Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Are you sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Monday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and f S one. One hour from now. Where Colin was right, Where Colin was wrong? Sean Payton stops by for thirty minutes live in studio. Next hour j Mac alongside today as usual. Well that was a weekend man. Mahomes is different, pretty good quarterback right at one point in the fourth quarter, one of his key targets because of injuries was Marcus Kemp, who's got more career tackles than catchings. When anybody complains about their quarterback, well he needs this and he needs that. Just look at Patrick Mahomes yesterday on a bum wheel making all the big plays. Just such a clutch quarterback. I like your Mahomes take to start the show, So let's start with this. I've been a sportscaster for over thirty years, and I don't remember in thirty years a team losing a close playoff game and not blaming the refs. Oh boy, So Kansas City's better than Cincinnati, and I thought Cincinnati would win. But Kansas City's quarterback played better than the other team. Kansas City dominated the first half, Kansas City made fewer mistakes, Kansas City protected their quarterback better than Cincinnati did. In ninety nine point nine percent of the time, the team that does those four or five things wins the game. Mahomes is different. He played on one leg, had no run support, was missing at one point three of his top wide receivers, and put up a line that is you know, I'm a Homesian line that's now his league average. A couple of TDS, passer rating at one O five, completion percentage sixty seven percent. The great ones overcome, and both those quarterbacks are great, but one is greater. Five years, five AFC championships, all at home, MVPs trophies. He didn't have him stacked like Brady. But Bill Russell won almost twice as many titles as MJ and was a better defensive player, in fact, maybe the greatest of all time. We didn't wait to call MJ the goat. What are we waiting for? His instincts faster, better than Brady, He moves better than Brady, armed better than Brady, winning more early over Brady, not relying on defense like Brady. It's the best quarterback I've ever seen. You can blame the refs, but the Chiefs had more yards, more first downs, were better on third down, more yards per play, fewer turnovers, dominate time of possession, and their quarterback had two touchdowns, no picks, and Joe Burrow had two picks, one really really bad. And I love Joe Burrow. It wasn't the refs. Keep blaming them. You've got to get better. Everybody does in the world. By the way, pain tolerance is also a skill. He's a plus plus at that, wincing more than once running around. I had said last week, I think we're overstating the injury. I've seen Mahomes playing a high ankle sprain a couple of years ago, and he had four hundred forty yards. Now it was the Raiders, but it was still something to see. Every other quarterback had something they worked around. Brady's not very physically mobile, Manning could get rigid. Fard made too many mistakes. Maybe Montana wasn't big enough. Mahomes checks every box and his instincts are bizarre. His ability to see an open player and get the ball out of his hands quickly. Marino was close, but Dan's not this. I've literally never seen a quarterback without a hole. Every couple of years he goes off the reservation a bit with his mechanics and Andy has to reel him back in. But with no run game. Every quarterback's good with a lead. Every quarterback's great with a run game. Every quarterback's great with time. Mahomes went sixty seven percent one hundred five point four passer rating, two tds, no picks, three twenty six, throwing the backups, throwing the guys in the fourth quarter who have more career tackles than catches. In those numbers, I just gave you, there is per game average. He doesn't dip in the playoffs. When sky More and Bengal fans don't want to talk about this return, that punt at the end of the game for twenty seven yards to midfield. I literally thought, Okay, it's over. I'm gonna par cocktail. I never feel like that with any other play on the planet. Game's over. By the way, that return you're watching now got about twice as many yards as the late hit penalty, which Bengal fans apparently have amnesia on the punt return. But the ability of Mahomes is like nothing I've ever seen, and it creates great clarity. You're complaining in New York that Daniel Jones doesn't have this, or your quarterback doesn't have that, no run game one leg facing a great defense using backups. That Bengals defense is as good as any in the league in the fourth quarter. By the way, Burrow had two fourth quarter drives a picking a punt, and I love Burrow, but what you're watching here is different. It is just different. And when you can juxtapos and put him side by side, you see the difference. And Mahomes, seriously, I think he's getting better. I honestly think he's getting better. I don't know how it's possible, but Andy Reid obviously one of the smartest offensive guys ever, when he talks about him after games, he just smiles. Our players, our team coaches were all lucky to have him in that position, in the mindset, that whole mindset, So it carries over to everybody. For Pat to do what he did and then to have that run at the end. I can't say enough. He is the MVP of my eyes. Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback talent I've ever seen. And I don't know why I gotta keep waiting. He's not probably going to get this trophy or that trophy or this or that. If we're just talking about stacking things, then Michael Jordan's not the best basketball player ever. You have to contextualize stuff. But when I watch Mahomes play, arm, instincts, mobility, pain, tolerance, intelligence, I've never seen anything like it, never seen anything like it. I don't want to hear about your crappy quarterbacks, average Joe Line. I don't want to hear about your crappier average quarterbacks receivers. Who is he throwing to yesterday? Guys that Aaron Rodgers couldn't make viable? He makes viable in NAFC Championship. Gabe absolutely an insane talent and we're lucky to have him. And he's also a great guy and a great teammate. All right, now to the next game. You know, i'd set you know, circumstances change opinions, and like Tom Brady with his kids in Florida playing for the Niners, I'm thinking to myself, I just said, that's just a lot, even though his parents are there. But I'm sitting watching that game and I'm thinking, Kyle Shanahan went through Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brock Purty, Josh Johnson, and they're hiking a ball to Christian McCaffrey, and I'm thinking to myself, I could see Brady texting him saying, you know, I don't get hurt, and the Niners going. Debo's getting older, McCaffrey's taking hits, Trent Williams getting older, Kittle's taken hits. These guys aren't gonna last forever. I could see the Niners after this weekend going pretty is a little small. He is a seventh rounder. Maybe we got to go big because the Niners are loaded. But Philadelphia is a remarkable story. You know, I lived out East for about ten years and out West if we want a new building, we blow stuff up. We don't have a lot of old churches. We don't care much about that. For an old Eastern city that's proud of its tradition, you really got to hand it to Philadelphia. Multiple quarterbacks, multiple coaches, second super Bowl in seven years, four different coaches in twenty three years, three or four have been to the Super Bowl, all winning records, have all gotten to the playoffs. I really appreciate the way Philadelphia is willing to evolve. I don't even like all the moves. I thought Sariannie was a week higher. I couldn't understand firing Doug Peterson, moving off Carson Wentz. But for an old, established Eastern city which has great pride in tradition, they will change direction in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat, they're Amazon. You think they're one thing that many do, they're another. It's remarkable. It is a completely stacked roster. And what's remarkable is their two playoff games were blowouts. And Jalen Hurts is not right. That dude needs to get healthy. He had no touch on deep balls. His stuff underneath was short. I don't know if Jalen Hurts is seventy percent. You know, we talked about mahomes injury. I think Jalen Hurts is really hurt. I don't think he's right at all. But this roster may be gifted enough. It's got much more depth of talent. In Kansas City, you could argue almost every unit Philadelphia is deeper and more talented. It may be close in some, but they may be deeper and more talented in every single unit. It's really what I love about Philadelphia is what has confused me about Philadelphia. When I lived out East, people were in the prep schools and tradition and churches, and sometimes I look at it and think, you know, it's why are you so beholden to tradition? It is hard to move off at Grandpa went to this church, Dad went to this church. You go to this church, Your kids will go to this church. You went to this summer camp, your dad went to this summer camp. The East is very much about tradition. And then there's Philadelphia and they're like, yeah, yeah, we have a coach. Was great, We want to want to Super Bowl with Nick Foles. We gotta move off that coach. What We'll gotta move off Andy Reid, what we'll gotta move up. Even Chip Kelly out a winning record, and here they are. Nick Seriani is pumped to be going to the super Bowl. It's something you dream about your whole life. And like I said to the guys, whether you we've all been dreaming about it, whether you were dreaming about it when you were two, ten, fourteen, eighteen, or when you got in the NFL, this is something we all dream about and we get to do it because you know, we did it better than anybody else in the NFC this year. Different coaches, different quarterbacks, disagree with a lot of the moves, and here they are, two blowout playoff wins. People say, well, they had one of the easiest routes of all time, potentially. I remember when USC was dominating college football, the Pac twelve had never been worse. They were still better than everybody, still better than everybody. Just because you have an easier route doesn't mean you're not the best team. And the Eagles are absolutely stacked. And it's because they've taken chance after chance. They've moved off winning coaches and winning quarterbacks. It's something to behold. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. There was a lot of arguing Laker, Celtics Friday, Niners, Eagles early, Chiefs, Bengals late. There was a lot of complaining about officiating. Adrian Amos was on Twitter saying, not saying it's a terrible call because he was out, but I just don't like it. You think running full speed, no one, He's had a bounds. It's not easy. No, it's not easy. It's not Joseph Asia. I feel bad for him. It's not easy. But the you can't call that crowd is silly. First of all, regardless of clock, an official has to call what he sees. That was, by definition, a late hit pushing a quarterback into a bench. The Bengals player after the game was crying saying I've got to be better. He wasn't saying the ref had to be better. All players and refs outside of Mahomes could be better. There are moments for situational officiating. One of them is a hail Mary pass. I've said this for years. They don't call pass interference on hail Mary's. Otherwise people would do it all the time because you would get like a forty and a fifty yard penalty. But by definition, that is a late hit pushing the best quarterback in the universe into a bench on a bad leg. It's twenty twenty three. You got to know the temperature in the room. You don't do it in that moment. What's interesting was almost double the yards for that penalty was created by sky More on a punt return. Nobody's talking about that this morning. Why did the Bengals punt it to the middle of the field. What are you doing? Twenty seven yards got it to midfield and at that moment all of us went, oh, game over. Let me ask a Bengal fan a little nervous when he got to the fifty with Mahomes in forty one seconds left, you should be he took the ball down the field in thirteen against Buffalo, that was the game. By the way, we could go moments earlier previous drive. Why did Cincinnati call a time out on second and eight that gave the Chiefs more time late in the game. It is easy to blame the officials in the Lakers Celtics game, go ahead, blame the refs. It was a bad call, but the Lakers had twelve turnovers nine they win the game. Westbrook himself had five. What was he doing in there? Late Niners? Yeah? I didn't like that DeVante Smith no catch, but the Niners coaches didn't ask for a review, didn't challenge it. All right, that's your job. And in this instance, why are you punting to the middle of the field than sky more? Why did you call a time out on second and night. You don't have to love the call, but a referee almost always is gonna call what he sees. He's not supposed to categorize them well, and I was to play about six minutes ago. That wasn't called. Let me think about that. You call what you see. It's twenty twenty three pushing a quarterback into a bench. Of course it's a flag. Here's the coach and the player after. I gotta learn from experience, and I gotta know not to get close to that quarterback. The news close to that silent. If there's anything that could possibly cause the penalty in a dire situation like that, I got to do better understanding. It's never one play, but obviously the late hit put them in field goal range. Again, when you're trying to communicate things to players, especially once involved in that play, how do you do it. We're not gonna make it about one play. You know, there's plenty of plays that we left on the field today that could have put us into a better position. Fan want perfect officials, you don't have perfect coaches. I didn't like Cincinnati's time out. I didn't like the coaching decision to punt the ball to sky More in the middle of the field. There's a lot of things that didn't go Cincinnati's way, But the general rule is if there's two quarterbacks and the home quarterback plays better than the road quarterback dominates the first half gets better protection, he'll win. In Kansas City, did be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter ninety Empacific San Francisco forty nine ers. Situation is really really interesting. So you have this roster with very physical players, Christian McCaffrey, Debo Kittle. They're not gonna last forever. They're just not the way they play. They If I said any of those guys in two years have retired, have moved on, are not the same player. Trent Williams left tackle up there. In age, They've got some great players, but the physicality means you may have like a year and a half window a two year window. Now Philadelphia's window appears longer, and even they have some age on the old line and D line. But the San Francisco team, which has battled injuries for the last two or three years, I figured, if Purty played well, even if he lost against Philly, I think I said last week, if he plays well twenty seven, twenty four. But I was sitting there thinking to myself, Mahomes is running around on one leg. Josh Allen's getting you know what kicked out of him, so is Joe Burrow and their playing and pretty something hits his elbow. He's out. And I thought to myself, I could see the Niners saying, Trey Lance, Garoppolo, Purdy, Josh Johnson. Are they sitting flying back from Philadelphia saying we just need a guy that doesn't get hurt, and Brady texting him and saying, guys, I'll take a small salary, let's go. I can see having that discussion, and you could say to yourself, well, Colin, it was I mean, it's circumstance. I know, absolutely, but size is an ideal for Purdy. He's a gamer, he's twitchy, he's athletic, he's competitive. But it's it's a really They're in a really fascinating situation as a franchise where a lot of their key players you may have a year to two years in this window to hit it, and I am fascinated to see what they do. It's not like the Jets. The Jets almost all their players are good or young. You got you got a broad window. If you can get a quarterback, you can take some time. You can't be too patient with this organization. That's why I would train Lance. You know, there were there was consternation and issues in the camp. It's like he's just not good enough to win now, and we got to win now. And so you know, as I watch Pretty, you know, his elbow gets hit and he's like, I can't play, and I'm thinking, I've seen Josh Allen get knocked blank over tea kettle and stay in size matters in this sport. Some of the smaller quarterbacks get banged up. I don't know what they're gonna do with Pretty. I don't know what they're gonna do. But I could see Brady. I didn't last week. I thought, you're not going to move that far away from your kids. That doesn't make any sense. But I'm sitting there watching that game, and Brady is watching all those players and saying, hey, man, I will play for almost nothing. And I could see I could see Kyle looking at that text talking to John Lynch, and it's like, dude, can you just give me a guy? Can you just give me a guy that can play? The Other thing about Purties lightning in a bottle run is we have to be totally honest about this. He beat two last place teams. He beat the Raiders with Jarrett Stidham. His division went into the tank when he finally played a really good defense Dallas. He's pretty average with all those weapons Philadelphia. I don't know how he would have played, but they weren't moving the ball much, so you know, I think this is one of the things about sports is to have these moments. I've said this, Jalen Hurts gets banged up, Kyler gets banged up. Suddenly there GM Lamar has hurt their gyms around the league because of those injuries. Thinking we gotta be careful about mobile quarterbacks. Circumstances change everything. The brock Purty situation is fascinating. Did you get lucky and hit lightning in a bottle? You just got lucky. Never forget that the magical run isn't necessarily the magical quarterback. Nick Foles was a magical run. Where was he the next year? He was on the bench. Can't you can't fall in love with I mean, you played a bunch of bad teams, your division went into the tank. What if? What if the Rams in Seattle next year are really good and brock Purty doesn't feel like an automatic w with this roster. So I think it's fascinating. I don't know where they're going, but watching him sit it out and watching them hiking the ball to Christian McCaffrey, I can see Kyle Shanahan sitting down with John Lynch over an iced tea at lunch saying, just get me a seventeen game starter. Get me a guy who's six three who's accurate. It could be Derek Carr, however big he is. It could be Brady, but it's a They were the most fascinating team in the league. They may well be the most fascinating team in the league next year because this roster, the two rosters in the league that don't even look like everybody else Eagles Niners, they don't even look like other teams. I mean, Philadelphia is better than Kansas City and virtually every every unit. I mean, I love the Chief Soul line. Phillies is better. I just looked at the Niners roster. They have two guys on the entire defense who are impact players, who are over thirty. This is a young defense with a lot of upside. And to push their offensive guys McCaffrey, Kittle and Deebo. Those guys get dinged up a lot. They do they do to push back. McCaffrey joined the team midseason. Brock Purty was a seventh round rookie, So you could say, listen, we're just scratching the surface with these two guys in the offense. Next year they could be a lot better. Who needs Tom Brady. I'm saying, go ahead and get me a offensive lineman to maybe block us on Reddick. Okay, right, no, no no, no, that that was my gut feeling. But I do think you can make the argument that Shanahan is just over it. How many years can Shanahan sit there and not have a healthy quarterback. You can be the most patient guy with your kids, but after the third kid screws up doing you know what I mean? Like at some point we've all got limits. Is Kyle Shanahan flying back from Philly. He's hit his limit on plucky overachievers who can't stay healthy. Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you right into the NBA grade fight, all happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the new NBA podcast with me Chris Haynes and me Mark Stein join us as we team up to expound on everything we're covering, hearing, and chasing. Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Colin Right, Colin Wrong. On the Monday, Here we go where Colin was right. I had said earlier this year that I thought Maholmes and Burrow specifically had moved past Josh Allen Burrow had moved you get all of a greatness without a lot of mistakes. They've met now four times. Last Second Outcomes, Second time in the AFC Championship, I didn't think Burrow played particularly well, but you know, the last two years in the playoffs, Joe Burrow is literally running for his life. I think these guys have gotten to a point now where everybody, even the really really talented guys like Rogers and Stafford and Justin Herbert Noll, and you're all looking up at them. Where Colin was raw year after year, the Philadelphia Eagles totally confound me. They fired Doug Peterson. I hated that they moved off Carson Wentz. I didn't get it. They hired Nick Seriani. What are you doing? I gotta say something. Most organizations that make a lot of changes do because they're poorly run. The Eagles are the opposite. Despite a great tradition. They are willing to move off coaches, move off quarterbacks, move off systems, and they should be proud of it. There's a lot of bad football in that area of the country, Washington, the Jets, and the Giants over the last ten years, and yet the Eagles, always willing to acknowledge mistakes try something new, are once again the Kings of the Northeast. Where Colin was right, I said, I thought the Mahomes injury was being a little overplayed by the media and wouldn't affect really the game. Well, we had video, he was fine. He was a full participant practice in twenty nineteen. I think it was he had the same injury in the next week through for four hundred and forty yards. I didn't think the injury. I thought there was a couple of instances and Tony Romo pointed them out where it looked like he just couldn't step into it quite as much. But in the end, Burrow was the better quarterback of the two best quarterbacks on the planet, where Colin was raw well. In my top ten players in this game last week segment, I did not have Hassan Reddick in the top ten. I think I had him eleven. Yeah, he proved me wrong. He was a game wrecker. Two sacks, fumble, recovery, forced fumble. He was just absolutely fantastic. You know, of the many great players Philadelphia has, we probably overlooked him a little bit, but he was a complete game wrecker and good for him where Colin was right. Well, the story's broken now. According to legitimate sources that Aaron Rodgers and Packers a trade remains viable and very much on the table. We had said last week. In the week before that, Aaron continues to ask for concessions. That's fine, but the payoff now is not even making the playoffs. Apparently, the Packers, according to an ESPN story, projected to be more than sixteen million over next year's salary cap. That got to dump people, maybe Mercedes Lewis or Randall Cobb. Aaron doesn't want that. I think at this point, if you're gonna ask for concessions, you got to get to the playoffs in the NFC, and the Packers didn't. Where Colin was wrong. This is a shocker. There's a report that Daniel Jones does have a market. It could be thirty million a year. By the way, do you get Brian Dable with him? What that? I'm way wrong because I don't see much of a market. I think the story is Dable and say Quon Barkley. But according to agents, and maybe agents are just driving it, there is a market for Daniel Jones. I don't get it. I'm apparently way off. I'm not seeing what somebody else is. But the agent's report it's up to thirty million. Dollars annually. Wow, where Colin was right said last week, I thought Sean Payton should probably pivot away from the Denver Broncos, and it appears to be the case because now Jim Harbaugh's interviewing again. It's nothing against the owners, I'm told it's the lack of cap flexibility in the issues with Russell Wilson. You're stuck with him for three years minimum. Sean Payton, it looks like has pulled out because Harbaugh's back in, and in fact, many of the top candidates are moving away from this, which is not a terrible job on the surface, but the GM now doesn't have a ton of power. The coach will report to the owners. Mostly coaches would rather report to gms and not owners. So that's the very latest Where Colin was right. I've been the biggest Andy Reid fan for a long time, and I will say this, and I said it a couple of years ago. He is now seventh straight Division title, nine playoffs, ten years in another Super Bowl, and Belichick couldn't make the playoffs. If offensive rules would have taken place like they have in the last six to seven years fifteen years ago, then we would view Andy Reid as the game's best coach and not Bill Belichick. Belichick grew up in an era where you could grab and mug players, injured quarterbacks drive him into the ground. The league now has pivoted and Reid has pulled away from Belichick. He drafts, develops, teaches offense at a level Belichick can't and never will. And I could not be happier for Andy Reid. Who you know, there's sometimes in life you're waiting for people to get the success they deserve. I think if anybody in the NFL, everybody loves Andy Reid, like you just kept waiting for years and years in Philadelphia. You're like, this guy's great, this guy's great. He just he needs to help. The league actually did him a big favor because of safety concerns. They have made the middle of the field offense. And Andy Reid is now the best coach in the NFL. And there's a lot of sundays it doesn't look particularly close. One more Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. I mean, we're wishing him the best if he wants the coach, but we like having him back. Sean Payton is joining us live, the former Saints coach fifteen years, nine of those years a playoff team. Oh my lord, man, I got to walk in. I usually I'm not used to a walk in. I'm usually sitting down. We've got well, I've got no idea what we're gonna talk about today, and I'm excited. I'm gonna say this though, before we even get started. You know, when a guest arrives here, you get kind of miked up in the back room and you can kind of hear the banter going on. And I'm listening to this Jordan lebron stuff and I'm like, I can't believe what I'm hearing. And I grew up in Chicago, and I'm like, are you kidding me? Are we actually comparing someone to Michael Jordans? And we don't have enough time in this segment, but that's like, we could easily spend an hour on that, and we'll save that for another way. We always looking for June guests. Yeah, I'll definitely share an hour with Jordan and lebron Um, but no good stuff and obviously a good weekend of football. One game lived up to kind of what we were hoping. I had trouble with both of those games, handicapping them or two things come into play. All season, I'd been picking Kansas City in San Francisco, so you want to stay with your your your kind of gut. And then as you got closer than there's this conflict for me to win the big show. Bradshaw's got a point on me. And so if I picked the same two teams Bradshaw picks, then I can't win. And so he goes Eagles. I think he want Eagles Chiefs. I want Niners Chiefs. And you know, I ended up watching my team with three different quarterbacks struggle in a game. Let's start with that one. Yeah, So you know, and one of the things I've learned from you is that there's a lot of context and nuanced everything. We go to dinner and talk about stuff. You're thinking about everything, you're saying, I'm thinking about the Christmas card, what's the office look like? The idea that you know, you're just going out there and coaching and doing some practice. And so I said, I figured, if Purdy played well, even if they lost, you come back into next season. I can keep all my guys. And then he gets hurt, and I think to myself, Kyle's sitting there thinking, Garoppolo got hurt, Trey Lance got hurt, Brock Purdy got hurt. Joe, and I could see Tom's calling and saying, you know, I don't get hurt. Yeah, this window for this team, as you know, Sean Kittle's a physical player, gets dinged up. McCaffrey is bibo, is trenceled I don't think this window in San Francisco is four years. No, look, and I don't know that any of us. And I think the myth you know that there's there's two or three things, you know, halftime adjustments. Uh, they're they're taking place throughout the game, all right, Number one, Um, this is the this is the wind the windows every year, you know, in other words, or we're gonna build three years from now, we expect to contend. No one's patient enough for that to ever happen. These are like things that I hear. And so it's now and they've got a really, really good team. And I would say, midway through the second quarter their quarterbacks out, it's fourteen to seven, and clearly the comment I made was what was the over under? Because I don't pay attention to that. The unders looking pretty good. Both defenses are playing well. Yeah, and and just as we were watching that drive someone, we were in the green room. And and they keep a couple of us around in case there's some technical difficulties in Philly. So the big shows in Philly, but let's say something happens to the signal, they can't do a halftime or post game. They can come to LA and there's a group of us that can that can do the highlights. So we're kind of miked up in our suits, but we're really just watching the game and in talking about it. And I remember saying, just you gotta be careful here because it was like what was it one forty eight or two twenty three, or you know, it's like, look, any one of these quarterbacks like Brady or Mahomes, you're not You're right into your two minute you're thinking field goal, maybe touchdown. But you have Josh who's you know, when you look at the reps he's had or hasn't had not many. Yeah, you almost got to be looking at that, like I want to be happy at fourteen seven yes, and we're gonna find a way to win this game in a different fashion. They rushed the punt, Philly had to punt backed up, and I said, I promise you, they're gonna bring all right, all eight here. They're gonna try to create points because it's going to be hard to find those points in other areas. That turnover touchdown was killer, I think in that game over. Yeah, I just think because then you get to this this in fourteen points, you'd say, all right, for for us for a San Francisco offense, that's not insurmountable, but fourteen points for a quarterback that that now is going to be forced to make some plays. Um. So that was challenging. And and I do think I do think when you look at San Francisco and uh in their defense and they've got a good offensive line, they've got manned, good skill. Their their window though is now now how long is that they're one of the teams. I mean when the season ends and we handicap next season, if it was a college team, there would be in the top four. Yeah, if we were you know next year's NFL rankings, they would be one, two, three or four. Um, And it's because of the roster, and they've done a good job with that. Yeah, Philadelphia, you know, one of the things I said this or that, generally when a team makes a lot of moves, you're like, oh, it's a chaotic organization. They've had four coaches in twenty three years. They've all got winning records, They've had multiple quarterbacks and Super Bowls for as you know, as a proud Eastern city that loves its history, it's sometimes harder than it is for US West Coast people to move off stuff. Ye, prep school, the churches when I lived out there, they take such pride in their churches. And here the Eagles they're like, you know, Doug Peterson won us the Super Bowl with Nick Foles. We're gonna move off that. And I'm like, what are you doing? But the guy they're gonna face them next week. They moved away from Andy Reid. It's crazy, but you know what it were, Howie Roseman, They reinvent themselves very uniquely in this league. How did you always view them? Well, my first NFL job was them nineteen ninety seven ninety eight, Ray Roads was the head coach I was coaching at the University of Illinois, and I had gotten a call they had a quarterback position open, and I never thought all I wanted to do was coach in the Midwest and the Big Ten and become a Big ten head coach. And so I was hired in ninety seven to be the quarterback coach for the Eagles. And on that staff, by the way, John Gruden was the offensive coordinator, Bill Callahan the offensive line coach, David Shaw. All right, it was a quality control coach. We shared an office. Juan Castile, great coach, Emma Thomas, John Harball. There was six six coaches, six NFL head coaches, in the basement of Veteran Stadium, grinding away. The facilities weren't great, but there it was a great introduction for me to the NFL and learning from so many people and a passion there. Yeah and yeah, and I lived there for probably, you know, a third of my life growing up, you know, peewee football until I was in eighth grade. We moved to Chicago. So I remember the Flyers in the seventy six ers, Phillies and all those teams, and they are passionate and and you know, going in there, it's a tough place to win. I mean that that is a tough place. In twenty thirteen, we played him in the wild card game and this was Chip Kelly. Yeh. He had just come on the scene, you know, in other words, and that was the next best thing. And Chip does a great job, of course, and they're the favorites and we're playing him in Philly, and I told our team about, hey, this is this is what the day's going to be like, all right now when you when you play in the playoffs, Um, your hotel advanced person doesn't have the same six month notice to book hotel. So these teams in the playoffs, you know, you might be further away. We were in King of Prussia because there was a conference in the city and their last minute you win a game, They win a game, and you're in the next week you're booking a hotel. But I told him, when we pull off this highway here and you head down past the stadium on the right side, Bus one, you're gonna take six eggs, Like sure's worse sitting here, all right, and you know these little kids will be flipping you the bird. A Bus two, you'll get maybe three or four. They're gonna reload Bus three you're gonna get another six. And so you're just preparing your team for the the the the events of the day. And then I went and had our graphics guy put together we have five buses the teams take into the stadium, and we put a giant when I say, a giant ten feet by ten feet circle bulls eye on the right side of every bus. And so there was a center red circle, a white circle, a true archery bulls eye, but that was ten That was huge, and all five buses had it. And our players when they got up in the morning and they saw it, they chuckled. And so as we came off the highway that you know, the Eagles fans saw this and there, and it was like I wanted to plant people to throw eggs at our buses because ready you could just turn and say, everything's going according to plant. Oh that's smart, it's going just how I told you it was gonna go. And we ended up winning big in that game. And that was one of those games where we took two laps around the stadium and then went to the airport. Yeah, it was a little it was a little contentious, you know, because the first time you see the fan after a win. There Ah, they're yelling at you and then when they see you come back around that it's an aggressive move. But I thought they look fantastic. I'll say this all season long. The one thing and I don't think I don't think we've underrated them, But man, do they have a great offensive line. Oh god, the angles. There's a there's a touchdown run Philly has in the first half where you guys all saw that. It was like a man block by the guard Kelsey. The center comes around and actually out flanks the weak side linebacker and that linebacker. Never they do some things in the running game that no one else in our league is doing. And I said this yesterday and I believe this. I felt like the winner of the NFC Championship game was going to be our Super Bowl winner. And I still believe that I do. I said this morning, I feel like Philadelphia, you can argue take quarterback out because neither one's totally healthy. I think you can argue, Philadelphia, every unit is as good or better every unit. Yeah. Defense, you had the top two defenses playing yesterdays, so I think, um, and look the receiver depth at Kansas City that they did a great job yesterday, right, they thinned out Kelsey. They made they just made enough plays. It was like they were down to if it was a car finishing race, you know, they were down to three wheels, all right, The frame was all you know. It was like they crossed the finish line and then it went and and And that's a credit to that team and Andy in that organization. Right. Well, you said the greatest workout you had ever seen was Patrick Mahomes in college. You and the Saints literally saw him in Left Town. Quietly, you didn't want anybody to know. One of the things. And explain this to me. I said this yesterday and I said it this morning as well to a friend. I said, his ability to see something and how long from that instant until the ball is out of his hands seems less than a second. It's a cognitive He's obviously going a thousand miles an hour upstairs when you saw him, you always say it was the most impressive workout. Some of it's just arm but I just there's something about his wheels turning upstairs. Yeah, I think you can. I think you're right. Well, it's a gift and it's something that um, you know, certainly it's it's through practice and hard work, and yet he can process. And I've used this analogy. Some of us get a brand new car and you've got, you know, twenty twenty three model has got all these seat warmers in sunroofs. And you know, I'm the type by the time I turn that car in, there's a handful of those features I've never touched the same, right, I just I just don't get to him. Yeah, he gets to every one of them. You know, how's your seat in the back left while he's driving and he's left blinkers on and he's making a left. All right, that's a gift. We felt like we saw the armed talent on tape. Obviously, you see his ability to throw, like like there you know that funny body throw. That was an amazing throw. Hide that's the one I went to Twitter after that one. God, Mahomes is gifted. That was something of that. And so but when it came to the test or the you're trying to grate, you know, how quickly does he learn? You give him a bunch of stuff the night before, we're gonna fly in in the morning, and then we're gonna cover it with you, and what we had given him was more than we felt that he'd be able to. You know, we want you to look at it all throughout the night, look at it in the morning, and then hey, we'll kind of cover this. And it was two or three days of install, you know, like training camp installed day one, installed, day two installed day it'd probably be seventy four pass route concepts. It'd be maybe six play action concepts, two or three empty concepts, quite a bit of information. And so the morning started with that and two hours in it was like we were out of questions, like he and so the ability to process quickly is a gift and some of them have it. A lot of them it's hard. It's hard to it's hard to gauge, but a lot of them don't. And when you listen to the acoustics, the center of the guards have microphones. Now you guys can here's Cadence and it's amazing to hear him. Just you know, there's eight seconds left in the play clock seven six five and he's like fifty eighths Mike, he changes it. Hey watch him on the run through. It just never stops. Like he's the epitome and Drew is this way multitasking, you know where he can All of this is going on and he's comfortable with it, and that's rare. I gotta ask you a coaching question. We can blame the refs, but I mean Kansas City had more yards, fewer turnovers, better pass protection. Kansas City, to me, use the better team, and I picked Sinsey the punt the sky more so. My takeaway on that was listen, I would have punted it out of bounds. The minute that thing went off, I went, no, no, no, no, no. That kid can run twenty seven yards. It's midfield. My first take Cass came over what it would you be mad at the special team's coach? Well, I don't know what the plan was. Usually have a plan relative to we were always a directional punt team. Yes, and so see if this makes sense, You've got your two outside gunners, and if you directionally pumped the ball, let's say, to the left, then you know you're gonna you're gonna populate that area of the field. And I felt the same way that the problem here was middle field no hang time. That's right, and so middlefield no hang time is like fastball over the plate, Like yeah, middlefield, no hang time, and then the rest is a problem. Um, what did you make of Burrow got very little protection early. I don't think Joe had a great game, but again he was the more rush quarterback. Then they made some adjustments so it got better in the second half. Yeah, Well, you saw the nudges and the chips and the and you know, even when the tight end released, there was a little bump before he got out and the backs got out trying to the pressure for Burrow was the internal pressure, you know that the problems of Chris Jones, Holy cow. Uh, you know, it seemed like the one thing that concerned me. And because I would consider Kansas City a champion, it wasn't too long ago. They so they've got a tradition, they've got a quarterback, a head coach, and man all week with the Yipponata Cincinnati and then Eli Apple, are you kidding me? So all that going on and I just kept thinking, you know, all week, and you could see after the game the reaction that was something about it. And so I felt like watching many of the audience won't remember fast times at Ridgemont High, but I felt like Chris Jones was the one whose car got smashed and painted and he just said, ah, he's just gonna destroy that. Let me ask you this though, when you watch the game, Cincinnati's offense, you know, became downfield to te Higgins downfield a Chase. They really didn't consistently move the ball on they took some look the fourth down double move shot played to Chase. Who calls that on fourth down? Like an in pump into brackets? So they were doubling Chase. You saw they were doubling him, doubling you know. They were playing a seventy seven coverage two over here, two over here, man underneath on the others and uh, and it was more chunk plays. I look, I do, I do agree with you. Kansas City was a better team yesterday. Um, and they played better, and yet we had all the other noise. You know, it wasn't a clean game from an official standpoint. Um. You know that. You it's like anything else, you want the game to end, in my opinion as a fan now and you don't want to remember who officiated it, and you don't want to remember who announced it, and then you probably had a good game, right, But if it becomes too much of the official or too much of whoever's in the booth. Then you're like that those are accompaniments or you know something. I don't want to I don't want to hear too much. And that's where I think the top Cruise Dance in Rome would do a good job. But but not too much there and not too much from the stripes, and we want to just see the game. I did think in twenty twenty three you can't push. You can't get a quarterback on one leg and bury him into the bench. No, every one of us, that nobody, there's nobody. I don't think that didn't feel that was it was a foul. Yeah, that's a foul. Day one. Now that's a hard one. Though. We got about a minute and a half last. Yeah, you don't think it's hard. No, what do you tell your players on those on those corners, on the sideline plays? Listen, here's what we know. Was there any doubt that he wasn't heading out of bounds? Yeah, all right, and so when he's heading out of bounds, you got a lot of momentum here, just hands off and just you just run behind him, guide him. Yeah, he's running out of bounds, and so you know Parcels used to say, dumb players do dumb things. And and I meaning at the heat of the moment here, this this the hopes and dreams of everyone in Cincinnati and the team. And this was unfortunate because because he played well, he played well throughout the game. But I think going to the sidelines, um, I think certainly with the direction he was going, it was just a mistake he made. And uh, you know it's a tough mistake. Yeah. And I also you know it is a game of intimidation. And I mean, I've heard the old saying you play to the whistle. So I always feel a little bit of sympathy for guys because playing defense offense is choreography. Defense is blowing stuff up to ray Lewis used to say this, It's like part of my job was to make people uncomfortable. Ye, I want to think too much. Well, we saw Andy there was a penalty called on one of the Chief's offensive line in the last hunting things And all you keep talking about is man smart. Just keep thinking about the end game. And so all week you're you're wanting to eliminate things that might be the difference. Keep thinking about the end game. Here all right, don't get upset because the lollipops at the bank were great while you're leaving with five hundred million dollars. All right, get out of the bank before you get caught, right, And so I understand the main thing, and that's to win and to win and to win ye and to play in this super Bowl. And so it's difficult. It's difficult.