Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
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Sports Radio. Ah, it's a Monday. This is The Herd,
(00:25):
wherever you may be, and however you may be listening
live in Los Angeles iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and FS
one one hour from now on a Monday. Where Colin
was right, where Colin was wrong, I got Shannon Sharpe,
I got Peter King, I got Rod Woodson, I got
Trendil for Jamie Maggio sitting in today. Joey Taylor got
caught up in a blizzard in the Midwest, which I
(00:46):
guess the whole country except where we live, is you know,
under duress with weather. So it's great to have you
on on a Monday. Thank you. Great to have you.
I've been watching you on NFL sidelines and doing all
sorts of stuff. So let me start with this. Um.
You know, it's the old movie line, show me the money.
I'm more of a show me the evidence. If you're
gonna tell me you're great, I gotta see you're great. Stats,
(01:07):
super Bowls rings. Aaron Rodgers is now one and nine
in his last ten road games. I know, I know.
It's not his fault. It never is. It's his defense.
Oh wait, they're third in the NFL and sacks. It's
his running game, he doesn't have one. No, Actually, Aaron
Jones's dynamic averaging over six yards to carry. Mike McCarthy's
a buffoon. Really, he resurrected Brett Farbes's career. Come on, now,
(01:30):
come on, now, show me the evidence. You gotta give
me something. Stats, now Breeze has those trophies, no tom
as those. You gotta show me something. You gotta show
me some evidence. You've been telling me, all you media
guys and all you fans for a decade have been
telling me, oh, he's got a great arm, great arm,
great arm. All right, so did Jeff George. I mean
a million guys have a great arms the NFL. Joe
(01:52):
Flacle's got a great arm. Show me the evidence. Ask yourself,
this is that you know how they write those business
books on what it takes to be a great leader
and a great CEO. You can go to a library,
go to Amazon dot com, look up business books. There's
a million of them. I've read a handful in my life.
Here's the qualities they never say make a great leader.
(02:13):
Aloof condescending, arrogant, difficult to work with. Those are not
qualities of Aaron Rodgers. Those are now his brand. If
I say to you hall of Fame quarterback, condescending, you
think Aaron Rodgers, hall of Fame quarterback, aloof hard to play.
You're saying Karon Rodgers. It's like saying Joe Flacco's inaccurate.
That's his brand. That's not a quality, that's who he is.
(02:35):
Jay Cutler, Moody, that's not a quality. That's his brand.
Tom Brady driven, passionate, not a quality. That's his brand.
I mean Aaron Rodgers. You notice this with Green Bay.
The longer he's there, the uglier it gets. Because people
that are difficult to work with. You can tolerate him
for a year, deal with him for two, appease him,
(02:56):
play catum for four, but after about nine you want
to strangle him. But Colin, you're picking on Aaron Rodgers.
Why the hell would I do that? Do I pick
on Lebron? Do I pick on Steph Curry? Do I
pick on Roger Feeder? Do I pick on Serena? When
have I ever picked on the Great? Do I pick on?
Do I pick on the Warriors? Do I pick on
Tom Brady? Do I pick on Russell Wilson? Do I
pick on Andrew Luck? Do I pick on Drew Brees?
(03:18):
Who do I pick? I picked on Tebow because he
wasn't very good? I pick on Westbrook? Great but hard
to play with? And yes, yes I pick on Aaron Rodgers.
No I don't. I'm honest, and you're all coming around now.
I used to get a lot of pushback on this.
I used to get nothing but hate mall. You don't
know what you're talking about. You know what I get now? Silence?
(03:40):
And that's what I know. I'm right because fans are
not going to admit they're wrong. I get that. That's OK.
It's part of the deal I have. Do you call
me out? I have a right wrong segment fifty minutes
from now. But when fans disappear, that's when you're right.
The Westbrook fans they don't, they don't pushback. They just disappeared.
The Aaron Rodgers fans, they don't push back, they just disappeared.
(04:03):
I don't hear from him anymore. I mean, again, I'm
not saying it's all Aaron's fault, but he can't take
a little blame. He's not a little or off to
work with. I have four former packers I know, all
said the same thing. Farv McCarthy got along great Aaron
McCarthy Major fishers one and nine, last ten on the road.
(04:24):
And here's another thing that again, don't I'm not a
big believer in just stat stat stats, because I think
we all know Aaron can play. I'm not saying it's
all his fault, but you got to say some of it,
some of it's his fault. I mean, nobody else is
this bad on the road. Breeze isn't. Man Ryan's not,
Brady's not, Russell Wilson's not. They're not struggling like this.
(04:46):
They don't all have good coaches, right, they don't all
have legends, they don't have all of famers, they don't
all have running games at all. They're not they're not
losing road quarterbacks. But here's a stat, here's a stat.
Show me the money, show me the evidence. So Breeze
has the stats, Tom has the trophies. Aaron Rodgers is
now oh and thirty seven after last night's lost to
(05:07):
the Vikings. He is now oh for thirty seven when
he enters the fourth quarter of any game trailing by
more than a point, and the team he is playing
in that moment, at that moment has a winning record.
Now think about that. Aaron Rodgers has never won a
game and thirty seven when he enters the fourth quarter
(05:29):
trailing by more than one point against the team in
that moment. Now, that may not be a great team,
many of them aren't, but in that moment, they have
a winning record. Come on now, I mean, come on now.
The things I criticize him for are fair. His critics
have My critics have gotten quiet. And that's what I know.
(05:50):
I'm right. And nobody's saying he won't have another five years.
Get the perfect coach for him. But what is made
big Ben Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, John Ellwit
what has made them great is overcoming. John Elway for
(06:12):
years got to Super Bowls with no running game. Brady
for years has gotten to Super Bowls without dynamic playmakers.
Brees has gotten to the playoffs and a super Bowl
without a dominating defense. Peyton Manning only had one great
defense until he got to Denver. You keep telling me
Aaron's the best. But the best don't need a perfect
(06:33):
football team to win on the road. The best, like
Andrew Luck, overcome deficiencies to get to the playoffs, overcome
average defense is soco running games. You keep telling me, well,
he needs the right coach. I'm not saying he and
McCarthy are a good mix. But does he need Sean McVay?
(06:56):
Does he need the perfect running game and the perfect defense,
and the perfect coach and the perfect schedule? Because the
greats don't the greats overcome Lebroun gets the Finals without
an all star, the Kevin Durant. You look at the
all time greats, very rarely do they have the perfect
(07:17):
football team. They overcome all sorts of deficiencies to get
you there. That's all I'm saying. Show me the money,
show me the evidence. Aaron Rodgers should be in the
greatest of All Time conversation. Let me shift gears to
the Steelers. So everybody's gonna beat up on Big Ben today.
(07:38):
I get it. Terrible interception late. I get it today,
every this morning, every sports radio host, man, woman's going
to crush him. I would like to point out that
James Connor red zone fumble, fumbled the ball when there
was nobody around him, and at the end of the
first half, a tight end fumbled the ball out of
the red zone and they lost possession. Those weren't Ben's
(07:59):
full right. But here's here's the number I want you
to look at. Not the score, not the score. Here's
what I want you to look at. Big Ben was
forty one of fifty six passing and I want you
to think about fifty six pass attempts. Fifty six pass attempts.
He leads the NFL and pass attempts this year. And
(08:20):
that's on a good team that generally doesn't trail games
late and half to pass, with a good team with
a legitimate running game that could run the ball. The
Pittsburgh Steelers allowed him yesterday to throw the ball fifty
six times. Why is that a big deal. Here's why
it's a big deal. You parents out there, you can
brag about your kids grades. Oh, little Johnny got an
(08:44):
A plus. Little Susie's a perfect student. All you parents
out there, you can brag about your kids sports accomplishments.
He hit a home run, she scored a goal. But
you know when you got good kids, when you can
leave for the weekend and try them. There's alcohol in
the house. The key to the BMW's there, and the
(09:05):
parents can go, we're going camping for four days. Make
sure you take care of your brothers and sisters. Then
you got a good kid, you can trust them. The
Pittsburgh Steelers with a running game, said Ben, we're leaving
for the weekend. Throw at fifty six times. Lamar Jackson's
(09:26):
really good last two games. Media falls in love with them.
Just forty four attempts in two games. Their babysitting him.
Baker Mayfield's amazing last two games combined, forty six attempts.
They're babysitting him. Those teams are telling you what they
think of Lamar and Baker. They like them, they got talent.
But when those parents leave, they call the nanny, they
(09:47):
call the babysitter. They make sure there's eyes on the quarterback,
not Big Ben. That family's going to Europe for eight days.
There's alcohol all over the house, keys of the car,
and they're like, we trust you. Watch your brother and sister.
We're going to France. We'll be back in eight days.
When you allow a quarterback in Denver good defense, two
(10:10):
great pass rushers on the road throw it fifty six times,
that is incredible respect by an organization. They're just saying, listen, man,
we don't We don't tell Ben not to do this
and not to do that. We don't. We don't tell
Ben stay away from here. Only throw here. Mitch Trubisky.
(10:32):
Everybody loves Mitch Trubisky. He's twenty second in pass attempts.
What's that telling you? Twenty second in pass attempts. That's
telling you even with good running backs, even with Matt Nagge,
the Bears are telling you there are certain times we're
not going to let him throw it, and there are
certain places we're not going to let him throw it.
(10:53):
So I'm not saying Big Ben didn't have a really,
really terrible throw, and I'm not going to defend that throw.
But man, never forget. When RG three beat Andrew Luck
for Rookie of the Year, I pushed back, and I said,
RG Three's thrown at eighteen times a game. Luck's thrown
at forty. The Colts were telling you what they thought
(11:16):
of their rookie quarterback, and so was Washington. Good stuff
today were absolutely packed Shannon Sharp, Peter King, Trent Bill
for Rod Woodson forty five minutes from now, Colin right,
Colin wrong. Coming up is that sometimes I'll say things
(11:38):
and your reaction will be as a hot take. He's
getting clicks, and then like a week later, you're like,
maybe onto something. I'll talk about who's my MVP and
who's the runner up? And I think I'm onto something
that's next. In The Herd. Be sure to catch live
(11:58):
editions of The Herd week He's a noun Easter nine
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeartRadio app. Looking for the perfect holiday gift, look no
further than Untuck at the original untucked shirt shirts designed
to be worn untucked, right length, perfect look to untucket
dot com promo code heard h r D h e
r D for twenty percent off. Jamie Majio sitting in
for Joey Taylor, who's stuck in the beautiful Midwest which
(12:21):
happened to be cold and there's a blizzard going on.
Shannon Sharpe joins us Trentdille for Peter King, Rod Woodson
and Top of the Hour forty minutes from now. Where
Colin was right, Where Colin was wrong. It's a Monday.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I'll tell a
story maybe later. I sneezed yesterday driving to work and
my nose exploded. My car was full of blood. I know,
Gooley it was. It looked like a crime scene. I'll
(12:42):
get into that later. I have a shirt in my
car right now. It's covered with blood. But you know what,
who cares. Nobody cares about that. Here's what we care about.
So sometimes I'll say stuff and you know, the Internet
reacts hot take click. It's amazing how often about a
week later you're like calling up hears to actually watch
the games. I said last week nothing against Patrick Mahomes,
(13:06):
but in the two biggest games of the year, New
England and the Rams, he had seven turnovers. He's not
my MVP. My MVP is Drew Brees, and I said
number two is Andrew Luck. I got nothing but pushback.
And after this weekend, my MVP race is Drew Brees one,
Andrew Luck two, and who gives a rip number three?
(13:27):
There isn't a third Big Ben knocked himself out. Mahomes
hasn't been good in the biggest games. Andrew Luck's unbelievable
three plus touchdowns in eight straight games. The Colts don't
have a number two wide receiver. What about Eric Ebroun,
What about him? He was a bust in Detroit. Every
team in the NFL that you like, Pittsburgh, the Bears,
(13:51):
Kansas City, the Chargers, the Rams, the Saints, Houston, you
can name seven or eight of their players. They've got
stars J J. Watt, DeShawn Watson. I mean you go
look at Houston, Jadeve and Clowney. They got this star,
they got this guy, this got wide receiver they got
There's one exception of this. The one team that's in
a playoff race that has nobody outside of the quarterback,
(14:13):
you know, is the Colts. They don't have a number
two wide receiver, they don't have a star running back.
In fact, if I said named their top five players,
not counting Andrew Luck, I could make an argument their
rookie left guard, their rookie linebacker who you didn't see
play a game in college, are two of their top
(14:34):
three players. Who is their second corner, their right tackle,
who is their best linebacker outside of the rookie? You
can't even name players. I mean, it's amazing to me
think about this. Indianapolis not only has a new head
coach and a first ear head coach, he wasn't even
the first head coach they hired. They hired another guy
(14:55):
and settled for Frank Reich. And I'm not saying Frank
Reich isn't really good. I think he's been terrific and
his reputation. I said this on this show a couple
of years ago. Everybody was talking about Frank Reich. He
deserves a lot of credit. He's been terrific. The Eagles
aren't the same offense without him. But you know, the
knock on this guy was interceptions, sixteen tds, three picks
in the last five games, and again without a number
(15:17):
two wide receiver, without a star running back, with two
rookies starting on the offensive line, and a bust tight end,
a bust now with twelve touchdowns this year. Eric Ebron
had eleven touchdowns in his entire career with Matt Stafford.
Other teams are littered with offensive talent. Look at the Rams,
(15:40):
look at the Chargers, look at the Steelers, look at
the Chiefs, look at the Saints, and there was a
plan in the fourth quarter yesterday. And I don't like
to bang on play calling, but I don't know what
Adam Gase was doing late in that game, going super
conservative on the Miami Dolphins last drive with about two
minutes left and basically given Andrew Luck to football in
great field position at like the thirty five or forty.
(16:01):
I don't know what he was doing, but there was
a play by Andrew Luck late that just it just
embodies everything about Andrew Luck. This was the biggest play
of the weekend for him. Third and nine. Luck ducks
the pass rush, throwing deep, he has a man opening,
He's got him. That's Chester Rogers. Whereas athleticism pays off again,
(16:23):
Big Strong can't knock him down, gets his eyes downfield,
it makes the big play again. It's not a hot take,
it's not looking for clicks. I said it a week ago.
I'll say it again. The MVP of this league is
Drew Brees. Second place is Andrew Luck. Third, Who cares?
These guys have set most valuable Player? Give Patrick Mahomes,
(16:49):
these players give Andrew Luck. Travis Kelsey Kareem Hunt, Andy
Reid's play design, Sammy Watkins as his second best receiver.
DA give Andrew luck, That give Ma Holmes. This Colts
team Rah not close. Here's Jamie Magio with the news. No, no,
(17:13):
this is the herd Line news. All right, Colins. So
yesterday Bengals and Browns gave an opportunity for Baker Mayfield
to face his former coach and Hugh Jackson. Baker had
a nice little game and afterwards there was kind of
this awkward moment. It's like, here's a hug. Hey, they
want to have a hug as well. No, it's just
gonna be a handshake. So a slightly awkward moment there. Baker,
(17:34):
what he said after the game is what I want
to talk about. He said, good job, good game. Yeah,
that was brief. Didn't feel like talking left Cleveland goes
down to Cincinnati. I don't know. That's just somebody that
was in our locker room asking for us to play
for him and then goes to a different team we
played twice a year. Everybody can have their spin on it,
(17:55):
but that's how I feel. It's just like any rivalry game.
That's just how it is now. That's how I'm gonna
treat it every time. Plan But it's it's nothing, you know,
there's no hate. That's just how it is. That's how
I'm gonna treat it. And I think that's our teams
should treat it too. I'd rather he not go there.
I'd rather Baker like extinguish that, not poor Gasolene on it, right,
like that's what. But again, this this is sort of
(18:17):
his brand, this is what he is. This is why
again he'll win a bunch of games in this league.
But I'll take Russell Wilson, I'll take Andrew Luck, I'll
take Breeze, I'll take Brady, I'll take guys who would
put a wet blanket on that moment, not elevate it.
I don't want to can of Gasolene. I want a
fire extinguisher. I don't want any of this nonsense. But
you know that's I think I'm in the minority. I'm
(18:39):
I'm with you on this one. A. You're a rookie quarterback,
respect your elder's young man. But b do you remember
the steps that Baker took in his college career whever
he played for Texas Tech and then left and went
to OU. Yes, a conference rival, Yes, come on now. Yeah. Also,
I'm I am a big supporter of athletes who I'm
a big supporter of mobility. So if an Kevin Durant left,
(19:03):
my thing is coaches leave, owners leave, owners leave cities, GM's,
and coaches leave team Kevin Durant can go where we want.
So for Baker to get a little, you know, to
get petty with this, I just it's not what I
want my quarterback to do. But I do think most
people disagree with me, and they just kind of like
this stuff with Baker. They like this chippiness that it's
a thing for them. I'm not down with the pettiness.
(19:23):
By the way, Baker's numbers have actually improved, yeapeistically since
he was left. So what are you complaining about, kid?
What are you upset about? Now? I'm gonna get more
credit later. But that that's a real thing. That is
a real thing. Yeah. You know what else is a
real thing. The fact that the Giants didn't come out
of the locker room at halftime yesterday against the Eagles.
Odell Beckham, you just said a moment ago during coltestaffins
you don't like to bang on play calling. But I
(19:44):
want you to wig in on this after we get
to the sound bite. But Odell Beckham essentially sort of
calling out Pat Shermer's play calling in the second half
of the game after he and se Quon had big
first halfs. Here here's O'Dell coming in knowing that they
struggled in the secondary. Personally, I would I would have
loved to attack them, but it wasn't in our game plans.
(20:05):
I don't call the place. I just do what I'm
told to do and go out there and execute. Whenever
I get opportunity to do something, I try and make
the most of it. If I don't have the many opportunities,
all I can do is do what I can when
I do have an opportunity. So that's more of a
question for coach. I was more bewildered by the lack
of Barkley, and I think, you know what I think happens.
(20:27):
What happened. Remember on Monday, everybody loves Sean McVay, Todd
Gurley disappeared. We're in this time now where everybody all
this flash and all this fireworks and all this stuff.
Coaches are like competing against other coach I've seen Todd
Gurley disappear. I've seen se Quon Barkley disappear. It's like
coaches running the football. Did you watch New England this
(20:48):
weekend with Sony Michelle. New England's not buying into the flash,
They're not doing new stuff. New England's just running the football.
So I'm seeing this now as a trend where coaches
are moving away from really good backs who had really
good games, or really good halves. It's becoming a trend
in the league. Well, I don't care if it's your
receivers making plays or if it's your running back. Do
(21:09):
you want to go with passing game or go at
the running game? But they went with no game. They
had three hundred forty six yards in the first half
and then the Eagles hold them to fifty six yards
in the second half. That that doesn't make any sense
to me. And if you're you know, I'm a Giant,
Stan Collins is hard for me to talk about. It's
a little Monday morning therapy for me right now. But
if you're the Giants, are they tanking? Is that what
this is? No? No, no, I think they were outplayed late.
(21:30):
I still love Carson Wentz. No I don't think they are.
I think they played good for two games and a half.
Sometimes teams make adjustments, sometimes teams don't adjust. That it
was a team adjusting better at half than the other
team being a division rival. For the love of God,
all right, last one for you, Colin. Let's talk about
Lebron James. I know you'd like to talk about Lebron James.
People coming into the season said, oh, will he be
(21:52):
able to play alongside Lonzo or better? Yet, the question
is would Lonzo be able to play alongside Lebron? Well,
Lebron has been singing his praises lately. Times he doesn't
realize how great he is and how you know, the
things that he possesses out on the floor and when
he when he when Zoe realized how good he is
on the floor, Um, it makes him a very dynamic
(22:14):
player and it makes us even better and um, and
he's and he's been doing that as of late. You know,
his his aggressiveness and even when he's not making just
his attack. If he's seen early in the game, just
him getting to the rim and he missed a couple
of them, you know, that's absolutely fine. He had a
couple of charges that's absolutely fine. You know, when he's aggressive,
it just changes our dynamic as a team. And you
(22:35):
know he's been doing that as late, and we need
him to continue to do that. By the way, Lonzo
still should be a junior in college. Let's slow down
on crushing all these young kids. Only Kyle Kuzma went
to school for years. You know. I mean, I know
everybody hates the NZ double A. But we bring these
kids at nineteen into the league. I don't know if
they're emotionally ready for this league. So Lonzo is still growing.
He's a kid. He's still a young kid. Is he twenty?
(23:00):
He can't drink in the state of California. He couldn't
have a beer if he wanted one on the way home.
Let's slow down hyper ventilating and crushing guys who were
nineteen years old twenty years old in this league. By
the way, the metrics back up Lonzo's impact. Both of
LA's top two lineups by offensive rating include Lonzo in
that Oh they do, they do good stuff. By the way,
Lebron James is your hype man. That'd be nice. I'd
(23:21):
like to have him as he's a good marketing guy.
Man Jamie with the news. Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the herd line. Many believe he's
the greatest tight end to ever play the game. He
was a Hall of Famer inducted seven years ago, eight
Pro Bowls, a Super Bowl champ, and he was drafted
by the Broncos in the seventh round. He should have
a chip on his shoulder, but he doesn't. Shannon Sharpe
(23:43):
joining US. I only get Shannon like twice a year,
so I always appreciate you're a busy man. Let's start
with a couple of things I haven't talked about. So
I watched the Patriots and the Jets. You could have
taken that tape nine years ago. It looked like every
Patriots win over the Jet. It was boring, it wasn't dynamic.
What was your takeaway on it? Um, Like you mentioned,
(24:06):
the Jets aren't a very good football team, and the
Patriots do what they do. The Patriots don't beat themselves.
If you beat the Patriots, you know you've beating a
very good football team. And there's a very good chance
you didn't turn the football over because you turned the
football over against this team, they'll normally beat you, but
you know something's going unnoticed. I don't think Tom Brady's
playing particularly well. Colin. He's twenty twenty first in completion percentage,
(24:29):
he's sixteenth in yards per attempt, he's fourteenth in touchdown passes. Now,
for any other quarterback, we're like, okay, But for him,
there's something going on here. Now, his numbers they end
up being well. But I didn't think he played particularly well.
Didn't I didn't think played And by the way, the
minute they could go to the running game, they did. Yes,
(24:50):
you know, outside of the Gronk play. I didn't really
throw it down the field, mind, And he really shouldn't
have thrown that ball because they had safety help over
the top. He got away with one because that's what
Gronk can do. He can you can make a mistake
and throwing the ball where you shouldn't have thrown it.
And Gronk is so big as catch radius is so
huge that he can make a play that normal tight
ends or other receivers can't be able to make because
(25:10):
they're not as big as he is. But if you
look at Gronk yesterday, I was surprised because they played
him a lot of single coverage with Jamal Adams, and
I never thought I'd see the day that a safety
would take Gronk one on one and do the job
that Jamal Adams did on it. Could I make the
argument Josh Gordon couldn't stay clean Gronks in his last year.
James White's their best receiver. Edelman's off an acl that. Frankly,
(25:34):
it's the same old Patriots, not overly dynamic, and most
quarterbacks would struggle with this group of talented, dynamic perimeter guys. Well,
I think the thing is that we give when things
go well for the Patriots, we blame. We give Tom
Brady all the credit. When things don't go well, we say,
look at his receivers. Oh, the defense isn't very good.
(25:55):
But if you look at Coach Belichick and Tom Brady's
they played thirty seven playoff games. They average up giving
less than three points a fourth quarter in thirty seven
playoff games, calling you're gonna win a lot of games
if you're defense. In twenty three of those games they
picked shutouts. So just imagine you go into the fourth
quarter and you know your defense is gonna hold a
team to three or a few fuel points. You're gonna
(26:17):
win a lot of games. Um, Look, the thing is
with Tom Brady and because what they do is that
in the playoffs, they get you up there in their building.
They haven't had to go take their show on the
road in a very long time to win playoff games.
And I don't believe they're gonna catch Kansas City because
I believe Kansas City. I don't think they can go
to Kansas City and win this. I don't think. I
don't see it. I don't think. I don't think they
(26:37):
need to be very careful because they play Pittsburgh. Now,
what Pittsburgh can do, they can hang points on you.
I think they're defense shown yesterday you can't lose. You
can't lose the case Kingdom. But if you turn the
ball over four times and the opposing team don't turn
doesn't turn it over, they're gonna beat you. And that's
what happened the tight end. Uh how to eat a
walk in touchdown? What do you try to play hero?
(27:00):
He tried to run the dB over. So what was
your takeaway on Pittsburgh's win? Because my takeaway was, to
start the show, they let Ben throw at fifty six times. Yes,
I know we all love Lamar and Baker Mayfield, but
they're throwing at twenty two times a game. I think
Ben's a remarkable talent who made a terrible throw. I
still love Pittsburgh. Yeah, but here's the thing, but do
you trust him late because what we've seen from Ben.
(27:20):
If you look at the divisional game last year, it
was his fumble scooping score and he threw an interception
in his own territory. In the next place, they scored
a touchdown. That's fourteen points. Now, in the playoffs, you
give a team fourteen points over, you're gonna lose. And
you look at the teams that they could possibly face.
Kansas City can score a bunch of points. San Diego
(27:41):
can score a bunch of points. New England could score
a bunch of points. You turned the ball over against
any of those three teams, you're losing. I know people
think I'm hard on Aaron Rodgers, But what I said
at the old place I work with, and what I've
said here, you know, the old saying show me the money,
I tend to be, show me the evidence. If you
showed me your bulls, your catches, your yards, you were
(28:04):
dynamic and a compiler that's a Hall of Famer. You
compiled great numbers, you were on championship teams. You went
to Baltimore, teams got better. I have evidence that you're
arguably the greatest Titan ever. Okay, Aaron's now one thirty seven,
entering the fourth quarter, trailing by more than one point
against a team that at that time has a winning record.
I know he can throw the ball. I know he's
(28:24):
a sorcer with his arm, but man, the personality, brother
calls him out. McCarthy doesn't get along. Can I blame
some of this erosion on Green Bay, some on eron? Yeah,
it does. He miss him throws. And the thing is
with Aaron, he miss him throws last night that he
normally makes the ball to Adams, He normally makes that throw. Yeah,
(28:45):
he had e Q Brown in the flat and he
tried to rush it and he dirted it. I think
there's so much pressure on him. He's been sacked thirty
four times. I think if the most he's ever been
sacked in a season, if I'm not mistaken, a thirty
five and they still have five games to go, and
he knows if he doesn't play great, he's he can't
(29:08):
play good and win. He must play great. So do
you think there are times that he holds the ball
at the law, Yes, looking to make yes Harper, Yes,
he's swinging for the fences. Yes. Yes. Do you think
his contract I said this, it's unfair and if I
was Aaron, I'd take every penny, right, But you know
it's it's interesting. It's never been a good free agent market.
(29:28):
The minute he takes that big contract, it guarantees his
teams will be younger going forward. Right. Do you think
that's a little bit in his head? There is a
little pressure on Aaron he didn't have before that contract. Well,
you know the thing is with Aaron, he looks at
it like that, It's not my job to give you
a hometown discount, so you can figure out your situation.
My job is to play quarterback at the highest level.
(29:49):
Is your job to put the pieces around me and
figure out a way to do it, because guess what,
when you don't feel like I can play at this level,
you're gonna move on from me because I saw you
do it with Brett. So he's like, I'm gonna take
see everybody. See. I think the thing is Tom Brady
has done a great thing, and he's been horrible because
he's given the Patriots hometown discounts, which has hurt his
(30:09):
team because they look at and when it comes up
to free agency, everybody looks it's like, hold on. The
best player in NFL history, arguably the best player on
our team has always given us a discount. Why would
I pay you market value when he won't take it?
And so now teams around the league expects everyone to
give them a discount like Tom Brady is giving the Patriots. Well,
(30:29):
everybody doesn't have a wife that's worth three hundred million dollars.
I'm not giving you no discount. My wife is sitting
at home getting the kids ready to go to school.
Tom Brady's wife. He's making thirty forty million dollars a year.
So it's a blessing and a cursed to have these
great quarterbacks. Normally, what you try to do. If you
look at the Rams, they're going for it because they
had Jerry Golf for the rookie contract. You look at
(30:50):
the Kansas City, they got this gown on rookie contract. Dallas.
If they're smart, they got Dack or a rookie contract.
When you start paying quarterbacks twenty eight thirty thirty three
million dollars a year. It limits the pieces that you
can put around. You have to go like the Saints did.
You got a nail a draft? Yes, like the Colts
did with Luck. You got to have a draft when
you get like four stars. Yes, And because guess what,
you got Camar on a rookie contract. You got Michael
(31:11):
Thomas on a rookie contract. You got laddim on a
rookie contract. You got a lot of your key pieces
on rookie contract. So you can pay Drew Brees twenty five,
twenty seven million. But sooner or later, these guys gonna
Camar going on a big contract. Michael Thomas gonna win
a big contract. You can't pay everybody market value and
keep the team in place. Finally, Shannon Sharp, Hall of
Famer fourteen years, just an unbelievad for you. First of
(31:34):
all you've done, you're just an amazing broadcaster. I'm so
happy for you because you're such a funny, smart I
remember when I interviewed you three years ago. I brought
you on their show and I went to my bosses,
I said, this guy's captivating. You're a movie buff. You
got all sorts of stuff going on. Finally, I said
this a couple of weeks ago. You put Josh Allen in.
He not ready to play. Just play Lamar Jackson. I'm
maybe I'm selfish, but it looks like the Baltimore players
(31:59):
are getting jew soft this kid Flacco. I'll say say
what you want about it. When Lamar Jackson comes in,
He's not the most polished, refined quarterback, but his receivers
are making catches they didn't with Flacco. I'm ana go
with Lamar from this point forward. I'm wrong, go with Lamar.
What's your take? I believe that you go with Lamar also,
because this is not just about making the playoffs this year.
(32:22):
You traded back into the first round to take this guy.
So you're saying, this guy's gonna be our future. You
know what Joe Flacco is. I'm not sure Joe Flacco
is in their future for twenty nineteen because they can
get away. You know, they'll say ten million dollars, they'll
have some dead money over the next two years. But
I believe it's time to move in a different direction
than Joe Flacco. A lot of times when you take
these guys in the first round, Colin, you have a
(32:43):
veteran quarterback, you played the veteran quarterback until you're out
of the playoffs, and then you bring the rookie in
so you can get valuable playing time. I believe in
this situation, which Lamar Jackson is, that you get better
because he's in a situation where they're still trying to
make the playoffs, so he gets he know what is
like to be in this these type of ball games
moving forward. So I believe this is a better situation
(33:06):
for the Ravens because I don't believe Joe Flacco is
going to be in their future. And Lamar Jackson he
needs reps, He needs meaningful reps. I've never seen a
guy that was on the sidelines like, man, I got
better today, you know, watching them play calling, I really
got good today. You get better by play, Yeah, And
Lamar Jackson's only gonna get better when he plays. He's wrong.
And give Marty morning Wig the offensive coordinator, because he
(33:29):
used to call him plays for drop back quarterbacks, right,
and so for him to implement plays to cater to
what Lamar Jackson does really well says a lot about Marty.
By the way Marty had Michael Vick for a while too,
so he had him feel little precursor to what he
has right now. It's absolutely great seeing you. Thank you,
thank you for coming on our show. You're a very
very busy guy. Shannon Sharpe coming up next. I got
some thoughts on the college football weekend. One in particular,
(33:51):
that's not good news for the Big ten in LA.
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It's a huge college football weekend. And I you know,
one of the reasons I didn't think Michigan should be
in the Final four playoff. I thought they were a
terrible matchup against Alabama and a terrible matchup against Alabama Clemson.
(34:16):
And I still think Jim Harball is a great coach.
But like every Michigan coach over the last twenty years,
they get hammered by Ohio State. And I don't think
I think Michigan proved what I suspected would eventually happen
against Alabama. It just happened against Ohio State. They couldn't
compete athletically, they're not the same team. Watch the game, speed, side, length,
they just don't match up. And I'm watching the game
(34:39):
and it really hit me that in college football right now,
stay with me for a second on this, Let's consider
top twenty teams, just the big boys. Right there's two
divisions in the country. Forget the conferences. There's the Northern powers, Wisconsin,
Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Washington, Penn State, Northern Powers.
Then there's the Southern powers Bama, Auburn, LU, Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida,
(35:02):
most of the SEC. So don't consider Power five conferences,
don't consider coast. Consider two divisions for college football. There's
the really good teams up north and the really good
down south. Warm Weather, cold weather. And it really hit
me this weekend watching Michigan, Ohio State again, watching what
(35:23):
happens every time they play the last fifteen twenty years.
Ohio State looks like an SEC team. They look like Oklahoma,
they look like Clemson, they look like Auburn, they look
like LSU. Nobody really looks like Bama. But they're close speed, athleticism, length,
depth of talent that Ohio State. And they've said this
several times. Is the only Northern power that their ideology
(35:46):
is Southern junior college transfer, pay whatever it takes. They're
a Southern football team that plays North And just to
throw this out there, everybody wants me to pick the
foremost deserving teams in the final four, but those aren't
the four best teams. The four best teams to me
are Alabama, Oklahoma, Clemson, and after this weekend, I don't
(36:11):
even think it's Notre Dame. I think it's either Georgia
or Ohio State. Forget deserving. You're just telling me who
looks different. And I like Notre Dame, I really do.
But they played one SEC team this year, Vanderbilt gave
them fits and I came up with a stat. I
asked my team this morning to look something up. Northern
powers Southern powers. If you consider Ohio State a Southern power,
(36:36):
the way they recruit, take transfers, jc's pay whatever it takes,
sell out their stadium. Ohio State against the Big Ten
in the last decade is seventy four and twelve. The
SEC against the Big Ten last decade twenty five and fifteen.
If you take one program in the north Ohio State
(36:57):
and consider it a Southern team. Folks, you're telling me
who deserves to get in. This is why it's difficult
with this playoff. Northern teams mostly beat Northern teams. Northwestern
couldn't win an out of conference game this year, oh
for three, Yet they'll end up in the Big Ten
Championship game. What am I to make of them? Notre Dame.
(37:19):
I don't beat Clemson when they play. They struggle with Mandy.
That's the difficulty I'm having with the College Football Final Four.
It's why I said Oklahoma deserves to be in over Michigan,
because my eyes tell me depth, length, speed, mobility player
Oklahoma is better than Michigan. Oklahoma matches up with Alabama.
(37:40):
You do remember what happened when Oklahoma played Georgia last year? Right,
they look like they should be on the same field.
You do remember what happened the last time Notre Dame
faced Alabama? It looked like Division one Division two. Is
that I'm watching Ohio State and Michigan and it just
struck me. Why do I even consider Ohio State a
Big Ten team? They're nothing like the Big Ten. Look
(38:01):
at their record in the last ten years. Take out
the Luke Figgle year, they don't even average one loss
a season. Just take out the one year they were
in turmoil and hired a guy who's a coordinator or
a position coach, not a head coach. That year there
were three and five. All the other years they don't
even average a loss a year. And so you know,
my takeaway is when I watch all these games, I
(38:22):
try to see it from a big picture perspective. You're
asking me to come up with four teams. In the end,
they're not the best for it's the best four teams
I've seen this year. The best four teams I've seen
after watching every I watched all this weekend. Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma,
and I think it's Georgia. Now George is gonna lose
to Alabama. It'll be a ten thirteen point game. They'll
(38:44):
lose to him. It'll be competitive, it will because they
can match up. But man, I'm watching Michigan and I'm
like this, this is what I thought Alabama would do him.
And then I thought, well, Ohio State's closer to Obama
the last fifteen years. Then they've been to Michigan. Michigan's
not close to Alabama in Ohio States not Bama, but
they're closer to Alabama than they are to Michigan. It's
(39:08):
and I liked I watched Notre Dame this year, but
again I get fooled because I'm watching Notre Dame beat
Northern teams, and I'm watching Michigan beat Northern teams. And
the minute they faced Ohio States, like, whoa, those teams
don't even look athletically like the same team. Ohio State
was using their third and fourth receivers. They were using
(39:29):
guys barely played. Is running away from Michigan players anyway,
Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. At the
top of next hour plus, I have Peter King, Trent
dilferd Rod Woodson. Let me say this about Baker Mayfield,
and Baker Mayfield deserves some credit. He's played very well
and the Browns are doing a great job. I mean
they're they're hey, throw at twenty five times a game,
(39:51):
We're gonna run the football, play with the lead. And
let's be honest, Atlanta and Cincinnati are statistically the two
worst defenses in the league. But here's but let's let's
just say this. He's gotten better since Hugh Jackson and
Todd Hailey left. That's impressive. Generally, the rule is rookie
quarterbacks are better with veteran offensive head coaches. The coach left,
(40:17):
he's better and he deserves credit for that. But when
asked about Hugh on the field after the game, here's
what Baker said. You look like he had a very
brief encounter I saw before the game and then again
after the game with the Hugh Jackson didn't have a
chance to say anything to you. If so, maybe what
did he say and what was that like? Um, he said,
(40:37):
good job, good game. Yeah, that was brief. Didn't feel
like talking. Do you ever? Yeah? Me, I don't know.
Left Cleveland goes down to Cincinnati. I don't know. That's
just somebody that was in our locker room asking for
us to play for him and then goes to a
different team and played twice a year. Everybody can have
(40:57):
their spin on it, but that's how I feel. Why
go there? Andrew Luck wouldn't, Bradies wouldn't, Russell Wilson wouldn't,
Tom Brady wouldn't. Don't, don't don't do it? Why go there?
By the way, the other two quarterback there's three quarterbacks
in this league that everybody likes because they're full of
big personalities. Baker, Cam and Aaron Rodgers. How are Cam
(41:18):
and Aaron Rodgers doing these days? Folks? The Seattle locker
room basically deserted. Russell Wilson crapped on him to ESPN
the magazine. He never fired back. These quarterback positions. You
fall in love with personnel, You fell in love with
Johnny Manziel, you fall in love with Cam, You fall
in love with Aaron Rodger. You want personality, I don't.
(41:40):
I want boring. There's no reason Baker Mayfield even needs
to go there. He's having a good month getting himself
on track. Just stop nonsense. Leave it to a receiver
running back to do that. The Herd. Here we go,
hour two. This is heard wherever you may be, and
(42:02):
however you may be listening live in Los Angeles. iHeartRadio
Fox Sports, Rudio on FS one, Jamie Maggio in today.
Love to have her sitting alongside Joey Taylor in the Midwest.
Don't need to give the location, don't want to disclose that.
But the blizzard stuck in where she's stuck and she's
coming back. But you know, I guess the Midwest had
bad weather. I guess it does not sound right now,
(42:22):
it doesn't it listen, It's We're lucky. We live in
a place where it doesn't SnO much so at all.
So it's great to have you in on a Monday.
By the way, I yesterday, I'm not going to get
into prediculars. I actually have a piece of evidence. I
don't know why I call it evidence that makes it
sound like a crime scene. I was driving to work
yesterday at Fox. I sneezed and my nose exploded. I
don't get bloody noses. I guess there was dry air,
(42:44):
blood on my everything shy of the windshield. And I
was driving to work yesterday, blood on my shirt, blood
on my face. Blood, And the only thing I thought
was if I get pulled over right now, I'm a
suspect because I sneezed with a drying nose and there's blood.
I have a shirt in the back of my car,
nosing blood all over it, and I don't even know how.
Everybody kept going on you okay, and I'm like, yeah,
(43:05):
it's like eight ounces of blood. I'm fine. I didn't
get you know, I don't need a tourniquet, but it
was I don't even they had the other guy feel
terrible for he's in my trunk. All right, here we go.
It's a Monday. Where Colin's right, where Colin's wrong, where
Colin was right. I don't think I've ever picked an
entire conference right. But before the season, my top seven
(43:28):
in the a f C where New England, Pittsburgh Chargers,
Baltimore Chiefs, Indian Houston, and those are the top seven
teams in the AFC. Now, Kansas City is better than
I predicted, because I said coming into the year, I've
never seen Patrick Mahomes play. I have no idea what
I'm getting. I'm just gonna trust Andy Reid to get
to five hundred. And I have not been good on
(43:48):
the NFC, but I've never been this accurate on an
entire conference that I've been on the AFC this year.
And I do think Baltimore in Indy, as I predicted,
it would be the two teams fighting for the last
wild card spot, where Colin was raw. I had my
worst blazing five of the year. Thank god the Cleveland Browns.
I picked them one. I took a lot of dogs.
(44:11):
I took Green Bay, I took Detroit. I just couldn't
get anything right this weekend. Now I'm still thirty three
and twenty five. I took dogs in a lot of favorites.
One Baker Baker moneymaker was terrific for me. He's been
good for me all year. I've been good on Baker Mayfield.
I should bet him every week. And that boy I
trusted Cam and Russell Wilson was just unbelievable late in
(44:32):
that game where Colin was right. Remember when Rob Parker
FS one came on the show about six months ago
and he called Matt Stafford stat Padford and I'm like, WHOA,
I think he's right. You can't beat at home the
Bears and Chase Daniels on a short week. He just
makes too many errant throws. He misses too many wide
open guys. He's been in this league a decade. Forget
(44:55):
the playoff wins. None, give me a signature win. Eric
Ebron was a bust with him. Eric Ebron goes over
to play with Andrew Locke and he's a Pro Bowl
tight end at some point. Matt Stafford a decade into
this league with that contract in that arm. Again, forget
the money, show me the Evelyn evidence. He's a top
(45:16):
quarterback because I can't find it statistically, and I can't
find it with trophies. Where Colin was raw, I said
before the season, I gotta take a hit on this.
I thought the Big Ten coaching was so good the
Big Ten would inch closer and closer to the SEC.
I think they're further apart than they've ever been. It's
Ohio State and a bunch of unathletic looking teams. Michigan
(45:40):
looked slow, Northwestern couldn't win an out of conference game,
and they're in the Big Ten Championship Wisconsin. Michigan State
can't move the ball. I thought the Big Ten coaching
was so good that they in the footprint of a
Big Ten. They wouldn't have the athletes of the SEC.
But they get closer. Another or not and another one.
I mean, I watched Auburn at least pushed back a
(46:00):
little bit on Alabama. I don't think anybody outside of
Ohio State would even push back a little and Auburn's
not even good in the SEC. They pushed back on Alabama.
I was wrong on that one where Colin was right,
But I did say before the year that I thought
the Western Conference of the NBA was dysfunctional and highly overrated.
You want to know who outside of the Warriors is
(46:22):
on top right now? The West, the Clippers, the Nuggets,
Memphis and dysfunctional OKC by the way, Memphis, Mark Gasoul,
Mike Conley, They're now a power. Come on. The West
has got a lot of stars and a lot of
egos and a lot of so so coaches. And I
think the Clippers are a fun story. They got a
lot of good stuff out of that Blake Griffin trade.
(46:44):
But if they're the best team in the West right now,
the West not very good. In the East has Philadelphia,
I'll like him, Toronto Deep, a lot of guys can
play on that team. Boston's not even playing well. And
you got and you go Milwaukee. So the West is
every bit as dysfunction as overrated as I thought it was.
Where Colin was, Rob Listen, Lamar Jackson's two and oh
(47:06):
I said in this draft, I said, Lamar Jackson and
Josh Allen, they're not ready to play in this league. Now. No, again,
he's had some picks. They played bad teams. The games
have been at home. But you know what, when you
watch Baltimore play, he just gives them juice. He just
gives them energy. And in twenty eighteen, I like my
quarterbacks to have a little mobility. Now I think he
(47:28):
runs too much. I'd rather be scale it back a little.
I'd rather be a little more advanced throwing it. But
I gotta tell you right now, if I if I
owned or ran that team, I'd stick with Lamar Jackson.
It's fun. And by the way, Flacco's got limitations. He's
not mobile, and he's not accurate. Lamar's got limitations. He
doesn't have a lot of NFL starts. But he had
(47:48):
seven wide receivers yesterday that he completed passes too. And
he is much better, much more capable than I expected.
Where Colin was right. When the Cowboys gave away a
first pick, a first round pick for Amari Cooper, people
freaked out, and I said, well, they're going to draft
the wide receiver anyway. And outside of that really good
(48:10):
player at Arizona State University, he's way better than all
the college receivers I've seen this year. And Amari Cooper
was the player of note in the Cowboy Thanksgiving win
over Washington. Four games, he's got twenty two catches he's
got three touchdowns. And the thing that's really important here,
he looks and he separates like a number one receiver.
Now he's not a number one receiver on maybe Atlanta
(48:32):
or Pittsburgh, but I think he's a number one receiver
on about half the teams, and he's at least a
number two receiver on everybody else. He separates, he's got
good hands, he is physical, he's hard to bring down.
This was the number one high school receiver in the country.
He was a number one college receiver in the country.
He may not be the number one NFL receiver, but
Dallas got a difference maker. And that's what first round
(48:55):
picks are about. And I like their pick. I like
their trade. Good for the Cowboys where Colin was raw
boy the Celtics, if I was a cell I picked
them to get to the championship against the Warriors and
beat them. They're ten and ten, they've lost eight of
twelve and Brad Stevens sort of team ball approach. Kyrie
(49:16):
Irving's doing too much ISO. Jason Tatum, after having a
good playoff run to me is doing too much ISO.
Gordon Hayward comes off that devastating injury he does not
look like to this point the same player. They've lost
eight of twelve. They're a seven seat in the East.
Now again it's early. I mean Utah struggling. I like Utah,
(49:37):
but when you watch the Celtics play, they're not as
crisp offensively. And this is the downside of Kyrie Irving.
He is a shooting point guard. I like my point
guards to generally distribute first, score second. Now I give
Kyrie and Steph Currie a pass because they are brilliant
shooters as well. But the movement of the basketb ball
(50:00):
is not as good last year when Kyrie was hurt
and sitting out where Colin was right, but I was
right on Westbrook. You see where he was one for
twelve on threes against Denver. By the way, when he
was gone, they were five and one. He's back there
two and two, and he is still the worst shooting
(50:22):
three point guy in the league. Oh but my bad.
In all four games he's had a triple double. That's
why I won the MVP. It's a triple double. A
triple double in the NBA is becoming a quarterback who
throws for forty three hundred yards. If you don't you
should be a college quarterback. Westbrook's hard to play with.
(50:42):
Westbrook can't shoot, Westbrook has to drive to score, meaning
Westbrook gets hurt at the rim. Sorry, but this goes
kind of the John Walt John Wall left. He talented,
but the Wizards went on a winning street without him.
Blake Griffin left, Clippers went on winning street without him.
You ever notice how good the Clippers this year you're
(51:03):
are without Blake griven There's a handful of guys in
this league I've been banging on. They're talented. I don't
think they make anybody better Walt, Blake and Westbrook. Where
Colin was wrong? Yeah, I just didn't know what the
hell I was talking about. With the Chicago Bears, I
had him picked for last in their Division five and eleven.
I mean, Mitch Trubisky was just pedestrian. I saw him
(51:27):
his first year. I didn't get it. He never had
a game over two touchdowns. And they still I don't
think have great offensive players. I think their running backs
are good, but they're humming. They're well coached. They're eight
best players according to Pro Football Focus, are all defensive players.
They have a brilliant young head coach. And I'll give
Trubisky this. I don't see him as a transformative guy.
(51:48):
I don't think he has Deshaun Wattson or Andrew Locker
Carson Wentz talent. But you know what, the most important
thing in the NFL today is a quarterback. I'm not
so sure. The second most important thing isn't a play caller.
And Matt Nagee and Trabisky, it's working with that defense,
it's working. And I was wrong where Colin was right.
I said Michigan would be a terrible matchup for Alabama.
(52:11):
They don't pass the eye test, their running backs aren't special,
their quarterbacks small, a poor man's Johnny Manzil, and I
don't like their offensive line. And Michigan got thumped by
Ohio State. Now, I was surprised by the outcome. I
thought the Michigan Ohio State game looked exactly like what
Alabama Michigan would look like. Michigan's defense was number one
(52:33):
in the country, mostly dominating Big ten teams. I mean
that's what they did. Mostly they dominated Big ten teams.
Do you know what. Michigan's defense gave up more points
this weekend than their basketball team has given up all
season long, and they've lost the two best teams they've played,
Ohio State and Notre Dame. I think they're a really,
really good Big Ten football team. Where Colin was wrong.
(52:58):
Hugh Jackson and Todd Hayley got fired by Cleveland and
Baker Mayfield's gotten better. That's not the way it's supposed
to work. You know, these young quarterbacks are usually better
with experienced offensive coaches. But his completion percentage since they
left is seventy four percent. Now, that's always been his strength,
(53:18):
his accuracy. But I got to give Baker credit. This
is a chaotic organization. It's a dysfunctional organization, and they've
already in his first year, had dysfunction and he's overcoming.
He stayed focus on completing passes. It's what he does. Now.
Cleveland's got real running backs and real receivers. When you're
as bad as Cleveland has been for years, and you
(53:40):
draft well and then a hell of a draft, they've
got players. But Baker deserves credit here. This thing is
still swimming in chaos, and he has just kept his eye.
When he plays these games, open receiver, let it go,
get it to him. That's where he looks like Drew Brees.
He's not as good as Drew Brees. But the people
that said he's got Drew Brees, this is where he's
(54:01):
Drew Brees. Drew Brees has always made a career out
of chaos around him, deficiencies around him, focusing on game
completing passes, moving the sticks. It's what Baker has done
very well so far this year. All right, Peter King
is right around the corner. Also, why I'm so happy
this morning, despite the fact my nose exploded yesterday, and
(54:24):
despite the fact that a terrible blazing five something happened
this weekend that made me so happy. I went four
for four on something not football picks. It made me
so happy, And I'll explain that. Plus Peter King coming up.
Car shopping's confusing a lot of terms, dealer, price list,
price invoice. Here's what's not truecar dot com new or
used creates clarity when buying a car Wild game. Yesterday
(54:48):
a several wild games. I watched a lot of the
Seattle Carolina game Cam versus Russell Wilson and with that,
let's go via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Peter King
NBC Sports dot Com. This game was fun to watch.
Pete Carroll's one of the Coach of the Year candidates
because we all kind of counted them out. I'm sure
you watched most of that game. What did you make
(55:08):
a Russell Wilson late? I thought down the stretch he
was incredibly good. He reminded me down the stretch of
this game. The last game I saw Russell Wilson make
a couple of throws like this was late in the
NFC Championship game in twenty fourteen when he beat Aaron
(55:33):
Rodgers after starting that game horribly. In this game, Colin,
you know, to understand really how great an ending that
Russell Wilson played in this game, just consider this. It's
fourth and three, your team is five and five, you're
down seven points, there's three and a half minutes to go,
and it's fourth and three, okay. Instead of trying to
(55:58):
get the first down and then maybe living to fight
another day, he saw a receiver who had a step
on a Carolina cornerback and he said, listen, if if
I've told my teammates, you know, hey, we gotta go
for it. You know, we gotta be bold, you know,
(56:19):
and you gotta you gotta play with everything you have.
I know that's all cliche stuff, but that's what he
says in the huddle. That's what he says, Hey, we're
trying to win this game. We're going to make big plays.
So he throws a ball forty seven yards in the air,
drops out of the sky, right into his receiver's hands
in the end zone. And that, to me was just
(56:40):
like his throw to Jermaine Curse to win the NFC
championship game in overtime four years ago. I thought it
was a heroic throw. Yeah, now, it just that game
was and Pete Carroll we were all banging on him,
at least I was. He is up there with Matt
Naggie to me as one of the coaches of the year.
Let's shift a Baker may for you. Generally rookie quarterbacks
(57:02):
are better served with a veteran offensive coach Hugh Jackson
a Todd Hayley. But they leave and Baker's clearly better
without them. Is it an indictment on Hugh Jackson, who
deserves credit beyond Baker here? Well? I think number one.
I think Freddie Kitchens, who's the offensive coordinator there now,
(57:24):
and he's sort of the guru to Baker, and he's
been there the whole time, so he's had a connection
with Baker. I think if you asked Freddie Kitchens, he
will always say said, I like throwing the ball down
the field, and that's what you're seeing now. That's what
he learned under Bruce Arians for five years in Arizona.
(57:46):
And I think that's one of the things that the
Cleveland Browns are seeing now. Baker Mayfield doesn't have a
passable downfield arm. He has a good downfield arm. He
doesn't have a can and you know, he's not thrown
at seventy five yards or anything, but he's got a
good downfield arm and he's accurate. When he came out
(58:08):
in the draft last April, Colin I'll never forget Pro
Football Focus, the analytics company, wrote that of all the
quarterbacks in the draft, we trust Baker Mayfield throwing the
ball downfield better than all these guys, including Josh Allen.
And so I think that is coming home to roost,
(58:28):
and I think Freddie Kitchens is getting really good stuff
out of him. You know, I watched the Pittsburgh Steelers
yesterday and I gave Ben credit. I said, yes, it
was a terrible pass in the end. But they allowed
him to throw fifty six times. I mean, that's that's
parents leaving for the weekend and you know, leaving the
kids by themselves. That's a lot of respect. Fifty six
(58:49):
times is that's double what a lot of quarterbacks are throwing.
I still think Pittsburgh's my Super Bowl favorite. I still
love this team along with New Orleans. Did you make
of a loss? Though, and some of their mistakes in
the red zone, I would be a little bit concerned.
I mean, I still cannot figure out what Ben Roethlisberger
(59:13):
saw when he threw the ball to be you know,
at like the two yard line, to be intercepted by
a defensive tackle. I'm a little mystified by that one.
And it was a desperate time. You know, he needed
to try to find somebody. I got that, but that
decision just wasn't very good. Now, having said that, Ben
Roethlisberger is one of these quarterbacks that eighty percent of
(59:37):
the time he's gonna make plays where he say, man,
I love having that guy as my quarterback, including the
ninety seven yard incredible throw that will go down as
one of the top five throws he's made in his life.
I mean Number one obviously will be the Super Bowl
throw to Santonio Holmes, but this will be in the
top five. It was an unbelievable play. But you know,
(01:00:01):
Ben giveth and Ben taketh away because at the end
of that game, you can't make that throw. I still
regard him as a as a great quarterback. I love
watching him play. If I were a Steeler fan, I'd
be happy with him as my quarterback. But that was
an awful, awful throw he made at the end. So
Philip rivers at one point yesterday twenty five for twenty five,
(01:00:23):
and there's still this lingering thing with me. I don't
trust the Chargers. I just feel that way. I just
don't trust them in a big spot, do you well, Colin.
That's because they've lost eight in a road to the Chiefs.
I mean, you know, at some point this year, okay,
they're gonna have to beat teams that they have struggled playing.
(01:00:46):
And I'm talking about Kansas City and I'm talking about
New England. Okay. So I mean you have to tell
me right now not to mention the fact that, you know,
if if the season, you know, if if the playoff
seeds were the way they were today, it'd be the
Chargers at the Steelers this Sunday night, and then on
(01:01:09):
Wildcard weekend it would be the Chargers at the Steelers
five weeks later. So I mean, they're gonna have a tough,
tough road unless somehow, some way that let's say Kansas
City loses at Seattle, and then let's say Kansas City
loses at home on the Thursday night, you know, to
(01:01:33):
to to the Chargers, then maybe they could sneak in
and win that division. But I don't give them a
great chance to win that division. Every year I make
predictions before the season, and there's always a team I
completely whiff on. Nobody in the country that does what
I do for a living whiffed as badly on the
Chicago Bears as I did. I didn't see it coming.
(01:01:55):
I didn't like Trubisky out of college. I didn't know
who Matt Nagy was. I whift Is it real? Did
you see it coming? Do you think it's real? They're
gonna get into the playoffs as a division leader, a
division winner? I think so too, Colin. And here's what
you have to ask yourself. Okay, I think at some
(01:02:16):
point in this postseason, the twenty sixth highest paid quarterback,
Mitchell Trubisky in a division with the first, third, and
fifth highest paid quarterback Wow Rogers, Kirk Cousins, and and
Matthew Stafford. The twenty sixth highest paid quarterback is going
(01:02:36):
to have to make some play. Yeah, I mean, and
so you have to ask their defense is gonna be
a load for anybody they play. I'll tell you the
game of the year the rest of this year, every game.
I don't care how many games are we talking about
the game of the year down the stretch of this
season Rams Bears Sunday Night two weeks. Ye that it's
(01:03:00):
gonna be fabulous because because it's now what everybody is saying,
Oh my god, there's too much offense versus about the
only team that can play great defense anymore at all.
And to me, this is going to be Vic Fangio's opportunity,
at least in my opinion, to show every owner and
(01:03:21):
GM in the hiring process in the postseason, you know what,
don't just look for the miracle genius next guy Jeff
Brom David Shaw on offense. Don't look for that guy.
Why don't you look for somebody who can stop those guys,
and so that to me is going to be just
a great football game in two weeks. Good ten minutes
(01:03:44):
with Peter King, NBC Sports. Love having you on on Mondays. Peter,
thank you so much. You're welcome. Colin, thank you. Yeah,
I whipped on the Bears. I didn't see it coming.
I just did not see it coming. Now, I will
say this, there's a real pass and everybody loves the
Rams here in LA, and I've been saying, pump the brakes.
(01:04:04):
They're not going to New Orleans and win. You know,
they Rams still have a couple tough games. They lose
those games. Could they end up going to a Chicago MS.
Rams don't look as good when they played in Minnesota
last year. They're not the same team on the row.
They're not gonna look good in Chicago. They're not gonna
look as good in New Orleans. Keep your eye on
the Bears. I don't know what I'm talking about with them,
but keep your eye on the Bears. Jamie with the news. Now,
(01:04:29):
this is the herd Line News. Colum. We've got a
fun one on Thursday Night football this week, Saints at Cowboys.
As we know, Saints are red hot right now. They've
won ten in a row. They're ten one on the season,
Cowboys six and five. They play in the NFC's But anyway,
A Maria Cooper, receiver for Dallas, says that this game
against the Saints could be a measuring stick for the Cowboys.
(01:04:50):
Here's a mari They won what ten in a row
or something like that, so I mean, why not look
at it that way. You know, they're one of the
best teams in the league, so we can beat them. Man,
that says a lot about us. And it's exciting when
I'm on the sideline watching a defense create all those turnovers.
(01:05:11):
How passionate they are. It makes me want to go
out there on offense and you know, do the Saint
type of things. You know, I actually think he nailed it.
We know the Saints are great right now, they're the
best team in the league. You can't argue it. I mean,
they disassembled the Rams. It's a real measuring stick game.
It's like Michigan. Michigan had a measuring stick game. They're
not very good. New Orleans leading the NFL and points
(01:05:32):
per games and you can't run. You can't run on them.
I mean, they're secondary now last two weeks has played
better this. We'll see what Dallas can win, but they
tend to win when they play a certain way. New
Orleans can win five different ways. Right, And you're pitting
this as two teams at top of their division going
at it. But again, Cowboys six and five, yeah, in
(01:05:53):
the NFC East if they lose Thursday, the NFC East
has what three teams at six and six? That's what
you're looking at all right, Next up, we're gonna keep
with football. And remember Jalen Ramsey doing all that chirping
GQ calling out all the quarterbacks. We had something to
say about Josh Allen up in Buffalo, calling him trash um.
He's never been shy about trash shocking. But this weekend
(01:06:13):
the Bills and Jaguar squared off and Bill's walk away
with the win. And despite Ramsey on the losing team,
he had no problem looking at the Bill's sideline telling
him they were trash. But when the game ended, Ramsey
did manage the show a little bit of a respect
to Josh Allen. As competitors, you know, when things happen,
(01:06:34):
you know we want to compete, and you know he's
an ultimate competitor, just let myself. Maybe he was respect thing.
Not not really sure, but I appreciate that. You know,
it's takes a big manage of that. The good thing
about you know, the world we live in. Everybody can
have an opinion. I stick by my opinions usually. Um
here just with his feet he did enough for their
team to get to win. I mean, that's really what
(01:06:55):
matters at the end of the day. Yeah, Josh All
and Lamar, Mark Jackson, Baker Mayfield, they're winning games. I
know they're winning games. I didn't think Lamar and Josh
would win it. But Jackson does a mess. What a mess?
There's three and eight. Yeah, they're there, they got a cleanhouse,
They're they're on mess. I Jalen Ramsey changing is too
now that they're three and eight. A little bit of
(01:07:16):
a softer trash talk there with the media after the game. Um,
this is a fun one. Kawhi Leonard and Greg Popovitch.
That love affair ended last year. Kawhi only played nine
games for San Antonio, but at one point that was
a real match made in heaven. Um. Well, Greg Popovitch
came out and had a statement about well, he was
asked I should phrase it this way. He was asked
(01:07:36):
about a lack of leadership this season as a Spurs
are struggling and if that leadership left when Kawhi left.
Here's what Greg had to say. Kawhi was a great player,
but he wasn't a leader or anything. You know, Manu
and Patty were the leaders. So, uh, Kawai's talent would
always be missed, but that leadership wasn't his deal at
(01:08:00):
that time. Just doing to me because you know, I
don't know if he's telling them at last year or not,
but I guess when you stopped playing, may I forget
how you lead. But other than that, I mean, it
doesn't matter. I'm here with the Raptors and I don't
focus on this season and nus what's going on on
the other side. I think it's fair to say Kawhi
(01:08:21):
is a great player, was not necessarily a great verbal leader.
I think that. I don't think that's a shot. I
think that's fair. Tim Duncan wasn't necessarily a verbal leader,
but he was a leader, yeah, Derek Jeter wasn't necessarily
a verbal lead. Yeah. I mean, I'm not in the
locker room. I don't know. I think Greg Popovitch should
say thank you for the service rendered to the Spurs
(01:08:43):
because they're not as good without Kawhi Leonard and the
Raptors are better with Kawhi Leonard. I'm just impressive. How
long of a SoundBite that was from Greg Popovit Yeah,
no kidding, yeah, Jamie O the news. Well, that's the news,
and thanks for stopping the herd line new By the way,
it was a great weekend for me. I'm not gonna lie.
It was a great weekend for me, not Blazing five. No,
(01:09:03):
it wasn't great. It wasn't great for me on Blazing five.
It was my nose exploded in my car driving to work.
It was a great day for me because my four
favorite quarterbacks in the NFL, Tom Brady, Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson,
Andrew Breeze all one four for four. But they're boring.
They're not great on social media, they have neck beards,
they never give you a good quote. They're not Cam cool,
(01:09:24):
they're not Aaron Rodgers cocky. They don't have the personality
of Baker Mayfield. I like to call them the bore four.
But they all won this weekend. They're adults. They don't
hang out on Twitter. They're grown ups, don't celebrate much.
They're not cool, talking cliches. But I had a great
weekend because Brady Breeze, luck In, Russell Wilson, My Bore four. Yeah,
(01:09:49):
not cool, not hip, not fashionable, boring all one. If
you did not see, here's a montage on some of
their boring plays. Blitz picked up Wilson going for it all.
He's got it. Touchdowns, goesside, touchdown, third and nine. Look
(01:10:12):
ducks the pass rush, throwing deep, he has a man opening,
He's got him. That's Chester Rogers deep drop, Brady deep,
Paul looking for Kronkowski. He's got it. Touchdown, Patriots cliches,
neck Beard's bad quote. Don't swear my guys. The bore
(01:10:39):
four went four for four this weekend. It was a
great weekend for me. Coming up, Trent Dilfer around the Corner.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Eastern nine a Empacific Thursday Night Football returns
this week with two of the biggest teams in the league,
(01:10:59):
as a Zekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys take
on Drew Brees, Michael Thomas, and the Saints. It all
starts at seven thirty Eastern on Fox, NFL Network and
streaming on Prime Video. These Thursday night games have been
absolutely fantastic this year, and with that we go via
the Coward Global Satellite Network. Decade and a half in
the NFL, a Super Bowl, in a Pro Bowl. Trent
(01:11:20):
Dilfer is joining me, our friend. Let's go back to
last night's big game. Kirk Cousins in a primetime spot
played pretty well. Aaron did not one in nine in
his last ten on the road. Listen, he's got a
running game. They're third in the NFL and sacks. He
continues to struggle. What are your eyes telling you about McCarthy,
Rogers and the Packers. There's definitely a disconnect, Colin. I've
(01:11:43):
never I've studied this offense for years. They're Greenway Packers.
Aaron Rodgers, his relationship with Mike McCarthy. They've always had
a very simpatico relationship between quarterback and play caller. I
usually can tell that by the presence of the quarterback
when he's happy with the Paul always unhappy with the call.
Aaron forever has matched his feet to his eyes, tying
(01:12:06):
your feet, your eyes where your eyes and your feet
almost married together, and they're always looking at the right
place at the right time. This year it looks disjointed.
I think the biggest thing I've seen is that they've
tried to incorporate some new concepts. They've tried to incorporate
some more cluster formations, some motions, some stuff that's not
typical of them to work the middle of the football field,
(01:12:29):
and Aaron hasn't been comfortable with it. His eyes immediately
abandon it, go out to the primer, try to get
the big play right away instead of death by a
thousand cuts approach by working in the middle of the field.
When they were really good offensively, it was a very
simple formula. They were balanced for one and number two.
In their passing game, they attacked you slowly. They would
(01:12:49):
methodically march the ball at the passing game, and then
when you made a mistake, when you got too aggressive,
that's when they would strike you down the field. It
looks like Aaron is trying to get the easy way
out on plays and try to tack downfield when there
is stuff in front of them open. Yeah, you know,
I want to talk about New England. They averaged twenty
(01:13:10):
eight a game. This year. They averaged twenty eight a
game last year. In the last six years, they averaged
twenty eight a game. They don't turn it over, no penalties,
Tom's protected. Yesterday it was running in a Gronk touchdown
that looked like the last eight years. But they're not
as dynamic as the rest of the top teams in
the league. I watched them yesterday and I'm like, it's
(01:13:32):
the same Patriots, But as the league elevated above them,
what do you make of it? No, I think they
remake themselves every year, every game. I think that their
genius is that they build a system around what best
suits their personnel. And this personnel with Trent Brown left
tackle and a bunch of running backs, a big tight
(01:13:55):
end that can block in Lacy. People always forget that
when Gronk is healthy's the most tight end blocker in
the league. Not just a great pass receiver. They're physical,
they want to play a different style of football. This year,
they've remade themselves. They don't care about what the stats say,
they don't care about quote unquote innovation. They care about winning,
and they felt that this year's formulaly you can see
(01:14:16):
it early on that where they're going to run the
ball downhill. With Sony Michelle and a bigger, more physical
offensive line, they're gonna play action pass more often. They
were going to do less of their spread. Looks now,
there may come a time this year when spreading teams
out and throwing the ball five yards and running off
to catch and doing that times of games the best
way to win a game. But right now they're staying
(01:14:38):
very true to who they wanted to be to start
the season. It's an effective model. It also helps their defense.
I think it's one they know is sustainable. And obviously
Tom Brady is getting older. He's still brilliant, but he
is older, and I don't know if you want to
drop him back forty five times a game like you
will have Patrick Mahomes. I just think it's more prudent
(01:14:59):
to play a more b style of football, and they're
doing it very well. Steelers dropped Big Ben back fifty
six times. How did that sit with you? Foolish? I
just think it's foolish. And I know people can say that, Wow,
what a sign of respect for Ben, and I get that,
but they're formula when they're really good. Has always been
a sixty forty pass run. Ben's brilliant. He absolutely and
(01:15:21):
he can carry that kind of water. He can throw
it fifty six times, But you're going to be better
as a team when you're balanced. They have a very
good offensive line, they have a very good runner and Connor.
They can do a lot of things without trying to
throw it fifty six times around the yard. I think
they would have scored more points if they could have
got Denver out of that double double coverage and got
him more to single high plays. Yes, they got some
(01:15:42):
big plays to Juju, but they're better when they can
strike you vertically with Antonio Brown, when they can run
the ball, pound the inside of the defense, set up
play action and ju jujus an auxiliary player. Denver dared
them to throw the ball that tied into the backs,
dared them to run it, and they didn't do it.
Therefore they didn't score that many points offensively. What do
(01:16:02):
you make on Baker Mayfield. I'd rather my quarterbacks be
fire extinguishers, not a can of gasoline talking after the
game about Hugh, What do you make of that? I
want my quarterbacks to be who they are calling. And
I think this is the biggest lesson I learned in
all my years in the NFL is that too often
coaches media people whoever want somebody to be something they're not,
(01:16:25):
and when you start stealing that from their DNA, they
become less of who they are. What if we try
to make Philip Rivers less Enrie. What if we try
to take Tom Brady and not let him have I
don't want to say temper tantrums, but show his anger
on the sideline. What if early on Bill Belichick said
Tom Brady, you can't kick watercoolers, you can't throw your helmet,
(01:16:46):
you can't drop f bombs because that's not what quarterbacks do.
Maybe Tom Brady doesn't handle, doesn't get his stuff out
of his system between series as well as he does now.
I think Baker mayfields a mature kit for twenty two
years older, hard old he is. Pierre also is a
little edgy, He's a little henri. He likes the chip
on his shoulder mentality. He lights the bunker mentality, and
(01:17:08):
that's okay because it's who he is and it's working
for him. He will grow, He'll mature in life like
we all do. He'll do he'll pour less gasoline on
situations as he gets older. But the thing it drives
me more crazy than anything in the NFL is when
I see kids that have something special in their DNA,
and coaches and media try to get it out of
(01:17:29):
him because it doesn't fit their paradigm on what they
should look like. What's gotten them to this point all
of these guys, pick anyone out of a half, is
that they have something inside of him that most people don't,
and you gotta let that stuff come out because it's
part of what makes them really good at what they do. Yeah,
that's interesting. I'm boring, so I like boring guys. Finally,
(01:17:52):
I was gonna call you out. I mean, I listen,
I'm gonna get off my long guy too, like you
are at times. Yeah, I just learned to appreciate that
we're all not the same and we're not robots, and
when you start trying to turn quarterbacks into robots, you
get a lesser version of who that quarterback is. We
only got about a minute and a half left. My
MVP is Breeze Andrew Luck's honorable mention. Who am I
(01:18:13):
leaving out? Philip Rivers? And I agree with you on
the first two I saw your segment earlier on the
who cares as your third? I think you should care
about Philip Rivers. I like your first two and not
arguing with you, but Philip Rivers deserves to be in
this conversation. He is playing brilliant football. They're one of
the better teams in the NFL. I think they are
a real contender. He has changed his mentality to fit
(01:18:36):
this football team. And he's always been one of those
special guys in terms of competitive temperament. He gets the
most out of everybody. He drags them along, he carries
the water. He'll do whatever you need him to do
to win. He's a winner, die kind of guy. And
that's why I wanted my quarterback. And he deserves to
(01:18:57):
be the third guy in the discussion. Yeah, he's got
some old with him. Big tough play, He's just he
looks like a nineteen eighty eight quarterback. Tough, trash talk,
a little bit, play hurt, big arm, super aggressive. Trent's
great talking to you, my man. Love seeing you on
our show. Ten seconds calling all the quarterbacks, Brady Breeze,
(01:19:17):
Rogers All and I've talked about who's the guy they
respect as much as anybody Philip purpose, that's cool. It's
nice to see him. I wish he didn't play in
a soccer stadium, but it's great to see you body. Okay, good,
good seeing you. You know, Trent makes a good point.
You know, my favorite quarterbacks are Brady, Breeze, Luck and
Russell and I call him the bore four and that
(01:19:39):
Trent's saying, basically, hey, you're trying to make them You're boring,
so you like boring. And I married an artist. My
wife's more of a designer artist, So I do have
some of that, or I do that does appeal to me.
You know, I'm gonna think about that. Maybe I have
to put my arms around Baker may Field and hug
(01:20:00):
him a little more, have I? John? Have I been
a little rough on him? Maybe because I'm boring and
the guys I love are mostly boring. Aaron drives me crazy,
Cam drives me nuts, Baker drives me nuts. Manzelle drove
me crazy. Yeah, Chap, Chap chest. Social media fashioned stuff
doesn't work for me. It's like a psychological deep dive
(01:20:21):
you're trying to do. I'm gonna do. I. First of all,
my head exploded driving to work, yesterday, my nose it
blew up in my car. I got blood all over
my car. It's like a crime scene still there. No,
I mean I well, yeah, I mean if you if
detective came and looked at my car, it would be there.
I can't see it. I mostly cleaned it up and
put the body in the trunk. The point being is
it was rare drama in my life because I'm not dramatic.
(01:20:43):
I am so proud of my bore four. They went
four for hard this weekend. I just I like it.
Maybe I should have told Dilfer, maybe Baker's job is
to be more like I want. No, that doesn't make
it up, all right, Rod Woodson, we got a great
last hour coming up. It's cold and flu season. Try
(01:21:04):
vix sign x nasal spray when congestion strikes. It works
up to twelve hours. Vic sign x nasal spray. It
beats the alternative, which is my nose exploding driving to work.
Here we go, hour three. This is the herd wherever
you may be in however you may be listening live
(01:21:25):
in Los Angeles. iHeartRadio, Fox Parts Rodio and FS one.
A couple of things real quick here, I know everybody's saying,
col what about Jim Hardball? And I would say, what
about Jim Harball? You didn't you think Big Ben can't
quarterback because he threw a pick yesterday, So he's still great.
Coaches win games and lose games. Bill Belichick got fired
in Cleveland, still a coach. Nick Saban didn't do much
(01:21:47):
at Michigan State or the NFL. Jim Harball is a
great coach, four for four turnaround jobs, got to a
Super Bowl. So what he lost to Ohio State? Ohio
States better go look at the last sixteen times Ohio
States played Michigan. I think Michigan's won one. None of
their coaches can beat Ohio State because Ohio State's a
better program with better athletes, and Urban Wier's pretty good
(01:22:08):
coming up in fifteen minutes. Oh, Jamie Majio's here. Sorry
about that, Jamie. I'll start rant and I lose my mind.
I'm low on blood, sugar blood, period because my nose
exploded driving to work yesterday, and I'm a mess. It's
great to have you in on a Monday, fifteen minutes
from now. Super Bowl champ an eleven time pro bowler,
Rod Woods and one of the great all time players
joined us in studio in Best for Last. Every Monday,
(01:22:29):
I give you NFL every NFL game from the weekend,
described in three words, the three word game. But first
of all, I'm watching Aaron Rodgers last night, so are you.
And I'm watching him against the Minnesota of Vikings lose,
and it reminded me of that famous line, Remember that
line from Jerry McGuire, Show me the money. I'm more
(01:22:50):
of a show me the evidence. If you're gonna tell
me you're great, I gotta see you're great. Stats, super Bowls, rings.
Aaron Rodgers is now one and nine in his last
ten road games. I know, I know. It's not his fault.
It never is. It's his defense. Oh wait, they're third
in the NFL and sacks. It's his running game, he
doesn't have one. No, Actually, Aaron Jones's dynamic averaging over
(01:23:11):
six yards to carry. Mike McCarthy's a buffoon. Really, he
resurrected Brett Farbes's career. Come on, now, come on, now,
show me the evidence. You gotta give me something. Stats,
No Breeze has those trophies, no tom As those You
gotta show me something. You gotta show me some evidence.
You've been telling me, all you media guys and all
you fans for a decade have been telling me, oh,
(01:23:33):
he's got a great arm, great arm, great arm. All right,
so did Jeff George. I mean a million guys have
a great arms the NFL. Joe Flacco has got a
great arm. Show me the evidence, ask yourself. This is
that you know how they write those business books on
what it takes to be a great leader and a
great CEO. You can go to a library, go to
Amazon dot com, look up business books. There's a million
(01:23:55):
of them. I've read a handful in my life. Here's
the qualities they never verse say make a great leader.
Aloof condescending, arrogant, difficult to work with. Those are not
qualities of Aaron Rodgers. Those are now his brand. If
I say to you hall of Fame quarterback, condescending, you
think Aaron Rodgers, Hall of Fame quarterback, aloof hard to play.
(01:24:17):
You're saying Karon Rodgers. It's like saying Joe Flacco's inaccurate.
That's his brand. That's not a quality, that's who he is,
Jay Cutler, Moody, that's not a quality. That's his brand.
Tom Brady, driven, passionate, not a quality that's his brand.
I mean Aaron Rodgers. You notice this with green Bay.
The longer he's there, the uglier it gets. Because people
(01:24:37):
that are difficult to work with. You can tolerate him
for a year, deal with him for two, appease him,
play catum for four, but after about nine you want
to strangle him. But Colin, you're picking on Aaron Rodgers.
Why the hell would I do that? Do I pick
on Lebron? Do I pick on Steph Curry? Do I
pick on Roger Feder Do I pick on Serena? When
(01:24:57):
have I ever picked on the Great? Do I pick on?
Do I pick on the Warriors? Do I pick on
Tom Brady? Do I pick on Russell Wilson? Do I
pick on Andrew Luck? Do I pick on Drew Brees?
Who do I pick? I picked on Tebow because he
wasn't very good? I picked on Westbrook, great but hard
to play with. And yes, yes I pick on Aaron Rodgers.
No I don't. I'm honest, and you're all coming around now.
(01:25:19):
I used to get a lot of pushback on this.
I used to get nothing but hate Bill. You don't
know what you're talking about you know what I get now, silence.
And that's what I know I'm right Because fans are
not going to admit they're wrong. I get that that's
a catch part of the deal. But when fans disappear,
that's when you're right. The Westbrook fans, they don't. They
(01:25:41):
don't pushback. They just disappeared. The Aaron Rodgers fans, they
don't pushback. They just disappeared. I don't hear from him anymore.
I mean again, I'm not saying it's all Aaron's fault,
but he can't take a little blame. He's not a
little or off to work with. I have four former
packers I know, all said the same thing. Farv McCarthy
(01:26:02):
got along great. Aaron McCarthy major fissures one and nine,
last ten on the road. Here's a stat, Show me
the money, show me the evidence. So Breeze has the stats,
Tom has the trophies. Aaron Rodgers is now oh and
thirty seven after last night's lost to the Vikings. He
is now oh for thirty seven. When he enters the
(01:26:25):
fourth quarter of any game trailing by more than a
point and the team he is playing in that moment
at that moment has a winning record. Now, think about that,
Aaron Rodgers has never won a game and thirty seven
when he enters the fourth quarter trailing by more than
one point against the team in that moment, now, that
(01:26:46):
may not be a great team, many of them aren't,
but in that moment, they have a winning record. Come on, now,
you keep telling me, well, he needs the right coach.
I'm not saying he and McCarthy are a good mix.
But does he need Sean McVay? Does he need the
perfect running game and the perfect defense, and the perfect
(01:27:06):
coach and the perfect schedule? Because the greats don't let
me shift gears to the Steelers. So everybody's gonna beat
up on Big Ben today. I get it. Terrible, terrible
interception late, I get it today, every this morning, every
sports radio host, man, woman's going to crush him. I
would like to point out that James Connor red zone fumble,
(01:27:30):
fumbled the ball when there was nobody around him, and
at the end of the first half, a tight end
fumbled the ball out of the red zone and they
lost possession. Those weren't Ben's full right, But here's here's
the number I want you to look at. Not the score,
not the score. Here's what I want you to look at.
Big Ben was forty one of fifty six passing, And
(01:27:50):
I want you to think about fifty six pass attempts.
Fifty six pass attends. He leads the NFL and pass
attempts this year. And that's on a good team that
generally doesn't trail games late and half to pass, with
a good team with a legitimate running game that could
run the ball. The Pittsburgh Steelers allowed him yesterday to
(01:28:11):
throw the ball fifty six times. Why is that a
big deal. Here's why it's a big deal. You parents
out there, you can brag about your kids grades. Oh,
little Johnny got an A plus. Little Susie's a perfect student.
All you parents out there, you can brag about your
kids sports accomplishments. He hit a home run, she scored
(01:28:31):
a goal. But you know when you got good kids,
when you can leave for the weekend and trust them.
The Pittsburgh Steelers with a running game, said Ben, We're
leaving for the weekend. Throw at fifty six times. Lamar
Jackson's really good last two games. Media falls in love
(01:28:53):
with him. Has forty four attempts in two games. Their
baby sitting him Baker Mayfield's amazing last two games combined
forty six attempts. They're baby sitting there. Those teams are
telling you what they think of Lamar and Baker. They
like them, they got talent. But when those parents leave,
they call the nanny, they call a babysitter. They make
(01:29:13):
sure there's eyes on the quarterback, not Big Ben. That
family's going to Europe for eight days. There's alcohol all
over the house, keys of the car, and they're like,
we trust you, watch your brother and sister. We're going
to France. We'll be back in eight days. When you
allow a quarterback in Denver, good defense, two great pass
(01:29:35):
rushers on the road throughout fifty six times, that is
incredible respect by an organization. Coming up next Rod Woodson
Plus what are we? What are you? What am I
supposed to make of New England this year? Because they're
doing the same thing they've done for a decade. It
(01:29:56):
looks the exact same, The numbers are the same, the
results are the same, but as the league changed beyond them.
That's coming up. Plus the three word game, Every NFL
game in three words. One more heard the Herd streams
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Within
the iHeartRadio app, search Herd to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Hall of Famer seventeen NFL season Steelers, Ravens, Raiders,
(01:30:22):
forty nine Ers. Our friend FS one NFL analyst Rod Woodson,
you did on I just loved the last four days
College in Pro. You watch any college football too, sporadically,
sporadically the big games. You did the Cowboy Washington game
for Westwood One. What are your interpretations of what you
saw with Dallas? Oh? Well, first, their defense is really good. Yeah,
(01:30:45):
a lot better than I thought they could be this year.
Those guys are playing really good football. It's you know,
they're getting turnovers or stopping the run. Vander Esh, that guy,
he could play. He's a baller. That guy from Boys State.
He looks like Brian or Lacker. Remember Brian or Lacker
broke and none of us watched them in college. Right
now we're like, who's this big athletic guy. And that's
(01:31:07):
what vander Esh looks like. From Idaho, they have players
all over the place. What do you make of Amari Cooper?
What I love about Coop? If you go back and
look at you know, what is one team's trash and
not saying he's a trash player, but the Oakland Raiders
didn't think he fit into their system. There's another team's treasure.
I thought it was a good I thought it was
a good um taking that pick, the first round pick
(01:31:30):
for the Dallas Cowboys. I thought it was a great
idea for the Jerry Jones just for the fact that
he can play, and I think we can see that
he can play now. The difference is where since Mark
Hooper has been with the Dallas Cowboys, they went from
pass yards like twenty eighth to like fifteenth. Yeah, past
touchdowns went like twenty ninth to like fifteenth or not great,
(01:31:51):
but they're not great. They went from third down like
tie twenty eighth to twenty nine to like tenth. So
everything since he's been there has been a lot better.
And what is a little interesting is dak Is seems
like he's a little bit more comfortable since he's there.
And I don't know why because there's this one receiver,
(01:32:12):
but he's a little bit more comfortable thrown to him
because he does create space. He does, he does, he separates.
He looks like a first round receiver, he creates space,
you know, and then he's throwing the ball to him.
That throw he hadn't the scene where nuh all three
dbs for the Washington Redskins couldn't make a play and
the coopus out ran everybody. Those type of plays he
didn't throw. He didn't throw to guys like that and
(01:32:35):
that were covered like that. He waited for them to
be open. Where now he's believing that he's going to
make these plays. And then Beasley and Gallup who's coming
to his own, the rookie from Colorado State. They have players,
and we know how good Zeke is. So the players
are all there and Dak is just starting to get
his playmakers the ball in space and they're playing really
good football. Yeah. So you know, I've said through the
(01:32:58):
years and Aaron Rodgers, I'm not I'm not denying his greatness,
but I do sense that he his brother calls him out.
He's had family members, former players that he's not easy.
And by the way, not all quarterbacks are. I had
a guy tell me one time how he Longos jokes
about this. He said he can't have two quarterbacks in
the same room. When a quarterback walks in the room.
He's gotta be the man. He can't have two of them.
(01:33:20):
You get two of them in the same room. It's
a weird vibe. And he knows jokes about that. But
there is something about Aaron. I am seeing relationships turbulent fissures.
It's something right like the longer he's in Green Bay,
the worst of these things. They're one in nine, last
ten on the road. It can't all be everybody else's fault. Well,
(01:33:41):
do you blame Aaron Rodgers or do you blame the
coaching staff? When I when I look at Aaron Rodgers,
Aaron Rodgers a very confident players. Yes, and sometimes you
can you can't confuse confidence with arrogance because when I
played in the National Football League, I was very confident,
and you can ask my wife I was. She thought
(01:34:02):
I was very arrogant and maybe it came across to
some people as being arrogant. But I believe in who
I was, and I think Aaron's the same way because
he has some family issues. Yeah, we all have stories.
But when I look at the Green Bay Packers, every
wasn't for Aaron Rodgers. They're not gonna win now. I
believe Mike McCarthy has to do more for him. And
(01:34:23):
I don't know if it's Mike McCarthy because this is
a very simple offense, simplistic offense. It's a static offense.
Every player in the league that knows football says the
same thing. It's pretty pedestrian for Aaron. It doesn't they
don't move, no motioning. They do some speed sweeps and
all that stuff. The new trend in the nash Football League,
but very rare and as static. It's two by two
(01:34:44):
sets and list let him do his thing. Mike McCarthy's
a head coach, and if he thought that changing the
offense was better suited to help the football team win games,
then he should implement that. I don't think he does.
I think he's gonna let You got to let your quarter,
You have to let your individual players bring the own
uniqueness into the system that they're in, which I think
(01:35:06):
he's done. But I just believe that the head coach
has to do more for the football team to get
them to win football games. It can't just be predicated
on Aaron Rodgers slinging the rock all over the place.
He has to have four touchdowns three hundred and fifty
yards or they are gonna lose. Yeah, that's unfair to
the individual player because this is the ultimate team sport.
This is not basketball where you can have one stud
(01:35:28):
and you can win a Super Bowl or win a championship.
This is this is winning super Bowls. You have to
have multiple players at multiple levels to be good enough
to make plays to through out the game to win games.
And Aaron Rodgers right now is the only player in
Green Bay. And even though he's not playing to the
level that we've seen him play at the past, he's
not playing terrible football. No, you know, I call him
(01:35:51):
my bore for my four favorite quarterbacks in this league,
all of the same personality. They're boring. It's Brady, it's
Andrew Luck, it's Russell Wilson, and it's Drew Brees. They're
not that quotable. They kind of talking cliches. One has
a neck beard. They're not cool, they're not hip, they're
not really fashionable. I call him my bore. Four you know,
cam stylish and exciting, and Aaron Rodgers is kind of
(01:36:15):
cocky in the arm. And there's a lot of guys
that are exciting. And Baker Mayfield is just chatty, chatty, chatty.
I didn't like what Baker did yesterday after the game,
calling out Hugh Jackson. It's just not I always say
I like my presidents to be presidential. That's why the
current guy wears me out. I like my quarterbacks to
be quarterback. Yell. I don't like what Baker did. I
don't like what Baker did yesterday. I don't like calling
out Hugh Jackson. How's it set with you? I don't
(01:36:38):
like it at all? Um? How hypocritical is this? Think
about it? Baker Mayfield, is that Texas Tach. He he
chooses to leave Tessa's tack to go to wear Oklahoma.
Who do they play? They play Texas Tach. You can't
you can't say that you And then Hugh Jackson, what's happened?
You didn't choose to leave? They fired him? And then
(01:37:01):
the Cincinnati Bengals offering him a job, and buddy Marvin
Lewis's buddy, right do you turn them down? So this
is what this is what Baker is saying. In ten
years down the road, Baker, when they think that you
don't have it anymore and you have to go to
another team and say, let's say the Baltimore Ravens are
the only team is going to offer you a contract.
(01:37:23):
You don't take it because it's against another team, and
then your boys should shun you if you do take it.
That's crazy. I think two things. It was immature, which
he will grow up. But you can't look at the
world one sided. You know, it's funny. I just thinking
about this, Rod, you were a Steeler than a Raven
and at the time it was the biggest rivalry in football.
(01:37:44):
And if thinking about me going there and my boys
didn't like me anymore, carn l a, Greg Lloyd, they
turned their backs on me. We hugged it up before
the game, we hugged it up after the game. We
talked each other as soon as the games are over.
I mean, it's you know, life is too short. First
of all, it's a game. You can't take it that serious.
I do want to be a competitor. I understand how
(01:38:05):
about Baker, but the throw to shade on Hugh and
saying you shouldn't have done it is this ridiculous. By
the way, I gotta tell you, I didn't think Lamar
Jackson was ready to play, But could I make this
argument that he brings a certain energy to the locker room.
(01:38:25):
Michael Vick had a little bit of this. I think
I think Tebow had a little bit of this. There
are certain young players that bring a juice or an energy,
and they may not be perfect players. But Flacco is
not perfect. Flacco is inaccurate. In a world where everybody's
complete and sixty eight percent, Flacco's at sixty I'll just
make the argument that Flacco may be better at some
(01:38:48):
stuff than Lamar, but he's not bringing the juice to
that locker room like Lamar is. I would I would
stick with Lamar Jackson. I'm right there with you, Colin.
I am right there with you. I believe that the
future is now. You know, I go back to quarterbacks.
I look at a lot of players across the board.
You know, I'm the same thing with Eli. Good things
(01:39:09):
coming to an end. I think sooner or later you
have to move on. And Joe Flacco got him in
the Super Bowl. He played well in that span frame
that they won the Super Bowl, but he hasn't played
great after that. No, He's had four bad years and
they moved back up in the first round for a reason.
Has is Lamar Jackson? Was he inaccurate? Is he in
(01:39:29):
consistent right now throwing the football down the field. Yes.
But the one thing I do love about it is
that when everything comes down to it, he finds what's
comfortable to him. That's running the football. And Marty morning
Wig found out in the second half. You know what,
I'm gonna give this guy some place outside of the pocket,
let him have that option to run the football, and
(01:39:49):
he did a great job with it. So I think
the future is now. I think Jim Harball maybe he
can hold off not being there anymore and being on
the hot seat by playing this young quarterback. This defense
is solid. Get the quarterback that can run the football,
and it really becomes like, uh, Carolina Panthers because when
Cam Newton, even though they lost to the since Seattle,
(01:40:11):
when Cam Newton is running the football along, they are
better football they were they were a better team yesterday. Yeah,
Cam actually likes the ball like it's like on third
and two, give Cam the ball at him run. And
I can see the same thing with Lamar and that
running game and this football team finding some youth and
some different energy for the football team for the future.
(01:40:32):
Rod Woodson, Um, so you're doing that Westwood one stuff.
A lot. I have seven games with them, which is
fun though. Oh no, No No, when you when you get
to go to the stadium and you sit up there
in the perch and you can watch the defense like
you watch the Dallas Cowboys, you can really see what
you really get to see as the speed of certain players,
like television doesn't owe it. You know, in a television game,
(01:40:53):
the safety is not even in the picture when the
ball snapped. Yeah, when you go to a game and
you sit there upstairs and you can see the alignments
and how players close and other players, and you get
to see great players for the first time. Like I
called the forty nine Ers and the New York Giants game,
and that was the first time I got to see
Odell in person. Now you know Odell, I know Odell.
We got to talk before the game, but to see him,
(01:41:15):
to see Barkley in person, those guys are the real.
Oh no, they're They're a great player. That's that's why
you got about four more years of both in their prime.
Se Quan's gonna take too many hits. Like pitchers, you
can't pitch him two hundred and fifty innings. Sae Quan's
gonna take too many hits. He give him four more
years in his total prime. And Odell Beckham is kind
of a fragile smaller player, got about four more years
(01:41:36):
before the dings add up. You gotta get him a quarterback.
You gotta get him the guy. Hey, listen, you think
Eli for what he's done. Thank you? Yeah, hey, great job,
you got us too, super bowls. We thank you. But
we have to we have to find a guy to
get this guy the football because even in that game,
he beat the snots out of the corners off the line,
but he didn't get the ball thrown to him. Right.
(01:41:57):
So you need a quarterback that can find your playmakers
in space, let them make plays. Good stuff, Rod, Good
seeing you you too. Jamie Margo with the news. Now,
this is the herd line news. Pollen, what's going on
with Mark Hill. Folks in Philadelphia. Well, he's got what
they call the yips and golf the yips. It's awful.
I've actually feel really bad for the kid. He was
(01:42:19):
the number one overall pick in the draft the last year. Now,
Philly dot Com is reportedly saying that the Sixers are
ready to move on from him. He is no longer
in their long term plans. I don't blame him. They've
sent him to specialists. They're not finding anything wrong with
his shoulder that would prevent him from shooting the ball. Well,
I think it's totally a mental confidence thing. But my
question is what's his trade value? What can you get
(01:42:41):
for this kid at this point? What's what is he
What has he shown other teams in the league that says, hey,
spend some money on me, trade some good guys for me. Listen,
at this point, if you could get us, I mean
I'm serious, if you could get a serviceable player off
the bench, that's what you're gonna get. We have it.
Which is the number one pick last year? I know,
but we have a story. Michael Olowa Condi was a
number one pick. I mean, if you go, if you
(01:43:03):
go look in the history the NBA, there's a lot
of bus in your top ten and it he just
doesn't work. I mean, this is just this is this
is why this is not a science. Okay, it's not
a science you're talking about taking. And it used to
be a kid played three years of college, so he
was emotionally ready. You'd seen if he could take the
physic count, you had a lot of film and a guy.
(01:43:26):
This kid played his best basketball a year and a
half before he left college in some tournament. You don't
have any film on these guys. You don't know how
good they are. In a big tournament Washington, it was
like terrible with him. So I had a college coach.
I'll tell you a story. I won't tell you who
the college coach is. He's a top five coach in
college basketball. A college coach told me when Mark l
Foltz got drafted. He said, we played him, and he
(01:43:48):
said he was great in the first half, and in
the second half of a close game, we couldn't find
him on the floor. He goes, he mentally checked out,
and I an NBA team called me and I said,
I if he's the best in college basketball, I got
a bunch of college kids. He disappeared on the floor.
This we just if you'd have had three or four
more years of video, I feel bad for these At
(01:44:09):
least the NFL gms have tape. You know, I can
watch an Alabama guy for five years. I can see
him against Auburn, Georgia. I saw this kid play like
against maybe two NBA guys. Maybe I don't know how
good he is. Thanksgiving Day, Amari Cooper had that touchdown
celebration and mopped his free throw shooting, and then he
responded and went on Snapchat and kind of like lapped
(01:44:30):
it up, which I guess at that point, what are
you gonna do? I mean, you may as well kind
of Indeed, it's just not a good look overall. Melvin Gordon.
We saw the knee injury yesterday in the third quarter.
They were up big, they were of twenty eight ten
and he lines up at wide receiver and gets tackled
on the play, blasts his knee, which he's already had
(01:44:51):
issues with. Um, what do you think about Anthony Lynn
at that point putting him in that position? Well, Andrew
Luck yesterday went out for a pass and I'm like,
that's not great. Get that play out of the playbook
and burn it. You know, I'm not going to bang
on a coach here, because we criticize coaches when they're
not out of the box creative, Like we crush these
(01:45:12):
guys and then they run a trick play or something
kind of peculiar to what we're used to seeing. And
we crushed the coaches, but then we destroy these guys
when it's like power football. So you know, my takeaway
is Anthony Lynn is trying to do something different. He's
trying to put stuff on film. He wants you to
have to prepare for everything. This just happens. It's football, Guys,
(01:45:33):
get hurt. Well that was the thing too. Anthony Lynn
said after the game after the knee injury that it's
a play that they've had for a long time. They've
been trying to get it into a game. Melvin loves
the play. Melvine loves the play, so I'm sure he's
not loving it today. By the way, this morning it
was diagnosed as a great two mcl S brain he's
weak to week. Okay, I'm gonna say that's not he
can play still. I just you know what, they look
(01:45:54):
like they have a playoff. I'd take him out for
as long as I could because they can win without
and they have great receivers. But I if I was them,
I would you you're not winning. They weren't playing the Cardinals.
They're playing the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah, they won big. Lastly,
let's go back to Odell Beckham Junior kind of calling
out Pat Server's play calling and the Giants lost to
(01:46:14):
the Eagles yesterday because it looked like they were going
to win that game, but they just did not show
up in the second half. Here's Odell after the game,
coming in knowing that they struggled in the secondary. Personally,
I would I would have loved to attack them, but
it wasn't in our game. Things. I don't call the plaze.
I just do what I'm told to do and go
(01:46:36):
out there and execute. Whenever I get opportunity to do something,
I try and make the most of it. If I
don't have them any opportunities, all I can do is
do what I can when I do have an opportunity.
So that's more of a question for coach. Yeah, I
was more bummed out about sa Quon Barkley. I just
forgot about him. They forgot about him, for sure. But
the cornerbacks Philly's corners were all banged up, So why
(01:46:57):
would you not take advantage of the weakness and exploit
that was when you Pato Dell all this money Giants
played at first half. The Giants looked great, they really did,
and then you know, Carson Wentz. I don't know. I
feel like i'd know more if I was in a
locker room. The Giants played two different games yesterday, the
first half and the second half, and I can't figure
(01:47:18):
out why they're having an identity credit. Yes, very frustrating
for Giants fans. Collins a lot of them here in
La a lot. Jamie with the news, Well that's the news,
and thanks for stopping by the Herdline News. By the way,
I don't know what to make of New England. So
I'm watching New England play yesterday. I don't know what
to make of them. So this is I'm going to
(01:47:39):
read certain things I saw from New England yesterday and
my gut feeling this is what they are. They beat
the Jets, They'll win the AFC East. They ran the
ball well yesterday. Gronk had a big play. They have
the best coach in the NFL. They have the second
fewest penalties in the NFL, and they're averaging twenty eight
a game. That's what they've done in the last seven
years and made the AFC Championship. They're boring. Everybody now
(01:48:02):
is a tech stock, everybody now is a Tesla, and
they just remained the most durable BMW in the business.
I don't know what to make of them. Last six years,
they've averaged twenty eight points a game. Once again, they're
averaging twenty eight points a game last six years. They
don't fumble, they don't get penalized. This year, if they
don't fumble, they don't get penalized. Yesterday they had a
big Gronk touchdown, ran for two hundred yards. It looks
(01:48:25):
like the new England I've been watching for seven years
that gets to the AFC Championship. But the world's changing
and I'm not sure are they keeping up. All I
know is I watched that game yesterday. It was the
most predictable you could have taken. The last fifteen times
they play the Jets, they've all looked like that. They've
almost all looked like that. But now I'm supposed to
(01:48:46):
believe that if you don't score forty you can't win
in the playoffs. I don't know what to make of it.
I really don't. I watched them yesterday. I'm like, God,
this is new England. Gronk has a big touchdown, very
very efficient, very few penalties, don't turn it over, dominate
you tell me. I don't have an answer. All I
know is year after year we fall for the flashy
(01:49:07):
They are the least flashy good offense in the NFL.
Even Chicago's doing crazy stuff. But man, when I start
looking at stuff they do, it's the same team that's
won Super Bowls, best head coach, no penalties, ran the
ball effectively. Have a buy probably after the Steelers loss
at home, and they're averaging once again like the last
six years, twenty eight points a game coming up. It's
(01:49:30):
three words to sum up every game from this past weekend,
including the Thanksgiving game. Best for last around the Corner,
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DNA kit today. Twenty three and me dot com Slash
the Herd Friday on Fox. A pac twelve champion will
be crowned as Top battles Washington. Then on Saturday, Ohio
State and Northwestern go toe to toe for the Big
Ten title. Coverage begins at seven Eastern Friday and Saturday
on Fox and the Fox Sports App. I'll take the
(01:50:12):
Huskies and the Buckeyes. I watched a ton of college football.
For the record, Mac Brown's gonna take the North Carolina job.
Sixty seven year old Mac Brown is going to be
the new coach at North Carolina, where he coached before
he took the job at Texas. So good for Mac Brown.
And he's not known as an x as the O's
guy's a great builder of staffs. He's gonna hire a
really good staff. North Carolina's a good job. It's an
(01:50:32):
underrated college football job. A lot of players in that
footprint geographically. All right, we do it every week on Monday.
We call it the three word game. I look back
at every NFL game and I think I can describe
each in just three words. So here we go, Cowboys,
first place. Cowboys. Well, I gotta be honest. There's six
(01:50:54):
and five and now have the tiebreaker against Washington. I
will say this there the healthiest team in their division.
DAK since Week six has thirteen total touchdowns, eight passing
and five rushing. You know, every year in the NFL
there's a team that wins in division that's probably the
weakest team. I thought a couple of weeks ago it
(01:51:16):
was Chicago. Chicago is better than Dallas. So yes, the
Dallas Cowboys are the first place. Cowboys, Bears, Lions. I
was wrong. I was wrong. Chase Daniels even completed seventy
three percent. This is a really well coached team with
terrific defensive talent. They're eight and three, first place. They've
(01:51:37):
won five straight. I whiffed on him. Every year. There's
a team I just don't see it coming. I didn't
know who Matt Naggie was. I mean, I knew who
he was under Andy Reid, but I didn't know he'd
be this good. Trubisky looked incredibly pedestrian under John Fox,
but they play with great passion. Even their dive plays
look sophisticated. They've got playmakers on defense. And you know,
(01:52:00):
I just I was wrong. There's no team in the
NFL I was more wrong about in the Chicago Bears.
I still don't love them as much as the Saints,
as much as the Rams, but they're good and you
can't deny it. Now. Falcon Saints super Bowl bound. Listen,
nobody's going into the Superdome and beating this team. We
all concentrate on the offense and Drew Brees, but their
(01:52:22):
offensive lines fantastic. Their running game is a plus. You
can't run on them and their defensive secondary. They did
acquire Eli Apple from the Giants. Was a major issue,
but they have slowly coached it up. Listen, they've won
ten straight games. Remember how bad they were to start
the season. They struggled with the Cleveland Browns at home.
They are clicking, and they, to me look super Bowl bound. Raiders, Ravens.
(01:52:48):
Goodbye Joe Flacco. Listen, Flacco's not perfect either. If you're
gonna give me two imperfect quarterbacks, I'd rather take the
kid that gives this offense juice, mobility, energy. I know
they have to shrink the playbook a little because he
hasn't been around. I get that, I understand that. But
(01:53:08):
Flacco's got absolute limitations, one of them being I don't
know accuracy. At least with Lamar, I feel like he
energizes the locker room. I don't see a point in
bringing back Joe Flacco. Patriots Jets business as usual. Patriots
eight and three, three game leading the AFC East. With
(01:53:30):
the Steeler's loss, they'd host a playoff game. Brady's now
the all time leader in passing yards regular season and post. Listen,
they're the exact same offense six years ago and it
keeps getting to the AFC Championship. I don't think they
can win in Kansas City. I think this Steeler team
is too much. But I'll tell you penalties they don't
(01:53:51):
do it. Fumbles, they don't have him turnovers, not many,
well coached, absolutely big play the Gronk two hundred yards rushing,
business as usual. Giant. Steelers still love Wentz, Listen. Carson
Wentz is magical. This is still a great owner, a
great GM, a great quarterback, and a really good head coach.
(01:54:13):
Carson Wentz yesterday came back from a sixteen point deficit.
This is not a good year. They walked into this
league on crutches, and frankly, they haven't played as inspired.
They just don't have enough dynamic guys. That's why they
acquired Golden Tate on the outside. But I still love
Wentz now and for a long time Steelers Broncos. One
(01:54:35):
bad throw Big Ben forty one to fifty six seventy three,
four hundred and sixty two yards. He had a running
back fumble near the red zone. He had a tight
end fumble in the end zone. They should have won
this football game. Listen, they look around their division and
they look at Lamar Jackson starting right now. For you know, Baltimore,
(01:54:57):
Cincinnati's a train wreck, and then you know Cleveland's a
nice fun story, but they're Cleveland. And I think Pittsburgh
is a veteran team that is hard to motivate and
sometimes mails an in Brown's Bengals, Baker got better. Listen,
Let's look at the numbers for Baker Mayfield with Hugh
Jackson and without him. He's better without him. I didn't
(01:55:23):
like what he said after the game, and I don't
like a lot of his personality nonsense, But for a
rookie quarterback to get significantly better when his veteran offensive
coach leaves, it's impressive. He's an accurate thrower of the
football and right now, of all the rookie quarterbacks, and
I expected him to be better early. It's two years older,
had double the college starts, and the Browns have actual talent,
(01:55:46):
really good running backs. But it's impressive. Seahawks Panthers Pete's
greatest feat. I gotta tell you something right now. The
NFC wild cards are Seattle, Washington, had Minnesota, and I'll
take also Wilson and Pete Carroll. They've done a really
good job here. I've said about Pete Carroll, I think
some of his Kumbaya, heavy emotion, loud locker room stuff
(01:56:08):
where stin overtime. Pete's done a great job of this team.
They are now an incredibly physical, dominate the point of
attack running team with the ability with Lockett and Doug
Baldwin to beat you over the top. Bobby Wagner's their
one star butt. They lost Michael Bennett, they lost Richard Sherman,
they lost Earl Thomas, they lost Cam Chancellor, and this
(01:56:30):
defense is playing really, really well. I gotta tell you,
Matt Naggie would be my coach of the year. I
think Pete Carroll would be my runner up. Jaguar Bills.
Saxonville becomes Hacksonville today. They fired their offensive coordinator. Today
they demoted Blake Bortles. Cody Kesseler will get the start.
You know my rule in life, any team, any business,
(01:56:53):
any person that gives themselves a nickname will come crashing down.
Saxonville the minute they had marginal success has become Hacksonville.
How about Cards Chargers twenty five for twenty five Philip
Rivers completed ninety six point six percent of his throws.
It's an NFL record minimum twenty attempts. This is quietly
(01:57:17):
the most dangerous team in the league because they didn't
beat New England through the years or Kansas City they
struggle with. Nobody takes them seriously. But man, they can
do a lot offensively. I think they have the best
receiving corps in football, and they got three guys who
can beat deep, can all catch. Their offensive line solid,
(01:57:37):
and they've kind of fixed the one big problem last year,
which was their run defense up the middle. Buccaneers forty
nine ers. Yeah, I didn't watch. In case anybody cares,
Bucks one twenty seven to nine. I just I'm told
I didn't see one play. I didn't even see them
(01:57:58):
a highlight. I didn't watch Dolphins Colts Luck to Ebroun.
Eric Ebron is having himself a year. He was a
first round pick. He went to Detroit and kind of
just didn't do anything. Oh my lord. He is the
Pro Bowl tight end in the league right now, and
(01:58:20):
the chemistry with him and Andrew Luck is remarkable. He
now has eleven receiving touchdowns tied for the most in
the league with Tyree Hill and Antonio Brown. The Colts
don't have really a number two receiver, so he is
really valuable. They're this team's very tight end centric. I
think this team is limited. I don't think they're good
(01:58:41):
enough to be top teams on the road, maybe even
at home. But they've won five straight and Ebron is
having an incredible like Gronk in his prime year. Packers
Vikings can't beat Cousins, you know, eric Aaron Rodgers career
against Kirk Cousins O two and one. Kirk Cousins is
(01:59:04):
actually now Kirk Cousins has better receivers. But isn't that
kind of a thing. I have to stop now, I'm
I'm being labeled as anti Aaron Rodgers. I don't want
to be labeled anti Aaron Rodgers. Finally, Tonight, Titans against Texans,
Monday night football, not Chiefs Rams, Chiefs Rams one hundred
(01:59:29):
and four points. This is mostly going to be about
defense and Deshaun Watson. I love Deshaun Watson. Deshaun Watson's
the quarterback I would have taken first, not Trubisky in
this trap. But Bill O'Brien got to give the coach
credit is DeShawn At this point in his career, He's
given him about twenty three throws a game. Have him run,
(01:59:49):
make plays, don't put thirty eight throws on the table,
don't do a big ben in fifty six throws. Let's
keep it where he's comfortable. And DeShawn has been terrific.
They're gonna win their division. They've got a couple of
playmakers on the outside, and the defense, though not playing
as good as their names, still has tremendous talent. The
(02:00:12):
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Speaking of Indianapolis, you know I call him my bore
four that I'm not a big fan. I'm boring so
my favorite quarterbacks over the last several years in the NFL.
(02:00:34):
And by the way, you like these guys too, but
I love these guys Andrew Luck, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson,
and Drew Brees. Andrew Luck had a play yesterday that
this was a very interesting game. I'm not going to
bang on coaches for play calling, but Miami gave this
game it was fascinating. Miami gave this game to Indie.
So Miami had the ball like two and a half
minutes left, three minutes left. Adam Gays Tannehill. Tannehill had
(02:00:56):
a pretty decent game. They were running the football, they
got into a third down situation, and they just handed
it off deep in their own territory, basically meaning we're punting. Well,
you're gonna punt the ball, probably to about the forty
yard line. And Andrew Luck in the offense was rolling.
Where the Colts got the ball, they only needed twenty
three yards to be an Adam vententary field goal range.
I like Adam Gase, I really do. I think Miami's
(02:01:19):
got themselves a good coach. I don't know if he's great,
he's good. I did not get that coaching at all
by the Dolphins yesterday. So Andrew Luck gets the ball.
Cameron wake In Miami had had a pretty decent pass
rush they'd gotten too. Andrew Luck finally hadn't been stacked
in a month. And then Andrew Luck pulls off his
best play of the year. Third and nine. Luck ducks
(02:01:42):
the pass rush throwing deep. He has a man opening,
He's got him that's Chester Rogers, whereas athleticism pays off again,
Big Strong can't knock him down, gets his eyes downfield
and makes the big plays. Well, that was great stuff.
You know, my MVPs right now are Drew Brees one,
(02:02:05):
Andrew Luck two, and who cares three? Most people. Trent
Dilford came on earlier today. He said, you gotta put
Philip Rivers in there. I would put Patrick Mahomes probably
now after Big Ben yesterday third, But I just think
there's two guys in this league that. I mean. Andrew
Luck has had three plus touchdown passes in eight straight games.
(02:02:25):
Michael Vick told me yesterday he did that seven times
in his whole career, eight and he didn't have a
number two receivers. Colts need a pass rusher next year
in the draft, and then need a number two wide
receiver badly. Jamie, thank you for filling in today. Thank
you for having me. Thank you. Tony Gonzalez. Layton banned
rush of the Cowboys linebackers. Didn't the herd tomorrow see
them