Hour 2 - Bold predictions

Colin gives his 5 bold predictions for the NBA season

Things seem to be getting worse for the Dallas Cowboys

 

Guest: Joel Klatt

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Here we go at Tour two live in Los Angeles.
It's The Herd wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day.
So last night, Brawn Browny played briefly. You know, we
all know it's a little bit of fluff, but it
was a moment. Everybody takes pictures in the end. I
think if they're a playing team, I think Minnesota's gonna

(00:47):
be a really good team. It took them a half
to figure out what the hell they are offensively, but
I think they're gonna be really good. I think OKC
is the best team in the West. I think Denver's
an inch behind him along with Minnesota. Dallas is fascinating
Klay Tom and should work. In the East. It's Boston
everybody else chasing him. Philadelphia has already banged up New
York needs another three point shooter. But it was fun

(01:08):
to watch, so I thought, before we bring on Joel Clatt,
I would give you my five. Hey, I'm not giving
you seventy four mile an hour sliders here. I'm gonna
give you fast balls as my five big bold NBA
predictions last year wasn't two years ago. I went five
to zero. I think, okay, Number one Luca dantag gonna
have a game in which he scores eighty a game

(01:30):
or eighty for a night. He scored seventy four last
year in the game against the Hawks. His scoring average
has gone up. He's the best pure offensive player. Kyrie
Irving misses enough game, so does Klay Thompson. That'll have
one of those nights where he's gonna get forty eight
to fifty shots, and he gets on heaters like nobody else.
He also stores a majority of shots three pointers. I mean,

(01:52):
he can get hot, so I think he's gonna have
an eighty point game the Lake. Kobe Bryant obviously had
a game against Toronto in that class. Second thing is
I think the Lakers missed the playoffs. They're one of
the oldest starting rosters in the NBA. I'm sorry, Dalton
connect as a rookie from Tennessee is not going to
be a difference maker against OKC Minnesota Denver. He's not.

(02:14):
You have a new coaching staff. Anthony Davis has just
become an absolute, night after night dependable monster. He can't
be as healthy as he was last year. He'll miss
ten games. This could be Lebron's last year. And if
this drawny thing goes on for weeks and weeks, that
didn't help you win a number three. Zach Eaty from
Perdue wins Rookie of the Year. He comes in great shape.

(02:35):
He got snubbed on the Olympic roster, so he's not
in a good move and he's gotten quicker.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
I didn't watch NBA preseason stuff. The staff, which apparently
has less of a social life than I do, did
and they said that Zach Eady looked very, very good
in the NBA preseason. So I still contend this idea
that this guy can't play in the NBA. If you
get him the ball within six feet, he's scoring. And
he's gotten his movement out ship on his shoulder, which

(03:01):
he always played within college. Anyway, I think the guy
is going to be a really nice NBA player. He
wins Rookie of the Year. All right, how about this,
Paul George and Joe l Embiid will play fewer than
twenty games together. This is my least bold prediction. They're
already missing the opener, so I can't feel that this
is like saying, hey, Kawhi will miss a few games.

(03:22):
But I think this is the problem with Philadelphia. I mean,
Joel Embiid wasn't healthy in the playoffs last year, so
I'm expecting him. I mean, at this point it's you're
trying to conserve his energy for the big spots, and
so I just I think this will be like the
Brooklyn team that had all those good players. They just
won't play enough together. And finally, I think Yannis will
request a trade at the end of the season. So

(03:44):
Boston's only better. New York is better. Indiana is getting better.
Keep your eye in Indiana. Indiana is like the OKC
of the East. They're not as good, but they're going
up fast. They're ascending. So I think everybody's getting better
around the Bucks and they're getting older, and so it's
gonna be year two of Dame and Giannis Middleton's already hurt,

(04:04):
So I think what's gonna happen. You know, when you
get old in pro sports, you get old fast. The
Niners got old really fast. And in basketball last year
we're like Man a couple of years ago, we're like
Bucks are old. They're not getting younger. They're too good
to get good draft picks. They're not getting younger. So
I think by the end of the year, the Warriors
have showed interest. I think that thing. It's a two
year experiment. You know, maybe win forty eight to fifty games.

(04:25):
I'm not saying that, but the Knicks are noticeably better
over the course of a season. They will be It
didn't look good last night. The Knicks will be better.
The Celtics are better, Indiana's only getting better. Miami I
think could be better. Milwaukee's getting older. So they are
my five bold I was gonna throw this one in
the Celtics clinch the number one seed by next Thursday.

(04:48):
That felt a little too bold for the segment. Now
with that, Joe Klatt, the voice of college football, is
joining us on a Wednesday, as he regularly does, so,
so what you know, I used to be afraid when
I was younger of flying. So I bungee jumped and
I went to the space meedle and I attacked my fear.

(05:11):
And in college football, here's my fear with Texas. And
it was realized. They're glamorous, they're beautiful, they're hip, they're cool,
and they're gonna get bullied in a game where they
have better players. And I watched that thing and I went,
this is my fear of flying. I attacked that. I

(05:31):
do think eventually this loss could help them. But wasn't
that our worst fear of Texas well, of course, and
that Georgia owned him at the line of scrimmage? Yeah,
and even that really experienced in quality offensive line that
I've been raving about all year. Yeah, and they got handled, handled,
And you got to give a Georgia's defense a lot
of credit. Now, the one thing that I do think
is overlooked in that loss is that Texas's defense actually

(05:54):
played really well. Yeah, really well. They got some turnovers,
and you know, if it was wasn't for the fact
that Georgia had so many short fields in order to
gain that lead. I mean, they got up twenty three
nothing and didn't really do anything offensively. They got the
ball at the thirteen, at the eight, the twenty six
of Texas. You know, so they weren't sustaining drives. In fact,

(06:15):
Georgia only sustained one drive. That's not a knock against Georgia.
I'm not here telling you that like it was lucky
that Georgia one. Georgia was the better team. They were
the better team at the line of scrimmage more more specifically,
and they were also much more comfortable being uncomfortable. You
could tell that one team had been on that stage
before and even this year against Alabama on the road
in a matchup game, the other hadn't. And you saw

(06:38):
like really egregious mistakes from Texas offensively, like for instance,
on the corner blitz where yours is sacked and strip
fumble and it leads to the seven to nothing score.
Wide receiver never adjusts his route at all. Nobody pays
attention that the corner is blitzing. He did a good job,

(06:59):
and guys, there's no doubt, but there's there's nobody paying attention.
Yours eyes aren't over there on the pick that created
the seventeen nothing. When he throws a pick in the
second quarter, it's it's an outside breaking route by the
number two release and the number one release. There's the
sack fumble. The number one release runs inside of the corner.

(07:22):
So okay. So in the West Coast offense, and when
I would sit with guys like Sean Payton, they would
they would install a play and the details of the
play would look like this. If if we're trying to
throw the football in a little bit of an outside
breaking route to the number two receiver where it's a
tight end or a slot player, then the number one
player on the outside, the wide receiver of that side,
he has to outside release regardless at all times. He

(07:42):
has to get outside of that defender so that it
draws that defender's eyes away from the number two receiver.
Does that make sense? Sean Peyton used to call it
a bus ticket release because if you don't go outside,
you're on the next bus out of town, right, And
that was the whole joke and the whole removed laugh
and everything like that. But they release inside the corner,
falls and intercepts the ball at seventeen. Nothing. These are

(08:03):
small details, but they're big details. Day Texas made some
big mistakes, did they panic, moving off, pulling Quinn. Viewers
did Texas go okay, okay, okay, the crowd we're here,
it's let's go with arch Manning. They panic a little.
I don't. I don't think he panicked because when when
I was watching the film, Quinn wasn't seeing it. That's right.

(08:23):
He just wasn't saying what I've heard people. Yeah, and
you know one was the corner. Blitz didn't see it.
The interception right there. He doesn't see that Number one
didn't go outside and the corner falls off right into
the outside breaking route. That's one another age old add
And by the way, everyone's like, oh, well they did
a great job disguising. Yeah, fine, that's your job as
a quarterback is to uncover the disguise. That's right, post

(08:46):
snap recognition of coverage, that is. And as a veteran
you've got to have that. He didn't understand that there
was a flat defender and throws a flat route into
the flat defender. That's a huge mistake. That's a rookie mistake, Colin.
You can't make that as a veteran player. And then
in the subsequent series he had guys open and you
could tell his eyes were down, and that's when I

(09:06):
could tell, like, oh, yeah, Sark, Sark knows he's not
seeing it. Sark knows is like, this ain't happening. So
whether he was trying to pull him and let Arch
go the distance or just get him to settle down
and see it a lot better, whatever happened at halftime,
he did play much better in the third quarter. Okay,

(09:26):
I guess we have to address us. So I was waiting,
if I was honestly wondering, I was like, is he
gonna bring up a parent and a jmax apparent? Ryan's not,
I am, But when you're a parent, you have optimism.
I always say, my kid's going to be president, okay,

(09:47):
president of a frat hopefully employed. You go through stages
of what's real and what's not okay. So with USC, oh,
Lincoln offensively and LSU and oh they almost oh they lost. Okay,
Now it's Maryland. Now it's Minnesota. Now they're losing two

(10:10):
average teams, and they're losing the same way and then way.
This is the criticism that I didn't want to hear.
I didn't want to hear my kid couldn't be president
of a jiffy League, So I didn't want to hear this.
People would say, Lincoln Riley never built a program, He's
a finesse guy. And I watched Kirby smart Bark, I

(10:30):
see Sark Bark, I see Ryan day Bark, Harbaugh Baugh
and you watch it and you're Dan Lanning, Dan Lanning,
and I watch I watched USC late in games. They're pretty,
but they're they're there. Don't have a lot of bite
to him, And all the criticism that I pushed back on,

(10:50):
it's it's all coming full force to my face, and
I'm like, they they've led every darn game. I would
agree with that, except for we have a long history
of him being a head coach and this wasn't the
MO at Oklahoma. I think that that's that's fair.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Now.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
What he hasn't recreated at USC that he had at
Oklahoma was the ability to run the football with a
really good offensive line. They kind of had it that
first year with Caleb Williams and who's at Travis Dye,
But it feels like it was a lot more Caleb
and Travis than Oline. That's exactly right. And you know
there were a couple of those offensive lines at Oklahoma

(11:26):
when he was there, and he was the head coach
that won the Joe Moore Award Best Offensive Line in
the Country and another one finished second in the Joe
More Award. So like they were very good upfront NFL
players up front, that's what he has not been able
to replicate at USC. So everything comes down to a
line of scrimmage issue. Now I'm glad you brought USC
up because I actually think it's it's a fascinating case study.

(11:48):
I've believed for a long time, and this is because
coaches that I really respect, both that are still coaching
and are not still coaching, have have talked about this
equation and the the process of becoming elite and generally
what happens when you take over a program and you
have to rebuild that program, if you have to establish
something that is new at least for the period, whether

(12:10):
they've had it in their history or not. Is it
Relet like Harbough Michigan like Harbaugh Michigan and Kellyett Notre Dame.
That's exactly right. So in that process, you're probably gonna
have at least a section of time where you might
lose big and you're gonna do that before you can
lose small and that's growth.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
You're not out of the hole, but there is growth.
And then you go from losing small to winning small,
and then you go from winning small to winning big. Yeah,
and Pete Carroll did this exact process. Everybody goes through this.
Peace didn't have the transfer portal. No, he didn't. So
it's this is a new era and we want it
faster now than we used to in the past. Okay,

(12:46):
So all I'm going to say is, in this equation,
the hardest hurdle to get over is not losing big
to losing small or winning small to winning big. It's
going from losing small to winning small. You have to
get over that hurdle, and a lot of times that's
a mental block. Are we gonna make the play? Is
this gonna happen for us? Now? You can? You can

(13:07):
certainly disparage what's going on on the offensive line, but
it's also an offensive line that is very young. So
all I'm gonna say is that this team, and I've
told you this last week, and I dug more into
it because it was kind of top a head last week,
but this team reminds me a lot of the twenty
twenty two Texas Longhorns. That team was two and five
in one score games and really struggled in big moments.

(13:30):
That didn't mean that they weren't quality in some areas.
They had Vijeon Robinson, this young quarterback, and Quinn Ewers
and all these red shirt freshmen on their offensive line
that are now still playing at USC. You can look
back to twenty twenty two Texas as a wildly disappointing
year for Steve Sarkisian, and I believe it was his
second year wildly disappointing, and people be like, well, is

(13:51):
this gonna work or not? Or are we still on
the hamster wheel? And you can look back with the
benefit of hindsight and say, no, no, no, that was the bottom,
and then from there the trajectory was up. I think
now this may not come to fruition. I think that
we could be looking back at this moment in time
in Lincoln Riley's tenure as the USC head coach, as

(14:12):
the bottom because at some point they're gonna tip over
and win games. You look at the rest of their schedule,
they could very easily not only be in but win
those games, and as soon as they learn how to
do that, Colin, then it becomes something that is a habit. Now,
what is Lincoln Riley's most important job from this point
to next season? What is it? Retaining the offensive roster?

(14:35):
They could have nine starters back next year, including all
that offensive line, every single every single good receiver, all
the good receivers. That's exactly right. So in this day
and age, his main job. Yeah, you got to recruit,
and yes you're gonna have to get in the transfer
portal and fix what will be a defense that's losing
a lot of veteran players. But his most important job
is recruiting his own players, in particular on the offensive side.

(14:58):
If he does that, I do believe that we could
be looking at this as as more of a low
point and kind of a spring point board point for
his tenure at USC. One other point on this and
I'm going to bring in a couple of other teams
very different than two other great brands that are also
struggling currently Michigan and Oklahoma. In those two places, it
could get the rest of this year and even in

(15:20):
the off season much worse, right, based on their upcoming
schedule and what they're going to have to do in
order to fix what is clearly not going well, whether
it's coaching staff or on their rosters, respectively. So USC
could be in a position where this is the bottom. Okay,
So I did a I like to call it a
comedy bit, fake idea of college football. And I said, Colorado,

(15:44):
Yeah you did. Okay. First of all, audience loves are
comedy bits. The problem sometimes is people take them seriously.
Oh and it's almost like you gave them seriously without
the hint of sarcasm that a normal comedy bit with
then entail. So what's happened since we did the comedy

(16:06):
bit is that they did find a run game, and
Colorado has fixed some of their defensive line issues and
they look like a real team. I had a roving
reporter friend at the Arizona game and he said, yeah,
Shaduur's this guy played college football. He goes, he's easily
the best quarterback in college football, like that's a number
one pick, and he's like, you know, they're good. Yeah,

(16:27):
And they didn't even really have Travis last weekend and
throttled Arizona. And listen, you have to understand, and coming
from a Colorado alum, Arizona was decimated by injuries. Yeah, okay,
so Colorado was going to go win the game, but
they dominated the game, and I think that's what you're
talking about. They dominated UCF. They're in the game with
the lead in the last three minutes against Kansas State,
who we all know is a very physical, tough, sound

(16:49):
football team and a clearly a top twenty five team.
And you're right to bring up the defense because the
biggest change this year as opposed to last year is
the fact that their defense is actually real. Yeah, Schador
does not have to put a cape on, and he
didn't have to on Saturday. The defense is fantastic. They've
got a young coordinator. His name's Rob Livingston, and Rob

(17:09):
came as the secondary coach for the Bengals last year.
Wasn't even calling defense. You know what that vein is.
You know what other guys that were just hired after
not being you know, play callers at the NFL level,
Guys like Ryan Day. That's when Urban Meyer hired Ryan Day.
He was a quarterback coach for Chip Kelly at the
forty nine Ers. Joe Brady was a Saints offensive assistant

(17:30):
before Ed Ozeron hired him as the offensive play caller
before the Joe Burrow Jamar Chase year. You've got that.
You've got these examples where guys come in from the NFL,
not being OC's and they come in and really reshape
a side of the football. And that's exactly what Livingston
has done at Colorado. He's done a marvelous job. And
by the way, you know, the best unit on that defense,

(17:51):
the defensive line. Yeah, you know who their coach is,
Warren Samsapp And everyone like rolled their eyes and like, oh,
you know bringing in Warren Sapp, those guys can play. Yeah,
and they play really hard and that's a that's a
real team.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
And I'll say it again, Shador Sanders, people I trust
see every snap sit stand gets a great player. He's
a really really special player. So this is the thing
about Ohio State. You know, it's we're nitpicking because I
do think they're going to play for the National Championship
and we're we're we're net picking. But for years I'm like,

(18:28):
and they don't run the football like the buck Eyes,
and that's honest, and and Ryan da goes, we don't.
So they go get Chip Kelly and you watch them
against Oregon You're like, you're not playing defense like the
buck Eyes. Is it? Is it a fair criticism? You're
doing Ohio State against Nebraska, so they'll win that game.
I think it could be handed lee. Nebraska didn't play

(18:48):
well last weekend. But here's my thing, it kind of
feels whack a mole. All right, we solved that one.
I'm being chipped. Okay, we got to solve that one.
Am I am I being cynical. I don't think that
you are. I would disagree. I think that there's one
issue that keeps coming up. Okay, what's that? And that

(19:10):
is their lack of pass rush allows the opposition to
create explosive plays. So their defense has been the issue
over the last few years. Ago that Sawyer kid. They
got Jackson, They've got jack Sorry, have got J T.
TUOI Moloil. They've got some good pass players, but they
didn't get to the quarterback at all. Dylan Gabriel was
allowed to just kind of stand there with time and

(19:33):
all those explosive plays down the field were either the
second read or double moves, you know, And so as
a corner, you got to think to yourself, like I
need some help here. You've got to get to the
passer and affect the passer so that I don't have
to cover all day long. Their inability to get to
the quarterback in big games is now staggeringly consistent three years. Yes,

(19:54):
they didn't chase against Michigan after the Chase Young Chase left.
They did not get any any pressure on Mac Jones
and the National Championship game in the COVID year, they
haven't gotten any pressure on Michigan and any of these losses.
They didn't get pressure on Oregon when they lost to
Oregon at home in the Shoe. They didn't get any
pressure on Georgia. You look at all these matchup games
they've got like I think it's like three or four

(20:15):
total sacks in all of these games. And that's what
has to change. So when I'm looking at this Ohio
State team, to me, it's the same issue that now
is continuing to come up in these big moments, and
that's what allows the opposition to create the explosive plays.
I don't actually think it's a secondary issue, and we're

(20:37):
starting to get down to, like what is the issue
the pass rush. They do not get after the quarterback
in big games, and they need to and By the way,
Sawyer's probably a late first round pick, so they're good players. Probably,
so touey moloaw is probably the same. But so I
think that they're issued defensively. Up front of the defensive
line is snaps. So for instance, if you don't run

(20:59):
the ball consistently, you're on the field too much as
a defense. But it's it's not even about that, it's
it's more about depth and rotation. So like last year,
for instance, Michigan was the best defense in college football,
none of their defensive linemen played on average over thirty
snaps snaps per game. None of them because they would
rotate and they were deep and they were good enough
and confident enough to do that. None of them. Okay,

(21:20):
Mason Graham played the most snaps per game of any
defensive lineman Michigan had, well, Buckey's playing too many snaps,
and against Oregon, every one of their starting defensive linemen
played over sixty snaps. So if you're in the fourth
quarter and you're trying to pass rush and you're not
getting creativity out of the scheme like that's that can
be an issue. And so that that to me is
what the biggest issue for Ohio State is moving forward.

(21:43):
All right, let's circle back. This will be known as
a controversial topic. And I go, I go headlong into
those and I'm gonna pull you with me, and let's
go Georgia Texas controversial pass interference. Oh yeah, the call,
and then Texas fans are throwing junk on the field.
They reverse the called. Kirby Smart says, wha, you're setting

(22:03):
a precedent. Yeah you are. Guy throws a water bottle
on the field. Oh I feel threatened. I'm gonna reverse
the call. Where'd you land on this? I totally agree
with Kirby Smart. Uh, completely agree you just you talked
about parenting earlier in our little segment about how you know, hey,
I want my kid to be president. But yeah, you
know what else I want my kid to do? Not
throw a fit on the grocery store floor for a

(22:25):
candy at the checkout aisle. And guess what I'm not
gonna do appease my kid when he throws a fit
on the floor because he wants the snickers. I'm not
gonna do that. So why why am I not gonna
do that? Because he's gonna throw a fit every time
I go to the grocery store in the checkout aisle.
So you just rewarded the precedent that those officials set
on Saturday night is egregiously bad. Because now, not even

(22:48):
just at Texas or in college football, but across football,
across sports. You just showed an example of humans being
able to affect the game through poor behavior. Why on
earth now was it a good call to begin with? No, No,
I don't think it was a good call. And you
can't say like, well, we just wanted to get it right. No,
that's not the point. You said, a precedent that was

(23:10):
egregiously bad. I will say just real quickly, and an
idea that I think not only the college football but
maybe all levels of football should adopt. The way forward
to prevent a situation like Saturday is the UFL Super
Challenge that every coach can challenge anything on the field

(23:32):
one time a game. Steve Sarkeshan has a red flag
and he can throw it out there and he says,
I don't think that was a defensive back. Here's why
the officiating the call, in my opinion, was the wrong call,
But it wasn't egregiously bad. Like I fell on the
football and they awarded it to you. It was just
a bad It was a call that I didn't like

(23:53):
because it's still an objective that's not a subject right,
So because because right my take on, no, it's the opposite, opposite,
So it's a subjective call. I didn't like the call,
but it's like you could call pass interference thirty four
times a game. Yeah, it's not a score, it's not
a line to a game. It's fumbled and I land
on and they give it to you. So I'm not

(24:14):
going to overturn a subjective call. That's exactly right. Well,
that's why you need the super challenge, you know, because
if it's not challengeable, then now all you're doing is
rewarding the fans for stopping the game so they could
look at the JumboTron and then can like, if that
game just goes on, there's a next snap and we
just move forward. But because the fans stopped the game,
they got to look at the JumboTron and have a

(24:36):
nice little conference and watch the play again. Again, I
don't love the call, but it's not worth what the
officials created. That's I could not agree more. I could
not I don't like the call. I don't, but I
didn't like the offensive pass interference against Ohio State in
the Oregon game. But that's that's go either way call.

(24:58):
I think it probably could, yes, But but again, this
is why, by the way it happened in the Tennessee
Alabama game. Late in that game. Now, there were several
calls missed in that game, but late in that game,
Alabama's on offense and they basically give up a sack
because Tennessee was off side. It wasn't called. I want
an opportunity where there's a super challenge. If there's a
super challenge in college football, the fans know that it's
on Sark, not them to throw things on the field.

(25:20):
It's on him to throw a flag out there and say, guys,
you got to revisit that call. Get together, everybody discuss it,
watch it again on video, and come up with a
better call. At that point we can move forward. But
right now, the precedent that they set, I think that
those officials on Saturday night in Austin, Texas set back
officiating writ large decades, and that's to me unfortunate. Yeah,

(25:45):
if I was head of officials, I'd fire guys in
game in game. Yeah, let' me be like, listen, we
only got two guys left, but you guys learned a lesson.
And by the way, this two hundred and two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars fine for Texas if they would
have come back and won. That's like a quarter of
the sark GPA bonus. Like, who cares two hundred fifty

(26:06):
thousand dollars. That sounds like a lot of money, And I'm
not trying to minimize it. But to Texas, you know
they're getting forty five fifty million dollars in revenue share
from the conference. You're gonna find them two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. It's good seeing you, clapp. We would
solve We would solve not only college football issues, global
issues of problems. Sit down at the table with some
of those pronical heads the PayPal and especially if we

(26:28):
had your good kids here, because apparently their president material
of Jeffy Lube of the PayPal debit card earns you
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MasterCard International.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Ink one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours
a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app.
Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Night Clippers opening at home in Philadelphia, Plan tonight too.
No Paul George, no Joe l Embi, J Mack with.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
No turn on the news.

Speaker 6 (27:11):
This is the headline news calling the forty nine Ers
have lost two of their last three and coming off
a brutal loss to the Chiefs, brock Perty struggled, he
didn't have all of his weapons and now Brandon, I
you's done.

Speaker 7 (27:23):
For the season. It's it's getting ugly and sen.

Speaker 8 (27:25):
Fran Well Jerry Rice, forty nine Ers legend, did not
like what he saw out of his former team and
spoke to their performance on Monday.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
That one really disturbed me because we had an opponent
that I picked out but quite in the Super Bowl
and being to come into our house the way they
did and to win this one and walk out of there.
I look at body language and you know, before gaining
you know the opponent, you know the home team and
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
I just felt like we were not fired.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Of I don't think it had anything to do with that.
I think it had to do with both quarterbacks were
missing a bunch of pieces, and the great quarterback overcame
it and the less great quarterback didn't. I don't think
it's fire well. I mean, yeah, yeah, both teams were
missing all their backs and receiver.

Speaker 7 (28:12):
But that's different.

Speaker 8 (28:13):
So Brock Purty practiced all week with Deebo's him. Okay,
practiced all week with Brandon Robs. Okay, Deebo doesn't it
plays three plays because he has pneumonia.

Speaker 7 (28:21):
He's in the hospital now.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Brendon Ayuk leaves.

Speaker 8 (28:23):
At that time, they're throwing a Ronnie Bell. I had
to look up on the depth chart. This is who
they're looking at. Deebo cannot play this week. We know
how Yuk is done. Jennings questionable, Ricky Piersoll rookie who's
played like forty snapped in the NIA timeout.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
You drafted two receivers. It's week eight.

Speaker 7 (28:37):
Yeah, one of them got shot in August.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
No, I know, but Cowling didn't calling raised a number
two rusher in the league. Trent Williams go make plays.

Speaker 8 (28:47):
Cowing Ronnie Bell, Chris Conley, who I believe is the
former Chiefs guy. And listen, the Chiefs don't have their
don't don't have their act together either. By the way,
Kansas City they had a guy who another one of
the receivers got injured. Suster left the game, so like
neither team was playing. I put nothing into that game.
I think, Jerry, right, well you put into that game. Well,

(29:08):
we know the Chiefs defense is awesome, right, three picks awesome.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
We don't put anything into that game. I mean, I
don't something.

Speaker 7 (29:18):
I mean, fine, it's something.

Speaker 8 (29:19):
By the way, that forty nine ers line against the
Cowboys down to four, it was five. Everybody's betting the
Cowboys because they think the Niners are so beat up.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
I love the Niners. I do too, But do you want.

Speaker 7 (29:31):
To go against all that big sharp money.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
We know for sure Debo's out.

Speaker 7 (29:34):
We don't know anything.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
And thenmon you for a young athlete.

Speaker 7 (29:37):
He was the hospital Monday.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Why no, But it's now Wednesday and the game's not
four Thursday, Friday, Saturday. He's a young great scroll you
just get out of the house saying it's like Andy.

Speaker 7 (29:49):
Dalton got in a car accident yesterday. He's not practicing.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well, of course that's a car accident. I'm saying, for
a young player like Debo, five whole days with great doctors,
I bet you Debo play something.

Speaker 7 (30:00):
I sure hope he does for my bank account. Let's
go to the next story. Mike Tomlin, Colin, Oh, Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 8 (30:06):
So he started Russell Wilson last week again to Jets
and got a little fortunate. Jets were rolling in that
game and age long Jet for rolling fifteen to six
late second.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Quarter, twenty four to nothing Pittsburgh second half. That's not
a coincidence, ros Moses not. But you're bought.

Speaker 8 (30:21):
I don't think we think Russell Wilson was the driving
force behind that. Right, So everybody just assumes Russ is
going to be the starter again.

Speaker 7 (30:28):
Well here we go.

Speaker 8 (30:30):
Tomlin talking to the media has not definitively named Russ
the starter heading into week eight.

Speaker 9 (30:37):
He's scheduled to take first team reps when we begin tomorrow.
We'll see what the wig leads us. I just want
Justin to be prepared to get ready to play like
he's done. I'm refusing to acknowledge whatever changes you you
just acknowledge. We're building a plan to beat New York
Football Giants this week.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
We got two capable guys. We're going ready him.

Speaker 9 (30:57):
They both need to be ready to work.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
By the way, way he's laughing, he knows how ridiculous
this is so Russell. And for the record, I can
admit Russell was way better in the second half than
I expected. Like he looked like Russell late Seattle Russell.
We're not quite as elusive, but he I mean, we
gotta be honest about this. He made some that's a

(31:20):
great throw, one handed catchy one at his sight arm stuff.
It's wizardry. He was good. We have to be fairer.
Russell was good against the I mean, look at his
throat rope he made. His accuracy was excellent. So my
point is, go look at the face. Watch Roll one
more time.

Speaker 7 (31:39):
Look at Tomlin at the podium.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Watch him laughing. Just run the beginning of the first bite.
Watch again.

Speaker 9 (31:47):
He's scheduled to take first team rep when we begin tomorrow.
We'll see what I just want Justin to be prepared
to give you.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
He laughing like he's done.

Speaker 9 (31:57):
I'm refusing to acknowledge whatever.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
He he knows, he's just poking the Pittsburgh media so
you have to start Russ.

Speaker 8 (32:06):
I've never done this before in the show, but I'm
officially announcing I'm taking the Giants. In headlines, Hello, staff,
we're doing I'm going Giants. I just saw this stat
So they are six and.

Speaker 7 (32:16):
A half point favorites.

Speaker 8 (32:18):
Steelers are against the Giants on I believe Monday Night
Football since Big Ben left. This is the largest favorite
Tomlin has been post in the post Ben Roethlisberger era.
And the two times he's been favored by bigger numbers
like four or five, they've lost outright. Okay, this is
a perfect spot to sell high on the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and I'm going with the New York Giants. And there

(32:40):
are Daniel Jones as you hold back laughter, you like
that figure.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
We have to be fair on this show. We can
be critical of people, yeah, but we have to be fair.
Russell Wilson was a so much better than I thought.

Speaker 7 (32:53):
Well after the first like quarter and a half.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, he was very fid harrow.

Speaker 7 (32:58):
He was getting booed off the field.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
Put it.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
I've had bad segments. You got a rebound.

Speaker 7 (33:02):
He was writ in the second half bad segments.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Oh boy.

Speaker 8 (33:06):
All right, let's go to the NBA column where the
Lakers tipped off last night. I know you were locked
in on this game while you were smoking cigars. Was
Lebron and Browny played together for the first time. JJ
Redick's coaching debut. Pretty impressive Lakers first season opening night
victory since twenty sixteen.

Speaker 7 (33:21):
Here's Ad the hero on Reddicks.

Speaker 9 (33:23):
Awesome starting the day, playing the schemes that you have
on both ends of the floor.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
You know, he he trust us and we trust him.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
Energy coming out, you know, it was really phenomenal and
we just kind of signing there for forty minutes.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Ad has had a hell of a two year run. Yeah,
he has.

Speaker 7 (33:44):
Played the Olympics. He was awesome.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
He was the best player on the floor more than
one game. Yeah, A d has had a two year run.
Hit prime example. You bring him out, he's nineteen years old.
He wins in Natty at Kentucky. You bring him in,
you're the franchise and he's hitting miss. He has good nights,
bad nights. His body's not quite ready for it. Like
it just you go from thirty five college games to

(34:06):
eighty two and oh, by the way, you're playing against
the world's best player. So brittle. Something happened to him
about two years ago. He used to have a rep.
You know, people were like Dad, bod didn't care, didn't
work out what and I covered a guy Rashid Wallace,
who was super talented. Rashid would pay a fine at
the beginning of the year. He didn't want to lift weights. Whatever.
Whatever eighty has done, probably he has been I don't

(34:27):
care who wins the award. AD has been the best
defensive player in the year. He was the best defensive
player in the league last year. Absolutely, if you watch
the games he was at well give you that. Just
a block shot? Just what I mean? You know half
those block shots go out of bounds or they go
to the other tenth nonsense. The old Bill Russell blocked

(34:47):
him to himself. That was the great Biller. Weimby's just
blocking stuff, an mosterizing.

Speaker 7 (34:51):
Guy sixteen months ago. You wanted to trade AD, which was.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
A good team eighteen months ago. But you know what,
I wanted to trade a lot of he put in
my life. I am willing to acknowledge Ad is absolutely
a phenomenal player. And he's plays every night now, which
he didn't do too.

Speaker 7 (35:09):
We didn't talk about Minnesota.

Speaker 8 (35:11):
But Finch comes on the show, let's throw him aut me. Fine,
Anthony Edwards needs some help with carl Anton Towns. God,
I didn't see anyone. It's opening.

Speaker 7 (35:18):
I didn't see anyone look like they want to step
up and be the wingman.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Well, it's also I thought they played a better second
half than a first. Randall's gonna give you twenty one
a night. Dee Vincenzo can give you at the two
or three. He's a three and a championship, so they
don't have a two.

Speaker 7 (35:31):
Go bear in a two.

Speaker 8 (35:33):
So it's Anthony Edwards. I better him to lead the
league in scoring. I think he's gonna win the I
think that's a fair critic.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
All in on it.

Speaker 7 (35:39):
I don't know who there two is.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Now, that's a fair criticism. Okay, you had Austin Reeves
as a border line two a year ago.

Speaker 7 (35:47):
But Austin Reeves is one of the best threes in
the league.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Austin, by the way, put on some weight. No, that's muscle.
I mean he looks muscle.

Speaker 7 (35:53):
He looks I got him on the Createen program where
we're doing some stuff.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah. J Mack with a news Well that's the news
and thanks for stopping by the Herd line the next
You're gonna be fine too. It's just they ran into
a buzzsaw, like the Lakers are not a bussaw. I
think Minnesota will be a number two three seed. I
think Lakers are a playing team. And that's hard for
me to say because I've been a Golden State guy
forever and I'm in Los Angeles. But I just those

(36:17):
teams got old fast. They got old fast. Coming up next,
it's getting even worse for the Cowboys next.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Eastern non am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio.

Speaker 7 (36:32):
App Friday night on Fox. The stage is set for
an iconic showdown.

Speaker 8 (36:38):
Aaron Juddes leaves the Yankees against Shohey O'tani and the
Dodgers in a historic World Series. Class Game One from
Dodger Stadium begins at seven BM Eastern on Fox.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Garrett Cole Big Game One for the Yankees. Want wagering on.

Speaker 7 (36:57):
The series at all?

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Or huh?

Speaker 8 (36:59):
I don't bet on baseball often, but you get a
skin in the game, do you do a friendly bet?

Speaker 7 (37:04):
I'm a Yankees guy from the north Own in New York.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
I'll be a dog. I think the Dodgers in six
if the ghosts seven, I worry about the Dodgers just
not having enough arms. Dodgers in six v. Mookie bets
Yankees in seven. Soto's the MVP. Have we taped that? Yes?

Speaker 7 (37:26):
We are live?

Speaker 1 (37:27):
Okay, that's our bet. So right now the Cowboys are
They're unraveling. So if you would hope your owner, when
your team is unraveling, would offer stability and support and
create some inertia in the other direction, well, that is
not Jerry Jones. When Jerry Jones was asked about the

(37:51):
offense and the defense, he went right after McCarthy.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
The types of things that we all think we should
be looking at is well, we're designing bad play or
we're designing uh bad concepts. And the facts are that
there's some of that, but there's also some of the execution. Uh,
there's some of the talent.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I really do like our talent. I like our young talent.
But young talent.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Has a few more mistakes ASS did with it than
uh than if you are dealing with a veteran player.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
So Jerry drafted that young talent. He likes that part.
But it's the play calling. You know, some of the
play calling hasn't been good. So so again, the head
coach now has zero leverage in the locker room, right, Like,
how are you gonna call it a player? You got
no leverage. So Mike McCarthy responded to the criticisms of

(38:48):
his play calling by the owner.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
I talked to Jerry all the time. You know, We've
had time to go through the sellf scout, so I
can't really I don't see the comments diffectly, but I
don't think we have bad Hawks in that place. But
I'll go back and check. But no, I you know,
we're not where we want to be. I mean, that's

(39:11):
clearly and that ultimately is my responsibility and I'm fully
aware of that. But you know, we are very diligent.
We're on top of what we want to do.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, kind of rambling. The point is is they have
taken every little bit of leverage from McCarthy and pulled
it out. I mean, he he, he's you know, he's
got more leverage than the janitor in the building. But

(39:42):
if you did an organizational flow chart for the Dallas
Cowboys today, you'd have Jerry at the top, you know,
the Jones family, but the c D and DAK have power.
Troy Aikman, then Mike, and he is ahead of the
mop that that's about it. But you have you have
usurped any bit at power. You have just eliminated all

(40:03):
the power for Mike McCarthy. I mean, did you watch
him at the press car We've seen two things in
the last half hour to press conference. Mike Tomlin laughing
that he has not decided who's going to quarterback in
the next game. He knows what he's doing, he knows
how well Russell Wilson played. He's just like toying with
the media. He's laughing. He couldn't contain himself. And you're

(40:23):
watching Mike McCarthy, or if you watched them. At one
point he went, you know, that's basically what do you
want me to say? I'm dealing with an owner who
has a weekly radio hit. What do you want me
to say? That? That's literally McCarthy, who just kind of laughed.
He laughed, We've seen two coaches laugh. Tomlin's laughing because
he knows the truth, but he kind of enjoys to

(40:43):
go back and forth with the media, and Tomlin's laughing
for a good reason. He's got answers definitively power, He's
making the call, he's not gonna let the media have it,
and Mike's having fun. Mike McCarthy is laughing out of
sheer frustration and ineptitude of an organization with a billionaire
whose team needs stability, and instead he is questioning play calling.

(41:08):
You know, sometimes you know, you laugh because otherwise you'd
cry in life, Sometimes you have such bad luck for
a year, you laugh for your Otherwise you'd be sitting
around crying all day. And that's what McCarthy faces. And
again I've always said I think Mike McCarty's a good coach.
I don't think he's a lot like Sean McDermott, I
had good coach. I think the longer Sean McDermott or

(41:29):
Mike McCarthy are around, you can start seeing things you
don't love. But I think Sean McDermott you can get
to a conference championship with him. And if Dallas had
better players, I mean McCarthy has a super Bowl. But
this thing is, I've been saying this for years. The
Cowboys have become the Lakers. It's like a corner store.

(41:50):
In the corporate world, it just feels like it's two
insular too many family members, too many friends of family.
In the front office, it is that flow chart. Well,
good news is he is slightly ahead of the guy
cleaning the offices. I mean, that's the good news. Our

(42:10):
three on a Wednesday is coming up.