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Best of Ian Furness 9/21 · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Your home for the 12th man in the NFL proudly
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: presents Hardcore Football with Hugh Miller. Brought to you by
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hunt Services. Get on the horn and call Hunt. Now
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  Speaker 1: here's Hugh with Ian Furness on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.
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  Speaker 2: Hardcore Football Humor on every Monday here on 93.3 KGFM.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Ian Furness with you, and we've been doing this for
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  Speaker 2: a long time. He was at the game yesterday, a
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  Speaker 2: dominating affair, especially in that second half by the Seahawks
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  Speaker 2: on the way to another win.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, sir. How are you? I'm doing great.
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  Speaker 2: Man, it didn't take long. It did not take long.
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  Speaker 2: I got a couple questions. I listened to you in
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  Speaker 2: the postgame with Drew Locke and so forth. There's some
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  Speaker 2: things I want to get to. I do want to
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  Speaker 2: just throw one thing at you about... the defense as
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: we get going. Eamon Worry only played a handful of snaps,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: kind of easing him in, didn't need to really do
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  Speaker 2: much with him. But we know he's a huge part
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  Speaker 2: of what the Seahawks want to do. When you watch
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  Speaker 2: what Mike McDonald's doing, the adjustments they make with the
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  Speaker 2: injuries to Okada and also to Eamon Worry, are we
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  Speaker 2: a team that held the Cardinals to less than 50
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  Speaker 2: yards in the second half of offense, less than a
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  Speaker 2: hundred yards passing. Are we, are we still just seeing
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  Speaker 2: this scratching the surface of what this defense is about?
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  Speaker 3: I would think so. I mean, think of the young
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  Speaker 3: core that they have. I mean, I think this summer
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  Speaker 3: ESPN pulled a bunch of, of the, of GMs and,
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  Speaker 3: and they said, okay, who's the, who is the best
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  Speaker 3: team for the future defined as 2027 through, I think
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  Speaker 3: the three or four years starting, not this year, but
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  Speaker 3: next year. And the Seahawks came out number one.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: And a big part of it was the coaching and
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  Speaker 3: the GM, but it was also the number of young
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  Speaker 3: players that they have locked up. And so, yeah. Even Worry,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I thought prior to knowing that he was
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: going on the PUP, he was 60-1 to be the
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  Speaker 3: defensive player of the year in the NFL.
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  Speaker 4: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: And I said– I know his odds are better than that. Now,
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  Speaker 3: you know, he's in a hole now, and he'll have
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  Speaker 3: to make a lot of splash plays. But I think
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  Speaker 3: that the league understands just how unique he is. He's
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  Speaker 3: a freak athlete with freak length and movement skills, and
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  Speaker 3: he's strong. I mean, all the physical traits. And now
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  Speaker 3: you take what Mike McDonald is just putting him on
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  Speaker 3: the hyper– learning curve to turn him into kyle hamilton
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  Speaker 3: who was his safety his long and rangy first round
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  Speaker 3: draft pick safety out of notre dame with the length
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  Speaker 3: and and a lot of people say don't draft safeties
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  Speaker 3: in the first round well ravens did it and and
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  Speaker 3: and mcdonald used kyle hamilton he's first team all pro
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  Speaker 3: and then now he says wait a minute i can
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  Speaker 3: get this nick him and worry dude out of south
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  Speaker 3: carolina who's even a better athlete he has the same
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  Speaker 3: length but a better athlete yes, please give me some
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  Speaker 3: of that. And they got him. And, uh, and, and then, and,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: you know, yesterday easing him back in, he had some
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: pass rushes, uh, you know, they just lined them up
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  Speaker 3: as an edge rusher.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it wasn't, but a couple of rushes and Ian
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: that he was, he was rushing off of the left
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  Speaker 3: edge from, uh, uh, from Seattle's perspective and the, the,
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  Speaker 3: Cardinals were turning their line towards him, the center. And
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  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that's because of Amon Warrior. It's just
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: a routine, hey, center goes right, the back's a line left, right?
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  Speaker 3: That's the most basic protection in all of football. But
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  Speaker 3: they had three for three. But they left Trey McBride
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  Speaker 3: in to help the tackle, even though they had a
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: hat for a hat. Three for three, three offensive linemen,
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  Speaker 3: the center, the right guard, and the right tackle. All
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  Speaker 3: they had to do is, is just go their direction.
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  Speaker 3: And it was a very simple pass blocking, but they,
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  Speaker 3: but they said, no, our right tackle can't handle even worry.
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  Speaker 3: Let's leave Trey McBride. Our only, you know, playmaker on
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  Speaker 3: the whole damn team. Uh, at least for now, I
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  Speaker 3: don't think Jeremiah love is going to be a playmaker, but,
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  Speaker 3: but at least for now, I'm like bride. And he
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  Speaker 3: was pass blocking on a minority.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It's like, it's like, it's like cancel one for one. So, um, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: he's going to be special. He's going to be special,
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  Speaker 3: and he's young. He's going to keep on making his impact.
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  Speaker 3: But you know what? I'm calling him, if you'll allow
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: me to use this term, a Sino.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Safety in name only. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: I like it.
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  Speaker 3: Because, yeah, they call him a safety, but he doesn't
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  Speaker 3: play in the back end. I mean, he was less
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: than 3% last year. Now, he plays everywhere on the
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: front end near the line of scrimmage. He'll line up wide.
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  Speaker 3: He'll play cover. He'll be a cloud corner. He'll line
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: up in the slot. He'll line up in the box.
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  Speaker 3: He'll line up at end. And so everything within 10
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  Speaker 3: yards of the line of scrimmage, he might do anything,
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  Speaker 3: but he's really not a back-end guy.
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  Speaker 2: I love it. Humile and hardcore football. Well, this is
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: hardcore football, so let's get into it because I know
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: you guys were discussing this afterwards in the postgame. I
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  Speaker 2: thought it was an interesting dynamic what happened on that,
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  Speaker 2: the second play, offensive play from scrimmage for Seattle, second
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  Speaker 2: and sixth. At their own 18 for Seattle, after forcing
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  Speaker 2: a three and out to start the game, Drew Locke
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  Speaker 2: finds Jackson Smith and Jigba for 82 yards and a touchdown.
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  Speaker 2: And apparently it wasn't a go route. It was something else.
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  Speaker 2: Walk me through. This is hardcore football. What happened there?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for our P1s who listen all day,
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  Speaker 3: there's been some confusion. Let me try and clear this up.
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  Speaker 3: This was not Jackson Smith and Jigba playing. going rogue
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  Speaker 3: on the route, just deciding, Hey, I feel like I
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  Speaker 3: can go deep.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay.
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  Speaker 3: And converting a hitch route or any other route. What
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: this was, was it, it was an out and up.
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  Speaker 3: He was the widest guy. So from, from Drew Locke's perspective, um,
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  Speaker 3: he's the widest guy to his right. The Cardinals would
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  Speaker 3: say he's number one to our left.
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  Speaker 5: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: Just, and number one just doesn't mean Jersey number one,
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  Speaker 3: cause he's not that. Doesn't mean he's their best receiver,
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  Speaker 3: even though he is. It's where he is aligned. He's
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  Speaker 3: the closest to the sideline. That makes him number one, period,
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  Speaker 3: end of story. The fullback could have been out there,
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  Speaker 3: and he's number one. And so in that coverage, they
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  Speaker 3: felt like the Cardinals were a little, you know, what
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  Speaker 3: I would call unsound. You can't trigger too fast on
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  Speaker 3: an out route because if you do and the quarterback
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  Speaker 3: hasn't let the ball go, You're getting nosy in there,
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  Speaker 3: and you will be susceptible to a double move. So
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  Speaker 3: they call the out and up. Now, this is where
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: the confusion emanates from. Drew Locke says, well, I wasn't
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  Speaker 3: used to him being open that fast. And what he meant,
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  Speaker 3: and then he amplified it. He said, I'm not used
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  Speaker 3: to him going on the inside of the corner. And
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  Speaker 3: it's really easy to see. The out and up, he's
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  Speaker 3: going to take two inside steps going up the field.
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  Speaker 3: Then he's going to start to radius out. He's going
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  Speaker 3: to break off his inside leg, which would be his
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  Speaker 3: left leg. Then he goes right, left, right. That's what
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  Speaker 3: he would have done in practice. Right, left, right, and
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  Speaker 3: then round it up and go on an out and up.
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  Speaker 3: Can we say that again? Out and up. And that's
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  Speaker 3: a double move. The adjustment JSN made and what's been
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  Speaker 3: discussed that is confusing people and what Drew Locke said,
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  Speaker 3: I'm not used to him running that quick or taking
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  Speaker 3: the inside. He felt like the corner was driving hard
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  Speaker 3: to the outside. And he felt like if he just
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  Speaker 3: did one step instead of three towards the sideline, then
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  Speaker 3: that he would be able to release and go inside
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  Speaker 3: as opposed to like if I'm let's say your head
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  Speaker 3: up on me and you're the corner and I'm Jason
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  Speaker 3: and I'm going to go up. I'm going to break
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  Speaker 3: to the out. Now I'm going to go three steps
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  Speaker 3: and then I'm going to go around you. Does that
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  Speaker 3: make sense? I'm going to go outside of you closest
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  Speaker 3: to the sideline and then hopefully I'm going to run
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  Speaker 3: by you. But if you're already so far outside, I'm
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  Speaker 3: going to say, wait a minute. If I just go
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  Speaker 3: one step, you're driving so hard. Not only are you
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  Speaker 3: driving hard downhill, you're also outside leverage on me. So
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  Speaker 3: why would I want to lose my leverage and try
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  Speaker 3: and go outside of you? I'll just go one step
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  Speaker 3: and then go inside of you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just watching it right now. That's crazy. But
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  Speaker 2: he did. He took the one step and then went
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  Speaker 2: by him, right?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but do you see how he went one step
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  Speaker 3: and then went inside of him?
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  Speaker 4: Yep, yep.
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  Speaker 3: And so when Locke says, when they practice that, they
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  Speaker 3: weren't practicing for a guy to be that outside, have
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  Speaker 3: that much outside leverage. They were practicing for him being
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: head up and then squatting is a term. You can
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: use that term. Squatting means you're not getting your depth.
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  Speaker 3: Because for him, if he doesn't have a safety over
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  Speaker 3: the top, you're looking at the play. On the other
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: side of the formation, the Cardinals run to what's called
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: a cloud, a two-look formation. a shell. There's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of different terminology, but the safety is over the top
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  Speaker 3: on a vertical route on to, to, uh, to the
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  Speaker 3: right of drew lock. You say Buddha Baker, he goes,
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  Speaker 3: he backpedals vertically, but he doesn't get with no. So
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  Speaker 3: now like when I'm, when I was coaching high school quarterbacks,
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  Speaker 3: I said, Hey, in, in, in every coverage, ask yourself
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  Speaker 3: if my number one goes on a go route, who
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  Speaker 3: has it? Because if the answer is a corner, then
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  Speaker 3: that's his number one fear. But that's his number one
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  Speaker 3: objective and concern is to stop the go route. Stop
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  Speaker 3: the nine on the route tree. The nine is the
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  Speaker 3: go route. So like he has to defend the nine
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  Speaker 3: number one, which means you can, you can have completions
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: in front of him. But if, if the answer is
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  Speaker 3: the safety would have the go route. Now that corner
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  Speaker 3: can trigger. He can be down. He's got, he's got
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  Speaker 3: the help over the top.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 3: He's got the help behind him with the safety. So, so,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: so the Cardinals from drew lock perspective, he would, he would,
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: he's in shotgun.
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  Speaker 4: He's gone.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, to my left, they got a safety going high over.
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  Speaker 3: I can't get anything vertical to number one outside. To
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  Speaker 3: my right, oh, Buda Baker, he's not getting any width.
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  Speaker 3: He's backpedaling. He's got vertical depth. He's not over the
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  Speaker 3: top of that corner. So now we have the one-on-one
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  Speaker 3: we want. We got the corner to trigger on the out.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: But because of his outside leverage, JSN, the adjustment he
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: made on the fly, is I'm going to go one
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  Speaker 3: step instead of three and then go vertical. It makes sense?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: It makes sense. If I'm watching, it makes sense. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, because Buda, the safeties you talked about, he's
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: at the hash marks, the far hash marks. And by
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: the time JSN, the ball's in the air, JSN's outside
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  Speaker 2: the nearside numbers. I mean, it was, I mean. You
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  Speaker 2: can't get over the top of it. Yeah, there's no
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  Speaker 2: way to get there. And I'm watching Locke, and Locke's like,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know what his, was he thinking? jsn was
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: going to sit down at first and then just kind
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: of he had the little hitch and then and then
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: waited and then found him is that like what's going
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: through lock's mind at that point.
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  Speaker 3: Well he didn't he he had a certain timing that
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: he expected and he wanted to he wanted to make
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: sure that if he if he looks too early even
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: though buddha and by the way buddha if you're scouting
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: buddha He takes chances. He's all over. He's a missile.
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  Speaker 3: He can cover a lot of ground. But he will
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: kind of– he has the look of freelancing more than
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  Speaker 3: any safety that I see in the league.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: Almost like they say, you've got free reign to kind
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: of do whatever you want in some of these. And
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: that's a little bit of exaggeration, but they devise– defenses
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  Speaker 3: to allow Buddha to freelance. And then they, they cover
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: for him in unconventional ways. So, so if I'm drew lock,
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  Speaker 3: I would say, yeah, um, I know that Buddha is not,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: he's not a half safety. He's a quarter safety quarter
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: means more into the middle of the field. Um, but
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I also know if I stare down and if I
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: just look at the, the, the cornerback, And all I
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: do is turn my head way to the side and
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: look at, at what, uh, how bad the corner's getting beat.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Then I might draw Buddha over to the sideline with
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: my eyes. So what, what I'm going to do is
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I'm going to, I'm going to assume JSN is going
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: to go three up and then break out for three
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: steps and then up. And there's a certain timing. I'm
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: going to hold Buddha to make sure he doesn't get with,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: and then I'll throw it. But, but that timing gets
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: messed up. So by the time he looked, it's like,
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Oh damn, he's way down there. He's right. Cause he,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: cause he took one step to the sideline instead of three.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: So everything, it's all beautiful football. It's all beautiful football.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: It's great protection. It's a quarterback just hanging there, not panicking.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: He holds his base. You see, once he decided to throw,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: did you notice how he didn't have to crow hop
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: and step up and get his body behind it? Because
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: he's got arm talent. He's got first starting quarterback traits, right?
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: This is a dude who's 6'3 and 6'8. You say,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: isn't that three quarters? Yes, but that combine goes... by eights. So,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: so he's got the, he was 228 pounds. He's a
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: big dude that ran a four, six, four at the combine.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: That's probably faster than 90% of quarterbacks like this quick
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: release strong arm. Like he has starter traits. So when
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: he stands there and it's just effortless, like he's throwing a,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: you know, a wadded up waste paper across the, into
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: a waste bucket at the office. that's because he has
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: starter traits and he threw that ball 45 yards in
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: the air. Plus the angle.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: You know, I mean, it's, you know, pushing 50 yards
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: and it just looks effortless.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: But it looks, I'm watching it. It just like he
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: flicked the wrist and it's like, there it is. I mean,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: it's unreal.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Now, now look, I don't, we can't oversell this cause
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: we're going to lose our credibility. I'm not saying this
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: was a terribly difficult, um, uh, active quarterbacking because Jason,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: you know, they got the, the, the, You know, credit
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: Brian Flory. He game-planned that thing. He knew they were
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: going to trigger. So that's a great play calling. Credit
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: the offensive line. Credit JSN for just being, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: the all-time. You know, I called him this morning. I'm
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: calling him a maestro. Like the greatest violinist, you know,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: is a maestro.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: A maestro.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Here's the dictionary definition. A person who has great skill
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: and mastery in an art. Nice mastery. I love that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: That's a noun. He has mastery of wide receiving in
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: the NFL. So, so you've got JSN just doing his
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: mastery and, and then, so if you're just saying, okay, what, what,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: you know, go over with a fine tooth comb as
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: a quarterback coach. to uh drew lock what are we
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: doing well i've been just discussing it you know you
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: uh just hang in there um and then and make
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: sure buddha can't come off it so there's a proper
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: timing oh wait a minute jsn messed up my timing
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: that i expected because he went one step okay all
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: good i don't have to take a a crow hop
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: step i can just stand here flat-footed oh oh i'm
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: late i'm behind he's farther up the field i got
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: the arm i'll just walk it out to him and
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: oh by the way The unforgivable sin would be to
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: overthrow him.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Which causes quarterbacks to do what? Underthrow them so you
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: get the completion. You get the 55-yard completion. But the
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: DB catches up and makes the tackle. But the DB
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: catches up.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Yep, yep.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: So I would say he held him up just incrementally.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: If you watch JSN Stride, there is a point where
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: he barely slows down.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: Yep, yep.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: And then accelerates through. So it was, you know... Put
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: it this way. We'll, we'll, we'll stop it with this.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: You're in the quarterback meeting room. You're Brian Flory and
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: you're Drew Lock. And you say, that is a double
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: plus great big time quarterbacking. It's not the most difficult
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: touchdown pass you'll ever have, but you did everything you
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: needed to do to get a touchdown.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: That's and, and I'm just watching it again. It's just amazing. That,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: that one step is amazing. Like, like Will Wilson or
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Will Johnson, rather the cornerback. She's like, yeah, whoop. It's like,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: there we go.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And you're right.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: There was like a little bit of a stutter step
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: at the 50, like just like, it's like a really,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to throttle down for a second and
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: then boom, throttle back up, catch it. And away we go. And,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: and what a thing of beauty.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: But even that, listen, the maestro, even that, that guy's,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: this is actually a really important part. When you, when you,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: if you're a quarterback and you've been in camps and everything, you,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: you look and you, I've, I've seen hundreds of wide
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: receivers go through camps. And, you know, 15 come to
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: camp and eight go home. Or, you know, nine go home.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: And how you– your ability to judge the ball in flight–
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: is such a distinguisher you got these guys that you
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: say wait a minute he's got the size he can
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: run like the wind he's actually got good hands like
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: why is he not do because he he his judgment
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: of the football is subpar and on deep breaking around
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: so what and and jsn is elite elite at all
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: yes like think of a center fielder a good center
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: fielder at the crack of the bat He doesn't take
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: one false step. He takes exactly the right angle, and
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: he just kind of lopes under and makes a routine
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: catch in the alley. A lesser intuitive center fielder will
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: maybe take one false step. He can't judge it off
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: the crack of the bat. Now all of a sudden
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: he's sprinting, and he has to do a Lenny Dykstra
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: catch to make it on SportsCenter. Like, oh, what a catch.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: And then the people who really know the game are
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: looking back and going, Well, he's making a diving catch
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: because he was laid off the bat and his first
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: step was a bad angle. So now all of a
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: sudden he made a routine play look like a SportsCenter
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: top 10 candidate. Well, that happens with receivers. And so
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: JSN right there, when you see him slow down, you realize,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: check how far when he went to go accelerate. This
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: is what he's doing. This is how brilliant this guy is.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: He knew that it was just going to be slightly underthrown.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: But if he goes up there and then he slows
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: down when he catches it, now Buda might catch him.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: So what he does, he's tracing the ball. He's tracking
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: the ball. He knows it's slightly underthrown. So he immediately
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: puts on the brakes when it's at its apex, long
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: before it's going to land. But then what does that
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: allow him to do? That allows him to accelerate when
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: he actually catches it. So he did the slowing down
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: part 10 yards before.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: At the ball.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Like these are the details. This is a freaking maestro.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: We are watching. absolute greatness uh in the in like
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: what all of the craft all the parts of the
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: uh the body control the the the tracking of the
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: ball the catching the contested ball like this guy is
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: is is put on planet earth to be an nfl
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: wide receiver that was god's plan for him and we
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: just get to watch it's like it's like michelangelo you
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: know uh uh do you know carving out the statue
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: of David right for us, right in front of us
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: every Sunday. Like that's the greatness of this guy. He
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: is so special. And even that little detail, trust.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Me, I know like he.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Might be the only guy in the league that would
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: do it exactly that way. And now it may, and
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: he makes it look like a, a walk-in touchdown. But
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: if he, if, if, if he doesn't track that ball
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: that way and he slows down a little later, he
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: might get caught. I love it.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Uh, let's do this. We'll take a quick break. Come back.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: You asked a question, uh, in the postgame talking about
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the cloud coverage and what teams are trying to do
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: against JSN when he's playing the X receiver because usually
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: you think you're moving around a little bit. That's hardcore football,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: so I'll ask you about that, what you meant by that,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: and what people should be looking for. We'll do that next.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Now back to Countdown to Monday Night Football with Ian Furness.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by Frostbrood Coors Light. Cold as the Rockies.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: On Sports Radio 93.3, AJR FM.
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: Rulox.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Going deep down the middle.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Towards the sideline, it's a Jigma.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Jackson, Smith, and Jigma will take it down the sideline,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: and that is a Seahawks touchdown.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: That's courtesy of Fox. Welcome back in, Hardcore Football. One
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: more segment. Hugh Millen, you asked a question yesterday, and
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: this is a beautiful thing about Hardcore Football. We're all
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: always left wanting for more, so we just have a
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: few minutes here, but I think we're going to extend
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the segment here in a couple weeks to an hour
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: if we can, but we'll get to that down the road.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: In the meantime, sir.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: You asked a question in the postgame I thought was
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: interesting about, you know, playing Jackson Smith and Jigme at
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: the X and then the cloud coverage the teams are
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: trying to use and what that means. Can you walk
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: me through that and what the listeners should know about
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: exactly that? We've talked about cloud coverage a lot of
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: times on this show.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Sure. So, first of all, the receivers are called XYZ.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: You could go back to literally the Vince Lombardi playbook.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: and the the split end was the x he's the
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: receiver away from the tight end the tight end is
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: the y and then the flanker or the receiver that's
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: to the side of the tight end uh that's the
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: z that's in that's just in three you know three
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: receiver sets you know it's like 21 personnel uh you
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: know since vince lombardi days now there's four and five
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: wides and blah blah blah but So you got the
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: extra X is the guy that is when, when you
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: hear people say the X receiver, you're saying that he's
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: the single receiver. Um, now it could, you could be
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: the X in a two by two, but we more
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: often when we start talking about it, we mean that it's, uh,
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: the X is the single receiver. So we got trips, right.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: And the single receiver to our left is the X. Okay.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: So let's, let's be a quarterback now in the national
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: football league. We're in shotgun and we are on the
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: left hash.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: So, okay, I got my field to the right. I
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: got my X to the left. Now, let me stop
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: right here and make an axiom that is true in
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: basically every sport. Space is the friend of the offense
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: and the enemy of defense. I'm sure Jackson and the
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: soccer guys, Anderson and the soccer guys here would tell
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: you the same thing, right? Basketball, right? Offense wants space. So,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: When we're on the left hash and we have the
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: single receiver side, there's more space for him because we
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: have fewer receivers around him. Got me? Because I got
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: three receivers to my right, and they've got to have
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: their defense aligned so they can defend all the three
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: receiver route combos. But I got more or less single
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: coverage over to my left. Now, as an ex-receiver... We
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: know he has to be good off the line of
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: scrimmage because he's going to be tethered to the line.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: To be a legal formation, he has to be on
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage. The flanker can be one yard off,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: which gives him space to wiggle and make moves to
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: get off of the line of scrimmage. That's one of
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: the things Marvin Harrison has struggled at this level is, okay,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: as an X receiver, are you good at the line
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: of scrimmage? Of course, JSN is very good at the
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: line of scrimmage there. Now, when I look and I say, okay, cloud.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: cloud it, first of all, I say, why call it cloud? If,
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: if we're, we're just going back to the days of when, um,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: I'm going to name drop here. Um, you know, um,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: Paul McCartney said, uh, that I shouldn't name drop. He
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: told me that, but I'm going to name drop on,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: on having, are you still there?
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: I'm here.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: Um, Joe Namath did a game, uh, uh, and, and
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: we had a pre- I mean, I was playing in
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: a game and Joe Namath was the analyst several years ago.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: And we started talking. Somehow the conversation got to the
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl three, the famous Super Bowl three that that
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: he was the MVP of.
• 25:11
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: He said the Baltimore Colts were in cover three every
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: single down three deep and four under three. OK, so
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: that's a that's a long time zone. He said every
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: single down. And that's not surprising because the Jets were
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: in 21 personnel every single down. But the the what
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: they call it was three sky or three cloud.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: OK.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: And, and one is sky is because is, is who
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: has the flat sky begins with an S the safety
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: as the flat cloud begins with a C. So the
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: corner has got me. That's as simple as that sky
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: and cloud. So now let's go. So when we say cloud,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: we say, um, now the corner is the guy in
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: the flat and there's a safety over the top. So
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: anytime you hear, so let's get back to we're in shotgun.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: We're on the left hash. Oh, we got JSN to
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: our left. The Cardinals, they have a corner. But now
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: I'm looking, where's the safety? Is he in the middle
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: of the field? In which case, that's not cloud coverage. No,
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: he's over on that half of the field. He's over
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: the top. He's to our left. He's like moving, you know,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: almost to the numbers to our left side. That means
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: JSN has to get around the corner. who doesn't have
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: to worry about missing him at the line of scrimmage
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: because he has a safety for anything deep. So now
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: we're saying, oh, JSN's double covered. Now, does that mean
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: we can't throw at him? No, we can throw a
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: slant route if the split is wide enough. We can
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: reduce the split. He can run a corner route, and
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: we hit the pocket to the side of the safety
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: and over the top of the corner. That's a route
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: we can hit there. We can do little hook routes
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: and what have you if we can control the corner.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: So there's still some routes we can hit, but we
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: don't have intermediate out routes. We don't have hitch routes.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: We don't have short out routes. We don't have comebacks. Like,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: it's taken away a lot of the route tree to
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: our left. But to the right.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: We're probably getting close to the end. So the right,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: we have free access. And, and so at any rate,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: the idea, just to summarize my question to Drew is,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: is when you had JSN as, as the split in
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: and you're getting clouded, you're thinking, okay, yeah, JSN is,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: he's doing his job. He's taking two guys, which were
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: you to expect, right?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: But are we kind of wasting him? Right.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: That's what, that's what I'm wondering.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: And would we be better off putting him over on
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: the trip side where he can have free access and
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: he's not getting double? It's harder to double cover it. Right. And, and,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: you know, his last touchdown was exactly that. He was in,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: he was a number three counting outside.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: Yes, he was.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: And, and he had free access. Nobody was jamming him.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: So he just had to beat Buddha Baker, nod to
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: the corner, break into the post. And, and, and then
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: lock had a beautiful play there, but that's what, that's
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: what we're talking about. When we come up, we, if our,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: for philosophically, like when I was with the Cowboys, Michael
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Irvin was the X receiver. So Troy Aikman, he comes
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: up and he says, Hey, if you don't put a
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: safety over Michael, that means he's one-on-one. I'll just wear
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: you out.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: We will just throw to Michael and wear you out.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Now you put the safety over the top. Maybe we'll
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: throw to Jay Novacek. Maybe we'll give it to Emmett Smith,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: what have you. But first thing first, our best receivers,
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: the X and he was big and what have you. And, and, and, and,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: and so that they were always feeling like, okay, if
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: we're taking two to cover Michael, then we have other
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: ways to beat you. But, That's when you have great
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: players on the other side as well and a great
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: running game and what have you. But for Seattle as constituted,
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: when we have Rasheed, and I'm going to wrap it
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: up with this. Rasheed Shaheed hasn't established himself. Torrey Horton
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: was an offer yesterday. A.J. Barner's good, but he's not
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: a burner down the field. It's like JSN's my only
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: real legit target. Do I really want to just... bury
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: him at X and yeah, they're, they're, they're clouding him,
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: but then now we're never throwing to him because, because,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: because he's getting double covered as the X let's move
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: them inside and do other things with them. So he's
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: not getting double covered. That's the essence of my question.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: It makes sense too, because I'm looking through here. I mean, yeah,
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: like Rashid, she had six targets, three catches. He had
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: the egregious drop cup, two targets, two catches, and everyone
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: else had just one catch or one target, you know,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: on that way. And like you said, Tori Horton, uh,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: did not even have a target yesterday.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: And cup as well. Like he's a former one who's
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: playing like a three now.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, he's a coach. He's brilliant. I'm glad
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: he's the Seahawk. He he's accelerated. We're talking about the maestro. He's,
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: he's accelerated his, uh, football IQ. So, so there's a
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: lot of value that cup brings, but, One thing he's
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: not bringing is speed to the wide receiver position, which
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: means he can't be a legit two.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: More at four today with Softee?
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so, yes.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I love it. Can't get enough of this.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: Hammer down.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: All right, that's you, Bill.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: Love it. Go Hawks.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: All right, here we go. We'll take a break, come back.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: We'll spend one segment talking about the local baseball team
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: as only we can here on the show. That would
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: be called Molly Watt Monday next.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, and that means one thing. It's time to mollywop. Uncensored, unscripted,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and filled with the passion that all Mariners fans can
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: relate to. And brought to you by the company that's
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: all about Seattle sports. Simply Seattle. Visit simplyseattle.com for the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: best Mariners gear. Now with the mollywop boys, Nathan Bishop
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and Chris Crawford. With my O-Y, here's Ian Furness.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Mile wide look who's in studio chris crawford is here
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: huh he's just popped by to say hello i know
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: he's running around doing some stuff in the town so
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: he came by to say hello nathan bishop you never
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: came come say hi.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah what's up with that nathan yeah thanks for the
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: invite guys.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it well you know we got some
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: things uh this is this is this is going to
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: be like next week uh at t-mobile park after that
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: last game uh if you're not invited that's probably a
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: It's probably a bad thing. You know, we're going to
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: get to, we're probably just going to do one segment here.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: We're going to get to that next week. I'm guessing, Chris,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: a week from now, we should probably have some clarity
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: on who's here, who's not, right?
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: You have to think so. It would be weird if
• 31:29
  Speaker 8: they strung it out. And if they strung it out,
• 31:31
  Speaker 8: it just leads to more, why is this taking so long?
• 31:34
  Speaker 8: If you haven't figured out whether or not these guys
• 31:36
  Speaker 8: should be here or not, you probably shouldn't be here.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: Like this should be.
• 31:41
  Speaker 8: Something, whether they've decided that, Hey, this was just an
• 31:44
  Speaker 8: injury riddled year and we want to give him another
• 31:46
  Speaker 8: chance or the opposite. they need to make that decision
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: and it needs to happen. You know, they have the
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: black Monday for coaches. I think we need to have
• 31:54
  Speaker 8: kind of a black Monday.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Well, and I think that's, I think when it's all
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: said and done, it's going to happen. So I go
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: to MLB.com today. They got all the, they got the tab,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: you know, the story, playoff scenarios, all this stuff. Sales
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: not even mentioned. They're not math. They're mathematically eliminated from
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: the wild card, right? That that's over. So they still,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: they're not mathematically eliminated from the AL West. So we're Nathan,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: do you want me to give you the glass half full?
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: This is Ashley's influence on me.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Oh, please, yeah, set me up with it. You know
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: I love it, Ian, so let's do it.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: So we're all kind of looking to say, okay, when
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: they sweep Houston and da-da-da, Texas is what matters. Texas
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: is really all that matters right now for Seattle. So
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: for Seattle to catch Texas, the Rangers would either have
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: to go 0-6 or 1-5 But even if they go 1-5,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Seattle's kind of in trouble. They'd be tied with them
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: if Seattle wins out. Because at that point in time,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Seattle goes 5-1. They get 78. Texas loses out. The
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: math doesn't work. The math almost doesn't work at all
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: because the tragic number with Texas is 1. Here's how
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: it can work, though. If Seattle, Houston, and Texas all
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: finish at 79-83, or I guess 78-83 could happen as well,
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: if they all finish tied at 79-83 or 78-84, well,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the Mariners would win the division because they have the
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: best combined record against each other out.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Of the three. So you're saying there's a chance.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: There's a chance. There's a chance.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: That snowball is.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: So Nathan, what do you say about that fellow?
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: Huh?
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: They're still in it.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: Well, so I can't decide what we talked already that
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: the only way that I'm okay with this team going
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: to the playoffs is if they do it with a
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: below 500 record and God, it would just be a
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: magical thing for this team's first ever world series appearance
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: to be after one of the most disappointing regular seasons
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: in franchise history. But it also would be super funny
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: to have a team like the Astros or the Rangers, uh,
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: win the division with 79, 80 wins and have them
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: go on and win the world series and have the
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: mayors have to sit there and think about how, if
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: they had just bothered to be a semi adequate and
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: competent functioning team that could have been them.
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: So either scenario is very funny to me.
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: I am firmly in the joker makeup and just sitting around,
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: hanging out here, rooting for the funniest possible outcome, because
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: this team doesn't deserve good things. Um, the people that
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: root for them do, but the, uh, the team itself.
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: You know, they just deserve to kind of sit in
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: this a little bit, I think. So if something funny
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: wants to happen in the middle of that, I'm.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: All for it. The Mets and the Twins are the
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: final six, three and three for the Rangers. So as
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: soon as the Rangers win two, it's over.
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: Or Seattle loses one.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: But I just want to paint the scenario. Class half full.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, class half full.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: I do think they need to beat the.
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: Astros tomorrow and Wednesday just to put the final stamp
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: on an absolute year-long ass-kicking of that cursed franchise.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Either way.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: I like it.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: All right. Nathan, I know you want to get something
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: off your chest. Before I do that, I'll give Chris
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: opening comments.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, they stink. I mean, it's just crazy how
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: they tried.
• 35:09
  Speaker 8: To hand this vision to them on a platter, and
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: what they did with that platter was They stole it
• 35:14
  Speaker 8: from the Butler and threw it like a ninja star
• 35:16
  Speaker 8: and said, no, thanks. I don't really want this because
• 35:18
  Speaker 8: everything was here. Like all you had to be was
• 35:21
  Speaker 8: an average baseball team to win this division and average
• 35:24
  Speaker 8: baseball team. 81 wins is going to get it done.
• 35:27
  Speaker 8: That's all you had to do. And 81 wins to
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: me is not really an average baseball team. That's a
• 35:32
  Speaker 8: slightly below average team. By definition, it's 500 to have
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: this golden opportunity to, And to just completely blow it
• 35:40
  Speaker 8: is one of the funniest and saddest and most Seattle
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: sports things I've seen in a while. I will admit
• 35:46
  Speaker 8: I've had fun watching Lazaro Montes. I've had fun watching
• 35:49
  Speaker 8: Michael Arroyo. I've had a lot of fun rewatching Kate
• 35:52
  Speaker 8: Anderson on Sunday because, you know, there was a little
• 35:55
  Speaker 8: bit more important game going on at the same time
• 35:57
  Speaker 8: as that. But rewatching that start this morning and just
• 36:00
  Speaker 8: seeing how dominant he was in that start, even against
• 36:03
  Speaker 8: the Rockies team, that is just. Anders, I hope you're listening.
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: Ten pounds of crap and a five pound bag.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: There you go. There you go.
• 36:08
  Speaker 7: Ding, ding, ding.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: It is just, it's just sad.
• 36:11
  Speaker 8: It's really sad, and I think that this is going
• 36:14
  Speaker 8: to be a year we look back on for a
• 36:16
  Speaker 8: long time for a lot of wrong reasons.
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would agree.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I think that's the one, and we'll get again. We'll
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: do a recap more than likely, depending on, unless we
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: get a three-way, if we get a three-way tie, then
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: we're doing a playoff preview next Monday. But we'll kind of. Oh,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: heck yeah. We'll do that. I think it's what Joe
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Sheehan said, and it's the most disappointing baseball team in
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: this century.
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Since 2000, just based on talent expectations. But what should
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: not be lost is there are some fun things to
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: look ahead to. Montez Arroyo, Kate Anderson, Ryan Sloan at
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: some point coming up next year, hopefully.
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: Sure.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: As well, those things can happen. But, Nathan, I'll let
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: you fire away. You want to just go right now?
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: You want to just get this off your chest? I
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: know you're pissed off at something. I like a pissed off.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: I do, too.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: We like that a lot. Fire away, fella.
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: I don't want to do this in a way that
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: gets anybody in trouble, but I just, I had to
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: say something because we've kind of touched on this a
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: few points, uh, over the year. Uh, and you know,
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: I want to start by saying that I recognize that there, uh,
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: I want to talk about the way that this team
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: gets talked about, um, which is kind of a meta topic.
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: It involves a lot of what we think about and
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: how the messages we want to convey through media. And
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: I guess because you guys let me on this show
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: every week, that technically includes me. And I just think
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: about the way that I see this team being discussed
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: and the way that I saw this team being discussed
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: in the off season and during this year, as it's
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: kind of played out with all of the hype and
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: the kind of incredulous nature of the things.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: And it all kind of.
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: Came to head to me this past week.
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: When I saw a couple of things come up that was,
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: I saw somebody make a case that the front office
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: shouldn't be torn apart because it took them five years
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: to get rid of Jack's forensic stuff. And I saw
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: another conversation talking about how Randy Orozarena was playing for
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: Randy Orozarena this year in the middle of having, for
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: the record, the best left field season, both in Mariners
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: history and of any left fielder in 2026. And I
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: was thinking about the way that that happens and where
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: your brain has to go with that. And Ian, I'm
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: not talking about the people who cover this team whose
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: bread gets buttered by having the Mariners be on their side.
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: I recognize that there are people who need to maintain
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: channels of connection with the Mariners.
• 38:24
  Speaker 6: And can't go out like me and burn bridges and
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: do all of that stuff. Those people exist. We've all
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: got to earn our bread.
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: We have to make a living in order to do that.
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: But there is, and from my perspective, I've never really
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: talked about this. I used to cover this team from
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: what's called outsider media, the blog, the internet. That kind
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: of thing where we came to it. And when I
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: did it, we couldn't get media credentials. We couldn't get
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: press passes to the team. And because of that, we
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: had to figure out different ways to talk about this
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: team and a different way to look at this team.
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: And because we didn't have that access, we had nothing
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: to lose.
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: And we were able to cultivate an audience that really
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: thrived on trusting us to be honest with them, which
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: is something that I've tried to carry on into this show.
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: And when I see people saying things like this, that
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: it took five years to get rid of Jackson Renzick's
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: guys before Jerry could really do something, as though Jerry
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: didn't get the job by sitting down with ownership and
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: saying he could win right away with Jack's guys, which
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: he could not do. Or I see people trying to
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: badmouth Randy Rosarito, very conveniently, a guy who doesn't speak
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: English very much. So he's not talking to media before
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: games and a guy who's not going to be here.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: next year so there's no ramification if you crap on
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: him on your way out the door.
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: I just can't help but wonder.
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: Was it really worth it to get that access? If
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: in order to get that access, you have to stop
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: being honest and true about the reality of what this
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: franchise is. And again, there are people out there who
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: need to do that in order to live and to
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: breathe and to have their bread buttered and supplied for
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: their family and God bless them.
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: But if that's not you.
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: And you cover this team, and you want people to
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: think about or respect anything that you're saying, maybe take
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: a long look in the mirror and think about that access,
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: and if that's really something that's worth it for you,
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: if it's really making you compromise and say things that
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: are so demonstrably wrong and false and foolish and kind
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: of a little bit dog whistling and getting really mildly
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: offensive in the case of Randy Rosarena, that's all I
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: really wanted to say, man. We have to have a
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: real conversation about how this team is covered, the way
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: we talk about it, and the level of honesty we're
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: willing to have with ourselves and what access means to
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: us and how we use that access in order to
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: convey what's actually going on with this franchise to the
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: fan base.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: I saw one of the clips that you're talking about, too,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: on I think it's The King Show, The Ultimate Sports Show,
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: whatever it is, and that particular blogger woman website, what
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: have you, I thought it was very condescending to any
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: other fan.
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: Correct.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: And, you know, I think the one thing we do, like,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: and Ashley, you're new to this, I'll ask it. I
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: think with this show, with Chris and Nate and me,
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: but like with the two of these guys, I think,
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: you know, critical but fair has always been kind of
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: our goal. And also understanding that everyone has their own opinion.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: There's fans that may agree or disagree. You may be
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: on the side of the majority or the minority, but...
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Don't be, like, if people have, I don't know, you've
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: been listening to it long enough, Ash. Is that accurate?
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Is that fair?
• 41:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that's fair.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think that anybody should expect people
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: to sugarcoat things. But also, you can't expect that if
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: somebody has a more positive opinion that they're a shill
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: for the organization, right? It's just kind of, it's got
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: to go both ways. It's got to go both ways.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: And at the same time, I think it's okay to
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: have discourse and go back and forth. You know, and
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: you guys don't always agree, Nathan and Chris, about things.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: And I think the service or the depotal conversation is
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: one we're going to have next week. And I think
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a good conversation because I think
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of different ways to look at where
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: he's at. Yeah, I think in any way, shape, or form,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: putting anything towards Randy Orozarena as blame is ridiculous in
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: my mind.
• 41:54
  Speaker 7: Agreed.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Like, okay, he didn't hustle for one ball.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Or he's not the best defensive left fielder.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: No.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: He's a 5.3 war player right now. Isn't he far
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: and away your best player?
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 42:04
  Speaker 8: I mean, blaming him is like, it's just a silly
• 42:08
  Speaker 8: thing to do. And just want to say, I agree
• 42:10
  Speaker 8: with everything Nathan said. I've said it multiple times that
• 42:13
  Speaker 8: the Mariners are as close to state run media as
• 42:15
  Speaker 8: we have, and that's just not acceptable. And it's some
• 42:18
  Speaker 8: of it is, you know, we got a little unlucky
• 42:20
  Speaker 8: that we don't have an athletic person covering the team
• 42:23
  Speaker 8: from the athletic. And some of it has to do with,
• 42:26
  Speaker 8: I think the fact that, The Mariners are very comfortable
• 42:30
  Speaker 8: with putting people in position who make them comfortable. And
• 42:33
  Speaker 8: we have seen those people get more access to things
• 42:36
  Speaker 8: than others. And I'm not even criticizing anyone individually. I
• 42:40
  Speaker 8: will say, though, those comments that we were just talking
• 42:43
  Speaker 8: about were incredibly condescending. The idea that we need to
• 42:47
  Speaker 8: have patience with the Seattle Mariners front office.
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry. It's a stupid thing to say. It's a
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: stupid thing to say. It's been a decade.
• 42:55
  Speaker 8: How many franchises have we seen become good, bad, good,
• 42:58
  Speaker 8: and bad in 10 years? Like how many of them, right?
• 43:02
  Speaker 8: So the idea that we should be waiting 10 years
• 43:05
  Speaker 8: and to be patient and the idea that a rebuild
• 43:08
  Speaker 8: half of a decade is what it takes to get,
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: then you're not paying attention to what other baseball teams
• 43:13
  Speaker 8: have done. So I am not somebody who's even saying
• 43:16
  Speaker 8: that Jerry DiPoto and Justin Hollander or anybody else deserves
• 43:19
  Speaker 8: to lose their job anybody who thinks that they don't
• 43:22
  Speaker 8: deserve their job is not someone who should be accused
• 43:25
  Speaker 8: of being reactionary that's a silly archaic word to use
• 43:29
  Speaker 8: for this.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: That you're 11 years in two playoff appearances yeah like
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: i that's now but there's a part of me that
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: that will look at michael arroyo and laz montez that
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: pitching staff yeah you know I don't give Jerry any
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: credit for Julio because I know who signed him. Yeah, exactly.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: The guy got fired later. Sure. But I do, you know,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: the trade for Rosarena was a great one. Taylor Ward,
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: not so much. I mean, I think you can find
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: a lot more good than bad with the POTO and
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: his regime, but then you have to ask yourself about results.
• 44:00
  Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a results-based industry. I mean, the process matters,
• 44:03
  Speaker 8: and the process in some cases have been great. The
• 44:05
  Speaker 8: processes in some areas have been absolutely unacceptable.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: So, again, the.
• 44:10
  Speaker 8: Whole thing for me is Whether you think Jerry DiPoto
• 44:13
  Speaker 8: and Justin Hollander deserve more time or not is fine.
• 44:16
  Speaker 8: Calling anybody who thinks that they don't reactionary is misinformed
• 44:20
  Speaker 8: at best.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: And, Nathan, I mean, if you look through there, like,
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I wasn't going to go down this road, but I
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: guess we will now for a second. So, service, Wilson,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: and then another manager. Three managers in 12 years. Is
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: that the problem?
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: The manager?
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: He's part of it, right?
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: No.
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, so the thing with Scott Service, and this is,
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: we could talk about this. We should talk about this
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: next week. What's fascinating is Scott Service was hired because
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: he was good friends with Jerry DePoto going back from
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: their days working in the industry. And the idea was
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: that there would be a frictionless relationship between front office
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: and manager. And Scott would just basically be, you know,
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: a conduit for all of this information from the front office. Well,
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: that didn't end up working out over a long enough
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: period of time. Scott developed his own personality, his own whims.
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: He learned how to manage on the fly and kind
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: of figured it all out. But you had this guy
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: that was supposed to be Jerry's guy. And now you've
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: got the polar opposite. We don't know who hired Dan Wilson,
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: but we're fairly certain that it was not Jerry DePoto.
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: Dan is as unprepared to deal with Jerry DePoto in
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: the front office as any manager could be.
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: So we've seen both things happen.
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: We've seen Jerry get to pick his guy and we've
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: seen a guy foisted upon Jerry. And so what's the
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: plan with this third guy? Are we just going to
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: go back and let Jerry pick another manager at this point?
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: It's a really, I want to say that if we're
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: going to do a DePoto conversation next.
• 45:40
  Speaker 6: Week, there is absolutely a nuanced conversation to have here.
• 45:43
  Speaker 6: He is arguably the greatest manager.
• 45:46
  Speaker 5: Major GM slash Pogo, whatever you want to say in
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: franchise history, you can make that case. But I would
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: be happy to do the opposite for you guys next week.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: We will get into all that next week. Chris, let's
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: just talk about something positive before we wrap up today
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: and then next week. I just have a feeling next
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: week we're going to have a lot.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to have a lot next week.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Just let's start with Kate Anderson.
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: You went back and watched it.
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: What did you see?
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: I mean, the command was just as close to immaculate
• 46:12
  Speaker 8: as I've seen. 61 of 84 pitches for strikes, but
• 46:15
  Speaker 8: it wasn't just Command and control, not the same thing.
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: Command is the ability to locate strikes. Control is just
• 46:20
  Speaker 8: the ability to throw them. I mean, he was locating
• 46:23
  Speaker 8: those pitches and the secondary stuff is so good. He
• 46:26
  Speaker 8: generates so much extension too. Like that Merton Hanks neck
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: goes into his build as well. And he just gets
• 46:33
  Speaker 8: on top of hitters so quickly. I mean, the metrics
• 46:37
  Speaker 8: suggest that he's been a lot better than the numbers
• 46:40
  Speaker 8: say they are, but This was kind of the culmination.
• 46:43
  Speaker 8: And I know it's the Rockies. I know it's a
• 46:45
  Speaker 8: lineup that is not going to impress too many people.
• 46:48
  Speaker 8: But there's good hitters on that team. And he flat
• 46:50
  Speaker 8: out dominated. It was probably the best start I've seen
• 46:53
  Speaker 8: this year. And it gives me so much. Of all
• 46:57
  Speaker 8: the guys in this rotation who have a chance to
• 46:59
  Speaker 8: be near the top of the rotation, this is the
• 47:01
  Speaker 8: first one I feel like actually has a chance to
• 47:03
  Speaker 8: be an ace.
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: An actual ace.
• 47:04
  Speaker 8: True bona fide ace, even without the dominant fastball you
• 47:09
  Speaker 8: usually see.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Well, and that's why, because I talked about this with
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: Eno Saris on Thursday. It's like, okay, the stuff and
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: the stuff plus all those metrics, like he doesn't have
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of that. But what you just said is
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: command and everything else puts him in, like kind of
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: makes up for that, it compensates for that.
• 47:21
  Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think that his stuff's a little better
• 47:24
  Speaker 8: than maybe the metrics suggest too. Like that's a double
• 47:26
  Speaker 8: plus change, a 70 on the 2080 scouting scale, a
• 47:30
  Speaker 8: very good slider. The fastball is probably 50, but because
• 47:33
  Speaker 8: he commands it so well, it plays up to closer
• 47:36
  Speaker 8: to a 60. And for those unfamiliar, the 20, 80
• 47:39
  Speaker 8: scouting scale, 50 average, 60 plus 70, double plus 80 elite.
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: And there's no 80 there.
• 47:44
  Speaker 8: So that's the one reason why I'm not positive.
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: He'll be an eight.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Is there a pitcher that has an 80?
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: I don't think so. I don't think so.
• 47:53
  Speaker 8: Maybe George Kirby's control at one point was an 80,
• 47:56
  Speaker 8: but not anymore.
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: Not anymore.
• 47:57
  Speaker 8: So I think that he's got enough seventies here.
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: That he has a chance to be that guy.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: What do we know about Munoz? Is he done for
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: the year?
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I will tell you this.
• 48:06
  Speaker 8: I was surprised they used him two times in Colorado
• 48:09
  Speaker 8: because that's a guy who's had issues with dizziness in
• 48:11
  Speaker 8: the past and that elevation. And I know I can
• 48:14
  Speaker 8: already see the text line saying you're making excuses.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: No, there's no excuses. I lived in Salt Lake.
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: It's a thing.
• 48:21
  Speaker 8: It's a big thing in Colorado. There's a reason why
• 48:23
  Speaker 8: it's the mile high city. I mean, you can get,
• 48:26
  Speaker 8: so hopefully everything's okay. I know it hasn't been the
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: year that we wanted from Andres Munoz, but, uh, there's
• 48:33
  Speaker 8: really no reason to pitch him again if he's not
• 48:35
  Speaker 8: feeling well.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Three-way tie.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: Three-way tie, fella.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: Gotta get it.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Three-way tie. Nathan, we're wrapping up with this. Just a
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: final thought from you. Final six before we reconvene next week.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: And what are you looking for? What do you want
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: to see? Or do you care? Or is it just
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: about Rick Reyes?
• 48:53
  Speaker 6: I mean, absolutely. Let's, let's give her his flowers. What
• 48:56
  Speaker 6: a phenomenal career.
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: What an, an amazing human being as good of an
• 48:59
  Speaker 5: announcer as he is and has been for so long.
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: You talk to anybody literally to a person, they will say,
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: Rick is a better man than he is a broadcaster,
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: which is a high standard to bear. So well done, sir.
• 49:10
  Speaker 5: You have deserved your retirement. As far as what I'm
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: looking for, Chris already alluded to it. I've stopped caring
• 49:15
  Speaker 5: whether this team wins or loses baseball games weeks ago,
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: but I am having a good time watching. these young
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: guys do stuff. And not just because they're young and
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: not just because they could develop into future things, but because...
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: As we've.
• 49:26
  Speaker 6: Talked ad nauseum, this group hasn't been fun to watch. Well,
• 49:29
  Speaker 6: guess what's really fun to watch?
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: It's fun to watch when an arguably quadruple-A slash major
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: league pitcher from Colorado or Los Angeles or Sacramento or whatever,
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: middle-middles a fastball to Laz Montes, and he hits it
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: 8,000 feet into space.
• 49:42
  Speaker 6: Like, that's really, really fun.
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: And that's what I've been enjoying watching for the last
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: couple weeks and what I'll be looking for for the
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: next six games.
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: I don't care about the future stuff.
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: I've seen all these prospects come up and flash before
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: and then fizzle out the next year.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: I don't care.
• 49:57
  Speaker 6: I'm not looking to 2027.
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: I'm just looking to watch fun guys do fun stuff
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: for a few more days before we say goodbye to baseball.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Totally fair. 25-34 second half of the season, this baseball team.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: And if you want to look at where it's been lost,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of different ways. Defensively, metrics there are
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: awful and everything else. What are you looking for in
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: the final six? Oh, the sweet release of death. It
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: is just, I'm sorry, man.
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: This just has not been a fun year. And I, I,
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: I pray.
• 50:22
  Speaker 8: I really, really would love for that three-way scenario or
• 50:25
  Speaker 8: Texas to completely STB. And somehow the Mariners are hosting
• 50:30
  Speaker 8: whoever that six seat is. Hell, maybe it would be
• 50:32
  Speaker 8: the Rangers somehow getting that succeed. But like, I just, I'm,
• 50:37
  Speaker 8: I'm ready for, I'm ready for change. I'm ready for that.
• 50:41
  Speaker 8: that fire I'm ready for that cleansing rebirth that I
• 50:44
  Speaker 8: think comes with 2027.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: And I'm really hoping it comes, but I'm hoping we
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: have a 2027. Oh, that's a good point too. See,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: that's the other thing. The Mets, by the way, taking
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: on the Rangers and Mets are eliminated from everything in
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: the national league. They're 71 and 85. So to think
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: that the Rangers won't win at least one, maybe two
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: in that series and finish it off is I can't
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: imagine that would be the case, but you never know.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: You never know. I gave you their scenario.
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: You get the scenario. I listened to your guys' whole thing,
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: and all I took from it is that we're going
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: to the playoffs.
• 51:12
  Speaker 6: Hell, yeah.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: We're going to the playoffs. Yeah.
• 51:14
  Speaker 6: That's what I got.
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: That's what I got. Can you imagine our show next Monday?
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: It'd be so funny. What the hell just happened?
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: It'd be so funny.
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: What the hell just happened? All right. Chris, MyoWai.
• 51:27
  Speaker 8: MyoWai recapping every single Mariner game. Also, MyoWai enthusiasts, please
• 51:31
  Speaker 8: check it out. I'm recapping all of the Husky games.
• 51:34
  Speaker 8: I'm doing a Seahawk game as well on the free channel.
• 51:36
  Speaker 8: We're going to be doing cracking games. Washington Husky basketball games.
• 51:40
  Speaker 8: We're recapping everything Seattle sports.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: So please check it out.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Go join the community, the mile wide community with Chris
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: and we'll get the boys together next week. Big thanks
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: to simply Seattle, simply sale.com. Molly WAP 15 at checkout
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: for your discount was just on the website a minute ago.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: Saw some cool stuff. Uh, especially like if you still
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: haven't got your super bowl champion stuff, Hmm. It's right
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: there for you. Pretty cool stuff for the, uh, local
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: NFL team. Plus a lot of Sonic's gear. And that might,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: is it to get to root against Marcus Mariota again?
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: Uh, yeah.
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: Great.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: Heisman trophy. That's Heisman trophy winner. Marcus Mariota, uh, Sonic's
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: gear as well. And that's might be, uh, something you
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: want to get on here real quick in the next
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: few weeks to Nathan. Talk to you next week. Chris,
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: we'll see you next week. Talk to you then too.
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: That's Chris Crawford, Nathan Bishop. We'll come back, get back
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: to football next.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: Mike Sando?
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: Mike Sando?
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: NFL senior writer with The Athletic. He is there. He
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: is all about the Pick 6 column every Monday morning.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: I don't know. What time does that actually get posted, Mike?
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's Monday morning for me. What time does
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: it get posted normally?
• 52:59
  Speaker 7: Maybe like 2 in the morning Eastern, 5 Pacific, something
• 53:03
  Speaker 7: like that.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 53:03
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: Just checking. Great stuff today as always.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: I want to start.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: We've got a ton of stuff to talk about around
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: the NFL and Kind of recap week two, heading into
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: the final game of week two, which is coming up
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: tonight with the Giants and the Rams. I must say,
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: this is a weird thing to say, I was rooting
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: for you. I was rooting for Mike Sandoe, and you
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: know what I mean by that. The Hall of Fame committee,
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: we talked about it last week, kind of getting cut
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: down a little bit. But you made it, my friend. Congratulations.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: And I say that in all seriousness. I think saying
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: not that the other people weren't, but I think you've
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: always had a very level head when it comes to
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame and probably a different way to
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: approach it. So I'm glad you're still involved with it.
• 53:41
  Speaker 7: I mean, I had no idea they were going by height,
• 53:43
  Speaker 7: but that worked in my favor this time.
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: So, you know, we'll take it.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: You're still in it. You did mention something today and
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: it's in the pick six. People can read it extensively,
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: but we'll just quickly get to this. That it may
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: be again, more challenging to get coaches in when it's
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: all said and done.
• 54:00
  Speaker 7: Yeah, because they're competing against the players, you know, not
• 54:03
  Speaker 7: just there's no senior category now, but there's any player
• 54:07
  Speaker 7: who's been retired at least five years and up to however,
• 54:10
  Speaker 7: you know, decades retired it's in that bucket.
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: In the end. So usually that favors the players.
• 54:18
  Speaker 7: It has historically, that's why years ago they created special
• 54:21
  Speaker 7: lanes for coaching contributors. So to me, it's a little
• 54:24
  Speaker 7: bit all over the place and we'll see what happens.
• 54:26
  Speaker 7: I hopefully with a smaller committee, you know, some reason
• 54:29
  Speaker 7: can prevail and we can, it's easier to maybe sway
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: a group and not have big surprises, but we'll see.
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: It's new for everybody.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: I love the headline today, sorting through NFC North carnage.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: Let me start with that. NFC North, three of the
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: four teams have at least have one loss uh and
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: are one and one the other team that's undefeated is
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: minnesota at two and oh who had all that with
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: minnesota not even having you know having to go down
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: to carson wentz road as quarterback on their bingo card huh.
• 54:56
  Speaker 7: Well remember the whole offseason was about jj mccarthy and
• 54:59
  Speaker 7: kyler murray's competition and either one of them's playing so
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: uh i guess kyler murray will come back this week
• 55:03
  Speaker 7: maybe maybe maybe caleb williams is not out as long
• 55:06
  Speaker 7: as as feared so you know maybe they'll get some
• 55:09
  Speaker 7: order restored it was just uh You know, it's always
• 55:13
  Speaker 7: kind of a fascinating division.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: Chicago losing Caleb Williams. Again, I guess the hamstring, we're waiting.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's serious, maybe it's not. It feels like I
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: got mixed signals today. But for what the Bears, I mean,
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: how do you go? I know the weather wasn't good, Mike,
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: but weather's not always good anywhere anyway. And just to
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: go from what they did the week before, almost 60
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: points to three, what happened?
• 55:34
  Speaker 7: Yeah, well, definitely weather was part of it. But I think,
• 55:37
  Speaker 7: you know, when you play, teams that know you well,
• 55:39
  Speaker 7: you know, and match up decently. I think Minnesota is,
• 55:42
  Speaker 7: you know, a tough defense for them or anybody, uh,
• 55:46
  Speaker 7: different things can happen. So, you know, I think each
• 55:48
  Speaker 7: game's its own and look, Carolina, they, they got Carolina and,
• 55:53
  Speaker 7: and I don't think Carolina's defense is as nearly as
• 55:55
  Speaker 7: good or formidable as Minnesota's is certainly isn't as, you know,
• 55:59
  Speaker 7: developed that way. So, uh, they got inside the 15
• 56:02
  Speaker 7: yard line three times. the Bears didn't get any points.
• 56:06
  Speaker 7: That's super rare, almost never happens. And I wouldn't read
• 56:09
  Speaker 7: overly too much into it, but it affected the game
• 56:11
  Speaker 7: for sure. And by the way, Caleb Williams was not
• 56:14
  Speaker 7: on the field for two of those drives finishing. So
• 56:17
  Speaker 7: that's a big shock to your team when you have
• 56:19
  Speaker 7: a quarterback like that, right? He's the focus of everything
• 56:21
  Speaker 7: and he.
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: Leaves the game.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: Quarterback play, God, how, I mean, the first two weeks,
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: have they not just shown how important it is? Atlanta
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: doesn't have a quarterback. I mean, they've got a, I mean,
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: think what it would be, ended up being a four stringer, right?
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: Playing yesterday to finish off the game. You've got Jane
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: Daniels hurt again with the elbow injury. So Marcus Mariota
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: comes back in, uh, Minnesota's winning despite the fact that
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: they're on QB three, uh, you know, Pittsburgh doesn't have
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: a quarterback. It doesn't appear even though he's 42 and
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: it's going to be in the hall of fame. Like it's, it's,
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: have we ever seen a year in which way I
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: just feels like underscoring quarterback importance is a big theme
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: early on.
• 56:58
  Speaker 7: It is, but you know, and let's give Drew, Drew
• 57:01
  Speaker 7: Locke his, yep. His love here, too. But I think
• 57:04
  Speaker 7: how your team is constructed around that position.
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: Matters, too.
• 57:10
  Speaker 7: And I think some teams are better equipped. We talked
• 57:12
  Speaker 7: about this a little bit with the Bears. They have
• 57:15
  Speaker 7: a good running game. That's going to help. For Seattle,
• 57:18
  Speaker 7: they're committed to a running game that looks pretty good,
• 57:21
  Speaker 7: and they have a good defense. So the quarterback is important,
• 57:24
  Speaker 7: but they can win even diminishing the impact of that position.
• 57:28
  Speaker 7: They did that a little bit in the Super Bowl.
• 57:30
  Speaker 7: It wasn't like they needed to be high flying offense,
• 57:32
  Speaker 7: throwing it around. They took the risk out of the
• 57:34
  Speaker 7: game and they were still able to control it and win.
• 57:36
  Speaker 7: And so that to me is the ideal setup. I
• 57:39
  Speaker 7: think some of these teams that have the great quarterbacks
• 57:42
  Speaker 7: do so well, but they become so oriented around the
• 57:45
  Speaker 7: quarterback that maybe other aspects of your team, you know,
• 57:50
  Speaker 7: get covered up a little bit. The weakness is until
• 57:53
  Speaker 7: you get in a big playoff game or a big
• 57:56
  Speaker 7: game and you see the complete teams really come through.
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: Mike Sano joining us from The Athletic. Mike, Detroit, how
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: much of a problem, how much of a concern is
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: their defense?
• 58:06
  Speaker 7: I think it's a big concern. Now, they're going to
• 58:07
  Speaker 7: get a couple of safeties back, and that's going to
• 58:09
  Speaker 7: help them. But I don't think that they've really had
• 58:13
  Speaker 7: differentiating coordinating on that side of the ball, maybe throughout
• 58:19
  Speaker 7: the entirety of Dan Campbell's. I know Aaron Glenn got
• 58:23
  Speaker 7: a coaching job out of it, but I don't think
• 58:25
  Speaker 7: it was just because he was seen as like Brian Flores,
• 58:29
  Speaker 7: where it's a differentiating scheme in the way he does
• 58:32
  Speaker 7: it defines them. So I think that as their roster
• 58:35
  Speaker 7: probably cycles a little bit here, they're not at their
• 58:40
  Speaker 7: absolute best. Some of those things get exposed when you
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: don't have elite coaching maybe to overcome it.
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize this or forgot about it, maybe. So
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Dan Campbell's gotten rid of coordinators in season before?
• 58:54
  Speaker 7: Well, yeah, Anthony Lynn was one where he was, I
• 58:58
  Speaker 7: don't think he fired Anthony Lynn from the staff, but
• 59:00
  Speaker 7: he demoted him and took it over a little bit
• 59:02
  Speaker 7: of himself and then gave it to Ben Johnson on
• 59:04
  Speaker 7: the offensive side of the ball. And then I believe,
• 59:07
  Speaker 7: I mean, uh, defensively they, uh, I know they had
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: an in-season firing of at least an assistant coach a
• 59:15
  Speaker 7: few years ago. So he he's made moves.
• 59:18
  Speaker 6: Wow.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: It's it's, I mean, they, they got, but now in fairness,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: especially week two. I mean, that Buffalo team they played
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: looks like it's on a mission. That's a tough Thursday
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: night game to go to Buffalo. Their first game in
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: their stadium. I think the Saints are better. We were
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: talking about this before the season. People would always ask
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: me who's a surprise team or surprise quarterback when we
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: talked about quarterback tiers, and it was Tyler Shuck and
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: the Saints. So I think they're actually a pretty good team.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: You wrote something. I want you to kind of clarify
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: this because I'm still trying to learn some of these
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: new numbers, but The Vikings are one of four teams
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: since the start of last season with negative offensive EPA
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: across their victories. So they're 2-0, but they have a
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: negative offensive EPA across their victories. How rare is that,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: and what does that mean?
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so it's good timing, because I'm going to actually
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: publish a little bit of a primer on some of
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 7: these numbers that have sort of, these metrics that have
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 7: kind of crept in, and then after a while, you're like,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 7: wait a minute, do I understand all of these things?
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: No.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: The answer's no.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: Mike, the answer's no.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so basically the idea.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: Is, The idea is basically this.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 7: We can measure the impact towards winning and scoring of
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 7: each phase independently. And you do that by realizing there's
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 7: a value to every field position on the game. So
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 7: there's a really high value. If you have first and
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 7: goal at the one, right, you're expected to score about
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 7: almost six points, right?
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: You're going to get that.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 7: So if you fumble the ball and the other team
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 7: runs it back for a touchdown, they get six, but
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 7: they also get your six, right?
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: That you were going to score. It's a 12-point play, right?
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: We would all feel that.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 7: So the EPA can look at that type of stuff,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 7: and over the course of a game, it adds it
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 7: all up for every play pretty accurately. So what that
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 7: means is that most teams, if you were to look
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 7: at only their wins, they'd probably be pretty good in
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 7: all of the phases. Offense, defense, and special teams would
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 7: all probably be in the positive as contributing towards winning.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 7: But there's four teams, and the Vikings are among them,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 7: that I think might be since the start of last season,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 7: in their victories, actually their offense has been a detriment,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 7: has been below average. That's just rare, right? You wouldn't
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 7: normally win. Normally you're singling out your best games. So
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 7: what that means is they're super overly reliant on the,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 7: in their case, the defense when they win the games.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 7: And we can feel that, right? They've had a lot
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 7: of quarterbacks through there. They win with this defense that
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 7: makes a bunch of big plays. And the other teams
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 7: whose wins have been carried by the defense with bad
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 7: contributions from the offense. It's teams like the Browns and
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 7: the Raiders, the teams like that. But I think what's
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 7: remarkable about Minnesota is they have a lot more wins.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 7: They've won 11 games since the start of last year.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 7: They probably can't even name all their quarterbacks, right? So
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 7: that is the point. There's just one, there's a limitation
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 7: on that. Like you're not going to go all the
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 7: way doing that, but it really tells you how you're
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 7: winning the games. And for them, it's been disproportionately defense.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: Mike Sandoz joining us. Let's talk Cleveland for a second.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: Todd Monk, it's comments afterward. Great. Kind of challenging some
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: people in the media. And then at the same time,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: they're 1-1. They go down. I know there was rain
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: and a weather delay. But listen, the weather delay came
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: after they already took the lead. There's two minutes to go.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: So Cleveland gets a win in Tampa. I, you know, nobody,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of people that for obvious reasons, aren't
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: Deshaun Watson fans. A lot of people don't like Aaron Rogers. So,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: but I love the comparison. Deshaun Watson playing better than
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: Aaron Rogers right now. Is that right?
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 7: He definitely did yesterday. I mean, he had a lot
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 7: better numbers. So Rogers stats through his first two games
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 7: are the worst of his career in 18 seasons in
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 7: which he started the first two games. And it's like
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 7: four or five, six categories are the worst. So they
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 7: had a fourth and 43 yesterday.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: If you didn't watch, I did.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: I saw that. That was insane.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 7: Reeling, you know, and Rogers is taking sacks and, you know,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 7: he called it a miscommunication, but usually when there's a
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 7: free guy rushing the quarterback, you think it's going to be, uh,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 7: you know, the quarterback's responsibility. I don't know if that
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 7: was the case, but he got hit like a 1970
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 7: style hit, you know, the, the defender's helmet, like between
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 7: the shoulder blades, he doesn't see it coming and he
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 7: just gets his whole body snapped.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: With full force thrown it onto the ground.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 7: Uh, that's when you really know you're off. Cause that,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 7: that should almost never happen, especially to a guy who's
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 7: played as much as Rogers has played.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: He also, he made kind of some comments about how
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: it's on the players and we got to lead. I
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: couldn't tell, was that a shot at the coaching staff
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: or was that just, I couldn't, I was trying to
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: get it figured out what I guess with Aaron, like
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: you're trying to figure out what he's trying to say.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: So that's hard.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 7: I guarantee that he would be able to explain how
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 7: it's not that, Hey, he knows about how teams and
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 7: businesses or whatever are run.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: And this is the best way to have it happen.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 7: What he's saying is, if you're not cynical about it,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 7: what he's saying is, Hey, the players have to buy
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 7: in here and the players have to give good feedback
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 7: to the coaches on what's happening here so we can
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 7: get on the same page. And, but, but really what
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 7: he was saying was, you know, the players have to
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 7: tell the coaches so we can be in better plays.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 4: That's what he said. So, you know, I mean, I've,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: as I.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 7: Pointed out, they've got coaches with a lot of experience,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 7: better visions, better vision, better views of the, of the game.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 7: So it's one of those things early on in a
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 7: season week two, where you're like, okay, he's kind of
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 7: spinning this a little bit.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: That's Rogers.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: He's also 42. Like it, you know, like you're expecting
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: a guy to win a young man's game. It's not
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: young anymore. And like you mentioned, like that blitz where
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: he got, I mean, he did get folded in half.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: I was surprised he got up after that, uh, with
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: that before that fourth and 43, but You're expecting him
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: to do that in the young man's game, and it
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: just may not be there anymore. Let me get to
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: the Code Red world that we're living in right now,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: because 0-2 is always a very important number in terms
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: of possibility to get to the postseason. I'm going to
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: start first with the Chargers. I'll stay there for a
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: second in the AFC. So the L.A. Chargers are 0-2,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: and Herbert and Harbaugh and company have just struggled. They
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: frankly have struggled the first couple of weeks. What kind
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: of concerns are they having down in LA and what
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: are those concerns, do you think?
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 7: Big concern because you would have thought that Mike McDaniel
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 7: coming in would give them something that would possibly improve
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 7: what they've been doing offensively.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 4: It hasn't been the case at all.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 7: I think another criticism of them is banking on that
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 7: too much. They didn't do much with their roster. They
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 7: had money to spend in terms of the cap and
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 7: didn't do it. I think their GM, Joe Ortiz, comes
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 7: from Baltimore and wants to take a long view and
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 7: build this thing out over time, but they're in a
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 7: division where it's win now and their roster, you know,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 7: Khalil Mack and Justin Herbert making a lot of money
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 7: in his prime physically, you know, you'd think you'd be
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 7: pushing a little bit harder. So in the end, I
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 7: think you'd expect their quarterback to overcome more of this
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 7: and give them a chance to score better than 14 points.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 7: Even if it is going to be a ramp up
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 7: period on offense with a new coordinator, that's been disappointing and,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 7: It's very concerning for them.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just, and like you said, it's a
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: win-now division. I mean, that division, I mean, it was
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas 2-0, good for Clint Kubiak. We're not
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: sure if that's sustainable, but Kansas City looks very much
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: the part, and Denver as well. You know they're going
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: to be, that's a really, both West divisions are really,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: really tough to be in right now. What about Tampa
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: Bay and their $ 100 million quarterback, Braykin Mayfield? There's got
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: to be some consternation down there right now.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: There is.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 7: I mean, they've, I think there's something like, two and
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 7: nine in the last 11 and going back to last year,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 7: you know, and last year you kind of thought they
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 7: had a lot of injuries to their offensive line and
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 7: that was going to be better this year. And if
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 7: Baker got his contract, you know, either way he was
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 7: going to be either happy with the deal or he's
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 7: going to be driven without it. And they just have
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 7: not looked good at all to the point where you wonder, okay,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 7: you know, is this a place where there's going to be,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 7: you know, some changes coming because they've invested in the
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 7: quarterback and they're expecting more and he doesn't look good.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 7: Does not look good at all. He had three fumbles
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 7: from the first game. Almost like a carelessness a little
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 7: bit there. Yeah.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 4: He needs to be really on point.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: I just, yeah, that one, I mean, listen, good for Cleveland,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: but that one I think surprised everybody around the NFL yesterday.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: Those guys getting beat, whether delay or not, when it
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: was all.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: Said and done.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: Let's get to Seattle for a second. They take care
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: of business in Arizona with a 24-point second half, or
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: was it 21-point second half?
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: Whatever it was.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: And roll over the Arizona Cardinals with Drew Locke at
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: the helm again, who's had just an incredible two games,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: most of game one and all of game two yesterday.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: Helps when you have JSN. What are you seeing with
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: the Seahawks?
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 7: Like a feeling of inevitability to the game. Like even
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 7: when it's 7-7 early, you just feel like it's just
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 7: a matter of time. There's enough possessions go by. It's
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 7: just swinging in their favor. I thought drew lock was
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 7: more polished in this game in terms of they, some
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 7: of those procedural things and just hiccups on the offense
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 7: that were understandable in the first game of the year,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 7: when he's just suddenly thrown in there, went away. It
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 7: just didn't seem like it was as bad of a problem.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: I thought it was smoother.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 7: I thought he made some really nice throws on rhythm.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 7: Great one over the middle there, just like office back foot,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 7: just threaded it. So I thought that was really good.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 7: And then, you know, defensively, man, what a scheme, what
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 7: a team, what players, the Julian Love interception where he
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 7: just comes running out. It was like a baseball player
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 7: in the outfield suddenly appears at the, at the, you know,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 7: over by the, over by the first baseline extended down
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 7: there and just makes a catch leaning over the stands.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 4: I just thought, wow.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 7: And then the stats coming out, like the, Cardinals did
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 7: not have a gain longer than nine yards in the game.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they didn't have a double-digit gain in the game.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 7: It felt like that. It just felt like there was
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 7: a big, heavy blanket over them, and they couldn't move. Really,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 7: that's a sign of a great team, in my opinion,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 7: when you can do that. with your starting quarterback, with
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 7: your backup quarterback. That's what I'm talking about, about being
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 7: built to, of course, you have to have a good quarterback,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 7: but not being reliant on it going through the quarterback
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 7: all the time.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: Feeling bad for our buddy Dan Quinn. Gene Daniels goes
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: down again. Obviously bad for Daniels as well with that
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: elbow injury. So Seattle's going to see probably Marcus Mariota
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: coming up this week. when they go there for the
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: 10 a.m. game on Sunday, let's get Mike Sandoz sauce
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: to wrap things up. What I'm excited for tonight, man,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: I got giants after watching them week one and what
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: scataboo and dart and having John Harbaugh and that, that
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: energy that he brings to that team going against the Rams.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: And we all know what happened week one against the
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: San Francisco 49ers who side note, it looked really good.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: Unfortunately, digits. How about that?
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: Ooh, how about that?
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: I think the Rams are a good team.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 7: I think the giants had a nice week one. I
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 7: don't trust the giants as much. I just, feel from
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 7: the quarterback the way he takes hits. I don't think
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 7: the running back's dynamic. They do have a really good
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 7: wide receiver. I think John Harbaugh is good, but again,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 7: he's not kind of like his brother. I mean, they're
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 7: good program leaders, but is he going to be turning
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 7: the dials on the scheme to pull it all together?
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 7: We'll see. I just think this is one where we
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 7: see a little bit more of the real Rams, I
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 7: would think. and, you know, they win the game comfortably.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 7: That's my, that's my feel.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: Well, I like that. We also see Aaron Donald tonight, huh?
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: The return of Aaron Donald.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 3: How about that?
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 4: I know it almost can't be, it almost has to
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 4: be disappointing.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 7: Like how could he, you know, at this age coming back,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 7: I mean, it'll be cool to see him out there, but.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 7: I'm a little, we'll just see what the impact is.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 7: Maybe it's, if it's amazing, that'll be what a story
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 7: it'll be. It's just to me, when you're out three years,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 7: I don't know. I think he's going to be 80%
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 7: of what he was, something like that.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: Still good. If he's 80% of Aaron Donald, still good. But, yeah,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: I'm with you, though, Mike. I'm just kind of curious.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: We just talked about Aaron Rodgers at 42, and, I mean,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: Aaron Donald's not 42, plays a different position, looks to
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: the eyes like he's in great shape and does all
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: this stuff that he posts online. But we all know
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: football shape's different than other shape, and that's a long
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: time to be out, and you're not a spring chicken anymore. And, oh,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: by the way, no Miles Garrett.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: No Miles Garrett out there for you.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: No Miles Garrett. Yeah.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 7: I think though, I think Donald can do it for
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 7: a year. Like I think you can have, and I've
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 7: looked at kind of when, you know, these ages, he's 35.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 7: You see some of these guys at that age still
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 7: have it a little bit. I think it tends to
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 7: go after that. The other thing that's unique about him
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 7: is he is a defensive tackle, which I think, you know,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 7: we're used to seeing a lot of older pass rushing
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 7: defensive ends like some rental guys that teams would sign
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 7: over the years they might come out of retirement at
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 7: 39 and make an impact over the years that's not
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 7: really true at defensive tackle at the same time he's
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 7: not you know a 320 pound defensive tackle with a
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 7: big gut either he he's a different defensive tackle no
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 7: doubt he's in good shape so uh i think it's
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 7: fascinating to just see what'll happen and you know he
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 7: is unique so he may show us something.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: Go check out Mike Sandel's column every Monday, the pick
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: six column, the athletic on the NFL tab. Usually it's
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: on the front page anyway, which it was this morning.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: Great stuff as always. Mike, we'll talk to you next week, sir.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: How about Mike? Mike Sandel picking up the Rams. Big
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: double digit win tonight, huh? Hmm.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 6: Uh-huh.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 5: I need that.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: Want some money.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 3: We'll come back.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: Got a factor fiction pick coming up. Watch your text next.