Kirk Cousins: Disappointed In Week 1 Performance

Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundredth Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. It's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here.

Give it a try at MintMobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big ROAS man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend.

My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com slash results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com slash results. Terms and conditions apply.

LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. This is The Rich Eisen Show. It's very rare about a team that just got kind of punked on national television. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Rogers, by the way, only threw it to three teammates last night. That's it.

That's a problem. Earlier on the show, senior writer for the MMQP, Albert Breer. Coming up, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. Fox Sports college football analyst Bruce Feldman. And now it's Rich Eisen.

That's right. Our number two The Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat with Albert Breer last hour. My power rankings for week number two coming up.

That's the way we're rolling. And then the game that we talked about with Albert, he's in South Florida because Thursday Night Football on Prime Video right around the corner. That's tomorrow night. Bills and Dolphins, that's a big game for sure.

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and the Athletic to talk. College football will be coming in here. There may be one game that we'll just touch on and move on from. I understand.

You know, Texas, Michigan. We don't have to linger on that one. OK. We can. No, and we will. We will because I'm a lead pipe wielding professional.

I'll talk about things that maybe I don't want to talk about. Plus, I need to have an Arch Manning watch each week to know how close I come to having the guy. Wow. The crazy thing is that I thought the score that we saw play out would lead to Arch Manning there, but Quinn, you just played the whole game. But anyway, long story short, we're going to get Bruce Feldman out here. Kindly returning to the Rich Eisen show so quickly. We had him on about a week before the season began, and now he's joining us in advance of the Monday Night Football game between the Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles that you'll be hearing on Westwood One. Kirk Cousins, good to see you again, Kirk.

Good to see you, Rich. Yeah, I know this looks like a green screen behind you, but that's the actual wall, believe it or not. Wow. The next wall.

What did you say? The Arthur Blank green screen system was gone. That's legitimately the wall behind you?

Honestly, Rich, I can see myself on a screen here, and I thought, is that a green screen? And I turned around, nope, that's the wall. Okay, here we go. And the okie doke on you, you thought for a second. But anyway, thanks for joining.

Greatly appreciate you doing that. What's your sense of your week one performance and result, Kirk? Disappointing.

Disappointing. Wasn't clean enough, wasn't crisp enough, and we paid for it. The results kind of showed, if you go watch the tape, that it just wasn't good enough, and so we've got to pick up the pieces, as you have to do in the NFL. You're going to get it handed to you from time to time, or you're going to have a game where you say that wasn't up to our standard, and you have to figure it out quickly, get it fixed, and then another great opponent is showing up the next weekend, and that's kind of where we find ourselves. You saw a heck of a lot of number 90, man, on Sunday in TJ Watt. What is it like when you're under center or in shotgun and you see him out of your peripheral?

What's that like? Yeah, I mean, he's a special player. His career has kind of told that story. Great effort and a smart player. You know, he did a good job kind of trying to time up the snap count. You know, he's got a good rush plan. He plays hard in the run game, too. It's not just the pass game. You know, every team is really looking for a player like that on their D-line, and if they don't have one, they're usually drafting one in the first round or signing one in free agency because every team knows the difference that those guys make.

He certainly impacted the game, and as we face other guys kind of like him in that mold, you know, we've got to kind of all hands on deck to make sure we handle it. Well, how are week ones different now compared to when you first hopped in the league, Kirk? Because, you know, it just seems like there's not a lot of preseason action or training camp action or practice action to get out there, and then there's somebody like yourself who's coming back from an Achilles injury and wanted to make sure that you would be ready and healthy. Is there sort of a preseason field or a week one in the NFL right now, would you say, Kirk?

Hard to say. You know, I think we started sharp, if you will. We moved the football. We converted our first third down. We had a 12-play drive, I think it was, to start the season. Ended up kicking a field goal, but executed pretty well. It was more just over four quarters. Did not play, you know, great football. And the reality is, in football, you have to string together, you know, 5, 10, 12 plays in a row that are flawless to score points on a long drive. And if you have a penalty, if you have a mistake, it can kill the entire drive. And so that efficiency of stringing, you know, 10 plays together is, I think, one thing that was a weakness of ours on Sunday that we've got to clean up moving forward. So what about you? Do you think, you know, were you rusty because you hadn't played a snap since your achilles last year, Kirk?

You know, I asked that question myself, but then when I watched the tape, I thought, you know, I don't know that it's rust. I think there's a level of, there's certainly a lot that's new, you know, for all of us, where, you know, we're all kind of working together for the first time. But again, we started relatively sharp. You know, we moved down the last drive of the half, you know, basically went into a two-minute mode and went right down the field and scored a touchdown.

So, you know, there were some parts where you say, no, I mean, we're playing well, moving the football well, seeing things well, feeling the rush well, but we played a strong defense and then we just didn't execute up to our standard, which involved so many things, you know, timing up motions and formations and play clock and, you know, just the subtleties of the operation of football that we're going to have to be much sharper at, you know, the rest of the season. How did you feel physically coming out of the game? I felt good. Honestly, I felt good during the game.

I was really pleased with how, you know, my ankle, if you will, not just Achilles, but my ankle felt, really, really felt good and didn't take any big hits. So, you know, after week one, your typical soreness from a game, but nothing too excessive. What was Rahim Morris' message to the team, if you wouldn't mind sharing anything, what do you say? Well, I think the main message would be when you turn the ball over three times, you don't deserve to win. So, to come out of here thinking, you know, because we had a chance to tie the game on the final possession of regulation and yet, you know, it was kind of amazing that we had that chance because of how he had played and so he made the point that the fact that we were even able to tie the game on the last possession says a lot about, you know, what we can do in this room because we pretty much didn't give ourselves much of a chance the rest of the game. So, and then the ultimate reminder of, you know, there are 16 more football games and they all are their own entity and when we're sitting here in February looking back on the season, you know, week one doesn't tend to define the whole year.

It tends to be the next 16 that do that. So, we've just got to keep taking a one-day-at-a-time, one-week-at-a-time approach and stack up strong performances that are much, much better than what Sunday's was. Yeah, that sounds too nuanced and reasonable for many of us, Kirk, to be honest with you.

Yeah, I'm probably not helping you, yeah. Honestly, I thought your season's over. Quite frankly, that's all I've heard for the last 48 hours. Yeah, I think that's kind of the way the NFL works, but it's part of what makes it so fun for people and I think it's important that for us as players and coaches and staff and in the building that, you know, we certainly have a different approach and you kind of ignore the noise, but it doesn't change the fact that when you don't play well, there's going to be noise.

Sure. Kirk Cousins here on the Rich Eisen Show. Did you watch the Brazil game sort of scout, if you will, knowing that this is your next opponent even though you had yet to play your first opponent?

Did you check that out, Kirk? Yeah, I watched some of it live. I didn't stay up. You know, it's interesting, Rich, I was on Central Time for six years and so I was usually able to watch a lot of football and even other sports that come on later, but now that I'm on Eastern Time, my bedtime is really being hampered here by these late starts. So, didn't watch as much of it as I would have liked, but I was able to watch the tape obviously coming into this week getting ready for the Eagles and it was unique seeing them play on another continent. Yeah, so what leaped out at you looking at that?

Yeah, well, first of all, the surface looked like a couple of guys slipped here and there. I think there were also some week one type struggles on both sides where you say, hey, you know, I don't think they, both teams were as sharp as they want to be either and you expect it to be, you know, as the weeks go, probably a much tighter operation, certainly for us as the Falcons, but you kind of thank your opponents as well, you're going to kind of get their best as we move forward too. But good to finally have tape, you know, there's a little bit of that unknown in week one of unscouted looks and, you know, what does a team look like and you don't quite know until you get out there and have your first series.

So at least now we'll have some tape to watch. Right, number 98, Flash, a couple of times for you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

That's a good deal. He was last year when we played him, we played him week two, he had only played one career NFL game and coming out of that one career NFL game, we could tell from the tape that, you know, this is a guy that we have to be aware of and he can wreck the game if we give him that chance and so, you know, he's going to be a great player in this league. Yeah, Jalen Carter is who you're referring to and again, it's kind of crazy that I guess you have to. Have you called the NFL to say you are mandated to be the visiting quarterback of Philadelphia's Monday night week two game? Like, I mean, what gives here, man? Yes, there's something going on there because I have played Philadelphia in Philadelphia so many times in my career, going back to when I was in Washington, we played there every year. Sure. We did play in a couple of primetime games there in Washington and then Minnesota did it as well and yeah, now this is year three in a row of going there for a primetime game in week two.

Who knows? Let's see how we do. Oh, and then let's see if we can make it a fourth year in a row.

We'll see. Well, I mean, and this is kind of big, obviously, because you can just wipe the slate clean and go one and one against Pennsylvania teams in your first two weeks and then move forward because you got the Chiefs coming in after that. You know, I mean, is this? I think it's a little bit of like welcome to the NFL, you know, you kind of can look around at the schedules and you just see good teams playing good football teams and that's the way this league is and it's what makes this league great that there aren't a lot of games. I don't think there are any games that you really walk in and say, OK, we can kind of be at 85 percent and we'll come away with a win. I feel and I've always felt in this league that, man, if I miss one read, if I miss one decision, we're going to lose. And I didn't feel that in college. I mean, there were games certainly when you play Michigan and you play Wisconsin and you play Ohio State, you had those feelings. But there's a lot of other games where you say, I can miss a few reads and we're still going to win the game. In the NFL, it just doesn't exist.

And it certainly raises the level of of awareness and the focus, but also the tension. And I think it's fun for fans to follow as a result, but you can go to any game and you feel that way. Kirk Cousins here on the Rich Eisen Show, a couple of minutes left with the Falcons quarterback in advance of Monday Night Football against the Philadelphia Eagles. Did at any point in time you peaking on what your former team did with Sam Darnold and the Vikings?

Did you did you see? I saw they won with NFL Network in the in the locker room with the screens on. So you kind of get updated on what's going on around the league just as you walk in from your lift and walk on to your meeting and that kind of a thing. So there's so many people, you know, as you go through the league, as you move teams, you know, even saying hi to like the special teams coach for the Steelers, who is my special teams coach, my rookie year in Washington 12 years ago, you just have so many people around the league that you see pregame, postgame as you follow that you're pulling for that you, you know, care about.

And so that's kind of a big part for all of us in the league. People always ask, you know, what teams do you root for? And we tend to say, well, I don't root for teams as much as I root for people or players because you get to know people on a personal level. So speaking before I let you go, speaking of people that I root for, I'm rooting for your cousin right now, Kirk, I'm a Yankee fan. I was going to say, are you a Yankee fan?

I am a diehard Yankee fan and not many things like the Yankees and Michigan football are the only things in my advanced age of mid-50s that emotionally affect me sports-wise anymore. Your cousin, Jake Cousins, is dynamite, man. I think he should be the closer of the Yankees. I think he should be, I'm serious. I would love to make you the owner GM president to make that happen.

That'd be a lot of fun, stressful to watch, but a lot of fun. Yeah, we got to go to a game this summer and he wasn't able to pitch in the game that we went to, but it was fun to go to Yankee Stadium and kind of be a part of what he's doing. And we watched just about every appearance he has at night. We try to, you know, have an app that can notify us when he goes in and we turn it on on the MLB app. And I grew up not liking the Yankees. I kind of was an anti-Yankee guy and I've completely flipped. My wife has now bought me multiple Yankees apparel. I pretty much watch every game now. Our head equipment manager, Joey, here in Atlanta, is a big Yankees fan, so we go back and forth about it. He keeps me updated on all the buzz and I'm praying that he can have a big October and make quite a run.

And it's been fun to be a part of it. Yeah, I mean, man, people cannot hit his slider and you know it's coming. Like everybody knows it's coming and he's a great swing and miss pitcher right now. And well, he reminds me of another closer who had a good run in New York, who had one pitch. And so I've often said, hey, you know, went for him for about 20-plus years once.

Maybe they could do it again. But no, he's been fun. He was a 20th round pick, you know, played in the Ivy League, really didn't think it was trending that way. During the COVID shutdown, he was playing independent baseball. I remember watching him on a stream of independent baseball playing in Chicago in the summer of 2020. And next thing you know, you know, a year later he was in the bigs and was pitching well and has kind of been up and down, but has found a home here in New York this summer and we're hoping it can last for a long time. So you were a Tigers guy?

Is that is that what it was or what? You know what, I grew up originally originally in Chicago before moving to Michigan. So I'm a Cubs guy, diehard, grew up going to Wrigley. And you know, looking back, that's probably of all the pro sports teams, that's probably the pro sports team I have the greatest emotion following is the Chicago Cubs. But now that's kind of had to take a back seat for my cousin as long as he's with the Yanks. Hey man, this past week and your cousin was hanging zeros in Wrigley. That's pretty cool.

I saw that. Yeah, and a dream for him because he grew up in Chicago also and so for him to pitch for the there in Wrigley was real special. And yeah, I just really feel blessed that he's been able to do what he's done. Kirk, thanks for the time.

I know, you know, 15 minutes in the middle of a week, certainly off of a loss. A lot of guys don't don't like talking after that and I really appreciate it. Don't take it for granted, certainly since we just talked a couple weeks ago. So thank you very much. Greatly appreciate it. Absolutely.

Rich. Great to catch up and hopefully get away Monday night. OK, we'll see you soon. That's Kirk Cousins in advance of the Monday Night Football game against the Philadelphia Eagles. That's right.

Week two, Monday Night Football, Philadelphia has hosted the last three of them, two against the Vikings and one against the Falcons, and he's in all three of them. Amazing. It is kind of weird. I say I respect that so much. What? You know, after a tough loss, him coming on to a show like this and zooming in, like you said, a lot of people wouldn't do it.

And that's that's admirable. Well, this show, thanks to our relationship with Westwood One and mine with Westwood One and Monday Night Football being the exclusive NFL voice of the NFL home for all of the primetime Mondays and Thursdays and playoff games. It's really incredible to be part of that as the studio host of Monday Night Football.

So, you know, we'll have a conversation like we want to get and we'll interview him here and then you'll hear some of the interview on on Monday night on Westwood One. Like Kirk Cousins, let's let's see if he'll do it, even though we just had him. Because I mean, listen, this is a 36 year old guy coming back from an Achilles injury. And the offense, even he admitted just didn't look good. And it's one of those things like, is that just a weak one? They really haven't played together yet.

And they did come out and have a field goal drive to start. But the rest of it and again, is it rust? Is it they haven't played together? Is it the Steelers defense? Is it a combination of all three? Or we'll find out.

Maybe they're not as good as people think. So, yeah, some of the Sarah is Sarah a little panicked or what? Oh, yeah, I think so.

Oh, yeah. Watching some of the the Twitter tape guys, you know, it seemed like he had issues planting that that foot. You know, it's not like Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers was his left Achilles. Kirk blew out his right, which is the plant foot. And also in the middle of the season. As we all know, Rogers blew out his Achilles right. By the way. Yeah.

One year ago tonight. Oh, you know, Kirk was having a great year last year. He was leading the league in touchdown passes when it happened.

Yes. And coming back from that, you know, not an easy task. It looked like he wasn't planting as well.

He wasn't mobile. So I know just shaking some rust off, but he did still look a little bit banged up. So I'm curious how he looks on Monday like everyone else. Let's take a break. Kevin Feldman of Fox Sports and the Athletic is here.

Let's talk college football with one of our friends and one of the best in the biz when we come back. Let's talk DoorDash, people. If your family's like mine, it probably is. You want something to eat?

Your kids want something else to eat. How do you handle it all? How do you make sure everybody's happy? DoorDash.

That's how you make sure everybody's happy. The food delivery app is the most awesome on demand delivery platform that you can go get to make sure that food comes to the places you like right to your table. It's awesome, especially now that football's finally back, which means it's time to order your favorite game day food, snacks and drinks on DoorDash without missing a single play.

And here's how I can help you. Use my promo code, RichEisen24, for 50% off up to a $10 value when you spend $15 or more dollars on your first order. Limited time offer terms apply. Promo's not valid for orders containing alcohol. DoorDash, your door to game day greatness. Your door to more. Download the DoorDash app now to order your game day favorites and use my promo code, RichEisen24. Must be 21 or older to order alcohol. Drink responsibly.

Alcohol available only in select markets. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. The hit show returns as the stakes get higher and more secrets are uncovered.

The former CIA agent sets off on his most important mission to date, to recover his daughter after she's kidnapped. FX's The Old Man premieres September 12th on FX, stream on Hulu. Let's talk about game time tickets, people. We've been talking about it actually for months here on The Rich Eisen Show and our Rich Eisen podcasts. But guess what? There's something new to tell you about game time. There's a new feature called game time picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. Game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. Yet another way that game time makes things easier for you when you're looking for tickets to anything in your area. With the new game time picks, it's curation easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and more. And with the all-in pricing feature, which is my favorite, you get to see the total upfront so there's no surprise fees at game time checkout. And with game time, you always get the lowest price guarantee or game time's going to credit you 110% of the difference plus your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets in particular with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use my code EISEN for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply. Visit gametime.co for restrictions. Again, create an account, redeem my code EISEN for $20 off. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. This is a letter written in March of 1998 to Colts owner Jim, or say at the time a month away in the draft, the decision between you and Peyton Manning. It's from Hunter S. Thompson. Dear James. Dear James, in response to your addled request for a quick $30 million loan to secure the services of the Manning kid, I have to say no at this time, but the leaf boy is another matter. He looks strong and Manning doesn't, or at least not strong enough to handle that welcome to the NFL business for two years without a world-class offensive line.

How are you fixed at left OT for the next few years, James? Think about it. You don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in. Wow. Okay. Let me know if you need some money for leaf.

I expect to be very rich when this debt movie comes out. Your faithful consultant, Hunter, and it's signed HST. The absurdity of the fact that A, Hunter S. Thompson knew who I was and B, that he was trying to persuade Mr. Ursay to draft me instead was just comical and not to see it for 20 years. How does it?

It just, it's just nowhere to be found. I call John Walsh of ESPN. It's a thousand percent real and Hunter S. Thompson was a huge NFL fan and obviously an opinion on the 1998 draft.

Well, I think now that we know that a lot of people had an opinion on the 1998 NFL draft. This is amazing. Isn't that amazing?

I love that line is that you don't want a China doll back there when that freak sap comes crashing in. The irony of all this, the irony of this, he would go on and play, start the most consecutive games of anybody. And I would be injured going into year two and missed the entire season. So we're just, just reminding people, strong underlined, strong, fun stuff with Brian leaf over the years. Check it all out on our YouTube channel and be a subscriber, please. Back on the rich eyes and show radio network sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry Grainger has the right product for you.

Grainger.com. Or just stop by. Look, who's back here from Fox sports and the athletic, our friend, Bruce Feldman here on the program. Do you want to ask Bruce on the air? What you asked him off the air? As soon as you saw him, you assaulted him with, as he came in here verbally assaulted him. Assaulted is very strong, a very strong term. A costed.

How about a costed? I think that's a better way of putting it. A little infused.

I mean, he barely stepped on the floor. Just wondering if you're coming aboard the Syracuse bandwagon, it's filling up fast. I could see it.

It actually is. It was a nice win over Georgia Tech. You have a quarterback who seems like he's in a comfort zone.

You know, obviously he got, it didn't end great at Ohio State. And I feel like what I like about Syracuse is there's a chip on their shoulder. Fran Brown, I think he put together a good staff and they're trying to make Syracuse relevant again.

It's been, you know, like Dino Babers had one really good year there. We're in a wait and see phase because the ACC is up for grabs. I'm buying Miami. I'm not sure who else I would, you know, Florida State looks really bad.

NC State got thumped last week. I don't know. Well, if you're grasping in any point in time, I don't know why you'd be thinking about it, but if you're grasping as to why that one year of Dino Babers didn't last, would you like to know? There's an actual reason why.

What is the theory? Chris? It's actually Rich's fault. Kind of.

Go ahead, tell him. Well, one year for my birthday, he had Dino come in, call in and wish me happy birthday. And when we talked Syracuse football, big surprise. And then after that, we went in the tank. He's the cooler. The mush? That guy right there.

The mush. It wasn't my idea to have him call in. No, it was my idea.

Right. Because it was, I thought it was nice. It was very nice. I thought you were very surprised.

I was very surprised. So Fran Brown is off limits for this show for his own doing. Yes. I don't want to talk to him.

I don't want to talk to Kyle McCord or Rodney Gatson, none of them. So there you go. File that one away. File that one away. Put it on, put him on your freaks list. I know that's quite a superpower you have there.

Yeah. Don't touch him. Look, I've been bugging you since February and the questions work at Fran Brown coach. Well, he's coaching up the offense pretty well.

Kyle McCord, we should have touched down past that. Why didn't it work when we had Sarkeesian on here? Maybe I should have had you talk to him. Well, he had no vested interest in that.

That's correct. No, no, he does have a vested interest in me. Me being miserable. No, stop it.

That's his pleasure. You had your fun last year. Texas reminds me of Michigan last year with a quarterback returning and an NFL upside, a team that just lost the previous national semifinal playoff game and it sticks in and it puts a chip on their shoulder, studs all over the place, an offensive line that can manhandle you, defense that can get after you. They look like a national championship team to me. I think they look like a national championship team too.

I was in there last week. The part I don't see the parallel with is how they win, right? So I think with Harbaugh, you had a team that was first and foremost was all about physicality. I think Sark wants to be physical too.

They look pretty damn physical to me. And their offensive line I thought was terrific. I thought Sark had a great game plan for it. He was awesome.

Quinn Ewers was very sharp and he's played a lot of really good games on the road, like in hostile environments. It's funny. At one point in the first quarter on the sideline and there was a security guy right near me on the field. He was actually on the Texas side and I said, how long have you been doing this?

He said, 57 years. And he said, this is as loud as it's ever been for Ohio State, which is a good statement or metric. And then after a couple of series, they get down and it's like, they're getting down double digits. And Michigan cannot keep up with these guys. They're not even one dimensional right now on offense, they're like no dimensional. And some of that is a big credit to Texas. I think Texas didn't even have to show a lot of stuff. Like Texas has, they may have six receivers who are all better than the best receiver Michigan has.

Not tight end, but just the outside guys. And I think Sark has built them. To me, there are three teams that I feel like have a really good chance of winning a national title.

And they are? They are Georgia, Texas, and Ohio State. Now Oregon has not looked very good so far.

They're 2-0, but they've scuffled. I thought Oregon would be one of those teams in the mix. You have a couple of SEC teams that are kind of hovering around the radar. When does Miami play somebody to get them in that mix for you? Because they've- Not till the playoff. Pretty much.

Yeah. Miami could smash. Look, Florida State doesn't look very good right now. I'm not saying Miami can't stub its toe.

They certainly could. But the way Cam Ward is playing- Phenomenal. Yeah. Phenomenal. You're seeing a guy with a ton of confidence. He's got a lot of weapons. Cristobal has really recruited well.

They've killed it in the portal. I think they're getting deeper. I think they're the class of the ACC, but it's still the ACC. They're not going to see anybody where you'll be able to say, oh yeah, they can compete for the national title. I definitely think they're going to be a playoff team. They can be a top four seed because they would win the ACC.

A lot has to happen. But I just think there are teams that feel like they're superpower teams, and they're the three I mentioned. You could throw in potentially Tennessee. You could throw in Ole Miss. We'll find out a little bit more about Missouri this weekend. And then we have Alabama.

I'm going to see them this weekend at Wisconsin. They struggle for three quarters and then pulled away from USF. But I just think there's these other teams that are, whether it's a Big 12 school or an ACC school, you're not going to really know if they can really hang with those teams, I think, until the playoff actually starts to get going.

So they're going to be the who have they really beaten team of 2024 is what you're saying. Yeah. I mean, look at it this way. I don't want to steer the show right now.

Please go for it. I've sat there and thought about what's the playoff going to look like in terms of like, oh, you can be 10 and 2. You might even be able to be 9 and 3 if you're an SEC team, depending on who it is you play. The idea that Notre Dame mid-September cannot afford another loss, and they actually haven't had a nice opening week win at Texas A&M.

They sure did. And then they lose to NIU. It's the first top 10 win in NIU's history.

And it's a great story for them. But I don't know if they have any more margin for error because, yes, USC is looking better than people thought. But Florida State, who's also on their schedule, is looking much worse. Who are they going to beat? Who are people going to go, oh, yeah, that's a really, really good win. There aren't going to be any, you know, unless USC goes out and sits at 11 and 0 before they play them, I don't think there's anybody going to be like a top 10 or even top 15 team that's going to be on the resume.

Now you've got this loss. And I think that's the part where the, I feel like the playoff committee is going to be sitting there choosing from the SEC, well, I think there'll be, there could be five teams in there, but there'll probably be four, and we'll see what the rest of the Big Ten looks like. Yeah.

How many would you suss out? I know it's, we're really early here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because the way I would see it, it's Ohio State, right?

Penn State. Yeah. On the, well, Oregon, USC, the way that they're playing right now, correct? So far. So far. They look, you know- These are the ones that you could choose from the mix.

Again, I don't know what my alma mater is going to look like. They're going to have to play a heck of a lot better than we've seen over the first two weeks in order to- On both sides of the ball. Sure. On both sides of the ball. Trust me. I mean, right now they're best, their best player right now consistently is the place maker.

Who's phenomenal. And that's not what you want to be able to say. Can you be happy with having just won a national title? Yes. Let's say that. Yes. Okay.

Don't you have to finish up? I mean, obviously, you know, multiple loss season would be disappointing and it'd be tough to watch. Oh, you're going to have that. I mean, but like the question is, I was going to say, can you be happy with, like, how hard would it be for you to watch the team coming off a national title go eight and four or seven and five? It'd be tough. Of course it would be.

It would be difficult. Umbrage. Umbrage. Umbrage. Umbrage in the fact that Harbaugh won, you know.

No. Come on, man. I'm dining off of 2023 for a while.

For 2023, I will be dining off for a good long while, Matt. But you know, in this, and the questions will definitely come from the alumni base for sure that in this world of transfer portal and all that stuff, you know. Why did you get the quarterback situation the way it is? I think some of the timing was really awkward for them because it dragged on. When you had the situation with Jim, you know, with the NFL, I don't know, you know, who they could have gotten. It would be like, oh yeah, that's a big, big upgrade from, especially what they want to do on offense.

You know, obviously hindsight is 20, 20, you know, who knows? It's early. Maybe one of those guys like Davis throws it pretty well. It's just like, again, I think the issues are more than just quarterback there. I just think the receivers right now are really, really underwhelming. The guy I wonder about, like Donovan Edwards looked amazing in Ohio State two years ago in Columbus and obviously had two long touchdown runs in the title game, but like, he's the guy. It was like, man, you know, give them a spark, give them something.

And they just don't have it. The line also went from two, like almost, you know, 250 combined career games under their belts to, you know, barely 50. I mean, and again, it's just week two.

We can see one Big Ten team I would like to talk about is Nebraska. That kid, Riola, looks like a real deal. And he doesn't look like a kid in person either. No, I mean, he's baby Mahomes, right? Like he kind of, he looks like him. He kind of walks like him.

You know what I mean? He's probably physically about the same size. He's 6'3", 230. I mean, he has the same like similar hairstyle.

You know, when he wears sunglasses, he really looks like him. Right. I know. And I don't think he's shying away from that either.

I don't know. And Bobby Stroup, who is like the trainer who worked with Pat when Pat was much younger and does some really advanced things in terms of like body mechanics wise. And I think it helped Patrick do some of the unconventional stuff that he's so remarkable at.

I think Dylan has the athleticism and has some of those traits. Look, they were, I watched that game on a flight home from Ann Arbor last week. They were all over, all over CU. And then they... First half, they... Yeah. Then they pulled off the throttle. It kind of felt like it was over by halftime.

It was over by, and they pulled off the throttle. But the way the schedule sets up, they have a really good chance of going at least I think 6-0 before the schedule starts to heat up. Right. You know, Matt Ruhl's a really good coach, and we're seeing it. In year two, like he usually has really rough first years, which he did in his two previous stops. And then year two, he gets them to a bowl game. They haven't been to a bowl game in a long, long time.

You know, it's crazy. And they have a good D line. Their D line got it. I know CU's really awful up front, but they got after them, and I think they're going to be a good... I mean, I'm glad we're talking about it. I mean, they're going to be a good story in the Big Ten this year. I think, again, I know it's early, but they, I think, are going to be in the running for a playoff spot. I know that's saying a lot.

It's saying a lot, but you just even pointed out 6-0. That's a heck of a start, from which all you got to do is just pick off one or two that you're supposed to not pick off. And then suddenly you're building a resume, and they look talented. They look sharp. They look much faster than I've ever seen them in recent years. And they got a kid like this right now.

Yeah. Huge recruit for them. The speed part, I think, Rule did that at Baylor really well. He identified... Like, I would have guys on my freaks list that were guys that... I'm not saying none of them were big recruits, but they were guys with big track backgrounds who he kind of invested in time.

They developed them. He does a really good job. I mean, I think for people who are maybe watching this and thinking, oh, yeah, it did not work in the NFL, that doesn't mean he's not a really good college coach. I thought what he did at Baylor was truly remarkable, because he took over a situation that was toxic in Waco.

Oh, my goodness. He did almost... Everything I thought he did was right. And it was not easy to do it all right. Like, he followed Jim Grove, had the job in the interim between Bryles. And Jim Grove is a really decent man, really well regarded.

And I think there was a lot of awkward moments that he had to kind of wade through, and sometimes they got messy. And when he got in there, he being Rule, I thought he just was really masterful in how he handled it, and there's a little bit of buyer beware at Nebraska, just because anybody who covers college football thought when Scott Frost got there, oh, yeah, home run higher. He crushed it at UCF. He's coming home. He knows how to recruit, all this stuff. We're all buying in. And then it didn't work. And here's Matt Rule, similar. He was multiple stops successful.

He's a Penn State guy from the Northeast, but it seemed like a really good hire, and it's looking like a really good hire. Bruce Feldman here on the Rich Eisen Show. Take a break and have another segment with you. Let's talk, because your phone's blowing up, too. I want to give you a chance to look at your phone. Tell these people to stop calling.

Do they not have a... Find a mute at it. Sorry. All right. There we go. Bruce Feldman from the Athletic and Fox Sports. When we come back, we'll talk Dion, Colorado, and the rest of college football through a couple of weeks.

Three, two. Hey, everybody. There's a great new podcast that just launched I want to tell you about. It's called Throwbacks.

And I know the guys who are doing it. It's hosted by former Entourage star Jerry Ferrara and former USC quarterback Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, who then went on to play in the National Football League for the Arizona Cardinals. So Matt has a ton of experience to tell you about, playing for an iconic college football team, winning that trophy, and then, of course, all the behind-the-scenes stories from his time in college and professional football, while Jerry is one of the leads of an iconic television series. He's got you covered on what it was like being a young guy starring in a show that everyone was talking about, and he's also the voice of the fans. So Matt brings that former player expertise, and Jerry brings that voice of the maniacal sports fan. Enjoy hanging out with your new favorite pair of throwbacks every Thursday.

Follow and subscribe to Throwbacks on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're gonna love their friendly, helpful service even better, because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. And the parts knowledge they have, it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs.

They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in-store or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam. The team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car. If it needs to be replaced, they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle.

Need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or a quick service? They'll help you there. You can find the right part, or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help. The professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts are your one-stop shop for all things auto. Do it yourself, and you can find what you need in-store or online. So stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today, or visit us at OReillyAuto.com slash EISEN.

That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N, O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. All right, back here on the Rich Eisen Show with our friend Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports. So you were in Ann Arbor last week. Where are you going this week? I'm going to Madison. I'm excited to see Wisconsin against Alabama. I've only done one game in Camp Randall. It's an awesome place.

It really is. And I want to see what Alabama is going to look like. Jalen Moreau is a really special talent. Obviously, Kalen DeBoer took over for the legend there, and I think they're good.

I don't know. Like, right now, I feel like I have more confidence in, I think, in Ole Miss and Tennessee right now. Like, last week, and I think USF is better than people give them credit for, but they really struggle with them for three quarters. And we'll see how, like, Moreau fits in this offense and how Kalen DeBoer makes it work as far as Wisconsin. It's year two for Luke Fickel.

I thought he was a really good hire. They're struggling to find an identity right now. And Wisconsin?

Do you want to touch on them? Yeah, I just think that there's no more Big Ten West, but we just talked about Nebraska for a while. It feels like, if you look at tiers for T-I-E-R-S, not the other ones. It feels like it's Ohio State, I think Oregon's there. I know they haven't looked great in the first two weeks, but they're 2-0. Penn State struggled last week a little bit with Bowling Green, but they looked good against West Virginia, and I think their offense is much better with Andy Kolonicki running it. I think Penn State's there because they have a lot of athletes on defense. USC?

Maybe. I mean, you know, it's hard to read too much into Utah State, but the fact is they shut them out and have not had big busts on defense. Like Dan Lin's a terrific defensive coordinator. He showed it last year at UCLA.

I think he's really smart. I think they have gotten buttoned up in the fundamentals. They added some nice players in the portal. Miller Moss has been terrific so far. They got really good receivers. They're like a dangerous team. I don't know if they're good enough on the O-line to be a Top Ten team, but I think because they're more buttoned up on defense and because I think the passing game is so dangerous, because he's accurate, he's really smart, he sees the field, and they have four or five really good receivers, I think they can have a chance to win ten games.

I don't know if I would... I feel like Oregon's a more talented team. And USC? Yeah, but the gap is closer than I probably would have thought it would be, and Penn State, I mean, I don't know. But I definitely feel like USC right now looks like they're in a lot better shape than Michigan does. Bruce Feldman here on the Rich Eisen Show from Fox Sports and The Athletic. So what's your opinion of the first two weeks of Colorado Buffalo's football?

Yeah. So the first week, they played a good FCS program in North Dakota State. They skated by. Travis Hunter was fantastic. Last week, they just got whooped.

It is the first time. They're at Nebraska, big difference from the year before when Nebraska was turning it over left and right, with Jeff Simms playing quarterback, and then you got Dylan Raiola, who looked really good. It's the first time since Deion's been there where the defense actually looked better on the offense.

And some of that's credit to Robert Livingston. That was a good hire by Deion, and he's a long-time assistant with the Bengals, first time defensive coordinator. I think they are better on the D line. The problem is, they are so bad on the O line, and there's a lot of stuff that you're just like, man, this feels like it's going in a really bad direction right now.

Why is that? Is it the stuff with the media? It's all sorts of stuff. It's just like, I feel like, is Chidor and Deion, are they on the team bus with them? It's all these little things that I don't know if they're little or not. And there's so many times where it feels like they're trying to put out little media fires. And I don't know if they're media fires or if they're team chemistry fires. Who knows?

But I think we'll know. I think this team has enough frontline talent to win eight games. They're also shaky enough on the offensive line and in some places where they can also only win four games.

I don't think the margin for error is that great. The way that that happens is if Chidor is hurt, right? And the way that he gets hurt is because the line is shaky, again, protecting him and getting maybe a balance in the game with a run game. And it's just like him throwing 50 times. I think some of that is stuff, but some of that is, a lot of that is on the head coach now. I mean, you have an O line coach who's never been, he was a GA, but this is the first time where it's his room. That's a big challenge when you're trying to build an offensive line that was horrible last year.

And there's a lot of new guys in it. You're starting a talented, but still a true freshman at one of the tackles. The right side of the offensive line looks really bad. Now they played a good D line at Nebraska last week.

I think that D line is better. They should be able to win the next two games. It's Colorado State who gave them a good game last year. Oh my goodness gracious. That's where the stat was, Shadesgate, right?

Yeah. And then they have Baylor who's struggling, but Dave Aranda is running the defense now. Dave Aranda is one of the sharpest defensive minds in all of football. You got to come out of those two games three and one if you're them.

Because if they're not, I think all these other things that kind of start to come to light these little, again, I don't know if they're little or medium sized little grease fires. But there's just a lot of stuff that successful teams don't have like that, I feel like. And again, some of it has become an us against the world vibe that I feel like is happening with CU and Deion.

Look, and I'm a person who thought, said before the season, I think they're going to win eight games. I'm not off, I'm not checked out on it because I do think the defense is better than it was last year, significantly better. I think Chidor is a terrific quarterback.

And I think they not only have Travis Hunter, I think Jimmy Horn Jr. is terrific. And they have two other receivers who are very good. It's just that the O-line's bad and they don't do anything in the run game.

And so eventually, how do you hold up in that? How do you play complimentary football to support the other side of the ball? And they're also like, they don't have great depth. And again, it's fascinating to watch, but I think a lot of the people who were all in on Deion are getting some buyer's remorse of how it's working out right now.

But I mean, if you're talking about Matt Rule, we talked about before, the coach that just beat Colorado, and how it takes a couple of years for him to get his program up and running, correct? I mean, Deion took over damn near a zero-win football team. No, they were awful.

They were awful. Correct. And I understand that when Deion says, we're coming, and people will then say, okay, the opposition was coming for you, and then look at you, you've lost. And so I understand that the manner in which he conducts his postgame press conferences leads to people to say, not give him the time to build, right?

If I put you on the spot with this question, I want to hear your answer. So if I said to you, give me a percent chance that Deion Sanders will be the head coach of Colorado a year from now, keeping in mind that Chidor is probably going to go in the draft, and I would guess would be a first round pick, Travis Hunter likely would go in the draft and also be a very high pick. I think Travis Hunter might be a top five pick. Oh, he's phenomenal.

In the NFL. He's phenomenal. That's for real, Matt, for sure.

And Chidor is really good. Yeah, he is. You're saying that Deion just took the Colorado job to get his kid drafted? No, I am saying like two years, I'm asking you, how certain are you that you think when those guys leave, Deion's still going to be the head coach at CU? Listen, I love the guy, and just like everybody else that I love, I can't get in his head. I can't get in anybody's head like that, but I would say he's going to be there, yeah.

You think there's a more than 50% chance? Yeah, because the guy loves to coach. He loves to coach.

He loves to fish. I think he does dig it up there. I think it's going to be way harder for him when those- Why do you think he'd want to tap out? I don't know if it's tapping out. It definitely would be tapping out.

I think the job will be way harder when you do not have Chidor and Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn Jr. Like, I think without those guys, I feel like that program feels like it could be a two and- Have you ever thought that Deion could get Travis Hunter? Remember that? That was the eyebrow razor of the day when he's like, yeah, guess who I got?

From my alma mater, too. And so why can't he do it again? It's possible. I mean, look, you could say, hey, I see you as the next Travis, and you can sell that. He's actually shown that. You can say he's raised a first round, I think. I think he'll be a first round quarterback.

And so you can sell that. But I just think, to me, unlike most programs, the gap between the top players and their roster and what's behind them is profound. I'm not saying Riola isn't markedly better than Harburg, who's their backup or whatnot. But I don't think, for as great as Jeremiah Smith is at Ohio State, the freshman receiver, the guys behind him are going to be probably really good NFL players. Well, that's Ohio State wide receivers. I know.

I know. I'm comparing. But even still, if you look at, like, pick Penn State guys, again, because we're talking about playoff teams. We're not talking about the Oklahoma States and Arizona's and the rest of the Big 12. But even like, to me, it's just like, you're talking about first round draft guys compared to the guys behind him, behind them, feel like there's a huge gap.

And I'm just thinking when they leave. Well, here's how I would also respond, is that Deion's entire career in life, he's always, it's always assumed he's doing stuff just for himself. Oh, I think he's- Or just for the sizzle, just for the attention, must be the money, right? And then you scratch deeper and it's deeper than that.

It always is deeper than that. So I would counsel just to say, I understand the vibe that you get, like when his kid's gone and Travis Hunter's gone and the other top guys are gone, he might think about the exits rather than trying to build it up with other people. My question for you is where would he wind up? I don't know. Is he coaching anymore?

Like everything, my sense of it is, the first and foremost thing is you see a dad who is doing everything he can to help his sons. And I would put Travis in there because he has such a bond with him, but I feel like a lot of it is everything is built around, Chidor, Shiloh, now somebody else would make the case, hey, if he was doing everything he could, why would he not get the offensive line better? And they're trying. It's just a hard thing to do in college football to develop an offensive line.

You can't just like put it in, put a bunch of ingredients in a pot and then you get something out of it. But like, I feel like everything is about Chidor and his sons and trying to develop them and showcase them and nurture them. And look, he is, I think it's really hard to raise a first round quarterback. Again, and this was a guy who started out as college at an FCS level and has proven a ton of people wrong.

But I don't know, what is, I would say, let's say those guys both leave as first round picks. I don't know what, and only Deion would be able to answer this, but after that, what is the thing that's going to drive him to do all this stuff that it takes to build a program that can compete for championships? It is a grind and there's a lot of stuff that is like, it's a much harder job, I think, now than it was 10 years ago in terms of like the recruiting piece of it.

And it's not just being on Zooms when you have like some transfer, it's not just having an NIL war chest. I just think there's so much that goes into it, so many headaches and everything else. And I think it gets just, I actually think it becomes a lot harder after this year. Maybe what would keep him going is the fact that folks would be questioning he's not up for the grind or doesn't want to do it once his kid's out the door.

Maybe that's what it is. We know he's great on TV. I know he knows some TV people who think very highly of him. Bruce, you're the best, man. Thanks for taking in here.

Fascinating conversations of college football. Enjoy. I'm not hijacking the show. You didn't hijack the show at all, man.

Please don't think for another second. I love when you come on and it's always thought-provoking and informative and interesting. Have a good time in Wisconsin, sir. Can't wait. That's it. Hour number three, my power rankings. Your phone call is at 844-204-RICH, number to dial.

Still here on the Roku channel. You haven't hijacked a thing. Okay. I always feel guilty when I feel like I come in and try to- Why do you feel guilty? I mean, he's the one who hijacked this whole thing with him coming in and barking at you about Syracuse.

I was not barking. I merely asked a question. Look, as somebody who grew up in upstate New York and somebody who remembers the Pasquiloni and Coach Mac days, I think it's awesome if Syracuse can be relevant for a little bit. One hundred percent. One of the saddest stories in recent memory is what? When Dabo came in and pointed out Jim Brown's jersey, number 44, and the kids didn't know. Remember that story? Yeah, yeah.

I think that was it. When Clemson went in, for the first time as an ACC team, and pointed at 44, and they're like, who? Rob Conrad. I forget who he is. Rob Conrad.

Good one. Do you have a neck roll? Did Rob Conrad have the neck roll?

Rob Conrad was in the stats class before me on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Are you serious? Yes. So he was a senior and I was a freshman. Is this like the Dan Conley era too?

Maybe, yeah. And he didn't show up on Mondays, because it was the day after a game, and never showed up on Friday, day before a game. Only went to class on Wednesdays. Way to put together a highlight reel for the academic benefits of going to Syracuse. Way to go.

Or just that useless stats class. Way to go. Look where it got you, though. See what I mean? Look where it's gotten him.

As the mush of the Rich Eisen show. Kyle McCord Heisman. There you go. This guy. 75 to 1. He was 100 to 1 a month ago. Hey, if Don McPherson couldn't win it.

And that was when the Syracuse had more of the national spotlight. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone's senior writer Brian Hyatt, movie director James Mangold. I'd want to turn Bob Dylan into a simple character with a simple thing to unlock that then makes you go, ah, now I get him. First time I sat down with him, he said, what's this movie about, Jim? It's about a guy who's joking to death in Minnesota and reinvents himself in a branded place, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to joke to death again, and runs away. And you smile. It's like, I like that. Join Music Now, wherever you listen.