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September 9, 2025 37 mins

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to JJ McCarthy's winning NFL debut and Jason proves he knows more than the Internet! The guys give Kevin O'Connell credit for a savvy move late Monday night to seal the Vikings' victory. Are the Dolphins very quickly headed for disaster? Plus, 2 big name quarterbacks are headed in very different directions!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome inside final hour tonight the Jason Smith Show
with my bas friend Mike Harmon. At University of Maryland
Global Campus, you can choose from more than sixty five
graduate online degrees and certificates, including our MBA now with
ten specializations. Classes start September seventeenth. Visit UMGC dot edu.

(00:49):
That's UMGC dot edu. Well, coming up in a minute, we'll
tell you what the Bears have in common with the Ravens.
I mean, outside of both being on and one. But
you know, people have been scared the last years all
of a sudden, like we woke up one day and
it was Ai is going to take over the world.
It's going to ruin everything, like whoa whoa Okay, like
it Ai is coming for a long time. All of

(01:10):
a sudden, the next day it was AI is here
and suddenly we're living in terminator times. It's gonna be terrible.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well but I mean, now Jared Leto's got an army
of AI soldiers.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, But I'm okay. I gotta
say that the trailer, they make it look amazing. I mean,
I have zero desire to see anything Tron related, but man,
the trailer makes it.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Look I want to go do the ride. I've never
done the rod. That looks like it could be just
the red going up and like a pattern. It's like, ah,
that's kind of satisfying to just sit there and watch it,
something like like you playing with an etch just sketch
on a screen, except it's a great color, right, Like
it's a really dark background and you see the red milk.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
But uh, you know evidence here now that maybe AI
isn't going to destroy us, at least not yet. Least
have a few more years to go.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
You'll get you on the crossover.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Uh So, when Steve de Sager did his update last
hour and he said, hey, JJ McCarthy now still undefeated
in the regular season, all the way back to high school.
And I was like, Wow, I'm sitting there going I
could swear I remember McCarthy losing a game to Penn State,
but maybe not. Like again, like I say about my knowledge,
but it maybe not. But let me look it up.

(02:16):
Maybe right, And I thought, yeah, And I thought, but
did maybe he not start that game? Did maybe he
not finish that game? Like I'm trying to think of God, thought,
I remember, really thought Penn State was a game, thought
the remember loss. I'm like, okay, let me figure this out.
So I type in JJ McCarthy last regular season loss. Okay, figuring, Okay,

(02:37):
I'm gonna get the answer right Here's what AI said
to him. I'm reading you right on. And I tweeted
it out at how about a Fresco You can see it.
Here's what Ai just told me. JJ McCarthy's most recent
regular season loss was on September eight, twenty twenty five,
when his Minnesota Vikings team lost to the Chicago Bears.

(02:57):
This was his first regular season game played. He threw
an interception for a pick six as the Vikings were
defeated by the Bears with a final score of seventeen
to six.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Dewey beats Truman.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Let's go artificial intelligence.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Bears.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Why no, not exactly what the Internet had in mind. Hey,
I'm out some universe. Skynett wants to talk it over.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
That's exactly how it ended in an alternate earth.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
He's regular his last with tonight when they lost seventeen.
That didn't happen. What do you want from me? What
do you want?

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I like your previous tweet where you quote tweeted yourself.
I told you Caleb Williams would be fine, and he is.
He's moving the team, and more importantly, he looks confident
in the pocket and made smart decisions. All that was
true when I typed it twenty six minutes ago in
Ron Howard's arrested development narrator voice. But things weren't actually fine.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Just there, but things weren't actually fine. They did not
have the paperwork needed. Uh So again, AI may be
not quite as power.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
David Cross comes walking in at some point, painted blue
or something.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, there's a fire sale, Oh my goodness. Uh yes,
I did the Blue Man group. Uh so again, you know,
here's a thing now, at least artific, here's the thing now,
Now I could I could make you happy? Is that?
At least AI and the Internet thinks that you won
the game. No, le's good if that's out there. Don't

(04:30):
they control the standings on all the different websites and
the final scores and the outcomes that are Aren't you
really want to know if that's what the Internet says.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Well, you're not lying to yourself if you believe it's true. Right,
it's the old kiss Stanza. But this is here, This
is here in black and white. That's just it. It's printed,
that's right here, right now. And he said, Siri, who
won the Bears Vikings game? Bam, that might might be
what it spits back at you. It would say, harmon,
do you really want to relive this?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yes? Okay, you asked for it?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Second out and not no, Yeah, just a seeing a
lot of the glass half full stuff coming across from
people talking about the Bears, and then Olin Krutz Bears legend.
I stumped for him for the Hall of Fame twenty
seven to twenty four. Of the loss, he says, quote,
the size of the job and challenge that Ben Johnson

(05:23):
has is a lot bigger than most people thought. It
was like, no, no, no, we fully recognized it was
a dumpster fire. I don't think there was any any
question about that, but people wanted it thinking it was
a microwave, you know, like a whatever your toaster strudle.
It's not the case. There's a lot to be done.

(05:45):
You're reformulating a full offense. And for a while you
were able to keep things at bay, and then when
it went bad, it got bad fast.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Wow. And to let you know now that I think
I should be the one in charge of being more powerful, right,
I should be the one in charge of keeping you
want to be you want to be OZ because I
want to be like, bring me the bo So now
we said this, I am sure other because I know
the reach of the show. Other people are typing this
in to see what the answer is. AI is changing

(06:15):
its answer. Now I just hit refresh.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
JJ McCarthy last regular season loss. JJ McCarthy's most recent
regular season loss was during his college career with the
Michigan Wolverines. His last regular season loss was on November
twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, when Michigan lost to Ohio
State with a score of thirty to twenty four in
a close game. Now, all of that is right, except
for the fact that Michigan won that game. Thirty to
twenty four, not Ohio State so close. So yes, that

(06:44):
was a game a team did lose. The score was
thirty to twenty four. Except McCarthy and Michigan won that
game and Ohio State lost that game. So that's I'm
defeating AI right now. This is me, man, This is
like what tech games do it again, this is like
war games. Man, every two minutes, We'll just update this.

(07:05):
I'm war gaming it right here. This is this is amazing.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Next level stuff. Shall we play a game?

Speaker 1 (07:10):
I mean that Michigan had to win that game to
go to the playoff andever uh and this that was
a game where Ohio State lost, but still, you know,
back doored their way back, you know in the following week.
I am I am battling with artificial intelligence right now
and I'm winning. I'm AI is on its heels right now,
not getting stuff right. This is how about that? Huh? Yeah, dude,

(07:31):
I'm the one forget about what what's the what's the
air defense system? What's the first thing we have? What
do we call that first strike? Okay, but just put
me there, man, just put me meet me with a
laptop death con smith. I can defeat AI. I can
defeat AI like this.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
You're standing there like Robert Downey Junior when he does
the arms extended and the explosion behind in the original
Iron Man.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
How did you do it, Jason? I just started asking
sports questions and and AI just completely imploded and melted down.
And now they can't do anything. Have them now in
internet jail? They're in like that, like one of those
like the Fantastic Four jail. They they they shot the
galactus to at the end, like now he's just floating
in there. Man can't get out.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
The problem is you'd already done that with Zod Well
Superman too.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Now they can hang out and play cards too soon.
On Terrence Stamp, it was come on just a couple
of weeks. Good night, my Joel.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Now it's this, how.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Do we defeat Ai? Jason Smith with a laptop? Oh,
I want my statue outside of Staples, next to the
Shack statue. That's right as you're sitting there on a
laptop drinking drinking coke zero. Oh no, no, no, now
it's it's gone back to the most recent loss was
his NFL debut against the Bears on September eighty, twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Some next level nonsense you got going on that power.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
There we go.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
I just always remember the walls heavy or is one
of the many great pieces of advice my old man
gave me.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
I am fighting artificial intelligence. Why I'm winning right now?

Speaker 3 (08:51):
All right?

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Wait you wait, want more because now I'm still winning. Okay,
now changed it from the most recent loss NFL debut
prior to this professional game. His last significe lost was
a college game on November twenty six, twenty twenty two,
when is Michigan Wolverines lost the Oldhouse State Buck. Guys,
here's the thing. Michigan won that game too, forty five
to twenty three. So AI is now defeated. Like I've won.

(09:14):
I'm like Bill Pullman the end of Independence Day. Hey,
and then someone walks up and says, I want to
shake the hand of the dad of the most famous
man in the world. Yeah, like, hey, President President Pullman,
thanks for winning us Independence Day. I have won over
artificial Intelligence. I've won the battle. There's not enough to
get this optioned into a movie. I'm defeating AI. Uh yeah,
I think so sure. Yeah, the Rock could play me,

(09:34):
because you know both of us had the signific He's
about to win win an Oscar. I don't know about that.
I think that's a lot of talk. But I mean
he's going to get away at this point, I lost
a lot of weight. He could play me now, but
I mean really, I mean it could work next level Stu. Yeah,
that's how it works, man, I could beat Ai. Wonderful now.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Things you didn't think you have to do on a
Monday battling Ai.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
What did the Bears have to do with the Ravens
right again? Yes? Both owen one. Both bad stories this week.
I mean bad stories for each of their team. Because
the Bears lose a game where they just look at
their body demeanor. The game was over after the pick six,
and you saw the Vikings fight back. It's incredibly embarrassing
for the Bears.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
It's funny though, like, just before we get deeper into
the game, my brother's texting me they've just done the
long walk, because there's a giant park that you walk
through to get away from Soldier Field back to the
bus lines and cabs and whatever, and he's like thinking
about it. It's like, outside of the explosion on the
pick six, he goes, it might have been the most
nervous and quiet crowd that I've been part of. Right,

(10:39):
And he had season tickets for many a year, gone
to countless games on the road, whatever where you've got
the large continued embarrassment because there was just an uneasiness
as to what they might see. And he ended up
giving me the dot dot perhaps scars of years past.
So the thing with the Ravens, and it's talked about

(11:01):
a lot today.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Right, you saw the game. Look, we may not see
a better game all year. The Bills come back, and
there's so many different things you can point to, right
for the Ravens. You can point to the Derek Henry fumble.
You can point to the decision to punt. You can
point to the trying to you know, tackling keyon Coleman.
Let the guy get in the end zone at that point, right,
get the football back. You're not You're not getting the
ball back if you do that, right, All but a

(11:22):
bunch of mistakes. And I keep going back to this, Right,
Like when we picked the game on Friday, what did
I say, I'm taking the Ravens in this game. If
it was a playoff game, I'd pick the Bills. Right,
But the Ravens usually they save their big joke jobs
for when the game means the most. But this was
what then, this was what the ninth time under John

(11:43):
Harball that the Ravens lost a game in the fourth
quarter that had like a ninety percent chance to win. Like,
there's a list and a litany of Ravens gacks that
that go back the last few years, whether it's dropping
a pass and the end zone, whatever it is being
the thing is and and and where does this come
down to, right, Because it's not the same thing in
every game. Yeah, Sometimes Lamar Jackson turns the ball over

(12:04):
in the playoffs, and that's why they lose. Sometimes they
make mistakes like this, that's why they lose. But there's
the only consist the only constant is John Harbaugh. And
it makes you appreciate, It makes me appreciate Bill Belichick
and Andy Reid who for the better part of the
last twenty five years, like Belichick for the first fifteen
to eighteen and Andy Reid for the last ten, when

(12:25):
games get crazy and get sideways near the end, they
always found a way to win it. There was never
a point where you said, wow, the page, what are
the Patriots doing? Outside of Belichick going for it on
fourth out against the Colts in the game like eighteen
years ago. But they always find a way. The chief
the Reid and the Chiefs find a way to win.
Right there. Clutch at the end of the game. Clutch
is a thing, right, that is a gene the teams have,

(12:47):
and they always there's games against sideways, games a get close,
not suddenly where they're they're always infallible. But hey, this
game is getting a lot closer. This team has done this.
But the Chiefs and the Patriots, these teams have always
found a way. Hey, we're making sure to win this game.
The Ravens aren't winners. That's why they lose. They're not winners.

(13:07):
John Harball has not been able to instill the hey,
this is how we do it. This is how we
do it at the end of games, because look how
many games they have blown at the end when they shouldn't.
Why do they always lose in the playoffs? They have
better run. They have just as good a roster as
the Patriots when they won, just as good a roster
as the Chiefs when they won. And they can't do
it because they don't have anything clutch. They're not winners.
That's what you can say, and that's where you say,

(13:30):
and that's where you can you can you can take
a step back and look at those teams that I
just mentioned to go, Yeah, they always found a way
and the Ravens just can't. Look the Bills couldn't, but
the Ravens handed to them last night with with coming
back like the Ravens that they just don't know how
to do it. Why can't pick them ever to win anything?
No matter how the good and they are in the
regular they can go fifteen to two in the regular season,
home field, all the way, I'll pick against them, all

(13:51):
the way to them because I know they're not getting
the super Bowl. That's kind of what they are.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, it's just that curiosity of where what's lacking? Because
you dominate and close games. I guess you know, we
see it in the the NBA with some regularity, and
certainly you bring it here where it's like you're blowing
teams out college basketball and then all of a sudden
you're at a close game and suddenly possessions bogged down,
you can't get a good shot, et cetera. For the

(14:17):
NFL purposes, here you have the really uncommon occurrence of
the Derrick Henry fumble after what was a monster game,
but defensively suddenly just falling asleep, giving Josh Allen extra time,
not getting a good pass rush, finding soft spots in
the zone, and then suddenly you don't. You forgot how
to tackle, like all and then you make a tackle

(14:39):
on the Keon Coleman play. To your point, you also
had Keon Coleman with the deflected ball that finds his
hands for a touchdown during that highly unlikely, improbable sequence.
Except that we've seen this movie before. It's kind of
like watching some of these Bears games, your Jets against
the Steelers in Week one, but for the Ravens. Yeah,

(15:02):
you coach long enough, you're gonna have circumstance to where
you're going to start racking up losses of these these type. Right.
Andy Reid was the previous leader in the clubhouse with
all the years of experience between Philadelphia and with Kansas City.
But you know, I found it kind of funny that
a number of people are like when they when they

(15:22):
did the fire drill field goal attempt on Friday, It's like, ah,
teams do that all times, Like no, no, no, A
lot of teams don't. A lot of teams don't. Like
I give MacArthur O'Connell and the Vikings credit today after
that completion of the nailer, that they were able to
get the field goal kicker out for the fifty nine
yard attempt and they're able to.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Hammer it through.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Like some of that is coaching, and that's it's unique.
It's not obvious because we would see it more commonly
and the excellence of execution would be there in the
final two minutes. Something's lacking for John Harbaugh and this
squad still trading on Super Bowl and the switch from
Flaco to the Lamar Jackson all these years later, Like

(16:05):
at some point it becomes the all right, when when
do we get past this? Now it's not January, but
it's the ghost and specters of years gone by that
came up against Oh, I'm sorry, a team you're contending against.
In one of the other Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Favorites, exit out about a Fresco exit swollen down the
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon clutches
a thing. Clearly, the Bears don't have it and the
Ravens have never never had not wipe them again. I
want winners, winners. That's not you're not giving that speech
of the Ravens. I got speech there. You know.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Mike Singletary was out there with the Super Bowl trophy.
Bears lost today, coming up next.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
As bad as tonight was for the Bears, they actually
didn't have the worst week of any team in Week
one in the NFL. Oh no, No, that honor belongs
to somebody different. Who is No, it's it week. It
was for us. It's not us.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
That's next.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Radio Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
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 (17:15):
Hey what's up everybody?

Speaker 4 (17:16):
It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up
on Game? What is Up on Game? You asked, along
with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman, Zada and Super
Bowl champion Yup, that's right, Plexico Buruts. You can only
name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game. We're going to be sharing our real

(17:39):
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman, Zada, and Plexico
Burds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcast from.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Ike Harmon up in the studio and we are
still on overload after this Bears giveaway of the game
to the Vikings. But again before we get to a
team that actually had a worse week than the Bears.
You know, we no, no, no, dada. We had a
bad week, but not nearly as bad as that. Uh.

(18:20):
The We've talked a lot about the kickoff at the
end of the game. The Bears cut the lead to
twenty seven to twenty four after giving the way giving
the game away, but they cut it at twenty seven
to twenty four. They kick off with two minutes and
two seconds left on the clock. The Bears decide we're
gonna We're not gonna onside kick because if we stop them, uh,

(18:41):
they have to run a play before the two minute warning,
then we have one time out left. They would get
the ball back with about a minute left to go. Okay,
that and Ben Johnson said that after the game. So
what do you got to make sure? You got to
make sure that there's no return on this, right, gotta
make sure there's no return. So you either if you
don't want to on side kick kick it out of bounds,
because trying to kick it through the end zone is

(19:04):
really difficult. And Ben Johnson said that was a plan.
I told Cairo Santos kick it through the end zone. Yeah,
well that's one thing to say that, but there's another
thing to actually do. It still have to execute and
that's on Ben Johnson. Right, you got to know you
sure you can make it all the way through the
end zone. Yeah no, I blew it. Oh well that
we just blew the game because of that. So you
got to know it's easier to kick the ball out
of bounds than it is to kick it out of

(19:24):
the end What does it matter if you give them the
ball up with the forty yard line, what does it matter?
It doesn't matter. You need the football back with as
much time on the clock as you can, and you
blew it. You blew it. Ben Johnson blew it again.
I wonder if he's cut out to be a head
coach because there's certain things you have to know and
have buttoned down a little bit more. For Kevin O'Connell
here right. We talked about what he did tonight running

(19:46):
the football in the second half when a lot of
other coaches would panic, where we're just gonna throw the
football when you get down seventeen to six, Hey, just
throw it, throw it, throw it. But the decision to
run out with the ball, you could tell again that
the Vikings they knew this was a possibility because when
you see the couple of different angles on this right.
We've talked about the fact that you saw Kevin O'Connell

(20:07):
waving the ty Chandler, sure, bring it out, bring it out.
But the thing is Chandler in the in the in
the replays that we've seen in the last hour or so,
Chandler catches the ball and looks to the sideline, right like,
he looks to the sideline, what do you want me
to look? So you know going into the play it
was depending on where this kick is, you have to

(20:29):
bring the ball out, right, So you know there there
was an attention to detail knowing to bring the ball
out because there's no other reason why Chandler would look
to the sideline. Right. Obviously, Now it's a new because
it's a new kickoff situation. Obviously with the everybody's starting closer.
But you can't, you can't go right away, so it's
a little bit new for everybody. This is not just
I have all kinds of time, I have the ball,
so you know that there was gonna be. This is

(20:51):
Kevin O'Connell saying, Okay, I'm gonna see how the kick goes.
You look at me, and I'll tell you what to do.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Right.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Obviously, I'm gonna give you a thing to stay. Are
your thing to come out now? Obviously, no matter what,
as long as you catch it cleanly, I'm gonna tell
you to come out with the ball, right, Because let's
say he tries to catch it, he bobbles it, it
hits the ground. He doesn't want him to try to
run it out. Do you want to give him a safety?
So clearly this was you check with me, and I'll
tell you what to do. As soon as he caught
it cleanly. There was no hesitation by Chandler. Chandler looks

(21:21):
right over to Kevin O'Connell and O'Connell's standing where you
make sure everybody can see him, gives him the wave
to run out, and Chandler runs the football out, gets
out to about the twenty yard line. And then that
was the big thing because now suddenly the change of
possession is at the two minute warning, so you don't
get that extra timeouts. Now the Bears only stop the
clock once, so instead they get the football back with
ten seconds left. Like that's what I mean. We talk

(21:43):
about having an attention to detail at the end of
a game and being a team that wins, right, That's
something that winning teams do. And this was the Bears
why they lost and why the Vikings won because clearly
the Vikings played more of a winning game. They understood
even in the second half, this game wasn't over. We
have to have the right style to come back, which
is running the football and asking JJ McCarthy to make

(22:05):
a play once in a while. And the Bears thought
the game was over after they had that pick six.
It was a party, like, Hey, we just won, man,
we clinched the gate. Dude, you're midway through the third quarter.
You still got a lot of football out the play.
Your offense hasn't gotten first downs at all. You haven't
be able to move the football at all in the Vikings,
you're gonna keep giving the football back to them. And
that's exactly what happened. The Bears played like the game
was over. The Vikings played like we want to win,

(22:27):
and you saw that detail at the end of the game.
I mean, yes, it's Ben Johnson being the head coach's
first game in the NFL, but these aren't situations that
are brand new, unique to him, like he's been in
these situations. He knows it running a two minute offenses
like and how much time you can take off the
clock and how much time you can put on the clock.
He knows these situations. And Kevin O'Connell out coached him
in that moment, and that gave it didn't lose the

(22:49):
game for the Bears, but it gave them no chance
to win after that was over. They went out a
minute left to go, ten seconds of game's done.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Time out that you only had one remaining as you
got to the two minute warning. And again with Cairo Santos,
we start going into percentages of touchbacks and blasting it
through the end zone. Clearly not his forte right, not
one of those guys that was like some ninety percenters like, oh,
look off, his kickoffs go flying through the through the

(23:17):
uprights and all of those things, but that you even
give him a chance to make the catch right to
your point of either kick it fully directionally towards the
corner of an end zone to where the return isn't
as obvious, right to where he's got to make a choice,
kind of like if you're tagging up in baseball, of hey,
was the guy catching it facing forward where he's gonna

(23:38):
get the quick crows hop and be able to gun
you down, or is he drifting backwards still on the
ball to where you can get the extra step, those
kind of things. But it gives them seven extra seconds
and the Bear is only able to stop the clock once,
so you get the ball back with sixteen seconds as
opposed to you know, having that extra time out and
having that down ahead of the two minute marker. And

(24:01):
we saw it over the course of the game. Right,
some positives, but certainly from the coaching standpoint, there's a
lot to be desired from what Ben Johnson and the
Bears brought to Bear. And for Kevin O'Connell, first half
was a bit of a disaster, except you know, all
of it to say that you had to pick six
and you had that first drive. Other than that, you

(24:22):
played it pretty even right Bears a shoot a field
goal attempt, so you never felt like you were out
of it, which emboldens him in the second half to say,
we don't have to put it on McCarthy's arm because
eventually we're going to have our spots. And what did
you see with the Bears missing a couple of key
components in the secondary Johnson and Gordon both available. Unavailable
for this one, is that you started to see a

(24:44):
little more space, whether it's Aaron Jones leaking out of
the backfield as he did, or suddenly being able to
get Justin Jefferson involved. I know fantasy owners are still
mad at four for forty four. He did find the
painted grass and you did get the four for forty four,
and that got was predicated on having some success in
the run game and opening up the play action, something

(25:06):
the Bears were trying to do all night as well.
So yeah, advantage O'Connell.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
I mean, really that that's you talk about why teams win,
why teams lose, and why Kevin O'Connell is well regarded
as an NFL head coach. It's stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
But the balance of games come down to one possession.
We saw it all this Sunday like, it's indicative of
what the and really demonstrative and and and what we've
seen the history of this league the last couple of
couple of years. Right, it's most games fall within a
seven or eight point range with the opportunity in the
final two minutes, and it's all about the excellence of

(25:41):
execution to finish things off and salt away at the clock.
Bears failed to do so here and got into panic mode,
got away from at least what had made the first
half serviceable, and opened the door for the Vikings to
come and take this game.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
I mean, you would think that that would be something
that at the levels of the NFL you would think, well, obviously,
that's how they do it, because the coaches are that smart.
And then on the other side and the Bears, where
Ben Johnson said, kick it out of the end zone. Okay,
oh wait, we should have asked if he could do that.
We should we should have figured out that maybe he
might not be able to do that, right, Like you see,

(26:20):
I mean that's a huge thing. You'd think these cars
they're so smart, they know so many different things and
all this stuff. It's like, you know that there's a
big variable kicking the ball out of the end zone,
just letting you know about that. I don't know if
you think, you.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Know, maybe he's got a dead leg in Week one,
I don't know. Oh wait, he didn't kick a lot
of extra points in kickoffs.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Now that being said, the Bears did not have the
worst week of any team in the NFL. Week one.
It was close.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
It was close.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Jet's had a bad week because I'm embarrassed we lost
to Aaron Rodgers, which I'm like, come on, man, really
see what a good team does to a Gordian. Yeah, yeah, dude,
it was you see. You know what the thing is,
he didn't have that great You played better than did
any game against the chance right. Well, but to me,
the Jets set him up with short fields mistakes Like
Rogers had a good game. But it's not like suddenly

(27:09):
he turned the back turn again. It's about taking advantage
we're talking about with Ken, I'm embarrassed that we that
that had. I'm embarrassed we lot. That's why I love
Aaron Glenn. He said, I'm not in for moral victories. Yeah, no,
I'm not in for Hey, the future is bright justin fields.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
No, we gave them that game and Rogers walked off
with a win, right So, but still not as bad
as the Bears, who had a really bad loss. Not
as bad as the Ravens, who maybe even had a
worse loss than the Bears because of how they blew
that game in the last few minutes.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
But that's we've seen that before, and your Super Bowl contenders,
Bears hoping to get to playoff eligibility and really building
a new foundation with Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. So yes,
on these levels, we're working on levels Ravens, but Bears.
Still but still not the worst loss of the week

(28:03):
because the Ravens are still really talented.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Obviously.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
It's one laws devastating. Yeah, the worst loss.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
The Miami Dolphins, because the Dolphins, it's everything bad, bad karma,
bad energy, bad vibes. They showed up and played that
game like a team shows up in Week seventeen or
week eighteen when they've been eliminated, Like we're just gonna
we're just showing up here. We're turning the we're turning
the page to next season, or we're tanking like there

(28:30):
was nothing in that game that told me the Dolphins
were ever ready to play. You even heard the Colts
say after the game was over today' say, yeah, we
knew we make two a panic. I mean it wasn't.
They don't show up and Daniel Jones carves them up
like he does. Again. I told you Daniel Jones is
gonna be okay, but not to this extent where suddenly
it's his best game he's hadgin it's twenty twenty two

(28:52):
with the Giants like this islaterally embarrassing for the For
the Dolphins like this, the season's over for this looks
like a team that's all already tuned out. Mike McDaniel
who is not gonna make it to the end of
the season. Tyreek Hill will be on a new team
by October first. Already he's pouting on the sideline not
they know they're close to getting rid of him, and
he's just trying to find his way out of Miami

(29:13):
now to get to a team that's good. So he's
gonna be gone by October first. You've already seen trades
made earlier today, So yeah, October first is gonna happen,
and Tua this is going to be his last year
as a Dolphins starting quarterback. Even though we got paid,
he still never has gotten that hug by the franchise
of you're our guy and we're going forward with you.
This has been well, we're paying you because McDaniel likes you.

(29:35):
He's got a plan. But clearly in the last eighteen months,
the Dolphins have fallen so far they're a complete tear down,
like they might pick first in the NFL Draft next
year they might wind up with arch Manning. Great now,
I get arch Manning in the AFCAS, but that's how
bad things were are for the Dolphins that they look like,
I don't know what kind of season they can have.
Everything is just bad, this bad energy, bad karma. And

(29:57):
with Tua, who again, yes, yeah he got paid, but
you have his injury history, and you still don't have
the Dolphins feeling like, yeah, he's ours, he's our franchise guy.
We're gonna go and win champions, to win division titles
and make the playoffs with him after four years, there's
still that we're not sure another team will take a
shot at him. That quarterback needy league and especially dependy

(30:19):
how bad the Dolphins are this year. If they wind
up tanking and he'll be on a new team next year,
it's gonna be a new everything in Miami next season.
That's how bad. That's how bad This week one loss was.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Well, your whole offseason was about the disconnect member Tyreek
Hill asking to be traded and like so many other stars,
everybody else seems to have had the kiss and makeup
moment because they got an extra giant contract. Well, Tyreek
Hill didn't get that. He already had a giant contract.
Otherwise he would have been traded. He would have gotten
his wish. But coming off of a down year, there

(30:52):
weren't any suitors now here. You might end up having
the desperation stuff that we talked about on the iWatch
Reflex podcast a little bit that made this is where
Philadelphia gets involved. You saw they added Tank Bigsby, one
of the great names, to the running back stable from Jacksonville.
And then you also have Kansas City, who's got a
bunch of guys hurt right, Xavier Worthy. We don't know

(31:13):
how quickly he's gonna get so there will be suitors.
It's a matter of how you figure out the money,
but you can always do that. But he and TUIs
still clearly not the Kumbaya moment that you wanted. Mike McDaniel,
a couple of weeks ago, we kind of chuckled at it,
but it was, you know, the gallows humor of, hey,
we're one day closer to death. It's a great day,
like one of those kind of things. Oh okay, So

(31:36):
you know he's heard it, and we've watched it with
the betting markets for first coach fired and everything else.
But you've got a lot going on with that squad
and it's not moving in any anywhere towards a positive direction.
Jalen Wattle was gonna be a guy. Now he's a jag.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Exit out about a Fresca exit swallowing down The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from the Fox Sports Studio.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Puts in the bag a shark or something.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
So two quarterbacks going in completely different directions, and this
was a change from the midway part of the third quarter,
where Caleb Williams was going one way and JJ McCarthy
was going the other way.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
Yeah, one dog going this way, one dog going the other.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Way, and this is what dog's going. Hey, what do
you want from me? By the end of the game,
Caleb Williams, you have all kinds of questions about him
about mistakes he made in the final quarter and a
half of this game, whether it's running out of bounds
and trying to throw a pass, whether it's that horrible
overthrow of DJ Moore. Would you had to walk in

(32:52):
touchdown and you didn't just overthrow them at the goal
line by a couple of yards, you were thrown by
fifteen yards. There were so many mistakes, and then you
had JJ McCarthy. Suddenly, Hey, I can make plays too.
Right for McCarthy, This was not all of a sudden.
McCarthy is great. This is kind of what I envisioned

(33:13):
JJ McCarthy. If he's at his best in the NFL,
he needs weapons around him. He's not a guy that's
gonna win you games. He's a guy that can make
plays and win games if he has great talent around it,
which is seventy five percent of the quarterbacks in the NFL.
What McCarthy did tonight was it looked exactly like a
Michigan offense, where it was we're gonna sledgehammer run the

(33:36):
football and we're gonna ask you to make a plane
now and then that's what Jim Harbaugh did for j
J McGraths. Why I said he was overdrafted and I
don't see him being a star in the NFL because
I did. They never asked him to win one game
at Michigan, not one now, one game. Can I tell
you they won that game because JJ McCarthy was so good.
He had a great offense, and Harball builds his team

(33:58):
to the extent of it's a quarterback friendly offense. But
I'm gonna run the football, do a lot of different things.
We're gonna play action, we're gonna get our studs out,
and we're gonna make big throws once in a while.
And that was JJ McCarthy because it's not like he
brought them back with his right arm. They ran the
football down the field through a great touchdown to Justin Jefferson,

(34:19):
They ran down the field again through a nice touchdown
pass to take the lead, and then went down the field,
scrambled in from fourteen yards away. Look, the guy is athletic,
he's got a good arm, but they're never gonna ask
him to do it all by yourself. He's just not
that guy. But using Jefferson, using the offensive line, which
is able to blow big holes open for Jordan Mason,
and and to an extent, you had a couple of

(34:41):
the guys make some big runs, was mainly Mason throughout
the late part of the third quarter and fourth quarter.
That's how they won. Like, so, it's not suddenly that
JJ McCarthy turned into the superstud. It was, Hey, we
took a little bit away from you and got back
to basics. Once you threw that pick six, we still
have enough time to run the football and get back
in this game and do it because our def defenses
playing well. That's JJ McCarthy. That's the best of what

(35:03):
he projects to be in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, I mean we saw the opening touchdown bears in
the script and everything goes to form and then Flores
and company went to work. So defensively, they knew they
were going to hang around the game. McCarthy and Jefferson
had the miscommunication on the sideline that led to the
pick six. But otherwise you're looking at an offense that,
while it wasn't robust and you didn't have a lot

(35:26):
of massive plays, took opportunities right. Three straight touchdown drives
averaging about ten yards per play and chunkyardage on the
ground and making big throws. That touchdown pass to Aaron
Jones was fantastic, the bullet he threw to Justin Jefferson
between two defenders for the touchdown there. It's you know,

(35:47):
a lot of quarterbacking is staying away from the negative
play and not losing you a game. And that's one
thing we know with JJ McCarthy, that one throw, notwithstanding that,
he's going to put you in a position to at
least have a chance.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Now, for Caleb Williams Boyle, I'll tell you, as as
great as I thought things were going from the first
two and a half quarters, all of a sudden it
just absolutely fell apart for him. It's snow.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Like they tried to get him to the part where
he was confident, he's making throws, he was making the
right reads. His body language was phenomenal the first half.
Confidently making decisions. Yeah, checked out a little bit too much,
but still we're moving. The team would do it, and
all of a sudden it just went out the window
for him and he had no fight back. That's the
thing that shocks me the most is not that they

(36:34):
lost the game, but that all those mistakes had suddenly
he started making that he didn't make him for two
and a half quarters. And it's not like the Vikings
were suddenly did something a little bit different. Now you're
really all these unforced errors that you're committing.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Got into a little bit of panic. We talked about
being behind the sticks with all the penalties, made a
couple of big throws where he did drive it down
the field. So just an inconsistent I give him about
what a C minus.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Woo exit out about a risca exit swollen Double Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Come up next
my buddy Ben Mallor. This is Fox Sports Radio.
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