NFL Week 13 REACTION: Steelers struggle, Bears & Broncos on fire, Cowboys | Colin Cowherd: THE HERD

NFL Week 13 REACTION: Steelers struggle, Bears & Broncos on fire, Cowboys | Colin Cowherd: THE HERD

Welcome to the Herds official YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to check out the Colin Coward podcast, all of our NFL instant reactions, and more football content. Oh, it is going to be a Monday for the ages. What a last four days we had. We’re live. We’re in Chicago. It’s the herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. You got a lot of choices out there. Sarkc Steve Sarkeesian stops by. Urban Meyer stops by. Lane Kein’s going to LSU. What do we make of the Bears? What do we make of Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh? Let’s not waste any time one hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. So, you heard the chance potentially. Did you hear the chance in Pittsburgh as the Bills were rolling over the Steelers? Fire Mike Tomlin chance. And I feel like the last eight years, the Steelers are the exact same team. They’ll finish slightly above 500. They’ll have a bottom 10 defense. They’ll be better early than November, December, and January. And the quarterback plays limited because they can’t run the football and the O line is always in crisis. That’s what they are. You can keep running through quarterbacks and left tackles and wide receivers and drama and running backs, coordinators, doesn’t matter. The guy in charge, Mike Tomlin, is tonedeaf offense. NFL head coaches have gotten younger, smarter, and more offensive. And these older defensive guys, Pete Carroll, Bill Bellichic, Mike Tomlin, Ron Rivera, Lovey Smith, they feel outdated. And I said this, Aaron Rogers, go to Minnesota or retire. You’re just stepping into Tomlin’s quicksand. And I would I would have no problem hiring Mike Tomlin say in Miami to stabilize the Dolphins. I think he’d be a really good fit there. But look around the league right now. Who’s a number one seed in the AFC? Shawn Payeyton, offensive coach. The Jaguars never deliver. Oh, wait. Now they’re going to win their division potentially. Liam Cohen, offensive coach. Shawn McVey is number two seed in the NFC. You know who number one is? Offensive coach Ben Johnson. I would argue Kyle Shannan’s done a better job coaching than anybody outside of Mike Frabel this year. Another offensive coach. Offensive coaches are younger. They’re smarter. They’re more current. And I said this last week, offensive coaches can fix problems in the season. Defensive guys feel like they need an off season. And I’m sorry, but on defense, they’re old. The Steelers are expensive. Darius Slay, Jaylen Ramsay, they’re past their prime. They’re paying a fortune for it. They got gray beards on offense and on defense. They took a defensive tackle instead of Jackson Dart. What are you doing? And again, no urgency. This is a criticism I said about Pete Carol. Gino Smith’s not good enough. Ron River, I said, “Oh, I got Sam How not good enough.” Aaron Rogers, don’t blame him. Look around the league, the rules have changed. These old defensive guys, I don’t have a problem with the Me Ryans, Mike McDonald. They’re young, they’re current, they’re aggressive. I mean, McDonald took over for Pete Carol an hour later, the team was better with the same players. So, the last six Super Bowls have featured head coaches with an offensive background. Doesn’t mean you have to hire them, but yesterday finally, finally, the fans said enough. I mean, you hold Buffalo to three points at half and you get rolled and we don’t even like Buffalo this year. We don’t even know what to make of Buffalo this year. Here was a stoic and an honest Mike Tomlin after. That’s an awful performance by us. Um, but it’s us. Um, we didn’t do a lot well tonight, obviously. Mike, did you have a sense for how restless and frustrated the crowd was to them? Um, I don’t know how restless and frustrated I was, and so I assume they were in the same state we were in. Man, I share their frustration tonight, man. We didn’t do enough. Um, that’s just the reality of it. Yeah, the defense has been the highest paid for four years. It’s not elite. Come on now. And and this is not just me or the media or the fans. We don’t even think Buffalo’s creative. Here’s TJ Watt sounding like a shot at Tomlin and the staff after the game. We need to find ways to be able to make plays. And I mean, I’ve never seen a team run the same play as much as they ran it tonight and have as much success as they had. Um I mean, I’m out of I’m out of words for it. We talk about the talent that we have. We talk about everything that we have. But right now, we don’t have a kick-ass defensive group. And that’s all that I can speak on. I mean, you got to have a Ben Johnson has been in Chicago less than a year. They already have an identity. Tough, physical, run the ball on offense. How many years are we going to watch the Steelers struggle to figure out how to run the football? Ben Johnson’s done it in 12, 13 weeks. Mike Frabel still in a rebuild has got that defense playing its butt off and not paying much for it. He can’t figure out the defense. Like it just doesn’t work anymore. I’d hire him maybe in Miami. Doesn’t mean he’s not a good coach and wouldn’t fit other places. But between this ownership group, the great GM who left, the coach who feels tonedeaf to offense, the fans have finally come to the realization that we have for about three years. This is not good enough. It’s just not good enough. Today’s show brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. There are three things to be thankful for this week. Family, food, and football. And thanks to Hard Rock Bet, you can easily sneak in bets while your crazy uncle goes on his annual rant about the good old days. Sign up today. You could feast with $150 in bonus bets. Just place a $5 bet. That’s it. If it hits, you get not only your winnings, but also 150 bucks in extra bonus bets. That’s an offer you can’t pass up, even on a full stomach. So, not sure what to place your first bet? Head over to Hard Rock Bet Statsshub. That’s Hard Rock Bet Statsshub and it’ll help you out. Loaded with trends and streaks and stats to help guide your picks. It’s great. Numbers don’t lie, and neither does the data in there. Plus, this week on Hard Rock Bet, three 50% profit boosts, one for each Thanksgiving Day game. Boost your same game parlay or SGP Max, so your bets pay extra winnings. There’s new promos every day. So, if you’re listening on to this later, just open the app, check it out. Any day of the week, doesn’t matter. Download the Hard Rock Bet app right now. Make your first deposit. You know, I was just trying to figure out what to do when a coach is wearing his hat on backwards in a locker room. Now I’ve got to process a coach taking his shirt off in the locker room. But I got to be honest, after the Bears went to Philly and hammer the Eagles, I kind of like that, too. Here’s Ben Johnson. [Applause] Good. Never let it run. Get better. It better get better. Three. I got to be honest. I may start doing this after the morning meeting. I kind of like it. I mean, it doesn’t take that long. When you get the right head coach, you get a Mike Vrabel, you get a Shawn Payeyton, you get a Ben Johnson, you get a Liam Cohen. It doesn’t take that long. There’s so much mediocrity in so many industries. Excellence rises and it looks different. Here’s all I know. Last year, the Bears were 29th in big plays with the same quarterback, DJ Moore. Yeah, had that, too. And now they’re second. My bad. First, they’ve gotten better at everything. Getting the right coach does not guarantee Super Bowls. Most reasonable people understand that. But it does guarantee an identity. The Patriots have one. The Bears have one. The Jags have one. It guarantees you’ll get the most. You’ll squeeze the most out of your roster. This is largely last year’s roster with a better guard, center, guard combo up front. Yet, the defense now is number one in takeaways, number two in rushing. It’s not like DeAndre Swift wasn’t there last year. It just doesn’t take that long. And you’ll find a common thread with the really good coaches. They’re hard on their player. Shawn Peyton’s hard on Bon Knicks. No pandering. Ben Johnson’s hard on Caleb. No pandering. All the friendly the friendly guy down in Miami. I think he seems like a great guy. I don’t need hugs and pandering and kisses and rainbows and birds chirping. Be hard on your star young quarterback. be hard on everybody. Demand attention. You guys get an off season, right? You get Mondays off, sometimes Tuesday. Practice games, two hours, three. Be focused. And that’s what Chicago is. Not only the big picture stuff, they’re just better at what their roster allows them to be better at. And I’ll tell you, this Bears team is built for December and January because they can run the ball. A lot of these teams, I don’t know if Jacksonville, maybe they are. Some of these teams, I don’t know if they’re built for December and January. The Bears are. And um it’s Ben Johnson. You know, you think defensive coaches are the tough guys. Shanahan, Ben Johnson, they love to run the football. I mean, they played Philadelphia. Philly has Saquon Barkley. They ran it 17 times. These guys ran it 47. So Ben Johnson is one of these new young coaches. He wants to get physical. It’s an identity. It’s a toughness. It’s bled on over to the defense. And Caleb Williams Ben doesn’t like that he only completes 58% of his throws, but he doesn’t throw picks and he’s no longer getting sacked. And those are two great qualities for a young quarterback. So this this Bears team when they were coming back and they were beating the Giants was a cool story. going to Philly and hammering the Eagles is something well above a good story. And here’s Caleb on the W. Every single game that that that we want to play and that we play, uh, it’s it is to make a statement. Um, and that’s just another game for us. Um, you know, focus on being one and0 each week. And, you know, we keep we keep doing that. We keep focusing on what’s inside the noise inside of the building. Um, honestly, it doesn’t, you know, the the statements and and all of that, all of that, you know, is more more of the outside noise, more of kind of stuff for y’all to kind of talk about and, you know, the analysts and all the whoever to talk about. And so, um, you know, we’ll we’ll keep focusing on ourselves. Again, not hard to identify good coaching. And all good coaches are tough and demanding on quarterbacks. They may say nice things to the press, but you watch the body language, you watch Ben Johnson on the sideline, he’s demanding, but you know, when people say, “Well, they don’t have a lot to work with. We’re dealing with injuries.” What Kyle Shanahan and Harbaugh are doing with injuries. I don’t even know how the Chargers can run the ball. They got the worst rated O line in football. I don’t know how the Niners can stop anybody. The whole team’s beat up defensively. Great coaching. You can identify it quickly. It is tough and demanding. And Ben Johnson, he he feels like the best hireer in the NFL since Shawn McVey. He really does. Jack with the news. No. No. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline news. All right, let’s go from great news for the Bears to not great news for the Chargers. Colin, uh, LA got the win over the Raiders, but Jim Harbaugh broke the news yesterday. Justin Herbert broke uh suffered a fracture in his left hand. It’s really unclear how bad this is, but he’s getting surgery today. Yeah. Okay. Now, he did come in, finish the game, threw a touchdown pass. He doesn’t even know if he’s out next week. Okay. That’s how tough this Harbaugh uh Harbaugh Herbert combo is. Like, they both think like, okay, he might play against the Eagles, which is a tall order. If not, it would be Trey Lance. Um, for what it’s worth, a buddy of mine was at dinner last night after the Chargers game and ran into Herbert and his smoke show of a girlfriend. People were coming up to Herbert. He was in good spirits. So, I I mean, I’m going to go ahead and just say I have no idea if he’s going to play. Chargers did look dangerous, Colin, last night. Well, again, it’s another offensive coach who remember Chicago, remember the operational problems they had in the first two weeks. They’ve cleaned them up in season. Um, remember how bad opening drives had been for Denver? or they cleaned them up in season. I mean, they’ve just Harbaugh and Kyle Shanahan are putting out a master class. They should not be able to run the ball at all. Their offensive line’s a disaster. Lowest rated in the sport. But this is what good coaching does there. Once you have toughness, even if you’re J-Mack, even if you lose stars, toughness seats, right? It’s all through the roster. You can win a lot of love a lot of games missing stars or beat up if you’re resilient and tough. This is a sport of big, strong, physical men and I think they’re just willing their way to a win. It’s a good point about the offensive line. Remember the Bills yesterday, right? Uh no tackles and they rushed for like 200 and some odd yards against the Steelers. So running the ball’s huge. Now this is a nugget going forward. So Vidal, the the backup who really had not done anything last season. He was good yesterday. Had a long touchdown run. They should get Hampton back next week. You we know what this team is going to be in January. They’re running Hampton and Vidal down your throat. And if they get a lead, Justin Herbert on third down last night, Colin, 12 of 13. It’s easy passes, nothing deep, nothing risky. This team is scary if they get an early lead on you. I I like the Chargers a lot. Um let’s go to the next story. And uh it was Sunday Night Football. On paper, kind of a weak game, but it turned out to be kind of interesting. Wild until the end. Um, it get goes to overtime and the Broncos get super lucky as Nick Bonito bats down what should have been a walk-in touchdown for Jeremy Nicholls in Washington. Mariota didn’t totally read it well. Didn’t lob it up high enough. Here’s Shawn Payeyton after the game when he was asked about escaping. I’m sure both teams when we look at the film um probably did some things we didn’t want to do, but uh those guys um came out and fought hard. So did our guys and uh you know we made a play at the end. Uh that was the difference. We don’t escape. We won. The journey of a good team season involves games like this and um and then you believe that you can do it again. Let me let me defend Denver here. Okay. All right. So now the season 17 games. So we all acknowledge the first game of the year doesn’t even matter. Raiders beat the Patriots. You start playing well. A great example is the Rams. Stafford had 30 touchdowns and two picks. Do you think he was going to end up with 40 touchdowns and three picks? Eventually, you travel out east, you get caught flatfooted, Carolina has to win off a Ner’s loss and all of a sudden the Rams defense doesn’t have a ton of energy and you’re Denver won the game. Okay, Denver is a number one seed. They’re they’re not going to play with the same intensity. All those guys know Washington’s on a backup quarterback. when you have a 17game season. This is not college football as you well know where you have advantages with athletes. These are all pro players. And so I’m watching that game. It could have gone either way. But I’ll tell you, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Shawn Peyton and Ben Johnson win all these close games or Andy Reid did last year. They are very good at several things. They were just bad defensively by their standards last night. The Rams were bad yesterday by their standards. Bryce Young 15 to 20. Yeah. I mean, listen, the one-sore games, eight-2, you saw the stat on the screen, 5-0 when trailing in the fourth. We can say that’s intestinal fortitude and toughness and smarts. Well, you know what? The Chiefs last year, unbelievable in one-score score games. This year, wouldn’t you know it, they can’t win any of them. They’re really struggling in one-score games. So, this stuff kind of goes back and forth. You have to admit, the ball is bouncing their way a lot. Yes. And Colin, I I I cannot wait to see who they play if they get the two seed. I think we think but the Patriots will probably be the one because of the schedule. If they play Buffalo, I’m taking Denver. I’m taking Denver. We’ll be headtohead on that one. If they play the Could they play the Ravens? I don’t know if the Ravens could could get the wild card cuz that division’s kind of wonky right now. We’ll see. I don’t know if the Chiefs play Denver round three. Are you taking Denver? I I just I I think we need to pump the brakes on how dominant this team is. Enjoy it while it lasts. I see you grinning. You know the story here like this is not a great football team. Colin, can the play I mean everybody keeps telling me the Bears aren’t that good and the Broncos aren’t that good. They keep winning. They do. They do. They are. Let the good times roll, right? Uh final story, Colin. Let’s go back to Thanksgiving. Um you know, we totally nailed this game on Friday or on Wednesday. Sorry. Uh Packers would beat the Lions. Jordan Love would be incredible. Christian Watson would be amazing. But what I didn’t anticipate was these high leverage downs. Green Bay two touchdowns on fourth down. Meanwhile, the Lions, they just cannot get this fourth down thing right all of a sudden. And uh here’s Dan Campbell. Well, no, actually, here’s Jordan Love talking about the excitement about the Packers win. I think uh be able to go out there on fourth down and execute and uh make some big time plays uh is really the difference in that game right there. So, um you know, that’s what it comes down to is just going out there executing and uh those got to have it plays. And we we made plays tonight, everybody. I mean, we were staying aggressive, you know, we got a chance to go out there and ice a game, you know, not even give them a chance to get the ball back. And uh we stayed aggressive, and I love it. We made plays right there. Let me say this. Green Bay’s offense was broken three weeks ago. It was. We both said it’s broken. What did their young offensive coach do? He fixed it in season. Pittsburgh can’t do that. So, and the other thing I’m taking in this game is and there were some really weak officiating both sides. It was an issue all weekend. It Yeah, Green Bay. I’m not Green Bay deserves to win. But it’s funny if I told you there was this quarterback in Green Bay. Tall, athletic, big arm, highly aggressive, never throws picks. You’d be like, whoa. Can people finally acknowledge Jordan Love’s really talented to go into that environment? I mean, every trait I like. Everything he does, I like. When you get upside and he doesn’t throw a lot of picks, I mean, I think the kid is, you got to give Green Bay credit. When he came out of Utah State, he did not have a good final year in college. And my my sources were totally mixed on him. They were like, some just were not into it. Way reckless, way loose. This kid has been coached hard, coached fairly. He is a tremendous player. Yeah. Um there’s a stat that the Gamblers like EPA per play. Jordan Love is the number one quarterback in that by some margin over Drake May. Tell people what that means. Well, expected points added per every single play. Grade every single play. And Jordan Love, I I know it’s no risk at no biscuit sometimes with him, but Colin, if you look at the numbers, he is shredding when it matters most. And I will add this, they did lose Tucker Craft. Obviously, that’s a big loss. Huge loss. Hey, by the way, you know who’s coming back? Matthew Golden. You know who else is coming back? Jaden Reed and Christian Watson looks healthy. Colin, this offense, I I said it Wednesday. I was like, listen, if you think the Packers can go to the Super Bowl, bet them now. I think they’re the best team in the NFC. I know that sounds crazy, but that defense, did you see the Detroit had 10 plays stopped at the line of scrimmage or behind it. Micah Parsons and those stunts now losing Wyatt, their defensive tackle, that’s a big loss because he’s excellent. But I do think Green Bay, you know, if you if you if you look like you think you have the Rams still coming out of the NFC, right? Well, I mean, I I don’t take anything from the loss yesterday, I think Green Bay three weeks ago. I think we both said on the air, their offense is broken, but these young offensive coaches do a much better job of fixing things than these old defensive coaches, and I I thought that was an impressive win. Again, I thought it was an egregiously officiated game. Um, but I’m not going to say that’s why they won. There were I mean, at one point, somebody grabbed I think it was Christian Watson’s arm was grabbed and they didn’t call it. It was blatant miss by the officials staring at it. So I Green Bay is a really well coached, smartly quarterbacked team that added the guy they needed to an elite pass rusher because what Green Bay’s been leading games in the fourth quarter for 30 years. Rarely have they Reggie White closed wins. This is another guy Micah closes the door. He’s their Mariano Rivera. He’ll close out a lead, you know, with you need 12 pitches left. Yeah. But real quick on the Lions, Colin, uh, it looks like they’re probably going to miss the playoffs. We said in the offseason losing Ben Johnson would be massive. We look like idiots for like seven weeks. How about now? We weren’t wrong. We were just early. I’m just telling you, Lions, I’m Ross St. Brown’s going to be out a couple weeks now. Who Who They were throwing to a guy who played lacrosse, I think, six months ago. I I don’t know what’s going on with the Lions. They’re in trouble if they can’t run the ball. Jac with the news. Well, that’s the news and thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. Um, first of all, Philadelphia circling the drain. The Dallas Cowboys. I think we all have to write apology letters to Jerry Jones. We’ll talk about that next. Saturday, for the first time in conference history, number one and number two collide in the Big 10 title game. Heistman hopefuls collide as Julian Seyan leads number one Ohio State against Fernando Mendoza and number two Indiana. Coverage begins Saturday 6:30 Eastern on Fox. Let me ask you this something about this game. Let me ask you. Ohio State doesn’t need to win. Um honestly, they just played Michigan. I don’t think they’ll have a let down, but the game could mean more to Indiana. I don’t think conference championships are going to be around long. I think the playoff eliminates the need. We both know Indiana and Ohio State are top 12 teams. It we know it. It’s the one’s got a great offense, one’s got a great defense and a pretty good offense. So, I like that game. I’m going to watch it. I’m really interested. But, you know, I look at that and I think to myself, I I think Ohio State’s better. And if Ohio State hadn’t played Michigan, I think they’d they’d win. Uh maybe convincingly, but it’s it’s a college football now has changed a lot. It’s a lot closer to the NFL where not every game at the end of the season matters if you’ve already qualified for the playoffs. I’m fascinated to watch the Hooers in Ohio State, but beating Michigan, that’s the key to it. And they did. Um, okay. Sometimes you sell a nice house, really nice house, and you buy another house because it fits your family. Now, the people who bought your old nice house, they really needed that house more than you did. And it doesn’t mean you don’t respect them or that you didn’t like the house, but there are just different times in a family’s life. Not having kids, you can live one place. Now, you got a bunch of kids, you got to live in a good school district. That to me was always the Micah Parsons trait. Dallas loved Micah, but the players around him weren’t good enough. and Jerry Jones needed flexibility. I said this during the Micah trade and I felt like I was on an island. Yes, it’s good for Green Bay. It’s great for Dallas, too. They got the infrastructure, the house they needed for their family. They were atrocious defensively and egregiously bad against the run and signing Michael wasn’t going to it wasn’t going to save that or change that. But getting Quinnon Williams and Kenny Clark and still two first round picks, they have flexibility and are now a really good defense. With De Marvy and Overshown healthy, they’re still top two in the NFL in pressures without Micah. And now they’re great against the run. The Cowboys are a better football team without Micah. Doesn’t mean you don’t love the house. It didn’t provide what you needed in the moment. Green Bay is a team with a powerful offense that needed a closer. Micah was great for him and is great and Micah is still a great player, but Dallas wasn’t leading a lot of games because they couldn’t stop the run. And Jerry Jones, you know, it’s funny. If you took out the teams and you took out the names of the people involved and you just said there’s this general manager, he stole this star receiver for a third round pick. He’s like a pro bowler and he got Quinnon Williams, Kenny Clark. He took this atrocious defense and made it excellent and he still got two first round picks. You’d be like, who was it? Howie Roseman? No, it’s Jerry Jones. You just don’t like Jerry. Jerry Jones was on radio this week saying how badly he wanted Quinn and Williams then of the Jets before the deal was made. Actually tried to trade uh actually uh uh for uh Williams. I wanted a one and Parsons for uh Williams. A one and Parsons for Williams. I thought that much of Williams. and he’s showing you what he can do for a defense. So, you know, it’s just funny. Jerry took a lot of heat. Remember, he said to the Wall Street Journal, “There’s a hundred billion present value with gas out there, and that’s why I’m talking to you on the telephone rather than trying to fix our defense.” Took a lot of heat for that. Well, people freaked out, but it looks like Jerry Jones being distracted and neglected, neglecting the Cowboys, he fixed the defense and made hundred billion dollars in natural gas. You know, I mean, we got to be fair in this business. Jerry, to me, for years it was becoming kind of mom and pop, but the George Pickkins deal, the Quinnon Williams deal, it takes guts to move off Micah, who was beloved by fans, but they’re a better team without Micah because dealmakers need flexibility. This is a team that couldn’t pay $8 million to get Derrick Henry a couple years ago. Dealmakers, Jeff Bezos at Amazon doesn’t need more money. He needs flexibility. Elon Musk doesn’t need more money. Flexibility. That’s Jerry. Jerry’s got plenty of money. What Jerry needed was the ability cap space to make moves and improve the entire roster. And they have done that. This was a bad run defense. Now it’s excellent. Your eyes are not deceiving you. They beat Kansas City. They were the better team than Kansas City. All right. Um Philadelphia is a mess. uh and a talented mess, but the Bears beat him in Philly and they don’t have any identity right now. The Eagles offense with a good old line tight end, star receiver Saquon Barkley, Jaylen Herz, yards per game 24th. Third down percentage near the bottom of the league. Threeandout percentage worst in the league. Punts tied for 29th. So, and they didn’t just get ugly in the last couple weeks. They’ve been completely uneven since the first week. They have had an offensive identity crisis for about 75 to 80% of Nick Serani’s tenure. So, and I’ve said this about Nick Serani. He’s not an elite scheme coach like Dan Campbell in Detroit. You can argue he’s a good culture coach. He’s good in the locker room, although that sometimes sounds like she’s got a great personality, but he’s not a great scheme coach. So it’s much harder for him than it is like a McVey, a Shanahan, a Ben Johnson, or a Matt Laflur to fix something in season. He did it that one year because he just gave up the play calling to a really good coach who now leads the Colts, Shane Stiken. But it does feel like an unsolvable problem because part of being a great coach is constantly tweaking. Chargers lose both offensive tackles. Niners lose Fred Warner, Bosa, and their first round pick. It’s not just August to January. You have to constantly tweak. And we’ve seen these issues since week one, and they’re not tweaking them because they can’t. The GM has shown an ability in an off season to tweak. It’s interesting. I think Nick Serani feels almost like a defensive coach. It’s about brute strength. Be aggressive. Have a vibe. Be tough. What they need is tweaking. Green Bay three weeks ago, broken offense. Green Bay now, Super Bowl contender. You got to constantly tweak. It’s been since week one, it’s been a mess. So, I I I just look around this league right now and it’s very rare when you can get a coach like Ben Johnson who is not only a CEO and a culture builder but good with schematics. That’s McVey Shanahan. I think Frabel’s pretty good at that. But, um I I there’s no easy answer. Everybody wants them to move off the offensive coordinator. He’s not McVey who’s calling plays who who here’s Nick Serioni. We’re not changing the play caller. We’re eval but we will evaluate everything. I have confidence in the entire group. Again I know it will keep coming back to Kevin. Um but again if I thought it was one thing then you make those changes. Obviously it’s a it’s a lot of different things. Um but I yeah I don’t I don’t think it is the you know Kevin I’ll give you an example. Remember when the Rams earlier this season, Puka Nakua got banged up and they had all sorts of injuries. They literally mid-season went to 13 personnel. Let’s play three tight ends. Caught everybody off guard. That’s tweaking. That is modern coaching. So, and Laflur solving a broken offense. That’s real coaching. God, the Bears early in this season couldn’t get the basics down, the operational stuff. They do now. So the Eagles are 0 and4 when Saquon Barkley gets 13 carries or fewer. They face the Bears. Chicago runs at 47 times. Eagles run at 17 with that whole line. So I don’t I don’t think these are solvable. May maybe, you know, I love the defense and there are teams that are just better on one side of the ball than the other, but this the the this league, the coaching is younger. It’s smarter and you you got to be a little bit of a psychologist and a therapist and a a doctor that makes home visits. Got problems to solve and and this has been around since week one. They still can’t solve it. So Jac, people keep talking about how good is Denver and Chicago. Here’s my question. How good’s Philadelphia if they can’t solve their offense? Yeah. Yeah. I think you mentioned this before. Some teams peak early. Did the Eagles maybe peak a little bit early? I saw a weird stat that since Nico Dean, their good linebacker from Georgia, came back, Jihad Campbell, who has been unbelievable this season, is barely playing. He didn’t play one defensive snap against the Bears, who ran the ball down their throat. And I’m like, you know, they maybe they, you know, they’re just going through a tough transitional time. I think they’ll be okay. Um, they’re still a dangerous team obviously with Herz and that defense, but um, you’re right. That that was a bad eyeopening loss. All right, Matt Hasselbeck, Colin Wright, Colin Wrong. Both Steve Sarkeesian and Urban Meyer stopped by. Big story of the weekend. You could have argued Lane Kein kind of blowing up the SEC going to LSU. Hour two next.

Colin Cowherd reacts to NFL Week 13. He starts by discussing why the Pittsburgh Steelers are struggling under Mike Tomlin and whether Aaron Rodgers is done. Next, Colin moves to the Chicago Bears and explains how Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams have made the Bears legit contenders. Then Colin discusses the Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

0:00 Pittsburgh Steelers
6:44 Chicago Bears
12:25 NFL News
22:35 Dallas Cowboys
28:12 Philadelphia Eagles

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