September 7, 2024 • 53 mins
John reacts to the Philadelphia Eagles' 34-29 win over the Green Bay Packers in Brazil. He breaks down Saquon Barkley's 3-touchdown performance that powered the Eagles to victory and discusses Jalen Hurts' inconsistent play, questioning what it means for the rest of the season. John also touches on Jordan Love's late-game injury scare and how, if he stays healthy, the Packers' offense can lead them to the playoffs. However, he emphasizes that the Packers' defense must improve to reach Super Bowl contender status, and the Eagles' hopes depend on Hurts reducing turnovers.
Then John takes a look back to the TNF game and offers his thoughts on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens who may seem delusional in their post game comments, but explains that people and teams who have a vision may seem delusional to those who do not have the same level of confidence in what they are trying to achieve. John wraps the show with his Weekend 6 Pack of takes that include Bill Belichick's take on Chicago Bears rookie QB, Caleb Williams, what the Denver Broncos will look like with rookie QB, Bo Nix, and much more.
3:16 - Packers/Eagles Instant Reaction
27:56 - Chiefs are Lamar's kryptonite
34:27 - John's Weekend 6 Pack
35:13 - Belichick on Caleb Williams
41:16 - What will the Broncos look like with Bo Nix at QB?
43:30 - Jim Harbaugh's return
44:38 - Tom Brady's first game broadcasting
48:35 - Fading the Dolphins
51:09 -Overreacting to week 1 games
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (01:43):
What is going on Everybody? John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast,
How are we doing a little Saturday special? Because we
had a Friday night NFL game the Eagles. I don't
want to say squeak by, but it was a pretty
tight game. Jordan Love gets injured at the end, but
(02:07):
I'm recording this right after, so hopefully he's okay. But
he also was dealing with calf. He was all over
the map, had some good, had some really bad. Jalen
had some really good, also some really I mean he
threw a pick in the end zone and had a
fumble wasn't his fault, but also through another pick, but
Sakwon Barkley three touchdowns, AJ Brown DeVante dominate. Both defenses
(02:32):
look pretty suspect the Packers, for a team that had
a lot of hype about a defensive coordinator that I
gotta start being more like Belichick stopped buying into the hype.
I'm like, I bet they're gonna be better, and they
look exactly the same and they were just getting shredded.
John Morris probably not happy today, So we'll dive into
that game. A couple thoughts from the Ravens after I
(02:54):
just ended up doing a podcast the Ravens after the
lost some of their comments about the Chiefs. And then
we're just gonna fire around the NFL. I thought, you know,
it's the weekend. I might just pick up like a
six pack of beer and just drink and watch football tomorrow.
So I said, let's just do a little Saturday six
pack and I hit six things that I just want
(03:15):
to hit on throughout the NFL. Things I'm fired up
for this Sunday because we got a full slate and
regardless of the batchups, one this week one that all
the games look pretty good because we don't know who's
good or bad yet. I'm still thinking about what I
just witnessed. You know, I had the Packers as a
top five team. I lean the Cowboys to win the division.
(03:36):
But I also like the Eagles as a lock playoff team.
I still feel that way because their talent. But you
just to be a super Bowl contender, you have to
be good on defense. You have to be good on defense.
The forty nine ers like why they went to the
super Bowl as their defense is good. Why the Eagles
and Niners play each other two years they both had
good defenses. You cannot make serious runs when, especially your past,
(04:00):
you can't stop the run. So I think both these
defensive coordinators are not gonna sleep on this long plane
ride home. But subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the
YouTube channel. Bunch of content up there as well, for sure.
But before we do that, you know, I got to
tell you about my friends, my partners, and the official
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Today last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Obviously many of you,
(05:10):
most of our listeners are in America, though we do
have an international audience. We've even had people from Brazil
hit me up. I am okay. With the expansion of
the league and going international with these games, I do
think when you do it and you go to Brazil.
Let's face it, that field tonight was a disaster. It
(05:31):
looked like these guys were on ice on both teams,
and how many plays both these two teams possess one
their cash cows for the league. Green Bay's one of
the biggest brands. Obviously, so is Philadelphia. They're consistent stall
warts in the playoffs where the league makes a lot
of their money. It's why these right holders pay so
(05:51):
much because of the ratings, not just in the regular season,
but how gigantic these playoff games are. And there are
a lot of really important people on every NFL team,
but specifically ones that are gonna win double digit games
and be playing in January. And I listen as recording
this immediately right after the game. I don't know Jordan
Love's status based on just a guy that's been watching
(06:14):
sports for thirty five years. Looked like he just rolled
an ankle. Thank god, because whenever anyone's laying there and listen,
that could happen on any field. He got twisted by
a couple defensive linemen, but they got very lucky that
no one tore an achilles or tore in acl Slipping
and sliding on that field, I mean, I can't imagine
early on in that game when guys were sliding, Goodakinson
(06:36):
Howie are like, oh my god. And I know Blackledge
said that when he went to practice yesterday the field
was in pretty good shape. Well, I don't know what happened.
Whether it's the do at night, I don't know if
they're close to the ocean or not. Not a geography
major here in terms of where the city is relative
(06:57):
in the area. But that was, and that was in
Roger's sitting there with the ambassador of America from the
Brazil for Brazil. I just thought it was rough. It
really was. I'm not trying to be a negative Nancy.
I'm glad football's back, but un listen, some of our
fields in America historically have been hit or miss at times.
(07:18):
I remember when the forty nine Ers built their stadium,
their field conditions were a joke. But that's what I
thought tonight. And when you're gonna go international, and especially
to a place that you are not consistently going, and
for that to happen, I mean, can you imagine if
an aj Brown, a Saquon Barkley, you know, one of
(07:39):
the star players on the Green Bet Josh Jacobs, had
slipped in the open field by themselves in a non
contact injury and ripped their knee up. And I was
kind of holding my breath all night as guys were
slipping and sliding, even Saquon after he scored a touchdown,
ran toward the back of the end zone to kind
of go around before Lane Johnson readed him, and he
(08:01):
almost did a little slip and he kind of caught himself.
So it was just it was a rough night for
the field. The officials these last two nights are throwing
flags left and right. But I want to get to
the game and a little good, bad and ugly with
both teams. Obviously, the best is winning. That's the whole
point of the sport. So regardless how good, how bad,
(08:21):
how ugly, if you win a game, especially when your
playing flight is eight hours to the destination, you feel
pretty good about yourself. Week one is a big deal.
You've had nine months, especially a team like the Eagles.
They don't play any of their starters and Jalen Hurts
open the game with just a horrendous pick down the
middle of the field into like double coverage. That was
(08:44):
an easy interception. Toward the end of the game, he
threw one of the worst interceptions you can possibly throw.
I don't pretend to be Bill Walsh or Kyle Shanahan here,
but it's a basic rule in football when it comes
to quarterback play, especially in the red zone. Do not
throw across your body, and he did and it got picked.
(09:06):
And at the time he was thirty one to twenty six,
So if they had just kicked a field goal, it
would have been thirty four to twenty six. And the
play before he easily could have thrown a pick six. Now,
the good with Jalen is when he does get into
a rhythm, he's a beautiful deep ball thrower. He has
good touch on balls that kind of loop in the air.
(09:26):
I would not say that he has a super strong
arm in terms of just throwing bullets, but anytime you
get a deeper breaking route and he can set his feet,
he's pretty accurate. And he did that consistently all night.
To AJ Brown, he had got her a couple times
DeVante Smith. This is why I like the Eagles, even
if you have some question marks with him. Their talent
(09:47):
on offense is just kind of stupid. Saquan went twenty
four for one oh nine and three touchdowns to night.
AJ Brown had five for one to nineteen, Davonte Smith
had seven for eighty four, and Goddard at four catches.
Like all those guys make big time coin into including
the quarterback and many guys on the offensive line, so
(10:08):
their offensive skill guys, even when he's throwing picks, are
so explosive that they're gonna be able to score twenty
five to thirty points pretty easily. We talked about it
last night with Kansas City last year and everyone's been
saying this, if you're gonna get him, he should have
got him last year because it was hard for them
to score points. Well, it's not gonna be hard for
them to score points, but they're often offensive weaponry. Obviously,
(10:30):
Patrick Mahomes is dramatically better than Jalen, but in terms
of the skill around him, that's about as good as
you get. I mean, AJ Brown and DeVante Smith, you
could argue are one of the better one to two combinations.
And we talked about this in the off season when
we were watching Hard Knocks. I understand the philosophical belief
of we don't pay older running backs. It's very, very risky.
(10:54):
I totally get it. But when John Morrow said I
don't know if I can sleep at night if he
goes to the Eagles, Everyone's like, that's how a fan talks. Well, yeah,
kind of, but he also knows that's our best player
and that's the best organization in our division. So if
a shitty team is willing to overpay your running back, yeah,
(11:15):
maybe you should question yourself, like is this like let
them go? I totally understand it. You don't need, I
guess you don't need to question yourself. But the Eagles,
who are about as well run as any team in
the league when it comes to picking and signing players,
are very, very interested because of as we've talked about
in both the running backs on you know, Jacob's included,
(11:37):
they are now a discount, right. Brandon Aiyuk cost thirty
million dollars a year. You had to give them seventy
five million dollars guaranteed. Actually I think it was seventy six.
Saquon Barkley's total of his contract guaranteed and non guaranteed
money was thirty seven million dollars over three years. So
(12:00):
it's now a discount, right, you know by low sell
high well now on running backs who are really really good,
as is saq one and you saw tonight like very
very explosive and it's not like he's just a speedback.
He is a physical player. He obviously can catch the ball.
He had a receiving touchdown he's a dynamic player and
it completely changes their offense. Now, the thing with Jalen
(12:23):
is he's an interesting player because obviously he's talented and
he's gonna put up big numbers, but he's not near
the top Ducks. And I think when you look back
two years ago with Shane Stiken a little bit of
an outlier as you saw tonight, like he puts the
ball in harm's way, I think it's fair to question
his decision making. I would not put him near the
(12:44):
top as a great decision maker. The first interception you
could go, well, didn't play in the preseason, a little rusty,
let's even chalk that one up. But down the stretch
of the game when you have a lead, he easily
could have thrown. Now the second one. If he would
have thrown the pick six, the next play would not
have happened, obviously, But then later on the next drive
(13:06):
he almost threw another pick to Jy Alexander where he
was right in front of AJ Brown, And I think
sometimes when he's flustered, he just makes poor decisions. Luckily,
they're so explosive and they're scoring so many points that
they can overcome it. And the Packers defense, who will
get into in a minute, is obviously not great. But
I think Jalen is just obviously his good is really
(13:30):
good and his bad is really bad. Like you saw
to night, some MVP, I don't even MVP like Pro
Bowl level plays, and you saw like Daniel Jones level place,
and it's gonna be on Kellen Moore and it's gonna
be on the coaching staff to try to corral that.
But I do think it's gonna be kind of difficult.
So when I look at the Eagles, like I didn't
(13:53):
pick him to win the division. I picked the Cowboys,
And I guess we'll see Dak play on Sunday. But
like I think Dak, I am more confident in on
the long haul of his play, Jalen is a little
bit more of a roller coaster. And you saw to
night the full package. You saw the good, bad, and
the ugly series the series, And I think one thing
(14:15):
is Jalen can't play like he's Peyton Manning. That's not
his style. And I think deep down he wants to
just I just want to be a pocket quarterback. He's
not as fast obviously as Lamar, But what makes Lamar
a top five quarterback is not his throwing. He's a
fine thrower, but when he has to win within the pocket,
(14:36):
that's not his thing. It's that he's a dominant dual
threat quarterback. And I think ever since two years ago,
toward the end of the season Jalen, the year that
he was competing to win the MVP and then had
the really good Super Bowl, he was a real, real
dual threat player. And if you watch him at Oklahoma,
when he ran, he'd like turn into a running back.
He's not super fast, but he's just a super instinctive runner,
(14:59):
and you saw tonight he's really powerful. But I don't
think he really wants to do it anymore. He did
it a couple times at the end of the game,
but throughout the course of the game, it feels like
those days are kind of over. Like deep down, Jalen,
and this happened to Russell, like I want to prove
I can be a pocket quarterback, and I just don't
think that's the way to play him. I really don't. Now.
(15:20):
If you scheme the perfect play because of their talent,
it's gonna work. But over the course of a game,
things are gonna break down. He kind of holds the
ball a little bit long. He can keep plays alive
because he's mobile, but sometimes when he does that, he
gets into just awful situation. So I listen. I'm not
saying you're down on Jalen Hurts. If you're an Eagle
fan or if you're Howie, I'm not saying you're high
(15:41):
on him. You're just kind of like, WHOA, this is
gonna be a roller coaster ride. Luckily, our team's pretty
stacked now. We talked about it coming into this game. Defensively,
is their defensive line needed to dominate well as this
game went on. They've invested two real high picks into
Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, two blue Chippers. I mean, Jalen,
(16:06):
if it wasn't for all the off the field question marks,
would have been a lock number one overall pick, non quarterback.
And I don't have to think who was in his draft,
but he would have been the first quarterback off the board.
But he fell to ninth for a reason, and you
watched him to night, You're like, where is he? Why
isn't he dominating Jordan Davis? The knock on him last
year was wait, and they're getting gashed tonight by Josh Jacobs.
(16:31):
Even the backup was averaging over ten yards of carry.
The Packers ran for one hundred and sixty three yards
now thirty three of those were on a Jaden Reid
end around. But still, I mean, I think part of
what made the Eagles really good a couple of years
ago was their defensive line dominated. Where's the edge pressure?
(16:54):
I mean, Brandon Graham's older. Now, they paid Huff a
lot of money, who did the question mark with him
was being an all around player? How is he against
the run? Didn't really feel his presence and the linebacker
play is just gonna be a question.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
They signed Devin White, who was supposed to be a
plug and play player. He didn't play tonight, so maybe
he will help. But Michael Lombardi's talked about this for
a while, and listen, I agree, when your linebackers don't
play super fast, sometimes your defense can feel a little slow.
And against the run, their defense felt a little slow. Now,
the young guy they drafted, Mitchell from Toledo looks like
(17:30):
a real, really good player, but the rest of their dbs,
I mean, it's gonna be a challenge if their defensive
line does not perform at a much higher rate than this.
Their offense is gonna have to score a lot of
points because that was concerning. You know, listen, it's the
first week, but and the Packers have a lot of juice.
(17:51):
But man, I just when you draft guys really really
high on your front four by year two, year three,
you expect them to be serious pack players throughout the game.
And I just didn't feel their presence. So Jalen roller
coaster good thing for Sirianni this. He didn't really factor
in good or bad to this game. I don't blame
him for those Jalen decisions. You know, Kellen does a
(18:12):
good job scheming guys open, but man, you just can't
make some of those decisions. And he as a coach,
like once the ball snapped and a guy scramble and
do his right, like you've drilled it in a million times.
You don't think Saban's told him that, Lincoln Riley's told
him that. I think his dad was his high school coach,
Like he's heard it for a long period of time.
You can't make that play, especially this many years into
(18:33):
your career, regardless how much you make. I mean, that's
that's football. One on one. But even with all these
question marks with his turnovers, I think the tush push
clearly is not the same, definitely not the same, and
you lose one of, if not the greatest center of
all time, definitely the best center of his generation. Feels different. Obviously,
(18:56):
the snap at the end of the game, they're not
on the same pay They had a fumbled snap early
in the game where Jalen wasn't paying attention. Clearly it
wasn't supposed to be snapped. Then that's just something to
keep an eye on, because I would say their cohesion
center to quarterback was as good as it got. It
was like the Stephan Clay version of quarterback center exchange.
(19:18):
And now that's gone. And I think we underestimate that
because it's hard to quantify, right. It's easy to quantify
losing a running back, a tight end, a wide receiver,
but like what happens when you lose the greatest center
in the history of the franchise, who was a huge
part of one of the most unique plays we've ever seen,
and we felt to tonight, it's simply not the same.
But with all that being said, you'll take a win
(19:41):
no matter how many question marks and crazy things happened
throughout the game. The Packers. I'm as high on Jordan
Love as anyone. I picked them to compete for the
NFC because I'm buying socking this guy. And maybe by
the time you're listening to this. He said after the game,
assuming his ankles all right, that his calf was giving
him a lot of trouble and he wasn't able to
plant and throw and drive the ball. But I would
(20:05):
say for like half his throws, especially in the second half,
it felt like he was watching an Aaron Rodgers in
the prime of his career teach tape, which no one
should do because no one can really do that throwing
balls off the back of his feet all over the place.
He was extremely erratic, I thought for stretches in the
third quarter. He was awful, which is concerning one just
(20:30):
the health of the player, but like, we can't have
this loosey goosey just kind of flinging it all over
the place with our feet not being set. You have
a good arm, but it's one thing to throw the
ball off your back feet because you're getting pressure. It's
another thing with the clean pocket and just being too
cool for school, like that's why the ball is not
(20:50):
gonna go where it's supposed to go. And I thought
Jordan Love the second half of the game. Now, maybe
it was his calf cramping up. Maybe it was just
who knows, doctor, I haven't seen the press conference yet,
but that was bad. It was just not good. And
they were playing winning football because they were running the
ball down the Eagles throats and they're wide receivers even
(21:13):
slipping and sliding all over the field were getting open
those young wide receivers, reed Wis Watson. Uh, that's a
that's an encouraging group, Tucker Craft. It's hard not to
like their group of young skill guys. But Jordan Love,
you know, you get you get paid a lot of
pressure on you, Like we still need you to just
(21:34):
have some basic footwork here. Obviously he knows it, but
he's just kind of like too cool for school. And
the balls, like if he was a baseball pitcher, you
would have yanked him in the fourth or the fifth inning.
Obviously I'm not saying you would have pulled him out
of the game, but like, balls are flying all over
the map, and I think both these running backs back
to the market, both these teams bought low on running
(21:56):
backs relative to all these other positions. And those two
guys are studs, Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley. I mean
when they're humming their top five running backs. Obviously, Saquon's
probably a top two or three. I think Josh Jacob
has said for years he might even be more complete
than Saquon does fast, but he is a very very
good player. And when you're quarterback, and both these two
(22:19):
teams just a radic quarterback play. Like the one thing
on Thursday night, Lamar was a little up and down,
but he could always make up for it when he's like,
fuck it, I'm gonna I'm gonna run for thirty yards
and look like Barry Sanders or Walter Payton. Now that's
not the way he played. I was texting with a
buddy tonight. In the league, He's like, listen, he is
tough to play, but that is not a sustainable way
(22:40):
to play. But in an individual game situation, sometimes you
gotta do it. Jordan loved By the end of the game,
it might have been his CAF couldn't he wasn't even
that mobile, but even when he stayed in the pocket,
he wasn't very accurate, so it was just if you're
a Packer fan. It's not total freakout time by any means,
but it was not a very good game that looked
much more like over the course of the game, like
(23:04):
the first half of last year, than it did the
second half of last year when he became one hundred
and fifty million dollar player. And this is what I
always say, why it's so hard to become a star,
because becoming a star is not doing something for a year.
And even though I projected him to keep being good,
I bought into it. How could you not, But it's
(23:26):
hard to do it year after year. So there's gonna
be pressure on him one just to get healthy and
just play more consistent because with that many skill guys,
there aren't excuses. And here's the other thing, like Division's
tough man, so it's this was a road game into Brazil,
not the end of the world by any means, but
I think individually, when you look at him, makes you
(23:48):
scratch your head a little bit. And then, last but
not least, I talked about it coming into this game
on Thursday's podcast, The Defense, The Defense, The Defense, and
you hired Jeff Haffley, who like, listen with Vic Fangio, like,
he has a long resume of doing this and they're
paying him five million dollars for a reason. They feel
very confident he knows what he's doing now, whether that
(24:10):
actually comes to fruition over the course of the season,
only time will tell. But Jeff Haffley has been a
defensive coordinator in the NFL zero years of his career.
He's been a defensive coordinator at a Power five college
one year of his career, and I'm pretty sure he's
a co defensive coordinator now. There is a chance, Like
they've gone through a lot of defensive coordinators over the
(24:34):
Rogers in Love era now and most of their defenses
have looked pretty similar mistackles, dbs, running behind guys and
getting gashed in the run game. So there is a
chance it's the players. They've invested a lot of money. Obviously,
Kenny Clark's a really good player, and so is ra
(24:54):
Shan Gary. But it feels like the defense reminded me
a lot of the previous couple of years when the
Green Bay Packer fans were like, get this Joe Berry
guy off my sideline, which I understand as a fan,
when you watch an offense or defense suck, you want
that coordinator gone. No different than a player, like this
(25:16):
guy can't play, Let's draft another guy. There is no
guarantee that the guy you draft is gonna be any better.
And Jeff Haffley like, the jury's still out because tonight
they were getting shredded, and I like, I don't give
him that much credit for some of the interceptions. Jalen
Hurts is throwing it right to you, right, just awful
(25:36):
decision making. So I think if you're a Packer fan,
Lafour's proven, Jordan Love's proven that they can mentally handle
some bumps in the road. They did it last year.
I would feel pretty good about over the course of
the year, as long as Love is healthy, that our
offense will be better. And they score twenty nine points
(25:56):
tonight and actually had a couple awful red zone trips.
I mean, they easily could have scored forty if they
were better in the red zone. But the defense man,
I mean, if you're an Eagle fan, it's like, we've like,
we got some big ass dudes up front. Let's figure
something fucking out here. You're the Packers, You're like, can
any of our guys play in our back seven? Kwy
(26:17):
Walker made a couple plays, but like, are guys good enough?
And does our coordinator know what he's doing? Our division's
really hard. The expectations for this team are high. The
hype on this guy is high because we stole him.
He was a head coach in college and he came here.
It's like, this guy's gonna save us. And then the
first night Eagles run for one hundred and forty four yards,
(26:38):
throw for two hundred and eighty and you're not feeling great.
You know you're You're really not. So this is what
the cool part about the last two nights. You're watching
four teams that should be lock playoff teams with the
talent they have. But beside the Chiefs, Ravens got issues.
Eagles defense has some question marks. Obviously Jalen and the Packers.
(27:01):
Now the defense looks kind of the same, Like it
looks exactly the same, and I think that that is
gonna be the pressure and the test put on this
defensive coordinator, like can he fix it? Because we've seen
this before, Well, this next guy's gonna fix it, and
then he can't. So to me, for the Packers, who
(27:21):
I thought were Super Bowl contender, no chance, Like, if
you're gonna play defense even in this in this world,
it's not possible. And to me on the Eagles to
be a super Bowl contender, obviously Jalen cannot turn the
ball over in these big spots. But it's like, is
there a linebacker play good enough? And beside the rookie dB,
can they cover well enough? Because it is difficult in
(27:44):
this modern day NFL like the one. The huge advantage
the Chiefs have is they're great cover team. They have
DB's four days. Well, it's a passing league, so it's
like perfectly made. And they have the greatest quarterback. So
you're like, well they got the greatest quarterback and they
got a great pass defense. It's like kind of works.
(28:05):
It's kind of the formula in twenty twenty four. You know,
in nineteen ninety six, you better be able to run
the ball and you better be able to stop the run.
I'm watching the Packers a night now. Listen. It's a
tough matchup AJ Brown DeVante Smith. Those two guys are
making a lot of money, but they had no shot.
I mean it should have been worse. So little overreaction
(28:27):
Week one, big game, but that's part of the deal,
especially like we're not watching the Giants and Panthers here.
These are two teams that have like NFC Championship, Super
Bowl aspirations, and these are their players, right. It's not
like reinforcements ain't coming like Dion Sanders or Warren sapp
or like these players ain't walking through the door in
(28:48):
the middle of the season. That's not the way it works.
So you either coach these guys up or you have
this deficiency that you try to overcome all season long. Okay,
I wanted to dive into something that I saw today
(29:08):
that I didn't get to notice because when we go
and record right after the game, it's not like we
sit and wait for the press conferences in everything to
come out to then dissect. I mean, this is kind
of the game ends and the record button and I'm
firing off takes and thoughts on the game. Within I
would say no more than five to seven minutes, so
(29:28):
it's pretty rapid fire. And then when I'm laying in
bed scrolling around, you see all these comments from the
Ravens and everyone's just crushing them, essentially calling them delusional
and I want to defend the Ravens for a little
bit because I think anyone can relate to this. When
you are chasing someone, and I would say most of us,
(29:50):
in our different lines of work, are always chasing someone
or something. There's always people ahead of you, more than
likely in an industry. If you run a company, companies
doing better than you. If it's individual positions, people you
aspire to be, and the only way to get there,
obviously you gotta work hard, you gotta produce. I do
(30:12):
believe you got to be a little delusional. I think
of most of us, and I throw myself in there.
If I just listed on a weekly basis my career aspirations,
my financial aspirations, you would probably think I was a
delusional lunatic. And I would imagine if I put a
mic in front of your mouth and ask for the same,
(30:34):
especially someone very competitive, someone very aspirational, someone that wants
to achieve a lot, you might sound crazy too to
a lot of people. So when the Ravens lose and
Lamar says they're not my kryptonite, I believe we scored
a touchdown Isaiah. Likely that's if that's their best shot.
Good luck to them in the future, meaning we'll see
(30:57):
in the playoffs. Again. It's easy forever everyone to take
a giant dump on everything they're saying, but doesn't bother
me as much. I don't like delusion when you have
no success and you have no chance of success in
the near future. So when bad teams top craziness as
(31:17):
the season goes on, it's like you guys are out
in the wilderness. But the Ravens are good, and over
the Lamar era, they've been really good. The problem for
them has been these big games, obviously the Chiefs and
just other playoff games. But the only way that they're
ever going to get over the hump from a mental
(31:38):
standpoint is believe they can win. And before you can
actually do something, you have to kind of believe it. Now.
I don't think this version of Lamar can beat the Chiefs,
and I do believe darics kryptonite. Why because he can't
throw on them. There was a period during the game
last night collins Worth mentioned this his average throw length
(31:59):
was like one year pass the line of scrimmage. It
ain't gonna work. You have to hit these big plays
or just bigger chunk plays, and they can't just be
these freak lucky You hit Isaiah likely, which is a
good pass and a good play, but then he does
the rest like. Part of what makes the Chiefs and
gives their advantage over good teams is they can sustain
(32:21):
a drive at any moment throwing the ball, and Lamar
simply against the best cannot. He makes up for it
and keeps you in games like last night. With his
exceptional athleticism and running ability. It's like he turns into
Barry Sanders. It's remarkable to watch, and I saw a
lot of people today nitpicking if he takes too many
hits and over the course of time, I agree, but
(32:44):
it doesn't feel like he gets hit hard that many times.
I know he's part of collisions, but I would tend
to agree. You can't sustain running around getting hit, but
you have to be delusional, you really do. And I
think they're franchise. The only way to get past the
big dogs, specifically the Chiefs, is they're gonna have to
have this. Only they're gonna believe because if they play
(33:07):
again in January, one they're gonna be the underdog, and two,
nobody and I mean nobody is gonna pick them to win.
Or believe they can win outside of that Ravens locker room,
and I would imagine there will even be some people
inside the Ravens like, can we really do this? But
if their best players are delusional about their opportunity to
(33:32):
figure this thing out, they got no fucking chance, right,
Just like if you don't believe in yourself, good luck
in life, right, Because trust me, a lot of people
not only don't care that, they're not thinking about you
or believing in you. So you have to have the
most belief in your success. I believe that big time
(33:53):
and listen. Are their comments to the casual person kind
of crazy given what we've witnessed these last two games,
of course they are. But like this team's aspirations as
a franchise and then one of the more clearly higher
level franchises in the league. Lamar has flaws, but he's
still a better player than like ninety eight percent of
the league. Just happens. The gap between him and Mahomes
(34:15):
is pretty wide and not really debatable at this point.
Flawed player, but luckily his flaw, the Chiefs have been
the team that can really take advantage of it. Maybe
they get a chance for the Chiefs get knocked out
in the second round by someone else, they don't have
to play them. I don't know how it plays out.
I'm not betting on this Ravens team winning a super Bowl,
but if they don't believe they can, what's the point
(34:37):
of even doing this? And I also think when you
work really hard to do something and you spend months
as a football player, right, you lose a devastating game
in the ANFC Championship game at home, and then you
basically have nine months to think about it. Every day
you're training, you have OTAs, and then you have training camp.
All you're talking about is this game, especially the starters,
(35:00):
like they're not discussing the preseason everything from the moment
the pads come on in training camp to even work
it on. Shit in the OTAs is built for that moment.
And then you lose, Like it sucks, but you kind
of got to warp your mind. You can't just wave
the white flag. Some people might push back on that,
but I wasn't like thinking these guys are insane for
(35:24):
having what many believe to be delusional beliefs, because I
think you kind of have to to ever achieve, to
ever give yourself an opportunity to achieve anything. I wanted
to just hit on a bunch of stuff this weekend.
I was thinking about, like, you know, what I haven't
done in a while is like grab a six pack.
You know, the older you get, you think back, you're
like God simpler times. You know, you're just young. You
(35:46):
just grab a six pack each with a buddy and
you just cash it while you watch TV. And I
was thinking, like, let's do a little weekend six pack
of things on Sunday that I am looking forward to,
and I'm looking forward to like anyone. The best part
about Week one is even the bad games are very
watchable because we don't really know. We have a decent idea,
(36:07):
but some teams are going to be better than we thought.
Some teams are gonna be worse than we thought. But
everyone starts at as zero zero slate and anything's possible.
And as I talked about with Stucky, week one can
get weird, and it can get weird fast. I saw
this clip go viral from inside the NFL, which Belichick
has joined with Ojo Chris Long and I think Ryan
(36:29):
Clark and I want you to listen to something that
Belichick said that I think, you know, went pretty viral
on the internet streets. Whoever they played against in preseason,
it wasn't the best players on the other team.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
So what you're saying is, coach, we can't plan a
parade because Caleb was so accurate in the preseason.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
But it wasn't accurate. It's ten for twenty.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Shit, you didn't watch the twenty throw?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, hey, come on, there's a reason he's excited. It's
throw and we.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Got to think how good the ten word that will
complete it.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
There was a couple of highlight players weren't that good.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
And no one's saying he might not be great. But
what we're saying is it's just you need the context.
It's like when I hear somebody's lighting it up in camp,
I'm like, is he running with the twos?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Is he?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Is he going against the two defense? Is a quarterback
struggling because he's got the two offensive line? There's just
a lot we don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
First and foremost, I think everyone's like, damn, it's kind
of crushing Kleb. Well, old school coaches don't get on
their knees and slurp somebody. It's a rookie. I don't
care who it is. You have to prove it. I'm
not necessarily in that camp. Like I'm pretty hyped up,
but like Belichick's not a big hype guy. He doesn't
(37:42):
give a crap about that. And I've been saying this
about Caleb. I think we've kind of jumped the shark
a little bit. There's still a lot of unknown. Now.
I get it from a Bear stand fan standpoint. I
understand the Bears Barrek quarterbacks really low. I totally understand that,
but I think I mean rights picking him to compete
for the Super Bowl. I sue people picking this guy
(38:04):
to be like MVP and them to win the division.
It's like, guys, let's just see if, like back to
back weeks when film's out, he can beat you from
the pocket. And I think Belichick is just saying, like
those preseason highlight tape plays that he put on tape
mean nothing to me. Now they mean something to me
because he has the capability but to be a high
(38:26):
level team. Those players are gonna come and they go.
We knew he had that capability when you watched him
play at USC for the Bears to be good, and
I kind of like Titans this weekend, not necessarily to win,
but three and a half. I think everyone like, we
just need to pump the brakes on the Bears a
little bit because I always say, playing as a rookie
quarterback and then you quadruple the hype on it is
(38:49):
really really hard to live up to. Like ultimately CJ. Stroud,
who had one of the great rookie seasons we've ever seen,
I think statistically the best kind of got to fly
under the radar despite being a number two over pick
because everyone thought his team was gonna suck. And that's
how most young guys get to play, right, they get
to just even bow Knicks the over runner for the
Denver Broncos like five and a half, and most people,
(39:11):
if you just pulled like the average football fan, I
think the Broncos'd be pretty as the kids would say,
mid pretty average plow five hundred. So if he has
some good games some bad games, we'd be like, oh,
bo Nicks is really might have something there where It's
like if Caleb Williams isn't competing to be a pro bowler,
immediately it's gonna feel like a leaddown in Chicago. So
when Belichick's comments everyone's like, geez, what's your hater. He's
(39:35):
just saying, like, I watched the guy throw some balls
in the pocket and it didn't look great, and all
he has to go on now he's only played one
you know, he skipped the Bowl game, so he doesn't
play a game till some of these preseason games. And
then he's going up against vanilla defenses and backups. So
I think everyone's just expecting three or four touchdowns, and
that might be the case. I'll be fun to watch,
(39:55):
but I think it's a little more difficult than away.
The discourse is gone. So if Belichick is gonna like
throw some zingers and talk a little shit, I'm all in.
Speaking of rookie quarterbacks, another game I like is the
Broncos this week. Not to win the game, but they're
getting six points. And I think just one of the
(40:19):
more fascinating stories a lot like Caleb and the Bears,
is just Sean Payton in this quarterback like how does
it look? Does it actually work as seamlessly like the other?
One difference between Caleb and bow Knicks is like bo
Knicks in the preseason succeeded running a lot of the
stuff Sean Payton's gonna ask him to do quick throws
in the pocket, snap go. You know, Caleb's success came
(40:42):
with kind of run around and making plays, which, again
my comp forum has always been like prime Russell Wilson,
not true pocket quarterback, like run around, and you can
win and make the playoffs with that version. But the
guy they won the Super Bowl with was really much
more of a game manager who who asionally would do
some spectacular shit. But bo Nicks is going to play
(41:04):
much more like you know, historically not I'm not comparing
him to Drew Brees here, but ball snapped balls out
pretty quick, and there's a tough test on the road
Spiritual High in Seattle. That place will probably probably be rocking.
I would imagine raising that twelve. I'm just fascinated to
watch kind of this team operate. And Sean, who I've
(41:27):
watched a decent amount of his press conferences during this
during training camp, pretty upbeat. I think he likes his team,
and it's one thing for a coach that's never done
anything to like his team like this guy kind of
has a decent idea what a good and a bad
team looks like. And last year part of it was
he clearly did not like Russell Wilson. I mean, let's
(41:47):
look back on that. Remember the discourse in the conversation
when he screamed at Russell Wilson. It's like, you can't
do that. You can't. He's a coach as the player.
I've been watching football, depending on how old you are,
our entire lives. Isn't that pretty normal? I mean Tom
Brady and Peyton Manning screamed at coaches like this is
the big Leagues. Was Wilson's making forty plus million dollars,
(42:10):
John Payton's making eighteen twenty You're allowed to yell at him,
especially when you don't think he's any good. Now, I
think the question mark is the Pittsburgh game. Like Russell's,
We'll see if he ends up playing in that game
because the calf injury is back. Number three, the much
awaited It's been a long long time, and I lived
in the Bay Area when the forty nine ers mutually
(42:33):
departed with Jim Harbough. It's probably one of the bigger
stories on a negative side in the history of the
Bay Area. I mean, the forty nine ers got torched
for it, and I listen, they regretted it. For a
while at Kyle and John kind of saved the day.
But then Jim went to Michigan and in a weird way,
(42:54):
felt like he was underwhelming because he wasn't like competing
to win national championships. It couldn't beat Ohio State. And
these last couple of years kind of validated it all.
And now he's back, and now he has a quarterback.
Now is his team good enough? I don't know, but
I do believe one is. There's just zero chance on
God's green Earth you could bet against Jim Harbaugh and
(43:18):
Justin Herbert against Antonio Pearson, Gardner, Minshew. So he has
a clear advantage in this first game, and I expect
charge to win. And I'm just glad that we're gonna
have Jim kind of walking up and down an NFL
sideline number four. This has gotta be the most anticipated
broadcast debut in a long long time. Anytime the Cowboys
(43:44):
play Week one, it's a highly anticipated game for a
lot of the last twenty years because the Giants had
been good. It felt like the Giants and Cowboys played
a lot on Sunday Night football. And now they're playing
the Cleveland Browns, wholast year, made the playoffs, had a
fantastic year, have a really good team, even though they're
a little banged up. In that game alone, like me
(44:07):
and you could be calling it and people would be interested.
I like the Cowboys in that game simply because quarterback
advantage Dallas and there's some question marks with the Cleveland's
offensive line. I would expect Mike Zimmer and that defense
to be pretty good. But to me, this game, it
feels different because Tom Brady's calling it. And is he
(44:28):
gonna be good? I sure hope so, because like most people,
you end up watching with the sound on, regardless how
many TVs. You have a lot of Sunday afternoon Fox games,
and it's gonna be you know, we'll see how he
can navigate some of these restrictions. Maybe he won't give
a shit. I hope he just is himself. Obviously he
(44:50):
knows football. I think he has this incredible way to
balance like being relatable despite being super famous, super rich.
You know, he's at least in America, I don't know worldwide,
Like he's like our male Taylor Swift or something in
terms of his fame. But can he balance like being
pretty entertaining? People can say, Gruden's a little sticky, and
(45:14):
he can be, but I've watched some of his YouTube videos,
him just showing me his office. Gruden can keep my
attention and he kind of has that John Madden magic.
He's different than John, but he's just cameras on, lights
are on. The dudes a showmen and Tom always was
as a player, and him and Peyton obviously have done
(45:34):
a lot of ads over the years, so they've played
that role in that in the commercial standpoint, but calling
a game the pressure, I mean, you're gonna have twenty
five million people watching this thing easy, It'll be interesting
to see the reaction. Everyone's gonna have an opinion. To me.
I all these guys know football, Like, I'm not looking
(45:55):
for you to break down the coverage every play. Most
people do not care. We want to be entertained. And
the two best entertainers by a mile were John Madden,
Who's the best of all time and listen, hate him
or love him, like Gruden was good at his job.
There was a reason they were paying him ten million
dollars a year and Monday Night fell off a cliff
(46:16):
when he took the Raiders job because he was entertaining
and this is not about like this job breaking it
down to the hard hardcore that wants to know every route.
Like you can't get too into the weeds in football.
It's too confusing for like the twenty nine million people
that watched the game last night on Thursday night. Football
(46:41):
couldn't tell you five routes on the route tree, couldn't
tell you the difference of a three technique and a
nose tackle. They just can't. And it doesn't matter. That's
not what makes football enjoyable. Like College Worth just kind
of has a good time, you know, he's just an
enjoyable hank. I think Troy Aikman has kind of got
(47:01):
a swag back. He's just an easy hang. Obviously you
can do some nerdy football stuff, but like part of
it is like you're an entertainer. And I think Peyton
is really good at this, but like his thing with
Eli is a little more looser, and doing a game
is a little different. Short sound bites. It's hard, and
I know they've practiced a lot, but they're just gonna
(47:24):
be a lot of people watching. There are gonna be
a lot of opinions on his performance. I was kicking
myself last night I thought about trying to get my
five thousand dollars at the Raven stole from me in
that AFC Championship game, and I was gonna live bet
the Chiefs. And I didn't pull the trigger to get
my five k back. I was like, yeah, I'm still
(47:44):
kind of risky trying to do a backyard. I gotta
redo the pool. We got a wedding coming up, but
I do want my money back. So I think what
I'm gonna do is take a thousand dollars and bet
on my favorite money line team or you know, my
favorite underdog, and just put the money on them straight up.
And there were three games that jumped out to me,
Dallas on the road in Cleveland, Pittsburgh on the road
(48:06):
in Atlanta, and the Jags on the road with the Dolphins.
And I kind of ended up like Cleveland can be
a tough place to play, and obviously Pittsburgh the quarterback
situations up in the air. Not a huge Atlanta guy
but that, and I understand Tomlin's one of the great
underdogs embedding history, but that's probably just gonna be a
stay away from me. So it kind of came down
(48:28):
between the Cowboys and the Jags, and I think I've
settled on the Jags, and I don't like the Dolphins
this year. I don't think they're gonna win two games,
but I think their playoff days are over, and I
don't like If you just look at the Jags and
you go, well, a huge advantage for Miami early in
the season is what they play outside, and it's humid,
(48:50):
and most people aren't used to the Florida crazy humidity,
especially some of these teams coming from different areas in
the country, or the Jags play Florida two I understand.
Like I like Peter Schrager, I like Kevin Clark a lot.
Those guys love Mike McDaniel. I like Mike McDaniel as
an entertainer. I think he says funny shit and he
(49:11):
clearly knows football right. He's he's a very very good
offensive mind. Kyle Shanahan loved him for a reason, and
he's been good for TUA. But he hasn't really won
that many big games. He actually you could argue, hasn't
won any And so if you look at the two coaches,
you go, well, Doug Peterson's record, his resume speaks for itself.
(49:34):
I mean Belichick in a playoff game, and I got
a lot of question marks with these two quarterbacks, but
I don't think the gaps that wide. If you tell me,
Trevor Lawrence just outplace Tua. So what I think I'm
gonna do. You can get the Jags right now plus
one forty as of Friday. I think I'm gonna put
a little coin on the old Jacks to win straight
(49:57):
up in that game, and then we'll just kind of
let it ride for couple weeks and see what we
can build up to last but not least, let's cash
this bad boy. The craziest part about Week one is
at the end of the day, it doesn't determine much.
Right the Chiefs lost Week one last year, they won
(50:18):
Super Bowl, won three straight games on the road as
a dog, so Week one does not make or break
your season. A couple of years ago, the forty nine
Ers went to the NFC Championship Game. They lost on
the road to the Chicago Bears, and justin field with
Trey Lance. By the end of the year, Brock Purdy
was starting and helping them make a run. Things changed
(50:39):
dramatically in the NFL. That's why all these coaches talk
about the fifty three man cutdown, like, I think we
get too caught up now in the fifty three the
season is a game longer. Our practice squad is way bigger.
A lot of these practice squad guys will eventually be
on the big roster and half of them be starters
by middle to the end of the year. The team,
(51:00):
all this stuff is so fluid because of the injuries,
but because of the setup of football, you only play
once a week. Like I always had a hard time
when I worked in radio. I was like, it's a
big baseball game to night, So John, this is game
ninety four. It actually doesn't mean anything. So if the
ace goes nine innings, awesome. If you get shelled and
(51:23):
they yank him after three, it doesn't determine much. And
that's part of the reason baseball has fallen out of
the landscape of all of us talking about it, because
it's not it's a bad talk radio sport, it's a
bad podcast sport. Football is made for this because every
game means so much, and when you have an entire
(51:44):
offseason and everyone has hope, there are gonna be some
teams that just look atrocious and whether everyone thought you
were gonna be bad, or whether you're a team like
the Bears and you lose to the Titans or whoever.
You know, the Giant were to lose to Minnesota at home,
people just freak out and there's gonna be a team
(52:05):
or two. Like it's one thing to lose. The Ravens lost,
that's a loss. You can keep your head up. You
lost by a touchdown you didn't cover, but whatever. I mean,
you're right there at the end and it's against the Chiefs.
But there are gonna be some losses by double digits
where it's like, you guys looked like shit. And I
think the problem with that is and this is where
the fans and whoever's covering your team and it's like
(52:29):
you've had nine months to get ready for this game
and you lay an egg. I love over reactions or
proper reactions. When a team just gets housed and worked
in Week one, it's one thing. Listen, you're gonna get beat.
You're gonna have lay eggs throughout the season. When that
happens on Week one, fair or not, people react to
(52:52):
it like your season's over before it even began. The
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Speaker 1 (01:43):
What is going on Everybody? John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast,
How are we doing a little Saturday special? Because we
had a Friday night NFL game the Eagles. I don't
want to say squeak by, but it was a pretty
tight game. Jordan Love gets injured at the end, but
(02:07):
I'm recording this right after, so hopefully he's okay. But
he also was dealing with calf. He was all over
the map, had some good, had some really bad. Jalen
had some really good, also some really I mean he
threw a pick in the end zone and had a
fumble wasn't his fault, but also through another pick, but
Sakwon Barkley three touchdowns, AJ Brown DeVante dominate. Both defenses
(02:32):
look pretty suspect the Packers, for a team that had
a lot of hype about a defensive coordinator that I
gotta start being more like Belichick stopped buying into the hype.
I'm like, I bet they're gonna be better, and they
look exactly the same and they were just getting shredded.
John Morris probably not happy today, So we'll dive into
that game. A couple thoughts from the Ravens after I
(02:54):
just ended up doing a podcast the Ravens after the
lost some of their comments about the Chiefs. And then
we're just gonna fire around the NFL. I thought, you know,
it's the weekend. I might just pick up like a
six pack of beer and just drink and watch football tomorrow.
So I said, let's just do a little Saturday six
pack and I hit six things that I just want
(03:15):
to hit on throughout the NFL. Things I'm fired up
for this Sunday because we got a full slate and
regardless of the batchups, one this week one that all
the games look pretty good because we don't know who's
good or bad yet. I'm still thinking about what I
just witnessed. You know, I had the Packers as a
top five team. I lean the Cowboys to win the division.
(03:36):
But I also like the Eagles as a lock playoff team.
I still feel that way because their talent. But you
just to be a super Bowl contender, you have to
be good on defense. You have to be good on defense.
The forty nine ers like why they went to the
super Bowl as their defense is good. Why the Eagles
and Niners play each other two years they both had
good defenses. You cannot make serious runs when, especially your past,
(04:00):
you can't stop the run. So I think both these
defensive coordinators are not gonna sleep on this long plane
ride home. But subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the
YouTube channel. Bunch of content up there as well, for sure.
But before we do that, you know, I got to
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(04:22):
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(05:10):
most of our listeners are in America, though we do
have an international audience. We've even had people from Brazil
hit me up. I am okay. With the expansion of
the league and going international with these games, I do
think when you do it and you go to Brazil.
Let's face it, that field tonight was a disaster. It
(05:31):
looked like these guys were on ice on both teams,
and how many plays both these two teams possess one
their cash cows for the league. Green Bay's one of
the biggest brands. Obviously, so is Philadelphia. They're consistent stall
warts in the playoffs where the league makes a lot
of their money. It's why these right holders pay so
(05:51):
much because of the ratings, not just in the regular season,
but how gigantic these playoff games are. And there are
a lot of really important people on every NFL team,
but specifically ones that are gonna win double digit games
and be playing in January. And I listen as recording
this immediately right after the game. I don't know Jordan
Love's status based on just a guy that's been watching
(06:14):
sports for thirty five years. Looked like he just rolled
an ankle. Thank god, because whenever anyone's laying there and listen,
that could happen on any field. He got twisted by
a couple defensive linemen, but they got very lucky that
no one tore an achilles or tore in acl Slipping
and sliding on that field, I mean, I can't imagine
early on in that game when guys were sliding, Goodakinson
(06:36):
Howie are like, oh my god. And I know Blackledge
said that when he went to practice yesterday the field
was in pretty good shape. Well, I don't know what happened.
Whether it's the do at night, I don't know if
they're close to the ocean or not. Not a geography
major here in terms of where the city is relative
(06:57):
in the area. But that was, and that was in
Roger's sitting there with the ambassador of America from the
Brazil for Brazil. I just thought it was rough. It
really was. I'm not trying to be a negative Nancy.
I'm glad football's back, but un listen, some of our
fields in America historically have been hit or miss at times.
(07:18):
I remember when the forty nine Ers built their stadium,
their field conditions were a joke. But that's what I
thought tonight. And when you're gonna go international, and especially
to a place that you are not consistently going, and
for that to happen, I mean, can you imagine if
an aj Brown, a Saquon Barkley, you know, one of
(07:39):
the star players on the Green Bet Josh Jacobs, had
slipped in the open field by themselves in a non
contact injury and ripped their knee up. And I was
kind of holding my breath all night as guys were
slipping and sliding, even Saquon after he scored a touchdown,
ran toward the back of the end zone to kind
of go around before Lane Johnson readed him, and he
(08:01):
almost did a little slip and he kind of caught himself.
So it was just it was a rough night for
the field. The officials these last two nights are throwing
flags left and right. But I want to get to
the game and a little good, bad and ugly with
both teams. Obviously, the best is winning. That's the whole
point of the sport. So regardless how good, how bad,
(08:21):
how ugly, if you win a game, especially when your
playing flight is eight hours to the destination, you feel
pretty good about yourself. Week one is a big deal.
You've had nine months, especially a team like the Eagles.
They don't play any of their starters and Jalen Hurts
open the game with just a horrendous pick down the
middle of the field into like double coverage. That was
(08:44):
an easy interception. Toward the end of the game, he
threw one of the worst interceptions you can possibly throw.
I don't pretend to be Bill Walsh or Kyle Shanahan here,
but it's a basic rule in football when it comes
to quarterback play, especially in the red zone. Do not
throw across your body, and he did and it got picked.
(09:06):
And at the time he was thirty one to twenty six,
So if they had just kicked a field goal, it
would have been thirty four to twenty six. And the
play before he easily could have thrown a pick six. Now,
the good with Jalen is when he does get into
a rhythm, he's a beautiful deep ball thrower. He has
good touch on balls that kind of loop in the air.
(09:26):
I would not say that he has a super strong
arm in terms of just throwing bullets, but anytime you
get a deeper breaking route and he can set his feet,
he's pretty accurate. And he did that consistently all night.
To AJ Brown, he had got her a couple times
DeVante Smith. This is why I like the Eagles, even
if you have some question marks with him. Their talent
(09:47):
on offense is just kind of stupid. Saquan went twenty
four for one oh nine and three touchdowns to night.
AJ Brown had five for one to nineteen, Davonte Smith
had seven for eighty four, and Goddard at four catches.
Like all those guys make big time coin into including
the quarterback and many guys on the offensive line, so
(10:08):
their offensive skill guys, even when he's throwing picks, are
so explosive that they're gonna be able to score twenty
five to thirty points pretty easily. We talked about it
last night with Kansas City last year and everyone's been
saying this, if you're gonna get him, he should have
got him last year because it was hard for them
to score points. Well, it's not gonna be hard for
them to score points, but they're often offensive weaponry. Obviously,
(10:30):
Patrick Mahomes is dramatically better than Jalen, but in terms
of the skill around him, that's about as good as
you get. I mean, AJ Brown and DeVante Smith, you
could argue are one of the better one to two combinations.
And we talked about this in the off season when
we were watching Hard Knocks. I understand the philosophical belief
of we don't pay older running backs. It's very, very risky.
(10:54):
I totally get it. But when John Morrow said I
don't know if I can sleep at night if he
goes to the Eagles, Everyone's like, that's how a fan talks. Well, yeah,
kind of, but he also knows that's our best player
and that's the best organization in our division. So if
a shitty team is willing to overpay your running back, yeah,
(11:15):
maybe you should question yourself, like is this like let
them go? I totally understand it. You don't need, I
guess you don't need to question yourself. But the Eagles,
who are about as well run as any team in
the league when it comes to picking and signing players,
are very, very interested because of as we've talked about
in both the running backs on you know, Jacob's included,
(11:37):
they are now a discount, right. Brandon Aiyuk cost thirty
million dollars a year. You had to give them seventy
five million dollars guaranteed. Actually I think it was seventy six.
Saquon Barkley's total of his contract guaranteed and non guaranteed
money was thirty seven million dollars over three years. So
(12:00):
it's now a discount, right, you know by low sell
high well now on running backs who are really really good,
as is saq one and you saw tonight like very
very explosive and it's not like he's just a speedback.
He is a physical player. He obviously can catch the ball.
He had a receiving touchdown he's a dynamic player and
it completely changes their offense. Now, the thing with Jalen
(12:23):
is he's an interesting player because obviously he's talented and
he's gonna put up big numbers, but he's not near
the top Ducks. And I think when you look back
two years ago with Shane Stiken a little bit of
an outlier as you saw tonight, like he puts the
ball in harm's way, I think it's fair to question
his decision making. I would not put him near the
(12:44):
top as a great decision maker. The first interception you
could go, well, didn't play in the preseason, a little rusty,
let's even chalk that one up. But down the stretch
of the game when you have a lead, he easily
could have thrown. Now the second one. If he would
have thrown the pick six, the next play would not
have happened, obviously, But then later on the next drive
(13:06):
he almost threw another pick to Jy Alexander where he
was right in front of AJ Brown, And I think
sometimes when he's flustered, he just makes poor decisions. Luckily,
they're so explosive and they're scoring so many points that
they can overcome it. And the Packers defense, who will
get into in a minute, is obviously not great. But
I think Jalen is just obviously his good is really
(13:30):
good and his bad is really bad. Like you saw
to night, some MVP, I don't even MVP like Pro
Bowl level plays, and you saw like Daniel Jones level place,
and it's gonna be on Kellen Moore and it's gonna
be on the coaching staff to try to corral that.
But I do think it's gonna be kind of difficult.
So when I look at the Eagles, like I didn't
(13:53):
pick him to win the division. I picked the Cowboys,
And I guess we'll see Dak play on Sunday. But
like I think Dak, I am more confident in on
the long haul of his play, Jalen is a little
bit more of a roller coaster. And you saw to
night the full package. You saw the good, bad, and
the ugly series the series, And I think one thing
(14:15):
is Jalen can't play like he's Peyton Manning. That's not
his style. And I think deep down he wants to
just I just want to be a pocket quarterback. He's
not as fast obviously as Lamar, But what makes Lamar
a top five quarterback is not his throwing. He's a
fine thrower, but when he has to win within the pocket,
(14:36):
that's not his thing. It's that he's a dominant dual
threat quarterback. And I think ever since two years ago,
toward the end of the season Jalen, the year that
he was competing to win the MVP and then had
the really good Super Bowl, he was a real, real
dual threat player. And if you watch him at Oklahoma,
when he ran, he'd like turn into a running back.
He's not super fast, but he's just a super instinctive runner,
(14:59):
and you saw tonight he's really powerful. But I don't
think he really wants to do it anymore. He did
it a couple times at the end of the game,
but throughout the course of the game, it feels like
those days are kind of over. Like deep down, Jalen,
and this happened to Russell, like I want to prove
I can be a pocket quarterback, and I just don't
think that's the way to play him. I really don't. Now.
(15:20):
If you scheme the perfect play because of their talent,
it's gonna work. But over the course of a game,
things are gonna break down. He kind of holds the
ball a little bit long. He can keep plays alive
because he's mobile, but sometimes when he does that, he
gets into just awful situation. So I listen. I'm not
saying you're down on Jalen Hurts. If you're an Eagle
fan or if you're Howie, I'm not saying you're high
(15:41):
on him. You're just kind of like, WHOA, this is
gonna be a roller coaster ride. Luckily, our team's pretty
stacked now. We talked about it coming into this game. Defensively,
is their defensive line needed to dominate well as this
game went on. They've invested two real high picks into
Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, two blue Chippers. I mean, Jalen,
(16:06):
if it wasn't for all the off the field question marks,
would have been a lock number one overall pick, non quarterback.
And I don't have to think who was in his draft,
but he would have been the first quarterback off the board.
But he fell to ninth for a reason, and you
watched him to night, You're like, where is he? Why
isn't he dominating Jordan Davis? The knock on him last
year was wait, and they're getting gashed tonight by Josh Jacobs.
(16:31):
Even the backup was averaging over ten yards of carry.
The Packers ran for one hundred and sixty three yards
now thirty three of those were on a Jaden Reid
end around. But still, I mean, I think part of
what made the Eagles really good a couple of years
ago was their defensive line dominated. Where's the edge pressure?
(16:54):
I mean, Brandon Graham's older. Now, they paid Huff a
lot of money, who did the question mark with him
was being an all around player? How is he against
the run? Didn't really feel his presence and the linebacker
play is just gonna be a question.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
They signed Devin White, who was supposed to be a
plug and play player. He didn't play tonight, so maybe
he will help. But Michael Lombardi's talked about this for
a while, and listen, I agree, when your linebackers don't
play super fast, sometimes your defense can feel a little slow.
And against the run, their defense felt a little slow. Now,
the young guy they drafted, Mitchell from Toledo looks like
(17:30):
a real, really good player, but the rest of their dbs,
I mean, it's gonna be a challenge if their defensive
line does not perform at a much higher rate than this.
Their offense is gonna have to score a lot of
points because that was concerning. You know, listen, it's the
first week, but and the Packers have a lot of juice.
(17:51):
But man, I just when you draft guys really really
high on your front four by year two, year three,
you expect them to be serious pack players throughout the game.
And I just didn't feel their presence. So Jalen roller
coaster good thing for Sirianni this. He didn't really factor
in good or bad to this game. I don't blame
him for those Jalen decisions. You know, Kellen does a
(18:12):
good job scheming guys open, but man, you just can't
make some of those decisions. And he as a coach,
like once the ball snapped and a guy scramble and
do his right, like you've drilled it in a million times.
You don't think Saban's told him that, Lincoln Riley's told
him that. I think his dad was his high school coach,
Like he's heard it for a long period of time.
You can't make that play, especially this many years into
(18:33):
your career, regardless how much you make. I mean, that's
that's football. One on one. But even with all these
question marks with his turnovers, I think the tush push
clearly is not the same, definitely not the same, and
you lose one of, if not the greatest center of
all time, definitely the best center of his generation. Feels different. Obviously,
(18:56):
the snap at the end of the game, they're not
on the same pay They had a fumbled snap early
in the game where Jalen wasn't paying attention. Clearly it
wasn't supposed to be snapped. Then that's just something to
keep an eye on, because I would say their cohesion
center to quarterback was as good as it got. It
was like the Stephan Clay version of quarterback center exchange.
(19:18):
And now that's gone. And I think we underestimate that
because it's hard to quantify, right. It's easy to quantify
losing a running back, a tight end, a wide receiver,
but like what happens when you lose the greatest center
in the history of the franchise, who was a huge
part of one of the most unique plays we've ever seen,
and we felt to tonight, it's simply not the same.
But with all that being said, you'll take a win
(19:41):
no matter how many question marks and crazy things happened
throughout the game. The Packers. I'm as high on Jordan
Love as anyone. I picked them to compete for the
NFC because I'm buying socking this guy. And maybe by
the time you're listening to this. He said after the game,
assuming his ankles all right, that his calf was giving
him a lot of trouble and he wasn't able to
plant and throw and drive the ball. But I would
(20:05):
say for like half his throws, especially in the second half,
it felt like he was watching an Aaron Rodgers in
the prime of his career teach tape, which no one
should do because no one can really do that throwing
balls off the back of his feet all over the place.
He was extremely erratic, I thought for stretches in the
third quarter. He was awful, which is concerning one just
(20:30):
the health of the player, but like, we can't have
this loosey goosey just kind of flinging it all over
the place with our feet not being set. You have
a good arm, but it's one thing to throw the
ball off your back feet because you're getting pressure. It's
another thing with the clean pocket and just being too
cool for school, like that's why the ball is not
(20:50):
gonna go where it's supposed to go. And I thought
Jordan Love the second half of the game. Now, maybe
it was his calf cramping up. Maybe it was just
who knows, doctor, I haven't seen the press conference yet,
but that was bad. It was just not good. And
they were playing winning football because they were running the
ball down the Eagles throats and they're wide receivers even
(21:13):
slipping and sliding all over the field were getting open
those young wide receivers, reed Wis Watson. Uh, that's a
that's an encouraging group, Tucker Craft. It's hard not to
like their group of young skill guys. But Jordan Love,
you know, you get you get paid a lot of
pressure on you, Like we still need you to just
(21:34):
have some basic footwork here. Obviously he knows it, but
he's just kind of like too cool for school. And
the balls, like if he was a baseball pitcher, you
would have yanked him in the fourth or the fifth inning.
Obviously I'm not saying you would have pulled him out
of the game, but like, balls are flying all over
the map, and I think both these running backs back
to the market, both these teams bought low on running
(21:56):
backs relative to all these other positions. And those two
guys are studs, Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley. I mean
when they're humming their top five running backs. Obviously, Saquon's
probably a top two or three. I think Josh Jacob
has said for years he might even be more complete
than Saquon does fast, but he is a very very
good player. And when you're quarterback, and both these two
(22:19):
teams just a radic quarterback play. Like the one thing
on Thursday night, Lamar was a little up and down,
but he could always make up for it when he's like,
fuck it, I'm gonna I'm gonna run for thirty yards
and look like Barry Sanders or Walter Payton. Now that's
not the way he played. I was texting with a
buddy tonight. In the league, He's like, listen, he is
tough to play, but that is not a sustainable way
(22:40):
to play. But in an individual game situation, sometimes you
gotta do it. Jordan loved By the end of the game,
it might have been his CAF couldn't he wasn't even
that mobile, but even when he stayed in the pocket,
he wasn't very accurate, so it was just if you're
a Packer fan. It's not total freakout time by any means,
but it was not a very good game that looked
much more like over the course of the game, like
(23:04):
the first half of last year, than it did the
second half of last year when he became one hundred
and fifty million dollar player. And this is what I
always say, why it's so hard to become a star,
because becoming a star is not doing something for a year.
And even though I projected him to keep being good,
I bought into it. How could you not, But it's
(23:26):
hard to do it year after year. So there's gonna
be pressure on him one just to get healthy and
just play more consistent because with that many skill guys,
there aren't excuses. And here's the other thing, like Division's
tough man, so it's this was a road game into Brazil,
not the end of the world by any means, but
I think individually, when you look at him, makes you
(23:48):
scratch your head a little bit. And then, last but
not least, I talked about it coming into this game
on Thursday's podcast, The Defense, The Defense, The Defense, and
you hired Jeff Haffley, who like, listen with Vic Fangio, like,
he has a long resume of doing this and they're
paying him five million dollars for a reason. They feel
very confident he knows what he's doing now, whether that
(24:10):
actually comes to fruition over the course of the season,
only time will tell. But Jeff Haffley has been a
defensive coordinator in the NFL zero years of his career.
He's been a defensive coordinator at a Power five college
one year of his career, and I'm pretty sure he's
a co defensive coordinator now. There is a chance, Like
they've gone through a lot of defensive coordinators over the
(24:34):
Rogers in Love era now and most of their defenses
have looked pretty similar mistackles, dbs, running behind guys and
getting gashed in the run game. So there is a
chance it's the players. They've invested a lot of money. Obviously,
Kenny Clark's a really good player, and so is ra
(24:54):
Shan Gary. But it feels like the defense reminded me
a lot of the previous couple of years when the
Green Bay Packer fans were like, get this Joe Berry
guy off my sideline, which I understand as a fan,
when you watch an offense or defense suck, you want
that coordinator gone. No different than a player, like this
(25:16):
guy can't play, Let's draft another guy. There is no
guarantee that the guy you draft is gonna be any better.
And Jeff Haffley like, the jury's still out because tonight
they were getting shredded, and I like, I don't give
him that much credit for some of the interceptions. Jalen
Hurts is throwing it right to you, right, just awful
(25:36):
decision making. So I think if you're a Packer fan,
Lafour's proven, Jordan Love's proven that they can mentally handle
some bumps in the road. They did it last year.
I would feel pretty good about over the course of
the year, as long as Love is healthy, that our
offense will be better. And they score twenty nine points
(25:56):
tonight and actually had a couple awful red zone trips.
I mean, they easily could have scored forty if they
were better in the red zone. But the defense man,
I mean, if you're an Eagle fan, it's like, we've like,
we got some big ass dudes up front. Let's figure
something fucking out here. You're the Packers, You're like, can
any of our guys play in our back seven? Kwy
(26:17):
Walker made a couple plays, but like, are guys good enough?
And does our coordinator know what he's doing? Our division's
really hard. The expectations for this team are high. The
hype on this guy is high because we stole him.
He was a head coach in college and he came here.
It's like, this guy's gonna save us. And then the
first night Eagles run for one hundred and forty four yards,
(26:38):
throw for two hundred and eighty and you're not feeling great.
You know you're You're really not. So this is what
the cool part about the last two nights. You're watching
four teams that should be lock playoff teams with the
talent they have. But beside the Chiefs, Ravens got issues.
Eagles defense has some question marks. Obviously Jalen and the Packers.
(27:01):
Now the defense looks kind of the same, Like it
looks exactly the same, and I think that that is
gonna be the pressure and the test put on this
defensive coordinator, like can he fix it? Because we've seen
this before, Well, this next guy's gonna fix it, and
then he can't. So to me, for the Packers, who
(27:21):
I thought were Super Bowl contender, no chance, Like, if
you're gonna play defense even in this in this world,
it's not possible. And to me on the Eagles to
be a super Bowl contender, obviously Jalen cannot turn the
ball over in these big spots. But it's like, is
there a linebacker play good enough? And beside the rookie dB,
can they cover well enough? Because it is difficult in
(27:44):
this modern day NFL like the one. The huge advantage
the Chiefs have is they're great cover team. They have
DB's four days. Well, it's a passing league, so it's
like perfectly made. And they have the greatest quarterback. So
you're like, well they got the greatest quarterback and they
got a great pass defense. It's like kind of works.
(28:05):
It's kind of the formula in twenty twenty four. You know,
in nineteen ninety six, you better be able to run
the ball and you better be able to stop the run.
I'm watching the Packers a night now. Listen. It's a
tough matchup AJ Brown DeVante Smith. Those two guys are
making a lot of money, but they had no shot.
I mean it should have been worse. So little overreaction
(28:27):
Week one, big game, but that's part of the deal,
especially like we're not watching the Giants and Panthers here.
These are two teams that have like NFC Championship, Super
Bowl aspirations, and these are their players, right. It's not
like reinforcements ain't coming like Dion Sanders or Warren sapp
or like these players ain't walking through the door in
(28:48):
the middle of the season. That's not the way it works.
So you either coach these guys up or you have
this deficiency that you try to overcome all season long. Okay,
I wanted to dive into something that I saw today
(29:08):
that I didn't get to notice because when we go
and record right after the game, it's not like we
sit and wait for the press conferences in everything to
come out to then dissect. I mean, this is kind
of the game ends and the record button and I'm
firing off takes and thoughts on the game. Within I
would say no more than five to seven minutes, so
(29:28):
it's pretty rapid fire. And then when I'm laying in
bed scrolling around, you see all these comments from the
Ravens and everyone's just crushing them, essentially calling them delusional
and I want to defend the Ravens for a little
bit because I think anyone can relate to this. When
you are chasing someone, and I would say most of us,
(29:50):
in our different lines of work, are always chasing someone
or something. There's always people ahead of you, more than
likely in an industry. If you run a company, companies
doing better than you. If it's individual positions, people you
aspire to be, and the only way to get there,
obviously you gotta work hard, you gotta produce. I do
(30:12):
believe you got to be a little delusional. I think
of most of us, and I throw myself in there.
If I just listed on a weekly basis my career aspirations,
my financial aspirations, you would probably think I was a
delusional lunatic. And I would imagine if I put a
mic in front of your mouth and ask for the same,
(30:34):
especially someone very competitive, someone very aspirational, someone that wants
to achieve a lot, you might sound crazy too to
a lot of people. So when the Ravens lose and
Lamar says they're not my kryptonite, I believe we scored
a touchdown Isaiah. Likely that's if that's their best shot.
Good luck to them in the future, meaning we'll see
(30:57):
in the playoffs. Again. It's easy forever everyone to take
a giant dump on everything they're saying, but doesn't bother
me as much. I don't like delusion when you have
no success and you have no chance of success in
the near future. So when bad teams top craziness as
(31:17):
the season goes on, it's like you guys are out
in the wilderness. But the Ravens are good, and over
the Lamar era, they've been really good. The problem for
them has been these big games, obviously the Chiefs and
just other playoff games. But the only way that they're
ever going to get over the hump from a mental
(31:38):
standpoint is believe they can win. And before you can
actually do something, you have to kind of believe it. Now.
I don't think this version of Lamar can beat the Chiefs,
and I do believe darics kryptonite. Why because he can't
throw on them. There was a period during the game
last night collins Worth mentioned this his average throw length
(31:59):
was like one year pass the line of scrimmage. It
ain't gonna work. You have to hit these big plays
or just bigger chunk plays, and they can't just be
these freak lucky You hit Isaiah likely, which is a
good pass and a good play, but then he does
the rest like. Part of what makes the Chiefs and
gives their advantage over good teams is they can sustain
(32:21):
a drive at any moment throwing the ball, and Lamar
simply against the best cannot. He makes up for it
and keeps you in games like last night. With his
exceptional athleticism and running ability. It's like he turns into
Barry Sanders. It's remarkable to watch, and I saw a
lot of people today nitpicking if he takes too many
hits and over the course of time, I agree, but
(32:44):
it doesn't feel like he gets hit hard that many times.
I know he's part of collisions, but I would tend
to agree. You can't sustain running around getting hit, but
you have to be delusional, you really do. And I
think they're franchise. The only way to get past the
big dogs, specifically the Chiefs, is they're gonna have to
have this. Only they're gonna believe because if they play
(33:07):
again in January, one they're gonna be the underdog, and two,
nobody and I mean nobody is gonna pick them to win.
Or believe they can win outside of that Ravens locker room,
and I would imagine there will even be some people
inside the Ravens like, can we really do this? But
if their best players are delusional about their opportunity to
(33:32):
figure this thing out, they got no fucking chance, right,
Just like if you don't believe in yourself, good luck
in life, right, Because trust me, a lot of people
not only don't care that, they're not thinking about you
or believing in you. So you have to have the
most belief in your success. I believe that big time
(33:53):
and listen. Are their comments to the casual person kind
of crazy given what we've witnessed these last two games,
of course they are. But like this team's aspirations as
a franchise and then one of the more clearly higher
level franchises in the league. Lamar has flaws, but he's
still a better player than like ninety eight percent of
the league. Just happens. The gap between him and Mahomes
(34:15):
is pretty wide and not really debatable at this point.
Flawed player, but luckily his flaw, the Chiefs have been
the team that can really take advantage of it. Maybe
they get a chance for the Chiefs get knocked out
in the second round by someone else, they don't have
to play them. I don't know how it plays out.
I'm not betting on this Ravens team winning a super Bowl,
but if they don't believe they can, what's the point
(34:37):
of even doing this? And I also think when you
work really hard to do something and you spend months
as a football player, right, you lose a devastating game
in the ANFC Championship game at home, and then you
basically have nine months to think about it. Every day
you're training, you have OTAs, and then you have training camp.
All you're talking about is this game, especially the starters,
(35:00):
like they're not discussing the preseason everything from the moment
the pads come on in training camp to even work
it on. Shit in the OTAs is built for that moment.
And then you lose, Like it sucks, but you kind
of got to warp your mind. You can't just wave
the white flag. Some people might push back on that,
but I wasn't like thinking these guys are insane for
(35:24):
having what many believe to be delusional beliefs, because I
think you kind of have to to ever achieve, to
ever give yourself an opportunity to achieve anything. I wanted
to just hit on a bunch of stuff this weekend.
I was thinking about, like, you know, what I haven't
done in a while is like grab a six pack.
You know, the older you get, you think back, you're
like God simpler times. You know, you're just young. You
(35:46):
just grab a six pack each with a buddy and
you just cash it while you watch TV. And I
was thinking, like, let's do a little weekend six pack
of things on Sunday that I am looking forward to,
and I'm looking forward to like anyone. The best part
about Week one is even the bad games are very
watchable because we don't really know. We have a decent idea,
(36:07):
but some teams are going to be better than we thought.
Some teams are gonna be worse than we thought. But
everyone starts at as zero zero slate and anything's possible.
And as I talked about with Stucky, week one can
get weird, and it can get weird fast. I saw
this clip go viral from inside the NFL, which Belichick
has joined with Ojo Chris Long and I think Ryan
(36:29):
Clark and I want you to listen to something that
Belichick said that I think, you know, went pretty viral
on the internet streets. Whoever they played against in preseason,
it wasn't the best players on the other team.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
So what you're saying is, coach, we can't plan a
parade because Caleb was so accurate in the preseason.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
But it wasn't accurate. It's ten for twenty.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Shit, you didn't watch the twenty throw?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, hey, come on, there's a reason he's excited. It's
throw and we.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Got to think how good the ten word that will
complete it.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
There was a couple of highlight players weren't that good.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
And no one's saying he might not be great. But
what we're saying is it's just you need the context.
It's like when I hear somebody's lighting it up in camp,
I'm like, is he running with the twos?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Is he?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Is he going against the two defense? Is a quarterback
struggling because he's got the two offensive line? There's just
a lot we don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
First and foremost, I think everyone's like, damn, it's kind
of crushing Kleb. Well, old school coaches don't get on
their knees and slurp somebody. It's a rookie. I don't
care who it is. You have to prove it. I'm
not necessarily in that camp. Like I'm pretty hyped up,
but like Belichick's not a big hype guy. He doesn't
(37:42):
give a crap about that. And I've been saying this
about Caleb. I think we've kind of jumped the shark
a little bit. There's still a lot of unknown. Now.
I get it from a Bear stand fan standpoint. I
understand the Bears Barrek quarterbacks really low. I totally understand that,
but I think I mean rights picking him to compete
for the Super Bowl. I sue people picking this guy
(38:04):
to be like MVP and them to win the division.
It's like, guys, let's just see if, like back to
back weeks when film's out, he can beat you from
the pocket. And I think Belichick is just saying, like
those preseason highlight tape plays that he put on tape
mean nothing to me. Now they mean something to me
because he has the capability but to be a high
(38:26):
level team. Those players are gonna come and they go.
We knew he had that capability when you watched him
play at USC for the Bears to be good, and
I kind of like Titans this weekend, not necessarily to win,
but three and a half. I think everyone like, we
just need to pump the brakes on the Bears a
little bit because I always say, playing as a rookie
quarterback and then you quadruple the hype on it is
(38:49):
really really hard to live up to. Like ultimately CJ. Stroud,
who had one of the great rookie seasons we've ever seen,
I think statistically the best kind of got to fly
under the radar despite being a number two over pick
because everyone thought his team was gonna suck. And that's
how most young guys get to play, right, they get
to just even bow Knicks the over runner for the
Denver Broncos like five and a half, and most people,
(39:11):
if you just pulled like the average football fan, I
think the Broncos'd be pretty as the kids would say,
mid pretty average plow five hundred. So if he has
some good games some bad games, we'd be like, oh,
bo Nicks is really might have something there where It's
like if Caleb Williams isn't competing to be a pro bowler,
immediately it's gonna feel like a leaddown in Chicago. So
when Belichick's comments everyone's like, geez, what's your hater. He's
(39:35):
just saying, like, I watched the guy throw some balls
in the pocket and it didn't look great, and all
he has to go on now he's only played one
you know, he skipped the Bowl game, so he doesn't
play a game till some of these preseason games. And
then he's going up against vanilla defenses and backups. So
I think everyone's just expecting three or four touchdowns, and
that might be the case. I'll be fun to watch,
(39:55):
but I think it's a little more difficult than away.
The discourse is gone. So if Belichick is gonna like
throw some zingers and talk a little shit, I'm all in.
Speaking of rookie quarterbacks, another game I like is the
Broncos this week. Not to win the game, but they're
getting six points. And I think just one of the
(40:19):
more fascinating stories a lot like Caleb and the Bears,
is just Sean Payton in this quarterback like how does
it look? Does it actually work as seamlessly like the other?
One difference between Caleb and bow Knicks is like bo
Knicks in the preseason succeeded running a lot of the
stuff Sean Payton's gonna ask him to do quick throws
in the pocket, snap go. You know, Caleb's success came
(40:42):
with kind of run around and making plays, which, again
my comp forum has always been like prime Russell Wilson,
not true pocket quarterback, like run around, and you can
win and make the playoffs with that version. But the
guy they won the Super Bowl with was really much
more of a game manager who who asionally would do
some spectacular shit. But bo Nicks is going to play
(41:04):
much more like you know, historically not I'm not comparing
him to Drew Brees here, but ball snapped balls out
pretty quick, and there's a tough test on the road
Spiritual High in Seattle. That place will probably probably be rocking.
I would imagine raising that twelve. I'm just fascinated to
watch kind of this team operate. And Sean, who I've
(41:27):
watched a decent amount of his press conferences during this
during training camp, pretty upbeat. I think he likes his team,
and it's one thing for a coach that's never done
anything to like his team like this guy kind of
has a decent idea what a good and a bad
team looks like. And last year part of it was
he clearly did not like Russell Wilson. I mean, let's
(41:47):
look back on that. Remember the discourse in the conversation
when he screamed at Russell Wilson. It's like, you can't
do that. You can't. He's a coach as the player.
I've been watching football, depending on how old you are,
our entire lives. Isn't that pretty normal? I mean Tom
Brady and Peyton Manning screamed at coaches like this is
the big Leagues. Was Wilson's making forty plus million dollars,
(42:10):
John Payton's making eighteen twenty You're allowed to yell at him,
especially when you don't think he's any good. Now, I
think the question mark is the Pittsburgh game. Like Russell's,
We'll see if he ends up playing in that game
because the calf injury is back. Number three, the much
awaited It's been a long long time, and I lived
in the Bay Area when the forty nine ers mutually
(42:33):
departed with Jim Harbough. It's probably one of the bigger
stories on a negative side in the history of the
Bay Area. I mean, the forty nine ers got torched
for it, and I listen, they regretted it. For a
while at Kyle and John kind of saved the day.
But then Jim went to Michigan and in a weird way,
(42:54):
felt like he was underwhelming because he wasn't like competing
to win national championships. It couldn't beat Ohio State. And
these last couple of years kind of validated it all.
And now he's back, and now he has a quarterback.
Now is his team good enough? I don't know, but
I do believe one is. There's just zero chance on
God's green Earth you could bet against Jim Harbaugh and
(43:18):
Justin Herbert against Antonio Pearson, Gardner, Minshew. So he has
a clear advantage in this first game, and I expect
charge to win. And I'm just glad that we're gonna
have Jim kind of walking up and down an NFL
sideline number four. This has gotta be the most anticipated
broadcast debut in a long long time. Anytime the Cowboys
(43:44):
play Week one, it's a highly anticipated game for a
lot of the last twenty years because the Giants had
been good. It felt like the Giants and Cowboys played
a lot on Sunday Night football. And now they're playing
the Cleveland Browns, wholast year, made the playoffs, had a
fantastic year, have a really good team, even though they're
a little banged up. In that game alone, like me
(44:07):
and you could be calling it and people would be interested.
I like the Cowboys in that game simply because quarterback
advantage Dallas and there's some question marks with the Cleveland's
offensive line. I would expect Mike Zimmer and that defense
to be pretty good. But to me, this game, it
feels different because Tom Brady's calling it. And is he
(44:28):
gonna be good? I sure hope so, because like most people,
you end up watching with the sound on, regardless how
many TVs. You have a lot of Sunday afternoon Fox games,
and it's gonna be you know, we'll see how he
can navigate some of these restrictions. Maybe he won't give
a shit. I hope he just is himself. Obviously he
(44:50):
knows football. I think he has this incredible way to
balance like being relatable despite being super famous, super rich.
You know, he's at least in America, I don't know worldwide,
Like he's like our male Taylor Swift or something in
terms of his fame. But can he balance like being
pretty entertaining? People can say, Gruden's a little sticky, and
(45:14):
he can be, but I've watched some of his YouTube videos,
him just showing me his office. Gruden can keep my
attention and he kind of has that John Madden magic.
He's different than John, but he's just cameras on, lights
are on. The dudes a showmen and Tom always was
as a player, and him and Peyton obviously have done
(45:34):
a lot of ads over the years, so they've played
that role in that in the commercial standpoint, but calling
a game the pressure, I mean, you're gonna have twenty
five million people watching this thing easy, It'll be interesting
to see the reaction. Everyone's gonna have an opinion. To me.
I all these guys know football, Like, I'm not looking
(45:55):
for you to break down the coverage every play. Most
people do not care. We want to be entertained. And
the two best entertainers by a mile were John Madden,
Who's the best of all time and listen, hate him
or love him, like Gruden was good at his job.
There was a reason they were paying him ten million
dollars a year and Monday Night fell off a cliff
(46:16):
when he took the Raiders job because he was entertaining
and this is not about like this job breaking it
down to the hard hardcore that wants to know every route.
Like you can't get too into the weeds in football.
It's too confusing for like the twenty nine million people
that watched the game last night on Thursday night. Football
(46:41):
couldn't tell you five routes on the route tree, couldn't
tell you the difference of a three technique and a
nose tackle. They just can't. And it doesn't matter. That's
not what makes football enjoyable. Like College Worth just kind
of has a good time, you know, he's just an
enjoyable hank. I think Troy Aikman has kind of got
(47:01):
a swag back. He's just an easy hang. Obviously you
can do some nerdy football stuff, but like part of
it is like you're an entertainer. And I think Peyton
is really good at this, but like his thing with
Eli is a little more looser, and doing a game
is a little different. Short sound bites. It's hard, and
I know they've practiced a lot, but they're just gonna
(47:24):
be a lot of people watching. There are gonna be
a lot of opinions on his performance. I was kicking
myself last night I thought about trying to get my
five thousand dollars at the Raven stole from me in
that AFC Championship game, and I was gonna live bet
the Chiefs. And I didn't pull the trigger to get
my five k back. I was like, yeah, I'm still
(47:44):
kind of risky trying to do a backyard. I gotta
redo the pool. We got a wedding coming up, but
I do want my money back. So I think what
I'm gonna do is take a thousand dollars and bet
on my favorite money line team or you know, my
favorite underdog, and just put the money on them straight up.
And there were three games that jumped out to me,
Dallas on the road in Cleveland, Pittsburgh on the road
(48:06):
in Atlanta, and the Jags on the road with the Dolphins.
And I kind of ended up like Cleveland can be
a tough place to play, and obviously Pittsburgh the quarterback
situations up in the air. Not a huge Atlanta guy
but that, and I understand Tomlin's one of the great
underdogs embedding history, but that's probably just gonna be a
stay away from me. So it kind of came down
(48:28):
between the Cowboys and the Jags, and I think I've
settled on the Jags, and I don't like the Dolphins
this year. I don't think they're gonna win two games,
but I think their playoff days are over, and I
don't like If you just look at the Jags and
you go, well, a huge advantage for Miami early in
the season is what they play outside, and it's humid,
(48:50):
and most people aren't used to the Florida crazy humidity,
especially some of these teams coming from different areas in
the country, or the Jags play Florida two I understand.
Like I like Peter Schrager, I like Kevin Clark a lot.
Those guys love Mike McDaniel. I like Mike McDaniel as
an entertainer. I think he says funny shit and he
(49:11):
clearly knows football right. He's he's a very very good
offensive mind. Kyle Shanahan loved him for a reason, and
he's been good for TUA. But he hasn't really won
that many big games. He actually you could argue, hasn't
won any And so if you look at the two coaches,
you go, well, Doug Peterson's record, his resume speaks for itself.
(49:34):
I mean Belichick in a playoff game, and I got
a lot of question marks with these two quarterbacks, but
I don't think the gaps that wide. If you tell me,
Trevor Lawrence just outplace Tua. So what I think I'm
gonna do. You can get the Jags right now plus
one forty as of Friday. I think I'm gonna put
a little coin on the old Jacks to win straight
(49:57):
up in that game, and then we'll just kind of
let it ride for couple weeks and see what we
can build up to last but not least, let's cash
this bad boy. The craziest part about Week one is
at the end of the day, it doesn't determine much.
Right the Chiefs lost Week one last year, they won
(50:18):
Super Bowl, won three straight games on the road as
a dog, so Week one does not make or break
your season. A couple of years ago, the forty nine
Ers went to the NFC Championship Game. They lost on
the road to the Chicago Bears, and justin field with
Trey Lance. By the end of the year, Brock Purdy
was starting and helping them make a run. Things changed
(50:39):
dramatically in the NFL. That's why all these coaches talk
about the fifty three man cutdown, like, I think we
get too caught up now in the fifty three the
season is a game longer. Our practice squad is way bigger.
A lot of these practice squad guys will eventually be
on the big roster and half of them be starters
by middle to the end of the year. The team,
(51:00):
all this stuff is so fluid because of the injuries,
but because of the setup of football, you only play
once a week. Like I always had a hard time
when I worked in radio. I was like, it's a
big baseball game to night, So John, this is game
ninety four. It actually doesn't mean anything. So if the
ace goes nine innings, awesome. If you get shelled and
(51:23):
they yank him after three, it doesn't determine much. And
that's part of the reason baseball has fallen out of
the landscape of all of us talking about it, because
it's not it's a bad talk radio sport, it's a
bad podcast sport. Football is made for this because every
game means so much, and when you have an entire
(51:44):
offseason and everyone has hope, there are gonna be some
teams that just look atrocious and whether everyone thought you
were gonna be bad, or whether you're a team like
the Bears and you lose to the Titans or whoever.
You know, the Giant were to lose to Minnesota at home,
people just freak out and there's gonna be a team
(52:05):
or two. Like it's one thing to lose. The Ravens lost,
that's a loss. You can keep your head up. You
lost by a touchdown you didn't cover, but whatever. I mean,
you're right there at the end and it's against the Chiefs.
But there are gonna be some losses by double digits
where it's like, you guys looked like shit. And I
think the problem with that is and this is where
the fans and whoever's covering your team and it's like
(52:29):
you've had nine months to get ready for this game
and you lay an egg. I love over reactions or
proper reactions. When a team just gets housed and worked
in Week one, it's one thing. Listen, you're gonna get beat.
You're gonna have lay eggs throughout the season. When that
happens on Week one, fair or not, people react to
(52:52):
it like your season's over before it even began. The
volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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