October 6, 2014 • 30 mins
Brian Billick and Steve Mariucci recap Week 5 in the NFL. They break down the comeback games between the Tennessee Titans and the Cleveland Browns as well as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints. The coaches debate whether they would rather coach Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Plus, Denver Broncos head coach John Fox joins the program to discuss the historic performances by Peyton Manning and Demaryius Thomas.
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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 them. And
now we're going there's a glean, Man, there's a glean.
(00:21):
Thanks for checking out the week by Coaches Show podcast.
I'm Brian Bill here alongside Steve Mariucci. This week we
take a look at the art of the comeback. How
do coaches put their teams in position to win despite
facing it huge deficits. Plus, we discussed Rex ryan struggles
in New York and talked with the Broncos John Fox
about coaching the one and Only Peyton Man. The Coaches
Show podcast starts now. Much has always a lot of
(00:43):
great games. Let's start off with my old team to
Baltimore Ravens going in the Indianapolis. I really thought Baltimore
is gonna win. No one has played better than Baltimore,
particularly offensively the last three weeks. But once again we
keep coming back to Andrew Luck. This guy just he
just keeps build and on the legacy one game at
a time. You know, on the Game Day morning show,
(01:04):
I said that the Ravens luck would run out. I
know they had three wins in a row and playing
well but so you picked him and so and so
I I because Andrew Luck's been playing well too. You know,
he had four touchdown passes in the last two games
each and over, you know, in forty Burgers, the whole thing.
(01:25):
So boy, this coach team, you know, nothing to take
away from the Ravens. That's a good football team and
should be a playoff team. But this Colts team is
still on a mission. We remember when Chuck got sick
and the whole thing turned around fast, but this team
is still with that mindset and they're good on They're
good on offense, best offense in the league. They're very,
(01:47):
very good and special teams and they're just playing well
enough to to slow down Joe Flacco. On defense and wow,
I mean Preston yeah, Greg Monsky, the defensive coordinator. That's
where I thought they would fall down a little bit
because they're they're they're missing and parts defensively, and he's
doing a great job with that defense, particularly at home.
But Andrew Luck to me, and I'm interested in your
observation as well, because we all know he's good and
(02:08):
every every week he just gets better. But I know
I'm overstating it here, but to me. He looks like
he has, you know, the the arm strength and and
the fluid accuracy of as as good as any quarterback
in the game to get He's got the pocket presence
of a Drew Brees. He throws as well outside the
pocket as Aaron Rogers. He actually runs the ball as
(02:30):
well as Cam Newton. He seems to have a control
and an intellect that rivaling of Peyton Manning. I mean,
this this guy, uh wow, it's amazing. It might be
sacrilegist to say, but is he the best quarterback in
the league? And I know, I know you're talking about
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. How about Tom Brady's performance
(02:50):
against the Bengals? My god, and then Drew and Aaron.
There's there's a there's a handful of great quarterbacks in
the league. But maybe because this guy is oh young,
we don't want to crown him just yet. But he
does all the things that you're saying. He's he's kind
of a mix of all these take out the good
parts of all these other quarterbacks that you just mentioned
(03:11):
and put it into one, and you haven't Andrew Luck
And he's strong, and he's doing in forty pounds and
he's he's got another twelve years to play. Very exciting
times over there in Indy right now, after having a
Peyton Manning for so long, and now you got another superstar.
You and you and I have been had a long time,
and we've had good quarterbacks and we've had bad quarterbacks.
Can you imagine being in Indianapolis where you get what
(03:33):
fifteen sixteen years of Peyton Manning and then maybe fifteen
years of Andrew Luck. I mean, do they have any
concept of how lucky they are? Well, you know it's happened.
You know, you remember with Joe Montana pass the baton
reluctantly to Steve Young here in San Francisco, and you
and you remember Brett fare for so long, sixteen years
in Green Bay now passing that baton to Aaron Rodgers.
(03:56):
This is the same thing Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck.
It doesn't happen very often in the history of the NFL.
In fact, most teams don't even have one great Hall
of Fame quarterback, not you know, not to mention two
in a row. So, yeah, the fans in Indie have
been and will be spoiled for a long time. Thirty
years of elite quarterback. I'd like to have thirty quarters
(04:19):
in my career of quarterback play at that. Yeah, unbelievable.
Let's let's talk. Let's move on to a game where
the New Orleans Saints and and they have looked in
disarray to a degree. They're not as good defensively. Obviously
you could see where Drew Brees has maybe been pressing
a little bit with some of the interceptions. But they
(04:39):
got a home win against the Bucks. And your phone's ringing.
That's what that's like. Hey, when your dog, remember that
when you were at home, but my dog's barking out?
Is that your agent calling? Going your Look, we're not
getting paid enough to do this podcast with Billy. You
gotta ask for saying, are you kidding me? You're doing
(05:01):
a podcast with Billick again on Monday. Um, but let's
go back to Let's go back to the Saints and
all but the Bucks, who came off a big dramatic
come from behind when against Pittsburgh going to a tough
place in New Orleans almost pull this off. Can we
say the Saints of round at a corner? I'm not sure.
Oh yeah, I see what you see? Because I don't
(05:21):
know what kind of Saints team. I thought they were
gonna win that division. And we know Drew Brees is
a great player. He's been hurt and sometimes he kind
of looks like it. Um. I thought their defense was better,
but you know what, it's not like last year. It's
not as good. And then how would you like to
spend all that money on Jared's bird in the offseason
and in practice he gets hurt in practice? My god,
(05:44):
that's got to be crushing. And so and you mentioned
Drew Brees was, you know, trying to make plays sometimes
that weren't quite there. You know, we saw him do
some things where he was getting and you get the
ball out and some picks, and Jimmy Graham's hurt, and
so I think the Saints are gonna be one of
those teams that are fighting all season long to try
to make the playoffs. And you know, on the other side,
(06:05):
the Bucks, you know what, love He's got them fighting
now and I think they found their quarterback over in
Mike Glennon. So it turned into a close game. But
Sands are gonna be fun to watch because that division
is really up for grabs over there in the South.
So it really is with Carolina. Obviously they had a
big come from behind when dramatic against Chicago. Uh, and
obviously Atlanta is just struggling, playing and simple. So yeah,
(06:27):
where what used to be maybe the best division in football,
and I think you could have made it or at
least the tightest. Yeah, it's still tight. It's just the
quality of play. Yeah, you just don't know how good
it's gonna be. But I don't know that I eliminate
Tampa Bay right now and say no, they're definitely out
of it. They got a quarterback, Mike Lennon, they get
Mike Evans back, defense starts to playing better again, Gerald
McCoy healthy makes a big difference. I don't know that
(06:47):
you can ride off Tampa Bay yet either. Yeah, I
know and and love you will get that team, you know,
with new systems on both sides of the ball. They
will be better provided they stay healthy. But they will
be better, you know, in November and December, and as
long as he keeps Hope alive there. I think that
team is going to be young, and they're up and coming,
and they're gonna they're gonna, you know, they will reign
on somebody's parade before the season is over like they
(07:09):
did against the Steelers. So uh. But anyway, I'm watching
close on that Saints team because I can't figure them out.
There a little Doctor Jekyll Mr. Hyde like a lot
of other teams in the league. Right now. Let's tell
you know a lot of big comebacks in league. We
just talked about Carolina coming back the biggest one of
the week. Obviously Cleveland coming back from a to three deficit,
(07:30):
obviously with a huge win. Uh that that you know,
they've been in so many tight games you had to
kind of cheer for for Cleveland and Bobby hoy Hoyer
orchestrating that that that late drive in order to get
the win. Um, let's talk a little bit about the
mindset when you get down that way. Tell me what's
the biggest comeback you ever had? Did you you remember
(07:52):
I got one? I got one? Okay? So um with
the Niners in the playoffs and we're hosting the Giants
and we're down twenty four points, Brian, in the third quarter,
we're down by twenty four and I swear to god,
I remember looking up at the scoreboard going, let's see,
it's in the middle of the third quarter. We're down
(08:12):
by twenty four and the momentum was on their side.
I said, if we don't, if we don't change something
real fast, this thing could be this could we could
lose by fifty. I mean, this wasn't going very well
at all. So so obviously I had to get my
coordinators together and say, listen, something's got to change fast.
We got to change something. We can't just say we'll
stick with the game plan because we're really going to
(08:33):
get crushed. So long story short, we ended up winning
that game, all right. It was at the time it
was the second largest deficit overcoming the playoffs by beating
the Giants in the playoffs. But but uh, you know,
we had to go no huddle and all this different
stuff and change up our defense, get a couple of breaks,
and and uh, that was the big one for me. Obviously,
(08:55):
a playoff win like that, really really remember it very
very well. But boy, if we didn't change things, it
could have got ugly. And it's interesting, what was the
final score? Then you're and you beat him? Yeah, was
there a point? And your heart of hearts that you
because it sounds like when you're talking to your coordinators,
it was just, hey, we gotta play better not to
(09:16):
get killed. I'm not even gonna talk about coming back
and winning. I mean that mindset. I mean that sounds defeatist,
but the realist. Did you go, God, I don't think
we can overcome this. Yeah, you gotta stop the bleeding first, right,
you gotta fix what's really gashing you. And so you know,
I had Jim Moraw who's now the UCL day coach,
doing a great job over there. He was my defensive coordinator,
(09:37):
and we had to figure out what pressures would be
new and surprised the Giants and you know, take the
ball away, that kind of thing. And then with Greg Nap,
I said, he was at my offensive coordinator. I said,
all right, forget the game plan. We will never huddle again.
We are going to go into our no huddle. We're
gonna go fast. We're three, you know, three scores down
plus a lot of two point plays. Let's get going.
(09:58):
And so you know that that's what happened. We were
lucky enough to boom, boom boom, get some get some
things going and and win it close at the end.
And then they missed the field goal at the end.
We played Jacksonville, My my Super Bowl year in two
thousand and I got a prevace it by saying the
organization had never beaten Jacksonville. Not the year I got
there in ninety nine. We got swept there. We were.
(10:19):
They were in the division with us at the time,
the old NFC Central f f C Central Um and
so and and prior to that, even when they were
in Cleveland, when Ozzie News and Art Modele, they had
never beaten Jacksonville. So that that was the big thing,
that that, Okay, well can we beat Jacksonville. So we're down,
it's early in the season. We're down twenty three, two three,
(10:45):
and it's halftime, and that's not to seem unsurmountable. But
keep mind, this is a team we had never ever
beaten before. So I'm like you, I'm kind of I
didn't even conceivably think we could win the game, but
I'm just thinking this could, this thing could get bad
and biblical proportions. So I tell my guys, you know,
not that it matters the pep talk, but going, guys, look,
we're going to define who we are by how we
(11:05):
come out in the second half. I don't care win
or lows. I'm not talking about winning and losing. I'm
just talking about the way you fight and the way
you finish this game. And we ended up Shannon Sharp
down the middle of the field beating him thirty six,
which really to me was the catalyst for us going
forward and ended up being our super Bowl year and
actually hard to imagine we did it offensively because my
(11:27):
defense had given up thirty six points and normally we
were such a defense dominated team, but that was That
was probably the one I'm going to remember the most
that uh And and Coughlin didn't beat me again after that,
so that felt pretty good. You know what, your story
ends up in a Super Bowl. Myke come from behind
win ends up. I got fired the next week, Brian,
(11:48):
even with the big comeback, and that was a playoff game.
So then we go, we go to Tampa the next week,
and then Tampa beats us. They won the Super Bowl
that year, and Mooch is out. That was it. It
was like, well they ended up getting with that Super Bowl.
They ended up getting me later on. Anyway, Yeah, they're
gonna get you sooner or later that we had we
would be remissed. We didn't talk about two unbelievable performances.
(12:11):
Peyton Manning obviously with breaking five hundred. This you're gonna
love that. I know you know this number. But I
was just sitting in my hotel room after watching the
game yesterday, and I'm looking at these and keeping my
Aaron Rodgers, who gets his on Thursday night, gets his
two hundred touchdown pass which is the second fastest in
the history of the league. I think it was, uh,
(12:33):
Dan Reno got it ninety eight games, and Aaron, and
we all know how much we love Aaron Rodgers got
it ninety six or ninety seven games, Okay, so he's
second on the list or maybe vice versa. And I
think that's spectacular. And then then we get to Sunday
and Peyton Manning throws his five hundred touchdown path Aaron
Rodgers only has three hundred more touchdown passes to go,
(12:54):
and probably plus some. That number just just blew my mind.
I know it. And I've been sort of folloween this,
maybe selfishly, because I coach Brett Farve for a while,
and so I know what his numbers are, and I
know that it's inevitable that his records will be broken,
and and and who would you rather have him break
the records? Than Peyton Manning. Right, So the touchdown records
(13:16):
gonna go this year, might go next week or the
week after, right, the winds, the number of wins probably
will go next year sometime, if I remember correctly. The
yards probably will go next year at some point in time.
His his number of games in a row plane you know,
consecutive starts. I don't think he'll ever be broken, but
(13:37):
it's it's sort of interesting to watch how these records
are gonna fall. And and you know what, someday somebody's
gonna beat Peyton Manning's records because the league is turning
in to throw the ball, you know, you know a lot,
and you see it in colleges. Now cal Kell and
Washington State was six to fifty nine. They don't throw
it every down, and so a lot of these passing
records with sacks, interceptions and yards will will go. But
(14:00):
this it's fun to watch these these superstars play well.
The league is always in need of more great quarterbacks,
you know that. And and the guys, the handful of
guys that are set in the temple right now, Uh boy,
we're gonna miss them when they're gone. So I hope
we all enjoy what they're doing. Their excellence on and
off the field is so important to the National Football League. Yeah, well,
(14:22):
we won't know until we look in the in the
rear view mirror of history, but there may not have
been a time in the NFL where more Hall of
Fame quarterbacks. You know, we know Brady, we know Manning,
we know Breeze. Pretty sure Rogers is going to get there,
but some of these other guys, you know, there may
not have been another time. I know, somebody can do
(14:42):
the research on it as to just how lucky we are.
And Tom Brady the other night again Cincinnaia. Since I
still a good football team, what they ran into, in
my opinion, was an in rhythm piste off Tom Brady.
And that's a bad combination. You're right, because how about
the week they had. You know, they lose a game
to can As a city and they looked pathetic. Let's
face it, they admitted it, but they just put their
(15:04):
nose to the grindstone and got ready for Cincinnati, and
got ready for Cincinnati. And you saw Bill Belichick say
that eight times in his press conference. And you know what,
they got ready for Cincinnati, and so it was a
beat down, to be quite honest with you, and Tom
Brady looked like he was in his prime. And and uh,
don't ever count that team out. They might have a
bad game or two, everybody does, but when when, when
(15:27):
it's all said and done, that's a dangerous bunch over there.
And I was kind of happy to see that for
Tom Brady. Well, I got a chance to day to
visit with a guy that you and I are envious
of because he gets to work with Peyton Manning, head
coach of Denver Broncos, John Fox. And he takes a snap,
looks right, grows right, Amanda stop is upper five hundred,
(15:53):
Big five five tuk stops the various tims. It's fo Miller.
The Denver Brockers took down the Arizona Cardinals twenty on
Sunday behind a record breaking performance from quarterback Peyton Manning
and joining us now as head coach John Fox and coach,
(16:14):
I mean, you're you're you're at home, I know, but
you're playing an undefeated Arizona Cardinal team, a very good
defense and then just put on a good old fashioned
butt whooping uh offense. Actually, you know, absolutely explode to
talk about what I'll win like that against a team
that currently had been three and oh well, I think, uh,
you know, they're very good football team, very well coached
(16:35):
Bruce arians and his staff. You know, they played very
well last year ten and six and just short of
the playoffs, so we knew it was gonna be a
tough match up. They're really good on defense. They put
a lot of pressure on the quarterback and uh, you know,
I think our offensive line, our blocking element, did a
terrific job. And you know, Peyton was as good as
I've seen him. He had a very productive day, made
(16:56):
some great throws into tight coverage and uh, you know,
luckily we were to uh you know, accelerate in the
fourth quarter and win against a good football team. You know,
I've got to ask you obviously, Peyton manning and setting
the record five touchdown throws, he's going to break the
all time record. I know you hope this week, but
it will come. If not this week, then the next week.
But I'm interested in your you know, your background was
(17:17):
primarily on the defensive side of the ball, as a
defensive minded coach, and you've been a head coach long
enough I realized that's probably a misstatement, but that being
your background, do you ever watch him and watch Peyton
Manning hitch yourself going, God, I'm glad I don't have
to play this guy. How how would I go about
stopping this well? For so many of those years, Brian,
as you all know, Uh, you know, I was playing
(17:38):
against him, so I knew how good he was. And
you know, you're in this league long enough, people have
reps and you hear about it, whether it's players or coaches,
and uh, you know I heard about how hard he worked,
how hard he prepares. But you know, once he got
here and actually watch it on a daily basis, it's incredible.
The film study, the you know, the amount of preparation
(18:00):
he does when it's the weight room, the read the
first year when he was coming off that neck injury.
What he's accomplished is it's just remarkable. Uh, he's an
incredible player, and uh, we're glad he's on our side.
When when I had a chance to do some of
his games in Indianapolis and the first time I really
got to see him work a practice, talk a little
bit about I've never seen a player operate in a practice,
(18:24):
not only just him in the high efficiency, but the
running backs, he's down in the offensive line drill saying, hey,
we're gonna do this. We're gonna talk a little bit
about I've never seen that before. Well, you know, Troy
Aitman was out there. They had our game this weekend
and so he was out you know, viewing practice length
the networks do and um, you know he was running
the routes on air drill and everybody's involved and uh,
(18:46):
you know, the precision, the exactness, uh, the protections, whether
it's the communication with the old line. I mean he's
you know, he's tireless. And uh you know that's how
you execute really well on game day as you rep
it and prepare it. Uh, you know, and a week
of preparation. You know, you you faced team in Arizona
that had a pretty good secondary and I know, as
I look at it, the challenges obviously. Maybe maybe I'm
(19:09):
lucky enough to have a number one corner that can
match up with whomever you want to be. You're probably
Damerius Thomas. Maybe I'm lucky enough to have a number two.
But there's no way I have a three, four and
five that are going to keep up with Julius Thomas
and Wes Welker and Emmanuel Sanders. You and John Elway
have done an unbelievable job bringing together a talent pool
for him to draw on. And it's led by Damerius Thomas. Yeah,
(19:32):
I think, you know, DT, A lot have been made
here locally about you know, maybe some lack of production
over the first three weeks. And uh, you know, Demerius,
like all great athletes, uh, great players in this league,
like DT, I had a great week of preparation and
uh you know, he had a pretty much beastly day
it was, you know, and I was with a seventy
(19:52):
seven yarder being called back. So, uh, he's a very
talented guy that uh, you know, working very hard last
week in preparation was great. See you know, I have
a great performance yesterday. Do you ever you know, and
again going back to kind of your your defensive mentality,
which is understandable and obviously Peyton manning in the way there,
do you ever catch yourself him coming over the sideline
(20:12):
and kind of going, you know, we we can run
the ball a little bit, maybe maybe you can get
a few more runs in there. I mean that, I
know all defensive coaches want to run the ball more,
even though you're getting all that productivity in the passing game,
well you know as well as I do. But I
mean you kinda take with the defense gives you. And uh,
you're right, John Elway, and is to have have done
a great job and acquiring talent. You know, Julius Thomas,
(20:34):
you know, a year ago nobody knew of him. Now
now he's a tough matchup. And then on defense, Uh,
it's all about matchups. And when you have those type
of talented weapons, uh, it makes it tough for defense.
And uh, you know, like I've always said, you show
me a good coach, I'll show you some good players.
And that's right. Always this game always has been, will
be and and forever be about good players. Um, let's
(20:57):
talk about a good player. Let's talk about the defensive
side of the ball. Var Miller, at least from the outside,
looks to be as healthy as we've seen him in
a while. Is that a fair statement? Yeah? It is
bright And I think you know, over the first three weeks, uh,
you know, coming off of an A C L surgery
and you know, some of the confidence level that you
get as you play the game more coming off of that,
(21:18):
you know, I think you're seeing that, and uh, you know,
Vonn was a player that was you know, it's both
suspended an injury a year ago, so we didn't have
him but but about six games and uh, you know
we've welcomed him back obviously with open arms, and he
looks to be getting better every day and every week. Coach, obviously,
as a head coach, you worry about every aspect of
the game, the offense, defense, special teams. Things are going on, injuries,
(21:41):
everybody's talking a little bit about the the unfortunate situation
with Julius Thomas and the cut block. Talk about as
a head coach not only for what your team and
you want to obviously take care of your team, but
also the bigger issue in health in this league. Talk
about how you address something like that. Well, we never
intentionally ever coach or you know, even players here. There's
too much respect for their you know, fellow players in
(22:03):
the league. So, uh, that doesn't happen and it doesn't
happen here. It was just a miscommunication. It was a
personnel group where we have no backs in the game.
Tight ends kind of take that responsibility. Arizona was in
a look where you know, class was outside playing and
there actually we're in a three man rush. We really
just should have just checked out right away. Uh. You know,
(22:25):
cut blocking is legal. Um, that's part of what backs
and tightens do when they line up in the backfield.
It was just a miscommunication between our tight end and
tackle that Uh, you know, we didn't even really engage
the guy was actually just uh they called it a lure,
but you know, we weren't even supposed to resemble anything
(22:46):
like that. Unfortunately, something that happened. And I can understand
the frustration of Bruce. Anytime you lose a very very
good player like class. Uh, that's frustrated for any coach.
And but it's something not intentional and uh, something would
never ever stand for fair enough, as long as talking
about injuries, can you give us an update on monte
Ball what you think his status might be. Well, he's
(23:07):
got a growing strain, the severitya that they're going through
the testing phase of evaluation and we'll have an update
on Wednesday. It sounds great, coach, Thank you so much.
Look forward to seeing you this week against the Jets.
Oh it sounds good. Thank you for having me, Brian. Alright, moach,
we gotta we got to talk about for the life
of a coach. And you and I we talked about
this occasionally, and uh, boy, to be thrown back into it.
(23:31):
Now we're seeing what's going on in New York with
Rex Ryan. Understandable given the record that they have, let's
talk a little bit about that. But on the other
spend of the end of the spectrum, it's no better
for Jim Harbaugh and he's winning football games. Well, you
and I both know that the hot seat is not
reserved for guys with just losing records. The hot seat
is for most anybody in this league. If you coach
(23:53):
in the National Football League, sooner or later, you're gonna
be on that seat. And so it's crazy living up
in the Bay Area here here in out all of this.
I don't know what you would call it disarray or
whatever with the nine within the n NINER organization, uh
from head coach, the GM uh conflict too, players and
I don't know what it is, but it's just not typical.
(24:16):
It's it seems a little bit bizarre. Um and and
I and Jed York said today already that Jim is
his coach. They're trying to win a Super Bowl, it's
not about you know, personalities right now, and they're staying
focused that way. But there's a lot of there's a
lot of grumbling and I and I don't quite get it.
And then it you and I have both been in
Rex's boat where you wish you had a veteran quarterback
(24:39):
that knew how to win games. Um and poor Rex,
you know, he he started off with a youngster and
Mark Sanchez try to win as many games as he
could then and then he transitioned into another young drafted
quarterback in Geno Smith, and and you know they don't
always pan out, and they're trying to make Geno the
guy and he says he's going to start him again.
(25:01):
Michael Vick didn't jump start that that offense last week,
and so you know, I don't want to say he's
stuck with Gino, but you know they they've got a
tough road to home, and I like Gino. He has
done some good things on occasion. You just need to
see more of it. Yeah, tough place to be a
just emotional you can see for Rex. It's just it's
going to be a grind. And then the defense, which
is supposed to be their strength. You know, you just
(25:23):
can't keep up enough and you get emotionally down and
to be able to hold onto it, it's it's so
tough as a coach. I thought Jim Harbaugh's response was brilliant.
And we know Jim, Jim is not the most I
don't know, communicative guy in terms of dealing with the media,
but in terms of you know, suffering fools, so to speak.
But I thought he was response diffused it immediately, at
(25:45):
least at the spot when he said, look, coaches, locker room,
it's a lot of personalities. It's my job to love
these guys and put it in a position to win.
It's their job to love each other and to take
care of each other. I thought that was brilliant because
it immediately says, look, I understand the locker room is. Uh.
They don't have to love me. They had, but they
(26:05):
gotta love one another. They gotta play for one another.
I thought it was absolutely brilliant. And then to see
to see Jim Schwartz carried off in Detroit just happened
to be the old place he used to be. I
don't I don't know that I've ever seen that of you,
where a coach gets carried off in the old place
he just got fired from. Nope, no, I got fired
from there too. Um did anybody carry you off? Not
(26:26):
on every ring back and so um. I I found
it a little bizarre, a little different because because he
gave one of these, you know, and and of course
that's what they're talking about in Detroit right now. And
and I think I kind of chuckled with it because
I know, I know Jim, and I know it was
a very big win for him personally. Let's face it,
(26:47):
it is. And so but I think they I think
he kiddily talked about that with his guys in O
T A. S. And he said something, Yeah, we're gonna
go to Detroit and I want to get you guys
cary me off, thinking that that would be a funny. Yeah,
they took him to his word, and they grabbed them
and they put him up. It was it was not
quite like Buddy Ryan getting carried off after the Super Bowl,
you know, when Dick is getting carried off over there
(27:08):
a little bit. But it was kind of crazy. Yeah
what the heck? Yeah, well, yeah, like I said, I
don't know that I've seen it either, but yeah, that's great.
It's great and and and then also underlines anytime you
hear about when you have these guys, whether Flayer coach
is going to place as they played before, does this
game care anymore meaning for you? No? No, no, no,
this is just another game that's just a bold face
(27:28):
lie Um. This week on my weekly co Coaches Calum,
I'm gonna write about half to about Philip Rivers, and
we talked about Manning, we talked about Brady and Breeze
and Andrew. Is there anybody playing better than Philip Rivers
right now? And it doesn't seem it does. It's it's
whatever you take away, whatever you take away Gates. Fine,
I'll go to Royal and I'll go to out Okay,
I'll take those two away. Well, I got Floyd on
(27:49):
the other side, and then you take them all away,
and they got this who who is the guy that
cranked up? Who the heck are they're running backs to
take away Ryan Matthew And then they heck is this
other guy that showed phil up Rivers? Fine, I'll find
whoever's open. Brandon Oliver and he's like it's like he
looked like sprawls. That's many sprawls, I mean coming around there,
and and and so you know, Mike McCoy is doing
(28:10):
a heck of a job. We talked about Chuck Pagano
a lot. How about his brother, John Pagano, the defensive
coordinator over there with San Diego. Great job. But the
glue to that whole thing is Philip Rivers. You mentioned him,
and he's an m VP candidate right now. He really is.
And you know what, he deserves it because he is
the fireball of talk about emotional quarterbacks. You've got some
(28:33):
you know, some different personality. You got Joe Flacco over there,
and he's a tight b personality, you know, steady as
she goes. Philip Rivers is like he's off the charts
with his emotion and he's he's he's he's, he's there heartbeat,
he's their pulse, and uh, I gotta love where they're headed.
They're gonna go into Denver and play a Thursday night
(28:55):
game like they did a couple of years ago, and
in fact, the Chargers won that one. So they're gonna
really mix it up here in this a FC race.
I'm gonna I'll do a Mire copy here because probably
one of the reasons I'm doing the Coaches Show podcast
rather than continue to coach two quarterbacks that I said
could not play in this league Brett Farve, because I
thought his shoulder won't last. The torque he puts on
(29:15):
his shoulder, I thought him coming out and see Hi
when he was saying he's gonna blow his shoulder. He
may come in and be good for a couple of years,
but there's no way he's he's gonna last. And he
has what the all time starts records, and Philip Rivers
is that not because I said it's the ugliest delivery.
It's the ugliest throwing action. You cannot correct this. It's
unbelievable how how productive he is with the worst throwing
(29:36):
action in the history of this game. Yeah, and he
doesn't really care. He doesn't get style points. You don't
you get that in like in ski jumping, in gymnastics,
but throwing the ball, just get it there, get Hi,
give him a catchable pass and he can do that.
And you're right. You would never make a clinic film
on technique of throwing the football with Philip Rivers, but boy,
(29:57):
oh boy, production and enthusiasm, he's got it. Yeah, and
then off the charts so well. Much I appreciate it.
Make sure you check us out next week on The
Coaching Show podcast. Go to nfl dot com slash podcast
ship sh
This is NFL dot COM's Coaches Show podcast. Thirty men
together can't lose. This is why you lift them. And
now we're going there's a glean, Man, there's a glean.
(00:21):
Thanks for checking out the week by Coaches Show podcast.
I'm Brian Bill here alongside Steve Mariucci. This week we
take a look at the art of the comeback. How
do coaches put their teams in position to win despite
facing it huge deficits. Plus, we discussed Rex ryan struggles
in New York and talked with the Broncos John Fox
about coaching the one and Only Peyton Man. The Coaches
Show podcast starts now. Much has always a lot of
(00:43):
great games. Let's start off with my old team to
Baltimore Ravens going in the Indianapolis. I really thought Baltimore
is gonna win. No one has played better than Baltimore,
particularly offensively the last three weeks. But once again we
keep coming back to Andrew Luck. This guy just he
just keeps build and on the legacy one game at
a time. You know, on the Game Day morning show,
(01:04):
I said that the Ravens luck would run out. I
know they had three wins in a row and playing
well but so you picked him and so and so
I I because Andrew Luck's been playing well too. You know,
he had four touchdown passes in the last two games
each and over, you know, in forty Burgers, the whole thing.
(01:25):
So boy, this coach team, you know, nothing to take
away from the Ravens. That's a good football team and
should be a playoff team. But this Colts team is
still on a mission. We remember when Chuck got sick
and the whole thing turned around fast, but this team
is still with that mindset and they're good on They're
good on offense, best offense in the league. They're very,
(01:47):
very good and special teams and they're just playing well
enough to to slow down Joe Flacco. On defense and wow,
I mean Preston yeah, Greg Monsky, the defensive coordinator. That's
where I thought they would fall down a little bit
because they're they're they're missing and parts defensively, and he's
doing a great job with that defense, particularly at home.
But Andrew Luck to me, and I'm interested in your
observation as well, because we all know he's good and
(02:08):
every every week he just gets better. But I know
I'm overstating it here, but to me. He looks like
he has, you know, the the arm strength and and
the fluid accuracy of as as good as any quarterback
in the game to get He's got the pocket presence
of a Drew Brees. He throws as well outside the
pocket as Aaron Rogers. He actually runs the ball as
(02:30):
well as Cam Newton. He seems to have a control
and an intellect that rivaling of Peyton Manning. I mean,
this this guy, uh wow, it's amazing. It might be
sacrilegist to say, but is he the best quarterback in
the league? And I know, I know you're talking about
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. How about Tom Brady's performance
(02:50):
against the Bengals? My god, and then Drew and Aaron.
There's there's a there's a handful of great quarterbacks in
the league. But maybe because this guy is oh young,
we don't want to crown him just yet. But he
does all the things that you're saying. He's he's kind
of a mix of all these take out the good
parts of all these other quarterbacks that you just mentioned
(03:11):
and put it into one, and you haven't Andrew Luck
And he's strong, and he's doing in forty pounds and
he's he's got another twelve years to play. Very exciting
times over there in Indy right now, after having a
Peyton Manning for so long, and now you got another superstar.
You and you and I have been had a long time,
and we've had good quarterbacks and we've had bad quarterbacks.
Can you imagine being in Indianapolis where you get what
(03:33):
fifteen sixteen years of Peyton Manning and then maybe fifteen
years of Andrew Luck. I mean, do they have any
concept of how lucky they are? Well, you know it's happened.
You know, you remember with Joe Montana pass the baton
reluctantly to Steve Young here in San Francisco, and you
and you remember Brett fare for so long, sixteen years
in Green Bay now passing that baton to Aaron Rodgers.
(03:56):
This is the same thing Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck.
It doesn't happen very often in the history of the NFL.
In fact, most teams don't even have one great Hall
of Fame quarterback, not you know, not to mention two
in a row. So, yeah, the fans in Indie have
been and will be spoiled for a long time. Thirty
years of elite quarterback. I'd like to have thirty quarters
(04:19):
in my career of quarterback play at that. Yeah, unbelievable.
Let's let's talk. Let's move on to a game where
the New Orleans Saints and and they have looked in
disarray to a degree. They're not as good defensively. Obviously
you could see where Drew Brees has maybe been pressing
a little bit with some of the interceptions. But they
(04:39):
got a home win against the Bucks. And your phone's ringing.
That's what that's like. Hey, when your dog, remember that
when you were at home, but my dog's barking out?
Is that your agent calling? Going your Look, we're not
getting paid enough to do this podcast with Billy. You
gotta ask for saying, are you kidding me? You're doing
(05:01):
a podcast with Billick again on Monday. Um, but let's
go back to Let's go back to the Saints and
all but the Bucks, who came off a big dramatic
come from behind when against Pittsburgh going to a tough
place in New Orleans almost pull this off. Can we
say the Saints of round at a corner? I'm not sure.
Oh yeah, I see what you see? Because I don't
(05:21):
know what kind of Saints team. I thought they were
gonna win that division. And we know Drew Brees is
a great player. He's been hurt and sometimes he kind
of looks like it. Um. I thought their defense was better,
but you know what, it's not like last year. It's
not as good. And then how would you like to
spend all that money on Jared's bird in the offseason
and in practice he gets hurt in practice? My god,
(05:44):
that's got to be crushing. And so and you mentioned
Drew Brees was, you know, trying to make plays sometimes
that weren't quite there. You know, we saw him do
some things where he was getting and you get the
ball out and some picks, and Jimmy Graham's hurt, and
so I think the Saints are gonna be one of
those teams that are fighting all season long to try
to make the playoffs. And you know, on the other side,
(06:05):
the Bucks, you know what, love He's got them fighting
now and I think they found their quarterback over in
Mike Glennon. So it turned into a close game. But
Sands are gonna be fun to watch because that division
is really up for grabs over there in the South.
So it really is with Carolina. Obviously they had a
big come from behind when dramatic against Chicago. Uh, and
obviously Atlanta is just struggling, playing and simple. So yeah,
(06:27):
where what used to be maybe the best division in football,
and I think you could have made it or at
least the tightest. Yeah, it's still tight. It's just the
quality of play. Yeah, you just don't know how good
it's gonna be. But I don't know that I eliminate
Tampa Bay right now and say no, they're definitely out
of it. They got a quarterback, Mike Lennon, they get
Mike Evans back, defense starts to playing better again, Gerald
McCoy healthy makes a big difference. I don't know that
(06:47):
you can ride off Tampa Bay yet either. Yeah, I
know and and love you will get that team, you know,
with new systems on both sides of the ball. They
will be better provided they stay healthy. But they will
be better, you know, in November and December, and as
long as he keeps Hope alive there. I think that
team is going to be young, and they're up and coming,
and they're gonna they're gonna, you know, they will reign
on somebody's parade before the season is over like they
(07:09):
did against the Steelers. So uh. But anyway, I'm watching
close on that Saints team because I can't figure them out.
There a little Doctor Jekyll Mr. Hyde like a lot
of other teams in the league. Right now. Let's tell
you know a lot of big comebacks in league. We
just talked about Carolina coming back the biggest one of
the week. Obviously Cleveland coming back from a to three deficit,
(07:30):
obviously with a huge win. Uh that that you know,
they've been in so many tight games you had to
kind of cheer for for Cleveland and Bobby hoy Hoyer
orchestrating that that that late drive in order to get
the win. Um, let's talk a little bit about the
mindset when you get down that way. Tell me what's
the biggest comeback you ever had? Did you you remember
(07:52):
I got one? I got one? Okay? So um with
the Niners in the playoffs and we're hosting the Giants
and we're down twenty four points, Brian, in the third quarter,
we're down by twenty four and I swear to god,
I remember looking up at the scoreboard going, let's see,
it's in the middle of the third quarter. We're down
(08:12):
by twenty four and the momentum was on their side.
I said, if we don't, if we don't change something
real fast, this thing could be this could we could
lose by fifty. I mean, this wasn't going very well
at all. So so obviously I had to get my
coordinators together and say, listen, something's got to change fast.
We got to change something. We can't just say we'll
stick with the game plan because we're really going to
(08:33):
get crushed. So long story short, we ended up winning
that game, all right. It was at the time it
was the second largest deficit overcoming the playoffs by beating
the Giants in the playoffs. But but uh, you know,
we had to go no huddle and all this different
stuff and change up our defense, get a couple of breaks,
and and uh, that was the big one for me. Obviously,
(08:55):
a playoff win like that, really really remember it very
very well. But boy, if we didn't change things, it
could have got ugly. And it's interesting, what was the
final score? Then you're and you beat him? Yeah, was
there a point? And your heart of hearts that you
because it sounds like when you're talking to your coordinators,
it was just, hey, we gotta play better not to
(09:16):
get killed. I'm not even gonna talk about coming back
and winning. I mean that mindset. I mean that sounds defeatist,
but the realist. Did you go, God, I don't think
we can overcome this. Yeah, you gotta stop the bleeding first, right,
you gotta fix what's really gashing you. And so you know,
I had Jim Moraw who's now the UCL day coach,
doing a great job over there. He was my defensive coordinator,
(09:37):
and we had to figure out what pressures would be
new and surprised the Giants and you know, take the
ball away, that kind of thing. And then with Greg Nap,
I said, he was at my offensive coordinator. I said,
all right, forget the game plan. We will never huddle again.
We are going to go into our no huddle. We're
gonna go fast. We're three, you know, three scores down
plus a lot of two point plays. Let's get going.
(09:58):
And so you know that that's what happened. We were
lucky enough to boom, boom boom, get some get some
things going and and win it close at the end.
And then they missed the field goal at the end.
We played Jacksonville, My my Super Bowl year in two
thousand and I got a prevace it by saying the
organization had never beaten Jacksonville. Not the year I got
there in ninety nine. We got swept there. We were.
(10:19):
They were in the division with us at the time,
the old NFC Central f f C Central Um and
so and and prior to that, even when they were
in Cleveland, when Ozzie News and Art Modele, they had
never beaten Jacksonville. So that that was the big thing,
that that, Okay, well can we beat Jacksonville. So we're down,
it's early in the season. We're down twenty three, two three,
(10:45):
and it's halftime, and that's not to seem unsurmountable. But
keep mind, this is a team we had never ever
beaten before. So I'm like you, I'm kind of I
didn't even conceivably think we could win the game, but
I'm just thinking this could, this thing could get bad
and biblical proportions. So I tell my guys, you know,
not that it matters the pep talk, but going, guys, look,
we're going to define who we are by how we
(11:05):
come out in the second half. I don't care win
or lows. I'm not talking about winning and losing. I'm
just talking about the way you fight and the way
you finish this game. And we ended up Shannon Sharp
down the middle of the field beating him thirty six,
which really to me was the catalyst for us going
forward and ended up being our super Bowl year and
actually hard to imagine we did it offensively because my
(11:27):
defense had given up thirty six points and normally we
were such a defense dominated team, but that was That
was probably the one I'm going to remember the most
that uh And and Coughlin didn't beat me again after that,
so that felt pretty good. You know what, your story
ends up in a Super Bowl. Myke come from behind
win ends up. I got fired the next week, Brian,
(11:48):
even with the big comeback, and that was a playoff game.
So then we go, we go to Tampa the next week,
and then Tampa beats us. They won the Super Bowl
that year, and Mooch is out. That was it. It
was like, well they ended up getting with that Super Bowl.
They ended up getting me later on. Anyway, Yeah, they're
gonna get you sooner or later that we had we
would be remissed. We didn't talk about two unbelievable performances.
(12:11):
Peyton Manning obviously with breaking five hundred. This you're gonna
love that. I know you know this number. But I
was just sitting in my hotel room after watching the
game yesterday, and I'm looking at these and keeping my
Aaron Rodgers, who gets his on Thursday night, gets his
two hundred touchdown pass which is the second fastest in
the history of the league. I think it was, uh,
(12:33):
Dan Reno got it ninety eight games, and Aaron, and
we all know how much we love Aaron Rodgers got
it ninety six or ninety seven games, Okay, so he's
second on the list or maybe vice versa. And I
think that's spectacular. And then then we get to Sunday
and Peyton Manning throws his five hundred touchdown path Aaron
Rodgers only has three hundred more touchdown passes to go,
(12:54):
and probably plus some. That number just just blew my mind.
I know it. And I've been sort of folloween this,
maybe selfishly, because I coach Brett Farve for a while,
and so I know what his numbers are, and I
know that it's inevitable that his records will be broken,
and and and who would you rather have him break
the records? Than Peyton Manning. Right, So the touchdown records
(13:16):
gonna go this year, might go next week or the
week after, right, the winds, the number of wins probably
will go next year sometime, if I remember correctly. The
yards probably will go next year at some point in time.
His his number of games in a row plane you know,
consecutive starts. I don't think he'll ever be broken, but
(13:37):
it's it's sort of interesting to watch how these records
are gonna fall. And and you know what, someday somebody's
gonna beat Peyton Manning's records because the league is turning
in to throw the ball, you know, you know a lot,
and you see it in colleges. Now cal Kell and
Washington State was six to fifty nine. They don't throw
it every down, and so a lot of these passing
records with sacks, interceptions and yards will will go. But
(14:00):
this it's fun to watch these these superstars play well.
The league is always in need of more great quarterbacks,
you know that. And and the guys, the handful of
guys that are set in the temple right now, Uh boy,
we're gonna miss them when they're gone. So I hope
we all enjoy what they're doing. Their excellence on and
off the field is so important to the National Football League. Yeah, well,
(14:22):
we won't know until we look in the in the
rear view mirror of history, but there may not have
been a time in the NFL where more Hall of
Fame quarterbacks. You know, we know Brady, we know Manning,
we know Breeze. Pretty sure Rogers is going to get there,
but some of these other guys, you know, there may
not have been another time. I know, somebody can do
(14:42):
the research on it as to just how lucky we are.
And Tom Brady the other night again Cincinnaia. Since I
still a good football team, what they ran into, in
my opinion, was an in rhythm piste off Tom Brady.
And that's a bad combination. You're right, because how about
the week they had. You know, they lose a game
to can As a city and they looked pathetic. Let's
face it, they admitted it, but they just put their
(15:04):
nose to the grindstone and got ready for Cincinnati, and
got ready for Cincinnati. And you saw Bill Belichick say
that eight times in his press conference. And you know what,
they got ready for Cincinnati, and so it was a
beat down, to be quite honest with you, and Tom
Brady looked like he was in his prime. And and uh,
don't ever count that team out. They might have a
bad game or two, everybody does, but when when, when
(15:27):
it's all said and done, that's a dangerous bunch over there.
And I was kind of happy to see that for
Tom Brady. Well, I got a chance to day to
visit with a guy that you and I are envious
of because he gets to work with Peyton Manning, head
coach of Denver Broncos, John Fox. And he takes a snap,
looks right, grows right, Amanda stop is upper five hundred,
(15:53):
Big five five tuk stops the various tims. It's fo Miller.
The Denver Brockers took down the Arizona Cardinals twenty on
Sunday behind a record breaking performance from quarterback Peyton Manning
and joining us now as head coach John Fox and coach,
(16:14):
I mean, you're you're you're at home, I know, but
you're playing an undefeated Arizona Cardinal team, a very good
defense and then just put on a good old fashioned
butt whooping uh offense. Actually, you know, absolutely explode to
talk about what I'll win like that against a team
that currently had been three and oh well, I think, uh,
you know, they're very good football team, very well coached
(16:35):
Bruce arians and his staff. You know, they played very
well last year ten and six and just short of
the playoffs, so we knew it was gonna be a
tough match up. They're really good on defense. They put
a lot of pressure on the quarterback and uh, you know,
I think our offensive line, our blocking element, did a
terrific job. And you know, Peyton was as good as
I've seen him. He had a very productive day, made
(16:56):
some great throws into tight coverage and uh, you know,
luckily we were to uh you know, accelerate in the
fourth quarter and win against a good football team. You know,
I've got to ask you obviously, Peyton manning and setting
the record five touchdown throws, he's going to break the
all time record. I know you hope this week, but
it will come. If not this week, then the next week.
But I'm interested in your you know, your background was
(17:17):
primarily on the defensive side of the ball, as a
defensive minded coach, and you've been a head coach long
enough I realized that's probably a misstatement, but that being
your background, do you ever watch him and watch Peyton
Manning hitch yourself going, God, I'm glad I don't have
to play this guy. How how would I go about
stopping this well? For so many of those years, Brian,
as you all know, Uh, you know, I was playing
(17:38):
against him, so I knew how good he was. And
you know, you're in this league long enough, people have
reps and you hear about it, whether it's players or coaches,
and uh, you know I heard about how hard he worked,
how hard he prepares. But you know, once he got
here and actually watch it on a daily basis, it's incredible.
The film study, the you know, the amount of preparation
(18:00):
he does when it's the weight room, the read the
first year when he was coming off that neck injury.
What he's accomplished is it's just remarkable. Uh, he's an
incredible player, and uh, we're glad he's on our side.
When when I had a chance to do some of
his games in Indianapolis and the first time I really
got to see him work a practice, talk a little
bit about I've never seen a player operate in a practice,
(18:24):
not only just him in the high efficiency, but the
running backs, he's down in the offensive line drill saying, hey,
we're gonna do this. We're gonna talk a little bit
about I've never seen that before. Well, you know, Troy
Aitman was out there. They had our game this weekend
and so he was out you know, viewing practice length
the networks do and um, you know he was running
the routes on air drill and everybody's involved and uh,
(18:46):
you know, the precision, the exactness, uh, the protections, whether
it's the communication with the old line. I mean he's
you know, he's tireless. And uh you know that's how
you execute really well on game day as you rep
it and prepare it. Uh, you know, and a week
of preparation. You know, you you faced team in Arizona
that had a pretty good secondary and I know, as
I look at it, the challenges obviously. Maybe maybe I'm
(19:09):
lucky enough to have a number one corner that can
match up with whomever you want to be. You're probably
Damerius Thomas. Maybe I'm lucky enough to have a number two.
But there's no way I have a three, four and
five that are going to keep up with Julius Thomas
and Wes Welker and Emmanuel Sanders. You and John Elway
have done an unbelievable job bringing together a talent pool
for him to draw on. And it's led by Damerius Thomas. Yeah,
(19:32):
I think, you know, DT, A lot have been made
here locally about you know, maybe some lack of production
over the first three weeks. And uh, you know, Demerius,
like all great athletes, uh, great players in this league,
like DT, I had a great week of preparation and
uh you know, he had a pretty much beastly day
it was, you know, and I was with a seventy
(19:52):
seven yarder being called back. So, uh, he's a very
talented guy that uh, you know, working very hard last
week in preparation was great. See you know, I have
a great performance yesterday. Do you ever you know, and
again going back to kind of your your defensive mentality,
which is understandable and obviously Peyton manning in the way there,
do you ever catch yourself him coming over the sideline
(20:12):
and kind of going, you know, we we can run
the ball a little bit, maybe maybe you can get
a few more runs in there. I mean that, I
know all defensive coaches want to run the ball more,
even though you're getting all that productivity in the passing game,
well you know as well as I do. But I
mean you kinda take with the defense gives you. And uh,
you're right, John Elway, and is to have have done
a great job and acquiring talent. You know, Julius Thomas,
(20:34):
you know, a year ago nobody knew of him. Now
now he's a tough matchup. And then on defense, Uh,
it's all about matchups. And when you have those type
of talented weapons, uh, it makes it tough for defense.
And uh, you know, like I've always said, you show
me a good coach, I'll show you some good players.
And that's right. Always this game always has been, will
be and and forever be about good players. Um, let's
(20:57):
talk about a good player. Let's talk about the defensive
side of the ball. Var Miller, at least from the outside,
looks to be as healthy as we've seen him in
a while. Is that a fair statement? Yeah? It is
bright And I think you know, over the first three weeks, uh,
you know, coming off of an A C L surgery
and you know, some of the confidence level that you
get as you play the game more coming off of that,
(21:18):
you know, I think you're seeing that, and uh, you know,
Vonn was a player that was you know, it's both
suspended an injury a year ago, so we didn't have
him but but about six games and uh, you know
we've welcomed him back obviously with open arms, and he
looks to be getting better every day and every week. Coach, obviously,
as a head coach, you worry about every aspect of
the game, the offense, defense, special teams. Things are going on, injuries,
(21:41):
everybody's talking a little bit about the the unfortunate situation
with Julius Thomas and the cut block. Talk about as
a head coach not only for what your team and
you want to obviously take care of your team, but
also the bigger issue in health in this league. Talk
about how you address something like that. Well, we never
intentionally ever coach or you know, even players here. There's
too much respect for their you know, fellow players in
(22:03):
the league. So, uh, that doesn't happen and it doesn't
happen here. It was just a miscommunication. It was a
personnel group where we have no backs in the game.
Tight ends kind of take that responsibility. Arizona was in
a look where you know, class was outside playing and
there actually we're in a three man rush. We really
just should have just checked out right away. Uh. You know,
(22:25):
cut blocking is legal. Um, that's part of what backs
and tightens do when they line up in the backfield.
It was just a miscommunication between our tight end and
tackle that Uh, you know, we didn't even really engage
the guy was actually just uh they called it a lure,
but you know, we weren't even supposed to resemble anything
(22:46):
like that. Unfortunately, something that happened. And I can understand
the frustration of Bruce. Anytime you lose a very very
good player like class. Uh, that's frustrated for any coach.
And but it's something not intentional and uh, something would
never ever stand for fair enough, as long as talking
about injuries, can you give us an update on monte
Ball what you think his status might be. Well, he's
(23:07):
got a growing strain, the severitya that they're going through
the testing phase of evaluation and we'll have an update
on Wednesday. It sounds great, coach, Thank you so much.
Look forward to seeing you this week against the Jets.
Oh it sounds good. Thank you for having me, Brian. Alright, moach,
we gotta we got to talk about for the life
of a coach. And you and I we talked about
this occasionally, and uh, boy, to be thrown back into it.
(23:31):
Now we're seeing what's going on in New York with
Rex Ryan. Understandable given the record that they have, let's
talk a little bit about that. But on the other
spend of the end of the spectrum, it's no better
for Jim Harbaugh and he's winning football games. Well, you
and I both know that the hot seat is not
reserved for guys with just losing records. The hot seat
is for most anybody in this league. If you coach
(23:53):
in the National Football League, sooner or later, you're gonna
be on that seat. And so it's crazy living up
in the Bay Area here here in out all of this.
I don't know what you would call it disarray or
whatever with the nine within the n NINER organization, uh
from head coach, the GM uh conflict too, players and
I don't know what it is, but it's just not typical.
(24:16):
It's it seems a little bit bizarre. Um and and
I and Jed York said today already that Jim is
his coach. They're trying to win a Super Bowl, it's
not about you know, personalities right now, and they're staying
focused that way. But there's a lot of there's a
lot of grumbling and I and I don't quite get it.
And then it you and I have both been in
Rex's boat where you wish you had a veteran quarterback
(24:39):
that knew how to win games. Um and poor Rex,
you know, he he started off with a youngster and
Mark Sanchez try to win as many games as he
could then and then he transitioned into another young drafted
quarterback in Geno Smith, and and you know they don't
always pan out, and they're trying to make Geno the
guy and he says he's going to start him again.
(25:01):
Michael Vick didn't jump start that that offense last week,
and so you know, I don't want to say he's
stuck with Gino, but you know they they've got a
tough road to home, and I like Gino. He has
done some good things on occasion. You just need to
see more of it. Yeah, tough place to be a
just emotional you can see for Rex. It's just it's
going to be a grind. And then the defense, which
is supposed to be their strength. You know, you just
(25:23):
can't keep up enough and you get emotionally down and
to be able to hold onto it, it's it's so
tough as a coach. I thought Jim Harbaugh's response was brilliant.
And we know Jim, Jim is not the most I
don't know, communicative guy in terms of dealing with the media,
but in terms of you know, suffering fools, so to speak.
But I thought he was response diffused it immediately, at
(25:45):
least at the spot when he said, look, coaches, locker room,
it's a lot of personalities. It's my job to love
these guys and put it in a position to win.
It's their job to love each other and to take
care of each other. I thought that was brilliant because
it immediately says, look, I understand the locker room is. Uh.
They don't have to love me. They had, but they
(26:05):
gotta love one another. They gotta play for one another.
I thought it was absolutely brilliant. And then to see
to see Jim Schwartz carried off in Detroit just happened
to be the old place he used to be. I
don't I don't know that I've ever seen that of you,
where a coach gets carried off in the old place
he just got fired from. Nope, no, I got fired
from there too. Um did anybody carry you off? Not
(26:26):
on every ring back and so um. I I found
it a little bizarre, a little different because because he
gave one of these, you know, and and of course
that's what they're talking about in Detroit right now. And
and I think I kind of chuckled with it because
I know, I know Jim, and I know it was
a very big win for him personally. Let's face it,
(26:47):
it is. And so but I think they I think
he kiddily talked about that with his guys in O
T A. S. And he said something, Yeah, we're gonna
go to Detroit and I want to get you guys
cary me off, thinking that that would be a funny. Yeah,
they took him to his word, and they grabbed them
and they put him up. It was it was not
quite like Buddy Ryan getting carried off after the Super Bowl,
you know, when Dick is getting carried off over there
(27:08):
a little bit. But it was kind of crazy. Yeah
what the heck? Yeah, well, yeah, like I said, I
don't know that I've seen it either, but yeah, that's great.
It's great and and and then also underlines anytime you
hear about when you have these guys, whether Flayer coach
is going to place as they played before, does this
game care anymore meaning for you? No? No, no, no,
this is just another game that's just a bold face
(27:28):
lie Um. This week on my weekly co Coaches Calum,
I'm gonna write about half to about Philip Rivers, and
we talked about Manning, we talked about Brady and Breeze
and Andrew. Is there anybody playing better than Philip Rivers
right now? And it doesn't seem it does. It's it's
whatever you take away, whatever you take away Gates. Fine,
I'll go to Royal and I'll go to out Okay,
I'll take those two away. Well, I got Floyd on
(27:49):
the other side, and then you take them all away,
and they got this who who is the guy that
cranked up? Who the heck are they're running backs to
take away Ryan Matthew And then they heck is this
other guy that showed phil up Rivers? Fine, I'll find
whoever's open. Brandon Oliver and he's like it's like he
looked like sprawls. That's many sprawls, I mean coming around there,
and and and so you know, Mike McCoy is doing
(28:10):
a heck of a job. We talked about Chuck Pagano
a lot. How about his brother, John Pagano, the defensive
coordinator over there with San Diego. Great job. But the
glue to that whole thing is Philip Rivers. You mentioned him,
and he's an m VP candidate right now. He really is.
And you know what, he deserves it because he is
the fireball of talk about emotional quarterbacks. You've got some
(28:33):
you know, some different personality. You got Joe Flacco over there,
and he's a tight b personality, you know, steady as
she goes. Philip Rivers is like he's off the charts
with his emotion and he's he's he's he's, he's there heartbeat,
he's their pulse, and uh, I gotta love where they're headed.
They're gonna go into Denver and play a Thursday night
(28:55):
game like they did a couple of years ago, and
in fact, the Chargers won that one. So they're gonna
really mix it up here in this a FC race.
I'm gonna I'll do a Mire copy here because probably
one of the reasons I'm doing the Coaches Show podcast
rather than continue to coach two quarterbacks that I said
could not play in this league Brett Farve, because I
thought his shoulder won't last. The torque he puts on
(29:15):
his shoulder, I thought him coming out and see Hi
when he was saying he's gonna blow his shoulder. He
may come in and be good for a couple of years,
but there's no way he's he's gonna last. And he
has what the all time starts records, and Philip Rivers
is that not because I said it's the ugliest delivery.
It's the ugliest throwing action. You cannot correct this. It's
unbelievable how how productive he is with the worst throwing
(29:36):
action in the history of this game. Yeah, and he
doesn't really care. He doesn't get style points. You don't
you get that in like in ski jumping, in gymnastics,
but throwing the ball, just get it there, get Hi,
give him a catchable pass and he can do that.
And you're right. You would never make a clinic film
on technique of throwing the football with Philip Rivers, but boy,
(29:57):
oh boy, production and enthusiasm, he's got it. Yeah, and
then off the charts so well. Much I appreciate it.
Make sure you check us out next week on The
Coaching Show podcast. Go to nfl dot com slash podcast
ship sh
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