December 30, 2025 • 38 mins
Hugh Millen is back to talk all things Seahawks as they beat up on the Carolina Panthers, but Hugh also has a great conversation regarding turnovers and Sam Darnold. Mike Benton is back for his weekly chat to talk some Kraken as they lost Monday night. Kidd makes his pick for Seahawks vs Niners.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Q your thoughts on Sunday's game, the totality of everything
that transpired, good, bad and ugly.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, I think you just start with the defense you win,
So you start with what impressed you. That was a
Carolina team that you know, it wasn't among the best
teams obviously thought to be from either standpoint on the ball,
but that was a team that put thirty one points
up in a home win over the Rams. They went
(00:30):
to green Bay when Michael Parsons was healthy and green
Bay was flying high. They beat green Bay in green Bay.
They're a team that is still alive and probably odds
on favorite to win their divisions. So I think when
you go on the road you win by seventeen points,
you put up such a dominant performance. The stat that
(00:51):
impresses me the most is that Bryce Young he averaged
on his completions negative one point two air yards.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Has that happened in history?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I've never seen it. I've never seen it. Like I'm
a stat nerd for football, i have never seen like.
That means that his average pass was thrown a yard
behind the line of scrimmage. That's for the whole game.
So that speaks to me of a defense, they played
the vast majority of its zone, a lot of different
(01:30):
zones just you know, I'm not going to get into
what type of zones, but they were very well connected.
They're healthy on defense. I mean, Kobe Bryant's the only
starter that you're missing. That's pretty damn good. In week seventeen,
going into week eighteen, you know, they got young pieces,
they got some veteran pieces, and they are really tied
(01:51):
together well on a string. And it showed in an utterly,
you know, beyond dominating, just a crushing defensive performance.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
The running game back to back one hundred yard games.
The week before was K nine. This week it was
Zach Sharbonet. What was it about him, Hugh? That man
he was He was looking pretty tight. He was looking
like he was hitting on all cylinders on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, I think that just this team speed on Carolina.
You know, you look at them going into the game.
You know, I look at these stats, just page after page,
and it just it shocked me how the standard deviation
on their stats was so tightly dispersed that they were
basically twenty third or twenty fourth or twenty fifth in
(02:37):
almost every category. There's a slight exaggeration there, but it
just was like, WHOA, these guys are just like a
mid twenties team, you know, and in their ranking obviously
with first being best and so I, you know, I
don't think they're they're really much to write home about. Defensively,
they got one pro bowler, pro bowler and J. C. Horn.
You know, I just think their team speed was not
(03:00):
great and that allowed the wide zone to really flourish.
And so see I was able to get outside a
number of times and work that play that they've been
working on since Mini camp, so that that was supposed
to be their bread and butter. This is one of
the better games they've had, maybe the best game they
(03:21):
had with the outside zone.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Humillan here Tuesday, Tuesday MJ and the midday he Sam
Darnold had two turnovers on Sunday. There is a obviously
you saw the game. Potentially it could have been three
more deflected passes that could end up interceptions. He leads
the league in turnovers. But what concerns you the most
about his play as we are now heading into the
(03:45):
final stretch in Week eighteen of the regular season.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, what concerns me is that we've had a dip
in terms of the performance. If you go the first
the first nine games, one hundred and fourteen passer rating,
eight of nine of those games were passer rating above
eighty five. Since since the RAM game, his passer rating
(04:10):
is eighty four and only two of seven have been
over eighty five. But you know, I think I think
that we got to pump the brakes here because and
I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. You know,
if it sounds that way, then then I haven't communicated well.
(04:31):
But I do think that there's room for a little
bit of back and forth about Sam Darnold because this
is my take. Yes, I'm concerned about what we saw,
but let's just address the turnovers and then and then
I'll go to my summary. Turnover Worthy plays is actually
probably a better gauge of how the quarterback is playing
(04:56):
because there that that eliminates the luck part of it.
So Sam Donald, yeah, he has nineteen turnover worthy plays.
By the way, I'm gonna put this in a spreadsheet.
I did this for Gino Smith. He has nineteen turnover
worthy plays and twenty turnovers that I promise you that
will be it. Once I do the spreadsheet that will
be added near the top in terms of unluckiest. But
(05:17):
guys that have had more turnover worthy plays, Bonitt, You
can you define a turnover worthy play? What does that
mean for everybody? I'm sorry, Yeah, that's a pro football focus.
Every team in the NFL subscribes to their service, every
single team, yep. And they have a stat They have
a rubric that these guys sit down, they watch, they tape,
(05:37):
and they say, well, if a performance hits this check
mark within a rubric, then we call it a turnover
worthy play. So there's some subjectivity, but they try and
shove it into a rubric to create as much objectivity
as they can. Sam Donald has nineteen turnover worthy plays
and twenty turnovers, so obviously that's ninety five percent. That's
(06:00):
going to be out of near the highest in terms
of unluckiest. Here's our guys that have more turnover worthy
plays than Sam Donald, bow Nicks, Pat Mahomes, Trevor Lawrence,
U Baker Mayfield. Those are all playoff quarterback. But now
there's a mother's two and Geno and Smith and cam
Ward and what have you. But there's you know, there's there. Look,
(06:21):
I'm not saying that we're striving for that. But here's
the deal you've got in Sam Donald, a guy that
is number one in the NFL in terms of yards
per dropback. And so when you look when you run
(06:42):
a correlation number on interceptions, because because we say, hey,
interceptions are bad, right, Like who doesn't know football and
doesn't say interceptions are bad over the last six years,
correlation is the closer to your to zero, the less
it correlates. This is correlation that you take a win
(07:02):
column for the quarterback and the interceptions. Very simple calculation,
and you just write a correlation formula for this year.
The correlation interceptions to wins point eighty one. Think of
it like a batter in a batting average. Okay, eighty one.
That is of extremely low correlation. Again, interceptions to wins.
(07:24):
The year before and by the way, that was a
positive correlation, meaning the more interceptions you have, just slightly
because it's only eighty one, but the more interceptions you have,
the more wins you have. The previous year was negative
twenty eight. You'd expect it to be a negative correlation,
but it was only twenty eight. The year before that
it was two fifteen, but positive meaning now that's slightly higher,
(07:46):
still relatively low correlation, but it was a positive correlation,
meaning more interceptions is correlates to more wins. The year
before that negative eighty nine, The year before that thirty one,
the year before that negative forty four. So three of
the last six years it's had a positive correlation. More
interceptions is more wins. And and when you factor this,
(08:08):
that's every year since twenty twenty. If you average them
together over the last six seasons, the correlation of interceptions
to wins is twenty eight. Meanwhile, the correlation to where
like Gino is number one in terms of GENO I'm sorry,
Sam Donald is number one in terms of yards per dropback,
(08:32):
that has a five sixty four five sixty four correlation
to win. So when we hear, we hear Mike McDonald
and he says, hey, we're telling him, just hey, keep firing.
You don't want to paralyze your quarterback. And I'll close
with this, if if you had John Snyder and Mike
(08:54):
Mike McDonald sitting there on the week after they had
traded Geno, that was on March seventh, and before before
they signed Sam Donald, that was March thirteenth. During that
week if if you had told him, Look, if you
sign signed Sam Donald to the eighteenth highest contract, this
is what you're gonna get. You're gonna get a franchise
(09:17):
record for wins and going into week eighteen, you're gonna
be the number one seed with a chance to break
the franchise record for wins. You're gonna have a franchise
record for points in sixteen games, not seventeen, which they've
already done. They've got a franchise record points. They're number
two in the league behind the Rams. Your quarterback, Sam
Donald is gonna be voted the number two quarterback in
(09:40):
the NFC. In the Pro Bowl. The only guy who's
gonna beat him is Matthew Stafford, the number one guy
for the MVP, number one leading candidate maybe Drake maybe
or whatever. And by the way, there's three components that
make the Pro Bowl. There's the fan vote, the player vote,
and the coach vote. Sam Donald is outside the top
ten in the fan vote, So just extrapolate that. What
(10:04):
you can infer from that, if he's number two in
the final outcome, that means the players and the coaches
had to have overwhelmingly voted him at least the number two.
And so he's number two in the Pro Bowl vote,
and he's number one in deep passer rating, number one
in passing yards per dropback, number one in percentage of
(10:26):
plays with ten or plus yards. All of those have
correlation over five hundred and some over six hundred. His
off target percentage is second. This is all straight from
the NFL stat portal. He's judged to be the second
most accurate quarterback in the league. Even though he has
the highest propensity of big plays. His success percentage, which
(10:46):
is forty percent of the needed yards on first, sixty
percent of the needed yards on second, and all the
needed yards on third or fourth. His success plays are second.
And his EPA, that's a new stat for UH analytic guys.
His EPA per drop back is number two. And and
did you like do you like having DeMarcus Lawrence? Well,
(11:10):
if you don't, If if you don't have a quarterback
as low as the eighteenth remember now Sam Donald eighteenth
highest thirty three point five million, that means you have
extra money for DeMarcus Lawrence, who made the Pro Bowl.
That means how about this, Josh Jones just started the
last two games. Josh Jones was a guy that you
go back and listen to our podcast. I was saying
(11:30):
in August, this is the best backup tackle I've seen
in Seaatam for a long damn time. Not Stone Forsyth,
George Fant. It set doesn't matter this Josh Jones, who's
seventy four, Like I was asleep at the wheel, Who
the hell seventy four? What we got got him from
the Ravens for four million, George Pant was one point
two million to the commanders. That difference. You just had
(11:52):
Josh Jones start at left end against Jared Verse in
a win, in a vital win against the Rams and may.
I don't know how they would have sorted out the
money they would have maybe they would have signed him anyways,
But it's fair to infer that because you're paying Sam
Donald only thirty three and a half million, you can
sign DeMarcus Loris, you can sign Josh Jones. So I
(12:14):
put it to you if you had said right then
on March twelve, before they signed Sam Donald, and you
had said all of those facts, not opinions, those facts
about what Sam Donald, all the numbers that I said
about the team, the wins, the record, scoring points, if
you had said, I'm gonna give you all those facts,
(12:37):
but there's gonna be some interceptions involved. You know what
John Schneider and Mike McDonald did, I said, they would
have written out a check to the football gods, a
blank check, and they would have said, fill in the
blank on the interceptions. You can put as many as
you want. Put five, you can put fifty. Because if
all those facts that I just cited are true, we're
(12:57):
in a great place. And oh, by the way, it
hasn't heard the defense. It's the defense is number one
or number two in every single stat So all of
those facts, you know, and by the way, again, we're
gonna hand ring about interceptions which for six years have
proven to have essentially a zero correlation to wins, because
(13:18):
I say, well, how does that make sense? Because the
top quarterbacks are the guys that have the guts to
go try and big game, hunt and go try and
make some plays, make some plays on third down. And
by the way, the third down, I'll just keep going
that the guys that are winning games are not afraid
(13:42):
of interceptions. You have Pat Mahomes for like the last
six years, he averages twenty one point something turnover worthy plays.
Every year he's thought to be the best quarterback of
at least this generation. He's he he routinely has the
(14:02):
same number of of turnover worthy plays as Sam Donald has. Now,
in fact, even this year he's got more, and he
hasn't even played as many games. So I don't want
the turnovers. I don't want the interceptions. But there are
a lot of facts a tenant to that number, and
(14:23):
and and my I guess my final thought, I keep
saying the final thought. I there's room for a good
debate about Sam Donald, Like what's happened over the last
six weeks, that is his performances, you know, the offenses.
The past performance has fallen off. That's a legit question.
But to just come at him with every every barrel
(14:45):
of your gatling gun and and and just hammer him
and eviscerate him as if he is I'll give you
a little seahawk lesson Stan Gilbaugh, Dan McGuire, keep McGuire
se quarterbacks of all time?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, I wouldn't go there. I listen, he's in a
significant improval. Regino Smith, I.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
To your podcast from yesterday. Come on, Mark, we're friends here. No,
but listen Hugh, he's got twenty turnovers. That's not an opinion,
that's a fact. You can go over and parse that
any way you want. Now, let me just say this. Then,
what if he if you made your point, let me
make my point like you went on and let me
make my point. Now, Now, what if he mitigated those turnovers?
(15:30):
What if he divided them in half from twenty to ten? Like,
I know this team's got thirteen wins, but how much
better would his team be if he didn't throw four
picks against the right Well, like threw six picks against
the Rams in two games, but how much better?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Now? Sam, to me is a double edged sword.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
He's a guy that he looked horrible in regulation in
the Thursday night game at home versus the Rams, and
then in overtime he looked like Joe Montana and pick
a super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
He looked unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
He was perfect, he didn't he didn't not for one
incomplete pass. And that, to me is the double ed
sword that is Sam Donald. It's it's just a double
ed sword. He's great, But then it's also it's that yeah,
but that I just believe. I'm hoping that Clint Kubiak
(16:19):
and Mike McDonald are going to like I think when
Sam Donald's in play action, he's at his best.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I love him in play action. I love to see that.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But there are times where it's like I mentioned Caleb Williams,
who's in year two.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Caleb Williams has five five picks this year.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
He would rather get decapitated and get his head chopped
off than throw a pick. And he did this last
year too, Hugh, when he didn't have a good rookie season.
I wish Sam Donald sometimes just just take a sack,
take a he go down, take a knee, but just like,
just don't compromise your team's integrity by continuing to put
(16:59):
them where if the defense continues to have to bail
him out. I mean, I like him, he's a good quarterback,
but like this team, it's it's like, man, how much
better would this team even be?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And they're already great?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
How much better he would they be if he if
he divided those turnovers in half?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Of course you'd rather have. If you're saying asking me,
would I rather have fewer turnovers or more turnovers? I'd
rather have fewer turnovers. What I'm trying to say, it's
I've likened it to a Jenga tower. You pull one
little piece out and you don't understand how everything else
is dependent on it. And so right now, what you
(17:39):
hear from Mike McDonald is saying, hey, we're telling Sam
to keep firing because he's number one in passing yards
per dropback. There's an aggression to what he's done, and
that has a correlation of five seventy six. So think
of a batter who hits five seventy six. That correlation
winning versus interceptions are twenty eight. Think about the difference
(18:00):
between a batter who hits O twenty eight and a
batter who hits five seventy six. That's a correlation here,
and so and and and and Pat Mahomes had twenty
averages twenty one of the last six years. He's the
best quarterback of this generation, maybe every generation. And he
has twenty one turnover worthy plays, and and Sam Darnold's
at twenty. Okay, yeah, we'd rather have fewer. But but
(18:21):
be careful what you do. If, like, if you're so
singularly focused on interceptions, you be careful of unwanted consequences,
you might dry up the rest of it. You just
set a franchise record for points, Like you're the number
one seed. Like, be careful when you say it'd be
like telling a guy you know what'd be like doing.
(18:43):
It'd be like you sign a freaking dh to and
and he's like second in the in the American or
in all of baseball. He's second in all of baseball
in slugging percentage. Like he's hitting home runs and doubles
in the gap. But then you say, well, I don't
like your strikeouts. He say, like, these strikeouts just drive me. Like, no,
(19:06):
you got to cut your strikeouts down. Just think how
good you'd be if you cut your strikeouts down. Stop
the strikeouts. They drive me crazy. Well, guess what, you
might dry up the doubles, you might drive up the
home runs, so and like, and then think about this.
This is year one with the quarterback and the offensive coordinator.
The interception on Sunday to to uh JSN in the
(19:26):
back of the end zone. That was a slug o
route where it's a slant and go and the defense
was called a press bail. The corner is pressed up
in the line of scrimmage and then right before the
snap he turns with his ass to the sideline, knees
into the field and he's looking as prefer vision can
see both the receiver and the quarterback. That is not
a good technique to run a double go. They had
(19:49):
had a bunch of off coverage, which is a good technique,
but they ran it against press bail And when when
JSN came out of his break, he was like, I'm
never gonna get on top of the corner, so let
me idle down and go back shoulder. That's what he
was trying to expect. But Sam Donald because of a
terrible blocking scheme with Canine having to go from right
(20:10):
to left with an unblocked guy coming off the left edge.
What's the tape, what's the tape? It's there for you.
A guy unblocked coming right at his face with Canine
coming coast to coast from the opposite side. All of
this combat takes right in the place of Sam Donald's
lap and if it hurries up his throat, his arm
gets hit and they're not on the right page.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
That was like the second slugger they'd done all year,
Jasn and Sam Donald. So next year when they have
had more time and maybe the eighth time, they run
the sluggo, then Sam Donald go bam and in a
snap it right on the back shoulder on his hip
and then we'll get a touchdown out of it, and
we'll say that's the difference between year one and year
two in the system.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
So I just.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Caliber quarterback.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Hey, in this this is my hometown, Seattle. I earned
my stripes in this city when I was twenty years
old and I was quarterbacking the number one team in
the country, the Huskies. We were lead, we ended up
leading the conference in scoring. And when things went wrong,
I got my ass booed. And you know what, I
deserve to get my ass boot in those times because
(21:19):
I wasn't playing up to the And you know what,
Warren Moon got booed for the better part of two
and a half years. And Steve Pluhor, who won a
Rose Bowl and a Pack ten Conference Player of the Year,
he got booed. A lot of dudes have got booed
in this town. This is not a soft quarterback town.
And I'm not I'm not soft. There is room for
some objections about what's happening with Sam Donald, but to
(21:42):
just murder the guy, and I'm like, I'm trying to imagine.
What if he was driving around or his wife. His
wife played soccer at South Carolina. What if she's a
sports fan and she's listen, I'd be embarrassed for seattle that,
like Sam Donald is giving us all of this, all
of this that I've just listed, He's given us all
of this, and we're gonna clown him like he's stand Gilbert.
(22:06):
That just makes no sense. Well, I don't think he's
not Stan Gilbt.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
But like I said, at the end of the day,
and we got a rap because we got a thing
with Mike Ben. He's not Stan Gelba. He's not Damn
maguire or anybody else for that matter. He's just I
just would rather he does not turn they too over.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
But that's all I mark. Can you can you acknowledge?
Can you can I get you to repeat after me
if you believe don't repeat it if you don't believe it,
But can you repeat after me? If we try and
slash his interceptions, there may be a consequence that is
unwanted where we lose all the big plays. Get like
like I'm not you're you're okay, fair enough, I'm just
(22:46):
gonna kill me do it like you're saying, you know,
you know who I need to ask this And I've
been trying to get this guy on.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I'm talking to Purple Sheet. We've never had coach Holgrin
on the show. I'd like to ask Coach Honkren that
question you And I think that's a great question because
he had that guy. His name was Brett Farv. Brett
Farv was a gunslinger and he would you know, he'd
throw a pick, but he you know, and it's like,
I don't think Sam Darnl's in the level Brett. But
I'd like to ask coach Holmgren that question. And I
(23:14):
just want for me, I'll answer your question. And we
got a role And just because we got Mike Betton
in the sponsor segment with the crack and coming up next.
I would take a little bit because I believe in
the defense so much. I would take a little bit
less if he could turn down, if he could just
mitigate the turnovers, That's that's where I come from. I
think we can make it up in the running game
(23:35):
in other ways that you know. And he's still a
talented quarterback. D I am I happy he's here over GINO,
Oh God, are you kidding me absolutely, But I mean, dude,
like he's there's only you know, of all the playoff
teams right now, there's there's two of them who have
a negative point differential negative turnover differential that are right
(23:55):
now in the playoffs as of today, the Seattle Seahawks
and the Sam Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
That's something to think about, all right. So there's that.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Hugh always appreciate the time. We'll do it again next week, Okay,
rock and roll, all right, Hugh Milling will come up,
Mike Betton coming up next twenty four to seven locations
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Speaker 2 (24:35):
Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
They were on the precipice of win in five in
a row shootout loss last night, but they get the point.
But I'm gonna look at the glass three quarters full.
What did Lane Lambert do to kind of spark this turnaround.
And I talked to Ian at the end of his
yesterday's show. Is it a case of addition by subtraction
(24:58):
and without maman.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, that's a great question, MJ. And I mean, listen,
you really can't ignore the record being what it is,
since you know they trained Mason Marchmant, which is now
four all in one here in the last five games.
But I look at where, you know, more and more
moving parts are starting to kind of fall into place
here with this roster, and I think that's a big
(25:25):
key of it, and you can't ignore it. You're finding
a home for Coppocnco with Matty Veniers and Jordan Eberley,
and but Heres's line was in a great state of
flocks for the first couple of months here for the season.
Now you're finding some stability, I think with Chandler Stevenson,
Ellie Tulvnan and Tilivan was arguably one of the best
(25:46):
players in this last week in the NHL. In the
league rightfully recognized him that with Second Star of the
Week honors. And then you've got the kid line that's
also starting to turn a lot of heads. Any combination
of car Ja Ben Myers and Jacob Allanson and even
with the Ryan Winterton mixed in, Millonson sitting everything that
moves right now, Ben Myers has brought in a very
(26:09):
very abrasive game. But I think to the point of
all of this, you were looking and trying to find,
trying to find any kind of way possible to fit
Mason Marchmen in. They try to fit him up and
down the line up they played him here. They're everywhere,
left wing, right wing, you name it, and fitness wasn't happening.
And you know, in some cases like this, you know,
(26:32):
some trades work out, some trades don't work out. So
I think the Shane reaction of what you look at
on the ice, you're now finding, I think some stability
in place where chemistry is starting to kind of really
take over here as far as what is driving this
team in the last five games or so, And now
what I look at two MJ is back here to
(26:52):
the kid line. They're hitting, they're playing abrasive, and they
play with a fearless approach, which goes back to the
Lane Lambert identity of being abrasive and playing fearless. Now
you're starting to really I think, get a sense of
id clicking in with what you're doing with a role
player line like that, which I think is very, very
(27:13):
important and a part of this is which has also
helped set this team in the right direction over the
last of the five games.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Why the Kraken have trouble in shootouts? They're zero to
three this season. What is it about shootouts that they
just seem to struggle with?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Well, two things here, MG, I think first off, the
shootout is definitely a skilled game. But also again it's
a total game of randomness. I mean, I mean, people
are going to be frustrated here to hear this, but
I mean the matter of fact is that the shootout
is a complete toss up. It's a complete coin flip,
and it does not accurately reflect on the u natural
ability and the record of a certain team, you know,
(27:50):
in the standings. So and you may ask, well, I mean, well,
why are the kracking o on four? Why don't they practice? Well,
the matter of fact is they have, They have practice
a shootout before and they try to a this year.
But again, tell me why the Vancouver Canucks are in
the basement and there four or nine shootouts. Tell me
why the Colorado Avalanche are twenty nine to two and
seven on the season, are one and four in the shootout.
(28:13):
It really is a complete game of randomness. It puts
shooter versus goaltender. There's pressure obviously to perform in you know,
the whole spur of the moment and trying to you know,
make a move, do you go back in, do you
go four hand open the goalies five hole?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
It just really.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
Opens up the whole rum of possibilities where this is
not really an accurate representation of how the game is played,
because again, I mean roughly about ninety five percent of
what teams do in practice does not reflect here on
the shootout. It is reflective of five on five play
and on the power play as well. So you know,
I look at the flecding back of what you could
(28:51):
have gone to be better in this situation, to trying
to you know, clean up what you could have cleaned up,
say back in period one when you had three great
a looks and couldn't cash it, and yeah, a two
to one lead looks good like last night against Vancouver,
but again you had a power play in overtime and
you come up empty. I mean, if you're gonna you know,
(29:11):
go to the shootout and try to win him there.
You know, you're just playing with a game of randomness
and you're playing with fire. And for a game of
hockey where it is a control based game, teams are
able to take advantage of what they can control when
they can do so at five on five and on
the power play. And unfortunately for the Crack And they
came up empty in those spots too much where they
(29:34):
then left this game up here to the game of chance,
like last night when they got to the shootout.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Mike Betton here, brought to you by Clickway Athletics and
Mechanics Bank dot Com meet the Crack in every week
with winning four in a row and extending their point
streak to five games in the shootout loss last night,
are there are only two points behind the final wild
card in the West, behind the Kings and Sharks who
have forty one. So I've said it again, and I
(30:00):
I like Laine Lambert and I think he's the right guy.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I think they finally got it right. Third time was
the charm.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Now it's a matter of the system just kind of
you know, refining a little bit. Jared mccannon coming back,
he was hurt and good to see him back last night.
And I think, you know, when this team had lost
you know, ten out of eleven games at one point
not so long ago, I'm like, uh oh, I don't
know if there's gonna be a hockey season. And now
(30:26):
that they've turned it around, I like that when you
experience adversity, you persevere, you overcome, and now you're back
in the thicket things in the playoff right, Still a
long way to go. I mean, you know, we're I mean,
this is it's a very long season, so you're I mean,
what do we got there? Twenty seven games eighty two
minus twenty seven?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Do the math? We got a long way to go.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
But I think the Kraken are kind of back on
that right track after really hitting at that lull there.
So one of the things Andy and I talked about
this at the NSRA show.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
This is not cracking thing. This is a Gary Bettman.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Dude, you don't fight City Hall And what do I
mean by that? Like Gary Bettman, Like what are you doing?
Like what the hell are you doing? You're seriously you're
gonna and granted, I know hockey's you know, Canadian sport,
but you're gonna go head to head with a triple
(31:23):
header in college football in New Year's Day. That's what
you're gonna do. I mean, what are you doing, dude?
Like like Baseball did the same thing to Mike on On.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I believe it well, NFL Draft night, NFL, if.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
You go back to the Thursday night of the NFL Draft,
Major League Baseball usually get away day, right, Mike, they
usually have getaway games, and I'll get away day so
everybody can get to where they're going that weekend.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
They put every game.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
At night on the first round, the Thursday night of
the NFL Draft.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
That's clearly Rob Manford, Gary Bettman.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Really sometimes in life you just got to take d
L going up against the college football triple header on
New Year's Day.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
That's that's a bad business decision.
Speaker 6 (32:12):
And also I would add to this, MJ, would this
be different here with no Olympics this season because the Kraken,
at least in the local scope of this, will have
seventeen games, I repeat, seventeen games coming up this next month,
all because they got to cram all this in by
the time everybody breaks here in early February, and there
(32:35):
aren't many teams who have a different picture as well,
So I mean I totally get it. I mean, this
is a league that when when you're competing for dollars,
you're trying to find a way to maximize eyeballs, just
like you know, the NFL trying to be the king
of you know, grabbing every game and every date. It
seems like now on the calendar to me, look at
the NBA, they're now complaining that the NFL has taken
(32:56):
our day here for this, so it's kind of a
cat and that you're trying to play to stay away
from the NFL side of this. I do, though, question
would they do this again on a non Olympic year
versus you know, say on New Year's Day when their
hands are tied and you're playing back to back virtually
every other day. It feels like right now in this calendar,
(33:19):
I think at least the argument is open to that.
But yeah, I mean I certainly see your point, and
it just brings to the question every year, how much
are you looking at the NFL calendar when you're doing
this the college football playoff calendar as well, because I
think that's a big, big question when you're trying to
do your best to maximize your game and your product
(33:40):
here to everybody out there who whereas you know, once
you get past December, that's when you have to strike.
When the iron is hot.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Mike Betton meets the crack.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
When Mike Betton brought to you by Mechanicsbank dot com
and at Clickway Athletics dot Com. That's Clickway with a K.
Mike will talk to you next week. Happy New Year,
safe travels.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
All right, you too, sir.
Speaker 6 (34:01):
I appreciate you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Mike Benton coming up next. Maybe you don't want to
change the chant, ladies, I'm talking to you. This is
a very oh boy, this is a story, but it
actually happened, and it happened in Florida of all places.
You might not want to change the channel on your
significant other if he's watching Monday night football. We'll get
to that next, and kid, we'll give his pick, which
(34:24):
I think I know what it's gonna be, but let's
let him give it. On the Seahawks forty nine Ers game,
Dalton Wasserman Pro Football Focus.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
But he's mister college football.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
We're gonna get into the playoffs, the game that everybody
will be watching tomorrow night with the Keynes Ohio State,
and then the triple header with Texas Tech, Oregon, Alabama, Indiana,
and of course the nightcap Georgia Ole Miss rematch on
New Year's Day, all that more, MJ and Midday.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Percy Jackson is a fantasy show streaming on Hulu, So
this really was all about changing the channel.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah, I was re Please don't shoot me, Please don't
shoot me.
Speaker 7 (35:02):
Kenny's twelve year old steps on escaped the violence and
ran to a neighbor's home to call nine one one
forty seven year old Kenny Flitt. He later shot and
killed himself.
Speaker 8 (35:13):
I don't want to sound sinister, but the only thing
he did right that night was shoot himself. After those
horrible deeds.
Speaker 7 (35:20):
I also spoke to the dead woman's sister, Stephanie, and.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
My sister was peacefully watching her show and he did
not like that.
Speaker 8 (35:27):
Out as an argument over a television program end up
with a murder, an attempt at murder, and a suicide.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
When they arrived on the scene, deputies also found the
couple's baby girl asleep in her crib, unharmed. A go
fund the account has been set up to help the
family for more information go to our website Inside edition
dot com.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Very sad, very sad.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
So yeah, and nobody's life shitt end because they want
to watch something different and go to a different TV
or go somewhere else and watch it. And so thankfully
the young daughter, a stepdaughter, survived and she has a brother.
He got out of house to go call nine on one.
But very sad story. I'm like to really this is
from the Niners Colts game last Monday night. He wanted
(36:17):
to watch the games, she wanted to watch something on
Hulu and that happened. All right, kid, we've waited for it.
I have a feeling you're gonna go with every way
you would. I would bet on your pick. I think
you're gonna go with the San Francisco forty nine ers.
You've been on them since I knew you, and back
in April, and justifiably so, and nobody talked about them.
(36:40):
Everything was Rams, Hawks, Hawks, Rams, and ultimately now it's
gonna be Hawks and Niners. And but could I be wrong?
Who do you got? Give me a score Saturday night?
Speaker 4 (36:53):
I got the Seahawks winning. The defense for the Niners
is really bad. They're thirty second in sack rate. Thirty
second in sacks, thirtieth in pressure. So it all points
to Sam lighting them up with JSN and company. So
I'd expect the Seahawks to win and now is gonna fight.
Though they got a talented offense, brock Perdy has been
playing good God all, he's been playing out of his mind.
(37:14):
So I'll take the Seahawks to win twenty seven to twenty.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
There it is, Wow, I was wrong.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Twenty seven to twenty Yeah, yeah, I could see them.
It's gonna be tough for the forty nine ers to
get over. It's gonna be tough for them to get
over that threshold of getting more than twenty two points.
So I'm with you on that. I you know, I
don't know what I'm gonna pick. Leish Sterling and I
are leading a different way? Are we leading on the
(37:43):
same side. You'll have to listen tomorrow between ten am
and eleven am picking the locks. We will also have
a pick on every college football bowl game, including the
game that will be at tomorrow night Miami Ohio State,
and then of course the Seahawks forty nine Ers game
on Saturday night. I don't know why this game is
not on Sunday. We're gonna do a forty eight year
(38:05):
old Aaron Rodgers versus a Baltimore team. I mean, that's
what we're doing here. Okay, fine, Seahawks should be getting
primetime on Sunday night, but that's all right. Hopefully the
beginning primetime the second Sunday in February for Super Bowl sixty.
We'll talk to Dalton Wasserman speaking to college football playoffs
coming up next
Q your thoughts on Sunday's game, the totality of everything
that transpired, good, bad and ugly.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, I think you just start with the defense you win,
So you start with what impressed you. That was a
Carolina team that you know, it wasn't among the best
teams obviously thought to be from either standpoint on the ball,
but that was a team that put thirty one points
up in a home win over the Rams. They went
(00:30):
to green Bay when Michael Parsons was healthy and green
Bay was flying high. They beat green Bay in green Bay.
They're a team that is still alive and probably odds
on favorite to win their divisions. So I think when
you go on the road you win by seventeen points,
you put up such a dominant performance. The stat that
(00:51):
impresses me the most is that Bryce Young he averaged
on his completions negative one point two air yards.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Has that happened in history?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I've never seen it. I've never seen it. Like I'm
a stat nerd for football, i have never seen like.
That means that his average pass was thrown a yard
behind the line of scrimmage. That's for the whole game.
So that speaks to me of a defense, they played
the vast majority of its zone, a lot of different
(01:30):
zones just you know, I'm not going to get into
what type of zones, but they were very well connected.
They're healthy on defense. I mean, Kobe Bryant's the only
starter that you're missing. That's pretty damn good. In week seventeen,
going into week eighteen, you know, they got young pieces,
they got some veteran pieces, and they are really tied
(01:51):
together well on a string. And it showed in an utterly,
you know, beyond dominating, just a crushing defensive performance.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
The running game back to back one hundred yard games.
The week before was K nine. This week it was
Zach Sharbonet. What was it about him, Hugh? That man
he was He was looking pretty tight. He was looking
like he was hitting on all cylinders on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, I think that just this team speed on Carolina.
You know, you look at them going into the game.
You know, I look at these stats, just page after page,
and it just it shocked me how the standard deviation
on their stats was so tightly dispersed that they were
basically twenty third or twenty fourth or twenty fifth in
(02:37):
almost every category. There's a slight exaggeration there, but it
just was like, WHOA, these guys are just like a
mid twenties team, you know, and in their ranking obviously
with first being best and so I, you know, I
don't think they're they're really much to write home about. Defensively,
they got one pro bowler, pro bowler and J. C. Horn.
You know, I just think their team speed was not
(03:00):
great and that allowed the wide zone to really flourish.
And so see I was able to get outside a
number of times and work that play that they've been
working on since Mini camp, so that that was supposed
to be their bread and butter. This is one of
the better games they've had, maybe the best game they
(03:21):
had with the outside zone.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Humillan here Tuesday, Tuesday MJ and the midday he Sam
Darnold had two turnovers on Sunday. There is a obviously
you saw the game. Potentially it could have been three
more deflected passes that could end up interceptions. He leads
the league in turnovers. But what concerns you the most
about his play as we are now heading into the
(03:45):
final stretch in Week eighteen of the regular season.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, what concerns me is that we've had a dip
in terms of the performance. If you go the first
the first nine games, one hundred and fourteen passer rating,
eight of nine of those games were passer rating above
eighty five. Since since the RAM game, his passer rating
(04:10):
is eighty four and only two of seven have been
over eighty five. But you know, I think I think
that we got to pump the brakes here because and
I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. You know,
if it sounds that way, then then I haven't communicated well.
(04:31):
But I do think that there's room for a little
bit of back and forth about Sam Darnold because this
is my take. Yes, I'm concerned about what we saw,
but let's just address the turnovers and then and then
I'll go to my summary. Turnover Worthy plays is actually
probably a better gauge of how the quarterback is playing
(04:56):
because there that that eliminates the luck part of it.
So Sam Donald, yeah, he has nineteen turnover worthy plays.
By the way, I'm gonna put this in a spreadsheet.
I did this for Gino Smith. He has nineteen turnover
worthy plays and twenty turnovers that I promise you that
will be it. Once I do the spreadsheet that will
be added near the top in terms of unluckiest. But
(05:17):
guys that have had more turnover worthy plays, Bonitt, You
can you define a turnover worthy play? What does that
mean for everybody? I'm sorry, Yeah, that's a pro football focus.
Every team in the NFL subscribes to their service, every
single team, yep. And they have a stat They have
a rubric that these guys sit down, they watch, they tape,
(05:37):
and they say, well, if a performance hits this check
mark within a rubric, then we call it a turnover
worthy play. So there's some subjectivity, but they try and
shove it into a rubric to create as much objectivity
as they can. Sam Donald has nineteen turnover worthy plays
and twenty turnovers, so obviously that's ninety five percent. That's
(06:00):
going to be out of near the highest in terms
of unluckiest. Here's our guys that have more turnover worthy
plays than Sam Donald, bow Nicks, Pat Mahomes, Trevor Lawrence,
U Baker Mayfield. Those are all playoff quarterback. But now
there's a mother's two and Geno and Smith and cam
Ward and what have you. But there's you know, there's there. Look,
(06:21):
I'm not saying that we're striving for that. But here's
the deal you've got in Sam Donald, a guy that
is number one in the NFL in terms of yards
per dropback. And so when you look when you run
(06:42):
a correlation number on interceptions, because because we say, hey,
interceptions are bad, right, Like who doesn't know football and
doesn't say interceptions are bad over the last six years,
correlation is the closer to your to zero, the less
it correlates. This is correlation that you take a win
(07:02):
column for the quarterback and the interceptions. Very simple calculation,
and you just write a correlation formula for this year.
The correlation interceptions to wins point eighty one. Think of
it like a batter in a batting average. Okay, eighty one.
That is of extremely low correlation. Again, interceptions to wins.
(07:24):
The year before and by the way, that was a
positive correlation, meaning the more interceptions you have, just slightly
because it's only eighty one, but the more interceptions you have,
the more wins you have. The previous year was negative
twenty eight. You'd expect it to be a negative correlation,
but it was only twenty eight. The year before that
it was two fifteen, but positive meaning now that's slightly higher,
(07:46):
still relatively low correlation, but it was a positive correlation,
meaning more interceptions is correlates to more wins. The year
before that negative eighty nine, The year before that thirty one,
the year before that negative forty four. So three of
the last six years it's had a positive correlation. More
interceptions is more wins. And and when you factor this,
(08:08):
that's every year since twenty twenty. If you average them
together over the last six seasons, the correlation of interceptions
to wins is twenty eight. Meanwhile, the correlation to where
like Gino is number one in terms of GENO I'm sorry,
Sam Donald is number one in terms of yards per dropback,
(08:32):
that has a five sixty four five sixty four correlation
to win. So when we hear, we hear Mike McDonald
and he says, hey, we're telling him, just hey, keep firing.
You don't want to paralyze your quarterback. And I'll close
with this, if if you had John Snyder and Mike
(08:54):
Mike McDonald sitting there on the week after they had
traded Geno, that was on March seventh, and before before
they signed Sam Donald, that was March thirteenth. During that
week if if you had told him, Look, if you
sign signed Sam Donald to the eighteenth highest contract, this
is what you're gonna get. You're gonna get a franchise
(09:17):
record for wins and going into week eighteen, you're gonna
be the number one seed with a chance to break
the franchise record for wins. You're gonna have a franchise
record for points in sixteen games, not seventeen, which they've
already done. They've got a franchise record points. They're number
two in the league behind the Rams. Your quarterback, Sam
Donald is gonna be voted the number two quarterback in
(09:40):
the NFC. In the Pro Bowl. The only guy who's
gonna beat him is Matthew Stafford, the number one guy
for the MVP, number one leading candidate maybe Drake maybe
or whatever. And by the way, there's three components that
make the Pro Bowl. There's the fan vote, the player vote,
and the coach vote. Sam Donald is outside the top
ten in the fan vote, So just extrapolate that. What
(10:04):
you can infer from that, if he's number two in
the final outcome, that means the players and the coaches
had to have overwhelmingly voted him at least the number two.
And so he's number two in the Pro Bowl vote,
and he's number one in deep passer rating, number one
in passing yards per dropback, number one in percentage of
(10:26):
plays with ten or plus yards. All of those have
correlation over five hundred and some over six hundred. His
off target percentage is second. This is all straight from
the NFL stat portal. He's judged to be the second
most accurate quarterback in the league. Even though he has
the highest propensity of big plays. His success percentage, which
(10:46):
is forty percent of the needed yards on first, sixty
percent of the needed yards on second, and all the
needed yards on third or fourth. His success plays are second.
And his EPA, that's a new stat for UH analytic guys.
His EPA per drop back is number two. And and
did you like do you like having DeMarcus Lawrence? Well,
(11:10):
if you don't, If if you don't have a quarterback
as low as the eighteenth remember now Sam Donald eighteenth
highest thirty three point five million, that means you have
extra money for DeMarcus Lawrence, who made the Pro Bowl.
That means how about this, Josh Jones just started the
last two games. Josh Jones was a guy that you
go back and listen to our podcast. I was saying
(11:30):
in August, this is the best backup tackle I've seen
in Seaatam for a long damn time. Not Stone Forsyth,
George Fant. It set doesn't matter this Josh Jones, who's
seventy four, Like I was asleep at the wheel, Who
the hell seventy four? What we got got him from
the Ravens for four million, George Pant was one point
two million to the commanders. That difference. You just had
(11:52):
Josh Jones start at left end against Jared Verse in
a win, in a vital win against the Rams and may.
I don't know how they would have sorted out the
money they would have maybe they would have signed him anyways,
But it's fair to infer that because you're paying Sam
Donald only thirty three and a half million, you can
sign DeMarcus Loris, you can sign Josh Jones. So I
(12:14):
put it to you if you had said right then
on March twelve, before they signed Sam Donald, and you
had said all of those facts, not opinions, those facts
about what Sam Donald, all the numbers that I said
about the team, the wins, the record, scoring points, if
you had said, I'm gonna give you all those facts,
(12:37):
but there's gonna be some interceptions involved. You know what
John Schneider and Mike McDonald did, I said, they would
have written out a check to the football gods, a
blank check, and they would have said, fill in the
blank on the interceptions. You can put as many as
you want. Put five, you can put fifty. Because if
all those facts that I just cited are true, we're
(12:57):
in a great place. And oh, by the way, it
hasn't heard the defense. It's the defense is number one
or number two in every single stat So all of
those facts, you know, and by the way, again, we're
gonna hand ring about interceptions which for six years have
proven to have essentially a zero correlation to wins, because
(13:18):
I say, well, how does that make sense? Because the
top quarterbacks are the guys that have the guts to
go try and big game, hunt and go try and
make some plays, make some plays on third down. And
by the way, the third down, I'll just keep going
that the guys that are winning games are not afraid
(13:42):
of interceptions. You have Pat Mahomes for like the last
six years, he averages twenty one point something turnover worthy plays.
Every year he's thought to be the best quarterback of
at least this generation. He's he he routinely has the
(14:02):
same number of of turnover worthy plays as Sam Donald has. Now,
in fact, even this year he's got more, and he
hasn't even played as many games. So I don't want
the turnovers. I don't want the interceptions. But there are
a lot of facts a tenant to that number, and
(14:23):
and and my I guess my final thought, I keep
saying the final thought. I there's room for a good
debate about Sam Donald, Like what's happened over the last
six weeks, that is his performances, you know, the offenses.
The past performance has fallen off. That's a legit question.
But to just come at him with every every barrel
(14:45):
of your gatling gun and and and just hammer him
and eviscerate him as if he is I'll give you
a little seahawk lesson Stan Gilbaugh, Dan McGuire, keep McGuire
se quarterbacks of all time?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, I wouldn't go there. I listen, he's in a
significant improval. Regino Smith, I.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
To your podcast from yesterday. Come on, Mark, we're friends here. No,
but listen Hugh, he's got twenty turnovers. That's not an opinion,
that's a fact. You can go over and parse that
any way you want. Now, let me just say this. Then,
what if he if you made your point, let me
make my point like you went on and let me
make my point. Now, Now, what if he mitigated those turnovers?
(15:30):
What if he divided them in half from twenty to ten? Like,
I know this team's got thirteen wins, but how much
better would his team be if he didn't throw four
picks against the right Well, like threw six picks against
the Rams in two games, but how much better?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Now? Sam, to me is a double edged sword.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
He's a guy that he looked horrible in regulation in
the Thursday night game at home versus the Rams, and
then in overtime he looked like Joe Montana and pick
a super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
He looked unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
He was perfect, he didn't he didn't not for one
incomplete pass. And that, to me is the double ed
sword that is Sam Donald. It's it's just a double
ed sword. He's great, But then it's also it's that yeah,
but that I just believe. I'm hoping that Clint Kubiak
(16:19):
and Mike McDonald are going to like I think when
Sam Donald's in play action, he's at his best.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I love him in play action. I love to see that.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But there are times where it's like I mentioned Caleb Williams,
who's in year two.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Caleb Williams has five five picks this year.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
He would rather get decapitated and get his head chopped
off than throw a pick. And he did this last
year too, Hugh, when he didn't have a good rookie season.
I wish Sam Donald sometimes just just take a sack,
take a he go down, take a knee, but just like,
just don't compromise your team's integrity by continuing to put
(16:59):
them where if the defense continues to have to bail
him out. I mean, I like him, he's a good quarterback,
but like this team, it's it's like, man, how much
better would this team even be?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And they're already great?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
How much better he would they be if he if
he divided those turnovers in half?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Of course you'd rather have. If you're saying asking me,
would I rather have fewer turnovers or more turnovers? I'd
rather have fewer turnovers. What I'm trying to say, it's
I've likened it to a Jenga tower. You pull one
little piece out and you don't understand how everything else
is dependent on it. And so right now, what you
(17:39):
hear from Mike McDonald is saying, hey, we're telling Sam
to keep firing because he's number one in passing yards
per dropback. There's an aggression to what he's done, and
that has a correlation of five seventy six. So think
of a batter who hits five seventy six. That correlation
winning versus interceptions are twenty eight. Think about the difference
(18:00):
between a batter who hits O twenty eight and a
batter who hits five seventy six. That's a correlation here,
and so and and and and Pat Mahomes had twenty
averages twenty one of the last six years. He's the
best quarterback of this generation, maybe every generation. And he
has twenty one turnover worthy plays, and and Sam Darnold's
at twenty. Okay, yeah, we'd rather have fewer. But but
(18:21):
be careful what you do. If, like, if you're so
singularly focused on interceptions, you be careful of unwanted consequences,
you might dry up the rest of it. You just
set a franchise record for points, Like you're the number
one seed. Like, be careful when you say it'd be
like telling a guy you know what'd be like doing.
(18:43):
It'd be like you sign a freaking dh to and
and he's like second in the in the American or
in all of baseball. He's second in all of baseball
in slugging percentage. Like he's hitting home runs and doubles
in the gap. But then you say, well, I don't
like your strikeouts. He say, like, these strikeouts just drive me. Like, no,
(19:06):
you got to cut your strikeouts down. Just think how
good you'd be if you cut your strikeouts down. Stop
the strikeouts. They drive me crazy. Well, guess what, you
might dry up the doubles, you might drive up the
home runs, so and like, and then think about this.
This is year one with the quarterback and the offensive coordinator.
The interception on Sunday to to uh JSN in the
(19:26):
back of the end zone. That was a slug o
route where it's a slant and go and the defense
was called a press bail. The corner is pressed up
in the line of scrimmage and then right before the
snap he turns with his ass to the sideline, knees
into the field and he's looking as prefer vision can
see both the receiver and the quarterback. That is not
a good technique to run a double go. They had
(19:49):
had a bunch of off coverage, which is a good technique,
but they ran it against press bail And when when
JSN came out of his break, he was like, I'm
never gonna get on top of the corner, so let
me idle down and go back shoulder. That's what he
was trying to expect. But Sam Donald because of a
terrible blocking scheme with Canine having to go from right
(20:10):
to left with an unblocked guy coming off the left edge.
What's the tape, what's the tape? It's there for you.
A guy unblocked coming right at his face with Canine
coming coast to coast from the opposite side. All of
this combat takes right in the place of Sam Donald's
lap and if it hurries up his throat, his arm
gets hit and they're not on the right page.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
That was like the second slugger they'd done all year,
Jasn and Sam Donald. So next year when they have
had more time and maybe the eighth time, they run
the sluggo, then Sam Donald go bam and in a
snap it right on the back shoulder on his hip
and then we'll get a touchdown out of it, and
we'll say that's the difference between year one and year
two in the system.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
So I just.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Caliber quarterback.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Hey, in this this is my hometown, Seattle. I earned
my stripes in this city when I was twenty years
old and I was quarterbacking the number one team in
the country, the Huskies. We were lead, we ended up
leading the conference in scoring. And when things went wrong,
I got my ass booed. And you know what, I
deserve to get my ass boot in those times because
(21:19):
I wasn't playing up to the And you know what,
Warren Moon got booed for the better part of two
and a half years. And Steve Pluhor, who won a
Rose Bowl and a Pack ten Conference Player of the Year,
he got booed. A lot of dudes have got booed
in this town. This is not a soft quarterback town.
And I'm not I'm not soft. There is room for
some objections about what's happening with Sam Donald, but to
(21:42):
just murder the guy, and I'm like, I'm trying to imagine.
What if he was driving around or his wife. His
wife played soccer at South Carolina. What if she's a
sports fan and she's listen, I'd be embarrassed for seattle that,
like Sam Donald is giving us all of this, all
of this that I've just listed, He's given us all
of this, and we're gonna clown him like he's stand Gilbert.
(22:06):
That just makes no sense. Well, I don't think he's
not Stan Gilbt.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
But like I said, at the end of the day,
and we got a rap because we got a thing
with Mike Ben. He's not Stan Gelba. He's not Damn
maguire or anybody else for that matter. He's just I
just would rather he does not turn they too over.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
But that's all I mark. Can you can you acknowledge?
Can you can I get you to repeat after me
if you believe don't repeat it if you don't believe it,
But can you repeat after me? If we try and
slash his interceptions, there may be a consequence that is
unwanted where we lose all the big plays. Get like
like I'm not you're you're okay, fair enough, I'm just
(22:46):
gonna kill me do it like you're saying, you know,
you know who I need to ask this And I've
been trying to get this guy on.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I'm talking to Purple Sheet. We've never had coach Holgrin
on the show. I'd like to ask Coach Honkren that
question you And I think that's a great question because
he had that guy. His name was Brett Farv. Brett
Farv was a gunslinger and he would you know, he'd
throw a pick, but he you know, and it's like,
I don't think Sam Darnl's in the level Brett. But
I'd like to ask coach Holmgren that question. And I
(23:14):
just want for me, I'll answer your question. And we
got a role And just because we got Mike Betton
in the sponsor segment with the crack and coming up next.
I would take a little bit because I believe in
the defense so much. I would take a little bit
less if he could turn down, if he could just
mitigate the turnovers, That's that's where I come from. I
think we can make it up in the running game
(23:35):
in other ways that you know. And he's still a
talented quarterback. D I am I happy he's here over GINO,
Oh God, are you kidding me absolutely, But I mean, dude,
like he's there's only you know, of all the playoff
teams right now, there's there's two of them who have
a negative point differential negative turnover differential that are right
(23:55):
now in the playoffs as of today, the Seattle Seahawks
and the Sam Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
That's something to think about, all right. So there's that.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Hugh always appreciate the time. We'll do it again next week, Okay,
rock and roll, all right, Hugh Milling will come up,
Mike Betton coming up next twenty four to seven locations
in Seattle, Everett rented in Marysville. Clickway offers personal training,
focus group sessions, and nutrition coaching plus personalized progress tracking,
so every rep actually means something. Starts your seven day
(24:26):
free pass today at Clickwayathletics dot com. That's Clickway with
a K Clickwayathletics dot com and feel what it's like
to train the Clickway.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
They were on the precipice of win in five in
a row shootout loss last night, but they get the point.
But I'm gonna look at the glass three quarters full.
What did Lane Lambert do to kind of spark this turnaround.
And I talked to Ian at the end of his
yesterday's show. Is it a case of addition by subtraction
(24:58):
and without maman.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, that's a great question, MJ. And I mean, listen,
you really can't ignore the record being what it is,
since you know they trained Mason Marchmant, which is now
four all in one here in the last five games.
But I look at where, you know, more and more
moving parts are starting to kind of fall into place
here with this roster, and I think that's a big
(25:25):
key of it, and you can't ignore it. You're finding
a home for Coppocnco with Matty Veniers and Jordan Eberley,
and but Heres's line was in a great state of
flocks for the first couple of months here for the season.
Now you're finding some stability, I think with Chandler Stevenson,
Ellie Tulvnan and Tilivan was arguably one of the best
(25:46):
players in this last week in the NHL. In the
league rightfully recognized him that with Second Star of the
Week honors. And then you've got the kid line that's
also starting to turn a lot of heads. Any combination
of car Ja Ben Myers and Jacob Allanson and even
with the Ryan Winterton mixed in, Millonson sitting everything that
moves right now, Ben Myers has brought in a very
(26:09):
very abrasive game. But I think to the point of
all of this, you were looking and trying to find,
trying to find any kind of way possible to fit
Mason Marchmen in. They try to fit him up and
down the line up they played him here. They're everywhere,
left wing, right wing, you name it, and fitness wasn't happening.
And you know, in some cases like this, you know,
(26:32):
some trades work out, some trades don't work out. So
I think the Shane reaction of what you look at
on the ice, you're now finding, I think some stability
in place where chemistry is starting to kind of really
take over here as far as what is driving this
team in the last five games or so, And now
what I look at two MJ is back here to
(26:52):
the kid line. They're hitting, they're playing abrasive, and they
play with a fearless approach, which goes back to the
Lane Lambert identity of being abrasive and playing fearless. Now
you're starting to really I think, get a sense of
id clicking in with what you're doing with a role
player line like that, which I think is very, very
(27:13):
important and a part of this is which has also
helped set this team in the right direction over the
last of the five games.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Why the Kraken have trouble in shootouts? They're zero to
three this season. What is it about shootouts that they
just seem to struggle with?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Well, two things here, MG, I think first off, the
shootout is definitely a skilled game. But also again it's
a total game of randomness. I mean, I mean, people
are going to be frustrated here to hear this, but
I mean the matter of fact is that the shootout
is a complete toss up. It's a complete coin flip,
and it does not accurately reflect on the u natural
ability and the record of a certain team, you know,
(27:50):
in the standings. So and you may ask, well, I mean, well,
why are the kracking o on four? Why don't they practice? Well,
the matter of fact is they have, They have practice
a shootout before and they try to a this year.
But again, tell me why the Vancouver Canucks are in
the basement and there four or nine shootouts. Tell me
why the Colorado Avalanche are twenty nine to two and
seven on the season, are one and four in the shootout.
(28:13):
It really is a complete game of randomness. It puts
shooter versus goaltender. There's pressure obviously to perform in you know,
the whole spur of the moment and trying to you know,
make a move, do you go back in, do you
go four hand open the goalies five hole?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
It just really.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
Opens up the whole rum of possibilities where this is
not really an accurate representation of how the game is played,
because again, I mean roughly about ninety five percent of
what teams do in practice does not reflect here on
the shootout. It is reflective of five on five play
and on the power play as well. So you know,
I look at the flecding back of what you could
(28:51):
have gone to be better in this situation, to trying
to you know, clean up what you could have cleaned up,
say back in period one when you had three great
a looks and couldn't cash it, and yeah, a two
to one lead looks good like last night against Vancouver,
but again you had a power play in overtime and
you come up empty. I mean, if you're gonna you know,
(29:11):
go to the shootout and try to win him there.
You know, you're just playing with a game of randomness
and you're playing with fire. And for a game of
hockey where it is a control based game, teams are
able to take advantage of what they can control when
they can do so at five on five and on
the power play. And unfortunately for the Crack And they
came up empty in those spots too much where they
(29:34):
then left this game up here to the game of chance,
like last night when they got to the shootout.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Mike Betton here, brought to you by Clickway Athletics and
Mechanics Bank dot Com meet the Crack in every week
with winning four in a row and extending their point
streak to five games in the shootout loss last night,
are there are only two points behind the final wild
card in the West, behind the Kings and Sharks who
have forty one. So I've said it again, and I
(30:00):
I like Laine Lambert and I think he's the right guy.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I think they finally got it right. Third time was
the charm.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Now it's a matter of the system just kind of
you know, refining a little bit. Jared mccannon coming back,
he was hurt and good to see him back last night.
And I think, you know, when this team had lost
you know, ten out of eleven games at one point
not so long ago, I'm like, uh oh, I don't
know if there's gonna be a hockey season. And now
(30:26):
that they've turned it around, I like that when you
experience adversity, you persevere, you overcome, and now you're back
in the thicket things in the playoff right, Still a
long way to go. I mean, you know, we're I mean,
this is it's a very long season, so you're I mean,
what do we got there? Twenty seven games eighty two
minus twenty seven?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Do the math? We got a long way to go.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
But I think the Kraken are kind of back on
that right track after really hitting at that lull there.
So one of the things Andy and I talked about
this at the NSRA show.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
This is not cracking thing. This is a Gary Bettman.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Dude, you don't fight City Hall And what do I
mean by that? Like Gary Bettman, Like what are you doing?
Like what the hell are you doing? You're seriously you're
gonna and granted, I know hockey's you know, Canadian sport,
but you're gonna go head to head with a triple
(31:23):
header in college football in New Year's Day. That's what
you're gonna do. I mean, what are you doing, dude?
Like like Baseball did the same thing to Mike on On.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I believe it well, NFL Draft night, NFL, if.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
You go back to the Thursday night of the NFL Draft,
Major League Baseball usually get away day, right, Mike, they
usually have getaway games, and I'll get away day so
everybody can get to where they're going that weekend.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
They put every game.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
At night on the first round, the Thursday night of
the NFL Draft.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
That's clearly Rob Manford, Gary Bettman.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Really sometimes in life you just got to take d
L going up against the college football triple header on
New Year's Day.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
That's that's a bad business decision.
Speaker 6 (32:12):
And also I would add to this, MJ, would this
be different here with no Olympics this season because the Kraken,
at least in the local scope of this, will have
seventeen games, I repeat, seventeen games coming up this next month,
all because they got to cram all this in by
the time everybody breaks here in early February, and there
(32:35):
aren't many teams who have a different picture as well,
So I mean I totally get it. I mean, this
is a league that when when you're competing for dollars,
you're trying to find a way to maximize eyeballs, just
like you know, the NFL trying to be the king
of you know, grabbing every game and every date. It
seems like now on the calendar to me, look at
the NBA, they're now complaining that the NFL has taken
(32:56):
our day here for this, so it's kind of a
cat and that you're trying to play to stay away
from the NFL side of this. I do, though, question
would they do this again on a non Olympic year
versus you know, say on New Year's Day when their
hands are tied and you're playing back to back virtually
every other day. It feels like right now in this calendar,
(33:19):
I think at least the argument is open to that.
But yeah, I mean I certainly see your point, and
it just brings to the question every year, how much
are you looking at the NFL calendar when you're doing
this the college football playoff calendar as well, because I
think that's a big, big question when you're trying to
do your best to maximize your game and your product
(33:40):
here to everybody out there who whereas you know, once
you get past December, that's when you have to strike.
When the iron is hot.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Mike Betton meets the crack.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
When Mike Betton brought to you by Mechanicsbank dot com
and at Clickway Athletics dot Com. That's Clickway with a K.
Mike will talk to you next week. Happy New Year,
safe travels.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
All right, you too, sir.
Speaker 6 (34:01):
I appreciate you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Mike Benton coming up next. Maybe you don't want to
change the chant, ladies, I'm talking to you. This is
a very oh boy, this is a story, but it
actually happened, and it happened in Florida of all places.
You might not want to change the channel on your
significant other if he's watching Monday night football. We'll get
to that next, and kid, we'll give his pick, which
(34:24):
I think I know what it's gonna be, but let's
let him give it. On the Seahawks forty nine Ers game,
Dalton Wasserman Pro Football Focus.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
But he's mister college football.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
We're gonna get into the playoffs, the game that everybody
will be watching tomorrow night with the Keynes Ohio State,
and then the triple header with Texas Tech, Oregon, Alabama, Indiana,
and of course the nightcap Georgia Ole Miss rematch on
New Year's Day, all that more, MJ and Midday.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Percy Jackson is a fantasy show streaming on Hulu, So
this really was all about changing the channel.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah, I was re Please don't shoot me, Please don't
shoot me.
Speaker 7 (35:02):
Kenny's twelve year old steps on escaped the violence and
ran to a neighbor's home to call nine one one
forty seven year old Kenny Flitt. He later shot and
killed himself.
Speaker 8 (35:13):
I don't want to sound sinister, but the only thing
he did right that night was shoot himself. After those
horrible deeds.
Speaker 7 (35:20):
I also spoke to the dead woman's sister, Stephanie, and.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
My sister was peacefully watching her show and he did
not like that.
Speaker 8 (35:27):
Out as an argument over a television program end up
with a murder, an attempt at murder, and a suicide.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
When they arrived on the scene, deputies also found the
couple's baby girl asleep in her crib, unharmed. A go
fund the account has been set up to help the
family for more information go to our website Inside edition
dot com.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Very sad, very sad.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
So yeah, and nobody's life shitt end because they want
to watch something different and go to a different TV
or go somewhere else and watch it. And so thankfully
the young daughter, a stepdaughter, survived and she has a brother.
He got out of house to go call nine on one.
But very sad story. I'm like to really this is
from the Niners Colts game last Monday night. He wanted
(36:17):
to watch the games, she wanted to watch something on
Hulu and that happened. All right, kid, we've waited for it.
I have a feeling you're gonna go with every way
you would. I would bet on your pick. I think
you're gonna go with the San Francisco forty nine ers.
You've been on them since I knew you, and back
in April, and justifiably so, and nobody talked about them.
(36:40):
Everything was Rams, Hawks, Hawks, Rams, and ultimately now it's
gonna be Hawks and Niners. And but could I be wrong?
Who do you got? Give me a score Saturday night?
Speaker 4 (36:53):
I got the Seahawks winning. The defense for the Niners
is really bad. They're thirty second in sack rate. Thirty
second in sacks, thirtieth in pressure. So it all points
to Sam lighting them up with JSN and company. So
I'd expect the Seahawks to win and now is gonna fight.
Though they got a talented offense, brock Perdy has been
playing good God all, he's been playing out of his mind.
(37:14):
So I'll take the Seahawks to win twenty seven to twenty.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
There it is, Wow, I was wrong.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Twenty seven to twenty Yeah, yeah, I could see them.
It's gonna be tough for the forty nine ers to
get over. It's gonna be tough for them to get
over that threshold of getting more than twenty two points.
So I'm with you on that. I you know, I
don't know what I'm gonna pick. Leish Sterling and I
are leading a different way? Are we leading on the
(37:43):
same side. You'll have to listen tomorrow between ten am
and eleven am picking the locks. We will also have
a pick on every college football bowl game, including the
game that will be at tomorrow night Miami Ohio State,
and then of course the Seahawks forty nine Ers game
on Saturday night. I don't know why this game is
not on Sunday. We're gonna do a forty eight year
(38:05):
old Aaron Rodgers versus a Baltimore team. I mean, that's
what we're doing here. Okay, fine, Seahawks should be getting
primetime on Sunday night, but that's all right. Hopefully the
beginning primetime the second Sunday in February for Super Bowl sixty.
We'll talk to Dalton Wasserman speaking to college football playoffs
coming up next
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