EA Podcast: Episode 10 Featuring Bart Scott

You had to be home to be watching Monday night football. I'll tell you what, man um, it's prime time. Whenever you get opportunity to be the only show in town, you know you you look forward to it as an opportunity for you to introduce yourself to the world, to the masses. Because now you don't have to worry about people in Dallas tune into the Dallas game. You have to worry about people in San Francisco playing to to

the San Francisco game. Everybody's watching your game. You have everybody's fan base, and you have an opportunity can name for yourself. We always say you make your name in a regular season you make your fame in the postseason. Well, this is kind of a special day because you can make your name and your fame on Monday Night football, and you look forward to that. You look for an opportunity to say this is who I am, this is how I play, I'm coming watch me. I'm worth the

price of admission Monday nights. When Bart Scott was in New York, Jet used to have the fellas over for a big party. You guys get together, you watch the game, and then you take care of the fellas afterwards. But it is the game that the pros still watch Monday night absolutely because you know, you're evaluating your peers. You're you're preparing yourself to your peers. So you know, that's why the game is so important, because it's not for You're not paying paying for the You're not playing for

the fans, so to speak. You're playing to show your peers who you are. You know, most football players don't really care about being fan favorites. They want to be respected by their peers. So when football players talk nearly

man that do bad, you won't respect for people. To understand the craft, to understand the business, understand the defense, understand the offense understand that what's trying to get done, so they can say you rather you rather a football player to say you're a batman than a fan say because he may or may not really understand what makes you a bad man, what makes you a great player, what makes you unique, what makes you special? And Monday

night football, the lives are the brightest. It's the brightest baby, and that's what you want to show up. You are a national brand. You are on the NFL today, you are part of Merrill Lynches financial literacy. They don't take my money away, Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley, Oh my god, Merrill Lynch, I think sponsors one of our shows. You know, all the sponsors run together. So Morgan Stanley, I'm not taking your money away. They just took a day's councel

to check. So you are all over the place. Do you think your brand as a player was enhanced by what happened one day night football Baltimore Ravens, New England Patriots. The way you competed at all, So it was really the first time the nation saw your personality, correct, don't you think? Well, that's what the first time they got introduced to my crazy because everybody was watching. You know, Uh, what really put me on the scene, We put me on the scene. It first of my career was to

hit on Ben Roethlisberger. But after that, right right, that was that was the dream shot. But what put me on the scene on the national level, I believe was me throwing the flag in the stands on Monday night football. They're like, who is this crazy nut? Just do as a psycho like, but he's interesting to watch, He's passionate. Um,

and it came at a frustrating time in the game. Um, but I was trying to stand up for my guys because I felt like, you know, um, we were handed the short end the stake that you know, all odds were against us. And you know, I believe that the

NFL wanted the Patriots to win. Uh strictly so you know, not because I believe that the NFL carris who wins the losers, but I think monetarily, you know, it was beneficial for them to for the Patriots to win because at that point, the Patriots we're approaching history, and um, it was money to be made if they could sell the game, and they did, they sold it to they

It was syndicated. They you know, it was simulcast on NFL network, UM, CBS, NBC, ABC because everybody wanted to see if the team could go undefeated like the Miami Dolphins, So the NFL one that way. But you know, it was just a series of events that really frustrated us, uh me and particularly but us as a team. You talk about, we're winning, first time our team is healthy all year. Uh we're not going to the playoffs, but

first time that our unit is back. It was an important game for us to kind of show everybody who we were that, yeah, we may have underachieved, but we're injured, but we're back together. This is the look of things to come, you know the next year. And well, I was standing defensive performance. It's a team that was lightening off the scoreboard every week right right just when they had mass everybody and you know, we we put on

the show. And it came down to the to the last drive and they gave him four four penalties on fourth down that continued their drive until finally they got um the touchdown that they needed and you know, and it just boiled over and you know, since then the next game, UM, the referee who was there got suspended for three games, which nobody talks about. I got fined twenty five grand, which at that time was a hell

of a lot of money. Uh you know, equivalent to today that would have been a semi five thousand out of five. But it was funny because when they called me, uh the they said it was unpresident because they never seen anybody throw referees flag in the stand, so they had nothing to to really leverage against. But I had never really got in trouble on the field off the field, so they kept it at five. I think Warren sapped like slam Chester Taylor the next week and he got

fired semi five thousand. So you know it was because I was a good outstanding citizen before that. You know, I didn't you know, how to pay more money, and Brian Bella had your back. Oh yeah, Brian big help me down, you know. UM asked what did he say to me, Um when when I threw the flag coming to the sideline, He said, you know what the exacuate. He told me that he wished he would have been close enough to the flags he would have threw that and stands two of the BS Eric Dockers on injury reserve.

How would that impact the jetson? How does that impact uh the offense and moving forward? Well, moving forward, I think it's good to have clarity. It's good to understand what you're going to to to the game with. I think it really frees things up for a new while who I'm sure was always in limbo every week figuring out who he was going to play, what position he

was playing. And also unless Safari and Jenkins be able to really move in and understand what his package is going to be, UM, I think maybe they're they're gonna have to maybe go with some two lines, two running back type of sess I would um, and get your best players on the field. You can't ask too much

of Safferian Jenkins one. You don't know what type of football shapes he's in, and so you want to you want to bring him along slowly because you last thing he wanted for him to get a hamstring or something like that. You know, But I think you have to put bal Paul and Matt fourteen to fill at the same time and try and see how defenses match up with it, and then take advantage of your best players. Yeah, he's the Cardinals are in the league against the run.

I know you can't get caught up too much in statistics, but on the surface, this is a pressure oriented defense. They got Chandler Jones former Patriots, twelve sex last year. I think he's got four sex this year. Marcus Golden, not a household name, but he's giving a household production. He's got six sacks in the year. And then Klass Campbell, a guy who probably doesn't get the recognition he deserves

on the East Coast. Massive guy, massive got six eight maybe a two time pro bowler, fifteen and a half career sex from the interior. But I forget, I forget, you know, they gave him big money, and I forget who the safety is that they moved to linebacker. But they do well. Dion Buchanan. Yeah, they do a great job in blitching him, and he's able to match up.

You know, it won't be foreign for him to match up with the Farren Jenkins because he's a former safety, so he should be big enough and strong enough and fast enough to keep up with them, you know. So you know, it's where it's usually an advantage because you can match him up against say a linebacker, you know, maybe maybe a little a little different this week. You can't really thrive under Todd Bowles when he broke into

the league coming out of Washington State. That's that's that's another plus because you really understand Todd Bowls should have the pulse of this team. He's familiar with what they like to do, what they can't do. So do you think he's jumping in with Jane Gaily even more than he normally would. I think he should have a lot

of input because he knows that system. He knows what they're doing, how they adjust to certain routes, how they adjust a certain formations, how they adjust a certain personnels, and also they understand that as well. So that's the chess match, right, You know, you have to make sure that um they they that they use their knowledge of his system and it's a detriment to them because you use that knowledge against them and they'll be trying to do the thing and think at the same side. That's

what makes it football so great. It's the battle of the of the minds. It's a chess match. Is this offense changing in Arizona though, Well, it's been known as a vertical passing attack, and I'm not saying they're totally getting away from that because he's still can max protect at times. But you love David Johnson. Well, David Johnson is the second best running back in the game. He's big, he's fast, he's explosive, he has a chip on the shoulder.

He's a D one double a guy. He's the best catcher of the football out of all the running backs. He's as natural hands, soft hands. And what you usually get out of a running back is maybe a slant, maybe an out route, or maybe a bubble screen. They will they will throw him vertical routes lined up as a receiver, and it doesn't matter if it's a safety out there, it doesn't matter if it's a corner out there.

He will get the ball. And when he gets the ball, he will run past anybody you were in the locker room before during win streaks and losing streaks. Right now, the Jets have lost three games in a row. A lot of pressure, a lot of negative noise on the outside. How do you as a player handle that when you insulate yourself from things externally and how difficult is that? Well? What you what you said it right? You insulate yourself. You you you you, you cut out all the white

noise and you focus on what's important. What's important is the next game and getting the win. You know, you get a win here, you get you get two to two together. Now those those narratives start to change, and you have to just make sure that you don't get too high when that changes too. Because they loved you when you beat Buffalo. Everything was great, everybody was great, and of course you stink win when you lose to to all the other teams, no matter how good other

people may perceive them to be. So you just want to get a victory. So you're you're hurried. You're going to sleep early because you're hoping that the next day will come so you can hurry up and get to the football game. You think this is a better matchup for the Jets overall. You're not saying whether they're gonna win or lose, but you think it's a better matchup paper than Pittsburgh. I think this is a better matchup

because you know the quarterback isn't Ben Roethlisburg. He's he's good and they have tremendous record, but he's coming off a concussion um if he even plays, if not, they may get Drew Stanton, which is definitely a better matchup because it limits the offense and he's mistake prone, he'll he'll give the game away. So, um, you know, I think they have their better matchup against this offensive line that's banged up, and um, you know, they just have

to make sure that they can contain David Johnson. David Johnson and you offensively would like to see a little bit more Forte and Paul and those their guys that those are gods you can count on, you can trust

on them. You know. Then you can put him on the field at the same time because they both have receiver skills right right, so you can break the formation no different if you have two great tight ends, you put both tight ends out there and you split your matchups because it'll be interest is interesting to see how they match up. How do you think Bowls does attack this Arizona offense? Last week we saw a lot of coverage in the back trying to get there with the

the front uh four. Obviously Ben was in the shotgun almost entirely the whole game, so you're operating out of an advantage there. Well, Arizona try to do the same thing well, well, Carson. Carson is like a deer stuck in the headlights. You know exactly where he's going to be. He's not the fleet of foot, He's not the guy who's gonna extend plays like Ben Roethlisberg. He's not gonna

be squatting defenders down and still delivering the ball. So they like to take deep shots, so it's gonna give you more time to really get to the passer, you know. And they don't have a great line. They don't have a great line at all, so they may have to keep David Johnson in and make him chip out, which is advantage to you. They have Gressham, But anytime you have a tight end against one of your premier pass rus, should you expect that pass rus should have win defensively.

And I've been asked this, and I was asked us on Twitter because we're taking some fans questions, is what do you think Todd Bowls and Casey Rodgers has to do with this unit? Because I've always been of My thought process has always been, hey, listen and you talk the same way. Players gotta make plays and at the same but at the same time, what would you like to see them do defensive. Well, when it gets down to this, you gotta strip down and go to the basics,

right listen. I'd rather you guys not do too much thinking and be able to play fast, and you guys trying to have too much of the playbook. Maybe I have to scale it back a bit and you know, go more conservative and trust my guys to win up top, because at the end of the day, the game is about matchups. You have to win your your individual matchups,

and that's what's not been happening. You know, maybe ten guys win they match up on one play, but one guy lets down, you know, So you got to go back to the basics, and everybody has to pull their own weight. Everybody has to stay within themselves and not try and be some superhero and do everybody's job. Because when you're trying to do somebody else's job, who's doing yours. So they have to just calm down and get it together and work it out. You gotta read on the

league right now. Well you have you've been impressed with the Atlanta last couple of weeks. Yeah, I picked the line I actually do. Yeah, absolutely, because this isn't the same old line of Falcons just defensively, they're still struggle. But you know last year, you know Freman snapped off, but he got tired. They overused him. You know, he was like the fantasy, you know wonder. But now Coleman is that other big back. So what you saw, everybody

wants to try and get Julio. But now Julio has backup. Last year, Rannie White wasn't a sufficient backup. He wasn't a sufficient um batman and robbing type of combination. Mohammed so knew the reason that Cincinnati's struggling because Mohammed sannew and Marvin Jones isn't there. So now you've got another big man there that can make you pay if you decided to take Julio Jones away. Yeah, Julio Jones at three hundred yards a year the week before, but last

week he didn't have a good game. But everybody else did you know Coleman receiving out of the backfield, those dual threat um type of running backs, framing going crazy crazy exactly. So now they have versatility, Now they have depth, and they really I think physically took it to Denver because Denver wasn't prepared at the linebacker position to come fill those gaps and to cover those guys man and man.

Man's so the only undefeated team you're surprised of sitting there at five and a no. That's that's the reason I got on an airplane and flew out the Minnesota last week. That those guys are humbled. Those guys Zimmer got them, you know, their their mind and in the right frame of mind. You talked about losing your best, you know, maybe the best running back of all time, losing your starting quarterback and losing your left tackle. And they didn't blink and they say, woa me. They just

got together. And what happens whenever you have adversity early and you live through it, it makes you a better team because now everybody's on board, Guys that may have just been leaning on watching Adrian Peterson run the ball, everybody stepping up and trying to do their parts, and

now you have a more complete team. So that's exactly what Brandon Marshall said in the locker room the other day, is that the failure after failure comes growth, and right now the Jets are facing a lot of adversity, and Brandon thinks that they had a good week of practice and even though the score and running that ball, they did a lot of good things. So if the Jets can get through this and maybe get a win this week in Arizona, can we say good good things on

the horizon? Yeah. Moment Momentum is a crazy thing. You can swing one way in the next and now it was swinging your way early. Now is not how do you get it back? You get it back and you hold it, you capture you're trying to put it in the bottle and you just spand on it. I thought about it. That's it. Bart Scott a podcast. Next Y