07-07-25 KOA Sports Hour 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five, six, six nine zero.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Okay with common spirital text line Rockies Baseball, Come ou
up here at the bottom of the hour.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
We'll be back tomorrow at three o'clock. Looks like we're
in a PJ Lock.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
On the show who had a significant back surgery spinal future.
By the way, my dad had a fusion in his back.
I can't imagine him trying to play football right now.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
So you know, he's a swimmer, so look, cant he backpedals?
Like standing on his hands? Maybe? Is that what you say?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I guess I haven't asked him. You know, it's something
that I now feel like I need to ask him.
We're gonna ask PJ Lock tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Do you talk to your dad?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I talked to him. I mean I just want to
vacation with him. So but I I probably once every
other week or so on every other week. Yeah, is
that dad?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah? Okay, I probably talked to my mom a little
bit telephone and like call him. You just say, hey,
I'm just checking in. How are you doing? Now?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
You're probably right, I'm right more stage advice. Yes, yeah,
I I tend to talk to my mom a little
bit more, mostly because she does like to talk to
you maybe yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, even if your dad doesn't like you, he loves you,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's a lot to unpack there, but I mean if
he doesn't he might not like you. But like, wow,
you really cut to the car. I think, well, you know,
I mean, you get the couch out.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
And then you talk me through this. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, I I talked to her because she likes to talk,
especially on the phone.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
He he I think he likes to talk.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
But most of the time it's kind of like more
check checkless stuff like hey, we got this thing coming up,
make sure you're here for this and this and this
and then and then if I ask him like a
follow up questions like that's for your mom?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Oh so yeah, so you know he doesn't like you.
I mean, it's pretty I just want to stress to
you that always know that your dad loves you. Okay,
And as as you know, when the hour runs out,
typically the person sitting in the chair says, and we'll

(02:12):
need to stop now. My wife is a therapist, and
that's always how many times has she ever uttered that
line a bunch and will need to stop now?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
But I always I marvel at that aspect of it
because because you know, she'll have client after client after climate.
You know, so it's like I gotta, I gotta cut
cut off at some point, does she work on you? No,
she does not know I And and that's I do
appreciate not being therapized by my wife.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Is therapy the word it is?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Kind of Yeah, it is the way I don't know, wait,
way to describe it if you will, but describe it.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
But is that a word I'm always interested in, sort
of you know, widening my bandwidth.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Therapized, Yeah, therapies subject to psychological therapy.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
You don't. You don't need the therapies to fix each other.
I swear to goodness, I don't think I've ever used
the word therapized, but I'm going to find a way
to get that in the vocabulary. Yeah, I mean, first
home game Tennessee. See if I can get therapized in
the broadcast in supple hands, supple hands is going in
for showing for sure. I mean, that's an easy one

(03:26):
man Cortland sudden with a catch there at the forty
eight yard line. A pair of supple hands used on
that beauty.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
We just who you know, that's a thing like yeah,
and it's got to be earned, right, You don't want
to just throw it in there, and the.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Heck of a good catch should be a good catch. Yeah,
but he's known for it a lot of those acoet
I mean, hey, Orlan's had some big catches in his career.
He has, right, He's had some. He's had some catches
where when the ball's in the air, you know, and
as a play by play guy, the ball's in there,
and then you quickly look to see before it gets there,
who is it going to, So you can hopefully, more

(04:03):
times than not correctly identify who the recipient is. But
there have been times in the past, not even last year,
but in previous years where a ball is thrown to
him and I'm thinking, okay, he is totally covered. You know.
You just process it quickly like this is going to
be a battle, and more times than not, he finds

(04:24):
ways to come down with it.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Which is why, going back to our conversation in the
previous hour for just a moment, why I think the
Broncos the lean is that they'll get this, They'll keep
him somehow, They'll do something to make him happy. They
might not come to the close of the twenty eight
point seventy five per the t Higgins is making. But
they'll give him something because he offers something that the
offense doesn't currently have. Now, does that mean that Pat

(04:46):
Bryant will eventually grow into that role?

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Maybe? V grow into that role? Maybe?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
And it comes back to a bit of the crux
of our discussion or debate I don't know months ago
about Devon Vley is like, well, you know can do
this thing. We don't know if those guys can yet.
Now they may prove that in training camp. To your point,
they may show in training camp they're ready to take
on a much larger role. And at that point Sean

(05:12):
Payton has already shown us that he leans towards the
young guys. You know, hey, if I got young guys
that I personally drafted and brought into this organization, well
then that's the direction we're going to go. But until
you see it, you already have a guy that can
do it, and you don't mess with that. And especially
when you got a guy going into a second year,

(05:33):
you really want to add more pressure, put him more
on the high dive. There was an interesting stat that
came out of the weekend from Warrens Sharp where he
was pointing out Bonix's struggles in the red zone, and
it's a little bit misleading. So I'll acknowledge here what
he tweeted out before I say the rest of it.
But he tweeted out the highest rate of red zone

(05:55):
incompletions due to inaccurate Pratt passes. Okay, so red zone
incompletions do to basically quarterback inaccuracy, and Bonix was tied
for the top two in the league.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
It was Cooper Rush, Matt Jones and Bonix. Well, my
question would be, before we can put a lot of
I think sort of merit in that stat where did
bo Knicks rank in terms of red zone passes attempted?
And I would say the numbers probably too high. If

(06:28):
you're Sean.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Payton sixty eight red zone passes attempted, he was forty
four to sixty eight, so sixty four point seven percent,
three hundred and twenty five yards.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Where does this Do we have the stat in terms
of where the number sixty eight ranks with the other quarterbacks?

Speaker 2 (06:43):
You know, I don't have that, but I can. I
can probably have that free tomorrow. This is from Ryan Michael.
He put this out because as soon as that came
out the fifty four percent inaccuracy. He said, Okay, well
hold on, we need some context on this. He said
he had sixty eight passes attempted, so that means it's
a total thirteen passes.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Of the of the mist.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
That were on him, so twenty four incompletions, thirteen of
those were on him.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, I would, I would say this that number. That number,
I think if if the Broncos are going to be
as good as we all hope they are, and many
of us feel like they will be, then that number
has to go down because you have to have a
better running game in the in the red zone. If
you have a more efficient running game, the completion percentage

(07:35):
for a guy like bow Nicks, it just stands to
reason that that percentage will go up exponentially, right, I
think part of part of the reason. And I haven't
gone back and looked at every single red zone throw
by bow And I'm sure, I mean, I'm sure there were.
You know, with every quarterback, you're gonna have a handful
of two handfuls whatever where it's like late man heading right,

(08:00):
they're just missing him. But if you are a threat
to run the ball, it changes how the defense prepares
and executes their game plan when you get in the
red zone because they know, I mean, there's less room
to operate and so the windows are tighter. So sometimes, man,

(08:26):
it's just easier to take the snap and turn around
and hand it off, and then you pick and choose
when you want to be really aggressive by throwing the
ball down there. I didn't. I didn't think the Broncos
ran the ball with great efficiency in the red zone.
I didn't think they ran the ball with great efficiency
period And I think that's part of the reason you

(08:46):
see JK. Dobbins and R. J. Harvey the draft choice.
But I think they have to be specifically better at
running the ball when they get to the red zone.
So sixty eight for BONNICKX, I do have it right here.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
The red zone passing stats man Joe Burrow, that offense
was ridiculous. He had he was number one, one hundred
and twenty two passing attempts in the red zone.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
That was the offense. Wow, Yeah, one hundred and twenty two.
Mahomes was next to ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Not a lot of those were kind of short passes
where they left receiver recruit that's right, Sam Darnold was
third ninety three, tied with Jared Gough ninety three. You're
talking about certain offenses you can just picture in your
head and know what they are. Aaron Rodgers at eighty three,
the Jets yep, brock Perty forty nine, Ers seventy five,
Jordan Love seventy two, Caleb Williams seventy two, Matthew Stafford

(09:36):
seventy one, and then we get to Bonnix, so he
was tenth. Yes, that's right, So to your point, it
probably won't be that high this year. Where was Where
was Jalen Hurts? He was He had forty eight passing attempts.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
So you know what number that would be. I had
to count on the fingers.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Wait way down the list, He's wait wait, yeah, he's
way down the list here.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Where where would Let's see other teams that you'd like
to emulate. Where was? Where was Justin Herbert?

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Herbert was fifty seven passing attempts, so he was below
now fifty sixteen, yep, yep, sixteenth. But again they did
have they had more in the running game. They absolutely did,
and you sort of think that the upgrades that the
Broncos have there will give them that opportunity. I just
I find it the concept fascinating because I don't think,
off the top of my head a lot of wayward

(10:29):
throws from bow Nicks in the red zone. But if
we'll just take it on its face value, saying, hey,
fifty four percent of those were on him, and it
probably includes throwaways right where he's thrown it out of
the back of the year zone. If you're a coach man,
you love that you take that over a sack that
takes you out of field goal range potentially or ends
the drive. And I felt like overall the decision making

(10:51):
from bow Nicks, and this is, by the way, includes
the entire season, which is the beginning of the season
when they really struggled in the red zone.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
I'm good with it.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I feel like that number only has a chance to
get better just on its face value. You just feel
like the operations of it, and especially once you factor
in a more improved red red zone running game, that
it's only going to get better for him in that category.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
I think I think what you said is pretty much true.
I think generally speaking, I think most people are happy
with his decision making in his first year. Here's where
that I would caution people a little bit going into
the season. I promise you that there will be some

(11:38):
throws that he makes. And you could say this for
every single quarterback where you kind of grab your head
and say, oh man, what is he doing that? That
just happens. That happens at every level of football. No
matter what kind of player you are, no matter what
kind of accuracy you've displayed, no matter how you prepare

(12:00):
for the game, there will be some times that the
defense fools you, or your eyes tell you something that
is not true, or you're a split second late with
a throw because you had to slide to your right
because there was pressure off your left side. I mean,

(12:21):
there's a multitude of things that happen that can change
the outcome of that particular stat did he make did
he make a good throw? Did he make a throw
that he'd like to have back? And what I don't
want to see happen is because the expectation level is
so high and the excitement level is so high, right,
the energy I think for Broncos fans getting ready for

(12:45):
this season. I mean, you got to go all the
way back to when Peyton Manning was playing quarterback to
find an energy that is this good, this positive going
into training camp, and I'm right there with everybody, right,
even though I do the game, I'm still I'm still
a fan. I mean, I think they're I think they're
right there. I think this could be a great season

(13:07):
for the Broncos. But listen, you're gonna have some throws.
You're gonna have maybe a couple of games where it's like,
oh god, they were just they just weren't there. That
But that happens in the NFL. Don't think because everybody's
primed this year and this is the year that they're
going to get the Chiefs. This is year. Look how

(13:27):
good bow was last year, got R. J. Harvey, got JK. Dobas.
Don't think that this thing is not going to have
some bumps and maybe slide off the tracks before somebody
gets it right back on. That's just the nature of
the NFL.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
I mean we've watched I mean the Chiefs were prime
example last year. Right, how many games did we come
off that? I go, Man, Chiefs offense just looked right.
Mahomes doesn't look doesn't look great. I mean, even Josh
Allen last year, I remember having a couple of games
here and there where it just didn't didn't quite click
for him. I'm looking at this one against Houston. I
mean he went nine for thirty for one hundred and
thirty one yards. He won the MVP last year nine

(14:04):
for thirty. Yeah, nine for thirty, thirty percent completion rate,
and he had one passing touchdown and he didn't have
some rushing yards. He had four carries for fifty four.
But I mean that was a very un Josh Allen
kind of game.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
And he was, as you said, the MVP of the
league nine for thirty. So you can't. You have to
be able to judge guys on the total body of work. Great,
don't judge him on a series or a quarter or
a half or even a game, right, good or bad.
They're judged on the total body of work. And when

(14:39):
it's all said and done for the Broncos this year,
I think bo Nicks and the Broncos offense will be
just fine. I think it'll be a great season for him.
But there are going to be bumps in the road.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
But if they make some, if he makes strides, and
it doesn't seem like he needs to make a lot
of strides. He threw for twenty two touchdowns on one
pick in the red zone. But just the overall operation
and even if you get to the red zone and
you're just you're just clean, as clean as you can be, you're.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Gonna win a lot of games that way.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Like, regardless of what happens in other parts of the game,
you're gonna if you operate well in the red zone,
you're gonna be one of the better teams in the league.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Would you agree with that statement, Yeah, no, yes, I would.
I think you The red zone is so key. Yeah,
it's it's hard to get there, and once you get there,
you have to take advantage of it. And there's a
multitude of things that are stacked against you. There's not
much room to operate. Windows are much tighter, So therefore,

(15:37):
because they're smaller and tighter, they happen quicker. Uh, decisions
have to be made quicker the play caller, the play designer.
He's got to be on top of his game, based
on his work during the week, preparing his team for
the looks that he is certain, he's confident he's going
to get. Then if you don't get them, if you

(16:01):
get a change up, because they know they won the
battle with that formation or that personnel group, they went
to something different. That's where the guy that you've worked
with all week long, the quarterback, you're counting on him
to make the alteration and basically do the right thing
with the play