Colin Cowherd Podcast - Chiefs Are Best In The Clutch, Shanahan’s Worst Loss, Darnold Dazzles, Nabers is a STAR, Bo Nix’s Breakout - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Okay, former pro scout, my buddy John Middlecough,
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(00:57):
before we get to John Middlecough for an hour twenty
two seventeen, Chiefs beat the Falcons. I hated Atlanta's decision
making and play calling late in the fourth quarter and
the last two drives. Absolutely hated it. Listen Kansas City's defense.
It's not the you know eighty five Bears or the

(01:19):
seventy five Steeters. But in terms of speed, it is
they are fast. They are young, they are athletic, and
they are fast. What are you doing trying to run
outside on fourth downs? And the first fourth down you
got deep in Chief's territory. Kick a field goal. There's
like six seven minutes left.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Kick a field goal.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
You get a lot of time. You know, Kansas City's
offense is going to get a little bit conservative. You know,
what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Then?

Speaker 1 (01:46):
The second one? It's all these outside runs and quick
passes outside. The Chiefs are sure tackling, and they are
really fast, and when they get you within their grasp,
you're not getting out of it. So at point this
are hard to come by. Opportunities are hard to come by,
you know. And I hear all the belly aching about
the officials. The Chiefs have won nine in a row.

(02:08):
I lived in Connecticut for the ten year run eleven
ten eleven years there, and I always heard about the officiating. Listen,
there are a handful of teams in the NFL right now.
Minnesota's got a great head coach and a great defensive coordinator.
And when the Patriots were at their strength. They had
Belichick's brain on defense, Josh McDaniel not a great head coach,
but a great coordinator. Most Super Bowl teams have that.

(02:30):
Steve Spagnols the best defensive coordinator. Andy's the smartest head
coach in the league. So They've got all their grounds covered.
They also draft and develop incredibly well. They're very young,
They're very fast, very athletic. On defense, Atlanta's trying to
run outside. It's fourth and an inch. Kirk Cousins is
six to two, two hundred and twenty pounds. Do a sneak,
do something. I just hated. Zach Robinson is their offensive coordinator.

(02:56):
I just didn't like it at all. Too clever, it
felt almost collegiate. It was a tricky, clever finesse b
Jean Robinson over center and guard over and over and over.
If I have fourth and one, three and one, because
Atlanta's got a very good offensive line. So I just
I thought that was that's the ballgame, situational football. Atlanta

(03:18):
wasn't very good at it. Kansas City's excellent at it,
and it used to be Kansas City would win these
games always with a great drive. But Kansas City's winning
some of these games, what are they won nine in
a row off defensive stands. They're just hard to get
in the end zone against. It's very band doesn't break
very New England in their dynasty.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's it's defense. Kansas City's figured it out. You want
the Rams right now, have the very young defense. What
you want is a young defense because defensive players get
hurt more often than offensive players, and so you want
guys that if they do get hurt, they recover quickly.
You can your offensive players, you know, you can have
an old tight end or an old right tackle, they

(03:58):
just don't get hurt as often. But defensive guys, you know,
they're banging into people. They're trying to you know, blow
up piles and blow up ball carriers. And it's a
more violent side of the football. And so keep your
defense young and it'll help your offensive coach spend your
money on offense, draft your defense. And Kansas City's done

(04:19):
incredibly well. That's why they can get rid of the
cornerback sneed let him go, because they have Trent McDuffie
and read its safety. They're just so talented. Atlanta's a
very good football team though, and this you know this
I was undefeated going into tonight three and Oho this
afternoon blazing five, and I had the Falcons to night
in the points, but over the course of the game,

(04:40):
Kansas City dominating time of possession. I will say this,
Rashi Rice has become a really really great player.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
He is a one.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
He is I don't know if he's you know, he's
Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, but Rashi Rice is a
really really good player. And they've they've been looking for
that number one since they moved off Tyreek hill Worthy.
He's going to be a gadget player. He's not going
to be a big volume guy, but and he reads
the best gadget coach in football, so that's fine. Juju
Smith Schuster is another guy. He's been around, he's been

(05:10):
in the system before they brought him in. He had
a productive year. They didn't want to pay him, even
off the New England where they overpaid him, and then
they got him back. So Hollywood Brown gets back with Worthy,
Rashi Rice, Juju Smith Schuster, Travis Kelcey. They have another
tight end. They're going to be fine offensively, but it's
defense for Kansas City that decides things. They're excellent Situationally,

(05:33):
they have a consistent pass rush, and I like what
I see. Very good football team. And he can complain
about the officiating all you want. You know, it's not
a surprise, you know, Brady and Belichick. You know, it's
not like the NFL. If the NFL wanted certain teams
to win, the Cowboys wouldn't keep getting dust at every

(05:53):
time they play a big game. Right, Think about who's
good in the NFL now, Kansas City, small market, Green Bay, Buffalo,
small market, Baltimore for the last decade, small market. You know,
the New York teams actually, for the first time in
a long time, both had a good weekend. Aaron Rodgers
on Thursday and the Giants offensive line gave Daniel Jones

(06:15):
some protection today Neighbors as a stud New York finally
had a good weekend. But this this sports al has
been dominated by you know whoever the best coach is
with the best quarterback. If you have that symmetry, you're
gonna win a lot of games. Kansas City is a
tough out. And you know, there's a lot of these
teams I really like, but I don't trust them late
in games. Big spots like Detroit. I don't trust Dan

(06:35):
Campbell's play calling. Mike McCarthy at Dallas, don't trust him.
They're just there's just quarterbacks or coaches. I don't know
in big spots, Dan Campbell. You know Lamar Jackson in
the playoffs, even today, Lamar Jackson has had opportunities to
seal that game earlier for Baltimore and missed open tight
ends or receivers. Kansas City is just the most confident

(06:58):
team in the league and big spots because they've had
so much success doing it. So it's a lot of
rints and repeat. I mean, you know, when it got
down to fourth and one at the end, I'm like, no, no,
just they'd moved the ball outside the minute they handed
that thing off, I'm like, no, not gonna happen. You're
not gonna run outside on Kansas City in that kind
of situation. They're just too fast and too well coached

(07:20):
and too disciplined. So had ourselves a good football game,
though it was a wild Sunday. John Middlcoff and I
have a lot to talk about. We don't break down
necessarily every single game, but the big headline games underdogs
continue to do very well. In this league. It's why
I liked Atlanta tonight. Is when you can get value
and you get those you know, quality quarterbacks and points

(07:43):
usually where I go. I do think after three weeks
we have a pretty good set. How many surprises do
we have after three weeks, Well, it looks like Minnesota
is the surprise team of the league. We thought it
was the Saints, they came back down to Earth. It
looks like Minnesota. And we looked at the Viking schedule
before the season started without what a guy the verse
six or seven weeks. You know, if they go there're

(08:03):
three and no, now you go four and oh you
can play five hundred football for almost to the end
of the season and still be in the playoff race.
So Minnesota is the surprise team in the league. You
could say Pittsburgh. It's still an offense that's just tough
to watch, but I thought the Steelers would have a

(08:23):
couple of losses by now. So each each conference has
a team that I think Minnesota's surprising start is more
redeemable and will last longer because it's an offensive league
and they're just scoring a lot of points with a
lot of different playmakers. I think Pittsburgh. You know, they
beat bo Nicks. They facing some quarterbacks. Justin Herbert today
is limping around the field. You know, I think they've

(08:47):
gotten nice matchups so far. I don't think Pittsburgh's an
eleven twelve win team. I think Minnesota looks like it
absolutely could be. I'm doing everything right every week. It's
a different defensive star. Offensively, they're spreading the ball around,
multiple targets, the coaching, the quarterback, play, the kicker. I mean,
everything works for Minnesota. I think Pittsburgh will come down
to earth. But what Kansas City is doing is what

(09:09):
great teams do. Coach quarterback, speed, situational defense, and Rashi
Rice has developed into a tremendous playmaker, big time player now.
So Owen two teams went five and one. Today the
Titans are the only Owen three team. So it was
desperation a week. You get down to weeks three and
four and teams that are winless they're playing. That's why

(09:31):
I took Denver over Tampa. You get down to it
and there's a sense of desperation in this league, and
you know, Tennessee's not gonna win a lot of games.
And I think they have some good personnel, but you know,
Will Levis just makes any mistakes.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
It is what it is.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
A lot of these young quarterbacks, for second year quarterbacks,
are so dependent on the situation and the coach. I
mean Malik Willison, Green Bay. He's got a great coach.
People bailed on him, kids played well. Good for him.
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(10:48):
I have to start rams Niners. Los Angeles stole a win.
I mean, Matt Stafford. It really was a team win.
It was special teams. It was a couple of huge
defense defensive plays. I don't want to give Stafford all
the credit because he you know, he didn't have a
couple of his top targets. But and Christian McCaffrey, I mean,
you go look at his numbers. Highly efficient. Juwan Jennings

(11:10):
is the best third receiver in the NFL by a
long shot. John, You watched this game. I saw Atlanta
do this to the Eagles. We watched this a week ago.
They just walked out stole a win. I honestly felt
like Dallas tried to do this against Baltimore, but they
were in too big of a hole. What was your
big takeaway or two? And the Niners blowing this thing.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Well, I think the culture of the Rams speaks for itself.
I mean, we've seen some gutless performances over the last
couple of weeks, and they kind of had one last
week and they showed up and they fought. I mean
even when that game they were getting worked but the
score wasn't at a range. I think this, for as
much as it is about the Rams, I think this

(11:51):
is the worst Kyle Shanahan loss of his era. Wow,
in terms of their good, good teams, I mean, they've
had some bad years, but in terms of their Super
Bowl tending teams, I mean, Colin, you play a team
with out the two best wide receivers, how often when
a guy made a tackle on the rams, I fall
football as closely as any human that doesn't work in
the NFL. I had to google multiple guys, you know.

(12:13):
I mean, they are rolling out players I've never heard of.
And to lose that game. Party was excellent. He was incredible.
Special teams has killed Kyle Shanahan. Kyle Shanahan is an
excellent play caller. He for an offensive guy, values defense,
so that has never been a concern with their team.
He does not care about special teams at all. And listen,

(12:34):
you're gonna make and miss some field goals. But they
had a punt, yep fake punt that led to a
first down, and then that play at the end of
the game that I don't know how many yards it
was at least forty that basically ended the game immediately
when he took that across the fifty. And it has
been a thorn in the forty nine ers side when
you look at Belichick for twenty years in their dynasty

(12:56):
special teams he takes them. Seriously, what does Andy Reid do?
Hire Dave Toe the best special teams coordinator? Even look
at Sean McVay over the years have always had good
coordinators the forty nine ers with special teams. This is
not college football. Even if the Niners you play that
game ten times, are winning it nine times. Yeah, But
because it's the NFL, these scores are never gonna be

(13:18):
forty to fifteen, right, It's just like, oh it's seventeen
to ten, it's twenty four to seven. It just the
margins are so small, and one bad play and you
look at the end of the game, a missfield, go
boom Rams win. Yeah, I mean right, win for the Rams,
awful win for the awful moment for the Niners.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, it saved the Rams season because if you go
zer and three, statistically you're out of the playoff race.
And it's not only a win, it's a win against
your rivals, it's a division win, and it feels it's
the kind of win that's it has a domino effect.
They had multiple misplaced offensive linemen. I mean they didn't
have their center, one of their guards. They were moving
people around. They've been doing that all season. No Pooka,

(13:56):
no Cooper Cup. They've always had a bunch of capable
white receivers like two two at Well was a second
round pick. He felt like for two years he.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Was a bust.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
But he made a huge, huge catch late. And you
know the thing about Stafford. You know, when I watched
Matt Stafford play, you have to love football to get
how good it is. Like he's not gonna move around.
It's it's just there's there's an ease of picking up
third downs. He just I'm not sure there's anybody in

(14:27):
the league that on a second and eleven with backup
receivers could consistently get thirteen yards. Matt just and I
think he's in step with McVeigh. And you got to
give Stafford credit here. He hasn't had his offensive line
or as top receivers all year. It's a mess. And
the fact that they won this thing today and it's
not Rock Purdy. Cause again I will say this about

(14:50):
San Francisco, Brandon Aiyuk made a calculated mistake. He's not
he is just not valuable to that offense right now.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
No, he's irrelevant. I mean Perdy Juwan Jennings, who has
been one of the better third wide receivers in the
NFL was elite today. I mean he had a career
that he dominated the game and Perdy can't play any better.
But like you said with Stafford, he is such a
physically gifted player, right, I mean his physical gifts I
would say parallel like Rogers, just in terms of how

(15:22):
he's a little older now, but how athletic he is,
how big his arm was. But the game tying touchdown,
what did he do changed to play at the line.
His hands were up laying Kippen style when the guy
was five yards away from the end zone. So his brain,
him and McVeigh are in sync. Obviously when you have
that many injuries and the Niners have owned this team. Yeah.
The other thing is the hard part for the Rams

(15:42):
when you play the nine that's a Niner home game.
I mean even Sanchez was saying it's sixty five to
seventy percent Niners fans. Just what a turn of events.
I mean they were up seven points late with a
chance to make it ten, which would have ended the game.
He missed the field goal and the rest is history.
But isn't that what makes Sunday so great? You're like oh,
it's kind of sleepy. All of a sudden, you look up.

(16:03):
You got the Cowboys within striking distance. The Rams are
right there. That's what makes the NFL pretty special. But man,
that's the Niners are lucky they're playing the Patriots this
upcoming week because in a couple of weeks they have
a short week against Seattle, who, while they've dominated Gino,
they look like a pretty well buttoned up team. I
know you were beating the drums on them. Not that
Miami's any good, but they they've played pretty good this season,

(16:25):
so you're right. I'm thinking when the Rams, it looks
like it's inevitable they're gonna lose halfway through the game.
How do you overcome b and zero and three in
this division losing to the Niners. Seattle's off and running.
You have so many injuries. It's almost like your season's
over before we even get to October. Now you just
get a little life. All of a sudden, you get
one more win. You're two and two. You're feeling pretty good.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
I know mcveay's had a lot of big wins. I'm
not sure outside of the Super Bowl or maybe a
big NFC championship I'm not sure there's a more.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Goat a season.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
It's literally a more gratifying win.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
And it really was.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
If you go look at who made the big defensive
plays for the Rams today, there were like six different
guys on a big third down row. They just had
a They had corners, rush ends, linebackers. I mean it
was the classic team win, special teams McVeigh, Stafford, Kyron
Williams to flip into the end zone. So the Rams

(17:20):
come back to beat the Niners was at twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
So one thing on one thing on the Niners really quick, Colin.
I mean they're paying a lot of guys a lot
of money who are on the sideline. I mean, Kittle's
just a guy who gets banged up a lot. Now
he makes a lot of money for a tight end.
Deebo makes over twenty million dollars. Love the guy, but
he missed his games every single season. And they gave
Christian McCaffrey a raise this offseason and he makes eighteen

(17:44):
nineteen million dollars, which relative to other positions isn't crazy.
Before running back gets the highest and he's who knows
when he's ever going to play again this season, So
that's you know, this is what happens when you invest
in some older guys, injured guys. They got lucky. They
have some guys that could step up. But man, I mean,
it's just that they have a lot of valuable ask

(18:06):
that's sitting in street clothes on the sideline next to
Kyle and it caught up with him today. All right.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Eagles beat the Saints fifteen to twelve. I had said
after the loss on Monday Night Football. I had said,
Eagle fans, take a deep breath. Your offense is fine.
Without AJ Brown, it's not the same. And so I
thought the Eagles, I mean, listen, they had they doubled
the yards and the Saints they averaged like six point
eight yards of play. And I'll give Jalen Hurts credit here.

(18:34):
Basically without AJ Brown, he just said, I'm gonna throw
to Dallas Goddard, I'm gonna throw to DeVante Smith. Between
the two, they had seventeen catches. I'm gonna use my
legs a little bit here, but I will give Jalen
Hurts credit. He's just like, I got two guys I trust.
I'm just gonna go back and forth to them. Those
guys had seventeen catches. That was my first take, and
they had they had a lot of yards. Listen, we

(18:55):
can get into Nick Sirianni and I'll let you go there.
But I also think it was a little unveiled of
the Saints. Alvin Kamara was kept in check and Derek
Carr was averaged in the first couple of weeks. Alvin
Kamara was so special and so dynamic that you, I mean,
it was like you had this balanced attack. You shut
down Alvin Kamara. Eagles front seven played well. Suddenly, Derek

(19:17):
there's limitations. He missed a deep ball, he had a
deep ball and under threw a guy. So my takeaway
was Philadelphia is really good. They're not the same offense
without Aj Brown, but most Eagle fans today and I
think you're going to probably be on this as a
former employer. Is the Nick Sirianni question.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Well, I think at this point you wouldn't be that.
I don't even know how to just cavalier just whatever
about going forward on these fourth downs if the guy
signing your checks wasn't behind it. And the one thing
Jeffrey Lurie is he's a big numbers guy, and the
organization loves to be really progressive. Yeah, they love to
be like Silicon Valley in front of every team. And

(19:57):
now a lot of teams over the last couple of
years have implemented that go for it on fourth down.
It does seem like they've even taken it to another level.
I'm all for going for it if you're playing in
high scoring games. If you're like in the Cowboys situation,
field goals do you nothing when you're down twenty thirty points? Right?
They are playing in low scoring games, colin field goals.

(20:17):
I mean the Saints, you could it was clear. It's like,
I don't think they're getting a twenty today, So three
points if the final, if they're only going to score
twelve or fifteen points, just do the percentage, do the
math that they are extremely valuable and sometimes going for
like on the forty five. Okay, if you're not comfortable
with kicking a field goal, their offense is not playing well,

(20:38):
it is not moving the ball against you. Your defense
is coming to play vic Fangio is neutralizing this kind
of Koubiak Shanahan offense. So just play defense and they
just refuse to do it. And that game, like you said,
shouldn't have been as close as it was. It would
have been a nice easy game for the Eagles relative
to the score. They still would have won by nine points.

(20:59):
But he refused to kick field goals, and at this
point I know he's emotional and he gets I can't
believe he's doing this without the blessing of the owner.
I'm even going above Howie this is. You would not
be doing this if your owner's telling you, like, let's
kick some field goals, right, I mean that, I don't
care what you do for a living, whoever signs your checks,
if they come like, hey, let's not do that anymore,

(21:20):
any human being is gonna change unless you just want
to get fired on the spot. Like to me, the
owners behind it, the organization's behind it. But it's kind
of jumped the shark, hasn't it. Like today was like
like Derek, the last drive of the game, they're down three,
not six. If you're playing up a more, just that's
a low football IQ throw you don't need you're not down.

(21:43):
You know, you don't need to score a touchdown here
a dump down, throw it away you Just a field
goal ties the game. So that they got lucky to
be in this but they were in that situation for
a reason. Yeah, because he just never kicks field goals.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
So I'm a Hurtz fan. He was twenty nine to
thirty eight eight Rushes. I am a fan. But we
have to acknowledge this.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
John.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
This is something I've talked about and it's in your wheelhouse.
Kyler Murray is as elusive including Lamar, as almost anybody
I've ever seen. But we know mostly as offensive linemen
have gotten bigger. There are guards now at six '
six that it helps for a quarterback to be six
two to six four. It's really an advantage. And sometimes Tua,
Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson and I think Jalen Hurts, I'm

(22:26):
not always sure they see the ball over the middle
of the field. I like Hurts. I think he's a
class act. I think he's an adult. I think he's
an easy guy to rally around. I think he's a
great athlete. Do you ever feel like watching them sometimes?
And I think this is sort of the AJ Brown thing.
You don't have to throw over the middle to AJ Brown,
you can throw over the top. That was always Russell
Wilson's thing. Greg co Sel said he doesn't see the

(22:48):
middle of the field.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
We didn't have to.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Russell was great at the tear drop throws, and I
think aj Brown when you take him out, there's some
limitation on the big playability. I don't know if Jalen
Hurts always sees the field even you buy that or not.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Well, he one percent doesn't. He's not great from within
the pocket. Whether that's physically he doesn't see it great
or just the speed in which everything happens. He doesn't
operate at the fast level of the elite guys of
Mahomes of Rogers. I don't even think that's debatable at
this point. That's why when he scrambles outside the pocket, Yes,
the good version of Deshaun Watson, the prime version of Russell.

(23:25):
They become elite when they do that. They can see
everything and they're comfortable throwing the ball far. But he's
not a great layered throw. Of all the little guys
you listed by a mile, Kyler spins it the best, right.
Kyle spins the ball out of his hands like he's
Stafford or Rogers. I'm telling you, even Watson today, I
know they kind of got work. He just he's a

(23:46):
remarkable talent I don't think Jalen is like a remarkable
talent from a throwing perspective.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
I don't either.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
He's a remarkable athlete, powerful his running, he turns into
a running back right with his power, his elusiveness. He's
a great outside the pocket thrower. Inside the pocket, I
would say he's pretty average for NFL starting right. He
ranks higher on the list as an overall player, but
that individual skill close to the middle of the pack. Like,

(24:16):
to me, Tua is a much better rhythm and timing player, yes,
because he doesn't have what Jalen has to run around right,
you watch Lamar today, he just has so much more
to bring to the table. Those guys can always go Okay,
I don't see it, fuck it, I'm just gonna take off. Well.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I think Jalen doesn't throw it like Kyler, and doesn't
doesn't run like Kyler, and doesn't throw it like Tua.
He's a bit of a tweeener. It's what I've always
said about Dak. There's no wow with Dak. He's competent
with Jalen. He's not a wow arm not wow accuracy
not He's elusive, but he's not like Lamar Kyler Murray
or Josh Allen. So I think with Jalen he does
feel like the best of the B plus quarterbacks in

(24:53):
the league. I like him and I like his character.
It's why I like Dak. I like Dak's character and maturity.
But I when I watched Jalen throw, it just looks
prettier with Stafford, it looks easier. With Josh Allen, it
looks Kyler Murray. The ball just you can tell you
played baseball, just flies. Aaron Rodgers still throws a pretty ball. So,
I mean, listen, Philadelphia escapes with a win. I feel

(25:15):
like I'm gonna watch Philadelphia. They're gonna win the division.
They're gonna win about ten to eleven games, and at
some point coaching or defense will lose them a football game.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Well, I know this just based We talk so much
about these contracts during the offseason, and they have gotten
so massive in the NFL, Right, yeah, NBA level status.
From an economical standpoint, there can't be a better value
than twenty seven million dollars guaranteed to Saquon Barkley, right,
I mean, they just can't. I mean, he won in
the game that he was dominant and on that big
run that ultimately sealed the game. That was like, Oh,

(25:47):
this is the Penn State version that still can run
about four to two in the open field. Yeah, so
adding that guy. While they've had some disappointments, I think
their defensive line Jalen Carter was really good today. Yeah,
Jordan Davis. They drafted over Kyle Hamilton. I think they'd
like that one back, Bryce Huff who they signed from
the Jets. Basically the flop with this on. He's not

(26:09):
an every down player. He's more of a pass rusher,
so he can get run on. But Saquon has been
incredible for them. And this was clear during the hard
Knocks when John Marrow was saying this, you went, it's
not gonna go well because Saquon's gonna look good. He's
looked even better. Yeah, the drop a little freakish. I
know his hands aren't exactly Marshall fall, but today he

(26:30):
just how good he looks and how confident he's running
in speed. He's a game breaker in relative they're paying
Brandon Ayuk. They gave him over seventy five million dollars guaranteed.
Saquon got a third of that. So when you just
look at impact and look at the running backs right
now in the NFL. I know it went like everyone's like,
you know mel Kiper's comment last it's harder to throw

(26:51):
right now. Defenses are making it more difficult. The offensive
line plays down, Well, what's up all these running backs? Well,
who's really shining? All the top running backs? And Saquon's
knew the top of the list because he was, and
that's a tough place to play. That place was rocking.
He was, he was elite today.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Now for a segment called making It Look Easy, brought
to you by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm.
Today Saquon Barkley made it look easy. One hundred and
forty seven rushing yards, a couple of tds, both in
the fourth quarter, including the game winner. Just like Saquon
made it look easy, so does Morgan and Morgan Easy
to submit a claim to have over one hundred offices nationwide,

(27:29):
more than eight hundred lawyers with over fifteen billion dollars
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(27:49):
to nine to check out America's largest injury law firm.
Winning in the NFL is hard, Hiring Morgan and Morgan
is easy. Before I get to Dallas. In Baltimore, Sam
Donald four touchdowns, no pick, so thirty four thirty four
to seven. Vikings did everything right and hammered Houston, And

(28:12):
I was thinking about this is that What makes it
tough for Caleb Williams is if you watch what Matt
Lafleur is doing with Malik Willis, who looked like he
could not play the position a year ago, and you
watch what Kevin O'Connell is doing with Sam Donald and listen,

(28:34):
I don't think Dan Campbell is situationally a great coach,
but he's a culture builder. We got three coaches in
that division who are really good at what they do. Right, Like,
I'm watching Kevin and I look at Matt Eberflus and
I'm like, bro, you're not in that class. Forget that.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
For now.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
I'm watching Kevin O'Connell. Everything Donald does, now this is
the USC version. And I keep waiting for the bubble
to burst, Accuracy, playmaking, running deep ball and these reckless plays.
Now he got you know, he tried to extend a
play today. Ball gets on the carpet. But it's not

(29:14):
just that Donald's winning, John, He's clean the four touchdowns,
no picks. And this has been with banged up players
like I keep waiting for the bubble to burst. But
I watched them today and I'm like, shit, that wasn't competitive.
Houston got smoked.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, I mean that was a team that I don't
think any of us would be shocked as playing the
Chiefs in the AFC Championship game, right, And that was
And listen one thing Donald and that franchise that their
home field advantage is pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Yeah, you could tell how today was out of sorts
to the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
The other thing that got going for him is this
guy has some serious question marks with his ability to
relate and deal with quarterbacks. But I don't think there's
any disputing that Flores is right up there with Spagnola
is the two best defensive coordinators in the NFL. Non
head coaches like true defensive coordinator. It's last week Kyle
and Perdy were like, we didn't even know what we were seeing,

(30:09):
and clearly Slowick and CJ were just over their head today.
What has happened to Sam Donald these last couple weeks,
last three weeks lead little pressure off that he plays comfortable.
Obviously they got skill guys, but as we talk on
September twenty second, we got a long way to go.
Like we're talking like an MVP candidate. I mean, if

(30:29):
you just vote today, he might win it. But I
mean this guy and back to the Bears, you go.
I don't think the Bears have any chance to not
be the fourth best team in this division with what
I'm seeing right now, because these other teams from a
coaching LaForce pulling like a picasso right.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Now, it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
I mean they dominated. He had Malik Willis looking like
a varsity guy versus Will Levis that looks like a
pee wee guy. I mean, it's just like not even
a fair fight when they just handed you Malik Willis
three weeks ago. So it's that's insane. Obviously, the lines
are good and what Minnesota is doing. Once you get
to like three and oh or four and one, you

(31:08):
can have a two game losing streak and still get
the ten wins pretty easily. You watch the Bears, they
look as dysfunctional as a team. I would say, is
any team in the league when you just watch them play,
you just go, this is not good. And when you
watch Minnesota pull the opposite, you go it feels crazy
to say, but like, is this an NFC contender?

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Well, it's funny. First of all, the three or four
things that we think create that great head coach got it,
quarterback playing at an elite level, Darnald is weapons. Usually
there's a great coordinator on a Super Bowl team, Demiko
Ryans with the Niners. Okay, so they've got a great coordinator.

(31:52):
And then usually situationally a good defensive team, there's a
pass rusher somewhere. Well, they're playing good situational defense. So
you know, it sounds crazy, but you know if they
go four and oh, you can go five hundred until
week seventeen and you're a ten and sixteen you go
four and oh, you can scuff it. I mean, you know,
if you go back to last year, the good in

(32:13):
Kansas City had a bad month November. It's like the
Super Bowl year when the Rams won it. They were
choppy early with Stafford.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Remember two years ago when the Vikings, they ended up
losing the Giants in the first round, but they won
the division and they had that crazy record in all
those one score games. I think they went twelve and
five and they had like a historic record one score games,
like twelve and one, and everyone's like, this is smoking mirrors.
This team isn't that good. This team looks completely different
than that team. Yes, right, they look real. That team

(32:42):
look a little fraudulent. It is. I mean, Sam's by
the time they get toward the big games, is gonna
keep getting a lot of reps and be really comfortable.
And the other thing is your head coach gets to
really know what he's good at, what he's not good at.
And when you got that good of a defense, it
is just we talk about like a running game and
a tight end being a quarterbacks best friend. You know,

(33:03):
what's the quarterback's best friend? When the other team can't score, right,
that's what the other team can't don't They can barely
move the ball past midfield. The Texans offense has one
of the best round quarterbacks we've ever seen, just based
on record and stats. They are loaded with skill guys
and have a coach that basically everyone has already put
into a head coaching position by next year or the

(33:23):
next two years in Bobby Sloak, and they got ransacked today.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Well, at the end of you know, not only do
the Vikings have the components of a really good team,
but I had said this when they exchanged Darnld and McCarthy,
by the way, who they drafted for Kirk Cousins, they
just lacked juice, like they can't do anything off script,
which has always been a golf actually ran for a
first down in the game ceiling play today, which I

(33:48):
thought was kind of funny. But by and large, with
Kirk Cousins, you can win a lot of games without
a quarterback that moves. But Donald gives them what they
were hoping JJ McCarthy gives them. With Kevin o'conn, he
just gives you a juice. Stafford doesn't give you a
ton of that. But Matt is as good as Brady
pre snap and throws the prettiest ball arguably in the league.
So when you're that good Brady in the pocket pre snap,

(34:09):
Brady throws a ball like that, it allows you. And
also Brady and Stafford moved great within the pocket, they're
great between the tackles. They move constantly. But I you know,
I just I'm just watching them, and I'm like the coach,
the coordinator, the quarterback, and Darnald. To knock on Darnal,
I always said this, there's a little Andrew Louck, a
little and a little Carson Wentz. And he became a

(34:32):
bad version of Carson Wentz, which is he's big, he's strong,
he's athletic, he's tough, but Jesus is he reckless. You
take out the reckless from Darnald and I get the big, strong,
tough playmaker. You know, this is why people drafted him early.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, I think last year changed his life. I think,
you know, seeing Brock, who's not as talented him, and
he even said this, he's like watching the way that
guy prepared. And then being around Kyle, who is like,
you know, an old school nineteen eighties coach in terms
of how he wants things done. I think gave him
a whole new perspective on just his football career. And

(35:08):
then Kevin O'Connell came through. The Niners wanted to keep him,
but they couldn't pay ten million dollars. I think I
said this last week, and I don't know how I
can't say it again. If this continues and they make
the playoffs and they win a playoff game, it's not
like they traded up like some of these other teams
to get JJ. He just fell into their lap essentially, right.
They didn't mortgage three first round picks. Do you just

(35:31):
let him go? I mean, everyone's like, why do we talk?
These are conversations that you start having. This is a
real life thing. JJ's on a cheap contract. He wasn't
the number one pick. He was like the tenth or eleventh,
so his contract's not crazy. Do you extend Sam Darnold
if this if you win twelve games and he's that
good with your head coat, isn't the whole point of
this just to find a quarterback? Yeah? Right, So it's like,

(35:54):
you don't just let him hit free agency and go
we'll see with JJ, because we're going, we're going we'll
see with and how's that going?

Speaker 1 (36:01):
By the way, you could probably get Darnold for him,
and he's so appreciative of fun. You know, Sam's made
some money in his career. You get him for a steal.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Well, wouldn't you just give him like two years sixty
million dollars guarantee at all. I'd offer that to him
right now. Yeah, Now, maybe he wants to hit the market.
Maybe you go, well, we could franchise tag you. These
are good problems to have because clearly they like JJ.
But you can't just go with the hope and a
prayer and fingers crossed. Like, I know he looked good
in that preseason game, but already hurt, you know, I mean,

(36:34):
this was a guy that had some developmental questions. Still,
this is a twenty seven year old highly developed from
a much scene at all. That's the thing. You cannot
fake going through the shit and coming out on the
other end when you do have the We've seen this
historically in the NFL Rich Now, Rich was older when
he got to Gruden. Some of these guys just resurrect

(36:55):
their career and they just become what you kind of
always thought they could become. And that's what Sam has
done for three weeks. Today was like today was an
eye opener for their team him specific same hits Tamiko
in that defense was that's one of the best wins
of the year by far.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, JJ McCarthy had a tweet today. By the way,
it was Sam Darnold's really good at football.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
I thought that was and that also speaks to why
character matters so much in the NFL. Look at Pani's
handled it perfectly. Haven't heard a peep JJ McCarthy doing
stuff like that. When you get in these weird positions
with some of these questionable guys at that position, you
can get weird. So it just won't get weird, right
because JJ is such a high level dude.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
All right, Cowboys Ravens. Cowboys made a furious comeback late,
but we should go back to the first half where
Baltimore had a huge lead average eight point eight yards
of play. Dallas was demoralized and it looked like the
fourth time between Buffalo and Green Bay last year, the
Saints in Baltimore. This year, Dallas was getting their doors

(38:00):
loan off. Now again Baltimore's Now they lost a lead
to the Raiders. They lost a big lead. This is
kind of I mean, Lamar Jackson struggled with some accuracy
when he could have sown stuff up. He had Mark
Edwards wide open on a play on a third down.
You know, I've I've come back to Dallas once and
I said, in this game, forty percent of daks wins

(38:21):
are against the Giants in Washington at the height of
their dysfunction. The New York Giants now have cleaned up
that offensive line a little bit, and they actually look
pretty good today. The Daniel Jones doesn't look as nervous
neighbors as an absolutely freaking stud.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Jesus, is he good? Holy shit? Is he good? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (38:37):
So all of a sudden, you know, the Giants had
Now Dallas is going to New York pretty soon and
Dallas is offensive lineay football. Yeah. And so by the way,
Giants old line is pretty good and the Dallas d
lines getting pushed around. So that game is going to
be really interesting. But my take was, and I said
that this week is in a big game, I'm gonna
take Lamar over Dak. I just don't think Dallas that talented.

(39:00):
I do think they're a little better at wide receiver
that I gave him credit for. But the defensive line
Baltimore averaged through three quarters nine yards of play on
the road. So my take is the better team won.
It wasn't really that close, and that we've got to
I said this at the end of last year, John,
I felt the Niners had peaked because of their age,

(39:22):
and I felt Dallas was going to slowly regress. We
were going to see now they were going to go
on ten wins from twelve, and the next year it'll
be nine wins. I look at Dallas and the blame
to me is not on Dak. Jerry, You've missed on
too many picks this pass draft, nobody's ready popped. I
just don't think Dallas has elite personal I think I
look at Philadelphia, I look at Kansas City, I look

(39:43):
at the Niners. I see elite Detroit. I don't see
it with Dallas.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Why I would say this one thing with Dallas the
last three years winning twelve games. Obviously last year Dak
had a career year. But their defense under Dan Quinn,
there's a reason he became a hot head coaching candidate.
They're really really good. At one point in time early
in game, and felt like Baltimore was gonna rush for
four hundred yards. It was insane, you know, it was crazy.
And we say this a lot about Dallas. They're a

(40:07):
great front runner because they get a lead and their
defensive line is fast. I think we're learning. They're not
very powerful, right, and you can run the ball right
down your throat. And I understand passing the league everyone.
These teams now have no problem obviously playing the Ravens,
the Saints, all these teams. They're good running backs on
all over the place. They will run it all day

(40:28):
long on you until you can prove you can stop it.
And when you're giving up five six yards to carry,
there's no point to call passes. So did you think
that was I know it was impressive. The last seven
eight minutes. A little bit of a hollow comeback, that's
what I think they hit. They hit an on side kick.
It was just like John, I thought, the RAM does
not reflect what I witnessed, right, Like.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
I thought the Rams niners. I thought the Rams played
their ass off. They were hanging around the whole game.
They were making big plays on third down. Listen, Jennings
just is the best numbers receiver in football. Jenning's a
He was a great college player at Tennessee. I mean
they stole him in the sixth round and he just
gets better every year. Like that kid just and he's

(41:10):
a weird body type. Like there's just not a lot
of massive, huge hands, huge length. He's just hard to defend.
And the Rams don't have great corners. But I felt
like Dallas sometimes you just get into these games and
it's hard to ask your play especially if you physically
dominated John, it'd be one thing off its trick plays
or over the top. When you physically dominate Dallas for
three quarters average nine yards of play, it's hard to

(41:32):
ask your guys to bring their best stuff in the fourth.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
They feel small on defense. They just feel small. You know,
one thing you saw with the Rams today. I don't
know much about their linebackers, and they let Ernest Jones
go for a reason. They felt good about some of
the random guys they had. They were making play. Yeah,
they had a lot of just tackles in the hole
against the forty nine ers vaunted running game. Obviously, the
Niners have Fred Warner, you see who do the Ravens

(41:57):
have Rokwan Smith? You watch Dallas, Their linebacker plays bad
and their defensive tackles clearly aren't that great. And I
wouldn't call Micah exactly Reggie White against no run no.
So it's like when you attack them, where does Micah
kill you? When they're up twenty to ten in the
third quarter, and he can just tee off on second
and third and long. Well, they get down, they just

(42:18):
get leaning on you. And it's happened two weeks in
a row. It just feels like Dallas gets overwhelmed. It's
crazy to say, but must win this week at New York.
You start one to three. I like Dallas to be
a playoff team this year, but after these two weeks, shit,
I gotta reconsider.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
I watched every play of the Giants game. Now again,
I don't buy DeShawn Watson, but Daniel Jones does not
seem as nervous. He's throwing with confidence. Neighbors isn't better today? Yeah,
Neighbors is an absolute bona fide number one. There is
no forget developing. He's a number one in the league. Now,
all their second, third, and fourth receivers feel slotted in

(42:58):
the right spot. They got a lot of threes their
offensive line. This is like you know in New York,
Aaron Rodgers is going to get all the love if
you pay attention to the Giants offensive lines actually playing
and they put draft capital into it. They hit in
a left tackle. So and I think we both agree
that Brian Dables. I like him more than you do,
but I think he's a clearly good I think he's

(43:18):
a good offensive coach.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
I don't mind him as a head coach. I mean
he approved a couple of years ago. He's even this year,
Like it's not to me. They got more personnel issue
than Brian Daball. Yeah, but I have a little emotional
bit of a roller coaster, but it feels like he's
calmed it down a little. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
I think Thursday Night's a real game. I would take
Dallas to win it. But I think Thursday Night's a
real game. And I think the years of Dallas. You know,
for years, Big Bend just rolled over Cincinnati and Cleveland.
You know, then Joe Burrow shows up and then Cleveland
gets Baker. Now so okay, now those are real teams.
I mean, for ten years, Big Ben just put down
like three out of four or four out of four wins.

(43:53):
And I feel like Dallas for years forty percent of
Dax wins or Washington New York. Well, Washington's got a
good staff. J is a little electric, He's got some stuff.
The Giants aren't great, but they have a chance to
win this home game. I feel like John, I feel
like Dallas. Like the Steelers had this like eight year
window of total lysfunction in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia

(44:15):
was a little up and down Philadelphia. The Giants in
Washington now feel formidable, at least formidable to me.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Dallas too, like the Niners clearly had a Super Bowl
window there where they just couldn't get over the hump
a couple of times against Kansas City. And now it's
gonna be they got their backs against the wall. Dallas
had just get the monkey out their back get to
the NFC Championship game. They had a home field advantage
in a couple two of the last three years. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
That's over.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
So it's like and now I had been saying when
you kind of look around, Belichick's got about seven million jobs.
You can find him everywhere. I mean, this guy could
be doing anything in the world. He's just watching Take
twenty four to seven. I mean this, I thought Jacksonville
was a team to keep an eye on. That they
played Monday night. That thing could employ. That owner's got
some money. The Cowboys come back to the forefront. If

(45:04):
all of a sudden they lose on Thursday and this
thing starts to get away from Mike, and I gotta
change my tune because a couple of weeks ago, I
was like, you know, Mike and Dak have such a
good working relationship. It's going so well, but now you
start losing. He doesn't have a contract. That conversation, don't
you think is gonna get the fire's gonna get lit
under it? I mean, Jerry, they by no means on

(45:27):
what they've looked like last two weeks against obviously two
talented teams, they didn't even look close. That's the scary part.
So yeah, they're not a lock playoff team by any means. Clearly,
I got it. I might be wrong on that one, so.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I think in previous years you could have blamed McCarthy.
I don't think this is all. I don't think this
is Mike.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
But he but does he if they go eight to nine? Yeah,
he doesn't have a contract. So it's like, and what
are the Cowboys gonna do? Like, they're not gonna hire
some Ben Johnson guy, are they? You know? Jerry? Because
the thing is with Mike, say what you want is
it's you're not going to upgrade with some coordinator. More
likely over him, so you got it. It'd be Vrabel
or Belichick. You'd almost have to get a proven name

(46:09):
that you feel good about. There are really just a
couple options for them.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
I would go with Rabel, who I think is a
great coach, and I also think he doesn't need to
dominate personnel. I think one of the things that really
hurts when you watch New England play on Thursday against
Aaron Rodgers and you go, Jesus Belichick handed girod Meo
a mess. They have no players offensively those standalone games
with New England. It's a reminder that Bill controlled personnel

(46:34):
for seven years. Tennessee's got players, they just don't have
a quarterback. Tennessee's got guys. You know, Will Levis just
isn't it. It's time for this week's player I thought
might give almost almost anything to redo his game, brought
to you by Uber Eats. This week it's Caleb Williams.
Hey an NFL season high three hundred and sixty three

(46:56):
yards but two really costly interceptions against the Colts was
this week's Uber eats Player of the Week. Get almost
almost anything for game day, delivered with Uber eats, the
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Bears Colts. Bears lose to the Colts twenty one to sixteen,

(47:18):
ugly game. So I mean Anthony Richardson went ten for
twenty two picks and he won.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
So it is not pretty. I mean it was like
an orgy performance yesterday in Michigan. It was a mess.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
But here's the thing. This is incredible. Chicago had more
yards a twenty sixteen to fifteen first down edge, dominates
time of possessions, four for five.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
On fourth down.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Caleb's thirty four to fifty two with a couple of touchdowns,
but again no run game. I don't know what they are. Offensively,
they're very Caleb Williams reliant and on deep balls, he's
just not accurate, Like he's not. He can around, he
can do stuff. But I say it again, I watched
Boon Nicks today with an offensive coach. You know, we

(48:07):
could acknowledge now that Steelers defense is fricking great. Okay,
so bo neck struggled with it. I watched him today
run past terror part Tampa. So again bo Nicks taking
huge strides and you can tell exactly what Sean Payton
wants Denver's offense to be you can see it. They're
using bo Nicks's I don't know what the Bears aren't.

(48:29):
They're just yards, they're just yards and plays they don't run.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
What are they.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
To me?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Caleb stats were a little padded toward the end of
the game. He was pretty bad. The first half was atrocious.
Two things can be true because I think we see
this with like Bryce Young and Andy Dalton. Situation is
the situation for a young quarterback is not ideal in
terms of the coaching around you, right, and some personnel.

(48:57):
It's hard because we applauded the talent on the field,
and then you're watching him. You go, well, the offensive
line is not very good and like you said, they
can't run the ball well. Running the ball helps a
young quarterback, of course, so you know the Bear's history
speaks for itself. But then you watch Caleb in individual plays,
he feels a little overwhelmed slash. He's just out of source.

(49:20):
He has not played well and there are basic layup
throws and this goes to Bryce Young two that like,
independent of the organization and independent of anything going on,
he should be making and he's not. Like Anthony Richton
is kind of clear might just be a disaster that
might be a major problem for Indy. Indy, right, he

(49:40):
just might be an inaccurate quarterback.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
He's a fifty He's a fifty percent completion guy with
Shane Steichen, and I think their receivers are not that
you know, they're good enough, Piers, they're good enough. He's
a fifty percent completion quarterback.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
And it doesn't even feel close to the wide receiver
or Caleb has these guys open. Maybe he's thinking too much.
I think he feels sped up. You know, when you
don't build confidence early, you start kind of overcompensating. You
start thinking instead of just playing. The one thing he
did a couple of years at USC, he just played. Yeah, right,
just let it play. Now, he feels like everything he's

(50:15):
kind of feeling out. He's running into sacks. He just
everything looks out of whack. I mean, he doesn't, let's
face it, given the hype, which I thought was mainly justified,
it has been a disaster. And like, to me, when
you watch that game, like the way he's playing equals
coach get fired. That's what I thought, right, because you know,

(50:37):
so it's like all those guys, given how good their
division turns out to be. We knew that, but I
mean Lafleur, what he's doing with Malik willis like what
happens if you just gave Lafour Caleb Williams, Right, that's
what you're talking to yourself about. If you're Ryan Poles,
that to me is another team. And this is back
to Dallas with Rabel, Ryan Poles, offensive lineman, tough guy

(50:59):
like Vrabel makes a lot of sense in Chicago, a
lot of sense if I'm Ryan Pohle. So all of
a sudden, you start going eva Flus is in major trouble.
He was in trouble coming into this season. Well, and
now instead of being like, oh, you know, coming into
the year, I pumped the brakes on everyone. You know,
people were like ten to eleven wins. If they went
nine to eight with a rookie quarterback, and they look promising,

(51:20):
that'd be awesome. They look like a six win team
right now. Colin Indianapolis was like historically poor back to
back weeks on defense, Yeah, and they were kicking Caleb's
ass toga yeah, And I get it's on the road,
but man, that was if I was a Bears fan
right now, I'd be pretty despondent because it's like, this
is exactly why we never get excited, because it always

(51:42):
turns out to be this.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
And remember, Green Bay is going to get Jordan Love back.
They've got about a five this week, and they got
a five year window where outside of Jordan Love, they're
paying nobody. On offense, they have drafted and developed so
well so and we know with Kevin O'Connell their offensive
pieces are great. And Detroit finally today figured out we're
a run team. Montgomery Gibbs had thirty five carries. So

(52:07):
you're not winning in this league scoring twenty three points.
This is the best offensive coach and the best offensive
personnel you can do a Pro Bowl team with the
NFC North. Just do a Pro Bowl team. I get
all the coaches, I'll take flores on defense. You know,
whoever you want an offense, you could compete in a
Pro Bowl.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
And so the.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Downside, you have a defensive coach a rookie quarterback and
both are over their head at times. And it's so
what's happening to this division is in twenty twenty four
and beyond is the Bears have to score twenty seven
to win some of these games. That's just the reality
of it.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
I just pulled up their schedule. I mean I read
it the mccaskeys. I don't know if they pull the
trigger super early, but the should argue if they lose
these next two games at home Rams Panthers.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
They're not beating the Rams because are getting healthier and
the Panthers today with Andy Dalton, have a pulse.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
So if all of a sudden you're one and four
with back to back losses at home to those two teams,
do you just kind of pull the trigger and just
start You're new? And that's this gets back to Caleb.
This is why start pick your coach last year instead
of having a guy come in on the hot seat.
This is the dysfunction. This is what Bryce went through.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's just okay, here's the problem with the interim coach stuff.
Let's say you're one in six and you go with
Shane Waldron and he goes five hundred the rest of
her way, and then the guys like him, and then
the locker room loves him. The media jumps in and
Shane Waldron nothing against him, But he's not Bobby Slowick.
He's he's not Brian Flores. I am so against the

(53:45):
interim thing because you've seen this, We've seen this twenty
times as adults. Is it's like in college you always
hire the coordinator. And nothing against Michigan football, and they
deserve the W yesterday, their D line, just in gold
USC's O line with freshmen and sophomores everywhere. But in
the end, that coach from Michigan would not have been

(54:06):
a top five candidate any other big job and so
and that's okay, he's a Michigan guy. But if you
bail on Eberflus and Waldron goes five hundred, you're hiring him,
and maybe he would work, but I don't think he'd
be a candidate otherwise.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Yeah, I mean that's to me. If it's you know,
some of these crazy owners, Eberflus would be in major
like you would be like, no chance he makes it
to Halloween on this bace. But given the mccaskey's more
than likely they just ride it out. He gets canned.
But it's it is not gone. Well, I would say
no team had more hype, rightfully, So you get two

(54:43):
top ten picks, you get this quarterback, and they have
looked lifeless. They really have, and some of it to me,
I think, listen, I'm hard as anyone on coaches, but
individual players, when you're in a position and the guy's open,
you have to make the pass. I mean the difference
between Bryce Young, some of these guys coming out to
Bryce Young's defense, like, this is the NFL and if

(55:06):
you can't make basic passes, there are fifty two other
guys in the locker room where ninety percent of your
roster is not on guaranteed contracts. They don't give a
shit about his feelings. We're trying to win. I'm laying
on the lead great today and today Andy Dalton comes.
He looks like Joe Bontana. He looked incredible. So I think, listen,
we can It's easy to rip on the on the

(55:27):
David Tepper in the organization and they've earned a lot
of that, but can we just admit today like Bryce
Young has been one of the has had one of
the worst I don't know, fifteen game stretches we've ever seen. Right,
Like I was in the car the other day when
he got benched. I'm flipping around the radio. I hear
rich Gannon say they hadn't had a lead for ten
straight games, hadn't had a lead, They'd won two games

(55:49):
on last second field goals. Hadn't that a lead today,
Andy Dalton, they had a lead immediate, Like, think how
hard that is to not just have a seven to
nothing lead in one game? They had count and clearly
part of it him and the difference of like Caleb,
Caleb has physical attributes, Bryce just doesn't. Like that's just
a five to ten guy that can't move and has
an average arm. Like that, there's a chance and this

(56:11):
happens in sports sometimes at every level. He's just bad.
Maybe he's just not good enough. Good guy, tries hard,
not good enough, Andy Dalton, up and down career. He's
an NFL player, Like we can look back in five years.
The story today that people were thinking about trading for
Bryce Young. I thought it was kind of crazy. He's
the number one overall pick. Now. I understand they wouldn't
trade much, but he makes a lot. Andy Dalton like that,

(56:34):
that's a backup Sam Darnold last year. That's a backup.
If I'm gonna pay five six million dollars, that's how
much Bryce makes. I better feel pretty good about my backup.
Like those guys play like you put Bryce Young in
a game right now, you're guaranteed to loose, guaranteed to
look like that's I'm watching some of the Bears wide
receivers Tyson Badgett like they had some success. Like if

(56:55):
you're DJ Moore, like get me the ball, Like what
are we doing? Wide receiver? Sometimes turn on the guy
before the coaching staff and the fans. You know, they
can be a little divish, rightfully, so they used to
get in the ball. The ball starts flying over their head.
This is just uncharted territory for Caleb. You know, it's
just like any player. I mean, you become a rookie.
You got to the hype, you get the money. Think

(57:17):
how much easier it was for Trevor he was in Jacksonville.
Then be fans they have. I mean this Chicago, this
is tough. It's gonna be a long week there. I
can't imagine sports sook radio, the articles. I mean, the
open locker room for the press. This is is welcome
to the NFL.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Rook Well, I had said before the season, let's go
to Tampa Bay Denver Klobbersom twenty six to seven, and
I had sent In the first couple of weeks, I said,
listen bow Nick's opening against Mike McDonald, the Seahawks crowd
corners and a pro and Gino Smith.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
That's a bad open.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Then we go next week it's the Steelers, and it's like, oh,
this is a real defense. Go ask the Chargers today.
Today Ampa defense, that's dinged up Vitavilla at the back end.
Bon Nicks forty seven rushing yards twenty five to thirty
six Denver bloom Out wasn't competitive second straight week. I'll
say this, I'm not anti Baker. Second straight week he

(58:13):
was really rough on third down. He was just not
moving the chains.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Off the awful interception today on the side of.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Thy Yeah, Baker is off. And again second straight week
they couldn't make crucial plays on third down. But when
I watched bone next today, this is what Sean Payton
kept texting me. It's like, you know it's gonna be bumpy,
but he moves you and I talked about this. He
moves much better than people think.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
You know, It's like Jalen Hurts isn't fast, but he's elusive.
Bone Nicks is not quite as elusive. But he's kind
of quick, like he can get to the corner. And
I'll say this again, they're not babying him. Remember Big
Ben's first year with Pittsburgh, he'd throw like sixteen times
a game, even to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
It was like Michigan.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Yeah, they just for protecting him. Shawn's I'm not protecting him.
He threw it like forty some times. Against the Steelers,
he threw thirty six times.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Today.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
They're running an offense that you would run with Geno Smith.
They don't care. And I said before the season, all
these young quarterbacks, Caleb Jaden, they all have defensive coaches,
Drake May, Sean Payton. I think the development of what
this kid is doing is I'm watching him. He made
a leap today, John, he looked like a grown up.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Yeah to me, if when you can run the ball
and your defense plays well, Sean Payton like, he's gonna
learn what I can call and what I can't call
for this player and what he's comfortable with. And the
only way you learn that is through going through it.
Like you said, Seattle looks freaking good. Yeah, I mean,
and obviously Pittsburgh's defense is elite, but today felt like

(59:48):
the Buccaneers spent all week looking at their record and
looking at the Broncos record and were like, yeah, we're
not really going to pay attention. We'll see on game day.
And they just got boat raced. And this is the
thing with the NFL. All of a sudden, you zero
and two, zero to three. Yeah, teams do not want
to get embarrassed. Bob had that awesome play with his legs.
You don't turn the ball over. That helps because he's

(01:00:08):
been throwing the ball to the other team. I mean
he's had some passes that also did not get picked
that should have been. He just looked like in complete control.
And you have to wonder, mature guy, a little older,
maybe his speed up process, Like maybe we don't have
to wait till December. Maybe within three or four weeks,
he's gonna look more comfortable now they're talent around them.
When they play the better team. I think they play

(01:00:28):
the Chiefs next week, he's gonna get overwhelmed at times.
Look at Sean's quotes. He had a quote last week
like I feel great about it. We're unfazed. That to
me speaks to when you get these veteran head coaches
like what's Eberflu's gonna be able to say, you know,
I can lean on by seven playoff appearances, like he can't.
He can't say any of that. And that's where Sean everyone,

(01:00:49):
we're gonna be okay, even though, like, what do you
think best case is for them this year? Seven eight wins?
That's best case? Listen.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
I thought they would People said they were five to
five and a half. I thought they would get eight.
They don't have a consistent pass rush. Bo is still young,
They're in a tough division. The charters and the chiefs
are really good, so you know, their schedules pretty damn formidable.
I think if they go I think, if you get
to seven and you week, yeah, if you get to seven.
Because I thought they were one of the better over teams.

(01:01:20):
I've always said, I think they're receivers. I think they
have more talent on the perimeter. But I think they
have more talent on the perimeter. I thought there did
a running back make a hell of a run today
around the corner. He did a I forget the name
of the player, sorry about that. I just think Denver's
got a little more juice offensively that people give him

(01:01:40):
credit for. But I just like and Bo had some
bad throws. He had a really he missed on a couple.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
But I just I like what I see.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
First of all, he's older, he's married, sixty one, starts,
the offensive coach pretty damn good receivers and backs this.
I think he's got an advantage that the market isn't
recognid between the college starts, the maturity body. Had five
coordinators in five years in college. This kid's seen everything.
I just now he may be really close to his ceiling,

(01:02:09):
John Like, this may be, you know, he may be
seventy percent of the ceiling. But I see an athletic
guy who's accurate, coachable, gets rid of the ball quickly.
If they can improve their offensive line, I think you can.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
You can.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
This is a wildcard team potentially over the next few years.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Well, let's face it. We talked about this last week.
Twelve wins for hardball, and then you're watching the first
half the day, you're like, God, this this classic hardball.
Then all of a sudden, that foot, that ankle, whatever's
going on with Justin Herbert and the way it kind
of like did he reinjure that plan of fascia? You know,
because he already had the ankle. That that is extremely
and that once he goes out, they got no shot,

(01:02:46):
right right, But that that is one of the biggest
wildcards in the NFL because if he's just in and
out of a lineup, if he's fully healthy, they probably
win today. And I feel pretty confident like this classic
Harball team eleven twelve win lock. Then the moment he
starts limping around, You're like, did someone fall on him?
And they show the replay, No, you just reinjured it
stepping handing the ball off. You're like, Oh, this is

(01:03:08):
something that is just not gonna go away clearly, which
is scary because I love watching Jim Harball when he
has like a C plus B minus roster saying bring
it on everybody, and he was doing it again today.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
I gotta tell you, I think we should do an
award every week for coach of the Week. So Green
Bay tags Tennessee thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
To fourteen, crushes him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Matt Lafleur on scripted stuff. Now you and I know
first couples the first quarters scripted, Green Bay gets seventeen
points quickly, that's scripted for Malik willis malite. They one
hundred ninety passing one hundred eighty eight rushing. The kid
goes thirteen for nineteen, a touchdown, no pick, seven different targets.

(01:03:58):
This is a young team. It's not like he can
rely on a veteran third down receiver or he's got
a Devonte Adams. These are all kids. These are twenty
three year old receivers. For them to take Malik Willis.
I'm watching today and I'm like, they had almost four
hundred yards offense and on the scripted stuff early. That's
what really worries me about Chicago. They're horrible, and they're

(01:04:22):
terrible on their first three series. It's like, that's the
scripted stuff Green Bay. I mean, I'm Matt Lafleur. You know,
for years and years it was always understood that Aaron
and him kind of almost shared offensive duties. Like Aaron's
gonna do some of his own stuff, and he'd earned that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
I'm good with that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
What he's done with Malik Willis, I mean I'll say
this one year ago. I mean, good God, Tennessee got
rid of I mean they bailed on him. I mean,
you almost always just keep a guy, make him a backup.
They didn't even want to give him a shot to start.
They thought will Levis was an upgrade. Matt Leflor is
a great football coach.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
That's my take. They traded him to a team that
they were playing three weeks later. I mean that you
just never know, right, I mean, if you traded into
a team that you might have to see and they
probably never even thought twice about it and within two
if you would have told me two weeks ago that
Malik Willis looks like everything we thought Anthony Richardson was
going to look like, that's the crazy part. I mean

(01:05:22):
today he's running around, He's obviously been much more accurate
than I think anyone anticipated. Give him the game ball
last week he gives it to the entire team. It
really is people, you know. Mike McDaniel is a media favorite,
like he's got Schrager loves them and some of the
guys love him, and I get it. He's a nice guy.

(01:05:44):
Might be the most overrated coach in the NFL. I
mean that, Look, he's got is gonna wear thin when
he goes five and twelve. But Lafleur does not get
discussed nearly as much. And part of that, like you said,
get a little overwhelmed by Aaron Rodgers. Aaron had been
gone now for a while. Yeah, Jordan Love threw thirty
three touchdowns. Jordan Love gets hurt on a night game

(01:06:05):
halfway across the world, comes back and wins two games
with a guy that no other team probably would have
traded for, and pretty convincingly. I mean today they beat
the shit out of him on the road. Yeah, I
mean it's one thing, okay at home playing a bead.
Then you go on the road and win a game
with a team that knows this player, like all the
defensive players, who do you think they had been seeing

(01:06:25):
for three years as a scout team quarterback And that
thing was of all the games to day and that
thing truly was not close. It was over fast. And
I think Lafloor, I don't want to just throw out
the elite status. You gotta win in the playoffs. Yeah
they've he did last year though, and easily gonna beat
the Night Like I think Lafloor's easily one of the
best young coach. I mean the way McVeigh, Kyle, Kevin O'Connell,

(01:06:48):
we got to include Lafleur and we got to kick
Mike out for right now he hasn't won an important
game ever.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Yeah, you know the air thing is we know this
in college. John it's recruiting and development. Saban did both,
Urban meyerd both right. There are not a lot of
guys in this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
League that I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Kevin O'Connell is developing a really talented guy who all
of us always had a feeling. I think Darnald can
actually play if he didn't have a dysfunctional team. Nobody
thought Malik Willis could play. Mean Jordan Low, one of
my most trusted general managers, was like, I wouldn't draft
Jordan Love. He's like, there's just you know, and this

(01:07:27):
is somebody with a ring. I'm watching Malik Willis in
this transformation. This guy is one of the best developers
of talent. By the way, That's why this Green Bay
story is so much fun because the whole team's twenty
four years old.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
On offense, well, how did Andy Reid become a legend
before he ever won a Super Bowl? Because he could
coach that position and no matter when McNabb would get hurt,
he could play with anybody and they would still make
the playoffs. He could take a washed up Jeff Garcia,
he could take a Jay Feely, he could take Mike
Vick from prison. I mean, he could do anything. When
you can coach that position. It's my conversation with Brian Flores.

(01:08:02):
If he was an offensive coach right now, we'd be
talking about him like one of the best offensive coordinators
we've ever seen. But he coaches defense. But even that
his defense has been so good, You're like, just like,
can he deal with the quarterback? Like he doesn't even
seem to like those humans, right, so he doesn't even
if I'm an owner, how does my head coach handle
that guy? Say what you want about Tomlin, Like he
can just massage that position. He's not coaching them on

(01:08:24):
their fundamentals on a daily basis, but he can handle
that situation is weird and he's handled it seamlessly because
that's Mike Tomlin's go to strength. Lafour clearly he's pretty
level headed guy. But can coach that position? Took Jordan Love,
Like you said that your GM wasn't alone. A lot
of people wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Drafted them, by the way, John the first round. Jordan
Love the first year he started was awful. His first
five weeks he was the best quarterback in the league
by week fourteen.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
The other thing it does is it allows you to
do something like they just did. They traded nothing for
a backup quarterback who makes no money, and you can
win games when you're fifty million dollars quarterback. Why rush
Jordan Love back this week? I don't know who they're playing,
It doesn't matter. You can take another You're not in
a rush. What happens when you get in positions when
your backup quarterbacks the troit You kind of force that

(01:09:14):
guy and as a snowball effect, he reinjures his knee.
If I am given Jordan Love zero rush, Malik Willis
for sure is getting another start. If Jordan Love says
I'm not ninety nine percent, what the hell's the rush?
I mean, you just just play like this. It actually
gives your team a different pitch, forces other guys. Let
this guy come back fully healthy. If they're able to

(01:09:37):
make the playoffs, which they sure look like one now,
and have Jordan Love miss a month, what an incredible accomplishment.
I mean, seriously, that is awesome. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
The no ownership doesn't hurt him because Mark Murphy keeps
getting the offensive position in the quarterback right. Shit, they've
got they got Farv right, they got Rogers right, they
got Jordan Love right. And Malik Willis looks like the
steel the in league steal of any acquisition. I mean,
it's the most important position. They give up nothing for him.

(01:10:11):
It is one of the great heists. If this kid
goes on a three game streak, it's one of the heists.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Of the season. Yeah, definitely, without question.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
John Middlecock, can I say.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
One thing before you get out of here, because you
were on this and it's been so evident yesterday, I
love the Pac twelve. It obviously died and his conference
realignment felt weird. But watching these matchups all over the country.
I mean, Michigan USC would be awesome no matter what.
But Oklahoma hosting Tennessee, even Utah playing Oklahoma State this conference,

(01:10:48):
Colorado playing Baylor last night. Great realignment from It's not
quite the NFL because the talent is not the same
when you're nineteen twenty years old. Not every gain as
a pro College football is better off in terms of
the matchups on a weekly basis with this conference real.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Lined, John, I always fell I've been a college football fan.
You know, I'm an old guy for a long time.
My biggest knock on it was the lack of great games.
There's three or four weekends a year in college football
and you look up and you're like, god, I hope
USC Michigan terms out to be a good game. There's
nothing on this damn schedule. It's like Tennessee Oklahoma, you know,
and then you'll get surprise games like Colorado Baytor became great,

(01:11:29):
but nobody was sitting around waiting for Illinois. Nebraska became
great on Friday ONFS one or Fox. So, I mean,
stuff becomes great. But they always had a big game problem.
Well now I even watched you know, like Washington Northwestern.
It's like I've never seen them play. Just let me
go watch them play, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
So it's like to me, Stanford Syracuse I thought was
kind of entertaining.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Yeah, I mean, so listen. I just I'm one of
those guys that there's a lot of things I love about.
I'm not anti tradition. There's a lot of old Stuff'm
peanut butter and jelly is my favorite snack. Like I
eat like a you know, like I'm not a real
experimental guy on some things in my life. But in sports,
we too often fall for stuff that's just not that interesting.

(01:12:13):
Like I think baseball should go down to one hundred
and twenty games, start the playoffs August fifth and this
past weekend, and we'd watch the games. Like, I don't
think anybody says Stamp, you know his historians that love
one hundred and sixty two games. Most of us just
can't get through that many games. Its double the NBA season.
So I just think we fall in love with the
history and the romance. But I always say this. ESPN

(01:12:34):
created a channel called ESPN Classic. Nobody freaking watched. Nobody watched.
It's like one of those things that we talk about,
something more than his reality. Like I like the Manning Cast,
but it has you know, let's say a million viewers.
Joe Buck and Aateman have eighteen. But if you went
to Twitter, you'd think everybody was watching the Manning cast

(01:12:54):
and nobody was watching the game. Now that's the inverse
of what's true. Nobody cared about cal Organ State. I'm
watching Oklahoma State Utah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
I'm like, it just looks new. Yeah, it does, it's fun,
it is it worked, Yeah, I mean it worked.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
John Middlecoff podcast is three and out.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Great job, buddy, see you Colin.

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Colin Cowherd Podcast - Chiefs Are Best In The Clutch, Shanahan’s Worst Loss, Darnold Dazzles, Nabers is a STAR, Bo Nix’s Breakout

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Colin Cowherd Podcast - Chiefs Are Best In The Clutch, Shanahan’s Worst Loss, Darnold Dazzles, Nabers is a STAR, Bo Nix’s Breakout