December 8, 2014 • 25 mins
Former NFL head coaches Brian Billick and Steve Mariucci recap Week 14 breaking down the impressive performances by the Patriots, Seahawks, Steelers and Rams. Brian also talks with Panthers head coach Ron Rivera and the guys debate if the Browns will start Johnny Manziel in Week 15.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
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Coaches Show podcast. Thirty men together can't lose. This is
(01:11):
why you lift all that abody them. And now we're
going there's a glean. Men, there's a glean. Welcome to
the Coach the Show. I'm Brian Billick, joined by Steve
Mariucci and this gets fun, Steve. This time of year
with a dash for the cash, that's what we always
called December and some big defining games. Let's begin with
(01:32):
the number one game on the radar for you that
you came here with yesterday. Wow, there's a lot of them,
but the one that interests me from afar was that
Rams game. You know, they're not in the playoff chase,
and they shut out their opponent now two weeks in
a row, Brian, that hasn't happened there in sixty some years, right,
(01:54):
And they go over to Washington and shut these guys
out after having shut out the Oakland Raiders fifty two
to nothing. And this team keeps fighting for Jeff and
and we both know Jeff and they have quarterback problems
and you know this and that. But this team now
has really taken advantage of the draft choices they've made
and the acquisitions, and the Rams are fighting and they're
(02:16):
going to serve as the spoilers because this team right
now can beat anybody. I was really impressed with the Rams. Yeah,
what did you think? In the in the in the
coin toss, Jeff's sitting up all the guys that they
got in the trade with the the r G three.
What do you think of that? I didn't know what
to think. I I went, what did they do? Oh,
they sent out this Brockers and Jenkins and and and
(02:40):
Robinson and all these guys. And I went, So the
r G three sitting over there on the bench, he's
not starting. He's feeling bad about this anyway, But this
is I didn't know if I should laugh because I
thought it was kind of funny entertaining, or if like, wow,
what was that all about? But oh my god, I
mean this is uh now, whether this turns to another
(03:00):
herschel Walker trade kind of thing, you know that, I
don't know. But I don't know what I thought. I
don't know what this thing. What do you think? I
thought it was a Bush League? Yeah, yeah, a struggle.
I remember the Rams are losing team, okay, so it's
not like you're you're burning up the league against and
you know, the way Washington's going. I don't know. I
wasn't really impressed with it. I didn't think it was.
It was. It was surprising to everybody. I said, I suppose,
(03:21):
but I don't know forgot him playing right? You know,
you know me, it's it's all about signature road wins.
And for me, what what New England did? We know?
They're the best team in the a f C. I
think we know that. And after a loss, a really
tight road loss to the Green Bay Packers, they come
out to the West Coast stay the whole week. That's
a real tough sell, right, Hey, guys, how about we
spend the week in San Diego before we go play
(03:43):
the Charges rather than go back to New England. But
and the Chargers team coming off a big win against
Baltimore on the road, I thought what they did in
Tom Brady, you know he's back to his having to
throw the ball up forty four times. They did what
they had to do to win. They held San Diego
UH to barely over two hundred yards at defense. Did
I just thought this was for lack of another signature
(04:06):
road win. Maybe very telling for this New England Patriot team,
no doubt. But I gotta ask you a question, would
you ever go move your team for a week and
practice at the opposing site like they did to Sandy.
We did that. We actually we did it in San Diego,
you know, and and uh we got some restaurants. Well,
you know, the truth of matter is to hurricane was
coming in if for her game, whatever was going to
(04:27):
hit these coasts. So we left on Tuesday. Like I said,
it was real heart cell to the guys going, well,
you know, you want to go to San Diego for
the week. You want to stay here and and deal
with the hurricane. I can I can see hurricane coming. Okay,
that's an easy one, but but I don't know to
go from creat you know, and I know Jim Harbaugh
has done it on East Coast and all that, But
me personally, I want to get on that plane. I
(04:48):
don't care about five or six and get my butt home.
I want to sleep in my own bed. I want
to have everything routine ish, like you know, even though
I know I got to travel a long distance, you know,
the day before the game or whatever that is. I
don't know if I'd ever take my destruction of the preparation.
But but it worked, so you know, yeah, it go
from there? Another game, ye give me another one. I
(05:10):
got another game. I know where you're going to Oh,
you're guessing I'm gonna go Seahawks because with the champs.
I've been pressed with those champs. I'm just because they
you know, they had some injuries. They lost a bunch
of guys before the season started, and they started off
a little helter skelter. But this team now is showing
why they are the champs. They beat down Philly like
(05:32):
nobody's business. It wasn't even a game. Forget about that score.
It was not indicative of how how how much they
dominated this game. First dounds to nine, Come on, hundred
thirty nine, Come on, this is this is the beat
down of the year and it was in Philly. Again,
Philly is a playoff team. They're a very good team.
(05:54):
And this defense with Seattle is terrific. They do enough
things on offense. I love russ O Wilson. This is
a very well coached team. I don't care how much
gum Pete Carroll choose man. This is a well coached
team and that this was an impressive statement by the champs. Well,
this to me, this was the game for the heart
and soul of the direction of the NFL. You know,
the wide open spread a lot of plays versus ball control,
(06:17):
run the ball play, good defense of the of the
Seattle Seahawks, and and not to be critical of chip
Kelly cause I'm gonna write about it this Wednesday. Is
what does this say about the chip Kelly offense? Has
it been exposed? No, they're a good football team, but
they got a quarterback that at the end of the day,
we know what Mark Sanchez is. And no disrespect to
Mark Sanchez, but you know, I don't think that's because
(06:38):
everybody's saying, well, chip Kelly system, you can make anything
out of any quarterback. Well, no you can't. I thought
the most telling play was Marshawn Lynch fumbles, you get
a little breath of life, and Mark Sanchez turns around
throws an interception. I thought when you said I'm gonna
write a new book about the spread offense, yeah, that's
what you know. You and Bill Wolfs got together. So um,
(07:00):
I don't know. I think maybe this, uh chip Kelly
offense got humbled a little bit because we know about
how fast tempo it is every twenty one seconds and
all that kind of thing. But you're not when you're
not making first downs, forget about it, right, Your punter
shows up a lot, and so um I started this
rumor last week, and I'm it's still a rumor. That's
(07:21):
just just like, what do you think about r G
three over there in Philly running that spread offense. I'm
just saying that, I'm just doing that. He may have
the option the way things are going, You're right, I don't.
And Chip Kelly has been disdainful of because we're all
kind of old school coaches. I don't care about time
to possession. I don't care. Fine, they had it for
forty two minutes, you had a free team, You got
your butt whipped. Time of possession is a factor. I
(07:44):
gotta go to the Pittsburgh Steelers because that Pittsburgh Steelers,
seemed we saw at Cincinnati can go in and beat
New England if they play like that. That was unbelievable
in terms of first the physicality. You gotta love Levy
on Bell. They ran, I mean it was total to
over five total yards. Offense ran for close to nine yards.
Roethlisberger was brilliant, three touchdowns. When they play like this,
(08:08):
they can beat anybody in the f C. The problem
is they could turn around next week and and just
flop around and look terrible again. But this team that
in a division game went in and beat Cincinnati is
as good as any team in the NFL right now.
If they play like that. On game day morning, I
talked about all this and said that they have their
version of the Steelers triplets. You know, big Ben uh
(08:31):
is sixth in the league and passer rating, and he
can be very very good. We all know that. And
then you've got Antonio Brown, who leads the league and
receiving yards, okay, and then you got this lady on
Bell kid. I did a labo last night on Levy
on Bell running the football, Brian. They ran counter tray.
It wasn't pulling the backside tackle. It was pulling the
(08:53):
backside tight end along with David de Castro about seven
hundred times, and Cincinnati couldn't stop it. It was dash
after dash after gash with Levy on Bell, I couldn't
believe my eyes there. There was no adjustments made really
to stop that particular play. And so you're right. If this,
if this Pittsburgh Steeler offense continues to be as explosive
(09:16):
as they are, that defense just needs to hang on,
hang on, and they can beat somebody. But they're so
up and down. They're one Achilles Hill defensively because they
are young and Dick Clobo is doing all that he can.
They do give up a lot of big plays. They've
they've got to cut that down. If they cannot give
up as many big plays as they've given, that offense
is playing well enough if they'll go forward, because we
know this Pittsburgh team is capable of turn around next
(09:37):
week and just throwing three interceptions and not running for anything.
But very very impressive. Well, I'll tell you another impressive
road win was for Ron Rivere in the Carolina Panthers
going into New Orleans. We had a chance, or I
had a chance to sit down with the head coach
the Carolina Panthers, Ron Rivera Carolina taking the opening drive
(09:58):
and scored why open in the ends up dis reread
that's out, coach, Congratulations on a great win. I as
you know, I did a bunch of your games last year.
I think did six of them and was there when
you had that big road win against San Francisco. But clearly,
(10:19):
away from from where I'm sitting, this looks like the
most impressive road win you've had. You know what it
is coach. I think the one thing that really you
think about more than anything else is opportunities. You know,
we had a couple opportunities this year to play well.
We really didn't. But now I think we've kind of
come together. We've got an offensive line that really has
played together for the first time two games in a row.
(10:40):
And you really saw the results of that well, and
the fact that you did it not only on the road,
but you did it in New Orleans in the Dome
obviously a divisional game some when you're very familiar with
no one knows better how tough it is to go
into that environment and play the way you did, not
just win the game, but physically dominate the game. That
had to be very That had to feel very good.
And did you know, because we struggled so much this
(11:01):
year with our line play on the offensive side, I
thought defensively, the guys got after them really well. I
was real pleased with that. And then I thought a
young secondary played very well. The Uh. It was interesting
after the game, typically particularly this late in the season,
and and we've all done that in terms of saying
victory Monday, you don't have to coming. You didn't give
him a victory Monday. Tell tell me a little bit
(11:21):
about that. Well, I think the one thing is we
gotta keep our focus. You know, some good things have
happened the last couple of weeks. We've run the ball well,
we've played solid defense, and I wanted to keep that
momentum going. So I thought bringing the guys in, keeping
it as you you know, the normal um routine. I
thought that was important. You know. It was during the
game there was an unfortunate incident where things tempers flared,
(11:42):
you know, and on both sides, and obviously given the
magnitude of the game and obviously the frustration clearly on
New Orleans side, and Cam was involved with kind of
an innocent enough start, you know, where he just kind
of accidentally ran into Cameron Jordan. I was watching the game,
and then it escalated. Talk about how you get something
like that under control, and what you'd say to your team,
what you say to your leader after an incident like that, Well,
(12:05):
I think the biggest thing, most of anything, was the
fact that once it started, his teammates came to his rescue.
I mean, when you see the players rattling around their quarterback,
I think that says a lot about who he is
for the team, and I was glad to see that.
Now I'll pull him aside and say, hey, you gotta
be aware of your surroundings. But for the most part,
I was just glad to see the way the guys
stood up for themselves, stood their ground, and backed each other,
(12:27):
spoken like a true linebacker. I knew I knew that
was but I want to last year in the game,
I think it had six year games and there was
clearly the relationship you have with Cam Newton is clearly
one as a mentor. I saw any number of times
on the sideline, good and bad, when something would happen,
you would you would have contact with him and and
and not in a you weren't scolding him or anything
(12:48):
like that, but it would be almost hey we talked
about this, or a reminder. Talk about that relationship as
a head coach with your star player at quarterback. Well,
you know, the the interesting about Cam is he listens.
People don't think he's listening sometimes, but he hears everything
you say and he takes it to heart. So I'm
very fortunate in that respect. I think that there's there's
(13:09):
moments that you go to him, you let him go
or you do have something to say, because he does
listen and he'll take the heart. He'll do exactly what
you ask and he'll go back out there and he'll
try and make things right. You know, obviously the running
game got cranked up. Kim himself had twelve carries freight
three yards. I know having been with you a number
of times, and I know, Mike Schula, you want to
keep the pitch count reasonable for Cam. You don't want
(13:31):
to expose your quarterback to that. You guys have always
talked about, Look, we're gonna do four or five of
those quarterback power plays and the rest will come organically.
But obviously, going on the road, big game, if you
got to run him twelve times, you'll run him twelve times. Well.
You know, the interesting situation was we had about three
or four third shorts that we went with him down
the goal line were with him because you know, in
(13:53):
in this his own read type of scheme, you can't
count for the quarterback because there's always one on one
with him in a safety and that's really what you
want because you know, six six two he's usually gonna win.
He can fall forward for a first down without a
whole lot of efforts. Coach, you are on a division
everybody's making, you know, Atlanta and here, even though you
(14:14):
struggle a little bit this year, you're one game out.
Talk about holding the mindset for your team even though
the record is what it is. We've always said, you
know you are who you are. Your record says who
you are. But you're still in the thick of the
NFC South race. Talk about how do you talk to
your team about that? Well, you know, a few weeks ago,
I think we got ahead of ourselves. So what we've
(14:34):
done is we've gone back to the one game mentality.
We only talked about New Orleans. Now we're only talking
about Tampa Bay. I think the most important thing is
to stay focused on the task at hand, not get
ahead of ourselves. Play each game individually and they'll let
the chips fallowar day, but still making sure they understand
and they do they see it. They're they're not they
don't You don't put them, you know, lock them away
(14:55):
in the locker at night and then open them back
up in the morning and bring them out. But but
do you do the things to mind them? Guys were
still right here on our record isn't what we wanted
to be, but we're still right here with our number
one goal. Absolutely. You know, I think I talked to
these guys a couple of times about me myself personally
as a coordinator in San Diego, as a player in Chicago,
having been in this type of situation where an eight
(15:16):
and eight team went to the playoffs and had success. Coach,
we really appreciate it. Thanks for the time to spend
with us. ALRIGHTY appreciate a coach. Yeah, that was a
huge win for coach Rivera, as I said, I I
did their game last year where they beat San Francisco
and San Francisco probably his biggest win as a head
coach on the road to that point. But you know
in the division in New Orleans in the Superdome, that
(15:37):
was a beat down. That was a beat down. Well
let's talk about the big subject of the day again.
Um here here we go again. You know, Johnny Manzel
is he gonna start in Cleveland. Mike Petton today in
his news conference, said he has not yet made that decision. Now,
he didn't go as far. We we chastise coach Petton
last week about saying, look, you're setting it up the
wrong way, you're gonna have a problem. He just said,
(15:59):
we're to discuss this as a staff and we'll address
at a later time. So we didn't make the mistake
that he made last week and saying well, we'll tell
you on Wednesday. But they they've got to go with
Johnny Manziel, don't they? I mean, what what? What? What
do you do? What? What's the upside of waiting on
Brian Hoyer? Now, well, if he's if he runs the table,
maybe he gets in, they get in the playoffs, and
(16:20):
they haven't done that in twelve years. But I don't
think it's gonna happen. Uh. First, if I know Mike's listening, Um,
he's he's got to not say anything until again, this
let it be a game time decision, because you want
the opponent to worry about. You know, who do I
prepare for? Do I have a running quarterback like Manziel?
Do I have a guy that's you know, a typical
guy like Brian Hoyer. I wouldn't even make an announcement.
(16:42):
I would just do business as usual and just let
them worry about it. But you know, if Brian Hoyer,
if the defense would have come up one more time,
with a stop. You know, Andrew Luck went ninety yards
to win that game at the end, and the defense
was playing terrific right um score two touchdowns to help
the offense out. And it's not been Brian Hoyer's doing.
(17:04):
He's not been very productive. We all know that. But
if they'd have one and stayed in playoff contention, I'd
say you stay with Brian Hoyer. Now, I'm I'm very
open minded for them to make the switch. Get a spark.
It's at home. The dog pound will be going crazy.
So let's just see if if if Manzel gives him
a spark helps him win a rivalry kind of a
(17:24):
game against the Bengals. So I'm I'm open minded to
play in Manzelles leak. Is is this a possible to me?
I'm gonna be conspiracy thirst here. I don't yeah. To me,
I'm not sure going with Manzel, And I'm on record
We've our talked. I don't care for Johnny Manziel. I
don't care for his character, his ability I don't think
translated into the NFL on a on a consistent level. However,
(17:46):
we know what we get out of Brian Hoyer is
if we don't go to Manzel Is it a bit
of an indictment going, hey, we don't think this guy
can play? Yeah, maybe you know what. You know what
Joe Thomas said this week, He said, if if they
would have gone to Manzille last week, it would appear
that they're in some ways thrown in the towel for
(18:07):
this year and and and in preparing for next year,
for the future. Whereas if they stay with the guy,
the incumbent who got him to playoff contention, it appears like, hey,
we're trying to go to the playoffs this year, and
there's a little bit of truth so that I can
see where he's coming from. But you know, only they Brian,
you know this. Only they know how well Manzille has
(18:28):
been practicing, how much he gets it in meetings, you
know what I mean? Can he talk, you know, like
a quarterback talks. Is he's been behaving, Is he doing
all the right things that say he deserves a shot?
He's he's he's given his all for this organization. He
deserves a shot. Only they know for sure if that's happening,
And and maybe hey, maybe he hadn't deserved the shot
(18:51):
up until now. Well in the lack of what Hoyer
has done. I think a component too is the teammates,
and they may love Brian Hoyer the guy, but part
of it, the lack of productivity, has got to going.
We love the guy, you know, I you know, I
love my son in law, but I don't want him
playing quarterback for me, you know, because there's a limited
upside to that. So let's move on to another quarterback dilemma.
(19:14):
I love the way we overact. I find it fascinating
because in Denver I was talking to Steve Wei, she
was at the game. Everybody's all Twitter in Denver. Oh
my god, what's wrong with Peyton Manning? Rather than you
know what, we run the ball pretty good. Now, that's good.
You know, we're trying to develop that long term. Now
Now it's no, no, you're doing it because Peyton Manning's
He's like we did Tom Brady in the first two
games this season. There's something mong with Peyton Manning. He's
(19:34):
over the hill. We're in trouble. He can't play anymore.
I don't know that I buy into that. Well, you
know what, his streak of fifty one games with a
touchdown is over. What should we do just Benjaman. Yeah,
that's a bomb. Get rid of him. That's a problem. Now,
I see a trend here. Um, you know what he
didn't throw for his many yards. We know that Buffalo
(19:55):
Bill's defense is better than we all think. And and
that's it. Pay Manning is very capable of throwing six
touchdowns against anybody anytime. He's still that good. And so
you know, he's got a couple of games now that
are there, you know, below his standards. But so what
are they tending three, Brian? They tend about that talking
about quarterback competency here. God, yeah, you know, it's and
(20:18):
I think I think it's sizing up perfect for them
because they're showing they can't. We talked about it before.
I did a bit on Playbook on Friday about what
I like what they're doing. This isn't just number checking
the box now and running. They are calling and running
runs with no check whatsoever. And that's good because when
they really need that, if they should have to go
on the road, if they should have to go into
New England and crank that part of the offense up,
(20:41):
that's uh, that's all good to me. Well, Brian, he's
not Peyton is not playing in the dome over there
in Indianapolis anymore. You're playing in Denver against some teams.
Even when you go on the road to Fox where wherever,
it's cold and it's windy, and it's harder to throw,
and you've got to have the run game, and you
will have games that are difficult throwing the ball, especially
(21:02):
outside the numbers. So the run game is so important
for this team. Yeah, they've been through a bunch of
backs and the C. J. Anderson man. To find that
guy out of Calt last year was a godsend. But uh,
you know you're gonna find that the old man winner
plays an important role in slowing down quarterbacks. At times
you must run the ball. Well, let's move on to
(21:23):
another on the opposite end of the spectrum. Uh, you're
up there. You you gotta tell me. I've watched every
bit of this game. It was a disaster San Francisco
going across the Bay to Oakland. Colin Kaepernick, you know people,
is he regressing it? I don't see any coaching going
on with Colin Kaepernick, whether it's the environment, the question
(21:44):
about Jim Harbaugh coming back, Greg Roman under pressure as
the offensive coordinator. I don't see any conversation. I don't
see any rapport between him and Jim Harbaugh. I boy,
I'm I'm seriously and I'm a huge Colin Kaepernick fan,
but boy, this thing is this is ugly. Yeah, I
mean you have no idea, Brian up here. I mean
(22:06):
everybody's talking about it because you know, now, to lose
to a one in eleven Raider team, okay, and not
just lose, they were beat down in every phase. They
were outplayed in every phase, all right by a team
that just got shut out fifty two to nothing, all right.
And so I've my phone has been kind of blown
up a little bit here about you know, the local
(22:28):
radio stations and TVs. They want to talk about Kaepernick,
they want to talk about Jim Harbaugh's future. And it's like,
I want to try to stay away from some of
that stuff. And and it's, um, it's a shame because
you know what, this is a talented team. I got
Pro bowlers galore. Now they've had a couple of the
suspensions and a couple of injuries and all that, but
this team's in a tail spin on offense. Vic Fangio
(22:50):
has done a great job with that defense, really for
the most part. But I don't know why with the
offensive line that they have, with the weapons that they have,
to run the all and to throw the ball with
those receivers um caps, not really getting it done consistently.
His last two games are you know, completions in a
(23:11):
hundred forty seven yards. You know, Brian Hoyer is better
than that, and so and so. You know what, I
don't know what the reason is. I don't know if
their coaches know exactly what the reason is. They just
know that the production is not there on a consistent basis.
It's not even up there once in a while, you know,
they're they're routinely pretty below average. And to me, it
(23:32):
goes back to you just the commitment to go and look,
we're gonna we're gonna mentor this kid to throw the
ball from the pocket may not be the best profile
to win and maybe they can do that going forward. Uh,
he needs better than he needs five fifty throws on
a year to learn, because I think it's in him,
it really is, But I I just I don't think
I don't see him learning or growing within the pocket.
(23:54):
The ability to operate out of the pocket. We know
we can do the other things. It's uh, yeah, I
think he's going back. You would think, Jim Harbaugh at
the very least, we'd how about this for a pregame
locker room speech for your team, guys, Let's go out.
We need it. Kick that, you know what, the out
of the Oakland Raiders because I want that first overall
pick when I take the Raider job next year. Thank you. Yeah,
(24:15):
keep stirring it up. Will you keep stirring it up?
You know what? They well, and if that happened, they
wouldn't need a quarterback because that Derek Carr about that.
I love that guy, you know. And and he's playing
with a team that's just trying to get it figured out,
and they're playing hard. And there that was a beat
down now yesterday and and and I didn't see that.
I don't think anybody saw that coming. And then in
(24:37):
the Niners had a long week to prepare for it,
you know, And and the Raiders came off a fifty
two to nothing shell shocking, which really should have had
had everybody, gentlemen, start your engines, you know, when the
guys tap out there, when they start thinking about, oh
my god, what am gonna do here? How am I
going to pack my apartment up and get out of
here because there's only a couple of games left and
we're eliminated mathematically. That didn't happen, Man, that was a
(25:01):
beat down. Yeah, And they gotta go play that Seattle
Seahawk team we just talked about and oh my gosh,
this thing could be bad in biblical terms. Well, you
gotta come back next week and much and I'll talk
about that game and a whole lot more next week
onto Coaching Show.
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Coaches Show podcast. Thirty men together can't lose. This is
(01:11):
why you lift all that abody them. And now we're
going there's a glean. Men, there's a glean. Welcome to
the Coach the Show. I'm Brian Billick, joined by Steve
Mariucci and this gets fun, Steve. This time of year
with a dash for the cash, that's what we always
called December and some big defining games. Let's begin with
(01:32):
the number one game on the radar for you that
you came here with yesterday. Wow, there's a lot of them,
but the one that interests me from afar was that
Rams game. You know, they're not in the playoff chase,
and they shut out their opponent now two weeks in
a row, Brian, that hasn't happened there in sixty some years, right,
(01:54):
And they go over to Washington and shut these guys
out after having shut out the Oakland Raiders fifty two
to nothing. And this team keeps fighting for Jeff and
and we both know Jeff and they have quarterback problems
and you know this and that. But this team now
has really taken advantage of the draft choices they've made
and the acquisitions, and the Rams are fighting and they're
(02:16):
going to serve as the spoilers because this team right
now can beat anybody. I was really impressed with the Rams. Yeah,
what did you think? In the in the in the
coin toss, Jeff's sitting up all the guys that they
got in the trade with the the r G three.
What do you think of that? I didn't know what
to think. I I went, what did they do? Oh,
they sent out this Brockers and Jenkins and and and
(02:40):
Robinson and all these guys. And I went, So the
r G three sitting over there on the bench, he's
not starting. He's feeling bad about this anyway, But this
is I didn't know if I should laugh because I
thought it was kind of funny entertaining, or if like, wow,
what was that all about? But oh my god, I
mean this is uh now, whether this turns to another
(03:00):
herschel Walker trade kind of thing, you know that, I
don't know. But I don't know what I thought. I
don't know what this thing. What do you think? I
thought it was a Bush League? Yeah, yeah, a struggle.
I remember the Rams are losing team, okay, so it's
not like you're you're burning up the league against and
you know, the way Washington's going. I don't know. I
wasn't really impressed with it. I didn't think it was.
It was. It was surprising to everybody. I said, I suppose,
(03:21):
but I don't know forgot him playing right? You know,
you know me, it's it's all about signature road wins.
And for me, what what New England did? We know?
They're the best team in the a f C. I
think we know that. And after a loss, a really
tight road loss to the Green Bay Packers, they come
out to the West Coast stay the whole week. That's
a real tough sell, right, Hey, guys, how about we
spend the week in San Diego before we go play
(03:43):
the Charges rather than go back to New England. But
and the Chargers team coming off a big win against
Baltimore on the road, I thought what they did in
Tom Brady, you know he's back to his having to
throw the ball up forty four times. They did what
they had to do to win. They held San Diego
UH to barely over two hundred yards at defense. Did
I just thought this was for lack of another signature
(04:06):
road win. Maybe very telling for this New England Patriot team,
no doubt. But I gotta ask you a question, would
you ever go move your team for a week and
practice at the opposing site like they did to Sandy.
We did that. We actually we did it in San Diego,
you know, and and uh we got some restaurants. Well,
you know, the truth of matter is to hurricane was
coming in if for her game, whatever was going to
(04:27):
hit these coasts. So we left on Tuesday. Like I said,
it was real heart cell to the guys going, well,
you know, you want to go to San Diego for
the week. You want to stay here and and deal
with the hurricane. I can I can see hurricane coming. Okay,
that's an easy one, but but I don't know to
go from creat you know, and I know Jim Harbaugh
has done it on East Coast and all that, But
me personally, I want to get on that plane. I
(04:48):
don't care about five or six and get my butt home.
I want to sleep in my own bed. I want
to have everything routine ish, like you know, even though
I know I got to travel a long distance, you know,
the day before the game or whatever that is. I
don't know if I'd ever take my destruction of the preparation.
But but it worked, so you know, yeah, it go
from there? Another game, ye give me another one. I
(05:10):
got another game. I know where you're going to Oh,
you're guessing I'm gonna go Seahawks because with the champs.
I've been pressed with those champs. I'm just because they
you know, they had some injuries. They lost a bunch
of guys before the season started, and they started off
a little helter skelter. But this team now is showing
why they are the champs. They beat down Philly like
(05:32):
nobody's business. It wasn't even a game. Forget about that score.
It was not indicative of how how how much they
dominated this game. First dounds to nine, Come on, hundred
thirty nine, Come on, this is this is the beat
down of the year and it was in Philly. Again,
Philly is a playoff team. They're a very good team.
(05:54):
And this defense with Seattle is terrific. They do enough
things on offense. I love russ O Wilson. This is
a very well coached team. I don't care how much
gum Pete Carroll choose man. This is a well coached
team and that this was an impressive statement by the champs. Well,
this to me, this was the game for the heart
and soul of the direction of the NFL. You know,
the wide open spread a lot of plays versus ball control,
(06:17):
run the ball play, good defense of the of the
Seattle Seahawks, and and not to be critical of chip
Kelly cause I'm gonna write about it this Wednesday. Is
what does this say about the chip Kelly offense? Has
it been exposed? No, they're a good football team, but
they got a quarterback that at the end of the day,
we know what Mark Sanchez is. And no disrespect to
Mark Sanchez, but you know, I don't think that's because
(06:38):
everybody's saying, well, chip Kelly system, you can make anything
out of any quarterback. Well, no you can't. I thought
the most telling play was Marshawn Lynch fumbles, you get
a little breath of life, and Mark Sanchez turns around
throws an interception. I thought when you said I'm gonna
write a new book about the spread offense, yeah, that's
what you know. You and Bill Wolfs got together. So um,
(07:00):
I don't know. I think maybe this, uh chip Kelly
offense got humbled a little bit because we know about
how fast tempo it is every twenty one seconds and
all that kind of thing. But you're not when you're
not making first downs, forget about it, right, Your punter
shows up a lot, and so um I started this
rumor last week, and I'm it's still a rumor. That's
(07:21):
just just like, what do you think about r G
three over there in Philly running that spread offense. I'm
just saying that, I'm just doing that. He may have
the option the way things are going, You're right, I don't.
And Chip Kelly has been disdainful of because we're all
kind of old school coaches. I don't care about time
to possession. I don't care. Fine, they had it for
forty two minutes, you had a free team, You got
your butt whipped. Time of possession is a factor. I
(07:44):
gotta go to the Pittsburgh Steelers because that Pittsburgh Steelers,
seemed we saw at Cincinnati can go in and beat
New England if they play like that. That was unbelievable
in terms of first the physicality. You gotta love Levy
on Bell. They ran, I mean it was total to
over five total yards. Offense ran for close to nine yards.
Roethlisberger was brilliant, three touchdowns. When they play like this,
(08:08):
they can beat anybody in the f C. The problem
is they could turn around next week and and just
flop around and look terrible again. But this team that
in a division game went in and beat Cincinnati is
as good as any team in the NFL right now.
If they play like that. On game day morning, I
talked about all this and said that they have their
version of the Steelers triplets. You know, big Ben uh
(08:31):
is sixth in the league and passer rating, and he
can be very very good. We all know that. And
then you've got Antonio Brown, who leads the league and
receiving yards, okay, and then you got this lady on
Bell kid. I did a labo last night on Levy
on Bell running the football, Brian. They ran counter tray.
It wasn't pulling the backside tackle. It was pulling the
(08:53):
backside tight end along with David de Castro about seven
hundred times, and Cincinnati couldn't stop it. It was dash
after dash after gash with Levy on Bell, I couldn't
believe my eyes there. There was no adjustments made really
to stop that particular play. And so you're right. If this,
if this Pittsburgh Steeler offense continues to be as explosive
(09:16):
as they are, that defense just needs to hang on,
hang on, and they can beat somebody. But they're so
up and down. They're one Achilles Hill defensively because they
are young and Dick Clobo is doing all that he can.
They do give up a lot of big plays. They've
they've got to cut that down. If they cannot give
up as many big plays as they've given, that offense
is playing well enough if they'll go forward, because we
know this Pittsburgh team is capable of turn around next
(09:37):
week and just throwing three interceptions and not running for anything.
But very very impressive. Well, I'll tell you another impressive
road win was for Ron Rivere in the Carolina Panthers
going into New Orleans. We had a chance, or I
had a chance to sit down with the head coach
the Carolina Panthers, Ron Rivera Carolina taking the opening drive
(09:58):
and scored why open in the ends up dis reread
that's out, coach, Congratulations on a great win. I as
you know, I did a bunch of your games last year.
I think did six of them and was there when
you had that big road win against San Francisco. But clearly,
(10:19):
away from from where I'm sitting, this looks like the
most impressive road win you've had. You know what it
is coach. I think the one thing that really you
think about more than anything else is opportunities. You know,
we had a couple opportunities this year to play well.
We really didn't. But now I think we've kind of
come together. We've got an offensive line that really has
played together for the first time two games in a row.
(10:40):
And you really saw the results of that well, and
the fact that you did it not only on the road,
but you did it in New Orleans in the Dome
obviously a divisional game some when you're very familiar with
no one knows better how tough it is to go
into that environment and play the way you did, not
just win the game, but physically dominate the game. That
had to be very That had to feel very good.
And did you know, because we struggled so much this
(11:01):
year with our line play on the offensive side, I
thought defensively, the guys got after them really well. I
was real pleased with that. And then I thought a
young secondary played very well. The Uh. It was interesting
after the game, typically particularly this late in the season,
and and we've all done that in terms of saying
victory Monday, you don't have to coming. You didn't give
him a victory Monday. Tell tell me a little bit
(11:21):
about that. Well, I think the one thing is we
gotta keep our focus. You know, some good things have
happened the last couple of weeks. We've run the ball well,
we've played solid defense, and I wanted to keep that
momentum going. So I thought bringing the guys in, keeping
it as you you know, the normal um routine. I
thought that was important. You know. It was during the
game there was an unfortunate incident where things tempers flared,
(11:42):
you know, and on both sides, and obviously given the
magnitude of the game and obviously the frustration clearly on
New Orleans side, and Cam was involved with kind of
an innocent enough start, you know, where he just kind
of accidentally ran into Cameron Jordan. I was watching the game,
and then it escalated. Talk about how you get something
like that under control, and what you'd say to your team,
what you say to your leader after an incident like that, Well,
(12:05):
I think the biggest thing, most of anything, was the
fact that once it started, his teammates came to his rescue.
I mean, when you see the players rattling around their quarterback,
I think that says a lot about who he is
for the team, and I was glad to see that.
Now I'll pull him aside and say, hey, you gotta
be aware of your surroundings. But for the most part,
I was just glad to see the way the guys
stood up for themselves, stood their ground, and backed each other,
(12:27):
spoken like a true linebacker. I knew I knew that
was but I want to last year in the game,
I think it had six year games and there was
clearly the relationship you have with Cam Newton is clearly
one as a mentor. I saw any number of times
on the sideline, good and bad, when something would happen,
you would you would have contact with him and and
and not in a you weren't scolding him or anything
(12:48):
like that, but it would be almost hey we talked
about this, or a reminder. Talk about that relationship as
a head coach with your star player at quarterback. Well,
you know, the the interesting about Cam is he listens.
People don't think he's listening sometimes, but he hears everything
you say and he takes it to heart. So I'm
very fortunate in that respect. I think that there's there's
(13:09):
moments that you go to him, you let him go
or you do have something to say, because he does
listen and he'll take the heart. He'll do exactly what
you ask and he'll go back out there and he'll
try and make things right. You know, obviously the running
game got cranked up. Kim himself had twelve carries freight
three yards. I know having been with you a number
of times, and I know, Mike Schula, you want to
keep the pitch count reasonable for Cam. You don't want
(13:31):
to expose your quarterback to that. You guys have always
talked about, Look, we're gonna do four or five of
those quarterback power plays and the rest will come organically.
But obviously, going on the road, big game, if you
got to run him twelve times, you'll run him twelve times. Well.
You know, the interesting situation was we had about three
or four third shorts that we went with him down
the goal line were with him because you know, in
(13:53):
in this his own read type of scheme, you can't
count for the quarterback because there's always one on one
with him in a safety and that's really what you
want because you know, six six two he's usually gonna win.
He can fall forward for a first down without a
whole lot of efforts. Coach, you are on a division
everybody's making, you know, Atlanta and here, even though you
(14:14):
struggle a little bit this year, you're one game out.
Talk about holding the mindset for your team even though
the record is what it is. We've always said, you
know you are who you are. Your record says who
you are. But you're still in the thick of the
NFC South race. Talk about how do you talk to
your team about that? Well, you know, a few weeks ago,
I think we got ahead of ourselves. So what we've
(14:34):
done is we've gone back to the one game mentality.
We only talked about New Orleans. Now we're only talking
about Tampa Bay. I think the most important thing is
to stay focused on the task at hand, not get
ahead of ourselves. Play each game individually and they'll let
the chips fallowar day, but still making sure they understand
and they do they see it. They're they're not they
don't You don't put them, you know, lock them away
(14:55):
in the locker at night and then open them back
up in the morning and bring them out. But but
do you do the things to mind them? Guys were
still right here on our record isn't what we wanted
to be, but we're still right here with our number
one goal. Absolutely. You know, I think I talked to
these guys a couple of times about me myself personally
as a coordinator in San Diego, as a player in Chicago,
having been in this type of situation where an eight
(15:16):
and eight team went to the playoffs and had success. Coach,
we really appreciate it. Thanks for the time to spend
with us. ALRIGHTY appreciate a coach. Yeah, that was a
huge win for coach Rivera, as I said, I I
did their game last year where they beat San Francisco
and San Francisco probably his biggest win as a head
coach on the road to that point. But you know
in the division in New Orleans in the Superdome, that
(15:37):
was a beat down. That was a beat down. Well
let's talk about the big subject of the day again.
Um here here we go again. You know, Johnny Manzel
is he gonna start in Cleveland. Mike Petton today in
his news conference, said he has not yet made that decision. Now,
he didn't go as far. We we chastise coach Petton
last week about saying, look, you're setting it up the
wrong way, you're gonna have a problem. He just said,
(15:59):
we're to discuss this as a staff and we'll address
at a later time. So we didn't make the mistake
that he made last week and saying well, we'll tell
you on Wednesday. But they they've got to go with
Johnny Manziel, don't they? I mean, what what? What? What
do you do? What? What's the upside of waiting on
Brian Hoyer? Now, well, if he's if he runs the table,
maybe he gets in, they get in the playoffs, and
(16:20):
they haven't done that in twelve years. But I don't
think it's gonna happen. Uh. First, if I know Mike's listening, Um,
he's he's got to not say anything until again, this
let it be a game time decision, because you want
the opponent to worry about. You know, who do I
prepare for? Do I have a running quarterback like Manziel?
Do I have a guy that's you know, a typical
guy like Brian Hoyer. I wouldn't even make an announcement.
(16:42):
I would just do business as usual and just let
them worry about it. But you know, if Brian Hoyer,
if the defense would have come up one more time,
with a stop. You know, Andrew Luck went ninety yards
to win that game at the end, and the defense
was playing terrific right um score two touchdowns to help
the offense out. And it's not been Brian Hoyer's doing.
(17:04):
He's not been very productive. We all know that. But
if they'd have one and stayed in playoff contention, I'd
say you stay with Brian Hoyer. Now, I'm I'm very
open minded for them to make the switch. Get a spark.
It's at home. The dog pound will be going crazy.
So let's just see if if if Manzel gives him
a spark helps him win a rivalry kind of a
(17:24):
game against the Bengals. So I'm I'm open minded to
play in Manzelles leak. Is is this a possible to me?
I'm gonna be conspiracy thirst here. I don't yeah. To me,
I'm not sure going with Manzel, And I'm on record
We've our talked. I don't care for Johnny Manziel. I
don't care for his character, his ability I don't think
translated into the NFL on a on a consistent level. However,
(17:46):
we know what we get out of Brian Hoyer is
if we don't go to Manzel Is it a bit
of an indictment going, hey, we don't think this guy
can play? Yeah, maybe you know what. You know what
Joe Thomas said this week, He said, if if they
would have gone to Manzille last week, it would appear
that they're in some ways thrown in the towel for
(18:07):
this year and and and in preparing for next year,
for the future. Whereas if they stay with the guy,
the incumbent who got him to playoff contention, it appears like, hey,
we're trying to go to the playoffs this year, and
there's a little bit of truth so that I can
see where he's coming from. But you know, only they Brian,
you know this. Only they know how well Manzille has
(18:28):
been practicing, how much he gets it in meetings, you
know what I mean? Can he talk, you know, like
a quarterback talks. Is he's been behaving, Is he doing
all the right things that say he deserves a shot?
He's he's he's given his all for this organization. He
deserves a shot. Only they know for sure if that's happening,
And and maybe hey, maybe he hadn't deserved the shot
(18:51):
up until now. Well in the lack of what Hoyer
has done. I think a component too is the teammates,
and they may love Brian Hoyer the guy, but part
of it, the lack of productivity, has got to going.
We love the guy, you know, I you know, I
love my son in law, but I don't want him
playing quarterback for me, you know, because there's a limited
upside to that. So let's move on to another quarterback dilemma.
(19:14):
I love the way we overact. I find it fascinating
because in Denver I was talking to Steve Wei, she
was at the game. Everybody's all Twitter in Denver. Oh
my god, what's wrong with Peyton Manning? Rather than you
know what, we run the ball pretty good. Now, that's good.
You know, we're trying to develop that long term. Now
Now it's no, no, you're doing it because Peyton Manning's
He's like we did Tom Brady in the first two
games this season. There's something mong with Peyton Manning. He's
(19:34):
over the hill. We're in trouble. He can't play anymore.
I don't know that I buy into that. Well, you
know what, his streak of fifty one games with a
touchdown is over. What should we do just Benjaman. Yeah,
that's a bomb. Get rid of him. That's a problem. Now,
I see a trend here. Um, you know what he
didn't throw for his many yards. We know that Buffalo
(19:55):
Bill's defense is better than we all think. And and
that's it. Pay Manning is very capable of throwing six
touchdowns against anybody anytime. He's still that good. And so
you know, he's got a couple of games now that
are there, you know, below his standards. But so what
are they tending three, Brian? They tend about that talking
about quarterback competency here. God, yeah, you know, it's and
(20:18):
I think I think it's sizing up perfect for them
because they're showing they can't. We talked about it before.
I did a bit on Playbook on Friday about what
I like what they're doing. This isn't just number checking
the box now and running. They are calling and running
runs with no check whatsoever. And that's good because when
they really need that, if they should have to go
on the road, if they should have to go into
New England and crank that part of the offense up,
(20:41):
that's uh, that's all good to me. Well, Brian, he's
not Peyton is not playing in the dome over there
in Indianapolis anymore. You're playing in Denver against some teams.
Even when you go on the road to Fox where wherever,
it's cold and it's windy, and it's harder to throw,
and you've got to have the run game, and you
will have games that are difficult throwing the ball, especially
(21:02):
outside the numbers. So the run game is so important
for this team. Yeah, they've been through a bunch of
backs and the C. J. Anderson man. To find that
guy out of Calt last year was a godsend. But uh,
you know you're gonna find that the old man winner
plays an important role in slowing down quarterbacks. At times
you must run the ball. Well, let's move on to
(21:23):
another on the opposite end of the spectrum. Uh, you're
up there. You you gotta tell me. I've watched every
bit of this game. It was a disaster San Francisco
going across the Bay to Oakland. Colin Kaepernick, you know people,
is he regressing it? I don't see any coaching going
on with Colin Kaepernick, whether it's the environment, the question
(21:44):
about Jim Harbaugh coming back, Greg Roman under pressure as
the offensive coordinator. I don't see any conversation. I don't
see any rapport between him and Jim Harbaugh. I boy,
I'm I'm seriously and I'm a huge Colin Kaepernick fan,
but boy, this thing is this is ugly. Yeah, I
mean you have no idea, Brian up here. I mean
(22:06):
everybody's talking about it because you know, now, to lose
to a one in eleven Raider team, okay, and not
just lose, they were beat down in every phase. They
were outplayed in every phase, all right by a team
that just got shut out fifty two to nothing, all right.
And so I've my phone has been kind of blown
up a little bit here about you know, the local
(22:28):
radio stations and TVs. They want to talk about Kaepernick,
they want to talk about Jim Harbaugh's future. And it's like,
I want to try to stay away from some of
that stuff. And and it's, um, it's a shame because
you know what, this is a talented team. I got
Pro bowlers galore. Now they've had a couple of the
suspensions and a couple of injuries and all that, but
this team's in a tail spin on offense. Vic Fangio
(22:50):
has done a great job with that defense, really for
the most part. But I don't know why with the
offensive line that they have, with the weapons that they have,
to run the all and to throw the ball with
those receivers um caps, not really getting it done consistently.
His last two games are you know, completions in a
(23:11):
hundred forty seven yards. You know, Brian Hoyer is better
than that, and so and so. You know what, I
don't know what the reason is. I don't know if
their coaches know exactly what the reason is. They just
know that the production is not there on a consistent basis.
It's not even up there once in a while, you know,
they're they're routinely pretty below average. And to me, it
(23:32):
goes back to you just the commitment to go and look,
we're gonna we're gonna mentor this kid to throw the
ball from the pocket may not be the best profile
to win and maybe they can do that going forward. Uh,
he needs better than he needs five fifty throws on
a year to learn, because I think it's in him,
it really is, But I I just I don't think
I don't see him learning or growing within the pocket.
(23:54):
The ability to operate out of the pocket. We know
we can do the other things. It's uh, yeah, I
think he's going back. You would think, Jim Harbaugh at
the very least, we'd how about this for a pregame
locker room speech for your team, guys, Let's go out.
We need it. Kick that, you know what, the out
of the Oakland Raiders because I want that first overall
pick when I take the Raider job next year. Thank you. Yeah,
(24:15):
keep stirring it up. Will you keep stirring it up?
You know what? They well, and if that happened, they
wouldn't need a quarterback because that Derek Carr about that.
I love that guy, you know. And and he's playing
with a team that's just trying to get it figured out,
and they're playing hard. And there that was a beat
down now yesterday and and and I didn't see that.
I don't think anybody saw that coming. And then in
(24:37):
the Niners had a long week to prepare for it,
you know, And and the Raiders came off a fifty
two to nothing shell shocking, which really should have had
had everybody, gentlemen, start your engines, you know, when the
guys tap out there, when they start thinking about, oh
my god, what am gonna do here? How am I
going to pack my apartment up and get out of
here because there's only a couple of games left and
we're eliminated mathematically. That didn't happen, Man, that was a
(25:01):
beat down. Yeah, And they gotta go play that Seattle
Seahawk team we just talked about and oh my gosh,
this thing could be bad in biblical terms. Well, you
gotta come back next week and much and I'll talk
about that game and a whole lot more next week
onto Coaching Show.
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