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: The Patriots squeak by the Broncos in the snow and Seattle holds off the Rams thirty one, twenty seven. You start to look at some of the stats from these games, like Matthew Stafford, Matthew Stafford's first quarterback in NFL history to lose a playoff game while throwing for at least three hundred and fifty yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, no turnovers. Yeah, stat of the day, Yeah, we could do the day that pass stat of the day.

00:00:33
Speaker 3: Stat of the day.

00:00:35
Speaker 4: Here comes that what stat of the day.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: In fact, the Seahawks Rams the second in NFL postseason history in which both quarterbacks threw three touchdown passes zero interceptions. The only other time was the Chiefs and the Bills in twenty twenty one divisional round. That's where Josh Allen had four tds Mahomes had three. But it's when you complete those passes, because when you're zero for seven on third and fourth down that came back to haunt the l A Rams.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: Now there's a.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: Lot of questions, you know, with these teams moving forward, like Denver, what happens, you know, when they get bow Nick's back. It's a really young team. We'll talk to Mark Schiert, the former Bronco now worked for Fox. He was at the game yesterday. Get his thoughts as they move forward, you know, the Rams moving forward. The big question is going to be about Matthew Stafford, and Sean McVeigh did not want to hear that question after the game.

00:01:37
Speaker 5: Sean, do you expect Matthew Stafford to be back next season?

00:01:40
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:01:40
Speaker 6: I mean that's I mean, if he still wants to play the whole kind of question, is that the answer?

00:01:46
Speaker 7: Yeah, you have to ask him, and we've been totally present.

00:01:51
Speaker 5: I know that if he wants to, he's still playing.

00:01:52
Speaker 4: At a pretty damn good clip.

00:01:54
Speaker 5: I mean, he's the MVP of the league.

00:01:56
Speaker 7: And if he's not, you know, I mean, I got respect for everybody else, but this guy played out a lot.

00:02:00
Speaker 5: Well, it's just different.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a silly question. Because Matthew Stafford was asking. He said, I can't really sum up what's going to happen the next six months in ten minutes or ten minutes after a loss. But it's not a silly question, you know, you like to be fair to the situation. You just lost a very tough game. Maybe you can ask it in a softer way and still maybe get an answer that you want. But yeah, there's big questions here with Matthew Stafford unbelievable year, crazy numbers. Does he want to go through it again at age thirty seven? But yeah, I think it's it's fair in the moment to ask that. But you know, you're watching the game and you keep thinking, okay, whenever the Rams would do something, Seattle would answer back, and Phukinakua showed up in a big way. But I don't want America to, you know, all of a sudden go. But that guy, Jackson Smith Nujigba is really good. He's great now. He gets lost in the shuffle, even in his own division, but he is a tremendous player. He's not pookin a kupa.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: But nobody is.

00:03:07
Speaker 2: But boy, he's He's right there with him on the doorstep, that's for sure. And you saw that yesterday and Sam Darnold Sam Donald played well, really well, And we were talking about this prior to the show and Fritzie said, you know, can he wipe all of that away. If he doesn't play well in the Super Bowl, I don't know you know how much house credit he has because we still go back to what happened with the Vikings that they moved on from him.

00:03:37
Speaker 3: He's played well.

00:03:39
Speaker 2: He didn't have to play great the last game, but he played well yesterday, like he's the reason why they won the game. Not hey, defense played really well. Now they had to go toe to toe with the Rams, and I thought Sam Darnold did a wonderful job going toe to toe. Not easy to do when you're going against Matthew Stafford. But here is the final hall of the Seahawks winning the NFC title.

00:04:04
Speaker 8: Shotgun staff of Stafford. Nine seconds left. Stafford looks, fires ball is caught. Pooka Nakua slides out about no clock.

00:04:13
Speaker 5: Keep moving the cool fine where you are going set the super Bowl?

00:04:19
Speaker 8: Take your helmets off, fires they're breaking the class. Next storm Seahawks Trid and the Seahawks are going back to the Super Bowl.

00:04:29
Speaker 4: Can you believe it?

00:04:31
Speaker 8: The fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

00:04:35
Speaker 2: Courtesy of the Seattle Seahawks Radio Network. Mike McDonald America is the Seahawks head coach and he talked about sam Donold's performance.

00:04:46
Speaker 9: You can't talk about the game. They was talking about our quarterback. I mean, he just shut a lot of people up tonight. So I'm really happy for him. Three hundred something yards, free touchdowns, no picks, big every time they went and scored again, he came back, had some big time throws on third down, two minute drive, four minute drive. The guy barely practiced all week. You just really happy for him. He deserves it. Just been in a rock for us a whole year. So just really happy for him.

00:05:11
Speaker 2: And then you had the other game with the Patriots and the Broncos. I thought first team to twenty one was going to win that game. The Patriots aren't a dynamic offense, but that defense has been surprisingly great. And then you factor in the snow, and granted Denver was really banged up. When you don't have your leading rusher now one of your leading pass receivers, and you're going into that game and you got Jared Stidham trying to do his best Bo Nix impersonation and wasn't able to do it. But there was a moment, and I think you have to be honest with yourself, what would you have done in the moment when it was a fourth down in it's early and you can kick a field goal and you go up ten to nothing, and you know bad weather is coming. That was in the forecast, so you know that bad weather is showing up at some point. You know the wind is whipping, and I thought, kick the field goal. Just kick the field goal. It's ten to nothing and you'll be fine. And I think that was the surprising part of it is it feels like it's a failure if you don't go forward on fourth down, and somehow, you know, you come away with a field goal instead of a touchdown. You leave four points out there with a backup quarterback, bad weather coming, and I don't know how many chances you're going to get against this Patriot defense to get inside the red zone.

00:06:31
Speaker 3: And I thought, kicked field goal. Just kick it.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: It's ten to nothing, because the worst case scenario to me is you don't get anything, and that takes away the momentum. At least I get three, and it puts even more pressure on the Patriots. And Patriots, you know, neither team really had a running game. But here's Sean Payton talking about going forward on fourth and one.

00:06:56
Speaker 6: Just felt like, man, we had momentum, get up fourteen.

00:07:01
Speaker 4: It felt like we had a good call.

00:07:04
Speaker 6: Were at yard line wise there, Yeah, I think I think the feeling was, man, let's let's be aggressive to you get up fourteen. I was just watching the way our defense was playing.

00:07:17
Speaker 2: I understand it. I don't know if it was analytics. It may have been just gut feeling. It may have just been Sean Payton bravado that we got him. And I did say after the fact, look, if they had scored a touchdown, you're up fourteen, you're probably winning that game. So I understood the risk and the reward. But with Bo Nicks, Okay, I'll run that play. But even then I don't like my backup quarterback rolling right. Therefore he's taken away half the field. And give credit to the Patriots because they weren't fooled at all on that play. But you know this fourth down analytics and it's gone crazy. And I go back to the Detroit Lions would have played in the Super Bowl, but they were going forward on fourth down, and I know that's what Dan Campbell did the entire regular season.

00:08:05
Speaker 3: This is the postseason. In the regular season, you.

00:08:08
Speaker 2: Live for another day, another week, another game, not now, And I think that came back to haunt them because I wasn't gonna ask too much of Jared Stidham. I just wanted him to maintain you throw one deep pass late and then you come back and try to throw another deep pass in those conditions and he gets picked off. They just weren't threatening on one. Neither team was because the weather was, you know, obviously rough enough that we could even find you know, Jim Nantz is like, I don't know, I don't know where the ball is. I think the thirty three yard line.

00:08:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, heton.

00:08:44
Speaker 10: It's almost like those two big plays that Stidham had, the big throw and then the touchdown right after, maybe gave the Broncos a sense of false confidence there because those those two plays were really huge failures by the defense. More than except plays.

00:09:01
Speaker 2: Broncos defense was great, and I thought that there were moments where Drake may could have been Josh Allen. I have a surprised he didn't run more. And I think if they're going to beat Seattle, he's going to have to run probably ten times because there were there were yards out there for him. And then you find out that last call where he doesn't tell anybody that he's going to take it himself. Here is Drake May on that first down scramble to solidify the game.

00:09:29
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean we were a big personnel running running the same deal to the right little stretch play and you know at some point, you know they get lasadaisical and you know, got a chance to get around the edge and I thought he's gonna track me and talk me down. But you got enough to pick up the first and Coach Frave's probably get mad about your run out of bounds, but at that point it doesn't matter when you when you get the first down. So that was a cool moment and cool separate those guys. It's always cool finishing in Vicky formation.

00:09:56
Speaker 3: It's pretty sweet.

00:09:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an amazing play. And I want to to talk to Mark Schlerenth. He'll join us later on about that. He was a former offensive lineman that you know, sometimes when you don't tell everybody, you don't have to worry about somebody not, you know, completing what they're supposed to. Like, you want to give the defense what they think they're seeing, and you know, not where well, we don't have to block that hard. Oh, we're going to run this, you know, misdirection or fake play, bootleg, whatever it is. You want them doing their job. And Drake May did just that. He had to beat one guy, did it in an incredible call.

00:10:31
Speaker 3: At that moment.

00:10:34
Speaker 2: Seahawks favored by four and a half against the Patriots and the over under is a forty five and a half. The odds on favorite according to DraftKings, your Super Bowl MVP is Sam Darnold, followed by Drake May, then Jackson Smith, Najigba, Kenneth Walker Junior the third. By the way, I have Super Bowl odds for twenty twenty seven. I just got those. The Seahawks and the Rams are co favorites next year, followed closely by the Bills, the Patriots, and then the Eagles, Lions, and Ravens are tied after that. All right, we'll get phone calls coming up, Seaton. We'll give us a poll question for the first hour of the program. Mike Golick Senior will stop by as well. What do you have for me, Seaton, Well, we have.

00:11:23
Speaker 10: A couple here. We have several from Todd MM. I don't know how much you want to get into that right.

00:11:28
Speaker 3: Now, Well, give me one.

00:11:31
Speaker 2: We'll get to Todd's because Todd lost a bet with you that the callers are always right. Now, if you call in, if you say something negative about Todd or the Broncos, Fritzy has to agree with you.

00:11:46
Speaker 3: And then add to that that's terrible.

00:11:48
Speaker 10: Yeah, you say, like John Elway is probably the most overrated quarterback ever, right, Todd.

00:11:52
Speaker 3: Say, absolutely he is.

00:11:53
Speaker 2: And here's well, let me go to Chris and Syracuse. Chris will set the table for this is how it's done today. Best and worst of the weekend and the caller is always right.

00:12:01
Speaker 3: Hi Chris, Hey, thanks Dan.

00:12:03
Speaker 12: Yeah, I have a best and worst and I would like to participate in the followers always right segment. Best to Sam Donald coming up big on the big stage, and now he's got an opportunity to exercise those ghosts the old Sam Donald used to see when he faced the Patriots, and a personal worse for me, Sam Donald going to the Super Bowl as a big Minnesota Viking fan. That hurts Toad. Everyone says that John Elway looks just like mister Ed, but don't you think mister Ed is much better looking? And also in the history of rock and roll. Has there ever been a more overrated duel than Holland Oates They suck?

00:12:41
Speaker 13: Yeah, Wow, that is a strong start, all right, DoD You know there's a teeth thing there with John, and I can see some might think that that particular horse, mister Ed may be more handsome.

00:12:53
Speaker 4: I hate to admit that, but there is a thing there.

00:12:56
Speaker 7: I think there was an SPS where he was called out for that and John didn't appreciate the Yeah, all of notes. I don't know what I'm thinking, but if you really take time to really listen and read the lyrics, they're just very weak and something you could probably come up with while you're just kind of in the shower and about five ten minutes you could write some of those songs. They ended up being top forty songs.

00:13:15
Speaker 3: Somehow, I'm down around them. Applause from Fritzy.

00:13:21
Speaker 2: Tough day today for Fritzel, tough day, tough day dressed for Cancun, just like the Broncos are You didn't watch here in the man Cave with us yesterday. You were in your hotel room. You had all your jerseys, you had all your good luck charms, and all alone with your thoughts.

00:13:37
Speaker 4: And there's good luck. Charms turned out to be not very good luck.

00:13:40
Speaker 3: Thank you to keep your head up.

00:13:43
Speaker 2: We will well, we will, Okay, okay, I like it.

00:13:48
Speaker 3: I like it. What did you think on that fourth down call?

00:13:51
Speaker 7: I thought that they should have, you know, hindsight twenty twenty, But in the moment take the point to ten nothing, you got a backup quarterback. And then once they saw how that plate evolved, I was a triplely shure, there's you to kick the field goal because that wasn't going to do anything.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no guarantee you score a touchdown there. I want to guarantee, and I know there's no guarantee you make the field goal. But with that field goal kicker, I'm going to trust him that he's going to make that field goal.

00:14:14
Speaker 3: Then I come away in its ten points.

00:14:17
Speaker 2: Now I put even more pressure on Drake May and I've got an unbelievable defense that tells you everything. It's like, we got ten points, we can win the game. At least that's what I'm thinking. First team to twenty one, well, first team to fourteen. Yeah, Paulie, do you think that play was analytics or gut?

00:14:38
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:14:38
Speaker 2: I said that earlier. I don't know. With Sean, I'm going to guess it was probably just bravado. It's probably just gut. We'll get to your phone calls coming up, best and worst of the weekend. What you saw that you liked, you didn't like. Steeler's got a new head coach, Mike McCarthy. I don't know if everybody in Pittsburgh's excited about that. It's like Steeler Nation, Huh, why are we going with Mike McCarthy. It's like, we need to change the offensive coordinator. Okay, we do that.

00:15:08
Speaker 3: We need to change the offensive coordinator. We did that. We need to get rid of our head coach. We did that. We need another head coach, not that head coach. Yes see, I saw.

00:15:16
Speaker 10: A tweet over the weekend that said, going from Mike Tomlin to Mike McCarthy is like crapping your pants and changing your shirt.

00:15:22
Speaker 14: And I really haven't been able to stop it again, and I envisioned Mike McCarthy is the one wearing the change in his shirt.

00:15:33
Speaker 10: There, crapping your pants but changing your shirts.

00:15:36
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio wap.

00:15:46
Speaker 15: Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of it. Ben Maler Show, a Colt hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will we chat with captains of industry in media, sports and war every week explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller or the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

00:16:15
Speaker 3: Big Mike Golick, he was in Denver.

00:16:18
Speaker 2: He was part of the analysis on Westwood One Radio for the AFC title game between the Patriots and Broncos, and of course co host a Golick and Golick on FanDuel Sports Network. Big Mike, good to talk to you again. What were you expecting in that game?

00:16:34
Speaker 5: Hah?

00:16:35
Speaker 16: Well, I wasn't expecting two separate games, that's for sure. I mean, you look at the highlights of the first half, looks like a normal game and it was beautiful. I was down on the field before the game and it was twenty degrees, it was sunny. There was no win, and that's how the first half played, and then the second half it just swept in a lot of wind, a lot of snow. So it really kind of chang changed the dynamics of the game. And I'm sure the coaches are checking this a new hour by hour, but I don't think anybody expected it to be as bad as it was in the second half, where both offenses were just muted.

00:17:13
Speaker 2: If you knew that the conditions were going to be like that, would Sean Payton have changed his decision? Do you think with that fourth down call early.

00:17:22
Speaker 16: Sean Payton should have kicked it anyway? And I said it, you know, it wasn't a hindsight for me. You're doing the broadcast. They were lining up to go for it, and I said, why doesn't anybody take three points anymore?

00:17:33
Speaker 4: This is a rock fight game. This is a low scoring game.

00:17:37
Speaker 16: Even if it was didn't snow in the second half, it was going to be a low scoring game. You take the points when you can get it, and then if you decide to go for it, you had a running play and you changed it to a passing play. That pass play, Dan, where the rollout of the quarterback that's going to get quick pressure and normally you have a guy wide open without getting two much into the weeds and doing the X foot former football player analysis of the dB, you know, letting the one receiver go and playing off on the other receiver.

00:18:10
Speaker 4: Blah blah blah. It was great coverage by New England, is what it was. But it's a.

00:18:15
Speaker 16: Play that lets quick pressure come on the quarterback and it's a second string quarterback who isn't use to that.

00:18:22
Speaker 4: I have no idea why you ran that play.

00:18:25
Speaker 16: And as I said on the broadcast before the play, I would have kicked it, gone up ten nothing.

00:18:30
Speaker 2: But do you think this, how much of this is got how much of this is analytics for Sean Payton.

00:18:36
Speaker 16: And that's a surprising thing, Dan. If you break down fourth down opportunities, we know Dan Campbell is a fourth down god. You know he's going to go for it. But in the regular season the Broncos were ten of twenty. They only went for twenty times, which is a low amount in the NFL. They did not go for it a lot and I think much is put on analytics and not enough on gut of what I just said. It's a seven tozering game. It's a rock fight. Offenses are having a tough time moving the ball. Get points, point through at a premium, get points, get up two scores with a backup quarterback. I think way too much is laid on analytics and not enough on Hey, take the three points.

00:19:23
Speaker 2: Patriots haven't been scoring, but they don't give up many points either. That defense is very underrated. So what do you take away from that game or maybe this postseason? Starting with Drake may Well.

00:19:35
Speaker 4: I mean, they're a clean team.

00:19:37
Speaker 16: And we talked to a couple of players during the week on Mike and I Show, and the word they always bring up with Mike Vrabel is rabel stress is accountability.

00:19:47
Speaker 4: You're accountable for your job on the field.

00:19:51
Speaker 16: Do your job, trust your teammate next to you that he's going to do his job, pursue the ball, which is a verable trademark obviously as a former linebacker defensive player, and play a clean game.

00:20:04
Speaker 4: They were one of the most legal.

00:20:06
Speaker 16: They were one of the most least penalized teams in the NFL. They kind of played the old Belichickian way of let the other team.

00:20:16
Speaker 4: Make the mistake, and you saw Denver make the mistake.

00:20:19
Speaker 16: I thought it was a mistake not going forward on fourth down, but then the backward pass by Jared Stidham that led to New England's only touchdown.

00:20:27
Speaker 4: That was a key mistake in the game.

00:20:29
Speaker 16: They played clean, they play accountable, and they play aggressive.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: You have the call that Drake May calls on the boot leg and nobody else knew it. This is second year player Mike on the road with a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

00:20:45
Speaker 4: Well, this is Josh McDaniels. I mean that was a twofold. It was one.

00:20:52
Speaker 16: It was a safe play, so the ball wasn't going in the air. Now, Drake May has had trouble holding onto the ball, the ball fourteen times in the regular season and six in the postseason. But it was a very gutsy call that he was either going to make it or he wasn't right there.

00:21:10
Speaker 4: There was no no other way that was going to happen.

00:21:13
Speaker 16: Uh, the outside backer got beat, got sucked in on the and because they were they ran the ball so much in the second half, which helped play action pass, which helped a bootleg like that ice to game.

00:21:25
Speaker 2: I thought he had ample time opportunities to run even more in that game. Yeah, yeah, I really thought that he was going to be their best weapon, and you know he would throw it away. They ran it a lot, but it felt like there were openings there. And I wonder against Seattle, if you know you're having a hard time with the pressure with the Broncos, you know he might have to be a Josh Allen like figure in this Super Bowl.

00:21:52
Speaker 16: Listen, we've seen Josh Allen win games with his legs, and that's what Drake May did, especially in the second half when there was going to be no offense because of the weather. He was able to do it with his likes and that that was a planned boot run for the first down. But the runs he had scrambling, and by the way, going into the game, he had twenty seven scramble first downs, which was the most of any quarterback in the league. So he was dangerous with his legs and moving the sticks. But if you saw, most of his scrambles were up the gut because Denver does such a nice job of bringing pressure from the outside, normally from the inside. Their two d tackles have combined the most pressures in the league this year, but there were holes that opened up that he could step up into and take off. And at times, if you're caught playing man in the secondary, there's a lot of green to run and he took advantage of it.

00:22:46
Speaker 2: The Rams get eliminated, and now you have the Matthew Stafford question. You know, we always talk about, Oh, it's hard to walk away from a game like this.

00:22:56
Speaker 3: You all, you want to come back.

00:22:57
Speaker 2: You know most of the time, you know, he stayed healthy, he's got another year left if he wants to come back, and you've got Pukinakua, you got tight ends, you got Sean McVay, got a running game.

00:23:09
Speaker 3: Why wouldn't he come back?

00:23:11
Speaker 16: Oh, I would think, first off, you know, I understand reporters have to ask the question after the game, but you're never going to get an answer from a coach or a quarterback on what they're going to do. And I always feel that Dan, at the end of a season, every player is so mentally and physically drained that that's not the time to make a decision. And most players don't make a decision, or if they make a decision, right at the end of the season. A lot of times they change it after they've had a couple of months to relax the body and relax the mind and really take a breath and think about because what makes somebody retire Dan is the off season work. It's not the games, the games of the cherry on top. It's from February to August, when no one's watching, when you've got to put in the most work to give yourself the best chance to be a great player during the regular season. And players when they don't want to do that anymore and know that they won't be at their best if they don't put the work in, that's when they retire. So it's got to be a couple of months or maybe he knows already he's going to come back. I think he's going to come back. I mean, remember is back in preseason we thought, my god, he may not even start the season. And he's going to be the MVP this year, So I definitely think he's coming back.

00:24:25
Speaker 3: Would you use one of your first round draft picks on a quarterback?

00:24:29
Speaker 4: Not in this draft class? No, I mean this draft class.

00:24:33
Speaker 16: I mean where we talked about this possible draft class at the beginning of the year and where it is now.

00:24:38
Speaker 4: Absolutely not Ty Simpson.

00:24:41
Speaker 3: If he's available at thirteen.

00:24:43
Speaker 16: You know what the one good thing about Ty Simpson is, or if he goes later in the first round, is he'll sit. He only had fifteen starts, and it has been proven time and time again, less starts in college, less success early on in the NFL. But I I have my questions about Ty Simpson, So no, I would not.

00:25:03
Speaker 3: Are you ready for the Sam Darnold redemption Tour?

00:25:07
Speaker 4: Good for him, right?

00:25:08
Speaker 16: I mean, obviously he has the issue every now and then throwing interceptions, but he's had two great regular seasons.

00:25:15
Speaker 4: This was a great postseason. And how about it. I know the fact that the status everywhere.

00:25:20
Speaker 16: He's in the Super Bowl before Baker Mayfield, who was the number one pick, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, all in that same twenty eighteen draft.

00:25:28
Speaker 2: So yeah, congrats to him. A couple other topics. Mike McCarthy to the Steelers, your reaction.

00:25:35
Speaker 4: Was, well, I mean, listen, he's a Pittsburgh guy.

00:25:39
Speaker 16: And now the thing about it is you're not going to get the long tenured coach like you did with Chuck No.

00:25:45
Speaker 4: Bill Cower and Mike Tomlin.

00:25:47
Speaker 16: You know mccarthyy, I think it's sixty two or sixty three years old, So you're not going to get a fifteen ten or fifteen year run.

00:25:54
Speaker 4: I would doubt it. So, but he's a Pittsburgh guy.

00:25:57
Speaker 16: So I mean, this cycle of coaches is bringing back coaches who have been head coaches. And right now we've had obviously one coordinator get a job as a first time head coach, but it seems to be bringing back the former head coaches.

00:26:13
Speaker 2: Is it fair to if you're an owner, to be that you don't take the excuse of, hey, I can't turn it around overnight. If you look at what some of these coaches have done, certainly what Rabel did in New England.

00:26:27
Speaker 16: Well, I mean we've lost patients in the NFL, at least some teams have, right I think Tennessee do you think they regret getting rid of Rabel? And Pittsburgh has been the ultimate kind of just relax and let our coach work through it. But I don't think there's enough patients in the NFL. And you make changes and then you see where a cycle goes. Is it a lot of first time head coaches? Or is it coaches again, If you were a head coach and now you're either not coaching or you're a coordinator, and you go back to being a head coach. Most time you have a losing record, that's why you're not a head coach anymore. Right, But you're getting kind of redone in different colors of another team, and that seems to be now the rest of the coach.

00:27:11
Speaker 4: I don't know who's going to coach Cleveland.

00:27:12
Speaker 16: Everybody keeps shutting them down and not going on to take their personality test and the IQ test or whatever the hell trying to test. They're trying to make coaches like some of those teams like Las Vegas, like Arizona, like Cleveland are going to have to get first time head coaches.

00:27:29
Speaker 2: I brought this up last week. It didn't go over well, but I stand by it. If I'm the Raiders, I look at trading out of that top pick with Fernando Mendoza at least shop it because I can't bring a good quarterback into a bad situation. I have to build a better situation to bring the quarterback in. And you need more than just a quarterback because you're gonna put him in there and he could turn out to be David Carr or Tim Couch. You know where you just go, man, Sorry, we didn't have anything around you. It's not an indictment on him as much as it is the Raiders your thoughts.

00:28:04
Speaker 4: It's a viable thought.

00:28:06
Speaker 16: It is now you have to look at both sides of it, right, and you absolutely should answer the phone and see what kind of a hall you can get, especially now since this draft class really kind of went in the tank quite honestly, so that makes that pick and that quarterback even more valuable to a team to maybe give up more and if you get a haul to the point where you think you can't pass it up. The other side of that is dan you know, the quarterback position is the most overvalued position on the field. And it all depends. It doesn't matter what you think, doesn't matter what I think, doesn't matter what any any former player thinks. It only matters what the Las Vegas Raiders have as a grade for Fernando Mendoza. And if they have a true franchise grade for him, then you have to take him.

00:28:56
Speaker 4: You can't pass on him to.

00:28:58
Speaker 16: Your thought of getting a bunch of other players and have that guy hit somewhere else.

00:29:03
Speaker 4: That's the worst.

00:29:05
Speaker 16: Ego hit that a GM and ownership can make is passing on a franchise quarterback if they're great, is a little lower on Mendoza, then you actually actually sing his praises and look for the best bidder out there and get what you.

00:29:20
Speaker 4: Can for him.

00:29:21
Speaker 3: Did you like playing in the snow?

00:29:23
Speaker 9: Oh?

00:29:24
Speaker 4: I loved it.

00:29:25
Speaker 16: The most memorable snow game I had was ninety three when I was with the Dolphins. We were playing Dallas and we had that short chip shot field goal to win it. It was blocked and Leon Lent came and slid and tried to recover the ball when it passed the line of scrimmage fumble. We recovered kick the field goal one. Oddly enough, that was our last win of the season, and that was Dallas went on to win the Super Bowl that year after that.

00:29:50
Speaker 4: I loved it because Dan.

00:29:52
Speaker 16: I know this is hard to believe, but I was not that great of an athlete in the NFL and playing in the snow brought everybody down to my level, which I enjoyed.

00:30:03
Speaker 3: Great to talk to you, Uh tell your son, we said alone, thank you bout him.

00:30:07
Speaker 4: I will thank Dan.

00:30:08
Speaker 1: That's Mike Golig Senior. 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.

00:30:21
Speaker 2: Mark Schlareth, NFL and Fox Analyst, three times Super Bowl champ with the Broncos. He was at the game in Denver yesterday with his former teammates joining us on the program.

00:30:34
Speaker 17: Uh.

00:30:34
Speaker 2: Hey, Mark, it's great to talk to you. We've been talking about this most of the morning. And that is the fourth down moment there with Jared Stidham. Your thoughts in the moment when you're there watching the game.

00:30:48
Speaker 17: Yeah, you know, we were all sitting, we were all sitting and standing around in Fate Manning's suite and it was me and it was Stokely, and it was Mike Shanahan, it was Peyton and we all looked at a go So just like this, you got to backup quarterback. You got a chance to go ten to nothing, and you know, and your defense is balling out of control.

00:31:09
Speaker 5: Like kick the all of us were in agreement at that point. Just kick the field goal. Just kick the field goal, and.

00:31:14
Speaker 17: Then you know, you come out with a little roll out pass and it was a debacle to begin with. And plus at that point you had to run the ball for two inches. So it's not like you feel like, hey man, they're really gonna respect our run game, right, They're really gonna respect what we're doing here as an offense. So we're just gonna run the QB sneak or we're just gonna run some power down the middle or ISO and really smash mouth these guys. They were kicking our ass up front. So I was I was like, kick the field goal, take the points man. Ten nothing is a big score, especially with the weather report that you know it was.

00:31:47
Speaker 5: Gonna get nasty in the second half.

00:31:49
Speaker 17: That was the weather report that would have been you know, floated for the whole week.

00:31:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wondered about that.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: I'm watching the broadcast, but I didn't hear Nanson Romo talk about in pending doom with the weather because there was like a forty minute period where it changed the whole look literally the look of the game.

00:32:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:32:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it's funny.

00:32:09
Speaker 17: On my radio show in Denver, we had our local weather guy on. I told him he was on notice, like if he wasn't right about the weather. Then I was going to move to Kathy Saban because said she is balls when it comes to weather.

00:32:20
Speaker 5: She knows everything that's going on. And he was dead on man.

00:32:24
Speaker 17: Congratulations chris Byonki because he told us in the second half, Man expected the tempers is to continue to drop, snow flurries coming in could get nasty.

00:32:34
Speaker 5: I mean, he had it nailed, and of course that's exactly what happened.

00:32:38
Speaker 2: I wonder about this whole going forward on fourth down. It almost seems like you're a failure if you don't go forward on fourth down and you take the field goal and you leave four points out there. But I don't know if the data is able to show, well, who's my quarterback, who are we going against? What are the conditions? At what time of the game? Am I doing all of this stuff?

00:33:01
Speaker 6: Yeah?

00:33:01
Speaker 17: Dan, you know, it's really funny. I get into arguments because I hate analytics. I hate all analytics people. I don't like nerds, and.

00:33:09
Speaker 5: I always get into this with guys.

00:33:11
Speaker 17: You like the two point conversion play and we got to go for it on fourth down and all this stuff, and you get the sample size of data. But hey, man, if I haven't blocked your defensive front all day long, right, that data changes. If my guards can't handle your three techniques, if my tackles can't handle your defensive ends, then we need to change. Like that, math doesn't work. Math has never made a tackle. Math has never blocked anybody. Math has never done any of that stuff. And I always say this to analytics guys, how many two point conversion plays do you think are in any given game plan?

00:33:46
Speaker 5: And they're all like, I don't know, And we.

00:33:48
Speaker 17: Go in with one that we like and one that we kind of like, and we practice them on Fridays in hats and t shirts, so you know, ever get a full rep look at a two point play?

00:34:03
Speaker 5: And so that math is that.

00:34:05
Speaker 17: To me, that math is faulty and you've got to understand, like that the feel of the game. And I thought Sean made a major gaff not going for it or not kicking that field goal, but that has become endemic of the league in general, like nobody, nobody. It's almost like you're e're a Woosie if you kick a field goal. And I hate the momentum shift. I hate it all, Like take the points.

00:34:27
Speaker 2: Talking to Mark Schlere the NFL and Fox analyst, three times Super Bowl champ before we kick the Broncos to the curb, looks going into next year, What are your thoughts.

00:34:40
Speaker 17: I love the way the team is built. I think they need some more weapons on the offensive side of the ball for bow Knicks. But I love I love the way bo Nicks played, and I love the I love his ability to rise his game to a level.

00:34:56
Speaker 5: That you have to have.

00:34:57
Speaker 17: You know, I said it on my show many times times when it's nut cutting time, he cuts nuts and I can't explain it any better than that, Like he just is when the pressure is on and you have to be your best. He has been his best all year. He's going to continue to develop in the boring stuff. The boring stuff, to me is the difference between winning championships and not winning championships. He's got to be better in the boring stuff. But they need running back, they need a you know, they need more or premiere tight end.

00:35:30
Speaker 5: They haven't had a tight end.

00:35:31
Speaker 17: Here since Shannon's sharp and we really haven't been able to figure that position out.

00:35:36
Speaker 3: How good was it watching from Peyton Manning Suite.

00:35:40
Speaker 5: It's awesome.

00:35:42
Speaker 17: It is It's awesome because you know, I do radio here in Denver with Brandon Stokely, and so we've got this ongoing feud. And I walked into the suite and Peyton Manning the Broncos put a bunch of pictures of me, singular pictures of me on the wall, which really got under stokely skin because he was there with his boys.

00:36:03
Speaker 5: And you know, we're still children. I turned sixty yesterday.

00:36:07
Speaker 17: Dan, and I said, hey, man, I look in the mirror to me, I still see thirty, and I act like the fifteen year old.

00:36:14
Speaker 5: That makes me forty five. I am right there in the prime spot for me.

00:36:18
Speaker 2: What was your biggest takeaway from Seattle? Eliminating the rams?

00:36:22
Speaker 17: I have just been and I have been like the pied piper of what Sam Donald has been through. And you know, I sat down with Kyle Shanahan and like just talked about Sam Donald when Sam was a backup quarterback in San Francisco, and he said, first off, he gets drafted by the Jets. Jeremy base was there was a Peyton Manning disciple. So he goes, he gets drafted by the Jets and they put him in the Peyton Manning offense. There's one guy in the history of the National Football League that could run the Peyton Manning office.

00:36:52
Speaker 5: That was Peyton Manning.

00:36:53
Speaker 17: Then he gets shipped off to Carolina and he's running, you know, Matt Ruhle's collegiate offense. And so when he had a chance to go to San Francisco, he had a chance to go to compete for starting jobs elsewhere, he said, I need to learn how to play football in the NFL.

00:37:08
Speaker 5: He humbled himself, went.

00:37:09
Speaker 17: There as a backup, then did what he did in Minnesota.

00:37:12
Speaker 5: They kicked him to the curb.

00:37:13
Speaker 17: He was the destination spot in for John Schneider said, that's the guy we want.

00:37:19
Speaker 5: And to watch him do what he did.

00:37:21
Speaker 17: And then to outduel or to go toe to toe with Matt Stafford in an NFC championship game with all the weapons that Matthew Stafford had, I just I thought that was phenomenal. What an unbelievable performance by that kid, because you know, I don't think a lot of people had that on their pingo card, him going toe to toe with Stafford.

00:37:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you bring up an interesting point. It's you know, Kyle Shanahan can make you a better quarterback. He can make you see the game differently and put you in positions where you're going to succeed. And he's carried that over to Seattle. But you look at Seattle's offense, I think people are gonna be introduced to Jackson Smith Nujigba. They're gonna be like, who's this guy because they haven't watched Seattle probably most of the year, and he's right there with Pooka Nakua.

00:38:13
Speaker 5: He certainly is.

00:38:15
Speaker 17: He is so smooth in and out of breaks and no matter like, no matter what they ask him to do. You watch it and I did a Seattle game this year, and you watch him play, and as you're studying the film, like he just always finds the opening, whether he's in man, whether he's in zone. He's got a great feel, unbelievable the top of his route, his stems and just getting out and all of a sudden becoming a very friendly target.

00:38:43
Speaker 5: And he's so dynamic with the underneath stuff.

00:38:45
Speaker 17: You know, you dump it to him and he's gonna get you an extra you know, four or five yards whatever it is. Like, the kid is just amazing and honestly, when you look at it, Dan It's not like Puka who's got Devanta Adams on the other side. He's got you know, four tight ends. It can all get down the seams and win. It's Smit and Jigma and then it's a bunch of other guys you know, Bobo and you look at obviously Cooper Cup is unbelievable, but he does all the underneath stuff.

00:39:15
Speaker 5: It just is, it just feels different.

00:39:17
Speaker 17: It feels like, hey, if you can shut down in Jigba, you can beat the Seahawks, and nobody can do it.

00:39:23
Speaker 2: The uh Terrek Luland's taunting penalty that could have gone down in history. That could have been you know, because Pooka then scores a touchdown right after that, and you could even see his teammates were matt they were living at him for you know, a stupid taunting penalty.

00:39:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's one of those things.

00:39:44
Speaker 17: Dan, you know, you talk about it, you talk about it, you talk about it. I always say, listen, man, we're a bunch of pe majors that play this game. None of us, like genius and football mutually exclusive events. But that's one of those things you go into and you say, man, we can't have these penalties we can't have this. We can't have that, and especially taunting. Hey, man, if you're gonna get a penalty, get your money's worth. You know, a late hit, you know, make somebody feel it in their ribs, right, I mean what And yeah it sounds neanderthalic, but that's what I am. And so I'm like, I understand. Sometimes that's a good thing for a defense. I go back to that twenty fifteen Broncos defense.

00:40:23
Speaker 5: The no flies on them.

00:40:24
Speaker 17: They were good for at least one personal foul of game maybe two, just to let you.

00:40:29
Speaker 5: Know that they're going to be there, right.

00:40:31
Speaker 17: But the taunting thing is that's just it's again, it's one of those stupid things. But the great news for Seattle and their fans because all my boys from college or I'm on a text thread, they're all live in Seattle. So they wanted him shipped out like instantly, They're like, they're so mad at him. But he's a good player, man, He's been a really good player for them. I'm sure they'll clean that up. But that is one of those major gaps that you just can't have.

00:40:57
Speaker 2: Drake May will be the second youngest quarterback to start a suit Super Bowl.

00:41:01
Speaker 3: Is he ready for this?

00:41:04
Speaker 5: I think so they?

00:41:05
Speaker 17: I mean, dever shut that offense down and he made he made I think six scrambles. He made a couple of scrambles that were big time I mean big time scrambles that put them you know, that swung field position or gave them a chance.

00:41:24
Speaker 5: And so, but how he is.

00:41:26
Speaker 2: Does a quarterback not tell the offensive line that he's going to change the play and he's the only one, so that that bootleg when he kept for himself, he didn't tell his teammates.

00:41:37
Speaker 3: How often would that happen?

00:41:40
Speaker 5: Not?

00:41:40
Speaker 17: Not often, But it's the best, it's the best way to do it. Like sometimes when you put in some RPO stuff, like the offensive line never knows if you're gonna haven it off or you're gonna throw it. They don't, So that that part in the r P O game happens quite frequently because the one thing you want when you're running a run action play action play is you want complete and total sellout by the offensive line. You don't want them to know because ultimately the defense then is going to buy into that and you can get things over the top. So a lot of times we used to have and we used to have plays in where it was just an automatic smoke screen. If you know, your slot receiver has got a defensive back who's twelve yards off and we're running fourteen handoff to the right, and also quarterback just pops up and throws it. You're just plucking, and all of a sudden, you're like the defensive line like you're comboing up to a middle linebacker, and all of a sudden he takes off across the field the opposite way, and you're like, did what happened? Well, we threw it out there and the quarterback didn't tell you. But that play in particular was brilliant by a young core. I mean brilliant because you knew they were going to sell out on that. What was it, a fourth down and short? You knew they were going to sell out on that, and Drake may keeping that thing was incredible.

00:43:01
Speaker 3: Happy sixtieth to you, Stink. Thanks for joining us, buddy.

00:43:05
Speaker 5: I appreciate Dan. Take care everbody. Always great to be with you.

00:43:08
Speaker 3: Mark Schlereth