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What is going on? Everybody? How are we doing? Hopefully everyone had a fun time watching Monday night football. We had a barn burd halftime nine nine. But the Steelers Mike Tomlin and most importantly Russell Wilson and the deep ball pull away. They're six and two. So the Steelers go to six and two. The Giants meanwhile go to two and six and have parlayed that offseason hard knocks where everyone was making fun of him into a bad season which most people saw coming. So we'll talk about
this game. We'll hit on from Tomlin to Russell to Daniel Jones, the day ball. A lot going on, big picture with these teams. We'll do a little my penthouse in my outhouse. We got some stinkers in the outhouse. I mean, this outhouse has turned into a lot of like a porta potty. That's what's going on, and we have a new addition and Rogers might be involved. Got to hit on the viral video of Tyreek Stevenson and kind of what I would do if I ran the Bears.
Anthony Richardson tapping out in that game was something I wasn't really alerted to until this morning because I had the game on mute, so you just can't quite So I saw that video go viral, It's like damn. Then we'll hit on some other football stuff. No mail bag today, We'll do the mail bag on Uh, we'll do a big one on Wednesday. So you guys know, the drill at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is that mail bags
will fire in those dms on my Instagram. And if you listen on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe to a three and out feed because not all these podcasts aren't going to go in every day. So if you like the show, you got to subscribe to the three and out feed as well as a YouTube page because all of our content's up there as well. I know a lot of you guys watch videos, so go check that out. And yeah, but before we talk about some football.
Do you want to go to a game, You probably won't have the chance to go to a World Series game because that thing if you wanted to go to like game five, six or seven, because it looks like that there's a pretty good chance that the Yankees are about to get swept. But if you want to go to a football game, I mean, we're basically give or take halfway through the season. So if you live in one of these markets, if you want to try and see your team, if you want to go to a
college game, the NBA is off and running. The National Hockey League is off and running. We got concerts, we got comedy shows. Go enjoy a night out and do it on us my partners. The official ticketing app game Time. Been using them for two years now. It doesn't get any easier it Honestly, it's the best app I think I've ever had. So take the guests. We're out of buying tickets with game Time. Download that game Time app right now. Create an account and use the code John
for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply again, create an account, redeem the code John for twenty dollars off. Down with the game Time app. To day, last minute takets a low as price is guarantee. I think we got to start this off with a hat tip and a salute and just you know, an overall thumbs up to Mike Tomblin because one, I think a lot of people that listen definitely to me and Colin when we do our shows me over the years, think I'm like
a Tomlin hater. It's impossible to not think Mike Tomlin is a good coach, but we're also when you go to the playoffs and have a winning record every year, you get compared to the other really good coaches, and he hasn't won a playoff game in a long time. And coming into this season, I thought they were gonna be worse. I thought that nine ten wins of getting in as the seventh seed and being one and done, I thought this would be the year they don't even
make the playoffs. I was wrong. At six and two. They could cruise the second half of the season and go five and four and have eleven wins and be a lock wild card team. But it's clear that they have a very very good chance to win the division. And the move he made two weeks ago, as he said It's why I'm so highly compensated. I thought was insane. Uh,
not just because I don't think. I didn't think Russell Wilson was good anymore, but it was working what they were doing, playing defense, running justin fields, and he saw something that was not sustainable. And we say it all the time, like when guys go from coordinators two head coaches. A lot of you guys listening or watching, I'm sure going positions where you start managing people, you're in charge, and you realize it's a lot different when you're just
giving suggestions than the one making the decisions. And listen, I wasn't alone when I thought, like, you're gonna go to Russell Wilson one. I didn't even believe him. I thought he was messing with the Jets. And then when they go into the locker room with George Pickens like that Thursday or Friday, and they're trying to be mom about it, he's like, hey, he's a starting quarterback. We've been working after practice. It was pretty clear like yeah,
this is happening. And then in that game started rocky. By the end, clearly they are a much better passing team tonight, though it was a game changer for them, and he made that decision simply because and listen, Justin Fields deserves a lot of credit and he's going to extend his career for a long time. Is he a starting quarterback in this league. It's probably gonna be difficult
for him to be moving forward. But when you become a backup, two things have to be accounted for your character, your work ethic, because a lot of it's not playing, how you are during the week, how you are in practice, how your teammates like him. He has been really impressive in this situation because when you get yanked and your team's winning, he could have handled it more poorly or just not I mean poorly in general. He didn't handle
it poorly at all. He could have just I don't know, created a little bit of a stink, had his agent link some stuff, just been pissed off and publicly. And it feels like the way he was with Russell Wilson on the sideline the night, couldn't have handled it any better. That's maturity. That that's called being a pro. And we always say like not we but coaches always say they love saying this. You gotta be a pro. You gotta
be a pro. There's also a human element to this that he was able to kind of shove to the side, keep his head down be a pro. And it's been really impressive. But they obviously don't have the running element anymore. With Russell Wilson. They ran like a quarterback sweep tonight. My guess is they ran that just to get that on film to keep defenses. Honest, Russell's not a runner. He got like three steps and slid immediately. Like that element that Justin Field's had is gone from their game.
But they go, who cares, we want him to throw the ball and throw the ball downfield. And in the first half they easily should have had a touchdown to George Pickens, who only got the one foot down twice. One takeaway I had tonight from that play, which by the letter of the law, is the right call. If you get the same foot down two separate times before you go out of bounds and you're second foot never touches.
That should count. Like if you watch that play, I don't think there's a human alive that goes that's not a catch. But it wasn't, and they had to settle for all these field goals, and it's whatever the score is at halftime nine to nine. The Steelers easily could have been up seventeen to nine or seventeen to six at halftime like they were moving the ball forty three yards deep ball to George Pickens, thirty six yards deep, ball to Van Jefferson, little underthrown. I think one thing
that's pretty evident his arm strength. In the peak of his powers. The guy that I saw beat the shit out of the Niners in the middle of the twenty tens. It's not quite as potent, but it's still pretty good. He hit the touchdown pass to Austin, the little return guy who's dynamic little receiver as well. Friar moved down the field for a first down for eleven yards Darnell Washington on a crossing route. He was twenty of twenty
eight for two hundred and eighty yards. And to me, that ball and that pressure of being able to flip the field with explosive plays was definitely something they didn't really have with justin fields and it would happen every so often, but Russell is not gonna pick you apart over the middle of the field. That's always been the knock on him, right, he doesn't like throwing over the
middle of the field. And then over the last couple of years he's become a dink and dunk guy and not willing to push it and clearly whatever Tomlin does, which makes him, you know, one of the better coaches of his generation, a guy that everyone in the league respects, and a guy that just never loses, a guy that just never loses. Because you can't tell me if you take Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. The Giants were sniffing around on Russell Wilson. If you put Russell Wilson on
that team, it's just not working. It's simply not It's not exactly like Pittsburgh has the ninety three Dallas Cowboys offensive line blocking for him. But you watch it and you go, yeah, I could see this getting a little bit better. And honestly, there were some signs tonight where I said it a week ago, I was like, I don't know if this team can win a playoff game.
Then Baltimore loses, and now you go, obviously they don't play each other, I think for a couple more weeks, and then again toward the end of the season, so if you just handle business there now one curveball for both those two teams is that if you told me the Deshaun Watson Because Baltimore just played Cleveland, Pittsburgh has not played Cleveland yet, so they both still have three remaining games. Pittsburgh has two and Baltimore has one more
remaining with Cleveland. If you told me Deshaun Watson was starting all those games, I would say, pretty good chance it was a four to zero sweep by the two teams. Worst case scenario, maybe Cleveland just gets one game at home,
makes the game weird some fumbles. Well, that dramatically changed because the Cleveland team you saw yesterday that took out Baltimore, like that's a real team and that's a team now obviously they beat Baltimore, but like they could be Pittsburgh as well, And that's something you didn't really have to factor in before because no one took them. Like Deshaun Watson wasn't beating this team the way he was playing early in the season. Rips's Achilles Jamison bombs away and
it's a tough opponent. So that's something to keep an eye on if you're a Steeler Raven fan. Right. But I just think that this passing element post Roethlisberger when they went with the Rudolphs, and they went with the Duck Hodges, and then a couple of years with Kenny Pickett, it was a joke. And Fields, who I think played much better this season than he even did last year when everyone was trying to act like he was a
good player. Still as very flawed as a passer. And while Russell has things you would like him to be better at, that willingness and that touch on the deep route, on the go route, on just deeper breaking grounds, he will just let it loose and he's confident in it rip even though sometimes it's just and listen, Van Jefferson, make a play on the ball. Obviously, George Pickens, with that big body, I don't even care if it's a
little under thrown as a fifty to fifty ball. We'll let our blue chip premium guy go up and make a play. You throw a fifty to fifty ball to our big ass tight end that we just extended. Okay, we'll live with it. You probably got to be pretty accurate when you're throwing it to Austin, and he was tonight hit him in stride, easy touched him. So that was an impressive It's just an impressive organizational little stretch here by Mike Tomlin, by the Steelers, by Russell and
Justin Fields. I said this, and I've been hammering this point home because when I went to the combine, it's just so clear. So many of these teams have no fucking shot. It's like you got no shot. It's got to be incredible if you're an owner of one of these teams, because you're gonna make money no matter what. Your team can blow, your team can win one or two games every year for a decade straight, you get the same check from the league as the Dallas Cowboys,
the forty nine Ers, or the Pittsburgh Steelers. It doesn't matter. But there is a reason the same teams consistently compete in the playoffs and have winning records. And obviously Tomlin the Steelers organization. You watch the night like there are certain players that were just born to play for certain teams, and to me, TJ. Watt just feels I mean, obviously he's a Pittsburgh Steeler, but like it's just a match made in heaven, like that guy was born to play
for that brand. To play in front of those fans and to play on that unit for that organization, you know, it wouldn't have been the same fight he like PJ. Watt even the same level of players on like the Jags or the Dolphins. Right, it just it feels right.
And he was an absolute dominant menace tonight. And when they have high Smith healthy as well, and you got to go into must passing situations, you are fucked like you're in major trouble, especially if you're a situation like the Giants where you got backup offensive linemen in and they ate them live. As the game went on, and the Giants honestly played probably one of their better games of the season. You saw Brian day ball early on, like, like,
the Steelers just look like the Steelers do. That's how they play at ten am games, That's how they play Sunday night games, how they play Thursday night games. Like most of their games look in a similar vein Now, they were more explosive down the field than in recent memory because of Russell, but the vibe of their game
is very similar. Right, they get this freak fumble, the Giants fall on it late in the game, It's like, God, the Giants score here, Well they got to get a two point conversion two because they did your classical analytical you're down fourteen, you go for two when you score, which I totally understand unless you're the fucking Giants. You have scored ten point total in two games. Let's just
try to tie the game. You struggle to move the ball, let alone score the ball, and then the two point play they ran, as Troy Aikman said, was an embarrassment, Tyreek Stevens says. Stevenson says, thanks, guys, you might want to focus up because no one was paying attention on that play and Malik Neighbors got immediately tackled. You go for two when your offense is terrible. Like, all things are not equal. The Giants are no guarantee to ever
gain a yard, especially against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let's just go down a touchdown. Maybe something weird happens, we'll tie it up with a touchdown. But of course you go for two because the analytics, we're trying to win the game. Win the game, just see if we can tie the game. Like, let's just let's take baby steps. What do they say you gotta crawl then walk, then run, like, let's not try to sprint here before you can just take two
steps moving forward. And you know, the Steelers six and two, very very impressive, and the Giants, like you could tell
Brian Daboll wanted that. And this is why you always gotta be careful when you gamble on you know, Monday night games, especially as the season goes on, because you will get I think now I have to relook exactly what the rules are for the flexes, but you will have bad teams play really good teams and you'll go, ah, this is gonna be a blowout, and all of a sudden, it'll be the third quarter and it'll be a tie game. Because these coaches make a ton of money, these players
have a lot of pride, like they're human beings. They understand playing in a solo game on primetime on Monday night is a big deal, and you get an extra day to prepare and you usually throw the kitchen sink, not just schematically, but effort wise. You play harder than you typically do. Sad to say, but it's kind of true. And it felt like early on in that the New York Giants like, ah, this is as harder you've seen
him play all season long. Brian Dabell doesn't want to get regardless of what his record is, doesn't want to get embarrassed on Monday Night football by a team that's, you know, going to cruise to eleven or twelve wins. And I think this is the hard part about their situation because, like it's been well reported that they don't want to fire Brian Daball or Joe Shane. They would like this to work. I think Brian Daball deserves to get a little time because it kind of hit me
tonight watching them play. I think Daniel Jones is by far the worst type athlete and definitely worst type quarterback. Think about this. He looks the part. He's like six ' five. He's a really good athlete. He's it's he's like six five, two twenty. He's a good athlete. He's a high character, smart guy, knows all the plays, tough at shit. Teammates like him, so he checks the coaches like him, checks all these boxes. Arm's good, not great, but listen, Alex Smith.
We've seen a lot of guys have long careers without howitzers. But then he plays and you're like, I don't know, Like I've been watching football long enough to know this doesn't work, and we've been saying that now for years. But there's only one game a week. So then you go back to Tuesday and Wednesday, and he's the first guy in the building. He's studying the hardest, he knows the game plan. By Wednesday, he knows all the plays, he knows all the defensive looks, he's helping the other
players out. Coaches love him. And then the game starts again. And if day Ball had hair like myself, he would pull it all out, but we don't, so we can't. So you just go, what the hell am I watching? And it feels like a consistent theme with guys like this. He's just talented enough to constantly tease you, and just I mean and bad enough to com Still he lose
you games. Now, it's not all his fault, but it's hard to watch Daniel Jones play and go I don't know, like, I don't think this really works anywhere, even the Alex Smith komp. I don't think he could have played like Alex Smith the way Alex did with the forty nine ers and even early on with the Chiefs because he does a lot of things where you just what the hell was that. So if he ever was going to be a really good player with the skill set that
he has, he would be a no mistake guy. He would never make a mistake, and he to me, he would be a lot more accurate than he is, and to me his accuracy is just very, very hit or miss. But I think the Giants clearly he won't be the quarterback next year. But back to the day ball thing, Okay, you keep him next year. I do think after that Hard Knocks came out, it's hard for anyone that falls football, specifically the Giants fans, to take their general manager seriously.
Like you don't have to have worked in an NFL front office, you don't have to under have to like understand the true inner workings of free agency in the draft. If you were just a fan of football to watch that and go this, this doesn't feel right. And I'm not even specifically talking about the Saquon not signing him or signing him. I'm just talking about like, Daves, what are you thinking, Dave's who do you want? And as someone in the NFL told me, it's like if that
was just for cameras. Why would you let that out because it makes you look so bad, not just to the fans, but your other peers in the league. So I think it is fair to say that we have to take the way that he approached that as face value. But here's the problem with firing a GM and keeping the coach that then you get this new GM to
come in. He gives like him a year trial run, and then you're just all out of whack and watching the Yankee game tonight, obviously they're getting embarrassed right now. In the World Series, did you hear what I just said? In the World Series, and Brian Cashman takes a lot of shit. The Giants fans would sell their left leg to have the level of competence of Brian Cashman running
their operation. Look at the New York Mets. They get rid of the owner, they hire or he sells the team to Steve Cohen, and they just feel like a real operation. The New York Knicks, who for the majority of my adult life have sucked. And then these last couple of years, they get Leon Rose, they get Tibbs, they have this vision, They get Jalen Brunson. Now we'll see if their moves this year payoff. Trading for Karl Anthony Towns. But hey, sometimes you take a big swing
to take the next step. But we know they're gonna be good because it feels like they're really well run. And then you look at the two football teams that owners are completely different. One guy is just very what I think. I think John Marra, I think very presidential. I think very like country club, just old school. When I think Woody, I just think kind of rich kid, crazy ass nut job. But both guys wealthy, owned very valuable franchises and they're both in chambeles. They're both in chambeles.
I would say Woody's version is worse when you factor in Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback and Daniel Jones at the Giants quarterback. But what they both have in common is in a league that is just you know, determined and judged on. You can tell me about your process all day long, and coaches love doing that. I say this all the time. The only reason people were obsessed with Nick Saban's process because he won seven national titles. Nick Saban had never won a national title. No one
would give a shit about his process. It's results oriented business and the results for the two football teams. But I mean, the Giants aren't that much different football wise than the Jets. It just feels a little bit less, maybe disastrous, because they don't have this high water mark that everyone expected because they had Aaron Rodgers. The expectations were low because of Daniel Jones. But they're in shambles. And now you look at their division, like, obviously the
Cowboys suck, they're still better than the Giants. Now the Commanders have real leadership, have a real coach, have a real gm have a quarterback. They're only gonna get better. And the Eagles, you know, kind of shook off some craziness early in the season. You know, let's face it, the Eagles have mainly been good for the last twenty years, so like they don't win the Super Bowl every year, but for the most part, they're winning double digit games.
And the Giants have fired. You know, gone how many coaches post Tom Coughlin. They're on their fourth, who feels like, in a weird way, maybe maybe not as fighting for his job now in the year three, after all, three of the other guys only made it two years. So this is a franchise in a lot of turmoil, and we got a front row seat in that hard knocks. That was pretty embarrassing. Like I'll promise you this, I just don't think the Steelers, you know, would ever feel
like that. It doesn't mean every organization's perfect. Every organization's perfectly buttoned up and knows what they're doing on every single move and gets everything right and there's not disagreement, But that was I've never experienced anything like that as just a fan of football, watching it on TV, having been in these meetings and seeing the way these guys talk, that's hard to shake. For the jam. So props to
the Steelers, Props to Mike Tomlin. If you're a Steeler fan, you should be fired up teams not just in first place, but you guys have played good football. You play Steeler football. Run the fucking ball. Najee Harris looks awesome and he's someone who I falled since high school too, high school fifteen minutes away from me where I lived in the Bay Area, followed his career at Alabama, and obviously watched it close. This is the best football he's played so
far in his NFL career. His physicalness his speed, he looks explosive. Obviously we know Jalen Warren kind of brings a little change of pace. How many yards they run for atnite almost one hundred and seventy yards nas he ran for one hundred and fourteen average six yards to carry. So if I'm a Steeler fan, I'm feeling pretty good. Headed to work tomorrow. Let's do a quick my penhouse
in my outhouse. Listen, it doesn't get any better than the crib and the mansion that the Chiefs are living in, even when they don't play that well, even when they just don't even try that hard, and they cruise do an easy victory if it wasn't for a backdoor cover. That's twenty seven to thirteen easyw for Kansas City. And let's face it, you can nitpick all you want, like, oh, they've barely won this game. They shouldn't have won that game. Like you're gonna look up and they're gonna be fifteen
and two. And they've added Hopkins who had three catches or maybe it was two catches for twenty nine yards, and they added Today from the New England Patriots. So you had an offensive guy, a defensive guy you already have a good team, Like I just have faith just in their whole operation. Now they are no lock to win the Super Bowl, but the way everything's playing out right now, they're gonna get home field. So you can nitpick them all you want. Tell me who's betting against
the Chiefs hosting playoff games? And when you're the number one seed, you're the only squad that gets to buy. So I've said it from the beginning. They are on scholarship, in the nicest penthouse, in the biggest mansion, are living like fucking kinks. You win a game fifty two to fourteen when your quarterback throws for less than one hundred yards. If you told me this there was a game in the NFL, because I would believe it in college, because a guy could run for like four hundred yards and
score six or seven touchdowns. In the NFL, I would say it'd be borderline statistically impossible, because you'd probably need a huge rushing game and then multiple defensive scores to have a quarterback throw for under one hundred yards and win a game fifty two to fourteen or just score fifty two points. That that feels like a statistical anomaly. But it also feels a lot like the Detroit Lions, who when you lose Hutchinson, you never know, like how
are you gonna shake off that emotional letdown? And listen, they still got to be sniffing around for trades. They still need to make a move. But you lose Jamison Williams to I wish we would just say what they got in trouble for, Like no one cares, like you did, a little steroids, a little cocaine, whatever it was. Can you just put what he got to spend it for? Was it because he was injured he was trying to rehab, Like I don't care. I don't think most people care.
But we know you got spend it for pds, Like for what? But you lose them and then you're like, well they lose their speed element and you're looking up and Gibbs is going ninety yards on a run. It's like this, this is this is even fair? And the Titans will get to it a little bit. But props Alliance because last year they had one of the greatest seasons in the history of the franchise, and then to come back this season look like they've looked for most
of the year I know they hit. That game against Tampa was weird, but for the most part, God, they've been impressive. I you know, I struggled. I could have just left it at that. I really could have, because listen, playing a divisional game with jamis like, it sucks to lose that game if you're the I don't think that differently of you. I think Cleveland's a very tough place
to play. You do have a major, major flaw, like your past defense and your coverage for a team that had one of the best defenses statistically in recent memory last year, a complete defense, Like you have a problem, and it's like, no matter who you play, you are very, very susceptible. And it creeped its head in last you know, two days ago, and it's bigger reason you lost. Now
I understand that Kyle Hamilton should have caught the ball. Well, yeah, par even when your guys are given opportunities to make plays, they dropped the ball, hit them right in the bread basket. It was like, and it wasn't even some frozen rope. It was a little lollipop pass. But you lose to Cleveland with jamis like I gotta boot you out. I'm tempted to throw the Bills in there if we're just doing it on a weekly basis. Like I watched a
lot of that Seattle game. It was raining, it was bad weather, and they beat the shit shit out of Seattle. They destroyed them. Keon Coleman's coming on the knock on him was like he can't get open. It's like, yeah, he's like six ' three, throw him up, let him make contested catches. Use a Marii Cooper who didn't do anything in the game. But you know, I think the question with Amar is when you say it, Mari Cooper, I don't really think cold weather. I don't really think
inclement weather. Tough conditions not really his thing, you know, like DeAndre Hopkins, his style of play should translate well Amri's you know, I don't know, uh, but you watch James Cook run the ball. We know Sean McDermot is one of the better defensive coaches. You get nervous in these big games with them. They've done stupid stuff. But I'm a believer in the Bills. So they're like poking their head in, you know, screaming at Dan Campbell and Andy Reid. They're the only team that's kind of on
the fridge. It's hard with the Packers. They got some quarterback injuries. Minnesota. You're gone, Houston, like, I'm sorry, your record's good. I have a bet on you to get the number one seed with your injuries. You lose digs. Now, Nico's already gone. You get the Jets held. You might be seven and two, but you just haven't played that well. Uh so, Yeah, it's it's cheeks just kind of chilling, cruising down the road by themselves, like the fifty cent meme.
You know when he looks and he smiles and drives off the outhouse. You know, in the summer, if you're at like a concert and you gotta go, like the only place to go to the bathroom is the porta pottis, and there's that line and it's like one hundred and ten degrees and if you you know, eat something bad and it's like I gotta, I gotta go, And you're getting that thing and probably seventy five people have used it over the last day and a half. It reeks.
You can't breathe. There's this like shit humidity piss mix in the air and you can't breathe. But you have to go. That to me would be the Panthers. Like that is Panthers football. They are so bad. They even ask Sean Payton after the game. People can talk shit about Sean Payton all they want. You gotta appreciate Hell, He'll just say how he feels. They're like, hey, Sean, your defense is really rolling. He's like, yeah, their offense stinks.
That wasn't exactly verbatim what he said, but he's like, yeah, their offense isn't any good. I mean, the Panthers are an abomination. It just doesn't get any worse, canalis Bryce Young. I watched some highlights of that game today. H God, that's it's the porta potty in the peak of summer, and we all know when you open that door, that little latch and you're just you're just desperate for some air, some fresh air, and it that's the Panthers. I don't
even know what to say about the Titans. I love Nashville. Getting married in Nashville Stadium's going to be sweet. They stink, I mean they stink. They actually aren't that far away from Porta Potti's status. I just like a couple more players on their team. But you lose a game fifty two to fourteen. It was thirty five to fourteen and a half. I feel I didn't watch the end of that game, but did Dan Campbell call off the Dogs?
I mean, that's that's pretty bad man. The Panthers and Titans are going nowhere fast, and I think we just got to add this team, the Patriots. They're out they win a game, right, Even the Giants, you just watch them play like they're not. I can't compare them to the Titans or the Panthers. But when you lose to the Patriots in a game where you don't have a timeout after the first quarter because you blew all three of them on delay of game situations. Someone reminded me
of this situation today. I think they had a ten play drive when they score to take the lead against the Patriots with I forget exactly how much times on the clock. Was it two fifty or three minutes or something? So as you're driving, you know, hey, if we score, you have eyes. You took basic math and elementary like, well, we need a two point conversion, So have a two point conversion play called immediately when you score, or even in the huddle like Hey, Aaron, if we score here,
this is gonna be our two point play. Get him up in the huddle. Instead, they score, and they've already they've already had a million delay of game situations throughout the game. They get a delay of game on the two point conversion, and then when they run the play, they barely make it past the five yard line. Aaron Rodgers a shell of himself, There's just no way around it.
And if he was gonna be a shell of himself and a bottom like wherever the middle line is of just the you know, like the sixteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth quarterback kind of that range, if he was on the wrong side of that, the Jets were absolutely screwed. And Colin's taken a lot of shit over the years for being critical of Aaron, just with his leadership and some stuff.
It's kind of showing like at the end of the day, you're the most important guy here at the moment, not the coaching, not Jeff Ulbrick who's never been a head coach, not Todd down Downing who's been fired by like five different teams. Like, Aaron, can can you just lead us to a couple of victories and he's incapable of doing
that right now, he really is. He's incapable of doing it, and he's listen, I've defended him with like no one gives a shit in twenty twenty four about his vaccine status and most people didn't care at the time, beside
the media. The darkness retreats and stuff like that. Stuff gets so overblown, but like this is a moment, like, hey, man, can you just kind of rally the fucking troops because like back to what I said about that, like the players didn't care, they didn't care at all, But this is a moment where they got a young team and everyone's kind of looking around. It's like when Tom Brady's
like follow me, follow me to freedom. As Charlie Steiner once said, Peyton Manning when he went to Denver Broncos kind of just feels like Aaron just like, eh, let eron, I'm cool and the team is just it's a joke, it really is. Now they're not as bad as the Panthers or the Titans, but when you factor in how bad that losses, like you could put it on equal footing of getting beat fifty two to fourteen by the Detroit Lions, like losing to the New England Patriots in
the fashion in which you lost to him. It's just borderline if you're a fan, like it feels like unforgivable, Like I can't even look at this team, and then they play Thursday night. I didn't even realize that till this morning. It's like, wait, it's Jets Texans. They lose the Texans. I mean, they might as well just buy that whole strip of Porta potties. That whole strip of Porta potties, like a Taylor Swift concert is probably the world.
It have to be like a hard rock or like a country concert, not just little girls, because I would imagine, like Taylor Swift, the Porta potties probably smell a lot better than some of the concerts I've been to. But that would be the Jets, the whole strip, like the twenty straight Porta potties. Okay, let's hit on a couple other things around the NFL. One of the big stories of Monday morning. I missed this exact incident on day night.
I saw it at the end after, you know, I recorded with Colin after the afternoon games, and again on the Sunday night games, and then I recorded our own podcast really late, so I didn't see the Tyreek Stevenson viral video, which I would say is the biggest viral video so far of the NFL season, and I do think it'll be pretty tough to top that moment for the young man. Obviously, it was really embarrassing and it's
something that good teams can never tolerate. Now, I'm not some moral high horse guy when it comes to sports, like I know what I'm involved in. I'm really not just in general in the business world like this. We live in a bottom line society and in football it's about winning and losing, and businesses about making fucking money. Like, I'm not one of those media guys. I don't even consider myself a media guy that likes to pound my chest and lecture people on stuff. And I'm not like
it funny seeing everyone say they should cut the guy. Well, one, he's a starter and one of the better defense in the league and has been a starter from the moment he was drafted. He's part of the Carolina trade that landed the Panthers Bryce Young. He's been an excellent player for them. People make mistakes now, sometimes our mistakes are worse than others, and for a player that's about as
bad as you get. That jumps the shark on just being an embarrassing moment, on being a moment where the coaches chew your ass out the following week that comes like the entire city thinks you lost them a football game, because, let's face it, he kind of did. He wasn't paying attention the ball snapped, he looks they're already running. His job is to actually ebra flu said it, to get the guy that caught the ball. Well, he's so discombobulated
because the player's already started. He just kind of runs to the scrum and obviously he ends up tipping the ball to Noah Brown. So it was one of the bigger individual disaster plays you'll ever see from a defensive player. You could argue, given the scenario and the context of the game, the actual that it's a hail Mary, it's one of the worst NFL plays from an individual you will ever see. But like, you're not cutting this guy one.
If you did cut him, which again they never would, he would be claimed by thirty one teams in the NFL. So the Carolina Panthers, I'm pretty sure they have the worst record. Uh maybe that I don't know. I don't have the whoever has the you know it's tiebreaker. There are some obviously one win teams. Whoever is top of the waiver wire claim would claim him, he'd be gone.
So you're not cutting the guy. But this is a teachable moment, and to me, this is a reflection of your locker room because that was a game where you were getting out played and if it wasn't for your defense, who was holding this team to field goals, you could have been down like twenty four to nothing because they were kicking your ass. But your defense is playing their balls off. Montes Sweat looks like Lawrence Taylor flying around
chasing Jayden Daniels. I don't know. It feels like besides, like Kyler and Lamar one of the fastest guys in the league at quarterback, and they're doing everything humanly possible even though your offense isn't doing crap to keep you in the game. And then in the fourth quarter, you got Sweat busting off a fifty five sixty yard run. You got Caleb pulling plays out of his ass getting
chased around. You got Keenan making plays. DJ Moore making plays obviously sweat making plays like those guys did everything to stay locked in even when times were the toughest to win. You a football game on the road, clearly against a good team, and we lose because of that moment. So you're not gonna cut him and like having a stern talking do in the office, I don't think that does anything. I think you got a draw a line
in this end to your locker room. This will never be tolerated here because there are a lot of guys on this team. We're gonna be on the team for the foreseeable future. And whether they make the playoffs or not this year, I don't think they're going to. But the game plan over the next several years will be to make the playoffs every year with the talent we have on this roster. And eber Flus, because he's literally coaching for his job, clearly he's gonna want this guy
to play come Sunday. Why he's playing the Arizona Cardinals, who offensively can be a major major problem. Well, guess who's not going anywhere? The general manager And to me, this is an easy BP fastball for the GM to draw a line in the sand, make him in active for a game, and just show everyone else in that locker room, not only do I appreciate everything you did, what happened on Sunday in Washington will never ever be tolerated here Again, Tyree Stevenson, He's not going anywhere. He's
gonna be a part of this team. He's gonna obviously really learn from this moment. But like, to me, that's the move, and we'll see what they do. Ben him for a quarter, Like, it's not about that. It's about because like benching for a quarter, how does that change what just happened to me? It's about letting every young guy on the roster, starting with your quarterback, like, I want you to know that like the thing we're building here and what we stand for and what this organization
represents in terms of winning culture. Would Belichick? Would Andy Reid? Can you imagine that happening for Dan Campbell, Jim or John Harbot, Mike Tomlin what they would do in that
moment with that instance of that individual player. So I think it's an easy one for the Chicago Bears to just to show their team that that's not okay, and we appreciate everyone that laid it on the line from start to finish in that game, because most of their guys did, they played winning or put themselves in a position to win the game in the fourth quarter of
the Bears definitely played winning football offensively and defensively. Coaches screwed up with the full back tipe to the offensive lineman. Speaking of locker room, I do think the Cults are in a very precarious situation. Obviously, their quarterback has gone viral throughout the season for I don't know, not being able to complete passes. And like we learned in Cleveland, when Joe Flacco is on your team, if your quarterback is not playing well, he's better than you, or he's
better than that guy and should be starting. We saw in Cleveland major upgrade we saw in Indy he came in. Offense looks dramatically better. As we sit here on October twenty eighth, I think it's universally agreed upon that today Joe Flacco is a better player than Anthony Richson. But this was another one of those situations yesterday. Because I don't have the volume on the game. If I don't
pay attention for a play and something happens. You don't really know what happens unless you see on social media later, or obviously you just watch the highlight shows and you figure out like, wait, Anthony Richardson tapped out of the game for a play. Oh, he was injured or something tweaked his shoulder or his hipoca, No, he was winded.
And I thought about it a lot today because I saw Pat McAfee asking Belichick about it, and I thought about the viral video that from the Netflix Quarterback series when the Chiefs are in the playoffs and Mahomes hurts his ankle and Andy Reid is telling him to go to the locker room with Rick Burkeholder the trainer and get an X ray, and Pat is dog cussing him,
refusing to go. Matt Nagge comes over, talks to him, The trainer talks to him, and then finally Eric b Enemy comes talk to him and they all tell him you gotta go get an X ray, and he is just dropping f ward every other sentence, refusing to go.
And when you watch Lamar, no quarterback I've ever seen runs around more and I have never thought for one second even when he's played bad, and I've been critical of him like in a playoff game that he ain't laying it on the line, and his competitive character is not elite. So you think of the best quarterbacks you're playing in the AFC, If you're the Colts, the best team with the best quarterback has ten out of ten competitive character. I would say Lamar Jackson's competitive character ten
out of ten. Oh, that other team that's five and two and gonna be probably a thirteen to fourteen win team, the Buffalo Bills. I would put Josh Allens at a ten out of ten. So the three, honestly three of the better quarterbacks I've seen in my lifetime when it just comes to physical skills, when it comes to accomplishments, when it comes to ability, and when it comes to competitiveness.
You would have to drag those fucking guys off the field to have them miss a play in a big game against a division rival in the second half on third in goal. They wouldn't tap out of the game if there was a pot of gold outside the stadium. So to seeing Anthony Riginson tap out, I went, do we have to question his competitive character? Is it just simply while he's tired, he runs more than some guys, it's like, well, Lamar runs all the time, Kyler runs
all the time. And I was talking with some scouts and one said, you know, Johnny's never really played. He was injured in high school, he was injured early in Florida, and his one season at Florida they went six and six, so half the games didn't even matter, and then he was injured. Last year he's been injured again. And I thought, well, okay, Because I do think through experiences you build up stuff, whether it's confidence, whether it's understanding of your sport, of
your craft. I also think once you hit a certain age, they were like innate competitive traits that you either have or you don't. I think a lot of people listening to this, whatever business or industry you're in, whether you have them, the people you work for them, you have them when you're around people that are really really competitive financially. Obviously, in sports it's about winning and losing. It is something
that you cannot mistake or fake. And some people are just a little I would say lacks when it comes to that. And I do think you have to question how the rest of the locker room because this gets to the Bears thing like, even if I really like Tyrek Stevenson, like, this is our job. We are paid to win these games, and if we don't, if we miss the playoffs, if a new coach comes in, the majority of guys on this roster are not Montese Sweat
Jalen Johnson and Caleb Williams or DJ Moore. Most guys are fighting for their fucking jobs on a yearly, weekly basis. In the NFL. Obviously, if you're a veteran player, once you make week one yr contract is guaranteed for the rest of the season, but definitely on a weekly or a yearly basis. It's like, we can't afford to lose guys, and I'm watching the Colts lose that game. His stats were horrendous. I saw someone breaking down, like some of
those were drops. It's like, okay, Like, you don't just become forty four percent passer on the season because your wide receivers are dropping a lot of balls. He's an inaccurate passer, but it's like, Okay, we got a project. We drafted him fourth overall. I can live like this is what I went into business with. I cannot live with that competitive character question mark because now it's been
one thing. Listen. We had durability concerns, we had accuracy concerns, and now the number one concern is, like I've seen so many former players that have said, in all my life of being around football, I have never seen this ever, Like it's been universally agreed upon. It never happens. It happens when you're hurt, and usually that guy's kind of limping off or laying on the ground. He tapped out like he's Alvin Kamar or Christian McCaffery or Derreck Henry
after a fifty yard run. The quarterback and the five offensive lineman never come out of the game ever, if they are not injured. I think if you're a Colts fan, you've tried to rationalize the inaccuracies, the amount he's going to have to grow to be competitive at the highest level. But I think you were hoping, like, hey, everything, we hear high character people like him, But now we got
competitive question marks. To me, those are non starters. You don't have a snowballs chance in hell to compete in that conference against the competitive level of guy that you have to play, who are already infinitely better players, and that you know, to get Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes out of a game, they would have to have a serious, serious injury. You almost have to chock
it up to in the loss. And I saw a headline the day that Shane Steichen, I think, in a call to the media, said that they're still evaluating who's going to be their starting quarterback. I think the decision was made for you the moment he tapped his helmet. You have to start Joe Flacco. Now you got to whether this guy's out of shape, whatever the deal is, we got to do some soul searching here because that
can never be okay. When Jonathan Taylor, I mean, they got random guys on defense that were playing their ass off in that game. That can't be accepted because if it is accepted, Listen, a lot of people in the NFL make fun of the Colts because they think Chris Ballard is well liked by a lot of people in the media, and he kind of gets a pass. I don't even know the guy, and I've been pretty optimistic
when I talk about him. But if Joe Flacco's not their starting quarterback this year, like I'm sorry, their organization is a joke one. I mean, Flacco is just clearly a better player right now, but to that specific incident, I just don't see how his teammates can take him seriously. Last, but not least, I think the power of coaching, this is why these guys make so much money, is on full display really in college and the pros every Saturday
and Sunday, but nothing more than this Sunday. Like all I heard coming into the regular season was the Jets. The Jets are the betting favorite to win the AFC East. And my whole thought was, even if you think Rogers is going to be Pete Rogers, look at their coaching staff that this is you have to have both. You can have Joe Montana or Tom Brady, but you typically also have to have Bill Belichick or Bill Walsh. Like Mike Holmgren was a lot better when he had Brett Pharr.
Andy Reid's been excellent. You giving Patrick Mahomes like it's a duo. The head coach in football means so much, and it's like everyone that acts like Sean McDermott and listen, He's had some devastating losses, but he has a pretty long resume now of being a winner and that organizational philosophy. And currently if you go to the standings on NFL dot com or ESPN dot com, they have a gigantic
lead and it's not even Halloween. The Patriots coach clearly's in over his head, the Jets have no coach, and the Dolphins coach is the most overrated coach in recent memory. Like this division could be over by December first, it really could, and the Bills just have to keep playing for seating purposes. But like Sean McDermott and Joe Brady, because this was a team, it's like, oh, they lost these guys, they got rid of their safeties, they traded
step On Diggs. Watched them play against Seattle on the road in the rain. How buttoned up that operation was. The Packers, to me, have just been a revelation this year because the reason most of us liked him so much coming into the season. It's like, did you see Jordan Love down in stretch last year? Look, Aaron Rodgers, if this defense is just a little bit better, Steam could win Super Bowl. And then he gets hurt opening night, he gets hurt again yesterday, and it's like he missed games.
They had to start Malik Willis for two games. They had to bring Malik Willis yesterday into a game that was tightly contested. And I look today Malik Willis Ford Matt Lafoor and that offense is twenty nine of thirty nine for seventy five percent, throwing three touchdown and no picks. He's also averaging over eight yards of carry and he's ran in another touchdown. Like that's what coaching is. If you gave the Packers Ebra Flus and Shane Waldron, there's
zero chance there six and two, I mean none. And if you flip flopped Lafleur and Halflee in and those guys with the Bears, I think it's safe to assume their defense would still be really good, but their offense would be dramatically better. I don't think the Minnesota Vikings roster is that great. Obviously, the receiver is an incredible talent, and Aaron Jones is really good, but now they've lost
their left tackle. You look at their defensive pieces, like, who's their best defensive player, a forty year old Harrison Smith. Like sometimes you watch them get pressure, like who are these guys? You're like, Oh, they drafted this guy in the fourth round four years ago. This is not Zadarius Smith and Daneil Hunter on the squad anymore. But they got Kevin O'Connell and they got Brian Flores, and now I think they're gonna come back to earth a little
bit more because the left tackle's gone. But I would still expect them to be a ten win team. I've said this forever about McVeigh. For them even being in position that if they got everyone back they would still be alive is an incredible accomplishment. To win that game early on in the season against the forty nine ers with no wide receivers is one of the crazier things I've ever seen. Because the Niners blew two bad games, one to Arizona and one to the Rams. They are
not equals. Ultimately, Stafford was thrown to me and you Kyler still had, you know, James Connor, Trade McBride, Marvin Harrison, Dortch, a kind of like like, they got guys that keep you on your toes. Is why they've had some big comeback victories the last couple of years. Since Kyler came back, I kept saying, listen, I whiffed on the Saints they might not win another game. Spencer Rattler is one of the worst players I've ever seen. Might not be all
his fault. They're missing offensive lineman, they got wide receiver injuries, but he's got awful. But look at the Chargers schedule right now. They won last year. I think they went five to twelve. They obviously had the fifth overall pick. They were terrible. They lost a game on Thursday night like sixty to twenty, which is ironic because they ended up hiring that GM who got fired the next day that the Raiders literally got him fired. But this Charger
team was an embarrassment to football. Do you know what's gonna happen when the season ends this year? The Chargers are gonna be in the playoffs. I'm gonna read you their schedule. The Chargers this week at the Browns. I like the Chargers. The following week Titans, I like the Chargers. They get the Bengals at home. Tougher game, but definitely winnable.
Ravens loss at the Falcons, loss at the Chiefs, loss, Buccaneers, million injuries, Chargers, Broncos, another team Cha their quarterback brought in their guy, have a bunch of guys on defense that most people don't know that well. Besides, her Tain probably gonna be a playoff team as well. There's a reason these guys are making fifteen eighteen million dollars because if you got Eberflus and I got Sean Payton or Jim Harbaugh, I have an exponentially better chance to be
playing in the middle of January than you do. We both could lose a bad game, we both could win a bad game during the regular season, but over the course of the year, it's advantaged me. And it's why I was always so critical on the Chargers, Like I like so many of your players. You went from Drew Brees to Philip Rivers to Justin Herbert. That's pretty damn good. The overwhelming majority of the NFL would have died for
that twenty five year run. But when you refuse to pay coaches any money, you can't complain about underwhelming and missing the playoffs all the time. He said, you know what, screw it here, Jim Harbaugh. Here is five years, sixteen million dollars a year. Oh, you want to bring Jesse Mentor, who's clearly one of the better defensive coordinators in the league. How much he gonna cost, Well, he's about three million bucks. Okay, here's three million bucks. How much your total staff gonna cost?
Dramatically more money than you've ever paid anybody. That's what we gotta do. Because you're watching the Chargers, you're watching the Broncos. They're not exactly rolling out superstar players at all these positions. Yet they have good coaches, they have guys that know what they're doing, and they're both gonna end up. I would I feel pretty confident that there's probably like a seventy five percent chance both make the playoffs. I think there's one hundred percent chance one of them
makes the playoffs. If I was a betting man, I just take Harbod Justin Herbert over bownex the volume mhm