Best of Chuck & Buck 12-4

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a sound shirk.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Good morning, folks.

Speaker 3 (00:02):
Good morning everyone, Good morning, good some time, Good morning class,
lazy and gentlemen.

Speaker 4 (00:08):
Ladies and gentlemen, behold in producing six one guard from
Brighton Mellanois and former high school basketball stand what in
the hell does that mean?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Don't jumped any conclusions. Not a god, You've got to
lower lower your expectations.

Speaker 5 (00:25):
Hard to believe he could once send a fastball to Pluto.
I'm getting some Bucky jacobs and vibes and former.

Speaker 6 (00:33):
I'll just openly admit I'm a fat, out of shaped
X athlete.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Now there's been a noticeable spike in your blood pressure.

Speaker 5 (00:39):
Five seven guard and a former college water polo and
national champion.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Is a lot of useless crap up here.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
Wow, this is Chuck and Buck in the Morning with
Ashley Ryan. But to you buy to they look casino
resort and quill see the Greek Draftking sports book where
the action never stopped.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Hey, good morning and welcome into this Thursday edition of
Chucking Back in the Morning. Sports Radio ninety three point
three kh A r f M. Great to have you
with us. I do emphasise the we're great. It's not
just good it's great to have you with us. Thank you, Ashley,
very Tony the tiger of you well showing him what
I could do. Uh huh, four hours. We got you

(01:34):
till ten o'clock this morning. We've got all sorts of
cool stuff planned for you. Of course, Bucky Jacobson will
not be a part of our reindeer games here. Today's
taking a couple of days off pretty much just to
go drinking with buddies. I mean, I don't know how
else to put that. That's yeah, yeah, he's got a
he's got a friend of his that all he does
is give grief to and yet good buddies. And those

(01:58):
two buddies they're selling lebrating a birthday down there in
the old Palm Springs with some other buddies, with other buddies,
and so Bucki's out for the next couple of days.
Really does sound like an Ashley type of trip. I'm
very jealous. Doesn't sound like a Bucky Tighter kind of trip.
Like an Ashley kind of trip. Like I'm eating girlfriends
down in Palm Springs and we're gonna, you know, do

(02:21):
shots and play golf and hang out by the pool,
hanging out by the pool all day. Doesn't sound like
a bucket out, No, it doesn't. Especially.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
I mean he's lucky it's only seventy degrees, because when
I looked at the weather, it's gonna be like eighty
as I said in a week.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, I mean he would be miserable. I think a
bucky outing is like heading to the cabin with my boy.
Would wear a fur hat. Yeah, I don't wear a
fur hat from an animal I killed. We're a drink
elk blood. Yeah, I might add some to the dips,
smear it on each other, knack like man.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
His trips to me seem very Lord of the flies,
Like like when he was home alone, I was all
I pictured was Lord of the Flies type of string.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah. Like he hasn't bathed and he's just jumping over
the fire pit.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah okay, yeah, okay, Well I'm he might go into
the river for a bath.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah yeah, but that's it. Uh huh Okay, I see
what I mean. His goal when Kate was gone was
no dishes that even even Lord of the Flies have
to find social.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Occasions they do, and this one is quite opposite of
Lord of the Flies.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Right, it's an Ashley trip.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Let's face and I don't think he should be allowed.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
To take one without me getting to go along. For
I think that's the great approach, because I don't think
there's anything wrong with how, you know, friend lives. Yeah,
you know, see what they do for fun, See what
they do for fun. But you ought to have you
around to show everybody how it's done.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I agree, But that's all right. I'm sure they'll have
an okay time.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, it'll be fine. It could be better, Yeah, exactly. Well,
welcome in. But we do have a lot planned for
you here on the Today's program, including we're going to
replay some of the conversation last afternoon from the off
the Maler Dick Faine radio program where they had on
Jed Fish. It was National Signing Day yesterday. Obviously we've

(04:07):
taken a little bit of a breath coming out of
the regular season having come to an end. In college football,
of course, the postseason starts on Saturday with Conference Championship Week.
The Huskies will play in a bowl game, and it
sounds like it's gonna be a relatively early bowl game
gathering in the process. But nonetheless to me, I mean again,

(04:31):
I'm not a bowl game person, so to me the
season's over. Yeah, And so certainly we've had a little
bit of a breath and we've had Lane Kiffins stories
in college football rankings to discuss, but haven't really sunk
our teeth into with the exception of the Cam Cleveland
conversation yesterday, kind of just making sense of what the
season has been for Jed Fish and Washington Huskies. And

(04:54):
so we're gonna take a little more time to do
that today. We're gonna replace some of that conversation coming
up at seven oh fo five between Softie and Jed.
But I've been wanting to talk about my Jedfish issues
all week long, my fish shoes if you will like that, Yeah,
And I have the right person to chat about it with,

(05:14):
because you know, duck boy over here would get in
the way of just a real good husky conversation about
Jetfish and how it's going. And I brought this up
to Cam yesterday and we haven't had a chance as
a show to discuss it. But I do find it
pretty fascinating that. I mean, it does feel like Jetfish

(05:36):
took over the program and every right thinking person in
Seattle was like, Wow, we don't want to lose Kaylin
de Bore, this seems like a pretty good pivot. You know,
remains to be seen, but that seems like a pretty
good pivot. This guy's got a reputation of being a
really smart guy, and he also is somebody that was

(05:58):
perfectly willing in this transition period in college football of
embracing the NILP and all the changes that were happening.
And he immediately showed you his transfer portal abilities brought
in a lot of different veterans. But replacing twenty starters
twenty one starters in your first season doesn't matter what

(06:19):
kind of program you take over. That's hard. Yeah, And
so Jetfish had his work cut out for him, and
it felt like we were all on the same page,
like we're going to give him a free pass. And
then he went six and six, and you're like, okay, okay, okay,
can't be mad about it. He can't be mad about it,
but I do wish we would have seen a little
bit more. Yeah. It was like, temper your expectations, but

(06:40):
we're ready to be pleasantly surprised, right, Yeah, and yet
he delivered what we had expected. What you should have expected, certainly,
and we should have all been alright with that, then
you go into the second season like, well, you better
be better next year. The free past days are over. Yeah,
so we need to see some progress from year number

(07:02):
one to year number two. And they delivered on that.
They went eight and four this year. I think teams
like Washington that are sort of on the cusp of
being a top twenty five team in the country, not
program team in the country. You know what happened to
them in their schedule, I think is what you would expect.

(07:25):
They're not ready to beat Ohio State. Yet No, they're
not ready. They weren't ready this year to beat Oregon,
and yet they competed. They competed with Ohio State for
three quarters. There were moments in that Ohio State game
you're like, man, if they would just have executed this
or that, we'd have a different ballgame. Now I had

(07:45):
fifteen things that needed to change, like no, you execute
that play or you execute that drive, and we had
a different game here, and you were very close to
doing that. So they competed. Yeah, and I know that
people with a championship mentality, it almost feels like you're
patting them on the head like, oh, nice job, little buddy.
So nobody wants to like wants that to be long term.

(08:08):
But in terms of what our expectations were for Jedfish
in year number two, what were they You gotta be
a lot better, yep, and they were. They went eight
and four on the season, and yet we get to
the end of the year, and then you can sense
the frustration. I think you had it. I have it,
certainly people around this building have it. It's like, all right,

(08:30):
you did go eight and four and you were more
competitive with the big boys in the conference. Yeah, you
slipped up and lost a game, but that's usually what
top thirty teams in the country do. They're not good
every single day. And so when you've took on Wisconsin,
those are the kind of game. Top thirty teams lose
a game like that during the year, and they usually

(08:52):
steal a game as well, and they usually show up.
I mean, I'm sure Illinois is sitting back there thinking, Man,
I can't believe we got beat that soundly. Yeah, in
Seattle when we faced them, we thought we were better
than that. I would agree with it, right, And so
he delivers on the eight and four season, and yet
we get to the end of the year and what's
our reaction? Okay, that was our expectation for your number two.

(09:16):
You could have surprised me with a little bit more, right, Yeah. Well,
the way you feel like everybody's kind of reacting to it,
we could have seen more from you. I mean, what
was wrong with the offense? Why wasn't Demon Williams more consistent?
Jonah Coleman? What was that whole thing? You know, it
does feel like you get to the end of the
year and you kind of got what you thought you

(09:36):
should have got, and yet you can't help but think, well,
it could have been better, right.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, Well, and I think going in you had such
high expectations of Demon Williams and what he could do,
and so then to see that some of the issues
were Demond Williams, it.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Was like, wait a minute, I didn't think. I didn't
expect this.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
And then with Jonah Coleman and his injury, I don't
really understand when that exactly happened or how severe it was.
But you have two really good backup running backs that
could have fulfilled that role a lot earlier, I think,
and I just I don't There was certain things like
after coming out of those the first three games, it was,

(10:15):
and going into Ohio State, all of a sudden, the
offense disappeared. And I know Ohio State's defense is exceptional
and that had probably quite a bit to do with it.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Well, it didn't disappear. It showed up for the average
two below average teams, right, dominated that, right, But it
never appeared against the great teams. Right. That was my issue.
So even though you did show progress, I mean, you
weren't competitive with the Oregon last year. You were this year. Yeah.
I mean again, that was another game where like, man,

(10:47):
they're playing with him, Walter's getting the job done, and
we could just stop people on third and long and
we would just give the ball to Mohammad because he's
obviously the run game is having more success than demand
throwing the ball. Right now, you know, there was you
could entertain like, hey, we can take this thing. You
could entertain that as late as the into the third

(11:09):
quarter into the fourth quarter, and that's progress, that's progress.
And yet once you get in it, you're like, well
we're not as good as organ dammit. Yeah, but that
really wasn't the expectation. I guess my point is I
have developed some fissues. There are some things about the
program thus far that have surprised me to the negative. Okay,

(11:33):
and yet when you start doing your checklist of what
were your realistic expectations for how this thing was supposed
to go six and six in the first year, considering
what you had to dig out of, Yeah, that was
that's a check Yep. Eight and four in the six
second year with time spent in the top twenty five

(11:56):
competitive games against the best teams in the country that
were on your schedule. Yeah, you kicked the game in Wisconsin.
But as I said before, that's what that's the that's
the recipe of a top thirty team in the country,
which is what Washington was. Yeah, this year, and so
that's that usually happens to top thirty teams. They lose

(12:17):
a game they shouldn't and then so all of that stuff,
it's like they did kind of achieve What if you
wrote it down on paper, this is what I want
to get out of this season, it probably did satisfy
if you were being realistic. If you're being realistic, yes,
what you were looking for. And then yesterday he comes through.

(12:37):
First of all, he's staying yeah, which was another thing
that everybody was, Oh, this guy's reputation. He just bounces
and all season long hounded by are you leaving for
this job? Are you leaving for that job? Are you leaving?
And he's staying. Yeah. I don't know what the politics
are or what the gossip is behind. I don't know why.
I don't know. I understand all of the reasons for

(12:57):
why he's staying. But he is staying. So that's another thing.
Six and six to eight and four more competitive. Now
he's staying. We know he's going to be around for
at least one more year. And obviously the recruiting is working.
So you come away yesterday with a top thirteen class
and you had a lot of people in college football

(13:20):
praising like oh Man Washington. Look out for Washington. Something
is happening there. So I guess my point because I
was planning on talking about my fishues all week long
before I would enter into discussing further any fishes that
I have. I think there has to be an acknowledgment
of he's checking the boxes. Yes for us. Now he

(13:42):
hasn't taken it. You know, he didn't take over a
rebuilding effort and go eight and four in the first year.
I mean that we would all love that. Yeah, he
didn't go in the second year and beat Oregon and
and be a part of the college football playoff ranking discussion.
I mean that would have been the high end expectation

(14:02):
for this year. But he got done what I think
realistically we expected him to get done. And the recruiting
classes keep improving every year. His willingness actually energy for
this new world of college football, which a lot of
coaches hate. He seems to be embracing it, which is

(14:23):
a wonderful feather in his cap. So it is progressing.
It is moving in the direction that realistically we should
have expected it to move the pace it should have
moved at. There have been guys that have come in
the past took over a program that seemed to be
in shambles and they did such an excellent job that
they turned it around overnight. Bob Stoops was one of

(14:45):
those guys. Nick Saban's done that before. I mean, there
are exceptional jobs that have been done in college football
where they came in, put their hands all over the
product and it turned around instantly overnight. And it Yeah,
so's there's another world that we could have been living in.

(15:06):
But in terms of just kind of keeping focus on
the task at hand. He's gotten the job done. He's
done what he's supposed to do. Taking over a program
that was left I'm not going to say and ruin
or in ashes, but certainly it was pretty low. Trying
to replace everything that got destroyed when Kaylin Debor left

(15:28):
was not going to be an easy task. And two
years into it, it's been a steady climb, but it's
a climb. We are climbing. It is elevating, and I
think that we need to spend some time giving Jetfish
credit for that.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yes, absolutely, it has been an improvement, and I think,
you know, it's just not it hasn't been exciting, you
know what I mean, It's just kind of been the steady. Yes,
you're doing what people would expect, and thank you for that.
There's nothing that's just blowing your mind, like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe we did that.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
And I think that's where my have just this tempered.
You know, it was so.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Exciting with Debor and Ryan Grubb and Michael Pennix and
Roma do you know that whole group, and to come
off of that is no fault of Jed's at all,
and he kind of got put in a really tough
situation because people one adored Kaitlin de Boor and two
we'd just come off making it to the National Championship.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
And that's another aspect of it. When he comes into town,
you know that he has this reputation of bouncing around,
so you know that the coaching rumors are going to
fly around every time that one comes up. You know
that people are going to go crazy on social media.
Are you going to overreact to it or are you
going to try to keep a levelhead about it, because
we don't What we don't know is what really is

(16:43):
going on between Jedfish's ears. We also know, I mean
Chris Peterson didn't really have much of a relationship with
the media. He had one with Softy, but Softy's an exception,
or with really the fan base. Yeah, I mean Chris P.
Pterson was a good guy. But Jetfish has had a

(17:04):
better relationship with the fan base and with the media
than what Chris Peterson did. But because we came off
of Kaylen de Boor, who was like Doris Day yeah
and then broke our hearts yeah, and came in and
won immediately and took those big jumps forward and was
kind to everyone, so exciting. Everything was so awesome. Yeah,
he's like a I know this is a Dick Fane nickname.

(17:26):
He was like a snow globe. It's like everything in
that world looks so wonderful. Well, that's hard to match
up with Jetfish doesn't have the same personality. We knew
going in that it was going to be more difficult
to get him on the airwaves with us. Yea, and
yet I've enjoyed every conversation that I've had with him,
and so he Yeah, he hasn't done the things that

(17:46):
Kaylen de Boor showed you that you can do in
a short period of time. Yeah, and or Bob Stoops
did at Oklahoma, or a Nick Saban did at LSU,
or the list. I could make a list. But he
has done what realistically we expected him to do, right,
He has checked those boxes. The programs getting stronger in

(18:09):
this new era of nil, Washington is embracing it. They
seem to be ahead of the game. And so I
think it's you know, in this week of sort of reflecting,
I was planning on doing a segment earlier this week
on what I don't like about Jetfish and what I'm surprised.
I don't like about Jetfish, but as we get now

(18:29):
that we get to Thursday, I think it was more
important to have a conversation about, Hey, there are a
lot of things to like here. Yes, there are, yeah,
a lot of positives. Yeah. And so even though it
hasn't gone from zero to sixty as fast as we've
wanted it to go, it's still we're moving towards sixty.
We're not decelerating. We are accelerating as a program under

(18:51):
his direction. We just started from a lower point than
what we are accustomed to, and.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
I think that's a that's the fair expectation to put
on Jetfish. I think putting anything else on him would
have been unfair to him. We would have been setting
him up and ourselves up for a disappointment. And so
it is important to look at that steady improvement as
as as I said, it's not overly exciting.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, we were open to being blown away, yes, and
that has not happened. And that's okay because at least
it was an improvement. Yes, Yeah, all right, let's find
out what's on tap for the rest of the show.
What's on to what's on top? All right? National Signing
Day did come to a close yesterday. We will replace

(19:36):
some of that conversation between Soft and Jetfish. That's kind
of on your way at seven five Transfer Portal, by
the way, for those wondering. That opens up January second,
and there's a two week window, and so that's basically
free agency frenzy in college football, and it's going to
become a bigger deal every year unless you know, more
rule changes are in store for us in the future.

(19:58):
But as of right now, that is a really important
two weeks in the college football calendar, and it starts
on January tewod College Football Conference Championship Week Friday and Saturday.
All the big boys you're going to play on Saturday
and including Indiana versus Ohio State one excuse me two
versus one for the Big Ten title. Oh, it's gonna

(20:20):
be great at five o'clock. Selection Sunday is this Sunday,
so we will know the NCAA Tournament field. Will spend
some time later on in the show talking about college
football playoff rankings bias, because I think it's hilarious. The
Lane Kiff and Saga took another turn. We actually found
out some information about how Old Miss isn't all that
broken up that Lane Kiffin left and more information regarding

(20:43):
just what a liar he can be to try to
make himself look better. Shocking. Yeah, we found that some
of that out yesterday as well. Thursday night football starts
week number fourteen of the NFL season. It's a good one.
Dallas at Detroit. That's a fun game. Might be a
playoff elimination game, considering the heavy competition in the NFC
this year. Also from a fantasy football perspective, it's the

(21:05):
last week of the regular season in a lot of leagues,
and I almost everybody's got either a cowboy or a
lion on their team or will be facing a cowboy
or allion this week. Mike Sander will join us at
nine thirty. Seahawks Falcons will of course be a monster
topic today from eight to nine, that's all we'll discuss
with our experts, Hugh Millen and Greg Bell. It's the
twelfth Man Roundtable, cracking finally back in action. They'll be

(21:28):
in Edmonton. They'll meet at the Tree in Edmonton. It
really does feel like they haven't played in a month.
I know. So they played tonight at six o'clock College
basketball probably should have spent some more time on this.
What a game last night you dub trailed by sixteen
with fifteen minutes to go, and the Big ten opener
against UCLA almost came back and won that sucker. They
do lose it ultimately eighty two to eighty and they

(21:50):
will next play usc Saturday at three, and Major League
Baseball's Winter Meetings will start in three days. I know
there's a lot of holiday activities, but but yes, we
have to celebrate Christmas just as hard as we do
the Winter meetings. This show don't lose steam. No, So
we're gonna yeah, we're going to talk about what the

(22:10):
winter meetings are for and what the Mariners might do
because I think, and I'm kind of changing my mind
on this, it might be the off season to make
a blockbuster trade. I'll explain it next. Sports Radio ninety
three point three kJ RFM. I know, I know, I
used to what would you like? Not this one? I'm
going to play this one today?

Speaker 6 (22:29):
Oh okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
For the record, I never said that. I just said
I like Christmas music.

Speaker 6 (22:38):
I'm calling you the expert, and I have a weird
ranking inclination. I just have to take the songs, and
you know, you know, like, oh, holy night, Greg, I
just you know, I got to listen go to Spotify
and listen to twenty versions over the holiday season, and
that's that's the best.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah, holy night, that's not what I would have picked
you twenty versions.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
I'll bring tears to your eyes. Don't underestimate that one.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
I know.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, but Dance Little Christmas. I didn't think was gonna
make the Varsity cut for Hugh Millon from Elton John
here this morning, and I was rush, that's not what.

Speaker 7 (23:16):
Elton John's bet. He's got a lot of good ones.
Swim in Madison Square Garden one time, but that's not
one of his best.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
It's not.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
But it makes me laugh every time. It's step into Christmas.
I don't know, I don't know why it makes me laugh,
but it does. And so that's why I was like,
this one makes me laugh.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
So I'm playing it now. I got Greg Bell's Christmas
tree in the background on the zoom call as well.
It looks like he's eating some Christmas porridge. I mean,
we are in the holiday spirit here, I'm eating porridge. Well,
it's our twelve man round table r QB one u
Millan is here, our Seahawks inside of Greg Bell is
here as well as we get ready for the Falcons,

(23:52):
but also certainly every single week is sort of a
you know, temperature check of just how well this season's
going for the ywks nine and three record at this point.
I think on Monday I started with all the positive
things and then we eventually got in to conversations about
some of the concerns. I think I want to start
with the concerns here today and whether there are any, Hugh,

(24:14):
I'll start with you the offense. I mean, Sam Donald
was just having an MVP like season, and I know
that these statistics don't say everything, but here in the
last three weeks two touchdowns to four interceptions. He'd only
been sacked ten times. In the first nine games. He's
been sacked six times in the last three. He was
completing seventy percent of his passes. In the last three games,

(24:35):
he's only completing sixty one percent of his passes. And
so I would just I would just like to see
if there's any concern that you have about the Seahawks
offense at this point, and if all you're worried that
maybe it's on a little bit of a downward trajectory
from that high plateau it's spent for the first half
of the season. Well, it certainly is on a downward trajectory.

Speaker 6 (24:55):
I mean, you played twelve games, the first six games,
Sam Darnald at one hundred and sixteen p gacerating and
in the last sixties out of ninety three. So I
think the numbers are undisputable, your eyes telling you certainly
last week against Minnesota was was tough in many ways,
and and and thankfully they were going against a feeble

(25:16):
offense and they were able to just kind of hang
on in the second half.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
But I think, you know, to.

Speaker 6 (25:21):
Some extent, I think, what's the safest day to fly,
you know, the day after plane crash? Right, I think
that I think that this the Seahawks are likely to
have spent a lot of time in UH in in practice,
in walkthroughs, and really.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Reviewing their blitz pick up.

Speaker 6 (25:44):
And and now I don't I don't think you know,
people say, well, Minnesota, they they showed a lot of
things that are are difficult that they were number one
in in the UH in the NFL going into the
game in terms of percent of snap with pressure. They
were dead last in Nickel number one in use of

(26:04):
the three four. There's a lot of things from a
personnel standpoint, scheme standpoint, a lot of zone pressures, you know,
a lot of different zones, and so they kind of
caught Seattle with their pants down a little bit. But
I think that Seattle have a renewed effort to address
that and.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Move forward. Greg.

Speaker 7 (26:25):
Yeah, the concern with Sam Darnold is to me, ball security.
I mean, Hugh knows the number one job of a
quarterback is to protect the ball and if he's going
to get hit, to not lose the ball. And he
loses quite a butt, more than an average quarterback. And
just this season, and I've watched him every snap he
loses the ball in traffic, whether it's his own lineman

(26:47):
getting pushed into him or him throwing a ball off
of a lineman's helmet or blindside hit and he loses
the ball. He's second in the NFL and turnovers ten
interception and five lost fumbles. And guess who're the number
one team by far as Minnesota and Blitz and guess
who number two is Atlanta. So they're gonna.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
Challenge the protection and they get the ball out quickly
and every time after a game win or lose, Sam.

Speaker 7 (27:16):
Darnold says the same thing. I got to get the
ball more quickly. I got to get the ball more quickly.
Hooper Cup after the Vikings game, said we got to
run shorter routes. If they're gonna blitz us and we
get we're still got our back to the quarterback. This
is I'm paraphrasing. We can't run twenty yard in routes
like Jackson Smith and Jiggers been feasting on teams for

(27:36):
most of the season if the teams are gonna blitz
like the Vikings did and cause fake blitzing and cause pressures.
So that's a challenge this week. Can the Seahawks adjust
on the fly to another blitz team and Jackson Smith
and jigg but perhaps running hitch routes instead of goes
and in routes. They started to do it in the
second half. Of course, they were up by three scores

(27:57):
and they just ran the ball.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
The encouraging thing for the offense is they are starting
to get traction running the football and they are starting
to treat Kenneth Walker like a lead back.

Speaker 7 (28:07):
Both in the beginning of the first quarter. In the
beginning of the third quarter against Minnesota, it looked like
ken Walker was a lead back. Finally they were giving
him steady diets of runs. They were actually throwing in
the ball and getting to the ball in the open field.
He had the preponderance of Carrie. Now once again on
third down and in the red zone, Zax Sharvion Ay
comes in. Sharona ends up getting his knife touchdown of

(28:28):
the season on a run of seventeen yards of the
ice of the game. But they are now starting to
assert Kenneth Walker as a more consistent lead back and
that's helped them. They've averaged one hundred and forty yards
rushing in the last four games. That will help them
against the Rams and forty nine ers. I would assert
that they need to have Kenneth Walker as running back
one plus against the Rams in two weeks to beat

(28:52):
them because they cannot rely on Sam Darnold to throw
it all around the yard against the Rams and the
team he just threw four interceptions.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Again.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Kenneth Walker to me, is the key to the rest
of the season, whether they win the NFC. What I
know Donald and Smith and Jigbebb and Key to the
season so far, Kenneth Walker to me will hold the
key at whether they win the.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
Division or not.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
Well, you know a couple of things on the turnovers
for Sam Darnold. Look, obviously, quarterbacks are gonna come back
and address your your ball security. There's certainly a difference
between are you are you fumbling in the process of
throwing after your hands have already separated. If your your
hands get hit there, you're you're very likely to have

(29:34):
a fumble the two on Saturday, he was still in
the pocket, not yet throwing, so he has two hands
on the ball. He's got to secure it. But I
would say that his turnover worthy plays.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (29:49):
You know, he's under Pat Mahomes. He's got the same
number as Bo Nicks. Prior to this last week he
had one under Drake May. Now he's got one more
than Drake May.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
But that's uh.

Speaker 6 (30:03):
And when you look at Pat Mahomes' entire career, Pat Mahomes.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Is at twenty nineteen point nine specifically, but at twenty
per season, And yet you live with it.

Speaker 6 (30:18):
And who is number one in all of the NFL
in the big time throw percentage, Well, it's Sam. It's
Sam Darnold, so so I think that, yeah, Greg's absolutely right,
you have to address this hopefully moving forward.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
But I don't think that you want to new to yourself.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
So much that you take away the big play making ability.
I just I think you talk about it, Hey, hey,
ball security, if you're getting tackled, try not to fumble.
But I don't think you can. You can paralyze yourself
for fear of having turnovers. It takes away you know.
I mean I just decided Pat Mahomes, you think Andy

(31:00):
is upset that he has twenty turnover worthy plays. I
mean right now, Sam Donald has fourteen, so he's on
a pace to be under that for under twenty under
Pat mahomes entire average for his entire career.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, I think Greg Alison said at the end of
the game. We talked about it on Monday. I mean, yes,
you do have to reduce your turnovers. That's just an
obvious statistic. But I don't want it to come at
risk of what that offense looked like it was capable
of in the first half. I don't want them to
stop being aggressive. I kind of feel that Mike McDonald
feels that way as well. Certainly, Greg was the game

(31:37):
in which Sam donald was the most pressured, feel like
he had the least amount of time to throw the football.
Was that gonna warrant any kind of change up front
on the offensive line for Sunday?

Speaker 7 (31:48):
Not for Sunday because Jon Sendell is not back from
indust reserve yet. The fourth consecutive game that Sundel has
to miss from IR is on Sunday in Atlanta. This
time next week, Sindell will be eligible come off injured reserve.
And when I asked McDonald on Monday if he's how
Sundell was doing on his knee, and he said pretty good,
as so far as I understand, I said, well, Sundell

(32:09):
come back as a center or a guard. The reason
I asked that is that training camp began with Jalen
Sundell as a competitor at right guard with Anthony Bradford
and Christian Haynes. Then they moved Sundell to center, and
he proved to be better than Olowa Timmy at center
in training camp and he won that job. But he
spent time last year and practiced as a guard as well.
I think that he's going to compete with Anthony Bradford

(32:31):
as the right guard and he comes back next week.
I don't know if he's going to take the job
in the Colts game next week right guard, but I
think he's going to compete and maybe get there eventually.
I think their best line right now with Ol Timmy
and showing well the last two games is to keep
Ol Timmy where it's going well right now at center,
with the option to slide Sundell there if if Ol

(32:53):
Timmy starts faltering against the Rams. But I think the
better option is an old Timmy at center and Della
right guard when he gets back next week. But that's
not going to help him against Atlanta on Sunday. I
don't think Christian Haines is the answer over Anthony Bradford.
Haynes has tried three different times, two different coaching staff
to try to win this job, and he hasn't done
it yet. He had a chance in training camp, but

(33:14):
he got beat out by Bradford, so it's gonna be
appears Anthony Bradford. On Sunday in Atlanta, a couple went
outlined a whole bunch of things they need to do
against pressure, and one of the things he said is.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Let's roll out some more let's run outside the pressure.
Not only did Donald get sacked four times in the
first half, which is season high against the Vikings, six
passes got knocked down by edge rushers.

Speaker 7 (33:37):
Six That's a lot. Some guys don't have that in
a month.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
So Donald's cups point is, let's not just stand in
the pocket as much as we did. He didn't quite
call out Kubiak, but he did just not by words
a name, Let's roll out and make those guys chase him.
Donald has shown the ability to get outside the pocket,
and they usually do it off bootlegs and play action passes.
But we may see more of that, some bootlegs, some playques,

(34:03):
or maybe some straight sprintouts so that straight line blitzers
can't have a straight line shot at a quarterback in
the pocket and you actually have to chase and run
outside of him. So, yes, I think they're going to
be changes this week from what Minnesota did. Yes, I
think Atlanta's going to look at the Minnesota game tape
and try to copy some of that, especially with the
fake blitzing that happened in the second quarter that made
Anthony Bradford and others look like guys standing around waiting

(34:25):
on a light rail train to pull up blocking nobody
and the rams are going to see all this.

Speaker 7 (34:30):
The forty nine ers, the Colts, this is a copycat league.
So the Seahawks need to have an answer both in
scheme and in personnel for pressure that they're going to get,
probably inside up the middle starting on Sunday.

Speaker 6 (34:43):
Yeah, I think when you talk about, okay, outside of
the pocket, what are we talking about? Are we talking
about naked bootlegs? Are we talking about sprint out? Or
I'm talking about are we talking about h dash protection
where you start the first three steps going straight back
and then that allows you to seal the end and

(35:04):
then it becomes a delayed sprint out like like schematically,
one of the things if if you try and sprint
out the quarterback too often, out of the pocket sounds great, right,
let's do it with let's hell, let's do it Demon Williams. Right,
he's athletic, he's short, that'll help the problem is you
you have a very limited amount of past concepts you

(35:28):
can run out of that. Everything has to be outbreaking
because the quarterback. Nobody designs any inbreaking routes on on sprintouts.
Because now the quarterback would be having to double lead
throw across his body. See defenders that are flowing to
the sprint out. You just you do not throw in
breaking routes on sprintouts. So uh uh I think if

(35:53):
you just say, well, okay, let's have a game plan
where we're out out of the pocket, I think that's
gonna uh, that's gonna fail.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
You know. Hurry.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
I think absolutely mixing it in. Uh, your naked bootlegs
on first and second down, running away from the stretch
or running away from inside zone at get the flow
going one way, right handed quarterback out the other. Actually, uh,
Sam Donald's been more bootlegs to the left and he
has from the right.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Uh this season and on certain blitz looks. Yeah you can.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
You can have a sprint out, uh and and get
a quick flat. But but the way the the Vikings
were playing what's called a two catch or palms coverage,
they they were they weren't manning behind it that those
those sprint out ideas they were they were zoning. So
if you if you sprint out and you want to
get something in the flat, those corners were reading the

(36:46):
release of of of number two the slot and they
would trigger to the flat if there was anything in
the flat. If there was nothing, they would sink and
give ground. So so I think schematically. Look, I think
Cooper Cup is thus smartest receiver in the NFL. When
Cooper Cup talks, I listen, You listen, We all should listen.

(37:07):
In my opinion, Cooper Cup is brilliant.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
But I.

Speaker 6 (37:12):
Would hesitate. I think he has some ideas. I think
if we were to have a conversation, I don't think
he would disagree with anything I'm saying. I think let's
have a little bit of that. But let's not get
the idea of Seahawk fans. Oh, let's just turn turn
this into a sprint out game plan. That's not gonna work. No,
and that's not what he's suggesting. But Donald was in

(37:33):
the pocket a lot more against the Vikings, and he
was often a sitting duck for those inside Blitz, especially
the inside linebacker.

Speaker 7 (37:39):
Blitz's was Cup's point. Look, we're good, Matt. We're going
on and on about Sam Donald. The most interesting stat
to me the old wins and losses, the old Ken
macct story. I've always told you about wins and f
and losses, Right, Chuck, Yeah, if.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
His next win he will pass Tom Brady for the
most wins in consecutives.

Speaker 7 (38:00):
Seasons with two different teams. Yeah, Brady did it with.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
The Patriots and the Buccaneers back to back. Donald has
twenty four wins. He will have and this next win
will be twenty four wins between the Vikings last year
and the Seahawks this year, which would be an NFL
record for two different teams back to back seasons.

Speaker 7 (38:16):
And that's what his bottom line is, wins and f
and losses.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
He's got a defense that now he's got the as
they we said that the team needed to be designed
to coming into the season. He's got a defense that'll
win games. Just don't turn the ball over. We're simplifying here,
but just don't turn the ball over and you're gonna
win most of the games.

Speaker 7 (38:33):
The way this defense is playing right now, including against
the Rams. That's how good Mike McDonald's defense has been.

Speaker 6 (38:39):
Greg, I'm glad you brought that up because I think
there's something really interesting. You really do a dive on
Sam Donald. He started as a twenty one year old,
twenty two year old, and twenty three year old with
the Jets. Then he goes straight to the Panthers, and
he starts as a twenty four year old. Then, for
the first time in his career in the twenty twenty
two season, he he's not the starter, but due to injuries,

(39:03):
he start, so he sits and he watches for the
first time as a twenty five year old. In the
twenty twenty two season, he gets his first start of
that year in Week twelve. So let's what we're gonna say,
Week twelve. That was on a November twenty seventh, twenty
twenty two, a little over three years ago, right age
twenty five. Prior to that time, in forty nine starts,

(39:25):
he had won thirty four point seven percent of his games.
Since then, thirty six starts, he's won exactly seventy five percent.
The number of games that he had one hundred or
more passer rating he had sixteen point three percent prior
to that that Eureka date, since then sixty six point
seven percent. What does that mean, Pat Mahomes. Since that

(39:49):
date he has thirty seven point three percent of like
like Sam Donald sixty seven percent one hundred passer ratings
Pat Mahomes thirty seven percent. Pat Mahomes in his entire
career is exactly fifty percent as far as and by
the way, the wins where Donald has seventy five percent
in the last three years, Mahomes has seventy two percent.

(40:12):
You mentioned Tom Brady. I'll close with this. Tom Brady
in his in his entire career, won seventy five point
four percent in the last three years. Sam Donalds won
seventy five point zero. And what percent did Tom Brady
have a one hundred passer rating or more forty six
point eight called forty seven percent Sam Donald's sixty seven
percent in the last thirty six game. This guy here,

(40:34):
we talked about Pete Carroll had you know, after the Jets'
failure and the Patriots failure, you know, he went to Tibet,
climbed some mountains, you know, smoked some incense, whatever the hell,
and became a new man and he tried everything, worked
at usc and what have you. I don't know what
Sam Donald did, but that one time that he had
to sit on the bench for and watch for eleven
weeks and then he got to play.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
He has been a new man.

Speaker 6 (40:57):
The numbers are staggering and this year you know, look
he's he's won seventy five percent of his games this year. Yeah,
I know, fifty of the time he's he's been over
one hundred passer rated. Now it's dipped a little bit lately,
but I think big picture, this is a pre damn
good quarterback. Uh and and uh, you know, until he fails,
I don't know. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna have

(41:18):
the big conversation on December nineteenth, on Friday after after
that game, and then then I'm gonna all shut up,
right If he fails on that one, you know, then
I'll probably have to just kind of, you know, you know,
zip my lip. But I think for now I still
have respect for what this guy has done.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah, well I know one guy that does. It. Wasn't
happy about him setting that Tom Brady record. Uh. That
was justin Jefferson. You could see it in his face
on Sunday. I didn't want you to break the Tom
Brady two year record of wins with two different teams. Please,
why wouldn't you? Why aren't you still my quarterback? That
was justin Jefferson's reaction, justin.

Speaker 7 (41:57):
Jefferson also wasn't very happy that Nicky Worry picked him
up and pile drived him into the turf. That was
a ridiculous play that Roocky would make it gainst an
All Pro.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Well, we're going to talk about Nick emn Warry. Is
there more ways? Are there more ways to use him?
We'll talk about that on the other side, Plus b
Jean Robinson, the problem of the Seahawk defense will face
this weekend. We'll talk about those things next. Sports Radio
ninety three point three kh A RFM. Of course Greg
Bell as well, normally BUCkies here, we hear him chime in.

(42:28):
I have a feeling you he was gonna say, I
don't care what happens, just don't want to watch Anthony
Bradford play this week. So that's probably was going to
be Bucky's take here to close out the hour. But
I actually heard you defending Anthony Bradford this week a
little bit.

Speaker 6 (42:42):
Yeah, let me clarify that, because you know, for years
he's been my least favorite Seahawk, not because of who
he is. I don't I've never talked to the man,
just what I see on the tape, and I would
swear Greg that he's gained some weight since training camp,
because there were some games I saw in preseason where

(43:02):
I was like Anthony Bradford's looking a little sweltered, a
little quicker, but but you know, he's struggling in and
h But I want to specifically say what I defended.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
I defended.

Speaker 6 (43:15):
Apparently I haven't seen them, but there's photos going around
of of Anthony Bradford blocking nobody in the passing game.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Yeah, I've watched the video.

Speaker 6 (43:26):
I can imagine what plays that happened, and what the
Vikings were doing. Is if they put a linebacker in
an a gap and and fifty one, remind me who
fifty one is for the via like he was lined
up over Anthony Bradford, he would engage for a couple
of steps and then fly out to go cover it,

(43:46):
you know, in a zone, kind of trying to pattern
read in his zone. And if the camera is snapped
at exactly the precise point, Bradford looks like he's blocking nobody.
But that's that could happen into any guard. Now on
the on the counterplay going down in the red zone
where he's pulling right to left, he's got the end

(44:07):
man on the lion of scrimmage. He doesn't, he doesn't.
He's not fitting up on an off ball linebacker he's
got the end man, the guy's right in his face
and him blowing by that. In the running game, that's
that's a that's a no bueno. But in the passing game,
I think he's getting a little bit of a raw deal.
But that's the narrow window that I'm defending him. Otherwise, look, Greg,

(44:28):
I see more of the same from him. And you know,
this year he is out of ninety qualifying guards. PFF
has him ranked eightieth. The year before, he was seventy
eight out of eighty three. The year before he's sixty
seven eighty eight pass blocking. This year he's eighty fifth
out of those ninety qualifiers. It's just kind of lather, rinse, repeat.

(44:50):
So I think that you know, he's just I think
is the least capable starter out of twenty two count
twenty four counting the specialist. I think he's the guy
that he be upgraded the most in the offseason. But
you're just gonna have to deal with that, and maybe
we'll see some Christen Hayes, maybe we'll see some Sundal there,
but it's it's just kind of a disappointment, you know,

(45:11):
every Sunday great.

Speaker 7 (45:14):
He has probably game weight because He told me during
the summer that he had lost a lot of weight
and that was his plan to train toward getting quicker.
So it's probably that he is. I think Sundell eventually
is going to take that job, whether it's next week
in his first week back from injured reserve, I'm not
sure that's going.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
To be that. Hi, Greg, give me your keys to
Sunday and how you think this game is going to
turn out?

Speaker 7 (45:34):
Two words for the Seahawks to win this game, Bijon Robinson.
If I'm the Falcons, I gave him the ball twenty
twenty five times running pass. He's got nine hundred and
ninety five yards. He's the fifth leading rusher in the NFL.
The Seahawks are going to get the two of the
top five rushers in the league the next two weeks.
Jonathan Taba rolls into Luminfield next week. He's number one.
So they got to stop jon Robinson. Now we've talked

(45:56):
about this. Seahawks are third in the league in rush defense.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
But teams are not running against them because they're falling
behind early in games. The Seahawks point differential in the
first half is the best in the league, which means
that foes are chasing the game and having to abandon
any plans to run. The Vikings had six runs by
each of two running backs on Sunday. That's it six
so out of fifty plays. So they're not even trying

(46:20):
to run against them, right, Well, the Falcons are going
to try to run against them, and they're going to
run early, often in all game long. With truer test
of how good this run defense is coming Sunday with
Bijon Robinson, and then the truest test yet'll be with
Jonathan Taylor and the Colts a week from now.

Speaker 7 (46:37):
As long as.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Mike McDonald is coaching this defense, and as long as
Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence and Nicky mucmorry and Devin
Witherspoon are playing in it. In Ernest Jones, the Seahawks
win this game nine nine point nine out of ten times.

Speaker 7 (46:52):
I think they win, call it twenty seven to ten.
I don't think the Falcons muster much offensively against his defense.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
I'm kind of with you on that one, all right,
you your final thoughts to close this out? Where we go?

Speaker 6 (47:04):
Yeah, Bezon Robinson. So a lot of talk this summer
about the outside zone with Clint Kubiak. You're gonna watch
a team that is the most committed to the outside
zone in the Falcons. With Bejon Robinson, he has one
hundred and fifteen outside zone runs. The next closest number
two is eighty six. Christian McCaffrey. By the way, Can

(47:25):
nine has fifty eight basically half right at half of
what Beeson Robinson.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
That's this year.

Speaker 6 (47:31):
Last year, Bezon Robinson one hundred and seventy eight was
the most outside zones in the NFL. Next closest guy
was one hundred and four. I think he's tremendous at it.
I'm a big fan of him, But I think that
Beson Robinson is going against the wrong defense for that.
You got team speed, you got Emon worry that they're
trying to get to the edge if they can get it.

(47:52):
Otherwise there's the cutbacks. I love, you know, Let's see
if there's more dime where you've got Witherspoon on one
edge and Emon worry, they've up their dime. The Seahawks
from four plays per game to nineteen plays per game
since Emon Warry has been backed because he was going
to be so yeah yeah, and also because of Wollan,

(48:14):
who I think had a really good game at least
a few good plays this past Sunday and the hustle
play on the.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Eighty five yard pick route that really grabbed my heart.

Speaker 6 (48:24):
But in any event, I think it'll be interesting for
Seahawks fans to say, Okay, this is what we talked
about in the summer. The Falcons are going to try
and do it I don't think they're going to do
it successfully, but I think Robinson's a hell of a back,
but it'll be a challenge. Yeah, and it'd be fun
to watch that outside zone.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
All right, man, awesome stuff as always, Thank you very much,
and we'll chat with you both tomorrow, Okay, timber down,
Thanks all right. Greg Bell our Seahawks insider at the
News Tribune. You can follow them at the News Tribune
dot com and at g bel Seattle there on X.
He'll also be with us tomorrow morning at seven five
for his Friday conversation. We get the latest injury reports

(49:04):
from Greg every Friday, and keys more keys than the
one he gave us here today during the roundtable, and
of course our QB one, Hugh Millen. He'll be with
us tomorrow at nine o'clock for his x'es and O segment,
the award winning exes. We need to make him an award, Ashley, OK, Yeah,
we make a a Hughe Award for his award winning
x'es and o's. I've already I can already picture what

(49:24):
it's gonna look like. I think that's a great, great
getting ahead of it kind of mode that you're in.
All right, coming up next college football playoff ranking Selection
Sunday is coming up, and one thing that I want
to discuss before we get to selection Sunday is that
we really need to keep our biases in check. We'll

(49:44):
talk about that next Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.

(50:07):
Nobody's even given me a piss test? Really, are you
supposed to get one? Well, I'm just saying, how can
you guarantee that I'm a human? Oh that's true? Yeah? Yeah,
I do think it's quite an assumption. Yeah, why don't
you swap my mouth something? It was never I never
had to prove that when I got a job here.
That's what I'm saying. Like, you haven't even done any
of your due diligence.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
No, nothing, You're just saying it to make everyone else comfortable.
Reckless you know what, Sometimes you got to live in discomfort. Yeah,
sometimes you got to keep people guessing.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
I think he does a reckless statement to make a fact. Anyway.
I think you can make a strong assumption that both
Ashley and I are a human.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
I think a strong assumption is a little you can
make an assumption.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, nine o'clock hour here on this Thursday morning, Good
morning to you know, Bucky Jacobson here today, it's Ashley,
it's Chuck with you. We got Mike Sando joining us
at nine thirty two preview Thursday Night Football. It's a
good one and also this week in the National Football
League as well. But college football playoff rankings are out
from Tuesday, and of course selection Sunday is now just

(51:11):
you know, a scant three days from now, so we'll
know the entire tournament field. And i'd like to say
so the conversation will come to an end, but obviously
it will just start ramping up. There will be fury.
As Nick Saban said on Saturday, how many teams make
the college basketball tournament like a hundred and yet they
spend two hours talking about the two teams that didn't,

(51:33):
you know, and there's a lot of truth to that.
It doesn't matter how small or large you make this
tournament field, there's going to be there are going to
be people that felt like they got screwed over in
the process, And so can we just remind ourselves, even
if you do have biases coming up, that we have

(51:53):
an actual tournament now, and it's wonderful. I mean, it's
one of the greatest things that's happened in the last
ten years in sports that college football hasn't. It's made
the regular season better, it's made the last couple of
weeks just can't miss kind of sports if you're a
sports fan, football fan at all. And here we sit
three day shy of the tournament, and we got a

(52:15):
great idea as to who's going to make the tournament,
but we have no idea what's going to happen Saturday
that can jumble things up. And certainly there are going
to be a couple of controversial decisions that are going
to be made, no question about it, There's no getting
around it. The committee's got some tough decisions to make.
It's there. It is really razor thin some of these resumes,

(52:38):
and that's what they are. They are resumes. This is
not the National Football League where we have, you know,
thirty tidy thirty two teams. We might get there eventually,
by the way, that might be what college football becomes.
Just to warn you, but we don't have a tidy
thirty two teams and schedule makers and divisional alignment for

(52:58):
teams in a division you play each other twice and
you get a better assessment of who earn who truly
mathematically deserves to be in. There is an element of
a committee, a group of people having to do their best.
I put in quotes to get the right twelve teams in,
and that's what I'm concerned about. I want the right
twelve teams, the deserving twelve teams to get into the

(53:22):
tournament field. A lot of people get angry at the
eye test, and then where's the eye test? Clearly that
team's better, you know, well, I don't really. The eye
test has to be a part of this decision making.
But I want the resumes to speak for themselves, and
that's got to be the primary weapon that has to

(53:45):
be used on Sunday to try to determine these twelve teams.
But undeniably, we're going to be dealing with people's biases. Yeah,
that are going to come into play. And let's start
with the big bias, and the bias is that people
think that the biases of the committee are going to
infect this entire.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Process, right, Yeah, absolutely, especially with the SEC and the
ESPN and the YES.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
And there's no avoiding that entirely. No matter what committee
that you put together, odds are there's going to be
somebody that's got an affiliation to one of the conferences
or maybe to one of the individual teams. So there's
probably no avoiding bias being sprinkled into this. But I

(54:33):
also would just sort of warn a little bit, a
little bit, I don't want to be naive about it.
I think that ESPN is a powerful force, and the
conferences themselves are powerful forces, and certain conferences have more
sway than others. But also those conferences are better conferences. Yeah,

(54:54):
that's just big and the SEC are just better than
the Big twelve and the and the ACC are. That's
not a bias, that's fact. At least we now have
a tournament where those ACC teams that may have been overlooked,
or even a group of five team has a chance
to prove your biases or your belief in fact is wrong.

(55:17):
We are going to come in here and beat all
of these SEC teams. At least we have a format
that can prove that on the field right now. But
there's no way to get rid of all of the biases.
And I'm not gonna be naive. I realize there are
powerful forces, powerful entities at play here that hold sway
over this process. But I would just remind you we've
had one of these We've had one of these tournaments and.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Everybody already wants to change it and there need to
be changed, and there have been, but not to twenty
four teams or anything.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
There have been changes. We've made adjustments. Moyse State's not
gonna I mean, Tulane's not gonna get a three seed. No, yeah,
they're not getting buyas right. So we are making adjustments
and changes as we go, which is what we should
do until we really do have the system down that
we want in place. But I would just say we've
had one of these things so far, and for all

(56:08):
of you that are just sure that the SEC is
going to get just way too much credit. Alabama was
the first team out last year. SMU was the last
team in now there was a two loss differential between
those two teams. But I think we can all agree,

(56:29):
based on the way s the SMU performed in the tournament,
that Alabama probably was the better team. I mean, eye test,
Alabama probably was better than SMU last year. If they
played ad to head, they probably would have beaten them.
I think so. But let's give them a little bit
of credit before we just assume that this thing's just

(56:52):
going to become another political nightmare in our lives. They
went with SMU one year of doing this and they
owes the team with the better resume over the team
they thought was better head to head had they played
head to head. So can we give them a little
bit of credit for should Yeah, before we just assume
that this year they're just gonna go with all SEC

(57:13):
and Big ten teams and screw over the little guy. Yeah,
I don't.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
I mean, so far, they haven't given us a reason
to think they're going to do that. So I don't
think we should make that assumption that it's gonna because
that's kind of how the old system was, right, Like,
you're gonna you're going to screw over the little guy
in these big Bowl games and things like that, because
nobody wants to watch that. So yes, as you said,
we've had one year of this and they did it right,
so right, Yeah, so have some faith in them.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Yeah, so we'll see. I mean, I think criticizing it,
arguing for it the following week, the following Monday, that's
part of the process. That's part of the fun.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Frankly, there's either way it works out. There's going to
be people who are mad, without question.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Yeah, And that's really what I want to emphasize in
this segment because let's take Texas fans for example. I
think you've got a tremendous argument. Boy, you really aren't
encouraging programs in the future to schedule any good teams
in the non conference. Yeah, if you're not putting us in.

(58:16):
I mean, Texas and Ohio State both had the guts
to face one another, you know, knowing what kind of
format we were heading into, and they gave us the
treat way back in week number one of being able
to see Texas and Ohio State right out of the
gates to set the tone for what has been another

(58:36):
wildly entertaining college football season. And we appreciate it. And
what Texas is saying, and it's a great argument, and
a lot of people are making the argument on behalf
of Texas is man, you're discouraging people from ever scheduling
a good non conference opponent if you don't put Texas

(58:58):
into the tournament. And I think that's a good argument.
Now I would counter with, hey, you scheduling Ohio State
had nothing to do with you losing by nine points
on the road to a four win team, and you did.
You lost to Florida, who couldn't beat anybody there. That's
what I was gonna say.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
I was like, I don't think they'd be left out
because of the loss at Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
That's not why Florida loss. But if they're sitting there
at ten and two and they didn't play Ohio State,
they're probably getting in. They probably are even with the
loss to Florida. But you also created your own resume
ding and that has to factor into the conversation. You

(59:41):
can't ignore it. Texas is not getting in again. Texas
long Orange fans, I don't know if any of them
are listening. You have a great argument here, but there's
also a great argument against. You were splitting hairs here
on Sunday, there's the hair split that's going to take
place between Notre Dame versus Miami and the conversation that

(01:00:05):
will be held there. I mean, they might end up
both being out. I'll just warn you Notre Dame dropped
in the polls for a reason. Tuesday, they're on blast.
Notre Dame is rooting for Texas Tech like nobody's business
because BYU could steal their spot in the tournament with

(01:00:27):
a win over Texas Tech. Notre Dame's on the bubble.
Being at number ten puts them officially on the bubble.
They could be bounced out of this thing entirely if
Alabama and BYU win. As a matter of fact, they
did a poll, they did an analytical data poll on
ESPN Wednesday morning and said, if Alabama and BYU win

(01:00:51):
this weekend, Notre Dame has ready for this a zero
percent chance. That makes my heart out of making the tournament.
But odds are. Odds are It's coming down to Notre
Dame or Miami, I know, for the last spot. And
I would just tell either fan base that yes, you've

(01:01:13):
got a great argument because you want to head to
head against Notre Dame and you have the exact same record.
You have a great argument, Miami, Notre Dame, you have
a great argument. You overcame an two start. The two
games you lost, you lost on the last play of
the year. You've won ten straight games, and you are
mauling people right now. You look like by the eye

(01:01:34):
test like you are absolutely one of the top ten
teams twelve teams in the country, maybe one of the
top four. That's what Notre Dame looks like right now.
So if Notre Dame gets over Miami, no, we don't
have some big controversy. They technically, in my opinion, have
the better resume because they don't have a bad loss.

(01:01:54):
Miami has a bad loss. They also playing a week conference.
But if Miami where to get in, I don't want
to hear from Notre Dame people either. Nope, should have
beat them. You should be in a conference. Well that's
the biggest issue there. You should face better competition consistently.
Good on you for scheduling Notre Dame and Texas A
and M to start the year. Bet you didn't realize

(01:02:16):
Texas A and M was that. Good. Good on you
for doing that. College football fans, thank you for that.
For giving us that early in the season. But if
you don't make it, facing your subpar schedule that you face,
and your insistence on facing Stanford, an Army and Navy
every year, that don't hold up against the competition that

(01:02:38):
exists in the SEC and these in the Big Ten.
If you want to just keep playing that game, as
Brady Quinn said earlier this week, former Notre Dame fighting Irish,
we have to go eleven in one if we're not
going to be in a conference. Otherwise we're gonna have
to face the fact we're probably going to be left out. Yeah,
and it's your own fault. You could join a conference.

(01:02:58):
You could, but you're too arrogant.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
So I don't want to hear either way. Wherever that
cookie crumbles, I want to hear it either way. There's
an argument for it, there's an argument against. And then
it isn't going to be the occasion mark to light
the world on fire because of one of the worst
hestlady of college football, right right. And then I would
also because I think this is what enters the equation.

(01:03:24):
Whenever you have such a tightly bunched thing that does
allow for a little bit of bias, what happens. What
happens always when you have these debates, your own personal
biases come in and you convince yourself. I mean, I've
been dealing with it off air with Bucky every single week.
How's Texas Tech ahead of us? Yeah, he's an Orgon fan.

(01:03:46):
How's How's Ole Miss ahead of us? They played the
Citadel this week? Well, it's not who. You just played
the entire resume of the season. And the only thing
that's driving Bucky's feeling that Oregons get screwed even though
they're clearly in right, is his own biases right toward
his favorite team. And he's not some rabid Oregon fan,

(01:04:08):
by the way he gets painted that way. We have
fun with him, right, but he's not like some. He's
not the softy of Oregon. He's not the softy of Oregon.
He likes Oregon. He prefers them to Washington. Yes, I
think he has a duck sweatshirt. But he's not some
rabid fan. And yet even he allows his biases. I mean,
I don't know how many times off the air he said,

(01:04:30):
how's Texas Tech? I had Oregon? Yeah, well, Texas Tech
has a better resume than Oregon. They have three wins
over top twenty five teams and they've won each of
them by more than twenty points. I'd say that's pretty good.
They have one loss Arizona State, and yeah, that's not
a bad loss. They were eight and four this year.

(01:04:50):
I think, yeah, eight and four, But they also at
the time had Sam Levitt, so they actually had their
NFL caliber quarterback. They didn't have him for the second
half of the season. They had them for Texas Tech
and they beat Texas Tech. And although you do, as
a committee have to say you lost to an eight
and four team, that's part of the equation. That conversation,

(01:05:13):
that eye test conversation does filter in and somebody has
to bring up the fact that they lost to that team.
But Arizona State was much better with an NFL caliber quarterback,
Heisman candidate at the beginning of the year and Sam Levitt,
so that does factor into the conversation. Texas Tech has
a better resume than Oregon. And the only reason that
a Duck fan would think that they don't is because

(01:05:35):
they're a Duck fan.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Right, just like any That's the only reason that Notre
Dame fans would be mad if they get left out, Yes, anybody,
it's because your bias is taking over.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
And I'm guilty of that too. Yeah, And I think
the more emotion that you pour into your own favorite team,
the more biased you are when it comes to these
decisions you want. There is a huge difference between making
it into the college football Playoff and being left out. Yeah,
that changes your life as a sports fan. But there

(01:06:07):
are gonna be teams left out, and whoever is left out,
there is an argument, really sound argument for them being
left out. And maybe there's a fifty point three percent
chance you're right, your team should have gotten in. There's
a forty nine point seven percent chance that now they
didn't belong. Yeah, no, so yeah, there are arguments to

(01:06:28):
be made for about five or six teams that are
probably gonna get screwed out of this thing. That's what's interesting.
Everybody keeps talking about how Alabama can't have a loss
to Georgia held against them because they earned the right
to play another game this year. There's resume should be frozen.
This is the ESPN bias. Of course, their resume should

(01:06:50):
be frozen to where it is right now. They should
not lose any ground. And yet you're gonna allow them
to game ground, aren't you If they beat Georgia, toy
George is gonna lose round, are they not? If Alabama
beats them twice, don't they flip? I would assume so,
wouldn't you assume so? Yeah? So, how can we not
use the How can we not use a loss at

(01:07:10):
this point? Even though they earned their way and by
the way, they earned their way ever so slightly, it
was just a series of tiebreakers. It's not like they
were undefeated in the SEC and ol Mis lost two games. No,
it was a series of mathematical tiebreakers is what put
Alabama in the championship game to begin with. So if
they lost a third game, when we're talking about an

(01:07:33):
eyelash difference between them and the two or three four
teams that are behind them, Yeah, I think that we
should use that third loss. Yeah, against them, I would agree,
because we're gonna You know, if that's the case, then
why isn't BYU in Well, if BYU loses, why shouldn't
they Yeah, they shouldn't be punished for losing eleven and one, right, Yeah,
because we're freezing all the resumes. Yep, I guarantee you

(01:07:56):
if they lose twice to Texas Tech by twenty points
or more. There's no chance BYU's getting in, no chance
BYU's getting in. They have to win on Saturday. So
somebody should tell their offense that. I mean, I would
love to see Vanderbilt in this thing. I would vote
Diego Pavia the Heisman Trophy winner. I think he's the
greatest story in college football right now, and I like

(01:08:18):
seeing great stories rewarded. A ten and two Vanderbilt with
the Heisman Trophy runner up favorite.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Look at what he's doing for their program too, just
in general. They just got like the best recruit to
decommit and commit to Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Any Bargatzi has a lot to do with that. Yeah,
I think so, I'll give him a lot of credit.
But but i'd like ste Vanderbilt in. They're probably not
going to get in. They're probably not going There are
going to be some teams that are worthy of being
tournament teams. But I can promise you this, just to
wrap up the conversation. If one of those four or
five teams that doesn't get in doesn't get in, it's

(01:08:54):
for a very good reason. It's not because of biases
or idiots or anything like that. It is very difficult
to try to figure out who the twelve spots belong to.
And there is eyelash difference between some of these resumes,
and the committee is going to do its best, and
if they screw up, in my opinion, I'll criticize them
for it. That's part of the fun. But I just

(01:09:17):
don't want people getting carried away with their biases, because
that's all they truly are. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Yeah, you can't put yourself in those shoes of someone
on a committee and then try to say that you
would do a better job, because your biases would sneak
in for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Mike Sando is next Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM,
Bull Hunts Now with Mike. Here's Chuck and Bud.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Are I.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Good morning, and yes it's our Thursday treat of checking
in with our NFL insider from the Athletic who you
can follow at Sando NFL. He likes football more than
you do. Mike Sando is with us right here on
Chucking Buck. Hello, Michael, good morning.

Speaker 8 (01:09:58):
How we doing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
We're doing all right? Say that, wouldn't you say that
the average person that thinks that they like football more
than you would, you like push them down and taunt them.

Speaker 8 (01:10:07):
Oh yeah, I mean just just being a professional with
that resume, you know. I mean, there's just no one
who can compare. Clearly, I don't think anymore. I honestly don't.
People are people are so crazed.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
It's great.

Speaker 8 (01:10:20):
Whenever we meet a we call them super fan. The
superfan is somebody who really is into it. It's always
so great because, I mean their interest is the key
to all of this working, you know, So that's true.
I love it when we find people that are totally
into it, passionate about it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
It's great. Well, man, I think everybody's excited for this
game tonight. And it's not like it's the two best
teams in the National Football League, but man, it's fun.
It kind of feels like maybe playoff could be on
the line, playoff spot. If you lose this game, maybe
you are on the outside looking in. And I think
points are going to be scored all over the place.

(01:10:56):
This is a Thursday night football game. You can sink
your teeth and it is.

Speaker 8 (01:11:01):
This almost feels like Thanksgiving matchup, doesn't it. These teams
are always on Thanksgiving, not playing each other, but I'm
with you. I think you know, Dallas is kind of
a fun, interesting team. They've beaten Philly in Kansas City
in their last couple of games, and now you know,
Detroit has their issues, but it's another preseason kind of,
you know, super Bowl type team. So it's I'm kind
of curious to see the Cowboys defense. It feels like

(01:11:23):
it's been better but could be really exposed again in
this game by you know, probably a pretty complete Lions offense.
So I I love this one. This week, this seems
I just feel like they've done the league has done
probably a better job or maybe gotten luckier this year
with having better matchups in primetime just overall, you know,
they've given Monday Night football better games. This is a

(01:11:45):
Thursday game that doesn't feel like one of those Houston
Jacksonville ones we've gotten over the years.

Speaker 2 (01:11:49):
Right, Well, man, it used to be so bad it
was like they purposely picked the worst game on the
schedule to put on Thursdays.

Speaker 8 (01:11:55):
Yeah, exactly, like Miami against Houston. You're like, okay, you
know whatever, they both lost too in a row. You know,
this is really really fun. So I'm with you. I
love this and I think It's been that way this
year with better games.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
All Right, Seahawks play the Falcons on Sunday. Are you,
as each week progresses here, are you getting more impressed
by the defense or more concerned about the Seahawks offense,
which has not performed as well here in the last
three weeks.

Speaker 8 (01:12:26):
A little more concerned about the offense. Okay, I think
this is a good test this week. They're playing a
team that number one Rahiem Morris interviewed for the Seahawks job.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
You know, he's probably studied them a little bit.

Speaker 8 (01:12:35):
Obviously, he's with the Rams, so he's going to know them.
Their defensive coordinators Jeff Olbrook, who was a linebacker on
the forty nine ers for years, definitely knows this. You
know this division. Their offensive coordinator is Zach Robinson, who
comes from Sean mcfash. So there's a lot of familiarity
here between these teams that you wouldn't think about necessarily
just looking at the matchup. So I think Seattle has

(01:12:56):
got solved pretty much offensively with Brian Flores. No Darnold
right made it uncomfortable. It seemed like they batted down
about every other past They just had a beat on it,
and they were the first team that really took Jack
Smith and Jigba, not that they needed him to have
a big game, but two catches, you know, twenty some
yards coming off of the Ram game.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:13:16):
Yeah, I think this is one of those where, look,
you're Seattle, You're going to finish this season with the Colts,
the Rams, Panthers, and forty nine ers. So their final
four games are all against teams that have winning records
right now, and so this is another one of those
games against Atlanta where you have a chance to put
everything together. Tennessee, they did that early, They're up thirty

(01:13:37):
to ten or something, but it ends up being thirty
twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
So yeah, I'm a little.

Speaker 8 (01:13:42):
Worried about the offense, but I just want to see
it do be a little bit more consistent and knucket solved.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
Atlanta just is in a bad place right now. I
don't I personally editorializing here. I don't think Ray Morris
is going to make it through the off season. And
I don't understand how an organization couldn't best that much
draft capital hi top ten draft pick and their offense
and their skill positions, and then hire a defensive coordinator

(01:14:09):
Why is it that the Atlanta Falcons always seem to
be a hot mess.

Speaker 8 (01:14:13):
Yeah, well, I think that they're you know, we talked
about Raheem Morris. I just think they're GM. Terry Fonteno
has been there since twenty twenty one. He came from
the Saints. I'm sure he did a good job with
whatever his job was. But as a GM, they've made
moves that just instantly, you know, win against best practices.
And what I mean by that is just continually using

(01:14:35):
top ten picks for running backs, tight ends, why even
wide receiver for where they're at in their team, needing
to get better on the lines, and so that put
them in a position this last draft where oh we
got we really need extra lignement on defense, so let's
trade a first rounder this year.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:14:49):
They just made moves like chasing bad decisions with bad decisions,
bad money with bad money. And now they've lost one, two, three, five,
six of their last seven and they're going to finish
by the way, They've got Seattle, Tampa and the Rams
among their remaining games. So I'm with you. I think
it looks looks bleak for them. I don't know. I
think Raheem Morris was a good coaching candidate. I was

(01:15:10):
very supportive of him getting a job, But I've been
a little bit, you know. I was more impressed with
him the candidate than I have been as him in
this job. I thought he was a great candidate as
a second chance guy. Seems like he's got good leadership,
you know, and it's just not working for whatever reason.
You know, some of the reasons. He got to have
a good quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
But still, yeah, Mike Sander was with us. Our NFL
insider joins us every Thursday thanks to Hunts Services. Does
Joe Burrow and Cincinnati have enough time to get back
in this thing? I got a big game against Buffalo.
It's going to be a fun quarterback matchup, but I'm
wondering if there's more to it than just a quarterback matchup.

Speaker 8 (01:15:49):
I don't think they can do it from four and eight.
I think the margin of air is too small for
a team that really still does have defensive issues. Now,
their defense played better this last week. They did beat Baltimore,
so but they got Baltimore again. Do you think they're
going to sweep Baltimore?

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
Probably not.

Speaker 8 (01:16:06):
They've got Buffalo. You know, Miami's been playing better. Even
Cleveland has a good defense, so I think they're gonna lose,
you know, at least one more game, even with Joe
Burrow coming back. That puts you at eight to nine.
I just don't see that doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
How do you handicap the AFC South right now? Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Houston.
Who's your favorite to come out of there? Now? They're
only a game apart.

Speaker 8 (01:16:27):
Yeah, I think Houston's the best team, but they're they're
one game behind the Edits so to me, I still
think it's Houston and Indy all. I may lean towards Houston.
I just think they're so good on defense. We'll see
this week they play Kansas City, will definitely have a
better feel. I think they're in good position with the
Chiefs offensive line hurting to maybe get that, and if
they do, then I really like them. I think it's pivotal.

(01:16:49):
If they don't beat Kan's City this week, you know,
I may lean towards one of the other teams.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
Same question, but the same question about the NFC North.
I mean, are the Bears really this good? I'm not
buying it yet.

Speaker 8 (01:16:59):
No, they're definitely not. But I think I wrote this
in my pic six column on Monday. I wouldn't measure
them that way. I think there are they making progress.
Do you like what's going on with this coach? Yes,
but but I'm with you, you know, of I think
I looked at this this last week. You know, their
record is way better than like what their point differential is.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
You know, so sometimes you.

Speaker 8 (01:17:20):
Guard, you measure your record and you look for a
couple of other things like point differential. Does it all
line up? And it really doesn't for them. I think
of all the teams that are nine and three, they're
like plus six in point differential, and it's like the
third worst you know, either on record or for decades
or something. So that tells you that they're a little
bit of a mirage. But I still think it's a

(01:17:41):
good mirage for them.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
You know, six teams with nine wins or more than
three of them and are in our division. So what
do you how do you what do you make of
Ram Seahawks forty nine ers? Obviously if I'm going to
ask you about the NFC North, I got to ask
you about the NFC West.

Speaker 8 (01:17:55):
Well, I think the Rams open the door for Seattle
now to win the rematch. On a short week when
they play on that Thursday night, and maybe Seattle can
win the division. Now, I think it was going to
be the Rams until they lost to Carolina. It's still
you know, it's still maybe fifty to fifty. I don't
think that the Ford Niners will do it, but they've
already beat Seattle on the Rams, so you know, I
think they're an interesting team. Eight and two in the conference,

(01:18:19):
pretty good. But I do think it's going to come
down to sealing the Rams. It's probably fifty to fifty.
I probably go fifty one to forty nine Rams because
they got the win already against Seattle, but I think
sales trending in the right direction to maybe get it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
All right, Well, another great week on TAP and the
National Football League. Never a dull moment, is there, Mike,
there's not.

Speaker 8 (01:18:38):
And I just want to say, hey, happy holidays to everybody.
I love coming on and doing this every week, and oh,
I hope you guys have a great week, great weekend,
and some good Seahawk ball this weekend, and let's enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
It, all right. I love it. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate that.
Thank you. Mike Sando, our NFL insider joins us every
Thursday throughout the football season. Uh uh and we we
we appreciate, we want him to have assage. Oh that
Mike Sando, He's just a doll. He really is just
a doorm His segments, of course, brought to you by

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