November 14, 2017 • 41 mins
Doug discusses the Cavaliers comeback against the Knicks and why NBA stars always step up when they play in Madison Square Garden. He explains why it's important to consider context when talking about Panthers QB Cam Newton and where he ranks among NFL quarterbacks. And Saints WR Michael Thomas joins the show and tells Doug he thinks the NFC South is the best division in the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Doug gott Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. What Up? It's Dog Gotlip Show,
Fox Sports Radio, Live and direct from the City of Angels.
Welcome in Man, We got a good show for you.
Michael Thomas will join us next hour. He's a wide
receiver for the Saints. Who would have thought that the
Saints would go from Owen two to seven? And to
(00:23):
Brian Billick from the NFL Network will join us in
the third and final hour of the show, and we'll
try and make heads or tails of this league. It's
we know which team stink um, We know which teams
are pretty good, but who's really really good? Heart kind
of hard to tell? Uh, And upcoming in fifteen minutes,
speaking of stank, Mark Schlareth will join us. He of
(00:46):
course of NFL on Fox Fame. It is the Doug
Gottlieb Show. This is Fox Sports Radio and uh, last
night we had there's there is something different about New York? Right?
Does she is something different about the garden? I can't
really explain. It has the it's what the French call
(01:07):
of certain geness a qua right, it's the I don't
know what, but when there's a big event at Madison
Square Garden, and even when there's a mid size event
at Madison Square Garden, it's made to feel bigger. It's
true if you went to Manhattan and you asked New
Yorkers to draw a picture of the Earth or maybe
(01:30):
of the universe, they would have things revolving around that
island of Manhattan. It's very true. But there is at
least that perception does have some part of reality. Things
are made bigger, things are made bigger UM And when
Lebron came into New York, there was the discussion which
(01:51):
we went through yesterday, of him taking shots at Phil Jackson,
even though some of his own uh decisions with his
management team in terms of who they wanted to go
after for the Calves who he liked as NBA draft prospects.
Some of that gets kind of lost in the wash
because Phil Jackson isn't here to defend himself. And Phil
(02:13):
Jackson obviously there's a lot of negative connotation based upon
how his tenure went while trying to run the New
York Knicks. But ultimately there's a game to be played,
and Lebron James let a miraculous come back after some
early UM it wasn't fisticuffs, It wasn't a donny Brook
(02:33):
It we was more of a kerfuffle. Ryan gets into
it with Ennis Cantor. He leads them on a furious
comeback which they outscored the next by twenty points in
the fourth quarter to steal a road win in which
they really played disinterested basketball at times, um un enthused
defense at times in the first half, they were getting
embarrassed only two at the as fourth quarters happened in
(02:56):
the NBA games always tied and your best player makes
play is Lebron showed why he's Lebron. So look, there's
the historic nature of it. One being New York, to
being a place that once upon a time people thought
they could lure Lebron to Three, the the idea that
Phil Jackson ruffled his feathers talking about his posse, which
was in fact accurate, and people wanted to put a
(03:19):
ratio connotation to a word which everyone knows the meaning
has nothing to do with race. And then, of course
there's the idea that, look, this is what Jordan used
to do. Jordan would always kill the Knicks. This is
what Kobe would do every time he would come into
the garden. He would always kill the Knicks, and now
this is what Lebron James has taken upon himself to do,
(03:42):
kill the Knicks, specifically in the fourth quarter. Here's an
as Cantor on Lebron. We fight really hard, we play
with a lot of energy. But I'll tell you one thing.
This team is really special. And you ain't coming from
my house playing that. A water bottle flip came and game,
you know what I mean. I don't care who you are, King,
what do you call yourself, King, Quinn, Princess, whatever you are.
(04:04):
You know what. We're gonna fight and nobody out there're
gonna punk us. So we're just going out there player
game and I think we're just gonna get better and
better every day. And his Cantor going full w W E.
I don't know what your nickname is. But he was
bringing up the fact that last year the Knicks were
playing the water bottle Flip challenge on the bench during
(04:26):
a game because they, like the rest of America, had
completely lost interest in the New York Knickerbockers. Intentional disrespect
from Lebron, somehow gets that doesn't get discussed as opposed
to the fact that uh, dis intentional disrespect from and
his cantor we'll get discussed. Here's Lebron James context it
(04:46):
and I want to quod you can call yourself king quinces?
What what is it saying a game you can call
yourself king, coin princess. You're not gonna punk us? Well,
I'm the king, my wife is the queen, and my
daughter is the princess. So we got all three covers.
It's good, good response. When Lebron says he's the king,
(05:09):
it's because that actually is his nickname. Everyone calls their
wife the queen, and of course the daughter being the princess,
quick witted and incredibly talented. But how is it? How
how is it that Lebron uh carries no burden of
the fame and of the power that he likes to wield.
(05:32):
Let me think about it, Like the calves were disinterested?
Why right? That's that is a snapshot of your best player.
And while Lebron was worth the price of admission, and
so oftentimes he is the fact that he cannot motivate
his other elderly teammates to bring upon themselves to perform
(05:53):
every night like and look you can say, hey man,
so Tuesday night Milwaukee, it's a Wednesday nights. I'm Monday
night in New York, and sometimes we just don't have it.
That's the job. That's the job. So oftentimes professional athletes
think they get paid simply to win championships are compete
in the playoffs. But it's not. I mean, it's look,
(06:15):
that's what Adam still. That's why Adam Silver lengthened the season.
That's why they set in place the punishment for guys
skipping games and for tanking. They've tried to adjust because
because America One is not dumb. Secondly, the TV partners
Turner and ESPN, what they didn't pay for the playoffs,
(06:37):
the payoff is in the volume of quality competition the
regular season and what was a very very entertaining comeback
and fourth quarter win and Lebronics showing his utter and sheer,
dominance and confidence and swag. Um. I don't know. At
some point does this act run tired, to which to
which he is capable of taking shots at whomever he wants.
(07:04):
His team sometimes plays and sometimes doesn't, and when he
comes through he be key is he is the king
and no one will challenge it. On the other hand,
like look, dude, you're if you want to carry the
burden of being called the king, you can't simply be
the king when you want to. But it's part. It's
(07:24):
part of the part of the part that everybody thinks
about being president, right, Like anybody can be president during
the White House state dinners. Anybody can be president when
you have to give these big speeches. But on a
on a Tuesday, when you've gotta make you have to
have cabinet meetings all morning and meet with senators and
(07:47):
people from the House of Representatives, and then foreign dignitaries
of countries which carry absolutely no weight at all, like, ah,
I don't want to meet with Luxembourg. But you know what,
this part the job, man, it's part of the job.
If you can figure out a way to which once
a week you show up and you play, that'd be great.
(08:10):
And just show for the playoffs, that'd be great. But
the reality of it is, Turner and ESPN paid for
the rights to all eighty two of your regular season
games because you're a volume producer, right, That's why you
have value. That's why Major League Baseball players make so
much money. It's because they're playing a hundred and twenty
forty and sixty games a year. That's why their their
(08:33):
product is so valuable. So like, look, I'm not saying
Lebron is the worst human being on earth. He's a
great basketball player. But the pettiness over taking shots at
people who point out some of his flaws or some
of the things that he does that rub people the
wrong way, and the idea that nobody can get in
his face and talk a little trash to him, that
(08:55):
he is beyond approach, and this idea that this calvs
Team will play when they want to play, and when
they don't want to play, you're just gonna have to
deal with it. It does grow a little tiresome and
it gets overwhelmed because that fourth quarter was worth the
way that fourth quarter was Lebron James, that fourth quarter
is what separates him from the mortal man. Be sure
(09:18):
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
three time Super Bowl champion NFL. We're working on NFL
and Fox analyst Mark Slayers, I'm I'm fascinated by this
Giants in fighting thing, like, is it really as bad
as it's perceived, or is it simply somebody doesn't like
(09:41):
Ben McAdoo or a couple of somebody's don't like Ben
McAdoo and they're the ones leading it to the media,
which makes it seem like everybody doesn't like Ben McAdoo.
All right, let's welcome in stink uh stink. Following some
of this Giant stuff on social media, apparently guys like
Acts have come out and said like, hey, you know,
(10:02):
we gotta keep this stuff in the house. Is it
your uh? Do you think that the perception that the
Giants are a complete mess and in complete revolt of
Ben McAdoo is accurate or is it simply kind of
the echo chamber of of a couple of players who
are disgruntled and they've gone to the media and made
(10:22):
it seem a lot worse than it actually is. Well,
I think any time that it gets to the point
where it's out in the media, then it's legitimate. Where
there's smoke, there's fire, and now there maybe some guys
that are fine with Ben McAdoo. Losing is always hard,
and you know, when you're actually winning and you're doing
some of those things you will even you know, put
up or listen to put up with, or listen to
(10:43):
a guy that maybe you don't really care for, but
at least you respect. And I talked about this with
you and several other programs here on f S one
and on the radio about just when you start talking
about your quarterback nots taking care of the clock and
seeing a you know, a fourth down opportunity and burning
time outs, and you talk about your football team in public,
(11:07):
that's the first thing, the first indicator that people are
not going to do well with that particular head coach.
You can rip me, you can rip me in front
of a team meeting. You can, I mean absolutely splay
me out. And I know that there's a lot of
great coaches that do that, and you're fine with it
behind closed doors. But to go in front at your
(11:27):
press conference of the media and talk about your quarterback
not managing the clockwell enough, those things are just unacceptable.
And players that will irritate a player like like nothing
else will irritate a players. So I think there's definitely
definite issues there. I don't think there's any question about it.
I'm not saying that every guy has an issue with him,
(11:49):
but there's certainly things going on there behind the scenes
that that don't bode well for his existence within that
organization for very much longer. You saw a team this
past weekend, you call in the game the Bengals versus
the Titans, Mark Layer joining us. You can see him
called games NFL on Fox. UM and and so the Titans,
they win the game. They run their record to six
(12:10):
and three now, and part of it is outside of
Marcus Mariota. UM, I'm not sure how many people could
name a single defensive player on the Tennessee Titans. Maybe
it's name recognition, maybe it's some of the uneven performances,
wins and losses, and some of that. Of course, Mariota
(12:30):
wasn't healthy, so that obviously is going to hurt your
ability to compete. But I'm i'm, I'm kind of at
a loss with a bunch of these teams that are
right in that, even the Panthers who we saw last night.
Let's just start with the Titans, because when you watch
a game, call a game, you prepare unlike anybody else. Um,
are they actually are they an elite team? Or have
(12:50):
they just had a better than average like have they
just been better, slightly better than enough teams to have
this record. Yeah, I think right now they're slightly better.
There's a couple of fatal flaws. They don't have an
edge pass rusher. They don't have a war Daddy. Off
the edge, they can beat any left tackle or any
right tackles. So when you play the Tennessee Titans, you're
(13:12):
not concerned about going five one on ones across the
board if you need to. They've got good players, but
they don't have what I would consider elite players, especially
elite edge players. So that's a big issue for them
right now. And um, like I said, you're just not
worried when you break a huddle. You know, the one
(13:33):
thing that you have to do when you play a
team that has those real legitimate rushers is you've got
to have a plan to contend for those guys, and
right now Tennessee doesn't have that. The other thing that
that is going to make it tough for them going
forward is they legitimately have to play five on eleven
on excuse me, eleven on eleven football on the offensive side,
(13:54):
meaning their quarterback has to be involved. He just has
to be involved in the running game. And what you
saw in the first half of that game is this
incredibly dynamic offense with guys and two tight informations, guys
motioning different angles, wham blocking people getting on the edge
(14:15):
with option using a Dory Jackson, an outstanding young cornerback
out of USC on the offensive side of the ball,
and in the first drive of the game, Mariota fake
pitches to a Dory Jackson, takes it up outside and
gets about twenty plus thirty yards rushing on one play.
And it's a dynamic play. And they drove right down
(14:35):
the field doing those things and it's really exciting. And
then all of a sudden the third quarter they run
the same exact play and instead of holding it, he
pitches it to a Dory Jackson, and at that particular
point in time, Adam Jones, the cornerback, tried to break
his hip. And that's how you stop that type of
running game. It's the same thing that they're doing in
(14:56):
Carolina with Cam Newton, and it's why we always look
at these spread quarters backs who run the ball and
you say it's not a sustainable form of offense. And
I tip my cap to the Cincinnati Bengals that said
we're gonna give up the thirteen yard run to a
Dori Jackson on the pitch. Don't try to surf play
this because that that garbage doesn't work. What we're gonna
do is go try to knock that quarterback out of
(15:17):
the game. And it's brutal, and you know, those are
the things we talk about in the NFL, and if
you don't like to hear it, then plug years. But
they said, go try to knock him out of the game.
And Adam Jones actually knocked himself out of the game.
He gave himself a concussion. But you saw all of
a sudden them going to this four corners, four minute
offense with about eight minutes in the third quarter. They're like,
(15:37):
oh lord, we can't continue to do this because our
quarterback is gonna get massacred. And and that's really for
me what that football team is all about. They have
to Doug, they have to have their quarterback involved in
the running game to be dynamic as an offense and
open up their play action. And when they took that away,
they became a very average at best, maybe below average.
(16:01):
That's that's fascinating. Mark Slayer's joining us on the Dug
gold Show. It's interesting because people used to do that
to Russell Wilson. They used to run, you know, some
some of that zone read stuff early in his career,
and then you know, defensive ends would just, hey, just
go and crush Russell Wilson even after he handled the
ball off, because he becomes eligible to be pummeled, even
(16:21):
after he handles the ball off, unlike after you throw
the football. And that stops some of that for a while,
though teams have kind of dialed it back some. Um.
The Titans are taken on the Steelers. They're another team
who they fall behind seventeen to three to the Colts. Uh,
they actually have a negative turnover margin on the year,
only playoff team as of now that would have a negative.
(16:43):
And there are another team to which you're like, I
really want to think that Pittsburgh is really good because
they have the names that I recognize, and they have
the helmets and the uniforms that I recognize. But I
just I have a tough time buying in the fact
that from start of the year struggling with the Browns
to last game I saw them struggling with the Cults.
Why aren't they better? More dominant. Haven't scored thirty points
(17:04):
this year? Help me outstink. This is a team that
right now is on pace to compete for the best
record in the a f C. And I have a
tough time wondering how good they actually are. Yeah, and
it's the lack of consistency, isn't it. I mean, you
watch them in one week, You're like, Wow, they look
really good. They seem to play somewhat to the level
of their competition. And you know, I think that's I
(17:28):
think they're good enough and mature enough to be able
to do I've always hated that, but you know, I
think that's what they do. I mean, you'll see them
all of a sudden roll out to you know, Kansas City,
when Kansas City is rolling and thump them. They've got
really good defensive players. They've made the requisite changes on
the defense, going after Joe Hayden, getting him in the fold.
(17:50):
They have become much better. Shazier is as long as
that guy is healthy. You mean, that dude's got rocket
pack strapped to his back. He's flying all over the place,
he's making plays. So they're legit. What has been great
for them off the edges of rookie, So they really
are good. I just think that they have this attitude of,
you know what, we can show up and we can
(18:11):
play because that's who we are. And they've got enough
talent all over the football field to make those things happen,
you know. And I do think it's it's pretty impressive
when you can play really poorly and then be able
to flip the switch late and go all right, let's
just run this thing back and let's get let's get
the heck out of Dodge. So um, I'm with you.
I would rather you go out and just handle every opponent.
(18:34):
But they're a team that I think is really confident
in what they have and who they are. And I
think when you know the rubber meets the road opportunities,
you'll see them show up and show up in a
big way against the really good opponents. All right, So
help me out with Carolina. I don't think the Dolphins
are a great opponent, but they they throttled them. Now
they have the week off, then they get the Jets
(18:55):
on the road before their schedule cranks up. What's your
opinion of the Carolina others today? Well, Mike, I think
defensively last year you know, they made all those changes,
they got ready Josh Norman, they had a bunch of
young defensive backs. I think they're maturing UM. As long
as Thomas and Quickly stay healthy, I think they're a
really good team UM on the defensive side of the ball.
(19:17):
And then it comes down to Cam Newton. That comes
down to the maturity of Cam Newton. It comes down
to the balance of that offense and keeping enough run
and keeping enough of the things in the quarterback the
designed to be run. When you have that that it
opens up not only the running backs, but it opens
up your offense. It opens up probably anytime you have
all that read zone run stuff, there's a bunch of
(19:40):
one uh one route or one receiver throws that you're making.
So you basically are showing that run, your sucking safeties up,
your sucking linebackers up, and you've got one read in
your progression. And so it becomes you know, eight eight
to nine, I mean automatic completions a game, and it
(20:00):
just makes it really tough. But the issue being is,
like I said, it's a it's an unsustainable form of offense.
And can you make a run with your quarterback putting
him in Harm's way on a consistent basis like that
um and survive, and that's the dangerous game you play
with that particular style of offense. But I think it's
the only style of offense that Cam will thrive in
(20:22):
because I just don't think that he is a good
enough pocket passer to have him drop back thirty times
a game and win a game for you that way.
He can throw it thirty times a game as long
as you've got enough play action, enough quarterback designed run
and all the things that I talked about with the
eight to tend completions a game, with the one read routes,
and and then he's really he's outstanding in that stuff.
(20:46):
In that former offense. Man, he's one of the best
players in this game. But again, you have to be
willing to put him in Harm's way, and and that's
what scares teams about, you know, about having that style
of quarterback. Three times Super Bowl champion my Slayer joining
us in the Doug Gottlib Show. You're an outstanding offensive lineman.
You were with two of the best offensive line groups,
the Hogs of course the Denver Broncos. In your ability
(21:08):
to produce thousand yard rusher after a thousand yard rusher,
after a thousand yard rusher while protecting UH, the great
John Elway. UH is going to go down in history.
There's two of the best offensive line groups. The Cowboys
are in that discussion. On the other hand, this past weekend,
they don't have Tyrn Smith, arguably their best player, one
of the most athletic players at the left tackle position
we've seen. Chads Green replaces him, and it was a disaster.
(21:31):
I guess my question is to take us to what
the reality is. How much of that is on Chaz Green,
how much of it is on doc how much of
it is on the play calling in terms of the
fact that they struggled all night long because one guy
wasn't capable of blocking the guy across room. Yeah, I mean,
I listen all of that, All those things are true,
(21:53):
and everybody's got a certain amount of of blame there.
But I look at a coaching half, like, is it
the kid's fault that he can't block Adrian Claybourne, or
is it the coach's fault for not not understanding that? Like,
at what point did you think he was gonna all
of a sudden learn how to block the guy was
(22:13):
it after the second stack or the third sack, or
the fourth sack, or the fifth sack or the sixth stack. Apparently,
I'm like, maybe I was thinking this as as that
game was going down. I was actually in Nashville's airport
watching that the blockle and I started thinking to myself,
is Tyrone Smith the m v P at the National
Football League? Because apparently their coaching staff only knows how
(22:36):
to block their left tackle one on one. They don't
have a slide, they don't have a chip protection, they
don't have a tight end protection. You know, they don't
get multiple guys over there, pull a guy in a
waggle pass and have a guard over their protects outside edge.
Apparently they just leave their tackle, their left tackle one
on one the entire game and they don't ever adjust.
In My body was like, really, I mean, is that
(23:00):
his fault or is that your fault for being stupid
coaches and not actually getting him the help that he needs?
And you know, I mean, it would be like saying, hey, hey, Dougie,
you know we none on outstanding point guard in your
days of college basketball, but guess what today We're gonna
have you play center against Patrick Ewing just because you know,
(23:21):
we think we like that matchup and you get thumped
inside and they're like, wow, Doug gottilieve, he really sucks. Yeah,
you do at center, you know what I mean? Just like,
at some point you gotta help a guy, right, you do.
That's that's what I was saying when I was watching.
But you know a lot more about it. So I'm
I'm glad that that your opinion locks in with mine. Hey,
great job calling the game. It was an outstanding watch. Um,
(23:45):
you know there's a lot of games being called. You
guys were just all over it that Bengals Titans game.
What do you got this weekend? Uh? This weekend? I'm
Tampa at Miami this weekend, Tampa at Miami, Miami on
a short week and Tampa, of course you need to win.
The talk of Jon Gruden taking over there we'll get
too later on the show. In the meantime, staying, great stuff,
safe travels, and thanks for joining us. All right. That's
(24:08):
Mark Schlaire at 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. Is Cam Newton, a great quarterback and
elite quarterback. No is he a terrible quarterback? No, Kim
Newton is. And I we get this all the time.
(24:31):
He's inconsistent. No, he's not. He's consistently inconsistent, is what
he is. Like. You have to contextualize he has in
some of the attributes for what should be not just
a great quarterback, but an all time great quarterback. Right
Like John Elway had a great arm, Cam Newton his
(24:54):
arm might be better. John Elway was really athletic. Kim
Newton might be more athletic. On Elway was big, Kim
Newton might be bigger. But you would never put John
Elway and Cam Newton in the same sentence because there's
this erratic nature to many of his throws. There's this
inability to be a more of a pure pocket passer,
(25:17):
which puts him in harm's way, which causes them to
seemingly always get hurt or hit really hard. Combine that,
combined the inaccuracy at times, the decision making that's flawed
at times, with a propensity to get hit and hit
hard and occasionally hurt, and Kim Newton is not inconsistent.
(25:37):
When when when we have five years at least of
data to show that you're a below six passer. We
have five years at least of data to show that
some games are good, in some games you're not. Sometimes
you're accurate, and sometimes you're not. That inconsistency, when it
plays out over a long period of time, is actually
a consistency. But it's important to say that while I'm
(26:01):
calling him consistently inconsistent, I'm not calling him terrible like
you do. See the difference there, there's thirty starting quarterback
thirty two starting quarterbacks in the entire world. Correct, thirty
two starting quarterbacks. There's thirty two starting quarterbacks. I do
not believe him to be a top five or top
ten quarterback in the world. I believe him to be
(26:21):
somewhere in the UH fifteen to eighteen range, maybe at
at his peak as high as twelve, but probably as
low as as low as twenty, but somewhere right there
in mediocre, ordinary, average, middling, middle door. It all takes context, though,
right there's thirty two people on Earth that are starting quarterbacks,
(26:44):
so you're already in an exceptional class. Now of that
exceptional class, he's average, he's middle of the road. He's inconsistent. Consistently,
which doesn't allow him to be viewed in near He
has loving a fashion as an Aaron Rodgers and Tom
Brady and Drew Brees, even a Matt Ryan or or
(27:06):
some other quarterbacks, and you can slide Matt Ryan into
the mediocre at times division as well. The point is
that context is everything everything, And so when you say
I think he's mediocre, one, I don't think people actually
know what the word mediocre means. They take mediocre to
have a negative connotation when it's not necessarily positive. It's
(27:29):
not necessarily negative. And if when you call him a
mediocre starting quarterback in the NFL, you have to start
with the premise that to be a starting quarterback in
the NFL you have to be exceptional, that all exceptional.
It may not feel like j Color may not feel exceptional.
He may be a bottom five quarterback starting quarterback right
now in the NFL in spite of his armed talent. Uh,
(27:51):
but he would kill to be called a mediocre quarterback.
But he's still one of the only one of the
thirty two men on Earth who gets to say hud
hut hike uh in the first quarter for his team.
So is that I just I want to be fair
and contextualize the Cam Newton thing. I don't think he's great.
(28:11):
I'm not even sure if he's I don't think he's
very good. He can be very good at times, he
can be very poor at times. He's right there in
the middle, a guy who he has way more talent
than Matt Ryan, if you call talent throwing a football
and running with a football. He can do some things
Matt Ryan simply can't do. But because there is such
(28:34):
wild inconsistencies with his accuracy, with his ability to read
a defense, it will forever limit his ability for that
god given talent and that honed talent from hard work
to come out anyway. When they lost to the Saints,
he didn't have a touchdown. He had three interceptions. When
they lost to the Eagles, he had one touchdown, three interceptions.
(28:55):
They lost to the Bears, no touchdowns, two interceptions, one
fumble loss. Remember they when they beat the Bills three
He had no touchdowns, no interceptions. This is a really
good defensive team. He's their best running back. He can
throw the football. He's fine. The idea that he's gonna
sol he's gonna single handedly win you a super Bowl. No,
(29:18):
he could lose it for you. He's shown that he
can get there, but he needs a ton of help.
He is the epitome. He doesn't look like it because
he's six ft seven freak athlete who can throw the
football really really hard and at times accurately deep down
the field, but at times inaccurate. And that athleticism doesn't
benefit you nearly as much at that position based upon
(29:40):
how they can hit you and how strong and fast
everybody else is. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Doug gott Leaps Show weekdays at three pm Eastern
noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app. In this case, but let's from Colin Calharda
to say, Lakers beat the Sun's last night on the road.
(30:00):
Suns come into Staples, I think Friday night. Tomorrow night
they play the seventies Sixers. Robert Covington from the seventy
sixers will join us to the top of next hour,
so about ten minutes away, Robert Covington will join us.
But look, Alonzo Ball did not play much in the
fourth quarter that because Jordan's Clarks had just had a
(30:20):
humming last night, and many people have pointed out how
poorly Alonzo Ball has shot the basketball. Collin Collin, Colin,
Colin Cowards Nott concerned. Here's why who thought a Lonzo
was a great shooter? He averaged fifteen in college. He's
averaging nine and a half in his first month in
the NBA. Aren't the Lakers trying to attract scorers? That's
(30:41):
why they drafted a Lonzo Ball. It was part of
the plan to attract scores, scorings, gravy. He was seen
as a passer, a vision guy, and fun to play
with and a culture changer. And we look at all
these point guards over the last eight to ten years,
John Wall, Westbrook, Steph harden Iree, and we think point
guards have to be great scores. Now they don't. No,
(31:05):
they don't. If Lebron and Paul George are watching and
coming to Los Angeles, and then you include Kyle Kuzma
who can shoot, and Brook Lopez who can shoot, and
Brandon Ingram who could shoot, and of course Paul and
Lebron could shoot, would you really want Lonzo Ball shooting? Um,
(31:25):
this is a little bit more complex than Colin is
letting on. It's fair to point out that Lonzo balls,
uh a joint in the bottom ten of FIODO. Lonzo
Ball is not shooting poorly, he is the worst shooter
in the NBA percentage wise. They repeat that he is
the worst shooter in the NBA percentage wise by a
(31:46):
healthy margin, by three percentage points. Of course, justin Holiday,
who's a shooting guard shooting that's not a great way
to be a shooting guard. On that list as well though,
in terms of poor shooting point guards, Ricky Rubio at
thirty seven percent, Mike Conley, who is the second or
third highest paid player in the NBA this year at
(32:06):
thirty eight percent, Austin Rivers, Darin Fox, another rookie, is
only shooting thirty a Lonzo Ball shooting thirty one percent
from field. The point is this, that that being a
great shooter is not a prerequisite for what he how
he wants to play. Here's the real problem, though, A
Lonzo Ball shooting a poor percentage, but a lot of
(32:28):
it is miss layups, and while others are shooting maybe
not equally poorly, but poorly as well, Alonzo is not
athletic enough to make plays. So he has to prove
that what what Colin I think doesn't understand is he
is a magnificent pastor. He was brought in for your passing.
But unless you can make somebody other than your man
(32:50):
who's guarding you help, what's the point. What is the
point of being a great pastor? There aren't openings to
make all of the passes he wants to make. Additionally,
like look, he's super super passive. Was again last night
where he looked a little bit rattled going up against
(33:10):
the Phoenix Suns. And so he's not wrong. He was
not brought into average game. He was not brought into
lead league in scoring to take thirty shots. But the
reason he's taking so many shots is twofold one. His
coaches are telling him to be aggressive, but the real
reason is they know he needs to be aggressive otherwise
nobody's gonna guard him, and nobody's gonna help on him.
(33:31):
And if they don't guard him to help on or
help on him, no one else is open. So his
gifts are passing are kind of mood. It is a
big problem, and it is a disappointment. It's still very early,
but considering the number and the volume of opportunities he's
gotten both on the floor and at the basket in
(33:52):
addition to shooting jump shots. It's been disappointing this far.
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
quietly becoming one of the top young wide receivers in
the game. Michael Thomas of the resurgent New Orleans Saints
John's is on the Doug Gotlip Show. How are you?
(34:14):
I'm doing great. Appreciate you guys having me on. You
were you were owing to people like myself left you
guys for dead. There was some dysfunction with a d
wanting more touches and there's lots of Here we go again,
another disappointing year in New Orleans. Was there a team meeting?
Was there something said what led to this dramatic turnaround
(34:35):
in NOLA? Um, you know we didn't get off to
start we had expected. Um, but we know that throughout
the course of the season NFL, you know you're gonna
be You're gonna face some type of adversity, you know,
But it's all about climbing out of that and stacking
the winds. And I feel like once we got on
the row, once we started stacking up the winds from
(34:56):
after that on to start, I think the guys are
starting to like the selling up winning games around here,
and um, realizing that we have the tools to do
that and win a lot of games here. So so
like we just the momentum hit and we just kept
building it. Look, you guys are running the ball, You're
throwing short, efficient passes, you're turning up clocks on drives,
like this is a very Unsaints like style of offense. Uh,
(35:20):
take me through the evolution. Was this was this the thought?
Was this the kind of game plan coming into the season,
that this is what it would look like? Or was
there a change in the play calling after the early struggles. Um,
we're just simply doing we have to do to win games,
and UM closed out games. Last year, we're in a
lot of close games you know that could have went
either way. We finished a couple of them, we didn't
(35:40):
finish a couple of them. And now this year, you know,
we want to take advantage of those situations and and
try to try to not be in those situations where
we have a close game anymore. So we're managing the
game cultimately, We're just doing our job and guys are
doing their job when the number is called and making
the plays when they have the opportunity or when they
present themselves. It feels like Sean Payton is any ways
to create mismatches. You know, there's there's times I've I've
(36:03):
seen linebackers covering you. I've seen him move you all over. Um,
what's what's the sense you get of how he's been
able to kind of create different openings for you, uh,
to to get you more opportunities than you had previously
been getting. Um, you know, I appreciate him and haven't
trusted me to be able to move me around. Um.
We have a lot of talent on the offensive side
(36:25):
of the ball. I feel like guys that can make
plays at any point in the game, and just you know,
when your numbers call it, you have to you have
to make that play. You know. Coach Baydon is a
genius when it comes to you know, calling up calling
plays and you know, um moving the ball on offense.
So if if he called the play and that Andrew
reads it in the huddle, you and it's your play.
(36:47):
You have to kind of rise to the occasion and
take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself, and
that's out to me what I'm doing. Michael Thomas, who
if you read the New Orleans Advocate that the headline
is accurate, quietly turning into the one of the NFL's
best receiving seasons after his first one yard game. Um,
what about you? I mean, like, look, kind of the
untold tale professional athletes is confidence, right, Like, You're not
(37:10):
gonna be able to accomplish anything unless you believe in yourself.
But it doesn't it doesn't feel like you've gotten arrogant
or your teammates have gotten arrogant with your success. How
do you maintain the balance of having confidence and not
having arrogance? Um? You know, when you've been doing it
for a long time and you've been you you stay
it's all about consistent and staying consistent. How consistent can
(37:32):
you be? And then once you reach a certain level,
how do you top that? How do you match that?
How do you take it to another level? You know?
How can you create big plays with the opportunities to
get it? And that doesn't mean what I've been doing,
Just trying to say, as consistent as possible, but always
add something else to my game, Always take it a
step further, always do something someone might have not seen
(37:53):
me do yet or unexpected. But ultimately, I've been I've
been making those type of I've been making as you know,
and practice. It all starts during a week preparation, and
then on Sundays. You only have a handful of plays
that get called, So when they get called, you wanna
you want to be able to make those plays and
make it feel just like that practice ultimately, so that's
what I've been doing. I've just been, uh, I grind
(38:16):
it out and during the week, and then I try
to when the plays called on Sundays, I try to
make the most out of it on a big stage. Yeah,
well's look, it's been obvious to anybody who's been paying attention.
What's maybe most interesting is you guys got up to
a slugger start. Carolina had lost those couple of games
in a row. They're back at seven and three. Atlanta
kind of got off to an uneven start there at
five and four. Like we all thought the division would
(38:36):
be really good. Tampa's the only team that has not
turned in the performances that I think people thought. And
of course I know you you guys, just you guys
got done thumping them, going back to last week at
the Dome. UM, but it's weird because we all had
great expectations of the NFC South then because maybe if
you're starting some in Carolina start we lessen those and
now you turn around, look and you've got three legitimate
(38:58):
playoff contender teams. UM, give me your since you watched
Carolina last night, you watched Atlanta last night, to feel
to you like kind of like you guys have figured
out what you have to win games. They've done the same. UM.
I feel like and I felt like this since I
got drafted by Saints and playing this league last year
and playing in our division, our division has to be
(39:20):
the top division in NFL. If you look at it
across the board, it's a lot of talent, it's a
lot of youth that's playing at a high level, and
I feel like there's a lot of hungry players. So
I feel like our our division definitely keeps us honest.
And UM, we like that because then when we go
against other teams and outside of our lake, we kind of,
you know, we kind of find out, you know, how
(39:41):
these other guys are playing and how their leagues. But
it's fun playing in our league. It keeps us I
feel like, like I said, I feel like it keeps
us honest, and I feel like we're where um we um.
I love playing. I don't really care about, you know,
the other teams as much. I can't really speak on
And I feel like we have we have to be
(40:02):
a playoffs team and make a run for the Super Bowl.
Alvin Kamara having just a great rookie season and people,
I mean, the great thing about fantasy football is I
think people know about the forty two catches, um seventeen
yards rushing and the fact that he's you know, combined
six six touchdowns. Is just a rookie. Um, he's drafted,
he shows up at camp. Did you know that he
(40:22):
had this type of product productivity in him? Oh yeah,
for sure. Um. I don't want to sound like a
guy that you know because a lot of people probably
are now just jumping on the bandwagon. But you know,
we were in New Orleans, you know, training camp where
it was you know, some type of condition where a
lot of people won't make it out of it was
it was kind of hard. Coach emphasized that you know,
(40:43):
he might say blue and it might be read like
he was gonna go hard, he was gonna challenge us,
and I'm Kamar. He was still making play out to
play out the play every day. So I'm excited for
him and I'm excited for him to get what he deserves.
And I feel like he has a bright future for sure.
But he's definitely a play maker. He's definitely hungry. Um
He's not a guy that she hasn't complained about touches.
(41:06):
He just when he's another guy that just um leads
by example and kind of just does his job when
his numbers called, and he does it really well. So
he also helps me. He motivates me because like he
may not be getting the ball a bunch, but he's
making the most out of it and making plays, and
I feel like that kind of helps his team. Like
moving um at it just challenges everyone to just do
(41:29):
your job. Yeah, And that's that obviously, And I know
you guys have that up in your facility to do
your job monch or Hey, listen, we've been paying attention
every I think everybody has. Saints have turned this thing around.
Your big big part of the reason why. Thanks so
much for spending some time this year on Fox Sports Radio, Yes, sir,
thank you guys for having me. Pleasure is absolutely ours,
like
This is the best of the Doug gott Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. What Up? It's Dog Gotlip Show,
Fox Sports Radio, Live and direct from the City of Angels.
Welcome in Man, We got a good show for you.
Michael Thomas will join us next hour. He's a wide
receiver for the Saints. Who would have thought that the
Saints would go from Owen two to seven? And to
(00:23):
Brian Billick from the NFL Network will join us in
the third and final hour of the show, and we'll
try and make heads or tails of this league. It's
we know which team stink um, We know which teams
are pretty good, but who's really really good? Heart kind
of hard to tell? Uh, And upcoming in fifteen minutes,
speaking of stank, Mark Schlareth will join us. He of
(00:46):
course of NFL on Fox Fame. It is the Doug
Gottlieb Show. This is Fox Sports Radio and uh, last
night we had there's there is something different about New York? Right?
Does she is something different about the garden? I can't
really explain. It has the it's what the French call
(01:07):
of certain geness a qua right, it's the I don't
know what, but when there's a big event at Madison
Square Garden, and even when there's a mid size event
at Madison Square Garden, it's made to feel bigger. It's
true if you went to Manhattan and you asked New
Yorkers to draw a picture of the Earth or maybe
(01:30):
of the universe, they would have things revolving around that
island of Manhattan. It's very true. But there is at
least that perception does have some part of reality. Things
are made bigger, things are made bigger UM And when
Lebron came into New York, there was the discussion which
(01:51):
we went through yesterday, of him taking shots at Phil Jackson,
even though some of his own uh decisions with his
management team in terms of who they wanted to go
after for the Calves who he liked as NBA draft prospects.
Some of that gets kind of lost in the wash
because Phil Jackson isn't here to defend himself. And Phil
(02:13):
Jackson obviously there's a lot of negative connotation based upon
how his tenure went while trying to run the New
York Knicks. But ultimately there's a game to be played,
and Lebron James let a miraculous come back after some
early UM it wasn't fisticuffs, It wasn't a donny Brook
(02:33):
It we was more of a kerfuffle. Ryan gets into
it with Ennis Cantor. He leads them on a furious
comeback which they outscored the next by twenty points in
the fourth quarter to steal a road win in which
they really played disinterested basketball at times, um un enthused
defense at times in the first half, they were getting
embarrassed only two at the as fourth quarters happened in
(02:56):
the NBA games always tied and your best player makes
play is Lebron showed why he's Lebron. So look, there's
the historic nature of it. One being New York, to
being a place that once upon a time people thought
they could lure Lebron to Three, the the idea that
Phil Jackson ruffled his feathers talking about his posse, which
was in fact accurate, and people wanted to put a
(03:19):
ratio connotation to a word which everyone knows the meaning
has nothing to do with race. And then, of course
there's the idea that, look, this is what Jordan used
to do. Jordan would always kill the Knicks. This is
what Kobe would do every time he would come into
the garden. He would always kill the Knicks, and now
this is what Lebron James has taken upon himself to do,
(03:42):
kill the Knicks, specifically in the fourth quarter. Here's an
as Cantor on Lebron. We fight really hard, we play
with a lot of energy. But I'll tell you one thing.
This team is really special. And you ain't coming from
my house playing that. A water bottle flip came and game,
you know what I mean. I don't care who you are, King,
what do you call yourself, King, Quinn, Princess, whatever you are.
(04:04):
You know what. We're gonna fight and nobody out there're
gonna punk us. So we're just going out there player
game and I think we're just gonna get better and
better every day. And his Cantor going full w W E.
I don't know what your nickname is. But he was
bringing up the fact that last year the Knicks were
playing the water bottle Flip challenge on the bench during
(04:26):
a game because they, like the rest of America, had
completely lost interest in the New York Knickerbockers. Intentional disrespect
from Lebron, somehow gets that doesn't get discussed as opposed
to the fact that uh, dis intentional disrespect from and
his cantor we'll get discussed. Here's Lebron James context it
(04:46):
and I want to quod you can call yourself king quinces?
What what is it saying a game you can call
yourself king, coin princess. You're not gonna punk us? Well,
I'm the king, my wife is the queen, and my
daughter is the princess. So we got all three covers.
It's good, good response. When Lebron says he's the king,
(05:09):
it's because that actually is his nickname. Everyone calls their
wife the queen, and of course the daughter being the princess,
quick witted and incredibly talented. But how is it? How
how is it that Lebron uh carries no burden of
the fame and of the power that he likes to wield.
(05:32):
Let me think about it, Like the calves were disinterested?
Why right? That's that is a snapshot of your best player.
And while Lebron was worth the price of admission, and
so oftentimes he is the fact that he cannot motivate
his other elderly teammates to bring upon themselves to perform
(05:53):
every night like and look you can say, hey man,
so Tuesday night Milwaukee, it's a Wednesday nights. I'm Monday
night in New York, and sometimes we just don't have it.
That's the job. That's the job. So oftentimes professional athletes
think they get paid simply to win championships are compete
in the playoffs. But it's not. I mean, it's look,
(06:15):
that's what Adam still. That's why Adam Silver lengthened the season.
That's why they set in place the punishment for guys
skipping games and for tanking. They've tried to adjust because
because America One is not dumb. Secondly, the TV partners
Turner and ESPN, what they didn't pay for the playoffs,
(06:37):
the payoff is in the volume of quality competition the
regular season and what was a very very entertaining comeback
and fourth quarter win and Lebronics showing his utter and sheer,
dominance and confidence and swag. Um. I don't know. At
some point does this act run tired, to which to
which he is capable of taking shots at whomever he wants.
(07:04):
His team sometimes plays and sometimes doesn't, and when he
comes through he be key is he is the king
and no one will challenge it. On the other hand,
like look, dude, you're if you want to carry the
burden of being called the king, you can't simply be
the king when you want to. But it's part. It's
(07:24):
part of the part of the part that everybody thinks
about being president, right, Like anybody can be president during
the White House state dinners. Anybody can be president when
you have to give these big speeches. But on a
on a Tuesday, when you've gotta make you have to
have cabinet meetings all morning and meet with senators and
(07:47):
people from the House of Representatives, and then foreign dignitaries
of countries which carry absolutely no weight at all, like, ah,
I don't want to meet with Luxembourg. But you know what,
this part the job, man, it's part of the job.
If you can figure out a way to which once
a week you show up and you play, that'd be great.
(08:10):
And just show for the playoffs, that'd be great. But
the reality of it is, Turner and ESPN paid for
the rights to all eighty two of your regular season
games because you're a volume producer, right, That's why you
have value. That's why Major League Baseball players make so
much money. It's because they're playing a hundred and twenty
forty and sixty games a year. That's why their their
(08:33):
product is so valuable. So like, look, I'm not saying
Lebron is the worst human being on earth. He's a
great basketball player. But the pettiness over taking shots at
people who point out some of his flaws or some
of the things that he does that rub people the
wrong way, and the idea that nobody can get in
his face and talk a little trash to him, that
(08:55):
he is beyond approach, and this idea that this calvs
Team will play when they want to play, and when
they don't want to play, you're just gonna have to
deal with it. It does grow a little tiresome and
it gets overwhelmed because that fourth quarter was worth the
way that fourth quarter was Lebron James, that fourth quarter
is what separates him from the mortal man. Be sure
(09:18):
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
three time Super Bowl champion NFL. We're working on NFL
and Fox analyst Mark Slayers, I'm I'm fascinated by this
Giants in fighting thing, like, is it really as bad
as it's perceived, or is it simply somebody doesn't like
(09:41):
Ben McAdoo or a couple of somebody's don't like Ben
McAdoo and they're the ones leading it to the media,
which makes it seem like everybody doesn't like Ben McAdoo.
All right, let's welcome in stink uh stink. Following some
of this Giant stuff on social media, apparently guys like
Acts have come out and said like, hey, you know,
(10:02):
we gotta keep this stuff in the house. Is it
your uh? Do you think that the perception that the
Giants are a complete mess and in complete revolt of
Ben McAdoo is accurate or is it simply kind of
the echo chamber of of a couple of players who
are disgruntled and they've gone to the media and made
(10:22):
it seem a lot worse than it actually is. Well,
I think any time that it gets to the point
where it's out in the media, then it's legitimate. Where
there's smoke, there's fire, and now there maybe some guys
that are fine with Ben McAdoo. Losing is always hard,
and you know, when you're actually winning and you're doing
some of those things you will even you know, put
up or listen to put up with, or listen to
(10:43):
a guy that maybe you don't really care for, but
at least you respect. And I talked about this with
you and several other programs here on f S one
and on the radio about just when you start talking
about your quarterback nots taking care of the clock and
seeing a you know, a fourth down opportunity and burning
time outs, and you talk about your football team in public,
(11:07):
that's the first thing, the first indicator that people are
not going to do well with that particular head coach.
You can rip me, you can rip me in front
of a team meeting. You can, I mean absolutely splay
me out. And I know that there's a lot of
great coaches that do that, and you're fine with it
behind closed doors. But to go in front at your
(11:27):
press conference of the media and talk about your quarterback
not managing the clockwell enough, those things are just unacceptable.
And players that will irritate a player like like nothing
else will irritate a players. So I think there's definitely
definite issues there. I don't think there's any question about it.
I'm not saying that every guy has an issue with him,
(11:49):
but there's certainly things going on there behind the scenes
that that don't bode well for his existence within that
organization for very much longer. You saw a team this
past weekend, you call in the game the Bengals versus
the Titans, Mark Layer joining us. You can see him
called games NFL on Fox. UM and and so the Titans,
they win the game. They run their record to six
(12:10):
and three now, and part of it is outside of
Marcus Mariota. UM, I'm not sure how many people could
name a single defensive player on the Tennessee Titans. Maybe
it's name recognition, maybe it's some of the uneven performances,
wins and losses, and some of that. Of course, Mariota
(12:30):
wasn't healthy, so that obviously is going to hurt your
ability to compete. But I'm i'm, I'm kind of at
a loss with a bunch of these teams that are
right in that, even the Panthers who we saw last night.
Let's just start with the Titans, because when you watch
a game, call a game, you prepare unlike anybody else. Um,
are they actually are they an elite team? Or have
(12:50):
they just had a better than average like have they
just been better, slightly better than enough teams to have
this record. Yeah, I think right now they're slightly better.
There's a couple of fatal flaws. They don't have an
edge pass rusher. They don't have a war Daddy. Off
the edge, they can beat any left tackle or any
right tackles. So when you play the Tennessee Titans, you're
(13:12):
not concerned about going five one on ones across the
board if you need to. They've got good players, but
they don't have what I would consider elite players, especially
elite edge players. So that's a big issue for them
right now. And um, like I said, you're just not
worried when you break a huddle. You know, the one
(13:33):
thing that you have to do when you play a
team that has those real legitimate rushers is you've got
to have a plan to contend for those guys, and
right now Tennessee doesn't have that. The other thing that
that is going to make it tough for them going
forward is they legitimately have to play five on eleven
on excuse me, eleven on eleven football on the offensive side,
(13:54):
meaning their quarterback has to be involved. He just has
to be involved in the running game. And what you
saw in the first half of that game is this
incredibly dynamic offense with guys and two tight informations, guys
motioning different angles, wham blocking people getting on the edge
(14:15):
with option using a Dory Jackson, an outstanding young cornerback
out of USC on the offensive side of the ball,
and in the first drive of the game, Mariota fake
pitches to a Dory Jackson, takes it up outside and
gets about twenty plus thirty yards rushing on one play.
And it's a dynamic play. And they drove right down
(14:35):
the field doing those things and it's really exciting. And
then all of a sudden the third quarter they run
the same exact play and instead of holding it, he
pitches it to a Dory Jackson, and at that particular
point in time, Adam Jones, the cornerback, tried to break
his hip. And that's how you stop that type of
running game. It's the same thing that they're doing in
(14:56):
Carolina with Cam Newton, and it's why we always look
at these spread quarters backs who run the ball and
you say it's not a sustainable form of offense. And
I tip my cap to the Cincinnati Bengals that said
we're gonna give up the thirteen yard run to a
Dori Jackson on the pitch. Don't try to surf play
this because that that garbage doesn't work. What we're gonna
do is go try to knock that quarterback out of
(15:17):
the game. And it's brutal, and you know, those are
the things we talk about in the NFL, and if
you don't like to hear it, then plug years. But
they said, go try to knock him out of the game.
And Adam Jones actually knocked himself out of the game.
He gave himself a concussion. But you saw all of
a sudden them going to this four corners, four minute
offense with about eight minutes in the third quarter. They're like,
(15:37):
oh lord, we can't continue to do this because our
quarterback is gonna get massacred. And and that's really for
me what that football team is all about. They have
to Doug, they have to have their quarterback involved in
the running game to be dynamic as an offense and
open up their play action. And when they took that away,
they became a very average at best, maybe below average.
(16:01):
That's that's fascinating. Mark Slayer's joining us on the Dug
gold Show. It's interesting because people used to do that
to Russell Wilson. They used to run, you know, some
some of that zone read stuff early in his career,
and then you know, defensive ends would just, hey, just
go and crush Russell Wilson even after he handled the
ball off, because he becomes eligible to be pummeled, even
(16:21):
after he handles the ball off, unlike after you throw
the football. And that stops some of that for a while,
though teams have kind of dialed it back some. Um.
The Titans are taken on the Steelers. They're another team
who they fall behind seventeen to three to the Colts. Uh,
they actually have a negative turnover margin on the year,
only playoff team as of now that would have a negative.
(16:43):
And there are another team to which you're like, I
really want to think that Pittsburgh is really good because
they have the names that I recognize, and they have
the helmets and the uniforms that I recognize. But I
just I have a tough time buying in the fact
that from start of the year struggling with the Browns
to last game I saw them struggling with the Cults.
Why aren't they better? More dominant. Haven't scored thirty points
(17:04):
this year? Help me outstink. This is a team that
right now is on pace to compete for the best
record in the a f C. And I have a
tough time wondering how good they actually are. Yeah, and
it's the lack of consistency, isn't it. I mean, you
watch them in one week, You're like, Wow, they look
really good. They seem to play somewhat to the level
of their competition. And you know, I think that's I
(17:28):
think they're good enough and mature enough to be able
to do I've always hated that, but you know, I
think that's what they do. I mean, you'll see them
all of a sudden roll out to you know, Kansas City,
when Kansas City is rolling and thump them. They've got
really good defensive players. They've made the requisite changes on
the defense, going after Joe Hayden, getting him in the fold.
(17:50):
They have become much better. Shazier is as long as
that guy is healthy. You mean, that dude's got rocket
pack strapped to his back. He's flying all over the place,
he's making plays. So they're legit. What has been great
for them off the edges of rookie, So they really
are good. I just think that they have this attitude of,
you know what, we can show up and we can
(18:11):
play because that's who we are. And they've got enough
talent all over the football field to make those things happen,
you know. And I do think it's it's pretty impressive
when you can play really poorly and then be able
to flip the switch late and go all right, let's
just run this thing back and let's get let's get
the heck out of Dodge. So um, I'm with you.
I would rather you go out and just handle every opponent.
(18:34):
But they're a team that I think is really confident
in what they have and who they are. And I
think when you know the rubber meets the road opportunities,
you'll see them show up and show up in a
big way against the really good opponents. All right, So
help me out with Carolina. I don't think the Dolphins
are a great opponent, but they they throttled them. Now
they have the week off, then they get the Jets
(18:55):
on the road before their schedule cranks up. What's your
opinion of the Carolina others today? Well, Mike, I think
defensively last year you know, they made all those changes,
they got ready Josh Norman, they had a bunch of
young defensive backs. I think they're maturing UM. As long
as Thomas and Quickly stay healthy, I think they're a
really good team UM on the defensive side of the ball.
(19:17):
And then it comes down to Cam Newton. That comes
down to the maturity of Cam Newton. It comes down
to the balance of that offense and keeping enough run
and keeping enough of the things in the quarterback the
designed to be run. When you have that that it
opens up not only the running backs, but it opens
up your offense. It opens up probably anytime you have
all that read zone run stuff, there's a bunch of
(19:40):
one uh one route or one receiver throws that you're making.
So you basically are showing that run, your sucking safeties up,
your sucking linebackers up, and you've got one read in
your progression. And so it becomes you know, eight eight
to nine, I mean automatic completions a game, and it
(20:00):
just makes it really tough. But the issue being is,
like I said, it's a it's an unsustainable form of offense.
And can you make a run with your quarterback putting
him in Harm's way on a consistent basis like that
um and survive, and that's the dangerous game you play
with that particular style of offense. But I think it's
the only style of offense that Cam will thrive in
(20:22):
because I just don't think that he is a good
enough pocket passer to have him drop back thirty times
a game and win a game for you that way.
He can throw it thirty times a game as long
as you've got enough play action, enough quarterback designed run
and all the things that I talked about with the
eight to tend completions a game, with the one read routes,
and and then he's really he's outstanding in that stuff.
(20:46):
In that former offense. Man, he's one of the best
players in this game. But again, you have to be
willing to put him in Harm's way, and and that's
what scares teams about, you know, about having that style
of quarterback. Three times Super Bowl champion my Slayer joining
us in the Doug Gottlib Show. You're an outstanding offensive lineman.
You were with two of the best offensive line groups,
the Hogs of course the Denver Broncos. In your ability
(21:08):
to produce thousand yard rusher after a thousand yard rusher,
after a thousand yard rusher while protecting UH, the great
John Elway. UH is going to go down in history.
There's two of the best offensive line groups. The Cowboys
are in that discussion. On the other hand, this past weekend,
they don't have Tyrn Smith, arguably their best player, one
of the most athletic players at the left tackle position
we've seen. Chads Green replaces him, and it was a disaster.
(21:31):
I guess my question is to take us to what
the reality is. How much of that is on Chaz Green,
how much of it is on doc how much of
it is on the play calling in terms of the
fact that they struggled all night long because one guy
wasn't capable of blocking the guy across room. Yeah, I mean,
I listen all of that, All those things are true,
(21:53):
and everybody's got a certain amount of of blame there.
But I look at a coaching half, like, is it
the kid's fault that he can't block Adrian Claybourne, or
is it the coach's fault for not not understanding that? Like,
at what point did you think he was gonna all
of a sudden learn how to block the guy was
(22:13):
it after the second stack or the third sack, or
the fourth sack, or the fifth sack or the sixth stack. Apparently,
I'm like, maybe I was thinking this as as that
game was going down. I was actually in Nashville's airport
watching that the blockle and I started thinking to myself,
is Tyrone Smith the m v P at the National
Football League? Because apparently their coaching staff only knows how
(22:36):
to block their left tackle one on one. They don't
have a slide, they don't have a chip protection, they
don't have a tight end protection. You know, they don't
get multiple guys over there, pull a guy in a
waggle pass and have a guard over their protects outside edge.
Apparently they just leave their tackle, their left tackle one
on one the entire game and they don't ever adjust.
In My body was like, really, I mean, is that
(23:00):
his fault or is that your fault for being stupid
coaches and not actually getting him the help that he needs?
And you know, I mean, it would be like saying, hey, hey, Dougie,
you know we none on outstanding point guard in your
days of college basketball, but guess what today We're gonna
have you play center against Patrick Ewing just because you know,
(23:21):
we think we like that matchup and you get thumped
inside and they're like, wow, Doug gottilieve, he really sucks. Yeah,
you do at center, you know what I mean? Just like,
at some point you gotta help a guy, right, you do.
That's that's what I was saying when I was watching.
But you know a lot more about it. So I'm
I'm glad that that your opinion locks in with mine. Hey,
great job calling the game. It was an outstanding watch. Um,
(23:45):
you know there's a lot of games being called. You
guys were just all over it that Bengals Titans game.
What do you got this weekend? Uh? This weekend? I'm
Tampa at Miami this weekend, Tampa at Miami, Miami on
a short week and Tampa, of course you need to win.
The talk of Jon Gruden taking over there we'll get
too later on the show. In the meantime, staying, great stuff,
safe travels, and thanks for joining us. All right. That's
(24:08):
Mark Schlaire at 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. Is Cam Newton, a great quarterback and
elite quarterback. No is he a terrible quarterback? No, Kim
Newton is. And I we get this all the time.
(24:31):
He's inconsistent. No, he's not. He's consistently inconsistent, is what
he is. Like. You have to contextualize he has in
some of the attributes for what should be not just
a great quarterback, but an all time great quarterback. Right
Like John Elway had a great arm, Cam Newton his
(24:54):
arm might be better. John Elway was really athletic. Kim
Newton might be more athletic. On Elway was big, Kim
Newton might be bigger. But you would never put John
Elway and Cam Newton in the same sentence because there's
this erratic nature to many of his throws. There's this
inability to be a more of a pure pocket passer,
(25:17):
which puts him in harm's way, which causes them to
seemingly always get hurt or hit really hard. Combine that,
combined the inaccuracy at times, the decision making that's flawed
at times, with a propensity to get hit and hit
hard and occasionally hurt, and Kim Newton is not inconsistent.
(25:37):
When when when we have five years at least of
data to show that you're a below six passer. We
have five years at least of data to show that
some games are good, in some games you're not. Sometimes
you're accurate, and sometimes you're not. That inconsistency, when it
plays out over a long period of time, is actually
a consistency. But it's important to say that while I'm
(26:01):
calling him consistently inconsistent, I'm not calling him terrible like
you do. See the difference there, there's thirty starting quarterback
thirty two starting quarterbacks in the entire world. Correct, thirty
two starting quarterbacks. There's thirty two starting quarterbacks. I do
not believe him to be a top five or top
ten quarterback in the world. I believe him to be
(26:21):
somewhere in the UH fifteen to eighteen range, maybe at
at his peak as high as twelve, but probably as
low as as low as twenty, but somewhere right there
in mediocre, ordinary, average, middling, middle door. It all takes context, though,
right there's thirty two people on Earth that are starting quarterbacks,
(26:44):
so you're already in an exceptional class. Now of that
exceptional class, he's average, he's middle of the road. He's inconsistent. Consistently,
which doesn't allow him to be viewed in near He
has loving a fashion as an Aaron Rodgers and Tom
Brady and Drew Brees, even a Matt Ryan or or
(27:06):
some other quarterbacks, and you can slide Matt Ryan into
the mediocre at times division as well. The point is
that context is everything everything, And so when you say
I think he's mediocre, one, I don't think people actually
know what the word mediocre means. They take mediocre to
have a negative connotation when it's not necessarily positive. It's
(27:29):
not necessarily negative. And if when you call him a
mediocre starting quarterback in the NFL, you have to start
with the premise that to be a starting quarterback in
the NFL you have to be exceptional, that all exceptional.
It may not feel like j Color may not feel exceptional.
He may be a bottom five quarterback starting quarterback right
now in the NFL in spite of his armed talent. Uh,
(27:51):
but he would kill to be called a mediocre quarterback.
But he's still one of the only one of the
thirty two men on Earth who gets to say hud
hut hike uh in the first quarter for his team.
So is that I just I want to be fair
and contextualize the Cam Newton thing. I don't think he's great.
(28:11):
I'm not even sure if he's I don't think he's
very good. He can be very good at times, he
can be very poor at times. He's right there in
the middle, a guy who he has way more talent
than Matt Ryan, if you call talent throwing a football
and running with a football. He can do some things
Matt Ryan simply can't do. But because there is such
(28:34):
wild inconsistencies with his accuracy, with his ability to read
a defense, it will forever limit his ability for that
god given talent and that honed talent from hard work
to come out anyway. When they lost to the Saints,
he didn't have a touchdown. He had three interceptions. When
they lost to the Eagles, he had one touchdown, three interceptions.
(28:55):
They lost to the Bears, no touchdowns, two interceptions, one
fumble loss. Remember they when they beat the Bills three
He had no touchdowns, no interceptions. This is a really
good defensive team. He's their best running back. He can
throw the football. He's fine. The idea that he's gonna
sol he's gonna single handedly win you a super Bowl. No,
(29:18):
he could lose it for you. He's shown that he
can get there, but he needs a ton of help.
He is the epitome. He doesn't look like it because
he's six ft seven freak athlete who can throw the
football really really hard and at times accurately deep down
the field, but at times inaccurate. And that athleticism doesn't
benefit you nearly as much at that position based upon
(29:40):
how they can hit you and how strong and fast
everybody else is. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Doug gott Leaps Show weekdays at three pm Eastern
noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app. In this case, but let's from Colin Calharda
to say, Lakers beat the Sun's last night on the road.
(30:00):
Suns come into Staples, I think Friday night. Tomorrow night
they play the seventies Sixers. Robert Covington from the seventy
sixers will join us to the top of next hour,
so about ten minutes away, Robert Covington will join us.
But look, Alonzo Ball did not play much in the
fourth quarter that because Jordan's Clarks had just had a
(30:20):
humming last night, and many people have pointed out how
poorly Alonzo Ball has shot the basketball. Collin Collin, Colin,
Colin Cowards Nott concerned. Here's why who thought a Lonzo
was a great shooter? He averaged fifteen in college. He's
averaging nine and a half in his first month in
the NBA. Aren't the Lakers trying to attract scorers? That's
(30:41):
why they drafted a Lonzo Ball. It was part of
the plan to attract scores, scorings, gravy. He was seen
as a passer, a vision guy, and fun to play
with and a culture changer. And we look at all
these point guards over the last eight to ten years,
John Wall, Westbrook, Steph harden Iree, and we think point
guards have to be great scores. Now they don't. No,
(31:05):
they don't. If Lebron and Paul George are watching and
coming to Los Angeles, and then you include Kyle Kuzma
who can shoot, and Brook Lopez who can shoot, and
Brandon Ingram who could shoot, and of course Paul and
Lebron could shoot, would you really want Lonzo Ball shooting? Um,
(31:25):
this is a little bit more complex than Colin is
letting on. It's fair to point out that Lonzo balls,
uh a joint in the bottom ten of FIODO. Lonzo
Ball is not shooting poorly, he is the worst shooter
in the NBA percentage wise. They repeat that he is
the worst shooter in the NBA percentage wise by a
(31:46):
healthy margin, by three percentage points. Of course, justin Holiday,
who's a shooting guard shooting that's not a great way
to be a shooting guard. On that list as well though,
in terms of poor shooting point guards, Ricky Rubio at
thirty seven percent, Mike Conley, who is the second or
third highest paid player in the NBA this year at
(32:06):
thirty eight percent, Austin Rivers, Darin Fox, another rookie, is
only shooting thirty a Lonzo Ball shooting thirty one percent
from field. The point is this, that that being a
great shooter is not a prerequisite for what he how
he wants to play. Here's the real problem, though, A
Lonzo Ball shooting a poor percentage, but a lot of
(32:28):
it is miss layups, and while others are shooting maybe
not equally poorly, but poorly as well, Alonzo is not
athletic enough to make plays. So he has to prove
that what what Colin I think doesn't understand is he
is a magnificent pastor. He was brought in for your passing.
But unless you can make somebody other than your man
(32:50):
who's guarding you help, what's the point. What is the
point of being a great pastor? There aren't openings to
make all of the passes he wants to make. Additionally,
like look, he's super super passive. Was again last night
where he looked a little bit rattled going up against
(33:10):
the Phoenix Suns. And so he's not wrong. He was
not brought into average game. He was not brought into
lead league in scoring to take thirty shots. But the
reason he's taking so many shots is twofold one. His
coaches are telling him to be aggressive, but the real
reason is they know he needs to be aggressive otherwise
nobody's gonna guard him, and nobody's gonna help on him.
(33:31):
And if they don't guard him to help on or
help on him, no one else is open. So his
gifts are passing are kind of mood. It is a
big problem, and it is a disappointment. It's still very early,
but considering the number and the volume of opportunities he's
gotten both on the floor and at the basket in
(33:52):
addition to shooting jump shots. It's been disappointing this far.
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
quietly becoming one of the top young wide receivers in
the game. Michael Thomas of the resurgent New Orleans Saints
John's is on the Doug Gotlip Show. How are you?
(34:14):
I'm doing great. Appreciate you guys having me on. You
were you were owing to people like myself left you
guys for dead. There was some dysfunction with a d
wanting more touches and there's lots of Here we go again,
another disappointing year in New Orleans. Was there a team meeting?
Was there something said what led to this dramatic turnaround
(34:35):
in NOLA? Um, you know we didn't get off to
start we had expected. Um, but we know that throughout
the course of the season NFL, you know you're gonna
be You're gonna face some type of adversity, you know,
But it's all about climbing out of that and stacking
the winds. And I feel like once we got on
the row, once we started stacking up the winds from
(34:56):
after that on to start, I think the guys are
starting to like the selling up winning games around here,
and um, realizing that we have the tools to do
that and win a lot of games here. So so
like we just the momentum hit and we just kept
building it. Look, you guys are running the ball, You're
throwing short, efficient passes, you're turning up clocks on drives,
like this is a very Unsaints like style of offense. Uh,
(35:20):
take me through the evolution. Was this was this the thought?
Was this the kind of game plan coming into the season,
that this is what it would look like? Or was
there a change in the play calling after the early struggles. Um,
we're just simply doing we have to do to win games,
and UM closed out games. Last year, we're in a
lot of close games you know that could have went
either way. We finished a couple of them, we didn't
(35:40):
finish a couple of them. And now this year, you know,
we want to take advantage of those situations and and
try to try to not be in those situations where
we have a close game anymore. So we're managing the
game cultimately, We're just doing our job and guys are
doing their job when the number is called and making
the plays when they have the opportunity or when they
present themselves. It feels like Sean Payton is any ways
to create mismatches. You know, there's there's times I've I've
(36:03):
seen linebackers covering you. I've seen him move you all over. Um,
what's what's the sense you get of how he's been
able to kind of create different openings for you, uh,
to to get you more opportunities than you had previously
been getting. Um, you know, I appreciate him and haven't
trusted me to be able to move me around. Um.
We have a lot of talent on the offensive side
(36:25):
of the ball. I feel like guys that can make
plays at any point in the game, and just you know,
when your numbers call it, you have to you have
to make that play. You know. Coach Baydon is a
genius when it comes to you know, calling up calling
plays and you know, um moving the ball on offense.
So if if he called the play and that Andrew
reads it in the huddle, you and it's your play.
(36:47):
You have to kind of rise to the occasion and
take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself, and
that's out to me what I'm doing. Michael Thomas, who
if you read the New Orleans Advocate that the headline
is accurate, quietly turning into the one of the NFL's
best receiving seasons after his first one yard game. Um,
what about you? I mean, like, look, kind of the
untold tale professional athletes is confidence, right, Like, You're not
(37:10):
gonna be able to accomplish anything unless you believe in yourself.
But it doesn't it doesn't feel like you've gotten arrogant
or your teammates have gotten arrogant with your success. How
do you maintain the balance of having confidence and not
having arrogance? Um? You know, when you've been doing it
for a long time and you've been you you stay
it's all about consistent and staying consistent. How consistent can
(37:32):
you be? And then once you reach a certain level,
how do you top that? How do you match that?
How do you take it to another level? You know?
How can you create big plays with the opportunities to
get it? And that doesn't mean what I've been doing,
Just trying to say, as consistent as possible, but always
add something else to my game, Always take it a
step further, always do something someone might have not seen
(37:53):
me do yet or unexpected. But ultimately, I've been I've
been making those type of I've been making as you know,
and practice. It all starts during a week preparation, and
then on Sundays. You only have a handful of plays
that get called, So when they get called, you wanna
you want to be able to make those plays and
make it feel just like that practice ultimately, so that's
what I've been doing. I've just been, uh, I grind
(38:16):
it out and during the week, and then I try
to when the plays called on Sundays, I try to
make the most out of it on a big stage. Yeah,
well's look, it's been obvious to anybody who's been paying attention.
What's maybe most interesting is you guys got up to
a slugger start. Carolina had lost those couple of games
in a row. They're back at seven and three. Atlanta
kind of got off to an uneven start there at
five and four. Like we all thought the division would
(38:36):
be really good. Tampa's the only team that has not
turned in the performances that I think people thought. And
of course I know you you guys, just you guys
got done thumping them, going back to last week at
the Dome. UM, but it's weird because we all had
great expectations of the NFC South then because maybe if
you're starting some in Carolina start we lessen those and
now you turn around, look and you've got three legitimate
(38:58):
playoff contender teams. UM, give me your since you watched
Carolina last night, you watched Atlanta last night, to feel
to you like kind of like you guys have figured
out what you have to win games. They've done the same. UM.
I feel like and I felt like this since I
got drafted by Saints and playing this league last year
and playing in our division, our division has to be
(39:20):
the top division in NFL. If you look at it
across the board, it's a lot of talent, it's a
lot of youth that's playing at a high level, and
I feel like there's a lot of hungry players. So
I feel like our our division definitely keeps us honest.
And UM, we like that because then when we go
against other teams and outside of our lake, we kind of,
you know, we kind of find out, you know, how
(39:41):
these other guys are playing and how their leagues. But
it's fun playing in our league. It keeps us I
feel like, like I said, I feel like it keeps
us honest, and I feel like we're where um we um.
I love playing. I don't really care about, you know,
the other teams as much. I can't really speak on
And I feel like we have we have to be
(40:02):
a playoffs team and make a run for the Super Bowl.
Alvin Kamara having just a great rookie season and people,
I mean, the great thing about fantasy football is I
think people know about the forty two catches, um seventeen
yards rushing and the fact that he's you know, combined
six six touchdowns. Is just a rookie. Um, he's drafted,
he shows up at camp. Did you know that he
(40:22):
had this type of product productivity in him? Oh yeah,
for sure. Um. I don't want to sound like a
guy that you know because a lot of people probably
are now just jumping on the bandwagon. But you know,
we were in New Orleans, you know, training camp where
it was you know, some type of condition where a
lot of people won't make it out of it was
it was kind of hard. Coach emphasized that you know,
(40:43):
he might say blue and it might be read like
he was gonna go hard, he was gonna challenge us,
and I'm Kamar. He was still making play out to
play out the play every day. So I'm excited for
him and I'm excited for him to get what he deserves.
And I feel like he has a bright future for sure.
But he's definitely a play maker. He's definitely hungry. Um
He's not a guy that she hasn't complained about touches.
(41:06):
He just when he's another guy that just um leads
by example and kind of just does his job when
his numbers called, and he does it really well. So
he also helps me. He motivates me because like he
may not be getting the ball a bunch, but he's
making the most out of it and making plays, and
I feel like that kind of helps his team. Like
moving um at it just challenges everyone to just do
(41:29):
your job. Yeah, And that's that obviously, And I know
you guys have that up in your facility to do
your job monch or Hey, listen, we've been paying attention
every I think everybody has. Saints have turned this thing around.
Your big big part of the reason why. Thanks so
much for spending some time this year on Fox Sports Radio, Yes, sir,
thank you guys for having me. Pleasure is absolutely ours,
like
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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