December 19, 2025 • 35 mins
MMQB on a Friday with HUGH MILLEN Where to even begin? How does Hugh feel about that game and the comeback win? From the defensive struggles to Sam Darnold’s performance in another big game, Hugh breaks it all down! :30- We continue with MMQB and get Hugh’s break down on the success of the 2 point conversions last night. :45- How was Puka Nacua so wide open all night long? We wouldn’t expect that from Mike MacDonald’s defense.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Monday Morning Quarterback on your Home for
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Remember Core Core Contractors LLC dot com. Now the Monday
(00:46):
Morning Quarterback with Mike hom Grin and Hugh Millin.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Here's Chuck and Buck.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, Monday Morning Quarterback can happen on a Friday. It
happens a couple of times a year in which we
roll out Hugh Mellon Mike Homrian to break down the
latest Seahawks game the morning after the Seahawks game, and
it just so happens to coincide today with Football Friday
sponsored by Tito's handmade Vodka. So yeah, that happens a
(01:14):
couple of times per year. But what never has happened
in the history of Seahawks football is coming back from
a sixteen point fourth quarter deficit to win a game.
It happened last night, and it just so happened to
be the biggest game of the year. Seahawks thirty eight,
Rams thirty seven. Hugh Mellon joins us our QB one
here to break this thing down for the next couple
(01:36):
of hours. Have you ever seen anything like that?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Melon? It's one of the best games I've ever seen
in my life. It was one of the most improbable
wins I've seen for any team, let alone the Seahawks.
Would they say, I heard this morning one point three percent.
Somebody was saying three percent, but then now they've shaved
it down to one point three I don't know whatever
the metrics are. We know is very improbable. It was
(01:59):
just m It was, in my opinion, such a great win.
Because mcmike McDonald is in year two, he's trying to build.
You know, you can say you're bought in, and John
Schneider can target guys that are that have been predisposed
in their past to be buying guys and all of
that works, but you still have to put it out
(02:21):
there and for the team to you know, you're you're
constantly preaching the leadership of the team headed by Mike McDonald.
You're preaching like, hey, stay together, you know, they gotta
you know, wait till the you know, play till it's
the clock is double zero. You don't believe in each other,
and all of those those messages, they can now say,
(02:43):
look at this, you you just had one of the
most incredible wins, uh that anybody can remember in the NFL,
because you bleeked in that that that would happen, and
and you know, and most especially obviously the battered quarterback
that that he could come back. And so I think
it's just it speaks such volumes moving forward and so
(03:08):
good on them. It was just spectacular entertainment. Yeah, you
know what I love about it. What I love about
it is that it was not like you backed into it.
You took it in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And sometimes these games usually it's a team that coughs
it up. But even though Sam Donald didn't play his
best game, he played, He played well when he had to.
Kenneth Walker did play his best game of the year.
Your receivers, your playmakers made huge plays down the stretch.
Your defense overcame its secondary getting injured and ravaged, and
(03:40):
stepped up and certainly flipped the switch. At one point
he had three State three and outs against the team
that had over five hundred yards of offense against you.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You really did.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I mean, he didn't have much time to do it,
but you ended up taking that game in the fourth
quarter from the Los Angeles Rams and then winning it
in overtime. So where does the analysis begin for you?
When there are eighty eight pages worth of things that
we could discuss here this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, I'm just so shocked at how the defense the
yards that they gave up, and there was I believe
fifty eight plays out of thirteen personnel with the three
tight ends, and Seattle handled that really well down at SOFI,
averaging two point seven yards per play. But they just
got carved up pretty bad last night. And so I
(04:25):
think it was so improbable to me, the over under
was that it was a forty two and a half,
you know, and so they would be that high scoring
a game, and you know, if you don't have the
punt return, it's unlikely you're going to win that game.
But you know, I think for Sam Darnold, I can't
stress how much courage he had to have, how much
(04:49):
metal because when he threw that second interception down by
the goal line, And if you can just try and
imagine for a second, I want you to really just
like almost close your eyes the back of your eye lids,
try and be Sam Darnold all the crap that you've
been getting. The Seattle Times writs to call him on
game day, you know, hey, can you come up and clutch?
(05:10):
And how many of his teammates are reading that? And
the networks are asking the question? And then you know,
and he's being keep being reminded of the four the
four interceptions, and you know he can't can't win a
big one. Well, you know what's crazy. A year ago,
the the min not Soda Vikings put him on their
shoulders in the locker, on their shoulders in the locker.
(05:33):
It's on YouTube, look it up. Because he had throw
them for like three hundred and seventy yards on a
game that was December twenty ninth to beat the Packers
at a very pivotal game. That was a week after
or a week or two after he beat the Seahawks. Well,
that was a pivotal game, and yet people want Nobody
wants to say you can win a pivotal game. The
Vikings put him on their shoulders in the It was
(05:54):
December twenty ninth, it was this September twenty ninth, It
was December twenty ninth, and so so now at this
point he throws two interceptions and everybody's looking at everybody's
booing him. His passer rating was a fifty one and
his expected point to average for the game was a
(06:14):
negative point four to nine. And to give that context,
the NFL starting quarterbacks, if you look it up, they
live in a world the best is point two four
per play. The worst is negative point two four. Got me,
that's the range that all thirty two quarterbacks. Darnold up
to that point was negative point four to nine, double
the worst. And somehow he has the guts to come
(06:38):
from that point on. He has one hundred and thirty
seven passer rating and a point ninety eight EPA. He
quadruples the highest. That's what he did. And to have
the guts and the courage to you know, just still
throwing the ball in the middle field throw. You know,
(07:01):
Jsn's just got this a little tiny window between the
hook two hook defenders. Well, I'm gonna still rip it
in there, the corner ut that he threw to uh
to uh Cooper Cup. Yeah. Right. In overtime, they started
with Jackson Smith and Jigba on the right side, and
he was in the backfield and they're running a little
(07:22):
choice and the Rams played a two deep, five under
zone defense. It would have been so easy for him,
Jackson Smith and jig but he read the coverage. Well,
I want you to take your left hand and spread
it out as as wide as he can. Spread your
left hand and look at the back of your hand.
Got me, yep, the hole between your thumb and your finger.
(07:45):
Can you put your that You see that space between
your your thumb and your index finger. Yes, that's where
Cooper or excuse me, that's where Jackson Smith and Jigba
just hold up right in there, nice tasty little hole
the corner. And you know what he did. He said,
I'm gonna go hunting. I got a chance to get
Cooper Cup over the top of the corner who, by
(08:06):
the way, had intercepted him back down fourteen Durrant Durant.
He but he said, I'm gonna throw it over Durant's
head into this little pocket over by the sideline, given
that he the interceptions he had had. What that that
statement about that play, Like, hey, he's telling his teammates
(08:26):
and by the way he throws that and and Jared
Verse had had come around on a on a stunt
that Anthony Bradford hadn't picked up, which didn't eminently shock me.
But but he's putting his helmet right in his collarbone
as he's throwing this thing. And I just I don't know.
(08:48):
I think if you, if you you, you don't have
to be a guy that you know, a quarterback nerd
who just studies this stuff for fifty years. Just like,
think about what I'm describing to you. He is earning
the trust of his teammates by like, look, this dude
is going to battle for sixty minutes. He's not going
to go into a freaking hole. Man. That is hard
(09:10):
what he had to deal with after the hole he
dug himself in and everything that has been heaped on him.
I don't know. I thought I was gutty as hell.
I was disappointed as a seattleite, you know, grew up,
you know, graduated from you know what, Seattle public schools
to hear him getting booed when the Seattle Seahawks are
(09:32):
the number two team in the Super Bowl odds in
year one for your quarterback, ye're young one in your
offensive coordinator. We think we're great fans, Husky fans through
the years, Seahawk fans going back to the Kingdome. I
was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that the way the offense
was getting booed in the first half. Now at some
point after he threw his second interception. It's pro football.
(09:55):
You're making fifty something million, You're gonna get your ass booed.
I get that, but I thought I thought it was
way like like, seriously, yeah, we're not happy with where
the Seahawks aren't. We got a pretty damn good quarterback
and he sewed a lot of guts last night. That's
my take, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I mean I heard that there was people that actually
left at that moment when they're that second interception, and yeah,
and that happened. Yeah you're lucky, you're not on Twitter
because there was a whole bunch of people burying him
and saying they wanted Tua to come in next year
to a time.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's the minority. I'm sure it is. What what do
I wish Pat Mahomes was the quarterbacks? Sure? Well, depending
on how you want me an answer, of course, yeah,
But he's the dude here the rams let's say things, uh,
you know, kind of wobble and its ends up being
a disappointment disappointing finish you're still going to have on
(10:50):
Super Bowl Sunday. Matthew Stafford's going to be thirty eight
years old and Sam Darn's going to be twenty eight
years old. The Seahawks are the second youngest team. They've
gotten a new like, like, do we not know that
offense takes more cohesion than defense? Have we not learned that? Like,
you're in year one with your quarterback and and this
offensive coordinator the idea, I mean, you're ahead of the curve.
(11:15):
You're ahead of the curve. Why the hell are you booing?
I mean, do you want the sea Us to win?
Or do you think it doesn't matter that that to
create that kind of energy? I don't know. I didn't.
I had no plan to go off on the booing
because it was such a wonderful, spectacular game, and I
think by and large, you know, the crowd was there,
so I'll veer off of that lane. But I think
(11:37):
I found myself just defending Darnold, and I hope we
can appreciate it took a lot of guts. I've always
said the greatest game a quarterback has ever played is
Tom Brady in the Super Bowl against the Falcons. Not
because he was great for four quarters and into the overtime.
He wasn't. He wasn't good in the first half. He
had an eighty six yard pick six right, and and
(12:00):
there's a lot of things that weren't going well. That's
why they got down twenty five points. What made it
the greatest game is that he battled back from that
hole to do everything that he did. And by the way,
you know, so he had two two interceptions yesterday. Pat
Mahomes has has a Super Bowl where he had two
(12:24):
touchdowns and two interceptions, and he won that Super Bowl
and scored thirty like the same number of points as
as Darnold did. Matthew Stafford in his Super Bowl he
had two interceptions one of the most pivotal plays in
the history of the NFL. Anybody heard of the Dwight
Clark and the catch Joe Montana when he put his
hands under center before that play. He had two touchdowns
(12:47):
and three interceptions in that game. Like it, like, it
doesn't matter when you play, when you make the plays
at the end, that that's what matters. And Sam Donald
made the plays to win the game. And he is
for the last thirty nine starts, he has won seventy
eight percent of his games. Like, how many starts do
(13:10):
we need to say? Where you say this guy's pretty good?
Pretty good? Yeah, oh, I'm with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I Mean, the true measure of a great athlete, in
my opinion, is how they rebound from failure. Way more
than just oh wow, remember that awesome five touchdown game
he had.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Okay, great, Yeah, you know that's great.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
It's what do you do when when it looks like
things aren't going your way to you cower and wither
and wilt or do you rise to the occasion?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
He did for sure.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Now, I mean the flip side of this, not the
flip side, but just kind of quick kind of touching
on the other side of the ball essentially, I mean
the Rams were moving the ball, I mean scored on
six straight possessions after they turned over on downs their
first possession, and yet that punt return and then the
defense turning up the intensity a little bit, I mean
turned into basically four punts out of the next five
(13:56):
possessions and a missfield goal in there. How big of
a deal is that to then kind of maybe give
a little boost to Sam Darnell on the offense that hey,
we're gonna do our part and hold these guys to nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You guys come back and do your part. Uh. It's
huge and that and that's I think where Mike McDonald
is is is just preaching, Hey, you know, you just
got to keep playing complimentary football. Believe in the other
side of the ball. That's what's unique about football. You know,
Baseball the offensive guys are the defensive guys. Basketball, the
offensive guys are the defensive guys. Football is you know, soccer.
(14:30):
I guess I've never watched soccer, but I you know,
I common sense would tell me the offensive guys are
the defensive guys. But in football, you have to you
have to preach, you know, the buy and hey have
faith in in this and and and you know the
special teams. It wasn't just the punt return. You had
(14:50):
uh and and by the way, a great scheming you
had Cody White and and uh twenty eight I know
he's a backup corner. Helped me. Uh chuck. They played
like two safeties back Britchett, yeah, Pritchett yeah, And so
they if you just look at the the tape, it
(15:12):
looks like a cover two defense in normal football. But
those two safeties were back to help the gunners. And
and so you got a great block by Pritchett out
on the edge along with I think it was Okada
and fifty two at the best block O'Connell. And uh
but anyway, and just an electric, electrifying return right like
(15:35):
he sprinted out to the left and then he saw
it like the BMW commercially saw this hole, and he
just had this heat to just like boom, hit that
and and break down everybody's angles in pursuit. So uh
rashid sha heat. I mean, I mean at this juncture,
I had been worried that in April we'd say, oh man,
I wish we had that fourth and fifth round pick. Well,
(15:56):
you know, he's really been contributed, and you know, maybe
that acquisition winsy of the NFC West because of that return.
But also we were talking about a week ago the
field position coming off of kickoffs the Seahawks the Rams,
based on presumably Shaheed and his juice. Do you notice
(16:20):
the Rams kickers on the kickoff kicked it into the
end zone every single time? Yes, and for a touchback,
like they didn't even try. It wasn't like, oh I mishit,
you know, like I grabbed one to along of a
club and I barely know. They were trying to hammer
that thing through the end zone on every single kickoff,
(16:42):
giving Seattle the ball off the thirty five. So the
average start for Seattle was thirty the thirty four, you know,
and the average start for the Rams was the twenty
seven on all their drive starts. You know, so that's
seven yards, but multiply that by four team drives and
(17:03):
you know you're you're talking nearly one hundred yards of difference.
And you know, in field position, so so receives heeds
element there showed up and and in the prior game,
I'd made a bigger deal because I was like whoa,
Seattle's number one in E p A and special teams
and the Rams are dead last thirty two. This is
(17:25):
the game going down and so far I said, that's
got to play out for the game. Well, guess what
their Their punter drops it into the six inch line
in the most pivotal punt of the of the season. Right,
So it did not manifest in that game, but it
did last night. The Special team's advantage was was you know,
(17:47):
for the reasons I'm citing and in that punp return,
you know, huge part of it. That's again the buying
for a young team.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Totally changed the game, totally changed the momentum. And then
the thirty one yard run by Shaheed as well, it's
like he was solely responsible for, like, let's change the
momentum of this thing. And then everybody seemed to buy
in after that. Donald got hot, defense got hot. Everything
clicked after that and you end up winning the game.
It's Monday Morning, Quarterback. It is brought to you by
Muckleshoot being go North Creek Roofing Core Construction in the
(18:18):
Washington Center for Sleep. Hugh Millan is with us. I'm
sure we're going to get into the two point tries
coming up before the end of the hour. Also, I'm
sure there's a lot more about Sam Darnold and some
of the throws that he made that he wants to
dive into. So we'll we'll gab about that next on
Chucking Box Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. But
(18:38):
it is also a Monday morning quarterback Friday. Hugh Millan
is with us talking about that incredible thirty eight thirty
seven went over the Rams in overtime last night to
seize control of the NFC West and the number one
seed throughout the NFC playoffs, And so, Hugh, I mean,
we don't have enough time to discuss everything that went on,
but I certainly want to talk about these two point
(19:00):
conversions that played a huge role in the victory last night.
Let's start at the end of the game. Start at
the very end of the game. Here you are, you're
going on the line of scrimmage, You've decided to.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Go for two.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You've got to call up the best play that you
have in your playbook. If you're Clint Kubiak in this situation,
what did you think of the play call? And who
is responsible? Who was most responsible for the successful execution.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Well, the Rams zoned it up and they're trying to
get Jackson Smith and Jigba on the right that you
had a trip's formation. They're trying to get Jackson Smith
and jig but deep in the back of the end
zone going right to left, but it's covered by the
safety Cooper Cup is in the flat at the front
of the end zone to the right. He's covered barner
(19:47):
over the middle right kind of an OTB right over
the ball is double covers. There's no chance for him.
I would just say, if there was a play that
you obviously needed great protection, the Rams rush just for
and you know Josh Jones is out there one on
(20:08):
one in there's there's a photo or a freeze frame
that I have. I'm actually staring at it right now
where Josh Jones you could draw a line between verse
and Donald and Josh Jones is right center cut right
in the middle. Beautiful protection. So Donald had a chance
(20:31):
to scan. Now here's the thing. He had Sharbonne on
the swing. Okay, so he had a trips combination from
his right. That bunch, as I've already described, his outlets
are twofold. You had Scharbonne who had a check swing.
He checks to see if there's a blitzer. If it
doesn't come, he swings to the left. And then you
had sar uh uh sarber uh. He he was a
(20:56):
tight end, a line on the left, block, block block,
then check over the middle of the ball. There are
some quarterbacks who would have gone through and thrown the
swing pass and it would have been caught about the
five or six, and Charbonnet would have had to make
probably two guys miss. I think there are chance of
(21:18):
that happening. Would have been one in twenty and so,
and you'd look and you say, that's all there was.
But it was Darnold who said, nope, that outlet. The
better outlet is to wait for my tight end over
the middle. So I don't know if i've described it.
The components. The components are this great protection and then
(21:41):
your trips concept are all gloved to your right. Now
what do you do with the outlets? You got two outlets.
You got to make the right decision. He made the
right decision. Yeah, that then that's real quick. Go over
into the controversial one.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I suppose I don't know what they're going to call it,
and I think they called it the Zachward pass last
night on the broadcast. I did see somebody on Twitter
called it the hot to. Uh possibly that could be
a good one, but that one, did you know that
was going to be a fumble? The backward pass turned
into a fumble? And was it the right call in
your opinion?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Well, I didn't know at the time. I would have
been kind of like Charbonna, Well, let's you know, ball's
only three ft away from me, I might as well
go pick it up. You know, there was no like
hustle or urgency here or awareness that he exhibited, not
that I could see. I think it was just, you know,
I could use several adjectives to describe that play improbable, very,
(22:41):
you know, rare, but one I would not use as controversial.
I don't understand where the controversy is. Yeah, it's it's
unquestionably a lateral right, there's no there's no doubt that.
And and you know, every football player knows that incomplete
passes are dead and laterals are live. And if you
(23:02):
if you don't know that, and then then you should have.
And and there's a lot of guys, including saying Sarbonne,
you know, It's like it's like the Patriot knew Tom
Brady was gonna be great. The hell they did. They
wouldn't have waited for the sixth round. Don't tell me
Sarbonne knew what he was doing, because he would have
exhibited a different urgency. That was just lucky. So that'll
(23:23):
be another adjective I'd be willing to used. But I
somebody please tell me where there's a controversy.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Some are saying because of the whistle being blown, but
they said that it didn't blow it. Did you could there? Well,
I mean you can see clips online. I don't know
if somebody's doctoring it to put it in there. But
then Terry McCauley comes out and says, it doesn't matter.
The whistle doesn't actually in the play, although I thought
it did. I thought that you see most people stop
playing once they I stand corrected. Well, if a whistle
(23:50):
would would definitely introduce controversy. Okay, yeah, I didn't know.
I thought that I had heard that they said on
the broadcast that there wasn't a whistle. But and you
if you just see online, people are like, well, no,
you listen. You can hear this four second mark of
this clip that there was a whistle in who.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Knows mcveig contending there was a whistle.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Not yet today he was just acting confused about it
yesterday in the press conference.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Didn't under there's a whistle, then there's a controversy If
there's not a whistle, I don't think. So that's just
you know, like, hey, play it, you got you gotta
assume you know there's there's no there's not one player
out there that is confused about the lead. The rule
that a that a lateral is live.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So yeah, well, and also Terry McAuley said, the whistle
doesn't matter. The rule is that you still play out
the play. I can get why somebody would be confused
because they don't understand the rule, but from a rule standpoint,
they got the call right.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
And I'm you know, I.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Thought Ernest Jones intercepted a pass, but we would not
have to watch Pooka Nakua score another touchdown. But Terry
McCauley was all over that as well, even though it
looked like an interception to me by today's modern standards.
I want to ask you this in our last couple
of minutes of this segment, since we're talking about quarterbacks
I gotta. I mean, I've seen Magic Johnson make no
(25:11):
look passes. I could make those myself when I played basketball.
It's pretty tricky that way. I also have watched Fernando
of Alanzuela's stare at the sky before he threw toward
the catcher throughout his entire career. So I've seen baseball
pitchers throw no look throws to home plate for perfect strikes.
I don't think I've ever seen a football quarterback throw
(25:33):
no look passes until Matt Stafford's done it, and now
he does.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It all the time. How incredible is it to see
him do that to you? I think Mahomes, you know,
has been given. Yeah, there's a famous one that he
had on an over route. True, I would just say this,
of all the I got three plays. If you said,
what's the most impressive pass I've ever seen in the
(25:56):
in all the Super Bowls, three come to mind. Matt
Mario Eli Manning to Manningham up the left sideline late
in the game and a whole shot, unbelievable throw. You know,
It's like you give me a box of titleists, I
can splash out of a of a bunker. Eventually, I
think I could make that throw even enough shot times. Okay,
there was the you'll have to help me out, guys,
(26:20):
chuck when Roethlisberger hit the Antonio Holmes on the back.
You know that like like stretched arms that you know
you you give me enough shots, I can I can
make that completion. The one that that that Matthew Stafford
had in the Super Bowl, the in route with the
(26:42):
game on the line, a deep dagger route in zone
coverage where he no looks and and he and the
defender only misses it by like six inches. If he
had a ping pong paddle league, well, he could have
knocked it down and or knocked it up in the
aaron have been an interception. It was you. You couldn't
(27:03):
get me to try that in a in a practice,
let alone a preseason game, let alone in a in
the fourth quarter of a super Bowl. And and so
my answer that I would submit is the most impressive
pass I've ever seen in my life in a Super
Bowl that you know for you know you value what
you want to value. I'm fanning how I want a
fan For me as a fan, that's the most incredible
(27:26):
pass I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. And you're right,
he does it. That the I I inadvertently started swearing
this morning when I saw that RPO that he hit
on the slant, you know, on the little uh uh
was that that little touchdown pass that he had to Puka?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm looking at right now.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I when I froze that, I'm like, how in the
hell do you get that? How does any quarterback get
the ball into that window? And when you look when
he threw it, how anticipatory he was and he's not
looking And I started just all of a sudden after
six seconds. I've been swearing for the last six seconds. Yeah,
like in subconts in I don't know that guy's something
(28:08):
and that's one of the reasons he's ripping their ass
down the middle of the field.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah, uh yeah. That was complete turnaround for him. All right,
So more with you on the other side. Monday morning,
quarterback rolls on. Coach ol'm ren will join us at
nine o'clock. So many topics to discuss, so we'll continue
with you next. Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Formation takes a hand off to him design boot to
his left, Donald flinging back across his body into the unzone,
gonna touchdown.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Donald the funny in his time in a J corner.
Let a play on the twenty six yard touchdown pass
from Sammy d.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
To AJ Great Scot.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
It's Chuck Powell, Bucky Jacobson, Ashley Ryan, Monday Morning Quarterback.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
That sound from west Wood one last night.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
The call the AJ Barner touchdown pass part of the
comeback effort by the Seahawks to win in overtime thirty
eight thirty seven over the Rams. Mike Holmern will join
us here in a matter of moments, but more with
Hugh mellon ur QB one. And there's a lot still
to get to from this game that we haven't even
touched upon.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Chuck, Yeah, on that one, that Barner touchdown that was
after that, That was the play right after the reverse,
really really well designed by Clint Kobiak. And then that
play aggressive obviously, but boot left the quarterback action going
to the left, that really influences the secondary. And so
(29:37):
when Barner starts to break out to the corner because
the quarterback is on the move to the left, that's
it's just naturally you say, well, he must be doing
an outbreaking route because the quarterback's on the move out
to the left, then he breaks it back across the face.
He's set up and throw really well designed and back
to back, great, great place in the fourth quarter to
get him back in.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
It a better catch than what you might realize because
he had a kind of go extended with that as well.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
It slowed down though he created the probka. That was
a Lenny Dykster in the gap, you know, leap for
Mikes Sports Center, you know, top of dude. Yeah, Mike
Cameron would have just like gracefully galloped over and made
it look routine. Yeah. The J and AJ.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Stands for Jim Edmonds, all right, Well, yeah, I mean
that was a terrific play. And like I said, like
I said before, I mean, this wasn't just the Rams
falling apart plays like that. You know, the Seahawks took
from them those big chunks of lead that they had
built there.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
In the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
But I do want to discuss I mean, I just
didn't think that Mike McDonald's defense at this stage in
the season was going to be prone to one of
the best wide receivers in the National Football League. Spending
an entire evening wide open last night, and I don't
know who to credit, so I ask you, I mean,
is that a Stafford thing? Is that Nikua being just
(30:57):
that good? Is that mcvay's play design. How was Pooka
Nikula just running wide open all night long last night?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Well, I don't think that a good coach should ever
allow a guy two hundred twenty five yards, particularly when
you consider DeVante Adams. You know, he came in with
sixty catches nicoua one hundred and two. The next closest
guy was seventeen for wide receivers, and I think thirty
eight for a tight end. So the idea that you
can't deny free access, you know, I mean if you
(31:28):
take the five regions of the field that has broken
down sidelines to numbers, numbers to hash in between the numbers,
so one, two, three, four or five that he caught
at least two and no more than three, and all
of them he spaced it out from the slot from
the outside. And you know, the play that bothered me.
I know we're up against it, but the play that
(31:48):
bothered me the most out of it was they have
a blitz of Nicula was lined up on the slot
on the right and they blitz off the right side.
They allow free acts, says to Nicoua, meaning nobody's jamming
him and he's working only on a safety on the
other side, on a mirrored formation on the other side,
(32:09):
the tight end in that slot. You had Emon Worry
jamming him at the line and a safety behind it
and Ernest Jones shading to that side. It's like they
forgot the numbers. No jam Nicoua, Emon war you know,
get in an alignment where Emon Warre's you know, redirecting Pooka,
let Ernest Jones, you know, slide to that side and
(32:32):
and kind of in essence almost triple team that guy,
not the tight end in the slot. So there's other breakdowns,
but he's spectacular. They have a great chemistry. I just
think that there's a lot of schematic pro things that
that Mike McDonald could have been should have done.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Yeah, well he was open on something, there was others
where he was covered, and he just is somehow just
snipers and he's pretty good at point of contention. Yeah,
I mean on the flip side of a Jackson Smith
held catch lists the first half and yet it finishes
with eight and ninety six. Did they do something schematically
different or did they just have the ball more.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
They didn't have the ballhole heck of a lot in
the first half. Yeah, they didn't have it a lot.
I think they loosened up once the Rams got the lead,
they kind of loosened up. And then sometimes it's hard
to get back into motion or into it in that regard.
But I think Darnold got more aggressive. I mean the
last the touchdown pass in overtime, that was a great
(33:33):
piece of quarterbacking because he had a cup as an
outbreaking route to his right and there's nothing there. And
when he comes back the Seahawks, you had had Rashichi
heat motion and he was running a shallow kind of
a shallow crossing route, and you had in Jigba on
(33:54):
the back line, but they were stacked on top of
one another. The spacing was not ideal. You'd want, you could,
you don't want. You don't want the underneath guy directly underneath.
You want to be a little bit of a diagonal relationship.
And so for Darnold, if you notice how quickly he
ripped that, that's again a testament to even though he's
(34:14):
thrown two incompletions, he's not he's not going to puck
her up. Actually, two interceptions in the game brutal and
we haven't got to that. I know we will before
the ten o'clock. But he didn't puck her up. He
was still willing to, you know, you know, try and
put a sword through the neck of the Rams defense.
And so at any event, and of course in Jigba
(34:37):
beautiful job of working the back of the end zone,
getting his feet down, by the way. Scary thing to consider.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I've heard, and I don't know, I can't make I
don't know if this is fact, but I've heard it
said that on draft Day twenty twenty three, fifth round,
there was a big heated argument between John Schneider and
Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll wanted to get a center and
John Schneider wanted somebody named Puka Nakua Uh and the
Seahawks ended up drafting ol Timmy Uh instead. And apparently
(35:07):
it's still chaps John's ass to this day.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So I've heard that.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I don't I'm not stating in his fact, but I
have heard that that that was something that happened behind
you mat behind the.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Curt Could you imagine Naka on the same way so husky.
He could have been with Doomsay. Yeah uh so so
No I had not heard that, but yeah, that that
would shafe my ass if if that happened. He watched
this guy, particularly in the division, just unstoppable. He's so strong,
he's so you know, but quick, fast enough. Wow, he's
(35:42):
got the whole package. All right.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Uh, he will continue with us, so much more to discuss,
so Mike Holgeran joins the conversation. Next, that's Chuck and
Buck Monday Morning Quarterback Sports Radio ninety three point three
kJ R f M
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Remember Core Core Contractors LLC dot com. Now the Monday
(00:46):
Morning Quarterback with Mike hom Grin and Hugh Millin.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Here's Chuck and Buck.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, Monday Morning Quarterback can happen on a Friday. It
happens a couple of times a year in which we
roll out Hugh Mellon Mike Homrian to break down the
latest Seahawks game the morning after the Seahawks game, and
it just so happens to coincide today with Football Friday
sponsored by Tito's handmade Vodka. So yeah, that happens a
(01:14):
couple of times per year. But what never has happened
in the history of Seahawks football is coming back from
a sixteen point fourth quarter deficit to win a game.
It happened last night, and it just so happened to
be the biggest game of the year. Seahawks thirty eight,
Rams thirty seven. Hugh Mellon joins us our QB one
here to break this thing down for the next couple
(01:36):
of hours. Have you ever seen anything like that?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Melon? It's one of the best games I've ever seen
in my life. It was one of the most improbable
wins I've seen for any team, let alone the Seahawks.
Would they say, I heard this morning one point three percent.
Somebody was saying three percent, but then now they've shaved
it down to one point three I don't know whatever
the metrics are. We know is very improbable. It was
(01:59):
just m It was, in my opinion, such a great win.
Because mcmike McDonald is in year two, he's trying to build.
You know, you can say you're bought in, and John
Schneider can target guys that are that have been predisposed
in their past to be buying guys and all of
that works, but you still have to put it out
(02:21):
there and for the team to you know, you're you're
constantly preaching the leadership of the team headed by Mike McDonald.
You're preaching like, hey, stay together, you know, they gotta
you know, wait till the you know, play till it's
the clock is double zero. You don't believe in each other,
and all of those those messages, they can now say,
(02:43):
look at this, you you just had one of the
most incredible wins, uh that anybody can remember in the NFL,
because you bleeked in that that that would happen, and
and you know, and most especially obviously the battered quarterback
that that he could come back. And so I think
it's just it speaks such volumes moving forward and so
(03:08):
good on them. It was just spectacular entertainment. Yeah, you
know what I love about it. What I love about
it is that it was not like you backed into it.
You took it in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And sometimes these games usually it's a team that coughs
it up. But even though Sam Donald didn't play his
best game, he played, He played well when he had to.
Kenneth Walker did play his best game of the year.
Your receivers, your playmakers made huge plays down the stretch.
Your defense overcame its secondary getting injured and ravaged, and
(03:40):
stepped up and certainly flipped the switch. At one point
he had three State three and outs against the team
that had over five hundred yards of offense against you.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You really did.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I mean, he didn't have much time to do it,
but you ended up taking that game in the fourth
quarter from the Los Angeles Rams and then winning it
in overtime. So where does the analysis begin for you?
When there are eighty eight pages worth of things that
we could discuss here this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, I'm just so shocked at how the defense the
yards that they gave up, and there was I believe
fifty eight plays out of thirteen personnel with the three
tight ends, and Seattle handled that really well down at SOFI,
averaging two point seven yards per play. But they just
got carved up pretty bad last night. And so I
(04:25):
think it was so improbable to me, the over under
was that it was a forty two and a half,
you know, and so they would be that high scoring
a game, and you know, if you don't have the
punt return, it's unlikely you're going to win that game.
But you know, I think for Sam Darnold, I can't
stress how much courage he had to have, how much
(04:49):
metal because when he threw that second interception down by
the goal line, And if you can just try and
imagine for a second, I want you to really just
like almost close your eyes the back of your eye lids,
try and be Sam Darnold all the crap that you've
been getting. The Seattle Times writs to call him on
game day, you know, hey, can you come up and clutch?
(05:10):
And how many of his teammates are reading that? And
the networks are asking the question? And then you know,
and he's being keep being reminded of the four the
four interceptions, and you know he can't can't win a
big one. Well, you know what's crazy. A year ago,
the the min not Soda Vikings put him on their
shoulders in the locker, on their shoulders in the locker.
(05:33):
It's on YouTube, look it up. Because he had throw
them for like three hundred and seventy yards on a
game that was December twenty ninth to beat the Packers
at a very pivotal game. That was a week after
or a week or two after he beat the Seahawks. Well,
that was a pivotal game, and yet people want Nobody
wants to say you can win a pivotal game. The
Vikings put him on their shoulders in the It was
(05:54):
December twenty ninth, it was this September twenty ninth, It
was December twenty ninth, and so so now at this
point he throws two interceptions and everybody's looking at everybody's
booing him. His passer rating was a fifty one and
his expected point to average for the game was a
(06:14):
negative point four to nine. And to give that context,
the NFL starting quarterbacks, if you look it up, they
live in a world the best is point two four
per play. The worst is negative point two four. Got me,
that's the range that all thirty two quarterbacks. Darnold up
to that point was negative point four to nine, double
the worst. And somehow he has the guts to come
(06:38):
from that point on. He has one hundred and thirty
seven passer rating and a point ninety eight EPA. He
quadruples the highest. That's what he did. And to have
the guts and the courage to you know, just still
throwing the ball in the middle field throw. You know,
(07:01):
Jsn's just got this a little tiny window between the
hook two hook defenders. Well, I'm gonna still rip it
in there, the corner ut that he threw to uh
to uh Cooper Cup. Yeah. Right. In overtime, they started
with Jackson Smith and Jigba on the right side, and
he was in the backfield and they're running a little
(07:22):
choice and the Rams played a two deep, five under
zone defense. It would have been so easy for him,
Jackson Smith and jig but he read the coverage. Well,
I want you to take your left hand and spread
it out as as wide as he can. Spread your
left hand and look at the back of your hand.
Got me, yep, the hole between your thumb and your finger.
(07:45):
Can you put your that You see that space between
your your thumb and your index finger. Yes, that's where
Cooper or excuse me, that's where Jackson Smith and Jigba
just hold up right in there, nice tasty little hole
the corner. And you know what he did. He said,
I'm gonna go hunting. I got a chance to get
Cooper Cup over the top of the corner who, by
(08:06):
the way, had intercepted him back down fourteen Durrant Durant.
He but he said, I'm gonna throw it over Durant's
head into this little pocket over by the sideline, given
that he the interceptions he had had. What that that
statement about that play, Like, hey, he's telling his teammates
(08:26):
and by the way he throws that and and Jared
Verse had had come around on a on a stunt
that Anthony Bradford hadn't picked up, which didn't eminently shock me.
But but he's putting his helmet right in his collarbone
as he's throwing this thing. And I just I don't know.
(08:48):
I think if you, if you you, you don't have
to be a guy that you know, a quarterback nerd
who just studies this stuff for fifty years. Just like,
think about what I'm describing to you. He is earning
the trust of his teammates by like, look, this dude
is going to battle for sixty minutes. He's not going
to go into a freaking hole. Man. That is hard
(09:10):
what he had to deal with after the hole he
dug himself in and everything that has been heaped on him.
I don't know. I thought I was gutty as hell.
I was disappointed as a seattleite, you know, grew up,
you know, graduated from you know what, Seattle public schools
to hear him getting booed when the Seattle Seahawks are
(09:32):
the number two team in the Super Bowl odds in
year one for your quarterback, ye're young one in your
offensive coordinator. We think we're great fans, Husky fans through
the years, Seahawk fans going back to the Kingdome. I
was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that the way the offense
was getting booed in the first half. Now at some
point after he threw his second interception. It's pro football.
(09:55):
You're making fifty something million, You're gonna get your ass booed.
I get that, but I thought I thought it was
way like like, seriously, yeah, we're not happy with where
the Seahawks aren't. We got a pretty damn good quarterback
and he sewed a lot of guts last night. That's
my take, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I mean I heard that there was people that actually
left at that moment when they're that second interception, and yeah,
and that happened. Yeah you're lucky, you're not on Twitter
because there was a whole bunch of people burying him
and saying they wanted Tua to come in next year
to a time.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's the minority. I'm sure it is. What what do
I wish Pat Mahomes was the quarterbacks? Sure? Well, depending
on how you want me an answer, of course, yeah,
But he's the dude here the rams let's say things, uh,
you know, kind of wobble and its ends up being
a disappointment disappointing finish you're still going to have on
(10:50):
Super Bowl Sunday. Matthew Stafford's going to be thirty eight
years old and Sam Darn's going to be twenty eight
years old. The Seahawks are the second youngest team. They've
gotten a new like, like, do we not know that
offense takes more cohesion than defense? Have we not learned that? Like,
you're in year one with your quarterback and and this
offensive coordinator the idea, I mean, you're ahead of the curve.
(11:15):
You're ahead of the curve. Why the hell are you booing?
I mean, do you want the sea Us to win?
Or do you think it doesn't matter that that to
create that kind of energy? I don't know. I didn't.
I had no plan to go off on the booing
because it was such a wonderful, spectacular game, and I
think by and large, you know, the crowd was there,
so I'll veer off of that lane. But I think
(11:37):
I found myself just defending Darnold, and I hope we
can appreciate it took a lot of guts. I've always
said the greatest game a quarterback has ever played is
Tom Brady in the Super Bowl against the Falcons. Not
because he was great for four quarters and into the overtime.
He wasn't. He wasn't good in the first half. He
had an eighty six yard pick six right, and and
(12:00):
there's a lot of things that weren't going well. That's
why they got down twenty five points. What made it
the greatest game is that he battled back from that
hole to do everything that he did. And by the way,
you know, so he had two two interceptions yesterday. Pat
Mahomes has has a Super Bowl where he had two
(12:24):
touchdowns and two interceptions, and he won that Super Bowl
and scored thirty like the same number of points as
as Darnold did. Matthew Stafford in his Super Bowl he
had two interceptions one of the most pivotal plays in
the history of the NFL. Anybody heard of the Dwight
Clark and the catch Joe Montana when he put his
hands under center before that play. He had two touchdowns
(12:47):
and three interceptions in that game. Like it, like, it
doesn't matter when you play, when you make the plays
at the end, that that's what matters. And Sam Donald
made the plays to win the game. And he is
for the last thirty nine starts, he has won seventy
eight percent of his games. Like, how many starts do
(13:10):
we need to say? Where you say this guy's pretty good?
Pretty good? Yeah, oh, I'm with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I Mean, the true measure of a great athlete, in
my opinion, is how they rebound from failure. Way more
than just oh wow, remember that awesome five touchdown game
he had.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Okay, great, Yeah, you know that's great.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
It's what do you do when when it looks like
things aren't going your way to you cower and wither
and wilt or do you rise to the occasion?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
He did for sure.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Now, I mean the flip side of this, not the
flip side, but just kind of quick kind of touching
on the other side of the ball essentially, I mean
the Rams were moving the ball, I mean scored on
six straight possessions after they turned over on downs their
first possession, and yet that punt return and then the
defense turning up the intensity a little bit, I mean
turned into basically four punts out of the next five
(13:56):
possessions and a missfield goal in there. How big of
a deal is that to then kind of maybe give
a little boost to Sam Darnell on the offense that hey,
we're gonna do our part and hold these guys to nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You guys come back and do your part. Uh. It's
huge and that and that's I think where Mike McDonald
is is is just preaching, Hey, you know, you just
got to keep playing complimentary football. Believe in the other
side of the ball. That's what's unique about football. You know,
Baseball the offensive guys are the defensive guys. Basketball, the
offensive guys are the defensive guys. Football is you know, soccer.
(14:30):
I guess I've never watched soccer, but I you know,
I common sense would tell me the offensive guys are
the defensive guys. But in football, you have to you
have to preach, you know, the buy and hey have
faith in in this and and and you know the
special teams. It wasn't just the punt return. You had
(14:50):
uh and and by the way, a great scheming you
had Cody White and and uh twenty eight I know
he's a backup corner. Helped me. Uh chuck. They played
like two safeties back Britchett, yeah, Pritchett yeah, And so
they if you just look at the the tape, it
(15:12):
looks like a cover two defense in normal football. But
those two safeties were back to help the gunners. And
and so you got a great block by Pritchett out
on the edge along with I think it was Okada
and fifty two at the best block O'Connell. And uh
but anyway, and just an electric, electrifying return right like
(15:35):
he sprinted out to the left and then he saw
it like the BMW commercially saw this hole, and he
just had this heat to just like boom, hit that
and and break down everybody's angles in pursuit. So uh
rashid sha heat. I mean, I mean at this juncture,
I had been worried that in April we'd say, oh man,
I wish we had that fourth and fifth round pick. Well,
(15:56):
you know, he's really been contributed, and you know, maybe
that acquisition winsy of the NFC West because of that return.
But also we were talking about a week ago the
field position coming off of kickoffs the Seahawks the Rams,
based on presumably Shaheed and his juice. Do you notice
(16:20):
the Rams kickers on the kickoff kicked it into the
end zone every single time? Yes, and for a touchback,
like they didn't even try. It wasn't like, oh I mishit,
you know, like I grabbed one to along of a
club and I barely know. They were trying to hammer
that thing through the end zone on every single kickoff,
(16:42):
giving Seattle the ball off the thirty five. So the
average start for Seattle was thirty the thirty four, you know,
and the average start for the Rams was the twenty
seven on all their drive starts. You know, so that's
seven yards, but multiply that by four team drives and
(17:03):
you know you're you're talking nearly one hundred yards of difference.
And you know, in field position, so so receives heeds
element there showed up and and in the prior game,
I'd made a bigger deal because I was like whoa,
Seattle's number one in E p A and special teams
and the Rams are dead last thirty two. This is
(17:25):
the game going down and so far I said, that's
got to play out for the game. Well, guess what
their Their punter drops it into the six inch line
in the most pivotal punt of the of the season. Right,
So it did not manifest in that game, but it
did last night. The Special team's advantage was was you know,
(17:47):
for the reasons I'm citing and in that punp return,
you know, huge part of it. That's again the buying
for a young team.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Totally changed the game, totally changed the momentum. And then
the thirty one yard run by Shaheed as well, it's
like he was solely responsible for, like, let's change the
momentum of this thing. And then everybody seemed to buy
in after that. Donald got hot, defense got hot. Everything
clicked after that and you end up winning the game.
It's Monday Morning, Quarterback. It is brought to you by
Muckleshoot being go North Creek Roofing Core Construction in the
(18:18):
Washington Center for Sleep. Hugh Millan is with us. I'm
sure we're going to get into the two point tries
coming up before the end of the hour. Also, I'm
sure there's a lot more about Sam Darnold and some
of the throws that he made that he wants to
dive into. So we'll we'll gab about that next on
Chucking Box Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. But
(18:38):
it is also a Monday morning quarterback Friday. Hugh Millan
is with us talking about that incredible thirty eight thirty
seven went over the Rams in overtime last night to
seize control of the NFC West and the number one
seed throughout the NFC playoffs, And so, Hugh, I mean,
we don't have enough time to discuss everything that went on,
but I certainly want to talk about these two point
(19:00):
conversions that played a huge role in the victory last night.
Let's start at the end of the game. Start at
the very end of the game. Here you are, you're
going on the line of scrimmage, You've decided to.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Go for two.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You've got to call up the best play that you
have in your playbook. If you're Clint Kubiak in this situation,
what did you think of the play call? And who
is responsible? Who was most responsible for the successful execution.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Well, the Rams zoned it up and they're trying to
get Jackson Smith and Jigba on the right that you
had a trip's formation. They're trying to get Jackson Smith
and jig but deep in the back of the end
zone going right to left, but it's covered by the
safety Cooper Cup is in the flat at the front
of the end zone to the right. He's covered barner
(19:47):
over the middle right kind of an OTB right over
the ball is double covers. There's no chance for him.
I would just say, if there was a play that
you obviously needed great protection, the Rams rush just for
and you know Josh Jones is out there one on
(20:08):
one in there's there's a photo or a freeze frame
that I have. I'm actually staring at it right now
where Josh Jones you could draw a line between verse
and Donald and Josh Jones is right center cut right
in the middle. Beautiful protection. So Donald had a chance
(20:31):
to scan. Now here's the thing. He had Sharbonne on
the swing. Okay, so he had a trips combination from
his right. That bunch, as I've already described, his outlets
are twofold. You had Scharbonne who had a check swing.
He checks to see if there's a blitzer. If it
doesn't come, he swings to the left. And then you
had sar uh uh sarber uh. He he was a
(20:56):
tight end, a line on the left, block, block block,
then check over the middle of the ball. There are
some quarterbacks who would have gone through and thrown the
swing pass and it would have been caught about the
five or six, and Charbonnet would have had to make
probably two guys miss. I think there are chance of
(21:18):
that happening. Would have been one in twenty and so,
and you'd look and you say, that's all there was.
But it was Darnold who said, nope, that outlet. The
better outlet is to wait for my tight end over
the middle. So I don't know if i've described it.
The components. The components are this great protection and then
(21:41):
your trips concept are all gloved to your right. Now
what do you do with the outlets? You got two outlets.
You got to make the right decision. He made the
right decision. Yeah, that then that's real quick. Go over
into the controversial one.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I suppose I don't know what they're going to call it,
and I think they called it the Zachward pass last
night on the broadcast. I did see somebody on Twitter
called it the hot to. Uh possibly that could be
a good one, but that one, did you know that
was going to be a fumble? The backward pass turned
into a fumble? And was it the right call in
your opinion?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Well, I didn't know at the time. I would have
been kind of like Charbonna, Well, let's you know, ball's
only three ft away from me, I might as well
go pick it up. You know, there was no like
hustle or urgency here or awareness that he exhibited, not
that I could see. I think it was just, you know,
I could use several adjectives to describe that play improbable, very,
(22:41):
you know, rare, but one I would not use as controversial.
I don't understand where the controversy is. Yeah, it's it's
unquestionably a lateral right, there's no there's no doubt that.
And and you know, every football player knows that incomplete
passes are dead and laterals are live. And if you
(23:02):
if you don't know that, and then then you should have.
And and there's a lot of guys, including saying Sarbonne,
you know, It's like it's like the Patriot knew Tom
Brady was gonna be great. The hell they did. They
wouldn't have waited for the sixth round. Don't tell me
Sarbonne knew what he was doing, because he would have
exhibited a different urgency. That was just lucky. So that'll
(23:23):
be another adjective I'd be willing to used. But I
somebody please tell me where there's a controversy.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Some are saying because of the whistle being blown, but
they said that it didn't blow it. Did you could there? Well,
I mean you can see clips online. I don't know
if somebody's doctoring it to put it in there. But
then Terry McCauley comes out and says, it doesn't matter.
The whistle doesn't actually in the play, although I thought
it did. I thought that you see most people stop
playing once they I stand corrected. Well, if a whistle
(23:50):
would would definitely introduce controversy. Okay, yeah, I didn't know.
I thought that I had heard that they said on
the broadcast that there wasn't a whistle. But and you
if you just see online, people are like, well, no,
you listen. You can hear this four second mark of
this clip that there was a whistle in who.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Knows mcveig contending there was a whistle.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Not yet today he was just acting confused about it
yesterday in the press conference.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Didn't under there's a whistle, then there's a controversy If
there's not a whistle, I don't think. So that's just
you know, like, hey, play it, you got you gotta
assume you know there's there's no there's not one player
out there that is confused about the lead. The rule
that a that a lateral is live.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So yeah, well, and also Terry McAuley said, the whistle
doesn't matter. The rule is that you still play out
the play. I can get why somebody would be confused
because they don't understand the rule, but from a rule standpoint,
they got the call right.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
And I'm you know, I.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Thought Ernest Jones intercepted a pass, but we would not
have to watch Pooka Nakua score another touchdown. But Terry
McCauley was all over that as well, even though it
looked like an interception to me by today's modern standards.
I want to ask you this in our last couple
of minutes of this segment, since we're talking about quarterbacks
I gotta. I mean, I've seen Magic Johnson make no
(25:11):
look passes. I could make those myself when I played basketball.
It's pretty tricky that way. I also have watched Fernando
of Alanzuela's stare at the sky before he threw toward
the catcher throughout his entire career. So I've seen baseball
pitchers throw no look throws to home plate for perfect strikes.
I don't think I've ever seen a football quarterback throw
(25:33):
no look passes until Matt Stafford's done it, and now
he does.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It all the time. How incredible is it to see
him do that to you? I think Mahomes, you know,
has been given. Yeah, there's a famous one that he
had on an over route. True, I would just say this,
of all the I got three plays. If you said,
what's the most impressive pass I've ever seen in the
(25:56):
in all the Super Bowls, three come to mind. Matt
Mario Eli Manning to Manningham up the left sideline late
in the game and a whole shot, unbelievable throw. You know,
It's like you give me a box of titleists, I
can splash out of a of a bunker. Eventually, I
think I could make that throw even enough shot times. Okay,
there was the you'll have to help me out, guys,
(26:20):
chuck when Roethlisberger hit the Antonio Holmes on the back.
You know that like like stretched arms that you know
you you give me enough shots, I can I can
make that completion. The one that that that Matthew Stafford
had in the Super Bowl, the in route with the
(26:42):
game on the line, a deep dagger route in zone
coverage where he no looks and and he and the
defender only misses it by like six inches. If he
had a ping pong paddle league, well, he could have
knocked it down and or knocked it up in the
aaron have been an interception. It was you. You couldn't
(27:03):
get me to try that in a in a practice,
let alone a preseason game, let alone in a in
the fourth quarter of a super Bowl. And and so
my answer that I would submit is the most impressive
pass I've ever seen in my life in a Super
Bowl that you know for you know you value what
you want to value. I'm fanning how I want a
fan For me as a fan, that's the most incredible
(27:26):
pass I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. And you're right,
he does it. That the I I inadvertently started swearing
this morning when I saw that RPO that he hit
on the slant, you know, on the little uh uh
was that that little touchdown pass that he had to Puka?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm looking at right now.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I when I froze that, I'm like, how in the
hell do you get that? How does any quarterback get
the ball into that window? And when you look when
he threw it, how anticipatory he was and he's not
looking And I started just all of a sudden after
six seconds. I've been swearing for the last six seconds. Yeah,
like in subconts in I don't know that guy's something
(28:08):
and that's one of the reasons he's ripping their ass
down the middle of the field.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah, uh yeah. That was complete turnaround for him. All right,
So more with you on the other side. Monday morning,
quarterback rolls on. Coach ol'm ren will join us at
nine o'clock. So many topics to discuss, so we'll continue
with you next. Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Formation takes a hand off to him design boot to
his left, Donald flinging back across his body into the unzone,
gonna touchdown.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Donald the funny in his time in a J corner.
Let a play on the twenty six yard touchdown pass
from Sammy d.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
To AJ Great Scot.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
It's Chuck Powell, Bucky Jacobson, Ashley Ryan, Monday Morning Quarterback.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
That sound from west Wood one last night.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
The call the AJ Barner touchdown pass part of the
comeback effort by the Seahawks to win in overtime thirty
eight thirty seven over the Rams. Mike Holmern will join
us here in a matter of moments, but more with
Hugh mellon ur QB one. And there's a lot still
to get to from this game that we haven't even
touched upon.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Chuck, Yeah, on that one, that Barner touchdown that was
after that, That was the play right after the reverse,
really really well designed by Clint Kobiak. And then that
play aggressive obviously, but boot left the quarterback action going
to the left, that really influences the secondary. And so
(29:37):
when Barner starts to break out to the corner because
the quarterback is on the move to the left, that's
it's just naturally you say, well, he must be doing
an outbreaking route because the quarterback's on the move out
to the left, then he breaks it back across the face.
He's set up and throw really well designed and back
to back, great, great place in the fourth quarter to
get him back in.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
It a better catch than what you might realize because
he had a kind of go extended with that as well.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
It slowed down though he created the probka. That was
a Lenny Dykster in the gap, you know, leap for
Mikes Sports Center, you know, top of dude. Yeah, Mike
Cameron would have just like gracefully galloped over and made
it look routine. Yeah. The J and AJ.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Stands for Jim Edmonds, all right, Well, yeah, I mean
that was a terrific play. And like I said, like
I said before, I mean, this wasn't just the Rams
falling apart plays like that. You know, the Seahawks took
from them those big chunks of lead that they had
built there.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
In the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
But I do want to discuss I mean, I just
didn't think that Mike McDonald's defense at this stage in
the season was going to be prone to one of
the best wide receivers in the National Football League. Spending
an entire evening wide open last night, and I don't
know who to credit, so I ask you, I mean,
is that a Stafford thing? Is that Nikua being just
(30:57):
that good? Is that mcvay's play design. How was Pooka
Nikula just running wide open all night long last night?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Well, I don't think that a good coach should ever
allow a guy two hundred twenty five yards, particularly when
you consider DeVante Adams. You know, he came in with
sixty catches nicoua one hundred and two. The next closest
guy was seventeen for wide receivers, and I think thirty
eight for a tight end. So the idea that you
can't deny free access, you know, I mean if you
(31:28):
take the five regions of the field that has broken
down sidelines to numbers, numbers to hash in between the numbers,
so one, two, three, four or five that he caught
at least two and no more than three, and all
of them he spaced it out from the slot from
the outside. And you know, the play that bothered me.
I know we're up against it, but the play that
(31:48):
bothered me the most out of it was they have
a blitz of Nicula was lined up on the slot
on the right and they blitz off the right side.
They allow free acts, says to Nicoua, meaning nobody's jamming
him and he's working only on a safety on the
other side, on a mirrored formation on the other side,
(32:09):
the tight end in that slot. You had Emon Worry
jamming him at the line and a safety behind it
and Ernest Jones shading to that side. It's like they
forgot the numbers. No jam Nicoua, Emon war you know,
get in an alignment where Emon Warre's you know, redirecting Pooka,
let Ernest Jones, you know, slide to that side and
(32:32):
and kind of in essence almost triple team that guy,
not the tight end in the slot. So there's other breakdowns,
but he's spectacular. They have a great chemistry. I just
think that there's a lot of schematic pro things that
that Mike McDonald could have been should have done.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Yeah, well he was open on something, there was others
where he was covered, and he just is somehow just
snipers and he's pretty good at point of contention. Yeah,
I mean on the flip side of a Jackson Smith
held catch lists the first half and yet it finishes
with eight and ninety six. Did they do something schematically
different or did they just have the ball more.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
They didn't have the ballhole heck of a lot in
the first half. Yeah, they didn't have it a lot.
I think they loosened up once the Rams got the lead,
they kind of loosened up. And then sometimes it's hard
to get back into motion or into it in that regard.
But I think Darnold got more aggressive. I mean the
last the touchdown pass in overtime, that was a great
(33:33):
piece of quarterbacking because he had a cup as an
outbreaking route to his right and there's nothing there. And
when he comes back the Seahawks, you had had Rashichi
heat motion and he was running a shallow kind of
a shallow crossing route, and you had in Jigba on
(33:54):
the back line, but they were stacked on top of
one another. The spacing was not ideal. You'd want, you could,
you don't want. You don't want the underneath guy directly underneath.
You want to be a little bit of a diagonal relationship.
And so for Darnold, if you notice how quickly he
ripped that, that's again a testament to even though he's
(34:14):
thrown two incompletions, he's not he's not going to puck
her up. Actually, two interceptions in the game brutal and
we haven't got to that. I know we will before
the ten o'clock. But he didn't puck her up. He
was still willing to, you know, you know, try and
put a sword through the neck of the Rams defense.
And so at any event, and of course in Jigba
(34:37):
beautiful job of working the back of the end zone,
getting his feet down, by the way. Scary thing to consider.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I've heard, and I don't know, I can't make I
don't know if this is fact, but I've heard it
said that on draft Day twenty twenty three, fifth round,
there was a big heated argument between John Schneider and
Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll wanted to get a center and
John Schneider wanted somebody named Puka Nakua Uh and the
Seahawks ended up drafting ol Timmy Uh instead. And apparently
(35:07):
it's still chaps John's ass to this day.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So I've heard that.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I don't I'm not stating in his fact, but I
have heard that that that was something that happened behind
you mat behind the.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Curt Could you imagine Naka on the same way so husky.
He could have been with Doomsay. Yeah uh so so
No I had not heard that, but yeah, that that
would shafe my ass if if that happened. He watched
this guy, particularly in the division, just unstoppable. He's so strong,
he's so you know, but quick, fast enough. Wow, he's
(35:42):
got the whole package. All right.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Uh, he will continue with us, so much more to discuss,
so Mike Holgeran joins the conversation. Next, that's Chuck and
Buck Monday Morning Quarterback Sports Radio ninety three point three
kJ R f M
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