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Chuck & Buck 2-12 Hour 3: 12th man roundtable with Gregg Bell and Hugh Millen · Chuck in the Morning

0:03
Speaker 1: All right, good morning, eight o'clock hour here on this Thursday.
0:22
Speaker 2: Yes, yesterday we paraded.
0:26
Speaker 3: Today we say goodvice too many of our experts during
0:31
Speaker 3: the course of this fantastic Super Bowl campaign. Mike Sander
0:34
Speaker 3: will join us for the last time officially the football
0:37
Speaker 3: season nine thirty. Still doesn't mean we won't bug him
0:40
Speaker 3: continuously throughout the offseason. Also, it's our final twelfth man
0:45
Speaker 3: roundtable of the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six football
0:49
Speaker 3: campaign as well. Maybe we'll fire it back up around
0:52
Speaker 3: draft time. We shall see. But we've got a lot
0:56
Speaker 3: to break down. We have a lot to assess as
0:58
Speaker 3: we are celebrated here in Seattle a Super Bowl championship
1:03
Speaker 3: on Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R F
1:06
Speaker 3: m Ashley Ryan is here, former marinder, Bucky Jacobson.
1:09
Speaker 2: My name is Chuck Powell.
1:10
Speaker 3: But the stars of the eight o'clock hour every Thursday
1:14
Speaker 3: all football season, along our Seahawks insider Greg Bell and
1:18
Speaker 3: also our QBB one Hugh Millan, who is with us here.
1:22
Speaker 2: All on, Chuck and Buck. Good to see it, Great
1:24
Speaker 2: to see you, guys. How about it? How about it?
1:27
Speaker 2: How about it?
1:27
Speaker 3: Super Bowl chess celebration. Huh feeling like a Super Bowl.
1:31
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, still kind of floating, man, you know, if
1:35
Speaker 2: you know, I just kind of sometimes just go back
1:37
Speaker 2: to my memory bank of all the Sea Hawk years,
1:41
Speaker 2: first game, gets the Cardinals, Sant Louis Cardinals and all this,
1:46
Speaker 2: and and just love the collection of characters and the
1:50
Speaker 2: principles I should probably say, the people at the top,
1:55
Speaker 2: and you know, just really glad for the twelves in
1:58
Speaker 2: the city and and all the good people involved. So
2:02
Speaker 2: act relations to everybody.
2:03
Speaker 3: They haven't all ended in Super bowls, I hear. Yeah,
2:07
Speaker 3: all those years. Do you watch Thehawks football?
2:09
Speaker 4: Yeah?
2:09
Speaker 2: Well I think we counted what one hundred and forty
2:13
Speaker 2: four years of major professional sports and three parades, So yeah,
2:21
Speaker 2: chairs him.
2:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, Greg, what did you think of the parade yesterday?
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Speaker 2: Let's start there.
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Speaker 3: I mean, we got a lot of other football things
2:28
Speaker 3: to break down, but let's talk about the big story
2:30
Speaker 3: of the day, the parade yesterday, and your feelings about
2:34
Speaker 3: it from your view.
2:37
Speaker 4: Well, good morning. It was really cool.
2:40
Speaker 5: I thought how in the stadium the players grasped that
2:45
Speaker 5: this was about the fans and about the support that
2:48
Speaker 5: they've had not just this season, but for fifty seasons
2:51
Speaker 5: of football. In Seattle, they all struck that same tone,
2:55
Speaker 5: And I'm not at all doubting that Mike McDonald made
3:00
Speaker 5: sure that they'd unified before they took the stage, even
3:02
Speaker 5: though they had red solo cups and were at different
3:04
Speaker 5: stages of coherence, that they all had a common thread
3:09
Speaker 5: that they wanted to portray about the fans, the Seahawks fans.
3:13
Speaker 5: And then the parade started, and it just struck me
3:16
Speaker 5: that how many times in our society today or any time,
3:19
Speaker 5: but especially today, to seven hundred to seven hundred thousand
3:24
Speaker 5: to a million people come together to celebrate the same thing,
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Speaker 5: to not care what background, where you came from, what
3:32
Speaker 5: you believe in.
3:34
Speaker 4: Everyone was happy everyone. I saw teenagers.
3:38
Speaker 5: At the end of the parade at front of West
3:40
Speaker 5: Lake Center rushing the barricades and going down Fourth Avenue
3:44
Speaker 5: right behind the team and the Seattle police, Bellevue police,
3:48
Speaker 5: Lakewood police.
3:50
Speaker 4: They formed a court a.
3:52
Speaker 5: Blockade with their bicycles to keep them from rushing onto
3:55
Speaker 5: the back of the Seahawks parade ensemble. And the kids
4:01
Speaker 5: just stopped and they were cool. And I saw a
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Speaker 5: teenager fist bump a police officer who had denied him
4:07
Speaker 5: access to the rest of the parade, there wasn't insults
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Speaker 5: and fews and f the police, and.
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Speaker 4: Everyone was happy. And I don't know we.
4:18
Speaker 5: Can find a place in society that seven hundred thousand
4:21
Speaker 5: people are all happy about the same thing. And that
4:25
Speaker 5: just struck me that that parade was for everyone, especially
4:29
Speaker 5: for the Seahawks fans who maybe can't afford or don't
4:33
Speaker 5: have the wherewithal, or don't have the ability because of
4:36
Speaker 5: family issues of where they live or work that they
4:38
Speaker 5: can't come to a Seahawks game. So for about I
4:41
Speaker 5: would guess eighty and ninety percent of that seven hundred
4:45
Speaker 5: thousand to one million people, that was the closest they're
4:48
Speaker 5: ever going to get to see in Seahawks players, not
4:50
Speaker 5: to mention they weren't in helmets and shoulder pads. It
4:54
Speaker 5: was a very as intimate as three quarters of a
4:57
Speaker 5: million people could be for that. I mean, Marcus Lawrence
5:00
Speaker 5: got off the bus, demanded to be handed the trophy
5:04
Speaker 5: and then just passed it through the crowd.
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Speaker 4: Can you imagine that?
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Speaker 5: Can you imagine doing that in Philadelphia that trophy to
5:13
Speaker 5: be gone.
5:16
Speaker 4: Fans.
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Speaker 5: Fans were holding the Lombardi Trophy with Marcus yd Martus
5:20
Speaker 5: Lwrenson have a shirt off, and he looked like you
5:22
Speaker 5: could absolutely destroy anyone who might try to run off
5:24
Speaker 5: with the ball with the trophy.
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Speaker 2: But reminded me a lot of myself.
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Speaker 5: A lot of all of us. But it was it
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Speaker 5: was just such a community event. And again we have
5:39
Speaker 5: such a fractured society to see one common cause.
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Speaker 4: That's the that's what sports is all about.
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Speaker 5: At its best, sports unifies and brings everybody together, and
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Speaker 5: it brought three quarters of a million people together to
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Speaker 5: be just happy. Yeah, it was. It was awesome.
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Speaker 3: I think it really Yeah, I think that's really well said.
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Speaker 3: I only disagree with one thing. There was one prominent
6:01
Speaker 3: f you, So, Hugh, what did you think of Ernest Jones?
6:07
Speaker 2: A couple thoughts about it?
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Speaker 4: Oh wait, are you surprised? Have you no? As well?
6:15
Speaker 2: Look if you ask me, would I rather him swear
6:19
Speaker 2: or not swear with all the kids there, I probably
6:21
Speaker 2: say no. What's my bother? Major zero? Because every because
6:26
Speaker 2: every time I hear that. A couple of things. First
6:28
Speaker 2: of all, remember now he was attaching the squear word
6:33
Speaker 2: to a statement of loyalty, which originated just with Sam Darnold.
6:37
Speaker 2: And we all know the story. But then you know
6:39
Speaker 2: he kind of amplified that. So so he's he's what
6:43
Speaker 2: he's swearing about is is the best thing you could
6:47
Speaker 2: swear about, which is your loyalty to all your teammates
6:50
Speaker 2: in a team environment. The other part of it, when
6:53
Speaker 2: I watched the tape of the Super Bowl and I
6:56
Speaker 2: see that the Patriot running backs had forty three yards,
7:01
Speaker 2: and I'm watching Ernest Jones like he has the answers
7:05
Speaker 2: to the test, the cheat code, and he's just every
7:08
Speaker 2: place he needs to be. And then finally, you know
7:11
Speaker 2: middle linebacker going to training camp. Those linebackers, the way
7:15
Speaker 2: they got to take on a guard, you know, who's
7:17
Speaker 2: three hundred and forty pounds one play, and then they
7:20
Speaker 2: got to sprint and cover a running back on a
7:23
Speaker 2: wheel route. You know some who runs a four to
7:26
Speaker 2: four like that. If your business card says NFL middle linebacker,
7:32
Speaker 2: you are so badass because the toughness and the and
7:37
Speaker 2: and so when you get a guy who's wired to
7:40
Speaker 2: be that good at that position, you know what, there
7:44
Speaker 2: might be a couple of things on the peripheral about
7:47
Speaker 2: it that come with it, that come with it. Yeah,
7:50
Speaker 2: it manifested right in that moment moment. So yeah, so
7:54
Speaker 2: at any rate, you know, if that's what it takes
7:56
Speaker 2: for him to be that yeah, you know, hey, you know,
7:59
Speaker 2: I'm sure sure all the kids that wasn't the first
8:01
Speaker 2: time they heard that twelve man round there by the way,
8:04
Speaker 2: and Greg Bucky you know if you know, if you
8:09
Speaker 2: call out Ernest, then that that brings in cal Rawley,
8:12
Speaker 2: who's untouchable, right, Like that's right too.
8:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we found that out shocked. So I just
8:22
Speaker 3: end up kind of chuckling about it. Well, we could
8:25
Speaker 3: use a different synonym for laugh but let me ask
8:30
Speaker 3: you somef you brought up something about like you thought
8:32
Speaker 3: he had the cheat code. Adam Archiletta made a few
8:35
Speaker 3: headline we should talk about the game itself a little
8:37
Speaker 3: bit at a round table here today. Adam Archiletta made
8:39
Speaker 3: a few headlines. He said, I went back and watched
8:41
Speaker 3: the film, and it looked like Mike McDonald knew everything
8:44
Speaker 3: they were going to do. And of course some people
8:48
Speaker 3: ran with that like, oh he knew something, you're stealing
8:51
Speaker 3: signs something like that. But I wanted to ask you, like,
8:55
Speaker 3: when you watch the film, I mean, what do you
8:57
Speaker 3: credit that to a head coach that it's been described
9:00
Speaker 3: as a defensive genius that seems to be in in
9:04
Speaker 3: the huddle in the Super Bowl against the assistant coach
9:08
Speaker 3: of the Year Josh McDaniels in the National Football League.
9:12
Speaker 3: What what did you see when you watch the film?
9:14
Speaker 3: Did it feel like Mike McDonald was in the huddle
9:16
Speaker 3: of the Patriots.
9:17
Speaker 2: I think most weeks it looks like he's in the
9:19
Speaker 2: huddle other than two games against the Rams. But yeah,
9:23
Speaker 2: and remember Josh McDonald's with six Super Bowl rings on
9:27
Speaker 2: the Patriots staff. I think it starts there's a complexity
9:32
Speaker 2: to what they do. They are making adjustments on the
9:34
Speaker 2: fly with that that are based on the personnel, the
9:37
Speaker 2: hash mark down in distance, the you know, even in motion,
9:41
Speaker 2: they're they're they're flipping the defense mirror, you know, a
9:45
Speaker 2: fraction of a second before the ball snap based on
9:49
Speaker 2: on motion. And so that's why DeMarcus Lawrence can come
9:52
Speaker 2: in here after playing twelve years of the Cowboys and
9:54
Speaker 2: say that it takes a PhD to play under Mike
9:57
Speaker 2: McDonald's system. So Mike McDonald has a very complex, uh
10:02
Speaker 2: vision of how to play in the defense in the NFL,
10:07
Speaker 2: and he wants to you know, he wants to be
10:09
Speaker 2: ahead like a pitcher wants to be ahead in the count.
10:11
Speaker 2: He is always striving to be ahead in the count
10:13
Speaker 2: and to be able to to nail down and work
10:16
Speaker 2: in probabilities. He's you know, he's big in math, and
10:19
Speaker 2: he just say, if we can get into the this
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Speaker 2: defense against this formation and all the things I just mentioned,
10:24
Speaker 2: we can get into that, then we have a better plan.
10:28
Speaker 2: And and you know, I you know, one play that
10:32
Speaker 2: the interception on Julian Love, I thought it was the
10:35
Speaker 2: play of the game. If you look at how they
10:39
Speaker 2: played the there was a double in route to the
10:42
Speaker 2: Seahawks left side. You know, most teams will have Devin Witherspoon,
10:46
Speaker 2: He's lined up as the overhang defender. He's gonna have
10:49
Speaker 2: the flat and Ernest Jones is gonna drop in under
10:51
Speaker 2: and and get it underneath the deep dagger route. They
10:55
Speaker 2: switch it. They have Ernst Stones in the flat the
10:57
Speaker 2: easier route, and they have Witherspoon kind of dropping diagonally
11:03
Speaker 2: back into the middlefield and he's right in the past.
11:06
Speaker 2: He's right in the past lane. It's like Witherspoon knew
11:09
Speaker 2: that they're gonna try and to go double dig on
11:11
Speaker 2: you and get to this spot because that's where Drake
11:14
Speaker 2: may won't be able to throw the ball right. And
11:16
Speaker 2: but that happens. I just gave you one one example.
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Speaker 2: I could just go on Greg for you know, a
11:22
Speaker 2: dozen scores of these examples. And Ernest Jones, you know,
11:27
Speaker 2: they build the wall up front with their defensive tackles
11:29
Speaker 2: in there. They play gap in a half, so say
11:32
Speaker 2: don't penetrate. They're in position to throw guys off and
11:34
Speaker 2: get into their second gap, the opposite gap. So they're
11:37
Speaker 2: building that wall, they're spilling and then Ernest Jones just
11:40
Speaker 2: has to flow and he just was like boom, He's
11:43
Speaker 2: on it. So we could go an hour talking about
11:47
Speaker 2: how Mike McDonald has this vision and yet he quotes
11:52
Speaker 2: Einstein when he says, you know, keep things as simple
11:56
Speaker 2: as possible, but no simpler. He knows exactly the threshold
12:00
Speaker 2: that he can take. And there's been a time Greg
12:03
Speaker 2: where he admitted, hey, I threw too much at him
12:06
Speaker 2: and yeah on the Thursday night game, and you know,
12:09
Speaker 2: and so you know, there's gonna be a little bit
12:12
Speaker 2: of growing pains. Here's a young coach, but he's gonna
12:15
Speaker 2: find he's gonna calibrate that fine tune to know exactly
12:19
Speaker 2: the level that he can ask of his players to
12:22
Speaker 2: to to adjust and and have the cheat code without
12:26
Speaker 2: over over bearing them. Greg. I mean, it's really a
12:29
Speaker 2: marvelous say everything that John Schneider envisioned about saying, Hey,
12:33
Speaker 2: if we don't get Ben Johnson the genius on offense.
12:37
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying I'm not I'm implying that Mike
12:40
Speaker 2: McDonald's scond choice. I don't mean to imply that, but
12:42
Speaker 2: it was kind of either or Ben Johnson, the offensive
12:45
Speaker 2: genius to match wits with McVeigh and Shanahan, or Mike
12:51
Speaker 2: McDonald to match wits with the genius on the defensive side. Uh.
12:56
Speaker 2: That's how it played out. And every vision that johns
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Speaker 2: Snider would have had in that regard, Greg, all came true.
13:03
Speaker 2: And we just had a parade to prove it.
13:06
Speaker 5: They had a tell on the Patriots. It was an
13:09
Speaker 5: easy run past tell. I talked to Devin Witherspoon in
13:13
Speaker 5: the locker room amid the cigar smoke and the Don
13:15
Speaker 5: Julio nineteen forty two bottles. Those bottles are expensive and
13:19
Speaker 5: they were all over the locker room.
13:21
Speaker 4: They were all in.
13:21
Speaker 2: They got money it turns out.
13:23
Speaker 4: It turns out they do.
13:25
Speaker 5: And Devin Witherspoon told me, we knew what their pass
13:28
Speaker 5: sets were.
13:30
Speaker 4: We knew.
13:31
Speaker 5: It turns out that they had, through scouting and film study,
13:35
Speaker 5: determined that when this Patriots are going to pass, the
13:38
Speaker 5: left tackle Will Campbell would move his hands in his legs.
13:43
Speaker 5: They got a pitcher giving away his pitch before with
13:46
Speaker 5: a ball and the glove, and they knew pass run. Now,
13:50
Speaker 5: they didn't know exactly what passed, but they knew pass
13:53
Speaker 5: run on almost every play. They also knew where the
13:56
Speaker 5: running backs were going to set on blitzes. Witherspoon explained
13:59
Speaker 5: to me that we knew that either Stevenson or whoever
14:03
Speaker 5: they kept in to be the chip back to block
14:05
Speaker 5: on blitzes. They knew exactly where they were going to
14:08
Speaker 5: set depending on the blitz. So what did Mike McDonald do.
14:11
Speaker 5: He blitzed Devin Witherspoon more than he's blitzed them all season.
14:15
Speaker 5: He blits three times in the first two drives. Witherspoon
14:18
Speaker 5: only blitz nineteen times in his fourteen games that he
14:21
Speaker 5: played all season. Missed a few games with the injury
14:23
Speaker 5: in September. As we've remember, nineteen times the entire season.
14:27
Speaker 5: He blitzed three times in the first quarter of Super
14:29
Speaker 5: Bowl sixty. Why because Withers McDonald wanted to send Witherspoon
14:35
Speaker 5: and Emond Worry at the same time because.
14:38
Speaker 4: They knew what the back would do.
14:41
Speaker 5: But there's only one back that they didn't think the
14:44
Speaker 5: Patriots had an answer for a double defensive back blitz.
14:48
Speaker 5: Why could the Seahawks do that? Because they played Nickel
14:51
Speaker 5: and dimes so much that there's six defensive backs in
14:53
Speaker 5: the field. If they send two, they still have four
14:56
Speaker 5: and they still have their front four getting pressure that
14:58
Speaker 5: they have all season. Nicki mun Worry I mentioned he's
15:02
Speaker 5: the most integral Seahawk on the team. Nicki mun Worry
15:06
Speaker 5: allows Mike McDonald to double blitz defensive backs because he
15:09
Speaker 5: allows him to play six defensive backs with Woolen and
15:11
Speaker 5: job in the two starting safeties and Emon Worry and
15:14
Speaker 5: Witherspoon all in the field at the same time. And oh,
15:17
Speaker 5: by the way, they stopped the run in those formations,
15:19
Speaker 5: which is why they stay in it and all the time.
15:21
Speaker 5: No team in the NFL was in five and six
15:23
Speaker 5: defensive backs more this season than Seattle Because of Nicky
15:26
Speaker 5: Mount Worriy and so in.
15:28
Speaker 4: The Super Bowl.
15:29
Speaker 5: When Nick Emun Worry twisted his ankle on Wednesday, Mike
15:32
Speaker 5: McDonald told me that he did not sleep that night.
15:35
Speaker 5: He woke up seventy times in his estimation maybe an exaggeration,
15:40
Speaker 5: and his first thought was, I we just lost the
15:43
Speaker 5: Super Bowl.
15:43
Speaker 4: Wow, this was on when this was on.
15:45
Speaker 5: Wednesday, He thought that if even Worriy couldn't play, they
15:49
Speaker 5: had just lost the Super Bowl. He was that integral
15:52
Speaker 5: to the plan because of this double blitz with with Witherspoon.
15:55
Speaker 5: And we saw what the blitzing with Witherspoon created in
15:58
Speaker 5: the game. I voted, I had one of the sixteen
16:00
Speaker 5: media votes in the Super Bowl MVP that the league
16:04
Speaker 5: dished out.
16:05
Speaker 4: I voted for Witherspoon to be the MVP of the game.
16:08
Speaker 5: But if Nick even Worey wasn't available, none of that
16:11
Speaker 5: plan would have worked. Witherspoon would have been blitzing by himself.
16:13
Speaker 5: The back would have picked him up. When they saw
16:17
Speaker 5: that Emon Warriy could go full go and practice on Friday,
16:20
Speaker 5: McDonald said, the entire team just gave Witherspoon a hell
16:25
Speaker 5: I mean, Emon Worey a hell of a time for
16:27
Speaker 5: being a drama queen, for going because he was like
16:30
Speaker 5: he'd been shot in practice on Wednesday, and all of
16:33
Speaker 5: a sudden he was full go, running around like nothing
16:35
Speaker 5: happened on Friday. And then that's when McDonald said.
16:39
Speaker 4: He knew he had the Patriots.
16:41
Speaker 5: They they did not think the Patriots could drive multiple
16:44
Speaker 5: times for touchdowns when the game mattered against their defense,
16:48
Speaker 5: and they couldn't. It was a nineteen nothing shut out
16:50
Speaker 5: into the fourth quarter until garbage time. McDonald has been
16:53
Speaker 5: doing this all season, his scouting, his staff, picking up
16:57
Speaker 5: little nuances like a left tackle moving his hand when
17:00
Speaker 5: they're going to pass, is the reason why they absolutely
17:03
Speaker 5: destroyed the Patriots pass gats.
17:06
Speaker 3: Like a Greg Maddox thing like I'm just I think,
17:08
Speaker 3: I'm i'm I'm I'm out triple I'm triple thinking your
17:12
Speaker 3: double think, Like I don't know if you're thinking, I'm
17:16
Speaker 3: throwing a slider here, so I'm going to throw a
17:19
Speaker 3: slider because then you just double think. So it's sort
17:23
Speaker 3: of like sort of like that, he's just he's just out.
17:27
Speaker 5: He's out here, which, by the way, which by the way,
17:29
Speaker 5: is exactly the opposite of how the Seahawks won there.
17:32
Speaker 5: On the other Super Bowl, Mike Pete Carroll was four
17:35
Speaker 5: to three Cover three. I don't care if you know
17:37
Speaker 5: what we're in. We got better Jimmy's and Joe's than
17:39
Speaker 5: your ex'es and o's. We're staying in this and Mike
17:42
Speaker 5: McDonald's the opposite. He gives you every look imaginable. As
17:46
Speaker 5: you mentioned and we've talked about for two years, they
17:48
Speaker 5: changed right at the snap with a one word command.
17:51
Speaker 4: They're smoking mirrors.
17:52
Speaker 5: On top of having athletes to play the schemes, they
17:55
Speaker 5: are exactly the opposite in scheme and how they play
17:59
Speaker 5: than how the Seahawks when the leads to boo, same result.
18:02
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks played virtually
18:06
Speaker 2: all dime, but in passes and quarters one, two, and
18:09
Speaker 2: three they were Nickel twelve snaps dime eleven snaps. So
18:13
Speaker 2: they were and when they get into dime that on
18:17
Speaker 2: a lot of coverages they want to play the for example,
18:20
Speaker 2: what's called cover four quarters. There's only three guys underneath,
18:25
Speaker 2: so you got Ernest Jones in the middle, and then
18:26
Speaker 2: the two guys that have to cover a lot of
18:29
Speaker 2: ground in the flat are Witherspoon and Emon worry, who
18:32
Speaker 2: are just freak athletes. They're they're just there their turbo
18:35
Speaker 2: button so they can cover so much closed ground. They're
18:38
Speaker 2: sure tacklers and and uh you know, to that point
18:42
Speaker 2: in the Super Bowl, the d a dB one or
18:46
Speaker 2: more dbs rushed on uh five of ten. Uh. Drake
18:51
Speaker 2: May was five of ten for twenty two yards, one interception,
18:54
Speaker 2: one sack, a passer rating of sixteen point seven. Now,
18:59
Speaker 2: if you just took one step and threw the ball
19:02
Speaker 2: into the crowd every single play, you're passer rating would
19:05
Speaker 2: be thirty nine point six because you wouldn't throw an interception. Yeah, right,
19:10
Speaker 2: And so to have a seventeen passer rating, that shows
19:13
Speaker 2: how effective the blitz was. You know, I think Mike McDonald,
19:17
Speaker 2: first of all, if that's actually true that he that
19:20
Speaker 2: he couldn't sleep and he thought that they lost the
19:22
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, I would say two things. You know, find
19:26
Speaker 2: somebody else that you that if emon worry's down, that
19:29
Speaker 2: you still think you can win games, right. And then
19:31
Speaker 2: second of all, I don't believe it. I think he
19:33
Speaker 2: would have had like he was deciphering the blocking scheme
19:39
Speaker 2: of Josh McDaniels. This is this is their pass pro
19:42
Speaker 2: and uh, and he would have had other blitzes had
19:47
Speaker 2: he not had im and worry he had like everything
19:50
Speaker 2: wasn't getting shut down, it might not have gone. It
19:52
Speaker 2: might not have been the Picasso defensively that he envisioned.
19:56
Speaker 2: But I don't believe for a second that that he
19:59
Speaker 2: wouldn't have had great, a great backup plan on his
20:02
Speaker 2: blitz package.
20:03
Speaker 5: But Emon worriot commands so much attention already as a
20:08
Speaker 5: rookie that he knew the Patriots' past protection game plan
20:11
Speaker 5: would largely be centered to Brown Demon Worry, and if
20:13
Speaker 5: it was Tyo Kotta or somebody else in there, it
20:16
Speaker 5: wouldn't be nearly the impact and his plan would. He
20:19
Speaker 5: tried to go Tyo Kotta for Nick even Worry in
20:22
Speaker 5: Game one when Emon Worriy went out on the fourth
20:24
Speaker 5: play and Kyle Shanahan killed him got a touchdown in
20:27
Speaker 5: the first down on.
20:28
Speaker 2: The very first week, went Greg, Yeah, I understand.
20:31
Speaker 4: I understand.
20:32
Speaker 5: I'm telling you I cannot overemphasize how much Nick emn
20:35
Speaker 5: Warrey means to Mike.
20:36
Speaker 2: Nick Mounory is worth seventeen points on a Vegas line.
20:41
Speaker 2: You're telling me that after three quarters, when the Patriots
20:45
Speaker 2: had they were on a pace for one hundred and
20:48
Speaker 2: four yards. They had seventy eight total yards. You're saying
20:51
Speaker 2: that without Emon Worry, that that the Patriots would have
20:56
Speaker 2: won the game.
20:57
Speaker 5: Nope, didn't say that, but in words of my master
20:59
Speaker 5: well all but just said that he is so central
21:02
Speaker 5: to Mike McDonald's plan that the coach couldn't sleep. And
21:05
Speaker 5: and but people don't understand about McDonald is he saw
21:09
Speaker 5: Eman Worry the first practices of the season and said,
21:13
Speaker 5: I'm doing everything with this cat.
21:14
Speaker 4: I'm making him this central piece.
21:17
Speaker 2: We've talked about that, we agree.
21:18
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and so he said, I Am going to make
21:21
Speaker 5: him the central piece of the super Bowl game plan.
21:24
Speaker 5: And he was not in the mood on Thursday morning
21:26
Speaker 5: of the Super Bowl week to change his game.
21:28
Speaker 4: Plan, and he was freaking out about it. That's the
21:30
Speaker 4: point I'm trying. I'm just telling you what he said.
21:33
Speaker 5: And I don't take McDonald for someone who would just
21:35
Speaker 5: blow smoke and telling me that he was concerned about
21:38
Speaker 5: Eman Warrey's injury, because that's how central he was to
21:40
Speaker 5: the game plan.
21:42
Speaker 2: Look, okay, so do you think if Emon Worry was out,
21:46
Speaker 2: he obviously had a plan, right, I don't think.
21:48
Speaker 5: It would have been nineteen nothing in the fourth quarter
21:50
Speaker 5: if Nick even Warrior, that's I don't think.
21:52
Speaker 2: But what plan.
21:55
Speaker 5: I don't think that Witherspoon would have hit a quarterback
21:58
Speaker 5: in May would have thrown it right to and will
22:00
Speaker 5: sue for an interception.
22:01
Speaker 4: If Emon Worrior was out.
22:03
Speaker 5: I cannot overemphasize Nicky Moan Worey's value.
22:07
Speaker 4: I thought he was an all pro.
22:08
Speaker 2: I think he's really valuable too. We have shared that.
22:11
Speaker 2: I'm just saying here's where, here's where. Look, it's not provable,
22:16
Speaker 2: it's not false and vile. We we don't have a
22:19
Speaker 2: Super Bowl where the Seahawks defense played without Emon Worry.
22:22
Speaker 2: I understand his value like i've I've highlighted him as
22:25
Speaker 2: much or more as you Greg, but I but I'm
22:28
Speaker 2: giving credit to Mike McDonald and having been on a
22:31
Speaker 2: Super Bowl team myself, that the teams look like injuries
22:34
Speaker 2: happen and people on both sides of the ball they
22:37
Speaker 2: have If they're a great loaded team and you have
22:41
Speaker 2: a great load coach who is who is a genius,
22:44
Speaker 2: they find a way and it might not have been
22:47
Speaker 2: as dominant, but I think that it would have. We
22:50
Speaker 2: would have said he there would have been something, it
22:54
Speaker 2: might not have been like no snowflake is is exactly
22:57
Speaker 2: the same that the play where Witherspoon hits him by
23:02
Speaker 2: the way, that that was a uh that was a
23:05
Speaker 2: play where you had Ernest Jones and Witherspoon coming on
23:09
Speaker 2: a routine fire zone. You got Boy and Mafey dropping
23:12
Speaker 2: off to the other side. The beauty that is that
23:14
Speaker 2: he McDonald plays a four deep, two deep hybrid instead
23:19
Speaker 2: of a three deep three hunder that Rabel does when
23:21
Speaker 2: he does a five man pressure. So so even Worry
23:25
Speaker 2: was not was not central to that play on the
23:28
Speaker 2: on the on the Nuoso touchdown, that was that was
23:31
Speaker 2: just the fact that they couldn't handle a routine fire zone.
23:34
Speaker 2: That's how bad they were. And so uh, I, I
23:39
Speaker 2: just look, we're gonna I think we if we vand
23:43
Speaker 2: diagrammed ourselves, that sounds like we have this conflict. If
23:46
Speaker 2: we ben diagrammed, if we've truly parsoned out Greg, we
23:49
Speaker 2: would almost overlap entirely. Because I absolutely agree with all
23:54
Speaker 2: of the the the incredible versatility and athleticism that even
23:59
Speaker 2: Worry gives you. I'm just saying that the unknown of
24:03
Speaker 2: Mike McDonald's, Oh crap, I have to actually call a
24:06
Speaker 2: defensive game without em and worry in this Super Bowl.
24:11
Speaker 2: I think he finds a way, and I think it
24:13
Speaker 2: would have been nearly as dominant. All Right, we got
24:16
Speaker 2: a lot of other things to discuss.
24:17
Speaker 3: We'll continue our twelfth Man Roundtable next on Sports Radio
24:20
Speaker 3: ninety three point three KJRFM.
24:23
Speaker 4: Yeah.
24:23
Speaker 6: I just want to say I've talked a lot this last.
24:25
Speaker 2: Week about belief.
24:26
Speaker 6: A lot of people, you know, it didn't believe in me,
24:29
Speaker 6: but it didn't matter because the ones that are close
24:31
Speaker 6: believed in me, including y'all. I appreciate y'all so much.
24:38
Speaker 6: That short list also includes Jody Allen, John Schneider, Mike McDonald.
24:42
Speaker 5: Man.
24:43
Speaker 6: I appreciate the belief y'all had in me for signing
24:45
Speaker 6: me last this past year, and last is certainly not
24:49
Speaker 6: least these players man for believing in me. You know,
24:53
Speaker 6: I wouldn't be here without these guys.
24:55
Speaker 2: This defense.
24:56
Speaker 6: Man, Hey, can we give it up one more time
24:58
Speaker 6: for this defense?
24:59
Speaker 2: Yay? Yeah?
25:00
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought he was talking them specifically to me, right,
25:05
Speaker 3: I don't think he was. Oh really, No, it's Chuck
25:08
Speaker 3: Buck and Ashley with you.
25:09
Speaker 2: It's our twelfth Man Round Table, last one.
25:11
Speaker 3: Of this Super Bowl season, and that was the voice
25:16
Speaker 3: of Sam Darnold, who did admit yesterday a little bit.
25:19
Speaker 3: I think that's a little bit of a confession of Yeah,
25:21
Speaker 3: I heard all of the noise and as long as
25:23
Speaker 3: my teammates believed in me, that's all that needed.
25:27
Speaker 2: I needed to tick. And boy did he tick this year. Hugh.
25:31
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, maybe he didn't rewrite the record books.
25:35
Speaker 3: You know, maybe maybe he's not Josh Allen, but he
25:39
Speaker 3: certainly was damn good. And I'm sorry that a lot
25:42
Speaker 3: of people missed.
25:42
Speaker 4: Out on that.
25:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean right now, I mean he's thirty five
25:46
Speaker 2: and ten in his last forty five starts. That's number
25:49
Speaker 2: one in the NFL. Since Thanksgiving of twenty twenty two,
25:52
Speaker 2: he has the highest percentage of his games with eight
25:55
Speaker 2: one hundred or greater passer rating since that time. That's
25:58
Speaker 2: forty five games. That this is not some little small
26:02
Speaker 2: data set anymore. And with regards to the Super Bowl
26:05
Speaker 2: and some of the things that some of these national
26:08
Speaker 2: guys are saying, let's go back to now this is
26:11
Speaker 2: going to pick a scab for many of us. But
26:14
Speaker 2: Ben Roethlisberger won a Super Bowl. He was nine for
26:17
Speaker 2: twenty one, one hundred and twenty three yards, no touchdowns,
26:20
Speaker 2: two picks, a passer rating of twenty two point six.
26:24
Speaker 2: That's in a winning Super Bowl. Yeah, unfortunately it was
26:26
Speaker 2: against Seattle. But if you're a Steeler fan, you know
26:29
Speaker 2: what you do. You remember the the AFC Championship game
26:33
Speaker 2: against the Broncos winn He threw for two hundred seventy
26:35
Speaker 2: five yards, had a one hundred and twenty five or eighting.
26:38
Speaker 2: You're kind of like, okay, thanks Ben, you know, you
26:40
Speaker 2: know you earned your ring actually in the championship game.
26:43
Speaker 2: And when you look at Sam Darnold, look, he didn't
26:46
Speaker 2: have to have a great game in the Super Bowl.
26:48
Speaker 2: You know, he had a seventy five passer rating. You
26:50
Speaker 2: know who else has had a passer rating in the
26:54
Speaker 2: seventies or worse and won a Super Bowl? Tom Brady,
26:57
Speaker 2: Pat Mahomes, Peyton Manning, and I mentioned Roethlisberger. And when
27:03
Speaker 2: you look at what he did in that game, and
27:08
Speaker 2: by the way, out of fifty six quarterbacks who have
27:12
Speaker 2: started in this century, fifty six quarterbacks who have won
27:16
Speaker 2: a either AFC Championship or NFC, Okay, we've got a
27:21
Speaker 2: data set of fifty six games. Sam Darnold's NFC Championship
27:25
Speaker 2: game against the Rams was has the fifth highest passer
27:29
Speaker 2: rating and there's only five guys out of fifty six
27:32
Speaker 2: that through for three hundred yards, three touchdowns and a
27:35
Speaker 2: passer rating over one one twenty five. So so what
27:40
Speaker 2: I would do, It's kind of like, imagine if you
27:43
Speaker 2: got an ace pitcher and in the seventh game of
27:47
Speaker 2: the ALCS he goes he's going against like scooball Or
27:51
Speaker 2: or put Schooble on the you know, Shilling of the Yankees,
27:54
Speaker 2: or Pedro Martinez with you know, like like the ace
27:56
Speaker 2: of the the you know, he's league you're going against.
28:00
Speaker 2: You're going against Matthew Stafford. You're going against the ace
28:02
Speaker 2: of the league. And the seventh game of the ALCS
28:06
Speaker 2: you have like you win like a one nothing or
28:08
Speaker 2: maybe a two to one, and then look, I know
28:12
Speaker 2: the Patriots weren't good enough in this analogy to force
28:15
Speaker 2: a game seven. But if in a game seven, let's
28:17
Speaker 2: say you march your guy out and the offense is
28:21
Speaker 2: so dominant and you win like twelve to five, and
28:23
Speaker 2: you say, well, well, in the seventh gave me the
28:25
Speaker 2: World Series. He gave up five runs like he he
28:28
Speaker 2: did what he had to do to win. What where
28:32
Speaker 2: he really earned that Super Bowl ring is when he
28:34
Speaker 2: won that matchup against Pedro in Game seven to ALCS
28:38
Speaker 2: and Sam Donald, when he needed to deliver in the
28:42
Speaker 2: biggest way, when everybody involved in that parade yesterday needed
28:47
Speaker 2: Sam Donald to produce, That's what he did. And so
28:52
Speaker 2: if and you know what, the rest of the team said, Hey, Sam,
28:55
Speaker 2: super Bowl, we got you. And there's a play that
28:58
Speaker 2: really illustrates this form, Greg There's there's a I think
29:03
Speaker 2: at the core of decision making for quarterback is almost
29:06
Speaker 2: not more than ninety five percent of plays are designed
29:11
Speaker 2: so that there's something deep or something shallow. Very there's
29:14
Speaker 2: some way you say, well, I got two sticks on
29:16
Speaker 2: the slot, two out routes they're all at five yards. Yeah,
29:20
Speaker 2: occasionally you have those and there's no but usually it's
29:22
Speaker 2: like do I want to go down and get chunk
29:24
Speaker 2: yards or do I not. There's a play in the
29:26
Speaker 2: Super Bowl where Sam donold he's gonna go try and
29:29
Speaker 2: get a twelve yard what's called an Oakie route or
29:31
Speaker 2: a three route, depending on what system you're in. And
29:33
Speaker 2: then there's a checkdown and you see him wind up.
29:37
Speaker 2: His arm is literally wind up, like he wants to
29:39
Speaker 2: go get thirteen yards on the sideline. But now the
29:42
Speaker 2: corner's triggering and he pulls it down. He doesn't throw it.
29:46
Speaker 2: He throws it in the flat to Cooper Cup for
29:48
Speaker 2: seven yards. Because that's the construction of the play. You got, Okay,
29:52
Speaker 2: do I want to go get thirteen yards or do
29:54
Speaker 2: I take the five yard checkdown that became seven yards?
29:57
Speaker 2: And that play illustrates It's like, hey, I don't need
30:01
Speaker 2: those thirteen yards. I don't need that risk. Cooper Cup
30:05
Speaker 2: for seven yards is right there in front of me.
30:06
Speaker 2: It's a layup. And I gave one example that was
30:10
Speaker 2: all throughout the Super Bowl tape. And so people who
30:13
Speaker 2: want to say, oh, you know, scam Donald, you know,
30:17
Speaker 2: worst quarterback he won the Super Bowl, like like, are
30:19
Speaker 2: you freaking out of your skull at any rate? I
30:23
Speaker 2: think they are out of their skull.
30:24
Speaker 3: How did they know Gregg? How did Mike and how
30:27
Speaker 3: did John know that he was the right guy for
30:30
Speaker 3: the job, Because that was a question mark. Then we
30:32
Speaker 3: all doubted a little bit when they signed him, but
30:36
Speaker 3: certainly we had come around and weren't doubting him by
30:38
Speaker 3: the time they won the Super Bowl. But how did
30:41
Speaker 3: they know.
30:43
Speaker 5: Glen Kubiak was a big reason that they signed Sam Donald.
30:46
Speaker 5: He had him in San Francisco as a backup to
30:48
Speaker 5: Brock Purty in the twenty twenty three season, and Kubiak
30:51
Speaker 5: really sold McDonald and Snyder on how steady he was
30:57
Speaker 5: and how nothing seemed to bother him and when things
31:01
Speaker 5: went wrong he was very bounced back. Now, he didn't
31:04
Speaker 5: have a ton of chances to prove that in San
31:06
Speaker 5: Francisco in real games because brock Perdices paid so well.
31:10
Speaker 5: He went to the Super Bowl that year with San
31:11
Speaker 5: Francisco with Donald backing them up. But it was a
31:15
Speaker 5: vouch for thing that Kubiak really told, And that's really
31:18
Speaker 5: Kubiak's legacy. On top of re establishing the run in Seattle,
31:23
Speaker 5: he got Sam Darnold to become a Seahawk. And it
31:26
Speaker 5: was a risk. They admit it was a risk. They
31:29
Speaker 5: traded their four thousand yard quarterback, a fiery leader that
31:33
Speaker 5: the locker room really respected, Gino Smith, who was one
31:36
Speaker 5: of the guys. Make no mistake, think what you think
31:38
Speaker 5: of Gino Smith in the locker room he was one
31:40
Speaker 5: of the guys. He was one of the dudes, and
31:43
Speaker 5: they traded him and three days later signed Sam Donald,
31:47
Speaker 5: who was not one of the guys. No one knew
31:50
Speaker 5: who this southern California kid from San Clemente was. They
31:53
Speaker 5: just knew all the things they'd read about him. And
31:55
Speaker 5: then Donald did here, and the first thing he did
31:59
Speaker 5: was get on board with Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Jaron
32:03
Speaker 5: Reid and said, let's get everybody to the offseason off
32:06
Speaker 5: one hundred percent participation in the voluntary workouts OTA's mini camps.
32:11
Speaker 4: And they all did.
32:12
Speaker 5: Jonathan Hankins was the only one that was under contract
32:15
Speaker 5: who did not come to those, and he never played
32:17
Speaker 5: for them this year. He was basically semi retired. I
32:20
Speaker 5: saw him in San Francisco, by the way, and I
32:22
Speaker 5: was like, Oh, you're still alive.
32:23
Speaker 4: He spent the whole season in Texas. That was the
32:26
Speaker 4: only guy who wasn't there.
32:28
Speaker 5: But I've covered the NFL since two thousand and I
32:31
Speaker 5: don't remember a team good teams, bad teams, Raiders, Seahawks.
32:36
Speaker 5: I don't remember a team that had one hundred percent
32:38
Speaker 5: participation in voluntary offseason stuff. There's always graduations, weddings, vacations
32:45
Speaker 5: just don't feel like it's and they had all of them,
32:47
Speaker 5: and Sam Donald was a big part of that and
32:49
Speaker 5: that established his leadership for the rest of the season.
32:52
Speaker 5: Then when he had the four interception game in Los
32:54
Speaker 5: Angeles's career high in interceptions in November, the players at
32:58
Speaker 5: the time in that game, the game that was the
33:00
Speaker 5: Ernest Jones f You took message to the players after
33:03
Speaker 5: that game or to everybody else in the world about
33:06
Speaker 5: the first fame.
33:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, and after.
33:10
Speaker 5: That game, the players were all saying, Donald, our quarterback,
33:13
Speaker 5: didn't flinch. He almost won the game. He brought us
33:16
Speaker 5: back from twenty one to nine, and we almost won
33:19
Speaker 5: the game after we gave him two of the three
33:20
Speaker 5: touchdowns Donald did. And they were really impressed coming out
33:24
Speaker 5: of that game how Donald responded in the fourth quarter,
33:27
Speaker 5: drove them off their own goal.
33:28
Speaker 4: Line with no timeouts or one timeout and almost.
33:31
Speaker 5: Got in a field at the sixty one yard field,
33:33
Speaker 5: but it was kind of frantic and Myers missed it.
33:35
Speaker 5: But in that game, because he threw four in er seven,
33:38
Speaker 5: that game was the only one of the last fifteen
33:40
Speaker 5: that the Seahawks lost. And then once he started, as
33:44
Speaker 5: he was saying, getting to where he was reducing risk
33:47
Speaker 5: and not putting the ball at risk. As McDonald like's
33:49
Speaker 5: to say, they won the Super Bowl. His last five games,
33:51
Speaker 5: he did not turn the ball over once the Seahawks
33:54
Speaker 5: could play to their defense. It was the evolution within
33:56
Speaker 5: the season of Sam Donald to become risk averse by
33:59
Speaker 5: the end of the year.
34:00
Speaker 2: Well, there was a time where, you know, reasonable minds
34:04
Speaker 2: could differ. You know, right after the Ram game, for example.
34:06
Speaker 2: You know, if you wanted to say I don't believe
34:08
Speaker 2: in Sam, you know, you want to denigratee him, Okay,
34:11
Speaker 2: but at this juncture it you know, anybody's doing that.
34:16
Speaker 2: It's kind of them just holding on to you know,
34:19
Speaker 2: unwilling to to give up prior thoughts, which is not
34:23
Speaker 2: a yeah they're there's exactly they're I mean, they're they're
34:29
Speaker 2: taking you know, one of the most likable, humble, you know,
34:34
Speaker 2: beloved players in all of the NFL, and they're choosing
34:39
Speaker 2: that guy to just you know, just continue to heap. Uh,
34:44
Speaker 2: you know, trash on this. I don't get it. I
34:46
Speaker 2: don't get it. Try go ahead, find a teammate who
34:49
Speaker 2: says a bad word about Sam Darnold. I'll wait. Yeah,
34:53
Speaker 2: you ain't gonna find it. I've creeped on this guy
34:55
Speaker 2: going back, you know, San Clemente High School, USC. You can't.
34:59
Speaker 2: You can't find it.
35:01
Speaker 5: That Vikings were the same way Kevin O'Connell was actually
35:05
Speaker 5: at Kevin O'Connell also sold Kubiak and McDonald and Snyder on.
35:11
Speaker 5: They went to O'Connell and said, give us the lowdown
35:14
Speaker 5: on this guy off the field and in the locker room.
35:17
Speaker 5: And the way that Seahawks describe it is they're not
35:20
Speaker 5: sure why the Vikings let him.
35:21
Speaker 4: Go because the locker room loved him.
35:24
Speaker 5: O'Connell loved him, and they just as an organization decided
35:27
Speaker 5: to go with JJ McCarthy instead.
35:29
Speaker 2: They could have, Francis told him, they could have had
35:32
Speaker 2: their cake and ate at.
35:35
Speaker 5: Having said all of that, I cannot I can't honestly say,
35:39
Speaker 5: and I don't think the Seahows can honestly say now
35:41
Speaker 5: that when they signed him in March they said this
35:43
Speaker 5: is a Super Bowl winning quarterback.
35:45
Speaker 4: They were still a work in progress on offense. That
35:48
Speaker 4: took the entire season to get.
35:49
Speaker 3: To Greg Bell, Hugh Mill and it's our final twelfth
35:52
Speaker 3: man roundtable, and we've got like thirty eight more hours
35:55
Speaker 3: of material to cover, so we'll try to bunch it
35:58
Speaker 3: into one more segment.
35:59
Speaker 7: Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ R f M.
36:12
Speaker 3: You know we've decided to do huh. Great minds have
36:15
Speaker 3: gotten together during the break. I wasn't involved, right, Ashley,
36:20
Speaker 3: Hugh and I were discussing.
36:23
Speaker 2: That's weird.
36:25
Speaker 3: We have We have a beat Bucky game. We haven't
36:27
Speaker 3: played Beat Bucky. I got it ready to go, and
36:30
Speaker 3: it has to be done this week.
36:31
Speaker 2: We can do it tomorrow.
36:32
Speaker 3: So let's keep Hugh Millan and Greg Bell for another
36:35
Speaker 3: segment because I feel like we've got a lot of
36:37
Speaker 3: other ground to cover, so we're gonna cover it with them.
36:40
Speaker 3: We're gonna roll this right into the nine o'clock hour
36:43
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36:48
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Speaker 8: you know, go up there, maybe throw some ducats down,
37:01
Speaker 8: play some.
37:02
Speaker 2: Cards, or why work?
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37:09
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Speaker 2: Now.
37:10
Speaker 8: I mean, yeah, football is over, but it doesn't mean
37:12
Speaker 8: sports are done.
37:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, what are you quitting? It'll be a quitter. Yeahs
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Speaker 3: But to Lalapris or Casino Quilca Creek Casino. They've got
37:27
Speaker 3: twenty four hour kiosks there, so when you get a chance,
37:31
Speaker 3: go see them.
37:32
Speaker 2: Have some fun up there.
37:33
Speaker 3: At t lalap All right, we are going to do
37:35
Speaker 3: an extra segment, which is a relief to me because
37:38
Speaker 3: I've got so much other ground that I want to
37:40
Speaker 3: cover with the two of you. So let me just
37:42
Speaker 3: wrap up the hour just sort of because we're going
37:45
Speaker 3: to kind of look ahead a little bit in our
37:47
Speaker 3: segments coming up at nine o'clock, just to kind of
37:49
Speaker 3: put a bow on it. Greg, more so than anything else,
37:52
Speaker 3: and a lot of things have to come together in
37:54
Speaker 3: order for you to win a championship in any given year.
37:57
Speaker 3: What more than anything else, it's the biggest piece of
38:01
Speaker 3: the pie. For why the Seattle Seahawks shocked the world
38:05
Speaker 3: and won the Super Bowl in twenty twenty five, twenty
38:08
Speaker 3: twenty six.
38:10
Speaker 5: Their offense caught up to their defense. They didn't get
38:13
Speaker 5: to them, but they caught up to them. They closed
38:15
Speaker 5: the gap. They Mike McDonald restructured the offense to be
38:19
Speaker 5: run first and dictate a physicality to a defense that
38:23
Speaker 5: he That's what he had been seeking, That's what Clint
38:25
Speaker 5: Kubiak brought. It took him from training camp until December
38:30
Speaker 5: for all that running to finally payoff in production. They
38:34
Speaker 5: spend most of the season in the bottom of the
38:36
Speaker 5: league and yards per Carrett, yet top of the league
38:38
Speaker 5: and how much they ran, and then they ran off
38:41
Speaker 5: the one hundred and sixty hundred and seventy hundred and eighty
38:43
Speaker 5: and week eighteen against the forty nine ers for a
38:46
Speaker 5: season high, and then Walker goes for one to nineteen
38:49
Speaker 5: and three touchdowns against the forty nine ers in the
38:51
Speaker 5: division game. The run game emerging balanced the team, not
38:57
Speaker 5: the offense, the team, and then they when they had
39:00
Speaker 5: the run game, they could then play to their defense
39:02
Speaker 5: like we saw in Week eighteen, punting from midfield going
39:05
Speaker 5: forward on fourth and goal with the four knowing if
39:07
Speaker 5: forty nine ers weren't going to drive the field, getting
39:09
Speaker 5: a three and out getting a touchdown on the next drive. Anyway,
39:13
Speaker 5: the same thing in the division championship or the divisional
39:15
Speaker 5: playoff game, the same thing at times in the Super
39:18
Speaker 5: Bowl they kicked it from midfield. McDonald said afterward, Yep,
39:22
Speaker 5: we're not going to risk it there because our defense.
39:25
Speaker 4: Is playing so well.
39:26
Speaker 5: Once the running game can change field position, then it
39:31
Speaker 5: changed everything. And coming into this season, McDonald had what
39:34
Speaker 5: he thought was a super Bowl quality defense, but he
39:37
Speaker 5: needed his offense to get there, and it got there
39:39
Speaker 5: by the end, and Sam Donald, the running game, Clint Kobiak,
39:43
Speaker 5: and oh, by the way, John Benton had huge roles
39:46
Speaker 5: in that of all the things they need to do
39:48
Speaker 5: this offseason, they need to keep John Benton on this
39:51
Speaker 5: staff because he was so clear in his coaching that
39:55
Speaker 5: the offensive linemen are swearing knife. They talked to about
39:59
Speaker 5: it in the training camp. How great this guy was.
40:01
Speaker 5: He's worked with Kubiak in the past, he worked with
40:04
Speaker 5: them in New Orleans last year. But I've been told
40:07
Speaker 5: that there aren't going to be many assistants, if any,
40:09
Speaker 5: that are leaving with Kubiak to the Raiders, that they're
40:11
Speaker 5: keeping most of them and that they are not going
40:13
Speaker 5: to let Kubiak just have a one year deal and
40:15
Speaker 5: then leave and take a bunch of assistance with him.
40:17
Speaker 5: John Benton is a big, big part of this offense
40:20
Speaker 5: getting out to the defense.
40:21
Speaker 3: Here's the same question. A lot of reasons why this
40:24
Speaker 3: team is a Super Bowl champion, but which factor is
40:29
Speaker 3: the biggest fact?
40:30
Speaker 2: Well, you know, on Greg's point, while the offense was
40:34
Speaker 2: waiting to find the running game that they found at
40:36
Speaker 2: the end, they for two thirds three quarters of the season,
40:40
Speaker 2: they were a team that were still you know, they
40:42
Speaker 2: still set a franchise record for scoring, and they were
40:47
Speaker 2: doing that predominantly because of the big play in the
40:50
Speaker 2: passing of Sam Donald.
40:51
Speaker 4: You know.
40:52
Speaker 2: I mean there's games, you know, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville where you say, whoa,
40:57
Speaker 2: if we're not if Sam Donald, then the the passing
41:00
Speaker 2: game isn't clicking you. You there's very there's a lot
41:04
Speaker 2: of pass to losses in those games. You're not the
41:06
Speaker 2: number one seed. For me, I would just say Mike McDonald,
41:10
Speaker 2: the coach. I mean, it's not you know, I'm not
41:13
Speaker 2: reinventing the wheel here to to say that, But I
41:15
Speaker 2: just think the complexity I imagine the decision that that
41:20
Speaker 2: Snyder made to to uh to replace Pete Carroll. If
41:25
Speaker 2: Snyder had made all the same personnel decisions, I still
41:27
Speaker 2: don't think that they win the Super Bowl. I think
41:29
Speaker 2: it takes Mike McDonald to win the Super Bowl. And
41:34
Speaker 2: in part it wasn't it's not just the defensive philosophy.
41:37
Speaker 2: It's how he engaged with the offense, challenging them, you know,
41:40
Speaker 2: bringing his his brilliance as a defensive coach into the
41:44
Speaker 2: offensive coaches meeting and challenging them, Hey, this is how
41:47
Speaker 2: you can get better, you know, and and uh, and
41:51
Speaker 2: then also how he related with this quarterback and just
41:55
Speaker 2: saying and all those public statements that were also made
42:00
Speaker 2: in private, Hey, just keep ripping it, you know, you know,
42:03
Speaker 2: because he knows enough about defensive football. He's seen quarterbacks
42:07
Speaker 2: who are paralyzed, you know, like like we heard Julian
42:10
Speaker 2: Love say that that Drake may was, you know, just
42:14
Speaker 2: holding on the ball because he wasn't sure, he didn't
42:16
Speaker 2: want to turn it loose. And and Mike McDonald knows
42:20
Speaker 2: that fraction of a second that a quarterback is saying, hey,
42:23
Speaker 2: green light. If you say light's green, I want to
42:25
Speaker 2: throw it. Let me make sure it's green but you're done.
42:28
Speaker 2: Can't play football that way. It's got to be green
42:31
Speaker 2: light go. It has to and and Mike McDonald fostered
42:35
Speaker 2: an environment where Sam Donald could take some lumps in
42:38
Speaker 2: year one with a new coach and new receivers and
42:42
Speaker 2: keep slinging it and still have the right mindset. So
42:45
Speaker 2: it's not just what he did as a defensive coordinator,
42:48
Speaker 2: because he coordinates the defense, calls the place. It's what
42:52
Speaker 2: he did in a broad worldview philosophy with the offense.
42:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think that gets under reported out not
43:01
Speaker 3: under reported, but under disgusted when talking about Mike McDonald
43:06
Speaker 3: and what all he has brought to the table here.
43:09
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm I'm kind of with you on that.
43:11
Speaker 3: All Right, We're gonna do another segment with our twelve
43:14
Speaker 3: man round table. It's our last one of the year,
43:16
Speaker 3: and we just can't let go. Sports Radio ninety three
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Speaker 3: point three kh A r F M