Horrible Coaching Decisions (Hour 2)

You can also get us on YouTube, the free Odyssey app, Sirius XM Channel 158, and always give me a follow on Instagram and Twitter at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. If you're a big foodie, I posted a nice photo of a tomahawk steak that I had this weekend at this beautiful place, Casa Bovina, which is in Lincoln, Nebraska, on the trip that I made to Lincoln, Nebraska this past weekend. So you can check that out.

And I have a new love in life, actually. I never knew what a Runza was. Never heard of it.

The Uber driver did a terrible job explaining it. They were like, oh, it's beef and cabbage. But I had a Runza this weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska, and it was absolutely delicious.

So some good sports, some good food. You can always find me on social media at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. You can't talk about a Runza and not explain better what it is, because now my mouth is watering. I don't know why. So I was in an Uber and the Uber driver, a nice lady named Lori, goes, oh, you got to try a Runza. And I go, OK, what's a Runza? And she's like, it's cabbage wrapped in beef. So I thought it was like cabbage, like just holding a thing of cabbage with beef in it. But it ended up being, I guess the best way to say it, it's kind of like a tortilla and like a burrito. And then inside there's cabbage, there's meat. I think there's some cheese in it, too. Maybe some onions is like I had no clue what was actually in this thing. But when I tasted it, the best way that I could describe it was it kind of tasted like a Philly cheesesteak, which I absolutely love. I looked up Runza and I'm like looking at it, looking at it, it looks just like a Philly cheesesteak, except it called a dough bread pocket.

It's like a hot pocket and a cheesesteak mixed together. And Lincoln, Nebraska is so cool where the football team we know for a while has been bad. Every single week, though, there's 90,000 people at that stadium.

They put up some sign like three hundred straight sellouts or something like that. It was incredible. And the scene before the game is awesome. Barstool was there. I'm standing there watching the show.

The next thing you see, Big Ev and Taylor Juan and Will Compton standing right there. And I'm standing in the back room, my temple hat and some sunglasses. And I look kind of creepy, I thought, in some of the shots. But I was enjoying the show. But every single person, they were so kind, they could tell that you're from out of town.

And they go, oh, you know, go get a beer or go here, go there. But it was just phenomenal. Just people. And it was a great time in Lincoln, Nebraska. And I can't wait till that football team returns to glory and go back to a game there. So it was a really neat trip. I did have some travel problems, though.

Oh, you just can't fly in this country anymore. LaGuardia canceled my flight Friday morning. I was supposed to go to Kansas City. I ended up a friend of mine who was on the trip last second, found a flight to Des Moines, Iowa. So on Friday afternoon, we flew to Des Moines, Iowa.

That flight was on time. Then we drove from Iowa to Lincoln, went out to this place called Misty's on Friday night, which was you had the Nebraska band come in. It was really cool. Then Saturday, we wake up, we go to the stadium, you know, pregame festivities, all that. And then at night, we went to this phenomenal steakhouse.

Like it was just tremendous. Great food, great beef, all that stuff. You want to know who's in the steakhouse? This is the most random celebrity sighting in an athlete that I think if you would have told me I would have met this person on the trip, I would have never believed it. It is a former NFL running back and I'm sitting at the table.

May had a few old fashions and my friends go, I think that's so-and-so. And I go, it looks like it's so-and-so. But why the bleep would so-and-so be in Lincoln, Nebraska? It ended up being Todd Gurley was there now. So random.

Yeah. So I went up to Todd and I said, Todd, and he goes, yeah, I go out. We just want to make sure it was you. We thought it was you. And I said to Todd Gurley, with all due respect, what the bleep are you doing here?

We've been trying to figure it out throughout this entire meal. So one of Todd's really good friends and former teammates is the strength and conditioning coach at Nebraska. They were teammates together at Georgia. So that is why he was there.

But what a phenomenal dude. Like we were sitting there, we were probably talking to him for 20 minutes, just a really good down-to-earth guy. So that was the trip at Lincoln, Nebraska. Ended up going to Kansas City yesterday in order to get on the plane home back to New York. And oh, you did you go to Kansas City with the Santa for the draft or was that a stew trip? That was a stew trip. I went back to our spot, Jack Stacks, Stu.

All right. That place is great. Patio weather, football Sunday, multiple TVs. We got the pitmaster, which was burnt ends, the fire kiss wings, the ribs, the brisket, the cheesy corn, the baked beans. And, you know, I've been watching my weight recently. I've lost a bunch of weight the last three, four years. But I felt like a fat pig after after walking out there for dinner last night. All I had was a protein bar on the plane.

I was like, oh, I can't eat another meal. So really good trip to Lincoln, Nebraska. Anyway, I got to get to a few things here from from the football yesterday. There are two coaching decisions that even when you make a decision, it could still result in a win when you don't when you probably should not get the win is the way that I'll say that. And I saw a decision made yesterday from Brandon Staley, which I'm kind of numb to. And I'm not surprised that Brandon Staley did this. But back to back weeks, Brandon Staley continues to show that he just doesn't get it.

And you could save me your analytical rant and you could tell me what the numbers say. It makes no sense two weeks ago up against the Vikings. And that was in a four point game when he elected to go for it on fourth and one at his own 24 yard line. And he got bailed out by Kirk Cousins, who threw an interception because the Vikings can't get out of their own way. So then this week, with a little under four minutes to go against Stu's Raiders, it is fourth and one at the 34. Now, you would think that last week you went for it.

You got lucky to escape with the victory. You would adapt. You would learn.

You would change. But no, not Brandon Staley. Brandon Staley goes for it on fourth and one. And then you had one bad coaching decision, which should have backfired and resulted in him, you know, maybe not losing the game, but at worst case, the game going to overtime or it being tied up. And then Josh McDaniel's gets a first down all the way down to the three. You have Josh Jacobs, who last year had the most rushing yards in the NFL. And on first and goal from the three, they throw the ball.

Aiden O'Connell gets intercepted, turn out the lights, the fat lady singing and the party's over. It is amazing to me how Brandon Staley the last two weeks got bailed out by Kirk Cousins, Kevin O'Connell, Aiden O'Connell and Josh McDaniel's. Brandon Staley should just genuflect and to just bow down to the four of those people, because that's the only reason those four people and their incompetence why you won the last two weeks. Because Brandon Staley, if you didn't get lucky and sometimes you rather be lucky than good. Right.

My uncle has lectured me that all the time. Sometimes in sports, you rather just be lucky than good. But Brandon Staley has got to be the luckiest person on the planet. He should have lost both those games. And he got bailed out because of quarterbacks that just aren't clutch or not ready for the moment.

And I want to say I couldn't believe it, but this is what Brandon Staley does. And that's the one thing I guess you could say at least he's consistent. Right.

He's got to be loyal and true to himself, but he will eventually get fired. I don't care that he's won the last two games. I know this team going into the buy is all banged up and right there. Season has not capsized yet, but the Chargers this year in an AFC that's open. Right.

We talked about in the open. The Bengals are extremely vulnerable. Their season's on life support. The Chiefs offense hasn't hummed yet. The Bills dominant yesterday. The Dolphins did take a step back, but they're still going to be in the mix. We'll see at the end of the year where the Ravens and the Jaguars are at. But this AFC is open.

This AFC is for the taking. And you look at the talent that the Chargers have. It's just inconceivable to me.

And I know the Spanos family is cheap that week in and week out. They look at this coach and they go, oh, this is boy wonder. Oh, this is the genius of Brandon Staley. To make the same decision in back to back weeks and get bailed out. It's almost as if the NFL is scripted.

And I know that's been a big joke. Oh, the NFL is scripted. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it was so infuriating the last two weeks. And I'm almost at a point where I can't even yell about it anymore. Like all the emotions in my body just go, what the heck does this guy continue to do? And why is he so frustrating and why does he just not get it?

And the worst thing is you get all these people, all these nerds that tweet me. Oh, you're clear you don't get the numbers. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me be clear.

I'm not anti-analytics, but. I don't live and die by the numbers. I've watched football long enough. I know when you're up by more than a field goal and you're in the final four or five minutes of the game. And you're not going up against Tom Brady. You're not going up against Peyton Manning. You're not going up against Patrick Mahomes, who, you know, we're going to march down the field. You were going up against Kirk Cousins and Kevin O'Connell.

All right. Or Aiden O'Connell, whatever O'Connell it is. Who cares?

No one even knows the name of the quarterback. And you growing up against those two guys with the lead by four points and seven points. And you basically said, here's a gift. Christmas came early. Here's a gift. Go score a touchdown. And both those guys were like little babies like, well, I don't like the gift.

I want something else. It's amazing how they won the last two weeks. So let me ask this to you, Stu, before I get to Ron Rivera. You have to be so upset. And there's many reasons to be upset because you're a Raiders fan. And my condolences. Your team's just a dumpster fire. Yeah, they're awful.

It's actually insulting to dumpster fires to call them a dumpster fire. This is true. Very true. But your team is just going nowhere. I kind of think McDaniel's going to be back next year because they had to pay Gruden all that money. And, you know, Mark Davis is going to say, oh, let's give him another year. Zeigler's there. Now Brady is going to be a minority owner.

I think I don't think that's official yet, but it's in the works. Brady's a McDaniel's guy. So you're probably going to see another year, even though it makes no sense, of Josh McDaniel's.

But you get a gift, an absolute gift, where they go for it. Fourth and one at the Chargers' own 34-yard line. You're only down by seven in the game. And you should have got a touchdown. And I think it was on fourth down and ten to play before. You get the first down, tumbling, as Kevin Coogler would say, down to the three. And the first play by Josh McDaniel's, we go from Stanley, who's just a dope, to McDaniel's, who's also a dope. And we go to the three-yard line. You have Josh Jacobs, who I don't understand why all of a sudden Josh McDaniel's just hates Josh Jacobs. And you don't hand the ball off to the guy that led the league in rushing last year? Your thoughts there.

Makes no sense. The whole season so far, they have not figured out how to use Josh Jacobs. Which is crazy because they relied on him so much last year and used him so much and he got so many yards. And now they're at the one. This is like the third or fourth time this year that they're at near the end zone. Or have a short yardage play and they don't give it to Jacobs. I just don't understand it.

And I hate to say it, but you know what this feels like? Because McDaniel's comes from the Belichick school. And once you get in the doghouse of Bill Belichick, it's very tough to get out of it. Here's why all of the Belichick disciples have failed. Because they all think they're Bill and they all try to do things like Bill. But they don't have the resume. They don't have the clout like Bill Belichick. And now it's a different world that we live in. And also sports have become more player friendly.

Which there's some good in that and there's also some bad in that. But it's almost as if Josh McDaniel's, and I hope this isn't the case, but this is just the way that I feel. It's almost as if Josh McDaniel's is using the contract situation against Josh Jacobs. And they're trying to send a point where McDaniel's doesn't really value the individual running back, the bell cow back. Because in New England it was running back by committee. They just turned in two, three backs each and every year.

And they kept on winning. But just like Belichick isn't able to win right now without Tom Brady, McDaniel's also has to realize you don't have Tom Brady. And when you're starting a rookie quarterback and you have Aiden O'Connell and you're down to the three yard line and you have a bell cow back, which is a dying breed in Josh Jacobs, you got to give him the ball. And McDaniel's knows better than anybody because he coached in a Super Bowl where Darrell Beville and Pete Carroll said, oh it's second and goal right at the one.

Yeah, we're going to bypass Marshawn Lynch and we're going to throw the ball with Russell Wilson. It's maddening and infuriating and I'd be sick to my stomach if I was you. And to your point, he's done the same thing too with Hunter Renfro this year too through the first three games. Oh yeah, I don't think Hunter Renfro's great, but he's solid, he's good. Renfro has been in the dog... The whole time.

I wanted to put his face on a milk cart and I haven't even seen Hunter Renfro. Through three games I believe they threw to him three times. And they threw to him a couple times yesterday. So they actually started using him a little bit.

But yeah, not to use the guys that are kind of like the playmakers on a team, it's very strange. And the other coaching decision I didn't like yesterday was Ron Rivera. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ron Rivera. The last year though, Ron Rivera has done some things when talking to the media that just doesn't make sense. Like the whole Carson Wentz situation right before the start of the year. The way that he gave too much when talking about Eric Bienemey who's looked like a fantastic offensive coordinator once again.

If he doesn't get a head coaching job out of this year with what he's been able to do so far with the commanders away from Holmes, that just continues to be mystifying to me. But you're in a game against a better team. And I know the commanders beat the Eagles once last year. But with how back and forth that game is. And I'm not always someone that says if you go win the game on one play, you have to always go for it. Like look what I just said the last five minutes about Brandon Staley. But for Ron Rivera, when you're on the road in Philadelphia and you know Philadelphia is the more talented team, and you score a touchdown as the clock expired where I thought they were gifted a second or two. I was surprised that they were able to get another playoff. But Jahan Dotson catches that football.

I thought for sure when I was watching the game in the airport yesterday that no doubt about it, Rivera is going to go for two. And maybe that's just being an older coach. And if you were a younger coach, you would have been more aggressive and you would have gone for it. But with how much better the Eagles are than you. And I know he said afterwards, oh our offense was gas, our offense was tired.

That's kind of a tough sell for me. And maybe you just didn't have a great feel on your team in that spot. You know I would love to hear from maybe some of the players more after the game. Did they feel like they were tired?

Because I don't think players would admit that, but maybe I'm wrong and maybe some players did. But I thought they should have gone for it right there and go win the game. And then the game gets into overtime and you have the 54 yard game winning kick by Jake Elliott. So those are really three coaches that I didn't like yesterday. Ron Rivera I thought should have gone for it when he could have won the game and go for two. Brandon Staley continues to be the luckiest coach in the world because he should have lost these last two games. And Josh McDaniels, keep it simple stupid.

It is that simple. You don't have your quarter, I might even say Jimmy G is this great quarterback. I think Jimmy G is overrated. But you don't have your quarterback. You have other great playmakers and you take the ball out of the hands of Josh Jacobs there at the three yard line. And you go, yeah I'm going to trust Aiden O'Connell. And you bailed out Brandon Staley. What's something that annoyed you yesterday in the NFL?

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. We will take a break. When we come on back we'll have to update you on some of the biggest stories of the world of sports with some audio. We call this segment The News Brief. And we'll come on back.

This is Zach Gelb's show right here on CBS Sports Radio. I mean, growing your business. But as you grow, so does the need for efficiency. Stamps.com simplifies your shipping and mailing process. Import orders from wherever you sell online. Find the lowest rates with the fastest delivery times. Instantly deliver tracking updates to your customers. And buy shipping and mailing supplies when you run low. Save time and money on mailing and shipping.

Get started at Stamps.com today with code PROGRAM for a four-week trial, free postage, and a digital scale. Alrighty, News Brief time right here on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Let's start it off with Patrick Mahomes winning the football game despite not playing his best. It was definitely a fight.

We came out hot. Obviously struggled. I made two just bad throws. Rileshaun laid over a linebacker and a safety and I just didn't throw it far enough. I hit the dude right in the chest.

Stuff that you can't do. But I was proud of how the guys fought. I mean, obviously the defense kept us in it. And then the offense had two drives in the fourth quarter where we had sustained drives. And that's a good defense.

So I'm proud of that, but obviously a lot to learn from and a lot to correct. Now, I had the Chiefs last night lay in the eight and a half points. I was not a winner in a bad gambling weekend that it was for yours truly. But when it was 17-0, I thought this was going to be another massacre at MetLife Stadium.

And that was the farthest thing from the truth. And that Jets defense really ever since that safety after a horrible start with Pacheco runs for 45 yards for a score, they did step up in a big way. But here's the positive for Kansas City. Clearly won the game. Mahomes gets the first down at the end of the game.

Slides down at the two. I wanted to get two more yards and get in the end zone so we could cover the spread. But whatever, it's not the end of the world. These offense has not clicked yet. And that's a scary thing for the rest of the league.

Because you know 15 is eventually going to figure it out. And we saw it at times last year. Oh, they're missing Tyree kill. They ended up winning a Super Bowl. It just once again shows you, even when almost everything goes right for the Jets, you get a great second half performance by the defense.

Zach Wilson plays a really good football game. And the best football game that I've seen him play in a long time, Kansas City still wins the game. And if you have a chance to knock out Mahomes, you got to do so. And the Jets got close. The Jets looked like they were taking control of the game. But they were never really able to do that last night on Sunday Night Football.

Let's go to Derek Carr. He says his shoulder is not an excuse for the Saints' performance up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the Bucks got a big victory against the New Orleans Saints. I don't think anyone's 100% after week one. Or week one of training camp. So that's no excuse for us playing the way that we did today.

And we got to be better, and we will be better. I have a very tough time with Derek Carr because there's a lot of moments where he comes off as a very likable guy. And I admire him playing through pain yesterday. I did not think he was going to play. But always whenever I hear Derek Carr speak, he does take accountability.

But he always just sounds so sad, and it's like the woe is me thing. And this guy is not a top ten quarterback in the league. You could say he's top fifteen, but anytime he looks like he's about to be a top ten quarterback, and he's just moving into that conversation, he takes two or three steps back. And if they don't win the division this year, with him being on paper the best quarterback in the division and the most talented team in the division, it's going to be an awful look. But heading into the season, I had very little confidence.

And it was Eric Eger who works for Sumer Sports. He said to me before the start of the year, anytime Derek Carr is a quarterback in a division, I will never pick that team to win the division. And I kind of followed suit with that, and I went with Atlanta. But I've been impressed with Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay, I know they lost to Philadelphia.

They didn't have a good showing, but that defense is really good. And Baker has a nice connection with Mike Evans, who did leave the game with an injury yesterday. Here is Jamar Chase. I have not loved the approach of Jamar Chase this season.

I thought it was... I don't want to say stupid with what he did going up against the Cleveland Browns, but you had to back it up. This is Jamar Chase after the game about him not getting the ball. I'm open. I'm always *** with him. Let's give him up a fan. Let's play.

I'm shocked. We're now four games into the season. I know Burrow's not 100 percent. But you know the connection and the synergy those two have, how Jamar Chase doesn't have a touch. And I know he dropped one. I think it was up against the Ravens, maybe?

I forget who it was, but he dropped one in the right end zone on a fade route. But to not get in the end zone through four games of the season, that's tough to believe. And you look at the Bengals right now, their season, they're in sports hospice, is what I like to say right now, where unfortunately a lot of us had to go visit loved ones in hospice.

And it's a very scary sight. And nine times out of ten, you're not walking out of hospice. Right now, they're in sports hospice, where no one would have thought that before the start of the season, but they're one and three. And these next two weeks, they have to win, because if they don't get this back to three and three, it's going to be a tough time to buy back into the Cincinnati Bengals for this year. Let's go to Matt Eberflus, the head coach of the Chicago Bears. Duh Bears! It looked like they were going to blow out the Broncos yesterday and add on to the embarrassment of Sean Payton. But Matt Eberflus, we all remember that Saturday Night Live skit with the Bears fans. Duh Bears! As the Bears fan basically has a heart attack, gave their fans just an unfortunate showing in the second half yesterday. Here's Matt Eberflus on the Bears collapse. We're all very disappointed in this hard-fought battle that we had today, and the outcome. But I certainly can see things moving in the right direction for our football team. And again, there's a lot of good things out there that we can build upon. I know Justin Fields finally played well, but how are the Bears moving in the right direction?

Buehler, Buehler, Buehler. Coach, you're probably going to get fired after this year. There's a good chance you have the number one and number two picks in the draft because the Panthers think as well, and at least you have their first overall pick next year, their first-round pick. But man, with what you see from this team, I thought yesterday was more so an indictment on the Broncos in the first half than it was praising the Bears. The Bears stink, and even when you thought things were maybe going right, you ended up not winning the game. What a horrible showing yesterday by the Chicago Bears in the second half. Here's to Otunga Vailova on the Dolphins' blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills. You lose in a manner like this, and yeah, very humbling.

And it's, you know, for some, it's much needed. The message from Mike was don't blink. There's a lot of football left. Continue to look at the guy next to you.

Continue to trust him. Continue to keep playing and remember what you play for. No one wants to lose a football game, clearly. Like, you don't need a Ph.D. in football to understand that. But sometimes when you lose a game early in the season, it may not be the worst thing for your team. And maybe the timing of that loss to the Miami Dolphins will go on to help them because the last three years, or last three games, they played the Bills really well. Remember, they beat Buffalo in Miami, and then the two times they went to Buffalo last year, they were both close games, and the third time, they were going with Skylar Thompson as their quarterback.

But through the first three weeks of the season, I'm as guilty as charged on this one. I would say Miami's the best team in the AFC right now. Miami's going to win the AFC. I said that before the start of the season, and people turned against Buffalo after week one, and now people are now brought back in by the Buffalo Bills, and they're going to jump off Miami very quickly. But everyone was feeling Miami the last three weeks. Now they get embarrassed by the Bills. Let's just remind you, they do play Buffalo at least one more time this year, and it is going to be in Miami, so maybe this is that humbling loss like Tua is talking about, where it refocuses this team.

And I know it's an outdated term, but like, oh, they've been reading their newspaper clippings too much, but you get the point on that. Maybe this humbles them, and you start to see the version of the Dolphins that we kind of got the first three weeks more throughout the rest of the season. Let's go to Brandon Staley, who may be the most obnoxious coach right now in football, because he just does idiotic things week in and week out. This is Brandon Staley once again on why he did elect to go for it, fourth and one, this time up by seven at his own 34-yard line.

He's the coach of the Chargers. Yeah, it was just less than a yard in that range where we just felt like we had the right play, felt like, you know, we really forced them to, you know, they had a timeout in the two-minute, but it would really put us in good position to finish the game and put them in a really tough situation. We felt like our defense was playing at a high level, and, you know, we didn't get the job done.

So if you thought your defense was playing at a high level, why wouldn't you punt the ball and give them more field when you're up by seven, instead of getting bailed out in back-to-back weeks by Kirk Cousins and then Aiden O'Connell because they get right down to the red zone because you basically gave them the ball in the red zone or very close to it, and then both those quarterbacks threw interceptions. If I was in that press conference room, I'd raise my hand, and I'd be like, Coach, Zach Gelb, CBS Sports Radio. The great coaches adapt. The great coaches learn from their mistakes.

Are you ever going to adapt and learn, or are you just going to do the same nonsense week in and week out? Here is Deion Sanders. It looked like we were getting another Colorado blowout going up against USC, and then that became a great game.

USC did prevail 48-41, and here is Coach Prime on his son, Shadore Sanders, as the quarterback of the Colorado Buffaloes. If we would have got that ball last, we were going to go down and score. We knew that. We know that.

Everybody in here knows that. His teammates knew that, and that's just what he brings to the table. He's unflappable, and he's very wise and understanding on the whys and the calls and what he sees out there on the field. I'm a big fan of Shadore Sanders.

I've always been a big fan of Coach Prime as well with Deion Sanders. Last year, I wanted him to get the Auburn job. I thought he should have got a big-time job right away, and that obviously wasn't the case where he lands in Colorado, but if they would have got blown out two weeks in a row, I don't want to say a lot of people would have jumped off the bandwagon, but the way that we did view Colorado for the rest of the season would have been different. People forget they only won one game last year, and they overhauled 80% of the roster, so they're going to get to a bowl game. They're going to do a heck of a job this season, but to show that fight in the second half and make it 48-41, I'm not about moral victories, but that was a really good showing in the second half, and it calms down people that are ready to stomp on the grave of Colorado, which is just so ridiculous if you're rooting against them, you know, barring the fact that maybe you are a fan of a team in the Pac-12.

Let's hear Kirby Smart. Now, this is Georgia against two opponents that we view legit struggling. They struggled against South Carolina, and they struggled up against Auburn this past weekend. Brock Bowers had the big touchdown towards the end of the game.

Kirby Smart on a close game versus Auburn. When you turn the ball over and you give people extra possessions, you just can't do that. Good football teams don't do that, and good football teams don't, you know, let people run the ball on you for 200 yards. That's one of the things that we knew they could do well. I thought they really ran the ball well, and they used the quarterback and rushed the ball on us.

We can't do that, and we got to be able to run the ball better, too, but proud of the way the guys fought. Georgia's very comparable to the Kansas City Chiefs, where the Chiefs were last year. We all know the championship that the Chiefs did win. We've seen Georgia now win back-to-back championships. But last year, people were saying the Chiefs are vulnerable, and look what happened.

Kansas City ended up winning the Super Bowl. This year, people are now saying Georgia's vulnerable in eh showings up against Auburn and also a few weeks prior up against South Carolina. So there's one thing to say that the team is vulnerable.

There's another thing to put the nail in the coffin. And we'll be able to see if teams will be able to put the nail in the coffin on this team this year and prevent them in still a four-team playoff, where I think they'll get in. I think they'll still win the SEC. But prevent them from, in the college football playoff, winning two games and becoming national champions again. Because there's many times people wrote off Kansas City last year or say Kansas City's not gonna get to the Super Bowl.

It's gonna be somebody else. And right now, a lot of similar things are being said about Georgia. So until Georgia goes down, there is cause for concern.

I'm not gonna be the one that picks against them. And finally, Notre Dame last week, it was a game they should have won up against the Ohio State. And then at the end of the game, that team just crumbled and dropped an interception that would have sealed the victory. Only had 10 players on the field in the final play of the game when you did have the game-winning touchdown for Ohio State. I was really curious how Notre Dame would bounce back this week. And I expected a sloppy game because maybe their minds were still in the performance last week. And you're going up against a very good Duke team. And Notre Dame, led by Sam Hartman, pulled it out right at the end of the game. Marcus Freeman did admit, though, after the game, there were a lot of mistakes despite the win. Sometimes the feeling of victory sometimes can make you say, yeah, yeah, we know we should have did something different.

But we continue to have to attack everything we do and figure out why we weren't as successful as we wanted to be. And we'll see how Notre Dame's gonna be the rest of the way. They have a really good team with all your guesstimate.

I like Sam Hartman a lot. Their defense is good. And it seems the next big statement Notre Dame can make in terms of, all right, maybe you wanna get Notre Dame into the college football playoff. They can't lose another game. They can't lose another game this year. Some people say they may need to be undefeated. But when you look at the rest of their schedule, sure, nice job with Louisville coming up this week. Louisville's been better with Jeff Braun there than anyone could have expected. They're ranked 25th in the country. But in two weeks from now, they play USC.

That's a big, big, big statement to see how much this Notre Dame team did learn from the Ohio State game. All righty, that's the news brief. This is the Zach Gelb show right here on CBS Sports Radio.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. Let's go to Phil in Pennsylvania real quickly here. You're next up with Zach Gelb.

Phil, what's happening? Hey, Zach, I'm upset with Sirianni or the offensive coordinator, whoever. Eagles had the ball with like a minute-50 left to go in the game on the 28-yard line.

Jake Elliott is about automatic as it comes. They should have just drained the clock, kicked a field goal, and not even gave Washington the opportunity. They're already, you know, short-handed in the secondary. You need to keep that defense off the field, you know, whenever possible. All you have to do is drain the clock, kick a field goal. Eagles are home happy without all the extra drama at the end.

Yeah, it's a fair point, Phil, that you did bring up. I'm someone that I don't change my take after seeing what did happen when it comes to criticizing coaches. In the moment, when a buddy said, oh, maybe you should have waited for the field goal, because it was second and four at Washington's 28, where they throw the ball to A.J. Brown for the touchdown, I was like, I have no problem taking the touchdown there.

The Eagles do have a good defense, even though the defense isn't off to the best to start this season. I'm not going to crush Sirianni for that, but I did hear a lot of Eagles fans yesterday suggest, hey, with how automatic Jake Elliott is, maybe you run the ball, run down the clock, and then you kick the game-winning field goal right as the time does expire. Now, I understand he made a 54-yard field goal.

Usually when you kind of get selective like that, even if there's some thought to that, that would be the one where he misses, like, the chip shot from, like, 43 yards or something like that. So in the moment, I was not crushing Sirianni for that, so it would be disingenuous of me today to say, yeah, this coach is an idiot. This coach is a moron. This coach is a dope. What the heck was he doing?

But if you felt like that way in the moment, you definitely have a fair gripe there. Alrighty, Zach Gelb here with you on CBS Sports Radio. What we'll do right now is we will take a break, and when we do come back, I want to get into this conversation and continue the conversation about college football.

I'm going to give you three takes in the college football world from what I saw this past weekend. But first up with the latest CBS Sports Radio update, here is the act man, Rich Ackerman. And this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

So during the break, I guess Samter was trying to get my attention, and then eventually I looked up, because I have a good internal play clock when we're coming back from the break, and I see Samter was like jumping up and down, saying, look at me, look at me, to try to get my attention. I just didn't have my headphones in, so I couldn't hear him. And it's pretty soundproof here in the CBS Sports Radio studios. I went down the rabbit hole of analyzing Mac Canada's Wikipedia page after another horrible performance by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The position for Mac Canada right now on Wikipedia is worst offensive coordinator of all time, and it's in red, bolded letters.

It also says career highlights and awards in this section call shotgun runs on fourth and one and gets the QB injured. They are just torching the Steeler fans, Mac Canada, and I can't blame them, because when the offense isn't up to par, there's always going to be someone who needs to be the piñata, and it's not going to be the young quarterback first. It's going to be the offensive coordinator, and everyone in the Steel City can agree that Mac Canada is not the guy. But, man, I got a good chuckle out of worst offensive coordinator of all time and then called shotgun on fourth and one and gets the QB injured.

Here's what I'll say to Steelers fans. It could be Matt Patricia. Matt Patricia could be your offensive coordinator. That's the worst offensive coordinator of all time.

Well, here's the question I have for you. If everyone can see it, lay fans, analysts, people who watch the sport, if we can see how bad he is, how can't Mike Tomlin see it? So, there's loyalty when you are a coach to your staff, and I think that you always try to, especially when you're someone who's Mike Tomlin, who is such a successful coach, and you're in an organization that's basically had three coaches in Chuck Knoll, Bill Kauer, and Mike Tomlin. And I think you try to be loyal to your own staff until you realize that it definitely can't work. And sometimes coaches get stubborn. You saw it right with Bill Belichick. Everyone knew last year that Matt Patricia shouldn't have been the offensive coordinator, but Patricia was Bill's guy. And I know that Matt Canada hasn't been in the organization forever, but he's been there since 2020, and I think Tomlin wants this to work. But right now, you're doing it, and you're eventually going to have the fan base who right now is using Canada as the pinata should.

They're eventually going to turn on you as well. I don't have a great explanation for you, but that's the only thing that I could do that is just blind loyalty here by Mike Tomlin right now. And we see that, unfortunately, with football coaches. So, let me just do this real quickly before we get to three college football takes.

Stu, I want you to play this real quickly. It's Mike Tomlin, after the game, who was asked, are the Pittsburgh Steelers going to make changes? Let's listen up and see if maybe some changes are coming, especially with the guys that call the plays and run the offense. Hell yeah, we got to make some changes, man. That was an ugly product we put out there today, and so we're not going to do the same things and hope for a different outcome.

What those changes are, man, we'll put together a plan in preparation this week. Yeah, if I was a Sealer fan, that gave me nothing. Because it was, and I'm not expecting a coach to go gaslight the team after a game and things like that, but you didn't give anything specific. Sure, you lose a game, you get embarrassed the way that they did up against the Texans. It's easy to say, yeah, we're going to make changes. We got to do things differently. But everyone knows that the change that the fans want, and sometimes, you know, if you listen with the fans, you're going to end up being with the fans one day.

But it's not as if the fans are always wrong. And I just don't see how Mac Canada, where it was so ugly a year ago, bounces back and finds a good story here and you have a good happy ending with him running the organization on the offensive side of the ball for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alrighty, let me give you three college football takes.

I try to do this each and every Monday off a very busy college football Saturday from things that I got to see this past weekend. Let me start with USC. I just do not trust USC's defense. It's the reason why before the year, I picked Washington to win the Pac-12. I think Oregon is a better team than USC as well. And we'll get to understand, you know, where this USC defense is at. I couldn't really gather anything going up against Nevada and going up against Stanford. They didn't have a good defensive showing up against Arizona State. It looked like they were going to have a good defensive showing up against Colorado.

But then the Buffalo's just had an enormous second half. That defense cost them last year in addition to an injury with Caleb Williams. But you got some big opponents coming up for USC. You have Notre Dame. You have Utah. You have Washington.

You have Oregon and Washington and Oregon back-to-back weeks on November 4th and November 11th. If you get caught one time, it doesn't mean you can't win the Pac-12 because you only have one loss in the Pac-12. I know the Pac-12 has been sensational this year, but all these teams are going to beat up on one another eventually. You could still get into the Pac-12 championship game. But when you go up against the better competition and when you go up against the better teams in the Pac-12, which you're in that conversation, I do think your defense is going to be a major wart and a major flaw, and it's what is going to prevent you, in my opinion, from winning the Pac-12 where I will trust more Washington and I will trust more Oregon. But you look at this USC defense. We talked about coaches showing too much loyalty. Lincoln Riley showing too much loyalty to his defensive coordinator, Alex Grinch, ever since they were together at Oklahoma. So that's take number one. I don't trust the USC defense.

Take number two. Mark Stoops is a top-ten coach in college football, and Mark Stoops continues to be one of the more underrated coaches in the country. Mark Stoops is 5-0 this season at Kentucky. Mark Stoops has been at Kentucky since 2013.

This was a program that has not won ten games since 1977. Mark Stoops, since taking over as the football coach at Kentucky, has won ten games twice, 2018 and 2021. Mark Stoops is an incredible football coach, and you could tell he has an enormous amount of power at that university, because do you remember last year when John Calipari said, We're a basketball school?

You know, the football coach at Kentucky usually doesn't have a leg to stand on when you're going up against a basketball coach, but John Calipari had to issue an apology. So it shows you the incredible job that Mark Stoops has done with this program, and it's more than just wins and losses, but he took over a football team that was 2-10 back in 2012. He goes 2-10 in 2013, then goes 5-7, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 10-3, 8-5, 5-6 to COVID year, throw it out the window, 10-3, 7-6, now it's 5-0, and didn't just beat Florida this weekend. He beat Florida going away, 33-14.

So Mark Stoops, top-ten coach in college football, and one of the more underrated coaches in the country, and I would think he would eventually leave Kentucky, but he hasn't done so yet, and with the power that he has at that university, maybe he's just a little bit different than most of the other coaches, and maybe he does not leave the Kentucky Wildcats. And finally, there is no more disappointing team this year through the first four or five weeks of the college football season than the LSU Tigers. A lot of people had high expectations for LSU entering this season. I didn't think they would win the SEC, but I thought they'd be one of the four teams in the college football playoff. We've seen before two SEC teams get in.

We've seen before two Big Ten teams get in. But LSU, week one of the season, didn't show up in the second half against Florida State. They lost 45-24, and then you got into a shootout with Ole Miss, and you lose to Ole Miss 55-49. LSU is just not going to be able to do it this year. LSU is regressing, and it's crazy because they lost game one last year and then lost in the SEC championship game. And there's big expectations with a lot of talent with this LSU Tigers team, and Brian Kelly, he's going to start to feel the pressure. Because remember, Les Miles won a championship there. Ed Orgeron won a championship there. I know Nick Saban did, but look what Nick Saban has gone on to accomplish. But we are at a point now where, and I know it's different circumstances, where if the fan base lost faith in Ed Orgeron and Les Miles, and Brian Kelly is perceived to be a better coach than both those guys, they'll lose faith in you rather quickly. And to have two losses five weeks into the season and it be three and two, it's a bad look for LSU, and LSU has been the most disappointing team in college football to start off this season. Coming on back with no-huddle offense, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.