October 4, 2019 • 47 mins
After the Rams lose their second game in a row, Doug tells you why you can’t be fixated on the result but should be focused on the process instead. He also thinks the Vikings are turning into a complete mess and the blame fall on head coach Mike Zimmer. Plus, former NFL Scout John Middlekauff joins the show to discuss the disaster going on with Redskins at QB.
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Episode Transcript
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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
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for the Doug Gottlieb Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
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Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
(00:21):
best of the Doug gottli Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Booming Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming
to you from the Sunny City of Angels. We're watching
Major League Baseball on f S one. The Astros, most
(00:42):
people's best team in baseball, finally have runners aboard and
we're gonna have our first I believe replay a safe,
good call, first replay of of the playoffs at all fairness.
I have watched ton of the playoffs, so maybe there's
been other replay is, but I haven't paid attention. Bottom
(01:02):
three two outs, runners at first and third. The challenge
won't matter. The Strows will have UH one runner and
scoring position at third base and one on first. We'll
we'll keep an eye on it, and of course Dan
Buyer will update us. We got three more baseball games
later on today, three more that should be a ton
(01:23):
of fun. We had some preseason hoops in our back pocket,
Rockets Clippers last night in Hawaii, and I believe there
was a game already today played in India. I don't
know who played. I just know there's a game in India.
And then, um, we got the NFL last night, Seattle
Seahawks nine. They end up beating the l A Rams.
(01:44):
I'll tell you to tell you might take away from
that in a moment. Got a huge slate of baseball,
college football, pro football this weekend. We have my picks.
We have John Middlecoff. We got Shack Barrett, who might
be the best player in football. I'd know we're having
Shack Barrett. He completely and thoroughly dominated the Rams last
(02:05):
Sunday at the Coliseum. Is that accurate? John Ramos, you
are a Rams fan? You know Shack Bart Shack Yeah,
outside linebacker, Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's hammer base defense. Threw
a lot of fits at the Rams. Yes, that's correct. Yeah.
And Dominican Sue, who did he chase down? He chased
down somebody? He chased down Brandon Cooks, do you guys
(02:27):
see that and Dominicans WU chased down Brandon Cook's and
then ran back the strip sack fumble for the last
touchdown the game, like in Dominican su And he still
wasn't the best defensive player in the field. It was
a shack Barrett who was going to join us some
people's defensive m v P at the quarter pole. Um,
all right, we got a lot to get to. Let's
let's start with last night. I know that you want
(02:51):
to be results driven in say, the Rams are a mess,
the Seahawks are great, and the twelve man is still
a ridiculous challenge for anybody. And I do think that
the noise played a factor in a false start which
did mark the Rams back five yards. It hurt their
(03:14):
ability to communicate. It cranked up the ability for Seattle
to get off the ball, to get off the ball
and staff and continue to get into the offensive backfield.
I understand that Todd Gurley still wasn't crazy effective. He
did get fifteen carries, he got eighteen touches, he didn't
do a lot with any of it. Um, there's a
(03:42):
lot of points I could make that are negatives about
the Rams. I do think their defense needs to improve.
Their offensive line seemed to take a half to wake up.
And Russell Wilson is a witch with his ability to
escape and then get balanced and then deliver the football.
And Chris Arson, Oklahoma State guy who was oft injured
(04:02):
and when he didn't injury, he fumbled, continues to be
a godsend. One thing lost is we do realize Seattle,
with their first round pick, not this year, last year,
drafted a running back who doesn't really play. That's crazy.
How good they've been, how well they've run the football,
and not with the guy they draft in the first
round to meet two seasons ago. But before we go crazy,
(04:27):
before we say Sean McVeigh doesn't know what he's doing
and Jared Goffs overpaid and the Rams are a mess,
and the Seahawks are awesome, and Russell Wilson's the best
and the division has changed. I mean, look, all that
being said, the Rams got a really uh flimsy penalty
(04:48):
called on them on Clay Matthews. They lost Brandon Cooks
and Clay Matthews during the game to injury. They're on
the road and they were six inches away from winning
that game, six inches away, maybe from the ball hitting
the upright twelve inches away from winning the game. It
was that close. Greg's airline kicks kicks from the right
hash mark, and it's from any other spot inside that
(05:11):
the two hash marks. That thing is in. It's straight
as an arrow and just barely misses. And so it's
the criticism and critique would be fair. But let's not
be completely results oriented. Let's not be the show. Don't
you be the fan who says, hey, Seahawks one rams lost.
(05:36):
That's all you need to know. Scoreboard, baby, scoreboard. By
the way, the bases are now loaded, are now loaded
for the Houston Astros. Going to the the entire glass. Now,
who's throwing fifty one pitches already through two and two
thirds of Vaninny. But Alvarez at the plate is set
(06:00):
in time at the dish and glassed out, trying to
get trying to get out of this jam. He's working
to an oh to count bottom third two outs. Anyway, look,
I thought Jared Goff showed me something I did. I thought,
you know, the big thing for Jared Goff is can't
he play with pressure in his face? And there were
(06:21):
times showing the game when he wasn't great but he
gathered himself and he was really good in the second half.
You know, look last weekend against the Bucks, the five
yards have been inflated because they had turnovers because they
were down twenty one nothing. So I'm not gonna sit
here and say that he's a five dred yard passer.
(06:44):
But I continue to see growth from Jared Goffer's quarterback
that he can in fact, single handedly bring this team back. Sure,
he stares down Cooper Cup and now he's got a
tight end he'll throw too. Remember he didn't have Brandon
Cooks late, so of course he's looking to the same
guys over and over again, the guys that he trusts.
(07:04):
Glass now is gonna get out of it. So the
Astros no blood bottom three loaded up the bases with
two outs and Glassdow strikes out Alvarez on the outside corner,
just absolutely paints the black with a beautiful fastball. What's
that gotta be like to throw um like the Seahawks
(07:29):
green lime green uniforms, like the Rams white uniforms. Todd
Gurley is exactly who I've told you he is. I
do think they're trying to save him some but some
of it is He'll just never be the guy that
he was. Kind of got overused. But but but a
good A good portion of why Todd Gurley hasn't been
(07:53):
able to be the guy he's been is their offensive
line is not that good. Steve Palaz Palozzolo is going
to join us from Pro Football UH Pro Football Focus.
They ranked the Rams offense coming in the last night's
game as the worst in the National Football League, and
there were times last night where they were can we
blame Gurley, Sure, But when you're running back who doesn't
(08:16):
get very many chances to get to the second level
where you're expediing exposed, this can take off. It doesn't
matter who's running the ball back there. Ram's offensive line
isn't as good. A big portion of the reason it
isn't as good is because they spend so much money
on Girly and on other individual players. Seahawks went through
(08:37):
this thing. Like people have said for the last three years,
Seahawks offensive line has to be better, and they've tried
to patch work it. They made a big trade for
their left tackle with Houston last year mid season. They've
had to make all these moves. But why it wasn't
just Russell Wilson. It was Richard Sherman, it was Bobby Wagner,
it was Earl Thomas, it was all the big name
(08:58):
guys they had that they had to pay, something had
to give, and the place where they gave was the
offensive line. So I'm not going to freak out. Every
Russell Wilson game seems to come down to the last possession.
(09:19):
And as much as I want to give the Seahawks credit,
the fact is that they gave up points like it
was water. They gave up a yardage like it was water.
And the Rams, in spite of the fact that they
could have thrown the ball over the middle of the
field a little bit more often, they did have a
delay of game. In spite of all of that, they
(09:41):
still worked themselves to a forty four yard field goal,
which an NFL cooker should make. In Greg's your line
would would make that in the high nineties in terms
of percentile. Let's not be results oriented. Rams gotta beat
the Niners. Niners given me on a short week. They
gotta continue to approve. But you're seeing some growth from
(10:01):
Aaron Donald Cooper Cups becoming a star. And what if
you didn't know that Seahawks rams was gonna be close,
or that Russell Wilson was gonna make plays scrambling around.
You haven't watched football for the last decade, be sure
to catch the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show
weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox
(10:23):
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio Whap. Jake Gordon
is acting like the guy who knows he's gonna get
fired and expecting to get fired and wants to make
a point about why he's getting fired. I remember last
going to Last Weekend. You're looking at every network. But
I think Glazer had at first like, hey, he could
be fired at the end of if they lose. And
(10:46):
my guest would be that it was told to him like, look,
you play Haskins or find a new job. He's like,
I here you go. That's way to ask. His was terrible.
He was terrible. Not bad, not so so, not disappointing,
(11:08):
not well, he could be He did a couple of No,
he was terrible. He was terrible. But but then this
report came out today from the Washington Post. A widespread
sense of Washington coach Jake Gruden didn't want the team
to draft rookie quarterback isn't just speculation. The Washington Post
reports that Jake that Jake Gruden didn't want Haskins, and
(11:30):
then Haskins consent that sense that Gruden didn't want him.
Both of these pieces of information attributed to unnamed sources
who are close to situation in Washington. You get as
if you listen to Dan Buyer, Colt Colt McCoy, Man,
we gotta go back to remember when Colt McCoy was
(11:50):
head his quarterback of Texas and then his arm went
numb in the first quarter in the National Championship game
at the Rose Bowl. He's got like dead arm. He's
like it was the weirdest thing ever. Um So Colpe
McCoy is gonna get the start. But man, is this
ugly and and and the the j Gruden like look.
(12:14):
I understand that that Haskins was not the guy they wanted.
And uh, I've and I've been told that Haskins is
a guy that hasn't worked particularly hard. That's probably their
most disappointing part is that it's not like Haskins came
in said all right, I'm gonna prove you guys wrong.
I'm just gonna go out every day and work and show.
(12:36):
And he's kind of pouted. Why because he's immature, both
skill set wise, development wise and mentally immature, But so
too is Jay Gruden, Like what are you doing? Tell
him now? Look, Jake Gruen's fighting fire with fire. If
you're gonna leak to reporters that I'm gonna get fired,
I'll leak it out to reports that that this kid
(12:56):
isn't working hard. But there's there's an expression in my business.
You can be right and you can be out of
a job like I've Jagrun's right. They shouldn't have wanted.
First of all, they have so much invest in the
(13:17):
quarterback position. They got Alex Smith, who they went all
in on Alex Smith, that Colbacos the backup, and damn
if they both didn't break their leg and Alex Smith
probably never plays again. So they tried to fix it
short term with case Keenum, and we know how that's
gonna work. But man, then you go and you get
a draft, a rookie who means you have to play,
and a coach that has to win. That's a volatile mix.
(13:38):
They were in first place before the Alex Smith got
hurt last year. Yes, right, music, you want to say something,
Do you think Jay Gruden is doing this with the
fact that because the demise of the Redskins and the
dysfunction of the Redskins has been something that's been well
reported for a while. Do you think he's looking at
(13:59):
this situa ation going, Man, I know I'm going to
get another head coaching job at some point because he
also has his brother now coaching back in the league,
so he can get a job there if he wants. Yeah,
I think he probably feels pretty confident that he can
because it is his first head coaching job in the NFL,
so he has to feel like, look, Adam Gaze got
another opportunity, Hugh Jackson got another opportunity, everybody gets another opportunity,
(14:23):
and people have got to know that the odds are
stacked against me. I mean, because he's just going scorched
or he's going Antonio Brown without going fully Antonio Brown
right now. Yeah. Yeah, when when he leaves, somebody will
say he's one of the most he's the most misunderstood
coach in the National Football leagues, that that that we're
gonna have here. Yeah, I don't know. I'd like it's
(14:44):
a it's an interesting theory what he's trying to trying
to play out. He's basically doing the I dare you
toifire me type thing, like okay, sure he'll get his wish,
get his wish pretty soon. Although look, I mean he
was right. I think there's a bunch of egos at
play here. His ego, I think the owner's ego because
(15:10):
the owner wanted them to draft Wayne Haskins because his
kid went to the owner's uh son or daughter's high school.
Like that's what this goes get kind of gets back to,
and I'm sure that's why they threw him in. Last
week they're like, oh, well, the you know, the Giant
said that we wanted Daniel Jones. We didn't want Danny Jones,
who wanted Dwayne Haskins. See like you oops oops, and
(15:36):
and who is the better quarterback last week? Remember it's
a it's a marathon, not a sprint. It doesn't actually
matter who's better right now, matters who's better long term.
But man, that was stark. In contrast, one guy looked
like he was he was maybe not a piece, but
dealing better with all the durest he was under at
the position. The other guy looked completely overwhelmed. Completely. Be
(16:00):
sure to catch the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific. We
got a lot to get to A John Middlecoll former
NFL Scout. Three and out is the podcast baumb on
Facebook as well as Twitter. Uh, he's great. Let's let's
start with last night? Um, how big are the problems
for the Rams? And I prefaced this by saying I
(16:21):
started the show going, Look, they still girly, doesn't look right.
Offensive line isn't great, defense isn't what it used to be.
But they missed a make up forty four yard field
goal with a reliable kicker, and they could have won
a road game against the Seattle team where Russell Wilson
pulled some magic out of his out of his rectum.
I don't think it's as bad as others, but you
see the game totally differently. What do you think? Yeah?
(16:44):
I completely agree. I thought last week was the problem.
Losing at home to Tampa Bay when you're basically a
double digit favorite. You can't let them score fifty five
on you last night. When you start the season, if
the Rams are gonna win eleven and or twelve games,
you still lose four or five. So losing on the
road a short week against you know, your division rival
(17:05):
who is also good, is not weird at all. I
I don't think. I actually I came away impressed. I
I can't get over how calm, cool and collected McVeigh
is even in these really big spots. I mean, last
night on the roughing the passer penalty from Clay Matthews,
it was clearly, you know, pretty borderline call. Even though
they tend to call that play a lot. McVeigh did
(17:27):
not freak out. Most coaches lose it on that, and
maybe he realizes, what's the point, They're not going to
change the call, so he kind of has a Belichick demeanor.
I thought golf was excellent. The other thing is, even
though girl somewhat of a shell of himself, I'm starting
to notice, like Gerald Everett, I didn't really have a
great feel for that guy. Higbie's established himself as a
pretty solid role player. Woods and Copper still really good
(17:50):
to me. They have a ton of offensive weapons passing
the ball that I actually yeah that they're gonna be
in the mix. Now, are they going to win? The
division again, probably not. You have to be able to
cover some people. And right now, Marcus Peters is just
not very good and I keep to Leave is just
an older player. So that's that's a legit kind of
a fatal flaw. That could be their undoing. Why is
(18:12):
their defense, Why is their defense so porous? Well, when
you look at what Wade did in Denver, their secondary
was unreal. I mean, I keep to Leave was in
like the peak of his powers. They had Bradley Robe,
he was young and really good. They had a great
nickel corner in Chris Harris Jr. They had Darren Stewart, TJ. Award.
They were just a a top notch group. And this
(18:35):
group is just not You know, Andy Reid, whose defense
isn't good, traded Marcus Peters, who he drafted because I'm
not the biggest Marcus Peters hater, because he does make
a lot of big plays. He had to pick six,
you know, the previous week against Tampa. He creates a
ton of fumbles. Like, he doesn't make big plays, but
he gives up just as many. And if you if
(18:57):
you have a game or two where you don't make
those big plays, the ones you give up can cost you,
especially in a game that's you know, gonna come down
to one or two points. And I think he's just
he just kind of is what he is. And to
keep the leave you get ten plus years in the
league at corner, you're just not gonna be quite as fast,
not quite as good. And they've had turnover. LaMarcus Joyner,
(19:18):
the guy the Raiders signed who was their free safety
the last several years, is there might be the raiders
best events of player like that guy is a good,
good player. He's a really versatile player because he can
cover your slot wide receiver who every team utilizes. Now,
like that's that's a big blow Aaron Donald. This isn't
like the NBA, right, he can't just be Lebron James
every game. He can only do so much. And he
(19:38):
saw last night he was basically doing everything he could.
But the linebackers not making tackles, the corners not covering anybody,
They're just to me, their personnel is just not as
good as it has been the last couple of year.
And some of it's the salary cap as well. I mean, like, look,
this is no I mean you mentioned the Raiders and
I know it's it's easy to pick on Gruden, but like, look,
LaMarcus Joiner, he got Tyrelle Williams. The Chargers couldn't afford
(20:02):
to keep Tyroll Williams, and both of those have been
huge pickups for the Raiders. And the reason that the
Rams lost Joiner and the Chargers lost Tyroll Williams is
the salary cap. Like, you know, you gotta pay some people,
and you can't afford to pay everybody. Well, I think
one problem, Doug to me, you if you you could
afford to pay the guys, you just can't miss. And
right now, with Gurley taking fifteen millions and not being
(20:25):
a fifteen million dollar player, can you imagine if they
just hadn't paid him, they would now he would be
on a fifth year option or whatever, so he'd still
be expensive. But just big picture, maybe they would have
had those extra millions to keep LaMarcus Joiner right, or
to keep one of those offensive linemen. To me, it's
not like Donald clearly he's worth every penny and god
you saw last night like he's you gotta overpay quarterbacks.
(20:45):
It is what it is like, He's not the problem.
To me, it's that when you miss on your third
and fourth and fifth best players and you pay the
wrong guys at twelve to eighteen million dollars, that's where
you get screwed. And that's what it looks like. Just
he's still fine, he's still solid, but he's not you
know what, what's Todd Gurley right now? Through a four
million dollar player? Yeah? Yeah, I mean they massively massively
(21:07):
missed on Todd Gurley and they did it a year
before they had to. Like, there's so many again, you
can give me the cost certainty stuff. Cont certainty stuff
works with quarterback, all right. Let me get to the
quarterback thing with with the Redskins all right, So let
me let me kind of a lay it out for
people who haven't been paying attention, because the Redskins are
huge in d C, but not necessarily nationally. So Dave
(21:29):
Gentleman drafts Dana Jones. He's like, look, you know, I
drafted Daniel Jones because the Red we had Intel, The
Redskins wanted him, and the Redskins like nah na fami.
We wanted Dwayne Haskins. The Owners kids went too high
school with Dwayne Haskins. They loved him. That's why they
drafted him. Urban Meyer said he's not ready. The coaching
staff didn't want him and thinks he's way not close
(21:53):
to being ready. Obviously they still miss Alex Smith and
until this week Colt McCoy as well. Um. And so
it felt like last week when we heard that Jake
Gruden might be fired if they lose, it felt to
me like, if you don't play Dwayne Haskins, you're gonna lose.
He throws Dwayne Haskins in there, and he ain't ready
at all, and then he doesn't have his you doesn't
(22:13):
have his quarterbacks back in the in the press conferences
at all. What you know, people in the league, what
the hell is going on in d C. Yeah, I
just think he's over the belief show that it's become.
You know, he doesn't get to pick the players. His
owner is nuts. Bruce Allen doesn't know what he's doing clearly,
and Jay Gruden he's got some flaws, but I think
(22:35):
he's pretty well established. He's a good offensive coach. And
no one overcomes Damp Snyder over the last twenty years,
No nobody. It's it's the same thing. It just happens
every so sometimes it happens in two years. Sometimes it's
it's actually pretty remarkable that Jay has been there six years.
But when I saw that they're starting, quote McCoy, like,
I think Jay's doing him somewhat of a favor. You
(22:56):
can't throw Dwayne Haskins against the Patriots. Their defense right
now was giving up less than seven points again to
kill him. I mean they actually, I mean they don't
really have like great pass rushers, but they pick him
up every other play he might ruin his career, like
he might be one of those games where he has
like a Peterman where he throws five picks in the
first half and you just never overcome it. So I
actually think everyone's freaking out, like you're short in Coulte McCoy,
(23:17):
they're actually doing Dwayne Haskins a favor. But this gets
back to in the history that franchise, and I think
most NFL owners, especially the last probably ten years, are
pretty good at this. Like I know in my experience
in Philadelphia, Jeffrey Lurie is not pounding the table for guys.
That's not that's not what he does at all. He
pays people a lot of money to make those decisions.
When you have your owner telling you who should draft. Like,
(23:38):
I think Dave Gentleman was freaking out they were gonna
take him because they knew Jake Gruen liked them and
he watched Danny Didnes. You're like, well, he's the He's
a Jay Gruden, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh. He's that type quarterback,
really really athletic, and you know all that play action stuff. Accurate. Yeah,
but but when's the last time Doug an owner lost
out in the draft room. I'd say it's probably zero percent.
(23:59):
It's never happened, right, Yeah, yeah, so I you know
what's in You probably see it. All these people freaking out,
like you've got to sell the team. Yeah, he ain't
selling the team cash count, so you're just stuck with him.
It sucks. I feel bad for whoever the Redskins fans
all right now. I'd probably just give up the fandom
and pick another team because it's not going to change.
(24:19):
That's a that's a hard one. Um. Uh. The Pro
Football Focus guys insisted Lamar Jackson actually played well last
week as opposed to Kansas City. I can't tell with
Pittsburgh's defense is because since today's offensive line is so bad,
I mean just such just such a joke. Okay, so
we got we do have Steelers Ravens. You're getting into
(24:43):
the all right, if the Steelers gonna win, they're gonna
turn this thing around. If they are playing to win
this year, it happens this week. How do you think
he fares against Steelers defense? Yeah, into the PFF thing.
Maybe they don't factor in like fourth quarter when you're
getting your butt kicked, having some way up throws and
prevent defense. But to me, Doug, those don't count the
same like when the game's in the balance in the
(25:03):
first half and even early in the third quarter, when
you're skipping balls, you're not playing well, you know. So
and he did the same thing against the Chiefs and
he just wasn't good enough as a passer. You know,
it wasn't The game against the Browns was not all
his fault that the defense was getting destroyed. But I
think this game is kind of hard to pick because
you saw Mason Rudolph two weeks ago now in San
(25:24):
Francisco and he just looked overwhelmed. But you went, well,
maybe San Francico's defense pretty good first road start, not
easy because he look great, completely different guy and most
young quarterbacks are gonna play better at home. So he
started thinking, like could Mason Rudolph play well against this
Raven defense? Because the Raven defense ain't the Raven defense anymore.
You can't let four or five good players every other
year hit free agency and not resign them and just
(25:44):
maintain it. They're just there's just a law of attrition
that eventually you're not gonna hit on every draft pick.
And then they're so dependent and as these games now,
like you're not playing Arizona in Miami, so you're not
gonna be able to just score forty plus points with
your high school. You know, it's it's gonna be difficult
to get to point. Lamar has to play well. The
(26:05):
guys aren't just running wide open. And what you say,
one thing for Pittsburgh is Minca. I mean they trade
for Minco and boom that first game he caused the fumble,
he had a pick, Like he's kind of a playmaker,
Like would you be shocked if Minca as a turnover
against Lamar Jackson. I actually kind of like Pittsburgh, you know,
big home dog, not big I mean they're only getting
three and a half points, but Pittsburgh yeah. Yeah, are
(26:27):
we sure the Ravens are even that good? I'm not no, no, okay,
you mentioned the Browns kicking kicking the Ravens defense is
as Browns have to travel out to San Francisco. Niners
are undefeated but haven't playing anybody, and they've had the
week off because they're coming off coming off of a bye.
How do you like the Niners? Well, I mean usually
(26:49):
when you're coming off of bye, that's a coaching game.
So if you have a good coach, you know it's been.
It's been a famous number forever. I don't even know
what it's at now, but like Andy Ray is ridiculous. Yeah, yeah,
he's lost one time and is a career as a
head coach. He's been a head coach twenty years. Because
as a head coach, you get a huge advantage. You
don't play right if you get that week to kind
of scheme self, scout and scout your opponent an extra game.
(27:11):
So to me, if Kyle Shanahan, I think he's establishing
he's a really good schematic coach. Like he's he's top notch.
They should have a huge advantage playing at home. Not
The one thing is like you saw last night. Seattle
is like an sec environment that is not exactly Levi Stadium.
I'd say it's probably the opposite. But for the first
time since Levi has been built, they've kind of got
(27:32):
like this town's alive a little bit. People are just
talking about the Niners are a big deal, but they
just haven't one a long time. So I think people
starting to believe in this team that the Browns, you know,
they do have some flaws right there, tackles aren't great. Well,
what do the Niners do? They got a lot of
pass rushers. Here's one problem for the Niners, though, is
there starting corner opposite Richard Truman at Kella Weatherspoon, who's
having a really good season, sprained his foot, So they're
(27:55):
missing their starting corner and they're gonna play an undrafted
free agent. So an undrafted free agent against the guy
named Odell Beckham Jr. Because Richard doesn't really follow you
in this defense. I would imagine they're gonna get that
matchup a lot, and just so it's can Baker hit it?
And if he does hit it a couple of times
because Mason Rudolph want to kill him went out. Mason
Rudolph did hit a couple of big plays against backups,
(28:17):
so that that, to me is something to keep an
eye on. Can the Browns passing game get going now?
You could argue that doesn't even need to because they
can just establish the Runtys would like that because they've
been they've been excellent against the run, because their defensive
line linebackers are just a wrecking shop. Right now, Uh,
let me ask you about the issues in Minnesota. I
get that nobody believes in Kirk Cousins, right, and I
(28:38):
have I know somebody who's on that team who's like, look, dude,
in a big game, that guys so tight. We all
feel it. But doesn't some of this come down to Zimmer,
Like Zimmer change coordinators because they threw it too much.
Zimmer is just like, just get get the ball, just
don't turn it over by defense and win the game.
Some of this is Zimmer, isn't it. Imagine firing a
(28:59):
guy for wanting to throw it. In two thousand and eighteen,
That's what Zimmer did mid season because the guy wanted
to throw it, And I would imagine Flips thinking to himself, well,
we got a hundred million dollars and two wide receivers
and we paid our quarterbacks five million dollars. What do
you mean? What should we be doing? And I think Diggs,
like feeling clearly, was a little frustrated with Kirk because
he's missing him. I googled because I was like, I
(29:20):
thought Diggs had a pretty good year. He had a
career year with Kirk Cousins. I think his issue now
more is he playing with Kirk Cousins was not bad
for him. It's this offense now where they're just telling
him every week, well, we just need you to block,
We just need you to block. It's like all my
friends around the league are just catching getting ten plus targets,
and you just want me to block every game. I'm
and I'm signed to the long term. I'm just stuck
(29:41):
here in this archaic offense which works against bad teams
you can run it down their throat, but against the
Bears and against good defenses, and there when they played
the Packers, it's hard for Dalvin Cook to rush for
a hundred yards. So we have to win. That's what
Ceeland was saying, Like we're not gonna be able to
run for hundrefifty yards against good teams. We have to
pass it. There's two thousand ninete but the head coach
(30:01):
does not want to do that. And the coordinator, who
I think was with the franchise for like fourteen years,
has been passed over many times finally becomes a coordinator,
mainly just because he's gonna answer the Zimmer. I think
this game has a chance to be a double storyline.
Can you imagine that Danny dimes when three games in
a row and it feels like the Vikings are just
done like this? It would be an enormous story on
(30:24):
both sides if the Vikings are able to pull off
this upset. All right, and excuse me, the Giants. Uh now,
I'm playing some draft Kings this weekend. I'm going to
take a lot of the Vikings guys because the Giants
deeinks it, thinks it shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. But
can you imagine weird stuff is going on from weird weird,
like weird wacky and wild stuff. That your weird wacky
(30:47):
and that what Johnny Carson, you say weird, wacky and
wild stuff? Um? Hey, hey, did you know Matt Barkley
was still in the league. He pops up as the
Bills back up. But I was, like, I completely forgot
he was in the league. H I did, just because
he's one of the guys that I thought was gonna
be on the league in like two years. And he's
made me kind of lake fluoish because you're gonna have
a ten year plus career once thus done and made
(31:09):
a decent amount of money for a guy that I honestly, Doug,
I didn't think he's gonna last like two years. And
you're right. I mean you see him like House this
guys go around. Honestly, it's like it's like, no, yeah,
it's like Sanchez, greatest guy ever, Like greatest guy ever.
Anything for the starter, get him already. Here's the one problem.
I can't play dead in the Cowboy movie. No he's
not very good. No, it's not like Josh Howne is
(31:33):
not great either, but at least he can run and
hit a big play, right, And he was the fourth
pick of the draft, so you know they got their
pot committed to him. Um okay, I got I got
a couple of Moore to get to. Um. Can we
buy into Jamis at all? Now? Why wouldn't you? I
mean their coach has proven everywhere he's gone that the
(31:53):
quarterback plays well. Now he's had some great ones, but
he's also Carson Palmer's career was kind of n flox
and boom m VP candidate, Like it works, arians works.
And the other thing is jamis he's got a fail fall.
He'll turn the ball over. He was the number one
overall pick for a reason. Like he is a natural
pocket thrower. He's a good anticipatory thrower. Here's the other thing.
(32:14):
Does they are stacked with weapons. Mike Evans looks like
a dude that should be on the Lakers. He's enormous.
Chris Godwin is a stud o. J Howard god is
a really good player. Is a stud o. J. Howard's
like if he ever gets he ever plays an offense,
actually throws in the football, Like watch him in Alabama.
It's like, man, that poor guy. He was the Stefon
Diggs of college football. I know. And then there are
(32:35):
other tight end Cameron brad that the IVY leaguers not bad. Hey,
they have legitimate weapons. So that's another game. I kind
of got circled. The Saints defense is excellent and they've
been They've been kicking ass and taking names in the
last couple of weeks since Strew went down, but you
could see maybe they're in for a little leftdown game
and the Bucks really they're a missfield goal away from
being three and one and being one of the stories
(32:55):
of the league, Like, is this a wild card type team?
Shack Shack Barrett's coming on a little bit later on
this year, later on today? Is it is it all
him or is it in Dominican Sue getting a ton
of attention which allows him to be even better. You know,
I heard Chris Long was on with Russillo and he
had a good like the way Shack Barrett is a
(33:16):
guy that like kind of steps up moves. So his
whole career he was always kind of a backup, and
it's hard like you just kind of asked to go
in for a couple of series and just go now
that he can, as the game's going on, set up
an inside move to hit it with a counter, because
if you watch him, he's not just like falling over people.
If he's got all these tricks and he's kind of
a technician. But now they're giving him just an unlimited
(33:38):
amount of snaps because he's one of their guys. I
think he's really benefited from just being allowed to play
a lot. You know, some guys just never get that
because of whatever team they're on. You know, he was
on the Broncos right forever. It's hard to crack that lineup.
So you just get the opportunity. You know, there are
there are a lot of pro athletes, you know this
better than anyone, that just need the right opportunity to
(33:58):
really shine. And a lot of guy's never get that
for whatever reason. Maybe they get type cast, maybe just
in the wrong situation, but I think it's just the
it's just the ideal spot. And he looked at JPP
got hurt, you know, he got in that car crash,
so it just allowed him a bigger opportunity. All right.
Last thing, Cowboys Packers Packers look better but red zone
play calling, red zone without Davante Adams. But but but
(34:22):
much better the offense? What was it? Was it? Whose
offense was? It? Was it the old Packers offensive the
new Packers offense and allowed them to play well last week? Well,
it felt like when they were making plays, it was
just Rogers going four and five wide out of the
shots gut and lent to rip because you watch you know,
the Kyle Shanahans and Lafours. That's not really their offense.
So when they do that, it feels like Rodgers, like
(34:42):
I got this, uh and the one big play that
got screwed up was you know La Flour's. I'm fascinated
to watch this game because Kellen Moore, wud I'm a
big fan of got kind of taken to the woodshed
for the first time. He's thirty one year old coach
is gonna happen? He's playing a you know, top white team.
How does he bounce back? And he's not he doesn't
get an easy landing spot. Mike Patton's kind of established
(35:03):
himself is Hey, guys, remember me, I was Rex Ryan's
right hand guy. I'm pretty good defensive mind and now
I got players, So that that's a matchup. Does does
Kellen Moore completely come back to earth? Because this would be,
you know, a pretty impressive win by the Packers, right.
I know they're coming off a longer week because on Thursday,
but you go on the road playing Dallas who's coming
off a win, so they have a big incentive to
(35:23):
win this thing and you beat him like we I've
been someone that thought kind of on the Packers fence,
and I don't see him as a playoff team. You
in this game, it would be hard to even to
argue that anymore. John Middlecoff three Now is the podcast
download is part of the Herd podcast Network. Follow him
on Twitter, follow on Facebook. Uh, He's all over the place, John,
(35:44):
great stuff. Enjoy the football appreciated, dude, See We're going.
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. Alex Boone joins
us on the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Tradio.
Didn't you do the the rare double dip that no
(36:05):
one else has done? Doug? I don't know you, but
I'm instantly not liking you, like nobody said. No man. Huh,
all right, my man, hey man, We're true to our colors.
I'm an Ohio boy. What do you expect I'd be
a trader? Then? I mean, I understand Justin Boorn. Justin
(36:26):
Bourne was from Columbus and he was a big Ohio boy.
All his brothers ended up going to Ohio State. But
Justine started out in Michigan, and then he transferred over
to US and I was there, and of course I
had to give him a whole year of messing about
how he messed up for like so many years. It
was hilarious, fair fair enough. That they're they're, they're in life.
There in lies my issue. I was just convinced that
I was looking through stuffing like, man, I guess I,
(36:49):
I guess I. I frankly I misremembered U Joine's on
the Doug Gotlip Show here on Fox Sports tradeo, UM,
help me out on help me out on what's going
on in in Neapolis. I know when you were with
the Vikings, Cousins wasn't your quarterback, And I know that
they've been searching for a quarterback and from you know
when they had to bring in Sam because Teddy got
(37:10):
hurt and then you know, Sam got hurt, and it's
it's just been they wanted somebody stable, and Kirk Cousins
is stable. How much of this is Kirk? How much
of this is the play calling? I think it's a
little bit of everybody. I think everybody's got their hand
in the cookie jo here. And this is why I
say that I say, Spielman's got his hand in there
because he brought kirk an and he thought kirk would
(37:32):
be the answer. And shameine you for thinking that that
guy was gonna turn into Tom Brady behind that offensive line,
because there was no chance that was happening. The second
problem is the O C is just not being creative enough.
It's like they're wanting him to become something that he's not. Hey,
let's get you to stand back there for five seconds
and throw the ball. That's not what I do. Guys,
(37:52):
I'm not Tom Brady. Don't expect me to wake up
like that. And not only that, but you're not giving
me any protection. So now I'm really scared to stay
name back here, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna
get hit or not. And then you've got Mike Zimmer
who's in there just you know, Hey, listen, we need
to run the ball. We need to run the ball. Mike, listen,
we all want to run the ball. Dalvin wants to
run the line wants to run. Defense wants you to
(38:13):
run it. Now. The problem is when you get stopped
running the ball, if you can't continue to just keep
turning out empty yards, you're not going anywhere with dose,
but I do think that they gave up a little
too quickly this last game in the run game. Yeah,
Kevin stefanskis are offensive coordinator. He's never called plays before.
He's like a lifelong He's like a lifer as a
Vikings assistant. And it it does feel like it's it's
(38:36):
Zimmer who is a defensive guy saying this is what
I want, right, because you know, it's like the Pete
Carroll everybody, all those defensive coordinators, you know how they
want to win. They want to maul you, they want
to kick your teeth in because their defensive mind is,
hey listen, we kick indoors and we don't care what
we do. So if I can have a stay on offense,
(38:56):
how am I gonna do that? I need Dalvin to
run down the middle lineback your space thirty times a game. Well,
I'm not saying Mike's wrong, but what I'm saying is
I feel like he's pressuringks to Fansky in a way
that he doesn't like you. Like He's like, hey, man, listen,
I'm trying to do my thing and you're throwing kubiak
at me. And it's just a little too much. Who's
really taking control here, because now you've got players jumping
ship and once you to have divided that locker room,
(39:18):
it can never come back together. I've never seen it happen.
All right, what about Kirk Cousins apologizing the feeling, Well,
why take your business out there to the media. Listen,
if you have a problem, you go to feeling. If
somebody in the media has the audacity to ask you
about your relationship, you say, listen, dude, that's not in
your business. Mind George hamp business right now. We figured
(39:39):
this out. And the problem is when you apologize too
much of the media, the team eventually goes dude enough.
You make us look like not like a team right now,
you make us look sorry, like hey, feel bad for us.
I'm so sorry, dude. No, we don't want that. We
don't want that identity. We want a different identity. Come
talk to us, not the media. Uh, I'll expo join
us in the Gotlive show here on Fox Sports Radio.
(40:02):
It's interesting because you mentioned Hardball, who you did play
for with with the Niners, and obviously had Alex Smith there,
and I pointed out that, like, look, the Redskins. I
think this is almost like PTSD from losing him, right,
they had Kirk. They had Kirk, and they never bught
into Kirk being good enough. And they're like, man, we
got Alex Smith. What you know what an upgrade? And
(40:24):
then he breaks his leg in a fashion which he
probably never plays football ever again. What what is? What
is that guy like Alex Smith is the greatest person
in the world. I mean that too. I mean he
was one of those guys that he could take a
hit and he would like get up super like, hey man,
it's all good. You'd like, dude, I don't know, are
you sure you're okay? And he's like, I'm good, let's
just go, and and that would motivate you to want
(40:46):
to play back. He's like, you know what, my dude,
tough back here, We're good. I will say he was conservative,
but that was his game. Everybody knows that's who he is.
And that's my biggest problem with these gm right now,
is everyone going on and saying, hey, listen, let's throw
a whole bunch of cash with these guys and we'll
turn him into something. Dude, he's thirty years old. He's
not turning anything but older. You're not gonna get these
(41:07):
guys to throw the ball faster, You're not going to
get them to read people faster because they're spooked from
something earlier in their career. So stop trying to be like, hey,
we did the right thing. No, you did it, because
if you did, you'd be winning games with that defense.
Right now, the Rams are struggling to run the ball,
and I think everyone knows Girly does not seem to
have the explosiveness. But you know, Pro Football Focus for
(41:29):
what it's worth, had them ranked going into the last
night's game, is the worst offensive line in the league. Um,
they've lost two stars. Why do you think the Rams
offensive line? I thought second half was better than first
half last night? Why they haven't been as good as expected? Listen?
What are you're talking about? The Rams game? And I
know the Rams extremely well because I played him twice
a year, so I used to deal with those those
(41:51):
a lot. They walk into there and they're like, hey, listen,
we're gonna bully you around, and people fell for it
for a long time, but they're like, listen, we don't
want any of these problems, all right, you can just
deal what you've gotta go and get the hell out
of here. But now people are saying, hey, listen, if
we can contain Aaron Donald and we can stop this
rush a little bit, there's something to be made in
this past game. And not only that, but that's gonna
open up the run game a little bit for because
we just gotta keep hammering on him, hammering on him,
(42:12):
and eventually stuff is gonna pup. And not only that,
but the offensive line. They got all these new guys
in the middle. That's where you want to attack, closest,
fastest way to the quarterback through the middle. And you've
got a brand new center who has to five out
almost everything, which is like a hundred and twenty snaps
because he's throwing the ball a hundred and twenty times
in the last five days. That's incredible to me. Yeah,
(42:36):
the Patriots have a new center, they have all these
moving pieces. How do they keep Tom Brady up? Right?
I know you didn't just compare the Patriots to anybody
else in the league right now, you can't, So what
what what is it? What is the secret sauce to
how they're able to like, hey, we're gonna get a
guy out the wire and get this guy here and
put him in and it'll be fine. I love I
(42:56):
love that you asked that because his role players right
when when Bill comes over and he put his arm
around and he's like, hey, you want to come play
with us. You know your role You're not Tom Brady.
So if Bills like, I need you to stand on
that styleline for sixteen weeks, but weeks seventeen, I'm really
gonna need you, you're gonna be like, yes, certain, not
a problem, because I want that ring and I want
to be a part of something great. They have a
culture there to the second to none. When you go
(43:19):
in there, you understand who you are and where you
fall in the pecking order, and from there, if you
can't maintain your level of discipline and uh production, hey man,
you gotta go. I'm sorry. And there's their offensive line.
You see them. They churn them in and out all
the time, because Dante Skarniki's in there, like, listen, this week,
you're a mismatch to the notes, and you're a mismatch
to the d N so we're gonna flip you too.
And they come out and you're like, wait a minute, now,
(43:40):
now you can't do that. Dante is like watch me,
and they make it look good? Crazy crazy? Um, why
hasn't a hardball thing work better at Michigan? He played
for him. When you're taking your shirt up trying to
recruit kids, you think kids want to come play for you?
Now they're like they'd listen, I'm all about the cell phone,
the texting, the emojis. You're not into that. I'm into this.
(44:01):
It's not gonna end well and I'm sorry to stay
for Ohio State is gonna definitely definitely throw a punch
from this year. They throw bunchs from last year? What
what I think that? I think that everybody going into
this year though, I was like, oh, well, you know
coach Day, I don't know if he's gonna have it
agin to talk about. Listen, you're about to get throw
punch so hard you just just don't even show up
this year. Uh? What do you like? Are you? How
(44:24):
many cups of coffee do you have a day? Zero? Listen.
I'm always like both, I have four kids, I'm cooking dinner,
I'm watching all of them. I'm loving life. Talking to
Doug Gollies, Come on, dude, what could be better than mine?
All right? So what's your go to? You're you're now
you're now a sus chef for your kids. What's your
go to meal? All right? Now we're making uh Mexican
meet lasagna. It's gonna be phenomenal. I'll even take a
(44:45):
picture and send U to you later. Do it, all right?
A couple of a couple of things. Russell Wilson. How
hard is that guy to block for? Because one he
does take those super deep drops I think so he
can see. And then too, he's always running around back
there to make a play. What what must that? I
know the offensive line has been a work in progress
and they've tried to piece that thing together. But that's
got to be difficult considering how long at times he'll
(45:07):
hold the ball and how awkward it can be. No,
not at all, because he knows that after a while,
hey man, this is falling on me. Like my old
line can hold up for a long time. Now his
old line now they can't. Like you saw it last night.
They're kind of in a disarray. But you know what's
so great about russ If he makes it so smooth,
like he'll be in the pocket and you'll see a
guy coming right at him. He'll be like, you know what,
I don't want to stand there anyways. I don't wanted
(45:28):
to run to the right, and he just takes off
and throws a dime to Lock and You're like, what
just happened? He is so smooth under pressure, and guys
that play with them are like, dude, he is the
calmest person I've ever seen in the pocket and he
never ever breaks character. I was like, that's incredible, Um, Greg,
Greg Roman obviously coach you when you're with the Niners,
(45:49):
and he's put in the kind of some of the
stuff that you guys did with Cap, but it's even
more so, right, even more of a kind of Saturday
Saturday offense. Does that Can that work long term? No?
I don't think so. And I've always said that that
your your run game will get you to the playoffs,
but your quarterback will get you to the championship. And
that's when those windows get tighter and those windows get smaller,
(46:11):
and the defenses get better, and all of a sudden,
the run game. Guess what a good defense they're gonna
know how to shut down a run day. That's all
you've got for us today. Come on, dude, this is
a bye week for us. We're not getting paid hell
to be here. But it's a bye week. So when
you look at that, you say, yeah, they could get
to the playoffs. But could Lamar Jackson take him further?
I don't know. I mean, I think the better defenses
he's starting to play, the more he's being exposed and
(46:33):
Ibody by that, I say that they're throwing a lot
of pressure at him, and they're like, hey, listen, rook,
And he's not really a rook, but they're like, listen,
young man, let's see what you can do when there's
a lot of guys coming at you. And he gets
spooked kind of quick. So now everyone good, Hey, listen,
we gotta dial it up against him. Yeah, and then
he's got throwing those tight windows and that's that's not
his He can throw a downfield, but the short intermediate
stuff is not his strength. All Right. I want to
picture the Mexican meet Lasagna. I want to score prediction
(46:56):
for Ohio State Michigan State this weekend. Oh, how stame
is gonna say? Let's say this. I'm gonna say five
to Ohio State, all right, that would be I think
the line is, there's the line. The line's twenties. That
would be a cover for the for the Buckeyes. I
want a picture that Maxi meat lasagna, and I'm guessing
if your kids don't eat it now, they'll eat it
for breakfast. Thanks for joining us, Alex. Thanks Alex Boone's
(47:17):
former start at Ohio State, of course, longtime lineman in
the National Football League.
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 Gottlieb Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
(00:21):
best of the Doug gottli Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Booming Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming
to you from the Sunny City of Angels. We're watching
Major League Baseball on f S one. The Astros, most
(00:42):
people's best team in baseball, finally have runners aboard and
we're gonna have our first I believe replay a safe,
good call, first replay of of the playoffs at all fairness.
I have watched ton of the playoffs, so maybe there's
been other replay is, but I haven't paid attention. Bottom
(01:02):
three two outs, runners at first and third. The challenge
won't matter. The Strows will have UH one runner and
scoring position at third base and one on first. We'll
we'll keep an eye on it, and of course Dan
Buyer will update us. We got three more baseball games
later on today, three more that should be a ton
(01:23):
of fun. We had some preseason hoops in our back pocket,
Rockets Clippers last night in Hawaii, and I believe there
was a game already today played in India. I don't
know who played. I just know there's a game in India.
And then, um, we got the NFL last night, Seattle
Seahawks nine. They end up beating the l A Rams.
(01:44):
I'll tell you to tell you might take away from
that in a moment. Got a huge slate of baseball,
college football, pro football this weekend. We have my picks.
We have John Middlecoff. We got Shack Barrett, who might
be the best player in football. I'd know we're having
Shack Barrett. He completely and thoroughly dominated the Rams last
(02:05):
Sunday at the Coliseum. Is that accurate? John Ramos, you
are a Rams fan? You know Shack Bart Shack Yeah,
outside linebacker, Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's hammer base defense. Threw
a lot of fits at the Rams. Yes, that's correct. Yeah.
And Dominican Sue, who did he chase down? He chased
down somebody? He chased down Brandon Cooks, do you guys
(02:27):
see that and Dominicans WU chased down Brandon Cook's and
then ran back the strip sack fumble for the last
touchdown the game, like in Dominican su And he still
wasn't the best defensive player in the field. It was
a shack Barrett who was going to join us some
people's defensive m v P at the quarter pole. Um,
all right, we got a lot to get to. Let's
let's start with last night. I know that you want
(02:51):
to be results driven in say, the Rams are a mess,
the Seahawks are great, and the twelve man is still
a ridiculous challenge for anybody. And I do think that
the noise played a factor in a false start which
did mark the Rams back five yards. It hurt their
(03:14):
ability to communicate. It cranked up the ability for Seattle
to get off the ball, to get off the ball
and staff and continue to get into the offensive backfield.
I understand that Todd Gurley still wasn't crazy effective. He
did get fifteen carries, he got eighteen touches, he didn't
do a lot with any of it. Um, there's a
(03:42):
lot of points I could make that are negatives about
the Rams. I do think their defense needs to improve.
Their offensive line seemed to take a half to wake up.
And Russell Wilson is a witch with his ability to
escape and then get balanced and then deliver the football.
And Chris Arson, Oklahoma State guy who was oft injured
(04:02):
and when he didn't injury, he fumbled, continues to be
a godsend. One thing lost is we do realize Seattle,
with their first round pick, not this year, last year,
drafted a running back who doesn't really play. That's crazy.
How good they've been, how well they've run the football,
and not with the guy they draft in the first
round to meet two seasons ago. But before we go crazy,
(04:27):
before we say Sean McVeigh doesn't know what he's doing
and Jared Goffs overpaid and the Rams are a mess,
and the Seahawks are awesome, and Russell Wilson's the best
and the division has changed. I mean, look, all that
being said, the Rams got a really uh flimsy penalty
(04:48):
called on them on Clay Matthews. They lost Brandon Cooks
and Clay Matthews during the game to injury. They're on
the road and they were six inches away from winning
that game, six inches away, maybe from the ball hitting
the upright twelve inches away from winning the game. It
was that close. Greg's airline kicks kicks from the right
hash mark, and it's from any other spot inside that
(05:11):
the two hash marks. That thing is in. It's straight
as an arrow and just barely misses. And so it's
the criticism and critique would be fair. But let's not
be completely results oriented. Let's not be the show. Don't
you be the fan who says, hey, Seahawks one rams lost.
(05:36):
That's all you need to know. Scoreboard, baby, scoreboard. By
the way, the bases are now loaded, are now loaded
for the Houston Astros. Going to the the entire glass. Now,
who's throwing fifty one pitches already through two and two
thirds of Vaninny. But Alvarez at the plate is set
(06:00):
in time at the dish and glassed out, trying to
get trying to get out of this jam. He's working
to an oh to count bottom third two outs. Anyway, look,
I thought Jared Goff showed me something I did. I thought,
you know, the big thing for Jared Goff is can't
he play with pressure in his face? And there were
(06:21):
times showing the game when he wasn't great but he
gathered himself and he was really good in the second half.
You know, look last weekend against the Bucks, the five
yards have been inflated because they had turnovers because they
were down twenty one nothing. So I'm not gonna sit
here and say that he's a five dred yard passer.
(06:44):
But I continue to see growth from Jared Goffer's quarterback
that he can in fact, single handedly bring this team back. Sure,
he stares down Cooper Cup and now he's got a
tight end he'll throw too. Remember he didn't have Brandon
Cooks late, so of course he's looking to the same
guys over and over again, the guys that he trusts.
(07:04):
Glass now is gonna get out of it. So the
Astros no blood bottom three loaded up the bases with
two outs and Glassdow strikes out Alvarez on the outside corner,
just absolutely paints the black with a beautiful fastball. What's
that gotta be like to throw um like the Seahawks
(07:29):
green lime green uniforms, like the Rams white uniforms. Todd
Gurley is exactly who I've told you he is. I
do think they're trying to save him some but some
of it is He'll just never be the guy that
he was. Kind of got overused. But but but a
good A good portion of why Todd Gurley hasn't been
(07:53):
able to be the guy he's been is their offensive
line is not that good. Steve Palaz Palozzolo is going
to join us from Pro Football UH Pro Football Focus.
They ranked the Rams offense coming in the last night's
game as the worst in the National Football League, and
there were times last night where they were can we
blame Gurley, Sure, But when you're running back who doesn't
(08:16):
get very many chances to get to the second level
where you're expediing exposed, this can take off. It doesn't
matter who's running the ball back there. Ram's offensive line
isn't as good. A big portion of the reason it
isn't as good is because they spend so much money
on Girly and on other individual players. Seahawks went through
(08:37):
this thing. Like people have said for the last three years,
Seahawks offensive line has to be better, and they've tried
to patch work it. They made a big trade for
their left tackle with Houston last year mid season. They've
had to make all these moves. But why it wasn't
just Russell Wilson. It was Richard Sherman, it was Bobby Wagner,
it was Earl Thomas, it was all the big name
(08:58):
guys they had that they had to pay, something had
to give, and the place where they gave was the
offensive line. So I'm not going to freak out. Every
Russell Wilson game seems to come down to the last possession.
(09:19):
And as much as I want to give the Seahawks credit,
the fact is that they gave up points like it
was water. They gave up a yardage like it was water.
And the Rams, in spite of the fact that they
could have thrown the ball over the middle of the
field a little bit more often, they did have a
delay of game. In spite of all of that, they
(09:41):
still worked themselves to a forty four yard field goal,
which an NFL cooker should make. In Greg's your line
would would make that in the high nineties in terms
of percentile. Let's not be results oriented. Rams gotta beat
the Niners. Niners given me on a short week. They
gotta continue to approve. But you're seeing some growth from
(10:01):
Aaron Donald Cooper Cups becoming a star. And what if
you didn't know that Seahawks rams was gonna be close,
or that Russell Wilson was gonna make plays scrambling around.
You haven't watched football for the last decade, be sure
to catch the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show
weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox
(10:23):
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio Whap. Jake Gordon
is acting like the guy who knows he's gonna get
fired and expecting to get fired and wants to make
a point about why he's getting fired. I remember last
going to Last Weekend. You're looking at every network. But
I think Glazer had at first like, hey, he could
be fired at the end of if they lose. And
(10:46):
my guest would be that it was told to him like, look,
you play Haskins or find a new job. He's like,
I here you go. That's way to ask. His was terrible.
He was terrible. Not bad, not so so, not disappointing,
(11:08):
not well, he could be He did a couple of No,
he was terrible. He was terrible. But but then this
report came out today from the Washington Post. A widespread
sense of Washington coach Jake Gruden didn't want the team
to draft rookie quarterback isn't just speculation. The Washington Post
reports that Jake that Jake Gruden didn't want Haskins, and
(11:30):
then Haskins consent that sense that Gruden didn't want him.
Both of these pieces of information attributed to unnamed sources
who are close to situation in Washington. You get as
if you listen to Dan Buyer, Colt Colt McCoy, Man,
we gotta go back to remember when Colt McCoy was
(11:50):
head his quarterback of Texas and then his arm went
numb in the first quarter in the National Championship game
at the Rose Bowl. He's got like dead arm. He's
like it was the weirdest thing ever. Um So Colpe
McCoy is gonna get the start. But man, is this
ugly and and and the the j Gruden like look.
(12:14):
I understand that that Haskins was not the guy they wanted.
And uh, I've and I've been told that Haskins is
a guy that hasn't worked particularly hard. That's probably their
most disappointing part is that it's not like Haskins came
in said all right, I'm gonna prove you guys wrong.
I'm just gonna go out every day and work and show.
(12:36):
And he's kind of pouted. Why because he's immature, both
skill set wise, development wise and mentally immature, But so
too is Jay Gruden, Like what are you doing? Tell
him now? Look, Jake Gruen's fighting fire with fire. If
you're gonna leak to reporters that I'm gonna get fired,
I'll leak it out to reports that that this kid
(12:56):
isn't working hard. But there's there's an expression in my business.
You can be right and you can be out of
a job like I've Jagrun's right. They shouldn't have wanted.
First of all, they have so much invest in the
(13:17):
quarterback position. They got Alex Smith, who they went all
in on Alex Smith, that Colbacos the backup, and damn
if they both didn't break their leg and Alex Smith
probably never plays again. So they tried to fix it
short term with case Keenum, and we know how that's
gonna work. But man, then you go and you get
a draft, a rookie who means you have to play,
and a coach that has to win. That's a volatile mix.
(13:38):
They were in first place before the Alex Smith got
hurt last year. Yes, right, music, you want to say something,
Do you think Jay Gruden is doing this with the
fact that because the demise of the Redskins and the
dysfunction of the Redskins has been something that's been well
reported for a while. Do you think he's looking at
(13:59):
this situa ation going, Man, I know I'm going to
get another head coaching job at some point because he
also has his brother now coaching back in the league,
so he can get a job there if he wants. Yeah,
I think he probably feels pretty confident that he can
because it is his first head coaching job in the NFL,
so he has to feel like, look, Adam Gaze got
another opportunity, Hugh Jackson got another opportunity, everybody gets another opportunity,
(14:23):
and people have got to know that the odds are
stacked against me. I mean, because he's just going scorched
or he's going Antonio Brown without going fully Antonio Brown
right now. Yeah. Yeah, when when he leaves, somebody will
say he's one of the most he's the most misunderstood
coach in the National Football leagues, that that that we're
gonna have here. Yeah, I don't know. I'd like it's
(14:44):
a it's an interesting theory what he's trying to trying
to play out. He's basically doing the I dare you
toifire me type thing, like okay, sure he'll get his wish,
get his wish pretty soon. Although look, I mean he
was right. I think there's a bunch of egos at
play here. His ego, I think the owner's ego because
(15:10):
the owner wanted them to draft Wayne Haskins because his
kid went to the owner's uh son or daughter's high school.
Like that's what this goes get kind of gets back to,
and I'm sure that's why they threw him in. Last
week they're like, oh, well, the you know, the Giant
said that we wanted Daniel Jones. We didn't want Danny Jones,
who wanted Dwayne Haskins. See like you oops oops, and
(15:36):
and who is the better quarterback last week? Remember it's
a it's a marathon, not a sprint. It doesn't actually
matter who's better right now, matters who's better long term.
But man, that was stark. In contrast, one guy looked
like he was he was maybe not a piece, but
dealing better with all the durest he was under at
the position. The other guy looked completely overwhelmed. Completely. Be
(16:00):
sure to catch the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific. We
got a lot to get to A John Middlecoll former
NFL Scout. Three and out is the podcast baumb on
Facebook as well as Twitter. Uh, he's great. Let's let's
start with last night? Um, how big are the problems
for the Rams? And I prefaced this by saying I
(16:21):
started the show going, Look, they still girly, doesn't look right.
Offensive line isn't great, defense isn't what it used to be.
But they missed a make up forty four yard field
goal with a reliable kicker, and they could have won
a road game against the Seattle team where Russell Wilson
pulled some magic out of his out of his rectum.
I don't think it's as bad as others, but you
see the game totally differently. What do you think? Yeah?
(16:44):
I completely agree. I thought last week was the problem.
Losing at home to Tampa Bay when you're basically a
double digit favorite. You can't let them score fifty five
on you last night. When you start the season, if
the Rams are gonna win eleven and or twelve games,
you still lose four or five. So losing on the
road a short week against you know, your division rival
(17:05):
who is also good, is not weird at all. I
I don't think. I actually I came away impressed. I
I can't get over how calm, cool and collected McVeigh
is even in these really big spots. I mean, last
night on the roughing the passer penalty from Clay Matthews,
it was clearly, you know, pretty borderline call. Even though
they tend to call that play a lot. McVeigh did
(17:27):
not freak out. Most coaches lose it on that, and
maybe he realizes, what's the point, They're not going to
change the call, so he kind of has a Belichick demeanor.
I thought golf was excellent. The other thing is, even
though girl somewhat of a shell of himself, I'm starting
to notice, like Gerald Everett, I didn't really have a
great feel for that guy. Higbie's established himself as a
pretty solid role player. Woods and Copper still really good
(17:50):
to me. They have a ton of offensive weapons passing
the ball that I actually yeah that they're gonna be
in the mix. Now, are they going to win? The
division again, probably not. You have to be able to
cover some people. And right now, Marcus Peters is just
not very good and I keep to Leave is just
an older player. So that's that's a legit kind of
a fatal flaw. That could be their undoing. Why is
(18:12):
their defense, Why is their defense so porous? Well, when
you look at what Wade did in Denver, their secondary
was unreal. I mean, I keep to Leave was in
like the peak of his powers. They had Bradley Robe,
he was young and really good. They had a great
nickel corner in Chris Harris Jr. They had Darren Stewart, TJ. Award.
They were just a a top notch group. And this
(18:35):
group is just not You know, Andy Reid, whose defense
isn't good, traded Marcus Peters, who he drafted because I'm
not the biggest Marcus Peters hater, because he does make
a lot of big plays. He had to pick six,
you know, the previous week against Tampa. He creates a
ton of fumbles. Like, he doesn't make big plays, but
he gives up just as many. And if you if
(18:57):
you have a game or two where you don't make
those big plays, the ones you give up can cost you,
especially in a game that's you know, gonna come down
to one or two points. And I think he's just
he just kind of is what he is. And to
keep the leave you get ten plus years in the
league at corner, you're just not gonna be quite as fast,
not quite as good. And they've had turnover. LaMarcus Joyner,
(19:18):
the guy the Raiders signed who was their free safety
the last several years, is there might be the raiders
best events of player like that guy is a good,
good player. He's a really versatile player because he can
cover your slot wide receiver who every team utilizes. Now,
like that's that's a big blow Aaron Donald. This isn't
like the NBA, right, he can't just be Lebron James
every game. He can only do so much. And he
(19:38):
saw last night he was basically doing everything he could.
But the linebackers not making tackles, the corners not covering anybody,
They're just to me, their personnel is just not as
good as it has been the last couple of year.
And some of it's the salary cap as well. I mean, like, look,
this is no I mean you mentioned the Raiders and
I know it's it's easy to pick on Gruden, but like, look,
LaMarcus Joiner, he got Tyrelle Williams. The Chargers couldn't afford
(20:02):
to keep Tyroll Williams, and both of those have been
huge pickups for the Raiders. And the reason that the
Rams lost Joiner and the Chargers lost Tyroll Williams is
the salary cap. Like, you know, you gotta pay some people,
and you can't afford to pay everybody. Well, I think
one problem, Doug to me, you if you you could
afford to pay the guys, you just can't miss. And
right now, with Gurley taking fifteen millions and not being
(20:25):
a fifteen million dollar player, can you imagine if they
just hadn't paid him, they would now he would be
on a fifth year option or whatever, so he'd still
be expensive. But just big picture, maybe they would have
had those extra millions to keep LaMarcus Joiner right, or
to keep one of those offensive linemen. To me, it's
not like Donald clearly he's worth every penny and god
you saw last night like he's you gotta overpay quarterbacks.
(20:45):
It is what it is like, He's not the problem.
To me, it's that when you miss on your third
and fourth and fifth best players and you pay the
wrong guys at twelve to eighteen million dollars, that's where
you get screwed. And that's what it looks like. Just
he's still fine, he's still solid, but he's not you
know what, what's Todd Gurley right now? Through a four
million dollar player? Yeah? Yeah, I mean they massively massively
(21:07):
missed on Todd Gurley and they did it a year
before they had to. Like, there's so many again, you
can give me the cost certainty stuff. Cont certainty stuff
works with quarterback, all right. Let me get to the
quarterback thing with with the Redskins all right, So let
me let me kind of a lay it out for
people who haven't been paying attention, because the Redskins are
huge in d C, but not necessarily nationally. So Dave
(21:29):
Gentleman drafts Dana Jones. He's like, look, you know, I
drafted Daniel Jones because the Red we had Intel, The
Redskins wanted him, and the Redskins like nah na fami.
We wanted Dwayne Haskins. The Owners kids went too high
school with Dwayne Haskins. They loved him. That's why they
drafted him. Urban Meyer said he's not ready. The coaching
staff didn't want him and thinks he's way not close
(21:53):
to being ready. Obviously they still miss Alex Smith and
until this week Colt McCoy as well. Um. And so
it felt like last week when we heard that Jake
Gruden might be fired if they lose, it felt to
me like, if you don't play Dwayne Haskins, you're gonna lose.
He throws Dwayne Haskins in there, and he ain't ready
at all, and then he doesn't have his you doesn't
(22:13):
have his quarterbacks back in the in the press conferences
at all. What you know, people in the league, what
the hell is going on in d C. Yeah, I
just think he's over the belief show that it's become.
You know, he doesn't get to pick the players. His
owner is nuts. Bruce Allen doesn't know what he's doing clearly,
and Jay Gruden he's got some flaws, but I think
(22:35):
he's pretty well established. He's a good offensive coach. And
no one overcomes Damp Snyder over the last twenty years,
No nobody. It's it's the same thing. It just happens
every so sometimes it happens in two years. Sometimes it's
it's actually pretty remarkable that Jay has been there six years.
But when I saw that they're starting, quote McCoy, like,
I think Jay's doing him somewhat of a favor. You
(22:56):
can't throw Dwayne Haskins against the Patriots. Their defense right
now was giving up less than seven points again to
kill him. I mean they actually, I mean they don't
really have like great pass rushers, but they pick him
up every other play he might ruin his career, like
he might be one of those games where he has
like a Peterman where he throws five picks in the
first half and you just never overcome it. So I
actually think everyone's freaking out, like you're short in Coulte McCoy,
(23:17):
they're actually doing Dwayne Haskins a favor. But this gets
back to in the history that franchise, and I think
most NFL owners, especially the last probably ten years, are
pretty good at this. Like I know in my experience
in Philadelphia, Jeffrey Lurie is not pounding the table for guys.
That's not that's not what he does at all. He
pays people a lot of money to make those decisions.
When you have your owner telling you who should draft. Like,
(23:38):
I think Dave Gentleman was freaking out they were gonna
take him because they knew Jake Gruen liked them and
he watched Danny Didnes. You're like, well, he's the He's
a Jay Gruden, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh. He's that type quarterback,
really really athletic, and you know all that play action stuff. Accurate. Yeah,
but but when's the last time Doug an owner lost
out in the draft room. I'd say it's probably zero percent.
(23:59):
It's never happened, right, Yeah, yeah, so I you know
what's in You probably see it. All these people freaking out,
like you've got to sell the team. Yeah, he ain't
selling the team cash count, so you're just stuck with him.
It sucks. I feel bad for whoever the Redskins fans
all right now. I'd probably just give up the fandom
and pick another team because it's not going to change.
(24:19):
That's a that's a hard one. Um. Uh. The Pro
Football Focus guys insisted Lamar Jackson actually played well last
week as opposed to Kansas City. I can't tell with
Pittsburgh's defense is because since today's offensive line is so bad,
I mean just such just such a joke. Okay, so
we got we do have Steelers Ravens. You're getting into
(24:43):
the all right, if the Steelers gonna win, they're gonna
turn this thing around. If they are playing to win
this year, it happens this week. How do you think
he fares against Steelers defense? Yeah, into the PFF thing.
Maybe they don't factor in like fourth quarter when you're
getting your butt kicked, having some way up throws and
prevent defense. But to me, Doug, those don't count the
same like when the game's in the balance in the
(25:03):
first half and even early in the third quarter, when
you're skipping balls, you're not playing well, you know. So
and he did the same thing against the Chiefs and
he just wasn't good enough as a passer. You know,
it wasn't The game against the Browns was not all
his fault that the defense was getting destroyed. But I
think this game is kind of hard to pick because
you saw Mason Rudolph two weeks ago now in San
(25:24):
Francisco and he just looked overwhelmed. But you went, well,
maybe San Francico's defense pretty good first road start, not
easy because he look great, completely different guy and most
young quarterbacks are gonna play better at home. So he
started thinking, like could Mason Rudolph play well against this
Raven defense? Because the Raven defense ain't the Raven defense anymore.
You can't let four or five good players every other
year hit free agency and not resign them and just
(25:44):
maintain it. They're just there's just a law of attrition
that eventually you're not gonna hit on every draft pick.
And then they're so dependent and as these games now,
like you're not playing Arizona in Miami, so you're not
gonna be able to just score forty plus points with
your high school. You know, it's it's gonna be difficult
to get to point. Lamar has to play well. The
(26:05):
guys aren't just running wide open. And what you say,
one thing for Pittsburgh is Minca. I mean they trade
for Minco and boom that first game he caused the fumble,
he had a pick, Like he's kind of a playmaker,
Like would you be shocked if Minca as a turnover
against Lamar Jackson. I actually kind of like Pittsburgh, you know,
big home dog, not big I mean they're only getting
three and a half points, but Pittsburgh yeah. Yeah, are
(26:27):
we sure the Ravens are even that good? I'm not no, no, okay,
you mentioned the Browns kicking kicking the Ravens defense is
as Browns have to travel out to San Francisco. Niners
are undefeated but haven't playing anybody, and they've had the
week off because they're coming off coming off of a bye.
How do you like the Niners? Well, I mean usually
(26:49):
when you're coming off of bye, that's a coaching game.
So if you have a good coach, you know it's been.
It's been a famous number forever. I don't even know
what it's at now, but like Andy Ray is ridiculous. Yeah, yeah,
he's lost one time and is a career as a
head coach. He's been a head coach twenty years. Because
as a head coach, you get a huge advantage. You
don't play right if you get that week to kind
of scheme self, scout and scout your opponent an extra game.
(27:11):
So to me, if Kyle Shanahan, I think he's establishing
he's a really good schematic coach. Like he's he's top notch.
They should have a huge advantage playing at home. Not
The one thing is like you saw last night. Seattle
is like an sec environment that is not exactly Levi Stadium.
I'd say it's probably the opposite. But for the first
time since Levi has been built, they've kind of got
(27:32):
like this town's alive a little bit. People are just
talking about the Niners are a big deal, but they
just haven't one a long time. So I think people
starting to believe in this team that the Browns, you know,
they do have some flaws right there, tackles aren't great. Well,
what do the Niners do? They got a lot of
pass rushers. Here's one problem for the Niners, though, is
there starting corner opposite Richard Truman at Kella Weatherspoon, who's
having a really good season, sprained his foot, So they're
(27:55):
missing their starting corner and they're gonna play an undrafted
free agent. So an undrafted free agent against the guy
named Odell Beckham Jr. Because Richard doesn't really follow you
in this defense. I would imagine they're gonna get that
matchup a lot, and just so it's can Baker hit it?
And if he does hit it a couple of times
because Mason Rudolph want to kill him went out. Mason
Rudolph did hit a couple of big plays against backups,
(28:17):
so that that, to me is something to keep an
eye on. Can the Browns passing game get going now?
You could argue that doesn't even need to because they
can just establish the Runtys would like that because they've
been they've been excellent against the run, because their defensive
line linebackers are just a wrecking shop. Right now, Uh,
let me ask you about the issues in Minnesota. I
get that nobody believes in Kirk Cousins, right, and I
(28:38):
have I know somebody who's on that team who's like, look, dude,
in a big game, that guys so tight. We all
feel it. But doesn't some of this come down to Zimmer,
Like Zimmer change coordinators because they threw it too much.
Zimmer is just like, just get get the ball, just
don't turn it over by defense and win the game.
Some of this is Zimmer, isn't it. Imagine firing a
(28:59):
guy for wanting to throw it. In two thousand and eighteen,
That's what Zimmer did mid season because the guy wanted
to throw it, And I would imagine Flips thinking to himself, well,
we got a hundred million dollars and two wide receivers
and we paid our quarterbacks five million dollars. What do
you mean? What should we be doing? And I think Diggs,
like feeling clearly, was a little frustrated with Kirk because
he's missing him. I googled because I was like, I
(29:20):
thought Diggs had a pretty good year. He had a
career year with Kirk Cousins. I think his issue now
more is he playing with Kirk Cousins was not bad
for him. It's this offense now where they're just telling
him every week, well, we just need you to block,
We just need you to block. It's like all my
friends around the league are just catching getting ten plus targets,
and you just want me to block every game. I'm
and I'm signed to the long term. I'm just stuck
(29:41):
here in this archaic offense which works against bad teams
you can run it down their throat, but against the
Bears and against good defenses, and there when they played
the Packers, it's hard for Dalvin Cook to rush for
a hundred yards. So we have to win. That's what
Ceeland was saying, Like we're not gonna be able to
run for hundrefifty yards against good teams. We have to
pass it. There's two thousand ninete but the head coach
(30:01):
does not want to do that. And the coordinator, who
I think was with the franchise for like fourteen years,
has been passed over many times finally becomes a coordinator,
mainly just because he's gonna answer the Zimmer. I think
this game has a chance to be a double storyline.
Can you imagine that Danny dimes when three games in
a row and it feels like the Vikings are just
done like this? It would be an enormous story on
(30:24):
both sides if the Vikings are able to pull off
this upset. All right, and excuse me, the Giants. Uh now,
I'm playing some draft Kings this weekend. I'm going to
take a lot of the Vikings guys because the Giants
deeinks it, thinks it shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. But
can you imagine weird stuff is going on from weird weird,
like weird wacky and wild stuff. That your weird wacky
(30:47):
and that what Johnny Carson, you say weird, wacky and
wild stuff? Um? Hey, hey, did you know Matt Barkley
was still in the league. He pops up as the
Bills back up. But I was, like, I completely forgot
he was in the league. H I did, just because
he's one of the guys that I thought was gonna
be on the league in like two years. And he's
made me kind of lake fluoish because you're gonna have
a ten year plus career once thus done and made
(31:09):
a decent amount of money for a guy that I honestly, Doug,
I didn't think he's gonna last like two years. And
you're right. I mean you see him like House this
guys go around. Honestly, it's like it's like, no, yeah,
it's like Sanchez, greatest guy ever, Like greatest guy ever.
Anything for the starter, get him already. Here's the one problem.
I can't play dead in the Cowboy movie. No he's
not very good. No, it's not like Josh Howne is
(31:33):
not great either, but at least he can run and
hit a big play, right, And he was the fourth
pick of the draft, so you know they got their
pot committed to him. Um okay, I got I got
a couple of Moore to get to. Um. Can we
buy into Jamis at all? Now? Why wouldn't you? I
mean their coach has proven everywhere he's gone that the
(31:53):
quarterback plays well. Now he's had some great ones, but
he's also Carson Palmer's career was kind of n flox
and boom m VP candidate, Like it works, arians works.
And the other thing is jamis he's got a fail fall.
He'll turn the ball over. He was the number one
overall pick for a reason. Like he is a natural
pocket thrower. He's a good anticipatory thrower. Here's the other thing.
(32:14):
Does they are stacked with weapons. Mike Evans looks like
a dude that should be on the Lakers. He's enormous.
Chris Godwin is a stud o. J Howard god is
a really good player. Is a stud o. J. Howard's
like if he ever gets he ever plays an offense,
actually throws in the football, Like watch him in Alabama.
It's like, man, that poor guy. He was the Stefon
Diggs of college football. I know. And then there are
(32:35):
other tight end Cameron brad that the IVY leaguers not bad. Hey,
they have legitimate weapons. So that's another game. I kind
of got circled. The Saints defense is excellent and they've
been They've been kicking ass and taking names in the
last couple of weeks since Strew went down, but you
could see maybe they're in for a little leftdown game
and the Bucks really they're a missfield goal away from
being three and one and being one of the stories
(32:55):
of the league, Like, is this a wild card type team?
Shack Shack Barrett's coming on a little bit later on
this year, later on today? Is it is it all
him or is it in Dominican Sue getting a ton
of attention which allows him to be even better. You know,
I heard Chris Long was on with Russillo and he
had a good like the way Shack Barrett is a
(33:16):
guy that like kind of steps up moves. So his
whole career he was always kind of a backup, and
it's hard like you just kind of asked to go
in for a couple of series and just go now
that he can, as the game's going on, set up
an inside move to hit it with a counter, because
if you watch him, he's not just like falling over people.
If he's got all these tricks and he's kind of
a technician. But now they're giving him just an unlimited
(33:38):
amount of snaps because he's one of their guys. I
think he's really benefited from just being allowed to play
a lot. You know, some guys just never get that
because of whatever team they're on. You know, he was
on the Broncos right forever. It's hard to crack that lineup.
So you just get the opportunity. You know, there are
there are a lot of pro athletes, you know this
better than anyone, that just need the right opportunity to
(33:58):
really shine. And a lot of guy's never get that
for whatever reason. Maybe they get type cast, maybe just
in the wrong situation, but I think it's just the
it's just the ideal spot. And he looked at JPP
got hurt, you know, he got in that car crash,
so it just allowed him a bigger opportunity. All right.
Last thing, Cowboys Packers Packers look better but red zone
play calling, red zone without Davante Adams. But but but
(34:22):
much better the offense? What was it? Was it? Whose
offense was? It? Was it the old Packers offensive the
new Packers offense and allowed them to play well last week? Well,
it felt like when they were making plays, it was
just Rogers going four and five wide out of the
shots gut and lent to rip because you watch you know,
the Kyle Shanahans and Lafours. That's not really their offense.
So when they do that, it feels like Rodgers, like
(34:42):
I got this, uh and the one big play that
got screwed up was you know La Flour's. I'm fascinated
to watch this game because Kellen Moore, wud I'm a
big fan of got kind of taken to the woodshed
for the first time. He's thirty one year old coach
is gonna happen? He's playing a you know, top white team.
How does he bounce back? And he's not he doesn't
get an easy landing spot. Mike Patton's kind of established
(35:03):
himself is Hey, guys, remember me, I was Rex Ryan's
right hand guy. I'm pretty good defensive mind and now
I got players, So that that's a matchup. Does does
Kellen Moore completely come back to earth? Because this would be,
you know, a pretty impressive win by the Packers, right.
I know they're coming off a longer week because on Thursday,
but you go on the road playing Dallas who's coming
off a win, so they have a big incentive to
(35:23):
win this thing and you beat him like we I've
been someone that thought kind of on the Packers fence,
and I don't see him as a playoff team. You
in this game, it would be hard to even to
argue that anymore. John Middlecoff three Now is the podcast
download is part of the Herd podcast Network. Follow him
on Twitter, follow on Facebook. Uh, He's all over the place, John,
(35:44):
great stuff. Enjoy the football appreciated, dude, See We're going.
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. Alex Boone joins
us on the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Tradio.
Didn't you do the the rare double dip that no
(36:05):
one else has done? Doug? I don't know you, but
I'm instantly not liking you, like nobody said. No man. Huh,
all right, my man, hey man, We're true to our colors.
I'm an Ohio boy. What do you expect I'd be
a trader? Then? I mean, I understand Justin Boorn. Justin
(36:26):
Bourne was from Columbus and he was a big Ohio boy.
All his brothers ended up going to Ohio State. But
Justine started out in Michigan, and then he transferred over
to US and I was there, and of course I
had to give him a whole year of messing about
how he messed up for like so many years. It
was hilarious, fair fair enough. That they're they're, they're in life.
There in lies my issue. I was just convinced that
I was looking through stuffing like, man, I guess I,
(36:49):
I guess I. I frankly I misremembered U Joine's on
the Doug Gotlip Show here on Fox Sports tradeo, UM,
help me out on help me out on what's going
on in in Neapolis. I know when you were with
the Vikings, Cousins wasn't your quarterback, And I know that
they've been searching for a quarterback and from you know
when they had to bring in Sam because Teddy got
(37:10):
hurt and then you know, Sam got hurt, and it's
it's just been they wanted somebody stable, and Kirk Cousins
is stable. How much of this is Kirk? How much
of this is the play calling? I think it's a
little bit of everybody. I think everybody's got their hand
in the cookie jo here. And this is why I
say that I say, Spielman's got his hand in there
because he brought kirk an and he thought kirk would
(37:32):
be the answer. And shameine you for thinking that that
guy was gonna turn into Tom Brady behind that offensive line,
because there was no chance that was happening. The second
problem is the O C is just not being creative enough.
It's like they're wanting him to become something that he's not. Hey,
let's get you to stand back there for five seconds
and throw the ball. That's not what I do. Guys,
(37:52):
I'm not Tom Brady. Don't expect me to wake up
like that. And not only that, but you're not giving
me any protection. So now I'm really scared to stay
name back here, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna
get hit or not. And then you've got Mike Zimmer
who's in there just you know, Hey, listen, we need
to run the ball. We need to run the ball. Mike, listen,
we all want to run the ball. Dalvin wants to
run the line wants to run. Defense wants you to
(38:13):
run it. Now. The problem is when you get stopped
running the ball, if you can't continue to just keep
turning out empty yards, you're not going anywhere with dose,
but I do think that they gave up a little
too quickly this last game in the run game. Yeah,
Kevin stefanskis are offensive coordinator. He's never called plays before.
He's like a lifelong He's like a lifer as a
Vikings assistant. And it it does feel like it's it's
(38:36):
Zimmer who is a defensive guy saying this is what
I want, right, because you know, it's like the Pete
Carroll everybody, all those defensive coordinators, you know how they
want to win. They want to maul you, they want
to kick your teeth in because their defensive mind is,
hey listen, we kick indoors and we don't care what
we do. So if I can have a stay on offense,
(38:56):
how am I gonna do that? I need Dalvin to
run down the middle lineback your space thirty times a game. Well,
I'm not saying Mike's wrong, but what I'm saying is
I feel like he's pressuringks to Fansky in a way
that he doesn't like you. Like He's like, hey, man, listen,
I'm trying to do my thing and you're throwing kubiak
at me. And it's just a little too much. Who's
really taking control here, because now you've got players jumping
ship and once you to have divided that locker room,
(39:18):
it can never come back together. I've never seen it happen.
All right, what about Kirk Cousins apologizing the feeling, Well,
why take your business out there to the media. Listen,
if you have a problem, you go to feeling. If
somebody in the media has the audacity to ask you
about your relationship, you say, listen, dude, that's not in
your business. Mind George hamp business right now. We figured
(39:39):
this out. And the problem is when you apologize too
much of the media, the team eventually goes dude enough.
You make us look like not like a team right now,
you make us look sorry, like hey, feel bad for us.
I'm so sorry, dude. No, we don't want that. We
don't want that identity. We want a different identity. Come
talk to us, not the media. Uh, I'll expo join
us in the Gotlive show here on Fox Sports Radio.
(40:02):
It's interesting because you mentioned Hardball, who you did play
for with with the Niners, and obviously had Alex Smith there,
and I pointed out that, like, look, the Redskins. I
think this is almost like PTSD from losing him, right,
they had Kirk. They had Kirk, and they never bught
into Kirk being good enough. And they're like, man, we
got Alex Smith. What you know what an upgrade? And
(40:24):
then he breaks his leg in a fashion which he
probably never plays football ever again. What what is? What
is that guy like Alex Smith is the greatest person
in the world. I mean that too. I mean he
was one of those guys that he could take a
hit and he would like get up super like, hey man,
it's all good. You'd like, dude, I don't know, are
you sure you're okay? And he's like, I'm good, let's
just go, and and that would motivate you to want
(40:46):
to play back. He's like, you know what, my dude,
tough back here, We're good. I will say he was conservative,
but that was his game. Everybody knows that's who he is.
And that's my biggest problem with these gm right now,
is everyone going on and saying, hey, listen, let's throw
a whole bunch of cash with these guys and we'll
turn him into something. Dude, he's thirty years old. He's
not turning anything but older. You're not gonna get these
(41:07):
guys to throw the ball faster, You're not going to
get them to read people faster because they're spooked from
something earlier in their career. So stop trying to be like, hey,
we did the right thing. No, you did it, because
if you did, you'd be winning games with that defense.
Right now, the Rams are struggling to run the ball,
and I think everyone knows Girly does not seem to
have the explosiveness. But you know, Pro Football Focus for
(41:29):
what it's worth, had them ranked going into the last
night's game, is the worst offensive line in the league. Um,
they've lost two stars. Why do you think the Rams
offensive line? I thought second half was better than first
half last night? Why they haven't been as good as expected? Listen?
What are you're talking about? The Rams game? And I
know the Rams extremely well because I played him twice
a year, so I used to deal with those those
(41:51):
a lot. They walk into there and they're like, hey, listen,
we're gonna bully you around, and people fell for it
for a long time, but they're like, listen, we don't
want any of these problems, all right, you can just
deal what you've gotta go and get the hell out
of here. But now people are saying, hey, listen, if
we can contain Aaron Donald and we can stop this
rush a little bit, there's something to be made in
this past game. And not only that, but that's gonna
open up the run game a little bit for because
we just gotta keep hammering on him, hammering on him,
(42:12):
and eventually stuff is gonna pup. And not only that,
but the offensive line. They got all these new guys
in the middle. That's where you want to attack, closest,
fastest way to the quarterback through the middle. And you've
got a brand new center who has to five out
almost everything, which is like a hundred and twenty snaps
because he's throwing the ball a hundred and twenty times
in the last five days. That's incredible to me. Yeah,
(42:36):
the Patriots have a new center, they have all these
moving pieces. How do they keep Tom Brady up? Right?
I know you didn't just compare the Patriots to anybody
else in the league right now, you can't, So what
what what is it? What is the secret sauce to
how they're able to like, hey, we're gonna get a
guy out the wire and get this guy here and
put him in and it'll be fine. I love I
(42:56):
love that you asked that because his role players right
when when Bill comes over and he put his arm
around and he's like, hey, you want to come play
with us. You know your role You're not Tom Brady.
So if Bills like, I need you to stand on
that styleline for sixteen weeks, but weeks seventeen, I'm really
gonna need you, you're gonna be like, yes, certain, not
a problem, because I want that ring and I want
to be a part of something great. They have a
culture there to the second to none. When you go
(43:19):
in there, you understand who you are and where you
fall in the pecking order, and from there, if you
can't maintain your level of discipline and uh production, hey man,
you gotta go. I'm sorry. And there's their offensive line.
You see them. They churn them in and out all
the time, because Dante Skarniki's in there, like, listen, this week,
you're a mismatch to the notes, and you're a mismatch
to the d N so we're gonna flip you too.
And they come out and you're like, wait a minute, now,
(43:40):
now you can't do that. Dante is like watch me,
and they make it look good? Crazy crazy? Um, why
hasn't a hardball thing work better at Michigan? He played
for him. When you're taking your shirt up trying to
recruit kids, you think kids want to come play for you?
Now they're like they'd listen, I'm all about the cell phone,
the texting, the emojis. You're not into that. I'm into this.
(44:01):
It's not gonna end well and I'm sorry to stay
for Ohio State is gonna definitely definitely throw a punch
from this year. They throw bunchs from last year? What
what I think that? I think that everybody going into
this year though, I was like, oh, well, you know
coach Day, I don't know if he's gonna have it
agin to talk about. Listen, you're about to get throw
punch so hard you just just don't even show up
this year. Uh? What do you like? Are you? How
(44:24):
many cups of coffee do you have a day? Zero? Listen.
I'm always like both, I have four kids, I'm cooking dinner,
I'm watching all of them. I'm loving life. Talking to
Doug Gollies, Come on, dude, what could be better than mine?
All right? So what's your go to? You're you're now
you're now a sus chef for your kids. What's your
go to meal? All right? Now we're making uh Mexican
meet lasagna. It's gonna be phenomenal. I'll even take a
(44:45):
picture and send U to you later. Do it, all right?
A couple of a couple of things. Russell Wilson. How
hard is that guy to block for? Because one he
does take those super deep drops I think so he
can see. And then too, he's always running around back
there to make a play. What what must that? I
know the offensive line has been a work in progress
and they've tried to piece that thing together. But that's
got to be difficult considering how long at times he'll
(45:07):
hold the ball and how awkward it can be. No,
not at all, because he knows that after a while,
hey man, this is falling on me. Like my old
line can hold up for a long time. Now his
old line now they can't. Like you saw it last night.
They're kind of in a disarray. But you know what's
so great about russ If he makes it so smooth,
like he'll be in the pocket and you'll see a
guy coming right at him. He'll be like, you know what,
I don't want to stand there anyways. I don't wanted
(45:28):
to run to the right, and he just takes off
and throws a dime to Lock and You're like, what
just happened? He is so smooth under pressure, and guys
that play with them are like, dude, he is the
calmest person I've ever seen in the pocket and he
never ever breaks character. I was like, that's incredible, Um, Greg,
Greg Roman obviously coach you when you're with the Niners,
(45:49):
and he's put in the kind of some of the
stuff that you guys did with Cap, but it's even
more so, right, even more of a kind of Saturday
Saturday offense. Does that Can that work long term? No?
I don't think so. And I've always said that that
your your run game will get you to the playoffs,
but your quarterback will get you to the championship. And
that's when those windows get tighter and those windows get smaller,
(46:11):
and the defenses get better, and all of a sudden,
the run game. Guess what a good defense they're gonna
know how to shut down a run day. That's all
you've got for us today. Come on, dude, this is
a bye week for us. We're not getting paid hell
to be here. But it's a bye week. So when
you look at that, you say, yeah, they could get
to the playoffs. But could Lamar Jackson take him further?
I don't know. I mean, I think the better defenses
he's starting to play, the more he's being exposed and
(46:33):
Ibody by that, I say that they're throwing a lot
of pressure at him, and they're like, hey, listen, rook,
And he's not really a rook, but they're like, listen,
young man, let's see what you can do when there's
a lot of guys coming at you. And he gets
spooked kind of quick. So now everyone good, Hey, listen,
we gotta dial it up against him. Yeah, and then
he's got throwing those tight windows and that's that's not
his He can throw a downfield, but the short intermediate
stuff is not his strength. All Right. I want to
picture the Mexican meet Lasagna. I want to score prediction
(46:56):
for Ohio State Michigan State this weekend. Oh, how stame
is gonna say? Let's say this. I'm gonna say five
to Ohio State, all right, that would be I think
the line is, there's the line. The line's twenties. That
would be a cover for the for the Buckeyes. I
want a picture that Maxi meat lasagna, and I'm guessing
if your kids don't eat it now, they'll eat it
for breakfast. Thanks for joining us, Alex. Thanks Alex Boone's
(47:17):
former start at Ohio State, of course, longtime lineman in
the National Football League.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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