Refs Ruin The AFC Championship Game? (Hour 1)

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There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split.

I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. You can always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gill.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. If you want to learn more 20 from now, we will chat it up with Fox rules expert, former NFL official and Mike Pereira, and then at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific, we will talk with former Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets head coach, Inherm Edwards. But first up, producing the extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than hot take kicky.

I don't know about that hot take kicky. So if you weren't an Eagles fan yesterday, you had a disappointing and not exciting NFC championship game. Now, if you're an Eagles fan, that's the best win that you could get because for the most part, everyone was healthy for pretty much I thought earlier.

But you could say for the entire fourth quarter, that game was over. So you got to start your partying festivities before the final whistle did blow, and it was a pretty much stress-free Sunday in that game between the Eagles and the 49ers. The second game between the Bengals and the Chiefs, as yes, Mahomes was great, the Chiefs find a way to go to another Super Bowl, but the real story from the weekend, and I hate when this is the case. Because you usually want to talk about the games like Brock Purdy getting hurt, Josh Johnson then having to leave the game with a concussion, the rise of Jalen Hurts, the domination of Hassan Reddick, what the Bengals didn't do, Mahomes getting to a Super Bowl on one ankle.

Those are the things, even though you never want to see injuries happen, but those are the storylines that you want to talk about in terms of things that happened on the field. But something that happens on the field, even though you get away from the Bengals and the Chiefs are the other people that are in uniform, and they were wearing the zebras, right, the zebra stripes yesterday, and that's the officials. And that's probably, not probably, that is the biggest takeaway from Conference Championship Weekend is that the officials were absolutely pathetic. And I'm not someone that usually harps on the official, you know, that usually says, oh, you know, this little play happened, this ticky tack thing, because I am cognizant of the fact that A, the game moves at 1000 miles per hour.

And B, you're not going to be able to be perfect because there is a human element to it. But yesterday, if you are someone, and I can't stand this crowd that goes, oh, the NFL is rigged, and oh, the NFL wanted the Chiefs to win, and oh, this happens and that happens, and this is the NFL interfering, I can't really disagree with you yesterday. Not that I think the NFL is rigged, but when you're watching that game unfold yesterday, it's like, oh, how many things are going to go against the Cincinnati Bengals and like things that were just so clearly situations and penalties that shouldn't have been called? So I really can't, usually I have a retort for all you knuckleheads that believe that stuff, that the NFL is rigged, but yesterday, I can't sit here and tell you that if that's your argument, that you're crazy for it. Now, I'm not saying I believe that happened and that the NFL has an influence over it. You know, I still do have a brain, but it was really inexcusable how bad the officiating was and how one-sided the officiating was. Now, if you want to go through each call individually, you could say the majority of the calls that were made, even if they were horrible, just putrid, pathetic calls, they didn't really impact the game all that much.

Like, let's first start off with the biggest one. And I don't really think there is much of a gripe with this one, the Joseph Osai late hit. It was a late hit. It was out of bounds. You can't do that. Now, is that the way that I want to see what was a really good game between the Bengals and the Chiefs end?

Absolutely not. But that's kind of the irony with how many problems I had with the officiating. It was a call that was made late.

That's going to be talked about that. I even though I don't love it, I understand the call and I can't say it was a bad call by the officials. So the officials gave you gave you many reasons to say, oh, that's a bad call. That's a bad job by the officials. That last one, I can't get on the officials. But whatever happened on that third and nine. That was just a joke because the Bengals get off the field. Then several like almost like a minute later, you're like, oh, the play was actually blown dead before it was snapped. You didn't see the official on the replay.

You have people that are well respected going back, watching a DVR. And then out of the right corner of your screen, an official runs in late and he's waving his hand because there was a clock issue. That the clock started when it wasn't supposed to.

So even though you look at that plan, you're like, oh, the NFL is rigged. It didn't really impact the game because a few plays later, even after the Chiefs got gifted an extra down and they ended up converting, they ended up punting. I did not like the Mike Hilton call, the pass interference on Mike Hilton.

But once again. The Chiefs ended up punting. Now, I thought the three calls that I probably had the biggest problem with. And one, it didn't really impact the game.

The other two, if you want to say that it cost the game to Cincinnati, you may have a legitimate argument. The intentional grounding call on Joe Burrow, I know Burrow ended up bailing out the officials because he converted on the next play on, I think it was third and 16. But that intentional grounding, I don't know about you, Hickey. You have a running back in the area.

Yeah, I know he's still in the pocket, but you you have a running back right there. I don't understand how that is intentional grounding. We've both been watching football for a long time. Now, luckily, Burrow gets a conversion on the next play, but I've watched that probably like 10 times, 15 times by now. And I still don't understand how that was intentional grounding yourself. Yeah, that was I think of all the calls of the most egregious by far, just because I've never seen a flag thrown for intentional grounding when the receiver is actually on the screen. Usually they throw it and there's off screen and there's no one around.

It's pretty obvious. And you look and it's like he was four yards at max away from where the ball landed. I have no idea how that you could throw the flag there personally, like you go back to that Patriot giant second Super Bowl where they called intentional grounding on Brady. You could see that there was a receiver in the area, but the ball was clearly like sailed not even close to the wide receiver. In this case, this was a very short pass and I think it was a running back that was right there.

So like to me, when that happened, that's one of those moments where you go up. The NFL is rigged, right? That crowd that says the NFL is rigged, where I really have nothing to say to you. And usually I have always something to say to the people that say the NFL is rigged crowd. Now, the other two things, I know people are saying two blocking the backs on the return.

I definitely saw one that should have been called. Now, even though it did move you up field position, your defense got to make a stop. And your defense wasn't able to make a stop and you allowed Mahomes to and when you had chances to get off the field to keep on moving the football.

But I probably would say. And at first, when you brought this up to me, Hickey, I looked at it and I didn't see it. But once you slow it down and that's the tricky part, because these officials are looking at it in real time. They don't have the luxury of going on Twitter, blowing up the play and slowing it down. But at first, when I looked at the play, I'm like, OK, I didn't have a problem on the Mahomes run with the lineman that was blocking Trey Hendrickson. But then when I watched it again, it was a hold. Now, if that hold gets called, you would have had two penalties on the play because you had the late hit and then you would have the holding and it would have negated the play.

But that hold is something that if you're a Bengals fan, you got to be irate about. But once again, even if, let's just say, and it did not get called, your player, Joseph Osi, doesn't hit Mahomes out of bounds. I know they could have maybe ran one more play with eight seconds left.

You do a quick out, you gain five to eight more yards or something like that. But if your player doesn't hit the quarterback late. And I know no one wants to see a game end like that. You're looking at like a 60 something yard field goal. And if Harrison Booker drills a 60 yard field goal instead of like a 45 or 44, whatever it was, then you kind of just got to tip your cap to him and go, OK.

It wasn't meant to be our day. So I'm not giving the officials a pass because I thought the officials are really bad. I'm just not freaking out over every little thing that people were freaking out about, because even though the calls were embarrassing at times. I would say the majority of the calls with the way that the game did play out really didn't impact the game.

And the last one I think will be the one that's probably talked about the most. And when you look at the last one, I know you may think that's a soft call. I know you may not like the call. And once again, I don't want to see a game end on a late hit. But the hit was late.

And when you know that. It's a subjective kind of scenario and it's up to the officials. I can't crush the officials because when you watch it and he was and he was running Mahomes and he got hit like I was watching the press box of the NFC Championship game.

I stayed there afterwards and everyone's like, oh, here comes the flag. And it did take like probably two seconds after the play ended for the flag to be thrown because it was coming from way far behind. So I cannot crush the officials for that last call. It's just a shame when you had two great teams and the Chiefs and the Bengals and we were all looking forward to that game. And that was the game of the weekend, Mahomes against Burrow and all the smack talk that was that was going into this game that you walk away from that game, not talking about the brilliance of Mahomes or what the Bengals could have done differently when you watch that game.

And I'd be lying to you if I didn't say this. It was like enough with the flags already. You don't want the rest. Sometimes the rest, they got to call a lot because there's a lot of things going wrong. But there was a lot of times in that game where you were like, why are they doing this?

Why are they doing that? And as a viewer, that was extremely and I mean extremely frustrating. And I don't know about you, Hickey, when you see those two teams playing, you want the players to be the story.

People pay tickets, people turn into the game to see the players. And it felt like the rest, even though I don't know how much it really did impact the game. The rest were the storyline yesterday. It feels like the refs did overtake the game in terms of what are the things that people are talking about the most today. I guess that's the thing, the thing you said last year, because I'm not that irate is at the end of the day, the game was not decided by the referees. The game was decided because the Bengals player made a poor choice, the flag was warranted, and that was why the field goal was made. The Chiefs didn't win because they got a free touchdown because of a bad call. Now they got lucky, the referees did, that the Bengals made up for a few of their mistakes and it didn't come back to bite them. It was the intentional grounding, whether it was the replay on third down, then the flag afterwards.

I've never seen, by the way, something like that. You've seen plays be blown dead, but that was way too late. I mean, the special teams unit was on the field by that point, so at least it didn't impact the outcome of the game, which is why for me, yes, it's frustrating with a few missed calls, but at the end of the day, I can't be that irate because the game was actually not impacted. So pretty much every media member that covered that game, the NFC Championship game, they stayed for the AFC Championship game in the press box. Whether they were finishing their stories, whether they were posting videos, or they just wanted to be like me and they wanted to watch the NFC title game or the AFC title game without having to get in your car, drive home and miss some of it.

So let's just say at that point, there was roughly maybe like 60, 65 media members in the press box. No one knew what the heck was going on. And it wasn't until much later where I saw a clip on Twitter where you had an official in like the upper right corner of your screen, you see him waving his hand saying that the play was blown dead, but it took forever. And I can't kill CBS for it because when they showed the replay at first, you couldn't even see the guy, but it took forever to actually show and actually know that that official came running in. So I guess if one official calls the play dead, maybe one player hears it right, they were saying, so maybe that player isn't going 110% and they think the play is over, but it did appear like that came out of nowhere, Ryan.

Nowhere. Yeah. Like I said, I've never seen it that delay again. It was horrible. The down marker was at four, especially the chief punters on the field.

So there are, they got to stop. And then all of a sudden it's, Oh, actually we inadvertently started the game clock. And I just thought, okay, you're going to maybe wait like three or four seconds and then just kind of get the game clock set and then we'll go.

No, no, no, no, no replay the down. It's like, geez. Wow.

That's that's bad. Eight five five two one two four CBS. Let me quickly take some calls right out of the gate. Let's go to David and Buffalo listening on Sirius XM.

David, go ahead. Hey Zach, appreciate you taking my call tonight, man. Couple of things about the game from yesterday. First off, there's no doubt the officiating was not good, but you know, I got to look at the defensive line of Kansas city. I mean, they were relentless all night against, uh, you know, that offensive line and all the backgrounds that were in there, major credit to them.

And as great as my homes was. To me, their defense really made borough look, you know, pretty ordinary at times. And I think that was a difference in the game. Um, the other game to me completely dominated up front by the Eagles offensive line. I was really impressed with the adjustments they made against, you know, Jamaica Ryan's, uh, who, you know, is probably going to be a head coach here very soon against his group. You know, I thought the Eagles offensive coaching staff really had a great day yesterday at a great game plan with the RPOs and all the running that they did. And they really made San Francisco's defense look, you know, almost unprepared in some spots. So interested in your thoughts, man, I think it's going to be a great Superbowl in a couple of weeks and looking forward to talking to you about it next week.

Yeah, I appreciate the phone call, David. I said this on Friday and I'll say it again today. The Eagles offensive line is better than the 49ers offensive line and the Eagles pass rush is better than the 49ers pass rush. I know the 49ers have Nick Bosa, but the Eagles have a son Redick and the Eagles had the most sacks in the league and it wasn't even close. They have a more diverse pass rush and I thought that Eagles offensive line did a wonderful job yesterday because you didn't hear a peep from Nick Bosa, but it's a great point by David. I know everyone's going to talk Mahomes because that's what we do.

We talk quarterbacks, talk about sexy. I thought the most dominant player in the game yesterday was Chris Jones for, for Kansas City and he was a game wrecker. And you saw late when the Bengals had the ball and they're starting to drive and you think, okay, this is where you put the flag in the middle of the field and it's officially Burrowhead on that third down play. Chris Jones made the big sack to get off the field and then that forced Cincinnati to punt. Let's go to Anthony listening on 96.1 FM in Redding, California.

He's next up on CBS Sports Radio. Ant, what's happening? What's going on, Zach? Coach Cavalli out here, man.

Hey, I wanted to talk about a couple things. The first one is the intentional grounding. From a defense perspective, if the running back is not releasing on a screen, the offensive linemen are engaged in pass protection and the running back takes his route downfield. As a defensive guy, if the quarterback throws the ball into the ground, I want to see that called. That right there is behind the line of scrimmage. He's not throwing it down the field. He's not throwing it at his linemen, at their waist as a chance for the ball to get tipped. He's literally throwing the ball into the ground behind the line of scrimmage.

Secondly, we have to remember that these refs are not perfect. I see quarterbacks make bad reads. I see receivers that draw passes in the crunch time game.

I see all things like that happen. The greatest basketball players are going to miss more game winning shots than they're going to make. Those guys make 40 million. These quarterbacks make 45 million and they make mistakes. These refs are not being paid 40 million.

Yeah, but Anthony, I'm up against it and I appreciate the phone call. There were too many mistakes yesterday. Yeah, and I know that most of it played out the way that it should have in terms of the bad officiating didn't find a way to really impact the game even though it felt like it. Because like we said, that third and nine situation, whatever happened there, the Chiefs ended up punting and the intentional grounding, which you had p-rind in the area. That should not be called.

I know Burrow completes the next pass on third and 16 to get a first down. The no block in the back call, not great. And the last play where Mahomes gets out of bounds, I did not have a problem with the call. So the officiating did dominate the story, but how much did it impact the game?

That's up for everyone else to determine. And I felt like Kansas City was the better team and they ended up winning. And I didn't think Kansas City was the better team going in, but it did feel like they played the better game coming up. You know, when you look back at yesterday, they ended up winning the contest.

All right. We'll take a time out when we return. We'll get into the Eagles domination from yesterday. More your phone calls on the officiating eight five five two one two for CBS. This is that Gelb show on CBS Sports. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man.

I was twenty five when I actually got my tongue split. I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. I was twenty five when I actually got my tongue split.

I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio.

You could think O'Reilly Auto Parts or your car care needs guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Let's delve into the NFC title game. We opened up right out of the gate with the AFC title game talking about the officiating the great play by Chris Jones and just the just magical performance by Patrick Mahomes playing pretty much on one ankle and even re tweaking and like kind of like hurting his ankle again as that game was playing out yesterday between the Chiefs and the Bengals.

But the Eagles up against the 49ers. It was a complete ass kicking. And I know the Niner fans going to say and you hear Brock Purdy suffered a torn UCL and a struggling elbow.

He's going to be out for six months. Oh, they would have had Brock Purdy. Maybe the game would have been different even if you had Brock Purdy. And I know he came back in the game, but he went through one pass and couldn't throw the ball more than 10 yards. And you know why the 49ers weren't being the Eagles yesterday and early on. I said this while it happened with what happened the week before where the Eagles did not win the toss.

The Giants elected to get the ball in the second half in that building. We talked about it all week long for this 49ers Eagles game. You had to play from in front for the Niners.

And if you got behind, that's when Brock Purdy was going to get exposed. I thought when the Eagles lost the toss and then the Niners elected to take the ball in the second half and kick off first. I thought that was just a bad job, a bad job by Kyle Shanahan and the Eagles 11 plays, 66 yards.

They marched right down the field. I know that you could get on the officials or why the New York replay did not expedite the review on the fourth and three. Where Devante Smith makes that catch. It wasn't until you saw the second angle where you saw that the ball was at. At first I thought Devante Smith just made one of those ridiculous catches. But where I put this on Shanahan is Devante Smith gets up and he is putting his hands together and making it known to his team. Let's go get to the line, get to the line, get to the line while making two fists. Hurry up, hurry up.

And that should have been an indication. You see Devante Smith frantically telling his guys get to the line, get to the line, get to the line. Like run down the field. Shanahan in the first half. I know you don't want to use one of your challenges early. But the time out even if you lose it doesn't really matter. You got to throw that challenge flag.

He didn't. They ended up scoring a touchdown. And then you had Hassan Redick just forcing that fumble on Brock Purdy that eventually did knock him out of the game for a little bit. And even when it got to 7-7 and the building in Philly got a little bit nervous at 7-7. The moment when the Eagles answered right back to make it 14-7 I thought not that the game was over yet. But I really thought at that point if the Eagles just got like another field goal I couldn't see the Niners getting another touchdown and a field goal just to tie it.

But where I'll also get on Shanahan too before we praise the Eagles. When you have Josh Johnson in that quarterback and right before the end of the half I know you got to expect him to snap the ball and not drop it. But I thought even on the play before I was surprised. I know it went for 11 yards that they threw it. While that was happening I know the drive was only two plays. I just thought the Niners were going to hand it off to McCaffrey. And I think the Eagles at that point only had two timeouts and just go into halftime.

And it'd be 14-7. The next thing you know Johnson fumbles the ball off the snap. He just dropped back the pass and he just dropped it.

It was recovered by Hassan Redick who had a wonderful game. And then a few plays later, I think it was three to be exact, the Eagles put the ball in the end zone. And when it went to halftime, heck he had 20-7. Even without knowing what was going to happen with the quarterbacks and all that.

Good night the game was over. I did not think Shanahan had a good game. But I do not want that to take away how tough it is when in the first place you are playing with the third string quarterback.

Then your third string quarterback gets knocked out and your fourth string quarterback comes in and you knew it was a recipe for disaster. But I really didn't think, and this is why I love the Eagles all week, even if Brock Purdy was healthy I didn't think it was going to be good enough to win. Because those teams are so evenly matched and the Eagles and the 49ers, they're pretty close. But the Eagles are better. They're better on the offensive line. They're better on the defensive line. If you want to say you'd rather have Debo and McCaffrey compared to like A.J. Brown, Devante, Smith, Miles Sanders.

Okay. If you want to tell me that wide receivers are running back, that the 49ers have slight edge, sure. But it's not by much. And this Eagles defense, everyone talked about the Niners defense going into it. The Eagles defense has been wonderful.

They lead the league in sacks and the second team is Kansas City and it's like by 15 sacks Philadelphia does. And Asan Redick continues to be the most underrated player in the NFL. And this is not just me saying this because I went to school with the guy and you know I knew of Asan Redick back in like 2013.

And you know, he's, you know, we're friendly. This is not just me just saying this because I like him. But you look at the year he's having, including the playoffs, he has 19 and a half sacks. And he found a way to be one of the big stories up against the Giants and he was the best player on the field yesterday. And how this guy's not a finalist for defensive player of the year, it's mind boggling.

But he is an absolute game wrecker and the last three years, he's had 10 plus sacks on three different teams. And now he's back home in Philadelphia. The guy was originally a walk-on at Temple University.

He grew up in Camden, New Jersey, about 10, 15 miles from Lincoln Financial Field. And now he's off to the Super Bowl with his hometown team and the Philadelphia Eagles. So yesterday, the better team won. Now, I thought the Eagles going to win by 8. They ended up putting 31 to 7. It's unfortunate the quarterback got knocked out of the game. But even if Brock Purdy was healthy, I don't think it would have made much of a difference. Because that Eagles defense was going to have them under duress all game long.

Hickey, your thoughts on Eagles and 49ers? I mean, it's tough for me to get in Kyle Shanahan in any aspect just because you're playing the fourth string guy. Like, I just don't know what he's supposed to do at that point. Let me ask you this. Why, when it's 14 to 7, you're down 7 before the half? You're down by 7. Don't you just try to get into halftime and be down by 7? You're getting the ball. No, the Eagles were. Oh, no, sorry. The Eagles got the ball first because Shanahan, like a moron, gave the ball to the Eagles first.

Oh, I hated it. I think the first play determines if you're aggressive or not. You got the first down. I think you go for it. But you're trusting Josh Johnson.

Well, you got to trust him anyway. Like, when are you going to throw the ball? In the second half. You have to win the game. As the great heart member would say when he joins an hour and a half, you play to win the game. But you got to survive.

If you're going to play conservative, you're not going to win. But you got to survive. I mean, you can't be the Eagles' way to play. You could have been in halftime, in survival mode, still in the game, down by 7. Instead, you're down by 14. When you have a fourth string quarterback, there's no chance you're coming back down by 14. With that attitude, there's no chance you're coming back by 7. So why not just go for it?

I don't see winners there. Because you got the ball first coming out of half. I know they ended up punting. You got plenty of time, though.

So what? But if you go down the field and you go get a touchdown, then it's a 14-14 game. I was expecting... Right, then you go into halftime and you get the ball.

And you could ask John Kincaid who I sit next to. I know it's only two plays, but I said, this is stupid, stupid, stupid by Shanahan. A mistake's going to happen, and then a mistake happens.

I was second-guessing it. And you dropped the ball. It's like you can exact a game plan. It's like the Eagles baited him into a throw that he didn't see. You got to just drop the ball.

Exactly. That's even more of a reason I couldn't do it. I couldn't even handle the snap.

Get a little over a minute left. I'm sorry. That's ridiculous. It's not ridiculous.

It's not ridiculous. If you're going to call Shanahan for going forward and being aggressive to try to score before the half with plenty of time left. It wasn't like there was 30 seconds left and it's like, oh, let's just see what we could do. He's a fourth-stream quarterback.

No one even knew the guy was on the roster. So then what are you supposed to do? Just like take a knee the whole game and hand it off?

No, that's not what I'm saying. You got to play it safe and you got to keep yourself in the game and you got to get to halftime down by seven. You knew a mistake was going to happen. That Eagles defense is unbelievable. I know that necessarily the defense wasn't the reason why you had a fumble there.

But the odds of you even getting into field goal range weren't going to be that good. I mean, it's not like he looked shaky for the most part. He led him to a touchdown drive. So it's not like Josh Johnson was... Because McCaffrey ran through a defense from 30 yards out. It's not like he was shaky or it's like, ah, he doesn't look very good. Get to halftime. Like Josh Johnson, outside of when he came in, looked decently comfortable. So again, I don't see how it's that egregious for just wanting to go for a score and get, you know, you're talking about 14-10 going to halftime. You get some momentum with a fourth-stream quarterback.

That does wonders for you coming out of the half whether you play scared. There was no way they were going down the field there. Not a shot. What are you going to say now, bud? Hold on.

Quiet for a second. Shannon had a wonderful season. A wonderful season. I'm not ripping him for having a wonderful season. But yesterday, I thought there was three things that were just absolutely brutal with what he did. Once again, when you find the way to give them the ball, the Eagles ran out of the gate.

Stupid. Learn what the Giants did last week. You can't let that building get bumping with the Eagles crowd and have Purdy play from behind. I know Purdy ended up getting knocked out of the game. How he doesn't challenge a Devonta Smith play when Smith is telling everyone, get to the line, get to the line, get to the line.

Hello, why is he saying that? Because you know he didn't catch the ball. And then before the half, he was playing with fire and he got burned by it in the most easiest way possible because your quarterback couldn't handle the ball. So yesterday, once again, Shanahan, great season. The fact that they got this far, even though the roster is incredible, with a third-stream quarterback, it's wonderful.

But I thought I could get on him yesterday for those three things because to me it was some inexcusable coaching. We'll be up here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a break. When we come on back, we'll talk more Kyle Shanahan. We'll talk more future of the 49ers. Now Brock Purdy's out for six months, be back in August, September, depending on how quickly it takes him to recover. The 49ers are going to do a quarterback next year. We'll be right back.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch.

He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split.

I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show.

I don't know about you, but I thought it was hysterical. We're in the aftermath of the Eagles punching their ticket to the Super Bowl and winning the NFC. We find out that Kellen Moore, when it was pretty much clear last week with the way that McCarthy addressed reporters, that he wasn't coming back and he was pretty much noncommittal about the future of Kellen Moore. Wasn't the biggest ringing endorsement that he gave to Kellen Moore. And I know Moore interviewed for head coaching job.

It was Carolina, I'm pretty sure. And he didn't get it with Frank Reich getting the Carolina Panthers job. But I thought it was just so cowboy like that that story gets out that Moore is officially not coming back. And then today we find out he's getting the OC job with the with the Los Angeles Chargers. Yesterday that could not be more cowboy like where the day has nothing to do with you.

There's really no reason to insert yourself into the story. And you had to wait for that information to get out Sunday right after the Eagles punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. Very Jerry Jones, always getting the Cowboys in the mix on championship weekend.

If they can't be there, well, hell, we'll still talk about him then in some way. Remember when it was a wild card weekend, it was the Eagles in this. Was it the Eagles in the Seahawks? Yeah, it was the Eagles in the Seahawks. It was the game that Genevion Clowney knocked out Carson Wentz with that bad hit. And that was during that game where they released.

And I thought that was a little bit more direct than yesterday. But that's when they gave the news out that Jason Garrett was not coming back as the head coach. So the Cowboys don't have much playoff success. So when they're not in those games, let's just make the story somehow about the Cowboys.

And I don't know about you, I have said this for a while. And even going back to last year's just snafu where they could not get the ball off. I think Kellen Moore is overrated. I don't see all the hype, all the love and the support that Kellen Moore gets. I know he's still extremely very young in this league to still even be a head coach.

And there's room to improve. But I have not been blown away with his offense the last two years with the Dallas Cowboys. And I know some of that you can put it on the shoulders of Dak Prescott, totally get that. But I have not been that impressed with Kellen Moore. And it's pretty much fitting that he goes to Los Angeles where Staley I think is like too smart for his own good. And I feel the same way about Kellen Moore. Like Kellen Moore and Brandon Staley kind of deserve each other.

And if he can do what he did in 2021 with that offense, I mean look out, L.A. will not have a problem scoring, that's for sure. And they were first overall last year. And still solid with Dak making 5 games.

They could not snap a ball though in the final 13 seconds of a playoff game. Oh I agree. I don't know if I would say that. I would probably put that on Mike McCarthy to be honest and Kellen Moore.

Why? Execution. That's on the head coach. Okay, but Kellen Moore was the one that was getting in the play call then. He was calling the play. And Mike McCarthy is the one that practiced it, right? I mean he's the one who basically said this is what we do every single Friday. And then you're practicing it incorrectly, which sure it could be on the OC, but also the head coach. Now the play is also a stupid to begin with last year. That's also true.

And as a head coach, you'd think Mike McCarthy would have the ability to override that if he really thought it was that bad of a play call. And say we're not doing that here. Everyone's on board with it.

Put it this way. If the Chargers succeed next year, I think it will be in spite of Brandon Staley and Kellen Moore. I think it's just because that team has so much talent and Justin Herbert is that good of a quarterback. I think, I'm not saying Kellen Moore is horrible.

I just think he is extremely overrated. We've heard about this guy maybe becoming a head coach the last three years. And I'm never that blown away with what he does just in the role of an offensive coordinator. I just have never been that impressed with the way that he has operated the offense, even though everyone like raves about him as if he's the greatest offensive coordinator in the NFL.

I want to ask you, though, also with McCarthy, and then we'll we'll get back into the 49ers conversation from yesterday. All these staff changes are happening. I guess six or seven guys now.

I think it's up to somewhere there. Seven. Why not just get rid of the head coach? Like, because your argument to keep McCarthy right, if you're Jerry Jones, well, he had two really good regular seasons.

You won double digit games in both of those years. If that's the case, why you're bringing him back. I'm not saying that you've got to bring everyone on your staff back. But when you have seven changes on the staff, that's a lot of changes.

And I get you got to tweak some things and you got to fine tune some things. But when you have seven changes, that suggests that your team really did underperform. And in the regular season, the Cowboys have done a really damn good job or at times we talk about them as a Super Bowl contender.

But come playoff time, whether it was last year against the Niners or this year in a game up against the 49ers, that was winnable. Their offense, they let him down. They let him down. So if McCarthy's being brought back, I would not have thought, Hickey, he would have to make seven changes on his offense to staff. It almost shows that they don't really trust the staff. And if you don't trust the staff, then why is McCarthy coming back? Right.

At this point, what do we do? Like, OK, you got Dan Quinn back outside of that. Basically, anyone that's important is being replaced in some capacity. Now, I'd rather McCarthy is the head coach than Dan Quinn. Like, I don't think if that's the Cowboys grand plan is to one day make Dan Quinn the head coach. I don't even think they would upgrade from McCarthy. I don't think Dan Quinn did a nice job at the Falcons. But I don't think he's this wonderful head coach where I got to get rid of Mike McCarthy for him.

So it's like, where do you go from here? And Sean Payton's available. I don't know if he'd be interested, but if you're Jerry and you're making this many changes, don't you got to do whatever it takes and throw the kitchen sink at Sean? That's the thing. It's like, well, like at this point, if you're going to basically cut, you know, again, a third of the staff and change it over like. And a lot of those are Mike McCarthy obviously pick guys and then just then just reboot the whole thing. Like you like you're all in your all.

You want to change off its corner because you fireman. He's not very good. OK, fine. We've seen that happen all the time.

Yeah. Seven coaches is basically like that. And you're you're gutting what Mike McCarthy brought in. And now you're basically going to either handpick. Jerry Jones is going to handpick those replacements, which is now going to be a non Mike McCarthy staff or the guys that Mike, Mike McCarthy hired three years ago.

You didn't like. But now you're going to trust and hire new guys to replace those guys. And just the math doesn't make sense. I'm with you at this point. If you're going to make all these moves, just make the one big swooping move.

Either make Dan Quinn if you're Jerry Jones head coach, which he loves. I would probably agree with it. Is it that much? Maybe slightly.

But is it that much? You know, big difference? Probably not. McCarthy won a Super Bowl. He did. He did.

Dan Quinn got one more recently. But either way, it's like either do what you want to do if Jerry Jones wants to make Dan Quinn head coach or let Mike McCarthy just keep his staff and roll and run it back and then just make all one big swooping change. And if you want to make two or three changes, I get that.

But when you make seven, it's clear the owner saying this is not working. OK, let's get to the Niners was one more thing from yesterday. So isn't it funny how this works where we go into the weekend and I think I was like probably the first person. Like the moment when that McCaffrey trade happened, I said, oh, Brady's going to wind up in San Francisco next year. And then as the season plays out, it's like, oh, look at Brock Purdy.

He's been magnificent. And what they were asking him to do and Matt Mayoku covers the 49ers on a daily basis, joins us on Friday. And he goes, I'd be shocked at this point, regardless of what happens on Sunday, if Brock Purdy isn't starting quarterback next year. Like we know we never account for injury, but then an injury occurs and you find out that Purdy is going to be out for six months. And that lines him up if there's no setbacks to come back in like August. So basically, he's going to miss all the training camp and have like the preseason and who knows what Trey Lance does. But now I think the 49ers question quarterback situation is a major question mark. We're heading into Sunday.

Look, it was me, Brock Purdy. Now what happens if Trey Lance has a monster offseason, right? They're going to be looking for reasons to give the job back to Trey Lance because they traded all those draft picks to go get him.

But here's the question I have. Does this open back up the window for Tom Brady? I think it does, because another year of the team goes really far in the playoffs but comes up short. And, you know, Brady wants to go there. But once again, will the 49ers be receptive to it? I think it opens back up the door for the conversation.

I just don't know if the 49ers will do it because remember, two, three years ago, they lose in the Super Bowl. They were open about this. They talked about this for a day or two. And they look to the state with Jimmy G. So I still wonder what Brock Purdy did and what they still may or may not think of Trey Lance is enough for them to say, OK, we're not going to go to Brady for another year or two, however much longer Brady wants to play. And you said without setbacks, which is no guarantee. There's no even guarantee that the 6-1 timeline is actually the one that's had, where for your second opinion needs Tommy John surgery.

And who knows at that point. So it's like we're talking about best case back in August and can even be ready to actually step in and compete for a job. I think Tom Brady's back in the mix. And the one thing I guess we could not foresee happen has happened. And now it's back open as a competition again.

Yeah. And it took me a while to say, OK, Brock Purdy was going to be the starter next year. And I finally saying, of course, then the injury does occur, which it just stinks. Even though I thought the Eagles are going to win either way and they were going to win by at least a touchdown either way. And I picked him to win by eight with Brock Purdy.

It was unfortunate to see that the way that that story ends for this season. But I don't think it mattered who the quarterback was yesterday with the way that Eagles defense was playing. And I know that their offense even play their best game, Philadelphia.

It did not matter if Brock Purdy was healthy or not, because the Eagles are going to find the way to win that game. Zach Gelb, CBS Sports Radio here with you on the Zach Gelb show. Take a break. Come on back. I'll teach you the biggest stories of the world of sports with some audio.

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