NO KETCHUP....Sports Talk w/ Sean Little & Nick Harvey
No Ketchup = real, fun, sports talk. Hosted by Chicago natives Sean Little @ChicagoFlow & Nick Harvey @NickDaQuick1029, No Ketchup produces a live video show, audio podcasts/interviews weekly. Subscribe right now!
NO KETCHUP....Sports Talk w/ Sean Little & Nick Harvey
Matt Eberflus is a bad coach, Anthony Richardson Benching, Aaron Judge & Yankees' October Pressure
SPICY EPISODE HERE!! What if the struggles of your favorite sports teams could be changed by a simple tweak in leadership? That is being a Chicago Bears fan. We dissect the high-stakes decision-making of head coach Matt Eberflus and the essential role of a strong team culture and why the Bears' management must make decisive action to prevent future disappointments.
We go through a few NFL talking points but focus on Anthony Richardson. Sean is disappointed in the decision to bench him. Regardless if he took himself out of the game or now.
MLB Postseason pressure is real, especially for the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, and thats how we close the episode. The legacy of Yankees legends is built in October, and we compare current struggles to the triumphs of past icons like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
WATCH: https://youtu.be/w1Fbh90vqK8
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Featuring:
Sean Little @ChicagoFlow
https://www.instagram.com/chicagoflow/
https://twitter.com/ChicagoFlow
Nick Harvey @NickDaQuick1029
https://twitter.com/nickdaquick1029
No ketchup, no ketchup. What's good, my people. Welcome to no Catch-Up Sports Talk via Chicago. I am your host, sean Little Big Nick McQuick with me. As always, we got a lot to talk about. We missed last week. We're both working but we're back in the saddle.
Speaker 2:Nba is off and running Opening week. What do we think? So far the Bucs have looked pitiful. The Denver Nuggets have looked pitiful. Needed overtime in Toronto to get that W A lot of NBA stuff to talk about.
Speaker 2:Boston Looks like Boston NFL recap. What are we at? Nick Week nine, coming in Week 10? Loading. We're right around there. We're rolling.
Speaker 2:We got to recap the Chicago Bears and the Hail Mary and just talk about where we're at. Matt Eberfluss, the colors are showing. We told you they would the team. I almost did the whole pod right there. I got to chill. We're going to talk about the Bears catching an L and then look around the league a little bit. Also, I want to talk about the Yankees are down 3-0 in the World Series and I want to talk about Aaron Judge and his struggles at the plate. How do we rate guys like this? We got to talk about that situation. Shout out Freddie Freeman. He's doing his thing and I'm going to tell you a little bit about my weekend over in Europe. To catch a couple football matches no catch-ups, sports Talk V-Chicago. Let's get to it.
Speaker 2:Big Nick, the Quick. What's happening? How are we feeling? Man, we're here, I'm happy to be back bro. We only missed a week. Feels like we missed a month. Yeah, it was a busy week. So much stuff has happened.
Speaker 2:I apologize to all the loyal listeners and watchers out there. I'm trying to do it all right now. I'm trying to do it all by myself. Nick's trying to do the same, and we had to miss a week. But we're going to. We're going to try not to let that happen. Let's get right into it.
Speaker 2:I won't waste too much time, but, nick, I went over to hey from New York. If you're in on the East coast and you're listening to this, you can do the Europe weekender. It's possible. I just did it. It is very doable. You're going to be behind on sleep for maybe one day, but I got a good, solid 10 hours of sleep last night. I watched this morning you know me on the East Coast get up, get the coffee, watch whatever I missed last night. So I was up at like 6 am this morning watching hoops. It's doable.
Speaker 2:I left on the red-eye on Friday after I worked the Knicks game home opener. They got the dub. I left on the red eye last hour on Friday after I worked the next game home opener. They got the dub beat up on the Pacers. Took the red eye to Spain. Landed in Madrid at 10 AM. Was that the foot? Was that lunch by 1 PM, had a drink by 3 PM, was at the match by 8 PM. Went to London, caught another match Arsenal-Liverpool both really fun games and I left Monday morning and was back in New York by 1230.
Speaker 1:It's doable. It's doable. You brought a lot of luck out there for your teams too. Brought a lot of luck to Real Madrid. Brought a lot of luck to Arsenal, man, so maybe you should go to more matches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 4-0 Barcelona. Yamin Lamal is a 17-year-old phenom that knows he's a phenom was chirping the Madrid fans. It was actually a really, really interesting game. Part of me thinks that match cost Vinicius Jr the bolandor last night who went to Rodri, but that's a whole other conversation. I think part of that. I believe the voting was still open as late as Saturday, so that was really interesting, but because he was a huge favorite going into the ceremony and yeah. So I don't want to get too off topic and start talking ball.
Speaker 1:Shout out Vinny Jr.
Speaker 2:Shout out Vinny Jr, man Vinicius, he had an awesome year. He probably should have won the award. We get to London. I'm sitting on the end Soccer scores the opening goal 1-0. It was absolutely electric. I actually got to get some social up. I'm going to try to chop up some posts and do like a little vlog so y'all can peep the fun weekend. But I'll get to that. But let's get to the matter at hand. Let's talk big nick the quick about the chicago bears, then we'll do a little nfl roundup man going it.
Speaker 1:I tried. I'll let you go. I'll let you go.
Speaker 2:No okay, yeah, this is. This is where I was at with it first of all. I was watching it from london live at a pub and I got my tweet off. After the hell, m Mary and I immediately went back to the hotel and went to sleep. That was it. I got my tweet off. I literally was watching up the street. I walked a block, I saw it happen, I tweeted and I walked out the door and I went to sleep. I was sleeping. In 15 minutes it was done.
Speaker 2:I don't need to say anymore do anything else. I don't need to watch. Any was done. I don't need to say anymore. Do anything else. I don't need to watch any more highlights. I don't need to hear any breakdown. I don't need to hear any of that.
Speaker 2:But it was a classic, nick, you beat up on a couple bad teams, but you do thump them and you are playing better. And you go into the bye week and everyone is blowing smoke positive smoke up your ass for two weeks. Everyone is blowing smoke positive smoke up your ass for two weeks. You guys are playing so much better. You guys are so good. Shane Waldron is calling better plays. Matt Eberflus has the defense playing so well. Caleb Williams is one of those guys, and he is one of those guys. We'll get to that in a second. But you're going to come out flat and that exactly how they. They came out so fucking flat. It was unbelievable. They were not interested in that game whatsoever. It was clear. They took the two weeks to chill and and had a blast and they are a good football team now and that is a void of coaching, that is a void of big time leadership, because, overall, who are the older guys on the squad?
Speaker 1:I guess keenan allen and, but like there's a lot of different things that can happen, the leadership on the team is the dj moore, the jaylon johnson, the cole commit type guys. You don't really have it, I mean probably like a tremaine edwards and guys like that. Yeah, and he hasn't been playing correct, so or?
Speaker 2:wasn't playing or nick the leaders. The head coach of the football team oh yeah, how about that?
Speaker 2:you can start there you can start there right. We're looking for leadership from the guy that's had his sixth start in the nfl and he's 22 years old. But how about the head coach is the leader and make sure shit's getting done. And I'm going to give you the mic here in a second Big Nick to quick. But Jalen Johnson on record, comes out and says you know, the Tyreek Stevenson shit was unacceptable. He talked. Cole Komet made a comment that players were lax in practice, weren't finishing reps, shit was real, real laxadaisical during the bye week and during practice. And those are the things that need to be cleaned up. Jalen Johnson then confirmed, said you know, cole Komet never lied and that's actually true. And they came in a little laxadaisical and weren't focused throughout the week.
Speaker 1:And specifically referenced details. If you listen to Jalen Johnson's interview specifically referenced, we're not as detailed as we should be, which a thousand percent falls on coaching he mentioned detail-oriented. We're not a detail-oriented group.
Speaker 2:When things happen incorrectly, we're not focused on getting them fixed. They're kind of passed over. They're not fixed, talked about, corrected, so they won't happen again. It's the attention to detail that's the problem with Matt Eberflus and the Chicago Bears. That's the problem with Matt Eberflus and the Chicago Bears. Last thing, nick, before I give it to you this is why it's so important to dissect wins and intention to detail and things that Eberflus and coaching can do better in wins and not only losses, because if that ball does get knocked down and the Bears win, we absolutely stole.
Speaker 2:The game played like garbage for three quarters and the play before still happened. Tyreek Stevenson is still chirping in the corner. All that stuff doesn't get amplified unless the Bears lose and the hell mary happens. That's why sometimes you do need to be critical in w's. That's why sometimes me and nick don't get overhyped and and get too out over our skis when we're talking about the bears and where we need to be big nick to quick take it away before I just do the solo pod and start running off. But yeah, where are you at with Ibraflux? The game overall, the approach, how they came in and then where we're at right now.
Speaker 1:Offensively, absolutely came out like you hit it right on the head. They came out completely flat on offense. No imagination, no creativity, no building on what you had had in the previous two games. Looked like the Bears offense did the first couple weeks of the season where it was just a hope and a prayer, and maybe Caleb's going to do something for us. You can talk about handing the ball. We talk about this all the time. We can go back to Nagy with this goal line foolery that for some reason, the Bears continue to participate in in. Remember when we had the special teamer blocking at the goal line in week two. Remember when we had um, the zone read option on the goal line in week three. Well, now we fast forward to right now when, again, waldron's been getting a lot of credit as an offensive coordinator and calling better plays. You get to the goal line and you hand it off to a backup center. Look, I don't care how many times Orlovsky tries to break it down and tell us it's a good play. It is not a good play. Line up and play football. So that's number one.
Speaker 1:Now we can talk about the Hail Mary situation, but let's talk about, before that, matt Eberflus. We've been on him since day one about his game management and his lack of football intellect. I don't remember who caught the pass, but it was in the fourth quarter. Jalen daniels completed like a 15 yard pass up the middle. That 1000 landed on the ground as dude was catching it. Redskins hurried up and ran the next play. Bears did not challenge that. How many times have we talked about Ibraflux throwing challenges on plays that were clearly catches? That happened in front of them, but in this one you don't challenge that. No one's talking about that because of the Hail Mary, but that was a pivotal play in this game. If you have that clip or if you remember who it was, let me know. Keep me honest here. I don't remember, but I know exactly what player you're talking about. You know play I'm talking about. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so you can talk about that, which no one's talking about.
Speaker 1:Then we get to the hail mary situation. Look, it's been broken down and dissected by everybody. Um, you can watch the clips. You can watch. Get up. You can watch first take. You can watch live. You can watch whatever you want.
Speaker 1:There was a million different things that went wrong on that play and 999,000 of them were coaching related. A thousand percent. That falls on Eber Flus, that falls on the defensive coordinator, that falls on not being prepared for that situation. There was only one outcome it had to go to the end zone. Had to go to the end zone. Why do you have a guy spying as if Jaden Daniels is going to run it for 70 yards for a touchdown? Why, on the play before, do you let them pick up 15 by going into soft coverage, knowing that on that particular play there was no way you were going to get in the end zone because he would have had to heave it 85 yards? Then you give up the 15. You put them in position to complete the Hail Mary. You have a guy who's off on the sidelines for an entire five seconds taunting the crowd. You have TJ Edwards playing spy as if it's Mike Vick, mad in 2004, back there and he might break off for 85-yard run.
Speaker 1:That Vikings playikers play was in the fold you're not calling a timeout before, even though you have three of them to get your guys set up. Once you see how the I'm sorry, how the commanders are gonna line up, you don't do any of that. You just let it happen. You stand there and watch as a bystander and then after the game, you offer up nothing by way of explanation. Then the next day, your players throw you under the bus and roll it over about five or six times. It's very clear what's going on here.
Speaker 1:I tried not to be mad about this because ultimately, like I told, everything for me this year is based around Caleb Williams, and in the fourth quarter, caleb Williams was absolutely outstanding. Right, we talk about winning time, we talk about making plays. He had two scoring drives. One was taken away by some dumb shit, but he did have two scoring drives. Right, because they scored a score to touchdown the one where they pass it headed off to the backup center, but they didn't. They scored a touchdown on the one where they headed off to the backup center, but they didn't.
Speaker 1:Caleb gets the ball back and leads them on another spectacular scoring drive where all he does is make winning play after winning play, even though he had had a subpar game up to that point, but all of it is washed away by bad coaching, lack of discipline. How many pre-snap penalties are we going to get? Seriously, how many pre-snap penalties can you have as a football team? That is lack of discipline. That comes down to coaching. So again, I tried not to be mad, but I think watching everything yesterday really really made me upset.
Speaker 2:Um, and it's inexcusable and no, it's clear, it comes down to coaching and culture it's clear that ibra flusa is just very blasé.
Speaker 1:Very indifferent, oh yeah he's a player's coach. These guys love me. I'm a rah-rah guy, Well clearly verbatim.
Speaker 2:He came out and said the play before the Hail Mary doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, that didn't matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He said that verbatim. It doesn't matter. He's talking about execution. But all this shit staggers and stacks up on each other to the Hail Mary. If you maybe challenge the catch over the middle, maybe we're not in the situation. If you stop and press the corners and don't let them pick up 15, 16 yards so the Hail Mary is possible, then the Hail Mary doesn't get caught. Then there is not. Even Tyreek Stevenson is not in the corner. It's very butter. Life in general is just very butterfly effect. This decision you're making right now is going to affect something that's going on later in the day or later in the week. It all is tied together and it goes back to the week prior. In practice he's very either not aware and doesn't know how to run and he's over his head. That's I think he's in over his head.
Speaker 2:The simplest way to put it is he's in over his head. That's the easiest way to put it. Yeah, because when your players are coming out and they're saying, yeah, the week going into practice, we weren't locked in, people weren't finishing reps coming off of a bye coming off of a bye. The coaches aren't the. The attention to detail wasn't there. Do you do? You look? I don't let me get it. I want to get the exact number, andy Reid, off of a bye week record. It's like ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Let me see what comes up. Yeah, he's 21 and four following a regular season bye week. Do you know how, do you? That's not a accident, that's not a fluke. He's going into the bye week and he's getting in the lab and getting the team ready to go. They are ready to go. That's in his career. That's not just Patrick Mahomes that's going back to Philadelphia. He has an extra week to prepare and he has guys ready to go.
Speaker 2:The team comes out after the game. Cole Komet gets on a mic and says guys weren't finishing reps. No one was locked in, the attention to detail wasn't there and it's purely clearly because the team was getting a ton of love. They relaxed. Hey, I'll be honest as a sports better as a guy, when I'm going through things and I'm on fire for three straight weeks, that fourth week I'm not probably in the lab like I should be, and that's what separates the real dudes from the next level guys.
Speaker 2:If you can win the week and go into the next week like you don't deserve shit or not owed anything or you don't know we have to win the next game, those are the guys that are different. Matt Eberflus and that staff clearly aren't running shit correctly. They're riding high and, oh, everything is good, blase, blase. Oh, that play doesn't matter, we'll just knock the pass down. This guy is not a head coach, not a leader of a franchise that's going to get us to the next level. And when I'm talking about the Bears, I'm talking about big picture things and winning games and, important, hosting playoff games. That's what this shit is about, and Matt Eberflus is not going to take us there. It's clear.
Speaker 1:A thousand percent and that was the fear when they started winning all these games that it was going to hide all this shit about Eberflus that we have been seeing forever. Again, that challenge to me speaks volumes. I know it's not being talked about, but if you look at some of the shit that he has challenged to not challenge that in that situation, when you are sitting on three timeouts, right, it speaks volumes. The fact that cole came out and basically said let's call it what it is, I'm not surprised that happened. You should see us during the week, right? That's the fact that jaylen came out and said yeah, I'm not surprised. Cole said that you should see us during the week, right, these are two of your highest profile players. These are two guys who are on contract number two. These are two leaders of your team.
Speaker 1:The fact that the whole game goes by it's National Tight Ends Day you have tight ends all over the league making plays. Shout out my boy, kyle Pitts with two touchdowns. We still waiting on Kyle Pitts with two touchdowns. We still waiting on Kyle Pitts. It's okay, I never left. And Cole Komet doesn't get targeted all game. He had no targets. He had no targets. We've been talking about this for years. Cole Komet is extremely valuable. He should be a number one focus on your game plan offensively for a rookie quarterback Period, point blank. Why does he have a game plan where he's not getting targeted for the majority of the game, especially when you can't do shit in the passing offense? Right? This offensive line still has problems. You haven't done anything to fix that. Then your solution when you get down into a goal line situation where all you need to do is line them up and score, you put in a backup center and hand the ball off to him and we're supposed to be surprised when he fumbles it. And then after the game again, you offer no explanation on anything. On anything. Most coaches would be seething. Could you imagine if that happened to Bill Belichick? Could you imagine the presser on that one? I mean, come on, man, you sit there. It didn't matter before that.
Speaker 1:We essentially put them into Hail Mary range. That is situational football. You have to know the situation that can happen at every spot on the field. If you give up 15 on that play before a play when they were not in Hail Mary range, there's not a quarterback alive that can make that throw. You could bring Kyle Bowler from one knee. He's not making that throw, but we put him back up 15 yards and guess what? A lot of guys can make that throw. So how can you come out there and say it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter? Yeah, we know that because you called a defense where it doesn't matter. You went into a prevent defense and gave them 15. If I'm Kingsbury, I'm like, oh my God, how much easier could you make this for us?
Speaker 1:Then you don't call a timeout before the Hail Mary. Once you get a look into what they're doing and to remind your guys of what they should do, hey, bat this ball forward. The worst thing you can do is tip this ball and have it go backwards. Make sure that someone is covering the end zone, because they're going to put a guy back there whose sole responsibility is to watch the ball and figure out where it's going to go, which is exactly what they did. That's the only way you lose on these plays. There's only a couple ways you can lose on these plays and you're supposed to be covering that, and that's why you call a timeout.
Speaker 1:Matt, you can't take them with you. If you keep three in this second half, it doesn't mean you have six to start the first half next week. That's not how it goes. Call the timeouts and use them. Get in somebody's ass oh, that's not his style. But it's not his style because you want to be a rah-rah Listen, you want to be a buddy-buddy, rah, rah guy. That's what he is. We saw it in hard knocks. Hey guys, what's up? Man Jimbo got a nickname for everybody. Come on, man, come on. It was a winnable football game and your quarterback did everything, despite your best efforts on the offensive line, to sabotage him on Sunday In the fourth quarter. It cannot go understated. Caleb Williams was magnificent. He was magnificent in the fourth quarter. It cannot go understated. Caleb Williams was magnificent. He was magnificent in the fourth quarter. Both of those drives, he was absolutely magnificent. We talk about winning football.
Speaker 2:I have not wavered, honestly the fourth quarter made me completely forget about the entire first quarter. I almost don't care. Without a doubt, he was unbelievable, unbelievable making plays. I'm talking about making plays sidearm sling. I mean, he was unbelievable With his legs.
Speaker 1:I gotta pick up 10 here doing this. I'm gonna do that. I'm throwing sidearm, I'm getting the ball to guys in whatever way and if it's not, I'm tucking and running that bitch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the progression. On one of the drives when he had two, he was looking left with two feet planted looking left. Goes to the. The second read flips his hips to get his left foot forward because, as you're told, as a quarterback, proper mechanics if you get like leg, front, front leg and arm should be going towards your target right, like that helps with accuracy. He flips the hips, goes to the seam. To Keenan Allen I believe he was sensational in the fourth Sensational Now Kevin Warren. Yeah, now, kevin Warren.
Speaker 2:I want to be clear, like Ryan Pauls and Kevin Warren, if I'm hearing what the players are saying about attention to detail and shit throughout the week and a bye week and coming in flat, they basically said we knew we were going to come in flat because we fucked around all week.
Speaker 2:If I'm hearing that and I'm Poles and Kevin Warren, that is very damning for Ibra Floues and the rest of the coaching staff and also Nick, I want to hear what you think about this. It's really interesting to me that the players were so comfortable coming out and saying that. I have my thoughts on that too. Yeah, like hey, yeah, man, we were fucking around all weekend. He didn't have us ready and the attention to detail is really not there and they're just relaxed. Yeah, man, he didn't really. We were fucking around all week and he didn't have us ready and the attention to detail is really not there and they're just. They're just relaxed during the week, saying this on microphones, on podcasts, on radio shows. It's just another example of the culture and you don't have shit under control.
Speaker 2:Players, for certain coaches throughout this league, would never say that would never even if, even if they thought it, if they thought it and believed it and it was something that was being said throughout the team in the locker room they would never go out in public into the media and relay it ever. It just shows to me they don't believe in him, they don't respect him. They he's just. You know, he's not a head coach in the nfl, they just, like us, they don't believe he's the guy that's going to take him to the promised land. Because if that really was the case, they would never come out and say that like. I'll give you one more example before I give it to you.
Speaker 2:Dan campbell is a trigger man, goes for it. Gut feeling. If I feel like this could flip the momentum in a game, um, I'll do it. Sometimes it doesn't work out, other times it does, but I can guarantee you, with that culture right now and what they got going on in detroit, campbell could go for it on his own five yard line on a fake punt, and if they asked the players what they thought about it, they would say, hey, campbell called it. We're going to try and go out there and execute. We didn't get it done.
Speaker 1:Next, time we'll get it done. We do it again in a heartbeat. We trust our coach implicitly. Exactly, we trust our coach implicitly. That is not what happened with the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1:And look, I think part of it on from the players, and especially on the defensive guys, is a little bit of deflection, right, because, again, at the end of the day, you were out there and you guys could have made a difference. But when you see people are piling on the coach, hey, I'll hop on that too, because we don't got to talk about me, um, so I think that that's part of it. But they're not wrong to your point. If you had a strong culture around your head coach, if guys believe that the head coach had, um, whatever the proper philosophy I'm losing the word right here whatever it is right, if guys believed in their head coach, I think your example, I think your campbell example, is prime, because there are times when I'm watching the detroit lions, he'll go for it on fourth and down. I'm like man, that's a really bad decision, right. A really, really, really. There's one of the Vikings game where I'm just like man. That's an awful decision, but no one's going to question it because everything else he does is correct and you know that he's doing it from the right place and the guy has an idea of what he's doing. And the guy has an idea of what he's doing.
Speaker 1:Guys know when their head coach has absolutely no idea what's going on, they know that he has no idea what's going on. That's why they have no problem throwing him under the bus. And I think it's very telling that not only was it just an offensive guy that did it right, because Ibraflus is a defensive head coach. Those are his guys. It was a defensive guy and it was one of your most prominent, if not your best player on defense that came out and said that right, so that to me speaks volumes. Could you imagine Lance Briggs coming on a Monday and throwing Lovie Smith under the bus? Could you imagine Nathan Basher, or whoever, adewale Ogule coming out and throwing Ly under the bus.
Speaker 2:Shout out Adewale Ogule Alex.
Speaker 1:Brown, whoever it would be, would never happen, even if Lovey had made the dumbest decision ever. So to have one of your guys on defense which is where we know you spend the majority of your time throughout the week come out and say, yeah, cole ain't never told a lie. Come on, man, and casually say it too. It's not even like he had to think about it. It's not even like he had to think about it. And again, you waste this performance from Caleb. You waste it right. You completely flip the narrative. You lead every show on Monday with your buffoonery.
Speaker 2:And that's why you just have to pay attention to details and wins and losses. And let's be clear, the defense showed up in this game, absolutely they did. They gave up 12 points. So like I got to push back a little bit on you saying like the players or whatever they were, they could have executed on the Hail Mary, but they fucking executed every other play throughout the entire game and offensively we weren't ready to go, but just the culture.
Speaker 1:You could also say that about the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 2:He executed on every other play of the game until it mattered sure no, correct, but we should be scoring more than 18 points anyway, yeah we absolutely should.
Speaker 2:Yeah, against a defense that's not very good, by the way, we're not even talking about that. So, overall, it's just not the guy that can take us to the promised land. He has to pack up and go, and we've been saying that, hey, we've been saying this literally before Caleb was on our team. Yeah, hey, we need to reset this whole thing. If you go, justin Fields, caleb or whatever you do, he cannot be a part of the equation if we're going to be a serious football team.
Speaker 1:And here we are, coming off of mistake after mistake, pre-snap penalty after pre-snap penalty and if this goes the way where it's potentially headed, here we we are again where second-year quarterback with a new head coach right and a new system and a new, everything and a new system and all that and zero continuity.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you what right now, listen. If you're Ryan Poles, hey, listen. I put it in the group chat the other day Sign linemen, draft linemen, trade for linemen, overpay for linemen I don't give a damn. It cannot look like this again next year. I have yet to meet the quarterback that can throw the ball from his back. The pocket is consistently collapsing around him. You are plugging and playing guys left and right. Um, you gotta figure something out. And I don't blame the kid that they had out there, uh, was a young left tackle after braxton Jones went down the rookie. Yeah, I mean, listen, man, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do the guys? Guys, like a rookie fifth round pick.
Speaker 2:It's gonna happen going down all the time. Yeah, it needs to get deeper. Yeah, it needs to get better.
Speaker 1:It needs to get deeper. It needs to get better. Don't tell me you can't find these guys. Find them, they're there. I love wide receivers, I love running backs, I love tight ends. All that's great. None of that. Shit matters if Caleb is running for his life and that's how it's been all year. Again, a couple weeks of winning is like lipstick on a pig. It's still a fucking pig. You still can't block for this man, ibrahim Flus is still your head coach. These, this man, ibrahim Falouz, is still your head coach. These are facts. You have to change them.
Speaker 2:If you're Ryan Pulse, and maybe it's a blessing in disguise last year, maybe the Lions win the Super Bowl this year, bears go and get Ben Johnson and it's a happy ending.
Speaker 1:But we shall find out.
Speaker 2:Does Panay Sewell come with him? Hopefully? Maybe make it a packed deal.
Speaker 1:Call up call up, call up. San Fran has to pay their quarterback next year. Call them up, see if Trent wants to come over.
Speaker 2:Trent's old, though I don't give a Trent's that guy though.
Speaker 1:Trent will run circles around anybody we have on our line right now.
Speaker 2:Coach, number one tone setter, get all that other shit sorted. And then yes, nick is absolutely right, whatever is necessary, go get some offensive linemen that could do what is needed to be done. Yes, all right, we could. We could talk. I literally could talk an hour and a half on the bears, but we got to move. Let's talk rest about the nfl. Big nick said right before we hopped on let's talk about the jets. I don't really want to talk about the Jets, the Cowboys, why, that's your team. These are the things I don't want to talk about.
Speaker 1:That's your guy. You went to MetLife, man. That's your guy. Tell me about the Jets.
Speaker 2:I don't want to talk about the Jets. I don't want to talk about the Cowboys. I don't want to talk about the Bengals.
Speaker 1:No, I don't want to talk about none of them. The Bengals lost, that's right. They got killed.
Speaker 2:They got smoked, yeah Shout out Jameis Winston. Overall. Shout out Jameis Winston. He did his thing. Can't talk about the Ravens, though. That's a bad loss for a team. That's a really bad loss. That's also I. I don't know what to expect from you. This is the.
Speaker 1:Their defense is really bad this year. Their defense I mean you talk about. I understand they lost Queen. They lost their coordinator. That defense is bad this year. It's nothing like the defense they had last year. Lamar has nobody that can catch a pass for him, Like we've been talking about Lamar. It's the defense more, but yes, yeah, but there were some massive drops in that game, massive drops in that game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Kyle Hamilton had one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they dropped one on defense.
Speaker 1:They dropped a couple on offense and they only lost by one touchdown. But that defense has been sus. Go back to that Bengals game. If Lamar doesn't go absolutely ballistic, you lose that. But they gave up 38 in that game. They're very, very suspect and they lose on a week where the Steelers come out and win and you put Mike Tomlin firmly in first place and then do a bye week. You want to talk about another guy who's not going to fuck around with a bye. It's going to be Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's just certain guys that are super serious and don.
Speaker 2:But in the NFL, when you talk about football in general just like when you avoid teams on a week-to-week that you don't know what to expect it gets really tough when you're talking about betting and buying low and buying high on markets. But right now there are just not very many teams in the league that you can count on and you know what to expect on a week-to-week basis.
Speaker 1:Chiefs' line is probably the safest bet every week.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say, outside of Kansas City, who gets it done and makes it happen, no matter the circumstance.
Speaker 1:Let's do a quick hit.
Speaker 2:Well, look. Well, actually that's actually a good question, because I was actually watching the tape a little bit and I was going through it. There's a lot of bad stuff on there. There's some decent things too, but as football fans and as a fan base and I'll speak for the Colts fan base and front offices and everything we we draft a guy we know is completely wrong. By the way, if you watched Anthony Richardson at Florida, he stunk. It was terrible. He was a 50% pass completer. So he got to the league and what do you know? He's completing the ball at 45, 50%. I think it's 44%. Yes, like the completion below expectation is at the bottom of the league. He can't do anything accuracy-wise. His mechanics aren't there, he's all over the place. He's sloppy, but he was like this at Florida and we knew what were all the talks about. Anthony Richardson coming in. What a specimen.
Speaker 1:Big arm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great athlete, this guy physically is special, but he's very raw and he's going to need a lot of work. Same thing with Trey Lance. This guy physically has it all. He's going to need a lot of work, but then we get into. By the way, anthony Richardson has played 13 games, 14 games maybe, I don't know the exact number. But then we don't allow guys to put in the work and look really bad for a long stretch of time.
Speaker 1:I don't even think he's played that many. I think he got hurt after like the second or third game last year.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's been hurt this year, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we need to stop doing that. Yes, he sucks right now he looks really bad, but we knew that coming in he was going to need a lot of work and a lot of time. So don't be baffled and confused when Anthony Richardson a 55, 50. Baffled and confused when Anthony Richardson, a 55, 50% pass completion guy at Florida, comes to the Colts and plays the Titans defense and looks bad. But, what do you think about pulling yourself out of a game, texas?
Speaker 1:defense. We could talk about that. Yeah, the Texas yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So let me button up the previous point. Let's give some of these dudes legitimate amount of time. Like a different example is Bryce Young. Coming in, was a Heisman winner, was polished, had a lot of big wins. We thought he would come in a lot more polished and a lot better. People were verbatim out loud saying Anthony Richardson is raw, he's not going to be very good, he needs time. His mechanics are all over the place and then when he comes in and shows that, people are shocked and flabbergasted and destroying him. It's like we knew that already. So give the guys proper time. When you come in and know that it's going to take a long time. So that's where I'm at with Anthony Richardson Now.
Speaker 2:Anthony Richardson tapping the head and being asked out of the game and then that answer afterwards Is unacceptable and this is where someone needs to talk to him. Or he needs to be smarter or he needs Nick him saying hey, I'm not even going to lie to you, I was tired. That's why I did it in the postgame press conference. Shows you he doesn't realize how big of a stage and situation that he is dealing with. It's clear. Oh yeah, he thinks he's still playing Vanderbilt.
Speaker 2:This is the NFL, bro, you have to flat out. You have to blatantly lie and say I tweaked something, I wasn't feeling right, I had to get over to the side to stretch out a crit, make something up. You cannot say you're tired and I had to come out of the game. That cannot come out of your mouth, can't come out of your mouth. I have actually a big problem period with guys calling out of games. I think guys call out of games way too much Skill. Guys call out of games. I think guys call out of games way too much skill. Guys call out of games all the time. Yo, nick, in the nfl you make a 12 yard catch, you're immediately calling for out of the game receivers coming out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need a blow right now yeah that didn't used to be the culture. You fucking man. You picked up 15, got up and went, went right back to being the Z or the X and you ran. I don't like I'm trying to think how many times I saw like TO or Randy Moss or Chris Carter call out Calvin.
Speaker 1:Randy would call out the game, but he's staying in the game.
Speaker 2:Well, Randy would call out of entire weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to jog this ball's entire weeks. Yeah, I'm just going to jog. This ball's not coming to me, so I'm going to jog.
Speaker 2:Randy would call out of entire weeks. I get it. That's a bad example.
Speaker 1:Alright, we're good, I'm good. Yeah, randy wasn't. Randy wasn't on it.
Speaker 2:But there's a lot of guys in the league right now make a big play, immediately call out for the game. I don't really love that. But, anthony, if you are going to, first of all don't fucking tap your helmet so the entire universe can see. How about you grab something and then like, jog off, walk off and say, yo, I my, you know. Yeah, I tweaked something in my leg. I wasn't really feeling great, but after I got up to the side I had to get back on the field for my guys, which I'm sure happens a lot.
Speaker 2:Yes, Damn near could have flipped it into a positive, like you know. Hey, I'm just battling, I'm just getting back. It's my first week back. I'm battling through things and I was just trying to. Yeah, don't say I was tired in the fourth quarter and you're losing games, games.
Speaker 2:So, yes, those are my two takes on Anthony Richardson, but I knew this was going to be. I knew this, nick, I knew let's hey, nick, let's take a road trip to Los Angeles. It's going to take 20 hours. And then hour nine. You're like, actually I can't, why did I? It's like you knew this was going to take 20 hours. You knew what we were signing up for. Why are you complaining about this road trip in hour nine? And you knew it was going to be 20.
Speaker 2:That's exactly where we're at with Anthony Richardson. All right, I got to get in. You know what I'm saying. Like, what are we doing? We knew what we were talking about. Let's get to hour 20 and then decide what we want to do. Like that's where I'm at on Anthony Richardson, and I'm not close or I don't think you're close at all either to the Colts org. I would love to see what's actually going on in the back, because how is he practicing? How are all those things happening? Is he living in the facility? Is he watching a ton of film? Because all that stuff. People inside the org right now today know if anthony richard is that guy or not. Period, or they think he's gonna be that guy. There's somebody walking around over there like this ain't the answer, because of the product on the field and I see how the guy is moving on and off the court and what he's saying he's not the guy.
Speaker 1:And listen. You talk about the low accuracy in college and all that. Listen, I think when everybody drafts that type of player, you're hoping for a Josh Allen. Remember when Josh Allen was drafted, you and I both killed him. We're like. This guy completed 45% of his passes at fucking Wyoming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like 55%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was terrible. It was terrible. He played, you know, low division one or whatever it was, and we're like I can't believe they make this pick. But to your point, josh Allen lived in the facility. They surrounded him with a good supporting cast. I think you brought in digs in year two or three, so you gave him a top notch wide receiver and you gave him everything to give him success. And this is now where we're at with him.
Speaker 1:I think when you go to Richardson or even Trey Lance, who look, trey Lance had his problems. I don't think he was ever really given a chance, but obviously with the emergence of Brock Purdy, you couldn't go backwards. But yeah, if you draft these type of guys, you got to understand. I love the 20-hour road trip analogy. You got to strap in for the full 20 hours. You can't be in there halfway and be like, no, let's take a plane. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:You have to commit to developing these guys and even with the Bryce Young thing, it's like, hey, carolina finally goes back to him last week. It's like, yeah, you got that one win off Dalton, but by like the fourth loss. Why are we not going back to Bryce Young at this point? Are we just going to abandon the Bryce Young situation?
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think so much of it comes down and we we understand it, based off the team that we root for and have watched our whole lives. If you don't develop a quarterback correctly, if you don't put him them with the tools and things that they need to succeed, this is what it looks like. You also need to know when it's time to give up on a guy, like we see with the Giants and Daniel Jones. They've done everything possible to try to make it work. It's just not gonna work. That's fine, right, but you have to try to develop these guys. You have to understand if you thought that Anthony Richardson was going to be that guy in year two, you weren't watching the film or the guy that you drafted yeah, no doubt about it, and me and Nick, the quick I'm going to skip over the NBA.
Speaker 2:Let's shoot, shoot an NBA-specific pod like tomorrow or the next day, and get that out and talk all NBA.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to unpack. Going back to the starting five on Netflix, we got a lot to talk about for the NBA. I've been digging in a bunch for work as well, so we'll have a fun conversation there. We'll try to catch up with the guys our loyal listeners and watchers, that always hit me on the DMs and were asking me why we missed last week. My bad, we got you, we back and we'll do a little NBA, but I got to get out of here in the next 15. So let's talk about I wanted to ask you this Because I'm in New York. People walking around you should have seen this city yesterday, bro. Every other person I saw was wearing Yankee stuff jacket, hat, t-shirt, jersey, world Series Maybe they ran into a buzzsaw in the Dodgers and they've been super top-heavy the Yankees' offense all year.
Speaker 2:They got hot against the guards and Soto, giancarlo or Judge each hit two home runs in the game. There was two total home runs in each game that they needed to win against the Guardians. They got hot there. They're now playing the Dodgers and they can't get it together. But I want to talk about Aaron Judge, because I'm having a really hard time articulating and kind of without calling Aaron Judge a guy that gets small in the biggest moments. I don't know how else to explain this, but talk to me about how you feel because, nick, this is now multiple years.
Speaker 2:Aaron Judge is going to win the MVP. He'll have multiple now and he has had historic regular seasons 63 homers. He had 144 RBIs this year. The the numbers absolutely ridiculous. Batting in the 330s walks through the roof, ops anything you want expected, expected on base, expected. Everything is through the roof. Weighted runs, created. All the numbers talk and put him in an unbelievable light, but when we start talking about this playoff shit, it's completely different. Man, aaron Judge has come up with at least one runner on base in the first 10 innings of the Yankees' 12 postseason games. He's 0 for 10, seven strikeouts. He is batting. He is batting in the ones for multiple postseasons. Now, every time they have needed him in the postseason, he has shrunk. He hasn't shown up. How do you? How do you break it down? What do you say? How do you talk about it when Aaron Judge's name comes up? What do you say? How do you talk about it when Aaron Judge's name comes up? What do you say now?
Speaker 1:yeah. So listen, man. I mean, you hit it right on the head. He's in the ones. Aaron Judge is a career 196 hitter in the postseason.
Speaker 1:This is a guy who, over the last three seasons, has 157 home runs for the Yankees, and that's while missing 50 games last year absolutely one of the biggest stars of baseball, certainly offensively. I think you frame it how it's supposed to be framed, man. I think baseball is unique in this in which you can really get exposed for being a bad playoff player, because you're either getting hits or you're not. And he is clearly not getting hits. They're down three games to none. They're probably going to lose this World Series, definitely going to lose this World Series. Yeah, they ran into a buzzsaw with the Dodgers, but you have to properly frame him as a playoff flop If you're going to be that guy.
Speaker 1:This is a franchise who's had Mr October. This is a franchise who's had Derek Jeter. This is a franchise who's had Mariano Rivera. If you want to be a Yankee great, you have to deliver in the postseason. The Yankees don't play for pennants, they play for World Series titles. Like, let's be honest here, if you want to be a Yankee great this was the problem with A-Rod for all those years A-Rod would deliver in regular seasons when it came up to the playoffs. He never quite got him there outside of that one year that they won the World Series, and that's why A-Rod will never be looked at the same way that Jeter did, because Jeter absolutely delivered when it counted. Those guys were clutch guys. Aaron Judge isn't. They absolutely need him right now and he is not delivering. So while, yeah, he's a great regular season player, he's one of the best players in baseball. One of the best players we've ever seen, especially over the last three or four years. Of the best players we've ever seen, especially over the last three or four years.
Speaker 2:You gotta properly frame it, man, when it counts. That's the thing like showing up for them well. So like can you say that? Can you? Yeah?
Speaker 1:I think you can't, you can't discount, you can't discount his regular seasons and what he's done to get them there. I mean, there was a point this year where the yankees were dead in the water to start the season. Right, then they start the season. Pretty, was this year or last year they started the season really bad.
Speaker 2:They've had lulls in both.
Speaker 1:They've had some 24 and aaron judge is carried, especially when a guy like stanton hasn't been amazing in the regular season, even though he's delivered in the postseason um, yeah, nick, the last two postseasons, 2022 and 2024 aaron judge combined is 11 for 79 yeah, he's not, he's, he's. He's not a clutch performer, he's not a prime time performer so is that?
Speaker 2:is it as simple as that?
Speaker 1:yeah, until he is he isn't until he is he isn't until he is again.
Speaker 1:Remember a rod. All those years that a rod was fantastic for the yankees it didn't mean shit because he'd come up short or the team would come up short in the postseason, and it didn't change until he won that World Series. You gotta, yeah, yeah, you gotta show me something, man. Absolutely. He's James Harden. We will look back on James Harden and say he was one of the greatest players of this era, just like we will with Aaron Judge. But it doesn't mean anything if you can't deliver towards the ring especially, wait, especially for this franchise.
Speaker 1:This is not a normal franchise. This is the New York Yankees that we're talking about. This isn't the Mariners. This isn't the Expos Angels. This isn't the Angels of Anaheim. This is the Yankees. If you want to be the man in the Yankees, if you want to be the man in the Yankees, if you want to be the man in the Bronx, if you want to be again a Mr October right, a Mariano Rivera you name it Aaron Boone against the Boston Red Sox in that game seven, whoever it is, if you want to go down as a Yankees legend and be considered one of the greats overall all time yes, you do.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting. So do we need to start putting guys in right like he's a great regular season guy? He's a great regular season guy? Yeah, because, like, I'm not sure you can be great and in all and in all timer if you don't show up in the postseason. Like a lot of people are talking Mike Trout best baseball player ever, and I'm like he's never even been to the playoffs, bro.
Speaker 1:Has he never been to the playoffs?
Speaker 2:I don't think Mike Trout's ever played a playoff game in his career One day.
Speaker 1:I don't, you know, we're not the biggest baseball guys, but one day I need an explanation of how the Angels had Trout and Otani on the same roster and couldn't make the playoffs. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Has Trout? They've been to the playoffs, just not a lot, not recently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's played three games.
Speaker 1:And that's it.
Speaker 2:And it was in 2014.
Speaker 1:So Mike Trout's. Only played three playoff games, so they got swept Three playoff games in 2014,.
Speaker 2:yeah, so it's like when Mike Trout is talked about. Is it a failure? It is a failure on the organization.
Speaker 1:But this is not. That's the organization. Because he hasn't been there. He hasn't been there. Aaron Judge is in the playoffs all the time. Sure, sure, he's always.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a much better team, but this is why it's a big conversation of like Mike's got to get out of there, force your way. But then there's also the conversation where Mike is a low-key guy and he doesn't.
Speaker 1:Nah, that's too low-key.
Speaker 1:Go to the fucking playoff. You've been to one time in the playoffs for 11 years. Here's the thing about Trout Most people don't even know what he looks like. Let's be completely honest. He is one of the best baseball players we've ever seen. He could walk down most streets and no one would recognize him. So I mean that matters. But to the thing with Trout, it's different. Mike Trout's team didn't go pick up Juan Soto on a one-year rental. Like this is the type of shit that the Yankees do. It's a team situation where they are constantly adding you got Soto, you got Stanton, you got Judge, you got pitchers galore. Like the Yankees are trying to field a competitive baseball team. I don't know if we can always say that about the Angels Again. So he's there every year, Rated Juan Soto for a year. Hopefully they can resign him. Maybe they can't, but that's the type of shit the Yankees are doing. So it's a different.
Speaker 2:I think it's a different set of circumstances for judge than it is for trout, for sure, but that's all. I think part of that. If you want to be put in that the greatest of all time conversation, you need to make sure you're in a position to get to the playoffs. You can't just wither away for the angels like all this is part of the conversation. I think that's why when you like, I don't have a problem. When guys are like yo, get me out of here, yeah well, he needs to get out of there. Like get me out of here. Bro. Y'all aren't serious about this franchise, clearly isn't serious about winning. Get me out of here. I'm too good to be playing for this franchise in front of no people every single night because you guys don't care about winning. But it's a really interesting conversation and thought process about man. When it's Wednesday in Kansas City, aaron Judge is a beast, but when it's October 23rd against the Dodgers, he's a nobody, he's a zero. How do you quantify that? It's really, really interesting. It's been something I've been going back and forth. I'm going to leave you guys with one more. Shout out my guy Mikey. I was talking to him about this earlier today.
Speaker 2:Listen to this the Yankees have lost their last nine postseason games against nine AL Central opponents 2020 ALDS they lost in five to Tampa Bay. 2021 AL Wild Card they lost to Boston. Alcs versus Houston they got swept. 2024 versus the World Series and the Dodgers they're down 0-3. They're 10-4 versus the AL Central. Versus the World Series and the Dodgers they're down 0-3. They're 10-4 versus the AL Central. So, and throughout the years, the AL Central has been a weaker division Up and coming. The guards are solid, the Royals are coming, we know where the White Sox are, but the shape it's starting to get shaped like the Yankees are beating up on the weak ass AL central, but they can't compete with the guys in their own division when it comes to the playoffs and they can't. They can't compete with Houston and they can't compete with the other, the other big squads. Really interesting narrative around the the Yankees and that Aaron judge topic We'll we'll have to revisit and talk about what are the?
Speaker 1:what are the vibes like in the? What are the vibes like in the city?
Speaker 2:everybody's pissed off I haven't been outside yet. I'm about to go outside and I'm gonna chat with some people. I always, you know, I always talk to random people and just like little shit, like man yankee struggling, huh. Like if I see a dude with like a hat on on the train, like man, they look terrible last night, and then you'll get the vibe pretty, pretty quickly on where are at. Or like Daniel Jones man is tripping, and people will talk to you for 10 minutes Like, yeah, dog, this dude's a bozo. Like yeah, he's whack, he shouldn't be on the team, he's a thief. Like you know the whole thing. Or if the vibes are decent, they'll be like, well, you know, like the New York fans are just like Chicago fans are similar to other big market fans, but like they're in two, like you can't pull wool over their eyes. It's very difficult to do that. All right, we're going to leave it there. No catch-up sports talk via Chicago.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, sean, little Big Nick to quit with me. As always, make sure you subscribe everywhere. Tell a homie to tell a friend. Super busy over here. Very fortunate to be busy. I'm gonna try to get this up asap on me and nick are gonna try to get you that nba pod as well, asap, because we gotta talk about that. We got a lot, a lot of nba. We're big nba guys, so we can't leave that. Lat. Leave it there. Any last thoughts. Nick, that's all I got. Man eberflues. Fire the man, get serious fire the man.
Speaker 1:Sign some offensive linemen. Hey, and also we have not wavered on Caleb Williams. We have one, it's okay.
Speaker 2:We have one, there's no doubt.
Speaker 1:Rest easy, chicago, we have one, there's no doubt you.