December 7, 2024 • 31 mins
Where Colin was right and where he was wrong
He ranks the top 10 teams in the NFL after week 13
7-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady joins the show to talk about the late hit on Trevor Lawrence and Michigan's upset of Ohio State
The new Blazin' 5 NFL picks for the weekend
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Here we go, Colin Wright, Colin wrong, and a Monday
plenty of vote fire away where Colin was right. Listen
I said a week ago and I got pushed back.
Tear it down to the studs, Niners. It's official rebuilds.
The only way lost thirty five to ten wasn't competitive.
Christian McCaffrey's hurt, Fred Warner's hurt. They're old, they're tired,
they're expensive in their brittle. I mean Kyle Shanahan first
(00:47):
time he's lost back to back games by twenty five
plus points. Christian McCaffrey unfortunately done for the season. This
isn't subtle or nuanced. They don't They don't have enough
good players. I mean, go watch Detroit, philadelp if you
have Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas that he played. They don't have
enough guys especially in their prime where Colin was raw.
(01:07):
I have defended Ryan Day for a long time, but
he got worked this weekend, even with Chip Kelly. I
thought he was trying to prove a point more than
he was trying to win a game. Why were they
running the football? They're a beautiful vertical passing team. Nick
Saban moved off his power running games into a passing
(01:27):
team because Nick was about winning games. And I like
Ryan Day, but he'd never been a head coach before
Ohio State, and there are steps you get when you're
Urban Meyer and go Bowling Green to Utah to Florida,
Ohio State and in big games, he has not been exceptional,
and I thought this was a low point. I don't
think I would want him fired, but this was ugly
(01:50):
and I've been defending him from day one. You can't
have that at home against the team that can't pass.
Michigan can't pass.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Sammy Darnold forever. I said he's a first round talent.
Just get him to the right coach once again. A
great final drive to win a game. He's had several
of those, fourth in the NFL, and touchdown passes, the
reckless stuff oh, he'll have a throw every game. I
WinCE a little bit, but he has become a really
good fourth quarter quarterback. Ten of his twelve starts one
(02:23):
hundred plus passer rating. He's getting it to the right
players at the right time, and I trust him. That's
the one thing I'll say about good quarterback play. He
gets the ball with a minute and a half left,
I trust him. He's going to drive that team down
to a field goal minimum. And he did it again
this week Sam Darnold where Colin was rough. I didn't
(02:44):
think Russell Wilson and Tomlin and the Steelers was gonna fit.
But he's five and one and six starts. Yesterday, eight
different Steelers caught a pass of twenty plus yards. He
is throwing the ball down the field. There's no dink
and dunk here, Russell is. He is cooking it down field,
and I'm happy for him. He's a grateful guy. He's
a hard working guy. He's a very focused guy. And
(03:05):
this is a much better fit that I could have guessed.
You know, he kind of feels like this has always
been an offense that's a little dramatic and loose. He's
kind of got it. Plan more in the fair way
and still hitting on big plays.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You know, Matty Eberflus coming into the season was on
the hot seat. Probably they should have been best served
to start over. Jim Harball was the choice, but he
didn't get along with the president. And I feel bad
for Caleb Williams, who I think is a remarkable player.
He's flawed, He's got a lot to learn. But that
coaching gaff. I mean, when first year quarterbacks sometimes a
(03:45):
coach has to throw him a life preserver on timeouts
and time and you know they're going to lack some
self awareness just because they're rookie quarterbacks in a much
faster game on the road, short week against the Great Lions.
There's just no excuse for that. And then his they
couldn't even fire him, right, They'd let him have a
press conference and fired him about an hour later.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So this was.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Pretty predictable where Colin was rong. Well, my next guest
loves Nick Sirianni. I guess I'm on board. They've won
eight in a row, they beat Lamar Jackson. NFC teams
do not beat Lamar Jackson. Now, Justin Tucker helped him
out but I will say this, they may be the
worst first quarter team, that's a good team in the league.
But their second quarter was great and their fourth quarters.
(04:27):
They give the ball to the right people. And that's
what I like about Philadelphia's offense. It's what Ohio State
didn't do Saturday. They got their ball, and they get
their ball to the right guys in Sirianni. Maybe he's
learning on the job. I've had misgivings, but it works.
You do not win eight games in a row. They've
beaten some good teams home and away. They've beaten good teams.
You don't win eight in a row goldgainst Chicago. They
(04:49):
got good players too, unless the coach knows what he's doing.
Where Colin was right. I don't buy an Aaron Rodgers,
but I don't think he's a top fifteen to eighteen
quarterback in the league. Turns forty one today. Ugly picks.
He missed the wide open Garrett Wilson in the end
zone on a pretty easy throw, pretty pedestrian NFL quarterback throw,
and they would have gone up twenty eight to seven.
(05:09):
Game set match missed it. Pick six followed, So at
this point you know he's never been the biggest grinder
in the offseason, and so I think he's aged really,
really quickly. But I didn't think the Jets were a
playoff team. I don't think Aaron's the kind of guy.
He's not a foxhole guy. He's just a really talented guy.
But I would move off him. I don't think it works.
I don't think he has much of a market. We've
(05:29):
got all these talented young quarterbacks. Go get one somewhere,
or go get Sam Darnold. Where Colin was right, I
said going into the weekend, do not lose any sleep
on the college football playoff rankings. Chaos will ensue, and
it did. Georgia went to eight overtimes against Georgia Tech,
Miami lost to Syracuse Georgia, Ohio State lost to Michigan.
(05:52):
And I said Thursday, the last couple of weekends, watch
out for rivalry week. It's gonna be a zoo. There's
a scenario where the four conference champions weren't in their
conference last season. And I will say this, the NIL
and the transfer portal have created more parody because a
(06:13):
lot of these second tier programs are cherry picking. The
Michigan's notre Dames, Ohio States, Alabama's Georgia for guys that
may be the third receiver that can be a number
one receiver at say like a Louisville or you know,
a Texas Tech. So there is no depth even among
the Alabamas and the Georgia's. I've watched Georgia play five times.
(06:36):
You can run on Georgia. They don't throw the ball
down the field. So it is a wacky college football season.
I'll still say Texas ends up in the Natty. I
still think it's going to be Tennessee or Ohio State,
So I'm not bailed on Ohio State. Where Colin was right.
Where Colin was wrong.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern nn AM Pacific. Heard High Now go
the top ten NFL teams according to College Number ten.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, Seattle's not gonna win shootouts. They're zero to five
if they're asked to score if they give up more
than twenty five points. And Gino Smith has been sacked
nineteen times in the last four games. He throws too
many picks. But I like the coaching staff. I like
their perimeter talent at wide receiver and corner. Their pass
rush better than it was in previous years. They're a
(07:28):
top ten team. I don't know if they can win
a playoff game maybe, but I'll put Seattle at.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Ten, number nine.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I like Denver. I think they have one of the
best coaches, maybe the best coach after Andy Reid in
the NFL. They've won five of seven games, their only
losses to Baltimore and Kansas City. Bo Nicks eight and
three over his last eleven games, does not make a
lot of mistakes. Their offensive line quietly, Sean Payton, an
offensive coaches, rebuilt it in two years. PFF has it
(07:58):
at number two, Enver at nine, number eight. Baltimore. Listen,
they're only team in the league averaging four hundred yards.
Mark andrews Lamar Jackson's a Flowers, Dereck Henry. There's a
lot to like. Special teams. Bit of a liability now,
justin Tucker. It's called age mid thirties in the back
end of the defense outside of Kyle Hamilton, worries me.
(08:21):
I'm gonna put them there. They're scoring defense is bottom
quarter of the league, so that worries me. It's like
having a bad bullpen. You can outplay people and lose games.
I have Baltimore at eight, number seven, Sammy Darnold. Eventually
I was right. He's a baller. Leads the NFL with
forty six completions of twenty plus yards. This is not
a dink and dunk offense. They will throw the ball
(08:43):
down the field. I think Kevin O'Connell is really a
spectacular coach. They are seven to one in one score games.
That's not just Donald that is coaching Vikings at seven,
number six Pittsburgh Steelers. I think they're ceilings a little
bit low, but they're five and oh against teams that
are five hundred or better. It's a classic Mike Tomlin recipe.
(09:05):
His teams have always played well as underdogs or backed
into a corner. Russell Wilson say what you want passer
rating in the fourth quarter of one hundred and twenty.
He's good when it matters, And to me, that's a
team that can win a playoff game.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Or two.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Number five Green Bay they're still a tad young. Are
they a super Bowl team? Boy? Does Jordan Love have
a whipman? He's got some talent. They become a power
run team. Now they play at Detroit Thursday. I actually
kind of like him in that spot. They're top five
and total offense and rushing offense. They become more of
a power running team now with Josh Jacobs, and I'm
here for it. I do feel there's still a year
(09:44):
off Green Bay at five.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Number four.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Okay, my final four teams are the teams I think
can win a Super Bowl. Kansas City Listen, he's been sacked.
Patrick Mahomes has five times in back to back games.
I don't like the protection right now at offensive tackle.
They're getting Isaiah Pacheco back that hell play action. They
eleven and one in one score games. Their point differential
is the lowest ever for an eleven and one team.
(10:08):
I don't love that, but I trust Andy Reid, Mahomes, Kelsey,
Chris Jones and Spags. I have him at four.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Number three.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Detroit's getting banged up on the defensive end. That worries me.
Third toughest schedule remaining. Will they get knocked out of
the perch and will Philadelphia to be a number one seed.
They've led by ten plus points in ten of eleven games,
so they usually play with the lead. Probably won't be
like that in the playoffs. I think Thursday is fascinating.
I have Detroit at three, number two Philadelphia. They figured
(10:36):
out Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts twenty touchdowns, one pick in
his eight game winning streak. I don't want him throwing
thirty times. I don't want Brady's and Mannings throwing forty times.
They figured it out. By the way, this team's nine
to zero when aj Brown plays. I've never seen a
great team led by a receiver, but they don't lose
when he plays. I have Philadelphia at two, number one Buffalo.
(10:58):
I think it's the best version of Buffalo. I like
the they have James Cook, Dalton Kincaid. They've missed multiple
good players during this stretch. I love Josh Allen, and
he's matured. He's not as reckless as he once was.
I think they have their best offensive line, their best
running game. When Josh first got there, all their best
players felt like defensive guys. Now I think many of
(11:20):
their best players are offensive guys, and they're getting healthier
on the defensive side. Let's put Buffalo at number one again.
I generally, in my Herd hierarchy think about three to
four teams can hoist a Trophy. I don't think Green
Bay Can or Pittsburgh they're darn close at five and
six respectively. And with that, Tom Brady twenty three years,
(11:40):
seven rings, most Super Bowl wins, passing yards, touchdowns. You
know it? Okay, So you know I'm I'll get to
Michigan Ohio State because I won't be able to wipe
the smile off here. That was nuts. I want to
start with this, the late hit on Trevor Lawrence. So
I got mixed emotions. I want my quarterback to have
(12:02):
some mobility, but I also think you leave the pocket, Tom,
and you're a running back. Where are you on this hit?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
I've watched obviously been a part of the NFL for
a long time, and I remember there was an instance
there's I'll start by saying there's mixed emotions that I
have about it as well.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I remember in two thousand and one, I.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Think we played at Buffalo and I slid late and
Nate Clements was the corner for the Bills, and he
came up out of the secondary and absolutely crushed me.
My helmet went flying off, and I got back and
I ran to the huddle and I had a lot
of teammates that came up to me the next day
and said, Dude, these guys are coming. You got to
get rid of that football, and if you're going to slide,
(12:48):
you better get down.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
These guys are coming to get you.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
And it was a great kind of learning experience for
me because I realized that when I'm out of that pocket,
things were moving a lot faster for me, and the
defense is trying to be very aggressive, and over time,
the NFL has obviously done a lot of things to
protect players, and player health and safety has been on
and on and on, and the only aspect that I
(13:12):
think is very challenging, and certainly for Trevor Lawrence. Nobody
wants to see anybody get hurt, but it is also
the reality of a very physical sport that we play.
But the only way defensive players have to be aggressive.
That's their nature. I always tried to be aggressive on offense.
We try to block aggressively, and at the same time,
the defense tries to tackle aggressively. So I don't know,
(13:33):
there's an aspect to me that I think the quarterbacks,
and certainly the quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves.
I've seen Josh Allen running a lot. I see Lamar
Jackson running a lot, and it's a great skill set
to have. A lot of times I wish I had
that skill set. And at the same time, when you run,
you put yourself in a lot of danger. And when
you do that, I don't think the onus of protecting
(13:56):
an offensive quarterback who's running should be on a defensive player.
I don't think that's really fair to the defense. So
if you slide and it's you know, everyone can argue
was it black and white or was it just a
gray area? Do you slide late or is it unnecessary
roughness or is it a late hit? You know, to me,
a late hit is very late. You know, there's quarterbacks
(14:17):
that I see running in tiptoe on the sideline and
they're not even out of bounds and they get hit
as they're starting to step out of bounds and there's
a penalty flag thrown.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
So the aspect again for a play caller.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
There's more design runs for quarterbacks ever now than in
the history of the NFL. So are we really trying
to protect quarterbacks? Because if you are trying to do
it through the rules, then why are the offensive coordinators
not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping them under the pocket
and not designing as many quarterback runs. So I think
(14:49):
there's just it's gone to a point where there's really
and everyone would label a.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Certain player as a dirty player. You know. I don't
like that one bit.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
I you know, maybe they fine or penalize a quarterback
for sliding late, you know, and say, look, if we
don't want these hits to take place, we've got to
penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize
the defensive player for every single play that happens when
there's a hit on a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So I said this last week. I said, you know,
I was thinking about this. Go back to Lombardi. The
dynasties in league history are Green Bay with Lombardi, Steelers, Patriots,
Chiefs Ravens have always been great, and then the Niners
in Dallas and as you know, going up in the Bay.
(15:37):
I joke that Mark Twain used to say that the
coldest winner he ever spent was a summer in the Bay,
and Dallas gets ice storms. There's never been a warm
weather dynasty. And I'm watching the Niners play the Bills,
and Tom the Bills look like when you're eight years
old and it snows for the first time and you
go with your friends in the backyard. They were having
the time of their lives. And I think it matters.
(15:59):
I think Buffalo now with James Cook, Tom, did you
feel yeah, when you played Peyton at cc Dome team,
did you feel it was an advantage?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
I felt like that was a great advantage that we
always had, which is why those regular season games were.
If they were in Foxboro, they were obviously advantage for us.
But if it was early in the season, the weather
wasn't that critical. I think you used the weather to
your advantage. And I even when I went to Tampa,
I would say there was an advantage being a warm
weather team playing against a team that was coming from
the north of the Northeast. So you use what you
(16:34):
have to an advantage, and that's just because your body
acclimates to it. I saw in that Niner Bill game
there were a lot of forty nine Er players that
were slipping on the turf, Yeah, and not a lot
of Bills players that were slipping on the turf. And
the point is is when you're in those environments, you
know exactly what shoes to wear. You know how many
layers that you have to put on in order to
get the job done. So when you have those climates,
(16:57):
that's what you try to play too. I knew for me,
I knew how many hand warmers I needed in my
quarterback pouch per ten degrees. For every ten degrees that
the weather dropped below seventy, I'd put one heat pack.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So if it was you know.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Forty degrees, it would be sixty to fifty forty degrees,
I'd put three heat packs just to keep a consistent
temperature for my hands. So those are all the things
you learn over time, through a lot of trial and there,
through a lot of days in practice. And that's where
you get a home field. So if you're Buffalo or
the Chiefs and you play in this cold weather year round,
you better believe you have an advantage playoff time when
(17:35):
a team that comes from a warmer climate comes and
plays you at your home stadium.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
So I'm watching bo Nicks last night. Now he had
sixty one college starts. That helps a lot. You did
not have this as an advantage. You had a defensive coach,
a defensive culture, do your job. There was some rigidity
to the culture. You were in offensively until Moss arrived
and you broke every record. But I watched Bonnick. You
(18:00):
know what I took from it? Tom last night? My
one takeaway Sean Payton with a lead against Miles Garrett,
had this kid thrown from the end zone and I'm like, wow,
that that there's no babysitting there, Like that's what you
could do. You don't let rookie quarterback. That was my
takeaway was Okay, Sean, totally trust this kid. What was
(18:22):
your takeaway watching them?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
That's a great point. And it's the trust that a
coach has in a player. You can it manifests itself
all the time. I can always tell when I watch
a play caller try to manage a game from the
sideline and he's trying to manage the risk. And when
you have a quarterback where you feel like, you know what,
I know he's going to make the decisions, well, then
you can actually go out there and you don't have
to manage. It's hard to manage a quarterback because you're
(18:45):
in the eye of the storm. On every play you
touched the ball seventy snaps. So when you have a
quarterback that you're trusting was making good decisions, Well, then
you want to give them more opportunities. So and I
see that with a lot of play callers as well,
when they do trust them. Let's spread, let's be an empty,
let me give you five different options. Let me get
you out there on the perimeter to make the throws.
(19:06):
I'm going to have you manage end of game situations.
That takes a great developmental coach, and I would say
Sean Payton certainly is that. He's a phenomenal coach and
a quarterback that wants to embrace that opportunity to learn
a skill set of how to manage a game. Not
just hey, coach, what's to play? Tell me what to do? Coach,
(19:28):
tell me the play? But why are we calling that play?
Why are we in this situation? Why don't we understand
the why behind what we're doing? How do we beat
man coverage, how do we beat zone coverage? Why are
we calling this play in this situation? And then okay,
I understand why you're doing that. So if we don't
get the look we want, I can manage the play
as a quarterback and get to the next down while
(19:50):
still making a positive play.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So Michigan has beaten Ohio State four straight times, and
I do believe one time last year Michigan just had
far better players. They were stacked. But generally I think
Ohio State has an edge in personnel. It can be slight,
but I do feel they they feel more sec than
Big ten the way they recruit, but the difference is definitely.
(20:13):
Michigan's had an identity with Harbaugh early, middle, and late,
and he just handed that identity to his new coach.
Ohio State's talented, but I don't know what they are.
And I think to myself, you've told me this, and
so was Edelman that every Patriot team had a different identity.
I feel like I've been watching Ohio State for five years.
(20:34):
I'm like, yeah, they're talented, what are they? How do
you How did Belichick create it? How do you create
because there's a lot of a lot of coaches can
recruit in college, the great ones, you know, the Urbans
and the Knicks create the identity and recruit. How do
you do it?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
I think a lot of is you define the type
of player that you want, and you define the type
of team you want to build, and then you find
nine players that have those skill sets. Physically and those
values kind of mentally emotionally. Michigan is a very tough,
hard nosed team. They run the ball very well. You know,
they haven't been great throwing the ball. But if I
looked at Ohio State strengths and we says they have
(21:15):
a great seven on seventeen, they got guys that can
throw the ball to in the second half, they don't
even target their best players. So to me, it's like
I may as well been out there playing receiver for
Ohouse State. I can't run, I couldn't catch, but it
doesn't matter if you don't throw me the ball, just
like they didn't throw a lot of their best players
to the ball in the second half of that game.
So whenever we got to big games, let's say the
(21:36):
Super Bowl, you'd say, there's seventy plays left in the game.
In our season, the entire six months of work, seven
months of work is going to come down to seventy plays.
What do we want those seventy plays to look like?
And then you reverse engineer it and you say, okay,
we're gonna want forty passes and thirty runs. Well, what
forty passes do we want? We could design one hundred
(21:57):
and fifty of them if you want. Now, there's one
hundred ten of those that won't get called. So why
don't we just dial it down and dial it back
to the only the specific ones where best players are
going to touch the ball doing the best things that
they do, and we're going to go out like that.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
If we lose, we lose.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
If we win, great, but we're not going to lose
doing things that we don't do well. And I think
the coaches, Coach Belichick would always say coaches lose games
and players win games. And he didn't mean to say
that coaches are not valuable. Coaches need to put their
players in a position to win. They do instruct you,
they give you this is the plan. It's up to
(22:34):
the coach to clearly identify a plan every week about
how you're going to win the game. We would come
in on a Wednesday morning. I thought the best thing
that coach Belichick did, and there was a lot of them,
was he would clearly define for offense, defense, and special teams,
this is how we're going to win the game this week.
Don't worry about last week, don't worry about next week.
(22:55):
This unique challenge, yet we have today or excuse me,
on a Sunday. We're going to deal with that based
on these three or four areas on each side of
the ball and in the kicking game, and if we
execute in these areas, we're going to give ourselves a
great chance to win. It doesn't mean we're guaranteed to win,
and there's times where we can misevaluate what those things are.
(23:16):
I'll never forget we played the Chiefs once and we
doubled I think Travis Kelcey a bunch and not Tyreek Hill.
Maybe the one of the early times we played Tyreek
Hill and he went for like one eighty or two
hundred something crazy. He came in the next day and
he says, hey, guys, we're never doing that again.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
We screwed that up.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
If we play these guys again, we know who we're
going to double, and it's going to be Tyreek Hill.
So it's just you gotta have some formula for what
you're trying to accomplish. What's the bulls eye that we
need to hit and we need to get, you know,
the coaches to deliver that to the players in all
three phases of the game for them to go out there.
So that they have something to hit. And if they
(23:55):
do that and you identify it clearly, I think you
give your team a great chance to win.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
So Nick Wright was on before me and he posed
this question. So, Kansas City's eleven and one and they're
winning by payper thin margins. So of all your teams,
the team that blew people out was the Randy Moss teams.
There's no ring you're three to four team. You were
winning close games, and so this Chiefs team is the
(24:22):
closest to your team. I want you to take me back.
People keep saying, well, the Chiefs are lucky, and I'm like, timeout,
that block field goal, that was coaching, third down efficiency,
that is coaching. I don't want to hear lucked. That's
even Rubik's cubes and roulette. There's some strategy to it. Right.
Did you feel that three to four team? Did you
(24:44):
feel like, you know, what close game, we're winning it.
We're just better than everybody at it.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Definitely I think that, Look, you're gonna have a close games,
You're gonna blowouts. To win the close games is always
the mark of a really good team. To win when
you're not playing your best football is the mark of
a very good team. I just think the Chiefs are
so dangerous because if it's a one score game in
the fourth quarter and Patrick has the ball, he just
(25:10):
he's incredible. He comes, not that he comes like because
he comes to life all day long, but he's so
dangerous because then he has four downs late in the
game where you got to stop him for four downs,
not three, And that's a dangerous aspect for any defense
you have to kind of pull away from. And that
they're a hard you know, it's a hard team to
pull away from because they do such a good job defensively.
(25:31):
So I think when they transition from really this great
offensive team, and I would say when Patrick first started,
they weren't as good on defense. Now they have a
tremendous defense. They got Spags as a phenomenal coach. He's
got them playing well defensively. Patrick is going to manage
the game so well. He's going to throw to the
open guy when the Saria's got Travis out there that
(25:51):
is going to make the right decisions and the big
moments like we've seen time and time again. So they
have a group of players that organization does so many
things the right way. They're going to be tough to
beat in the playoffs. I don't care who they play,
where they plays. It's a lot like the teams that
I played for at the Patriots. If you were going
to beat us, man, you had to beat us. We
weren't going to beat ourselves.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Hey, was vrabel a good sport? When you texted him
after the Michigan win? Did he take it well?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I think that he didn't. Did he?
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I have very little comments on that because a lot
of the times Raves will somehow figure out how to
turn it on you and then you're the you know,
you're the jerk that texted him. So sometimes I lay
back on him. But he's a typical Ohio state guy.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Let me say that.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, they're all the same Tom. Believe me, I've worked
with him. The Michigan guys bring a different level of class.
I'll just say that, there we go.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, great scene.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
You man.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in newon Eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Here we Go are Blazing five.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Let's blaze it up, Fired Up, It's Collins Blazing, Fuck
Falcons and Vikings.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
I'm gonna take Minnesota at home. Lay the five and
a half points. They're a great home team. For their
wins have come by over six points. Top ten in
scoring offense and scoring defense number five this year. Near's
the issue. They are aggressive. They are second in the league
in takeaways, fourth in sacks, and Kirk Cousins for Atlanta
(27:26):
is reeling. He looks old. They'll come after him. In
his last three games zero tds and six picks and
a passer rating in the fifties. I think the Vikings
playing for more and have more momentum thirty three, twenty four.
I like the Vikings to cover Jet said Dolphins, so
(27:49):
I get an offensive coach and a better quarterback with
extra rest. Forget the Packer game. It's cold weather at
home to above sixty degrees. Has a one zero four
passer ring. He's thirty two to ten in games with
warm weather and fifteen and five at home under Mike
McDaniel and the Jets. Aaron Rodgers, like Cousins, looks tired
(28:10):
in the second half shut out against the Seahawks in
the second half. This is a bit of a quarterback mismatch.
Warm weather too at home against aged Aaron Rodgers, and
the Jets, by the way, are a bad road team,
a bad second half offense. And I think again, the
Dolphins playing for more in this spot right like I mean,
(28:32):
they are like Minnesota is looking at it thinking could
we be a number one seed? Miami has to win
just to get into the playoffs. I like the Dolphins
to win and cover twenty seven to seventeen.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Browns at Steelers.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I like Cleveland plus six and a half. That's way
too many points. First of all, they have the number
one offense in the NFL since Jamis Winston became starter.
They will score. Pittsburgh's coming off a hard font road
winning division five straight games decided by one score. And
by the way, the Steers are two and three when
they allowed twenty plus points and Jamis Winston is a starter,
Cleveland scores points. Okay, so I like the Steelers to win.
(29:08):
But you watch that Denver defense that had been fantastic
all year. They got lit up by Cleveland. Cleveland's offensive
personnel and coaching and Jamis he can be crazy, and
the pick sixes. They almost won that game with two
pick sixes. I think the Browns cover. I think the
Steelers win twenty four to twenty three Bills. It rare,
(29:30):
boy do I like the Bills this week minus three
and a half fifteen straight regular season wins in December
or January. They are built, they are deep, They're getting healthier.
They lead the NFL and second half point differential, and
you cannot get to Jared Josh Allen can't get to him,
and the way the Rams can disrupt teams is getting
to the quarterback. Well, Josh Allen didn't get sacked, and
(29:51):
by the way Keon Coleman and Dalton kin Kaid could return,
the Rams have a bigger issue right now. Matt Stafford's
beat up. Not he's well, but he's beat up. He's
struggling on third down and Stafford has the lowest passer
rating in the league, went under pressure, two touchdowns and
five picks. He's got a bad ankle. So I love
(30:12):
Josh Allen and the Bills in this spot. By the way,
he's played them twice and has completed almost eighty percent
of his throws against the Rams. I like the Bills
to win. The crowd will be more than fifty percent
Buffalo fans twenty eight to twenty Bills Chargers at Chiefs.
Bad spot for the Chargers. I'm gonna lay the four
(30:34):
points and take Kansas City. They're six and zero at
home this year, and by the way, in December, January,
and February in the Mahomes era, they're twenty three and
six at home. Good home team. Mahomes over the last
five games is starting to heat up. One hundred passer rating,
sixty eight percent completion percentage. The Chargers offense wasn't good
to start now JK. Dobbins out Lad McConkie not practicing.
(30:56):
This was a reasonably anemic offense. It could be worse.
Maybe they'll hang around for the first half. But they're
one in three against teams with winning records. Anyway, They're
very good. They win the games they should win, but
they don't have the ability to beat excellent teams. And
I like the Chiefs. I'll lay the points to win
twenty seven to seventeen. I think it is It could
(31:18):
be a rough, rough late afternoon for Justin Herbert without
Lad mcconkee. So I like a lot of favorites. I
like the Vikings at home. Vikings right now think they
have a shot to be a number one seed. Dolphins
with extra rest. I think Cleveland's offense will keep this close.
Buffalo is a great December January team, we've seen that,
(31:43):
and Kansas City with a little extra arrest. Andy Reid
off of buy Andy Reid with extra time is money
and the Chargers. The Chargers defense won that game against
the Falcons. It was not their offense.
Thanks for listening to 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 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Here we go, Colin Wright, Colin wrong, and a Monday
plenty of vote fire away where Colin was right. Listen
I said a week ago and I got pushed back.
Tear it down to the studs, Niners. It's official rebuilds.
The only way lost thirty five to ten wasn't competitive.
Christian McCaffrey's hurt, Fred Warner's hurt. They're old, they're tired,
they're expensive in their brittle. I mean Kyle Shanahan first
(00:47):
time he's lost back to back games by twenty five
plus points. Christian McCaffrey unfortunately done for the season. This
isn't subtle or nuanced. They don't They don't have enough
good players. I mean, go watch Detroit, philadelp if you
have Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas that he played. They don't have
enough guys especially in their prime where Colin was raw.
(01:07):
I have defended Ryan Day for a long time, but
he got worked this weekend, even with Chip Kelly. I
thought he was trying to prove a point more than
he was trying to win a game. Why were they
running the football? They're a beautiful vertical passing team. Nick
Saban moved off his power running games into a passing
(01:27):
team because Nick was about winning games. And I like
Ryan Day, but he'd never been a head coach before
Ohio State, and there are steps you get when you're
Urban Meyer and go Bowling Green to Utah to Florida,
Ohio State and in big games, he has not been exceptional,
and I thought this was a low point. I don't
think I would want him fired, but this was ugly
(01:50):
and I've been defending him from day one. You can't
have that at home against the team that can't pass.
Michigan can't pass.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Sammy Darnold forever. I said he's a first round talent.
Just get him to the right coach once again. A
great final drive to win a game. He's had several
of those, fourth in the NFL, and touchdown passes, the
reckless stuff oh, he'll have a throw every game. I
WinCE a little bit, but he has become a really
good fourth quarter quarterback. Ten of his twelve starts one
(02:23):
hundred plus passer rating. He's getting it to the right
players at the right time, and I trust him. That's
the one thing I'll say about good quarterback play. He
gets the ball with a minute and a half left,
I trust him. He's going to drive that team down
to a field goal minimum. And he did it again
this week Sam Darnold where Colin was rough. I didn't
(02:44):
think Russell Wilson and Tomlin and the Steelers was gonna fit.
But he's five and one and six starts. Yesterday, eight
different Steelers caught a pass of twenty plus yards. He
is throwing the ball down the field. There's no dink
and dunk here, Russell is. He is cooking it down field,
and I'm happy for him. He's a grateful guy. He's
a hard working guy. He's a very focused guy. And
(03:05):
this is a much better fit that I could have guessed.
You know, he kind of feels like this has always
been an offense that's a little dramatic and loose. He's
kind of got it. Plan more in the fair way
and still hitting on big plays.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You know, Matty Eberflus coming into the season was on
the hot seat. Probably they should have been best served
to start over. Jim Harball was the choice, but he
didn't get along with the president. And I feel bad
for Caleb Williams, who I think is a remarkable player.
He's flawed, He's got a lot to learn. But that
coaching gaff. I mean, when first year quarterbacks sometimes a
(03:45):
coach has to throw him a life preserver on timeouts
and time and you know they're going to lack some
self awareness just because they're rookie quarterbacks in a much
faster game on the road, short week against the Great Lions.
There's just no excuse for that. And then his they
couldn't even fire him, right, They'd let him have a
press conference and fired him about an hour later.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So this was.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Pretty predictable where Colin was rong. Well, my next guest
loves Nick Sirianni. I guess I'm on board. They've won
eight in a row, they beat Lamar Jackson. NFC teams
do not beat Lamar Jackson. Now, Justin Tucker helped him
out but I will say this, they may be the
worst first quarter team, that's a good team in the league.
But their second quarter was great and their fourth quarters.
(04:27):
They give the ball to the right people. And that's
what I like about Philadelphia's offense. It's what Ohio State
didn't do Saturday. They got their ball, and they get
their ball to the right guys in Sirianni. Maybe he's
learning on the job. I've had misgivings, but it works.
You do not win eight games in a row. They've
beaten some good teams home and away. They've beaten good teams.
You don't win eight in a row goldgainst Chicago. They
(04:49):
got good players too, unless the coach knows what he's doing.
Where Colin was right. I don't buy an Aaron Rodgers,
but I don't think he's a top fifteen to eighteen
quarterback in the league. Turns forty one today. Ugly picks.
He missed the wide open Garrett Wilson in the end
zone on a pretty easy throw, pretty pedestrian NFL quarterback throw,
and they would have gone up twenty eight to seven.
(05:09):
Game set match missed it. Pick six followed, So at
this point you know he's never been the biggest grinder
in the offseason, and so I think he's aged really,
really quickly. But I didn't think the Jets were a
playoff team. I don't think Aaron's the kind of guy.
He's not a foxhole guy. He's just a really talented guy.
But I would move off him. I don't think it works.
I don't think he has much of a market. We've
(05:29):
got all these talented young quarterbacks. Go get one somewhere,
or go get Sam Darnold. Where Colin was right, I
said going into the weekend, do not lose any sleep
on the college football playoff rankings. Chaos will ensue, and
it did. Georgia went to eight overtimes against Georgia Tech,
Miami lost to Syracuse Georgia, Ohio State lost to Michigan.
(05:52):
And I said Thursday, the last couple of weekends, watch
out for rivalry week. It's gonna be a zoo. There's
a scenario where the four conference champions weren't in their
conference last season. And I will say this, the NIL
and the transfer portal have created more parody because a
(06:13):
lot of these second tier programs are cherry picking. The
Michigan's notre Dames, Ohio States, Alabama's Georgia for guys that
may be the third receiver that can be a number
one receiver at say like a Louisville or you know,
a Texas Tech. So there is no depth even among
the Alabamas and the Georgia's. I've watched Georgia play five times.
(06:36):
You can run on Georgia. They don't throw the ball
down the field. So it is a wacky college football season.
I'll still say Texas ends up in the Natty. I
still think it's going to be Tennessee or Ohio State,
So I'm not bailed on Ohio State. Where Colin was right.
Where Colin was wrong.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern nn AM Pacific. Heard High Now go
the top ten NFL teams according to College Number ten.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, Seattle's not gonna win shootouts. They're zero to five
if they're asked to score if they give up more
than twenty five points. And Gino Smith has been sacked
nineteen times in the last four games. He throws too
many picks. But I like the coaching staff. I like
their perimeter talent at wide receiver and corner. Their pass
rush better than it was in previous years. They're a
(07:28):
top ten team. I don't know if they can win
a playoff game maybe, but I'll put Seattle at.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Ten, number nine.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I like Denver. I think they have one of the
best coaches, maybe the best coach after Andy Reid in
the NFL. They've won five of seven games, their only
losses to Baltimore and Kansas City. Bo Nicks eight and
three over his last eleven games, does not make a
lot of mistakes. Their offensive line quietly, Sean Payton, an
offensive coaches, rebuilt it in two years. PFF has it
(07:58):
at number two, Enver at nine, number eight. Baltimore. Listen,
they're only team in the league averaging four hundred yards.
Mark andrews Lamar Jackson's a Flowers, Dereck Henry. There's a
lot to like. Special teams. Bit of a liability now,
justin Tucker. It's called age mid thirties in the back
end of the defense outside of Kyle Hamilton, worries me.
(08:21):
I'm gonna put them there. They're scoring defense is bottom
quarter of the league, so that worries me. It's like
having a bad bullpen. You can outplay people and lose games.
I have Baltimore at eight, number seven, Sammy Darnold. Eventually
I was right. He's a baller. Leads the NFL with
forty six completions of twenty plus yards. This is not
a dink and dunk offense. They will throw the ball
(08:43):
down the field. I think Kevin O'Connell is really a
spectacular coach. They are seven to one in one score games.
That's not just Donald that is coaching Vikings at seven,
number six Pittsburgh Steelers. I think they're ceilings a little
bit low, but they're five and oh against teams that
are five hundred or better. It's a classic Mike Tomlin recipe.
(09:05):
His teams have always played well as underdogs or backed
into a corner. Russell Wilson say what you want passer
rating in the fourth quarter of one hundred and twenty.
He's good when it matters, And to me, that's a
team that can win a playoff game.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Or two.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Number five Green Bay they're still a tad young. Are
they a super Bowl team? Boy? Does Jordan Love have
a whipman? He's got some talent. They become a power
run team. Now they play at Detroit Thursday. I actually
kind of like him in that spot. They're top five
and total offense and rushing offense. They become more of
a power running team now with Josh Jacobs, and I'm
here for it. I do feel there's still a year
(09:44):
off Green Bay at five.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Number four.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Okay, my final four teams are the teams I think
can win a Super Bowl. Kansas City Listen, he's been sacked.
Patrick Mahomes has five times in back to back games.
I don't like the protection right now at offensive tackle.
They're getting Isaiah Pacheco back that hell play action. They
eleven and one in one score games. Their point differential
is the lowest ever for an eleven and one team.
(10:08):
I don't love that, but I trust Andy Reid, Mahomes, Kelsey,
Chris Jones and Spags. I have him at four.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Number three.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Detroit's getting banged up on the defensive end. That worries me.
Third toughest schedule remaining. Will they get knocked out of
the perch and will Philadelphia to be a number one seed.
They've led by ten plus points in ten of eleven games,
so they usually play with the lead. Probably won't be
like that in the playoffs. I think Thursday is fascinating.
I have Detroit at three, number two Philadelphia. They figured
(10:36):
out Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts twenty touchdowns, one pick in
his eight game winning streak. I don't want him throwing
thirty times. I don't want Brady's and Mannings throwing forty times.
They figured it out. By the way, this team's nine
to zero when aj Brown plays. I've never seen a
great team led by a receiver, but they don't lose
when he plays. I have Philadelphia at two, number one Buffalo.
(10:58):
I think it's the best version of Buffalo. I like
the they have James Cook, Dalton Kincaid. They've missed multiple
good players during this stretch. I love Josh Allen, and
he's matured. He's not as reckless as he once was.
I think they have their best offensive line, their best
running game. When Josh first got there, all their best
players felt like defensive guys. Now I think many of
(11:20):
their best players are offensive guys, and they're getting healthier
on the defensive side. Let's put Buffalo at number one again.
I generally, in my Herd hierarchy think about three to
four teams can hoist a Trophy. I don't think Green
Bay Can or Pittsburgh they're darn close at five and
six respectively. And with that, Tom Brady twenty three years,
(11:40):
seven rings, most Super Bowl wins, passing yards, touchdowns. You
know it? Okay, So you know I'm I'll get to
Michigan Ohio State because I won't be able to wipe
the smile off here. That was nuts. I want to
start with this, the late hit on Trevor Lawrence. So
I got mixed emotions. I want my quarterback to have
(12:02):
some mobility, but I also think you leave the pocket, Tom,
and you're a running back. Where are you on this hit?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
I've watched obviously been a part of the NFL for
a long time, and I remember there was an instance
there's I'll start by saying there's mixed emotions that I
have about it as well.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I remember in two thousand and one, I.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Think we played at Buffalo and I slid late and
Nate Clements was the corner for the Bills, and he
came up out of the secondary and absolutely crushed me.
My helmet went flying off, and I got back and
I ran to the huddle and I had a lot
of teammates that came up to me the next day
and said, Dude, these guys are coming. You got to
get rid of that football, and if you're going to slide,
(12:48):
you better get down.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
These guys are coming to get you.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
And it was a great kind of learning experience for
me because I realized that when I'm out of that pocket,
things were moving a lot faster for me, and the
defense is trying to be very aggressive, and over time,
the NFL has obviously done a lot of things to
protect players, and player health and safety has been on
and on and on, and the only aspect that I
(13:12):
think is very challenging, and certainly for Trevor Lawrence. Nobody
wants to see anybody get hurt, but it is also
the reality of a very physical sport that we play.
But the only way defensive players have to be aggressive.
That's their nature. I always tried to be aggressive on offense.
We try to block aggressively, and at the same time,
the defense tries to tackle aggressively. So I don't know,
(13:33):
there's an aspect to me that I think the quarterbacks,
and certainly the quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves.
I've seen Josh Allen running a lot. I see Lamar
Jackson running a lot, and it's a great skill set
to have. A lot of times I wish I had
that skill set. And at the same time, when you run,
you put yourself in a lot of danger. And when
you do that, I don't think the onus of protecting
(13:56):
an offensive quarterback who's running should be on a defensive player.
I don't think that's really fair to the defense. So
if you slide and it's you know, everyone can argue
was it black and white or was it just a
gray area? Do you slide late or is it unnecessary
roughness or is it a late hit? You know, to me,
a late hit is very late. You know, there's quarterbacks
(14:17):
that I see running in tiptoe on the sideline and
they're not even out of bounds and they get hit
as they're starting to step out of bounds and there's
a penalty flag thrown.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
So the aspect again for a play caller.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
There's more design runs for quarterbacks ever now than in
the history of the NFL. So are we really trying
to protect quarterbacks? Because if you are trying to do
it through the rules, then why are the offensive coordinators
not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping them under the pocket
and not designing as many quarterback runs. So I think
(14:49):
there's just it's gone to a point where there's really
and everyone would label a.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Certain player as a dirty player. You know. I don't
like that one bit.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
I you know, maybe they fine or penalize a quarterback
for sliding late, you know, and say, look, if we
don't want these hits to take place, we've got to
penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize
the defensive player for every single play that happens when
there's a hit on a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So I said this last week. I said, you know,
I was thinking about this. Go back to Lombardi. The
dynasties in league history are Green Bay with Lombardi, Steelers, Patriots,
Chiefs Ravens have always been great, and then the Niners
in Dallas and as you know, going up in the Bay.
(15:37):
I joke that Mark Twain used to say that the
coldest winner he ever spent was a summer in the Bay,
and Dallas gets ice storms. There's never been a warm
weather dynasty. And I'm watching the Niners play the Bills,
and Tom the Bills look like when you're eight years
old and it snows for the first time and you
go with your friends in the backyard. They were having
the time of their lives. And I think it matters.
(15:59):
I think Buffalo now with James Cook, Tom, did you
feel yeah, when you played Peyton at cc Dome team,
did you feel it was an advantage?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
I felt like that was a great advantage that we
always had, which is why those regular season games were.
If they were in Foxboro, they were obviously advantage for us.
But if it was early in the season, the weather
wasn't that critical. I think you used the weather to
your advantage. And I even when I went to Tampa,
I would say there was an advantage being a warm
weather team playing against a team that was coming from
the north of the Northeast. So you use what you
(16:34):
have to an advantage, and that's just because your body
acclimates to it. I saw in that Niner Bill game
there were a lot of forty nine Er players that
were slipping on the turf, Yeah, and not a lot
of Bills players that were slipping on the turf. And
the point is is when you're in those environments, you
know exactly what shoes to wear. You know how many
layers that you have to put on in order to
get the job done. So when you have those climates,
(16:57):
that's what you try to play too. I knew for me,
I knew how many hand warmers I needed in my
quarterback pouch per ten degrees. For every ten degrees that
the weather dropped below seventy, I'd put one heat pack.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So if it was you know.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Forty degrees, it would be sixty to fifty forty degrees,
I'd put three heat packs just to keep a consistent
temperature for my hands. So those are all the things
you learn over time, through a lot of trial and there,
through a lot of days in practice. And that's where
you get a home field. So if you're Buffalo or
the Chiefs and you play in this cold weather year round,
you better believe you have an advantage playoff time when
(17:35):
a team that comes from a warmer climate comes and
plays you at your home stadium.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
So I'm watching bo Nicks last night. Now he had
sixty one college starts. That helps a lot. You did
not have this as an advantage. You had a defensive coach,
a defensive culture, do your job. There was some rigidity
to the culture. You were in offensively until Moss arrived
and you broke every record. But I watched Bonnick. You
(18:00):
know what I took from it? Tom last night? My
one takeaway Sean Payton with a lead against Miles Garrett,
had this kid thrown from the end zone and I'm like, wow,
that that there's no babysitting there, Like that's what you
could do. You don't let rookie quarterback. That was my
takeaway was Okay, Sean, totally trust this kid. What was
(18:22):
your takeaway watching them?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
That's a great point. And it's the trust that a
coach has in a player. You can it manifests itself
all the time. I can always tell when I watch
a play caller try to manage a game from the
sideline and he's trying to manage the risk. And when
you have a quarterback where you feel like, you know what,
I know he's going to make the decisions, well, then
you can actually go out there and you don't have
to manage. It's hard to manage a quarterback because you're
(18:45):
in the eye of the storm. On every play you
touched the ball seventy snaps. So when you have a
quarterback that you're trusting was making good decisions, Well, then
you want to give them more opportunities. So and I
see that with a lot of play callers as well,
when they do trust them. Let's spread, let's be an empty,
let me give you five different options. Let me get
you out there on the perimeter to make the throws.
(19:06):
I'm going to have you manage end of game situations.
That takes a great developmental coach, and I would say
Sean Payton certainly is that. He's a phenomenal coach and
a quarterback that wants to embrace that opportunity to learn
a skill set of how to manage a game. Not
just hey, coach, what's to play? Tell me what to do? Coach,
(19:28):
tell me the play? But why are we calling that play?
Why are we in this situation? Why don't we understand
the why behind what we're doing? How do we beat
man coverage, how do we beat zone coverage? Why are
we calling this play in this situation? And then okay,
I understand why you're doing that. So if we don't
get the look we want, I can manage the play
as a quarterback and get to the next down while
(19:50):
still making a positive play.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So Michigan has beaten Ohio State four straight times, and
I do believe one time last year Michigan just had
far better players. They were stacked. But generally I think
Ohio State has an edge in personnel. It can be slight,
but I do feel they they feel more sec than
Big ten the way they recruit, but the difference is definitely.
(20:13):
Michigan's had an identity with Harbaugh early, middle, and late,
and he just handed that identity to his new coach.
Ohio State's talented, but I don't know what they are.
And I think to myself, you've told me this, and
so was Edelman that every Patriot team had a different identity.
I feel like I've been watching Ohio State for five years.
(20:34):
I'm like, yeah, they're talented, what are they? How do
you How did Belichick create it? How do you create
because there's a lot of a lot of coaches can
recruit in college, the great ones, you know, the Urbans
and the Knicks create the identity and recruit. How do
you do it?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
I think a lot of is you define the type
of player that you want, and you define the type
of team you want to build, and then you find
nine players that have those skill sets. Physically and those
values kind of mentally emotionally. Michigan is a very tough,
hard nosed team. They run the ball very well. You know,
they haven't been great throwing the ball. But if I
looked at Ohio State strengths and we says they have
(21:15):
a great seven on seventeen, they got guys that can
throw the ball to in the second half, they don't
even target their best players. So to me, it's like
I may as well been out there playing receiver for
Ohouse State. I can't run, I couldn't catch, but it
doesn't matter if you don't throw me the ball, just
like they didn't throw a lot of their best players
to the ball in the second half of that game.
So whenever we got to big games, let's say the
(21:36):
Super Bowl, you'd say, there's seventy plays left in the game.
In our season, the entire six months of work, seven
months of work is going to come down to seventy plays.
What do we want those seventy plays to look like?
And then you reverse engineer it and you say, okay,
we're gonna want forty passes and thirty runs. Well, what
forty passes do we want? We could design one hundred
(21:57):
and fifty of them if you want. Now, there's one
hundred ten of those that won't get called. So why
don't we just dial it down and dial it back
to the only the specific ones where best players are
going to touch the ball doing the best things that
they do, and we're going to go out like that.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
If we lose, we lose.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
If we win, great, but we're not going to lose
doing things that we don't do well. And I think
the coaches, Coach Belichick would always say coaches lose games
and players win games. And he didn't mean to say
that coaches are not valuable. Coaches need to put their
players in a position to win. They do instruct you,
they give you this is the plan. It's up to
(22:34):
the coach to clearly identify a plan every week about
how you're going to win the game. We would come
in on a Wednesday morning. I thought the best thing
that coach Belichick did, and there was a lot of them,
was he would clearly define for offense, defense, and special teams,
this is how we're going to win the game this week.
Don't worry about last week, don't worry about next week.
(22:55):
This unique challenge, yet we have today or excuse me,
on a Sunday. We're going to deal with that based
on these three or four areas on each side of
the ball and in the kicking game, and if we
execute in these areas, we're going to give ourselves a
great chance to win. It doesn't mean we're guaranteed to win,
and there's times where we can misevaluate what those things are.
(23:16):
I'll never forget we played the Chiefs once and we
doubled I think Travis Kelcey a bunch and not Tyreek Hill.
Maybe the one of the early times we played Tyreek
Hill and he went for like one eighty or two
hundred something crazy. He came in the next day and
he says, hey, guys, we're never doing that again.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
We screwed that up.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
If we play these guys again, we know who we're
going to double, and it's going to be Tyreek Hill.
So it's just you gotta have some formula for what
you're trying to accomplish. What's the bulls eye that we
need to hit and we need to get, you know,
the coaches to deliver that to the players in all
three phases of the game for them to go out there.
So that they have something to hit. And if they
(23:55):
do that and you identify it clearly, I think you
give your team a great chance to win.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
So Nick Wright was on before me and he posed
this question. So, Kansas City's eleven and one and they're
winning by payper thin margins. So of all your teams,
the team that blew people out was the Randy Moss teams.
There's no ring you're three to four team. You were
winning close games, and so this Chiefs team is the
(24:22):
closest to your team. I want you to take me back.
People keep saying, well, the Chiefs are lucky, and I'm like, timeout,
that block field goal, that was coaching, third down efficiency,
that is coaching. I don't want to hear lucked. That's
even Rubik's cubes and roulette. There's some strategy to it. Right.
Did you feel that three to four team? Did you
(24:44):
feel like, you know, what close game, we're winning it.
We're just better than everybody at it.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Definitely I think that, Look, you're gonna have a close games,
You're gonna blowouts. To win the close games is always
the mark of a really good team. To win when
you're not playing your best football is the mark of
a very good team. I just think the Chiefs are
so dangerous because if it's a one score game in
the fourth quarter and Patrick has the ball, he just
(25:10):
he's incredible. He comes, not that he comes like because
he comes to life all day long, but he's so
dangerous because then he has four downs late in the
game where you got to stop him for four downs,
not three, And that's a dangerous aspect for any defense
you have to kind of pull away from. And that
they're a hard you know, it's a hard team to
pull away from because they do such a good job defensively.
(25:31):
So I think when they transition from really this great
offensive team, and I would say when Patrick first started,
they weren't as good on defense. Now they have a
tremendous defense. They got Spags as a phenomenal coach. He's
got them playing well defensively. Patrick is going to manage
the game so well. He's going to throw to the
open guy when the Saria's got Travis out there that
(25:51):
is going to make the right decisions and the big
moments like we've seen time and time again. So they
have a group of players that organization does so many
things the right way. They're going to be tough to
beat in the playoffs. I don't care who they play,
where they plays. It's a lot like the teams that
I played for at the Patriots. If you were going
to beat us, man, you had to beat us. We
weren't going to beat ourselves.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Hey, was vrabel a good sport? When you texted him
after the Michigan win? Did he take it well?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I think that he didn't. Did he?
Speaker 4 (26:21):
I have very little comments on that because a lot
of the times Raves will somehow figure out how to
turn it on you and then you're the you know,
you're the jerk that texted him. So sometimes I lay
back on him. But he's a typical Ohio state guy.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Let me say that.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, they're all the same Tom. Believe me, I've worked
with him. The Michigan guys bring a different level of class.
I'll just say that, there we go.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, great scene.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
You man.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in newon Eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Here we Go are Blazing five.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Let's blaze it up, Fired Up, It's Collins Blazing, Fuck
Falcons and Vikings.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
I'm gonna take Minnesota at home. Lay the five and
a half points. They're a great home team. For their
wins have come by over six points. Top ten in
scoring offense and scoring defense number five this year. Near's
the issue. They are aggressive. They are second in the league
in takeaways, fourth in sacks, and Kirk Cousins for Atlanta
(27:26):
is reeling. He looks old. They'll come after him. In
his last three games zero tds and six picks and
a passer rating in the fifties. I think the Vikings
playing for more and have more momentum thirty three, twenty four.
I like the Vikings to cover Jet said Dolphins, so
(27:49):
I get an offensive coach and a better quarterback with
extra rest. Forget the Packer game. It's cold weather at
home to above sixty degrees. Has a one zero four
passer ring. He's thirty two to ten in games with
warm weather and fifteen and five at home under Mike
McDaniel and the Jets. Aaron Rodgers, like Cousins, looks tired
(28:10):
in the second half shut out against the Seahawks in
the second half. This is a bit of a quarterback mismatch.
Warm weather too at home against aged Aaron Rodgers, and
the Jets, by the way, are a bad road team,
a bad second half offense. And I think again, the
Dolphins playing for more in this spot right like I mean,
(28:32):
they are like Minnesota is looking at it thinking could
we be a number one seed? Miami has to win
just to get into the playoffs. I like the Dolphins
to win and cover twenty seven to seventeen.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Browns at Steelers.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I like Cleveland plus six and a half. That's way
too many points. First of all, they have the number
one offense in the NFL since Jamis Winston became starter.
They will score. Pittsburgh's coming off a hard font road
winning division five straight games decided by one score. And
by the way, the Steers are two and three when
they allowed twenty plus points and Jamis Winston is a starter,
Cleveland scores points. Okay, so I like the Steelers to win.
(29:08):
But you watch that Denver defense that had been fantastic
all year. They got lit up by Cleveland. Cleveland's offensive
personnel and coaching and Jamis he can be crazy, and
the pick sixes. They almost won that game with two
pick sixes. I think the Browns cover. I think the
Steelers win twenty four to twenty three Bills. It rare,
(29:30):
boy do I like the Bills this week minus three
and a half fifteen straight regular season wins in December
or January. They are built, they are deep, They're getting healthier.
They lead the NFL and second half point differential, and
you cannot get to Jared Josh Allen can't get to him,
and the way the Rams can disrupt teams is getting
to the quarterback. Well, Josh Allen didn't get sacked, and
(29:51):
by the way Keon Coleman and Dalton kin Kaid could return,
the Rams have a bigger issue right now. Matt Stafford's
beat up. Not he's well, but he's beat up. He's
struggling on third down and Stafford has the lowest passer
rating in the league, went under pressure, two touchdowns and
five picks. He's got a bad ankle. So I love
(30:12):
Josh Allen and the Bills in this spot. By the way,
he's played them twice and has completed almost eighty percent
of his throws against the Rams. I like the Bills
to win. The crowd will be more than fifty percent
Buffalo fans twenty eight to twenty Bills Chargers at Chiefs.
Bad spot for the Chargers. I'm gonna lay the four
(30:34):
points and take Kansas City. They're six and zero at
home this year, and by the way, in December, January,
and February in the Mahomes era, they're twenty three and
six at home. Good home team. Mahomes over the last
five games is starting to heat up. One hundred passer rating,
sixty eight percent completion percentage. The Chargers offense wasn't good
to start now JK. Dobbins out Lad McConkie not practicing.
(30:56):
This was a reasonably anemic offense. It could be worse.
Maybe they'll hang around for the first half. But they're
one in three against teams with winning records. Anyway, They're
very good. They win the games they should win, but
they don't have the ability to beat excellent teams. And
I like the Chiefs. I'll lay the points to win
twenty seven to seventeen. I think it is It could
(31:18):
be a rough, rough late afternoon for Justin Herbert without
Lad mcconkee. So I like a lot of favorites. I
like the Vikings at home. Vikings right now think they
have a shot to be a number one seed. Dolphins
with extra rest. I think Cleveland's offense will keep this close.
Buffalo is a great December January team, we've seen that,
(31:43):
and Kansas City with a little extra arrest. Andy Reid
off of buy Andy Reid with extra time is money
and the Chargers. The Chargers defense won that game against
the Falcons. It was not their offense.
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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