December 6, 2018 • 39 mins
Colin thinks the Lakers need to stop worrying about developing their young guys and just get stars that can win with LeBron. He says the Packers need to hire a coach that makes things uncomfortable for Aaron Rodgers. Plus, Greg Cosell of NFL Films talks about what is wrong with Cam Newton and why Russell Wilson has been winning playing a different style than we are used to seeing. Presented by Perky Jerky.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This
is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on
Fox Sports Radio. This is the Herd Wherever you may
(00:25):
be and however you may be, listening live in Los Angeles, iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio and FS one. We are packed today
Greg Coo, Sell, J Glazer, Michael Rabbit, Bart, Chris Brusard,
TJ Houshmanzada An hour from now, Greg ko Sell our
NFL meet Sandwich for the week On Thursdays, Joey Taylor
(00:47):
is joining me. How are you. I'm great, Good morning,
Good morning. Last night was a little bit of an
NBA night that wasn't any college football. We're waiting for
bowls Now and NFL. We're waiting for tonight, some of
you for the Titans Jags game. And last night I
watched a couple of you know, like Netflix, Amazon Prime things,
and I watched the Lakers plan. I watched the Sixers
plan a little Oklahoma City. Let me start with this. Now,
(01:10):
I'm just talking NBA. I'm not talking the NFL. The
NFL's got seven rounds, seven rounds, and draft players, many
of the all time great NFL players. You didn't even
you didn't even see play college. You didn't watch Walter
Payton in college. You didn't watch Jerry Rice in college.
You didn't see Big Ben in college. You didn't half
the end of it. You didn't see to in college.
(01:32):
You didn't watch Ocho Cinco in college. In football, there
is talent everywhere. There is talent everywhere. In baseball, how
many of these guys did well? Many of them didn't
go to American universities. There's baseball talent globally everywhere. Basketball
there are very few difference makers. The NBA only has
(01:54):
two rounds of their draft. Two rounds. And by the way,
after about the fourteenth pick, historically you're out of layers. Oh,
you can give me a Tony Parker, a Draymond Green. Historically,
after about the fourteenth pick, you're not finding stars. So
when I hear about the Lakers developing talent, let's develop talent.
You know Lebron's gonna stunt talent? Really, do you watch
that game last night? Lebron was patient for three quarters.
(02:17):
He let the other Lakers number two pick Lon Zone,
numbered two pick Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma. He led all
of those guys Rondo, all that rosters a bunch of yeah,
and then Lebron said in the fourth quarter, all right, guys,
give me the ball. Scored fourteen straight points and an
eight point deficit in the fourth when Lebron was being patient,
became a Laker win by eight. What am I waiting
(02:40):
to develop? You know what the Lakers roster is. It's
Lebron and twelve pending transactions. I know Christmas is around
the corner. Hold off on the Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma.
Jersey's for your kids. They could be a Pelican very soon.
Since the twenty fifteen draft, two guys are all stars.
(03:01):
Carl Anthony Towns, he's regressed, and poor zingis and he's hurt.
And the twenty fourteen draft only had one r star,
Joe lm Beide, who doesn't shoot threes and can't dribble much,
so he's not going to really carry you to a
franchise unless he has shooters and ball handlers around him.
Lebron James, I don't want to hear I mean Yannis.
(03:23):
Whenever I hear about developing stars. You can see Kobe
Bryant's greatness early, You saw Durant's greatness rookie year. You
could see Lebron early, Kawhi Leonard, I guess sort of developed,
and so did Yannis. But Yannis has still never won
a playoff series. We're five years into him. I mean,
I hear about developing talent all the time in the NBA.
(03:43):
It works out way. In hockey, works out way, in baseball,
works out way. Maybe in soccer, it certainly works out
way in football. I'm kind of over developing talent, brandon
Ingram Hurt again, Lonzo good early, not late. This raw
is all about Lebron. If you're a Laker fan, if
(04:05):
you're Lebron James, patient give me players. Philadelphia had that
thing called the process, and then they went out and
they got Jimmy Butler, which was obstensibly saying the proceed
is a bunch of bs. We drafted four guys new Lands, Zenowil, Bust,
Mark l. Foltz, bust to the little local four bust,
(04:25):
Michael Carter Williams bust. And they went out and they
got Jimmy Butler, a player who you didn't watch play
in college either. I mean, let's be honest about it.
Let that's what the Philadelphia seventy six ers were telling
you what they're rebuild the process. They gave it a
cool nickname that it's a bunch of bs, it's a
total sham. And they went out and got an actual,
really good, all star level player who had thirty six
(04:46):
thirty eight last night, Jimmy Butler. So you know, I'm
watching all this Laker stuff. Here's what Lebron coming to
Los Angeles has really done. Greatness clarifies and separates. Like
if you have a bunch of singers and you have
a great singer that goes on stage in the middle
of tryouts, she or he clarifies, oh everybody else kind
(05:10):
of average. Lebron comingdale LA has told you they don't
have a second start Ingram's hurt again, Lonzo good In,
Spurts Kuzma hot and cold. Josh Hart should be a
good player off the bench. Here's Lebron's fourth quarter fourteen
straight points to put it away. Last night, I head
of steam for Lebron one. What a finish with the
(05:34):
left Cunningham on James wide open threes. Got it. You're
proud out here taking the long way home, Lebron. Let's energized,
pushing it. Hit one a deep free, hotter than fish plans.
Right now, We're proud with the steal up for Los Angeles.
(05:59):
The microphone another two three. This guy for three quarters,
he was patient for three quarters. He let the developing
young players control the game. In the fourth, the best
player in the league for fifteen years took it over,
(06:19):
won the game. The NBA draft is out of dudes
by about the fourteenth pick of the first round. Half
the NFL are undrafted. There's just not much world class,
game changing NBA talent. The Lakers are Lebron and twelve
(06:40):
pending transactions. Hold off on buying the brandon ingram Jersey.
Let me shift to this. So the Aaron Rodgers story
has been great for us all week. There's a lot talk,
So Aaron Rodgers is not working with McCarthy. McCarthy gets
run off. Aaron Rodgers says, well, you know, I've just shocked,
like everybody else, and then a Green Bay assistant comes out.
(07:02):
Winston Moss puts out a tweet that's inoffensive, innocuous that says, basically,
we got to hold number twelve accountable and he gets fired.
And so Aaron Rodgers yesterday had to react to the
questions about he's not accountable. Aaron Rodgers said, yesterday, there's
nobody that holds me more accountable than myself. I mean,
I'm always checking myself on preparation habits and my practice
(07:22):
habits and my mindset. So Aaron Rodgers said that yesterday
he'll take the heat when needed. Here's Aaron yesterday. I
think there's nobody holds holds me more accountable to myself.
I mean, I'm always checking myself on my preparation habits
and my practice habits and my mindset. But I mean
(07:44):
there's always been a I think a great deal of accountability. Okay,
fair enough, that's what he says. I'm not in the room,
so fair enough. To me. This is really simple. The
real question is is Green Bay willing to be uncomfortable
because you can hire Joe Philbin he's your interim coach.
He's comfortable, he's part of the packer family. And let's
(08:06):
be honest about small market America. They don't love change.
They look at the cities. I want to city people
not interested, dangerous crazy liberals. Small town America is comfortable
with habits. Come touch green Bay. People have chosen to
(08:27):
live in green Bay. Not a ton of employment in
green Bay. They like green Bay. It's where they're from.
They're happy being there. They got their friends in fam
And are they ready to get uncomfortable because Joel Philbin
is comfortable. And if Joel Philben goes four and oh
or three and one down the stretch here, they may
strongly consider Joel Filman. But everybody in Green Bay knows him,
(08:50):
everybody in Green Bay likes him, and he would have
no power with Aaron Rodgers. The question is who fills
and checks the boxes that would make Aaron better? Are ununcomfortable?
Just just say it out loud. What are the boxes?
Smart track record of success, strong frank coach, give it
right back, not be intimidated as probably Josh McDaniels. That's
(09:15):
maybe Jim Harball. Those are the guys that check the boxes.
But I gotta be honest with you, Josh McDaniels and
Jim Harbaugh do not feel like green Bay, Wisconsin. They're outsiders.
They're gonna be candid and frank and difficult and intimidating
not only green Bay people, but to Aaron Rodgers. And
(09:36):
I asked former Aaron Rodgers teammate Greg Jennings about the
Packers going after a guy like a McDaniel or more
specifically Jim Harball. He would be phenomenal. I think for
Aaron Rodgers. If Aaron Rodgers would really self assessed and
see where we can grow and where we need to
(09:57):
kind of alter things. If he's willing to do that,
I think Jim Harball would be the top pick. But
I just don't know if Aaron Rodgers will ever be
able to do that. So what green Bay. They're in
a very tough spot here. What green Bay needs is
(10:17):
not their DNA, an outsider who is sometimes rude, can
be snarky, and frank, who is incredibly direct, who will
tell you what he thinks and will push back on
your iconic quarterback. That's what green Bay needs. Is green
Bay comfortable with that because Joe Philbin is your neighbor,
(10:41):
He's been in the family, He's one of the Packers.
Packers love. Even when the Packers fired their general manager,
they just gave him a different cubicle in the office.
They didn't run him out of town. Green Bay's nice
and nice people. They need to hire somebody that's not
that nice. Harball's not always that nice. Josh McDaniel's not
(11:02):
always that nice. They check the boxes. Is Green Bay
willing to hire what they've never been comfortable hiring? A real, true,
opposite outsider, not interested in your system or your way
of doing business. That's what you need. I don't think
(11:22):
you're comfortable with it. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nini Empacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. You know,
a lot of times what the headline is isn't the story,
And the guy that writes the story doesn't necessarily put
the man or woman who writes the story doesn't put
the headline up, but the headlines trying to draw you
(11:44):
into the story. So sometimes the story of the game,
the headline doesn't match it. So here's the headline last
night on Oklahoma City's win Russell Westbrook third most triple
doubles in NBA history as job snazzy. That guy's amazing.
Russell Westbrook dominated the game. Oh EJ. Actually watched the
(12:10):
game because Oklahoma City was getting rolled by twenty three
by a week team Brooklyn, I mean, getting rolled out
of the arena and Westbrook was dominating the ball. And
then late in the third quarter, Westbrook was done getting
the stats he so desperately wants. He loves the trouble double.
(12:32):
He's gonna be the all time trouble double. Guy loves it,
and he got him by the middle late third quarter.
He got it. And then he stopped shooting. And then
the Oklahoma City thunder who were getting rolled, suddenly started
playing really well and they ended up because Paul George
(12:53):
took all the shots in the fourth winning the game.
It's a huge comeback last night for Russell Westbrook had
his triple double. Oklahoma City was minus nineteen. Then he
stopped shooting. They were plus twenty one. They shot thirty
nine percent as a team during his triple double run
(13:14):
for the first two and a half quarters. Then he
stopped shooting, they shot forty nine percent. He did not
did not make a shot in the fourth. Paul George
went crazy and scored twenty five in the fourth, isn't
that interesting? So Paul George, who mostly watched Russell Westbrook
(13:35):
feed himself, feed himself, h hungry, give me more, give
me more, give me my points, give me my rebounds,
give me my assists. And then Westbrook, as he's prone
to do, is exhausted, scales back. After he gets what
he wants, Paul George, the better shooter, takes over. They
make a miraculous comeback, and they went in the road.
(13:56):
Now the headline is man Westbrook gets able double. The
headline should be after Westbrook has done getting his triple double,
Oklahoma City allows the game plan to work. Paul George
shoots more and Oklahoma sins wins a game that should
have never been that close. Of course, they don't have
the space for all that headline. But again, flash news flash,
(14:20):
triple double. Oh my god, Westbrook got a triple doubles.
The most amazing thing at that's the headline. But if
you watch the game after he fed himself and got
what he wanted and it was either exhausted or felt
like this isn't working, then they just fed Paul George
the ball. Paul George, the real shooter, on the team
(14:41):
took over, they made a miraculous comeback in one. Once again,
the Thunder are five and oh. In Paul George's biggest games,
when he's allowed to go off, when he's allowed enough
shots and opportunities to score in the thirties, they've never lost.
And when Westbrook shoots under twenty times, the thunder are
(15:05):
eight and one. Last night was the first game he
shot over twenty times, and they won. And they barely won, barely.
There's a clear you can keep writing your headlines. There
is a clear, definitive truth in the Oklahoma City thunder
(15:26):
less Westbrook. More Paul George, and you win triple double.
Lot of Westbrook over twenty shots, less efficiency. Paul George
doesn't get the opportunities. You do not win. But you
keep writing those headlines. You keep writing those headlines about
the trible double. That's not what really happened last night.
(15:48):
What happened was after he was done feeding himself and
he was full, big old belly of points, rebounds and assist.
Westbrook was exhausted, and George took over and they won
the game. Be sure to catch the five editions of
the Herd Weekdays and nun Easter nine am Pacific. There's
an article yesterday written by Tim Kalishaw. He's a long
time respected at Dallas columnist. Not really a homer, you know.
(16:11):
I mean, most people kind of lean toward their home team.
But he was talking about the playing field between Dak Prescott,
the Cowboy quarterback, and Carson Wentz to Philadelphia Eagle quarterback
has leveled, and I thought to myself, no, it hasn't.
It's the gap is the Grand Canyon. There's not a
general manager in the league take out the Eagles and
the Cowboys. The thirty remaining GMS, thirty out of thirty
(16:35):
would take Carson Wentz. Now, Kalishaw went on to say, yeah,
he's better, and yet given the choice, teams would take
Wentz over Prescott. But it's not necessarily by so much
that it makes all the difference in the world. Oh, yes,
it does. That's exactly what it does. Carson Wentz is
coming off an ACL tear. He was not healthy for
the first two months. He has no running game due
(16:58):
to a player leaving it an injury. He lost both
of his top offensive guys, and he's still having a
better year. Okay, the story here with the Dallas Cowboys.
Isn't Dak, but he's a quarterback, and like Romo Akman,
Roger Staubach, Danny White, the cowboy quarterback gets a lot
(17:23):
of discussion. It's the Lakers shooting guards, It's the Yankee shortstop.
There are positions in American sports that get the discussion.
The story is about how damn good the Cowboys are.
Besides Dak. Dak is Dak is Andy Dalton. He's Blake Bortles,
He's RG three. He's a better version of Tebow in
(17:44):
a short window. When a team around him has a
lot of ingredients, mostly a strong running game, it can
hide his weaknesses. Here's what I don't think people understand
about Dallas because if you do a blind resume right
now with Dak Prescott, this is with a better than
average offensive line. This is with now arguably the best
(18:04):
running back in the game, with a slot receiver, number
one receiver. The blind resume, you know who he compares
to winning completion touchdowns, passer Ryan Tannehill, who, for the record,
has missed five games. If Tannehill hadn't missed any games,
he'd be blown Dak away. Dak is blind resume. Blind
(18:29):
resume is always just such a punch in the guy
that's who he is, and that's not a healthy Ryan Tannehill,
that's an injured Ryan Tannehill. The story of the Cowboys
this year, how good they're supporting cast is. I was
doing this this morning. If you go to Pro Football
Focus and they grade players by position, and I'm not
(18:52):
saying they're perfect, but they're as good as anybody else.
The Cowboys have an elite running back Zeke, an elite
pass rusher to Marcus Lawrence, two elite linebackers Layton Vanderesh,
Jalen Smith an elite corner, and Byron Jones an elite
left tackle, center and right guard, though the center is hurt,
(19:15):
and an elite wide receiver Amari Cooper is rated as
their highest rated offensive player, even above Zeke. The Cowboys
have nine elite players. Do you realize the La Rams
do not have nine elite players? The Kansas City Chiefs
have seven. The Cowboys have and by the way, they're
(19:35):
not just elite players. They're at key positions left tackle,
running back in twenty eighteen, wide receiver, pass rusher, lockdown corner.
This day and age athletic linebackers are in short supply,
and they are wildly important. The story of the Cowboys
isn't Dak He's Dalton, a better Tebow, RG three, Blake Bortles.
(19:59):
The story is the Jones family has hit it out
of the park in the last several drafts. Cowboys are
low dead. If you gave Philip Rivers this lineup, Tom, yeah,
I mean, don't fall for the Dak Prescott thing, because
(20:21):
we've seen this over and over and over again. By
the way, yesterday Jason Wentluck went kind of crazy on
the assertion that Wentz and Dak are close. Quarterbacks from
the same draft are not on the same playing field.
They're barely on the same planet. No question, Carson Wentz
has taken a step back from a year ago when
(20:41):
he was an MVP candidate. But Wentz isn't in dak Land.
Dak Land is sack Land. It's a neighborhood in Dallas
where quarterbacks lack confidence, hold the ball, absorb unnecessary sacks,
and fumble the football. Yeah, that's really the truth. Did
The gap year is huge. I remember when Andy Dalton
(21:02):
broke in this league and he had he just had it.
He had two tight ends, Mohammed Sanu, Marvin Jones, AJ Green.
They had a couple good running backs and Tyler Effort,
and then they had a kid from Oklahoma was another
tight end, Jeremy Gresham. I think, I mean I could
be getting yeah, Jermaine Gresham. And for like three years
we were like whoo, and then all those guys left
(21:24):
or got hurt except AJ Green. Now you're like, uh, yeah,
we need a new quarterback. Don't fall for this, don't
fall for this thing. Dallas is stacked right now. The
thing holding them back is the quarterback spot. By the way,
the Wentz blind resume this year, let's put up Carson
Wentz on the wall. So we saw that Dax blind
(21:46):
resume was who Ryan Tannehill? The Carson Wentz blind resume
completion percentage? Oh, it's Tom Brady and that's having lost
his running game, his two offensive guys and coming into
the year off an ACL injury. That was last year's
(22:10):
Tom not this one. Last year's Tom Brady. That one MVP.
That's his blind resume, Tom Brady, last year MVP Tom Brady.
One more Herd. 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. Thirty
plus years our NFL Meet Sandwich at NFL Films, nobody
(22:31):
gives you a more objective look at the football game
as a whole. If you're a fantasy player, you bet
it or you justin love the game. Nobody lays it
out quite like Greg Kosell. So let's go for our
Thursday Meet Sandwich. Let's go to the Cowboys defense. They
did something that nobody's done to that level in years
(22:51):
against Drew Brees. Greg, what did the film say, Why
did they have so much success against Drew? Well? I
think Colin. What they did is they looked at the
skill position players in the passing game of the Saints
and they pretty much said that there's two players who
really scare you, Kamara and Michael Thomas, and the rest
(23:14):
of the players we can handle. So what they chose
to do is they played a lot of man coverage,
and then what they did on third down as the
game progressed, is they played dime with six defensive backs
so they could put a corner Jordan Lewis on Alvin Kamara.
So they felt that that was an athletic equivalent because
(23:34):
you cannot put a linebacker or a safety on Alvin
Kamara in the past game. So it was very Belichick
in there's two guys, let's take away there too, and
we think we match up physically with everybody else, right.
And it's really interesting when you talk about the Saints,
Colin because Sean Payton and Drew Brees are obviously phenomenal
at what they do, but if you really look at
(23:55):
their skill position players, they do not have anyone that
I think you gain plan for. Michael Thomas, yes, in
some ways, although he's not a true vertical dimension, but
he's outstanding in what he does. Certainly Kamara. Kamara is
arguably the best receiving back in the league so and
is a wide receiver as well. But other than that,
(24:16):
I think you feel if you're a good man to
man team and you have good man defenders, I think
you feel you can match up. I want to go
to Russell Wilson, who has multiple games, eight straight with
multiple tds, and I think this is one of Pete
Carroll's better years. They've shored up the offensive line, they're
a running team. But I also think Russell Wilson's had
(24:39):
a very strong year. Let's talk. Let's talk a little
what the film says, that's what my eyes see. What
is the films and Colin He's had a very strong
year playing the way a lot of people do not
think Russell Wilson plays. He's had a very strong year
playing very with stability from the pocket. And what they
do is they run the ball and then they work
(24:59):
the play action pass game. And he's been very, very successful,
really on a weekly basis at hitting what we call
shot plays, work off the run at times. With the
six sol alignment, they line up with six offensive linemen
on twenty percent of their offensive snaps. Think about that
for a minute. And he's thrown the fewest passes by
a wide margin of any quarterback who started every game
(25:23):
for their team this year. So he's been incredibly efficient.
He has twenty nine touchdowns throwing those fewest passes, and
that play action pass game has been outstanding for them. Yeah,
it's a different way, you know, it's funny. The Cowboys school.
It is really old school. But i gotta tell you,
I've yet to see, I yet to believe that the
(25:45):
Steelers can get past New England. With all the throwing,
and that Kansas City can go to New England if
they have to win. Win. Everybody says, this is old
school in my life. Good defense, great running game, controlling
the clock, and the ability with a top quarterback to
make some dynamic plays. Yea, everybody says that's old school.
(26:05):
That's winning school to me. Now, Carolina can be very
run reliant, but Cam has regressed in the last couple
of weeks. What's happening there, Well, you know, they've sort
of had the perfect negative storm. When Cam's played well
over the last number of weeks, their defense has let
them down. This week, Cam struggled through much of the
first half. He was not as accurate as he's been
(26:28):
this season. He missed some throws that he needed to make.
He clearly has an injury to his shoulder, because when
I watched the tape this week, the ball did not
come out with the same energy. Now, one thing to
keep in mind with Cam is he's always been a
poor lower body mechanic. Yeah, so he's always relied on
(26:49):
his arm, which has always been powerful. But you can
tell now that his shoulder is not right because when
he steps in the bucket and opens up his body
and tries to make throws the ball it's not coming
out the same way, and that's affecting his velocity and
it's affecting his ball placement, and that was noticeable this week. Yeah.
So he's an arm thrower over sometimes a leg thrower.
(27:11):
And when his armor his shoulder is injured, then you
have the mistakes and you have the turnovers. Basically, Yeah,
he's not a torquer nor a strider. If you understand
what I mean, think of baseball, think of a guy
swinging where you snap your hips. Power hitters. You know,
you don't have to be a six five, two hundred
and fifty pound baseball player to be a power hitter
because it all comes from torque. It's the same thing.
(27:31):
Let's say with a puncher in boxing, you snap your
hips when you throw that right hand. You know, it's
why someone like Thomas Hermes back in the day, you
remember Tommy Hearns New York on Why you know a
guy who was six one and a half and one
hundred forty five pounds was such a strong, knockout puncher
because he had torque. Yeah, you know, the Steelers and
the Patriots are becoming the opposite of one another. One
(27:53):
is now very pass reliant. Let's talk to New England
is Sony Michelle, Rex Burkhead and James White. This is
about the best threesome they've had in some time. They
got the receiver White, Burkehead and Sony Michelle can both catch,
but nice nice running back tandem. Steelers are the opposite.
(28:13):
They become very past reliant when you when I've watched
New England this year, boy, they're starting to look like
every New England team in November and December. Pick up
those short yarded situations. Good situationally, no penalties, number nine
in points allowed. Let's talk a little bit about the
running game for New England because it feels like now
(28:34):
a little bit of a three headed monster. Well, let
me just turn that around if I could, Colin, I
thought they One thing I could add to what you
just said about New England when they're playing well is
they're very specific to the opponent that they play, And
I think they had a phenomenal game plan against Minnesota
because think of it this way, Minnesota's got a really
good down four. They're very good against the run. So
(28:56):
even though the Patriots had been running the bowl really
successfully and I was full as well. They did not
come out running the ball. It was a pass game approach,
but it was spread formations, it was quick game, it
was play action, it was misdirection, it was screens. They
did not let the Vikings front four generate any momentum
in that game. And then when they got the lead,
(29:18):
that's when they turned to the run game, which very
often is the sign of a really good team. Get
the lead, throwing it and then run it to close
it out. Now the Steelers, meanwhile, James Connor is hurt. Statistically,
they're throwing it more than anybody in the league. Yeah,
that to me doesn't feel like a winning recipe. In
Kansas City at Foxborough in January, what do you see
(29:42):
over the last few weeks? Yeah, I think, you know,
four or five weeks ago, we talked about how they'd
really committed to the run with James Connor and he
was carrying eighteen nineteen twenty plus times a game, and
it seems as if they've gone away from that, and
I think when it's difficult in my view to play
that way, particularly, you know, Ben has not been as good.
He's missed some throws with ball placement. He missed a
(30:05):
touchdown against the Chargers to justin Hunter wide open. You'd
rarely see Ben miss those. And then he threw a
very bad pick in the first half in just outside
the red zone. So you take points off the board.
So those individual negative plays start to add up and
with a problem, and you don't run the ball to
me anyway. And maybe I'm old school, is I don't
(30:26):
think you have the same continuity and stability in your offense.
I think the run game tends to provide that more
than the pass game. Yeah, in that game against the Chargers,
which we were just watching highlights of Joey Bosa has
returned for the Chargers. It was one of the most
impressive halfs of football by any team in the league.
What's Bosa create for them? Well, Bosa allows them. They
(30:49):
don't blitz very much. They're way down the league and
blitz percentage versus quarterback dropbacks. So Bosa now gives them
that two sided pass rush with ingram and it's critical.
And one thing about the Chargers, and it's been very
effective all year. They play with six defensive backs, way
more than any team in the league. And they can
(31:10):
do that because number thirty one Adrian Phillips, who's essentially
a linebacker but can but as a safety as well.
He can play the run. So that allows them to
play that dime personnel. And like I said, they play
dime a ton and they're good at it. By the way,
I'm watching Philadelphia now. They can obviously get everything right
(31:31):
by beating Dallas. I don't think they will, although I
do think they have a ton of talent. You know,
Carson Wentz statistically is having a pretty good year. He
lost his two offensive coordinators or his two offensive guys.
They don't have much of a running game. I do
think Golden Tates, I think they're wide receivers al Sean Agilar,
Golden Tate. I think they're fine. I don't think they're great,
(31:52):
but I think they're fine. You know, people have said
Carson Wentz has regressed this year. Is it that or
did he just lose these spark plug coaches. Well, I
think that's part of it. But I would disagree with
you a little bit. I think that they'd have very
limited talent at the receiver position. They have no vertical
dimension whatsoever. Their biggest vertical dimension is zach ertz Yea
(32:17):
so they do not have any vertical dimension at all.
Their past game is very condensed and very limited, and
I think that really hurts their offense. So that's one
reason that they've been trying to run the football more
the last two weeks, because their pass game is not
good enough from a personnel standpoint to carry them at all.
I don't think Carson Wentz is the problem at all.
(32:38):
I think they're so limited from a talent perspective. Golden
Tate's a good player, but he's a certain kind of player.
He's not a vertical dimension either. They cannot stretch defenses
at all. Now, meanwhile, dak now has Amari Cooper, so
that clearly is working right. I mean, now, I don't
ever think of him as a field stretcher, but I
(32:59):
do think of Amari Cooper as a separator that he
will get open. He's a great route runner. I mean,
it does feel like Amari Cooper is absolutely, to this
point been worth what they gave up for him. Well,
I think that they run a lot of isolation routes
and you need receivers who can win one on one.
He can win one on one, and because of his size,
(33:22):
he also has run after the catchability. So while he's
not a vertical true vertical dimension the way he, let's say,
someone like Julio Jones might be, he does have the
ability with his route running to get on top of corners.
But he's so good run after cats, so he gives
them an awful lot given the way they play. You know,
it's funny. We started the year and everybody said Dallas
(33:43):
has the worst receivers in the league. Well, Cole Beasley's
a decent slot gallops, a rookie who appears to be
getting better, Amari Cooper, and then they have Zeke. If
you look at the Cowboy receivers in Philadelphia, receivers Ander
Cowboys have better receivers. Okay in the Eagles. Okay, there
you go. So entering the season, we didn't think that
was a huge issue for Philly and it was a
major issue for Dallas. But you like, Dallas is right
now on tape more all right, they had more dimensions.
(34:06):
And don't forget they've got Zeke. You know that's a
big factor here because they've got an outstanding screen game
as well with Zeke, and and you know a lot
of teams have good screen games Tactically conceptually, but Zeke
adds another dimension to that because he's so he's such
a good run. I think Zeke's the best back in
the league. Well, let's let's talk about perhaps the second
best back, Todd Gurley. That's your big play of the
(34:27):
week for the Rams. They play the Bears. Yeah, And
just as as a preface to that, I think that
the Rams offense has not been quite as sharp over
the life, and I thought it was pretty noticeable this week.
I don't think Gods has been quite as sharp. And
and it'll they have a great matchup Sunday night against them,
the Bears. I'm fascinated to watch that. But I wanted
(34:48):
to show this play and let's start. This was a
touchdown in the fourth quarter that actually won the game
for them, you know, seal the win. And this was
a fascinating play because what you have here is an
understanding of defense and what the defense is doing. It's
a basic outside zone run and it's to the trips
a bunch side of the formation. You can see Higbee, Woods, Reynolds.
(35:09):
It's trips bunch tight to the formation. Now they knew
they were getting man coverage. This is what Sean McVeigh
is so good at understanding the defense. So Diggs is
on Higbee and that's man. Sleigh is on Woods, that's
man to man, and Lawson is on Reynolds man to man.
Now they take Higbee and Reynolds and work them to
(35:31):
the other side of the formation, so those defenders go there.
So what that does is it creates avoid a lane,
a gap in the defense, and it's a walk in touchdown.
And you know it all stems from understanding Colin, what's
the defense is doing, anticipating tendency, probability, understanding what you're
(35:52):
going to get, and then you call a play that
breaks that down. One thing I've learned from talking to
the really good offensive coaches, you must understand defense. You
must understand the rules of the defense, and that's what
you need to study. You do not call plays in
a vacuum. It's amazing that at the thirteen yard line,
with that congestion you'd have that large a lane. And
(36:13):
that's just understanding systematically, understanding they're running man, We're gonna
move our man to certain places. That opens the lane
in the thirteen yard line. You're not supposed to have
that much of a lane for a top down, no
second or third level defenders because of what they did
with them with the reverse action by Reynolds and what
(36:34):
we call split flow zone action by Higbee, and then
would just ran out of there with what we call
an easy release and entirely you and I could have
run through that lane. Colin. Yeah, well I would have
wobbled through it, but me too. Greg co Sell NFL Films,
Thanks Greg, Thanks God. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter not a Empacific
(36:54):
on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
By the way, I don't like nicknames. People say the
herd Colin Coward. Some marketing guy years ago said Colin
Coward doesn't sound good. Why don't you just call it
the Herd? And I said, that's what a guy used
to call me years ago, Fred, Yeah, the herd that
it's about twenty two years old, a guy named Don
(37:15):
Logan started calling me the herd. Everybody in the office
called me the herd, and pretty soon everybody called me
the herd, like even when I walk around the streets
like in Los Angeles, hey heard Love the show. That's
how people call me. Whatever I don't see was kind
of a nickname. I hate nickname, but I've just people
have been calling it. I didn't come up people. I
didn't come up with herd. It's not only I came
out with it. No, you can't create your own nickname,
(37:37):
but a lot of people do. And I'm not a
big I'm not a big believer on that. And I'll
give you an example. Why think about the current like
eight or nine dynasties in sports, Roger Feeder, Serena Williams,
Yukon women's basketball, Bama Football, Golden State Warriors, Patriots, Duke basketball.
There's no nicknames. Nobody hasn't nobody. Nobody calls him Roger,
(37:57):
Rocket Federer. Okay, so let's look at the big popular
nicknames over the last ten years. Lob City, Saxonville, Legion
of Boom, the Process, Moneyball, and We the North. Yeah,
nicknames are created to sell something. I never bought the Process.
I thought it was a sham. I didn't buy into
(38:19):
Philadelphia's game plan, which was, let's draft the tallest guy
available in the draft as it becomes a shooters League.
Newlands Noel was a bust. Julia Local four was a bust.
Mark el Foltz is a bust. Michael Carter Williams is
a bust. Four busts. Ben Simmons, by the way, I
love him, but not a shooter. And when they went
out and they got Jimmy Butler, who had a huge
night last night in a loss, what they were telling
(38:40):
you basically was, yeah, that the process is a croc.
By the way, the Jimmy Butler thing is working. They
are better with Jimmy Butler. They were nine and six
before him, they're eight and three after him, and they're
averaging about a bucket more a game there. He has
meant about three to four points a game, and they shoot,
(39:02):
you know, from forty five about forty eight percent. They're
a better team with them. Those numbers matter. They're now
They're not as good as Toronto. They're not as good
as Golden State for sure. After that, they can play
with anybody. Right now, Toronto and Golden State are humming.
But when they acquired Jimmy Butler, what they were telling
you was the process, let's try something new. It's not working.
(39:27):
When you give me a nickname, I'm out. I'm completely
seacrest out. The Jimmy Butler Joe lmb Ben Simmons. Sixers
do not have a nickname. It's just three good players,
so you can try to sell me something I always said.
The Lakers rebuild with Lebron right now is very good.
(39:47):
There's no name for it. It's just Lebron and a
bunch of guys that want to be as good as Lebron.
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This
is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on
Fox Sports Radio. This is the Herd Wherever you may
(00:25):
be and however you may be, listening live in Los Angeles, iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio and FS one. We are packed today
Greg Coo, Sell, J Glazer, Michael Rabbit, Bart, Chris Brusard,
TJ Houshmanzada An hour from now, Greg ko Sell our
NFL meet Sandwich for the week On Thursdays, Joey Taylor
(00:47):
is joining me. How are you. I'm great, Good morning,
Good morning. Last night was a little bit of an
NBA night that wasn't any college football. We're waiting for
bowls Now and NFL. We're waiting for tonight, some of
you for the Titans Jags game. And last night I
watched a couple of you know, like Netflix, Amazon Prime things,
and I watched the Lakers plan. I watched the Sixers
plan a little Oklahoma City. Let me start with this. Now,
(01:10):
I'm just talking NBA. I'm not talking the NFL. The
NFL's got seven rounds, seven rounds, and draft players, many
of the all time great NFL players. You didn't even
you didn't even see play college. You didn't watch Walter
Payton in college. You didn't watch Jerry Rice in college.
You didn't see Big Ben in college. You didn't half
the end of it. You didn't see to in college.
(01:32):
You didn't watch Ocho Cinco in college. In football, there
is talent everywhere. There is talent everywhere. In baseball, how
many of these guys did well? Many of them didn't
go to American universities. There's baseball talent globally everywhere. Basketball
there are very few difference makers. The NBA only has
(01:54):
two rounds of their draft. Two rounds. And by the way,
after about the fourteenth pick, historically you're out of layers. Oh,
you can give me a Tony Parker, a Draymond Green. Historically,
after about the fourteenth pick, you're not finding stars. So
when I hear about the Lakers developing talent, let's develop talent.
You know Lebron's gonna stunt talent? Really, do you watch
that game last night? Lebron was patient for three quarters.
(02:17):
He let the other Lakers number two pick Lon Zone,
numbered two pick Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma. He led all
of those guys Rondo, all that rosters a bunch of yeah,
and then Lebron said in the fourth quarter, all right, guys,
give me the ball. Scored fourteen straight points and an
eight point deficit in the fourth when Lebron was being patient,
became a Laker win by eight. What am I waiting
(02:40):
to develop? You know what the Lakers roster is. It's
Lebron and twelve pending transactions. I know Christmas is around
the corner. Hold off on the Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma.
Jersey's for your kids. They could be a Pelican very soon.
Since the twenty fifteen draft, two guys are all stars.
(03:01):
Carl Anthony Towns, he's regressed, and poor zingis and he's hurt.
And the twenty fourteen draft only had one r star,
Joe lm Beide, who doesn't shoot threes and can't dribble much,
so he's not going to really carry you to a
franchise unless he has shooters and ball handlers around him.
Lebron James, I don't want to hear I mean Yannis.
(03:23):
Whenever I hear about developing stars. You can see Kobe
Bryant's greatness early, You saw Durant's greatness rookie year. You
could see Lebron early, Kawhi Leonard, I guess sort of developed,
and so did Yannis. But Yannis has still never won
a playoff series. We're five years into him. I mean,
I hear about developing talent all the time in the NBA.
(03:43):
It works out way. In hockey, works out way, in baseball,
works out way. Maybe in soccer, it certainly works out
way in football. I'm kind of over developing talent, brandon
Ingram Hurt again, Lonzo good early, not late. This raw
is all about Lebron. If you're a Laker fan, if
(04:05):
you're Lebron James, patient give me players. Philadelphia had that
thing called the process, and then they went out and
they got Jimmy Butler, which was obstensibly saying the proceed
is a bunch of bs. We drafted four guys new Lands, Zenowil, Bust,
Mark l. Foltz, bust to the little local four bust,
(04:25):
Michael Carter Williams bust. And they went out and they
got Jimmy Butler, a player who you didn't watch play
in college either. I mean, let's be honest about it.
Let that's what the Philadelphia seventy six ers were telling
you what they're rebuild the process. They gave it a
cool nickname that it's a bunch of bs, it's a
total sham. And they went out and got an actual,
really good, all star level player who had thirty six
(04:46):
thirty eight last night, Jimmy Butler. So you know, I'm
watching all this Laker stuff. Here's what Lebron coming to
Los Angeles has really done. Greatness clarifies and separates. Like
if you have a bunch of singers and you have
a great singer that goes on stage in the middle
of tryouts, she or he clarifies, oh everybody else kind
(05:10):
of average. Lebron comingdale LA has told you they don't
have a second start Ingram's hurt again, Lonzo good In,
Spurts Kuzma hot and cold. Josh Hart should be a
good player off the bench. Here's Lebron's fourth quarter fourteen
straight points to put it away. Last night, I head
of steam for Lebron one. What a finish with the
(05:34):
left Cunningham on James wide open threes. Got it. You're
proud out here taking the long way home, Lebron. Let's energized,
pushing it. Hit one a deep free, hotter than fish plans.
Right now, We're proud with the steal up for Los Angeles.
(05:59):
The microphone another two three. This guy for three quarters,
he was patient for three quarters. He let the developing
young players control the game. In the fourth, the best
player in the league for fifteen years took it over,
(06:19):
won the game. The NBA draft is out of dudes
by about the fourteenth pick of the first round. Half
the NFL are undrafted. There's just not much world class,
game changing NBA talent. The Lakers are Lebron and twelve
(06:40):
pending transactions. Hold off on buying the brandon ingram Jersey.
Let me shift to this. So the Aaron Rodgers story
has been great for us all week. There's a lot talk,
So Aaron Rodgers is not working with McCarthy. McCarthy gets
run off. Aaron Rodgers says, well, you know, I've just shocked,
like everybody else, and then a Green Bay assistant comes out.
(07:02):
Winston Moss puts out a tweet that's inoffensive, innocuous that says, basically,
we got to hold number twelve accountable and he gets fired.
And so Aaron Rodgers yesterday had to react to the
questions about he's not accountable. Aaron Rodgers said, yesterday, there's
nobody that holds me more accountable than myself. I mean,
I'm always checking myself on preparation habits and my practice
(07:22):
habits and my mindset. So Aaron Rodgers said that yesterday
he'll take the heat when needed. Here's Aaron yesterday. I
think there's nobody holds holds me more accountable to myself.
I mean, I'm always checking myself on my preparation habits
and my practice habits and my mindset. But I mean
(07:44):
there's always been a I think a great deal of accountability. Okay,
fair enough, that's what he says. I'm not in the room,
so fair enough. To me. This is really simple. The
real question is is Green Bay willing to be uncomfortable
because you can hire Joe Philbin he's your interim coach.
He's comfortable, he's part of the packer family. And let's
(08:06):
be honest about small market America. They don't love change.
They look at the cities. I want to city people
not interested, dangerous crazy liberals. Small town America is comfortable
with habits. Come touch green Bay. People have chosen to
(08:27):
live in green Bay. Not a ton of employment in
green Bay. They like green Bay. It's where they're from.
They're happy being there. They got their friends in fam
And are they ready to get uncomfortable because Joel Philbin
is comfortable. And if Joel Philben goes four and oh
or three and one down the stretch here, they may
strongly consider Joel Filman. But everybody in Green Bay knows him,
(08:50):
everybody in Green Bay likes him, and he would have
no power with Aaron Rodgers. The question is who fills
and checks the boxes that would make Aaron better? Are ununcomfortable?
Just just say it out loud. What are the boxes?
Smart track record of success, strong frank coach, give it
right back, not be intimidated as probably Josh McDaniels. That's
(09:15):
maybe Jim Harball. Those are the guys that check the boxes.
But I gotta be honest with you, Josh McDaniels and
Jim Harbaugh do not feel like green Bay, Wisconsin. They're outsiders.
They're gonna be candid and frank and difficult and intimidating
not only green Bay people, but to Aaron Rodgers. And
(09:36):
I asked former Aaron Rodgers teammate Greg Jennings about the
Packers going after a guy like a McDaniel or more
specifically Jim Harball. He would be phenomenal. I think for
Aaron Rodgers. If Aaron Rodgers would really self assessed and
see where we can grow and where we need to
(09:57):
kind of alter things. If he's willing to do that,
I think Jim Harball would be the top pick. But
I just don't know if Aaron Rodgers will ever be
able to do that. So what green Bay. They're in
a very tough spot here. What green Bay needs is
(10:17):
not their DNA, an outsider who is sometimes rude, can
be snarky, and frank, who is incredibly direct, who will
tell you what he thinks and will push back on
your iconic quarterback. That's what green Bay needs. Is green
Bay comfortable with that because Joe Philbin is your neighbor,
(10:41):
He's been in the family, He's one of the Packers.
Packers love. Even when the Packers fired their general manager,
they just gave him a different cubicle in the office.
They didn't run him out of town. Green Bay's nice
and nice people. They need to hire somebody that's not
that nice. Harball's not always that nice. Josh McDaniel's not
(11:02):
always that nice. They check the boxes. Is Green Bay
willing to hire what they've never been comfortable hiring? A real, true,
opposite outsider, not interested in your system or your way
of doing business. That's what you need. I don't think
(11:22):
you're comfortable with it. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nini Empacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. You know,
a lot of times what the headline is isn't the story,
And the guy that writes the story doesn't necessarily put
the man or woman who writes the story doesn't put
the headline up, but the headlines trying to draw you
(11:44):
into the story. So sometimes the story of the game,
the headline doesn't match it. So here's the headline last
night on Oklahoma City's win Russell Westbrook third most triple
doubles in NBA history as job snazzy. That guy's amazing.
Russell Westbrook dominated the game. Oh EJ. Actually watched the
(12:10):
game because Oklahoma City was getting rolled by twenty three
by a week team Brooklyn, I mean, getting rolled out
of the arena and Westbrook was dominating the ball. And
then late in the third quarter, Westbrook was done getting
the stats he so desperately wants. He loves the trouble double.
(12:32):
He's gonna be the all time trouble double. Guy loves it,
and he got him by the middle late third quarter.
He got it. And then he stopped shooting. And then
the Oklahoma City thunder who were getting rolled, suddenly started
playing really well and they ended up because Paul George
(12:53):
took all the shots in the fourth winning the game.
It's a huge comeback last night for Russell Westbrook had
his triple double. Oklahoma City was minus nineteen. Then he
stopped shooting. They were plus twenty one. They shot thirty
nine percent as a team during his triple double run
(13:14):
for the first two and a half quarters. Then he
stopped shooting, they shot forty nine percent. He did not
did not make a shot in the fourth. Paul George
went crazy and scored twenty five in the fourth, isn't
that interesting? So Paul George, who mostly watched Russell Westbrook
(13:35):
feed himself, feed himself, h hungry, give me more, give
me more, give me my points, give me my rebounds,
give me my assists. And then Westbrook, as he's prone
to do, is exhausted, scales back. After he gets what
he wants, Paul George, the better shooter, takes over. They
make a miraculous comeback, and they went in the road.
(13:56):
Now the headline is man Westbrook gets able double. The
headline should be after Westbrook has done getting his triple double,
Oklahoma City allows the game plan to work. Paul George
shoots more and Oklahoma sins wins a game that should
have never been that close. Of course, they don't have
the space for all that headline. But again, flash news flash,
(14:20):
triple double. Oh my god, Westbrook got a triple doubles.
The most amazing thing at that's the headline. But if
you watch the game after he fed himself and got
what he wanted and it was either exhausted or felt
like this isn't working, then they just fed Paul George
the ball. Paul George, the real shooter, on the team
(14:41):
took over, they made a miraculous comeback in one. Once again,
the Thunder are five and oh. In Paul George's biggest games,
when he's allowed to go off, when he's allowed enough
shots and opportunities to score in the thirties, they've never lost.
And when Westbrook shoots under twenty times, the thunder are
(15:05):
eight and one. Last night was the first game he
shot over twenty times, and they won. And they barely won, barely.
There's a clear you can keep writing your headlines. There
is a clear, definitive truth in the Oklahoma City thunder
(15:26):
less Westbrook. More Paul George, and you win triple double.
Lot of Westbrook over twenty shots, less efficiency. Paul George
doesn't get the opportunities. You do not win. But you
keep writing those headlines. You keep writing those headlines about
the trible double. That's not what really happened last night.
(15:48):
What happened was after he was done feeding himself and
he was full, big old belly of points, rebounds and assist.
Westbrook was exhausted, and George took over and they won
the game. Be sure to catch the five editions of
the Herd Weekdays and nun Easter nine am Pacific. There's
an article yesterday written by Tim Kalishaw. He's a long
time respected at Dallas columnist. Not really a homer, you know.
(16:11):
I mean, most people kind of lean toward their home team.
But he was talking about the playing field between Dak Prescott,
the Cowboy quarterback, and Carson Wentz to Philadelphia Eagle quarterback
has leveled, and I thought to myself, no, it hasn't.
It's the gap is the Grand Canyon. There's not a
general manager in the league take out the Eagles and
the Cowboys. The thirty remaining GMS, thirty out of thirty
(16:35):
would take Carson Wentz. Now, Kalishaw went on to say, yeah,
he's better, and yet given the choice, teams would take
Wentz over Prescott. But it's not necessarily by so much
that it makes all the difference in the world. Oh, yes,
it does. That's exactly what it does. Carson Wentz is
coming off an ACL tear. He was not healthy for
the first two months. He has no running game due
(16:58):
to a player leaving it an injury. He lost both
of his top offensive guys, and he's still having a
better year. Okay, the story here with the Dallas Cowboys.
Isn't Dak, but he's a quarterback, and like Romo Akman,
Roger Staubach, Danny White, the cowboy quarterback gets a lot
(17:23):
of discussion. It's the Lakers shooting guards, It's the Yankee shortstop.
There are positions in American sports that get the discussion.
The story is about how damn good the Cowboys are.
Besides Dak. Dak is Dak is Andy Dalton. He's Blake Bortles,
He's RG three. He's a better version of Tebow in
(17:44):
a short window. When a team around him has a
lot of ingredients, mostly a strong running game, it can
hide his weaknesses. Here's what I don't think people understand
about Dallas because if you do a blind resume right
now with Dak Prescott, this is with a better than
average offensive line. This is with now arguably the best
(18:04):
running back in the game, with a slot receiver, number
one receiver. The blind resume, you know who he compares
to winning completion touchdowns, passer Ryan Tannehill, who, for the record,
has missed five games. If Tannehill hadn't missed any games,
he'd be blown Dak away. Dak is blind resume. Blind
(18:29):
resume is always just such a punch in the guy
that's who he is, and that's not a healthy Ryan Tannehill,
that's an injured Ryan Tannehill. The story of the Cowboys
this year, how good they're supporting cast is. I was
doing this this morning. If you go to Pro Football
Focus and they grade players by position, and I'm not
(18:52):
saying they're perfect, but they're as good as anybody else.
The Cowboys have an elite running back Zeke, an elite
pass rusher to Marcus Lawrence, two elite linebackers Layton Vanderesh,
Jalen Smith an elite corner, and Byron Jones an elite
left tackle, center and right guard, though the center is hurt,
(19:15):
and an elite wide receiver Amari Cooper is rated as
their highest rated offensive player, even above Zeke. The Cowboys
have nine elite players. Do you realize the La Rams
do not have nine elite players? The Kansas City Chiefs
have seven. The Cowboys have and by the way, they're
(19:35):
not just elite players. They're at key positions left tackle,
running back in twenty eighteen, wide receiver, pass rusher, lockdown corner.
This day and age athletic linebackers are in short supply,
and they are wildly important. The story of the Cowboys
isn't Dak He's Dalton, a better Tebow, RG three, Blake Bortles.
(19:59):
The story is the Jones family has hit it out
of the park in the last several drafts. Cowboys are
low dead. If you gave Philip Rivers this lineup, Tom, yeah,
I mean, don't fall for the Dak Prescott thing, because
(20:21):
we've seen this over and over and over again. By
the way, yesterday Jason Wentluck went kind of crazy on
the assertion that Wentz and Dak are close. Quarterbacks from
the same draft are not on the same playing field.
They're barely on the same planet. No question, Carson Wentz
has taken a step back from a year ago when
(20:41):
he was an MVP candidate. But Wentz isn't in dak Land.
Dak Land is sack Land. It's a neighborhood in Dallas
where quarterbacks lack confidence, hold the ball, absorb unnecessary sacks,
and fumble the football. Yeah, that's really the truth. Did
The gap year is huge. I remember when Andy Dalton
(21:02):
broke in this league and he had he just had it.
He had two tight ends, Mohammed Sanu, Marvin Jones, AJ Green.
They had a couple good running backs and Tyler Effort,
and then they had a kid from Oklahoma was another
tight end, Jeremy Gresham. I think, I mean I could
be getting yeah, Jermaine Gresham. And for like three years
we were like whoo, and then all those guys left
(21:24):
or got hurt except AJ Green. Now you're like, uh, yeah,
we need a new quarterback. Don't fall for this, don't
fall for this thing. Dallas is stacked right now. The
thing holding them back is the quarterback spot. By the way,
the Wentz blind resume this year, let's put up Carson
Wentz on the wall. So we saw that Dax blind
(21:46):
resume was who Ryan Tannehill? The Carson Wentz blind resume
completion percentage? Oh, it's Tom Brady and that's having lost
his running game, his two offensive guys and coming into
the year off an ACL injury. That was last year's
(22:10):
Tom not this one. Last year's Tom Brady. That one MVP.
That's his blind resume, Tom Brady, last year MVP Tom Brady.
One more Herd. 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. Thirty
plus years our NFL Meet Sandwich at NFL Films, nobody
(22:31):
gives you a more objective look at the football game
as a whole. If you're a fantasy player, you bet
it or you justin love the game. Nobody lays it
out quite like Greg Kosell. So let's go for our
Thursday Meet Sandwich. Let's go to the Cowboys defense. They
did something that nobody's done to that level in years
(22:51):
against Drew Brees. Greg, what did the film say, Why
did they have so much success against Drew? Well? I
think Colin. What they did is they looked at the
skill position players in the passing game of the Saints
and they pretty much said that there's two players who
really scare you, Kamara and Michael Thomas, and the rest
(23:14):
of the players we can handle. So what they chose
to do is they played a lot of man coverage,
and then what they did on third down as the
game progressed, is they played dime with six defensive backs
so they could put a corner Jordan Lewis on Alvin Kamara.
So they felt that that was an athletic equivalent because
(23:34):
you cannot put a linebacker or a safety on Alvin
Kamara in the past game. So it was very Belichick
in there's two guys, let's take away there too, and
we think we match up physically with everybody else, right.
And it's really interesting when you talk about the Saints,
Colin because Sean Payton and Drew Brees are obviously phenomenal
at what they do, but if you really look at
(23:55):
their skill position players, they do not have anyone that
I think you gain plan for. Michael Thomas, yes, in
some ways, although he's not a true vertical dimension, but
he's outstanding in what he does. Certainly Kamara. Kamara is
arguably the best receiving back in the league so and
is a wide receiver as well. But other than that,
(24:16):
I think you feel if you're a good man to
man team and you have good man defenders, I think
you feel you can match up. I want to go
to Russell Wilson, who has multiple games, eight straight with
multiple tds, and I think this is one of Pete
Carroll's better years. They've shored up the offensive line, they're
a running team. But I also think Russell Wilson's had
(24:39):
a very strong year. Let's talk. Let's talk a little
what the film says, that's what my eyes see. What
is the films and Colin He's had a very strong
year playing the way a lot of people do not
think Russell Wilson plays. He's had a very strong year
playing very with stability from the pocket. And what they
do is they run the ball and then they work
(24:59):
the play action pass game. And he's been very, very successful,
really on a weekly basis at hitting what we call
shot plays, work off the run at times. With the
six sol alignment, they line up with six offensive linemen
on twenty percent of their offensive snaps. Think about that
for a minute. And he's thrown the fewest passes by
a wide margin of any quarterback who started every game
(25:23):
for their team this year. So he's been incredibly efficient.
He has twenty nine touchdowns throwing those fewest passes, and
that play action pass game has been outstanding for them. Yeah,
it's a different way, you know, it's funny. The Cowboys school.
It is really old school. But i gotta tell you,
I've yet to see, I yet to believe that the
(25:45):
Steelers can get past New England. With all the throwing,
and that Kansas City can go to New England if
they have to win. Win. Everybody says, this is old
school in my life. Good defense, great running game, controlling
the clock, and the ability with a top quarterback to
make some dynamic plays. Yea, everybody says that's old school.
(26:05):
That's winning school to me. Now, Carolina can be very
run reliant, but Cam has regressed in the last couple
of weeks. What's happening there, Well, you know, they've sort
of had the perfect negative storm. When Cam's played well
over the last number of weeks, their defense has let
them down. This week, Cam struggled through much of the
first half. He was not as accurate as he's been
(26:28):
this season. He missed some throws that he needed to make.
He clearly has an injury to his shoulder, because when
I watched the tape this week, the ball did not
come out with the same energy. Now, one thing to
keep in mind with Cam is he's always been a
poor lower body mechanic. Yeah, so he's always relied on
(26:49):
his arm, which has always been powerful. But you can
tell now that his shoulder is not right because when
he steps in the bucket and opens up his body
and tries to make throws the ball it's not coming
out the same way, and that's affecting his velocity and
it's affecting his ball placement, and that was noticeable this week. Yeah.
So he's an arm thrower over sometimes a leg thrower.
(27:11):
And when his armor his shoulder is injured, then you
have the mistakes and you have the turnovers. Basically, Yeah,
he's not a torquer nor a strider. If you understand
what I mean, think of baseball, think of a guy
swinging where you snap your hips. Power hitters. You know,
you don't have to be a six five, two hundred
and fifty pound baseball player to be a power hitter
because it all comes from torque. It's the same thing.
(27:31):
Let's say with a puncher in boxing, you snap your
hips when you throw that right hand. You know, it's
why someone like Thomas Hermes back in the day, you
remember Tommy Hearns New York on Why you know a
guy who was six one and a half and one
hundred forty five pounds was such a strong, knockout puncher
because he had torque. Yeah, you know, the Steelers and
the Patriots are becoming the opposite of one another. One
(27:53):
is now very pass reliant. Let's talk to New England
is Sony Michelle, Rex Burkhead and James White. This is
about the best threesome they've had in some time. They
got the receiver White, Burkehead and Sony Michelle can both catch,
but nice nice running back tandem. Steelers are the opposite.
(28:13):
They become very past reliant when you when I've watched
New England this year, boy, they're starting to look like
every New England team in November and December. Pick up
those short yarded situations. Good situationally, no penalties, number nine
in points allowed. Let's talk a little bit about the
running game for New England because it feels like now
(28:34):
a little bit of a three headed monster. Well, let
me just turn that around if I could, Colin, I
thought they One thing I could add to what you
just said about New England when they're playing well is
they're very specific to the opponent that they play, And
I think they had a phenomenal game plan against Minnesota
because think of it this way, Minnesota's got a really
good down four. They're very good against the run. So
(28:56):
even though the Patriots had been running the bowl really
successfully and I was full as well. They did not
come out running the ball. It was a pass game approach,
but it was spread formations, it was quick game, it
was play action, it was misdirection, it was screens. They
did not let the Vikings front four generate any momentum
in that game. And then when they got the lead,
(29:18):
that's when they turned to the run game, which very
often is the sign of a really good team. Get
the lead, throwing it and then run it to close
it out. Now the Steelers, meanwhile, James Connor is hurt. Statistically,
they're throwing it more than anybody in the league. Yeah,
that to me doesn't feel like a winning recipe. In
Kansas City at Foxborough in January, what do you see
(29:42):
over the last few weeks? Yeah, I think, you know,
four or five weeks ago, we talked about how they'd
really committed to the run with James Connor and he
was carrying eighteen nineteen twenty plus times a game, and
it seems as if they've gone away from that, and
I think when it's difficult in my view to play
that way, particularly, you know, Ben has not been as good.
He's missed some throws with ball placement. He missed a
(30:05):
touchdown against the Chargers to justin Hunter wide open. You'd
rarely see Ben miss those. And then he threw a
very bad pick in the first half in just outside
the red zone. So you take points off the board.
So those individual negative plays start to add up and
with a problem, and you don't run the ball to
me anyway. And maybe I'm old school, is I don't
(30:26):
think you have the same continuity and stability in your offense.
I think the run game tends to provide that more
than the pass game. Yeah, in that game against the Chargers,
which we were just watching highlights of Joey Bosa has
returned for the Chargers. It was one of the most
impressive halfs of football by any team in the league.
What's Bosa create for them? Well, Bosa allows them. They
(30:49):
don't blitz very much. They're way down the league and
blitz percentage versus quarterback dropbacks. So Bosa now gives them
that two sided pass rush with ingram and it's critical.
And one thing about the Chargers, and it's been very
effective all year. They play with six defensive backs, way
more than any team in the league. And they can
(31:10):
do that because number thirty one Adrian Phillips, who's essentially
a linebacker but can but as a safety as well.
He can play the run. So that allows them to
play that dime personnel. And like I said, they play
dime a ton and they're good at it. By the way,
I'm watching Philadelphia now. They can obviously get everything right
(31:31):
by beating Dallas. I don't think they will, although I
do think they have a ton of talent. You know,
Carson Wentz statistically is having a pretty good year. He
lost his two offensive coordinators or his two offensive guys.
They don't have much of a running game. I do
think Golden Tates, I think they're wide receivers al Sean Agilar,
Golden Tate. I think they're fine. I don't think they're great,
(31:52):
but I think they're fine. You know, people have said
Carson Wentz has regressed this year. Is it that or
did he just lose these spark plug coaches. Well, I
think that's part of it. But I would disagree with
you a little bit. I think that they'd have very
limited talent at the receiver position. They have no vertical
dimension whatsoever. Their biggest vertical dimension is zach ertz Yea
(32:17):
so they do not have any vertical dimension at all.
Their past game is very condensed and very limited, and
I think that really hurts their offense. So that's one
reason that they've been trying to run the football more
the last two weeks, because their pass game is not
good enough from a personnel standpoint to carry them at all.
I don't think Carson Wentz is the problem at all.
(32:38):
I think they're so limited from a talent perspective. Golden
Tate's a good player, but he's a certain kind of player.
He's not a vertical dimension either. They cannot stretch defenses
at all. Now, meanwhile, dak now has Amari Cooper, so
that clearly is working right. I mean, now, I don't
ever think of him as a field stretcher, but I
(32:59):
do think of Amari Cooper as a separator that he
will get open. He's a great route runner. I mean,
it does feel like Amari Cooper is absolutely, to this
point been worth what they gave up for him. Well,
I think that they run a lot of isolation routes
and you need receivers who can win one on one.
He can win one on one, and because of his size,
(33:22):
he also has run after the catchability. So while he's
not a vertical true vertical dimension the way he, let's say,
someone like Julio Jones might be, he does have the
ability with his route running to get on top of corners.
But he's so good run after cats, so he gives
them an awful lot given the way they play. You know,
it's funny. We started the year and everybody said Dallas
(33:43):
has the worst receivers in the league. Well, Cole Beasley's
a decent slot gallops, a rookie who appears to be
getting better, Amari Cooper, and then they have Zeke. If
you look at the Cowboy receivers in Philadelphia, receivers Ander
Cowboys have better receivers. Okay in the Eagles. Okay, there
you go. So entering the season, we didn't think that
was a huge issue for Philly and it was a
major issue for Dallas. But you like, Dallas is right
now on tape more all right, they had more dimensions.
(34:06):
And don't forget they've got Zeke. You know that's a
big factor here because they've got an outstanding screen game
as well with Zeke, and and you know a lot
of teams have good screen games Tactically conceptually, but Zeke
adds another dimension to that because he's so he's such
a good run. I think Zeke's the best back in
the league. Well, let's let's talk about perhaps the second
best back, Todd Gurley. That's your big play of the
(34:27):
week for the Rams. They play the Bears. Yeah, And
just as as a preface to that, I think that
the Rams offense has not been quite as sharp over
the life, and I thought it was pretty noticeable this week.
I don't think Gods has been quite as sharp. And
and it'll they have a great matchup Sunday night against them,
the Bears. I'm fascinated to watch that. But I wanted
(34:48):
to show this play and let's start. This was a
touchdown in the fourth quarter that actually won the game
for them, you know, seal the win. And this was
a fascinating play because what you have here is an
understanding of defense and what the defense is doing. It's
a basic outside zone run and it's to the trips
a bunch side of the formation. You can see Higbee, Woods, Reynolds.
(35:09):
It's trips bunch tight to the formation. Now they knew
they were getting man coverage. This is what Sean McVeigh
is so good at understanding the defense. So Diggs is
on Higbee and that's man. Sleigh is on Woods, that's
man to man, and Lawson is on Reynolds man to man.
Now they take Higbee and Reynolds and work them to
(35:31):
the other side of the formation, so those defenders go there.
So what that does is it creates avoid a lane,
a gap in the defense, and it's a walk in touchdown.
And you know it all stems from understanding Colin, what's
the defense is doing, anticipating tendency, probability, understanding what you're
(35:52):
going to get, and then you call a play that
breaks that down. One thing I've learned from talking to
the really good offensive coaches, you must understand defense. You
must understand the rules of the defense, and that's what
you need to study. You do not call plays in
a vacuum. It's amazing that at the thirteen yard line,
with that congestion you'd have that large a lane. And
(36:13):
that's just understanding systematically, understanding they're running man, We're gonna
move our man to certain places. That opens the lane
in the thirteen yard line. You're not supposed to have
that much of a lane for a top down, no
second or third level defenders because of what they did
with them with the reverse action by Reynolds and what
(36:34):
we call split flow zone action by Higbee, and then
would just ran out of there with what we call
an easy release and entirely you and I could have
run through that lane. Colin. Yeah, well I would have
wobbled through it, but me too. Greg co Sell NFL Films,
Thanks Greg, Thanks God. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter not a Empacific
(36:54):
on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
By the way, I don't like nicknames. People say the
herd Colin Coward. Some marketing guy years ago said Colin
Coward doesn't sound good. Why don't you just call it
the Herd? And I said, that's what a guy used
to call me years ago, Fred, Yeah, the herd that
it's about twenty two years old, a guy named Don
(37:15):
Logan started calling me the herd. Everybody in the office
called me the herd, and pretty soon everybody called me
the herd, like even when I walk around the streets
like in Los Angeles, hey heard Love the show. That's
how people call me. Whatever I don't see was kind
of a nickname. I hate nickname, but I've just people
have been calling it. I didn't come up people. I
didn't come up with herd. It's not only I came
out with it. No, you can't create your own nickname,
(37:37):
but a lot of people do. And I'm not a
big I'm not a big believer on that. And I'll
give you an example. Why think about the current like
eight or nine dynasties in sports, Roger Feeder, Serena Williams,
Yukon women's basketball, Bama Football, Golden State Warriors, Patriots, Duke basketball.
There's no nicknames. Nobody hasn't nobody. Nobody calls him Roger,
(37:57):
Rocket Federer. Okay, so let's look at the big popular
nicknames over the last ten years. Lob City, Saxonville, Legion
of Boom, the Process, Moneyball, and We the North. Yeah,
nicknames are created to sell something. I never bought the Process.
I thought it was a sham. I didn't buy into
(38:19):
Philadelphia's game plan, which was, let's draft the tallest guy
available in the draft as it becomes a shooters League.
Newlands Noel was a bust. Julia Local four was a bust.
Mark el Foltz is a bust. Michael Carter Williams is
a bust. Four busts. Ben Simmons, by the way, I
love him, but not a shooter. And when they went
out and they got Jimmy Butler, who had a huge
night last night in a loss, what they were telling
(38:40):
you basically was, yeah, that the process is a croc.
By the way, the Jimmy Butler thing is working. They
are better with Jimmy Butler. They were nine and six
before him, they're eight and three after him, and they're
averaging about a bucket more a game there. He has
meant about three to four points a game, and they shoot,
(39:02):
you know, from forty five about forty eight percent. They're
a better team with them. Those numbers matter. They're now
They're not as good as Toronto. They're not as good
as Golden State for sure. After that, they can play
with anybody. Right now, Toronto and Golden State are humming.
But when they acquired Jimmy Butler, what they were telling
you was the process, let's try something new. It's not working.
(39:27):
When you give me a nickname, I'm out. I'm completely
seacrest out. The Jimmy Butler Joe lmb Ben Simmons. Sixers
do not have a nickname. It's just three good players,
so you can try to sell me something I always said.
The Lakers rebuild with Lebron right now is very good.
(39:47):
There's no name for it. It's just Lebron and a
bunch of guys that want to be as good as Lebron.
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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