September 24, 2024 • 36 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to Jayden Daniels having a coming out party in the Commanders win over the Bengals. The guys explain why the Buffalo Bills are currently the best team in the AFC. Plus, are the Cowboys imploding earlier than we expected?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome in side hour two The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. Yes, Sir, live from
the Tirack dot Com studios. Tyrec dot com. I'll help
you get there. An unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free
road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended in stallers.
Tyrack dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Well,
(00:50):
you can scratch the Cincinnati Bengals from playoff contention. Yes,
they do play one extra game in one team in
the last twenty years to start Owen three the playoffs,
and the Bengals are starting zero to three as they
fall to the Washing Commanders and jayde and Daniels thirty
eight to thirty three. They get a touchdown. Zach Moss
(01:12):
walks in so congratulations all you Zach Moss owners. I
got a big night to night with twenty points. Yeah.
But the on side kick, which the Bengals had to say,
we're doing an on side kick, right, that's the new one.
Do you declare you have to pull out a megaphone
or what do you do? They bring in someone dressed
like an old timey like clothes from the war, like
in the seventeen hundreds, and he's got a parchment and
(01:35):
a bugle, and you hear a. I really thought you
were gonna drift into timmy trumpet for a minute there
and then and then and then uh, then the Zach
(01:56):
Taylor has to unfold a parchment's full parchment and I
do fo declare the Cincinnati Bengals will be attempting and
onside kick fosse far currently and then rolls it back up.
And then and the old guy comes out dancing, and
(02:23):
then you can get the outside kick, and then we
all go to six flags after the game penalty on
the Bengals, uh for a legal formation because McPherson looked
like he was gonna kick to the left, then he
stopped and he wound up kicking to the right end
up fooling his own guys. Yeah, and so they were
off side, but it didn't matter. Washington Commander's recover and
they win this game. Look, the Bengals have something to
(02:46):
We got a big discussion on Jayden Daniels coming up,
and oh, I thought it was they have one big problem.
Let me say, well, left one problem they think they do.
They have one big problem because they always start out slowly, right,
Zach Taylor won and eleven in the first two weeks
a season, and then it goes Remember you know after
the Super Bowl, Oh, the good times, It's gonna be
great forever. Yeah. But let let it's too This is
(03:08):
too much of a coincidence for it not to be
a trend. As I am never a fan of teams
having controversy going into opening day, dealing with knucklehead stuff
going into opening day. Right, I'm never a big fan
of a because once you get ready for opening Day,
it's blinders on and it's time to go play, right,
(03:29):
which shocks me because the Jets could have had that
going on with a Son Reddick and he's gonna sign
like nope, he's not here, he's not playing, and he
was persona non grata nobody talked about him, and the
Jets are able to over no end of the and
it always he coming, is he playing? And then suddenly
it becomes a huge storyline and he's taking away snaps
from other players and he's not in shape. No, the
(03:49):
Jets decided he is not going to be a storyline.
And here are the Jets two and one after the
first three weeks, after playing three games in four days,
and they're two and one after the first That's the
beautiful thing. If he was an additive to an already
good defense, right, he wasn't the guy that was being
brought in to stir the drink. As we talk about
some of these other situations where we look squarely at Cincinnati,
(04:09):
nothing goes without the guys that have been embroiled in
all the off field and all the front office kind
of back and forth in battles with Reddick. And that's
between his agent and the front office. That's got nothing
to do with the football field. Those guys were still
going to work and they were already without him, expected
to be a top ten But you're not. But you're not.
(04:31):
The game planning is not affected. That is a guy
shows up. If not, we move on. This is crazy
that the Jets handle it the right way, right, the
Jets of them, because in a while you get one. Right,
they screwed it up by trading for the guy. But still,
but who are the teams that had drama heading into
week one regarding personnel and contracts? Who are the three teams?
(04:55):
Three teams Cincinnati by and Jamar Chase, Cowboys and Higgins,
Dak Press Higgins. All right, yeah, so you had the
Bengals with those two, You had the Cowboys with Ceedee
Lamb and Dak Prescott, and you had the forty nine
Ers with Trent Williams and Brandon Ayuk. You had controversy
and dealing with that crap right up until week one, right,
(05:18):
Trent Williams signs right before week one, and clearly the
forty nine ers, Hey, they were on their excitement, they
were running, they were focused for that game. But look
at what's happened the last couple of weeks. The three
teams that had all the drama, these guys coming in
and let it engulf them. Look where they are. The
Bengals are row and three, the Cowboys are one and
(05:38):
two and they stink. And the forty nine Ers are
one and two and they're injured and looking for answers.
So all three of these teams, the teams that all
had the drama leading up to Week one, they all
stink right now. And it's too much of a too
much to say, oh, it's just a coincidence. But you
had these that all are talented, right, you're not. I
can't say all these teams, well, we didn't know if
anybody was going to contend on The Cowboys still supposed
to be good. We told you they weren't going to
(05:59):
be Niners were supposed to be a super Bowl team,
and maybe they are, but they're hurt. And the Bengals
were going to be a really good team bouncing back
with Joe Burrow, and now they're zero and three in
their season is over. There is something there for teams
that deal with knuckleheaded stuff, with controversies and contracts and figure, okay,
well now we got it all signed up, like, as
long as you get it done before week one, it's
not going to affect the team. This is something that's
(06:20):
been hanging over you all summer in your preparation and
being a right place mentally for the season. Just because
you get it solved, doesn't mean suddenly okay, we can
just turn the page on the rest of it and
put blinders on. No, these are three teams that had
situations leak over and look where they are. Yeah, I
mean with the Bengals to get things started. Of course,
you know, Higgins is also hurt, and there were questions
(06:40):
being raised about how hurt was he and how much
was just dissatisfaction of having to play on the franchise
tag the chase thing, like he comes out in the
first possession, he's got a forty one yard touchdown reception.
The fact that lou An Arumo and that defensive coaching
staff had notion whatsoever for Jayden Daniels and company. I mean,
(07:03):
that's the bigger issue. They're getting gashed and just beaten
to hell on the defensive side of things time and
time again. You know in Joe Burrow, always a slow start.
I mean this this goes in line with what he
and Taylor have done for years. So it was expected.
All right, you're not gonna come out scoring thirty five
a game and dominating. But now you fall to zero
to three and your backs are against the wall, especially
(07:25):
in a crowded AFC, some of the other contenders are
now going to deal with injury issues already. I mean,
look what's happening to the Chargers. That list gets longer
by the minute. Ad Derwin James for a game suspension,
and it's it's not good. No matter how much relentless
enthusiasm Jim Harbaugh has today, it's not good. But to
your point, all three of those squads dealing with major issues.
(07:49):
I mean, with San Francisco, now you've got brock Perty's
got to go in for an MRI on his back,
so all of the well, supposely that was okay. Supposedly
as MRI came back, okay, and he's but he's data
day right now, and they're hoping Wednesday. Like when I
read today, Hey, we're hoping he feels better on Wednesday.
Oh so hope. Now, hope is a strategy now, But
that's just it. It becomes as soon as the back
(08:09):
is part of it. We talked about this years ago,
going back to Clayton Kershawn so many others in our
sporting universe. Right back's a whole other mess because there's
two ways back injuries, you know, play out in sports.
There's the I got a back injury because well, some
of it ain't gonna show up in those imaging or
(08:30):
tests or any of those things. I e. I just
need some load management days off NBA time, or you've
got something structurally and physically and with the muscle system
that you're gonna have problems that then linger. So we'll
see what happens there with Purdy. But they're dropping like flies,
and so which of these teams can crawl out of it?
Then Cowboys didn't address their personnel. So just signing Deck
(08:54):
wasn't gonna be enough. Regardless, we're good to say that
all out that game. I paid God's money that I
said it wasn't gonna pay to but let's go win games.
But that's just it. Signing him in Ceedee LAMB didn't
materially affect anything because you didn't do anything else with
the roster. No, so any drama related to them really
didn't matter because it wasn't like, Hey, if we don't
(09:14):
sign him, guess what, we're going into the marketplace and
we're gonna get three other guys for our defense to
solve the fact that we're a leaky run defense system. No,
that's not happening. Look, we told you the Cowboys we're
not going to be very good. Right. We'll get to
them in more detail coming up in a few minutes.
But we told you this is how it was gonna go,
and this is kind of how it's going. So from
(09:34):
these teams dealing with roster drama to the other side
of the game tonight and the birth of a superstar
in Jade and Daniels. This kid, if you had any
doubts that he was gonna be a big star in
the game, this pass from the fourth quarter that clinch
the game should allay all of your doubts. They got
(09:55):
a snap it on the third and seven, and they
do Bengals bring the house. Jade Lodo from the zone
he did. I always love the analyst who stands up
and runs around dancing and then laughs as part of
(10:17):
the analysis. Tell us what happened on that play. See
that's a I was mad we didn't get his first
touchdown because it was a pass to Trent Brown. I
wanted to, but I mean, obviously far more drama on
this this particular pass. But the cackling madman in the booths,
(10:38):
you can't beat that look. Jade and Daniels gets absolutely crunched.
I mean it was It's like he gets hit like
a like like Thanos hits Iron Man or like that.
That's kind of what it was like. And he still
throws a perfect pass from Chlorinda run under and complete
(10:59):
passinger appearance. I don't know how McLaurin still caught the ball,
but he did. And that's the clinching touchdown and the
day that Jade and Daniels had for the Commanders. All
this story about oh, big quarterbacks haven't thrown touchdown passes.
Daniels is twenty one out of twenty three for two
fifty four and two touchdowns. Also ran for thirty nine
(11:19):
yards and a score. If you had any doubt that
he was going to be a star, you see that
throw and that's going to convince even the biggest of skeptics.
Right now. Now, this is going to start the oh
the Bears screwed up by taking Caleb Williams over Jaydon Daniels.
But this kid is a star. Go play behind that offense,
this kid. Yeah, I mean, really, Jayde Daniels, you need
is that screenshot of that fourth down? Nus No not,
(11:44):
I'm not sorry. I'm not saying I agree with it,
but I'm saying that's gonna be the conversation. Of course,
with the conversation, we need to have some hot take arguments.
But dude, look that Jayden Daniels is terrific, and you
see everything he's allowed to do is being put on displaying. Yes,
he's being protected a little bit more, but this was
a case and look when you when you want to
compare him to to Caleb Williams. Williams comes in with
(12:06):
expectations and a loaded offense and okay, get ready and
go do it. We brought into running back for he
turns out the running game stinks, but not his fault.
Running game stinks, offensive line stinks, but you have weapons
at wide receiver too. We thought it was everything was
complete for us. You have a great defense, but still
the Bears struggle. Even though Williams did throw for three
to seventy yesterday was still a pretty good game. But yeah,
(12:29):
he's figuring it out. Do you want me to do
a three hour monologue on this. You can take the
rest of the night off. I'll talk about that game forever.
But for Jayden Daniels, it's something to be said. For Hey,
He's allowed to come in and do his thing without
a lot of pressure. There's no expectations on the commanders
this year. They're completely starting over. There's something he said
for letting a guy come in and play that way
(12:49):
rather than be thrust right in and expect to produce
right away. Now that's the pedigree of Caleb Williams, and
he's he'd been the number one overall picking the draft
for two years, Heisman trow number one pick for USC.
Jaden Daniels was someone who jumped on the scene last year,
won the Heisman Trophy, put up incredible numbers as a
two way quarterback. But now with Washington, completely different situation.
(13:12):
And I don't know if you put Daniels in the
situation with the Bears, would he'd be doing the same thing.
Probably not, because there's no offensive line and you'd have
the expectations of being in Chicago. But he's allowed to
fly under the radar and become his own quarterback in
his own time, and in just three weeks you can
see everything revolves around him. He's comfortable in the pocket,
he's comfortable taking off, he doesn't take off too early
(13:33):
if a play is not open downfield, that's when he
gives it. He actually gives an extra second or two
when I think he's gonna take off. Oh, he's really
making sure there's nothing downfield. And then he's able to
use athletic ability and run around guys. And he's got
that ability where it doesn't look like he's running fast
and he's still running around guys who are huffing and
puffing trying to chase him. It's like watching Deon Sanders
(13:54):
when Deon Sanders would run away from we have an interception.
He's running for a touchdown and just everybody looks like
they're in slow running back so much faster, Like that's
kind of watching Jaden Daniels run. There's some plays where
I go, oh, he's gonna get caught right there. No,
he is just cruising to the first down and guys
are barely getting a hand on and pushing him out
of bounds. Like, if there's any doubt that he's going
(14:15):
to be a superstar, that is a race after this
game and more specifically that play tonight. Yeah, the potential
certainly has shown itself these three games. First couple of
touchdown passes that one he threw to McLaurin. I mean,
you heard the highlight. I mean, that's that's there forever,
the Cackling mad Men will put that over the top
of the video and that becomes the official call for
(14:36):
the length of his career. But yeah, I mean, the
concern are still gonna be there in terms of, you know,
how well he adapts as he takes hits over time,
because he got cleaned out pretty pretty well on that
throw and stood in and took the heat. But that's
one of the concerns coming out of college and certainly
will be going forward. And I know, being in a
(14:58):
commander's uniform, people immediately start harkening back to the days
of RG three and maybe rightly, probably wrongly, but we
do it anyway because you've got to have the easy comparison.
For Washington, they were on everybody's radar because the skill
position players they assembled, we all thought they were pretty good. Right.
The fact that zach Ertz, you know, he's got another
(15:20):
mouth to feed coming congratulations to them. But that's why
he's still playing in the tight end position, being as
important as it is in the game that he becomes
a little security blanket. Okay, McLaurin We've loved McLaurin for
a couple of years. It was get him a quarterback
that can feed him the ball. Well, this was the
breakout game there with these is four receptions for one
(15:41):
hundred yard. They drafted Luke McCaffrey and brought him in.
He showed some burst and separation. Go on down. Noah
Brown's been solid and then Eckler and Robinson out of
the backfield. Now Eckler had the big kickoff return, then
had one more carry. He ended up leaving with concussion,
So we'll see how fast it comes back. But Cliff
King as the offensive coordinator pulling the strings well, and
(16:04):
through the first three games he's looked very comfortable. The
Chicago things a whole other mess, right because they've been
waiting to annoying the quarterback forever I watched it had
no expectations. Everybody's like, what's going on in Philadelphia, what's
going on in Dallas? And then the Giants are gonna
be bad, So they just got to slide over there.
Maybe we talked about them a little bit of well
things break right, maybe they can be a five hundred
(16:25):
team and break through a little bit right, and maybe
they can right, and there's a huge win on Monday
Night Football. But then you have for the bear side
of things, for Caleb Williams. He walks in, everybody wants
to crown him. Here's all the history of bad Chicago quarterbacks.
Here's everything. Oh, they won seven games. Look how good
the defense was last year. Look at what they did
with the offensive weaponry. So naturally he's just gonna come
(16:47):
in and everything's gonna work. Well, they forgot they hired
Shane Waldron, and they retain Matt Eberflus oops ooops and
that offensive line. To put it bluntly, no good exit
out about a Fresca exit Swallen Dome. The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon live from the Tirack dot Com Studios. Uh.
(17:11):
Coming up next, we get back into one of the
other biggest takeaways from Monday Night Football. In one of
the conferences, I can easily tell you who the best
team is through three weeks. Let's go even close. That's
next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Fox Sports Radio. This song goes out to the Cincinnati Bengals.
My season died on the field tonight. Must have been
a play we didn't make. Wow zero and three tonight. Yeah,
that happened. Bengals lose to the Commanders thirty eight to
(18:01):
thirty three. The Bengals fall to oh and three. Meanwhile,
the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Tj the Buffalo Bills. I always like doing that, Burton
teach the Buffalo Bills. I loved the Bills, the Buffalo
every every year. His pick was always Bills forty nine ers.
I was a super Bowl every year. Still was this
year Bills Bills forty nine ers. Eventually I'm gonna get
vengeances gonna happen. I'm gonna get Bills forty nine ers. Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The Buffalo Bills absolutely steamroll the Jacksonville Jaguars eighty seven
to ten to improve to three and oh on the season,
giving you three three and oh teams. Now in the
AFC we are through three weeks. Yep, three and oh
teams are the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York, Kansas
(18:50):
City Chiefs are a three, three and oh teams through
three weeks, I can say this without a doubt. And
it was a year where we didn't know how they
were going to be. Was this going to be a
reset year? Was this going to be a year where
they have to maybe take their lumps and fix things
up a little bit and there maybe their first Super
Bowl window was closed. But no, I'll tell you right now,
(19:13):
the Bills are the best team in the AFC. And
it's not close between those two other teams, not even close. No, no, no,
right now in terms of the excellence of execution on
both sides of the ball. And they'll have some questions
to answer defensively due to some of the losses to injury,
But so long as von Miller and company are are
lurking around to quarterback, yeah, they'll be just fine. Uh.
The Bills are. And when you compare the three, three
(19:36):
and oh teams, yeah, okay, because let's break these teams
down here, you have the Bills, Steelers, and the Chiefs. Offensively,
for the Buffalo Bills, they're dynamic. They're the most dynamic
of all of these teams. Sorry, but that's true. Patrick Mahomes,
game manager, the Bill wasn't quite expecting you to spike
the ball right there. But yes, I mean there is
(19:58):
something to do that get the ball to The Bills
are the most dynamic team offensively. Defensively they're still really good.
Are they quite what the Steelers aren't? No, but they're
close enough to where the Steelers still offensively, just it's
getting them to score. It's like trying to get blood
from a diamond. You know, it's really difficult. As good
(20:20):
as Justin Fields was yesterday in his best game, a
couple of nice plays, it's still too tough for the
Steelers to ask them to do stuff offensively. Right. We
thought they had all these weapons, and it turns out
maybe George Pickens is just a guy. Maybe Jalen Warren
is still getting into shape, and Najie Harris yeah yeah,
and now Naji Harris is not nearly dynamic, and Friar
Muth has disappeared. So maybe now it's only it's Justin
(20:42):
Fields or buffed. But offensively, the Steelers still struggle too much.
And I couldn't see them in a game with the
Bills right now being able to score enough points to win.
And for the Chiefs, let me just ask you this,
do the Chiefs look like they're winning like the Patriots
used to. They look like they're hey the veterans smarts
(21:03):
and how they're managing the end of games. Or do
they look like a team that's surviving, because they look
to me like a team that's surviving. Whether it's a
not getting the where the falcon's not getting the questionable
pass interference call at the end, they're making just enough
plays to win, which is great, right, it's great when
you make the winning plays, that's awesome. But this is
not a team that, hey, we're making the plays to
(21:26):
win on the down weeks when we don't dominate. I
have not seen the Chiefs dominate a game. They have
been they have been escaping. They have been winning by
being the wiley that's going ah, just when you think
of a game, we're gonnaose, We're gonna pull this one out. Well,
the problem with that is, as a season goes on,
you wind up playing the teams that actually are really good,
and you wind up having a season that falls short
(21:48):
of your expectations. You can only win like this and
escape for so long. Now, could I see the Chiefs
being a team that wins their division? Absolutely? Because look
the ANFC West stinks right as we've seen it. It's stinks,
especially now if just and Herbert is hurt, that everything
the Chargers do is gonna be predicated on him, because
they're gonna score two and a half points a week
without him. So I could see them winning their division.
(22:08):
But I could see this being year. Hey, the Chiefs
win and they get smacked out of the playoffs in
the first round by a team that's better offensively than
they are, better defensively than they are, and they execute more.
The Bills have way less questions and look much more
impressive than either the Steelers or the Chiefs do as
a whole. They're each doing real good things right right.
The Steelers playing great defensively, opportunistic offensively. The Chiefs are
(22:31):
making the plays they need, making just enough plays offensively,
holding teams back just enough defensively. But neither of them
are doing what the Bills have been doing. And the
Bills have just been getting better from week one all
the way out here. Now we thought, though, oh, Arizona, boy,
you should win that tea. No, it turns out, Arizona,
it's not so bad. Right. It may not be great,
but they're not so bad. And each week, it's been
a better and bigger win for the Bills. And I
(22:52):
look at the AFC right now and I go, man,
I thought the Jets were going to get to the
top of this division. We were gonna run away with it,
and all these thoughts I had going on in my
head as I lay in bed at night, thinking Jets, Jets, Jets.
But instead I'm like, Okay, we're looking up against the
Bills again. No, it's still gonna be a battle as
we rolled through and as we know in the National
Football League, it's like we talked about with the NBA,
(23:15):
I just need to see what these teams look like
and how they're constituted when we open the playoffs. Right
until then, it's a it's great when we ride the
lightning week in week out as we do all two
seventy two, some of them greater than others. I mean,
someone's got a rank last. But the you can only
(23:35):
beat who's on the schedule, because that's the other game
where everybody's starting to play. It's like, well, where's the
quality win. It's like if it's not on the schedule yet,
it's not on the schedule yet, right, Like the Steelers,
you're three, and oh, okay, you beat Atlanta. Everybody loved Atlanta,
didn't they everybody see oh yeah, they love Atlanta. You
came in waving Atlanta Falcons flags down. I'm like, what
are you doing? The dirty bird? A couple of times
(23:57):
you came with the Arthur Blank cup from Hey, he's
going to the of honor. I'm gonna chug this soda
out of the Arthur Blank Ring of Honor cut. Was
I bitter on one before the show started. I'll have
to I haven't won it yet. It was still it
was still how much you have to been on that?
I was only like twelve bucks. Oh really, Oh that's
worth it? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's worth shipping. Got
papped to one for Arthur Blank coming out of that.
(24:20):
No question still absurd that you're putting the owner. Hey,
I'd like to be in there now. He's the owner
who makes those decisions. I'm gonna put myself on another.
There's a cut. No, just the other fact that there
was a celebrating Blank. I'm gonna be on it. What
I'm gonna give everybody hot dogs and a soda and
some chips. Okay, okay, we'll put you into the Ring
of Honor. Yeah, well, I think what's on that. I
(24:43):
think it was him saying, there's a committee. You're gonna
you're gonna order the committee to plan parties. You think
they're gonna say no, hey, hey, sorry, Artie. Uh, but yeah,
we decided you're not that. What would you like on
the cup? Yeah, we're not that. You're not a suit.
You're not getting in arty. Yeah. It was close vote though,
I mean it was like five to four, but many
end we like the hot dog idea, but already we
(25:04):
just can't put you in the Ring of Honor for this.
You realize, how about it's gonna cost us for the
extra manpower. Sorry about out these hot dogs. It's like
when when Roger Dorn what is he when he takes
over his GM and the Indians in the Major League
And I've activated myself. I'm now in the trench coat
and action, all right? So he in Atlanta week two
against Denver. Nice effort by Denver this week. They got
(25:26):
after Baker Mayfield early and often, and everything rolls through
and then you play the Chargers, who every time I
looked up there was another guy on the ground writhing
in pain. So again you can beat who's on the schedule.
Will they get their comeupance at some point? Maybe maybe
not right deep that's gonna be good. Will they keep
scoring seventeen points a game and winning? No, no, they
(25:50):
will not. For the Buffalo Bills, they've had some injuries
in the back seven, couple of linebackers already, so a
little concern there. But you've got such balance in the offense,
and as we talked about last hour, when it comes
down to it, you're not reliant on one number one
receiver to be the guy to make a play. You've
(26:11):
got two tight ends, you've got three receivers that are
rising up. And you've got not only James Cook, but
Ray Davis in the backfield who you brought in. He
got a little bit of shine late in the game
as well. So opportunity knocks. Your Jets are probably if
you're going to extend it now, they're not three and
oh sorry, extend it. Sure the Jets come creeping back
(26:36):
in better than the number one team in the WAK
right now. Don't be an ass uh, But but for
the Chiefs, it's a are you can you keep the
principles healthy right now? It's surviving? Can you keep this
cobbled together and maybe free up Travis Kelcey. I know
everybody had the memes of how defeated he looked on
the sidelines or whatever else. They're running a second guy
(26:57):
at him, and he's not the same guy that knows
and that's the one. You can't do the same thing
that you did four years ago. No, and then, and
I get they want to make excuses for him because, look,
his popularity has mushroom the last year, the dating Taylor
Swift and being the best tight end in the NFL
for a long time. But it's not like teams didn't
throw two guys out of that thing. He can't separate.
(27:20):
We told you last week. Without watching the All twenty
two film, I guarantee you, he's not getting the separation
of used to or Mahomes would be throwing to him.
And Mahomes even alluded to that fact that, hey, there's
much more coverages rolled towards them. I'm like, okay, Like
they weren't rolled towards him for the past seven eight years.
He still found a way to get open. No, he's
near the end because he's the thirty five year old
tight end and he's near the end, whether he's lost
(27:42):
his explosiveness, he can't get separation, so they're not throwing.
But it goes back to the larger discussion that you
and I have had. I think leading the way as
we do, everybody can jump on the bad wagon as
they want. Is the shift in offensive philosophy. Not only
from the hey completion percentage and be efficient that way,
it's also it's never been more incumbent on a quarterback
(28:05):
not to put the ball in harm's way, particularly if
you get just a middling offensive possession. You've got guys
that can kick the ball fifty five yards with regularity
on most teams at this point, and you have a
guy in Harrison Butker, if you give him an opportunity,
it's three points at the end of possession. So you're
not gonna try to fit it on a third down
(28:26):
play to Travis Kelsey, where yeah, he used to have separation,
but now, well, you've got to be absolutely perfect with
that throw otherwise it's gonna be a pick. And we've
already seen him and he's made a couple of terrible
throws trying to force the issue that he's got to
back off that right, We've seen that one or two
too many times already through three weeks. But survive and advance, succeed,
(28:49):
proceed all those things. I don't think there's a savior
walking through that door, right, Isaiah Pacheco was your top
running back. He broke his leg, he's gone. So the
fact that the offense is going to be hampered from
that side of things, they're not telling me that. You know, hey,
Kareem hunts back. Great, that Clyde Edwards Hilaire is gonna
get cleared. Okay, fine, None of those guys had the
(29:12):
same They already already had their shots, and they had
nowhere near the impact to balance that offense that Pacheco did.
So yeah, it's a work in progress. Bills by far
out of those three. And then I'll even put your
Jets forth because I'm nice. No, look at that. No, look, hey,
it's it's not about the Jets, even though you want
to make it about the Jets, I don't want they.
(29:34):
I thought i'd bring it back in and just say, hey,
right now, they're a team of balance, which we don't
have a lot of. No, I mean, and that's why
the Bills get good points, because the Bills are balanced.
The Bills can score. They can score points and bunches.
They can run the football and win. They play good
enough defense, not the lights out defense like teams like
the Steelers the Vikings have, but clearly they are they
(29:57):
are good enough. They are the best balanced team. They're
the best team the AFC. Now look up at him
even again, Josh Allen. You, well, it's the nineties again.
Suddenly I'll go through the buffalo. Oh, we gotta go
through both. I tried to tell you you're gonna go through
a table.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon live
from the tiraq dot Com Studios. We'll have more reaction
Monday Night Football coming up in about ten minutes. But uh, look,
the biggest results of this past week the Ravens getting
out to a huge lead over the Cowboys. And because
(30:39):
they're the Ravens, they have trouble closing. But the Cowboys
defense looks terrible. Dak Prescott can't get anything done until
it's too late. Look, I told you last week, Lamar
Jackson is gonna do it all by himself, be the
number one quarterback in fantasy. Was close. He finished third,
so okay, but that's all right. And they got out
to a twenty eight to six lead, and the Cowboys
(30:59):
couldn't come back enough. And now you look at Dallas
and they are all sorts of all over the place. Right.
You had Dak Prescott walking through the tunnel yesterday saying,
you want to jump off, jump off, like jump off
our bandwagon. Micah Parsons is yelling at teammates. Dak is
yelling at teammates. It's a da responding to my question.
(31:19):
And I didn't hear anything generally, like that's the thing
that's in your head. You want to jump off. People
are gonna hate us right now. Jump off. It's kind
of the Kirk Cousins. You like that, except you know,
we didn't like this. Uh, there's a fantasy, there's a hero.
That's true. He didn't have twenty nine fantasy points. Uh,
(31:40):
there is nothing going on with the Cowboys. We didn't
tell you it was going to happen. The only thing
that might be the tiniest bit surprising is the implosion
is coming earlier than we thought I thought, all right,
the first couple of weeks through the season, the energy
of Dak's contract, and we're getting out to play football
where you know, we have a we have a schedule.
It seems like it's manageable. The first couple of weeks,
(32:00):
they'll win the first couple of games. I thought the
implosion would come. Ah, you get into get into October.
But no, what's happening way earlier. Right, that's it. But
this should not be surprising. We knew that the defense
is not good. Right, what do we say last week?
What if Dallas just stinks? Right?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
What if?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
What what if it's all the stuff you want to
say about the Cowboys? What if they just stink because
they didn't have enough last year. They didn't go out
and make any improvements in the offseason. They paid Dak
and they paid CD Lamp. You don't get better, you
don't get better. Bye bye. By just being status quo
with Jerry Jones is all in. I'm not paying anybody else.
(32:36):
So I knew Dallas wasn't going to be good. I
knew they weren't going to be a playoff team. I
thought it would be a couple more weeks. But now
you're clearly seeing that defensively they have all kinds of problems.
Offense isn't enough to get past with the defenses there,
and they've just become a team that is Hey, they're dangerous,
right if you don't take care of business, you let
Dak and CD play pitch and catch, and suddenly you'll
(32:57):
find yourself in a dogfight. You don't want to be there, Dallas.
This is a dangerous, tricky team to play because of
Dak and CD on offense. That's who the Cowboys are.
They're not a great team. They're not close to being
a great team. They are getting beat because they're not good.
They're just not all the other drama you would take
it out. The Cowboys are just not good. We told
you they weren't gonna be good, but it turns out
they're not good, even sooner than we thought.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Well, the.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Roster construction, we knew defensively they had their issues. We
watched them get run over by Green Bay, and that
was gonna precipitate change. Well, you didn't bring in any
personnel to fix it. Changing out the defensive coordinator, Well
that doesn't seem to have fixed it. So you got
Micah Parsons just kind of pointing the finger, going I
can only do so much I am, but one man
(33:42):
and a lot of people will carry that water for
him as they go through. On the offensive side of things. Okay,
maybe you found a number two in Tolbert, Brandon Cooks
will pop up now and again, and Ferguson's an above
average tight end. Fine, but your running game stinks and
your offensive line is no good. Other than that, how
is the play right? I mean, Deak was great once
(34:03):
the pressure backed off and they went into a little
bit of the shell and the zone coverage and everything else,
able to find some spots and he did place the
ball well, finding the aforementioned Tolbert a couple of times,
and CD got his. But their run effort right now,
like Tony Pollard wasn't a world beater, but he's light
(34:25):
years ahead of what they're running out there right now, right,
we've seen it even in Tennessee. Yeah, keeping Taj Spears,
you know, to the sideline for much of these games
through the first three weeks. But you brought back Zeke,
you signed Dalvin cook on a wing and a prayer,
and then you're gonna try to pass the hat saying
you had no money after derreck Henry just runs you over,
(34:50):
which is exactly what happened. They got run over like that.
That's the story of the game. Right forget the score
because those that didn't watch go, wow, that it must
have been a pretty good one. Like Tom Brady was board. Okay,
Tom Brady was ripping the Cowboys. Okay, it's time to
just well, you gotta call it for what it is,
but that you can't dress it up and say, oh,
(35:11):
maybe no, but I get but I gave them credit,
like in the booth, they didn't go to just say
let's have some vanilla filler. He went after him. What
else was he gonna say? Damnybody expected him to count?
You know, the Cowboys are a great second half team.
Don't turn your TVs off, don't go to a better game,
(35:31):
don't flip to something else on The Ravens are known
to give stuff away, so you want to stick around. Well,
that is true. Ravens can't close. We know this. No no,
But in terms of criticism, that was one of the
things through the first couple of weeks of saying he
wasn't critical enough. No, no, he got it out against the
Cowboys in Week three and they deserved every bit of it,
(35:52):
and it's only gonna get worse. You should not be
surprised at this. Cowboys weren't gonna be good coming in.
They're just not good, even earlier than we thought. But
this should not be surprising. How about no Go exit out,
a bout of Fresca exit swollen down The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Carmen. Coming up next
Reality for one Wanna be Superstar NFL quarterback? That's next
(36:14):
right here, Jason and Mike. This is Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome in side hour two The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. Yes, Sir, live from
the Tirack dot Com studios. Tyrec dot com. I'll help
you get there. An unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free
road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended in stallers.
Tyrack dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Well,
(00:50):
you can scratch the Cincinnati Bengals from playoff contention. Yes,
they do play one extra game in one team in
the last twenty years to start Owen three the playoffs,
and the Bengals are starting zero to three as they
fall to the Washing Commanders and jayde and Daniels thirty
eight to thirty three. They get a touchdown. Zach Moss
(01:12):
walks in so congratulations all you Zach Moss owners. I
got a big night to night with twenty points. Yeah.
But the on side kick, which the Bengals had to say,
we're doing an on side kick, right, that's the new one.
Do you declare you have to pull out a megaphone
or what do you do? They bring in someone dressed
like an old timey like clothes from the war, like
in the seventeen hundreds, and he's got a parchment and
(01:35):
a bugle, and you hear a. I really thought you
were gonna drift into timmy trumpet for a minute there
and then and then and then uh, then the Zach
(01:56):
Taylor has to unfold a parchment's full parchment and I
do fo declare the Cincinnati Bengals will be attempting and
onside kick fosse far currently and then rolls it back up.
And then and the old guy comes out dancing, and
(02:23):
then you can get the outside kick, and then we
all go to six flags after the game penalty on
the Bengals, uh for a legal formation because McPherson looked
like he was gonna kick to the left, then he
stopped and he wound up kicking to the right end
up fooling his own guys. Yeah, and so they were
off side, but it didn't matter. Washington Commander's recover and
they win this game. Look, the Bengals have something to
(02:46):
We got a big discussion on Jayden Daniels coming up,
and oh, I thought it was they have one big problem.
Let me say, well, left one problem they think they do.
They have one big problem because they always start out slowly, right,
Zach Taylor won and eleven in the first two weeks
a season, and then it goes Remember you know after
the Super Bowl, Oh, the good times, It's gonna be
great forever. Yeah. But let let it's too This is
(03:08):
too much of a coincidence for it not to be
a trend. As I am never a fan of teams
having controversy going into opening day, dealing with knucklehead stuff
going into opening day. Right, I'm never a big fan
of a because once you get ready for opening Day,
it's blinders on and it's time to go play, right,
(03:29):
which shocks me because the Jets could have had that
going on with a Son Reddick and he's gonna sign
like nope, he's not here, he's not playing, and he
was persona non grata nobody talked about him, and the
Jets are able to over no end of the and
it always he coming, is he playing? And then suddenly
it becomes a huge storyline and he's taking away snaps
from other players and he's not in shape. No, the
(03:49):
Jets decided he is not going to be a storyline.
And here are the Jets two and one after the
first three weeks, after playing three games in four days,
and they're two and one after the first That's the
beautiful thing. If he was an additive to an already
good defense, right, he wasn't the guy that was being
brought in to stir the drink. As we talk about
some of these other situations where we look squarely at Cincinnati,
(04:09):
nothing goes without the guys that have been embroiled in
all the off field and all the front office kind
of back and forth in battles with Reddick. And that's
between his agent and the front office. That's got nothing
to do with the football field. Those guys were still
going to work and they were already without him, expected
to be a top ten But you're not. But you're not.
(04:31):
The game planning is not affected. That is a guy
shows up. If not, we move on. This is crazy
that the Jets handle it the right way, right, the
Jets of them, because in a while you get one. Right,
they screwed it up by trading for the guy. But still,
but who are the teams that had drama heading into
week one regarding personnel and contracts? Who are the three teams?
(04:55):
Three teams Cincinnati by and Jamar Chase, Cowboys and Higgins,
Dak Press Higgins. All right, yeah, so you had the
Bengals with those two, You had the Cowboys with Ceedee
Lamb and Dak Prescott, and you had the forty nine
Ers with Trent Williams and Brandon Ayuk. You had controversy
and dealing with that crap right up until week one, right,
(05:18):
Trent Williams signs right before week one, and clearly the
forty nine ers, Hey, they were on their excitement, they
were running, they were focused for that game. But look
at what's happened the last couple of weeks. The three
teams that had all the drama, these guys coming in
and let it engulf them. Look where they are. The
Bengals are row and three, the Cowboys are one and
(05:38):
two and they stink. And the forty nine Ers are
one and two and they're injured and looking for answers.
So all three of these teams, the teams that all
had the drama leading up to Week one, they all
stink right now. And it's too much of a too
much to say, oh, it's just a coincidence. But you
had these that all are talented, right, you're not. I
can't say all these teams, well, we didn't know if
anybody was going to contend on The Cowboys still supposed
to be good. We told you they weren't going to
(05:59):
be Niners were supposed to be a super Bowl team,
and maybe they are, but they're hurt. And the Bengals
were going to be a really good team bouncing back
with Joe Burrow, and now they're zero and three in
their season is over. There is something there for teams
that deal with knuckleheaded stuff, with controversies and contracts and figure, okay,
well now we got it all signed up, like, as
long as you get it done before week one, it's
not going to affect the team. This is something that's
(06:20):
been hanging over you all summer in your preparation and
being a right place mentally for the season. Just because
you get it solved, doesn't mean suddenly okay, we can
just turn the page on the rest of it and
put blinders on. No, these are three teams that had
situations leak over and look where they are. Yeah, I
mean with the Bengals to get things started. Of course,
you know, Higgins is also hurt, and there were questions
(06:40):
being raised about how hurt was he and how much
was just dissatisfaction of having to play on the franchise
tag the chase thing, like he comes out in the
first possession, he's got a forty one yard touchdown reception.
The fact that lou An Arumo and that defensive coaching
staff had notion whatsoever for Jayden Daniels and company. I mean,
(07:03):
that's the bigger issue. They're getting gashed and just beaten
to hell on the defensive side of things time and
time again. You know in Joe Burrow, always a slow start.
I mean this this goes in line with what he
and Taylor have done for years. So it was expected.
All right, you're not gonna come out scoring thirty five
a game and dominating. But now you fall to zero
to three and your backs are against the wall, especially
(07:25):
in a crowded AFC, some of the other contenders are
now going to deal with injury issues already. I mean,
look what's happening to the Chargers. That list gets longer
by the minute. Ad Derwin James for a game suspension,
and it's it's not good. No matter how much relentless
enthusiasm Jim Harbaugh has today, it's not good. But to
your point, all three of those squads dealing with major issues.
(07:49):
I mean, with San Francisco, now you've got brock Perty's
got to go in for an MRI on his back,
so all of the well, supposely that was okay. Supposedly
as MRI came back, okay, and he's but he's data
day right now, and they're hoping Wednesday. Like when I
read today, Hey, we're hoping he feels better on Wednesday.
Oh so hope. Now, hope is a strategy now, But
that's just it. It becomes as soon as the back
(08:09):
is part of it. We talked about this years ago,
going back to Clayton Kershawn so many others in our
sporting universe. Right back's a whole other mess because there's
two ways back injuries, you know, play out in sports.
There's the I got a back injury because well, some
of it ain't gonna show up in those imaging or
(08:30):
tests or any of those things. I e. I just
need some load management days off NBA time, or you've
got something structurally and physically and with the muscle system
that you're gonna have problems that then linger. So we'll
see what happens there with Purdy. But they're dropping like flies,
and so which of these teams can crawl out of it?
Then Cowboys didn't address their personnel. So just signing Deck
(08:54):
wasn't gonna be enough. Regardless, we're good to say that
all out that game. I paid God's money that I
said it wasn't gonna pay to but let's go win games.
But that's just it. Signing him in Ceedee LAMB didn't
materially affect anything because you didn't do anything else with
the roster. No, so any drama related to them really
didn't matter because it wasn't like, Hey, if we don't
(09:14):
sign him, guess what, we're going into the marketplace and
we're gonna get three other guys for our defense to
solve the fact that we're a leaky run defense system. No,
that's not happening. Look, we told you the Cowboys we're
not going to be very good. Right. We'll get to
them in more detail coming up in a few minutes.
But we told you this is how it was gonna go,
and this is kind of how it's going. So from
(09:34):
these teams dealing with roster drama to the other side
of the game tonight and the birth of a superstar
in Jade and Daniels. This kid, if you had any
doubts that he was gonna be a big star in
the game, this pass from the fourth quarter that clinch
the game should allay all of your doubts. They got
(09:55):
a snap it on the third and seven, and they
do Bengals bring the house. Jade Lodo from the zone
he did. I always love the analyst who stands up
and runs around dancing and then laughs as part of
(10:17):
the analysis. Tell us what happened on that play. See
that's a I was mad we didn't get his first
touchdown because it was a pass to Trent Brown. I
wanted to, but I mean, obviously far more drama on
this this particular pass. But the cackling madman in the booths,
(10:38):
you can't beat that look. Jade and Daniels gets absolutely crunched.
I mean it was It's like he gets hit like
a like like Thanos hits Iron Man or like that.
That's kind of what it was like. And he still
throws a perfect pass from Chlorinda run under and complete
(10:59):
passinger appearance. I don't know how McLaurin still caught the ball,
but he did. And that's the clinching touchdown and the
day that Jade and Daniels had for the Commanders. All
this story about oh, big quarterbacks haven't thrown touchdown passes.
Daniels is twenty one out of twenty three for two
fifty four and two touchdowns. Also ran for thirty nine
(11:19):
yards and a score. If you had any doubt that
he was going to be a star, you see that
throw and that's going to convince even the biggest of skeptics.
Right now. Now, this is going to start the oh
the Bears screwed up by taking Caleb Williams over Jaydon Daniels.
But this kid is a star. Go play behind that offense,
this kid. Yeah, I mean, really, Jayde Daniels, you need
is that screenshot of that fourth down? Nus No not,
(11:44):
I'm not sorry. I'm not saying I agree with it,
but I'm saying that's gonna be the conversation. Of course,
with the conversation, we need to have some hot take arguments.
But dude, look that Jayden Daniels is terrific, and you
see everything he's allowed to do is being put on displaying. Yes,
he's being protected a little bit more, but this was
a case and look when you when you want to
compare him to to Caleb Williams. Williams comes in with
(12:06):
expectations and a loaded offense and okay, get ready and
go do it. We brought into running back for he
turns out the running game stinks, but not his fault.
Running game stinks, offensive line stinks, but you have weapons
at wide receiver too. We thought it was everything was
complete for us. You have a great defense, but still
the Bears struggle. Even though Williams did throw for three
to seventy yesterday was still a pretty good game. But yeah,
(12:29):
he's figuring it out. Do you want me to do
a three hour monologue on this. You can take the
rest of the night off. I'll talk about that game forever.
But for Jayden Daniels, it's something to be said. For Hey,
He's allowed to come in and do his thing without
a lot of pressure. There's no expectations on the commanders
this year. They're completely starting over. There's something he said
for letting a guy come in and play that way
(12:49):
rather than be thrust right in and expect to produce
right away. Now that's the pedigree of Caleb Williams, and
he's he'd been the number one overall picking the draft
for two years, Heisman trow number one pick for USC.
Jaden Daniels was someone who jumped on the scene last year,
won the Heisman Trophy, put up incredible numbers as a
two way quarterback. But now with Washington, completely different situation.
(13:12):
And I don't know if you put Daniels in the
situation with the Bears, would he'd be doing the same thing.
Probably not, because there's no offensive line and you'd have
the expectations of being in Chicago. But he's allowed to
fly under the radar and become his own quarterback in
his own time, and in just three weeks you can
see everything revolves around him. He's comfortable in the pocket,
he's comfortable taking off, he doesn't take off too early
(13:33):
if a play is not open downfield, that's when he
gives it. He actually gives an extra second or two
when I think he's gonna take off. Oh, he's really
making sure there's nothing downfield. And then he's able to
use athletic ability and run around guys. And he's got
that ability where it doesn't look like he's running fast
and he's still running around guys who are huffing and
puffing trying to chase him. It's like watching Deon Sanders
(13:54):
when Deon Sanders would run away from we have an interception.
He's running for a touchdown and just everybody looks like
they're in slow running back so much faster, Like that's
kind of watching Jaden Daniels run. There's some plays where
I go, oh, he's gonna get caught right there. No,
he is just cruising to the first down and guys
are barely getting a hand on and pushing him out
of bounds. Like, if there's any doubt that he's going
(14:15):
to be a superstar, that is a race after this
game and more specifically that play tonight. Yeah, the potential
certainly has shown itself these three games. First couple of
touchdown passes that one he threw to McLaurin. I mean,
you heard the highlight. I mean, that's that's there forever,
the Cackling mad Men will put that over the top
of the video and that becomes the official call for
(14:36):
the length of his career. But yeah, I mean, the
concern are still gonna be there in terms of, you know,
how well he adapts as he takes hits over time,
because he got cleaned out pretty pretty well on that
throw and stood in and took the heat. But that's
one of the concerns coming out of college and certainly
will be going forward. And I know, being in a
(14:58):
commander's uniform, people immediately start harkening back to the days
of RG three and maybe rightly, probably wrongly, but we
do it anyway because you've got to have the easy comparison.
For Washington, they were on everybody's radar because the skill
position players they assembled, we all thought they were pretty good. Right.
The fact that zach Ertz, you know, he's got another
(15:20):
mouth to feed coming congratulations to them. But that's why
he's still playing in the tight end position, being as
important as it is in the game that he becomes
a little security blanket. Okay, McLaurin We've loved McLaurin for
a couple of years. It was get him a quarterback
that can feed him the ball. Well, this was the
breakout game there with these is four receptions for one
(15:41):
hundred yard. They drafted Luke McCaffrey and brought him in.
He showed some burst and separation. Go on down. Noah
Brown's been solid and then Eckler and Robinson out of
the backfield. Now Eckler had the big kickoff return, then
had one more carry. He ended up leaving with concussion,
So we'll see how fast it comes back. But Cliff
King as the offensive coordinator pulling the strings well, and
(16:04):
through the first three games he's looked very comfortable. The
Chicago things a whole other mess, right because they've been
waiting to annoying the quarterback forever I watched it had
no expectations. Everybody's like, what's going on in Philadelphia, what's
going on in Dallas? And then the Giants are gonna
be bad, So they just got to slide over there.
Maybe we talked about them a little bit of well
things break right, maybe they can be a five hundred
(16:25):
team and break through a little bit right, and maybe
they can right, and there's a huge win on Monday
Night Football. But then you have for the bear side
of things, for Caleb Williams. He walks in, everybody wants
to crown him. Here's all the history of bad Chicago quarterbacks.
Here's everything. Oh, they won seven games. Look how good
the defense was last year. Look at what they did
with the offensive weaponry. So naturally he's just gonna come
(16:47):
in and everything's gonna work. Well, they forgot they hired
Shane Waldron, and they retain Matt Eberflus oops ooops and
that offensive line. To put it bluntly, no good exit
out about a Fresca exit Swallen Dome. The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon live from the Tirack dot Com Studios. Uh.
(17:11):
Coming up next, we get back into one of the
other biggest takeaways from Monday Night Football. In one of
the conferences, I can easily tell you who the best
team is through three weeks. Let's go even close. That's
next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Fox Sports Radio. This song goes out to the Cincinnati Bengals.
My season died on the field tonight. Must have been
a play we didn't make. Wow zero and three tonight. Yeah,
that happened. Bengals lose to the Commanders thirty eight to
(18:01):
thirty three. The Bengals fall to oh and three. Meanwhile,
the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Tj the Buffalo Bills. I always like doing that, Burton
teach the Buffalo Bills. I loved the Bills, the Buffalo
every every year. His pick was always Bills forty nine ers.
I was a super Bowl every year. Still was this
year Bills Bills forty nine ers. Eventually I'm gonna get
vengeances gonna happen. I'm gonna get Bills forty nine ers. Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The Buffalo Bills absolutely steamroll the Jacksonville Jaguars eighty seven
to ten to improve to three and oh on the season,
giving you three three and oh teams. Now in the
AFC we are through three weeks. Yep, three and oh
teams are the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York, Kansas
(18:50):
City Chiefs are a three, three and oh teams through
three weeks, I can say this without a doubt. And
it was a year where we didn't know how they
were going to be. Was this going to be a
reset year? Was this going to be a year where
they have to maybe take their lumps and fix things
up a little bit and there maybe their first Super
Bowl window was closed. But no, I'll tell you right now,
(19:13):
the Bills are the best team in the AFC. And
it's not close between those two other teams, not even close. No, no, no,
right now in terms of the excellence of execution on
both sides of the ball. And they'll have some questions
to answer defensively due to some of the losses to injury,
But so long as von Miller and company are are
lurking around to quarterback, yeah, they'll be just fine. Uh.
The Bills are. And when you compare the three, three
(19:36):
and oh teams, yeah, okay, because let's break these teams
down here, you have the Bills, Steelers, and the Chiefs. Offensively,
for the Buffalo Bills, they're dynamic. They're the most dynamic
of all of these teams. Sorry, but that's true. Patrick Mahomes,
game manager, the Bill wasn't quite expecting you to spike
the ball right there. But yes, I mean there is
(19:58):
something to do that get the ball to The Bills
are the most dynamic team offensively. Defensively they're still really good.
Are they quite what the Steelers aren't? No, but they're
close enough to where the Steelers still offensively, just it's
getting them to score. It's like trying to get blood
from a diamond. You know, it's really difficult. As good
(20:20):
as Justin Fields was yesterday in his best game, a
couple of nice plays, it's still too tough for the
Steelers to ask them to do stuff offensively. Right. We
thought they had all these weapons, and it turns out
maybe George Pickens is just a guy. Maybe Jalen Warren
is still getting into shape, and Najie Harris yeah yeah,
and now Naji Harris is not nearly dynamic, and Friar
Muth has disappeared. So maybe now it's only it's Justin
(20:42):
Fields or buffed. But offensively, the Steelers still struggle too much.
And I couldn't see them in a game with the
Bills right now being able to score enough points to win.
And for the Chiefs, let me just ask you this,
do the Chiefs look like they're winning like the Patriots
used to. They look like they're hey the veterans smarts
(21:03):
and how they're managing the end of games. Or do
they look like a team that's surviving, because they look
to me like a team that's surviving. Whether it's a
not getting the where the falcon's not getting the questionable
pass interference call at the end, they're making just enough
plays to win, which is great, right, it's great when
you make the winning plays, that's awesome. But this is
not a team that, hey, we're making the plays to
(21:26):
win on the down weeks when we don't dominate. I
have not seen the Chiefs dominate a game. They have
been they have been escaping. They have been winning by
being the wiley that's going ah, just when you think
of a game, we're gonnaose, We're gonna pull this one out. Well,
the problem with that is, as a season goes on,
you wind up playing the teams that actually are really good,
and you wind up having a season that falls short
(21:48):
of your expectations. You can only win like this and
escape for so long. Now, could I see the Chiefs
being a team that wins their division? Absolutely? Because look
the ANFC West stinks right as we've seen it. It's stinks,
especially now if just and Herbert is hurt, that everything
the Chargers do is gonna be predicated on him, because
they're gonna score two and a half points a week
without him. So I could see them winning their division.
(22:08):
But I could see this being year. Hey, the Chiefs
win and they get smacked out of the playoffs in
the first round by a team that's better offensively than
they are, better defensively than they are, and they execute more.
The Bills have way less questions and look much more
impressive than either the Steelers or the Chiefs do as
a whole. They're each doing real good things right right.
The Steelers playing great defensively, opportunistic offensively. The Chiefs are
(22:31):
making the plays they need, making just enough plays offensively,
holding teams back just enough defensively. But neither of them
are doing what the Bills have been doing. And the
Bills have just been getting better from week one all
the way out here. Now we thought, though, oh, Arizona, boy,
you should win that tea. No, it turns out, Arizona,
it's not so bad. Right. It may not be great,
but they're not so bad. And each week, it's been
a better and bigger win for the Bills. And I
(22:52):
look at the AFC right now and I go, man,
I thought the Jets were going to get to the
top of this division. We were gonna run away with it,
and all these thoughts I had going on in my
head as I lay in bed at night, thinking Jets, Jets, Jets.
But instead I'm like, Okay, we're looking up against the
Bills again. No, it's still gonna be a battle as
we rolled through and as we know in the National
Football League, it's like we talked about with the NBA,
(23:15):
I just need to see what these teams look like
and how they're constituted when we open the playoffs. Right
until then, it's a it's great when we ride the
lightning week in week out as we do all two
seventy two, some of them greater than others. I mean,
someone's got a rank last. But the you can only
(23:35):
beat who's on the schedule, because that's the other game
where everybody's starting to play. It's like, well, where's the
quality win. It's like if it's not on the schedule yet,
it's not on the schedule yet, right, Like the Steelers,
you're three, and oh, okay, you beat Atlanta. Everybody loved Atlanta,
didn't they everybody see oh yeah, they love Atlanta. You
came in waving Atlanta Falcons flags down. I'm like, what
are you doing? The dirty bird? A couple of times
(23:57):
you came with the Arthur Blank cup from Hey, he's
going to the of honor. I'm gonna chug this soda
out of the Arthur Blank Ring of Honor cut. Was
I bitter on one before the show started. I'll have
to I haven't won it yet. It was still it
was still how much you have to been on that?
I was only like twelve bucks. Oh really, Oh that's
worth it? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's worth shipping. Got
papped to one for Arthur Blank coming out of that.
(24:20):
No question still absurd that you're putting the owner. Hey,
I'd like to be in there now. He's the owner
who makes those decisions. I'm gonna put myself on another.
There's a cut. No, just the other fact that there
was a celebrating Blank. I'm gonna be on it. What
I'm gonna give everybody hot dogs and a soda and
some chips. Okay, okay, we'll put you into the Ring
of Honor. Yeah, well, I think what's on that. I
(24:43):
think it was him saying, there's a committee. You're gonna
you're gonna order the committee to plan parties. You think
they're gonna say no, hey, hey, sorry, Artie. Uh, but yeah,
we decided you're not that. What would you like on
the cup? Yeah, we're not that. You're not a suit.
You're not getting in arty. Yeah. It was close vote though,
I mean it was like five to four, but many
end we like the hot dog idea, but already we
(25:04):
just can't put you in the Ring of Honor for this.
You realize, how about it's gonna cost us for the
extra manpower. Sorry about out these hot dogs. It's like
when when Roger Dorn what is he when he takes
over his GM and the Indians in the Major League
And I've activated myself. I'm now in the trench coat
and action, all right? So he in Atlanta week two
against Denver. Nice effort by Denver this week. They got
(25:26):
after Baker Mayfield early and often, and everything rolls through
and then you play the Chargers, who every time I
looked up there was another guy on the ground writhing
in pain. So again you can beat who's on the schedule.
Will they get their comeupance at some point? Maybe maybe
not right deep that's gonna be good. Will they keep
scoring seventeen points a game and winning? No, no, they
(25:50):
will not. For the Buffalo Bills, they've had some injuries
in the back seven, couple of linebackers already, so a
little concern there. But you've got such balance in the offense,
and as we talked about last hour, when it comes
down to it, you're not reliant on one number one
receiver to be the guy to make a play. You've
(26:11):
got two tight ends, you've got three receivers that are
rising up. And you've got not only James Cook, but
Ray Davis in the backfield who you brought in. He
got a little bit of shine late in the game
as well. So opportunity knocks. Your Jets are probably if
you're going to extend it now, they're not three and
oh sorry, extend it. Sure the Jets come creeping back
(26:36):
in better than the number one team in the WAK
right now. Don't be an ass uh, But but for
the Chiefs, it's a are you can you keep the
principles healthy right now? It's surviving? Can you keep this
cobbled together and maybe free up Travis Kelcey. I know
everybody had the memes of how defeated he looked on
the sidelines or whatever else. They're running a second guy
(26:57):
at him, and he's not the same guy that knows
and that's the one. You can't do the same thing
that you did four years ago. No, and then, and
I get they want to make excuses for him because, look,
his popularity has mushroom the last year, the dating Taylor
Swift and being the best tight end in the NFL
for a long time. But it's not like teams didn't
throw two guys out of that thing. He can't separate.
(27:20):
We told you last week. Without watching the All twenty
two film, I guarantee you, he's not getting the separation
of used to or Mahomes would be throwing to him.
And Mahomes even alluded to that fact that, hey, there's
much more coverages rolled towards them. I'm like, okay, Like
they weren't rolled towards him for the past seven eight years.
He still found a way to get open. No, he's
near the end because he's the thirty five year old
tight end and he's near the end, whether he's lost
(27:42):
his explosiveness, he can't get separation, so they're not throwing.
But it goes back to the larger discussion that you
and I have had. I think leading the way as
we do, everybody can jump on the bad wagon as
they want. Is the shift in offensive philosophy. Not only
from the hey completion percentage and be efficient that way,
it's also it's never been more incumbent on a quarterback
(28:05):
not to put the ball in harm's way, particularly if
you get just a middling offensive possession. You've got guys
that can kick the ball fifty five yards with regularity
on most teams at this point, and you have a
guy in Harrison Butker, if you give him an opportunity,
it's three points at the end of possession. So you're
not gonna try to fit it on a third down
(28:26):
play to Travis Kelsey, where yeah, he used to have separation,
but now, well, you've got to be absolutely perfect with
that throw otherwise it's gonna be a pick. And we've
already seen him and he's made a couple of terrible
throws trying to force the issue that he's got to
back off that right, We've seen that one or two
too many times already through three weeks. But survive and advance, succeed,
(28:49):
proceed all those things. I don't think there's a savior
walking through that door, right, Isaiah Pacheco was your top
running back. He broke his leg, he's gone. So the
fact that the offense is going to be hampered from
that side of things, they're not telling me that. You know, hey,
Kareem hunts back. Great, that Clyde Edwards Hilaire is gonna
get cleared. Okay, fine, None of those guys had the
(29:12):
same They already already had their shots, and they had
nowhere near the impact to balance that offense that Pacheco did.
So yeah, it's a work in progress. Bills by far
out of those three. And then I'll even put your
Jets forth because I'm nice. No, look at that. No, look, hey,
it's it's not about the Jets, even though you want
to make it about the Jets, I don't want they.
(29:34):
I thought i'd bring it back in and just say, hey,
right now, they're a team of balance, which we don't
have a lot of. No, I mean, and that's why
the Bills get good points, because the Bills are balanced.
The Bills can score. They can score points and bunches.
They can run the football and win. They play good
enough defense, not the lights out defense like teams like
the Steelers the Vikings have, but clearly they are they
(29:57):
are good enough. They are the best balanced team. They're
the best team the AFC. Now look up at him
even again, Josh Allen. You, well, it's the nineties again.
Suddenly I'll go through the buffalo. Oh, we gotta go
through both. I tried to tell you you're gonna go through
a table.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon live
from the tiraq dot Com Studios. We'll have more reaction
Monday Night Football coming up in about ten minutes. But uh, look,
the biggest results of this past week the Ravens getting
out to a huge lead over the Cowboys. And because
(30:39):
they're the Ravens, they have trouble closing. But the Cowboys
defense looks terrible. Dak Prescott can't get anything done until
it's too late. Look, I told you last week, Lamar
Jackson is gonna do it all by himself, be the
number one quarterback in fantasy. Was close. He finished third,
so okay, but that's all right. And they got out
to a twenty eight to six lead, and the Cowboys
(30:59):
couldn't come back enough. And now you look at Dallas
and they are all sorts of all over the place. Right.
You had Dak Prescott walking through the tunnel yesterday saying,
you want to jump off, jump off, like jump off
our bandwagon. Micah Parsons is yelling at teammates. Dak is
yelling at teammates. It's a da responding to my question.
(31:19):
And I didn't hear anything generally, like that's the thing
that's in your head. You want to jump off. People
are gonna hate us right now. Jump off. It's kind
of the Kirk Cousins. You like that, except you know,
we didn't like this. Uh, there's a fantasy, there's a hero.
That's true. He didn't have twenty nine fantasy points. Uh,
(31:40):
there is nothing going on with the Cowboys. We didn't
tell you it was going to happen. The only thing
that might be the tiniest bit surprising is the implosion
is coming earlier than we thought I thought, all right,
the first couple of weeks through the season, the energy
of Dak's contract, and we're getting out to play football
where you know, we have a we have a schedule.
It seems like it's manageable. The first couple of weeks,
(32:00):
they'll win the first couple of games. I thought the
implosion would come. Ah, you get into get into October.
But no, what's happening way earlier. Right, that's it. But
this should not be surprising. We knew that the defense
is not good. Right, what do we say last week?
What if Dallas just stinks? Right?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
What if?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
What what if it's all the stuff you want to
say about the Cowboys? What if they just stink because
they didn't have enough last year. They didn't go out
and make any improvements in the offseason. They paid Dak
and they paid CD Lamp. You don't get better, you
don't get better. Bye bye. By just being status quo
with Jerry Jones is all in. I'm not paying anybody else.
(32:36):
So I knew Dallas wasn't going to be good. I
knew they weren't going to be a playoff team. I
thought it would be a couple more weeks. But now
you're clearly seeing that defensively they have all kinds of problems.
Offense isn't enough to get past with the defenses there,
and they've just become a team that is Hey, they're dangerous,
right if you don't take care of business, you let
Dak and CD play pitch and catch, and suddenly you'll
(32:57):
find yourself in a dogfight. You don't want to be there, Dallas.
This is a dangerous, tricky team to play because of
Dak and CD on offense. That's who the Cowboys are.
They're not a great team. They're not close to being
a great team. They are getting beat because they're not good.
They're just not all the other drama you would take
it out. The Cowboys are just not good. We told
you they weren't gonna be good, but it turns out
they're not good, even sooner than we thought.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Well, the.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Roster construction, we knew defensively they had their issues. We
watched them get run over by Green Bay, and that
was gonna precipitate change. Well, you didn't bring in any
personnel to fix it. Changing out the defensive coordinator, Well
that doesn't seem to have fixed it. So you got
Micah Parsons just kind of pointing the finger, going I
can only do so much I am, but one man
(33:42):
and a lot of people will carry that water for
him as they go through. On the offensive side of things. Okay,
maybe you found a number two in Tolbert, Brandon Cooks
will pop up now and again, and Ferguson's an above
average tight end. Fine, but your running game stinks and
your offensive line is no good. Other than that, how
is the play right? I mean, Deak was great once
(34:03):
the pressure backed off and they went into a little
bit of the shell and the zone coverage and everything else,
able to find some spots and he did place the
ball well, finding the aforementioned Tolbert a couple of times,
and CD got his. But their run effort right now,
like Tony Pollard wasn't a world beater, but he's light
(34:25):
years ahead of what they're running out there right now, right,
we've seen it even in Tennessee. Yeah, keeping Taj Spears,
you know, to the sideline for much of these games
through the first three weeks. But you brought back Zeke,
you signed Dalvin cook on a wing and a prayer,
and then you're gonna try to pass the hat saying
you had no money after derreck Henry just runs you over,
(34:50):
which is exactly what happened. They got run over like that.
That's the story of the game. Right forget the score
because those that didn't watch go, wow, that it must
have been a pretty good one. Like Tom Brady was board. Okay,
Tom Brady was ripping the Cowboys. Okay, it's time to
just well, you gotta call it for what it is,
but that you can't dress it up and say, oh,
(35:11):
maybe no, but I get but I gave them credit,
like in the booth, they didn't go to just say
let's have some vanilla filler. He went after him. What
else was he gonna say? Damnybody expected him to count?
You know, the Cowboys are a great second half team.
Don't turn your TVs off, don't go to a better game,
(35:31):
don't flip to something else on The Ravens are known
to give stuff away, so you want to stick around. Well,
that is true. Ravens can't close. We know this. No no,
But in terms of criticism, that was one of the
things through the first couple of weeks of saying he
wasn't critical enough. No, no, he got it out against the
Cowboys in Week three and they deserved every bit of it,
(35:52):
and it's only gonna get worse. You should not be
surprised at this. Cowboys weren't gonna be good coming in.
They're just not good, even earlier than we thought. But
this should not be surprising. How about no Go exit out,
a bout of Fresca exit swollen down The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Carmen. Coming up next
Reality for one Wanna be Superstar NFL quarterback? That's next
(36:14):
right here, Jason and Mike. This is Fox Sports Radio.
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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