October 20, 2017 • 39 mins
Doug gives his thoughts on a HUGE night of sports! He explains why Clayton Kershaw still might have something to prove for the Dodgers in the World Series and what the Cubs have in common with Dallas Cowboys, and the old Oklahoma City Thunder team with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. He also talks about the Raiders win over the Chiefs and why everyone still has a chance to win the AFC West. Plus, Hall of Famer and World Series Champion John Smoltz joins the show to talk about the Yankees - Astros game and if the Dodgers are the favorites to win it all.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Doug Gottlieb Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Boom, What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio. What an incredible night in sports, one
of a just fort two of the fourteen nights fourteen
times which I'm told all four major sports have been playing.
(00:23):
Those major sports. Of course, NBA, we saw the new
look Oklahoma City Thunder and the new look l A
Clippers l A Lakers as well. We saw the NFL
great a f C West tilt and I I reserved
the word great for only great. That was a fun
game to watch. Both offenses played well. It came down
to the very last play, and then the play after
(00:43):
the very last play, and then the play after the
very last play. Uh. And then of course we had
um Major League Baseball with the Dodgers. I believe Keik
Hernan has just hit another home run. And the fourth
major sports college football right Memphis. Oh h L, no idea,
what happened in that welcome and we got a great
(01:04):
show for you. John Smoltz is gonna join us twenty
after the hour. I'll ask him about about this. This
simple statement, um margin of victory is not that big
of deal in Major League Baseball. Now, one run games.
Baseball guys will tell you ultimately they equal out um.
(01:25):
But because the margin of victory was I think it
was in many ways symbolic, right Like, Look, I don't
think these Dodgers carry the burden of Dodgers postseasons past.
I don't, just like last year's Cubs, they didn't carry
the hundred plus years of baggage. On the other hand,
(01:45):
it is the defending champs, it is in Wrigley Field,
and it was a completely and thoroughly dominant performance, both
hitting and pitching. Now, what we did not see and
we don't know is Clayton Kershaw said I haven't thinning
under pressure in the playoffs. We still don't know. We've
only seen him once in the seventh inning this year
(02:06):
in the playoffs, and it wasn't good. He gave up
two home runs. But that said, I cannot think of
a scenario in which the Dodgers could possibly feel better.
I'm a huge confidence guy, right. I believe in confidence,
I believe in culture, I believe in conditioning, the three
c's of championship teams. Confidence is big. So I can't
(02:29):
fathom away in which those Dodgers aren't confident heading into
Tuesday night, which they will open the World Series at
home for the first time since By the way they
played at home, those gives in home run anyway, but
margin of victory is generally not important. I felt like
last night it was important. Last night was a no
dabt or last night was we are this much better
(02:51):
than the Cups. And in many ways last night was
was symbolic of a Cub season to which the starting
pitching wasn't that great, and even when the starting pitching
got better than the second half of the season, the
bullpen wasn't really dependable. It wasn't really good choices for
Joe Madden to make. And it feels like this is
(03:11):
a team to which everybody very quickly said, well, they
could be a dynasty in the making. And I told
you to start the year, I knew people inside the
organization and said, you know, this doesn't feel as big
a kumbay Ya story the Cubs I'm talking about as
others would lead you to believe. All right, let me
quickly get to the a f C West and what
we saw last night, But how again, symbolic it was
(03:35):
of the rest of the NFL. And then I want
to I want to hone in on something that I
watched late last night Clippers Lakers and something we keep
trying to take out of sports, which I don't know why,
because it made last night's game all right, a f
C West. Remember the kanc Chiefs. They were five and
oh and they were a swimming along And I said, hey,
(03:57):
you know, like, like the Chiefs been the good in
the regular season, not really bought in on them being
a team that I think can win the Super Bowl,
even though Alex Smith is playing some of the best
football of his life. Travis Kelsey might well be the
best tight end right now. And you could make an
argument they had the best running back going in the
nash Football League as well, Plus they had the best
kick returner and they have and they have some dynamic
(04:20):
players on defense, albeit albeit there Still they're gonna be
without Eric Berry for the rest of the year, who,
for my money, is the best safety in football. But
here's what's amazing, right, You go back a couple of
You go back last week and Raiders are a mess.
Chiefs they did lose at home, but going into last weekend,
(04:40):
Chiefs for thought to be the best team in football.
Chargers were left for dead as they started out oh
and four, and the Denver Broncos to start the year
looked completely and totally unbeatable at home, and in the
last two weeks, in the last two weeks, suddenly the
Chargers you can start to in your mind go like, hey,
they should have beaten the Broncos first time around. I
should have forced overtime. They actually really did a good
(05:01):
job of shutting down the Kansas City offense. It was
their d it was it was their own offense that
that sputtered um. And they just beat the Raiders on
the road. Like everything we thought we knew about the
a f C West, I guess we've sort of forgotten
and it's completely up in the air. Which is funny
(05:24):
because we're gonna watch college football this weekend, right and
there's a couple of big games to which we're gonna
decide who isn't playing for the national championship. If Michigan
loses this game, Michigan on the road at Penn State,
they likely won't play for a national championship. And college
football fans have always and their administrators have always said, well,
(05:46):
that's what makes it so popular is that every game matters. Well,
NFL ratings are better than college football ratings, and I
will grant you that fantasy football and betting on it
has a large portion to do with that, or at
least a portion to do with that. But if every
game matters and some of the games in the NFL
didn't sort of matter because you can lose a couple
and still turn the thing around, then that argument is
(06:08):
kind of moot. And then crazy sequence of events with
a couple of penalties, one completely away from the ball
on the next to last play, here's the Raiders finishing
this thing off. Derek and a roll left Derek Frost
for the end zone and it is kind for a
touchdown by Michael crag Trade the Raiders and I think
(06:32):
this time it counts Sason down and fly any end zone.
Get it to me, loved out touchdown Raiders. That's on
the Chief's radio network. Kidding, kidding, kidding, that's on the
Raiders radio network. Here's Andy Reid about the officiating came
(06:55):
down to calls one way or the other. The man
came down calls and yeah, yeah, I mean, look, the
Raiders had some calls, had a lot of calls go
their way. Their first touchdowns should have been offensive past interference. Uh.
They committed a really stupid penalty in the first half
that extended to drive to the Chiefs to where they
(07:16):
could score their first touchdown, and the Raiders did benefit
from some calls the officiating was. It's weird the play
has picked up on Thursday night. The officiating is not.
What's maybe most bizarre, though, was how much time Derek
Carr had against the Kancity defense that you would think
could pressure the pastor. But everything we thought we knew
two weeks ago about the a f C West we
(07:37):
seem to have forgotten. Chargers have a two game winning streak,
the longest winning streak in that division. Chiefs have a
two game losing streak. Broncos suddenly have lost a game
at home, and the Raiders, well, I guess this is
what we knew. Had to win a shutout once again,
winning close games like they did last year. After losing
a close game to the Chargers just last Sunday, John
(07:59):
smoltson out five minutes last thing. Alonzo Ball was not
good last night. There's no other way around it. Now, Look,
I will I will give him the fact that Contavious
Callwell Pope is supposed to be starting to guard he's
suspended because of the d U. I that that is
not a that's a terrible thing when you have a
really young team and you're the veteran player, Um, you're
(08:20):
the one guy who's supposed to be the stabilizing force.
That's just it's awful for your team and it leaves
him out there on an island and he got exposed
as such. But the best part of that game is
the fact that LaVar Ball had been running his mouth
about how good his son was all summer long. And
(08:40):
Patrick Beverley is one of those guys. And having played
professional basketball, I can tell you, like you don't don't
have to worry about the guys with the big reputations.
You know what you have, you know the cat report,
you know they're really good. It's the Patrick Beverly Is
that are the hardest to play against. It's the Matthew
Delava dove Is that are the hardest to play against,
(09:02):
because in order for those guys to make it, they
have to be tougher than a two dollar steak man.
And the best part about it was Pat Beverley was
talking the talk and walking the walk. He was running
his mouth talking about first team defense. He was running
his mouth talking about he'd be up in Alonzo Ball's ass,
and he was right, and it was beautiful. Why don't
(09:27):
we try and take that out of sport. Granted, I
don't want it from high school kids and middle school
kids and my eight year old son. I don't want
him talking trash per se, and I definitely don't want talking.
But there's a difference team talking and talking talking trash.
And I felt like Pat Beverly walked that fine line
and aired on the side of talking trash as opposed
to taunting. But basketball, in its heart, that's what it's about.
(09:52):
It's a street game, it's a pickup game. It's an
I'm better than you, and I can lead my team
and I'm tougher than you, and yeah, I'm gonna talk
about it, but then I'm gonna show you. And Pat Beverley,
who had to start his career by going to the Ukraine,
comes back and then is part of a multiplayer deal
in which he's traded for Chris Paul and the Clippers
(10:13):
are left proverbial for dead, heard all that talk and
decided to talk back and walk it. Last night. That
was a thing of beauty, and what made it best
was the trash talk. Otherwise it's just the Clippers beating
the lake or something we've seen for the past couple
of years. Taking trash talk out of the NBA or
(10:35):
out of basketball is like taking fighting out of hockey.
It's like taking hard hits out of football. There's a
limit there. Like we don't need head shots. We don't
need you to count dudes out when you knock a
guy out in the NFL whe comes across the middle.
We don't need cheap shots in hockey. We don't need
you to sucker punch of guy. We don't need you
to slash him with his stick. But every once in
(10:57):
a while, a good fight has the purpose. Every once
in why, good brushback pitch below the neck, you know,
into the tushy, that has a purpose. And every once
in a while a good trash talking. Hey, dude, I
heard your daddy talking about you, about Steph currying about
this and about that. Guess what, Pat Beverley is here,
and Pat Beverly is gonna show you know what. Pat
(11:17):
Beverley was right. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three pm Eastern
noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app. Let's welcome in John Smoltz. Of course we'll
call tonight's Game six of the a LCS on Fox
Sports One. He joins us here on the Doug Gottlieb
(11:38):
Show on Fox Sports Radio. Small see, Um, how much
does momentum honestly play into this? Whereas you know the
Astros are up two games none, now they've lost the
last three, but you return home, he had a day off.
You've got justin Verlander on the hill. Is their carryover
from what happened in New York for the Houston Astros
and the Yankees, Ah, there would be. I think days
(12:00):
off always reset your next day. Starter is always a key.
If you're the Yankees, you wanted to play four in
a row. And that's what happens a lot in these series.
When it turns around on a dime like this, takes
one at bat, sometimes takes one moment. And for you know,
game six down three games to two, We've been in
(12:22):
no situation as a player and you just know forcing
a game seven is the only choice for the Astros
and what I've seen in the past. I just think
teams sometimes when they're up forget their up, they play
with a little bit more desperation, not wanting to get
to a game seven. There's a reason why the pressure
(12:44):
is all on Houston. And if the Yankees can play
their type of game and be fresh and not be
so consumed with the what ifs, I think they're fine.
But to answer your question, the day off kind of
resets it a little bit. Carlo's career didn't hit at
all in New York. What did they pitch him differently?
Do you think it was new it was New York,
it was Yankee Stadium. What do you think it was
(13:05):
about with Korea. Yeah, it's interesting because he's got great
numbers when he comes to New York, and he's had
good numbers against the Yankees. I thought the way they
poundered him in early made him very conscious of the
fastball in and then they had an opportunity to pitch
him away. Hitting and pitching are very contagious, and when
(13:26):
you get a couple of guys going in your lineup,
it feeds off of everybody. To me, if the Astros
have a chance to win this in they're just as
good a chance because they're a really good baseball team.
The top of their lineup has got to do something.
I mean, Reddick's gotta get going. Springers swing has gotten huge.
So what made the Astros really really good in the
(13:48):
regular season. They're getting away from it a little bit.
They're expanding the zone. They're swinging at pitch as they
normally wouldn't swing. Um, so how does that match up?
How does that matchup tonight with Servine? Know? Well, you know, um,
Severino has gotten better with each start. He was throwing
a lot of tights. Uh. I call it pressure sliders,
(14:12):
which means it's not the slider you want. It starts
looking like a cement mixer, and especially he showed that
in the first game, but he was so much more
relaxed in his next game. So I think for for
the Astros, they're going to have to hit a slider
or two. I mean, you don't typically go into a
game thinking about hit and sliders. You just don't want
(14:32):
to miss fastballs. But I think he throws so many
sliders that if you can recognize it and not expand away,
then you've got the advantage, especially at home Severino has
dur fastball at times, but he really is. His fastball
is like a show pitch. It's not what you would think.
(14:53):
His change up slider get thrown a lot more percentage
wise than his fastballs. To um. I look, I don't
want to get ahead of our else, but it is
very lander. So you have to wonder if they if
it goes seven, what do you think the Astros do
they just I mean, obviously you throw the kitchen sink
at that game, but but what do you think the
order is of what they do? Pitching wise? Yeah, that's
gonna be real interesting and tonight will go a long
(15:14):
way for that. But I I feel bad for Charlie
Morton because he pitched really well and his numbers are
gonna look not very good. I mean the three run
homer against Frasier after two soft hits and the swing
the Fraser took. Oh man, I mean, that's that's new
that's new Yankee Stadium, right, that doesn't go out of
That's new Yankee Stadium. Home run exactly, And I think that,
you know, you've got to have confidence that Charlie Morton
(15:38):
would be your guy. You'd also have the ability to
bring in the colors if you wanted to peacock. But
right now, the astro's pen from a competent standpoint is
not real high. No, that's that's That's the questions malty
is how does a J. Hinch ever take the ball
away from Justin Verlander? I mean, Verlander can go a
d T pitches anyway, but I mean there's no one
in their right mind would take the ball of his
(16:00):
hands an considering how little that bullpen has offered. Plus
it's Justin Verlander. Yeah, well, in a perfect world, he'd
love to get seven or eight, right eight? Maybe I
mean to get a pack back to back nine inning
game out of your your starter would be miraculous, especially today. Um,
I think Verlander, in all the effort that he had
last game, will come out rebbed up. But you have
(16:23):
to pitch this game with the motion as much as
in a neutral place as possible. You cannot get so
amped up. You gotta store up some of that energy
for later in the game like he did in game one.
So uh our game game two. Sorry. I think the
biggest thing for for a J Hens is he can't
(16:43):
afford multiple He's got to have a Formula three pitchers
are less. Three pitchers are less. Get some the w
and then they'll figure out what to do. In Game seven,
John's mult Joinius and the Doug Outlive show here on
Fox Sport Trade. Let's get let's get to the Dodgers.
They were impressive. I guess the I guess My only
big take a way is our question is do we
know yet? Like that was good for Kershaw to get
(17:04):
all that run support? Um, but you know the question
is what does he do when he doesn't get that
run support? Did we learn anything about Kershaw from this series? Yeah?
He's I mean I said three years ago, if you
give this guy seven eight starts, watch what happens. I mean,
he had trouble with one team. I think in the
last eight or nine starts, the team has won everyone
(17:26):
but one. And that's the key. I mean, when he's
on the mound. Yeah, he probably presses earlier in his
career to try to be superhuman, but this guy is
tough to hit, and the Dodgers know when he's on
the mound, there in a great, pretended great percentage to
win a baseball game. Look, the Dodgers are doing everything
that everyone forgot that made him great. You know when
(17:46):
they went through their kind of swoon and everyone thought
wrote off the Dodgers, they said, well, you know, Arizona's
probably could beat him. Uh, nobody thinks that way anymore.
Their lineup is unorthodox. It's not what you would look
at and go, yeah, I can see that kind of power.
Some of these guys have transformed their careers and they
had no Corey Seeger Uh, you know, no Adrian Gonzalez,
(18:09):
and yet this team basically finds ways to to to
beat you up at the right times and get some
big home runs. Of course, Justin Turner is their mp
P this year, so the Dodgers are complete. You don't
want to mess with their bullpen. You don't want to
mess with a close game late and it's gonna be
It's gonna be a great matchup no matter who they play,
(18:30):
because there's great storylines and great star power. Do you
expect to see a Game seven? I do? I do.
I thought it was going to be a Game seven
all the way through this series. That's how That's how
much I think of the Yankees and the and the
astros um as. One of a few people have thought
it would go to Game five after being o two
against the Indians. The Yankees have something special. Man. They
(18:52):
grind even when they look really, really bad. They're always
a swinger too away from betting right back in the
ball game. Uh. Joe Girardi and just the way he's
handled this ball club with the young players in the
mix of the veterans. This is a classic series. I
thought it would be with the Indians. It turned out
to be that way. I thought, definitely, I couldn't wait
to see this series. And uh, I would anticipate not
(19:14):
just because their home, but because of who's on the
mound and the fact that I think they're going to
score some runs. So um, I just I can't wait
for Game seven. I loved him as a player and
I love him as a broadcast. Couple of things that
post mordem Cubs lose after winning a World Series. Talent wise,
(19:34):
far and away the best team last year, and yet
they're pushed to seven this year. Really struggled out of
the game first half of the season, second of season,
best record in the National League, but it was never
really Kumbayya. Bullpen wasn't as good, starters weren't as good Chris,
but Bryan didn't hit at all in this in this series.
Um is last year. I remember when they won the
World Series, there's a lot of talking, Hey, this is
(19:55):
a team that could reel off a couple Now it
seems less likely, uh than than any any time in
the past two or three years. What's your sense of
what needs to change with the Cubs in order to
get them back on track. Well, you know, they hid
some things last year. They hit them well because they're
starting pitching was so dominant. Their offense was a feast
(20:16):
or famine. It looked good because they're they're starting pitching
was so good that all they did was add on.
It's a lot of easier to score and add on
than it is to constantly come back manufacturer runs. Uh.
The core players, young players have gotten a lot of experience.
I think they continue to get better. But their bullpen
is was something that Joe Madden did not have any
(20:38):
confidence in whatsoever. It seems like the Cubs the last
two years in the postseason played a short roster, meaning
it's twenty five guys, but you might as well have
been seventeen or sixteen. And I think that's one thing
moving forward, They're going to have to get more confidence
that they can know that the pen is not going
(20:58):
to be something that plays really short. They have pitching
issues coming up because they don't know if they're going
to sign Arietta and the Young Pictures are really young
in the farm system. So for what they put together
and how they did it, no one can argue the
blueprint and the success. But they're gonna need pitching and
more of it uh to to do exactly what you
(21:19):
said to have a longer run with this core players
that they have in their line. All right, you got
all the pitching in the world in Washington as far
as starters, right, Um, you know, yes, Rosburg, you got
Trzer to a lesser extent. Geo Gonzalez, I don't know
if you. I'm sure you're pretty well. Dusty Baker is
not being brought back. Is there a Is there a
guy that can fix it? Because everybody's tried, They've had
(21:41):
a bunch of different options to how to try and
get the Washington Nationals out of the Division around and
into the CS let alone into the World Series since
they moved back to d C. No one's been able
to do it. Is there is there one person who
is the right fit for that team. I thought Dusty
did a great job. I thought managing some of those
personalities and some of the things that comes with it,
(22:02):
I thought he did a magnificent job. Actually, um, it's
unfortunate that twice Game five in their building, the players
weren't able to be as good as they needed to be. Uh,
it wasn't a healthy brace Harper. Everybody knows that. I
don't know if there's a guy. I think once it builds,
the pressure builds to get something you haven't done versus
(22:24):
what you have done. I think franchises are in trouble
because it's so much emphasis on the negatives when there's
a lot of positives that came along with it. John
smill to check them out tonight along with Joe Buck
on the call. That's the a LCS Game six in Houston.
Pregame starts at seven Eastern, first pitches at eight. Of course,
(22:46):
Luisa um Sevrino taken on Justin Verlander in Houston Dome
is going to be closed. That's on FS one. It's Multy,
great stuff as always, thanks for joining us, Thanks for
having me. He's the best in the business. It's not
really close. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
(23:07):
Radio app. The Dodgers last night completely and thoroughly dismantled, dismantled,
the Chicago Cups dismantled. When don't you stop watching ramos? Oh,
I watched the whole game, but I knew it was
over in the third. The grand Slam that was. That
was the old proverbial dagger in the heart well seven
(23:29):
seven death in metric key k Hernandez hits a hits
a Grand Slam, and that thing was that was grabbed.
I have a couple of friends who flew out for
the game, and they were like leaving again because they're
going into the Notre Dame game as well. Notre Dame
SC lots of all the annoying SC football fans like,
oh'll fly in watch the Dodge Dodgers. Now, I'll go
spend some money in South Bed. That was over at
(23:50):
that point. But the Cubs are interesting now. Um, I
do think you have to You're better off if you
taste the pain, feel the pain before you taste the champagne.
And when you skip a step. Remember, the Cubs had
not gotten to the World Series and won the World
Series last year. And I don't know if it's because
(24:13):
they skipped the step of losing in the World Series
or it's they had too many young players. But they
remind me a little bit a little bit of the
Oklahoma City Thunder when they reached the finals against the
Miami Heat. Do you guys remember that, it was like
a surprise that they were there. It's like a year
early now. The Cubs were the best team in baseball
last year because their pitching was so good. Maybe they
(24:36):
remind me a little bit of the Dallas Cowboys, just
in that Cowboys last year. We're the best team in
football for most of the season. Now, they didn't get
to a Super Bowl. They lost in their first playoff
game at home. But there's something to getting to that
pinnacle and losing that. And I know that in the
(24:58):
Super Bowl, Babe, it's different because the Falcons went there
and we we go back and trace Carolina Panthers got there,
had a terrible season next year. Teams that lose in
the Super Bowl oftentimes struggle the next year. There's something
to this Cubs team where it felt like maybe they
skipped a step and we're too good, too soon, and
took it a little bit for granted, anybody else feel
(25:18):
that way. Here's Joe Madden after the game last night.
You know, being the team that went for the first
time on eight years was very difficult for a guys
just to get jump started in April. And may I
think that really is legitimate? I don't think it's I
don't think it's a stretch. I don't think it's uh
hyperbole in any way. It's true. It's just true. It's true.
(25:38):
It's just true. Um, I don't think it's hyperbole. I
also think the bullpen was less dependable, the starting pitching
was less dependable, and all of those guys that were
told how great they were became less dependable. But there
was something to remember in OH three, oh three. I
know it wasn't the World Series, but the way in
(25:59):
which the Red Sock is lost and the way in
which the Red Sox one seemed to embolden them. Now
they did not. They had a disappointing year after winning
the World Series in OH four. So some of this
is par for the course. And it doesn't mean you
can't recover. It doesn't mean you can't get back there.
And as bad as the Cups were to start the year,
they were the best team in the National League in
the second half of the year. But boy did they
(26:20):
have a terrible performance against the Dodgers. And remember the Dodgers.
This is not the Dodgers team that you thought you'd
have coming into the year. Chris Taylor was not on
the roster to start the year. Not on the roster.
They had to go out and trade for you, Darvish
(26:41):
h when they traded for Curtis Granderson, they got worse,
not better. So there is there's some kind of overthinking,
even on the Dodgers part, how good they are what
they needed at Be sure to catch live editions of
the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m.
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Video and the I
Heart Radio app. Just let's start with Alonzo ball. I
(27:05):
look Alonso. One of the things he one of his is, uh,
default settings. Default settings are like in a when you
play video games, you know, he said, like, oh, I
always want to when you play when I play Madden,
I always like like eight minutes for quarters, but the
default setting is like five minutes. The default setting is
usually like rookie for for skill level, it's just too
(27:26):
easy and too short and so over too quickly. Alonso's
default settings are when he brings the ball up like
he'll just pass it right away and not even like
not even think about it. And they've told him like, hey, man,
come down and don't be afraid to make a play
more often, like we brought you here to like. One
of the reasons NBA point guards put up such huge
(27:46):
numbers is they they try to make plays all the time,
like Russell Westbrook had a triple doubt because he held
out the ball so much. That's going back to last year.
By the way, speaking of Russ Westbrook, Oklahoma City did
look really good. It's just really hard to tell if
they're any good because they're playing the Knicks. The Knicks
are bad and the big the big thing with Carmelo
(28:09):
is when things are going good. No one has ever
argued that Carmelo Anthony is not a spectacular talent. And
I was really impressed by Russell Westbrook and his his
desire to to do kind of what Lonzo did, let
other guys play, set everybody up take much better shots,
something we hadn't seen from Russell Westbrook, even going back
to the Kevin Durant era. But when Melo goes bad
(28:31):
is when things are going bad, when adversity hits, and
you don't get adversity playing at home against the Knicks
in your home opener. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app. Michael Lombardi has his own podcast.
It's awesome. You should download it. Um It's called GM Street.
(28:54):
Just download it, listen to it. There's so much good information.
I hope I'm sure give us some of that as
he joined us right now that GM Street part of
the bringer. He joins us here on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Let me let me start with the Chiefs. Look, I
didn't think they were as dominant as they had looked
the first five weeks of the season, but now they've
lost two games. How much concern would you have if
(29:16):
you were any read well? I think Andy Reid now
has the clues to the story, so he's already read
the end of the book. He can now work his
way backwards. Everybody's gonna play him in his own game.
I mean what Pittsburgh did, the way they had the
way they handled his offenses. Look, Andy Reid wants you
to play man to man against him, but he wants
you to fall for all the fakes. He wants you
to go through all the window dressings when you can
(29:38):
play zone. And the Raiders are not a really good
zone team whatsoever, but they played it last night because
it was a matter of survival and they had to
play it. And I think as he moves forward to
the season, he's gonna see teams play more and more zone.
They're gonna break on the quarterback shoulder. They're not gonna
look at the quarterback's head. They're gonna break on his
shoulder and go to the ball and let them drive
it down the field. Play good in the red zone,
(29:59):
but don't up the big place. Raiders, for some reason
decided they got board with playing zone. So they played
man a little bit last night, and next thing you know,
Tyreek Hills running in the end zone without a guy
around them. Okay, so to us lehman like, and I
thought Tony Romo did an excellent job of pointing out
that they were doing what Pittsburgh had done and playing zone.
Their zone blitz team. What's the weakness to the zone defenses? Well,
(30:21):
I think you know, look, when you're a zone team
the way they played it, they're only in a seven
man front, and in football, there's eight gaps you have
to defend. So when you play a seven man front,
you're a gap short somewhere, and you've got to be
able to compensate that by somebody has to play two gap.
That's an old turn back in Bill Belichick's New New
York Giant days. So you're gonna be a little sceptible.
If the quarterback sees two deep safeties back there, he
(30:44):
wants to run the ball, and I think that's what
the Chiefs are gonna start doing. You saw it early
in the game when Kareem Hunt broke off that nice run.
He read a lead play up inside. That's because they're
in a seven man front. When you get into an
eight man front, every GAP's accounted for. You can still
run the football, but every gap gaps accounted for. In
the seven man front. Somebody has the two gaps. Somebody
could get this place. So I think that's really what's
(31:06):
gonna happen. That the Chiefs are going to see a
lot more cover to a lot more Cover four, which
is too deep, too deep show. I think it's going
to be more of his own game as they go forward.
Michael Lombardi joining us on The Doug Gottlieb Show. It's
interesting how people start to figure out one another, start
to copy others game plans, what work, what didn't work,
which which brings me to something interesting with the Green
(31:28):
Bay Packers, like, we don't really Brett Huntley was obviously
not ready to play last weekend and they had him.
Minnesota had him confused a lot of exotics and he
didn't know where, he didn't know where to go with
the football. But now he's had a week prepare and
now the opposition doesn't have a book on him. What
do your expectations of Brett Hunley? Well, look, the Packers
average twenty four points with with the greatest quarterback, with
(31:50):
the best quarterback in the league, Aaron Rodgers, that they
were still there are thirty feet in the league in
sacks allowed. I mean Rogers was sacked nineteen times going
into that game. And so this offense has had a
score in the second half more than any other team
because they kind of build their momentum and Rogers gets going.
I think Hunley stepping into a tough situation because the
(32:10):
skill players around them. Jordy Nelson has average and under
twelve yards catch, Randall Cobbs under ten yards of catch.
I mean Aaron Jones, the UTEP running back, fifth round pick.
He's going to be the guy to carry the team.
They got to run the ball more. When Rogers was playing,
they were six pass in the first half. Run. You've
got to change that dynamic a little bit. I'm not
(32:32):
saying you need to feature the run, but you've gotta
get Brett Hunley out of throwing at forty times. He's
not going to carry the team on his back. The
other thing is you can't get behind in a game
like they could with Aaron Rodgers, and he led him
back and brought him back from the game. You've got
to be able to stay in front. That's the best
thing that could happen for Brett Hunley has played with
the league since then, he's gone to a lot of
quick game here. That's uh. When they when Bill Laser
(32:54):
took over his offensive coordineer, getting rid of the ball quickly,
get out the players in space and uh and and
you know, not go to the huddle, just kind of
line up so you so, so the other team could
not adjust their personnel groupings. Um, long term, will that
be as successful as it's been short term? Well, I
think look before, no disrespect to Ken sam PC, but
(33:14):
they were just running plays. They were truly a play beater,
which means they think you're gonna play cover two, so
they run a Cover two beater. They think you're playing
cover three, you run a Cover three beater. They were
just just a random team. That's what I call battleship football.
You ever played battleship K four hit G three miss?
You know? Okay, let's try G four. Let's try That's
what the That's what the Bengals were before. Now at
(33:37):
least they have a rhyme and reason what they're trying
to do. Their feature in Joe Mixon, who's the best
back on their team, Gianano Bernard. He can come in
and do a lot of good things for them, and
they've got to be real careful. When Andy Dalton gets
the ball down in the red zone, that becomes a
real problem because he tries to force the ball and
he's not accurate. He has more trouble against teams that
play zone like Pittsburgh because he has to be able
(33:58):
to stay the receiver and then break on the ball,
and it's not as easy for him to read as
when it's man to man. So I think they've done
a good job since the PC has left up he
establishing what they do offensively and be managing Andy Dalton.
Denver loses at home to the Giants, who don't have
any wide receivers, and we've seen Denver struggle on the
(34:18):
road before and and look, the Giants were able to
really run the football. I know they used some trap
plays and some different looks that I think Denver was
ready for to run the football. But the Giants tign
run the football this well, really since Ben McAdoo came
over from Green Bay. So so now they're going to
take on the Rams, who do have a good running attack.
Am I crazy to love the Rams this week? Against me?
(34:42):
To Mike crazy? They love the Chargers who have run
the football better last two weeks. Melvin Gordon has been better,
especially in the second half. Mike crazy to love the Chargers? No,
I mean, look, if you watch the first game, even
when Trevor Simeon was playing well in the first game
the Chargers, if they make the field go win the game.
I mean, the Chargers are playing better football than the
Broncos are right now. This Trevor Simeon is a really
a backup type quarterback who has to start. The Broncos
(35:04):
are without a quarterback and it's tough. Now. The Chargers
have been really bad against the run, and I think
what Denver is gonna try to come in here is
play the running game. Try to put pressure on Philip
Rivers forced him to move left and right, forced him
to have to move around the pocket and lock down
these receivers. Whether Michael Williams or Keenan Allen can escape
and play well, that remains to be seen. The Chargers
haven't played well at home. Denver should not be able
(35:27):
to beat the Charges at home. They should have all
the advantages. But for some reason, I just have a
hard time thinking the Charges are gonna win a close
game because the last the last couple of weeks they
have but most of the time they do. The Denver
to me is a quarterback short. I think John Elway
had doesn't have the answer at quarterback. Yet. It's not
Paxton Lynch, It's not Trevor Simeon and we know it's
not the heist and Broncoss No, I know right, I
(35:49):
mean you got they have when when when I saw
I saw a Paxton Lynch start in the preseason, I
was like, Nope, that ain't it. And they thought the
same thing. And they just thought they could have Simeon
kind of manage the game us and if he doesn't
lose it for us, the defense can win it for us.
I guess that was that was their thought. But we
saw that he definitely can't win it for and when
they got behind going back last week or how they
played when they were on the road previously. Michael Lombardi
(36:11):
joining us in the doug Otlip Show. You must download
his podcast It's called GM Street. Follow him on Twitter
at m Lombardi NFL. Let's go to the Patriots rematch
of the Super Bowl. Let's start. Let's start with Atlanta. Okay, Atlanta.
A lot of people have pointed to how different their offenses,
how different their play calling is. Um, do you think
(36:31):
that their issues are fixable? Look, I've said it before
the season started. No disrespect to see Sarkasia, but he
was never gonna be able to do what Kyle Shanahan
did and that Matt Ryan was gonna come back. Matt
Ryan's not playing poorly. Matt Ryan's just playing who Matt
Ryan is now. I think they have a little bit
of that hangover. Look, they've been outscored in the second
half seventy forty, Okay, so there is a problem. And
(36:52):
if you go back and look at the games, I
mean they held on to beat the Bears. Opening data,
Mike Lennon is throwing three balls into the end zone
and if he can on any of them, are gonna
lose that game. And then the Lions became an inch
short from beating him. So two of their wins have
just been by the hair of their chinny chin chin.
And I think that you look at this team, they
can't control the game like they did last year with
(37:13):
their offense. And Matt Ryan is effective. This average per
yard per attempt, which is the key stat for quarterbacks,
he was over nine four last year. He's now back
to his normal number. This is not a knock on
on Steve Sarcassian. He can still help that, he can
still move the team. The problem is he's just not
as talented as a creator offensively as Kyle Shanahan. And
(37:33):
the perfect example is this last year, in nineteen games,
Matt Ryan threw four interceptions on first down. So far
this year in just six games, he's already thrown three.
Michael Lombardi joining us. All right, what about the Patriots? Uh?
They they survived the Jets on that crazy call. Um,
They went down and beat the Buccaneers and made Jamis
(37:54):
look bad, although James just didn't play well, so it's
been better. They simplified some things defensively, playing a lot
more man, but that's not who they are, right. They
play man, they play zone. They change things up based
upon the team. They're very pragmatic in terms of their approach.
What give me your take as of today on the
New England Patriots. Look, I think the one thing that
(38:14):
I noticed about the Patriots is and and they've always
been able to control games with their offense, and so
far this year, other than the same games, they've not
been able to control the game with their offense. Their
four for fifteen on four point plays in the red zone.
Those are the third down plays in the red zone.
They can't score touchdowns. That's what if you take that,
that's eleven times they've been stopped. That's basically they lost
(38:36):
forty four potential points and if you add that into
what they've been able to do, if you add some
of those points in, they would have been able to
extend the lead. They're not playing well. This will be
a challenging game. They have to start Johnson Banamozi at corner.
They're gonna have to play mostly all zone in this game.
Don't think they're gonna have to be able to get
into a man to man game here because they just
don't match up across the board, whether it's Julio on
(38:57):
Malcolm Butler, whether it's you know, john Nathan Jones, you
know having a play in there. It's gonna be a challenge.
And I think when you look at this team, they
have not done a good job of controlling the game
of their offense. They've been bad on third and short,
they've been bad in the red zone, and they've been
bad giving up big plays down the field in Atlanta
makes a big plays. So this is gonna be one
of those situations where the Patriots. The last time they've
(39:20):
lost two games in the row at home was two
thousand and eight, and before that was two thousand and six.
If they lose here, this will be the first time
they've lost three in a row at home since you'd
have to go back to two thousand and one. Yeah,
that's just that's just absolute, absolute crazy stuff. Again, the
the the podcast. I listened to it. I download it.
You should too. It's called GM Street and download wherever
(39:41):
podcast Bill or you just go over the website the Ringer.
It's at Emma Lombardi, NFL. Michael, great stuff. As always,
thanks so much for your time.
This is the best of the Doug Gottlieb Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Boom, What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio. What an incredible night in sports, one
of a just fort two of the fourteen nights fourteen
times which I'm told all four major sports have been playing.
(00:23):
Those major sports. Of course, NBA, we saw the new
look Oklahoma City Thunder and the new look l A
Clippers l A Lakers as well. We saw the NFL
great a f C West tilt and I I reserved
the word great for only great. That was a fun
game to watch. Both offenses played well. It came down
to the very last play, and then the play after
(00:43):
the very last play, and then the play after the
very last play. Uh. And then of course we had
um Major League Baseball with the Dodgers. I believe Keik
Hernan has just hit another home run. And the fourth
major sports college football right Memphis. Oh h L, no idea,
what happened in that welcome and we got a great
(01:04):
show for you. John Smoltz is gonna join us twenty
after the hour. I'll ask him about about this. This
simple statement, um margin of victory is not that big
of deal in Major League Baseball. Now, one run games.
Baseball guys will tell you ultimately they equal out um.
(01:25):
But because the margin of victory was I think it
was in many ways symbolic, right Like, Look, I don't
think these Dodgers carry the burden of Dodgers postseasons past.
I don't, just like last year's Cubs, they didn't carry
the hundred plus years of baggage. On the other hand,
(01:45):
it is the defending champs, it is in Wrigley Field,
and it was a completely and thoroughly dominant performance, both
hitting and pitching. Now, what we did not see and
we don't know is Clayton Kershaw said I haven't thinning
under pressure in the playoffs. We still don't know. We've
only seen him once in the seventh inning this year
(02:06):
in the playoffs, and it wasn't good. He gave up
two home runs. But that said, I cannot think of
a scenario in which the Dodgers could possibly feel better.
I'm a huge confidence guy, right. I believe in confidence,
I believe in culture, I believe in conditioning, the three
c's of championship teams. Confidence is big. So I can't
(02:29):
fathom away in which those Dodgers aren't confident heading into
Tuesday night, which they will open the World Series at
home for the first time since By the way they
played at home, those gives in home run anyway, but
margin of victory is generally not important. I felt like
last night it was important. Last night was a no
dabt or last night was we are this much better
(02:51):
than the Cups. And in many ways last night was
was symbolic of a Cub season to which the starting
pitching wasn't that great, and even when the starting pitching
got better than the second half of the season, the
bullpen wasn't really dependable. It wasn't really good choices for
Joe Madden to make. And it feels like this is
(03:11):
a team to which everybody very quickly said, well, they
could be a dynasty in the making. And I told
you to start the year, I knew people inside the
organization and said, you know, this doesn't feel as big
a kumbay Ya story the Cubs I'm talking about as
others would lead you to believe. All right, let me
quickly get to the a f C West and what
we saw last night, But how again, symbolic it was
(03:35):
of the rest of the NFL. And then I want
to I want to hone in on something that I
watched late last night Clippers Lakers and something we keep
trying to take out of sports, which I don't know why,
because it made last night's game all right, a f
C West. Remember the kanc Chiefs. They were five and
oh and they were a swimming along And I said, hey,
(03:57):
you know, like, like the Chiefs been the good in
the regular season, not really bought in on them being
a team that I think can win the Super Bowl,
even though Alex Smith is playing some of the best
football of his life. Travis Kelsey might well be the
best tight end right now. And you could make an
argument they had the best running back going in the
nash Football League as well, Plus they had the best
kick returner and they have and they have some dynamic
(04:20):
players on defense, albeit albeit there Still they're gonna be
without Eric Berry for the rest of the year, who,
for my money, is the best safety in football. But
here's what's amazing, right, You go back a couple of
You go back last week and Raiders are a mess.
Chiefs they did lose at home, but going into last weekend,
(04:40):
Chiefs for thought to be the best team in football.
Chargers were left for dead as they started out oh
and four, and the Denver Broncos to start the year
looked completely and totally unbeatable at home, and in the
last two weeks, in the last two weeks, suddenly the
Chargers you can start to in your mind go like, hey,
they should have beaten the Broncos first time around. I
should have forced overtime. They actually really did a good
(05:01):
job of shutting down the Kansas City offense. It was
their d it was it was their own offense that
that sputtered um. And they just beat the Raiders on
the road. Like everything we thought we knew about the
a f C West, I guess we've sort of forgotten
and it's completely up in the air. Which is funny
(05:24):
because we're gonna watch college football this weekend, right and
there's a couple of big games to which we're gonna
decide who isn't playing for the national championship. If Michigan
loses this game, Michigan on the road at Penn State,
they likely won't play for a national championship. And college
football fans have always and their administrators have always said, well,
(05:46):
that's what makes it so popular is that every game matters. Well,
NFL ratings are better than college football ratings, and I
will grant you that fantasy football and betting on it
has a large portion to do with that, or at
least a portion to do with that. But if every
game matters and some of the games in the NFL
didn't sort of matter because you can lose a couple
and still turn the thing around, then that argument is
(06:08):
kind of moot. And then crazy sequence of events with
a couple of penalties, one completely away from the ball
on the next to last play, here's the Raiders finishing
this thing off. Derek and a roll left Derek Frost
for the end zone and it is kind for a
touchdown by Michael crag Trade the Raiders and I think
(06:32):
this time it counts Sason down and fly any end zone.
Get it to me, loved out touchdown Raiders. That's on
the Chief's radio network. Kidding, kidding, kidding, that's on the
Raiders radio network. Here's Andy Reid about the officiating came
(06:55):
down to calls one way or the other. The man
came down calls and yeah, yeah, I mean, look, the
Raiders had some calls, had a lot of calls go
their way. Their first touchdowns should have been offensive past interference. Uh.
They committed a really stupid penalty in the first half
that extended to drive to the Chiefs to where they
(07:16):
could score their first touchdown, and the Raiders did benefit
from some calls the officiating was. It's weird the play
has picked up on Thursday night. The officiating is not.
What's maybe most bizarre, though, was how much time Derek
Carr had against the Kancity defense that you would think
could pressure the pastor. But everything we thought we knew
two weeks ago about the a f C West we
(07:37):
seem to have forgotten. Chargers have a two game winning streak,
the longest winning streak in that division. Chiefs have a
two game losing streak. Broncos suddenly have lost a game
at home, and the Raiders, well, I guess this is
what we knew. Had to win a shutout once again,
winning close games like they did last year. After losing
a close game to the Chargers just last Sunday, John
(07:59):
smoltson out five minutes last thing. Alonzo Ball was not
good last night. There's no other way around it. Now, Look,
I will I will give him the fact that Contavious
Callwell Pope is supposed to be starting to guard he's
suspended because of the d U. I that that is
not a that's a terrible thing when you have a
really young team and you're the veteran player, Um, you're
(08:20):
the one guy who's supposed to be the stabilizing force.
That's just it's awful for your team and it leaves
him out there on an island and he got exposed
as such. But the best part of that game is
the fact that LaVar Ball had been running his mouth
about how good his son was all summer long. And
(08:40):
Patrick Beverley is one of those guys. And having played
professional basketball, I can tell you, like you don't don't
have to worry about the guys with the big reputations.
You know what you have, you know the cat report,
you know they're really good. It's the Patrick Beverly Is
that are the hardest to play against. It's the Matthew
Delava dove Is that are the hardest to play against,
(09:02):
because in order for those guys to make it, they
have to be tougher than a two dollar steak man.
And the best part about it was Pat Beverley was
talking the talk and walking the walk. He was running
his mouth talking about first team defense. He was running
his mouth talking about he'd be up in Alonzo Ball's ass,
and he was right, and it was beautiful. Why don't
(09:27):
we try and take that out of sport. Granted, I
don't want it from high school kids and middle school
kids and my eight year old son. I don't want
him talking trash per se, and I definitely don't want talking.
But there's a difference team talking and talking talking trash.
And I felt like Pat Beverly walked that fine line
and aired on the side of talking trash as opposed
to taunting. But basketball, in its heart, that's what it's about.
(09:52):
It's a street game, it's a pickup game. It's an
I'm better than you, and I can lead my team
and I'm tougher than you, and yeah, I'm gonna talk
about it, but then I'm gonna show you. And Pat Beverley,
who had to start his career by going to the Ukraine,
comes back and then is part of a multiplayer deal
in which he's traded for Chris Paul and the Clippers
(10:13):
are left proverbial for dead, heard all that talk and
decided to talk back and walk it. Last night. That
was a thing of beauty, and what made it best
was the trash talk. Otherwise it's just the Clippers beating
the lake or something we've seen for the past couple
of years. Taking trash talk out of the NBA or
(10:35):
out of basketball is like taking fighting out of hockey.
It's like taking hard hits out of football. There's a
limit there. Like we don't need head shots. We don't
need you to count dudes out when you knock a
guy out in the NFL whe comes across the middle.
We don't need cheap shots in hockey. We don't need
you to sucker punch of guy. We don't need you
to slash him with his stick. But every once in
(10:57):
a while, a good fight has the purpose. Every once
in why, good brushback pitch below the neck, you know,
into the tushy, that has a purpose. And every once
in a while a good trash talking. Hey, dude, I
heard your daddy talking about you, about Steph currying about
this and about that. Guess what, Pat Beverley is here,
and Pat Beverly is gonna show you know what. Pat
(11:17):
Beverley was right. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three pm Eastern
noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app. Let's welcome in John Smoltz. Of course we'll
call tonight's Game six of the a LCS on Fox
Sports One. He joins us here on the Doug Gottlieb
(11:38):
Show on Fox Sports Radio. Small see, Um, how much
does momentum honestly play into this? Whereas you know the
Astros are up two games none, now they've lost the
last three, but you return home, he had a day off.
You've got justin Verlander on the hill. Is their carryover
from what happened in New York for the Houston Astros
and the Yankees, Ah, there would be. I think days
(12:00):
off always reset your next day. Starter is always a key.
If you're the Yankees, you wanted to play four in
a row. And that's what happens a lot in these series.
When it turns around on a dime like this, takes
one at bat, sometimes takes one moment. And for you know,
game six down three games to two, We've been in
(12:22):
no situation as a player and you just know forcing
a game seven is the only choice for the Astros
and what I've seen in the past. I just think
teams sometimes when they're up forget their up, they play
with a little bit more desperation, not wanting to get
to a game seven. There's a reason why the pressure
(12:44):
is all on Houston. And if the Yankees can play
their type of game and be fresh and not be
so consumed with the what ifs, I think they're fine.
But to answer your question, the day off kind of
resets it a little bit. Carlo's career didn't hit at
all in New York. What did they pitch him differently?
Do you think it was new it was New York,
it was Yankee Stadium. What do you think it was
(13:05):
about with Korea. Yeah, it's interesting because he's got great
numbers when he comes to New York, and he's had
good numbers against the Yankees. I thought the way they
poundered him in early made him very conscious of the
fastball in and then they had an opportunity to pitch
him away. Hitting and pitching are very contagious, and when
(13:26):
you get a couple of guys going in your lineup,
it feeds off of everybody. To me, if the Astros
have a chance to win this in they're just as
good a chance because they're a really good baseball team.
The top of their lineup has got to do something.
I mean, Reddick's gotta get going. Springers swing has gotten huge.
So what made the Astros really really good in the
(13:48):
regular season. They're getting away from it a little bit.
They're expanding the zone. They're swinging at pitch as they
normally wouldn't swing. Um, so how does that match up?
How does that matchup tonight with Servine? Know? Well, you know, um,
Severino has gotten better with each start. He was throwing
a lot of tights. Uh. I call it pressure sliders,
(14:12):
which means it's not the slider you want. It starts
looking like a cement mixer, and especially he showed that
in the first game, but he was so much more
relaxed in his next game. So I think for for
the Astros, they're going to have to hit a slider
or two. I mean, you don't typically go into a
game thinking about hit and sliders. You just don't want
(14:32):
to miss fastballs. But I think he throws so many
sliders that if you can recognize it and not expand away,
then you've got the advantage, especially at home Severino has
dur fastball at times, but he really is. His fastball
is like a show pitch. It's not what you would think.
(14:53):
His change up slider get thrown a lot more percentage
wise than his fastballs. To um. I look, I don't
want to get ahead of our else, but it is
very lander. So you have to wonder if they if
it goes seven, what do you think the Astros do
they just I mean, obviously you throw the kitchen sink
at that game, but but what do you think the
order is of what they do? Pitching wise? Yeah, that's
gonna be real interesting and tonight will go a long
(15:14):
way for that. But I I feel bad for Charlie
Morton because he pitched really well and his numbers are
gonna look not very good. I mean the three run
homer against Frasier after two soft hits and the swing
the Fraser took. Oh man, I mean, that's that's new
that's new Yankee Stadium, right, that doesn't go out of
That's new Yankee Stadium. Home run exactly, And I think that,
you know, you've got to have confidence that Charlie Morton
(15:38):
would be your guy. You'd also have the ability to
bring in the colors if you wanted to peacock. But
right now, the astro's pen from a competent standpoint is
not real high. No, that's that's That's the questions malty
is how does a J. Hinch ever take the ball
away from Justin Verlander? I mean, Verlander can go a
d T pitches anyway, but I mean there's no one
in their right mind would take the ball of his
(16:00):
hands an considering how little that bullpen has offered. Plus
it's Justin Verlander. Yeah, well, in a perfect world, he'd
love to get seven or eight, right eight? Maybe I
mean to get a pack back to back nine inning
game out of your your starter would be miraculous, especially today. Um,
I think Verlander, in all the effort that he had
last game, will come out rebbed up. But you have
(16:23):
to pitch this game with the motion as much as
in a neutral place as possible. You cannot get so
amped up. You gotta store up some of that energy
for later in the game like he did in game one.
So uh our game game two. Sorry. I think the
biggest thing for for a J Hens is he can't
(16:43):
afford multiple He's got to have a Formula three pitchers
are less. Three pitchers are less. Get some the w
and then they'll figure out what to do. In Game seven,
John's mult Joinius and the Doug Outlive show here on
Fox Sport Trade. Let's get let's get to the Dodgers.
They were impressive. I guess the I guess My only
big take a way is our question is do we
know yet? Like that was good for Kershaw to get
(17:04):
all that run support? Um, but you know the question
is what does he do when he doesn't get that
run support? Did we learn anything about Kershaw from this series? Yeah?
He's I mean I said three years ago, if you
give this guy seven eight starts, watch what happens. I mean,
he had trouble with one team. I think in the
last eight or nine starts, the team has won everyone
(17:26):
but one. And that's the key. I mean, when he's
on the mound. Yeah, he probably presses earlier in his
career to try to be superhuman, but this guy is
tough to hit, and the Dodgers know when he's on
the mound, there in a great, pretended great percentage to
win a baseball game. Look, the Dodgers are doing everything
that everyone forgot that made him great. You know when
(17:46):
they went through their kind of swoon and everyone thought
wrote off the Dodgers, they said, well, you know, Arizona's
probably could beat him. Uh, nobody thinks that way anymore.
Their lineup is unorthodox. It's not what you would look
at and go, yeah, I can see that kind of power.
Some of these guys have transformed their careers and they
had no Corey Seeger Uh, you know, no Adrian Gonzalez,
(18:09):
and yet this team basically finds ways to to to
beat you up at the right times and get some
big home runs. Of course, Justin Turner is their mp
P this year, so the Dodgers are complete. You don't
want to mess with their bullpen. You don't want to
mess with a close game late and it's gonna be
It's gonna be a great matchup no matter who they play,
(18:30):
because there's great storylines and great star power. Do you
expect to see a Game seven? I do? I do.
I thought it was going to be a Game seven
all the way through this series. That's how That's how
much I think of the Yankees and the and the
astros um as. One of a few people have thought
it would go to Game five after being o two
against the Indians. The Yankees have something special. Man. They
(18:52):
grind even when they look really, really bad. They're always
a swinger too away from betting right back in the
ball game. Uh. Joe Girardi and just the way he's
handled this ball club with the young players in the
mix of the veterans. This is a classic series. I
thought it would be with the Indians. It turned out
to be that way. I thought, definitely, I couldn't wait
to see this series. And uh, I would anticipate not
(19:14):
just because their home, but because of who's on the
mound and the fact that I think they're going to
score some runs. So um, I just I can't wait
for Game seven. I loved him as a player and
I love him as a broadcast. Couple of things that
post mordem Cubs lose after winning a World Series. Talent wise,
(19:34):
far and away the best team last year, and yet
they're pushed to seven this year. Really struggled out of
the game first half of the season, second of season,
best record in the National League, but it was never
really Kumbayya. Bullpen wasn't as good, starters weren't as good Chris,
but Bryan didn't hit at all in this in this series.
Um is last year. I remember when they won the
World Series, there's a lot of talking, Hey, this is
(19:55):
a team that could reel off a couple Now it
seems less likely, uh than than any any time in
the past two or three years. What's your sense of
what needs to change with the Cubs in order to
get them back on track. Well, you know, they hid
some things last year. They hit them well because they're
starting pitching was so dominant. Their offense was a feast
(20:16):
or famine. It looked good because they're they're starting pitching
was so good that all they did was add on.
It's a lot of easier to score and add on
than it is to constantly come back manufacturer runs. Uh.
The core players, young players have gotten a lot of experience.
I think they continue to get better. But their bullpen
is was something that Joe Madden did not have any
(20:38):
confidence in whatsoever. It seems like the Cubs the last
two years in the postseason played a short roster, meaning
it's twenty five guys, but you might as well have
been seventeen or sixteen. And I think that's one thing
moving forward, They're going to have to get more confidence
that they can know that the pen is not going
(20:58):
to be something that plays really short. They have pitching
issues coming up because they don't know if they're going
to sign Arietta and the Young Pictures are really young
in the farm system. So for what they put together
and how they did it, no one can argue the
blueprint and the success. But they're gonna need pitching and
more of it uh to to do exactly what you
(21:19):
said to have a longer run with this core players
that they have in their line. All right, you got
all the pitching in the world in Washington as far
as starters, right, Um, you know, yes, Rosburg, you got
Trzer to a lesser extent. Geo Gonzalez, I don't know
if you. I'm sure you're pretty well. Dusty Baker is
not being brought back. Is there a Is there a
guy that can fix it? Because everybody's tried, They've had
(21:41):
a bunch of different options to how to try and
get the Washington Nationals out of the Division around and
into the CS let alone into the World Series since
they moved back to d C. No one's been able
to do it. Is there is there one person who
is the right fit for that team. I thought Dusty
did a great job. I thought managing some of those
personalities and some of the things that comes with it,
(22:02):
I thought he did a magnificent job. Actually, um, it's
unfortunate that twice Game five in their building, the players
weren't able to be as good as they needed to be. Uh,
it wasn't a healthy brace Harper. Everybody knows that. I
don't know if there's a guy. I think once it builds,
the pressure builds to get something you haven't done versus
(22:24):
what you have done. I think franchises are in trouble
because it's so much emphasis on the negatives when there's
a lot of positives that came along with it. John
smill to check them out tonight along with Joe Buck
on the call. That's the a LCS Game six in Houston.
Pregame starts at seven Eastern, first pitches at eight. Of course,
(22:46):
Luisa um Sevrino taken on Justin Verlander in Houston Dome
is going to be closed. That's on FS one. It's Multy,
great stuff as always, thanks for joining us, Thanks for
having me. He's the best in the business. It's not
really close. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
(23:07):
Radio app. The Dodgers last night completely and thoroughly dismantled, dismantled,
the Chicago Cups dismantled. When don't you stop watching ramos? Oh,
I watched the whole game, but I knew it was
over in the third. The grand Slam that was. That
was the old proverbial dagger in the heart well seven
(23:29):
seven death in metric key k Hernandez hits a hits
a Grand Slam, and that thing was that was grabbed.
I have a couple of friends who flew out for
the game, and they were like leaving again because they're
going into the Notre Dame game as well. Notre Dame
SC lots of all the annoying SC football fans like,
oh'll fly in watch the Dodge Dodgers. Now, I'll go
spend some money in South Bed. That was over at
(23:50):
that point. But the Cubs are interesting now. Um, I
do think you have to You're better off if you
taste the pain, feel the pain before you taste the champagne.
And when you skip a step. Remember, the Cubs had
not gotten to the World Series and won the World
Series last year. And I don't know if it's because
(24:13):
they skipped the step of losing in the World Series
or it's they had too many young players. But they
remind me a little bit a little bit of the
Oklahoma City Thunder when they reached the finals against the
Miami Heat. Do you guys remember that, it was like
a surprise that they were there. It's like a year
early now. The Cubs were the best team in baseball
last year because their pitching was so good. Maybe they
(24:36):
remind me a little bit of the Dallas Cowboys, just
in that Cowboys last year. We're the best team in
football for most of the season. Now, they didn't get
to a Super Bowl. They lost in their first playoff
game at home. But there's something to getting to that
pinnacle and losing that. And I know that in the
(24:58):
Super Bowl, Babe, it's different because the Falcons went there
and we we go back and trace Carolina Panthers got there,
had a terrible season next year. Teams that lose in
the Super Bowl oftentimes struggle the next year. There's something
to this Cubs team where it felt like maybe they
skipped a step and we're too good, too soon, and
took it a little bit for granted, anybody else feel
(25:18):
that way. Here's Joe Madden after the game last night.
You know, being the team that went for the first
time on eight years was very difficult for a guys
just to get jump started in April. And may I
think that really is legitimate? I don't think it's I
don't think it's a stretch. I don't think it's uh
hyperbole in any way. It's true. It's just true. It's true.
(25:38):
It's just true. Um, I don't think it's hyperbole. I
also think the bullpen was less dependable, the starting pitching
was less dependable, and all of those guys that were
told how great they were became less dependable. But there
was something to remember in OH three, oh three. I
know it wasn't the World Series, but the way in
(25:59):
which the Red Sock is lost and the way in
which the Red Sox one seemed to embolden them. Now
they did not. They had a disappointing year after winning
the World Series in OH four. So some of this
is par for the course. And it doesn't mean you
can't recover. It doesn't mean you can't get back there.
And as bad as the Cups were to start the year,
they were the best team in the National League in
the second half of the year. But boy did they
(26:20):
have a terrible performance against the Dodgers. And remember the Dodgers.
This is not the Dodgers team that you thought you'd
have coming into the year. Chris Taylor was not on
the roster to start the year. Not on the roster.
They had to go out and trade for you, Darvish
(26:41):
h when they traded for Curtis Granderson, they got worse,
not better. So there is there's some kind of overthinking,
even on the Dodgers part, how good they are what
they needed at Be sure to catch live editions of
the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m.
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Video and the I
Heart Radio app. Just let's start with Alonzo ball. I
(27:05):
look Alonso. One of the things he one of his is, uh,
default settings. Default settings are like in a when you
play video games, you know, he said, like, oh, I
always want to when you play when I play Madden,
I always like like eight minutes for quarters, but the
default setting is like five minutes. The default setting is
usually like rookie for for skill level, it's just too
(27:26):
easy and too short and so over too quickly. Alonso's
default settings are when he brings the ball up like
he'll just pass it right away and not even like
not even think about it. And they've told him like, hey, man,
come down and don't be afraid to make a play
more often, like we brought you here to like. One
of the reasons NBA point guards put up such huge
(27:46):
numbers is they they try to make plays all the time,
like Russell Westbrook had a triple doubt because he held
out the ball so much. That's going back to last year.
By the way, speaking of Russ Westbrook, Oklahoma City did
look really good. It's just really hard to tell if
they're any good because they're playing the Knicks. The Knicks
are bad and the big the big thing with Carmelo
(28:09):
is when things are going good. No one has ever
argued that Carmelo Anthony is not a spectacular talent. And
I was really impressed by Russell Westbrook and his his
desire to to do kind of what Lonzo did, let
other guys play, set everybody up take much better shots,
something we hadn't seen from Russell Westbrook, even going back
to the Kevin Durant era. But when Melo goes bad
(28:31):
is when things are going bad, when adversity hits, and
you don't get adversity playing at home against the Knicks
in your home opener. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports radio dot com and within the
I Heart Radio app. Michael Lombardi has his own podcast.
It's awesome. You should download it. Um It's called GM Street.
(28:54):
Just download it, listen to it. There's so much good information.
I hope I'm sure give us some of that as
he joined us right now that GM Street part of
the bringer. He joins us here on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Let me let me start with the Chiefs. Look, I
didn't think they were as dominant as they had looked
the first five weeks of the season, but now they've
lost two games. How much concern would you have if
(29:16):
you were any read well? I think Andy Reid now
has the clues to the story, so he's already read
the end of the book. He can now work his
way backwards. Everybody's gonna play him in his own game.
I mean what Pittsburgh did, the way they had the
way they handled his offenses. Look, Andy Reid wants you
to play man to man against him, but he wants
you to fall for all the fakes. He wants you
to go through all the window dressings when you can
(29:38):
play zone. And the Raiders are not a really good
zone team whatsoever, but they played it last night because
it was a matter of survival and they had to
play it. And I think as he moves forward to
the season, he's gonna see teams play more and more zone.
They're gonna break on the quarterback shoulder. They're not gonna
look at the quarterback's head. They're gonna break on his
shoulder and go to the ball and let them drive
it down the field. Play good in the red zone,
(29:59):
but don't up the big place. Raiders, for some reason
decided they got board with playing zone. So they played
man a little bit last night, and next thing you know,
Tyreek Hills running in the end zone without a guy
around them. Okay, so to us lehman like, and I
thought Tony Romo did an excellent job of pointing out
that they were doing what Pittsburgh had done and playing zone.
Their zone blitz team. What's the weakness to the zone defenses? Well,
(30:21):
I think you know, look, when you're a zone team
the way they played it, they're only in a seven
man front, and in football, there's eight gaps you have
to defend. So when you play a seven man front,
you're a gap short somewhere, and you've got to be
able to compensate that by somebody has to play two gap.
That's an old turn back in Bill Belichick's New New
York Giant days. So you're gonna be a little sceptible.
If the quarterback sees two deep safeties back there, he
(30:44):
wants to run the ball, and I think that's what
the Chiefs are gonna start doing. You saw it early
in the game when Kareem Hunt broke off that nice run.
He read a lead play up inside. That's because they're
in a seven man front. When you get into an
eight man front, every GAP's accounted for. You can still
run the football, but every gap gaps accounted for. In
the seven man front. Somebody has the two gaps. Somebody
could get this place. So I think that's really what's
(31:06):
gonna happen. That the Chiefs are going to see a
lot more cover to a lot more Cover four, which
is too deep, too deep show. I think it's going
to be more of his own game as they go forward.
Michael Lombardi joining us on The Doug Gottlieb Show. It's
interesting how people start to figure out one another, start
to copy others game plans, what work, what didn't work,
which which brings me to something interesting with the Green
(31:28):
Bay Packers, like, we don't really Brett Huntley was obviously
not ready to play last weekend and they had him.
Minnesota had him confused a lot of exotics and he
didn't know where, he didn't know where to go with
the football. But now he's had a week prepare and
now the opposition doesn't have a book on him. What
do your expectations of Brett Hunley? Well, look, the Packers
average twenty four points with with the greatest quarterback, with
(31:50):
the best quarterback in the league, Aaron Rodgers, that they
were still there are thirty feet in the league in
sacks allowed. I mean Rogers was sacked nineteen times going
into that game. And so this offense has had a
score in the second half more than any other team
because they kind of build their momentum and Rogers gets going.
I think Hunley stepping into a tough situation because the
(32:10):
skill players around them. Jordy Nelson has average and under
twelve yards catch, Randall Cobbs under ten yards of catch.
I mean Aaron Jones, the UTEP running back, fifth round pick.
He's going to be the guy to carry the team.
They got to run the ball more. When Rogers was playing,
they were six pass in the first half. Run. You've
got to change that dynamic a little bit. I'm not
(32:32):
saying you need to feature the run, but you've gotta
get Brett Hunley out of throwing at forty times. He's
not going to carry the team on his back. The
other thing is you can't get behind in a game
like they could with Aaron Rodgers, and he led him
back and brought him back from the game. You've got
to be able to stay in front. That's the best
thing that could happen for Brett Hunley has played with
the league since then, he's gone to a lot of
quick game here. That's uh. When they when Bill Laser
(32:54):
took over his offensive coordineer, getting rid of the ball quickly,
get out the players in space and uh and and
you know, not go to the huddle, just kind of
line up so you so, so the other team could
not adjust their personnel groupings. Um, long term, will that
be as successful as it's been short term? Well, I
think look before, no disrespect to Ken sam PC, but
(33:14):
they were just running plays. They were truly a play beater,
which means they think you're gonna play cover two, so
they run a Cover two beater. They think you're playing
cover three, you run a Cover three beater. They were
just just a random team. That's what I call battleship football.
You ever played battleship K four hit G three miss?
You know? Okay, let's try G four. Let's try That's
what the That's what the Bengals were before. Now at
(33:37):
least they have a rhyme and reason what they're trying
to do. Their feature in Joe Mixon, who's the best
back on their team, Gianano Bernard. He can come in
and do a lot of good things for them, and
they've got to be real careful. When Andy Dalton gets
the ball down in the red zone, that becomes a
real problem because he tries to force the ball and
he's not accurate. He has more trouble against teams that
play zone like Pittsburgh because he has to be able
(33:58):
to stay the receiver and then break on the ball,
and it's not as easy for him to read as
when it's man to man. So I think they've done
a good job since the PC has left up he
establishing what they do offensively and be managing Andy Dalton.
Denver loses at home to the Giants, who don't have
any wide receivers, and we've seen Denver struggle on the
(34:18):
road before and and look, the Giants were able to
really run the football. I know they used some trap
plays and some different looks that I think Denver was
ready for to run the football. But the Giants tign
run the football this well, really since Ben McAdoo came
over from Green Bay. So so now they're going to
take on the Rams, who do have a good running attack.
Am I crazy to love the Rams this week? Against me?
(34:42):
To Mike crazy? They love the Chargers who have run
the football better last two weeks. Melvin Gordon has been better,
especially in the second half. Mike crazy to love the Chargers? No,
I mean, look, if you watch the first game, even
when Trevor Simeon was playing well in the first game
the Chargers, if they make the field go win the game.
I mean, the Chargers are playing better football than the
Broncos are right now. This Trevor Simeon is a really
a backup type quarterback who has to start. The Broncos
(35:04):
are without a quarterback and it's tough. Now. The Chargers
have been really bad against the run, and I think
what Denver is gonna try to come in here is
play the running game. Try to put pressure on Philip
Rivers forced him to move left and right, forced him
to have to move around the pocket and lock down
these receivers. Whether Michael Williams or Keenan Allen can escape
and play well, that remains to be seen. The Chargers
haven't played well at home. Denver should not be able
(35:27):
to beat the Charges at home. They should have all
the advantages. But for some reason, I just have a
hard time thinking the Charges are gonna win a close
game because the last the last couple of weeks they
have but most of the time they do. The Denver
to me is a quarterback short. I think John Elway
had doesn't have the answer at quarterback. Yet. It's not
Paxton Lynch, It's not Trevor Simeon and we know it's
not the heist and Broncoss No, I know right, I
(35:49):
mean you got they have when when when I saw
I saw a Paxton Lynch start in the preseason, I
was like, Nope, that ain't it. And they thought the
same thing. And they just thought they could have Simeon
kind of manage the game us and if he doesn't
lose it for us, the defense can win it for us.
I guess that was that was their thought. But we
saw that he definitely can't win it for and when
they got behind going back last week or how they
played when they were on the road previously. Michael Lombardi
(36:11):
joining us in the doug Otlip Show. You must download
his podcast It's called GM Street. Follow him on Twitter
at m Lombardi NFL. Let's go to the Patriots rematch
of the Super Bowl. Let's start. Let's start with Atlanta. Okay, Atlanta.
A lot of people have pointed to how different their offenses,
how different their play calling is. Um, do you think
(36:31):
that their issues are fixable? Look, I've said it before
the season started. No disrespect to see Sarkasia, but he
was never gonna be able to do what Kyle Shanahan
did and that Matt Ryan was gonna come back. Matt
Ryan's not playing poorly. Matt Ryan's just playing who Matt
Ryan is now. I think they have a little bit
of that hangover. Look, they've been outscored in the second
half seventy forty, Okay, so there is a problem. And
(36:52):
if you go back and look at the games, I
mean they held on to beat the Bears. Opening data,
Mike Lennon is throwing three balls into the end zone
and if he can on any of them, are gonna
lose that game. And then the Lions became an inch
short from beating him. So two of their wins have
just been by the hair of their chinny chin chin.
And I think that you look at this team, they
can't control the game like they did last year with
(37:13):
their offense. And Matt Ryan is effective. This average per
yard per attempt, which is the key stat for quarterbacks,
he was over nine four last year. He's now back
to his normal number. This is not a knock on
on Steve Sarcassian. He can still help that, he can
still move the team. The problem is he's just not
as talented as a creator offensively as Kyle Shanahan. And
(37:33):
the perfect example is this last year, in nineteen games,
Matt Ryan threw four interceptions on first down. So far
this year in just six games, he's already thrown three.
Michael Lombardi joining us. All right, what about the Patriots? Uh?
They they survived the Jets on that crazy call. Um,
They went down and beat the Buccaneers and made Jamis
(37:54):
look bad, although James just didn't play well, so it's
been better. They simplified some things defensively, playing a lot
more man, but that's not who they are, right. They
play man, they play zone. They change things up based
upon the team. They're very pragmatic in terms of their approach.
What give me your take as of today on the
New England Patriots. Look, I think the one thing that
(38:14):
I noticed about the Patriots is and and they've always
been able to control games with their offense, and so
far this year, other than the same games, they've not
been able to control the game with their offense. Their
four for fifteen on four point plays in the red zone.
Those are the third down plays in the red zone.
They can't score touchdowns. That's what if you take that,
that's eleven times they've been stopped. That's basically they lost
(38:36):
forty four potential points and if you add that into
what they've been able to do, if you add some
of those points in, they would have been able to
extend the lead. They're not playing well. This will be
a challenging game. They have to start Johnson Banamozi at corner.
They're gonna have to play mostly all zone in this game.
Don't think they're gonna have to be able to get
into a man to man game here because they just
don't match up across the board, whether it's Julio on
(38:57):
Malcolm Butler, whether it's you know, john Nathan Jones, you
know having a play in there. It's gonna be a challenge.
And I think when you look at this team, they
have not done a good job of controlling the game
of their offense. They've been bad on third and short,
they've been bad in the red zone, and they've been
bad giving up big plays down the field in Atlanta
makes a big plays. So this is gonna be one
of those situations where the Patriots. The last time they've
(39:20):
lost two games in the row at home was two
thousand and eight, and before that was two thousand and six.
If they lose here, this will be the first time
they've lost three in a row at home since you'd
have to go back to two thousand and one. Yeah,
that's just that's just absolute, absolute crazy stuff. Again, the
the the podcast. I listened to it. I download it.
You should too. It's called GM Street and download wherever
(39:41):
podcast Bill or you just go over the website the Ringer.
It's at Emma Lombardi, NFL. Michael, great stuff. As always,
thanks so much for your time.
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Doug Gottlieb
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