Furness Show 10-13: Mariners big Weekend, Mollywhop Monday, Hugh Millen

What a crazy weekend in baseball. Ian got mean tweets from Jacksonville, but he won in the end. He was NOT rooting to be wrong this time.  Mollywhop Monday! Chris Crawford and Nathan Bishop join the show with two amazing Mariners' games to react to. The guys are having the most enjoyable experience of their lives. What must Toronto be thinking right now? Things are playing extremely well in Seattle's favor.  Mollywhop continues!  Hugh Millen, Hardcore Football! Hugh breaks down everything we say in the Seahawks' win over the Jaguars yesterday. Hugh breaks it down unlike any other.  FACT OR FICTION!  Hugh jumps back on to finish up the breakdown of the Seahawks win and where they stand in the NFL right now.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're in a malliwop at one twenty today for a
couple of segments we'll get with Chris and Nate and
may even include Andrews at some point in the show.
We'll see if we'll see how that goes. I'm still
we're still debating that. But we may have the other
half of the Mariner's postcast on Lockdown Network with Chris Crawford.
Mister Hurst join us for a chime in here or there.
But the Molly Whopper is brought to you by Simply
Seattle Simply Seattle dot com Mollywop fifteen to check out.

(00:23):
There is no better place to get your gear for
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I'm be surprised if they didn't. That's how much they're
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(00:43):
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snow call Me Casino and Hotel. So we'll give it
the guys in a second, get their thoughts on what
happened Friday and then yesterday. It's kind of weird you

(01:24):
get like two massive games to react to, the clincher
on Friday and the win yesterday in game one of
the ALCS. Yeah, I that we'll just get into more
of that with those guys at that point, and like
I said, Andrews is probably going to join a little
bit as well. Look ahead of the week, pitching matchups
have been or at least Mariner's starting rotation for the

(01:45):
first few games is out there, so we'll get to
all of that Walter Goes today. Logan Gilbert, I'd say
he's got a high bar to surpass what Bryce Miller
did yesterday. But we'll get to that coming up as
well with the molly operas with Chris and Nate. Just
a weird, weird world we live in right now. It's
October thirteenth, I believe. Yeah, October thirteenth, and we're still

(02:06):
talking baseball and we're still mollywopping. Normally, if we're talking
with Chris and Nate on October thirteenth, it would be
because something bad happened and like someone got fired, traded, whatever.
That's not the case. We're talking about the Alcs and
a baseball team here now being three games away from
doing something that has never been been done in forty
nine years in Seattle forty eight previous season. This is

(02:29):
year forty nine, and that's going to a little thing
they call the World Series. One game to none lead
and remember this is the best of seven, so it's
a one game to non lead in the best of
seven Game two today in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm Canadian Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to my mom and all the Canadians out there.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Give me more of an accent. Come on, let's go.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Hobby Thanksgiving Mom. Hey, anyway, we get Well, we'll talk
tomorrow Tomorrow, ca Gary, Calgary. Well, yeah, so they're in
Toronto today and then back here in Seattle Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Friday would be if necessary, so would Sunday
Game six if necessary in Toronto, and a week from

(03:11):
today would be Game seven when the Seahawks are playing
Monday Night Football and the crack and are playing and
we just have too much. We just need to postpone
something along the way. But the timing for Monday Night
football could not be worse. If there's a game, I mean,
that is just the worst. Not today, it's Monday Football,
next Monday, because if Thursday games, if there's a game seven,

(03:33):
it's next Monday when the Seahawks are playing host of
the Texans. Now I wouldn't be here luckily in a sense,
it would be in Toronto. But yeah, way we go.
I gotta do this. So and Jess, you were out
when I brought this up last week, So I did
I did a thing. Well, you weren't out. You were here.
I think you were working softy show. We Jackson was
out last week. But so we're kind of we're musical

(03:53):
producer chairs. Last week, but I was telling Andrews last week,
I did a I did a hit with I did
it hit it with the jackson Jacksonville Jaguars flagship radio station.
I got up early to do it because they're on
the East Coast. I was a nice guy. Good for you, man.

(04:14):
You think you think there's cheerleaders on sports radio in
this town? You know, on this station? What have you?
These guys were retreat fat Tony and his and his partner.
So this is you're gonna hear what I said. They
asked me a question, you hear my response. I'm gonna
tell you this. I was inundated with Twitter response, I

(04:39):
mean mean tweets beyond belief from the Jacksonville fans. But
guess who had the Guess who had the last words.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think Seattle's biggest advantage potentially will be in the matchup.
Seattle's biggest advantage potentially link. Seattle's big advantage potentially will
be in the match up against the Jags on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Quarterback, simple, quarterback, Your guy's not very good? You think so?

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Huh Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
I think the whole league knows that. I'm sorry, I
hate this. I hate to be that guy, but but
I I mean this, I don't know. He's he's an
odd dude man, Like there's so much there, you think,
but you know, I don't know. I just I think
Sam's a little bit better right now. And I'm I'm

(05:34):
Lawrence has just got to be a name. But for
you guys, isn't me? Like he's got to drive you
guys crazy at times? He wins a big game.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
But so that was you think? So yeah, actually I
know that. Yeah, I kind of know.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
So that was great.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I know, so weird. Let me check my mentions again
my notifications? Was this before the game? Oh yeah, like
right after that. Like so Wednesday of last week, I
just just looked down at my notifications. I had like
a hundred from you know, people call me out tagging
Trevor Lawrence in him like he really cares, you know,
and all this.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Hey, do you hear what this guy said about you?

Speaker 1 (06:09):
That's what it is. Strange last twenty four hours.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Crickets, Yeah, nothing going on, crickets, dude, vall.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
I heard more ce fucks yeah, and I heard duval.

Speaker 6 (06:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
I didn't hear want of Duval Jacksonville. And here's the
best thing. You guys are all. We appreciate the business,
We appreciate the fact that all you guys are tuning
in last week from Jacksonville on the iHeartRadio app pre
set number one. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Please consider it a hate listen.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
I and they love it. Trust me, it was. I
looked at my mentions after the next three shows. They're
all over it.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
That's so great.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
You should hear what Cosell thinks of him off the record.
I mean, I don't know if I'll get into with
you hardcore football later today or not, but really, duvall,
like you were stunned when I said quarterback was the
biggest advantage.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
It was.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's nine close.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
It's this guy is I mean, the hair's great, but
the deer in the headlights, Duval is just remarkable. Buddy.
You you got sacked seven times, one time when you
held the ball for almost seven seconds and you and you,
that's on you. That's not your Your offensive line must

(07:27):
hate you. God, they must hate No. She hadn't have
to stunt it. We'll break it down harcow football later.
She had to do a lot of different games up front,
but they got I mean they had I think they
officially it was thirteen pressures. They had seventeen hit seven sacks.
I mean, dude, you're supposed to be mobile. Quick decision,
you know how, you don't get sacked to make a
quick decision. Give her the ball. You know who did that,

(07:49):
Baker Mayfield last week, and Sam Darnold, Shan Dartell did
it too. That is that is something I noticed though,
really quick. Yeah, the opponents that the Seahawks face in
the line two weeks in terms of the quarterback, specifically
night and day. It makes a massive difference. And Tampa
was shorthanded when they played as well. So let's just

(08:10):
let's just look around the league. How is Cincinnati without
Joe Burrow? H Okay, how let's go through how how
would uh Baltimore be without Lamar Jackson?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Also?

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Pretty bad? Really bad?

Speaker 4 (08:24):
Right?

Speaker 7 (08:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:25):
And and but you have your guy. You drafted him
number one overall, you signed to an extension. Seattle went
out and picked up Sam Darnold for next to nothing,
and people here were critical. They were, okay, they were
one for what one for twelve? I believe on third
down with Seattle yesterday, mostly because the run game was
non existent again, but at the end they needed to
get a first down. You didn't want to give the

(08:47):
ball back to Sunshine there, But what did what did
we do? Cl Clint Kubiak who prop Clint Kubiak didn't
have a great game, I don't think. And the decision
to give more carries to Charbonnet as a posed to
Walker is still the most mind boggling thing that this
organization does. What is Nobody knows, nobody knows, nobody understands it.
I think I think McDonald just had their first kid,

(09:12):
so it's not like he's dating his daughter or anything.
I don't know what the hell is going on. It
makes no sense. But when they needed a play, when
they needed a play, Both teams needed plays when they
when Seattle needed to play. After a great defensive stand
against Sunshine, Lawrence and Douvall, what happens Kubiak dials it
up and Sam Darnald to a J Barner on a

(09:34):
great play fake thanks for coming, Yeah, okay, yeah, So again,
what's the biggest Douvall? If you're listening today on the
iHeartRadio app, thank you. What's the biggest advantage? What position quarterback.
It's quarterback, and for Seattle this year, that's gonna be
the case a lot of days. It's gonna say, im Darling.
All right, we'll break it down with humail and coming
up at two o'clock today. That'll be fun. I'm not
much of it. I told you so, guy. You know

(09:55):
I don't get involved in the Twitter stuff most of
the time. Last week was fun. Now, I'll be honest
with you. I was a little stressed in that game.
I didn't wrong. I didn't need Yeah, I know the
show that roots to be wrong, not rooting me wrong yesterday. No, no,
and we were right. Okay, we'll take a break, come back.
Molliwap Monday, brought to you by Simply Seattle, Simply Sattle
dot com. That's right, Nathan and Chris are here. We're

(10:18):
getting hitt you ready for Game two of the Mariners
and the Blue Jays and the Alcs October thirteenth, and
we're having the Mollywhoppers on. Not for an emergency podcast,
no for a real session that's coming up next.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
It's Monday, and that means one thing. It's time to
mollywah uncensored, unscripted, and filled with the passion that all
Mariners fans can relate to, and brought to you by
the company that's all about Seattle Sports, Simply Seattle. Visit
simply Seattle dot com for the best Mariners gear. Now
with the Mollywop boys, Nathan Bishop with the light bet

(10:58):
and Chris Crawford. My oh, why, here's the infernets.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
All right, here we go. It's a Mollywop Monday on
October thirteenth, twenty twenty five. And as I mentioned to
Andrews and to Jessiman in the first segment, if we're
doing this normally over the last this is year let's
see twenty twenty three four? Is this your six for us?
Is that right?

Speaker 8 (11:25):
It's like your five and a half.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Five and a half because that first year Kevin didn't
like you guys and we were only on part of
the time.

Speaker 9 (11:32):
Should have followed his instincts with that one.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Probably should have. It's why a PD now somewhere, But yeah, no,
because that was the year's blame Kevin. He's like maybe
every other week with those guys. That's what he said.
That was his quote, not mine anyway. Yeah, so year
five and a half of if we've had you guys
on this time of the year. It's because something not
good was happening, like someone got fired, they're not renewing

(11:55):
a contract. Hey, Oscar's going to LA We'll just figured
it out whatever it is. No, no, Jerry Depoto talk
to the media, et cetera. Oh god, we might be
right around the two or three year. It was a
three year. Yes, is it three years ago?

Speaker 9 (12:10):
Believe it's two It was after the twenty twenty three season,
if I remember correctly.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, that's right, because I was coming. I know exactly where.
That's one of those things, you know where you were at.
I was in Cincinnati Airport and he was just starting
the press conference. We get on the plane and I
get off the we land and sea tack. Five hours later.
I turned on my phone and I'm like, whoa, what happened? Well? My,
how things have changed?

Speaker 6 (12:32):
My?

Speaker 1 (12:32):
How things have changed?

Speaker 4 (12:33):
Have they?

Speaker 6 (12:33):
Not?

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Huh my? How things have changed? Mariners have a one
game to none leading the ALCS. They're in the ALCS
Because Jess, you want to turn your mic down. There
we go, I name to screen.

Speaker 10 (12:47):
Name the same one.

Speaker 7 (12:49):
Yeah, all right, let's let's put it this way, because
everyone has random names. They make when they joined the
stream yard that Chris and Jess used the EXAs Zach
and it.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Has to do with somebody last night. We'll just leave
it with that. Okay, all right, boy, get your minds
out of the I'm sorry, we're not getting Chris back.
I see the laughing. We're not getting it back. I
get I can just tell you right now, we're not
getting right. No, No, that's all good. All right. Where
are we at? Okay, So here we are, Friday fifteen.
Get to get to the alcs yesterday? Oh boom, nice

(13:25):
little win. Give up a leadoff home run to Springer.
We've never seen that before, ever, never The buzzer was
working last night. Apparently knew it was coming. Didn't work
after that though. They must unplugged it, plugged it and
so and so away we went after that, Manyers, get
a win. There's a ton to discuss. We're gonna get
into all of that as always. I'll bring Andrews in
probably in the second segment, andres for the postcast preview

(13:47):
of and everything like that. But let me let me
just go through it. Guys. We always do this. We're
gonna still do this. Opening statements and initial thoughts. And
it's not just a week that we have to talk about,
it's I don't know, two massive games. Nathan Bishop fire away.

Speaker 9 (14:01):
Yeah, I'm gonna start throwing this out to the good
people of Ballard, Washington. You guys have a statue of
Vladimir Lennon there, and as he said, there are decades
where nothing happens, and there were weeks where decades happened,
and good God, have decades happened this week. I was
just recapping everything has happened since the last time we spoke.

(14:22):
The Marriors have played I believe, four playoff games. The
game on Friday Night is I don't think it's the
greatest game in franchise history, but if you're younger than
I am by about five or six years, you can
call it that. And I'm not gonna argue with you,
because that was a game that I will remember for
the rest of my life, even though I was at

(14:45):
a bar and parts of it are a little bit
hazy admittedly between innings like eleven and on, but that
was one of the most special of sporting experiences that
I've had in decades. This is the kind of thing
that we've had now this past week feels like the
kind of thing that I if the Mayors don't make
the playoffs for the next twenty years, this past week

(15:05):
is gonna sustain me. Enough has happened this past week
that I'm gonna still have joy and memory from this
past week. This is gonna last me for the rest
of my life. And that's what playoff baseball does. And
it's I spoke about this last week. It's so unrelenting
because guess what they're playing in what a half an hour? Like,
we just went through this again yesterday.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
You guys.

Speaker 9 (15:28):
This is everything that I've ever wanted it to be.
Watching this community, watching our region come together through this
experience has been one of the most enjoyable sporting experiences
of my adult life. Flat out, full stop. I'm just
having so much fun, Chris.

Speaker 8 (15:43):
Chris, I am just having a blast, and I will
you know, I talked about this before Game five and
I'm a wreck. I'm still a wreck before all of
these games. And what's funny is so yesterday I was
the least nervous I had been for a Seattle MARINPL
season game for my entire life. And I know there's
not a ton of them. I believe I counted they've

(16:04):
played forty four of them. But I wasn't nervous at
all because I just thought they were playing with house
money and it was going to be a loss, right.
I just figured, Hey, this is gonna be one of
those games where thank god it's a best of seven,
because this was best of three, best of five, this
loss would hurt a lot more. Well, now, Bryce Miller
shut me the hell up real quick, and Bryce Miller
pitched like the guy who in twenty twenty four was

(16:25):
the Seattle Mariner's best pitcher. That was so fun. Friday
was so fun. I just want to offer something real
quick to everybody. I did this three years ago as well.
You're gonna see people hopping on the bandwagon. Embrace it.
Embrace the people hopping on the bandwagon.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Guys.

Speaker 8 (16:42):
It doesn't matter if they weren't fans in twenty twenty three.
It doesn't matter if they weren't fans in nineteen ninety seven.
It doesn't matter that you have Archimedes Poso rookie cards.
It doesn't matter that you still are mad that they
traded away Darren Bragg for Jamie Moyer, but they somehow
got that one right.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 8 (17:00):
Let everyone hop on, okay, let everyone experience this because
it makes the sport better, It makes the community better.
Ian you're talking all the time about how you want
to see the sport grow, and how these afternoon games don't.

Speaker 11 (17:12):
Help the sport grow.

Speaker 8 (17:13):
What helps the sport grow is a community watching this together.
What helps this community grow is seeing fifty thousand people
to one hundred thousand people hopefully when we have and
much more than that, when there's a World Series parade.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
I hope let it be. Let it be.

Speaker 8 (17:29):
You are not entitled to being a fan of the
Seattle Mariners. It's going to feel even better for you
because you've put up with the heartbreak. But let everyone
on the bandwagon. It's a hell of a lot more
fun when you do.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Chris has so well said, and I'm glad you said that,
because you know, as someone who spent many many years
and was intimately covering the Seahawks, especially during the heyday,
every road game, every home game, did miss one until
twenty twenty till the pandemic. Nothing pissed me off more
than when the self righteous media people would say and

(18:01):
even fans, oh, you're just twelve since twelve. Who cares?
Who cares? We went there's a parade in downtown Seattle,
and it's not crazy to say there was a half
a million people and that's what was awesome. And I
think that's the best thing about what's going on right
now with this baseball team is casual. Fans are enjoying it,

(18:26):
and it's bringing a world And I've I don't know
when it was, Andrews. Do you remember I brought this
up a few weeks ago something happened in our world
And I say, oh, it was on nine eleven. I
brought it up. Sorry, that's what it was. It was
nine to eleven. I said, there's We've never had a
country more divide than we have right now. And I
think you could say the same thing about a city,
no matter what city is in America. It's never been

(18:47):
more divided. But right now, what can bring cities and
towns together are sports and your love for a team,
even if you didn't have a love for that team
a month ago or the sport a month ago, it
brings everyone together. It's commonality. It's awesome. You know, walking
out of game what was it? Game two? At Team

(19:09):
Mobile on Sunday. On the Sunday, it was just the
vibe and see, first of all, it felt for the
first time ever, like since I was younger, like in
my twenties, it felt like downtown in that area was
not only safe, but it was there celebrating having fun.
No one was punching people out and whatever. It was
just we were all together and that's what sports should

(19:30):
be about. And yeah, the twelve versus twelve since twelve,
I'm like, you know, whoever you're saying that, I don't know.
Were you in Toronto for the game when the SEAHWX
play the Bills there you weren't, well, then you must
be a bandwagon jumper. Two, Like, shut up, and I
think what you said is true. I mentioned this on Friday.
It is my wife's birthday, and she's, you know, worth
the point in our lives, we're like celebrating birthdays. She's like,

(19:50):
we're happy to celebrate. It's great, we have a birthday.
But he's gonna move on. We're gonna do some stuff.
And she came to my son and I that morning
and she knows he's a huge fan. Went to game two.
You know, she knows that my daughter the school teacher
is a massive Mariners fan, and we were gonna do
something else and she came to me and my son
and she said, hey, you guys want to watch the game.

(20:10):
I get that, you know what, Let's all watch it together.
And we did for her birthday, made a great meal,
had both kids and their significant others over. It was
an awesome night. It lasted a lot longer than I
thought it would, but it was an awesome night. And
that to me kind of underscores what you just said, Chris. Like,
my wife's not a huge Mariners fan. She's a Witworth

(20:30):
Pirates football fan. When her kid was playing, that was
about it, right, and she's a Kok fan. But we
all watched together, so enjoy together, enjoy it together. I
think that's so well put. I hate some of the
things with that team and the organization and ownership and
how they've treated some people in my business that I
have to work with. I hate them with a passion.
Hate it. I mean, I can't express it strongly enough.
And I told myself last night, I've got to separate

(20:52):
that from Dan Wilson, my favorite. I love Bullpen guys.
I'm a rolly fingers guy. Stuff like that. Yeos has
got he's got just bowling ball size. You know what, man,
I love it. And that's you got to separate it, Geno,
same thing, like separate that, and That's what I'm gonna do.
And and so you know, that's the point in time

(21:14):
where at Andrew's real quick, what did this weekend mean
to you? I mean everything I've been waiting. I'm twenty
eight years old, so I was four years old when
two thousand and one happened, and I obviously wasn't alive
when ninety five happened. So this kind of last couple
of year stretch has been the only time I've been
able to really enjoy a good Mariner baseball team.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
And twenty twenty two was fun.

Speaker 7 (21:34):
But this year feels different that that kind of felt
like we were just happy to be there. We kind
of talked about that a couple of times. This year
feels like that we're making something special out of it.
And yeah, I had different experiences in each one of
the Alds games. And I was actually here because I
had to run my own post game show and then
the kJ R post game show. Lots of post games

(21:54):
literally watching in your ce and the entirety of this
game by myself, and I honestly was excited for it
to be that. So it felt like I've been kind
of on my own with this Mariner fandom for a
long time, and I finally got to experience a little
bit of it last night with the win. I went
over to my family's house and watched it.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
And that's that's what she like, watching with Chris, watching
with Graham less and and you know, we've talked about
that a lot with Chris and Nate. Watching with your
kids and so that with your family. I don't want
to get into it now. Nathan alluded to it, and
I don't think there's really a right answer. Mark asked
me earlier about you know, biggest game. I think there's
a but I do think there's a difference between what
happened Friday and what happened in ninety five. Ninety five

(22:34):
we had so much uncertainty, we didn't have a ballpark.
I don't think they can in my old man opinion,
I don't think you can compare the two. But they're
both great in their own moments. And I don't even
know if it's a top five moment of all time.
Everyone's gonna score against the Angels might be over that
one as well. Rick Riz is maybe his best call ever.
But we'll leave it at that. Let's talk about the
the game coming up in a half hour. But even

(22:54):
looking back last night, let's just talk Bryce Miller, Chris.
Here's so, you've got rotation, it's Gilbert, It's it's the Rock,
It's Kirby and and and you know you've got all
it's woo, they all star all this. Then there's this
other guy. Yeah, and this other guy comes out yesterday
and absolutely deals gives up a home run because the

(23:16):
Buzzer worked a springer right off the get go, and
then nothing again. How big was that last night?

Speaker 8 (23:22):
Oh, it was so huge, and Andrews and I talked
about it, of course on the postcast. He has one
pitch that you know, he's trying to get in on springer.
Unfortunately it leaks out over the plate and Swinger puts
a good swing on it. The next guy draws a
twelve pitch walk that should have been a strikeout. Terrible
call by the Empire behind the plate, that should have
been out. Vlad Guerrero hits a piss missile right to

(23:43):
Julio and then he walked the next matter and I'm thinking, oh,
this is gonna be bad. If he can keep it
to two, you know, and maybe the offense can explode,
maybe maybe they'll be okay. But he can only give
up one more run. Well, not only did he got
give up one more run, he gave up one more
freaking base runner. That's what he did. He was sensational

(24:04):
and it was a reminder of guys. Bryce Miller was
the Mariner's best pitcher at the end of twenty twenty four,
easily their best pitcher in twenty twenty four. And that's
compliment because the guys who were also in that rotation
were pretty freaking good, but Bryce Miller was a wagon
for them. And he has pitched so well, and he
is also an example that, yeah, strikeouts are the best

(24:26):
thing you can get as a pitcher because you take
everything out of the way. You don't have to strike
out a ton of guys to be successful if you
can change eye levels like he has. And he changed
eye levels so well yesterday with the high fastball in
that low curve. He was so good and it's so encouraging,
not just for you know, Hey, this is the guy
you're probably gonna get in twenty twenty six, and it's

(24:48):
why your rotation is going to be awesome. But for
the rest of the series and for the rest of
hopefully another series after that, Bryce Miller deserves so much
credit for shutting down let's not I also forget. The
Blue Jays were absolutely dominant against the Yankees and one
of the best offenses at home in all of baseball period.

(25:08):
So to do that over six innings when I thought
two runs over four would have been a borderline miracle.
Thanks for shutting me the hell up, Bryce Miller.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
I love your muscle, Nathan. One of the things that's
great about the playoffs is we all come up with
these preconceived storylines and narratives and this is what's going
to happen, and we can kind of put put it
in a box. And you know, we've been saying for years,
just get to the playoffs because this starting rotation is
really good. They weren't good in the regular season. Guys
were either banged up or they just weren't as good
as they've been in the past. But on paper, it's

(25:39):
a really good rotation. And Nathan, if you're Toronto, what
must you be thinking right now, because Okay, their number
five just came out and shoved on us. Their number
one might be healthy for game five or six, and oh,
by the way, in between, you've got Kirby Gilbert and
the Rock. Like the storyline actually is playing out as
scripted for Seattle.

Speaker 9 (26:00):
Absolutely, And I think one of the things that we've
been talking about since the trade deadline that I think
I knew intellectually, but then watching that game play out yesterday,
it's not just that Seattle one, but just watching player
by player, lineup by lineup, just going through that game,
I'm like, well, Toronto's a good team. And I'm not
here to say that Toronto's a bad team. They're a

(26:20):
good team, but I'm watching them position by position, player
by player. You look at their rotation, you look at
their bullpen. Is this a team that I think I'm
intimidated by when I see what the Mariners are bringing
to the table. Absolutely not, which is why, to everyone's point,
yesterday's win is so huge because not only due to
the exhaustion that the Mariners should have been experiencing after

(26:42):
Friday's game, but just with Bryce Miller, who hasn't been
like not just not himself that he was last year,
but he was bad in twenty twenty five. He has
not been a fun pitcher to watch all season. There
has been maybe two or three starts where you feel
like you're seeing Bryce Miller, so to run into that,
and to Chris's point, you're not gonna get strikeouts against

(27:03):
this Blue Jays team. That's how you're going to beat
them is by getting weak contact and changing eye level
and getting uncomfortable swings. This is the team with the
lowest strikeout rate in the American League. That's how they work.
They put the ball in play and what Bryce did,
Chris hit it on the head. I think the game
yesterday switched when that Guerrero piss missile landed in Julio's glove,

(27:24):
because after that, I don't think Toronto hit a single
ball hard the entire rest of the night, and it
was because Bryce was so effective. So I think it's fantastic.
I feel like the opportunity for what they have here
in twenty minutes from now is they are going to
put this thing in a choke hold before it even
really gets going with a win today, and they're gonna
be staring down George Kirby, who has been a possessed

(27:46):
demon in the playoffs thus far, and Luis Castillo, who
has been absolutely wonderful in his steady self. So Toronto
has got to be all hands on deck and absolutely
terrified if they don't come out and win today's game.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, we talk so much about Google and you know, like, oh,
how can you beat scoobl four times? And as I
pointed out last week couple times on the air, Scooble
had to be thinking about that too, though, like, Hey,
can I really beat these guys all those times?

Speaker 4 (28:10):
You know?

Speaker 1 (28:10):
I can?

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Can?

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I mean, like he had to be thinking, like, is
Polanco gonna go yard on me again? I mean, I
think that's that mental side of the game certainly does
favor Seattle right now. This, of course, is Mollywap Monday,
brought to you by Simply Seattle simply Sall dot com. Hey,
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(28:32):
go win this thing. You can get all those T
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(29:15):
That's on right after the game's over. Right here in
nine three point three kd r FM, we'll take a break,
come back and kind of look ahead today's game, mitching
matchup and much more next.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
Now from the Star Rentals Sports Tests Jordan ninety three
point three kJ r FM Sports Headline.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Headline is brought to you by Frostbrewed cors Light. Choose
Chill Seahawks pulled out the winning Jacksonville twenty to twelve yesterday.
They are now four and two on the season a
crowded NFC and NFC West Next up Monday Night football
week from today against Houston at lumen Field, cracking at
two to zero for the first time ever late win
on Saturday, Jared McCann scoring with three seconds left to
go in overtime off of Matty Vineer's shot banged in

(29:57):
the rebound over the Vegas Golden Knight's good hockey team.
Nice start by the crack, and we'll find out how
real they are when they hit the road for six
straight starting tomorrow in Montreal, Quebec. Mike Benton on the
pregame three thirty Fits and al have the call for
you a drop of the puckets at four. Sounders beat
Real Salt Lake over the weekend, won nothing. Paul Rothrock
the only goal Huskies if you miss it. On Friday

(30:17):
thirty eight nineteen over Rutgers Von Williams was pretty good,
like through for like nine hundred yards, by the way.
Duck's lost on Saturday. Fiction, Uh, not just fiction, but
bad fiction. A lot of fiction. Cougar's were in it
till the very end against Ole Miss come up short
twenty four to twenty one. There three and three on
the season. Titans A fired head coach Brian Callahan won

(30:38):
and five starts to the season. Penn State fired head
coach James Franklin after three straight losses nine plus seasons
and he is out with the Nitney Lions lostock Seahawks.
Hugh Melon standing by Hardcourt Football, your.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Home for the twelfth man in the NFL proudly presents
hardcore Football with Hugh Mellon, brought to you by Hunt Services,
Lad on the Horn and Cole Hunts. Oh here's you
with the inf nets on Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ r FM.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
All right, here we go to o'clock hour. Welcome in
hardcore football. Hugh Milling. After a massive Seahawks win in Jacksonville.
The road warriors that are the Seahawks keep on winning, Hugh.
If you did you know this? Did you know, Hugh Millan,
did you know if the playoffs were to begin today?
The Seahawks are the number five seed in the NFC.
Huh how about that?

Speaker 11 (31:25):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Okay, h are you into that? That's not bad? Yeah,
we'll take that right, huh, we'll take that.

Speaker 11 (31:30):
Not bad. I think the division's there to get I
really do well. And you know, the forty nine ers.
I don't want to utter the words God bless them
on this station because nobody wants to bless them here.
But but I mean, there's got to be a corner
of you that that has a little bit of empathy

(31:50):
for what they're going through. But you know what a
sports or sports you know, that's their problem. It's not
my problem with your problem. So and then and then
we'll see what the Rams present. But I think that
I think there's a good chance Seattle could get on
a roll and take this division. But I thought that,
you know, the key for me yesterday was that here

(32:12):
I was more discouraged after the Tampa Bay game than
any other game since the Buffalo game from a year ago.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I won't revisit.

Speaker 11 (32:21):
That was thirty one ten win by the Bills and
they just dominated Seattle's defense. But what Seattle did in
the pass rush was really concerning. You could you could
explain away all the coverage mistakes by new people, but
the pass rush really was unforgivable. And as Mike McDonald

(32:43):
aptly said, you know too many mississippis, but this is
what the NFL stat portal says for against Tampa Bay.
The Seahawks had eight pressures yesterday against Jacksonville twenty three
obviously a sack against Baker Mayfield one sack seven yesterday.
How about this hits on the quarterback one against Tampa

(33:07):
Bay against Baker thirteen yesterday, thirteen hits on Trevor Lawrence.
And you know, as a consequence, they have the big
big plays passing plays fifteen plus ten by the Buccaneers
and just five yesterday. So just there's numbers everywhere that
support what your eyes told you, which was was really

(33:28):
dominant up front. And you know, I do want to
say that what Mike McDonald would say is that you
still have to make that happen through.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Defending the run.

Speaker 11 (33:41):
And they continue to defend the run and that get
allows them to get into those hunt positions and passing down.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, and I want to get yeah, I want to go.
Let's start there with the defense for a second, because
I thought, you know, it was interesting last week and
when we talked about this on hardcorew Football last week
and just the I mean watching guys run free for Tampa,
whether it was Igbuca or Auton or any other of
their receivers not named Mike Evans, who was out by
the way. I mean, it just it was just it

(34:10):
was it was incredible. But then yesterday, let's just the
sack numbers for a second. And here's what jumps out
at me. Drake Thomas the linebacker got the one on
the blitz. Obviously, DeMarcus Lawrence comes back two sacks for him,
Leonard Williams has half a sack, Bira Murphy has two,
Nuosu has one and a half for their seven total.
And yet it you know, it was a defensive line

(34:31):
or the edge guys so to speak. They're outside linebackers,
you know, and DeMarcus Lawrence getting there. But Hugh, what
was different about what they did to pressure Trevor Lawrence
and Jacksonville? What was what was different?

Speaker 11 (34:43):
Yet there was just a lot of different looks. I mean,
Trevor Lawrence was seeing a different front, a different personnel group.
They would they would protect different guys. I mean, sometimes
you would expect them to protect Shaq Griffin throw safety
over the top, but you know, sometimes they'd roll the
safety over the top of Josh Joe because he got

(35:03):
beat as well. So it wasn't like uh uh uh.
He was a guy that you always wanted to have
in one on one content situations. I think they they
understood the middle of the field. They handed off. Ernest
Jones was much better in in the middle of the field.
Drake Thomas was much better in the middlefield. Em and
worry uh and and uh, safety's coming down Tyle Cootta

(35:25):
when he came down, Uh in a disguise coverage and
he had the hook zone. They pattern read, they just met.
There's there's a pattern read pattern match zone pattern match
where they kind of say, okay, let me redirect. This
is the concept I think you're running and then and
then they get their eyes on the quarterback. They were
just a lot better than that. And so in each

(35:47):
of those sacks, I mean just running through them. The
first one, Trevor Lawrence, the NFL had a six point
two seconds. Uh, you know by the time he got sacked.
So so and on that the Seahawks the first play
of the game, they drop eight. Do the Seahawks.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Uh, you have.

Speaker 11 (36:07):
DeMarcus Lawrence. He peels with a running back in the flat,
which means Lawrence is holding the ball. That Jaguars had
seven pass blockers for the Seahawks three rushers, that that
negative four imbalance, UH has on we haven't seen that
was the first time we've seen that for the defense,

(36:27):
and it's only happened one once with the offense. So
in four hundred and thirty six dropbacks by both quarterbacks
overall games of this season, we've seen it exactly twice.
But we saw it in the first play of the game.
And UH and you saw Drake Thomas in a perfect
position to get under Trevor Lawrence wants to throw that
inside curl route and Thomas and his own is there,

(36:48):
and then you see that Ernest Jones is pushing to
that area as well, so you get.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
The late sack.

Speaker 11 (36:54):
You come back on third and eight, and by the
way of the third down sacks, there were third and
eight to nine and third and eleven, so you got
to stop the run to get into those long distance situations.
So so you know there on that played Leonard Williams
second sack. Leonard Williams just there was a big chip
by their tight end. He dominates that. Then he puts
a bullrus on their left tackle, Walker little so great

(37:17):
individual play by big Cat, but great coverage as well.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
They had.

Speaker 11 (37:21):
I mean, it was really weird that that Drake Thomas
was even in there, but he was. He was bracketing
uh the slot receiver along with Tyle Cotta Diami Brown,
That's who he wanted to go to. So you had
two of your ostensibly worst cover guys, but they were
double covering, and so Trevor Lawrence didn't have anywhere to go.

(37:43):
By the way, the first three sacks into the boundary,
that played a factor, and then on the third sacks
the stunts that this is another you asked me, how
did they do it? A lot of stunts, much more stunts.
And it was if Mike McDonald said, Okay, I can't
just win going straight up the field with my guys,
at least we couldn't against Tampa Bay. Let me get
the stunts alive. The the end is going to come in,

(38:06):
the tackle is going to loop out. You got to
contain a quarterback. He's not you know, he's fast and strong,
but he's not immensely twitchy. We don't have to really
be concerned about him getting the edge, and so a
lot of those stunts. But but as as Jacksonville was
trying to throw into the boundary. The Seahawks were in

(38:26):
a four under and they were all clumped kind of
like in the middle of the field. So so Jacksonville,
by their own design, was allowing the defense to squeeze,
so the holes were narrow. I'll just go through a
couple of these rests because we are hardcore football, right,
do it? Yeah, just going through the the and hopefully
this gets a picture that things are varied and and

(38:51):
and and.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
As I said, you still have to you have.

Speaker 11 (38:55):
What was an important theme is is yes, there was
much more activity, much more effort. I thought that that
d Law looked like a linebacker, look like he lost
weight when he was heard or something. I mean, he
was so quick.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
I looked up. I thought, is this guy.

Speaker 11 (39:11):
From Jacksonville, he just playing from his home. Well, he's
from South Carolina, so it's not far. Maybe his family
made the trip and some friends. But but he was
playing like he was playing in front of family. But
but but uh uh uh. There's the one play. And
this is Oregon's favorite play. In fact, when I coach
high school, we called it Oregon and John Gruden calls it.

(39:33):
Uh you know why cross, but but any event the
X had to cover. You had Tyree Knight. He had
to cover the tight end on the so the first
look he had to be there. And then you watch
the end zone copy. You watched Trevor Lawrence. He says, Okay,
Tyree Snake's got my tight end and now he wants
to come back on the on the in route and

(39:53):
uh Emon Warry is covering the in route. So it
starts with being in the right place in in zone cover,
which creates the quarterback holding the ball, and then and
then the the Jaguars, there's an element what they did
there was twice where it might have been three times.
We got sacks on what's called power pass where they
were pulling the guard to make it look more like

(40:13):
a run on play action. But when you pull the guard,
that's where Byron Murphy was having more space to operate
in against the center because momentarily there's a little gap
and and Murphy was quick enough to get in there.
Let's just hit on three more as I said, stunts
galore and oh Drake Thomas just threw the left tackle

(40:39):
for Jacksonville six seven and three eight six seven and
a half three twenty five and we got this little
itty bitty week side linebacker tossed him around. That was
on a play action where whereas as soon as jreveror
Lawrence turns around, you know there's there's forty two and
then and then uh, lastly you had you know, Mafey

(41:01):
Uh he wins out on the edge and d law
wins out on the edge and then Nuosa falls into
the sack. So that was that was a what I
would call fast sacks most of them. Most of them weren't.
But but when you get into the long yardist situation
in you can you can man your four man rush.
You can put defensive tackles. They had they had once

(41:22):
where they had uh DeMarcus Lawrence's defensive tackle, boy mafi
as A as a defensive tackle. You had Leonard Williams
on the outside and you had uh Nuosa on the other.
So you got four guys who have the twitchiness of
a defensive end. And so when you stunt those guys, uh,

(41:44):
now there's quickness on both the inside and the outside
and they can contain. And so just throwing a lot
at the Jaguars schematically and and you know, so there
wasn't really one where you say, well, they did this
and they got all those sacks. No, they did a lot,
They did everything and they got all those sacks.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Does that make sense? It does, And I want to
go back to the zone for a second because I
think it's important. By the way, the Mafe things interesting.
I mean, the guy had one tackle, but you mentioned
he did make an impact elsewhere. He played in forty
seven percent of snaps to boy Mafey. If you would
have told me going into a game, the Seas are
gonna have seven sacks, Boy Mafey is not going to
have any. Derek Hall is not even playing in the game.
I'm like, what, like, where are they coming from? But

(42:27):
you're right, DeMarcus Lawrence look fantastic. Drake Thomas, I got
to just emphasize what you said about his size. We
had him on the show here on Wednesday last week
and I asked him that. I said, listen, you're an
undrafted free agent. Why like I'm guessing against because everyone
told you you're too small. He goes, absolutely, people told
me I'm too small, and you know that's why I've
been cut and battling for a roster spot. But give him.

(42:47):
Credit man, the guy's battled his way and made an impact.
But I want to get to zone defense for a second,
because you know, anybody who's played basketball, and let's just
go back to our youth, right like we're kids. You know,
I'm playing for our Lady of Atom. I'm playing cyo
ball and we're playing a two three zone. Tallest guys
in the middle, next two tallest guys are playing on
the wing, the two guards are playing up top, and

(43:08):
it's a zone, and it's just it's it is. Anybody
who's played basketball at a higher level knows there's way
way more to it. Discipline, understanding responsibilities. You know where
you're going to be in football. Walk me through the
successful zone defense. What needs to happen, because I got
to think it in some ways, I have to think
outside of going against the fast guy that maybe it's

(43:28):
more athletic than you. Playing man would be somewhat easier
h than playing zone because zone that feels like there's
a lot of responsibilities. But they seem to as you're
just articulating those sacks. They nailed it yesterday, yeah.

Speaker 11 (43:40):
They and they did have some mando man in the
second half, and they and they were playing combo coverages
where they're playing mann and man on the weak side.
They were playing zone on the front. I mean they
really gave the Jaguars as I described today. You know,
the the the Chili's menu, you know, like twelve page

(44:00):
menu and and it was in subtleties. But but what
happens is you need to know where where, where exactly
your responsibilities are, Like you have you have your area
as the name, you know the zone. You have your
zone right, and if a guy comes into your area,
you got to follow him the proper amount of steps.

(44:23):
It's like goldilocks in the porridge, not too hot, not
too cold. You can't follow your guy for too little
and ignore him as if he's not there. You know,
that's just what some people call uh Sabing notably called it. Well,
that's just country zone.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
You know.

Speaker 11 (44:40):
You just drop into a spot you're not even aware
of anything, you know, like that's what they play in
the country. Just you know, so you can't you can't.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
You can't.

Speaker 11 (44:49):
Cover your guy too little, but you can't cover him
too much. Like it's man, you have to know where
your help is because good offensive play design and we'll
have you know the tight end will come. He'll run
on a shallow cross and he'll stop right in front
of the end. Here you come, and you see him
come because your eyes are you know, as a linebacker,

(45:10):
you're dropping back and you you know, you see it.
It's easy to be influenced by him. So you wanna
you wanna take the bait. You want to jump the
cookie and and then, but you can't see the intermediate
cut behind you. So you have to be aware exactly
of where your spacing are. Cover your guys for just
long enough, but not too long because you've got help.

(45:33):
You got to know where your help is.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
How much trust has to be there, though, Hugh, because
you just mentioned and there's a play they showed on
TV yesterday. I think Joe kind of was expecting help
behind him, right and it didn't come or it came late.
Like like how much trust do you have? And how
much discipline does it take? Because it's like, WHOA, my
help's not there should be there? Do I do I
bail on it? Or what have you? It just feels
like discipline is discipline and trust as well as knowing

(45:55):
your assignment are huge, are they not?

Speaker 11 (45:56):
Yeah, you gotta you gotta be believe that your guy's
gonna be there and that if you hand it off,
that he's gonna be there to take it. Uh. And
you know same same in run defense. You know, you've
got to have your gap right and you know the
communication piece on the fly. And that might be one
of the reasons why they're better on the road because

(46:18):
you know, you see, Julian Love is a quarterback. Yeah, exactly,
they're not loud for the opposing offense, right, Uh and
the home offense, I should say, and so you see
Julian Love. I'll give you example of what was happening
to Jacksonville was running a lot of trips formation with
a nub all right, if I write my if I

(46:38):
write in my notes, you know trips right nub. Okay,
what does that tell me? Three receivers to the right
nub tight end. That's the tight end on the backside
away from the three receivers. But he's lined up next
to the tackle. So they were nubbing a lot of
their formations to help because they're left tackle. I thought, man,
there's times where I go in and I do a
Friday pregame. Uh, and I don't think I got to

(47:01):
it because it was an important point. But I had
thought Walker Little had kind of played pretty decent the
left tackle. He was really struggling, uh and and seel
exposed him and I mean he was terrible. And so
Jacksonville was trying to nub up and help and chip
and keep you know, wide edges to help their left tackle.

(47:24):
And so what then you see the Seahawks Immediately they're
like rolling more to the trip side. They're like, hey,
we've got we've only got one receiver on our side
who happens to be a tight end in the inline position,
and he's trying to help the tackle.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
So now let's like, let's roll.

Speaker 11 (47:42):
This dude this thing and really get over the top
of the three receivers. So you can see Kobe Bryant,
he's just like he's gesture with his arm like get
over there right at this, you know, on set of
the play. And undoubtedly he's screaming while he's doing it.
He's gesturing and he's screaming and it can be heard
on the and so they're making. So they're they're they're making,

(48:04):
they're making. How many times have you heard Mike McDonald
say communication is key to what they do well.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Hugh, I'm glad you said that. I was thinking that
the whole time because when we when when he first
got hired, our first conversations in mini camp and hell
OTA's back in spring of twenty twenty four and early
summer of twenty twenty four, I remember talking to Jaron
Reid and even Julian Love about that, and they both
said that they said, the hardest thing with this defense

(48:30):
and Mike McDonald is their communication is priority number one
and it's going to take a while to get that down.
And that I mean, that's they every player of fact
that we've talked on defense has talked about that.

Speaker 11 (48:43):
Yeah, yeah, well and and you know, and and the
thing is is when it's right, it's so right, and
it's like everybody's tied together and you get things off
a little bit like like, for example, against Tampa Bay,
the Buccaneers run was probably but they ran a tight
end on a shell cross late in the game was critical.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yes, And.

Speaker 11 (49:06):
You know the way they ran the construction and they're
trying to influence defenders, but at one point you could
stop and you say, Ernest Jones in the middle of
the field, he literally did a three sixty like he
thought it was a boot. It wasn't boot. It was
boot what I call Boston boot stop. And he did
a full three sixty. Now that's fine if you're watching

(49:27):
figure skating, but I don't want to see defenders do
a full circle pillouette out there. And then and then
we got Okada. So the window between Ernest Jones, who's
doing a three sixty and ty Okatta who should who
should be the next one over? Jones should be the hook,

(49:47):
Ocada should be the curl. Okada reads the wheel route
like he runs to this cheese and he's like, okay,
I got the wheeler. Probably he's like three feet away
from a teammate who was the flat defender who was
gonna have the wheel route. Anyways, You're like, thirty nine,
what are you doing? Why are you covering the wheel route?
You've got help out there? Know where your help is?

(50:08):
Ernest Jones, dude, you know, get off the get off
the ice rink, you know, like and it's just like
bat and then all of a sudden, now a guy
catches a shallow cross balls only in the air for
seven yards, and he runs up the field and he's
tackled for either getting twelve yard games on stuff, and
you're like, wait a minute, if you're gonna play zone
like that, you're never gonna win.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
And that was seven days ago.

Speaker 11 (50:31):
And so now, like the I described the first play
of the game, you know just about how guys have
to be in position, and and so they're trying first
play the game. They're trying to go play action and
get a nice seventeen yard rip curl down the middle
with Brian Thomas influenced with play action. And you know,
they had probably seen, hey, we can spin Ernest Jones

(50:53):
around like a top yep, you know. And and so
that's what they're trying to do right over the middlefield,
right in that area. And you see that that the
linebacker forty two, he's gonna come out and and uh
and Drake Thomas, Thomas, he's gonna widen. That's now, if

(51:14):
he kept widening, he would open up. I'm why I
watched the ends one copy. You know, fifty years playing
and coaching or studying this position. If if Drake Thomas
keeps widening, I want that I'm turning. I'm putting my
foot loose and I'm ripping that crop. Yeah, okay, but
after he takes three steps diagonally, he flattens up and

(51:37):
he goes vertical, he goes, he goes, he goes widens
diagonally enough to influence the slot receiver Brian Thomas Junior,
the other LSU receiver not named Elik Neighbors, first round
draft pick, had like thirteen hundred yards last year. He's
a very quiet, young star receiver. They're trying to get
him over the middle. If Drake Thomas, who is not

(52:00):
in the right spot, Trevor Lawrence rips that thing. And
by the way, after he uh, there's a point where
Thomas can can curl into the middle and respond to
where uh I'm saying, I'm using two Thomas's. Brian Thomas,
the receiver can curl in the middle and Ernest and
where Drake Thomas was, so he can kind of say, okay,

(52:23):
Drake Thomas, you're here, let me let me just go
into the middle of the field more uh, towards the center. Well,
then Ernest Jones has to be in that spot. So
so where we were seeing poor awareness of of of
how to close holes a week ago, now all of
a sudden they're just air tight, and and and so
and and then.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Now you have the quarterbacks going where do I go?
Where do I go?

Speaker 11 (52:45):
He holds the ball six point two seconds and then
if you if all you do is you read say well,
Biron Murphy, Biron Murphy got the sack, and you say, oh,
Bier Murphy had a great game. Buyer Murphy had a
hell of a game. But have a great play on
that play. He didn't win anything on that. That was
a combination team and a multifaceted.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Answer to how you get a sack. I love it,
I absolutely love it. That's a great explant. And just
go back and watch first play the game and it's
and we were watching it as watching with my kid
and we're like, oh wow, I mean, how much time
does he have? And he's gonna get there at some
point and it was done. Well, let me do this, OK,
take a quick break, come back. We got factor fiction.
But after factor fiction, Hugh, I'm gonna ask you cause
something we got to We'll have a few minutes with
the offense to wrap up the show. You have more

(53:30):
for today with Softy, by the way, but I have
to ask you this question. Has he ever seen a
team go one for twelve on third downs? And win
a football game. Will ask him about that coming up
next night. He's three point three KHFM. Where's that to go?
Glad you're with us?

Speaker 4 (53:47):
It's your shot at our weekly thousand bucks and the
ten thousand dollars grand price. It's factor fiction, probably presented
by Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel where every day Feels Lucky?
Fact or fiction is on sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ r FM.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
All Right, factor fiction presented by a Lucky Eagle Casino
and Hotel, whereby do you feel lucky? The old text
fact it's a four nine, four or five one or
fiction to four nine, four or five one. When we
give you a pick here in just a couple of seconds.
Windows not quite open just yet. Quick glance at last
week Ian Bucks minus two and a half forty nine
ers winner Arizona Anders plus six at Indianapolis one. I

(54:34):
know I did, Yeah, great pick and it'd be a
good pick. Good but they still lost, which is even better.
Thank you Danny Dimes and company. It's a win win
ian Oregon minus seven and a half versus Indiana. No,
that's a loss. And you know what's crazy? Anders and Jess,
like that's not just a loss like Indiana beat them up.

(54:58):
Oregon had less than one hundred yards of offense in
the second half at home at Austin Stadium where it
never rains at Austin Stadium, and then Jess Ravens plus
seven and a half versus the Rams. Yeah, that was
the Cooper Rush horror show again. Derek Henry remembered he
was Derek Henry ran for overe hundred yards.

Speaker 10 (55:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (55:18):
So they they're defensively, they look good in the first half.
Cooper gets hurt and then that happened.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
We had a two and two week. MJ in the
Midday had a four and one week. Wow, Chuck and
Buck had a two and three week, and if I
see this correctly, a three and oer week for Softy
and Fame.

Speaker 7 (55:37):
Yes, because they messed up on what was it Wednesday
and not making a pick or Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Yeah, and then they see on Friday, I see that
there's no pick there. What happened? They just forgot that
they had a show that day. Yes, Okay, that's good way.
That's a good way not to hurt your record, just
not take a pick, just being a healthy scratch exactly.
So everyone actually, I mean five hundred usually good, and
we were five hundred. We had the worst week, so
that's great. Actually, no, I'm sorry. A two to three

(56:03):
week for Chuck and Buck. Yes, but they had a
healthy lead. Yeah, they're fine. So we start this week
with a pick four nine four to five one. If
you agree fact four nine four to five one. If
you disagree fiction, text those names and I'll give you
the pick and tell you why. Here in a second,
I'm taking the Berkeley Bears of California, berserkly Bears of California.

(56:24):
Justin will Cox and company are playing a Friday night
game at home in Berkeley. There'll be a crowd of
at least two or three hundred people there for the
ACC matchup against North Carolina California minus ten fact four
nine four or five one. Yeah, it's a big number.
But I don't know if you guys know this. North
Carolina and Bill Belichick are a train wreck. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6 (56:45):
It's fantastic and everyone's enjoying it. I don't know why
I like it so much because I think he's kind
of funny.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
I like it because he's an ass and he beat
the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 10 (56:53):
He's an ANSWER's hysterical.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yeah, so we're going California minus ten fact at home
against Bill Belichick and North Carolina.

Speaker 11 (57:01):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Big Belichick's going. Where am I going? Yes?

Speaker 11 (57:04):
Where's this game?

Speaker 7 (57:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (57:05):
I'm in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
I'm going to the Pacific Ocean in the ACC That
makes no sense. Get right for California. Okay, get ready
for California, California on California. Wait? Wait, what did I
just say? Hey, where's my little girl? Are we going
to California?

Speaker 10 (57:23):
Where's my Instagram model?

Speaker 1 (57:24):
She's like, are we going Hollywood? No? No, You're going
to Berkeley the Petula capital? Is it? I have anounced it?
Patula Patuli, Petuli Capital of the world. Everyone smells bad.

Speaker 10 (57:39):
I have never had a good time there.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
There isn't a female there that shaves her underarms. Disgusting place.
But we're hoping for a big win by the Bears.
Fact four nine four five one calumnus ten facts, Well
we're North Carolina. If you disagree, fiction four nine four
five one. But I feel as if we are starting
to heat things up here, ladies and gentlemen on the show.

(58:00):
You might want to go fact with this one four
nine four to five one text in right now your
chance one thousand our week with prize ten thousand dollars
grand prize by playing Factor Fiction every day at seven
thirty five, eleven thirty five, two thirty five. Softy and
Fantal'll have another pick for you guys, coming up at
three thirty five as well. When we come back, Hugh
Millan re joins us. The offense for the Seahawks not

(58:23):
the day to totally trash anybody. They got a big win,
but that was not a good offensive showing we'll find
out what you thinks. Hardcore football continues Humillan coming up next.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
From the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now
back to Ian Fernez, powered by Seattle's closest sports book,
Snow Call Me Casino and Hotel on Sports Radio ninety
three point three kJ R FM.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
All right back for smartcore football, just real Quickfi'll join
you coming up at three o'clock today. He's gotten more
four with Hugh reaction to the Huskies win on Friday
against Rutgers. Also the Seahawks win, which we're discussing here
right now. All coming up with Softy from the EQC
and Dick Fane coming up at three o'clock today. Let
me get to this. He one for twelve, We got
about six minutes here, We got one for twelve on
third down, and they win a football game. Now, we

(59:19):
just spent the first part of the hour talking about
the defense and the adjustments and that zone and how
they just improved dramatically from one week to the next.
But I got a question for you. One for You're
not gonna win a lot of football games going one
for twelve. Offensively, we can probably say, hey, we like
Sam Darnold's game to a certain point. Rushing the football
is still a challenge. I still have to ask you
why the hell is charboney and getting the same number

(59:40):
of carries as ken Walker? But what do you make
of one for twelve on third down?

Speaker 11 (59:45):
Well, I obviously would acknowledge that you you've got to
clean that number up. I would say there's an offset
to it that they you know, and having you want
to have this third down in shorts instead of the
third and longs.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
We should touch on that because you talk about this,
I think it's a important thing. What's a successful play
in the NFL.

Speaker 11 (01:00:10):
That's forty percent of the needed yards on first down
sixty percent of the needed yards on second down, and
then all of the needed yards on third and four.
So so being on schedule is really important. I mean
they were in the passing game yesterday they were only
on schedule fifty two percent of the time. I mean

(01:00:31):
even against you know, the prior week, they were on
schedule sixty seven percent of the time, So they dipped
a little bit of that. Now, the third down conversions,
of those, they only had one third down conversion in
the running game, and so I think most of those.
I got to go back and look at the numbers,

(01:00:52):
but you know that's not all on the passing game.
But I would say how you win with those type
of numbers is obviously be explosive in the early downs.
And we were really lamenting after the forty nine er
game Week one, where's the play action game? We spent
the whole summer talking about the play action game. I
gave you the numbers all summer that Sam Darnold is

(01:01:16):
the second most frequent last year as a Viking quarterback
in play action to Jared Goff, but number one in
passer rating and all these different splits from play Action.
It's like, hey, use this man, that's part of his
skill set. Well, yesterday they had eight attempts, one hundred
and eighty three yards and one hundred and thirty five

(01:01:36):
passer rating out of play action. Here's another trend that
really showed up on those early downs that allowed you
to win despite the future third down numbers. You go
an eleven personnel excuse me, twelve personnel with one running

(01:01:57):
back and two tight ends. So we're seeing Barner really right,
and we've gone from yard These are past yardage totals
in twelve personnel in six games. We've gone from four
yards against the forty nine ers, then sixty three, then
ninety one, then one oh three, then one eighty seven,

(01:02:18):
then two fourteen yesterday you probably noticed each one of
those was more than the prior week, and so they're
really hammering that personnel group. Barner, I gotta tell you
I was slow to come around on him. I thought
he was just kind of just a guy, a guy,

(01:02:38):
you know. I thought, well, well we got the we
got Michigan's other tight end. Yes, Holston Loveland, you know
when you watched Michigan, number eighteen was running out there
like you know the Kellen Winslow senior. Ye, you know,
like like whoa, I want number eighteen. And then he's like,
well the other guy. We got the other guy. You know,
we got the redhead. We got the redheaded tight end
for Michigan. You know he's not redheaded, but you get

(01:03:01):
get your point. Yeah, and and and I'll tell you what,
man twenty twenty five, he is making a believer out
of me. I mean the pass blocking on the on
the on the touchdown pass that uh to Cooper Cup yep,
an absolute thing of beauty. I mean that is that's
quarterback porn right there. I'm telling you how quickly he

(01:03:23):
got rid of that ball, how the placement walked it
out there to him so early, oblivious to the rush.
I mean, that is such a high level execution of quarterback.
I can't even tell you because when you watch when
his hands separate from the ball, Donald's hands, Cooper Cup
has got his back to you, and he's still going
up the field like as you know, he could be

(01:03:44):
running a post for all anybody knows, but Darnald's gotta
just so Nope, I know exactly where he's going to be,
and he just dots that thing over by the sideline.
But but on that play Barner he had he had
to block their their their highest paid defensive end, Josh
heines Allen. Now you probably don't know Josh heinz Allen.

(01:04:07):
It's not like he had you know, it's Nick Boser
or some of these recognizable names. But he's the second
highest paid guy on the Jaguars, behind Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
And he's over there.

Speaker 11 (01:04:18):
He's higher paid than the highest paid Seahawk, Leonard Williams.
Big Cat is the number one cap hit. Sam Darnold
is number two. This dude, Josh heinz Allen, has a
higher cap hit than Leonard Williams, higher than anybody on
the Seahawks. And they got aj Barner out there on
a critical opportunity to get a touchdown and he's blocking

(01:04:38):
him one on one. Wow a tight end. Now did
he dominate him like Walter Jones? No, but he gave
it enough that a quarterback who's playing at a very
very high level, I'd give Baker Mayfield the MVP if
I was voting, I wouldn't even hesitate. But now what's
the next level?

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Now?

Speaker 11 (01:04:58):
Now he is like you could get an argument a
is he a candidate for second Team All Pro. Yeah,
he for sure is an art I think he'd be
a slam dunk in the Pro Bowl. Well, you know
the you know, three guys in the NFC right now,
so uh, you know he's playing at that level. And uh,
but you know, good stuff's gotta happen around him and

(01:05:20):
and a J.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Barner. You know that.

Speaker 11 (01:05:22):
That that the twelve personnel. Now we've got to get
the rookie going. And you say which rookie, Well, actually
both because I misspoke, because Hunter Horton and uh Horton,
Yeah Horton and Royal Hugh. Listen, I'm gonna give you.
I'm gonna give you an hour off. I'm playing management today.
I'm gonna give you a one hour off that baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Yeah, but we don't worry about that today the day
in the sunshine. Yeah, but no, I'm gonna give you
an hour off and then you know what you got next?
You got more at four with Dave Softy Maller. You
might have heard of him, Dave Softy mall He's he'll
be yelling and screaming from the Emeral Queen Casino with you.
More at four, coming up at four o'clock with Hugh Millon.
Softy's coming up next. That's it for us, Thanks buddy,
I'll talk to you next week, all right, you bet
we'll toss it to Softy. The QUC coming up next

(01:06:05):
to you for the mild mannered and marginally objectionable infurness.
This is paddle day, saying so long everyone,