December 22, 2025 • 34 mins
MIKE SANDO (The Athletic) Between wild week 16 finishes, DK’s fan interaction and some key week 17 matchups, we have a lot to talk to Mike about today! Are the Carolina Panthers better than people are giving them credit for? 49ers special teams are really impressive. Will DK get suspended? :30- The College football playoff got underway on over the weekend and there’s definitely some things we need to talk about! :45- The Seahawks could not stop Puka Nacua last Thursday, despite his counterpart, Davante Adams being out. This guy is good, but how did Mike MacDonald's defense let him take over?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for our visit with Mike Sando of The
Athletic and brought to you by Hunt Services. Get on
the horn and call Hunts now with Mike. Here's Chuck
and Buck. Is that the song like back and Yellow
bu and is that?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Is that similar? But it's not? Okay, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Gonna say Sandos got Tom there.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, like I don't.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
He's a fair He's not a favoritism guy. But anyway,
that would be that would be very Pittsburgh if you
if that was his song that he was coming into. Well, anyways,
welcome back to the program. We got another couple of
hours here with Hugh and and Chuck's on vacation, so
I don't know for sure. I've taken this as a
Christmas present that I obviously was good. Sando, you're gonna
(00:45):
back me up on that that, uh, you don't have
to talk to Chuck today and you get to talk
to you Millan.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
He you know, I love Chuck, but it's great to
throw Hugh and there we go back a long ways
and we do on the sideline together, he watching practice
and stuff. So I always enjoy hanging with you. It's good.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Yeah, and we're nerds enjoying the uh, the nexus of
data crunching and football.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Right.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Oh my god, Mike, we've GPT. Makes it too easy
to you. You and I could have a different conversation.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Yeah, indeed, we'll, we'll carry it on. But I'm going
to just hit you right now instead of leading you
to a story. What's top of mind from from for
you coming out of the weekend.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Well, I mean went into it with obviously the big
Seattle game, but I thought Jacksonville showed something yesterday and
you know, exposed a little bit of Denver's defense. So
I think that's kind of been a fun year that way,
with you know, some of the usual suspects not there,
you know. And that's why that's why it feels like
there's so many Coach of the Year candidates, because that
awards all based on like what was expected versus what happened,
(01:51):
you know, and there's just a lot of things that
weren't expected as fully. And I thought I thought Jacksonville
flexed pretty good in the in the the afternoon game yesterday.
They really handled Denver, and Denver's defense just doesn't look
that good to me lately. So I thought that was
a big takeaway from.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yesterday, Well, me being a big Bronco fan, I'm unfortunately
I agree with you that the defense has looked suspect
and kind of capable of being picked apart by some
short passing, and then yesterday they compounded that with some
poor tackling after they weren't having guys covered and and
so what is it that you're seeing with them in
(02:27):
particular that is making you kind of feel like maybe
this is a paper tiger.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
So since week eleven, they're the twenty ninth rank defense
and EPA per play that no one knows that you know,
because you sort of get your own recognizance. We know
they're a good defense. They've been good, but Jacksonville's number
one since then, So to me, there was a big
difference between how they're playing lately. The tackling, for sure,
is part of it. I just also think that Denver
has been a fine team, but they've they just not
(02:54):
been a really top team. Even though they've won all
the games in a row there, their point margin, you know,
per victory during their win streak was the lowest for
anyone who's ever won that many games in a row.
So it's great to win those games. But when you're winning,
like Kansas City find out last year, when you'll win
all the close games, it doesn't last forever, you know.
And I think that Denver's just been masked some of
(03:17):
their issues by just happened to have pulled out a
bunch of games that you can't keep pulling out.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
And in that division, Kansas City, how much do you
see turnover there? Like what kind of changes do you foresee?
Would you say it's going to be major changes or
is it simply hey, let's get Mahomes knee right and
do what we've always done.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
What do you say?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I think they got to be Boulder. I think they
have to be a little bit of a Boulder team.
You know, they've had the Mahomes magic bullet here, and
it's been enough to even when they didn't have a
good defense, or even when they didn't have great receivers,
you know, they would still wind up kind of either
in the championship game or the Super Bowl anyway. And
I think when that happens, it's easy to just keep,
you know, coming back somewhat the same. The times that
(04:04):
they've really reacted strongly was when they got embarrassed. You know,
I think that happened to them with their offensive line
against Tampa Bay and the Super Bowl. They came back
with basically a new line. You know, last year they
got blown out by the Eagles and the Super Bowl
to me didn't make uh, you know, the big moves.
But I think you've got to look around that division
going okay. I mean the Chargers are just sort of
(04:27):
playing their fifth and six tackles and they've won eleven games. Uh,
you know, Denver looks like they're going to be at
least a pain in the butt for you know, for
you So I think they've got to. I think they've
got to. You know, they may get a top ten
pick this year, so that could help them. But how
do you use it? How do you maneuver around? Can
you get multiple players? Right? I think we've seen Seattle
(04:48):
do that nicely, and they traded DK Metcalf, they got
im and worry out of it. You know, they've they've been,
you know, making the Shaheed type moves. I think they've
got to get more active in Kansas City and not
just take that pass of income of Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent. It does. They did not
look good.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yesterday that's for sure, And yet I don't think anybody
necessarily expected them to coming off of the fact that
they got eliminated for the first time and Mames is
on the sidelines and whatnot. In the NFC, you know,
at this point, basically the Seahawks sitting in pole position,
kind of controlling their own destiny. They earned it in
the way in which they came back in the fourth
(05:27):
quarter on Thursday. Would you right now, would you put
the moniker on them as the best team in the NFL? H?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yeah, I think I think that's fair. You know, yah?
Do I think that they if they played the Rams
three times, they would win two of them. I don't know, maygo,
they might, but I feel like the Rams are right
there too with them, I don't think, you know. I mean,
they were up thirty to fourteen on Seattle. They picked
them off four times in the game before, so I
think that one's going to be decided a third time,
(05:58):
and I like Seattle's chances'd be in Seattle. But I
don't think it's like, you know, unanimous best team in
the league. I think they're up there. I think I
think Jacksonville has made a move to get into that
realm as well.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Let's stay close to home in that regard. You know,
if if I had an MVP excuse me, Coach of
the Year vote let me say that again, Coach of
the Year vote, I would look at the playoff teams
and I would say, is there something conspicuous about the
challenges that had to be overcome with injuries? Particularly? Is
there something at the quarterback position? And the forty nine
(06:35):
or nobody has had to deal with injuries, including at
the quarterback position like Kyle Shanahan, and it's just crazy.
You feel like they're at some point they are going
to fall off. They have not fallen fallen off. They
could still be the number one seed. What do you
make of down there? And whold? Who should be your
(06:56):
front runner for Coach of the year.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, I mean if the forty nine ers, you know,
win and get to eleven wins here, I mean I think,
you know, that's important for the Kyle Shanahan campaign, and
I pretty much thought it would. You know, Vrabel was
probably the most deserving simply because when they came into
this season a lot of people were thinking of them
as a bottom three or four team in the in
the AFC, so they've been, you know, right near the
(07:21):
top or at the top. I think that would be
my probably my favorite. But here's the thing about the
forty mineoners I've heard about this last week. They are
a touchdown better per game on special teams, and that
is a huge, uncontrollable thing. Like where you're making your kicks.
They've made like their first twenty five field goals of
the year. The other teams are missing. There's a lot
(07:43):
of hidden stuff in there that helps you win these
games when you've got guys hurt. So I feel like
at various times this season they've sort of had two
of the three phases going well enough to win, and
if that special teams thing goes away, I think I
think they all have a hard time winning. And so
that's my only thing in the back of my mind
(08:04):
is like when you're a touchdown better than you were
last year in those plays because you're never missing field goals,
your opponents are missing some you know, some of the
return game stuff. I think that stuff comes and goes
a little bit. So I think it's propped them up
a little bit and doesn't take anything away from Kyl Shanahan,
But like that's a huge factor, and we saw it
for the Rams there at the other extreme, they're like
(08:26):
a bottom five special teams team, and that's that's the
only way they can lose. When you're up thirty to fourteen,
you have to have a touchdown drive on a return
that doesn't take any time.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Mike Sando with us, Mike, you Andvite we've compared notes
on Excel and crunching numbers, but special teams doesn't always
get people's interests nor mind. But you just made a
hell of a comment there that the forty nine ers
are getting a touchdown a game advantage in special teams?
(08:56):
How do you arrive at that? Just like, yeah, yeah,
illuminate our listeners. What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
So the way you can measure that is that basically
there's an expectation for which team is going to score
next and how many points on every play, right, So
if you have apa So if you have first down
and goal at the one yard line and and you
punch it in, you know that that one play doesn't
give you the six points, right because because first and goal,
(09:26):
anyone's going to score it from there. If you have
a score a touchdown from your own one yard line,
I mean you might the EPA might be a you know,
ten or twelve point swing depending on the down and
distance on it, just because.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
That's Gino's pick six last year was like negative twelve,
twelve and a half.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Yeah, right, So if you are so on special teams,
the way that works is, you know, if you uh,
let's just take this the Shaheed return against the Rams,
that play added about five plus points to the XP
and that goes into Special Team's column. So that's a
(10:03):
five EPA play. We all understand that. I mean because
when you're getting when you're getting that, when when they're
lining up to punch and you're gonna get the ball
with decent field position, that probably carries some expectation for
scoring in your next drive, right, I mean, maybe it's
a point or two, but when you run it all
the way back in, it's like, that's five points and
that goes directly to the Special Team. So we can
parse it out that way. And when you do that
(10:23):
on a play by play basis, you get some real
extreme things by the end of the year, where the
Rams are super bad and the Ford Nits are super good. Well,
the Fords were super bad last year.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Actually Number one for a few weeks ago when the
rams were thirty second.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, and so you know what does that mean? Well,
it means Shahid returns it for five points you weren't
expecting to get. And you know that. To me, the
special teams component is sometimes it is a reflection of
like your overall mentality or your roster. Like I feel
like the Legion of Boom era Seahawks. You know they
had Earl Thomas and Tricia Sherman playing on special teams
(10:58):
year you're just kicking button. That's pretty sustainable to be
an awesome special teams group when you have a lot
of guys like that that are Hall of famers or
you know those guys playing on special teams. But for
most teams in this day and age, a lot of
it's driven by the kicker. And we all know that
if your kicker goes cold, you're screwed. You just get
a new one. There's no coach who comes out to
practice and says, hey, keep your left arm straight in
(11:20):
the backswing right, and then you get fixed. These guys
go off the rails and you don't hear from them again,
and then they come back and they're hot for a year. Right.
So the forty nine ers get Eddie Panero after they
used a third round pick on Jake Moody and he
bombed out. They'll ride Panero until he becomes Jake Moody, right,
And so that's the volatility of this and that's what
the Rams are at. They're kicking. They're kicker right now.
(11:41):
You know, They've got a guy that they brought in
through the year. He looks like Craig Arrell out there,
you know, playing for you to Seahawk fans, you know,
And it's just like that's the nature of special teams
for most of these teams. Now, Seattle does have a
little bit of a I think Seattle's got some kind
of vinegar to their roster, Like they got some of
these guys. They get a mentality about him that I
(12:02):
think shows. But if you don't have Shaheed just to
take it all away, then you don't get that play right.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Right, Sando, this is gonna be a maybe a hot
button topic.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I mean, DK Metcalf, I'm sure you saw that whole thing.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I mean, yeah, the dude is an absolute beast when
it comes to what he's capable of. And yet there's
times where you're like what are you thinking. That's another
one yesterday where he ends up kind of trying to
take a swipe and a fan. That's got to be
they're going to suspend him for that, wouldn't you imagine?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I would think so. Now, I've have heard some people say, hey,
a lot of times, that's a that type of thing's
a fine or whatever. I don't I don't know what's
going to happen in the league. You can't always figure
him out. But I would think you got to draw
a pretty hard line there right against making contact with
or threatening man or to a fan. I think it's
a would be a positive thing for the league if
there was a high price right here in the playoffs stretch,
(12:53):
just because players. Everyone's got to know that's a that's
a no no. You know, that's that's messing with things,
you know, the the brand and the and the way
people feel about the league.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Yeah, yeah, you know. Another thing, Green Bay, what's what's
going on with Jordan Love there? What do you make
of that? Of course, Michael Parsons they made the big acquisition.
He's out for the year. But that's another team that
you know that they're right now, they're the last wild
card entrant. But what's your assessment of them?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
A couple of things. One in the context of that
division has changed, you know, I just Ben Jonson's got
to going. They've got some I mean, Dan Campbell, they're
having their issues, but he sort of has an ethos
to them. I feel like there's some teams in that
division who have liked their head coach as much or
more as Green Bay likes theres and get more personality
from their guy that Green Bay does. That's an interesting
(13:49):
big picture thing to me when you talk about the
totality of the team. I think their roster's been great,
but they've been super young, and I think you get
inconsistency with that. Now you take away you know, Michael Parsons,
I think that's huge because they've always been this team.
I don't care, you know, if it was Rogers or
far now Jordan Love where there. They're vitals on offense
(14:12):
when their quarterbacks healthy are really good. But there's always
something in the defense, or the and or the special
teams that comes up to buy them. And I feel
like that's still their team. You know, we saw it.
They get had an onside kick. It's impossible to recover
an onside kick nowadays, guys, right, I mean they land
up for an onside kick, you're like, yeah, I'm gonna
go take a bathroom break. It's just like a little
and who gets it on them? If you had to
(14:34):
pick one team before this weekend, who would allow an
onside kick recovery to help lose the game? You'd pick
Green By right, We've seen it happen before, and it's like,
to me, there's some issue with that. With the roster construction.
They've tried, hiring a good special teams coach all of that.
Is it a mentality, a roster construction, a combination of
those things. Matt Lafleur just made it sound like, hey,
(14:56):
it's bad luck a couple of special teams plays. You know,
they were sort of poking around it if he was gonna,
you know, make a change, like Sean McVay didn't fire
the coach. But it's always something with them.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
To me, yeah, it does like it did feel like
it's always something with them.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
All right. I got one more for you before we
got a break.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
If you got a vote MVP, who's your MVP of
the league at this point?
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Yeah, you know, I think it's probably I do have
a vote, you know, but I think Stafford's had a
really great season. Now, you know, he doesn't have a
lot of the rushing production, but to me, that's almost
more impressive when you've got to do it all with
your armor. I think he's been outstanding. I think they've
been probably the most consistent offense in the league this year. So,
you know, I have thought that Drake May and even
(15:41):
at different times Josh Allen have a case for that.
But to me, Stafford's probably a leader in the clubhouse.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yep, yeah, I would imagine too. I was Drake May
with the way he was playing last night, and I mean,
it just seems odd to me. This season seems weird
where there's all these teams that are twelve eleven, you know,
even tens, and yet nobody's really kind of just surfaced
as the clear cut favorite, even though maybe the Rams
have been the one that have done it the most
and they got the biggest name at quarterback. Maybe that's
(16:11):
where I would be, So I'm with you on that. Well,
thanks Sando. I appreciate you. Got any any fun plans
for Christmas?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
We do, Yeah, we're gonna have you know, now that
our boys are older, you know, there's work schedules involved
and all kinds of stuff, but we've got it all
figured out. We're going to have family together and uh uh,
really looking forward to it. This is a it is
just a great week. And and for an end season
work week, it's a great week. Things change, you know,
there's people aren't in the office. It's it's nice.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, I got the inside track. I was talking to
Santa for my own kids, and he said, you were
good this year, so you should get whatever it was
that you sent to him on your list.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
That's a great I thought you were saying I was
good this year. I mean I don't get anything because
I'm you're good. You know you're good. You don't need anything.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
No, no, no, I don't care how old we get.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
We still need Santa to hook us up, right, and
if we were good, good boys and girls.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So yeah, you were, he gave.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
He gave actually two thumbs up, said sand Oh yeah,
definitely on the nice list. So so congratulations on that,
and enjoy your Christmas and enjoy your family, man, and
we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Okay, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Thank you, Thanks Mike.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
All right, there's Mike Sando.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
It's our segment Mike Sandal, brought to you by Hunt Services.
Get a plumber, an electrician, heating, a cooling expert. You
can get him to your doorstep for only forty nine bucks.
So you got to get on the horn, and Paul Hunts,
is that it?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
That's it, that's it. That's the only horn. Oh, yours
is better what I got? Howl horn sounded Viking hornish?
Speaker 5 (17:39):
Which I got a Viking?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Did it sound Viking horn?
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's on a ship on a foggy morning.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
And when I'm looking at you do it doing it? Yeah,
I'm taking back about twelve hundred years.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yes, I don't normally, we don't normally do this zoom thing.
And I'm realizing doing this thing. You look great, Hugh,
but I have a lot of white in my beard.
Note is it's the lighting?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Is that what it is? Lighting?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
They say the camera it's twenty pounds. It adds twenty
years to me. So anyway, all right, on the other
side of the break here, we're going to dive into
We dove into in our first segment a little bit
about this, but we're gonna get hughes take a little
bit more on the college football playoffs. So up next
at Sports Radio ninety three point three kg RFM.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
The the season, it was a lot.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, there's a lot of halls being decked right there.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
I didn't even tell you who sings that one because
it was just a generic one on the thing we're
allowed to use and play everywhere.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Oh yeah, a lot.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
They didn't do a bad job with that.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
No, I mean I don't. I don't really have a
I don't have the same list.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That Hume Millan does. By the way, welcome back to
the show.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
We got Humilan sitting in for us today and and bringing,
you know, deck in the halls with us, and and
he'll break down all kinds of Christmas music. I don't
really have that. I just kind of like it all
when it's when it's time to be played, and then
I don't like any of it when it's not time
to be played.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Is it time to be played all through December?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I would say yeah, I would say you can even
start after Thanksgiving. I just basically I don't know for
sure if you know this or not. I I do
a show with two people that are very premature on
their celebration and at times overly overly celebratory on certain things.
You know, you know how Chuck is with the draft,
to the point that even calls it draft. Miss it's
(19:49):
not a holiday, it's just a draft, and it's a
cool draft. Yeah, he's holiday as well.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Maybe maybe I'm wrong then, I mean, everybody else loves it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm gonna stay in my wrong lane.
I think that Christmas stuff happens after Thanksgiving, not before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
That's the way that I feel like I'm getting really
lumped in here because I did not put up a
Christmas tree until the day after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I didn't put up a single Christmas ornament this day
after abnormal for you.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, yes, typically you put it up in like November sometimes, Yes,
So you you have lumped yourself in there. Okay, I'll
give you credit for holding off until the proper time. Hugh,
when did you put yours in? Did you put your
Christmas tree up before?
Speaker 5 (20:33):
I've always been gotta be after Thanksgiving. This is the
first No, this is the first year. It was a
late Thanksgiving and I'm like, and my wife wanted to
put it up I'm like, hey, A, choose your battles.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Okay, I didn't want to.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
I just defer and then be Actually, I kind of
liked the idea. I liked the tree and so okay,
oh yeah, so I'm worth I kind of classical all
around the mill at home this.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, okay, Well you know what else is you got
for Christmas? President?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Is you got the college football playoffs, and so we
did get our first round games in. I'm not gonna
lead you anywhere in particular other than the idea of
James Madison versus Oregon holding their own ish against the
backups or the guys that Oregon brought in after it
kind of got out of hand and Tulane got absolutely
whooped up bound it. Do you like the way in
(21:25):
which these guys had their opportunity on the big stage.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Well, I don't like the competition any more than anybody
else does. I'm you know, I've got my text blowing up,
and I agree with everybody. I mean, I would have
much rather seen Notre Dame or Texas in those games.
But to me, I just I look at the college
(21:53):
football Playoff and if they were to try to eliminate
group of five teams. You're talking about that is anti
competitive collusion, which is a red flag and anti trust court.
And the NCAAA has already grossly miscalculated and got horrible
(22:13):
legal advice in the Allston versus NCAA. Basically that was
just pedly little education related compensation like laptops or computers
or musical instruments for music majors, like little Piddley stuff.
And Allston wonted. The NCAA should have just left well
(22:35):
enough alone. But the NCAAA appealed it to the appellate court.
They lost again, and then the NCAAAAA appealed it to
the Supreme Court where they lost nine to nothing. So
those facts alone should convince you of my claim that
they got horrible legal advice. Well, what was the consequence?
(22:56):
All the things you don't like about college football? Then nil,
rampant transferring, revenue sharing, all those things that many fans
don't like about it. It was all because the amateurism
argument got knocked out by the Supreme Court. And so
now on anti trust grounds, let me repeat that, on
(23:16):
anti trust grounds, So you want to miscalculate again, and
you want to let the group of five bring up
a class action suit or a coordinated suit against the
college Football Playoff, and the power for what you could
have is a situation where you have federal court mandates,
(23:39):
a total restructuring and greater inclusion. How about not two
of those games, but five or six of those games.
How about revenue distribution? How about triple damages on any
financial injury. So I just think I would tell my friends,
and I did that for me. The best way to
(24:03):
handle it. It's not a twelve team playoff. We used
to have Nope, no playoff. Nineteen eighty four, Washington Huskies
lost eleven sixty to eleven forty to BYU, and it
was the closest vote from a percentage of the second
team to the first team. It was the closest vote
(24:23):
in the history of the AP and the only one
that surpassed that in terms of close vote was Washington
versus Miami seven years later. But at least Washington won
half of the title in that one. So then we
went to a two team So we went from NOPE,
no teams to a two team BCS. Then we went
(24:44):
to a fourteen and that was better, right, A two
team bs BCS was better than just voting and then
a four team playoff was better than the two team bcs.
And now we have a twelve team playoff. No, no, no,
not so fast. We don't have a twelve team playoff,
a ten team playoff, right, we have a ten team playoff?
Plus cover your ass and JMU and two Lane or
(25:09):
cover your ass, make sure you don't land in anti
trust court. Just think of it as a ten. It
will probably be it twelve or fourteen or sixteen soon,
but ten is better than four. And think of it
like this, and I can say it real simple. Oregon
and Ole Miss gotta buy and they chose to scrimmage,
(25:31):
just like when Mike Tyson is going to have a fight,
he has a sparring partner. They just chose to have
a sparring partner a scrimmage against JMU and two Lane.
That's the best way that I would advise to think
of it, because I don't like the competition either, But
I also don't want to have six of these games
(25:54):
and all the other consequences that could come down. So
that's my take on those two teams involvement.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'm with him, I'm with you, and for what it's worth,
I mean me coming from like a small school of
anai school. I'll go to my grave with the idea
of I would have loved to have played l Shoes
who won the college national championship. I would have loved
to have played them, had a chance to see now
they might have whooped us. I don't think they necessarily
would have whooped us, but they might have beat us.
(26:20):
And typically that's the way that it would be. Is
the underdogs, these small, smaller schools are not going to
match up against the big dogs, especially now with the
guys getting paid the.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Way that they are. And yet I want to give
them a chance.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I just don't necessarily want to come at the in
a way in which it is right now. Where a
couple teams basically, if you had lucked out and got
the five seed or the six seed, you end up
getting to buy and and you know, some of the
other teams have tough matchups. Alabamas didn't have a cake walk,
and neither did the Miami Texas A and M game.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Well, we talked about Alabama and Oklahoma, just touching briefly.
We're up against the break. You know one thing that
the Miami Texas A and M game was I thought
a really good game, obviously a defensive struggle. Miami missed
a lot of field goals where they could have extended
(27:13):
the score. But on the other hand, an m they
had almost double the first downs, they had more than
double the passing yards, they had twenty six more plays,
more time of possession, Miami controlled the line of scrimmage.
But that game could have gone anywhere. But I will
want to say, you know, the people are going to
(27:34):
say secver versus the other conferences. Just keep this in mind.
ACC had one team in the playoff, Miami. They were
playing the number three ranked team. But go look at
the seedings of the college football Playoff. The Texas A
and M was the third SEC. So I know there'll
(27:55):
be conclusions drawn at the end and along the way
about how the conferences are doing, But just keep that
in mind. That was SEC number three losing to ACC
number one in a game that went down to the
fifty ninth minute.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, well, I mean I think that the argument.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I don't think it's an argument if the SEC is
a better conference than most of the others, and on
any given year, this year might be another one. Yeah, well,
the Big ten could say, well, we won the National Championship,
National championship last year, and we got the number one
and two teams this year. They could say, well, we're better,
but top to bottom their top I don't think, yeah,
I don't think that the I don't think there's argument three. Yeah,
(28:35):
I don't think the argument of which conference is better
from top to bottom is really even an argument. In
Texas A and M being the third team out of
the SEC kind.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Of just almost proves that point to some degree. And
yet I think if you.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Took the top three teams in the Big ten, they'd
be the best, because I think you'd have Indiana, Ohio,
Satan Oregon. I think that they'd be the better than
the top three even of the SC them. It might be,
it might be comparable. But if you start going down
to like like LSU is the tenth number ten team
in the SEC. If LSU is your tenth best team,
(29:10):
I mean, think of the teams from the SEC that
didn't make the player. They had five teams in the playoffs,
and uh, think of the ones that didn't make it Texas, Yeah, Vanderbilt, Mi, Zuri, LSU,
like uh uh, you start getting into the middle and
down at the bottom, even Arkansas, they could drop five
hundred yards on your ass. Mississippi State looked like the
(29:32):
dregs of the SEC are a lot better than the
dregs of the other conferences, So so maybe not quite
as top heavy, but but the depth of the conference,
I don't think it's there's any comparison. SEC is the
number one's conference in football one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
On the other side of the break, we're gonna dive
into something. I want to get huge perspective on whether
or not this is a concern should be yes, no, maybe,
So stick around here at Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJRFM. We got another hour plus here to get
into some stuff. We don't have a lot of time
in this segment because we kind of blew through the
break on the last one. So I'm just gonna get
right to you. Puka Nakua, he's a snut. I mean
(30:11):
he has been basically since he got in there. We
know shit, he's playing with Sean McVay and Matt Stafford
and he just is a strong dude. And yet the
way in which he goes out there and puts up
the numbers that he put up, I mean, you know,
to go out and have twelve catches for two hundred
and twenty five yards and a couple of touchdowns. I
don't know for sure if anybody expected that against a
(30:32):
Mike McDonald defense. Is that just something that's gonna happen
from time to time or would you expect a top
caliber defense to be able to take away the biggest
threat to especially would his counterparts out.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Yeah, I was surprised. I mean, the Seahawks defense this season,
for the entire season, have given up seven completions of
forty yards or more. And four of those seven were
Thursday night against the Rams. And of those, uh, three
of them were Tapuka Nakua and now there you know.
(31:07):
One was against a two deep one, one was against
a three deep zone they had they beat Witherspoon on
a corner route against man Demand's I mean, he's just
he You don't think he's fast, but he's fast enough.
He's extremely strong, got to be one of the strongest
receivers in the NFL. He's very bright. But but his strength,
(31:31):
his strong hands, his strong body, you know, breaking tackles,
what have you. He's a he's a load. I mean,
there's a there's a fullback type of component to his
game of physicality. So nobody ever saw this. The Rams
didn't see it. They wouldn't have waited to the fifth
round to draft him. It's just been stunning. He's a
former Husky for a year before he went to b YU.
(31:53):
But yeah, he's a wagon, he's a he's a hell
of a load.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Well, we've seen, you know, receivers over the course of time.
You know, big guys that are strong, and obviously there's
a lot that goes into that after the catch and
then the contested catches. Being a block out the way
that we always talk about tight ends being able to
use their body, he kind of does that even though
he's a wide receiver. So yeah, I'm kind of curious.
I mean, when it comes to like the strong hands.
(32:19):
One of those first catches that he had was like
he was defended very well, and you yeah, he just
has a knack for being able to just take it
from you, like, Nope, that's my ball and I don't
care if you're blanketing me or not.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
Well, one of those the fifty four yard are in
the first half, the Seahawks were playing a two D
five under zone, and some people refer to it as
a country zone when you just kind of spot drop
and Matthew Stafford he's the front runner for the MVP,
and he threw with such great anticipation over the top
of Ernest Jones. Then they came back and he had
(32:54):
a similar type of that was kind of a what's
called a bender and a constant people some people call
clipper the corner leads the post. But then he had
a dagger concept where the slot clears out the safety
and then a deep end route comes from the outside.
Ernest Jones was one of the culprits in that zone
(33:15):
defense as well. I think that where they got better
at some point in the game is when they did
a little bit more pattern matching with their with their
zones instead of just to the spot. They saw defenders
kind of really looking, you know, to work the guy
in your zone a little bit more sticky as opposed
(33:37):
to just eyeballing the quarterback the entire time. Put your
eyes on the receiver, take a grasp of the past concept,
and then you know, a tick later, then gets your
eyes on the quarterback. That was adjustment that helped as
they had a better second half than they had in
the first half.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, well, I mean they're gonna get another opportunity.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Probably, well, we don't know that for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
We will see how the whole bracket matches up, and
there's still work to be done to figure that whole
thing out. But oil boy, they gotta figure something out.
I don't think you're gonna win a whole heck of
a lot of ballgames just letting them be able to
do the way that they did. So we're gonna come back.
We got a break here, but we're gonna come back
with some coach breed love. We got all kinds of
big time topics to get into here. At Sports Radio
(34:22):
ninety three point three kjr FM,
It's time for our visit with Mike Sando of The
Athletic and brought to you by Hunt Services. Get on
the horn and call Hunts now with Mike. Here's Chuck
and Buck. Is that the song like back and Yellow
bu and is that?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Is that similar? But it's not? Okay, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Gonna say Sandos got Tom there.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, like I don't.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
He's a fair He's not a favoritism guy. But anyway,
that would be that would be very Pittsburgh if you
if that was his song that he was coming into. Well, anyways,
welcome back to the program. We got another couple of
hours here with Hugh and and Chuck's on vacation, so
I don't know for sure. I've taken this as a
Christmas present that I obviously was good. Sando, you're gonna
(00:45):
back me up on that that, uh, you don't have
to talk to Chuck today and you get to talk
to you Millan.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
He you know, I love Chuck, but it's great to
throw Hugh and there we go back a long ways
and we do on the sideline together, he watching practice
and stuff. So I always enjoy hanging with you. It's good.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Yeah, and we're nerds enjoying the uh, the nexus of
data crunching and football.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Right.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Oh my god, Mike, we've GPT. Makes it too easy
to you. You and I could have a different conversation.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Yeah, indeed, we'll, we'll carry it on. But I'm going
to just hit you right now instead of leading you
to a story. What's top of mind from from for
you coming out of the weekend.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Well, I mean went into it with obviously the big
Seattle game, but I thought Jacksonville showed something yesterday and
you know, exposed a little bit of Denver's defense. So
I think that's kind of been a fun year that way,
with you know, some of the usual suspects not there,
you know. And that's why that's why it feels like
there's so many Coach of the Year candidates, because that
awards all based on like what was expected versus what happened,
(01:51):
you know, and there's just a lot of things that
weren't expected as fully. And I thought I thought Jacksonville
flexed pretty good in the in the the afternoon game yesterday.
They really handled Denver, and Denver's defense just doesn't look
that good to me lately. So I thought that was
a big takeaway from.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yesterday, Well, me being a big Bronco fan, I'm unfortunately
I agree with you that the defense has looked suspect
and kind of capable of being picked apart by some
short passing, and then yesterday they compounded that with some
poor tackling after they weren't having guys covered and and
so what is it that you're seeing with them in
(02:27):
particular that is making you kind of feel like maybe
this is a paper tiger.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
So since week eleven, they're the twenty ninth rank defense
and EPA per play that no one knows that you know,
because you sort of get your own recognizance. We know
they're a good defense. They've been good, but Jacksonville's number
one since then, So to me, there was a big
difference between how they're playing lately. The tackling, for sure,
is part of it. I just also think that Denver
has been a fine team, but they've they just not
(02:54):
been a really top team. Even though they've won all
the games in a row there, their point margin, you know,
per victory during their win streak was the lowest for
anyone who's ever won that many games in a row.
So it's great to win those games. But when you're winning,
like Kansas City find out last year, when you'll win
all the close games, it doesn't last forever, you know.
And I think that Denver's just been masked some of
(03:17):
their issues by just happened to have pulled out a
bunch of games that you can't keep pulling out.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
And in that division, Kansas City, how much do you
see turnover there? Like what kind of changes do you foresee?
Would you say it's going to be major changes or
is it simply hey, let's get Mahomes knee right and
do what we've always done.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
What do you say?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I think they got to be Boulder. I think they
have to be a little bit of a Boulder team.
You know, they've had the Mahomes magic bullet here, and
it's been enough to even when they didn't have a
good defense, or even when they didn't have great receivers,
you know, they would still wind up kind of either
in the championship game or the Super Bowl anyway. And
I think when that happens, it's easy to just keep,
you know, coming back somewhat the same. The times that
(04:04):
they've really reacted strongly was when they got embarrassed. You know,
I think that happened to them with their offensive line
against Tampa Bay and the Super Bowl. They came back
with basically a new line. You know, last year they
got blown out by the Eagles and the Super Bowl
to me didn't make uh, you know, the big moves.
But I think you've got to look around that division
going okay. I mean the Chargers are just sort of
(04:27):
playing their fifth and six tackles and they've won eleven games. Uh,
you know, Denver looks like they're going to be at
least a pain in the butt for you know, for
you So I think they've got to. I think they've
got to. You know, they may get a top ten
pick this year, so that could help them. But how
do you use it? How do you maneuver around? Can
you get multiple players? Right? I think we've seen Seattle
(04:48):
do that nicely, and they traded DK Metcalf, they got
im and worry out of it. You know, they've they've been,
you know, making the Shaheed type moves. I think they've
got to get more active in Kansas City and not
just take that pass of income of Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent. It does. They did not
look good.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yesterday that's for sure, And yet I don't think anybody
necessarily expected them to coming off of the fact that
they got eliminated for the first time and Mames is
on the sidelines and whatnot. In the NFC, you know,
at this point, basically the Seahawks sitting in pole position,
kind of controlling their own destiny. They earned it in
the way in which they came back in the fourth
(05:27):
quarter on Thursday. Would you right now, would you put
the moniker on them as the best team in the NFL? H?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yeah, I think I think that's fair. You know, yah?
Do I think that they if they played the Rams
three times, they would win two of them. I don't know, maygo,
they might, but I feel like the Rams are right
there too with them, I don't think, you know. I mean,
they were up thirty to fourteen on Seattle. They picked
them off four times in the game before, so I
think that one's going to be decided a third time,
(05:58):
and I like Seattle's chances'd be in Seattle. But I
don't think it's like, you know, unanimous best team in
the league. I think they're up there. I think I
think Jacksonville has made a move to get into that
realm as well.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Let's stay close to home in that regard. You know,
if if I had an MVP excuse me, Coach of
the Year vote let me say that again, Coach of
the Year vote, I would look at the playoff teams
and I would say, is there something conspicuous about the
challenges that had to be overcome with injuries? Particularly? Is
there something at the quarterback position? And the forty nine
(06:35):
or nobody has had to deal with injuries, including at
the quarterback position like Kyle Shanahan, and it's just crazy.
You feel like they're at some point they are going
to fall off. They have not fallen fallen off. They
could still be the number one seed. What do you
make of down there? And whold? Who should be your
(06:56):
front runner for Coach of the year.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, I mean if the forty nine ers, you know,
win and get to eleven wins here, I mean I think,
you know, that's important for the Kyle Shanahan campaign, and
I pretty much thought it would. You know, Vrabel was
probably the most deserving simply because when they came into
this season a lot of people were thinking of them
as a bottom three or four team in the in
the AFC, so they've been, you know, right near the
(07:21):
top or at the top. I think that would be
my probably my favorite. But here's the thing about the
forty mineoners I've heard about this last week. They are
a touchdown better per game on special teams, and that
is a huge, uncontrollable thing. Like where you're making your kicks.
They've made like their first twenty five field goals of
the year. The other teams are missing. There's a lot
(07:43):
of hidden stuff in there that helps you win these
games when you've got guys hurt. So I feel like
at various times this season they've sort of had two
of the three phases going well enough to win, and
if that special teams thing goes away, I think I
think they all have a hard time winning. And so
that's my only thing in the back of my mind
(08:04):
is like when you're a touchdown better than you were
last year in those plays because you're never missing field goals,
your opponents are missing some you know, some of the
return game stuff. I think that stuff comes and goes
a little bit. So I think it's propped them up
a little bit and doesn't take anything away from Kyl Shanahan,
But like that's a huge factor, and we saw it
for the Rams there at the other extreme, they're like
(08:26):
a bottom five special teams team, and that's that's the
only way they can lose. When you're up thirty to fourteen,
you have to have a touchdown drive on a return
that doesn't take any time.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Mike Sando with us, Mike, you Andvite we've compared notes
on Excel and crunching numbers, but special teams doesn't always
get people's interests nor mind. But you just made a
hell of a comment there that the forty nine ers
are getting a touchdown a game advantage in special teams?
(08:56):
How do you arrive at that? Just like, yeah, yeah,
illuminate our listeners. What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
So the way you can measure that is that basically
there's an expectation for which team is going to score
next and how many points on every play, right, So
if you have apa So if you have first down
and goal at the one yard line and and you
punch it in, you know that that one play doesn't
give you the six points, right because because first and goal,
(09:26):
anyone's going to score it from there. If you have
a score a touchdown from your own one yard line,
I mean you might the EPA might be a you know,
ten or twelve point swing depending on the down and
distance on it, just because.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
That's Gino's pick six last year was like negative twelve,
twelve and a half.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Yeah, right, So if you are so on special teams,
the way that works is, you know, if you uh,
let's just take this the Shaheed return against the Rams,
that play added about five plus points to the XP
and that goes into Special Team's column. So that's a
(10:03):
five EPA play. We all understand that. I mean because
when you're getting when you're getting that, when when they're
lining up to punch and you're gonna get the ball
with decent field position, that probably carries some expectation for
scoring in your next drive, right, I mean, maybe it's
a point or two, but when you run it all
the way back in, it's like, that's five points and
that goes directly to the Special Team. So we can
parse it out that way. And when you do that
(10:23):
on a play by play basis, you get some real
extreme things by the end of the year, where the
Rams are super bad and the Ford Nits are super good. Well,
the Fords were super bad last year.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Actually Number one for a few weeks ago when the
rams were thirty second.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, and so you know what does that mean? Well,
it means Shahid returns it for five points you weren't
expecting to get. And you know that. To me, the
special teams component is sometimes it is a reflection of
like your overall mentality or your roster. Like I feel
like the Legion of Boom era Seahawks. You know they
had Earl Thomas and Tricia Sherman playing on special teams
(10:58):
year you're just kicking button. That's pretty sustainable to be
an awesome special teams group when you have a lot
of guys like that that are Hall of famers or
you know those guys playing on special teams. But for
most teams in this day and age, a lot of
it's driven by the kicker. And we all know that
if your kicker goes cold, you're screwed. You just get
a new one. There's no coach who comes out to
practice and says, hey, keep your left arm straight in
(11:20):
the backswing right, and then you get fixed. These guys
go off the rails and you don't hear from them again,
and then they come back and they're hot for a year. Right.
So the forty nine ers get Eddie Panero after they
used a third round pick on Jake Moody and he
bombed out. They'll ride Panero until he becomes Jake Moody, right,
And so that's the volatility of this and that's what
the Rams are at. They're kicking. They're kicker right now.
(11:41):
You know, They've got a guy that they brought in
through the year. He looks like Craig Arrell out there,
you know, playing for you to Seahawk fans, you know,
And it's just like that's the nature of special teams
for most of these teams. Now, Seattle does have a
little bit of a I think Seattle's got some kind
of vinegar to their roster, Like they got some of
these guys. They get a mentality about him that I
(12:02):
think shows. But if you don't have Shaheed just to
take it all away, then you don't get that play right.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Right, Sando, this is gonna be a maybe a hot
button topic.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I mean, DK Metcalf, I'm sure you saw that whole thing.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I mean, yeah, the dude is an absolute beast when
it comes to what he's capable of. And yet there's
times where you're like what are you thinking. That's another
one yesterday where he ends up kind of trying to
take a swipe and a fan. That's got to be
they're going to suspend him for that, wouldn't you imagine?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I would think so. Now, I've have heard some people say, hey,
a lot of times, that's a that type of thing's
a fine or whatever. I don't I don't know what's
going to happen in the league. You can't always figure
him out. But I would think you got to draw
a pretty hard line there right against making contact with
or threatening man or to a fan. I think it's
a would be a positive thing for the league if
there was a high price right here in the playoffs stretch,
(12:53):
just because players. Everyone's got to know that's a that's
a no no. You know, that's that's messing with things,
you know, the the brand and the and the way
people feel about the league.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Yeah, yeah, you know. Another thing, Green Bay, what's what's
going on with Jordan Love there? What do you make
of that? Of course, Michael Parsons they made the big acquisition.
He's out for the year. But that's another team that
you know that they're right now, they're the last wild
card entrant. But what's your assessment of them?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
A couple of things. One in the context of that
division has changed, you know, I just Ben Jonson's got
to going. They've got some I mean, Dan Campbell, they're
having their issues, but he sort of has an ethos
to them. I feel like there's some teams in that
division who have liked their head coach as much or
more as Green Bay likes theres and get more personality
from their guy that Green Bay does. That's an interesting
(13:49):
big picture thing to me when you talk about the
totality of the team. I think their roster's been great,
but they've been super young, and I think you get
inconsistency with that. Now you take away you know, Michael Parsons,
I think that's huge because they've always been this team.
I don't care, you know, if it was Rogers or
far now Jordan Love where there. They're vitals on offense
(14:12):
when their quarterbacks healthy are really good. But there's always
something in the defense, or the and or the special
teams that comes up to buy them. And I feel
like that's still their team. You know, we saw it.
They get had an onside kick. It's impossible to recover
an onside kick nowadays, guys, right, I mean they land
up for an onside kick, you're like, yeah, I'm gonna
go take a bathroom break. It's just like a little
and who gets it on them? If you had to
(14:34):
pick one team before this weekend, who would allow an
onside kick recovery to help lose the game? You'd pick
Green By right, We've seen it happen before, and it's like,
to me, there's some issue with that. With the roster construction.
They've tried, hiring a good special teams coach all of that.
Is it a mentality, a roster construction, a combination of
those things. Matt Lafleur just made it sound like, hey,
(14:56):
it's bad luck a couple of special teams plays. You know,
they were sort of poking around it if he was gonna,
you know, make a change, like Sean McVay didn't fire
the coach. But it's always something with them.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
To me, yeah, it does like it did feel like
it's always something with them.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
All right. I got one more for you before we
got a break.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
If you got a vote MVP, who's your MVP of
the league at this point?
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Yeah, you know, I think it's probably I do have
a vote, you know, but I think Stafford's had a
really great season. Now, you know, he doesn't have a
lot of the rushing production, but to me, that's almost
more impressive when you've got to do it all with
your armor. I think he's been outstanding. I think they've
been probably the most consistent offense in the league this year. So,
you know, I have thought that Drake May and even
(15:41):
at different times Josh Allen have a case for that.
But to me, Stafford's probably a leader in the clubhouse.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yep, yeah, I would imagine too. I was Drake May
with the way he was playing last night, and I mean,
it just seems odd to me. This season seems weird
where there's all these teams that are twelve eleven, you know,
even tens, and yet nobody's really kind of just surfaced
as the clear cut favorite, even though maybe the Rams
have been the one that have done it the most
and they got the biggest name at quarterback. Maybe that's
(16:11):
where I would be, So I'm with you on that. Well,
thanks Sando. I appreciate you. Got any any fun plans
for Christmas?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
We do, Yeah, we're gonna have you know, now that
our boys are older, you know, there's work schedules involved
and all kinds of stuff, but we've got it all
figured out. We're going to have family together and uh uh,
really looking forward to it. This is a it is
just a great week. And and for an end season
work week, it's a great week. Things change, you know,
there's people aren't in the office. It's it's nice.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, I got the inside track. I was talking to
Santa for my own kids, and he said, you were
good this year, so you should get whatever it was
that you sent to him on your list.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
That's a great I thought you were saying I was
good this year. I mean I don't get anything because
I'm you're good. You know you're good. You don't need anything.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
No, no, no, I don't care how old we get.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
We still need Santa to hook us up, right, and
if we were good, good boys and girls.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So yeah, you were, he gave.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
He gave actually two thumbs up, said sand Oh yeah,
definitely on the nice list. So so congratulations on that,
and enjoy your Christmas and enjoy your family, man, and
we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Okay, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Thank you, Thanks Mike.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
All right, there's Mike Sando.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
It's our segment Mike Sandal, brought to you by Hunt Services.
Get a plumber, an electrician, heating, a cooling expert. You
can get him to your doorstep for only forty nine bucks.
So you got to get on the horn, and Paul Hunts,
is that it?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
That's it, that's it. That's the only horn. Oh, yours
is better what I got? Howl horn sounded Viking hornish?
Speaker 5 (17:39):
Which I got a Viking?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Did it sound Viking horn?
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's on a ship on a foggy morning.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
And when I'm looking at you do it doing it? Yeah,
I'm taking back about twelve hundred years.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yes, I don't normally, we don't normally do this zoom thing.
And I'm realizing doing this thing. You look great, Hugh,
but I have a lot of white in my beard.
Note is it's the lighting?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Is that what it is? Lighting?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
They say the camera it's twenty pounds. It adds twenty
years to me. So anyway, all right, on the other
side of the break here, we're going to dive into
We dove into in our first segment a little bit
about this, but we're gonna get hughes take a little
bit more on the college football playoffs. So up next
at Sports Radio ninety three point three kg RFM.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
The the season, it was a lot.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, there's a lot of halls being decked right there.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
I didn't even tell you who sings that one because
it was just a generic one on the thing we're
allowed to use and play everywhere.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Oh yeah, a lot.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
They didn't do a bad job with that.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
No, I mean I don't. I don't really have a
I don't have the same list.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That Hume Millan does. By the way, welcome back to
the show.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
We got Humilan sitting in for us today and and bringing,
you know, deck in the halls with us, and and
he'll break down all kinds of Christmas music. I don't
really have that. I just kind of like it all
when it's when it's time to be played, and then
I don't like any of it when it's not time
to be played.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Is it time to be played all through December?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I would say yeah, I would say you can even
start after Thanksgiving. I just basically I don't know for
sure if you know this or not. I I do
a show with two people that are very premature on
their celebration and at times overly overly celebratory on certain things.
You know, you know how Chuck is with the draft,
to the point that even calls it draft. Miss it's
(19:49):
not a holiday, it's just a draft, and it's a
cool draft. Yeah, he's holiday as well.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Maybe maybe I'm wrong then, I mean, everybody else loves it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm gonna stay in my wrong lane.
I think that Christmas stuff happens after Thanksgiving, not before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
That's the way that I feel like I'm getting really
lumped in here because I did not put up a
Christmas tree until the day after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I didn't put up a single Christmas ornament this day
after abnormal for you.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, yes, typically you put it up in like November sometimes, Yes,
So you you have lumped yourself in there. Okay, I'll
give you credit for holding off until the proper time. Hugh,
when did you put yours in? Did you put your
Christmas tree up before?
Speaker 5 (20:33):
I've always been gotta be after Thanksgiving. This is the
first No, this is the first year. It was a
late Thanksgiving and I'm like, and my wife wanted to
put it up I'm like, hey, A, choose your battles.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Okay, I didn't want to.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
I just defer and then be Actually, I kind of
liked the idea. I liked the tree and so okay,
oh yeah, so I'm worth I kind of classical all
around the mill at home this.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, okay, Well you know what else is you got
for Christmas? President?
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Is you got the college football playoffs, and so we
did get our first round games in. I'm not gonna
lead you anywhere in particular other than the idea of
James Madison versus Oregon holding their own ish against the
backups or the guys that Oregon brought in after it
kind of got out of hand and Tulane got absolutely
whooped up bound it. Do you like the way in
(21:25):
which these guys had their opportunity on the big stage.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Well, I don't like the competition any more than anybody
else does. I'm you know, I've got my text blowing up,
and I agree with everybody. I mean, I would have
much rather seen Notre Dame or Texas in those games.
But to me, I just I look at the college
(21:53):
football Playoff and if they were to try to eliminate
group of five teams. You're talking about that is anti
competitive collusion, which is a red flag and anti trust court.
And the NCAAA has already grossly miscalculated and got horrible
(22:13):
legal advice in the Allston versus NCAA. Basically that was
just pedly little education related compensation like laptops or computers
or musical instruments for music majors, like little Piddley stuff.
And Allston wonted. The NCAA should have just left well
(22:35):
enough alone. But the NCAAA appealed it to the appellate court.
They lost again, and then the NCAAAAA appealed it to
the Supreme Court where they lost nine to nothing. So
those facts alone should convince you of my claim that
they got horrible legal advice. Well, what was the consequence?
(22:56):
All the things you don't like about college football? Then nil,
rampant transferring, revenue sharing, all those things that many fans
don't like about it. It was all because the amateurism
argument got knocked out by the Supreme Court. And so
now on anti trust grounds, let me repeat that, on
(23:16):
anti trust grounds, So you want to miscalculate again, and
you want to let the group of five bring up
a class action suit or a coordinated suit against the
college Football Playoff, and the power for what you could
have is a situation where you have federal court mandates,
(23:39):
a total restructuring and greater inclusion. How about not two
of those games, but five or six of those games.
How about revenue distribution? How about triple damages on any
financial injury. So I just think I would tell my friends,
and I did that for me. The best way to
(24:03):
handle it. It's not a twelve team playoff. We used
to have Nope, no playoff. Nineteen eighty four, Washington Huskies
lost eleven sixty to eleven forty to BYU, and it
was the closest vote from a percentage of the second
team to the first team. It was the closest vote
(24:23):
in the history of the AP and the only one
that surpassed that in terms of close vote was Washington
versus Miami seven years later. But at least Washington won
half of the title in that one. So then we
went to a two team So we went from NOPE,
no teams to a two team BCS. Then we went
(24:44):
to a fourteen and that was better, right, A two
team bs BCS was better than just voting and then
a four team playoff was better than the two team bcs.
And now we have a twelve team playoff. No, no, no,
not so fast. We don't have a twelve team playoff,
a ten team playoff, right, we have a ten team playoff?
Plus cover your ass and JMU and two Lane or
(25:09):
cover your ass, make sure you don't land in anti
trust court. Just think of it as a ten. It
will probably be it twelve or fourteen or sixteen soon,
but ten is better than four. And think of it
like this, and I can say it real simple. Oregon
and Ole Miss gotta buy and they chose to scrimmage,
(25:31):
just like when Mike Tyson is going to have a fight,
he has a sparring partner. They just chose to have
a sparring partner a scrimmage against JMU and two Lane.
That's the best way that I would advise to think
of it, because I don't like the competition either, But
I also don't want to have six of these games
(25:54):
and all the other consequences that could come down. So
that's my take on those two teams involvement.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'm with him, I'm with you, and for what it's worth,
I mean me coming from like a small school of
anai school. I'll go to my grave with the idea
of I would have loved to have played l Shoes
who won the college national championship. I would have loved
to have played them, had a chance to see now
they might have whooped us. I don't think they necessarily
would have whooped us, but they might have beat us.
(26:20):
And typically that's the way that it would be. Is
the underdogs, these small, smaller schools are not going to
match up against the big dogs, especially now with the
guys getting paid the.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Way that they are. And yet I want to give
them a chance.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I just don't necessarily want to come at the in
a way in which it is right now. Where a
couple teams basically, if you had lucked out and got
the five seed or the six seed, you end up
getting to buy and and you know, some of the
other teams have tough matchups. Alabamas didn't have a cake walk,
and neither did the Miami Texas A and M game.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Well, we talked about Alabama and Oklahoma, just touching briefly.
We're up against the break. You know one thing that
the Miami Texas A and M game was I thought
a really good game, obviously a defensive struggle. Miami missed
a lot of field goals where they could have extended
(27:13):
the score. But on the other hand, an m they
had almost double the first downs, they had more than
double the passing yards, they had twenty six more plays,
more time of possession, Miami controlled the line of scrimmage.
But that game could have gone anywhere. But I will
want to say, you know, the people are going to
(27:34):
say secver versus the other conferences. Just keep this in mind.
ACC had one team in the playoff, Miami. They were
playing the number three ranked team. But go look at
the seedings of the college football Playoff. The Texas A
and M was the third SEC. So I know there'll
(27:55):
be conclusions drawn at the end and along the way
about how the conferences are doing, But just keep that
in mind. That was SEC number three losing to ACC
number one in a game that went down to the
fifty ninth minute.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, well, I mean I think that the argument.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I don't think it's an argument if the SEC is
a better conference than most of the others, and on
any given year, this year might be another one. Yeah, well,
the Big ten could say, well, we won the National Championship,
National championship last year, and we got the number one
and two teams this year. They could say, well, we're better,
but top to bottom their top I don't think, yeah,
I don't think that the I don't think there's argument three. Yeah,
(28:35):
I don't think the argument of which conference is better
from top to bottom is really even an argument. In
Texas A and M being the third team out of
the SEC kind.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Of just almost proves that point to some degree. And
yet I think if you.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Took the top three teams in the Big ten, they'd
be the best, because I think you'd have Indiana, Ohio,
Satan Oregon. I think that they'd be the better than
the top three even of the SC them. It might be,
it might be comparable. But if you start going down
to like like LSU is the tenth number ten team
in the SEC. If LSU is your tenth best team,
(29:10):
I mean, think of the teams from the SEC that
didn't make the player. They had five teams in the playoffs,
and uh, think of the ones that didn't make it Texas, Yeah, Vanderbilt, Mi, Zuri, LSU,
like uh uh, you start getting into the middle and
down at the bottom, even Arkansas, they could drop five
hundred yards on your ass. Mississippi State looked like the
(29:32):
dregs of the SEC are a lot better than the
dregs of the other conferences, So so maybe not quite
as top heavy, but but the depth of the conference,
I don't think it's there's any comparison. SEC is the
number one's conference in football one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
On the other side of the break, we're gonna dive
into something. I want to get huge perspective on whether
or not this is a concern should be yes, no, maybe,
So stick around here at Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJRFM. We got another hour plus here to get
into some stuff. We don't have a lot of time
in this segment because we kind of blew through the
break on the last one. So I'm just gonna get
right to you. Puka Nakua, he's a snut. I mean
(30:11):
he has been basically since he got in there. We
know shit, he's playing with Sean McVay and Matt Stafford
and he just is a strong dude. And yet the
way in which he goes out there and puts up
the numbers that he put up, I mean, you know,
to go out and have twelve catches for two hundred
and twenty five yards and a couple of touchdowns. I
don't know for sure if anybody expected that against a
(30:32):
Mike McDonald defense. Is that just something that's gonna happen
from time to time or would you expect a top
caliber defense to be able to take away the biggest
threat to especially would his counterparts out.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Yeah, I was surprised. I mean, the Seahawks defense this season,
for the entire season, have given up seven completions of
forty yards or more. And four of those seven were
Thursday night against the Rams. And of those, uh, three
of them were Tapuka Nakua and now there you know.
(31:07):
One was against a two deep one, one was against
a three deep zone they had they beat Witherspoon on
a corner route against man Demand's I mean, he's just
he You don't think he's fast, but he's fast enough.
He's extremely strong, got to be one of the strongest
receivers in the NFL. He's very bright. But but his strength,
(31:31):
his strong hands, his strong body, you know, breaking tackles,
what have you. He's a he's a load. I mean,
there's a there's a fullback type of component to his
game of physicality. So nobody ever saw this. The Rams
didn't see it. They wouldn't have waited to the fifth
round to draft him. It's just been stunning. He's a
former Husky for a year before he went to b YU.
(31:53):
But yeah, he's a wagon, he's a he's a hell
of a load.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Well, we've seen, you know, receivers over the course of time.
You know, big guys that are strong, and obviously there's
a lot that goes into that after the catch and
then the contested catches. Being a block out the way
that we always talk about tight ends being able to
use their body, he kind of does that even though
he's a wide receiver. So yeah, I'm kind of curious.
I mean, when it comes to like the strong hands.
(32:19):
One of those first catches that he had was like
he was defended very well, and you yeah, he just
has a knack for being able to just take it
from you, like, Nope, that's my ball and I don't
care if you're blanketing me or not.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
Well, one of those the fifty four yard are in
the first half, the Seahawks were playing a two D
five under zone, and some people refer to it as
a country zone when you just kind of spot drop
and Matthew Stafford he's the front runner for the MVP,
and he threw with such great anticipation over the top
of Ernest Jones. Then they came back and he had
(32:54):
a similar type of that was kind of a what's
called a bender and a constant people some people call
clipper the corner leads the post. But then he had
a dagger concept where the slot clears out the safety
and then a deep end route comes from the outside.
Ernest Jones was one of the culprits in that zone
(33:15):
defense as well. I think that where they got better
at some point in the game is when they did
a little bit more pattern matching with their with their
zones instead of just to the spot. They saw defenders
kind of really looking, you know, to work the guy
in your zone a little bit more sticky as opposed
(33:37):
to just eyeballing the quarterback the entire time. Put your
eyes on the receiver, take a grasp of the past concept,
and then you know, a tick later, then gets your
eyes on the quarterback. That was adjustment that helped as
they had a better second half than they had in
the first half.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, well, I mean they're gonna get another opportunity.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Probably, well, we don't know that for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
We will see how the whole bracket matches up, and
there's still work to be done to figure that whole
thing out. But oil boy, they gotta figure something out.
I don't think you're gonna win a whole heck of
a lot of ballgames just letting them be able to
do the way that they did. So we're gonna come back.
We got a break here, but we're gonna come back
with some coach breed love. We got all kinds of
big time topics to get into here. At Sports Radio
(34:22):
ninety three point three kjr FM,
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