All right, so a busy Wednesday. Great to be here. Bruce Arians is so awesome. How about when he lit the analytics dorks on fire? Pretty surprised that old school Bruce Arians thinks that they don't know bleep about football, and they should just line up the son of a bitch in front of you and knock him out.
So great!
So we start hour number two. Welcome back. I am Jim Rome, and the show is presented by FanDuel. And because it is presented by FanDuel, once a week we have a FanDuel segment. That FanDuel segment generally is on Thursday, but I'm not here tomorrow, so I'm going to make sure we get that FanDuel segment in right now.
Not only am I going to make sure that we get that FanDuel segment in right now, because I'm not here tomorrow, I need it right now because you can't see it, but me. The me you're actually seeing right now on the stream is not me. That's AI. The actual me is on the side of the road, bleeding out, dying. That's how bloody a week it's been for me over the past week.
It is time to die. I can't buy a dub, and I'm chasing, and I'm being irrational, and I'm making really bad decisions, and I'm showing absolutely zero discipline. This is why I'm going to go to the savant himself, the man with the giant head. Head is your ass at the airport yet, waiting on me to fly in to buy me that long overdue beer because you know I'm coming tomorrow. I do know you're coming tomorrow, but I'm gonna use an analogy.
You're on the side of the street right now, struggling gambling. I'd be at the bottom of a well, kinda, you know, struggling myself in the NFL game right now. We've already covered that well stuff, bro. I don't know if you heard the first hour of the show. I did.
I did. It made my day. It made my life knowing that happened. You know, make my day and my life if you showed up at the airport and you bought me one beer for all I've done for you, dude. I would do that.
It doesn't have to be a big beer. When am I getting in? What do you care? You are not going to be there. I I can make the trip, dude.
Maybe Saturday or something like that. I'll come up and have a beer. Saturday is a ball game where the Buffs are probably going to get absolutely wrecked, bro. Yeah, dude. I am looking at my California blood.
Looking at the temps, pretty chilly at night. Dude, it's freezing right now. It's why I got a sweatshirt on right now. It is cold right now. It's gonna be better by Saturday.
Yeah, it's it's like forty degrees outside, raining right now. Tomorrow's bad too. Raining? Yeah. Car wash is closed, man.
Because let me tell you something, DJ. DJ will be like, "Oh no, we're going, we're going," and we will sit in that frozen rain.
Well, you should be better by Saturday, so you should be good by eight o'clock on Saturday night. Cold nights during those games, man. Yes, you have cold nights. Oh boy. General's like we're not leaving.
I'm like, really? They're losing by four touchdowns. It's 35 degrees. We're done here. And General's like, we're not going anywhere.
It might happen too on Saturday. Fifteen and a half point home dogs. Is that what it is now? Yeah, fifteen and a half. Great, man.
Coach my prime, coach my prime. Beautiful job. All right, so we're we're dude. I don't know about you, man. I've had a bad week.
I know you have not had as bad a week as me because you show a lot more restraint and discipline than I do. It's been a tough week, yo. NFL got me, man. College, we did pretty good. College games, no, we didn't.
Your parlays crushed us. The parlays crushed us, but the games we did pretty good, and we bet more on the games, so we could live to see the next extra day. I can't lie. The problem is wrong across the board. Number one, I did a lot of action without you in the college games, so we we did not do well in the college games.
And number two, I your your point about well, we didn't hit the parlays as hard. I did. I did. I took big swings on your parlays. I was going to get rich overnight.
Didn't happen. And then we got worked in the NFL. Thank you, Dan Landing, for my parlays, dude. They were setting up beautifully. No, dude, you had, you had, okay.
So to be fair, I do a lot of stuff with you. I do a lot of stuff without you, but I let you do the parlays. Did you not have Oregon in all of the parlays, dude? I, I didn't think they'd cover, but I thought they would win that game without a doubt. And then I saw how bad Raiola is, or whatever his name is, and I'm like, oh my god, he was that day, man.
He was that day. He's freaking awful. You know. Chesney, you know I love Bob Chesney. He's my favorite guy, dude.
I took him. What what a speech from that guy, anyways? Oh, burn the boats, burn the boats, baby. That's not original thought, but man, he brought original energy to it. He dude, his energy is off the charts, and it worked.
We need that kind of energy for this weekend of gambling. There we go. We don't even need big panics energy. We need Bob Chesney energy. We need Bob Chet.
Burn the boats, baby. Let's push it in the middle. All right.
So where do you want to start? Where we start? Seattle, Denver. Let's start with a Thursday night football game here. Denver is the home dog.
Number is two and a half points. Point blank. Bo Nix has been below not good, and now he gets a. Do you know? Michael McDonald led defense, a D that can create pressure without blitzing.
Only Jordan Love has struggled to clean pressure more than Bo. They are tied with the Vikings for the highest pressure rate in football. Seattle is, but they are twentieth in blitz percentage. That is concerning if you are Denver. But being fair here.
Dick Hamer's grandson Sam Darnold has been worse than Bo this season. Three straight games with turnovers, two multiple. He hasn't had a QBR of over fifty in one game, and he's had two. Under 33, only your old neighbor Justin Herbert has had a worse QBR on the season than Sam Darnold, and he and his offense overall have been a problem for the Do you know Michael McDonald defense? 44 points they've given up off turnovers because of Darnold's offense.
Now, can the Denver defense create turnovers at home? They normally do, and with that toothless Seattle rushing attack, chances are high, but. ATS numbers, Jim. Seattle has covered seven straight after facing the 49ers. That's in play.
They've covered eight straight on the road after a home game. I've got to go with the Seahawks minus two and a half. It's under three. Wow, dude, the dog on the road against the alleged Super Bowl threat, and Sam has been turning it over. Like we talked about yesterday, I think Sam misses Clint.
I think Sam misses Kenneth Walker. Yeah, but wow, Matt's tough game. You know what though? Yeah, I'm going with that D. I'm going with that D because you know why?
I know Sertan. I I know him. What about Sertan? That guy probably not playing tomorrow night.
Well, I know Certane's not playing because Certane doesn't exist. But Patrick Certane, all right. Do you know Michael McDonald? I know their defense. I'll take that.
I'll hit that minus two and a half.
Okay, but it's going to make me nervous. But I'll do it. What's next?
Okay, Colts v. Titans. Number is Colts minus six and a half. Why are you playing that game, bro? You must be awfully certain.
Can you imagine having to watch that game? You imagine having to watch that game? Much less bet money on that game. All right, that is perfect, right there. Viewers at home and their eyeballs.
Exactly. We have a exactly serial ass situation here. Why is there gambling for games like that? Dude, it's perfect for gambling, right? The he-ass led Cam Ward offense against, and I am sorry, I have to do it.
Alvin, help me out here. Lou Anarumo led Colts defense. Don't Anarumo. Don't. I got.
I gotta go there, man. Lou Anarumo. Don't. Pay all the tapes. Don't.
He-ass is Colts. I got back. Lou. I'll always have your back, Lou. Per Cam Ward, thirty-second points, thirty-second yards per play.
Lose defense. The progress they had showed the previous two weeks were more about the teams they had actually played because the Steelers lit these guys up for six and a half yards per play last week. That's worse than the Cowboys on the year. That's not good.
So if two positives make a negative, two negatives must make a Tavares, and that's what we have in play right now, Lauren. Tavares, right in the butt. What? No. And a remote.
Blake. This is the best. Yeah, that's that's it. No. The one on the end.
Was it Lana? Tavares. Yeah. Yeah, definitely Lana on the end. She said that.
But the funny thing is, right in the butt. Hey, I like the way he said it, but with such authority, like he knew it. Like, bam. Greatest drop of all time, like, and it was. It was supposed to be.
This is the best, but for this game, it is right in the butt. I mean, it is perfect. This is the best. It's not the best. Yeah, this is the best.
Yeah, do we have a pick on this game? Oh yeah, I do have a pick. ATS, the Wee ass Titans are three and sixteen against the AFC South over the last four season. The Colts are six and oh beat them during that time span. We're gonna go with the Colts at home and lay the six and a half points.
God, that that might be the worst game ever. Oh, it could be bad. Dude, Tavares. It's the Tavares. I'm taking.
I'm. I'm. I'm gonna lay the points. Let's go, Colts. Another six.
I got another bad game for you too. There's not a lot of great games out there this weekend. If you haven't looked at the full slate, everybody out there.
So we got another one right here: Giants v Saints. It's odd, not as bad as the one we just talked about. That's for sure. No, uh, and they got. I don't know if you know this, but the Giants have a game and a half lead in the East.
Oh, I love it! I saw it. I know it. I absolutely love it. Did you see Dale Benson light up the Saints publicly?
What'd she say? I think I missed it. I wouldn't even. No, she's like that. She no, no, no.
She. I have no problem that she. She made the point of saying she said we have a certain responsibility, and I'm going to hold these guys accountable. We have to do a better job. She doesn't do things like that generally.
For her to say publicly, publicly, like somebody's going to get blown out, so they better show up. Those same fans should go back at her on how she handles the Pelicans. Just saying. We're not talking about the Pelicans, dude.
Okay, well, I'm talking about her. She sucks as an owner. All right, all right.
Okay, yeah. Anyway, anyway, keep those. The main thing, the main thing. I'm just saying. The main thing.
She put that on blast publicly, which is unusual, dude. You might want to jot that. Put that in your system, head. Put that in my system. Throw it in there.
Uh, my system, dude. Six weeks into the season, and we have no Jameis love yet. Like my favorite human being, um. Doing the stuff that we love, we have none of it. Tavares is your favorite human being.
You've made that very clear over the years. Fair, fair, Tavares. Fair, but I do like James too. Lauren, there, there was no doubt on the sideline that it was going to happen. You know, obviously, we are our brother's keeper, winning this game for Jackson.
Brother, you know, twelve points, six times two. Look at his eyes. It's for you.
So good. Wait, more. How confident are you in carrying this team forward? One thing that I do is forgetting those that is behind and reaching for to what's ahead. Beautiful weather today.
How much do you feel that's going to impact the game out here? Man, I'm I'm so grateful that we get to focus on winning one play at a time. He smoked all that weed. Circumstances, conditions, and facts—they don't matter. It's us.
They don't matter. Doing at all. Being doers, not speakers. We're looking forward to seeing you doing it. I love him.
Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Why did you? I didn't share it.
I do love him. Yeah, I love him for sure. Yeah, the concern though, are you getting a well? The concern with him throwing the football to the other team, right, or fumbling the ball like he did last week.
So those are big time concerns. The hope here is, with some of that, he turns around and hands a football off because Jim, as much as we love Jamis, we loathe Brandon Staley. Jim, first time I've mentioned him in about six weeks, and guess what?
Well, Jamis is doing Jamis things. Brandon Staley is once again doing Brandon Staley things with the Saints' defense. Only Lou Anna Rumo's defense, sorry, has a worse EPA per rush. Brandon Staley's defense, and his defense is twenty eighth overall in EPA. If they load up, beat them deep, Jamis with Malik and likely also.
While Jamis will be clutching up again, like he did last week. The show shuck guy Tyler on the other side of the ball. He has not been playing well or good. I don't know what the word is lately at all. The word is always well, bro.
To make it easier for you, it's always well. It's it's not sometimes good. In that context, it's always well. If that makes it any easier for you, I'll forget. But he was playing the opposite of well last week against Brian Flores.
The Blitz got. I'm going to give you a new expect the Giants to do it again. Mnemonic. This is that's a big word for you. I'm going to give you a mnemonic.
This is how you remember it.
Okay, you're obsessed with Baby Jessica. She fell in a well.
Well, well is always the word. Just think of that. Oh yeah, okay. Always get it. I I bet going forward you get it right seventy five percent of the time because of that mnemonic, baby.
Yes, the well. I don't know what the mnemonic thing is, but the well, I absolutely got it.
Okay, I like it now.
Okay, we're gonna go plus one and a half and take the Giants at home here. Same. I like that pick actually. The Saints have cost me money. I'm disappointed.
I'm as disappointed in them right now as I am Gail Benson. And you know what? Although I don't have the the distinction. For stay away that you do, I don't trust him at all right now. Let's go.
We'll we'll take we'll take a point and a half at home from the Giants, who have good vibes. Love it. Yep.
Okay.
Okay.
Forty Niners v Commanders.
So I think notice there is no baseball in here. No baseball. You are not touching that. All right.
No. Yeah. No. Not right now.
Okay.
Dude, are you going against your fam again?
Well, let's find out.
Well. Before we get there, can we all once and for all agree? After last week's debacle, the twenty-eight to three Super Bowl was actually Dan Quinn's fault, not Kyle Shanahan's.
Okay, let me ask you this: Quinn had something to do with it. Was Kyle Shanahan there when it happened? What? But he was coaching the offense. Like he had nothing to do with the plays.
Was he calling plays with a twenty-eight to three lead? Yeah, but he's being aggressive too. Did they lose that game? It's the Lobsters' fault. But Dan Quinn had something to do with it.
I'll give you that.
Okay.
Okay.
Anyways, we won't agree on that, but we could agree. This could be a total letdown game for the Forty Niners, coming off a huge emotional. Your legendary brother would never let that happen. You're exactly right, and you know why? Because there's one thing that this guy hates more than anything, and it's the Washington Commander.
Well, his dad, maybe right? They both do. There's so much bad blood between that family and me, and so much unreasonably good blood between that family and you. I think I can, you know, mend that bridge if we ever sat down. We should, we should, we should go to his Hall of Fame induction next August.
You absolutely cannot mend that bridge. We should do a live remote broadcast from there. No, it'll never fix itself. Look, I'm not saying that I don't respect the family. I don't even dislike the family.
They hate me for some reason. I don't know why. I've been good to them for a long time.
So what do we do? We got a hook. Anyways, they hate the commanders' organization. A hook. Yeah, yeah.
I'm not buying it because they hate the commanders' organization. Even without the Dan Snyder being there, Kyle will have these guys ready. How will he do it? Maybe your guy, Big Clock, Brock. Washington is mid in the run game.
Teams love to throw the football on them. Though thirty-eight pass attempts a game, and San Francisco has the best passing game in football right now. As for the Jaden, not Jalen Daniels, led offense. San Francisco has neutralized. Wish it was Jalen quarterback.
That was cheap. Does right? That was cheap. That was a that was a cheap shot. I bet his teammates like Jalen better than Jaden.
Okay, that's your that's your new thing, dude. That's my new thing. That is your thing. You and I have been talking about this a lot off the air, but not on the air. But since you just brought that up, why do you think?
Why don't you explain what you just said? What's your take? I don't know. I just feel like there'll be more people coming. Establish the take first.
What are you saying?
Okay.
I'll say, I'm pleased that you can. You're saying they don't like Jaden Daniels. His teammates don't like him. You're saying that. Yeah, yeah.
I I feel that's what's happening, without a doubt. Like the Commanders do not rally around this guy when he gets injured. You just don't see other stuff. You don't see them like speak up for him a lot. You see his mom talking a lot.
You see his weird stuff he does at LSU. He seems like Bob Griffin the third. Back again in D.C. There is just a lot of bad vibes coming out of there about this guy, and I just don't see anybody ever like crying and insane. Really, because he was he was a legend when he was taking them to the NFC Championship game as a rookie.
He got lucky there, Dan Quinn again got lucky there as he always does. He lucked his way into the NFC Championship game.
Well, Dan Campbell went, Dan Campbell, Dan Campbell went, Dan Campbell, and then that's how it really happened. Then he got there, and then after that, they get credit for what they were. They went there, they get credit for it. But you're right, they have definitely taken steps back since then. All right, so I understand why your adopted family hates that organization.
We got Brock. Yeah, Niners. Hey, any concern of yours that number one they stay healthy, number two they're peaking too soon? It's a long season, and I can argue they are the best team in the NFL right now. Is it too soon?
Yeah, it's way too soon. I hate it. I absolutely hate it. It's October. They got 14 guys, I think, on the IR.
They had 14 guys in the IR. It's way too soon. I do not like it at all. The only upside of it. Is the Bosa edition when he does come back, and I just hope it's later in the year to give him some juice.
They will lose a couple games without a doubt, and I hope it kind of happens later and they could kind of reget what they got right now because they look fantastic. And Mike Evans, difference maker. Oh, dude, Mike Evans is incredible. I can't believe 33. The difference that guy's making in that offense, man.
It just big time.
So big, so clutch, and and and they've got the poise and composure of our guy Drake Greenlaw too that they can. That that that that guy, yeah. They kind of need him against Jay and Daniels. He won't be there, dude. All right, so what are we doing with that bet?
49ers minus seven and a half at home on Monday night. I'll take it. I'll take it. Okay.
I got one more.
Sorry. Give me more. I'm talking a lot here today. Yeah. Bears v Falcons.
The number is moving. Chicago is now a two and a half point favorite on the road. They were three and a half. It's early in the week, but it looks like both quarterbacks, Caleb and Penix, might play. I saw they were practicing.
So interesting. I know you're taking the fail clowns. I know you are.
Well, last week the Falcons went to their matchup with Baltimore, allowing the fewest rushing yards per game. Right.
Well, they were exposed as not being elite there with the Ravens running for over 200 yards on the ground against them.
Now they get this Bears rushing attack. Chicago's run blocking—it's elite. James Cook, okay, he has 532 yards rushing this season. The Bears have an NFL best. Five hundred and thirty yards before contact.
So they're like James Cook before contact. They're that good. And like after one more game, it will equal the entire. Did you not hear what Bruce Arians just said about the analytics nerds? Yeah, I don't think that's an analytic one.
I think it's like more like third and one, fourth and one type thing. That's a good. That's a good stat. That's a great stat. Like one more game for Raider fan.
Like it equals the entire 2025 Raiders. YBC. Just throwing that out to Raider fan. You like that? You like that stat?
You like that? I do like that stat a lot, dude. That means they meet up and move over some guys. Obviously, if Caleb's back, he could throw the football. They could run the football, but their defense.
How about a shout out to Rank? He was busy for three weeks asking the world about his elite. Oh, look at there! Thank you, Lauren, throwing that up there about his elite Bears defense. Just throwing it out there.
Well, Jim, guess what happened? Dennis Allen went Dennis Allen against the Packers. I know he connected on not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six passes of thirty yards plus against this Bears defense. Hey, Dennis. Yes.
Don't look now, but the highest-rated passer on Pro Football Focus on deep passing—it's Penix.
So clean it up, dude. I'm still riding with ranks Bears though because it's under three on the road, and I'm going to Chicago here, minus two and a half. Do we know other than Caleb changing his avatar to Jonathan Wick? Do we do we know a bit about his status? I saw today that he practiced in full, I believe.
So I, it's trending the right way. Right way. I mean, it is a game. I'm thinking I'm back. He went.
I think he's coming back. Did he really? I love that. He did. He went.
Hey, do you? Did you? I was gonna ask. It's funny you brought that up. I knew you watched John Wick.
You love Bourne. Did you ever watch Watch Reacher? Yes. Okay.
Good. Yes. I'm like eight episodes in.
Well, okay, eight episodes in season one. Yeah. Yes, I watched most of season one, and then just kind of forgot about it and stopped. But I liked what I saw.
Okay, I like, and then I liked I liked that real life episode of him in the street getting to a fight with that neighbor over the bike. That's why. That's why I decided to watch it. I'm like, if he's got that much intensity, why are you messing? Let's watch this.
If Richard's your neighbor, why are you messing with that? I know what an idiot. What's doing that, man? Who's doing that? Oh, there's Miles Garrett.
I think I'll go start a fight with him. Right.
All right.
So I think we got everything right. We good? Yeah, we're good. Happy birthday. Quick question for you.
You think Rit is dead, or you think he made you know another birthday? Great question, man. Right, knowing the way that Rit was all about clean eating, jelly beans, and fueling himself properly, and we know he lives in the gym, right? On a Rit, Rit is gonna outlive us all. I'll bet this is not cool.
Not only is Rit dead, I bet he's been dead for like five years, and we just haven't heard. Dude, we haven't heard, right? Man, he's around. If he was alive, he's got to be like a 136 or something. I think.
What's that? Wait, wait, wait, Garrett Ritz. Oh no! What is this? A post?
Every year on my birthday, I have to relive one of the worst days of my life over and over on Twitter. Right, Ritz?
So do we. The day you were born. Just kidding, Ritz. Wait, no. Go back.
Is it? Is it a barman? Oh my God! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Oh my God!
Barman happened on the fourteenth. This is getting more and more bizarre. I did not know that Baby Jess was an October 14th day. I did not know Bartman was an October 14th day. Man, freaking ridiculous!
Right? I thought that DJ Brown was born on October 14th. Like, how did I know that either? Yeah. Damn.
Okay, but if it'll make first of all, I didn't even know he was a Cubs fan. Oh, oh, dude! You should see his tweet. You were smart enough not to follow him, probably on Twitter. That's all he tweets about.
No, no, no, no, definitely one of the members of the XHR4ti that didn't follow. Why would I do that? You were right for that one. Dude, I didn't want to talk to Panthers here. Just kidding.
It's it's Hornets or Bobcats. I don't know what their name is. It's Cubs and it's Panthers. That's all. It's all losing organizations.
I love how Ritz says every day on my birthday I have to relive one of the worst days of my life. Ritz every. On your birthday, everybody in the world has to relive one of the worst days of their lives—the day you were born, Garrett. Just kidding, Garrett. And he chooses the fact that I let him do a segment on this show every on his birthday.
That's what we have to relive. He killed Tom Hanks. Can't do it, baby. Can't do it. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
This day in sports clubs. What else happened? Francisco Cabrera hits a two-two at one. Yes, that was one of my favorite moments ever. No idea.
The dream baby. No way. When Barry charged that ball, hit into deep short, and threw it on four hops, and Sid Bream of all people beat the throw home, the slowest runner in the history of Major League Baseball, and Barry roared it out of his mind, couldn't throw. Him out from deep short, dude! What a series!
Incredible on my birthday. Look at this, dude! On your birthday, I like cried there. I was like young. Braves were my team.
That was the greatest sports moment I've ever seen in my life. That might be the greatest sports moment in my life, and I had nothing invested. Seeing Barry like five hop that ball from deep short. Oh, dude!
So October fourteenth is the greatest day in the history of the world. It might be. It might be. Look at look at all these great memories. You know what's so funny about Rit?
Rit? Rit was born on October fourteenth. Dwight D Eisenhower was born on October. October fourteenth, Ritz looks like a shorter, fatter Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Yes, you do. This is what Ritz so amazing. And was born on the same day that I was born, although years later, but looks years older. And then would host this show for a segment and play Jerry Rafferty. I'll never forget the guy's first day, and the clones wanted to know why Jim brought his grandpa to work.
I'm like, oh my god, that's the greatest thing I've ever heard in my life. It's great, Rit. Respect for Rit. I know it sounds like I'm going to disrespect you. We we love Rit.
Rit is one of our favorite. We all love Rit. Rit is one of our favorite XR4Tiers. Damn right. That's how I roll.
Ever ever he went along with all of it. Fantastic. The only XR4Tiara I can. Ever remember, they would just sit there in his office, just smashing candy like some little kid on Halloween. Except he was like forty-five.
Dude, it's amazing. Every day, every day, jelly beans. Yeah, he's dead for sure. He got to be right. But why weren't why weren't we pallbearers?
We, if anybody should have put him in the ground, should have been you and I. I don't know. Did that tweet come out today or was that a year ago? Did he?
So he's he's kicking the day for the department thing, right? Yeah. Says three hours.
Okay.
Well, maybe he's still kicking. It's got one. It's got one repost and four likes. Yeah, that's that's on target with 330 people have seen it. Yeah, that's actually three more likes than Rit usually gets.
No offense, Rit, but I love you. Yeah. It's got two comments. Oh, that guy, Rit, Rit, cracking back on Bartman is something special. Hey, Rit, Bartman hasn't come out of his apartment since that happened, and you're just gonna sit there and light him up.
Come on, Rit, where's the empathy? You won the World Series ten years ago, Rit. Let it go, let it go, man. Yeah. All right, like, like I gotta let this segment go.
This is our record, James. Yes, sir.
Sorry. We made it. No, you're not. You loved every second of it. We made it to the bomb of the hour, James.
See you at the airport. See you at the airport. I'll be there. Be sure that it's not some piss water either. I want some.
I want an import. I want an import. Okay.
I can find you. Cheap ass bastard. Get me an import, dude. Give me a heiny or something. All right.
I'll see you at the airport, bro. Yeah. All right, Jane, Bighead, James Kelly. That right there is your Fanduel segment. All right.
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We're doing that at the top of the hour. But before we do that, we're going to do this. We're joined right now by a three time Super Bowl champion, a two time Pro Bowler. He spent his entire eleven year career with the Dallas Cowboys. He is in his twenty sixth season as an NFL on Fox analyst.
Of course, I'm talking about Darrell. Moose Johnston, Moose, it's been a minute. How you doing, Moose? It has, it has. I'm doing good.
How are you doing, Jim? Good, good. Great to see you. Thanks for making time. Listen, 26 years, over a quarter of a century.
Listen, I want to say this: that that is, first of all, it's the longest tenure ever for any NFL analyst at a single broadcast network. How gratifying is it to have had such a tremendous second career, especially in an industry, Moose, that's not known for its job security. Yeah, it's been fantastic. It really has for the last 26 years. Getting to visit with head coaches and players in the NFL and find out exactly what they think are the critical ingredients to having a championship team and what their culture is like and how they're going to.
Make that that huge jump and contend for a Super Bowl.
So it's it's been fantastic. And then my Fox family has been you know outstanding through the entire journey as well. You know, been through a number of different people who have been a part of the Fox family at the top, and and everybody's done a fantastic job, and we'll always be grateful to that to them for the opportunity. Good for you, Daryl Johnston, joining us.
So Moose, you always be linked to the Cowboys, of course. You're a three time Super Bowl champ.
So let me start right there. What do you make of their two and three start after that? Brutal home loss to the then winless Bucks on Thursday night. Yeah, it's been challenging. You know, you look at it, and the three losses are three losses that you know I don't think that anybody expected to happen.
Going all the way back to the opener against the Giants with John Harbaugh coming in and really kind of starting from scratch and building everything up, you would think that Dallas would have the advantage in that opener, but didn't match the physicality of the Giants. And then you go to the the game. Last weekend, you know, against Tampa Bay on a Thursday night, short week. But it's you know it's a an undrafted free agent at quarterback. It's a defense that has struggled for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They're winless. You would think that they would have an opportunity there. But I think the biggest one was the loss in Rio against the Baltimore Ravens when they had that game one and and really for for unknown reasons took the ball out of Dak Prescott's hand at the end, took the ball off the foot of Brandon Aubrey at the end. And credit to Baltimore, just a fantastic job. Of being able to execute that play and get the clock stopped and get a field goal attempt off to beat them right there at the wire.
So three losses that that were really you know. Devastating losses for this team, and and you know going into it, Jim, I really felt that that Christian Parker was going to come in, and I thought there would be an immediate uptick. I thought there would be an excitement and growth from week to week, and we haven't seen that yet. I I haven't given up faith yet. I I do believe that that defense will find its way, but I thought it was going to happen a lot a lot sooner than it has so far this season.
So I appreciate that candor a lot and that transparency. Daryl Mus Johnston joining us.
So. What they did do to assist Parker, as you know, Moose, they brought in Mike Pettin.
So, is he is he there to assist Parker, or should we read further into this? And is he maybe there for another reason? I wouldn't read anything into it. I think when you when you bring in the defensive consultant, you know, first time play caller, you know, sometimes it's just the situational things. That's the communication.
You know, we saw a little bit of that. You know, with the change in Denver, you know, with with Sean Payton, I think Bo Nix was getting a little bit frustrated because a play was getting into him late. They were rushed to the line of scrimmage. They weren't able to go through their normal cadence. When you're the head coach or the you know the the defense or the play caller on each side of the ball.
You know, there's a lot of things going on during the course of the game, so I think when we see something like that, whether it was a John Fox up in Detroit early on, Dick LeBeau early on with Dan Campbell's tenure, you know, as a head coach and doing everything there, you're picking their brains for some information. And with Christian Parker coming in, I think that this is just one of those situations where what can we do to help him out and make this transition a little bit more easier because it seems like we're struggling a little bit right now.
So let's let's come up with a plan. Let's come up with some type of idea that everybody's on board with. And see if we can get something there that makes things a little bit easier. The information is flowing better. The assignments, the installation.
Are we getting the same messaging from position room to position room? Is it showing on the practice field during install that everybody knows exactly what their the responsibilities and their jobs are in each snap?
So, just some things to look at, and maybe you need another set of eyes there. Daryl Moose Johnson joining us. Moose, I mentioned your three rings. Unfortunately, we're stuck on three rings. There has been nothing since then.
Let me ask you something, and I'm not trying to be morbid, but there's going to be a time when the team passes on from Jerry to his son Stephen. Do you think the fortunes of the team will dramatically change? Do you think Stephen will run the team in a dramatically different fashion than his father does? I think it's always going to be family. I think that that will always be a component there.
I think the The episode of Landman where Jerry Jones was in there and he had the monologue, I think that that really kind of, for me at least personally, that that let me behind the curtain a little bit and how important that family is with that business growing and you're there with your your kids and your grandkids every single day as you build the most valued franchise in professional sports around the world and that's what this family has done with the Dallas Cowboys. I think you'll see a little bit different style. With Stephen, I'm not saying it's going to be exactly the same thing, but it will be, you know, family based. But remember, there's been a couple situations where Stephen has stood up and kept Jerry back on course in some key decisions. The biggest one, the Zach Martin draft, where Jerry was about to go with Johnny Manziel, and Stephen redirected and got him back on his Zach Martin.
And look how that played out. I mean, you've got a perennial Pro Bowl guard for over a decade, and you had a That that was very exciting in college, but didn't transition well to the NFL and was washed out of the game in a short amount of time.
So you know those are decisions that can set your franchise back a number of years. And during Zach's time, you know that that Cowboy team competed for conference championships. They've just never been able to get to the hump. Jim, I mean, we talked thirty years. They've been close.
There's been some good teams. They've been the number one seed in the NFC a couple of times during these thirty years, but they just haven't been able to get over that hump. And that's that's the one thing they've been waiting for through Tony Romo into Dak Prescott is is when is when is this going to happen again? And you know, the the biggest thing from my perspective is is really you know this team getting better in all three phases for for several years now. This offense has been really burdened by a defense.
That they've got to outscore week after week, and when you're in that situation, you have to play nearly perfect football if you're going to have an opportunity to win and win big in the playoffs.
So, I'm curious, like two quick thoughts. Number one, Jerry on Landman—that was one of his best bits of work in quite some time. I hate to say it, he was great that night. He was really good that night. I'll give him that.
So, like when you and the guys, there's got to be a team thread. There's got to be a thread from back in the day. I mean, you're being very reasonable and very practical in this analysis. And very sharp and astute. What do you guys like on the thread from back in the day?
We're we're really basically the same. You know, we're not mad. You're not mad. You're not frustrated. No, well, no, well, frustrated is being real, right?
Everybody's frustrated. The fan base is frustrated. I'm not going to say there's a lack of. There's a little bit of anger sometimes, you know.
So that you know, you you spill over from frustration into anger. It's it's been hard. It's been a hard 30 years, you know. I'm in Philadelphia, you know, quite a bit, and. You know, used to be fun going to Philadelphia because they they didn't really have a leg to stand on because they didn't have any Super Bowl championships and we had five.
You know that gap is getting narrowed. Moose, it probably used to be fun going everywhere. It pretty much, you know, the Boston area was probably the only one. You know, there's there's a couple that you can't. Pittsburgh was kind of even.
San Francisco was even. But yeah, you know, going to Philly, you know, they didn't have a leg to stand on. Everybody else in the division had won a Super Bowl, so that was one of the things we all had. You know, when the Eagles fans started to chirp a little bit, but yeah, it has been frustrating. I think the the big one is when you see.
A season where they have the talent and they have the cohesion to compete for a Super Bowl championship, and they haven't been able to get over that hurdle. Those are the ones because they don't come along very often, and you know you've got to recognize that. And I think that was one of the biggest things that that Jimmy did when when we were in Dallas is he was probably the first to kind of see that vision of what was coming down the road that this was going to be a unique collection of players, staff. Team all coming together, and you know when you get those opportunities, you got to cash them in. We say it all the time about your opportunity to be in a Super Bowl.
Dan Marino won his rookie year, and I'm sure Dan Marino thought he was going to have several more opportunities to get back and win a Super Bowl championship, and he never made it back.
So, you know, we're always grateful for our time, and we just hope that the. The guys that are in the cowboy family right now get to have that same experience as we did at some point. And just one last thought: we've got about a minute. I mean, you mentioned Jimmy since you brought him up. I always thought he was one of the most intriguing people I'd ever seen in any sport.
What was he like to be around, and how was he able to get so much out of out of his guys the way he was? He had a standard. He was demanding. My favorite story about Jimmy is when we went through our first training camp. You know, Jimmy had talked to a lot of peers in the business, and they said you have to be different in the NFL than you were in college.
These are grown men. They've got families. They're married. It's different than being a college coach. And we kind of took that approach through training camp and into the start of the season.
We went three and one during the course of the preseason. The only game we lost. They brought John Elway off the bench to beat us in overtime.
So. We all felt comfortable, comfortable and confident going into that season opener in New Orleans, and we got clobbered. We got beat twenty-eight to nothing. We did nothing fundamentally sound in the game of football. We didn't tackle well.
We didn't block well. We were horrible. And we had a meeting on Monday, and Jimmy set the tone. He laid that story out, and he said, "Starting Wednesday, we're going to we're going to do things the way I believe they should be done, and it's going to be very different than how we've done them up until now. If I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail doing it." My way, and we started that Wednesday physical competitive practices, and that was our that was our culture, that was our standard through Jimmie Johnson's years.
Moose Johnston, three times Super Bowl champion, nailed that post. Moose, really appreciate you. Great conversation, been far too long. Great to get caught up. Far too long.
I really appreciate you, man. Thanks so much. Take care, Jim. You too, Moose. What a pro!
What an absolute pro! Daryl Moose Johnston, 26 years with the same broadcast network and a three-time Super Bowl champ. When we come back, the beef segment. Start dialing one eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. Let's hit that beef segment.
Hit it hard. We'll do that when we return. The games just ended. The conversation starts now. The NFL Digital Reaction Show.
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