December 19, 2025 • 44 mins
DP and the Danettes react to an exciting TNF win for the Seahawks over the Rams. NFL/CFB analyst Louis Riddick praises Sam Darnold for responding under pressure and urges the Chiefs to improve their RB room for Patrick Mahomes. Former NFL QB Ryan Leaf breaks down the differences between Caleb Williams and Jordan Love, and shares what playing football in the snow is like.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
No declarations from last night's game. Okay, I know we
love to do the standalone and I'm going to give
you my opinion. And this is an opinion that you
can put in ink, not pencil, you know, because we
would have said what last night? There were a couple
of things. It could have been. Matthew Stafford solidified the
MVP rams to the team to beat in the NFL.
(00:26):
Oh Seattle at home, Sam Donald, they're frauds. It could
have gone a couple of different ways last night. It's
wild how it ended. I even joked yesterday the game
was too big for Thursday night. It actually took Thursday
night to Friday morning in some parts of the country.
But Seattle gets the win in overtime thirty eight thirty seven.
(00:48):
But if Seattle would lost that game, what would we
be saying today? Because keep in mind, Seattle nearly won
the first game between these two when Sam Darnald threw
four interceptions. They had three turnovers last night, and they
still won the game. Matthew Stafford threw for four hundred
and fifty yards. Phoka Nakua had twelve catches, two, one
(01:11):
hundred and twenty five yards like you're going, and Seattle's
still going to win this game. And the Rams didn't
have any turnovers. There were you know, there were no
interceptions by Stafford. See you're looking at it's thirty to fourteen.
You go, yeah, all right, Rams are a better team.
Seattle was stayed in there, you know, the defense when
(01:33):
they needed to came up with some really big plays.
Now did you get some ricochets there? Did you get
some bounces? Yes, you got old of those things. The
punt return to me was really big. But Seattle goes
for two. Here's their head coach, Mike McDonald.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Fall was something we had talked about probably throughout the
season and then really particularly for this game because of
the playoff situation. You know, you play for the tie,
you know, make the lock ofup a play off seed.
But I just felt like, I just felt great about
our play and I trusted our guys and to clinch
credit to he was really confident, and then the players
ultimately make it happen. So once we got that drive going,
(02:12):
it was pretty clear on what we're.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Going to do.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I loved it, but I don't have to answer to
the media. But I did love it. You're at home,
you felt good the comeback, and let's take advantage of this.
So the records after last night, Seattle's twelve and three.
La Is eleven and four. Who do you think is
the favorite right now for the Super Bowl? According to
DraftKings this morning just got the Super Bowl ons. The
(02:38):
Rams are still the team to beat in the NFC.
In the NFL, then it's the Seahawks, then it's the Broncos, Bills, Eagles,
and Texans. So we want to make it a statement game,
a statement win. But this is this is about two
teams that took advantage when they needed to and Seattle
had the last chance to take advantage and they end
(03:00):
up winning.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
But it was great.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was a great game, back and forth. You may
get home field advantage. Now do I still have questions
about Sam Darnold? I do I think they won maybe
in spite of him. They almost won in spite of
him the first time against the Rams, and Stafford looked great,
Phukan Nakua look great. But you know, Seattle ran the
(03:23):
football and came up with a couple of big stumps,
and that's what you want. Get a couple of three
and outs and then try to make them pay. But
it was It was wonderful to watch that game. A
lot of fun back and forth. All Right, so you
got college football coming up, Alabama and Oklahoma on a
Friday night, and we're going to look at some of
(03:45):
the different scenarios of if Miami gets blown out. What
are people going to say, if Alabama would get blown out,
what could happen to their head coach? What if Tulane
shocks old and then we go, well, they should have
kept Lane Kiffin in there. James Madison against Oregon. Everybody
(04:07):
has already made their declaration. Oregon's gonna win, but by
how much? Now, all I can tell you is I
watch jmu play twice this year. That defense is really good,
and this might be a situation where Oregon eventually wins,
but James Madison keeps it close. Oregon. Oregon's starting slow,
(04:27):
maybe a first half cover. I don't know what that
number is, but James Madison's going in. This is everything
to James Madison. Oregon is probably looking at this as
all right, who do we have after James Madison. I'm
not saying that they're going to shock the world, but
I hope we're surprised at how well James Madison can play.
(04:48):
It's been a good program here for the last couple
of years. And yes, is this a tall task. Absolutely
to lane against old miss. Absolutely. And Nick Saban came
out out and said, you know, we shouldn't even have
these smaller schools like you don't take a tripa a
baseball team and put them into the Major League Baseball playoffs.
(05:09):
And I was surprised and disappointed that Nick said that,
because you're supposed to be kind of a steward of
the game. Now you're not at Alabama, you're on college
game day. And it's not like James Madison and Tulane
created this format. It's all these so called smart people
who created this format. I do have an update on
(05:30):
a playoff format for next year, Okay, I'm going to
do that after the break, And there's a couple of
things in there that you should know, a couple of
surprises that I found out yesterday. But I said, we're
going to fourteen or sixteen next year, and it looks
like they've already agreed to that. But I'll give you
(05:51):
some of the details on the new playoff format and
Notre Dame will be in the playoff picture if they
finish in the top twelve. But you know, we don't
want upsets in football, but man, do we crave upsets
with march badness. I give If JMU was playing Oregon
and it was basketball and Oregon was one of the
(06:13):
top five teams, we'd be like, man, JMU can pull
this off, that would be great. Or if Tulane's playing
Old Miss and Old Miss is a top ten team
or a number four seed overall, we'd be like, Tulane
just pulled off a shaker there. But when it gets
to college football, we don't we want shock. We don't
know surprises here. Don't do that to us.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Yes, Marvin, I think because it's a numbers game, because
there's so many teams in the NCAA tournament. All right,
great Michigan State got knocked out in the first round,
but guess what I still got Duke Carolina, yukon UCLA.
In college football, it's not like that. There's only twelve
of those teams, So you don't want one of those
big dogs like Oregon early Canada for most must win
game a weekend. This can change everything. If JAMU wins
(06:58):
all the small school's going forward. Yeah, look we belong.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, but in basketball, you can get hot, you know,
playing on a neutral site, and you know, you can
get some magic there. In college basketball, it's really difficult
to shock somebody in college football, especially when you're playing
at their home stadium. But I hope that they I
hope that they're able to play in a way that
(07:23):
they're proud no matter what the end result is, because yes,
do I like these kind of stories.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
I do.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Should Notre Dame be in instead of JMU or Tulane, Absolutely,
but JMU and Tulaine shouldn't be punished for something that
college football and their committee came up with. I mean,
they earned it. It's not like they go, you know what,
this is a sponsor's exemption and it's a golf tournament, like, hey,
you can come on in. That's not what happened. They
(07:51):
did what they were supposed to do. Do I like it? No,
I'd like to see Notre Dame in there, because Notre
Dame could win the national title. I think they're that good. Good.
They didn't get in, So we move on and now
you got these games coming up tonight. But guaranteed you're
gonna get the now they never should have been in
told you, okay, told who tell the committee they came
(08:14):
up with this. It's like tulaane, you know, man, I
just I'm disappointed. Nick Saban should say, hey, they did
what they were supposed to do and maybe they changed
the format, but let's let's welcome them. Let's see what
they can do. That's what I wanted to hear out
of Nick Saban instead of you know what we didn't
(08:35):
you don't invite a triple A team. You know, you
know you don't invite it. Yeah, we know all of that.
But they did what they were supposed to do, what
they were asked to do, and I hope that they
are able to put up a good effort there and
maybe when maybe shock the world. Uh seatan what's poll
question for the first hour of the program? Yeah, wan
(08:56):
to here from Paul. If your life depended on it,
this one catch you're taking Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase Jackson
Smith and Jigba or Pooka Nakula. I'm taking Pooka Akua
recency bias.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
He is getting silly with his catches.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yes he if it's if it's around him. It's it's his.
Even when it's not around him, it's it's his. He's
I never worry about him on the field, it's off
the field. He was criticizing the officials last night right
after the game, and I'm going didn't do the proposed
(09:33):
celebration that maybe he was gonna get in trouble for
me anti Semitic, that was.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
That was good that he avoided that.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
A boy.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Uh here's Sean McVeigh talking about Pooka Nakua's comments after
the game.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
He was very apologetic.
Speaker 8 (09:47):
I don't think he understood the totality of some of
the things. I think he issued that apology. You know,
this guy's heart and for anybody that was offended, terribly
sorry about that. I know he feels that same exact way.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
As a young guy.
Speaker 8 (09:59):
There's a great kid that's continuing to learn about you know,
just the platform that he has.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I love him.
Speaker 8 (10:04):
We're going to continue to put an arm around him
and help him learn and grow. But we never want
to do things that ever offend anybody. And I know
he feels that same way.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, but that's talking about the video that he did
on a podcast after the game last night. He was
critical of the referees, and now's when the NFL's got
to find him. Now they will. By the way, Most
Valuable Least Valuable danet voting is up and running at
danpatrick dot com. The link also in our Twitter and
(10:35):
Instagram bio as well Most Valuable Least Valuable Danpatrick dot Com.
We will tabulate your votes and Tuesday, Tuesday, in the
final hour of the program, Oh boy, that's when we
make the big announcement, big reveal, and also the most
Valuable backroom guy as well. There's only thirteen people, twelve
(11:04):
full time people who work here, including all of us
you know, the five here, but there are some very
valuable backroom guys. It's a really it's gonna be a
really close vote, and I'm the one that's voting. It's
going to be one vote for the most Valuable backroom guy,
and it may shock people. I'm just going to say that.
(11:25):
I don't know if the most Valuable Least Valuable is
going to shock anybody, but there's always that possibility. That's
a fan vote. Okay, I'm not involved in that. I
will cast my vote, but this I'm gonna leave it
up to the audience. Most valuable least valuable, Danett, I think, Pritzy,
you've wanted a couple of times now.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
Yeah, taking on both of those.
Speaker 9 (11:48):
Yeah, that's the rollercoaster, rioty emotions that come with these prizes, yes, Paul.
Speaker 10 (11:53):
So is there anything else any of us can do
in the last three hours here to garner a couple
extra votes or lose them?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh yeah there's Yeah. You get to vote till tuesday,
so wow. Yeah, there's plenty of room to screw up.
Speaker 9 (12:05):
Yes, ton we'll have any backstab being going on in
the back room. There is there anyone that thinks that
they've got it and they're about to get the rug
pulled out, like Notre Dame where they thought they were
going to be winning and they're not going to get
that award.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I don't know, ton On't you go back and say
a lot to a couple of guys. Yeah, you go
back there.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
We justly go back there.
Speaker 9 (12:22):
If there's like hot dogs or egg rolls on the
on the griver.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
No, you do go back to do your stand up act.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I'll try a couple of.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
Things out of them and just got to see if
there's something there.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yes, but I all walk by and Mario and Anthony
are trying to get ready for the show, and then
Todd will do basically five minutes to stand up.
Speaker 9 (12:37):
I have my little notebok. I'll cross out things that
are good. I'll put a little check mark if they.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Giggled, Uh okay, yeah pull.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
By the way, we talked about this before.
Speaker 10 (12:48):
I think we did this with Isaiah Pacheco, the most
valuable player in the NFL based off salary, Pokin Nakua
makes a million dollars this year, a million, and he's
going to make a million next year.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
He's his four years for the Rams. He'll be paid
less than five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Well, I don't think he'll make a million next year.
I don't think so.
Speaker 10 (13:09):
But let's say the first three years of his career
he made two point eight million dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But this was like Cooper Cup and to see him
on the field last night in a Seattle uniform. I mean,
Cooper Cup had years better than pooka Akula. But PAULI goes,
how fast do you think Pookainakua is? And then he
answered his own question, he goes fast enough. Yes, there
is a jar. I brought this up a couple of
weeks ago. There's a Jerry Rice feel to him from
(13:33):
the standpoint of I don't know how fast he is,
but I know he's big, but I don't know what
his forty is and I don't care, because there's football
speed and then there's track speed, and he's got football speed.
And you saw that again last night.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show week days at nine am Eastern six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 11 (13:59):
Wap Hey, He's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio. Now,
in addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to
seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio,
We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube channel for
the show.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 11 (14:13):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do search Covino and Rich
FSR on YouTube again. Go to YouTube search Covino and
Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon, comment away.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Lewis Riddick of the Mothership ESPN NFL college football analyst,
He'll be on the call. He's got James Madison and
Oregon kick off at seven thirty eastern on TNT. All right,
where do you want to start? You want to start
on your game or is there another question that you
want to talk about?
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Now? Hey man, you know me, Dan, I'll go wherever
you want to go. But I can tell you this
all right.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
For the people who don't believe in James Madison, you
would say what.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Well, I would say this. Look, defensively, this football team
can get after it. There's no question about that. I mean,
obviously you're gonna look at their level of competition and go, well,
who are the most high powered offenses they played? What
P four offenses that they played? I mean they played
against Louisville. They lost to Louisville. That We're in that
game all the way though, until Louisville made a couple
of big plays down the stretch. They played Washington State,
(15:23):
you know that game, that team is closely contested. But this,
this is this is a football team. Look, they've got
some guys on that side of the ball, especially on
the defensive line. That linebacker that can really get going,
that can get going. Now, the problem is Oregon may
be getting healthy in this football game, especially a wide receiver.
If you're talking about guys like the Corean Moore coming back,
(15:43):
and you know, Evan Stewart may be healthy in this game.
Gary Bryant Junior, the three like three of their most
explosive players. I don't know if Dan Landing plays them
or not, but man are they They are formidable. And
then look, I mean JM you can really run the football.
Their quarter back a Linza Barnett can really get after it.
And if you look at some of the most some
(16:04):
of the mobile quarterbacks that Oregon has played against, they've
had some issues with them. I'm not saying that JMU
really is gonna win this game. You know what it's
out here, you know, in Eugene, in this weather, this stadium,
this football team, Dan Lanning, the number of five stars
they got on the team they're up against it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I get that.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
But that's why you play the games, man, That's why
you play the games. And quite honestly, if you're gonna
have a you know, a group of five type of
school go up against a heavyweight like Oregon, you're gonna
want the matchup to kind of look like this one,
to where who knows what jam you can do? Who
knows how long they can keep it close. We'll see
what happens.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I don't know what you thought about Nick Saban's comments
about basically saying, you know, JMU and Tulane are minor
league baseball teams, they shouldn't be playing in the baseball playoffs.
I'm just surprised because he's not at Alabama, He's sitting
on the biggest platform in the sport.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
JMU and Tulane didn't create this scenario. They took advantage
of this scenario.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Sure, So it's it surprised me a little bit only
because look, at one time, like Nick was coaching at Toledo,
Nick knows what the what you know a Kent State.
He knows what the long, hard road looks like. And
because he traveled it and he ascended to become the goat,
and you know, hats off to him. I was coached
(17:24):
by my respect the hell out of him, love the guys,
I mean, all all the goods the question. But lookah,
I think if you're those schools, if you're too lane
in your JMU, you're sitting there going, hey, wait a minute, man,
we don't need to be catching strays from people. When
we were just kind of doing what we need to do,
and we didn't. We didn't put ourselves in here. Y'all
put us in here. So we're gonna line up and
play the game. Now, I get what Nick is saying.
(17:46):
I get what he's saying when you're talking about teams
that are being excluded from this, when you look at
Notre Dame Vanderbilt texts. Let's just take those three in particular.
We know that JMU and two Lane probably you know,
ninety nine out of one hundred times those three schools
are going to beat jam you or or sorts laying.
We get that, and quite honestly, fans probably would rather
(18:09):
see those teams in there. And that's all Nick is saying.
So they need to figure out a way to kind
of rectify that if that means that group of five
schools don't get get included in this, although I mean
I've heard people talk about the fact that those schools
would litigate this thing to the very end and be like,
you can't do that, you can't keep us out of this.
What are you talking about? I mean, it is what
(18:29):
it is. I mean, deal with it. If you're Texas
and if you're Vanderbilt, and if you're Notre Dame. Then
win your damn games. Don't worry, don't worry about us,
don't try keeping us out of it. Just how about
you just got to earn your way into it. But
I get what he's saying.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Talking to Lewis Riddick of the Mothership. He'll be on
the call. It'll be James Madison in Oregon kickoff seven
thirty eastern and a couple other things. You know, I'm curious,
did you watch Thursday night game? Like, you're good? What
do you think is Sam Darnold?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
You know, I'm glad you asked that because he talked
about catching strays. Sam's been catching a bunch of them
over the past couple of weeks, hasn't he. Yeah, So,
you know, ever since keeps team before out in LA,
people been like, well, there's the Sam. We know, that's
the Sam. We're talking about where's JSN? Now, where's you
know all this feel good you know, uh talk that
(19:21):
was surrounding him. That's not who Sam is. And then
last night, you know, he has he throws two picks
and you're sitting there going, you know, late and again
you're going, oh, here we go again. But what did
he do? In crunch time. That's what everyone wants to know.
In crunch time, in a big game, national stage, at home,
so much on the line, in the NFC and in
that division overall, what does he do? He delivers some
fantastic throws, big time throws, won the Cooper Cup, won
(19:43):
the JASN under pressure in the fourth quarter when they
need him the most, and he delivered. He doesn't blink.
Everyone else has blinked talking about him, but he hasn't blinked.
And I love that. I think that kind of game
last night could really for him as much as you know,
when we've talked to him, he doesn't seem never doubt himself.
(20:03):
He doesn't come off as someone who's sitting there having
these real introspective conversations with himself and trying to find
himself and all that bs. I think last night, though,
even for him, he may have gone, see, I do
have what it takes in order to rise up at
the biggest moments. Now, he had a lot of help
last night, he really did. And you know, one of
the biggest, one of the biggest acquisitions this season is
(20:29):
going to be the acquisition of Rashid Shaheed for Seattle,
and you saw it last night. It was coming. You
saw him, you know, poking and prodden over the past
couple of weeks as far as trying to find his groove.
Then the pot return hits. You know, he's a guy
who he showed it. You showed it last week late
in the game against Indianapolis, that that was the guy
that Sam went to. Kenneth Walker started going last night.
(20:53):
The defense gets some big stops late in that game.
They couldn't they still they they still haven't figured out
what the hell Puku Nakula was doing to him. They
still haven't that out. But I mean that which was incredible. Look,
Sean McVay is a freaking I love Sean McVay. The
dude can scheme up your defense as well as anybody.
And Matthew Stafford, you know, you know what Dan speaking. Look,
(21:15):
I'm not saying Sam Donald Matthew Stafford. All right, there
was a lot, There was a while. There was a
long time, and we sat there and we doubted Matthew Stafford.
When he was in Detroit. People wanted to blame Stafford
for not being able to lift what at the time
was a franchise that wasn't very well run. And lift
them out of the gutter and put them on the pedestal,
you know, and then he goes to LA, gets around
(21:36):
the right people. Next thing, you know, he wins a
super Bowl and now he's gonna probably win the MVP.
But I think with Sam, Sam's in the right spot
right now, he's in the right spot with coach McDonald's,
he's in the right spot with Clint kobe A last
night could be a turning point game for him. I
really do and I hope it is.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago with Pooka Nakua.
There's football speed and there's track speed. Yeah, he football speed. Question,
I don't know what you know, like Jerry Rice, like
where you go and there's I think there's similarities and
that he he seems to always be fast enough and
if it's in his radius, he's catching it. So it's
(22:16):
a former defensive back. Yeah, what would you be trying
to do with him?
Speaker 4 (22:23):
A lot of times what you saw last night with
Pooka is Look, I've been beating this drum since I
started on TV back in twenty thirteen. Free access to
wide receivers off the line of scrimmage. You're asking for it.
You're asking to get your rear end ripped by teams
that can scheme you up and instinctive wide receivers who
(22:43):
are in lockstep with their quarterback if you let them
play seven on seven, which a lot of the game intoday,
Phill and I'm not the get off my long guy.
I get it. The game is a vault. We're trying
to protect players all that, but a lot of the
game now is geared towards allowing wide receivers and quarterbacks
to put up Star Wars type numbers. One of the
things that you still have at your disposal though, as
a defense is the is the whole idea of the
(23:06):
disruption of timing and rhythm of a pass if you
don't disrupt the timing and rhythm of the rams passing game.
Puka and Matthew Stafford they meet every morning at like
four or five am, the same thing he used to
do with Cooper Cup and Puka is so damn instinctive
and as you're talking about, has such great functional strength
and speed. And Matthew is this first ballot lock you know,
(23:31):
sure fire Hall of Fame type caliber quarterback that if
you allow them to just come off the line, use
their motions and shifts, find the zone voids, and you're
gonna sit there and you don't disguise your coverage as well,
or you have miscommunications in the back end, and you
allowed Puka to just work his magic in between the numbers,
in particular on those deep end cuts that you saw
him running last night where he's catching and then he's
(23:52):
off to the races. You're gonna wind up giving up
two hundred and twenty five yards receiving to a single guy.
You've got to you know, you know who, And I
know this is a dude who's always is in the
media more time than not now for the wrong reasons
or for reasons that don't involve football. But Bill Belichick
was the very best, and even at the you know,
in the in the later moments of his career in
(24:15):
New England, still understood that and made defenses execute those
kinds of things, or you wouldn't play for him. And
that's how he was able to shut down some of
the greatest offenses when he was when he was a
head coaching coordinate. See, he understands that that one thing
is still something you have in your and your tool
kid and if you don't use it, you're just asking
(24:35):
for it. And last night that's how Pooka went off
like he did.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
What if you were the GM of the Chiefs, how
are you approaching next season?
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Oh? Boy, Yeah, Brett's a good friend of mine, Brett
Veach And I'll tell you what, first and foremost, I
think You've got to get Patrick at bell kol running back.
You got to. You've got to get him a guy
he can turn around and hand the ball to and
he's probably gonna get you four and a half on
average and maybe rip you know, at least two to
(25:08):
three plus ten plus twenty yard runs a game. So
you got to You've got to get him a true
number one at wide receiver. You've got to get him
an X that even when the team knows you're gonna
throw it to him, he can still make plays. You've
got to get him that guy. And obviously the offensive
line got banged that season. You saw how bad it became.
(25:31):
You saw at every single every single UH pass attempt
became like it became like a playground ball for Patrick.
And Patrick can't be the guy who's constantly running for
his life and trying to and obviously coming off that injury.
You don't want him being the number one, number two
rush on the team. He just can't be. Offensive line
has to get healthy. They have to get him a
(25:51):
running back, They have to get him a true number one.
What's the succession plan for Travis Kelsey a tight end?
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
There expecting him to retire.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Even if he doesn't, you still need more juice at
that position. As good as he is, he'll needs someone who,
from a physical perspective, really does inject fear into a
defense in that area, that fifteen to twenty yard area
between the number is because this guy is such a
unique a Travis is one of the He's the greatest.
He's going to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You think he's the best tight end of all time?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
The numbers say he is. Well Tony, I played against
Tony Tony was. I didn't play against Gronk, but I
played against Tony and Tony was damned near uncoverable. I
played against Keith Jackson when you know he had just
left Philly and went to Miami and Marino was throwing
in pass this.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
I know what.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
There's some really really good tight ends that have played
in this league. Seagment. But but Travis is right there,
He's right at the very top.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Have fun tonight, Hopefully we get a competitive game for
a while, and I think well hangs in there. Kick
off at seven thirty Eastern on TNT. Lewis, thank you, Yeah,
safe travels, Happy holidays to you.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
As always, that's Lewis Riddick of the Mothership. 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.
Ryan Lee, former NFL quarterback. He'll be calling the Packers
Bears Saturday, Bronco's Chiefs on Christmas Night, and the FCS
(27:32):
National Title game, all in Westwood One joins us in studio.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Good to see you again. Level of belief in Sam Darnold,
let me start there.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
I have a lot of belief in Sam Darnald. Those
two interceptions last night, you know, I think would have
fooled any quarterback in that situation. They ran man coverage
look and then this was just film oriented and what
they saw and fell under and zoned for that touchdown,
well should have been a touchdown. And then the other one,
he had just had so much pressure in his face
(28:03):
he had to let it go and the defender dropped
right into the spot. Both those of those situational plays
that you really can't put a lot on him. It
wasn't like a bad throat, It wasn't a bad decision.
It was just better coaching on the other side to
prepare for it. And so I thought the comeback was amazing.
I thought it was really smart him to throw the
pass backwards on the two point conversion against the guy's helmet.
(28:25):
I thought that was really smart. I just love what
he's done. He's reinvented himself. He's continued to work with
Jordan Palmer in the off seasons and has just gotten
himself to a place where he can be that guy.
And this team is good enough, especially defensively, where they
can make an impact. For whatever it was against the Rams.
In both those games, it looked like neither one of
those games were an opportunity for them to win it,
(28:47):
and yet they won one of them.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Explain to me, I want to give the credit to
Matthew Stafford, but Sean mcvay's role with Matthew Stafford, like,
how do you share the MVP or you know, not
that Sean is asking for that, but you know we're
trying to figure out, you know, Liam Cullen with Trevor Lawrence,
you know, you got to have that whisper there to
(29:11):
help you, whether it's Ben Jhonson with Caleb Williams, but
Sean McVay with you know, Matthew Stafford is.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
What well, I think a lot of what that goes
into is the scheme. So what he has been able
to do for Matthew is he's been able to clear
his vision, like when he looks out at a defense,
especially with this defense now and now these days where
they place so much emphasis on trying to distract you
or trying to convince you it's a different coverage. He's
(29:39):
cleared it up for him and how does that work?
All right? So for him in particular, what he's done
is he's he's with the motion. He's allowed Pat Matthew
Stafford to understand what it's going to look like post snap,
and a lot of times that's difficult to do. And
when coaches are trying to teach teams that motion, a
lot they're telling them to prepare for what the the
(30:00):
formation is going to look like when it's all said
and done. Same thing on the defense. I talked to
a lot of defensive coordinators this year around when you're
setting up these defenses, because you're lining up in something
pre snap and getting to something post up, and we
have to be right on what we think the formation
is going to be. So there's a lot of guessing
going on, but there's informed guessing on Sean mcvay's side,
and it's allowed Matthew Stafford just to feel really comfortable
(30:22):
when he drops back. I don't think for one second
does he feel like he does not know what's going
on on the.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Other side of the football. Explain pukin Nakua to me?
Speaker 7 (30:31):
In what way?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
He's not fast? I mean, I like, I'm just trying
to figure out how you can dominate like that.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
Well, he catches the ball better than anybody. He uses
his hands. That's a big part of it. We didn't
see this at BYU. We saw it at Washington. I
saw it at Washington and I thought this guy was
going to be a game wrecker there and he just
got homesick and wanted to go home. Okay, and he
got hurt quite a bit while he was there, and
it's the reason why he fell so far in the draft.
(31:01):
But I always knew that he had the capability. Was
a five star kid that went there, and he was big,
he was physical, he could catch the football, he was
fast enough. And in this league you you have to
have you have to have a burner, somebody on the
outside that can can take the top off. But you
got to have somebody who, like I was listening to
Lewis Riddick talk to you a little bit earlier about
his ability. If you don't put somebody in his face
(31:22):
to the line of scrimmage and this guy can get
three or four steps into a break, I mean you
you you don't have a chance. But also him being
open is much different than anybody else being open. If
you saw a corner route in the last couple of
weeks where the defender has been right there, but the
ball placement's been so good, and if it's anywhere near
his catch, ready is he's catching it, plain and simple.
(31:45):
The biggest thing too, if you notice he doesn't go
down have to catch the ball. I mean he stays
up even when he's hit for whatever reason. His balance
keeps him up and he's been able to get a
couple more yards, always falling forward. I mean, he was
so impactful last night for that football team and I
can't believe the statistics were what they were and ultimately
seeing the Seahawks win. But is there a similarity with
(32:06):
Cooper cup Well? I think that's where he learned it
from I do. I mean that early on in his career,
Cooper was there showing him how it's done. I always
talk to young players, especially when I'm at the Senior Bowl,
and I talked to him about when you entered the
NFL locker room, go find the guy that's been doing
this eight to ten years, ask him how he did it,
and then follow his advice verbatim. And I feel like
(32:29):
Poka just kind of came in, put his nose right
between Cooper's butt crack, and followed him around for two years, right,
And that's the way. Those are the things that you
wish you would have known and understood. I wish I
would have done that with Junior SEO and Rodney Harrison
and just sat there watched them be professionals figure it out.
Because I love watching someone like Sam Darnold have success.
I love seeing someone like Pooka and the cool because
(32:50):
they figured it out. They got there and they said,
all I got to do is play football. That's all
I gotta do. I don't have to worry about anything else.
I don't have to be a big man on campus
any more. I just got to play football. And these
are the guys that did it, and I want to
follow in their footsteps.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Talking to Ryan Leith, the former NFL quarterback, he'll be
working for Westwood One. It'll be the Packers Bears Saturday,
Broncos Chiefs on Christmas Night in the FCS National Title
Game January fifth, all in west Wood One. Packers without
Michah Parsons. What do the Bears do to take advantage
of that? Okay, so this is something that I've been
(33:26):
looking at all week long in terms of what I
think it may do is to make confuse the Bears
and Caleb a little bit more early in the game.
Because with Michael Parsons, they have not brought blitzes. They've
rushed four guys. So if you go look at the blitz.
Speaker 7 (33:41):
Tape this week to prepare, if Caleb Williams has got
his blitz cut up, it may not have many plays
on it because they just haven't been bringing a lot
of pressure because they've been able to get it with
Michael Parsons and if he gets double team, the three
other guys have been doing the work. So I think
early on, as long as they don't make any mistakes
like turning it over and use that time on the
sideline to see where they're bringing McDuff or the bringing
kway Walker or even you know, Evan Williams from the
(34:05):
back end. If he's able to go those types of
pressures on the tablet's going to be a huge thing
to see where they're coming comes. They have to find
a way to get pressure on him somehow, and they're
not going to be able to do it without the
most pressurized defensive edge rusher this year in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Who's the better quarterback in this game?
Speaker 7 (34:22):
I think Jordan Love just simply because he's got more experienced,
he doesn't make the big mistake necessarily as much as
Caleb does. But I will say this, Caleb Williams for
me is a bit of a throwback, and in that
he's not doing what everybody else does in this year,
(34:42):
in this NFL where the ball is thrown within minus
two and a half and plus two and a half
of the line of scrimmage. That's why completion percentages are
so high, and he's around fifty eight percent because he
goes down the field at an average around seven to
ten yards per attempt down.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
That's old school percentages.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
A lot of quarterbacks twenty years ago, when Drew Bledsoe
and I were playing and things like that, we were
attempting the ball to throw the ball down the field
a lot more, and that means our completion percentages were
much lower. Now they're up in the seventies, low seventies,
and if you're not, you're looked at as what's wrong
with you type of mentality. And so Caleb Williams for me,
is a bit of a throwback, a bit of a
guy that is going to take some more chances down
(35:20):
the field. And it should be interesting and fascinating over
the next three weeks because it's not like they play
you know, you know, teams they.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Should walk through.
Speaker 7 (35:28):
They have the Packers, they had go out to play
the forty nine ers on the road, and then they
have the Lions to finish the season. So this Chicago
Bears team, as good as they've been, I think anybody
who's watched them and understands them. They could look and
say this team could be ten and seven when it's
all said and done. You know, these three games are
really important. Is Ben Johnson the guy that gets them
through the adversity of the things like that? Is Michael
(35:49):
Parsons that big of a miss that the that the
Bears are the better team and win the division and stuff?
So these three weeks are going to tell you a
lot about who the Chicago Bears are, what Caleb Williams
is capable of doing, and how much Ben Johnson places
at his feet to work.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
All of a sudden, you make the decision to bench
deactivate to a tongue of violin, I mean that feels
like we were moving on. I mean that felt like
an announcement, a declaration. What do you make of now,
all of a sudden, Tua can't play for Mike.
Speaker 7 (36:19):
It's interesting because they felt so attached at the hip
that there had to have been something maybe sent down
from higher above that was like, hey, if you want
to keep a job, you have to start to distance
yourself from because we're going to move on and do something.
Because they were really attached to one another and they
rode through the process what they ran, the anticipation in
(36:42):
the running game, in the past game, with all of that,
I don't know how you do it, but clearly Russell
Wilson and the decision in Denver to walk away from
that much dead cap money and still be this good
that quick makes the family in Miami believe that they
could do the same thing if they hit the right quarterback,
they get the right plan in place. You know, it
(37:03):
hasn't worked for them. They haven't been really anything since
Dan Marino played, so it's.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, but they saw something to give him that contract?
Is it now? They realized he can't throw out to
the numbers he doesn't. You know, if you don't have
Tyreek killed, I throw at seven and you take it seventy.
I mean they have a good running game. I don't know.
It just it feels the timing feels strange.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
It does feel strange. It almost feels like this is
one of those impulsive decisions made by a billionaire somewhere
that that isn't right. Right, it's the micromanagement of things
that isn't there. The reason that they don't have a
general manager in place at the time.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Would you rather have Kyler Murray or Tua.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
I don't know they've They've seemed pretty similar to me.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Well, one's got a one is a crazy athlete.
Speaker 7 (37:50):
One is a crazy athlete. His ability to work with
this feet has allowed him to be better the anticipation
of Tuatongue bay Law. Over the years I've watched, he's
been one of the most accurate anticipatory quarterbacks I've ever seen,
and in this league that's incredibly important. But to your point,
anytime you see a left handed quarterback, it seems labored.
It just looks labored, And I don't know why that's
(38:12):
the case. Maybe it's the fundamentals are a little different,
but it looks like it's a labored throw. So in
your point, when he's thrown to the numbers, it looks
like it's labored. It looks like it's not getting there
in time, when in reality it does have the pace
on it it needs. It does get there when it
needs to. He's just made some bad and poor decisions,
in particular in that Pittsburgh game, and he's got to
(38:33):
where the badge of not being able to play well
in cold weather, and that's half of their season. When
you talk about who they play in their division on
the road. Explain that cold weather thing. I don't get it.
I mean, I grew up in Montana, so that's a
different thing. I love that.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Are you good in hot weather? Did you have problems
in hot weather?
Speaker 7 (38:51):
I mean I had problems in really humid weather when
I played for the Buccaneers. Just the amount of sweat
that was your body was producing, and then the sweat
from the from your center, and we were under center
a lot. I made my center in Tampa changes pants
every quarter I did. It was a swamp, and so
it was important to try to have as dry as
(39:12):
hands as you can. But when you're playing in cold weather,
for me, I was always so hot. My body was warm,
and that ball was so cold and it almost stuck
like velcro, and I could whip that thing around. It
was a lot of fun. I wish we would playing
more snow games in college and in the NFL. Some
of my best games in the NFL were at altitude
against Denver in those in that cold weather. In high school,
(39:34):
we played four out of our you know, ten twelve
games in snow games, you know, in Montana, so I
was used to it. I think that's just something you
got to get through. But when you practice every single
day in Miami and then all of a sudden, out
of nowhere, you're asked to go up and playing this,
no matter what you do. You can show up the
day before and take your shirt off while you warm up,
(39:54):
that's not going to acclimate you to what it's what
it's really like every single day. But if you said
to the Buffalo Bills, or the Green Bay Packers or
the Chicago Bears, do you want to play your home
games in a dome? And you don't have to attach
your name to it. We're just going to take a vote.
And how do you think that they would vote, Well,
(40:15):
it probably depends on where they come from. Like if
I had a vote, I would vote. I don't want
to play in the dome. Like the only thing I
hated worse than anything is playing in rain Like Seattle
would have been a difficult place to play all the time.
But coach found a fix for that. In college, we
called it ruin Ryan's self esteem day. He brought a
bucket of water out and he made me dump the
ball in before I threw every time, and I hated it.
(40:38):
And it was just it was it was ruined Ryan's
self esteem day. But guess what the day we played
the Apple Cup against Washington to go to the Rose Bowl,
and when it rained the entire game and I didn't
even notice it, and I threw for three hundred and
eighty seven the yards and we won the football game.
So like, you can do the things you need to
prefer for it. I like the elements. I like being
a part of what football is. Somebody said football weather
(40:59):
is twenty degrees in snow and football weather is sixty
four degrees in a sunny day in the South, and
I'm like, both are good football days. That's football weather.
It doesn't matter whatever the weather is. It's football weather
in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Because I'd like to play indoors. But if our identity,
So you go to Green Bay, you're told this is
your identity. It's not your identity before you get there.
You go to Buffalo, this is your identity, Chicago, this
is your identity. You got to embrace that. You're like,
it's mind over matter, yep with these guys. And then
all of a sudden, you see when the Tampa Bay
(41:30):
Buccaneers would go north or the Dolphins would go north,
in December and be like the Chargers go to Cincinnati
years ago with Dan Foutz and it's like, we don't
want to be here.
Speaker 7 (41:42):
Yeah, it's you get used to practicing in that weather
where you're in short sleeves and shorts all the time,
you know, and then all of a sudden you have
to bundle up. My producer told me that the Bears,
you know, broadcast booth at Soldier Field is out.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
It's open air.
Speaker 7 (41:59):
It's open air, And I said, and when you mean
open air, you know, so they have a heater in it,
but hey, prepare like it's going to be thirty degrees
for four and a half hours while you're staying.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
I got thirty five degrees at kickoffs. Last week was
seven degrees. Yeah, last week was much different. Looking forward
to this one probably won't have the same heaters that
Tom Brady and Kevin Burkers having there. He ran into
Brady what a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 7 (42:24):
Yeah, we called the Thanksgiving game together and we hadn't
seen each other for a long long time, and it
was nice. It was nice to catch up with him.
There's one thing I've always wanted to talk to him
about is how he's raised his kids because he's done
it as the goat, as the famous person, and I
always thought he's done a tremendous job of raising his kids.
And I kind of come from the opposite spectrum where
I'm famous but all for a lot of bad things.
(42:47):
And so how do you how do you do that?
And how do you raise kids that way? And I
was that's the question I asked him, and he gave
me a really thoughtful answer, and so we talked for
a bit. You know, two Rose Bowl quarterbacks from nineteen
ninety eight chatting it up and calling NFL football games together.
I mean, that's a that's amazing what happened in between
and where we're at now.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Is he looking younger?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (43:06):
I kind of look pretty understanding.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
No, it's not you, which on just about Brady we Yes,
fifty year olds look much younger than they did before. Okay, yeah,
and he does. He takes good really and he could
still play.
Speaker 7 (43:18):
I suspect if if if you're talking about Philip Rivers
going out there, he could throw it a lot better
than Philip Rivers. I can throw it better than Philip Rivers.
I mean that looked bad at it did, Yeah, it did.
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
I liked his story. But I'm your arm is stronger
than Yes, I could have thrown better than that would.
I have understood the protections and the defense as well
as he would.
Speaker 7 (43:40):
I have taken many more hits than he probably did. Yeah, yeah,
that's a different story. I get the competitive nature of Tom,
you know, being away from the game as long as
you have, I don't care how mobile you've kept yourself.
It's it's a it's a real different animal's mobile anyway.
Right He he works inside a a eight by twelve
inch in the pocket, and he was the best to
(44:01):
ever do it.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Thanks for something, by, It's good to be say, travels,
thank you very much. Best to the family. Yeah, they
say hi, all right, Ryan Leef. He'll be on the
call tomorrow night. You've got a standalone game, I know
with Westwood One.
Speaker 7 (44:16):
I've been telling you what it's been to have the
national radio call. I like it. You don't have to
wear a suit. No one knows what the heck you're
talking about all the time. You could be talking about
whatever you want if you're talking some football. You know,
Kurt Warner told me that story when you do radio,
you know, you tell your story of the game. Yeah,
and those that are listening, hopefully they understand what it is.
And that was the best advice I ever got.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Ryan will be on the call Packers Bears, that'll be Saturday,
Broncos Chiefs on Christmas Night, and the FCS National Championship Game.
Maybe with Montana State.
Speaker 7 (44:47):
Let's go CAATs.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
January fifth,
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
No declarations from last night's game. Okay, I know we
love to do the standalone and I'm going to give
you my opinion. And this is an opinion that you
can put in ink, not pencil, you know, because we
would have said what last night? There were a couple
of things. It could have been. Matthew Stafford solidified the
MVP rams to the team to beat in the NFL.
(00:26):
Oh Seattle at home, Sam Donald, they're frauds. It could
have gone a couple of different ways last night. It's
wild how it ended. I even joked yesterday the game
was too big for Thursday night. It actually took Thursday
night to Friday morning in some parts of the country.
But Seattle gets the win in overtime thirty eight thirty seven.
(00:48):
But if Seattle would lost that game, what would we
be saying today? Because keep in mind, Seattle nearly won
the first game between these two when Sam Darnald threw
four interceptions. They had three turnovers last night, and they
still won the game. Matthew Stafford threw for four hundred
and fifty yards. Phoka Nakua had twelve catches, two, one
(01:11):
hundred and twenty five yards like you're going, and Seattle's
still going to win this game. And the Rams didn't
have any turnovers. There were you know, there were no
interceptions by Stafford. See you're looking at it's thirty to fourteen.
You go, yeah, all right, Rams are a better team.
Seattle was stayed in there, you know, the defense when
(01:33):
they needed to came up with some really big plays.
Now did you get some ricochets there? Did you get
some bounces? Yes, you got old of those things. The
punt return to me was really big. But Seattle goes
for two. Here's their head coach, Mike McDonald.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Fall was something we had talked about probably throughout the
season and then really particularly for this game because of
the playoff situation. You know, you play for the tie,
you know, make the lock ofup a play off seed.
But I just felt like, I just felt great about
our play and I trusted our guys and to clinch
credit to he was really confident, and then the players
ultimately make it happen. So once we got that drive going,
(02:12):
it was pretty clear on what we're.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Going to do.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I loved it, but I don't have to answer to
the media. But I did love it. You're at home,
you felt good the comeback, and let's take advantage of this.
So the records after last night, Seattle's twelve and three.
La Is eleven and four. Who do you think is
the favorite right now for the Super Bowl? According to
DraftKings this morning just got the Super Bowl ons. The
(02:38):
Rams are still the team to beat in the NFC.
In the NFL, then it's the Seahawks, then it's the Broncos, Bills, Eagles,
and Texans. So we want to make it a statement game,
a statement win. But this is this is about two
teams that took advantage when they needed to and Seattle
had the last chance to take advantage and they end
(03:00):
up winning.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
But it was great.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was a great game, back and forth. You may
get home field advantage. Now do I still have questions
about Sam Darnold? I do I think they won maybe
in spite of him. They almost won in spite of
him the first time against the Rams, and Stafford looked great,
Phukan Nakua look great. But you know, Seattle ran the
(03:23):
football and came up with a couple of big stumps,
and that's what you want. Get a couple of three
and outs and then try to make them pay. But
it was It was wonderful to watch that game. A
lot of fun back and forth. All Right, so you
got college football coming up, Alabama and Oklahoma on a
Friday night, and we're going to look at some of
(03:45):
the different scenarios of if Miami gets blown out. What
are people going to say, if Alabama would get blown out,
what could happen to their head coach? What if Tulane
shocks old and then we go, well, they should have
kept Lane Kiffin in there. James Madison against Oregon. Everybody
(04:07):
has already made their declaration. Oregon's gonna win, but by
how much? Now, all I can tell you is I
watch jmu play twice this year. That defense is really good,
and this might be a situation where Oregon eventually wins,
but James Madison keeps it close. Oregon. Oregon's starting slow,
(04:27):
maybe a first half cover. I don't know what that
number is, but James Madison's going in. This is everything
to James Madison. Oregon is probably looking at this as
all right, who do we have after James Madison. I'm
not saying that they're going to shock the world, but
I hope we're surprised at how well James Madison can play.
(04:48):
It's been a good program here for the last couple
of years. And yes, is this a tall task. Absolutely
to lane against old miss. Absolutely. And Nick Saban came
out out and said, you know, we shouldn't even have
these smaller schools like you don't take a tripa a
baseball team and put them into the Major League Baseball playoffs.
(05:09):
And I was surprised and disappointed that Nick said that,
because you're supposed to be kind of a steward of
the game. Now you're not at Alabama, you're on college
game day. And it's not like James Madison and Tulane
created this format. It's all these so called smart people
who created this format. I do have an update on
(05:30):
a playoff format for next year, Okay, I'm going to
do that after the break, And there's a couple of
things in there that you should know, a couple of
surprises that I found out yesterday. But I said, we're
going to fourteen or sixteen next year, and it looks
like they've already agreed to that. But I'll give you
(05:51):
some of the details on the new playoff format and
Notre Dame will be in the playoff picture if they
finish in the top twelve. But you know, we don't
want upsets in football, but man, do we crave upsets
with march badness. I give If JMU was playing Oregon
and it was basketball and Oregon was one of the
(06:13):
top five teams, we'd be like, man, JMU can pull
this off, that would be great. Or if Tulane's playing
Old Miss and Old Miss is a top ten team
or a number four seed overall, we'd be like, Tulane
just pulled off a shaker there. But when it gets
to college football, we don't we want shock. We don't
know surprises here. Don't do that to us.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Yes, Marvin, I think because it's a numbers game, because
there's so many teams in the NCAA tournament. All right,
great Michigan State got knocked out in the first round,
but guess what I still got Duke Carolina, yukon UCLA.
In college football, it's not like that. There's only twelve
of those teams, So you don't want one of those
big dogs like Oregon early Canada for most must win
game a weekend. This can change everything. If JAMU wins
(06:58):
all the small school's going forward. Yeah, look we belong.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, but in basketball, you can get hot, you know,
playing on a neutral site, and you know, you can
get some magic there. In college basketball, it's really difficult
to shock somebody in college football, especially when you're playing
at their home stadium. But I hope that they I
hope that they're able to play in a way that
(07:23):
they're proud no matter what the end result is, because yes,
do I like these kind of stories.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
I do.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Should Notre Dame be in instead of JMU or Tulane, Absolutely,
but JMU and Tulaine shouldn't be punished for something that
college football and their committee came up with. I mean,
they earned it. It's not like they go, you know what,
this is a sponsor's exemption and it's a golf tournament, like, hey,
you can come on in. That's not what happened. They
(07:51):
did what they were supposed to do. Do I like it? No,
I'd like to see Notre Dame in there, because Notre
Dame could win the national title. I think they're that good. Good.
They didn't get in, So we move on and now
you got these games coming up tonight. But guaranteed you're
gonna get the now they never should have been in
told you, okay, told who tell the committee they came
(08:14):
up with this. It's like tulaane, you know, man, I
just I'm disappointed. Nick Saban should say, hey, they did
what they were supposed to do and maybe they changed
the format, but let's let's welcome them. Let's see what
they can do. That's what I wanted to hear out
of Nick Saban instead of you know what we didn't
(08:35):
you don't invite a triple A team. You know, you
know you don't invite it. Yeah, we know all of that.
But they did what they were supposed to do, what
they were asked to do, and I hope that they
are able to put up a good effort there and
maybe when maybe shock the world. Uh seatan what's poll
question for the first hour of the program? Yeah, wan
(08:56):
to here from Paul. If your life depended on it,
this one catch you're taking Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase Jackson
Smith and Jigba or Pooka Nakula. I'm taking Pooka Akua
recency bias.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
He is getting silly with his catches.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yes he if it's if it's around him. It's it's his.
Even when it's not around him, it's it's his. He's
I never worry about him on the field, it's off
the field. He was criticizing the officials last night right
after the game, and I'm going didn't do the proposed
(09:33):
celebration that maybe he was gonna get in trouble for
me anti Semitic, that was.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
That was good that he avoided that.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
A boy.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Uh here's Sean McVeigh talking about Pooka Nakua's comments after
the game.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
He was very apologetic.
Speaker 8 (09:47):
I don't think he understood the totality of some of
the things. I think he issued that apology. You know,
this guy's heart and for anybody that was offended, terribly
sorry about that. I know he feels that same exact way.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
As a young guy.
Speaker 8 (09:59):
There's a great kid that's continuing to learn about you know,
just the platform that he has.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I love him.
Speaker 8 (10:04):
We're going to continue to put an arm around him
and help him learn and grow. But we never want
to do things that ever offend anybody. And I know
he feels that same way.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, but that's talking about the video that he did
on a podcast after the game last night. He was
critical of the referees, and now's when the NFL's got
to find him. Now they will. By the way, Most
Valuable Least Valuable danet voting is up and running at
danpatrick dot com. The link also in our Twitter and
(10:35):
Instagram bio as well Most Valuable Least Valuable Danpatrick dot Com.
We will tabulate your votes and Tuesday, Tuesday, in the
final hour of the program, Oh boy, that's when we
make the big announcement, big reveal, and also the most
Valuable backroom guy as well. There's only thirteen people, twelve
(11:04):
full time people who work here, including all of us
you know, the five here, but there are some very
valuable backroom guys. It's a really it's gonna be a
really close vote, and I'm the one that's voting. It's
going to be one vote for the most Valuable backroom guy,
and it may shock people. I'm just going to say that.
(11:25):
I don't know if the most Valuable Least Valuable is
going to shock anybody, but there's always that possibility. That's
a fan vote. Okay, I'm not involved in that. I
will cast my vote, but this I'm gonna leave it
up to the audience. Most valuable least valuable, Danett, I think, Pritzy,
you've wanted a couple of times now.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
Yeah, taking on both of those.
Speaker 9 (11:48):
Yeah, that's the rollercoaster, rioty emotions that come with these prizes, yes, Paul.
Speaker 10 (11:53):
So is there anything else any of us can do
in the last three hours here to garner a couple
extra votes or lose them?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh yeah there's Yeah. You get to vote till tuesday,
so wow. Yeah, there's plenty of room to screw up.
Speaker 9 (12:05):
Yes, ton we'll have any backstab being going on in
the back room. There is there anyone that thinks that
they've got it and they're about to get the rug
pulled out, like Notre Dame where they thought they were
going to be winning and they're not going to get
that award.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I don't know, ton On't you go back and say
a lot to a couple of guys. Yeah, you go
back there.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
We justly go back there.
Speaker 9 (12:22):
If there's like hot dogs or egg rolls on the
on the griver.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
No, you do go back to do your stand up act.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I'll try a couple of.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
Things out of them and just got to see if
there's something there.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yes, but I all walk by and Mario and Anthony
are trying to get ready for the show, and then
Todd will do basically five minutes to stand up.
Speaker 9 (12:37):
I have my little notebok. I'll cross out things that
are good. I'll put a little check mark if they.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Giggled, Uh okay, yeah pull.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
By the way, we talked about this before.
Speaker 10 (12:48):
I think we did this with Isaiah Pacheco, the most
valuable player in the NFL based off salary, Pokin Nakua
makes a million dollars this year, a million, and he's
going to make a million next year.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
He's his four years for the Rams. He'll be paid
less than five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Well, I don't think he'll make a million next year.
I don't think so.
Speaker 10 (13:09):
But let's say the first three years of his career
he made two point eight million dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But this was like Cooper Cup and to see him
on the field last night in a Seattle uniform. I mean,
Cooper Cup had years better than pooka Akula. But PAULI goes,
how fast do you think Pookainakua is? And then he
answered his own question, he goes fast enough. Yes, there
is a jar. I brought this up a couple of
weeks ago. There's a Jerry Rice feel to him from
(13:33):
the standpoint of I don't know how fast he is,
but I know he's big, but I don't know what
his forty is and I don't care, because there's football
speed and then there's track speed, and he's got football speed.
And you saw that again last night.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show week days at nine am Eastern six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 11 (13:59):
Wap Hey, He's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio. Now,
in addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to
seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio,
We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube channel for
the show.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 11 (14:13):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do search Covino and Rich
FSR on YouTube again. Go to YouTube search Covino and
Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon, comment away.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Lewis Riddick of the Mothership ESPN NFL college football analyst,
He'll be on the call. He's got James Madison and
Oregon kick off at seven thirty eastern on TNT. All right,
where do you want to start? You want to start
on your game or is there another question that you
want to talk about?
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Now? Hey man, you know me, Dan, I'll go wherever
you want to go. But I can tell you this
all right.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
For the people who don't believe in James Madison, you
would say what.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Well, I would say this. Look, defensively, this football team
can get after it. There's no question about that. I mean,
obviously you're gonna look at their level of competition and go, well,
who are the most high powered offenses they played? What
P four offenses that they played? I mean they played
against Louisville. They lost to Louisville. That We're in that
game all the way though, until Louisville made a couple
of big plays down the stretch. They played Washington State,
(15:23):
you know that game, that team is closely contested. But this,
this is this is a football team. Look, they've got
some guys on that side of the ball, especially on
the defensive line. That linebacker that can really get going,
that can get going. Now, the problem is Oregon may
be getting healthy in this football game, especially a wide receiver.
If you're talking about guys like the Corean Moore coming back,
(15:43):
and you know, Evan Stewart may be healthy in this game.
Gary Bryant Junior, the three like three of their most
explosive players. I don't know if Dan Landing plays them
or not, but man are they They are formidable. And
then look, I mean JM you can really run the football.
Their quarter back a Linza Barnett can really get after it.
And if you look at some of the most some
(16:04):
of the mobile quarterbacks that Oregon has played against, they've
had some issues with them. I'm not saying that JMU
really is gonna win this game. You know what it's
out here, you know, in Eugene, in this weather, this stadium,
this football team, Dan Lanning, the number of five stars
they got on the team they're up against it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I get that.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
But that's why you play the games, man, That's why
you play the games. And quite honestly, if you're gonna
have a you know, a group of five type of
school go up against a heavyweight like Oregon, you're gonna
want the matchup to kind of look like this one,
to where who knows what jam you can do? Who
knows how long they can keep it close. We'll see
what happens.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I don't know what you thought about Nick Saban's comments
about basically saying, you know, JMU and Tulane are minor
league baseball teams, they shouldn't be playing in the baseball playoffs.
I'm just surprised because he's not at Alabama, He's sitting
on the biggest platform in the sport.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
JMU and Tulane didn't create this scenario. They took advantage
of this scenario.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Sure, So it's it surprised me a little bit only
because look, at one time, like Nick was coaching at Toledo,
Nick knows what the what you know a Kent State.
He knows what the long, hard road looks like. And
because he traveled it and he ascended to become the goat,
and you know, hats off to him. I was coached
(17:24):
by my respect the hell out of him, love the guys,
I mean, all all the goods the question. But lookah,
I think if you're those schools, if you're too lane
in your JMU, you're sitting there going, hey, wait a minute, man,
we don't need to be catching strays from people. When
we were just kind of doing what we need to do,
and we didn't. We didn't put ourselves in here. Y'all
put us in here. So we're gonna line up and
play the game. Now, I get what Nick is saying.
(17:46):
I get what he's saying when you're talking about teams
that are being excluded from this, when you look at
Notre Dame Vanderbilt texts. Let's just take those three in particular.
We know that JMU and two Lane probably you know,
ninety nine out of one hundred times those three schools
are going to beat jam you or or sorts laying.
We get that, and quite honestly, fans probably would rather
(18:09):
see those teams in there. And that's all Nick is saying.
So they need to figure out a way to kind
of rectify that if that means that group of five
schools don't get get included in this, although I mean
I've heard people talk about the fact that those schools
would litigate this thing to the very end and be like,
you can't do that, you can't keep us out of this.
What are you talking about? I mean, it is what
(18:29):
it is. I mean, deal with it. If you're Texas
and if you're Vanderbilt, and if you're Notre Dame. Then
win your damn games. Don't worry, don't worry about us,
don't try keeping us out of it. Just how about
you just got to earn your way into it. But
I get what he's saying.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Talking to Lewis Riddick of the Mothership. He'll be on
the call. It'll be James Madison in Oregon kickoff seven
thirty eastern and a couple other things. You know, I'm curious,
did you watch Thursday night game? Like, you're good? What
do you think is Sam Darnold?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
You know, I'm glad you asked that because he talked
about catching strays. Sam's been catching a bunch of them
over the past couple of weeks, hasn't he. Yeah, So,
you know, ever since keeps team before out in LA,
people been like, well, there's the Sam. We know, that's
the Sam. We're talking about where's JSN? Now, where's you
know all this feel good you know, uh talk that
(19:21):
was surrounding him. That's not who Sam is. And then
last night, you know, he has he throws two picks
and you're sitting there going, you know, late and again
you're going, oh, here we go again. But what did
he do? In crunch time. That's what everyone wants to know.
In crunch time, in a big game, national stage, at home,
so much on the line, in the NFC and in
that division overall, what does he do? He delivers some
fantastic throws, big time throws, won the Cooper Cup, won
(19:43):
the JASN under pressure in the fourth quarter when they
need him the most, and he delivered. He doesn't blink.
Everyone else has blinked talking about him, but he hasn't blinked.
And I love that. I think that kind of game
last night could really for him as much as you know,
when we've talked to him, he doesn't seem never doubt himself.
(20:03):
He doesn't come off as someone who's sitting there having
these real introspective conversations with himself and trying to find
himself and all that bs. I think last night, though,
even for him, he may have gone, see, I do
have what it takes in order to rise up at
the biggest moments. Now, he had a lot of help
last night, he really did. And you know, one of
the biggest, one of the biggest acquisitions this season is
(20:29):
going to be the acquisition of Rashid Shaheed for Seattle,
and you saw it last night. It was coming. You
saw him, you know, poking and prodden over the past
couple of weeks as far as trying to find his groove.
Then the pot return hits. You know, he's a guy
who he showed it. You showed it last week late
in the game against Indianapolis, that that was the guy
that Sam went to. Kenneth Walker started going last night.
(20:53):
The defense gets some big stops late in that game.
They couldn't they still they they still haven't figured out
what the hell Puku Nakula was doing to him. They
still haven't that out. But I mean that which was incredible. Look,
Sean McVay is a freaking I love Sean McVay. The
dude can scheme up your defense as well as anybody.
And Matthew Stafford, you know, you know what Dan speaking. Look,
(21:15):
I'm not saying Sam Donald Matthew Stafford. All right, there
was a lot, There was a while. There was a
long time, and we sat there and we doubted Matthew Stafford.
When he was in Detroit. People wanted to blame Stafford
for not being able to lift what at the time
was a franchise that wasn't very well run. And lift
them out of the gutter and put them on the pedestal,
you know, and then he goes to LA, gets around
(21:36):
the right people. Next thing, you know, he wins a
super Bowl and now he's gonna probably win the MVP.
But I think with Sam, Sam's in the right spot
right now, he's in the right spot with coach McDonald's,
he's in the right spot with Clint kobe A last
night could be a turning point game for him. I
really do and I hope it is.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago with Pooka Nakua.
There's football speed and there's track speed. Yeah, he football speed. Question,
I don't know what you know, like Jerry Rice, like
where you go and there's I think there's similarities and
that he he seems to always be fast enough and
if it's in his radius, he's catching it. So it's
(22:16):
a former defensive back. Yeah, what would you be trying
to do with him?
Speaker 4 (22:23):
A lot of times what you saw last night with
Pooka is Look, I've been beating this drum since I
started on TV back in twenty thirteen. Free access to
wide receivers off the line of scrimmage. You're asking for it.
You're asking to get your rear end ripped by teams
that can scheme you up and instinctive wide receivers who
(22:43):
are in lockstep with their quarterback if you let them
play seven on seven, which a lot of the game intoday,
Phill and I'm not the get off my long guy.
I get it. The game is a vault. We're trying
to protect players all that, but a lot of the
game now is geared towards allowing wide receivers and quarterbacks
to put up Star Wars type numbers. One of the
things that you still have at your disposal though, as
a defense is the is the whole idea of the
(23:06):
disruption of timing and rhythm of a pass if you
don't disrupt the timing and rhythm of the rams passing game.
Puka and Matthew Stafford they meet every morning at like
four or five am, the same thing he used to
do with Cooper Cup and Puka is so damn instinctive
and as you're talking about, has such great functional strength
and speed. And Matthew is this first ballot lock you know,
(23:31):
sure fire Hall of Fame type caliber quarterback that if
you allow them to just come off the line, use
their motions and shifts, find the zone voids, and you're
gonna sit there and you don't disguise your coverage as well,
or you have miscommunications in the back end, and you
allowed Puka to just work his magic in between the numbers,
in particular on those deep end cuts that you saw
him running last night where he's catching and then he's
(23:52):
off to the races. You're gonna wind up giving up
two hundred and twenty five yards receiving to a single guy.
You've got to you know, you know who, And I
know this is a dude who's always is in the
media more time than not now for the wrong reasons
or for reasons that don't involve football. But Bill Belichick
was the very best, and even at the you know,
in the in the later moments of his career in
(24:15):
New England, still understood that and made defenses execute those
kinds of things, or you wouldn't play for him. And
that's how he was able to shut down some of
the greatest offenses when he was when he was a
head coaching coordinate. See, he understands that that one thing
is still something you have in your and your tool
kid and if you don't use it, you're just asking
(24:35):
for it. And last night that's how Pooka went off
like he did.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
What if you were the GM of the Chiefs, how
are you approaching next season?
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Oh? Boy, Yeah, Brett's a good friend of mine, Brett
Veach And I'll tell you what, first and foremost, I
think You've got to get Patrick at bell kol running back.
You got to. You've got to get him a guy
he can turn around and hand the ball to and
he's probably gonna get you four and a half on
average and maybe rip you know, at least two to
(25:08):
three plus ten plus twenty yard runs a game. So
you got to You've got to get him a true
number one at wide receiver. You've got to get him
an X that even when the team knows you're gonna
throw it to him, he can still make plays. You've
got to get him that guy. And obviously the offensive
line got banged that season. You saw how bad it became.
(25:31):
You saw at every single every single UH pass attempt
became like it became like a playground ball for Patrick.
And Patrick can't be the guy who's constantly running for
his life and trying to and obviously coming off that injury.
You don't want him being the number one, number two
rush on the team. He just can't be. Offensive line
has to get healthy. They have to get him a
(25:51):
running back, They have to get him a true number one.
What's the succession plan for Travis Kelsey a tight end?
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
There expecting him to retire.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Even if he doesn't, you still need more juice at
that position. As good as he is, he'll needs someone who,
from a physical perspective, really does inject fear into a
defense in that area, that fifteen to twenty yard area
between the number is because this guy is such a
unique a Travis is one of the He's the greatest.
He's going to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You think he's the best tight end of all time?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
The numbers say he is. Well Tony, I played against
Tony Tony was. I didn't play against Gronk, but I
played against Tony and Tony was damned near uncoverable. I
played against Keith Jackson when you know he had just
left Philly and went to Miami and Marino was throwing
in pass this.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
I know what.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
There's some really really good tight ends that have played
in this league. Seagment. But but Travis is right there,
He's right at the very top.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Have fun tonight, Hopefully we get a competitive game for
a while, and I think well hangs in there. Kick
off at seven thirty Eastern on TNT. Lewis, thank you, Yeah,
safe travels, Happy holidays to you.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
As always, that's Lewis Riddick of the Mothership. 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.
Ryan Lee, former NFL quarterback. He'll be calling the Packers
Bears Saturday, Bronco's Chiefs on Christmas Night, and the FCS
(27:32):
National Title game, all in Westwood One joins us in studio.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Good to see you again. Level of belief in Sam Darnold,
let me start there.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
I have a lot of belief in Sam Darnald. Those
two interceptions last night, you know, I think would have
fooled any quarterback in that situation. They ran man coverage
look and then this was just film oriented and what
they saw and fell under and zoned for that touchdown,
well should have been a touchdown. And then the other one,
he had just had so much pressure in his face
(28:03):
he had to let it go and the defender dropped
right into the spot. Both those of those situational plays
that you really can't put a lot on him. It
wasn't like a bad throat, It wasn't a bad decision.
It was just better coaching on the other side to
prepare for it. And so I thought the comeback was amazing.
I thought it was really smart him to throw the
pass backwards on the two point conversion against the guy's helmet.
(28:25):
I thought that was really smart. I just love what
he's done. He's reinvented himself. He's continued to work with
Jordan Palmer in the off seasons and has just gotten
himself to a place where he can be that guy.
And this team is good enough, especially defensively, where they
can make an impact. For whatever it was against the Rams.
In both those games, it looked like neither one of
those games were an opportunity for them to win it,
(28:47):
and yet they won one of them.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Explain to me, I want to give the credit to
Matthew Stafford, but Sean mcvay's role with Matthew Stafford, like,
how do you share the MVP or you know, not
that Sean is asking for that, but you know we're
trying to figure out, you know, Liam Cullen with Trevor Lawrence,
you know, you got to have that whisper there to
(29:11):
help you, whether it's Ben Jhonson with Caleb Williams, but
Sean McVay with you know, Matthew Stafford is.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
What well, I think a lot of what that goes
into is the scheme. So what he has been able
to do for Matthew is he's been able to clear
his vision, like when he looks out at a defense,
especially with this defense now and now these days where
they place so much emphasis on trying to distract you
or trying to convince you it's a different coverage. He's
(29:39):
cleared it up for him and how does that work?
All right? So for him in particular, what he's done
is he's he's with the motion. He's allowed Pat Matthew
Stafford to understand what it's going to look like post snap,
and a lot of times that's difficult to do. And
when coaches are trying to teach teams that motion, a
lot they're telling them to prepare for what the the
(30:00):
formation is going to look like when it's all said
and done. Same thing on the defense. I talked to
a lot of defensive coordinators this year around when you're
setting up these defenses, because you're lining up in something
pre snap and getting to something post up, and we
have to be right on what we think the formation
is going to be. So there's a lot of guessing
going on, but there's informed guessing on Sean mcvay's side,
and it's allowed Matthew Stafford just to feel really comfortable
(30:22):
when he drops back. I don't think for one second
does he feel like he does not know what's going
on on the.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Other side of the football. Explain pukin Nakua to me?
Speaker 7 (30:31):
In what way?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
He's not fast? I mean, I like, I'm just trying
to figure out how you can dominate like that.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
Well, he catches the ball better than anybody. He uses
his hands. That's a big part of it. We didn't
see this at BYU. We saw it at Washington. I
saw it at Washington and I thought this guy was
going to be a game wrecker there and he just
got homesick and wanted to go home. Okay, and he
got hurt quite a bit while he was there, and
it's the reason why he fell so far in the draft.
(31:01):
But I always knew that he had the capability. Was
a five star kid that went there, and he was big,
he was physical, he could catch the football, he was
fast enough. And in this league you you have to
have you have to have a burner, somebody on the
outside that can can take the top off. But you
got to have somebody who, like I was listening to
Lewis Riddick talk to you a little bit earlier about
his ability. If you don't put somebody in his face
(31:22):
to the line of scrimmage and this guy can get
three or four steps into a break, I mean you
you you don't have a chance. But also him being
open is much different than anybody else being open. If
you saw a corner route in the last couple of
weeks where the defender has been right there, but the
ball placement's been so good, and if it's anywhere near
his catch, ready is he's catching it, plain and simple.
(31:45):
The biggest thing too, if you notice he doesn't go
down have to catch the ball. I mean he stays
up even when he's hit for whatever reason. His balance
keeps him up and he's been able to get a
couple more yards, always falling forward. I mean, he was
so impactful last night for that football team and I
can't believe the statistics were what they were and ultimately
seeing the Seahawks win. But is there a similarity with
(32:06):
Cooper cup Well? I think that's where he learned it
from I do. I mean that early on in his career,
Cooper was there showing him how it's done. I always
talk to young players, especially when I'm at the Senior Bowl,
and I talked to him about when you entered the
NFL locker room, go find the guy that's been doing
this eight to ten years, ask him how he did it,
and then follow his advice verbatim. And I feel like
(32:29):
Poka just kind of came in, put his nose right
between Cooper's butt crack, and followed him around for two years, right,
And that's the way. Those are the things that you
wish you would have known and understood. I wish I
would have done that with Junior SEO and Rodney Harrison
and just sat there watched them be professionals figure it out.
Because I love watching someone like Sam Darnold have success.
I love seeing someone like Pooka and the cool because
(32:50):
they figured it out. They got there and they said,
all I got to do is play football. That's all
I gotta do. I don't have to worry about anything else.
I don't have to be a big man on campus
any more. I just got to play football. And these
are the guys that did it, and I want to
follow in their footsteps.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Talking to Ryan Leith, the former NFL quarterback, he'll be
working for Westwood One. It'll be the Packers Bears Saturday,
Broncos Chiefs on Christmas Night in the FCS National Title
Game January fifth, all in west Wood One. Packers without
Michah Parsons. What do the Bears do to take advantage
of that? Okay, so this is something that I've been
(33:26):
looking at all week long in terms of what I
think it may do is to make confuse the Bears
and Caleb a little bit more early in the game.
Because with Michael Parsons, they have not brought blitzes. They've
rushed four guys. So if you go look at the blitz.
Speaker 7 (33:41):
Tape this week to prepare, if Caleb Williams has got
his blitz cut up, it may not have many plays
on it because they just haven't been bringing a lot
of pressure because they've been able to get it with
Michael Parsons and if he gets double team, the three
other guys have been doing the work. So I think
early on, as long as they don't make any mistakes
like turning it over and use that time on the
sideline to see where they're bringing McDuff or the bringing
kway Walker or even you know, Evan Williams from the
(34:05):
back end. If he's able to go those types of
pressures on the tablet's going to be a huge thing
to see where they're coming comes. They have to find
a way to get pressure on him somehow, and they're
not going to be able to do it without the
most pressurized defensive edge rusher this year in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Who's the better quarterback in this game?
Speaker 7 (34:22):
I think Jordan Love just simply because he's got more experienced,
he doesn't make the big mistake necessarily as much as
Caleb does. But I will say this, Caleb Williams for
me is a bit of a throwback, and in that
he's not doing what everybody else does in this year,
(34:42):
in this NFL where the ball is thrown within minus
two and a half and plus two and a half
of the line of scrimmage. That's why completion percentages are
so high, and he's around fifty eight percent because he
goes down the field at an average around seven to
ten yards per attempt down.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
That's old school percentages.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
A lot of quarterbacks twenty years ago, when Drew Bledsoe
and I were playing and things like that, we were
attempting the ball to throw the ball down the field
a lot more, and that means our completion percentages were
much lower. Now they're up in the seventies, low seventies,
and if you're not, you're looked at as what's wrong
with you type of mentality. And so Caleb Williams for me,
is a bit of a throwback, a bit of a
guy that is going to take some more chances down
(35:20):
the field. And it should be interesting and fascinating over
the next three weeks because it's not like they play
you know, you know, teams they.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Should walk through.
Speaker 7 (35:28):
They have the Packers, they had go out to play
the forty nine ers on the road, and then they
have the Lions to finish the season. So this Chicago
Bears team, as good as they've been, I think anybody
who's watched them and understands them. They could look and
say this team could be ten and seven when it's
all said and done. You know, these three games are
really important. Is Ben Johnson the guy that gets them
through the adversity of the things like that? Is Michael
(35:49):
Parsons that big of a miss that the that the
Bears are the better team and win the division and stuff?
So these three weeks are going to tell you a
lot about who the Chicago Bears are, what Caleb Williams
is capable of doing, and how much Ben Johnson places
at his feet to work.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
All of a sudden, you make the decision to bench
deactivate to a tongue of violin, I mean that feels
like we were moving on. I mean that felt like
an announcement, a declaration. What do you make of now,
all of a sudden, Tua can't play for Mike.
Speaker 7 (36:19):
It's interesting because they felt so attached at the hip
that there had to have been something maybe sent down
from higher above that was like, hey, if you want
to keep a job, you have to start to distance
yourself from because we're going to move on and do something.
Because they were really attached to one another and they
rode through the process what they ran, the anticipation in
(36:42):
the running game, in the past game, with all of that,
I don't know how you do it, but clearly Russell
Wilson and the decision in Denver to walk away from
that much dead cap money and still be this good
that quick makes the family in Miami believe that they
could do the same thing if they hit the right quarterback,
they get the right plan in place. You know, it
(37:03):
hasn't worked for them. They haven't been really anything since
Dan Marino played, so it's.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, but they saw something to give him that contract?
Is it now? They realized he can't throw out to
the numbers he doesn't. You know, if you don't have
Tyreek killed, I throw at seven and you take it seventy.
I mean they have a good running game. I don't know.
It just it feels the timing feels strange.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
It does feel strange. It almost feels like this is
one of those impulsive decisions made by a billionaire somewhere
that that isn't right. Right, it's the micromanagement of things
that isn't there. The reason that they don't have a
general manager in place at the time.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Would you rather have Kyler Murray or Tua.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
I don't know they've They've seemed pretty similar to me.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Well, one's got a one is a crazy athlete.
Speaker 7 (37:50):
One is a crazy athlete. His ability to work with
this feet has allowed him to be better the anticipation
of Tuatongue bay Law. Over the years I've watched, he's
been one of the most accurate anticipatory quarterbacks I've ever seen,
and in this league that's incredibly important. But to your point,
anytime you see a left handed quarterback, it seems labored.
It just looks labored, And I don't know why that's
(38:12):
the case. Maybe it's the fundamentals are a little different,
but it looks like it's a labored throw. So in
your point, when he's thrown to the numbers, it looks
like it's labored. It looks like it's not getting there
in time, when in reality it does have the pace
on it it needs. It does get there when it
needs to. He's just made some bad and poor decisions,
in particular in that Pittsburgh game, and he's got to
(38:33):
where the badge of not being able to play well
in cold weather, and that's half of their season. When
you talk about who they play in their division on
the road. Explain that cold weather thing. I don't get it.
I mean, I grew up in Montana, so that's a
different thing. I love that.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Are you good in hot weather? Did you have problems
in hot weather?
Speaker 7 (38:51):
I mean I had problems in really humid weather when
I played for the Buccaneers. Just the amount of sweat
that was your body was producing, and then the sweat
from the from your center, and we were under center
a lot. I made my center in Tampa changes pants
every quarter I did. It was a swamp, and so
it was important to try to have as dry as
(39:12):
hands as you can. But when you're playing in cold weather,
for me, I was always so hot. My body was warm,
and that ball was so cold and it almost stuck
like velcro, and I could whip that thing around. It
was a lot of fun. I wish we would playing
more snow games in college and in the NFL. Some
of my best games in the NFL were at altitude
against Denver in those in that cold weather. In high school,
(39:34):
we played four out of our you know, ten twelve
games in snow games, you know, in Montana, so I
was used to it. I think that's just something you
got to get through. But when you practice every single
day in Miami and then all of a sudden, out
of nowhere, you're asked to go up and playing this,
no matter what you do. You can show up the
day before and take your shirt off while you warm up,
(39:54):
that's not going to acclimate you to what it's what
it's really like every single day. But if you said
to the Buffalo Bills, or the Green Bay Packers or
the Chicago Bears, do you want to play your home
games in a dome? And you don't have to attach
your name to it. We're just going to take a vote.
And how do you think that they would vote, Well,
(40:15):
it probably depends on where they come from. Like if
I had a vote, I would vote. I don't want
to play in the dome. Like the only thing I
hated worse than anything is playing in rain Like Seattle
would have been a difficult place to play all the time.
But coach found a fix for that. In college, we
called it ruin Ryan's self esteem day. He brought a
bucket of water out and he made me dump the
ball in before I threw every time, and I hated it.
(40:38):
And it was just it was it was ruined Ryan's
self esteem day. But guess what the day we played
the Apple Cup against Washington to go to the Rose Bowl,
and when it rained the entire game and I didn't
even notice it, and I threw for three hundred and
eighty seven the yards and we won the football game.
So like, you can do the things you need to
prefer for it. I like the elements. I like being
a part of what football is. Somebody said football weather
(40:59):
is twenty degrees in snow and football weather is sixty
four degrees in a sunny day in the South, and
I'm like, both are good football days. That's football weather.
It doesn't matter whatever the weather is. It's football weather
in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Because I'd like to play indoors. But if our identity,
So you go to Green Bay, you're told this is
your identity. It's not your identity before you get there.
You go to Buffalo, this is your identity, Chicago, this
is your identity. You got to embrace that. You're like,
it's mind over matter, yep with these guys. And then
all of a sudden, you see when the Tampa Bay
(41:30):
Buccaneers would go north or the Dolphins would go north,
in December and be like the Chargers go to Cincinnati
years ago with Dan Foutz and it's like, we don't
want to be here.
Speaker 7 (41:42):
Yeah, it's you get used to practicing in that weather
where you're in short sleeves and shorts all the time,
you know, and then all of a sudden you have
to bundle up. My producer told me that the Bears,
you know, broadcast booth at Soldier Field is out.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
It's open air.
Speaker 7 (41:59):
It's open air, And I said, and when you mean
open air, you know, so they have a heater in it,
but hey, prepare like it's going to be thirty degrees
for four and a half hours while you're staying.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
I got thirty five degrees at kickoffs. Last week was
seven degrees. Yeah, last week was much different. Looking forward
to this one probably won't have the same heaters that
Tom Brady and Kevin Burkers having there. He ran into
Brady what a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 7 (42:24):
Yeah, we called the Thanksgiving game together and we hadn't
seen each other for a long long time, and it
was nice. It was nice to catch up with him.
There's one thing I've always wanted to talk to him
about is how he's raised his kids because he's done
it as the goat, as the famous person, and I
always thought he's done a tremendous job of raising his kids.
And I kind of come from the opposite spectrum where
I'm famous but all for a lot of bad things.
(42:47):
And so how do you how do you do that?
And how do you raise kids that way? And I
was that's the question I asked him, and he gave
me a really thoughtful answer, and so we talked for
a bit. You know, two Rose Bowl quarterbacks from nineteen
ninety eight chatting it up and calling NFL football games together.
I mean, that's a that's amazing what happened in between
and where we're at now.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Is he looking younger?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (43:06):
I kind of look pretty understanding.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
No, it's not you, which on just about Brady we Yes,
fifty year olds look much younger than they did before. Okay, yeah,
and he does. He takes good really and he could
still play.
Speaker 7 (43:18):
I suspect if if if you're talking about Philip Rivers
going out there, he could throw it a lot better
than Philip Rivers. I can throw it better than Philip Rivers.
I mean that looked bad at it did, Yeah, it did.
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
I liked his story. But I'm your arm is stronger
than Yes, I could have thrown better than that would.
I have understood the protections and the defense as well
as he would.
Speaker 7 (43:40):
I have taken many more hits than he probably did. Yeah, yeah,
that's a different story. I get the competitive nature of Tom,
you know, being away from the game as long as
you have, I don't care how mobile you've kept yourself.
It's it's a it's a real different animal's mobile anyway.
Right He he works inside a a eight by twelve
inch in the pocket, and he was the best to
(44:01):
ever do it.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Thanks for something, by, It's good to be say, travels,
thank you very much. Best to the family. Yeah, they
say hi, all right, Ryan Leef. He'll be on the
call tomorrow night. You've got a standalone game, I know
with Westwood One.
Speaker 7 (44:16):
I've been telling you what it's been to have the
national radio call. I like it. You don't have to
wear a suit. No one knows what the heck you're
talking about all the time. You could be talking about
whatever you want if you're talking some football. You know,
Kurt Warner told me that story when you do radio,
you know, you tell your story of the game. Yeah,
and those that are listening, hopefully they understand what it is.
And that was the best advice I ever got.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Ryan will be on the call Packers Bears, that'll be Saturday,
Broncos Chiefs on Christmas Night, and the FCS National Championship Game.
Maybe with Montana State.
Speaker 7 (44:47):
Let's go CAATs.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
January fifth,
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