October 2, 2024 • 19 mins
Hugh Millen joins the show for his weekly visit to talk about the Jared Goff performance against the Seattle Seahawks, and how about Geno Smith and how well he's looked so far this season, and much more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hume Mellen joins us as he does every day at
eleven o'clock by a telephone to be come plumbing high
on hig you how you been.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm doing great, guys. What's happening?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm well now that I got more than ninety minutes
of sleep for a.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Night, animal, I get it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Jared Goff eighteen for eighteen, Yes, not only eighteen for eighteen,
but almost three hundred yards passing. What was it that
he and Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator did the Seattle
on Monday night?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, first of all, I would say if as a quarterback,
you say, okay, you know red light, green light, yellow light,
and you say a quarterback has to obviously don't play,
don't don't throw red light throws right, those get intercepted
and batted down. And Gino had seven passes defense the
other night GoF had zero obviously because everything was completed. Okay,
(00:50):
But then if you only live in the green, then
you're going to be a checkdown Charlie, and you might
have a high completion percentage interceptions, but you're gonna lose,
you know, fourteen to ten. And so I just kind
of look here, okay, let's break eighteen down two screens.
Those are easy four checkdowns where he lived, you know,
(01:13):
just he wasn't willing to go down the field, and
I think he made good decisions. Four additional on all
the boot four boot plays where he threw to the
shallow sky boot plays with a quarterback on the move
out on the edge, you got deep, intermediate, and shallow.
He threw to the shallow every time they called the boot.
All right, Two other categories here. They got into empty
(01:36):
and they tried to get I'm on Ross Saint Brown
on what's called a jerk route against the rookie Tyrese Knight.
By getting into empty, you get that matchup with the
wide receiver in the slot against the weak side linebacker.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, you come up a jerk route.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You come up, you do a hitch shake to the
outside and then back to the inside, and you pulled
the middle linebacker over to the strength of the formation.
There's a little I've seen a lot of willers get
beat there. I thought Knight did a good job there,
but it's still a four yard completion. But you can
live with that. If you're Mike McDonald and you tell
your young player that there's a blown coverage there man
(02:12):
and man. Seattle only played three four rather because one
was a sack. Three plays of cover one man and man,
and one of them was a time where they had
fifty six.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Helped me.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, so he's on, Yeah, he's on a shallow cross.
Seattle's playing a man to man. You can play man
to man in rush five, but they if you play
man and man in rush four, that gives you an
extra what's called the whole defender. People call it a rat,
a lerk robber. If you know foot, you know, get
a shelf. Essentially a sallow player like a free safety. Well,
(02:52):
Bowser he's pointing to to to the middle linebacker Dodson, saying, hey,
you take him and I'll replace you and be the
whole player. Well, they didn't get the communication. Bowser and
Dodson end up stacked on the hash and the tight
ends wide open as if it's zone.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
He just hooks up doing his own responsibilities.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I was down by the Seatt goal line and on
a second and nine they give up a ten yard
completion because they blow the coverage. A couple of plays
where they he played in the yellow I'm talking about golf.
He had I think his second completion, he spun out
of trouble and then hit Jamison Williams on a hook
route against against Tariq.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Woollan, and Wollan was mere inches away.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
But good throw, perfect throw, and they get a tightly
covered cook or a where clear out. Nice scheming. You
reduce the split by Iman Rustin Brown. That means that
Devin Weatherspoon is going to be he has divider rules.
He said, wait, you're too close to the ball on
this stay outside of you. Well, now you've got outside leverage.
(03:57):
You're gonna do an inbreaking route. That means that you
have to have help for Witherspoon on that deep in
breaking route. Well, the guy who would give the help
is Drake Thomas, number forty two, the third string week
side linebacker. So so they're attacking personnel. There two final ones.
I'm gonna throw because either these were the big time throws,
(04:18):
like big time throws, and I'm gonna I'm gonna pause
right here. I'm gonna say, you guys know Mark Schleoret,
the ESPN and analysts. Yeah, so he and I were teammates,
and he has said kind of famously, I don't know
why they call him skill positions. You try and block
Aaron Donald and then tell me that you don't need
skill to block him, right like, because linemen are never
(04:40):
considered skill positions. Right, I'm gonna take that philosophy and
I'm gonna kind of say this. We understand this is
the day and age of the dual threat quarterback. And
we further understand that Jared Goff is not a dual
threat quarterback. He's a throwback guy. And and yet he
goes under center play action more than any other quarterback
(05:05):
in football last year. In fact, not only was he first,
the gap between first and second was the equal to
the gap between second and twenty six. Let me repeat again,
under center play action. What's the significance of that. Well,
first of all, you can get some downhill running game.
The Lions put their running backs of the yard deeper
and they come downhill and they can replay, So it
(05:28):
affects the running game. You're turning back, you're holding the ball.
There's more deception that's allowed in that. But it's very
hard on the quarterback to turn around and then throw
in the middle. And there's all kinds of stats where
he's number one thrown in between the numbers. So he
goes on the seventy yarder to Jamis Williamson. This is
(05:49):
a six man blitz. There's guys in his face when
he released the ball. GoF Williams was he had not
got to the left hash even though the ball is
going to be completed the right Doddson. There's this this
whole messa. This is a deep mess concept where deep crossing.
He hadn't even Jamison Williams hadn't even got to the
(06:09):
point where he's gonna cross with the tight end. There's
a linebacker in the picture. This is a murky picture.
But he just sees it and anticipation he throws it
out there and gets a seventy yonder. That is a
big time difficult deal. And then and then on that
same note, that was again under center play action, which
other quarterbacks don't do anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And then eight p.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Fifty seven to go in the game, thirty five to
twenty seven, Seattle comes back. It's a one score game.
Think of how aggressive this is. Detroit on first and
ten from deep in their own end, so they go
play action under center. Goff, turn your back on the defense,
and then turn around and hit a dagger concept with
a clear out and who's number seventeen for the Lions,
(06:54):
their third receiver. Maybe while I'm talking, you can look
that up. But when Goff then turns his back back
to the defense, and then and then he and then
he comes back to final he's he's got to fit
the ball on a deep in route into a box
literally a box. It's like a square. And on the
inside intermediate of that, he's got Terrell Dotson. On the
(07:17):
other side of that, he's got Kobe Bryant deep to
the outside, Troy Brown is a corner, and then Uh
Jenkins the safety. That that little box of four players,
any four of those guys could in theory make a
play on the ball. If you if you sit there
for a half a second and go.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Do I have that? Yeah? I think I do, and
then throw it. That's too late. You've got to turn your.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Back, come back and and then just instantly process.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
If I if I throw it now and throw it
into that little box, four guys could get it. But
my guy will come right in the dead middle of
that box and.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
He smokes that ball in there. What was the game patrol?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, Saint Patrick and yeah, yeah, And so that that completion,
you know, and that's where Troy Aikman was going, Wow,
that's his best throw at the night. That was thirty
yards in the most pressure situation when Seattle's come back.
And so, look, can Jared Goff make guys miss like
all the modern quarterbacks? No, but you show me a
(08:24):
guy that consistently gets under center, turns his back to
the defense and makes these plays. I mean, Jared, Look,
the Lions have now are in the top inauguably three
four five teams in this league agreed, and the job
they've done turning around who they were. They were the Lions,
the bag over your head Lions. And this is a
(08:45):
franchise that has made a ton of great decisions. Well,
they've got their quarterback in Jared Goff. They just signed
to a four year, two hundred and twelve million dollar,
one hundred and seventy million guaranteed. They know what he does,
even though he's old school, and you know, old school.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Went eighteen for eighteen.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And there's things that Goff does that nobody else. So
if you want to say there's things that Lamar Jackson
does that nobody else, says, fine, and you want to
say Jared goff can't do that, fine, but I'm gonna
turn around and say, there's a lot of guys that
virtually everybody else cannot do on a regular basis what
he does and how it fits with their running game.
They get Jamary Gibbs, the twelfth olderall pick. You know,
(09:24):
they've got a vision of their offense and there's very
few people on planet Earth that can be the trigger man,
and GoF is one of them.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Back to that Jamison Williams seventy yard touchdown. It was
right after the Seahawks had gotten within twenty eight twenty
and the failed miss two pointer that maybe should have
been in completion and metcalf, no challenge whatever, Yeah, change
the game.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Who did you say?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
We all saw Witherspoon standing in the middlefield after the
catch and Williams is blowing his doors off and running
by him. But as you saw, where was the bust
or where could have Seattle defended?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Here's the problem with that in trying to assess that
if you technically say what was Seattle doing? They're playing
a two deep three under, Like the standard zone is
seven guys three deep, four under four deep, three under,
two deep, five hundred. There's all kinds of And then
if you can drop eight and get eight man zones.
(10:17):
When you go a fire zone and you bring five,
obviously there's a simple math. There's six guys to play
the zone. Six guys leaves a lot of holes from
an offensive perspective. You're either going to be in a
three deep or three under and uh and uh three
deep three under, or you're gonna be a two deep
(10:37):
four under. That's what we see. And then and then
there's nuances to that that the uh what what what's
called a catch coverage?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Palms coverage? The two deep four under can be four
deep two under. But but if I lost you just
the numbers I'm saying are six guys, which is again
one fewer guy than average. If you technically look at
three guys playing zone underneath and two in the back end,
is that really a scheme that Mike McDonald wants to have.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
If I you know, I've studied Raven tape. I've I
just don't see that.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Of his personnel restrictions he had and missing five of.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Well, I know I think that they had a communication problem.
I just don't think that that they just are drawing
up two deep three under look, I mean it's possible.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
You.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I mean I consider on a whiteboard and say, okay,
this is how you'd cover these concepts. And and there's
things like peel blitzing, where you say, well if he
if the run running back blocks, then you fire. And
so maybe you're you know, maybe that's called the half
a blitzer because if the running back releases, you've got
him in coverage. I mean, they're they're saying, I will
just say this if you look, and you just say,
(11:50):
what is that? That's a six man rush, two deep
three under their playing zone principles, and that those are
way too many holes to to have so at any rate.
As for the coverage, as, yes, what are they doing?
I mentioned they went man and man on four plays
they got a sack and then but they gave it
(12:10):
completions of ten, thirteen and seven. They mostly went cover three.
That's a three deep four under zone or sometimes three
deep three under twelve completions two hundred and fifty one
yards a twenty one yard average. And then the quarters
that the two deep structure that that McDonald had done
(12:31):
so much of Baltimore, at least so on a too
high and then coming down. They only had one play
of Cover four and two plays of Cover six. Is
is a two deep structure where you're playing Cover two
roll to one side and then and you're playing off
on the other with a two high safety safety structure. Okay,
that's probably a lot of details. Sorry, There just three
plays of a too high and everything else was single high,
(12:56):
which the Cover three is or the Cover one is
also a singley.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You text me, hey, what coverages were they doing? That's
what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
But you know, I think that the you know, the
breaking down of golf's day, at least in my mind,
you know, kind of went with what we discussed earlier,
and and you know, two awesome throws, probably three or
four other really good throws, and then ten just you know,
(13:26):
any quarterback could have made ten of them.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Hugh, you talked a lot about what you saw from
Jared Goff, but in about two minutes, yeah, can you
talk about Gino because there was one play where I'm
in you were talking about Jared and the Seahawks are
on trip to the right and Jake Bobo does a
deep in about seventeen yards and Gino is getting pressure
from the pocket and he delivers a dot hits him
(13:49):
right in the chest, and I was just thinking, wow,
I know Gino had a couple of those throws in
that game when he was under pressure. So what was
your thoughts on Geno's game against it?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
A lot?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
That was Yeah, that was.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
A double in concept that that was one of my
lists of really good plays. And and and Seattle is
is doing. The league is has come into this new
concept where for for years and decades, it's common to
have a swing route. The running back put Canine or
whomever Sharbonne on a swing route right, and you say, okay,
(14:21):
you're gonna get a stretch. What's kind of in vogue
now is you get you have a swing route, but
it's like a one man screen and you get a
tight end out there and they're kind of stabbed on
one another. So for the quarterback, you're looking downfield, looking downfield,
and you say, okay, I don't like what I see.
I'm gonna throw over to the swing path swing route. Well,
(14:42):
I've got an extra lead blocker. Well, and that's cool,
and it's created some good stuff. It does detract from
your ability to influence other zone defenders. And on that play,
you're describing with Bobo. That was one where they had
this one man screen as a as a checkdown. So
so those hooked hooks own defenders that you're trying to
(15:02):
beat hooks own defenders are shallow, meaning closer to the
line scrimmage as opposed deep and to the inside right
around the hashmarks, and he anticipates throwing right in. They
were relatively tight because of the concept that I described,
But he was knifing that in. He had one defant
that had some similarity where fant was over the middle.
He knifed it into the hooks own defender. He had
(15:23):
a play where he's climbing the pocket. Do you guys
remember the one where he hits Tyler Lockett about fifteen
yards down the field, but then Tyler Tyler goes for
it ends up being a twenty nine yarderes over the middle.
He's climbing for it, he's pumping, pumping, he has no
body behind it. His right foots forward. It looked like
(15:44):
his shoulders he was going to throw it, so at
least he had his shoulders behind it even though he's climbing.
But then he has to pull it down. Well, now
when he reloads he can't reload his entire shoulders. He's
just got to flip it with his arm. Because of
all this, there's literally nothing in his body that power
to that throw, and yet he's still knife it in.
That's what I would call arm talent and getting a
(16:05):
twenty nine yard I mean, just but but but if
we're gonna talk to Geno and we're probably up up
against it, I would say the thing that is most
impressing me if I if I take the the four
game Seattle's played and say, who's the best football player
that I see of the opponents, Meaning, if I could,
I could have one wish, just pluck that guy off
(16:26):
of their team and now he's a Seahawk.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
My answer would be Aiden Hutchinson.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Now, Patrick Sartan's great, Penny Sewell, there's some other guys
that give me some pause. But Aiden Hutchinson, I know, Greg,
you know you're talking about, Hey, he didn't get the sack.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
He is his presence.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Oh my god, he was just destroying the pocket over
and oh it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Matter left side, right side.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Uh And and I mean he was just you know,
Forsyth or whether it was career, I mean, he made
each of them look like j V High school.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
He didn't get sacked because you know, Smith was brilliant.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
And yeah, but Gino's if you're grading a guy, it's
so hard.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I mean, I played with three Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
It's really hard.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
When you walk come back and watch the tape and
you watch you know, we're watching the end zone copy,
we're watching the All twenty two. If you've getting constant pressure,
there's a lot of times where you say, you know,
like Elway, for example, beautiful athlete. He'd say, oh, shoot,
I got a little skittish on that one. I got
out of the pocket when I didn't need to. And
then you go, yeah, but Woody. We didn't call him John.
(17:30):
It was his nickname was Woody because like Elwood and
the Bruce Brothers, so wood he But you just you
just had like the last ten times you were in
the pocket, you know, you had dragons breathing on you.
Of course you bailed unnecessarily, Like this happens to the
best of guys. Gino his decisions to either stay in
the pocket or when to get out of the pocket.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I mean, he's damn near perfect.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
When he's getting out of the pocket, it's because he
must get out of the pocket and if he has
any chance to stay in there and be a man
and hang in there and take the hit. Now, you
don't take hits like Lway did, right, because they protect guys.
But but there's still a lot of courage that you
have to have and that that pocket is constricting. So
is we can talk about all the good passing plays.
(18:13):
I'm most impressed with Gino's pot the just grading him
in the pocket. We just watched the game through a
toilet paper tube, so you don't know what happens when
when Gino lets the ball go. You're just watching Gino
in the pocket through a toilet paper tube.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Uh uh uh.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
And And if you're just grading him on that aspect,
I mean he's an A plus.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
He stood in there once when Hutchinson was coming right
down on him and he threw for first down on
third and eight to Jackson Smith and Jigba across the middle.
He pulled up on his pull on his scramble into
Hutchinson's face to complete the pass. Yeah, that was the
most impressive play of the night. Indeed, Hugh, I appreciate it.
It's tough what we could talk about, but it's good
to talk to you. I'll be on the Seahawks round
(18:53):
Table with Chuck and Bucking you tomorrow morning, a day.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
A clock you. It's always good to be with you.
Thank you as well.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
You.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Thanks Hugh Mellon as always
Hume Mellen joins us as he does every day at
eleven o'clock by a telephone to be come plumbing high
on hig you how you been.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm doing great, guys. What's happening?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm well now that I got more than ninety minutes
of sleep for a.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Night, animal, I get it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Jared Goff eighteen for eighteen, Yes, not only eighteen for eighteen,
but almost three hundred yards passing. What was it that
he and Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator did the Seattle
on Monday night?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, first of all, I would say if as a quarterback,
you say, okay, you know red light, green light, yellow light,
and you say a quarterback has to obviously don't play,
don't don't throw red light throws right, those get intercepted
and batted down. And Gino had seven passes defense the
other night GoF had zero obviously because everything was completed. Okay,
(00:50):
But then if you only live in the green, then
you're going to be a checkdown Charlie, and you might
have a high completion percentage interceptions, but you're gonna lose,
you know, fourteen to ten. And so I just kind
of look here, okay, let's break eighteen down two screens.
Those are easy four checkdowns where he lived, you know,
(01:13):
just he wasn't willing to go down the field, and
I think he made good decisions. Four additional on all
the boot four boot plays where he threw to the
shallow sky boot plays with a quarterback on the move
out on the edge, you got deep, intermediate, and shallow.
He threw to the shallow every time they called the boot.
All right, Two other categories here. They got into empty
(01:36):
and they tried to get I'm on Ross Saint Brown
on what's called a jerk route against the rookie Tyrese Knight.
By getting into empty, you get that matchup with the
wide receiver in the slot against the weak side linebacker.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, you come up a jerk route.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You come up, you do a hitch shake to the
outside and then back to the inside, and you pulled
the middle linebacker over to the strength of the formation.
There's a little I've seen a lot of willers get
beat there. I thought Knight did a good job there,
but it's still a four yard completion. But you can
live with that. If you're Mike McDonald and you tell
your young player that there's a blown coverage there man
(02:12):
and man. Seattle only played three four rather because one
was a sack. Three plays of cover one man and man,
and one of them was a time where they had
fifty six.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Helped me.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, so he's on, Yeah, he's on a shallow cross.
Seattle's playing a man to man. You can play man
to man in rush five, but they if you play
man and man in rush four, that gives you an
extra what's called the whole defender. People call it a rat,
a lerk robber. If you know foot, you know, get
a shelf. Essentially a sallow player like a free safety. Well,
(02:52):
Bowser he's pointing to to to the middle linebacker Dodson, saying, hey,
you take him and I'll replace you and be the
whole player. Well, they didn't get the communication. Bowser and
Dodson end up stacked on the hash and the tight
ends wide open as if it's zone.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
He just hooks up doing his own responsibilities.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I was down by the Seatt goal line and on
a second and nine they give up a ten yard
completion because they blow the coverage. A couple of plays
where they he played in the yellow I'm talking about golf.
He had I think his second completion, he spun out
of trouble and then hit Jamison Williams on a hook
route against against Tariq.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Woollan, and Wollan was mere inches away.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
But good throw, perfect throw, and they get a tightly
covered cook or a where clear out. Nice scheming. You
reduce the split by Iman Rustin Brown. That means that
Devin Weatherspoon is going to be he has divider rules.
He said, wait, you're too close to the ball on
this stay outside of you. Well, now you've got outside leverage.
(03:57):
You're gonna do an inbreaking route. That means that you
have to have help for Witherspoon on that deep in
breaking route. Well, the guy who would give the help
is Drake Thomas, number forty two, the third string week
side linebacker. So so they're attacking personnel. There two final ones.
I'm gonna throw because either these were the big time throws,
(04:18):
like big time throws, and I'm gonna I'm gonna pause
right here. I'm gonna say, you guys know Mark Schleoret,
the ESPN and analysts. Yeah, so he and I were teammates,
and he has said kind of famously, I don't know
why they call him skill positions. You try and block
Aaron Donald and then tell me that you don't need
skill to block him, right like, because linemen are never
(04:40):
considered skill positions. Right, I'm gonna take that philosophy and
I'm gonna kind of say this. We understand this is
the day and age of the dual threat quarterback. And
we further understand that Jared Goff is not a dual
threat quarterback. He's a throwback guy. And and yet he
goes under center play action more than any other quarterback
(05:05):
in football last year. In fact, not only was he first,
the gap between first and second was the equal to
the gap between second and twenty six. Let me repeat again,
under center play action. What's the significance of that. Well,
first of all, you can get some downhill running game.
The Lions put their running backs of the yard deeper
and they come downhill and they can replay, So it
(05:28):
affects the running game. You're turning back, you're holding the ball.
There's more deception that's allowed in that. But it's very
hard on the quarterback to turn around and then throw
in the middle. And there's all kinds of stats where
he's number one thrown in between the numbers. So he
goes on the seventy yarder to Jamis Williamson. This is
(05:49):
a six man blitz. There's guys in his face when
he released the ball. GoF Williams was he had not
got to the left hash even though the ball is
going to be completed the right Doddson. There's this this
whole messa. This is a deep mess concept where deep crossing.
He hadn't even Jamison Williams hadn't even got to the
(06:09):
point where he's gonna cross with the tight end. There's
a linebacker in the picture. This is a murky picture.
But he just sees it and anticipation he throws it
out there and gets a seventy yonder. That is a
big time difficult deal. And then and then on that
same note, that was again under center play action, which
other quarterbacks don't do anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And then eight p.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Fifty seven to go in the game, thirty five to
twenty seven, Seattle comes back. It's a one score game.
Think of how aggressive this is. Detroit on first and
ten from deep in their own end, so they go
play action under center. Goff, turn your back on the defense,
and then turn around and hit a dagger concept with
a clear out and who's number seventeen for the Lions,
(06:54):
their third receiver. Maybe while I'm talking, you can look
that up. But when Goff then turns his back back
to the defense, and then and then he and then
he comes back to final he's he's got to fit
the ball on a deep in route into a box
literally a box. It's like a square. And on the
inside intermediate of that, he's got Terrell Dotson. On the
(07:17):
other side of that, he's got Kobe Bryant deep to
the outside, Troy Brown is a corner, and then Uh
Jenkins the safety. That that little box of four players,
any four of those guys could in theory make a
play on the ball. If you if you sit there
for a half a second and go.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Do I have that? Yeah? I think I do, and
then throw it. That's too late. You've got to turn your.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Back, come back and and then just instantly process.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
If I if I throw it now and throw it
into that little box, four guys could get it. But
my guy will come right in the dead middle of
that box and.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
He smokes that ball in there. What was the game patrol?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, Saint Patrick and yeah, yeah, And so that that completion,
you know, and that's where Troy Aikman was going, Wow,
that's his best throw at the night. That was thirty
yards in the most pressure situation when Seattle's come back.
And so, look, can Jared Goff make guys miss like
all the modern quarterbacks? No, but you show me a
(08:24):
guy that consistently gets under center, turns his back to
the defense and makes these plays. I mean, Jared, Look,
the Lions have now are in the top inauguably three
four five teams in this league agreed, and the job
they've done turning around who they were. They were the Lions,
the bag over your head Lions. And this is a
(08:45):
franchise that has made a ton of great decisions. Well,
they've got their quarterback in Jared Goff. They just signed
to a four year, two hundred and twelve million dollar,
one hundred and seventy million guaranteed. They know what he does,
even though he's old school, and you know, old school.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Went eighteen for eighteen.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And there's things that Goff does that nobody else. So
if you want to say there's things that Lamar Jackson
does that nobody else, says, fine, and you want to
say Jared goff can't do that, fine, but I'm gonna
turn around and say, there's a lot of guys that
virtually everybody else cannot do on a regular basis what
he does and how it fits with their running game.
They get Jamary Gibbs, the twelfth olderall pick. You know,
(09:24):
they've got a vision of their offense and there's very
few people on planet Earth that can be the trigger man,
and GoF is one of them.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Back to that Jamison Williams seventy yard touchdown. It was
right after the Seahawks had gotten within twenty eight twenty
and the failed miss two pointer that maybe should have
been in completion and metcalf, no challenge whatever, Yeah, change
the game.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Who did you say?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
We all saw Witherspoon standing in the middlefield after the
catch and Williams is blowing his doors off and running
by him. But as you saw, where was the bust
or where could have Seattle defended?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Here's the problem with that in trying to assess that
if you technically say what was Seattle doing? They're playing
a two deep three under, Like the standard zone is
seven guys three deep, four under four deep, three under,
two deep, five hundred. There's all kinds of And then
if you can drop eight and get eight man zones.
(10:17):
When you go a fire zone and you bring five,
obviously there's a simple math. There's six guys to play
the zone. Six guys leaves a lot of holes from
an offensive perspective. You're either going to be in a
three deep or three under and uh and uh three
deep three under, or you're gonna be a two deep
(10:37):
four under. That's what we see. And then and then
there's nuances to that that the uh what what what's
called a catch coverage?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Palms coverage? The two deep four under can be four
deep two under. But but if I lost you just
the numbers I'm saying are six guys, which is again
one fewer guy than average. If you technically look at
three guys playing zone underneath and two in the back end,
is that really a scheme that Mike McDonald wants to have.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
If I you know, I've studied Raven tape. I've I
just don't see that.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Of his personnel restrictions he had and missing five of.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Well, I know I think that they had a communication problem.
I just don't think that that they just are drawing
up two deep three under look, I mean it's possible.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
You.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I mean I consider on a whiteboard and say, okay,
this is how you'd cover these concepts. And and there's
things like peel blitzing, where you say, well if he
if the run running back blocks, then you fire. And
so maybe you're you know, maybe that's called the half
a blitzer because if the running back releases, you've got
him in coverage. I mean, they're they're saying, I will
just say this if you look, and you just say,
(11:50):
what is that? That's a six man rush, two deep
three under their playing zone principles, and that those are
way too many holes to to have so at any rate.
As for the coverage, as, yes, what are they doing?
I mentioned they went man and man on four plays
they got a sack and then but they gave it
(12:10):
completions of ten, thirteen and seven. They mostly went cover three.
That's a three deep four under zone or sometimes three
deep three under twelve completions two hundred and fifty one
yards a twenty one yard average. And then the quarters
that the two deep structure that that McDonald had done
(12:31):
so much of Baltimore, at least so on a too
high and then coming down. They only had one play
of Cover four and two plays of Cover six. Is
is a two deep structure where you're playing Cover two
roll to one side and then and you're playing off
on the other with a two high safety safety structure. Okay,
that's probably a lot of details. Sorry, There just three
plays of a too high and everything else was single high,
(12:56):
which the Cover three is or the Cover one is
also a singley.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You text me, hey, what coverages were they doing? That's
what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
But you know, I think that the you know, the
breaking down of golf's day, at least in my mind,
you know, kind of went with what we discussed earlier,
and and you know, two awesome throws, probably three or
four other really good throws, and then ten just you know,
(13:26):
any quarterback could have made ten of them.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Hugh, you talked a lot about what you saw from
Jared Goff, but in about two minutes, yeah, can you
talk about Gino because there was one play where I'm
in you were talking about Jared and the Seahawks are
on trip to the right and Jake Bobo does a
deep in about seventeen yards and Gino is getting pressure
from the pocket and he delivers a dot hits him
(13:49):
right in the chest, and I was just thinking, wow,
I know Gino had a couple of those throws in
that game when he was under pressure. So what was
your thoughts on Geno's game against it?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
A lot?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
That was Yeah, that was.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
A double in concept that that was one of my
lists of really good plays. And and and Seattle is
is doing. The league is has come into this new
concept where for for years and decades, it's common to
have a swing route. The running back put Canine or
whomever Sharbonne on a swing route right, and you say, okay,
(14:21):
you're gonna get a stretch. What's kind of in vogue
now is you get you have a swing route, but
it's like a one man screen and you get a
tight end out there and they're kind of stabbed on
one another. So for the quarterback, you're looking downfield, looking downfield,
and you say, okay, I don't like what I see.
I'm gonna throw over to the swing path swing route. Well,
(14:42):
I've got an extra lead blocker. Well, and that's cool,
and it's created some good stuff. It does detract from
your ability to influence other zone defenders. And on that play,
you're describing with Bobo. That was one where they had
this one man screen as a as a checkdown. So
so those hooked hooks own defenders that you're trying to
(15:02):
beat hooks own defenders are shallow, meaning closer to the
line scrimmage as opposed deep and to the inside right
around the hashmarks, and he anticipates throwing right in. They
were relatively tight because of the concept that I described,
But he was knifing that in. He had one defant
that had some similarity where fant was over the middle.
He knifed it into the hooks own defender. He had
(15:23):
a play where he's climbing the pocket. Do you guys
remember the one where he hits Tyler Lockett about fifteen
yards down the field, but then Tyler Tyler goes for
it ends up being a twenty nine yarderes over the middle.
He's climbing for it, he's pumping, pumping, he has no
body behind it. His right foots forward. It looked like
(15:44):
his shoulders he was going to throw it, so at
least he had his shoulders behind it even though he's climbing.
But then he has to pull it down. Well, now
when he reloads he can't reload his entire shoulders. He's
just got to flip it with his arm. Because of
all this, there's literally nothing in his body that power
to that throw, and yet he's still knife it in.
That's what I would call arm talent and getting a
(16:05):
twenty nine yard I mean, just but but but if
we're gonna talk to Geno and we're probably up up
against it, I would say the thing that is most
impressing me if I if I take the the four
game Seattle's played and say, who's the best football player
that I see of the opponents, Meaning, if I could,
I could have one wish, just pluck that guy off
(16:26):
of their team and now he's a Seahawk.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
My answer would be Aiden Hutchinson.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Now, Patrick Sartan's great, Penny Sewell, there's some other guys
that give me some pause. But Aiden Hutchinson, I know, Greg,
you know you're talking about, Hey, he didn't get the sack.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
He is his presence.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Oh my god, he was just destroying the pocket over
and oh it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Matter left side, right side.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Uh And and I mean he was just you know,
Forsyth or whether it was career, I mean, he made
each of them look like j V High school.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
He didn't get sacked because you know, Smith was brilliant.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
And yeah, but Gino's if you're grading a guy, it's
so hard.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I mean, I played with three Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
It's really hard.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
When you walk come back and watch the tape and
you watch you know, we're watching the end zone copy,
we're watching the All twenty two. If you've getting constant pressure,
there's a lot of times where you say, you know,
like Elway, for example, beautiful athlete. He'd say, oh, shoot,
I got a little skittish on that one. I got
out of the pocket when I didn't need to. And
then you go, yeah, but Woody. We didn't call him John.
(17:30):
It was his nickname was Woody because like Elwood and
the Bruce Brothers, so wood he But you just you
just had like the last ten times you were in
the pocket, you know, you had dragons breathing on you.
Of course you bailed unnecessarily, Like this happens to the
best of guys. Gino his decisions to either stay in
the pocket or when to get out of the pocket.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I mean, he's damn near perfect.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
When he's getting out of the pocket, it's because he
must get out of the pocket and if he has
any chance to stay in there and be a man
and hang in there and take the hit. Now, you
don't take hits like Lway did, right, because they protect guys.
But but there's still a lot of courage that you
have to have and that that pocket is constricting. So
is we can talk about all the good passing plays.
(18:13):
I'm most impressed with Gino's pot the just grading him
in the pocket. We just watched the game through a
toilet paper tube, so you don't know what happens when
when Gino lets the ball go. You're just watching Gino
in the pocket through a toilet paper tube.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Uh uh uh.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
And And if you're just grading him on that aspect,
I mean he's an A plus.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
He stood in there once when Hutchinson was coming right
down on him and he threw for first down on
third and eight to Jackson Smith and Jigba across the middle.
He pulled up on his pull on his scramble into
Hutchinson's face to complete the pass. Yeah, that was the
most impressive play of the night. Indeed, Hugh, I appreciate it.
It's tough what we could talk about, but it's good
to talk to you. I'll be on the Seahawks round
(18:53):
Table with Chuck and Bucking you tomorrow morning, a day.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
A clock you. It's always good to be with you.
Thank you as well.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
You.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Thanks Hugh Mellon as always
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