November 18, 2024 • 51 mins
John is back reacting to a late-game thriller that saw the Los Angeles Chargers and superstar QB Justin Herbert take down Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals by a score of 34-27. John explains that this is exactly why you pay Head Coach Jim Harbaugh to win the big game against a struggling AFC rival before diving several reasons why the Chargers could make some noise in the NFL playoffs. Next, John recaps a battle between two top-5 NFL quarterbacks in Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert, and explains why the Chargers QB1 is a “complete freak show” on the gridiron. After, Middlekauff waxes poetic about former LSU Heisman trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Burrow, making a comparison to Peyton Manning or Tom Brady’s innate football instincts.
Then, John recaps the rest of a loaded NFL Sunday slate including Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills taking down an UNDEFEATED Patrick Mahomes led Chiefs squad, and Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Finally, another electric edition of overrated/underrated.
5:25 - Sunday Night Football Recap
18:45 - Lamar against good teams
35:14 - Overrated or Underrated
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? John Middlecoff three
and now podcast. How are we doing my friends? Hopefully
everyone's having a great day. Morning whenever you may be
(00:25):
listening to this. We just watched a little Sunday Night football.
Joseph Burrow, I don't even know that's his real game,
came storming back in the second half. But Jim Harbaugh
and Justin Herbert and the Chargers they prevail, So we
will dive into that game. That thing was bananas. That
was If you would have told me Chargers Bengals would
(00:49):
be one of the more entertaining halves of the year,
I don't know if I'd believed you, but I guess
the Chargers historically playing a lot of crazy games. The
Bengals have had just a season from from who knows
where because four and seven, but clearly they're pretty good,
but they just can't win. So we'll dive into that.
We got to dive into some quarterback talk because Lamar
(01:11):
gets these big games against the Chiefs and the Steelers.
Man he just doesn't quite look the same dominates everybody
else wins MVPs, but today him and the Bengals lost
to a team that did not score a touchdown. They
did not score a touchdown. Rough and we'll do a
little overrated Underrated. I went on with Colin as I
(01:32):
do every week, so you can go check that out.
That is up on YouTube on the podcast feed. We
talked for about an hour and a half. We talked
about Jake Paul a little bit at the end, two
and Tyson. For those of you that watched that fight,
if you could, I mean, the buffering issues were quite
the experience. I actually had to go to dinner, so
I watched the beginning like well before the Tyson like
the opening stuff, and then I came back in the
(01:54):
middle of the fight and it turns out that Tyson
looked that way the whole time, which is kind of sad.
But million people watched or attempted to watch through the buffering.
And so we'll talk a little overrated underrated. Check out
the podcast. You know, if you listen on Collins feed,
make sure you're suscribed to three and Out as well
as the YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe to that.
(02:14):
Appreciate everyone that listens. And before we talk some football,
you want to go to a game? How fun did
that game look look like tonight? Sunday Night Football Chargers Bengals.
I was thinking of watching this game. I was like, one,
the jerseys on these two teams historically like cheap franchises,
yet they've been kind of relevant over the last twenty years,
played in some big games. The jerseys in that game
(02:37):
was awesome, and it's like, yeah, you know, do I
know what you want at the game? Probably? Not? But
how awesome would it have been to be at SOFI
to watch that game? And you can go because if
you want to go to Sofi, if you want to
go to any event, concert, comedy show, college, the college
football playoffs aren't that far away. If you want to
go to one of those games, I would imagine. I mean,
(02:57):
the first round is going to be at home, so
at least for some of the teams. Imagine Colorado, the
Colorado Buffaloes, if they went out, they will get a
home playoff game. How awesome is that? So go to
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down on the game time after today, last minute tickets,
lowest price is guaranteed. That game was bananas. It really was.
Even Turko was like, you know, it's not often you
see three kicks under the two minute warning. McPherson missed
the field goal. Then the Chargers go three and out
(03:39):
in the blink of an eye, and then the Bengals
go three and out pretty much equally as fast. So uh,
game was wild. The Chargers just big picture before we
dive into the nuts and bolts. Definitely of the ending,
but even the second half. Two things really jumped out
to me. One, this is why you give a guy
(04:00):
sixteen to seventeen million, because the Chargers have lost that
exact game. They played in that exact game. Sometimes they
were the team in front, like they were tonight, and
the other team came storming back. Sometimes it was flip flopped.
They were the team that was down twenty four to six,
twenty seven to six and came storming back to take
the lead or to tie the game. But they have
(04:21):
lost that game the overwhelming majority of my adult life,
and I turned forty last month. They always lose that game.
I have seen the Chargers over the course of the
last twenty years play in so many four o'clock window
games for those of you on the East Coast, for
(04:42):
those of us on the West Coast, the one o'clock
kickoff and the last quarter of football look something like that.
And under Brandon Staley, Anthony Lynn, Mike McCoy, they have
lost that game. And listen, it's football. Sometimes things gonna
go bad. Sometimes you're gonna have a stretch where your
(05:03):
star quarterback fumbles and gives them, you know, a good
field position and an easy drive for a touchdown, where
your punter fucks up and gives them a short field,
and all of a sudden you have a big lead
and you're like, what the hell happens? And bad coaches
lose that game, and Jim Harbaugh wins that game. Because
(05:24):
I promise you this, if Brandon Staley was their coach,
if Anthony Lynn was their coach, if Mike McCoy was
their coach, there is no way I am sitting here
right now talking about a Chargers victory, talking about a
team who is going to the playoffs. One of my
great regrets is verbalizing. And I'm a podcast host. So
(05:44):
I kind of have to of like, I love the
Chargers to make the playoffs, and all of you guys
who listen, and even some people in like the media.
I got Doug Gottlieb who's a Charger fan who's talking
to me before the season. No way, not enough weapon.
They've gotten rid of too much. They're gonna make strides.
They're not a playoff team. They're not going to the playoffs.
(06:05):
They're at worst gonna be the sixth seed, and honestly,
there's a pretty good chance with the Ravens losing, they're
the five seed, all because of one man. Justin Herbert
has been a really good player for a while. Khalil
Mack is injured, but when he plays, he's awesome. Same
thing with Derwin James. We knew Slater the left tackle
was good. Joe Walt would be good anywhere this team.
(06:26):
I could give him a lot of random coaches probably
win seven eight games. I give him Jim Harbaugh Boom
eleven twelve wins, and I'll promise you this on the
road in that first round, depending on the matchup, if
they're the five seed and they're playing Houston Texans, they're
winning that game. This guy's incredible. What have we ever seen?
(06:47):
We have seen a lot of guys, going back to
when I was young, Jimmy Johnson, Oklahoma State, Miami dominate,
dominate Cowboys, then dominate, and then he's just an NFL guy.
We have seen a lot of co which just go
college to the NFL and then you stay. We rarely
see guys. We've seen guys go college to the NFL,
(07:07):
fail and then go back to college and dominate again.
When do we see a guy college dominate, go to
the NFL, dominate, go back to college, dominate Natty, then
go back to the NFL, take a franchise that's a laughingstock, boom,
immediately dominate. Eleven and six, twelve and five year one.
(07:30):
This team won five fucking games last year. I think
sometimes we forget it because a lot of times the
Chargers they have been close. Remember a couple of years
ago playing Derek Carr on the Sunday Night Football the
last game of the season, and they lost. They've had
a lot of seasons like that where there are friends
like eight nine, ten win team right on the CUSP,
(07:51):
maybe get a wild card. Last year they won five games.
Part of that Brandon Staley one of the worst head
coaches you'll ever see. Somehow the forty nine ers hired
them and their season as torpedoed. That's a whole nother conversation.
Jim Harborough man works wonders wherever he goes. The other
thing that jumped out to me, they're five quarterbacks in
(08:14):
the world who are just absolutely elite at their job,
who are either young, prime of their career, guys you know, thirty,
sub thirty. I would say Matt Stafford would be the
sixth guy, but you're talking about a much older player.
He's been in the league since two thousand and eight.
He's thirty six thirty seven years old. But when he's
on he can play as well as those that group
(08:36):
of five. We saw two of those five players tonight
on that field. Obviously Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson
are the other three, but the level of talent that
those two individuals possess is incredible to watch if you
love football, like Justin Herbert is a complete freak show.
(08:57):
He's six foot six, two hundred and forty five pounds
with the howitzer for an arm. We have seen guys
like that hell, we're watching one in Buffalo become Hall
of Fame level players. And it's cool to watch Jim Harbaugh,
you know, help him go to the next level. And
over time, as they improve the skill guys around him,
(09:17):
it will look a lot better. I like Lad mcconacky,
but when he's basically your number one wide receiver, your
offense is gonna have some limitations. The cool thing about
Joe Burrow is he's not as big and as tall
and as physical of a runner as Justin Herbert. He
doesn't have that arm strength, but when you watch him play,
(09:38):
you go, I don't think it's humanly possible to play
better football than that guy played. In the second half,
They're down twenty seven to six, and Joe Burrow on
three straight drives in the second half, leads three touchdowns.
And there are plays throughout those touchdowns or he's either
(10:01):
breaking tackles in the backfield, scrambling around, pushing the ball
down the field. It just doesn't get any better. That's
as good as it gets when it comes to NFL
quarterback play. And I think when you think of that crew,
those five guys, Mahome's a freak, right, I mean, huge
arm huge playmaker, big time athlete, obviously the best right
(10:26):
over the course his resume over the close of the
last five or six years. Lamar Jackson is the most
remarkable runner we've ever seen. We'll dive into him and
he's improved a lot as a passer, but his running
is what separates him. Josh Allen is like if cam
Newton was also accurate as a passer. That's what that is,
(10:48):
and Justin Herbert is like some version of that, and
you go, well, Joe Burrow, he doesn't quite have the
arm as these other guys. He's definitely the slowest of
the group, yet his innate skills are like Peyton Manning
or Tom Brady. And the underrated part about him is
because you know, he doesn't move as well as those guys.
(11:11):
He gets mollywopped and I mean destroyed several times a
game and tonight because literally their season is on the
line if they win this game. They're five and six,
and they they got a little life. I mean, they
got so much talent they could rattle off some wins
and all of a sudden it's like, oh, the Bengals
(11:31):
are seven and seven. Can they run the table and
get to ten and seven and make the playoffs, but
that would be on the table. They had to win
the night, and that motherfucker is just getting I mean,
absolutely smashed. There was a play where they called a
personal foul on number ninety three, which again I don't know.
(11:52):
When you're three hundred pounds and you tackle the quarterback
and you're in the middle of the air, They're like,
you can't drive him to the ground. What is that
human being supposed to do? Is he supposed to float
away like he's Superman? Is he supposed to like grow
wings and fly off the top and float off Joe
Burrow's body. Obviously, it's humanly impossible to do that, and
(12:14):
it never happens, and that penalty is called all the time.
The defensive line there's nothing he can do. It's like, well,
you gotta do what. I'm running full speed, I break
the offensive lineman's grips and I hit the quarterback. I
can't control my body. We're going to the fucking ground
and I land on top of him. And you saw
Joe Burrow's face. I can't even imagine the pain he
(12:34):
felt when that guy not only drove him into the
ground but then was lying on top of him. And
there were several other plays throughout tonight whereas he's letting
rid of the ball, a guy is coming through his
side and hitting him at warp speed and you just
see Burrow's body fly one way or the other. And
(12:57):
every single time he just gets up and he's starts
kind of like grimacing to the next wherever the ball
went and wherever they're going to spot the ball. And
I say this all the time about the quarterback position.
It's a sexy position, right. They get all the money,
they get, all the fame, they usually get all the women.
Life's fucking great. When you're good at that position, it
(13:19):
doesn't get any better. They are the superstars of the league.
To be a great player at that position, your toughness
has to be a ten out of ten. If your
toughness is a question mark at that position, you are
limited how good you can be. One of mahomes defining
characteristics is how tough he is. Lamar has some deficiencies
(13:43):
in these big games as a passer. No one has
ever or will ever question how tough the guys Josh
Allen's toughness sometimes is like a detriment. It's like Josh,
you can't take on these seven defenders and lower your shoulder.
You saw tonight. Hey, Justin, we need you to slide.
We all know you're the one of the toughest guys
(14:04):
on the field. And Joe Burrow is like I would say,
his toughness has been one of the defining parts of
his career because of how often he's hit, and to
watch him make play after play tonight as just a
fan of football was truly a joy to watch. I
mean it really was. Now from the game standpoint, I
(14:26):
mean those three drives, those three touchdowns. The difference in
the two offenses is Herbert and harbaughd don't have a
Jamar Chase and T Higgins. I mean, we've been talking
about Jamar Chase the last couple of weeks because we've
been comparing him to Justin Jefferson and how big the
gap is. He's a great player, and T Higgins when
he's healthy is damn good too. I Mean, that is
(14:48):
as good of a one to two combination when they're
both healthy and rolling and the quarterbacks plan well as
you will find in the NFL. I like Lad McConkie
a lot. But if that's the guy you have to
rely on, like your offense is gonna have some limitations.
I thought the Chargers, which is weird because a knock
on Greg Roman is he always runs the ball like
(15:08):
that's been a knock throughout his career. He doesn't run
a great passing game. Tonight, it felt like they barely
ran it in the second half, I mean under two
minutes when McPherson missed the kick, which he's obviously missed
multiple long kicks. Tonight, I mean, I don't want to
say he cost them the game, but that was a
pretty devastating miss within their two minutes and it wasn't
(15:30):
really close. You know, Tucker has been one of the
best kickers in the league for a long long time.
I don't want to say he shot, but you got
a massive red flag on his career. And McPherson when
the Bengals were making their run was beyond nails. I mean,
you rolled him out he was making the kick. And
the moment your kicker becomes a liability, it's like in
(15:52):
baseball if your bullpen sucks, it's like, what are you
gonna do? You just kind of keep your fingers crossed
when you pull the guy in out of the pen.
It's like in basketball, when one of your players can't
shoot free throws, Well, the game's going to be close.
If our team's good, especially in playoff games, what do
we do? You're kind of screwed. And in football, this
(16:13):
is not college football where when it was twenty seven
to six and one team's beating the liven piss out
of the other, that game tends on Saturdays to turn
into forty eight to fifteen. We're in the NFL. At
any given moment, a team could be up fourteen points,
twenty one points, one quarter later, is tied. One quarter later,
(16:33):
they're down four. That's how fast it happens. The difference
of talent in these two in this league is much
much smaller than on Saturday. Obviously, a team like the
Bengals that's four and seven have a ton of high
end players. And once McPherson missed the kick, harball had
almost two minutes to go and they went three passes.
(16:55):
They wasted like eleven or twelve seconds. I mean, you
have two elite tackles, run the football, hell, run your
quarterback because McPherson missed a fifty one yard field goal.
To get yourself in the field goal range. You didn't
have to go that far. Now, then the Bengals, you know,
get the ball back. They go three and out. The
(17:17):
Chargers get the ball back. Hit a couple of plays
to Maconukey and I think was a JK. Dobbins who
scored the touchdown. Probably should go down with the one.
Obviously it would end the game. You know, listen, you score,
they still have eighteen seconds. They have to score and
go the length of the field they started the thirty
yard line. Burrow hits just that was a play where
(17:42):
he hits. I think it was was a T. Higgins,
might have been someone else where. He gets absolutely crunched.
The receiver makes a great play behind his body, but
they just didn't have enough time left. Just a bizarro ending. Honestly,
a crazy second half because the Bengals came storming back,
(18:02):
and you start kind of selling yourself. You're like, this
bangle team's got a lot of talent. They're gonna go
into every game where I mean, hell Burrow played. If
Lamar ends up winning the MVP. Now, Josh Allen's technically
the favorite, like Joe Burrow outplayed him in the games
they played, and they lost them both like I don't
remember a team like sometimes you just have the season
(18:23):
from hell. The forty nine ers are currently having that,
like they deserve to lose a lot of these games
they're getting like thoroughly outplayed down the stretch. I watched
the Bengals, like they are making more plays than the
other team. Their quarterback is playing at like an all
pro level, making these passes. Jamar Chase is playing like
(18:44):
a guy that's gonna get like one hundred and fifty
million dollars and they lose, and I promise you this,
I don't know if their coach is gonna get the
short end of the stick when this year ends. I
wouldn't feel great about making that proclamation just because the
owner's been cheap. But if this job does open up
(19:04):
with that guy at quarterback, I think there's gonna be
a lot of interested parties. Right. It's why every single
clip they show about Jim Harbaugh talking about Justin Herbert. Now,
Harbaugh is notorious for being over the top, and I'd
even say when he has great players still being hyperbolic
about them as individual talents. But I don't think he's
(19:29):
lying when he sings the praises of Herbert, and honestly,
I felt like there were moments tonight where him and
Greg Roman tried to justify their belief in his greatness,
like we're gonna have our guy match that guy, because
that guy makes as much money as anyone in the league.
(19:51):
He's taking a team to a super Bowl. We all
agree he's like a living legend. I mean, he led
LSU to one of the greatest college seasons of all time,
shows up with the Bengals, and within a couple of
years has him into Super Bowl, beating Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead,
and everyone you know, to a man goes God, He's
just one of the best players in the league. And
(20:11):
it felt like Harbaugh, we want to prove our guys
just as good. The problem is you're throwing to Quintin Johnson,
who Againning resurrected in his career. But it's got a
ways to go. Palmer, I mean, okay, be a rotational
player on ninety percent of the teams in the NFL
and a rookie slot receiver, and it's difficult in his
(20:31):
margin for era. I mean, the one Maconkey I guess
technically dropped might have been the throw was a little
off on Herbert. Like one thing with slot receivers, they
don't have much of a catching radius. Like when I
throw it up to normal outside wide receivers that are
bigger players, They're catching radius is a lot bigger. They're
just longer players. Even Jamar Chase, like I can put
(20:54):
it up in the air and he can make plays.
Hell the Chargers forever with Mike Williams and Keenan Allen,
you get a big catching radius. I mean one, remember
Tom Brady missed Wes Welker once upon a time in
a Super Bowl because you're Martin Ferrero. The slot receiver
just isn't that big. They're just smaller guys. Their arms
are shorter. Just basic math. But what a crazy game,
(21:18):
I mean really, And Jim Harbaugh man has the Chargers,
just has them as a good team. And they're a
team that I'm gonna pick to win a playoff game.
I think that's almost at the San Diego Chargers, the
Los Angeles Chargers led by Jim Harbon and Justin Herbert,
if they win a playoff game this year, just get ready.
This is gonna be the worst roster they've had or
(21:40):
they will have coming up this will be the worst
roster they have. Turner. I think he's number is twenty
two on the Bengals, who got hurt making a great
play down the sideline. He came from Michigan two years ago.
They drafted him in the second round. His play tonight
was awesome. The Washington Commanders their best corner is a
(22:06):
second round corner. Those two guys played in a defensive
backfield were neither was even the best corner on the team.
That's Will Johnson, who's still at Michigan. I don't think
people realize how good Jim Harbaugh is this thing called
coaching and building a football team. He's really good. This
is the worst the Chargers are going to be. It
(22:29):
is like, listen, the Bengals obviously a little better than
their record, you know, talent wise, but the best they
were was like three years ago. Like that defense top
to bottom with all these guys on offense, and a
you know, in theory, a little bit better offensive line
and Joe Mixon. Now Brown's actually not bad. I actually
think he's probably he's a good player, really good in
(22:51):
the passing game, runs hard. But they were much more
talented as a team top to bottom, A couple years ago,
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Speaker 1 (24:45):
I saw Nick Wright put out a tweet. Colin mentioned
this number on the when we went after the afternoon games,
and someone had linked me in the tweet, so I
saw what he was referencing. Vic Lamar now in his
career against the best team in the league, the Chiefs
and the Steelers, his divisional rival is four and twelve
(25:08):
Against the rest of the league, he's fifty four and twelve,
So he's four and twelve against his bitter rival, the
Steelers and the kans City Chiefs, a team that is
the Bar in the National Football League. And this is
not to bash Lamar. I think the version we've seen
(25:32):
these last couple of years is as good as it
gets for a running quarterback. It really is. He is
a remarkable player, and while he hasn't done anything in
the playoffs, honestly, for the most part, he's been shitty
in the playoffs. I don't view him as I do
some of like the basketball versions of that player, like
(25:55):
James Harden or Russell Westbrook. I would, if all sports
were equal, I would take Lamar in a New York
minute over those two guys, like I do believe Lamar
is capable of winning a Super Bowl as the lead dog.
Those guys clearly have displayed they're not. I mean, Russell
Westbrook is, in a weird way, one of the most
(26:17):
overrated players in the history of basketball, and James Harden
is just a very flawed player because the shit doesn't
work in the playoffs. The thing with Lamar. I saw
the stat as well on the internet this year when
Lamar has more pass attempts then the team does rush attempts,
they are now two and four, meaning all their losses
(26:38):
have come when their running game doesn't work. As well.
Clearly he's a big part of that, and they are
forced to put it on his shoulders. And I said
before the season, Josh Allen's a better player than Lamar.
I hope everyone realizes we're talking about two Hall of
famers here, two all time greats. That's where they're going
(27:00):
to go down. Both these guys, when it's all said
and done, will go down as two of the greatest
quarterbacks ever. I believe that to my core. But I
would take Josh Allen then, and I would take Josh
Allen now. I have seen Josh Allen play on very
flawed teams, good teams, but flawed teams, and carry them
(27:23):
and excel in the playoffs. He's also beaten the Chiefs
now three straight years, and even in playoff games in
which he's lost to the Chiefs, he's out played Mahomes.
So at most we can argue, like Listen, Lamar, Josh,
(27:44):
the postseason is not even arguable. One guy has turned
into a pumpkin, partly because as you saw today and
as you've seen before against the Chiefs, when you can't
dominate running the football, and a lot of that is him,
he's not quite the same player which is understandable. He
is the greatest dual threat player we've ever seen, because
(28:05):
when I was a kid and Steve Young started rattling
off MVPs, Steve Young wasn't really a dual threat anymore.
He was basically the left handed Drew Brees. He was
a pocket quarterback Lamar Jackson. He's rattling off these MVPs,
good passer, dominant runner, and dominant scramble around throw guy.
Now today he had some drops and I'm not pinning
(28:28):
the loss all on him, But when they lose to
these good teams, he doesn't play the same. Something's a
little off because running around like he does against the
majority of teams he plays, especially his record for the
NFC speaks for itself. They cannot sniff him. He runs
circles around them all. But when he plays the Steelers
(28:50):
and he plays the Chiefs and that run game is
just neutralized, or against Chiefs he tries to match Patrick
Mahomes or against the Steeler, they just kind of discombobulate him.
He looks human. I'm not acting like he's a scrub.
I'm not acting like he's Dak Prescott. But I think
we have to acknowledge it. We really do. Like I'm
(29:11):
watching Joe Burrow tonight and going like I don't know.
Like here's the thing with Joe Burrow, Like Lamar has
incredible regular season games, but I've seen in the biggest
moments in the playoffs him looked just like he did tonight.
And the thing with Lamar Jackson's why I bet money
on them to win the Super Bowl last year. That's
(29:32):
the best team any of these guys have had, top
to bottom offensively and defensively, it was dominant. This team's
got flaws. I mean defensively, a ton of flaws. If
Russell Wilson doesn't make one of the worst interceptions you've
ever seen, like should score a touchdowns, game might not
have been that close. But this team isn't as good.
So if the Ravens, which offensively against you know previously
(29:54):
this year, they've looked incredible, if they're going to win
the playoffs, he's gonna have to do what Joe Burrow,
what Patrick Mahomes did earlier on in his career. What
Josh Allen does is like I have to dominate. There's
no like we can kind of play a mid game dominate,
and I won't be betting on them. I don't have
(30:15):
faith that, not that he can't because physically he can,
but he doesn't. And I think he has the biggest
question mark of all these cats. Right Burro's already been
in a super Bowl, like Josh Allen beats the Chiefs,
he'd be like Way has done in the playoffs, well
out plays Mahomes as fucking coach thirteen seconds left, I
(30:35):
don't know what kind of defense are playing. And even
last year, like it wasn't his fault they lost. I
just think, you know, Lamar, there is a fair question
mark there. And this is the comparison like with the
Russell and James earlier on in their career, before they
established who they were, that question mark was there too.
(30:56):
The best part about Lamar is in the prime of
his career. That's several years to answer it. But he's
got to answer it like that's not something we're just
gonna skip over, like that that exists. It feels like
the Chiefs kind of, I mean, the Steelers kind of
own him. He just doesn't look like himself. It's crazy
play a little overrated and underrated because there's a lot
(31:17):
going on in the NFL. I want to talk about
this one. This one hurts, but it's just the truth.
The forty nine ers are very, very overrated. What a
does that? I mean, at now, they're just properly ready.
They're five and five and just not a playoff team,
and they're dead last in the NFC West, dead last.
They've lost to all three teams in the NFC West,
(31:41):
all three teams. Pretty sure. Last year when they were
the number one seed went at the Super Bowl. I
guess they lost one game. They went five and one
in the division, but it was week eighteen when they
rested all their starters. But they dominated the division. And
now they've lost to the Cardinals, They've lost to the Rams,
(32:03):
and they lost one of the worst games you'll ever
see today. Gino Smith, who they had owned coming into today,
drove right down the field for a touchdown. George Kittle
didn't play. He's got some injury. I guess heard his
hamstring kind of random at the end of the week.
Nick Bosa hurt his other hip, and yeah, Deebo Samuel
(32:24):
looks kind of average. So they got problems. But they're
not going to the playoffs this year. It's just not
their year. I mean that they look I don't even
know how to put it. I mean, because the most
underrated part is the NFC West, who now does not
have a team under five hundred. The Cardinals, who are
(32:48):
going to be coming off a bye, just look pretty good.
If the Rams score touchdowns, their defense is good, they're
going to be a problem. And Seattle, like if you
just get a solido, is a tough out. And the
forty nine ers are looking at now playing the Packers
and the Bills in their next two games, like there's
a very decent chance, I would say, best case scenario
(33:11):
they're six and six, very decent chance that they are
five and seven. And I brock Perties had a good year.
He's a good player. I like him a lot, but like,
can everyone just take a deep breath, Like do you
have to just give him two hundred million dollars? Couldn't
you just play out next season as well and keep
(33:32):
trying to load up the team for another year and
just see, like, Okay, if he's incredible, we'll give you
two hundred and twenty five million dollars. I don't mind
paying an extra ten twelve percent if I know for sure,
Like obviously they feel really good about him, But I'm
just not I'm never in a huge rush to pay people.
(33:53):
And I think one thing the forty nine ers have
to really regret is not trading Brandon Ayuk before the playoffs.
I think if they could do it all or excuse me,
before the draft, I think if they could do it
all over again, Brandon and you could be on another team.
Because Juwan Jennings has really established himself, they ended up
drafting Ricky Piersoll. Now that you know Christian McCaffrey's back,
(34:14):
and you know Kittle up until he hurt his hamstring
sometime this week, I guess is having one of the
better seasons of his career. But I just you know,
you can't allocate that much money and that many resources
to the wide receiver position when the guy producing the
most is your lowest paid wide receiver, like Juwan Jennings
had a contract extension this offseason. The other thing about
(34:35):
the NFC West, and this is why it's an underrated division,
is the coaching's really good. Like Mike McDonald was one
of the best defensive coordinators we've seen over the last decade.
What he did in Baltimore was incredible. Like that guy's
a badass coach. Sean mcvayh is obviously a stud. Kyle
Shanahan who is getting just absolutely lit on phone on
(35:00):
the internet in forty nine er Land is obviously pretty good.
He's gone to four the last five conference championship games
and gone to two Super Bowls where he had the
lead in the second half against the Chiefs. And I
think Jonathan Gannon is just I think he's a good coach,
and I think he did a good job hiring a staff.
He has two coordinators, a couple of millennials who are
(35:21):
kicking ass and taking names. His bald offensive coordinator Pezick
is good Rales, his defensive coordinators. I think the youngest
coordinator in the NFL at like thirty two or thirty
one or thirty three, somewhere in that range. I think
he's thirty two. Obviously is doing one of the better
jobs in the league, beside Buddha Baker. Like how many
(35:44):
impact defensive players of the Arizona Cardinals have. And I
don't know if the forty nine ers it's fatigue, if
it's running out of gas, if it's just sometimes it's
not your year. And listen, some teams would sell their
left testicle to have a year from hell and be
five and five. What would Brian day ball or the
Titans or just go around the league due to be
five and five. So these are good problems to have,
(36:06):
but when you set the bar really high and you
have a season like this, it sucks. And speaking of overrated,
I never understood why, and listen, I thought they would
be improved, but I thought their record would be about
the same as last year rookie quarterbacks. When you don't
have a good coach, you're not just gonna win ten games,
especially in a really, really good division. So the Bears,
(36:30):
who are now four and six, have a lot of issues,
and their quarterback finally played a good game. But like
people were picking them to make the playoffs, Matt Eberflus
was not making the playoffs in a division with Dan Campbell,
Lafleur and Kevin O'Connell. He's not the worst coach in
(36:52):
that division. He's the worst coach in that division. By
the width of the Grand Canyon from California, need a
Texas like that gap is so wide you could fit
a lot in between. And even if they've upgraded now
with Thomas Brown by firing the offensive coordinator, Like you
just don't overcome that poor of a head coach, You
(37:15):
really do not, and listen, like a lot of teams,
we should have won that game, but you didn't. And
for some reason with Matt Eberflus, you never win that
game even when you know should have won the game.
And the most underrated part about the NFC North is
how good their top three records are right now. They
(37:38):
are currently the Lions, the Packers, and the Minnesota Vikings.
The Lions are nine and one, the Vikings are eight
and two, and the Packers are seven and three. Like
these I mean, that division is really freaking good. And
it's crazy with Minnesota because you're watching Sam Darnold, who's
definitely come back to Earth, but like they're gonna win
(38:01):
eleven games like this team. Those teams are playoff locks.
I mean, the Lions, what they're doing right now. They
have scored fifty two points in an NFL game twice
in a month. I know it's been against two really
really bad teams, the Titans and the Jags, But how
(38:22):
often do you see good teams play really really bottom feeders,
bad teams just shitty operations and win like thirty to
ten or thirty eight to seventeen, Like, this is not
college football. And to have back to back blowouts, I mean,
I know last week they tachically. I'm not saying like
(38:43):
back to back games, but I'm just saying, have two
blowouts of fifty two points. That's insane. It really is.
The Lions feel a little bit like the Ravens last year,
where when they would just get someone, they would suffocate
them and you'd be like, it crossed my mind the
day at halftime because I had that game. The box
(39:06):
the main box on my big TV was the Red
Zone on one box, the Steeler game, Steeler Ravens on
another box, Bears Packers on another box, and then Lions Jacks.
When they scored their twenty eighth point, I think to
make it twenty eight to six before I think there
were still like three or four minutes to go in
(39:28):
the first half, I contemplated, like, would you play your
starters right now now? He ended up not pulling the
starters to like, I don't know, midway or early on
in the fourth. He could have justified doing it pretty
early in the third quarter. Now, it's football. It's hard,
it's not like you can pull this isn't basketball. I
can't pull my whole five guys off and put a
brand new five guys. You don't even have five offensive
(39:50):
linemen in pads. You know. It's hard with wide receivers.
Even defensive linemen need to rotate. You just can't put
your backup guys. Like, even though those guys aren't starters,
you still play them a lot. It's not as it's
easier said than done. But that had to cross his
mind early on, like can we just get out of here?
And they ended up I think angelone he broke his arm,
(40:12):
so he's out for six to eight weeks. Again, that's
a freak play. There's nothing you can do about it.
But I think sometimes you get uncomfortable in those games
because you're like, I just do not want to get
Jamior Gibbs or Saint Brown or Pine Seul or Brian
Branch injured when we're up forty five to six in
the third quarter. Overrated at this point in time, like
(40:37):
to go back to the narratives early in the season
about the Jets is pretty pointless. I do think it's
fair their defense was heralded last season as just one
of the best units in the league, and really we've
talked about them for a couple of years that way.
They have one of the best defense in the league.
And then last offseason they lost a bunch of players.
(40:58):
Right one of their best passes rushers, Bryce Huff, signed
with the Eagles. Guy had double digit sacks last year.
Sauce Gardner has had a bad season. He's screwed up
at the end of the game and he's constantly pointing
when someone screws up to try to claim it's not
his fault. And they gave up multiple drives to Anthony Richardson,
(41:21):
who just had a couple of weeks ago. One of
the most embarrassing moments I would say in like the
history of the league when it comes to just a
quarterback doing something on the field, got tapped out of
a game every single like we have seen. There's not
an interception we haven't seen. Hell, we've seen people run
out of the back of the end zone. We have
(41:41):
never ever seen a starting quarterback in the middle of
the game on a third down tapas helmet and leave
the game. And it was universally responded to that way
by former players. There wasn't one like you cannot find
a situation I would say in society, let alone sport
where one hundred percent of the people are on the
(42:04):
same side of the ledger. And that's how it was
with that. And then two weeks later, this guy comes
back and leads multiple fourth quarter drives, and both drives
one drive was under two minutes, the other drive was
under three minutes, and they had a game winning drive.
The one I think that was under two minutes was
to win the game. The pass was on Sauce Gardiner's side.
(42:25):
Now I get it was too deep and he's got
the underneath, but it's like he didn't even touch him.
He's let him go right by. He didn't even rewrote
the wide receiver. Then he immediately starts pointing, I don't know, man.
Obviously Rogers looks really, really old. Uh. The offense finally
put up some points. Anthony Ridgson even had a fumble
on like a delayed blitz that gave them a touchdown.
(42:47):
I mean, they were up twenty four to sixteen in
this game in the second half, twenty four to sixteen.
This is one of my favorite bets of the NFL season.
Colts plus four when it was twenty four to sixteen.
I didn't feel great because I didn't totally trust Anthony Richardson.
But the reason I love that bet the reason honestly
it was like one of my bigger bets of the
(43:08):
year because I don't believe in the Jets and they
proved me right again. What a disastrous and I mean
epic train wreck of a season from the New York Jets.
I think the Steelers run games a little underrated. I
don't know what their final stats were today, but I've
always been somewhat critical. Critical would be the wrong way
(43:31):
to put it. Just hesitant on Najie Harris, and I
followed his career since high school, but I just watched
him in the pros. Never really liked his game that much.
I think I don't know if it's health. I don't
know if it's confidence. His numbers don't totally reflect it.
Today he had eighteen carries for sixty three yards. But
I think this is by far the best season of
(43:52):
his career, with just his just overall confidence running, his
just ability to make guy miss run through a guy,
physicality in his runs. Obviously, the Ravens are one of
the best run defenses in the league. But one reason
I believe a little bit in the Steelers like that
they can win a playoff game. Hell, they could win
(44:14):
a couple because they are very, very comfortable playing in
these low scoring games. Is because of Najee Harrison Jalen Warren.
I think the quarterback play underrated in the New England
Patriot Los Angeles Rams game Drick May. If I was
a Patriot fan, I would be very, very excited. The
best case scenario when you have a project rookie is
(44:37):
for him to show a bunch of stuff of like
positive you know, film and games and loose. It couldn't
be going any better right now if you're a Patriot fan,
because obviously, what the hell's the difference of winning going
seven to ten or three in fourteen? And the Patriots
(44:58):
are not gonna win many more game, Yet their quarterback
gets better every week. Matt Stafford today had a stretch
where he had four touchdowns in a nine completion stretch.
It's why I said there are five quarterbacks in the
prime of their career who just I mean got a
chance to go down as like all time greats. Stafford
is the only other quarterback in this league, especially of
(45:20):
an older one who can play at their level, and
he's just dramatically older than all of them. But you know,
the Rams are just every time you want to just
write the Rams off, now it's the Patriots, but if
their offense can score, they should be tough because their
defense is really good. A couple of other things before
(45:48):
I get out of here, just one thing that is
just extremely overrated, and I just believe this in general.
I know Notre Dame fans are celebrating on the grave
of Brian Kelly's career. You guys play nobody Notre Dame
because they don't have a conference. Their schedule is a joke.
(46:10):
And every time I look up and they're playing the
Sisters of the Poor, the School of the Blind and
beating the living piss out of them, it's like, great,
join the Big ten or the SEC and then I
would respect if you went ten and two and eleven
and one. But these makeshift schedules you're playing where the
most of these teams that you play just suck and
will never ever make a twelve team playoff. Like I'm
(46:33):
not giving you credit for being like, see, this is
where you want to coach. Because Brian Kelly went to
LSU and if Notre Dame played in the SEC, they
would never sniff the playoffs. I'll promise you that, because
they could not go ten and two in the SEC.
Now that being said, hiring Brian Kelly might have been
(46:54):
the best they could do. Obviously he's a successful coach.
I'm not acting like what he did at Notre Dame
was it impressive or Notre Dame winning games isn't a
good thing. But I hate it when, like Notre Dame
goes eleven and one, they start pumping out their chests, like,
give me a break, play some real teams, like get
ready to go one and done. Come the playoffs, because
that's what's gonna happen. But Brian Kelly this year has
(47:17):
been a disaster, and watching them lose to Florida and
get shoved around, and you know, Garrett nus Meyer's falling
apart these last couple of weeks, and the defense, every
time it's playing well, all of a sudden the offense
goes the wrong way. And then every time the offense
is playing well, the defense sucks. And then when they're
both kind of working, the special teams falls apart. They
gave him ninety million dollars because ed Ogeron was a
(47:40):
train wreck. That program was a disaster, and Brian Kelly
was known for being like the CEO, buttoned up, like
he might never have a national championship ceiling, but he
was gonna have a really high floor. And if you
would have told him when he took the job three
years ago, there's gonna be a twelve team playoff, no problem,
(48:01):
We'll make that thing a lot best case scenario. Now
they're gonna go eight and four. That means back to
back years they've gone nine to three at eight and four,
I just got news for you that that's just unacceptable.
It's just not gonna fly. And I think sometimes takes
in college football can be a little aggressive. It just
happens with coaches in general. Hell I see it happen
(48:21):
with the forty nine ers like Fire Shanahan. For who
Ben Johnson. You know what, Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson will
go to church every day of the week and pray
ten times a day that he's seventy five percent as
good as a head coach one day, not even like
early on as Kyle Shanahan. So you have no clue,
(48:44):
but three coaches the last three LSU coaches Nick Saban,
Les Miles, and at Oseron have all won national championships,
So it's basically guaranteed if you're the head coach at LSU,
you're gonna have the opportunity to inter national championship because
there's nobody you can't get into school, and the recruiting
(49:04):
in your own backyard is as good as it gets,
and the history at your program makes it really to
just recruit in general in the South outside of Louisiana.
To get worse from last year after just a couple
of weeks ago, it felt like, God, this feels like
a playoff team. What a disaster and I think the
most underrated job by a mile in college football. Deon
(49:29):
Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes control their own destiny. If
they win the next two weeks, they're in the conference
championship game, and if they win that game, they will
be a top four seed in the college football playoff.
We knew they were really good on offense. Chador is
probably gonna be the number one overall pick. Travis Hunter
(49:51):
might be the number two. There's a decent chance, you know,
cam Ward is he going to go to I don't know.
You could argue there's a fifty to fifty chance right
now that two picks in the NFL Draft are on Colorado.
But we already those guys were high level, you know prospects.
Last year. Travis Hunter would have gone in the top
five if he was eligible to come out last season.
(50:13):
Shador would have gone in the first round if he
was eligible to come out last season. Defensively, they were
a joke last year. It was like, what is going
on here? This offseason they hired Warren Sap, which is
a cool headline, but as this season has gone, if
you've watched them play, and I've watched them a lot
because I bet on them basically every week, their defensive
(50:36):
line is in the backfield all the time. Last year,
their defensive lineman looked like me, It's like, how are
you playing Division one football with these guys in the
line of scrimmage? And then their secondary outside of Travis
Hunter are making plays NonStop. Their defense is really good.
They are easily and listen, the Big twelve is not
(50:57):
the Big Ten or the SEC. It's a one bid
playoff league. And to me today, as we sit here,
going in the last couple weeks of the season, they
are clearly the best team in the conference clearly, so
props to Dion Sanders Chador and Travis Hunter for, you know,
resurrecting a program, a program that a couple of years
(51:20):
ago had one win and now they look poised. I
mean it's all in front of them to get to
eleven in three weeks. The volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? John Middlecoff three
and now podcast. How are we doing my friends? Hopefully
everyone's having a great day. Morning whenever you may be
(00:25):
listening to this. We just watched a little Sunday Night football.
Joseph Burrow, I don't even know that's his real game,
came storming back in the second half. But Jim Harbaugh
and Justin Herbert and the Chargers they prevail, So we
will dive into that game. That thing was bananas. That
was If you would have told me Chargers Bengals would
(00:49):
be one of the more entertaining halves of the year,
I don't know if I'd believed you, but I guess
the Chargers historically playing a lot of crazy games. The
Bengals have had just a season from from who knows
where because four and seven, but clearly they're pretty good,
but they just can't win. So we'll dive into that.
We got to dive into some quarterback talk because Lamar
(01:11):
gets these big games against the Chiefs and the Steelers.
Man he just doesn't quite look the same dominates everybody
else wins MVPs, but today him and the Bengals lost
to a team that did not score a touchdown. They
did not score a touchdown. Rough and we'll do a
little overrated Underrated. I went on with Colin as I
(01:32):
do every week, so you can go check that out.
That is up on YouTube on the podcast feed. We
talked for about an hour and a half. We talked
about Jake Paul a little bit at the end, two
and Tyson. For those of you that watched that fight,
if you could, I mean, the buffering issues were quite
the experience. I actually had to go to dinner, so
I watched the beginning like well before the Tyson like
the opening stuff, and then I came back in the
(01:54):
middle of the fight and it turns out that Tyson
looked that way the whole time, which is kind of sad.
But million people watched or attempted to watch through the buffering.
And so we'll talk a little overrated underrated. Check out
the podcast. You know, if you listen on Collins feed,
make sure you're suscribed to three and Out as well
as the YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe to that.
(02:14):
Appreciate everyone that listens. And before we talk some football,
you want to go to a game? How fun did
that game look look like tonight? Sunday Night Football Chargers Bengals.
I was thinking of watching this game. I was like, one,
the jerseys on these two teams historically like cheap franchises,
yet they've been kind of relevant over the last twenty years,
played in some big games. The jerseys in that game
(02:37):
was awesome, and it's like, yeah, you know, do I
know what you want at the game? Probably? Not? But
how awesome would it have been to be at SOFI
to watch that game? And you can go because if
you want to go to Sofi, if you want to
go to any event, concert, comedy show, college, the college
football playoffs aren't that far away. If you want to
go to one of those games, I would imagine. I mean,
(02:57):
the first round is going to be at home, so
at least for some of the teams. Imagine Colorado, the
Colorado Buffaloes, if they went out, they will get a
home playoff game. How awesome is that? So go to
game Time right now. Take the guess work out of
buying tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app today,
create an account and use the code Jawn for twenty
dollars off for his purchase. Terms of play again, create
(03:18):
an account, redeem the co Jochen for twenty dollars off
down on the game time after today, last minute tickets,
lowest price is guaranteed. That game was bananas. It really was.
Even Turko was like, you know, it's not often you
see three kicks under the two minute warning. McPherson missed
the field goal. Then the Chargers go three and out
(03:39):
in the blink of an eye, and then the Bengals
go three and out pretty much equally as fast. So uh,
game was wild. The Chargers just big picture before we
dive into the nuts and bolts. Definitely of the ending,
but even the second half. Two things really jumped out
to me. One, this is why you give a guy
(04:00):
sixteen to seventeen million, because the Chargers have lost that
exact game. They played in that exact game. Sometimes they
were the team in front, like they were tonight, and
the other team came storming back. Sometimes it was flip flopped.
They were the team that was down twenty four to six,
twenty seven to six and came storming back to take
the lead or to tie the game. But they have
(04:21):
lost that game the overwhelming majority of my adult life,
and I turned forty last month. They always lose that game.
I have seen the Chargers over the course of the
last twenty years play in so many four o'clock window
games for those of you on the East Coast, for
(04:42):
those of us on the West Coast, the one o'clock
kickoff and the last quarter of football look something like that.
And under Brandon Staley, Anthony Lynn, Mike McCoy, they have
lost that game. And listen, it's football. Sometimes things gonna
go bad. Sometimes you're gonna have a stretch where your
(05:03):
star quarterback fumbles and gives them, you know, a good
field position and an easy drive for a touchdown, where
your punter fucks up and gives them a short field,
and all of a sudden you have a big lead
and you're like, what the hell happens? And bad coaches
lose that game, and Jim Harbaugh wins that game. Because
(05:24):
I promise you this, if Brandon Staley was their coach,
if Anthony Lynn was their coach, if Mike McCoy was
their coach, there is no way I am sitting here
right now talking about a Chargers victory, talking about a
team who is going to the playoffs. One of my
great regrets is verbalizing. And I'm a podcast host. So
(05:44):
I kind of have to of like, I love the
Chargers to make the playoffs, and all of you guys
who listen, and even some people in like the media.
I got Doug Gottlieb who's a Charger fan who's talking
to me before the season. No way, not enough weapon.
They've gotten rid of too much. They're gonna make strides.
They're not a playoff team. They're not going to the playoffs.
(06:05):
They're at worst gonna be the sixth seed, and honestly,
there's a pretty good chance with the Ravens losing, they're
the five seed, all because of one man. Justin Herbert
has been a really good player for a while. Khalil
Mack is injured, but when he plays, he's awesome. Same
thing with Derwin James. We knew Slater the left tackle
was good. Joe Walt would be good anywhere this team.
(06:26):
I could give him a lot of random coaches probably
win seven eight games. I give him Jim Harbaugh Boom
eleven twelve wins, and I'll promise you this on the
road in that first round, depending on the matchup, if
they're the five seed and they're playing Houston Texans, they're
winning that game. This guy's incredible. What have we ever seen?
(06:47):
We have seen a lot of guys, going back to
when I was young, Jimmy Johnson, Oklahoma State, Miami dominate,
dominate Cowboys, then dominate, and then he's just an NFL guy.
We have seen a lot of co which just go
college to the NFL and then you stay. We rarely
see guys. We've seen guys go college to the NFL,
(07:07):
fail and then go back to college and dominate again.
When do we see a guy college dominate, go to
the NFL, dominate, go back to college, dominate Natty, then
go back to the NFL, take a franchise that's a laughingstock, boom,
immediately dominate. Eleven and six, twelve and five year one.
(07:30):
This team won five fucking games last year. I think
sometimes we forget it because a lot of times the
Chargers they have been close. Remember a couple of years
ago playing Derek Carr on the Sunday Night Football the
last game of the season, and they lost. They've had
a lot of seasons like that where there are friends
like eight nine, ten win team right on the CUSP,
(07:51):
maybe get a wild card. Last year they won five games.
Part of that Brandon Staley one of the worst head
coaches you'll ever see. Somehow the forty nine ers hired
them and their season as torpedoed. That's a whole nother conversation.
Jim Harborough man works wonders wherever he goes. The other
thing that jumped out to me, they're five quarterbacks in
(08:14):
the world who are just absolutely elite at their job,
who are either young, prime of their career, guys you know, thirty,
sub thirty. I would say Matt Stafford would be the
sixth guy, but you're talking about a much older player.
He's been in the league since two thousand and eight.
He's thirty six thirty seven years old. But when he's
on he can play as well as those that group
(08:36):
of five. We saw two of those five players tonight
on that field. Obviously Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson
are the other three, but the level of talent that
those two individuals possess is incredible to watch if you
love football, like Justin Herbert is a complete freak show.
(08:57):
He's six foot six, two hundred and forty five pounds
with the howitzer for an arm. We have seen guys
like that hell, we're watching one in Buffalo become Hall
of Fame level players. And it's cool to watch Jim Harbaugh,
you know, help him go to the next level. And
over time, as they improve the skill guys around him,
(09:17):
it will look a lot better. I like Lad mcconacky,
but when he's basically your number one wide receiver, your
offense is gonna have some limitations. The cool thing about
Joe Burrow is he's not as big and as tall
and as physical of a runner as Justin Herbert. He
doesn't have that arm strength, but when you watch him play,
(09:38):
you go, I don't think it's humanly possible to play
better football than that guy played. In the second half,
They're down twenty seven to six, and Joe Burrow on
three straight drives in the second half, leads three touchdowns.
And there are plays throughout those touchdowns or he's either
(10:01):
breaking tackles in the backfield, scrambling around, pushing the ball
down the field. It just doesn't get any better. That's
as good as it gets when it comes to NFL
quarterback play. And I think when you think of that crew,
those five guys, Mahome's a freak, right, I mean, huge
arm huge playmaker, big time athlete, obviously the best right
(10:26):
over the course his resume over the close of the
last five or six years. Lamar Jackson is the most
remarkable runner we've ever seen. We'll dive into him and
he's improved a lot as a passer, but his running
is what separates him. Josh Allen is like if cam
Newton was also accurate as a passer. That's what that is,
(10:48):
and Justin Herbert is like some version of that, and
you go, well, Joe Burrow, he doesn't quite have the
arm as these other guys. He's definitely the slowest of
the group, yet his innate skills are like Peyton Manning
or Tom Brady. And the underrated part about him is
because you know, he doesn't move as well as those guys.
(11:11):
He gets mollywopped and I mean destroyed several times a
game and tonight because literally their season is on the
line if they win this game. They're five and six,
and they they got a little life. I mean, they
got so much talent they could rattle off some wins
and all of a sudden it's like, oh, the Bengals
(11:31):
are seven and seven. Can they run the table and
get to ten and seven and make the playoffs, but
that would be on the table. They had to win
the night, and that motherfucker is just getting I mean,
absolutely smashed. There was a play where they called a
personal foul on number ninety three, which again I don't know.
(11:52):
When you're three hundred pounds and you tackle the quarterback
and you're in the middle of the air, They're like,
you can't drive him to the ground. What is that
human being supposed to do? Is he supposed to float
away like he's Superman? Is he supposed to like grow
wings and fly off the top and float off Joe
Burrow's body. Obviously, it's humanly impossible to do that, and
(12:14):
it never happens, and that penalty is called all the time.
The defensive line there's nothing he can do. It's like, well,
you gotta do what. I'm running full speed, I break
the offensive lineman's grips and I hit the quarterback. I
can't control my body. We're going to the fucking ground
and I land on top of him. And you saw
Joe Burrow's face. I can't even imagine the pain he
(12:34):
felt when that guy not only drove him into the
ground but then was lying on top of him. And
there were several other plays throughout tonight whereas he's letting
rid of the ball, a guy is coming through his
side and hitting him at warp speed and you just
see Burrow's body fly one way or the other. And
(12:57):
every single time he just gets up and he's starts
kind of like grimacing to the next wherever the ball
went and wherever they're going to spot the ball. And
I say this all the time about the quarterback position.
It's a sexy position, right. They get all the money,
they get, all the fame, they usually get all the women.
Life's fucking great. When you're good at that position, it
(13:19):
doesn't get any better. They are the superstars of the league.
To be a great player at that position, your toughness
has to be a ten out of ten. If your
toughness is a question mark at that position, you are
limited how good you can be. One of mahomes defining
characteristics is how tough he is. Lamar has some deficiencies
(13:43):
in these big games as a passer. No one has
ever or will ever question how tough the guys Josh
Allen's toughness sometimes is like a detriment. It's like Josh,
you can't take on these seven defenders and lower your shoulder.
You saw tonight. Hey, Justin, we need you to slide.
We all know you're the one of the toughest guys
(14:04):
on the field. And Joe Burrow is like I would say,
his toughness has been one of the defining parts of
his career because of how often he's hit, and to
watch him make play after play tonight as just a
fan of football was truly a joy to watch. I
mean it really was. Now from the game standpoint, I
(14:26):
mean those three drives, those three touchdowns. The difference in
the two offenses is Herbert and harbaughd don't have a
Jamar Chase and T Higgins. I mean, we've been talking
about Jamar Chase the last couple of weeks because we've
been comparing him to Justin Jefferson and how big the
gap is. He's a great player, and T Higgins when
he's healthy is damn good too. I Mean, that is
(14:48):
as good of a one to two combination when they're
both healthy and rolling and the quarterbacks plan well as
you will find in the NFL. I like Lad McConkie
a lot. But if that's the guy you have to
rely on, like your offense is gonna have some limitations.
I thought the Chargers, which is weird because a knock
on Greg Roman is he always runs the ball like
(15:08):
that's been a knock throughout his career. He doesn't run
a great passing game. Tonight, it felt like they barely
ran it in the second half, I mean under two
minutes when McPherson missed the kick, which he's obviously missed
multiple long kicks. Tonight, I mean, I don't want to
say he cost them the game, but that was a
pretty devastating miss within their two minutes and it wasn't
(15:30):
really close. You know, Tucker has been one of the
best kickers in the league for a long long time.
I don't want to say he shot, but you got
a massive red flag on his career. And McPherson when
the Bengals were making their run was beyond nails. I mean,
you rolled him out he was making the kick. And
the moment your kicker becomes a liability, it's like in
(15:52):
baseball if your bullpen sucks, it's like, what are you
gonna do? You just kind of keep your fingers crossed
when you pull the guy in out of the pen.
It's like in basketball, when one of your players can't
shoot free throws, Well, the game's going to be close.
If our team's good, especially in playoff games, what do
we do? You're kind of screwed. And in football, this
(16:13):
is not college football where when it was twenty seven
to six and one team's beating the liven piss out
of the other, that game tends on Saturdays to turn
into forty eight to fifteen. We're in the NFL. At
any given moment, a team could be up fourteen points,
twenty one points, one quarter later, is tied. One quarter later,
(16:33):
they're down four. That's how fast it happens. The difference
of talent in these two in this league is much
much smaller than on Saturday. Obviously, a team like the
Bengals that's four and seven have a ton of high
end players. And once McPherson missed the kick, harball had
almost two minutes to go and they went three passes.
(16:55):
They wasted like eleven or twelve seconds. I mean, you
have two elite tackles, run the football, hell, run your
quarterback because McPherson missed a fifty one yard field goal.
To get yourself in the field goal range. You didn't
have to go that far. Now, then the Bengals, you know,
get the ball back. They go three and out. The
(17:17):
Chargers get the ball back. Hit a couple of plays
to Maconukey and I think was a JK. Dobbins who
scored the touchdown. Probably should go down with the one.
Obviously it would end the game. You know, listen, you score,
they still have eighteen seconds. They have to score and
go the length of the field they started the thirty
yard line. Burrow hits just that was a play where
(17:42):
he hits. I think it was was a T. Higgins,
might have been someone else where. He gets absolutely crunched.
The receiver makes a great play behind his body, but
they just didn't have enough time left. Just a bizarro ending. Honestly,
a crazy second half because the Bengals came storming back,
(18:02):
and you start kind of selling yourself. You're like, this
bangle team's got a lot of talent. They're gonna go
into every game where I mean, hell Burrow played. If
Lamar ends up winning the MVP. Now, Josh Allen's technically
the favorite, like Joe Burrow outplayed him in the games
they played, and they lost them both like I don't
remember a team like sometimes you just have the season
(18:23):
from hell. The forty nine ers are currently having that,
like they deserve to lose a lot of these games
they're getting like thoroughly outplayed down the stretch. I watched
the Bengals, like they are making more plays than the
other team. Their quarterback is playing at like an all
pro level, making these passes. Jamar Chase is playing like
(18:44):
a guy that's gonna get like one hundred and fifty
million dollars and they lose, and I promise you this,
I don't know if their coach is gonna get the
short end of the stick when this year ends. I
wouldn't feel great about making that proclamation just because the
owner's been cheap. But if this job does open up
(19:04):
with that guy at quarterback, I think there's gonna be
a lot of interested parties. Right. It's why every single
clip they show about Jim Harbaugh talking about Justin Herbert. Now,
Harbaugh is notorious for being over the top, and I'd
even say when he has great players still being hyperbolic
about them as individual talents. But I don't think he's
(19:29):
lying when he sings the praises of Herbert, and honestly,
I felt like there were moments tonight where him and
Greg Roman tried to justify their belief in his greatness,
like we're gonna have our guy match that guy, because
that guy makes as much money as anyone in the league.
(19:51):
He's taking a team to a super Bowl. We all
agree he's like a living legend. I mean, he led
LSU to one of the greatest college seasons of all time,
shows up with the Bengals, and within a couple of
years has him into Super Bowl, beating Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead,
and everyone you know, to a man goes God, He's
just one of the best players in the league. And
(20:11):
it felt like Harbaugh, we want to prove our guys
just as good. The problem is you're throwing to Quintin Johnson,
who Againning resurrected in his career. But it's got a
ways to go. Palmer, I mean, okay, be a rotational
player on ninety percent of the teams in the NFL
and a rookie slot receiver, and it's difficult in his
(20:31):
margin for era. I mean, the one Maconkey I guess
technically dropped might have been the throw was a little
off on Herbert. Like one thing with slot receivers, they
don't have much of a catching radius. Like when I
throw it up to normal outside wide receivers that are
bigger players, They're catching radius is a lot bigger. They're
just longer players. Even Jamar Chase, like I can put
(20:54):
it up in the air and he can make plays.
Hell the Chargers forever with Mike Williams and Keenan Allen,
you get a big catching radius. I mean one, remember
Tom Brady missed Wes Welker once upon a time in
a Super Bowl because you're Martin Ferrero. The slot receiver
just isn't that big. They're just smaller guys. Their arms
are shorter. Just basic math. But what a crazy game,
(21:18):
I mean really, And Jim Harbaugh man has the Chargers,
just has them as a good team. And they're a
team that I'm gonna pick to win a playoff game.
I think that's almost at the San Diego Chargers, the
Los Angeles Chargers led by Jim Harbon and Justin Herbert,
if they win a playoff game this year, just get ready.
This is gonna be the worst roster they've had or
(21:40):
they will have coming up this will be the worst
roster they have. Turner. I think he's number is twenty
two on the Bengals, who got hurt making a great
play down the sideline. He came from Michigan two years ago.
They drafted him in the second round. His play tonight
was awesome. The Washington Commanders their best corner is a
(22:06):
second round corner. Those two guys played in a defensive
backfield were neither was even the best corner on the team.
That's Will Johnson, who's still at Michigan. I don't think
people realize how good Jim Harbaugh is this thing called
coaching and building a football team. He's really good. This
is the worst the Chargers are going to be. It
(22:29):
is like, listen, the Bengals obviously a little better than
their record, you know, talent wise, but the best they
were was like three years ago. Like that defense top
to bottom with all these guys on offense, and a
you know, in theory, a little bit better offensive line
and Joe Mixon. Now Brown's actually not bad. I actually
think he's probably he's a good player, really good in
(22:51):
the passing game, runs hard. But they were much more
talented as a team top to bottom, A couple years ago,
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Speaker 1 (24:45):
I saw Nick Wright put out a tweet. Colin mentioned
this number on the when we went after the afternoon games,
and someone had linked me in the tweet, so I
saw what he was referencing. Vic Lamar now in his
career against the best team in the league, the Chiefs
and the Steelers, his divisional rival is four and twelve
(25:08):
Against the rest of the league, he's fifty four and twelve,
So he's four and twelve against his bitter rival, the
Steelers and the kans City Chiefs, a team that is
the Bar in the National Football League. And this is
not to bash Lamar. I think the version we've seen
(25:32):
these last couple of years is as good as it
gets for a running quarterback. It really is. He is
a remarkable player, and while he hasn't done anything in
the playoffs, honestly, for the most part, he's been shitty
in the playoffs. I don't view him as I do
some of like the basketball versions of that player, like
(25:55):
James Harden or Russell Westbrook. I would, if all sports
were equal, I would take Lamar in a New York
minute over those two guys, like I do believe Lamar
is capable of winning a Super Bowl as the lead dog.
Those guys clearly have displayed they're not. I mean, Russell
Westbrook is, in a weird way, one of the most
(26:17):
overrated players in the history of basketball, and James Harden
is just a very flawed player because the shit doesn't
work in the playoffs. The thing with Lamar. I saw
the stat as well on the internet this year when
Lamar has more pass attempts then the team does rush attempts,
they are now two and four, meaning all their losses
(26:38):
have come when their running game doesn't work. As well.
Clearly he's a big part of that, and they are
forced to put it on his shoulders. And I said
before the season, Josh Allen's a better player than Lamar.
I hope everyone realizes we're talking about two Hall of
famers here, two all time greats. That's where they're going
(27:00):
to go down. Both these guys, when it's all said
and done, will go down as two of the greatest
quarterbacks ever. I believe that to my core. But I
would take Josh Allen then, and I would take Josh
Allen now. I have seen Josh Allen play on very
flawed teams, good teams, but flawed teams, and carry them
(27:23):
and excel in the playoffs. He's also beaten the Chiefs
now three straight years, and even in playoff games in
which he's lost to the Chiefs, he's out played Mahomes.
So at most we can argue, like Listen, Lamar, Josh,
(27:44):
the postseason is not even arguable. One guy has turned
into a pumpkin, partly because as you saw today and
as you've seen before against the Chiefs, when you can't
dominate running the football, and a lot of that is him,
he's not quite the same player which is understandable. He
is the greatest dual threat player we've ever seen, because
(28:05):
when I was a kid and Steve Young started rattling
off MVPs, Steve Young wasn't really a dual threat anymore.
He was basically the left handed Drew Brees. He was
a pocket quarterback Lamar Jackson. He's rattling off these MVPs,
good passer, dominant runner, and dominant scramble around throw guy.
Now today he had some drops and I'm not pinning
(28:28):
the loss all on him, But when they lose to
these good teams, he doesn't play the same. Something's a
little off because running around like he does against the
majority of teams he plays, especially his record for the
NFC speaks for itself. They cannot sniff him. He runs
circles around them all. But when he plays the Steelers
(28:50):
and he plays the Chiefs and that run game is
just neutralized, or against Chiefs he tries to match Patrick
Mahomes or against the Steeler, they just kind of discombobulate him.
He looks human. I'm not acting like he's a scrub.
I'm not acting like he's Dak Prescott. But I think
we have to acknowledge it. We really do. Like I'm
(29:11):
watching Joe Burrow tonight and going like I don't know.
Like here's the thing with Joe Burrow, Like Lamar has
incredible regular season games, but I've seen in the biggest
moments in the playoffs him looked just like he did tonight.
And the thing with Lamar Jackson's why I bet money
on them to win the Super Bowl last year. That's
(29:32):
the best team any of these guys have had, top
to bottom offensively and defensively, it was dominant. This team's
got flaws. I mean defensively, a ton of flaws. If
Russell Wilson doesn't make one of the worst interceptions you've
ever seen, like should score a touchdowns, game might not
have been that close. But this team isn't as good.
So if the Ravens, which offensively against you know previously
(29:54):
this year, they've looked incredible, if they're going to win
the playoffs, he's gonna have to do what Joe Burrow,
what Patrick Mahomes did earlier on in his career. What
Josh Allen does is like I have to dominate. There's
no like we can kind of play a mid game dominate,
and I won't be betting on them. I don't have
(30:15):
faith that, not that he can't because physically he can,
but he doesn't. And I think he has the biggest
question mark of all these cats. Right Burro's already been
in a super Bowl, like Josh Allen beats the Chiefs,
he'd be like Way has done in the playoffs, well
out plays Mahomes as fucking coach thirteen seconds left, I
(30:35):
don't know what kind of defense are playing. And even
last year, like it wasn't his fault they lost. I
just think, you know, Lamar, there is a fair question
mark there. And this is the comparison like with the
Russell and James earlier on in their career, before they
established who they were, that question mark was there too.
(30:56):
The best part about Lamar is in the prime of
his career. That's several years to answer it. But he's
got to answer it like that's not something we're just
gonna skip over, like that that exists. It feels like
the Chiefs kind of, I mean, the Steelers kind of
own him. He just doesn't look like himself. It's crazy
play a little overrated and underrated because there's a lot
(31:17):
going on in the NFL. I want to talk about
this one. This one hurts, but it's just the truth.
The forty nine ers are very, very overrated. What a
does that? I mean, at now, they're just properly ready.
They're five and five and just not a playoff team,
and they're dead last in the NFC West, dead last.
They've lost to all three teams in the NFC West,
(31:41):
all three teams. Pretty sure. Last year when they were
the number one seed went at the Super Bowl. I
guess they lost one game. They went five and one
in the division, but it was week eighteen when they
rested all their starters. But they dominated the division. And
now they've lost to the Cardinals, They've lost to the Rams,
(32:03):
and they lost one of the worst games you'll ever
see today. Gino Smith, who they had owned coming into today,
drove right down the field for a touchdown. George Kittle
didn't play. He's got some injury. I guess heard his
hamstring kind of random at the end of the week.
Nick Bosa hurt his other hip, and yeah, Deebo Samuel
(32:24):
looks kind of average. So they got problems. But they're
not going to the playoffs this year. It's just not
their year. I mean that they look I don't even
know how to put it. I mean, because the most
underrated part is the NFC West, who now does not
have a team under five hundred. The Cardinals, who are
(32:48):
going to be coming off a bye, just look pretty good.
If the Rams score touchdowns, their defense is good, they're
going to be a problem. And Seattle, like if you
just get a solido, is a tough out. And the
forty nine ers are looking at now playing the Packers
and the Bills in their next two games, like there's
a very decent chance, I would say, best case scenario
(33:11):
they're six and six, very decent chance that they are
five and seven. And I brock Perties had a good year.
He's a good player. I like him a lot, but like,
can everyone just take a deep breath, Like do you
have to just give him two hundred million dollars? Couldn't
you just play out next season as well and keep
(33:32):
trying to load up the team for another year and
just see, like, Okay, if he's incredible, we'll give you
two hundred and twenty five million dollars. I don't mind
paying an extra ten twelve percent if I know for sure,
Like obviously they feel really good about him, But I'm
just not I'm never in a huge rush to pay people.
(33:53):
And I think one thing the forty nine ers have
to really regret is not trading Brandon Ayuk before the playoffs.
I think if they could do it all or excuse me,
before the draft, I think if they could do it
all over again, Brandon and you could be on another team.
Because Juwan Jennings has really established himself, they ended up
drafting Ricky Piersoll. Now that you know Christian McCaffrey's back,
(34:14):
and you know Kittle up until he hurt his hamstring
sometime this week, I guess is having one of the
better seasons of his career. But I just you know,
you can't allocate that much money and that many resources
to the wide receiver position when the guy producing the
most is your lowest paid wide receiver, like Juwan Jennings
had a contract extension this offseason. The other thing about
(34:35):
the NFC West, and this is why it's an underrated division,
is the coaching's really good. Like Mike McDonald was one
of the best defensive coordinators we've seen over the last decade.
What he did in Baltimore was incredible. Like that guy's
a badass coach. Sean mcvayh is obviously a stud. Kyle
Shanahan who is getting just absolutely lit on phone on
(35:00):
the internet in forty nine er Land is obviously pretty good.
He's gone to four the last five conference championship games
and gone to two Super Bowls where he had the
lead in the second half against the Chiefs. And I
think Jonathan Gannon is just I think he's a good coach,
and I think he did a good job hiring a staff.
He has two coordinators, a couple of millennials who are
(35:21):
kicking ass and taking names. His bald offensive coordinator Pezick
is good Rales, his defensive coordinators. I think the youngest
coordinator in the NFL at like thirty two or thirty
one or thirty three, somewhere in that range. I think
he's thirty two. Obviously is doing one of the better
jobs in the league, beside Buddha Baker. Like how many
(35:44):
impact defensive players of the Arizona Cardinals have. And I
don't know if the forty nine ers it's fatigue, if
it's running out of gas, if it's just sometimes it's
not your year. And listen, some teams would sell their
left testicle to have a year from hell and be
five and five. What would Brian day ball or the
Titans or just go around the league due to be
five and five. So these are good problems to have,
(36:06):
but when you set the bar really high and you
have a season like this, it sucks. And speaking of overrated,
I never understood why, and listen, I thought they would
be improved, but I thought their record would be about
the same as last year rookie quarterbacks. When you don't
have a good coach, you're not just gonna win ten games,
especially in a really, really good division. So the Bears,
(36:30):
who are now four and six, have a lot of issues,
and their quarterback finally played a good game. But like
people were picking them to make the playoffs, Matt Eberflus
was not making the playoffs in a division with Dan Campbell,
Lafleur and Kevin O'Connell. He's not the worst coach in
(36:52):
that division. He's the worst coach in that division. By
the width of the Grand Canyon from California, need a
Texas like that gap is so wide you could fit
a lot in between. And even if they've upgraded now
with Thomas Brown by firing the offensive coordinator, Like you
just don't overcome that poor of a head coach, You
(37:15):
really do not, and listen, like a lot of teams,
we should have won that game, but you didn't. And
for some reason with Matt Eberflus, you never win that
game even when you know should have won the game.
And the most underrated part about the NFC North is
how good their top three records are right now. They
(37:38):
are currently the Lions, the Packers, and the Minnesota Vikings.
The Lions are nine and one, the Vikings are eight
and two, and the Packers are seven and three. Like
these I mean, that division is really freaking good. And
it's crazy with Minnesota because you're watching Sam Darnold, who's
definitely come back to Earth, but like they're gonna win
(38:01):
eleven games like this team. Those teams are playoff locks.
I mean, the Lions, what they're doing right now. They
have scored fifty two points in an NFL game twice
in a month. I know it's been against two really
really bad teams, the Titans and the Jags, But how
(38:22):
often do you see good teams play really really bottom feeders,
bad teams just shitty operations and win like thirty to
ten or thirty eight to seventeen, Like, this is not
college football. And to have back to back blowouts, I mean,
I know last week they tachically. I'm not saying like
(38:43):
back to back games, but I'm just saying, have two
blowouts of fifty two points. That's insane. It really is.
The Lions feel a little bit like the Ravens last year,
where when they would just get someone, they would suffocate
them and you'd be like, it crossed my mind the
day at halftime because I had that game. The box
(39:06):
the main box on my big TV was the Red
Zone on one box, the Steeler game, Steeler Ravens on
another box, Bears Packers on another box, and then Lions Jacks.
When they scored their twenty eighth point, I think to
make it twenty eight to six before I think there
were still like three or four minutes to go in
(39:28):
the first half, I contemplated, like, would you play your
starters right now now? He ended up not pulling the
starters to like, I don't know, midway or early on
in the fourth. He could have justified doing it pretty
early in the third quarter. Now, it's football. It's hard,
it's not like you can pull this isn't basketball. I
can't pull my whole five guys off and put a
brand new five guys. You don't even have five offensive
(39:50):
linemen in pads. You know. It's hard with wide receivers.
Even defensive linemen need to rotate. You just can't put
your backup guys. Like, even though those guys aren't starters,
you still play them a lot. It's not as it's
easier said than done. But that had to cross his
mind early on, like can we just get out of here?
And they ended up I think angelone he broke his arm,
(40:12):
so he's out for six to eight weeks. Again, that's
a freak play. There's nothing you can do about it.
But I think sometimes you get uncomfortable in those games
because you're like, I just do not want to get
Jamior Gibbs or Saint Brown or Pine Seul or Brian
Branch injured when we're up forty five to six in
the third quarter. Overrated at this point in time, like
(40:37):
to go back to the narratives early in the season
about the Jets is pretty pointless. I do think it's
fair their defense was heralded last season as just one
of the best units in the league, and really we've
talked about them for a couple of years that way.
They have one of the best defense in the league.
And then last offseason they lost a bunch of players.
(40:58):
Right one of their best passes rushers, Bryce Huff, signed
with the Eagles. Guy had double digit sacks last year.
Sauce Gardner has had a bad season. He's screwed up
at the end of the game and he's constantly pointing
when someone screws up to try to claim it's not
his fault. And they gave up multiple drives to Anthony Richardson,
(41:21):
who just had a couple of weeks ago. One of
the most embarrassing moments I would say in like the
history of the league when it comes to just a
quarterback doing something on the field, got tapped out of
a game every single like we have seen. There's not
an interception we haven't seen. Hell, we've seen people run
out of the back of the end zone. We have
(41:41):
never ever seen a starting quarterback in the middle of
the game on a third down tapas helmet and leave
the game. And it was universally responded to that way
by former players. There wasn't one like you cannot find
a situation I would say in society, let alone sport
where one hundred percent of the people are on the
(42:04):
same side of the ledger. And that's how it was
with that. And then two weeks later, this guy comes
back and leads multiple fourth quarter drives, and both drives
one drive was under two minutes, the other drive was
under three minutes, and they had a game winning drive.
The one I think that was under two minutes was
to win the game. The pass was on Sauce Gardiner's side.
(42:25):
Now I get it was too deep and he's got
the underneath, but it's like he didn't even touch him.
He's let him go right by. He didn't even rewrote
the wide receiver. Then he immediately starts pointing, I don't know, man.
Obviously Rogers looks really, really old. Uh. The offense finally
put up some points. Anthony Ridgson even had a fumble
on like a delayed blitz that gave them a touchdown.
(42:47):
I mean, they were up twenty four to sixteen in
this game in the second half, twenty four to sixteen.
This is one of my favorite bets of the NFL season.
Colts plus four when it was twenty four to sixteen.
I didn't feel great because I didn't totally trust Anthony Richardson.
But the reason I love that bet the reason honestly
it was like one of my bigger bets of the
(43:08):
year because I don't believe in the Jets and they
proved me right again. What a disastrous and I mean
epic train wreck of a season from the New York Jets.
I think the Steelers run games a little underrated. I
don't know what their final stats were today, but I've
always been somewhat critical. Critical would be the wrong way
(43:31):
to put it. Just hesitant on Najie Harris, and I
followed his career since high school, but I just watched
him in the pros. Never really liked his game that much.
I think I don't know if it's health. I don't
know if it's confidence. His numbers don't totally reflect it.
Today he had eighteen carries for sixty three yards. But
I think this is by far the best season of
(43:52):
his career, with just his just overall confidence running, his
just ability to make guy miss run through a guy,
physicality in his runs. Obviously, the Ravens are one of
the best run defenses in the league. But one reason
I believe a little bit in the Steelers like that
they can win a playoff game. Hell, they could win
(44:14):
a couple because they are very, very comfortable playing in
these low scoring games. Is because of Najee Harrison Jalen Warren.
I think the quarterback play underrated in the New England
Patriot Los Angeles Rams game Drick May. If I was
a Patriot fan, I would be very, very excited. The
best case scenario when you have a project rookie is
(44:37):
for him to show a bunch of stuff of like
positive you know, film and games and loose. It couldn't
be going any better right now if you're a Patriot fan,
because obviously, what the hell's the difference of winning going
seven to ten or three in fourteen? And the Patriots
(44:58):
are not gonna win many more game, Yet their quarterback
gets better every week. Matt Stafford today had a stretch
where he had four touchdowns in a nine completion stretch.
It's why I said there are five quarterbacks in the
prime of their career who just I mean got a
chance to go down as like all time greats. Stafford
is the only other quarterback in this league, especially of
(45:20):
an older one who can play at their level, and
he's just dramatically older than all of them. But you know,
the Rams are just every time you want to just
write the Rams off, now it's the Patriots, but if
their offense can score, they should be tough because their
defense is really good. A couple of other things before
(45:48):
I get out of here, just one thing that is
just extremely overrated, and I just believe this in general.
I know Notre Dame fans are celebrating on the grave
of Brian Kelly's career. You guys play nobody Notre Dame
because they don't have a conference. Their schedule is a joke.
(46:10):
And every time I look up and they're playing the
Sisters of the Poor, the School of the Blind and
beating the living piss out of them, it's like, great,
join the Big ten or the SEC and then I
would respect if you went ten and two and eleven
and one. But these makeshift schedules you're playing where the
most of these teams that you play just suck and
will never ever make a twelve team playoff. Like I'm
(46:33):
not giving you credit for being like, see, this is
where you want to coach. Because Brian Kelly went to
LSU and if Notre Dame played in the SEC, they
would never sniff the playoffs. I'll promise you that, because
they could not go ten and two in the SEC.
Now that being said, hiring Brian Kelly might have been
(46:54):
the best they could do. Obviously he's a successful coach.
I'm not acting like what he did at Notre Dame
was it impressive or Notre Dame winning games isn't a
good thing. But I hate it when, like Notre Dame
goes eleven and one, they start pumping out their chests, like,
give me a break, play some real teams, like get
ready to go one and done. Come the playoffs, because
that's what's gonna happen. But Brian Kelly this year has
(47:17):
been a disaster, and watching them lose to Florida and
get shoved around, and you know, Garrett nus Meyer's falling
apart these last couple of weeks, and the defense, every
time it's playing well, all of a sudden the offense
goes the wrong way. And then every time the offense
is playing well, the defense sucks. And then when they're
both kind of working, the special teams falls apart. They
gave him ninety million dollars because ed Ogeron was a
(47:40):
train wreck. That program was a disaster, and Brian Kelly
was known for being like the CEO, buttoned up, like
he might never have a national championship ceiling, but he
was gonna have a really high floor. And if you
would have told him when he took the job three
years ago, there's gonna be a twelve team playoff, no problem,
(48:01):
We'll make that thing a lot best case scenario. Now
they're gonna go eight and four. That means back to
back years they've gone nine to three at eight and four,
I just got news for you that that's just unacceptable.
It's just not gonna fly. And I think sometimes takes
in college football can be a little aggressive. It just
happens with coaches in general. Hell I see it happen
(48:21):
with the forty nine ers like Fire Shanahan. For who
Ben Johnson. You know what, Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson will
go to church every day of the week and pray
ten times a day that he's seventy five percent as
good as a head coach one day, not even like
early on as Kyle Shanahan. So you have no clue,
(48:44):
but three coaches the last three LSU coaches Nick Saban,
Les Miles, and at Oseron have all won national championships,
So it's basically guaranteed if you're the head coach at LSU,
you're gonna have the opportunity to inter national championship because
there's nobody you can't get into school, and the recruiting
(49:04):
in your own backyard is as good as it gets,
and the history at your program makes it really to
just recruit in general in the South outside of Louisiana.
To get worse from last year after just a couple
of weeks ago, it felt like, God, this feels like
a playoff team. What a disaster and I think the
most underrated job by a mile in college football. Deon
(49:29):
Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes control their own destiny. If
they win the next two weeks, they're in the conference
championship game, and if they win that game, they will
be a top four seed in the college football playoff.
We knew they were really good on offense. Chador is
probably gonna be the number one overall pick. Travis Hunter
(49:51):
might be the number two. There's a decent chance, you know,
cam Ward is he going to go to I don't know.
You could argue there's a fifty to fifty chance right
now that two picks in the NFL Draft are on Colorado.
But we already those guys were high level, you know prospects.
Last year. Travis Hunter would have gone in the top
five if he was eligible to come out last season.
(50:13):
Shador would have gone in the first round if he
was eligible to come out last season. Defensively, they were
a joke last year. It was like, what is going
on here? This offseason they hired Warren Sap, which is
a cool headline, but as this season has gone, if
you've watched them play, and I've watched them a lot
because I bet on them basically every week, their defensive
(50:36):
line is in the backfield all the time. Last year,
their defensive lineman looked like me, It's like, how are
you playing Division one football with these guys in the
line of scrimmage? And then their secondary outside of Travis
Hunter are making plays NonStop. Their defense is really good.
They are easily and listen, the Big twelve is not
(50:57):
the Big Ten or the SEC. It's a one bid
playoff league. And to me today, as we sit here,
going in the last couple weeks of the season, they
are clearly the best team in the conference clearly, so
props to Dion Sanders Chador and Travis Hunter for, you know,
resurrecting a program, a program that a couple of years
(51:20):
ago had one win and now they look poised. I
mean it's all in front of them to get to
eleven in three weeks. The volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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