Transcript
Colin Cowherd (0:00)
All right, let's talk about Amazon Prime. It's not just one thing. It's a collection of services that help you get the most out of whatever you're into. Whether it's a hobby, sport, or getting things done fast. Prime's got you covered. Like my hobby for all things sports. You can order sports supplies, listen to content like this podcast on Amazon Music, or watch content. You can do it all with Prime. Everybody loves the fast free same day shipping, especially as we kick off the year. But what about all the content you can listen to on Amazon Music Music to podcast fast shipping. What is not to love about this membership I'm in? Prime fuels your passions, makes everything easier. So whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com prime now. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Oh really? Thanks Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC whether you're ordering wings for the game, whipping up a seven layer dip, or ordering pizza, there's something about football that makes me want to eat. And this football season, UberEats has the best deals for me on game day food no matter what I'm craving from two for one pizza. To buy one get one Wings. Uber Eats. We'll be dropping new deals each week all season long. I'm in Uber Eats, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now for game day. Terms and conditions apply. See app for details. Hi, it's the Herd. NFL Playoffs. We're talking about NFL playoffs. You bet we are. Get in on the action in DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Score big during the NFL playoffs with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use the code HERDHERD. New customers can bet 5 bucks. Get 200 instantly in bonus bets only on DraftKings Sportsbook with code HERD H E R D. The crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York. Call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill casino and resort Kansas 21. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG Co. Audio JLAB Audio is changing the audio game for good, producing some of the best earbuds and headphones designed for everyday life without breaking the bank. For those looking to conquer their fitness goals in 2025, JLab recommends the JBuds Sport ANC4, offering a secure fit, super long battery life. Discover your perfect pair of headphones and upgrade your audio game today. I did. Look for the JLAB Blue Box at retailers everywhere or visit jlab.com thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports radio at noon to 3 Eastern, 9am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd@foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It is a Tuesday. What a week we had last week. Not slowing down. Live in Los Angeles, it's the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. We are packed today. Zach Ertz, Nick Wright, Michael Irvin stopped by J. Mac I'm gonna tell you, we all know Andy Reid's the best coach in the league, but what Sean McVay did last night? Wow, that was a flex. I hope you followed me on the Rams. Felt really good about this. I did follow you on the Rams, my friend. You talked me into it. Dinner is on me. So let's start today's show, the Easy show to do the Easy One. I'm not into Easy. Is Sam Donald stinks. No he doesn't. He's closer to Baker Mayfield than Patrick Mahomes. He doesn't stink. You don't do what he did this year and stink. If you look at the stats last night, first downs. Oh, Rams had fewer than Minnesota passing first downs. Minnesota third down efficiency. Vikings way better. Total plays, rushing penalties. Vikings only had 2. Rams had actually 10. Time of possession Vikings. Vikings. Vikings. Vikings. Vikings. What I watched was a coaching clinic. Brian Flores, who's really good, got worked. The Rams first drive was seven plays 70 yards touchdown. As Greg Cosell noted, the Rams D line was going to be a problem for the Vikings o line. Kevin O'Connell going forward at midfield. Minute 30 left in the first half. I thought felt desperate. This game was over at half. It was 24 3. You could argue it was over midway through the second quarter. All on coaching, the Rams put on a clinic. Brian Flores is great. First play of the game, 25 yards. They're already in field goal position. Napuka Nakua. The common theme this weekend is young quarterbacks that fell behind lost. You know, Justin Herbert lost and Sam Darnold lost and Jordan Love lost. And the only one that won was Jaden Daniels and he needed a doink. What I watched last night, McVay proving once again. Since Sean McVay arrived in Los Angeles, only the Kansas City Chiefs have more playoff wins. And he did it with a run team with Todd Gurley, a run scheme. And then he did it with Cooper Kopp and now he's doing it with an older Matt Stafford and Puka Nkua. And he's actually doing it with defense, this Rams defense. The rookies. The Rams have lead the NFL in rookie sacks, rookie fumble recoveries, rookie pressures. The Rams do not miss on defensive draft picks. They've missed on a couple offensive draft picks. But I'm take Andy Reid out. If you're talking leadership, game management, play design, culture, building, it is almost unfair what the Rams have in Sean McVay. I mean, Phil Jackson's an all time coach, but Phil Jackson was very clear. I coach superstars. You guys do the rebuilds. McVay can do rebuilds, he can do young stars, he can build the defense, he can go run first, he can go past happy, it doesn't matter. You give him an offseason, he'll rebuild the team, he'll rebuild the scheme. Remember a couple years ago he went to Seattle for the opener and a rebuild year. Pete Carroll didn't know what he was watching. I mean, they literally came in with a completely different schemed run game. And I'm looking at some of these Rams defensive stats. Since Week 15, including the playoffs, the Rams lead the entire NFL in sacks. And I don't know if they can beat Philadelphia, but they match up with Philadelphia and they are a different team than the one that played Philadelphia earlier this year. I said this for the last three weeks. This young defense, about every three weeks you look up and they're noticeably better. And I mean, the starters have only played four games the last four games. The starters defensively have played for the Rams. They've allowed under 10 points in all four games. So there's only a handful of quarterbacks that can beat the Rams. And Sam Darnold with this offensive Line is not one of them. But we love to bury losers. I mean, that's what media does, right? You're a loser, we bury you. I didn't think this game was about the Vikings. I thought it was about a staff in Brian Flores and Kevin oconnell that we felt all year was an elite staff. Four drives into that game, three drives into that game, it was a coaching mismatch. The Vikings could not protect Darnold, who's always held the ball too long. For the record, so did Big Ben, and so does Joe Burrow. So did Andrew Luck. Some guys like to hold it a second longer because they're big play guys. They like to throw the ball down the field, not dink and dunk it. But Sam didn't have a great night. But Josh Allen could win that game with that protection. Lamar Jackson Mahomes could win that game. Sam Darnold's not going to. But I said this weekend, we love to bury the losers. I didn't blame the packers for losing. I said yesterday on the show, they're not as good as Philadelphia. They're too young. Green Bay wasn't going to win that game in Philadelphia. It was the one game I said going to the weekend. My favorite bet was take Philadelphia. They don't even have to play well, and they didn't. And they can win. To me, this game was about Sean McVeigh. I mean, think about this. Kyle Shanahan is considered a very good coach. And I think that eight years, four times under.500, and he is very reliant. And Shanahan's good. He is really reliant on Christian McCaffrey. McVeigh's reliant on nobody. Oh, Jared Goff not got rid of him. Matt Stafford, don't go run heavy. He's proven he can win and prove it. He can get to a Super Bowl. So he's not reliant on any one thing. You give Sean McVay an off season or an extra week like Andy Reid, and it feels like a coaching mismatch against a Viking staff that I think is one of the best staffs in the league. The gap in preparation, the gap in game planning in the first two to three drives of that game was insane. Again, Barry Darnold. Darnold's closer to Bakerfield. Baker Mayfield, okay, he had a great year. They're going to move on. They're going to go to J.J. mcCarthy. That's the NFL. If you have a bad couple of weeks at the end of the year, coaches get fired. Quarterbacks get demoted. People hit the free agent market. That's always been the NFL. You only have so many games. There's scarcity. It's not the NBA or hockey or baseball. You can have bad Julys and you're going to be okay. If you're hitting in August, September and October, that's not the NFL. You have a couple of bad weeks, people move off you. But I. McVeigh was symphonic last night. And there was a game earlier this year. Remember this game? J. Mac, when they played the Buffalo Bills? And I came on the following day and I said, I think that was the perfectly coach played game. The best coach played game ball by any team all year was the Rams beating Buffalo. They were as flawless as you can be against a great team that first half. Nobody, including the Chiefs, would have beaten the Rams in the first half last night. I don't know how you coach better or play better or considering what's going on in Southern California, how you're more focused. Here's Sean McVeigh. After thought we had a great rush plan and I thought ultimately it's always about the players bringing it to life and having a real understanding of what we were trying to get done. What was the intent? They have really played excellent football as of late. They're peaking at the right time. They're not showing any of that youth that you would think, you know, as you play your 18th game in the, you know, in this season. But I'm proud of them. They came through in a big way and they were instrumental in, in us being able to advance. Yeah. Game was over by the four series. Let's talk Sam Darnold. And I know what you're all saying, Colin, you love Sam Darnold. I do. But I kept saying all year, when's the shoe gonna drop? I know Sam's reckless. I watched him in college, I watched him in the pros. But he was having like an MVP level season. And it happens. We've seen quarterbacks like this, Ken O'Brien, Rich Gannon, whatever it is. Guys have unbelievable, remarkable seasons, but the truth always comes out. Sam Darnold actually had a very Dak Prescott like season. Won a lot of games. Everybody likes him, players rally around him, coaches love coaching him. Wins a lot of games, and then he faces elite competition and it doesn't look the same. So Sam Darnold was.04 against the Rams and the Lions, and he was.11. 0 against everybody else. And the good news for Sam Darnold is most everybody in the league is everybody Else, there is one Sean McVay and Stafford, there is one Detroit line, offensive line. So Sam Darnold, like Dak Prescott, you put up a 88 mile an hour fastball, he's going to hit it out of the park. He's got, he's got trouble hitting Kershaw in his prime's curveball. He's not going to beat the great teams unless he's got really good protection. A perfect game plan. So 90% of the league isn't this Rams team or the Lions or the Bills or Patrick Mahome. The key is, then don't pay him like Josh Allen. Tampa got it right. They paid Baker the contract that Sam should now get. The Cowboys screwed it up. They paid Dak the contract because I think that Dak Baker and Sam is kind of the same guy. Productive players like him, you can build a little bit around them, but they're reckless, a little bit sloppy. They're not going to elevate the team as much as the team is going to protect them, but they can make plays. But the key is Tampa. And the next team that pays Darnold can't pay him like Mahomes. And that's what the Cowboys did. They got a Baker and a Darnold, and they paid him like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. So they're going to go now with JJ McCarthy and they're going to give the young kid a shot. And Sam is absolutely going to have a market. I don't know where he's going to go, but Baker Mayfield had a market. Hell, Gino Smith had a market. Old Tom Brady and Kirk Cousins had a market. But. But Sam's season, let's not take away from it. It was remarkable. It was a great season. It was a fun season. This team was picked to finish fourth. And I don't put it all on Sam last night. Young quarterbacks, Jordan Love, Sam Darnold, Justin Herbert, still pretty young, that fell behind or had, could not get protect Texans. I mean, the Chargers couldn't protect Justin Herbert. The Vikings couldn't protect Sam Darnold. Baker Mayfield should have won that game, but you know, Jaden Daniels is remarkable. This is what happens in the playoff. Jordan Love got behind, got a little reckless trying to make plays. There is no tomorrow. So Sam's going to be fine. He deserves a Baker Mayfield contract. You can kind of build around him, but it's. Let's not confuse it for what it is. And here's Kevin O'Connell after what he was able to do this year, when not Very many people thought he would be able to lead a team to 14 wins. Very rare for a quarterback in their first year. And I think Sam will be the first one to tell you, could he have played better tonight?