10-16-25 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with Zach Segars

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Filling in.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
It's Zach Seegers, but not for a late night post
Rockies edition.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Of the show. It's a normal edition of the show.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
And joining me tonight is the one and only Bronco's
legend himself, Nick Fergus, And Nick, how are you doing tonight?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm happy to be a man.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
So there's no baseball on, Well, there's actually baseball on,
but it is not convinting us from actually getting everyone
got warmed up to the Sunday festivity.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
So great Denver evening, man, how.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Are you doing, Zach Seekers, I'm doing great, a great
Denver evening, a great sports evening too.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
You mentioned it.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
We've got Brewers and Dodgers right now in the bottom
of the sixth the Dodgers looking to extend a two
to one lead. I imagine those of us along the
front range who are Rockies fans aren't thrilled to see
that result.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And then a little.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
While later here we're going to have Seattle Mariners and
Blue Jays. The blue Jay's trying to even up that
series at two games apiece and make that really probably
only interesting league championship series.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Will have to go on.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
And then Thursday Night football, right around the corner two.
I noticed you were surprised to hear Dave Logan back
in the Bengals tonight. You think this is going to
be a one sided affair for the Steelers, not.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
The fact that it's going to be a one side
of affair.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I know Joe Flacco did show a little to improve
in those fantasy owners of Jamar Chace. They love seeing
him put up some decent stats. That hasn't been the
case since Jant Browning kind of was subbed in for
Joe Burrow. But yeah, this is going to be a
better game than anticipated. Two veteran quarterbacks. For me as

(01:42):
a veteran player myself, I love to see where guys
are able to extend their careers. I still don't know
why Cleveland decided to part ways with Joe Flacco and
give him to a division rival, someone that you were
competing with, But that's an entirely different story. But I'm
looking forward to watching a great tonight. I don't know
if they pulled it out and them being the Bengals,

(02:04):
but they should make it really interesting.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
You sound like Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Mike Tomlin was also scratching his head about that Brown's decision.
And it's not often you here, you know by name,
people call out their divisional rivals right like that, They said,
Andrew Berry must be a heck of a lot smarter
than me, because I have no idea what he's doing
over there in Cleveland. I thought that was one of
the more interesting quotes of the week.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Well, usually within your division, teams rarely trade guys within
a division, now, could that? Well, let me take that
bat Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Brown said already stated
how they feel about Joe Flacco going from a guy
who was their starter, who didn't really have to do
a lot in training camp because you as your door

(02:52):
in Dylan Gabriel, only to be tossed away like yesterday's
trash to the Cincinnati Bengals. And typically teams don't really
trade a gift asset away within a division unless they
feel as though that individual can no longer play the game. Now,
Joe Flacco was never the most gifted athletic individual in

(03:14):
the league. The one thing that you can praise him
for and validate him for was him being smart enough
to know the game and being around alone time and
be able to pick up a lot of systems That's
why he was able to play so quickly against the
Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
But also his arm.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Now he still has an arm, and he could drive
the ball down the field. But the biggest thing is,
once again, he can't move. So I expect Mike Tomlin
and the Pittsburgh States to try to move him off
of his spot. Well you spot on. You know, Mike
Thomas has some big spout Andrew Berry that typically you
don't hear people say. But Mike Tomlin, I can tell

(03:53):
you this because when I was coming to San Francisco,
I ran into him in Mobile, Alabama, and he is
one of the realest individuals you ever meet. He's gonna
keep it one hundred, is going to keep it a buck.
And he just kept He just told it true. That
was his truth. Now you tell me, do you think
he somewhat lied about that situation.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
No, I think honestly it was coming from a very
real place.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I think he's looking across the field or at least,
you know, watching some tape this week and going dang,
I could have been going up against Jake Browning and
not Joe Flacco, like you said, despite.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Only being with the team two three days or whatever.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
It was he came into the lineup and immediately the
Bengals looked better against a pretty staunch Green Bay Packers defense.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Now, the only thing that may change things, I don't
think they will, but anything is capable to happened on
a Thursday night football game.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
That if Joe Flacco somehow gets.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Reinvigorated by those particular comas and even though Andrew Barry
and the Browns kind of dumped him to the Cincinnati Bengals,
and he plays so well that he beats the Steelers,
Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers tonight. Now that would be one
of a headline for Friday morning.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Especially because I think the Bengals need this one more
if they If they lose this one, you're in a
two and five hole without Joe Burrow. It's gonna be
hard to imagine them turning that ship around and reaching
the playoffs. Whereas the Steelers right now it looks like
they can probably cruise to an AFC North crown.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I've always been that as.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
An outsider, struggled to buy into that idea of who
wants it more because I'm like, these guys are all professionals,
They're elite competitors. They want this game pretty evenly, you
know better than me. Though as a player. Do you
think there's merit to that idea of who wants it
more or who needs it more in a given game.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yes, it is true, because Zach, there's some players who
are just happy to just say that they have an
a locker in the NFL, you know, stadium or team facility.
They're just happy to be able to tell their parents
they got a jersey, right, not even was that way.
And when you think about Mike Tomlin and even though

(06:02):
they've missed or rebounds from the playoffs early, they've been
the mainstay in the playoffs for the past couple of years,
even though they're they're fans and people saying trade on
Tomlin and I'm like, yeah, that's stupid, all right, But
there is some merit to you know, guys really wanting
to play because these these are divisional games, and these

(06:23):
divisional opponents, the games are different opposed to out of
conference games.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
You hate these guys.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
I know hate is a strong word, but when I
played for the Broncos.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
We hated the Raiders. You know why.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
We knew Al Davis did not pay Mike sand ahand
his money.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Now, Mike has never told me that.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Well, you know how words just kind of circulate, and
we knew we wanted to go out and win one
for our coach to stick it in Al Davis's crawl.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
So in these division games, they count us.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Why you know, people always say, well, these division games,
even though there's one win, you play him twice, they
count twice. You look at him as like a double
game because you're able to push that division rival down
in the cellar. That's why when you think about where
the Raiders are right now, guess what they're trying to
dig themselves out.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
And you also give yourself the tiebreaker advantage house in
all these the head to head, the division record, the
conference record, it helps.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
You in so many different ways.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
And Nick, imagine how much you would hate the Raiders
if you not only played for the Broncos for a
few years, but you spend some time playing for the
Chargers and spend some time playing for the Chiefs like
Joe Flacco has in the NFC North. I mean he
has three different layers of that divisional rivalry hate directed
towards the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well, I think that's probably why you know Flacco once
again he should always believe in himself. But the fact
that he's traveled and he's been with several teams, he's thinking, Okay, well,
I've had my best situations with Baltimore and not so good,
you know, here in Denver and other places. So that
gives him the motivation that he can go out at

(08:03):
any time and he could play his best ball. That's
why when he came off to the sofa last year
to go to Cleveland, helped them win a couple of
games and then got them into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
But then they're real. Joe Flanco showed up.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
In Houston and it was just like, you know what,
I'm good for a couple of games. I can win
you a couple but the idea of me getting you
to a super Bowl playing in a meaningful game, nah,
I can't really do that.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, he has that high variant style of play. He's
going to throw a million bombs downfield. And you know,
if you've got Jamar Chase and Tiggins, I don't think
that's the worst strategy. You're probably gonna hit on more
of those than you'll miss on. But like you said,
it can go really bad too, as we saw in
the playoffshe we had a three or four interception performance
against Houston and the Browns ultimately got blown out. But

(08:49):
I think that's kind of evident of a really wide
open AFC right now. You know that the Steelers are
kind of all on their own in the AFC North.
If you look at the AFC East, the Jets and
Dolphins seem like they're completely out of it. You know,
the AFC South is pretty wide open between the Jags

(09:10):
and Colts, and maybe the Texans can make some sort
of push from the back of that group. And then
you've got the three quality AFC West teams with the Chiefs, Chargers,
and Broncos.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
But right now it just seems one very.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Different, I think, in terms of the playoff picture than
what we were expecting. But also I don't think there's
that dominant team in the AFC that we've been accustomed
to seeing the past few years. Whether it be really
I think there's been multiple every each of these past
several years where it's man, those Bills and Ravens and
Chiefs all look unbeatable.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
They all look pretty human to me this year.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Do you think that the AFC has a dominant team
right now?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
No, they don't. So the only thing that you can
look for, Zach is consistency. Right, you just try to
find that civil lining and say, well, where's that consistency
because most teams are within one game of each other
at the top, right, because you mentioned the East. Right now,

(10:11):
Buffalo looks like they're having some issue with injuries, and
then their defense.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Isn't really that style.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
But that's been the one thing that has prevented you know,
Josh Allen from getting past Mahomes his defense. And you
would think that this past offseason, you know, Sean McDermot
and Brandon Bean, they would have addressed that, but they
did not. So right now in that division, believe it
or not, I'm looking at Mike.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Rabel and Drake May right.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
And here's the one thing I love about the NFL
because there's so many examples of it. And if you
needed some kind of hope and life has been kicking
you in the teeth, look at some of these quarterbacks,
some of these guys who were drafted in the first
round by teams and those teams kind of push them
to the curb. Because the one guy that sticks out

(10:59):
to me, obviously playing days with Tom Brady, right, and
he wore that on his sleeve his entire career. But
right now, that guy in the NFL is Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Just think about the number of teams that kicked him
to the curb and just thought that he wasn't going
to be that quarterback.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
And how bad is that for the Cleveland Browns. He
takes you to.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
The playoffs and things started to fall off a little bit,
you get rid of him, and just look at him. Now,
he's having an MVP type of season. But yeah, when
you look at AFC, all these teams are closed.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
You don't know.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
And that's why every single game matters. And I'll tell
you this, this is why I was happy when the
league kind of flipped some of the things they were
doing with the schedule by putting a lot of those
kind of division games at the tailed end of the season,
where now it becomes a true game of thrones, right
or the Thunderdome. Two men entered, one man leaves. That's football.

(12:00):
And that's what makes the NFL so much better than
any of the other professional sports.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
It's I mean, we're enjoying some baseball right now.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
The reason why playoff baseball is so great is instead
of you know, this one hundred and sixty two game
campaign where every game only can matter so much. It
feels like every single back is do or die, a
season series on the line, or the legacies on the line,
and the stakes magnetize us to it. And I think

(12:29):
that's something that the NFL has done a better job
than any other league at creating it. It's why you know,
we're hanging on every game they give us, even if
it is a matchup between a forty one year old
Aaron Rodgers and a forty one year old Joe Flacco.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Because the thing about the NFL, in comparison to all
the other leagues, the NFL has found the way to
make chaos and controversy one of their biggest brands, even
though it's negative. They don't like it, but they're one
of the bettle leagues at turning villains into heroes or

(13:08):
making you hate the villains so much that you're going
to tune in and watch.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Right, yeah, or heroes into villains.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
You know, when the Patriots were coming up is the
biggest Super Bowl underdog upset ever against the Rams.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
They were the great upstart story.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Oh my god, they've got this sixth round quarterback and
this head coach that was given up on by the
Cleveland Browns, and wow, they're really building this thing. And
that after a few years everyone hated them and wanted
them done. And then it was the Chiefs for the
exciting new whoa, this team's so fast and explosive and electric.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
They score all these points.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
They've got this crazy, freakish quarterback that's unlike anything we've
ever seen before. And then you know, you win a
couple three rings and now they're the biggest villains of
the NFL. At everyone's preying on their downfall.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Well, see that.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Happens when you start to win, right, Everyone hates you
when you're on top, when you go from being the
hunter to the hunted. Well, when I think about the
Kancity Chiefs, you know, you know what I look at.
I look at the Chiefs like like like toothpaste, right,

(14:15):
And what I mean by toothpaste, you know, when you
get to the bear end of that toothpaste, you just
rolling it up.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
You're trying to get every little more so out.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
That's what the Cancity Chiefs are right now for the NFL.
And the only thing that's kind of helped jump start
that whole Oh it's gonna be new two paste in
here was a whole Teler Swift thing. But with her
jumping on with the Swifties, now the league goes, oh,
we got another marketing too, because that's another section that

(14:42):
we didn't even think about.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
I'd never been able to reach.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yes, I mean you're talking about young teen girls who
are gen z.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
We can now acquire them. That's why I like Taylor
Swift's music.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
I have nothing against Patrick Mahomes, have nothing against Kancity
Chiefs or whatever, but I tell you, man, it boils
my tea kettle over every time they play a game
on Sunday Night football.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I know when they're playing at home somehow in that.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Game, Mike Turrico and NBC they're gonna show Taylor Swift
in a suite. I'm like, look, I can play her
music and I like it, but I'm filling in to
watch the damn football game right.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
If I want to see more of her, I'll go
go to YouTube watch her videos.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Did you see what the Giants did when they had
their primetime game earlier this year between the or they
had the Chiefs come into town, into New York.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Did you see what they did on the Jungo trunks?

Speaker 3 (15:34):
No?

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I did not.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
They did a Taylor cam right, and so it's you
can see the cameraman whoever's filming. It's kind of walking
through the concourse filming these people. You're kind of up
at that luxury box level. And so you're like, okay,
here comes the shot of Taylor Swift and you know,
keeps walking down. It takes a couple steps down the stairs,
you know, moving down some rows and pants to the right,

(15:58):
and there's Lawrence Taylor smoking a big stokey silent into
the camera and gave him a little weaken island like
that is a great little uh. And of course Met
Life Stadium just to rock.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Through here to see us like that.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
That's New York City. See, that's the New York City
where I loved and I play. That is how you
actually handle that. And that's another way of trolling those
who gave Taylor Swift. I mean, just she just in
the crosshairs all that ear time, and I feel for
her because there are people who dislike her, and I'm

(16:35):
saying it's not her fault, but the league being who
they are, let's find a way to prop up this team,
and like I said, metaphor be thinking, let's try to
roll this two pace up and try to get every
morse up. But I don't think they're gonna be able
to do that because when you look at all these
teams and how close in proximity they are. As far

(16:57):
as the results and wins losses, Yeah, this is not
gonna be a cake.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Bob for Kansas City.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Now things may change if those guys in those zebra
striped uniforms continue to help them.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
But yet I digress. They got some help on this
past Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
I know that's something you want to dive further into.
But what And we'll get into it more later. But
how big of a role do you think the refs
played in that game? You know, you get Brian Branch
suspended going forward for Allion's team that's already down a
lot of secondary pieces. You had the huge share of
golf penalty. If I like the refs, even if it
was a convincing case, he win, made their presence felt

(17:38):
throughout that game.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, And the whole idea, I don't care whatever the
sport is, especially football and more fuly basketball, we should know,
we should not know who you are as.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
A referee or official. If we're a fan, if we're
seeing you to a lot one or two.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Things that happen, Well, someone's committing an absobe amount of
penalties or alternative and I'll let you.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Somebody want some camera time? Yeah, yeah, that Bengals crew.
The crew we have for the Broncos Bengals game. Oh
my lord, someone really wanted some screen time. They were
throwing flags on every picky tacky thing. We've got a
great show coming up the rest of the way. We're
gonna have Ryan Blackburn joining us at seven point thirty
to preview the Nuggets season.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
That's just one week away now.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
They'll be opening things up on the road against the
Golden State Warriors. They're looking pretty strong in the preseason two.
He'll break all of that down for us and the
Nick cosminder with the Athletic he had a fascinating stat
about this Denver Broncos offense and maybe what is getting
them stuck in the mud and how they can fix it.
That'll be coming up in just a few hours. Stick

(18:49):
around right here on Broncos Country. Tonight on KOA wrapped
up the last segment talking about some of the zebra
help that the Chiefs have been getting, you know, very
loud examples in the Sunday Night game, even if it

(19:11):
ultimately maybe didn't change the outcome. You know, there were
a lot of calls that had Internet outrage. You the
Jared Goflin, the whole Brian Branch situation with with Juju
and Patrick Mahomes, and this was something you wanted to
talk about.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Nick, Where are you at with how the NFL.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Is officiating these games, particularly those involving the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, first and four First and foremost, let me just
say that.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
I don't want to say that the league is doing
this in conjunctions with the Fishes. From an intentional standpoint,
what I am seeing at a large rate is alarming to.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Me, and I've said it for a couple of years.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
And obviously there was that UTEP study that came out
that started, I think maybe dating back to Alex Smith
and suggesting that there was some rules that were not
being officiated as though they should.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Now I wouldn't go back that far.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I'll just kind of come forward and just kind of
looked at some of the games that I've had an
opportunity to watch.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
And I notice that like Kansas City fans, and Alex.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Goe is a good good friend I know who does
radio out there in Kansas City. He says, well, Kansas City,
they get their penalizes, and I said, yeah, you're right,
waiting til the fourth quarter and watch how all of
that changes.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
And I know the league is now doing this thing,
and health and safety is a big move for the league.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
And sometimes you know, Patrick Mahomes put not only himself
but other players in harm's way because last year I
saw him playing at Levi Stadium against San Francisco, run
towards the sideline, so defensive players know, well, we gonna
lay off because before that the Cincinnati Bengals linebacker ran

(21:05):
through him on the sideline and that ended up being
the penalty that gave the Chiefs an opportunity to beat
the Cincinnati Bengals. So in the San Francisco game, the
defender slowed up, Patrick slowed up, and then when the
defender stopped, he ran and got the end. He got
the touchdown and to start the season in Brazil, I
don't know if you remember the play. I think it

(21:25):
was more or less on maybe the chargers sideline where
Mahomes looked like he was going to run out of bounds.
The defender slowed down and then Mahomes turned back.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
And ran into him. Right. Bad look for that dB.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
But these are the things that you can't not allow
if there are certain rules that govern how things happened
on the field, that's how you have to look at him.
Now you look at the play when Jerry Golf scored
where Ammon Saint Brown was blocking.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
For him and it was rule to touchdown.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
There was no flag, there was no penalty, there was
nothing almost a minute and a half.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Then all of a sudden there is a meeting.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Of the minds by their fishers, and then all of
a sudden this laundry on the field. Oh that they
take They took the plate off the board, and there's
thought that that call was stopped or put into motion
because someone in Park Avenue saw the plan and go
oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's the

(22:29):
rules or whatever. If the fishers on the field don't
know the rules and they don't get it right, that's
a touchdown. Even in New York they said, well, the
rules states here that the quarterback has to stop if
he's on the center, so we shouldn't have the league.
The league offer is officiating stopping games when the fishers
on the field didn't throw a flag on it.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
And am I Am I wrong in that assessment? No?

Speaker 2 (22:53):
And I love replay assist I think it's done a
lot for the game, but I think it should be
used on the pass interferences, the holding plays where you
know something gets called. You see the replay, Oh no,
the ball clearly got there first, or oh no, the
ball clearly didn't get there first and we've got to
rectify this, or.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
They call it a face mask. We get the slow
mo replay.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh he didn't grab the face mask, he grabbed part
of the shoulder pad.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
And then replay assistants able to dial down and say, hey,
pick that flag up.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
I don't think it's helping, you know, forget about disliking
the Chiefs or liking the lines or any rooting interest
in it. Is it helping the product of the game
When you have an exciting play, an exciting touchdown to
several seconds after the play has concluded, buzz down on
a procedural thing, because I'm with you, if they call

(23:46):
it's like it was technically against the rules. If the
officials throw the flag right there at the snap of
the ball, like they would for any procedural thing, I'm
all for it.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
When we're like I think it had to have been
buzzed out.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Why if it was a ref on the field that
saw the procedural penalty before the play, why isn't the
flag thrown until several seconds after the conclusion of the play.
And the rule with replay assist is that they can
only be used to pick flags up, not put flags down,

(24:19):
which is actually kind of puzzling to me, But that
is the rule, and it seems like from an outsider's
perspective here, it's hard to not feel like that rule
was not followed in this instance.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
It wasn't because everything in every sports league, especially the NFL,
is procedural, right, there's a process. You see an infraction,
you throw a flag, you unsure the back judge, line judge,
they confer with one another. If I got the call,
I saw a rolling, You saw it, right, You had
to better look at it and guess what it was

(24:51):
a catch, right, I just.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I was just looking at the hands.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
You saw the feet, right, So now you say, okay, Well,
I was like, oh no, no, no, there's a bibble. You
say there's a catch proce, that's how you do it,
flag on the field, and man, if you can't get
it right after conferring, you go to replay. On that
particular play, there was no flag. So now we're gonna
have replay buzzing down to say, oh no, we're gonna

(25:14):
take that away because the rules stay this. I'll say this,
and this is the part that I don't like. I like,
I like balance across the board with everything I do.
Think about Nicole Roby Coleman, and I know this is
probably going to stick in the crawl of Sean Payton
if he's listening. But remember that play by Rams corner.
Nicole Roby Coleman got there early. He got there early. Right,

(25:36):
We all saw it. We all saw whether you were
a fan of the Rams or the Saints. But how
come they didn't buzz down to say, well, that should
have been an infraction?

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Why why, why why do they not do it? Then?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yes, and I'd say, you know right, I probably even
now with the addition of replay assist, where they are
doing that. I think the NF has demonstrated some shadiness
with those replays before because bias. Yeah, because the biases.
You're right, it is a bias. And I think after

(26:12):
that Nicole Roby Coleman play, if people remember they changed
the rules and you were allowed begrudgingly, I'll note they
begrudgingly changed the rules and allowed people to challenge pass interferences,
but it was all a ruse. You could challenge a
pass interference all you wanted, they would not reverse the sucker.
And that's why after the rule hung around in this

(26:34):
trial period for a year, it was removed from the
league and.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
It hasn't been a thing ever since.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
But in the NFL's handling of that, where they were
so clearly putting their thumb on the scale of hey,
if someone challenges a pass interference, unless they are tackling
the dude before the ball gets there, we are not
reversing the call. And man, it worked out that way
very conveniently for the league, and they were able to

(27:00):
shelve this rule that they didn't care for.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
And if they're able to put their.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Thumb on the scale in those moments, are they potentially
putting their thumb on the scale in these other moments
that you're highlighted.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
It seemed that way.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
And what I'm about to say, I'm gonna take you
back in the wayback machine and then I'm gonna bring
you forward to help you understand this. So that was
one play I just told you about involving a Sean
Payton coach team in New Orleans. It happened again when
they were playing in Minnesota Vikings when Kyle Rudolph extended
his arm. It was a clear OPI guess what, no

(27:35):
one's on it. It was as though it never happened.
And I'm thinking, Okay, well, they're gonna see this in
the league. You know why, let me take you behind
the curtain, because when you're watching the game in New York,
they can see you about five or ten seconds.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Before you so they see you then fraction.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
It all depends on all the offishers on the field
actually going to throw the flag, confer not be able
to make a decision and then have to go to replay. Right,
So think about what we just saw in London. We
saw Garrett Wilson catch Bomble. Oh no, no, it wasn't
a turnover. Denver Broncos give the ball back to the Jets,

(28:12):
but when the ball in the same situation happened Troy Franklin.
Guess what it was a turnover, first turnover in favor.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Of the Jets. I'm not saying as a conspiracy. I'm
just saying, not so sad news.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Denver Broncos hosting the New York Giants this weekend. I
imagine we'll dive into this a little a little deeper
coming up. But Nick, what are your early feelings on
this one? I know you and Ben have been worried
about this as a bit of.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
A trap game.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Where are you out on a scale of one to
ten in terms of your confidence about this Broncos matchup
with the Giants?

Speaker 1 (28:55):
I say, man, right now, I am at.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
I'll say a seven, right, It's a seven. It's pretty healthy. Yeah, yeah,
it's pretty healthy and balance. And the reason I say
that is because of the Broncos defense.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I know the Broncos offense.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Are in for a challenge, and when you look over
the past couple of weeks and oh, let's go back
to Week one and look how we got here, the
offense hasn't really looked that stealer the only game this
season that they've looked like, oh my god man, they're
running rough shot over their opponent. That was the Beagles game,

(29:34):
and that was something that was anticipated. And to look
to see where the team is right now four and two,
you're still in a good place. So it's not a
major panic, but it's like, hey, offense, let's.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Go, let's just rep this puppy up. Let's go.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
And we haven't really really seen that. And you watch
the Giants over the past couple of weeks. Two of
the opponents that well, one being the Chargers that beat
the Denver Broncos was the first victory for Jackson Dart.
Then the second week was against the same Eagles team
that the Broncos face. They were able to move the

(30:13):
ball successively against Vic Fangio on that defense. So this
is not one of these one of the teams that
they'll limp it in with GM or head coach whoes
own this way.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Of being fired. No, no, they now are playing with
some confidence.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
They know that Cam Scattabuo, he's gonna run through everything,
almost like he's a superhero like the Ryano and Spider Man.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
He's running through you. He's looking for contact.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
And the rookie quarterback like Jackson Dart man, he now
has his mojo, he feels the league win games.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
How do you.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Approach a matchup like that, specifically Cam Skattaboo as a
player knowing I mean, it was a lot more president
in your day, where with a lot of bruising running
backs in those two thousands when you're going up against
Jerome Bettis or I don't want to put Scataboo on
that level, but you know a guy who's not gonna
be fun to tackle, how do you approach that as

(31:05):
a defender who's gonna have to be you know, dropping
into the box.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
And enforcing that that part. Okay, So I'm not doing
any curls that week. Right, what I'm doing, I'm doing
heavy squats. I'm doing traps and neck right. Hey, as
they would say, bow your neck, earn your check. That's
kind an idea because you gotta come downhill. You're gonna
have some one on lawns and he's going to get

(31:29):
past those linebackers. So those saintsies best be ready. And
I can tell you, man, open field tackling is the worst.
It's so much grass and if you get a guy
who is looking for contact, oh, he gonna confine you.
You can try to dodge, he goes. Scotty's gonna confine you.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Now, the Broncos have some safeties with Brandon Jones and Hufanga,
who can lay.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
The wood when they want to.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
I love to Ryan pointed out, or maybe it was Ben,
but they were pointing out during KOA Sports the Steve
at Water christian a Kuae moment and how maybe we'll
we'll see some echoes of that this weekend.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Who do you think wins that.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Matt because we're probably gonna see a handful of collisions
between Scataboo and those Broncos safeties. Who do you think
is gonna come out winning that individual matchup this Sunday?

Speaker 3 (32:17):
It all depends on if Scattabou gets a free run.
You're coming from death, so you're coming with momentum. But
that dude, you have seen his neck.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
I was gonna say, you're you gotta work on your
neck to try and matchet you tackle, Yes, because after
you wanted to him one time, you got a choice.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
You're gonna say, you know what, he had nothing, I'm
going back at him, or you're gonna go back to
the home and say, hey man, we don't we don't
need to get all living hats on this guy.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
So I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Scataboo's got that mindset of the guard the Cowboys drafted
in the first round this year out of Bamba.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I'm blinking on his name right now. But the guy who.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Said I love watching the football, like leave my opponent's
eyes as I I he spash.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Listen, the same thing happens on a demon's side. When
you hit a guy the first time, you know right
away if he's about that life and idea is that
they're looking to take your soul.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
You have to take your soul first.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I know you've been on the receiving end of some
welcome to the of a welcome to the NFL moment?
Do you to that knowing, Hey, this guy's not about
that life. Can you remember any times where maybe you
welcomed a rookie or an unexperienced player.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
To the NFL with a big hit.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
No, I've never had one of those moments where I
ran into a guy who was a rookie. All my
guys were already proving guys.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
You were making them reconsider hanging around. That's that's when
you were as much as I could.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
All Right, we'll get more into that matchup coming up,
and Jonathan Cooper has that Giants fan base or riled up.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
We'll get into what he said.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
And also, is that tandem that he's forming with Nick
Benito the best pass rush duo in the NFL and
maybe the best pass rush duo in Broncos history. All
that coming up after the break right here on KOA
with Broncos Country Tonight.