Transcript
Colin Cowherd (0:00)
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Sean McVeigh of the Rams, Alexi Lawless in Chicago. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day, J. Mac. I know your affinity and my affinity for soccer. I'll get to that in five minutes. An absolute disaster for the United States men's national team. Do not downplay it. It is a disaster. It is. It is rock bottom. And we continue to grab a shovel and dig really, really bad. I want to start, though. I think people, sometime I have something against Aaron Rodgers and I, I just don't care. Yeah. Do I think I was the first media person like nine, 10 years ago to talk about his body language and how he was increasingly playing safe and it was too caught up in his passer rating and, and, and passive aggressive? Yeah, I did and I was right. But that's not going to affect my opinion about Pittsburgh. I think he'll be fine. I think he'll miss a couple games. I think he'll go, you know, 8 and 9, 9 and 8, that's fine. But instead of that, let's just look at history of top older star quarterbacks past their prime when they have gone to a new environment. There's nine that come to mind. I'm not talking Andy Dalton or Joe Flacco or Nick Foles. I'm talking stars like Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers. So there's nine that I would in recent history. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers went to Indy, had a great year. Aaron Rodgers with the Jets, Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins, Matt Reining, Newton again. So how did it work out for those nine? Well, let's put them in two camps, one being successful. Brady won a Super Bowl, Stafford won a Super Bowl, Peyton Manning won a Super bowl. And Philip Rivers, I'll argue this all day, had a great year in indy. He was 11 and 5. 97 passer rating. That road playoff game against Buffalo where he threw for over 300 yards, two touchdowns, no picks. He was great. I mean, Philip Rivers had a shockingly good year his last year in the NFL in Indianapolis. And if you. And then you have the other Camp, the less successful camp. And, and that would include obviously Aaron Rodgers with the jets and Russell in Denver and Kirk Cousins in Atlanta and Matt Ryan with the Colts and Cam Newton with Belichick in New England. What's the common thread? What's the truth? The truth is, if you have a defensive coach as an old quarterback, past your prime or an inexperienced coach, it's going to be turbulent, it not going to be pretty. And the reason being older quarterbacks, they. They need fit. They can't just bulldoze or, or overwhelm you with talent. Aaron Rodgers in his prime or Cam Newton in their prime, they could be off on their mechanics. They could miss a read. It just, it just. They're like human erasers once you get older. Fit matters. Stafford needed. He needed McVeigh. Brady sought out Bruce Arians. Peyton Manning had some success early with John Fox, won a Super bowl with Gary Kubiak, and then Philip Rivers had Frank Reich. Now, Matt Ryan's tough because Matt, Matt also had Frank, but Matt was really done as a, as a quarterback. But if you start looking at it, it's pretty clear that the Steelers lost their left tackle, their star back, their best receiver, and are completely tone deaf on offense. This is going to be hard. This is a defensive coacher and a defensive head coach. That's what it is. And by the way, Arthur smith, the coordinator, six years in the NFL, three as a head coach, three as a coordinator, one top 10 offense, and the other five bad, ugly, ineffective. So if you want to teach an old dog new tricks, you need Cesar Milan, you need an emotional behavior expert. And that is not what Pittsburgh is. That's why I think older quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, when he got Kubiak or Stafford got McVeigh. And even though Arians and Brady had their fights, they came out after the bye week and Tampa didn't lose again for the rest of the year. Offensive coaches have a feel for offensive lines, the playbook. I mean, Brady has largely admitted they kind of laughed at Belichick's lack of knowledge about offense. That's not a shot at Mike Tomlin. It's a reality with defensive coaches. So I think it's pretty clear it's going to be pretty bumpy. I think I'm doing Aaron a solid saying 9 and 8. My guess is it could be 7 and 10. I think he will miss a couple of starts. They have a great center, but I don't trust their O line. Arthur Smith, Mike Tomlin, they've got a rookie running back. They're crossing their fingers on. And here's why Aaron chose the Steelers for my ego. I don't need it to keep playing. A lot of decisions that I've made over my career and life from strictly the ego, even if they turn out well, are always unfulfilling. But the decisions made from the soul are usually pretty fulfilling. So this was a decision that was best for my soul. And I felt like being here with Coach T and the guys that got here and the opportunity here was the best for me. And I'm excited to be here. All right. Speaking of soul, or lack thereof, the United States men's national team is one year from the World cup on US soil. And starting this weekend they have the Gold cup, which matters. It's something especially when you have a new coach. And oh, do we love to blame the coach and never the players. In USA Soccer, last night was as bad as it gets. Forget the fact that we have not beaten a European team since 2021, 070 and 8, something like that. Last night we gave up four goals to Switzerland in 23 minutes. The most humiliating loss ever. And that's not a shot. That's not a shot at Switzerland. Okay, great soccer country. That was embarrassing. Four goals conceded in 23 minutes. A year ago in the World cup, we only didn't. We allowed like one goal in the group stage. Held England scoreless. In the World cup was a year or two ago. Held England scoreless. So, hey, that guy Greg Berhalter doesn't know what he's doing. He's not getting the most out of our highly skilled players. Burhalter is out of here. And then Jurgen Klinsmann, he was a bomb. And then Bob Bradley's no good. And Bruce Arena. So they bring in Mauricio Pochettino from Europe, Tottenham. He's great with young players. He is, I'm told he is unbelievable with young players. So last night he played a lot of those young players and it was the most humiliating loss I can ever remember. 4 nothing, 23 minutes. So it's time once again for Uncle Collins twice annual USA Soccer reality check. Our talent pool. It's interesting. It's the most interesting it's ever been, but it is a really shallow pool. And last night, because our best players like Christian Pulisic who's played in AC Milan last couple of years and like really difficult 50 game, 50 match schedules, he's taken a breather. And Sergino Dest is taking a breather. He's a European player too. Tyler Adams is injured Weston McKenney beat up a little bit. He's taken a breather. So there's an argument those are four of our best players. So instead we played six MLS guys. And Mauricio Pochettino is discovering we are very much in the kiddie pool, the shallow end. If we don't have our first 11 and our best 11, we don't have much. Now we got six or seven guys playing in Europe, and that's more than we've ever had. But countries like Switzerland and the top teams can often have double that. And you just time and time again, I don't want to hear about our best athletes play other sports. They do. But when Christian Pulisic is out, our creativity, our scoring, our imagination, our easily most skilled player is out. I'm sorry, it's the Cavs. Without LeBron several years ago, we are not the same. So, I mean, it's obvious that America is lacking highly skilled laborers in tech science and in soccer. But last night was a reminder that if you take Pulisic out and our top four or five guys are not playing injury, little load. Management need a rest. After a rigorous European schedule, we don't have much. It's mls. It is just a bunch of nonsense. Because this coach, he's the guy, he knows young talent, he develops young talent. Really? 4 goals, 23 minutes. Really. So go ahead. You blamed Bruce Arena, Bob Bradley, I mean, Greg Burholter, I thought did an unbelievable job. You go to the World cup stage, we allow one goal. We have always historically been about defense. Great goalies and good defense. Because we don't have as many skilled players. We just don't. I know it hurts. We don't. We got about five, maybe three last night. None. Here's a member of the losing squad. After the game, it's really easy to look at one game, one half and be like, oh, this is all going to pieces. They can't come back from this. But you look even build up to 20, 22, we take down Morocco at 30 and they make it to the semifinal like things change. That's six months apart. So it's not the end of the world. We accept that it's not good enough and we realize that. And so that's where. That's where the disappointment comes in. But at the same time, like, we have to flip the script. We gotta make sure that we do not come out like that ever again, especially as we enter in the Gold Cup. Mauricio Pochettino four Game losing streak. Bob Bradley didn't do that. Jurgen Kleinsman didn't have that. Greg Burholzer didn't have that. I think it's a reality check. And this European coach who was great in Tottenham, I think he got him to a runner up. Just. He's very known as very aggressive, very attacking and great with young players. We don't have the players that we can attack. If Pulisic, Weston, McKinney and Sergino Dest are not there, we can't do that. We just don't have the talent pool. I do not think the sky is falling. I do not think it's falling, but let's just say the roof needs repair. J. Mac, you're laughing. You are laughing. Go ahead.
