September 15, 2020 • 35 mins
-The Steelers are like Mike Tyson, they beat up on lesser opponents
-Bruce Arians should choose his words better when he criticizes Tom Brady
-The Cowboys big contracts are already causing issues
-The Herd Hierarchy, Colin's top ten teams in the NFL
-Clippers will win game 7
Guest: Peter King, NBC Sports
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Episode Transcript
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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
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and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
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the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox
Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a packed Tuesday,
(00:26):
live in Los Angeles. This is the Herd. Wherever you
may be and however you may be listening. We're on
Fox Sports Radio and right here on f S one
one hour from now, our first in season heard hierarchy
one through ten ten best teams in the NFL. I
(00:47):
think you know who I have number one. I don't
think you know who I have three through ten, and
Joy Taylor is joining me two games last night. Steelers
back your Pittsburgh Girl. Steelers back nice win in I
liked it. I liked it from Ben. He looks he
looked like Ben Roethlisberger. He did which Shaggy I can
(01:09):
go a lot different way. All right, let me start
with this. We know what the Steelers are the last
decade they've been the Mike Tyson of the NFL. Man.
They beat up on bad teams, they roll average teams.
Mike Tyson did that. If you were average past your prime,
a b fighter man, you look at Tyson, you're like
(01:32):
he'd destroyed the greatest fighters of all time. But when
you put Lennox Lewis in the ring with him, he
was outclassed. When you put Evander Holyfield two times in
the ring with him, a great technical fighter, a guy
with a chin, Mike Tyson looked lost. That's what the
Steelers are. We knew the Steelers. We're gonna beat a
(01:52):
new head coach. Do you understand the last decade the
Pittsburgh Steelers against the Browns and Bengals bad organizations are
thirty three, six and one. But what are they against
the Ravens and the Patriots in the last decade ten
and eighteen? And those are the teams you gotta beat
to get to the land where the Steelers feel is
(02:16):
theirs super Bowls. That's what Pittsburgh is about. This is
not the New York Mets, This is not the Jags. Know,
this is not you know the Milwaukee Bucks. These are
the Pittsburg Steelers. This is you know, looking for the
fifth ring, you know, one for the thumb. This is
this is the Pittsburgh Steelers, right even last year they
were eight and two on their third string quarterback, a
(02:38):
guy named Duck. And when you're the Steelers and you
have great ownership and a great GM and a Hall
of Fame quarterback, and they always have great weapon and
they always have great wide receivers and a good offensive
line and linebackers that can run over the field. But
you have continuity, you're gonna beat half the teams on
your schedule just because you're not a dumpster fire, and
(02:59):
they never are. Last night was classic Pittsburgh. WHOA. I
think they're a super Bowl team. They dominated, Yeah, because
they're buttoned up in terms of Organizationally, they draft well,
they develop players, they do a great job. But then
(03:19):
they run into those elite teams and those elite quarterbacks,
and you do get in twenty twenty. The AFC runs
through Andy Reid Hall of Famer, Patrick Mahomes gonna be
a Hall of Famer, Lamar Jackson world class. John Harbaugh
probably gets into the Hall of Fame. The Giants are
not what you got to get through. The New York Giants,
(03:40):
new head coach, new coordinator, new system, second year quarterback
in Daniel Jones. Pittsburgh has been beaten up on that
for the last decade. That's not the issue. The Giants
are a lot closer to the Browns and the Bengals
than they are to the Ravens and the Chiefs. Today,
the Giants are a mess. I know what I get
from Pitts when they faced teams like that. I mean again,
(04:03):
just having their front office and their ownership in Big
Ben and continuity, which they almost always have. That's gonna
a solid head coach and a solid quarterback. You know
you're gonna win a bunch of games in the NFL
just because you've got your you know what together. But
but the Steelers nine and seven and out in the
first round, ten and six, second in the division, wild
(04:23):
car out in the first round. That's not what the
Steelers are about. Their standards are much much higher. Their
standards are the Ravens standards, and you know, the Packers
standards and the Patriot standards. That's their standards here. And
last night, you know it. Last night, my two takeaways
(04:45):
The New York Giants stink and number two. It's good
to have been big Ben back. It's good to have
big Ben back. I'm happy to see Big Ben. Fan
of Duck Hodges, but good to have Big Ben back
and all those received and the Steelers and the winning.
It's Monday night. But Mike Tomlin, he knows the truth
(05:06):
about this season, and he knows the truth about last night.
I thought they showed them metal um. I thought that
they were physically tough, metally tough. But we we gotta
we gotta do some things better. And you know, we
knew we weren't going to be perfect tonight. We talked
about that openly last night in preparation for this opportunity.
(05:26):
But but there's more meat on the bone, and I appreciate,
appreciate their efforts. We just got to search for a
higher sealing in terms of quality of play. At least
the coach knows. That's the good news. He knows what
he saw, he knows what they have to be to
get back to a Steeler level, not beating a lousy
Giants team, Browns and Bengals and all that NFL nonsense. Okay,
(05:50):
so uh, nobody likes criticism. Let's be honest about it.
I don't like it. You don't like it, even constructive
criticism from people we respect. We don't sleep well that
night Tom Brady got ripped by his coach. The word
was a little loose for my taste, Bruce Arians, criticizing
(06:11):
Tom Brady. The wording at the end of this is
not real precise. Here we go, Yeah, I mean, he
looked like Tom Brady in practice all the time, so
it's kind of unusual to see that in the ballgame
because they didn't do the things that we didn't get
ready for. Everything they did, we were we thought we
were ready for. He knew he didn't play very well,
(06:31):
and it's not what he expects from himself, nor do
we expect. So I want to anticipate him to have
a little more grit and a little more determination this week.
Excuse me, tom Brady wasn't determined enough. I don't know
if your television set's been working for twenty years. Tom's
got issues. He's not the greatest athlete. But the determination thing,
(06:57):
I'm gonna go with. Tom's good on that secret practices
helicopters hovering at high schools in Tampa. You gotta be
careful here, Bruce Arians, is loose. His lips are loose,
his teams are loose. Last year led the NFL and
penalties the first week nine penalties punt block. That's Tampa.
(07:17):
That's Bruce Arians. By the way, Arians admitted after looking
at the film, oh wait, that first interception that was
on Mike Evans, that was not on Tom Brady. It's
not a small thing. Arians reminds me a little bit
of Brett Farve, talented gun slinger. Details. Yeah, kind of
(07:40):
a go of a gut guy. I like Arians. I
liked Farve, but you're dealing with Tom Brady, the greatest
at his position ever. And Brady is the opposite of Farv.
He is the opposite of Arians. He is absurdly buttoned up,
absurdly detailed, iculously committed, beyond obsessed. I'd be careful about
(08:06):
questioning the determination thing. This was always my concern in
Tampa that you had this almost Mit Harvard level commitment
and attention to detail. You just work, you sleep at
the facility, and in Tampa, that's not what they are.
(08:28):
It's loose, it's fun, it's tequila at five thirty. I'm
not even talking directly to Arians. It's just the organization.
I used to cover it. It's not aspirational, it's not
buttoned up. Hey there's always tomorrow. We lost a playoff game.
Oh wait, they don't get to the playoffs. Longest NFC
drought in the playoffs, longer than Detroit. Jimmy Johnson said
(08:50):
this yesterday. The greater the quarterback, the more careful you
have to be with the public criticism. Anytime you call
out one of your players publicly, especially a quarterback with
their egos, you're gonna call some tension there. And I
think it's tension that you don't really need. But you know,
(09:11):
sometimes all of us, you know, the reporters asking questions,
you know, right off the cuff, you want to give
them the right answer. A lot of times you shouldn't
give them the right answer. Belichick's got it best, you know,
owned a Cincinnati you know, and so yeah, I don't
think it's good to publicly criticize your quarterback. Listen. Arians
(09:33):
basically came out and said, listen, they didn't show us
anything we didn't expect. Translation, I got it right, he didn't.
My game plan was great, he wasn't. It's gotta be careful. Listen.
The other thing is people who are driven and goal
oriented and tough on themselves. Tom knows his mistakes. The
people you have to get after are the ones like
(09:55):
Baker Mayfield who play average football and think they're great
and have no humility. Joe Burrow came out this weekend
played darn well. He's like, I was bad. I don't
have to worry about Joe Burrow. I don't have to
worry about Brady. I don't have to worry about Russell Wilson.
I don't have to worry about Lamar Jackson. Those guys
are great and there there b plus efforts. They're like
(10:15):
I was lousy. You got worry about the people who
play average and think they're great. Brady knows he wasn't ideal.
Brady knows of his mistakes. He's buttoned up Tampa historically not.
I'd just be careful what I say here. It's a
long season. Be sure to catch live editions of The
(10:36):
Herd weekdays and noon Easter ninety Empacific. Vanderash Good, linebacker
for the Cowboys, surgery collar bone out now for probably
six to eight weeks. Jarwin the tight end out for
the season. Okay, this is what happened to the La Rams.
When you got seven or eight massive contracts, you have
(10:58):
less depth and one or two injuries and the season
goes downhill. Last year, the Rams were gonna be good, right,
they just got to the Super Bowl. Oh, then they
have a center, and then then they lose a guy
on free agency, and then they have a couple injuries,
and all of a sudden, you're like, Rams can't protect
Golf and Todd Gurley. Okay, when you have a top
(11:21):
heavy roster, you're gonna have to steal from somewhere else.
You can't pay everybody and be deep. And the Steelers
and the Patriots have always been very good at this.
The Packers too that they don't pay a lot of people,
and we complain they don't pay enough people. But they've
got a little more depth, and they can lose one
player and be okay. In Green Band, they can lose.
(11:42):
Last year, the Steelers lost a quarterback and then a
second and they were still eight and eight. And New
England loses people and it's next man up. The problem
is who's your man? And so the Rams are top heavy.
They paid Gurley too much too early. They paid Brandon
Cooks too much. They Jalen Ramsey. I like him, but
they're paying him about thirty percent more than the market.
(12:03):
Bears and the Rams. Now they've been healthy so far,
but we saw it last year. Philadelphia Eagles. This weekend
they pay WinCE a Ton Fletcher talks Fletcher Cox, Ton Lane,
Johnson a Ton, Brandon Brooks a Ton, Alshon, Jeffrey a Ton,
oh Lane's hurt, their disintegrate against Washington. This is what
(12:24):
happens in this league. That's why I always say I'm
not against players getting paid pay infrequently. You pay a
handful of stars big money, and then you don't, and
then you make tough decisions. By the way, Kansas City
is becoming this a little bit, Chris Jones a lot, Mahomes,
I get it a lot, and then Sammy Watkins a lot.
(12:48):
You better restructure that, and Travis Kelsey a lot, and
all of a sudden, you look up one day and
you're like, you're a Honey Badger injury away or a
Mitchell Schwartz injury away from You can't protect Mahomes. You're
playing from behind. He's throwing too much. So this is
my knock on Dallas. Dallas, the Rams and The Eagles
have a lot of big paychecks and a lot of stars,
(13:10):
and it's great when they're healthy. But Dallas has now
one more injury away, Tyron Smith left tackle. He's an
older he's great, but he's not built to play sixteen
games anymore. So now they've lost Gerald McCoy, defensive tackle
out for the year, tight end out for the year,
center gone, retired, Tyron Smith, keep your fingers crossed, vander
(13:34):
esh out for two months. They are a Tyron Smith
injury at left tackle from being in some real chaos
in Dallas. So this is this is everybody's like just paidak.
It's like, this is why the franchise tag was built, Like,
you better get that quarterback contract right, You better get
it right. In as much as I like Kansas City,
(13:56):
you know Chris Jones goes down. Now, you don't have
the pass rush. Now Patrick Mahomes is in shootouts. So
you know, I'm not anti paying players. I'm not. I
am for paying your hit makers and your stars. But
this is this is fairly predictable with Dallas. They're one
more injury away from oh oh oh, the season's unraveling.
(14:18):
One more herd. The herd streams twenty four hours a day,
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hierarchy the top ten of NFL teams according to College
number ten, forty Nineers, and there are areas of concern.
(14:39):
They struggle with mobile quarterbacks. They struggle with Kyler Murray.
They struggled with Russell Wilson, they struggled with Lamar Jackson.
The league's getting increasingly mobile. Also, wide receiver has been
a bit of a problem for them. Emmanuel Sanders gone
Only forty one of the team's two hundred and sixty
yards came their wide receiver. Sunday and Kyle Shanahan and
(15:02):
Jimmy Garoppolo are sleeping in separate bedrooms. I'm seeing a
little tension here, some fissures in that relationship. Nine Ers
at ten, Number nine Steelers. Okay, here's the good news.
That defense held sae Quon Barkley to a nothing burger
six carries fifth or six yards, fifteen carries. That was impressive,
and we knew it was We knew their defense is good.
(15:24):
And they got a very easy schedule, second easiest schedule.
I probably should have put them at nine and seven
or ten and six, not eight and eight. I just
didn't know what I was gonna get. I said, I
gotta watch Big Ben play. They look good. They look
Pittsburgh where they're gonna win all the games they should.
I just don't know if their next level, but I
put them at nine. Number eight. Buffalo Bills are exceptionally
(15:46):
well coached. I'm not sure there's a staff in the
NFL that knows the limitations of their players and avoids
it and the strength of their players and leans into it.
Josh Allen, they're just taking baby steps, and baby steps
finally had It's got eighteen rushing touchdowns, by the way
most last two years in the NFL. But they finally
scored twenty seven points against the Jets. They finally got
(16:07):
into the high twenties. Josh Allen looked a little more comfortable,
stilly ratic. I really do think you don't pay a
lot of attention to Buffalo. I think this is a
coaching story. I think Sean McDermott and Kyle Shanahan and
John McVay are the three best young coaches in the NFL.
Number seven Rams I like him I'll tell you, Malcolm Brown,
(16:28):
the running back, gets no press. That guy's a bull.
That guy's good. That guy delivered against Dallas. Jared Goff,
I know, I know none of you like Jared Goff.
He had five completions of twenty plus yards, tied for
the most in the NFL. And here's the thing. Goff
and McVay like each other. It works. They appreciate each other,
(16:50):
they complete each other. They like each other. It's not tense.
And I think Goff is his best quarterback with McVeigh
and I also think they're wide receiver tight end corps.
I think I think it could be second to the
Chiefs in the NFL. They got a bunch of guys
who can catch and run. In LA number six, Tampa
(17:10):
Bay's gonna be fine. New Orleans could win the Super
Bowl lighting up that a punt block, nine penalties. Mike
Evans is recovering from a hamstring injury. He had one catch,
and Leonard Furnett, who's going to become their number one back.
Leonard Furnett is just learning the system. Those are star
players in the NFL. By the way, they go to
Carolina this week. Carolina is not good on defense, Mark
(17:34):
my words, they us go a lot of points this
weekend going up against that Saints defense is just no
day at the beach. And don't overreact. Tampa's offense will
be fine. Number five Packers. Now, first of all, I
don't think Minnesota is as good defensively as they have
in the last three years. They lost too many players,
Griffin on the edge, they got injuries up front. Aaron
(17:54):
Rodgers owns this team. I will say this. Davante Adams
and DeAndre Hopk those maybe the two best receivers in
the NFL. I'm not sure you can guard him. It
wasn't that Davante Adams had a bunch of catches. He
was wide open. Aaron looked healthy, he looked happy. They're
on a six game winning streak in Week one. But listen,
there's I don't think Minnesota is very good. That's why
(18:15):
I don't have the Packers in my kind of Elite four.
But they were impressive. They own Week one. They now
currently own the Vikings, and that was nice. Number four
Pete Carroll finally said, you know, Russ, I'm gonna let
you go. That's funny. Russell Wilson maybe had one of
the greatest games I've ever seen. The quarterback play highest third,
highest single game completion percentage in NFL history, and Atlanta's
(18:37):
no slouch. Russell Wilson, for the record, leads all. This
is funny. He leads all quarterbacks in the NFL with
one hundred and seven touchdown passes last three years. No
other quarterback has a hundred. This is Russell's team. Let
him go. Give it to him, and I will say
they played with Jamal Adams, Bobby Wagner. They played with
(18:58):
a lot of swagger on defense. It's a lot of toughness.
They were running around, hitting people. They established that physicality
very early on the road. Seattle really impressed me defensively.
Number three Saints. They weren't perfect. I mean Michael Thomas
was held to three catches. This is a early good
football team. And they added two smart veterans Malcolm Jenkins
(19:19):
Emmanuel Sanders. You know, I feel about the Saints kind
of like I felt the last four or five years.
Not a lot of room for air. They don't get
a lot of cheap touchdowns. You don't get any Dhop touchdowns,
you don't get any Mike Evans touchdowns. They don't commit penalties.
They're very efficient, they're great at home. I just don't
feel with Drew Brees over the top at his age,
(19:39):
you get a lot of free touchdowns, a lot of
playmaking ability. But they're well coached, well oiled, well run,
really smart and they just and you can tell from
the salary cap next couple of years, they've gone all
in on this team. They are hyper focused on this year.
And when you do, you have Drew Brees, who's gonna
be a broadcaster. You know in six months, that's what
you do. Number two Kansas City currently on a ten
(20:01):
game winning streak. That's the including the playoffs last year,
longest in the NFL. Now they're a little top heavy.
They pay a handful of guys a ton of money.
I worry about depth in certain positions. Right tackle Mitchell
Schwartz is really, really important. He's one of their stars.
They're not paying a ton. Two they're good. And what
I liked about Week one, Mahomes has always been a
(20:21):
gun slinger. Now he looks efficient. I mean, now he's
met he's audibling out of stuff at the line of scrimmage.
So now you get the Brett Brett Farve never graduated
to a lot of that stuff like Mahomes. Now we're
in year three. He was like, Yeah, I'm gonna go
from gun slinger Howitzer, I'm gonna go to surgical. Oh
that's not good for everybody else. Number one Baltimore. I
(20:42):
picked him to win the Super Bowl. They're a machine. Listen,
you gotta understand Cleveland's got talent. They beat him by
thirty two points. Cleveland's not going to lose a game
the rest of this year by thirty two points. That
is eight. That is unbelievable. I just don't see the flaws.
I don't. I don't see him. I don't Last year,
their pass rush was inconsistent. It doesn't appear to be
(21:04):
I this is in a salary cap era. This is
about as good a roster. And for the record, all
you Lamar Jackson critics, he's now twenty and three. Let's
move past the I don't know if it's gonna work.
It's working well. He's lost a couple of playoff games.
What evs Peyton Manny lost a lot of them for
(21:26):
a lot of years, and so did John Elway. Baltimore,
to me, is the team to beat in this league.
What's up everybody? John middlecop Three and Out Podcast. That's me.
That's the show. Go subscribe right now. Do you like
Colin Coward's show, You'll like mine. I talk football, football
and more football. Coming up this week, we died deep
into the Monday night football doubleheader. Fangio blown him with
(21:48):
the timeouts, Ben Rotheburger Back, and every big story from Sunday.
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and Out Podcast. Go subscribe. All right, we gotta get
Peter King on NBC Sports in America. I want his
thoughts on Pittsburgh because I know Pittsburgh always beats bad teams.
Are they next level? What did Peter kingsey NBC Sports
(22:09):
dot Com pretime National Sportswriter of the Year. All right,
you you tell me your takeaway on Pittsburgh. We know
they beat up on average. I mean they're They're thirty
three and six and one against the Browns and Bengals
last decade. Did you see next level stuff last night? Though? Well,
two observations. I think the Giants are a little better
(22:31):
than we thought they were in Daniel Jones is still
a very young quarterback, you know, as witnessed by his
the nineteenth play on that drive, which was, you know,
a fatal mistake. But I do think looking at the
Steelers now, you know, I think I think coming into
this year, if you would have said who are the
(22:53):
Steelers biggest weapons, you know, I probably would have said
Roethlisberger Juju, Yeah, then t J. Watt and most likely
Cam Hayward. And now I think you got to put
Doug up, Bud Dupree right in that mix. I thought
he was tremendous last night. I thought he was the
(23:13):
difference in the game. And I'll tell you what, the
Steelers are going to be a hard team to face
defensively all year, no matter whether Ben lasts. I mean
Ben's missed twenty two games in the last five years,
so in he's thirty eight years old. I don't know
if he'll last, But if he doesn't, it won't matter
(23:34):
because to it it'll matter. But I'm talking about when
your offense faces their defense, that they are one of
the three or four toughest defenses front to back in
the league. You know, it's funny, Peter, nobody ever talks
about player development. Pittsburgh really develops their players about year
three and four, A lot of their guys. They really
do an amazing job on player development. So you know,
(23:58):
we always have a team in this league and that
we're good and we think they're gonna be great and
they're just not and then and then it happens every year.
But if you and I mentioned that team, we just
get crushed. But I'm gonna throw a couple of things
up about the forty nine Ers that could be troubling.
We now have a quarterback coach where I think the
coach has lost a little confidence in the quarterback. Mobile
(24:22):
quarterbacks Kyler Murray multiple times, Russell Wilson Lamar give this
defensive front troubles and they just they're just wildly inconsistent
wide receiver. I'm not saying the Niners aren't good, but
I am seeing some holes here that if I was
a Niner fan, I would be like, like, there's some
stuff here that's not right. Is that fair? I think so.
(24:45):
The loss of Deebo Samuel for three games are more Now.
I think Matt Mayoko out in San Francisco reported there
might be more of an issue with his foot than
they previously thought. His game is speed. If he's got
a foot problem, that's a big problem. But the loss
of Deebo Samuel I think really hurt him against the
(25:06):
Cardinals on Sunday. You can beat the Jets without Deebo Samuel,
you might, you probably can beat the Giants without Deebo Samuel,
but you know you're not gonna go far without his
impact and the impact of other wide receivers that you know,
they have just been totally snake bit at the receiver position,
(25:29):
you know, mostly because of injuries that would bother me.
And again, look, I like Garoppolo, but I've got to
see it for a longer period of time out of Garoppolo,
and I just I remember the postseason too well. So
he has to prove, even with a beaten up receiver core,
(25:52):
that he's good enough to win games. You know, it's funny,
I said. My issues with Tom Brady weren't necessarily his age.
My issue were New England is about the most detail oriented,
aspirational organization I've seen in sports for two decades. Tampa
has a history of being loose. Bruce Arians is loose. Sunday,
(26:14):
they got nine penalties a block punt and I wonder
over and Bruce Arians called Tom out right away, and
I'm like, I'd be careful about that. I don't worry
about Tom's determination and work ethic, anything about Tampa Week one,
including arians comments. Anything worry a little bit about what
you saw? Well, you know I watched almost every snap
(26:35):
of the games, so yeah, there were some things I
worry about. The pick six, you know that I thought
by generous Jenkins that you know, I thought was a
really bad decision by Brady and a late decision by Brady,
So that would bother me. But again, I keep coming
back to this. You know, there's a good chance that
(27:00):
the Bucks had to play the best team in the
NFC on the road in Week one, the team in
the NFC with the most continuity by far in Week one,
and what's the team that's had monumental changes, you know,
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tom Brady. You know I
(27:21):
wrote this yesterday. Do you realized that yesterday was the
one month anniversary of Tom Brady getting in a huddle
with his teammates in Tampa for the first time. So
you know that Drew Brees has been getting in a
huddle with his teammates for fifteen years. So and again
I'm that's a little bit of a you know, of
(27:44):
a sort of a false comparison. But I'm just simply
saying Tom Brady and his teammates are new Drew Brees
and his teammates, you know, are an old shoe. So
it was a bad matchup for the first week of
the season for the Bucks, and now they have a
(28:05):
favorable schedule for the next four weeks. So we'll see
what happens. You know, It's interesting you generally in the NFL,
you get a couple of years and by year three,
if something's not cooking, coach, quarterback, you're in trouble. So
Adam Gase the Jets look disorganized. If I see about
four more of those, he's not getting past Thanksgiving. And
Baker Mayfield fourth coach, same mistakes. Let's talk Thursday. This
(28:29):
sounds ridiculous, but Joy and I talked about this. I've
seen the Steelers and I've seen the Ravens. If Joe
Burrow beats Baker, there's gonna be some people in Cleveland, Peter,
They're bailing on Baker. They don't want to be part
of it. I like, I think it's a bigger game
than we just think. Oh, it's just a noted football game.
Joe Burrow looked pretty good to me. I think this
(28:49):
Baker think could unravel here if they don't start posting
some WS am I nuts on it. No, I think
you're right. I mean, I'm not saying that after the
second week publicly they're going to throw Baker in the garbage,
but I think privately, you know, if they don't beat
the Bengals, I'd like to be able to sit here
(29:11):
and say, man, that's a dangerous Cincinnati team coming in,
but it isn't it. It's an okay team. It's it's okay,
but you know, it's probably a five and eleven team.
So you can't convince me that if you're the Cleveland
Browns who lost the opener a year ago by thirty
(29:31):
when everybody in America loved him, they lose the opener
by thirty this year, people are saying, ah, they're a
sneaky team. They they they might win nine or ten,
you know, and then they go and they lose by
thirty two in the opener this year. I'm totally absolutely
down on the Browns, and I feel bad. Kevin Stefanski
(29:55):
deserves a legitimate chance, but I've seen in this movie
too many times offseason optimism in Cleveland and then they stink, Yeah,
wake me up when they're halfway decent, because they are
not right now. You know. I said this yesterday on
the show. I said, happiness is about expectations, and if
(30:18):
you're mad with what you saw with the Cowboys, that's
kind of on you. I think they have a pretty
good coach and a pretty good quarterback, and I thought
it was a pretty good performance. But I'll tell you
what they are much like the Rams last year and
a little bit of Philadelphia. They're top heavy on contracts, translation,
not a ton of depth. They've lost Gerald McCoy the
(30:38):
tight end now, Vander esh is out for two months, Peter.
They're a Tyron Smith pulled hamstring away from having some
chaos because Travis Frederick's gone now. And I look at
the Cowboys and I'm like, if you're getting upset with this,
this is kind of what I've seen the last twelve
fifteen times they've played good team like this is what
(31:01):
they are, right. I think they're very lucky that they're
similar chaos right now in Philadelphia. Um And and look,
you know, let's let's not make too much out of
Washington winning that first game of the season over Philadelphia.
But you know, Colin, you watch that game and you'd
(31:22):
be hard pressed to say that Philadelphia is better than Washington.
It's it's hard for me to believe that, you know,
Philadelphia's problems or that that was just a flukey loss. Right.
They have major problems on the offensive line, both in
chemistry and and and injuries. That's one thing. And then
you know, I mean, I just look at their receiver core,
(31:48):
their wide receiver corps, and they have to get mature
and a lot better fast. Um. And the last thing
I would say about Philly I think is that a
little worried about Carson Wentz. Not a lot worried, but
that was not an encouraging day for him. But to
get back to Dallas, I think the Cowboys will be okay.
(32:10):
I'd kind of like to have my you know, Cowboys
is the top seed in the NFC back, which I
had because I thought the division was going to be
really weak, And honestly, I don't want to have it
back because I feel like I feel like Dallas is
gonna stink. I don't think so. I still think they've
(32:32):
got a very good chance to win their division. But
Washington I thought was really impressive on Sunday, and impressive
enough to win nine and to be in the Pennant
race in December. I don't know, but Washington was one
of the two or three teams I saw in Week
one that was more impressive than I thought they'd be.
(32:52):
Peter King, NBC Sports Great Senior, Peter, it was a
very fun Week one, and Thursday has a little urgency
for it. If you're Baker in the Brow, thanks man,
appreciate it. Thank you, Colin. Have a great day. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and
non Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS
one and the iHeart Radio app. By the way, Clippers
(33:14):
are gonna win Game seventh tonight over Denver. You do
get that nine of the last twelve NBA champs have
faced a Game seven at some point in the playoffs.
This is what it's like. This is not a great team,
this is not a dynasty. The Clippers weren't the number
one seed. This is Kawhi's history. Go back to last
year Game seven against the Sixers. Remember that jumper from
(33:36):
the corner that iconic shot. If that doesn't go in,
If this shot doesn't go in, the game goes to overtime,
the Raptors season could be over. They needed this bounce
to win the series, and then Kawhi gets to the
finals against Golden State. STEP's hurt, Clay's hurt, Kevin Durant's hurt,
the team, doctors hurt, Steve, everybody was hurt. And that
(33:59):
went six games. Kawai's legacy is this spot. He's been
in this spot a lot. It's never been easy for Kawai,
by the way, first round against Dallas, they went six
games against Dallas. Porzingis was out and Luca had a
bum ankle. This is not people you get spoiled by,
(34:20):
like Miami Heat in a twenty five game winning streak
or whatever it was. You get spoiled by MJ You
get spoiled by dynasties, you get spoiled by Kevin Durant.
This is what the playoffs look like for good teams.
Boston's a good team. Clippers are a good team, but
their chemistry is not great. They just started playing together.
I said I thought they would I thought it would
(34:42):
be easier than this. But they're not a great team.
They weren't even number one seed in the West. They
weren't the number one seed in the West. Doc Rivers says,
Game seven, go out, play hoops. The rest of its nonsense.
Let's go in. I just know staches are very overrated,
and they last about three minutes, and you come running
(35:03):
out and you're fired up, and three minutes later you
got to focus on playing basketball. So there's no like
secret speech. You know. That's where you know the movies
listen the playoffs, if you take out dynasties have always
been just a battle of attrition, a battle of survival,
(35:24):
a battle of health. And here we go Game seven.
Denver's really talented, really young, and I'll take the Clippers tonight.
For the record, Fox bet, I think they're favored by seven.
It's telling you what the smart guys think. Clippers will win.
Bel
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 is
the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox
Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a packed Tuesday,
(00:26):
live in Los Angeles. This is the Herd. Wherever you
may be and however you may be listening. We're on
Fox Sports Radio and right here on f S one
one hour from now, our first in season heard hierarchy
one through ten ten best teams in the NFL. I
(00:47):
think you know who I have number one. I don't
think you know who I have three through ten, and
Joy Taylor is joining me two games last night. Steelers
back your Pittsburgh Girl. Steelers back nice win in I
liked it. I liked it from Ben. He looks he
looked like Ben Roethlisberger. He did which Shaggy I can
(01:09):
go a lot different way. All right, let me start
with this. We know what the Steelers are the last
decade they've been the Mike Tyson of the NFL. Man.
They beat up on bad teams, they roll average teams.
Mike Tyson did that. If you were average past your prime,
a b fighter man, you look at Tyson, you're like
(01:32):
he'd destroyed the greatest fighters of all time. But when
you put Lennox Lewis in the ring with him, he
was outclassed. When you put Evander Holyfield two times in
the ring with him, a great technical fighter, a guy
with a chin, Mike Tyson looked lost. That's what the
Steelers are. We knew the Steelers. We're gonna beat a
(01:52):
new head coach. Do you understand the last decade the
Pittsburgh Steelers against the Browns and Bengals bad organizations are
thirty three, six and one. But what are they against
the Ravens and the Patriots in the last decade ten
and eighteen? And those are the teams you gotta beat
to get to the land where the Steelers feel is
(02:16):
theirs super Bowls. That's what Pittsburgh is about. This is
not the New York Mets, This is not the Jags. Know,
this is not you know the Milwaukee Bucks. These are
the Pittsburg Steelers. This is you know, looking for the
fifth ring, you know, one for the thumb. This is
this is the Pittsburgh Steelers, right even last year they
were eight and two on their third string quarterback, a
(02:38):
guy named Duck. And when you're the Steelers and you
have great ownership and a great GM and a Hall
of Fame quarterback, and they always have great weapon and
they always have great wide receivers and a good offensive
line and linebackers that can run over the field. But
you have continuity, you're gonna beat half the teams on
your schedule just because you're not a dumpster fire, and
(02:59):
they never are. Last night was classic Pittsburgh. WHOA. I
think they're a super Bowl team. They dominated, Yeah, because
they're buttoned up in terms of Organizationally, they draft well,
they develop players, they do a great job. But then
(03:19):
they run into those elite teams and those elite quarterbacks,
and you do get in twenty twenty. The AFC runs
through Andy Reid Hall of Famer, Patrick Mahomes gonna be
a Hall of Famer, Lamar Jackson world class. John Harbaugh
probably gets into the Hall of Fame. The Giants are
not what you got to get through. The New York Giants,
(03:40):
new head coach, new coordinator, new system, second year quarterback
in Daniel Jones. Pittsburgh has been beaten up on that
for the last decade. That's not the issue. The Giants
are a lot closer to the Browns and the Bengals
than they are to the Ravens and the Chiefs. Today,
the Giants are a mess. I know what I get
from Pitts when they faced teams like that. I mean again,
(04:03):
just having their front office and their ownership in Big
Ben and continuity, which they almost always have. That's gonna
a solid head coach and a solid quarterback. You know
you're gonna win a bunch of games in the NFL
just because you've got your you know what together. But
but the Steelers nine and seven and out in the
first round, ten and six, second in the division, wild
(04:23):
car out in the first round. That's not what the
Steelers are about. Their standards are much much higher. Their
standards are the Ravens standards, and you know, the Packers
standards and the Patriot standards. That's their standards here. And
last night, you know it. Last night, my two takeaways
(04:45):
The New York Giants stink and number two. It's good
to have been big Ben back. It's good to have
big Ben back. I'm happy to see Big Ben. Fan
of Duck Hodges, but good to have Big Ben back
and all those received and the Steelers and the winning.
It's Monday night. But Mike Tomlin, he knows the truth
(05:06):
about this season, and he knows the truth about last night.
I thought they showed them metal um. I thought that
they were physically tough, metally tough. But we we gotta
we gotta do some things better. And you know, we
knew we weren't going to be perfect tonight. We talked
about that openly last night in preparation for this opportunity.
(05:26):
But but there's more meat on the bone, and I appreciate,
appreciate their efforts. We just got to search for a
higher sealing in terms of quality of play. At least
the coach knows. That's the good news. He knows what
he saw, he knows what they have to be to
get back to a Steeler level, not beating a lousy
Giants team, Browns and Bengals and all that NFL nonsense. Okay,
(05:50):
so uh, nobody likes criticism. Let's be honest about it.
I don't like it. You don't like it, even constructive
criticism from people we respect. We don't sleep well that
night Tom Brady got ripped by his coach. The word
was a little loose for my taste, Bruce Arians, criticizing
(06:11):
Tom Brady. The wording at the end of this is
not real precise. Here we go, Yeah, I mean, he
looked like Tom Brady in practice all the time, so
it's kind of unusual to see that in the ballgame
because they didn't do the things that we didn't get
ready for. Everything they did, we were we thought we
were ready for. He knew he didn't play very well,
(06:31):
and it's not what he expects from himself, nor do
we expect. So I want to anticipate him to have
a little more grit and a little more determination this week.
Excuse me, tom Brady wasn't determined enough. I don't know
if your television set's been working for twenty years. Tom's
got issues. He's not the greatest athlete. But the determination thing,
(06:57):
I'm gonna go with. Tom's good on that secret practices
helicopters hovering at high schools in Tampa. You gotta be
careful here, Bruce Arians, is loose. His lips are loose,
his teams are loose. Last year led the NFL and
penalties the first week nine penalties punt block. That's Tampa.
(07:17):
That's Bruce Arians. By the way, Arians admitted after looking
at the film, oh wait, that first interception that was
on Mike Evans, that was not on Tom Brady. It's
not a small thing. Arians reminds me a little bit
of Brett Farve, talented gun slinger. Details. Yeah, kind of
(07:40):
a go of a gut guy. I like Arians. I
liked Farve, but you're dealing with Tom Brady, the greatest
at his position ever. And Brady is the opposite of Farv.
He is the opposite of Arians. He is absurdly buttoned up,
absurdly detailed, iculously committed, beyond obsessed. I'd be careful about
(08:06):
questioning the determination thing. This was always my concern in
Tampa that you had this almost Mit Harvard level commitment
and attention to detail. You just work, you sleep at
the facility, and in Tampa, that's not what they are.
(08:28):
It's loose, it's fun, it's tequila at five thirty. I'm
not even talking directly to Arians. It's just the organization.
I used to cover it. It's not aspirational, it's not
buttoned up. Hey there's always tomorrow. We lost a playoff game.
Oh wait, they don't get to the playoffs. Longest NFC
drought in the playoffs, longer than Detroit. Jimmy Johnson said
(08:50):
this yesterday. The greater the quarterback, the more careful you
have to be with the public criticism. Anytime you call
out one of your players publicly, especially a quarterback with
their egos, you're gonna call some tension there. And I
think it's tension that you don't really need. But you know,
(09:11):
sometimes all of us, you know, the reporters asking questions,
you know, right off the cuff, you want to give
them the right answer. A lot of times you shouldn't
give them the right answer. Belichick's got it best, you know,
owned a Cincinnati you know, and so yeah, I don't
think it's good to publicly criticize your quarterback. Listen. Arians
(09:33):
basically came out and said, listen, they didn't show us
anything we didn't expect. Translation, I got it right, he didn't.
My game plan was great, he wasn't. It's gotta be careful. Listen.
The other thing is people who are driven and goal
oriented and tough on themselves. Tom knows his mistakes. The
people you have to get after are the ones like
(09:55):
Baker Mayfield who play average football and think they're great
and have no humility. Joe Burrow came out this weekend
played darn well. He's like, I was bad. I don't
have to worry about Joe Burrow. I don't have to
worry about Brady. I don't have to worry about Russell Wilson.
I don't have to worry about Lamar Jackson. Those guys
are great and there there b plus efforts. They're like
(10:15):
I was lousy. You got worry about the people who
play average and think they're great. Brady knows he wasn't ideal.
Brady knows of his mistakes. He's buttoned up Tampa historically not.
I'd just be careful what I say here. It's a
long season. Be sure to catch live editions of The
(10:36):
Herd weekdays and noon Easter ninety Empacific. Vanderash Good, linebacker
for the Cowboys, surgery collar bone out now for probably
six to eight weeks. Jarwin the tight end out for
the season. Okay, this is what happened to the La Rams.
When you got seven or eight massive contracts, you have
(10:58):
less depth and one or two injuries and the season
goes downhill. Last year, the Rams were gonna be good, right,
they just got to the Super Bowl. Oh, then they
have a center, and then then they lose a guy
on free agency, and then they have a couple injuries,
and all of a sudden, you're like, Rams can't protect
Golf and Todd Gurley. Okay, when you have a top
(11:21):
heavy roster, you're gonna have to steal from somewhere else.
You can't pay everybody and be deep. And the Steelers
and the Patriots have always been very good at this.
The Packers too that they don't pay a lot of people,
and we complain they don't pay enough people. But they've
got a little more depth, and they can lose one
player and be okay. In Green Band, they can lose.
(11:42):
Last year, the Steelers lost a quarterback and then a
second and they were still eight and eight. And New
England loses people and it's next man up. The problem
is who's your man? And so the Rams are top heavy.
They paid Gurley too much too early. They paid Brandon
Cooks too much. They Jalen Ramsey. I like him, but
they're paying him about thirty percent more than the market.
(12:03):
Bears and the Rams. Now they've been healthy so far,
but we saw it last year. Philadelphia Eagles. This weekend
they pay WinCE a Ton Fletcher talks Fletcher Cox, Ton Lane,
Johnson a Ton, Brandon Brooks a Ton, Alshon, Jeffrey a Ton,
oh Lane's hurt, their disintegrate against Washington. This is what
(12:24):
happens in this league. That's why I always say I'm
not against players getting paid pay infrequently. You pay a
handful of stars big money, and then you don't, and
then you make tough decisions. By the way, Kansas City
is becoming this a little bit, Chris Jones a lot, Mahomes,
I get it a lot, and then Sammy Watkins a lot.
(12:48):
You better restructure that, and Travis Kelsey a lot, and
all of a sudden, you look up one day and
you're like, you're a Honey Badger injury away or a
Mitchell Schwartz injury away from You can't protect Mahomes. You're
playing from behind. He's throwing too much. So this is
my knock on Dallas. Dallas, the Rams and The Eagles
have a lot of big paychecks and a lot of stars,
(13:10):
and it's great when they're healthy. But Dallas has now
one more injury away, Tyron Smith left tackle. He's an
older he's great, but he's not built to play sixteen
games anymore. So now they've lost Gerald McCoy, defensive tackle
out for the year, tight end out for the year,
center gone, retired, Tyron Smith, keep your fingers crossed, vander
(13:34):
esh out for two months. They are a Tyron Smith
injury at left tackle from being in some real chaos
in Dallas. So this is this is everybody's like just paidak.
It's like, this is why the franchise tag was built, Like,
you better get that quarterback contract right, You better get
it right. In as much as I like Kansas City,
(13:56):
you know Chris Jones goes down. Now, you don't have
the pass rush. Now Patrick Mahomes is in shootouts. So
you know, I'm not anti paying players. I'm not. I
am for paying your hit makers and your stars. But
this is this is fairly predictable with Dallas. They're one
more injury away from oh oh oh, the season's unraveling.
(14:18):
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. HERD
hierarchy the top ten of NFL teams according to College
number ten, forty Nineers, and there are areas of concern.
(14:39):
They struggle with mobile quarterbacks. They struggle with Kyler Murray.
They struggled with Russell Wilson, they struggled with Lamar Jackson.
The league's getting increasingly mobile. Also, wide receiver has been
a bit of a problem for them. Emmanuel Sanders gone
Only forty one of the team's two hundred and sixty
yards came their wide receiver. Sunday and Kyle Shanahan and
(15:02):
Jimmy Garoppolo are sleeping in separate bedrooms. I'm seeing a
little tension here, some fissures in that relationship. Nine Ers
at ten, Number nine Steelers. Okay, here's the good news.
That defense held sae Quon Barkley to a nothing burger
six carries fifth or six yards, fifteen carries. That was impressive,
and we knew it was We knew their defense is good.
(15:24):
And they got a very easy schedule, second easiest schedule.
I probably should have put them at nine and seven
or ten and six, not eight and eight. I just
didn't know what I was gonna get. I said, I
gotta watch Big Ben play. They look good. They look
Pittsburgh where they're gonna win all the games they should.
I just don't know if their next level, but I
put them at nine. Number eight. Buffalo Bills are exceptionally
(15:46):
well coached. I'm not sure there's a staff in the
NFL that knows the limitations of their players and avoids
it and the strength of their players and leans into it.
Josh Allen, they're just taking baby steps, and baby steps
finally had It's got eighteen rushing touchdowns, by the way
most last two years in the NFL. But they finally
scored twenty seven points against the Jets. They finally got
(16:07):
into the high twenties. Josh Allen looked a little more comfortable,
stilly ratic. I really do think you don't pay a
lot of attention to Buffalo. I think this is a
coaching story. I think Sean McDermott and Kyle Shanahan and
John McVay are the three best young coaches in the NFL.
Number seven Rams I like him I'll tell you, Malcolm Brown,
(16:28):
the running back, gets no press. That guy's a bull.
That guy's good. That guy delivered against Dallas. Jared Goff,
I know, I know none of you like Jared Goff.
He had five completions of twenty plus yards, tied for
the most in the NFL. And here's the thing. Goff
and McVay like each other. It works. They appreciate each other,
(16:50):
they complete each other. They like each other. It's not tense.
And I think Goff is his best quarterback with McVeigh
and I also think they're wide receiver tight end corps.
I think I think it could be second to the
Chiefs in the NFL. They got a bunch of guys
who can catch and run. In LA number six, Tampa
(17:10):
Bay's gonna be fine. New Orleans could win the Super
Bowl lighting up that a punt block, nine penalties. Mike
Evans is recovering from a hamstring injury. He had one catch,
and Leonard Furnett, who's going to become their number one back.
Leonard Furnett is just learning the system. Those are star
players in the NFL. By the way, they go to
Carolina this week. Carolina is not good on defense, Mark
(17:34):
my words, they us go a lot of points this
weekend going up against that Saints defense is just no
day at the beach. And don't overreact. Tampa's offense will
be fine. Number five Packers. Now, first of all, I
don't think Minnesota is as good defensively as they have
in the last three years. They lost too many players,
Griffin on the edge, they got injuries up front. Aaron
(17:54):
Rodgers owns this team. I will say this. Davante Adams
and DeAndre Hopk those maybe the two best receivers in
the NFL. I'm not sure you can guard him. It
wasn't that Davante Adams had a bunch of catches. He
was wide open. Aaron looked healthy, he looked happy. They're
on a six game winning streak in Week one. But listen,
there's I don't think Minnesota is very good. That's why
(18:15):
I don't have the Packers in my kind of Elite four.
But they were impressive. They own Week one. They now
currently own the Vikings, and that was nice. Number four
Pete Carroll finally said, you know, Russ, I'm gonna let
you go. That's funny. Russell Wilson maybe had one of
the greatest games I've ever seen. The quarterback play highest third,
highest single game completion percentage in NFL history, and Atlanta's
(18:37):
no slouch. Russell Wilson, for the record, leads all. This
is funny. He leads all quarterbacks in the NFL with
one hundred and seven touchdown passes last three years. No
other quarterback has a hundred. This is Russell's team. Let
him go. Give it to him, and I will say
they played with Jamal Adams, Bobby Wagner. They played with
(18:58):
a lot of swagger on defense. It's a lot of toughness.
They were running around, hitting people. They established that physicality
very early on the road. Seattle really impressed me defensively.
Number three Saints. They weren't perfect. I mean Michael Thomas
was held to three catches. This is a early good
football team. And they added two smart veterans Malcolm Jenkins
(19:19):
Emmanuel Sanders. You know, I feel about the Saints kind
of like I felt the last four or five years.
Not a lot of room for air. They don't get
a lot of cheap touchdowns. You don't get any Dhop touchdowns,
you don't get any Mike Evans touchdowns. They don't commit penalties.
They're very efficient, they're great at home. I just don't
feel with Drew Brees over the top at his age,
(19:39):
you get a lot of free touchdowns, a lot of
playmaking ability. But they're well coached, well oiled, well run,
really smart and they just and you can tell from
the salary cap next couple of years, they've gone all
in on this team. They are hyper focused on this year.
And when you do, you have Drew Brees, who's gonna
be a broadcaster. You know in six months, that's what
you do. Number two Kansas City currently on a ten
(20:01):
game winning streak. That's the including the playoffs last year,
longest in the NFL. Now they're a little top heavy.
They pay a handful of guys a ton of money.
I worry about depth in certain positions. Right tackle Mitchell
Schwartz is really, really important. He's one of their stars.
They're not paying a ton. Two they're good. And what
I liked about Week one, Mahomes has always been a
(20:21):
gun slinger. Now he looks efficient. I mean, now he's
met he's audibling out of stuff at the line of scrimmage.
So now you get the Brett Brett Farve never graduated
to a lot of that stuff like Mahomes. Now we're
in year three. He was like, Yeah, I'm gonna go
from gun slinger Howitzer, I'm gonna go to surgical. Oh
that's not good for everybody else. Number one Baltimore. I
(20:42):
picked him to win the Super Bowl. They're a machine. Listen,
you gotta understand Cleveland's got talent. They beat him by
thirty two points. Cleveland's not going to lose a game
the rest of this year by thirty two points. That
is eight. That is unbelievable. I just don't see the flaws.
I don't. I don't see him. I don't Last year,
their pass rush was inconsistent. It doesn't appear to be
(21:04):
I this is in a salary cap era. This is
about as good a roster. And for the record, all
you Lamar Jackson critics, he's now twenty and three. Let's
move past the I don't know if it's gonna work.
It's working well. He's lost a couple of playoff games.
What evs Peyton Manny lost a lot of them for
(21:26):
a lot of years, and so did John Elway. Baltimore,
to me, is the team to beat in this league.
What's up everybody? John middlecop Three and Out Podcast. That's me.
That's the show. Go subscribe right now. Do you like
Colin Coward's show, You'll like mine. I talk football, football
and more football. Coming up this week, we died deep
into the Monday night football doubleheader. Fangio blown him with
(21:48):
the timeouts, Ben Rotheburger Back, and every big story from Sunday.
Brady Wentz, Jimmy g Aaron Rodgers, you name it. Three
and Out Podcast. Go subscribe. All right, we gotta get
Peter King on NBC Sports in America. I want his
thoughts on Pittsburgh because I know Pittsburgh always beats bad teams.
Are they next level? What did Peter kingsey NBC Sports
(22:09):
dot Com pretime National Sportswriter of the Year. All right,
you you tell me your takeaway on Pittsburgh. We know
they beat up on average. I mean they're They're thirty
three and six and one against the Browns and Bengals
last decade. Did you see next level stuff last night? Though? Well,
two observations. I think the Giants are a little better
(22:31):
than we thought they were in Daniel Jones is still
a very young quarterback, you know, as witnessed by his
the nineteenth play on that drive, which was, you know,
a fatal mistake. But I do think looking at the
Steelers now, you know, I think I think coming into
this year, if you would have said who are the
(22:53):
Steelers biggest weapons, you know, I probably would have said
Roethlisberger Juju, Yeah, then t J. Watt and most likely
Cam Hayward. And now I think you got to put
Doug up, Bud Dupree right in that mix. I thought
he was tremendous last night. I thought he was the
(23:13):
difference in the game. And I'll tell you what, the
Steelers are going to be a hard team to face
defensively all year, no matter whether Ben lasts. I mean
Ben's missed twenty two games in the last five years,
so in he's thirty eight years old. I don't know
if he'll last, But if he doesn't, it won't matter
(23:34):
because to it it'll matter. But I'm talking about when
your offense faces their defense, that they are one of
the three or four toughest defenses front to back in
the league. You know, it's funny, Peter, nobody ever talks
about player development. Pittsburgh really develops their players about year
three and four, A lot of their guys. They really
do an amazing job on player development. So you know,
(23:58):
we always have a team in this league and that
we're good and we think they're gonna be great and
they're just not and then and then it happens every year.
But if you and I mentioned that team, we just
get crushed. But I'm gonna throw a couple of things
up about the forty nine Ers that could be troubling.
We now have a quarterback coach where I think the
coach has lost a little confidence in the quarterback. Mobile
(24:22):
quarterbacks Kyler Murray multiple times, Russell Wilson Lamar give this
defensive front troubles and they just they're just wildly inconsistent
wide receiver. I'm not saying the Niners aren't good, but
I am seeing some holes here that if I was
a Niner fan, I would be like, like, there's some
stuff here that's not right. Is that fair? I think so.
(24:45):
The loss of Deebo Samuel for three games are more Now.
I think Matt Mayoko out in San Francisco reported there
might be more of an issue with his foot than
they previously thought. His game is speed. If he's got
a foot problem, that's a big problem. But the loss
of Deebo Samuel I think really hurt him against the
(25:06):
Cardinals on Sunday. You can beat the Jets without Deebo Samuel,
you might, you probably can beat the Giants without Deebo Samuel,
but you know you're not gonna go far without his
impact and the impact of other wide receivers that you know,
they have just been totally snake bit at the receiver position,
(25:29):
you know, mostly because of injuries that would bother me.
And again, look, I like Garoppolo, but I've got to
see it for a longer period of time out of Garoppolo,
and I just I remember the postseason too well. So
he has to prove, even with a beaten up receiver core,
(25:52):
that he's good enough to win games. You know, it's funny,
I said. My issues with Tom Brady weren't necessarily his age.
My issue were New England is about the most detail oriented,
aspirational organization I've seen in sports for two decades. Tampa
has a history of being loose. Bruce Arians is loose. Sunday,
(26:14):
they got nine penalties a block punt and I wonder
over and Bruce Arians called Tom out right away, and
I'm like, I'd be careful about that. I don't worry
about Tom's determination and work ethic, anything about Tampa Week one,
including arians comments. Anything worry a little bit about what
you saw? Well, you know I watched almost every snap
(26:35):
of the games, so yeah, there were some things I
worry about. The pick six, you know that I thought
by generous Jenkins that you know, I thought was a
really bad decision by Brady and a late decision by Brady,
So that would bother me. But again, I keep coming
back to this. You know, there's a good chance that
(27:00):
the Bucks had to play the best team in the
NFC on the road in Week one, the team in
the NFC with the most continuity by far in Week one,
and what's the team that's had monumental changes, you know,
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tom Brady. You know I
(27:21):
wrote this yesterday. Do you realized that yesterday was the
one month anniversary of Tom Brady getting in a huddle
with his teammates in Tampa for the first time. So
you know that Drew Brees has been getting in a
huddle with his teammates for fifteen years. So and again
I'm that's a little bit of a you know, of
(27:44):
a sort of a false comparison. But I'm just simply
saying Tom Brady and his teammates are new Drew Brees
and his teammates, you know, are an old shoe. So
it was a bad matchup for the first week of
the season for the Bucks, and now they have a
(28:05):
favorable schedule for the next four weeks. So we'll see
what happens. You know, It's interesting you generally in the NFL,
you get a couple of years and by year three,
if something's not cooking, coach, quarterback, you're in trouble. So
Adam Gase the Jets look disorganized. If I see about
four more of those, he's not getting past Thanksgiving. And
Baker Mayfield fourth coach, same mistakes. Let's talk Thursday. This
(28:29):
sounds ridiculous, but Joy and I talked about this. I've
seen the Steelers and I've seen the Ravens. If Joe
Burrow beats Baker, there's gonna be some people in Cleveland, Peter,
They're bailing on Baker. They don't want to be part
of it. I like, I think it's a bigger game
than we just think. Oh, it's just a noted football game.
Joe Burrow looked pretty good to me. I think this
(28:49):
Baker think could unravel here if they don't start posting
some WS am I nuts on it. No, I think
you're right. I mean, I'm not saying that after the
second week publicly they're going to throw Baker in the garbage,
but I think privately, you know, if they don't beat
the Bengals, I'd like to be able to sit here
(29:11):
and say, man, that's a dangerous Cincinnati team coming in,
but it isn't it. It's an okay team. It's it's okay,
but you know, it's probably a five and eleven team.
So you can't convince me that if you're the Cleveland
Browns who lost the opener a year ago by thirty
(29:31):
when everybody in America loved him, they lose the opener
by thirty this year, people are saying, ah, they're a
sneaky team. They they they might win nine or ten,
you know, and then they go and they lose by
thirty two in the opener this year. I'm totally absolutely
down on the Browns, and I feel bad. Kevin Stefanski
(29:55):
deserves a legitimate chance, but I've seen in this movie
too many times offseason optimism in Cleveland and then they stink, Yeah,
wake me up when they're halfway decent, because they are
not right now. You know. I said this yesterday on
the show. I said, happiness is about expectations, and if
(30:18):
you're mad with what you saw with the Cowboys, that's
kind of on you. I think they have a pretty
good coach and a pretty good quarterback, and I thought
it was a pretty good performance. But I'll tell you
what they are much like the Rams last year and
a little bit of Philadelphia. They're top heavy on contracts, translation,
not a ton of depth. They've lost Gerald McCoy the
(30:38):
tight end now, Vander esh is out for two months, Peter.
They're a Tyron Smith pulled hamstring away from having some
chaos because Travis Frederick's gone now. And I look at
the Cowboys and I'm like, if you're getting upset with this,
this is kind of what I've seen the last twelve
fifteen times they've played good team like this is what
(31:01):
they are, right. I think they're very lucky that they're
similar chaos right now in Philadelphia. Um And and look,
you know, let's let's not make too much out of
Washington winning that first game of the season over Philadelphia.
But you know, Colin, you watch that game and you'd
(31:22):
be hard pressed to say that Philadelphia is better than Washington.
It's it's hard for me to believe that, you know,
Philadelphia's problems or that that was just a flukey loss. Right.
They have major problems on the offensive line, both in
chemistry and and and injuries. That's one thing. And then
you know, I mean, I just look at their receiver core,
(31:48):
their wide receiver corps, and they have to get mature
and a lot better fast. Um. And the last thing
I would say about Philly I think is that a
little worried about Carson Wentz. Not a lot worried, but
that was not an encouraging day for him. But to
get back to Dallas, I think the Cowboys will be okay.
(32:10):
I'd kind of like to have my you know, Cowboys
is the top seed in the NFC back, which I
had because I thought the division was going to be
really weak, And honestly, I don't want to have it
back because I feel like I feel like Dallas is
gonna stink. I don't think so. I still think they've
(32:32):
got a very good chance to win their division. But
Washington I thought was really impressive on Sunday, and impressive
enough to win nine and to be in the Pennant
race in December. I don't know, but Washington was one
of the two or three teams I saw in Week
one that was more impressive than I thought they'd be.
(32:52):
Peter King, NBC Sports Great Senior, Peter, it was a
very fun Week one, and Thursday has a little urgency
for it. If you're Baker in the Brow, thanks man,
appreciate it. Thank you, Colin. Have a great day. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and
non Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS
one and the iHeart Radio app. By the way, Clippers
(33:14):
are gonna win Game seventh tonight over Denver. You do
get that nine of the last twelve NBA champs have
faced a Game seven at some point in the playoffs.
This is what it's like. This is not a great team,
this is not a dynasty. The Clippers weren't the number
one seed. This is Kawhi's history. Go back to last
year Game seven against the Sixers. Remember that jumper from
(33:36):
the corner that iconic shot. If that doesn't go in,
If this shot doesn't go in, the game goes to overtime,
the Raptors season could be over. They needed this bounce
to win the series, and then Kawhi gets to the
finals against Golden State. STEP's hurt, Clay's hurt, Kevin Durant's hurt,
the team, doctors hurt, Steve, everybody was hurt. And that
(33:59):
went six games. Kawai's legacy is this spot. He's been
in this spot a lot. It's never been easy for Kawai,
by the way, first round against Dallas, they went six
games against Dallas. Porzingis was out and Luca had a
bum ankle. This is not people you get spoiled by,
(34:20):
like Miami Heat in a twenty five game winning streak
or whatever it was. You get spoiled by MJ You
get spoiled by dynasties, you get spoiled by Kevin Durant.
This is what the playoffs look like for good teams.
Boston's a good team. Clippers are a good team, but
their chemistry is not great. They just started playing together.
I said I thought they would I thought it would
(34:42):
be easier than this. But they're not a great team.
They weren't even number one seed in the West. They
weren't the number one seed in the West. Doc Rivers says,
Game seven, go out, play hoops. The rest of its nonsense.
Let's go in. I just know staches are very overrated,
and they last about three minutes, and you come running
(35:03):
out and you're fired up, and three minutes later you
got to focus on playing basketball. So there's no like
secret speech. You know. That's where you know the movies
listen the playoffs, if you take out dynasties have always
been just a battle of attrition, a battle of survival,
(35:24):
a battle of health. And here we go Game seven.
Denver's really talented, really young, and I'll take the Clippers tonight.
For the record, Fox bet, I think they're favored by seven.
It's telling you what the smart guys think. Clippers will win.
Bel
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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