October 1, 2026 • 42 mins
Colin shares his Blazing 5 picks for week 4 of the NFL season: Colts vs Commanders, Cowboys at Texans, Cardinals at Giants, Broncos at 49ers & Chargers at Seahawks.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Herd Podcast. Be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's Thursday. Don't usually have our blazing five off back-to-back
winning weeks. But I got one of the kids getting
married this weekend, so I am off to Rhode Island
for the weekend. Can't wait. Excited about that. You parents
know the game. And Greg Cosell's around the corner as well. So, listen,
(00:47):
I generally like value in professional games. football betting. I
like good quarterbacks getting points. I've got one of those
this week, but it's a lot of favorites. I bet
more favorites last year than any year of my life.
Had a very good season on Blazing Five, and here
we go this week.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Let's blaze it up. It's Collins Blazing Five.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I've taken the Colts multiple times this season. I'm doing
it again. They're averaging 28 points with Daniel Jones and
Shane Steichen having the second highest. That's the second highest
average by any active quarterback coaching combo. And Daniel Jones
has increased his completion. In fact, Tyler Warren, targets, receptions, yards, receiving,
(01:37):
gone up in every game. They're still trying to find
their running game with Jonathan Taylor. But I like this
coach quarterback combo and Washington's defense. 67 snaps on the
field against the commanders. They're beat up. They've allowed 68
points in the last two weeks. They've got a backup.
Now they're traveling to London. I'm on the Colts this year.
(01:59):
I got them winning and covering 33 to 24. Cowboys
and Texans. My one underdog, I'm going to take Dallas
because of their very proficient offense, plus three against the
Texans who were wobbly. They should have beaten Baltimore. They've
scored on 61% of their drives this year. Leads the NFL.
30 points in back-to-back games. I don't love their staff,
(02:22):
but Javonte Williams, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, having very, very
strong years. I like Dallas here. The Texans, C.J. Stroud
has lost four straight and with a defeat. They can't
get the O-line or the offense right. And their defense,
by the way, opposing quarterbacks this year, 103 passer rating
(02:43):
against the great, vaunted Texans defense. I think the Texans
are wobbling. I think Dallas gave a game away against Baltimore.
They're in a bad mood, and I like them to
win 27-21 outright.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Cardinals and Giants.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's ugly. I'll take Arizona minus two and a half.
The Jameis Winston offense is worse than I thought. Now,
Arizona's coming off back-to-back losses to the Seahawks and Niners,
so you look at that and think they're not very good,
but they have the fewest giveaways in the sport. They're
playing clean football. Jeremiah Love and I think Trey McBride.
I mean, he may be the second best tight end
(03:20):
in football after a Brock Bowers. I like their playmakers
on offense. And I tend to think offensively on third
and fourth down against the Niners, they move the chains.
The Giants offense. Yikes. 20 drives with Jameis Winston. No touchdowns.
Only team held without a touchdown in the last two games.
That's why they went and got reclamation project J.J. McCarthy.
(03:43):
By the way, their pressure rates under 9%. Burns is
now gone for the year. I thought they were going
to be a bit more dynamic offensively. I'm not seeing it.
I like the Cardinals to win and win outright. Too
many playmakers, 28-23. Broncos at 49ers. I really like San
Francisco here. Their offense has scored a touchdown on 13
(04:07):
of their 27 drives. They come out scripted and they
take leads. So they will take a lead on Denver
here at home. They have not allowed a sack on
the offensive line in 83 dropbacks. They are really playing well.
Trent Williams, Mike Evans, they're ready to play. The Broncos, listen,
even in their wins, they trailed by 10 to Jacksonville
(04:28):
and the Rams don't like it. 45% of Denver drives
end up in punts. Don't like it. They can't run
the ball this year. On the road, that is a problem.
I think the 49ers win 27 to 23 in cover.
Chargers at Seahawks. Again, this is a big number and
(04:48):
I don't usually take touchdown favorites. But Seattle has won
eight straight by an average of 12.5 points. And they
dominated Washington in yards. Sam Darnall had a pick six,
but played very well. Their issue this year, they're not
running the football like previous years. But the number three
scoring defense and the number one total defense. And let's
be honest with the Chargers. Lost six straight. Herbert looks confused.
(05:12):
Their offense, the conversion rate on third and fourth down
right now is atrocious. They cannot block. Guard, center, guard. Again,
I got a great team, awful loss. Mike McDonald, you know,
coached them hard in Seattle. One of the tougher places
to play with an offense that can't pick up third
or fourth downs and doesn't really have a dominant one
(05:33):
receiver advantage. I like Seattle to win in cover. It's
a big number seven, but I'm going to take it 31-20.
And again, four favorites, not what I'm prone to do.
Just my vibe. Arizona was a late add. You start
looking at their playmakers and consider who they played. Giants
aren't moving the ball at all. Should have lost to
(05:56):
the Titans. With that, Greg Cosell, 47 years at NFL
Films is joining us. Everybody... Everybody is telling me Drake
Mays done. And I keep saying he lost his best
two receivers last year. AJ Brown lasted 31 snaps. I
like Matt Collins, but he's never had over 50 catches.
(06:16):
A lot of this is his wide receiver grouping right
now is not great. Hunter Henry's a good tight end.
He's not, he's not Brock Bowers is some of this.
Just he's a young quarterback. You're taking pieces, some chess pieces,
three of them now, if you count A.J. Brown injuries, Boutte, Diggs, A.J.
Brown have been taken away from him, and he's not
(06:38):
developed enough to be able to handle that.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, Colin, you know this. We live in a world
now where when a team wins, people automatically say the
quarterback's great. When a team loses, people automatically say the
quarterback stinks.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah. That is....
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So ridiculous. And it's just the easy cop-out way to
talk about quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Now, there's.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Multiple issues with the Patriots' whole item. They have pass
protection problems, especially with individual matchups. They've got receivers who
struggle to separate and win. There's been issues with their
spacing in their route concepts. This all impacts May. And
when you lose a true boundary X receiver, that single
(07:30):
receiver to the short side of the field in three
by one sets that you feel very comfortable throwing the
ball to. So you look at a defense and you go, oh,
I have one on one with a really good receiver.
They don't have that receiver now that A.J. Brown is
on the injured list. So there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Okay, we're going to reconnect to Greg Cosell. This has
never happened with Greg before, but we're going to reconnect.
With the Drake Mays. So his point has been my point.
So they're losing one-on-one blocking battles up front. They're getting
no separation with their wide receivers. Their running backs are good.
Tight end Hunter Henry's good. These are not Brock Bowers.
(08:16):
This is not Christian McCaffrey. So you're talking about a
defensive culture with Vrabel, a tough physical culture, and they're
not very tough and physical up front offensively. And between
Stephon Diggs and Booty last year and A.J. Brown this year,
they don't have anything resembling a one. And so everybody
now is selling. So I think we understand that explanation.
(08:36):
So let's move. I want to move to Lamar Jackson
because I think Dallas gave away the game against the
Baltimore Ravens. So now you've got a new coordinator and
Lamar has had several. He's won MVPs with multiple coordinators.
Zay Flowers, when healthy, is very, very good. How is Lamar?
(08:57):
He's got a rookie coach. He's got a new coordinator.
What is the film telling you?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, first of all, they're a totally different offense that
they've been in years past, Colin. They now play under center.
They're a team that plays at a high percentage under center,
which when you think about their overall offense, not just Lamar,
it makes perfect sense because they have Derrick Henry, And
Derrick Henry is just a physical marvel, but he is
an eye back. He's a back that needs the quarterback
(09:24):
under center. And that's the run game that is most
effective with Derrick Henry. So they've changed their offense. Declan
Doyle has brought that in. And I actually believe that
being under center with your play action pass game really
helps your quarterback as well. Lamar's looked comfortable. We saw
last week, too. It's almost like four or five years
ago with the way he was moving around. So I
think this offense is going to continue to get better
(09:46):
and better. And now with Zay Flowers back, a very overlooked,
really good receiver in this league.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah. Okay. So when Sam Darnold throws a pick six,
because people can't, they can't unsee the jet ears. so
despite Minnesota despite last year in Seattle despite since the
last six games in Carolina absolutely being a top five
six seven quarterback people can't unsee it so he throws
a pick six and people are like there there's Darnold
(10:13):
And I'm like, guys, Stafford's thrown 33 of those. I
thought Sam played well. I think their problem is they're
not running the football like they did in the playoffs.
So it's a different thing, a different feel for them.
They're third and long more. What were you seeing in
Darnold's return?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
There's nothing wrong with Darnold at all. I mean, he
threw the pick six. He didn't see the player. They
scored 30 points, if I'm not mistaken. The only difference
last week was they didn't push the ball down the
field the way they normally do, which is not necessarily
a function of Darnold. They just didn't have those big
explosive plays that pretty much they get every week in
the passing game because it's built that way. But that
(10:51):
just didn't happen last week. But there's nothing wrong with
Sam Darnold. I think Darnold played a really good football
a week ago. First of all, I think he had
45 pass attempts, and that's not the way they want
to play. And they didn't run the ball as well
as they would like. Obviously, the rookie, Judarian Price, has
not yet really developed into the player they hoped when
they drafted him with the last pick in the first round.
(11:13):
And I think he will over time, and they hope
that he will. But they've got a very good O-line,
and the interior of the O-line has been very good.
So there's nothing wrong with this offense, and there's nothing
wrong with Darnold.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Okay, there's something wrong in Philadelphia because I've said, I mean,
whether you like Jalen Hurts or not, Sirianni appears to
be very dependent on the coordinator. If it works, it works.
If it doesn't, you know, Kellen Moore works, the next
guy doesn't. But this is two or three years. This
is at least the last 20, 25 games for Eagle
fans where it feels like it's Groundhog Day. It's three
(11:48):
and out, out of halftime, three and out, three and out,
three and out, five and pick. It's like, There's too
much talent here. Or are we overvaluing their offensive talent?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Well, I think you're dealing with this. I mean, you know,
you've been doing this a long time. Were you great
at your job on your third day of work? Probably not,
just like I wasn't. So Sean Mannion was in his
third day of real work as an offensive coordinator, and
he went up against a defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, who's
been doing this for close to 30 years and who
most offensive coordinators in the league think is one of
(12:20):
the absolute best. And Allen put together a game plan approach,
not the first time anybody's ever done it, but every
game is its own entity. where he showed six or seven,
sometimes eight people on the ball, okay? It's in pressure fronts.
So now you've got to account for all that. But
what he did is then he would drop people out,
so he changed the picture pre-snap to post-snap, and the
(12:43):
Eagles never really had an answer for that. Now, there
have been times in the past that the Eagles have
had answers for that, and Jalen Hurts has been the quarterback.
But in this given game, they did not have an
answer for that. So you had the veteran defensive coordinator
against essentially a rookie offensive coordinator, and they just throughout
the game did not have the answers for what Dennis
Allen was presenting to them. I don't think that means
(13:05):
that the Eagles are not going to be any good
over the next four, five, six, seven weeks. Sean Manning
will continue to learn.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Okay, I've said if the Jaguars, if Liam Cohen was
coaching in New York or Chicago or a big market,
we would be like, this guy's a wizard. Trevor Lawrence,
who I like more than you out of college, was
really wobbling. He was turnover heavy. I loved him, and
I was like, I'm not sure if this is ever
(13:32):
going to be great. And in the last year and
a half, you're like, oh, this is the best version
of him. What has he unlocked recently? With Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, one of the things that I look at when
I watch quarterbacks is when they drop back, are they
delivering the ball with decisiveness? And Lawrence used to get
stuck in the pocket and now he does not now.
And this is a big function of the coaching. Now,
based on the route concepts and I'm sure the anticipation
of what coverage they're going to see, now Lawrence is
(14:06):
understanding when he drops back. Quarterbacks have to learn that
they don't have to understand everything about a coverage. They
just need to understand certain things based on the play call.
They don't have to look at seven people. They have
to look at maybe two people, three at the very most.
And I think Lawrence, through Liam Cohen, is understanding that.
And now he's very decisive when he drops back and
(14:28):
he delivers the football. And by the way, Parker Washington,
we'll be talking about him a lot as this season
goes on. I looked at him in detail this summer.
And I came away believing that this guy was a
really big time receiver and he is their volume target.
And that will continue throughout the year.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
He, we talked about this last week on the show.
Parker Washington is the most underrated football player in the
entire league. He's an incredible athlete. Listen, I said before
the season, this is the first time in 20 years
I was fired up about the Raiders, but I also
had a low ceiling. It's Kirk Cousins. He's right. The,
the old line last year was a mess and, And
(15:04):
here comes an offensive coach. They got the O-line cleaned up.
They get Tyler Linderbaum. Now they're moving Brock Bowers out.
You know, now he's a wide receiver. He is a weapon.
And I watch him and I'm like, you know what?
I'm not sure if the Chiefs beat him. To me,
this is a legitimate 3-0. I think that win in
New Orleans was impressive. What to you has been QBX
(15:26):
kind of secret sauce?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Well, I think we would both agree that when you
play with a professional quarterback, everything about your offense changes.
And they're playing with a professional quarterback. And then there's
Brock Bowers. Brock Bowers changes the equation totally for them
because Brock Bowers is essentially a receiver, not a tight end,
not a wide receiver. He's a receiver. And you can
line him up anywhere, including that single receiver to the
(15:49):
short side of the field. And when you have a
tight end that can do that, because he's technically a
tight end, he's treated like a tight end in terms
of personnel by defenses. That really gives the quarterback a
very clear pre-snap read as to how the defense is playing.
and he changes that dynamic totally. Now, they haven't gotten
their run game going yet, which is interesting because they're
(16:10):
playing well on offense, but Jenty has not really gotten
going yet. He did have a good game a couple
of weeks ago, but they're struggling to find consistency, a
sustaining element with their run game, which I imagine will come. Now,
they're getting a lot of turnovers on defense. You can't
necessarily count on those, but I think that when you
play with Kirk Cousins, you know that you're going to
be able to execute an offense, and he's very, very
(16:33):
familiar with that Kubiak offense.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, Minnesota's offense has been anemic, but it's Brian Flores.
I mean, I looked at the NFL leaders in pressures
this year, and Minnesota's off the charts.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It's crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I mean, he's the most aggressive defensive coordinator. I don't
even like it with his schemes.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, and he's an anomaly, Colin, because he's a high
pressure coordinator, a very high blitz percentage, but not very
much man coverage behind it. Normally, those two things go together.
What Flores does is he pressures at a high rate,
as we said, but he plays predominantly zone concepts behind it.
And that's a really hard thing to teach because guys
(17:20):
have to understand exactly where to go when they drop out. So,
for instance, he might rush five, rush six, but then
the five guys that are in coverage, they have to
cover a lot of area. So sometimes there are voids
in the coverage. and he's counting on the pressure to
impact the quarterback and speed him up. And that's why
every once in a while they'll give up a big
play because they're not matching up man to man. So
(17:43):
he's really dependent on the pressure. But again, it's like
we spoke about a moment ago with Dennis Allen and
the Bears. You have to account for people in protection
when there's six or seven people on the ball. You
can't make assumptions about who will come and who won't
come because then you get free hitters at the quarterback.
So it's very hard to play against. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Like motion. They play the league average and spread is 14%.
They're doing 40. I had talked to Robert Mays last
week and he's like, it's a little bit of an
outdated offense relative to what you see from the Shanahan's
McVeigh's and others and Kevin O'Connell or all the top,
you know, Liam Cohen. But my take was I watched
them against Cincinnati and they had big chunk plays and
(18:28):
it was open guys. Now, some of that is Cincinnati
is a poor tackling team. They were last year. They
looked like it this year. What did you see from Aaron?
We don't see a lot of chunk plays with this
offense this year until Sunday.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, and sometimes chunk plays are not a result of
the fact that they've changed a philosophy. The first touchdown
to Wilson, I remember that well. They were in a
bunch formation. The Bengals were in man coverage, and Wilson
just beat the slot corner, Jalen Davis. He just beat
him off the ball. It was a well-designed bunch concept,
but the touchdown that really I enjoyed because it was schematic.
(19:04):
And I think that's one of the things that you'd
like to see them do a lot more of the
schematic element. And that's the Skoronic touchdown. And obviously he's
not one of their big volume target guys, but that's
the play I chose this week because schematically it's beautiful.
And we can go to that play right now was
the Skoronic touchdown. I believe it was their second touchdown
of the game. And it was, you know, first down
(19:27):
and they go play action and notice that Rogers is
under center and So let's just kind of break this down.
You know, and the important thing, Rodgers under center, more
and more teams in the league doing that. Notice the
bunch formation now to the field, the wide side of
the field. They did a lot of these bunch formations
this past week against the Bengals. Now Skoranek is going
to motion basically into the backfield. More and more teams
(19:50):
are doing this kind of motion as well. Now he's
going to end up working through the formation. He's going
to work between the tight end and the tackle. And
what that does is it makes it look like lead
block run action and it impacts the linebacker and the
safety of So what's going to happen? You can see
the play action right here. And look at those two defenders,
(20:11):
the linebacker and the safety. Look at them attack what
clearly looks like run. Now, the safety is the most
important player here. Battle Jordan battle because he's got to
deal with Skoranek. But he stepped up. His eyes were
in the backfield. His eyes told him it was run.
And then you get the touchdown. So this is a
beautifully designed schematic play. And I think we'll need to
(20:32):
see more of this. You know, the one thing when
you watch this offense, and I don't know how you feel,
but DJ Metcalf is just kind of a week-to-week player
for all the size and talent and speed that he has.
It just doesn't seem like he's, and again, I don't
know if it's the way they play. If it's him,
I can't answer that. But it would seem to me
that he should be more a part of the passing
(20:53):
game on a week-to-week basis.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yep, completely, absolutely agree. We've discussed that for multiple weeks
as well. Greg Cosell, 47 years, NFL Films, as always, Greg,
great stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, his take on Drake May at the very top,
I know there was some dropout, is basically they're losing
pass-blocking battles up front, so he has less time to throw.
He's lost three receivers from last year. There's no separation,
and their run game's hit and miss, and you're a
young quarterback. It's like Justin Herbert did not forget how
(21:26):
to play football, but when you can't block guard, center, guard,
and you're losing through the A-gap, even for a 6'5 quarterback,
and you don't have a number one receiver. Herbert and
Drake may don't have a number one, and both have
interior own lines that are struggling. And both run games
are okay. Hmm. And they both have culture coaches. Vrabel Harbaugh,
(21:47):
not offensive schematic geniuses.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Like, so it's kind of the same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Speaker 6 (22:01):
Stugatz here, pleased to be hosting college football with Stugatz
and the Bear. We do it two times a week,
every Monday, every single Friday throughout the college football season.
You can expect a little bit of this. Will Stein,
the head coach at Kentucky, joins us. Open bar at
a wedding, ordering a Shirley Temple.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Will or will not?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
No.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Will not.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Ketchup on steak, will or will not?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Will not. Thank you.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
A little bit of this.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Rhys Davis, host of College Game Day, is with us now.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And then I'm going home to the BBC, and they're
saying Jockovich instead of Jokovich. Right, because you can't say Jockovich.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
If you do, you know the blowback you're going to
get from the American audience.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Right.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
And a whole lot of this. Listen to college football
with Stugatz and the Bear on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So yesterday in Illinois, leaders of the college football playoff,
the CFP, continued to discuss a 24 team playoff model,
which I am for 16 to 24. And I've said
this before. I love college football, but college football has
always been an antique store. of a bunch of stuff
(23:22):
cobbled together, disparate things, where that has much more sentimental
value than actually real value. Weird rivalries, an awful September,
cringy bowl games, increasingly useless championship games. It's just a mess.
So stop telling me that your parochial antique store is
(23:44):
what the NFL is, which is an Apple store. Great product. efficient,
and easy to follow. And I'll give you an example
of what college football is. Right now, it's just a
bunch of stuff cobbled together. September is silly season. The
top eight teams in September won by an average of
33 points. You really think that's good sports? You really think?
(24:09):
There were 118 games in September. That were decided by
over 30 points. September's nonsense. It's silly season. October, November,
great regular season. December, really increasingly unnecessary conference championships. December
(24:29):
is rando bowl games that nobody's watching or going to.
And a college football playoff. The 24-team playoff, where you
get more immediately into conference schedule, would mostly clean up September,
and here's what college football would look like. A great
regular season and a great playoff. But, Colin, the rivalries,
(24:52):
oh my God, they're so overstated. Last week, Ohio State
beat Illinois, and I'm not joking when I say this,
I'm going to read this, for the Illabuck Trophy.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I know.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Pinch me. Tell me it's real. This week, Michigan's playing
Minnesota for the little brown jug. Heart palpitations. I mean,
it's October. What is it today? The 1st of October?
And what have we been saying about Notre Dame, Miami,
and Georgia? Well, they haven't played anybody yet. We're four
weeks into the season. How is that possible? That's good sports. So, again...
(25:29):
You're trying to sell me on this antique store, which
has way more sentimental value than real value. The numbers
are down in September because we have lousy games, right?
And now they're on so many different channels. There used
to be this show called The Antiques Roadshow, and it
went on for 19 years, and they would hold it
in civic centers. And the ratings started coming down. It
(25:51):
didn't feel special. And then they put it in these
historic sites, and it lasted another, like, six, seven, eight,
nine years. So if the antiques roadshow can change venues,
college football can change its antique store a little. Like,
you keep telling me, and all these great rivalries matter. Folks,
they just don't. I mean, they just don't matter. Texas,
(26:14):
Tennessee last weekend got a monster number. Why? Because it's
new and fresh. It's new and fresh. A Big 12
team in the SEC, and it's great, and it's new,
and it's awesome. A couple years ago, was it last year,
when Ohio State's going out west to play Oregon in
a conference game? Massive number. I'm sorry, but these games,
(26:36):
they're great. I mean, I don't know. They're special. I
still get great Oregon games. USC, I still get Michigan,
Ohio State, but to me, we're falling in love with
stuff that's just sentimental over any real value. So I
am for more of an NFL feeling college football, which
(26:58):
is fantastic. Get into the conference play immediately. Great regular season.
None of the nonsense games. Let the G6 teams play
amongst themselves. Boom into a playoff. And, yeah, it feels
a little more pro. We are paying players anyway, so
it is pro football to some degree. J-Mac with the news.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
Turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
This is the Herdline News.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
Let's go back to the NFL. Green Bay and Tampa
Bay is a strangely fun game on Sunday. The Bucs
are winless, but the Packers are in shambles because they
can't protect Jordan Love. Colin, a great stat here. The
Packers have allowed the most quick pressures. Quick pressure is
a pressure under two and a half seconds, meaning the
ball is snapped and Jordan Love is running for his life. Listen,
(27:42):
this is not great. Jordan Love talked about the situation
with this crumbling offensive line this week.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You always need time.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
The more time you have, the better you're able to
pick apart the defense and find those completions.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
So that's with anything. You always want time. Obviously, there's
times you might not have time.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
You've got to find those answers. But like I talked about,
that's an area that we've got to improve on is
in pass pro, just making sure we're going to the
right people and sustaining blocks for as long as we can,
giving you some time to be able to pick the
defense apart, and obviously something that we need to improve on.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Okay, so think about this, J-Mac. Here's four quarterbacks who
we have seen be very good. They're all struggling. Jordan Love,
Drake May, Justin Herbert, and CJ Stroud. What do all
four have in common? Bad O-line play. What a shocker.
And in the Chargers and the New England case, they
don't have a number one receiver. Now, Green Bay does
(28:40):
with Christian Watson, and Golden is a very, very good player.
They have two really good receivers. Reed now has banged
up that Hurst. They don't have a run game. But
my take is, what a shock where four quarterbacks, and
I would say Herbert's not young anymore, but Stroud, Love,
and May are pretty young, pretty young. battle line play.
I mean, you're getting pressure. Think about how quick this is. 1,001, 1,002, boom,
(29:06):
somebody's on you. Well, no kidding, Jordan loves struggling.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Right?
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Yeah. So, you know, Todd Bowles likes to dial up
the blitzes. So this could be good news for Love
this weekend. Tampa is blitzing at the third most rate
in the league. They're blitzing all the time, but their
pressure rate is only 22nd in the league. So it's
not getting home. So the pressure's not there. They're leaving
their back end wide open. This could be a Jordan
Love game this weekend, Colin. I did not put Packers
(29:33):
in headlines, but I like Green Bay here. I know
three and a half's a big number. Everybody's gravitating toward
the backup quarter. People who are starting are 6-0, I think.
Backup quarterbacks are 6-0 this season. Wentz, you had the guy,
Case Keenum, a bunch of them. Jalen Daniels, getting the start.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Okay, but a lot of those backups have offensive coaches.
This is Todd Poles.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
You're not going to fall for the trap.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
All right, let's move on.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
This is an interesting one they found, okay? So Jared
Goff is an Ironman. He does not come out of games.
He does not miss games. There's a huge article today.
I just started reading it about how all these quarterbacks
are getting injured at a crazy rate. Colin, through three weeks,
these are the quarterbacks who have missed games. Jackson Dart,
Jaden Daniels, Baker, Darnold, Caleb Williams, Kyler Murray. They all
(30:21):
have something in common, right? They're running quarterbacks. Jared Goff
is tough.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
He's durable. He doesn't run.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Here's Dan Campbell talking about his star quarterback.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
He's durable. He's tough.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
He's resistant, resilient. And he just, he's been that way.
He's really been that way his whole career. You got
to be tough at that position. And our guy is.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
It says a ton. I remember I didn't watch him
a lot at Cal because Cal with Jared Goff wasn't great.
But he started two or three years. And Cal isn't
known for having dominant offensive line play. And I watched
Jared Goff get the you-know-what kicked out of him in
a couple of games. He didn't get hurt in college
that I remember either. He's just one of those dad
(31:03):
baseball players. He's got good genetics. He's a tough kid.
You look at him and you're like, oh, he's kind
of tall and thin. And also, guys get... He moves
well in the pocket. You know, it was like Brady,
like there are quarterbacks. Stafford, I think moves pretty well
in the pocket too. Like it's not just running. It's
just avoiding pressure, stepping up. And he's, you know, he's
(31:25):
got a lot of snaps. He played, I think he
started three years in college. He's got a lot of
snaps in his career. So he's got a real self-awareness
and sense of the pocket. and you know it shows
he gets out when's the last time he doesn't get
smoked very often you and i talked about jackson dart
even in the preseason just gets absolutely smoked jared goff
(31:46):
doesn't get hit like that very often that's part of
his secret you.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
Know historically he's had a good offensive line but it
is interesting colin all these coaches want mobile quarterbacks now
yeah They want him a Holmes. I want you to
be able to win from the pocket, but also run,
keep the defense on their toes. And you can create unscripted.
The problem is these running quarterbacks are getting hurt. Now,
people will say, well, Jay, you know, Jayden Daniels got
hurt falling backwards on a snap. That was fluky.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
No, he runs a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Would you I think you would agree with this.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
It's almost like every if every.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Quarterback is running and they're all getting hurt. I almost
want to gravitate back toward the pocket guy. It's a
tough one because they're limited. Goff and Stafford are not going.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
To move with their legs. The reason I like Bo
Nix moves a lot, I think in the first three
years of your career, before the game slows down, because
the NFL game is so much faster than college, I
think in the first three years, moving and picking up
first downs with your feet is huge. And then I
think by mid-year three, year four, Mahomes, Russell Wilson will
(32:47):
tell you, the light goes on, the game slows down,
So the key with Goff is he got a great
left tackle, a great run game with Gurley and McVay.
So as he was learning, he had the master. He
had McVay and Whitworth and Cooper Cup. And so he
had an offense that was highly functional. But I do
like the ability to move. I mean, if Bo Nix
(33:07):
didn't scramble, I don't know if he'd make the league
right now. His legs are huge in the second half
of games. So, you know, Goff got lucky that, as
you noted, he got McVay, Whitworth, Gurley, Kopp.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
It was like Ben Johnson really helped him early. Yeah.
And then he doesn't have Ben Johnson last year. They
missed the playoffs. I'm actually bullish on the Lions here.
I like them on Sunday night. It's just weird seeing Lions, Panthers,
Sunday night football.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Hey, Panthers, I'll support them. Fun watch. Three? They have
between Waller and their three receivers. They got a basketball team, dude.
They are big.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I'm waiting on the injury report on those receivers today.
Final story is your guy Bo Nix, Colin. He has
been anemic in the first quarter. I mean, goodness gracious,
they have zero points in the first quarter. Just 10
in the first half. Fewest in the NFL. Now here's
where it gets bad. Bo Nix under pressure.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
You ready for this?
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Nine for 27 for 65 yards.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Two interceptions.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
He's not handling the blitz well, and the media asked
him about it.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Here's both.
Speaker 9 (34:09):
You can always improve just by seeing it, but I
think we've done a great job of picking it up.
We very rarely have free blitzers. Sometimes they bring the house,
and you know you're going to have one extra, but
we've gotten to our blitz answers. We've seen the blitzes,
and I feel like we've actually done a really good
job of not letting the blitz sort of hurt us.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Yeah, he is.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I think San Francisco is one of my favorite plays
of the weekend.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
Well, I don't want to give away too much, save
some for headlines in an hour. But yeah, Bo Nix
against a 49ers defense.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Now, it's tough.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I don't know, Colin.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
They're getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback without blitzing.
But is that because they faced the Dolphins in Arizona
in back-to-back weeks? Or is this defense good? The injury's
starting to mount. You know, it's not a great feeling
when you're looking.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
For the injury report.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
How's Mike Evans?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
How's Trent Williams? Well, that's been the story of the
Niners for seven years.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
And yet here's Bo Nix just soldiering on like the
superstar that he is. Bo Nix versus Brock Purdy. Somebody
is going to be here Monday morning licking his wounds.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You or me, it's one of us. Jay Mack with
the news.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Well, that's the news.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
And thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
The Herdline News.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
The numbers, the math are in, and it is devastating
for some of these coaches next.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
Sunday, it's a great day of NFL action on Fox
as Matthew Stafford and the Rams take on Jalen Hurts
and the Eagles or Dak and the Cowboys face the
Texans or other regional action. It's all part of Foxtoberfest
Sunday on Fox.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Unbelievable early window. Best early window of the season. It's
not a very good college football weekend. It is a
great Sunday morning early window. So every team in the
NFL that's 3-0 right now has an offensive coach. Four
of the five teams that are 0-3 have a defensive coach.
And I looked this morning, eight for eight in the NFL.
(36:21):
Offensive coaches either lead their division outright or are tied
for the lead. Eight for eight. So it's similar to like,
If you have a big budget movie, you could hire
an indie film director, and it may work, and it has,
but it's an outlier. I feel like the defensive coaches
(36:44):
that work, I've been talking about this, what quarterbacks are
struggling right now that we know are good? C.J. Stroud,
Drake May. I don't think it's a coincidence. And I
went this morning, and I looked at the seven quarterbacks
Last seven, like hottest offensive coordinator in the league that
got hired. The last seven, Liam Cohen, home run. Ben
(37:07):
Johnson looks like a home run. Kevin O'Connell working. Dave
Canales working. Save Bryce Young. Kellen Moore, Clint Kubiak 3-0,
and Joe Brady. That feels like seven for seven on me.
I'm not saying you can't nail the defensive coordinator, but
But when that defensive coordinator loses a great or that
(37:28):
defensive coach loses a great offensive coordinator, cross your fingers.
And I think the most impressive team is the Raiders.
They're hosting the Chiefs. That was a lopsided cultural mismatch
for a long time. But I think the Raiders have
a shot. Now, again, Andy Reid indoors, Patrick Mahomes indoors.
(37:51):
Good luck. Greg Cosell this hour on what he is
seeing from the 3-0 Raiders.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
When you play with a professional quarterback, everything about your
offense changes. And they're playing with a professional quarterback. And
then there's Brock Bowers. Brock Bowers changes the equation totally
for them because Brock Bowers is essentially a receiver, not
a tight end, not a wide receiver.
Speaker 8 (38:12):
He's a receiver and you can line him up anywhere.
And when you play with Kirk Cousins, you know that
you're going to be able to execute an offense. And
he's very, very, very, very familiar with that Kubiak offense.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Just think about how special, and we can put video
up of Brock Bowers, um, Eight catches for a hundred
yards and a touchdown detached from the O-line. 74% of
his snaps detached from the O-line. Brock Bowers now is
a wide receiver who's 6'6 and 250, who can block.
(38:45):
So he is a, I mean, I was watching last
week and like he is beating corners down the field.
The six, I mean, he's pushing them off. That is
a huge, huge, and nothing against Antonio Pierce or a
Pete Carroll, the last two coaches who were defensive guys,
but there's just a vibe and a feel right now.
(39:05):
to the Raiders offensively that they'll just figure out how
to make things work. I mean, Cousins doesn't have, they're
not perfect. They're not running the ball great. I think
Mike Washington in the fourth round was a steal. Kirk
Cousins isn't real nimble. So their rush game and their
lack of mobility at the quarterback probably limits them. But
when you watch the Raiders play, that win in New Orleans,
(39:26):
that was a big-time win. New Orleans went to Baltimore
and pushed the Ravens around, and they should have beaten Detroit.
Detroit's a good team. So Kansas City going to have
their hands full, although Mahomes, now with Kenneth Walker, has
a play-action pass game where he's 22-24 and he just–
He's never had that. All right, here's the week four schedule.
(39:48):
Early window is absolutely sensational. Don't go golf. If you're
going to watch pro football, get in early. Jets at Bears. Remember,
Bears short week coming off a wild win. Jets are
in play defensively much better. Rams, Eagles, fantastic. Puka's going
to play. Green Bay, Tampa, that is desperation time for
(40:11):
the Packers. Dallas, Houston, fantastic. Dallas has a shot here
to win three in a row. They got three wobbly
teams in a row. Then you get New England at Buffalo.
You think it's closer. I'm not sure it will be. Jacksonville,
Cincinnati could be the game of the day. So the
early window is sensational.
Speaker 5 (40:32):
Hey, let's go to Jets-Bears. I'll tell you why in
a second. What was your breakdown of that? So it's
currently Bears minus three at home.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
I think it's actually because you watch Monday Night Football,
the world will come in on Chicago. It is a
short week. It's a celebration week. The Jets are ugly.
They ugly the game down. But New York is young, twitchy,
and athletic. And I watched them against Green Bay. They
move really well. well sideline to sideline um i think
(41:01):
the jets are not going to win a bunch of
games they may win four games they'll be in a
lot of game i think cleveland is the same story
but i think they'll win more games i think the
jets will be in a lot of games this year
interesting okay why what's your vibe I initially.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
Was like, I'm staying away. The model says Bears minus three,
and this will go to three and a half when
Bajan is officially announced as the starter. That's the projection. Apparently,
there's some injuries on the Jets. The second back-to-back trips
to the Midwest, the Jets just went to play Detroit,
then had to go home, now back to the Midwest. Uh,
and apparently, you know, Ben Johnson could do no wrong.
(41:41):
He is a genius at this point. And, um, I
don't know, Colin, I'm trying to look this up. I
can't find it. Can you think of a coach who
has had in the first four weeks, three different quarterbacks
start and win all their games, Caleb, Bajan and Keenum.
That would have to be historical stuff.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah.
Thanks for listening to the Herd Podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and
noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find
your local station for the Herd at foxsportsradio.com or stream
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Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's Thursday. Don't usually have our blazing five off back-to-back
winning weeks. But I got one of the kids getting
married this weekend, so I am off to Rhode Island
for the weekend. Can't wait. Excited about that. You parents
know the game. And Greg Cosell's around the corner as well. So, listen,
(00:47):
I generally like value in professional games. football betting. I
like good quarterbacks getting points. I've got one of those
this week, but it's a lot of favorites. I bet
more favorites last year than any year of my life.
Had a very good season on Blazing Five, and here
we go this week.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Let's blaze it up. It's Collins Blazing Five.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I've taken the Colts multiple times this season. I'm doing
it again. They're averaging 28 points with Daniel Jones and
Shane Steichen having the second highest. That's the second highest
average by any active quarterback coaching combo. And Daniel Jones
has increased his completion. In fact, Tyler Warren, targets, receptions, yards, receiving,
(01:37):
gone up in every game. They're still trying to find
their running game with Jonathan Taylor. But I like this
coach quarterback combo and Washington's defense. 67 snaps on the
field against the commanders. They're beat up. They've allowed 68
points in the last two weeks. They've got a backup.
Now they're traveling to London. I'm on the Colts this year.
(01:59):
I got them winning and covering 33 to 24. Cowboys
and Texans. My one underdog, I'm going to take Dallas
because of their very proficient offense, plus three against the
Texans who were wobbly. They should have beaten Baltimore. They've
scored on 61% of their drives this year. Leads the NFL.
30 points in back-to-back games. I don't love their staff,
(02:22):
but Javonte Williams, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, having very, very
strong years. I like Dallas here. The Texans, C.J. Stroud
has lost four straight and with a defeat. They can't
get the O-line or the offense right. And their defense,
by the way, opposing quarterbacks this year, 103 passer rating
(02:43):
against the great, vaunted Texans defense. I think the Texans
are wobbling. I think Dallas gave a game away against Baltimore.
They're in a bad mood, and I like them to
win 27-21 outright.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Cardinals and Giants.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's ugly. I'll take Arizona minus two and a half.
The Jameis Winston offense is worse than I thought. Now,
Arizona's coming off back-to-back losses to the Seahawks and Niners,
so you look at that and think they're not very good,
but they have the fewest giveaways in the sport. They're
playing clean football. Jeremiah Love and I think Trey McBride.
I mean, he may be the second best tight end
(03:20):
in football after a Brock Bowers. I like their playmakers
on offense. And I tend to think offensively on third
and fourth down against the Niners, they move the chains.
The Giants offense. Yikes. 20 drives with Jameis Winston. No touchdowns.
Only team held without a touchdown in the last two games.
That's why they went and got reclamation project J.J. McCarthy.
(03:43):
By the way, their pressure rates under 9%. Burns is
now gone for the year. I thought they were going
to be a bit more dynamic offensively. I'm not seeing it.
I like the Cardinals to win and win outright. Too
many playmakers, 28-23. Broncos at 49ers. I really like San
Francisco here. Their offense has scored a touchdown on 13
(04:07):
of their 27 drives. They come out scripted and they
take leads. So they will take a lead on Denver
here at home. They have not allowed a sack on
the offensive line in 83 dropbacks. They are really playing well.
Trent Williams, Mike Evans, they're ready to play. The Broncos, listen,
even in their wins, they trailed by 10 to Jacksonville
(04:28):
and the Rams don't like it. 45% of Denver drives
end up in punts. Don't like it. They can't run
the ball this year. On the road, that is a problem.
I think the 49ers win 27 to 23 in cover.
Chargers at Seahawks. Again, this is a big number and
(04:48):
I don't usually take touchdown favorites. But Seattle has won
eight straight by an average of 12.5 points. And they
dominated Washington in yards. Sam Darnall had a pick six,
but played very well. Their issue this year, they're not
running the football like previous years. But the number three
scoring defense and the number one total defense. And let's
be honest with the Chargers. Lost six straight. Herbert looks confused.
(05:12):
Their offense, the conversion rate on third and fourth down
right now is atrocious. They cannot block. Guard, center, guard. Again,
I got a great team, awful loss. Mike McDonald, you know,
coached them hard in Seattle. One of the tougher places
to play with an offense that can't pick up third
or fourth downs and doesn't really have a dominant one
(05:33):
receiver advantage. I like Seattle to win in cover. It's
a big number seven, but I'm going to take it 31-20.
And again, four favorites, not what I'm prone to do.
Just my vibe. Arizona was a late add. You start
looking at their playmakers and consider who they played. Giants
aren't moving the ball at all. Should have lost to
(05:56):
the Titans. With that, Greg Cosell, 47 years at NFL
Films is joining us. Everybody... Everybody is telling me Drake
Mays done. And I keep saying he lost his best
two receivers last year. AJ Brown lasted 31 snaps. I
like Matt Collins, but he's never had over 50 catches.
(06:16):
A lot of this is his wide receiver grouping right
now is not great. Hunter Henry's a good tight end.
He's not, he's not Brock Bowers is some of this.
Just he's a young quarterback. You're taking pieces, some chess pieces,
three of them now, if you count A.J. Brown injuries, Boutte, Diggs, A.J.
Brown have been taken away from him, and he's not
(06:38):
developed enough to be able to handle that.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, Colin, you know this. We live in a world
now where when a team wins, people automatically say the
quarterback's great. When a team loses, people automatically say the
quarterback stinks.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah. That is....
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So ridiculous. And it's just the easy cop-out way to
talk about quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Now, there's.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Multiple issues with the Patriots' whole item. They have pass
protection problems, especially with individual matchups. They've got receivers who
struggle to separate and win. There's been issues with their
spacing in their route concepts. This all impacts May. And
when you lose a true boundary X receiver, that single
(07:30):
receiver to the short side of the field in three
by one sets that you feel very comfortable throwing the
ball to. So you look at a defense and you go, oh,
I have one on one with a really good receiver.
They don't have that receiver now that A.J. Brown is
on the injured list. So there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Okay, we're going to reconnect to Greg Cosell. This has
never happened with Greg before, but we're going to reconnect.
With the Drake Mays. So his point has been my point.
So they're losing one-on-one blocking battles up front. They're getting
no separation with their wide receivers. Their running backs are good.
Tight end Hunter Henry's good. These are not Brock Bowers.
(08:16):
This is not Christian McCaffrey. So you're talking about a
defensive culture with Vrabel, a tough physical culture, and they're
not very tough and physical up front offensively. And between
Stephon Diggs and Booty last year and A.J. Brown this year,
they don't have anything resembling a one. And so everybody
now is selling. So I think we understand that explanation.
(08:36):
So let's move. I want to move to Lamar Jackson
because I think Dallas gave away the game against the
Baltimore Ravens. So now you've got a new coordinator and
Lamar has had several. He's won MVPs with multiple coordinators.
Zay Flowers, when healthy, is very, very good. How is Lamar?
(08:57):
He's got a rookie coach. He's got a new coordinator.
What is the film telling you?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, first of all, they're a totally different offense that
they've been in years past, Colin. They now play under center.
They're a team that plays at a high percentage under center,
which when you think about their overall offense, not just Lamar,
it makes perfect sense because they have Derrick Henry, And
Derrick Henry is just a physical marvel, but he is
an eye back. He's a back that needs the quarterback
(09:24):
under center. And that's the run game that is most
effective with Derrick Henry. So they've changed their offense. Declan
Doyle has brought that in. And I actually believe that
being under center with your play action pass game really
helps your quarterback as well. Lamar's looked comfortable. We saw
last week, too. It's almost like four or five years
ago with the way he was moving around. So I
think this offense is going to continue to get better
(09:46):
and better. And now with Zay Flowers back, a very overlooked,
really good receiver in this league.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah. Okay. So when Sam Darnold throws a pick six,
because people can't, they can't unsee the jet ears. so
despite Minnesota despite last year in Seattle despite since the
last six games in Carolina absolutely being a top five
six seven quarterback people can't unsee it so he throws
a pick six and people are like there there's Darnold
(10:13):
And I'm like, guys, Stafford's thrown 33 of those. I
thought Sam played well. I think their problem is they're
not running the football like they did in the playoffs.
So it's a different thing, a different feel for them.
They're third and long more. What were you seeing in
Darnold's return?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
There's nothing wrong with Darnold at all. I mean, he
threw the pick six. He didn't see the player. They
scored 30 points, if I'm not mistaken. The only difference
last week was they didn't push the ball down the
field the way they normally do, which is not necessarily
a function of Darnold. They just didn't have those big
explosive plays that pretty much they get every week in
the passing game because it's built that way. But that
(10:51):
just didn't happen last week. But there's nothing wrong with
Sam Darnold. I think Darnold played a really good football
a week ago. First of all, I think he had
45 pass attempts, and that's not the way they want
to play. And they didn't run the ball as well
as they would like. Obviously, the rookie, Judarian Price, has
not yet really developed into the player they hoped when
they drafted him with the last pick in the first round.
(11:13):
And I think he will over time, and they hope
that he will. But they've got a very good O-line,
and the interior of the O-line has been very good.
So there's nothing wrong with this offense, and there's nothing
wrong with Darnold.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Okay, there's something wrong in Philadelphia because I've said, I mean,
whether you like Jalen Hurts or not, Sirianni appears to
be very dependent on the coordinator. If it works, it works.
If it doesn't, you know, Kellen Moore works, the next
guy doesn't. But this is two or three years. This
is at least the last 20, 25 games for Eagle
fans where it feels like it's Groundhog Day. It's three
(11:48):
and out, out of halftime, three and out, three and out,
three and out, five and pick. It's like, There's too
much talent here. Or are we overvaluing their offensive talent?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Well, I think you're dealing with this. I mean, you know,
you've been doing this a long time. Were you great
at your job on your third day of work? Probably not,
just like I wasn't. So Sean Mannion was in his
third day of real work as an offensive coordinator, and
he went up against a defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, who's
been doing this for close to 30 years and who
most offensive coordinators in the league think is one of
(12:20):
the absolute best. And Allen put together a game plan approach,
not the first time anybody's ever done it, but every
game is its own entity. where he showed six or seven,
sometimes eight people on the ball, okay? It's in pressure fronts.
So now you've got to account for all that. But
what he did is then he would drop people out,
so he changed the picture pre-snap to post-snap, and the
(12:43):
Eagles never really had an answer for that. Now, there
have been times in the past that the Eagles have
had answers for that, and Jalen Hurts has been the quarterback.
But in this given game, they did not have an
answer for that. So you had the veteran defensive coordinator
against essentially a rookie offensive coordinator, and they just throughout
the game did not have the answers for what Dennis
Allen was presenting to them. I don't think that means
(13:05):
that the Eagles are not going to be any good
over the next four, five, six, seven weeks. Sean Manning
will continue to learn.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Okay, I've said if the Jaguars, if Liam Cohen was
coaching in New York or Chicago or a big market,
we would be like, this guy's a wizard. Trevor Lawrence,
who I like more than you out of college, was
really wobbling. He was turnover heavy. I loved him, and
I was like, I'm not sure if this is ever
(13:32):
going to be great. And in the last year and
a half, you're like, oh, this is the best version
of him. What has he unlocked recently? With Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, one of the things that I look at when
I watch quarterbacks is when they drop back, are they
delivering the ball with decisiveness? And Lawrence used to get
stuck in the pocket and now he does not now.
And this is a big function of the coaching. Now,
based on the route concepts and I'm sure the anticipation
of what coverage they're going to see, now Lawrence is
(14:06):
understanding when he drops back. Quarterbacks have to learn that
they don't have to understand everything about a coverage. They
just need to understand certain things based on the play call.
They don't have to look at seven people. They have
to look at maybe two people, three at the very most.
And I think Lawrence, through Liam Cohen, is understanding that.
And now he's very decisive when he drops back and
(14:28):
he delivers the football. And by the way, Parker Washington,
we'll be talking about him a lot as this season
goes on. I looked at him in detail this summer.
And I came away believing that this guy was a
really big time receiver and he is their volume target.
And that will continue throughout the year.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
He, we talked about this last week on the show.
Parker Washington is the most underrated football player in the
entire league. He's an incredible athlete. Listen, I said before
the season, this is the first time in 20 years
I was fired up about the Raiders, but I also
had a low ceiling. It's Kirk Cousins. He's right. The,
the old line last year was a mess and, And
(15:04):
here comes an offensive coach. They got the O-line cleaned up.
They get Tyler Linderbaum. Now they're moving Brock Bowers out.
You know, now he's a wide receiver. He is a weapon.
And I watch him and I'm like, you know what?
I'm not sure if the Chiefs beat him. To me,
this is a legitimate 3-0. I think that win in
New Orleans was impressive. What to you has been QBX
(15:26):
kind of secret sauce?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Well, I think we would both agree that when you
play with a professional quarterback, everything about your offense changes.
And they're playing with a professional quarterback. And then there's
Brock Bowers. Brock Bowers changes the equation totally for them
because Brock Bowers is essentially a receiver, not a tight end,
not a wide receiver. He's a receiver. And you can
line him up anywhere, including that single receiver to the
(15:49):
short side of the field. And when you have a
tight end that can do that, because he's technically a
tight end, he's treated like a tight end in terms
of personnel by defenses. That really gives the quarterback a
very clear pre-snap read as to how the defense is playing.
and he changes that dynamic totally. Now, they haven't gotten
their run game going yet, which is interesting because they're
(16:10):
playing well on offense, but Jenty has not really gotten
going yet. He did have a good game a couple
of weeks ago, but they're struggling to find consistency, a
sustaining element with their run game, which I imagine will come. Now,
they're getting a lot of turnovers on defense. You can't
necessarily count on those, but I think that when you
play with Kirk Cousins, you know that you're going to
be able to execute an offense, and he's very, very
(16:33):
familiar with that Kubiak offense.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, Minnesota's offense has been anemic, but it's Brian Flores.
I mean, I looked at the NFL leaders in pressures
this year, and Minnesota's off the charts.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It's crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I mean, he's the most aggressive defensive coordinator. I don't
even like it with his schemes.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, and he's an anomaly, Colin, because he's a high
pressure coordinator, a very high blitz percentage, but not very
much man coverage behind it. Normally, those two things go together.
What Flores does is he pressures at a high rate,
as we said, but he plays predominantly zone concepts behind it.
And that's a really hard thing to teach because guys
(17:20):
have to understand exactly where to go when they drop out. So,
for instance, he might rush five, rush six, but then
the five guys that are in coverage, they have to
cover a lot of area. So sometimes there are voids
in the coverage. and he's counting on the pressure to
impact the quarterback and speed him up. And that's why
every once in a while they'll give up a big
play because they're not matching up man to man. So
(17:43):
he's really dependent on the pressure. But again, it's like
we spoke about a moment ago with Dennis Allen and
the Bears. You have to account for people in protection
when there's six or seven people on the ball. You
can't make assumptions about who will come and who won't
come because then you get free hitters at the quarterback.
So it's very hard to play against. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Like motion. They play the league average and spread is 14%.
They're doing 40. I had talked to Robert Mays last
week and he's like, it's a little bit of an
outdated offense relative to what you see from the Shanahan's
McVeigh's and others and Kevin O'Connell or all the top,
you know, Liam Cohen. But my take was I watched
them against Cincinnati and they had big chunk plays and
(18:28):
it was open guys. Now, some of that is Cincinnati
is a poor tackling team. They were last year. They
looked like it this year. What did you see from Aaron?
We don't see a lot of chunk plays with this
offense this year until Sunday.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, and sometimes chunk plays are not a result of
the fact that they've changed a philosophy. The first touchdown
to Wilson, I remember that well. They were in a
bunch formation. The Bengals were in man coverage, and Wilson
just beat the slot corner, Jalen Davis. He just beat
him off the ball. It was a well-designed bunch concept,
but the touchdown that really I enjoyed because it was schematic.
(19:04):
And I think that's one of the things that you'd
like to see them do a lot more of the
schematic element. And that's the Skoronic touchdown. And obviously he's
not one of their big volume target guys, but that's
the play I chose this week because schematically it's beautiful.
And we can go to that play right now was
the Skoronic touchdown. I believe it was their second touchdown
of the game. And it was, you know, first down
(19:27):
and they go play action and notice that Rogers is
under center and So let's just kind of break this down.
You know, and the important thing, Rodgers under center, more
and more teams in the league doing that. Notice the
bunch formation now to the field, the wide side of
the field. They did a lot of these bunch formations
this past week against the Bengals. Now Skoranek is going
to motion basically into the backfield. More and more teams
(19:50):
are doing this kind of motion as well. Now he's
going to end up working through the formation. He's going
to work between the tight end and the tackle. And
what that does is it makes it look like lead
block run action and it impacts the linebacker and the
safety of So what's going to happen? You can see
the play action right here. And look at those two defenders,
(20:11):
the linebacker and the safety. Look at them attack what
clearly looks like run. Now, the safety is the most
important player here. Battle Jordan battle because he's got to
deal with Skoranek. But he stepped up. His eyes were
in the backfield. His eyes told him it was run.
And then you get the touchdown. So this is a
beautifully designed schematic play. And I think we'll need to
(20:32):
see more of this. You know, the one thing when
you watch this offense, and I don't know how you feel,
but DJ Metcalf is just kind of a week-to-week player
for all the size and talent and speed that he has.
It just doesn't seem like he's, and again, I don't
know if it's the way they play. If it's him,
I can't answer that. But it would seem to me
that he should be more a part of the passing
(20:53):
game on a week-to-week basis.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yep, completely, absolutely agree. We've discussed that for multiple weeks
as well. Greg Cosell, 47 years, NFL Films, as always, Greg,
great stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, his take on Drake May at the very top,
I know there was some dropout, is basically they're losing
pass-blocking battles up front, so he has less time to throw.
He's lost three receivers from last year. There's no separation,
and their run game's hit and miss, and you're a
young quarterback. It's like Justin Herbert did not forget how
(21:26):
to play football, but when you can't block guard, center, guard,
and you're losing through the A-gap, even for a 6'5 quarterback,
and you don't have a number one receiver. Herbert and
Drake may don't have a number one, and both have
interior own lines that are struggling. And both run games
are okay. Hmm. And they both have culture coaches. Vrabel Harbaugh,
(21:47):
not offensive schematic geniuses.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Like, so it's kind of the same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1,
and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Stugatz here, pleased to be hosting college football with Stugatz
and the Bear. We do it two times a week,
every Monday, every single Friday throughout the college football season.
You can expect a little bit of this. Will Stein,
the head coach at Kentucky, joins us. Open bar at
a wedding, ordering a Shirley Temple.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Will or will not?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
No.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Will not.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Ketchup on steak, will or will not?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Will not. Thank you.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
A little bit of this.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Rhys Davis, host of College Game Day, is with us now.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And then I'm going home to the BBC, and they're
saying Jockovich instead of Jokovich. Right, because you can't say Jockovich.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
If you do, you know the blowback you're going to
get from the American audience.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Right.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
And a whole lot of this. Listen to college football
with Stugatz and the Bear on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So yesterday in Illinois, leaders of the college football playoff,
the CFP, continued to discuss a 24 team playoff model,
which I am for 16 to 24. And I've said
this before. I love college football, but college football has
always been an antique store. of a bunch of stuff
(23:22):
cobbled together, disparate things, where that has much more sentimental
value than actually real value. Weird rivalries, an awful September,
cringy bowl games, increasingly useless championship games. It's just a mess.
So stop telling me that your parochial antique store is
(23:44):
what the NFL is, which is an Apple store. Great product. efficient,
and easy to follow. And I'll give you an example
of what college football is. Right now, it's just a
bunch of stuff cobbled together. September is silly season. The
top eight teams in September won by an average of
33 points. You really think that's good sports? You really think?
(24:09):
There were 118 games in September. That were decided by
over 30 points. September's nonsense. It's silly season. October, November,
great regular season. December, really increasingly unnecessary conference championships. December
(24:29):
is rando bowl games that nobody's watching or going to.
And a college football playoff. The 24-team playoff, where you
get more immediately into conference schedule, would mostly clean up September,
and here's what college football would look like. A great
regular season and a great playoff. But, Colin, the rivalries,
(24:52):
oh my God, they're so overstated. Last week, Ohio State
beat Illinois, and I'm not joking when I say this,
I'm going to read this, for the Illabuck Trophy.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I know.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Pinch me. Tell me it's real. This week, Michigan's playing
Minnesota for the little brown jug. Heart palpitations. I mean,
it's October. What is it today? The 1st of October?
And what have we been saying about Notre Dame, Miami,
and Georgia? Well, they haven't played anybody yet. We're four
weeks into the season. How is that possible? That's good sports. So, again...
(25:29):
You're trying to sell me on this antique store, which
has way more sentimental value than real value. The numbers
are down in September because we have lousy games, right?
And now they're on so many different channels. There used
to be this show called The Antiques Roadshow, and it
went on for 19 years, and they would hold it
in civic centers. And the ratings started coming down. It
(25:51):
didn't feel special. And then they put it in these
historic sites, and it lasted another, like, six, seven, eight,
nine years. So if the antiques roadshow can change venues,
college football can change its antique store a little. Like,
you keep telling me, and all these great rivalries matter. Folks,
they just don't. I mean, they just don't matter. Texas,
(26:14):
Tennessee last weekend got a monster number. Why? Because it's
new and fresh. It's new and fresh. A Big 12
team in the SEC, and it's great, and it's new,
and it's awesome. A couple years ago, was it last year,
when Ohio State's going out west to play Oregon in
a conference game? Massive number. I'm sorry, but these games,
(26:36):
they're great. I mean, I don't know. They're special. I
still get great Oregon games. USC, I still get Michigan,
Ohio State, but to me, we're falling in love with
stuff that's just sentimental over any real value. So I
am for more of an NFL feeling college football, which
(26:58):
is fantastic. Get into the conference play immediately. Great regular season.
None of the nonsense games. Let the G6 teams play
amongst themselves. Boom into a playoff. And, yeah, it feels
a little more pro. We are paying players anyway, so
it is pro football to some degree. J-Mac with the news.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
Turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
This is the Herdline News.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
Let's go back to the NFL. Green Bay and Tampa
Bay is a strangely fun game on Sunday. The Bucs
are winless, but the Packers are in shambles because they
can't protect Jordan Love. Colin, a great stat here. The
Packers have allowed the most quick pressures. Quick pressure is
a pressure under two and a half seconds, meaning the
ball is snapped and Jordan Love is running for his life. Listen,
(27:42):
this is not great. Jordan Love talked about the situation
with this crumbling offensive line this week.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You always need time.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
The more time you have, the better you're able to
pick apart the defense and find those completions.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
So that's with anything. You always want time. Obviously, there's
times you might not have time.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
You've got to find those answers. But like I talked about,
that's an area that we've got to improve on is
in pass pro, just making sure we're going to the
right people and sustaining blocks for as long as we can,
giving you some time to be able to pick the
defense apart, and obviously something that we need to improve on.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Okay, so think about this, J-Mac. Here's four quarterbacks who
we have seen be very good. They're all struggling. Jordan Love,
Drake May, Justin Herbert, and CJ Stroud. What do all
four have in common? Bad O-line play. What a shocker.
And in the Chargers and the New England case, they
don't have a number one receiver. Now, Green Bay does
(28:40):
with Christian Watson, and Golden is a very, very good player.
They have two really good receivers. Reed now has banged
up that Hurst. They don't have a run game. But
my take is, what a shock where four quarterbacks, and
I would say Herbert's not young anymore, but Stroud, Love,
and May are pretty young, pretty young. battle line play.
I mean, you're getting pressure. Think about how quick this is. 1,001, 1,002, boom,
(29:06):
somebody's on you. Well, no kidding, Jordan loves struggling.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Right?
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Yeah. So, you know, Todd Bowles likes to dial up
the blitzes. So this could be good news for Love
this weekend. Tampa is blitzing at the third most rate
in the league. They're blitzing all the time, but their
pressure rate is only 22nd in the league. So it's
not getting home. So the pressure's not there. They're leaving
their back end wide open. This could be a Jordan
Love game this weekend, Colin. I did not put Packers
(29:33):
in headlines, but I like Green Bay here. I know
three and a half's a big number. Everybody's gravitating toward
the backup quarter. People who are starting are 6-0, I think.
Backup quarterbacks are 6-0 this season. Wentz, you had the guy,
Case Keenum, a bunch of them. Jalen Daniels, getting the start.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Okay, but a lot of those backups have offensive coaches.
This is Todd Poles.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
You're not going to fall for the trap.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
All right, let's move on.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
This is an interesting one they found, okay? So Jared
Goff is an Ironman. He does not come out of games.
He does not miss games. There's a huge article today.
I just started reading it about how all these quarterbacks
are getting injured at a crazy rate. Colin, through three weeks,
these are the quarterbacks who have missed games. Jackson Dart,
Jaden Daniels, Baker, Darnold, Caleb Williams, Kyler Murray. They all
(30:21):
have something in common, right? They're running quarterbacks. Jared Goff
is tough.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
He's durable. He doesn't run.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Here's Dan Campbell talking about his star quarterback.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
He's durable. He's tough.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
He's resistant, resilient. And he just, he's been that way.
He's really been that way his whole career. You got
to be tough at that position. And our guy is.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
It says a ton. I remember I didn't watch him
a lot at Cal because Cal with Jared Goff wasn't great.
But he started two or three years. And Cal isn't
known for having dominant offensive line play. And I watched
Jared Goff get the you-know-what kicked out of him in
a couple of games. He didn't get hurt in college
that I remember either. He's just one of those dad
(31:03):
baseball players. He's got good genetics. He's a tough kid.
You look at him and you're like, oh, he's kind
of tall and thin. And also, guys get... He moves
well in the pocket. You know, it was like Brady,
like there are quarterbacks. Stafford, I think moves pretty well
in the pocket too. Like it's not just running. It's
just avoiding pressure, stepping up. And he's, you know, he's
(31:25):
got a lot of snaps. He played, I think he
started three years in college. He's got a lot of
snaps in his career. So he's got a real self-awareness
and sense of the pocket. and you know it shows
he gets out when's the last time he doesn't get
smoked very often you and i talked about jackson dart
even in the preseason just gets absolutely smoked jared goff
(31:46):
doesn't get hit like that very often that's part of
his secret you.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
Know historically he's had a good offensive line but it
is interesting colin all these coaches want mobile quarterbacks now
yeah They want him a Holmes. I want you to
be able to win from the pocket, but also run,
keep the defense on their toes. And you can create unscripted.
The problem is these running quarterbacks are getting hurt. Now,
people will say, well, Jay, you know, Jayden Daniels got
hurt falling backwards on a snap. That was fluky.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
No, he runs a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Would you I think you would agree with this.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
It's almost like every if every.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Quarterback is running and they're all getting hurt. I almost
want to gravitate back toward the pocket guy. It's a
tough one because they're limited. Goff and Stafford are not going.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
To move with their legs. The reason I like Bo
Nix moves a lot, I think in the first three
years of your career, before the game slows down, because
the NFL game is so much faster than college, I
think in the first three years, moving and picking up
first downs with your feet is huge. And then I
think by mid-year three, year four, Mahomes, Russell Wilson will
(32:47):
tell you, the light goes on, the game slows down,
So the key with Goff is he got a great
left tackle, a great run game with Gurley and McVay.
So as he was learning, he had the master. He
had McVay and Whitworth and Cooper Cup. And so he
had an offense that was highly functional. But I do
like the ability to move. I mean, if Bo Nix
(33:07):
didn't scramble, I don't know if he'd make the league
right now. His legs are huge in the second half
of games. So, you know, Goff got lucky that, as
you noted, he got McVay, Whitworth, Gurley, Kopp.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
It was like Ben Johnson really helped him early. Yeah.
And then he doesn't have Ben Johnson last year. They
missed the playoffs. I'm actually bullish on the Lions here.
I like them on Sunday night. It's just weird seeing Lions, Panthers,
Sunday night football.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Hey, Panthers, I'll support them. Fun watch. Three? They have
between Waller and their three receivers. They got a basketball team, dude.
They are big.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I'm waiting on the injury report on those receivers today.
Final story is your guy Bo Nix, Colin. He has
been anemic in the first quarter. I mean, goodness gracious,
they have zero points in the first quarter. Just 10
in the first half. Fewest in the NFL. Now here's
where it gets bad. Bo Nix under pressure.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
You ready for this?
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Nine for 27 for 65 yards.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Two interceptions.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
He's not handling the blitz well, and the media asked
him about it.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Here's both.
Speaker 9 (34:09):
You can always improve just by seeing it, but I
think we've done a great job of picking it up.
We very rarely have free blitzers. Sometimes they bring the house,
and you know you're going to have one extra, but
we've gotten to our blitz answers. We've seen the blitzes,
and I feel like we've actually done a really good
job of not letting the blitz sort of hurt us.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Yeah, he is.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I think San Francisco is one of my favorite plays
of the weekend.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
Well, I don't want to give away too much, save
some for headlines in an hour. But yeah, Bo Nix
against a 49ers defense.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Now, it's tough.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I don't know, Colin.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
They're getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback without blitzing.
But is that because they faced the Dolphins in Arizona
in back-to-back weeks? Or is this defense good? The injury's
starting to mount. You know, it's not a great feeling
when you're looking.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
For the injury report.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
How's Mike Evans?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
How's Trent Williams? Well, that's been the story of the
Niners for seven years.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
And yet here's Bo Nix just soldiering on like the
superstar that he is. Bo Nix versus Brock Purdy. Somebody
is going to be here Monday morning licking his wounds.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You or me, it's one of us. Jay Mack with
the news.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Well, that's the news.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
And thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
The Herdline News.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
The numbers, the math are in, and it is devastating
for some of these coaches next.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
Sunday, it's a great day of NFL action on Fox
as Matthew Stafford and the Rams take on Jalen Hurts
and the Eagles or Dak and the Cowboys face the
Texans or other regional action. It's all part of Foxtoberfest
Sunday on Fox.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Unbelievable early window. Best early window of the season. It's
not a very good college football weekend. It is a
great Sunday morning early window. So every team in the
NFL that's 3-0 right now has an offensive coach. Four
of the five teams that are 0-3 have a defensive coach.
And I looked this morning, eight for eight in the NFL.
(36:21):
Offensive coaches either lead their division outright or are tied
for the lead. Eight for eight. So it's similar to like,
If you have a big budget movie, you could hire
an indie film director, and it may work, and it has,
but it's an outlier. I feel like the defensive coaches
(36:44):
that work, I've been talking about this, what quarterbacks are
struggling right now that we know are good? C.J. Stroud,
Drake May. I don't think it's a coincidence. And I
went this morning, and I looked at the seven quarterbacks
Last seven, like hottest offensive coordinator in the league that
got hired. The last seven, Liam Cohen, home run. Ben
(37:07):
Johnson looks like a home run. Kevin O'Connell working. Dave
Canales working. Save Bryce Young. Kellen Moore, Clint Kubiak 3-0,
and Joe Brady. That feels like seven for seven on me.
I'm not saying you can't nail the defensive coordinator, but
But when that defensive coordinator loses a great or that
(37:28):
defensive coach loses a great offensive coordinator, cross your fingers.
And I think the most impressive team is the Raiders.
They're hosting the Chiefs. That was a lopsided cultural mismatch
for a long time. But I think the Raiders have
a shot. Now, again, Andy Reid indoors, Patrick Mahomes indoors.
(37:51):
Good luck. Greg Cosell this hour on what he is
seeing from the 3-0 Raiders.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
When you play with a professional quarterback, everything about your
offense changes. And they're playing with a professional quarterback. And
then there's Brock Bowers. Brock Bowers changes the equation totally
for them because Brock Bowers is essentially a receiver, not
a tight end, not a wide receiver.
Speaker 8 (38:12):
He's a receiver and you can line him up anywhere.
And when you play with Kirk Cousins, you know that
you're going to be able to execute an offense. And
he's very, very, very, very familiar with that Kubiak offense.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Just think about how special, and we can put video
up of Brock Bowers, um, Eight catches for a hundred
yards and a touchdown detached from the O-line. 74% of
his snaps detached from the O-line. Brock Bowers now is
a wide receiver who's 6'6 and 250, who can block.
(38:45):
So he is a, I mean, I was watching last
week and like he is beating corners down the field.
The six, I mean, he's pushing them off. That is
a huge, huge, and nothing against Antonio Pierce or a
Pete Carroll, the last two coaches who were defensive guys,
but there's just a vibe and a feel right now.
(39:05):
to the Raiders offensively that they'll just figure out how
to make things work. I mean, Cousins doesn't have, they're
not perfect. They're not running the ball great. I think
Mike Washington in the fourth round was a steal. Kirk
Cousins isn't real nimble. So their rush game and their
lack of mobility at the quarterback probably limits them. But
when you watch the Raiders play, that win in New Orleans,
(39:26):
that was a big-time win. New Orleans went to Baltimore
and pushed the Ravens around, and they should have beaten Detroit.
Detroit's a good team. So Kansas City going to have
their hands full, although Mahomes, now with Kenneth Walker, has
a play-action pass game where he's 22-24 and he just–
He's never had that. All right, here's the week four schedule.
(39:48):
Early window is absolutely sensational. Don't go golf. If you're
going to watch pro football, get in early. Jets at Bears. Remember,
Bears short week coming off a wild win. Jets are
in play defensively much better. Rams, Eagles, fantastic. Puka's going
to play. Green Bay, Tampa, that is desperation time for
(40:11):
the Packers. Dallas, Houston, fantastic. Dallas has a shot here
to win three in a row. They got three wobbly
teams in a row. Then you get New England at Buffalo.
You think it's closer. I'm not sure it will be. Jacksonville,
Cincinnati could be the game of the day. So the
early window is sensational.
Speaker 5 (40:32):
Hey, let's go to Jets-Bears. I'll tell you why in
a second. What was your breakdown of that? So it's
currently Bears minus three at home.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
I think it's actually because you watch Monday Night Football,
the world will come in on Chicago. It is a
short week. It's a celebration week. The Jets are ugly.
They ugly the game down. But New York is young, twitchy,
and athletic. And I watched them against Green Bay. They
move really well. well sideline to sideline um i think
(41:01):
the jets are not going to win a bunch of
games they may win four games they'll be in a
lot of game i think cleveland is the same story
but i think they'll win more games i think the
jets will be in a lot of games this year
interesting okay why what's your vibe I initially.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
Was like, I'm staying away. The model says Bears minus three,
and this will go to three and a half when
Bajan is officially announced as the starter. That's the projection. Apparently,
there's some injuries on the Jets. The second back-to-back trips
to the Midwest, the Jets just went to play Detroit,
then had to go home, now back to the Midwest. Uh,
and apparently, you know, Ben Johnson could do no wrong.
(41:41):
He is a genius at this point. And, um, I
don't know, Colin, I'm trying to look this up. I
can't find it. Can you think of a coach who
has had in the first four weeks, three different quarterbacks
start and win all their games, Caleb, Bajan and Keenum.
That would have to be historical stuff.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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