September 16, 2025 • 25 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ last-second win over Houston and explains how it only adds to the incredible Baker Mayfield redemption story, why it’s starting to feel like Texans quarterback CJ Stroud has regressed in a major way since his stellar rookie season, what made Geno Smith’s performance against the Los Angeles Chargers so embarrassing to watch, and how Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has helped turned the club into a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Drake Fire, Bayam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Boyer for Tuesday, September sixteenth. Oh boy, it is
a late night slash early morning with the Monday night
football doubleheader. We're talking about the game that was pretty phenomenal,
although man, it was a gut punch for your boy.
First the Texans, Oh gosh, that hurt. Guys, not gonna
(00:35):
lie that one hurt. And then we'll talk a little
Chadgers who lost a little mamckett don't look good and Raiders.
But listen, NFL is devolving into chaos, and I think
we're gonna get to that later in the week. There's
just too much to chew into. Jason Daniels is hurt,
Joe Burrow obviously, so many guys going down, but there
is one constant and his name is Baker Mayfield. Guys,
(00:59):
America loves a redemption story. I mean seriously, that's what
we love. We live to build people up and tear
them down. We've been over this many many times. Yeah,
hike the hell out of someone, then they don't deliver.
You tear them down and then they come back with
a resurgence, because that's what the story of life is, right.
You never give up, you know, just when you think
it's over, it's never over come on. You can always
(01:20):
find a way out, and there's gonna be. Everybody goes
through a crappy time struggles. It's brutal. Life sucks. Oh
my gosh, I'll never forget. I was making peanuts, like
literally peanuts at a newspaper. Not literally peanuts, I'm sorry.
It was just a very little amount of money living
outside of New York City, trying to be a playboy,
you know, date girls and then you meet them and
they're like, oh, so where do you live, And you
(01:44):
say New Jersey. Enough times they're like, oh, you're bridging
tunnel note thanks, So then you just start lying to
say New York and then the girls actually talk to
you anyways. And I was just, you know, drive into
the city, that's where the action's at, and I you know,
you go through ruts where you're like trying to make
things happen with the ladies, work all this stuff. And
I'm coming out of the Holland Tunnel one Sunday as
(02:07):
hot as I mean, just brutally hot and all of
a sudden, my car just breaks down, like in the
middle of traffic, and I am able to somehow coast
to a gas station right outside of the Holland Tunnel.
And this was I don't even I think I had
like a cell phone, but I didn't really have anyone
to like bail me out. I broke as hell. It
(02:29):
just sucked. And I remember, I don't want to say
that was the last time I cried, because they were
a couple. Couple other times after that, but I just
like in my car broke down, like, oh my gosh,
my life. What am I doing. I got out of college,
I'm living in a studio. I got no money. This
just sucks. Now my car broke down. The hell am
I gonna pay for this? Fortunately, my mom was in town,
so I called her, and I just felt like such
(02:51):
a loser. I'm like, Mom, Hey, my car broke down,
Can you come grab me? You just feel like a loser,
right to me? That was rock bottom. After that, you know,
things quickly got better. I don't know. I guess you
don't give up, right, you keep fighting. And I want
to start the podcast talking about Baker Mayfield, because guys,
do you remember the swings of Baker Mayfield. You know,
this guy's thirty years old. Now he doesn't feel thirty.
(03:13):
But when he was in college, he obviously went to
Texas Tech early and then he had the He was
like a walk on and then he had the injury
and they were like, yeah, you know, he gets a
chance to play. He's good, but then he gets hurt
and he's come back. He's like, I'm ready for my job,
and they're like, yeah, no, that's not this thing, your
job anymore. And so he transfers, ends up at Oklahoma
and just crushes it. Becomes the number one pick, which
(03:35):
was a surprise. It goes to the Browns. You know,
he was okay early, he was he wasn't awful. He
did win a playoff game at Pittsburgh, although Ben Roethlisberger
was awful in that one. But then in his final
year in Cleveland when he was looking to get paid,
he had an injury and he tried to play through it.
And for despite being pretty good the first three years,
(03:57):
you know, he had some bad coach at Hugh Jackson,
Like he put up good numbers and that final year
was just so bad because he tried to play through
the injury just an abomination, and they end up they
move off Baker. It's like, oh, it's over. They're not
even giving him a second contract. He lands in Carolina
and is like a backup in his Then he gets
to the La Rams and McVeigh kind of rehabilitates him,
(04:19):
and then he gets to Tampa and folks, you talk
about a comeback. So Baker Mayfield has just thrived in
Tampa to the point that last year seventy one percent completions,
forty five hundred yards passing forty one touchdowns. I'm not
even kidding those if you just looked at that compared
to like a lot of quarterbacks in the nineties, those
(04:40):
are like number one in the league. Baker Mayfield is cooking,
and for the second week in a row to open
the season, he has orchestrated a final drive in the
final like five minutes of the game and won the
damn thing. Compounding matters ladies and gentlemen, as I was
going against him, both of those. I had the falcons
last week and got kicked in my teeth. Now cou
(05:02):
hits the field goal, it's a different story. I'm not
as much of a whiny bitch as I am right now.
Last night was brutal because the Texans stunk up the joint.
We'll get to it in a second, yet somehow because
the Bucks wanted to give them the game badly. They
had the lead and they were covering. But then Baker
gets the ball with like two minutes and ten seconds left,
and I just knew the vibes were bad. Baker goes
(05:24):
eleven plays eighty yards touchdown. Bucks win twenty nineteen. Texans
don't cover. I'm in too many Survivor contests, but I won.
This is where I had three entries. I actually picked
the Texans because I felt great about them, So I'm
one of my entries is cooked, and obviously I had
them in the contest. So I end up two and three,
which friggin sucks, and I'm five and five. It's actually
(05:46):
not that bad, considering the field has just gotten decimated
so far. But it's like, come on, that should not
have been a loss. Denver Sunday killed me. I was irate.
I'm a little more calm now.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (06:09):
You know, Texas. I could feel it coming just because
Baker's done. This is what he does. Man, He's clutch,
and I don't want to hear listen. We got to
move off to CJ. Strouden. Nonsense, Okay, I know he
was really really good as a rookie. I get that
he was less good last year. And he's been garbage
so far this season. Through it's two games, but he's
been bad. Baker Mayfield. Meanwhile, facing fourth and ten, okay,
(06:33):
against what I'm told is an elite defense, Will Anderson,
Derek Stingley, oh Hunter, they got an elite defense. Really,
fourth and ten, Demiko Ryans goes zero blitz. The safety
who comes in late, comes in hot, whiffs on Baker
because he's an elusive, little slippery guy, and then he
scampers fifteen yards for the first down. That was what
(06:55):
I knew it was over. I'm like, if we can
get off the field of fourth down, hey, we got this,
but it shouldn't have even got the Truthfully, the Bucks
are better all night first folk first downs. Okay, this
is just first downs. Tampa Bay twenty five to twelve.
They doubled them up on first downs yards Tampa had
like ninety five one hundred more yards. Texans zero to
(07:17):
two in the red zone. Again, CJ. Stroud is not
a good quarterback right now. He's not. By the way,
Houston two for nine on third down. They were two
for nine on third down last week against the Rams.
So there's four for eighteen on third down this season.
What now? The counter I hear is Houston like the
eighteen Houston fans who listen to the pod saying Jay
(07:38):
Mac come on. They faced the Rams on the road.
That's a great team, Tampa. That's a playoff team. Not
many people who faced two playoff teams. The Packers actually did,
and they beat their ass both of them. Houston meanwhile,
loses both. They are now two games behind the mighty
Indianapolis Cults will fall off. I don't think it's over
(08:00):
for the Texans, obviously, you're not. Oh to two is
not a death sentence, not in that division. But you
can't punch it in the red zone. By the way,
the Texans were oh and two in the red zone
this week oh and one last week, so they can
barely get to the red zone. And when they're there
they can't score. That is a recipe for disaster. They
scored ten points early and I'm like, all right, fine, Texans,
they're good. Oh, here we go. We got this. And
(08:24):
then after they scored ten points on the first two drives,
Houston five plays twenty yards punt, five plays twenty two
yards punt, five plays nineteen yards punt. Three plays negative
five yards punt, And at this stage I feel like
it's over. Tampa attempts a field goal off the upright,
we have life. We got a shot, and then the
Texans drive it inside the five. Stroud misses terribly, terribly
(08:48):
on two passes and they turn it over on downs.
But again, Tampa wanted to give this game away, and
they have a punt blocked, and you're like, all right, Houston,
now we're gonna punch it in. Four plays zero three plays,
zero yards. Let's kick a field goal. But they have
no offense right now, So don't tell me CJ. Stround
is a top ten quarterback if you have no offense.
(09:10):
Right So, now they're within one Houston and Tampa goes
in punts and wouldn't you know it, but this punt
on special teams is returned fifty three yards by some
rookie and you're like, all right, they're in business. Now,
don't kick a field goal. We need to touchdown. Nick
Chubb scores on the second play, and you're like, oh
my gosh, as bad as Houston has been, they're now
(09:32):
winning and covering. And I was a static and then
I realized, oh, wait a minute, it's Baker Mayfield and
he ruined it. So I'm happy for Baker. A buddy
of mine out here is like his marketing guy. And
by all accounts, Baker Mayfield is a good person. He's
grown up a lot since he was favoriting my tweets
coming out of college when I was saying, I don't
think he's gonna be anything special. Yeah, that's true. He
(09:53):
actually favored them. It wasn't like his team, it was him.
But these are young athletes. They are on social media.
And you know, he's got Abuca, he's got Mike Evans,
Bucky Irving on my fantasy team. He is, he's got
the wiggle. I mean, he had Bucky Irving is tough.
I like that guy. Meanwhile, let's check out on the Texans. Oh,
(10:14):
Nico Collins three catches on nine targets. I'm not even
lying when I say Baker was sorry. Stroud was spraying
the ball all over the place. It was ugly. One
final note on Baker Mayfield. What makes his story even
better is so in twenty twenty two, Byron Leffwich was
(10:34):
the offensive coordinator in Tampa. Then they get to Dave Canalis,
and Canalis and Baker really click and it's like, oh, okay,
Canalis is good, Let's get him a head coaching job.
He's now at Carolina. So then they replace him. So
this is three straight years, three new offensive coordinators, and
last year he had Liam Cohen. Liam Cohen got Baker
his amazing season. Liam Cohen is now the head coach
in Jacksonville. Okay, so when he leaves, you now need
(10:59):
a four offensive coordinator in four years, Yes, true story.
Four years, four offensive coordinators for Baker Mayfield. And this
year I had to look the guy up. I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. He didn't play for Byron Left, which they
fired Byron Left, which and had to do it. So
this was his third, third year in Tampa, third offensive coordinator.
(11:22):
The new offensive coordinator in Tampa is someone named Josh Grizzard.
I'm like, who the is that? So I googled this
guy started reading about him. He was a quarterback in
high school and a safety. He was a valedictorian with
a four point seven GPA. He went to Yale. So
he gets to Yale expecting to play and the coach
gets fired like midway through the first season, and so
(11:44):
this guy's you know, listen, that's a crap situation, right,
You go to Yale to play football, they recruit you there,
and then the coach gets fired, so pretty instantly you're like, oh,
what am I gonna do? He doesn't really fall in
with the new coach, The new coach doesn't like him whatever,
and he ends up saying screw this to go, I'm
gonna go be a coach. So then he takes on
like a grad assistant job at Duke while doing his
(12:06):
master's degree in Christian studies. I mean, this guy is smart,
he's religious. He played quarterback in safety, and I was
called validictur. I mean, like he's got everything. I'd literally
never heard of Josh Grizzard before. And I'm telling you, guys,
if you watch that game against Houston, I don't want
to hear the Houston defense is great because dudes were
open all day, running lanes were open all day. And oh,
(12:27):
by the way, they were down both tackles. Okay, so
please let's stop, you know, with this Houston defense being awesome.
Josh Grizzard, I guess he's gonna be the head coach
of the New York Giants next year. I mean, is
that how it works? Essentially, you coach one year with
Baker and then move on to a head coaching job.
I don't know. I was floored by Baker Mayfield, the offense,
everything about Tampa. Tampa now two to zero, I'm probably
(12:49):
gonna have to draw a line in the sand and
no longer bet against them. But impressive stuff. Houston, of course,
look pretty rotten. I don't think they're very good and
and yeah, let's get to the nightcap.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Live Chargers twenty Raiders nine in a game that sounds
about as ugly as it was. My brother went to this,
tried to coax me into going to it because he's
got a good hook up in Vegas, and I'm like, yeah,
I gotta work, gotta do the podcast. I don't think
I can swing it in folks. I missed absolutely nothing.
This game was garbage. Raiders completely inept offensively. Listen, I
(13:40):
said earlier Cjstride was bad. Just wait till we talk
about Geno Smith. Listen, Chargers look like a completely different team.
I know everybody's excited. Derwin James was phenomenal. Jesse Minter,
the defensive coordinator of the Chargers, really is getting a
lot of hype. I am extremely curious to see Chargers
Bronco this weekend. It is a huge swing game. Chargers
(14:03):
now at two and zero, could go three and oh
that would drop a Denver loss this week, it would
drop them to one and two. So it's a big
game in the division. And the Chargers just look really
really crisp. One thing I noticed last year, do you
guys will remember this? Go look up the Chargers Arizona Cardinals.
I believe the game it was on Monday Night football.
(14:24):
Jim Harbaugh targeted I think three different tight ends like
eighty percent of the time. It was insane. They were
throwing at tight ends all season it was the tight
end show and oh yeah, lad McConkie. Now they're completely different.
Keenan Allen has opened things up for Quentin Johnson, who
caught a sixty yard touchdown. Gosh, the Herbert pass to
Johnston was so amazing. Wait till you see it over
(14:45):
the shoulder, just perfection. But Keenan Allen opens a lot
of things up because he's always over the middle. Mconkie,
who was heavily featured last year, is not heavily. They're
not as reliant upon this small receiver out of Georgia,
Trey Hair. The young guy looked, okay, we'll disleak the
tight end one target. That's it. It's not a tight
end centric offense like it was last year. And if
(15:08):
not for a late fumble by the rookie o'mari On Hampton,
it would have been a flawless night for the Chargers. Listen,
they weren't overwhelming, but they didn't have to be Minter.
Had the Raiders offense just in a vice, they could
do nothing. And now let's get to Gino Smith, who
was sacked three times through three interceptions and had two
of the most comical fourth down failures you will see that.
(15:32):
I've seen this season so far, and it's only two
weeks in, but it's like, you know, it's twenty nine
late in the fourth quarter, and of course Gino Smith
cannot deliver a touchdown, and so the Chargers come down
and Herbert tries to throw a pick and then they pun.
Raiders have a shot fourth down. Gino Smith, not wanting
to throw another pick, okay, takes a sack on fourth
(15:56):
and three. It's like, dude, give your tiava chance. So
then Hampton fumbles and it's like, oh, wait, Raiders have
a shot and they can get to touchdown the two pointer.
They can get within three and cover the spread. Fourth down,
Gino literally running for his life, just chucks it out
of bounce. But what are you doing? I don't know
if he actually got it out of bounds, it might
have been like right to that. There was two receivers
(16:16):
kind of headed toward the sideline. He just chucked it
toward the sideline. Nobody within five yards of it. It's
like embarrassing stuff. Now, listen, I know they went out
and got Geno. He has not looked. I mean, he
was solid against the Patriots, and he looked completely lost
against the Chargers. Here's this is what's really confounding. Now
(16:38):
I'm recording this after it's one o'clock Eastern Standard time.
The Raiders have lost, and I watched Ashton Genty had
one good carry early where he ran over a safety.
I was like, Ooh, Ashton Genty looks good. Ashton Genty
finished his game eleven carries for forty three yards. He
had three catches for one yard. Folks on both of
(16:59):
those fourth downs late in the game, Genty was not
on the field. Now I don't know if he was hurt.
I don't recall him getting injured, but they had someone
named Dylan Laube in the game. He is a sixth
round pick out in New Hampshire. He has Danny woodhead
vibes and that basically has called for He's a small
white guy who is getting a shot in the NFL.
(17:21):
How do you draft Ashton Genty so high? Remember they
took him sixth overall and he's not even on the
field onto pivotal fourth downs. So it could be that
he wasn't good at blitz pick up. Gino was running
for his life much of the night. But listen, this
running running back class was pretty heralded. Right, Genty went
sixth overall. We know he's talented. He hasn't done much. Oh,
(17:43):
Marion Hampton went twenty second overall, we know he's talented.
He fumbled. He hasn't done much. Then Judkins went. He
had an off season that had some arrest issues. He
showed well in the blowout loss for the Browns. He's
gonna get touches, but haven't seen it yet. Trevon Henderson
of the Patriots was supposed to be the truth. It's
taken him inute. Now. That's not saying these guys can't
(18:05):
turn around. RJ. Harvey of the Broncos has flashed, but
he's not the primary guy yet. And Caleb Johnson, third
round running back out Iowa, obviously had the just the
massive brain lock gaff on the kickoff that killed Pittsburgh
and he's not getting an He looks like the running
back class has not done Jack Squat yet. Ashton genty
on the season so against the Patriots he had nineteen
(18:31):
for thirty eight yards and against the Chargers eleven for
forty three yards. So on the season he has thirty
carries for eighty one yards. If you're scoring at home
eighty one divided by thirty is less than three and
he has not had a carry over thirteen yards. Now
that could be an indictment on the Raiders offensive line,
which was downright terrible in trying to block for Gino Smith.
(18:56):
Listen this Raiders team. I know they got to win
over the Patriots and some people were excited. Colton Miller,
is that Donald Parham? Oh to Dylan parhim, Okay, yeah,
he's on the inside. The interior got blown up. And listen,
this is why Khalil Matck, the star pass rusher of
the Chargers, he got injured. His arm was in a sling.
I don't know how. It did not look good at all,
(19:19):
but it was like, geez, how are the Chargers getting
so much pressure? And I think that's a credit to
Jesse Minter, who is going to be getting a lot
of hype here this season if this Chargers defense keeps
it up. Now, Chargers Broncos not to look too far ahead.
I still do want to briefly talk about this brock
power situation. But the Chargers last year with Minter at
(19:40):
the helm, were a good defense, but ultimately the offense
just ran out of gas and Ultimately the defense kind
of struggled late. But in two games against the Broncos
they won twenty three to sixteen and at Denver. And
I remember that game because I had the Chargers. It
was literally twenty three zero. It was they were them
(20:00):
and there was some garbage time points from bon Nicks.
And in the second meeting they won thirty four to
twenty seven at SOFI. I might have been at that game, No,
I I might have.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
JK. Dobbins had a big I think he had a
good gay. I don't know, I gotta remember. But bottom
line is, I think Minter has an edge against Peyton
in this matchup. So I'm already leaning Denver. I'm sorry,
Chargers against Denver next week and his Chargers team is
going to be feisty. They look it's two games, but
(20:36):
they for sure look like a playoff team. A quick
word on brock Powers. So he was injured most of
the week, didn't practice, and then he ends up playing.
Pete Carroll said he looked great. Brock Bowers did not
look great at all. Five catches for thirty eight yards
along of nine. I mean, listen, their offense was being
(20:59):
played in a booth. They could do absolutely nothing. Lest
Some of it was the old line, some of it
was Gino Smith. By the way, Trey Tucker eight targets
and he had twelve yards receiving. Like this Chargers defense
was swarming. They were everywhere. Raiders end up with two
hundred eighteen yards of offense, three point four yards per play,
zero for three in the red zone. I think Rob
(21:21):
g probably fell asleep, you know, just watching these guys
just vomit all over themselves. I ain't saying the Chargers
are great, but the Raiders most definitely look terrible. Now,
an interesting subplot emerged in that Tom Brady was in
the Raiders booth wearing a headset during the game. He
obviously is a minority odor of the team, and apparently
(21:48):
Pete Carroll and the GM John Spytech, who was by
the way in Tampa when they had Brady, they have
consulted with Brady on roster decisions in the offseason, and
Chip Kelly said he talks with Brady two to three
times a week going through film and the game plan
(22:10):
for the week. Folks, that is fascinating. Listen, if you
could bounced off off Tom Brady. Now on some level,
I'm sure that they're gonna be like a Tom. You know,
Gino looked unplayable. We lost Aidan O'Connell to injury. The
(22:32):
current backup on the Raiders is Kenny Pickett. Now, I
don't know if Gino was bad enough that you'd want
to turn to Picket, but Gino was. I mean, listen,
Tom Brady was there, and the owner is there and
he's watching you vomit all over himself. That that's not
a great look for Gino Smith. He just didn't look
comfortable at all. And I do wonder, and again it
(22:54):
may seem a little knee jerk given the game just ended,
but I wonder if they start giving Pickets some first
team reps like this was bad. These Island games get
so heightened all of a sudden. JJ McCarthy, who went
from NFC Player of the Week, I'm pretty sure after
he carved up the Bears in one quarter to oh
my gosh, the Falcons offense, the Falcons defense has JJ
(23:17):
McCarthy locked down. He can't do a damn thing. He's
trash like. These Island games are really tough on the
young quarterbacks. I know Gino's not young. He's been around.
But I mean, folks, this was bad, especially those fourth
down decisions. You've gotta be fuming now. I don't know
the pick, it's a significant upgrade. Obviously, need a healthy
brock Bowers. The receiver room is not great. Drafting Ashton
(23:42):
jed d sixth. Overall, this team's got a lot of holes.
And I'm looking around and I'm like, yeah, I don't
I don't think the Raiders have much here. Let's take
a quick gander at the schedule. So this week they
have the Oh, they have the Washed and Commanders. It's funny.
(24:02):
There's this thing in I'm sure you guys have heard
of the widow maker heart attack right where it's just
so bad that it makes your wife a widow. There's
like no surviving it. In gambling, there's something called a
widow maker spot. The team that played on Thursday night
football gets extra time to prepare. Their opponent played on
(24:24):
Monday night football, and they've got to travel. Washington is
hosting the Raiders. Washington played Thursday against the Packers. They
host the Raiders this Sunday, early kickoff. Raiders are coming
off Monday night football getting their butts kicked, and they
got to travel from Vegas to Washington. That qualifies as
(24:46):
a widow maker spot. Now, obviously this has been this.
Everybody Vegas knows this, so it's baked into the line.
But I am very curious what goes down with this game,
Like where does this line go? I mean, I don't
think you can get to six. I'm sure it's gonna
be three and a half, four, four and a half.
It's gotta be bigger than that. The other interesting fact
(25:10):
is Jaden Daniels complicates matters because he had an MRI
on his knee after that Packers game. Unclear if he's
gonna play, So maybe you get the backup. Then you
get Caleb Williams and the struggling Bears. Then you get
Daniel Jones and the Colts, which kind of is in
a layup. Then you get cam Ward. So the schedule's
gonna keep the Raiders in it, but they got to
(25:30):
stay afloat with a couple wins here, and I don't
know if they can do that. All right, there's a
lot of NFL news we'll save for tomorrow before we
go too long. And also, folks, I'm terrified of the
idea of Tyrod Taylor starting a game from my jets,
like this is no boynil. All right, we're back tomorrow.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Drake Fire, Bayam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Boyer for Tuesday, September sixteenth. Oh boy, it is
a late night slash early morning with the Monday night
football doubleheader. We're talking about the game that was pretty phenomenal,
although man, it was a gut punch for your boy.
First the Texans, Oh gosh, that hurt. Guys, not gonna
(00:35):
lie that one hurt. And then we'll talk a little
Chadgers who lost a little mamckett don't look good and Raiders.
But listen, NFL is devolving into chaos, and I think
we're gonna get to that later in the week. There's
just too much to chew into. Jason Daniels is hurt,
Joe Burrow obviously, so many guys going down, but there
is one constant and his name is Baker Mayfield. Guys,
(00:59):
America loves a redemption story. I mean seriously, that's what
we love. We live to build people up and tear
them down. We've been over this many many times. Yeah,
hike the hell out of someone, then they don't deliver.
You tear them down and then they come back with
a resurgence, because that's what the story of life is, right.
You never give up, you know, just when you think
it's over, it's never over come on. You can always
(01:20):
find a way out, and there's gonna be. Everybody goes
through a crappy time struggles. It's brutal. Life sucks. Oh
my gosh, I'll never forget. I was making peanuts, like
literally peanuts at a newspaper. Not literally peanuts, I'm sorry.
It was just a very little amount of money living
outside of New York City, trying to be a playboy,
you know, date girls and then you meet them and
they're like, oh, so where do you live, And you
(01:44):
say New Jersey. Enough times they're like, oh, you're bridging
tunnel note thanks, So then you just start lying to
say New York and then the girls actually talk to
you anyways. And I was just, you know, drive into
the city, that's where the action's at, and I you know,
you go through ruts where you're like trying to make
things happen with the ladies, work all this stuff. And
I'm coming out of the Holland Tunnel one Sunday as
(02:07):
hot as I mean, just brutally hot and all of
a sudden, my car just breaks down, like in the
middle of traffic, and I am able to somehow coast
to a gas station right outside of the Holland Tunnel.
And this was I don't even I think I had
like a cell phone, but I didn't really have anyone
to like bail me out. I broke as hell. It
(02:29):
just sucked. And I remember, I don't want to say
that was the last time I cried, because they were
a couple. Couple other times after that, but I just
like in my car broke down, like, oh my gosh,
my life. What am I doing. I got out of college,
I'm living in a studio. I got no money. This
just sucks. Now my car broke down. The hell am
I gonna pay for this? Fortunately, my mom was in town,
so I called her, and I just felt like such
(02:51):
a loser. I'm like, Mom, Hey, my car broke down,
Can you come grab me? You just feel like a loser,
right to me? That was rock bottom. After that, you know,
things quickly got better. I don't know. I guess you
don't give up, right, you keep fighting. And I want
to start the podcast talking about Baker Mayfield, because guys,
do you remember the swings of Baker Mayfield. You know,
this guy's thirty years old. Now he doesn't feel thirty.
(03:13):
But when he was in college, he obviously went to
Texas Tech early and then he had the He was
like a walk on and then he had the injury
and they were like, yeah, you know, he gets a
chance to play. He's good, but then he gets hurt
and he's come back. He's like, I'm ready for my job,
and they're like, yeah, no, that's not this thing, your
job anymore. And so he transfers, ends up at Oklahoma
and just crushes it. Becomes the number one pick, which
(03:35):
was a surprise. It goes to the Browns. You know,
he was okay early, he was he wasn't awful. He
did win a playoff game at Pittsburgh, although Ben Roethlisberger
was awful in that one. But then in his final
year in Cleveland when he was looking to get paid,
he had an injury and he tried to play through it.
And for despite being pretty good the first three years,
(03:57):
you know, he had some bad coach at Hugh Jackson,
Like he put up good numbers and that final year
was just so bad because he tried to play through
the injury just an abomination, and they end up they
move off Baker. It's like, oh, it's over. They're not
even giving him a second contract. He lands in Carolina
and is like a backup in his Then he gets
to the La Rams and McVeigh kind of rehabilitates him,
(04:19):
and then he gets to Tampa and folks, you talk
about a comeback. So Baker Mayfield has just thrived in
Tampa to the point that last year seventy one percent completions,
forty five hundred yards passing forty one touchdowns. I'm not
even kidding those if you just looked at that compared
to like a lot of quarterbacks in the nineties, those
(04:40):
are like number one in the league. Baker Mayfield is cooking,
and for the second week in a row to open
the season, he has orchestrated a final drive in the
final like five minutes of the game and won the
damn thing. Compounding matters ladies and gentlemen, as I was
going against him, both of those. I had the falcons
last week and got kicked in my teeth. Now cou
(05:02):
hits the field goal, it's a different story. I'm not
as much of a whiny bitch as I am right now.
Last night was brutal because the Texans stunk up the joint.
We'll get to it in a second, yet somehow because
the Bucks wanted to give them the game badly. They
had the lead and they were covering. But then Baker
gets the ball with like two minutes and ten seconds left,
and I just knew the vibes were bad. Baker goes
(05:24):
eleven plays eighty yards touchdown. Bucks win twenty nineteen. Texans
don't cover. I'm in too many Survivor contests, but I won.
This is where I had three entries. I actually picked
the Texans because I felt great about them, So I'm
one of my entries is cooked, and obviously I had
them in the contest. So I end up two and three,
which friggin sucks, and I'm five and five. It's actually
(05:46):
not that bad, considering the field has just gotten decimated
so far. But it's like, come on, that should not
have been a loss. Denver Sunday killed me. I was irate.
I'm a little more calm now.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
You know, Texas. I could feel it coming just because
Baker's done. This is what he does. Man, He's clutch,
and I don't want to hear listen. We got to
move off to CJ. Strouden. Nonsense, Okay, I know he
was really really good as a rookie. I get that
he was less good last year. And he's been garbage
so far this season. Through it's two games, but he's
been bad. Baker Mayfield. Meanwhile, facing fourth and ten, okay,
(06:33):
against what I'm told is an elite defense, Will Anderson,
Derek Stingley, oh Hunter, they got an elite defense. Really,
fourth and ten, Demiko Ryans goes zero blitz. The safety
who comes in late, comes in hot, whiffs on Baker
because he's an elusive, little slippery guy, and then he
scampers fifteen yards for the first down. That was what
(06:55):
I knew it was over. I'm like, if we can
get off the field of fourth down, hey, we got this,
but it shouldn't have even got the Truthfully, the Bucks
are better all night first folk first downs. Okay, this
is just first downs. Tampa Bay twenty five to twelve.
They doubled them up on first downs yards Tampa had
like ninety five one hundred more yards. Texans zero to
(07:17):
two in the red zone. Again, CJ. Stroud is not
a good quarterback right now. He's not. By the way,
Houston two for nine on third down. They were two
for nine on third down last week against the Rams.
So there's four for eighteen on third down this season.
What now? The counter I hear is Houston like the
eighteen Houston fans who listen to the pod saying Jay
(07:38):
Mac come on. They faced the Rams on the road.
That's a great team, Tampa. That's a playoff team. Not
many people who faced two playoff teams. The Packers actually did,
and they beat their ass both of them. Houston meanwhile,
loses both. They are now two games behind the mighty
Indianapolis Cults will fall off. I don't think it's over
(08:00):
for the Texans, obviously, you're not. Oh to two is
not a death sentence, not in that division. But you
can't punch it in the red zone. By the way,
the Texans were oh and two in the red zone
this week oh and one last week, so they can
barely get to the red zone. And when they're there
they can't score. That is a recipe for disaster. They
scored ten points early and I'm like, all right, fine, Texans,
they're good. Oh, here we go. We got this. And
(08:24):
then after they scored ten points on the first two drives,
Houston five plays twenty yards punt, five plays twenty two
yards punt, five plays nineteen yards punt. Three plays negative
five yards punt, And at this stage I feel like
it's over. Tampa attempts a field goal off the upright,
we have life. We got a shot, and then the
Texans drive it inside the five. Stroud misses terribly, terribly
(08:48):
on two passes and they turn it over on downs.
But again, Tampa wanted to give this game away, and
they have a punt blocked, and you're like, all right, Houston,
now we're gonna punch it in. Four plays zero three plays,
zero yards. Let's kick a field goal. But they have
no offense right now, So don't tell me CJ. Stround
is a top ten quarterback if you have no offense.
(09:10):
Right So, now they're within one Houston and Tampa goes
in punts and wouldn't you know it, but this punt
on special teams is returned fifty three yards by some
rookie and you're like, all right, they're in business. Now,
don't kick a field goal. We need to touchdown. Nick
Chubb scores on the second play, and you're like, oh
my gosh, as bad as Houston has been, they're now
(09:32):
winning and covering. And I was a static and then
I realized, oh, wait a minute, it's Baker Mayfield and
he ruined it. So I'm happy for Baker. A buddy
of mine out here is like his marketing guy. And
by all accounts, Baker Mayfield is a good person. He's
grown up a lot since he was favoriting my tweets
coming out of college when I was saying, I don't
think he's gonna be anything special. Yeah, that's true. He
(09:53):
actually favored them. It wasn't like his team, it was him.
But these are young athletes. They are on social media.
And you know, he's got Abuca, he's got Mike Evans,
Bucky Irving on my fantasy team. He is, he's got
the wiggle. I mean, he had Bucky Irving is tough.
I like that guy. Meanwhile, let's check out on the Texans. Oh,
(10:14):
Nico Collins three catches on nine targets. I'm not even
lying when I say Baker was sorry. Stroud was spraying
the ball all over the place. It was ugly. One
final note on Baker Mayfield. What makes his story even
better is so in twenty twenty two, Byron Leffwich was
(10:34):
the offensive coordinator in Tampa. Then they get to Dave Canalis,
and Canalis and Baker really click and it's like, oh, okay,
Canalis is good, Let's get him a head coaching job.
He's now at Carolina. So then they replace him. So
this is three straight years, three new offensive coordinators, and
last year he had Liam Cohen. Liam Cohen got Baker
his amazing season. Liam Cohen is now the head coach
in Jacksonville. Okay, so when he leaves, you now need
(10:59):
a four offensive coordinator in four years, Yes, true story.
Four years, four offensive coordinators for Baker Mayfield. And this
year I had to look the guy up. I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. He didn't play for Byron Left, which they
fired Byron Left, which and had to do it. So
this was his third, third year in Tampa, third offensive coordinator.
(11:22):
The new offensive coordinator in Tampa is someone named Josh Grizzard.
I'm like, who the is that? So I googled this
guy started reading about him. He was a quarterback in
high school and a safety. He was a valedictorian with
a four point seven GPA. He went to Yale. So
he gets to Yale expecting to play and the coach
gets fired like midway through the first season, and so
(11:44):
this guy's you know, listen, that's a crap situation, right,
You go to Yale to play football, they recruit you there,
and then the coach gets fired, so pretty instantly you're like, oh,
what am I gonna do? He doesn't really fall in
with the new coach, The new coach doesn't like him whatever,
and he ends up saying screw this to go, I'm
gonna go be a coach. So then he takes on
like a grad assistant job at Duke while doing his
(12:06):
master's degree in Christian studies. I mean, this guy is smart,
he's religious. He played quarterback in safety, and I was
called validictur. I mean, like he's got everything. I'd literally
never heard of Josh Grizzard before. And I'm telling you, guys,
if you watch that game against Houston, I don't want
to hear the Houston defense is great because dudes were
open all day, running lanes were open all day. And oh,
(12:27):
by the way, they were down both tackles. Okay, so
please let's stop, you know, with this Houston defense being awesome.
Josh Grizzard, I guess he's gonna be the head coach
of the New York Giants next year. I mean, is
that how it works? Essentially, you coach one year with
Baker and then move on to a head coaching job.
I don't know. I was floored by Baker Mayfield, the offense,
everything about Tampa. Tampa now two to zero, I'm probably
(12:49):
gonna have to draw a line in the sand and
no longer bet against them. But impressive stuff. Houston, of course,
look pretty rotten. I don't think they're very good and
and yeah, let's get to the nightcap.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Live Chargers twenty Raiders nine in a game that sounds
about as ugly as it was. My brother went to this,
tried to coax me into going to it because he's
got a good hook up in Vegas, and I'm like, yeah,
I gotta work, gotta do the podcast. I don't think
I can swing it in folks. I missed absolutely nothing.
This game was garbage. Raiders completely inept offensively. Listen, I
(13:40):
said earlier Cjstride was bad. Just wait till we talk
about Geno Smith. Listen, Chargers look like a completely different team.
I know everybody's excited. Derwin James was phenomenal. Jesse Minter,
the defensive coordinator of the Chargers, really is getting a
lot of hype. I am extremely curious to see Chargers
Bronco this weekend. It is a huge swing game. Chargers
(14:03):
now at two and zero, could go three and oh
that would drop a Denver loss this week, it would
drop them to one and two. So it's a big
game in the division. And the Chargers just look really
really crisp. One thing I noticed last year, do you
guys will remember this? Go look up the Chargers Arizona Cardinals.
I believe the game it was on Monday Night football.
(14:24):
Jim Harbaugh targeted I think three different tight ends like
eighty percent of the time. It was insane. They were
throwing at tight ends all season it was the tight
end show and oh yeah, lad McConkie. Now they're completely different.
Keenan Allen has opened things up for Quentin Johnson, who
caught a sixty yard touchdown. Gosh, the Herbert pass to
Johnston was so amazing. Wait till you see it over
(14:45):
the shoulder, just perfection. But Keenan Allen opens a lot
of things up because he's always over the middle. Mconkie,
who was heavily featured last year, is not heavily. They're
not as reliant upon this small receiver out of Georgia,
Trey Hair. The young guy looked, okay, we'll disleak the
tight end one target. That's it. It's not a tight
end centric offense like it was last year. And if
(15:08):
not for a late fumble by the rookie o'mari On Hampton,
it would have been a flawless night for the Chargers. Listen,
they weren't overwhelming, but they didn't have to be Minter.
Had the Raiders offense just in a vice, they could
do nothing. And now let's get to Gino Smith, who
was sacked three times through three interceptions and had two
of the most comical fourth down failures you will see that.
(15:32):
I've seen this season so far, and it's only two
weeks in, but it's like, you know, it's twenty nine
late in the fourth quarter, and of course Gino Smith
cannot deliver a touchdown, and so the Chargers come down
and Herbert tries to throw a pick and then they pun.
Raiders have a shot fourth down. Gino Smith, not wanting
to throw another pick, okay, takes a sack on fourth
(15:56):
and three. It's like, dude, give your tiava chance. So
then Hampton fumbles and it's like, oh, wait, Raiders have
a shot and they can get to touchdown the two pointer.
They can get within three and cover the spread. Fourth down,
Gino literally running for his life, just chucks it out
of bounce. But what are you doing? I don't know
if he actually got it out of bounds, it might
have been like right to that. There was two receivers
(16:16):
kind of headed toward the sideline. He just chucked it
toward the sideline. Nobody within five yards of it. It's
like embarrassing stuff. Now, listen, I know they went out
and got Geno. He has not looked. I mean, he
was solid against the Patriots, and he looked completely lost
against the Chargers. Here's this is what's really confounding. Now
(16:38):
I'm recording this after it's one o'clock Eastern Standard time.
The Raiders have lost, and I watched Ashton Genty had
one good carry early where he ran over a safety.
I was like, Ooh, Ashton Genty looks good. Ashton Genty
finished his game eleven carries for forty three yards. He
had three catches for one yard. Folks on both of
(16:59):
those fourth downs late in the game, Genty was not
on the field. Now I don't know if he was hurt.
I don't recall him getting injured, but they had someone
named Dylan Laube in the game. He is a sixth
round pick out in New Hampshire. He has Danny woodhead
vibes and that basically has called for He's a small
white guy who is getting a shot in the NFL.
(17:21):
How do you draft Ashton Genty so high? Remember they
took him sixth overall and he's not even on the
field onto pivotal fourth downs. So it could be that
he wasn't good at blitz pick up. Gino was running
for his life much of the night. But listen, this
running running back class was pretty heralded. Right, Genty went
sixth overall. We know he's talented. He hasn't done much. Oh,
(17:43):
Marion Hampton went twenty second overall, we know he's talented.
He fumbled. He hasn't done much. Then Judkins went. He
had an off season that had some arrest issues. He
showed well in the blowout loss for the Browns. He's
gonna get touches, but haven't seen it yet. Trevon Henderson
of the Patriots was supposed to be the truth. It's
taken him inute. Now. That's not saying these guys can't
(18:05):
turn around. RJ. Harvey of the Broncos has flashed, but
he's not the primary guy yet. And Caleb Johnson, third
round running back out Iowa, obviously had the just the
massive brain lock gaff on the kickoff that killed Pittsburgh
and he's not getting an He looks like the running
back class has not done Jack Squat yet. Ashton genty
on the season so against the Patriots he had nineteen
(18:31):
for thirty eight yards and against the Chargers eleven for
forty three yards. So on the season he has thirty
carries for eighty one yards. If you're scoring at home
eighty one divided by thirty is less than three and
he has not had a carry over thirteen yards. Now
that could be an indictment on the Raiders offensive line,
which was downright terrible in trying to block for Gino Smith.
(18:56):
Listen this Raiders team. I know they got to win
over the Patriots and some people were excited. Colton Miller,
is that Donald Parham? Oh to Dylan parhim, Okay, yeah,
he's on the inside. The interior got blown up. And listen,
this is why Khalil Matck, the star pass rusher of
the Chargers, he got injured. His arm was in a sling.
I don't know how. It did not look good at all,
(19:19):
but it was like, geez, how are the Chargers getting
so much pressure? And I think that's a credit to
Jesse Minter, who is going to be getting a lot
of hype here this season if this Chargers defense keeps
it up. Now, Chargers Broncos not to look too far ahead.
I still do want to briefly talk about this brock
power situation. But the Chargers last year with Minter at
(19:40):
the helm, were a good defense, but ultimately the offense
just ran out of gas and Ultimately the defense kind
of struggled late. But in two games against the Broncos
they won twenty three to sixteen and at Denver. And
I remember that game because I had the Chargers. It
was literally twenty three zero. It was they were them
(20:00):
and there was some garbage time points from bon Nicks.
And in the second meeting they won thirty four to
twenty seven at SOFI. I might have been at that game, No,
I I might have.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
JK. Dobbins had a big I think he had a
good gay. I don't know, I gotta remember. But bottom
line is, I think Minter has an edge against Peyton
in this matchup. So I'm already leaning Denver. I'm sorry,
Chargers against Denver next week and his Chargers team is
going to be feisty. They look it's two games, but
(20:36):
they for sure look like a playoff team. A quick
word on brock Powers. So he was injured most of
the week, didn't practice, and then he ends up playing.
Pete Carroll said he looked great. Brock Bowers did not
look great at all. Five catches for thirty eight yards
along of nine. I mean, listen, their offense was being
(20:59):
played in a booth. They could do absolutely nothing. Lest
Some of it was the old line, some of it
was Gino Smith. By the way, Trey Tucker eight targets
and he had twelve yards receiving. Like this Chargers defense
was swarming. They were everywhere. Raiders end up with two
hundred eighteen yards of offense, three point four yards per play,
zero for three in the red zone. I think Rob
(21:21):
g probably fell asleep, you know, just watching these guys
just vomit all over themselves. I ain't saying the Chargers
are great, but the Raiders most definitely look terrible. Now,
an interesting subplot emerged in that Tom Brady was in
the Raiders booth wearing a headset during the game. He
obviously is a minority odor of the team, and apparently
(21:48):
Pete Carroll and the GM John Spytech, who was by
the way in Tampa when they had Brady, they have
consulted with Brady on roster decisions in the offseason, and
Chip Kelly said he talks with Brady two to three
times a week going through film and the game plan
(22:10):
for the week. Folks, that is fascinating. Listen, if you
could bounced off off Tom Brady. Now on some level,
I'm sure that they're gonna be like a Tom. You know,
Gino looked unplayable. We lost Aidan O'Connell to injury. The
(22:32):
current backup on the Raiders is Kenny Pickett. Now, I
don't know if Gino was bad enough that you'd want
to turn to Picket, but Gino was. I mean, listen,
Tom Brady was there, and the owner is there and
he's watching you vomit all over himself. That that's not
a great look for Gino Smith. He just didn't look
comfortable at all. And I do wonder, and again it
(22:54):
may seem a little knee jerk given the game just ended,
but I wonder if they start giving Pickets some first
team reps like this was bad. These Island games get
so heightened all of a sudden. JJ McCarthy, who went
from NFC Player of the Week, I'm pretty sure after
he carved up the Bears in one quarter to oh
my gosh, the Falcons offense, the Falcons defense has JJ
(23:17):
McCarthy locked down. He can't do a damn thing. He's
trash like. These Island games are really tough on the
young quarterbacks. I know Gino's not young. He's been around.
But I mean, folks, this was bad, especially those fourth
down decisions. You've gotta be fuming now. I don't know
the pick, it's a significant upgrade. Obviously, need a healthy
brock Bowers. The receiver room is not great. Drafting Ashton
(23:42):
jed d sixth. Overall, this team's got a lot of holes.
And I'm looking around and I'm like, yeah, I don't
I don't think the Raiders have much here. Let's take
a quick gander at the schedule. So this week they
have the Oh, they have the Washed and Commanders. It's funny.
(24:02):
There's this thing in I'm sure you guys have heard
of the widow maker heart attack right where it's just
so bad that it makes your wife a widow. There's
like no surviving it. In gambling, there's something called a
widow maker spot. The team that played on Thursday night
football gets extra time to prepare. Their opponent played on
(24:24):
Monday night football, and they've got to travel. Washington is
hosting the Raiders. Washington played Thursday against the Packers. They
host the Raiders this Sunday, early kickoff. Raiders are coming
off Monday night football getting their butts kicked, and they
got to travel from Vegas to Washington. That qualifies as
(24:46):
a widow maker spot. Now, obviously this has been this.
Everybody Vegas knows this, so it's baked into the line.
But I am very curious what goes down with this game,
Like where does this line go? I mean, I don't
think you can get to six. I'm sure it's gonna
be three and a half, four, four and a half.
It's gotta be bigger than that. The other interesting fact
(25:10):
is Jaden Daniels complicates matters because he had an MRI
on his knee after that Packers game. Unclear if he's
gonna play, So maybe you get the backup. Then you
get Caleb Williams and the struggling Bears. Then you get
Daniel Jones and the Colts, which kind of is in
a layup. Then you get cam Ward. So the schedule's
gonna keep the Raiders in it, but they got to
(25:30):
stay afloat with a couple wins here, and I don't
know if they can do that. All right, there's a
lot of NFL news we'll save for tomorrow before we
go too long. And also, folks, I'm terrified of the
idea of Tyrod Taylor starting a game from my jets,
like this is no boynil. All right, we're back tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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