September 9, 2025 • 26 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses how JJ McCarthy went from terrible NFL quarterback to very good NFL quarterback all in span of three hours during the Minnesota Vikings' Monday Night Football victory over the Chicago Bears, whether or not Ben Johnson has the right mental and emotional makeup to be a good NFL head coach, and why the idea of the Bears benching former #1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams isn't as farfetched as it might sound.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up Straight Firefam, It's me Jason mcinttn entire,
Straight ow Yer for Tuesday, September ninth, and oh boy,
oh boy, the takes are gonna be hot and heavy today,
coming off of Monday night football thriller we didn't see coming.
(00:31):
I mean, three quarters of slop and then twenty eight
points in the fourth.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
So just for fun action play pizza money.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right before the game, I texted my buddy, Hey, I'm
just gonna parlay this. Why not Vikings minus one and
the over forty three? The unders were like twelve and three.
There's no way there's another under. And even though yesterday
I said on the podcast, I don't see either team
opening it up, I was like, just can't continue.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right before game, I kind of switched my.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Mind, and then I WATCHEDDS of really bad football. The
Vikings can do nothing offensively. JJ McCarthy can't hit the
broadside of a barn. The Vikings cannot run the football.
Caleb is kind of hot and cold. He had a
great first drive and then after that was eh, and
then the fourth quarters just got absolutely bonkers. Now it
(01:18):
wasn't bonkers in a good way like Bill's Ravens, but
it was it was kind of bonkers. So I think
the game I thought was over when there was a
it was third quarter.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Caleb dumps it off, Sorry not Caleb.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
JJ McCarthy dumps it off to Hockinson, who slides to
make like a two yard catch, gets up and Bears
defender punches the ball out and instantly they say, no,
it's not a fumble. He was down, and then they
show the replay and it's so crazy. I don't know
that I've seen this. So Hawkinson slides, gets up, nobody
touches him. The first touch is a punch out of
(01:55):
the football, and I'm looking at him like, I can't
believe this. I think that's a fumble.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I wasn't listening to the broadcast because you know, I'm
a dad. I gotta drive my kids around. And it
turns out if you touch the football that's like touching
the person. And so he was down by contact and
I was like, oh, that's an interesting call. So the
Vikings punt and then the Bears. I'm like, all right,
well the Bears can lock it up here. They come
down and they miss a fifty yard field goal that
(02:23):
essentially flipped the game.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It gave the Vikings new life.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
And JJ McCarthy gets a run game with Mason and
not necessarily Aaron Jones. I thought Mason was hammering away
breaks off a couple runs, and then I thought essentially
JJ McCarthy had like maybe two good throws through three quarters,
one to Nailer right before they have to get them
in the field goal, and then there was another throw.
I was like, okay, that's good. And then he throws
(02:49):
a dart to Justin Jefferson, like, oh, okay, all right,
rook Well he's not a rook but second year quarterback
in his first start. And then he throws the dart
Jefferson for the touchdowns. Okay, here we go. And then
the Bears go three and out, and all of a sudden,
you're like, oh, wait a minute, what's going on here
for Bears? And right then special teams was so good
(03:11):
for the Vikings on the returns. They had the partially
blocked punt, they had the fifty nine yard field goal.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Like, special teams was good for the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And next thing you know, McCarthy hits Aaron Jones for
a touchdown and you're like, wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
The Vikings are winning. It was so bing bang boom.
Now again.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It wasn't like a sexy Josh Allen at home crowd
going wild, Oh my gosh, what's happening. This is just
like the Bears aren't doing anything, and here come the
Vikings and the Bears another quick drive five and out
what comes then? This one was this was the one
where McCarthy it really got me. I don't want to
say I got goosebumps, but McCarthy scrambles on a great
play call by Kevin O'Connell. I think it was third
(03:52):
and ten from like the fourteen yard line, and he
runs it in and it felt like the entire team
came over to celebrate the rookie and you're like, oh,
that guy's got it. As my kids like to say,
he's got the riz. Everybody likes that guy. And the
team was just going crazy. And the Vikings went for
being down dead embarrassed seventeen six to up twenty seven seventeen.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
They end up holding on to win.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
In I mean, Kevin O'Connell was I thought it was
terrible in the first half. Way too many runs into
the line of scrimmage, on first down, and in the
second half, those runs magically opened up, and Brian Flores's
defense was like, yeah, we're gonna adjust the blitzes on Caleb.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
He's not gonna know what's coming.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We'll get to Caleb in a minute, but I want
to just at least focus on McCarthy, who, by the way,
had a bad pick six I mean Jefferson in the
flat and it was just like, hey, here you go.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Here, this is seventy four yard touchdown Bears. And after
that you.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Were like, Okay, gonna be a long season for old JJ.
And you've got all these people pushing out narratives, the Vikings,
let Sam Darnold go for this guy. We could have
drafted bo Nix instead of this guy. People were killing
him and McCarthy three touchdown drives in the fourth quarter
of his first start. Folks, Listen, I'm going back to
(05:10):
that Michigan Alabama game. It was either the first or
second play of the game. He tried to throw a
pick six to Alabama on the sideline. The Alabama kid
dropped it, and you're like, everybody's like, oh, McCarthy, I
don't know about this guy. And he was unbelievable in
that game, he was awesome in overtime. It's kind of unquantifiable, Rob,
But JJ McCarthy seems to have that it quality where
(05:36):
he can be rotten. He can make poor decisions, they
could take the football out of his hands, but when
it's crunch time, he seems to deliver. Now, there's not
a ton of evidence on this. This is his first
NFL game, but if you go back to college, Jim
Harball loved him. Maybe Harball was raving to like, you know,
gas up a guy he likes. But I thought McCarthy
(05:56):
and you know, I'm not saying he's even gonna be
brock perty And when you hear thirteen of twenty for
a buck forty three, They're like, come on. But seven
point two yards per attempt. So it wasn't all checked down, Charlie.
I mean he's throwing to Jalen Naylor, Josh Oliver, Adam
Thielen had a brutal drop justin Jefferson was on a
milk carton for most of the game. I'm sure fantasy
(06:18):
owners are pissed. And what happens in the fourth JJ
McCarthy delivers. Now, Rob, I'm not gonna go overboard and
say he's a superstar. I saw some things that were good,
but overall, I've got If you're asking me to great
JJ McCarthy's debut, you know you gotta take the picks
a fix six into account. But on the road under
(06:40):
the Monday night football lights island game where you can't hide,
this wasn't a one VM start right, I would give
him a solid B B plus. I it was not
an eight performance because the pick six, but I thought
he was kind of good.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
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Speaker 4 (07:07):
I wish I had you as a college professor, A
B B plus.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I mean, look, the fourth quarter, he was great, right,
that's what it matters.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
But what he had was the reverse Caleb Williams game,
because Kayleb Williams was great in the first quarter and
then terrible the rest of the way. JJ McCarthy was
terrible through the first three quarters and then pretty good
in the fourth. So everyone's pointing to the fourth quarter rightfully,
So again I'm not taking it away from him. He
was money right. He finishes the fourth quarter with let
me get the exact stats here, six of eight passing,
(07:36):
one hundred and one total yards, three total touchdowns of
passer rating A one P forty nine point five. I
believe he finished with eighty eight passing yards in the
thirteen yard touchdown run, which means, if you look at
the box score here that through the first three quarters,
my guy was seven for twelve for fifty five yards
with a pick six. Not great, I mean like he was.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Worth you today for twelve for fifty six yards for.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Fifty five yards. Okay, so he was working on an
F minus game to the first three and then he
had an A plus fourth.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So I guess in final exam, how about that?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Sure, like he missed all the semester of class and
then he aced the final exam, So you know, I'd
give him a solid C plus B minus because the
way he closed the game we were talking before started recording.
I can't remember the last time I saw a quarterback
that just looked bad outright to start off a game
and then to end the game like he's he's all right,
like he's pretty good, Like I've never seen that such
(08:34):
a quick change of opinion happened in the span of
three hours. But that's what we got with JJ McCarthy,
and it looked like, to your point, that Kevin O'Connell
had the training wheels on him very early that JJ
McCarthy the moment was just a little too big. From
a start off with he was anxious. He was, you know,
missing throws, skipping him into the dirt, and the ones
he were completing were really short, you know, high completion percentage,
(08:56):
five yards down the field, whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And then as.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
The game started to unfold and you see that the
Chicago Bears, despite him playing so poorly, never got any
kind of separation. You start seeing that Caleb Williams, despite
a ridiculously hot start, tapered off in a real big
way through the rest of the game. And it's like, hey,
if I just relax a little bit and I take
(09:21):
the seven yard out route, if I give Justin Jefferson
a chance in traffic, he's gonna make something happen. With
you did. And if you watched on the touchdown pass,
him and Naylor I think were like five yards apart.
It was terrible spacing. But he say, if I throw
it as hard as I can in the direction of
Justin Jefferson, I can trust that it's not gonna get
knocked up into the air and intercepted. It's either gonna
(09:43):
be a catch or it's gonna be incomplete. And Justin
Jefferson snagged it, goes down for the touchdown, and then
you see him kind of settle in and he starts
making big throw after big throw after big throw.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And it was a great rebound performance by JJ McCarthy.
Some of this was Bear self inflicted.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Twelve penalties for one hundred and twenty these seven yards,
I mean, that is that's not great. I guess we
should probably talk about Kleb will and actually let's do
Ben Johnson first. So the Bears get the touchdown from
Caleb to Roma Dunes thee to cut it to three.
There's two what was it like two oh six left
something less right around there, two six too. Essentially, what
(10:21):
they needed to do was not let the clock start
so that they could get the two minute warning and
then use the timeout and then have like, I don't know,
fifty ish seconds. Okay, yeah, there was two minutes to
two seconds left, and I don't know if this is
on the kicker or Ben Johnson. We're recording right after
the game, so we haven't heard Ben Johnson speak. Maybe
(10:44):
he ordered Santos to kick it out of the end
zone and he didn't have the leg for it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
But in a pretty cool moment, they kick it off.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Ty Chandler catches it like six or seven yards deep
and the camera is zooming in. He's looking at Kevin
O'Connell on the bench for direction. Kevin O'Connell, wait, come
on out, come on out, and Chaeler runs it out
and burns off seven seconds so they don't get the
two minute warning. Listen, man, rookie coach, first game, that's
not great. Now, these are the moments now, Rob and
(11:13):
again in a one PM game, when there's nine other
games happening, this is like, oh damn, that's terrible. In
a Monday night football game, this is going to get destroyed.
And you know, Ben Johnson, that is brick civvy. So
I think Ben overall, I don't know that he had
a great game. I mean, that really hurt a lot.
(11:35):
It didn't help them obviously, But I am curious your
thoughts on Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Robin his debut.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Very uneven, very uneven, and it started early, like we mentioned,
Kayler Williams came out by his stand like Gangbuster, started
out of ten for ten, had a touchdown run seven.
I think, bing bang boom, right off the top. And
I was watching the game in the studio during the
radio show. And you've been to the studio plenty of times.
We have all these big screens, but the problem is
(12:03):
because we're on live radio, we can't hear what's being said, right.
And I remember putting out a tweet like, hey, backyard,
Caleb is playing really well right now, like he's scrambling,
making things happen. He starts off six for six, touchdown
and he looked great in my opinion. And then I
start getting these dms and these responses on my Twitter
feed and they're saying, hey, Troy Aikman is ripping him
(12:24):
on this broadcast. Now, obviously he's not really troyan the
guy's gonna rip somebody, you know that's just thinking out
of context or whatever. But what was being told to
me and these messages was Troy Aikman, even though he's
completing these passes, keeps pointing out like, hey, I know
that looked great and he made something happen and he
got eight nine yards there on that play, But there's
(12:44):
a guy wide open about fifteen yards down the field
if you would to hit him. Hey, I know that
that was a good plast. It was a completed and
it was a seven yard game and they moved the chains.
But if he hits him in stride, that seven yard
pass turns into like twenty one because there's no one
in front of him, And that was being pointed out
over and over and over. And one thing I did notice,
(13:05):
even with the sound off I was watching the game
is after that touchdown run in the first opening drive
by Kayla Williams, they quickly panned over to Ben Johnson
and he looked like someone had shot his dog, Like
he did not look happy at all with whatever he
was just seeing. And I'm thinking, again, because I'm not
listening to the sound is maybe Ben Johnson sees what
(13:25):
Roygman's talking about, where it's like, hey, I know, this
looks great, and those numbers look fine, and yeah, we
scored a touchdown and that's awesome, but we are not
playing within structure. We're not doing the things that I
need you to do for us to be successful. And
We saw that play out the rest of the game
because once the backyard stuff got shut down by Brian Floores,
there was no cohesion whatso there was no rhythm whatsoever
(13:48):
with that Lion's offense. And so Ben Johnson, for all
of his gifts and his mad genius, he doesn't seem
like kind of guy who's kind of relating to his players,
not the kind of guy who's like a raw rob
Mike Tomlin even at John Harbough. Yeah, and so you
couple that with the late game blunder by not having
the kicker or maybe he did see it in the
BOS game. That was just a clear f up by
(14:13):
him and by that staff. So somebody dropped the ball.
Very uneven night for Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
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Speaker 2 (14:32):
So I guess we say the best or worst for last,
and that would be Caleb Williams. I don't want to
crush the kid, but it certainly feels like people are
rooting for him to fail. The expectations are just out
of They just don't make sense with what I'm seeing
(14:53):
in Caleb Williams. Was he good at times last year? Sure,
but we talked about the backyard football thing. And then
you see like he's on the run towards the sideline
and fires a laser to Roma Dunze and it's like, oh,
that's a hell of a pass on the run, Caleb,
He's got some juice. But that was the scripted drive
from Ben Johnson. And you look at I don't know,
(15:15):
the fourth quarter. I mean, hell, the second half, Brian
Flores adjusted. Here are the Bears second half drives. We've
got three and out. We've got five plays twenty three yards, punt,
eleven plays forty four yards, miss field goal, three plays
negative nine yards, five plays eight yards, then down ten.
(15:37):
They opened things up five for sixty five in less
than a minute for the touchdown. But that was like
chuck and duck. You know, you need points in the
vikings during the prevent. I don't know, Rob, I don't
want to crush Kayleb Williams, but I'm not seeing the
growth now again, that might be unfair, Jason. One game,
he's got a new head coach. Can you give it
(15:58):
some time?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Twenty one to thirty five, six yards per attempt, six
scrambles for fifty eight yards. I mean he had a
good game in the box score, no turnovers.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I guess you could say Caleb isn't the reason they lost,
but he got outplayed when it mattered most in the
fourth by a guy making his first start on the road.
And again Ben Johnson has to has to give him
his best stuff. I mean, hell, JJ McCarthy was without
his left tackle, Daversaw. You know, I act for one
(16:35):
of the top left tackles in the league. He didn't play.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And so I mean, what kind of excuses are there
for Caleb? I mean DJ Moore looks good, Dunsa looks good.
Colston Lovelin had.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
A couple of catches like they got the pieces. Cole
Comett had an awesome one handed catch. Caleb missed a
couple throws. It just I don't know, you said, Aikman, said,
he's not seeing the field. Well, I just remember Detroit
for Ben Johnson. Do you remember how Jared Goff had
so many guys schemed wide open all the time?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Did you see that?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I didn't see that rob at all.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now, I don't know if that's Caleb waiting a bit
too long, But I just remember Lyons guys just running free.
I'm on Ross Saint Brown, Jamison Williams tight ends. It
was just like great play action. Maybe he can't do
that with Caleb because he's not capable.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
There is gonna be a learning curve. It might take
a while to undo these bad habits.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
I'll go back to this.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I don't know if his analogy is great, rob, but
you remember Steph Curry, all the stories about him as
a kid. He was undersized, not strong enough, and he
shot like from his chest. I don't know if you
guys have seen in the documentary on Curry. I'm the
biggest Curry fan out there, so I have. But he
shot from his chest. So one summer, Steph Curry's tad,
who was other three point marksman in the NBA, said Hey,
(17:56):
this is going to be tough, but we're gonna get
you shooting basketball the right way.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
You're gonna hate it.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
You're gonna have to unlearn everything you did, and we're
gonna go tough love. So I'm fairly certain he didn't
play aau baalist that one summer and he essentially redid
his shot and Steph. The way Steph talked about it
was like the toughest thing you ever had to do,
because you know, you're not.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Shooting great the new way.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You were a great shooter the old way, but you
always not gonna translate and you're gonna get your shot
blocked in high school because of the release points.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
So you've got to switch it.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And it took him an entire summer and he hated it,
but it worked. Rob how long is it gonna take
Caleb Williams to undo two years of backyard football, the
final year at USC and last year in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
I don't have an answer to that. Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I mean you could say, well, why didn't they undo
it this summer? Well, it's not that easy when there's
no live action and you can't do it in the preseason,
so you got to do it on the fly. And
I hate to say it, Robert, it might take all season,
and there may be some wards and there makes me
be some calls for Pagent Badgant the backup. So I
kind of feel like that's where we're headed for Chicago.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
No, absolutely, And and this is a conversation that we've
been having since the offseason, and I know that you
got you got thrown under the bus by these you know,
Twitter finger tough guys they're talking about like, oh, Jason
don't know ball, Like go what he's talking about with Kayla.
He's reading too much into these these press conferences, right,
He's he's not really breaking it down like he's assuming
that Ben Johnson doesn't like Kayla Williams. And all it
(19:31):
took was one game for people to see everything that
you've been talking about now for six months where it's like, hey,
Caleb Williams, the things he does well, he does extremely well.
The problem is Ben Johnson doesn't coach like that. Ben
Johnson wants a Jared Goff type, just like Kyle Shanahan
wanted a Brock Purty type. Like they like guys who
(19:54):
do their system on time, on target, in rhythm. Trust
my offense, it's gonna work, Like, No, I don't need
you to do a whole bunch of razzle dazzle, spin
around for a little bit and make it like that's
not what we do. And you could see it happen
even as Caleb started ten for ten and it only
got worse as the game went on and he finished
the game. I believe it was eleven for twenty five
(20:15):
the rest of the way. Ben Johnson looked pissed throughout
the game. Chicago starts out two for two on third down,
they finished the game ozer for eleven the rest of
the way. Wow, and or she be uh one four ten.
I'm sorry I misspoke there, but it's like they're oil
(20:35):
and water, and it's one of those situations where, and
you can talk about this in any aspect of life
where just because you have the quote unquote best guy
for the job doesn't necessarily mean he's the right guy
for the job. And Caleb Williams, in my opinion, I
think you would agree, doesn't need a Ben Johnson type,
(20:57):
a Kyle Shanahan type, a Sean mcman a type. What
he needed more than anything was an ideal world.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Andy Reid.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
He's not available, right, He's there really one Andy Reid.
But could he get a Sean McDermott type. Could he
get a John Harbots. I will say, Hey, we know
what makes you great, and we want you to be great,
so we're gonna let you do those things as you develop.
We're gonna eventually rain you in Lamar Jackson. Eventually we're
gonna rain you in Josh Allen. So that two, three,
(21:27):
four years from now, those two versions you were gonna
meet right in the middle and you're gonna be awesome.
But instead Ben Johnson trying to break him down like
a wild horse, and you're seeing it before your eyes.
It's not looking great.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And we've talked about this before.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
I'm not gonna be shocked if by you know, Halloween
or even before that, you're gonna have this, this ground swell,
this drum beat for Tyson bagent because Ben Johnson is
gonna do or say something in a press conference, is
gonna leave the door open, like, well, I need better
from the quarterback. And you know, Tyson is really good
running my system. You know you saw him in the
two minutes. He was really good and we were so
impressed with it. And it's just it feels like these
(22:04):
two guys are are not a great fit together.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So how long do you give him.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Before you're like, you know what, I just he's not
that guy because I don't think if you bench him
that there's gonna be like a robust trade market where
you can recoup value for Caleb, do you just say, hey, man,
you're our guy. We will have Beigent come in if
(22:32):
it's going horribly maybe, but you're gonna start every game
this season and we'll give you the full season.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Because I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
If let's say you bench him, you know, let's just
I'm just thrown out Week seven, you bench him, Beijing
comes in and oh my gosh, he real leads a
comeback and you win. Then you've got to start Beijing,
and then it's kind of over for Caleb. I don't know,
but remember Gino Smith, by the way, your guy, Gino
three hundred and seventy two yards. He's on what his
(22:58):
third teams is the Jets drafted him. I think I
think maybe might have had a fourth, but I know
he thrived in Seattle. Sometimes it just takes guys. Baker
Mayfield's on, like his fourteen, it took him a little while,
justin Field.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Justin Field.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Oh yeah, I don only have one, but yes, yes,
this is just thirteen. I mean, I don't think it's
crazy to say Caleb could thrive somewhere else. And I mean,
I'm sure people are going to be clamoring to utilize
that skill set because I mean, you guys have seen it.
He can do things. But man, it's just not a
(23:31):
great start for Caleb Williams and the Bears.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
You know, a lot of happening around in the league.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
There was a mini trade the Eagles picked up Tank Bigsby.
It's weird because I didn't see an injury to Shipley.
I didn't see an injury to Saque. I don't know
what that's about. You know as we record this that
there is no injury in the Vikings backfield.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
They just made a move. I also saw that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
George Kittle's going to be out for several weeks and
Brock perty sort. So there's a lot of injuries. Let's
wait for a little more clarity. We'll talk about all
of that stuff tomorrow. But all of a sudden, by
the way, Russell Wilson is going to be the starter
with the Giant stable Sunday night was uncertain, and I
guess he watched the film, saw his offensive line couldn't
protect anybody, and it's like, we're not gonna get Jackson
(24:20):
Dark killed, and we do.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
We'll stick with Russ.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So a lot to chew on, obviously, Listen, I know, Rob,
you guys hardcore listeners know we love hoops. Rob, just
I got to ask, all, how closely are you tracking
euro basket? Because not only is Luka Dancic on fire,
but Lori Markinen just took down Jokic and his trade
values through the roof here. I know you're dreaming about
future Laker Lauri Markinen. I mean it's it's like EuroBasket
(24:48):
is kind of fire. Now France didn't have any of
their guys and Jason shut up. It's football time. You're
talking about European basketball. I had to ask you, Rob,
are you paying any attentions?
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Of course, I'm following every Luca game now, I'm not
following the tournament as closely as you are. Maybe I
did see that that Lori marketing pulled the upset, but yeah,
you'd be crazy not to be. If you have a
guy on your team, whoever you root for in the NBA,
and he's playing Euroball, you would be crazy not to
fall along and see what they're doing. Because I maintained
even now, you know, as of red blooded American with
(25:19):
a gun safe in my garage within our a stickers
on it, that euro League basketball is a better product
than the NBA oh, whoa, whoa. Just it's it's better basketball.
It's more diverse, it's more physical, even if they aren't
as talented or as explosive. It's just I've had enough
of high pick and roll, spray it out to three,
Like I don't, I've seen enough of that across the NBA.
(25:41):
So the way they play in euro League, and you
see what some of these guys can do if given
an opportunity away from again spread pick and roll, it
is beautiful to watch.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Uh Giannis plays on today and Turkey, Poland. I don't
know why there's any NBA guy. It's just like you're right,
it's a different brand of basketball.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It's a little.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I don't want to stay smarter and make it derogatory,
but they, like you said, they're not just jacking threes.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
It feels like two thousands hoops.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Which you know at the time was cool, but in hindsight,
you know, eighty two seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
No thanks, But it's different. It's a different game, different product.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, yeah, totally. Anyways, that's too much basketball for September.
Somebody's going to reprimand us all right, back tomorrow, talk
to you again.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up Straight Firefam, It's me Jason mcinttn entire,
Straight ow Yer for Tuesday, September ninth, and oh boy,
oh boy, the takes are gonna be hot and heavy today,
coming off of Monday night football thriller we didn't see coming.
(00:31):
I mean, three quarters of slop and then twenty eight
points in the fourth.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
So just for fun action play pizza money.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right before the game, I texted my buddy, Hey, I'm
just gonna parlay this. Why not Vikings minus one and
the over forty three? The unders were like twelve and three.
There's no way there's another under. And even though yesterday
I said on the podcast, I don't see either team
opening it up, I was like, just can't continue.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right before game, I kind of switched my.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Mind, and then I WATCHEDDS of really bad football. The
Vikings can do nothing offensively. JJ McCarthy can't hit the
broadside of a barn. The Vikings cannot run the football.
Caleb is kind of hot and cold. He had a
great first drive and then after that was eh, and
then the fourth quarters just got absolutely bonkers. Now it
(01:18):
wasn't bonkers in a good way like Bill's Ravens, but
it was it was kind of bonkers. So I think
the game I thought was over when there was a
it was third quarter.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Caleb dumps it off, Sorry not Caleb.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
JJ McCarthy dumps it off to Hockinson, who slides to
make like a two yard catch, gets up and Bears
defender punches the ball out and instantly they say, no,
it's not a fumble. He was down, and then they
show the replay and it's so crazy. I don't know
that I've seen this. So Hawkinson slides, gets up, nobody
touches him. The first touch is a punch out of
(01:55):
the football, and I'm looking at him like, I can't
believe this. I think that's a fumble.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I wasn't listening to the broadcast because you know, I'm
a dad. I gotta drive my kids around. And it
turns out if you touch the football that's like touching
the person. And so he was down by contact and
I was like, oh, that's an interesting call. So the
Vikings punt and then the Bears. I'm like, all right,
well the Bears can lock it up here. They come
down and they miss a fifty yard field goal that
(02:23):
essentially flipped the game.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It gave the Vikings new life.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
And JJ McCarthy gets a run game with Mason and
not necessarily Aaron Jones. I thought Mason was hammering away
breaks off a couple runs, and then I thought essentially
JJ McCarthy had like maybe two good throws through three quarters,
one to Nailer right before they have to get them
in the field goal, and then there was another throw.
I was like, okay, that's good. And then he throws
(02:49):
a dart to Justin Jefferson, like, oh, okay, all right,
rook Well he's not a rook but second year quarterback
in his first start. And then he throws the dart
Jefferson for the touchdowns. Okay, here we go. And then
the Bears go three and out, and all of a sudden,
you're like, oh, wait a minute, what's going on here
for Bears? And right then special teams was so good
(03:11):
for the Vikings on the returns. They had the partially
blocked punt, they had the fifty nine yard field goal.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Like, special teams was good for the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And next thing you know, McCarthy hits Aaron Jones for
a touchdown and you're like, wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
The Vikings are winning. It was so bing bang boom.
Now again.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It wasn't like a sexy Josh Allen at home crowd
going wild, Oh my gosh, what's happening. This is just
like the Bears aren't doing anything, and here come the
Vikings and the Bears another quick drive five and out
what comes then? This one was this was the one
where McCarthy it really got me. I don't want to
say I got goosebumps, but McCarthy scrambles on a great
play call by Kevin O'Connell. I think it was third
(03:52):
and ten from like the fourteen yard line, and he
runs it in and it felt like the entire team
came over to celebrate the rookie and you're like, oh,
that guy's got it. As my kids like to say,
he's got the riz. Everybody likes that guy. And the
team was just going crazy. And the Vikings went for
being down dead embarrassed seventeen six to up twenty seven seventeen.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
They end up holding on to win.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
In I mean, Kevin O'Connell was I thought it was
terrible in the first half. Way too many runs into
the line of scrimmage, on first down, and in the
second half, those runs magically opened up, and Brian Flores's
defense was like, yeah, we're gonna adjust the blitzes on Caleb.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
He's not gonna know what's coming.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We'll get to Caleb in a minute, but I want
to just at least focus on McCarthy, who, by the way,
had a bad pick six I mean Jefferson in the
flat and it was just like, hey, here you go.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Here, this is seventy four yard touchdown Bears. And after
that you.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Were like, Okay, gonna be a long season for old JJ.
And you've got all these people pushing out narratives, the Vikings,
let Sam Darnold go for this guy. We could have
drafted bo Nix instead of this guy. People were killing
him and McCarthy three touchdown drives in the fourth quarter
of his first start. Folks, Listen, I'm going back to
(05:10):
that Michigan Alabama game. It was either the first or
second play of the game. He tried to throw a
pick six to Alabama on the sideline. The Alabama kid
dropped it, and you're like, everybody's like, oh, McCarthy, I
don't know about this guy. And he was unbelievable in
that game, he was awesome in overtime. It's kind of unquantifiable, Rob,
But JJ McCarthy seems to have that it quality where
(05:36):
he can be rotten. He can make poor decisions, they
could take the football out of his hands, but when
it's crunch time, he seems to deliver. Now, there's not
a ton of evidence on this. This is his first
NFL game, but if you go back to college, Jim
Harball loved him. Maybe Harball was raving to like, you know,
gas up a guy he likes. But I thought McCarthy
(05:56):
and you know, I'm not saying he's even gonna be
brock perty And when you hear thirteen of twenty for
a buck forty three, They're like, come on. But seven
point two yards per attempt. So it wasn't all checked down, Charlie.
I mean he's throwing to Jalen Naylor, Josh Oliver, Adam
Thielen had a brutal drop justin Jefferson was on a
milk carton for most of the game. I'm sure fantasy
(06:18):
owners are pissed. And what happens in the fourth JJ
McCarthy delivers. Now, Rob, I'm not gonna go overboard and
say he's a superstar. I saw some things that were good,
but overall, I've got If you're asking me to great
JJ McCarthy's debut, you know you gotta take the picks
a fix six into account. But on the road under
(06:40):
the Monday night football lights island game where you can't hide,
this wasn't a one VM start right, I would give
him a solid B B plus. I it was not
an eight performance because the pick six, but I thought
he was kind of good.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I wish I had you as a college professor, A
B B plus.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I mean, look, the fourth quarter, he was great, right,
that's what it matters.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
But what he had was the reverse Caleb Williams game,
because Kayleb Williams was great in the first quarter and
then terrible the rest of the way. JJ McCarthy was
terrible through the first three quarters and then pretty good
in the fourth. So everyone's pointing to the fourth quarter rightfully,
So again I'm not taking it away from him. He
was money right. He finishes the fourth quarter with let
me get the exact stats here, six of eight passing,
(07:36):
one hundred and one total yards, three total touchdowns of
passer rating A one P forty nine point five. I
believe he finished with eighty eight passing yards in the
thirteen yard touchdown run, which means, if you look at
the box score here that through the first three quarters,
my guy was seven for twelve for fifty five yards
with a pick six. Not great, I mean like he was.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Worth you today for twelve for fifty six yards for.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Fifty five yards. Okay, so he was working on an
F minus game to the first three and then he
had an A plus fourth.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So I guess in final exam, how about that?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Sure, like he missed all the semester of class and
then he aced the final exam, So you know, I'd
give him a solid C plus B minus because the
way he closed the game we were talking before started recording.
I can't remember the last time I saw a quarterback
that just looked bad outright to start off a game
and then to end the game like he's he's all right,
like he's pretty good, Like I've never seen that such
(08:34):
a quick change of opinion happened in the span of
three hours. But that's what we got with JJ McCarthy,
and it looked like, to your point, that Kevin O'Connell
had the training wheels on him very early that JJ
McCarthy the moment was just a little too big. From
a start off with he was anxious. He was, you know,
missing throws, skipping him into the dirt, and the ones
he were completing were really short, you know, high completion percentage,
(08:56):
five yards down the field, whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And then as.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
The game started to unfold and you see that the
Chicago Bears, despite him playing so poorly, never got any
kind of separation. You start seeing that Caleb Williams, despite
a ridiculously hot start, tapered off in a real big
way through the rest of the game. And it's like, hey,
if I just relax a little bit and I take
(09:21):
the seven yard out route, if I give Justin Jefferson
a chance in traffic, he's gonna make something happen. With
you did. And if you watched on the touchdown pass,
him and Naylor I think were like five yards apart.
It was terrible spacing. But he say, if I throw
it as hard as I can in the direction of
Justin Jefferson, I can trust that it's not gonna get
knocked up into the air and intercepted. It's either gonna
(09:43):
be a catch or it's gonna be incomplete. And Justin
Jefferson snagged it, goes down for the touchdown, and then
you see him kind of settle in and he starts
making big throw after big throw after big throw.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And it was a great rebound performance by JJ McCarthy.
Some of this was Bear self inflicted.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Twelve penalties for one hundred and twenty these seven yards,
I mean, that is that's not great. I guess we
should probably talk about Kleb will and actually let's do
Ben Johnson first. So the Bears get the touchdown from
Caleb to Roma Dunes thee to cut it to three.
There's two what was it like two oh six left
something less right around there, two six too. Essentially, what
(10:21):
they needed to do was not let the clock start
so that they could get the two minute warning and
then use the timeout and then have like, I don't know,
fifty ish seconds. Okay, yeah, there was two minutes to
two seconds left, and I don't know if this is
on the kicker or Ben Johnson. We're recording right after
the game, so we haven't heard Ben Johnson speak. Maybe
(10:44):
he ordered Santos to kick it out of the end
zone and he didn't have the leg for it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
But in a pretty cool moment, they kick it off.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Ty Chandler catches it like six or seven yards deep
and the camera is zooming in. He's looking at Kevin
O'Connell on the bench for direction. Kevin O'Connell, wait, come
on out, come on out, and Chaeler runs it out
and burns off seven seconds so they don't get the
two minute warning. Listen, man, rookie coach, first game, that's
not great. Now, these are the moments now, Rob and
(11:13):
again in a one PM game, when there's nine other
games happening, this is like, oh damn, that's terrible. In
a Monday night football game, this is going to get destroyed.
And you know, Ben Johnson, that is brick civvy. So
I think Ben overall, I don't know that he had
a great game. I mean, that really hurt a lot.
(11:35):
It didn't help them obviously, But I am curious your
thoughts on Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Robin his debut.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Very uneven, very uneven, and it started early, like we mentioned,
Kayler Williams came out by his stand like Gangbuster, started
out of ten for ten, had a touchdown run seven.
I think, bing bang boom, right off the top. And
I was watching the game in the studio during the
radio show. And you've been to the studio plenty of times.
We have all these big screens, but the problem is
(12:03):
because we're on live radio, we can't hear what's being said, right.
And I remember putting out a tweet like, hey, backyard,
Caleb is playing really well right now, like he's scrambling,
making things happen. He starts off six for six, touchdown
and he looked great in my opinion. And then I
start getting these dms and these responses on my Twitter
feed and they're saying, hey, Troy Aikman is ripping him
(12:24):
on this broadcast. Now, obviously he's not really troyan the
guy's gonna rip somebody, you know that's just thinking out
of context or whatever. But what was being told to
me and these messages was Troy Aikman, even though he's
completing these passes, keeps pointing out like, hey, I know
that looked great and he made something happen and he
got eight nine yards there on that play, But there's
(12:44):
a guy wide open about fifteen yards down the field
if you would to hit him. Hey, I know that
that was a good plast. It was a completed and
it was a seven yard game and they moved the chains.
But if he hits him in stride, that seven yard
pass turns into like twenty one because there's no one
in front of him, And that was being pointed out
over and over and over. And one thing I did notice,
(13:05):
even with the sound off I was watching the game
is after that touchdown run in the first opening drive
by Kayla Williams, they quickly panned over to Ben Johnson
and he looked like someone had shot his dog, Like
he did not look happy at all with whatever he
was just seeing. And I'm thinking, again, because I'm not
listening to the sound is maybe Ben Johnson sees what
(13:25):
Roygman's talking about, where it's like, hey, I know, this
looks great, and those numbers look fine, and yeah, we
scored a touchdown and that's awesome, but we are not
playing within structure. We're not doing the things that I
need you to do for us to be successful. And
We saw that play out the rest of the game
because once the backyard stuff got shut down by Brian Floores,
there was no cohesion whatso there was no rhythm whatsoever
(13:48):
with that Lion's offense. And so Ben Johnson, for all
of his gifts and his mad genius, he doesn't seem
like kind of guy who's kind of relating to his players,
not the kind of guy who's like a raw rob
Mike Tomlin even at John Harbough. Yeah, and so you
couple that with the late game blunder by not having
the kicker or maybe he did see it in the
BOS game. That was just a clear f up by
(14:13):
him and by that staff. So somebody dropped the ball.
Very uneven night for Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So I guess we say the best or worst for last,
and that would be Caleb Williams. I don't want to
crush the kid, but it certainly feels like people are
rooting for him to fail. The expectations are just out
of They just don't make sense with what I'm seeing
(14:53):
in Caleb Williams. Was he good at times last year? Sure,
but we talked about the backyard football thing. And then
you see like he's on the run towards the sideline
and fires a laser to Roma Dunze and it's like, oh,
that's a hell of a pass on the run, Caleb,
He's got some juice. But that was the scripted drive
from Ben Johnson. And you look at I don't know,
(15:15):
the fourth quarter. I mean, hell, the second half, Brian
Flores adjusted. Here are the Bears second half drives. We've
got three and out. We've got five plays twenty three yards, punt,
eleven plays forty four yards, miss field goal, three plays
negative nine yards, five plays eight yards, then down ten.
(15:37):
They opened things up five for sixty five in less
than a minute for the touchdown. But that was like
chuck and duck. You know, you need points in the
vikings during the prevent. I don't know, Rob, I don't
want to crush Kayleb Williams, but I'm not seeing the
growth now again, that might be unfair, Jason. One game,
he's got a new head coach. Can you give it
(15:58):
some time?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Twenty one to thirty five, six yards per attempt, six
scrambles for fifty eight yards. I mean he had a
good game in the box score, no turnovers.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I guess you could say Caleb isn't the reason they lost,
but he got outplayed when it mattered most in the
fourth by a guy making his first start on the road.
And again Ben Johnson has to has to give him
his best stuff. I mean, hell, JJ McCarthy was without
his left tackle, Daversaw. You know, I act for one
(16:35):
of the top left tackles in the league. He didn't play.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And so I mean, what kind of excuses are there
for Caleb? I mean DJ Moore looks good, Dunsa looks good.
Colston Lovelin had.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
A couple of catches like they got the pieces. Cole
Comett had an awesome one handed catch. Caleb missed a
couple throws. It just I don't know, you said, Aikman, said,
he's not seeing the field. Well, I just remember Detroit
for Ben Johnson. Do you remember how Jared Goff had
so many guys schemed wide open all the time?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Did you see that?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I didn't see that rob at all.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now, I don't know if that's Caleb waiting a bit
too long, But I just remember Lyons guys just running free.
I'm on Ross Saint Brown, Jamison Williams tight ends. It
was just like great play action. Maybe he can't do
that with Caleb because he's not capable.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
There is gonna be a learning curve. It might take
a while to undo these bad habits.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
I'll go back to this.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I don't know if his analogy is great, rob, but
you remember Steph Curry, all the stories about him as
a kid. He was undersized, not strong enough, and he
shot like from his chest. I don't know if you
guys have seen in the documentary on Curry. I'm the
biggest Curry fan out there, so I have. But he
shot from his chest. So one summer, Steph Curry's tad,
who was other three point marksman in the NBA, said Hey,
(17:56):
this is going to be tough, but we're gonna get
you shooting basketball the right way.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
You're gonna hate it.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
You're gonna have to unlearn everything you did, and we're
gonna go tough love. So I'm fairly certain he didn't
play aau baalist that one summer and he essentially redid
his shot and Steph. The way Steph talked about it
was like the toughest thing you ever had to do,
because you know, you're not.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Shooting great the new way.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You were a great shooter the old way, but you
always not gonna translate and you're gonna get your shot
blocked in high school because of the release points.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
So you've got to switch it.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And it took him an entire summer and he hated it,
but it worked. Rob how long is it gonna take
Caleb Williams to undo two years of backyard football, the
final year at USC and last year in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
I don't have an answer to that. Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I mean you could say, well, why didn't they undo
it this summer? Well, it's not that easy when there's
no live action and you can't do it in the preseason,
so you got to do it on the fly. And
I hate to say it, Robert, it might take all season,
and there may be some wards and there makes me
be some calls for Pagent Badgant the backup. So I
kind of feel like that's where we're headed for Chicago.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
No, absolutely, And and this is a conversation that we've
been having since the offseason, and I know that you
got you got thrown under the bus by these you know,
Twitter finger tough guys they're talking about like, oh, Jason
don't know ball, Like go what he's talking about with Kayla.
He's reading too much into these these press conferences, right,
He's he's not really breaking it down like he's assuming
that Ben Johnson doesn't like Kayla Williams. And all it
(19:31):
took was one game for people to see everything that
you've been talking about now for six months where it's like, hey,
Caleb Williams, the things he does well, he does extremely well.
The problem is Ben Johnson doesn't coach like that. Ben
Johnson wants a Jared Goff type, just like Kyle Shanahan
wanted a Brock Purty type. Like they like guys who
(19:54):
do their system on time, on target, in rhythm. Trust
my offense, it's gonna work, Like, No, I don't need
you to do a whole bunch of razzle dazzle, spin
around for a little bit and make it like that's
not what we do. And you could see it happen
even as Caleb started ten for ten and it only
got worse as the game went on and he finished
the game. I believe it was eleven for twenty five
(20:15):
the rest of the way. Ben Johnson looked pissed throughout
the game. Chicago starts out two for two on third down,
they finished the game ozer for eleven the rest of
the way. Wow, and or she be uh one four ten.
I'm sorry I misspoke there, but it's like they're oil
(20:35):
and water, and it's one of those situations where, and
you can talk about this in any aspect of life
where just because you have the quote unquote best guy
for the job doesn't necessarily mean he's the right guy
for the job. And Caleb Williams, in my opinion, I
think you would agree, doesn't need a Ben Johnson type,
(20:57):
a Kyle Shanahan type, a Sean mcman a type. What
he needed more than anything was an ideal world.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Andy Reid.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
He's not available, right, He's there really one Andy Reid.
But could he get a Sean McDermott type. Could he
get a John Harbots. I will say, Hey, we know
what makes you great, and we want you to be great,
so we're gonna let you do those things as you develop.
We're gonna eventually rain you in Lamar Jackson. Eventually we're
gonna rain you in Josh Allen. So that two, three,
(21:27):
four years from now, those two versions you were gonna
meet right in the middle and you're gonna be awesome.
But instead Ben Johnson trying to break him down like
a wild horse, and you're seeing it before your eyes.
It's not looking great.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And we've talked about this before.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
I'm not gonna be shocked if by you know, Halloween
or even before that, you're gonna have this, this ground swell,
this drum beat for Tyson bagent because Ben Johnson is
gonna do or say something in a press conference, is
gonna leave the door open, like, well, I need better
from the quarterback. And you know, Tyson is really good
running my system. You know you saw him in the
two minutes. He was really good and we were so
impressed with it. And it's just it feels like these
(22:04):
two guys are are not a great fit together.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So how long do you give him.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Before you're like, you know what, I just he's not
that guy because I don't think if you bench him
that there's gonna be like a robust trade market where
you can recoup value for Caleb, do you just say, hey, man,
you're our guy. We will have Beigent come in if
(22:32):
it's going horribly maybe, but you're gonna start every game
this season and we'll give you the full season.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Because I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
If let's say you bench him, you know, let's just
I'm just thrown out Week seven, you bench him, Beijing
comes in and oh my gosh, he real leads a
comeback and you win. Then you've got to start Beijing,
and then it's kind of over for Caleb. I don't know,
but remember Gino Smith, by the way, your guy, Gino
three hundred and seventy two yards. He's on what his
(22:58):
third teams is the Jets drafted him. I think I
think maybe might have had a fourth, but I know
he thrived in Seattle. Sometimes it just takes guys. Baker
Mayfield's on, like his fourteen, it took him a little while,
justin Field.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Justin Field.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Oh yeah, I don only have one, but yes, yes,
this is just thirteen. I mean, I don't think it's
crazy to say Caleb could thrive somewhere else. And I mean,
I'm sure people are going to be clamoring to utilize
that skill set because I mean, you guys have seen it.
He can do things. But man, it's just not a
(23:31):
great start for Caleb Williams and the Bears.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
You know, a lot of happening around in the league.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
There was a mini trade the Eagles picked up Tank Bigsby.
It's weird because I didn't see an injury to Shipley.
I didn't see an injury to Saque. I don't know
what that's about. You know as we record this that
there is no injury in the Vikings backfield.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
They just made a move. I also saw that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
George Kittle's going to be out for several weeks and
Brock perty sort. So there's a lot of injuries. Let's
wait for a little more clarity. We'll talk about all
of that stuff tomorrow. But all of a sudden, by
the way, Russell Wilson is going to be the starter
with the Giant stable Sunday night was uncertain, and I
guess he watched the film, saw his offensive line couldn't
protect anybody, and it's like, we're not gonna get Jackson
(24:20):
Dark killed, and we do.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
We'll stick with Russ.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So a lot to chew on, obviously, Listen, I know, Rob,
you guys hardcore listeners know we love hoops. Rob, just
I got to ask, all, how closely are you tracking
euro basket? Because not only is Luka Dancic on fire,
but Lori Markinen just took down Jokic and his trade
values through the roof here. I know you're dreaming about
future Laker Lauri Markinen. I mean it's it's like EuroBasket
(24:48):
is kind of fire. Now France didn't have any of
their guys and Jason shut up. It's football time. You're
talking about European basketball. I had to ask you, Rob,
are you paying any attentions?
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Of course, I'm following every Luca game now, I'm not
following the tournament as closely as you are. Maybe I
did see that that Lori marketing pulled the upset, but yeah,
you'd be crazy not to be. If you have a
guy on your team, whoever you root for in the NBA,
and he's playing Euroball, you would be crazy not to
fall along and see what they're doing. Because I maintained
even now, you know, as of red blooded American with
(25:19):
a gun safe in my garage within our a stickers
on it, that euro League basketball is a better product
than the NBA oh, whoa, whoa. Just it's it's better basketball.
It's more diverse, it's more physical, even if they aren't
as talented or as explosive. It's just I've had enough
of high pick and roll, spray it out to three,
Like I don't, I've seen enough of that across the NBA.
(25:41):
So the way they play in euro League, and you
see what some of these guys can do if given
an opportunity away from again spread pick and roll, it
is beautiful to watch.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Uh Giannis plays on today and Turkey, Poland. I don't
know why there's any NBA guy. It's just like you're right,
it's a different brand of basketball.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It's a little.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I don't want to stay smarter and make it derogatory,
but they, like you said, they're not just jacking threes.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
It feels like two thousands hoops.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Which you know at the time was cool, but in hindsight,
you know, eighty two seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
No thanks, But it's different. It's a different game, different product.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, yeah, totally. Anyways, that's too much basketball for September.
Somebody's going to reprimand us all right, back tomorrow, talk
to you again.
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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