Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here on kiowayshe's Curry working for Benjamin Albright alongside Nick
Ferguson here tonight, and I look very excited to be
back with all of you as Hey, there's some NFL
stuff going on right now, Nick, And unfortunately we know
who's playing in the big game. And it's not anybody
that Broncos Country wanted.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
No, it's not Cody. Good to be working with you again,
and no it's not exactly what Broncos Country wants to hear,
but it is a testament to the chiefs and what
they have done with the assistance of I don't know,
maybe a couple of referees here and there.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I can say that, can I say that, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You can't, okay, because I mean when I play, you
couldn't if you were playing right, they would find me.
But I'm no longer collecting in for a paycheck, so
I can be as honest as I can't. But what
I will say is is though it does show the
Broncos exactly how far they need to go to close
the yeah to be in these types of meaningful games
(01:03):
at this stage of the years. So there's a lot
to unpack up by the games this weekend. We're definitely
get into all of that.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
No, it was a good one, and obviously, you know
the stage is set for a Super Bowl fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
There's a you know, a lot of talking points that
I think will go in for both teams there.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
But ultimately, I think, you know, one time we'll put
on the Broncos here. As we react to these games,
maybe things that we saw from those teams that maybe
Denver can take advantage of going into next season. Right,
I mean, there's always things you can learn, there's things
you can draw inspiration from, and certainly you see what's
working for some of these teams that are as deep
as they are.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Obviously it's down to two. It was up to you
know at the beginning of season thirty two teams. Now
it's down to the final two, and we'll break that
all down. We'll react to the AC and NFC championship game.
We'll talk a little bit about officiating, and oh even
to highlight maybe what this means for Josh Allen's legacy.
I know that's a lot of conversation a lot of
people are having on social media, and you know, you
see some narratives out there that are negatively defining of
Josh Allen, and I got to remind people this is
(01:57):
a team game, so we'll we'll dive deep to that.
You want to text us on the Common Spirit of
Health text line, it's five six six nine zero. You
can leave us message on the radio app as well.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
So let's start off here. Let's start off with.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
The AFC Championship because that is the one that's closest
right now to Broncos Countryfocly Chiefs Bills. Once again, the
Bills have been a team that have been able to
compete with Kansas City beat them in the regular season.
When it comes to the month of January, that's where
the challenge has really been for Josh Allen. I felt
like yesterday watching that game, the nerves seemed to get
(02:29):
to Josh Allen a little bit, which honestly, I haven't
seen that from him in quite some time.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And that was a great thing about Josh Allen over
the past two seasons that he kind of fine tuned
his throwing mechanics for one, and he wasn't taking as
many rents down the field as he has in years
pass trying to press. But in the game we saw
against the Chiefs that came up. There were about three
(02:58):
to four opportunities for the Chiefs defenders to come up
with turnovers that would have ended.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
The game early, but unfortunately they can't catch damn football, right.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Let me totally honest, and I started to in that
moment saw Josh Allen regress.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Just a little.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And the reason I'm saying using a word regress because
he started to take chances he normally would not take,
and I think he was feeling the pressure of Okay,
my legacy is on the line. I play this team
essentially three times before now, and I've lost to him
every single time except for one in the regular season.
(03:38):
So this is one of those games for all the
marbles and everyone's watching, I have to show up. I
have to be superman and for me all season along,
Josh Allen didn't do that. But he did get those
design quarterback runs and he made some plays.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
But I just felt as though this.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Game he just he didn't really rely on his teammates,
and to be totally honest, some of his teammates let
him down, would put which put him in a position yeah,
or he felt that he could no longer be quite can't.
He had to be Superman. But then it was the
Krypti kite yep, well by himself.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I mean Steve Spagnola might be the Kryptonite. I mean
Spags coached you know, a heck of a game there. Look,
and here's the thing, like Josh Allen, the Bills have
been doing the tush push this year in this offseason.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's been successful. It wasn't successful against Kansas City. And
now obviously Kansasy is now going against a team that
masters the tush push.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You know, I will obviously get to the NFC Championship
because that came into play, and we got to ask ourselves,
as you and I former defensive players, how do you
stop that? And obviously we talked about the officiating in
terms of the rules of what the ref said, like
they do it again, we could reward a score which
I've never heard of ever. We'll get into that here.
But I wanted to go through this game too. Joe
(04:59):
Brady Offen scored for the Bills. Right his name was
heating up in the in the cycle of you know,
potentially interviewing for head coaching jobs or even you know,
maybe a lot of moves. Some teams were definitely interested
in him his offense corner, but you know, the.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Bills are never gonna let that happen.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
But a head coaching position maybe for him to go
back to New Orleans. He drew his name from that,
and as we saw this past week, like to Texans,
they moved on from Bobby Slowik, who was a name
in last year's coaching cycle. After this game against the Chiefs,
I look at Joe Brady, I'm thinking, man, this guy
just hurt his chances of going into because it is
the biggest game of the year at that moment, right,
(05:32):
you had a terrific regular season. The play call in
that final drive, look to Kenstony goes up by a
field goal, and it's like, all right, hey, what are
you gonna do here with Josh Allen. I don't understand
how you don't get James Cook the ball when you're
running it there. That to me was mind boggling. And
then of course, now Josh Allen's got a second and eleven, he's.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Got a third and eight.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's unbelievable to me at what happened there.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Okay, so I'm gonna push back just a little because
I don't think anyone who's been considering Joe Brady to
be your head football coach should allow the outcome of
one game to move you of what you thought of
him going in. If that is what it did to
(06:14):
any owners around the league, guess what you were never
really into him to begin with. Now there's a saying,
dance with the one that brought you there, and the
guy that helped get Buffalo to that point was Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
But to your point, James Cook was there as well.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And he was.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Exactly and the one thing that they did well all season,
along and a lot of teams who got to this
particular point, they ran the ball and the Bills were
effective all season along with Josh Allen doing his part
and then James Cook doing his part.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But yes, did they get away from it.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, And I would say in some of those situations
you could become tight.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
As a play caller where you overthink things.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I've done it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yes, when you overthink things and then you think about, Okay,
the situation the third down to I don't know if
it was Dawson, Knox or Kincaid, but to the right
hand side, I thought he got the first down, and
they said that he was short, and then they tried
the pup to me. Philly has perfected that to an
(07:21):
exact science where everyone is trying to adopt it, and
the Bills failed to execute it, probably because you got
a quarterback.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It was very physical. He's six y four, very large man.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And I can't remember who was the run who was
the running back, but he forgot the huge part of
the push, which means that you have to take two
of your hands and put them on his butt cheeks
and actually propel him for right. And that didn't happen
for them. But kudos to Spags and the chiefs for
understanding where is it that the Bills when they tried
(07:56):
to duplicate this, what side of the ball are they?
That's film study? Right, that's a film study. So that
that is on Josh, now Joe Brady in that situation
and say, you know what, maybe I should move over,
because if you watch Yellen hurts when they do it,
it's a slight pause before he actually makes a move,
so he can determine where he's going to go. So
(08:17):
I don't like the idea of just kind of looking
at Josh and just saying it was his fault.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Or looking at Joe Brady and.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Leak Before that, Cody, the same thing was being said
about Lamar Jackson, right and coach Harball, who had just lost.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
To the Deals a week before.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, and look, I mean that's why it all boils
down to this, because I feel like there's so much
brain rod on social media right in terms of that's the.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Word the kids are using these days here.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Well, when you look at it, it's like everyone's just
signing singular blame to one player or the other. Ultimate
it's a team game, and when it all comes down
to it, Buffalo didn't make enough plays in times where
it matters, especially in the fourth quarter. I callin stepped
up in a big way obviously got them to a
point where you know, hey, they took advantage, and then
Chiefs go down, they score, field goaling, It's like, all right, hey,
(09:06):
one final drivees to me. I just felt like, as
you mentioned, they pressed a little too much in that game.
And as balanced as that offense has been for Buffalo
this year, didn't see much of Amari Cooper.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Kean Coleman didn't so much of him.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Calucia care had a couple of plays here and there,
but you didn't get enough production from the guys that
got you there. And ultimately that's just is it a
big game moment for some guys, Like we get into
the sports psychology of it. Certainly that that's applicable. But
the one thing I'm also seeing everyone's like, ah, Kansas
City guy handed the super Bowl. Honestly, Kansas City played
the best they played all year in that game right there.
(09:39):
Of course, is there something subjective here and there in
terms of calls. Absolutely, you know when Josh Allen is
sneaking across and I mean it looks clear cut that
he goes over where the first down is, one official
marks him over, one official marks him back, and that's
where the controversy and the talking point happens. But the
Bills didn't make enough plays at the end of the day.
I the thing about the Chiefs, and this is the
(10:00):
most frustrating thing. And you can attest to this.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You've played against, you played against that Brady dynasty. Those
types of teams saved.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Their best sometimes because Kencity looked like they were just
on cruise control through the regular season, right they didn't
look like they looked very beatable, more beatable than they
ever have in the Patrick Mahomes era. But it seems
like they turn it on in these final two games,
the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl that was obviously still.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
To be played.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
We'll see, but that looked like a different Chiefs team
than the team that we saw all year long.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
It did.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It seemed as though that the Kensidy team that we
saw against the Bills, they understood the moment.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
They understood that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It was better there three p and they were on
the precipice of making history. I mean, you could see
it emotionally from when the game started on Chris Jones's face,
from the beginning to the end, admit something. And usually
when a team wins their first championship, we always talk about,
well the championship hangover and they went another one and
(10:57):
they just like, well, you know what, they're not gonna
be do it again. And some teams can't even make
it a number two, to even make it a number three.
But the one thing I can say about the Chiefs organization,
going back to their level of experience, they understand these moments.
They've been in this moment before. They have element, you know,
head coach, they have a historic quarterback, a great tight
(11:20):
end and a defensive coordinator who's been around the block
several times.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
So it's not one.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Of these things as far as oh, well we get
in the tight situation and they get the type butt. No,
They're like, no, why is it that we have to
be the team that's gonna play tight. We're gonna play
loose because everyone is chasing us. And it would seem
as though Cody it would be the opposite because like
for the Bills, it was like no pressure on them.
(11:47):
You got the Chiefs trying to three feet at hot pressure.
That's a lot of pressure. But those guys are saying, well,
we have enough veterans on our team.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
We've been here before.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We understand the moment when when you think about let's
just talk about their running backs.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Right, you have Isaiah Chenko.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Who was a sixth round phenom that ran the ball
well for them on the.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Past two Super Bowls.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Right, and then Kareem Hunt, who spent time in Kansas
City at one point went to Cleveland, had some trouble
and they one thought he was done. He goes back
to Cleve, he goes back to the Chiefs and he
shows them, guess what, I'm still the same guy. And
then oh, by the way, the Broncos had some mygp
Ryn they released him. He starts with them, and he's
(12:32):
going back to the super Bowl place he was there before, Yes,
with Joe Burrow.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
So you have a bunch of experienced players.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And then you look at new Hopkins, who's never been
in this position before.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Right, you look at Juju Smith Schuster.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Right, we're talking about veteran players who some teams feel.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
As though they're over the heel.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And what I'm getting to, and it's a long winded
way to get to it, is that now we're starting
to look or I'm starting to look at the Chiefs
in Kansas City, as though the world of sports looked
at the Patriots and Tom Brady when I play right,
Because this is how we're talking about like Friday Dynasty. Yes,
(13:13):
on Friday Day, Temper was sitting here with Ben and
I and he was asking me.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
He was like, well, who you choosing in the games
this weekend?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Right? And I picked the Bills and he was like, oooh,
it's hard for me to go against my homes.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That's what we say about Tom.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Right, we can't go against him because he finds ways
to make plays you.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Know, little sidebar.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Sometimes they get a little help in the fourth quarter.
It seems coincidental that this happens, but it is. But
they've done a great job assembling, you know, their team,
and when teams win, other teams around the league looked
at those teams and said, well, what are they doing
that we are not doing.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
To put us in that particular position.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So right now, the Chiefs, whether you like it or not,
they are the envy of sports across the board. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
No, and look, it's I think one thing that stands
out to me is they're just well coached. Like in
a situation like that, they were the more discipline, more
well coached team than Buffalo was at that point.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And I think another thing too, because you know, the
one of the questions coming out of this is what
does this mean for Josh Allen's legacy. I hate this
question as it applies to singular players, right because the
same thing they were doing this to Lamar Jackson last week. Oh,
this game effects like Lamar losing to Buffalo and Josh
Allen this effects his legacy. I don't think it affects
his legacy one bit. You know, these guys are two
(14:37):
of the best quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
In all the NFL. Right, they're gonna have good games,
They're gonna have back games.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I think we're at this point where social media has
ruined so much of our ability to acknowledge that, Hey,
even the best players on any team at the toughest
position in sports to play at quarterback outside of cornerback,
that's also the toughest position.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I'll throw that out there.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
But there's so much pressure so with that, and it's
like you expect these guys to play perfect. You could
play great for the course of seventeen games when it's
like you are due, like at times you are going
to have that happen.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So I just hate the idea.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
That, Okay, this game ruins his legacy, Josh Allen's legacy.
I don't think he's going to be impact in any way,
shape or form. However, certainly narratives surrounding him and not
being able to get past Kansas City are going to
be talking points that we're going to see probably for
the next I don't know how many years you think.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
We're gonna hear about this. He went until he wins
the championship.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
This is kind of hard for the course when you
are a quarterback and you get drafted in the first round,
And is it fail the level of criticism that you receive.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
No, it's not. But it comes with the territory.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Right. You get praised when you do things the right way.
You get criticized when you do things.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
And what I'm talking about is not winning championships.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
And right now, that's where Josh Allen finds himself. And
I don't agree with it because it seems as though
when we deal in the world of sports or anything else,
in order to put one person up, it's almost like
we got to squash another person.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
See.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I don't like living in that type of realm. And
Josh Allen is a hell of a quarterback in his
own right. But if you go back over the time
that he's lost to Patrick Mahomes, there's a number of
things that you can point at that didn't have anything
to do with Josh Allen. Guy's dropping ball. Stefon Diggs
dropped the ball, right, But now you are asked to
(16:31):
be perfect and Josh wants to be superman. And for me,
as much as the media loves to build up quarterbacks
and say, well, they epitomize, you know, the franchise face.
They are the guys. I've never seen the quarterback. You
could tell me from wrong. Zach, you can tell me too.
(16:52):
I've never seen the quarterback win the game by himself.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
No, no, I mean unless you This quarterback is running
the ball from self square three touchdowns on the ground,
two hundred yards rushing. It is very hard, but that's
not possible without the offensive line.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
It is a team game.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Like Nick, we hyper focus on one player when the
reality is, and you know this better than anybody else,
you can have ten guys doing their job.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
One guy doesn't do his job.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
All it takes it can throw everything off track really easy.
And certainly that was the case in the Buffalo Bills game,
and certainly that was the case with Jaden Daniels and
the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
We'll share our thoughts on the NFC Championship game and maybe.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Look at what can the Broncos learn from these two games,
and maybe they can apply going into next season. We
get they hear on Broncos Country tonight on KWA eight
fifty am and ninety four one FM. He leaves a
message on the iHeart Radio avenue. Stream the station and
click on the microphone to leave us a message. Course,
(17:48):
we work here filling in for Benjamin Albright in with
Nick Ferguson as we break down after math Monday. We
just talked about the AFC Championship Game and now looking
at the NFC Championship Game and then the words drawing
the comparisons and the parallels. What can the Broncos learn
from the four teams that were in the final four
here this week?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Obviously that's gonna be our conversation here.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But NFC Championship Game, young quarterback Jaden Daniels, who obviously
had a terrific gear for the Commanders with dan Quinn
in his first season there, runs up against Jalen Hurts,
Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles and obviously former friend
Vic Fangio. What a game plan by the Eagles. They
came out red hot really from start to finish. Saquan's
(18:28):
first touch boom. I mean, think about this, Nick, the
Washington gets the ball to start the game, you have
an eighteen play drive.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Eighteen plays incredible, right, anytime you.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Can have an eighteen play drive, you know you're gonna
milk a lot of time off the clock. And then
Saquan touched the ball for the first time, he goes
pay dirt all of a sudden, Like, I feel like
that sucked the wind out of the Commanders a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, it was kung fu shot to the gun for them,
because it looked like at the very beginning of the
game that the Commanders was just gonna run away with
it because it was nothing vig Fagio and Philly's defense
could do to slow Jayden Daniels down.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
But then one play, and think about it this way,
that one play, and I.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Was telling mysel because we're watching the game was set
up by the special teams play that took the ball
out to midfield. So it only took one play and
the receivers getting on their block. And that's the one
thing I love about watching playoff football, especially this year,
because you saw a commitment to the run, and the
(19:31):
commitment to the run was the play call or calling
those plays consistently, even if those particular plays were stopped
by the opponent, were more importantly.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
An extension of the run game.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
All your wide receivers and on that particular play that
say Kwon Baldi just ripped off of six and yarder,
you saw the wire receivers making conservative effort, like you
can get out there. We've seen at the stop drill
where you get out and you look like you're playing
paddy Cake. Whether there's a difference between grabbing a guy
guiding him where you want him to and that is
(20:05):
what you want to do when you know you have
a guy like Saint Kawon Barkley and the offensive coordinator
is going to call those types of plays. But an
exceptional game and for me, Cody, this was a redemption
game for two guys. It was a redemption game for
Jalen Hurts because he was really criticized and anstracized coming
(20:26):
in to these playoffs, even dating back to when he
was first drafted out of Oklahoma. People were saying negative
things about him, even some of the Philly fans or
second guessing that particular play. And I found something that I
posted on my Twitter at Nick ferguson undscore twenty five
where Chris Canty of the NFL, former former NFL player
(20:48):
working for the Full Landen Network said he had his
top ten lists of quarterbacks and Jalen Hurst wasn't on it,
But then he came out with a list today He
was like, yeah, you know, Jalen Hurst was on his list,
but someone who's working in the area with him said, oh, Contram, we.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Got some receipts. You did not include.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Jalen Hurts in your top ten, which he was like, oh,
I got him on my list right here. Was like, no,
you don't. So I'm happy for Jalen Hurts, but I'm
even happier for sa Quon Barkley. Yeah, because earlier this year,
Joe Shane from the Giants socided, Nah, we're not gonna
give you any money, We're.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Gonna give it to Danie Jones, only to release Daniel Jones.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And why Saquon Barkley goes to the Super Bowl in
the Philadelphia Eclas uniform.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Well, look at there's two things that Joe Shane obviously
did wrong.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
And thank you to Hard Knocks forgiving us probably the
most compelling insight into the offseason we'll ever get.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I don't think any NFL team is going to sign
off on doing that ever again.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Because the Giants laid out a bootprint on Oh my gosh,
did they really say that? First off, you have Joe
Shane's kids saying he got a trade up to get
Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
He says, now, we want to win.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Games that age well, and then well, OK, letting Sequon
go that age well.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Look, and here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Even if Saquon STATEI with the Giants, I don't think
he has the type of year he did this year.
I mean, that offensive line in Philly is built different.
But there's more organizational stability right now in Philly than
there is in New York. And obviously that's a pain
point I think for that Giants franchise. So while I'm
happy for Saquon, and look, Saquon, I already know.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
All the voting already took place.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Squon should be unanimously, unanimously the offensive player of the.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Year, and he should have.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
He should be in that MVP conversation. I know it's
between Lamar and Josh Allen. Saquon is very deserving of
being in that conversation too.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
And the burst, the speed, and this is.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
The guy who obviously, you know, he's come off of
major injuries before he suffered a multi ligamental kN injury,
came back and to do still squad and almost what
I think five hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Like you know how this works because everything you're saying
is true. Ta Kuan deserves to be in the MVP conversation. Now,
should he be the Offensive Player of the Year? Absolutely,
based on what he did from a running back position.
But to think that the NFL will somehow allow a
running back to win MVP, No, because if that would
(23:21):
have happened, the scales the balance.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
It's office.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Like George said, George Sanders, balls are colliding right because
they can't really have that because the running back position
has been devalue so much over the past couple of years.
To have a running back win the MVP, it changes
the conversation. But I'm still happy for what Saquan has
done this season.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Look, now they have an opportunity to get redemption against
the Casey Chiefs. I remember last time they played the
Super Bowl. Came down to, uh, you know, I'm a
defensive guy. Let the DBS play. It's the biggest game
of the year. Passion reference call set everything up for
the Chiefs to win that game. Once again, talking about
officiating ironic, I'm decided, Yeah, the proof is a little
(24:05):
bit in the putting right there.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
So what can the Broncos learn from the time we
got a few minutes here.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
To me, one of my biggest takeaways, right, I'll give two,
and I'm eager for your thoughts to give yours as well.
To me, the Broncos need a dominant run game. They
need they need to find a running back that not
necessarily be the Bell Cow. I know Sean Payton said
his comments were taken out of context a little bit.
I think from the end of the year presser. In
terms of that, Sean believes in a committee, but I
think he's trying to get back to just two backs
(24:31):
versus using three, because that was a problem this year.
You know, he tried to rely on three different backs
and it really messed with the flow of the offense
and he didn't have a clear cutting guy establish himself.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I think they need to get a running back who's.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Capable of maybe having a little bit more carries than
me Broncos back had this year.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
And I think they need a playmaking tight end.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I would agree with that, but I would push back
on the running back because, for one, even though you
had three backs, you got to give them a consistent
rhythm and flow, giving them the opportunity to kind of
lather up. That means consistently you say, well, this guy,
you know, going into a game, he's gonna have fifteen
(25:14):
carries or whatever or touches, and you know what you're
trying to do once you're going into the game.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
And the reason I think that you can make it work.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And there is something to say about having three backs
because in my time playing for Mike.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Shanahan, there was a stable. One went down, here come another,
another went down, here comes another. Because now there's a preparation.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Even working in San Francisco, it was the same thing.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Kyle is all of the sun to his day.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And once again, what happened when christ McCaffrey was out,
They had another back. Christy gave back, he got injured,
They threw another one in there that one got injured,
they threw another one, so so on and so forth.
So I think there is something to say about having
a stable of backs.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
But if you want to say, well we're gonna take we've.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Got four backs, two of those backs are gonna be
our bell car backs. But how are you using those
particular backs? Because you look at the eighteens that found
themselves in the playoffs, and even in the final four,
every team ran the ball well, they rushed for over
one hundred yards.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
So that's the Litman tests.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
That tells you there needs to be a high emphasis
this offseason on the run game. But also you need
athletic linebackers.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yes, big time. Look at Matt Mlonald. Matt Malonnal, in
my opinion, is where I know.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
They're out now, one of the most impressive inside backers
I've seen in the postseason.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And look Bobby Wagner and those guys are doing really well.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You look at Philadelphia Zach Bond, great example, a guy
whom Sean Payton drafted on the wish list of a
lot of people in Broncos country. Right now, I don't
think he's gonna leave Philly. I think he's gonna say
the were big fans, especially if they.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Win the Super Bowl. Even if they don't win, I
think he'll be back.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
But you have to.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Find that rangy sideline to sideline linebacker that's gonna be
imperative here, I think for them going forward, and I
would like to see the offensive line can you pull more?
Like why are we seeing more polls from Quinn minors?
Ben powers get to the next level instead, it's its
own block and double team get up to the next
level there and sometimes the backs aren't seeing the whole
quil enough, so the scheme's.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Gonna have to evolve as well.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And look what We'll continue this conversational but later in
terms of talking about the Broncos' biggest needs of the
offseason here on Broncos Country Night on KAA fifty AM
and ninety four point one FMM here alongside Nick Ferguson.
Once again, you want to get involved with the show,
hit us up on the Common Spirit of Health text
line five sixty six nine zero. You can even also
(27:38):
leave us a message on the iHeartRadio. I've just screamed
the station and click on the microphone to leave us
a message. We're recapping the AFC Championship games the NFC Championship.
What parallels can Denver draw from those teams that made it?
What can they draw inspiration from from some of the
other teams when they were even in the wild card,
we learned a lot about where this team can go
here and Ross talk about it a little bit later
(27:59):
on here in the show. But you know part of that,
you know, you get to the playoffs for the first
time since twenty fifteen and one of the things that
is going to happen is there's so many job openings
at the beginning of the offseason around the NFL. It
means that you have opportunities to lose assistant coaches to
promotions around the league, And certainly the Broncos, they've lost
one assistant coach already, they're on the verge of losing
(28:20):
a second one to a promotion, and they've already lost
a key executive in the front office. So for those
of you who are now just catching up, you didn't
hear it. Over the weekend, the Broncos lost Darren Moogy,
the assistant general manager, the right hand George Payton. He
took the New York Jets GM job, and obviously well deserving.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
For Mooche, because here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Nick Mooch is the guy that has really worked his
way up the ladder right going back to twenty twelve,
he came on as a scouting intern for the Broncos,
did a good enough job he was able to get
a full time job the next year, and then from
that point forward he worked his way up from you know,
college scout to area of scouts to eventually the you know,
director of player personnel, and then I think it was
(29:00):
in twenty twenty two, got that promotion to assistant GM
and now hey, he's a general manager of the New
York Jets with you know your guy Aaron Glenn, who
obviously got the head coaching job over there. I'm happy
for Mooge man, And the number one thing I want
to highlight is I think Mooge is.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Going to do a terrific job over there.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
My biggest worry, Nick, is that Jets ownership won't stay
out of the way.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
They got.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
They got to get out of the way and let
those guys work. That's the problem in New York right now.
And I hope, I hope they step aside so that
Moovee Eric Glenn can get off their feet a little
bit and get things running.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I'm hoping as well that
you know, Woody Johnson would allow these two men to
do exactly what he hired them to do. And I know,
when you work in business in corporate America and you
are the CEO of the company, the idea is that
you want to have your fingers on every part of
(29:56):
the organization. Well, the one thing that I've learned that
your typical, you know, nine to five fortune, five hundred company.
It might seem as though you can use the same
mentality when you're working in the framework of the NFL team,
But it doesn't work out that way, right because you're
still talking about communication, You're still talking about people. But
(30:16):
football is in my mind and just my mind, a
law is just a little different. So I'm hoping what
he Johnson allows both of these individuals to actually do
their job. And I know there have been a lot
of former Jets guys in the front office, players who
were an intricate part on both of these guys getting
this opportunity. So what he Johnson started to listen because
(30:39):
you got to think about it. At some point, the
four walls are going to close in. And I can
tell you as a guy that played in New York,
the media there is entirely different than the media here.
Oh yeah, And what he Johnson understands that pressure that
comes along with that.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
So this is why he was trying to make the
right decision.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
And he's hoping that Dann Moujie and Aaron Glenn all
the stop gap that kind of plugs up these holes
of negative narratives. And I think these two guys can
definitely do it. And the thing that stoock out to me,
and you know, watching their press conference today, knowing about
I think two to three years ago that Aaron actually
(31:18):
interviewed here for the big head coaching job that the
then you Hackett ultimately received and whatever mutual respect that
was kind of created, then carry Ford, because Aaron wanted
to be a part of the entire process. He didn't
just want to be labeled a minority coach taking over
(31:39):
a team that he wants coach for and he wants
playing for and trying to kind of restore their standard.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
He said, no, I want to be involved.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
With the hiring of the coaches, hiring of the gms,
and the picking of the players.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And usually you don't get that. Yeah, because I know
that's what he wanted Orleans.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And then Orleans said, well, we're not getting rid of
Mickey limits for you.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
We're not gonna do that.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
And Bill Parcells famously said something that makes sense, And
I'm sure Aaron remember that in this situation, you want
me to cook the food, you've got to allow me
to buy the damn grocery.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, so I'm eager to.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
See what both of these guys can actually do. They
do have some pieces with the Jets and gotta make
some tweaks here and there. Biggest question, what are you
doing a quarterback?
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I'm not bringing Aaron Rodgers back if it were up
to me, Like why at this point, Okay, you know
who's out there, who's an available option for you to
bring in?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Do you focus on the NFL draft? Because think about
it this way. I feel like.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
What Jaden Daniels and even bo Nicks did this year,
and even like JJ McCarthy in New England with limited
playmakers around him, they raised the bar for rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So the cam Wards, the Shediar Sanders that standard for
wherever team that they end up on, they're gonna have
that same expectation. It's not gonna be hey, you gotta develop.
We're gonna let you know, sit here and develop. You
have to see something from them, which I don't think
is always fair because not every organization is different, not
every environment is going to be Just like the Washington
Commanders who revamped their ownership, who revamped their coaching staff,
(33:18):
and they brought in a guy who set the standard
for them, right, And I remember when Dan Quinn was
hired in Washington, a lot of people said, oh, this
is just you know, you're doing a retread. Now you're gonna,
you know, get a rookie corback. It's not gonna work
like this. This guy's not gonna be a great head coach.
Heat Well, look what happened, Like he.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Did a lot and look he's got some talented players.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
He brought in Bobby Wagoner, he brought in some guys
he's familiar with that know how to install the culture
that he wants right, and now you get that carried
over to your rookie quarterback like Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You look at what bo Nick's has done here in Denver.
That's different.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Like those two guys, in my opinion, have kind of
said a little bit of a standard. So from New York,
what are you going to do in that situation? I'm
very curious about that. The connection there with Muji, Now
the line of communication is certainly open.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
For you know, I think where we're at, but you know,
a lot a lot.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
To go through and obviously we're going to continue talking
about it here on.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Broncos Country tonight.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
We'll dive a little bit deeper here as well, into
some of the coaches that the Broncos have lost, and
obviously some rumors about some coaches who are on the
way out here on Broncos Country now on KLA fifty
nine four one a FM
Here on kiowayshe's Curry working for Benjamin Albright alongside Nick
Ferguson here tonight, and I look very excited to be
back with all of you as Hey, there's some NFL
stuff going on right now, Nick, And unfortunately we know
who's playing in the big game. And it's not anybody
that Broncos Country wanted.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
No, it's not Cody. Good to be working with you again,
and no it's not exactly what Broncos Country wants to hear,
but it is a testament to the chiefs and what
they have done with the assistance of I don't know,
maybe a couple of referees here and there.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I can say that, can I say that, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You can't, okay, because I mean when I play, you
couldn't if you were playing right, they would find me.
But I'm no longer collecting in for a paycheck, so
I can be as honest as I can't. But what
I will say is is though it does show the
Broncos exactly how far they need to go to close
the yeah to be in these types of meaningful games
(01:03):
at this stage of the years. So there's a lot
to unpack up by the games this weekend. We're definitely
get into all of that.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
No, it was a good one, and obviously, you know
the stage is set for a Super Bowl fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
There's a you know, a lot of talking points that
I think will go in for both teams there.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
But ultimately, I think, you know, one time we'll put
on the Broncos here. As we react to these games,
maybe things that we saw from those teams that maybe
Denver can take advantage of going into next season. Right,
I mean, there's always things you can learn, there's things
you can draw inspiration from, and certainly you see what's
working for some of these teams that are as deep
as they are.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Obviously it's down to two. It was up to you
know at the beginning of season thirty two teams. Now
it's down to the final two, and we'll break that
all down. We'll react to the AC and NFC championship game.
We'll talk a little bit about officiating, and oh even
to highlight maybe what this means for Josh Allen's legacy.
I know that's a lot of conversation a lot of
people are having on social media, and you know, you
see some narratives out there that are negatively defining of
Josh Allen, and I got to remind people this is
(01:57):
a team game, so we'll we'll dive deep to that.
You want to text us on the Common Spirit of
Health text line, it's five six six nine zero. You
can leave us message on the radio app as well.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
So let's start off here. Let's start off with.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
The AFC Championship because that is the one that's closest
right now to Broncos Countryfocly Chiefs Bills. Once again, the
Bills have been a team that have been able to
compete with Kansas City beat them in the regular season.
When it comes to the month of January, that's where
the challenge has really been for Josh Allen. I felt
like yesterday watching that game, the nerves seemed to get
(02:29):
to Josh Allen a little bit, which honestly, I haven't
seen that from him in quite some time.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And that was a great thing about Josh Allen over
the past two seasons that he kind of fine tuned
his throwing mechanics for one, and he wasn't taking as
many rents down the field as he has in years
pass trying to press. But in the game we saw
against the Chiefs that came up. There were about three
(02:58):
to four opportunities for the Chiefs defenders to come up
with turnovers that would have ended.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
The game early, but unfortunately they can't catch damn football, right.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Let me totally honest, and I started to in that
moment saw Josh Allen regress.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Just a little.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And the reason I'm saying using a word regress because
he started to take chances he normally would not take,
and I think he was feeling the pressure of Okay,
my legacy is on the line. I play this team
essentially three times before now, and I've lost to him
every single time except for one in the regular season.
(03:38):
So this is one of those games for all the
marbles and everyone's watching, I have to show up. I
have to be superman and for me all season along,
Josh Allen didn't do that. But he did get those
design quarterback runs and he made some plays.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
But I just felt as though this.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Game he just he didn't really rely on his teammates,
and to be totally honest, some of his teammates let
him down, would put which put him in a position yeah,
or he felt that he could no longer be quite can't.
He had to be Superman. But then it was the
Krypti kite yep, well by himself.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I mean Steve Spagnola might be the Kryptonite. I mean
Spags coached you know, a heck of a game there. Look,
and here's the thing, like Josh Allen, the Bills have
been doing the tush push this year in this offseason.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's been successful. It wasn't successful against Kansas City. And
now obviously Kansasy is now going against a team that
masters the tush push.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You know, I will obviously get to the NFC Championship
because that came into play, and we got to ask ourselves,
as you and I former defensive players, how do you
stop that? And obviously we talked about the officiating in
terms of the rules of what the ref said, like
they do it again, we could reward a score which
I've never heard of ever. We'll get into that here.
But I wanted to go through this game too. Joe
(04:59):
Brady Offen scored for the Bills. Right his name was
heating up in the in the cycle of you know,
potentially interviewing for head coaching jobs or even you know,
maybe a lot of moves. Some teams were definitely interested
in him his offense corner, but you know, the.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Bills are never gonna let that happen.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
But a head coaching position maybe for him to go
back to New Orleans. He drew his name from that,
and as we saw this past week, like to Texans,
they moved on from Bobby Slowik, who was a name
in last year's coaching cycle. After this game against the Chiefs,
I look at Joe Brady, I'm thinking, man, this guy
just hurt his chances of going into because it is
the biggest game of the year at that moment, right,
(05:32):
you had a terrific regular season. The play call in
that final drive, look to Kenstony goes up by a
field goal, and it's like, all right, hey, what are
you gonna do here with Josh Allen. I don't understand
how you don't get James Cook the ball when you're
running it there. That to me was mind boggling. And
then of course, now Josh Allen's got a second and eleven, he's.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Got a third and eight.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's unbelievable to me at what happened there.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Okay, so I'm gonna push back just a little because
I don't think anyone who's been considering Joe Brady to
be your head football coach should allow the outcome of
one game to move you of what you thought of
him going in. If that is what it did to
(06:14):
any owners around the league, guess what you were never
really into him to begin with. Now there's a saying,
dance with the one that brought you there, and the
guy that helped get Buffalo to that point was Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
But to your point, James Cook was there as well.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And he was.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Exactly and the one thing that they did well all season,
along and a lot of teams who got to this
particular point, they ran the ball and the Bills were
effective all season along with Josh Allen doing his part
and then James Cook doing his part.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But yes, did they get away from it.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, And I would say in some of those situations
you could become tight.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
As a play caller where you overthink things.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I've done it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yes, when you overthink things and then you think about, Okay,
the situation the third down to I don't know if
it was Dawson, Knox or Kincaid, but to the right
hand side, I thought he got the first down, and
they said that he was short, and then they tried
the pup to me. Philly has perfected that to an
(07:21):
exact science where everyone is trying to adopt it, and
the Bills failed to execute it, probably because you got
a quarterback.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It was very physical. He's six y four, very large man.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And I can't remember who was the run who was
the running back, but he forgot the huge part of
the push, which means that you have to take two
of your hands and put them on his butt cheeks
and actually propel him for right. And that didn't happen
for them. But kudos to Spags and the chiefs for
understanding where is it that the Bills when they tried
(07:56):
to duplicate this, what side of the ball are they?
That's film study? Right, that's a film study. So that
that is on Josh, now Joe Brady in that situation
and say, you know what, maybe I should move over,
because if you watch Yellen hurts when they do it,
it's a slight pause before he actually makes a move,
so he can determine where he's going to go. So
(08:17):
I don't like the idea of just kind of looking
at Josh and just saying it was his fault.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Or looking at Joe Brady and.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Leak Before that, Cody, the same thing was being said
about Lamar Jackson, right and coach Harball, who had just lost.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
To the Deals a week before.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, and look, I mean that's why it all boils
down to this, because I feel like there's so much
brain rod on social media right in terms of that's the.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Word the kids are using these days here.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Well, when you look at it, it's like everyone's just
signing singular blame to one player or the other. Ultimate
it's a team game, and when it all comes down
to it, Buffalo didn't make enough plays in times where
it matters, especially in the fourth quarter. I callin stepped
up in a big way obviously got them to a
point where you know, hey, they took advantage, and then
Chiefs go down, they score, field goaling, It's like, all right, hey,
(09:06):
one final drivees to me. I just felt like, as
you mentioned, they pressed a little too much in that game.
And as balanced as that offense has been for Buffalo
this year, didn't see much of Amari Cooper.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Kean Coleman didn't so much of him.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Calucia care had a couple of plays here and there,
but you didn't get enough production from the guys that
got you there. And ultimately that's just is it a
big game moment for some guys, Like we get into
the sports psychology of it. Certainly that that's applicable. But
the one thing I'm also seeing everyone's like, ah, Kansas
City guy handed the super Bowl. Honestly, Kansas City played
the best they played all year in that game right there.
(09:39):
Of course, is there something subjective here and there in
terms of calls. Absolutely, you know when Josh Allen is
sneaking across and I mean it looks clear cut that
he goes over where the first down is, one official
marks him over, one official marks him back, and that's
where the controversy and the talking point happens. But the
Bills didn't make enough plays at the end of the day.
I the thing about the Chiefs, and this is the
(10:00):
most frustrating thing. And you can attest to this.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You've played against, you played against that Brady dynasty. Those
types of teams saved.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Their best sometimes because Kencity looked like they were just
on cruise control through the regular season, right they didn't
look like they looked very beatable, more beatable than they
ever have in the Patrick Mahomes era. But it seems
like they turn it on in these final two games,
the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl that was obviously still.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
To be played.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
We'll see, but that looked like a different Chiefs team
than the team that we saw all year long.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
It did.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It seemed as though that the Kensidy team that we
saw against the Bills, they understood the moment.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
They understood that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It was better there three p and they were on
the precipice of making history. I mean, you could see
it emotionally from when the game started on Chris Jones's face,
from the beginning to the end, admit something. And usually
when a team wins their first championship, we always talk about,
well the championship hangover and they went another one and
(10:57):
they just like, well, you know what, they're not gonna
be do it again. And some teams can't even make
it a number two, to even make it a number three.
But the one thing I can say about the Chiefs organization,
going back to their level of experience, they understand these moments.
They've been in this moment before. They have element, you know,
head coach, they have a historic quarterback, a great tight
(11:20):
end and a defensive coordinator who's been around the block
several times.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
So it's not one.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Of these things as far as oh, well we get
in the tight situation and they get the type butt. No,
They're like, no, why is it that we have to
be the team that's gonna play tight. We're gonna play
loose because everyone is chasing us. And it would seem
as though Cody it would be the opposite because like
for the Bills, it was like no pressure on them.
(11:47):
You got the Chiefs trying to three feet at hot pressure.
That's a lot of pressure. But those guys are saying, well,
we have enough veterans on our team.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
We've been here before.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We understand the moment when when you think about let's
just talk about their running backs.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Right, you have Isaiah Chenko.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Who was a sixth round phenom that ran the ball
well for them on the.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Past two Super Bowls.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Right, and then Kareem Hunt, who spent time in Kansas
City at one point went to Cleveland, had some trouble
and they one thought he was done. He goes back
to Cleve, he goes back to the Chiefs and he
shows them, guess what, I'm still the same guy. And
then oh, by the way, the Broncos had some mygp
Ryn they released him. He starts with them, and he's
(12:32):
going back to the super Bowl place he was there before, Yes,
with Joe Burrow.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
So you have a bunch of experienced players.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And then you look at new Hopkins, who's never been
in this position before.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Right, you look at Juju Smith Schuster.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Right, we're talking about veteran players who some teams feel.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
As though they're over the heel.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And what I'm getting to, and it's a long winded
way to get to it, is that now we're starting
to look or I'm starting to look at the Chiefs
in Kansas City, as though the world of sports looked
at the Patriots and Tom Brady when I play right,
Because this is how we're talking about like Friday Dynasty. Yes,
(13:13):
on Friday Day, Temper was sitting here with Ben and
I and he was asking me.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
He was like, well, who you choosing in the games
this weekend?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Right? And I picked the Bills and he was like, oooh,
it's hard for me to go against my homes.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That's what we say about Tom.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Right, we can't go against him because he finds ways
to make plays you.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Know, little sidebar.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Sometimes they get a little help in the fourth quarter.
It seems coincidental that this happens, but it is. But
they've done a great job assembling, you know, their team,
and when teams win, other teams around the league looked
at those teams and said, well, what are they doing
that we are not doing.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
To put us in that particular position.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So right now, the Chiefs, whether you like it or not,
they are the envy of sports across the board. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
No, and look, it's I think one thing that stands
out to me is they're just well coached. Like in
a situation like that, they were the more discipline, more
well coached team than Buffalo was at that point.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And I think another thing too, because you know, the
one of the questions coming out of this is what
does this mean for Josh Allen's legacy. I hate this
question as it applies to singular players, right because the
same thing they were doing this to Lamar Jackson last week. Oh,
this game effects like Lamar losing to Buffalo and Josh
Allen this effects his legacy. I don't think it affects
his legacy one bit. You know, these guys are two
(14:37):
of the best quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
In all the NFL. Right, they're gonna have good games,
They're gonna have back games.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I think we're at this point where social media has
ruined so much of our ability to acknowledge that, Hey,
even the best players on any team at the toughest
position in sports to play at quarterback outside of cornerback,
that's also the toughest position.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I'll throw that out there.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
But there's so much pressure so with that, and it's
like you expect these guys to play perfect. You could
play great for the course of seventeen games when it's
like you are due, like at times you are going
to have that happen.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So I just hate the idea.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
That, Okay, this game ruins his legacy, Josh Allen's legacy.
I don't think he's going to be impact in any way,
shape or form. However, certainly narratives surrounding him and not
being able to get past Kansas City are going to
be talking points that we're going to see probably for
the next I don't know how many years you think.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
We're gonna hear about this. He went until he wins
the championship.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
This is kind of hard for the course when you
are a quarterback and you get drafted in the first round,
And is it fail the level of criticism that you receive.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
No, it's not. But it comes with the territory.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Right. You get praised when you do things the right way.
You get criticized when you do things.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
And what I'm talking about is not winning championships.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
And right now, that's where Josh Allen finds himself. And
I don't agree with it because it seems as though
when we deal in the world of sports or anything else,
in order to put one person up, it's almost like
we got to squash another person.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
See.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I don't like living in that type of realm. And
Josh Allen is a hell of a quarterback in his
own right. But if you go back over the time
that he's lost to Patrick Mahomes, there's a number of
things that you can point at that didn't have anything
to do with Josh Allen. Guy's dropping ball. Stefon Diggs
dropped the ball, right, But now you are asked to
(16:31):
be perfect and Josh wants to be superman. And for me,
as much as the media loves to build up quarterbacks
and say, well, they epitomize, you know, the franchise face.
They are the guys. I've never seen the quarterback. You
could tell me from wrong. Zach, you can tell me too.
(16:52):
I've never seen the quarterback win the game by himself.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
No, no, I mean unless you This quarterback is running
the ball from self square three touchdowns on the ground,
two hundred yards rushing. It is very hard, but that's
not possible without the offensive line.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
It is a team game.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Like Nick, we hyper focus on one player when the
reality is, and you know this better than anybody else,
you can have ten guys doing their job.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
One guy doesn't do his job.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
All it takes it can throw everything off track really easy.
And certainly that was the case in the Buffalo Bills game,
and certainly that was the case with Jaden Daniels and
the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
We'll share our thoughts on the NFC Championship game and maybe.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Look at what can the Broncos learn from these two games,
and maybe they can apply going into next season. We
get they hear on Broncos Country tonight on KWA eight
fifty am and ninety four one FM. He leaves a
message on the iHeart Radio avenue. Stream the station and
click on the microphone to leave us a message. Course,
(17:48):
we work here filling in for Benjamin Albright in with
Nick Ferguson as we break down after math Monday. We
just talked about the AFC Championship Game and now looking
at the NFC Championship Game and then the words drawing
the comparisons and the parallels. What can the Broncos learn
from the four teams that were in the final four
here this week?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Obviously that's gonna be our conversation here.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But NFC Championship Game, young quarterback Jaden Daniels, who obviously
had a terrific gear for the Commanders with dan Quinn
in his first season there, runs up against Jalen Hurts,
Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles and obviously former friend
Vic Fangio. What a game plan by the Eagles. They
came out red hot really from start to finish. Saquan's
(18:28):
first touch boom. I mean, think about this, Nick, the
Washington gets the ball to start the game, you have
an eighteen play drive.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Eighteen plays incredible, right, anytime you.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Can have an eighteen play drive, you know you're gonna
milk a lot of time off the clock. And then
Saquan touched the ball for the first time, he goes
pay dirt all of a sudden, Like, I feel like
that sucked the wind out of the Commanders a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, it was kung fu shot to the gun for them,
because it looked like at the very beginning of the
game that the Commanders was just gonna run away with
it because it was nothing vig Fagio and Philly's defense
could do to slow Jayden Daniels down.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
But then one play, and think about it this way,
that one play, and I.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Was telling mysel because we're watching the game was set
up by the special teams play that took the ball
out to midfield. So it only took one play and
the receivers getting on their block. And that's the one
thing I love about watching playoff football, especially this year,
because you saw a commitment to the run, and the
(19:31):
commitment to the run was the play call or calling
those plays consistently, even if those particular plays were stopped
by the opponent, were more importantly.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
An extension of the run game.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
All your wide receivers and on that particular play that
say Kwon Baldi just ripped off of six and yarder,
you saw the wire receivers making conservative effort, like you
can get out there. We've seen at the stop drill
where you get out and you look like you're playing
paddy Cake. Whether there's a difference between grabbing a guy
guiding him where you want him to and that is
(20:05):
what you want to do when you know you have
a guy like Saint Kawon Barkley and the offensive coordinator
is going to call those types of plays. But an
exceptional game and for me, Cody, this was a redemption
game for two guys. It was a redemption game for
Jalen Hurts because he was really criticized and anstracized coming
(20:26):
in to these playoffs, even dating back to when he
was first drafted out of Oklahoma. People were saying negative
things about him, even some of the Philly fans or
second guessing that particular play. And I found something that I
posted on my Twitter at Nick ferguson undscore twenty five
where Chris Canty of the NFL, former former NFL player
(20:48):
working for the Full Landen Network said he had his
top ten lists of quarterbacks and Jalen Hurst wasn't on it,
But then he came out with a list today He
was like, yeah, you know, Jalen Hurst was on his list,
but someone who's working in the area with him said, oh, Contram, we.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Got some receipts. You did not include.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Jalen Hurts in your top ten, which he was like, oh,
I got him on my list right here. Was like, no,
you don't. So I'm happy for Jalen Hurts, but I'm
even happier for sa Quon Barkley. Yeah, because earlier this year,
Joe Shane from the Giants socided, Nah, we're not gonna
give you any money, We're.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Gonna give it to Danie Jones, only to release Daniel Jones.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And why Saquon Barkley goes to the Super Bowl in
the Philadelphia Eclas uniform.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Well, look at there's two things that Joe Shane obviously
did wrong.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
And thank you to Hard Knocks forgiving us probably the
most compelling insight into the offseason we'll ever get.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I don't think any NFL team is going to sign
off on doing that ever again.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Because the Giants laid out a bootprint on Oh my gosh,
did they really say that? First off, you have Joe
Shane's kids saying he got a trade up to get
Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
He says, now, we want to win.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Games that age well, and then well, OK, letting Sequon
go that age well.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Look, and here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Even if Saquon STATEI with the Giants, I don't think
he has the type of year he did this year.
I mean, that offensive line in Philly is built different.
But there's more organizational stability right now in Philly than
there is in New York. And obviously that's a pain
point I think for that Giants franchise. So while I'm
happy for Saquon, and look, Saquon, I already know.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
All the voting already took place.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Squon should be unanimously, unanimously the offensive player of the.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Year, and he should have.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
He should be in that MVP conversation. I know it's
between Lamar and Josh Allen. Saquon is very deserving of
being in that conversation too.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
And the burst, the speed, and this is.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
The guy who obviously, you know, he's come off of
major injuries before he suffered a multi ligamental kN injury,
came back and to do still squad and almost what
I think five hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Like you know how this works because everything you're saying
is true. Ta Kuan deserves to be in the MVP conversation. Now,
should he be the Offensive Player of the Year? Absolutely,
based on what he did from a running back position.
But to think that the NFL will somehow allow a
running back to win MVP, No, because if that would
(23:21):
have happened, the scales the balance.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
It's office.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Like George said, George Sanders, balls are colliding right because
they can't really have that because the running back position
has been devalue so much over the past couple of years.
To have a running back win the MVP, it changes
the conversation. But I'm still happy for what Saquan has
done this season.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Look, now they have an opportunity to get redemption against
the Casey Chiefs. I remember last time they played the
Super Bowl. Came down to, uh, you know, I'm a
defensive guy. Let the DBS play. It's the biggest game
of the year. Passion reference call set everything up for
the Chiefs to win that game. Once again, talking about
officiating ironic, I'm decided, Yeah, the proof is a little
(24:05):
bit in the putting right there.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
So what can the Broncos learn from the time we
got a few minutes here.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
To me, one of my biggest takeaways, right, I'll give two,
and I'm eager for your thoughts to give yours as well.
To me, the Broncos need a dominant run game. They
need they need to find a running back that not
necessarily be the Bell Cow. I know Sean Payton said
his comments were taken out of context a little bit.
I think from the end of the year presser. In
terms of that, Sean believes in a committee, but I
think he's trying to get back to just two backs
(24:31):
versus using three, because that was a problem this year.
You know, he tried to rely on three different backs
and it really messed with the flow of the offense
and he didn't have a clear cutting guy establish himself.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I think they need to get a running back who's.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Capable of maybe having a little bit more carries than
me Broncos back had this year.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
And I think they need a playmaking tight end.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I would agree with that, but I would push back
on the running back because, for one, even though you
had three backs, you got to give them a consistent
rhythm and flow, giving them the opportunity to kind of
lather up. That means consistently you say, well, this guy,
you know, going into a game, he's gonna have fifteen
(25:14):
carries or whatever or touches, and you know what you're
trying to do once you're going into the game.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
And the reason I think that you can make it work.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And there is something to say about having three backs
because in my time playing for Mike.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Shanahan, there was a stable. One went down, here come another,
another went down, here comes another. Because now there's a preparation.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Even working in San Francisco, it was the same thing.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Kyle is all of the sun to his day.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And once again, what happened when christ McCaffrey was out,
They had another back. Christy gave back, he got injured,
They threw another one in there that one got injured,
they threw another one, so so on and so forth.
So I think there is something to say about having
a stable of backs.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
But if you want to say, well we're gonna take we've.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Got four backs, two of those backs are gonna be
our bell car backs. But how are you using those
particular backs? Because you look at the eighteens that found
themselves in the playoffs, and even in the final four,
every team ran the ball well, they rushed for over
one hundred yards.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
So that's the Litman tests.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
That tells you there needs to be a high emphasis
this offseason on the run game. But also you need
athletic linebackers.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yes, big time. Look at Matt Mlonald. Matt Malonnal, in
my opinion, is where I know.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
They're out now, one of the most impressive inside backers
I've seen in the postseason.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And look Bobby Wagner and those guys are doing really well.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You look at Philadelphia Zach Bond, great example, a guy
whom Sean Payton drafted on the wish list of a
lot of people in Broncos country. Right now, I don't
think he's gonna leave Philly. I think he's gonna say
the were big fans, especially if they.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Win the Super Bowl. Even if they don't win, I
think he'll be back.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
But you have to.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Find that rangy sideline to sideline linebacker that's gonna be
imperative here, I think for them going forward, and I
would like to see the offensive line can you pull more?
Like why are we seeing more polls from Quinn minors?
Ben powers get to the next level instead, it's its
own block and double team get up to the next
level there and sometimes the backs aren't seeing the whole
quil enough, so the scheme's.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Gonna have to evolve as well.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And look what We'll continue this conversational but later in
terms of talking about the Broncos' biggest needs of the
offseason here on Broncos Country Night on KAA fifty AM
and ninety four point one FMM here alongside Nick Ferguson.
Once again, you want to get involved with the show,
hit us up on the Common Spirit of Health text
line five sixty six nine zero. You can even also
(27:38):
leave us a message on the iHeartRadio. I've just screamed
the station and click on the microphone to leave us
a message. We're recapping the AFC Championship games the NFC Championship.
What parallels can Denver draw from those teams that made it?
What can they draw inspiration from from some of the
other teams when they were even in the wild card,
we learned a lot about where this team can go
here and Ross talk about it a little bit later
(27:59):
on here in the show. But you know part of that,
you know, you get to the playoffs for the first
time since twenty fifteen and one of the things that
is going to happen is there's so many job openings
at the beginning of the offseason around the NFL. It
means that you have opportunities to lose assistant coaches to
promotions around the league, And certainly the Broncos, they've lost
one assistant coach already, they're on the verge of losing
(28:20):
a second one to a promotion, and they've already lost
a key executive in the front office. So for those
of you who are now just catching up, you didn't
hear it. Over the weekend, the Broncos lost Darren Moogy,
the assistant general manager, the right hand George Payton. He
took the New York Jets GM job, and obviously well deserving.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
For Mooche, because here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Nick Mooch is the guy that has really worked his
way up the ladder right going back to twenty twelve,
he came on as a scouting intern for the Broncos,
did a good enough job he was able to get
a full time job the next year, and then from
that point forward he worked his way up from you know,
college scout to area of scouts to eventually the you know,
director of player personnel, and then I think it was
(29:00):
in twenty twenty two, got that promotion to assistant GM
and now hey, he's a general manager of the New
York Jets with you know your guy Aaron Glenn, who
obviously got the head coaching job over there. I'm happy
for Mooge man, And the number one thing I want
to highlight is I think Mooge is.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Going to do a terrific job over there.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
My biggest worry, Nick, is that Jets ownership won't stay
out of the way.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
They got.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
They got to get out of the way and let
those guys work. That's the problem in New York right now.
And I hope, I hope they step aside so that
Moovee Eric Glenn can get off their feet a little
bit and get things running.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I'm hoping as well that
you know, Woody Johnson would allow these two men to
do exactly what he hired them to do. And I know,
when you work in business in corporate America and you
are the CEO of the company, the idea is that
you want to have your fingers on every part of
(29:56):
the organization. Well, the one thing that I've learned that
your typical, you know, nine to five fortune, five hundred company.
It might seem as though you can use the same
mentality when you're working in the framework of the NFL team,
But it doesn't work out that way, right because you're
still talking about communication, You're still talking about people. But
(30:16):
football is in my mind and just my mind, a
law is just a little different. So I'm hoping what
he Johnson allows both of these individuals to actually do
their job. And I know there have been a lot
of former Jets guys in the front office, players who
were an intricate part on both of these guys getting
this opportunity. So what he Johnson started to listen because
(30:39):
you got to think about it. At some point, the
four walls are going to close in. And I can
tell you as a guy that played in New York,
the media there is entirely different than the media here.
Oh yeah, And what he Johnson understands that pressure that
comes along with that.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
So this is why he was trying to make the
right decision.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
And he's hoping that Dann Moujie and Aaron Glenn all
the stop gap that kind of plugs up these holes
of negative narratives. And I think these two guys can
definitely do it. And the thing that stoock out to me,
and you know, watching their press conference today, knowing about
I think two to three years ago that Aaron actually
(31:18):
interviewed here for the big head coaching job that the
then you Hackett ultimately received and whatever mutual respect that
was kind of created, then carry Ford, because Aaron wanted
to be a part of the entire process. He didn't
just want to be labeled a minority coach taking over
(31:39):
a team that he wants coach for and he wants
playing for and trying to kind of restore their standard.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
He said, no, I want to be involved.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
With the hiring of the coaches, hiring of the gms,
and the picking of the players.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And usually you don't get that. Yeah, because I know
that's what he wanted Orleans.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And then Orleans said, well, we're not getting rid of
Mickey limits for you.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
We're not gonna do that.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
And Bill Parcells famously said something that makes sense, And
I'm sure Aaron remember that in this situation, you want
me to cook the food, you've got to allow me
to buy the damn grocery.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, so I'm eager to.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
See what both of these guys can actually do. They
do have some pieces with the Jets and gotta make
some tweaks here and there. Biggest question, what are you
doing a quarterback?
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I'm not bringing Aaron Rodgers back if it were up
to me, Like why at this point, Okay, you know
who's out there, who's an available option for you to
bring in?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Do you focus on the NFL draft? Because think about
it this way. I feel like.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
What Jaden Daniels and even bo Nicks did this year,
and even like JJ McCarthy in New England with limited
playmakers around him, they raised the bar for rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So the cam Wards, the Shediar Sanders that standard for
wherever team that they end up on, they're gonna have
that same expectation. It's not gonna be hey, you gotta develop.
We're gonna let you know, sit here and develop. You
have to see something from them, which I don't think
is always fair because not every organization is different, not
every environment is going to be Just like the Washington
Commanders who revamped their ownership, who revamped their coaching staff,
(33:18):
and they brought in a guy who set the standard
for them, right, And I remember when Dan Quinn was
hired in Washington, a lot of people said, oh, this
is just you know, you're doing a retread. Now you're gonna,
you know, get a rookie corback. It's not gonna work
like this. This guy's not gonna be a great head coach.
Heat Well, look what happened, Like he.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Did a lot and look he's got some talented players.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
He brought in Bobby Wagoner, he brought in some guys
he's familiar with that know how to install the culture
that he wants right, and now you get that carried
over to your rookie quarterback like Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You look at what bo Nick's has done here in Denver.
That's different.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Like those two guys, in my opinion, have kind of
said a little bit of a standard. So from New York,
what are you going to do in that situation? I'm
very curious about that. The connection there with Muji, Now
the line of communication is certainly open.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
For you know, I think where we're at, but you know,
a lot a lot.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
To go through and obviously we're going to continue talking
about it here on.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Broncos Country tonight.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
We'll dive a little bit deeper here as well, into
some of the coaches that the Broncos have lost, and
obviously some rumors about some coaches who are on the
way out here on Broncos Country now on KLA fifty
nine four one a FM
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