Hour 4 – The Bills Are Flawed

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon are covering all the BIG stories from the day in sports!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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 (00:22):
Let's give this part. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome inside final hour tonight the Jason Smith Show
with my base friend Mike Harmon. Four's up. Check out
our brand new YouTube channel. Just search Jason Smith Show
on YouTube again. That's Jason Smith Show. Be sure to
hit the subscribe button. Don't stop there, hit the thumbs
up icon. Comment away. Go check out our brand new

(00:49):
channel on YouTube again. Just search Jason Smith Show and subscribe.
Mike and I love putting this content out for you
every single night. Well, we got more baseball, a couple
of huge which things to get to coming off the
big NLCS ALCS night coming up at about twenty minutes. But
Monday Night football, we had our share of heroics. We

(01:10):
talked about Caleb Williams. Last hour on the show, The
opening game of the night, the Falcons out last the Bills,
And I gotta be honest with you if you are
the Chiefs, the Chargers, even the Steelers even loath to admitute.

(01:31):
Even if you're the Patriots, Hey, look you run away
and hide in the division. If you're the Steelers right now,
if you're the Colts, you are feeling pretty good after
what you just saw on Monday Night football. Yes, the
Bills were missing Dalton Kincaid. Who is you know? Hey,
the third year tight end breakout is a thing, But

(01:53):
Dawson Knox got a touchdown pass. But this Bills team
is flawed, and now seeing them for six games, this
is a team that if they can front run, meaning
if we can get out beginning of the game and
do everything we want to do, which is establish our

(02:15):
running game, establish that all the different receivers I can
get the football to right, whether it's Keon Coleman or
I want to get to Shakir, or it's Dalton and
KG when he's in the lineup, whatever it is, If
we can do our thing, boy, we are tough to beat.
But that doesn't always happen, and it didn't happen tonight.
And the Bills wound up getting smacked. And this is

(02:38):
not a Bills team that you have to worry about
stopping any one individual weapon. They're kind of like the
chiefs Light from the last couple of years, where yeah,
Josh Allen's terrific player and all, but there's nobody have
to worry. We have to stop Keon Coleman now to you,
as you can see the last couple of weeks, now
things are a little bit more difficult for the Bills
because teams have seen their tendencies, they've seen how to

(02:59):
approach this defensively, and the Falcons have a pretty good
defense and they shut the Bills down and Josh Allen
was never able to really impart his will on the game.
It would have been a bigger blow out if Drake
Lennon could have kept just one foot a little bit
more in bounds in the final play in the first half.
But this Bills team is clearly beatable. They're flawed. All
the teams in the AFC are flawed. Right, Wait, we

(03:22):
talk about the If we do like a power rankings
for the AFC, the teams are the top. But this
Bills team is flawed. And if you can. If you
can hit them in the mouth in the beginning of
the game, you stop them from being who they are.
And nothing needs to be more said than this, And
this is kind of a hot take, but as good
as Josh Allen is, he's not the most important player
on that offense. Clearly, what we have seen is James

(03:45):
Cook is the most important player on that offense. When
they can get him going. He's become a top five
running back in the NFL over the course of the
last years. When they get him going, that's when the
Bills offense is unstoppable, right, because that open and they
play complimentary football. Great, but they can't just throw the
football down the field because the receivers aren't good enough.

(04:06):
And Josh Allen is not quite that kind of quarterback.
He's a guy that needs to be doing everything. Design
runs for him. But they couldn't get James Cook established
right first half, they were getting crushed. James Cook ran
for thirty yards in the first half. Okay, second half, Hey,
first drive, we're gonna do things different. James Cook had
thirty five yards in the second drive. Bills are in
the end zone, right, But when you can establish James

(04:27):
Cook is the most important player in that offense when
they can establish him and they feed him and they
quote let James Cook. The Bills offense is different. But
the Falcons took him away in the first half. The
Bills couldn't bounce back. And I think every team in
the AFC and really contenders got to see tonight. Okay,
there's your blueprint on how to stop the Bills offense

(04:48):
because they put up all the points on the Ravens. Well,
the Ravens defense sticks, but points on the Jets. Jets
are the worst team in football. But now here you
are a team that's a defense that's pretty good, and
you saw what they were able to do. Okay, James
Cook is the guy. And now maybe the Bills are
going to be able to try to figure things out
of the course the rest of the season. But clearly,
right now, if James Cook can do his thing, the

(05:09):
Bills win. It's not Josh Allen, it's James Cook.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Obviously we're on air for a chunk of it, so
we don't have the benefit of whatever the analysis is
and breaking down play to play, and I haven't been
able to find anything except that his usage late in
the game was down only at seventeen touches average five
point one yards a carry, but wasn't on the field
and they're not using him in the passing game as

(05:34):
you would have seen in years past. So that's a
little bit of a curiosity, right. He had thirty two
catches on thirty eight targets a year ago. All Right,
that doesn't extrapolate, you know, break that down per game.
That's not a ton wasn't utilized at all in that
capacity tonight.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
And when we look.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
At the squad overall, to the point you were making
about the wide receivers, something we said coming into the year,
you don't have a number one guy that you fear.
He got a lot of you know, bless seeless guys
that make up for it.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
But this ain't Voltron.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
I don't get to stack those guys together along the
end the boundary.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, But that's the thing is that now Josh Allen
is showing that, oh Am, I really still a quarterback
that makes everybody better, right, Because that's the thing about
being a great quarterback is no matter who you have,
I can make everybody better. My Holmes makes everybody better,
Lamar Jackson makes everybody better. Is Josh Allen a guy
that make because this is how they had. Okay, they
had Stefan Diggs for a long time and they kind

(06:30):
of changed after that. Okay, spun Diggs is gone. Now
we draft Keon Coleman to replace him, ostensibly, but Kean
Coleman's not quite that guy. Well, okay, but we have
a lot of weapons. Now they go out and get
Curtis Samuel. We have a bunch of guys like we
feel good about our depth. But is that enough? Is
Josh all enough to make them all better? And he's
not at this point, not with this not with this group.
He's not enough to make them all better.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Well, but that's the thing, right is plays left on
the field and the fact that the defense is a
no show unit at this point. All right, Well go
back to that opener again.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Baltimore.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
They played terribly and Allen was able to put on
his cape and bring him back. And that's generally been
the formula of what they had to do. It's got
him an MVP a year ago, and in an AFC
that right now, you're trying to figure out who the
best squad is, I guess it would have to be Indianapolis.
By default, if we're going to go both sides of

(07:21):
the ball and being able to have balance in your offense,
that they would become the number one at this point.
But for Buffalo, yeah, there's a lot of problems right
here and one side of the ball. Look, go back
to the first play from scrimmage, is the Falcons got
bailed out off of a timing issue of a guy

(07:44):
jumping into the neutral zone. So you get the encroachment
that takes away what was a great play at a
Bijon Robinson fumble right Instead, they get the ball back
and immediately down the field and score a touchdown. So
you know, a game of inches and calls that go
against you, that start to stack, and then you're playing
from behind. And again when you've got I've got to

(08:07):
have this throw, do I have a playmaker that can
go get it? And the answer is right now, I
don't think you do.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Now. On the flip side of this, the Falcons win,
and the Falcons for the last couple of years when
everybody's favorite team that we think can they have all
kinds of exciting weapons on the team. Boy, you really
got to put it together. And the first thing I'm
gonna say, is the big message tonight should be Okay, remore,
say listen, guys, let's put this together. Let's stack wins.
We're clearly good enough. Okay. We can't be getting shut

(08:36):
out by the bleeping Panthers. Man, I know the Panthers
are better than we think, and that's okay, that's a
good story. We'll get to Bryce shots right. But we
can't get O'Donnell for the world. It can't get shut
out thirty nothing by the Panthers and then beat the
Bills twenty four to fourteen. That doesn't make any sense.
So it's a helter skelter kind of team. But this
is this is where if you're the Falcons, this is
where you say, okay, let's build off this. It's about time.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Man.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
I'm looking at my watch and doing Judge Judy jiff
Of when she does the click tic tic tic tack, like,
come on, it's time for you guys to get it
going together. I mean, I'm not gonna believe in Kyle
Pitts anymore because Kyle pitches it's not happening. But like you,
you have the talent and it's led by the guy
that we talked about him in the preseason. Who we said, Okay,
you know what, Bijon Robinson at this some point this

(09:20):
year is going to establish himself as the best running
back in football. Wakuon Barkley, Well, you fought with him
and Gibbs.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's like wrestled with.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
It between him and Gibbs, and now you're seeing that clearly,
Dan campbellton, I'm still going to give the ball to
David Montgomery. Come on, man, stop giving it to David Montgomery.
But clearly Dan Campbell's gonna do that. And we knew Barkley. Hey,
it's not going to be a year four hundred touches, man,
it's a thing. You don't come off of four hundred
touches and still stay that great running back. You need,
you need time to come back from that. But Jeon

(09:49):
Robinson is showing you that he is the full package.
He never has to come off the field. They take
him off for a breather now and again, that's fine,
but you get in the ball, he'd be a twenty
five carry a game guy. You throw him to him
in the passing game, he does it all. Big home run,
breakaway run, site, eighty one yard run for a touchdown,
Bjon Robinson is fulfilling that that the career path where

(10:13):
you thought when they draft him, Boy, he really should
be the best running back in football. So your early
first round pick, it should happen now. And Arthur Smith
was there, No, not gonna do it, Gonna get in
the ball a little bit, all guy are a little
bit gonna do it, Gonna upset all everybody that plays fantasy.
But now in turn, now in theory, it's okay, maybe
that worked as he built up to having this kind
of of run coming right into the NFL from college.

(10:35):
We don't want to kill him with three hundred carries. Okay,
we're gonna split time a little bit, and okay, it's
still a very effective one two rushing punch. But really
it's all one now because Bijon Robinson is that good.
They are. Bijon Robinson driven as good as Michael Penix,
may wind up being as good as Drake London is.
This is a guy I want him to have the
football two times at least in every four plays they run.

(10:56):
He's gotta have the football. He's just that good. And
you see now becoming the best running back in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
No, he's their leading receiver. You know, as you go
through a big effort obviously from London today and but
for about a foot and a half, would have had
another touchdown going into the break, one that I thought
might come back to bite them in the ass as
the second half began. But they're able to hold the
the Bills off. One thing that going forward, they're gonna

(11:25):
need more balance in the passing game. Darnell Mooney was
out once again, but you haven't seen anything from he.
Ray Ray McLeod have combined for a total of thirteen catches.
The aforementioned Pits. It's every fifth week, every sixth week,
he's going to get a big, big push from him.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
He's becoming that guy where where what's a good example of,
like where every four or five weeks he has a
big uh like Westbrook, a Keen or something like that.
We're like, oh, hey, oh, you know, fifteen fantasy points.
I'm gonna pick him up in fantasy. And then the
next four weeks he's terrible, Yeah, and then the fifth
week he's great. Yeah. Like that, he's gonna become one
of those guys.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
Yeah, Pits twenty catches coming in tonight on twenty four
targets the single olar touchdown, and that's the big question.
Can they find some consistency in the receivers beyond Drake
London because at this point, I play a box and
one in my second Marria, I'm not giving him any
chance to make a play, and I'm gonna make you know,

(12:22):
Michael Pennicks Junior, find somebody else at this point, because
you've got no consistency beyond London in the receiver or
it's really Bijon Robinson and London. And that's why I
wonder how high that ceiling is for this team on
a week to week basi. If we're gonna do that
with Buffalo, we gotta do it. We gotta do it
with Atlanta as well in terms of trying to find

(12:45):
that continuity and consistency of playing winning football because you
don't have that tertiary playmaker that's shown up and Panix
isn't a guy that's gonna do it with his legs.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
You have the Big Three, right, it's Panix, You have
Robinson in London. That's not bad, right, like the Big
Three for the Bills Alan cookend I mean really, so
it's a big advance. They played Voltron man, Hey, lots
of teams will be looking for wide receivers. The deadline
bills are gonna be wonering.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
They definitely want to them.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Speaking of London, have the Jets apologized to their nation?
Yet they're not coming back, They're staying in life. You
apologize to England? You know the people had taught in
them Hotspur Stadium.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
They all should have gotten like a free hot dog
or I mean really on the way out of an
extra pint of eyeballs.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
That Jets Broncos game that may crush Roger Goodell's dream
of putting more games overseas. No, we don't want those.
If it's gonna be Jets Broncos, you keep it, man,
because they're also trying to sell the hell out of
the Broncos. They gave you thirteen points. I'd rather watch
free plays of Wrexham than have this. I'm not happening, man.
Don't want those teams exit out bout of Fresca exit
swallowing down the Jason Smith Show with my best friend

(13:51):
Mike Harmon got more NFL on the way. We watched
the guy become a star tonight in the late Monday
night football game. But straight ahead two big things to
break down from the night of the Baseball playoffs, including
the biggest play of Dodgers Brewers. Wasn't the play you
thought it was? It's next right here, Jason and Mike
Fox Sports Radio. You're right, it was Freddie Freeman's home run.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Freddy.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
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 3 (14:28):
Hi, this is Jay. I'm the producer of the Pauly
and Tony Fusco Show. Usually in these promos they asked
you to listen to the show. I'm here to ask
you please, don't listen to the show. The hosts are
two absolute morons who have the dumbest takes on sports imaginable.
Don't listen to the show so it can get camps.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
What the hell are you doing in our studio?

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Get him, Paulie, Ignore that fool.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Listen to The Paula and Tony Fusco.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Show on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
He's still moving.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with Mo my
best friend Mike Harmon. Yeah and uh two big things
from Game one of the NLCS Tonight, biggest play of
the game. Oh that taskar Hernandez not knowing the rule.
I don't think he knew the rule. It's gonna have
a big deal. R uh no, no, No. Biggest play

(15:19):
of the game comes to us from the ninth inning
of the Dodgers two to one victory over the Brewers.
First of all, I I didn't have Rokie Sasaki getting
pulled for Blake Trinon on my bingo card. But here
we are.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
Hey, the playoffs make strange bedfelos, starters become closers, starters,
cats and dogs.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Living together messsteria. Uh. And I want to say this
right because I talk about Dave Roberts in his bullpen
management all the time. The Dodgers had exactly what they
wanted tonight. Blake Snell to Roki Sasaki. That's it, right.
We'll get to Blake Snell in a few minutes, because
wow do we have to talk about him. Blake Snell
Toroki Sasaki. That's it right, that's you want the only

(16:02):
ones you can trust, right, Rookie Sasaki, That's it. And
this is only he's only pitched five or six times
he came back from injury, but budding trust like a
new relationship. His arm is live, he's throwing one hundred. Yes,
he's closing out games. He's your closer. But he comes
in tonight and he has trouble throwing strikes. And you
can see when Roberts took him out of the game,

(16:22):
the look on his face was just he was in shock,
like like when you're told you're coming out of the game,
is like you see in a TV show when someone
says you're fired, I'm fired? Like what like you could
tell like, am I really processing I'm getting taken out
of the game, Like not that he was upset about it,
but he's like, I don't know what just happened to me.
He couldn't throw strikes.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Well, he's talked about it, you know, for as long
as we've been on air, Right, there's guys that go through,
say for baseball minor leagues, you're straight into the majors
and you make that jump and you don't have that hiccup.
We've talked about it for football, right, one of the
guys go back to Kyler Murray. For years everything came easy. Eisman,
first round draft pick for the a's first overall pick

(17:03):
with the Cardinals. And then all of a sudden, that
learning curve. It's like, wait, there's something extra I have
to do, So you do that for Sasaki, I've been great.
This transition to the bullpen is gone swimmingly. Yeah, And
he got the first out of the inning, no question.
And then he walks Collins, which is always difficult. And

(17:24):
then Bowers hits a double, so you have runners at
second and third. Then he gets try to hit a
sacrifice fly, so now you got two outs. The tying
run is at third, but you have two outs, and
then you walk Christian Yelich. And I give Dave Roberts
credit because going to get him at that point was
the right move. Now we can argue Blake trynon which
we will, but don't you pitch his ten strikes that

(17:45):
going to get him at that point you could tell
he was not accurate. It was not his night, so
we had to go get him. I completely get it.
But then Blake Trinon comes in and then we get
to the most important play of the night. Trying did
not have a good out, Okay, right right away, Blake
trying to right he was he was the beneficiary of

(18:05):
bad decision making, and he got and he got lucky.
So trying and comes in runners at first and third, right,
tying run at third, winning run at first. Yell it
steal second off of him. Okay, So now you have
runners at second and third, and now the winning run
is at second.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Okay. He walks Wilson Contreras, which I don't think was
a bad decision because Contreras was right on him two
fast balls. He fouled right back a couple of times
with two strikes. Try to get him to chase out
of the strike zone. Contraras was not doing it. Contreras
was on him this at bat, So I get throwing
outside the strike zone trying to him to chase. Not
the worst thing in the world to put him on base,

(18:41):
because I could just tell watching this at bat Contreras
is on him. So not the worst thing in the world.
So now Bryce Terrain comes up and on a one
to one count trying to throws a cutter that Terrang
has to leap out of the way from ball two.
Whoa Bryce Terrang. You gotta stay in there and get

(19:07):
hit by that pitch. I'm sorry, but you do I
know that your general strategy is I'm not getting in
the way when when a pitch is coming at me,
I gotta get out of the way. But dude, bases
are loaded. This is game one of the NLCS. You
turn your body, you get hit, you go down to
first base and tie the game. And I was stunned

(19:29):
to see him do that. And I know every Milwaukee
fan singing the sand I'm throw the sand and the
duck are going, Dude, you gotta get hit by that.
You gotta get hit by that. I'm sorry, but you do.
And look, it's something that when you're little. You look
at a lesson that I taught girls when I was
coaching them, and you know, youth wise, I'm like, hey,
when we're playing a regular game, stay up there, get
out of the way. You get up there and hit.

(19:51):
But if we're playing a tournament game, we're in the
state tournament, we're doing something. You turn when that pitch
comes in because it's most important that you get on
first base. I know that it's a thing, and I'm
not saying you get hit in the head, but you
see that pitch coming at you, you don't leap out
of the way, but you turn because you have to move. Yeah,
even a major league baseball you gotta look like you're
getting out of the way of the pitch. The umpire
is gonna say you didn't try to to get out

(20:12):
of the way. You're not getting first base. You have
to just turn your body and just and kind of
halfway do it because you gotta get down to first base.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Which that's the decision.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
You get hit on the leg, and it's not like
it was coming at at your head and you had
to he was coming at your leg. Dude, you gotta
get hit by that. You gotta get hit by you
gotta get down to first base. And right after that,
that's let trying it off the hook and then trying
to throws a pitch that's three feet out of the
strike zone and for some reason, and maybe it looked
like it was a little backspin on it, like it's

(20:43):
one of those one of those breaking pitches that a
pitcher throws. It gets the action on it that I
don't expect, and Terrange swings and it is three feet
outside of home plate's three feet high, and he swings
and he strikes out, and the Dodgers win, and Blake
trying is the hero. But Blake trying was the beneficiary
of some bad decision making by the Brewers, specifically Bryce Terran,

(21:04):
who had to make you gotta get hit and then wow,
I don't know that pitch. I don't know where he
was mentally at that point, but I don't know how
you swing at that pitch. Yeah, I mean on the
second strike in that at bat was a bit high,
I thought, and a bit out of the zone. It
was a little high.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
That was a little hot shit of where where it
came across the plate, But certainly it looked like it
came in high. So perhaps to his thinking, all right,
well I got a little higher zone. Now this one
was up in his eyes. Yeah, this one is when
as a baseball player, you know. But again, hey, Blake
trying and got the got that high strike call like
he did, like Blake trying to like whatever deal with
the devil he made tonight to Devil's coming back for him. Man,

(21:42):
next game, Devil's coming for you.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
We'll see. But for tonight, for tonight he's living.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
Right.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
If he went down to the crossroads, he got it.
But you know, eventually the devil comes for his into
exact dispayment. A little earlier, than you anticipate now that
for that at bet, he's also thinking I could I
could be the hero. Right, so you've got that. You know,
the ball looks like a beach ball or whatever that
trying is thrown up there. You know his reputation for

(22:09):
the last couple well virtually all season five to four
e er and that he's gonna give you a pitch
to hit. In this case, you chased and you saved him.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, this was and this was Dave Roberts making the
right decision to go to the bullpen, but he got
bailed at. He brought in, He brought in the wrong
guy because it wasn't a great night for trying. And right,
you had a walk and it should have been a
hit by pitch and it could have been another walk.
But you survived, You escaped, You escaped, and it looks
like the decision was great. But clearly going to get
Sosaki was great. But boy trying, I was like, oh

(22:40):
my good, how many times has he not shown that
he can do it? But I get that Dave Roberts
is gonna say, hey, it was great and trying it
has been great. I believe in my guys. Okay, that's awesome,
but you know it wasn't great. You know, it was
rocky as hell for him, and you probably should have
had the game tied. But but you got bailed out
by bad decision making and potentially a good fortunate call
at home plate by the pirate, like you got bailed out, man.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Big talk about business decisions all the time. Certainly it's
the running knock on guys in the second area as
to whether they want to tackle a running back who's
got a full head of steam or a tight end
who's broken into the second level. I don't know, you
do the thing where all right, I try to hit
him kind of, but I'm certainly not taking him on
full I mean, I know, I watch it with my

(23:24):
daughter's soccer game. She's she's a stout thing and stands in.
But we'll also launch for on free kicks and you'll
go back and you'll watch it. Yeah, that girl decided
to make a business decision because she should have blocked that. Yeah,
and here was something for try. I mean, he's wearing
it across Milwaukee tonight. We've certainly gotten some feedback from

(23:44):
our listeners in the area saying, you know, he's a
guy that you got to stand in. It's the it's
the NLCS. So this is the Dodger squad that comes
in with some of their best struggling at the plate.
Man it's ironic, greg or coincidental or whatever term you
want to use. Freeman hits the home run as a

(24:04):
later double later the big double playball came off the
bat of Muncie, who struggled last time out. Again, Philly's
throwing out a lot of left handers and still waiting
for show. Heo, Toni, he's a bat to wake up.
In all of this, you hold the Dodgers, the Mighty Dodgers,
to two runs and you're down one nothing.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Now the flip side of it is Blake Snell. All right, now,
this is this is really something because when Blake Snell
had the game where he told Dave Roberts go back
to the dugout, I'm not coming out of the game, right,
what do we say that night? Blake Snell is your
game one starter for every series possible for the Dodgers.

(24:45):
It's not just about the talent. It's not just look,
Yamamoto's been really good, right, and you want Otani to pitch,
but sometimes you have to understand this guy's got that
extra gear and this is the guy you want to
ride with in the nl LCS, in the NLDS, when
you play in the World Series. He's the guy. And
you see now in the playoffs six inning outing, seven

(25:08):
inning outing, eight inning outing tonight, eight innings, one hundred
and three pitches, double digit strikeouts, one hit, and he
picked the guy off after he gave up a hit
first time a hitter is a pitcher has faced that
few batters through the first eight innings of a playoff
game since Don Larson's perfect game in nineteen fifty six. Okay,

(25:29):
that's how dominant Blake Snell was and how dominant he
has been. And he's you know, another thing is that
we've talked about this is that he's sort of becoming
the next Madison Bumgardner. In an era in which we
don't really have playoff starters and studs. You can say, well,
give him the ball game one, we're gonna win. Like

(25:51):
Bumgarner was that guy right for most of the teams
with the with the San Francisco Giants, Now we had
really good years as a starting pitcher, but he was
never like a Jacob de Gram or someone that hey
is gonna go. You know, twenty and three he was
really really good, but he always had that next gear
in the playoffs, and you saw a World Series every

(26:12):
other year punctuated by his seven inning outing and relief
in Game seven when you had just pitched the day
before or two days before that against the Royals. Like
this is who Blake Snell is. He's the next Madison
bumguarter because he is that dominant playoff pitcher and the Dodgers,
I mean riding behind him tonight eight innings, like I

(26:33):
was going one hundred and three pitches. I'd send him
out there for the ninth. But you have Sasaki, So
I get that right. It's if you didn't have Sasaki,
or you had it was the rest of the bullpen
was terrible. I would say, okay, let's break, Blake. How
do you feel, man? Do you have one more inning
in you? Can you go one more? But Sasaki he's
been great. That's fine. I don't mind the still because
the complete game being such a rarity. Oh yeah, yeah yeah,

(26:55):
but I but I get the whole. Hey, we have
our lights out reliever ready to go, and he's been great,
so I understand that would have been the first complete
game for a picture for the Dodgers this year. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, but hey, you know, Dave loves the bullpen.
He's not gonna let that happen. Not funny, aren't you.
But but I mean, that's how good Blake Snell has been.
He is. He is that good. He is that kind
of playoff mentality. He's got a bit of the Bumgardner

(27:17):
mentality in him. Uh, you know, without yelling people and
you hit a home run, go around the bases, don't
look at me. But he's got that fight. He's got
that he's got that extra intangible about him that other
pitchers don't have. And when he's on the bump, now
the other team is like, okay, let's just try to
get him out of the game. Like there's strategy against
pictures that we think this guy's really good. Here's how

(27:38):
we have to approach the at bats, and then there's
pictures where it's there's a very few where it's okay,
just try to foul off as many, make him throw
as many pitch you want. We got to ge him
out of the game, right we can. We don't want
Blake Snell on the seventh eighth inning to still be
in the game, Like, that's the only strategy you have
right now against him is make him throw as many
pitches as possible, and still teams aren't able to do that.

(27:59):
He's still gets out of these innings. Right, we only
allow one base runner. You're not a lot, you know,
a lot of throwing a lot of pitches. That's the
only strategy you have against him. That's how good he is.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Well, that's the thing with the.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Brewers, and the point that was being made coming into
the series is that they're gnats, right, they don't go away.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
They're on the base paths, they're active on the base path.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
Get them on, get them over, get them in agitators
that can potentially lead to big, big innings. They only
had two guys hit more than twenty home runs this year.
You had Yelich finished with twenty nine, and you had
Churio had twenty one, terrag At eighteen and go on
down the line. So it's not the usual three outcome

(28:37):
team that you will face. So yeah, you start getting frustrated.
And this where terrang not leaning into it on a
night where you guys didn't have it at all, becomes
that much more magnified because you had the chance to
steal this game even though you generated nothing through eight.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
And think about where that would have been. He gets hit.
So now Trinon comes in, walks, a guy hits a guy,
bass is low noted. What do you do?

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Do you stick with?

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Do you go to whatever? You probably go to house right,
and you probably go to VESI you don't bring him
in to face a left handed but but what do
you right now? I mean, I don't know if you
get out of that inning at that point, that's the thing,
right you might have been able to steal the game
right there. I mean that was such a huge play.
I mean, look, Blake Snell has been so good, Like
this is where the Dodgers win tomorrow. They're sweeping the series, right,
Like it's it's all come down to Freddie Perolta is

(29:23):
their best picture. So it's it's it's a it's a
big shot for them. But like tonight was such a
gut punch. After Hey, we're not gonna beat Blake Snell.
We got him in the ninth inning, we don't get there.
How do we come back tomorrow and do it?

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Right?

Speaker 1 (29:36):
I already think it's going to be a sweep in
the American League, right, Americers are going to find their
way all the way to the World Series. But like now,
suddenly you've put it on this because you missed that
one chance in the ninth inning. Sometimes you only get
that one little chance. Sometimes only a thermal exhaust port,
Mike Carmen, that's like three meters wide. You got to
hit it, or the death Star's blowing up that planet.
I mean, you got to get that one chance. You

(29:56):
got to be able to get out. Darth Vader's taking over. Yeah,
what happens, Ty, You got to find out what's trending
in the wide world of sports. But guy has been
called the Darth Vader of Fox Sports Radio because they're
about the same height.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
It's Steve Desager.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
I also walk in every room with this daunting music
behind me. It just appears and breathing heavy. I notice
you breathe heavy a lot too. You mentioned Roki Sasaki.
Of course, last week at Dodger Stadium, it was a
first in postseason history. A guy who tosses a perfect
eighth inning and a perfect ninth and a perfect tenth
in a series clinching victory. They bring him into Game

(30:29):
one of the NL Championship Series at top seeded Milwaukee,
and he gives up a run protecting a two to
one lead. They bring in Blake Trin and he got
the save a strikeout with bases loaded to end the game. Yes,
Blake Snell was phenomenal. One hit aloud in eight innings,
ten strikeouts, no walks, and in fact, the folks Is

(30:49):
statsing point out that since ERA became official in each
league over one hundred years ago, Blake Snell is unique
a pitcher to in a span of six starts playoffs
are not his last six starts to go at least
five and oh eer under one at least fifty strikeouts
in the six starts, and allow fifteen hits or fewer.

(31:12):
Nobody'd ever done that until the last six starts Blake
Snell has had in this past month. Freddie Freeman a
solo homer top of the sixth, in the top of
the night, Mookie Bets at bases loaded walk, and then
the crazy double play top of the fourth when the
Dodgers had bases loaded one out hit into the DP
on a hit to the center field wall that was
nearly a Grand Slam game two is Tuesday night at Milwaukee.

(31:35):
LA would host games three, four, and five. The Brewers
are seeded number one overall because they won ninety seven
games this year that included going six to oho against
LA in July. The Brewers and Seattle have never won
a World Series title. Seattle is halfway to getting to
a World Series. They won it number one seed Toronto
again ten to three, taking it two games to none

(31:57):
lead in the ALCS Julio Rodriguez three run homer in
the top of the first. Toronto tied at three to
three in the second, Jorge Polanco a three run homer
in the fifth. Josh Naylor, who's from Canada, hit a
two run homer in the seventh. Toronto had been ten
and two at home over the past month. Until this series.
Padres manager Mike Schultz retired. Sandy Alomar Senior passed away

(32:18):
at the age of eighty one. Two Monday night football games,
Atlanta beat Buffalo twenty four to fourteen. Falcons had the
halftime lead of twenty one seven b Jon Robinson on
only nineteen carries at one hundred and seventy yards rushing,
including at eighty one yard TD. He also had six
receptions for sixty eight yards. Drake London was targeted sixteen times.

(32:39):
In Atlanta, he had ten catches one hundred and fifty
eight yards in a score. The Falcons were without wide
receiver Darnell Moody due to a hamstring injury. Bills were
without tight end Dolankincaid out with an oblique injury. Dawson
Knox tight end did have an early TD. Chicago won
in the rain at Washington on a field goal final
play twenty five twenty four Jake Moody four or five

(32:59):
on field goal. The Bears regular kicker Cairo Santos was
out with a thigh injury. Washington with three turnovers, and
it missed a feld goal late first half, a fifty
yarder that hit the upright and key. Late in the game,
about three minutes left, Washington fumbled a handoff DeAndre Swift.
On fourteen carries one hundred eight yards rushing for the Bears,
plus a fifty five yard TD reception Jade and Daniel's

(33:22):
three touchdowns, but a couple of turnovers, the Titans fired
coach Brian Callahan. Tennessee is one and five Colts backup
quarterback Anthony Richardson was placed on IR after a pregame
injury yesterday. Dallas says wide receiver CD Lamb has a
chance to return this weekend after the bad ankle. Tampa
Bay wide out and Mecca Abuka will have an MRI
Tuesday on his bad hamstring and Rams wide receiver Pukinakua,

(33:45):
with a sprained ankle, will likely miss some time. And
congratulations to the nation of Cape Verd. You know the
US is co hosting the World Cup next summer. Cape
Verd has qualified, believe it or not, out of African qualified.
With an expanded World Cup, there are nine automatic spots
from that continent. So Cabo Verde, if you prefer, is

(34:07):
coming to North America next summer in the World Cup
for the first time ever. The place is described as
an archipelago of volcanic islands off the western coast of Africa,
population about a half million, now the smallest country ever
to qualify for a World Cup.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Thank to you. I thought I thought that was I
thought that was the name of the That was where
Kim Wexler worked in better call Saltis. She's working on
the Omesa Verde. That's what here's a question.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, they advanced farther than the US.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
That's up for debate currently. Thank you, Steve, Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming
up next Monday Night football saw the birth of a
new star quarterback.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Who is it?

Speaker 1 (34:52):
We'll tell you next Fox.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays. It's at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific.