November 22, 2023 • 45 mins
Mike Harmon and Rich Ohrnberger react to the new College Football Playoff rankings. The Lakers are looking to stay undefeated in In-Season Tournament play. Plus, why Bill Belichick won't name a starting QB for Week 12.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for The Jasonsmith Show with Mike Harmon
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night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome in a beautiful Tuesday night. Hopefully well, if
you're stuck in traffic, stay with us. We'll keep you entertained,
informed and make the road rage a little less contentious
for you as you go. We're broadcasting live for the
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(00:49):
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act dot com. The way tire buying should be again
off in the desert in some sort of fall, sojourn
our guy Smith. So in instead we bring in a
man among men, a man with many answers to the
collegiate and professional football world, and of course we'll talk
(01:11):
some cooking because we both like to glutton eye. It's
our guy, Rich Hornberger, I Rever.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, yeah, we're doing it tonight. This is gonna be
a big one for the two of us, a pre
Thanksgiving show. Are you kidding me? It's like Christmas com
ely No.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Absolutely. We got the tournament going on in the NBA,
which means the Lakers will be at their best. As
you heard from Ilo, we had one of the crazier
games you'll see in It was hearkening back to the
days of yesteryear and the Denver Nuggets when everybody was
running up and down in short shorts and scoring one
hundred and eighty points per game, as we had Indiana
(01:49):
one fifty seven two over Atlanta. Just an insane game.
Other games still underway, Orlando with a big win, Cleveland
and Philly in the final seconds. It's all fighting good.
But we've got a couple of huge games on the
slate for Thanksgiving Day in the NFL. But we start
with college football, and you do the countdown to Kickoff
(02:12):
show Saturday mornings, getting ready for all things college football,
breaking it down from the gaming angles, but certainly for you,
your years at Penn State, working with San Diego State,
all the things you do following the college world. I
see the rankings come out today and I say, boy,
you really love to tell us flat out it's a
(02:32):
TV show and that we need to flap our gums
and get all mad because in the latest update, yes,
Georgia number one, Ohio State at number two, Michigan, who
will talk about a little bit later on in the show,
in earnest at number three, but cracking the final four,
cracking the rankings and finding their way into what would
(02:56):
be the playoff if things ended today the Washington Huskies.
The lesson learned here, Rich don't lose your star. Don't
lose the opportunity to showcase a guy like Jordan Travis. No, no, no,
Michael Pennix junior. This is the opportunity to really push
him and thrust him nationwide. Not that you haven't already
(03:17):
seen it, but even with some narrow escapes, even where
they haven't played their cleanest football, they rise into the
number four slot today.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, Look, this is this is a punitive world, right,
we know how this works. It's not fair. Nothing's fair
in life.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Look at you, Yeah, there you go, grinch. Yeah, not
even Christmas coming yet, we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving.
You're like, hey, nothing's fair.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
You didn't wait for the butt. The butt is a
good butt. It's a really good butt.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
It's a great butt.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Cut and print that one there, tyshirt.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
It's uh, it's one of those butts. That's very important.
Sports is an equalizer. Sports is supposed to be as
close to fairness as this world season. It's supposed to
be a meritocracy. It's supposed to be the cream rising
to the top. It's supposed to just, hey, let's let
him play. Let's let's let the fur fly and figure
(04:10):
it out on the other side of the final whistle. Right, Well,
not so not in college football. That's not how it
works at all. This is a committee of people eyeball
testing these teams, measuring them them up, forecasting following narratives,
pumping up programs, following Heisman odds and trends. It's it's
(04:30):
reality television. I mean, when did sports become reality television?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Long time ago, Rich, It's it's as soon as the
first be actually, no, probably as first the first multi
million dollar contract sign for broadcasting. Because one of the
things in my timeline today was Ted Turner buying the
rights from Jim Crockett Promotions to go head to head
on the superstation against the WWE. Right then WWF. So
(04:58):
as soon as you start getting money in, it changes,
and you were part of the machine. You still are
part of the machine.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
We all are.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Here in the media, and what do we do. We
find the best games, the best storylines, and we pump
them up until you're sick of them, and just when
you're about to be bloated and explode. It's the waffer
thin kind of metric. Going back to Monty Python, Come on,
here's your after dinner man. I can't eat another bike
one with the I need another bucket's And then we say, okay,
(05:31):
boot and rally. Right, it's the the mantra of twenty
somethings and thirty somethings. Let's face it, everybody until they
meet their bitter end is Friday night, Saturday night, alternate,
you know, Sundays and maybe some Thursdays mix they're in
How late can I keep rolling? And maybe I get
a little bit queasy, maybe I need to pause, get
(05:53):
a nap. But the phrase boot and rally is part
of our culture and we do the same thing with
our sports.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Simplify it, right, So it goes like this. You have
Georgia at the top of the board. They're followed by
Ohio State number two. Number three is Michigan, and then
four Washington leapfrogs the Florida State Seminoles. And what we're
left with is a CFP a playoff window right now,
(06:20):
or I guess you could say freeze frame that if
all of a sudden the season ends. Right now, you
have two teams from the Big ten who are becoming
a multi media conglomerate involved. Obviously you have your standby
your standard, your sec and then in the waning moments
of the PAC twelve, almost like a preview to what
(06:41):
the new Big Ten is going to look like, Washington
getting its first look in years. So, yeah, it's good
for television.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
People are gonna like it.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
But is it right? The answer is no, And you
have Boo Horgan, who's the chair of the CFP committee,
saying things like we didn't project. It's really about what
Washington did this past weekend and going up to Research Stadium,
a tough place to play, the defense has come around
and played really well. The past six quarters, like, okay,
(07:11):
give me a break.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Job.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Has there nothing to do with Washington. This has everything
to do with Jordan Travis holding what was left of
his leg aloft above the grass that he had just
broken it in half on. It's over for him. Unfortunately,
his college career has screeched to a halt. It's going
to affect his draft stock. Unfortunately, he's a bright star
(07:35):
in this game. If you never got a chance to
play or watch him play, throw on some highlights. And
this is such a bummer for Florida State. But this
is in two parts. The reason, in my opinion, Mikey,
why they did this is to a send a stern
message to everybody out there. Make sure you're protecting your
assets across college football. Make sure that your quarterbacks stay safe,
(07:58):
because otherwise we'll boot him right out like you were
talking about. And two, if anybody decides to leave their
program early, you will be punished. It doesn't matter by
injury or by removing yourself from the equation to go
the NFL draft. We will get you out of the
playoff picture faster your head will be spinning that sow fast.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, And that's as we watched with Washington right. We've
seen a number of narrow escapes, but the constant is
Pennix Junior and look at the superb athleticism. Look at
these pinpoint throws. We look at him right now about
thirty seven hundred yards, thirty touchdowns, seven picks, and the
storyline of him rising up as Caleb Williams and the
(08:41):
USC falls to the wayside, as the September feel goods
story of the Sanders and what they were doing at
Colorado as that fell to the wayside. Travis Hunter and
everything else, those go to the wayside. Bo Nicks because
he's been there for one hundred years in college football,
I should say not at Oregon. But does it get
quite the same love now he does from Heisman Betters
(09:04):
at this point for the odds. But we're looking at
trying to find those breakthrough stories and evaluate and reward
as such. The Committee they lie through their teeth, just
like everybody else, fumbling at the microphones coaching wise, and
you watch it. We laugh about it each and every week.
Some of the idiotcy you here spotted off for the
(09:26):
committee to try to sell us that it's purely on
the fact that oh no, no, no, they won that
tough twenty two to twenty matchup against Oregon State, great Ah,
and then they beat the Utes. Well, the Utes aren't
as good as they were, right, It's that is that
the Pac twelve as a whole and rich, you know,
correct me if I'm wrong. A lot of these wins
don't look as juicy as they once did. Now, right
(09:47):
a month ago, I mean these were big things, but
one by one these teams have fallen to the wayside.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, look, you said the Utes, Utah, they've fallen back
to earth. A lot of it has to do with
injury at quarterback. Obviously, USC is in what we projected
them to be this preseason with Caleb Williams, the returning
Heisman winner from last season. He's got a much different
looking offensive line, much different looking set of skilled position
(10:15):
players helping him out offensively. And he's still a magician.
He's still worthy of a first overall draft selection, but
he just doesn't have as much help. And that defense
is atrocious. Washington barely has played defense at all this season.
Oregon State they're gonna play runer, They'll pick off somebody here,
you know, I mean, that's and they have That's the
(10:35):
type of team Jonathan Smith has coached up there in Corvallas.
So there's a little bit of that, you know, beating
each other up aspect of the Pac twelve that happens
every single season. And then aside from all that, yeah,
some of these elite teams who were supposed to stay
afloat above everyone else, they've come back down to earth.
(10:55):
And so really, who's remaining ten to one Ducks team there?
They're showing out still, they play real defense, an undefeated
Huskies team. No shade to the Huskies. I'm sure eventually
they would push their way into the top four, if
not this week, then next week. But I guess the
(11:17):
committee got nervous. They say, well, if we don't do
it now after a win, then when do we do it?
Because what happens if Florida State stays perfect? Do we
really want a backup quarterback in the college football playoff?
And the answer is no.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, you look at the game this week obviously at
Florida for Florida State and then the ACC Championship against
Louisville sitting out in the horizon, and part of it
is the injury.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
I think.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
The other is all right, you played North Alabama. Right,
it's part of the schedule, but it's a game that
doesn't matter. So here's an opportunity you beat a top
fifteen squad, right number eleven. When we look at what
the Huskies were able to accomplish this past week.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
A really talented team, sure in the Beavers for sure, but.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You look at it overall, it's it's the narrative of
how do we push it forward? More spotlight on Penis
Junior and now set up some big moments down the stretch.
You know, we look at the Heisman odds as as
we sit here today, Rich and you know you've got
bo Nicks sitting atop. You've got Pennix Junior at five
(12:25):
to one. Bo Nix is plus one ten, Jade and
Daniels sitting at plus one forty, Pennix Junior at plus
five hundred, and then you get back to Marvin Harrison
at thirty to one. So you know, it's it's the
three man race at this point, and anything you can
do to put any of those stars into your playoff picture, Yeah,
(12:47):
it's you're promoting a TV show. There's a reason the
ad sales are what they are for the playoff and
for those Big six Bowls. Everything else flows out of there.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah, they get it. I mean, and I look, it's
kind of one of those things like don't hate the player,
hate the game that you know. This is the house
that we've built. We tune in, we view, we watch,
we tweet, and the responses. Advertisers want to give these
networks their dollars so that they can put those products
(13:20):
in front of us, because that's where the eyeballs are
these days.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
So it all works.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I'm not complaining about it being broken from the standpoint
of making a lot of people a lot of money,
including nowadays some of these players you mentioned. You know,
Pennix Junior. I'm sure he's getting millions in Nil Bonick,
same thing. I'm sure. Like so, I'm happy with some
of what's happening at the college football level, but not
(13:45):
all of it, because again, this is supposed to It
was supposed to be about fairness. Sports were supposed to
be a meritocracy, not a television show. But like the
Fonds and Happy Days, we've jumped the shark.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
We'll get that. Plus we'll go in earnest on the
Tom Brady comments. We referenced them a little bit yesterday.
But I've got you here, so we'll get into those
I've been calling it parody, is mediocrity or less than
for a long time. We'll examine the reasons why. But
just always remember this Rich as a guy who likes
to cook and consume. You and me and all of
(14:23):
you out there across America. However you're listening, just remember
you want to eat the sausage. You don't necessarily want
to know how it's made.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Mike Carmin alongside Rich Orenberger. You heard the big voiced
man six years in the league. Penn State is where
he called home, and he's with us here on Fox
Sports Radio here on Sunday. It's part of Countdown to
kick Off. And then he's on Red Zone Radio listening
and trying to parse out a few words in between
the ramblings of Steve Hartman. And then you hear him
(15:00):
mornings on seven sixty down there in Sandago. Find him
on Twitter at Hornberger also San Diego State. How many
more jobs do I got to go through?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
I know it's it's really it's not. It's it's not
conducive to to like a a a RESTful fall. No,
it's been busy. It's been very busy, but good, good busy.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
There's a lot of good stuff. And obviously, you know,
working beats the alternative.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Yes, yes, correct, purposeful life, there's no question about it.
And with much football yet to be played, it'll continue on,
my friend.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
And with great power comes great responsibility. Hey, we're brought
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the final thirty seconds of the first half in Frostburg,
how would you analyze the first half?
Speaker 6 (15:55):
Oh, it's a blowout, Mike, so uh yeah, the Lakers
are bleeping back.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
There you go sixty to thirty nine, thirty three seconds remaining.
You should see him, he's giddy like a little kid
in here.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
This is a tournament game, Smoky, No, this is a
big deal.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah. I've been saying that about the tournament the whole
offseason and then into the regular season now where players
were asking questions like, hey, like, how does this even work?
And I'm like, oh please.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
You have the group stage, and then of course you
have the winner plus the best record of the rest
entering the knockout stage, and after the knockout stage, of
course we head to Vegas now for the championships tournament,
you dummies.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
So, just like all American sports, really easy to follow
in terms of the tournament, and there should be no confusing,
right guys.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Well, the bigger thing to it is just you have
a game scheduled, here's your itinery when you're supposed to
get on the plane, go play some bleep in basketball.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Market zero rich market, zero market in eight.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Right the rest of it doesn't just go and get
after it. When the opening bell rings, this toe is
on the.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Line, and you guys do realize if this was not
an N season tournament tonight, the Lakers would be down twenty.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Well, yeah, that is a good point. They do show
up on tournament night, there's no question.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Oh they're coming for the ship.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Well, but that just it. They walked the ship, and
then it would allow them to say, hey, we participated
in you're in a in season tournament and we went
and bleep and won it. And now we're taking a
month off. We'll see the.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
Crowd is chanting MVP for Lebron right now.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
As they should, as they should MVP of the in
season tournament the highest is I like to call it
the ist?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Is there an extra bonus for winning the MVP of
the n season tournament? And if there's a trophy, what
does it look like?
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Uh, the trophy's actually instead of the Larry O'Brien, Mike,
it's it's the paddle'brien. If that's the paddle Brian?
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Is it leftover stuff from the F one race in Vegas,
which actually looks spectacular on TV. It was mocked and
obviously we had those issues during the practice run. There's
a class action, a lawsuit that'll go down because people
were mad they didn't get to see full practices, paid
full price, all of those other things. But from all accounts,
(18:13):
everybody that worked in Vegas this past weekend, they got paid.
They got tipped very well by the people and the
high rollers that came from all over and as expected,
Max verst stop and just won another race. So nothing changes, right.
The wheel goes round and round as it were. Another
thing that changed is it stays the same with Mike
(18:36):
Tomlin in company, and I appreciate it. We played some
of Tomblin yesterday in contrast to Brandon Staley, right, never
let him see a sweat, Rich, keep the same countenance
at the podium, even though you may want to go
throw a chair, start berating a reporter for a question.
They ask everything else. You keep it clean. Hey, Cleveland
(18:57):
does that to a lot of quarterbacks. Cleveland does that
to a lot of offenses. Well, Cleveland did it to
their offense again, and now Matt Canada is finally out
of a job. The Steelers six and four on the season,
but having only scored one hundred and sixty six points,
they've given up one ninety five, which is still pretty
stellar by all metrics in the NFL, which helps to
(19:19):
lead to that six and four record. Rich, But we
look at all the talent that's assembled there on the offense.
When you look at Johnson and Pickens, Friarmouth coming back
off injury, You've got Warren and Nasey Harris in the backfield.
Everybody's starting to pop off a little bit. You've seen
it from Pickens, You've seen it from Harris the last
(19:40):
few weeks it finally gave and Matt Canada finally relieved
duties here in his fourth season. And I guess the
question to me is like if you were going to
have a giant blame bi, like we were getting ready
to get to the trough with lots of desserts in
between flame throwing turkeys which talk about about forty minutes
(20:01):
from now. How much is Kenny Pickett? Is it Matt
Canada versus Kenny Pickett? Is Kenny Pickett not the guy
and we're seeing all the shortcomings? Or is that a
product of the system that Canada is trying to run.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I remember one time having a conversation with former coach
Wade Phillips and when when I asked him about I
forget which coach was struggling, and you know, talking about
the system he runs. And I said, and you know
a lot of players at Florist in that system and
blah blah blah blah blah. I said, so, so what
is it?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You know?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Is it sometimes a player doesn't fit or the system
doesn't fit or how does it work? In your mind?
And he goes, listen, if you have a great system,
but you have a great player who can't play great
in your system. He goes. You have a bad system.
So some of it is the player, some of it
is the player, there's no question about it, you know,
(20:58):
not being able to mend to the stylings of the system.
We talk about system fit sometimes, especially when it comes
to quarterbacks. Some of it is the player, but some
of it can be the system. Now, I don't know
where it's at with Kenny Pickett. We've never seen him
with a different offensive coordinator. Well, I guess we'll find
out here soon, working with somebody else, maybe on an
(21:19):
interim basis, and then maybe they'll make a higher maybe
Kenneth Pickett. Kenny Pickett will stick around. Maybe there's enough
there for them to give him another try next season.
We'll find out however he finishes this season, especially considering
the Steelers have a heartbeat and maybe more than that,
even they're in the playoff picture. But this Pittsburgh team,
(21:40):
over the time Canada was their coordinator, never gained a
four hundred plus yard offensive game, not one time. They
failed to reach four hundred plus total yards in fifty
eight consecutive games. That is the second longest such streak
in NFL history. I mean, this is bad, especially in
today's NFL. I mean the numbers, it's like it's like
(22:05):
going to Vegas. You're just talking about that one races.
Think about all the slot machines. They're just ringing, right.
Steelers were twenty ninth in points per possession, They're thirtieth
in yards per possession under Canada, twenty eighth and total yards,
twenty eighth in points scored in his three seasons there.
So Kenny Pickett isn't the only player responsible during that
(22:26):
three year span. You know, Trubisky played a little bit.
A lot of players got touches during that span, not
just the quarterback, running backs, receivers, you know, ball carriers.
It's not just limited to the quarterback. It's the whole
eleven other player or I should say the whole other
ten players on the offense. That makes the eleven. And
(22:47):
they weren't operating all that well either. So I think
it's a move that Tomlin found uncomfortable. It's been eighty
plus years since the Steelers have made a firing of
a coordinator or a head coach in season. But this
is a results driven sport and if you're you're not
creating results. This is this is what happens.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
That's where Tomlin got to in his final analysis and
as you would expect, pretty succinct in thanking Canada on
a job done. I mentioned Najie Harris in some of
his quotes, quote, if we keep playing this type of football,
how long is this blank gonna last? How long is
it gonna last? Look you look at it like it's
a good record, but I mean it's the NFL winning
how he did. It's not gonna get us nowhere, So
(23:32):
it just rolls through, right. Tomlin didn't say exactly what
point in the game or in the review of the
tape or sleepless night after that loss to Cleveland that
he came to decision, but gets after it and we
get it this morning. Asked about Kenny Pickett in the
long term, quote, I'm focused on this week in terms
(23:54):
of the development of Kenny. We're not urinating on the
fire man. We're getting ready to play a football game
and win this week. That is the only agenda here.
It's not big picture, it's not anything of that nature.
So you're gonna have Mike Sullivan, the QB coach, taking
over as play caller, trying to jumpstart this offense and
as I read them off when we look at it rich,
(24:17):
I mean, they've got playmakers. When we talk about the
NFL team by team, right, Patrick Mahomes can only hope
to have as many guys that can at least play
some given what we've seen the last like last night,
and certainly in the second halves of a lot of
these games. Now, a couple of drops, you know, ifs
and butts, candies and nuts, we'd all have a Merry
(24:38):
Christmas kind of thing as we go. But for the Steelers,
the opportunity is there, right. The Chiefs are struggling. The
Ravens just lost Mark Andrews. They've got the Chargers this Sunday.
I don't know what to expect from that offense. How
much changes with Andrews out of there. He's been the
number one safety blanket for Lamar Jackson since he arrived.
So you've got that in equation. Cincinnati lost their quarterback.
(25:02):
Keep on going down the line. The opportunity is there
if you can fix the offense even a bit.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
No, I mean, I look, and he's got his work
cutout for him. Coach Sulivan because Kenny Pickett. While we
went through the stats that were attached to Matt Canada,
I mean, this offense struggles to score any points. They
average just a shade over sixteen and a half points
per game this season, which is terrible. Kenny Pickett, when
(25:29):
you compare him to other quarterbacks who have had at
least five hundred passes attempted in the NFL throughout the
history of the NFL, he has the lowest pass to
touchdown rate since nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Rich If I were to ask him to inscribe a
photo at an autograph session with that stat do you
think he'd do it?
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I don't think so. Look, but I don't blame Kenny Pickett. See,
this is the crazy thing about football. It's infuriating to fans.
If furiating to fans to see a coach say similar
things every time he gets in front of the podium. Hey,
I love the way the team worked this week. You know,
we made some mistakes and critical moments. We got to
(26:11):
get better. You know, ball possession, hold on to the football,
too many fumbles, too many turnovers, whatever it is. The
run game wasn't going or we gave up too much
yards on the ground, or hey, we need to rush
the quarterback better, or hey we need to close our
hands around that football and catch that ball, and then
it's a completely different looking game in the fourth quarter.
Blah blah blah blah blah, and fans get so frustrated,
(26:32):
and I understand it. But the thing is, it's not
for lack of effort. There isn't a single one of
these thirty two head coaches who isn't trying his ass
off every single day and night to win football games.
I can promise you that they're all hard working people.
Same thing with all these quarterbacks. Kenny Pickett is one
of thirty two who get who are lucky enough, who
(26:52):
are fortunate enough, privileged enough, and talented enough to take
the football field and they have an opportunity, a golden opportunity. Here.
Promise you he's trying. It's not for lack of effort.
He just may not be talented enough. We're gonna find
that out here pretty soon. Again, maybe it was a
system fit thing. Maybe Matt candidate didn't see sort of
(27:13):
the hidden gem that was there, and you know, maybe
they have to polish that stone a little bit to
see exactly what sparkle it yields. But we'll see if
we'll see if the quarterback coach can do it in
the middle of the season with a lot on the
line here, because the Steelers are real contender and like
you set the scene, the rest of the AFC.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Is is winnable. It's takable.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
You just have to put together a resume and can
he Pickett so far hasn't been able to do that
in his short career.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
We'll do a little bit more with the the AFC
as we go. We got Jason Cole coming up. Prosperg.
What do you got?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
Is there anybody more happy than Chris Boswell?
Speaker 8 (27:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Good point is he's probably like see.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
It wasn't just big he actually right now? Yeah, but
here here's the thing, Rich ready for the reversal on him?
Quinton Johnston. Yeah, because of MVS last night. Yeah, in
front of twenty nine million to watch your back.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah yeah, no, Quinton, boy, you had a couple of those, huh.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
As he joined us each and every week. Yeah, he's
the author of eight books, including one of my favorites,
l Way, A Relentless Life and Shut Up Your Kid
eighth that great. Yeah, I'm kind of kind of giving
you the synopsis there. It's our buddy Jason Cole at
Jason Gole sixty two, also a Hall of Fame voter,
and he's a guy that goes into the room and
(28:43):
he argues to get all those pesky cowboys out.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
J Cole?
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Happy Holiday Week, buddy?
Speaker 5 (28:49):
How are you happy?
Speaker 8 (28:50):
I am fantastic?
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Wow?
Speaker 8 (28:54):
So what's which was my music? I thought I was
going to have case Well, I prefer cooling the gang.
But I thought we were changing things up.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well, I mean we also changed things up. I've got
Wormberger instead of Smith. So you know, yeah, it's where
we're at. It positive still, aren't we.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
Yeah, well you're improving the show, There's no question about that.
It's like Smiths fake prepping for Friday? Is he like,
is he trying to get everything in order? Not for Thursday?
Mind you prepping for Friday?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
He's prepping for the boil experiment. Yeah. It was his
birthday on Saturday, and I think he decided he was
just going to go hide in the desert. Gluttonize and
lament his fate as a Jets fan.
Speaker 8 (29:36):
I thought he's going to Joshua Tree to pray about
the about the Jets.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
No, he won't even further. He's off in Arizona. Oh man, Wow,
we don't ask a lot of questions about Smith's off time.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
I figured it was a either a darkness retreat or
be one of those Peruvian aahuasca trips.
Speaker 8 (29:54):
We couldn't it be both.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
They could watch you know what, Let's come on him,
Let's come on him.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
You know, maybe that's the next iteration.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Maybe that's missed up.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
He's only going to the nearest McDonald's.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Well, no, wait, after you would do that, you would
go to the nearest Dupars restaurant you can possibly find.
See Orgenberg. I did it, I did it.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I got the dust, get you some hotcakes? Yeah, no problem?
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Right, all right? So where do you want to start?
You want to go? Can you stay with the Jets
and the boil Experiment and Robert Salad? He got rid
of the painted on beard, so you know he's back
to business.
Speaker 8 (30:28):
I guess, well, is it is it? Is it the
boil Experiment or is it redefining Black Friday? And Jets culture.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
You know that's a good point. Yeah, because you know,
Thanksgiving is traditionally the anniversary of the butt fumble, so
they're just trying to one up themselves.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 8 (30:48):
We're going all in on Boil. So if you combine
boil and the butt fumble, you get quite a combination.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Hey now, hey, yeah it does this.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
So so I'm guessing Jason, because you are a football man.
You've been studying this game your whole life. It gets
much better with Tim Boyle, doesn't it.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Uh, there's one problem in this equation. Okay, go ahead,
I think I think that's Nathaniel Hackett. Oh yeah, So
like we've had what two offensive coordinators go so far,
Ken Dorsey and today Matt Canada. Yeah yeah, Natty boy.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Does he get us a neo baby Nathaniel Hackett for
what Aaron Rodgers has been able to do for him
and his former Green Bay mates?
Speaker 8 (31:36):
Well doesn't doesn't Paul Hackett way into the neo baby thing?
Speaker 4 (31:41):
No?
Speaker 6 (31:41):
That?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Well, that was that was Act one. We're hits today.
Speaker 8 (31:45):
Wow, we're getting We're getting almost Shakespearean.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
No, that's it. Act one was he got in from
the Old Man Act two, Aaron Rodgers has now become
the father figure.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
It's Jake Leary an act too. Usually a couple of
people head start rolling.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Well that's it does make sense.
Speaker 8 (32:02):
Yeaher career start rolling is what happens. Like you went from.
He went from the disaster of Denver last year, got
called out by Sean Payton. Everybody defended you, and now
Sean Payton had a point. Yeah, I mean, like, I
(32:22):
mean they're bad. You know, the offensive line is bad.
So I don't want to completely throw him under the bus.
But there haven't been any solutions this season. There haven't
been any like, okay, let's string together three or four
games with twenty points or more to the competitive There
hasn't been a game plan to kind of cover up
(32:44):
Zach Wilson a little bit and help him. And certainly
there you know nothing quick. I mean you were you
were hoping at a certain point that Zach Wilson would
develop into a into a decent back end, and now
it's a mental regression of fear where he's just like
falling on the field in a fetal position almost Like
(33:07):
that's literally what's going on now. So you know a
lot of this is on Nathaniel Hackett. You know, you've
got to come up with solutions to at least make
yourself playable. You know, maybe not the scoring is going
to lag and it's going to be a problem, but
you've got to make yourself playable. And in two straight years,
(33:28):
he's you know, this is where they've gotten to the
point where they're not playable. Because by the end of
the year last year in Denver, they were not playable.
And now you see what's happening in Denver is they're
going the other direction. You know, they hit you know,
a monumental low earlier this season, and they've gotten things
straightened out where they're actually in the playoff hunt, you know,
(33:53):
as crazy as it sounds for a team that gave
us a seventies spot, you know, first half of the season.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
So we have another coordinator out and a new interim hired,
Joe Brady elevated as Ken Dorsey hits the skids in Buffalo,
Josh Allen has looked wobbly over the past season and
a half. It felt like it was time to make
a move. It felt also like Josh Allen had hard
feelings seeing his buddy go. Maybe he felt responsible for it.
(34:23):
He probably was in some part responsible for it, not in.
Speaker 8 (34:26):
Part, not in part, not in part Rich. No, he
got ken Dorsey fired. They have it. There's no two
ways about this. Josh Allen got ken Dorsey fired because
he was the one who was turning the ball over.
He was the one who, you know, Game one against
(34:46):
the Jets was back to being his erratic self, not
taking care of the ball, not doing some simple things,
throwing passes on first down into areas of the field
you're not supposed to throw it too, taking risks that
are not as necessary, and trying to play hero ball
all the time. Like the key to being a quarterback
(35:08):
like that is to develop to the point where you
know when to do that and when not to do that,
and that most of the time you shouldn't do it,
and become like Patrick Mahomes where you just pick your
spots where you're going to throw an off balanced pass
and try and leap over tall buildings in a single
bound and all that kind of stuff. Josh is just regressing,
(35:31):
you know. And it's stats are great, you know, like
a lot of things point upward which tell you how
great he is. But he got ken Dorsey fired.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
This is on him in Pittsburgh. It's the blame Canada.
They got what they wanted. He's finally out, but there's
still six and four here. J cole on are the
great stories of recent and now they're not. They're terrible,
But I enjoy Mike Tomlin. I mean, he didn't sweat
in front of the cameras. He just said. Cleveland does
that to a lot of people, and then well, Canada
(36:01):
gets dismissed the next morning, right.
Speaker 8 (36:04):
Yeah, Cleveland, how about the other teams they lost to.
I mean, that's that's all on Canada. This this entire
you know, this is I'm not a coach, and I'm
not an offense. I've never been an offensive coordinators and
(36:24):
I've never tried to call plays. But I've watched a
lot offense and I go, that's not NFL worthy. And
I'm not the first person to say that. There are
tons of people in Pittsburgh who are saying it loudly
and clearly. But if you watch, you know, you run
(36:45):
trips to one side, and guys never cross underneath each other,
like you've got to run a few crossers crossers and
create traffic and try and get guys open and you know,
do stuff like that, and they never do it. And
this is on top of like they got George Pickens,
who's a giant pain for them because he's so immature
(37:07):
and he's such a jerk ball. And they're making it
worse because by not getting him the ball, they're not
putting more pressure on him to perform. They're giving him
an excuse, I'm not getting the ball. Therefore, you guys
are screwing me over. No, you got you got to
feed the guy like that and put pressure on him
to perform. You know, That's that's how this works. Or
(37:30):
call him out or just bench him. Canada did none
of those things, you know, in any way, shape or form.
And that's an incredibly talented guy who can help you
if you can get his head straight.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Jason Cole joining us Fox Sports Radio this evening. So
I look at the Ravens all of a sudden at
the top of the AFC. The Chiefs obviously take their
loss to the Eagles last night or and then you know,
the Ravens they take their seat on top. So are
we buyers? Like you know, look, sometimes stocks rise and
(38:03):
everybody gets a little nervous to buy, and then they skyrocket.
Are we due for the Ravens to look even better
down the home stretch or do you think this is
as good as it gets?
Speaker 8 (38:15):
To see the Cleveland game? M hm, Okay, so I'm
not quite buying yet. Yeah, And I like there if
there's ever going to be a time in Lamar Jackson's
career that they win a super Bowl, and they're going
to get close for a lot of years. If he
plays a decade, if he plays twelve years, if he
(38:37):
plays fifteen, whatever it happens to be, they're always going
to be, you know, kind of in the hunt. But
if you're going to draw up a year when Baltimore
can win a title with Lamar Jackson as your quarterback,
this is the year because their defense is so good
that they're keeping him out of third and difficult, right,
(39:00):
whether that's six, seven, eight nine, you know what I'm
talking about, Rich Like, or you got to fit a
pass into a really tight area against a really good defense,
and the more times that you ask him to do that,
the more times you're going to ask for him to fail,
because that's not what he's great at. He's great at
(39:20):
a lot of things. He's very efficient as a runner,
he creates matchup problems for you. He's accurate on most
of the passes over the middle. You know, he's going
to deliver in a lot of situations and he's going
to keep you ahead in games. And even in the
Cleveland game, he did a really nice job in that game.
They just had a lot of fluky things happen. But
if you're in a game where you're down seventeen to ten,
(39:43):
you know, with five minutes left in the third quarter
or somewhere in the fourth quarter, and you got to
depend on him to drive the length of the field
and make those kinds of plays, you know, that's that's
going to be tough. This is the kind of team
that's not going to ask him to do that very much.
They haven't asked him to do that very much so
far this year. Like to me, if they're going to
(40:04):
do it, like you got to take advantage of it.
You know, you're you're number one, You got the number
one seed. You know, Kansas City is not very good,
you know at the wide receiver positions, so you can
erase a lot of things. You can double Kelsey, you
can create all sorts of problems. You can get into
a slobber knocker kind of game with them. Uh, and
(40:26):
with the Dolphins or probably the next biggest threat in
the AFC, you're going to man handle them because you're
going to get them in Baltimore on grass in cold weather,
and you know you're going to do the Baltimore thing
to them, so to me, like the roads paved, take
advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
All right, let's lastly for you, I want to play
word association. See what the name Brandon Staley does for you.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
Brandon Staley is Jesus.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
That's the that comes to mind.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Comedy he had stormed, not not.
Speaker 8 (41:07):
Not the religious figure. Let's just play that way.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Blasphemer. Yeah, Jesus, here's.
Speaker 8 (41:18):
That's not the That's not the number one reason I
would be a blasphemer. But you know there's a long
list of things to go along with this. I just
was listening on listening to him on the game after
the game on Sunday, and he said this thing, and nobody,
nobody called him on it because I don't think it
really registered right away. But you can call up the
(41:40):
quote in that like five minutes soliloquy where you go,
I know that the message is getting through. They're just
you know, we're just not making the play. Hey pal,
If you if the message is getting through, they'd make
the place, they'd be in position. The message is not
(42:01):
getting through. That's you putting the blame on the players
and not blaming yourself because the message is not getting through.
This is on top of the fact that you are
was it fourteen and six in one score games in
almost three seasons now right. You came in here espousing
(42:22):
how you're a strategic genius, go on fourth down, know
the odds, know all the right plays. You're you're basically
succeeding at the rate of a coin flip. So you're
coin flip Brandon. That's what you are. You're no better
than that. You are an ordinary coach who is full
(42:45):
of himself. It's like when I heard him say that,
you know, I know the message is going through, we're
just not making the plays. Then the message is not
getting through and you're lying to yourself. Just just my
mind when coaches say stuff like that and believe it,
and he said it with he said it as if
(43:08):
we believe it. Ornberg, did you play for Marty?
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I didn't play for Marty. When I had gotten to
San Diego, to play for the Chargers. It was after
norv Uh had been fired. They brought him Mike McCoy
and what's so interesting, what's so interesting is another guy.
Speaker 8 (43:27):
He's another guy like that, dude.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
You're one hundred percent. So Jason almost chapter and verse.
This is a page out of his book because I remember.
I remember he used to say, and this was my
my broadcasting career. Following playing for him, I started paying
more attention to what coaches say at the podium, what
they say during their press conferences. And he had this
(43:51):
common refrain, which was, we had a great game plan,
we had a great week of practice, our players didn't
execute or or or he wouldn't even say the players.
He would say, but we didn't execute. So if you
had a great practice week, if you had a great
game plan, i e. All of the things that coaches control,
(44:11):
but you had poor execution on game day, which, by
the way, is blaming the players for screwing up your
great game plan. Okay, So at the end of the day,
whose fault is it?
Speaker 5 (44:21):
It's all on the players.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
You're telling me every week it's the player's fault for
screwing up your great game plan. It just doesn't make sense,
and Brandon Staley is doing the same things.
Speaker 8 (44:32):
It's it's a carbon copy, it's the whole. I mean,
it's just and again the thing I guess, I guess
that annoys me the most about Brandon Staley. And trust me,
I have this trait too, so I know exactly what
it is. You know, I'm coming in, you know, selling
yourself as the smartest guy in the room. And sometimes
(44:55):
you have to realize that you have that tendency and
then you have to mock yourself not you're not okay,
and you have to you have to say, guys, I'm
gonna act like that. You need to call me on
my BS. Brandon Staley never calls himself on his own BS.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Fortunately, I'll always have us here j Cole.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
Yeah, and get on that.
Speaker 8 (45:14):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, this is why this this is therapy
for me. There you go, this is absolutely therapy for
me and Ormberger. I need more due parts pancake mix.
That's what I need.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Nobody now, don't make.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
That all come together at Jason Cole sixty two is
where you find him. Joins us each and every week.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, buddy.
Speaker 8 (45:33):
Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Thank care I appreciate you,
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for The Jasonsmith Show with Mike Harmon
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome in a beautiful Tuesday night. Hopefully well, if
you're stuck in traffic, stay with us. We'll keep you entertained,
informed and make the road rage a little less contentious
for you as you go. We're broadcasting live for the
Tirac dot Com studios tyrac dot com. We'll help you
get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road
(00:49):
hazard protection at over ten thousand recommended in stallars Tire
act dot com. The way tire buying should be again
off in the desert in some sort of fall, sojourn
our guy Smith. So in instead we bring in a
man among men, a man with many answers to the
collegiate and professional football world, and of course we'll talk
(01:11):
some cooking because we both like to glutton eye. It's
our guy, Rich Hornberger, I Rever.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, yeah, we're doing it tonight. This is gonna be
a big one for the two of us, a pre
Thanksgiving show. Are you kidding me? It's like Christmas com
ely No.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Absolutely. We got the tournament going on in the NBA,
which means the Lakers will be at their best. As
you heard from Ilo, we had one of the crazier
games you'll see in It was hearkening back to the
days of yesteryear and the Denver Nuggets when everybody was
running up and down in short shorts and scoring one
hundred and eighty points per game, as we had Indiana
(01:49):
one fifty seven two over Atlanta. Just an insane game.
Other games still underway, Orlando with a big win, Cleveland
and Philly in the final seconds. It's all fighting good.
But we've got a couple of huge games on the
slate for Thanksgiving Day in the NFL. But we start
with college football, and you do the countdown to Kickoff
(02:12):
show Saturday mornings, getting ready for all things college football,
breaking it down from the gaming angles, but certainly for you,
your years at Penn State, working with San Diego State,
all the things you do following the college world. I
see the rankings come out today and I say, boy,
you really love to tell us flat out it's a
(02:32):
TV show and that we need to flap our gums
and get all mad because in the latest update, yes,
Georgia number one, Ohio State at number two, Michigan, who
will talk about a little bit later on in the show,
in earnest at number three, but cracking the final four,
cracking the rankings and finding their way into what would
(02:56):
be the playoff if things ended today the Washington Huskies.
The lesson learned here, Rich don't lose your star. Don't
lose the opportunity to showcase a guy like Jordan Travis. No, no, no,
Michael Pennix junior. This is the opportunity to really push
him and thrust him nationwide. Not that you haven't already
(03:17):
seen it, but even with some narrow escapes, even where
they haven't played their cleanest football, they rise into the
number four slot today.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, Look, this is this is a punitive world, right,
we know how this works. It's not fair. Nothing's fair
in life.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Look at you, Yeah, there you go, grinch. Yeah, not
even Christmas coming yet, we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving.
You're like, hey, nothing's fair.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
You didn't wait for the butt. The butt is a
good butt. It's a really good butt.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
It's a great butt.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Cut and print that one there, tyshirt.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
It's uh, it's one of those butts. That's very important.
Sports is an equalizer. Sports is supposed to be as
close to fairness as this world season. It's supposed to
be a meritocracy. It's supposed to be the cream rising
to the top. It's supposed to just, hey, let's let
him play. Let's let's let the fur fly and figure
(04:10):
it out on the other side of the final whistle. Right, Well,
not so not in college football. That's not how it
works at all. This is a committee of people eyeball
testing these teams, measuring them them up, forecasting following narratives,
pumping up programs, following Heisman odds and trends. It's it's
(04:30):
reality television. I mean, when did sports become reality television?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Long time ago, Rich, It's it's as soon as the
first be actually, no, probably as first the first multi
million dollar contract sign for broadcasting. Because one of the
things in my timeline today was Ted Turner buying the
rights from Jim Crockett Promotions to go head to head
on the superstation against the WWE. Right then WWF. So
(04:58):
as soon as you start getting money in, it changes,
and you were part of the machine. You still are
part of the machine.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
We all are.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Here in the media, and what do we do. We
find the best games, the best storylines, and we pump
them up until you're sick of them, and just when
you're about to be bloated and explode. It's the waffer
thin kind of metric. Going back to Monty Python, Come on,
here's your after dinner man. I can't eat another bike
one with the I need another bucket's And then we say, okay,
(05:31):
boot and rally. Right, it's the the mantra of twenty
somethings and thirty somethings. Let's face it, everybody until they
meet their bitter end is Friday night, Saturday night, alternate,
you know, Sundays and maybe some Thursdays mix they're in
How late can I keep rolling? And maybe I get
a little bit queasy, maybe I need to pause, get
(05:53):
a nap. But the phrase boot and rally is part
of our culture and we do the same thing with
our sports.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Simplify it, right, So it goes like this. You have
Georgia at the top of the board. They're followed by
Ohio State number two. Number three is Michigan, and then
four Washington leapfrogs the Florida State Seminoles. And what we're
left with is a CFP a playoff window right now,
(06:20):
or I guess you could say freeze frame that if
all of a sudden the season ends. Right now, you
have two teams from the Big ten who are becoming
a multi media conglomerate involved. Obviously you have your standby
your standard, your sec and then in the waning moments
of the PAC twelve, almost like a preview to what
(06:41):
the new Big Ten is going to look like, Washington
getting its first look in years. So, yeah, it's good
for television.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
People are gonna like it.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
But is it right? The answer is no, And you
have Boo Horgan, who's the chair of the CFP committee,
saying things like we didn't project. It's really about what
Washington did this past weekend and going up to Research Stadium,
a tough place to play, the defense has come around
and played really well. The past six quarters, like, okay,
(07:11):
give me a break.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Job.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Has there nothing to do with Washington. This has everything
to do with Jordan Travis holding what was left of
his leg aloft above the grass that he had just
broken it in half on. It's over for him. Unfortunately,
his college career has screeched to a halt. It's going
to affect his draft stock. Unfortunately, he's a bright star
(07:35):
in this game. If you never got a chance to
play or watch him play, throw on some highlights. And
this is such a bummer for Florida State. But this
is in two parts. The reason, in my opinion, Mikey,
why they did this is to a send a stern
message to everybody out there. Make sure you're protecting your
assets across college football. Make sure that your quarterbacks stay safe,
(07:58):
because otherwise we'll boot him right out like you were
talking about. And two, if anybody decides to leave their
program early, you will be punished. It doesn't matter by
injury or by removing yourself from the equation to go
the NFL draft. We will get you out of the
playoff picture faster your head will be spinning that sow fast.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, And that's as we watched with Washington right. We've
seen a number of narrow escapes, but the constant is
Pennix Junior and look at the superb athleticism. Look at
these pinpoint throws. We look at him right now about
thirty seven hundred yards, thirty touchdowns, seven picks, and the
storyline of him rising up as Caleb Williams and the
(08:41):
USC falls to the wayside, as the September feel goods
story of the Sanders and what they were doing at
Colorado as that fell to the wayside. Travis Hunter and
everything else, those go to the wayside. Bo Nicks because
he's been there for one hundred years in college football,
I should say not at Oregon. But does it get
quite the same love now he does from Heisman Betters
(09:04):
at this point for the odds. But we're looking at
trying to find those breakthrough stories and evaluate and reward
as such. The Committee they lie through their teeth, just
like everybody else, fumbling at the microphones coaching wise, and
you watch it. We laugh about it each and every week.
Some of the idiotcy you here spotted off for the
(09:26):
committee to try to sell us that it's purely on
the fact that oh no, no, no, they won that
tough twenty two to twenty matchup against Oregon State, great Ah,
and then they beat the Utes. Well, the Utes aren't
as good as they were, right, It's that is that
the Pac twelve as a whole and rich, you know,
correct me if I'm wrong. A lot of these wins
don't look as juicy as they once did. Now, right
(09:47):
a month ago, I mean these were big things, but
one by one these teams have fallen to the wayside.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, look, you said the Utes, Utah, they've fallen back
to earth. A lot of it has to do with
injury at quarterback. Obviously, USC is in what we projected
them to be this preseason with Caleb Williams, the returning
Heisman winner from last season. He's got a much different
looking offensive line, much different looking set of skilled position
(10:15):
players helping him out offensively. And he's still a magician.
He's still worthy of a first overall draft selection, but
he just doesn't have as much help. And that defense
is atrocious. Washington barely has played defense at all this season.
Oregon State they're gonna play runer, They'll pick off somebody here,
you know, I mean, that's and they have That's the
(10:35):
type of team Jonathan Smith has coached up there in Corvallas.
So there's a little bit of that, you know, beating
each other up aspect of the Pac twelve that happens
every single season. And then aside from all that, yeah,
some of these elite teams who were supposed to stay
afloat above everyone else, they've come back down to earth.
(10:55):
And so really, who's remaining ten to one Ducks team there?
They're showing out still, they play real defense, an undefeated
Huskies team. No shade to the Huskies. I'm sure eventually
they would push their way into the top four, if
not this week, then next week. But I guess the
(11:17):
committee got nervous. They say, well, if we don't do
it now after a win, then when do we do it?
Because what happens if Florida State stays perfect? Do we
really want a backup quarterback in the college football playoff?
And the answer is no.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, you look at the game this week obviously at
Florida for Florida State and then the ACC Championship against
Louisville sitting out in the horizon, and part of it
is the injury.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
I think.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
The other is all right, you played North Alabama. Right,
it's part of the schedule, but it's a game that
doesn't matter. So here's an opportunity you beat a top
fifteen squad, right number eleven. When we look at what
the Huskies were able to accomplish this past week.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
A really talented team, sure in the Beavers for sure, but.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You look at it overall, it's it's the narrative of
how do we push it forward? More spotlight on Penis
Junior and now set up some big moments down the stretch.
You know, we look at the Heisman odds as as
we sit here today, Rich and you know you've got
bo Nicks sitting atop. You've got Pennix Junior at five
(12:25):
to one. Bo Nix is plus one ten, Jade and
Daniels sitting at plus one forty, Pennix Junior at plus
five hundred, and then you get back to Marvin Harrison
at thirty to one. So you know, it's it's the
three man race at this point, and anything you can
do to put any of those stars into your playoff picture, Yeah,
(12:47):
it's you're promoting a TV show. There's a reason the
ad sales are what they are for the playoff and
for those Big six Bowls. Everything else flows out of there.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah, they get it. I mean, and I look, it's
kind of one of those things like don't hate the player,
hate the game that you know. This is the house
that we've built. We tune in, we view, we watch,
we tweet, and the responses. Advertisers want to give these
networks their dollars so that they can put those products
(13:20):
in front of us, because that's where the eyeballs are
these days.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
So it all works.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I'm not complaining about it being broken from the standpoint
of making a lot of people a lot of money,
including nowadays some of these players you mentioned. You know,
Pennix Junior. I'm sure he's getting millions in Nil Bonick,
same thing. I'm sure. Like so, I'm happy with some
of what's happening at the college football level, but not
(13:45):
all of it, because again, this is supposed to It
was supposed to be about fairness. Sports were supposed to
be a meritocracy, not a television show. But like the
Fonds and Happy Days, we've jumped the shark.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
We'll get that. Plus we'll go in earnest on the
Tom Brady comments. We referenced them a little bit yesterday.
But I've got you here, so we'll get into those
I've been calling it parody, is mediocrity or less than
for a long time. We'll examine the reasons why. But
just always remember this Rich as a guy who likes
to cook and consume. You and me and all of
(14:23):
you out there across America. However you're listening, just remember
you want to eat the sausage. You don't necessarily want
to know how it's made.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Mike Carmin alongside Rich Orenberger. You heard the big voiced
man six years in the league. Penn State is where
he called home, and he's with us here on Fox
Sports Radio here on Sunday. It's part of Countdown to
kick Off. And then he's on Red Zone Radio listening
and trying to parse out a few words in between
the ramblings of Steve Hartman. And then you hear him
(15:00):
mornings on seven sixty down there in Sandago. Find him
on Twitter at Hornberger also San Diego State. How many
more jobs do I got to go through?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
I know it's it's really it's not. It's it's not
conducive to to like a a a RESTful fall. No,
it's been busy. It's been very busy, but good, good busy.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
There's a lot of good stuff. And obviously, you know,
working beats the alternative.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Yes, yes, correct, purposeful life, there's no question about it.
And with much football yet to be played, it'll continue on,
my friend.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
And with great power comes great responsibility. Hey, we're brought
to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
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Bundle and save at Progressive dot com. Coming up on
the final thirty seconds of the first half in Frostburg,
how would you analyze the first half?
Speaker 6 (15:55):
Oh, it's a blowout, Mike, so uh yeah, the Lakers
are bleeping back.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
There you go sixty to thirty nine, thirty three seconds remaining.
You should see him, he's giddy like a little kid
in here.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
This is a tournament game, Smoky, No, this is a
big deal.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah. I've been saying that about the tournament the whole
offseason and then into the regular season now where players
were asking questions like, hey, like, how does this even work?
And I'm like, oh please.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
You have the group stage, and then of course you
have the winner plus the best record of the rest
entering the knockout stage, and after the knockout stage, of
course we head to Vegas now for the championships tournament,
you dummies.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
So, just like all American sports, really easy to follow
in terms of the tournament, and there should be no confusing,
right guys.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Well, the bigger thing to it is just you have
a game scheduled, here's your itinery when you're supposed to
get on the plane, go play some bleep in basketball.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Market zero rich market, zero market in eight.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Right the rest of it doesn't just go and get
after it. When the opening bell rings, this toe is
on the.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Line, and you guys do realize if this was not
an N season tournament tonight, the Lakers would be down twenty.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Well, yeah, that is a good point. They do show
up on tournament night, there's no question.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Oh they're coming for the ship.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Well, but that just it. They walked the ship, and
then it would allow them to say, hey, we participated
in you're in a in season tournament and we went
and bleep and won it. And now we're taking a
month off. We'll see the.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
Crowd is chanting MVP for Lebron right now.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
As they should, as they should MVP of the in
season tournament the highest is I like to call it
the ist?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Is there an extra bonus for winning the MVP of
the n season tournament? And if there's a trophy, what
does it look like?
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Uh, the trophy's actually instead of the Larry O'Brien, Mike,
it's it's the paddle'brien. If that's the paddle Brian?
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Is it leftover stuff from the F one race in Vegas,
which actually looks spectacular on TV. It was mocked and
obviously we had those issues during the practice run. There's
a class action, a lawsuit that'll go down because people
were mad they didn't get to see full practices, paid
full price, all of those other things. But from all accounts,
(18:13):
everybody that worked in Vegas this past weekend, they got paid.
They got tipped very well by the people and the
high rollers that came from all over and as expected,
Max verst stop and just won another race. So nothing changes, right.
The wheel goes round and round as it were. Another
thing that changed is it stays the same with Mike
(18:36):
Tomlin in company, and I appreciate it. We played some
of Tomblin yesterday in contrast to Brandon Staley, right, never
let him see a sweat, Rich, keep the same countenance
at the podium, even though you may want to go
throw a chair, start berating a reporter for a question.
They ask everything else. You keep it clean. Hey, Cleveland
(18:57):
does that to a lot of quarterbacks. Cleveland does that
to a lot of offenses. Well, Cleveland did it to
their offense again, and now Matt Canada is finally out
of a job. The Steelers six and four on the season,
but having only scored one hundred and sixty six points,
they've given up one ninety five, which is still pretty
stellar by all metrics in the NFL, which helps to
(19:19):
lead to that six and four record. Rich, But we
look at all the talent that's assembled there on the offense.
When you look at Johnson and Pickens, Friarmouth coming back
off injury, You've got Warren and Nasey Harris in the backfield.
Everybody's starting to pop off a little bit. You've seen
it from Pickens, You've seen it from Harris the last
(19:40):
few weeks it finally gave and Matt Canada finally relieved
duties here in his fourth season. And I guess the
question to me is like if you were going to
have a giant blame bi, like we were getting ready
to get to the trough with lots of desserts in
between flame throwing turkeys which talk about about forty minutes
(20:01):
from now. How much is Kenny Pickett? Is it Matt
Canada versus Kenny Pickett? Is Kenny Pickett not the guy
and we're seeing all the shortcomings? Or is that a
product of the system that Canada is trying to run.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I remember one time having a conversation with former coach
Wade Phillips and when when I asked him about I
forget which coach was struggling, and you know, talking about
the system he runs. And I said, and you know
a lot of players at Florist in that system and
blah blah blah blah blah. I said, so, so what
is it?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You know?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Is it sometimes a player doesn't fit or the system
doesn't fit or how does it work? In your mind?
And he goes, listen, if you have a great system,
but you have a great player who can't play great
in your system. He goes. You have a bad system.
So some of it is the player, some of it
is the player, there's no question about it, you know,
(20:58):
not being able to mend to the stylings of the system.
We talk about system fit sometimes, especially when it comes
to quarterbacks. Some of it is the player, but some
of it can be the system. Now, I don't know
where it's at with Kenny Pickett. We've never seen him
with a different offensive coordinator. Well, I guess we'll find
out here soon, working with somebody else, maybe on an
(21:19):
interim basis, and then maybe they'll make a higher maybe
Kenneth Pickett. Kenny Pickett will stick around. Maybe there's enough
there for them to give him another try next season.
We'll find out however he finishes this season, especially considering
the Steelers have a heartbeat and maybe more than that,
even they're in the playoff picture. But this Pittsburgh team,
(21:40):
over the time Canada was their coordinator, never gained a
four hundred plus yard offensive game, not one time. They
failed to reach four hundred plus total yards in fifty
eight consecutive games. That is the second longest such streak
in NFL history. I mean, this is bad, especially in
today's NFL. I mean the numbers, it's like it's like
(22:05):
going to Vegas. You're just talking about that one races.
Think about all the slot machines. They're just ringing, right.
Steelers were twenty ninth in points per possession, They're thirtieth
in yards per possession under Canada, twenty eighth and total yards,
twenty eighth in points scored in his three seasons there.
So Kenny Pickett isn't the only player responsible during that
(22:26):
three year span. You know, Trubisky played a little bit.
A lot of players got touches during that span, not
just the quarterback, running backs, receivers, you know, ball carriers.
It's not just limited to the quarterback. It's the whole
eleven other player or I should say the whole other
ten players on the offense. That makes the eleven. And
(22:47):
they weren't operating all that well either. So I think
it's a move that Tomlin found uncomfortable. It's been eighty
plus years since the Steelers have made a firing of
a coordinator or a head coach in season. But this
is a results driven sport and if you're you're not
creating results. This is this is what happens.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
That's where Tomlin got to in his final analysis and
as you would expect, pretty succinct in thanking Canada on
a job done. I mentioned Najie Harris in some of
his quotes, quote, if we keep playing this type of football,
how long is this blank gonna last? How long is
it gonna last? Look you look at it like it's
a good record, but I mean it's the NFL winning
how he did. It's not gonna get us nowhere, So
(23:32):
it just rolls through, right. Tomlin didn't say exactly what
point in the game or in the review of the
tape or sleepless night after that loss to Cleveland that
he came to decision, but gets after it and we
get it this morning. Asked about Kenny Pickett in the
long term, quote, I'm focused on this week in terms
(23:54):
of the development of Kenny. We're not urinating on the
fire man. We're getting ready to play a football game
and win this week. That is the only agenda here.
It's not big picture, it's not anything of that nature.
So you're gonna have Mike Sullivan, the QB coach, taking
over as play caller, trying to jumpstart this offense and
as I read them off when we look at it rich,
(24:17):
I mean, they've got playmakers. When we talk about the
NFL team by team, right, Patrick Mahomes can only hope
to have as many guys that can at least play
some given what we've seen the last like last night,
and certainly in the second halves of a lot of
these games. Now, a couple of drops, you know, ifs
and butts, candies and nuts, we'd all have a Merry
(24:38):
Christmas kind of thing as we go. But for the Steelers,
the opportunity is there, right. The Chiefs are struggling. The
Ravens just lost Mark Andrews. They've got the Chargers this Sunday.
I don't know what to expect from that offense. How
much changes with Andrews out of there. He's been the
number one safety blanket for Lamar Jackson since he arrived.
So you've got that in equation. Cincinnati lost their quarterback.
(25:02):
Keep on going down the line. The opportunity is there
if you can fix the offense even a bit.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
No, I mean, I look, and he's got his work
cutout for him. Coach Sulivan because Kenny Pickett. While we
went through the stats that were attached to Matt Canada,
I mean, this offense struggles to score any points. They
average just a shade over sixteen and a half points
per game this season, which is terrible. Kenny Pickett, when
(25:29):
you compare him to other quarterbacks who have had at
least five hundred passes attempted in the NFL throughout the
history of the NFL, he has the lowest pass to
touchdown rate since nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Rich If I were to ask him to inscribe a
photo at an autograph session with that stat do you
think he'd do it?
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I don't think so. Look, but I don't blame Kenny Pickett. See,
this is the crazy thing about football. It's infuriating to fans.
If furiating to fans to see a coach say similar
things every time he gets in front of the podium. Hey,
I love the way the team worked this week. You know,
we made some mistakes and critical moments. We got to
(26:11):
get better. You know, ball possession, hold on to the football,
too many fumbles, too many turnovers, whatever it is. The
run game wasn't going or we gave up too much
yards on the ground, or hey, we need to rush
the quarterback better, or hey we need to close our
hands around that football and catch that ball, and then
it's a completely different looking game in the fourth quarter.
Blah blah blah blah blah, and fans get so frustrated,
(26:32):
and I understand it. But the thing is, it's not
for lack of effort. There isn't a single one of
these thirty two head coaches who isn't trying his ass
off every single day and night to win football games.
I can promise you that they're all hard working people.
Same thing with all these quarterbacks. Kenny Pickett is one
of thirty two who get who are lucky enough, who
(26:52):
are fortunate enough, privileged enough, and talented enough to take
the football field and they have an opportunity, a golden opportunity. Here.
Promise you he's trying. It's not for lack of effort.
He just may not be talented enough. We're gonna find
that out here pretty soon. Again, maybe it was a
system fit thing. Maybe Matt candidate didn't see sort of
(27:13):
the hidden gem that was there, and you know, maybe
they have to polish that stone a little bit to
see exactly what sparkle it yields. But we'll see if
we'll see if the quarterback coach can do it in
the middle of the season with a lot on the
line here, because the Steelers are real contender and like
you set the scene, the rest of the AFC.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Is is winnable. It's takable.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
You just have to put together a resume and can
he Pickett so far hasn't been able to do that
in his short career.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
We'll do a little bit more with the the AFC
as we go. We got Jason Cole coming up. Prosperg.
What do you got?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
Is there anybody more happy than Chris Boswell?
Speaker 8 (27:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Good point is he's probably like see.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
It wasn't just big he actually right now? Yeah, but
here here's the thing, Rich ready for the reversal on him?
Quinton Johnston. Yeah, because of MVS last night. Yeah, in
front of twenty nine million to watch your back.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah yeah, no, Quinton, boy, you had a couple of those, huh.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
As he joined us each and every week. Yeah, he's
the author of eight books, including one of my favorites,
l Way, A Relentless Life and Shut Up Your Kid
eighth that great. Yeah, I'm kind of kind of giving
you the synopsis there. It's our buddy Jason Cole at
Jason Gole sixty two, also a Hall of Fame voter,
and he's a guy that goes into the room and
(28:43):
he argues to get all those pesky cowboys out.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
J Cole?
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Happy Holiday Week, buddy?
Speaker 5 (28:49):
How are you happy?
Speaker 8 (28:50):
I am fantastic?
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Wow?
Speaker 8 (28:54):
So what's which was my music? I thought I was
going to have case Well, I prefer cooling the gang.
But I thought we were changing things up.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well, I mean we also changed things up. I've got
Wormberger instead of Smith. So you know, yeah, it's where
we're at. It positive still, aren't we.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
Yeah, well you're improving the show, There's no question about that.
It's like Smiths fake prepping for Friday? Is he like,
is he trying to get everything in order? Not for Thursday?
Mind you prepping for Friday?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
He's prepping for the boil experiment. Yeah. It was his
birthday on Saturday, and I think he decided he was
just going to go hide in the desert. Gluttonize and
lament his fate as a Jets fan.
Speaker 8 (29:36):
I thought he's going to Joshua Tree to pray about
the about the Jets.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
No, he won't even further. He's off in Arizona. Oh man, Wow,
we don't ask a lot of questions about Smith's off time.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
I figured it was a either a darkness retreat or
be one of those Peruvian aahuasca trips.
Speaker 8 (29:54):
We couldn't it be both.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
They could watch you know what, Let's come on him,
Let's come on him.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
You know, maybe that's the next iteration.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Maybe that's missed up.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
He's only going to the nearest McDonald's.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Well, no, wait, after you would do that, you would
go to the nearest Dupars restaurant you can possibly find.
See Orgenberg. I did it, I did it.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I got the dust, get you some hotcakes? Yeah, no problem?
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Right, all right? So where do you want to start?
You want to go? Can you stay with the Jets
and the boil Experiment and Robert Salad? He got rid
of the painted on beard, so you know he's back
to business.
Speaker 8 (30:28):
I guess, well, is it is it? Is it the
boil Experiment or is it redefining Black Friday? And Jets culture.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
You know that's a good point. Yeah, because you know,
Thanksgiving is traditionally the anniversary of the butt fumble, so
they're just trying to one up themselves.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 8 (30:48):
We're going all in on Boil. So if you combine
boil and the butt fumble, you get quite a combination.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Hey now, hey, yeah it does this.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
So so I'm guessing Jason, because you are a football man.
You've been studying this game your whole life. It gets
much better with Tim Boyle, doesn't it.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Uh, there's one problem in this equation. Okay, go ahead,
I think I think that's Nathaniel Hackett. Oh yeah, So
like we've had what two offensive coordinators go so far,
Ken Dorsey and today Matt Canada. Yeah yeah, Natty boy.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Does he get us a neo baby Nathaniel Hackett for
what Aaron Rodgers has been able to do for him
and his former Green Bay mates?
Speaker 8 (31:36):
Well doesn't doesn't Paul Hackett way into the neo baby thing?
Speaker 4 (31:41):
No?
Speaker 6 (31:41):
That?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Well, that was that was Act one. We're hits today.
Speaker 8 (31:45):
Wow, we're getting We're getting almost Shakespearean.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
No, that's it. Act one was he got in from
the Old Man Act two, Aaron Rodgers has now become
the father figure.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
It's Jake Leary an act too. Usually a couple of
people head start rolling.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Well that's it does make sense.
Speaker 8 (32:02):
Yeaher career start rolling is what happens. Like you went from.
He went from the disaster of Denver last year, got
called out by Sean Payton. Everybody defended you, and now
Sean Payton had a point. Yeah, I mean, like, I
(32:22):
mean they're bad. You know, the offensive line is bad.
So I don't want to completely throw him under the bus.
But there haven't been any solutions this season. There haven't
been any like, okay, let's string together three or four
games with twenty points or more to the competitive There
hasn't been a game plan to kind of cover up
(32:44):
Zach Wilson a little bit and help him. And certainly
there you know nothing quick. I mean you were you
were hoping at a certain point that Zach Wilson would
develop into a into a decent back end, and now
it's a mental regression of fear where he's just like
falling on the field in a fetal position almost Like
(33:07):
that's literally what's going on now. So you know a
lot of this is on Nathaniel Hackett. You know, you've
got to come up with solutions to at least make
yourself playable. You know, maybe not the scoring is going
to lag and it's going to be a problem, but
you've got to make yourself playable. And in two straight years,
(33:28):
he's you know, this is where they've gotten to the
point where they're not playable. Because by the end of
the year last year in Denver, they were not playable.
And now you see what's happening in Denver is they're
going the other direction. You know, they hit you know,
a monumental low earlier this season, and they've gotten things
straightened out where they're actually in the playoff hunt, you know,
(33:53):
as crazy as it sounds for a team that gave
us a seventies spot, you know, first half of the season.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
So we have another coordinator out and a new interim hired,
Joe Brady elevated as Ken Dorsey hits the skids in Buffalo,
Josh Allen has looked wobbly over the past season and
a half. It felt like it was time to make
a move. It felt also like Josh Allen had hard
feelings seeing his buddy go. Maybe he felt responsible for it.
(34:23):
He probably was in some part responsible for it, not in.
Speaker 8 (34:26):
Part, not in part, not in part Rich. No, he
got ken Dorsey fired. They have it. There's no two
ways about this. Josh Allen got ken Dorsey fired because
he was the one who was turning the ball over.
He was the one who, you know, Game one against
(34:46):
the Jets was back to being his erratic self, not
taking care of the ball, not doing some simple things,
throwing passes on first down into areas of the field
you're not supposed to throw it too, taking risks that
are not as necessary, and trying to play hero ball
all the time. Like the key to being a quarterback
(35:08):
like that is to develop to the point where you
know when to do that and when not to do that,
and that most of the time you shouldn't do it,
and become like Patrick Mahomes where you just pick your
spots where you're going to throw an off balanced pass
and try and leap over tall buildings in a single
bound and all that kind of stuff. Josh is just regressing,
(35:31):
you know. And it's stats are great, you know, like
a lot of things point upward which tell you how
great he is. But he got ken Dorsey fired.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
This is on him in Pittsburgh. It's the blame Canada.
They got what they wanted. He's finally out, but there's
still six and four here. J cole on are the
great stories of recent and now they're not. They're terrible,
But I enjoy Mike Tomlin. I mean, he didn't sweat
in front of the cameras. He just said. Cleveland does
that to a lot of people, and then well, Canada
(36:01):
gets dismissed the next morning, right.
Speaker 8 (36:04):
Yeah, Cleveland, how about the other teams they lost to.
I mean, that's that's all on Canada. This this entire
you know, this is I'm not a coach, and I'm
not an offense. I've never been an offensive coordinators and
(36:24):
I've never tried to call plays. But I've watched a
lot offense and I go, that's not NFL worthy. And
I'm not the first person to say that. There are
tons of people in Pittsburgh who are saying it loudly
and clearly. But if you watch, you know, you run
(36:45):
trips to one side, and guys never cross underneath each other,
like you've got to run a few crossers crossers and
create traffic and try and get guys open and you know,
do stuff like that, and they never do it. And
this is on top of like they got George Pickens,
who's a giant pain for them because he's so immature
(37:07):
and he's such a jerk ball. And they're making it
worse because by not getting him the ball, they're not
putting more pressure on him to perform. They're giving him
an excuse, I'm not getting the ball. Therefore, you guys
are screwing me over. No, you got you got to
feed the guy like that and put pressure on him
to perform. You know, That's that's how this works. Or
(37:30):
call him out or just bench him. Canada did none
of those things, you know, in any way, shape or form.
And that's an incredibly talented guy who can help you
if you can get his head straight.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Jason Cole joining us Fox Sports Radio this evening. So
I look at the Ravens all of a sudden at
the top of the AFC. The Chiefs obviously take their
loss to the Eagles last night or and then you know,
the Ravens they take their seat on top. So are
we buyers? Like you know, look, sometimes stocks rise and
(38:03):
everybody gets a little nervous to buy, and then they skyrocket.
Are we due for the Ravens to look even better
down the home stretch or do you think this is
as good as it gets?
Speaker 8 (38:15):
To see the Cleveland game? M hm, Okay, so I'm
not quite buying yet. Yeah, And I like there if
there's ever going to be a time in Lamar Jackson's
career that they win a super Bowl, and they're going
to get close for a lot of years. If he
plays a decade, if he plays twelve years, if he
(38:37):
plays fifteen, whatever it happens to be, they're always going
to be, you know, kind of in the hunt. But
if you're going to draw up a year when Baltimore
can win a title with Lamar Jackson as your quarterback,
this is the year because their defense is so good
that they're keeping him out of third and difficult, right,
(39:00):
whether that's six, seven, eight nine, you know what I'm
talking about, Rich Like, or you got to fit a
pass into a really tight area against a really good defense,
and the more times that you ask him to do that,
the more times you're going to ask for him to fail,
because that's not what he's great at. He's great at
(39:20):
a lot of things. He's very efficient as a runner,
he creates matchup problems for you. He's accurate on most
of the passes over the middle. You know, he's going
to deliver in a lot of situations and he's going
to keep you ahead in games. And even in the
Cleveland game, he did a really nice job in that game.
They just had a lot of fluky things happen. But
if you're in a game where you're down seventeen to ten,
(39:43):
you know, with five minutes left in the third quarter
or somewhere in the fourth quarter, and you got to
depend on him to drive the length of the field
and make those kinds of plays, you know, that's that's
going to be tough. This is the kind of team
that's not going to ask him to do that very much.
They haven't asked him to do that very much so
far this year. Like to me, if they're going to
(40:04):
do it, like you got to take advantage of it.
You know, you're you're number one, You got the number
one seed. You know, Kansas City is not very good,
you know at the wide receiver positions, so you can
erase a lot of things. You can double Kelsey, you
can create all sorts of problems. You can get into
a slobber knocker kind of game with them. Uh, and
(40:26):
with the Dolphins or probably the next biggest threat in
the AFC, you're going to man handle them because you're
going to get them in Baltimore on grass in cold weather,
and you know you're going to do the Baltimore thing
to them, so to me, like the roads paved, take
advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
All right, let's lastly for you, I want to play
word association. See what the name Brandon Staley does for you.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
Brandon Staley is Jesus.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
That's the that comes to mind.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Comedy he had stormed, not not.
Speaker 8 (41:07):
Not the religious figure. Let's just play that way.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Blasphemer. Yeah, Jesus, here's.
Speaker 8 (41:18):
That's not the That's not the number one reason I
would be a blasphemer. But you know there's a long
list of things to go along with this. I just
was listening on listening to him on the game after
the game on Sunday, and he said this thing, and nobody,
nobody called him on it because I don't think it
really registered right away. But you can call up the
(41:40):
quote in that like five minutes soliloquy where you go,
I know that the message is getting through. They're just
you know, we're just not making the play. Hey pal,
If you if the message is getting through, they'd make
the place, they'd be in position. The message is not
(42:01):
getting through. That's you putting the blame on the players
and not blaming yourself because the message is not getting through.
This is on top of the fact that you are
was it fourteen and six in one score games in
almost three seasons now right. You came in here espousing
(42:22):
how you're a strategic genius, go on fourth down, know
the odds, know all the right plays. You're you're basically
succeeding at the rate of a coin flip. So you're
coin flip Brandon. That's what you are. You're no better
than that. You are an ordinary coach who is full
(42:45):
of himself. It's like when I heard him say that,
you know, I know the message is going through, we're
just not making the plays. Then the message is not
getting through and you're lying to yourself. Just just my
mind when coaches say stuff like that and believe it,
and he said it with he said it as if
(43:08):
we believe it. Ornberg, did you play for Marty?
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I didn't play for Marty. When I had gotten to
San Diego, to play for the Chargers. It was after
norv Uh had been fired. They brought him Mike McCoy
and what's so interesting, what's so interesting is another guy.
Speaker 8 (43:27):
He's another guy like that, dude.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
You're one hundred percent. So Jason almost chapter and verse.
This is a page out of his book because I remember.
I remember he used to say, and this was my
my broadcasting career. Following playing for him, I started paying
more attention to what coaches say at the podium, what
they say during their press conferences. And he had this
(43:51):
common refrain, which was, we had a great game plan,
we had a great week of practice, our players didn't
execute or or or he wouldn't even say the players.
He would say, but we didn't execute. So if you
had a great practice week, if you had a great
game plan, i e. All of the things that coaches control,
(44:11):
but you had poor execution on game day, which, by
the way, is blaming the players for screwing up your
great game plan. Okay, So at the end of the day,
whose fault is it?
Speaker 5 (44:21):
It's all on the players.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
You're telling me every week it's the player's fault for
screwing up your great game plan. It just doesn't make sense,
and Brandon Staley is doing the same things.
Speaker 8 (44:32):
It's it's a carbon copy, it's the whole. I mean,
it's just and again the thing I guess, I guess
that annoys me the most about Brandon Staley. And trust me,
I have this trait too, so I know exactly what
it is. You know, I'm coming in, you know, selling
yourself as the smartest guy in the room. And sometimes
(44:55):
you have to realize that you have that tendency and
then you have to mock yourself not you're not okay,
and you have to you have to say, guys, I'm
gonna act like that. You need to call me on
my BS. Brandon Staley never calls himself on his own BS.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Fortunately, I'll always have us here j Cole.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
Yeah, and get on that.
Speaker 8 (45:14):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, this is why this this is therapy
for me. There you go, this is absolutely therapy for
me and Ormberger. I need more due parts pancake mix.
That's what I need.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Nobody now, don't make.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
That all come together at Jason Cole sixty two is
where you find him. Joins us each and every week.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, buddy.
Speaker 8 (45:33):
Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Thank care I appreciate you,
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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