You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Hope you had a great week on. Everybody ready to go? Gang's all here, Well not everybody. The Minister of Humor is here. Fritzy Dylan is sitting in for Seaton. Seaton just left with Seaton and the French Kid are on the road in the Maco Van, and we'll give you updates as a head to New Orleans. Marvin is here. Give him a hand, little hamp.
We're starting off like this.
Yeah, I don't know why. I don't know why you were sassy this morning prior to the start of the show, and I just thought, what are we doing? We had a good weekend. You know, you got the Chiefs and the Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Yayh Yeah, Paulie Marvin Sassey no longer the new guy.
Yeah, it's true. Dylan. Dylan in the back row handling the duties with poll questions today. That's it. I don't want you to do too much. Normally you do graphics and you bet on games.
I'm better with like one task.
Yeah, one task. You're going to do the pole questions today. Speak when spoken to Dylan, Okay, were you speaking to was, Yes.
He looks like I don't know how to describe it. Then the son of a millionaire or a billionaire or a yeah, a goofy substitute teacher. I'm not sure which.
Wow substitute teacher's way closer to being accurate. Well, do you have a camel hair sport coade on? Yeah, mow hair, some sort of hair, mowhair, mohair. It's uh. With all the lights in the here, it's definitely a warm jacket and a bolo tie today. Yep. Actually, this was a Christmas gift from my mom this year.
It's got a geode on it.
Mm, that is nice. I broke it out for a special occasion. Let's work in reverse. The Kansas City Chiefs are going to New Orleans as they try to repeat as they hold off the Bills thirty two, twenty nine. It wasn't an incredible game by Patrick Mahomes. It was just one of those games games that you better be just a little bit better than him, and Josh Allen was not. I thought they did a good job of staying in the game, stopping them. They had an opportunity
to win this game. I thought Josh Allen looked nervous. I thought he acted nervous. I thought he was playing differently than he had all season long. They abandoned the run at some point and Kansas City does just enough to advance. By the way, they're listed as a one and a half point favorite over the Eagles. The Eagles
rolled the Commanders. This was one of those games. The Eagles did to the Commanders what the Commanders did to the Detroit Lions, and all of a sudden, those turnovers start, and then you start to play a little more desperate, and you got a lot of Saquon Barkley. Jalen Hurts was wonderful, And yes, I have to acknowledge this because people were pointing this out. How do you feel about Jalen Hurts today? I said, I've been waiting for this. He's been inconsistent. Now I thought he was banged up,
had three rushing touchdowns. He looked great. I mean that that was an impressive performance both sides of the ball. But the Commanders, I know it's sounds strange to say this, but they did have chances. They were close until all of a sudden they had turnovers, missed opportunities, and then it becomes fifty five to twenty three. Saquon was wonderful, But I still don't understand this. That's the one guy I have to stop. I just have to stop. And I'm sure they were trying to stop him, but I
wanted Jalen Hurts to pass the ball. But all of a sudden they change the play and Saquon goes for sixty. So Jalen Hurts saw something, Nick Sirian, somebody saw something, and all of a sudden they changed it. And I think that's kind of lost in this. So if you watch that play, Hurts see something changes. The play changes where Saquan is lined up, and then all of a sudden he goes left and then he goes back right, and then you go, oh my goodness, he's done it again.
And I was curious though, when you start to look at running backs like that, this doesn't happen in the postseason. So Saquon Barkley, when you're running over sixty yards, he is the first player in NFL history three rushing touchdowns of sixty yards or more in his playoff career. All three have happened this season.
Wow, stand of a day, Stanle of a day, Stall of a day, stant outa day. This is the stule of the day.
And City Chiefs fan Melissa Entthred's there with stat of the day. Here's Nick Siriani, the Eagles head coach, on Saquon.
They don't give me a vote for MVP, but I know who my vote. That is probably why they don't give me a vote, because I would vote for Saquon. But special performance, special player, special job by the entire group to make that play go to start things off, and that was a good tone setter.
Oh my goodness. Yeah, that's a home run. That's a Ricky Henderson leading off a game home run type of feel. But you know, the Commanders, you had a great year, you had a bad day, you had a great year, and you got a great future there. And I loved everything about their whole ride that they had. You know, dan Quinn, happy for him, Jaden Daniels was wonderful. I think you got to be introduced to some of their players yesterday. Maybe you weren't familiar with them. We're familiar
with Jaden Daniels for a reason. But they got a bright future there and I thought it was wonderful. But the Eagles, the Eagles are now and you talk about a team that was built like moves that they make, and you go, I don't know about that draft pick, or they're bringing in Saquon Barkley. And remember go back to the offseason where you had analysts, you certainly had Philadelphia fans are like, why are we bringing him in? Our offensive line can make you know, any running back good? True,
your offensive line can make any running back good. Your offensive line can't make somebody rush for two thousand yards. And that's the difference with Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, He's just different. Then I love the return of the running back, love it, love it. And you got to see Saquon and he's a home run hitter and that team is so balanced. And I know Howie Roseman, Like, if there's somebody who is the Steve Spagnolo, like Howie Roseman built
this team. Hey, Spags is going to dial up something for the Chiefs, it would be the equivalent of that that you have a GM who gets mentioned as much as a coordinator or coach does. But he did a wonderful job, did a wonderful job. Remember, you know I was thinking about this with Saquon when he had that first touchdown run. I thought back to earlier in the regular season, remember when he had the drop and all of a sudden, you know he was going to be with us that next day, and you know he had
people death threats. I mean it was in his home, you know, in Philadelphia, and that I go, God, that's so long ago, but it's not. And then here he is, you know, doing what he does better than anybody, and that's being a home run hitter.
Yeah, Pauline, there'd be a day, a decade from now you'll say Saquon Barkley used to be a New York Giant because he's going to do so much good work with the Eagles. Was it Marshall Fauch Colts Rams, you remember the Colts career.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a great point. But you're watching and I thought Buffalo got away from the run. I don't know if James Cook was banged up, but it reminded me of that third quarter when the Ravens were, you know, going with Jerrick Henry and they just go down the field and they score a touchdown, and I kept thinking, Buffalo, don't get away from it, stay with it, and it just felt like they got towards other things, passing plays, trying to feature Josh Allen maybe a little bit too much.
And yes there are a couple of calls. The fourth down call. I thought that it was a bad spot. I thought it was a first down. And once again, I'm not rooting for anybody or rooting against anybody. I actually was rooting for no bad controversial calls. I don't know if you have too many people who watch a game going, hey, who you rooting for? The referees so they don't screw this up so it doesn't become the conversation.
But you know what's going to happen. They're eventually going to put a chip in the football and this probably is going to happen real quick in the offseason. Just so, I mean, it's archaic to have a chain gang and it's random where you have an official spot the ball, And I don't want to go conspiracy theory. It just bothers me that when you watch a spot and then you go, how did they come up with that? And that was the feeling I had. I thought Josh Allen
got the first down. You know the zabe you're worthy play fifty to fifty ball or it certainly felt like Buffalo had it worthy didn't, but then they gave him the ball. It's not the end of the world, but it's those calls that all of a sudden, if you're the opposition, it just has this defeatist type feel like you're just going come on, and even if you're watching, you're going come on. You know, they do get the calls, at least that's the feeling. But yesterday with Josh Allen
with the fourth down and didn't get it. Here's Josh Allen after the game.
You take your through those fourth down play there under the pressure.
Yeah, and they gave a good look. Didn't see anything in my first cadence players Lyden left corner came. They hid that extremely well and I think that was their only blitz of the day. They blitched once, Spags dialing up a bucks there we.
Were all texting each other's bags bags.
Andy Reid, Kans City Chiefs on possibly three peeting.
I think motivation is the wrong the wrong word, or I'm gonna just change that for you, So I would tell you we're motivated like crazy to win the game. I mean, that's what you're motivated to do. You get caught up in that other stuff, all the hype that goes with it, and then you forget about third and one in detailing that you know either side of the ball. So you've got to keep everything in perspective. And really, when it comes down to it, all the coffetti, all
that's great. I mean it's great. Nothing like doing it with your home fans. But it's going to come down to a football game.
Yes, you can't lose sight of that. You got to win one for you to win three in a row, win this one. Don't get caught up in history and mahomes nothing special this year. But I think we've come to accept that somehow, some way he's gonna make place. But you gave Buffalo chance. You got three and a half minutes, three timeouts, you got the two minute you know timeout, plenty of time, plenty of time, no need to rush but knock down a like. They just made
little plays. And if you go down the roster with the Chiefs and look, I've warmed up to them the last couple of years just because I see something that is really unique in this sport where they want parody and their ability to plug and play. It was unbelievable. I mean, Kareem Hunt. Anybody could have had him. I mean Xavier Worthy, Buffalo allowed Kansas City to go up and get him. Juju Smith Schuster could have had him. I mean, Kelsey didn't do anything. Chris Jones wonderful, but
the other defensive player. It just little things. Little things lead to big things, and that's where you know, they took the blueprint of what the Patriots did, have consistency with the coach and the quarterback, and then build from there.
Yes, Marvin, at the beginning of the game, I forgot that Hollywood Brown and DeAndre Hopkins were on the Chiefs.
Hollywood Brown first two catchers, and I go, yeah, I didn't even know he was there. Yeah.
Pauli Romo had something before the game. When he's previewing the game, he said, there's not a player on their team to focus on. It would have been Kelsey two years ago, but even him, he's more like a B level player. Now, there's not a go to guy on a third down, so it makes it more confusing for the defense.
Yeah, because he used to be with Tyreek Hill, you know, you had to worry about home run threat or you know, Kelsey underneath. You know, Mahomes has got confidence in these guys. And I thought Romo had a really good day yesterday, even when he said, hey, kan City knows that Josh Allen likes to go left on that quarterback sneak that they were talking about that prior to the game. They have a production meeting where everybody gets together start talking
about things to look for. You talk to your producer director and he said, they know that Josh likes to go left on that. Just little things, and which was fun. It's fun to be able to watch that and hear what they have to say in real time. All Right, we'll get phone calls coming up. Best and worst of the weekend. What you saw that you liked, you didn't like? And by the way, Ohio State has a parade that's on Sunday. Yeah, it was yesterday. I missed it. I
wasn't sure if you were there or not. No, No, I didn't. I was busy watching football. So the Buckeyes had a parade. Well, they lost their defensive coordinator. He went to Penn State. Was he in the parade yesterday? And then like you go to the Prey and then you go to Penn State. Like your float just takes off taking a happy valley. Yeah, how far in to a happy valley?
Streamers going down the highway?
All right, let me take a break. Ross Tucker. He was on the sidelines for the Eagles win yesterday. We'll get his thoughts on that game and the Super Bowl matchup. Your phone calls always welcome. We're back after this Dan Patrick show.
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Ross Tucker, CBS Sports, Westwood one, NFL college football analysts, host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast. He was on the sidelines yesterday sideline reporter for Westwood one, and he had the duties there with the NC title game between the Commanders and the Eagles. When did the game change for you yesterday?
Oh?
Trying to remember the exact situation. I think probably the fourth and five throw from Jalen Hurts to AJ Brown down the sideline. I think it was fourteen to twelve.
I might be wrong.
I think it was fourteen twelve, fourth and five. I gotta be honest with you, Dan, I thought they were just hard counting him. I didn't they were going to go for it. I mean, because he tried to hard count him twice. The Commanders, to their credit, didn't jump. So he throws a deep fade down the sideline. That's not necessarily a high percentage throw, but Hurtz, who by the way, had his best game in a couple months, dropped it right in the bucket, perfect to aj Brown.
So they go and they score touchdown after that, then they kick off will Shipley Rocks McNichols fumble another touchdown. Game was kind of over in those last two minutes. It was the throat to Brown, the ensuing fumble another touchdown. Those two touchdowns the last two minutes kind of ended the game.
Is there a defense to stop Saquon Barkley.
Such a good question, because they actually stop him a lot. When you watch until he goes seventy, it's like one of the craziest things where I honestly, Dan, I don't remember seeing this before. You know, there's some crazy stats out there. I think he has seven touchdown runs over sixty yards this year. The whole rest of the NFL maybe has ten or seven. I mean, I just I can't remember seeing a guy breaking this many long touchdown runs in general, and then in particular in big games.
In Big Spot, it was the first play of the game. You know, the commanders are all geared up to stop him. And the reason why it happens is because when you load the box, you only have that one deep safety. You're actually putting that guy in a bad spot. That's why so often it's like a two yard game or a three yard game, they actually stuff him a lot
because I got a lot of guys up there. But if he gets past the second level and all you have is that one satan middle of the field, good luck to that guy, because that is a very tall task taking down Saquom Bark. It's amazing. You can almost feel what's gonna happen almost every game.
I think the comp I would use, even though he didn't play in many big games, is Barry Sanders, because Barry would be two yards minus one, three yards five sixty six. You know that sort of you know you're playing bingo with Barry. You know it'd be like eleven nineteen two, one sixty six touchdown.
You know what, Dan, it's such a good point.
Now they obviously have different styles as runners, but you're a thousand percent correct. Barry Sanders was not like a sustaining running back. I remember the criticism of Barry Sanders at times was you know, it's also second and twelve a lot, you know what I mean?
He would like lose two yards. I have that sometimes with Sakuan.
They're different style runners, but at times I wonder about his vision.
He does have some lost.
Yardage or some runs where he doesn't have as many five to ten yard runs.
I feel like, as you would think, but maybe that's just.
That is a great comp and they both have maybe the two biggest pair of thighs we've ever seen, so evidently that's what you want.
You want gigantic thighs, and then.
You want to be able to take it sixty yards seemingly once or twice a game.
The thighs go together. Just let you know it's rare if you have one big thigh and then one small five it's a pair of big thighs. Pauly check that if you can, please, Okay, thank you. As far as this, you know what sometimes gets lost when you have a story like this, The Commander's Great Year, Bad Day, but looking at building for the future, what do you see with the commanders before we say goodbye to them?
Oh, Man would be very very excited, very excited because Number one, a lot of the guys they brought in this year with the new GM Adam Peters, they panned out. I mean, you think about Frankie Louvu awesome, bringing in guys like Bobby Wagner, Jeremy Chin, did a lot of good things. The draft picks, I mean, jayde and Daniels obviously a home run. But how about Saint Rastill in the second round. And they traded down in the second
round to get Saint Restill. So if you're a Commander's fan right now, you know that the future is bright and you know you were just.
Out gunned yesterday.
I mean I talked to prepping for the game, Dan, I talked to I don't know, three or four personnel executives, depending on who I spoke to. They said between three to five commanders would start for the Eagles.
Oh, we think about that.
Jonathan Allen would start next to Jalen Carter, Louvu would start next to Zach Bond. Obviously, Jade and Daniels would start, although Hurt's played very well, but the fact remains, it's hard to win a game if you only have three to five guys that would even start for the other team. The Eagles are just that loaded, and then you have the fumbles and Hurts plays the best he has a go I mean good luck. I mean that's how you lose by thirty points.
And I loved on ESPN dot com yesterday a long article about Daniel Snyder and how he's miserable. Imagine you get six billion dollars and you on your yacht somewhere in the south of France, and you're watching this, and he's miserable because they they succeeded once they got rid of you.
I love God.
Wouldn't you love to have a camera on him as he's watching the Commanders on his yacht.
I said this before the game.
Actually, I would have paid money for a Dan Snyder castor or or have him come to the game and give him a box, give them a box for free, and give them the Taylor Swift treatment, you know, like every time the Chiefs score, something happens, they showed Taylor Swift in the suite. Every time the Commanders do something well or jayde and Daniels runs for a touchdown show Dan Snyder just like.
Throwing his pen and being all upset.
I mean, the timing of this, It's just incredible, it really is. I'm so excited. You know, I played there twice. You can see Dan the two helmets behind me.
Yeah.
I started my career there and finished it there. So I'm just so happy with those people down there. I mean when I was there, and you know this, but when I was there, they had like a big season ticket waiting list. It was cool to play for the Redskins, right. I went to a game a couple of years ago. The stadium was half full and out of the half people that are there, half of them were for the other team. I mean, I've never seen in pro sports
that erosion of a fan base. They have single handily brought it back now with Jade Dare, I'm thrilled for those people down there.
I'm talking to Ross Tucker. He was there for Westwood one. He was the sideline reporter for the Commanders and the Eagles. As for the AFC, Mahomes was good, but it feels like the role players were wonderful, Like they don't have go to guys like Kareem Hunt. Anybody could have had him. Kelsey wasn't the go to guy yesterday. I didn't know Hollywood Brown was on the Chiefs and was like one of those. I went, oh, that's right. I mean, it's remarkable.
And it's not just Chris Jones on defense. They are they have the Patriot way, the old Patriot way. We're plug and play, and they just seemed to figure it out and they all picked their moments what stood out for you with Kansas City's win.
Well, and also they're just extremely well coached, right, I mean you think about just think about the last minutes. Okay, the fourth and five for Josh Allen, they bring that corner blitz. Now, I don't know why the Bills didn't have a better answer for the corner blitz there. You know, Spagnola likes to do it, but the guy came Scott
free and Josh Allen heaved it. Now, kin Kaid probably still should have caught it, but there and then, and think about those two third down conversions where both times Mahomes has Pacheco and p Ryan wide open in the flat. I mean, I think Andy Reid and Spags are really, really good the everything that jumped out to me. You know, you gotta make the critical plays against the Chiefs. I know a lot of Bills fans, and I love those people. That was my favorite team I played for. That's that
helmet right there, and I love those people. And there's a lot of talk about the spot on the quarterback sneak, and I get it. What I would say is, if you're the Bills, I'm a big believer in personal accountability, right, Like, don't let Mahomes go up and down the field and score thirty points for the first time all season, right? Or how about if you're Cole Bishop, don't let Xavier Worthy rip the ball away from you. If your kincaid
catch the ball. If you're Josh Allen and Curtis Samuel Curtis Amos on the crossing route, there's nobody within ten yards of them. That's probably a forty yard play. Put the ball on them and let them don't get stuffed three times on quarterback sneak. The Bills had plenty of chances to win that game.
And for whatever reason, teams do not.
Make the critical plays to win the game against the Chiefs. They just it's like a voodoo doll or something. They don't do it and the Chiefs do. So the Chiefs deserve to win.
You got three and a half minutes, you got three timeouts, you got the two minute warning. The Bills had a chance there. That's what you want. That's what MVPs want, a ball in their hands, and you know they couldn't come up with the big plays. You're right the spot on the you know the push tush with Josh Allen. Are we going to get to the point where we put a chip in the football. I've been saying this
for years. I don't understand. We have all this modern technology and it just seems like, hey, let's bring out the chain gang or it's a random spot. And I know I'm using this as a you know, launching pad for this, but this is what happens. You have a big moment where we questioned this spot and you know it leads to something. Is it going to lead to a chip in the football.
So a couple of things, Dan, this is a really important point for football moving forward. Okay, being on the sideline yesterday, I think almost half the time, Dan, I'm right behind the side judge or the field judge, it's almost impossible. You know, the football field is fifty three and a third yards wide, so these guys are like twenty eight yards away from these quarterback sneaks, and there's
fifteen guys, gigantic human beings in there. To be able to see where the ball is when the guy's shin or knee or elbow or forearm is down, it's almost impossible. You go back and watch the Josh Allen one. The side judge comes in on this side of the forty, the field judge comes in on the other side of the forty, and then as they come in they usually look at each other and they try to even it out. The thing is to two thoughts on this that are
super important. Number One, if you run a quarterback sneak, you really are at the mercy of the side judge and field.
You run a quarterback power or a quarterback sweep like they did, and you have.
Josh Allen, just get outside or power through and clearly get over it. When you do the sneak, you're putting it in the hands of the officials a little bit as far as the technology, So this is something that a lot of people don't know, and I saw Sam Schwarztein from Amazon, posting there's been a chip in the ball for four years, which is why they know a lot of the things they know about tracking and all
that stuff. It's very complicated. It's not tennis, okay, where it's a circular ball and you know you have that hawkeye.
Vision you can see where the ball goes right.
It's more complicated than that because even if you have the chip in the ball, it's not a sphere, it's an oblong ball.
But you still need to know when the body.
Part touches the ground right, like the technology doesn't know if it's the shin.
Or the knee or the forearm.
That it's a much more complicated solution that I think most people they've been working on. Trust me, they are working on it. But it's a lot easy year said than done.
That's great. Didn't even think of that. Those are all great points. I know that you delivered a pie to the face of a Notre Dame fan who thought Notre Dame would win a national title. How did that come about?
So?
I live in central Pennsylvania, Harrisburg Herscheerra I got a random email to Ross Tucker dot com. Will you push a smash a pie in my face. I'm doing it for the Dan Patrick Shaws Like, I don't know who this guy is. I'm like, yeah, probably not. I don't know how emails me again, what do.
You think, Mike?
Okay, I guess he wants to be on the look in, you know, and he lives in the area.
So my daughter had to go.
To a birthday party at get Air on Sally. I said, Hey, the birthday party starts at three thirty. I'll meet you because I'm with this guys, I'll meet you outside get Air at three thirty. He's there with his wife. My daughter videoed it. She got to put the whip cream in. I gotta tell you, that's one of the most satisfied I've ever done in my life.
That is a great feeling.
I want to like make a list now of like people I want to smash in the face with a pie, Like anybody that the older guys that picked on me, those one or two girls that wouldn't date me, Like, I just want to take pie and put smash in all their faces.
That was so satisfying.
You were a little rough on him, though, Like, yeah, it.
Was it too hard?
Yeah?
Did I go too hard.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
He said, let me have it. I didn't know. I didn't know the proper like.
Yeah, these centrifugal force I think knocked him back. I say this from experience. Michael Irvin hit me with a pie and it drew blood. Like he had no idea. He was like giving me the heisman there. So just the next time, if it comes up, just be a little more cognizant of you're a little bit bigger than whoever you're going to hit.
I was very concerned about getting it on my sweatshirt, so I was trying to like I was trying to hit him in fast, Yeah, as fast as I could.
Great to talk to you. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you, Ross.
Sounds great. I can't wait to see you guys in person.
That's Ross Tucker.
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.
App Lewis Riddick of the Mothership the ESPN, NFL college Football analyst, former NFL safety, I got an idea for the NFC AFC title Game. Now this is strictly for your football audience that every other year you'll have NFC Title Game Sunday, AFC Title Game Saturday the following year, then you change it up AFC Sunday NFC because this is about us. I don't know about you on your Saturday, Lewis, but I had nothing going on and I was joning for something. Yeah.
Man, it's it's a lot to consume in one day. It'd be nice. It would be nice to kind of break it up a little bit and kind of have to be standalone. I'm sure the look, I mean, the NFL is always interested in driving network viewership right, trying to.
Get the numbers as big as possible.
I don't know if the numbers have come out for the Kansas City Chiefs game, but I had heard that they were gonna be like monstrous, and with the way that game went down with the wire, there's no question that it probably was. But yeah, I'd be okay with that, Dan, I'd be okay with that stretch it out as long as possible. I'm already sick about the fact that the season's almost over.
I know, well, you know, I'm just going, what are we gonna do? We do that?
I know you'd probably be okay with having the ball down three three and a half minutes to go, three timeouts, and if you're a Buffalo bill fan with Josh Allen, right, that's not asking much of an MVP candidate. So what where did they go wrong?
Oh well, I'll tell you what if the Dalton Kinkaid makes that catch, you know, the catch at the end of the game where Josh makes it, absolutely fantastic play. As far as the blitz that the Spags brought brings from the boundary with Trent McDuffie and Josh sees it and lost that ball up there and Doal's not able to bring that ball in. You know, we could be having a totally different conversation here today. It's amazing that he was able to get that ball off. It's amazing
that it was right in the hands of Concaid. It's almost like you feel bad for Kinkaid to say, what do you feel bad for Mark Andrews a week ago? Because we may be talking about a totally different conversation. Rewind it back to the beginning of the fourth quarter with the spot of the ball and the fourth down play with Josh where just from watching it on TV At first, I said them sitting there thinking, oh man, they've got it.
They've got it.
They're about to seize the control of this football game. They're already up won, they're unplused territory. Maybe the game's gonna change, you know, maybe that's it. Maybe they tried
they they solidify the game there. But I think what it shows you is like there's a bunch of different inflection points in that football game that if you're the opposing team and you're in the Narrowhead Stadium and you're going up against Patrick Mahomes, if you don't seize them, if you don't definitively seize them, then the combination of Patrick and Andy's play calling, which.
Was nothing short of just.
You know, teach tape Worthy down the stretch, he's gonna They're gonna make you pay. And that's why this team is now playing for its third straight title, which is just amazing.
There's a moment when I see Josh Allen on that fourth down play. Now you play defensive back, Yeah, felt like that defensive back was looking in the backfield and I thought, is he coming? Like I don't know enough about that position, but I don't know if you normally look in the backfield when you're out there kind of on an island, you know, man man coverage. It felt like he was looking and that made me think, oh my gosh, is he coming. And you know, you got
to disguise it that you're just doing everything. This is the way I always do it. And it just like it dawned on me for a second, like, do you normally look at the quarterback if you're just playing man coverage?
Yeah, you know what, sometimes you do.
Sometimes you're trying to get you know, you're you're looking at your guy, You're taking a peek at the quarterback, you're taking a peak, you know, at the line of scrimmage. You're you're trying to get You're just kind of like taking it all in. Sometimes you want to you you kind of get, you fall into like a little bit of a you know, you want to get the rhythm of the quarterback center exchange so you know when the ball's about to be snapped. And then ultimately, yeah, your
eyes go back to your coverage responsibility. And sometimes quarterbacks can you know, you're right, Quarterbacks can kind of pick up on the fact that, hey, you're you're spending too much time looking at me, I think something is up here. So it's a kind of a cat and mouse game, it really is, And it look Trent's one of the very best in the league. Ian McDuffie's just one of one of the very best in the league.
And uh and.
Even with all that, even with all that being said, first of all, I don't know how. I don't know how Josh saw Dalton in the first place, despite the fact I guess he's six ' five and you know he's he's a freak of nature himself, and he's able to off his back foot and launch that thing the.
Way I think a spot I didn't know.
You know what, what was amazing is that the Chiefs just dropped him. They dropped Dalton in coverage. They had a total coverage bust in the back end, and they had done that a couple of different times during the game.
They let I'll tak about Buffalo in many ways.
As much as I love the Chiefs and respect everything that they have accomplished, in many ways, Buffalo is gonna wasch that tape and they're gonna go, oh my goodness. We had so many opportunities that we just didn't capitalize them.
I was rooting for the referees yesterday I went rooting for Buffalo or Kansas City. I wanted I wanted it to be a contra versity free game.
Me too.
Then you have the spot they worthy play. It just feeds into that narrative of Kansas City gets the call.
Yep, it does, and you hate that.
You hate it because everything on your right, everything on my Twitter feed, when I'm sitting there looking at it and just typing some stuff, turning the game, everything is about yeah but the refs, Yeah, but the refs, Yeah,
but the you know what? And that was that was like the same, the same thing was happening, Like honestly in the first game, in the in the a Philly, in the Philly in Washington game, it's it's always about about why Washington ultimately ultimately lost that game, and like that.
That has become like an easy go to thing now for people, and I understand that there are some things that look at it's no different than any other sport where sometimes superstars get preferential treatment, superstars get calls that you just don't necessarily see, uh other teams or other
players getting calls. But it shouldn't be the dominating like just narrative surrounding a football team like Kansas City when they have earned it on the field, they've earned the Super Bowls that they've won, they earned the right think they lost one game this year when everyone in our business, every single one, every single week from about the halfway point on, was trying to find ways to say why this football team would not get back to New Orleans. Yeah,
they found the way every single week. And now quite honestly, they're playing at their up. They're they're they're peaking at the right time, and that's very dangerous for Philadelphia.
Yeah, but if you're going back to the Super Bowl against Philadelphia, that was a controversial call late in the game that went the Chiefs way on the past interference.
So true, I mean, but what who's that? Who is that against against?
Was that against Bradbury? James Bradberry? But he said himself that yeah he did, he grabbed them. It is what I mean it see in that. I don't I don't I don't know, Dan, I don't know how controversial that call was. Ok, that was a clear if that was it, If that was any other team other than Kansas City, it's like, yeah, that's passoror ferris that's defensive holding. I mean,
you can't do it. But because it's Kansas City and because there have been plays that that do spark a lot of debate about whether or not referees are giving them some calls that they don't necessarily deserve, it's going to get amplified. But yeah, I see your point. I see your point.
When did it start to go wrong for the Commanders?
Oh boy, well.
A number Well, there's a number of different things. The explosive play component right out of the gates, the first play kind of was a precursor of what you saw was going to happen in this football game. As far as them, they're inability to contain the run game, to contain the explosive play component. And then if you take it back to the first drive for Washington where they had what was that? What was that like an eighteen
play drive? They eat up like eight to nine minutes and you still only get three that you knew, you knew every drive had to end up in six it had to and when they weren't able to do that, I mean that's that's forecasting way way way ahead of time and really trying to say that you know something that that really you don't. You don't know if it's gonna be that's gonna be the case all game long.
But it just seems so difficult, you know.
I talked about this earlier in the day on Sports Center about that, like Vick was gonna Fangio, the defensive coordinator, was gonna make it hard for Jayden. He was gonna make them have to drive eight nine, ten, eleven, twelve plays. He was gonna play a lot more too high and go, do you have the patience to drive this ball and be perfect for eight nine, ten, twelve fifteen plays to score against our defense? I'm gonna bet that you don't. I'm not gonna make the same mistake I made when
we came to Washington. We played a lot of single high and you burned us on the outside one on one with big, big plays not letting.
You do it.
And he didn't let him do it. He simply didn't let him do it. And then that offensive line in the running game for Philly. It's just that that's gonna be the thing if you're Kansas City now moving forward, Cansey better have an answer for the big boy football that Philly's gonna try and play, and they better hope and they better make sure that Jalen doesn't get hot like it looked like he's starting to come on a little bit.
You know.
It was nice to see him hit aj Brown.
Was nice to see Davonte make some plays because if they get that part going to man.
It's gonna be.
It's gonna be just like it was the last time these two met down in Arizona.
I like in Saquon Barkley to Barry Sanders from the standpoint of one yard minus two, four yards sixty six, that's what Barry used to do. Now, different types of runners, but the end result is similar.
Yeah, And you know what's what's cool about that is if you just kind of broaden that out from a bigger picture, looking at it from a bigger picture. That's why I wasn't concerned, or really haven't been concerned about Philadelphia's inability to create explosives in the passing game, which many people thought was going to be something that would hold them back from being able to win a title
or even get to the Super Bowl. I'm saying, well, look, Saquon is producing explosive plays at a historic rate like no running back has ever been able to do this besides who you're talking about, guys like Barry Sanders, and Barry just didn't have the team around him that obviously Saquan does.
But that.
That point right there is what the single greatest reason why this team is still as dangerous as it is. You know, on top of the fact that they have maybe the best collection of one through fifty three arguably in the NFL, but this guy can take a game and absolutely flip it on its head in a way that most coaches and most front office people think has to come in the passing game, because no one's ever done it like that, no team has ever reached the Super Bowl doing it like that, and this guy does
it on the regular. You come to expect it now, which is just freakish. And he's a one of a kind tout.
Look.
When Dave get him and drafted him in New York and got killed for it, he said, this is a gold jacket player. And obviously he wasn't able to build up the infrastructure around him to help him like Philly has, but he was right.
He was dead right on the value.
Yeah, when he goes in as a Philadelphia Eagle. Then he'll be.
Unfortunately, Dave and John Maren, all of them are gonna be sitting there going oh my God, and Joe saying may too in the end.
Okay, but does this change the philosophy going into this draft that now all of a sudden, our running backs back in vogue, that like Ashton Genty, is he a top ten pick now? Because we're looking at the kind of comeback of the running back, you.
Know, it's gonna be very subjective. There's always gonna be people. They're gonna be a guy on our desk to come draft Knight by the name of mel Kiper who still won't believe that you don't have that you have to draft a running back in the top ten or in the first round unless he is a Barry Sanders s type of talent, Abijon robins an s type of talent.
But I think what it is showing you, what Saquan is making people think about, is this, if you have someone well, you know what, let's just compare him to Aston Genty in particular, because I had the privilege of being able to call that game down the Fiesta Bo. He has the same characteristics, meaning body blow, body blow, four yards, one yard, four yards, five yards seventy I'm out the gate and he's got It'll be interesting to
see what Ashton runs. He looks like, he plays like a guy who has four or three speed at two hundred and twenty pounds and is basically nothing but one giant muscle. So yeah, I think that that conversation within scouting departments and in draft rooms is gonna be Hey, look, if there's a guy who we think in a league that puts a premium on explosive plays can make explosive plays for us out of the backfield, hell yeah, we're gonna draft them.
It's exactly what Jamir.
Gibbs does for Detroit and what Brad Holmes got killed four drafted him in the first round.
Yeah, I think.
I think, I think Dan that whole conversation around never draft running backs in the top fifteen or in the first round overall.
I think that that's over with.
He's Lewis.
I know there are gms right now who believe this. This is one of the best running back drafts that have been around that have come along in a while.
This year.
Lewis Riddick of the Mothership NFL College football analyst coaching hires. If I wanted to hide the fact that I hired a coach, I'd probably announce that on a Friday night that I had hired my coach, and you know, a busy weekend as well. And the Dallas Cowboys somehow did the Dallas Cowboys, who love attention, they love spotlight, shiny things, notice me. And then all of a sudden, it's oh, by the way, oh yeah, forgot to tell you we
hired Brian Schottenheimer as the head coach. What what are they doing?
What Jerry does?
Okay? But could this be the right higher? I mean, nobody else was interviewing Brian Schottenheimer.
It could, It could.
And you know what, if you wanted to play devil's advocate, you could say, well, with the fact that there are seven, eight nine openings every single year, and a lot of times these teams are hiring the people who everyone the consensus is these are the next hot up and comers, they're not. That's not the right way to do it either.
No, So I mean, why not hire Dion?
Why not?
If you have attention? I mean, what's the downside? You're well for thirty.
I think there's I think there's like I'm not the first person to say this, but I have actually seen this in real life, and I've seen how this works. You know, there's winning, and then there's winning the way you want to win. Like sometimes winning isn't good enough for people. It's well now, but I'm not having fun
because I'm not involved. I'm not the guy. I want to do it when I'm the guy, when I get the credit, when I can be the one who's in the you know, at the you know, at the at the head of the pack, and I'm the one.
Who was the voice of the organization.
Jerry already showed that he didn't like that back in the nineties when they were steamrolling everybody, and I played against those teams. Those teams were unstoppable. They simply were unstoppable. And he wound up getting rid of the guy, get rid of a Hall of Fame coach in Jimmy Johnson.
But you're he's a great business man. You can't run a business.
Then there are so many guys, every single guy quite honestly, buying large, not every guy, but most of the owners buying large in the NFL are a great business. Yeah, you don't buy football teams because you're not smart as far as how to make money. A whole lot of them, though, are terrible when it comes to understanding what it takes to win in the game of football. Hell I remember at one time having an owner say to me, quote,
it's football, how hard can it be? And that's the kind of arrogance that a lot of those guys have.
When it comes to look at this game. It's just a bunch of guys who are running around paths, you know.
Hit.
Just give me the best players, give me the give me the coach that everyone says the greatest, and throw the football. Score some touchdowns, keep them healthy. If they're not, we'll get someone else and just keep it going. Sometimes people look at it like that.
They don't. They don't. They don't think it.
Deserves the same that it has the same kind of nuance, or deserves the same kind of attention, or requires the same kind of mental horsepower that it requires to run Microsoft, or or or Apple, or you know, be a company that's that's a fortune five hundred company that makes billions of dollars a year.
They don't think, they don't think it's that.
Intricate, but those are usually the ones who wind up on the outside looking in, looking for coaches every single year, wondering why damn why can't I get there? Why can't I be in the Super Bowl where now all the eyes are on me Because they want to do it their way.
That's why good to talk to you. Thanks for joining us, Lewis Riddick