The Herd-HOUR-3-NFL week 1

Colin titles the week 1 NFL games in three words.

Guest: Jimmy Johnson

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one.
Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
the iHeartRadio app by searching heard you're listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Well, I've said this before, I've learned more

(00:22):
football from Jimmy Johnson than anybody I've ever worked with.
He's just one of my favorite people, and I love
the fact that he's still in the show. He's down
in the Keys, and he was one of the great
college football coaches, won a couple of Super Bowls in
the NFL, and he is just one of the reasons
I like working on the weekends. I can talk to
Jimmy and I just pepper him with questions and he's
always got thoughtful answers. And he is joining us live,

(00:44):
a Hall of famer, now richly deserved. We complained about
it for years. We didn't understand why it wasn't in.
Now he is. He's joining me down in the Keys
via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So let's start with this.
So no preseason, and everybody like me can come out
and criticize Mike McCarthy and I don't think they look
very multiple on offense, and then part of me thinks,

(01:04):
will settle down here, How good can they be? What
are the expectations when you watched the Cowboys offense which
struggled in the second half, what's the problem? Where's the blame?
Am I being too harsh saying they just don't have
they're just too vanilla? Yeah? I think you're right on
as far as not having a preseason, not having the

(01:27):
off season, not being able to implement some of the
things that McCarthy can bring. The one thing that they
are a very talented roster. Prescott is a very good quarterback.
The more I evaluate Prescott more it reminds me of

(01:47):
a quarterback that I used to have when I was
at University of Miami. I had Bernie Cosar and Vinnie
Testaverdie at the same time, and people wanted me to
compare the two Testaverdi or cos Are Testaverti big strong,
could run like a deer, had a rocket bullet arm,

(02:07):
could scramble, could run, could do it all, but the
offense had to be precision for him, it had to
be take the step, throw it here, throw it here,
look read the safety through it here, or throw it here.
That's it, cos Are You could throw him out there
with a bunch of ragnots on the satellock and he

(02:30):
was going to make plays, you know. I mean he
just made plays in some ways. Not as talented and
not as good obviously, but in some ways like Aaron
Rodgers can just make plays, you know, throw off your
back foot, sling it under arm, you do all these
different things. And I think Prescott's a lot like Testiverti.

(02:51):
You have to have a very precise offense to be successful.
But as far as letting him go and just drop
back and read the field and make a lot of decisions,
that's not his game. So McCarthy, I'm sure will implement
some of his stuff in time. But they are at

(03:12):
their best, you know, when they are taking the lead,
pounding the football, rushing the passer. But playing from behind
or even in a tight game is not their game.
By the way, you're a fan of McVay last night,
your interpretation. I like golf more than people do. But
what I think McVay is a pretty special guy. What

(03:33):
do you see is a Hall of Fame coach with McVeigh.
I thought he did a masterful job last night, knowing
that they've got the pass rushers, knowing that, you know,
he did not want to take the negative play, you know,
in the negative player, the interceptions or the sacks. So
he ran the ball. He ran the ball. At times
it was boring he was running the ball. When he

(03:54):
wasn't running the ball, it was play action dumping over
in the flat. Very rarely did he have to go
down the field. Yeah, he did a great great job there. Hey,
and and they played coverage against those receivers and uh,
and then we're able to rush the password. Yeah, he
did it, did a great job, kept it tight. And
then of course one at the end. So Bruce arians

(04:16):
very critical of Tom Brady, and you know Tom has
been around the block. Um, your thoughts, even though it
was our first game together, were you often publicly critical
of a quarterback? Are you okay with that? I probably
was at times I shouldn't have Uh, it should have

(04:38):
been a one on one conversation. Um. So yeah, it's hard.
I mean anytime you call out one of your players publicly,
especially a quarterback with their egos. Uh, you're gonna call
some tension there, and I think it's tension that you
don't really need. But you know, sometimes all of us,

(04:59):
you know, the reporters asking questions, you know, right off
the cuff, you want to give him the right answer.
A lot of times you shouldn't give him the right answer.
Belichick's got it best. You know, owned a Cincinnati you know,
and so uh, yeah, I don't think it's good to
publicly criticize your quarterback. Yeah, you know, I tried to

(05:20):
consider the circumstances with Joe Burrow. I thought he looked
pretty darn good. I thought that last drive, his feet
were good. You could go back to eight men compare
like like, even when you were losing with Troy early,
there are probably things you saw that you liked and
you knew deep down, I just got to get him
better players. What did you make a Burrow's debut. I

(05:41):
thought he did a great job, you know, first time,
you know, right out of college, you know, with no preseason,
you know, no offseason work. I thought he did a
great job. He put him in a position to win
against a decent, not great, decent football team, and so
you know, he was able to tuck the ball down
run actually got the score of that way. He's gonna

(06:03):
be good. And you know, North Turner worked him out
when they were getting ready for the draft, and he said, hey,
this guy's got it all. He loved the guy. I
think he will get better better. It's almost like the
conversation I had with Troy Aikman his second year. I said,
you know, we if Troy hadn't hurt his shoulder, we

(06:23):
would have made the playoffs the second year. And I
grabbed him in practice one day. I said, Troy, I said,
I tried to get you in the Pro Bowl. Yeah,
but it didn't work. I'm sorry, he said, Coach, don't
worry about it. I'll get plenty of Pro Bowls. You
just keep surrounding me with good players and we'll be fine.
And and that's the same thing with Burrow. If he

(06:43):
gets enough good players around him, he'll be fine. You know,
it's interesting Baker Mayfield plays Burrow on Thursday, and in
Cleveland's got better players right now, and Baker's on his
fourth head coach. Couple one of them inter him, you know,
three head coaches. And I watched him yesterday and you know,
I've been critical of the kids, so you know, my

(07:05):
word doesn't carry a lot of weight anymore because I've
been so critical of him. But god, we're on a
fourth head coach. He still is hot and cold. Accuracy
he and obj doesn't work. Uh, he's I still think
he thinks he's a little more athletic than he is
at some point, Jimmy, as a staff. As an organization,
you're either in or you cut bait. Where where do
you think? I mean, is there going to be a

(07:25):
point this year with Baker If it's the same stuff
that you have to go sit to the owner and say,
we gotta we got the wrong guy. It's not gonna work. Yeah.
I think you just gotta scale him back and do
what he does best. I mean that that organization is
so just here, there and everywhere. Um. Yeah, they've got

(07:48):
some talented players. Uh, some that probably got more talent
than they've got sense m. But there there's something. There's
something wrong there. It's been something wrong there for quite
some time. Yeah, you know it's I watched Minnesota and
Green Bay yesterday and it's funny about this. So when

(08:10):
I watch Arizona with Kyler Murray, I mean Jimmy, they
let him throw forty times. The coaching staff, they're really
handing the playbook to him, and they're letting him go.
And then I watched San Francisco with Garoppolo, and I
don't know if Kyle trusts Jimmy in certain spots, And
I wonder about that from a coaching perspective. Are you
sending a message in San Francisco to the players that

(08:33):
the coach doesn't trust the quarterback? Because I watched Seattle
yesterday with Russell and Kyler, those coaches just said throw it,
it's you, And I feel like that the players can
figure that stuff out. Would you worry in San Francisco
that they're taking the ball out of Jimmy's hands a lot? Now, Well,
they may be doing it for a reason. Colin, Yeah, yeah,

(08:55):
I just throw it to you. You got Russell Wilson
or Jimmy Garoppolo. Which one do you want? Yeah? Russell, yeah, no.
And even though it's only been a little over a year,
Kyler Murray, Murray's better probably, Yeah. I mean, so, maybe
the coaches are doing exactly the best that they can

(09:18):
do to get the most out of their player. You
don't want to throw stuff at a player that he
can't handle. Uh. You know, they're doing the best that
they can do to win ball games. And they say, hey,
this gives us the best chance to win. If we
open it up and we start doing all this, you know,
we're gonna barely be eight and eight. And so they're

(09:41):
doing what's the best thing for them to win ball
games because their quarterback is not as talented as the
other two. With Russell Wilson, you can do about whatever
you want to because he's got that much talent. I mean,
the guy's great. Aaron Rodgers, you know, hey, what do
you want to do? Aaron can handle it. You know.
They're great players, you know, but every quarterback's not a

(10:02):
great player. So you do what you have to do
to win games. That's interesting. You know, it's funny. Yesterday
New England only through eighteen times with Cam. But I
gotta tell you, Jay, when I watched him, I thought
it was an incredibly efficient game plan. I thought it
was exactly you know, it was like, Wow, that's what
you do with Cam. Hey, would you expect anything different

(10:22):
from Belichick? Yeah, He's he's not going to let Cam
Newton lose the game for him. He knows what his
talent is. I've talked to Josh McDaniels two or three
times here in the last in the last month, and
they are so pleased. Of course Cam. Cam's got to
prove himself. You know, Cam's a very proud, egotistical individual,
and he's got gotten beat up the last year or two. Yeah,

(10:45):
he's healthy now and he wants to prove that he
is a premiere quarterback. But you know, being a premier
quarterbacks not necessarily dropping back and throwing it, you know
forty times, right, you know, his strength is running the football,
and hey, this is gonna be a very difficult offense
to get ready for. You don't forget Josh McDaniels had
Tebow and one with him. They're in Denver. I mean

(11:08):
one a few didn't win big, but one a few,
and you know here they're running the read option. They're
doing all kinds of things that Cam can do. Now.
As time goes on, Cam has shown he can throw
the football as well as anybody. But it's got to
be a little bit like I talked about on Prescott.
It's got to be precision read the safety, throw it

(11:29):
here or throw it there, don't drop back and look
at the field, and so I think, I think they're
going to be fine. And then once people spend all
of that time working against the read option and working
against Cam running the football, that's going to open it
up for Cam to throw it down the field. I mean,
I thought they did a great job yesterday doing what

(11:50):
they had to do to protect Cam and to win
the game. By the way, you're gonna go fishing today.
Now I may go tomorrow, though I can't go two
days without fishing. Okay, Well, well, yeah, I wanted to
be ready for your show, so I didn't want to
go fishing this morning and then be real tired and

(12:12):
not want to do your show. You know, you're the best,
absolutely the best, the Hall of Famer coach. It's great
seeing you. Thanks for coming on. All right, Colin good
doing it all right. Guy knows his stuffs. Yeah, I mean,
you know, if you really listen to that segment, what
he kept saying over and over basically is you have
to identify what's the best way to use my quarterback.
That's that segment right there. I did, and the whole

(12:34):
thing is the identification. This is what he does. Well,
let's Taylor a game play like McVay last night with
the Rams. Jimmy puts it perfectly. They didn't put him
in the crosshairs. He was moving. There was no drop seven,
sit pound pound pet. They didn't do that. It was
run screen rolling. So they put Goff and I thought
Golf played pretty well in a position to succeed. Belichick

(12:58):
put Cam in a position to succeed. You have to
You have to identify, though, and that's what That's what
Jimmy Johnson's strength was always personnel identification. Jimmy was the
great recruiter at college. Like he could see a Warren
Sap was a tight end in high school and Jimmy's like, no,
he's gonna be a great defensive lineman. That's what Jimmy
Johnson did. Took it. He took tight ends and made

(13:19):
a defensive ends. He took receivers, made him corners. But
that's that identification. A lot of coaches get that wrong. Well,
I just don't. That's to me, that's the identifier of
a great coach. A system is fun and that's cute
and endurable. That's really about you. You have to do
what your players are capable of and if you identify
what they do best and put them in a position
to elevate that, you generally win. If I'm doing play

(13:40):
by playing a game, I'm fired in about two games.
I'm an opinion, Like that's what I do, right, Like
everybody's got a strength. Yes, don't put people in positions
to fail because that's not their strengths. If you start,
if I didn't play by a play, I just start
rambling on about stuffy plays a lot harder than people
think it is. Yeah, this is just making stuff up. Yeah,
that's like just wing it out the time, accuracy and stuff.

(14:02):
I join the news, No, no, turn on the this
is the herd Line News. I love. I love Jimmy's
subtle flex with the Lombardi behind him. But we see you, Jimmy.
That's with that trophy right there. So Gardner Minshu is
not here for any Jacks tanking talk. He went nineteen
for twenty one hundred and seventy three yards nineteen for

(14:26):
twenty in the NFL against the Colts, which Colts fans
could not I mean, they couldn't tell me enough about
how great they were going to be this year. Obviously
it's week one, not gonna get crazy. But he did
take the el to Jacksonville, who was supposed to be
thanking twenty win over the Colts, and Minshew was fired
up in the locker room afterwards, telling his team that
just shows what we can do right there. That's just
a bleeping glimpse. We ain't even scratching the bleeping surface yet.

(14:50):
Don't be satisfied with one. To know. We've got another
division game coming up, so it brings, so bring it
this week in practice, iron sharpens, iron raw. What an
unlikely stud I loved Week one. I thought there was
a storyline from every single game. Anybody that boycotted the

(15:10):
league bums like fifteen stories and enjoy watching that paint dry.
I'm sure it's the thrilling Philip rivers actually a forty
five times. He had a lot of good draws. Just
two stinkers. Yeah, well, those two stinkers often end up
being the storyline of the game. He was thirty six
forty six, three hundred and sixty three yards, one touchdown
and two stinkers two interceptions. As you mentioned, but I

(15:33):
thought this was a very interesting game. Obviously not the
outcome that most people expected, but I like the Jacksonville
is spicy. Yeah, but this is the thing about tanking.
Players and coaches do not tank. So this idea of
tanking only ever in any sport applies to the organization,
the owners and the front office. Players and coaches are

(15:54):
not interested in any tanking talk because no matter what,
whatever you do week to week is going on your resident.
So for the next team or for the next year,
what's going to be That's what people are gonna pay
attention to, not like, oh, well you were on a
tanking team, that doesn't matter. Just think about this. What
if Minshoe with this group of players went eight and eight,
then Trevor Lawrence is out there, well, Trevor Lawrence is

(16:14):
out there hoping that happen. Yeah, no kidding, no kidding,
rooting for that. So but look, I'm never rooting for
a team to be terrible anyway, That's not good for
our business. We don't like duds. Like everyone always thinks.
We're rooting against Cleveland and we want them to be
terrib We want brow to be terrible. Football everyone would
be great, not great. I would like everyone to be competitive.
There's not there's not a week where you're looking forward

(16:36):
to watching a team that's tanking, so everyone being competitive
is the ideal situation. Very impressive about it, Jocksonville. Yesterday,
the Bears were down twenty three to six to the
Lions at the start of the fourth quarter and Twitter
was going crazy about Trubisky. He was like, well, show
you a little something. Actually, it's just the Lions doing
what the Lions do. But he did, he did. He

(16:56):
was very impressive though. Gagan credit. He led Chicago to
a remarkable come back, throwing three touchdowns in the final
quarter to get the twenty seven twenty three win. They
also had some help from DeAndre Swifts, who drops would
have been a game winning touchdown pass with seconds remaining.
That's rough, that's rough. You know what. There there are
people that I think are good people like I think

(17:17):
Trubisky is bothered by the negative press. I think I
think as sensitive and it's like, good for Mitch Trubisky
to win that game. We know this is the end,
but it's like, you know what, Man, he may end
up getting moved on. He'll stick in this league. Somebody
he'll use him as a backup. He works his tail off.
He's a good kid. There's certain limitations, but that is

(17:40):
a huge win for his self esteem. That was a
I'm like, I'm over Detroit, like I don't buy him.
This was great for Mitch Trubisky. I know, Matt Nagy
I you watch that game and you're like, you know what,
that's a resume filler. That's a that's one of his
great moments. Good for him. The book on Trubisky is
that he is a great guy. Jimmy Graham called Risky

(18:01):
pretty special after the game and said there was never
a moment on the sideline when he wasn't upbeating very positive.
They were down yeah to the fourth quarter. Yeah, And
that's what's Those are the intangible things that, even if
you're not a great quarterback, can put you in the
positions to make a comeback like that. If you don't
allow the ups and ebbs and flows of a game
to affect how you feel about yourself or how you

(18:22):
feel about what your team's capable of. That's what you
want in a quarterback. Now, you also off to have
the talent to go with it if you're going to
be a great franchise quarterback. But in a situation like
that against the Lions, who often do what the Lions do,
which is exactly what they did yesterday. You have the
ability to make that comeback with the right guy, with
the right attitude. So finally, the Cardinals had an impressive
duo with Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins this season. In

(18:45):
his first game with Arizona, Hopkins set a career higher
fourteen receptions for one hundred and fifty one yards and
the twenty twenty win over San Francisco very impressive win
for Arizona. He's very open about how happy he is
with this new team, saying after the game after which
you guys saw today, the sky's the limit on what
this team can do. He also suited words can't subscribe

(19:05):
how happy I am to be a part of this organization.
He also just got paid, played a bit of money
for his services. So when you are a team with
a great defensive line, what can minimize that is a
quarterback that moves. Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson are having
success against that forty nine ers front, and Lamar had
some success two like that Niner front is great, but

(19:29):
Russell and Kyler Murray run around. They never get tackled.
He ran thirteen times yesterday. Joy he got hit once,
he got pulled down, once he either slid, got out
of bounds, or scored. Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray are
literally the two quarterbacks in the league in Lamar that
can neutralize some of that dominating Niners front. Well, there's

(19:50):
several kinds of running quarterbacks, right, Like, you can be
a mobile running quarterback and not necessarily be elusive, right
and know how to avoid contact, and the three of
them definitely do. And you're right, that does neutralize a
great defense. Mind, it's just a it's a that's a
nightmare for a defense. It's just step out of bounds.
He's got because last year he took some shots. Yeah,

(20:11):
he took you that. No, that was a concern we
had about Lamar early on, and he's learned how to
get out of bounds to get down as well. Calamary
was twenty six to forty two hundred and thirty yards,
one touchdown, one interception, and also had ninety one rushing
yards in a rushing touchdown as well. Very impressive, very
good win for them. Joy with the news, Well, that's
the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd. Lie

(20:32):
called the three word game. We can sum up every
NFL game yesterday and three words that's coming out. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in
noon Easter nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS
one and the iHeart Radio app. By the way, can
I read this year? Joy? Yes? He may box at

(20:54):
Saints yesterday? Highest rated Week one game on Fox in
four years. The biggest audience in American television since the
Super Bowl, up ten percent from Week one last year.
How about that? Congratulations, guys. It's very exciting, very excited.
How do you not watch yesterday? It was wonderful. It

(21:15):
was a great day of television, awesome sports everywhere. My
dogs who'd run around the house just looked at me
and said, Dad, we're gonna sit here with you and
watch this thing. It's like awesome. How about the highest
rated Week one game on Fox in four years? By
the way, the pregame shows on Fox. I don't even
watch the other networks were good yesterday were always thanks.
Not gonna lie. It's beard ratings. We do football the

(21:38):
best we do, actually Fox does. Yeah, all right, here
we go. Three word game, pal Let's go Texans Chiefs.
Thursday night, gun Slinger goes surgical. Yeah, Mahomes didn't have
a single completion over twenty yards seventy five percent completion percentage.
Andy Reid said, you're not getting hit. Our offensive line
is not ready to protect you. The gun slinger went

(22:00):
surgical scary for the rest of the league. Seahawks Falcons,
fearless and flawless tied for the third highest single game
completion percentage in NFL history. He was insane yesterday. Russell's
the only quarterback to throw multiple touchdown passes in the
first quarter in Week one. Pete Carroll gave him the offense. Finally,

(22:22):
let Russ cook. They did. Jets Bills awful gaze closed.
Adam Gasee, now seven and ten, is a Jets head
coach only team with fewer than two hundred and seventy
total yards. I understand they're rebuilding the offensive line again.
That was embarrassing. He ain't making it too Thanksgiving a
Raiders Panthers a bad rule. Come on, game right here?

(22:48):
Got Christian McCaffrey, fourth and inches in, They hand to
a fullback. Hell, what are you doing? Teddy Bridgewater's a pro.
Christian McCaffrey's the best running back in the NFL. Matt rule.
This is the play you run. If you're not creative,
Matt rule, you are creative. Bad play call costs in

(23:08):
the game. Eagles Washington, Wentz was wincing. Sacked eight times.
Forty one point three passer rating in the second half
was the worst among all quarterbacks in Week one. Sacked
eight times Bears Lions fourth quarter match only quarterback to
throw three plus touchdown passes in the fourth quarter in

(23:31):
Week one. That's impressive. He stumped for three quarters. But
MVP Trobiski is my new name for him. Stellar in
the fourth Colts Jags more Minshoe magic. Listen to this
first player in NFL history to throw three plus touchdown

(23:53):
passes and complete at least ninety five percent of his
passes in Week one. And by the way, Colts have
a defense. Colts get after you. They went and got
de Forest Bruckner, they got Darius Leonard, they got good
young corners. That's that's not a stinky defense. Packers Vikings
packing on poems franchise record for Green Bay in Week one.

(24:17):
It's also the most points allowed by a Mike Zimmer
team in his era in Minneapolis. Now, they had some injuries,
they lost a great corner. Griffin has gone pass rusher,
so this defense will get better. It's not as good
as it was last year in the year before, but
Aaron torm apart. Brown's Ravens, same old Browns biggest blowout

(24:40):
of any game Week one. Mayfield had a second worst
passer rating of any starting quarterback in Week one. Browns
haven't want a season opener since two thousand and four.
This organization's got to come clean on this. If you're
led by Baker Mayfield, it's not much of a team.
He's got to be a component and ancillary piece to

(25:01):
a strong running game. That's what Baker is. Dolphins Patriots
lights Cam action only quarterback with multiple rushing touchdowns in
Week one fifteen carries. That's the most carries by any
Patriot quarterback in franchise history. They realized what he was.
I'll tell you what Belichick needs him. Cam needs Belichick

(25:23):
little harmony. Now Now as Dolphins, they were fired by
a touchdown. It's a Dolphins, but it was a nice
opening week for Cam Chargers. Bengals. Burrow gets bengled Listen.
Burrow was good, he was great in the last drive.
He was calm, he was poised. He had one big
mistake second to last drive. He had a bad mistake,

(25:44):
but I thought, I thought he looked great. And they
missed a field goal and the kicker pulled his hammy
in the same time he missed a field goal. But overall,
to me, I thought Burrow was B B plus ton
of composure. Looks like a really, really potentially excellent franchise quarterback.
Buck Saints work in progress. Bucks had nine penalties, had

(26:07):
a punt block. Brady had two picks after throwing eight
all last year. Give it time, It's fine, Tommy needs
a preseason. Mike Evans didn't practice all week. This is
pretty much what we thought it would look like. We
really did. Cardinals forty nine Ers Wild Wild West, best
division in football. DeAndre Hopkins, Kyler Murray fifteen catches. This

(26:31):
was really a game. A lot of the country did
not get this game. Garoppolo really struggled, Kyler really didn't
this division. If Arizona's the worst team in this division,
watch out because this division is stacked three great creative

(26:52):
offensive guys in Pete Carroll Cowboys Rams so far so good,
Rams four and O, and sees no openers under McVeigh.
The stadium's remarkable. Joy and I have flown over at
one hundred times. It's the last thing you see as
you come into Los Angeles. Apparently Al Michael said last
night you can actually get a sunburnt inside the stadium,

(27:15):
so the roof is like transparent. It's a stunning looking stadium.
Rams a little better coach made more key plays. This
is This is fifteen minutes from my house. Yeah, right
off the freeway. Look at that circular screen. Stan Cronky's

(27:37):
best friends with Jerry Jones, and Jerry's the one that
told him moved from Saint Louis. We need NFL in
Los Angeles and it succeeded. It looked really big, even
with no fans. It's it's a site. It is a
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Legal zoom dot com. Take care life meets legal and

(28:00):
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drive Fremen dot com. That's mdrive Fremen dot com a
supplement every morning, Good Monday. Joy liked it first Monday
Football Monday highest rated Fox Week one game in four years.
By the way, a couple of on another network, Steelers
and Giants Tonight at Drew Locke Tonight Denver against Tennessee

(28:24):
Football reigns the third