Furness Show 12-23: Seahawks Loss, Hugh Millen, Mike Sando.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now from the Star Reles Sports Desks Jordan ninety three
point three KJRFMS.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sports headlines and headlines are brought to you by Frost
Brewed Coors Light. Anders choose chill, sir, I do choose chill?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
I do.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well. We all know what happened yesterday, Seahawks losing to
the Minnesota Vikings, dropping to eight and seven right now,
and to win the NFC West they will need help
along the way. We'll discuss in just a couple of
minutes all things Seahawks, including Anders shirt off, face painted
yesterday at the game.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Not sure about that, but I was screaming my face off.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's what I'm here, and that's my sourcers are telling
me that right now. Next up, they play on Thursday night,
football Boxing Day, special day after Christmas in Chicago against
the Bears. I must win. Even then it may not matter,
but I must win for Seattle coming up on Thursday. Okay,
we'll touch in on the college football playoff at twelve

(00:57):
thirty today. It was a interesting weekend, shall we saying? Yeah?
College football playoffs? Yes? Yes, it was our first ever
twelve team playoff. Lost to discuss there. I'm fired up
about that Kraken lost yesterday. I'm not fired up about that.
They are.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Not good.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, there's there are there are issues there. They need
five days off and they get that. Their next in
action on Saturday when they go up to Vancouver to
take on the Canucks. Twelve thirty pre game one o'clock
face off right here on ninety three point three. Kjraf
family lose yesterday to the Colorado Avalanche. Game was closer
than the score indicator gave up. The last two games.
They gave up a bunch of empty deck goals and
the end Biles might kind of just going for broke.

(01:37):
They also had a chance to tie it last night
in the third period on a couple of occasions goal
post hit breakaway stopped. It is that kind of slump
right now for the local hockey team. Then they are playing.
But we'll do a little daily power play at twelve
forty five today. Tank Dell out for the season. Ugly
injury yesterday for the star wide receiver for the Houston
Texans ACL and dislocated kneecap. Oh, brother, I feel for you.

(02:02):
No good there, So that's he's out for the season.
We do have Monday Night football tonight. The Saints taking
on the Packers right here on nine three point three
kJ FM, and over on the nine fifty dial, we
have a little thing called Husky Basketball taking on Seattle University.
Over on nine fifty on the AM. Let's start the show.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Your home for the NFL and the twelfth Man proudly
presents frost browed cours Life Choose Chill Mondays with the
in for now as we camp you down to Monday
Night football tonight in five.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Fifty coasting for the touchdown.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
On Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
It is a frost brewed cors Light chill Monday here,
the two days before Christmas. Welcome in, Thanks for listening.
I'm sure about eighty five percent of you are already
enjoying the holiday break, maybe out in about, run around,
doing some last minute shopping, whatever it might be. We
appreciate you tuning in today wherever you are. As we

(03:01):
discussed last night's Seahawk game, we'll get some college football
playoff And I'm still always curious why people that are
in the business at college football, and that is their business,
why they hate college football. K Herbstreet, I'm talking to you.
We'll get that coming up at twelve thirty today, Daily
power Play twelve forty five, few mili and one o'clock
Hardcore Football. Spoke to Hugh off the air a little
while ago. We got a lot to discuss with you today,

(03:24):
So looking forward to that coming up at one o'clock.
And then Mike Sandals pick six call him at two.
Interesting situation in Minnesota with what they're going to have
to do with the quarterback situation. What do you do
with a guy that's taking you to well right now,
at least a playoff appearance, that's at very least a
playoff appearance in the NFC in the Vikings, But you've

(03:46):
got thirteen wins for Sam Donald? What do you do
with Sam Donald? And JJ McCarthy's healthy next year. So
we'll talk about that much more coming up with Sando
at two o'clock his pick six call him a tour
around the National Football League. So you were there yesterday?
It sounds like I were.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
There, Yes I was. It was a good atmosphere from
what I hear. It was a lot better than the
than the Packers game. There more Seahawks fans. There was
a little bit of purple here and there, but I
think it was mostly the twelves kind of showing up
doing their thing. The team, on the other hand, well
not as much.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
By the way, we should mention Jeff's not here. She's
off this week. People might have seen on social media
she got little fender bender, I shouldna say, a little
fender benner. She was taking her and her husband taking
a lift to the airport early Saturday morning, right, yes,
and I was got dinged up in a lift and
car a scary situation. She's okay, all good, So if
people have seen that on social media, she's all good
to go. But she's she was out this week anyway.

(04:38):
This is our only show of this week. Yes, on this,
on this, for this show. We're off the rest of
the week Christmas Eve, we got a best of show
tomorrow Christmas obviously, no show. Thursday we got bowl games. Friday,
we got bowl games. So we're off the rest of
the week. We're back with you next Monday to recap
whatever happens over the weekend. I guess a Seahawk game,

(05:00):
which would have taken place five days earlier, but well,
we'll have more to discuss then anyway, because the situation
with whatever happens on Sunday. Maybe the Arizona Cardinals can
do Seattle of favor please. Yeah, then we're off. I
think we're on in the second, and then we're off
again on the third. So we got not a lot
of shows between now and the next couple of weeks.
But that's fine. We got plenty to talk about yesterday.

(05:21):
So yeah, I just real quick. We'll get into the
game itself in a second. The atmosphere. Yeah, I'm watching
the game for the most part sound down at our
Crack and Hockey Network studios getting ready for our broadcast
last night. So I have which is an interesting way
to watch the game in the sense of with no sound,
like not having any context of what's going on atmosphere wise,

(05:43):
like is a crowd of factor and things like that.
But you know, as I'm observing and watching, it looked
like a normal Seahawk game. From this standpoint. They tried
early to run. We're ineffective, you know. Ken Walker did
have an eleven yard game canning back. Intosh had a
nine yard game later in the game, but they tried
to run. In the end. You look down fifteen rushing

(06:03):
attempts and I believe fourteen were designed, because there was
one from well not even that fifteen rushing attempts. One
was a fake Julian loves fake on the punt, so
that brings us down to fourteen offensive run attempts. And
then the Gino Smith scrambles, so there was thirteen actual
rush attempts yesterday by Seattle in effective running the football

(06:27):
yet again, So you rely on Gino Smith in the
passing game and the offensive line and going against the
Brian Floores defense by you know, the initial quick glance,
Gino thirty one to forty three to three, fourteen three touchdowns,
not bad, no, not bout scoops. Two interceptions not good.

(06:47):
One of the two, the last one. We'll just break
down with you Milon coming up at one o'clock today,
how that one took place. But another one again after
you have an opportunity to score and just whatever happens.
He's just made too many mistakes this season. And yet
we come back to the same theme, and this is

(07:08):
this is the dilemma, anders is it? And I'm gonna
ask you, I want to get some thoughts from the
stadium in a second, But this is the dilemma you
face with Gino Smith. Because in a year in which
the draft is not good as far as quarterbacks are concerned,
cam and Shaduur are the top two guys, and it's
a pretty significant drop off after that. And I don't know, man,
I've watched F cam Ward. I don't know how excited

(07:30):
I'd be about that. Should shoudu Ur without Daddy around,
I don't know, man, who knows it doesn't f It's
not like last year at all. You're not gonna have
one of those top ten picks. You're good enough where
you're gonna be in the lower you know, right around
sixteen or something, probably when it's all said and done.
So you know, what do you do? What's what's the option? Well,
Sam Darnald's a free agent. I heard Greg talking about

(07:52):
this earlier with Chris Well Donald or Gino. I don't
know what would Gino do right now if he had
justin Jefferson, Jordan Addis and TJ. Hawkins and Aaron Jones.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
Oh, and by the way, Kevin O'Connell calling his plays.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, what would he do in those situations with a
better offensive line? Yes, four fifty three touchdowns, no interceptions.
I don't know. I mean wouldn't he wouldn't you think
he'd kind of lighted up?

Speaker 4 (08:17):
Probably, I think so.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
I go back and forth of this because he does
make some mistakes at some pretty inopportune times.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's the probably the timing timing of those, right.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, And they moved the ball and like they always say,
between the twenties, they're really good and then in the
red zone that's when most quarterbacks kind of make their dough.
He hasn't really been good in that area this year,
So I don't know. I was a big Geno proponent,
like a champion for him, but he's he's let me
down the last couple of weeks, honestly.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Which is kind of the theme for the team all year.
You know, I think Julian Love let and well he
was gonna explain that on the winning touchdown, Julian Love
let seattle down. You know, people wanted to bash Reek
wall and that may not have been a Reek wall
and play that was Julian Love. On the Jefferson touchdown
pass at the end, probably Bira Murphy's driving in the
face mask, which is just I don't get that. Yeah,

(09:07):
Like I just first of all, you can't go high
at all on a quarterback period, end of store right,
and I'm talking about I mean, such a great play
and then they have it wiped out like that. Was
just so disappointed.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
That's the most important play of the game.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
I think. Doesn't it feel like, though this year that
this team's biggest blunders, mistakes or even just inability to
convert or make a play have come at the worst
possible times. Yes, you know, I mean fourth down in
the overtime against the Rams, for example, can you get
a couple of yards here in the first Nope? Can't
do that, Nope, couldn't be able to do that. Penalty here,

(09:44):
interception there. Just the mistakes that happened are frustrating. You
can't run the ball, period, end of story, right, You
just can't it just just for whatever reason, you can't
run the ball. And you know, blaming grub or blaming
whatever is. It's point. We're looking at it saying there's
an inherent issue. It can't always be the offensive line.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
We'll talk to you about that maybe as well coming up.
But the long and the short of it is they're
three and six at home. This was the year. This
is the crazy part about how the NFL schedule works
with seventeen games. Now this was the year. You know,
every other year it switches that you get the extra
home game. You should take advantage of that. They didn't.

(10:27):
Three and six at home.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
That's bad.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
I mean, what in the name of Tom Floores or
Dennis Erickson is going on here? Right? Like seriously? Like
how you don't take advantage of what should be one
of the best home field advantages in the NFL is
perplexing to me. I don't get it. And as long
as these guys continue to struggle at Lumen Field and

(10:52):
can't get the job done at home, it doesn't matter.
I mean, the only reason they're still in it is
because they are five and one on the road, which
is insane. They're a perplexing football team.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
I know this.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I've said this before, and people want to argue with me.
I don't care. I'm telling you what I know this is.
This is there's a bottom line here. They did not
hire Mike McDonald to go three and six at home
or nine and eight as well, right, They just that's
not what they hired him for. They did not fire
Shane Waldron and the rest of the staff to go
to have Ryan Grubb committing and go three and six.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
It's no rebuild.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
In mind, they.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Aren't rebuilding, guys, They are not rebuilding. There is no rebuild.
They got decisions to make in the off season, but
they are not rebuilding. So you know, if they were,
they would trade up and got a quarterback right, right,
they would have moved up in the draft. Right. What
was the atmosphere like in there?

Speaker 4 (11:43):
It was it was loud.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
I hadn't been to a game since the twenty twenty
one it was the snowy Bears game.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Oh yeah, if you remember that one. Yeah, and that
was a pretty tough year too.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
I've only been to like five or six Seahawks games
as a fan in my entire life, so I've always
have a time with it. And you can probably hear
from my voice I was. I was pretty rambunctious myself.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
You're with Richard L. Phane, Is that right, Richard L.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Fane.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
So all last week I was with him on the show,
and you know, it was a big conversation about, oh,
the Twelves are selling their tickets to away fans, and
Richard or Dick we should say, has been kind of
all the fans a little bit saying that you shouldn't
be doing that, and like and then it was kind
of a discussion. He's like, all right, I'm gonna practice
what I preach. And he brought me to the game
and a couple of his nephews and we had a

(12:28):
good time with it.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Good good deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. The The issue
is really simple, to be honest with you, you know, fans
aside people you know, Channing School with the clap and
all that, with with the vikings, do first of all
be better? You know, Like we have a saying in
our little weekly golf week like, people go, oh man,

(12:49):
I can't believe I missed. I missed making money by
one stroke. You know what is better? Play better? Yeah?
Just play better? Like play better? You know. I think
the genal part of the equation is always going to
get the headlines, and rightfully so and rightfully so, and
then the offensive line is always gonna be the part
that gets beat up, and there's always gonna be the

(13:11):
kind of escapegoat for all things wrong with the offense.
And I understand that as well. You know, Gina only
got sacked twice. He got hit eight times, but he
only got sacked twice that, and and what and again
I'll ask you this so many times when you watch
a quarterback get sacked. If you watched Russ on when
did when did the Steelers play Thursday? Or they play Saturday?

Speaker 4 (13:33):
After I've ever played Saturday? Yeah, I guess the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I mean Russ took just a couple inexplicable Russ sacks.
Gino's got that same in him, like just live to
live to have another How many times you see Pat
Mahomes and I know we're talking about the gold standard here,
just like take a couple of steps and just kind
of get outside the pocket and shove it towards the
front of scrimmage and be done with it. Let's let's
let's live another day.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Well, and that's something that makes Pat Mahomes so good
is this year's numbers are like pretty average, right, but
he he he keeps his.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Game team in the game every single.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Time by not making mistakes. Exactly exists by not making mistakes.
You know, you hold Aaron Jones to sixty seven yards
on eighteen, right, I love that? Yeah, I love that though,
like he three point seven yard average. I mean, I
love what that happens Yeah, Jefferson's going to get his man.
He's gonna get his He's targeted thirteen times, he got
ten catches, one forty four and the two touchdowns. He

(14:25):
is just a dude. But you you should have won
that football game against eight, you know at the time,
a twelve and two team. You should have won that
team that game. Yeah you didn't. And it's the same
story over and over again. Mis cues, screw ups, missed
missed opportunities. You know, the blame game goes all around
the place. You know, Reek Wollen was the blame game

(14:47):
last week, and you know people were all over him
and and you know, like he hasn't had a good year, no,
not by what he did is you know, I mean,
he's he I don't know if it's fair for me
to say he's regressed, because I'm not creating the I'm
not watching it. But he isn't the same impact player
he was his rookie year. Totally like his rookie year.

(15:07):
There was a legit discussion and debate whether it was
him or Sauce Gardner as the defensive rookie the year.
That was a legitimate debate. It wasn't just you know, like, no, no,
it was a legitimate debate who had the better year.
Reek was really good that year, made big plays all
the way around. But what's going on right now, Like,

(15:27):
what's going on right now with him? I think I'm
gonna say something here, and I just I there has
to be tough love from coaches, but I think coaches
also have to sometimes do a better job of instilling
confidence in their players. And I bring that up Andrews
for this reason. I'm gonna bring it back to the Kraken.
I listened to k I listened to Dan Bilsma and

(15:49):
a couple veteran players talk over the weekend, and they're
scuffling the hockey team. I mean they are. They just
can't find a way to win. And one of the
things the word I kept hearing over and over again
is we've got to get her confidence back. We've got
to get her confidence back. And that came even from
the coach. You know, sometimes you bench a guy, try
to shake things up, what have you. But you got

(16:11):
to find a way to get your confidence back. How
do Alison brought this up on our pregame show LSTs.
I thought was a really brilliant you know, key to
the game as subjective and abstract it is. She said,
you've got to manufacture confidence. Well, how do you do that?
It's got to come from within inside the organization. Is
that the building, coaches, what have you. I don't know
if this new head coach does that with this group, right,

(16:31):
I don't know if he instills confidence, and I don't
know if he doesn't. Okay, so I'm not I'm not
saying he does or doesn't. It just feels like when
I see a guy regress. Trey Brown was a good
football player a year ago. I know he's been hurt
this year, But you're telling me Trey Brown healthy isn't
better than job? Why? Like, there's just some weird things,

(16:51):
and you know, Greg talks about it a lot. Maybe
he's right. You know, Hey, Mike McDonald didn't have a
chance to really kind of, you know, put a stamp
on this team in the off season. He gets hired,
hiring a staff or I don't know. I tend to
disagree with that a little bit. He's been there all year.
There's coaches that have in their first year that have success.
Their hamprints are there. He's working in lockstep with the
GM we've talked before. Is it a personnel issue. I

(17:12):
don't know. There's just something that isn't right right now,
Like there's just something not right, and yet here they are.
This is why we'll bring it back to this. You
said it earlier. Anders. It's not a rebuild, you know
why we can tell that they're eight and seven. Yeah,
like a loss of the Giants at home, a couple

(17:34):
of miscues late in games. This team now, they could
very easily be the other way as well. But there.
I mean, you look at the standings in the in
the NFL right now, and you look at what everything's
going on and how this league is. I mean, they
are truly what you would call I mean, I think
it's safe to say that they're the middle class. Yes, right,
They're just the middle class of the National Football League.

(17:57):
They're part of that middle class. And some teams in
the class. If you just looked in the NFC, Okay, Detroit, Philadelphia,
the Rams. Let's take the Rams out for a second. Detroit, Philadelphia, Minnesota,
Green Bay. Those are all the upper echelon teams in
the NFL. Because of the way it works, you're gonna
have the Rams. They're playing well take nothing away from them.

(18:17):
They're playing well. McVay is a genius. I just I
hate everything about them, but he's a flipping genius man. Yeah,
and so you never count them out. You know, Atlanta,
you're just the tallest short person in the South. You're
eight and seven. You know, I'll be politically correct. The weekend. Yeah,
and he got screwed on a couple of drop balls

(18:38):
and balls through guy's hands. He played, He played, Okay, Yeah,
I mean they won the game because their defense had
two pick sixes.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Played against the Giants.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Right, Yeah, but yeah, the Seahawks loss of that team.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
But look at this middle class. I would include Atlanta,
I would include I kind of put Washington in that.
But they're but they're with a new quarterback there on
the rise. Tampa Bay's middle class, Seattle's middle class. Those
are the teams with winning records. Dallas is a dumpster fire.
Arizona can't figure. They're looking in the mirror going really,

(19:10):
I don't know if Kyler is the guy. San Francisco
they are six and nine, eliminated from postseason. New Orleans
five and nine, there'll be five and ten tonight done.
Seattle is in better shape than some teams. They just
need to find a way to take that next step,
not take a step back, take the next step forward,
Take the next step forward. And the question is is

(19:33):
it with Gino or somebody else? So all right, four
nine four to five one, tellm neew text line. When
it's game time, fire off your thoughts, comments, questions, and concerns.
Want to hear from you on the Telemoor new text line.
Get those questions in, get those comments in thoughts. On
our first segment today, we'll come back. We got some
great sound from college football. Yes, the people are all

(19:53):
up in arms. Oh my god, we should. If we
want to just make it a twelve team SEC playoff,
then just say so. But we'll talk about that coming
up next.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Now back the frost proof Coors Light Cheos Chill Mondays
with the inf NEETs on your Home for the twelfth
Man and the NFL Sports Radio ninety three point three
kjr FM.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
All right, welcome back on a Monday afternoon, Choose Chill Monday,
our last show of the week, getting ready for the
holiday break. We lots to discuss Seahawks. Four nine, four
to five one. Tell them what the text line We'll
get HUGHU. Millin on coming up at one o'clock today
to go through all things hardcore football. I was I
think most of us were excited for the college football
twelve team playoff, right, just big games starting on Friday.

(20:43):
I mean I was jacked Indiana Notre Dame. My son
and I were ready to watch this and sit down.
It should be a fun game to watch, right, battle
of Indiana Notre Dame playing a home game on a
Friday for the first time ever under the lights on
a Friday. Indiana's you know, obviously the South Bend is
is where North our Dame is and Bloomington were. I mean,
it's just every It just set up perfect, right, big

(21:05):
ten ship, you know, team in Indiana, right, eleven wins,
this is going to be great. Ends up being a
twenty seven to seventeen loss for Indiana to Notre Dame
in a game that probably wasn't that close, but it
ends up being a ten point margin. Then we move
on to the next day, Penn State taking on SMU. Now,
remember Indiana was a team that people weren't really fired

(21:26):
up about getting in. They the ten seed. SMU was
the eleven seed. They take on a Penn State team
that frankly had looked kind of pedestrian all year. Yes,
beaten teams, but on their biggest their biggest test was
Ohio State. They lose that game, but they luck out
because Ohio State kicks win against Michigan and they getting
the Big ten championship game, and they found their offense

(21:48):
against Oregon looked pretty good before Oregon wins. They absolutely
destroy SMU. Now let's be honest. Why did they destroy SMU. Well,
because Jennings through three interceptions right the SMU quarterback right,
and two of those were picked sixes. They were done
early in that game. That game was done early. But

(22:10):
again thirty eight ten, it's a blowout. Next game Ohio
State Tennessee. Ohio State absolutely boat races the SEC's number
nine seed Tennessee, even though Tennessee had a ton of
people in the Horseshoe. That was a big deal. People
losing their mind in Columbus. Oh my god, I can't
believe people. Does this sound familiar to Seahawk fans? Yes, yes,

(22:30):
I can't believe people are infiltrating our stadium. Well, it's
because Ohio State fans don't like their team. They're mad
at their team, They don't like their coach. So what
does Ohio State do? Ryan Dave drops a forty two
to seventeen win in a game that frankly twenty five points.
It wasn't that close. That was the biggest blow of
the weekend. Keeping them mind Tennessee SEC team and the

(22:51):
nine seed they were safely in Tennessee was safely in Texas.
Then beats Clemson thirty eight to twenty four. Frankly, that game,
even though it's a two score game, probably wasn't that
close either. So those are your games on the weekend.
So then the discord starts and they're like, oh, we
screwed up. This is I can't believe these teams made
it in What are we doing? Let's hear first. Sean

(23:13):
McDonough was on the call on Friday with Notre Dame Indiana.

Speaker 6 (23:16):
And to be honest, this game has been a little
bit of a dun I don't think anybody would deny that.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Disappointing. I think most of us thought would.

Speaker 6 (23:23):
Be a more competitive game and there will be a
lot of analysis going forward about whether Indiana was worthy
of this. But still really cool for our crew to
be here. You know, the first non NBC home game
at Notre Dame Stadium for the Irish since nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
How about that? So yeah, So Sean mcdonnaugh not happy.
He had a longer one later, like two and a
half minute round about how Indiana sucked and they shouldn't
be in there. But you get the point. Well, Indiana
became then the poster child for college football criticism this weekend.
Here's Kirk kirk Street the next morning on College Game Day.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
The first round is that.

Speaker 5 (24:01):
The atmosphere was historic.

Speaker 7 (24:04):
Yeah, the game was not, you know, and I'm not
gonna sit here and say why was Indiana? And but Indiana,
with what you guys like to talk about, they have
eleven wins, they got to be one of the best teams.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
Indiana was outclassed in that game. They should not. Physically,
it was not a.

Speaker 7 (24:21):
Team that should have been on that field when you
considered other teams that could have been there. It's no
knocking Indiana. They had a great year. But we've got
to move forward with the playoffs and hope that the
committee has a does a better job of wayne who
the best twelve are versus who's the most deserving because
by golly, they got eleven wins. They didn't beat anybody,
but they got eleven wins. That's a bunch of beat us.

(24:44):
We need to find the best teams, and.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
That's last night.

Speaker 7 (24:46):
It was incredibly evident standing on that field and watching
the game the way it played.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Out, all right. So that that's Herbie on the Indiana
just plat. This is before the Saturday games took place.
Then we just had those next three games that we're
all blowouts take place on Saturday, all three of them
in the sense, at least score wise, bigger blowouts than
the Indiana game. Here's Herb Street with Linda Cohen, my
good friend Krack and Hockey Network on Saturday night after
it all wrapped up.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
The first round is now complete. All home teams won.
They not only won, but they won by double digits.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
What is your biggest takeaway from this first weekend of
the twelve team playoff?

Speaker 7 (25:23):
That I hope next year the committee won't get caught
up and with the social media and a lot of
people who are fringe fans get caught up in which
is wins. They had eleven wins, they must be good.
Who did they beat? I think is much more important
than how many wins do you have. That's old school
away of approaching it.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Has.

Speaker 7 (25:43):
You know, Indiana having eleven wins and beating nobody, that
doesn't mean they're one of the twelve best teams. Remember,
I know, Linda, I'm not taking this out on you,
but there's a big difference between.

Speaker 5 (25:52):
Deserving and best.

Speaker 7 (25:55):
Yeah, what this is all about is giving us the
best twelve team. Now subjective, how you want to figure
out the best twelve is up to you, But that's
what I want to say. I don't want to hear
about wins. How many winning is obviously important, but just
because you have eleven wins doesn't mean you're better than
a team that maybe had a tougher road that had
nine wins. So I think we get too caught up

(26:17):
in how many wins you have. It's really more about
who are the best twelve teams, and we need to
get the best twelve teams in his tournament every year.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
All right, So he's talking specifically about Indiana, but let's
use Tennessee for an example. They were ten and three,
safely in as a nine seed. All right, So who
are the nine win teams that Kirk was upset about
Alabama nine and three. We've gone through the Alabama's resume
a million times. They beat nobody this year, right, and
when you play Mercer at the end of the season,

(26:44):
I'm sorry, man, no chance South Carolina nine wins. Would
they have been better? People want to keep making the
case for South Carolina. Maybe South Carolina at the end
of the year was playing better and there is a
sense of that. I mean South Carolina home of Texas
A and m Vanderbilt, Missouri, Wofford, and then Clemson is

(27:05):
who they beat to end the season. That's what South
Carolina did. I'll dance with Young Carolina in this sense
if you want to use and this is kind of
this is a measure at times a subjective measure that
the college football or college basketball community uses. Hey, you
know they had a couple bad losses early, but they
might be playing the best basketball in the country right now.
You might be able to sneak them in. So maybe

(27:27):
I'll dance with you there. Miami shouldn't have beat cal
they did. Cam was a hero in that game, but
they lose to Syracuse. They lose a couple just critical
games along the way. You want to put them in Andrews,
am I wrong here to say? It kind of worked
out perfect Outside of the lopsided scores, all four higher
seeded home teams won. Isn't that what the that should

(27:51):
be kind of what happens, isn't it?

Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
And people always forget there were blowouts in the four
team playoff too, Like it's not like these other games
where it's not completely close, not too far removed from
TCU in the title game exactly exactly. So it's like,
none of this is going to be all these amazing
perfect games like NFL playoff games.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
You're never gonna have it perfect. You're never you know,
twelve teams, twenty four, it doesn't matter, You're never gonna
have it perfect. But Tennessee's an SEC team. Their best
win might have been early in the year they beat
a ranked North Carolina State team that turned out to
be bad. Now, they did have a couple other quality wins.
They beat Alabama, right, but Tennessee. I mean, see, when
I hear guys like Herb Street talk, I think he

(28:29):
literally wants to have a twelve team playoff with all
twelve teams from the SEC. And maybe because McDonough went
through a thing and so the guy's on game day
later too about well, you know, I mean it's it's
you know, the Big ten has won the title, won
the title in two thousand and two, I think it
was the won national championship, and then obviously Michigan last year.
In between it was all SEC or ACC slash Big

(28:52):
twelve and for the most part SEC. Every conference is cyclical.
Teams go up and down. Maybe the SEC isn't the
be all to end and all, but I just had
no problem with the teams in there. Yeah, we want
to see better games, we all want to see better games.
But I I just I'm it's just getting it's just
getting tiresome this whole. Well, Indiana didn't belong. Why because

(29:13):
they're not a traditional football power, and there's they're not
an SEC team they want especially in conference. Remember this,
you can there. They didn't pick their schedule like Indiana
didn't go. Yeah, I think I'm gonna I think we
want to avoid this team and this team and this.
They didn't pick their schedule. They it's done. When you

(29:35):
have these mega conferences, you're gonna have teams all the
time that miss other quality opponents. That's just what it is. Right,
you know, I mean that's just part of how it
works out. And especially if you don't have a tradition.
You know, if if you're you know, if your rival
that you have to play every year and that's always
on your schedule, if they're not good, then that hurts
you as well. Right, For Doe was awful. That was

(29:55):
their end of the season game. That didn't help them
at all. You didn't get tested at all. I don't
look at it as an Indiana problem. I'm looking at it
as what kind of should have happened? Did happen? Now
you wait till you wait, till wait, you wait till
this week. Arizona State and Boise State with the BIS
in that first round, Oh my gosh, what happens if
one of those two teams gets blown out? Yeah, then

(30:16):
we're really gonna hear about it. But remember those are
neutral site games.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Well, and that's that's the one thing that I think
could be changed pretty easily is the seating. Uh, you
don't have to have the top seeds all be conference champions.
But I mean that's a small thing that you can
easily change. It has nothing to do with the selection process.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, and but again, look at the seating when this
the seating for opening weekend was was perfect. Yeah, I
agree everybody. Everybody won that should have won exactly. I'm
excited for the next round. I mean, Ohio State Oregon
rematch in the Rose Bowl of all things. That's perfect,
isn't it. Yeah, Peach Bowl, Texas, Arizona State. I think
Arizona State is going to surprise them a little bit

(30:52):
and give them a game. Penn State, Boise State, come on, Broncos,
come on. Yeah, shove it on, James Franklin and we'll find.
I doubt how good the SEC is because you know what,
I wasn't a Notre Dame believer. I'll be honest with you.
That's a good football team. Yeah, Marcus Stream has got
a good football team there. They got a good fotball tea.
All right, we'll do a qick Daily power Play ahead
a HU mil at one o'clock with Hardcore Football nine
three point three KJR FM, Bulkin Street's wanted on GOLDI

(31:17):
plesay stop it's crossby stop.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
This is the daily power Play Deep Slot one timer McKennon.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Now Ian fernez Son Sports Radio ninety three point three.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Wait k j R F m all right, where do
we start anders with our hockey team. I'm on that
text chain with you and Benton and I over the weekend.
It's just it's all negative. I got another text chain
with three of my buddies who are big cracking fans
are texting me in the middle of a post game show.
W t F.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
Is that why you keep looking your phone?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, well I also have my staff. I also have
my staff.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
Yeah that's fair.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
That's on my phone. I'm probably gonna invest in an
iPad here soon. Good because yeah, I'm looking down at
a small iPhone screen. But then I do look down
there and I'm my guy, like you know, like Buddy's Murphy.
You met Murphy, teacher Murphy down you can fly him.
He's just He's Murph. I love him to death. He
is bitter, cracking fan, like just those sideways right now

(32:22):
with all things cracking. They've lost five in a row.
They haven't done that since I think year one. Yeah. Uh,
it's a better hockey team. It's kind of like the
Seahawks in the sense they're better than their their record is.
Right now, you got to ask yourself what the hell
is going on? Most nights they get goaltending good enough
to win and they just can't score. And that's kind

(32:43):
of been the story. If they make a mistake, it's
in the back of their nets. Sound familiar, Seahawks.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
I was gonna say there are a lot of similarities
with the Cracking and the Seahawks, like last year, like
they kind of moved on from their coach. Yeah, yeah,
playing probably better than they should.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
Then their record shows.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Are your best players your best players?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (33:04):
Yeah, sometimes they are, that's true.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Sometimes they're not.

Speaker 5 (33:07):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Seattle's best players hockey wise. Mccam got on the scoreboard
last night with a beautiful setup from Yanny Gordon and
Shane Right. Let me get there. Off for five days,
they're off until Saturday. They played twelve thirty pre game
one o'clock drop of the puck in Vancouver on Saturday.
They got They've got Yeah, they need that bad. They're
all gone, they're out of here and it's a five
day break. Thankfully. They completely need that. Here are the positives.

(33:31):
Their next home game, by the way, a week from
today against Utah at Climate Plagerina Olvert Buicks trim Bobblehead Night,
Mike stro bobble Head night pretty much, right, yeah, because
I think it's Mondays that means four lanes out somewhere
else ever, it's on TV. But but the positive, the
Coppol Cocko trade. Really like it, yes, like really really

(33:52):
like it. In just the three games and especially the
last two, you've seen him make a difference. So I
like the Cocko trade.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
I'll lot Grooower's been playing better lately.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Groove Hour's played better, Joey's still pretty solid for you, yep.
And Shane Wright's really playing good hockey. Yes, we're all
the oh Shane right, you know, I mean it's funny
and I'll say this, I don't want to play the
audio and pileon, but you know they were they being
the New York Rangers are playing the Devils today and

(34:23):
uh in Rangers are down as a five to nothing.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
Yes, probably five nothing.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
And first of all, Borgan isn't playing well for them. No,
we like the Coco trade. But two it's the big
thing was is you know, Coco was drafted ahead of
Jack Hughes. Ranger fans were cheering I'll win and just
all this stuff. That's kind of the huge Cocko thing.
That's fine, Coco needed to get the hell out of
New York. He did out of the Shadow There of
the Devils. He's going to be fine. Shane Wright gonna
be fine. Beniers has to find a way.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
I think that's the big key to this season, Ian
is if number ten can find himself and get that
twenty twenty two twenty twenty three form back. I think
this team could still make a run of the playoffs.
It's getting kind of late. It's getting late to be early,
as we say, But that's the big key for this
this team moving forward.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
The NHL is a weird league in that sense because
they're not even to the halfway mark of the season
games played wise. Yeah, there are some things on the
you know, like when you get to you know, American Thanksgiving,
are you in the playoffs? Nobody within three or four points? Yeah,
they were. That means you can still be a playoff team.
You get to the Christmas break and you're not in
the playoffs. In fact, you're sitting there in that seven
points out are you? Maybe? Maybe not? There are four

(35:31):
games under five hundred, they've done this before. Get on
a roll, win some games, get a true winning not
a three or four game winning streak. Put together bounce
back with like a go nine, oh to one, eighth
to two or something. They need that to happen, and
I think they're capable of doing that, but it's yeah,

(35:53):
it's been a struggle and and I don't think this
is I'm gonna say the exact same thing I said
about Mike McDonald with Dan Bilesman. They did not hire
Dan Bilsma to take a step back. Nope. They did
not fire Dave Hackstall before his contract extension kicked in
to take a step back. So this is both a
surprise and a disappointment to them. Well, and much like
it is with the Seahawks as well.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah, and with both those teams, the team doesn't look
that different from the previous year, right, And that's the
bigger concern for both teams is like you kind of
it's fine if you have the same record, but you
see the progression in some parts of the area.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
It's hard.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
And you can kind of say that about the Seahawks defense,
but the crack in here it's like, still can't score. Man,
They have good goaltending, their defense is fine, they just
can't score goals.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
All right, Hugh Millen, he's going to join us next
one hour of hardcore football with Hugh Millon. We may
have I don't know, one or two things to discuss
with a couple. Yeah, just a couple, Hu Milon next
nine three point three km.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Now from the start Reinles Sports to us your ninety
three point three KJR FM sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Headlines are brought to you by Frost Brood Cores, Light,
Choose Chill all right, Seahawks lose yesterday and we all
know that happened, right done that been there? We'll talk
about that with you Millon. Next up, Chicago Thursday night football.
It's a must win and then they need some help
along the way.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
Wasn't this past weekend? I must win too, They're.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
All must wins. Yeah, well, but you know what, I
don't know if you know this, Every week's championship week.
Really yeah, I don't know if that's.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
Still knows all right, I'll keep that money now.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Might still be the case, hunt, all right? So we
got that going on? What else we have happening right now?
The krack and losing yesterday? Bummer, they've lost five in row.
Hitting to the break. They head into the break now
with for the next five days. Back at it in
Vancouver Saturday afternoon, twelve thirty pre game right here on
ninety three point three kJ RFM. Okay, Monday Night Football Tonight,

(37:50):
Saints and Packers in one of the massively convoluted scenarios.
We need the Packers actually to win the night. If
you're a Seahawks fan, believe it or not, so how
or why I can't tell you, but that's what we
need to have happened. But then it's like one of
eighteen different scenarios along the way. So that's on nine
three point three KFM nine to fifty am. We got

(38:10):
the Huskies taking on Seattle. You and men's basketball Tank
Dell out for the season. He has torn acl and
dislocated kneecap. That's not fun. Let's get to it.

Speaker 8 (38:19):
Hugh Millon Standingboy, Your Home for the twelfth Man in
the NFL proudly presents hardcore football with Hugh Millon, brought
to you by Hunt Services.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Hunt Services is proud to offer the Hunts Care Club
for all your plumbing, heating, cooling, sewer and electrical needs
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avoid costly repairs and stressful emergencies, get on the horn
and call Hunts or visit Hunt Services dot com.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
Now here's you with the Infernets.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
On Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Hugh Millon joins me every Monday at this time we
do hardcore football, break it all down, only Hugh Millan
can do in a hardcore way. Hello, sir, how are you?

Speaker 9 (39:04):
I'm doing okay? I in Happy holidays too, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Saying back at you and the Millen family as well.
And uh, yeah, here we go into the season for
the NFL coming up, both seasons going on right now.
In fact, I've got Fresno State in the in the
Idaho Potato Bowl playing right now up on TV. So
we're we're we're well underway with the postseason. And uh
and holiday.

Speaker 9 (39:25):
Football gas and Tampa yeah oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
How was that? How was the gasparillable?

Speaker 5 (39:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (39:34):
I feel like the live experience at games, they keep
adding just incrementally more and more commercial breaks, and where
they you know, it seems like a generation goes two
minutes and it was two and a half and three.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (39:50):
I think the commercial breaks are just they're just unrelenting.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
I've heard that from a lot of college football fans
the last couple of years. And I think the last
college football game, big Division one game I went to
a person was two years ago. Yeah, it was two
years ago. Was who played Utah on a Thursday night?
It's Thursday night game impullment? And I remember, Hugh, we
had that. A whole bunch of us had that same conversation,

(40:14):
like it was an FS one game or a Fox game,
and so it was like, okay, time out on the field,
three minutes goes by, change a possession, time out on
the field, three minutes goes by. I think what we've
got to the point too. In the NFL is like
this as well. They don't care about the inn stadium
fan experience. It's all made for TV, sir.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
It's all, oh, no doubt about it.

Speaker 9 (40:33):
I mean, they they cordoned off the entire upper decks
on both sides, so if you keep the cameras low enough,
it was actually crowded in the lower base and it's
an NFL stadium, right, But but they never let the
camera pan on a punt or whatever to let you
know that it's dead empty at the top. But as
you said, they got to fill content for ESPN.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
So ware we go, way we go, sir, way we go.
Let's talk Seahawk. They lose yesterday to the Minnesota Vikings.
We're gonna get specific plays in a second. Just your like, like,
if you were standing at the podium and your Mike
McDonald and you're giving an opening statement, an assessment of
what you just saw for sixty minutes, what would your
opening statement be.

Speaker 9 (41:16):
Well, I would just say that this was a playoff
game for all intents and purposes, and you know it
was right there for the taking. And and we didn't
make the plays that we need to make in the
fourth quarter on either side of the ball. And and
not all plays are created equal, and some fourth quarter.

Speaker 5 (41:35):
Plays are far more important than others.

Speaker 9 (41:37):
And and they they made a couple of really big plays.
We made some mistakes that are that are correctable, but
it's about it's a lousy lesson to learn.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Now.

Speaker 9 (41:48):
I wouldn't I wouldn't talk in the terms of like, oh,
the season's over. I couldn't say that for my team, right,
but I mean we all kind of know it's basically over, right,
I mean it would it would? I mean you're counting
on some kind of eighteen team parlay, like that's that's
gonna pay off, like you know, five and fifty million

(42:10):
on a five dollars bet, exactly right, Or you're you're
relying on perhaps the worst leader I've ever seen at
the quarterback position in the history of the NFL, Kyler Murray.
Can you tell me he's going to lead his team
that's out of the playoffs, you know, to some shocking upset.
I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
No, no, exactly. Well, let's Gino Smith is still and
always will be probably the top of conversation the quarterback
is in most NFL markets. The interception at the end.
He throws two on the day. I don't know. The
first one might have been more not impactful because the
other one you're kind of in desperation time. But let's
go down the Gino road. We can break down I

(42:51):
want to break down hardcore style the second interception. But
what we'll start generally with Gino's play yesterday. He put
up big numbers three hund and fourteen yards and three
touchdowns with those two interceptions. Jump off the page, and
Asaki took as well. On the second to last drive.

Speaker 9 (43:04):
Yeah, you tell me which one you want to break down.
I mean the the second quarter drive, the end of
the let's do that. Well, No, that was the thing.
Abut I mean you had twenty games of twenty twelve, thirteen,
twenty five and eighteen back to back to back to back.
I mean five straight plays double digit and in a
couple of cases over twenty yards.

Speaker 5 (43:24):
That was beautiful.

Speaker 9 (43:24):
But if you're talking about the mistakes, I mean the
first interception, it's first down, it's seven to seven.

Speaker 5 (43:33):
You feel like momentum.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
You know, you just got a three and out, right,
you just got a three and out.

Speaker 9 (43:37):
Yeah, after having scored and so now you get flushed
out of the pocket. And you know, if you're coaching Gino,
you say, okay, now now we're in scramble drill mode.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
Now we're off the script, and.

Speaker 9 (43:53):
So players are it's a little bit of a ragtag
in terms of the the.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
X's and o's.

Speaker 9 (44:01):
You're off the x's and o's, and you just to
have you have to be on the same page as like, Okay,
you know some guys are better at it receivers that
you know, Jackson Smith and Jigba's got a great instincts
and feel for it, and he goes to an open area.
I mean, I am not a fan of Noah Fan.
Now this is a bad day to say it, because
because there's actually the tight ends made a couple of

(44:22):
good plays, and Fan made a couple of good plays.
But he's got some really poor technique and his options
one of the worst option routes I've ever seen from
a tight end. And and then his instincts out in space.
It's like, Okay, he didn't declare that he's going to
come back to the ball. That's what Gino thought he
was going to do. But I would just say, you know,
he Gino's twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage. Fan

(44:44):
is ten yards pass the line scrimmage. I mean you're
talking twenty two yards. That's a lot of space for
a defender to make a reaction if you're wrong. And
so at that point, hey, just it's first inten just
dirt it, just dirt it. And you know, obviously there's liberals,

(45:05):
you're outside the pocket. I have to do is get
the ball to the line of scrimming. So I just
I just thought he forced something off script that unless
it's a bright green light.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
You got to just fold your cards for that play.

Speaker 9 (45:17):
I'm mixing analogies here, but that to me was a
yellow light at best.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
And I was and I was wrong when I set
you up on this. It was not seven to seven.
It was fourteen to seven at that point. They you know,
and and they just Jefferson just scored his first touchdown.
You get the ball back. Seattle does it with at
the five point fifty mark, and yeah, sure in your
own thirty and you're intercepting. Your defense did a good
job to hold them to a field goal. But you
go from a tie game to down ten, just like

(45:44):
that for Seattle, Hugh oftentimes.

Speaker 9 (45:48):
Oh, you know, I'm sorry, I'm gonna cut. I remember
that at seven and seven you had to you had
three straight incomplete or three straight passes. Yeah, And there
was a checkdown on the second down play to Canine
and he it's one of the worst decisions I've seen
him make as a Seattle Sea off.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
That was the second That was the second and ten play.

Speaker 9 (46:11):
Yeah for seven it was seven yards or seven yards yeah,
and and he just runs right, you know, he had
he had open to his left and a blocker and
he just ran right into whoever fifty one is for Minnesota.
So and then and then you had a third down
where you third and three where you get two yards
or was it third and two you can get one either.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Way, got two yards still to lock Yeah.

Speaker 9 (46:33):
And and yeah, the ball pulled him back to the
sideline and man coverage, and so you'd like to see
Lockett just a little bit deeper. So yeah, that was
that was tough to go three and out on in
that sequence.

Speaker 5 (46:45):
But in any event, yeah, that was just kind of
one of those type of days.

Speaker 9 (46:48):
But yeah, you're right, fourteen to seven and uh, but
I think that my thoughts on the play still stand
in terms of uh, in terms of how you would
coach Gino in that regard.

Speaker 5 (46:59):
You just you just got to let them win some plays.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Hugh. Minnesota takes the twenty seven to twenty four leads.
Seell gets the ball back with three point fifty one
to go in the fourth quarter and a chance to
go down and you know, tie or get the lead back.
Gino eighteen yards to Noah Fant. He goes to Kenny
McIntosh for fifteen because he's in there. Thanks Marker's hurt

(47:23):
and sharbone has been banged up as well, so you're
moving the ball, you're at the forty eight yard line.
Then you get Gino sacked for minus six on that
play and then incomplete the DK and sharbon is a checkdown.
You end up missing a sixty year old sixty yard
field goal. What went so good and then what went

(47:43):
south on that drive?

Speaker 9 (47:45):
Well, I think that the leak out in the flat
to McIntosh and up the sideline.

Speaker 5 (47:53):
That really set you up nicely.

Speaker 9 (47:54):
As you said at the thirty seven, you're feeling good
about it. And this might be one of Gino's worst
plays of the season because he takes a sack. Officially,
the NFL tabulated at four point three seconds he held
the ball.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
That that's go back to the average. What's the average the.

Speaker 9 (48:15):
Average for out of the pot, out of the pocket,
if you're in the pocket, the all average of all
throws is two point four to four seconds. He held
at four point three. Now, of the up to this date,
fifteen six and twenty four attempts in the NFL, eleven

(48:37):
and eighteen of them.

Speaker 5 (48:38):
Are are are thrown four point three or later.

Speaker 9 (48:43):
So basically ninety two point eight percent of all passes
in the league in the pocket from the pocket are
thrown before Gino took that sack.

Speaker 5 (48:55):
And what's more maddening is.

Speaker 9 (48:57):
If you know you know that Minnesota is is the
the number one in the NFL in terms of five
man pressures. Are more okay, their number one blitzing team
a blitz define his five rushes. More so, you go
into the week and you've got a really good plan.
You watch their blitz their pack. They have a relatively
simple just be just Mike Sam blitz all right, Nicol

(49:19):
Sam off of his right side. This is first and ten,
and they're but they're playing a shell like both safeties
back the corners kind of in a in a in
a what's we call a trigger position where they can
even trigger to the flat or they can give ground
based on the release of the routes. But here's the
important point to Gino's He's a right handed quarterback. The

(49:41):
mic and the Sam the guy over just slightly to
his right. If you're saying an analog clock is twelve
twelve o'clock straight ahead, the guy at one o'clock and
the guy at two o'clock, they both come. You have
to see that, and the fact that they're playing a
zone behind it. Really, I mean it's literally like a

(50:03):
two D three under zone. There's massive holes in there.
That's a six man pressure. Usually if you have a
five man pressure in play zone with six guys, there's
a lot of holes. Because at Santa zone is seven,
they try and play zone with five guys and DK
is just wide open. I sent I'm gonna send you
the text. I sent it to Chucking Buck earlier, and uh,

(50:27):
there's already been within five yards of him, and Gino
is looking to his left where there's three over two
on him what's called the smash concept, a corner high
low and with the flat with Tyler and the tight end,
and so they're they're well covered over there, but in
so doing they leave. It's literally an unsound coverage on
the right hand side. And DK, who had lined up

(50:49):
in the slot, he just goes eight. He just curls
in the middle like he's capped. There's a safety over
the top of him, like at fourteen yards, but just
a short to intermediate in breaking anything. In breaking route,
he's at the catches at the twenty eight he's one
on one with the safety. I mean that that would
be a game tying play.

Speaker 5 (51:07):
Right there.

Speaker 9 (51:07):
Unless Myers just flat out just you know, chokes it away.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Well, it's game tying at worst.

Speaker 9 (51:16):
At worst, yeah, you're you're you're yeah, absolutely worse. So
the idea that he would I'm fle mixed. I'm almost
speechless that he didn't have the recognition of the of
that blitz, having an awareness of where the pocket was.
It was like, you know, race horses when they have
the blinders on.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (51:37):
I mean, he just he he just turned into a
racehorse and and he had black. Now I'm not saying
it's easy, and I'm not saying Gino didn't do it
a lot better than me. So, you know, what's the
rules here, I'm not I'm not analyzing them based on me.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
You don't want me.

Speaker 9 (51:52):
I'm analyzing it based on uh, you know, just what
what is going to be average to above average even
remotely in this case, this would be any quarterback in
the NFL.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
You've got to make this play. And so it's just exasperating.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
I'm telling you're talking about a thirty five year old
quarterback or thirty four whatever he is, thirty four year
ol quarterback, been in the league for a while. You're
not talking about a physical mistake. You're talking about a
mental mistake. That this isn't Bo Nixon his first year, Hugh,
this isn't Jane Daniels in his first year. This is
something that there's sounds like, frankly, no excuse. And I'm
glad you broke it down that way because I did

(52:30):
see people, and I was telling guys earlier. I'm watching
the game on silent We're getting ready for a cracking broadcast,
so I didn't hear what was said on the broadcast
or anything. And I'm watching that and I'm thinking, I'm
thinking to myself, there's no way you can take a
sack there, right, Like, there's no way. And I saw people,
but oh, you know, he had nothing going on. He
just got swarmed out, like sure exactly, And I'm thinking
it sure felt like he had time and if not,

(52:52):
just live for another day, like just chuck it and
live for another day. And Hugh, the interceptions are one
thing that to me is almost more egregious.

Speaker 9 (53:02):
Yeah, well you know what, while we're just talking, I
just sent you a text to the photo. This is crazy.
In fifteen years, we've never done this. So apology I'm
looking at it right now. But but but I think
it's worth it because now zoom in. DK is at
the twenty nine to thirty yard line.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
I saw your little yellow arrow. I see a yellow arrow.

Speaker 9 (53:20):
Okay, so describe, describe to our listeners. Do you see
this this shell kind of an umbrella. There's the safeties
are deep and the corners are are are widened to
the outside. Yeah, and there's only one there's only one
defender in the middle between them, between the corners.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
And he's outside. He said, how schmarks the DK is?
He's he's a good twelve yards and.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
You see the pocket?

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (53:43):
And do you see the pocket at this point? It's clean.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
The pocket is clean. It looks like there's a looks
like a linebacker kind of try to stunt through, but
he's he's got another second or so to throw it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's a clean but it's a clean pot.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
And it's a TK.

Speaker 9 (53:56):
If you had to say, could anybody with a with
a lacrosse a defenseman not just a lacrosse I'm talking
about the defenseman lacrosse net, which is I guess I
don't know a foot or two longer. Could anybody even
touch DK with a defense a lacrosse defense.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
No, not even close. The closest player to him, I
think is is that Tyler up on top or JSN
one of the two. But yeah, it's and and not
that there's no Minnesota player within seven yards maybe the
closest and the more importantly, like you just said, the
pocket is clean, Hugh, Like it's clean. He's got like
if you were just to freeze in time and put

(54:35):
a just say, like a good high school quarterback, you know,
like a guy that can throw it like I can,
you know, throw from point A to point B. He
froze it, put him there and said throw the ball.
He's gonna complete a.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
One hundred.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
I mean, it's just it's not more.

Speaker 9 (54:51):
I mean it's it's just as it's like it's like
an NBA player missing a lay in with the game online.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Well, god, that's even worse. It's and I thought he
was that still shot you just sent me. It's worse.
I thought, I get it.

Speaker 9 (55:06):
I mean, I'm just trying to imagine, you know, being
you know, a coach for him. And now you know,
I've been in these meetings and I've listened to coach,
you know, with Marino Elway Aikman, and then Jim Everett,
Chris Miller, Steve de Berg. Uh, you know, and I
just named six Pro Bowl quarterbacks. I've been in the
meeting room listening to him.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
Now.

Speaker 9 (55:25):
I've coached at the high school level, so I know
what I would say to my high school guy. And
you say, well, that's just high school. Well it's all relative.
You'd still say, Okay, what are you seeing here? That's
your first question. What is it that took your eyes there?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Well?

Speaker 9 (55:39):
Why why are you not seeing that? And then you know,
you just walk them through it, like like you see
this as open right, why do you were what were
you seeing differently down there than we see on this tape?
And you just try and learn and and and give
a lesson. But by golly, we're at thirty, you know,
thirty four years old. And the thing about it is
is and I Geno, he's pressured a lot. I like

(56:01):
him as a person, I like him as a competitor,
although I'm a little bit salty about how the health
could he not finish last week against the Green Bay
And there's nothing structurally wrong and he's a full partisan
by artisan by Wednesday, that just doesn't add.

Speaker 5 (56:18):
Up to me, right right, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Do you think he tapped out?

Speaker 5 (56:22):
I don't. I don't think he tapped out.

Speaker 9 (56:23):
But I would just say this, I think in the
fifty years I've been watching NFL football, I think there's
a lot of quarterbacks that would have finished that game. Yeah, yeah,
I mean just what those facts don't square. Fact number one,
you came out of the game. Fact number two nothing
structural on an MRI. Fact number three, you're a full
go practice practice for Artisian bit as soon as Wednesday,

(56:47):
three days later.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
Those don't add up. But in an rate, I don't.
I don't.

Speaker 9 (56:51):
As a general rule, I think Geno is a great competitor.
I think he's a he's a he's a great guy.
I like his accountability. There's a lot of things I
like about Geno. I love how he throws a football. Well,
I think he's a plus athlete. The size, you know.
So there's a lot. But the decision making that is it.
It's that and decision making comes down to I can

(57:12):
put it in the simplest terms, throw it to the
right guy at the right time accurately. That is the
That is the pyramid of quarterbacking. In my opinion, that
is the very top block of the pyramid, and all
the other things are tangential. It's nice to have a
strong arm, it's nice to be a great athlete, but
that is that's the very If you can't do that,

(57:34):
that is the most important thing. And there's too many
times per game. I just watched the tape and I
just say, you're not throwing to the right guy, you're
not throwing on time. And and by the way, he's
you know, in terms of time to throw. The updated
stats out of thirty five quarterbacks who in the NFL

(57:55):
have more than two hundred past attempts this year, so
we're getting close to that thirty two number, but there's
thirty five who qualify by that, he is thirtieth out
of thirty five in terms of time to throw the ball.
They literally have that in the stat portal TTT time
to throw and his average is tied for twenty ninth

(58:17):
slash thirtieth out of thirty five. So you know, he
just holds the ball and in this case throwing to
the wrong guy or in taking a sack at the
wrong place four point three seconds and there's a wide
open guy to that can win this game. It hurts,
it's hard, it's hard, and if it was just a
one off, then I would just say, well, you know, hey,

(58:38):
nobody's can be perfect, but it happens too much.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
All right, let's see just take a quick break. Come back,
we'll talk about the late game interception, did DK do
something wrong? Did Gino make the wrong play? And then
we'll talk bigger picture Gino. In the final segment, we'll
talk about the touchdown that ended up being the game
winning touchdown to Justin Jefferson, between Julian Love and Rieku
Will and all that coming up. Hardcore Football continues with
you Midlan ninety three point three KTERFM.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Now back the frost proof Coors Light, Choose Chill Mondays
with the inf NEETs on your home for the twelfth
kjr FM.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
All right, we roll on here on a Monday afternoon,
last show a week for us. Back with your next Monday.
Hardcore Football continues Hugh Millan. All right, Hugh, let's just
get right to this more geno conversation. So Seattle, Jason Myers,
we just went through the sack, missus, the sixty yard
field goal. No good, well short, uh the vik You
get the ball back at the fifty yard line. Aaron

(59:39):
Jones one yard, Aaron Jones two yards, third down, sacked
by Derek Hall. They have to punt the ball, do
the Minnesota Vikings. Seattle gets the ball at their own
seventeen yard line. First play wasn't a play, Abe Lucas
false start, So now you're back at your own twelve
yard line. Gino Smith, deep pass attendant for DK Metcalf

(01:00:00):
intercepted what happened?

Speaker 9 (01:00:02):
Well, I think if you really understand this, you got
to first say, okay, what is Seattle trying to accomplish?
And there's a term that football people use called flood,
and flood is basically a high low where you have
three receivers, deep, intermediate and short. Sure, it would be

(01:00:23):
anything generally under about six to seven yards. Deep would
be just take the top off, and then intermediate would
be generally anything from twelve to twenty two yards okay,
And generally that's described as near the sideline because you
can do a three layer over the middle, but people
don't call that flood. So a flood is directed towards

(01:00:45):
the sideline, outbreaking routes and a clear off. So you
can have the deep guy be a takeoff just a
go route, or you can have the deep guy be
a high angle corner route where he's breaking to the sideline,
but he's really taken a.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
Very very high angle to the goal line.

Speaker 9 (01:01:03):
And if you go to the very first play of
the third quarter for Seattle, it's as if they said, hey,
we got to get Tyler involved, because they say, okay,
we're gonna get Tyler on.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
We're gonna go weak side flood.

Speaker 9 (01:01:16):
Gino is gonna go a drop back and he's got
DK on the left, who's the clearout.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
He's the deepest guy, and.

Speaker 9 (01:01:23):
He's running a high angle corner, and we're gonna bring
Tyler from the opposite side slot and he's gonna be
the intermediate guy. And then we're gonna have the tight
end on a shall cross as the short guy. And
when you watch DK run that, now that happened to
be a cover three a three D, but the corner

(01:01:43):
instead of breaking it flat as if he's trying to
as if Gino's trying to get the completion, he literally
takes a step like he's like, oh, maybe I'll cross
his face and flatten it, but that would put him
in the same window as Tyler.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
That's not the.

Speaker 9 (01:01:59):
Structure of the play, and so DK keeps high to
just clear that guy out of there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
That happens. You can look it up.

Speaker 9 (01:02:07):
First play of the third quarter UH one sixteen to
go in the third quarter, similar type of deal U
thirteen oh seven in the fourth quarter. All three of
those plays, DK is is clearing out and taking a
high angle. So now the play in question is is
a defense that was I identified. I'm looking at it
last night. I'm like, that's two man's that's a two

(01:02:30):
safeties deep and five under man. But that's generally with
a four man rush. I'm like, that's two men with
just a three man rush. What did they do with
the extra guy? They took the other safety, the other
eleventh player they put over on DK. So DK literally
had dribble coverage. He had a guy underneath him, and

(01:02:50):
he had a safety deep into the outside and a
safety deep into the inside to stop the post. And
you know for DK, by the way, I looked it
up as how many times do we see that in
the NFL?

Speaker 5 (01:03:03):
Because I rarely see that.

Speaker 9 (01:03:05):
Well, I filtered it on this NFL stat portal, there's
been thirty one times out of fifteen one thousand, six
hundred and twenty four that's point one nine eight percent.
That is less than two per one thousand plays in
the NFL, specifically one point nine to eight per thousand.
That's how rare the play and the Vikings themselves the
kookiest coverage of the team that drops the most eight

(01:03:28):
other than Jimmy Lakedown in Atlanta, the most drop eight
guys three man rushes. They had only run that play
one time, looked it up, wanted to see, Hey, this
is the stat portals filtering the way I am sure enough.

Speaker 5 (01:03:41):
It was the d Roma Dounza. Yep.

Speaker 9 (01:03:44):
They had ran at one and Odoonsay had a beautiful
completion over them. Anyways, they had only run that coverage
one time the whole year. Wow, and the Falcons had
run at eight, the Commander's five and Cowboys three, everybody
else two or less, and again thirty one.

Speaker 5 (01:03:59):
So it was a very rare coverage.

Speaker 9 (01:04:01):
And ge Gino's looking at at and he's saying it
could look like a three deep to him. And so
he's sitting there saying, I'm going to take the high
I'm gonna go the high angle and go over the top. Hell,
he already did it in the game. I can see
you're on the coaches tape. He already did it in
the game three times. And so now I would give
Geno a minu a DK. Rather, I would give DK

(01:04:23):
a minus because he didn't run full speed, which is
an irony because you and I have talked off air
all season. It's crazy how hard he runs his routes
when he knows he's not going to get the ball.
I don't know why he didn't on this one, but
I'd give him a minus. So we've got two issues
about DK. If you're down on DK for that play,
you got to distinguish between two things. Number one is effort,

(01:04:44):
which I'm I'm on board with you. But the other
question is is should he go over the top or should.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
He flatten that?

Speaker 9 (01:04:52):
And and with with the the weak side flood with
Jackson Smith and Jigba running a crossing route to fit
in to be the middle of again floods? What high,
intermediate and lowkay shallow? I'm deep and intermediate Jackson Smith
and Jigba from a tighter split, He's gonna be the

(01:05:12):
intermediate guy, and and and my final thought on that
is it had had DK. If you just say, a
normal circumstance, if DK crosses the face and goes underneath
that guy, and then and then Gino's throwing to Jackson Smith.

Speaker 5 (01:05:27):
In the window.

Speaker 9 (01:05:27):
You say, dude, you're you're supposed to clear that window open.
You got to be higher than the deepest guy. And
then and then our flat guy is lower than the
shallowest guy.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
And then we just slot.

Speaker 9 (01:05:39):
We just kind of fit like into a pockety JSN
in the intermediate and we go get ourselves a nineteen
yard game. Like that's the structure of the play, at
least as I interpret Now. I can understand Geno just
looking at that and saying, okay, based on that, look
all flatinum. But there's some rules here that I think

(01:06:02):
that DK was playing with in terms of okay, I
got to be the clear out guy, not to go
get the completion guy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
So DK was not expecting the ball.

Speaker 9 (01:06:12):
No, he he was not expecting the ball, because I
think that's the key, Like you said, even when he's
not expecting the ball normally, he runs like hard as hell.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
And we've talked about that. We've we've gone through that.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
So when he's not expecting the ball, by the way, yes,
at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
So he's not expecting all because when you hear the crow, wow,
DK just you know, he broke off his route, he
didn't run the right route, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
And it's like, and so is this did Gino just
get fooled by the coverage?

Speaker 5 (01:06:39):
Well, Gino, ol Timmy got beat early.

Speaker 9 (01:06:41):
So there's a guy on his on him immediately, so
he's got to throw it really early. And as he
sees it, he's sitting there saying, well, hang on the guy. Uh,
I got a number two for them that I know
he's number two.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
Yeah, that's what's Gilmore, that's Gilmore.

Speaker 5 (01:06:59):
Yeah, it's fun.

Speaker 9 (01:07:00):
So he was on way inside shade because they had
tried to hit a dig route, an inbreaking route on
second and sixteen after that sack.

Speaker 5 (01:07:08):
And he had rolled the in route.

Speaker 9 (01:07:10):
And so now they're saying, Okay, he's gonna he's he's
gonna defend the in route. Like if you're Stefan Gilmore,
you go, this is beautiful. I got all the help
I want. I'm inside leverage and I got I got
deep help in the middle to the inside.

Speaker 5 (01:07:22):
I got deep help to the outside.

Speaker 9 (01:07:24):
All I got to do is play inside leverage, wait
for an inbreaking route, and if he goes an outbreaking route,
well is his split was bottom of the numbers, so
he's running out a sideline and I can just I can,
you know, try and undercut that. I can take all
the chances I want on shorter routes because I've got
all the help I need. Right And so really they

(01:07:48):
just won. They just gloved it up. They ran a
really good coverage for what Seattle was trying to do
wasn't a lot open. And even though it's first and fifteen,
I mean, Gino's feeling the pressure of the situation.

Speaker 5 (01:08:00):
I'm imagining he's on his own twelve yard line. He's
got a you know, no timeouts.

Speaker 9 (01:08:04):
But even with that, you gotta dirt the ball, and
which really, by the way, on the first and tent
they had lined up in a different formation. That was
a different play. So you got Abe Lucas jumping off offside,
you know, false starting, and that changes the play. Now,
Geno is maybe less inclined to dirt the ball on

(01:08:26):
first and fifteen than he would be on first and tent.
But in an event, if you're down on DK, you
have to distinguish between two facets. Are you down because
he loafed the route or are you down because he
went over the top of the safety instead of across
the face of the safety. And what I'm trying to
impart to you it was a very very unusual look.

(01:08:47):
There was already three plays in this game that I
could show you unequivocally DK taking the high angle for
the zone spacing as I'm describing, and that I can
understand and why there was a quivocation here because it's
just a really unusual look to be double capped by DK.

(01:09:09):
But that again goes back to the deal. Oh by
the way, early in the year, when DK was healthy,
Seattle was number one in terms of facing cover six
that's roll covers. Then after he missed a couple of games,
they were fourth. Well, now they've climbed back to number two.
The only team that plays more cover six against on
offenses against the Cowboys offense where they have Ceedee Lamb

(01:09:32):
and I looked it up earlier this morning. Some guy
I have never heard of with four hundred yards and
Seedee lambs got twelve hundred, so defenses in the NFL
are telling you what they think of DK Metcalf because
they rolled the hell out.

Speaker 5 (01:09:45):
Of him in on this, you know, the touchdown to Barner.
What coverage was that?

Speaker 9 (01:09:49):
Everybody else's man, They're bracketing in and out on Dk,
the only guy getting doubled covers.

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
This just happens over and over again.

Speaker 9 (01:09:56):
And here we're talking about on an interception, the guy's
literally getting triple to and Gino has just got to
recognize that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
Well, take a break, come back, final touchdown, Reek Wollan
Julian Love. Who to blame? What happened there? We'll break
it down hardcore style next with you Millon.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
Now back the frost browed Coors Light Choose Chill Mondays
with the in fornous on your Home for the twelfth
kJ r FM.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
Hi, we're back you Millen. Hardcore football. One more segment.
He you got about five minutes left to go here,
I want to Oftentimes hardcore football ends up, you know,
kind of rebuking the blame game, like who's to blame?
Who's to blame? Riek Wollen didn't start yesterday team rule violation.
According to Mike McDonald did come in afterwards and was
on the field for the game winning touchdown that Kirk

(01:10:52):
Cousins thue to Justin Jefferson. Julian Love was behind him
on the play. I hear and see a lot of
people saying, oh man, Reek just got torch there. It
was all Reek's fault, blah blah blah.

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
Right, not Cousins.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
I say, what did I say? Cousins?

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's a I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
Are they Are they not the same guy? Donald Cousins? Anyway,
So Donald throws at Jefferson for the for the game
when he touchdown. What happened there? And and where do
you point the finger?

Speaker 9 (01:11:16):
Well, I think first of all to understand kind of okay,
what's the role of of Reek Wollan, because I think
some people are confused about this.

Speaker 5 (01:11:26):
He is the cover to corner. That's what's called cloud.

Speaker 9 (01:11:29):
Cloud is is a term that's been around for I
don't know seventy five years at least. That means the
corner in the flat okay, And and so the corner
in the flat flat is the is the zone closest
to the lion scrimmage and closest to the sideline that's
the flat area. And so what reek Wolan has the

(01:11:51):
balls on the left hash and Jefferson takes an inside release.

Speaker 5 (01:11:54):
Wolan funnels him into the safety. That's what he should do.

Speaker 9 (01:11:57):
And then what he's asked to do the corner is
he would sink. Now, I'm gonna pause that final play
and I'm gonna go back to the beginning two plays
of the drive. You got it in front of you
that The first one is to stin Jefferson who had
lined up in the backfield as the halfback, and he

(01:12:18):
runs a little option route and Rieke Woolan had been
the corner to that side in in cloud coverage, everybody
else's is playing cover two and he gives up too
much ground to the tight end who's playing the X receiver.
He gives up too much ground. They have an easy
pitch out to the flat and it's twelve yards up
to sidland. You remember that it starts to drive.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
And it was on first and fifteen too. Get twelve yards, yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:12:43):
And then they roll cover two to the other way
and they give.

Speaker 5 (01:12:49):
The Jaron Reed goes on the A gap and that's
another part of it.

Speaker 9 (01:12:53):
But Sam Darnold goes up in the b gap between
the garden to tackle and these scrambles and he gets
nine yards and they were the sea.

Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
We're in zone coverage. Cloud.

Speaker 9 (01:13:02):
That's a lot about he's looking in at the quarterback.
But you had Josh Job who sank too much. So
now we've gone two plays and we've had two break
We've given up twelve yards and nine yards to the
flat area a pass one to run by Donald and
the corner is too deep to make the play.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
They're just they're just giving up yards.

Speaker 9 (01:13:24):
And so now going back to the play, getting back
to the game winner, the Jefferson touchdown, it's cloud coverage.
And you would say to Woolen, you funnel to the
inside and then sink.

Speaker 5 (01:13:36):
Look for anybody.

Speaker 9 (01:13:37):
If there's a back, for example, the back comes to
the weak side, if he goes in the flat or
runs a swing route, that's your guy. You can't keep
sinking because then we'll give up another fifteen yard or
up the sideline unless you want to man to man
the back side the weak side of the formation. It
was trips right to Sam Darnald's a right and and

(01:14:00):
it was weak side to Sam Darnold's left where he ended.

Speaker 5 (01:14:03):
Up throwing the ball.

Speaker 9 (01:14:04):
If you want to say, Tyree Knight, you've got the
backreek willing you go man to man and we'll give
you a safety help. That's fine, and you can zone
the front side. But that's not what they were doing.
Tyree Knight and Ernest Jones were going to their spots.
And by the way, this is Cover two. It was
not Tampa two. Why is that important? Because Ernest Jones

(01:14:26):
was Tampa two would be where the middle linebacker, Ernest
Jones runs back to the middle and he really is
trying to help on any deep post routes between the
two safeties. This is not Tampa two. This is regular
Cover two. What's the importance of that? That you had
Julian Love the safety on that side of the field

(01:14:47):
and Kobe Bryant the safety on the other side. They
don't have any help down the middle. So the slot
receiver in the person of Naylor number eighty three for Minnesota,
he's a wide receiver, not a tight end. He's gonna
go down the middle. And if Julian Love goes way
over to the sideline, they could be vulnerable down the
middle because they don't have what. They don't have the

(01:15:08):
Tampa to help from the person of what Ernest Jones. Okay,
so that puts a little bit more stress, lateral stress
on Julian love and and really, but getting back to Wooln,
he can't be asked to sprint down the field chasing
Justin Jefferson because because he's got the cloud respond, he
can sink and try and help on a on an outcut.

(01:15:29):
Now here's the thing, here's what's funny about football. You
have Mike McDonald the head coach, brilliant, I've said, the
smartest guy in planet Earth.

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
I'm doing defense.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:15:41):
He comes in a press conference says, well, they hit
a seven cut. A seventh cut is a universal term
for a corner rock. He didn't even have it right,
and he knows a lot more about defensive football than me.
But I'm gonna just tell you right now, that was
not a seven cut. That was a nine cut, which
is a go route. He thought, he's over there, standing
there looking at a lot of things, and on the far.

Speaker 5 (01:16:02):
Side of the field, way over there.

Speaker 9 (01:16:04):
Probably the last thing he saw was Justin Jefferson turn
and catch the ball. As that exactly as if it
was a corner route to the to the to the sideline,
and yet that was not a seven cut. That was
a goal route, an inside really released go route. And
when he watched it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
Goh, whoa, that's not that wasn't a seven cut at all.
That was a go route.

Speaker 9 (01:16:26):
That's the difference between watching the coaches tape that I'm
describing and him being, you know, in a postgame press
conference after the game, having watched it once on field level. So,
but which leads me to this, Sam Darnold threw it
like a seven cut. He made justin Jefferson turn and
catch the ball going towards the sideline. At some point

(01:16:48):
you got to just say, that is not just a
good play, a great play.

Speaker 5 (01:16:52):
That's in the.

Speaker 9 (01:16:53):
Running for me of the best individual play that any
opponent has made against the Seahawks this year. Certainly a
quarterback tell me another throw that was as good or
better than that throw Where Sam Darnold play action h
he has to step up in the pocket. I think,
uh uh, it was haul that that actually kind of

(01:17:15):
got held I think maybe by the left tackle the holding.
But but he's running forward, he gets whipsawed by Draymond
Jones and Leonard Williams high load him as as he's throwing,
and he smokes a cover two hole shot making Jefferson
turn his body, which he's capable of doing because he's

(01:17:36):
the best receiver in football, and and he just throws
a dime. Julian Love was maybe a you know, a
foot or two off of his his angle. But that's
the safeties ball. That is the safeties ball. Now the
the uh, the play the twelve yarder to start the
the the drive I give wolln and minus point.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
I got a rock here, But on that one, that
was Julian Love's ball, not'.

Speaker 9 (01:18:03):
That's Julian Love. That's cover two zone defense. And unless
they had a meg call, which is man everywhere he goes, well,
Tyree Knight wasn't doing it. Uh, it didn't look like
Willan was doing that. That would be the only time
where you could.

Speaker 10 (01:18:18):
Say that that that that Willan was responsible at in
any way to me, I I I give no blame
to Wolan whatsoever on that ploy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
Great wait in it, my friend, Thank you, Happy holidays.
I have a great Christmas. We're talking a week's We're
talking a week's time. There you go that humil and
hardcore football. We'll come back. We'll check in with Mike
Sandal from the Athletic.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
Next no from the Star Rentals Sports Deaths. Your ninety
three point three k j r FM Sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
Headlines are brought to you by Frostbrewed Corps Light Choose Chill.
Seahawks losing yesterday twenty seven to twenty four of the
Minnesota Vikings. Next up Thursday Night Football Chicago. Another must win.
Even though yesterday was a must win, this is another
must win with some help needed along the way. Monday
Night Football Tonight, Saints and Packers. Right here on ninety

(01:19:09):
three point three k RFM. After fine and soft year
done at the Emerald Queen Casino. Over on the nine
to fifty am dial, We've got Seattle and Washington Settle
University in Washington. Husky Benz Basketball. Seven o'clock is the
opening tip off on nine to fifty am. Cracker lose
yesterday to the Calile l Avalanche. It's been a struggle.

(01:19:30):
They've lost five in a row. They're off until Saturday.
They'll be up in Vancouver for a matine Affair twelve
thirty pre game one o'clock drop of the puck. Next
home game for the Crack in a week from tonight
against the Utah Hockey Club. Tank Dell out for the season,
has torn acl and dislocated a kneecap along the way.
I think that's good. Let's get to Mike Sando. He's
been waiting for us.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
It's time for our Monday visit with Mike Sando of
the Athletic, brought to you by Hunts is for HVAC, plumbing,
sewer and electrical needs. Get on the horn and call
Hunts or visit Hunt Services dot com. Now with Mike Sando.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
Here's the infernetes. Mike Sando joined us every Monday, big
thanks to Hunt Services, we take a tour around the NFL.
This pick six calm is up at the Athletic dot com.
You can go check that out there. I want to
get to Sam darl on the second. First of all, Mike,
how are you happy holidays? Good?

Speaker 5 (01:20:24):
How are you happy holidays to you?

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
I'm good, I'm very good. All right, Let's I want
to touch in on this first, and then we'll get
to a really interesting thing because Seahawks. You just saw
Sam Donald yesterday that you wrote about today. What the
future is for him. You covered the Seahawks as a
beat writer for years and been around this team for
a long time with ESPN now the Athletic. Did you
ever think you'd see a day in which the Seahawks
somehow have a winning record yet they're three and six

(01:20:47):
at home.

Speaker 11 (01:20:48):
Probably not, No, I think that is a rarity to happen.
But yeah, sometimes it just depends who you play where
as well. And I think home field advantage has changed,
you know, if this is a team in transition a
little bit, and then the way the market is when
some of these teams come in, they're fans buy the tickets.
So I don't think you have as much of an
advantage at home.

Speaker 5 (01:21:09):
As he used to.

Speaker 11 (01:21:10):
I think Seattle still does in some cases.

Speaker 7 (01:21:12):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:21:12):
I think depending on who's visiting, and then we'll see
how that if that results itself over time. I don't
like the a bunch of visiting fans in a stadium
for anybody, you know. I like the home feel of like,
oh my gosh, you know we're going into it's going
to be really tough, and so I think some of
that's been lost a little bit for some of these games.

(01:21:33):
When you're playing the forty nine ers or the you know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
The Packers.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
How was it yesterday?

Speaker 11 (01:21:37):
My son was there actually wearing a Packer jersey?

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
Can you believe that?

Speaker 11 (01:21:40):
But were there were there Viking jerseys in there?

Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
Andrews you know more you were at the game.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
Yeah, there was a decent amount of purple, but definitely
not as much as the Packer game the week before.
I'd say it was about eighty five to ninety percent
the Yawks fans.

Speaker 11 (01:21:54):
Yeah, it felt like it, you know, listening to it,
but sometimes I wasn't sure because those purple can blend
in with the blue a little on TV, I don't
notice them as much, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
Yeah, yeah, it's not like the green of Green Bay
and the red of the forty nine ers. It just
jumps off their towels, you know. Yeah, random question, Mike,
But I mean you're talking to I mean, because you
did the whole thing with what would happen with Darnold
next year? You're talking to guys around the league. Has
it ever been brought up what you said? Maybe home
field advantage isn't what used to be here in Seattle?
Is that also a trend around the NFL? At all?

Speaker 11 (01:22:25):
It is yeah, I think it definitely is in terms
of the Like, I think the odds makers give fewer points.
They used to always be like, hey, three points for
being right. I think that's way down, you know, probably
in half. So I think that there's definitely been some
of that. And you know, there's a number of reasons
that it could be true, but you're not really sure
if those are the real reasons.

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:22:47):
I think some of it is the team's probably travel
better than they used to, you know, in a more
with more awareness of the rest, they're probably less affected
by the actual traveling itself. Yeah, and then I think
the make up of crowds has probably changed to just
it's a more expensive ticket to get. Hey, you ever

(01:23:08):
go to a restaurant that costs three hundred dollars a person,
It would be a different atmosphere than going to McDonald's. Yes, yeah,
I one hundred, to get different people in the crowds,
different clientele, yeah, no, different. Well, that's I think that's
been a complaint for a lot of sports, NHL NBA specifically,
like the arena sports, smaller venue, more corporate tickets being bought, right,

(01:23:29):
you know, just kind of a different vibe and and
that Mike Guessandro joining us from the athletic This was
an interesting thing. I thought this all year. I didn't
realize it was this significant. The Minnesota Vikings are one
of the most surprising teams in NFL history, or at
least in recent NFL history, right, Yeah, according to what
people expected them to do this year.

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:23:51):
So I love to look at the pre season Vegas
win totals for teams because it's kind of a you know,
an objective way to look at, like what the ex
dictation was freach team. Right, So if you're a really
bad team, your win total before the year might be four, right,
and sometimes you'll exceed that. So I thought, man, Minnesota
had no expectations with Darnold, you know, they lose their quarterback.

(01:24:13):
Everyone was thinking they were going to win six or
seven games. Right here they are with this incredible record.
So yeah, I went back. I was able to go
back thirty five years for every team's you know, preseason
win total, and then then compare to where those teams
were at at this stage after fifteen, and there was
only one team above these Vikings, and that was the
ninety nine Rams, who if you're old enough or no

(01:24:34):
football history. You'll never forget that team because it was
the year that they lost their starting quarterback at Trent
Green in pre season to a hit, and they thought
their season was toasted, and they put in a guy
named Kurt Warner and ended up going to the Hall
of Fame.

Speaker 5 (01:24:47):
And they were better they had.

Speaker 11 (01:24:49):
They won the Super Bowl, they went take it to
another one and set records. They were kind of, you know,
the record setting offense of the last twenty five years,
maybe out of the New England, you know seven. So
you know, the Vikings are right. There's been seventeen hundred
and eleven teams since since nineteen eighty nine, and they're
number they're tied for number two for best exceeding expectations.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
That's something. What do you think the expectations would have
been if McCarthy was healthy?

Speaker 5 (01:25:16):
Yeah, it's a great point.

Speaker 11 (01:25:17):
I mean, probably a little bit higher.

Speaker 5 (01:25:19):
But not a ton higher.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
I was gonna say as a quarterback, probably would yah,
rookie quarterback would have been much higher.

Speaker 11 (01:25:24):
Right, Yeah, we could probably go back and look and
see what changed. I would think it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
Got a little worse with Donald. Yeah, for the perception
of Donald. Right, So what's the perception of Sam Donald
now a lot better.

Speaker 11 (01:25:37):
You know, I think I think when you look to
next offseason, you don't necessarily see a lot of amazing
available options for you. I don't think people were really
talking about the draft that way. I think there's quarterbacks
people like, I don't know how many are super high,
and then yeah, there's a couple of guys like Donald

(01:25:57):
or Russell Wilson that don't have contracts that'll have opportunities.
But I think it'll be really fascinating to see how
high a team would go for a Sam Donold when
you do have those years previously when you were like
I'm not so sure, you have to kind of in
your mind think how much of this is Kevin O'Connell
and Justin Jefferson and what they've got going there? Can

(01:26:17):
we replicate that somewhere else?

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
Right? Well? And he has too, we're bringing that up earlier.
It's like like, like, what would you know? And this
maybe isn't the day after a late game interception and
everything else with Gino, but you know, put Gino Smith
in that Minnesota offense, with that play caller, that number
one receiver, that number two receiver, and an elite, tied

(01:26:40):
end and pretty good running back. What happens then, you
know totally.

Speaker 11 (01:26:43):
Yeah, yeah, Gino, I think Gina would have the same,
could do as well or better than Darnald probably in
that situation. But Gino's also, you know, makes decent money.
He has a decent contract, and that's what you Darnold
will probably have one too, Maybe he will even be
higher depending on what the market is. I think his
is a little comp geated though, by the fact that
Minnesota probably just has a number if they're willing to

(01:27:04):
even be involved, so he may not. You have to
be able to play teams off each other to really
get a market, and so how many teams will be
there for him?

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
It wouldn't be.

Speaker 11 (01:27:13):
Shocking to me if he got thirty five million dollars
a year. That's not over the top for a starting quarterback,
and you know he's shown he can do it well.

Speaker 2 (01:27:23):
Mike Sanel joining us from the athletic same same thing
with quarterbacks. Yeah, as you mentioned, Russ is on a
one year deal right with with Pittsburgh. Yeah, Like, what's
what's his asking price going to be? I mean, there's
a guy that we all thought was maybe on the
way out now last Saturday. Notwithstanding, you know Russ is
now maybe Pittsburgh gets the home I don't know if there's
a hometown discount anymore, but maybe that's a Pittsburgh thing.

(01:27:44):
But you know what could run because it doesn't feel
like there's a lot on the market out there for
teams and need quarterbacks, including in the draft. So Russ is.

Speaker 11 (01:27:51):
In a different situation from from Darnold in that the
Steelers don't have somebody the drafted in the first round
that they really want to play right, so they don't
have their option. And the other thing is I think
Russell is deeper into his career. You know, he's nearer
the end. He's probably thinking more about legacy too. This
is a great situation. This is an iconic franchise. They
always play good defense. We've seen when when George Pickens

(01:28:15):
is available, you know, they kind of have their formula
to hit some throws down the field. You know, he
can manage the game. I think he sort of slipped
up on that with that fumble. That was a bad
game management thing. He didn't have a great management of
the game game this last one. But yes, so he's
shown I think he can do that. So if I'm him,
I want to stay there. I want the Steelers as

(01:28:35):
much as they want me next year. So I think
he would be foolish to take a dollar more to
go to a worse situation.

Speaker 2 (01:28:44):
I go back, I've I say famously. I remember it.
My co host remembers that we were up doing a
show the first ever Russell Wilson golf tournament up at Suncadia,
and it would have been when his first contract, his
rookie contract was expiring, and there's the middle of the
summer and we're up there talking and we did the
golf Urama and they said, yeah, well we'll go to
the show up there promote the golf tournament. We were
partners with them, and Mike you like this. I said, yeah, okay,

(01:29:07):
you know, I said, but we're gonna only go up there.
And our boss, you know, Purple Sheet, says they'll go
up there, but they get Russell's gonna sit down with
him and do a segment, right, And it was like
during the heated like what's going to happen. They're gonna
have to pay Russ for the first time and all
this and it's guy, we have the sound somewhere in
the system, very deep. But he all of a sudden
last thing and said, well, Casey Kane's up here with us,
He's gonna do the show with us. And like, no, no, no,

(01:29:29):
that's not how it's gonna work. And we lucked out
because we didn't have enough headset. So just logistically, Puck
interviewed Casey Kane. Then I put the headset on. I
had a relationship with Russ and put it on and
I asked him about you know, home hometown discount and
you know, getting paid, and he said, the one thing
I'm not is a bad businessman, and I'm gonna go.
So that's why that rings in my ears always because

(01:29:51):
I think, hmm, like when the steep, because you're right
with the Steelers, that seems to be just a perfect fit.
He can just do what he needs to do, do
hit a couple of long shots, still running around a
little bit, but he's playing with you know, he's got
good running backs, good offensive line, and a great defense.
And he is about legacy, isn't He's about getting that
second ring.

Speaker 11 (01:30:11):
Plus well or just you know, cementing his Hall of
Fame candidacy. I think he realizes that things went off
the rails there and and it really could have complicated
his legacy if it ended the way it did in Denver.
So this is a great opportunity for him to just
finish up. And I think I think he seems to
appreciate the Mike Tomlin and the and the situation there.
You know, I think he seems like he's pretty happy

(01:30:32):
to be there. So, you know, we'll see. You're right
when money gets involved, people do people act differently? Everybody
everybody goes no, you know, we all act like it's
just it's just somebody else. But we all act differently
in some way when there's a lot of money at stake.
You know, people take jobs that they wouldn't otherwise take
or things like that, right, even when they have a

(01:30:53):
lot of money. Yeah, so it needs to be seen
what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:30:57):
Mike Sanawa. This last thing, this this won't make you
home fans happy, but you wrote about today. The most
physical team in the NFC West, it's not the San
Francisco forty nine ers, not the Arizona Cardinals, although they
try hard, they play hard. Definitely not the Seattle Seahawks.
It's the l A Rams, The LA Rams that high
flying Matt Stafford led offense no more no more, Aaron

(01:31:19):
Donald on defense. And they're the most physical team in
the NFC West, sir, hey there.

Speaker 5 (01:31:23):
They run the ball more than the other teams.

Speaker 11 (01:31:25):
They've changed their their run game to be more of
power and gap type running, and they've got some big
offensive linemen. Puka Nakua very physical. We've seen him in
that Ram tradition back when they really used to get
after it with more of an outside zone scheme.

Speaker 5 (01:31:41):
But they've got their their running.

Speaker 11 (01:31:42):
Back as physical and they commit to running the ball.
I think that's the number one. I think they're a
print for what Seattle would like to do more offensively
and isn't doing. And that will certainly, in my mind
be rectified to some way in the off season. But
then the Rams also, you know defensively with those two
players they got in the draft, you know, Fis Converse,

(01:32:02):
those those are tone setting guys. I remember going to
their training campus over the off season and they were
joint practicing somebody. It might have been the Raiders, I
can't remember, but I mean Verse was like annoyingly apping
it up, like I was like, man, who is this guy?
It was like he was over the top in guy's faces.
But it's just an attitude, you know. I think he

(01:32:23):
plays with that on their team. So you know, Seattle
has has the potential for some of that defensively, and
we've seen it, you know, Leonard Williams and some of
those guys, but and Witherspoon to play that way, but offensively,
some of it's the style of your play. What are
you trying to do? And you know, I think that's
where there's definitely a gap has been opened up to

(01:32:44):
where the Rams have a clear vision that they've implemented
through their personnel acquisitions, through their scheme tweaks, through the
play calling. That sends a message of who they are.
And I think that's what Seattle wants to have but
doesn't how much.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
How much credit though, I mean McVeigh and company there,
they've just done a hell of a job. Like like,
how do you lose the best defensive alignment in this
last and the generation and not lose a beat defensively?
How do you have, you know, your best wide receiver
who's not really been a huge factor this year in
Cooper Cup and you just don't miss a beat. You

(01:33:21):
mentioned it, Calvin Williams just plays. I mean, I think
you said punches above his weight, right glass he does, Yeah,
like he's a middleweight that plays like a heavyweight. But
it's it. I mean, Mcveigh's just a everyone was. You know,
it's funny how coach is right, the cyclical thing, you know,
sort of this season, Kyle Shanahan's the smartest guy in
the NFC West, smartest guy in the NFL. Now they're done,
they're not going to the playoffs. Now it's McVeigh. But

(01:33:41):
McVeigh just consistently is there every single year.

Speaker 11 (01:33:44):
It seems like, yeah, no, he is, he is and
and there. You know, their defense has not been very good,
I don't think consistently throughout. I think they're building that
side of the ball, right. Their offense has certainly been there.
I think the defense was expected to be really really bad,
you know, losing Arnold, and I think it's just done
better than expected. Whereas I think, you know, I just
think they're you know, they're intentional in what they're doing.

(01:34:07):
They're not there yet, and it could they could take
a step back anyone happens with Matthew Stafford. But I
think you can see what they're implementing a vision of
how they want to play in more ways, in multiple
ways that kind of work well together.

Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
Assuming they get to the playoffs, and right now they've
got not only the inside track, but a pretty significant
one over Seattle Man, I wouldn't want to play them necessarily,
especially early, Like I would not want to see that
team like I think, you know, I think they would
be a problem. I really do, because of Stafford as well. Well.

Speaker 11 (01:34:39):
They they gave the Lions all they wanted last year,
you know, in the playoffs. So I agree that that
combination of McVeigh and Stafford, you know, with a clear
vision of how they want to play, could make them dangerous.
But I think there's there's still enough, you know, their
defense is still vulnerable enough. I think there's a reason
why they would be getting in as a lower seat.

(01:35:00):
So yeah, I don't think they're going to make a
deep push and end up in the championship game. But
you know, you never know. Jalen Hurts gets hurt, you know,
things happen that change the dynamics of these teams. And
Detroit's been hurt too.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
All right, my friend, listen, people who go check out
it is right there at The Athletic, Theathletic dot Com.
It's the Pick six Calm every Monday. Great too around
the NFL goo stuff there on Pat mahomes as well,
and go read that. Make sure it should be required
reading for NFL fans on Monday mornings. In the meantime, Mike,
Merry Christmas. Happy, Well, I won't say Happy New Year's.
We'll talk to you next Monday, which will before the
New Year, so I'll just say Marry Christmas, enjoy the

(01:35:35):
holidays with your boys and your wife and everybody and family,
and we'll talk to you next week. We really appreciate
you coming on every Monday.

Speaker 11 (01:35:40):
Hey, you two Mary Chriss, have a great rest of
the year and we'll talk to you in the new year.

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Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Dateline NBC

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Furness Show 12-23: Seahawks Loss, Hugh Millen, Mike Sando.

Stuff You Should Know