October 2, 2019 • 39 mins
Doug discusses causation vs correlation in regards to the Nationals advancing to the NLDS without Bryce Harper. He also breaks down Cowboys QB Dak Prescott and their hopes of winning a Super Bowl while he is under center. Plus, Chargers RB Austin Ekeler joins the show to talk about his performance so far this season and how things will change now that Melvin Gordon has returned.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug Gotlive Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up, America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming
to you from sunny southern California. I hope you're having
a great, great day. Uh. Last night we kind of
(00:44):
made fun of the fact that baseball was having their
playoffs and not telling anybody Baseball playoffs were last night. Oh,
Baseball playoffs are tonight. Don't tell anybody secret, right, It's
not because it's on Turner and tonight, it's on ESPN.
It's just I don't know. Tuesday night kind of felt
(01:06):
sort of random, felt sort of small for the stage
that it is. But what did it give us? Well,
I didn't get Christine Yellich, who's arguably the best player
in baseball, the best player in National League. Maybe maybe
back to back n L M v ps. It didn't
give us Bryce Harper. That's because Bryce Harper switched teams
(01:27):
right before the season began for a huge, colossal, thirteen
year deal to join the Philadelphia Phillies, who, of course
and up finishing behind the Washington Nationals and the Nation
League East. By the way, kind of skill for there
that I could continue full sentences, sneezed twice within those senses,
(01:50):
wasn't ramos like? That was kind of that's kind of
special stuff right there. That's that's elite broadcasting. This ain't
no podcast brother radio anyway. So it didn't give us
a couple of the stars we thought we might get,
but it did give us an unbelievable ending. Unbelievable the
(02:11):
Nationals excuse me that Brewers are dominating the game. They're
up three to one, they lead essentially the whole way.
You got Josh Hayter in the pen, who never get
doesn't every like batting average against him by left handed
hitters this year. One, of course, he gives up a
big hit to a left handed hitter, but down to
(02:34):
their last out in the eighth inning, that's not their
final out to be. It's not the Texas, not the Rangers.
Having the Cardinals down to their final out two times
in Game six of the World Series, but still down
the last out in the eighth inning, they end up
putting three on the board on a hit by pitch
which appeared to not be hit by pitch, on a
(02:55):
broken bat, single on a walk, and a single to
right field with an error by the right fielder who
just bizarrely misplayed the ball. That's it. Four runs on
those four plays, which is baseball, right, that's base I've
told you guys this, anytime you want to explain something
that's completely inexplicable, you just say, that's baseball. A matter
(03:18):
of fact, this whole area of this whole area fifty
one thing. If if the government just came out and said,
you know, somebody says like I saw these things that
look like flying saucers, and if you look at the photos,
these planes are moving sideways. That they just said, hey,
let's baseball, You're like, oh, okay, that's the baseball. Guy
does right? How does Josh Hayter, who has been money
(03:39):
all year suddenly spit up all over himself as baseball?
But that was baseball, no time limit game never over
until the final out. And like even the Gnats, by
the way, even the Gnats who Daniel Hudson comes in
just throwing gas, they're the last out they recorded was
(04:03):
at the warning track. It was different parks. That ball
is out and we have a bottom of the ninth inning,
but the Nats move on, which, by the way, is
a win from Major League Baseball, win for us at
Fox because you have Nats DC huge market against dayers.
(04:24):
You've got Dodgers Gnats, and then the other one in
the National League is what the Cardinals and the Braves,
and then of course the American League will see what
happens tonight with the A's who are hosting the Rays,
two teams that no one really wants in the playoffs.
And I'm gonna debunk the myths of moneyball in a second,
(04:50):
but I also want to point out that you have
the Yankees, and as long as the Yankees are at
the Dodger and you've got the dream scenario for us
here at Fox, which is Yankees Dodgers World Series. He's
haven't had it since but wait, year was that nineteen?
But correlation is not causation that that's today's sentence of
(05:15):
the day or phrase of the day. Correlation is not causation.
Is it ironic? Is it fun? Is it interesting that
Bryce Harper was with the Nationals but then he leaves
the Nationals to go to the Phillies in the same division,
and only now do the Washington Nationals win and advance
(05:37):
in the playoffs? Is that fun? And the Phillies did not.
Phillies did not even make the playoffs. There's a correlation there, right,
But that's not the causation. The fact is the Nationals
haven't had quality bullpen work for the last half decade.
They have made the playoffs, and things that go bump
in the night the that's baseball, things where suddenly their
(06:00):
hitters can't hit, or Bryce Harper was injured at times
have been reasons they've fallen apart before the the idea
that Bryce Harper not being on the team is the
reason they came back in one last night, that's that's
(06:21):
not the causation. That had nothing to do with being
hit by pitch, broken bat, single walk and single to
right field. Just do just didn't right. It was a
route team play that turned into an error. And and
by the way, this this is a little bit of
shot at stat guy at analytics guy, which tells you
(06:44):
everything you need to know about stats based upon all
of us. It doesn't mean under pressure everybody is different, right,
Josh Hayter is amazing this year. He wasn't last night.
Why under the pressure of playing in the white hots
hot light of a win or go home scenario. Who's
the right fielder for the Brewers? There? Dan Buyer butchered
(07:07):
that ball? Trent Grisham. That is correct, all right? Trent
Grisham gathers that ball and throws the you know, and
hits the cutoff man times in a hundred and did
it take a little bit of funky bounce bouncing to
his right as he was running to his left. Sure,
did he overrun it? Probably? Maybe you overran it because
(07:27):
of pressure of excitement at the moment because you're in
a one game scenario and people act differently. Let's baseball.
Here was Trent Grisham after the game coming up, So
I was getting ready to throw to home. Came in
a little off balance, kind of took a little funky
off on me. Just because I came in off balance.
(07:49):
I didn't really gather myself ball one back there and
try to get into school clad. Hey, we misplayed the ball.
Let's baseball happens, kind of que ball sort of effect.
Bryce Harper, braas, Harper is probably overrated. It is not
the best player in the National League. He's likely overpaid,
(08:10):
aren't we all and and the Phillies grand plan of
having him under club control in the mid twenty millions,
like six million dollars from here into perpetuity is actually
a pretty smart plan, really is it. But but that's
not the causation for the Nationals winning last night. They've
(08:32):
actually been in the playoffs before with him. It's a
one game scenario. It's a thing that goes bump in
the night, right, I mean, look, uh, Sherzer wasn't great
and Zimmerman was. And Zimmerman has been their best picture
for the last month and a half two months of
the season. Anyway, that has nothing to do with Bryce Harper.
(08:56):
Mike Trout is the best player maybe in the history
of baseball. Like we're gonna when he finishes up, he
continues to get better, Like he had a great year
this year. He had forty five home runs before he
got hurt. Right, He's been the best player in baseball
for most of the last seven years. Right, you put
that together for fourteen fifteen years, He's not you would think,
(09:16):
barring some sort of catastrophic intry, he's gonna get better,
not gonna get worse. Right like he made gave that
go down as the greatest player in the history of baseball.
Had been the playoffs once against kan City Royals, who
went to and won the World Series. The Royals who
probably shouldn't have even been in that game, but they
had a comeback against the Texas Rangers in the wild card.
(09:37):
In the wild card game, I was as sorry as
the A's. My bad was against the A's in the
wild card game. And oh yeah, by the way, Trout
didn't hit at all. But that's not why they lost.
They lost all three games and extra innings. Wasn't even
the regular bullpen their correlation. Sure, is it the causation?
(10:01):
It's not, it's not. So last night was great for
what it was awesome. Baseball pressure changes all of these stats.
NAT's move on. They can carry that badge of honor
of Hey, we wanted to overpay Bryce Harper. We just
apparently didn't want to over pay him as much as
(10:21):
he wanted to be overpaid, but that's not the cause
for why they're still playing. All right, we'll get to
the NFL up coming next. Be sure to catch the
live edition of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at
three p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app. This was Adam Feeling,
(10:44):
wide receiver Minnesota Vikings. These were his comments after their
loss on Sunday. At some point, you're not gonna be
able to run the ball for a hunter yards, even
with the best running back in the NFL. And that's
when you have to be able to throw the ball.
You have to be able to make plays. Um, you
have to be able to uh, you know, hit the ball,
the deep balls. You have to do that because otherwise
it's too easy for changers tea up and rush the quarterback.
(11:05):
So we have to be able to run the ball
and pass the ball. In this league. You cannot be
one dimension all. It's just too easy to defend. Okay, now,
listen that that it's a smart thing that's he's doing.
He's talking about. Remember they only led Kirk Cousins throw
it ten times in their first win of the season.
He didn't name Kirk by name. He didn't call out
the play calling. He just said, hey, a matter of fact, wise,
(11:27):
we can't they're just loading up. We gotta find other
ways to win. Here's Kirk Cousins, his quarterback earlier. Uh,
you said yesterday on a Minneapolis radio station, Kirk, did
you take offense to that quote at all? No, Like
he said, it's reality. I really want to apologize to
(11:49):
him because there's too many opportunities where we could have
hit him. On Sunday and post game and I talked
to the media, I always say, hey, until I watched
the film, it's hard for me to really give you
a straight answer. Well, I watched the film, and the
reality is there were opportunities for him. The one that's
most obvious is the third and ten at the beginning
of the game. We're near midfield. That's arguably seven points
(12:10):
if you put the ball where it needs to be.
He's shown number nineteen, shown that he will make that play,
and he'll probably finish the play in the end zone
and pull away from the defender. Yeah, this is we've
gotten to the theater of the weird, right where even
Mike Zimmer, who's always he's got the red ass over
lots of different stuff. Right, he came out and he's like, well,
maybe he should stay off his podcast, to stay off
(12:32):
the radio. Right, Kirk Cousins now apologizing for not getting
Adam felding the football in any other work environment, In
any other work environment, I would tell you that Cousins
apologizing for not taking advantage of somebody else's talents in
the workplace would be uh, would be well received, right,
(12:57):
would be well received like any other work environment. Like,
hey man, sorry we didn't use you on that project.
It was a mistake. Clearly now we look back and
had we had you do the marketing, we would have
landed the job. But but this ain't This isn't a salesforce,
This ain't a marketing gig. This isn't you know, trying
(13:21):
to pitch a school district on investing on using your
company to do their mechanicals. This, this isn't a regular
work This is the NFL. And though you have to,
you have to hear Stefon Diggs and Adam dealing and
hear them chirping about targets, knowing they want the football,
(13:43):
knowing they think they can help you win the game.
You also at certain times, have to put guys in place,
have to be the alpha in the room. Oh yeah, yeah,
you're always open. Every wide receiver is always open. I
was open. This is not show friends, this is show business.
(14:05):
And Kirk cousins desire to be liked seems to overwhelm
his desire to be a great quarterback and an alpha
and the leader and somebody who guys believe in. And honestly,
gotta be a little bit scared of. Gotta be a
little bit scared of. Be sure to catch the live
(14:25):
edition of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three
p m. Easter noon Pacific. He has been, uh, just
an absolute savior to the Charge. You look at the
Charge link two and two this year, but a ridiculous
litany of injuries and of course they also didn't have
their starting tailback Melvin Gordon up until last week, or
he only dressed because they just needed some numbers. Austin
(14:47):
Ekeler has been his replacement and he's he's done everything
there two and two. Coming off a win over the Dolphins,
he joins in the Doug Outlip Show on Fox Sports Radio. Austin, Now,
are you hey, what's going on for having. Yeah, the
only thing you haven't done is play special teams, which
is one of the things you're known for. But you
can't put you out there because you get the ball
so much and do so many other things. I know,
(15:10):
it's been a send a switch for me as far
as my role this year, but hey, if they put
me back on special teams, I wouldn't be I wouldn't
be sad about it, all right, So, uh, what what
what has it been like from you right to go
from a couple of years ago being an undrafted rookie
to making the team to through through the first four
weeks of the season, me and the starting running back
for the team. What's that transition like? Right? You know,
(15:33):
earlier on in my career, I felt like I was
just trying to you know, make a spot, just you know,
undrafted from a smaller school, basically had everything to prove, so,
you know, just trying to find my way and not
mess up on the field. And then kind of you know,
edged myself into a role of you know, special teams,
and then my second year came into more special teams,
a little bit of offense, and now I found myself
(15:53):
you know, started for these first four weeks and so
it's just been a slow advancement of my into the
offensive offensive spot. And so now I found myself here
looking forward to you know, week five, we got fell
back and so uh, like you said, we got a
bunch of people bank out, So I'm sure you know
we're gonna be on the field at the same time
a lot, and you know, whatever we can get it done,
(16:15):
to get it done. Yeah, for people who don't follow
the Chargers right, like going it just going into the
game in Miami, you didn't have your starting kicker, you
have Derwin James. Uh, you know, you don't have your
starting left tackle. You're down to two running backs, three
wide receivers. Then you lose Inman, right, you lose one
of your tight ends. Now you have one healthy tight end.
(16:37):
Now we lost your kicker, your punter who was your kicker,
heard his planned foots, and I got to sign another kicker. Like,
how have you ever been around a team that has
had this many injuries this early in the season. I
have not, I have. I don't know what the heck
is going on because I mean a lot of them
like broken bones or you know, toring aquies, and it's
like actually like football injury, so it's not like the
(17:00):
soft tissue and so it's just it's just not super Unfortunately,
you know, it had four new guys and in the
media room today, in the team room, you know, you
got to happen to introduce yourself, like you're gonna be
helping us playing on Sunday. You know, like I've never
been around it. That's just you know the nature of football,
but you know, usually not to this magnitude that I've
been around. Yeah, how do you get perspective though? Because
I think, having watched all your games, should have won
(17:23):
the Detroit game, and frankly you had to lead most
of the way. You should have won the Texans game.
But you are you guys are depleted, Like how do
you how do you have the perspective of where you
are as opposed to maybe where you should be. Uh,
you know, shoot, that's the NFL for you. You know,
that's what I've learned over these past couple of years
and our first year. So I think we will loast
like four or five games by you know, less than
(17:45):
seven points. And so it's just the game of inches.
You know, you've heard that before and it stays true. Today.
And you know, shoot, going back to that Lions game,
should have won that game, antil I fumbled on the
one yard line. You know, we had up losing the
game by like three points something like that. I was like, man,
and I was like, you know, little things here and
there that really make a big difference in the end.
(18:06):
And it's just a team that can reduce those, you know,
throughout the entire years, the ones that end up on top.
What is that feeling like a flying home from Detroit
knowing your fond wasn't the one yard line. I'm still sick,
to be honest thinking about it. She would probably be
with me forever, you know. I mean that's just like
you're so close you can't get any closer, and just
(18:28):
for that to happen, just like I don't know, just
I don't know. In a way, I use it to
feel my mental toughness, like, look like you've been You've
been through it all, man, Like you've done this, done that,
good things, bad things, whatever happens, you still gotta keep
pushing forward. You did have your hand on the point
of the football. Wasn't you holding it wrong? Right? No?
(18:48):
I was I was trying to do too much. I
tried to reach it and it was just not smart
play just because it was it was first in goal
from the one yard line, so it was like, let's
just pounded in there. And so it's definitely a long
experience for me, and uh, you know, yeah, I'm I'm
getting something good out of it, and you know, I'm
not going to the negatives. You know, you can read
my comments if you want to do. Okay, here's a
(19:11):
real question that everybody really wants to ask, and only
I get a chance to ask. Melvin's back. He scores touchdowns.
But you know you've been getting fantasy wise, who's going
to get the ball around the goal line this week?
You know, it's just me and you talking. Don't worry
about being a hundred radio stations. Uh. We have a
little joke. You know, it's been over the past year.
(19:32):
Coach is like, hey, you get inside of that fifteen,
you better score from outside because if you don't, you know,
we're gonna be shotting on the food. So that's a
little joke. But you know it's a little more intensive,
you know, making that last guy missed because you know
you're probably gonnaee twenty five jotting out there. What what
what what's it like to have him back? Like? Is
what what what's the what's the honest response to having
(19:52):
him in the meeting room? Ah? Shoot, we need everyone
firstly right now. What we got going. We're trying to
make a push for you know, playoffs and all the
way to the end. So all the playmakers and Pro Bowl,
every everybody we can get. That's how we if you
make play and you know, contribute that. I mean, that's
what we need on the team. That's what we need
on the field. So you know, whoever is whoever is
(20:13):
coming back, you know where it's derwing here a little bit.
So now it just got back. You know, that's some
stuff going on. We've been playing all right without him.
You know, they can't hurt to have your Pro Bowl
running back back. Well, Austin, listen, it hasn't gone unnoticed
all the things you've done. Hopefully we get to see
you back on special teams as well soon because you're
so great at that. Thanks so much for joining us
(20:33):
on Fox Sports Radio. Absolutely thanks for having me. All right,
it's Austin Neckla joining us. 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 search f s R to
listen live. Dak Prescott obviously was taken in the fourth round.
And while you can make the argument that he's been
(20:53):
underpaid to this point, and to be a fair argument,
the problem is that the NFL, we don't really pay
you for what you did. We pay you for what
you're going to do. And if we've learned one thing
about the Rams, the feeling from the Rams is Jared
Goff can't really carry us. Right. The reason Todd Gurley
(21:15):
didn't get the football was because it was It wasn't
as if the Tampa Buccaneers came in and they came
They've actually said this, Their entire game plan was to
make Jared Goff beat them. Now that Tid Gurley beat us,
make Jared Goff beat us, and they are of twenty one,
(21:36):
nothing to blink of an eye. Now, it should be
pointed out that the offensive line has changed for the Rams.
They have two new starters and it's been rated as
the second worst offensive line in the NFL by Pro
Football Focus. And that's what happens when you signed Todd
Gurley to a huge deal. And that's what happens when
you signed other players two big deals is something has
(21:57):
something gives and you go to new offensive linemen. This
is what happens. But in addition to that, Jared Goff
just isn't a guy now. He threw for over five yards,
which Dak Prescott has never done and maybe you will
never do. But the idea that forget about Carson Wentz
(22:20):
because people want to compare Dak Prescott to Carson Wentz,
and like, look, let me know when Dak Prescott is
going to win an m v P. Because Carson Wentz
was gonna win an MVP two years ago before he
heard his knee, I'm not gonna happen. But the keeping
up with the Joneses in the NFL, finding a comparable
salary for which you think is a comparable player. I
don't think off as a comparable player, but I do
(22:41):
think that the construction of that team is on some
levels similar. Running Back is most important. Quarterback can do
the job if the running backs performing, But does that
when you a Super Bowl. Here's Brett Farve on Serious
x M giving praise to Dak Prescott. I think he's good.
I really do not a knock in any way, shape
(23:02):
or form. But he's not as flashy. But he but
he's very consistent. He's got everything you could ask for, size, strength,
arm strength, UM, the guy's loving. Um. He plays hard,
he plays smart. You know. I think he's a legitimate, long,
long time quarterback barring injury, and at some point I
(23:24):
do believe that he'll he'll leave that team to the
super Bowl. Yeah, I it's interesting. He didn't say accurate, right,
which is a which is a big thing, especially short
intermediate throws, which is accurate. And he said I think
he's good. Not as flashy means he just doesn't have
the top end talent. He doesn't throw guys open. He
(23:45):
can't win us a game on his own. He can
win games, but he can't win us a game. Does
everybody understand the kind of the difference there? Danna Jeremiah
is gonna join us, and he does the truck or tractor.
I tried tractor or trailer. Excuse me, tractor, trailer. Tractor
pulls everything along. Trailer is along for the ride. And
I think he thinks of Dak Prescott Moore as a trailer.
(24:08):
Another way to express it is you can win games
from the quarterback. But he's not gonna win your games
at quarterback, and they're gonna go out and go, hey, fellas,
get him back, let's go, which by the way, Jared
Goff almost did, almost did. He got strip sacked, fumbled,
was under duress, but it wasn't as if he didn't
(24:31):
give them a fighter's chance, even though down twenty one
nothing because he can throw the football accurately. Although he's
not been as good, nor has he ever been as good.
You get pressure on him early and he starts to
get a little a little quick with that trigger. Be
sure to catch the live edition of The Doug gott
Leap Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific
(24:52):
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio Whap.
He's got a great podcast called Move the Sticks. I
listened to it often, especially like the ten Tac Awaysam
the Uh from all the NFL games. That's just kind
of quick, easy, very easy to digest stuff. Daily podcast.
He and Bucky Brooks, of course you here on this
show sometimes guest hosting on this show. You also see
(25:13):
him in the NFL Network and hear him called Charger
Games on the weekend. He's Daniel Jeremiah, he joins us
on Fox Sports Radio. Um, what happened by your estimation
to the Cowboys in the Dome against the Saints. Well,
I think, look, we've we've talked about it before about
how teams are built, and some teams are quarterback driven,
some teams are running back driven or run game driven.
(25:35):
I should say the Cowboys are offensive line driven. I
mean that that's what kind of makes that whole thing go.
And and they got just absolutely smoked up front by
the by the Saints. I mean they just they domin him,
they dominated them. They couldn't run the ball. Umdac was
under a lot of pressure. I know Dak took a
lot of grief after that one night after watching the tape. Duck,
I don't think he played that poorly. Uh, you know,
(25:57):
they put some balls on the ground and uh and
the offen the line just didn't control the line of
scream much like the head earlier in the year. But
doesn't that signify one of the issues, Like I I
agree with you. You know, when you're two favorite two
favorite targets end up fumbling. Um, that's especially on the road,
that that's problematic. But the idea that if the offensive
(26:17):
line doesn't play well and they can't run the football,
he can't bail you out, he can't throw guys open.
Doesn't that ultimately expose Dak Prescott's being a good just
not a great quarterback? Oh? Yeah. I have not put
him in that great you know, elite, great, whatever word
you want to use category. But I think he's us
That's what they have there. And I think the encouraging
(26:38):
thing for me on Doc is that I've seen him
make progress a year to year. So you know, at
this point in time, can he overcome an offensive line
getting destroyed like maybe you know Peyton or Tom or
some of these other quarterbacks good over the years. No,
but he's better. He's better now than he was last year.
Every year he's getting better. And the hope is that
eventually you get to that point you saw the Dolphins
(26:59):
up close and personal. Um, what happens with Josh Rosen,
Like I just you know it is it feels like
he's on the path to being on another team next
year and even and he won't be a star, Like
here's the guy who went from a can't miss prospect
to can't hit prospect. Yeah, and I don't know that
(27:20):
it's set up for anybody to uh have success what
they have there. When I when I'm getting ready to
these games, Doug, I have a little highlighter system when
I'm looking at the team, and I kind of look
at him as you know, different levels of players and
and usually most offenses, you know you're gonna have three
or four blue players, which obviously kind of the blue ship,
you know, premier player. That Dolphins team offense and defense
(27:43):
has one blue player right now, and that's David Howard
at the corner. I mean, they don't have one blue
ship player on offense nothing, so there's nothing to work
with their and you know, to the point it was
interesting at the end of that game, they were down
by three scores and still some time left on the clock,
a good chunk of the fourth quarter, and it would
be like third and nine, and they were throwing the
(28:04):
ball three or four yards down the field. It would
just give up plays. It was. It was it was
almost sad. I mean, you're they're calling the games for
the for the Chargers, of course, but man, it was like, yeah,
this is this is just it's not competitive. Can the
Chargers get healthy enough quick enough for when it really matters,
uh to be determined. It just seems like every week
(28:25):
there's more, you know, and and this last week, dontrel
Emmon goes down, Melvine Ingram goes down. So if you
look at it, and we'll see you know what happens
with the injury report, and and maybe you know, you
get a chance to get somebody like Virgil green back.
But as of right now, you're down your top three
tight ends, you're down your number two, three and four receivers. Um,
(28:45):
you know you're down. You're you're starting kicker. They just
signed another kicker, so who knows, maybe they're on their
third kicker. Your top two safeties are out, including the
best player on your team in Derwin James. Melvin Ingram's gone.
I mean, it's just I've never seen a collection of
injuries quite like this. Now. Um, you know you've got
a winless Denver team coming out there. I think they're
much better than their record. Um, but man, if the
(29:08):
if the Chargers could somehow, I just keep looking at
the if they could be at four or four or
five and three after eight games, and then you start
to see all these guys come back in I think
they'll be in pretty good shape. They might not be
in shape to get chased down Kansas City to win
the division, but they've got a chance to get into
the tournament. Have people figured out Lamar Jackson? Well, I
(29:31):
think that. I think the first two weeks we talked
about it. You know, they played, you know, over the opponents.
You know, they played Miami and Arizona and and so
you couldn't you had to if you have temporary enthusiasm
a little bit. That's not real. What you saw those
first two weeks is not real. Now he's gonna still
you know, I think there's there's some excitement there and
he's gonna make plays. Um. But I thought the expectations
(29:52):
got away from a lot of people after those first
two weeks that I was a little bit of foolscal
I wouldn't say people have figured him out, but I
just think he stepped up and classed through they're playing.
I tend to agree with you. What about the Browns
if they figured out who they are, well, I give
I give them a lot of friends. They adjusted and
they morphed. I guess you don't give Baker Mainfield credit.
I thought his footwork was really poor and the in
(30:14):
the previous game against the Ramps, thought he was drifting
way too much. I thought he really improved in that
area this week. You could tell they really focused on it.
And uh, he was more firm in the pocket. It's
amazing when you get your feet in the ground, you're
more accurate. Um So he made some adjustments individually. And
I thought the way they ran the football was huge.
Incorporating the tight ends more was big in the run game.
(30:34):
UM So yeah, I think, you know, I think you
gotta give them some credit. That's a tough place to
go on the road and win in Baltimore, and they
and they dominated the football game. Uh, the Green May
Packers struggled in the red zone. That's that's really why
they lost on Thursday night football. Um I point out,
with a little help from some of my football friends,
like the zone reed play. Aaron Rodgers probably never run
(30:56):
that in the game. Well he shouldn't hand it off,
but he's never really run They've never it. If he
didn't give it like he should have, he should have
kind of held onto it longer and really really really
dragged out that that fake handoff. But he he didn't
play that style in college he was before that style
he hasn't done in the pros. It feels like they're
still kind of figuring out who they are and what
(31:17):
they want to be. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. Um.
I don't think that it's you know, look, I know
he hasn't done it. I don't think it's rocket science.
I think he's he's a great athlete who's very bright,
and I think he'll, you know, he'll figure it out.
Maybe it's something they do need to repet a little
more if they want to include it. Would he with
the way he can move around, I would think you'd
want to have some component of that in your run game, um,
(31:38):
because it's tough to tough defense. So I would imagine
he'll get more comfortable with that and they'll sprinkle it
in a little bit. But outside of the outside of
them getting kind of the ricochet interception man, Aaron Rodgers
look pretty duncomfortable and good um in that ball game,
and I think that votes well for them going forward. Yeah,
it does feel like they have, uh, you know that
they've improved. Are the Detroit Lions at she a good
(32:00):
football team? That's maybe the biggest storyline to me and nobody.
And I get it's Detroit and nobody really cares on
a national level. But when I got ready for that game,
when they played the Chargers a second week and I
watched them against the Cardinals and they really blew that game.
They hadn't under control and they gave up a bunch
of yards at points late in the game and didn't
finish it. And that's the old time out situation. Um. Anyways,
(32:21):
they blew that game. I didn't know. I didn't necessarily
think they were very good. Then you get ready for
the Chargers game. I know the Chargers didn't play well,
but then they look the Lions beat them, and I said, okay, there,
maybe a little bit better than I thought. And then
they go on the road and beat Philly, who was
you know, we know what they are. That's a good
win on the road. Um. And then they give Campas
Sydney all they can handle it. I'm like, you know
(32:42):
what this is? Sometimes you just gonna say, Okay, they're
they're they're better there. That's a good football team. They're
better than I gave him credit for. Um. It's kind
of interesting here. Doug Otlives Show on Fox Sport Trader
Daniel Jeremiah is uh, it is our guest, Um, Pittsburgh
is the defensive line that good? Or is this since
and he's offensive line that bad? Well, since Cincinnati's offensive
(33:05):
line is awful. And you know, I have talked to
somebodies around the league in the in the pro side,
on the pro scouting side, who um, you know, I
watched as much tape as I can, but these guys
are you know, their sun up sundown and they're watching
consuming everything and uh. And a couple of them have
brought up to me like, I don't know that I've
seen a year where you have offensive lines as bad
(33:27):
as some of these, and he mentioned him specifically. When
you talk about the Cincinnati Bengals terrible offensive line, Miami
Dolphins terrible offensive line, the New York Jets awful offensive line,
like these are these are not like bad this year?
Offensive lines like these are like some of the worst
offensive lines we've seen in the last decade. Um. So
I think pittsburghs got a tremendous amount of talent upfront.
(33:49):
But I came away from that game saying that was
I mean, that was batting practice against that group? Did
you I don't know if you saw heard this back
and forth. I adam feeling, uh, you know, said hey, look,
we throw the ball more. And then Kirk Cousins goes
on a podcast and Kirk God He goes in a
podcast and says this, Kirk, did you take offense to
that quote at all? No, Like he said, it's reality.
(34:11):
I really want to apologize to him because there's too
many opportunities where we could have hit him. On Sunday
and post game and I talked to the media, I
always say, hey, until I watched the film, it's hard
for me to really give you a straight answer. Well,
I watched the film, and the reality is there were
opportunities for him. The one that's most obvious is the
third intent. At the beginning of the game, we're near midfield.
(34:33):
That's arguably seven points if you put the ball where
it needs to be. He's shown number nineteen, shown that
he will make that play and he'll probably finish the
play in the end zone and pull away from the defender. Yeah,
so you know, he apologizes and he gives context to it,
but I don't know, I'm not sure that we've heard
that from a quarterback before. What do you think about
(34:55):
the Cousins era in Minneapolis. Well, it's you. I like
Kirk a lot as a guy, and uh, you know,
I think he's got some some talent. No no, no question,
He's had good stretches of football for whatever reason. Um,
it just hasn't really clicked there in Minnesota. And at
this point in time when I look at it and
I can, okay, what's surrounding him and as he's been
(35:17):
given every opportunity. Now I looked the Bearers game is
a tough one. They're they're front kind of dominated that
football game. But overall, when you look at the improvements
they have made, which they have made in the offensive
line at least a little bit better there. Um, you
look at the weapons heads on the outside, you look
at Dalvin Cook, you know it really emerging is one
of the best running backs in the NFL looks putting
him in the system that he was comfortable with, um,
(35:40):
you know in in his previous stop and watching you
bringing Kubiak, Who's who's running that Shanahan seat. So they've
done everything to kind of instant him and to give
him going And part of it is I still think
they don't totally trust him. So they don't totally cut
him loose. And then when he does have the opportunities,
even though they're limited, he's he's has been able to
(36:01):
get done. So, UM, I can understand their beans and
frustration there for everybody involved. What about the Houston Texans, Um,
is there a frustration there with Deshaun Watson still holding
on the football too long? Yeah? I mean it's and
something he got away with against the Chargers. Uh, he
was able to pull out of some pressure and get away. Um.
(36:22):
And then then you had previously in those previous games
where he didn't get away with it, and he didn't
get away with it in this one. That's the bigger
issue in that game. And and he you know, he
got a lot of attention for the post postgame comments.
But when you go back and watch that tape, there
were two two deep shots. You know, we talk about
Cousins missing Delan and Shaun, who was deadly accurate against
the Chargers on the neat ball, missed to uh to
(36:44):
what should have been home run balls in that game
won to Fuller and one to Hopkins. And if he
hits those and then um, you know, hey we're talking
about Yeah, he needs to get rid of the ball,
but it's it's coming off of a win. UM And
unfortunately he just wouldn't able to hit those balls in
that game. Why do you think the Rams went away
from Todd Gurley? I thought it was a nice game
plan from Tampa. I mean, they their their their defense
(37:07):
attacked the edges um and and and they also there's
no sit and read like, there's different ways to play
it when you got to play action stuff. They worked
off of UM. They didn't hesitate the end man on
the line, if it was a linebacker or a defensive end.
They attacked the mesh point where the handoff was taking
place and just kind of forced the action. So they
took away that perimeter run game. UM. And then they
(37:29):
just went away from it, and they've totally abandoned it.
And uh, you know, they've got to figure out a
CounterPunch in their run game because they didn't have one
in that game. Uh. Dwayne Haskins Kent came in and
he looked he looked completely lost. And and then I
don't know if you you saw this today, but they
asked Jake Gruden about his quarterback plan. He said, we
don't have one. He's come out and he's He's told
(37:52):
people like, look, the kids not ready. The kid didn't
look like he's ready, and yet the Redskins are clearly
pressuring Gruden to play him. Um, how far behind is
Dwayne Haskins. Well, that wasn't a good showing. I mean,
I don't know how to sugarcoat it, but to me,
it wasn't unusual to see a guy thrown into a
game that they didn't start, didn't prepare us to start
(38:13):
all week long. It's he's a rookie player. They did
not surprise me to see someone like that struggle. That's
probably more the you know, more the norm than the exception.
What was more bizarre than all that Doug was was
Crutin's commons um. And I don't know if he's you know,
if hams Hashim been doing everything he wants him to
be doing, if there's disappointment there, you know, work ethically,
(38:33):
I have no idea. I just know that there's nothing
more fragile than a young quarterback's confidence. And after a
game like that as a coach, the problem, in my opinion,
they're correct thing to say is they didn't play well today,
but we didn't put him in a good position. It
starts with us, we're gonna do a better job, and
whenever he gets the opportunity again, um, you know, we
believe in him and he's gonna make it happen. But
(38:54):
you know, you can put a lot of that on
me and we'll get him ready to go. But we
still believe in him. And it was like the opposite.
It was like this guy wasn't He's got to earn
everything he gets just because where your pick doesn't determine
you play. I'm like, dude, that is the exactly wrong
way to handle a young quarterback. But but doesn't that
speak to you know what people have said. Where he's
not standing next to the offensive coordinator, he's not. He
doesn't seem engage on the sidelines, isn't Isn't that doesn't
(39:16):
that play into some of the things we've heard. Yeah,
but I still think that you have those comments privately.
I don't think you have those comments about your quarterback
publicly because you can't. It's hard to recover from that,
So I don't. I just think, look, even if you
don't believe it, you've got to pump these guys full
of confidence in a public setting and then you can privately, Hey,
you need to be doing this, this, this, and this.
(39:38):
It's just odd. It's just it's it's something you don't
see very often. Awesome stuff. Daniel Jeremiah download the Move
the Sticks podcast whatever podcasts, right, and we're watching on
NFL Network. DJ. Thanks so much, appreciate you. But see
it
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug Gotlive Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up, America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming
to you from sunny southern California. I hope you're having
a great, great day. Uh. Last night we kind of
(00:44):
made fun of the fact that baseball was having their
playoffs and not telling anybody Baseball playoffs were last night. Oh,
Baseball playoffs are tonight. Don't tell anybody secret, right, It's
not because it's on Turner and tonight, it's on ESPN.
It's just I don't know. Tuesday night kind of felt
(01:06):
sort of random, felt sort of small for the stage
that it is. But what did it give us? Well,
I didn't get Christine Yellich, who's arguably the best player
in baseball, the best player in National League. Maybe maybe
back to back n L M v ps. It didn't
give us Bryce Harper. That's because Bryce Harper switched teams
(01:27):
right before the season began for a huge, colossal, thirteen
year deal to join the Philadelphia Phillies, who, of course
and up finishing behind the Washington Nationals and the Nation
League East. By the way, kind of skill for there
that I could continue full sentences, sneezed twice within those senses,
(01:50):
wasn't ramos like? That was kind of that's kind of
special stuff right there. That's that's elite broadcasting. This ain't
no podcast brother radio anyway. So it didn't give us
a couple of the stars we thought we might get,
but it did give us an unbelievable ending. Unbelievable the
(02:11):
Nationals excuse me that Brewers are dominating the game. They're
up three to one, they lead essentially the whole way.
You got Josh Hayter in the pen, who never get
doesn't every like batting average against him by left handed
hitters this year. One, of course, he gives up a
big hit to a left handed hitter, but down to
(02:34):
their last out in the eighth inning, that's not their
final out to be. It's not the Texas, not the Rangers.
Having the Cardinals down to their final out two times
in Game six of the World Series, but still down
the last out in the eighth inning, they end up
putting three on the board on a hit by pitch
which appeared to not be hit by pitch, on a
(02:55):
broken bat, single on a walk, and a single to
right field with an error by the right fielder who
just bizarrely misplayed the ball. That's it. Four runs on
those four plays, which is baseball, right, that's base I've
told you guys this, anytime you want to explain something
that's completely inexplicable, you just say, that's baseball. A matter
(03:18):
of fact, this whole area of this whole area fifty
one thing. If if the government just came out and said,
you know, somebody says like I saw these things that
look like flying saucers, and if you look at the photos,
these planes are moving sideways. That they just said, hey,
let's baseball, You're like, oh, okay, that's the baseball. Guy
does right? How does Josh Hayter, who has been money
(03:39):
all year suddenly spit up all over himself as baseball?
But that was baseball, no time limit game never over
until the final out. And like even the Gnats, by
the way, even the Gnats who Daniel Hudson comes in
just throwing gas, they're the last out they recorded was
(04:03):
at the warning track. It was different parks. That ball
is out and we have a bottom of the ninth inning,
but the Nats move on, which, by the way, is
a win from Major League Baseball, win for us at
Fox because you have Nats DC huge market against dayers.
(04:24):
You've got Dodgers Gnats, and then the other one in
the National League is what the Cardinals and the Braves,
and then of course the American League will see what
happens tonight with the A's who are hosting the Rays,
two teams that no one really wants in the playoffs.
And I'm gonna debunk the myths of moneyball in a second,
(04:50):
but I also want to point out that you have
the Yankees, and as long as the Yankees are at
the Dodger and you've got the dream scenario for us
here at Fox, which is Yankees Dodgers World Series. He's
haven't had it since but wait, year was that nineteen?
But correlation is not causation that that's today's sentence of
(05:15):
the day or phrase of the day. Correlation is not causation.
Is it ironic? Is it fun? Is it interesting that
Bryce Harper was with the Nationals but then he leaves
the Nationals to go to the Phillies in the same division,
and only now do the Washington Nationals win and advance
(05:37):
in the playoffs? Is that fun? And the Phillies did not.
Phillies did not even make the playoffs. There's a correlation there, right,
But that's not the causation. The fact is the Nationals
haven't had quality bullpen work for the last half decade.
They have made the playoffs, and things that go bump
in the night the that's baseball, things where suddenly their
(06:00):
hitters can't hit, or Bryce Harper was injured at times
have been reasons they've fallen apart before the the idea
that Bryce Harper not being on the team is the
reason they came back in one last night, that's that's
(06:21):
not the causation. That had nothing to do with being
hit by pitch, broken bat, single walk and single to
right field. Just do just didn't right. It was a
route team play that turned into an error. And and
by the way, this this is a little bit of
shot at stat guy at analytics guy, which tells you
(06:44):
everything you need to know about stats based upon all
of us. It doesn't mean under pressure everybody is different, right,
Josh Hayter is amazing this year. He wasn't last night.
Why under the pressure of playing in the white hots
hot light of a win or go home scenario. Who's
the right fielder for the Brewers? There? Dan Buyer butchered
(07:07):
that ball? Trent Grisham. That is correct, all right? Trent
Grisham gathers that ball and throws the you know, and
hits the cutoff man times in a hundred and did
it take a little bit of funky bounce bouncing to
his right as he was running to his left. Sure,
did he overrun it? Probably? Maybe you overran it because
(07:27):
of pressure of excitement at the moment because you're in
a one game scenario and people act differently. Let's baseball.
Here was Trent Grisham after the game coming up, So
I was getting ready to throw to home. Came in
a little off balance, kind of took a little funky
off on me. Just because I came in off balance.
(07:49):
I didn't really gather myself ball one back there and
try to get into school clad. Hey, we misplayed the ball.
Let's baseball happens, kind of que ball sort of effect.
Bryce Harper, braas, Harper is probably overrated. It is not
the best player in the National League. He's likely overpaid,
(08:10):
aren't we all and and the Phillies grand plan of
having him under club control in the mid twenty millions,
like six million dollars from here into perpetuity is actually
a pretty smart plan, really is it. But but that's
not the causation for the Nationals winning last night. They've
(08:32):
actually been in the playoffs before with him. It's a
one game scenario. It's a thing that goes bump in
the night, right, I mean, look, uh, Sherzer wasn't great
and Zimmerman was. And Zimmerman has been their best picture
for the last month and a half two months of
the season. Anyway, that has nothing to do with Bryce Harper.
(08:56):
Mike Trout is the best player maybe in the history
of baseball. Like we're gonna when he finishes up, he
continues to get better, Like he had a great year
this year. He had forty five home runs before he
got hurt. Right, He's been the best player in baseball
for most of the last seven years. Right, you put
that together for fourteen fifteen years, He's not you would think,
(09:16):
barring some sort of catastrophic intry, he's gonna get better,
not gonna get worse. Right like he made gave that
go down as the greatest player in the history of baseball.
Had been the playoffs once against kan City Royals, who
went to and won the World Series. The Royals who
probably shouldn't have even been in that game, but they
had a comeback against the Texas Rangers in the wild card.
(09:37):
In the wild card game, I was as sorry as
the A's. My bad was against the A's in the
wild card game. And oh yeah, by the way, Trout
didn't hit at all. But that's not why they lost.
They lost all three games and extra innings. Wasn't even
the regular bullpen their correlation. Sure, is it the causation?
(10:01):
It's not, it's not. So last night was great for
what it was awesome. Baseball pressure changes all of these stats.
NAT's move on. They can carry that badge of honor
of Hey, we wanted to overpay Bryce Harper. We just
apparently didn't want to over pay him as much as
(10:21):
he wanted to be overpaid, but that's not the cause
for why they're still playing. All right, we'll get to
the NFL up coming next. Be sure to catch the
live edition of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at
three p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app. This was Adam Feeling,
(10:44):
wide receiver Minnesota Vikings. These were his comments after their
loss on Sunday. At some point, you're not gonna be
able to run the ball for a hunter yards, even
with the best running back in the NFL. And that's
when you have to be able to throw the ball.
You have to be able to make plays. Um, you
have to be able to uh, you know, hit the ball,
the deep balls. You have to do that because otherwise
it's too easy for changers tea up and rush the quarterback.
(11:05):
So we have to be able to run the ball
and pass the ball. In this league. You cannot be
one dimension all. It's just too easy to defend. Okay, now,
listen that that it's a smart thing that's he's doing.
He's talking about. Remember they only led Kirk Cousins throw
it ten times in their first win of the season.
He didn't name Kirk by name. He didn't call out
the play calling. He just said, hey, a matter of fact, wise,
(11:27):
we can't they're just loading up. We gotta find other
ways to win. Here's Kirk Cousins, his quarterback earlier. Uh,
you said yesterday on a Minneapolis radio station, Kirk, did
you take offense to that quote at all? No, Like
he said, it's reality. I really want to apologize to
(11:49):
him because there's too many opportunities where we could have
hit him. On Sunday and post game and I talked
to the media, I always say, hey, until I watched
the film, it's hard for me to really give you
a straight answer. Well, I watched the film, and the
reality is there were opportunities for him. The one that's
most obvious is the third and ten at the beginning
of the game. We're near midfield. That's arguably seven points
(12:10):
if you put the ball where it needs to be.
He's shown number nineteen, shown that he will make that play,
and he'll probably finish the play in the end zone
and pull away from the defender. Yeah, this is we've
gotten to the theater of the weird, right where even
Mike Zimmer, who's always he's got the red ass over
lots of different stuff. Right, he came out and he's like, well,
maybe he should stay off his podcast, to stay off
(12:32):
the radio. Right, Kirk Cousins now apologizing for not getting
Adam felding the football in any other work environment, In
any other work environment, I would tell you that Cousins
apologizing for not taking advantage of somebody else's talents in
the workplace would be uh, would be well received, right,
(12:57):
would be well received like any other work environment. Like,
hey man, sorry we didn't use you on that project.
It was a mistake. Clearly now we look back and
had we had you do the marketing, we would have
landed the job. But but this ain't This isn't a salesforce,
This ain't a marketing gig. This isn't you know, trying
(13:21):
to pitch a school district on investing on using your
company to do their mechanicals. This, this isn't a regular
work This is the NFL. And though you have to,
you have to hear Stefon Diggs and Adam dealing and
hear them chirping about targets, knowing they want the football,
(13:43):
knowing they think they can help you win the game.
You also at certain times, have to put guys in place,
have to be the alpha in the room. Oh yeah, yeah,
you're always open. Every wide receiver is always open. I
was open. This is not show friends, this is show business.
(14:05):
And Kirk cousins desire to be liked seems to overwhelm
his desire to be a great quarterback and an alpha
and the leader and somebody who guys believe in. And honestly,
gotta be a little bit scared of. Gotta be a
little bit scared of. Be sure to catch the live
(14:25):
edition of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three
p m. Easter noon Pacific. He has been, uh, just
an absolute savior to the Charge. You look at the
Charge link two and two this year, but a ridiculous
litany of injuries and of course they also didn't have
their starting tailback Melvin Gordon up until last week, or
he only dressed because they just needed some numbers. Austin
(14:47):
Ekeler has been his replacement and he's he's done everything
there two and two. Coming off a win over the Dolphins,
he joins in the Doug Outlip Show on Fox Sports Radio. Austin, Now,
are you hey, what's going on for having. Yeah, the
only thing you haven't done is play special teams, which
is one of the things you're known for. But you
can't put you out there because you get the ball
so much and do so many other things. I know,
(15:10):
it's been a send a switch for me as far
as my role this year, but hey, if they put
me back on special teams, I wouldn't be I wouldn't
be sad about it, all right, So, uh, what what
what has it been like from you right to go
from a couple of years ago being an undrafted rookie
to making the team to through through the first four
weeks of the season, me and the starting running back
for the team. What's that transition like? Right? You know,
(15:33):
earlier on in my career, I felt like I was
just trying to you know, make a spot, just you know,
undrafted from a smaller school, basically had everything to prove, so,
you know, just trying to find my way and not
mess up on the field. And then kind of you know,
edged myself into a role of you know, special teams,
and then my second year came into more special teams,
a little bit of offense, and now I found myself
(15:53):
you know, started for these first four weeks and so
it's just been a slow advancement of my into the
offensive offensive spot. And so now I found myself here
looking forward to you know, week five, we got fell
back and so uh, like you said, we got a
bunch of people bank out, So I'm sure you know
we're gonna be on the field at the same time
a lot, and you know, whatever we can get it done,
(16:15):
to get it done. Yeah, for people who don't follow
the Chargers right, like going it just going into the
game in Miami, you didn't have your starting kicker, you
have Derwin James. Uh, you know, you don't have your
starting left tackle. You're down to two running backs, three
wide receivers. Then you lose Inman, right, you lose one
of your tight ends. Now you have one healthy tight end.
(16:37):
Now we lost your kicker, your punter who was your kicker,
heard his planned foots, and I got to sign another kicker. Like,
how have you ever been around a team that has
had this many injuries this early in the season. I
have not, I have. I don't know what the heck
is going on because I mean a lot of them
like broken bones or you know, toring aquies, and it's
like actually like football injury, so it's not like the
(17:00):
soft tissue and so it's just it's just not super Unfortunately,
you know, it had four new guys and in the
media room today, in the team room, you know, you
got to happen to introduce yourself, like you're gonna be
helping us playing on Sunday. You know, like I've never
been around it. That's just you know the nature of football,
but you know, usually not to this magnitude that I've
been around. Yeah, how do you get perspective though? Because
I think, having watched all your games, should have won
(17:23):
the Detroit game, and frankly you had to lead most
of the way. You should have won the Texans game.
But you are you guys are depleted, Like how do
you how do you have the perspective of where you
are as opposed to maybe where you should be. Uh,
you know, shoot, that's the NFL for you. You know,
that's what I've learned over these past couple of years
and our first year. So I think we will loast
like four or five games by you know, less than
(17:45):
seven points. And so it's just the game of inches.
You know, you've heard that before and it stays true. Today.
And you know, shoot, going back to that Lions game,
should have won that game, antil I fumbled on the
one yard line. You know, we had up losing the
game by like three points something like that. I was like, man,
and I was like, you know, little things here and
there that really make a big difference in the end.
(18:06):
And it's just a team that can reduce those, you know,
throughout the entire years, the ones that end up on top.
What is that feeling like a flying home from Detroit
knowing your fond wasn't the one yard line. I'm still sick,
to be honest thinking about it. She would probably be
with me forever, you know. I mean that's just like
you're so close you can't get any closer, and just
(18:28):
for that to happen, just like I don't know, just
I don't know. In a way, I use it to
feel my mental toughness, like, look like you've been You've
been through it all, man, Like you've done this, done that,
good things, bad things, whatever happens, you still gotta keep
pushing forward. You did have your hand on the point
of the football. Wasn't you holding it wrong? Right? No?
(18:48):
I was I was trying to do too much. I
tried to reach it and it was just not smart
play just because it was it was first in goal
from the one yard line, so it was like, let's
just pounded in there. And so it's definitely a long
experience for me, and uh, you know, yeah, I'm I'm
getting something good out of it, and you know, I'm
not going to the negatives. You know, you can read
my comments if you want to do. Okay, here's a
(19:11):
real question that everybody really wants to ask, and only
I get a chance to ask. Melvin's back. He scores touchdowns.
But you know you've been getting fantasy wise, who's going
to get the ball around the goal line this week?
You know, it's just me and you talking. Don't worry
about being a hundred radio stations. Uh. We have a
little joke. You know, it's been over the past year.
(19:32):
Coach is like, hey, you get inside of that fifteen,
you better score from outside because if you don't, you know,
we're gonna be shotting on the food. So that's a
little joke. But you know it's a little more intensive,
you know, making that last guy missed because you know
you're probably gonnaee twenty five jotting out there. What what
what what's it like to have him back? Like? Is
what what what's the what's the honest response to having
(19:52):
him in the meeting room? Ah? Shoot, we need everyone
firstly right now. What we got going. We're trying to
make a push for you know, playoffs and all the
way to the end. So all the playmakers and Pro Bowl,
every everybody we can get. That's how we if you
make play and you know, contribute that. I mean, that's
what we need on the team. That's what we need
on the field. So you know, whoever is whoever is
(20:13):
coming back, you know where it's derwing here a little bit.
So now it just got back. You know, that's some
stuff going on. We've been playing all right without him.
You know, they can't hurt to have your Pro Bowl
running back back. Well, Austin, listen, it hasn't gone unnoticed
all the things you've done. Hopefully we get to see
you back on special teams as well soon because you're
so great at that. Thanks so much for joining us
(20:33):
on Fox Sports Radio. Absolutely thanks for having me. All right,
it's Austin Neckla joining us. 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 search f s R to
listen live. Dak Prescott obviously was taken in the fourth round.
And while you can make the argument that he's been
(20:53):
underpaid to this point, and to be a fair argument,
the problem is that the NFL, we don't really pay
you for what you did. We pay you for what
you're going to do. And if we've learned one thing
about the Rams, the feeling from the Rams is Jared
Goff can't really carry us. Right. The reason Todd Gurley
(21:15):
didn't get the football was because it was It wasn't
as if the Tampa Buccaneers came in and they came
They've actually said this, Their entire game plan was to
make Jared Goff beat them. Now that Tid Gurley beat us,
make Jared Goff beat us, and they are of twenty one,
(21:36):
nothing to blink of an eye. Now, it should be
pointed out that the offensive line has changed for the Rams.
They have two new starters and it's been rated as
the second worst offensive line in the NFL by Pro
Football Focus. And that's what happens when you signed Todd
Gurley to a huge deal. And that's what happens when
you signed other players two big deals is something has
(21:57):
something gives and you go to new offensive linemen. This
is what happens. But in addition to that, Jared Goff
just isn't a guy now. He threw for over five yards,
which Dak Prescott has never done and maybe you will
never do. But the idea that forget about Carson Wentz
(22:20):
because people want to compare Dak Prescott to Carson Wentz,
and like, look, let me know when Dak Prescott is
going to win an m v P. Because Carson Wentz
was gonna win an MVP two years ago before he
heard his knee, I'm not gonna happen. But the keeping
up with the Joneses in the NFL, finding a comparable
salary for which you think is a comparable player. I
don't think off as a comparable player, but I do
(22:41):
think that the construction of that team is on some
levels similar. Running Back is most important. Quarterback can do
the job if the running backs performing, But does that
when you a Super Bowl. Here's Brett Farve on Serious
x M giving praise to Dak Prescott. I think he's good.
I really do not a knock in any way, shape
(23:02):
or form. But he's not as flashy. But he but
he's very consistent. He's got everything you could ask for, size, strength,
arm strength, UM, the guy's loving. Um. He plays hard,
he plays smart. You know. I think he's a legitimate, long,
long time quarterback barring injury, and at some point I
(23:24):
do believe that he'll he'll leave that team to the
super Bowl. Yeah, I it's interesting. He didn't say accurate, right,
which is a which is a big thing, especially short
intermediate throws, which is accurate. And he said I think
he's good. Not as flashy means he just doesn't have
the top end talent. He doesn't throw guys open. He
(23:45):
can't win us a game on his own. He can
win games, but he can't win us a game. Does
everybody understand the kind of the difference there? Danna Jeremiah
is gonna join us, and he does the truck or tractor.
I tried tractor or trailer. Excuse me, tractor, trailer. Tractor
pulls everything along. Trailer is along for the ride. And
I think he thinks of Dak Prescott Moore as a trailer.
(24:08):
Another way to express it is you can win games
from the quarterback. But he's not gonna win your games
at quarterback, and they're gonna go out and go, hey, fellas,
get him back, let's go, which by the way, Jared
Goff almost did, almost did. He got strip sacked, fumbled,
was under duress, but it wasn't as if he didn't
(24:31):
give them a fighter's chance, even though down twenty one
nothing because he can throw the football accurately. Although he's
not been as good, nor has he ever been as good.
You get pressure on him early and he starts to
get a little a little quick with that trigger. Be
sure to catch the live edition of The Doug gott
Leap Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific
(24:52):
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio Whap.
He's got a great podcast called Move the Sticks. I
listened to it often, especially like the ten Tac Awaysam
the Uh from all the NFL games. That's just kind
of quick, easy, very easy to digest stuff. Daily podcast.
He and Bucky Brooks, of course you here on this
show sometimes guest hosting on this show. You also see
(25:13):
him in the NFL Network and hear him called Charger
Games on the weekend. He's Daniel Jeremiah, he joins us
on Fox Sports Radio. Um, what happened by your estimation
to the Cowboys in the Dome against the Saints. Well,
I think, look, we've we've talked about it before about
how teams are built, and some teams are quarterback driven,
some teams are running back driven or run game driven.
(25:35):
I should say the Cowboys are offensive line driven. I
mean that that's what kind of makes that whole thing go.
And and they got just absolutely smoked up front by
the by the Saints. I mean they just they domin him,
they dominated them. They couldn't run the ball. Umdac was
under a lot of pressure. I know Dak took a
lot of grief after that one night after watching the tape. Duck,
I don't think he played that poorly. Uh, you know,
(25:57):
they put some balls on the ground and uh and
the offen the line just didn't control the line of
scream much like the head earlier in the year. But
doesn't that signify one of the issues, Like I I
agree with you. You know, when you're two favorite two
favorite targets end up fumbling. Um, that's especially on the road,
that that's problematic. But the idea that if the offensive
(26:17):
line doesn't play well and they can't run the football,
he can't bail you out, he can't throw guys open.
Doesn't that ultimately expose Dak Prescott's being a good just
not a great quarterback? Oh? Yeah. I have not put
him in that great you know, elite, great, whatever word
you want to use category. But I think he's us
That's what they have there. And I think the encouraging
(26:38):
thing for me on Doc is that I've seen him
make progress a year to year. So you know, at
this point in time, can he overcome an offensive line
getting destroyed like maybe you know Peyton or Tom or
some of these other quarterbacks good over the years. No,
but he's better. He's better now than he was last year.
Every year he's getting better. And the hope is that
eventually you get to that point you saw the Dolphins
(26:59):
up close and personal. Um, what happens with Josh Rosen,
Like I just you know it is it feels like
he's on the path to being on another team next
year and even and he won't be a star, Like
here's the guy who went from a can't miss prospect
to can't hit prospect. Yeah, and I don't know that
(27:20):
it's set up for anybody to uh have success what
they have there. When I when I'm getting ready to
these games, Doug, I have a little highlighter system when
I'm looking at the team, and I kind of look
at him as you know, different levels of players and
and usually most offenses, you know you're gonna have three
or four blue players, which obviously kind of the blue ship,
you know, premier player. That Dolphins team offense and defense
(27:43):
has one blue player right now, and that's David Howard
at the corner. I mean, they don't have one blue
ship player on offense nothing, so there's nothing to work
with their and you know, to the point it was
interesting at the end of that game, they were down
by three scores and still some time left on the clock,
a good chunk of the fourth quarter, and it would
be like third and nine, and they were throwing the
(28:04):
ball three or four yards down the field. It would
just give up plays. It was. It was it was
almost sad. I mean, you're they're calling the games for
the for the Chargers, of course, but man, it was like, yeah,
this is this is just it's not competitive. Can the
Chargers get healthy enough quick enough for when it really matters,
uh to be determined. It just seems like every week
(28:25):
there's more, you know, and and this last week, dontrel
Emmon goes down, Melvine Ingram goes down. So if you
look at it, and we'll see you know what happens
with the injury report, and and maybe you know, you
get a chance to get somebody like Virgil green back.
But as of right now, you're down your top three
tight ends, you're down your number two, three and four receivers. Um,
(28:45):
you know you're down. You're you're starting kicker. They just
signed another kicker, so who knows, maybe they're on their
third kicker. Your top two safeties are out, including the
best player on your team in Derwin James. Melvin Ingram's gone.
I mean, it's just I've never seen a collection of
injuries quite like this. Now. Um, you know you've got
a winless Denver team coming out there. I think they're
much better than their record. Um, but man, if the
(29:08):
if the Chargers could somehow, I just keep looking at
the if they could be at four or four or
five and three after eight games, and then you start
to see all these guys come back in I think
they'll be in pretty good shape. They might not be
in shape to get chased down Kansas City to win
the division, but they've got a chance to get into
the tournament. Have people figured out Lamar Jackson? Well, I
(29:31):
think that. I think the first two weeks we talked
about it. You know, they played, you know, over the opponents.
You know, they played Miami and Arizona and and so
you couldn't you had to if you have temporary enthusiasm
a little bit. That's not real. What you saw those
first two weeks is not real. Now he's gonna still
you know, I think there's there's some excitement there and
he's gonna make plays. Um. But I thought the expectations
(29:52):
got away from a lot of people after those first
two weeks that I was a little bit of foolscal
I wouldn't say people have figured him out, but I
just think he stepped up and classed through they're playing.
I tend to agree with you. What about the Browns
if they figured out who they are, well, I give
I give them a lot of friends. They adjusted and
they morphed. I guess you don't give Baker Mainfield credit.
I thought his footwork was really poor and the in
(30:14):
the previous game against the Ramps, thought he was drifting
way too much. I thought he really improved in that
area this week. You could tell they really focused on it.
And uh, he was more firm in the pocket. It's
amazing when you get your feet in the ground, you're
more accurate. Um So he made some adjustments individually. And
I thought the way they ran the football was huge.
Incorporating the tight ends more was big in the run game.
(30:34):
UM So yeah, I think, you know, I think you
gotta give them some credit. That's a tough place to
go on the road and win in Baltimore, and they
and they dominated the football game. Uh, the Green May
Packers struggled in the red zone. That's that's really why
they lost on Thursday night football. Um I point out,
with a little help from some of my football friends,
like the zone reed play. Aaron Rodgers probably never run
(30:56):
that in the game. Well he shouldn't hand it off,
but he's never really run They've never it. If he
didn't give it like he should have, he should have
kind of held onto it longer and really really really
dragged out that that fake handoff. But he he didn't
play that style in college he was before that style
he hasn't done in the pros. It feels like they're
still kind of figuring out who they are and what
(31:17):
they want to be. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. Um.
I don't think that it's you know, look, I know
he hasn't done it. I don't think it's rocket science.
I think he's he's a great athlete who's very bright,
and I think he'll, you know, he'll figure it out.
Maybe it's something they do need to repet a little
more if they want to include it. Would he with
the way he can move around, I would think you'd
want to have some component of that in your run game, um,
(31:38):
because it's tough to tough defense. So I would imagine
he'll get more comfortable with that and they'll sprinkle it
in a little bit. But outside of the outside of
them getting kind of the ricochet interception man, Aaron Rodgers
look pretty duncomfortable and good um in that ball game,
and I think that votes well for them going forward. Yeah,
it does feel like they have, uh, you know that
they've improved. Are the Detroit Lions at she a good
(32:00):
football team? That's maybe the biggest storyline to me and nobody.
And I get it's Detroit and nobody really cares on
a national level. But when I got ready for that game,
when they played the Chargers a second week and I
watched them against the Cardinals and they really blew that game.
They hadn't under control and they gave up a bunch
of yards at points late in the game and didn't
finish it. And that's the old time out situation. Um. Anyways,
(32:21):
they blew that game. I didn't know. I didn't necessarily
think they were very good. Then you get ready for
the Chargers game. I know the Chargers didn't play well,
but then they look the Lions beat them, and I said, okay, there,
maybe a little bit better than I thought. And then
they go on the road and beat Philly, who was
you know, we know what they are. That's a good
win on the road. Um. And then they give Campas
Sydney all they can handle it. I'm like, you know
(32:42):
what this is? Sometimes you just gonna say, Okay, they're
they're they're better there. That's a good football team. They're
better than I gave him credit for. Um. It's kind
of interesting here. Doug Otlives Show on Fox Sport Trader
Daniel Jeremiah is uh, it is our guest, Um, Pittsburgh
is the defensive line that good? Or is this since
and he's offensive line that bad? Well, since Cincinnati's offensive
(33:05):
line is awful. And you know, I have talked to
somebodies around the league in the in the pro side,
on the pro scouting side, who um, you know, I
watched as much tape as I can, but these guys
are you know, their sun up sundown and they're watching
consuming everything and uh. And a couple of them have
brought up to me like, I don't know that I've
seen a year where you have offensive lines as bad
(33:27):
as some of these, and he mentioned him specifically. When
you talk about the Cincinnati Bengals terrible offensive line, Miami
Dolphins terrible offensive line, the New York Jets awful offensive line,
like these are these are not like bad this year?
Offensive lines like these are like some of the worst
offensive lines we've seen in the last decade. Um. So
I think pittsburghs got a tremendous amount of talent upfront.
(33:49):
But I came away from that game saying that was
I mean, that was batting practice against that group? Did
you I don't know if you saw heard this back
and forth. I adam feeling, uh, you know, said hey, look,
we throw the ball more. And then Kirk Cousins goes
on a podcast and Kirk God He goes in a
podcast and says this, Kirk, did you take offense to
that quote at all? No, Like he said, it's reality.
(34:11):
I really want to apologize to him because there's too
many opportunities where we could have hit him. On Sunday
and post game and I talked to the media, I
always say, hey, until I watched the film, it's hard
for me to really give you a straight answer. Well,
I watched the film, and the reality is there were
opportunities for him. The one that's most obvious is the
third intent. At the beginning of the game, we're near midfield.
(34:33):
That's arguably seven points if you put the ball where
it needs to be. He's shown number nineteen, shown that
he will make that play and he'll probably finish the
play in the end zone and pull away from the defender. Yeah,
so you know, he apologizes and he gives context to it,
but I don't know, I'm not sure that we've heard
that from a quarterback before. What do you think about
(34:55):
the Cousins era in Minneapolis. Well, it's you. I like
Kirk a lot as a guy, and uh, you know,
I think he's got some some talent. No no, no question,
He's had good stretches of football for whatever reason. Um,
it just hasn't really clicked there in Minnesota. And at
this point in time when I look at it and
I can, okay, what's surrounding him and as he's been
(35:17):
given every opportunity. Now I looked the Bearers game is
a tough one. They're they're front kind of dominated that
football game. But overall, when you look at the improvements
they have made, which they have made in the offensive
line at least a little bit better there. Um, you
look at the weapons heads on the outside, you look
at Dalvin Cook, you know it really emerging is one
of the best running backs in the NFL looks putting
him in the system that he was comfortable with, um,
(35:40):
you know in in his previous stop and watching you
bringing Kubiak, Who's who's running that Shanahan seat. So they've
done everything to kind of instant him and to give
him going And part of it is I still think
they don't totally trust him. So they don't totally cut
him loose. And then when he does have the opportunities,
even though they're limited, he's he's has been able to
(36:01):
get done. So, UM, I can understand their beans and
frustration there for everybody involved. What about the Houston Texans, Um,
is there a frustration there with Deshaun Watson still holding
on the football too long? Yeah? I mean it's and
something he got away with against the Chargers. Uh, he
was able to pull out of some pressure and get away. Um.
(36:22):
And then then you had previously in those previous games
where he didn't get away with it, and he didn't
get away with it in this one. That's the bigger
issue in that game. And and he you know, he
got a lot of attention for the post postgame comments.
But when you go back and watch that tape, there
were two two deep shots. You know, we talk about
Cousins missing Delan and Shaun, who was deadly accurate against
the Chargers on the neat ball, missed to uh to
(36:44):
what should have been home run balls in that game
won to Fuller and one to Hopkins. And if he
hits those and then um, you know, hey we're talking
about Yeah, he needs to get rid of the ball,
but it's it's coming off of a win. UM And
unfortunately he just wouldn't able to hit those balls in
that game. Why do you think the Rams went away
from Todd Gurley? I thought it was a nice game
plan from Tampa. I mean, they their their their defense
(37:07):
attacked the edges um and and and they also there's
no sit and read like, there's different ways to play
it when you got to play action stuff. They worked
off of UM. They didn't hesitate the end man on
the line, if it was a linebacker or a defensive end.
They attacked the mesh point where the handoff was taking
place and just kind of forced the action. So they
took away that perimeter run game. UM. And then they
(37:29):
just went away from it, and they've totally abandoned it.
And uh, you know, they've got to figure out a
CounterPunch in their run game because they didn't have one
in that game. Uh. Dwayne Haskins Kent came in and
he looked he looked completely lost. And and then I
don't know if you you saw this today, but they
asked Jake Gruden about his quarterback plan. He said, we
don't have one. He's come out and he's He's told
(37:52):
people like, look, the kids not ready. The kid didn't
look like he's ready, and yet the Redskins are clearly
pressuring Gruden to play him. Um, how far behind is
Dwayne Haskins. Well, that wasn't a good showing. I mean,
I don't know how to sugarcoat it, but to me,
it wasn't unusual to see a guy thrown into a
game that they didn't start, didn't prepare us to start
(38:13):
all week long. It's he's a rookie player. They did
not surprise me to see someone like that struggle. That's
probably more the you know, more the norm than the exception.
What was more bizarre than all that Doug was was
Crutin's commons um. And I don't know if he's you know,
if hams Hashim been doing everything he wants him to
be doing, if there's disappointment there, you know, work ethically,
(38:33):
I have no idea. I just know that there's nothing
more fragile than a young quarterback's confidence. And after a
game like that as a coach, the problem, in my opinion,
they're correct thing to say is they didn't play well today,
but we didn't put him in a good position. It
starts with us, we're gonna do a better job, and
whenever he gets the opportunity again, um, you know, we
believe in him and he's gonna make it happen. But
(38:54):
you know, you can put a lot of that on
me and we'll get him ready to go. But we
still believe in him. And it was like the opposite.
It was like this guy wasn't He's got to earn
everything he gets just because where your pick doesn't determine
you play. I'm like, dude, that is the exactly wrong
way to handle a young quarterback. But but doesn't that
speak to you know what people have said. Where he's
not standing next to the offensive coordinator, he's not. He
doesn't seem engage on the sidelines, isn't Isn't that doesn't
(39:16):
that play into some of the things we've heard. Yeah,
but I still think that you have those comments privately.
I don't think you have those comments about your quarterback
publicly because you can't. It's hard to recover from that,
So I don't. I just think, look, even if you
don't believe it, you've got to pump these guys full
of confidence in a public setting and then you can privately, Hey,
you need to be doing this, this, this, and this.
(39:38):
It's just odd. It's just it's it's something you don't
see very often. Awesome stuff. Daniel Jeremiah download the Move
the Sticks podcast whatever podcasts, right, and we're watching on
NFL Network. DJ. Thanks so much, appreciate you. But see
it
Host
Doug Gottlieb
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.