October 20, 2014 • 42 mins
Brian Billick and Steve Mariucci recap Week 7 in the NFL. They break down the St. Louis Rams shocking upset over the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys sixth straight win as they beat the New York Giants. Plus, the coaches talk about the Seahawks trading Percy Harvin to the Jets and discuss how they would have handled the Bears postgame locker room issues.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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?
Albody calling them? And now we're going there's a glean man,
there's a glean. Thanks for checking out the week seven
(00:22):
Coaches Show. I'm Brian Billick here with Steve mar Usually.
This week we discussed the fallout of the Percy Harving
trade and the slumping Seahawks, plus or the Cowboys, legitimate
Tyler contenders, and lastly much and I will debate if
Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback ever. The Coaches Show
starts right now. Boy, much a lot. We we got
a lot to talk about. Interesting interesting day. I know
(00:44):
you were coming back from Brett fire Place. That palatial
mansion down in uh in Mississippi had to be fun.
We had a ball. I went in the night before
the day before, so I got to spend some time
over there. And some are all Mississippi and uh. We
went to dinner with Diana and I saw the kids, grandkids,
mother in laws, everybody was there. It was a big
(01:06):
family affair and we had a blast catching up. And
you know, I hadn't been to this property before. It's
relatively new. And uh, I've been to Mississippi before with him,
but not to this. And you were comfortable. There's a
lot of Italians down in summer all Mississippi. Right, I
didn't see any. We didn't go to an Italian restaurant either.
We had That's not the bumbo. It's all right. Well,
(01:28):
let's let's talk about some football. Obviously, the big one
that jumps out of me. I want to talk about
Seattle Seahawks, which have their issues. I mean, it's amazing
how in this league, how different it is at the
quarter mark versus the halfway mark. For three, you know,
the quarter markets, Cincinnati is unbeatable, they're dominant to Seattle's
and now Seahawks they are struggling a little bit against
(01:49):
a St. Louis Rams team. Let's begin with the special
teams play, because that's clearly how that game was one
that spent John Fossil used to be on my staff
in Baltimore. Jim fossils On doing a heck of a
job special teams clearly with the difference in that game,
Well that's the reason. There's no doubt that was the reason.
Because the Seahawks that Russell Wilson had a heck of
(02:11):
a game, maybe his best ever, and the statistically the
Seahawks really should have could have would have won that game,
right except for two plays in the kicking game where
you're players the return the punt and don't forget the
fake fake punt at the end of the game. Sure
and so yeah, so um, you know that's where the
(02:31):
game was one. There's no doubt about it. And you
know it's it's like, all right, you got Pete Carroll
against Jeff Fisher and who outcoached who? But you mentioned it.
It's the special teams coaches, and you know those guys,
they're very competitive, they're very under the radar. We don't
talk about special teams coaches like we do offense and
defensive coordinators, but they are maybe the most important guys
(02:55):
on your staff. And this was this was an exact
ample where John Fossil and we both know Jim very well,
he really had a heck of a plan together with
all these fakes and returns and whatnot, and he maybe
he's been sitting on him for a while and he's
got to put the bug in the coach's ear. Hey,
it looks like it's there, we've got a great chance.
(03:17):
Let's try it. And Jeff probably vetoed that fourteen times
already this year, but sooner or later he goes, yeah,
let's do it and void did it work. So my
hat's off to the special teams coaching in that game.
That's where it was one no doubt. The punt return,
obviously was just a great punt return by by Cunningham's
setting up obviously a score. And we'll talk in a
minute about the fake punt at the end of the
(03:37):
game where he did it. That was a heck of
a call by Jeff Fisher. But let's talk about the
punt return that they had set up, because let's take
fans through a little bit in the special teams And
here's the part that surprised me. You know that every
every kicker you you directional kick in the NFL, A
lot of people I don't sure realize the putter is
gonna tell you where it punts. We used to name
(03:59):
them one, two and re right, middle, left, because you
want your your coverage guys to know where you're punning
the ball, and it's based on where the ball is
on the hash. So obviously and looking out seeing Tavon Austin,
and I thought St. Louis was brilliant in the way
they set it up, because let's remember, Tavon Austin was
set as I'm looking at it from Seattle standpoint, on
the far right hand side, so you gotta know they
(04:20):
were gonna kick it to the left. They don't want
to kick it to Tavon Austin because we know how
good he could be. They actually had Steadman Dailey jamming
the gunner, so that it was by design that they said,
you know what, if they seat Austin over here, Tavon Austin,
they're gonna put it to the left. So we're gonna
have the gunner peel and we're gonna have our entire
(04:40):
return team go to the right with Tavon Austin. And
you gotta know in the in in in the huddle
that the kicker said, Okay, I'm gonna kick it. I'm
gonna kick it left. But these guys like cows following
another one off the cliff. They saw Tavon Austin out
their fair kitchen. One guy went there, so they all
went there, and the kick actually went to the left.
I've never seen in all years we've done this, mooch
(05:02):
and coached and bid I've never seen anything like that.
Ryan Billick, I'm just gonna refresh your man. I know
you have a story for me. This has been done
in the National Football League before, and um my buddy
Kevin O'Day was one of the coaches over there at Chicago.
Chicago did this against the Green Bay Packers. That's a
few years ago in Soldier Field when they had Devin Hester,
(05:26):
and Devin Hester drew all the coverage over to the
left side. Exactly if you if you look at both
of these plays, you're gonna go like, oh my god,
it's the same play. And everybody from the Packers went
over to Devon Hester. Johnny Knox peeled off from the
jammer caught the ball on the sidelines like Willie Mays.
Soon we went for a touchdown. Now I got a
call back as something somebody was holding on the other side.
(05:49):
Pete Carroll was screaming like a stuck pig because he
was upset that there was a free you know, a
fair catch signal show. But it was by a guy
on the side of the field. Officials aren't gonna stop that.
Tablon Austin was waving his hand brilliantly. But you're not
gonna stop playing because a guy totally away from the
kick is waving his arm for a fair catch. Yeah yeah,
I don't know why anybody's waving his arm way over there.
But but but what then you get what you have
(06:10):
to do, Brian, because this I used to coach special
teams for five different teams. It's right. Yeah, well when
I was in college, and you know all that, so so,
and then you know this as a head coach, you
gotta stay on top of that. And you had some
good special teams coaches. Maybe you know a lot of guys,
but you gotta have a return type guy over at
the jammer, Okay, number one. You gotta have a guy
(06:31):
can catch a punt. Not all those jammers can can
catch a punt, right, So so he's got to be
a guy that you would almost you almost have him
back there in a duel set back there with you
know he's that capable, but you put him up here
to disguise him, and then you can lure away towards
a directional punter just like this, and one out of
a million times, well maybe one out of a hundred times,
(06:52):
where you get that and he can jam and then
fall off in case there's a bad kick. Then this
this year, you have an opportunity to do this. Like
I said, this worked beautifully here, but it's been done
before in the National Football League. You gotta go see
that play. It's identical to this. And so it was
very good coaching. And Fassel probably had this in his
(07:14):
bag of tricks for for years. Okay, it's not like
he just made it up on Wednesday. Okay, he probably
had it and he probably you know, didn't have the
right opportunity to use it. But here it was, and
Jeff said, what the heck, we need an upset, We
need to try and pull out all the stops, right,
and so they did it and it worked a perfection,
huge upset kicking game. Good job Fassel, Yeah, huge part
(07:36):
because you're right, I don't know that St. Louis could
have pulled us off against Seattle, and even with that,
Seattle came back and obviously a record day. No quarterback
in the history of the league has thrown for three
hundred yards and run for a hundred yard like Russell
Wilson did nothing wrong with Russell Wilson no, no, and
the and the kickoff return obviously set it up as well.
Let's talk about the fake punt at the end of
(07:57):
the game, because yes, and everybody's saying, well, he had
to make a call because we've seen St. Louis, you know,
get a lead and then fade as they have the
last couple of times they've gotten a lead. And in
that situation, Russell Wilson has just gone the length of
the field. So you gotta believe he's gonna do it again.
I understand that, But as the head coach to approve
of a fake punt when you're on what were they
on the twenty yard line, because if you if this
(08:18):
doesn't work, you're dead. You have lost. Well, you got
a two point lead and you're gonna give him an
automatic field goal at least. So it's like, if this works,
we got a chance to win and run the clock out.
If it if it doesn't work, with the heck, you know,
we lose, and we played close. We lose by one point.
But you got to know if kind of we'd be
crucifying Jeff Fisher right now, Yes we would. And and
(08:40):
so watch the design of the play. First of all,
it was only fourth and three. You know, you don't
fake a punt when it's fourth and seven, because even
if the darn thing works, you might not make the
first down. Right, So it's only fourth and three. They
took their personal protector and that's who they threw it to,
and they picked the guy that was covering him where
(09:03):
they attempted to pick the guy that was covering him
and he was in coverage. He had a kind of
bubble around the guy. And all you need on fourth
and three is just a little bit of room one
or two steps and if that darned punter can just
get him the ball, you get it. So so they
felt again after watching several punts, Hey, Fassel says, coach,
I think it's there. I think it's there. I think
(09:24):
it's there, And all of a sudden it's fourth and
three to win the game. Hey, what the heck? Try it?
Because it was. It was executed beautifully. Now I don't
always trust punters throwing a completion, but the design of
that fake that was a new one for me. It was.
It was pretty special. How the left gunner came down
and tried to pick um the guy covering the full
(09:46):
Were you a big fakes on sidekicks, fake punt type thing. Guy.
I know, because all of our You're right, all the
special names coaches are in your officeway coach, we can
get this Where you wanted to do that much every
special team's coach. The answer is yeah. Times I was
more Brian. I was more uh, you know, willing to
do that when I was coaching special teams and maybe
(10:08):
offensive receivers or whatever that is, and suggested to the
head coach, hey the fakes there, Hey the fakes there,
let's run the double reverse. But you know, all that
kind of thing. When I was the head coach, I
was much more conservative of like, no, I don't want
to answer questions in the press conference, why the why
your play didn't work? But yeah, it was fun we were.
When I was coaching at Cal, we ran the fumble
(10:30):
Rooski on third and seventeen against USC and then when
we scored, then we just to rub it in, we
ran a fake swinging gate two points, just just just
to be funny, you know, just to be that fun
with it. But you gotta have those plays ready and
practiced up, and when the situation itself, they have fun
with it. I was not a big trick play guy.
But I had one time. Gary zoun Er was my
(10:50):
special stream coach and balt right right, and he every
he we have this, we have this fake punt, and
and it's like you said, it's it's fourth between fourth
and one and four. I don't want to go more
than that. Fine, And it's got to be this part
of the field. It's okay. If it presents itself, I'll
blew that. And I wasn't. But he knew I wasn't
a big guy to do that, so I forget. We're
at home. I figured this is a place to do it,
and so I were in the situation. I'm going, okay,
(11:12):
we're gonna do it. So I called for it. He
comes screaming, the players going, He comes screaming down not now, No, No,
what do you mean that now? You told me, well,
no they're not. Oh my mind he audible. Oh my god?
Did it work? Did it work? No? We called it
off because he wasn't that Now all right, we got
before we get out of this game, we got to
(11:33):
talk about the big Percy Harvin, the whole Percy Harvin
dilemma House Seattle. And when that happened, I was up
doing playbook on Friday and we did the four o'clock
show and then it happened. So I'm thinking, no, I
was actually doing a radio show. I thought, what, coach,
what do you think of Percy Harving being traded? I go, no,
you're wrong. Someone's tweeting you something, some bogus and there's
no way Seattle. But I knew then when it when
(11:54):
it was verified, we were going to hear the rest
of the story. We knew there was going to be
more than just from a football Let's talk a little
bit about the Seahawks and that mindset and you, you
and I have both have our our trials and tribulations
of some troubled players some guys would like to have
gotten rid of. Let's talk a little bit about the
to come a football decision. Obviously, the cap issue and
(12:16):
the number was gonna care and they had to do
Russell Wilson. They just did Earl Thomas. I get that
part of it. But you knew there was going to
be more to it. There was a reason why they
made this trade. It's made sense, Bryan. It made sense
for the Seattle Seahawks to do this because you have
a guy that's going to be very expensive. You're coming
up who hasn't played a lot. When he plays, he's dynamic,
(12:37):
there's no doubt about that. Excellent player, but his history,
his track record has been migraines in Minnesota, hip surgery,
you know all of that in Seattle and so in
Florida too, and so so you know, the forty million
coming up in the next few years, how much of
that will he really earn? And then the Jets taken
(13:00):
him and at very low risk. I mean, it's like
a tryout really right this year is if they if
they like him, finding it looks like he's gonna be
worth that kind of money, you keep him. If not,
you let it go. And so you know, and Percy's, uh,
he's can be. I don't know him very well, but
from what I'm hearing, he's he's got a personality that
can rub people the wrong way at times. He'd be
(13:22):
a great guy at times. Um, But is it worth
it If he plays every down and he's very very productive,
and he's durable and he's dependable and you know whatever
that is, maybe it's worth keeping a guy that's high maintenance.
But if he's not playing a very high percentage of
your games, then it's time to cut the cord. And
so that's what they did. I get it. Here's the
(13:44):
two things that jump out at me, because from a
football standpoint, you can certainly see for all the things
you just talked about. At first, I don't know that
John Schneider and Pete Carroll can do this unless they
have that Super Bowl ring in their back pocket. Because
let's remember, they gave up a one, a three, and
a five. I think it was maybe it was a seven,
but it was a one in three and a late
pick for a guy that ended up playing basically eight
(14:04):
games for them. So clearly that's a lot when you
go to the owner going, well, I know we had
we gave this guy all this money, and I know
we gave up a one, three and a five, but
now we're gonna let go of him. So you gotta
have You gotta be comfortable in your own skin and
feel very comfortable in your own position when you do that. Secondly,
and I get it, and I can certainly see because
here the Jets are coming off a game against like
(14:26):
New England where it was really an excellent game plan.
Rex did a wonderful job They should have won that game.
They had the ball for forty one minutes. Gino Smith
played just well enough and you lose. So you know,
the thinking is, well, what do we gotta do now
we're dead? Okay, they get that one more playmaker. But
you listen to the commentary about Percy Harvin. Is this
(14:48):
locker room the jet rock room? And we know what
that can be like in New York City and a
team that's won and and six. Now this isn't reigning
super Bowl team. Okay, this is a one in six
where the coaches under five. You put that personality into
that locker room. That that's a bold move on New
York's part, it is. But they're not married to him, right,
(15:08):
They didn't. They didn't spend a big signing bonus, they
didn't give up a draft choice. You know they're going
to give up, right, so so the price was right.
I mean, really, I think this is a half season
tryout for the guy, and the Jets will keep him
if he proves to be dynamic, and if if he
proves to be troublesome, then they'll cut. They'll cut their losses.
It's not not that big a deal for them either. Well,
(15:29):
let's let's move on to I guess probably the next
biggest story, or really the biggest story in the league
right now, the six and one Dallas Cowboys. I know
you picked them early to be six and one at
the one. More, let's talk about this Cowboy team and
not the fact that they beat the Giants was actually
a little closer game than many of his thought. But
let's begin with just how good this Cowboy team is
(15:52):
and what occurred to me after watching the game and
listening to Troy Aikman remind us that that Jay Garrett
was on that Super Bowl team, their last super Bowl
team with the triplets and with him at Smith and
Jay Novasek and Michael Irvan on the outside, and Troy
Aikman throwing the ball talking about this is the team
that Jason Garrett wanted to build. Big offensive line. He's
(16:16):
got his own triplets with Romo and and Jason Witten
and Dez Bryan on the outside, and a defense that,
when you look at it statistically is right now extra
playing it over sixteen games, is exactly ranks the same
defensively total defense against the run the past. It's amazing
how similar defense as that. That's the surper I mean
(16:36):
almost to the line. When you look at the numbers
comparing these guys and where they're at right now. This
is the Cowboys. Hey, Brian, I've gotten I've got memories
of that team because because I was with the Green
Bay Packers when we played him in there, and how
tough it was to beat beat them down there, and
they were really good. We were winning the game in
the third quarter. But anyway, I remember Brett Favre was
(16:56):
sitting with me going to that game. Okay, we're sitting
right behind Mike Holmgren, and Farv pulled out a Jeff
Foxworthy book and he started reading it to me out loud.
You might be a redneck if you think old Yeller
is your uncle's front tooth. I mean he he had
he had me laughing, and Mike was really kind of
mad because here's our quarterback just having a good old time.
(17:18):
That's how that's my memory. And Dion Sanders played Why
do receive Her? In that game too, Jason Garrett too
played and so um, yeah, that was a heck of
a team that day. But this team is becoming like that.
Let's not crown him yet. But so far, so good.
Um better than expected. With DeMarco Murray staying healthy, that
offensive line is gonna make Jerry Jones the executive of
(17:40):
the year. Maynelli rod Marinelli is gonna get another head
coaching job because his defense is pulling off miracles. And
Tony Romo is like after back surgery, come on, he's
like the best guy in the league. It's Dez Bryant
is is doing all the right things and making plays
and being a good team guy. It's like, who are
these guys? And so I think they're exceeding expectations? Are you?
(18:03):
Are you still waiting for the other shooter drop? Yeah?
I am, I am because expect I get the triplet thing.
You know, with Romo and DeMarcus Murray. De Marco Murray
is playing like crazy. And I don't know how marion
Elli's doing it on defense. I don't know how he's
doing it on defense because that's my phone again, Brian,
(18:26):
and so Bret's Brett's calling. He wants the comforter back
that you can't talk to you right now, Okay, So
they wants those towels back that you took and so
you know, you know we were the killer Bees. Remember
that defense I don't even know who they were, and
that that that was Miami, right, and then you had
(18:46):
the no name defense, and you had all these names
on defense. We need to get marion Elli's defense and name.
They got to be somebody marion Elli something, Monsters something,
because they're playing way over their heads. They got two
guys on that defense. Uh, Anthony's answer and in Milton
have one Pro Bowl. That's it on the whole defense. Uh,
They're They're just a bunch of guys playing hard and
(19:07):
playing well. Right now, maybe some of them make the
Pro Bowl. Now. The McClain, that linebacker. That ended up
being a beautiful move getting ROLANDA. McClain, Remember he was
he was drafted by and flopped around Oakland for a while.
Of course Asi knew some signed at Alabama guy back
and and he never really turned into anything in Baltimore
retired and and they went out. You got to give
(19:28):
again your Executive of the Year Jerry Jones, credit for
going out and taking chance on a guy that says, no,
I think I'm done with football. Well, okay, well let's
give you one more chance. He's been you know when
they lost Shawn Lee, that was a huge pickup on
their parts. So you got to give the Cowboys credit.
I'm like you, I'm kind of waiting for the other
shoot to drop. But this team, I don't know. I'm
still with you with the defense, I don't know if
(19:48):
they've been through the gauntlet of the really good quarterbacks.
Not that Eli Manning's not a good quarterback. I don't
know they've been challenged quite that way yet. And obviously
the defensive numbers are gonna be jaded by the fact
that that they hold onto the ball and they run
the ball. They run the ball so well that that,
you know, a good to have a good defense, you
have to have an offense that's physical and and but
we also know if you run the ball well. Warren
(20:11):
Staff and I were talking about this, If you run
the ball well, you usually play the run real well
because you're used to practicing it against it. I think
we're seeing that a little bit because the way they're
practicing what DeMarco Murray does during training camp or even
in practice whatever, that they you're right this and and
and and Rod Marinelli, You're exactly right the job who
who thought? Because remember that's how bad Let's remember how
(20:33):
bad this defense was. I mean, they were bad the
story ever in the history of the of the of
ever and so they and I just thought after they
lose you know, DeMarcus Ware and Shawn Lee like you mentioned,
and a bunch of other guys, oh my god, they
might be worst ever and Marinelli's and they change defensive coordinators.
Monty Kiffin's not there anymore. So anyway, my hat is
(20:55):
off to these guys. They're winning it. They're doing good there.
They look good every single week. It's not by luck either,
So hey, good story. Let's get ahead of it. And
I'm just gonna ask you let me but let me
add this though, Brian, because this was their first, uh
the NFC East game. Okay, they still have everybody to
play the Eagles twice, the Redskins twice. They still have
(21:15):
to play the Colts. They still have to play Chicago.
In fact, that's our game on Thursday night. Who knows
what we'll get up in Chicago. That team is kind
of goofy team right now. And then they have Arizona,
who's a heck of a team. So they're gonna be
challenged here in the second half of the season by
their own division and some other teams that are playoff caliber.
Let me ask you that. Getting ahead of it here
a little bit. You said they got the Eagles twice,
and I'm gonna ask you this only because of the
(21:36):
contrasting styles, Chip Kelly, a lot of plays, high tempo,
throw the wall. Yeah, we want to run, but the defense.
Pick me. That first Dallas Eagles game, who do you think?
I think it's in Philly. Yeah, I think they're gonna
split this year. I think they're both pretty evenly matched teams.
I think they split. Philly wins at home in Dallas
(21:56):
went at home, and you know, in Phillies, you know
they're pretty darn good. I mean, they didn't look very
good against the forty niners, but all the other games
they look pretty explosive. They're hard to defend. They throw
that thing around, they spread it around, their up tempo,
so they probably split. Well, I'm just I'm looking at
it right here. I'm corrected. First game is Thanksgiving game,
it's in Dallas, and and I'm with you. You know
I'm gonna go towards the home team. I'm not sure.
(22:19):
I think the difference could truly be I'm not sure
that Philly defense is gonna hold up against the onslaught
of DeMarco Murray and that big offensive line. I think
you may look up and Nick Folds gets five snaps
in the first half type of thing, you know, and
that that that will stretch it a little bit. M m. Well,
that's that's part of their strategy now, because I mean
even when they had the great Troy Aikman, they didn't
(22:41):
throw it fifty times a game. They controlled the game
on the ground and and then they took their shots
and did their thing with Michael Irvin when they wanted
to nova checking those guys. So, um, I think it's
the same recipe you said it earlier. Brian Jason Garrett
is trying to build a team like that team, and
you know what, they're starting to look a little bit
(23:01):
like it now. That might have been the best Dallas
team ever, who knows, but um, this team is starting
to act like that. Let's you you brought it up
because you talked about you're gonna do that game on
Thursday with Dallas in Chicago. Let's bring up there's a
couple of teams that have got some stuff going on,
you know, given that's what losing brains, you know, and
(23:21):
all of a sudden things that let's start with those
Chicago Bears and and they're supposedly very heated exchange in
the locker room afterwards, Brandon Marshall going off on everybody,
including his quarterback. Let's talk a little bit about the
job that Mark Tressman has to do. If the expectations
in Chicago and it hasn't come to fruition, they can't
(23:44):
win at home? How do you how does he address that?
It's one thing not winning on the road like St. Louis,
But how do you handle not winning at home? Yeah?
I don't know. And so you know this as well
as I do that winning A winning locker room is
the most fun thing there is, right for coaches and players.
A victorious locker room. It's not always champagne and all that,
(24:05):
like the baseball, but it's fun and it's like very macho,
and it's like we get it well. A losing locker
room is um. I mean, those are the things that
that I hated the most. You know, then you gotta
do a press conference, but but there's there's so much um.
There's so much disappointment, frustration, anger, whatever that those words
(24:27):
are after a loss especially when the expectations are high,
um in a couple of teams like the Bears are
going through that right now, the Saints are going through
that right now, that the frustration levels really kind of
And you've got a lot of personalities in that room,
right You've got some guys that are like going to
listen to music, some guys that are just gonna explode,
some guys that love each other, some guys that ate
(24:49):
each other. I mean, there's all kinds of personalities in
that room. And I that that Bears locker room must
have been a mess. And Mark Trustman's got to find
a way to calm it all down, get them back
on track, and get him working again. Because it is
a pretty a pretty competitive team. It could playoff team
if they write the ship and I don't. Here's where
I brew up and the old coach and us I
(25:10):
think comes to the forefront, because you know what, we're
gonna start hearing Mark Trestman is losing the lot lost
his team. Yeah, what what's Mark Trestman got to do
with it? If these guys can't, they don't. I've never
seen a team yet where the players play for the coach.
They they play for themselves. They play for each other,
and that's the way that they just They had a
(25:32):
nice clip on me on Playbook where I got up
in front of my team and I said, and I
was after a big one. I said, look, I know
you guys don't believe half the stuff I tell you.
I don't believe half the stuff I say myself, But
but believe me when this and then I went on
about all fifty three men or whatever. But you understand
where I'm going. It grates me a little bit when
we'll start to hear that or it's a Tom Coughlin
when they're struggling whatever, they've lost the locker room. That
(25:55):
locker room to a degree, it's kind of hold itself together,
doesn't it. Yeah, And you know what the glue is, wins.
That's the that's the glue that holds teams together. Because
you hear there's teams that win super Bowls and it's like, oh,
we loved each other, we had good chemistry. Well, no
kidding that, I've never heard of that about a losing team,
because that losing separates guys and and and it frustrates
(26:16):
people and so um, you know, they they gotta win
a couple of games here and get back on tracks,
you know, and start believing in each other, believing in
the system, in the coaches, all of that sort of thing.
But jeez, when you lose, that all unravels fast. And I,
you know, I I didn't experience that much in San
Francisco because we won a lot of games. But in Detroit,
(26:38):
we lost a bunch of games. And my god, that's hard.
It's hard, and you're just you're just reaching for straw
sometimes and and and there you start off with a
bunch of good guys that are all in the same direction,
headed and marching in the same direction and focused in
one central theme. But then losing seems to just bring
(27:00):
people apart, just pull people apart. And and so Mark's
got his work cut out for him. And the next
team I want to talk about is is Marvin Lewis's
team in Cincinnati. And let's remember at the quarter mark,
there were a lot of us and I'll lead the
charge on this one that thought, you know what, Cincinnati
maybe the best team in this league right now. They
are unbeatable at home, that defense is playing at the
(27:23):
top level, and he Dalton seems to have it going
they're committed to the run. They got a j Green
and Gresham and Snows playing good in the slot, Tyler
effort and the two tight end, and now they can't
buy a win. And they they on Sunday, they they
they went nine straight drives of three and out, nine
straight drives to a Indianapolis team. The last thing you
(27:46):
want to do is get if Andrew Luck some extra possessions. Uh.
And we can talk later about Indianapolis and job Greg
Noose is doing because they leave the league in third
down stopping teams on third down. It's phenomenal. But they
could do nothing thing right. And I'm not sure how
to put my finger on what what it is that's
going wrong in sinc Now. Well, when you lose two receivers,
(28:08):
Marvin Jones and of course a j that hurts. You
take two good receivers away from any team, pick your team,
they become somebody else. And so that's part of it.
The other thing is I got I remember putting them
in the Final four when they were undefeated. They look
like a real complete football team. But then reality struck
is because the Patriots took him apart, okay, and there
(28:29):
was like whoa maybe we aren't as good as we
think we are. And then they tie Carolina, and Carolina
is up and down like a bunch of teams are
up and down, and then they lose another one. So
their losses and ties are are two pretty good football teams,
but they're still not playing very well. They have to
get a j green back. You know. I know Hugh Jackson,
the offensive coordinator. He used to be my offensive coordinator
at cal Um back in the Pack ten, and so
(28:54):
you know he'll he'll get them going some way somehow.
But right now, I think they've got a little bit
and this is a long season. We're gonna have a
three quarter market might even be different, although they do
have the Ravens this weekend all but at home. That's
a tough one that that's a huge game for them
and a team that they had beat to start the season.
I think the other thing defensively, I saw where Gino
(29:16):
Smith going into the game had not had a sack,
first time in his career to go six games without
a sack, and he's such a big part of their
inside presence. And we all know how quarterbacks hate pressure
right down the middle and up the middle, so there's
a few things going on with the defense as well,
but you talk about how do you hold that together
again the players and again, to me, the challenge of
Cincinnati and from Marvin is because they've they've won so
(29:37):
well in the regular season's kind of well, it's our
it's just wait to get to the postseason. We gotta
play better there, like the regular season is just gonna happen,
and we know that it doesn't. And now could that
locker room start to because you're talking about two new
quarterbacks Hugh Jackson Paul gun through the defensive coordinator that
we thought, okay, well they're gonna be fine because they
were on staff because Mike Zimmer went up to Minnesota
and Jay Gruden went to Washington. Did they start turning
(29:59):
on a huge accident? Paul Gun They're going, well, maybe
you guys aren't as good as as we thought coming in.
The other one is is the New Orleans Saints and
and Sean Payton kind of bird up a little bit,
as we all have done when some people wanted to
question about why they can't went on the road and
and he started spouting out stats about this, that and
the other. But at the end of the day, Seanach.
(30:20):
They're not very good on the road. Can we put
a finger on Have you ever had that kind of
road stretch where I remember in Green Bay, you guys
couldn't beat us in Minnesota, so you always tried, You
tried a different hotel Mike had. At one point, you
just stayed in River Falls, Wisconsin. You didn't even come
to Minnesota to play. You stayed in River Falls, Wisconsin
and bust in. Well what what What we finally ended
(30:42):
up doing is getting bread farve good enough to go
in there and make that game. You know, but um, hey,
how about this? How about this? So when I go
to Detroit, they have a street going of sixteen losses
in a row on the road. Okay, two years too,
full years eight and eight. Right, So I go in
(31:02):
there my first year we lose every game on the
road for the first time. So now we have a
new record. I mean, we have a record that's never
gonna be beaten. Twenty four losses in a row on
the road. And it got to be so so uh.
The players were so freaked out about that record as
it was going that I remember, you know how we
(31:24):
all pray right as a team before the game, and
after the game, right, guys were praying in players time plays,
let us when this game on the road, all of
that kind of stuff. It got to be a mental thing.
It was awful. And then the next year then we
we won some games on the road. We beat Chicago
our first game, and it was like, oh my god,
I would have wait off our back. And then later
(31:45):
on I think they broke that record again. But it
sometimes it gets to a point where it's not just
a dome team like Atlanta or like the Saints or
Detroit or whoever that might be going on the road
plane on the grass and the wind and the rain.
Sometimes it doesn't matter that they're playing, it's just away.
There's a thing where, hey, we're not expected to play
as well, we haven't played as well, and it's kind
(32:06):
of this mental thing. Now. Drew Brees throws the pick
at the end. If that was a head stretcher, he
played a heck of a game. I mean he I
know he had a bunch of incomplete passes at the end,
but he threw for three forty two. He's still on
pace for five thousand yards. So I'm just I'm just
a little bit surprised because I picked the Saints to
win that division. You know what, Brian, I still pick
(32:26):
them to win that division. Could we could could we
see a seven and nine we did already with Pete
Carroll's team when the nf A NFC South, I'm not
so sure. We may not, Yeah, because Atlanta is all
banged up, as you know in Tampa's terrible Caroline Carolines
like this and the Saints that the Saints should win
that division. But I'm more surprised about the defense is
(32:50):
in effectiveness, and they just they're not stopping, they're not tackling,
they're not they're not coming up with takeaways like they should.
And and so I think they've got the Achilles heel
on that side of the ball. My my biggest road
story is go to the Baltimore Ravens and as Cleveland
Browns and the Baltimore Ravens. They had not one in
Pittsburgh in like eighteen years ever, you know, And it's
(33:12):
like and so, and I could tell and I'm new
to it, you know, I'm just and in our second year,
the way year we go to the Super Bowl, we
talked about the Jacksonville game. I think we talked about
that last year overcoming a whatever and overcoming a losing
streak and whatever. We opened up the season at Pittsburgh
where they had never won, and I could tell with
my management, my owner, and even Ozzie, it's like, well,
we always lose in Pittsburgh, so oh and one won't
(33:33):
kill us, Like, well wait a minute, let's and we
beat Pittsburgh. And and mentality that that brought, like Okay,
here we go, We're ready to go, which and so
you're right, it is as much a mental thing as anything.
Let's let's talk about my column on Wednesday. I'm talking
about Jim called Well in Detroit. Since we're talking about
your your old haunted Detroit Lions, let's remember Jim Caldwell
(33:54):
was hired. And it reminds me so much of when
I came into Baltimore because and we were all geniuses
and Gurup was at the time, which obviously and I
just love that title anymore. But Jim called We was
brought into an offensive guru to help straighten out Matthew Stafford. Right,
if we can just get Matthew Stafford straighten out, eliminate
some of the turnovers, we're gonna be a good football team.
And Martin Mayhew hired him in the Fords, and and
(34:14):
that's why Jim called what was brought in, Well, what
are they doing? They're winning with the best defense in
the National Football League. That's what you did, and that
came in as a genius, and it was and and
inherited the best single season defense and the history of football. Well,
the point I'm getting at is it takes a different mindset.
I had to alter my thinking a little bit to think, Okay,
(34:35):
this is why I have won before, and this is
what I think it takes to win. But I had
to recognize, you know what, I gotta change the way
I call a game. I gotta change way I orchestrate
this because this defense is pretty special. Brian. That's why
you have a Super Bowl ring, because you were able
to adjust your strengths weaknesses and say, hey, I'm not
gonna throw the ball and score five points or whatever
you did in Minnesota. I'm gonna play a certain way
(34:55):
on offense, and our defense is going to help us
win these close games. And that's what you guys did
for years and years, and that's that's good coaching. And
so Jim called, I went to I went to the
Detroit line training camp. You know, because I did an
interview with Dominican Sue and all these guys, and I
saw everybody was great. That defensive front, especially that defensive
(35:16):
line is scary, man, I tell you what. I was
standing right next to him, and I was afraid. I
was afraid of those guys. They're big and past and strong,
and they can control a game, asked Aaron Rodgers. Because
they took apart to Green Bay Packers, remember, and so
that's why their number one in the league on defense.
I thought they would have drafted Corey Fuller and the
secondary instead of Eric Ebron the tight end. But but
(35:39):
I think next year they'll build up their secondary a
little bit even more. But you know, losing Calvin Johnson,
that's a that's a that's a bummer. But they'll get
him back, and that's a good thing. And as good
as his team is, they're gonna get a Golden Tags
plan spectacularly. Um And so Matthew Stafford has thrown a
few too many picks. He's that's the biggest challenge for
Jim called Ross has been a gun slinger. He's got
(36:02):
on defense. Now, I gotta reel that in Jim or
Matthew Stafford, because I'll tell you what you're gonna cost
us a game. You don't have to take these same chances.
But they're gonna get a Calvin Johnson back at some
point and that would be you know that that makes
this team very, very scary going forward, so that that's
gonna be worth watching. And again, I just had to
think about my time and when I went to Baltimore
(36:22):
and had to make that transition. So I'm gonna write
about that on Wednesday. All right, before we get out
of here, I gotta ask you this, because you had
a great run here. Now you get to go visit
with Tom Brady, right, you got to you got to
spend the night with Brett Farve, uh exactly figuratively speaking,
that you were in the west wing. Was that the
same as their coder? It was, Yeah, I was in
(36:44):
the west wing. Was way on the other side of
this place, way over there. Anyway, Yeah, it was fun.
And then, uh, but on a weekend where Peyton Manning
throws and has the all time broke your Brett Farves
all time record in touchdown, So that begs the question
I'm gonna ask you right now, as a former guru,
genius quarterback mentor former is over the hill? Is Peyton
(37:09):
Manning the greatest quarterback of all time? Well? I think yeah,
probably and I and that's no additions, probably doesn't. Is
he the greatest quarterback of all Okay, so you know,
like we're supposed to say yes and then explain ourselves. Okay,
you know, this is a different era than even Bret Brett.
(37:30):
Farve didn't go into the shotgun until his eighth or
ninth year. Okay, Um didn't throw a bubble screen ever. Okay,
I mean, you know, didn't call his own plays. I
mean it was a balanced offense. And and and then
Marino was as good as they got back then too,
and in Elway, and then go back to Johnny Unitis
in his era, he was so sensational. It's hard for
(37:53):
me to compare this era with that area. Sammy BA
was fantastic, nine straight championships. Yeah. So, so it's just
hard to say which guy is best because they're all
different eras and competitions and the whole thing. But when
it's all said and done, Peyton is going to be
so far out in front with some of these records. Now,
he still has several to go to beat Brits passing
(38:14):
yards and wins and you know, some of those things
which he should do next year or the year after.
But Peyton's he's not going anywhere now. He's still healthy.
Six hundred touchdown passes is not out of the question
for him, right, So then you know we're gonna be
talking about which young quarterback might have a chance to
come close. Is that a Drew Brees? Is that Andrew
(38:35):
Luck someday? But anyway, it's fun to watch. The league
needs great quarterbacks. That's what makes this world go around.
Great quarterbacks and teams are looking for that guy. And
so let's just enjoy Peyton Manning while he's still playing well,
because you know what, he's playing better now than he
did at Indianapolis. His numbers are far better in Denver
(38:56):
than they were an Indie. He could have retired and
went to the Hall of Fame after Indie, but he's
even accelerated his game. I'm gonna give my opinion on
this when we come out of it, but but you
had a chance to visit. Let's hear what Brett Farve
had to say about this. Is he as good as
there is leaving the pocket, throwing the ball from the room.
He's different than Peyton Manning, but he's he's excellent. Peyton
(39:17):
is not as good as him the way Aaron plays.
Aaron is not as good as Peyton the way Peyton plays.
But if you were to start a team, you can't
go wrong with either. But you know, Aeron's got a
lot more years probably, who knows he could play ten
or more years. Yeah, and and it's interesting because when
you ask this question, obviously everybody has to explain it.
(39:37):
And here's here's my take on it. We got to
set the parameters before we talk about it, because what
inevitably what someone's gonna say about Peyton Manning. Yeah, but
he didn't win enough. He only won one Super Bowl.
How do you compare a Dan Marino who never won
a championship yet has all those numbers? How do we
compare and Eli Manning who's got two to Let's let's
(39:59):
say pay doesn't get another Super Bowl? Just for discussion, sink,
how do you have that conversation without you got to
tell me the criteria first? Is winning the number one criteria,
as we all know in this league, it is or
are the numbers so overwhelming, because how do you compare
Peyton Manning to a Ben Roethlisberger who has two super Bowls,
(40:20):
to a Joe Montana who has three super Bowls, to
a Terry Bradshaw for four, I mean Terry brat Show
for Yeah, how do you? I don't know how you
have this conversation? Yeah, And so it is winning the
super Bowl. Of course that's the ultimate goal for everybody,
but it is a team goal to one guy can't
(40:41):
win a super Bowl. And so yeah, there's different different
parameters we would evaluate the perfect guy to ask. So
I'm gonna I'm gonna put you because we give them
stuff here on the Coaches Show podcast. They get no
place else. You have the unique perspective of having coach
Brett Farve. Your green Baby lineage takes you to Aaron Rodgers.
You're a Bay Area you know you. So you're into
(41:02):
the Joe Montana thing. You're Steve Steve Young the best quarterback?
Name one right, now, you've got to name the best quarterback,
don't qualified. Just give me a name. Joe Montana. Yeah,
that's tough to not and we forget as we get
separated from that. But what he did when he met.
That's a that's a good one. Fortunately don't have to
(41:22):
answer that question because I didn't have all those guys.
And I love all those other guys. Believe me. I'm
with you, Steve, Steve Young's gonna call me up. You're
gonna ring right now there and Brett five, I'll just
let you stay at my house. You're gonna and and
and so um. You know you gotta love them all.
But when somebody wins four super Bowls and in twenty seconds,
is that the reason why Joe Montana, if things are
(41:42):
a little bit equal, you know you gotta get that
might tip it right. Four rings that tips things from
I love what Brett said that that he said that
Aaron can't do what Tayton does, but Peyton can't do
what Aaron Rodgers does. I thought that was a very
insightful comment on Brett Farve Park and we're gonna end
on that. I hope you enjoyed the weeks seven of
The Coaching Show podcast. You get inside here that you
(42:03):
get no place else to me. Sure you check us
out every week. 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?
Albody calling them? And now we're going there's a glean man,
there's a glean. Thanks for checking out the week seven
(00:22):
Coaches Show. I'm Brian Billick here with Steve mar Usually.
This week we discussed the fallout of the Percy Harving
trade and the slumping Seahawks, plus or the Cowboys, legitimate
Tyler contenders, and lastly much and I will debate if
Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback ever. The Coaches Show
starts right now. Boy, much a lot. We we got
a lot to talk about. Interesting interesting day. I know
(00:44):
you were coming back from Brett fire Place. That palatial
mansion down in uh in Mississippi had to be fun.
We had a ball. I went in the night before
the day before, so I got to spend some time
over there. And some are all Mississippi and uh. We
went to dinner with Diana and I saw the kids, grandkids,
mother in laws, everybody was there. It was a big
(01:06):
family affair and we had a blast catching up. And
you know, I hadn't been to this property before. It's
relatively new. And uh, I've been to Mississippi before with him,
but not to this. And you were comfortable. There's a
lot of Italians down in summer all Mississippi. Right, I
didn't see any. We didn't go to an Italian restaurant either.
We had That's not the bumbo. It's all right. Well,
(01:28):
let's let's talk about some football. Obviously, the big one
that jumps out of me. I want to talk about
Seattle Seahawks, which have their issues. I mean, it's amazing
how in this league, how different it is at the
quarter mark versus the halfway mark. For three, you know,
the quarter markets, Cincinnati is unbeatable, they're dominant to Seattle's
and now Seahawks they are struggling a little bit against
(01:49):
a St. Louis Rams team. Let's begin with the special
teams play, because that's clearly how that game was one
that spent John Fossil used to be on my staff
in Baltimore. Jim fossils On doing a heck of a
job special teams clearly with the difference in that game,
Well that's the reason. There's no doubt that was the reason.
Because the Seahawks that Russell Wilson had a heck of
(02:11):
a game, maybe his best ever, and the statistically the
Seahawks really should have could have would have won that game,
right except for two plays in the kicking game where
you're players the return the punt and don't forget the
fake fake punt at the end of the game. Sure
and so yeah, so um, you know that's where the
(02:31):
game was one. There's no doubt about it. And you
know it's it's like, all right, you got Pete Carroll
against Jeff Fisher and who outcoached who? But you mentioned it.
It's the special teams coaches, and you know those guys,
they're very competitive, they're very under the radar. We don't
talk about special teams coaches like we do offense and
defensive coordinators, but they are maybe the most important guys
(02:55):
on your staff. And this was this was an exact
ample where John Fossil and we both know Jim very well,
he really had a heck of a plan together with
all these fakes and returns and whatnot, and he maybe
he's been sitting on him for a while and he's
got to put the bug in the coach's ear. Hey,
it looks like it's there, we've got a great chance.
(03:17):
Let's try it. And Jeff probably vetoed that fourteen times
already this year, but sooner or later he goes, yeah,
let's do it and void did it work. So my
hat's off to the special teams coaching in that game.
That's where it was one no doubt. The punt return,
obviously was just a great punt return by by Cunningham's
setting up obviously a score. And we'll talk in a
minute about the fake punt at the end of the
(03:37):
game where he did it. That was a heck of
a call by Jeff Fisher. But let's talk about the
punt return that they had set up, because let's take
fans through a little bit in the special teams And
here's the part that surprised me. You know that every
every kicker you you directional kick in the NFL, A
lot of people I don't sure realize the putter is
gonna tell you where it punts. We used to name
(03:59):
them one, two and re right, middle, left, because you
want your your coverage guys to know where you're punning
the ball, and it's based on where the ball is
on the hash. So obviously and looking out seeing Tavon Austin,
and I thought St. Louis was brilliant in the way
they set it up, because let's remember, Tavon Austin was
set as I'm looking at it from Seattle standpoint, on
the far right hand side, so you gotta know they
(04:20):
were gonna kick it to the left. They don't want
to kick it to Tavon Austin because we know how
good he could be. They actually had Steadman Dailey jamming
the gunner, so that it was by design that they said,
you know what, if they seat Austin over here, Tavon Austin,
they're gonna put it to the left. So we're gonna
have the gunner peel and we're gonna have our entire
(04:40):
return team go to the right with Tavon Austin. And
you gotta know in the in in in the huddle
that the kicker said, Okay, I'm gonna kick it. I'm
gonna kick it left. But these guys like cows following
another one off the cliff. They saw Tavon Austin out
their fair kitchen. One guy went there, so they all
went there, and the kick actually went to the left.
I've never seen in all years we've done this, mooch
(05:02):
and coached and bid I've never seen anything like that.
Ryan Billick, I'm just gonna refresh your man. I know
you have a story for me. This has been done
in the National Football League before, and um my buddy
Kevin O'Day was one of the coaches over there at Chicago.
Chicago did this against the Green Bay Packers. That's a
few years ago in Soldier Field when they had Devin Hester,
(05:26):
and Devin Hester drew all the coverage over to the
left side. Exactly if you if you look at both
of these plays, you're gonna go like, oh my god,
it's the same play. And everybody from the Packers went
over to Devon Hester. Johnny Knox peeled off from the
jammer caught the ball on the sidelines like Willie Mays.
Soon we went for a touchdown. Now I got a
call back as something somebody was holding on the other side.
(05:49):
Pete Carroll was screaming like a stuck pig because he
was upset that there was a free you know, a
fair catch signal show. But it was by a guy
on the side of the field. Officials aren't gonna stop that.
Tablon Austin was waving his hand brilliantly. But you're not
gonna stop playing because a guy totally away from the
kick is waving his arm for a fair catch. Yeah yeah,
I don't know why anybody's waving his arm way over there.
But but but what then you get what you have
(06:10):
to do, Brian, because this I used to coach special
teams for five different teams. It's right. Yeah, well when
I was in college, and you know all that, so so,
and then you know this as a head coach, you
gotta stay on top of that. And you had some
good special teams coaches. Maybe you know a lot of guys,
but you gotta have a return type guy over at
the jammer, Okay, number one. You gotta have a guy
(06:31):
can catch a punt. Not all those jammers can can
catch a punt, right, So so he's got to be
a guy that you would almost you almost have him
back there in a duel set back there with you
know he's that capable, but you put him up here
to disguise him, and then you can lure away towards
a directional punter just like this, and one out of
a million times, well maybe one out of a hundred times,
(06:52):
where you get that and he can jam and then
fall off in case there's a bad kick. Then this
this year, you have an opportunity to do this. Like
I said, this worked beautifully here, but it's been done
before in the National Football League. You gotta go see
that play. It's identical to this. And so it was
very good coaching. And Fassel probably had this in his
(07:14):
bag of tricks for for years. Okay, it's not like
he just made it up on Wednesday. Okay, he probably
had it and he probably you know, didn't have the
right opportunity to use it. But here it was, and
Jeff said, what the heck, we need an upset, We
need to try and pull out all the stops, right,
and so they did it and it worked a perfection,
huge upset kicking game. Good job Fassel, Yeah, huge part
(07:36):
because you're right, I don't know that St. Louis could
have pulled us off against Seattle, and even with that,
Seattle came back and obviously a record day. No quarterback
in the history of the league has thrown for three
hundred yards and run for a hundred yard like Russell
Wilson did nothing wrong with Russell Wilson no, no, and
the and the kickoff return obviously set it up as well.
Let's talk about the fake punt at the end of
(07:57):
the game, because yes, and everybody's saying, well, he had
to make a call because we've seen St. Louis, you know,
get a lead and then fade as they have the
last couple of times they've gotten a lead. And in
that situation, Russell Wilson has just gone the length of
the field. So you gotta believe he's gonna do it again.
I understand that, But as the head coach to approve
of a fake punt when you're on what were they
on the twenty yard line, because if you if this
(08:18):
doesn't work, you're dead. You have lost. Well, you got
a two point lead and you're gonna give him an
automatic field goal at least. So it's like, if this works,
we got a chance to win and run the clock out.
If it if it doesn't work, with the heck, you know,
we lose, and we played close. We lose by one point.
But you got to know if kind of we'd be
crucifying Jeff Fisher right now, Yes we would. And and
(08:40):
so watch the design of the play. First of all,
it was only fourth and three. You know, you don't
fake a punt when it's fourth and seven, because even
if the darn thing works, you might not make the
first down. Right, So it's only fourth and three. They
took their personal protector and that's who they threw it to,
and they picked the guy that was covering him where
(09:03):
they attempted to pick the guy that was covering him
and he was in coverage. He had a kind of
bubble around the guy. And all you need on fourth
and three is just a little bit of room one
or two steps and if that darned punter can just
get him the ball, you get it. So so they
felt again after watching several punts, Hey, Fassel says, coach,
I think it's there. I think it's there. I think
(09:24):
it's there, And all of a sudden it's fourth and
three to win the game. Hey, what the heck? Try it?
Because it was. It was executed beautifully. Now I don't
always trust punters throwing a completion, but the design of
that fake that was a new one for me. It was.
It was pretty special. How the left gunner came down
and tried to pick um the guy covering the full
(09:46):
Were you a big fakes on sidekicks, fake punt type thing. Guy.
I know, because all of our You're right, all the
special names coaches are in your officeway coach, we can
get this Where you wanted to do that much every
special team's coach. The answer is yeah. Times I was
more Brian. I was more uh, you know, willing to
do that when I was coaching special teams and maybe
(10:08):
offensive receivers or whatever that is, and suggested to the
head coach, hey the fakes there, Hey the fakes there,
let's run the double reverse. But you know, all that
kind of thing. When I was the head coach, I
was much more conservative of like, no, I don't want
to answer questions in the press conference, why the why
your play didn't work? But yeah, it was fun we were.
When I was coaching at Cal, we ran the fumble
(10:30):
Rooski on third and seventeen against USC and then when
we scored, then we just to rub it in, we
ran a fake swinging gate two points, just just just
to be funny, you know, just to be that fun
with it. But you gotta have those plays ready and
practiced up, and when the situation itself, they have fun
with it. I was not a big trick play guy.
But I had one time. Gary zoun Er was my
(10:50):
special stream coach and balt right right, and he every
he we have this, we have this fake punt, and
and it's like you said, it's it's fourth between fourth
and one and four. I don't want to go more
than that. Fine, And it's got to be this part
of the field. It's okay. If it presents itself, I'll
blew that. And I wasn't. But he knew I wasn't
a big guy to do that, so I forget. We're
at home. I figured this is a place to do it,
and so I were in the situation. I'm going, okay,
(11:12):
we're gonna do it. So I called for it. He
comes screaming, the players going, He comes screaming down not now, No, No,
what do you mean that now? You told me, well,
no they're not. Oh my mind he audible. Oh my god?
Did it work? Did it work? No? We called it
off because he wasn't that Now all right, we got
before we get out of this game, we got to
(11:33):
talk about the big Percy Harvin, the whole Percy Harvin
dilemma House Seattle. And when that happened, I was up
doing playbook on Friday and we did the four o'clock
show and then it happened. So I'm thinking, no, I
was actually doing a radio show. I thought, what, coach,
what do you think of Percy Harving being traded? I go, no,
you're wrong. Someone's tweeting you something, some bogus and there's
no way Seattle. But I knew then when it when
(11:54):
it was verified, we were going to hear the rest
of the story. We knew there was going to be
more than just from a football Let's talk a little
bit about the Seahawks and that mindset and you, you
and I have both have our our trials and tribulations
of some troubled players some guys would like to have
gotten rid of. Let's talk a little bit about the
to come a football decision. Obviously, the cap issue and
(12:16):
the number was gonna care and they had to do
Russell Wilson. They just did Earl Thomas. I get that
part of it. But you knew there was going to
be more to it. There was a reason why they
made this trade. It's made sense, Bryan. It made sense
for the Seattle Seahawks to do this because you have
a guy that's going to be very expensive. You're coming
up who hasn't played a lot. When he plays, he's dynamic,
(12:37):
there's no doubt about that. Excellent player, but his history,
his track record has been migraines in Minnesota, hip surgery,
you know all of that in Seattle and so in
Florida too, and so so you know, the forty million
coming up in the next few years, how much of
that will he really earn? And then the Jets taken
(13:00):
him and at very low risk. I mean, it's like
a tryout really right this year is if they if
they like him, finding it looks like he's gonna be
worth that kind of money, you keep him. If not,
you let it go. And so you know, and Percy's, uh,
he's can be. I don't know him very well, but
from what I'm hearing, he's he's got a personality that
can rub people the wrong way at times. He'd be
(13:22):
a great guy at times. Um, But is it worth
it If he plays every down and he's very very productive,
and he's durable and he's dependable and you know whatever
that is, maybe it's worth keeping a guy that's high maintenance.
But if he's not playing a very high percentage of
your games, then it's time to cut the cord. And
so that's what they did. I get it. Here's the
(13:44):
two things that jump out at me, because from a
football standpoint, you can certainly see for all the things
you just talked about. At first, I don't know that
John Schneider and Pete Carroll can do this unless they
have that Super Bowl ring in their back pocket. Because
let's remember, they gave up a one, a three, and
a five. I think it was maybe it was a seven,
but it was a one in three and a late
pick for a guy that ended up playing basically eight
(14:04):
games for them. So clearly that's a lot when you
go to the owner going, well, I know we had
we gave this guy all this money, and I know
we gave up a one, three and a five, but
now we're gonna let go of him. So you gotta
have You gotta be comfortable in your own skin and
feel very comfortable in your own position when you do that. Secondly,
and I get it, and I can certainly see because
here the Jets are coming off a game against like
(14:26):
New England where it was really an excellent game plan.
Rex did a wonderful job They should have won that game.
They had the ball for forty one minutes. Gino Smith
played just well enough and you lose. So you know,
the thinking is, well, what do we gotta do now
we're dead? Okay, they get that one more playmaker. But
you listen to the commentary about Percy Harvin. Is this
(14:48):
locker room the jet rock room? And we know what
that can be like in New York City and a
team that's won and and six. Now this isn't reigning
super Bowl team. Okay, this is a one in six
where the coaches under five. You put that personality into
that locker room. That that's a bold move on New
York's part, it is. But they're not married to him, right,
(15:08):
They didn't. They didn't spend a big signing bonus, they
didn't give up a draft choice. You know they're going
to give up, right, so so the price was right.
I mean, really, I think this is a half season
tryout for the guy, and the Jets will keep him
if he proves to be dynamic, and if if he
proves to be troublesome, then they'll cut. They'll cut their losses.
It's not not that big a deal for them either. Well,
(15:29):
let's let's move on to I guess probably the next
biggest story, or really the biggest story in the league
right now, the six and one Dallas Cowboys. I know
you picked them early to be six and one at
the one. More, let's talk about this Cowboy team and
not the fact that they beat the Giants was actually
a little closer game than many of his thought. But
let's begin with just how good this Cowboy team is
(15:52):
and what occurred to me after watching the game and
listening to Troy Aikman remind us that that Jay Garrett
was on that Super Bowl team, their last super Bowl
team with the triplets and with him at Smith and
Jay Novasek and Michael Irvan on the outside, and Troy
Aikman throwing the ball talking about this is the team
that Jason Garrett wanted to build. Big offensive line. He's
(16:16):
got his own triplets with Romo and and Jason Witten
and Dez Bryan on the outside, and a defense that,
when you look at it statistically is right now extra
playing it over sixteen games, is exactly ranks the same
defensively total defense against the run the past. It's amazing
how similar defense as that. That's the surper I mean
(16:36):
almost to the line. When you look at the numbers
comparing these guys and where they're at right now. This
is the Cowboys. Hey, Brian, I've gotten I've got memories
of that team because because I was with the Green
Bay Packers when we played him in there, and how
tough it was to beat beat them down there, and
they were really good. We were winning the game in
the third quarter. But anyway, I remember Brett Favre was
(16:56):
sitting with me going to that game. Okay, we're sitting
right behind Mike Holmgren, and Farv pulled out a Jeff
Foxworthy book and he started reading it to me out loud.
You might be a redneck if you think old Yeller
is your uncle's front tooth. I mean he he had
he had me laughing, and Mike was really kind of
mad because here's our quarterback just having a good old time.
(17:18):
That's how that's my memory. And Dion Sanders played Why
do receive Her? In that game too, Jason Garrett too
played and so um, yeah, that was a heck of
a team that day. But this team is becoming like that.
Let's not crown him yet. But so far, so good.
Um better than expected. With DeMarco Murray staying healthy, that
offensive line is gonna make Jerry Jones the executive of
(17:40):
the year. Maynelli rod Marinelli is gonna get another head
coaching job because his defense is pulling off miracles. And
Tony Romo is like after back surgery, come on, he's
like the best guy in the league. It's Dez Bryant
is is doing all the right things and making plays
and being a good team guy. It's like, who are
these guys? And so I think they're exceeding expectations? Are you?
(18:03):
Are you still waiting for the other shooter drop? Yeah?
I am, I am because expect I get the triplet thing.
You know, with Romo and DeMarcus Murray. De Marco Murray
is playing like crazy. And I don't know how marion
Elli's doing it on defense. I don't know how he's
doing it on defense because that's my phone again, Brian,
(18:26):
and so Bret's Brett's calling. He wants the comforter back
that you can't talk to you right now, Okay, So
they wants those towels back that you took and so
you know, you know we were the killer Bees. Remember
that defense I don't even know who they were, and
that that that was Miami, right, and then you had
(18:46):
the no name defense, and you had all these names
on defense. We need to get marion Elli's defense and name.
They got to be somebody marion Elli something, Monsters something,
because they're playing way over their heads. They got two
guys on that defense. Uh, Anthony's answer and in Milton
have one Pro Bowl. That's it on the whole defense. Uh,
They're They're just a bunch of guys playing hard and
(19:07):
playing well. Right now, maybe some of them make the
Pro Bowl. Now. The McClain, that linebacker. That ended up
being a beautiful move getting ROLANDA. McClain, Remember he was
he was drafted by and flopped around Oakland for a while.
Of course Asi knew some signed at Alabama guy back
and and he never really turned into anything in Baltimore
retired and and they went out. You got to give
(19:28):
again your Executive of the Year Jerry Jones, credit for
going out and taking chance on a guy that says, no,
I think I'm done with football. Well, okay, well let's
give you one more chance. He's been you know when
they lost Shawn Lee, that was a huge pickup on
their parts. So you got to give the Cowboys credit.
I'm like you, I'm kind of waiting for the other
shoot to drop. But this team, I don't know. I'm
still with you with the defense, I don't know if
(19:48):
they've been through the gauntlet of the really good quarterbacks.
Not that Eli Manning's not a good quarterback. I don't
know they've been challenged quite that way yet. And obviously
the defensive numbers are gonna be jaded by the fact
that that they hold onto the ball and they run
the ball. They run the ball so well that that,
you know, a good to have a good defense, you
have to have an offense that's physical and and but
we also know if you run the ball well. Warren
(20:11):
Staff and I were talking about this, If you run
the ball well, you usually play the run real well
because you're used to practicing it against it. I think
we're seeing that a little bit because the way they're
practicing what DeMarco Murray does during training camp or even
in practice whatever, that they you're right this and and
and and Rod Marinelli, You're exactly right the job who
who thought? Because remember that's how bad Let's remember how
(20:33):
bad this defense was. I mean, they were bad the
story ever in the history of the of the of
ever and so they and I just thought after they
lose you know, DeMarcus Ware and Shawn Lee like you mentioned,
and a bunch of other guys, oh my god, they
might be worst ever and Marinelli's and they change defensive coordinators.
Monty Kiffin's not there anymore. So anyway, my hat is
(20:55):
off to these guys. They're winning it. They're doing good there.
They look good every single week. It's not by luck either,
So hey, good story. Let's get ahead of it. And
I'm just gonna ask you let me but let me
add this though, Brian, because this was their first, uh
the NFC East game. Okay, they still have everybody to
play the Eagles twice, the Redskins twice. They still have
(21:15):
to play the Colts. They still have to play Chicago.
In fact, that's our game on Thursday night. Who knows
what we'll get up in Chicago. That team is kind
of goofy team right now. And then they have Arizona,
who's a heck of a team. So they're gonna be
challenged here in the second half of the season by
their own division and some other teams that are playoff caliber.
Let me ask you that. Getting ahead of it here
a little bit. You said they got the Eagles twice,
and I'm gonna ask you this only because of the
(21:36):
contrasting styles, Chip Kelly, a lot of plays, high tempo,
throw the wall. Yeah, we want to run, but the defense.
Pick me. That first Dallas Eagles game, who do you think?
I think it's in Philly. Yeah, I think they're gonna
split this year. I think they're both pretty evenly matched teams.
I think they split. Philly wins at home in Dallas
(21:56):
went at home, and you know, in Phillies, you know
they're pretty darn good. I mean, they didn't look very
good against the forty niners, but all the other games
they look pretty explosive. They're hard to defend. They throw
that thing around, they spread it around, their up tempo,
so they probably split. Well, I'm just I'm looking at
it right here. I'm corrected. First game is Thanksgiving game,
it's in Dallas, and and I'm with you. You know
I'm gonna go towards the home team. I'm not sure.
(22:19):
I think the difference could truly be I'm not sure
that Philly defense is gonna hold up against the onslaught
of DeMarco Murray and that big offensive line. I think
you may look up and Nick Folds gets five snaps
in the first half type of thing, you know, and
that that that will stretch it a little bit. M m. Well,
that's that's part of their strategy now, because I mean
even when they had the great Troy Aikman, they didn't
(22:41):
throw it fifty times a game. They controlled the game
on the ground and and then they took their shots
and did their thing with Michael Irvin when they wanted
to nova checking those guys. So, um, I think it's
the same recipe you said it earlier. Brian Jason Garrett
is trying to build a team like that team, and
you know what, they're starting to look a little bit
(23:01):
like it now. That might have been the best Dallas
team ever, who knows, but um, this team is starting
to act like that. Let's you you brought it up
because you talked about you're gonna do that game on
Thursday with Dallas in Chicago. Let's bring up there's a
couple of teams that have got some stuff going on,
you know, given that's what losing brains, you know, and
(23:21):
all of a sudden things that let's start with those
Chicago Bears and and they're supposedly very heated exchange in
the locker room afterwards, Brandon Marshall going off on everybody,
including his quarterback. Let's talk a little bit about the
job that Mark Tressman has to do. If the expectations
in Chicago and it hasn't come to fruition, they can't
(23:44):
win at home? How do you how does he address that?
It's one thing not winning on the road like St. Louis,
But how do you handle not winning at home? Yeah?
I don't know. And so you know this as well
as I do that winning A winning locker room is
the most fun thing there is, right for coaches and players.
A victorious locker room. It's not always champagne and all that,
(24:05):
like the baseball, but it's fun and it's like very macho,
and it's like we get it well. A losing locker
room is um. I mean, those are the things that
that I hated the most. You know, then you gotta
do a press conference, but but there's there's so much um.
There's so much disappointment, frustration, anger, whatever that those words
(24:27):
are after a loss especially when the expectations are high,
um in a couple of teams like the Bears are
going through that right now, the Saints are going through
that right now, that the frustration levels really kind of
And you've got a lot of personalities in that room,
right You've got some guys that are like going to
listen to music, some guys that are just gonna explode,
some guys that love each other, some guys that ate
(24:49):
each other. I mean, there's all kinds of personalities in
that room. And I that that Bears locker room must
have been a mess. And Mark Trustman's got to find
a way to calm it all down, get them back
on track, and get him working again. Because it is
a pretty a pretty competitive team. It could playoff team
if they write the ship and I don't. Here's where
I brew up and the old coach and us I
(25:10):
think comes to the forefront, because you know what, we're
gonna start hearing Mark Trestman is losing the lot lost
his team. Yeah, what what's Mark Trestman got to do
with it? If these guys can't, they don't. I've never
seen a team yet where the players play for the coach.
They they play for themselves. They play for each other,
and that's the way that they just They had a
(25:32):
nice clip on me on Playbook where I got up
in front of my team and I said, and I
was after a big one. I said, look, I know
you guys don't believe half the stuff I tell you.
I don't believe half the stuff I say myself, But
but believe me when this and then I went on
about all fifty three men or whatever. But you understand
where I'm going. It grates me a little bit when
we'll start to hear that or it's a Tom Coughlin
when they're struggling whatever, they've lost the locker room. That
(25:55):
locker room to a degree, it's kind of hold itself together,
doesn't it. Yeah, And you know what the glue is, wins.
That's the that's the glue that holds teams together. Because
you hear there's teams that win super Bowls and it's like, oh,
we loved each other, we had good chemistry. Well, no
kidding that, I've never heard of that about a losing team,
because that losing separates guys and and and it frustrates
(26:16):
people and so um, you know, they they gotta win
a couple of games here and get back on tracks,
you know, and start believing in each other, believing in
the system, in the coaches, all of that sort of thing.
But jeez, when you lose, that all unravels fast. And I,
you know, I I didn't experience that much in San
Francisco because we won a lot of games. But in Detroit,
(26:38):
we lost a bunch of games. And my god, that's hard.
It's hard, and you're just you're just reaching for straw
sometimes and and and there you start off with a
bunch of good guys that are all in the same direction,
headed and marching in the same direction and focused in
one central theme. But then losing seems to just bring
(27:00):
people apart, just pull people apart. And and so Mark's
got his work cut out for him. And the next
team I want to talk about is is Marvin Lewis's
team in Cincinnati. And let's remember at the quarter mark,
there were a lot of us and I'll lead the
charge on this one that thought, you know what, Cincinnati
maybe the best team in this league right now. They
are unbeatable at home, that defense is playing at the
(27:23):
top level, and he Dalton seems to have it going
they're committed to the run. They got a j Green
and Gresham and Snows playing good in the slot, Tyler
effort and the two tight end, and now they can't
buy a win. And they they on Sunday, they they
they went nine straight drives of three and out, nine
straight drives to a Indianapolis team. The last thing you
(27:46):
want to do is get if Andrew Luck some extra possessions. Uh.
And we can talk later about Indianapolis and job Greg
Noose is doing because they leave the league in third
down stopping teams on third down. It's phenomenal. But they
could do nothing thing right. And I'm not sure how
to put my finger on what what it is that's
going wrong in sinc Now. Well, when you lose two receivers,
(28:08):
Marvin Jones and of course a j that hurts. You
take two good receivers away from any team, pick your team,
they become somebody else. And so that's part of it.
The other thing is I got I remember putting them
in the Final four when they were undefeated. They look
like a real complete football team. But then reality struck
is because the Patriots took him apart, okay, and there
(28:29):
was like whoa maybe we aren't as good as we
think we are. And then they tie Carolina, and Carolina
is up and down like a bunch of teams are
up and down, and then they lose another one. So
their losses and ties are are two pretty good football teams,
but they're still not playing very well. They have to
get a j green back. You know. I know Hugh Jackson,
the offensive coordinator. He used to be my offensive coordinator
at cal Um back in the Pack ten, and so
(28:54):
you know he'll he'll get them going some way somehow.
But right now, I think they've got a little bit
and this is a long season. We're gonna have a
three quarter market might even be different, although they do
have the Ravens this weekend all but at home. That's
a tough one that that's a huge game for them
and a team that they had beat to start the season.
I think the other thing defensively, I saw where Gino
(29:16):
Smith going into the game had not had a sack,
first time in his career to go six games without
a sack, and he's such a big part of their
inside presence. And we all know how quarterbacks hate pressure
right down the middle and up the middle, so there's
a few things going on with the defense as well,
but you talk about how do you hold that together
again the players and again, to me, the challenge of
Cincinnati and from Marvin is because they've they've won so
(29:37):
well in the regular season's kind of well, it's our
it's just wait to get to the postseason. We gotta
play better there, like the regular season is just gonna happen,
and we know that it doesn't. And now could that
locker room start to because you're talking about two new
quarterbacks Hugh Jackson Paul gun through the defensive coordinator that
we thought, okay, well they're gonna be fine because they
were on staff because Mike Zimmer went up to Minnesota
and Jay Gruden went to Washington. Did they start turning
(29:59):
on a huge accident? Paul Gun They're going, well, maybe
you guys aren't as good as as we thought coming in.
The other one is is the New Orleans Saints and
and Sean Payton kind of bird up a little bit,
as we all have done when some people wanted to
question about why they can't went on the road and
and he started spouting out stats about this, that and
the other. But at the end of the day, Seanach.
(30:20):
They're not very good on the road. Can we put
a finger on Have you ever had that kind of
road stretch where I remember in Green Bay, you guys
couldn't beat us in Minnesota, so you always tried, You
tried a different hotel Mike had. At one point, you
just stayed in River Falls, Wisconsin. You didn't even come
to Minnesota to play. You stayed in River Falls, Wisconsin
and bust in. Well what what What we finally ended
(30:42):
up doing is getting bread farve good enough to go
in there and make that game. You know, but um, hey,
how about this? How about this? So when I go
to Detroit, they have a street going of sixteen losses
in a row on the road. Okay, two years too,
full years eight and eight. Right, So I go in
(31:02):
there my first year we lose every game on the
road for the first time. So now we have a
new record. I mean, we have a record that's never
gonna be beaten. Twenty four losses in a row on
the road. And it got to be so so uh.
The players were so freaked out about that record as
it was going that I remember, you know how we
(31:24):
all pray right as a team before the game, and
after the game, right, guys were praying in players time plays,
let us when this game on the road, all of
that kind of stuff. It got to be a mental thing.
It was awful. And then the next year then we
we won some games on the road. We beat Chicago
our first game, and it was like, oh my god,
I would have wait off our back. And then later
(31:45):
on I think they broke that record again. But it
sometimes it gets to a point where it's not just
a dome team like Atlanta or like the Saints or
Detroit or whoever that might be going on the road
plane on the grass and the wind and the rain.
Sometimes it doesn't matter that they're playing, it's just away.
There's a thing where, hey, we're not expected to play
as well, we haven't played as well, and it's kind
(32:06):
of this mental thing. Now. Drew Brees throws the pick
at the end. If that was a head stretcher, he
played a heck of a game. I mean he I
know he had a bunch of incomplete passes at the end,
but he threw for three forty two. He's still on
pace for five thousand yards. So I'm just I'm just
a little bit surprised because I picked the Saints to
win that division. You know what, Brian, I still pick
(32:26):
them to win that division. Could we could could we
see a seven and nine we did already with Pete
Carroll's team when the nf A NFC South, I'm not
so sure. We may not, Yeah, because Atlanta is all
banged up, as you know in Tampa's terrible Caroline Carolines
like this and the Saints that the Saints should win
that division. But I'm more surprised about the defense is
(32:50):
in effectiveness, and they just they're not stopping, they're not tackling,
they're not they're not coming up with takeaways like they should.
And and so I think they've got the Achilles heel
on that side of the ball. My my biggest road
story is go to the Baltimore Ravens and as Cleveland
Browns and the Baltimore Ravens. They had not one in
Pittsburgh in like eighteen years ever, you know, And it's
(33:12):
like and so, and I could tell and I'm new
to it, you know, I'm just and in our second year,
the way year we go to the Super Bowl, we
talked about the Jacksonville game. I think we talked about
that last year overcoming a whatever and overcoming a losing
streak and whatever. We opened up the season at Pittsburgh
where they had never won, and I could tell with
my management, my owner, and even Ozzie, it's like, well,
we always lose in Pittsburgh, so oh and one won't
(33:33):
kill us, Like, well wait a minute, let's and we
beat Pittsburgh. And and mentality that that brought, like Okay,
here we go, We're ready to go, which and so
you're right, it is as much a mental thing as anything.
Let's let's talk about my column on Wednesday. I'm talking
about Jim called Well in Detroit. Since we're talking about
your your old haunted Detroit Lions, let's remember Jim Caldwell
(33:54):
was hired. And it reminds me so much of when
I came into Baltimore because and we were all geniuses
and Gurup was at the time, which obviously and I
just love that title anymore. But Jim called We was
brought into an offensive guru to help straighten out Matthew Stafford. Right,
if we can just get Matthew Stafford straighten out, eliminate
some of the turnovers, we're gonna be a good football team.
And Martin Mayhew hired him in the Fords, and and
(34:14):
that's why Jim called what was brought in, Well, what
are they doing? They're winning with the best defense in
the National Football League. That's what you did, and that
came in as a genius, and it was and and
inherited the best single season defense and the history of football. Well,
the point I'm getting at is it takes a different mindset.
I had to alter my thinking a little bit to think, Okay,
(34:35):
this is why I have won before, and this is
what I think it takes to win. But I had
to recognize, you know what, I gotta change the way
I call a game. I gotta change way I orchestrate
this because this defense is pretty special. Brian. That's why
you have a Super Bowl ring, because you were able
to adjust your strengths weaknesses and say, hey, I'm not
gonna throw the ball and score five points or whatever
you did in Minnesota. I'm gonna play a certain way
(34:55):
on offense, and our defense is going to help us
win these close games. And that's what you guys did
for years and years, and that's that's good coaching. And
so Jim called, I went to I went to the
Detroit line training camp. You know, because I did an
interview with Dominican Sue and all these guys, and I
saw everybody was great. That defensive front, especially that defensive
(35:16):
line is scary, man, I tell you what. I was
standing right next to him, and I was afraid. I
was afraid of those guys. They're big and past and strong,
and they can control a game, asked Aaron Rodgers. Because
they took apart to Green Bay Packers, remember, and so
that's why their number one in the league on defense.
I thought they would have drafted Corey Fuller and the
secondary instead of Eric Ebron the tight end. But but
(35:39):
I think next year they'll build up their secondary a
little bit even more. But you know, losing Calvin Johnson,
that's a that's a that's a bummer. But they'll get
him back, and that's a good thing. And as good
as his team is, they're gonna get a Golden Tags
plan spectacularly. Um And so Matthew Stafford has thrown a
few too many picks. He's that's the biggest challenge for
Jim called Ross has been a gun slinger. He's got
(36:02):
on defense. Now, I gotta reel that in Jim or
Matthew Stafford, because I'll tell you what you're gonna cost
us a game. You don't have to take these same chances.
But they're gonna get a Calvin Johnson back at some
point and that would be you know that that makes
this team very, very scary going forward, so that that's
gonna be worth watching. And again, I just had to
think about my time and when I went to Baltimore
(36:22):
and had to make that transition. So I'm gonna write
about that on Wednesday. All right, before we get out
of here, I gotta ask you this, because you had
a great run here. Now you get to go visit
with Tom Brady, right, you got to you got to
spend the night with Brett Farve, uh exactly figuratively speaking,
that you were in the west wing. Was that the
same as their coder? It was, Yeah, I was in
(36:44):
the west wing. Was way on the other side of
this place, way over there. Anyway, Yeah, it was fun.
And then, uh, but on a weekend where Peyton Manning
throws and has the all time broke your Brett Farves
all time record in touchdown, So that begs the question
I'm gonna ask you right now, as a former guru,
genius quarterback mentor former is over the hill? Is Peyton
(37:09):
Manning the greatest quarterback of all time? Well? I think yeah,
probably and I and that's no additions, probably doesn't. Is
he the greatest quarterback of all Okay, so you know,
like we're supposed to say yes and then explain ourselves. Okay,
you know, this is a different era than even Bret Brett.
(37:30):
Farve didn't go into the shotgun until his eighth or
ninth year. Okay, Um didn't throw a bubble screen ever. Okay,
I mean, you know, didn't call his own plays. I
mean it was a balanced offense. And and and then
Marino was as good as they got back then too,
and in Elway, and then go back to Johnny Unitis
in his era, he was so sensational. It's hard for
(37:53):
me to compare this era with that area. Sammy BA
was fantastic, nine straight championships. Yeah. So, so it's just
hard to say which guy is best because they're all
different eras and competitions and the whole thing. But when
it's all said and done, Peyton is going to be
so far out in front with some of these records. Now,
he still has several to go to beat Brits passing
(38:14):
yards and wins and you know, some of those things
which he should do next year or the year after.
But Peyton's he's not going anywhere now. He's still healthy.
Six hundred touchdown passes is not out of the question
for him, right, So then you know we're gonna be
talking about which young quarterback might have a chance to
come close. Is that a Drew Brees? Is that Andrew
(38:35):
Luck someday? But anyway, it's fun to watch. The league
needs great quarterbacks. That's what makes this world go around.
Great quarterbacks and teams are looking for that guy. And
so let's just enjoy Peyton Manning while he's still playing well,
because you know what, he's playing better now than he
did at Indianapolis. His numbers are far better in Denver
(38:56):
than they were an Indie. He could have retired and
went to the Hall of Fame after Indie, but he's
even accelerated his game. I'm gonna give my opinion on
this when we come out of it, but but you
had a chance to visit. Let's hear what Brett Farve
had to say about this. Is he as good as
there is leaving the pocket, throwing the ball from the room.
He's different than Peyton Manning, but he's he's excellent. Peyton
(39:17):
is not as good as him the way Aaron plays.
Aaron is not as good as Peyton the way Peyton plays.
But if you were to start a team, you can't
go wrong with either. But you know, Aeron's got a
lot more years probably, who knows he could play ten
or more years. Yeah, and and it's interesting because when
you ask this question, obviously everybody has to explain it.
(39:37):
And here's here's my take on it. We got to
set the parameters before we talk about it, because what
inevitably what someone's gonna say about Peyton Manning. Yeah, but
he didn't win enough. He only won one Super Bowl.
How do you compare a Dan Marino who never won
a championship yet has all those numbers? How do we
compare and Eli Manning who's got two to Let's let's
(39:59):
say pay doesn't get another Super Bowl? Just for discussion, sink,
how do you have that conversation without you got to
tell me the criteria first? Is winning the number one criteria,
as we all know in this league, it is or
are the numbers so overwhelming, because how do you compare
Peyton Manning to a Ben Roethlisberger who has two super Bowls,
(40:20):
to a Joe Montana who has three super Bowls, to
a Terry Bradshaw for four, I mean Terry brat Show
for Yeah, how do you? I don't know how you
have this conversation? Yeah, And so it is winning the
super Bowl. Of course that's the ultimate goal for everybody,
but it is a team goal to one guy can't
(40:41):
win a super Bowl. And so yeah, there's different different
parameters we would evaluate the perfect guy to ask. So
I'm gonna I'm gonna put you because we give them
stuff here on the Coaches Show podcast. They get no
place else. You have the unique perspective of having coach
Brett Farve. Your green Baby lineage takes you to Aaron Rodgers.
You're a Bay Area you know you. So you're into
(41:02):
the Joe Montana thing. You're Steve Steve Young the best quarterback?
Name one right, now, you've got to name the best quarterback,
don't qualified. Just give me a name. Joe Montana. Yeah,
that's tough to not and we forget as we get
separated from that. But what he did when he met.
That's a that's a good one. Fortunately don't have to
(41:22):
answer that question because I didn't have all those guys.
And I love all those other guys. Believe me. I'm
with you, Steve, Steve Young's gonna call me up. You're
gonna ring right now there and Brett five, I'll just
let you stay at my house. You're gonna and and
and so um. You know you gotta love them all.
But when somebody wins four super Bowls and in twenty seconds,
is that the reason why Joe Montana, if things are
(41:42):
a little bit equal, you know you gotta get that
might tip it right. Four rings that tips things from
I love what Brett said that that he said that
Aaron can't do what Tayton does, but Peyton can't do
what Aaron Rodgers does. I thought that was a very
insightful comment on Brett Farve Park and we're gonna end
on that. I hope you enjoyed the weeks seven of
The Coaching Show podcast. You get inside here that you
(42:03):
get no place else to me. Sure you check us
out every week. Go to NFL dot com Slash Podcast
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.