FOX Sports’ Mark Schlereth Talks Rams, Colts, Chiefs, Patriot & More w/ Rich Eisen | Full Interview

Joining us now from Fox Sports is our friend Mark Slarith back here on the program. Good to see you, Mark. How are you, sir? I’m doing great, man. How are you? Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. [Music] Um, have you ever been in a situation where somebody hit you in your uh spot, the forbidden speed bag, the uh as Jawan had his Jennings uh hit last night? Mark, has ever happened to you in the game? The the old proverbial uh got hit in the coin purse. No. Um, I’ve been Yeah, I’ve been I’ve been okay with that. Every now and again, you’ll get uh you know, you’ll get an accidental grundle shot, but um No, no, I have I have not I have not hit anybody there, and I have not been hit there. It’s I don’t know what’s going on in this league, man. It’s it’s And then and then it’s, you know, take shots after the game, you know, which by the way is going to happen if you’re not going to if you’re trying to maintain composure during the game. And I’m I’m sure the NFL doesn’t want these handshake moments to be uh overtaken by open hand slapping, but we’ve seen that now three times this year or twice this year, and obviously we saw what happened last week with the Steelers and the Bengals couple weeks ago. Yeah. Well, I mean, is is there any correlation between not allowing the NFL to have some frontier justice anymore and to take thing take matters into your own hands between the uh between the whistle like like when the like it used to be a day when you got a cheap shot or you had something you didn’t like happened, then you just kind of tallied that, you know, you had a tally in your head and you said, “Okay, that’s that’s great if that’s the way we’re going to do this.” um but just know you’re going to get yours here in the next couple of plays and you and it was just the way it was done and we kind of policed our own league that way. And now because you know you can’t do any of that stuff um do guys get you know overly frustrated and then have to take matters in their own hands after the game when things don’t you know when when normally things calm down. So I I don’t know. I mean I don’t know if that’s the right answer or not. No I I don’t know if there is an answer for it. I just wanted to know if you had any uh any experience in that sort of thing. All right. So, Mark Schith, uh, Carolina, Minnesota, New Orleans, who you are seeing this week, uh, played the Dolphins as you’re calling that game on Fox, and then San Francisco, those are the only teams that have buys left. No buys this week on Thanksgiving week. And then those are the four teams in week 14, meaning those are the only four teams that have five games left. Everybody else, it’s a sixgame run to the playoffs from their current positions or playing out strings. That said is the setup. Taking a look at the standings in each conference just to set everything up. Um start with the NFC. Rams are in my estimation the best team in football. Um but I can’t know your thoughts on the subject matter. And then you’ve got eight and three teams in Philadelphia and Chicago as your division leaders. Seattle as the top wildcard team. The Bucks hanging on um as everybody’s dropping there. Maybe they get Brocky Irving back. They currently lead the uh NFC. You got the Seahawks uh at 8 and3, Packers 73 and four, Niners 8-4 with the Lions at 7-4. Cowboys at 55 and one. My setup for you, sir, what are you looking to see over the last six weeks in the NFC? What are you most curious about in the NFC? What you need to see or you’re eager to look forward to over the last six weeks, Mark? Yeah. Well, the the NFC West is just unreal, right? with San Francisco winning last night didn’t look good. You know, Brock Py throwing three interceptions, but the NFC West with the Rams and I agree with you, they’re the best. They look like the best team in football without question. I think the Seahawks are a really good football team. Very balanced. Made you think about the decisions um that they have made as just an organization. And you know, John Schneider has done just such an unbelievable job. One, he said, “Hey man, it’s time for Pete Carol. you know, we’re going to part ways with Pete Carroll, brings in McDonald. Um, you know, McDonald’s done a phenomenal job. Uh, gets rid of DK Medcap, makes the decision on Sam Darnold says, “Hey, man, Sam Darnold, the one thing about this dude is he’s just a dude.” Like, we love him. He’s a dude, and guys respect his journey. Guys respect the work that he’s put in to get where he’s at. all these decisions that you made to say, “Hey, DK McCaf, you’ve been our number one guy, but we think Smith and Jigba is going to take off.” And he has just been as exceptional as anybody in football. So, they’re a really good team. I would I would probably put them as the second best team in the NFC right now. And then you got a bunch of other, you know, teams fighting for um you know, fighting for their spot. But the Rams clearly the best right now. And I think Seattle is uh Seattle is really intriguing to me as well. Yeah. And I I would go with the NFC North. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Right. You got the the Bears at 8 and three and then a half game behind are the Packers and one game behind are the Lions. Um who play the Bears in Chicago to finish the season. The Packers have yet to play the Bears twi at all. They play them twice and the Lions take on the Packers on Thanksgiving. How this thing plays out is fascinating to me because with what you just said in the NFC West, you can’t get three teams in from both divisions. Somebody’s going to be left without a chair. And the Cowboys have come on strong. We’ll see how that plays out with the Chiefs on Thanksgiving Day. I’m curious to see how the the the North finishes up. That’s my big question mark over the last six weeks here. Yeah, I was looking at I was looking at Chicago today and I just kept thinking to myself, man, there’s no way Chicago can can they continue on this run and you look at their last six weeks, man, they have got a brutal schedule with a couple games you mentioned against the Packers, Detroit to finish up, they’ve got Philadelphia, like every team they have coming up, you see it, Cleveland is probably the only one there, but San Francisco playing pretty good football right now. um albeit the three interceptions that Brock Perie threw last night. Like that’s a that’s a uh that’s a brutal schedule coming down the stretch for the Chicago Bears. But you also point out it’s a lynch pin of not just again the NFC North, but also the NFC playoff picture. Certainly, you know, they’re taking on Philadelphia this weekend battle of the Eastern and Northern Division leaders of Thanksgiving week, the two and three seeds in the NFC. And if they don’t win the division, Chicago based on other results, that San Francisco game could be about who has the seat and who doesn’t in the wild card, right? Like that game itself. So that’s a huge I mean Chicago might be the throughine here if you think about it. Yeah, it’s it’s it really is it’s really fascinating how tightly packed all these teams are at the top of their divisions. And um it’ll be fascinating to watch it as as you know the NFL does such a great job of scheduling things and making sure that all these games, all these divisional games for the most part are late and they’re meaningful and uh certainly we have that in the NFC North. All right, let’s talk about the AFC playoff picture entering Thanksgiving weekend. You’ve got the Patriots is the only 10- win team. How about that? Yeah, that’s in the entire NFL. The Patriots are the only 10- win team. You’ve got the Broncos one half game behind them coming off of their buy. The Colts just lost to the Chiefs who are at 6 and5. The 10 seed, I mean, the Chiefs being the 10 seed. The Ravens have in fact run down the Steelers. We were all thinking at 1 and5, can they do it? Well, entering Thanksgiving week taking on the Bengals on Thanksgiving night. They have. The Chargers are coming off of their buy. The Jaguars have just won a bunch of games by the skin of their teeth. Their only loss since their buy after the the London loss was a game that they led by 19 points. The Texans have come on strong. They’re above 500 and the Bills face the Steelers this week. So, what do you want to see out of the final six weeks in the AFC? Your biggest question is what? Well, my biggest question I I suppose like I really like the teams that stack the top. I like obviously the New England Patriots and you can say what you want. Brabable is a hell of a coach. Uh he believes in old school football, controlling both lines of scrimmage. You can say whatever you want about Josh McDaniels as a head coach, as an offensive coordinator, the guy is phenomenal. He’s just phenomenal. and Drake May playing at an incredibly high level, the Broncos defensively. I mean, when you when you start talking about the Broncos or any team and you start um hearkening back to the 1985 Bears, like like anybody, and there’s I’m sure you have tons of people who watch you that that don’t really or aren’t really familiar with what the 85 Bears did, but let me just say coming to the league in ‘ 89 and playing the Bears, they were frightening even then. And when you start talking about a team in present- day football that that you can compare to the 85 Bears when it comes to pressuring the opponent’s quarterback, that team is legit. They are scary. The Broncos defensively and they’ve been doing it without, you know, without Pat Certan. They’ve been doing it without Alex Singleton. So that’ll be really interesting to see them down the stretch. Um and you know, I I we we talked about Baltimore. I’m telling you, like Baltimore is interesting. Houston is really interesting to me because defensively all three levels they have superstars and Will Anderson and Denil Hunter like unbelievable edge pairing, but Will Anderson he he doesn’t try to just beat you. He tries to humiliate you. Like he physically tries to to to like shorten your neck. I mean, it’s to watch him play. The physicality with which he plays is unbelievable. And I am not so sure they are gonna get they’re gonna get CJ Stra back. And I’m not so sure that the way Davis Mills has been playing that he’s not a better option right now. He’s really Yeah, he’s really played he’s just played really good solid football that complements what they do on the defensive side of the ball. So, they’re a really interesting team to me. And if if the Colts stumble a little bit down the stretch here, you know, all of a sudden they start to stumble, their passing game falls apart like it did in the fourth quarter in overtime of that game against Kansas City. Could I see Houston reeling the Colts in and winning their what fourth straight division title? That’ll be interesting. Yeah. And the Jaguars are between them. Um and you know, the Jaguars had a chance to sweep the Texans being up by 19. And that is a a loss that leaves a mark and keeps the Texans alive cuz that’s the difference between being 8 and3 like the Colts and the Texans being five and six and out of it or what you currently see on the screen with the Colts have yet to play the Jaguars or the Texans. So the AFC South is definitely wide open. The question that I have uh over the final six weeks, you know, kind of dovtailing on what you just said is which of the teams at the top that we didn’t expect, even though the Broncos had a massive bandwagon coming into the season, but 9-2 I think is above expectation. Um, and certainly the opportunity that they have at 9 and two, the fact that the Chiefs are six and five is kind of surprising. Patriots being 10-2, Colts being eight and three. Which one of those teams can hang on to their amazing starts over the final six weeks of tight football? And which of the teams that are perennial AFC playoff contenders, uh, if not favorites, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Texans, which one of those will actually survive? Which one of those will actually make it from their early season holes? 1 and5 Ravens, 0 and3 Texans, Bills at once upon a time at 4-1 having lost more than they’ve won over the last couple of weeks. Which one of those might actually come from the pack? Yeah, I I still like until they’re dead, I still fear the Chiefs. And as much as I root for them to lose every game, what they did like what they did against the Colts was amazing. They held him to 18 yards total offense in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Defensively, they just made plays. And even when like even when Patrick Mahomes and his receiving core and even Travis Kelce, they don’t have that same magic that they always seem to have and be able to make those, you know, remarkable plays when things break down. They still found a way to come back down what 20 to9 in the fourth quarter and win that football game. And like they’re the team to me that if they get in like their championship pedigree and and the fact that they haven’t been clicking on all cylinders on the offensive side of the ball, they still understand how to win. They made plays on the special teams, they made plays on defense, like that team uh still really scares me. Um if if if in fact they get in, they they are the one team that really scares me. And I know fans who watch shows like this one and hear folks like us, uh, Mark, say over and over again, you know, the count the Chiefs aren’t out until they’re finally out, blah, blah, blah. And they might get sick and tired of that. It’s the truth. This is a fact that backs it up or a nugget that NFL network or an observation the research department there came up with that I keep repeating and I will keep repeating that in the Mahomes era seven years of being the starter. This is his eighth year being the starter. The seven previous seasons of him being a starter, the earliest a Chief season has ended is overtime in the AFC Championship game. Five Super Bowl appearances, two overtime losses in the AFC Championship game. Not even in the division round, not even in regulation of the AFC Championship game. That’s the earliest a season has ended for the Chiefs. So that’s why you and I, I think, are saying until it’s over, it ain’t over with. Yeah. And think about how many times, Rich, we’ve seen them make remarkable plays. Like one thing about Mahomes is that dude can play on schedule and and he can play as well as any quarterback on schedule, but what what separates him is his uncanny ability to play off schedule and to be on the same page where everybody on that offense just seems to see the same thing where they can alter a route um in in the midst of a game where they’re lining up on the line of scrimmage. We remember the overtime game where they beat the Buffalo Bills I think in the divisional round with 13 seconds left and they said oh yeah we just kind of as we’re walking up the line of scrimmage Travis and I just kind of changed the play and and you know we pick up a I don’t I don’t remember what exactly the game was like 30 yards or something like yeah we just we just looked at each other and we knew this what we’re running. They haven’t had that this year. That hasn’t that hasn’t been part of of kind of their makeup. And yet here we sit at six and five and you keep saying, “Well, if they get to that again, if eventually that comes and and rears its uh, you know, beautiful head if you’re a Chiefs fan, ugly head if you’re the rest of the NFL, then then we’re in trouble.” Like we’re because they still can play on the defensive side of the ball. Well, and in terms of that, you know, when you we’re talking about the Chiefs here and with all due respect to Denver and and we just also established the AFC South is wide open. That’s why I would choose of any of the teams that have started well in the AFC to finish and not stumble, I would choose New England because of the way that the quarterback is playing. And then I don’t know, did you hear um the sound bite from Vrabel after they beat the Bengals in a tight game? Did you hear that? No. Play this for Mark, please. Mike, how much of a battle was this? It was mentally from start to finish. That’s what happens in this league. You know, you need everybody and you go through the season, you go on the road and you know, it’s tough and nobody wants to talk about numbers and records. That doesn’t mean that’s it. That’s a soundbite. And you just stood there and said, “Next question.” Yeah. Records and stats don’t mean uh don’t mean S. And I heard that and I’m like, you know, this is also the guy who is shaking hands at everybody before they go in the locker room. So, he he’s rallying them, but he’s also keeping their feet firmly planted. and he’s got an incredibly generationally apparently talented quarterback to lead him in an off and and an opportunistic defense that if they tighten things up in the red zone, man, they could be particularly tough to beat for sure. He man I I love Varel, man. That dude like you sit down with Varable oneonone, he can be a salty and u he can be great at the same time. He’s just he’s very much he’s very much that way and he’s a nononsense guy. Like he he demands, you know, he demands great study habits. He demands great practice habits. He demands all those things at the same time as being a hard ass. He’s incredibly relational with his players. And you see it, you mentioned him handshaking guys. Like you go down and watch practice and I’ve been to several Patriots games, done several games this year and watching him at practice, man, he puts on the, you know, the the offolored Penny and he’s out there playing middle linebacker. He’s out there playing, you know, edge linebacker. And I mean, he he’s mixing it up on Friday practice with the guys. It just is like it his vibe resonates with players. they want to play for him and he believes in old school football in that we’re gonna control the lines of scrimmage and we’re going to do that on both sides of the ball and damn it we’re going to play you know disciplined football and we’re going to come out on top playing this way and I I just you know there’s times when when you you sit down and talk with him like come on dude and then you know we played against each other like you know ease up a little bit and then there are times when we just laugh and we, you know, reminiscent. So, he’s just he’s just a really interesting cat and I think he’s just one of the best coaches in the National Football League. Plus one, man. Uh, what does the Thanksgiving scene for the Schlurths look like? Paint it for me. We’re right. We are right here. The kids are coming in on Wednesday. Grandid. Grandkids. Grandkids. Grandkids are uh grandkids are going to be in Michigan this uh so we just Lisa and I, my wife and I just went out to Disney World. I had the weekend off last weekend, so we went out to Disney World and uh ran the streets with the grandkids and so anyhow uh that was our Thanksgiving with them. Do you go on the ride? Does Grandpa Mark go on the rides with him? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. What are we like like what Mr. Toads Wild Ride? What sort of speed are we? Are we roller coaster? I’m all I love the roller coasters, but my left knee there’s some that I can ride. There’s some that I just can’t get my leg into because it won’t bend enough. So, um, but yeah, I was I was kneede in roller coasters and and, uh, you know, the Tower of Terror and, uh, and the, uh, all those all those fun ones. Aerosmith’s rock and roller coaster, you name it. Okay. And, uh, let me make sure here uh, you’ll be back in the state of Florida calling, uh, Saints and Dolphins. Uh, yes, I will. On Fox this weekend, have a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for your uh, friendship and uh, love talking ball with you, man. Love chopping. Likewise, buddy. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well and we look forward to talking to you next week. Yeah, I’ll be working but it’s all good. That’s uh that’s that’s what we do this time of year. Thanks for mark everybody back here on the Rich Eyes and Show. Another terrific appearance calling um Mike Vrabel something I would never call to his face. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. Check us out every single day streaming live on Disney Plus and the ESPN app 12 to 3 Eastern.

NFL on Fox Analyst/’Stinkin’ Truth’ podcast host Mark Schlereth and Rich Eisen discuss the below-the-belt punch Carolina Panthers DB Tre’von Moehrig delivered on San Francisco 49ers WR Jauan Jennings, break down the NFC playoff picture heading down the stretch of the season, if the Indianapolis Colts can stave off the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars for AFC South bragging rights, why the 3rd-place Kansas City Chiefs are still a dangerous team, and how Mike Vrabel’s force of personality has returned the New England Patriots to their winning ways.

Tune in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

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20 comments

  7. Mark touched on something regarding scheduling. Why doesn't the NFL designate Weeks 16-18 as all intra-divisional games — the end of the round robin? In weeks 1-3, the Chargers played all three AFC West opponents. I don't think the league needs to do that at the beginning of the season for everyone, but I do think having it at the end would add some good drama to the playoff races.

  13. The thing about the "punch" that people are not mentioning is that Jennings is standing there – CLEARLY IN PAIN FROM WHAT JUST HAPPENED – and the refs made no call.

    Had there been an unnecessary roughness or an unsportsmanlike call at the time of the play, Jennings likely would not have attacked after the game

  17. As a Pats fan I couldn’t be happier about where they are at. But they have injuries piling up and it could become a problem in this final stretch. They have Bills and Ravens coming up, and those games will be very tough with the players they are missing now.

  19. The real issue and why players are taking matters into their own hands is because of officiating. Where is the replay? Officiating? Etc. when a dude is sitting there in obvious pain after being sucker punched in the junk. No call, no ejection. What us he supposed to do? The officials need to be held accountable.

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