October 19, 2021 • 36 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react live to Monday Night Football between the Bills and Titans and discuss Nick Rolovich's firing from Washington State. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora joins the guys to discuss the biggest storylines of Week 6, including Lamar Jackson's strong performance. Plus, the Kansas City Chiefs are still in need of a major piece.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radiote song. Hello and welcome inside
the Jason Smith Show with my bis friend Mike Harmon. Oh,
Happy Monday, where we have a great football game, the
mad baseball game, and a whole lot of football news
(00:46):
to break down. Let's, Mike Harmon tonight try to be
better than the Chargers. Let's try to do that tonight.
I think we'll be fine tonight. Pretty poorous effort. As
we watched them against the Ravens. Everything said, hey, they
can move the ball. Unfortunately guys forgot to catch and
Lamar Jackson is Lamar Jackson, and all of a sudden, everybody, oh,
(01:08):
look he learned to pass. It's like it's like it
happy Kilmar, oh happy learn to put No. It's like,
it's crap, what have you been watching a bunch of
dopes anyway, you know, wasn't like It's like he was
throwing left handed for the last four years and now suddenly, oh,
look you're throwing righty. It's a fantastic Look at the
zip on the ball that's got. Why wasn't he throwing
(01:30):
right handed the whole time? I don't get it. It's
absolutely amazing, Like I get, I get that. There was
always a celebration of just the way athletically he would
see something, find a seam and start to start to run,
and those piled up, and then everybody was wringing their
hands saying, oh, you can't use them like that. Uh.
And our boss said, he'll develop, but right now, this
(01:53):
is our best chance to win. And what does he do?
Wins and wins and wins some more, and Yesterrday was
an absolute beat down of a Chargers team that everybody
started to exult right and started to take jushin Herbert
and say, oh, look where he is. You know, what's
the game's humbling? There are days Mama said there'd be
(02:13):
days like this, and there it was. Hey, remember I
told you on Friday the Ravens were gonna smash the
Chargers Remember I said that watch. I said the Ravens
are gonna smash and except I said the Chargers were
gonna do But but I mean I was closed. I
just juxtaposed the teams. That's what I meant to say.
Raven smashed the Chargers and said, I said, Chargers Mas Ray.
(02:36):
But I'll take the loss. I'll take it. I mean
I clearly had the right thought. I clearly had the
right uh analysis. It was just you juxtaposed the teams.
That happens. That's all. That's all right. Just smack it up,
flip it upside down, you know. Right now, t J
there's been a bit of poison. Go out halftime, Bills
and the Titans, and boy, this is a fun one. Uh.
(02:58):
No points in the first quarter except a field goal
by Buffalo, and we're saying, oh, okay, oh, but then
suddenly we got everything we wanted. Second quarter, seventeen apiece,
the Bills lead to twenty to seventeen. Game has just
gone to halftime. Uh. Josh Allen's thrown for a hundred
and five. He's also thrown for a couple of touchdowns. Meanwhile,
Derrick Henry nine carries for nineties six yards, including a
(03:21):
big seventy six yard touchdown run for the Titans. Again,
this game has just gone to halftime, and look, Buffalo
is looking to assert themselves as the beat in the
a f C, and certainly on Monday night, they win,
they go to five and one in the a f C.
They will do that. The Titans are looking to say, hey,
don't forget about us. We've been really good the last
couple of years, but now you don't want to be
(03:43):
three and three. Beating the Bills will do that for them.
So for the pecking order, power ranking wise, uh yeah,
tonight it's a big deal. I mean, I don't know
how you could come away from this game. If the
Bills go on to win and hold on to win
this game, and again they're up by a field goal
at halftime, I don't know how you could walk away
and say this is the best team in the a
f C. As good as the Ravens have been, the
(04:03):
Ravens have had some pretty crazy ass escapes right there,
had a dominant win yesterday, But right now you would say,
who's the most complete team, and maybe the most complete
team in football, but definitely in the a f C.
The Bills win this game. They submit their place there
and I don't know that that changes for a while. Well,
the thing is with it with Buffalo, And you know,
I've been on the Josh Allen bandwagon for well long
(04:24):
before there was a bandwagon. I was sitting out there
trying to find any little scraps of wood and nails
and going door to door, you got any extra screws
that I can use? Uh, And I started to build
that boat myself, that that wonderful craft, uh, to try
to get people on board to recognized this guy is
more than just a running back. They had that opened
season lost to the Steelers. And then here here's the
(04:46):
problem with some of the exultation in the crown of
them because we just had the anniversary of that for
Denny Green. Shout out to Danny Green, Uh, Dolphins, Washington
tag since and then I know you still hate the Chiefs.
So like, out of the four wins, the Chiefs were
the only team that you'd say, hey, you know what,
(05:08):
they're pretty solid. The other three or trash Okay, they're
they're hot garbage at this point. And as much as
I like the growth of Davis Mills and working as
a as a unit, right now they they're going in
and dropping off veteran defensive players, just saying I go
find somewhere else to play for the last two thirds
of the season. The Dolphins, we watched them lose to
(05:30):
the Jaguars in London. Much better game than your Jets
gave anybody, by the way. Uh. And then Chiefs they
did beat them down in that Sunday night affair. But
to your point, you know, Tennessee's a squad with great expectations.
I was really high on them coming in. Now they
had twenty four yards of offense until this happened. It's
(05:52):
Henry on the right side. There you go, thirty forty
twenty ten five in zone, gentlemen, seventies six years touch.
It took him a little while to get to it.
But the Titans radio network on the call. Uh, and
(06:12):
all of a sudden he clocks in at one eight
miles per hour. Uh. And we got ourselves a ballgame. Smith,
So long way to go, get popcorn ready. I'm enjoying
the hell out of it. Just getting set to kick
off the third quarter again. Seventeen bills with the lead.
Will keep you updated on this. I'll also let you
know if the Red Sox hit any more grand slams
(06:32):
as uh. This game with the Astros got out of
hand very quickly. We're going to the top of the
fifth inning and Boston has a nine three lead over Houston.
All they do is hit grand slams. Kyle Schober getting
in on it tonight with a grand slam in the
second inning of the third time they've gone deep with
the bases loaded in this series with the Astros. So uh,
(06:54):
you know, hey, Astros did put three up on the
top of the fourth, but still it's a six run
lead for Boston as the Astros come to bout here
in the top of the fifth. Now part of the
big NFL breakdown we have going on right now. We
have this big story out of Washington State involving head
coach Nick Rolovich, and this plays into the big story
(07:15):
today involving Evander Kane, an HL forward who was suspended
for twenty one games for falsifying his COVID vaccination papers.
And on top of it, Adam Silver gave a big
State of the NBA UH press conference today talking about
how we wished that the Kyrie Irving situation was resolved
by the players when it came to a vaccine mandate. Um.
(07:38):
But this this is not an NBA issue. This is
a New York City issue. So now on the eve
of the NBA and the Nets have already announced the
Kyrie Irving is going to miss. You have the Evander
Kane story. I'm falsifying my COVID so i can go play.
And now Nick Rolovich, you remember him as a great
quarterback at the University of Hawaii for a long time.
He is now fired as head coach at Washington State.
(07:59):
He has let go along with other assistant coaches, four
of them after they refused the state mandated COVID nineteen vaccine. Uh.
He was someone who said very early on, I'm not
going to get it, and I'm hopeful we can continue
on here. Uh. The deadline was Monday for thousands of
state employees to get it. And the job of head
(08:20):
coach watching the state university is a state job, and
he didn't want to get it. So now he is
no longer the head coach and four other and four
other coaches as well are out. Now there's two parts
of this story. One is what we've talked about many times.
We alway feel the need to say it is that
when a state makes a rule, it's a it's a
you know, a private you know, it's like a private
(08:40):
corporation making a rule. A state can make a rule
for state employees. This is something that happens, right, You
can make that. You can make the rules and touch
the tentacles of what is under your jurisdiction. As I've
told you, I think it's kind of weird, and I
don't I don't like the fact that the state government's
getting involved with the NETS, which is a private entity
in the NBA. But here's the state building. Yeah, it's
(09:01):
but right, exactly, Well, the money towards the building. You
can as you can see, you could fudge buildings in
New York, right, like that's going on in the last
few days. But this is something Okay, we understood this
was coming right, This wasn't something brand new, This was
this is a state thing. What I'd like to do,
and and this is this is different from the conversation
I think anybody has had. Is I would like to
(09:24):
revisit Nick Rolovich and Evander Kine and and other people
who are losing everything, who have chosen this hill to
lose their livelihood on. I want to revisit them in
ten years ago? Was it really worth it? Do you
really think you were thinking clearly? What when it came
to this, when when it came to the COVID nineteen vaccine.
(09:45):
Al Right, first of all, I look, we lost Colin
Pale today, who was one of the greatest Americans that
that any of us could possibly look up to in
in in government. In the list of his accomplishments are
so many, and he, you know, passes away due to
complications of COVID even though he did get vaccinated. Now,
Colin Powell also was suffering and was riddled with cancer
(10:06):
which really made it difficult for his body to fight
COVID off. That's a big pre existing condition when it
comes to it. And and already you've seen that, well,
c Colin Powell died and he got vaccinated. Yes, in
very rare, rare, rare cases, that can happen if you
have a pre existing condition, right, that can happen to you.
But for the vast majority of us, you get vaccinated,
(10:29):
you're okay, you won't get it. You can still get it.
But in that case, the the all the symptoms is
very mild. And that's the vast vast majority. There's always
going to be outlies, which is unfortunate and tragic. You
don't want anybody to hey, I did this to try
to save my life or try to and it didn't work.
But you have to go with the percentages of what
(10:49):
of what the success rate of this is and and
and I I don't know what what People who don't
want to take it feel like we I don't know
why Kyrie Irving doesn't want to get vaccinated it I
don't know if it's Hey, in three years, they think
everybody you got vaccinated is going to die because it's
a science fiction movie and it's, oh, yeah, everybody got vaccine.
Everybody's gonna die. And the people who didn't get vaccinated,
(11:10):
they're the only ones left in the world. And it's
gonna be like it's gonna be like a new TV
show on TBS. That's not going to happen. That's not
gonna happen. This is out here, and the vaccine is
out here to help us get past COVID. This is
not people are coming to your door saying I need
to garnish your salary, or I'm taking I'm taking your car,
or you know what, I'm doing is going through and
(11:31):
taking away your valuables? Are that's not that this is
about something different and and it's being equated to all
these different uh things in the world that that that's
not right. This is a vaccine to try to get
past the pandemic so we can get past it. Right, Well,
everybody wants to get past it. I don't know what why.
(11:51):
That's why I really want to go back and and
and wait a few years and talk to people like
Nick Rolovich and go was this worth it? Was? It?
Was it worth? You were a head coach at Power
five college, everything in your life you went to get
to this moment? Right in the ESPN reporter too who
left because she didn't want to get COVID vaccinated? Is
it worth it? Is it worth giving up everything you've
(12:12):
worked for because you don't want to take a vaccine
that is going to help you fight off an infection
that has killed almost you know, almost a hundred uh
it's killed seven fifty thousand people, right, I mean, are
you really going to do that? Is that really where
you want to go? Because that's that's kind of where
I'm at now. It's like, do you really think this
is this is what you want to do. You want
(12:34):
to lose everything you've done because I don't want to
get a COVID vaccine. Kyrie Irving is gonna say goodbye
to the end of his career because he doesn't want
to get a COVID vaccine, because nobody's gonna trade for him.
Nobody's certainly gonna pay him ever again. So he's saying
goodbye to all of that. So when he says something like,
you think I want to do this, No you don't.
You don't have to there there's different things out there.
(12:54):
I don't get that part of it. And that's what
that's why I say, you know what, let's look at
something different. Intel years we go back to it. Was it?
Was it really worth it? Did you do you really
think you were thinking? Clearly? Do you really think? Because
I always say if you have a reason, I get it. Man,
if you give me a good reason, I will say
you are right. And I'll be the first person to
say you're right. You should not get the vaccine. Other
people like this should not get it. But the fact
(13:14):
is we haven't heard them. And and because because who
has who has had a good one so far, it's
been really, really difficult. And it's a shame that a
story like this happens. That here's Nick Roe who's now
got to figure out some other way to provide for
his family. These other coaches gotta figure another way to
provide for their family because I didn't want to get
COVID vaccinated for for whatever reason. And and that's the
(13:36):
real shame about this is that I know in a
few years you're gonna say, hey, uh, was it worth it?
And they're gonna go, oh, yeah, yeah, really wasn't that.
That's that's that's a tough part of this. Mike. Well,
in the end, you make your decisions, right. You've had
plenty of time to mull it over. The mandate was
announced by the governor on August eighteen, So that's two
(13:56):
months to make your decision of what you wanted to do. Uh.
And school President Kirk Schultz in a release h Washington
State University students, faculty staff understand the importance of getting vaccinated,
wearing masks that we could say fellly returned in person,
learning and activities. I'm proud of all those members of
our community have set the example and taking the steps
(14:16):
to protect not just themselves, but they're fellow coogs. So
now we get into discussions of you know, the selfishness,
leadership role that he's supposed to have. Whatever he made
his choice right, and for the players, the staff, for
everybody that they come into contact with, it's certainly elevated
the risk coming in. And you could say, again, you
(14:38):
know you can get it. If you're vaccinated, you're still around,
so as long as you protect yourself. What's the difference
is where people go with this, and it's the you know,
you live in a society. I guess as we go
back to the base of it all and and maybe
he'll regret it a year from now, two years from now,
five year or whatever that timeline is. But in the
(15:02):
moment he made a choice, these are the consequences and
off he goes. Now it it costs a lot on
the student athletes and everybody in the program, right that
this is their coach. Oh wait, middle of the season,
No he's not anymore. So I don't have you been planning,
you know, for his eventual departure. The other part is,
(15:23):
and again not to go deep down the rabbit hole,
but you know it was reported and leaked June Jones.
His mentor, UH leaked the information to USA today after
UM the Coog's win over Oregon State on the ninth
of October that Rolovich was looking for a religious exemption.
And this is where I'd like to, you know, anybody
(15:44):
that wants to give me the education as to where
in any scripture and any doctrine. And I'm not saying
it flippingly. I have. I have read countless articles about it.
You know, the ESPN reporter that stepped away was talking
about morals and this and the other and and kind
of going down pushing towards religion, and many have and
(16:04):
then listen for my own edification. All right, I'm not
being flippant about it. I'm not mocking anybody, right, because
there's plenty of folks that are more than willing to
do that for me. It's if you're claiming religious exemption,
I just want you to educate me as to you
what exactly in religion you're claiming, because I've seen countless articles,
countless write ups, many church leaders from all over the
(16:27):
globe saying no, it's our responsibility to look out for
our fellow man and get the vaccine and get vaccinated. Uh,
you know, so I I don't get it, So that
part of it is still just curious to me on
a on a more intellectual pursuit of all of this,
of trying to wrap it all in my arms. But
for Rollovich, he made a decision. He's out of a job.
(16:49):
And there's a lot of people right now that are
disappointed to have to pick up their lives and continue
on after you know, committing to play for this man
and now have to try to finish off this season
in a positive way. And so that that's part of
it that is unfair on on them because of his
(17:09):
decision to stay unvaccinated. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. Yes,
are we could see a lead change here in Tennessee
(17:31):
as the Titans trailing the Bills right now twenty three seventeen,
midway through the third quarter. But Titans have a second
and goal Tennant has just thrown incomplete on a fade
pattern because you know, I love the fade because it
works so well. We'll just wait five seconds, you might
see a change, So we'll keep you updated on this.
But joining us now on the Hotline CBS Sports NFL
(17:53):
Insider Extraordinaire. You can follow him on Twitter at Jason
locking for That is at Jason locking for Aura. He
is right now helping Tommy DeVito through the transfer portal
at Syracuse. It is the aforementioned Jason locking Forward. What's happening, Jay? Oh,
I am just living the dream. How are you? Gentlemen?
Hey buddy, Yeah, I want you to help me out
(18:15):
with something here, Jay, because you know, look, look, Lamar
Jackson has been playing great like he has been for
the majority of his career. Yeah, three plus years. Yeah,
and now you know, you get today John Harbaugh saying, Hey,
you know, Lamar Jackson's critics are starting to shut up
now and and and they kind of are. And I'm
scratching my head, going He's always been really good. I
(18:35):
don't see him doing anything way differently than he has
been in the past, except more people are finding less
ways to say I don't know about Lamar Jackson. What what?
What are you seeing from Lamar? Anything really different from him?
This year? Now I think it's changed. You look at
his air yards per tempt, you look at his yards
per completion UM. You look at how they're pushing the
(18:57):
ball down field. You look at first down on passing,
He's throwing on first down more than it ever has.
You look at play action passing UM never been a
point of emphasis here, uh, at least not since Flacco
was in his prime. Only justin Herbert has had more
dropbacks and more attempts play action than Lamar. Lamar's throwing
(19:19):
on first down more than ever has before. He's he's
pushing the ball outside the hash marks more than he
has before. They're getting more yards after the catch than
they have before. There has definitely been a transformation in
the passing game. UM. And And not to say he
couldn't have done more of this before or whatever, but
(19:42):
I think if you go and look at sort of
the balance of power of this roster, and you look
at you know, a year ago where Okay, Ingram might
be getting a little long in the tooth, but we've
got this, you know, Couse Edwards, guy who averages five
point two five per carry, And we got this J K.
Dobbins kid, This rookie who's going to end up averaging
(20:03):
over six yards per carry, and so let's just keep
feeding that beast, right, And now those two are done
for the year. And we're talking about with Davia's Murray
off the scrap heap and Levian Bell off the scrap heap,
and you know, Davante Freeman who couldn't make the Giants
off the scrap heap, and an offensive line that's kind
of beat up in or this is and Nick Borrow, right,
(20:27):
we got a six million dollar a year blocking tight
end who's not available to us. So are we really
going to road grade people or do we have to
open it up? And we've got Hollywood Brown, who, um
now is running a more robust route tree. We've got
Mark Andrews, who is a great move tight end. Our
first round pick Rashod Bateman is finally available last week, Um,
(20:49):
Sammy Watkins has made some plays, Devin DuVernay is showing up.
All the ascended talent is in the passing game. So
they are they are bombs away in in in a
way that they again haven't been since probably Joe Flacco's
playoff run. You know, when they slayed the Dragon of
Brady and and Peyton Manning and ultimately beat the forty
(21:11):
Niners in the in the Super Bowl. It's definitely changed. Um.
And you the way that Lamar climbs the pocket now
and sort of navigates that and looks people off with
his eyes, and he's finding his third option, his fourth option.
It's it's pretty special. Um. It's different than and and boy,
(21:31):
you watch it and you say, my god, if they
if they did have Dobbins, because they were lining up
Dobbins in training camp as you know, a slot receiver,
as an outside receiver, UM as a running back, UM
as almost at time, sort of like a move fullback,
like an h back. I mean, they were going to
(21:52):
throw the ball at Dobbins all over the place. And
he's a special athlete and they won't have him at
all this year. But if they did, I think they're off.
It's of efficiency would be even more off the charts
than it already is, all right, Jason. Well, One of
the other games that beyond the back to the Future
thing with the running backs there in Baltimore, which is
kind of fun. Everybody plays, everybody wins, uh, is the
(22:13):
Urban Meyer victory across the Pond. One of the prettiest
couple of field goals you'll ever see from a kicker,
that nice curve back in, like like he had some
English going on there, and was thought at least one
of them was headed for you know, section the third
row or whatever. It looked like it was just gonna
(22:33):
um go off into the ether on the right side,
but then bent back in. Look, I thought they'd win
that game. It was one of my best bets last week.
I thought they'd win it outright, said play the money line.
You won't need the three and a half points. Miami
is garbage. Uh, Miami is even in worse dire straits
than Um then Jacksonville, and Jacksonville does have discernible strength
(22:59):
now a sale that the Browns have lost both tackles,
in both running backs. Jacksonville is the number one rushing
team in the NFL and they're also top three in
defending the run. And at least that was a starting point.
That's a modicum of an identity. Could Urban Meyers still
screw it up? Absolutely good things don't completely haywired, especially
(23:20):
in the second half. Damn straight as a year. But
they had that going for them, and guys, they're they've
been going over to to jackson to well, I was
I say, Jacksonville further east to London for eight years
and there's a lot of guys on that roster who
are accustomed to that trip, who know how to navigate
(23:43):
that trip, who it's just kind of built into their
schedule and it wasn't for for for urban but they
also as an organization knew how to make that trip,
knew when it was best for sleep patterns and rest
and rehab and recovery and all that like when to
make that trip. They've learned through trial and error in
a way that Miami had. So yeah, I thought that
(24:06):
would be the rare game this year that they would
get better as the game went on in Miami would
get worse. And Miami doesn't have a lot of talent.
Miami is not a well run operation. Um, they're falling
apart of the seams. And unfortunately for them, they opted
not to take that bye week coming back from London,
which means now that the walking wounded, now they're punch
(24:29):
drunk and and you know, even further chasing their own
tails because they just made that trip in the short
amount of time and lost another game and don't really
know what they do well and big changes are on
the horizon. When you say big changes, this is Flora's.
This is too well. I mean, I don't know how
(24:52):
like you can't separate them, you know what I mean, Like, oh, well,
career made bad cost careers not doing anything that Flora's
doesn't want to do, careers of pleaser careers there to work,
you know, and try to facilitate a symbiotic relationship with
the coach. He's got taken a quarterback of the coach
doesn't want. He's not bringing in all these new England
guys that the coach doesn't want, you know. He he
(25:15):
doesn't want to trade or cut or release or wave
uh top free agents nine months after signing them. Uh.
He doesn't want to draft players who the coach doesn't
want to play. I mean that the whole thing has
been um unseemly, you know, frankly, and it's it's it's
(25:37):
not simpatico. I've been reporting on this since the spring.
Nothing that's happened there has surprised me. In the least.
You've got two offensive coordinators means you've got none. You know,
It's just you're too cute by half You're constantly firing coaches,
you're constantly firing players, and you think you're building some
sort of juggernaut. No you're not. You're lucky to win
ten last year. You were going to be the post
(26:00):
your boys for regression. You are the poster boys for regression. Uh.
And the owner is looking at this thing saying, you know,
a pox on other houses, like who which Who's who's? Like,
who's the good cop? Who's the bad cop? I mean,
I get it. I mean I know Flora's is working
them over, like I know Flora's is playing that game
(26:23):
as many many Bill Belichick disciples I played, But I
don't really know what he has to, you know, to
stand on and Stephen Ross at this point's gotta look
around and say, no, none of this is really worth
doubling down on. I and I feel bad for Dolphins fans,
(26:44):
but it's like, here we go again, Hey Jason, With
taxation on the rise and a lot of problems in Chicago,
should Aaron Rodgers really be claiming ownership of the Bears?
You know, I that's a good question. I'm not an accountant.
I am, thank god I have an accountant and tax
people and uh, financial advisors that I trust because I
(27:08):
I don't know how many pennies are in a dollar.
Like I'm the wrong guy to ask about any of
that stuff. Um. But do I think that Aaron Rodgers
has like a fifty year mortgage in the heads of Brown,
of Sorry, of of of Bears fans, I do, Um.
I think he lives rent free in their minds forever.
(27:30):
I think they look at him and say, how the
hell did those guys go from far up to Rogers?
And we've gone from Sid Luckman to nobody. I mean,
I don't even know, Like, like you know, we had
like two years of McMahon and like half a year
of Cutler. I guess before he and Mike Marks are
ready to choke each other out, Like, I don't know, man,
(27:50):
it's I think fields Um, I think fields is has
the potential to be an impactful NFL starting quarterback. But again,
it takes a village. It's not just about him. It's
about a lot of the things that he can't control. Uh.
But they were in that game for you know, a
decent way into the second half, and then Rogers did
(28:15):
what Rogers has always done against the Bears, um, and
they had no answers for that. Yeah. I mean, look,
we'll see if the Vikings can keep pace with the Packers.
We know that Detroit and Chicago are perennially rebuilding, um,
(28:37):
and we'll see it. But Green Bay might be in
position to be that that one team in the NFC
that gets to take the first weekend in the playoffs off.
All right. Lastly, speaking of the NFC, J like it's
a it's a weekly topic, and I know you'd be
You're being dragged to this kicking and screaming. Are you
believing a little bit more in the Dallas Cowboys now
(28:59):
than you have been? I wrote him a couple about
it was ten days ago or so. I don't know
last Wednesday. Maybe it was less than ten. I don't know.
It all bleeds together, but I I have um, I
have waived the white flag on my skepticism of them
being a team that's capable of doing some damage in
(29:22):
the NFC. Do I think they're winning a Super Bowl?
I don't, but it's really really hard to win a
Super Bowl. Uh. I think that the Margins are a
little bit slim when it comes to their offensive defensive line.
Should injuries emerge, and in recent years they have. But
(29:44):
that man offenses it's a lot of fun to watch there.
They are, um, they're there beastly on that side of
the ball, and they have enough playmakers on defense that
even when they get into these ruts where it's like
I don't know, Digs or Gregory, you know, or Parsons somebody,
(30:07):
all the when that offense is that good, you don't
even need like defensive wizardry. You don't need like a
top five defense. You just need playmakers who are going
to force that one point, are going to deflect the ball,
knock it down, are going to chase a quarterback out
(30:28):
of bounds. They need you know, three or four stops
a game. And then they're better than that because Diggs
is like out of this world and they are not
just getting sacks, but they're getting striped sacks. They're getting
you know, game changing momentum shifting plays out of that defense.
And they play in the division that's hot garbage, and
(30:49):
they're gonna win a lot of games and it's gonna
put them in good stead. So yeah, Dallas, I can
I say the like the letter after the letter the
letter after eat this up. That's okay, Yeah, I get
that yeah, Mr Marco man, Mr Marco in Arizona. I
(31:13):
overrated the Patriots UM and yeah there's probably there definitely
is another team that I overrated that I wrote a
colin now, maybe with Seattle a few weeks ago, but
once it could have been the Jets down. No, I
didn't know. I had the Jets dead to rights. I
(31:34):
know exactly what the Jets side. He's so, do you, Unfortunately, Yes,
I I do. I do. I do. Hey, Stingley is
gonna look great in uh in the Jets jersey next year.
He's on Twitter at Jason Locke and four that is
at Jason Locke and for a CBS Sports NFL insider.
Jay is always buddy, appreciative man. We'll talk to you
next week next Monday. Thank you. Be sure to catch
(31:57):
live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike car
In weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey,
I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball. We
usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more
about the stories about what made these people love their
sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
(32:18):
talked to coaches, we talked to players, we tell you stories,
you download it, you listen to it. I think you
like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gottlieb on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
get your podcast. Fox Sports Radio, that Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. Bills lead the Titans
(32:42):
thirty one. Still a lot of time left here, eleven
minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and this has
been a really entertaining game. We have the Buffalo Special.
We'll break that down for you coming up in about
ten minutes. But before we get to that, look, nothing
has changed for one team that people think things are
changed for in the NFL after this week, right, I
(33:04):
told you weeks ago it was going to be a
struggle for the Chiefs to be a wild card in
the NFL playoffs because the offense isn't what it was
even two years ago. The defense stinks, all right, They
don't have any big time weapons that you're afraid of.
Outside of Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey. This is not
the same kind of offense. But they win a game
(33:26):
against Washington and now it's oh, look at this down
there three and three. Everybody else in the NFC West
Laws Chiefs. No, the Chiefs are still the same, right,
They're still the same. There's still a team that's going
to struggle, right, There're still going to do it. This
is not suddenly everything is great. You beat a really
bad football team that has zero idea of how to
carry over last year's defensive success to this year's all right,
(33:48):
So just that that's where it's at, right with the Chiefs.
Nothing has changed for the Chiefs now because of about positivity,
Mike car and I'm about going forward, right, Like I
told you know, I said weeks ago, the Chiefs are
gonna struggle. Last week everybody came around to that saying, now,
you know, the Chiefs are not very good now and
three they're not good. They got problems, and I don't
see a way out of this. Oh, you're welcome for that.
Take Now everything is fine. Everything is not fine. They
(34:12):
beat a really bad football team. Again, you're three and three,
You're not five and one. You're going to struggle to
make the playoffs. The only way to get out of
this and make it better. It's great that they were
talking about getting Marlon Mack. You know, they need needing
a running back. They need something else. You gotta go
bigger than that. If you are the Chiefs, you gotta
hunt for Allen Robinson, Michael Thomas. Give up something big,
(34:35):
give up a big draft pick to get one of
these guys because eventually they're gonna walk away from their teams. Right.
You know, Allen Robinson wants nothing to do with Chicago anymore.
Michael Thomas is really unhappy in New Orleans. You can
give something, you can give a nice, big draft pick,
and it's gonna be oh boy, hey, you know what
the Chiefs are in the a f C. We don't
really care. We can trade them away. You gotta go
(34:57):
big game hunting for a superstar player, a great wide receiver,
and that's Allen Robinson, that's Michael Thomas. That will make
things different, That will make things incredibly different for the
Chiefs offense. And then watch them roll and then it's
gonna be danger, danger, danger. You're not gonna get one
defensive player that's gonna do it. You go get an
elite wide receiver like that. That's how things will change.
(35:17):
So it's funny because you mentioned, I mean, Michael Thomas
is elite in that system and has been right and
has been a beast. But now he's coming off injury
and and off on the sideline. Not quite sure when
he's going to be cleared for activity at this point.
But for Allan Robinson, we've got certain guys that come
on here, Cole among them that derived the upside and
(35:40):
the elite level that is Allen Robinson. So trying to
determine what he is, but certainly yeah, adding another weapon, sure,
and go out and try to outscore everybody. I would
guess there are plenty of defensive options if you wanted
to go and make a couple of hits in that regard.
Now their schedule is is a mess, uh down the stretch.
(36:02):
That's the problem with winning with great regularity. As Ron
Rivera lamented in the week leading up to the Chiefs game, right,
I wish we hadn't won the division because then expectations
wouldn't be high and I parenthetically put and your schedule
would be a lot less daunting on a week to
week basis. But you know, Patrick Mahomes, maybe at some
point they remind him, hey, stop being careless with the ball,
(36:24):
and you see some of the great things he can
still do. One of the interceptions was a tip ball
up in the air. There's really nothing you can do
with that. But look, I don't I don't leave them
for dead. I'll take Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes against
a bunch of the teams they're competing for playoff spots against.
Go get Big, Go Big go, Michael Thomas, go Allen
Robinson turned that into the most dangerous offense in the
(36:46):
NFL again. Then you solve stuff you like that. Coming
up next, boy do we have a great hot take
about Aaron Rodgers coming your way. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon,
This is five
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:24):
listening to Fox Sports Radiote song. Hello and welcome inside
the Jason Smith Show with my bis friend Mike Harmon. Oh,
Happy Monday, where we have a great football game, the
mad baseball game, and a whole lot of football news
(00:46):
to break down. Let's, Mike Harmon tonight try to be
better than the Chargers. Let's try to do that tonight.
I think we'll be fine tonight. Pretty poorous effort. As
we watched them against the Ravens. Everything said, hey, they
can move the ball. Unfortunately guys forgot to catch and
Lamar Jackson is Lamar Jackson, and all of a sudden, everybody, oh,
(01:08):
look he learned to pass. It's like it's like it
happy Kilmar, oh happy learn to put No. It's like,
it's crap, what have you been watching a bunch of
dopes anyway, you know, wasn't like It's like he was
throwing left handed for the last four years and now suddenly, oh,
look you're throwing righty. It's a fantastic Look at the
zip on the ball that's got. Why wasn't he throwing
(01:30):
right handed the whole time? I don't get it. It's
absolutely amazing, Like I get, I get that. There was
always a celebration of just the way athletically he would
see something, find a seam and start to start to run,
and those piled up, and then everybody was wringing their
hands saying, oh, you can't use them like that. Uh.
And our boss said, he'll develop, but right now, this
(01:53):
is our best chance to win. And what does he do?
Wins and wins and wins some more, and Yesterrday was
an absolute beat down of a Chargers team that everybody
started to exult right and started to take jushin Herbert
and say, oh, look where he is. You know, what's
the game's humbling? There are days Mama said there'd be
(02:13):
days like this, and there it was. Hey, remember I
told you on Friday the Ravens were gonna smash the
Chargers Remember I said that watch. I said the Ravens
are gonna smash and except I said the Chargers were
gonna do But but I mean I was closed. I
just juxtaposed the teams. That's what I meant to say.
Raven smashed the Chargers and said, I said, Chargers Mas Ray.
(02:36):
But I'll take the loss. I'll take it. I mean
I clearly had the right thought. I clearly had the
right uh analysis. It was just you juxtaposed the teams.
That happens. That's all. That's all right. Just smack it up,
flip it upside down, you know. Right now, t J
there's been a bit of poison. Go out halftime, Bills
and the Titans, and boy, this is a fun one. Uh.
(02:58):
No points in the first quarter except a field goal
by Buffalo, and we're saying, oh, okay, oh, but then
suddenly we got everything we wanted. Second quarter, seventeen apiece,
the Bills lead to twenty to seventeen. Game has just
gone to halftime. Uh. Josh Allen's thrown for a hundred
and five. He's also thrown for a couple of touchdowns. Meanwhile,
Derrick Henry nine carries for nineties six yards, including a
(03:21):
big seventy six yard touchdown run for the Titans. Again,
this game has just gone to halftime, and look, Buffalo
is looking to assert themselves as the beat in the
a f C, and certainly on Monday night, they win,
they go to five and one in the a f C.
They will do that. The Titans are looking to say, hey,
don't forget about us. We've been really good the last
couple of years, but now you don't want to be
(03:43):
three and three. Beating the Bills will do that for them.
So for the pecking order, power ranking wise, uh yeah,
tonight it's a big deal. I mean, I don't know
how you could come away from this game. If the
Bills go on to win and hold on to win
this game, and again they're up by a field goal
at halftime, I don't know how you could walk away
and say this is the best team in the a
f C. As good as the Ravens have been, the
(04:03):
Ravens have had some pretty crazy ass escapes right there,
had a dominant win yesterday, But right now you would say,
who's the most complete team, and maybe the most complete
team in football, but definitely in the a f C.
The Bills win this game. They submit their place there
and I don't know that that changes for a while. Well,
the thing is with it with Buffalo, And you know,
I've been on the Josh Allen bandwagon for well long
(04:24):
before there was a bandwagon. I was sitting out there
trying to find any little scraps of wood and nails
and going door to door, you got any extra screws
that I can use? Uh, And I started to build
that boat myself, that that wonderful craft, uh, to try
to get people on board to recognized this guy is
more than just a running back. They had that opened
season lost to the Steelers. And then here here's the
(04:46):
problem with some of the exultation in the crown of
them because we just had the anniversary of that for
Denny Green. Shout out to Danny Green, Uh, Dolphins, Washington
tag since and then I know you still hate the Chiefs.
So like, out of the four wins, the Chiefs were
the only team that you'd say, hey, you know what,
(05:08):
they're pretty solid. The other three or trash Okay, they're
they're hot garbage at this point. And as much as
I like the growth of Davis Mills and working as
a as a unit, right now they they're going in
and dropping off veteran defensive players, just saying I go
find somewhere else to play for the last two thirds
of the season. The Dolphins, we watched them lose to
(05:30):
the Jaguars in London. Much better game than your Jets
gave anybody, by the way. Uh. And then Chiefs they
did beat them down in that Sunday night affair. But
to your point, you know, Tennessee's a squad with great expectations.
I was really high on them coming in. Now they
had twenty four yards of offense until this happened. It's
(05:52):
Henry on the right side. There you go, thirty forty
twenty ten five in zone, gentlemen, seventies six years touch.
It took him a little while to get to it.
But the Titans radio network on the call. Uh, and
(06:12):
all of a sudden he clocks in at one eight
miles per hour. Uh. And we got ourselves a ballgame. Smith,
So long way to go, get popcorn ready. I'm enjoying
the hell out of it. Just getting set to kick
off the third quarter again. Seventeen bills with the lead.
Will keep you updated on this. I'll also let you
know if the Red Sox hit any more grand slams
(06:32):
as uh. This game with the Astros got out of
hand very quickly. We're going to the top of the
fifth inning and Boston has a nine three lead over Houston.
All they do is hit grand slams. Kyle Schober getting
in on it tonight with a grand slam in the
second inning of the third time they've gone deep with
the bases loaded in this series with the Astros. So uh,
(06:54):
you know, hey, Astros did put three up on the
top of the fourth, but still it's a six run
lead for Boston as the Astros come to bout here
in the top of the fifth. Now part of the
big NFL breakdown we have going on right now. We
have this big story out of Washington State involving head
coach Nick Rolovich, and this plays into the big story
(07:15):
today involving Evander Kane, an HL forward who was suspended
for twenty one games for falsifying his COVID vaccination papers.
And on top of it, Adam Silver gave a big
State of the NBA UH press conference today talking about
how we wished that the Kyrie Irving situation was resolved
by the players when it came to a vaccine mandate. Um.
(07:38):
But this this is not an NBA issue. This is
a New York City issue. So now on the eve
of the NBA and the Nets have already announced the
Kyrie Irving is going to miss. You have the Evander
Kane story. I'm falsifying my COVID so i can go play.
And now Nick Rolovich, you remember him as a great
quarterback at the University of Hawaii for a long time.
He is now fired as head coach at Washington State.
(07:59):
He has let go along with other assistant coaches, four
of them after they refused the state mandated COVID nineteen vaccine. Uh.
He was someone who said very early on, I'm not
going to get it, and I'm hopeful we can continue
on here. Uh. The deadline was Monday for thousands of
state employees to get it. And the job of head
(08:20):
coach watching the state university is a state job, and
he didn't want to get it. So now he is
no longer the head coach and four other and four
other coaches as well are out. Now there's two parts
of this story. One is what we've talked about many times.
We alway feel the need to say it is that
when a state makes a rule, it's a it's a
you know, a private you know, it's like a private
(08:40):
corporation making a rule. A state can make a rule
for state employees. This is something that happens, right, You
can make that. You can make the rules and touch
the tentacles of what is under your jurisdiction. As I've
told you, I think it's kind of weird, and I
don't I don't like the fact that the state government's
getting involved with the NETS, which is a private entity
in the NBA. But here's the state building. Yeah, it's
(09:01):
but right, exactly, Well, the money towards the building. You
can as you can see, you could fudge buildings in
New York, right, like that's going on in the last
few days. But this is something Okay, we understood this
was coming right, This wasn't something brand new, This was
this is a state thing. What I'd like to do,
and and this is this is different from the conversation
I think anybody has had. Is I would like to
(09:24):
revisit Nick Rolovich and Evander Kine and and other people
who are losing everything, who have chosen this hill to
lose their livelihood on. I want to revisit them in
ten years ago? Was it really worth it? Do you
really think you were thinking clearly? What when it came
to this, when when it came to the COVID nineteen vaccine.
(09:45):
Al Right, first of all, I look, we lost Colin
Pale today, who was one of the greatest Americans that
that any of us could possibly look up to in
in in government. In the list of his accomplishments are
so many, and he, you know, passes away due to
complications of COVID even though he did get vaccinated. Now,
Colin Powell also was suffering and was riddled with cancer
(10:06):
which really made it difficult for his body to fight
COVID off. That's a big pre existing condition when it
comes to it. And and already you've seen that, well,
c Colin Powell died and he got vaccinated. Yes, in
very rare, rare, rare cases, that can happen if you
have a pre existing condition, right, that can happen to you.
But for the vast majority of us, you get vaccinated,
(10:29):
you're okay, you won't get it. You can still get it.
But in that case, the the all the symptoms is
very mild. And that's the vast vast majority. There's always
going to be outlies, which is unfortunate and tragic. You
don't want anybody to hey, I did this to try
to save my life or try to and it didn't work.
But you have to go with the percentages of what
(10:49):
of what the success rate of this is and and
and I I don't know what what People who don't
want to take it feel like we I don't know
why Kyrie Irving doesn't want to get vaccinated it I
don't know if it's Hey, in three years, they think
everybody you got vaccinated is going to die because it's
a science fiction movie and it's, oh, yeah, everybody got vaccine.
Everybody's gonna die. And the people who didn't get vaccinated,
(11:10):
they're the only ones left in the world. And it's
gonna be like it's gonna be like a new TV
show on TBS. That's not going to happen. That's not
gonna happen. This is out here, and the vaccine is
out here to help us get past COVID. This is
not people are coming to your door saying I need
to garnish your salary, or I'm taking I'm taking your car,
or you know what, I'm doing is going through and
(11:31):
taking away your valuables? Are that's not that this is
about something different and and it's being equated to all
these different uh things in the world that that that's
not right. This is a vaccine to try to get
past the pandemic so we can get past it. Right, Well,
everybody wants to get past it. I don't know what why.
(11:51):
That's why I really want to go back and and
and wait a few years and talk to people like
Nick Rolovich and go was this worth it? Was? It?
Was it worth? You were a head coach at Power
five college, everything in your life you went to get
to this moment? Right in the ESPN reporter too who
left because she didn't want to get COVID vaccinated? Is
it worth it? Is it worth giving up everything you've
(12:12):
worked for because you don't want to take a vaccine
that is going to help you fight off an infection
that has killed almost you know, almost a hundred uh
it's killed seven fifty thousand people, right, I mean, are
you really going to do that? Is that really where
you want to go? Because that's that's kind of where
I'm at now. It's like, do you really think this
is this is what you want to do. You want
(12:34):
to lose everything you've done because I don't want to
get a COVID vaccine. Kyrie Irving is gonna say goodbye
to the end of his career because he doesn't want
to get a COVID vaccine, because nobody's gonna trade for him.
Nobody's certainly gonna pay him ever again. So he's saying
goodbye to all of that. So when he says something like,
you think I want to do this, No you don't.
You don't have to there there's different things out there.
(12:54):
I don't get that part of it. And that's what
that's why I say, you know what, let's look at
something different. Intel years we go back to it. Was it?
Was it really worth it? Did you do you really
think you were thinking? Clearly? Do you really think? Because
I always say if you have a reason, I get it. Man,
if you give me a good reason, I will say
you are right. And I'll be the first person to
say you're right. You should not get the vaccine. Other
people like this should not get it. But the fact
(13:14):
is we haven't heard them. And and because because who
has who has had a good one so far, it's
been really, really difficult. And it's a shame that a
story like this happens. That here's Nick Roe who's now
got to figure out some other way to provide for
his family. These other coaches gotta figure another way to
provide for their family because I didn't want to get
COVID vaccinated for for whatever reason. And and that's the
(13:36):
real shame about this is that I know in a
few years you're gonna say, hey, uh, was it worth it?
And they're gonna go, oh, yeah, yeah, really wasn't that.
That's that's that's a tough part of this. Mike. Well,
in the end, you make your decisions, right. You've had
plenty of time to mull it over. The mandate was
announced by the governor on August eighteen, So that's two
(13:56):
months to make your decision of what you wanted to do. Uh.
And school President Kirk Schultz in a release h Washington
State University students, faculty staff understand the importance of getting vaccinated,
wearing masks that we could say fellly returned in person,
learning and activities. I'm proud of all those members of
our community have set the example and taking the steps
(14:16):
to protect not just themselves, but they're fellow coogs. So
now we get into discussions of you know, the selfishness,
leadership role that he's supposed to have. Whatever he made
his choice right, and for the players, the staff, for
everybody that they come into contact with, it's certainly elevated
the risk coming in. And you could say, again, you
(14:38):
know you can get it. If you're vaccinated, you're still around,
so as long as you protect yourself. What's the difference
is where people go with this, and it's the you know,
you live in a society. I guess as we go
back to the base of it all and and maybe
he'll regret it a year from now, two years from now,
five year or whatever that timeline is. But in the
(15:02):
moment he made a choice, these are the consequences and
off he goes. Now it it costs a lot on
the student athletes and everybody in the program, right that
this is their coach. Oh wait, middle of the season,
No he's not anymore. So I don't have you been planning,
you know, for his eventual departure. The other part is,
(15:23):
and again not to go deep down the rabbit hole,
but you know it was reported and leaked June Jones.
His mentor, UH leaked the information to USA today after
UM the Coog's win over Oregon State on the ninth
of October that Rolovich was looking for a religious exemption.
And this is where I'd like to, you know, anybody
(15:44):
that wants to give me the education as to where
in any scripture and any doctrine. And I'm not saying
it flippingly. I have. I have read countless articles about it.
You know, the ESPN reporter that stepped away was talking
about morals and this and the other and and kind
of going down pushing towards religion, and many have and
(16:04):
then listen for my own edification. All right, I'm not
being flippant about it. I'm not mocking anybody, right, because
there's plenty of folks that are more than willing to
do that for me. It's if you're claiming religious exemption,
I just want you to educate me as to you
what exactly in religion you're claiming, because I've seen countless articles,
countless write ups, many church leaders from all over the
(16:27):
globe saying no, it's our responsibility to look out for
our fellow man and get the vaccine and get vaccinated. Uh,
you know, so I I don't get it, So that
part of it is still just curious to me on
a on a more intellectual pursuit of all of this,
of trying to wrap it all in my arms. But
for Rollovich, he made a decision. He's out of a job.
(16:49):
And there's a lot of people right now that are
disappointed to have to pick up their lives and continue
on after you know, committing to play for this man
and now have to try to finish off this season
in a positive way. And so that that's part of
it that is unfair on on them because of his
(17:09):
decision to stay unvaccinated. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. Yes,
are we could see a lead change here in Tennessee
(17:31):
as the Titans trailing the Bills right now twenty three seventeen,
midway through the third quarter. But Titans have a second
and goal Tennant has just thrown incomplete on a fade
pattern because you know, I love the fade because it
works so well. We'll just wait five seconds, you might
see a change, So we'll keep you updated on this.
But joining us now on the Hotline CBS Sports NFL
(17:53):
Insider Extraordinaire. You can follow him on Twitter at Jason
locking for That is at Jason locking for Aura. He
is right now helping Tommy DeVito through the transfer portal
at Syracuse. It is the aforementioned Jason locking Forward. What's happening, Jay? Oh,
I am just living the dream. How are you? Gentlemen?
Hey buddy, Yeah, I want you to help me out
(18:15):
with something here, Jay, because you know, look, look, Lamar
Jackson has been playing great like he has been for
the majority of his career. Yeah, three plus years. Yeah,
and now you know, you get today John Harbaugh saying, Hey,
you know, Lamar Jackson's critics are starting to shut up
now and and and they kind of are. And I'm
scratching my head, going He's always been really good. I
(18:35):
don't see him doing anything way differently than he has
been in the past, except more people are finding less
ways to say I don't know about Lamar Jackson. What what?
What are you seeing from Lamar? Anything really different from him?
This year? Now I think it's changed. You look at
his air yards per tempt, you look at his yards
per completion UM. You look at how they're pushing the
(18:57):
ball down field. You look at first down on passing,
He's throwing on first down more than it ever has.
You look at play action passing UM never been a
point of emphasis here, uh, at least not since Flacco
was in his prime. Only justin Herbert has had more
dropbacks and more attempts play action than Lamar. Lamar's throwing
(19:19):
on first down more than ever has before. He's he's
pushing the ball outside the hash marks more than he
has before. They're getting more yards after the catch than
they have before. There has definitely been a transformation in
the passing game. UM. And And not to say he
couldn't have done more of this before or whatever, but
(19:42):
I think if you go and look at sort of
the balance of power of this roster, and you look
at you know, a year ago where Okay, Ingram might
be getting a little long in the tooth, but we've
got this, you know, Couse Edwards, guy who averages five
point two five per carry, And we got this J K.
Dobbins kid, This rookie who's going to end up averaging
(20:03):
over six yards per carry, and so let's just keep
feeding that beast, right, And now those two are done
for the year. And we're talking about with Davia's Murray
off the scrap heap and Levian Bell off the scrap heap,
and you know, Davante Freeman who couldn't make the Giants
off the scrap heap, and an offensive line that's kind
of beat up in or this is and Nick Borrow, right,
(20:27):
we got a six million dollar a year blocking tight
end who's not available to us. So are we really
going to road grade people or do we have to
open it up? And we've got Hollywood Brown, who, um
now is running a more robust route tree. We've got
Mark Andrews, who is a great move tight end. Our
first round pick Rashod Bateman is finally available last week, Um,
(20:49):
Sammy Watkins has made some plays, Devin DuVernay is showing up.
All the ascended talent is in the passing game. So
they are they are bombs away in in in a
way that they again haven't been since probably Joe Flacco's
playoff run. You know, when they slayed the Dragon of
Brady and and Peyton Manning and ultimately beat the forty
(21:11):
Niners in the in the Super Bowl. It's definitely changed. Um.
And you the way that Lamar climbs the pocket now
and sort of navigates that and looks people off with
his eyes, and he's finding his third option, his fourth option.
It's it's pretty special. Um. It's different than and and boy,
(21:31):
you watch it and you say, my god, if they
if they did have Dobbins, because they were lining up
Dobbins in training camp as you know, a slot receiver,
as an outside receiver, UM as a running back, UM
as almost at time, sort of like a move fullback,
like an h back. I mean, they were going to
(21:52):
throw the ball at Dobbins all over the place. And
he's a special athlete and they won't have him at
all this year. But if they did, I think they're off.
It's of efficiency would be even more off the charts
than it already is, all right, Jason. Well, One of
the other games that beyond the back to the Future
thing with the running backs there in Baltimore, which is
kind of fun. Everybody plays, everybody wins, uh, is the
(22:13):
Urban Meyer victory across the Pond. One of the prettiest
couple of field goals you'll ever see from a kicker,
that nice curve back in, like like he had some
English going on there, and was thought at least one
of them was headed for you know, section the third
row or whatever. It looked like it was just gonna
(22:33):
um go off into the ether on the right side,
but then bent back in. Look, I thought they'd win
that game. It was one of my best bets last week.
I thought they'd win it outright, said play the money line.
You won't need the three and a half points. Miami
is garbage. Uh, Miami is even in worse dire straits
than Um then Jacksonville, and Jacksonville does have discernible strength
(22:59):
now a sale that the Browns have lost both tackles,
in both running backs. Jacksonville is the number one rushing
team in the NFL and they're also top three in
defending the run. And at least that was a starting point.
That's a modicum of an identity. Could Urban Meyers still
screw it up? Absolutely good things don't completely haywired, especially
(23:20):
in the second half. Damn straight as a year. But
they had that going for them, and guys, they're they've
been going over to to jackson to well, I was
I say, Jacksonville further east to London for eight years
and there's a lot of guys on that roster who
are accustomed to that trip, who know how to navigate
(23:43):
that trip, who it's just kind of built into their
schedule and it wasn't for for for urban but they
also as an organization knew how to make that trip,
knew when it was best for sleep patterns and rest
and rehab and recovery and all that like when to
make that trip. They've learned through trial and error in
a way that Miami had. So yeah, I thought that
(24:06):
would be the rare game this year that they would
get better as the game went on in Miami would
get worse. And Miami doesn't have a lot of talent.
Miami is not a well run operation. Um, they're falling
apart of the seams. And unfortunately for them, they opted
not to take that bye week coming back from London,
which means now that the walking wounded, now they're punch
(24:29):
drunk and and you know, even further chasing their own
tails because they just made that trip in the short
amount of time and lost another game and don't really
know what they do well and big changes are on
the horizon. When you say big changes, this is Flora's.
This is too well. I mean, I don't know how
(24:52):
like you can't separate them, you know what I mean, Like, oh, well,
career made bad cost careers not doing anything that Flora's
doesn't want to do, careers of pleaser careers there to work,
you know, and try to facilitate a symbiotic relationship with
the coach. He's got taken a quarterback of the coach
doesn't want. He's not bringing in all these new England
guys that the coach doesn't want, you know. He he
(25:15):
doesn't want to trade or cut or release or wave
uh top free agents nine months after signing them. Uh.
He doesn't want to draft players who the coach doesn't
want to play. I mean that the whole thing has
been um unseemly, you know, frankly, and it's it's it's
(25:37):
not simpatico. I've been reporting on this since the spring.
Nothing that's happened there has surprised me. In the least.
You've got two offensive coordinators means you've got none. You know,
It's just you're too cute by half You're constantly firing coaches,
you're constantly firing players, and you think you're building some
sort of juggernaut. No you're not. You're lucky to win
ten last year. You were going to be the post
(26:00):
your boys for regression. You are the poster boys for regression. Uh.
And the owner is looking at this thing saying, you know,
a pox on other houses, like who which Who's who's? Like,
who's the good cop? Who's the bad cop? I mean,
I get it. I mean I know Flora's is working
them over, like I know Flora's is playing that game
(26:23):
as many many Bill Belichick disciples I played, But I
don't really know what he has to, you know, to
stand on and Stephen Ross at this point's gotta look
around and say, no, none of this is really worth
doubling down on. I and I feel bad for Dolphins fans,
(26:44):
but it's like, here we go again, Hey Jason, With
taxation on the rise and a lot of problems in Chicago,
should Aaron Rodgers really be claiming ownership of the Bears?
You know, I that's a good question. I'm not an accountant.
I am, thank god I have an accountant and tax
people and uh, financial advisors that I trust because I
(27:08):
I don't know how many pennies are in a dollar.
Like I'm the wrong guy to ask about any of
that stuff. Um. But do I think that Aaron Rodgers
has like a fifty year mortgage in the heads of Brown,
of Sorry, of of of Bears fans, I do, Um.
I think he lives rent free in their minds forever.
(27:30):
I think they look at him and say, how the
hell did those guys go from far up to Rogers?
And we've gone from Sid Luckman to nobody. I mean,
I don't even know, Like, like you know, we had
like two years of McMahon and like half a year
of Cutler. I guess before he and Mike Marks are
ready to choke each other out, Like, I don't know, man,
(27:50):
it's I think fields Um, I think fields is has
the potential to be an impactful NFL starting quarterback. But again,
it takes a village. It's not just about him. It's
about a lot of the things that he can't control. Uh.
But they were in that game for you know, a
decent way into the second half, and then Rogers did
(28:15):
what Rogers has always done against the Bears, um, and
they had no answers for that. Yeah. I mean, look,
we'll see if the Vikings can keep pace with the Packers.
We know that Detroit and Chicago are perennially rebuilding, um,
(28:37):
and we'll see it. But Green Bay might be in
position to be that that one team in the NFC
that gets to take the first weekend in the playoffs off.
All right. Lastly, speaking of the NFC, J like it's
a it's a weekly topic, and I know you'd be
You're being dragged to this kicking and screaming. Are you
believing a little bit more in the Dallas Cowboys now
(28:59):
than you have been? I wrote him a couple about
it was ten days ago or so. I don't know
last Wednesday. Maybe it was less than ten. I don't know.
It all bleeds together, but I I have um, I
have waived the white flag on my skepticism of them
being a team that's capable of doing some damage in
(29:22):
the NFC. Do I think they're winning a Super Bowl?
I don't, but it's really really hard to win a
Super Bowl. Uh. I think that the Margins are a
little bit slim when it comes to their offensive defensive line.
Should injuries emerge, and in recent years they have. But
(29:44):
that man offenses it's a lot of fun to watch there.
They are, um, they're there beastly on that side of
the ball, and they have enough playmakers on defense that
even when they get into these ruts where it's like
I don't know, Digs or Gregory, you know, or Parsons somebody,
(30:07):
all the when that offense is that good, you don't
even need like defensive wizardry. You don't need like a
top five defense. You just need playmakers who are going
to force that one point, are going to deflect the ball,
knock it down, are going to chase a quarterback out
(30:28):
of bounds. They need you know, three or four stops
a game. And then they're better than that because Diggs
is like out of this world and they are not
just getting sacks, but they're getting striped sacks. They're getting
you know, game changing momentum shifting plays out of that defense.
And they play in the division that's hot garbage, and
(30:49):
they're gonna win a lot of games and it's gonna
put them in good stead. So yeah, Dallas, I can
I say the like the letter after the letter the
letter after eat this up. That's okay, Yeah, I get
that yeah, Mr Marco man, Mr Marco in Arizona. I
(31:13):
overrated the Patriots UM and yeah there's probably there definitely
is another team that I overrated that I wrote a
colin now, maybe with Seattle a few weeks ago, but
once it could have been the Jets down. No, I
didn't know. I had the Jets dead to rights. I
(31:34):
know exactly what the Jets side. He's so, do you, Unfortunately, Yes,
I I do. I do. I do. Hey, Stingley is
gonna look great in uh in the Jets jersey next year.
He's on Twitter at Jason Locke and four that is
at Jason Locke and for a CBS Sports NFL insider.
Jay is always buddy, appreciative man. We'll talk to you
next week next Monday. Thank you. Be sure to catch
(31:57):
live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike car
In weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey,
I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball. We
usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more
about the stories about what made these people love their
sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
(32:18):
talked to coaches, we talked to players, we tell you stories,
you download it, you listen to it. I think you
like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gottlieb on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
get your podcast. Fox Sports Radio, that Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. Bills lead the Titans
(32:42):
thirty one. Still a lot of time left here, eleven
minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and this has
been a really entertaining game. We have the Buffalo Special.
We'll break that down for you coming up in about
ten minutes. But before we get to that, look, nothing
has changed for one team that people think things are
changed for in the NFL after this week, right, I
(33:04):
told you weeks ago it was going to be a
struggle for the Chiefs to be a wild card in
the NFL playoffs because the offense isn't what it was
even two years ago. The defense stinks, all right, They
don't have any big time weapons that you're afraid of.
Outside of Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey. This is not
the same kind of offense. But they win a game
(33:26):
against Washington and now it's oh, look at this down
there three and three. Everybody else in the NFC West
Laws Chiefs. No, the Chiefs are still the same, right,
They're still the same. There's still a team that's going
to struggle, right, There're still going to do it. This
is not suddenly everything is great. You beat a really
bad football team that has zero idea of how to
carry over last year's defensive success to this year's all right,
(33:48):
So just that that's where it's at, right with the Chiefs.
Nothing has changed for the Chiefs now because of about positivity,
Mike car and I'm about going forward, right, Like I
told you know, I said weeks ago, the Chiefs are
gonna struggle. Last week everybody came around to that saying, now,
you know, the Chiefs are not very good now and
three they're not good. They got problems, and I don't
see a way out of this. Oh, you're welcome for that.
Take Now everything is fine. Everything is not fine. They
(34:12):
beat a really bad football team. Again, you're three and three,
You're not five and one. You're going to struggle to
make the playoffs. The only way to get out of
this and make it better. It's great that they were
talking about getting Marlon Mack. You know, they need needing
a running back. They need something else. You gotta go
bigger than that. If you are the Chiefs, you gotta
hunt for Allen Robinson, Michael Thomas. Give up something big,
(34:35):
give up a big draft pick to get one of
these guys because eventually they're gonna walk away from their teams. Right.
You know, Allen Robinson wants nothing to do with Chicago anymore.
Michael Thomas is really unhappy in New Orleans. You can
give something, you can give a nice, big draft pick,
and it's gonna be oh boy, hey, you know what
the Chiefs are in the a f C. We don't
really care. We can trade them away. You gotta go
(34:57):
big game hunting for a superstar player, a great wide receiver,
and that's Allen Robinson, that's Michael Thomas. That will make
things different, That will make things incredibly different for the
Chiefs offense. And then watch them roll and then it's
gonna be danger, danger, danger. You're not gonna get one
defensive player that's gonna do it. You go get an
elite wide receiver like that. That's how things will change.
(35:17):
So it's funny because you mentioned, I mean, Michael Thomas
is elite in that system and has been right and
has been a beast. But now he's coming off injury
and and off on the sideline. Not quite sure when
he's going to be cleared for activity at this point.
But for Allan Robinson, we've got certain guys that come
on here, Cole among them that derived the upside and
(35:40):
the elite level that is Allen Robinson. So trying to
determine what he is, but certainly yeah, adding another weapon, sure,
and go out and try to outscore everybody. I would
guess there are plenty of defensive options if you wanted
to go and make a couple of hits in that regard.
Now their schedule is is a mess, uh down the stretch.
(36:02):
That's the problem with winning with great regularity. As Ron
Rivera lamented in the week leading up to the Chiefs game, right,
I wish we hadn't won the division because then expectations
wouldn't be high and I parenthetically put and your schedule
would be a lot less daunting on a week to
week basis. But you know, Patrick Mahomes, maybe at some
point they remind him, hey, stop being careless with the ball,
(36:24):
and you see some of the great things he can
still do. One of the interceptions was a tip ball
up in the air. There's really nothing you can do
with that. But look, I don't I don't leave them
for dead. I'll take Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes against
a bunch of the teams they're competing for playoff spots against.
Go get Big, Go Big go, Michael Thomas, go Allen
Robinson turned that into the most dangerous offense in the
(36:46):
NFL again. Then you solve stuff you like that. Coming
up next, boy do we have a great hot take
about Aaron Rodgers coming your way. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon,
This is five
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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