Best of Chuck & Buck 12-16

It's a big week for the Seahawks with the Rams in town, so cover that and more football!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's gonna sound rick. Good morning, folks.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning everyone, Good morning, it's some time.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Good morning, hush, pleads and gentlemen, ladies and gentleman.

Speaker 4 (00:10):
Introducing six one guard from Brighton, Illinois and former high
school basketball stand What in the hell does that mean?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Jumped any conclusions? No, not a god, You've got to
lower lower your expectations.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Hard to believe you could once send a fastball to Pluto.

Speaker 5 (00:29):
I'm getting some Bucky jacobs and vibes and former I'll
just openly admit I'm a fat, out of shaped ex athlete.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Now there's been a noticeable spike in your blood pressure.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Five seven guard and a former college water polo national
chimpion and a lot.

Speaker 6 (00:43):
Of useless crap up here.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Wow, this is Chuck and Buck in the Morning with
Ashley Ryan. Talk to you, Buy to Lato Casino Resort
and quil Sea Creek draft KINI sports book where the
action never stopped.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Hey, good morning to you. Welcome into the Tuesday radio
program that is Chucking Back in the Morning Sports Radio
ninety three point three KJRFM. Ashley Ryan is here, Former
Mariner Bucky Jacobson is here. My name is Chuck Powell.
And man the new coffee maker. So I mentioned yesterday
number one's got me amped up. I've been already did
a show with Bucky before we even came on the airways.

(01:37):
So sorry about That's all right, I know usually there's
some quiet, but I can't help it. I'm all juiced up.
I'm all jacked up. And then secondarily, I had one
more thing to think about this morning, as I had
to throw the grounds away and the new coffee maker,
and that caused me to forget my past. So Bucky
had to save me downstairs. It just happens there. It's

(01:57):
like clockwork.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Yeah, you can have what is it, three things? Four
things you can remember?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah? Yeah, four things I can remember.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
If there's five, yeah, something's got to get pushed out
of here.

Speaker 6 (02:07):
Just put your pass like in your bag when you
get home.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Uh why would I?

Speaker 6 (02:11):
Okay, it's a perfectly good system.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I have it right there at the front. It's right there,
right there. Everything in the drawer is right there, in
the exact same place. Okay, yeah, otherwise I'll forget the bag.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
Oh yeah, well that would be.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Two for one.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah exactly, yeah exactly. I mean I half I started
halfway to work, and I'm like, I forgot my car.
Oh then I just started walking. Yeah, and I had
to go all the way back.

Speaker 7 (02:37):
So if you if I had ignore my idea, then
that was dumb.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
I had one more thing. It just throws me off.
Every single week.

Speaker 6 (02:44):
I was trying to take a thing away from you.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
No, no, I just forget something else. It's a it's
a mostly perfect system.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, time the time.

Speaker 6 (02:57):
That's right there, you go, all right, well, well come
to the show.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
It is a Tuesday. We've got our normal Tuesday lineup
coming up, which we'll outline for you here in a
little bit with what's on tap, and of course in
every single crack that there is, we will talk about
the big topic of the week, and that is the
Seahawks and the Rams Thursday Night Football this year. As
I mentioned frequently, we typically on Hump Day start previewing

(03:26):
the next opponent, but on a short week, Thursday Night
Football week, we always start on Tuesday. Well, guess what
we're already underway. We got started yesterday with this game,
this game of the year, Seahawks hosting the Rams Thursday
Night Football got the entire national platform to ourselves only

(03:46):
game going and it is the biggest game certainly of
the year so far. Doesn't mean it will end up
being the biggest game of the year because there are
a couple of others on the schedule before the regular
season comes to a close. But undoubted this is the biggie,
and so we dive in full full, with full hearts
and full breaths, We're gonna dive into this sucker here today.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
There's not a lot that else we probably can talk about.
I mean, simply, there's so much hanging in the balance.
I mean, the end of the game Thursday night, you're
either going to be first place in the division and
first place overall in the NFC, or you're not. And
I mean it's crazy to be sitting at eleven and
three and still have a chance, I mean, in a
very outside slim chance of not making the playoffs. But

(04:32):
I mean the fact that you haven't clinched at this
point in time and you got three games left to go.
One is a big one at home this Thursday against
your the team that you're chasing down because they beat
you in your first head to head. Yeah, a lot
riding on this one, I mean, without a doubt, a
lot riding on this one.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah, and just fantastic matchup two healthy teams. You pointed
this out yesterday, but the Rams right now are considered
the favorites to win the Super Bowl by Vegas and
number two on that list the Seattle Seahawks. I think
the Seahawks certainly more surprising from that perspective when you
think back to the beginning of the year, and nobody

(05:09):
thought that this. Nobody nationally thought the Seahawks team was
going to be a playoff team.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
We're gonna get like six wins.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, yeah, at least very few. I wouldn't say nobody,
because that's not true, but very few people. Vegas certainly
had them less than what a lot of us thought
they were capable of. And here they are putting themselves
in a position to possibly end up with a number
one seed. But as beautiful as this game and sports

(05:38):
can be at times, they also could be left on
the outside looking in. There's still a chance this team
doesn't even make the playoffs at all. They've not clinched.
They can on Thursday, they can at least clinch a
playoff spot. But to sit here with three games left
in the season and at eleven and three and you're
still not guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. That's unnerving.

Speaker 5 (05:59):
Yeah, that's the part that's kind of crazy, I mean,
And yet I mean there's a top heavy version of
it where I mean, I don't think anybody here would
would rather be, you know, ten and four or nine
and five and have a spot clinched up already, like
being a weak division necessarily, but because this gives you
the opportunity to get that coveted first round by if

(06:21):
you can figure out a way to be the number
one team.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
So you're you like where you're sitting.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
It's just that your division is tough with the you know,
the Niners and Rams being in there, both playing well
pretty much for the entire season, so you're still fighting
for something on the small scale. But really it kind
of feels like the overall winner of this division is
going to be the number one seed going into the playoffs.
And that's a big that's a big deal in today's
day and game, where there's so much riding on how

(06:48):
healthy are you.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
You don't want you want to get hot at the.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Right time, that whole thing, but but you also need
to stay healthy and having a week off when it's
not two teams anymore, it's just the one team in
each conference gets that buy. That's a big deal to
get rested up and prepare for whoever it is you
got coming in and then home field advantage to do
the whole thing. It's a big deal. So, I mean,
this is one where I would I think that everybody

(07:11):
over there in Renton stays up late and does a
lot of their homework. But I bet you either doing
a little bit extra this week.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Let's get it on the Rams, certainly on fire themselves.
But they might be without Davonte Adams for this game.
Sean McVeigh said as recently as yesterday, it's really it's
kind of hard to believe that he will be ready
after injuring his hamstring at the end of the game.
Yet on Sunday that DeVante Adams could be ready for this,

(07:38):
So that will be something in the Seahawks corner that
gives them a little bit of an advantage. Adams and
Nakua make quite the team, but let's face it. I mean,
this is something that came up yesterday in our conversation
with coach and Hugh. This team's settling for an awful
lot of field goals, and even though Jason Myers has

(07:59):
turned into the most reliable kicker in the National Football League,
and that's a great thing to have in your corner
as well. Truth of the matter is, and maybe not
to the degree Greg Olsen talks about it, but you
can't make a living in this league, you can't win
Super Bowls in this league constantly settling for field goals.
So that's an issue lately has been confronting this team,

(08:20):
and maybe even bigger than that. I mean, you got
away with it against the Vikings, you got away with
it against the Falcons. They really I don't think have
played well since this is strange to say, lost to
the Rams. Played a bit of a sloppy game against
the Titans, certainly did not play four quarters against Minnesota,
Certainly did not play four quarters against Atlanta. And then

(08:41):
the Colts felt to me like something was missing there
as well, which maybe we'll talk about a little bit
later on in this hour. But you better play four
quarters against the Rams. This is not a playground in
which you can just decide to join the game whenever
you feel like it. Better be firing on all cylinders

(09:02):
from the get go. Because I don't think you're digging
out of some big hole or you might create for
yourself a big hole against the Los Angeles Rams.

Speaker 5 (09:11):
Yeah, I mean I think the I you know, like
the Minnesota game, for example, you knew you were going
against a rookie that you know, where do you played
New Hampshire or something?

Speaker 3 (09:20):
I mean Minnesota?

Speaker 5 (09:21):
Minnesota Hampshire before that?

Speaker 3 (09:24):
What an insult to the golden culture?

Speaker 8 (09:26):
Right?

Speaker 5 (09:26):
I think he was with New Hampshire before he went
to Minnesota. Regardless, you kind of felt like, similar to
last week, which I don't know for sure. Last week,
they maybe overthought that where Okay, they're coming in here
with a forty four year old. In that case, they're
coming in with this rookie has no experience, they're gonna
have hard time getting any points on us, and so
it we're going to be really conservative, right, and then

(09:48):
as all of a sudden the scores start to mount,
you're giving up nothing against Minnesota, right, you end up
shutting them out that it's kind of okay, it's okay
to be less than offensively throughout the course of that game.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
That the Tennessee game was.

Speaker 5 (10:01):
One, if I remember correctly, where they kind of got
out to lead, and then all of a sudden they
were within an on side kick of making it kind
of scary. And so I think that there's situations where
the score doesn't always dictate it, but there's no ifens or.
But you can't the last three games, I'm just looking
at a stat here. The only teams that are worse
in the first half as far as scoring points is

(10:23):
the New Orleans Saints, Las Vegas Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, and
the New York Jets. What in the last three games
on the first half? Okay, got it. So they're slow starts. Yeah,
they're down there with Cleveland. They're tied with Cleveland. So
that's I don't know if that's good if you want
to be tied with them for anything. So you're just
talking about that, you're not playing two halves. You're playing

(10:45):
mediocre first half and then you're figuring out a way
and if you score thirty one points in the second half, hey,
that's going to work out often. But there's other times
where you're not going to do that. You can't expect
that you're going to go out and score six points
or three points in the first half. Against the Rams
on Thursday, and then you're just gonna explode for thirty one.
And yet on the flip side of it, you know
you're probably not gonna give up enough to You're not

(11:06):
probably not going to give up enough to anybody to
where you're gonna need to do that. But you better
damn well think you better. You better recognize you got
to go out there and play two four full quarters
of football otherwise you're gonna find yourself behind. And now
all of a sudden they're in control of do we
just run and take the air out of the ball
or do we then kind of pop one on you
when all of a sudden you think that you're all

(11:26):
sold out and stopping the run because you think we're
just trying to run out the clock. It's not a
good situation to be in. And they've they've overcome it
and they're winning. They're winning all these games, so that's
what matters. But yeah, in order to do it against
the good teams, you're gonna have to play the whole game.

Speaker 7 (11:38):
I do wonder if especially, I know these guys are
professionals and so the chances of this are probably very slim.
But after the last time they played the Rams, they said,
you know, we can't wait for that next matchup.

Speaker 6 (11:50):
This game is circled on our calendar.

Speaker 7 (11:52):
And I wonder if, knowing it was a short week
going into the Colts game, if there was any thought
of we're playing Philip River's a guy that hasn't played
in five years, and you know, this game is kind
of our warm up for Thursday. I just wonder if
there was any part of them that was somewhat overlooking
the Colts prepared to because they're so eager for this

(12:14):
game on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Not outwardly, it's not spoken. Yeah, I mean, nobody's saying
that in the building, like, hey, it's a forty four
year old quarterback. We got this one, as long as
we don't do blah blah blah blah blah. But that's
the psychology of sports, and as much as we talk
about it, because it is so subjective, it is such
an unknown thing. It's not a tangible aspect that we

(12:37):
can point to a statistic. It's the wild card. And
some people believe and you know, maybe we go beat
too much in sports talk radio, particularly talking about the
psychology of things and what this game means and what
that game means versus just the x'es and o's and
the Jimmys and the jos. I would argue, we don't

(12:58):
talk about it enough. We don't dress the psychology of
sports nearly enough because it's monstrous. And I will tell
you I think in the second half they did feel
like the game with Tennessee was over and the next
thing you know, you have a game. And then against
Minnesota and Atlanta, I would imagine they felt like, we've
got this one and took them about a half for

(13:18):
Mike McDonald to get on their ass and kind of
figure things out. And they're they're not doing it intentionally, no,
and I don't think they are, yeah, but but subconsciously, yes,
that does play. I think they played against Philip Rivers.
I pointed this out a couple of times. I think
that they played against Philip Rivers like you know, you
might have when you were in high school and you

(13:41):
were a high school athlete and you're playing your uncle
Joe in the backyard in a game of one on
one basketball and the next thing you know, he's up,
you know, he's up on you, s to h right
and you're like, oh, I better buggle down if I
don't want to face the family embarrassment of losing to

(14:03):
my uncle Joe and his two pay here in the
backyard of this little hoops game that we got, and
then you buckled down. I kind of think there was
an element to that. The good news is is that
if you did face that for four weeks, you went
four and oh yeah. And then the extra good news
about that is there's no way that that interferes with Thursday. Right,

(14:25):
there is no way that you're not firing on all
cylinders all week long, one hundred percent immersed, locked in.
Mike McDonald coaching staff does not have to worry about
that this week. This is as big a regular season
game as has been played in this city in a decade.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, I'm curious. I mean, I think there's two sides
of the coin.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Right.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
We talked about how big games are and the adjustments
that you make, right, I mean, starting out slow is
not great. I mean, I know coach Holmgren was did it,
and he might have been towards the flo front of
when people did it the whole scripted plays. I don't
know when that came about. I mean, I know that
it's been going on for quite some time, but you
just kind of figured it. He invented it. Probably could

(15:09):
just give him the credit for it, even if he didn't.
I think he probably would have invented it if it
hadn't been invented before. But I think he's it's somewhere
around the time when he was coaching, where throughout the
course of the week, you start figuring out, now, the
way we're running these plays in practice, what we're going against.
This is going to work. This this flat out will work.
Now you've got to stay on script, so you can
kind of stick with those with that plan. But that's

(15:31):
something that you don't necessarily see now. On the flip
side of it, Clink Kubiak and Mike Ben done, all
the rest of his coaching staff, whatever they do in
the halftime, besides orange slices and you know, you know,
so getting rehydrated. They've figured out a way to come
out there and play. And the second half is typically
more important than the first half. I mean, you typically

(15:52):
have you know what you have to do at that
point in time. So I mean, I think there's two
different ways to look at it. To me, though, it's
you do have to figure out a way to start
putting up more points early in the game so that
you're not you don't find yourself in this oh my gosh.
I mean, you don't want to have the Rams pinning
their ears back in the third quarter or fourth quarter
because you're down by ten or twelve points. You don't
want that because that could turn into what we've seen,

(16:14):
you know, where if Sam Darnold's rushed, then maybe he's
turning the ball over. So there's a lot that goes
into a division rival, especially the second time you're playing them,
with all the marbles on the table, so to speak.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
It's going to be an interesting game.

Speaker 5 (16:27):
But I think that there's a whole heck of a
lot of you know, reflection that probably needs to be
done on the offensive side of the ball when it comes.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
To so you can argue they're playing their best football
the last time they faced the Rams, and even though
I think they outplayed the Rams, they lost the game.
They're not playing their best football right now. But they
better be playing it by Thursday, because that's what it's
going to require, and not just Thursday. For these last
three games. I mean, I'm very confident you're going to
get one win out of the three and get into

(16:53):
the playoffs. I'm very confident with that. But in order
to get that number one seed, and Bucky highlighted the
magnitude of that earlier in this conversation, you probably got
to win all three of them. So let's go. Let's
get it started this Thursday. Let's find out what's on
tap on this Tuesday program.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
What's on TEP, what's on TEP?

Speaker 3 (17:18):
All right, Greg Bell will join us at seven o
five today to discuss Rams and Seahawks our Seahawks Insider,
and also should note that Philip Rivers is going to
start again this week for the Colts, this time against
the San Francisco forty nine Ers Monday Night Football. Last night,
the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Miami Dolphins twenty eight to fifteen,

(17:39):
and the game really wasn't even that close. Miami continuously
downplays this weather thing. You don't play well in cold weather,
just no period, and it is really surprising that professional
athletes aren't better at preparing for cold weather. Don't shrivel
don't shrivel up like the Miami dolph always do.

Speaker 5 (18:01):
Yeah, I don't always do, I really don't. I mean, baseball,
you play with a lot of dudes from that grew
up in islands, Dominican and whatnot, and for some reason,
well not for some reason, it's obvious they don't. They're
not used to it.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Now.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
At some point in time, though, you've got to be
able to get over that. You got to be able
to just work through that and that. You're right, the
Miami Dolphins seemed incapable of doing it when it gets.

Speaker 7 (18:21):
Coldkay, at some point you might be good and actually
need to win those games in the cold.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Yeah, I would think that would be the goal. I mean,
they were even in the playoffs, they were even a
playoff caliber team. Oh no, it's before forty. Well, we're cooked.
I mean, it's hard to believe that they aren't better
on when the weather is colder as professional athletes. College
Football Playoffs starts this Friday. Alabama and Oklahoma will get

(18:48):
it started Friday. Then there will be three games on Saturday.
So the second ever true college football playoffs starting this Friday.
Transfer portal is filling up fast and with a lot
of big name quarterbacks. Won't dive into that. We won't
have that frenzy until the first week of January, but
it is coming. You dub won a national championship last night.

(19:10):
The soccer team for the Huskies won by a final
score of three to two in overtime over North Carolina State.
Congratulations to them a national championship and they did it
with a golden goal, which is a goal in overtime.
And yet because we have replay now in our sports world,

(19:31):
the celebration was on then subdued because they had to
review it. And some of the analysis I heard was
they were technically off sides. But man, that's a tough
call to make to take a national championship out of
somebody's mouth because one guy's shoe halfway was off sides

(19:53):
and you might have taken away a national championship winning goal.
But they decided to let the old stand and then
the stage two of the celebration started.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
Yeah, I mean, they would have had to get all
dressed again. I saw the dude that won his shirt off,
just he had an undershure.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
You're gonna lose if they take that away. There's no
way you're liking it back up.

Speaker 6 (20:13):
Yeah you feel like it, Yeah you can't.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Good for them, though, I mean in NASH Championship, first
time ever for the Huskies to win Anas Championship in
men's soccer, I think, so kudos to them. There's not
a whole heck of a lot of feelings.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
You go through a lot.

Speaker 5 (20:26):
I mean, I don't know in soccer how much you
do in college, but I'm sure there's a lot of
running which doesn't sound very fun to me. And then
yet at the end of it, it doesn't matter how bad
the prep was. It's worth it when you're voicing the
trophy feeling never cracking.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
We'll play the Avalanche tonight. Evert fitzuwill join us at
eight thirty today. It is a cracking ticket Tuesday. Here
on kjar your chance to win some tickets to see
the Crack and play December twenty ninth against the Vancouver
Canucks at Climate Pledge. When you hear that piece of
audio that will play every hour all day long, and
it will prompt you I'm not playing it right now,

(21:00):
We're not playing it right now. It will prompt you
to be the tenth caller twoh six two eight six
ninety five ninety five. Listen for that opportunity, be the
tenth caller and win tickets to that upcoming game. So
Jeene Sterrator at eight o'clock today, Rick new Isle at
nine o'clock today, the old Judge will stop by at
nine point thirty. We got a packed show for you.

(21:20):
And coming up on the other side, what's going on
with that Michigan job. Sports Radio ninety three point three KHARFM. Hey,
good morning, It's Chuck Buck and Ashley with you here
on this Tuesday. Plenty to discuss on today's program as

(21:43):
we get ready for Seahawks rams on Thursday. But there
are some other things as well, which we'll get to
in a moment. That Michigan job is still available. Who
wants to be a Michigan Man. We're going to discuss
how it affects us here in Seattle here in a
little bit. Do you want to let you know though,
that bender that always doing good things? Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.

(22:05):
It probably like holds doors for people, I'm sure. Yeah,
in real life. Yeah, probably is kind to the elderly, guaranteed.
Weird yeah, weird stuff that guy does. Anyway, he's got
his one big give. He's been doing this for twenty
three years. He's only twenty five years old, but he's

(22:28):
been doing this for twenty three years on the radio.
He may he raises like trillions of dollars for Seattle
Children's Hospital. He's just does an amazing program every year.
And he's got Jody now of course over there at
the Jet doing the same thing. So all day broadcasts
six am to seven pm. It's Bender's one big give

(22:51):
King Neptune himself. It benefits the Uncompensated Care Fund, helping
Seattle Children provide all the necessary care to kids in
our region, regardless of the family's ability to pay. If
you want to get involved eight three three eight five
five zero nine five seven to make a donation, or
you can go to give to the Kids dot com.

(23:14):
So there you go, a lot of great things going on.
Nice job Bender, Jody and everyone with the Jet and
iHeart that is involved with this. Every year, they did
an amazing job raising a lot of money for Seattle
Children's Hospital. All right, let's talk about the Michigan Wolverinees
head coaching position, because until it's filled, I guess we

(23:34):
can never truly relax around here. Jedfish's name has come
up quite a bit, and yet so is Kenny Dillingham's,
and so is Kaylen de Bores. Kaylin de Bor getting
ready for Oklahoma this Friday. It became a major talking point,
and really the one big takeaway from his press conference

(23:56):
yesterday was his response to the Michigan job. He wouldn't
have spent more clear that he is not interested. He
has not reached out to gauge interest, he has not
spoken to anyone. And as soon as he said that,
the question that followed up from the reporter, Hoarde was
all right, just to be clear, you're going to be

(24:16):
Alabama's head coach next season? And he laughed it off,
and he says, yes, I am going to be Alabama's
head coach next season. And that's all fine and dandy
except the fact that he pretty much did that here
not long ago. So it's really hard to believe any
of these coaches until a Michigan, until Michigan announces who
they are going to steal, because they're stealing somebody stealing

(24:40):
somebody's coach from them, So until they actually make it official,
I think anybody with a coaching candidate that has been
rumored wherever there is smoke, you have to be on
guard as to whether or not you're going to lose
your head coach.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
Well, I mean the idea of it's not going to
be some guy that's coming from high school. Right, It's
not going to be some guy that's you know, coaching
at like a lower level. And we're you know, Michigan's
going to give him his next shot at you know,
his first shot at coaching the big time college program.
It's going to be somebody you're gonna sniper, somebody that's
doing big things at you know, at the power forward

(25:19):
level for the most part. And so yeah, I mean
I don't take any of the things these coaches say.
I wouldn't write it in pen I most certainly wouldn't
trust anybody.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yeah, and that's unfortunate, I suppose for all of these
coaches who are trying to recruit or trying to get
ready for a game. But you did a lot of
you you sort of earned this, and then they just
the industry and it's in and of itself, it is
a byproduct of that, and you coaches aren't doing much
to keep it from occurring.

Speaker 5 (25:48):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean in calen To War,
for example, I mean, he did leave. He left here
after basically, you know, saying all the things that you
want your coach to say, like I'm happy here, this
is you know, I got roots here, my daughter's here,
dream job, dream job. Now, I mean, without throwing shade,
because I'm not intentionally throwing shade. The idea of leaving
here to go to Alabama, which is one of the

(26:08):
most prestigious brands in college football, is different than leaving
Alabama to go to Michigan. Maybe as big, if not bigger.
I mean, the storied history of Michigan. I get that.
That to me, The only thing that would make him
want to switch there is just I'm more of a
big ten guy, you know, I just kind of it
kind of fits my m Michigan's more my style than

(26:30):
Alabama is. But I don't feel like there's a big
you know. It feels more like it would be a
lateral move if anything. As far as your competition, like your.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Well, the reputation of Alabama is that the community makes
your life miserable unless you're winning national championships. And if
and Kaylen de boor knew that, his eyes went wide open.
He his eyes were wide open to that reputation. There's
nobody that follows college football that doesn't know that. And
so if he got there and then was oh wow,

(27:02):
this is what they meant, Oh, this sucks. My wife
hates it. You know, we can't go to the grocery
store without being told we suck. You know, if that
has gotten to him, then maybe a move to the
Midwest where they kind of do, where he's closer to home,
Where he's closer to home. They actually don't make it

(27:24):
everything at mission. It's big, but it's not everything. It's
not every single waking moment from every single fan. Maybe
he would look at that as an escape without diminishing
the stature of the position that I hold or my salary.
Maybe he would, But he made that very clear in
his press conference yesterday that his family's very happy in Alabama,

(27:48):
which was important. He went out of his way to
say that. As for Jedfish, you know, he sort of
earned this reputation as well. I don't hear his name
mentioned as prominently as it was initially. It kind of
feels like it's moving toward canny get Kenny Dillingham at
Arizona State. But that said, he hasn't gone out of

(28:08):
his way like the boor has to shoot it down either.
So until Michigan hires a job, there's no way that
a Washington Husky fan can feel one hundred percent safe
that Jedfish isn't leaving. I mean, I think that he
does entertain ideas of Fischigan, you know, being being that
guy at that program, that position. I think that is

(28:30):
something that interests him, whether or not Michigan's as interested
in him as they would be a Kenny Dillingham. You know,
that's what we don't.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Know the idea of.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
I mean, you know, you have these headhunter firms that
are going out there and kind of helping run these
things for the athletic director for the school, and obviously
they're reaching out. I mean Kaylen de Boor and Jedfish
and Kenny Dillingham were kind of that early early board,
the hot board, if you will, that was where they
were going after. To me, Jedfish has kind of shot

(29:02):
it down, but not as blatantly as Katherin do wars
like no I'm here, I'm not going anywhere right. Fish
didn't necessarily come out and just basically kind of put
try to squash the whole thing. To me, it does
seem like it's heading in the Kenny Dillingham direction, just
simply because him being an Arizona and now he's coaching
basically his dream job, right. I think his sister lives

(29:23):
next door and his parents live right down the street.
He's basically right where he would have ever hoped you
would be. And yet now if you've done a good
enough job at Arizona State that a program like Michigan
has come and calling. That's where I think the tears
were coming from. When he was doing his little press conference.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yeah, he cried at the end of last week over it,
and a lot of people read into that as he's leaving,
like he wouldn't be this emotional if he wasn't about
to go back on his word yeah to Arizona State,
And that's kind of how I read into it as well.
I think maybe the lesson to be learned here stop
acting like you've got your dream job.

Speaker 7 (30:01):
Well yeah, and and just say, you know, I don't
know right now, I'm here and this is where I
want to be, and just say if you just say
right now no and con fault you for what you
do next week, I don't. I'm still curious because if Michigan,
it doesn't seem like they're in a big hurry right
now to hire right because they haven't done it yet,
and they've got till the second right when the transfer
portal opens. I would be curious if Alabama loses to

(30:24):
Oklahoma if Kaylen Debor has offered that job.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Again.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
I's a great point because if it was Jed Fish,
don't you think they would have announced it?

Speaker 6 (30:31):
Yeah, because they would waited till after the bowl game
it'd be done.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
It's Kenny Dillingham.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
What are you waiting?

Speaker 3 (30:36):
You're gonna wait for him to make sure he to
try to negotiate a new deal with Arizona State? Or
are you gonna put heat? I didn't an answer right now.
I mean that's the art of negotiation, is it not.
So maybe they are waiting for something. Maybe it's on
NFL coach who knows. Maybe they are waiting for something
to this. Bucky's made this point in the past. If

(30:56):
it's the right guy, aren't you willing to wait?

Speaker 8 (30:59):
You know?

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Same with LSU. Why couldn't you have waited? You didn't
want to wait. You could have waited. You didn't want
to wait because you didn't want Ole Miss to have
nice things. So you've tried to hurt ole Miss while
still getting your guy. That's what you tried to do
at LSU. So, yeah, I think that's a I think
that's a terrific point. Why are they waiting if it's Jedfish?

(31:22):
Why are they waiting if it's Kenny Dillingham? Maybe it
is somebody who else has another thing to do before
they take the job. We shall see all right, coming
down next Seahawks rams on Thursday. And one thing this
week that I don't want to see the Seahawks do
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 9 (31:45):
Rodgers will be in the gun. Rogers may be seeing
a blitz here they come, they rush five, there's the snap?

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Why drive goving it?

Speaker 9 (31:53):
Old Matt Pedaly gets made at the fifteen to tech
clip a.

Speaker 10 (31:57):
Ten to five touchdown. Heard you let Calf throwing bodies.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Aside like the rag dolls.

Speaker 10 (32:06):
To break tackles and got a twenty of yard touchdown
reception from Aaron.

Speaker 9 (32:11):
Rodgers on third and twelve. Have they caught up twenty
to three over Miami?

Speaker 3 (32:23):
He really is one of one, both Kevin Harlan and
DK Metcalf. There's no one liked Kevin Harlan on a
call Westwood one. Nobody quite liked DK Metcalf. I mean,
I think we made the right decision getting rid of him,
and I think JSN certainly has flourished being the undisputed
number one receiver in this lineup by that guy, There's

(32:44):
just some traits that nobody else in the league can match.
I mean, he just caught that ball into the ring,
just stiff armed, like six different dolphins just out of
his way. Now they acted like they were frozen to
the core. Yeah, I think that was.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Part of it.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
But yeah, he's a monster.

Speaker 5 (32:59):
Yeah, he's different. You can just see it when he
just steps out there. He's different. And yet it's still
even this year with Hall of Famer and Aaron Rodgers,
an old Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers, he still
hasn't kind of grown to be that thing that, yeah,
everybody thought he was going to be at least why
he was here.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Pittsburgh won over Miami Monday Night football to wrap up
the week. Twenty eight to fifteen is the final score,
so the Steelers keep their game lead over the Baltimore
Ravens in the division. Miami was eliminated from the playoffs.
Of course, we are all preparing, We're well underway for
Thursday night football. Rams at Seahawks. We'll talk to Greg

(33:37):
Bell in a moment about Davonte Adams and many other things.
So our Seahawks Insider is just a minute away. Let
me go through your frost brewed Corps light Choose Chill headlines.
Congratulations to you dub national champions of the soccer World.
The men's team won last night over North Carolina State
three to two with a golden goal over time. It

(34:01):
was reviewed and so the delay or see me the
celebration got delayed, but it ended up being two different
celebrations for the Husky. So congratulations there on top of
the soccer world. Over there on Montlake National champs last
night with their three to two win over North Carolina State.
College football playoff is this Friday. There'll be three games

(34:24):
on Saturday, and so the very first week begins with
Alabama and Oklahoma Friday Night Crack inter inaction against the
Avalanche Tonight. It is a cracking ticket. Tuesday. Be listening
for that piece of audio that will prompt you to
be the tenth caller and you might just win tickets
to see the Crack and take on Vancouver on the

(34:45):
twenty ninth of this month. Everitt Fitzhu's going to join
us today at eight thirty. Those are your headlines. Let's
talk some Seahawks with Greg Bell.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
With the bell tolls.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
It must be seven o'clock and time for twelve Man
News with Greg Bell. Brought to you by Copola Diamond
Collection Prosecco Chris Sparkling with Bright Fruit Flavors to make
every toast shine Game Day Bubbles only with Coppola Diamond
for Seco. Now with twalk Man News, here's Greg Bell
with Chuck and Bud.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Good morning, Greg, Good morning? Huh Greg Bell or sucks
Insider joining us here today. What's the buzz over there?
I mean you might not even know this yet, but
obviously weather could play a factor. It's been playing a
factor in all of our lives here for the last week.
But I just looked up the forecast eighty three percent

(35:36):
chance of rain Thursday night wins expected to possibly be
around twenty miles per hour. It could be a factor
in this game. Does Mike McDonald feel they're better prepared
for Knights like this than anybody that comes into Seattle?

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Well, yes and no.

Speaker 8 (35:54):
The NFL game when it rains, the officials allow you
to swap out the ball every single dame and often
they aren't throwing a wet ball even in a downpour
because of that. But it is a factor when you
got wind, and kickers and pass catchers and pass throwers
will tell you that's a bigger deal than rain or snow.

(36:15):
And if you get win, then there are a lot
of variables to change how far Jason Myers can kick
into the Downtown open end. The north end of the field,
for instance, that's the end where the wind comes in
from the sides the corners of the end zone, unlike
the south end, which is closed. And Myers, when we
talk to him, talks all the time about the winds

(36:36):
changing the Downtown end. If there's twenty mile hour winds
blowing through the stadium, no matter which direction you're going,
that is definitely going to change the limit that Mike
McDonald knows his kicker can go. Incidentally, he said Myers
did in McDonald's said that they were confident that Myers
would make the fifty six yard field goal to beat
the Colts into that open end because the wind was

(36:57):
not a big factor in that game, and Myers got
boosted by the confidence of making a fifty two yard
or into the other end zone. At the end of
the first half, they thought the Colts kicker was beyond
his line. They had tagged him for less and fewer
than sixty yards to make his kick. Did he ended
up making from sixty The kicking game in the passing
game will be affected if the wins are like you're

(37:18):
talking about.

Speaker 5 (37:19):
Yeah, it's going to be interesting and it's gonna be wet,
but we shall see how if it is. Do you
think that they continue to really marry themselves to the
idea that we're going to run more than everybody else,
whether it works or not. I mean, maybe the weather
dictates some of the play calls as well.

Speaker 8 (37:35):
Yes, they need to against the Rams and forty nine
ers because their defensive fronts are so active, so athletic.
Let's talking to Jalen Sindell to's the AUC Center yesterday
about the Rams front. He said, what makes them so
good is when they're young. But they are all really
good at both speed and power. And he said, for
a center that's tough, usually defensive offensive excuse me, defensive

(37:59):
linemen are one of the other, really strong or really fast,
not offering it. They both And he said everybody across
the front, including the linebackers. For the Rams are both
strong and fast, and you got to be fast off
the snap. And for him that's especially tough because he's
snapping the ball and you got to be strong enough
to push them out of the holes. They have the

(38:19):
Seahawks for years of that hard time running the ball
against the Rams. That could be the reason why they've
remade their defense on the fly, of course, and they
had a Hall of Famer retire. They traded Ernest Jones
their middle linebacker, and they still haven't been They've missed
a beat. Sadell thinks that's the challenge for the Seahawks.
The biggest one is their strength and their size. We've

(38:41):
seen it, Bucky, We've talked about it. Just because the
Seahawks aren't running for effectiveness doesn't mean they won't run.
They got just two point three yards per carry against
the Colts. They're going to keep running it, especially for
the elements. But even if they aren't that bad, no
matter what the weather, they're going to keep running it. Well,
I think you're gonna see night you didn't see Sunday
against the Colts. Robbie Oots at fullback. He was a curious,

(39:05):
healthy scratch for the first time in his career. Against Indianapolis,
they had Brady Russell in a few times. They used fullback,
and we saw Russell drop a pass in the flat
when he faked that he was walking and the Colts
didn't even guard him. If he had caught that pass,
he would probably run for at least forty yards. Oots
will be in the lineup. I think that was a
tactical air and especially against the Rams, I think Oots

(39:28):
will be in the lineup and you'll see more eye formation.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
Well, considering the quality of the opponent, Greg and the
magnitude of the game. Do they stick with it as
long as they have been? I mean, yes, you've gone
four to zero over your last four games, but it
just feels like you were trying to establish the run
for too long and the passing game has been the

(39:51):
team's bread and butter this year. So will we see
any sort of philosophical changes And with the wins settling
for field goals, it feels like, man, we're settling for
a lot of field goals these days, and then also
sticking with the run sometimes well into the third quarter,
even though it's not altogether working. Do you think we'll
see philosophical changes because of the magnitude of the opponent

(40:14):
and the game on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
No.

Speaker 8 (40:17):
If they go back and just start throwing forty times
in a monsoon and win, or even in a bright
sunny day, the Rams will kill them. The Rams defensive
front will overwhelm the Seahawks offensive line if the Seahawks
don't run that. I have about ten years of history
to back me up on that. No matter who the
offensive coordinator is, no matter who the offensive linemen are,

(40:38):
no matter who the Rams put out on defense. That's
been a consistent theme. They got to run, and they'd
run also because their defense is so damn good. They
want to control field position, they want to control time
of possession. They want to keep Stafford's hands off the
ball by keeping them on the sidelines. If you can
run enough to at least make the third downs manageable,
maybe your quarterback doesn't throw four interceptions in hand three touchdowns.

(41:01):
That to me is the key to the game on Thursday.
Run enough to let the Seahawks defense dictate the game.
We've talked about this many times. We'll probably talk about
the roundtable this week again. With two three games Mike
McDonald has played Sean McVay well, throwing out the JV
game at the end of last season because the Rams
didn't play anybody, including Stafford, because they had everything clinched.

(41:22):
The two other games, the Rams had one offensive touchdown
in regulation before it went to overtime, and they wanted
including the hundred and three yard interception return for a
touchdown by Kitchens that changed the game when Gino Smith
threw the am zone. And then the last time they
played the Rams in Inglewood, the Seahawks quarterback gave the
Rams three touchdowns with four interceptions. The Seahawks didn't. I

(41:44):
think it was one of the three touchdowns that the
Rams had to drive more than half the field and
they won twenty one nineteen. So you could say pretty
plausibly that the Mike McDonald's defense has given up two
in two games. Eight quarters have given up two touchdowns
that the Rams have had to drive the field to
get two against the number one quarterback who's the best

(42:07):
passer rating and one of the best offensive minds of
his generation. I McDonald would never say this, but I
think McDonald's got McVeigh schematically, and I think he's got
a few things new McVeagh hasn't seen either coming up
on Thursday night. So can the Seahawks offense stay out
of its own way and let the defense win the game?
That's the key on Thursday.

Speaker 5 (42:27):
Do you know, I mean, do the injury reports and
stuff come out earlier since the Thursday game?

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Do you so?

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Do we know how cross, how injured people are? I
mean we didn't get to that yesterday.

Speaker 8 (42:37):
Yeah, Cross is the concern. So the NFL requires that
they put out a Monday report for a Thursday game,
even though they don't practice. They were out on the
field just walking around the game plan for the Rams,
and the Seahawks estimated that Cross was a non participant
in that he was standing there doing the walkthrough, but
they would have estimated how they practiced what the Cross
would not have. He got injured on the final play

(43:00):
the field goal. He basically got smushed to the ground
and did the splits and injured his hamstring. As soon
as the Colts blocker jumped on top of basically jumped
over him and then landed on him. He did the splits,
grabbed the left handstring and was rolling around in pain.
McDonald said they are working pretty hard they try to

(43:21):
make him available for Thursday night. He said it's possible
cross plays, but that is probably going to be a
game time announcement and he'll probably be questionable at best
going into the game, which means Josh Jones their swing
tackle that they signed for this role, it would likely
be the left tackle. He was the right tackle for
a few plays when Abe Lucas went out and into

(43:42):
the injury tent for a few minutes and the game
against the Colts. But McDonald and everybody's saying that Abe
Lucas is fine. He finished the game, but Josh Jones
would be on deck. And then Josh Jones is going
to get the reps in practice on Wednesday, the one
full practice they have this week.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Well, the name that will get the most attention via
injury report this week is DeVante Adams. Sean McVay says
that it's not looking good for him to play on Thursday.
Last time they played, he only caught one ball. Now,
he's a tremendous red zone threat and at one ball
for one yard ended up being a touchdown. But how
much easier does that make life for the Seahawks defense

(44:19):
If you don't have to face Nakua and Adams on Thursday.

Speaker 8 (44:23):
Well, certainly little hell. Then we've talked about this and
Jillian Low talked about it again yesterday. The Rams are
playing thirteen personnel quite a bit. What's that one running back?
Three tight ends? Kobe Parkinson's been a big part of day.
Cut another touchdown pass against the Lions. I wasn't sure
that he was in the end zone, but they called
it a touchdown. But McVeigh has reinvented himself, as Julian Love

(44:45):
aptly put it yesterday, and you'll hear from him today
when I'm filling in for Ian one to three. I'm
going to talk to Julian Love. They recorded the interview yesterday.
He said the Rams, as the rest of the NFL
is going small and fast on offense, McVeigh has pivoted
to big and strong and put three tight ends on
the field at one time. And Loves said, the way
the NFL is, the offenses will catch up them paye

(45:07):
next year and then start doing three tight ends all
the time. But the thing about the three tight ends
is it gives the Rams the ability to run the
ball with extra blockers. Yet McVeigh is still running his
full smorgasboard of past routes and horizontal across the field.
Plays with Nakua and Parkinson. Parkinson's basically become the third
wide receiver for the Rams. So if Adams isn't going

(45:29):
to play, They're going to have even more thirteen personnel
I would expect, and Kobe Parkinson's becomes a big part
of this game. The Seahawks think, and there's reason that
there's reason justification for this. The Seahawks think they're uniquely
equipped to handle the Rams thirteen personnel because of one
guy in particular, our buddy Nick even Worry, and the

(45:49):
fact that Emon Worry, at two hundred and twenty pounds
and sixty three, can guard wide receivers and tight ends
and stop the run and rush the quarterback and play
defensive end. There nobody else in the league that has
that weapon. The Seahawks are uniquely qualified to stop thirteen
personnel players because of Nick even Worried.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
I'm heading into this game, man, I mean, I'm sure
there's been bigger regular season games. You know, when you
get into the final week and it's winning, you're in,
the losing, you're out. But with all of this stuff,
the number one seed and the division all that stuff.
I mean, can you remember a game with a few
weeks after the season that's been bigger than this one?

Speaker 8 (46:28):
The only other one is when the Seahawks and forty
nine Ers played for the division title on Sunday night
on the last game of the season at Lewinfield. What
was that three? Was it pre pandemic or post pandemic?
I can't even remember, and I'm not mistaken. Yeah, the
Seahawks still made the playoffs that year. I can't believe.
I can't remember what year there was. I think it

(46:48):
was twenty nineteen or so. They made the playoffs that year,
So that wasn't an all or nothing situation, nor is this.
But you're right, Bucky. They either going to be the
first seed or the fifth seed, depending on largely on
the result of this game. If the Seahawks lose Thursday
to win the division, they would need the Rams to
lose twice and they would have to beat the forty

(47:08):
nine Ers. The Rams after this game are playing Atlanta
in Arizona. They're not losing those games. They could put
their C squad out and they'll beat either one of
those two teams. So the Seahawks will lose a division
if they don't win this game. What's that mean? That
means a road game at Tampa Bay and then they
win that game in the wild card, a road game
at probably Chicago or Green Bay. That's no way to

(47:30):
make the Super Bowl. To go to Chicago and Green
Bay after Tampa Bay and there'll be snowstorm. Every time
I've driven to Green Bay for a playoff game, it's
just been an absolute blizzard and blow out, white out conditions.
So they can really do themselves a favor being Thursday night,
say the least.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
But here's the thing.

Speaker 8 (47:48):
Even if the Seahawks win Thursday Night, they still got
to go down to Santa Clair and win that game
or they won't win the division. The way the forty
nine ers are playing, the Niners have a tougher road.
They've got Chicago still to play. Do they go to
Indianapolis and the Grandpa Quarterback on Monday night? And so
suffice to say, the Seahawks can go from either having

(48:10):
all the home games come to the Seattle car Wash
in January or traveling all over the country. You have
to win three games on the road to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Greg Meller Sehawks insider is with us, and I think
we just use our last minute because maybe we don't
talk about it enough. But Jason Myers deserves some love, Greg.
I mean, has he turned into the best kicker in
the National Football League right before our eyes?

Speaker 8 (48:34):
He might be the best kicker of the Seawks I've
ever had, and I really liked Steven Hauska for them.
He's twenty three of his last twenty four. You guys
remember what the one miss was, right.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
If I had time to think about it, but you
better answer it for us.

Speaker 8 (48:48):
It was like from Hollywood Hills against the Rams from
sixty nine thousand yards to try to win the game
at the very end of desperate kick. That's the only
one he's missed in months. He's thirty seven of forty
two on the season. Thirty seven is now a team record,
the most field goals ever by a Seahawks kicker, and
they still have three games left. Now, the Seahawks would
rather than him not be setting records for most field

(49:10):
goals because it means they're malfunctioning in the red zone.
And that's another key to Thursday Night's game is they
need some seven points instead of three points on all
those drives to get Meyers in position for field goals.
But yes, when they get to the opposing forty five
yard line they think they can get Jason Myers. It
can get him three points. That's a powerful weapon in

(49:31):
your play calling, in your approach. You don't have to
drop back to pass necessarily on third and long of
the opposing plus forty five because you know you have
a kicker can bang it from fifty six plus. Now
the weather Thursday night might mitigate some of that distance,
but his accuracy, Yeah, that's a huge weapon. And in
this league, when games are this close and you have

(49:54):
a kicker who's going to kick three through the uprights
almost every time, that's a massive advantage. And I'll tell
you what between Michael Dixon, I don't care what the
stats say about Michael Dixon. He's a magician. And sometimes
he doesn't kick it seventy yards, but often he kicks
it exactly where he wants to to the side. He
makes balls go ninety degrees out of bounds. And the

(50:14):
other thing Jason Myers has been really good in is
the kickoffs. Lately, he's been a little bit shorter and
or too deep and putting it in the end zone
for touchbacks, but most of the season he has pinned
returners on their own goal line in the corner where
the guys have to catch it and then they get
nothing on the return. He's been really good at nailing
that target zone and making the receiver have to bring

(50:38):
it out right at the goal line and usually at
one side of the field where the covers can hem
him in. They the Seahawks have two excellent kicker punters
that give them a huge advantage.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
I better kick returner now too since the trade.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (50:52):
He going straight up the field with little time on
the clock really helped them. If he went to the
far side of the field, that would have taken a
longer time, would not have gotten to the thirty seven
yard line, which is the second best drive start against
the Colts that they had. I asked McDonald about that,
and he said part of it was that the return
call was to that side, but part of it was
because of the decisiveness of shihed to just run a

(51:14):
straight line up the field, knowing that they had needed
every one of those forty two seconds. He didn't mess
around with trying to go across the field. He went
straight up the field and got thirty five plus yards
on that return. Those are a little unhidden type of
decisions as people don't know and you don't obviously get.
I mean, he runs around a little bit and they
only have like twenty eight seconds instead of thirty seven

(51:34):
to start that drive.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
That stuff matters, all right, Greg, excellent stuff.

Speaker 11 (51:37):
We will do it again tomorrow, Yes, sir Tuesday, Greg Bell.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
Follow him at GML Seattle on X and of course,
complete coverage of the Seahawks at Thenewstribune dot com. His
segment with us is brought to you by a Coppola
Diamond Collection Prosecco. Bring bubbles to the game. That's Copla
Diamond Collection Prosecco. It delivers bright refreshing of apple, citrus
and peach to every celebration. Bubble up your playbook, that's right,

(52:05):
That's what I said, and celebrate every win with game
day bubbles only with Coppola Diamond Prosecco coming up next. Yeah,
we got Seahawks and Rams to prepare for, but the
hot stove will not be ignored. Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJRFM, It's time for.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
Chucking Bucks Weekly visit with former NFL official Gene Sterotur
brought to you by BMWCL. Looking for a new or
used bmw or something else even, come check us out
at BMWCL, conveniently located between I five and I ninety
near the stadiums now with Gene Sterotor. Here's checking buck.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Well.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
We look forward to it every week. That's what we do.
Our chance to chat with the greatest NFL official of
all time. Jane Sterator is with us right here on
Chuck and Buck in the mornings. Good morning, sir, Good
morning fellows.

Speaker 12 (52:56):
How are you.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
We're doing great, We're doing great. I'm curious though, before
we start breaking down some plays and some rules and stuff,
did Philip Rivers in any way inspire you over the weekend?
Did you think to yourself, it is time for a comeback.
I can still do this. I can come back and
still be the greatest NFL of visual of all time.

Speaker 12 (53:18):
It's so funny, Chuck, I think this is the third
radio interview this morning, and everyone asked the same question. Yeah,
so it is one that must be out there, and
it makes me a little warm and fuzzy when you
see really someone just older than they should be playing
in that game.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
And you went right to me on it, Chuck.

Speaker 12 (53:38):
I mean, the tie there is fantastic. And to be
perfectly honest, there was that moment where you know, our
our our careers kind of paralleled themselves for that fifteen
years or so, and you know, it looked awful familiar
to me. And then I watched last night's game only
thirty miles from where I live and realized it was

(53:59):
seven degrees and and I thought, you know this chair
in the studio. You know, Jane, what do you think
I think if it's two.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Steps in a football move? Okay, Jane, we don't like you.

Speaker 12 (54:11):
But back to the chair, I went. I just that
was about how long it lasted.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
She thought about it for a second.

Speaker 12 (54:19):
It did, Bucky, It went right through like the morning breeze.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Does you know, like it just catches your hair for
a second if you have some No, I don't, but
you know, And and then off we went.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
By the way. What was Rivers like? Because a lot
of fans, if you weren't a Charger fan or a
Colt fan, you didn't like Philippers because it looked like
he just whined the entire game to the officials. What
was he like? To officiate. Did you enjoy officiating his games?

Speaker 12 (54:48):
I loved officiating them, And yes, he wore on the
entire game and you have to officiated most of it.
And it was a beautiful thing. You know, My older
brother Tony was a back judge on my cruise. So
actually when Phil thought maybe something happened downfield or there
was a legal contact or holding, he loved to start
that eight to ten yard sprint down the field to

(55:09):
voice his opinion and displeasure. And you know, kind of
being the younger brother thing. And my job was to
protect a quarterback and knew he was going downfield to
kind of you know, scream at my brother just for
that minute. I was like, go ahead, go for it.
You know, I got a couple to throw out there too,
you know, say this to him while you're you know,

(55:29):
as you turn around, just to catch him off guard.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
But no, he was.

Speaker 12 (55:33):
He was a joy and just intense and you could
see it, right. I mean, the beauty of the game
is it brings out the uh, the youthful vigor in
all of us. That and it's really did why I
did stay as long as I did in officiating, and
you could see rivers immediately more fright back to look,
it's this game time, man, you know. And the intensity

(55:53):
was up and so was the talk. So I thought
it was a really cool thing to witness.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Yeah, it was. It was.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
I agree it was cool, even though as a Bronco fan,
I was one of the ones that couldn't stand watching
him whine and talk trash Dad Dummet talking trash across
the field with no cuss words, like, you can't do that,
that's not right. But it was cool to see a
guy come out of retirement. I am curious, man, your thoughts.
Just the way in which the game is officiated now,

(56:22):
I mean, they're trying to protect guys, and I know
if a receiver is trying to make a catch and
you don't want to go to his head that I
get that whole thing. And yet there's times too where
a guy gets a hit and it looks like the
defender was just doing what he's supposed to do. There's
one in that Chargers Chiefs game. There's actually a couple
big hits in that one, but one in particular where

(56:42):
the guy ends up getting ejected, but it kind of
looked like he was committed to going in hitting the
guy in the chest. Then the receiver drops down, Thornton's
kind of drops down, so he hits him in the head,
and then because he's laying on the ground now, all
of a sudden, they eject him.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Is that the way it's supposed to be called?

Speaker 12 (56:59):
It'll You're so right on all those points, because I
do think, Look, the player that was laying wood on
those hits is one of those players that you want
on your squad, right, because he causes receivers and quarterbacks
to think twice before throwing over the middle. There's a
huge element in this game that needs to continue to

(57:21):
happen that way. That's a big part of this game.
And the rules quite honestly have taken some of that
element out of the game because of the level and
amount of files that occur there. That throws over the
middle aren't nearly as dangerous as they used to be
because of the rules, And as you said, the first
hit was a classic hit within the rules, with force

(57:43):
to a player's chest depletes him and imposes his will, right,
And I am sure on that field when you get
hits like that, a lot of people on that field
like to start selling wolf cookies. A little bit and
letting people know they're out here for the whole day
beauty of that business, right, I mean, that is what
this is about. And then as you said the second play,

(58:05):
I think he initially did have a perfect target level
and I think he realized it the element of that.
And it's so hard to do this in real time.
I can't even I would never be able to even
think what goes through their head or how great they
are to try to manipulate that the leading with the
head porshed, trying to maybe get a little shoulder in

(58:26):
but still a little more just too much torpedo. Like
we used to think we're the best hits in the
NFL ten years ago, which now we want to get
out quite honestly, in defense of the player initiating the
shot in many cases and not the receiver. But then
as you said, like this receiver is doing what a.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Human would do. He's ducking to protect himself.

Speaker 12 (58:45):
Now he lowers what was a good target, and now
it becomes a hit on a defensives receivers head and
neck area, So now you have a foul. Those are
hard plays to you know, the hard plays to rect
it is.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
The rules are the rules, and then.

Speaker 12 (59:00):
As far as the ejection was concerned in that situation,
I think I did speak to it briefly on air.
When there is a flag down in the NFL for
anything but in sportsmanlike unnecessary roughnesses those plays, New York.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Then can come down and way in. Now.

Speaker 12 (59:16):
I was told after some communication with the NFL in
real time on that play, was this a play where
New York came down and initiated And their response to
me was the officials were contemplating potentially ejecting on the field.
Did not make that initial assessment right on the field,
but with collaboration from New York, and that goes up

(59:38):
a different level to true vincent and the people in
operations that are a little above that that are in
the room.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
They made that decision. Now, whether that's.

Speaker 12 (59:47):
Based on previous behaviors in other games or what their
standard is, or how they kind of process that, that's
kind of into the office.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
But the ejection was confirmed or.

Speaker 12 (01:00:00):
I think basically made at the end of the day
from the office and not the officials on the field.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
I had a conversation with my mom last night. She
said she was going to be sending me some Christmas
fudge as she tends to do. But this year, I'm
going to order a batch of woof wolf Cookies. That's
what I'm going to order for Christmas.

Speaker 12 (01:00:20):
Wolf Cookies has good and when you're an older guy
out there with the young guys and you can try
to you know, I'm not up with all the stuff
that happens in the generations that followed me, but every
once in a while, you can even throw one of
the ones that we used in the seventies back down
to them and it's like your jeans and the drawer
there chuck. You know, if you leave, if you leave
them in there long enough, actually comes all the way

(01:00:42):
around again and you're making a fashion statement. So you know,
I would try to keep a few of those late
sixties early seventies one liners and throw them out there
to the next generation, and then they would look like.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Dude, I like that one. I'm going to use it.
You know, I said, just give me.

Speaker 12 (01:00:58):
Some credit on it back end, but go know, feel
free to go with it again.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Lookies is when we used it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
Yeah, and Christmas wolf Cookies are the best. I mean,
so delicious. Jeans or is with us year CBS Rules
analyst joins us every week to talk about some of
the calls in the National Football League. Just curious since
before we get off the Chiefs game, now that Patrick
Mahomes is hurt, will NFL officials stop rigging games for

(01:01:27):
the Chiefs.

Speaker 12 (01:01:30):
No, But more than likely what's going to really happen
is and it happened this year.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
And it's ironic, isn't it. Like the last couple of.

Speaker 12 (01:01:37):
Weeks the Chiefs they just didn't pull off the big wins.
And I think they lost six games within one possession
this year, so you know, they were probably a possession
away from the schedule or their you know, their record
looking different. But all of a sudden, it's like there
are a few penalties there against Kansas City and they're losing,
you know, And sometimes when you art to foul, you

(01:02:01):
start to lose. There'll be a new team here on
the horizon that will now be getting the unexpected favor
of the officials as they succeed as teams again. And
listen by the way those guys are playing up in
Seattle right now, they have a chance to be one
of those teams rather successful and it's fun to watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Really is, all right, Well, let's talk about siks. There
are a couple of plays. I mean, we did win
the game, so we're not going to grouse too much
up here, but it did seem like there were a
couple obvious pis up to us up here in Seattle.
One on JSN in the first half, one against Rashishahid
in the second half. We assigned you to look those

(01:02:43):
up and tell us what you thought whether or not
we got screwed over there.

Speaker 12 (01:02:48):
Yeah, I thought the first one was was a PI.
That's to play the deepest official on that sideline. It's
his receiver. It's the widest receiver. It's kind of man
to man one on one coverage. That's his lock in
key from snap to in this case, snap to ball.
That's a play you got to get. There's enough restriction there,

(01:03:08):
there's enough of a turn there that he put that
receiver at a disadvantage and really went beyond the rule
or what would be allowed. I would say, to give
him an opportunity that I felt.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Was a foul.

Speaker 12 (01:03:20):
The other play, look, technically, I think if you throw,
nobody says too much for me. And again it's not
like I put this into my element all the time.
When I refereed. But if you watch that play, the
moment that d Bac got to Shahed, he kind of
puts his arms up in the air and soccer style immediately,
you know, as he started to run and the ball

(01:03:43):
is still a ball that you can make a play on.
And it was almost as if immediately when the contacts
and that defensive back started to snuggle when occur with him,
he was already in his I can't get to this
ball because of this contact action. I think if he
plays a little more and fights back through that defensive

(01:04:04):
player who did not have his back toward the football,
so he wasn't playing the ball, which means, you know,
contact to him becomes a little more technical or I'm
going to call it a little quicker because of that.
But I think if he doesn't just throw his arms
up like I'm giving up right now, as the ball
still was the three steps away from a play plant,
your legs start to work back towards the inside through

(01:04:25):
that defensive back who hadn't got his head around, and
I think that play becomes an easier play as far
as a foul is concerned. The tough part about it
is we know we've seen that play this year. This
is me speaking philosophically. I think it's I like those
plays as no calls. I think those plays just the
way that one blended and again the way he reacted.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
To that initial contact and blending.

Speaker 12 (01:04:48):
I would love that to be a consistent no call
because I think players adjust to that. But when we
see it throughout the league that as soon as that happens,
they know a flag is coming or it's coming more
often and than not.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
I think we lend ourselves to that.

Speaker 12 (01:05:02):
Behavior right where the expectation now is that's automatically they
called that. They called that last week or two weeks ago,
and it wasn't a lot of contact. So again that's
just a personal thought on that play. But then you know, look,
because of the contact, if they throw it and they
go to Gene and say, Gene, is that really enough
for passing appearance? Yeah, I can break that down and

(01:05:24):
tell you, yeah, he's not playing the ball. He makes
it a little early contact and make it you know,
and kind of agree with a call. But I like
it personally, Again, that's personal opinion that when I'd like
tould be looking at them and good fellas Man's game
today and I'll fight back and get the football here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
Give me something more to earn this. This is a
big file at a big game. Yeah, Geene.

Speaker 5 (01:05:44):
There was a play in the Jets Jacksonville game where
the Saunders guy gets objected for making contact with official
and just first and foremost, even though there was times
I wanted to absolutely beat an umpire or two wow
over the course, I did several Yeah I didn't. I
didn't because that obviously is unacceptable. You just get mad
and leave it at being mad when it comes to that.

(01:06:07):
I'm all about protecting you guys, you know, especially when
if you guys make a call and somebody comes up
and shoves you or really is alluding to I'm mad
at you and I'm going to then get physical. That is,
there's no place for that, and I think punishment should
be severe. But is there a gray area where you
can make contact? I remember years ago somebody was celebrating

(01:06:27):
and just getting ready to do to a giant fist
bump and clocked a referee and it's like, okay, well
that he wasn't trying to do that on purpose. Is
that still a flag or is there a gray area
where you're like Okay, you're trying to break up a skirmish.
If a guy is just pushing people away from himself
and he actually touches an official, is that ejection worthy?

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
Oh that's a good point.

Speaker 12 (01:06:49):
Look in my career, I always empathize with what the
players are dealing with.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
And you have a couple of big guys that.

Speaker 12 (01:06:57):
Are pushing and giving themselves a business a little bit
that hasn't elevated, but I need to break it up.
If I did make the decision to go in there
and try to separate these giants, I knew that if
I always felt like, if I go in there and
I catch a flipper or an arm flinging out where
he doesn't realize who it is, it's even trying to
separate him, and it just happens. And as you said,

(01:07:20):
incidental is the word. And now I get kind of
clocked for that. I put myself there. It's not mandatory
that I go in there and physically break you up.
I can blow my whistle five or six times. And
what I did, more than not buck quite honestly, to
not put myself in that situation, was I would blow
my whistle, which is allowed whistle in close proximity.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
And then I would get it out of my mouth
and start.

Speaker 12 (01:07:41):
Yelling that the play clock was running, which would always
stoke the offensive players because of the way they were trained,
like get yours out of here and go back to
the huddle, because they're going to have a delay a game.
When you yell the play clocks running on a football field,
when big guys are tied up, you'd be amazed how
quickly a lot of them separate this situation.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
I can't tell you.

Speaker 12 (01:08:02):
That's Boris Cheek, who is I think thirty plus years
in the NFL. It's his last year. He's been around
the business a long time. Did he talk to Saunders
a couple times throughout the game?

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Was there something.

Speaker 12 (01:08:13):
Else that happened in there at that moment that kind
of stoked him to go beyond incidental?

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
And it was like, look, I've been.

Speaker 12 (01:08:21):
With you know, three times here in the last five
minutes on plays, and you hear me next to you
and you throw that arm in the direction of the voice.
You know. I don't want to read too much into it,
but there isn't a level of incidental contact that should
be permitted. But then I appreciate you saying it. It's
not easy when you're out there man, and that intensity,
and these guys are legitimately upset and a lot of

(01:08:44):
times for valid reasons that things happened. But contacting officials
we take extremely serious.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
But I do think there's a window there.

Speaker 12 (01:08:54):
To understand what incidental contact is and what happens in
the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
You know too, So that would be my take on it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:01):
Yeah. I don't know if you watched the Ohio State
Michigan game, but there was like a player that headbutted
an official and didn't even get tossed from the game.
He got a fifteen yard penalty, but it didn't even
get tossed from the game. It was very strange.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
I did say it. Check yeah, yeah, and you're gone.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
You're just gone, gone, right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Gone, You're gone? Yeah, yet not even you're just gone.

Speaker 8 (01:09:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:09:21):
I mean, those are plays where I'm a talker, as
you guys can tell, right, I mean, but there are
those moments in games where behaviors like that happen and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Stopped and you're out of here.

Speaker 12 (01:09:34):
Escort him out now, because no, that leads itself to
so many different layers of something that makes this game
not something we like, So yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Well, I don't think that I'm going to get the
chance to wish you a happy holiday next week, so
I'm going to do it right now. And I'm very curious.
We all as children had that one Christmas gift that
we always remembered that kind of changed our entire childhood.
Was your there is a striped shirt and a whistle
by chance? Or is there something else?

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
You know?

Speaker 12 (01:10:08):
Actually, I don't even really remember a gift that jumped out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
I mean, we were from an old school.

Speaker 12 (01:10:13):
Italian family with seven kids, and the ref shirts because
of my late father.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
They were in every room every year, every day.

Speaker 12 (01:10:21):
You know, they were part of the couch furniture. That's
what you threw over the chair when it had a
whole winter, if the dog wanted to lay there in
the wintertime or something. So h But I think the
gifts that I remember most, quite frankly.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
Were the ones that were either really.

Speaker 12 (01:10:38):
Basic and required some creativity. I remember the erector set.
If that dates me a little bit, I know that
goes way back right and I look back and think
about that gift and think, hey, they put actual.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
Steal in there.

Speaker 12 (01:10:51):
You know it wasn't this plastic preformed stuff like this
was Like I remember opening up thinking, Hell, I can
build like a building with this, Like it was real
good material. I can fix the fender on the core
and the driveway with this stuff, you know. But looking back,
it was it was good to be part of such
a huge family, and the chaos of Christmas and the

(01:11:12):
joy of the family really was the greatest gift of all.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
If that doesn't sound.

Speaker 12 (01:11:16):
So warm and fuzzy, that's great here on a beautiful
Tuesday morning.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
Yeah, well, Merry Christmas to you and yours. Thank you
so much for being with us all season long, and
look forward to more conversations here in the future.

Speaker 12 (01:11:30):
Thanks guys, have a wonderful holiday and good luck this Thursday.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
Jean Stator joining us right here on Chuck and Buck.
His segment brought to you by BMW Seattle. Looking for
a new or used BMW or something else, even in
time for the holidays, perhaps check out BMW Seattle, conveniently
located between I five and I ninety near the stadiums.
Coming on next. Everett fits you, joins us, what's wrong

(01:11:55):
with the crack and we're gonna let the voice fix
at Sports Radio ninety three point.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Three, trying to have the voice joining us here again
on this Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
The Voice of your Seattle Cracking hasn't been called many
wins as a voate, but we're gonna get to the
bottom of that. Good morning Everett.

Speaker 13 (01:12:21):
Good morning Chucky. Have you taken more vacations We talked
about this beginning of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
That's true.

Speaker 13 (01:12:27):
You you took a break around Thanksgiving and you know
what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
We didn't win a couple of games. So were you
back home?

Speaker 3 (01:12:35):
I have a couple more days off this upcoming week
going into the holiday, so maybe that reverses it. Maybe
that takes it right out of the content for Yeah,
you're right, Yeah, because light Wikie keeps sending me nasty emails. Yeah,
ever fits you the voice of your Seattle Cracking with

(01:12:57):
us right now? I mean, where is the alert level
around the organization right now? I mean this is eight
out of nine games that they have lost.

Speaker 13 (01:13:10):
Yeah, I mean I think it depends on what circle
you run with, what room you walk into it at
any certain time, and they, I think in the locker room.
The most frustrating part about all of this is you
can see how hard the guys are working. You can
hear Channer Stevenson and Jordan Everley and Lane Lambert. You

(01:13:33):
can hear in their voices, you know, the the uncomfortability
with this situation because the players are playing hard. I
mean you almost you almost wish this was a stretch
of games where they're getting blown out by four or
five goals, because at least you can say, well, hey,
you know they don't have it, but this is the

(01:13:54):
team that's still limiting teams to two goals, maybe three goals.
They're getting burnt by, you know, a couple of mistakes,
a couple of empty net goals. And if you take
out the two oiler games, the nine to four and
the four nothing oiler losses, I mean, these have all
been games where the Kraken have been in a position

(01:14:15):
in the last five minutes of the third period to
minimally get a point to force overtime, if not get wins.
So that's that's the most frustrating piece about all of
this is that despite the record, the team isn't playing poorly.
They're not playing bad. It is a mistake here, it

(01:14:35):
is a bounce there, it is a it is a
momentary lack of detail here that is ultimately losing the
crack in these games.

Speaker 5 (01:14:47):
Yeah, I mean, obviously they're not intending to do it,
and yet yeah, it seems like it's similar fashions in
which they're doing it, whether it's close games and they're
just not finding a way to get the edge or
you know, and then regardless of the empty net goals
where it looks different on the scoreboard than the actual
game itself. So I'm where is the main thing, I

(01:15:07):
mean when you see him skating, you know, in practice,
and what is the main thing that they need to
shore up to find a way to just kind of
flip the tables a little bit.

Speaker 13 (01:15:16):
Well, we've talked a lot about special teams, whether that's
the power player, the penalty kill. I mean, the penalty
kill is getting better as of late.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
So they they were.

Speaker 13 (01:15:26):
They allowed a power play goal in nine straight games,
and I think rock Bottom was the four for five
effort the Oilers had on the power play a couple
of weeks ago. So the power the penalty kill has improved.
The power play still continues to be a work in progress.
I've always contended that if you need one of the

(01:15:46):
units to be strong, i'd rather a strong penalty kill,
because that just takes away the momentum from the other team,
and that could really deflate a lineup and deflate a building.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
Especially if you're on the road. So the PK is
going in the right way, it's still the offense. I
think it's still the offense.

Speaker 13 (01:16:04):
It's still you know, the cracking are getting shots. You know,
the last six game or seven games, In five of
those games, Seattle has accounted for twenty eight or more shots.
So Ley Lambert has been saying, I want the guys
to be selfish. I want these guys to shoot more.
They're shooting more. They've run into some pretty good goaltenders
in the last couple of a couple of weeks. But

(01:16:24):
you know, all of these I understand our excuses, and
at the end of the day, we're in the NHL
to win hockey games. And laid as said multiple times,
the excuses are there. We're sick, we're hurt, we're injured.
No one cares. I don't care. We have to win
hockey games. And at a certain point, you gotta you
have to man up to a man. You have to

(01:16:45):
challenge each other internally collectively to get it done. So
you know it's gonna be a very difficult task tonight
against Colorado, the best team in the league. But Seattle
has played a lot of the top teams.

Speaker 1 (01:17:01):
In the league.

Speaker 13 (01:17:02):
They played them pretty close this season, and they've gotten
a couple of wins that, on paper around the league
probably were unexpected.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
Yeah, and I'm tired of Lane using me and my
vacation time as an excuse in the locker room.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
That's right on the board.

Speaker 13 (01:17:20):
Ye see what the side says, because this is an.

Speaker 12 (01:17:23):
FCC regulator show, But it's it's not kind.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
He's not mixing words, is what you're saying. Yeah, Well,
let's talk about this Colorado team, because I don't know
if everybody's aware of what they're doing so far this year.
They've lost two games this season. Who this entire season
twenty six wins, two losses. And I already thought Everett
that Nathan McKinnon was the best player in hockey and

(01:17:49):
just didn't get credit for that. And he's leading the
league in pretty much everything. So what on earth? What
kind of a buzzsaw have the Avalanche turned into in
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 13 (01:18:00):
Well, they've calmed down, they've cooled off a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
They're only seven to one and two in their last
ten games.

Speaker 13 (01:18:06):
Yeah, yeah, they've they've pulled down quite a bit from
where they've been. I mean, listen, it doesn't get more
complete than the Colorado Avalanche when when you look at
their their top line is is arguably the best trio
right now in the NHL. They can score from the

(01:18:27):
blue line. Defensively, they leave the league in scoring with
obviously Kill mccarr and and Devon Tamees back there their goaltending,
they the wood Shed Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. Scott
Wedgwood already up to fourteen wins this season, So, I mean,
it is it is remarkable what's going on in in Denver.
And this is the team that you know, two thousand

(01:18:48):
and two, they're they're coming up on or twenty two. Rather,
they're coming up on five years since they've won the Cup,
and a lot of people will tell you within that
five year window, you know you need to start either
retooling or you need to tear it down. Very few
teams can stay that consistent for that long and the

(01:19:08):
Avalanche have been one of those teams that have been
able to retool. I remember last season after a first
round exit to Dallas, fans in Denver were calling to
blow up the team. They were calling for Jared Bennar,
They're head coach to be fired. And it's like, guys,
you just came off the Cup a few years ago
and you just made the playoffs. I think it's now

(01:19:31):
five six years in a row for the Avalanche, So
they're now getting back to a place of dominance. I mean,
everybody had Colorado on paper winning the Cup before the
season started. I think now that has just been solidified more.
They made a couple of big trades last year. They
had a couple of big free agency signings that have
paid off dividends for them, and Brock Nelson, Martin Hius,

(01:19:54):
and Brent Burns. So this is I mean, not arguably,
this is definitely going to be Seattle's toughest game to date.
But like I've said before, this kracking team, they have
beaten the league's best this year. I go back to
a game in Winnipeg in early noir late October where

(01:20:17):
the Kraken shut out Winnipeg on their home ice three nothing.
It was just the third time Winnipeg had been shut
out at home in two seasons and just their fifth
or seventh loss at the time, seventh home loss in
the last two years overall. They then come back home
and beat Edmonton three to two. That was their first

(01:20:37):
win over the Oilers in eight tries. So I mean,
for Seattle, this isn't new. Playing the top teams in
the league isn't new, And maybe this could be that
turnaround wake up call that this team has been waiting for.
I'll tell you what, if the Kracken want to win
this one, it's going to be a defensive game. This
is not going to be a four to four, three

(01:20:57):
five four Kracking win. I mean, this is going to
be a greasy, grinding game. If the crack had won
a half success well.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
I can't imagine a better spark though, for a team
that needs one, is to pull an up set against
at home against the best team in the NHL. So
all right, let's get that done tonight. Thank you, sir,
We appreciate it, and we will be listening.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
All right, sounds good fellas, Ashley, take care.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
All right, Everett Fitzier the voice if you are Seattle
Cracking right here on the flagship Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJRFM six thirty pregame with Mike and then
Al and Everett show will be taking place starting at
seven o'clock. Everett joins us every Wednesday at eight thirty.
By the way, how about getting Shane Wright going? Can't
wait to talk to Al about this tomorrow. No assists

(01:21:42):
since December fourth for Shane Wright, no goal since November twentieth,
and he is seventeenth on the roster in ice time seventeenth.
Oh wow, wasn't this supposed to be the big step
forward year for Shane Wright? So yeah, very big mystery
there from Shane Wright this season?

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
Coming up next Seahawks Rams. So we count down the
minutes to Thursday Night football on Sports Radio ninety three
point three kjr FM. Where's ther now?

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
The color Ten's two O six two eight six ninety
five ninety five to win your way to a CML
kracking game from your home for the Kraken Sports Radio
ninety three point three kjr FM each time to talk
all things college football.

Speaker 11 (01:22:26):
It's just like the menu at taco time.

Speaker 8 (01:22:28):
You just can't get enough. You just can't get that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
This is our weekly visit with Rick Neuheisel brought to
you by taco.

Speaker 8 (01:22:35):
Time, not those new Heidels.

Speaker 11 (01:22:37):
Used to be a moniker of mine.

Speaker 8 (01:22:38):
I mean, just so you know.

Speaker 4 (01:22:39):
Now on your home for college football Saturdays, here's Nacho's
new Heidel on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.

Speaker 11 (01:22:49):
This is college football, and I want you to get
it all over yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
All right, nine o'clock hour here on this Tuesday, And
I mean we devote time to talking so college football
with the best. Rick new Isel is wes former head
coach and current studio analyst at CBS Sports, and we
get to lean on him every Tuesday at this time,
and there's a lot of college football to discuss. Come morning, coach,

(01:23:16):
how are you my friend? We are great? How are
you doing?

Speaker 11 (01:23:20):
No bad news here? I get to go and caddy
for my son today. What so that's that's always a blast.

Speaker 3 (01:23:27):
Okay. How good a golfer is he? What are we talking?

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
He's a good golf Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:23:31):
He right now is tied for twelfth at an ASHER
Tour event at Silverado in Napa, California. I thought I
was brilliant on the reads yesterday, shot two under. Now
we have to go low today.

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Okay, all right, so you're a good caddy.

Speaker 1 (01:23:45):
Then he listens I am an excellent caddy.

Speaker 11 (01:23:48):
I am an excellent caddy if he only listened to
me all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:23:53):
Kids.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
Well, look, I don't want to ignore this. I think
that that would sort of be wrong to do, since
we discussed it so much last week. Uh So I
just wanted to say that I was rooting for you
to get the Koog's job. I realized that it didn't
come together. But I'm with your colleague, Brian Jones. Uh,
I'm happy that you're still on that set at CBS

(01:24:17):
because I would have missed you there.

Speaker 11 (01:24:20):
Well, you're kind. I had a great experience being involved
in the conversation with the Cougar's got to talk to
a lot of boosters and such, which was always a
treat and uh but unfortunately he didn't get to talk
to the main people. So wish Kirby Moore the best.

(01:24:40):
We'll see how the co can do next year.

Speaker 5 (01:24:42):
What is it about this Kirby Moore? And do you
know much about this guy?

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
Uh?

Speaker 11 (01:24:48):
You know, he's Kellen Moore's brother. He obviously had a
nice year.

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
With Missouri.

Speaker 8 (01:24:54):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:24:55):
He and Eli Drinkletz cobble together a heck of an offense.
You know, I Almud Hardy, the kid that transferred from
Louisiana Monroe had an epic year, So they'll be able
to run the ball, assuming that they'll have the personnel
for such. You know, it's a it's a good hire.
He's a kid from the state of Washington and hopefully

(01:25:15):
he'll have great success.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
All Right, Rick new Isiel is with us our college
football insider. Let's move on to other discussions.

Speaker 4 (01:25:23):
Then.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
How many programs and fan bases right now are being
held hostage by Michigan until they make the decision on
this head coach?

Speaker 11 (01:25:34):
Well, you're you're It's an interesting point, and I promise
you the agents are using it as leverage because not
only are you having to kind of sit there, if
you're an athletic director wondering if your guy is going
to get a call from Michigan, you've got to wonder if, like,
for instance, if Jed were to get a call, who's
Washington going to reach out to.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
Right, somebody's getting stole one way or the other.

Speaker 11 (01:25:58):
Yeah, the musical chairs are going to get played. So
you got to be kind of two steps ahead if
you're going to make sure that you're not left without
a chair. And so that's that's what's complicated, especially at
this time of year when we're supposed to be focusing
on the postseason. We're doing anything.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
But are you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:17):
Hearing anything out of ann Arbor that who they might
be leaning toward.

Speaker 11 (01:26:23):
It makes all the sense in the world that they
would that they would communicate with Jet just because he's
been there and he's been successful and such. Now the
only negative may be that he's been there and he
was there with Jim Harbaugh because a lot of this
stuff that's gone down on a negative side. I don't
know if it's a direct correlation. I think that would

(01:26:45):
be unfair, but I think it's at least fair to
say that there's you know, the Matt Weiss is the
guy who's now involved in an FBI del Sheron Moore
who's got himself in an unbelievable world of trouble. You know,
those guys could both be doing prison time. I mean,
that's that is incredible that we're talking about that with

(01:27:07):
the program as you know, at the top of the heap,
as Michigan is. So I don't know what the folks
that Michigan will say as we get in our car
and head Silverada to take you know, shoot low number.
That's the seat belt bell that you're hearing. But I'm

(01:27:31):
just giving you a play by play. You know, you
want to know exactly what's happening here tea time just
around the corner.

Speaker 8 (01:27:38):
But no, it's a it's a it's a it's.

Speaker 11 (01:27:41):
A predicament and then some And the real question at
Michigan is who's going to make the higher because ward
manual he's got to be in a little bit of
hot water as well.

Speaker 5 (01:27:51):
Yeah, yeah, what do you read into when it comes
to some of the coaches that are being you know,
kind of brought up on this topic, Kalen Board basically
just saying nope, not going to do it. But then again,
we've heard that before. You know, Jedfish hasn't necessarily pushed
all the smoke out of the room, but he's said
a couple of times that he's not interested, that he's
happy where he's at. Katie Dillingham broke down into tears

(01:28:14):
as if he was breaking up with, you know, his
high school girlfriend. Are you reading anything into it or
is that just that's just the nature of the beast,
Because you don't want to go back on your word,
even if there's something better.

Speaker 11 (01:28:25):
I think it's the nature of the beast. I mean,
it's very very difficult to tell everything that the cards
that are sitting their face down, it's very difficult to
do that. I don't know that, you know, I've made
some mistakes in that regard, having said something that I

(01:28:45):
probably shouldn't have said, you know, and not being as
forthcoming as I should have been in my life.

Speaker 8 (01:28:51):
With respect to this.

Speaker 11 (01:28:52):
And you always think you're doing the right thing by
holding back your cards, but the truth of the matter
is you just need to say nothing, and so in
saying nothing, you can't be held liable for saying something
that turned out to be untrue. So I think everybody's
saying what they think at the time, and it can
always defend it. That's how I felt at the time.

Speaker 8 (01:29:14):
But when the.

Speaker 11 (01:29:15):
Next day you're moving on, or the next hour you're
moving on, that's because new news came in and it's
something that they can't turn down. It's one of those
things I just remind people. Don't hate the player, hate
the game. And this is all attributed to the fact
that this well, in this particular case, it's because of
an incident that none of us could have predicted, but
mostly it's determined because of a calendar that's just completely wacky.

(01:29:39):
It doesn't make any sense, and the people that are
in charge of college football should and can do better.

Speaker 3 (01:29:45):
Can that get fixed to this offseason? Like some of
these calendar issues.

Speaker 11 (01:29:51):
To me, they can get fixed tomorrow if we just
get in a room. People in the room. There needs
to be coaches in the room. There needs to be
a representative for the players in the room. There needs
to be the commissioners in the room. There needs to
be the presidents in the room, and there needs to
be the TV.

Speaker 1 (01:30:09):
People in the room.

Speaker 11 (01:30:10):
And they need to sit there and say, here's what's
important to us, and then we can figure this out. Well,
who don't need to be who don't need to be
in the room are the kids that are being recruited
out of high school right now because they can. To me,
hurrying them to get to college in January is a
disservice to them. I don't know why you have to

(01:30:33):
start college semester early. You're not playing games in that semester.
You need to let these kids have their senior year.
But there's a race now, especially with finances as part
of it. We're seeing all sorts of states around the country,
you know, trying to make sure nil is available for
high school athletes. I mean, it's goofy, and we need

(01:30:56):
to come to grips with the fact that we're letting
the cart run the horse.

Speaker 3 (01:31:00):
College football, it's goofy. That's going to be the new
tagline heading into the offseason.

Speaker 11 (01:31:05):
Rick new Isel is with us, and yet yet it's impenetrable.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
It always delivers.

Speaker 11 (01:31:12):
It's still the best game.

Speaker 3 (01:31:13):
I think Aaron Taylor said it best. It's never been
more popular, it's never been more interesting, and yet it's
never been more vulnerable than what it is right now.
I think that's really well said on another of your
colleague's parts from Saturday.

Speaker 11 (01:31:28):
Glad you're watching our guys.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
Oh, of course, glad you're watching us? Of course, Yes,
Rick new Isel is with us, our college football insider
and Caddy extraordinary right here on Chuck and Buck in
the morning.

Speaker 11 (01:31:41):
For the stars, I like to say, Caddy for the stars.

Speaker 3 (01:31:45):
All right, let's talk about these college football playoff games.
They'll start on Friday. I mean Alabama Oklahoma on paper
eight verses nine. This is supposed to be the best
game of the weekend. Will it turn out to be?

Speaker 11 (01:31:56):
I think it's going to be a wail of the game.
The first time they played this year, neither had one
hundred yards rushing, So defense is going to be the
key here. Unfortunately for Alabama, Ty Simpson, who looked like
I think he was the favorite for the Heisman Trophy
in some point late September early October, has fallen on

(01:32:19):
some hard times in the last couple of games. He's
been barely fifty percent when he was sitting there at
around seventy five percent, So for him to come out
as the victorious quarterback over John Mattier, to me, he's
going to have to get back into that seventy range,
which means that they're going to have to cobble together
some quick throws, tight ends, and backs are going to

(01:32:41):
have to be involved rather than just the three high
flying wide receivers because you don't have a lot of
time to throw when our Mason Thomas and the rest
of that Oklahoma Sooner defense gets their ears pinned back.

Speaker 5 (01:32:54):
How excited are you for the Saturday games? Anyone in
particular stand out to you?

Speaker 11 (01:33:00):
Oh yeah, that one in College Station Miami at Texas
A and M is going to be a great game.
Miami is a terrific team. Carson Beck knows all about
the Aggies, having been in the SEC. I don't know
that they played them, but they certainly saw them on
film as they got ready for all their other SEC games.
This is all going to be about Aggie's pass rush.

(01:33:21):
If the Cassius Howls of the world can get home
and make that third d M down defense be as
potent as it was all season long for the Aggies.
In a home crowd, remember that crowd will get going,
so snap council be a problem for the Miami front.
You get Carson Beck under heat, he'll turn the ball over.
And that's exactly how they lost those two games to

(01:33:43):
both Louisville and SMU.

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
Maybe the two best pass rushers in the country, Bain
and Howell going against each other in this game, Miami.
That's right, Texas A and M. If there was to
be a major upset involving one of the group of
five teams that made it into this tournament, which of
the two games would you say will end that way?

Speaker 11 (01:34:07):
It's difficult to figure that out. It's difficult to figure
that out when you're talking about James Madison because they
didn't play anybody. Their lone loss was to Louisville. They
lost that game twenty eight to fourteen. I think their
schedule rank was like one hundred and twenty fourth. This

(01:34:28):
is not a banner year for the Sun Belt, so
it's difficult. But to me, James Madison seems like a
heck of a team. You can't blame somebody just because
they didn't play anybody. But I worry when they get
to Oregon that they're going to be a little bit overmatch.
So I'm going to go with Tulane. I'm going to
think Tulane learned something the first time they played Ole Miss,

(01:34:49):
and Retslof will have to be miles better than he
was the first time. And if that happens, and given
all the confusion in Hotty Toddy Land, yeah, let's say
Tulane can give him a game.

Speaker 5 (01:35:00):
How how important or how how big of a deal
could it be with the old miss all of the
stuff going on outside? I mean, is that something that's
gonna be tough for these young men to uh kind
of put out of their mind.

Speaker 1 (01:35:13):
Bucky.

Speaker 11 (01:35:13):
It feels like this has got to be all about
the players. It's got to be all about those guys.
You can imagine how many conversations they've had with either
their own personal agents, former coaches who are now at LSU,
are you going to come with us? And all that
kind of stuff. If if the people in that locker
room can focus and look at each other and say,
because they know each other is getting the calls, if

(01:35:36):
they can say, hey, listen, we're not messing with any
of this now, We're going to finish our season. It's
too damn important and we're too damn close. Because they've
got a good they've got a good draw. I mean,
if they win this game against Tulane, they're going to
the Sugar Bowl to play Georgia, and they had Georgia
down nine in Athens. You don't you can imagine they
would love another shot at that and then they're in.

(01:35:58):
If you win that one, you're in Sevins. So Ole
miss is in rare air right now. They've never won
this many games. This leadership of the team has to
be come to.

Speaker 1 (01:36:11):
Great.

Speaker 11 (01:36:12):
If it isn't a player led team, then this is
going to end pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:36:16):
Caddy for the Stars. Rick new Eisel joining us to
talk some college football here this morning. College football playoff
gets started on Friday. When it's all said and done,
who's winning the national championship?

Speaker 11 (01:36:28):
I got Ohio State again. I've got them beat in
Texas Tech in the final. I think Texas Tech knocks
off Indiana. I think, and you know what, it'll be
good for college football. The conversation that will be around
that game, if the Red Raiders are in the final,
will be Okay, they were picked to finish sixth or
seventh in the Big Twelve. They basically bought their roster

(01:36:53):
and have They now are in a position where is
this is the way of college football. You can buy
the wins. I mean, we're talking about Brennan Sorosby, the
quarterback at Cincinnati, being rumored to be going and being
the next Indiana quarterback at five million a year. That's
that's incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:37:14):
By the way, if you want to you want to
guarantee something, since Damon Ryola is the single white female
of college football, he will be a Texas Tech Red
Raider next year. There's you can book it, you know,
bank it.

Speaker 11 (01:37:28):
Well, Oh my goodness, they have another kid, though, Will
Hammond that came in off the bench this year.

Speaker 8 (01:37:35):
That's pretty dark.

Speaker 11 (01:37:36):
Good so, and I'm not sure how much I believe
in Dylan Reyola is a great player, but there's no
question he looks like Mahomes.

Speaker 3 (01:37:44):
He's deliberately trying to I'll say that, there's no question,
and we're going to get We're going to get more
arch madness next year. Good decision by him, right.

Speaker 11 (01:37:56):
Oh, clearly, clearly.

Speaker 8 (01:37:58):
And listen.

Speaker 11 (01:38:00):
Thing about his family is they know how good college
football is.

Speaker 1 (01:38:04):
They know how.

Speaker 11 (01:38:06):
Important these years are to have his memories and such.
So there's no hurry for him. I think he'll be
a first round quarterback. I think he'll I don't know
that they'll have the career of his uncles, but I
think he's going to get that chance, and no reason
to hurry the process as he's at one of the
premier institutions and kin to have a lot of talent

(01:38:28):
around him next year.

Speaker 3 (01:38:29):
All right, well, we're going to let you go. Let
you go focus on your responsibilities to your son today
and to the sports world. Let's close with your Taco
Time pick of the week of all the games this weekend,
which do you feel the best about.

Speaker 11 (01:38:42):
I'm going to take the Oregon Ducks silver James Madison.
I'll lay the points and I don't worry about it.
I think the Ducks are going to have their day though,
And for Bucky's case, it's fly, fly and fly some
more fly.

Speaker 5 (01:38:57):
They might be getting as healthy as they have been
all year too, just in time.

Speaker 3 (01:39:02):
All right, Well, have fun today, enjoy the golf, and
we'll talk to you again next week.

Speaker 11 (01:39:07):
Just just know this, you boys listen to me a
hell of a lot more than my son will here
in the next day.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
I believe you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:17):
I believe I could get there in two. Yeah, I'll
trust you on that.

Speaker 11 (01:39:23):
Thanks than holidays, we'll talk souit all right.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
Sounds great. Rick new Isael joining us right here our
College Football Insider, a segment brought to you by Taco Time.
You look forward to that one day, Caddy in for
your son alling around the golf course.

Speaker 5 (01:39:39):
Not yet, not yet, because right now we'll go to
the golf and he doesn't listen to a damn thing.
He just is like, I'm just trying to hit it
too far dead like, Yeah, that's not the whole point though.
There's direction that comes in play here and how many
times you hit it matters. It's kind of a really
important part. And he's like, I'm just trying to hit
it for Yeah, he gets that his mama.

Speaker 3 (01:40:00):
Guess when are you going to have your first father
son scramble against.

Speaker 5 (01:40:04):
Dick Fane and Dixon Fane. Oh that's going to be
a while. Dixon Fane is good. Pretty sure I could
whoop his dad right now. But I don't think Bert
could hold up with Dixon just yet.

Speaker 6 (01:40:16):
Yeah, Dixon would be the problem.

Speaker 3 (01:40:18):
That's problems Palmer.

Speaker 7 (01:40:21):
She's gotten better since for softball. Actually, she's saying she
can hit the ball a lot further.

Speaker 3 (01:40:26):
Now, does she have a choice She probably doesn't in
your household, of whether she's going to play golf or not.

Speaker 6 (01:40:31):
Not really, no, no, But she chooses too. She likes to. Okay, yeah,
she'll ask if she can go out sick.

Speaker 5 (01:40:39):
Yeah, they're very sick, really, the one.

Speaker 6 (01:40:42):
Whose name is five iron.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
Especially, Yeah, he's he's a little wacky.

Speaker 1 (01:40:47):
He's a lot wacky.

Speaker 5 (01:40:48):
Yeah, and we're not just talking about golf here.

Speaker 7 (01:40:51):
Apparently when you are that wacky you get pretty good
when you play a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
Who knew, bet?

Speaker 8 (01:40:55):
I bet?

Speaker 3 (01:40:56):
Yeah? I think I asked him, how often would you play?
Would never stop playing?

Speaker 1 (01:41:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:41:02):
I would just play eighteen, have a snack and play.

Speaker 7 (01:41:04):
Eighteen was like his saddest moment of his whole life
when he was working from home, had his computer set
up downstairs, and he couldn't play golf because the course
was closed.

Speaker 6 (01:41:15):
So he just looked at an empty golf course all
day long.

Speaker 3 (01:41:18):
Of all the things to shut down, though.

Speaker 6 (01:41:20):
They shut it down for a couple of weeks to
a month, and then they opened it and they're like, wait.

Speaker 5 (01:41:24):
A minute, this don't touch the flags.

Speaker 6 (01:41:26):
Yeah, you couldn't.

Speaker 7 (01:41:28):
They put styrofoam in the cups so that the ball wouldn't.

Speaker 6 (01:41:31):
Actually go in, so you wouldn't have to touch the flag.

Speaker 12 (01:41:34):
Run.

Speaker 6 (01:41:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:41:35):
Of all the things that you would have thought would
have stayed open, Yeah, interesting, some courses did all right.
Coming down next here on the radio program, the old
Judge stops by, we'll get his thoughts about a thing
or three. Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R
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