Colin Cowherd’s Playoff Predictions: Cowboys-Lions ELIMINATION GAME + Broncos READY | THE HERD NFL

Colin Cowherd’s Playoff Predictions: Cowboys-Lions ELIMINATION GAME + Broncos READY | THE HERD NFL

Welcome to the Herd’s 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. I and Jac both like Dallas tonight. I think Dallas wins by a touchdown or more tonight. I think a lot of the NFL is trends and which way you’re headed. I think Dallas is headed in the right direction. Playing with a ton of confidence now healthier than they’ve been all season. So, you and I agree on that. Let’s just start with this. So, the Cowboys overunder win total to start the year was seven and a half. I said bet the under. Uh Detroit’s was 10 and a half. 10 and a half. I said bet the under. Uh and here we are week 14 and they’re pretty much the same, but I think I’d rather be Dallas. I do. I like where they’re trending. And um you everybody’s telling me it’s injuries or it’s the Frank Ragno uh retirement or it’s Jared Goff. You want to know why Detroit’s not as good? They lost Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator. Now he’s the coach of the Bears and the Bears are looking down at the Lions. That’s it. It’s almost impossible. It’s not hard. It’s really impossible to replace brilliance. I remember Nike 2004, Phil Knight steps down as CEO. Nike, one of one, a powerhouse. Immediately starts losing market share to Adidas. Here comes Phil. He comes back. We all know the story of Steve Jobs. Left Apple. Apple was a powerhouse. They begged to have him back 10 years later. I mean, it’s it’s hard to replace excellent people. I think Ben Johnson’s different. I mean, what a shock. Suddenly the Bears are as good as any team in the league running the football. They weren’t last year. And suddenly now the Lions are horrible on third down. How with that offensive line? How with Jir Gibbs, with a veteran quarterback? How? They’re good at tight end wide receiver. How? Because they lost Ben Johnson. That’s it. I I remember when Washington, you remember this, had Shawn McVey, Kyle Shanahan, and Matt Laflur in the building with Washington. and they were making the playoffs. Those guys left. I mean, it wasn’t until last year, for one year, that the regression stopped. Now they’re bad again. You just can’t replace McVey and Shanahan on a staff, arguably the two best coaches in the league after Andy Reid. And I I I’ll die on this hill. The greater the talent you lose, the wider the search has to be. You lose Jim Harbaugh, Michigan, you can’t go in-house. You You lose Ben Johnson, you can’t go in house. The bigger the shoes I have to fill, the more feet I need to see. And when I watch the Lions, it’s not Frank Ragnau. It’s not Omaron St. Brown is banged up. It’s not Jared Goff doesn’t have mobility. Didn’t have it the previous three years. They’re just not quite as clever and not quite as unique. Even among really good people, Jerry Jones said Dak is irreplaceable. Micah is great but replaceable. And and Micah is really good. He leaves. Dallas is now second in the NFL in pressures. It’s like we’re actually better without Micah because we got some draft picks and made some deals. So, but but I mean Miami still looking to find the next Marino. How many quarterbacks they had? 40. I mean, literally Denver to replace Elway had to go get an old Payton Manning. So, it’s just it it’s the Lions lost an all-time offensive coordinator, an all-time guy. And I love Dallas tonight. Nothing quite feels the same when I watch them. The players are great. It’s not injuries. They’ve been injury plagued previous years. It’s not the GM. He’s great. They just lost an all-timer who’s now with the Bears. So, um, I saw a story this morning and it said the Broncos are the second NFL team in history to win four straight games by three points or less. People are basically saying what Denver is doing is not sustainable. You can’t keep winning in the fourth quarter like Denver is doing. And I would say no, that’s absolutely sustainable. What’s not sustainable is when the Patriots went 10 years without winning a Super Bowl and those Randy Moss years when you’re scoring 50 and winning by three touchdowns. They didn’t win a Super Bowl that year. Every other Super Bowl Bell Bichc and Brady were in in New England. All but one were onepossession games. For the record, Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback ever in one possession games. 68% of games. 68% in one-score games. By the way, highest winning percentage went trailing in the fourth quarter the last two seasons. Andy Reid and Shawn Payeyton. So don’t tell me it’s Mahomes because you none of you like Bo Knicks. It’s the coach. Football has always been a game of inches. I go back to the New England dynasty. Winning close is totally sustainable. the New England dynasty. The two things that always jump out beyond Bellich and Brady are they never fumbled. Honest to God, I I was in New England at the time. They never fumbled and they were always way above average on special teams. They didn’t lead the league in sacks very often. They didn’t lead the league in touchdowns very often. When I look at Denver, it’s absolutely coaching and details. For instance, fewest sacks allowed. That’s coaching. How do I know that’s coaching? Because Caleb Williams last year was the most sacked quarterback. This year he’s one of the least sacks. They change coaches, right? So like it it is coaching and demanding, not pandering. Bo Nicks, not a big strong guy breaking tackles from defensive ends. He doesn’t get sacked. His dad was a coach. He takes to coaching Shawn Payeyton. They’re also great on third down defense. Why? That’s situational coaching. Red zone defense situational coaching. And so, um, when I look at New England’s dynasty, it was all about details. I don’t know how many times they led the NFL in total offense, I I would wager it wasn’t as many as you think. I don’t know how many times they led the league in touchdowns. Probably the Randy Mashi years. They didn’t win Super Bowls. So, I I’ve always thought like Andy Reid, Shawn Peyton. In fact, I looked this morning at the top five last two years, the top five winning percentages, winning as coaches in one score games. It’s all offensive coaches. No Mike Tomlin up there. It’s all offensive coaches. So, to me, this idea that what Denver’s doing is not sustainable. I love NBA teams and and and baseball teams and pro football teams that win close. I think it builds character. It builds unity. Winning by blowouts, that’s not sustainable. If you’re doing that in the NFL, you’re probably doing it because you have a really good rookie quarterback on a rookie deal and then when you have to eventually pay him and have to get rid of stars, you’re not winning by that. That’s not sustainable. You don’t see NFL teams going four years blowing people out. You rarely get a year like that. But winning close, Annie Reid, Shawn Payeyton, Tom Brady, totally sustainable to me. Being good on third down offensively, not getting sacked a lot. That’s coaching. That’s sustainable. Here’s Shawn Payeyton on the way Denver’s winning. I hate losing more than anything like in the world. And so I think fear of failure is a a very significant um motivating factor from a detail standpoint. And and you know there’s there’s nothing that’s too small that’s that’s not significant that has to exist outside the the lines as well. Yeah. I mean I I I think highly organized people don’t need wide margins, right? highly organized people don’t need wide margin margins. I can read about a a pro alete that can’t retire on hund00 million. And I’m like, well, I I know school teachers that have retired on one and live very comfortable, great lives. If you need a hund00 million to retire comfortably, uh you’re not great on the details. You’re not very efficient. There’s a quality of life at one or$2 million in retirement. Uh Jac, we both like the Dallas Cowboys tonight. Greg Kosell in one hour. I was just looking at your Broncos, Colin. So, not only do they struggle on the road uh this season, winning a bunch of close games, but they faced four backup quarterbacks this season. And guess who they got this week? The Raiders. And they are huge favorites in a dangerous game. Uh but you know, the last two years, who’s led the NFL in point differential? Lions, Ravens. How’ they do in the playoffs? They’re not they’re not ready for it. Denver and Chicago are like, “Yeah, we’ve been in close games.” Denver’s trailed every game this year at one point. So, the Lion the Ravens the last two years before this year, but last year and the year before, we saw this all the time. NFC teams that played Baltimore just got destroyed. It does you no value in the playoffs. Winning close to me, it builds a confidence in close games. I mean, if you go back to Michael Jordan’s great highlights, the first one you think about that Cleveland series, it’s a gamewinning shot cuz they trailed. Or the Utah shot, game-winning shot cuz they trailed. Michael Jordan’s highlights with the against the Knicks, you know, even Michael Jordan and the greatest team ever and the greatest player ever. Do you know how many like grueling sixgame series they were in? How many times they actually lost at home? You got to win close. And I think it builds stuff beyond just a W. The only thing is they’re they’re beating bad teams in close games. Those Michael Jordan, they were those were epic playoff games. This is like Davis Mills. Okay, this is the Raiders 10-7 at home. I will just caution you after this Raiders game this week. Packers, Jags, Chiefs, Chargers. That will be the true serum for the Broncos. They’ll probably go one and three or two and two down the stretch. What are you What are you laughing at? Come on. These are all playoff teams. I I have been hearing this now for weeks about the Chicago Bears. Oh, this game’s true serum. Yeah, they just went to Philly. That was a great win. And knocked the barn door over, you know, like guys, they keep winning like Denver. Well, this this one this next one I saw them play Kansas City and I was told, “Oh, this game against the Chiefs will be true.” Serum, they won that one. Not by me. I was on the Broncos that way. But by the way, do you have Broncos Super Bowl futures? Are you going to put down some some bucks? I don’t I don’t divulge all my Super Bowl future. But put your money where your mouth is, big guy. I pick Denver to win the division. I think their roster is great. I like Bo Knicks and Shawn Payeyton’s history is bumpy September. Better every month. Today’s show brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. Big news. Hard Rock Bet now live in Michigan. Michigan, congrats. Sign up today. Place your first $5 sports bet. 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Cowboys play at Tonight cover in the NFL for 24 years. He’s a friend. Matt Mosley is joining us and he’s joining us live. Good Days in Dallas. It is amazing between the George Pickins deal, the Quinnon Williams move, the Micah trade. Suddenly, the whole world owes Jerry Jones an apology. You cover him. I see you whenever there’s games and Jerry’s talking. I I see Matt Mosley, the intrepid journalist, covering him. Has Jerry Jerry’s on a streak? He is hot. Is he soaking in it right now? He very much is. And uh and usually when you see me, it’s this right. That’s what I’m kind of behind him. I like that’s my preferred state. Your producers, you know, want me to go ahead and take these off, so I do that to honor them. But uh yeah, Jerry is feeling great about things. And boy, he is now openly talking about the playoffs and it’s it’s been an amazing run for him. And I think this Quinnon Williams thing, you know, it’s amazing that Micah is having the kind of season he is. And if the Cowboys had continued down the path they were going, that would be the overriding story. Look at this guy blowing up. He’s incredible. And yet nobody in conversation around the Cowboys is saying anything about Micah because of the trades that Jerry has made. And I heard y’all talking about Mike Tomlin earlier and and whether he’s Hall of Fame worthy and all of that, but boy, Jerry put one on uh the Steelers is what it appears. And that’s now looking like one of the better trades of the past five years. Yeah. I mean, who knows what Pickkins will be able to do, but George, but Pickkins is like literally stepped in across from CD Lamb, one of the great receivers in the NFL. And Pickkins is, at least this season, clearly the best receiver on the team. And he’s rehabbed whatever image issues he had. And now that’s what Jerry has to do is find a way to resign this guy. Yeah. Hey, listen. Nobody thought Brian Chenheimer was a strong hire. How do you explain his success? because I’m on the group that thought you nobody else was after him. What do you think the secret sauce has been with Shottenheimer? Dak’s playing better than he’s ever played. No, each day he wakes up and he plays that one and done clip that you were saying uh just to motivate himself. Look at him striding out there. He, you know, he’s he’s way better with the media than Mike. that doesn’t totally matter if you’re not winning or losing. But boy, when they got on that streak and the Marshon Neland tragedy, the way he handled that, I I watched Jason Garrett handle a tragedy one time and that was one of Garrett’s finest moments. Yeah, this was an unbelievable moment for Shottenheimimer because it showed his leadership. Dak was a great leader, too, but Shottenheimimer kind of drove everything. He’s handled it beautifully. and watch out for a team that seems to be playing for something bigger than itself. Yeah. And I think some of that’s going on with these Dallas Cowboys right now in trying to honor their fallen teammates. You and I have both said Dak Prescott’s IQ, EQ, toughness, resilience, intangibles have always been A++ right out of Mississippi State. I always thought he had a average arm. Uh, you know, I loved all the leadership. I didn’t know how talented he was. I I think he’s having the best season I’ve ever seen. I There’s something I don’t know what it is. Me I don’t know what the stats say. What do you make of what we’re watching? I see a marriage between a new head coach we were just talking about and this player that has taken off and I feel like they feed off each other. He relates better to him and I think that was already the case even when McCarthy was still here. So, I think that’s playing a role and I just think he just feels and again, you have an incredible duo. I thought it was great that Pickkins took off when CD was out and Pickkins proved that he can kind of do it on his own. Um, I think Dak also, you know, when he has a relationship with a tight end that that with Ferguson, that’s been a beautiful thing. But I think he’s just I mean, the maturity is there. has always been there. But the play and how comfortable he is and also just the maturity of even when they get down now they can’t do that tonight. They need to they need to not get off to one of those poor starts but even when they were down to the Eagles even when they were down 21 nothing the the team responds to him. He rallies the team and he’s just in a he’s in a great place. And in December, by the way, 21 and eight with about a 97 QBR in his career. We think because the Cowboys are bad in the playoffs, right, that oh man, he’s not good at this time of year. He’s actually really good in December. And I hear people saying, boy, this is a playoff game tonight. Now, I don’t know if that’s good for the Cowboys. The Cowboys should play that part of it down. But the Cowboys have been in desperation mode going back three or four weeks now. And they seem to be performing really well in that mode. And if they win tonight, then we can have a serious discussion about the playoffs because it goes up there around oh like 41 to 45%. Um, according to all the uh all the simulations. Okay, I got a minute left. Texas Longhorns probably don’t make the playoff. Um, do you think they’ll alter their schedule and start calling up weaker teams or was that kind of a threat that Texas is big and they’ll keep scheduling big teams? Well, they got to play these things out and that’ll last through like 2027. They’ll honor those contracts, but you’re already seeing teams start to pull out of these games uh moving forward. So, I I think they will respond to that. You know, I would just say before we get too caught up in all of that, um, maybe don’t go to OT. I mean, they they had a kind of a miracle to come back and beat Mississippi State. Is that a good Mississippi State team? It’s not. Kentucky, they had they had to come back and they had to pull that one out in overtime. So, give them credit for pulling the games out, but I would say they played pretty poorly in about half their games this year. So, this is not a year some incredible Longhorn team is getting left on the sideline. I I I They’ve had some great wins. They’ve had some great wins and one of the And they do well in rivalry games. Give them that. I mean, they put down the the the great Aggies. Yeah. And and they and they had the other one against Oklahoma, but this is not one of the great Longhorn teams of all time. Love your honesty. Matt Mosley, Cowboy Insider. Listen to the Doomsday Podcast. All right, buddy. You can put the glasses back on. I certainly appreciate that. I know your future so bright. You got to wear those shades. Lions and the Cowboys tonight. I like Dallas. I like their direction. Offense is on fire. Playing with a ton of confidence. I I think one of the things when you look around the NFL right now is that the best quarterback doesn’t necessarily lead the division. The best coach often leads the division. Mike Vrabel is the best coach. Drake May is not as good as Josh Allen. He’s good. Mike Vrabel leads his division. Ben Johnson leads his division. Shawn McVey leads his division. Um I mean I I I and we’ve said before a quarterback is more valuable than coaching. That’s always been understood. But I think in Detroit, you have a situation where you lost a brilliant coordinator, Ben Johnson, who’s become a so far a brilliant head coach. And I think all the problems stem, it is nothing against the person that replaced him. Detroit still scores points, but not as many, and they’re not as powerful with many of the same players. So, they were great. In fact, defined Detroit was on third down and fourth down. Now they’re bad on third down with a lot of the same players. So, uh, Dan Campbell on what he’s seeing with the Cowboys right now. They’re hot right now. They’re playing really good football. They got a lot of confidence. Uh, they’re a rugged team, you know. Um, they are built off the O line D line, but they got explosiveness on the perimeter. Uh, and Dak’s playing at a high level, man. Um, so look, we know we got our hands full, but but we’re up to the challenge. The scary thing about Dallas is their two guards over the last several years. They’ve taken high draft picks with interior linemen. They’re both outstanding. So, they’re they’re interior O line, they’re they got a little problem at right tackle, but uh that Dallas O line, remember that that’s what carried Dak early in his career. Once again, Dak 10 years later, they this O line has a chance to be really something. They’re running the football now with conviction with that. Greg Kosell, 46 years, NFL films, always joins us on Thursday. What’s been more impressive to you about the Cowboys? The offense, Greg, or the defense? I would think the defense, Colin, because look, as you know what, the first five, six weeks, people are laughing at their defense. And now, you know, they made those trades. Obviously, they got Kenny Clark before the season, but the inseason trades they have made been really impressive. And there the trio of DTackles is as good a trio as any in the league. And as you probably noticed, three weeks ago, the rookie corner Revel from East Carolina started to play. And then this past week on Thanksgiving, he played pretty much every snap. And now what they’ve done, and I think you’ll continue to see this tonight, is now they’ve played Revel and um Bridges, who’s got a lot of length on the outside, and they’ve moved Bland to the slot where he’s better. Bland is not a very good outside corner. So now they moved him into the slot where he first really made his hay in the league and they’re much better on the back end. But with what they’ve done up front, the return of Overshown, the trading for Logan Wilson, suddenly this defense, well, while it’s not top five in the league, but it’s a good enough defense to win games. All right, so a game that’s a little under the radar, although Josh Allen games are never truly under the radar. Bills play the Bengals. And here’s Joe Burrow. And and my take is Cincinnati and Burrow are going to be the number one spoiler in the end. They may not make the playoffs, but what did you see with Burrow’s first start? Cuz that it the numbers tell me he was pretty good. Yeah, Burrow’s always been a guy, first of all, he’s so good pre- snap and then getting into the postnap operation phase. He’s just one of those guys. He’s like a computer chip. He just sees it. It’s innate. It’s in his DNA. And he’s always been a guy, now granted, he’s got good receivers, we understand that, but he’s always been a guy that understands the NFL that if it’s one-on-one, you’ve got to throw the football. And that if if that doesn’t work, that means you don’t need another quarterback. It means you need new receivers. But he’s got receivers, so he’s going to push it down the field. They’ll be one-on- ones against these Bills corners, and we’ll see how that plays out. On the other side, the Bills to me are one of the most fascinating studies on offense in this league. They’ve got the most physically gifted quarterback in the league. I don’t know the reason why they choose not to throw the ball. Maybe they don’t like their receivers, but with the most physically gifted quarterback in the league, they are not a passing team. They don’t throw the ball down the field. In fact, they don’t want to throw it a whole lot in terms of volume unless they’re forced to, but that’s not the way they choose to play. Uh, and I give Aaron Cromer, their O line coach, who’s been doing this, you probably know Aaron, he’s been doing this for 20 20 25 years. Absolutely one of the best in the league. Their run game is so good. It’s so multiple. It specific to the opponent. I mean, last week uh against the Steelers, Cook and Davis had 41 runs combined, Colin, they did not pull an offensive lineman one time. So, it was all zone. It was all zone based. Yet we’ve seen them have that run game where they have the counter run game with Haw and Gilliam the fullback and been successful through the year doing that. So they are very specific to the opponent in how they feel is the best way to attack. But this is a running football team and they only really rely on Josh Allen when they think they need to. Okay, another game. It’s basically the season for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Houston Texans. Let’s start with Houston. So, I prefer offensive coaches, but if you’re going to go defense, go young. Mike McD McDonald, De Mo Ryan. I remember before Demo got the job, people in the Niners organization were saying, “We’re never going to keep this guy. He’s just too smart. He’s too bright.” Well, so I watch Houston’s defense. It’s the best in the league. Is it schemes? Is it coaching? Cuz they make every quarterback struggle. It’s like they’re playing with an extra man. What is it about their defense? Is it just better personnel or coaching? It’s both because obviously if you look at their personnel, they’re really good at all three levels. And based on my film study, I would argue that Kalin Bullock is the best post safety in the league this season in his second year in the league out of USC. You’re probably very familiar with them being, you know, from USC. Really good football player, really good, long, smart, um, good athlete. Um, but obviously we know about Hunter and Anderson. They’re really good inside, too. No one talks about what they put out there on the inside at the DTackle position, but the one thing about De Mo Ryan’s is he’s very tactical. So, in specific situations, he will bring pressure and they’re very good with their concepts. Now, based on the rest of the league, they’re not a high percentage pressure defense, but they’re very schematic and tactical with what when they bring pressure, and they’re very, very good at it. and they stunt and they’ve got guys who can stunt really good athletes. So, this is a really difficult defense to play against. You and I are talking on a Thursday. I have no idea what the status is. We know Simmons, the left tackle, went on IR. I don’t know if Trey Smith, uh, the guard’s going to play. We don’t know if Joan Taylor’s going to play. So, imagine if you have all these backups on your offensive line and now you’ve got that defensive line that you’ve got to play against. By the way, what is the identity of the Chiefs offense today? What is it? I would say it’s Patrick Mahomes being special. And I’m not trying to be sarcastic. I think the more you watch and I watch I I think I’ve watched every Mahomes game in the league since he’s been in the league. It almost seems to me watching his tape Colin that more and more he’s become an improvisational stud as opposed to a pocket technician. Uh now that’s not to say he’s not capable of playing from the pocket. Of course he is. He’s extremely gifted. But it seems the more I watch, the more it’s become a case of him getting outside of play design, making incredible plays. That’s what he did last week when he almost brought them back to victory, you know, against the Cowboys. It seems there’s more and more of that. Um, now he’s so good at it that they can kind of survive. Although obviously they’re six and six this year. I think this is a game where he’s going to move around a lot, but I don’t think they have a true identity in the way I think you’re using the word Ravens Steelers. I mean, it kind of feels again, it kind of This is it for Pittsburgh. Is the Steelers offense broken? I’m not sure. Steelers and offense are two words that go together very much these days. They’re they’re a tough offense to watch. I mean, you talk about, you know, identity. I don’t know what they are other than the fact that they line up a lot with big people. They play with two tight ends. They play with three tight ends. I think they’d like to run the football, but that’s been very up and down. You don’t know from week to week if they’re going to have any kind of sustaining run game. Um I’m not sure what the pass game is. They really don’t work the middle of the field much at all, which is not a function of the quarterback. Aaron Rogers can obviously still throw the football. Um sometimes I feel watching their tape that their number one receivers becoming Darnell Washington at 311 pounds. Uh, so it’s it’s I’m not sure what they are on offense and I I don’t know if right now I feel like watching their tape that you can hang your hat on anything and say, “Hey, this is what they bring to the table every single week.” I want to talk about a team that um we’ve kind of forgotten about once they lost their tackles. But we’ve talked about the Chiefs so much. We’ve talked about Denver that quietly this defense with the Chargers, they’re eight and four. They’re at home. I I absolutely a live shot to beat Philadelphia. Um I don’t even know how they run the ball with this offensive line. I have no idea. It’s not good. But but it’s mostly been a defensive story with Jesse Mener. Yeah. Again, I’ll ask you the question I did with Houston. Is it coaching or scheme with the Chargers defense? It’s number two or three in the league right now. Yeah, it’s both. But I think one of the things that stands out when you watch their defense and and they have a lot of players people may not be aware of. They don’t know their names. They’re not household names, but they’ve got a lot of pieces that can line up in different positions and they’re very multi-positional, multi-dimensional. Look, we know about Derwin James. He’s the name everybody knows. Not a lot of people probably know about Tarhib still a corner who plays outside in their base, moves inside in their subdefenses and by the way is is very in the dime really because they play nickel all the time. It’s that big nickel with Duran James. So in their dime he plays inside and he’s a major part of their pressure packages. Uh Tui Palotu he’s a guy that plays both outside and inside. A really good player. I’m sure not a lot of people are aware of him. Diane Henley, really good linebacker, another guy that lines up in multiple positions within their different defensive structures. So, they have a lot of movable chess pieces within their defense. And Jesse Mter obviously is coaching really well because when you ask guys to have a lot of different responsibilities based on different personnel, that means you’re teaching really, really well. Yeah. I want to I want to talk about Jackson Dart for a second. So, I watch him juxtapose with Drake May. Drake May does everything well. Drake May was a little reckless his first year. Spent a lot of time in the blue tent. He doesn’t anymore. He cleaned it up. No, I watched Jackson dart and the Giants are so desperate at quarterback. They’ve been so bad for so many years. They’re just clinging to anything that work. They They cling to Tommy DeVito a couple years ago. I watch Jackson I watched Jackson dart and I think he’s a bit of a splash player. He’s memorable. He’s confident. I Is he a guy that can throw 42 times a game? What does the film say? Not the media, not the fan. What does the film say on Jackson Dart? Well, the first thing I want to say is we’re not going to define his whole career about what we’ve seen this year. So, I want people to understand that. So, right now, Jackson Dart is a quarterback that is not seeing things as clearly as you need to. And when you’re a quarterback that has mobility, Colin, and you don’t see things as clearly as you need to on a consistent basis, what do you do? You run. and that’s what he does and he’s very good at it but he can’t take the kind of hits we’re looking at now he spent almost every one of his games maybe with just one or two exceptions in the blue 10 and obviously he missed a couple of weeks due to being in the concussion protocol. So ideally, as he plays more, he starts to see things with more clarity, gets a better picture pre- snap. That translates to postnap. He becomes more of a postnap operator and therefore can drop in the pocket, see it, and throw the football because you can’t play like this on a consistent basis. He’s it’s just it’s not sustainable. And he’s not big, by the way. So, it’s not as if that he can, you know, the body is can handle all this. So, we’ll see how it plays out. But like I said, I’m not defining his whole career. He’s a rookie on a team that’s not very good. So, he’s it’s just how it’s playing out this year. Okay. Another young guy, Shadur Sanders. I can’t go through a segment. Second start. I I you know, again, what’s the film say on Shadur? Yeah, Shadur was not very good this week. And I think the way I always look at it when I watch young guys, I feel the same way about Cam Ward and and is they’re still playing a little bit at a college speed. You have to get back in the pocket. You’ve got to see it. You’ve got to deliver the football. This week, he didn’t see things the way he needed to. He left a lot of throws on the field by not turning it loose. When the design of the route concept was clean, it was there. If he had threw the ball this week when he should have, Jerry Judy would have had 175 receiving yards. And this is and that doesn’t even include that play which was actually a second reaction adjustment play that we just saw. But for the most part this week the processing just was was a little slow. Now again he needs more reps. This is not a a condemnation or a referendum on his entire career and what it’s going to be. Colin, he needs a lot of reps. He needs to play to the speed of the NFL game. And right now he’s not doing that. And there’s one thing that is very coachable that he had this issue in college and it flared up again this week. He has a tendency when he moves to hold the ball with one hand. You cannot do that in the NFL. That can be coached and cleaned up. Okay. The best game of the weekend, Bears Packers. So, let’s start with the Bears. Um, I love it. It’s so old school. Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson would run it 55 times. I mean, it’s is it now, first of all, when he got there, he went and got Drew Dolman and Joe Tuni and Jonah Jackson. So, it’s very clear what he wanted to do. Establish for a young quarterback a big time run game. Is it a beautiful thing to watch when you look at film? Well, this week it was beautiful. They ran outside zone as their predominant run against the Eagles. And the Eagles, they played it the wrong way and they know that you can’t play outside zone by playing laterally and just sliding down the line of scrimmage. There has to be some kind of vertical knockback. Now, you don’t want to shoot gaps, but there has to be some kind of vertical knockback, and the Eagles didn’t do that. You know, they’ve got the second best running game in the NFL, and a lot of people probably aren’t aware of that because all you want to talk about is Caleb Williams. That’s what most people want to talk about. Uh, but their run game’s been really solid. The Manung kid has been really good. He’s a physical, sustaining, hard runner. And when you compare him and combine him with Swift, you’ve got a really nice run game. And the O line is playing really, really well. And what he does really well, it’s almost the old Joe Gibbs philosophy, Colin, of using motion to change run support. Most people don’t think of motion as being a factor as in the run game, but Joe Gibbs did it, you know, years and years ago with with the Redskins where you use motion and it dictates run support and changes it in your favor. And that’s one thing that Ben Johnson has such a good feel for. Okay, I listen. I like Jordan Love. I had my questions out of Utah State, but I said if I didn’t say his name and I just said there’s a tall kid that’s athletic with a big arm, takes risks, and doesn’t throw a lot of picks, everybody would go, “Oh, that’s great. I think he’s really talented. I think sometimes there’s just it looks to me like a franchise quarterback. Good arm, moves, nice kid, coachable, uh, can add lib, can be on script or off. What is your favorite quality on film of the Packers young quarterback? I would say there’s a comfort with which he plays, which is not an X and O point, but there’s a comfort with which he plays. And I would say that what has really stood out this year and he’s gotten better at better at is ball placement because they are phenomenal on third down, Colin. They’re the best third down conversion offense in the league. And on third and seven plus, which for most teams is pretty much it’s time to punt, they convert more than 43% on third and seven plus. That is remarkable. It’s almost unheard of. But his ball location has gotten more consistent, more precise year after year. And you combine that with an aggressive mindset, which I believe is essential for a quarterback in this league. He’s an aggressive mindset thrower. And now that he’s more accurate, more precise with his ball location, he wins on third down. And but again, you know, we’ve talked about coaching on the defensive side, coaching on the offensive side. I think it’s a really good mix with Jordan Love and Matt Laflur. We know Matt Laflur likes to run the ball, but the other thing that stands out is they do some really good things in the red zone. You know, I’m not a believer in the red zone. I actually heard Ben Johnson talk about this. I’m not a believer in the red zone of just throwing it up and hoping your receiver catches the ball. I’m much more of a believer in schematics in the red zone and we saw that last week. Yeah, great stuff. Greg Kosell, 46 years NFL films. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Colin. Really appreciate it. Well, what’s interesting to me folks about Jordan Love and you see this a lot. So he had a really good year in college the year before he came out and then the year he came out it wasn’t as good a year because he lost coaches and a lot of people bailed on him and but you had to go back and look at the film uh from the previous year and it it does show that we all know this Bo Nicks is benefiting from Shawn Payeyton and Caleb Williams is benefiting from Ben Johnson. Well that works in college as well. you know, like the the when Sarkc was a college coordinator, but he was good enough to be a coach at Texas. Yeah. It was nice having Lane Keifin and Sarkc as coordinators when they’re both excellent head coaches. So, this coaching stuff matters. I the the everybody in Green Bay, I hope you understand, you do understand that Green Bay is a well-run operation, but I don’t get the critics of Jordan Love. I think he’s an incredibly special player. Arm movement, size, and and again, this matters. every time you put a mic in front of him says the right thing. I mean, again, he never blows up a locker room. There’s no passive aggressive. You can tell he cares about stuff beyond himself. It just again, that stuff matters for quarterback. I don’t care about other position. Every time you talk to Jordan Love said, and by the way, Caleb’s gotten very good at this. Caleb Williams, Chicago’s media is very aggressive. Jaylen Herz, hyperaggressive Philly media. Jaylen Herz brings the heat down. Caleb Williams, Jordan Love. It’s so much a part of this is keep the thing the thing. Don’t inflame situations. But yeah, Jordan is really special. Good kid. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline news. All right, let’s bust right into it. Shidure Sanders verse Cam Ward on Sunday. Feel the excitement, Colin. Two big names from the 2025 NFL draft. Ward went one. Shidor kind of tumbled down draft boards. Um Shador obviously said there’s no added motivation here, saying he just wants to win the game and play well. Your thoughts, Colin, on this hugely important matchup? Well, I think Cam Ward’s a much greater talent. I think Shadur Sanders is a more fascinating story. I think Cleveland at home’s going to win this football game. Uh I have strongly considered it for the Blazing Five inclusion. I got to get back in my winning ways. I think you’re you’re backing Shidur Sanders laying four and a half. My take is anything between four and five points. I generally like the favorites cuz Vegas doesn’t want to make anybody minus four or minus five. They want to make you minus three. And I think it tells you that Cleveland’s a much better football team. There are things Cleveland does every single week that they’re exceptional in. Tennessee doesn’t do anything consistently at an exceptional level. And I get the home team with the significantly better defense. I like Cleveland. Yeah. If you don’t if you play fantasy, you have to start the Browns defense this week. They probably could score 20 points on their own. I I just can’t, you know, fundamentally put my after tax dollars on the Browns with Shadur Sanders needing to cover a spread. I mean, come on. Like that. That’s a bridge too far for me. I will say Cleveland now is interesting to watch. I find myself tuning in the Cleveland game. You got to watch Miles Garrett. Is he going to set the record? He may do it this week. Honestly, he he may break the sack record this week. He might have another five bagger. Uh all right, let’s move on to Josh Allen. An actually good quarterback. Sorry, rookies. Um how about this wacky stat that our guys found? This is crazy. So he scored a rushing touchdown Sunday, his 76th. It’s now he’s now the number one rushing touchdowns for quarterbacks. But here’s what’s crazy. He scored more rushing touchdowns than a lot of Hall of Fame running backs. Allen’s total ranks 25th in NFL history among all players. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. I mean, so he our guy had a list here. Okay. Gail Sers or Josh Allen? Who do you think has more or Josh Allen? Gail Sers had a short career. Okay. Uh let’s go. OJ Simpson or Josh Allen? Uh I don’t know what ever happened to OJ, but I’d say uh Josh Allen. Thurman Thomas or Josh Allen. Now that’s closer. I would say Thurman Thomas. Josh Allen. Earl Campbell or Josh Allen. I mean, you could sense a theme here. Yeah. Yeah. No, I would say Josh Allen. Thurman Thomas. Was it close? It was close. Yeah. Thurman Thomas had 65 and Josh Allen at 76. But Thurman Thomas was integral in all those. Yeah. Great. I mean, it just goes to show Josh Allen is is the man. Um I I won’t ask the question. Sometimes they put questions here for me to ask. Colin, are the Bills wasting Josh Allen? They’re not wasting it, but he is now moving toward the middle of his prime. The early years of it are done. Now he’s in the middle of it and you’re getting to a point in three years. He could be like moving out of the prime. When you run and get hit, you get about eight years. He’s so good in the pocket though. No, I Yeah, but Cam and Big Ben got old really fast. I mean, Stafford’s age quick. Stafford now is healthier than it felt like than when he first got to LA. And I mean, I feel like Stafford’s getting great protection this year. Stafford all of a sudden is not getting hit. It’s funny. He’s releasing the ball quickly. Like, yeah, Cam Newton couldn’t win from the pocket like Josh Allen. No way. Now, Cam did take a bunch of hits, but he also had some off-field stuff that didn’t endear teams. I’ll just say this about Josh Allen, Colin. He can stay healthy unlike Lamar Jackson and unlike Joe Burrow. That I mean, like, I’m sorry. I know those guys are all going to be lumped together, but Mahomes and Allen don’t get hurt. I’ve said this about Caleb Williams and Bo Nicks. They don’t take a lot of sacks now, and they’re durable. And I mean, durability is a huge thing. Eli Manning, Brett Favre, Tom Brady. Durability is a huge thing. All right. Uh, final story, Colin. Marcus Freeman, one of the best coaches in college football. He’s a little upset that Alabama leapt ahead of the Irish in the latest college football playoff rankings. Um, Freeman said he disagreed. We have sound of Marcus Freeman a little ticked off about Alabama. Obviously, you’re disappointed, but but more so because a little bit of confusion. You’re confused um in terms of what we could have done differently, right? And why we fell when we won 49 to 20. I think we were up 40 42 to6 going into the fourth quarter. You you always look for cause and effect. You look for a reasoning why, you know, you go up or you fall. This is one of the problems, Colin. Bruce Feldman, I’m sure you read his column. I think he’s coming on the show later. Like, there’s no rhyme or reason to what they’re doing. It’s goofy. It’s embarrassing. Well, you know, the print media, certainly not talk radio, but print media has always had a soft spot for the little guy. I do not I would take Miami and Notre Dame and Texas and put them in. I I think when you get to the final 12 teams, nobody wins a national championship that doesn’t recruit at an elite level. So why are we trying to fool ourselves, including like the second best team here or the third? Like last year we had SMU in. Good program shouldn’t be in a playoff. But if we’re going to do this and kind of make exceptions so the little guy can play along, all right, that’s fine. But um we don’t have the 12 best teams in. We just don’t. What we should do, I think the better way to do it is do the 4422 thing they talked about, which is SEC gets four, Big 10 gets four, uh, Big 12 gets four, uh, uh, AC ACC gets two. I mean, I that way at least you take the committee out of it. I would have no problem doing the 552. Well, wait, well, hold on, hold on. 442 is goofy because the fifth best team in the Big 10 could be better than the fourth best team in the SEC, which would, you know, or vice versa. I I think you got to toss that out. I don’t understand why they can’t use logic and data and numbers which all show Notre Dame is a playoff team. Every every everything you want to look at strength of schedule, Sagarin, uh the the um some of these SP plus some of these advanced stats like I why can’t they just do that? Well, they did. We used to have computers do it. Nobody liked it. Well, that was only two teams, right? Well, I mean you went from the media to the computers and now it’s a committee. I mean, I don’t think any of those are necessary. I don’t think the NFL used computers. I don’t think the NFL uses an arbitrary computer. Well, that’s a pro league. Come on. Well, college football now has never been more pro. You have a free agency period. Coaches make 10 million plus. Yeah, there’s a salary cap. Come on. And no, no, no. In college basketball, there’s beef about who makes the NCA tournament. The problem is it’s team like 68, right? You know, nobody nobody cares. But when it’s like big brands, there’s a pro. Listen, if Notre Dame, Miami, and Alabama all happen to miss, that’s terrible for college football. You got to admit that. Oh, I I I again, I don’t have this soft spot for the little guy. I I’m not saying that Utah shouldn’t get in. I don’t consider them a little guy or or or like BYU. I don’t consider BYU with their huge NIL money to be a little guy. They’re a very solid program. And if they go undefeated or only have one close loss, I watched BYU play Texas Tech. It wasn’t competitive. That was to me that was their moment. And it was not comp couldn’t move the ball. All right. You’re not a playoff team and I don’t lose any sleep over that.

Colin Cowherd looks ahead to the Dallas Cowboys taking on the Detroit Lions in a huge game for both teams’ playoff hopes. He explains why the Lions offense hasn’t looked the same this year after losing Ben Johnson to the rival Chicago Bears. Next, Colin discusses why playing close games is actually a good thing for Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos. Then, Colin is joined by Matt Mosley to talk about how Dak Prescott and the Cowboys have become the surprise team in the NFL this season and are knocking on the door of the playoffs. Then, Colin is joined by Greg Cosell to break down film from the biggest names in the NFL including Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow, Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, and Bears QB Caleb Williams. Finally, Colin and Jason McIntyre react to the latest news in the NFL and college football.

0:00 Cowboy – Lions
4:02 Denver Broncos
12:30 Matt Mosley talks Cowboys
19:31 Greg Cosell interview
39:31 Herdline News

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