September 29, 2014 • 30 mins
Brian Billick and Steve Mariucci recap Week 4 in the NFL. They break down the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ surprise win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Geno Smith dilemma with the New York Jets and how to game plan against a dominant player. Plus, San Diego Chargers head coach Mike McCoy joins the program to discuss the outstanding play of quarterback Philip Rivers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is NFL dot COM's Coaches Show podcast. Thirty Men
together can't lose. This is why you lift everybody but
abody them. And now we're going there's a glean man,
there's a glean Thanks for checking out the week four
(00:23):
Coaches Show podcast. I'm Brian Billick here alongside Steve Marucci.
This week we'll break down the Bucks upset, went over
the Steelers debate, Rex Ryan's decisions to stick with Geno
Smith and Doug Marone's decision to bail on E J
Manuel and hound out our quarter season awards. Plus, is
Philip Rivers currently the NFL's best quarterback? We asked Chargers
head coach Mike McCoy about that and more as a
(00:44):
Coaches Show podcast starts now. Coach a lot going on,
you know, as usual as usual, right? And the quartermark
is it? The quartermark? Is it? Isn't? Because you know,
we talked about last week that when you get to
that fourth game, now the Dies coming a little cast
you can't well, it's not an aberration. It's this, it's
that is it a little bit of a not panic.
(01:06):
But okay, we are who we are and in some
instances we got to change that. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what you did, Brian. We kind of
divided up some in some respects the season into quart tiles.
You know, court tiles is so, but that doesn't always work,
you know, depending on where your buy is and all
that sort of thing. Because coaches, as you know, are
(01:28):
constantly making personnel adjustments and game plan adjustments. You don't
wait for the month to get over to make a change.
But you know, sometimes you look at that record and
you say, geez, we're one in three. If we don't
do something drastic, we're gonna be out of the playoff chase.
And uh so it's it's time to reflect and do
a self scout to see where you are. But some teams,
(01:49):
some teams right now are shocking better than expected, and
some teams are just flopping. It's kind of crazy, right,
and they're just that one or one game out from
being three and one, two, and you know, one and
three and back and forth. Of course, it's all around
the quarterback. Last week we talked about Joe Philbins, you know,
he challenged his quarterback, didn't say whether he was gonna
start enough. And and Ryan Tannehill comes out and Lights
(02:10):
up the Oakland Raiders in London. Well, now we've got
a whole bunch of other quarterback decisions. Let's kind of
go through them the big one obviously, let's begin with
starting the in the a f C East, you've got
Geno Smith, who Rex Ryan's decided to stick with a quarterback,
and then up the road in Buffalo, now we just
find out that Doug Morone has decided to pull E J.
Manual and go with Kyle Orton. Now, let's and that,
(02:32):
as we both have said many time, changing at the
quarterback position is the most disruptive thing that can ever
happen to an organization, either by injury or by a play.
Let's begin with Rex Ryan and the Geno Smith. Obviously
he's not playing well. Let's talk about his decision to
stick with Gino. He's not playing well enough. And you know,
(02:53):
and I agree with Rex to keep him as the starter.
I do think he's making progress. He has a her
past completion percentage than he did a year ago, a
better passerrating more, he's throwing for more yards per game.
But when you lose a couple of home games and
they start booing over there, and he kind of lost
his cool going off the field. Then I suppose people, hey,
(03:14):
let's make a change, you know, But Brian, I don't.
I don't know if making a change makes sense right now.
You know. Let the kid keep pressing through this. It's
gonna be a tough time. Rex got has to go
through this. Geno should go through this. Marty morning Wig
has to go through this and see if they can
kind of find their way out of this hole. Won't
get easy. Denver, New England, San Diego coming up looking
(03:36):
at him in the face. Um, but I wouldn't make
a change in Michael Vick because then you're really stuck. Yeah.
And part of it I think it has to be
is that that if if you miss on a first
round or on a quarterback, as they did with Mark Sanchez,
somebody has to pay. Well, they made Mike tan about
the general manager pay. Okay, well that's cool, but now
you got another one. And I know it wasn't a
first round or he was a second rounder in the
(03:57):
new GM, is it? Uh? Whoever's choice that was, I'm
with you. I don't see the upside of changing first
will make a difference to go with VIC. I don't
think so, because he's probably just gonna get hurt. His
completion percentage and turnover ratio isn't a whole lot better.
So once you do that way, you go back to Gino.
I don't know that can happen. Um. I think part
of the problem and Rex alluded to without saying specifically
(04:20):
Gino is not the whole problem that defense. You look
at that game and Rex Ryan on a fourth and
two decides to punt he's behind because he says, I'm
gonna let my defense win this game against Detroit. First,
they scored a pull within a touchdown in that Detroit
Lion defense goes nine yards for a score. Right now,
they get into a situation where they can maybe win
the game. It's just under four minutes. They choose to
(04:42):
punt instead of go for it on a fourth and two, thinking, okay,
I'm gonna let my defense get him on a three
and out and now I got a chance. They never
saw the ball again. So Rex's defense has some issues.
It's not just Gino. Yeah, absolutely right in Rex. I
love his front seven, I love his front his front
four guys, there beasts, but the secondary is really hurting
(05:02):
right now. And and I don't think I don't think
they're as dominant as they've been with Rex. Rex is
used to having this great defense, whether he's coaching in
Baltimore or the Jets or whatever, and all of a
sudden they're not the same. So then, all of a sudden,
when is that? It just puts too much on the
quarterback shoulders to carry the team and score a lot
of points. Um, the team is not built that way.
(05:22):
So this is one of those stay tuned kind of things.
I'm not saying Gino is gonna start the rest of
the season. At some point, maybe they need a spark,
but right now, don't give up the ship just yet.
Keep working with Gino, keep the pedal to the medal.
I was with him in the offseason, and I thought
he had really matured uh into a to a fine
young man and quarterback in the league. And I think
(05:44):
I think with some patients, he's got a chance to
remain the starter. Well, we gotta transition into what's going
on with the Bills now, but I want to preface
it by asking you this, and I'll show my bias
wife from the kid. Go, once you pull a young quarterback,
he's your starter. You're gonna go with him. He's your guy.
Whatever the reason he's done, isn't he I mean it's
not okay. You can learn from the sideline. I mean,
(06:05):
organizationally this That's why it's such a tough decision. Can
that guy ever come back and be the guy? Hard?
It's hard because you just two things, you kind of
it takes a it's a crushing blow to his confidence,
and then in the rest of the team's eyes he
seems as like a failure in some regards. And then
(06:27):
to get that back at a later point where the
team is behind you, boy, that that takes some awfully
good performances. And so that's why it's always important when
we have these this rookie class. Now, a lot of
these quarterbacks are starting. Bridgewater starting because of an injury,
Bordles now is starting over at Jacksonville. Manzille's not starting,
And I think teams are a little bit reluctant sometimes
(06:49):
to just start the guy right away, like Andrew Luke did. Um,
Let's let them earn it, work its way and make
sure they're ready to do this when you play, so
they can have a little success. Bulls and Bridgewater didn't
earn it, you know, they just it was by default.
That's my point as to why not go from the
start them are there going to be any better a
month into it? Well? And having gone there, because I
(07:10):
don't want to lose the point now. So Doug Moron,
who drafted ej Manuel, he comes in first year head
coach of the Buffalo Bills. He and the general manage together,
this is our choice, the sixteenth pick of the draft. Now,
when you make that change, I mean, he's done. And
how do you ever bring ej Manuel back? What was
your reaction when you heard at this couldn't I was
(07:32):
shocked too. Didn't the Bills going to Chicago and beat
them opening day? And I went, whoa? You know, I
know they got a pretty good defense, but they just
you know this and that where they too know and
all of a sudden he's gone. I don't know what's
going on over there. Maybe they just see something in
every day's practice or whatever that is that they feel
this guy needs to step back and Kyle or now,
(07:53):
how many teams to have a veteran quarterback whoever has
won games before? They're playing at Detroit, which is good defense, right,
Kyle Orton is beating the Detroit Lions and and maybe
they figured this week is the best way to win
that game somehow with Kyle Orton, a veteran guy. But
that was a shocker today to hear about e J.
Manual not starting. Wasn't this the Kyle Orton that said
(08:16):
that he's thinking about retiring? Oh yeah, I mean so
if you're thinking about retiring, you're retired, you have Yeah, so,
I mean so now to make that trail. Now we're
gonna go with that. It's kind of like you and
I am coaching. You know what you think about it?
Should we retire retired? I don't this This is a
huge because let's let's look at the landscape here, first
(08:36):
year head coach, draft a guy sick. Now I'm in
the second season and now, yeah, we all know we
gotta win. I got a new owner. Now at the
end of the year, if this thing flops around a
little bit, I got a new owner. Is he not
gonna sit there and gonna wait a minute, Now, you're
the one that chose EJ. Manuel. Now you're saying he
isn't a player. Now we gotta go get because who
(08:58):
thinks Kyle Orton is gonna be their quarterback for the
next five years. Now you're gonna say, we'll go back
to e J. Manuel. This This has got disaster written
all over it. They've got to win this year, right,
I mean, because if you if you flop and you
go three and thirteen, there's you know, there could be
a change. Unfortunately, that's how it is. So maybe he says,
Kyle Lorton will win more games this year than EJ
(09:19):
Manuel will for us. Well, but that's not It could
be the schedule. Like you said, they got Detroit, New England.
We'll see on New England's playing. You know, they've had
their problems. Minnesota, who even though they had a great
win against Atlanta, has some issues. And then they play
the Jets. Okay, the Jets. Maybe this is part of
thinking too. I'm Rexcell going, I got San Diego, I
got Denver in New England. Okay, make a change. Now
(09:41):
Michael Vick comes in, doesn't do well ward, Okay, let
I'm gonna get this will define itself. I'll let DJ
play this or excuse me, I'll let Gino play this
out for the next three weeks and and and we'll
see where we are. Then maybe that's what they're thinking,
I'm just glad I'm not in that situation because that's
a it's it's it's it's it's not a win win situation.
It's like, keep your fingers cross. Deal. Let's stay with
(10:04):
the quarterbacks. That the change at quarterback. We'll talk about
Bridgewater and Boardles a little bit later on and how
they did with their openers. You brought them up. But
the Bucks had a huge win against on the road
against the Steelers and Mike Glennon, you know, their third
round pick from last year. He started eight or nine
games for him. They decided to go with Josh McCowen.
That didn't turn out either. In play, of course, McCowan
(10:24):
got hurt. He just goes into Pittsburgh and uh orchestrates
the lab minute drive two passes out of only five,
but takes the mic field scores touchdown, wins. Mike Glennon.
He's the new hero in Tampa Bay. Unbelievable. And Brian,
I remember when when he came out in the draft.
We had him on Game Changers, so I was around
him quite a bit and throwing and doing drills and
interviewing him. And he's kind of a neat guy to
(10:46):
be around. And he ran better than I thought, he
threw from the run better than I thought. And then
when last year when he was playing for the Bucks
and they weren't very good, he was playing pretty well
at times, and so I was a little surprised Loving
made that switch right away without any really competition. But
he was familiar with Josh mccowney, trusted him, he knew him,
(11:06):
and of course Josh had a good season in replacement
of Ja Cutler last year. But I just thought it
was inevitable that sooner or later this is gonna happen
because this kid, uh, Mike Glennan, he's he's tall guy,
tall guy, and he can sling it. And with all
of those wide receivers, those big, tall wide receivers, you
don't want to be playing uh college football or you
(11:29):
know his own read stuff. You want to sling it
and and this Mike Glennon kid can do just that.
And so I think he's there to stay. I like
him a lot. And that was a huge win at Pittsburgh.
Something's wrong with Pittsburgh because they're so up and down there, schizophrenic.
I don't I don't know, you don't know who you're
gonna get from one play to the next. Tomlin beside himself.
(11:50):
He was, he was, he was beside himself in that
press conference. I don't blame him. I heard I heard
a stat today, and I'll mangle it. So you you
those who want to tweet me and say mangled it,
I'll I'll just claim it right from the get go.
Dick Lebow, the magnificent Hall of Fame defensive coordinator, former player, uh,
defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers is sixty five and
(12:11):
oh going into the fourth quarter with like a seven
point lead anymore? Yeah, how about sixty and one? That amazing? Yeah,
it's that amazing. Yeah, and even more. Well, and that
leads me to and I'm gonna move around here a
little bit. A couple of coaching decisions. Because we're the
Coaches Show, we're supposed to talk about it. I think
there was one in that game, and we talked about
(12:32):
the Jets game as well, Chris. We saw a couple
of on sidekicks. We can talk about the decision to
do that. One worked, one didn't, So therefore one was
smart and the other one wasn't. But then I thought
it was interesting in the Pittsburgh game. There they have
a chance to close it out before they give the
ball back to Mike Glennon. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it's
third and five Ben Roethlisberger. They hand the ball off
(12:53):
on a third and five to leavy On Belt. They
don't get anything. They punt it with the idea that, okay,
we're gonna play good defense. Can Mike Glennon beat us,
which he evidently does. We've both been in that situation.
Your defense has been a little bit. For me, it's
simple Baltimore, I'm gonna bet on my defense and maybe
maybe that's what Mike tom was doing. But their defense
is strug a little bit. Do we second guess that
(13:14):
a little bit? Do you give? Then lost Roethlisberger And
all we're talking about is an incomplete pass stopping the clock.
It's not like we're going it for fourth and five.
It's okay, I'm gonna trade maybe a little bit of
clock for the chance that if I throw and get
her first down, games over. Yeah, Yeah, that's one of
those decisions during the game. You guys got to make
the call and make the play work. You know, they
ran the ball for two d and sixty four yards
(13:36):
last week. They probably felt, hey, we can run the
football here a little bit. And then you know how
everybody's counting the box now and they're saying, hey, they're
playing dime right now, and I've got a six in
the box, I should run the ball because I can
block everybody up. Um. You know, that's just a call
that they made. The clock kept running. Wasn't an incomplete
pass like you said. But you know, when you're the
(13:57):
Pittsburgh Steelers, you gotta believe that you can stop a
second year quarterback who just took over, uh you know,
the length of the field and and win that football
game and all the penalties that they had and you're
at home, and you're at home, so that's an advantage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh,
the Steelers collapse in that second half, they just they
(14:19):
just weren't the same team. And uh, you know, they
just gave up a lot of points seventeen second half points,
four yards or something, and they just didn't show up
in the second half. And I don't know where they
go with it. What looks to be a very good
Baltimore team now that has kind of cracked the code,
and certainly Cincinnati we know as well as they're playing
staring uh you know, staring at Pittsburgh in that rear
(14:39):
view mirror. Well, as we said much, it's the quarter mark,
so we gotta get out. We gotta get some awards.
Were like country music, we have fifty seven award show. Okay,
and we're at the quartermark, so we gotta, we gotta.
Let's start off with at the quarter mark our m
v PS. Who gets the m v P mark four
games into the season m v P of this first month,
September m v P Brian Um. How about this guy
(15:02):
named DeMarco Murray over there with the Dallas Cowboys. You know,
he's leading the league and rushing well over five hundred.
You know what kind of past he's on, he's over
two thousand pace. Now, DeMarco's never finished uh sixteen game season.
He's got to stay healthy, but he's way out in
front in terms of rushing yards than anybody else. And
he's the reason that the Dallas Cowboys are a pretty
(15:25):
darn dangerous team right now. To me, it's DeMarco Murray. Yeah,
hard to argue about that. I'm gonna go and typical
it's I know, it's cliche, but I'm gonna go with
the quarter I'm gonna go with Philip Rivers because what
he's meant to the San Diego Chargers a running game,
and I admire of what they're doing because they stick
with the running game even though they're not real good
at it. Right Ryan Matthews has hurt Danny Woodhead has
(15:45):
hurt their averaging. You know, they're running at thirty thirty
five times, they're barely getting a hundred yards, but they're
sticking with the running game. So Philip Rivers with only
a handful of throws, uh, not throwing any interceptions. And okay,
he starts out with Antonio Gates three touchdowns and Okay,
they're gonna take away Gates. Okay, I'm gonna go over
and I'm gonna find Keenan Allen or I'm gonna go
find Eddie Royal or I'm gonna go find Floyd. I'm
(16:06):
gonna find somebody if whatever your plan is to stop
whoever I hit last week, he is adjusting to what
he's seeing. So I think Philip Rivers, um of all
the quarterbacks right now, UH is worthy of that m
VP title. Let's talk about Let's go to the to
the defensive side because we ignored the defensive guys. Who's
the defensive player of the year. This one, I think
is a slam dunk for both of us. This is easy.
(16:27):
I mean the guys on more commercials and all that stuff.
Now he's dancing and everything like that. J J. Watt,
I mean, the guy is a beast. You know, you
saw him catch that touchdown pass. Right. He used to
play tight end at Central Michigan. That's where he was
scholarshiped out of high school. And then he when I'm homesick,
I gotta walk on at Wisconsin play some defense. But
(16:48):
is he a dominating guy or what? This? He's won
it already a couple of years ago. To me, he's
gonna win again. Yeah, he's got He's got the the
athleticism for an inside player. Uh of oh god, Reggie White,
motor of a John Randy. While I was within Minnesota,
I've never seen a big man this. Yeah, he and
(17:09):
and J. J. Wats a little crazy. He is beyond
stop motor. You watch him technically, not sound sometimes running
around blocks, but then making the play. You know it's
it's he he is. Clearly he's worth the money that
they gave them. All right, we agree on that. Let's
let's talk. Let's talk about the biggest surprise. Who's your
biggest surprise at the quartermark? Either player or a team.
(17:31):
I'm gonna give you a player. I'm surprised the Saints
are where they are. That's my team. But the player
is Steve Smith Sr. You know what, we we've all
been around older veteran receivers and they're supposed to you know,
descend and production and energy and and all of that
capability stuff. Hey, this guy is just a ball of fire.
(17:54):
I love to watch him. I love listening to this
guy because he's so fired up. He was you know,
you know, just had the two touchdowns last game and
seven catches and all that stuff. But he's on pace
for his best season ever and he's played well for
a long time. So Steve Smith Sr. You know what,
I thought he'd played okay, Heck, he was going to
(18:14):
retire right if he didn't get signed back. But now
he's found a rebirth over there in Baltimore. I love
what he's doing, and he's given Baltimore offense a personality.
You know, Joe Flacco, you're gonna reflect your quarterback, Joe
is pretty even killed doesn't personality Yeah, very much so,
which is rare for quarterback, but still very very good.
(18:34):
They've lacked that and this this is the dominant side
of the ball for them, and he's given them that personality.
I'm gonna go to the biggest surprise, and you alluded
to it is New Orleans and sw Orleans defense. We
thought coming in that Rob Ryan would have this group.
They look not only pedestrian, but against the Dallas Cowboys
they took a butt whipping and they were kind of
(18:55):
okay with it. I'd and who would have thought this?
Rex Ryan and Rob Ryan, the twin brothers as good
at defensive coaches as have ever been in this league. Together,
their defensive units do not have a single interception at
the fourth that's eight games. That's that one's uh, that
one's that you gotta scratch your head on that one.
(19:15):
And I just don't see any personality, any fight in
this New Orleans Saints defense, which is the opposite of
what you expect from Rob Ryan's coach team. I know, well,
a couple of years ago they were pathetic, remember that,
and then Rob Ryan made them better and they were
ranked fourth best defense in the league last year. But
all of a sudden, they're looking like they used to
look a couple of years ago, and they're shaking their
(19:35):
heads and they get down twenty four and nothing at
halftime and they're going, what can we ever win on
the road here, Let's be more beat. Let's give a
coach of the coach of the quarter year, Mark, who's
your coach of the Can I give an honorable mention? Yeah,
I'm just gonna give you an Jason Garrett. He done
a good job or what? Absolutely? They lose the first
(19:58):
game and it was to the forty and I a
good team, and everybody's like, oh my god, here we go.
And now all of a sudden, the Dallas Cowboys. I
don't want to say they're back because every time you
do then they just turned south. Yeah, they disappoint you,
but then Rod Marinelli's defensive coordinators got that defense playing
good football? Are you kidding me? They were? They were
(20:19):
last last year and they lost all kinds of guys
and they're playing hard and they're playing well and they're
playing confidently. So Jason's got something to do with that.
But my he's just honorable mention. The guy who wins
it for me is Bruce arians Now. Didn't he win
it already when he was the interim over there with
the Colts. He's doing a heck of a job too,
because they're undefeated. They're playing with a backup quarterback, right
(20:41):
they've lost five guys on defense for various reasons, and
they're still playing very well and very hard, and they're
coming off by this week. But Bruce has done a
great job. Yeah, I like I like both those picks.
I'm gonna go back to the San Diego thing. I
think Mike McCoy, he loses his offensive coordinator, his quarterback
whisper and Ken Wi Hunt because with the turnaround in
(21:01):
Philip Rivers. The thing I love is and they're playing
good defense. John Pagano the brother of Chuck Pogano in Indianapolis,
he's the defensive coordinator. They're playing really good defense right now,
one of the better teams in terms of defensive scoring
and and what I love is you got Philip Rivers.
You're throwing the ball over the park, the discipline to
stay with the running game even though it's not really productive.
(21:22):
I talked about it earlier. They're averaging better than you know.
The thirty carries okay, and they're not getting a lot
of production hundred hundred five, so it's not like their gouge,
but they're staying with it. They're keeping the defense honest.
That then helps Philip Rivers a lot of us and
I include myself. It would be hard to do that
when you're not getting productivity in the running game, to
go ahead and bail on it. I think from just
(21:43):
a tactical and a strategic standpoint, I think Mike McCoy
would be my coach at the quarter mark good choice,
really good choice. And that's a good team that's fighting.
Made playoffs last year, and they look like they're going
right back again, and it just so happens that we
get a chance. I get a chance to talk to
Mike McCoy here on the Coach Show. Look at the
big one. Always let me keep down the sidelos sitting
(22:12):
right on that route portals obviously never thought well. Sandyo
Chargers scored twenty three unanswered points Sunday to defeat the
Jacksonville Jaguars thirty three fourteen, and joining us now is
the head coach of those Chargers. Those three and one Chargers.
Mike McCoy coach, thanks so much. Before we get to
the game, I gotta ask now, my buddy Steve Mariucci
(22:32):
on The Coaches Show says he sent you a picture
when you were the developmental quarterback for Tell me that
picture is sitting on your desk in your office right now.
Our Mooch is gonna be crushed. It's actually in my
office at home. It's a great photo back in with
the great group and with coach Mooch, Marty Morton, Wig
and everybody who I'm looking forward to see this week
when he comes into town. So we had a great
(22:53):
group back then. Yeah, always fun to have those, uh
those old mementos. Well, great win for your coach, you
got you got down all of a sudden now and
you're at home. That's a tough thing to do. Talk
about the mindset of your team, and I know you've
got a great quarterback in Philip Rivers and some maturity,
but talk about how you how you squelch that panic
that can set in sometimes. Well, we got settled in,
(23:14):
you know. The first first series of defense that was
out there, they got a fumble for us, a great
field position for the offense. Uh, the offense unfortunately had
three minus plays that weren't good enough early on. And
then we just settled down as a team. And that's
why you gotta play for sixty managing challenge. Just keep
plugging away, and we got in a flow there and
then we end up scoring set him a ten drives
overall in the game. So then a nice job of
(23:34):
making adjostments. The defense came up some big turnovers throughout,
So a nice job, a big win for the football team. Well,
I know it's gonna be important to you, but we
we like everybody, we gotta have quarter mark awards, you know,
and you're my You're my UH coach of the year
at the quartermark. And let me tell you why. Um
unbelievable job obviously, Philip Rivers and coming off the year
he had you, you've got virtually no running game, but
(23:54):
you stick with it. You're not eating a lot of
yards in the run. But a lot of guys, including myself,
would have bailed on. You stick with it. You're having
in those thirty kis, Philip Rivers, you get three touchdowns
to Antonio Gates. Next week they take Gates away. Okay,
I'm gonna go over to Keenan Allen. Take Keenan allenway, Okay,
I'm gonna go to what the way you orchestrate moving
around and giving Philip what he needs. Tell me a
little bit about having a Philip Rivers and his ability
(24:17):
to do that and to adjust. He's a special player,
you know. And everyone weekly wants to ask why didn't
this guy getting many touches or what happened here? What
happened there? You know a couple of weeks ago, why
wasn't you know, Ladarius getting involved here and there? Well,
Phillip is a great quarterback and he's gonna go through
a progression we every play and depend on what the
defense is doing. You know, the ball is gonna be
spread around when you got a lot of town on
(24:38):
the outside and the skilled positions like we do and
the wide receivers, tight ends and running backs. You know,
he's gonna take what the defense has given him. And
that's what he's doing right now. And uh, he's being
very efficient with the football. The h and you you
you talked about Keenan Allen and his development, young young
player that was kind of devalued coming out on the draft.
Pop weren't quite sure how he's going to fit in
(24:58):
and and talk about the develop men of a young
receiver like that, you know, with a veteran quarterback now
having to mold that a little bit. Talk about the
development of Keenan Allen Well from the very first place
he stepped in Philadelphia last year and Malcolm went down.
You know, he made the big catch that game, and
it was like every day he was just getting better.
And as you know, the more the more time at
quarterback and the receivers spend toget other better they're gonna
(25:19):
be in game day. And you know he's working extremely hard.
So the success and the game he had the other
day doesn't surprise us one bit at all. He had
a great game. Uh, we'd be remissed we didn't bring
up the defensive side. John Pagano, your defensive coordinator, Your
defense one of the top scoring defense, isn't That really
is the only one I know anybody really wants to
talk about, not totally yards of their dad's about if
we can keep down the score, that's a good thing.
Talk about the job that John Pagano was doing for
(25:42):
your defense. Well, he's done an outstanding job. You know,
our schemes in place, and we're using multiple people over there. Uh.
Some guys have really stepped in from week to week
doing a good job. But you've got guys like Eric Weddel,
Jared Johnson, Dwight Freeney, Brandon Flowers, the leaders of the
defense over there that really do a great job, work
extremely hard during the week. And you know, coach Began
(26:02):
on his staff done a great job of putting game
plans together. And you know that there's gonna be teams
that you know, as you know in this league, the
competition and the parody and the league is so good
that the most important thing is there's gonna have a
big play. But just don't give up the touchdowns. That's
you know, be great in the red area, be good
and third down. Uh, and just be efficient defensively. Also,
i'd be remissed giving your experience and dealing with quarterbacks
(26:22):
in the job you've done. You saw a young Blake
Bortles get his first start. Give me just some impressions
all but from afar of what you think of a
Blake Bortles. Well, hey, then a nice job yesterday in
the game, had a great first half. We really got
you know, got fourteen points on the board, two great
drives form and was taking what the defense was given him.
He's got a bright future in this league. An accurate passer,
(26:43):
as you saw from the game yesterday. He'll make things
happen with his feet. Uh. You know we missed a
couple of sack opportunities from his escapability in the pocket
was something that we went in the game saying, hey,
don't let this guy do this because he'll make plays
with his feet. But he's got a bright future. He's
only gonna get better with time. The more he plays,
the better he'll be. Well, it's been fun watching your
club play, Coach. Congratulations so far, and I know we
got a lot left to play, but things are looking
(27:04):
good for the Chargers. Thank you very much. Stay in touch.
Good talking to you. All right, Okay, mooch my Wednesday piece.
I know you can't wait for Wednesdays to come and
get on NFL dot com and check out what I'm
writing about. I know you do that. This week. This
week it was about how you deal with defensing a
dominant player. We talked about the presence of a J. J. Watt.
What do you do to handle a J J? What
(27:24):
what do you do when you have to face Calvin Johnson?
You had some dominant players? What what what give give
me some insights, maybe some situations where you had to
deal with orner someone had to deal with one of
your dominant players and what they do to do it.
I don't know if you've ever heard of Jerry Rice.
He was he was. It was always interesting to see
what what teams would do against the Jerry Rice. And
(27:46):
and you know, it didn't matter who was on the
other side, whether it's j. J. Stokes or Tarall Owens,
it didn't matter j J. Or Jerry Rice was the
guy that they had to stop because you know, the
quarterback wants to throw him the ball quite a bit,
and so he's always very seldom is he running against
free access. There's always two guys over there, or if
(28:07):
it's a zone, you've got people buzzing hard over there.
So you try to find a way to get him
open and try to move him around in motion and
flip him over and put him in the slot whatever
that is. But you know, when you when you when
somebody has something, there's somebody that's really dominating, you've got
to give it extra meeting time. Extra practice time, put
(28:28):
the red jersey on him or something, and say, this
guy right here, we have to handle some way, somehow,
otherwise we're gonna lose this game. But you have to
account for and get your team ready for what happens
if they hit you with someone else. We saw Calvin
Johnson held the two receptions last week, so what does
that mean. It means Golden Tate has eight receptions up
and down the field. They hit a Jeremy Ross for
a touchdown. Because you have nine guys over on Calvin
(28:51):
Johnson and these guys are wide open. So there's always
a ying and yang of this, right, yeah, ying this
because Jerry Rice Day. How about this? So it's Jerry
Rice day. It says last game. It's like Derek Jeter
in Yankee Stadium. So he Jerry Rice against the Bears,
is gonna have this like ceremony after and thanked the
crowd and cry and all that stuff. So it's Jerry
Rice Day. Well, Dick Geron is no fool. He took
(29:12):
him away, right, He just like putting nineteen guys over
on Jerry Rice and Tara Lowan has had twenty catches
that day. He broke the record. That really upset Jerry,
I could imagine pissed, to be quite honest with you
and so, but that's what happens. Somebody else has to
step up and you have to do something else, sometimes
run the ball or throw it to somebody else, like
you mentioned Golden Tate, But that was Jerry rice day
(29:34):
and he still reminds me about that. For me, it
was in the year I was with Minnesota. We had
that magical group of guys, you know, and Randall Cunningham
throwing to Chris Carter and Randy Moss and and I
got Robert Smith in the backfield. Just a tremendous group
of athletes. I just basically tried to stay out of
the way. And it was interesting just to watch teams
because we got to the point we really didn't look
at that much film because no matter what our game
plan was, you look at the film and this is
(29:55):
what the team does to you. And we get to
game Dame and they do something totally different because they
saw the group we had, they figure, well, we can't
do what we normally do. So it was good news
bad news. The good news bad news was what we
really had to kind of guess what they were gonna do.
The good news was they weren't very good at it
because they're doing something they don't normally do. So, like
we said, there's a there's a yang and yang this
type of thing. So it was kind of interesting each
(30:15):
week to really not know what what it was. Uh,
And it's all about adjustments. You cut down Calvin Johnson, Okay,
we're gonna go to Golden Tate, you cut down Jerry Rice,
We're gonna go over here to Terrell Owens. And there's
always coaches were a little smarter than people give us
credit for. Sometimes we'll not do it. For The Coach
Show Podcast, want to thank Mike McCoy, the head coach
(30:36):
of San Diego Chargers. Make sure you check much I
app every Monday here on The Coaches Show Podcast. Go
to NFL dot com Slash podcast
This is NFL dot COM's Coaches Show podcast. Thirty Men
together can't lose. This is why you lift everybody but
abody them. And now we're going there's a glean man,
there's a glean Thanks for checking out the week four
(00:23):
Coaches Show podcast. I'm Brian Billick here alongside Steve Marucci.
This week we'll break down the Bucks upset, went over
the Steelers debate, Rex Ryan's decisions to stick with Geno
Smith and Doug Marone's decision to bail on E J
Manuel and hound out our quarter season awards. Plus, is
Philip Rivers currently the NFL's best quarterback? We asked Chargers
head coach Mike McCoy about that and more as a
(00:44):
Coaches Show podcast starts now. Coach a lot going on,
you know, as usual as usual, right? And the quartermark
is it? The quartermark? Is it? Isn't? Because you know,
we talked about last week that when you get to
that fourth game, now the Dies coming a little cast
you can't well, it's not an aberration. It's this, it's
that is it a little bit of a not panic.
(01:06):
But okay, we are who we are and in some
instances we got to change that. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what you did, Brian. We kind of
divided up some in some respects the season into quart tiles.
You know, court tiles is so, but that doesn't always work,
you know, depending on where your buy is and all
that sort of thing. Because coaches, as you know, are
(01:28):
constantly making personnel adjustments and game plan adjustments. You don't
wait for the month to get over to make a change.
But you know, sometimes you look at that record and
you say, geez, we're one in three. If we don't
do something drastic, we're gonna be out of the playoff chase.
And uh so it's it's time to reflect and do
a self scout to see where you are. But some teams,
(01:49):
some teams right now are shocking better than expected, and
some teams are just flopping. It's kind of crazy, right,
and they're just that one or one game out from
being three and one, two, and you know, one and
three and back and forth. Of course, it's all around
the quarterback. Last week we talked about Joe Philbins, you know,
he challenged his quarterback, didn't say whether he was gonna
start enough. And and Ryan Tannehill comes out and Lights
(02:10):
up the Oakland Raiders in London. Well, now we've got
a whole bunch of other quarterback decisions. Let's kind of
go through them the big one obviously, let's begin with
starting the in the a f C East, you've got
Geno Smith, who Rex Ryan's decided to stick with a quarterback,
and then up the road in Buffalo, now we just
find out that Doug Morone has decided to pull E J.
Manual and go with Kyle Orton. Now, let's and that,
(02:32):
as we both have said many time, changing at the
quarterback position is the most disruptive thing that can ever
happen to an organization, either by injury or by a play.
Let's begin with Rex Ryan and the Geno Smith. Obviously
he's not playing well. Let's talk about his decision to
stick with Gino. He's not playing well enough. And you know,
(02:53):
and I agree with Rex to keep him as the starter.
I do think he's making progress. He has a her
past completion percentage than he did a year ago, a
better passerrating more, he's throwing for more yards per game.
But when you lose a couple of home games and
they start booing over there, and he kind of lost
his cool going off the field. Then I suppose people, hey,
(03:14):
let's make a change, you know, But Brian, I don't.
I don't know if making a change makes sense right now.
You know. Let the kid keep pressing through this. It's
gonna be a tough time. Rex got has to go
through this. Geno should go through this. Marty morning Wig
has to go through this and see if they can
kind of find their way out of this hole. Won't
get easy. Denver, New England, San Diego coming up looking
(03:36):
at him in the face. Um, but I wouldn't make
a change in Michael Vick because then you're really stuck. Yeah.
And part of it I think it has to be
is that that if if you miss on a first
round or on a quarterback, as they did with Mark Sanchez,
somebody has to pay. Well, they made Mike tan about
the general manager pay. Okay, well that's cool, but now
you got another one. And I know it wasn't a
first round or he was a second rounder in the
(03:57):
new GM, is it? Uh? Whoever's choice that was, I'm
with you. I don't see the upside of changing first
will make a difference to go with VIC. I don't
think so, because he's probably just gonna get hurt. His
completion percentage and turnover ratio isn't a whole lot better.
So once you do that way, you go back to Gino.
I don't know that can happen. Um. I think part
of the problem and Rex alluded to without saying specifically
(04:20):
Gino is not the whole problem that defense. You look
at that game and Rex Ryan on a fourth and
two decides to punt he's behind because he says, I'm
gonna let my defense win this game against Detroit. First,
they scored a pull within a touchdown in that Detroit
Lion defense goes nine yards for a score. Right now,
they get into a situation where they can maybe win
the game. It's just under four minutes. They choose to
(04:42):
punt instead of go for it on a fourth and two, thinking, okay,
I'm gonna let my defense get him on a three
and out and now I got a chance. They never
saw the ball again. So Rex's defense has some issues.
It's not just Gino. Yeah, absolutely right in Rex. I
love his front seven, I love his front his front
four guys, there beasts, but the secondary is really hurting
(05:02):
right now. And and I don't think I don't think
they're as dominant as they've been with Rex. Rex is
used to having this great defense, whether he's coaching in
Baltimore or the Jets or whatever, and all of a
sudden they're not the same. So then, all of a sudden,
when is that? It just puts too much on the
quarterback shoulders to carry the team and score a lot
of points. Um, the team is not built that way.
(05:22):
So this is one of those stay tuned kind of things.
I'm not saying Gino is gonna start the rest of
the season. At some point, maybe they need a spark,
but right now, don't give up the ship just yet.
Keep working with Gino, keep the pedal to the medal.
I was with him in the offseason, and I thought
he had really matured uh into a to a fine
young man and quarterback in the league. And I think
(05:44):
I think with some patients, he's got a chance to
remain the starter. Well, we gotta transition into what's going
on with the Bills now, but I want to preface
it by asking you this, and I'll show my bias
wife from the kid. Go, once you pull a young quarterback,
he's your starter. You're gonna go with him. He's your guy.
Whatever the reason he's done, isn't he I mean it's
not okay. You can learn from the sideline. I mean,
(06:05):
organizationally this That's why it's such a tough decision. Can
that guy ever come back and be the guy? Hard?
It's hard because you just two things, you kind of
it takes a it's a crushing blow to his confidence,
and then in the rest of the team's eyes he
seems as like a failure in some regards. And then
(06:27):
to get that back at a later point where the
team is behind you, boy, that that takes some awfully
good performances. And so that's why it's always important when
we have these this rookie class. Now, a lot of
these quarterbacks are starting. Bridgewater starting because of an injury,
Bordles now is starting over at Jacksonville. Manzille's not starting,
And I think teams are a little bit reluctant sometimes
(06:49):
to just start the guy right away, like Andrew Luke did. Um,
Let's let them earn it, work its way and make
sure they're ready to do this when you play, so
they can have a little success. Bulls and Bridgewater didn't
earn it, you know, they just it was by default.
That's my point as to why not go from the
start them are there going to be any better a
month into it? Well? And having gone there, because I
(07:10):
don't want to lose the point now. So Doug Moron,
who drafted ej Manuel, he comes in first year head
coach of the Buffalo Bills. He and the general manage together,
this is our choice, the sixteenth pick of the draft. Now,
when you make that change, I mean, he's done. And
how do you ever bring ej Manuel back? What was
your reaction when you heard at this couldn't I was
(07:32):
shocked too. Didn't the Bills going to Chicago and beat
them opening day? And I went, whoa? You know, I
know they got a pretty good defense, but they just
you know this and that where they too know and
all of a sudden he's gone. I don't know what's
going on over there. Maybe they just see something in
every day's practice or whatever that is that they feel
this guy needs to step back and Kyle or now,
(07:53):
how many teams to have a veteran quarterback whoever has
won games before? They're playing at Detroit, which is good defense, right,
Kyle Orton is beating the Detroit Lions and and maybe
they figured this week is the best way to win
that game somehow with Kyle Orton, a veteran guy. But
that was a shocker today to hear about e J.
Manual not starting. Wasn't this the Kyle Orton that said
(08:16):
that he's thinking about retiring? Oh yeah, I mean so
if you're thinking about retiring, you're retired, you have Yeah, so,
I mean so now to make that trail. Now we're
gonna go with that. It's kind of like you and
I am coaching. You know what you think about it?
Should we retire retired? I don't this This is a
huge because let's let's look at the landscape here, first
(08:36):
year head coach, draft a guy sick. Now I'm in
the second season and now, yeah, we all know we
gotta win. I got a new owner. Now at the
end of the year, if this thing flops around a
little bit, I got a new owner. Is he not
gonna sit there and gonna wait a minute, Now, you're
the one that chose EJ. Manuel. Now you're saying he
isn't a player. Now we gotta go get because who
(08:58):
thinks Kyle Orton is gonna be their quarterback for the
next five years. Now you're gonna say, we'll go back
to e J. Manuel. This This has got disaster written
all over it. They've got to win this year, right,
I mean, because if you if you flop and you
go three and thirteen, there's you know, there could be
a change. Unfortunately, that's how it is. So maybe he says,
Kyle Lorton will win more games this year than EJ
(09:19):
Manuel will for us. Well, but that's not It could
be the schedule. Like you said, they got Detroit, New England.
We'll see on New England's playing. You know, they've had
their problems. Minnesota, who even though they had a great
win against Atlanta, has some issues. And then they play
the Jets. Okay, the Jets. Maybe this is part of
thinking too. I'm Rexcell going, I got San Diego, I
got Denver in New England. Okay, make a change. Now
(09:41):
Michael Vick comes in, doesn't do well ward, Okay, let
I'm gonna get this will define itself. I'll let DJ
play this or excuse me, I'll let Gino play this
out for the next three weeks and and and we'll
see where we are. Then maybe that's what they're thinking,
I'm just glad I'm not in that situation because that's
a it's it's it's it's it's not a win win situation.
It's like, keep your fingers cross. Deal. Let's stay with
(10:04):
the quarterbacks. That the change at quarterback. We'll talk about
Bridgewater and Boardles a little bit later on and how
they did with their openers. You brought them up. But
the Bucks had a huge win against on the road
against the Steelers and Mike Glennon, you know, their third
round pick from last year. He started eight or nine
games for him. They decided to go with Josh McCowen.
That didn't turn out either. In play, of course, McCowan
(10:24):
got hurt. He just goes into Pittsburgh and uh orchestrates
the lab minute drive two passes out of only five,
but takes the mic field scores touchdown, wins. Mike Glennon.
He's the new hero in Tampa Bay. Unbelievable. And Brian,
I remember when when he came out in the draft.
We had him on Game Changers, so I was around
him quite a bit and throwing and doing drills and
interviewing him. And he's kind of a neat guy to
(10:46):
be around. And he ran better than I thought, he
threw from the run better than I thought. And then
when last year when he was playing for the Bucks
and they weren't very good, he was playing pretty well
at times, and so I was a little surprised Loving
made that switch right away without any really competition. But
he was familiar with Josh mccowney, trusted him, he knew him,
(11:06):
and of course Josh had a good season in replacement
of Ja Cutler last year. But I just thought it
was inevitable that sooner or later this is gonna happen
because this kid, uh, Mike Glennan, he's he's tall guy,
tall guy, and he can sling it. And with all
of those wide receivers, those big, tall wide receivers, you
don't want to be playing uh college football or you
(11:29):
know his own read stuff. You want to sling it
and and this Mike Glennon kid can do just that.
And so I think he's there to stay. I like
him a lot. And that was a huge win at Pittsburgh.
Something's wrong with Pittsburgh because they're so up and down there, schizophrenic.
I don't I don't know, you don't know who you're
gonna get from one play to the next. Tomlin beside himself.
(11:50):
He was, he was, he was beside himself in that
press conference. I don't blame him. I heard I heard
a stat today, and I'll mangle it. So you you
those who want to tweet me and say mangled it,
I'll I'll just claim it right from the get go.
Dick Lebow, the magnificent Hall of Fame defensive coordinator, former player, uh,
defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers is sixty five and
(12:11):
oh going into the fourth quarter with like a seven
point lead anymore? Yeah, how about sixty and one? That amazing? Yeah,
it's that amazing. Yeah, and even more. Well, and that
leads me to and I'm gonna move around here a
little bit. A couple of coaching decisions. Because we're the
Coaches Show, we're supposed to talk about it. I think
there was one in that game, and we talked about
(12:32):
the Jets game as well, Chris. We saw a couple
of on sidekicks. We can talk about the decision to
do that. One worked, one didn't, So therefore one was
smart and the other one wasn't. But then I thought
it was interesting in the Pittsburgh game. There they have
a chance to close it out before they give the
ball back to Mike Glennon. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it's
third and five Ben Roethlisberger. They hand the ball off
(12:53):
on a third and five to leavy On Belt. They
don't get anything. They punt it with the idea that, okay,
we're gonna play good defense. Can Mike Glennon beat us,
which he evidently does. We've both been in that situation.
Your defense has been a little bit. For me, it's
simple Baltimore, I'm gonna bet on my defense and maybe
maybe that's what Mike tom was doing. But their defense
is strug a little bit. Do we second guess that
(13:14):
a little bit? Do you give? Then lost Roethlisberger And
all we're talking about is an incomplete pass stopping the clock.
It's not like we're going it for fourth and five.
It's okay, I'm gonna trade maybe a little bit of
clock for the chance that if I throw and get
her first down, games over. Yeah, Yeah, that's one of
those decisions during the game. You guys got to make
the call and make the play work. You know, they
ran the ball for two d and sixty four yards
(13:36):
last week. They probably felt, hey, we can run the
football here a little bit. And then you know how
everybody's counting the box now and they're saying, hey, they're
playing dime right now, and I've got a six in
the box, I should run the ball because I can
block everybody up. Um. You know, that's just a call
that they made. The clock kept running. Wasn't an incomplete
pass like you said. But you know, when you're the
(13:57):
Pittsburgh Steelers, you gotta believe that you can stop a
second year quarterback who just took over, uh you know,
the length of the field and and win that football
game and all the penalties that they had and you're
at home, and you're at home, so that's an advantage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh,
the Steelers collapse in that second half, they just they
(14:19):
just weren't the same team. And uh, you know, they
just gave up a lot of points seventeen second half points,
four yards or something, and they just didn't show up
in the second half. And I don't know where they
go with it. What looks to be a very good
Baltimore team now that has kind of cracked the code,
and certainly Cincinnati we know as well as they're playing
staring uh you know, staring at Pittsburgh in that rear
(14:39):
view mirror. Well, as we said much, it's the quarter mark,
so we gotta get out. We gotta get some awards.
Were like country music, we have fifty seven award show. Okay,
and we're at the quartermark, so we gotta, we gotta.
Let's start off with at the quarter mark our m
v PS. Who gets the m v P mark four
games into the season m v P of this first month,
September m v P Brian Um. How about this guy
(15:02):
named DeMarco Murray over there with the Dallas Cowboys. You know,
he's leading the league and rushing well over five hundred.
You know what kind of past he's on, he's over
two thousand pace. Now, DeMarco's never finished uh sixteen game season.
He's got to stay healthy, but he's way out in
front in terms of rushing yards than anybody else. And
he's the reason that the Dallas Cowboys are a pretty
(15:25):
darn dangerous team right now. To me, it's DeMarco Murray. Yeah,
hard to argue about that. I'm gonna go and typical
it's I know, it's cliche, but I'm gonna go with
the quarter I'm gonna go with Philip Rivers because what
he's meant to the San Diego Chargers a running game,
and I admire of what they're doing because they stick
with the running game even though they're not real good
at it. Right Ryan Matthews has hurt Danny Woodhead has
(15:45):
hurt their averaging. You know, they're running at thirty thirty
five times, they're barely getting a hundred yards, but they're
sticking with the running game. So Philip Rivers with only
a handful of throws, uh, not throwing any interceptions. And okay,
he starts out with Antonio Gates three touchdowns and Okay,
they're gonna take away Gates. Okay, I'm gonna go over
and I'm gonna find Keenan Allen or I'm gonna go
find Eddie Royal or I'm gonna go find Floyd. I'm
(16:06):
gonna find somebody if whatever your plan is to stop
whoever I hit last week, he is adjusting to what
he's seeing. So I think Philip Rivers, um of all
the quarterbacks right now, UH is worthy of that m
VP title. Let's talk about Let's go to the to
the defensive side because we ignored the defensive guys. Who's
the defensive player of the year. This one, I think
is a slam dunk for both of us. This is easy.
(16:27):
I mean the guys on more commercials and all that stuff.
Now he's dancing and everything like that. J J. Watt,
I mean, the guy is a beast. You know, you
saw him catch that touchdown pass. Right. He used to
play tight end at Central Michigan. That's where he was
scholarshiped out of high school. And then he when I'm homesick,
I gotta walk on at Wisconsin play some defense. But
(16:48):
is he a dominating guy or what? This? He's won
it already a couple of years ago. To me, he's
gonna win again. Yeah, he's got He's got the the
athleticism for an inside player. Uh of oh god, Reggie White,
motor of a John Randy. While I was within Minnesota,
I've never seen a big man this. Yeah, he and
(17:09):
and J. J. Wats a little crazy. He is beyond
stop motor. You watch him technically, not sound sometimes running
around blocks, but then making the play. You know it's
it's he he is. Clearly he's worth the money that
they gave them. All right, we agree on that. Let's
let's talk. Let's talk about the biggest surprise. Who's your
biggest surprise at the quartermark? Either player or a team.
(17:31):
I'm gonna give you a player. I'm surprised the Saints
are where they are. That's my team. But the player
is Steve Smith Sr. You know what, we we've all
been around older veteran receivers and they're supposed to you know,
descend and production and energy and and all of that
capability stuff. Hey, this guy is just a ball of fire.
(17:54):
I love to watch him. I love listening to this
guy because he's so fired up. He was you know,
you know, just had the two touchdowns last game and
seven catches and all that stuff. But he's on pace
for his best season ever and he's played well for
a long time. So Steve Smith Sr. You know what,
I thought he'd played okay, Heck, he was going to
(18:14):
retire right if he didn't get signed back. But now
he's found a rebirth over there in Baltimore. I love
what he's doing, and he's given Baltimore offense a personality.
You know, Joe Flacco, you're gonna reflect your quarterback, Joe
is pretty even killed doesn't personality Yeah, very much so,
which is rare for quarterback, but still very very good.
(18:34):
They've lacked that and this this is the dominant side
of the ball for them, and he's given them that personality.
I'm gonna go to the biggest surprise, and you alluded
to it is New Orleans and sw Orleans defense. We
thought coming in that Rob Ryan would have this group.
They look not only pedestrian, but against the Dallas Cowboys
they took a butt whipping and they were kind of
(18:55):
okay with it. I'd and who would have thought this?
Rex Ryan and Rob Ryan, the twin brothers as good
at defensive coaches as have ever been in this league. Together,
their defensive units do not have a single interception at
the fourth that's eight games. That's that one's uh, that
one's that you gotta scratch your head on that one.
(19:15):
And I just don't see any personality, any fight in
this New Orleans Saints defense, which is the opposite of
what you expect from Rob Ryan's coach team. I know, well,
a couple of years ago they were pathetic, remember that,
and then Rob Ryan made them better and they were
ranked fourth best defense in the league last year. But
all of a sudden, they're looking like they used to
look a couple of years ago, and they're shaking their
(19:35):
heads and they get down twenty four and nothing at
halftime and they're going, what can we ever win on
the road here, Let's be more beat. Let's give a
coach of the coach of the quarter year, Mark, who's
your coach of the Can I give an honorable mention? Yeah,
I'm just gonna give you an Jason Garrett. He done
a good job or what? Absolutely? They lose the first
(19:58):
game and it was to the forty and I a
good team, and everybody's like, oh my god, here we go.
And now all of a sudden, the Dallas Cowboys. I
don't want to say they're back because every time you
do then they just turned south. Yeah, they disappoint you,
but then Rod Marinelli's defensive coordinators got that defense playing
good football? Are you kidding me? They were? They were
(20:19):
last last year and they lost all kinds of guys
and they're playing hard and they're playing well and they're
playing confidently. So Jason's got something to do with that.
But my he's just honorable mention. The guy who wins
it for me is Bruce arians Now. Didn't he win
it already when he was the interim over there with
the Colts. He's doing a heck of a job too,
because they're undefeated. They're playing with a backup quarterback, right
(20:41):
they've lost five guys on defense for various reasons, and
they're still playing very well and very hard, and they're
coming off by this week. But Bruce has done a
great job. Yeah, I like I like both those picks.
I'm gonna go back to the San Diego thing. I
think Mike McCoy, he loses his offensive coordinator, his quarterback
whisper and Ken Wi Hunt because with the turnaround in
(21:01):
Philip Rivers. The thing I love is and they're playing
good defense. John Pagano the brother of Chuck Pogano in Indianapolis,
he's the defensive coordinator. They're playing really good defense right now,
one of the better teams in terms of defensive scoring
and and what I love is you got Philip Rivers.
You're throwing the ball over the park, the discipline to
stay with the running game even though it's not really productive.
(21:22):
I talked about it earlier. They're averaging better than you know.
The thirty carries okay, and they're not getting a lot
of production hundred hundred five, so it's not like their gouge,
but they're staying with it. They're keeping the defense honest.
That then helps Philip Rivers a lot of us and
I include myself. It would be hard to do that
when you're not getting productivity in the running game, to
go ahead and bail on it. I think from just
(21:43):
a tactical and a strategic standpoint, I think Mike McCoy
would be my coach at the quarter mark good choice,
really good choice. And that's a good team that's fighting.
Made playoffs last year, and they look like they're going
right back again, and it just so happens that we
get a chance. I get a chance to talk to
Mike McCoy here on the Coach Show. Look at the
big one. Always let me keep down the sidelos sitting
(22:12):
right on that route portals obviously never thought well. Sandyo
Chargers scored twenty three unanswered points Sunday to defeat the
Jacksonville Jaguars thirty three fourteen, and joining us now is
the head coach of those Chargers. Those three and one Chargers.
Mike McCoy coach, thanks so much. Before we get to
the game, I gotta ask now, my buddy Steve Mariucci
(22:32):
on The Coaches Show says he sent you a picture
when you were the developmental quarterback for Tell me that
picture is sitting on your desk in your office right now.
Our Mooch is gonna be crushed. It's actually in my
office at home. It's a great photo back in with
the great group and with coach Mooch, Marty Morton, Wig
and everybody who I'm looking forward to see this week
when he comes into town. So we had a great
(22:53):
group back then. Yeah, always fun to have those, uh
those old mementos. Well, great win for your coach, you
got you got down all of a sudden now and
you're at home. That's a tough thing to do. Talk
about the mindset of your team, and I know you've
got a great quarterback in Philip Rivers and some maturity,
but talk about how you how you squelch that panic
that can set in sometimes. Well, we got settled in,
(23:14):
you know. The first first series of defense that was
out there, they got a fumble for us, a great
field position for the offense. Uh, the offense unfortunately had
three minus plays that weren't good enough early on. And
then we just settled down as a team. And that's
why you gotta play for sixty managing challenge. Just keep
plugging away, and we got in a flow there and
then we end up scoring set him a ten drives
overall in the game. So then a nice job of
(23:34):
making adjostments. The defense came up some big turnovers throughout,
So a nice job, a big win for the football team. Well,
I know it's gonna be important to you, but we
we like everybody, we gotta have quarter mark awards, you know,
and you're my You're my UH coach of the year
at the quartermark. And let me tell you why. Um
unbelievable job obviously, Philip Rivers and coming off the year
he had you, you've got virtually no running game, but
(23:54):
you stick with it. You're not eating a lot of
yards in the run. But a lot of guys, including myself,
would have bailed on. You stick with it. You're having
in those thirty kis, Philip Rivers, you get three touchdowns
to Antonio Gates. Next week they take Gates away. Okay,
I'm gonna go over to Keenan Allen. Take Keenan allenway, Okay,
I'm gonna go to what the way you orchestrate moving
around and giving Philip what he needs. Tell me a
little bit about having a Philip Rivers and his ability
(24:17):
to do that and to adjust. He's a special player,
you know. And everyone weekly wants to ask why didn't
this guy getting many touches or what happened here? What
happened there? You know a couple of weeks ago, why
wasn't you know, Ladarius getting involved here and there? Well,
Phillip is a great quarterback and he's gonna go through
a progression we every play and depend on what the
defense is doing. You know, the ball is gonna be
spread around when you got a lot of town on
(24:38):
the outside and the skilled positions like we do and
the wide receivers, tight ends and running backs. You know,
he's gonna take what the defense has given him. And
that's what he's doing right now. And uh, he's being
very efficient with the football. The h and you you
you talked about Keenan Allen and his development, young young
player that was kind of devalued coming out on the draft.
Pop weren't quite sure how he's going to fit in
(24:58):
and and talk about the develop men of a young
receiver like that, you know, with a veteran quarterback now
having to mold that a little bit. Talk about the
development of Keenan Allen Well from the very first place
he stepped in Philadelphia last year and Malcolm went down.
You know, he made the big catch that game, and
it was like every day he was just getting better.
And as you know, the more the more time at
quarterback and the receivers spend toget other better they're gonna
(25:19):
be in game day. And you know he's working extremely hard.
So the success and the game he had the other
day doesn't surprise us one bit at all. He had
a great game. Uh, we'd be remissed we didn't bring
up the defensive side. John Pagano, your defensive coordinator, Your
defense one of the top scoring defense, isn't That really
is the only one I know anybody really wants to
talk about, not totally yards of their dad's about if
we can keep down the score, that's a good thing.
Talk about the job that John Pagano was doing for
(25:42):
your defense. Well, he's done an outstanding job. You know,
our schemes in place, and we're using multiple people over there. Uh.
Some guys have really stepped in from week to week
doing a good job. But you've got guys like Eric Weddel,
Jared Johnson, Dwight Freeney, Brandon Flowers, the leaders of the
defense over there that really do a great job, work
extremely hard during the week. And you know, coach Began
(26:02):
on his staff done a great job of putting game
plans together. And you know that there's gonna be teams
that you know, as you know in this league, the
competition and the parody and the league is so good
that the most important thing is there's gonna have a
big play. But just don't give up the touchdowns. That's
you know, be great in the red area, be good
and third down. Uh, and just be efficient defensively. Also,
i'd be remissed giving your experience and dealing with quarterbacks
(26:22):
in the job you've done. You saw a young Blake
Bortles get his first start. Give me just some impressions
all but from afar of what you think of a
Blake Bortles. Well, hey, then a nice job yesterday in
the game, had a great first half. We really got
you know, got fourteen points on the board, two great
drives form and was taking what the defense was given him.
He's got a bright future in this league. An accurate passer,
(26:43):
as you saw from the game yesterday. He'll make things
happen with his feet. Uh. You know we missed a
couple of sack opportunities from his escapability in the pocket
was something that we went in the game saying, hey,
don't let this guy do this because he'll make plays
with his feet. But he's got a bright future. He's
only gonna get better with time. The more he plays,
the better he'll be. Well, it's been fun watching your
club play, Coach. Congratulations so far, and I know we
got a lot left to play, but things are looking
(27:04):
good for the Chargers. Thank you very much. Stay in touch.
Good talking to you. All right, Okay, mooch my Wednesday piece.
I know you can't wait for Wednesdays to come and
get on NFL dot com and check out what I'm
writing about. I know you do that. This week. This
week it was about how you deal with defensing a
dominant player. We talked about the presence of a J. J. Watt.
What do you do to handle a J J? What
(27:24):
what do you do when you have to face Calvin Johnson?
You had some dominant players? What what what give give
me some insights, maybe some situations where you had to
deal with orner someone had to deal with one of
your dominant players and what they do to do it.
I don't know if you've ever heard of Jerry Rice.
He was he was. It was always interesting to see
what what teams would do against the Jerry Rice. And
(27:46):
and you know, it didn't matter who was on the
other side, whether it's j. J. Stokes or Tarall Owens,
it didn't matter j J. Or Jerry Rice was the
guy that they had to stop because you know, the
quarterback wants to throw him the ball quite a bit,
and so he's always very seldom is he running against
free access. There's always two guys over there, or if
(28:07):
it's a zone, you've got people buzzing hard over there.
So you try to find a way to get him
open and try to move him around in motion and
flip him over and put him in the slot whatever
that is. But you know, when you when you when
somebody has something, there's somebody that's really dominating, you've got
to give it extra meeting time. Extra practice time, put
(28:28):
the red jersey on him or something, and say, this
guy right here, we have to handle some way, somehow,
otherwise we're gonna lose this game. But you have to
account for and get your team ready for what happens
if they hit you with someone else. We saw Calvin
Johnson held the two receptions last week, so what does
that mean. It means Golden Tate has eight receptions up
and down the field. They hit a Jeremy Ross for
a touchdown. Because you have nine guys over on Calvin
(28:51):
Johnson and these guys are wide open. So there's always
a ying and yang of this, right, yeah, ying this
because Jerry Rice Day. How about this? So it's Jerry
Rice day. It says last game. It's like Derek Jeter
in Yankee Stadium. So he Jerry Rice against the Bears,
is gonna have this like ceremony after and thanked the
crowd and cry and all that stuff. So it's Jerry
Rice Day. Well, Dick Geron is no fool. He took
(29:12):
him away, right, He just like putting nineteen guys over
on Jerry Rice and Tara Lowan has had twenty catches
that day. He broke the record. That really upset Jerry,
I could imagine pissed, to be quite honest with you
and so, but that's what happens. Somebody else has to
step up and you have to do something else, sometimes
run the ball or throw it to somebody else, like
you mentioned Golden Tate, But that was Jerry rice day
(29:34):
and he still reminds me about that. For me, it
was in the year I was with Minnesota. We had
that magical group of guys, you know, and Randall Cunningham
throwing to Chris Carter and Randy Moss and and I
got Robert Smith in the backfield. Just a tremendous group
of athletes. I just basically tried to stay out of
the way. And it was interesting just to watch teams
because we got to the point we really didn't look
at that much film because no matter what our game
plan was, you look at the film and this is
(29:55):
what the team does to you. And we get to
game Dame and they do something totally different because they
saw the group we had, they figure, well, we can't
do what we normally do. So it was good news
bad news. The good news bad news was what we
really had to kind of guess what they were gonna do.
The good news was they weren't very good at it
because they're doing something they don't normally do. So, like
we said, there's a there's a yang and yang this
type of thing. So it was kind of interesting each
(30:15):
week to really not know what what it was. Uh,
And it's all about adjustments. You cut down Calvin Johnson, Okay,
we're gonna go to Golden Tate, you cut down Jerry Rice,
We're gonna go over here to Terrell Owens. And there's
always coaches were a little smarter than people give us
credit for. Sometimes we'll not do it. For The Coach
Show Podcast, want to thank Mike McCoy, the head coach
(30:36):
of San Diego Chargers. Make sure you check much I
app every Monday here on The Coaches Show Podcast. Go
to NFL dot com Slash podcast
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