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Use code Spotify at cozyearth.com and save up to 40%. That's cozyearth.com. This is the Rich Eisen Show. And the Michigan Wolverines will shock the college football world. They gotta learn how to lose, man.
You can't be fighting this stuff. From the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. Oh my, that'll be Al Shire who's flagged for the big hit on the slide and that's going to start a little bit of a scrum afterwards. Earlier on the show, pro football hall of famer Charles Woodson.
Coming up, complete week 13 recap, latest news, and more. And now it's Rich Eisen. Hour number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. 844-204 Rich.
Number to dial. The whole hour is wide open because Charles Woodson was in hour number one. And you know, I might be able to fit a shoehorn in a couple more comments about this weekend's action. I'm surprised we haven't done all two hours so far. I was prepared for a solid three to be honest with you.
I'm very well-rounded. I can talk about other things like the National Football League writ large and how tonight that there's a game between the Broncos and the Browns. It's pretty big for the Denver Broncos and absolutely huge for the Browns because if the Browns lose then no one in Ohio won football games.
See, so in that sense we are doing three hours. I did look this up. Ohio University did win over the weekend. Did they really?
Hey, Peter King's happy. And the Cavs beat the Celtics, sorry. Hey, Jaylen Brown wasn't playing last night, so there's that. There's that. Oh, I did lose to Smitch in fantasy basketball. I will not be going undefeated.
Well, that was bound to happen. Hey, your fantasy football team, you know, Saquon's winning you a couple. Let me tell you, it's not just Saquon in our league. You know, Mike Evans came back. Mike Evans, I think the Wolf dropped Evans a few weeks ago. I snatched him up.
Well, your problem is that you're still on the outside looking in. You need to win a few more. There was one game, Rich, where Joe Mixon came back. I didn't realize it. How about, hold on a second. I'm sorry.
How about Smitch sending this? This is how I knew you lost. What do we call this? The victory alert? This announcement. Yeah, yeah. You log into the app.
From our friends at Yahoo. Congratulations, you are now. Okay. I'm sorry you lost. That's interesting.
Smitch takes the time to do that. That's how I found out you lost this weekend. I opened up the email. I was like, oh, okay. Guys, I put up 175 on Jordan, okay? So that's in our league. And then also in the league that we're in with the fantasy footballers. Oh, we're so good.
We have the Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin combination, along with Saquon and Kenneth Walker and Brock Bowers. Yeah. We're taking some momentum. We're going to win this league. Careful. Careful. We're going to win this league. Careful.
I have no problem saying it. The Overreaction Monday podcast is up. It's been up for two hours. Chris Brockman and I did it before the show started. Susie Schuster and Amy Trask will be chatting with Daniel Jeremiah on What the Football Tomorrow. There's a lot to talk about with DJ.
He was in the radio booth for the Chargers win over the Falcons. Falcons better start winning some football games right now because the Bucks are coming. And you could say, well, the Bucks barely beat the Panthers. Panthers are going to be no one's homecoming the rest of this year.
They are different. They have turned a corner. He scored like 27 points.
Definitely. They have turned a corner and Thielen's back healthy, one handing stuff. I thought his double catch in the back of the end zone was in fact a touchdown. I was surprised they didn't overturn that.
And those are four points they could have used. Low key. That was a great game. That was a fun game.
I had a lot of fantasy going on there. Bucky Irving was going off. Yeah. Bucky Irving and they have a three headed monster, including your Syracuse orange, Sean Tucker. Yep.
If he wants to get in there as well. Kate Otten, I know they're missing. I know they're missing Godwin, but this is one of those teams. I just love watching Baker play, as you know. He went down, it looked bad. I thought it was over. And then he comes back in, throws an interception, which looked even worse.
And they give up a touchdown at the end of the game, need three to tie it, and Baker gets it done with all three timeouts. That was well done. Yep. He thought he tore his Achilles. Oh, jeez.
Well, you know how everyone- Chas A. McLaughlin. You know how everyone tears it, says they thought someone stepped on them and they didn't? Yeah.
Luckily for Baker, someone actually did step on him. Oh, yeah. So that is what he felt.
So it wasn't- That was scary, too. Next up for Tampa, home for Vegas at the Chargers at Dallas on a Sunday night, unless that gets flexed out. They're probably waiting to see if your Cowboys keep winning football games. Oh, we're on a roll. And then it's home for Carolina, home for New Orleans. That's the Bucks sitting at six and six. They're back at 500. Finally back in a piece of first place, but they're technically not in first because they did lose twice to Atlanta, which is suddenly losing its steam. I mean, Atlanta has lost three in a row now. Their last win was against Dallas back in week nine. They lose in New Orleans. They lose at Denver. It got blown out at Denver. They come off the bye and the Chargers just hit him in the mouth. Got to give it up to the Los Angeles Chargers.
And this is something that DJ will talk about with Susie and Amy on Tuesday. I mean, they were all over. Kirk Cousins, he had four picks. Four. His passer rating was 40. Straight on.
Straight out. 40.0. It's like minus 1.9 fantasy points. His 15th career pick six helped doom him. The worst one was the one in the end zone was the one in the end zone that he just threw up for grabs.
Laid over the middle. Cost him three points. Khou missed another field goal. And he's the first player with a hundred or more pass attempts since week 10 with six or more interceptions. One pick six over that three game span. Last one to do it was Favre with the Packers in 05. I mean, Bijan had a hundred scrimmage yards or more for an eighth straight game and they've lost three in a row.
I mean, that's it. And the Chargers have a defense that is opportunistic. Derwin James' pick to end the game. They had a pick six.
They sacked. Cousins over and over again. Ladidi Mikongke. Ladidi. Nine catches, 117 yards.
The rest of the team had seven catches for 33. He's becoming the lone target threat and nobody seems to be able to stop him for Justin Herbert. Ladidi Mikongke. That guy. This is amazing. This is from Elias. Gave this to NFL network. Ladidi Mikongke is just the third Georgia alum to have over a hundred receiving yards in an NFL game in Atlanta. You know the last one to do it was? AJ Green. Nope.
Nope. A running back mate of Terrell Davis. Back in the day, Hines Ward was the last to do it in 2006 and the only other one was Baltimore's Jimmy Orr in 1968.
How about Ladidi Mikongke? And the Chargers are now sitting there at eight and four. What a bounce back win that was for them. And the Chargers now are at Kansas City next.
OMG. Before having Baker come to their house, a big game against Denver on a Thursday night that's been flexed into by Amazon Prime, before finishing up at New England and Vegas. Chargers are well positioned to make the playoffs if they can get things done. And then there's that game at Kansas City. Let's talk about the Chiefs here a little bit.
I know we've got a lot of plans here, as the Bears have spoken about their job opening. And we do have to hit on the Steelers, but let's just linger here about the Kansas City Chiefs for a second. Once again, it looks like they're going to lose and they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They've already won football games by blocked field goal when it looks like they are dead to rights. Denver had them dead to rights.
Their first opponent of the year didn't have an opportunity to go for two to win or force overtime for a chance to win because Isaiah Likley's foot was out of bounds by a quarter inch. Not even. Less than that. Centimeters.
We can go metric. No, no. Okay. Know about that. We know about other ones, right?
There's been other ones. No one in Carolina had them dead to rights. Just left too much time on the clock and let Patrick Mahomes keep running down the sideline to set up a game-winning field goal. That's just the latest one until Black Friday, when the Raiders had them dead to rights. And all they had to do was just run one more play, get a little closer for a game-winning field goal with no time left. Aidan O'Connell claps for the football, turns to his left, not looking for the snap, and it hits him in the shoulder. And the Chiefs recover.
And the game is over. It is yet another instance of the Kansas City Chiefs dodging the bullet. And in conjunction with the Dolphins loss on Thanksgiving night, and with this happening on Friday, prior to the Buffalo Bills clinching their division, which we started the show with, the Kansas City Chiefs clinched a playoff spot. 10th consecutive season they've made the playoffs, did it with five weeks remaining. That's the tide for the earliest the team has clinched a playoff berth since the 70 merger. The 2009 Colts were the last team to do it.
We all know the Bills matched it on Sunday night. If I told you, what if I told you, a team won 14 straight times in a game of a one-score margin, including the playoffs, to be the longest such streak in the history of the National Football League and have a 54-point differential in 2024, you'd say that's the quarterback. You'd say that team is a force to be reckoned with. They win games late.
They know how to close. And they're scoring more than the opposition quite a bit. Oh, and by the way, they have an all-time great at quarterback, who now has 100 wins as a starter, including the playoffs, to become the first such quarterback in the history of the franchise to hit a century mark in wins. And there is another quarterback in this franchise's history that's in the Hall of Fame. Oh, and he's tied Tom Brady for the fewest starts to 100 wins by a quarterback since 1950.
126 starts. And you'd say that, well, that team's also the two-time defending Super Bowl champs. Would you say that team's in trouble?
Oh, and they're 11-1 through 12 games. Would you say that team's in trouble? I think everyone else on this set would say that team's in trouble. I know you do, Chris.
Do you think this team's in trouble, TJ Jefferson? I mean, I get what Chris is saying, right? What are you saying? I haven't said anything, actually.
Okay. You've been saying it all year, especially recently. I just think you watch them play and you're like, dude, come on. But the fact of the matter is when you find ways to win, right? And they're winning by any means necessary. Some games, they're outperforming. Some games, the refs are helping them. Some games, divine intervention is just beaming down on them. Sometimes they're pulling out a Philgo block.
When you watch the replay, you see how they stack the line. They're just finding ways to win. And I think there's something to be said about that. That's all they got to do. Yeah. There's another F word. Fluki. They're winning Fluki. I'll take that too. And at some point you can't rely on that.
You don't have to. But they are. I mean, there's seven and five if all these Fluke things don't go their way. Somebody at some point, because it's now official, they're in it. They're in the tournament. And it's only a matter of time until we find out how many home games they get in said tournament. And home games guaranteed for them if they keep staying in the tournament.
It's only a matter of time we figure that out. And they are one of the four teams that play on Christmas Day, meaning they have the dreaded Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday, week 15 through week 17 schedule. After their Sunday nighter against the Chargers in week 14, they visit Cleveland. They're home for Houston. They're at Pittsburgh, which is going to be a monster game.
Monster game. One of the rare moments I'd imagine people in Buffalo are rooting for the Steelers. Because all the Bills need is just to be one game better than the Chiefs. And they're the one seed. Somebody's going to have to beat this team, the two-time defending champs. Somebody's going to have to do it. Or not.
Now, Chris is saying the team that will beat to knock off the Kansas City Chiefs at the end of the day will be the Kansas City Chiefs. Something's going to happen where the fluke doesn't appear and the switch doesn't get flipped. I just won't take the cheese.
Not going to do it. And I will obviously either go down with the shit. It's not a matter of taking the cheese. It happened last year.
It's trusting what you're seeing. Same thing, different stories. It's the same Madlib story, just different proper names and proper stats. And that's okay.
And if one team decides to run it more than six times in the game, perhaps there was a different ending last year. It's like, come on. They're right there.
Just do it. They're dying to get beat. Just beat them. They're asking you to beat them. Week after week. They're doing stuff to shoot themselves in the foot when they have the opportunity to beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Just do it. They're asking you to beat them. They gave up five sacks of Mahomes. For the second straight game, that's a problem. Another problem is they're not running the football as consistently. Pacheco's back now.
Pacheco is back. I know 44 rush yards on seven carries. That's not bad. And your point is, again, here's the stat that shows off the fluke-iness that you're referring to. That.54 point differential, that plus 54 I mentioned, is the lowest all-time for a team to start 11 or one or better through 12 games. I'm not saying it's the same, but a couple years ago, weren't the Steelers 11 and 0?
How did that season end? But they weren't two-time defending champs with a bunch of players on the team other than Roethlisberger, who knew how to close. They're a Hall of Fame coach. Hold on. That's like two-time defending champs, yes. But that's like looking at the roulette wheel and being like, oh, it's a red, red, red, red, red, red. It's got to be red again. It's a different season.
Different circumstances. Same number 15. This is so exciting. And by the way, it's a three-peat on the line, too.
It's an unprecedented result on the line. They've also lost to the two teams that they could, the Super Bowl team they can play, Detroit and Buffalo. Well, they lost to Detroit last year, Mike.
I know that, but I'm saying Detroit hasn't changed much. If they play them in the Super Bowl, they're better. They're better. They're a more confident team than the one that knocked them off in week one of last year. And Buffalo beat them already.
No, I get it. And the Ravens are good enough. And maybe the Steelers are good enough. And ifs and buts and candies and nuts.
And maybe somebody's grandmother's a wagon with the wheels. True. Somebody is going to have to do it.
Oh yeah. Let me ask you guys. Bottom line is this. It's fourth quarter. There's 220 left. The Chiefs are down two. They're down six. They're down eight. And they've got two timeouts in the ball at the 20. Are you thinking in your mind, Mahomes is going to lose this game? Because I'm thinking he's going to find a way to win this.
And thank you for proving my point. A team that gives the Chiefs that opportunity is stupid and doesn't deserve to win. Exactly.
Take it all the way down to zero. Don't let them get the ball back. You have to play smart and you have to play perfect.
It's out there and they and other teams can do it and have the ability. And you also have to you have to finish perfect even if you have taken it all the way down to zero like the Broncos did exactly and didn't defend on their field goal attempts properly. You got to do it all the way. You got to do all the way down.
You got to do it all the way down. But the Raiders had them again. Patriots had them. And look what happened.
They had them again. And it's a November game. Let me just say this, though, also as well. Let me just say this and then we'll throw it a break.
And we got I want to talk Bears and Steelers before we get out of here. How good is Brock Bowers? I think a lot of teams look. Dude, this year's draft was weird, but the quarterbacks teams going quarterback crazy, right? But for him being the 13th overall pick is absolutely insane. And we're going to look back when Bowers goes into the Hall of Fame and say, why was he the 13th pick in this draft? And it would be fascinating if the Raiders wind up getting the quarterback pick position right in this upcoming draft.
Okay. And, or, or they get it right in, let's just say, between this year and next, or even the year after. That the narrative coming out of the draft that the Raiders blew it in the draft because they didn't get their quarterback in that draft might just be completely wiped out by the fact that they have one of the most game-changing tight ends that this league has seen in some time. And I know that might be an overreaction based on the first 13 weeks of this kid's career.
Yeah, I think it is. Dude is a monster. I mean, I have him on fantasy. I love him, but they're, they've won two games. So he's not changing. But the quarterbacks that are throwing to him are a rotation of, of, of guys that aren't going to be his quarterbacks in the future. And he's open or he's not open and he's still getting open. He finds a way to get open in this league and run after the catch and everybody knows who's going to get it, you know, or at least first look, I mean, Jacoby Myers is a nice option as well. I mean, they have some, they have some weapons that they're getting together, but this kid is game-changing. He's, he's real. He's a problem.
I look at it picks eight, nine. Do you think Atlanta or Chicago wish they'd taken Bowers instead of Atlanta? I mean, Atlanta at some point, but it's just barely playing right now. But Chris, how do you sell that to your family? She's going to draft another tight end.
I get it. By the way, I think that fan base sitting down there in the state of Georgia, getting Brock Bowers would have reacted in a much more positive manner than, Hey, Hey, we just signed, we just signed a guy for 40 million bucks a year at the quarterback spot. Let's, let's now take, we're such a great franchise, ready to win now that we're going to let's, let's, let's go get the quarterback of the future. Imagine the charger. I know, I know Joe Alts is awesome, but like the chargers with Brock Bowers.
Well, you know the way the gym wins games though. That's it. Let's Joe Alts on the right side, Rashawn Slater on the left. And by the way, that team's eight and four.
Can't complain with what he's done already. I get it. By the way, he's plussed him up three times and we're in week 13.
Yeah. But they got the Chiefs next. Let's take a break. Speaking of quarterback of the future, hold on, hold on a second. Quarterback of the future, obviously you've got Caleb Williams in Chicago. We're going to talk about that. I want to talk about Russ, what we've seen out of the Pittsburgh stills before we get out of Dodge, before we get out of Dodge in this segment. Suze is taking our, our oldest to a particular concert north of the border. Where as a certain performer who may or may not be very famous, dating somebody on the Kansas City Chiefs is performing.
Oh, interesting. And we use game time to settle the equation. It's another way of saying Suze has taken Xander to the Aeros tour this weekend, which is coming to a close. We're using game time.
You couldn't hit Jason Kelsey up for a ticket because he already said... No, I wouldn't even thought about that. Why do that when I got game time? The all-in pricing feature, by the way, it was great. I mean, when you hit the, when you hit the final button and it's what they tell you it is, it's amazing. It's so great.
And the view from the seat, it was awesome. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time right now. Download the game time app, create an account and use our code rich for $20 off your first purchase. Again, it's not just for sports, it's for concerts, comedy, theater, and it's not just for me and your town either. Terms apply. Visit gametime.co for restrictions.
Again, create an account, redeem our code, R I C H, $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. It's Bears time.
The general manager and team president spoke about firing the coach on Friday. That's coming up. Let's talk sleep number people. There's a reason why sleep number is the official sleep and wellness partner of the national football league, because in the NFL, there's no margin for error. One mistake can change the outcome of a game and science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time, and overall athletic performance. Imagine what it can do for you. I know about it. My sleep number setting is 60.
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Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex business. As many of you clearly know, I love going to watch football live. There's nothing like it, whether it's college football or professional football. There's nothing quite like the excitement of being in the stadium and game time tickets and game time picks through game time is exactly your way and your gateway to getting the seat that you want and the experience that you'll never forget. Game time picks is a new curation feature that filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets. The all-in pricing feature, that's my favorite. You get to see your total upfront, no surprise fees at checkout. With game time, you'll always get the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference.
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Again, create an account. Redeem my code E-I-S-E-N. Boom, $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. I was going to talk about the season finale of Barry and you were talking about the season finale. I was hoping Patrick was in it. Next time you come on, we'll make sure Mahomes is on the phone.
We'll do that. You like him that much, huh? I think that his ability is such a cut above. He is so passionate in the way he plays.
Yes. He is so improvisorial in the way he plays. He is so sure.
I just think it is instinctually great, actually. Okay. Well, he now knows that and we will make sure that we'll make this happen. Yeah. It would be my honor. Does he listen? Yes. Patrick, hi. He does.
How are you? So, can I just say, no, if Patrick is listening, I'd like to, you know, we make a great chicken stuffed with ricotta and spinach with an unbelievable reduction. It can be yours if you're here in LA. Well, the Chiefs come play the Chargers, right? The Chiefs play the Chargers.
What will make this happen? Those guys are good too. I mean, they're good quarterbacks. Yeah, they are.
They are not Mahomes. That is correct. Sorry, Mike, you got to just put my microphone on when it's time for me to talk. I don't know if this is the way it works. Yeah, we got to pay bills, Mike. That's why Mike leaves early to go set up.
Yeah. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.
Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. I always watch whatever's going on in the competition. I see on Callard right now, Albert Breer is showing up, talking about Ryan Day. No way.
No, no, no, no. Albert had a front row seat. He sat front row. He was very close based on his photos. Yeah.
Oh, that was great. He looks okay. He looks okay. I've been texting with Albert and a money manager that stars Don. We are all weekend long. They're chirping like nothing happened. Of course.
Oh, it's great. Well, they don't take blame. It's always something else.
It's somebody's fault. It has nothing to do with Michigan's game planning or gumption or anything like that. But it's funny, over the weekend, I was basically saying, you know, the rivalry is just not the same anymore anyway, because it's not about who gets to win a national championship or not. This game, more often than not, will just be about who plays in the big 10 championship game or who gets to go on the road. I don't know. It's just going to be different. That's all I'm saying.
At least back in the day, as in last year, when it was winner moves on and loser mostly goes home. We won the last three of those. And then the national championship last year, which Ohio State has to do this year to match, potentially save Ryan Day's job. Although I do believe their athletic director is saying that, you know, he's defending Ryan Day, which I think is admirable, the athletic director to do. It's great. I think Ohio State needs to hire Connor Stallions.
Is that right? Why is that? Because he knows the place. Seems like he'd be the fix for a lot of stuff that's going on that day. You know who doesn't know the place? The red hot defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers who might get a job next year, Jesse Minter.
He's not getting the place. The NFL. That you know of. Definitely not.
Don't know of any of it. Hey, Chicago Bears on Friday did something highly uncharacteristic, which is change their head coach in the middle of the season. The last time they had to ever address a coaching change in the middle of a regular season was when George Papabera-Hallis left the sidelines to go fight in World War II. As we all know, he didn't leave the organization. This is the first time in the 105-year history of the Chicago Bears that they dismissed a coach in the middle of the season. So you knew it had to be bad.
And Matt Eberfluss, you know, I put out a video from my home office on Thanksgiving talking about I'm sitting there on Thanksgiving Day with Coop watching the time tick down 30 seconds, 25 seconds, 20 seconds. The Bears having a timeout in their pocket and a backup center and a rookie quarterback clearly trying to get a playoff and not getting that playoff. And it's obvious right around 15 seconds that the timeout's not only not being called but has to be called at this point in time and then one wasn't and the game was over. And I thought to myself, well, listen, the Hail Mary attempt that shouldn't have happened because they allowed the commanders to get into a better position for a Hail Mary attempt on a terrible defensive lapse in my estimation and the lack of accountability that was then suddenly a question in that organization because Tyreek Stevenson was stunting with fans rather than getting ready for a Hail Mary that he joined too late and then helped create. And whatever was going on with DJ Moore and whatever was going on with the offensive coordinator, that change appeared to work. All of the reasons why the Bears lost were they a blocked field goal even though Eberfluss didn't have them in position. Closer decided to let time tick down there as well rather than attempting a play to get closer and then they get one blocked and all of those things weren't as crystal clear on Eberfluss's lap as the way the Thanksgiving Day game ended. And to make it worse, his handling it in the press conference afterwards, saying that they handled it right, is kind of beyond the pale. How, in retrospect, how should you have handled the final sequence?
Yeah, I like what we did there. Again, once it's under seven, you're going to call time out there, actually under 12, and then really you don't have an option. Because it's third to fourth, you got to throw it into the end zone then. So to me, I think we handled it the right way.
I do believe that you just re-rack the play, get it in bounce and call time out and that's why we held it and didn't work out the way we wanted it to. I heard that and I thought to myself, and I had already posted the video of how difficult it was to swallow. I heard that and I'm like, uh-oh, this is the way a coach gets got. Because when a fan base is looking for blood and an ownership has already run out of its options of changes to make other than the coach, then they feel like they have to tell the fan base in a clearly circling the drain season, we hear you.
And then unbeknownst to me, we learned on Sunday when our boy Glaze went on Fox, did you hear this? His scoopage was Ibra Flus attempted Friday morning to have the same approach with the team as he took on the podium there of like, this is just another thing we can learn from, let's move forward. And Jalen Johnson apparently got up and in a profanity laced moment, interrupted the coach in the middle of the whole team. And that's when the front office knew it was over. After they let Ibra Flus talk to the media in a Zoom where he said he was confident he was going to coach the next game against the 49ers. And then they fired.
So what next? Kevin Warren, the team president, former Big Ten commissioner, talked up the position, hit it. This will be the most coveted job in the National Football League this year. And Ryan and I need to work hand in hand together to make sure we bring that to life, not only from a head coach standpoint, but also from an entire staff standpoint. And people will ask, what are we looking for in a head coach? We need an individual who has extremely high standards, who is tough, who is demanding, who's bright, who has attention to detail, who seeks and will win championships, who creates an environment of accountability, who's creative, who's intelligent, who's a decisive decision maker, and who will represent the city of Chicago, all of our fans, this franchise in a manner that is well deserved. I don't know how much that's going to calm the Bears fan base here. They did announce Kevin Warren, that Ryan Paul stays the general manager.
I mean, the groceries appear to be very well shopped. I mean, there's some players there. However, that is the tandem along with the ownership that did decide to keep Matt Iberflus and then hire Shane Waldron. And that started us to the point where we're at today. But Paul stated the obvious as to why Iberflus, with whom I do believe he had a terrific relationship, I saw it on display offline, had this to say about why the move wound up being made.
What did you believe you had solved during the hiring process of coaching, that you just didn't see consistently enough throughout his team? Yeah, when you look at the end of the game situations, just some of the detailing to finish in those moments, we all know a lot of these games come down to those critical spots that we weren't able to get over the hump. I think that's a very fair assessment, don't you think? That's fair.
It's very fair. Man, this league, I'll tell you what. Things go real fast. The 2022 coach hiring class. Not for long, man. Well, there were 10 guys hired. 10. Yeah, that was a record, right?
10 was a record. Mike McDaniel has been to the playoffs once. We'll see if he can make it again this year.
Kevin O'Connell was hired. He's going to go again two out of three years. And the other ones, guys, Todd Bowles looks like he's going to go back to the playoffs potentially, right? Won a playoff game last year.
Also, remember, he may not make it. Here are the other ones. Doug Peterson, Josh McDaniels, Matt Eberfluse, Dennis Allen, Lovey Smith, Nathaniel Hackett. And one more, Brian Dabol. Coach of the year in his first year and made the playoffs.
And now we're wondering, hey, we got to see something. Giants may have to see something from him. I don't think they're firing him. But it's crazy right now for the third straight year. Third straight year. We have three interim head coaches at the same time. Third straight year.
And Salah wasn't even part of this class. It was the year before. Now with news that Ryan Polz is staying on his GM, does that kind of eliminate the Bears as a Belichick spot?
Oh, I don't think Belichick's going there. Oh, okay. Yeah. I don't know. He might know Polz.
I have no idea. It seems like you want to go to a spot with a quarterback in place. I understand that. No, what they, I told... A good defense. I will just repeat again what I said on Friday.
It hasn't changed. When the Lions season is over, you should be standing there whenever he's ready for you to be standing there in front of him. With a boombox?
With a boombox outside of his window. Or a check from the McCaskey family and tell Ben Johnson to write the number on that piece of paper and say, how much? And is our structure with the general manager and the team president to your liking? And if it's not, and you are the McCaskys and you like everything that's set up and you believe in the setup, then you find someone else. Is it Cliff Kingsbury?
Do you do that? But it's definitely somebody that can come in and turn your clearly talented first overall pick quarterback into Mahomes gold. That's it. End of story. And then you find the defensive coordinator who can dial it up. That's it.
That's the plan. You can have all that flowery language from Kevin Warren as you want. Ben Johnson. He's proven it.
Boy, does he go deep in his bag. They have, and they win, and they know how to, he knows how to win in the division. I know they don't play their games outdoors, but come on. You want to beat the Lions? You want to beat the Packers? You want to beat the Vikings? Go get somebody who's doing most of that right now, except beating the Lions.
He's going to take the Lions, potentially the Super Bowl. That's the answer. End of story. That's, forget about Bill. Or if you want to go in another different direction, you want to bring the fire and brimstone back, you want to bring that red ass, you want to bring that tough guy who was a tough guy in his playing days, then bring Vrabel to Chicago. That seems like it fits at Chicago. I mean, you want to have somebody standing on the other side of Dan Campbell to say, I get you.
I see you. Vrabel's that guy. You want to have a CEO guy come in? Personally, I'd want somebody with the headset on talking to Caleb. Yeah, that's who I want.
All right. I don't see, I don't see that as a fit for Belichick. 844204, you know, breaking Shula's record for Papa Hollis' franchise wouldn't be a bad, but I don't know if that's, that's the reason to do it for either one of them.
844204 Rich, number two. Let's talk Steelers when we get out the door here, here on this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people. You love their jingle. You're going to 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.
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Shopify.com slash WestwoodOne. Back here on our program we got Jeffrey Wright coming in tomorrow. Excited to see the Oscar nominated actor coming in for the agency.
Raise hell. Susie and I have also started. Oh you watched so the premiere episode was over the weekend I haven't. Yeah he's coming and talking about that. Nice. Yeah they put the first two up.
Oh they did it looks great. Yeah we're getting into that in Landman right now. Yeah yeah. Jon Hamm's coming in this month. Oh fantastic.
From Landman. I think Billy, is Billy Bob on our docket as well? He was earlier. I don't know we're circling around our friend Billy Bob. Billy Bob is absolutely incredible on this show.
It's insanity. Like I said Taylor Sheridan wrote it for him and it's he's got his voice. I mean perfect.
I mean he had uh speaking of Taylor Sheridan and Billy Bob he had a cameo in 1883. That was he was phenomenal. Yeah. He's just the greatest. He is.
And by the way in the uh because we watched the opening episode of Landman he's is he at uh the Friday Night Lights high school? Uh yes. Right? Yeah. Was that on purpose you think?
Um probably not. He's attending I mean you could. Not an accident they do go to the game but yeah it takes place in Odessa Midland which is where Permian Knight is. Yeah. I understand that but to put him in the Friday Night Lights high school.
Yeah I got that. It's a choice. I doubt it was just by chance.
Yeah it doesn't seem like an accident. It's great. It's cool.
And what happens while they're watching that game just is kind of mind-blowing. Okay this guy. Like what is happening? This guy. The conversation I think. What you're referring to. This guy.
I can't talk to my mom about stuff like that like what what? So say it into a live microphone on the Rich Eisen Show. Unless you've seen it you don't know what we're talking about. We're really dancing around it. Okay. Oh yeah this is from the show. He's not usually uh an expert at dancing around things.
He usually just hits it directly right on the head. You're doing a great job on this one. Thank you. Congratulations. I'm very proud of you.
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Get a free quote at tryethos.com that's t-r-y-e-t-h-o-s dot com. Of all the pre-season storylines we're gonna go bookending here because we started the show by me apologizing for being off about the bills winning the division. I said they weren't gonna win the division and they they they they won it with five weeks to spare. So way off on that one.
Mea culpa. I was in the category though of needing to see it to believe it on Russell Wilson and we didn't see it through six weeks because he wasn't playing because he wasn't healthy and every single time Mike Tomlin would be asked about his quarterback situation while Justin Fields was playing and starting and winning two-thirds of his games. Four of six. He went four and two. Every single time he was talking about Russ he's just like yeah well I'm not talking about Russ because he's not available anyway to practice and it was one of those I'll be honest with you ways of in many uh corners including this one thinking he's just using the fact that he's not healthy as a fig leaf for talking about a situation you didn't want to talk about because when you talk about your starting quarterback situation that that leads to issues or if your starting quarterback situation isn't settled that's a problem and Tomlin was quite literally being straight up that Russell wasn't under consideration because he just wasn't available to be considered and they start four and two and he pushes the button to switch the the spots and um and it's worked out like a charm and it's not just because the defense is balling out and it's not because the run game is letting Russ do less. Russ was legit in Cincinnati on Sunday cooking cooking fire like it was prime Seattle days he was absolutely doing the things that he did in Seattle that put him on a path to the Hall of Fame that got totally derailed by the way things ended in Seattle and then what happened in Denver and he is cut by Denver the largest dead cap player in the history of the National Football League just threw for 400 yards in Cincinnati to put the Steelers in the nine win category and now a better game ahead of Baltimore who they've already beaten black and gold here we go the one moment that caused me to go like sort of Rick Dalton jiff there it is there's the there's the Russ from Seattle there's the guy was a moment in the game third quarter second half where Cincinnati's answering right and they're giving up points defensively that they aren't usually given up defensively and and the Steelers did a lot allow a season-high 38 points after allowing less than 17 points per game through the first 12 weeks of the season it's fourth fewest in the NFL Russ was being rushed out of pocket and in the last couple years he would just take off fold up take off flight instead of fight and Russ stepped up stepped through the hole and looked down the field and fired one on the run perfectly to a wide open fryer moved for a touchdown and I'm like that's it right there Rick Dalton jiff pointing at the screen that's the Russ we haven't seen in forever playing free playing free you know freelancing when he needs to extending the play but not giving up on the play I'll say it I know he wasn't hit at the time that's the that's the Ben Roethlisberger type stuff but it's also the Russ stuff where you can't get him off the field and you can't keep him in the pocket and if he gets out of the pocket he's more dangerous dangerous Wilson showed up for the Steelers and is showing up for the Steelers and I know they went through that stretch where they didn't have any touchdowns and and they lost the snow game but you got to give it up 520 total yards of offense for Russ most points in a road game by the Steelers since 2000 in Cincinnati most total yards in the game for Pittsburgh since 2018 back when Big Ben was doing it they gotta give it up this team can not only win the division there in first place this team can if they play like this with T.J. Watt and and Nate Herbig are coming out with strip sacks and defensively I know they gave up all those points but if they're being timely and doing their thing I mean they can go to the Super Bowl for real no doubt Tomlin had this to say about the dub yesterday you know it's always a challenge it's always a challenge you know the intimacy of these these divisional relationships we know them they know us but I just thought our group you know smiled in the face of it particularly Russ you know it's the first time for him going through this AFC North football and man I thought he acclimated himself to a well today he put himself squarely in the history of these series and this series with that performance today man we're thankful for it most first half passing yards in his career 257 second most passing yards in a game in his career 452 he had in 2017 when he was cooking against Houston third game with 400 or border passing yards in his career first ever on the road 2024 Russell Wilson now I believe it I'm seeing it now I'm believing it the best thing about us though is it's about damn straight it is and guess what Tomlin's doing his coach of the year stuff too because George Pickens is is Russell's what DK he's his um if you want to go way back in the day I mean he he always needs those physical receivers or he use it utilizes them very well and um Pickens now leads the NFL with receptions of 30 or more yards he's got 12 of them but he had two more silly mistakes on sportsmen like conduct penalties you know one that set them back so much they had to wind up setting for a field goal that was the one where he you know pointed he says for a first down but it was in the form of a of a of a gun and they thought he was given a gun formation and they flagged him for it and and that one wound up being uh an actual rare Boswell uh miss you know so Tomlin's not gonna you know he he is not treating that lightly at all he had this to say about his stud must-have wide receiver yesterday and this emotional game man these divisional games are big um he got a target on his back because he's George he understands that but he's got to grow up he's got to grow up in a hurry that's right he's got to grow up that's right he's got to grow up he's got to grow up yeah not wrong hey it's going to snow and you're going to get flags because people are looking at you so grow up mature i've said this uh last few months he will make the greatest catch in the world and then he'll just do something so well again when we had Tomlin on years a couple years ago when Pickens was beginning to start showing special things he said he keeps talking to George about doing the routine things routinely and the things he needs to be more routine is just bottling up whatever he feels he needs to uncork like kicking a football into the stands and he's going to get fined for that i believe after a touchdown and the Steelers next up man they have got a lead in the AFC North to protect and they have got a loss to Cleveland to avenge before they are at Philadelphia at Baltimore and then home for home for Kansas City the dreaded Sunday Saturday Wednesday schedule for teams playing on Christmas Day they are going to be put through the crucible they may not win the division but they have shown that they can actually win the division and the conference and they can prove it they could even prove it that they can win the entire damn shooting match when they visit Philadelphia with a quarterback that is once upon a time cooking now he's smelting as we know in Pittsburgh and Tomlin is doing coach of the year stuff and the Steelers are back and so is Russ unreal that'll wrap it up for us heck of a weekend oh what a great weekend look at the smile on your face actually let's stay for three more hours and talk about Michigan Ohio State wow anybody i got 16 minutes for you
