,
shocking that an end up being an interception. I didn't
see that coming at all? On Earth? Was that I was.
I was actually up when that happened, you know, set

(16:09):
my alarm. And because I have a job and this
is what we do, I watch every game and I
and I I saw that play and I was like,
I mean, it looks so bad. At no point, I
I don't think if even if he was wide open,
there was no defender there. I don't think he catches

(16:31):
that ball. He slipped before he even jumped. So Tom Brady,
I went to high point the ball, which means you're
gonna jump up and catch it at its highest point,
and before he left his feet he slipped. Now the
turf was less to be desired. It was garbage. But

(16:53):
I say that to to to say, even if it
wasn't a defender there and it was wide open, I
don't think he makes that catch. So why you draw
that up? I mean, I guess you're catching people off guard,
because there's no way in hell anyone won't believe you're
throwing the past of Tom Brady again. We saw how
that worked out the last time Philly Special anyone, So

(17:20):
I mean it was bizarre, and you're right, they almost
gave the game away. They really did. He slipped, and
I'm sitting there going but well, of course he slept.
Of course he slept. I mean, I gotta think guys
like you and me related to this play maybe more
than anybody on the planet. And I don't mean because

(17:41):
you played in the NFL, but because you and I
both have sons and we go over to the park
and we played football with them, and we run routes
and we look like Tom Brady when we run routes
because our bodies. You're projecting your projecting on me. Okay,

(18:02):
you're projecting on me, all right, don't know, but you Hey,
now you've told me, you told me everything hurts all
the time. Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm not athletic.
That's a difference, al right, Because things hurt, that doesn't
mean I'm not athletic. Though you're going too far, Mark,
you're going too far. Okay, I'm a reel it back

(18:22):
just a little bit. I'm gonna reel it back just
a little bit. But but even though you're athletic, you're
an offensive lineman. Yes, and so if if if if
a receiver in an NFL game is looking like an
offensive lineman, probably it a former one. That that right, Like, yes,
you're athletic, but that's not how we wanted to look, right, No, no,
no no, And I wasn't always in uh, I wasn't

(18:45):
always old lineman. Just just throw that out there. But anyway,
I get what you're saying. Forty five year old man
out there running. No other forty five year olds are
running routes, are trying to catch passes at all. No
one if they wanted one to do that, they could
bring t o in. Okay, at least he'd run around

(19:05):
and you know, presumably he'll catch the ball, but outside
of that, you know, don't do that to Tom Brady.
I mean, good man. Can you imagine if he had
gotten hurt blew both knees out of something like this
is the way it ends a story career. It ends

(19:27):
in year twenty like this, went to Germany and ran
a halfback option and that was it. That was how
that was out the behind the music VH one special ended. Wow, yeah,
it was. It was hard to. It was hard to.
It was painful. But I'll tell you what. Tampa Blay
played well. The Seahawks Geno they also played well. It

(19:50):
was a good game. It was a good game. I
hope the people in Germany and enjoyed it, but it was.
It was a good game. Yeah, yeah, it absolutely was
very very good start. By the way, for for Justin
Herbert and the Chargers just went what knife through butter
right down the field on the forty Niners uh to
uh to score uh Carter with a long I think

(20:11):
thirty two yard touchdown catch from Justin Herbert. So that's
how that game it gets started. And we'll have much
more on both of those teams in the intrigue and
their two divisions, Uh, the Wests and how they are
one and loss if you will. While we're on that game, Um,
look bad start for the forty niners, but that loss
for the Seattle Seahawks opened the door for them a

(20:34):
four game win streak and and you know, very winnable
games for four more weeks. I'm still the Seahawks are
one of about four or five teams. I'm still trying
to get a handle on them. They played ten football
games now and I still can't quite figure out exactly
who they are. Would would you gather from them this morning? Um? Look,

(20:55):
I think they're a solid team. I think if they
get some breaks that go their way, they can win games.
I don't think they're going to forcefully uh win these games.
I think both sides of the ball have to play well. Um,
they did beat win a shootout against the Detroit Lions.

(21:17):
That's just because Detroit can't stop anybody. And um, you
know they couldn't stop and they gave up forty five
points to Detroit. But when you look at you know,
when they played the Cardinals, they gave up nine points.
Right the first time they played the Chargers and and
and beat the Chargers Uh. They you know, they gave

(21:38):
up twenty three points. The Giants gave up thirteen points.
So if the defense is clicking and playing well, then
the offenses is formidable enough to to to pull a winner.
I like, who what is doing? Though? Like he's you know,
he's completely completing the high percentage of his past is Uh.

(22:01):
He had a hundred and fifteen uh passing writing today,
two touchdowns, no picks. He's playing well, he he really is.
He's playing better than they expected, no doubt, no doubt
about it. But they follow to six and four at
at this particular time as they go in to the
bye week, and the Bucks uh, sort of regained control

(22:24):
of what is clearly the worst division in football in
the NFC South. Um, all right with you from salam
Mark Willard, third member of our team goes by the
name of Steve de Sager. Of course, let's find out
what is trending out and about Hello again, gentlemen. It
is seven nothing Chargers leading at San Francisco, about eleven
and a half minutes to go. Shocking start to this game.

(22:45):
First quarter with the Chargers going straight down the field
seventy five yard touchdown drive and under three and a
half minutes. Justin Herbert four for four passing sixty nine
yards and the TV pass from thirty two yards out
to DeAndre Carter. Now we're going to see if the
church his defense can actually stop the run against San Francisco.
This should be interesting tonight, but it is for the

(23:05):
visitors a seven nothing early lead. By the way, San
Francisco next weekend will be at Arizona in the Monday
night game next Sunday night, and this was flexed in
it will be the Chargers hosting Kansas City in seven days.
Hence Kansas City beat Jacksonville seventeen. Patrick Mahomes four touchdown passes,
one interception. Arizona with a backup quarterback. Actually it was

(23:26):
a duel of backup QB's gotta win over the Rams
in l A seventeen. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was out
with a concussion. Kyler Murray, the Cards was out with
a bad hamstring. Rams wide receiver Cooper cup left the
game with an ankle injury. Indianapolis a winner at Las Vegas. Somebody,
I believe it was CBS had tweeted recently a Jeff
Saturday tweet from a couple of weeks ago that simply

(23:49):
said Raiders look horrible and on the sidelines. Jeff Saturday
beats the Raiders in Las Vegas as he starts Matt
Ryan at quarterback, who not only had a touchdown run,
but the game winning touchdown pass with about five minutes
to go. And then there's the game at Green Bay overtime.
Packers beat Dallas thirty one twenty eight. Next Sunday, Dallas,

(24:12):
which one six and two will be playing at Minnesota,
who you mentioned. We'll get to some details there in
a moment, but these Green Bay Packers were losing fourteen.
To start the fourth quarter, Aaron Rodgers with an early
fourth quarter t D pass to Christian Watson, a late
fourth quarter TD pass to Watson. He'd thrown a TD
pass to Watson in the second quarter as well, and

(24:34):
eventually Mason Crosby with a short field goal with about
three minutes left in the ot to win the game.
According to the NFL, the only other rookie that had
three receiving touchdowns against the Cowboys ever was Randy Moss
on Thanksgiving. Christian Watson had three against Dallas in this game,
So a kid who had not even a hundred yards

(24:55):
receiving the first six games and certainly no touchdowns. Eats
up Dallas in this comeback. And then there's can we
nominate this for Game of the year? The game at
Buffalo today Minnesota in overtime thirty three final Justin Jefferson
ten receptions, a hundred ninety three yards and a touchdown,
So Minnesota has won seven in a row. They're up

(25:16):
to eight and one Josh Allen one touchdown pass and
three turnovers. In this game, Dalvin Cook had an eighty
one yard touchdown and on fourteen carries, therefore at a
hundred nineteen yards rushing, Minnesota comes back for the win.
Miami's won four in a row after beating up Cleveland
thirty nine seventeen wins for Detroit and Tennessee for the

(25:36):
Giants in Pittsburgh. In that game in Munich went to
Tampa Bay over Seattle. The Bucks and Seahawks or each
off next week. In college football's new polls, the top
five remain the same, led by number one Georgia. This
Saturday night on Fox TV, it's number seven USC at
number sixteen U C l A A p m. Eastern time.
In the NBA Today, Oklahoma City, a winner one forty

(25:59):
five to on thirty five at New York and currently
in the final seconds, the Timberwolves are leading at Cleveland
one despite forty nine points from Darius Garland as the Calves.
Donovan Mitchell is out tonight with an ankle injury. US
women soccer beat Germany two to one in an exhibition
in New Jersey. Updating Sunday night football, forty Niners have

(26:22):
had their drive here there what up to midfield? Now?
It's seven nothing Chargers first quarter lead on the road.
Back to you, alright, Steve, great stuff. Yeah and yeah,
I think the forty Niner play calling staff is right
with you, Steve uh In that the Chargers aren't good
at stopping the run. They have run four plays and
it has been McCaffrey, McCaffrey, McCaffrey, and then McCaffrey that

(26:45):
those are those are the four plays so far that
Kyle Shanahan has come up with. Hey, look they got
him for a reason, right, Like, hey, when when they
were able to pull that off, I know Kyle Shanahan
was like, oh my god, we can do whatever we
want now. He is that dynamic when he's healthy. He

(27:06):
changes what you can do. He makes defense is uncomfortable,
which opens up a lot of other areas. So having
him kittle debo, are you like this is a formidable offense.
Now the Chargers just slice through their defense like Butter
and the opening drive. Can they you know, solidify that

(27:27):
because you know, you don't want to be in a
situation where you're out trying to outscore everybody. You want
to be able to put up points and put yourself
in a position where you're not, you know, constantly having
to put up points, even though that is the key,
but you want to be able to have some breathing
room in the fourth quarter, similar to what Dallas and

(27:47):
then it was gone and then it was gone, which
is the game I want to get to as well.
I'm interested, especially in this one tonight, for the same
reason that we are interested and talking about Minnesota and Buffalo.
I'm certainly not here to to change our thoughts right
now on the a f C versus the NFC. At

(28:07):
a minimum, the a f C is incredibly deeper, uh
than than than the NFC. Is you even just mentioned
like the a f C East has as many teams
with a winning record. That's seemingly the entire NFC UH
pretty much so I know the a f C is deeper,
but that was another aspect of that Minnesota Buffalo game

(28:29):
that I think is gonna resonate with people. We have
not had a lot of opportunities yet to see what
the NFC has to offer going up against what the
a f C has to offer. This is a lightweight
version of it tonight because these teams are only five
and three and four and four. I think they both
still got got a lot to prove. But to put
Minnesota up against Buffalo, hob Josh Allen play have it

(28:52):
beyond the road and for Minnesota to hold up the
way they did, I don't know. I think that that
that maybe the change the way people are are are
thinking about the way that that the playoffs and the
Super Bowl might might look like. And if the forty
Niners play well tonight, Like we haven't seen the Eagles
go up against the Chiefs or anything like that yet,

(29:14):
this was our first chance. Minnesota held up really really well,
you know they do. And and what happens is once
you get these type of UH matchups later in the year,
teams have found out who they are and and and
and now you're going into a game playing confident in
what you're doing. Earlier on in the season, you're trying
to figure it out, especially if you have new pieces,

(29:36):
new court, whatever that is. You're trying to figure out
who you are. You're running team, passing team, both, what
are you doing? What are you doing? Defensively? You play
better zone man and man like you. You're figuring these
things out. Once you get to the halfway market and
venture into the second half of the season November, December,
early January, you know who you are, so you're honing
in on those things. And that was a situation today.

(30:00):
Minnesota knew exactly who they are. They knew exactly what
they wanted to do. They came out, Dalvin Cook had
a sensational game, broke up a huge touchdown run, but
he kept them on pace. You never want to be
behind pace, especially on the road. It was a little
bit of snow flurries earlier. It was just a big

(30:21):
time team when they came together in and they stepped
up in a game where everybody was watching. Although it
was not a national game, everybody was watching. And it
it's that's good football, right yo. Absolutely, and and It's
just I feel like we also get this reminder every

(30:43):
single week. I mean, I know where my head when
when I saw Josh Allen got get hurt last week,
and quite frankly from I'm surprised he played based on
what we know about that injury. I'm surprised he was
as effective uh as as he was. I'm surprised he
was as courageous as he was, Like he was still
Josh Challon. He was running, taking hits. Yeah, like he's

(31:07):
doing all the things that Josh does. But it also
runs as a reminder because we do this in week
eight and and and week nine and week ten, We'll
sit there and go, oh okay, now we get it.
Here's the landscape of the league. Yo, the whole landscape
can change on one player. Like if if Josh Allen
gets hurt, Now, what do we all think about what

(31:29):
January is gonna look like? Like? The bottom line is
we don't you know, we we know a thing or
two about the way Thanksgiving is gonna look December January. There,
there's so much that's still just starting to take shape. Yeah,
this is when you really solidify, Um, you know who's who?
Like right now in in the n FC is nine

(31:50):
teams above five got six teams in NFC above five hundred.
So this is when you'll start seeing us unless teams
having that type of success. Teams are starting the future.
You're you're starting to figure out who's who and what's what,
and you start positioning everything. Not that it doesn't matter

(32:12):
early on, but now everything is mattering because now you're
your playoff positioning. Only two teams get to buy. So
now you're you're you're looking in. Philadelphia is trying to
keep this thing going, but the Minnesota is nipping at
the hills. Kansas City's right there, Hey, Miami, right you

(32:33):
look at the Giants. The New York Giants after nine
games are two games out of first place. Mm hmmm,
wow in the conference, not in the division, in the conference,
right exactly right now, the New York Giants right now

(32:53):
are seven and two. You don't get to do that
by accident, by any stretch. Plus also to think, uh,
in the league, sometimes you snap your fingers and a
player or a team just all of a sudden look
totally different. And we've got a great example of that
right now going on in the NFC. I'll tell you

(33:14):
the player and the team uh that we're talking about.
Coming up next, we'll get to the cold stuff at
the top of the hours. Have an interesting decision to
make on fourth and goal at the two as well.
Get you up to date on everything. It is Fox
Sports Sunday. That's E from Salam. I'm Mark withlling on
Fox Sports Radio. Okay, everyone, let's E from Salam. I'm
Mark Willard, Fox Sports Radio and the Fox Sports Radio

(33:35):
tail Gate presented by the Big Green Egg. Nothing beats
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Egg gets the most versatile grill you'll ever own, back
by a lifetime warranty roll with the best shop online
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free home delivery, Big green egg dot Com. From what
happened to Justin Fields four weeks ago? It was that

(33:57):
game against New England Patriots, I think a Monday, right,
And all of a sudden he walked out there and
was like, that's it, I'm gonna be different now, and
and and I realized the Bears did not win today.
The Bears are not on a winning streak. But let's
be honest, that's a different football team. We watched them
play for about six weeks and it was like, you

(34:20):
needed a hail Mary to get to twenty points. Now
you can't stop them from getting thirty. You can't stop
him from rushing for a hundred yards. I mean, he
looks like a completely different human being that the Bears.
They'll they'll go nowhere this year, can really sort of
build around in the future. I think what happened was

(34:43):
when you come into when you're a really athletic quarterback
and you come into the NFL um the notion is
to Okay, let's work on the quarterback aspect of it.
Let's work on the pocket passing right. Gotta be able
to sit in the pocket. You gotta be able to
make the throws. So you focus so much as a

(35:05):
young quarterback, you focus so much on that, did you
become uncomfortable because you're not doing what you do best
or what you feel comfortable doing. I had the pleasure
of being the starting right tackle for Michael Vick when
he got his uh start his rookie year, and Mike

(35:28):
was like, all right, I'm gonna be in this pocket
for a quick second. If it's not there, I'll let
your twenty yards down the field, right, and so it
was like you gave him five six plays. You tell
him you know who should be open or what the
what the first read is if not be you? And

(35:49):
I think what's happening with justin fields is they've you know,
sat down and be like, hey, in order for us
to move forward, we need you to be more comfortable.
So we need you to start playing like you what
play and what we've seen is him not so focused

(36:14):
on making the perfect throw or the right read. It's
about keeping the chains moving. When you break down football,
you've got ten yards. You got four plays to get
ten yards, normally three, but in today's NFL they're gonna
use all for no matter whether they are on the field. Ye.

(36:35):
But the fact that when you start breaking it down
like that, if you can put a string of drives together,
you're going to naturally move down the field. You're gonna
be able to put yourself in position to score. How
you get those ten yards, I don't care. We just
need first downs. And I think that was the switch

(36:58):
that flipped. He's more comfortable. He's more of a threat
now because he's not just hanging out in the pocket
trying to make the read down the field. As you
can see as you're watching him now the last few
weeks when it's not there, he's gone. Now he's not
skirting the line, still looking down the field, he's out.

(37:19):
I'm like, holla at your boy. And that is to
the benefit of the Chicago Bears because now they're putting
they're putting up points. You can't stop him now. You know,
there's there's an instinct there that not many have, and
and I get that, like I think sometimes there's too many.

(37:39):
It's like, oh, he's fast. Now it's so much more
than that because you know this, like everybody is fast
out there, but there is an instinct he has in
terms of being in the pocket, making people miss turning
the other way. He's big enough to break tackles and man,
if he gets a little space, man he from He's

(37:59):
got a gear that that I did not know that
that he had. So what he looks like. He looks
to me like a bunch of kids the day after
Thanksgiving to go over to their high school and play
mud football. It just looks like because man, I was
there on opening day. I traveled and saw the forty

(38:20):
niners in that rainstorm. Um at Chicago Week one, and
while the Bears ended up winning the football game, it
was super ugly offensively both sides. I can tell you
I sat in long concession stand line you need you
need more concessions. I sat there in long concession lines
at halftime and listens to Bears fans just go crazy.

(38:45):
They're like, justin fields sacks. This guy is terrible. I mean,
they were done with him. They were done with him.
And it's true. You watched him play and he looked
like he was thinking and he couldn't figure it out.
And now all of a sudden he's running and at
the same time his throws look better too, and everything
is just all on instinct. Look, look, I'll tell you this.

(39:07):
Last year he started twelve games, play twelve games. He
had four hundred in twenty yards rushing in twelve games.
This year, in ten games, he has seven hundred and
fifty yards rushing, six touchdowns compared to compared to two
rushing last year. See the difference, Like, he's more apt

(39:32):
to go right. Look, we hey, man, if you if
it's not there, then you gotta go. You just gotta go.
We gotta keep these drives going. These three and outs
as he's trying to sit back there in the pocket
and figure it out. They're killing the team. They're killing
the team. So they're just like, look, hey, Justin be
you be, will work on the other stuff. And I

(39:56):
think that's the type of offensive success that they're having.
The Mike McDaniel quote that everyone laughed at last week
where he talked to Justin on the sidelines like I
told him to stop scrambling because it was really annoying
and he wouldn't listen and he wouldn't take the coaching.
It was a great sound bite but also marked the
first time that Justin Fields frustrated an offensive coordinator in

(40:18):
the NFL. Absolutely, all right, the Jeff Saturday stuff is
coming up next. We're watching Sunday Night football together and
we're talking about Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon football, even
getting you ready for Monday night football. Don't worry. Baseball
Free Agency and Aaron Judge are gonna get into the
conversation as well with me from salam Mark Willard. Wherever

(40:41):
you are and however you're listening to us, thank you
for doing it and we welcome you in broadcasting live
from the ti Irack dot com Studios ti rack dot com,
We'll help you get there. And I'm Matt Selection, fast
free shipping, free road hazard protection and over ten thousand
recommended installers tai rack dot com the way tire buying
should be. Uh. Look, Bill Coward got loose on this

(41:05):
today like none other, even though many have had something
to say about it throughout the week. And I'll admit
that I'm torn. This is a fascinating one personally because
it is somewhat unique. We don't see this a lot,
but he from what do you think? Jeff Saturday gets
named head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Very very surprising move.

(41:29):
No one sees it coming and therefore it takes a
lot to process it. How did you process it? What
did you think? I thought it was a joke at first,
but uh, it just seemed out of nowhere. If you
know what it reminded me of. It reminded me of
the net tiring Steve Nash okay um because the first

(41:53):
thing people were saying was well, I didn't even know
he wanted to coach. I didn't Steve Nash want to
coach in the NBA. He wasn't on any one staff Um,
as far as I know, Jeff Saturday wasn't on uh
anyone's staff. He'd had been offered assistant coaching job position
before he's turned it down his high school coach, UH

(42:15):
and he worked on television, so getting the head coaching
job of an NFL franchise seemed a bit distant in
his future to say the least. So I mean, Reggie
Wayne was there on the staff of the Colts also

(42:38):
in all time great for Indianapolis. So I just, um,
you know, it just seemed weird. You know, it really
felt out of place. But we'll see. Look, when you're
the owner of a friend that you can do what
you wanted to. You can hire who you want to hire,
you can whatever that is, you can do it. And

(43:01):
I think, um, you know, if he continues to win
like he now going up against the Raiders helped him
today and uh his you know, his police for being
for for being the right guy for the for the job.
But if he continues to win and change changes this

(43:21):
thing around, then you know, maybe Jim rcy knew something.
We did. We else one game it's one obviously, right
is it's a football game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
So you know, I don't I don't want to overdo that. UM,
and and and Jim rcy is I don't know, shall

(43:43):
we say Jim Rcy I don't. I don't know any
other way to say it. But you said something in
all of that that in the end just sort of
bounces around in my head. The part that bothers me
here is, as you mentioned, for example, Reggie Wayne is
on the staff, or we could say this a hundred
different ways. This very much flies in the face of

(44:07):
what we all know has been a major issue, not
just in the NFL, quite frankly anywhere, which is diversity
in hiring practices. And so that part of it is
very very frustrating, because it's one thing when you hire
people who are qualified and on that track. UM. It's

(44:27):
another thing when you pass up diversity and coaching to
hire someone, as you said, who doesn't seem qualified and
and and be you didn't even know that they wanted
to do that. However, I'm torn here because we do
this in the NFL. We have this discussion in the NFL,
and we don't really seem to have it anywhere else.

(44:50):
In other words, here's something I tell all of the
students in broadcasting I work with, don't just go to
link in and be like, yeah, yeah, professor, I applied. Great,
so you clicked submit, You sent a resume blindly through

(45:14):
a website. You have no idea where it's landing. And
more importantly, you don't even know if the job you
applied for is actually even open. It might actually just
be posted because legally they have to. We know this
in our business. If a hosting role comes open out
of network, uh, the boss has already filled it. In fact,

(45:39):
the boss already knows who he or she is going
to hire when an opening next comes up. When they
don't even know if an opening is going to come
up the opening before the opening is there exactly. And
this is fundamental um too corporate America. The people can

(46:04):
hire whoever the hell they want. And and so there
are all kinds of problems with that, and and and
I just detailed the main one for me. But I
don't know if if we're allowed to line up at
Jim Ursay's doorstep when this is the practice in in

(46:24):
every single business everywhere, they are unqualified people getting hired
all the time because of what relationships like like nobody
gets upset when you go, wow, it's it's not about
your skill set, it's about who you know. We just accepted. Well,
that's all this was. That's all it was. I'll tell

(46:48):
you this. The deeper conversation is about ownership. Jim Mercy
has the right to do what he wants to do.
It's his team, and they know African American majority owners
in the NFL yep, So there's not even a possibility. Right.

(47:09):
So that's that's if you If we're going down that road,
we gotta start there. Start at the top. People like
Jim Urthon probably had a tremendous relationship with with Jeb Saturday, tremendous,
great friends or the whole nine yards. So when something
came up, he called him himself on the phone, right.

(47:35):
I'm sure he didn't go through his agent or his lawyer, manager, publicist.
He probably picked up the phone say hey, man, if
I offered you the head coaching job, you want to
come to it. Who's gonna say no to that? You
mean the head coaching job, right, the head coaching job.
This isn't an interim coach. He hired him to be

(47:57):
the head coach, right, This isn't we're gonna figure it out.
He hired them this man to be the head coach, right,
so you're going if you want to start there, and
we got to start at the top. I guess the
Commanders are about to be up for sale. So a
couple of other teams were owners are losing grip. Why

(48:20):
don't we gonna see African American representation in the ownership group.
I know a lot of books. I know some billionaires.
Now I know a dude by a whole team by itself,
right now, I can call him on the phone. Then
let then do it man and I you know, and
I hope I know jay Z is a part of this.
Uh you know, this is what the problem is. It's
a basis. It's only a part of the girl. So

(48:41):
we got to stop doing that, right, We gotta stop
doing that because that is not a majority owner. They
don't make any decisions. We're talking about decision makers. Right.
Guess who's making the decisions for the for the Dallas Cowboys, right,

(49:02):
guess guess who's making the decisions for the Miami Dolphins.
Like Rick Ross and Serena and and and Venus. They
have a piece of ownerships taken there that can't you
get some seats and some parking, But you can't, you
can't weigh in on who's gonna be the head coach.
So when we talk about these ownership groups we're putting together,

(49:24):
you put Jeff Bezos in there. We know who's right
owns a team. M hm. So is that because you
let us get a piece? Is that? Is that enough
to satisfy us? So it's deeper than than that, Like

(49:46):
if when don't we gonna get an African American owner
who makes decisions, who has to see at the owner's table.
You know, only the majority owners look like all the
whole ownership group, they don't get to sit at the table.
Now we'll tell you what happened in the room, but

(50:08):
everybody's gonna be all up in the room like that.
Oh I got something coming down the pike too. It's
going boy, I wish I could tell you. I tell
you off. Okay, So wait, what are you buying? The
commander man? I ain't time for that, okay, because I
could just if I could get that parking that it

(50:31):
would be fine fine by me. I mean, I'm glad
you said it that way, I really am, because what
you're saying is could we stop getting mad at middle management,
which is essentially what we're doing. And I know that
Jim Ursay is not middle management. But I've heard a
thousand people say, how the hell did Jeff Saturday have
the goal to take this job? What do you mean
is that it's gonna take the job if somebody offered

(50:54):
it to me, like, listen to me, if I like,
I know Jennie Bust and Linda ram if Jennie let's
call me today was like, hey, do you want to
be the coach of the Lakers. The Lakers, I'm you
don't even I'm in the building, baby gone gone. You
wouldn't finish the show. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I would
not be mad at you. I would not give any

(51:16):
of this like, oh my gosh, it from his not qualified.
I mean I I did this when the forty Niners
hired John Lynch, right, and and you know what, I'm
gonna go ahead and put him out because he's such
a good friend. He won't care. Rich Ornburger, who's on
our with our group here pot Sports Radio, he and
I were doing a show together San Diego. We had
and it wasn't in a real argument. It was an

(51:37):
on air debate. But he's like, this is not right.
John Lynch is not qualified for this. I'm like, who
the hell qualified for anything? Qualified? Smollified? What the hell
does that mean? He knows football, He knows football, and
he was offered the job and the people who are
there want to work with him, and and and that's okay,
um Rich. I was like, you and I both at

(52:00):
different times in our career, were offered a job to
come in here and be radio hosts, not qualified, like
I didn't have it, Like right, while they hired this
guy who's never hosted before. Right, everybody's not done something.
And I get it, they're starting at the top, and
so maybe that's a little bit different. But I don't know. Man,
You're talking about one hell of a tough nut to crack.

(52:23):
People are gonna hire who they want to hire, and
it's all based on relationships. So what you said really
resonates with me. Let's stop screaming about what's going on
on the field and in the you know offices that
are at the field. Let's talk about what's going on
at the Ivory Tower, because that's where that's what it's about.
That's what it's about. You want to talk about change

(52:46):
and in equality, start at the top, don't start at
the bottom. It's a lot of equality in the mill room.
There's a lot of equality in the mill room, but
the people at the top get to who they want
to elevate from the mail room. Duh. Start at the

(53:07):
top with the change and it will trickle down. That
is he from salam Ma Mark Willard. Football fans, be
sure to tune into Fox Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented
by bet MGM on Sunday morning, three hours before kickoff.
That's right. Tune in Sunday morning, ten a m. Eastern
and we'll take you live all the way to kick

(53:29):
Off on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio
app presented by bet m g M. With you from
salam Mark Willard. Will continue as things have gotten a
little haywire in the Sunday night football game that we're
watching right now. And we're not done yet with this
Colts conversation, because if you did not hear what Bill

(53:50):
Coward had to say about it this morning on the
pregame show on CBS for the NFL, you're gonna want
to hear it and we'll have that for you coming
up next on Fox Sports Radio out in the entire
rack dot com studios. Mark Willardy from Salam on Fox
Sports Radio. If you miss Bill Kauer earlier on the
Jeff Saturday in Indianapolis could situation, we'll let him get

(54:13):
loose on that here in uh in just a second.
But we're also checking out Sunday Night football, and uh,
you know, look, it's the San Francisco forty Niners. There's
there's a lot of attention on this team after the
acquisition of Christian McCaffrey. There are expectations all over the place.
And I can tell you it's been two weeks of hey,

(54:34):
the bye week, McCaffrey getting healthy, and the thought was
the forty nine is gonna come out and show everybody
exactly what they're all about starting right now. And uh
and so far from it goes field goal, fumble, punt, punt,
and one of those punts was partially blocked, and the
Chargers have a ten point lead, and and and and

(54:55):
this is not what everybody had in mind for the
San Francisco forty Niners. This rugland a little bit too
uh to just you know, they're trying to discover who
they are, uh, to the and at the core of
a Mike Shanahan team and to run first, team, run first.
Everything else lives off the play action. They struggle running

(55:18):
the ball so much so that Deebo Samuels is probably
their best running back. Uh. Now they have Christian McCaffrey.
He's been there a couple of weeks. So now this
is an opportunity for them to focus on, you know,
those easy yards that you can get. The only problem
is he's brittle and you don't want to put him

(55:42):
in a situation where, um, you give them too much
of a workload to too early, and you lose them
for the rest of the season. That's been you know,
the curse of the San Francisco forty Niners. As I are,
they have per and mistaken in I are And so

(56:04):
you know they're trying to they're trying to discover that
running game to take the pressure off the plays that
they want to make down fill. On top of that,
you know, Kittle has been an afterthought, I mean, one
of the most dominant tight ends in the league, and
he doesn't get that opportunity and he needs yeah, no, no,

(56:30):
no catches for Kittle. I will say this to your
point about McCaffrey being brittle, I I don't, I don't know.
I mean, look, it's very very early. We're only just
past the halfway point of the second quarter. But uh,
Eli Mitchell, who returned from injury today for the forty niners,
has almost as many carries as Christian McCaffrey. So, um,
it seems that they're mindful of of that, which which

(56:53):
quite frankly, I I had hoped that they would be
mindful of that. Like I don't, I do not think
with a team like they have, you want to become
Christie McCaffrey, right, Christie McCaffrey laft man, christ McCaffrey right
up the middle that that that doesn't make sense to me.
I don't think they have to do that. No, and
and and you and you're right. What you really want

(57:15):
to do is you want to use this dynamic ability
uh to just soften up the defense. Right. You want
to be able to attack the middle of the field
carry Kittle. You want to be able to U use
Deebo Samuel Samuel to keep him off guard, and then
you switch pace with somebody like Christian McCaffrey they're trying

(57:36):
to figure all of this stuff out, and it's going
slower than than most people will want. But look there
four and four. They're not out of this by any
stretch of the imagination. Their second in the division, and
they got an opportunity to right this ship. We just
gotta you know, it's got to happen. They got Trent

(57:57):
Williams back. Everybody's starting to come back. A lot of
these guys missed a lot of weeks. So putting that
chemistry back together, it's gonna take. It's gonna take a
time right down the middle. And there you go, Kiddle
down the middle. That's a big third down conversion. I'm psychic. Look,

(58:21):
do you know what I feel like? Maybe the I
feel like someone should call you and out for you
their head coaching job. I mean, if you know that,
why wouldn't you Why wouldn't you be the head coach? Good?
I mean, you've got a relationship with Kyle you know.
Come on, let me let me be a wow. Speaking

(58:43):
of phone calls like that, man, it rubs some people raw.
So take a listen to Bill kauer uh today on
on CBS on the pregame show Get Loose on the
Indianapolis Colts situation. For an owner the higher code who's
never been an assistant at the college level or the

(59:04):
pro level and overseeing a very much a lot of
candidates that they are qualified for that job, as we
see in Steve Wilkes, an opportunity to build a resume.
It's a disgrace to the coaching profession. In regardless how
this thing plays on. What happened Indianapolis is a travesty.
Mm hmm, speak to it, Okay, you know what, Actually

(59:28):
that I loved what you said way more than I
love what he said, because because to me, the travesty
is what you're talking about, which is opportunities based on diversity,
based on new voices. I mean, it's kind of an
odd thing for for us to say when you say

(59:50):
it the way he did. If we're talking about diversity,
that needs to be diversity all over the place, that
needs to be African American, that needs to be women,
that needs to be old and young and everything. So
so now we're gonna say, um, we want diversity, but
I don't want I don't want to look at this
a different way. That's what diversity is. So is this

(01:00:15):
a travesty because people like Reggie Wayne got passed by. Sure,
but I am not triggered in the slightest by the
fact that Jeff Saturday doesn't have a resume. That that
that's not what that's not what works. That's not how
people hire. I mean, that's just it's it's just the reality.

(01:00:39):
That's not how it works. It's so funny, man, because like,
you can hire anybody you want to hire, and trust me,
no matter who you hire, someone's not gonna be okay
with me. So you know, if we're gonna address the
problem or an issue, Hey, his lack of experience, okay, yeah,

(01:01:01):
that's one of them. The lack of oversight in terms
of giving equal opportunity. Yeah, that's that's big too. Right.
You can pile all these things up, but the bottom
line is the owner is gonna make a call and
hire who he wants to hire. Right. He could have
called and hired his favorite barista at Starbucks who makes

(01:01:24):
his his beautiful pumpkin spice latte perfect every morning when
he comes in to the office. He could have hired him.
We don't have a say so, so unless there are
some rules, are some guidelines to be an NFL coach

(01:01:44):
that we don't know about. Then it's to at the
discretion of the owner, and so to be mad at
him for hiring a guy who has never been a
coach at the collegiate level. Are the pro level? I
get it. I understand why that would make a storied
in history Hall of Fame coach like Bill Kawer upset

(01:02:05):
who had to go through the gauntlet. Right, I get it.
I understand that, But that does that still doesn't the
gate what the main issue is start it down, right,
I get it, But it's also the world in which

(01:02:26):
we live. It always has been. And secondly, there's a
piece of that that I would defend. Um Again, I
wonder if everybody sort of sees the fork in the
road that I'm talking about here. If you're mad because
Jeff Saturday got hired because you think that that's not
diversity in coaching or diversity in any walk of life

(01:02:48):
or business, then I don't want to hear people come
to the microphone and say, I'm sorry, but this was
outside of the structure of what we usually do. We
need to do this by struck. Sure, there is an
order here, there's a line, and there were people in
line that did not get well, wait a minute, that's
actually what we're trying to buck. We're trying to get

(01:03:09):
rid of this, like okay, let's now we're gonna hire
this person, and I'm gonna hire that like no, no,
shake the dang thing up. Right. If they had hired
Reggie Wayne, I don't think we would feel this way.
And there are a bunch of people in front of
Reggie Wayne too, So I'm not about the line. I'm

(01:03:32):
I'm about thinking about it a little bit differently. And
and the only danger here is that, once again, it's
it's what you said. There is a massive old boys network.
It is old, it is rich, and it is white,
and it's incredibly hard to penetrates tough man. Yeah yeah,

(01:03:56):
um forty nine is knocking on the door. But let's
let's tell you all about that, um, as we find
out what's trending with our guy, Yo, Steve, what's up?
Two minute warning at San Francisco for the moment, Chargers
up three over the forty niners, butts the home team
does have a third and goal at the one coming
up when they'll return from break. The Chargers amazingly have

(01:04:18):
had a good start to this game. The past month
first quarters they've been outscored fifty one three and yet
tonight first drive of the night seventy five yards touchdown
pass from Justin Herbert, a drive of less than three
and a half minutes in early seven nothing lead in
the second quarter, a couple of field goals from this
game's kicker. They've had three kickers, and I believe the

(01:04:39):
last four games now Cameron Dicker the kicker for the Chargers.
He's hit from and forty seven yards and that to
start the second quarter with just inside the upright, so
thirteen three for the moment, Chargers in the lead on
the road. Chargers on the ground nine carries eighteen yards,
but Justin Herbert is close to a hundred fifty yards
passing in the first half. Chargers at five and three.

(01:05:02):
Next Sunday Night will be hosting the Chiefs Chief seven
and two. After winning over Jacksonville seventeen, Patrick Mahomes four
touchdown passes, one interception, one yards. Through the year, Green
Bay ended a five game losing streak with its overtime
win against Dallas thirty one to eight, and that was
a comeback victory. The Pack trail to start the fourth

(01:05:24):
Indie One at Las Vegas. First game for coach Jeff Saturday,
he had Matt Ryan as his starting quarterback. Ryan with
a touchdown run and the go ahead touchdown pass with
about five minutes to go. Arizona in a battle of
backup QBS beat the Rams in l A seventeen. I
believe the Rams are defending Super Bowl champions, but they're
now three and six, lost three in a row. John

(01:05:46):
Wolford was their starting quarterback today. He had two turnovers.
Matthew Stafford out with a concussion, and wide receiver Cooper
Cup left with an ankle injury. As for the Miami Dolphins,
quietly people, they win again the dolf and thirty nine
seventeen over Cleveland. That's a four and one home record
for him. The Dolphins seven and three with these four

(01:06:07):
straight wins, and they're a half game ahead of Buffalo
and the Jets in the division. Miami on a bye
next week. How about this from the NFL that the
Dolphins did not punt once today and got this lopsided win.
As it turned out, the last time the Dolphins had
such a game where they did not punt and they
scored at least thirty points. It was a Monday night

(01:06:30):
win against the Cleveland Browns. Buffalo lost at home in
overtime to Minnesota thirty three thirty Josh Allen one touchdown
past but three turnovers. Detroit and Tennessee with wins Giants
and Pittsburgh as well, and the game in Munich this
morning went to Tampa Bay over Seattle sixteen. Those two
teams are each off next week. We have an update

(01:06:51):
from the Sunday night game at San Francisco. First play
back from the two minute warning, quarterback sneak touchdown Jimmy
Garoppolo Charger lead now teen to ten. And how about
this from the NBA Joel em beat in Philadelphia tonight.
Has forty four points, nine rebounds, eight assists, and there's
still eight minutes to go. Philly leads eight six over Utah. Meanwhile,

(01:07:14):
with Donovan Mitchell out for the Calves tonight due to
an ankle injury, Darius Garland scored fifty one points, but
Minnesota one at Cleveland one twenty nine to one twenty four,
and the late game just about to get under way
the Lakers two and ten hosting Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Golden State
at five and seven has just scored thirty nine points

(01:07:36):
in the opening quarter at Sacramento. It's Warriors thirty nine
six in the league. This would be Golden States first
road win there oh and six on the road. And
US women soccer, which had lost three straight, beat Germany
two to one in an exhibition in New Jersey, got
back to back goals with about the about the fifty
fifth minute. This was the last game of the year
for the Americans. Now the US men and the World

(01:07:57):
Cup takes the stage because that tournament starts with the
opening game with the host country guitar next Sunday. The
games and the tourney will be on Fox and FS one.
And no, it's not being played in the summer this
year due to the heat in the host country of Qatar.
You might say, why didn't they think of that in advance? Well,
with the corruption involved with BEFA, that really wasn't a consideration.
Thank to you. Oh gosh, the World Cup and cutar,

(01:08:21):
what what on earth could go wrong? Um? He from
from that was was that a gasp? Was it a belch?
What what just happened there? When Steve said the Lakers
are about to play the Brooklyn Nets, that was a
side because I have to sit now and watch you,

(01:08:45):
to actually watch the Lakers for two hours, two and
a half hours, much to my dis may well, just
the matchup. It's just funny, like the reason I'm laughing,
So it's not it's not necessarily your pain. It's just
the matchup in and of itself. I don't know if

(01:09:07):
I can remember anything like this in recent history in
the NBA. Just say it out loud and I start laughing.
The Brooklyn Nets will take on the Los Angeles Lakers.
I mean, there is so much that has happened with
these two teams. There are so many big names, there
are so many stars, and it's been two years of

(01:09:31):
like I called them, and this is the real basketball
players of New York are taking on the real basketball
players of California. Don't get it twisted. This is not
the Lakers and the Nets. Tell me one normal thing
that has happened that is basketball related and positive in
the last two years for either of these franchises. It's

(01:09:55):
it's unbelievable, you know. I mean, it's hard which teams,
which teams in worse shape. The Lakers are in worse shape, um,
because they don't have number one, they can't shoot, but
they don't have any answers on the horizon, right, so

(01:10:15):
there's stuff. What they have, Well, the Kyrie Irving is
a legitimate score. He can score. He can give you
fifty at some point. He can shoot. So depending on
how it shakes out, if he if they do retain
his services, then that's a legitimate option. Where are the

(01:10:39):
Lakers scoring options? I'll wait, Well, Anthony Davis, is that
you can score the basketball? Yeah? He can score? Yeah?
Can he stay healthy? No, you didn't say that, you
said who can score? Yeah? Yeah, you can score. The

(01:11:07):
reason I say the Brooklyn Brooklyn has it better because
they at least they have Kevin durant right, at least
that's what they have. They have Kevin durant Um. We
have an aging Lebron who's on the shelf. We have
a brittle Anthony Davis who seems disinterested sometimes, and we
have an emotional Westbrook who comes off the bench and

(01:11:29):
you know, is mad at the world. That's what we have, right,
And look at me to talk about my team like this.
But I love the Lakers. I've been throwing through man.
I know you do, I know you do. I just
I guess if you're the Brooklyn Nets, You're like, well,
at least they have k D. But but but do

(01:11:50):
they do they have any answers that are going to
lead to anything. I think both teams in the final
analysis are in the exact same spot. They have agury,
aging veteran big names who have trouble with health or mentality.
Neither one of them are anywhere near a championship, nor

(01:12:14):
are either one of them anywhere near a young player
around him they can build. Is that not fair? So
the Lakers don't have any draft picks, but go ahead,
Oh okay, so there it is the Nuts. I don't
even know if the Nuts have any draft picks. Yeah, no,

(01:12:36):
I I get it, I get it. But but yeah,
the truth of the matter is the whole thing, as
we've discussed, both of these teams have been constructed poorly,
and I just feel like both of them suffer from
the same thing, which is the demand for now. This

(01:12:57):
is this is you know, this is recency stuff. That's
uh that's going on with this team, which is we
want it now, we want it right now. This is
both of them have been constructed the same way kids
handle Halloween when they get home from trick or treating.
I want all the candy. I want it right now.
I'm not worried, that's right. Just just tilt your head

(01:13:21):
back and dump it in there, and we'll worry about
tomorrow a sugar rush, bloating and and and and a headache.
We'll worry about all that tomorrow. Well it's tomorrow now,
yes it is. It is tomorrow, and is the next
day and the next day after that, and we are

(01:13:44):
candy sick and have been for a year. Boy, damn bender. Yeah, um, okay,
I want to play a little game with you coming
up next, called real or Imagined. I want to throw
five NFL statements at you, and you tell me if
they've got any validity. So we do that. Coming up

(01:14:08):
next with the from salam Mark Willard, Fox Sports Radio,
a from I'm here. Can I delay our conversations so
that I can express some frustration You're watching this, I'm
watching okay, my man. This isn't college football, so I

(01:14:29):
didn't know you could just throw people out for targeting
even when they weren't targeting. The second of all, this
is an extension of the roughing the pastor thing that
you and I have talked about over the last three
to four weeks that has completely gone sideways in the NFL.
I am all about protecting these guys. I am all
about protecting the quarterbacks, even at a different level, because

(01:14:53):
they are the stars of the show, if you will. However,
I thought it would be very, very clear they stated
in the NFL two things. Uh, if you're running the
ball down the field, you are not a defenseless receipt.
You are you are running the ball, you are a runner. Okay,
so if you are a runner, those protections are are

(01:15:16):
no longer there. And then secondly, if you're not bowing
the crown of a helmet and and going after somebody's head,
if you're actually having a glancing shoulder, go to justin
Herbert's head, which is what just happened. And I get it,
it's not a hit that looks good on TV, but
there is absolutely zero legal, zero illegal with what just

(01:15:39):
happened with forts linebacker Dre Greenlaw. And he didn't just
get penalized from they threw him out the damn game.
I'm sorry, it's this right. And in college at least,
when they've got a targeting call, what do they get
to do they get to get to replay and look

(01:16:00):
at it. Here, they can't even look at it because
if they had stopped to look at it, they know
what they just did was a massive mistake. Wow, well
I have something that we can stop all of this.
Quarterbacks are no longer allowed to leave the pocket. Well,

(01:16:24):
you can't stop this. That doesn't that doesn't stop the
right the late hits and the and the you know,
the unnecessary roughness rough in the passer. I wonder if
Justin Herbert go back in this game. Yeah, well he
he tried to just pop up and go play. Yeah,
but we all saw it. We saw it right right.
I wonder if if you know, with the whole tool

(01:16:47):
situation earlier this year and the new changes to the protocol,
I wonder if they're gonna let Justin Herbert go back
in this game. That's gonna be really interesting to see
because he got his bill, he got his bill wrong.
It wasn't bad, but he took a second. He went,

(01:17:09):
he put his hand on his head and he took
a knee. Uh, so he doesn't have his helmet with him. Um,
halftime is coming up. I wonder if he comes out, uh,
and this will be interesting to see everybody's watching NFL.
You're done right now. He's not in a he's not

(01:17:30):
in a blue chet helmet, helmet on the sideline, on
the sidelines. To the naked eye, he looks normal, which
means nothing but nothing. It means nothing but just to
share with people what we're seeing right now. And they
let Chase Daniel go in there and finish up the
series of downs. He came in there like, I'm like,

(01:17:55):
what is who is that? Throwing people? Throwing balls over
people's head and he's trying to run, he's getting tackled,
but charges were already in field goal range and they
go ahead and kick the field goal. So now we've
reached the half, the charges are up by six. Yeah,
he sure did. I mean, how much you want to
bet guarantee he's playing. He guaranteed playing the second half.

(01:18:20):
Guarantee in the second half. But you know who's not
is Dre green Law. And guess what know that if
you're not a forty Niner fan, nobody cares, but I do.
That's wrong. That that's wrong. That's that. That is a
very very good linebacker who they've been missing for the
last three games. And he's back and they just threw

(01:18:42):
him out. I don't even know you could do. What
do you mean to throw him out of the game
for what? For tackling or running back? I don't know. Man. Yes,
that's a that's a bad call. That's a that's a
minor league call. It's an amateur call. Bush leak. Well,

(01:19:03):
and it comes after everybody sitting there and having a
a little meeting, like the referees all got together out
so you knew it was right. It was a complicated one.
It's still it still came out and called the penalty
and then threw him out. Man, it's this thing just

(01:19:23):
turned into pack twelve after dark on a Sunday. Yeah,
it's hey, man, it's a lot to be desired. I
can tell you that. Oh god, Westbrook just threw the
ball into the stands there. You maybe you made me
feel better because you know what we just found out,

(01:19:45):
your your laker frustration is greater than my All right,
we'll get to the list of real or imagine next. Well,
we're not only watching and talking football, we're managing emotion.
Uh As I handle forty nine players being thrown out
of the game for no reason and any from just

(01:20:06):
watching a Laker game. Uh, so we'll handle it, and
we'll keep on rocking and rolling as we come to
you live broadcasting from the ti iraq dot com studios.
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way tire buying should be. If it makes you feel

(01:20:29):
any bettery from I've got the Warriors King's game on
and and and they've blown their lead as well, so
I'm also okay, good there it is. Um, the King's
leading the Warriors right now, late in the second quarter,
sixty two to fifty eight. And uh and the Lakers
look at look at their plucky little start there against

(01:20:49):
the new jer Brooklyn Nets. Look at that has fifty
eight points. Yes, he does, which is which is amazing
because his team only has add and one. He has
fifty eight points. He's at the free throw line for
fifty nine. Wow. Yeah, that's that's a game. Nineteen of

(01:21:12):
twenty eight from the field right now, nineteen of twenty
three from the free throw line. And by the way,
the man is doing it, the old whale. He only
has one point tonight. That's it. That's it. So we'll
keep an eye on that. I wanted him to get
sixty get sixty seven blocks and assists and seen that's it.

(01:21:41):
And the Sixers beat the Jazz one. Oh so uh yeah,
pretty pretty good stuff. Um. Here we sit in Week
ten in the National Football League, the Chargers leading the
forty Niners at halftime of the Sunday night or sixteen
to ten. But a number of headlines, if you will,
around the league that I want to throw byou, because
technically they're not even headlines. They're more like, as we

(01:22:03):
would call them, narratives, uh, that that are building right
now and are still up for debate. So let me
run through. I got five NFL statements right now that
I want to throw at you, and you tell me
real or imagined? Um And here is the first one.
After the game of the day today, um And and
it was billed as the game of the day, and then,

(01:22:25):
my god, did it ever hold up its end of
the bargain. One of the craziest finishes you will see.
The Vikings beat the Bills. And so here's the statement
from the Vikings are Super Bowl contenders? Real or imagined?
I would have to say real. I would have to

(01:22:47):
say real. At eight and one, I mean they have
a commanding lead in their division. Yep, They've only lost
to the best team in the league so far, which
is the eightan old Eagles. So just by that then yeah,

(01:23:10):
I would say that that's a that's a real statement.
I'm not for not taking people serious just because proof
is that putting from me like you you you show
me something and if you do, then I'm with you.
It's a big win. Yeah, no doubt, And I think

(01:23:31):
the only reason sometimes there's two reasons actually where people
will dismiss stuff that's sitting there in front of their face.
One of the reasons is history, which is, we have
decided that Kirk Cousins is one of those quarterbacks in
the NFL who's good but not great, a playoff quarterback,
but not a super Bowl quarterback. We we've decided that,

(01:23:53):
so no matter what his record is, that's what we're
going to believe until proven other wise. So and then
the other thing we do, which is we we hold
it against teams either for who is on their schedule
or how many points they beat them by, Like the
Vikings were down to the Lions, with three minutes to go,

(01:24:16):
scored two touchdowns and one by four. They went to
London and had a game where they got a little
wonky down the stretch and they barely beat the New
Orleans Saints by only three points. That a one score
game against the Bears before they were playing well. They
beat the Dolphins, but it's when to uh wasn't healthy. Um,
they had to rally late in order to win against

(01:24:38):
the Washington Commanders twenty to seventeen. But I know exactly
what you're thinking while I say all of this, like
you can come up with a reason why all seven
of their consecutive victories aren't pretty. But there are seven
consecutive victories, and exa, you don't do that in the

(01:25:01):
NFL unless you're real good. It's difficult to win a game,
let alone put a win streak together and it closed
games at that. That means you had to do everything
right down the stretch. It's actually harder to do that.

(01:25:22):
So to me, that doesn't make me look at them
as less of a contender. They're scarier because they're in.
They can finish and close out games. That's the scary part.
And and so yeah, I'm not looking at them like,

(01:25:46):
oh no, they're just you know, this is for gazy,
This isn't gonna know they're for real. Ask Buffalo, they're
for real? Right? Second statement? Yeah yeah, at the second
second statement is with the exact same team, and it
is this Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in

(01:26:08):
the National Football League. Yes, yes he is. I'm laughing.
I'm laughing because my eight year old son, who loves
fantasy football, is sitting next to me and he doesn't
even he can't. He obviously can't hear you. He's like, no, no,
he's not. Who is asked him? Who? What's his name? Who? Jude?

(01:26:32):
Who's his name is? Jude? Jude? Who's the best receiver
in the National Football League? He just first of all,
tell him, Tell the young man, you can't poke holes
in something if you don't have something to fill it with. Yeah,
Apram says, you can't poke holes and something unless you
got something to fill it with. So if it's not
if it's not Justin Jefferies, then who is it. If

(01:26:55):
it's not Justin, who is it? I know who he's thinking,
but I'm gonna let him away. You gotta say that
out loud. Buddy, he say it, proud, Who is it?
Who is it? He said, Tyreek Hill. I mean he's

(01:27:17):
leading the league and receiving No, that's not crazy at all,
he said. Or Stefan Diggs. Well, we just had a
match up with Stefon Diggs and Justin Jefferies, you know,
came out on top of that one. Um. But look,
the young man isn't isn't wrong. This is a young

(01:27:38):
man who's well versed hitting you. You must be his
father because he knows his stuff. But what I saw
today from Justin Jefferies, Jefferson, Jeffries, Jeffery Jefferson, Jeffer Jefferson, Jefferson,
Hey man, he moving on up to the east to

(01:28:00):
so special apartment in this guy in the sky. Yeah,
like like we do this though, like somebody will have
a really really special day and then immediately that's that's
you know, that's kind of our thought, which is, oh,
like they're the best receiver in the game. Digs. Meanwhile,
in the game, also in the game twelve catches for as,

(01:28:27):
my son surprised the hell out of me because Cooper
Cup is on his fantasy team and I fought for
the life of me that's that's what are gonna say.
He came up with two answers that we're not that. Yes, dude,
what what do you want to add to this? What's that? Okay?
Now he says, yes it is. It's Cooper Cup. Hey man,

(01:28:49):
it's time to go to man. You guys cool tomorrow Okay, Okay, yeah,
I mean is you know Jamaar Chase like we and
do this week to week. But Justin Jefferson this year, Um,
you know, there's a stat I heard him watching this
game today that really stuck with me because I'm not

(01:29:11):
a stat guy from but there's sometimes someone will say
something to you and go, oh my gosh. Justin Jefferson
leads the NFL in receiving. If you date that back
to the moment he joined the league, that's crazy. Okay,

(01:29:31):
he leads from the moment he took over. And take
it from somebody who about five weeks into his NFL
career dropped him in a fantasy league. He took him
a minute. I did, brother, I did, because they weren't
doing right. They weren't throwing him the ball. And the
second I got right that Adam feeling you still had.
I think they still might have had digs. No, they

(01:29:54):
didn't have digs because that was that was the draft
pick that day gave away. That's what they got four
DEGs to get. Okay, they got Jefferson. Okay, whatever it was.
It took five or six weeks before they really you know,
they really got going with Jefferson. Um. But but if
you dated back to game one and and then ended today,

(01:30:18):
he leads the NFL in receiving. So, I mean he
just walked in straight out of L s U and went,
all right, my league, my position. He's a grown man.
And uh still on twenty three years. You know, the

(01:30:39):
relationship he in, the trust that he and Kirk Cousins has,
it's unbelievable. Yeah yeah, I mean it's just a neighborhood thing.
It looks like Kirk and throw it anywhere up there,
and uh and justin justin the way he adjusts to
the ball, the way he moves defenders, the way he
catches the ball away from his body. He's just I mean,

(01:31:01):
today was an absolute clinic. Okay, next one. The Seahawks
are good, real or imagined. That's a tough one. At
six and four after ten games, they are good. How
could they not be with a winning record? All right?

(01:31:25):
I mean that's just what do you need to be
good in Italy? What? What? What is the definition of good?
Their first in their division? Yep, they have a winning record,
They lost the Hall of Fame quarterback and are still
be winning the division. Like, so yeah, they're good. Um. Again,

(01:31:49):
it goes to we decide things about people based on
history and what we thought they were going to be.
But four we saw them. So we had decided that
the Seahawks were were tanking, and we had decided obviously,
I don't know if this was even This is pretty
reason to take uh to say that uh Geno Smith

(01:32:14):
is not a very good quarterback in this league and
now suddenly it's one of the top rated pastors of two. Hey. Look,
sometimes it's like, fine wine, man, you gotta let us
sit in age. When you open it again, it's like, oh,

(01:32:35):
this is tasty and I don't even drink. So it's
it's that situation of he had an opportunity, he has
an opportunity to continue to extend his career now as
a starting quarterback again. I mean he went to the
Jets for Christ's sake. Yep, yep, that'll do it a lot.

(01:32:56):
It's a lot that the Jets have eaten up a
lot of quarterbacks. M And for him to stay vigilant
and stay locked in, you know, it's a credit to
him and and you know what he's what he's trying
to build now in Seattle, the Fox Sports Radio Tailgate
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(01:33:18):
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home delivery, Big green egg dot Com. Uh, Aaron Judges
free agency still ahead, but coming up next. I still
got two more statements for you, one about one a
f C team, one about one a f C quarterback

(01:33:41):
that's coming up next with e from salam Mark Weathered
on Fox Sports Radio. All right, we are alive from
the Tirack dot com studios. We should mention since we're
talking about it about forty five minutes ago. UH, the
second half underway in Sunday Night Football and Justin Herbert,
who was briefly taken out to do a concussion check

(01:34:01):
has been very very very clear to play and uh,
he is out there on the field the Chargers nursing
a three point lead and have the ball about halfway
through the third quarter. UM and so he um, he
got he got glanced in the head by Drake Greenlaw,
who was ejected from the game for for touching the quarterback.

(01:34:24):
And uh, at Herbert's ready to go. So all all
is well in in quarterback thell from well, yeah, they
failed that test, didn't they look? And which part the
refs of the medical people have medical people And I
hope he's fine, Like you know, I wouldn't wish that
on anybody. I hope he's fine. And you know, but

(01:34:47):
this is what this is what the reworking of the
rules was about. This is what he clearly was hitting
in the head. He clearly had some effect to him
after that um because he stayed down on the knee
grabbed his head and uh, but he's fine. Hopefully he
can you know, finish this out and he doesn't get

(01:35:09):
get another one. The one thing you don't want to
do is compounded as he's under the heavy pressure here. Uh,
they're will be forced to punt on that third down,
third night. Uh, he was running for his life. Boy,
you got faith in Brandon Staley that I don't. I mean,
we'll see if they puns number fourth down like Brandon Staley. Yeah,

(01:35:32):
fourth and eight, why not? What the hell? Go for it?
We have the perfect play, right, come on, whimp, come on,
go for it. They will. In fact, they will and
they and they have and so forty daughters down three
will We'll have the ball, um and Jimmy Garoppolo will

(01:35:53):
go to work. We'll keep you up to date. Okay,
we were playing real or imagine rolling through five statements
after watching today's NFL action from weighing in on if
what I'm saying is real or imagine. Here's the next one.
The Miami Dolphins are Super Bowl contenders. Mm hm, I

(01:36:16):
would say imagined. Okay, I would say imagined because although
they are a different team this year too, it looks great.
I don't know how great tool look in the big ones,

(01:36:38):
right when they when they matter the playoffs first round?
You know that that is you know, that's when you
put in Rubbert to row and I don't know if
I trust him, and he's playing phenomenal right now. Um,
but I'm not sure. So with with that, with notion

(01:37:00):
and I'd say, I'd say not real. Okay, it's interesting.
They have not lost a game this year that he
has both started and finished. Um, he is the top
rated passer in the game. They are leading what I
guess we have to call the best division in football
based on records, all four teams have a winning record.

(01:37:22):
They're leading that division. Um, they've got the best record
within that division. They they defeated the Buffalo Bills earlier
this year. UM, I get what you're saying. The walls.
The walls closed in on you in the playoffs season
quarterback ever, and then the playoff the wall is closed in.

(01:37:43):
You know what I'm saying, Like, he's got to be
some testing there. The bottom line is when, even if
we can use the word when, when he gets there,
and I don't mean the super Bowl, I mean the playoffs,
He's going to be going against a collection of quarterbacks
who've all been in these moments and he hasn't. So

(01:38:06):
Mahomes will be there and and I still firmly believe
that Josh Allen will be there. Another some party crashers, right,
Zack Wilson could be there but but Joe Burrow will
be there and I will put Wilson in that same category,
like no doubt. When the lights come on, man, it
just hit different. Look the speed goes up from from
college to preseason NFL football to regular season, and speed increases.

(01:38:31):
It also increases leaps and bounds in the playoffs. Like
it's a different, different animal, right right. Although when you
think speed, you think Miami Dolphins. I mean, you do
part of the reason to looks the way he does.
I'm a huge believer and I know you are too.
Mike McDaniel is running an extension of what Kyle Shanahan's running.

(01:38:53):
The difference is is he's he's got these these two
receivers on the outside that are just you know, I
I don't know, I don't know what defenses do with them,
and Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle and so that has
been incredibly effective to it deserves tons of credit as well. Um,
but yeah, there there's gonna be a list and and

(01:39:14):
you know, maybe Herbert Lamar Jackson. Um, I know Herbert
hasn't done it either, but yeah, you're you're you're looking
at it would that it's a hell of a gauntlet
to to to work your way through. Yeah. And and
you know, and when I say speed, I'm just not
talking about the speed on the field. It's just the
game move, the decision making. It has to be faster,

(01:39:38):
it has to be crisp. It's a it's it's a
different world. It's a step up above. And then as
the deeper you go, the more intend to get. All right,
last one for you, from real or imagined, Russell Wilson
has done. Okay, So when you say done, do you

(01:40:01):
mean he'll no longer be serviceable quarterback or he should retire? Um? No, No, no,
I'm not calling for him to retire. When I say done,
I mean he's done being the Russell Wilson we used
to know. I would say, I would say that's h

(01:40:23):
m hmm. That's a tough one because there's a lot
of factors there. I have zero confidence and I don't
believe he has any confidence in his head. Coach. Um,
I'll say he's earned the right for that not to

(01:40:43):
be real. He's under right for that not to be real. Okay,
he's done too much, too many great things for this
could be an outlier for him. You know, But I
you know. I don't. I don't think he's he's done.

(01:41:04):
Um Okay, neither are we um Aaron Judge and free
agency have become have have have begun. That is in
the baseball world. I got some questions and they're centered
around a quote that we recently got from someone named Steinbrenner,
and I would love to know how you translate this quote.

(01:41:25):
So I'll give that to you. Come up next, but
it's Steve Disager time. First, find out what's trending in
the world. On another NFL Sunday, Steve, what's going on?
Take it away? Chargers with a hello three point lead
late in the third quarter, and we can update something
from that Joel and Beat game that you reference. Philadelphia
beat Utah tonight in the NBA one oh five and

(01:41:47):
Beat had fifty nine points. But apparently he became tonight
the first player since they started tracking block shots in
the NBA the last fifty years to have a game
with fifty five points and five blocks at least. This
was fifty nine points, eleven rebounds, eight assists, and seven
blocks in the game. And Beat scored twenty six points

(01:42:08):
just in the fourth quarter of that win against Utah.
That is nuts. The Niners are punting late third quarter,
trailing at home to the Chargers sixteen thirteen. Chargers amazingly
got off to a good start at this game, not
only a touchdown drive to open the game, Justin Herbert
thirty two yard TD pass. Chargers led thirteen three in
the second quarter, now a sixteen thirteen advantage, and yes,

(01:42:31):
Herbert's back in the game hundred seventy three yards passing
and the score for him. Earlier, we had the Green
Bay comeback overtime win over Dallas thirty one, twenty eight
that ends the Packers five game losing streak. Aaron Rodgers
three touchdown passes to Christian Watson two in the fourth quarter.
Indianapolis beat a Vegas team that's now two and seven

(01:42:52):
the final on a touchdown pass with about five minutes
to go from quarterback Matt Ryan, who started. He also
had a touchdown run. First game for coach Jeff Saturday.
Arizona twenty seven seventeen winners at the Rams now neither
starting quarterback play due to injuries, and Arizona tight end
Zach er It's left with the knee injury Mr Monday
and Ram star wide receiver Cooper Cup left with an

(01:43:14):
ankle injury. Minnesota in overtime came back to win at
Buffalo thirty three to thirty. The Vikings had trailed late
third quarter twenty seven to ten. Justin Jefferson ten receptions
a hundred ninety three yards in a touchdown. He was
targeted sixteen times in this game. Miami beat Cleveland thirty
nine seventeen. The Dolphins are seven and three, having won

(01:43:37):
four in a row. Detroit a thirty one thirty winner
at Chicago on a touchdown with about two minutes to go.
That was a comeback. They were down two touchdowns early
fourth quarter. Tennessee beat Denverse seventeen to ten. Russell Wilson
was sacked six times. The Broncos are three and six.
Kansas City twenty seven seventeen over Jacksonville, but wide receiver
Juju Smith Schuster left with a concussion. For the Chiefs

(01:43:58):
Giants over Houston four sixteen se Kwon Barkley thirty five
carries a hundred fifty two yards and a short TV.
The New York Giants are seven and two and Pittsburgh
scored ten points in the fourth quarter to beat New
Orleans twenty to ten. This was the Saints Day ten penalties,
only ten first downs on ten drives in Munich, Tampa

(01:44:20):
Bay over Seattle one to sixteen to the NBA. Not
only the Philadelphia win, as in bad scored fifty nine,
but in Cleveland Darius Garland scored fifty one points from
three point range. He was ten of fifteen. But Minnesota
won the game at Cleveland one twenty nine to one four.
And we've got a Warriors at a Lakers update because
those are the two late games. Golden State is o

(01:44:42):
and six on the road so far this season, but
winning in the third quarter seventy eight seventy four at
Sacramento Andrew Wiggins eighteen points, and the Lakers are leading
late first half at home fifty three forty three against
the Brooklyn Nets. Russell Westbrook off the bench with eight points,
five rebounds, only two assists. He has blocked to Kevin

(01:45:03):
Durant shot. Durant started one or four from the floor.
He's just recently made a couple of buckets, but still
single digits, and the Lakers are up ten late first half.
Lakers trying to end a five game losing streak. Back
to you, I've been trying to tell you about that
Russell Westbrook underrated and undervalued. Oh man, that was a

(01:45:28):
hell of a pause. I just uh yeah, look at
the Lakers. Yeah, it's it's the second quarter. Man, I
know all right? How mean three minutes left in fourth quarter?
I will I will way too much basketball? Will we

(01:45:50):
won't be on anymore, but I'll holler at you. Uh,
don't you worry about that. We're lying from the tirack
dot com studios with you from salam Mark Weather. We're
watching Sunday night football. We're watching Sunday night basketball. But
I got something baseball related for you, and it's this
baseball free Agencies underway. And there are a lot of
big names, but one of them is very different. And

(01:46:11):
it's not just for the obvious stuff. It's not just
because he's the biggest name. It's it's more than that.
Like you could say, hey, Trade Turner is out there,
Carlos Korea is out there. Aaron Judge is different because
this is not about Aaron Judge the baseball player. This
is about Aaron Judge the business. And do you want

(01:46:32):
to be involved in the Aeron Judge business. I'm actually
pretty confident just based on history that the contract he's
about to sign, the second half of it won't be good.
Whoever gets him is probably signing up for at least
three years of why the hellp we do that? It

(01:46:53):
probably will feel very very Albertpool Holes angels ish at
the end of this contract because it's gonna be eight
or nine years and it's gonna take him all the
way to his forty birthday. And even though he's a
very athletic six eight, the man is six eight like
like it's it's probably gonna look like that, But you

(01:47:16):
do it because it's not just about winning baseball games.
Aaron Judge brings with him something that very very few
baseball players bring, and that's attendance. He pays for himself. Um,
he's box office. So I'm very fascinated to see how
this plays out for the involved teams, the Yankees, the Dodgers,

(01:47:37):
the Giants, maybe the Mets. I I don't even know
who else is going to be involved in this, but
he from how do you translate this quote? And this
comes from Holstein Brenner, who said, quote, I have had
more than one conversation with Aaron since the season ended.

(01:47:59):
I'll leave it at that a very positive conversation. I
have made it clear to him that is our wish.
He means a lot to this organization, and it made
it clear to him we're gonna do everything we can
to make that happen. End quote. If you're a Yankee fan,
do you view that quote as positive or negative? Negative? Why?

(01:48:23):
It sounds positive, But if you really look at it
and kind of read between the lines, there there was
a lot of exposition. We've talked, I've made it clear
it's a priority. Yeah, Um, what did he say? That's

(01:48:50):
what I want to know was Aaron? Did Aaron have
air pods in while you were saying this to him? Right?
Like the statement would have been doing for new was like, look,
we've I've had multiple conversations, Aaron knows what he means

(01:49:11):
to this organization, and we're going to do everything that
we have to do to make sure he's part of
that moving forward. What if that was the statement, yeah,
how would that make it? I think here, if I'm
a Yankee fan, here's what would have been positive. There's

(01:49:34):
no quote at all, Because what this sounds like to
me is a trying to calm the fears of fans
combined with the pr of man. We're begging, we're trying.
We're telling him, you're setting your fan base up for

(01:49:56):
he left. But it's not our fault. We did everything
we could, We tried. It's almost like maybe they're even
speaking to Aaron through the media. Aaron, We're gonna do
anything you want. The Yankees right now are the husband
who comes home with flowers because he yelled last night.

(01:50:18):
It's so obvious they are begging Aaron for forgiveness. And
you may ask, what was it they did? Was very,
very simple. They offered him a bunch of money at
the beginning of the year, he turned it down, and
instead of respectfully saying okay, we'll discuss it again at
the end of the year, they ran straight to the
media and said, we offered seven years and two d

(01:50:39):
thirteen million dollars and he turned it down, in other words, saying,
we offered what what's totally fair? Can you believe this
guy turning down two million dollars. The Nationals did the
exact same thing to Juan Soto and two weeks later
gone gone. In fact, he wasn't even a free agent,
but they knew they had to deal him. You don't

(01:50:59):
go to the media and do that unless the game
you're playing is not baseball, it's pr And it feels
to me like the Yankees are doing something that's very
similar to that right now. They're trying to beg for
his forgiveness and they're trying to set up their fan
base for the It's Not Our Fault press conference which
is coming next And you know what, you make a

(01:51:19):
great point because you know, the parallel world is Lamar
Jackson and the ravens uh negotiations. Right we don't know
what they offered him. They didn't come out, they didn't
come out and say, hey, we've offered him two whatever.

(01:51:40):
They were just like, hey, we're working on it. Yep.
And so that's a great point that you made, Like
they they turned it on to Aaron, and Aaron is
not going to forget that. I agree. I mean, you're
looking at someone who did not necessarily dig um being

(01:52:04):
booed in the playoffs. But I actually think it was
more about teammates being booed in the playoffs. And I
know people will say, my gosh, for three or four
million dollars, you could do a lot more than boo
You could. You know, you can kick me in the
shin and rub mude on my face and uh, you know,
drop kick my dog like I I understand. Um, no
one's gonna feel sorry for Aaron Judge. Um, but he's

(01:52:26):
at a spot where now he's thirty, he's married, he
may be thinking about family, and he also knows that
this next contract he signs is gonna be for plenty
of money, and it's gonna be the last one he signs,
and might as well be wherever the heck you want
to be. And I don't know if I had a
handicap this right now. I know the Vegas odds say
the Yankees are still because they are the incumbent, they

(01:52:48):
are the favorite. If you will, um right now, I would,
I would. I would bet on him leaving. Yeah, I
mean Dodger Blue. Huh what we're doing. Ah, I don't
know about that one either. A little nice little malleible

(01:53:10):
palatial pad uh huh, access to you know jet he did.
He did grow up about about our forty five minutes
from Oracle Park there in San Francisco, just saying hey, man,
I can go down is uh, they're yelling, Timber, it's

(01:53:33):
about to go down right here at Fox Sports Radio
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free home delivery Big green egg dot Com. The Vikings

(01:53:56):
and the Bills, the forty Niners and the Chargers much more. UH,
as we put a bow here on Week ten in
the National Football League, at least for us. Coming up
next with the from salam Mark Willard on Fox Sports Radio,
Fox Sports Sunday. Down the stretch we come along with
you from salam Mark Willard, Plank and Span. You're coming

(01:54:18):
up next. So if you want rational thought, just listen
for the next five minutes. I got no promises after that, um,
absolutely none. UM. I will tell you this speaking of
irrational thought. UM, I got my dukes up on Twitter
right now from because even forty Niner fans seem to

(01:54:38):
be upset with me because I ripped something off that that.
UH was very very critical of the officials in the
ejection of Drake Greenlaw back in the first half because
we have we have coached our fans into thinking that
if two helmets collide, it's automatically a penalty, and it's
not the rule that that that is, that is not

(01:55:01):
the rule. You tell me if I've got this correct. Okay,
the rule on helmet to helmet is a defenseless receiver,
h B. It's a quarterback in the pocket. But see,
once you get to a runner in the open field,
helmet to helmet is only a penalty if you lead
with the crown and launch. Correct. Okay, so that's not

(01:55:27):
a penalty. Everyone's like, well, the ejection was too much,
but Mark, obviously it was a penalty because two helmets collided.
Helmets collide on almost every everything, almost every day. Yeah,
what do you hello talking to a former offensive lineman.
Did your helmet ever connect another helmet on any of
the plays when you played football? E for him? I mean,

(01:55:51):
but look, how look what we've done. We've coached everybody.
Oh my gosh, Justin Herbert's helmet got touched. Flag ejection.
I'm surprised they didn't end the game. Game has been
called forfeited. Yeah, it's been called due to danger. Looks

(01:56:13):
way too dangerous. Out there. Fans are going to react. Okay, yeah,
they're going to react. I didn't think it was egregious
enough and fit into the guidelines of what targeting was.
Neither did you. That's our opinion. Wait, neither neither did
the broadcast official right like they brought they brought the

(01:56:35):
broadcast official and he's like, yeah, he didn't lead with
the crown of the helmet. This is not that's that's
not the penalty. I mean. But even if you have
all the facts, people are still going to disagree with you.
I mean, look at our elections in this country. I
just could have said, you said that everything you need

(01:56:57):
to know, you use the word facts the same week
as we had an election. That's that's a penalty right there.
From Um, what do you think so far? By the
way of this uh this post by forty niner team
that was that was supposed to wreck this league. Um,

(01:57:18):
they're trying to figure it out, man, you know they're
trying to figure it out. They don't know who they
are yet or who they want to be. Got to remember,
they didn't come into this season with the plans of
Jimmy Garoppolo being the guy. They lost a bunch of
key figures. They're just now getting back and so you know,
it's it's a work in progress. These other teams that
are are clicking right now, they have been wold, they've

(01:57:44):
been working on some things. This is the real, you know,
chance for the forty Niners to try to put this
all together. Um as they're driving down the field right
now against the charges. We just got to the one
yard line actually at a real actually I guess the
two yard line at a huge play for for Brandon

(01:58:04):
Aiuk because he stands right now to be the guy
in the doghouse if the forty Niners lose this game,
because he fumbled the ball uh in in their own
territory earlier in the game, and he dropped a clear
touchdown pass from from Jimmy Garoppolo earlier in the game.

(01:58:25):
Now the forty Niners have just got they've just gone
in to take the lead, but there's still eight minutes
to go in the game. So uh so we'll see um.
But you know, that's that's a thing here. I'll let
you know this and I think you know, uh in
San Francisco, that's a thing if the forty Niners ever
lose the only question you need to ask the next
day was is this Jimmy's fault or not? And so

(01:58:47):
far this is like if they were to lose, this
is not a Jimmy's fault game. No, he's playing well,
he's playing well, he's doing what he does. He's um
uh and I missed the extra point. Blessing America. I
tell you, is that your son still up? It's time
for him to go to bed? Man, don't you ask

(01:59:09):
him off? What is going on? Man? CPS? What what
is happening? Yeah, it's only seven fifty four. We're good.
Are we time to go to bed? I mean, come on,
you know, hope about nine. If there's a forty niner game,
you know when he goes to Betty from he goes
to bed when the game is over, that's what he

(01:59:29):
goes to bed,

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