September 29, 2025 • 34 mins
Colin Cowherd breaks down why he’s still backing the Green Bay Packers as legitimate NFC contenders—despite a rocky couple of weeks and inconsistent play. Colin delivers his weekly segment: "Where Colin Was Right, Where Colin Was Wrong", owning up to his miss on the Dallas Cowboys, but standing firm on his take about San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy. Plus, special guest Robert Griffin III (RGIII) joins the show to analyze the rising star power of Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, and explains why AJ Brown is a key offensive weapon for the Philadelphia Eagles defending their Super Bowl title.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, it is a Monday, A glorious Monday. It could
be the Ryder Cup, the NFL College football. We've got
it all. Colin right, Colin wrong? One hour from now?
What a showcase? Last night? Jmak the NFL block kicks
fifty eight yard field goals. If you get the ball last,
(00:48):
if you don't win, you at least cover. I remember
a time when you used to get four out of
five picks, right, I mean it was mins money in
the bank by the Jet Skis on Saturday. I didn't
even need to watch Sunday. This league is nuts and
last night is an exclamation point on nuts.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Absolutely crazy Sunday in the NFL. I mean Packers felt
like a loss.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Come yeah, So Dallas is one two in one and
Dallas feels pretty good about them, though. The Packers are
two to one in one and they think the sky
is falling. Take a deep breath, Green Bay fans, you
are still, for the third year in a row, the
youngest team in the NFL. In the last two weeks,
(01:31):
part of being young is you can't figure out how
to close out games against inferior teams. You just can't
figure it out. The Eagles, the Chiefs, the Rams, they
got veterans, they close out those games that playoff experience
that wisdom. Green Bay is crazy talented, but Matt Lafleur
is in the head coach, he's a chaperone. This roster
is full of twenty four to twenty five year olds,
(01:54):
and there's not many great corners in the league. And
let's be honest, George Pickens had a day. You go
your most talented corner to Baltimore, so you came in
a little corner light. Michaeh. Parsons did not help. Where's
the pass rush? I'm not seeing it. One sack. So
this was just two very comfortable quarterbacks, Jordan Love and
(02:14):
Dak Prescott, and they as they say, eight, They had
six touchdowns, no picks. They had all data throw. They
were both comfortable. They completed seventy five percent of their throws.
And it's the NFL. The Saints gave Buffalo in Buffalo trouble.
The Chargers got whacked by Jackson Dart fifty seven year oard.
(02:35):
Field goals are chip shots. Every third kick is blocked.
And yesterday and Dublin Aaron Rodgers looked twenty four years old,
So it's like it's a this is what it is.
The weather's still very good, so the offense is good.
You can throw the ball down the field. It'll get cold,
teams won't be able to throw the ball down the field,
(02:55):
teams will be more injured. That was just two really
good quarterbacks. Both were in incredibly comfortable, and Packer fans
can be fatalists. It's like, you're gonna win the division.
You had a bunch of bad teams coming up. Let's
be honest. You beat a Lions team with two new
coordinators that was trying to find themselves, and I got
a little high on you, and.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
You did too.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
And then you beat the Commanders on a short week
at home and Jaden Daniels wasn't one hundred percent, and
then you play you know you're feeling yourself, and then
you play a couple teams and you're you have a
fourth quarter lead against Cleveland and you blow it. Jordan
Love had a rare bad pick and then last night
your clock management wasn't very good. But again, this is
the youngest team in the NFL. Now you've got a
(03:40):
stretch packer fans. We have faced Cardinals, Panthers, Bengals. You
could be six one and one coming up and be fine.
This is September football. It's crazy. I can remember Ryan
Fitzpatrick of the Bills years ago tearing up September and
they gave him a huge contract. Weird stuff happens. Sean
Payton's always been a bad I had September coach. So again,
(04:02):
young team and this is the downside to young teams, stoicism, temperament, poise.
Green Bay still doesn't have that. Green Bay got a
little high on their supply and we're lucky to settle
for a tie. What am I bad, bunny? All I
know is this. They're good, they're young, they're talented, the coach,
(04:22):
the quarterback. But but their temperament and sometimes I'm not
sure they understand the game has a clock the management
of it. Mat Lafloor said after we're just not there yet.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
I think anytime mistakes happens disappointing. Whether it's year three
with your group of guys or you got a rookie
in there, it really doesn't matter at the end of
the day because nobody cares. Bottom line is, you got
to get it right. The operation was just way too slow,
Like I don't know if our guys didn't know where're
in two minutes or what. But ultimately the communication has
(04:57):
got to get better myself to Georgia Jordan, to the
Doddel and that's that's a bottom line.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For the record. I thought the Micah Parsons deal, I said,
Green Bay is pretty stacked. It's a great roster. They
don't need a first round pick because they got their
quarterback and they've got their they've got their weapons, and
they've got with Micah, they got a pass rush, so
they don't need first round picks. They can get away
with it for about two years. But Micah hasn't really
(05:24):
delivered on the promise right, like overall not getting the
quarterback enough. By the way, if you're Dallas, you have
to feel great this morning. Think about this. I'm Dallas.
Everybody crapped on that Micah trade. My take is the
Cowboys are going into the next two drafts. They don't
need a quarterback and about eight to ten teams due
and now they got four first round picks and they
(05:45):
could turn those into other second, third, fourth round picks.
So Dak playing this well in the Cowboys, even without
Ceedee Lamb moving the ball this well, Dallas is in
a great spot. They have something they haven't had in year,
a healthy quarterback, two really good receivers when Ceedee Lamb
comes back. Yeah, they don't have Micah, but they have
(06:07):
four first round picks, which gives them unbelievable financial and
draft flexibility. Dallas. I mean, I'm Dallas. I'm watching them
last night, and I'm like, you know how lucky they
are that Dak is better post surgery. I mean, they
got a feel. You guys all crush the Michael Parsons move.
And I said, Mike is good for Green Bay. He's
what they need. Dalla's gonna be fine. They're gonna be fine.
(06:29):
They're actually significantly better than I thought. So just take
a deep breath, green Bay, Dallas feel pretty good. They
should I'm looking at the Green Bay schedule. Now, I
got at home against Cincinnati. By the way Cincinnati plays tonight,
it'll be a short week. Arizona, you trust them. Carolina,
you get Philadelphia at home. Pittsburgh, they had a lot
(06:50):
of w's come and take a deep breath, all right,
it is official. The Kansas City Chiefs are back, and
the Chiefs are in Lamar Jackson's head. Lamar Jackson five
for five on that first drive. The minute he got
off script, Lamar Jackson was awful, had a passer writing
(07:13):
of fifty one. So Steve Spagnola has seen him so
many times. My opinion, they got a little bit of
a beat on him. He's got ten touchdowns and nine
giveaways against Kansas City, and again Achilles had his heel
and Superman had his Crypto night. Everybody's got somebody, and
I just think he struggles with him, and simultaneously Lamar
Jackson is struggling. I don't want to hear about the
(07:37):
defensive injuries. Everybody's banged up. Minnesota barely could field an
offensive line. I don't want to hear about it. It's
Baltimore's offense that worries me. Lamar doesn't work against Kansas City.
They faced him so many times, are in his head
and simultaneously, oh oh, I said that Jay Mack last week.
Just get Xavier Worthy back. He's a deep threat. He'll
(07:57):
open up the stuff underneath at exactly what happened, Juju
Smith Schuster's still making plays. Xavier Worthy is not a
number one, but he opens up opportunities for guys underneath.
They have a chance now to get back to the
super Bowl if they can develop any kind of run game.
The defense is excellent, the coaching's the best in the league,
(08:18):
and Mahomes good lord, he still got it so and
Xavier Worthy is all they need. In about four weeks,
they're gonna get Rashee Rice back because Travis Kelcey you
can no longer count on. He'll he'll show up to
the big games. But you've got to get Rashee Rice
and Worthy. The old line's getting a little bit better.
But I feel like Kansas City's a bacteria that is
(08:38):
resistant to antibiotics, and it's like the league had a
chance to wipe them out, and now Kansas City's gonna
cough on everybody and pick up wins. You had a chance,
there was a window. Here they were and I don't
know Rashi Rice in three weeks. I watched that passing
game yesterday and I'm like, yeah, I know there's injuries,
but it's fine. Worthy gives them a deep threat that
(08:59):
will open it up for Rashi Rice and Juju Smith Schuster.
So you'll have a one, a gadget guy number two
and then three and Travis Kelcey be good in big games.
And the outer hallmark of the Chiefs is they don't
beat themselves. They had one turnover this year Eagles Eagles,
Kanada City in Buffalo. They just don't turn the ball over.
So I think you've got to feel I feel like
(09:19):
Kansas City watching that game. I don't feel I'm overreacting.
It does take time. You can't go into a game
without Worthy and Rashi Rice and an older Travis kelce
and no run game. You gotta give them something. At
the trade deadline they have to consider an upgrade, either
O line or run game. But I think you come
out of this thing. They've worked very hard. Worthy mattered
(09:41):
Rice around the corner and Kansas City's back. Here's Patrick.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
We've been working extremely hard and we want to have success,
and we've been just making little mistakes here and there,
and that causes frustration. But at the same time, we've
been learning from them and we'll so we'll learn from
this game with Xavier being back in just that threat
of being able to win over the top. It's scary
for defenses when they're gonna bring pressure knowing that you
can get it to that guy short or deep and
then he can make plays happen. And so we had
(10:09):
good answers. There's a couple here and there that I
think I could have been better on as far as
some of my answers, but overall, I thought we had
a good game plan and we executed it well.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Listen, it's almost like the Ryder Cup. The Americans weren't bad,
the Europeans were better. It's almost like Kansas City. Mahomes
hasn't been bad. He's kept him afloat. He's been a
life preserver and so is Andy Reid. But you got
to give him something because they don't run the ball,
and Kelsey at this age isn't dependable. You got to
give him something. And this week they got something. They
(10:37):
got an over the top threat and worthy and suddenly
the offense looks good now they need a number one receiver.
They're not going to be a great run team this year.
They're not. But Rashi Rice before the suspension, was a
number one. Then you have Juju Smith's probably a three worthies.
You're two and a gadget guy. With that defense and
that coaching, that's a Super Bowl bubble team. Now. I
(10:58):
think the NFC is better than the end AFC this year,
top to bottom. But don't I know stone Oh the
injuries for Baltimore, the Vikings could barely field an offensive
line like this is just the reality of it. You
got all sorts of guys banged up right now, more
than I recall. But overall I was blown away. J
Mac Saturday was great. I don't know why. I mean.
(11:25):
The Bears blocked to kick to win. I don't know
what it is, but apparently blocked. It used to be
when you blocked to kick in the NFL that you
would get a big guy would get a hand on
it and he would just tip it and then about
twenty yards down the field, everybody was told to stay
away from the ball, don't touch it. Right now, Guys
not only block it, they volleyball it, they spike it.
(11:45):
They get two hands on it. I don't know what's happened,
but it's just everywhere like kicks now are like probably
most of the Greg Olsen told us last week you
shouldn't kick because of math. The second thing, I mean,
the Cowboys got two points blocking extra point.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
That was the game that felt like that turned the game.
It was about to be fourteen nothing. Then it's thirteen
to two and things snowball from there for green Bay.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
But that's a good point, Colin.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So remember how Belichick used to say that the first
four games are like a preseason, right, I think that's
how we should look at a gambling wise, because special
teams now is a huge factor in the NFL. Eagles
had a punt block for a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
How about was it Jacksonville?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Jacksonville had two huge returns Like San Francisco. Special teams
are garbage. I'm done with the Niners, by.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
The way, Yeah, Niners, special teams. John Middlekoff's been telling this.
They've been bad for four years, so bad, so bad,
and then they reach and draft a kicker in the
third round. It's like, guys, you can draft kickers the
seventh round. You have two picks, all.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Right, regard Hey, regarding the Raiders, can you text Chip
Kelly and your boy Pete Carroll and be like, why
are you settling for a fifty four yardfield goal to
win the game?
Speaker 7 (12:57):
Like they didn't try to get more yards?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You know why?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
You know, why what are we doing? Because Gino Smith
had three picks.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
Yeah, but here's the thing, they were in Bears territory.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Gino only turned it over in his own end all
of yesterday Like I no, no, I'm kind of joking,
but yeah, that.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
Was just brutal for it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
For that game was incredibly ugly. I want to talk
about that with the Bears. It was one of the
ugliest games, but it was wildly entertaining because these are
not great teams.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Caleb Caleb was a good game winning drive. I was like,
there's no way he's pulling this off.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
He delivered hand, had a couple of key drops by
his guys.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
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Speaker 7 (13:41):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
Straight Fire gives you.
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Speaker 1 (14:13):
Here we go, Colin Wright, Colin wrong, plenty of both
in a Monday where Colin was right. I said last
week with Baltimore, I don't want to hear its injuries.
I'm not sure what they do well defensively. They weren't
good on Monday Night and they're not good now. That's
the best game Patrick Mahomes has played in a long time.
Look at what Kansas City did seven yards of play.
Kansas City's rebuilding, their own line, has no run game.
(14:35):
Travis Kelcey, you get about one big play a game,
and they don't have a number one receiver. I mean,
Mahomes hasn't played that well in so long, so it's
not like Kansas City doesn't have injuries. Rashie Rice isn't playing.
This is Worthy's first game back. They lost their best
offensive linemen. They have no real consistent run game. Baltimore.
I said it last week. I think it's time to panic.
(14:57):
You may need more than just getting guys healthy on
the d defensive.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Side, where Colin was rogged.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Outside of the Bears game, Brian Schottenheimer has looked buttoned up.
I know the Cowboys are won two and one, but
they're getting the ball to the right people. I mean,
this is the best I've seen Dak play in eight years.
You gotta get you gotta get Brian Schottenheimer some credit
for it. They didn't have Cede Lamb, and they mixed
the They mix it up very well. Again, their clock
management was better than Green Bay. Some of that's just
(15:25):
Dak's been around. He's a smart guy. But I will
say they're wildly entertaining to watch. They're in every game.
They should have beaten if not for a CD Lamb dropped,
they should have beaten Philadelphia. I thought this team was
going to be absolutely potentially the second third worst team
in the league, and they're a They're a pretty fun
team to watch, and Dak is playing out of his mind.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh, brought Pretty or mac Jones? You tell me there's
a difference. Wasn't the knock on brought Pretty out of college?
He was a bit small and reckless. Well, so far
this year, for these four picks, he's got more turnovers
than total touchdowns. I know the Niners had some drops,
but they also had a couple of guys make catches
that could have been potentially intercepted that they not made
(16:10):
the cat So he did not play well. Again, he's
banged up. I understand that these are professional athletes. It's
the NFL. Everybody's banged up by week three and four.
I don't see the massive gap. I think Perty's better
than mac Jones, but I don't see the forty five
million dollar.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Gap where Colin was wrong.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
That is the best game offensively I have seen the
Steelers play in maybe six years. Honestly, Aaron was tremendous.
The back shoulder throws, the tempo. I mean the Steelers
have had an offensive line issue in a run game
issue since Big Ben's second to last year. DK Metcalf
(16:52):
and Aaron really connected. Steelers had six sacks and a
lot of that The Vikings old lines all banged up,
but I don't want to hear about it. All I
know is when I watched that game, that was a
twenty twenty five offense, a number one receiver, a consistent
run game, good pass pro. Aaron deserves credit they have.
He is leading this offense, and he deserves credit because
(17:15):
if you're a Steeler fan, when's the last time you
saw a third down, a game plan, a run game
that consistent. And Minnesota's got real players. Brian Floor is
a great DC where Colin was right. Well, I've said
Matt Stafford maybe the best thrower of a football in
the world. He put on a clinic yesterday. I mean
(17:35):
I have him in the Super Bowl bubble. He and
Pooka are arguably the best quarterback wide receiver combo even
two two Atwell who was a bus they kept around
for a year, ended up having the game winner McVeigh
plus Stafford and that defense, this is a real team.
Indianapolis is no joke, big guy. They have a roster,
(17:56):
but Stafford game winning drives just absolutely beautiful to watch.
He is the best pocket quarterback we've had in a
long time.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, I got a little ahead of myself on USC
first real challenge, got pushed around by Illinois. The same
Illinois team that had one hundred and sixty total yards
against Indiana had over five hundred. Everybody's banging on Lincoln
Riley because they scored so quickly. Well, you don't want
to get cute on the road. They just looked lost.
(18:28):
They got burned on this Philly special. They didn't consistently
generate a pass rush. I don't know what it is,
but the longer D'Anton lynn, a great de coordinator is
in USC, the softer the defense gets. And I I
think he's done a great job with Jaden Miyov at
the quarterback, but defensively the back end is atrocious.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Sam Darnold is elite. He's the winningest quarterback in the
league since the beginning of last year this year completing
seventy percent of his throws and six passer rating. And
what I like this team is Green Bay young Offensively,
This is an incredibly young roster. Donald moves from Minnesota.
They jam him in. They go from Kevin O'Connell and
(19:12):
Justin jeffersonto a bunch of kids. He's had two game
winning drives in four games. He is a great fit
for years and years. I said, I watched Sam Darnold play.
He won in high school at usc At, Minnesota and Seattle.
Who's winning with the Panthers and the Jets. This guy
can play where Colin was right. Dante Moore. If I
(19:34):
had a number one pick in the draft, I would
pick Dante Moore the quarterback for Oregon. This kid the poise,
the stoicism, that is a loud road environment. Oregon's a
young team. He is phenomenal. I said last week, I'm
gonna take Oregon. Dante Moore is next level. Some of
these throws. This kid is really good. And all the
(19:58):
quarterbacks we thought were going to be great coming into
the season. Drew Aller kid Pleubnik. Eh, that's the number
one pick in the draft. This kid is if he
wants to come out, he may not, but this kid,
this kid is really good to go on the road
to be his age and he's just not bothered at all.
(20:21):
I get if you're a thirty two year old NFL quarterback,
but that's intimidating. That is an intimidating place you on
the road in overtime, and he's making throws off platform. Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays
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Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, he was NFL. Remember this offensive rookie of the Year.
He was a Heisman Trophy winner eight years in the league.
Now Fox Sports, he's got the cowboy hat on. He
is ready to go RG three. Robert Griffin is now
joining US live. It was a cowboy hat weekend. They'll
tell you that it was nuts Saturday and Sunday. Let's
(20:58):
go back to Saturday. I said this when Nick Saban left.
Robert I said, Kaylin de Borr was the best, most
courageous higher you could do, because it would have been easy.
He'd go, oh, let's get let's go get Dan Lanning.
He's from the South. Let's go get Dabbo. He's got
Abama connection. And Greg Burns like, now I'm gonna go
all the way to the Pacific northwest to and I
(21:20):
said that takes guts. The Bama people didn't want to
hear it. I thought, Robert he out coached Kirby Smart.
I thought that was a coaching classic. What do you
make of Bama's went on the road.
Speaker 9 (21:32):
Well, you're making a lot of great points there, Colin,
and that's why you're in the position that you were in.
And I'm one of first of all, want to say
thank you for having me on the show. Completely honored
to share the airways with you. But when you look
at Kaylen de Boor, I agree with you. He did
out coach Kirby Smart, but it was more than that.
I thought that Kaylen de Boor has always been a
hell of a football coach. He's won every single whey
(21:53):
that he's been and for him to take on the
challenge of replacing the greatest college football coach of all time,
some might argue the greatest coach of all time, and
Nick Saban lets you know how much he believes in
himself and his staff. But after the loss to Florida State,
I thought he was self aware. He understood, you know what,
I'm not getting it done the way that I need
to get it done here at Alabama, and he changed
(22:16):
his identity. And for a coach who's won in multiple
different places to make that admission and step in and say,
you know what, We're gonna come up with a new slogan.
We're gonna say, don't let up, No mercy why did
he say that. It's because Alabama had kind of lost
its luster a little bit, it had lost its fear
that it had put into people's souls when they stepped
(22:36):
on the field with them, and his quarterback, Ty Simpson
stepped up to the podium, took full responsibility and said.
Speaker 10 (22:41):
I will be better. And he's been better.
Speaker 9 (22:44):
He's been one of the best quarterbacks in all the
college football. So I wonder what the Alabama fans are
saying now.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Right Listen, success is hard and it doesn't always happen quickly.
I always joke Saban lost the Louisiana Monroe's first year
and got off by Utah his second year. Now, he
took over a bit of a mess, But it's hard
to take over Alabama, the nil, the portal. You're losing, guys. Now,
I want to talk about I said going into the year,
(23:11):
I liked Drew Aller's potential. I watched Dante Moore Robert.
If I had a number one pick in the draft,
I would take Dante Moore. That kid's composure. I mean,
you played in this league. I was blown I mean
I thought he was good. I was blown away by him.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
What say you yet?
Speaker 10 (23:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (23:30):
Dante Moore is climbing up draft boards faster than any
quarterback in the country right now, and it's because he
proved one simple thing. He proved that the tools that
he has can travel to a big time playoff atmosphere
and that his poise overcomes all of it. When you
look at Dante Moore there at the end of the game,
when they needed him the most, he went on the
(23:50):
play action boot leg.
Speaker 10 (23:52):
We call him nakeds when you don't have a backside blocker.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
He stepped up in the pocket and he hit Gary
Bryant for a touchdown. When his team needed in the most,
he stood tall. And when I watch his tape, what
I'm so impressed by is the simple fact that he
transferred from UCLA to go sit for a year at
Oregon behind Dylan Gabriel. It shows me that he understands
he needed to be developed. He understood that it takes
(24:15):
patience to make that happen. And what do you see
when you watch the tape. You see calm feet in
the pocket. You see him staying in rhythm, not forcing
the football to any one particular guy, but allowing the
ball to go where it's supposed to go. On each
play versus each coverage. NFL coaches absolutely love this young
man fourteen to one touchdown interception ratio. Eight guys in
(24:38):
this big time matchup caught a pass from him. It
lets you know that he's processing it well. And in
today's modern NFL, you have to be able to operate
in the pocket, but you also have to have off
schedule answers.
Speaker 10 (24:50):
And Dante Moore has that.
Speaker 9 (24:52):
He showed that with his ability to run, with his
ability to extend plays.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
So I'm right there with you. He could very well
be the number one pick in the.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Okay, Well, one more college question, then I want to
go to some NFL stuff where I think you'll have
a really great perspective. So I defended Lincoln Riley. I
was at this game. I defend him scoring with a
minute fifty five left, because I think when you're on
the road, you don't get cute like if you can
get into the end zone, get into the end zone.
The bigger issue is they brought Deanton Lynn on as
(25:23):
a decordinator a couple of years ago, and I thought
he was tremendous and the defense is getting softer, and
I don't necessarily blame the DC. I don't know if
it's because of the way they practice. They're now getting
pushed around by Illinois, and I know the kind of
I mean, I'm sorry, Robert. I know what their nil
money is, and I know what they recruit that shouldn't happen.
(25:46):
Who do you blame? Is it this offense that maybe
at practice you don't develop toughness. But I feel like, oh,
here we go again, another Lincoln defense that can't make stops.
Speaker 9 (25:59):
And I know you know this very well, Colin. You're
out there, you're around a lot, you're around the program,
and when I look at this defense, I agree with you.
I think that it's the defense that's holding them back.
Look against Illinois, they gave up twelve point four or
twelve point six yards per attempt to Luke Altmeyer and
that Illinois offense. You're not going to win in those situations. Yes,
(26:21):
they're getting a ton of sacks, but they're giving up
way too many big plays in the secondary. And I
was able to call their game against Michigan State with
Jason Bennetti and Alex Atlantistory, amazing crew that we have
there for college football, and they dominated that game in
Michigan State, and I agree with you. It's not the nil.
It's not that they don't have the playmakers. This team
is field with's high level recruits. But in my talks
(26:44):
last week with Kyle Whittingham, the head coach at Utah,
he talked about how it's almost impossible to have a
great defense when you truly have an up tempo offense.
Why because it's putting your defense out there on the
field more often.
Speaker 10 (26:59):
For Utah, they average some of.
Speaker 9 (27:00):
The fewest plays played per game for their defense, and
he really believes that the longer your defense is out
on the field, the more opportunities you're going to give
up in explosives, the tighter they're going to get, and
guys who aren't fresh don't play well. They say fatigue
makes cowards of us all. So I wonder if that's
a question that Lincoln Riley has to ask himself, because
(27:21):
at the end of the day, it all falls on him. Colin,
he's the head coach, he's the high price, money making
guy that was brought in there to make them a
championship contender. So make the decision, are you going to
go truly all the way up tempo and score as
many points as you possibly can, like we used to
do back at Baylor in the day. Or are you
going to try to play this game where you kind
of slow it down to help your defense not be
(27:43):
on the field as much. I think I know the
answer to that. I think you do as well. They're
probably just going to try to outscore everybody.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So I want to shift to the NFL because you
were a profoundly athletic. You could move, you could throw,
and I think Caleb has both of those. And somebody
told me years ago, they said, listen, if if you're
born with a great singing voice, or develop it at
an early age, you'll sing in the car, you'll sing
in the shower. You'll sing because God gave it to
you and it's special. And I think there's a burden
being a great running quarterback. Took Steve Young years to
(28:13):
develop the pocket stuff because he was so damn athletic.
And I watched Caleb and I watched Ben, and I
think Ben's a structure guy. And I think Caleb can
play in structure, but man, he's got horsepower. And go
back to your career, how do you balance well, I
can take off and get a lot of these first
downs with Okay, play with the coach's structure. Is it
(28:35):
a fight when you have the ability to move.
Speaker 9 (28:39):
I wouldn't say it's a fight when you have the
ability to move, But you got to have the right
relationship between the head coach and the quarterback. So right now,
when I look at at Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams,
I feel like they're the perfect Yin and Yang. Caleb
is the laid back, you know, gonna wear the funny,
funny clothes and not be super high type of quarterback.
(29:00):
And Ben Johnson is the type of guy who's gonna
stare a hole through a sideline reporter if they ask
him a question about his offense. Okay, that Yin and
Yang to me works for them because what Caleb lacks
Ben Johnson has and what Ben Johnson lacks Caleb has.
Now when you look at the last two weeks for them,
he throws four touchdowns and literally eviscerates the Cowboys defense.
(29:22):
He's feeling good about himself. Well, guess what happened this
week against the Raiders. Wasn't the cleanest game, but in
late game execution, he goes and he leads his team
on a game winning drive. I still believe that Caleb
Williams is learning how to not color outside of the lines.
But they're finding ways to win games, and that's going
to make that growth process even better. The more they win,
(29:43):
the more success they have, the more belief they're going
to have in one another, and the more belief this
team is going to happen one another. You can see
him celebrating on the sideline and feeling good about themselves.
That goes a long way. Winning cures all in. The
Bears right now at two and two are winning.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
So I listen. Aj Brown is showing to me great
patience because I mean, here really is We got to
give him credit. Like he's read. I don't care if
he's reading a book. Every time they put a mic
in front of him, he's very patient. He says the
right thing, and I think to myself, they targeted him
(30:20):
nine times yesterday they're trying. They got seven yards and
it worked against the Rams because the Rams could use
length and physicality. It's the only weakness on the Rams
that they don't have a kind of a physical corner.
They let Jalen Ramsey go, You're they're a little small.
They don't have that so it works. But I'm watching
yesterday and my takeaway is this is a long season.
(30:41):
Robert and AJ's being real patient. I don't know if
this thing. Would you consider because they're so deep, would
you consider saying, listen, we need another corner. It's just
not vital to our offense. We're gonna move AJ get
a draft pick in a corner, or do he adjust.
Put your head down and try to make it work.
(31:03):
It's like a marriage. It can't be this hard. You
shouldn't have to go to therapy every day. It just
feels like it doesn't fit.
Speaker 9 (31:11):
Yeah, it's it's the dilemma you get in when you
have a guy like Jalen Hurts, who I do believe
is the top five quarterback in the NFL because he
makes the winning plays, and sometimes the winning play, unfortunately
for the Philadelphia Eagles, is not throwing the football to
AJ Brown, or at least throwing it to him and
not completing It's It's one of the more confusing things
(31:34):
that happened this weekend for me, because when their offense
is clicking, who is the guy that is really making
it go. It's not Jalen Hurts. It's honestly right now
this year. Not Saquon Barkley. It's AJ Brown. When they
put up points, AJ Brown is involved. When they have
to make a drastic comeback like they did last week,
AJ Brown is involved. So I honestly don't put this
(31:55):
on Jalen Hurts. I put it on their offensive coordinator.
You have to find way to get him easy completions.
Speaker 10 (32:02):
I always use this analogy when we call games.
Speaker 9 (32:05):
You see a team go on a fifteen play drive
and they've got a couple trick plays, and they've got
a bunch of different crazy things that they're trying to.
Speaker 10 (32:12):
Make it work. And it's like in a basketball game.
Speaker 9 (32:15):
You see the teams that do the thumbs down bounce
passes right and they get the open guys to the
basket and they make the easy layups. Well, right now,
the Eagles aren't doing that. They're not making the easy plays.
They're not getting him the easy screen catches, lining them
up in the slot and having them run option routes,
keeping him away from double teams, and not just putting
him on an island on the outside where.
Speaker 10 (32:36):
They can roll coverage to them.
Speaker 9 (32:37):
They have to find ways to get him that easy
cut to the basket where he can make the easy
layups early in the game, so you're not looking at
him in the third quarter like.
Speaker 10 (32:46):
Hey, Aj, where you at. He's like, I.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Don't know, you're not getting me easy completions, Guys. I'm
a dynamic player. You see when he has the ball
in his hands, how special he is. That is the
job of the offensive coordinator. It is not the job
of the quarterback to force the ball to AJ Brown.
So we don't have these conversations on the national airways.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
This is where I defend pro athletes. I can do
my radio TV thing forever. But if you're AJ Brown,
you may have six years in this league to be
a star.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
And and and you know in baseball again, you can
play to your thirty six. In basketball, you know a
guy can shoot, you can stay in the league forever.
I get AJ Brown being you know, I mean, I
think he's showing. I don't know. I think it's tough.
I don't think fans quite understand how hard it is
to be this gifted and have seven yards. Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 9 (33:34):
Colin would be like, uh, you know, Kobe Bryant, and
you're like, you know what, We're not going to give
him thirty shots tonight, We're gonna We're gonna give.
Speaker 10 (33:42):
Him five, you know what I mean?
Speaker 9 (33:45):
Like that, that's never going to work. You saw how
aggressive Kobe was when he played the game. So for
AJ Brown, my only the only reason I don't say
trade him and get him out of out of Philadelphia
is because when it comes down to it, when you
get late in the season, when you get into the
early rounds of the playoffs and potentially try to get
to another super Bowl to make yourself a dynasty, it's
(34:08):
not going to be about the ex'es and the o's.
It's going to be about the Jimmy's and the Joe's.
And the Eagles are a better football team when AJ
Brown is on it than they are when he isn't.
So that to me is why right now you gotta
focus on the ex's and the o's, and your ex'es
and o's aren't good enough because your best player is
not getting the football.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You're tremendous. Robert Griffin knows his college, does his college
and pro stuff. You know, may years ago at a
volume party. If I recall you and you're it is correct,
and it's great to seeing you again. I'd love to
have you on again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 9 (34:43):
No appreciate you having me on, Colin, And I'm honing
to be your teammate brother.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
All Right, that's great stuff, some good points.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. 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 Fox Sports Radio
or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, it is a Monday, A glorious Monday. It could
be the Ryder Cup, the NFL College football. We've got
it all. Colin right, Colin wrong? One hour from now?
What a showcase? Last night? Jmak the NFL block kicks
fifty eight yard field goals. If you get the ball last,
(00:48):
if you don't win, you at least cover. I remember
a time when you used to get four out of
five picks, right, I mean it was mins money in
the bank by the Jet Skis on Saturday. I didn't
even need to watch Sunday. This league is nuts and
last night is an exclamation point on nuts.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Absolutely crazy Sunday in the NFL. I mean Packers felt
like a loss.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Come yeah, So Dallas is one two in one and
Dallas feels pretty good about them, though. The Packers are
two to one in one and they think the sky
is falling. Take a deep breath, Green Bay fans, you
are still, for the third year in a row, the
youngest team in the NFL. In the last two weeks,
(01:31):
part of being young is you can't figure out how
to close out games against inferior teams. You just can't
figure it out. The Eagles, the Chiefs, the Rams, they
got veterans, they close out those games that playoff experience
that wisdom. Green Bay is crazy talented, but Matt Lafleur
is in the head coach, he's a chaperone. This roster
is full of twenty four to twenty five year olds,
(01:54):
and there's not many great corners in the league. And
let's be honest, George Pickens had a day. You go
your most talented corner to Baltimore, so you came in
a little corner light. Michaeh. Parsons did not help. Where's
the pass rush? I'm not seeing it. One sack. So
this was just two very comfortable quarterbacks, Jordan Love and
(02:14):
Dak Prescott, and they as they say, eight, They had
six touchdowns, no picks. They had all data throw. They
were both comfortable. They completed seventy five percent of their throws.
And it's the NFL. The Saints gave Buffalo in Buffalo trouble.
The Chargers got whacked by Jackson Dart fifty seven year oard.
(02:35):
Field goals are chip shots. Every third kick is blocked.
And yesterday and Dublin Aaron Rodgers looked twenty four years old,
So it's like it's a this is what it is.
The weather's still very good, so the offense is good.
You can throw the ball down the field. It'll get cold,
teams won't be able to throw the ball down the field,
(02:55):
teams will be more injured. That was just two really
good quarterbacks. Both were in incredibly comfortable, and Packer fans
can be fatalists. It's like, you're gonna win the division.
You had a bunch of bad teams coming up. Let's
be honest. You beat a Lions team with two new
coordinators that was trying to find themselves, and I got
a little high on you, and.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
You did too.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
And then you beat the Commanders on a short week
at home and Jaden Daniels wasn't one hundred percent, and
then you play you know you're feeling yourself, and then
you play a couple teams and you're you have a
fourth quarter lead against Cleveland and you blow it. Jordan
Love had a rare bad pick and then last night
your clock management wasn't very good. But again, this is
the youngest team in the NFL. Now you've got a
(03:40):
stretch packer fans. We have faced Cardinals, Panthers, Bengals. You
could be six one and one coming up and be fine.
This is September football. It's crazy. I can remember Ryan
Fitzpatrick of the Bills years ago tearing up September and
they gave him a huge contract. Weird stuff happens. Sean
Payton's always been a bad I had September coach. So again,
(04:02):
young team and this is the downside to young teams, stoicism, temperament, poise.
Green Bay still doesn't have that. Green Bay got a
little high on their supply and we're lucky to settle
for a tie. What am I bad, bunny? All I
know is this. They're good, they're young, they're talented, the coach,
(04:22):
the quarterback. But but their temperament and sometimes I'm not
sure they understand the game has a clock the management
of it. Mat Lafloor said after we're just not there yet.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
I think anytime mistakes happens disappointing. Whether it's year three
with your group of guys or you got a rookie
in there, it really doesn't matter at the end of
the day because nobody cares. Bottom line is, you got
to get it right. The operation was just way too slow,
Like I don't know if our guys didn't know where're
in two minutes or what. But ultimately the communication has
(04:57):
got to get better myself to Georgia Jordan, to the
Doddel and that's that's a bottom line.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For the record. I thought the Micah Parsons deal, I said,
Green Bay is pretty stacked. It's a great roster. They
don't need a first round pick because they got their
quarterback and they've got their they've got their weapons, and
they've got with Micah, they got a pass rush, so
they don't need first round picks. They can get away
with it for about two years. But Micah hasn't really
(05:24):
delivered on the promise right, like overall not getting the
quarterback enough. By the way, if you're Dallas, you have
to feel great this morning. Think about this. I'm Dallas.
Everybody crapped on that Micah trade. My take is the
Cowboys are going into the next two drafts. They don't
need a quarterback and about eight to ten teams due
and now they got four first round picks and they
(05:45):
could turn those into other second, third, fourth round picks.
So Dak playing this well in the Cowboys, even without
Ceedee Lamb moving the ball this well, Dallas is in
a great spot. They have something they haven't had in year,
a healthy quarterback, two really good receivers when Ceedee Lamb
comes back. Yeah, they don't have Micah, but they have
(06:07):
four first round picks, which gives them unbelievable financial and
draft flexibility. Dallas. I mean, I'm Dallas. I'm watching them
last night, and I'm like, you know how lucky they
are that Dak is better post surgery. I mean, they
got a feel. You guys all crush the Michael Parsons move.
And I said, Mike is good for Green Bay. He's
what they need. Dalla's gonna be fine. They're gonna be fine.
(06:29):
They're actually significantly better than I thought. So just take
a deep breath, green Bay, Dallas feel pretty good. They
should I'm looking at the Green Bay schedule. Now, I
got at home against Cincinnati. By the way Cincinnati plays tonight,
it'll be a short week. Arizona, you trust them. Carolina,
you get Philadelphia at home. Pittsburgh, they had a lot
(06:50):
of w's come and take a deep breath, all right,
it is official. The Kansas City Chiefs are back, and
the Chiefs are in Lamar Jackson's head. Lamar Jackson five
for five on that first drive. The minute he got
off script, Lamar Jackson was awful, had a passer writing
(07:13):
of fifty one. So Steve Spagnola has seen him so
many times. My opinion, they got a little bit of
a beat on him. He's got ten touchdowns and nine
giveaways against Kansas City, and again Achilles had his heel
and Superman had his Crypto night. Everybody's got somebody, and
I just think he struggles with him, and simultaneously Lamar
Jackson is struggling. I don't want to hear about the
(07:37):
defensive injuries. Everybody's banged up. Minnesota barely could field an
offensive line. I don't want to hear about it. It's
Baltimore's offense that worries me. Lamar doesn't work against Kansas City.
They faced him so many times, are in his head
and simultaneously, oh oh, I said that Jay Mack last week.
Just get Xavier Worthy back. He's a deep threat. He'll
(07:57):
open up the stuff underneath at exactly what happened, Juju
Smith Schuster's still making plays. Xavier Worthy is not a
number one, but he opens up opportunities for guys underneath.
They have a chance now to get back to the
super Bowl if they can develop any kind of run game.
The defense is excellent, the coaching's the best in the league,
(08:18):
and Mahomes good lord, he still got it so and
Xavier Worthy is all they need. In about four weeks,
they're gonna get Rashee Rice back because Travis Kelcey you
can no longer count on. He'll he'll show up to
the big games. But you've got to get Rashee Rice
and Worthy. The old line's getting a little bit better.
But I feel like Kansas City's a bacteria that is
(08:38):
resistant to antibiotics, and it's like the league had a
chance to wipe them out, and now Kansas City's gonna
cough on everybody and pick up wins. You had a chance,
there was a window. Here they were and I don't
know Rashi Rice in three weeks. I watched that passing
game yesterday and I'm like, yeah, I know there's injuries,
but it's fine. Worthy gives them a deep threat that
(08:59):
will open it up for Rashi Rice and Juju Smith Schuster.
So you'll have a one, a gadget guy number two
and then three and Travis Kelcey be good in big games.
And the outer hallmark of the Chiefs is they don't
beat themselves. They had one turnover this year Eagles Eagles,
Kanada City in Buffalo. They just don't turn the ball over.
So I think you've got to feel I feel like
(09:19):
Kansas City watching that game. I don't feel I'm overreacting.
It does take time. You can't go into a game
without Worthy and Rashi Rice and an older Travis kelce
and no run game. You gotta give them something. At
the trade deadline they have to consider an upgrade, either
O line or run game. But I think you come
out of this thing. They've worked very hard. Worthy mattered
(09:41):
Rice around the corner and Kansas City's back. Here's Patrick.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
We've been working extremely hard and we want to have success,
and we've been just making little mistakes here and there,
and that causes frustration. But at the same time, we've
been learning from them and we'll so we'll learn from
this game with Xavier being back in just that threat
of being able to win over the top. It's scary
for defenses when they're gonna bring pressure knowing that you
can get it to that guy short or deep and
then he can make plays happen. And so we had
(10:09):
good answers. There's a couple here and there that I
think I could have been better on as far as
some of my answers, but overall, I thought we had
a good game plan and we executed it well.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Listen, it's almost like the Ryder Cup. The Americans weren't bad,
the Europeans were better. It's almost like Kansas City. Mahomes
hasn't been bad. He's kept him afloat. He's been a
life preserver and so is Andy Reid. But you got
to give him something because they don't run the ball,
and Kelsey at this age isn't dependable. You got to
give him something. And this week they got something. They
(10:37):
got an over the top threat and worthy and suddenly
the offense looks good now they need a number one receiver.
They're not going to be a great run team this year.
They're not. But Rashi Rice before the suspension, was a
number one. Then you have Juju Smith's probably a three worthies.
You're two and a gadget guy. With that defense and
that coaching, that's a Super Bowl bubble team. Now. I
(10:58):
think the NFC is better than the end AFC this year,
top to bottom. But don't I know stone Oh the
injuries for Baltimore, the Vikings could barely field an offensive
line like this is just the reality of it. You
got all sorts of guys banged up right now, more
than I recall. But overall I was blown away. J
Mac Saturday was great. I don't know why. I mean.
(11:25):
The Bears blocked to kick to win. I don't know
what it is, but apparently blocked. It used to be
when you blocked to kick in the NFL that you
would get a big guy would get a hand on
it and he would just tip it and then about
twenty yards down the field, everybody was told to stay
away from the ball, don't touch it. Right now, Guys
not only block it, they volleyball it, they spike it.
(11:45):
They get two hands on it. I don't know what's happened,
but it's just everywhere like kicks now are like probably
most of the Greg Olsen told us last week you
shouldn't kick because of math. The second thing, I mean,
the Cowboys got two points blocking extra point.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
That was the game that felt like that turned the game.
It was about to be fourteen nothing. Then it's thirteen
to two and things snowball from there for green Bay.
Speaker 7 (12:08):
But that's a good point, Colin.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So remember how Belichick used to say that the first
four games are like a preseason, right, I think that's
how we should look at a gambling wise, because special
teams now is a huge factor in the NFL. Eagles
had a punt block for a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
How about was it Jacksonville?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Jacksonville had two huge returns Like San Francisco. Special teams
are garbage. I'm done with the Niners, by.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
The way, Yeah, Niners, special teams. John Middlekoff's been telling this.
They've been bad for four years, so bad, so bad,
and then they reach and draft a kicker in the
third round. It's like, guys, you can draft kickers the
seventh round. You have two picks, all.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Right, regard Hey, regarding the Raiders, can you text Chip
Kelly and your boy Pete Carroll and be like, why
are you settling for a fifty four yardfield goal to
win the game?
Speaker 7 (12:57):
Like they didn't try to get more yards?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You know why?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
You know, why what are we doing? Because Gino Smith
had three picks.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
Yeah, but here's the thing, they were in Bears territory.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Gino only turned it over in his own end all
of yesterday Like I no, no, I'm kind of joking,
but yeah, that.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
Was just brutal for it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
For that game was incredibly ugly. I want to talk
about that with the Bears. It was one of the
ugliest games, but it was wildly entertaining because these are
not great teams.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Caleb Caleb was a good game winning drive. I was like,
there's no way he's pulling this off.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
He delivered hand, had a couple of key drops by
his guys.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Speaker 7 (13:41):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast Straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
Straight Fire gives you.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
Honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats
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Do yourself a favor and listen to a Straight Fire
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Speaker 1 (14:13):
Here we go, Colin Wright, Colin wrong, plenty of both
in a Monday where Colin was right. I said last
week with Baltimore, I don't want to hear its injuries.
I'm not sure what they do well defensively. They weren't
good on Monday Night and they're not good now. That's
the best game Patrick Mahomes has played in a long time.
Look at what Kansas City did seven yards of play.
Kansas City's rebuilding, their own line, has no run game.
(14:35):
Travis Kelcey, you get about one big play a game,
and they don't have a number one receiver. I mean,
Mahomes hasn't played that well in so long, so it's
not like Kansas City doesn't have injuries. Rashie Rice isn't playing.
This is Worthy's first game back. They lost their best
offensive linemen. They have no real consistent run game. Baltimore.
I said it last week. I think it's time to panic.
(14:57):
You may need more than just getting guys healthy on
the d defensive.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Side, where Colin was rogged.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Outside of the Bears game, Brian Schottenheimer has looked buttoned up.
I know the Cowboys are won two and one, but
they're getting the ball to the right people. I mean,
this is the best I've seen Dak play in eight years.
You gotta get you gotta get Brian Schottenheimer some credit
for it. They didn't have Cede Lamb, and they mixed
the They mix it up very well. Again, their clock
management was better than Green Bay. Some of that's just
(15:25):
Dak's been around. He's a smart guy. But I will
say they're wildly entertaining to watch. They're in every game.
They should have beaten if not for a CD Lamb dropped,
they should have beaten Philadelphia. I thought this team was
going to be absolutely potentially the second third worst team
in the league, and they're a They're a pretty fun
team to watch, and Dak is playing out of his mind.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh, brought Pretty or mac Jones? You tell me there's
a difference. Wasn't the knock on brought Pretty out of college?
He was a bit small and reckless. Well, so far
this year, for these four picks, he's got more turnovers
than total touchdowns. I know the Niners had some drops,
but they also had a couple of guys make catches
that could have been potentially intercepted that they not made
(16:10):
the cat So he did not play well. Again, he's
banged up. I understand that these are professional athletes. It's
the NFL. Everybody's banged up by week three and four.
I don't see the massive gap. I think Perty's better
than mac Jones, but I don't see the forty five
million dollar.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Gap where Colin was wrong.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
That is the best game offensively I have seen the
Steelers play in maybe six years. Honestly, Aaron was tremendous.
The back shoulder throws, the tempo. I mean the Steelers
have had an offensive line issue in a run game
issue since Big Ben's second to last year. DK Metcalf
(16:52):
and Aaron really connected. Steelers had six sacks and a
lot of that The Vikings old lines all banged up,
but I don't want to hear about it. All I
know is when I watched that game, that was a
twenty twenty five offense, a number one receiver, a consistent
run game, good pass pro. Aaron deserves credit they have.
He is leading this offense, and he deserves credit because
(17:15):
if you're a Steeler fan, when's the last time you
saw a third down, a game plan, a run game
that consistent. And Minnesota's got real players. Brian Floor is
a great DC where Colin was right. Well, I've said
Matt Stafford maybe the best thrower of a football in
the world. He put on a clinic yesterday. I mean
(17:35):
I have him in the Super Bowl bubble. He and
Pooka are arguably the best quarterback wide receiver combo even
two two Atwell who was a bus they kept around
for a year, ended up having the game winner McVeigh
plus Stafford and that defense, this is a real team.
Indianapolis is no joke, big guy. They have a roster,
(17:56):
but Stafford game winning drives just absolutely beautiful to watch.
He is the best pocket quarterback we've had in a
long time.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, I got a little ahead of myself on USC
first real challenge, got pushed around by Illinois. The same
Illinois team that had one hundred and sixty total yards
against Indiana had over five hundred. Everybody's banging on Lincoln
Riley because they scored so quickly. Well, you don't want
to get cute on the road. They just looked lost.
(18:28):
They got burned on this Philly special. They didn't consistently
generate a pass rush. I don't know what it is,
but the longer D'Anton lynn, a great de coordinator is
in USC, the softer the defense gets. And I I
think he's done a great job with Jaden Miyov at
the quarterback, but defensively the back end is atrocious.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Sam Darnold is elite. He's the winningest quarterback in the
league since the beginning of last year this year completing
seventy percent of his throws and six passer rating. And
what I like this team is Green Bay young Offensively,
This is an incredibly young roster. Donald moves from Minnesota.
They jam him in. They go from Kevin O'Connell and
(19:12):
Justin jeffersonto a bunch of kids. He's had two game
winning drives in four games. He is a great fit
for years and years. I said, I watched Sam Darnold play.
He won in high school at usc At, Minnesota and Seattle.
Who's winning with the Panthers and the Jets. This guy
can play where Colin was right. Dante Moore. If I
(19:34):
had a number one pick in the draft, I would
pick Dante Moore the quarterback for Oregon. This kid the poise,
the stoicism, that is a loud road environment. Oregon's a
young team. He is phenomenal. I said last week, I'm
gonna take Oregon. Dante Moore is next level. Some of
these throws. This kid is really good. And all the
(19:58):
quarterbacks we thought were going to be great coming into
the season. Drew Aller kid Pleubnik. Eh, that's the number
one pick in the draft. This kid is if he
wants to come out, he may not, but this kid,
this kid is really good to go on the road
to be his age and he's just not bothered at all.
(20:21):
I get if you're a thirty two year old NFL quarterback,
but that's intimidating. That is an intimidating place you on
the road in overtime, and he's making throws off platform. Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays
and Noone Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, he was NFL. Remember this offensive rookie of the Year.
He was a Heisman Trophy winner eight years in the league.
Now Fox Sports, he's got the cowboy hat on. He
is ready to go RG three. Robert Griffin is now
joining US live. It was a cowboy hat weekend. They'll
tell you that it was nuts Saturday and Sunday. Let's
(20:58):
go back to Saturday. I said this when Nick Saban left.
Robert I said, Kaylin de Borr was the best, most
courageous higher you could do, because it would have been easy.
He'd go, oh, let's get let's go get Dan Lanning.
He's from the South. Let's go get Dabbo. He's got
Abama connection. And Greg Burns like, now I'm gonna go
all the way to the Pacific northwest to and I
(21:20):
said that takes guts. The Bama people didn't want to
hear it. I thought, Robert he out coached Kirby Smart.
I thought that was a coaching classic. What do you
make of Bama's went on the road.
Speaker 9 (21:32):
Well, you're making a lot of great points there, Colin,
and that's why you're in the position that you were in.
And I'm one of first of all, want to say
thank you for having me on the show. Completely honored
to share the airways with you. But when you look
at Kaylen de Boor, I agree with you. He did
out coach Kirby Smart, but it was more than that.
I thought that Kaylen de Boor has always been a
hell of a football coach. He's won every single whey
(21:53):
that he's been and for him to take on the
challenge of replacing the greatest college football coach of all time,
some might argue the greatest coach of all time, and
Nick Saban lets you know how much he believes in
himself and his staff. But after the loss to Florida State,
I thought he was self aware. He understood, you know what,
I'm not getting it done the way that I need
to get it done here at Alabama, and he changed
(22:16):
his identity. And for a coach who's won in multiple
different places to make that admission and step in and say,
you know what, We're gonna come up with a new slogan.
We're gonna say, don't let up, No mercy why did
he say that. It's because Alabama had kind of lost
its luster a little bit, it had lost its fear
that it had put into people's souls when they stepped
(22:36):
on the field with them, and his quarterback, Ty Simpson
stepped up to the podium, took full responsibility and said.
Speaker 10 (22:41):
I will be better. And he's been better.
Speaker 9 (22:44):
He's been one of the best quarterbacks in all the
college football. So I wonder what the Alabama fans are
saying now.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Right Listen, success is hard and it doesn't always happen quickly.
I always joke Saban lost the Louisiana Monroe's first year
and got off by Utah his second year. Now, he
took over a bit of a mess, But it's hard
to take over Alabama, the nil, the portal. You're losing, guys. Now,
I want to talk about I said going into the year,
(23:11):
I liked Drew Aller's potential. I watched Dante Moore Robert.
If I had a number one pick in the draft,
I would take Dante Moore. That kid's composure. I mean,
you played in this league. I was blown I mean
I thought he was good. I was blown away by him.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
What say you yet?
Speaker 10 (23:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (23:30):
Dante Moore is climbing up draft boards faster than any
quarterback in the country right now, and it's because he
proved one simple thing. He proved that the tools that
he has can travel to a big time playoff atmosphere
and that his poise overcomes all of it. When you
look at Dante Moore there at the end of the game,
when they needed him the most, he went on the
(23:50):
play action boot leg.
Speaker 10 (23:52):
We call him nakeds when you don't have a backside blocker.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
He stepped up in the pocket and he hit Gary
Bryant for a touchdown. When his team needed in the most,
he stood tall. And when I watch his tape, what
I'm so impressed by is the simple fact that he
transferred from UCLA to go sit for a year at
Oregon behind Dylan Gabriel. It shows me that he understands
he needed to be developed. He understood that it takes
(24:15):
patience to make that happen. And what do you see
when you watch the tape. You see calm feet in
the pocket. You see him staying in rhythm, not forcing
the football to any one particular guy, but allowing the
ball to go where it's supposed to go. On each
play versus each coverage. NFL coaches absolutely love this young
man fourteen to one touchdown interception ratio. Eight guys in
(24:38):
this big time matchup caught a pass from him. It
lets you know that he's processing it well. And in
today's modern NFL, you have to be able to operate
in the pocket, but you also have to have off
schedule answers.
Speaker 10 (24:50):
And Dante Moore has that.
Speaker 9 (24:52):
He showed that with his ability to run, with his
ability to extend plays.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
So I'm right there with you. He could very well
be the number one pick in the.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Okay, Well, one more college question, then I want to
go to some NFL stuff where I think you'll have
a really great perspective. So I defended Lincoln Riley. I
was at this game. I defend him scoring with a
minute fifty five left, because I think when you're on
the road, you don't get cute like if you can
get into the end zone, get into the end zone.
The bigger issue is they brought Deanton Lynn on as
(25:23):
a decordinator a couple of years ago, and I thought
he was tremendous and the defense is getting softer, and
I don't necessarily blame the DC. I don't know if
it's because of the way they practice. They're now getting
pushed around by Illinois, and I know the kind of
I mean, I'm sorry, Robert. I know what their nil
money is, and I know what they recruit that shouldn't happen.
(25:46):
Who do you blame? Is it this offense that maybe
at practice you don't develop toughness. But I feel like, oh,
here we go again, another Lincoln defense that can't make stops.
Speaker 9 (25:59):
And I know you know this very well, Colin. You're
out there, you're around a lot, you're around the program,
and when I look at this defense, I agree with you.
I think that it's the defense that's holding them back.
Look against Illinois, they gave up twelve point four or
twelve point six yards per attempt to Luke Altmeyer and
that Illinois offense. You're not going to win in those situations. Yes,
(26:21):
they're getting a ton of sacks, but they're giving up
way too many big plays in the secondary. And I
was able to call their game against Michigan State with
Jason Bennetti and Alex Atlantistory, amazing crew that we have
there for college football, and they dominated that game in
Michigan State, and I agree with you. It's not the nil.
It's not that they don't have the playmakers. This team
is field with's high level recruits. But in my talks
(26:44):
last week with Kyle Whittingham, the head coach at Utah,
he talked about how it's almost impossible to have a
great defense when you truly have an up tempo offense.
Why because it's putting your defense out there on the
field more often.
Speaker 10 (26:59):
For Utah, they average some of.
Speaker 9 (27:00):
The fewest plays played per game for their defense, and
he really believes that the longer your defense is out
on the field, the more opportunities you're going to give
up in explosives, the tighter they're going to get, and
guys who aren't fresh don't play well. They say fatigue
makes cowards of us all. So I wonder if that's
a question that Lincoln Riley has to ask himself, because
(27:21):
at the end of the day, it all falls on him. Colin,
he's the head coach, he's the high price, money making
guy that was brought in there to make them a
championship contender. So make the decision, are you going to
go truly all the way up tempo and score as
many points as you possibly can, like we used to
do back at Baylor in the day. Or are you
going to try to play this game where you kind
of slow it down to help your defense not be
(27:43):
on the field as much. I think I know the
answer to that. I think you do as well. They're
probably just going to try to outscore everybody.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
So I want to shift to the NFL because you
were a profoundly athletic. You could move, you could throw,
and I think Caleb has both of those. And somebody
told me years ago, they said, listen, if if you're
born with a great singing voice, or develop it at
an early age, you'll sing in the car, you'll sing
in the shower. You'll sing because God gave it to
you and it's special. And I think there's a burden
being a great running quarterback. Took Steve Young years to
(28:13):
develop the pocket stuff because he was so damn athletic.
And I watched Caleb and I watched Ben, and I
think Ben's a structure guy. And I think Caleb can
play in structure, but man, he's got horsepower. And go
back to your career, how do you balance well, I
can take off and get a lot of these first
downs with Okay, play with the coach's structure. Is it
(28:35):
a fight when you have the ability to move.
Speaker 9 (28:39):
I wouldn't say it's a fight when you have the
ability to move, But you got to have the right
relationship between the head coach and the quarterback. So right now,
when I look at at Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams,
I feel like they're the perfect Yin and Yang. Caleb
is the laid back, you know, gonna wear the funny,
funny clothes and not be super high type of quarterback.
(29:00):
And Ben Johnson is the type of guy who's gonna
stare a hole through a sideline reporter if they ask
him a question about his offense. Okay, that Yin and
Yang to me works for them because what Caleb lacks
Ben Johnson has and what Ben Johnson lacks Caleb has.
Now when you look at the last two weeks for them,
he throws four touchdowns and literally eviscerates the Cowboys defense.
(29:22):
He's feeling good about himself. Well, guess what happened this
week against the Raiders. Wasn't the cleanest game, but in
late game execution, he goes and he leads his team
on a game winning drive. I still believe that Caleb
Williams is learning how to not color outside of the lines.
But they're finding ways to win games, and that's going
to make that growth process even better. The more they win,
(29:43):
the more success they have, the more belief they're going
to have in one another, and the more belief this
team is going to happen one another. You can see
him celebrating on the sideline and feeling good about themselves.
That goes a long way. Winning cures all in. The
Bears right now at two and two are winning.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
So I listen. Aj Brown is showing to me great
patience because I mean, here really is We got to
give him credit. Like he's read. I don't care if
he's reading a book. Every time they put a mic
in front of him, he's very patient. He says the
right thing, and I think to myself, they targeted him
(30:20):
nine times yesterday they're trying. They got seven yards and
it worked against the Rams because the Rams could use
length and physicality. It's the only weakness on the Rams
that they don't have a kind of a physical corner.
They let Jalen Ramsey go, You're they're a little small.
They don't have that so it works. But I'm watching
yesterday and my takeaway is this is a long season.
(30:41):
Robert and AJ's being real patient. I don't know if
this thing. Would you consider because they're so deep, would
you consider saying, listen, we need another corner. It's just
not vital to our offense. We're gonna move AJ get
a draft pick in a corner, or do he adjust.
Put your head down and try to make it work.
(31:03):
It's like a marriage. It can't be this hard. You
shouldn't have to go to therapy every day. It just
feels like it doesn't fit.
Speaker 9 (31:11):
Yeah, it's it's the dilemma you get in when you
have a guy like Jalen Hurts, who I do believe
is the top five quarterback in the NFL because he
makes the winning plays, and sometimes the winning play, unfortunately
for the Philadelphia Eagles, is not throwing the football to
AJ Brown, or at least throwing it to him and
not completing It's It's one of the more confusing things
(31:34):
that happened this weekend for me, because when their offense
is clicking, who is the guy that is really making
it go. It's not Jalen Hurts. It's honestly right now
this year. Not Saquon Barkley. It's AJ Brown. When they
put up points, AJ Brown is involved. When they have
to make a drastic comeback like they did last week,
AJ Brown is involved. So I honestly don't put this
(31:55):
on Jalen Hurts. I put it on their offensive coordinator.
You have to find way to get him easy completions.
Speaker 10 (32:02):
I always use this analogy when we call games.
Speaker 9 (32:05):
You see a team go on a fifteen play drive
and they've got a couple trick plays, and they've got
a bunch of different crazy things that they're trying to.
Speaker 10 (32:12):
Make it work. And it's like in a basketball game.
Speaker 9 (32:15):
You see the teams that do the thumbs down bounce
passes right and they get the open guys to the
basket and they make the easy layups. Well, right now,
the Eagles aren't doing that. They're not making the easy plays.
They're not getting him the easy screen catches, lining them
up in the slot and having them run option routes,
keeping him away from double teams, and not just putting
him on an island on the outside where.
Speaker 10 (32:36):
They can roll coverage to them.
Speaker 9 (32:37):
They have to find ways to get him that easy
cut to the basket where he can make the easy
layups early in the game, so you're not looking at
him in the third quarter like.
Speaker 10 (32:46):
Hey, Aj, where you at. He's like, I.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Don't know, you're not getting me easy completions, Guys. I'm
a dynamic player. You see when he has the ball
in his hands, how special he is. That is the
job of the offensive coordinator. It is not the job
of the quarterback to force the ball to AJ Brown.
So we don't have these conversations on the national airways.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
This is where I defend pro athletes. I can do
my radio TV thing forever. But if you're AJ Brown,
you may have six years in this league to be
a star.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
And and and you know in baseball again, you can
play to your thirty six. In basketball, you know a
guy can shoot, you can stay in the league forever.
I get AJ Brown being you know, I mean, I
think he's showing. I don't know. I think it's tough.
I don't think fans quite understand how hard it is
to be this gifted and have seven yards. Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 9 (33:34):
Colin would be like, uh, you know, Kobe Bryant, and
you're like, you know what, We're not going to give
him thirty shots tonight, We're gonna We're gonna give.
Speaker 10 (33:42):
Him five, you know what I mean?
Speaker 9 (33:45):
Like that, that's never going to work. You saw how
aggressive Kobe was when he played the game. So for
AJ Brown, my only the only reason I don't say
trade him and get him out of out of Philadelphia
is because when it comes down to it, when you
get late in the season, when you get into the
early rounds of the playoffs and potentially try to get
to another super Bowl to make yourself a dynasty, it's
(34:08):
not going to be about the ex'es and the o's.
It's going to be about the Jimmy's and the Joe's.
And the Eagles are a better football team when AJ
Brown is on it than they are when he isn't.
So that to me is why right now you gotta
focus on the ex's and the o's, and your ex'es
and o's aren't good enough because your best player is
not getting the football.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You're tremendous. Robert Griffin knows his college, does his college
and pro stuff. You know, may years ago at a
volume party. If I recall you and you're it is correct,
and it's great to seeing you again. I'd love to
have you on again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 9 (34:43):
No appreciate you having me on, Colin, And I'm honing
to be your teammate brother.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
All Right, that's great stuff, some good points.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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