← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
THE HERD - Hour 2 - Previewing the National Championship game, Joel Klatt
00:40:27
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- [00:00]
Colin Cowherd
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human New Year.
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Joel Klatt
Same extra value meals at McDonald's.
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Colin Cowherd
So now get two snack wraps plus fries and a medium soft drink for just $8 for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for delivery. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits. They leave. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits. Plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. Start managing your data, not your infrastructure. Unified, simple, secure. Welcome to Data Done Right only with the Pure Storage platform. Get started@PureStorage.com thanks for listening to the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and 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. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go, hour two. It's a Thursday. Joel Clad around the corner. Tom Brady just stopped by. Greg Cosell next hour. We are live. We're in Chicago. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. So I was, it was funny. I was on Seattle radio this morning and they asked me, what's your trust level for Sam Darnold? And it's like, well, he won in Carolina, didn't start a lot, but he had a winning record and he won in Minnesota and he won in Seattle. And no, nobody works for the Jets. He's not going to get shorter, less athletic, less committed, less focused against the 49ers. I've always been a Sam fan. It's never wavered. I thought he was too talented, too good of an arm, too athletic, too strong, too committed, too coachable not to be successful at some level. 28 and 6 the last two years, which is the best record in football. But the thing is, he had really, you know, first impressions are powerful. Kevin Hart apparently bombed early in his career and was booed off the stage. Nobody saw it, right? Nobody watched it. Sam Darnold was against Belichick Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, most popular sport in the country, playing in New York. We all saw it. But I mean, that's the reality. Nobody remembers because the first impressions with Jordan were so great. Nobody remembers the wizard years, the first impressions with Aaron Rodgers, who sat for three years. Nobody remembers. Nobody thinks about the fact that in his last 33 games he's 15 and 18. He said like one 300 yard game, no playoff wins in five or six years. Because there's such strong identification to those early great years that it washes over everything. It's like an actor. If you're good, you go good early. Nobody cares about late. Bill Murray has had so many hits early, nobody cares what he's doing now.
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Joel Klatt
Right?
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Colin Cowherd
Doesn't matter. But with Sam, it's the opposite. But in the last two years he's been better than Mahomes. He's won more games, he's got more passing yards, his completion percentage is higher. He's got a better record, he's got more touchdowns. Last two years he's better than Patrick Mahomes. So. And that, you know. So do I doubt Sam Darnold? No, I don't. Does Sam sometimes play a little frenetic under pressure? Absolutely. But the Niners don't have a bosa. And if he does face the Texans, which could speed him up, you know, it would be in the Super Bowl. So the Chris Shula Rams defense has given him real trouble. But remember, Sam's 28 years old. He is younger than Lamar Jackson and you think Brock Purdy's a kid and Sam's a veteran. Purdy's 26, Sam's 28. He's just now moving in to his prime years. He probably moved into his prime last year. Quarterback Prime's about seven years, probably about 27ish. I mean really, when the light goes on, 26, 27ish to 33ish. So I always thought he'd be really good. Here's the amazing thing about Sam. Back to back, first quarterback ever, ever, all time back to back seasons. With 14 wins and 4,000 yards, it's even more impressive. He did it with two different teams. Now Mahomes has done it, but not in back to back years. 14 wins and 4,000 yards, it's just incredibly rare. Well, he had this and he had that. Seattle's the second youngest team in the league. Minnesota is good. They don't have the Eagles roster, so he's a very unique talent. But in big games like this one, you face better coaching. And Tom Brady talked About that last hour.
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Tom Brady
When you get to these big moments in big games, whether that's, you know, certainly playoffs or some of these games have happened at the end of the year determining whether they're going to get in or not. The margin of error when you play good teams is just very small. So that's where the fundamentals come into play. You have to, you know, in order to throw the ball accurate.
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Colin Cowherd
Okay.
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Tom Brady
And if you throw it accurately, make a decisions, you're not going to throw a lot of interceptions. It's over time. You need to refine your techniques so that when you get in these big moments, you're as accurate as you can possibly be because you have the least margin of error.
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Colin Cowherd
So Robert Sala is a great coordinator. Sam's problems have usually been, and he doesn't have a great O line, the left side of it, cross ables, pretty good center overs. Okay. Not great. Okay. When you can rush Sam, he gets frenetic. He gets into, he's like a, he's like a shooter that gets into a bad streak, takes bad shots and misses them badly. He can get into that. But I'll say this, Stafford, seven picks in seven games. Brock Purdy's had bad picks his whole career. But I would say Stafford, Purdy and Darnold also have a gift which is a short memory. It doesn't affect their next throw. So I mean, if you go to look at the last two years for Sam Darnold, Colin, do you trust them against San Francisco, he's not getting shorter, slower, less of an arm, less dynamic. I mean he is top three in virtually everything over the last couple years. So I mean he was successful at USC winning record, Carolina, great, Minnesota, great Seahawks. Yeah, it was a mess for the jets, but he was 20 years old when Dante Moore elected to go back to Oregon yesterday and not the NFL worry, would have gone to the Jets. One of the first things you thought about and I thought about was, oh, it'll be like Sam Darnold, he's a west coast quarterback with a really good team. He's really, really talented, but he's really young. Going to New York. Sam Darnold showed up in New York at 20, Dante Moore would show up in New York at 20. And that, that's, that's why I kept. When I looked at Dante Moore and I don't know his comp with Darnold, who's the better prospect, I have no idea. They're both very good, but they're not good enough to overcome the Jets. It'd be again, it'd be different if the jets hired John Harbaugh and instead of the Giant, I'd feel different. I mean, Mike Brable and Gerard Mayo. The Patriots are a different team. All right. And with that, Joel Clatt, who watched plenty of Sam Darnold at usc, is now joining us. So a lot of people are saying this and I don't think they're wrong. Indiana's a 8 point favorite over Miami. I do think it's going to be in the trenches. Miami can disrupt some of the offensive flow for Indiana. I think it's going to be a really good game. People have said, I mean, does Indiana have a weakness? Can you identify anything about Indiana where you're like, well, they're not great here. I don't see anything they're really bad at. But is there a way to attack them or a way to slow down the offense where they're not as efficient?
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Joel Klatt
Yeah, it's a, it's a great question and premise, I think in the games where. Let's just start with the games where they were close because I mean obviously they're undefeated, they're beaten teams badly. Penn State was a close game, Iowa was a close game. Oregon was a decently close game. And then Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game, the one through line to some of those matchups. Colin, was the ability maybe not to stop completely their running game, but certainly control their running game.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
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Joel Klatt
Because I think the secret sauce to Indiana is that even though they have Mendoza, who's going to be the first pick and is playing at as high a level as we've seen since maybe Mac Jones and Joe Burrow at this stage of the season, he's playing at such a high level, there's still a run first offense. In fact, if you look at their play selection now granted they've had the lead and they're going to run clock. But Colin, they've run the ball 90 times to only 36 passes in their two playoff games.
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Colin Cowherd
Wow.
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Joel Klatt
That, that's, that's a staggering percentage, you know. And so you have to start with the premise that you can't let them control the game on the ground. The thing that they do best, better than anybody else in college football, is get themselves into manageable third down situations. It what, it's what makes them the number one third down offense in America. And it's, it's the premise of being on schedule, on schedule, on first down, on second down. And it starts with their ability to run the football. So that's why I would start to try to hurt them. You also asked like, well, where, where aren't they good? To be honest, I can't find it. They're good on special teams. They tackle. Well, let's just put it to you this way. If you're going to measure a team's soundness, how well they're coached, you would measure things like missed tackles, penalties, turnovers, field position. Right. All these things that you feel like you can control. They're one of the best teams in the country in every one of those categories. And so I. It really is wild. And I think Miami is going to have to play nearly flawless, certainly mistake free, in order to win this game.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I remember watching the Penn State game and I had missed the first quarter of it and I started watching and I'm making lunch and all of a sudden I'm watching Penn State with a backup quarterback march up and down the field against Indiana. I'm like, oh, my God, we got an upset here. What is happening? And that's one of the only times all year where I felt Indiana was reeling a little bit. It was like they were on their heels a little bit and Penn State was just moving at 8 yard chunk. 8 yard, 6 yard, 8 yard. So, I mean, they're kids and Penn.
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Joel Klatt
State ran it really well that day. Yep. You know, and so I think you've got to be. Which, listen, that leans into Miami. Mark Fletcher has been outstanding during the course of this playoff. Yeah, I think he's averaging. I want to say what I haven't. Right here, 136 per game on the ground. I mean, like he's. He's been outstanding for them. And it's allowed Beck to play like Mendoza in third and manageable. Like Beck hasn't had to be in a ton of obvious down situations and to the benefit of. Of that team. And if they can do that against Miami, then, you know, they'll have a chance. But the play that you're showing right now, if, if you're watching on FS1, it was. It was the long play. They don't throw the ball down the field. Their big plays are generally catch and run. Like Malachi Tony at the line of scrimmage.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah, he's.
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Joel Klatt
You know, Beck is 1 for 11 in the playoff on balls that are thrown 20 or more yards down the field. So this is going to be at or near the line of scrimmage. This is the type of game that it's going to be for them.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah. The SEC was 2 and 8 against non conference opponents in the Bulls in college football this year. This week, I offered something. I put it on the screen. I called it best 10 in the next 10. I said, all things considered, nil transfer portal, three Texas schools, Texas, Texas A and M. Texas Tech will be in the 10. Phil Knight, Oregon Signetti, Mark Cuban, Indiana, Michigan, Notre Dame. Because of endowments, Ohio State's totally committed. Then I said 10's not Georgia. I said 10's USC because I just watched them spend 30 million bucks to buy the number one recruiting class. So. So here's my take, okay, but here's my take on Georgia. So clearly, Alabama is not what they were three years ago.
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Joel Klatt
I think that's clear.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah, Josh Pate told me this yesterday. He says people look at Georgia and think, oh, they get that Coca Cola money and that Delta airline money. He goes, no, they don't. Atlanta's never embraced it. The big money in Atlanta does not give to Georgia. So I guess my takeaway is we have a chance for a third straight Big Ten team to win. A natty, not even playing an SEC team. My question, if you look at the top eight quarterbacks in the country next year, you can argue six are in the Big Ten. Is it possible the gap is widening, not shrinking?
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Joel Klatt
I think if you. So I did this on my show as well, talked about the exact same thing in a little different way. You know, in terms of this idea of conference supremacy. Let me start with the premise that I think it's bad for college football that we constantly have this conversation. I really do. I think that it is. It is a narrative that needs to die. Because part of the problem in college football, Colin, from an overarching perspective, is that all the decisions are made in silos and everyone's just making decisions that benefit them. There's never been a time in college football where the powers that be, whether it's conference commissioners and or presidents, have come together and made a decision that's better for the whole, like the NFL owners did years and years and years ago. And we obviously see the product that we have on the field with the National Football League, okay? So when we. When. When we continually argue about the silos and which one is better, then the whole motivation of the people within those organizations is to be considered the better silo. So as long as we continue to breathe life into the narrative of, like, which conference is better, which conference is better, then we're going to continue to get decisions in college football that. That fracture us and make us more fragmented. So that's. That's just a, like an overarching argument. And, and I'm not saying that this isn't a fascinating discussion and we shouldn't maybe have this discussion. Maybe, Maybe I am. But I would tell you this. If you look at the last three years, an SEC team has not competed for a national championship in now three straight years. Georgia hasn't even been in the, in the semifinals in three straight years, maybe to your point, although USC is not, you know, playing at the top end of college football. Not even near it, quite frankly, right now.04. That's the SEC's record against the Big Ten in the last two years in the playoff when it matters most. So you can't argue like, oh, it's just bowl games.
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Colin Cowherd
These are blowouts.
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Joel Klatt
Like blowouts and some blowouts. That's exactly right. If you look at the draft, and that was kind of the last argument of the folks that really hang on to this SEC deal, is that the draft was all filled with SEC players. Yes, there's a lot of SEC players. That's. That margin is basically gone. Now. You look at the last couple of drafts and, you know, the players are spread out. And then I would offer this as my last kind of thought on this exact topic. Just a question. Let me just pose it. Was it really an entire conference that dominated college football, or was it the greatest singular coach that we've ever seen in the history of college football? Was it the SEC or was it Alabama that owned college football? Now, granted, there's a few other years. Yes, LSU was phenomenal in 19, and Georgia rose up in 21 and 22. And yes, you know, Cam Newton rose there. There are individual instances, just like we have littered throughout college football and every other conference where a team rises and falls and rises and falls. But the narrative, the SEC really was on the coattails of Nick Saban in Alabama. And now that they don't have that, but, you know, maybe it's over.
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Colin Cowherd
But my eyes don't fool me. Last year, Ohio State humiliated SEC teams physically at the end of the year. Yes, Indiana is humiliating SEC teams. My eyes aren't deceiving me. The SEC is not as fast. It's not intimidating. It's just a.
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Joel Klatt
Well, it's spread out. Well, it's just spread out. And, and, you know, those that are really, I mean, and you and I have said this, you know, for years. The, the, the thought was that the SEC was under the table, and I don't know how many programs were or not. I know that there were some and it wasn't exclusively in the sec, but there is a thought within coaching circles. I'm not talking about fans or media within coaching circles. And I've had these conversations or coaches that are not in the S.E.C. and have not been in the S.E.C look at me. And they say, well, we're finally all paying players. A little different now, isn't it? And that's, you know, I, that's. That's a real thing.
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Colin Cowherd
Okay, So I think we both know Dante Moore. Going to college is good for Dante, good for Oregon, good for everybody. Ty Simpson said I'm going pro and he would have made a lot of money in college. How do you view, I mean, Ty Simpson, to me, he's got an NFL arm, no question. He doesn't move. I don't think he's Mendoza as a prospect size. I don't think he's Dante. More the mover, maybe. I think ties an NFL first, second round prospect. That's what it looks like to me. Do you view him? How do you view him?
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Joel Klatt
So I, I think he's a really talented thrower of the football. He makes some. Some big boy throws. He really does. And good on really good arm. Now, he's not a big guy. He's not a big guy by any stretch of the imagination. And when you're not big, I get a bit worried about your ability to stay healthy unless you can move, you know, so if you, if you bring up like, well, Joel, there's a lot of small quarterbacks. Yeah, okay. Kyler is quick as a hiccup, you know, and, and he's still banged up. And yet he's that elusive. Bryce Young has some elusiveness. Russell Wilson had a ton of elusiveness in particular at the peak of his career. You know, Baker is elusive. He's not a huge guy, and Simpson doesn't really have that. So I'm a bit nervous about his size. But when it comes to just his pure ability to read the defense, stand in there and make big throws, he has that ability. There's no doubt. And as it always comes down to, unless you're a generational talent, which I don't know if Ty is, is that it matters where you go. And so now it's all about fit coach, city, GM owner. That's his entire NFL career, at least early at his first location, is going to be determined about in terms of where he best fits and if he gets into that spot.
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Colin Cowherd
All right. Indiana 27, Miami 17. That's what it feels like to me. Indiana cannot run the ball Consistently. But in the end I think they're a cleaner team. They make fewer mistakes, fewer penalties, fewer drops. And I think Miami can be harder to coach because I think they have so much length and speed and explosiveness. And Mario, to beat Indiana needs to be aggressive. They need to make a player to like, like over the top, play defensively, block a kick. So my take is the cleaner team will win, but it won't look like most Indiana wins. It's not going to be Indiana, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Indiana, Oregon twice. I think. I think it's a lot of trenches, a lot of mid 30 around the 30 yard line stuff. My take, yours.
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Joel Klatt
I think I'm actually absolutely in line with this. I think that it's going to be a frustrating game for Indiana as much as they get frustrated because I think that they're fine. Listen, they didn't lose their mind against Ohio State in a low scoring affair. That was a difficult game. And Penn State the same. Iowa was the same. But I do think it's going to be a style of game like that where it's close and then it becomes about mistakes and which team is losing the game and not winning game. And there's one thing I know about Indiana and that is they do not make mistakes. And I can't say the same about Miami. So I'm going to go the same direction. I think I had something along the lines of like 35, 24, you know, Indiana scores late and kind of takes a two possession lead and I would expect the way Indiana plays their turnover margin. I think Beck is going to make a mistake in this game and I think that's going to ultimately be the, the difference.
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Colin Cowherd
Joe Clapp. Can't wait to watch it. Say what you want about Carson Beck third. Natty's in. So he's got. You're not going to be jittery.
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Joel Klatt
He's experienced.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah, he's been in a ton of these games. Can't wait. Last team to go 160 or go undefeated in college football. I think it was 16 0. I looked it up. I hadn't heard of a lot of their players. Was yay in the 1800s.
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Joel Klatt
Okay, so. So maybe Yale did. I don't think modern college football has never happened. We've had a couple of these 150 obviously in, in recent vintage. But man, to do it in this era of, of more parody and to do it at Indiana. They were the losingest program in history to start the year and there it's, it's wild. It blows my mind.
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Colin Cowherd
It's Unbelievable. Joel Clack. Great stuff, my man.
- [21:50]
Joel Klatt
Thanks, bud. Have a good day.
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Colin Cowherd
You too. Yeah, it's some 1800 Yale team apparently was just knocking the socks off people between the drama club and their football team back then everybody was afraid of Yale. It was great stuff. Oh, did they? The staff just told me this. They invented the forward pass. Yale did. I don't know. I just, you know, you live and learn. I drove by. What's that? What's that bowl that Harvard and Yale played at? I drove by that a few times. It's like legendary. It's this legendary field they play at. And 16 0. Just. I mean, again, it's not 16 and oh in the Mountain West. It's 16 and oh in the Big Ten in the playoff. Hard to wrap your brain around it. One more herd the herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Fox Sports Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a part of it. Pay attention. Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio. Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and catch all the videos from your favorite shows. Two pros and a cup of Joe Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Doug Gottlieb, Covino and Rich the Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington, the Jason Smith show with Mike Harmon and the Ben Ma Show. Fox sports radio on YouTube.
- [23:19]
Joel Klatt
Subscribe hit that thumbs up icon and comment away.
- [23:22]
Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
Product details, you're confident you'll soon have everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Greg Cosell Next hour Tom Brady first hour Joel Cloud all sorts of stuff we're talking about today. What a show is just flying by on a Thursday Saturday NFL Sunday, NFL Monday the College Football National Championship 27:17 I like Indiana, but I think Miami is a live dog physically can impose their will. Maybe able to run the football a little and slow down Indiana's run game which slows down their play action passing game. Here's J. Mac with the news. No, no, no, turn on the news. This is the Herd line news.
- [25:31]
J. Mac
All right, let's go to that Bears Rams game. Bears are going to have to win on the ground, Col. They haven't really done that last two games. Just a buck sixty rushing the football. Ben Johnson says that's got to change.
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Colin Cowherd
It feels like it's dipped a little bit. Not something that we certainly want. Certainly late in the season we wanted that to pick up playoffs. Weather games like this, you certainly want to be able to lean on your run game. So those are some elements we're looking at. What can we do to help ignite that? It's both efficient runs to stay on track and ahead of the chains and also explosive runs as well. Where can we find a few of those?
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J. Mac
Yeah, their best bet's going to be to keep the Rams offense off the field. That's going to be a lot of manangai Swift. Tall order for the Bears.
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Colin Cowherd
Cole commit. Yeah, it's going to be cold.
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J. Mac
It's down your left tackle as well.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I worry about losing Edwards. Yep. It's. I mean you saw Jordan Love in that first half is kind of going up and down the field. I mean and they were fooling Chicago. The tackling wasn't great. It was. It was a pretty ugly first half. So I mean that's what the Rams are looking at. Can they manipulate veteran quarterback there? It's not a great defense to begin with. When you lose one of your playmakers, it's rough.
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J. Mac
Yeah, it's just. I know people don't want to hear it in Chicago. Colin. They got lucky. I mean look, they. There's no way around it. It was one of the biggest comebacks in the fourth quarter in playoff history. You said the packers kind of moved the ball. Their first three drives were touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Yeah, there's like, no, they couldn't do anything. And the Rams have a better offense than the packers with a better head coach. So I, it's just a tough. I'm surprised this is sitting on three and a half. I was, I was praying for a three. That's when you empty the bank account on the Rams. But yeah, I don't know if the Bears pull this off. I don't even know what to say at this point. You run out of adjectives for Ben Johnson and these guys. All right, let's move to the 49ers. The game Brady talked about earlier, 49ers, Seattle, very tall order for San Fran. They are seven point underdogs even though the team split the season series. Brock Purdy, he knows about the injuries. He says, I'm not worried.
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Colin Cowherd
At the end of the day for.
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Joel Klatt
Us, it's like, you know, we just focus on ourselves, man, and watch the film against Philly and all of us.
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Colin Cowherd
Were all so eager to get better from that.
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Joel Klatt
And then obviously, you know, we're in the playoffs now.
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Tom Brady
So it's, you know, we stay. We stayed alive and we're alive right now.
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Colin Cowherd
So for us, how can we just.
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Joel Klatt
Go and find a way and, you.
- [28:01]
Colin Cowherd
Know, play together and play our standard.
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Joel Klatt
Of ball as the 49ers. So that's how we look at it.
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Colin Cowherd
Good luck.
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J. Mac
Put you on the spot here, Colin. Better head coach in this game.
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Colin Cowherd
Well, they're both great.
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J. Mac
It's fine. You could just, you could be truthful.
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Colin Cowherd
One's better offensively, one's better defensive. How about that? They're both. Why does it always have to be better?
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J. Mac
Well, I'm trying to get to. I was giving you a softball Shanahan. Obviously nothing against the other guy. Who's the better quarterback in this game?
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Colin Cowherd
Who's more talented? Sam Darnold.
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J. Mac
I didn't ask that. I'm not what I asked, sir. I said better.
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Colin Cowherd
The last two years, Sam Darnold, okay. I mean wins yards, completions, touchdowns and healthy doesn't get banged up.
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J. Mac
Does it feel like this is house money for Brock Purdy?
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Joel Klatt
No.
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Colin Cowherd
What do you mean?
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J. Mac
He went into Philadelphia, he threw two picks and they still won the game with a game winning drive by Purdy.
- [28:58]
Colin Cowherd
I mean, I think this game feels 13 to 10 middle of the third. I think Seattle Pulls away late. I think it's a very close game. 13:10 could be San Francisco leading middle of the third. I think Seattle will be a little conservative, deeper roster at home favored. Let's not put ourselves in the crosshairs of trouble. I think San Francisco will play inspired. Nobody says they can win. They're a live dog. They've got a great coach. San Francisco to me is going to lead this game at some point and it could be middle of the third. But I do think at home, Seattle's defense, Brock Purdy's on occasion, when rushed, can make a mistake. And that Witherspoon, I mean that Seattle defensive front is just like Tom Brady said, dude, they're just, they just rotate guys. It's just. I mean they got six guys that are in and out. They're fresh late in the games. I think defensive lines decide games like this. Speeding up. Quarterback Darnold's clearly going to have more time to throw than Brock Purdy over the course of three and a half hours. I don't think we could deny that, that Brock Purdy will probably, he'll probably be a little more rushed on average over the course of a game. That tends to be an advantage for the quarterback that's not rushed.
- [30:14]
J. Mac
I know Seattle boxed him in San Fran a couple weeks ago, but if McCaffrey doesn't drop the inner. The, the pass inside the five falls in the hands of the Seattle guy. It's a one score game and we're. It's interesting, right? But he does. And now it's like, oh, Seattle killed him. The NFL's just. The margins are so thin. Let's go to the final story, and that is Mike Vrabel and the New England Patriots. Boy, that game against the Texans, I'm excited for this. Look at that line, Colin. Three and a half point favorites. Wow. I'm stunned. Especially after what the Texans did to Aaron Rodgers and they sent Mike Tomlin into retirement. Here's Vrabel talking about the Houston defense, which is nasty. This is the best defense you faced?
- [30:55]
Tom Brady
Yeah, of course, you know, I mean, they have great talent, great scheme.
- [30:59]
Colin Cowherd
They play hard and respect how hard they play. They're just not only talented, but they have a play demeanor that I can appreciate.
- [31:08]
Tom Brady
There's talent, length, you know, effort.
- [31:12]
Joel Klatt
You know, they don't, if they get.
- [31:15]
Colin Cowherd
Blocked, they don't stay blocked long. They play hard against the run.
- [31:18]
Joel Klatt
It's not just if you run the ball that they're, they're taking plays off.
- [31:22]
Tom Brady
So two really good, you know, bookends.
- [31:27]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I like what he said there. When you I length, they don't stay blocked long. They're like a really good recovering. Good defenses recover quickly because you can fool people. You know, you, there's no question you fool people. They Seattle and Houston. When you fool them, they course correct catch up very quickly. So you don't get a lot of big plays because there's not a lot of big gaps. Like last weekend when the, when the packers fooled the Bears in the first half, there were huge, huge openings. Long tarmacs, long runways. You don't get that against Seattle and Houston. If you fool them, it's like they're playing with an extra dude. You know, you get about 4 yards to run, then there's a host of guys around you remember you.
- [32:07]
J. Mac
I think you had the point on Tuesday that on that opening drive, first, second drive, the Steelers had a couple plays and Rogers was like, oh, my gosh. He was very excited and animated. And then after that, they just shut everything down. It was like they just turned the water off. No, that's enough. You're not doing anything.
- [32:22]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I mean, Aaron came in. You could tell. Aaron knew we got a couple of plays that are going to work. They did. And when they had the punt, it's like Aaron knew that's trouble. There's not a lot that fools these guys.
- [32:32]
J. Mac
Patriots have a rookie left tackle in Campbell going up against one of the, one of the all pro edge rushers. You know that kid Petrie in the secondary, dude, he is a missile. He is hitting so hard. He's got the big helmet, which is kind of deceptive because those guys are usually, you know, like, not wanting the contact. He wants all the smoke. And I just, I, I'm, I, I'm kind of in love with this Texans team. I know we have a Houston homer on staff. I think they win this outright. But then again, I picked against the Patriots last week and looked like a fool. Yeah.
- [33:00]
Colin Cowherd
J. Mack with the news. Well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by the Herd live. I thought this was informative and interesting. Apparently when Mike Tomlin informed the team, the Steeler team, that he was going to step away, it was really emotional. I mean, players one by one were coming up and giving great gratitude and humility and. Thank you, coach. Kind of the opposite of what happens in college football because of the calendar. You're always like leaving town on the midnight train. As a college coach and in the NFL, it's usually ugly because the coach gets canned or even Belichick leaves and it's surly and the owner and the coach are mad at each other. Players have always, especially veteran players, have always loved Tomlin. In fact, I called the GM yesterday and I said, why? Why doesn't Tomlin have a coaching tree? We called it yesterday a coaching cactus. There's no tree. And he said, because Tomlin doesn't have a hotshot, young, ascending McVanish staff or a Shanahan. He likes older players and older staffs. He's very old school. And I think what that gives you is a higher floor and a lower ceiling. You don't have the ascending hot shot offensive coordinator on your staff. That's just not what he does. He likes his players older. He tends to be old school in his ideology. He likes his staffs to be a tad older. And that's okay. That avoids implosion. But you don't get fresh ideas and you don't see things, you know, a new set of eyes. So. But I will tell you this. He is more than a coach. He, he connects with players on a personal level, level. Emmanuel Sanders talked about this yesterday. The moment that I got there, he was like a father figure to me. The things that he taught me in terms of investing my money and a way to think, and that's what type of player coach he is. He's always going to give it to you real raw, authentic. And, you know, depending on how you take it, you might not like it, but you know that he has your best interest. And that's why I always love him, man. He was one of those guys that truly was a blessing for me to get drafted with him because he just changed my whole mindset in the way that I was thinking about going about my business. Yeah, it's Mike Tomlin, highly respected. You know, the NFL's gotten younger and Tomlin's a little old school. And that's why I said, I think it's time for a, you know, reset. Take the year off, do a Sean Payton, do some tv, hang out with family. Reset, kind of modernize how you view certain things. You don't have to break it all down, but, you know, kind of modernize it. But players hold him in incredibly high. Regardless, be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app.
- [35:46]
J. Mac
Monday on Fox 4 of Women's College basketball's best tip off in the Coretta Scott King Classic. At noon Eastern, it's TCU Ohio State. Then at 2 35th ranked Vanderbilt takes on 8th ranked Michigan. It all begins Monday only on Fox.
- [36:02]
Colin Cowherd
Greg Cosell coming up next hour. Tom Brady was fantastic. 20 minutes. If you didn't hear it, put it on the podcast. He was unbelievable today. Broke down all the games, all the thoughts. I mean, listen, I put the chart up earlier of all the quarterbacks left in the playoffs and you've got an older pocket quarterback in Stafford and then you got a lot of inexperienced guys who don't have a lot of long runs in the playoffs. It's Drake May, it's Bo Nix, it's Caleb CJ Stroud, so. And Brock Purdy. So this really feels like next year Mahomes Burrow, Lamar could be back in. Justin Herbert's going to have both of his tackles back with the Chargers and they'll probably readdress the offensive line. You know, I mean this is a, it's not a now or never year, but now would be a really good time year. Tom Brady on moving forward for Josh toward a Super Bowl.
- [36:56]
Tom Brady
This is the game for him. I mean, there's a lot of career defining games for quarterbacks. And when you're a veteran quarterback and you're not dealing with Patrick Mahomes anymore, and that's been kind of a bit of a kryptonite for the Bills over the years, this is the time for, you know who they feel. Josh, one of the best quarterbacks in ac, to go out there and have his year. He won the MVP last year. He's got a great chance to go on the road. I know he's a little bit undermanned. It's hard to not love the Buffalo Bills in this story. And you know, I think it would be just incredible for their fan base who had been, you know, so enthusiastic about this team to finally get over the hump and then make it to, you know, a championship game.
- [37:40]
Colin Cowherd
What's really interesting about this weekend and Saturday specifically, so the first game Saturday, we think the players amazing. Josh Allen, but we don't know if we love the rest of the parade. We love Josh. We know Josh is good enough to win a Super Bowl. Is the coach right? Is the defense right? Are the weapons right? And then there's the Seattle game. Seattle, oh, we love this new coach. We love this Seahawk roster. But I don't know if I trust Arnold in Buffalo. We know Josh is good enough to hoist a trophy. We worry about the staff, we worry about the roster. We worry about, I mean, can Keon Coleman make one big play? Can the defense stop the run in Seattle, it's different. You love the new coach, you love the run game, you love the speed of the defense. We don't know if we, we don't know if we trust Darnold, right? So here's Tom Brady on staying aggressive for Sam Darnold, looking for that first playoff W. When you get to these.
- [38:45]
Tom Brady
Big moments in big games, whether that's, you know, certainly playoffs or some of these games have happen at the end of the year determining whether going to get in or not, the margin of error when you play good teams is just very small. So that's where the fundamentals come into play. You have to, you know, in order to throw the ball accurate.
- [39:02]
Colin Cowherd
Okay.
- [39:03]
Tom Brady
And if you throw it accurately, make a decisions, you're not going to throw a lot of interceptions. It's over time. You need to refine your techniques so that when you get in these big moments, you're as accurate as you can possibly be because you have the least margin of error.
- [39:20]
Colin Cowherd
The one thing I think you really get this weekend, you don't get all 8 for 8 great quarterbacks or 8 for 8 offensive lines. Buffalo's old lines, good. Seattle. It's probably a weakness. What you do get is B plus at minimum coaching. I mean, if you, if you look at the one common thread this weekend, it's great coaching. And the truth is Sean McDermott may win a trophy. I mean, I've said Sean McDermott to me has sort of a Marty Schottenheimer, Chuck Knox feel. You know, he's capable. You know, he's a good coach. Is he the coach that gets creative, get you over the hump? Sean McDermott's absolutely a good coach. I mean, listen, Robert Sala hasn't had near the success. I think Salah deserves a second chance. Right. Brian Flores hasn't had nearly as much success. I think Brian Flores deserves a second chance. Sean McDermott's a B plus coach, but generally, historically it's the Belichicks, the Reeds that have on average high percentage, have won the trophies. But I mean, that, that may end with a win. I find it hard. I mean, I understand you love your, your local team. I think if you ask the country who they were rooting for, they're rooting for Buffalo. And I think their offensive personnel is better than I give it credit for. I mean, they have a star quarterback, star back, really good tight end, star left tackle, really good O line. They just don't have. I mean, listen, receiver is the hardest position to draft in the first round. If you go to the last 20 drafts and I don't remember who has this apologize. Somebody listed the last 20 drafts. The percentage that busts the least and the percentage position that bust the most. Wide receiver is the biggest bus position. And by a long shot it can be a temperamental position. It's, it's, it's, you know, skill over maturity. You're just looking for a guy that breaks the huddle and could beat people down the field. And there's a lot of. So it's hard for me to hold it against Buffalo. A lot of these wide. I mean, Bill Belichick could not draft the first round wide receiver to save his life. Pretty good coach. Kansas City's GM Brett Veach, about as good as any GM in the league. He's missed on some wide receivers. Sky Moore, Philadelphia. Howie Roseman. Remember a few years ago, first round took a wide receiver from tcu. Did not work. Here's our playoff schedule. If I, if I had to guess right now, I've told you, I've stopped doubting Buffalo. I'll say Buffalo wins. Close. Seattle wins by a touchdown. God, this Patriot Texans game is rough. I don't, I don't know. I like the Rams over the Bears. Texans, Patriots. To me, you know, again, the Texans were so turnover prone. I don't think they will be this week. I don't know where I fought. Listen, I said Patriots, Chargers, stay away. Patriots, Texans. You probably take the home team. I think they have a much livelier offense. But you know, Drake May has got to avoid the implosion and that is easier said than done. You saw the struggles Aaron Rodgers had this. The longest drive for the Steelers in the second half was 23 yards. And Pittsburgh beat New England this year.
- [42:30]
J. Mac
Yeah, we got an update on Bill's Broncos. Not great news. Maxwell Hairston, the talented rookie cornerback. Remember he flashed well against the Chiefs earlier this season. He's officially been ruled out. So Jordan Poyer out, Hairston out. That's two in the Buffalo secondary down against Denver. We're waiting on Ed Oliver who would be a big get back on the line.
- [42:52]
Joel Klatt
Yeah, that.
- [42:52]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, yeah. All right, Greg Cosell next hour. Show is flying by the Hurt. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.