The Best of The Dan Patrick Show

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: No declarations from last night's game. Okay, I know we love to do the standalone and I'm going to give you my opinion. And this is an opinion that you can put in ink, not pencil, you know, because we would have said what last night? There were a couple of things. It could have been. Matthew Stafford solidified the MVP rams to the team to beat in the NFL. Oh Seattle at home, Sam Donald, they're frauds. It could have gone a couple of different ways last night. It's wild how it ended. I even joked yesterday the game was too big for Thursday night. It actually took Thursday night to Friday morning in some parts of the country. But Seattle gets the win in overtime thirty eight thirty seven. But if Seattle would lost that game, what would we be saying today? Because keep in mind, Seattle nearly won the first game between these two when Sam Darnald threw four interceptions. They had three turnovers last night, and they still won the game. Matthew Stafford threw for four hundred and fifty yards. Phoka Nakua had twelve catches, two, one hundred and twenty five yards like you're going, and Seattle's still going to win this game. And the Rams didn't have any turnovers. There were you know, there were no interceptions by Stafford. See you're looking at it's thirty to fourteen. You go, yeah, all right, Rams are a better team. Seattle was stayed in there, you know, the defense when they needed to came up with some really big plays. Now did you get some ricochets there? Did you get some bounces? Yes, you got old of those things. The punt return to me was really big. But Seattle goes for two. Here's their head coach, Mike McDonald.

00:01:49
Speaker 3: Fall was something we had talked about probably throughout the season and then really particularly for this game because of the playoff situation. You know, you play for the tie, you know, make the lock ofup a play off seed. But I just felt like, I just felt great about our play and I trusted our guys and to clinch credit to he was really confident, and then the players ultimately make it happen. So once we got that drive going, it was pretty clear on what we're.

00:02:13
Speaker 4: Going to do.

00:02:14
Speaker 2: I loved it, but I don't have to answer to the media. But I did love it. You're at home, you felt good the comeback, and let's take advantage of this. So the records after last night, Seattle's twelve and three. La Is eleven and four. Who do you think is the favorite right now for the Super Bowl? According to DraftKings this morning just got the Super Bowl ons. The Rams are still the team to beat in the NFC. In the NFL, then it's the Seahawks, then it's the Broncos, Bills, Eagles, and Texans. So we want to make it a statement game, a statement win. But this is this is about two teams that took advantage when they needed to and Seattle had the last chance to take advantage and they end up winning.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: But it was great.

00:03:02
Speaker 2: It was a great game, back and forth. You may get home field advantage. Now do I still have questions about Sam Darnold? I do I think they won maybe in spite of him. They almost won in spite of him the first time against the Rams, and Stafford looked great, Phukan Nakua look great. But you know, Seattle ran the football and came up with a couple of big stumps, and that's what you want. Get a couple of three and outs and then try to make them pay. But it was It was wonderful to watch that game. A lot of fun back and forth. All Right, so you got college football coming up, Alabama and Oklahoma on a Friday night, and we're going to look at some of the different scenarios of if Miami gets blown out. What are people going to say, if Alabama would get blown out, what could happen to their head coach? What if Tulane shocks old and then we go, well, they should have kept Lane Kiffin in there. James Madison against Oregon. Everybody has already made their declaration. Oregon's gonna win, but by how much? Now, all I can tell you is I watch jmu play twice this year. That defense is really good, and this might be a situation where Oregon eventually wins, but James Madison keeps it close. Oregon. Oregon's starting slow, maybe a first half cover. I don't know what that number is, but James Madison's going in. This is everything to James Madison. Oregon is probably looking at this as all right, who do we have after James Madison. I'm not saying that they're going to shock the world, but I hope we're surprised at how well James Madison can play. It's been a good program here for the last couple of years. And yes, is this a tall task. Absolutely to lane against old miss. Absolutely. And Nick Saban came out out and said, you know, we shouldn't even have these smaller schools like you don't take a tripa a baseball team and put them into the Major League Baseball playoffs. And I was surprised and disappointed that Nick said that, because you're supposed to be kind of a steward of the game. Now you're not at Alabama, you're on college game day. And it's not like James Madison and Tulane created this format. It's all these so called smart people who created this format. I do have an update on a playoff format for next year, Okay, I'm going to do that after the break, And there's a couple of things in there that you should know, a couple of surprises that I found out yesterday. But I said, we're going to fourteen or sixteen next year, and it looks like they've already agreed to that. But I'll give you some of the details on the new playoff format and Notre Dame will be in the playoff picture if they finish in the top twelve. But you know, we don't want upsets in football, but man, do we crave upsets with march badness. I give If JMU was playing Oregon and it was basketball and Oregon was one of the top five teams, we'd be like, man, JMU can pull this off, that would be great. Or if Tulane's playing Old Miss and Old Miss is a top ten team or a number four seed overall, we'd be like, Tulane just pulled off a shaker there. But when it gets to college football, we don't we want shock. We don't know surprises here. Don't do that to us.

00:06:36
Speaker 5: Yes, Marvin, I think because it's a numbers game, because there's so many teams in the NCAA tournament. All right, great Michigan State got knocked out in the first round, but guess what I still got Duke Carolina, yukon UCLA. In college football, it's not like that. There's only twelve of those teams, So you don't want one of those big dogs like Oregon early Canada for most must win game a weekend. This can change everything. If JAMU wins all the small school's going forward. Yeah, look we belong.

00:07:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, but in basketball, you can get hot, you know, playing on a neutral site, and you know, you can get some magic there. In college basketball, it's really difficult to shock somebody in college football, especially when you're playing at their home stadium. But I hope that they I hope that they're able to play in a way that they're proud no matter what the end result is, because yes, do I like these kind of stories.

00:07:28
Speaker 4: I do.

00:07:29
Speaker 2: Should Notre Dame be in instead of JMU or Tulane, Absolutely, but JMU and Tulaine shouldn't be punished for something that college football and their committee came up with. I mean, they earned it. It's not like they go, you know what, this is a sponsor's exemption and it's a golf tournament, like, hey, you can come on in. That's not what happened. They did what they were supposed to do. Do I like it? No, I'd like to see Notre Dame in there, because Notre Dame could win the national title. I think they're that good. Good. They didn't get in, So we move on and now you got these games coming up tonight. But guaranteed you're gonna get the now they never should have been in told you, okay, told who tell the committee they came up with this. It's like tulaane, you know, man, I just I'm disappointed. Nick Saban should say, hey, they did what they were supposed to do and maybe they changed the format, but let's let's welcome them. Let's see what they can do. That's what I wanted to hear out of Nick Saban instead of you know what we didn't you don't invite a triple A team. You know, you know you don't invite it. Yeah, we know all of that. But they did what they were supposed to do, what they were asked to do, and I hope that they are able to put up a good effort there and maybe when maybe shock the world. Uh seatan what's poll question for the first hour of the program? Yeah, wan to here from Paul. If your life depended on it, this one catch you're taking Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase Jackson Smith and Jigba or Pooka Nakula. I'm taking Pooka Akua recency bias.

00:09:10
Speaker 6: He is getting silly with his catches.

00:09:13
Speaker 2: Yes he if it's if it's around him. It's it's his. Even when it's not around him, it's it's his. He's I never worry about him on the field, it's off the field. He was criticizing the officials last night right after the game, and I'm going didn't do the proposed celebration that maybe he was gonna get in trouble for me anti Semitic, that was.

00:09:37
Speaker 6: That was good that he avoided that.

00:09:39
Speaker 7: A boy.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: Uh here's Sean McVeigh talking about Pooka Nakua's comments after the game.

00:09:46
Speaker 4: He was very apologetic.

00:09:47
Speaker 8: I don't think he understood the totality of some of the things. I think he issued that apology. You know, this guy's heart and for anybody that was offended, terribly sorry about that. I know he feels that same exact way.

00:09:57
Speaker 4: As a young guy.

00:09:59
Speaker 8: There's a great kid that's continuing to learn about you know, just the platform that he has.

00:10:03
Speaker 3: I love him.

00:10:04
Speaker 8: We're going to continue to put an arm around him and help him learn and grow. But we never want to do things that ever offend anybody. And I know he feels that same way.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's talking about the video that he did on a podcast after the game last night. He was critical of the referees, and now's when the NFL's got to find him. Now they will. By the way, Most Valuable Least Valuable danet voting is up and running at danpatrick dot com. The link also in our Twitter and Instagram bio as well Most Valuable Least Valuable Danpatrick dot Com. We will tabulate your votes and Tuesday, Tuesday, in the final hour of the program, Oh boy, that's when we make the big announcement, big reveal, and also the most Valuable backroom guy as well. There's only thirteen people, twelve full time people who work here, including all of us you know, the five here, but there are some very valuable backroom guys. It's a really it's gonna be a really close vote, and I'm the one that's voting. It's going to be one vote for the most Valuable backroom guy, and it may shock people. I'm just going to say that. I don't know if the most Valuable Least Valuable is going to shock anybody, but there's always that possibility. That's a fan vote. Okay, I'm not involved in that. I will cast my vote, but this I'm gonna leave it up to the audience. Most valuable least valuable, Danett, I think, Pritzy, you've wanted a couple of times now.

00:11:47
Speaker 6: Yeah, taking on both of those.

00:11:48
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's the rollercoaster, rioty emotions that come with these prizes, yes, Paul.

00:11:53
Speaker 10: So is there anything else any of us can do in the last three hours here to garner a couple extra votes or lose them?

00:12:00
Speaker 2: Oh yeah there's Yeah. You get to vote till tuesday, so wow. Yeah, there's plenty of room to screw up.

00:12:05
Speaker 9: Yes, ton we'll have any backstab being going on in the back room. There is there anyone that thinks that they've got it and they're about to get the rug pulled out, like Notre Dame where they thought they were going to be winning and they're not going to get that award.

00:12:16
Speaker 2: I don't know, ton On't you go back and say a lot to a couple of guys. Yeah, you go back there.

00:12:21
Speaker 6: We justly go back there.

00:12:22
Speaker 9: If there's like hot dogs or egg rolls on the on the griver.

00:12:24
Speaker 2: No, you do go back to do your stand up act.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: I'll try a couple of.

00:12:27
Speaker 9: Things out of them and just got to see if there's something there.

00:12:30
Speaker 2: Yes, but I all walk by and Mario and Anthony are trying to get ready for the show, and then Todd will do basically five minutes to stand up.

00:12:37
Speaker 9: I have my little notebok. I'll cross out things that are good. I'll put a little check mark if they.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: Giggled, Uh okay, yeah pull.

00:12:46
Speaker 6: By the way, we talked about this before.

00:12:48
Speaker 10: I think we did this with Isaiah Pacheco, the most valuable player in the NFL based off salary, Pokin Nakua makes a million dollars this year, a million, and he's going to make a million next year.

00:12:59
Speaker 6: He's his four years for the Rams. He'll be paid less than five million dollars.

00:13:05
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think he'll make a million next year. I don't think so.

00:13:09
Speaker 10: But let's say the first three years of his career he made two point eight million dollars.

00:13:13
Speaker 2: But this was like Cooper Cup and to see him on the field last night in a Seattle uniform. I mean, Cooper Cup had years better than pooka Akula. But PAULI goes, how fast do you think Pookainakua is? And then he answered his own question, he goes fast enough. Yes, there is a jar. I brought this up a couple of weeks ago. There's a Jerry Rice feel to him from the standpoint of I don't know how fast he is, but I know he's big, but I don't know what his forty is and I don't care, because there's football speed and then there's track speed, and he's got football speed. And you saw that again last night.

00:13:50
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show week days at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.

00:13:59
Speaker 11: Wap Hey, He's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio. Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, We're excited to announce a brand new YouTube channel for the show.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Yup, that's right.

00:14:13
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00:14:30
Speaker 2: Lewis Riddick of the Mothership ESPN NFL college football analyst, He'll be on the call. He's got James Madison and Oregon kick off at seven thirty eastern on TNT. All right, where do you want to start? You want to start on your game or is there another question that you want to talk about?

00:14:49
Speaker 4: Now? Hey man, you know me, Dan, I'll go wherever you want to go. But I can tell you this all right.

00:14:55
Speaker 2: For the people who don't believe in James Madison, you would say what.

00:15:00
Speaker 4: Well, I would say this. Look, defensively, this football team can get after it. There's no question about that. I mean, obviously you're gonna look at their level of competition and go, well, who are the most high powered offenses they played? What P four offenses that they played? I mean they played against Louisville. They lost to Louisville. That We're in that game all the way though, until Louisville made a couple of big plays down the stretch. They played Washington State, you know that game, that team is closely contested. But this, this is this is a football team. Look, they've got some guys on that side of the ball, especially on the defensive line. That linebacker that can really get going, that can get going. Now, the problem is Oregon may be getting healthy in this football game, especially a wide receiver. If you're talking about guys like the Corean Moore coming back, and you know, Evan Stewart may be healthy in this game. Gary Bryant Junior, the three like three of their most explosive players. I don't know if Dan Landing plays them or not, but man are they They are formidable. And then look, I mean JM you can really run the football. Their quarter back a Linza Barnett can really get after it. And if you look at some of the most some of the mobile quarterbacks that Oregon has played against, they've had some issues with them. I'm not saying that JMU really is gonna win this game. You know what it's out here, you know, in Eugene, in this weather, this stadium, this football team, Dan Lanning, the number of five stars they got on the team they're up against it.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: I get that.

00:16:20
Speaker 4: But that's why you play the games, man, That's why you play the games. And quite honestly, if you're gonna have a you know, a group of five type of school go up against a heavyweight like Oregon, you're gonna want the matchup to kind of look like this one, to where who knows what jam you can do? Who knows how long they can keep it close. We'll see what happens.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: I don't know what you thought about Nick Saban's comments about basically saying, you know, JMU and Tulane are minor league baseball teams, they shouldn't be playing in the baseball playoffs. I'm just surprised because he's not at Alabama, He's sitting on the biggest platform in the sport.

00:16:57
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: JMU and Tulane didn't create this scenario. They took advantage of this scenario.

00:17:02
Speaker 4: Sure, So it's it surprised me a little bit only because look, at one time, like Nick was coaching at Toledo, Nick knows what the what you know a Kent State. He knows what the long, hard road looks like. And because he traveled it and he ascended to become the goat, and you know, hats off to him. I was coached by my respect the hell out of him, love the guys, I mean, all all the goods the question. But lookah, I think if you're those schools, if you're too lane in your JMU, you're sitting there going, hey, wait a minute, man, we don't need to be catching strays from people. When we were just kind of doing what we need to do, and we didn't. We didn't put ourselves in here. Y'all put us in here. So we're gonna line up and play the game. Now, I get what Nick is saying. I get what he's saying when you're talking about teams that are being excluded from this, when you look at Notre Dame Vanderbilt texts. Let's just take those three in particular. We know that JMU and two Lane probably you know, ninety nine out of one hundred times those three schools are going to beat jam you or or sorts laying. We get that, and quite honestly, fans probably would rather see those teams in there. And that's all Nick is saying. So they need to figure out a way to kind of rectify that if that means that group of five schools don't get get included in this, although I mean I've heard people talk about the fact that those schools would litigate this thing to the very end and be like, you can't do that, you can't keep us out of this. What are you talking about? I mean, it is what it is. I mean, deal with it. If you're Texas and if you're Vanderbilt, and if you're Notre Dame. Then win your damn games. Don't worry, don't worry about us, don't try keeping us out of it. Just how about you just got to earn your way into it. But I get what he's saying.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: Talking to Lewis Riddick of the Mothership. He'll be on the call. It'll be James Madison in Oregon kickoff seven thirty eastern and a couple other things. You know, I'm curious, did you watch Thursday night game? Like, you're good? What do you think is Sam Darnold?

00:18:59
Speaker 4: You know, I'm glad you asked that because he talked about catching strays. Sam's been catching a bunch of them over the past couple of weeks, hasn't he. Yeah, So, you know, ever since keeps team before out in LA, people been like, well, there's the Sam. We know, that's the Sam. We're talking about where's JSN? Now, where's you know all this feel good you know, uh talk that was surrounding him. That's not who Sam is. And then last night, you know, he has he throws two picks and you're sitting there going, you know, late and again you're going, oh, here we go again. But what did he do? In crunch time. That's what everyone wants to know. In crunch time, in a big game, national stage, at home, so much on the line, in the NFC and in that division overall, what does he do? He delivers some fantastic throws, big time throws, won the Cooper Cup, won the JASN under pressure in the fourth quarter when they need him the most, and he delivered. He doesn't blink. Everyone else has blinked talking about him, but he hasn't blinked. And I love that. I think that kind of game last night could really for him as much as you know, when we've talked to him, he doesn't seem never doubt himself. He doesn't come off as someone who's sitting there having these real introspective conversations with himself and trying to find himself and all that bs. I think last night, though, even for him, he may have gone, see, I do have what it takes in order to rise up at the biggest moments. Now, he had a lot of help last night, he really did. And you know, one of the biggest, one of the biggest acquisitions this season is going to be the acquisition of Rashid Shaheed for Seattle, and you saw it last night. It was coming. You saw him, you know, poking and prodden over the past couple of weeks as far as trying to find his groove. Then the pot return hits. You know, he's a guy who he showed it. You showed it last week late in the game against Indianapolis, that that was the guy that Sam went to. Kenneth Walker started going last night. The defense gets some big stops late in that game. They couldn't they still they they still haven't figured out what the hell Puku Nakula was doing to him. They still haven't that out. But I mean that which was incredible. Look, Sean McVay is a freaking I love Sean McVay. The dude can scheme up your defense as well as anybody. And Matthew Stafford, you know, you know what Dan speaking. Look, I'm not saying Sam Donald Matthew Stafford. All right, there was a lot, There was a while. There was a long time, and we sat there and we doubted Matthew Stafford. When he was in Detroit. People wanted to blame Stafford for not being able to lift what at the time was a franchise that wasn't very well run. And lift them out of the gutter and put them on the pedestal, you know, and then he goes to LA, gets around the right people. Next thing, you know, he wins a super Bowl and now he's gonna probably win the MVP. But I think with Sam, Sam's in the right spot right now, he's in the right spot with coach McDonald's, he's in the right spot with Clint kobe A last night could be a turning point game for him. I really do and I hope it is.

00:21:53
Speaker 2: I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago with Pooka Nakua. There's football speed and there's track speed. Yeah, he football speed. Question, I don't know what you know, like Jerry Rice, like where you go and there's I think there's similarities and that he he seems to always be fast enough and if it's in his radius, he's catching it. So it's a former defensive back. Yeah, what would you be trying to do with him?

00:22:23
Speaker 4: A lot of times what you saw last night with Pooka is Look, I've been beating this drum since I started on TV back in twenty thirteen. Free access to wide receivers off the line of scrimmage. You're asking for it. You're asking to get your rear end ripped by teams that can scheme you up and instinctive wide receivers who are in lockstep with their quarterback if you let them play seven on seven, which a lot of the game intoday, Phill and I'm not the get off my long guy. I get it. The game is a vault. We're trying to protect players all that, but a lot of the game now is geared towards allowing wide receivers and quarterbacks to put up Star Wars type numbers. One of the things that you still have at your disposal though, as a defense is the is the whole idea of the disruption of timing and rhythm of a pass if you don't disrupt the timing and rhythm of the rams passing game. Puka and Matthew Stafford they meet every morning at like four or five am, the same thing he used to do with Cooper Cup and Puka is so damn instinctive and as you're talking about, has such great functional strength and speed. And Matthew is this first ballot lock you know, sure fire Hall of Fame type caliber quarterback that if you allow them to just come off the line, use their motions and shifts, find the zone voids, and you're gonna sit there and you don't disguise your coverage as well, or you have miscommunications in the back end, and you allowed Puka to just work his magic in between the numbers, in particular on those deep end cuts that you saw him running last night where he's catching and then he's off to the races. You're gonna wind up giving up two hundred and twenty five yards receiving to a single guy. You've got to you know, you know who, And I know this is a dude who's always is in the media more time than not now for the wrong reasons or for reasons that don't involve football. But Bill Belichick was the very best, and even at the you know, in the in the later moments of his career in New England, still understood that and made defenses execute those kinds of things, or you wouldn't play for him. And that's how he was able to shut down some of the greatest offenses when he was when he was a head coaching coordinate. See, he understands that that one thing is still something you have in your and your tool kid and if you don't use it, you're just asking for it. And last night that's how Pooka went off like he did.

00:24:40
Speaker 2: What if you were the GM of the Chiefs, how are you approaching next season?

00:24:44
Speaker 4: Oh? Boy, Yeah, Brett's a good friend of mine, Brett Veach And I'll tell you what, first and foremost, I think You've got to get Patrick at bell kol running back. You got to. You've got to get him a guy he can turn around and hand the ball to and he's probably gonna get you four and a half on average and maybe rip you know, at least two to three plus ten plus twenty yard runs a game. So you got to You've got to get him a true number one at wide receiver. You've got to get him an X that even when the team knows you're gonna throw it to him, he can still make plays. You've got to get him that guy. And obviously the offensive line got banged that season. You saw how bad it became. You saw at every single every single UH pass attempt became like it became like a playground ball for Patrick. And Patrick can't be the guy who's constantly running for his life and trying to and obviously coming off that injury. You don't want him being the number one, number two rush on the team. He just can't be. Offensive line has to get healthy. They have to get him a running back, They have to get him a true number one. What's the succession plan for Travis Kelsey a tight end? That's a lot.

00:25:58
Speaker 2: There expecting him to retire.

00:26:02
Speaker 4: Even if he doesn't, you still need more juice at that position. As good as he is, he'll needs someone who, from a physical perspective, really does inject fear into a defense in that area, that fifteen to twenty yard area between the number is because this guy is such a unique a Travis is one of the He's the greatest. He's going to the Hall of Fame.

00:26:24
Speaker 2: You think he's the best tight end of all time?

00:26:29
Speaker 4: The numbers say he is. Well Tony, I played against Tony Tony was. I didn't play against Gronk, but I played against Tony and Tony was damned near uncoverable. I played against Keith Jackson when you know he had just left Philly and went to Miami and Marino was throwing in pass this.

00:26:45
Speaker 7: I know what.

00:26:45
Speaker 4: There's some really really good tight ends that have played in this league. Seagment. But but Travis is right there, He's right at the very top.

00:26:53
Speaker 2: Have fun tonight, Hopefully we get a competitive game for a while, and I think well hangs in there. Kick off at seven thirty Eastern on TNT. Lewis, thank you, Yeah, safe travels, Happy holidays to you.

00:27:09
Speaker 4: Thanks a lot.

00:27:09
Speaker 1: As always, that's Lewis Riddick of the Mothership. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live. Ryan Lee, former NFL quarterback. He'll be calling the Packers Bears Saturday, Bronco's Chiefs on Christmas Night, and the FCS National Title game, all in Westwood One joins us in studio.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: Good to see you again. Level of belief in Sam Darnold, let me start there.

00:27:43
Speaker 7: I have a lot of belief in Sam Darnald. Those two interceptions last night, you know, I think would have fooled any quarterback in that situation. They ran man coverage look and then this was just film oriented and what they saw and fell under and zoned for that touchdown, well should have been a touchdown. And then the other one, he had just had so much pressure in his face he had to let it go and the defender dropped right into the spot. Both those of those situational plays that you really can't put a lot on him. It wasn't like a bad throat, It wasn't a bad decision. It was just better coaching on the other side to prepare for it. And so I thought the comeback was amazing. I thought it was really smart him to throw the pass backwards on the two point conversion against the guy's helmet. I thought that was really smart. I just love what he's done. He's reinvented himself. He's continued to work with Jordan Palmer in the off seasons and has just gotten himself to a place where he can be that guy. And this team is good enough, especially defensively, where they can make an impact. For whatever it was against the Rams. In both those games, it looked like neither one of those games were an opportunity for them to win it, and yet they won one of them.

00:28:49
Speaker 2: Explain to me, I want to give the credit to Matthew Stafford, but Sean mcvay's role with Matthew Stafford, like, how do you share the MVP or you know, not that Sean is asking for that, but you know we're trying to figure out, you know, Liam Cullen with Trevor Lawrence, you know, you got to have that whisper there to help you, whether it's Ben Jhonson with Caleb Williams, but Sean McVay with you know, Matthew Stafford is.

00:29:18
Speaker 7: What well, I think a lot of what that goes into is the scheme. So what he has been able to do for Matthew is he's been able to clear his vision, like when he looks out at a defense, especially with this defense now and now these days where they place so much emphasis on trying to distract you or trying to convince you it's a different coverage. He's cleared it up for him and how does that work? All right? So for him in particular, what he's done is he's he's with the motion. He's allowed Pat Matthew Stafford to understand what it's going to look like post snap, and a lot of times that's difficult to do. And when coaches are trying to teach teams that motion, a lot they're telling them to prepare for what the the formation is going to look like when it's all said and done. Same thing on the defense. I talked to a lot of defensive coordinators this year around when you're setting up these defenses, because you're lining up in something pre snap and getting to something post up, and we have to be right on what we think the formation is going to be. So there's a lot of guessing going on, but there's informed guessing on Sean mcvay's side, and it's allowed Matthew Stafford just to feel really comfortable when he drops back. I don't think for one second does he feel like he does not know what's going on on the.

00:30:27
Speaker 2: Other side of the football. Explain pukin Nakua to me?

00:30:31
Speaker 7: In what way?

00:30:33
Speaker 2: He's not fast? I mean, I like, I'm just trying to figure out how you can dominate like that.

00:30:40
Speaker 7: Well, he catches the ball better than anybody. He uses his hands. That's a big part of it. We didn't see this at BYU. We saw it at Washington. I saw it at Washington and I thought this guy was going to be a game wrecker there and he just got homesick and wanted to go home. Okay, and he got hurt quite a bit while he was there, and it's the reason why he fell so far in the draft. But I always knew that he had the capability. Was a five star kid that went there, and he was big, he was physical, he could catch the football, he was fast enough. And in this league you you have to have you have to have a burner, somebody on the outside that can can take the top off. But you got to have somebody who, like I was listening to Lewis Riddick talk to you a little bit earlier about his ability. If you don't put somebody in his face to the line of scrimmage and this guy can get three or four steps into a break, I mean you you you don't have a chance. But also him being open is much different than anybody else being open. If you saw a corner route in the last couple of weeks where the defender has been right there, but the ball placement's been so good, and if it's anywhere near his catch, ready is he's catching it, plain and simple. The biggest thing too, if you notice he doesn't go down have to catch the ball. I mean he stays up even when he's hit for whatever reason. His balance keeps him up and he's been able to get a couple more yards, always falling forward. I mean, he was so impactful last night for that football team and I can't believe the statistics were what they were and ultimately seeing the Seahawks win. But is there a similarity with Cooper cup Well? I think that's where he learned it from I do. I mean that early on in his career, Cooper was there showing him how it's done. I always talk to young players, especially when I'm at the Senior Bowl, and I talked to him about when you entered the NFL locker room, go find the guy that's been doing this eight to ten years, ask him how he did it, and then follow his advice verbatim. And I feel like Poka just kind of came in, put his nose right between Cooper's butt crack, and followed him around for two years, right, And that's the way. Those are the things that you wish you would have known and understood. I wish I would have done that with Junior SEO and Rodney Harrison and just sat there watched them be professionals figure it out. Because I love watching someone like Sam Darnold have success. I love seeing someone like Pooka and the cool because they figured it out. They got there and they said, all I got to do is play football. That's all I gotta do. I don't have to worry about anything else. I don't have to be a big man on campus any more. I just got to play football. And these are the guys that did it, and I want to follow in their footsteps.

00:33:04
Speaker 2: Talking to Ryan Leith, the former NFL quarterback, he'll be working for Westwood One. It'll be the Packers Bears Saturday, Broncos Chiefs on Christmas Night in the FCS National Title Game January fifth, all in west Wood One. Packers without Michah Parsons. What do the Bears do to take advantage of that? Okay, so this is something that I've been looking at all week long in terms of what I think it may do is to make confuse the Bears and Caleb a little bit more early in the game. Because with Michael Parsons, they have not brought blitzes. They've rushed four guys. So if you go look at the blitz.

00:33:41
Speaker 7: Tape this week to prepare, if Caleb Williams has got his blitz cut up, it may not have many plays on it because they just haven't been bringing a lot of pressure because they've been able to get it with Michael Parsons and if he gets double team, the three other guys have been doing the work. So I think early on, as long as they don't make any mistakes like turning it over and use that time on the sideline to see where they're bringing McDuff or the bringing kway Walker or even you know, Evan Williams from the back end. If he's able to go those types of pressures on the tablet's going to be a huge thing to see where they're coming comes. They have to find a way to get pressure on him somehow, and they're not going to be able to do it without the most pressurized defensive edge rusher this year in the NFL.

00:34:19
Speaker 2: Who's the better quarterback in this game?

00:34:22
Speaker 7: I think Jordan Love just simply because he's got more experienced, he doesn't make the big mistake necessarily as much as Caleb does. But I will say this, Caleb Williams for me is a bit of a throwback, and in that he's not doing what everybody else does in this year, in this NFL where the ball is thrown within minus two and a half and plus two and a half of the line of scrimmage. That's why completion percentages are so high, and he's around fifty eight percent because he goes down the field at an average around seven to ten yards per attempt down.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: That's old school percentages.

00:35:00
Speaker 7: A lot of quarterbacks twenty years ago, when Drew Bledsoe and I were playing and things like that, we were attempting the ball to throw the ball down the field a lot more, and that means our completion percentages were much lower. Now they're up in the seventies, low seventies, and if you're not, you're looked at as what's wrong with you type of mentality. And so Caleb Williams for me, is a bit of a throwback, a bit of a guy that is going to take some more chances down the field. And it should be interesting and fascinating over the next three weeks because it's not like they play you know, you know, teams they.

00:35:27
Speaker 2: Should walk through.

00:35:28
Speaker 7: They have the Packers, they had go out to play the forty nine ers on the road, and then they have the Lions to finish the season. So this Chicago Bears team, as good as they've been, I think anybody who's watched them and understands them. They could look and say this team could be ten and seven when it's all said and done. You know, these three games are really important. Is Ben Johnson the guy that gets them through the adversity of the things like that? Is Michael Parsons that big of a miss that the that the Bears are the better team and win the division and stuff? So these three weeks are going to tell you a lot about who the Chicago Bears are, what Caleb Williams is capable of doing, and how much Ben Johnson places at his feet to work.

00:36:03
Speaker 2: All of a sudden, you make the decision to bench deactivate to a tongue of violin, I mean that feels like we were moving on. I mean that felt like an announcement, a declaration. What do you make of now, all of a sudden, Tua can't play for Mike.

00:36:19
Speaker 7: It's interesting because they felt so attached at the hip that there had to have been something maybe sent down from higher above that was like, hey, if you want to keep a job, you have to start to distance yourself from because we're going to move on and do something. Because they were really attached to one another and they rode through the process what they ran, the anticipation in the running game, in the past game, with all of that, I don't know how you do it, but clearly Russell Wilson and the decision in Denver to walk away from that much dead cap money and still be this good that quick makes the family in Miami believe that they could do the same thing if they hit the right quarterback, they get the right plan in place. You know, it hasn't worked for them. They haven't been really anything since Dan Marino played, so it's.

00:37:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they saw something to give him that contract? Is it now? They realized he can't throw out to the numbers he doesn't. You know, if you don't have Tyreek killed, I throw at seven and you take it seventy. I mean they have a good running game. I don't know. It just it feels the timing feels strange.

00:37:26
Speaker 7: It does feel strange. It almost feels like this is one of those impulsive decisions made by a billionaire somewhere that that isn't right. Right, it's the micromanagement of things that isn't there. The reason that they don't have a general manager in place at the time.

00:37:39
Speaker 2: Would you rather have Kyler Murray or Tua.

00:37:43
Speaker 7: I don't know they've They've seemed pretty similar to me.

00:37:47
Speaker 2: Well, one's got a one is a crazy athlete.

00:37:50
Speaker 7: One is a crazy athlete. His ability to work with this feet has allowed him to be better the anticipation of Tuatongue bay Law. Over the years I've watched, he's been one of the most accurate anticipatory quarterbacks I've ever seen, and in this league that's incredibly important. But to your point, anytime you see a left handed quarterback, it seems labored. It just looks labored, And I don't know why that's the case. Maybe it's the fundamentals are a little different, but it looks like it's a labored throw. So in your point, when he's thrown to the numbers, it looks like it's labored. It looks like it's not getting there in time, when in reality it does have the pace on it it needs. It does get there when it needs to. He's just made some bad and poor decisions, in particular in that Pittsburgh game, and he's got to where the badge of not being able to play well in cold weather, and that's half of their season. When you talk about who they play in their division on the road. Explain that cold weather thing. I don't get it. I mean, I grew up in Montana, so that's a different thing. I love that.

00:38:49
Speaker 2: Are you good in hot weather? Did you have problems in hot weather?

00:38:51
Speaker 7: I mean I had problems in really humid weather when I played for the Buccaneers. Just the amount of sweat that was your body was producing, and then the sweat from the from your center, and we were under center a lot. I made my center in Tampa changes pants every quarter I did. It was a swamp, and so it was important to try to have as dry as hands as you can. But when you're playing in cold weather, for me, I was always so hot. My body was warm, and that ball was so cold and it almost stuck like velcro, and I could whip that thing around. It was a lot of fun. I wish we would playing more snow games in college and in the NFL. Some of my best games in the NFL were at altitude against Denver in those in that cold weather. In high school, we played four out of our you know, ten twelve games in snow games, you know, in Montana, so I was used to it. I think that's just something you got to get through. But when you practice every single day in Miami and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you're asked to go up and playing this, no matter what you do. You can show up the day before and take your shirt off while you warm up, that's not going to acclimate you to what it's what it's really like every single day. But if you said to the Buffalo Bills, or the Green Bay Packers or the Chicago Bears, do you want to play your home games in a dome? And you don't have to attach your name to it. We're just going to take a vote. And how do you think that they would vote, Well, it probably depends on where they come from. Like if I had a vote, I would vote. I don't want to play in the dome. Like the only thing I hated worse than anything is playing in rain Like Seattle would have been a difficult place to play all the time. But coach found a fix for that. In college, we called it ruin Ryan's self esteem day. He brought a bucket of water out and he made me dump the ball in before I threw every time, and I hated it. And it was just it was it was ruined Ryan's self esteem day. But guess what the day we played the Apple Cup against Washington to go to the Rose Bowl, and when it rained the entire game and I didn't even notice it, and I threw for three hundred and eighty seven the yards and we won the football game. So like, you can do the things you need to prefer for it. I like the elements. I like being a part of what football is. Somebody said football weather is twenty degrees in snow and football weather is sixty four degrees in a sunny day in the South, and I'm like, both are good football days. That's football weather. It doesn't matter whatever the weather is. It's football weather in my opinion.

00:41:10
Speaker 2: Because I'd like to play indoors. But if our identity, So you go to Green Bay, you're told this is your identity. It's not your identity before you get there. You go to Buffalo, this is your identity, Chicago, this is your identity. You got to embrace that. You're like, it's mind over matter, yep with these guys. And then all of a sudden, you see when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would go north or the Dolphins would go north, in December and be like the Chargers go to Cincinnati years ago with Dan Foutz and it's like, we don't want to be here.

00:41:42
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's you get used to practicing in that weather where you're in short sleeves and shorts all the time, you know, and then all of a sudden you have to bundle up. My producer told me that the Bears, you know, broadcast booth at Soldier Field is out.

00:41:58
Speaker 2: It's open air.

00:41:59
Speaker 7: It's open air, And I said, and when you mean open air, you know, so they have a heater in it, but hey, prepare like it's going to be thirty degrees for four and a half hours while you're staying.

00:42:09
Speaker 2: I got thirty five degrees at kickoffs. Last week was seven degrees. Yeah, last week was much different. Looking forward to this one probably won't have the same heaters that Tom Brady and Kevin Burkers having there. He ran into Brady what a couple of weeks ago.

00:42:24
Speaker 7: Yeah, we called the Thanksgiving game together and we hadn't seen each other for a long long time, and it was nice. It was nice to catch up with him. There's one thing I've always wanted to talk to him about is how he's raised his kids because he's done it as the goat, as the famous person, and I always thought he's done a tremendous job of raising his kids. And I kind of come from the opposite spectrum where I'm famous but all for a lot of bad things. And so how do you how do you do that? And how do you raise kids that way? And I was that's the question I asked him, and he gave me a really thoughtful answer, and so we talked for a bit. You know, two Rose Bowl quarterbacks from nineteen ninety eight chatting it up and calling NFL football games together. I mean, that's a that's amazing what happened in between and where we're at now.

00:43:04
Speaker 2: Is he looking younger?

00:43:05
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:43:06
Speaker 7: I kind of look pretty understanding.

00:43:07
Speaker 2: No, it's not you, which on just about Brady we Yes, fifty year olds look much younger than they did before. Okay, yeah, and he does. He takes good really and he could still play.

00:43:18
Speaker 7: I suspect if if if you're talking about Philip Rivers going out there, he could throw it a lot better than Philip Rivers. I can throw it better than Philip Rivers. I mean that looked bad at it did, Yeah, it did. It was amazing.

00:43:29
Speaker 2: I liked his story. But I'm your arm is stronger than Yes, I could have thrown better than that would. I have understood the protections and the defense as well as he would.

00:43:40
Speaker 7: I have taken many more hits than he probably did. Yeah, yeah, that's a different story. I get the competitive nature of Tom, you know, being away from the game as long as you have, I don't care how mobile you've kept yourself. It's it's a it's a real different animal's mobile anyway. Right He he works inside a a eight by twelve inch in the pocket, and he was the best to ever do it.

00:44:04
Speaker 2: Thanks for something, by, It's good to be say, travels, thank you very much. Best to the family. Yeah, they say hi, all right, Ryan Leef. He'll be on the call tomorrow night. You've got a standalone game, I know with Westwood One.

00:44:16
Speaker 7: I've been telling you what it's been to have the national radio call. I like it. You don't have to wear a suit. No one knows what the heck you're talking about all the time. You could be talking about whatever you want if you're talking some football. You know, Kurt Warner told me that story when you do radio, you know, you tell your story of the game. Yeah, and those that are listening, hopefully they understand what it is. And that was the best advice I ever got.

00:44:38
Speaker 2: Ryan will be on the call Packers Bears, that'll be Saturday, Broncos Chiefs on Christmas Night, and the FCS National Championship Game. Maybe with Montana State.

00:44:47
Speaker 7: Let's go CAATs.

00:44:48
Speaker 2: January fifth,