October 13, 2014 • 31 mins
Brian Billick and Steve Mariucci recap Week 6 in the NFL. They break down the Green Bay Packers last minute comeback over the Miami Dolphins as well as the Dallas Cowboys statement win over the Seattle Seahawks. The coaches also draft their top six quarterbacks going forward for the 2014 season. Plus, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis joins the program to discuss the team’s tie against the Carolina Panthers.
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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? How everybody cry
but nobody calling them? And now we're going there's a
glean man, there's a glean. Thanks for checking out the
(00:22):
week six Coaches Show podcast. I'm Brian Billy here with
Steve Maryuchi. This week we discussed Sunday's best games, including
the Cowboys upset in Seattle and the Packers come back
against the Dolphins, plus Mooch and I draft the quarterbacks
would rather have for the rest of the two thousand
and fourteen season, and chat with Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
The Coaches Show podcast starts right now. Well, like everybody else, Moach,
(00:44):
we got to talk about this Dallas Cowboys Seattle. See
that that was a heck of a game. That's a
game I would have loved to have done that. Well,
I was, you know, I we know that the Dallas
Cowboys have been on a roll, and we know what
they're doing on off fence with running the ball, and
Romo was playing better and death. But I had no
I had no idea that they'd go up there and
(01:06):
win this game. I was a little bit in shock
watching this game unfold because I was waiting for Seattle
to kick it in like they always do at home,
and it just never happened. And so my hat is
off to the Cowboys, Brian. I. I didn't see this coming,
did you know? And everybody else we'd have been satisfied
because we're all waiting for the shoot to drop on Dallas, right,
We're waiting for them to revert back and and and
(01:27):
listening to the shows that I did listen to you guys,
there was a sense even Michael Irvin, who I saw
in the green room when you guys were doing your
game day morning, and he was gonna pick Sattle. So
how do you can pick Seattle. You gotta take Dallas.
And he was the same way, going, you know what,
if they can just stay close as long as they
don't get run out of the park, if they just
keep it close in Seattle, then that's gonna be good.
That that'll that'll tell us Dallas is there. So even
(01:50):
Michael Irvine was kind of couching it a little bit, saying,
you know what, it's okay if they lose, as long
as they don't look bad. Let's talk about how they
did it. Obviously, they ran the ball, well, they chewed
up the clock. But you talked about Russell Wilson, And
I've been talking about this for a couple of weeks
on playbook. I keep advocating for Russell Wilson. When you
when you approach the Seattle offense, what you gotta do.
You gotta stop Marshawn Lynch, and you've got to keep
(02:12):
Russell Wilson in the pocket and make him beat you
from there. Now he can do that, but you know
he can beat you outside. I thought Dallas was brilliant
because I didn't see Russell Wilson other than on the
one drive we did run the read option and actually
got in, but I didn't see him outside the pocket. All.
They made him throw from the pocket, all of the all,
but with limited reps because they were chewing up the clock.
(02:34):
They that is clearly the key to me is how
to limit this Seattle offense. Well, yes, and if you
get ahead of them and you make them play catchup
kind of football, which which which makes the quarterback throw
the ball from the pocket and throw the ball down
the field and all of that, that's not their cup
of tea. That's not what they do best. They play
(02:55):
better with the lead. They played better when it's even
they can run, play action, move ound, and he can scramble.
But when they're down, and we saw it at the
end of that game, Uh, to make plays in the
passing game consistently from the pocket, it wasn't gonna happen.
And and uh, you know what, I was impressed with
Brian Dallas gets down tend nothing. You know, that was
(03:16):
an awesome block punt, nice scheme coming off the edge,
and that was that was well executed. And then uh,
then they're down ten to nothing, and I thought, oh boy,
here we go. This is gonna be I thought for sure.
But they seemed to be very mentally tough in terms
of the in blink. They just kept playing and they
(03:36):
kept stubborn with the run game. They didn't start chucking
it all over the place with Tony Romo. They kept
trying to run the ball against the best run defense
in the league. And I was impressed with their mental
toughness in this game, sticking to the game plan, trying
to run de Marco Murray against an excellent run defense,
and you know what, they were successful and they ended
(03:56):
up putting Seattle and catchup mode. I was shot. My
hat is off to Dallas um Mayor and Nelly. You
know what, I gotta give him a call, even though
he doesn't he doesn't like that. He doesn't talk much
on his cell phone. He's just really old school. But
that defense. Talk about no name defense. We had to
like the killer bees, you know, we had the no
(04:17):
name defense. We got to get a name for marion
Elli's defense here because it's hard to you know, it's
hard to name all of them, because they're guys that
a lot of them we didn't even expect to play
this year. And remember job just how bad they were
last year. I mean they were bad and biblical terms,
they were the third biblical terms. They were the third
worst in the history of ever last year. And all
(04:38):
of a sudden, here they are. They're bottling up seattle
for two d and six total yards of you kiding me,
and I want to build on that the idea of
the running game. And later on the show we're gonna
talk about the use of DeMarco Murray. But I'm gonna
hold on to that right now. But you're exactly right,
I think, and I've been very critical like everybody is
of Dallas for a lot of different reasons, and and
particularly the triumphant of Jason Garrett and Bill Halahan and
(05:00):
Scott Lanahan, the three headed monster. Okay, who does Tony
Roman listened to and who's doing what and how he's calling.
But you're right that commitment to the run, because I
think they recognized, even down ten nothing that if they
got away from the running game, because Seattle is a
little undersize, it's very athletic, you know, Pete Carroll's all
about an athletic and guys running around that if they
could play to that strength of pounding away and pounding
(05:22):
away and and they moderate success early. But what do
we always say about a good physical team, They can
wear you down. And in the fourth quarter, that Seattle defense, physically,
that front seven was just flat war out DeMarco Murray
that that last drive to go down the field was
they couldn't make a tackle, and that's on characteristic Seattle defense.
He they just they couldn't get out of the way
(05:44):
fast enough because he was just bowling them over, he
was in that last drive. You mentioned some real aggressive
runs by DeMarco, But how about that third and twenty
conversion by Romeo, the Terrence Williams on the sideline tiptoe
in third and twenty Brian games over if they don't
make that play, and so, uh it was. It was
(06:04):
quite a team effort. We don't talk enough about that
offensive line. That Jerry Jones. You know, maybe he's going
to be the executive of the year because all of
a sudden, we're now seen no no, no, no, no,
don't do that. No, don't don't throw gasoline on that fire.
Oh my god, if god. So he's got these three
three number one draft choices on offensive lineman that he
(06:25):
can outpat himself on the back when they at the
time they weren't very sexy, and it was like what
but you know what, right now they went in there
and that offensive line they didn't they didn't get bothered
by the crowd noise, well except for that one snap
on Tony Roman's leg, remember, but but otherwise they control
the line of scrimmage. They protected Tony pretty well. And
(06:45):
so that offensive line a bunch of unsung heroes. Man,
there's a lot of good moving parts with that Dallas team.
Ringer the score belied just what a butt whooping this
was because of of the blocked punt, you know, and
because of the missnapped and the fumble punt. The good
that's the only reason Seattle really got in position to
score was because of those special teams gaffs. If it
(07:06):
weren't for that, this thing would have been a beat down.
Let's let's talk about We talked about the physicality line
to Marco Murray a big component of as well. And
we talked about this going in. I know you did
on game day morning. Was Richard Sherman and the Dez Bryant,
the fact that they had the big receiving Coreyo. I
talked about Terrence Williams that they talked about how they've
shut down tight ends. Jason Witten, Well, Jason Witten had
(07:27):
some big catches and the matchup with Richard Sherman and
Dez Bryant, this is as good as Richard Sherman is.
Dees Bryant's a different piece now he is. And and
I was what I was watching the game within the
game because Brian, as you know, we had Richard Sherman
on a couple of weeks ago and game day morning
during their by and he was terrific. But typically he
(07:49):
plays the left corner spot. So it was gonna be
all right, how many times will the Cowboys match up
Dez Bryant over there on their offensive right side against
Richard Sherman. Didn't happen a lot dead des had ten
targets and only four catches. But but what happened in
the game Byron Maxwell got hurt? All right? And you're
(08:12):
already talking about a team Seattle who lost Walter Thurman
last year and Brandon Browner. Okay, so now Maxwell gets hurt.
Who plays the other side away from Richard Sherman. So
now Richard Sherman moved over there, and he ended up
on Dez Bryant over there on the other side. And
then and Marcus Burley is now the other corner. It's
(08:33):
gonna be interesting because this secondary of the Seattle Seahawks
is a little bit different, I should say, a lot
different than last year's secondary with depth. So will Richard
Sherman's finally start traveling with guys like a Dez Bryant,
or will they will find a way to play right
and left with these guys? I think right now they
have huge decisions to make. And this shook up the Seahawks.
(08:55):
As you read the comments afterwards, um, and they'd start
in a typical I'll take this is a loss like this,
they start chipping at one of their Doug Baldwin going
at Russell a little bit and not, you know, we're
better than this, and an expletive riddled sounded like me
an expletive riddled response to the press about how bad
they were. But I think what they did recognize. And
(09:16):
I did a radio show in Seattle on Monday morning.
The fans are a little pain because they really like,
oh boy, we might lose home field advantage. I mean,
that's always been the subposition, We're gonna come through Seattle
no matter what happens. We're good and it's all gonna come.
That's definitely. We'll see what goes down the way here.
But that's definitely in jeopardy here. And that changes the
price of poker here a little bit, doesn't It. Isn't
(09:36):
it crazy, Brian, how when you win, you're just beating
your chest feeling the fouriers like we are just Kings.
And you lose one game like this and all of
a sudden panic strikes and it's like, oh my god,
we might not have home field. We might not have
this secondary might not have Russell Wilson running around. Uh.
You know, this is a good football team and they
(09:57):
will regroup, you know that. But a loss is so
devastating to a team like this that expects to win
every game, especially at home. And so we're gonna see
what kind of resilient bunch they are, uh without chipping
at each other and getting back to basics and and
go and win the next game. But they know after
(10:18):
that game, they knew that they got outplayed. And I
don't know, I faced outcoach, show out out. All I
know is it was sort of a kind of like
you said, it was worse than the score indicated in
terms of how well Dallas played above Seattle, and Seattle
knows that. We're also going to find out about a
Cowboy team for the first time. How do they hold
up under the pressure of being the number one team,
(10:40):
of being really good instead of saying how bad they are.
They haven't been like that in years and years and years.
This is a new new era for the for the
Dallas Cowboys, Like, hey, we're the favorite here. You want
to throw gas on the fire and make Jerry Executive
of the Year now. So that's hey, hey, he drafted
all those guys. Well, let's talk about another really good team.
And if if, if, if I were to go back
(11:01):
to coaching, I would take the lead from this guy,
knowing that no matter what happens to my team. I'm
just saying, hey, relax, okay, relax, because Aaron Rodgers some
information on who you might draft. Bryan I will see.
I'm gonna surprise you. We're gonna talk about that in
a minute. But that obviously Aaron Rodgers and I want
to talk about a coaching decision. Obviously in a really
good game, and and and green Bay going down to
(11:24):
Miami and Aaron Rodgers hadn't one down there in three attempts,
hadn't been in Miami, but it locks the Jacksonville lost
to Tampa. I want to talk about the decision of
Mike McCarthy. You drive the length of the field, you're
down by seven, you need a touchdown, a field goal
to win, or a touchdown at two point right, they
get down to the twelve yard line in Miami, it's
fourth and six, and they do the field goal with
(11:46):
four minutes left. Now, a lot of people might have
criticized to say, well, don't you got Aaron Rodgers, don't
you chase a chance at the touchdown? But he kicked
the field goal, had faith in his defense. They punted
it back. Now they're under two minutes and Aaron Rodgers
goes to length the field. Now it was the right
decision because it worked out, but you can see where
it could have gone the other way had he passed
up the chance for the touchdown. Let's talk a little
(12:08):
bit about that decision process. Would you have done the
same thing or would you have tried for the fourth
and six? It would be tempting because you have Aaron Rodgers, right,
but but you know what the percentages are fourth and six.
They're not very down in the red zone, so it's
more cramped. Yeah, and so and so, you know, I
I think he looked at the time, he looked at all, right,
(12:29):
my defense can stop him. How many time outs did
he I'm drawn a blank. How many time outs did
he have at the time? You know, I don't recall,
but not a lot because that clock later on became
an issue and we'll talk about that in a second.
You know, but you know, you take your points when
you can get them. Sometimes maybe if it was fourth
and short, real short, maybe you go for it. Um
you know. So, like you said, it worked out because
(12:50):
they got the three and they got the ball back.
Had he had he not gotten the ball back, you're
an idiot, right, But but he was putting confidence on
his defense. That's what you do. Sometimes you make a
statement saying we're gonna take the points defense, I trust
that you're gonna get the ball back. Go do your job.
And that fourth and tent call. On that fourth and
tent throw, let's begin with the call because it's it's
(13:10):
third and ten, third nine. They don't get anything. It's
now fourth and nine or fourth and ten. Miami calls
time out. Now I understand how you can all of
a sudden over the personnel changes or we're not configured.
They First off, I'm gonna criticize Miami here. Green Bay
has staying three wives the whole time they were in
eleven personnel. They've been in the same formation every single play. Well,
(13:32):
we used to call double right, you know, where it
was the tied end flanker to one side and you
have the slot. And so they're in the same personnel,
the same formation, and Miami calls out and and Joe
Philbin says today, Well, we wanted to get a look
at their at their personnel and formation. Well, and you
stop the clock. That was the thing. It's stopped. So
you're instead of making Green Bay make a call on
fourth and ten, you stop the clock for them because
(13:55):
they didn't have the time out. Uh. To me, that's
a huge And they're in the same personnel and saying
formation that have been the whole time. And I'm gonna
to add to it. I thought that throw by Aaron
Rodgers on the fourth and ten to Jordy Nelson with
Cam Cam wake, Cameron wake all over him, almost like
a followay jumper. He couldn't have been more accurate than
if he had walked over and handed it to Jordy Nelson.
(14:15):
That was the most spectacular throw I've seen in a
long time. Well, that's why he's so special, I mean,
because he can make throws. Uh. You know, we always
teach our quarterbacks to you know, balance up, step into
your throw and being being transfer your weight, all that
clinic stuff. Right. Well, Aaron Rodgers is the best in
the business at throwing from the run, going right or left,
(14:36):
throwing quickly where he's not set throwing off balance, changing
his delivery point. I mean, the guy it can can
make plays throwing it behind his back, and so he
had to. He had to pull off a miracle drive.
He's he's got eleven come from behind wins, okay in
his young career, which is not a lot. Others have
more than that. They're not behind all that much. But
(14:57):
he this was one of his classic wins because that
last drive was epic, and and of course the fourth
and ten and then the fake spike later on, and
it was it was one for the ages and Aaron Rodgers.
Now we're wet, we're West Coast guy sort of, and
you know, Levin personnel is kind of what you do,
and you're no huddle, sure a minute drill most of
the time, and so and so I think maybe Miami
(15:20):
was taking a time out, maybe to catch their breath.
Coaching points, look for this, look for that. Let's hey,
he might throw to Jordy Nelson this time, you know
what I mean. And you know there might have been
some reason for you know, taking a deep breath there
and in because that's the game. The game is on
the line, right and I can understand, but to call
the time out where the time is going to be
(15:41):
a factor, and then to afterwards say well, we wanted
to see what personnel they were in. That's someone that
didn't drive. If I'd say, hey, we were sucking gas
here and we needed a regroup, okay, fair enough, But
he said, but he said, this is what we do.
We've done it before, and we as a staff had
decided ahead of time in these situations, this is what
we do. I don't I question that one, but yeah,
(16:02):
Aaron Rodgers, the job that they did. And and to
build on what you're saying and go back, we've talked
about this before. What's so comical now is remembering that
Aaron Rodgers fell to twenty four in the draft because
we were we weren't sure, I say we collectively the
NFL mentality. How athletic he was outside the pocket, how
good an athlete he was. How ridiculous does that sound
(16:23):
right now? I know? But Brian, Brian, you gotta remember
it was here Alex Smith, right, and Alex Smith he
was not a schlup in college. He had a forty
on the wonder lick. Okay, he was athletic. He was
taller than Aaron he was you know, his stats were great.
(16:44):
I mean, so that was you know, we talked about
those decisions, the Ryan Leaf, Peyton Manning ones and then
you know the other ones. You know, there was others,
but this Alex Smith one. There was a lot of
mixed feelings on asked to who and I'm with you
understand Alex Smith and you too, because a lot of
those teams simply didn't need a quarterback. It was kind
of how it went that year. But what's comical is
(17:07):
Mike McCarthy was on the San Francisco staff that chose
Alex Smith, I know it. And then and then gets
a job in Green Bay and falls into the other thing.
I'm going back to my old Minnesota. Minnesota passed on
him twice in that draft, twice for two players that
didn't last more than two or three leagues. What would
what would the Minnesota Vikings story be today if they
had taken Aaron Rodgers with one of those picks. My
(17:30):
chicken had lips that could whistle, you know what. I
was in San Francisco and Tom Brady wanted to come
to the forty niners too, and we passed them six times,
and so did everybody in the league until Billichick fell
on him, you know, over there. So there's all there's
there's some examples about passing up these quarterbacks. You know,
they weren't they weren't Hall of famers. Then coming out
of college they were good, but you just didn't know
(17:52):
how good they were going to be. Maybe somebody else
was a little better at the time. The next points
win the game. Well, it's it's they're both clearly in
their in their courting. It's gonna come down to a
field golden overturn. Chick is up, it looks good, and
(18:15):
it is no go. He missed it. Another great game
Sunday was the overtime tie between the Panthers and Bengals.
And joining us now to talk about this contest is
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Marvin, how you doing?
I'm doing well, Coach? How are you doing today? Nobody
likes the tie. Should we do something in the league
(18:36):
to just eliminate those altogether? Would you be for just
playing it out untimed quarter Well, I don't know, we were.
I think both teams were pretty well spent yesterday, and uh,
you know, I mean seventy five minutes is a lot
of football, a lot of snaps, a lot of plays,
and when you start out with forty six guys, everybody's
pretty drained. So again, I don't know, we may, you know,
(18:58):
expose ourselves to marian reason. Even that's a good point,
and that's obviously the reason why they put the time quarter.
And of course, if Phy'll let you expand the game
day roster, maybe that'll get you to change and think
a little bit. Talk about when we were in Baltimore
together we had matched over it. He was mr consistent
and and one was one of the established veterans on
the team. Talk a little bit about how you deal
with the disappointment both individually and collectively at the team
(19:20):
when a Mike Nugent goes in and misses an opportunity
like that, and and how that team handles it. I know,
Adam Jones chipping away a little bit. How do you
deal with that? Well, I think it's obviously it's it's
a we have a lot of confidence in Mike and
and he has a you know, a job to do
that no one pays much attention until you've got to
go kick the game winning field goal p a T.
(19:41):
You're looking for a big kickoff, and uh, when it
doesn't come out on on his side, uh, you know,
everybody feels bad. But there were a lot of football
plays offensively and defensively that impacted that football game way
before the game deciding kick could have happened. We had
chances to put the game away, both on offense, both
on defense to get that done, and we failed to
(20:02):
do it. Yeah, and the good news is Andy Dalton
put your team in position to do that under a
critical situation. Talk a little bit about how Andy continues
to progress, particularly under those, you know, stressful situations. Well,
and he did. He did a great job leading us
down the field a couple of times in the fourth quarter,
leading us back in the game, and then obviously down
the field in overtime and uh twice, And so we
(20:26):
had opportunities there and uh, you know, we we made
you know, maybe one bad decision on the day, and
we got to try eliminate all of those. We because
we did have two turnovers. One he got hit and one,
Uh you know, we got to do a little better
job of so again being consistent, he's got the ball
in his hands, just like that kicker has the game
winning kick, No different than the cornerback on defense. We
(20:48):
put him in and one on one situation, We're looking
for him to win in that down, and uh, you
know those are those are the toughest jobs out there
on the football field, because when it doesn't go right,
everybody sees it. You know. You when when you Scott
to Cincinnati had Carson, Palmer and Chatoo and you're throwing
it all over the place, But then you made a conversion.
I remember you telling me that as an organization you
were never going to be in a position where you
(21:10):
couldn't run the ball again. And you made that decision
a couple of years ago. You certainly have that with
Giovanni Bernard talk a little bit about that mentality of
having that kind of running back. Well, I really believe
you know, you know, we were in that division for
so long. This ANFC North. I mean I've been stuck
in at my entire NFL career, and uh, you know,
this is tough football. These are tough teams. The conditions
(21:32):
get tougher as the year goes on, and you have
to have physical people and running the football gives the
temperament to your football team that you need to have.
And uh, stopping the run and running the football or
to me, are very very important in winning NFL games
weekend and week out. You know, you always got to
throw it to win, but we have to stop the
run and be able to run it in order to
(21:52):
be successful. For the most part, you were without A. J.
Green talked a little bit about the versatility of Mohammed
Sanu and how he kind of helped step in to
the breach for you. Well, you know, Mos is such
a great football player, you know, all in all, and
he can play all the spots and whatever happens in
the game, he makes the adjustment, moves to the next spot,
and then we kind of, you know, we don't skip
(22:13):
a beat. And uh, whether he's he's carrying the football
as a runner, as a past receiver as he was
so much yesterday. We know his ability to throw the
football when those opportunities arise, and and he really stepped
forward and did a great job yesterday, made big plays,
big block on Brandon Tate's touchdown, and uh, you know,
he's just an all around great football player. Speaking of A. J. Green,
(22:35):
any idea when you think you might get him back, well,
we're we're, you know, kind of hopefully that it's uh
something that a j is feeling better and better, and
if whenever he feels good enough and and the medical
people feel that he won't go out and injure himself
more than he'll be back out there. You know, I'm
obviously I'm hopeful it's this week. Hopefully it is as
we go to Indianapolis and play a great football team
(22:56):
over there, and uh but I you know, we are
getting closer. We're making progress, and that's good. Coach, thanks
so much for taking the time. Appreciate it, Ryan, my pleasure.
All right, coach, we're gonna we're gonna do a little
game here. We're gonna draft six quarterbacks. We're gonna let
you go first. And know you can't take Joe Harrington
and I can't take Kyle Bowler because it's got to
be active players, as much as we want to do that, Okay,
(23:18):
but we're gonna take picks six quarterback And this is
just for the rest of the season. This isn't for future.
This is just who you would take if you had
your free choice of all the quarterbacks for the rest
of the year, not regardless of what team you're with.
Pick your quarterback, your first year. You're letting me go
first year. I know I know who you're gonna take.
I know you're gonna take Geno Smith. But so I'll
(23:39):
go on number two right now? Stop, Okay? Can I go?
Can I think about it? Can I think about it?
Aaron Rodgers, I know I thought there's a shock. There's
a shock. Come on, you're so predictable. I know who
you're gonna take. Go ahead, it's gonna blow your mind.
Philip Rivers got you. I you know. I'll tell you
(24:01):
the reason. Philip Rivers is because I love the fact
that he's got such a screw up passing motion. It
doesn't matter how good the pocket is, doesn't matter what
the circumstances he gets the ball. He's got no running game,
and yet he still delivers. Right now, I know, I
know you said I left you wide open out because
you thought you knew you were gonna go with I'd
take Philip Rivers number two. You know, I love Philip
(24:21):
Rivers and all that good stuff. But for me, I
am so happy right now because I get another guy
who I would have taken in the first pick. And
this is who I thought you were gonna take. Yeah
and Luck Yeah, yeah, so so, and I'm gonna take
him right now. So I have I have Aaron Rodgers
and Andrew Luck on the same team. Are you kidding me?
Because I like like kind I like guys that can
(24:43):
move around, throw from the run, athletic like me, and
you take guys from the pocket that are kind of
like bike riders like you in the pocket. So I
have Andrew Luck. Did you see his interview after the
game we had on Thursday night? He came to the
set that guy is sure beyond his year. He can
do everything, he can do every In fact, I was
(25:03):
trying to teeter totter between Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers
for the first pick in the draft. This guy's he
can do everything. Don't be dogging the bicyclist people, because
that's a big part of our demographic. Don't make me
pull out that pick. But here's the method of my madness.
I knew if I took Philip Rivers number two, I
knew that would make you take Luck. That gets me.
Now I take Pete Mannet. That lead me right to
(25:25):
see I suckered the end of given me Peyton Manning
with the fourth overall pick. How about that? You take
Peyton manager obvious. Now this is gonna be interesting. I
kind of know where you go. But okay, so this
now you're up with a fifth pick. What do you have? Now?
Who are you gonna take? Now? See on my pitching
staff here, I need I need. I need a you
know on Aaron Rodgers that can do it from the
pocket or run. I got Andrew Luck who can do
(25:46):
anything like that. So I'm gonna get a pocket guy.
I'm gonna get one guy that's a veteran pocket guy,
been there, done that, wins champion, it rains everywhere. And
you know, I'm going Tom Brady right because this guy
is cool under pressure, he can do this. And I've
got three amazing quarterbacks. Are we playing a game against
each other? I hocause you would love that. Well, if
we do, then my number six guy is going gonna
(26:09):
beat you. Because you talk about versatility outside the pocket.
I'm gonna go with Russell Wilson. I knew you were
going to do that. I'm bypassing Drew Brees, which is
a lot. Now nobody's throwing more five thousand yard games
than Drew Brees, but Russell Wilson. Because now it doesn't
matter what you do, I get outside the pocket and
all this defensive strong I'm gonna break that down and
I'm either gonna run it or throw it outside the
(26:29):
pocket with Russell Wilson. So you ended up taking Aaron Rodgers,
you took Andrew luck and you took Tom Brady. I
have Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, and Russell Wilson. Pretty good. Yeah,
let's go another round. Let's go another round. I want
Drew Brees, Okay, Can I have Drew Brees on my team?
He can be right, let's see. So I gotta think
(26:49):
who would they leave me? Right now? You can't any
hotter hand and than Joe Flacco. I'll take Joe flaccle
for one game. There's five touchdowns in one quarter. About that?
All right, Let's let's move on. I did uh knocked
out a piece this week on my dot com, and
we've been talking about Dallas Cowboys to Marco Murray. To
(27:10):
Marco Murray's on pace for four hundred and twenty four
carries four four mooch. Now, I had to Jamal Lewis
when he, you know, broke the two thousand yard mark.
And at the end of the year we put him
on a pitch count, Ben, Look, because I want you
there for the playoffs and the cumulive. Should Dallas put
de Marco Murray on a bit of a pitch count
(27:32):
because that is a lot of carries. Yes, and absolutely yes,
and no wait for the end of the year to
do this. Start thinking about it now. Not only a
pitch count on game day, Brian, but a pitch count
in practice. Okay, because I mean when I went out,
I visited the Seahawks a year ago in during the
(27:54):
season and Marshawn Lynch was getting Wednesdays off. Okay, I mean,
you gotta find a way to keep these backs healthy.
And DeMarco Murray has not survived the season yet. Really,
he's always got something and it's it might be inevitable.
So you know, this Randall kid is the backup. They
got to use him a little bit more and spread
out those reps in practice and certainly spread out the
(28:16):
hits and on game day. Absolutely, they've got to figure
out a way. Now. It's tempting to keep him there
because when when he has twenty carries a game, they're
fifteen and one, and when he doesn't have that many carries,
they're not they have a losing record, so they got
to get over that and say, hey, we need him
for the long haul. Which I never liked that stat
because because I always got that shoved up my backside
because I threw so much. And I said, okay, so
(28:37):
I'm gonna go and I'm gonna run twenty straight times
and go home, right, because that means I win. Right,
You're just kinda give me but and you're right. And
if it's a competitive game, I know when you get
us wrong. If it's a competitive game, you need and
there's no question, I tell you where you save him.
And we were able to do this with Jamal Lewis.
We had Chester Taylor as a backup. He had about
seventy carries on the year. And I tell you, when
you use it in that last four or five minutes
of the game, when you're closing out a game, you've
(28:58):
got it under control. You don't want DeMarco Murray taking
those hits in a four minute offense. That's where you
can save a lot of hits too. Don't make as
much as you want to have that productivity as long
as you're in control of the game and you feel
comfortable doing it. That's the hits you want to keep
off running back. I can see that. I can see that.
But if it's a one possession game, I would worry about.
(29:21):
I would want the guy that I trust that's not
gonna fumble the ball, that won't run out of bounds.
You know that. You know what I mean that. If
you're up by you know, seventeen points, yeah, let the
other guy take the hits. But if it's crunch time
and you've gotta have a drive to close this out
because you're only up four points, your hedge and already
your heads, I want that. I want my stud to
finish the game out. The closer, and and and and
(29:42):
Jason Garret would have to go and sell this to
de Marco Murray because he's on pace. He may break
the old time yardist. But here's here's what I here's
how I sold Jamal Lewis on it. Larry Johnson had
four hunderd and sixteen carries in two thousand six, Jamal
Anderson had four hundred and ten. James Wilder, there's the
name out of the past four you in Tampa Bay
had fourner in seven carries in four and Eric Dickerson
(30:03):
had four in four six, you go and look at
these guys that have fourner plus carries, and look what
they did in their careers a couple of years afterwards.
It's because there's an accumulative effect now for these four
hundred plus carries. One of the things I was able
to sell sell uh my guy on was look, you
want to think at more long term here too, because
(30:24):
this there's there's a wear and tear here that that's
not a pretty thing if all of a sudden now
it's tough to even get it back with three carries
now years well, especially this day and age where we're
alternating running backs, we have a stable of running backs,
not that one feature all the time. And so and
then de Marco Murray he's gonna end up signing a
nice contract, but a lot of it's gonna it's gonna
(30:45):
depend on can he stay healthy? Is heat durable and dependable?
Four long terms? So uh, As an organization, I would
definitely talk about it with Jerry, with her, with Jason Garrett,
with Scott Lenahan. Guys, we're gonna ride this horse, yes,
but let's be smart about it. Yeah, and as long
as you have a plan for it, you're in good shape. Well,
(31:07):
that's gonna do it for us next time. And I'm
gonna get you out and get you in some of
that spandex and we're gonna ride bikes together. Shot, what
if we ride to an Italian restaurant would get it done?
That's a that's tempting that that might get it done. Well,
that's it for this week. Joined us next week on
The Coach 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? How everybody cry
but nobody calling them? And now we're going there's a
glean man, there's a glean. Thanks for checking out the
(00:22):
week six Coaches Show podcast. I'm Brian Billy here with
Steve Maryuchi. This week we discussed Sunday's best games, including
the Cowboys upset in Seattle and the Packers come back
against the Dolphins, plus Mooch and I draft the quarterbacks
would rather have for the rest of the two thousand
and fourteen season, and chat with Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
The Coaches Show podcast starts right now. Well, like everybody else, Moach,
(00:44):
we got to talk about this Dallas Cowboys Seattle. See
that that was a heck of a game. That's a
game I would have loved to have done that. Well,
I was, you know, I we know that the Dallas
Cowboys have been on a roll, and we know what
they're doing on off fence with running the ball, and
Romo was playing better and death. But I had no
I had no idea that they'd go up there and
(01:06):
win this game. I was a little bit in shock
watching this game unfold because I was waiting for Seattle
to kick it in like they always do at home,
and it just never happened. And so my hat is
off to the Cowboys, Brian. I. I didn't see this coming,
did you know? And everybody else we'd have been satisfied
because we're all waiting for the shoot to drop on Dallas, right,
We're waiting for them to revert back and and and
(01:27):
listening to the shows that I did listen to you guys,
there was a sense even Michael Irvin, who I saw
in the green room when you guys were doing your
game day morning, and he was gonna pick Sattle. So
how do you can pick Seattle. You gotta take Dallas.
And he was the same way, going, you know what,
if they can just stay close as long as they
don't get run out of the park, if they just
keep it close in Seattle, then that's gonna be good.
That that'll that'll tell us Dallas is there. So even
(01:50):
Michael Irvine was kind of couching it a little bit, saying,
you know what, it's okay if they lose, as long
as they don't look bad. Let's talk about how they
did it. Obviously, they ran the ball, well, they chewed
up the clock. But you talked about Russell Wilson, And
I've been talking about this for a couple of weeks
on playbook. I keep advocating for Russell Wilson. When you
when you approach the Seattle offense, what you gotta do.
You gotta stop Marshawn Lynch, and you've got to keep
(02:12):
Russell Wilson in the pocket and make him beat you
from there. Now he can do that, but you know
he can beat you outside. I thought Dallas was brilliant
because I didn't see Russell Wilson other than on the
one drive we did run the read option and actually
got in, but I didn't see him outside the pocket. All.
They made him throw from the pocket, all of the all,
but with limited reps because they were chewing up the clock.
(02:34):
They that is clearly the key to me is how
to limit this Seattle offense. Well, yes, and if you
get ahead of them and you make them play catchup
kind of football, which which which makes the quarterback throw
the ball from the pocket and throw the ball down
the field and all of that, that's not their cup
of tea. That's not what they do best. They play
(02:55):
better with the lead. They played better when it's even
they can run, play action, move ound, and he can scramble.
But when they're down, and we saw it at the
end of that game, Uh, to make plays in the
passing game consistently from the pocket, it wasn't gonna happen.
And and uh, you know what, I was impressed with
Brian Dallas gets down tend nothing. You know, that was
(03:16):
an awesome block punt, nice scheme coming off the edge,
and that was that was well executed. And then uh,
then they're down ten to nothing, and I thought, oh boy,
here we go. This is gonna be I thought for sure.
But they seemed to be very mentally tough in terms
of the in blink. They just kept playing and they
(03:36):
kept stubborn with the run game. They didn't start chucking
it all over the place with Tony Romo. They kept
trying to run the ball against the best run defense
in the league. And I was impressed with their mental
toughness in this game, sticking to the game plan, trying
to run de Marco Murray against an excellent run defense,
and you know what, they were successful and they ended
(03:56):
up putting Seattle and catchup mode. I was shot. My
hat is off to Dallas um Mayor and Nelly. You
know what, I gotta give him a call, even though
he doesn't he doesn't like that. He doesn't talk much
on his cell phone. He's just really old school. But
that defense. Talk about no name defense. We had to
like the killer bees, you know, we had the no
(04:17):
name defense. We got to get a name for marion
Elli's defense here because it's hard to you know, it's
hard to name all of them, because they're guys that
a lot of them we didn't even expect to play
this year. And remember job just how bad they were
last year. I mean they were bad and biblical terms,
they were the third biblical terms. They were the third
worst in the history of ever last year. And all
(04:38):
of a sudden, here they are. They're bottling up seattle
for two d and six total yards of you kiding me,
and I want to build on that the idea of
the running game. And later on the show we're gonna
talk about the use of DeMarco Murray. But I'm gonna
hold on to that right now. But you're exactly right,
I think, and I've been very critical like everybody is
of Dallas for a lot of different reasons, and and
particularly the triumphant of Jason Garrett and Bill Halahan and
(05:00):
Scott Lanahan, the three headed monster. Okay, who does Tony
Roman listened to and who's doing what and how he's calling.
But you're right that commitment to the run, because I
think they recognized, even down ten nothing that if they
got away from the running game, because Seattle is a
little undersize, it's very athletic, you know, Pete Carroll's all
about an athletic and guys running around that if they
could play to that strength of pounding away and pounding
(05:22):
away and and they moderate success early. But what do
we always say about a good physical team, They can
wear you down. And in the fourth quarter, that Seattle defense, physically,
that front seven was just flat war out DeMarco Murray
that that last drive to go down the field was
they couldn't make a tackle, and that's on characteristic Seattle defense.
He they just they couldn't get out of the way
(05:44):
fast enough because he was just bowling them over, he
was in that last drive. You mentioned some real aggressive
runs by DeMarco, But how about that third and twenty
conversion by Romeo, the Terrence Williams on the sideline tiptoe
in third and twenty Brian games over if they don't
make that play, and so, uh it was. It was
(06:04):
quite a team effort. We don't talk enough about that
offensive line. That Jerry Jones. You know, maybe he's going
to be the executive of the year because all of
a sudden, we're now seen no no, no, no, no,
don't do that. No, don't don't throw gasoline on that fire.
Oh my god, if god. So he's got these three
three number one draft choices on offensive lineman that he
(06:25):
can outpat himself on the back when they at the
time they weren't very sexy, and it was like what
but you know what, right now they went in there
and that offensive line they didn't they didn't get bothered
by the crowd noise, well except for that one snap
on Tony Roman's leg, remember, but but otherwise they control
the line of scrimmage. They protected Tony pretty well. And
(06:45):
so that offensive line a bunch of unsung heroes. Man,
there's a lot of good moving parts with that Dallas team.
Ringer the score belied just what a butt whooping this
was because of of the blocked punt, you know, and
because of the missnapped and the fumble punt. The good
that's the only reason Seattle really got in position to
score was because of those special teams gaffs. If it
(07:06):
weren't for that, this thing would have been a beat down.
Let's let's talk about We talked about the physicality line
to Marco Murray a big component of as well. And
we talked about this going in. I know you did
on game day morning. Was Richard Sherman and the Dez Bryant,
the fact that they had the big receiving Coreyo. I
talked about Terrence Williams that they talked about how they've
shut down tight ends. Jason Witten, Well, Jason Witten had
(07:27):
some big catches and the matchup with Richard Sherman and
Dez Bryant, this is as good as Richard Sherman is.
Dees Bryant's a different piece now he is. And and
I was what I was watching the game within the
game because Brian, as you know, we had Richard Sherman
on a couple of weeks ago and game day morning
during their by and he was terrific. But typically he
(07:49):
plays the left corner spot. So it was gonna be
all right, how many times will the Cowboys match up
Dez Bryant over there on their offensive right side against
Richard Sherman. Didn't happen a lot dead des had ten
targets and only four catches. But but what happened in
the game Byron Maxwell got hurt? All right? And you're
(08:12):
already talking about a team Seattle who lost Walter Thurman
last year and Brandon Browner. Okay, so now Maxwell gets hurt.
Who plays the other side away from Richard Sherman. So
now Richard Sherman moved over there, and he ended up
on Dez Bryant over there on the other side. And
then and Marcus Burley is now the other corner. It's
(08:33):
gonna be interesting because this secondary of the Seattle Seahawks
is a little bit different, I should say, a lot
different than last year's secondary with depth. So will Richard
Sherman's finally start traveling with guys like a Dez Bryant,
or will they will find a way to play right
and left with these guys? I think right now they
have huge decisions to make. And this shook up the Seahawks.
(08:55):
As you read the comments afterwards, um, and they'd start
in a typical I'll take this is a loss like this,
they start chipping at one of their Doug Baldwin going
at Russell a little bit and not, you know, we're
better than this, and an expletive riddled sounded like me
an expletive riddled response to the press about how bad
they were. But I think what they did recognize. And
(09:16):
I did a radio show in Seattle on Monday morning.
The fans are a little pain because they really like,
oh boy, we might lose home field advantage. I mean,
that's always been the subposition, We're gonna come through Seattle
no matter what happens. We're good and it's all gonna come.
That's definitely. We'll see what goes down the way here.
But that's definitely in jeopardy here. And that changes the
price of poker here a little bit, doesn't It. Isn't
(09:36):
it crazy, Brian, how when you win, you're just beating
your chest feeling the fouriers like we are just Kings.
And you lose one game like this and all of
a sudden panic strikes and it's like, oh my god,
we might not have home field. We might not have
this secondary might not have Russell Wilson running around. Uh.
You know, this is a good football team and they
(09:57):
will regroup, you know that. But a loss is so
devastating to a team like this that expects to win
every game, especially at home. And so we're gonna see
what kind of resilient bunch they are, uh without chipping
at each other and getting back to basics and and
go and win the next game. But they know after
(10:18):
that game, they knew that they got outplayed. And I
don't know, I faced outcoach, show out out. All I
know is it was sort of a kind of like
you said, it was worse than the score indicated in
terms of how well Dallas played above Seattle, and Seattle
knows that. We're also going to find out about a
Cowboy team for the first time. How do they hold
up under the pressure of being the number one team,
(10:40):
of being really good instead of saying how bad they are.
They haven't been like that in years and years and years.
This is a new new era for the for the
Dallas Cowboys, Like, hey, we're the favorite here. You want
to throw gas on the fire and make Jerry Executive
of the Year now. So that's hey, hey, he drafted
all those guys. Well, let's talk about another really good team.
And if if, if, if I were to go back
(11:01):
to coaching, I would take the lead from this guy,
knowing that no matter what happens to my team. I'm
just saying, hey, relax, okay, relax, because Aaron Rodgers some
information on who you might draft. Bryan I will see.
I'm gonna surprise you. We're gonna talk about that in
a minute. But that obviously Aaron Rodgers and I want
to talk about a coaching decision. Obviously in a really
good game, and and and green Bay going down to
(11:24):
Miami and Aaron Rodgers hadn't one down there in three attempts,
hadn't been in Miami, but it locks the Jacksonville lost
to Tampa. I want to talk about the decision of
Mike McCarthy. You drive the length of the field, you're
down by seven, you need a touchdown, a field goal
to win, or a touchdown at two point right, they
get down to the twelve yard line in Miami, it's
fourth and six, and they do the field goal with
(11:46):
four minutes left. Now, a lot of people might have
criticized to say, well, don't you got Aaron Rodgers, don't
you chase a chance at the touchdown? But he kicked
the field goal, had faith in his defense. They punted
it back. Now they're under two minutes and Aaron Rodgers
goes to length the field. Now it was the right
decision because it worked out, but you can see where
it could have gone the other way had he passed
up the chance for the touchdown. Let's talk a little
(12:08):
bit about that decision process. Would you have done the
same thing or would you have tried for the fourth
and six? It would be tempting because you have Aaron Rodgers, right,
but but you know what the percentages are fourth and six.
They're not very down in the red zone, so it's
more cramped. Yeah, and so and so, you know, I
I think he looked at the time, he looked at all, right,
(12:29):
my defense can stop him. How many time outs did
he I'm drawn a blank. How many time outs did
he have at the time? You know, I don't recall,
but not a lot because that clock later on became
an issue and we'll talk about that in a second.
You know, but you know, you take your points when
you can get them. Sometimes maybe if it was fourth
and short, real short, maybe you go for it. Um
you know. So, like you said, it worked out because
(12:50):
they got the three and they got the ball back.
Had he had he not gotten the ball back, you're
an idiot, right, But but he was putting confidence on
his defense. That's what you do. Sometimes you make a
statement saying we're gonna take the points defense, I trust
that you're gonna get the ball back. Go do your job.
And that fourth and tent call. On that fourth and
tent throw, let's begin with the call because it's it's
(13:10):
third and ten, third nine. They don't get anything. It's
now fourth and nine or fourth and ten. Miami calls
time out. Now I understand how you can all of
a sudden over the personnel changes or we're not configured.
They First off, I'm gonna criticize Miami here. Green Bay
has staying three wives the whole time they were in
eleven personnel. They've been in the same formation every single play. Well,
(13:32):
we used to call double right, you know, where it
was the tied end flanker to one side and you
have the slot. And so they're in the same personnel,
the same formation, and Miami calls out and and Joe
Philbin says today, Well, we wanted to get a look
at their at their personnel and formation. Well, and you
stop the clock. That was the thing. It's stopped. So
you're instead of making Green Bay make a call on
fourth and ten, you stop the clock for them because
(13:55):
they didn't have the time out. Uh. To me, that's
a huge And they're in the same personnel and saying
formation that have been the whole time. And I'm gonna
to add to it. I thought that throw by Aaron
Rodgers on the fourth and ten to Jordy Nelson with
Cam Cam wake, Cameron wake all over him, almost like
a followay jumper. He couldn't have been more accurate than
if he had walked over and handed it to Jordy Nelson.
(14:15):
That was the most spectacular throw I've seen in a
long time. Well, that's why he's so special, I mean,
because he can make throws. Uh. You know, we always
teach our quarterbacks to you know, balance up, step into
your throw and being being transfer your weight, all that
clinic stuff. Right. Well, Aaron Rodgers is the best in
the business at throwing from the run, going right or left,
(14:36):
throwing quickly where he's not set throwing off balance, changing
his delivery point. I mean, the guy it can can
make plays throwing it behind his back, and so he
had to. He had to pull off a miracle drive.
He's he's got eleven come from behind wins, okay in
his young career, which is not a lot. Others have
more than that. They're not behind all that much. But
(14:57):
he this was one of his classic wins because that
last drive was epic, and and of course the fourth
and ten and then the fake spike later on, and
it was it was one for the ages and Aaron Rodgers.
Now we're wet, we're West Coast guy sort of, and
you know, Levin personnel is kind of what you do,
and you're no huddle, sure a minute drill most of
the time, and so and so I think maybe Miami
(15:20):
was taking a time out, maybe to catch their breath.
Coaching points, look for this, look for that. Let's hey,
he might throw to Jordy Nelson this time, you know
what I mean. And you know there might have been
some reason for you know, taking a deep breath there
and in because that's the game. The game is on
the line, right and I can understand, but to call
the time out where the time is going to be
(15:41):
a factor, and then to afterwards say well, we wanted
to see what personnel they were in. That's someone that
didn't drive. If I'd say, hey, we were sucking gas
here and we needed a regroup, okay, fair enough, But
he said, but he said, this is what we do.
We've done it before, and we as a staff had
decided ahead of time in these situations, this is what
we do. I don't I question that one, but yeah,
(16:02):
Aaron Rodgers, the job that they did. And and to
build on what you're saying and go back, we've talked
about this before. What's so comical now is remembering that
Aaron Rodgers fell to twenty four in the draft because
we were we weren't sure, I say we collectively the
NFL mentality. How athletic he was outside the pocket, how
good an athlete he was. How ridiculous does that sound
(16:23):
right now? I know? But Brian, Brian, you gotta remember
it was here Alex Smith, right, and Alex Smith he
was not a schlup in college. He had a forty
on the wonder lick. Okay, he was athletic. He was
taller than Aaron he was you know, his stats were great.
(16:44):
I mean, so that was you know, we talked about
those decisions, the Ryan Leaf, Peyton Manning ones and then
you know the other ones. You know, there was others,
but this Alex Smith one. There was a lot of
mixed feelings on asked to who and I'm with you
understand Alex Smith and you too, because a lot of
those teams simply didn't need a quarterback. It was kind
of how it went that year. But what's comical is
(17:07):
Mike McCarthy was on the San Francisco staff that chose
Alex Smith, I know it. And then and then gets
a job in Green Bay and falls into the other thing.
I'm going back to my old Minnesota. Minnesota passed on
him twice in that draft, twice for two players that
didn't last more than two or three leagues. What would
what would the Minnesota Vikings story be today if they
had taken Aaron Rodgers with one of those picks. My
(17:30):
chicken had lips that could whistle, you know what. I
was in San Francisco and Tom Brady wanted to come
to the forty niners too, and we passed them six times,
and so did everybody in the league until Billichick fell
on him, you know, over there. So there's all there's
there's some examples about passing up these quarterbacks. You know,
they weren't they weren't Hall of famers. Then coming out
of college they were good, but you just didn't know
(17:52):
how good they were going to be. Maybe somebody else
was a little better at the time. The next points
win the game. Well, it's it's they're both clearly in
their in their courting. It's gonna come down to a
field golden overturn. Chick is up, it looks good, and
(18:15):
it is no go. He missed it. Another great game
Sunday was the overtime tie between the Panthers and Bengals.
And joining us now to talk about this contest is
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Marvin, how you doing?
I'm doing well, Coach? How are you doing today? Nobody
likes the tie. Should we do something in the league
(18:36):
to just eliminate those altogether? Would you be for just
playing it out untimed quarter Well, I don't know, we were.
I think both teams were pretty well spent yesterday, and uh,
you know, I mean seventy five minutes is a lot
of football, a lot of snaps, a lot of plays,
and when you start out with forty six guys, everybody's
pretty drained. So again, I don't know, we may, you know,
(18:58):
expose ourselves to marian reason. Even that's a good point,
and that's obviously the reason why they put the time quarter.
And of course, if Phy'll let you expand the game
day roster, maybe that'll get you to change and think
a little bit. Talk about when we were in Baltimore
together we had matched over it. He was mr consistent
and and one was one of the established veterans on
the team. Talk a little bit about how you deal
with the disappointment both individually and collectively at the team
(19:20):
when a Mike Nugent goes in and misses an opportunity
like that, and and how that team handles it. I know,
Adam Jones chipping away a little bit. How do you
deal with that? Well, I think it's obviously it's it's
a we have a lot of confidence in Mike and
and he has a you know, a job to do
that no one pays much attention until you've got to
go kick the game winning field goal p a T.
(19:41):
You're looking for a big kickoff, and uh, when it
doesn't come out on on his side, uh, you know,
everybody feels bad. But there were a lot of football
plays offensively and defensively that impacted that football game way
before the game deciding kick could have happened. We had
chances to put the game away, both on offense, both
on defense to get that done, and we failed to
(20:02):
do it. Yeah, and the good news is Andy Dalton
put your team in position to do that under a
critical situation. Talk a little bit about how Andy continues
to progress, particularly under those, you know, stressful situations. Well,
and he did. He did a great job leading us
down the field a couple of times in the fourth quarter,
leading us back in the game, and then obviously down
the field in overtime and uh twice, And so we
(20:26):
had opportunities there and uh, you know, we we made
you know, maybe one bad decision on the day, and
we got to try eliminate all of those. We because
we did have two turnovers. One he got hit and one,
Uh you know, we got to do a little better
job of so again being consistent, he's got the ball
in his hands, just like that kicker has the game
winning kick, No different than the cornerback on defense. We
(20:48):
put him in and one on one situation, We're looking
for him to win in that down, and uh, you
know those are those are the toughest jobs out there
on the football field, because when it doesn't go right,
everybody sees it. You know. You when when you Scott
to Cincinnati had Carson, Palmer and Chatoo and you're throwing
it all over the place, But then you made a conversion.
I remember you telling me that as an organization you
were never going to be in a position where you
(21:10):
couldn't run the ball again. And you made that decision
a couple of years ago. You certainly have that with
Giovanni Bernard talk a little bit about that mentality of
having that kind of running back. Well, I really believe
you know, you know, we were in that division for
so long. This ANFC North. I mean I've been stuck
in at my entire NFL career, and uh, you know,
this is tough football. These are tough teams. The conditions
(21:32):
get tougher as the year goes on, and you have
to have physical people and running the football gives the
temperament to your football team that you need to have.
And uh, stopping the run and running the football or
to me, are very very important in winning NFL games
weekend and week out. You know, you always got to
throw it to win, but we have to stop the
run and be able to run it in order to
(21:52):
be successful. For the most part, you were without A. J.
Green talked a little bit about the versatility of Mohammed
Sanu and how he kind of helped step in to
the breach for you. Well, you know, Mos is such
a great football player, you know, all in all, and
he can play all the spots and whatever happens in
the game, he makes the adjustment, moves to the next spot,
and then we kind of, you know, we don't skip
(22:13):
a beat. And uh, whether he's he's carrying the football
as a runner, as a past receiver as he was
so much yesterday. We know his ability to throw the
football when those opportunities arise, and and he really stepped
forward and did a great job yesterday, made big plays,
big block on Brandon Tate's touchdown, and uh, you know,
he's just an all around great football player. Speaking of A. J. Green,
(22:35):
any idea when you think you might get him back, well,
we're we're, you know, kind of hopefully that it's uh
something that a j is feeling better and better, and
if whenever he feels good enough and and the medical
people feel that he won't go out and injure himself
more than he'll be back out there. You know, I'm
obviously I'm hopeful it's this week. Hopefully it is as
we go to Indianapolis and play a great football team
(22:56):
over there, and uh but I you know, we are
getting closer. We're making progress, and that's good. Coach, thanks
so much for taking the time. Appreciate it, Ryan, my pleasure.
All right, coach, we're gonna we're gonna do a little
game here. We're gonna draft six quarterbacks. We're gonna let
you go first. And know you can't take Joe Harrington
and I can't take Kyle Bowler because it's got to
be active players, as much as we want to do that, Okay,
(23:18):
but we're gonna take picks six quarterback And this is
just for the rest of the season. This isn't for future.
This is just who you would take if you had
your free choice of all the quarterbacks for the rest
of the year, not regardless of what team you're with.
Pick your quarterback, your first year. You're letting me go
first year. I know I know who you're gonna take.
I know you're gonna take Geno Smith. But so I'll
(23:39):
go on number two right now? Stop, Okay? Can I go?
Can I think about it? Can I think about it?
Aaron Rodgers, I know I thought there's a shock. There's
a shock. Come on, you're so predictable. I know who
you're gonna take. Go ahead, it's gonna blow your mind.
Philip Rivers got you. I you know. I'll tell you
(24:01):
the reason. Philip Rivers is because I love the fact
that he's got such a screw up passing motion. It
doesn't matter how good the pocket is, doesn't matter what
the circumstances he gets the ball. He's got no running game,
and yet he still delivers. Right now, I know, I
know you said I left you wide open out because
you thought you knew you were gonna go with I'd
take Philip Rivers number two. You know, I love Philip
(24:21):
Rivers and all that good stuff. But for me, I
am so happy right now because I get another guy
who I would have taken in the first pick. And
this is who I thought you were gonna take. Yeah
and Luck Yeah, yeah, so so, and I'm gonna take
him right now. So I have I have Aaron Rodgers
and Andrew Luck on the same team. Are you kidding me?
Because I like like kind I like guys that can
(24:43):
move around, throw from the run, athletic like me, and
you take guys from the pocket that are kind of
like bike riders like you in the pocket. So I
have Andrew Luck. Did you see his interview after the
game we had on Thursday night? He came to the
set that guy is sure beyond his year. He can
do everything, he can do every In fact, I was
(25:03):
trying to teeter totter between Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers
for the first pick in the draft. This guy's he
can do everything. Don't be dogging the bicyclist people, because
that's a big part of our demographic. Don't make me
pull out that pick. But here's the method of my madness.
I knew if I took Philip Rivers number two, I
knew that would make you take Luck. That gets me.
Now I take Pete Mannet. That lead me right to
(25:25):
see I suckered the end of given me Peyton Manning
with the fourth overall pick. How about that? You take
Peyton manager obvious. Now this is gonna be interesting. I
kind of know where you go. But okay, so this
now you're up with a fifth pick. What do you have? Now?
Who are you gonna take? Now? See on my pitching
staff here, I need I need. I need a you
know on Aaron Rodgers that can do it from the
pocket or run. I got Andrew Luck who can do
(25:46):
anything like that. So I'm gonna get a pocket guy.
I'm gonna get one guy that's a veteran pocket guy,
been there, done that, wins champion, it rains everywhere. And
you know, I'm going Tom Brady right because this guy
is cool under pressure, he can do this. And I've
got three amazing quarterbacks. Are we playing a game against
each other? I hocause you would love that. Well, if
we do, then my number six guy is going gonna
(26:09):
beat you. Because you talk about versatility outside the pocket.
I'm gonna go with Russell Wilson. I knew you were
going to do that. I'm bypassing Drew Brees, which is
a lot. Now nobody's throwing more five thousand yard games
than Drew Brees, but Russell Wilson. Because now it doesn't
matter what you do, I get outside the pocket and
all this defensive strong I'm gonna break that down and
I'm either gonna run it or throw it outside the
(26:29):
pocket with Russell Wilson. So you ended up taking Aaron Rodgers,
you took Andrew luck and you took Tom Brady. I
have Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, and Russell Wilson. Pretty good. Yeah,
let's go another round. Let's go another round. I want
Drew Brees, Okay, Can I have Drew Brees on my team?
He can be right, let's see. So I gotta think
(26:49):
who would they leave me? Right now? You can't any
hotter hand and than Joe Flacco. I'll take Joe flaccle
for one game. There's five touchdowns in one quarter. About that?
All right, Let's let's move on. I did uh knocked
out a piece this week on my dot com, and
we've been talking about Dallas Cowboys to Marco Murray. To
(27:10):
Marco Murray's on pace for four hundred and twenty four
carries four four mooch. Now, I had to Jamal Lewis
when he, you know, broke the two thousand yard mark.
And at the end of the year we put him
on a pitch count, Ben, Look, because I want you
there for the playoffs and the cumulive. Should Dallas put
de Marco Murray on a bit of a pitch count
(27:32):
because that is a lot of carries. Yes, and absolutely yes,
and no wait for the end of the year to
do this. Start thinking about it now. Not only a
pitch count on game day, Brian, but a pitch count
in practice. Okay, because I mean when I went out,
I visited the Seahawks a year ago in during the
(27:54):
season and Marshawn Lynch was getting Wednesdays off. Okay, I mean,
you gotta find a way to keep these backs healthy.
And DeMarco Murray has not survived the season yet. Really,
he's always got something and it's it might be inevitable.
So you know, this Randall kid is the backup. They
got to use him a little bit more and spread
out those reps in practice and certainly spread out the
(28:16):
hits and on game day. Absolutely, they've got to figure
out a way. Now. It's tempting to keep him there
because when when he has twenty carries a game, they're
fifteen and one, and when he doesn't have that many carries,
they're not they have a losing record, so they got
to get over that and say, hey, we need him
for the long haul. Which I never liked that stat
because because I always got that shoved up my backside
because I threw so much. And I said, okay, so
(28:37):
I'm gonna go and I'm gonna run twenty straight times
and go home, right, because that means I win. Right,
You're just kinda give me but and you're right. And
if it's a competitive game, I know when you get
us wrong. If it's a competitive game, you need and
there's no question, I tell you where you save him.
And we were able to do this with Jamal Lewis.
We had Chester Taylor as a backup. He had about
seventy carries on the year. And I tell you, when
you use it in that last four or five minutes
of the game, when you're closing out a game, you've
(28:58):
got it under control. You don't want DeMarco Murray taking
those hits in a four minute offense. That's where you
can save a lot of hits too. Don't make as
much as you want to have that productivity as long
as you're in control of the game and you feel
comfortable doing it. That's the hits you want to keep
off running back. I can see that. I can see that.
But if it's a one possession game, I would worry about.
(29:21):
I would want the guy that I trust that's not
gonna fumble the ball, that won't run out of bounds.
You know that. You know what I mean that. If
you're up by you know, seventeen points, yeah, let the
other guy take the hits. But if it's crunch time
and you've gotta have a drive to close this out
because you're only up four points, your hedge and already
your heads, I want that. I want my stud to
finish the game out. The closer, and and and and
(29:42):
Jason Garret would have to go and sell this to
de Marco Murray because he's on pace. He may break
the old time yardist. But here's here's what I here's
how I sold Jamal Lewis on it. Larry Johnson had
four hunderd and sixteen carries in two thousand six, Jamal
Anderson had four hundred and ten. James Wilder, there's the
name out of the past four you in Tampa Bay
had fourner in seven carries in four and Eric Dickerson
(30:03):
had four in four six, you go and look at
these guys that have fourner plus carries, and look what
they did in their careers a couple of years afterwards.
It's because there's an accumulative effect now for these four
hundred plus carries. One of the things I was able
to sell sell uh my guy on was look, you
want to think at more long term here too, because
(30:24):
this there's there's a wear and tear here that that's
not a pretty thing if all of a sudden now
it's tough to even get it back with three carries
now years well, especially this day and age where we're
alternating running backs, we have a stable of running backs,
not that one feature all the time. And so and
then de Marco Murray he's gonna end up signing a
nice contract, but a lot of it's gonna it's gonna
(30:45):
depend on can he stay healthy? Is heat durable and dependable?
Four long terms? So uh, As an organization, I would
definitely talk about it with Jerry, with her, with Jason Garrett,
with Scott Lenahan. Guys, we're gonna ride this horse, yes,
but let's be smart about it. Yeah, and as long
as you have a plan for it, you're in good shape. Well,
(31:07):
that's gonna do it for us next time. And I'm
gonna get you out and get you in some of
that spandex and we're gonna ride bikes together. Shot, what
if we ride to an Italian restaurant would get it done?
That's a that's tempting that that might get it done. Well,
that's it for this week. Joined us next week on
The Coach Show podcast. Go to NFL dot com Slash
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