Tua Troubles (Hour 1)

The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown, and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news, and add shows to your queue to catch up later.

There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd, I want to know.

Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. And that free Odyssey app, 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. And coming up at 820 p.m. Eastern, 520 p.m. Pacific from the Los Angeles Chargers at a big time victory against the Miami Dolphins, Drew Tranquil will join us later on in the program. And producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is, of course, no other than Hotte Kiki.

Hotte Kiki. I gotta start off the show. And by the way, we're coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family well, Rocket can. The entire year in the NFC, we've been trying to find who are the legitimate contenders, who are the teams that you could envision playing in Super Bowl Sunday. And for a while, the Vikings are one of those teams. The Cowboys have been talked about a lot. The Buccaneers, at first we thought could be that team, then seeing the way that they played, they haven't been that team.

You've seen the Giants and the commanders be up and down. But after seeing 14 weeks of this season, and as we get set to end week 14 tonight with the Arizona Cardinals and the New England Patriots, neither who really factor into this conversation. When you look at the NFC, it is clear as day who the best two teams are in the NFC.

It's the Philadelphia Eagles one. That's been the case for almost the entirety of this season. You may have not realized it in week two, in week three, in week four, but for the better part of probably the last two months, I've been pounding the drum here saying, we all know how good Philadelphia is, and not only is Philadelphia the best team in the NFC, right now, they're the best team in the NFL. Because you look at the AFC, Cincinnati's good, Buffalo's good, Chiefs have been good. But Philadelphia has been the most consistent team, they have the fewest losses in the league, and they probably have been outside of a stretch of losing to the commanders, their only loss in the season, and having to come from behind to just squeak out a victory against the Colts. They've clearly been the most dominant team in the league. There's not been many performances this year where you look at the Eagles and you go, they didn't really bring it for 60 minutes.

No, I don't like what I'm seeing. And their one deficiency was the defensive line against the run game, and that has gotten vastly better throughout the season, and they've also added in some big names off of free agency, and Linval Joseph, and then Ndamukong Su. We said this last week, and I even sent out a video yesterday during the one o'clock window, that I could only envision one team in the NFC get into the Super Bowl, and that was Philadelphia. Now, all year, I've wanted to see the 49ers be the team that people tell me they could be this dangerous force to be reckoned with. Because every single week, people would say, oh, don't count out the 49ers, don't discount them, and I kept on saying, I gotta see it.

And not only do I have to see it, I have to see it consistently. And last week, the 49ers finally showed me an effort up against the Miami Dolphins where I was like, wow, that's an impressive victory. That's the 49ers team that everyone keeps on telling me about when they beat the Miami Dolphins 33 to 17, where the performance was good, and then it was up against a legitimate opponent. Because a few weeks prior, when everyone's telling me and going nuts over the 49ers blowing out the Cardinals, I'm like, God, the Cardinals stink.

If you don't blow out the Arizona Cardinals, then it's like a problem. So the 49ers, even with the way I wanted to give them praise last week, they had this dark cloud hanging over them. Because Jimmy Garoppolo is done for the season, or it may come back divisional round, whatever it may be.

You know that Trey Lance is done for the season, you're relying on Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick in the draft out of Iowa State and Brock Purdy. Brock played well last week, and I thought for sure the 49ers were going to beat the Buccaneers, but I didn't think it would be in that lopsided of a way. And that was a dominant ass-kicking yesterday that the 49ers gave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And not that I'm ready to sit here and proclaim that the 49ers are going to be going to the Super Bowl, but with what I saw yesterday, I think the 49ers are the second best team in the NFC, and all you need is Brock Purdy, and we'll see if he can continue to do this, is just be a game manager. Do what he did yesterday, limit his throws to like 20-21 throws, maybe at most 25.

Don't turn over the football, you toss two touchdown passes and you hover right around 200 yards passing. But as long as you have Christian McCaffrey healthy, well you know Christian McCaffrey is going to be a big jolt on the offensive side of the ball. You have Brandon Iuch, who's good, and then yes there's a scare with Deebo Samuel, and we'll see how severe the injury is to Deebo Samuel. It doesn't look like it's going to be as bad as what we thought, because when Deebo got hurt yesterday in the moment when his leg got sandwiched in between, I'm thinking to myself, okay he's done for the season, and then you find out that it's an ankle injury.

So we'll continue to monitor that. But with that defense, and their coach being really good in Kyle Shanahan, and if you could continue to dominate the trenches, yeah the 49ers are going to be a threat in the NFC. The 49ers are going to be the team that I trust the second most in the NFC.

Now I'm not changing tunes that drastically in terms of Philadelphia. I don't believe that there is one team right now in the NFC that is ultimately going to walk into Philadelphia, and is going to beat up on the Eagles if the Eagles only need it. They're going to have the number one overall seed, unless something crazy happens down the stretch in the final four weeks of the season.

And they may have that locked up within the next two weeks, the way that this is trending. But I still am going to say that Philadelphia is going to the Super Bowl. Because I look at that team, remember Ryan, we had Brandon Graham on at the end of September? That's like week three, week four, whenever it was where they were going up against the commanders. It was in the final week of September, and Brandon Graham on this show, I asked him straight up, you were a Super Bowl hero in 2017.

You made the biggest play in the game, Shripsack and Tom Brady. Is this team, the Philadelphia Eagles, in 2022 more talented than the team that you guys had in 2017? And he said yes. Now usually, right, he's a locker room leader.

He's a guy that has been around a long time, knows how the media can play games. Usually you get asked that question, you can say, yeah, I'm really optimistic about this team. I believe in this team, but we got a long ways to go, especially how early it is in the season, before you make comparisons to a team that won a Super Bowl in Super Bowl LII. Brandon Graham is like, look at the talent on this team.

No disrespect to the team that he was a part of in 2017, but he said they're more talented, and he's not wrong. Like Jalen Hurts is better than, I know Nick Foles played two great games, but Jalen Hurts is better than Nick Foles and Carson Wentz. That offensive line, lot of similar pieces, still a dominant force.

Lane Johnson's only getting better. You have Miles Sanders, who's a really good running back. You have better wide receivers. And AJ Brown and Devante Smith, and defensively, they're loaded. Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Hassan Redick, Nana Damakinsou. On the back end you have Darius Bigplay-Slate, and Nick Sirianni is very similar to Doug Peterson. So I still don't see a team that's going to walk in to Philadelphia and beat the Eagles this year.

And I think it's really slim pickings. But I guess if you're going to have confidence in one team to do that, after what they have showed me the last two weeks and finally putting it out there on the field, it's the San Francisco 49ers, with what they were able to do yesterday, just dismantling the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the week before doing the same thing to the Miami Dolphins. And I know, and I'm sure we'll hear from Cowboys fans, I'm sure we'll hear from Vikings fans, Zach, why are you disrespecting my team? I'm not disrespecting your team.

I just think your teams are good, not great. Like the Vikings, we all thought were disrespected leading into this game up against the Lions, right? How come Minnesota only two losses against a team that's below.500 be a two and a half point underdog? And that's what the Vikings were.

That game was never even close. The Lions dominated the Minnesota Vikings yesterday. And the Vikings are a good team, just not a great team.

And they could have their ten and three record all they want. Go look at their three losses. They lost to Detroit, you could argue could have beat them twice, because in that first matchup, Detroit was up by two touchdowns twice, and Minnesota came back. This time around, you saw Detroit be up by 14 and then 15.

That was a dominant performance by Detroit. And you also got to remember that the Minnesota Vikings got blown out by Philadelphia back in week two, and then got just absolutely eviscerated by the Dallas Cowboys 40-3. So I look at Minnesota, you have a quarterback who's good. You have a stud wide receiver in Justin Jefferson, one of the best wide receivers you'll ever see. But other than that, Dalvin cooks money. But defensively, how is that defense, it has some nice talent in Zadarius with the Patrick Peterson, but how is that defense going to slow down a well-rounded, high-octane offense in the Philadelphia Eagles?

I don't see it. And then the other team, the Dallas Cowboys, they're going to play on Christmas Eve. And that game is enormous. It is massive for the Dallas Cowboys. And the last time these two teams played, Philadelphia won, but it was without Dak Prescott in the game. But I look at Dallas yesterday, and everyone's entitled to a lethargic performance, and they had a lethargic performance yesterday and they were still able to win, but they were going up against, and this is not hyperbole, one of the worst teams I've ever seen in the Houston Texans, who have been jumping back and forth in their quarterback position.

It's Davis Mills, then it's Kyle Allen, then it's Jeff Driscoll. Like, look at what they're doing. The Texans have no clue how to be competitive. They're a reason why going into yesterday they won 10-1. And the Cowboys are lucky that they got them to go to 1-11-1, because there was a moment that it looked like the Texans were going to win the game. And there you have so many bad players on that Texans team, and Lovey Smith, in the year of 2022, is just not a good head coach. So I know some Cowboys fans are going to say, Zach, oh that's too harsh on the Cowboys, but can you really trust the Cowboys in a big spot? You know, we praised Dallas last year. Mike McCarthy, oh look what he's doing, Dan Quinn, and you got Dak Prescott, all that. We said all these great things about Dallas last year, all the words of extolment, and then in a playoff game against the 49ers, they were embarrassing.

Embarrassing! They weren't prepared to start the game, then when they finally got back in the game, because Jimmy Garoppolo tried to gift wrap them the game, they couldn't get the ball off, the snap off, in the final 13 seconds. So I look at the NFC, I'll keep on saying it, I'll be stunned if the Eagles aren't in the Super Bowl. But if it's not Philadelphia, up until last week I probably would say it's Dallas and hold my nose when doing so. I think it's then going to be, right now after 14 weeks, the San Francisco 49ers. So if I had to rank the big four in the NFC, and if you're a Bucs fan, sorry, you're not a part of that. If you're the Giants, you're not a part of that.

If you're the Commanders for now, you're not a part of that. If you're a Seahawks fan, you're not a part of that. Seahawks lose to the Panthers yesterday, give credit to Steve Wilks. But right now when I look at the NFC, Eagles are the best team, then there's separation, 49ers are second best, Cowboys three, and the Vikings four. Hickey, how do you rank the four best teams in the NFC with everything that you've seen through the first 14 weeks of the season? I would agree with the top two for sure. Eagles number one, Vikings, sorry not Vikings, 49ers number two. I would still put the Cowboys, despite what they did last week, or yesterday I should say this point, three. So we're so far in agreement.

And I will say Minnesota four. Okay, if you were going to give me Tampa, I know that you think- I can't. I can't. Which is wild. I can't.

Because- I would love to. I'm the biggest Brady fan there is, and for weeks I've been telling you, I don't want to hear this argument of Brady going to the Super Bowl, I know he's tormented you and tortured you for your entire life and most NFL fans, but when Brady does not play well it's because his offensive line stinks. And that offensive line stinks right now. Todd Bowles is a horrible coach, and that defense, we've been talking about it for a while, that defense has significantly regressed this year.

So I don't think it's even close when you look at the four best teams in the NFC, it's Eagles 49ers, Cowboys, Vikings, and it's in that order. By the way, Hickey, what the heck is going on in this studio? I don't know if the listening audience can hear this, but is this construction? I feel like there is a jackhammer just going off.

And this is very distracting to try to host a radio program and do this. I don't know if you can hear it on the radio, but if you were in our studio right now, it either sounds like a jackhammer's going off or there's an earthquake happening on the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Thankfully it is not sounding like it's bleeding over the air too much, but from what I have been told, we're on the 10th floor here. There's what, about 20 floors? There's construction on floors 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13. You may want to tell me what floors there are in construction. It's a little bit easier, but there's a lot of moving pieces here, and you feel it in the ground, you kind of hear it, it's very annoying. You know what, there's an Army-Navy helmet right behind me, and congratulations to Army.

What a tremendous comeback victory that was in a great game on Saturday. I may need to wear that Army-Navy helmet the rest of the show, because I'm fearful with all these big fancy lights in this studio that something's going to come crashing down and hit me in the cabeza during this segment. And I don't want to have to enter concussion protocol today.

And download the free Odyssey app today. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm interested in making money, I'm not interested in hurting people. 15 years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio.

Season 2, The Dixie Mafia, available now on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is there something really absurd that skeeves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake? I'm going to leak ocular fluid down my cheeks.

It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears.

Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts from. Enough quarterbacks did that yesterday, so I agree. Well, I'll tell you this, if I have to enter concussion protocol, I'm out. I'm done for the show. You're not coming back? No, no, there's no chance they can medically clear me to come back in. I will leave, I will go home, and I will start my Monday evening a little bit earlier than normal than at 10 p.m. Eastern. I'll tell you that.

A marinac and spike ain't putting me back in the game. That is for sure. I don't know, I think we need a red hat to come in here.

I think they'll give you OK. You know what? Where's the doctor from Tua from the Bills game the other day? Maybe I should just jump up and down, and then one of these lights will fall, knock me out, and then you could do the show for the rest of the evening. You want to get the reps?

You could be Brock Purdy. Oh, here she is. Here's the Zach Gelb show on CBO Sports Radio. When we come on back, Justin Herbert dominates Chargers win into a tongue of Aloha.

Oof. Looking ugly for the Dolphins quarterback the last two weeks. We'll discuss all that from the big Sunday Night Football game between the Chargers and Dolphins. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. And you can think of Riley Auto Parts where all your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

O-O-O-O-Riley Auto Parts. Adam Schefter has now given us the update on Deebo Samuel, and this is good news. He only suffered a sprain MCL and ankle, but is expected to return during the regular season. So enormous because it looked like yesterday that Deebo was going to be done for the season.

And then I think it was Jordan Schultz who was like the first person to say, oh, it's not as bad as what it looked to be. And then you get the official stuff today that the 49ers have now said that it is a sprained MCL and ankle, but Deebo is expected to return for the regular season. So there's no setbacks. You get him back at some point in the regular season. You don't have to play him if it's not going to be a crucial game or anything. And then you just get him set come postseason time because you look at the 49ers, and this is what we love to show with, they're the second best team in the NFC. And my one concern, Hickey, about them is obviously injuries because Brock Purdy is their quarterback now, even though he's playing well.

But with Brock Purdy now in, it even raises the bar even more for guys like Christian McCaffrey who has had a career filled with injuries, unfortunately, and so explosive when he's able to be healthy. And then you look at Deebo, the weird part is Deebo last year was so great, people forget that he was well over 1,000 yards receiving because we focus so much on what he did down the stretch in the run game and the different element, and I thought it was a little bit bizarre that yesterday the GOAT Jerry Rice took to Twitter to kind of trash Kyle Shanahan for running the key pieces up the middle, and he talked about injuries that they've seen suffered this year to both quarterbacks and then obviously to Deebo Samuel. But Hickey, as much as I love Jerry Rice, I kind of got to say tough luck, Jerry Rice, and injuries unfortunately are part of the game, but you're trying to win a Super Bowl this year or get to a Super Bowl, and Deebo Samuel signed a contract where if they run him a certain amount of times, there are incentives there. So I don't see what the big deal is here unless, and this is where my brain kind of went with Deebo Samuel, and I don't know what the relationship is, this is total speculation on my part, but maybe Jerry Rice and Deebo Samuel have a really good relationship, and Deebo has expressed his true frustrations in that whole contract negotiations with Jerry Rice, and then it kind of popped up yesterday when Jerry Rice was watching the game, and then he hastily went to Twitter and started to blame Kyle Shanahan for the Deebo Samuel injury. Yeah, I don't really, outside of time and score, I really don't think it's on a coach for an injury.

Unless it's a blowout game, either way, then there's no reason for that to begin. Like you mentioned, football is a violent sport. It's unfortunate what happens, but it's one of those things where in order for the 49ers to win, especially like you said now with Jimmy G not there, one of the ways you have to kind of make this offense even better is by giving your best players the ball, and that is Deebo Samuel, and we saw how great he is in the run game. It's part of the job, and it's just you hope you get lucky, and I would say they did get lucky in terms of the severity of the injury, but to think that you're not going to run Deebo Samuel in duties that was great is stupid, frankly. Alright, let's get to the game last night on Sunday Night Football between the Dolphins and the Chargers. Hickey, I was really curious, and I thought the Chargers were going to win.

I thought they were the more desperate team. I thought they needed the game more, and quite frankly, I said this on Friday, I'll say it again, I just trust Justin Herbert more than Tua Tunga Vailoa, and I know there was a lot of people like our pal Lee that tweets the show that tweeted in, Herbert better than Tua, and then he said to me, are you high, or did you get hit with an overwhelming wave of stupidity? Even with the way that Tua played last week, I thought he would be better against a Chargers defense that has not been really good this season, and that has been missing Joey Bosa, and then you find out Derwin James is not going to play in the game. Hickey, last week was really bad for Tua, and we saw the interceptions that he made, but at least you're going up against a number one defense in the 49ers.

This performance was worse, and when I watched Tua last night, it looked like he was trying to force the ball. It almost looked like it was tough for him to throw the football in that game last night, and he never looked comfortable, but to go 10-28 for 145 yards, and let's be real, they had two touchdowns at Dolphins. One was off a fortuitous bounce in a play that I've never seen where Tyreek Hill picks up the ball after a Chargers player batted the ball out of a pile and then goes 40-something yards to the house, and the other one was a one-on-one play where the defender fell down and Tyreek Hill was running right down the sideline and got in the end zone. Other than those two plays, one was completely luck, and the other one was a defender tripping down, but that's what happens when you're going up against a cheetah and the speedster that is Tyreek Hill. That Dolphins team got dominated last night, and Tua Tunga-Viloa did not play well in the contest, and it just shows you that if you find a way to just contain Tyreek Hill, even with him making the two biggest plays for the Dolphins last night, yeah, don't get me wrong, this Dolphins team is still good, but they really go as Tyreek Hill goes, and there was not enough consistency by Tyreek Hill last night. It wasn't only Tyreek Hill, there was a play where Tyreek should have been in the end zone, and Tua Tunga-Viloa just couldn't get the football to him, and he was wildly inaccurate last night.

How much do people praise the accuracy of Tua Tunga-Viloa? He simply just wasn't accurate last night, and it was really ugly, like 35-36 completion percentage. I didn't think it was possible for him to play worse than last week, especially when you look at the defense he was going up against last week to the defense of last night, and how much of a drop-off it is, but Tua played his worst game of the season last night, Icky. And the concerning part is it felt like this Dolphins offense in general was figured out for the first time last night, because you're playing with backups here, some of the most important positions in the secondary, and you had Tyreek Hill getting no separation, Jalen Waddle was invisible for it felt like three-quarters, and Tua, like you mentioned, is almost forcing balls in that we don't really normally see, because for the most part, outside of his accuracy, he's also a good decision-maker that he usually takes what the defense gives him, and it really felt like he was trying to force it, and whether it was just the discussion about him and Herbert trying to show off, but that offense overall felt like for the first time, a defense had a game plan, and the Dolphins had just no answer whatsoever.

When I was watching Tua last night, I don't know if you felt this way, it looked like it was painful for him to throw the football, like what should have been routine throws, it felt like he had to really put something extra on it just to get the ball out of his hand, he did not look comfortable last night when I was watching him, Icky. And I think it goes back to the game plan for the Chargers, because they just kind of made sure that Tyreek is not going to beat him deeper over the middle. And they were physical at defense. They were, and it was the first time the Dolphins kind of saw this game plan, and they were almost shell-shocked, they got a punch in the face, and they were just stunned, like what do we do from here, and they had no answer, because like I said, the two touchdowns were just flukes, although the one deep pass was pretty nice, but otherwise, again, for the most part, they were shut down against a defense that has been very bad for this entire season. And the final score was 23-17.

I don't know about you, but that game did not feel like it was a 23-17 game. The Chargers felt like they dominated and kicked the crap out of the Dolphins last night. Any time you needed to play offensively or defensively, the Chargers made it and the Dolphins did it.

Yeah, and you know what? I took the Chargers last night plus three and a half. I thought they were going to win the game. When you had that Tyreek kill play happen, the first one, the crazy fumble that he picked up and then went the distance, I was saying to myself, that's a play that feels as if it only happens to the Chargers, and I was real curious how the Chargers were going to respond, and I even texted you, because in that moment, and maybe it was the money that was talking a little bit because I had them plus three and a half, but when it got to 10-7 and the Chargers go three and out, I just expected the Dolphins were going to march right down the field and get a touchdown. But they didn't, and then the Chargers were able to capitalize on that 13-play drive of I think it was almost 90 yards. They almost went the entire field in the final four minutes or so right before the end of the half, and I did not love the play call when Staley went for it earlier inside the three-yard line on the first time he did it and got denied, and I was thinking maybe you should take the points, but you got to know what you're dealing with.

You know that guy is always going to go for that spot. On fourth and goal at the one, there was only two play calls that you could have done. It was either your QB sneaking it with Justin Herbert or you're finding a way to have Austin Eckler bounce off the outside, and that's what he was able to do getting that touchdown. But that was so enormous to get it to 17-7, because if you go into half when they make that stand and it's 10-7, there would have been an enormous amount of pressure, and I think the Chargers would have been a little bit tense. But getting that touchdown right before the end of the half was big.

Oh, absolutely massive. It felt, from a defensive perspective, frustrating. Like you said, I thought, slow start, they'll figure it out, you get the tired kill, fumble, touchdown, fluke-bing, but it kind of gets you going. Then you saw the defensive version of the second half start to pick it up, you get the long touchdown, it's like, okay, here they go finally. 17-14.

And once they got to 14, they just needed that one extra gear. The defense took it up, offense just looked out of rhythm, out of sync the entire rest of the game. So I don't want to defend the Chargers for their play this entire season, but you go through the injuries, and now you see Mike Williams getting back healthier, Keenan Allen getting back healthier. You look at the defensive side of the ball, they're missing Joey Bosa since the beginning of the season.

They just missed Derwin James in this game. If this team could get healthy, and maybe it's a little bit too late, I do think they're going to make the playoffs, and I just wonder what this team looks like if they're healthy, because there's no doubt in my mind that this quarterback is legit, and we know the most passing yards the first three years of any quarterback in the history of the NFL. And it's also kind of a reflection of our society, too, because I think a lot of times when someone gets criticized and told they're not the franchise quarterback, they go play well for the majority of a season, then it's like, oh, we've got to expose all these takes and take someone down with them. Justin Herbert, I know that they're not winning a ton of games, but Justin Herbert, when you watch him play, there's no way you look at him and say, wow, he's the main reason why the Chargers haven't been good. He's the only reason right now that they're probably still in this position to be 7-6. And Burrow, to me, is the best quarterback just out of the first round, because I think Jalen Hurts was in the second round to that draft in 2020.

So just out of those first-round guys, because everyone forgets that there's more than just the first round, Joe Burrow's the best quarterback out of those three. But then, it's clearly to me, Justin Herbert over Tua, and that's not taking away and saying Tua's a bad quarterback. Tua's been really good this year, but he's got to show me that he can continue to stay healthy, and in these big moments, he can step up to the occasion and deliver, because in a game like that, there was no doubt about it. Last night, Herbert was the better quarterback, and it wasn't even close when you look at the game between Herbert and Tua Tonga-Vailoa, Dolphins and Chargers. Yeah, this last month is huge for Tua.

He's going to be the guy in 2023, but especially too after he gets hurt and you have the nice wins over the Ravens and Bills early in the year, a lot of the teams they were beating in that stretch before last week against the 49ers were bad teams. You're beating the Texans, you're beating some of the Bears, some low-level bad defenses. And now Tua's two games in a row against one really good defense, one really bad defense, has played the two worst games of his season, and all things considered, two of the worst games of his career so far.

And now you go to Buffalo, you have three more games. This is a huge stretch for Tua to see, okay, now that teams and defense have seemingly figured out what the offense wants to do, how do you respond? Because if you can't respond, you can't finish strong, it's tough to hit your wagon to Tua for the long term and feel good about it, because every great quarterback, every Super Bowl-caliber quarterback has some sort of answer when the first options take away or when you kind of get put into a corner. We saw, I think, last night with Justin Herbert, this is now Tua's opportunity. Now he's put in a corner.

How do you respond? How many games do they win down the stretch? I think you'll be in agreement with me on Saturday night, and especially they're going to be snow in Buffalo.

The lake affects snow. I think the Bills are going to beat them. I'm with you. Then they play the Packers. They should beat the Packers. I think they win that game. And then, is it wild to say that I'm expecting them to drop one of the Patriots or Jet games? They play them back-to-back weeks to end up the season in New England. They play the Jets.

In Miami. Yeah. I feel like they're going to lose one of those. I think they're going to go 2-2 down the stretch. And if that's the case, they're 10-7 on the season. It felt like where they were a few weeks ago that if I would have said to you that they were going to finish 10-7, you'd be like, no way. If they go 3-1 down the stretch, I don't think I ever look at them as a Super Bowl contender. Maybe they could go win a playoff game, wildcard round, just because you know they have the big playability with Waddle and Tyreek Hill. And you've got a defense that has regressed this year. But I'm kind of expecting them to go 2-2 down the stretch.

You? I'm going 3-1. I think they'll beat the Jets. They'll beat the Patriots.

Yes. I do think they'll get to 11-7. But again, like you said, this is a big 3-game stretch and the third one will conclude this Saturday in Buffalo. To see where they truly are Super Bowl contenders, because I was kind of holding out hope that maybe they could join the club with the Bengals, Chiefs, and Bills. But the Chargers are a fringe playoff team. And we'll see if they get in. The 49ers, they have not been playing as great this year as the way people talk about them, but the last two weeks they've really showed you something.

And those games weren't even close. If they lose back-to-back-to-back games and let's say they get annihilated on Saturday night, there's no way to expect anything other than this team just gets in the playoffs and then they go home from the Dolphins the rest of the way. At best, I could maybe see them playing divisional weekend. At best, depending on what the matchup is in the wildcard round.

I can't envision them getting anywhere past the divisional round. Zach Gelb here with you on CBS Sports Radio. This is Zach Gelb Show. We'll take a time out when we come on back.

Is Steve Wilks coaching himself into being the permanent head coach of the Carolina Panthers we discussed. So my biggest fear is there's going to be sneaks in the toilet. We're all afraid of that one strange thing. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new short 10-minute podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. We unpack where these fears come from. A rat climbed into my toilet.

And learn how to manage them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. So my biggest fear is there's going to be sneaks in the toilet. We're all afraid of that one strange thing. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new short 10-minute podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. We unpack where these fears come from. A rat climbed into my toilet. And learn how to manage them.

Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you take CBD and want to learn how to get the best results, listen up. Next Evo Naturals has developed new CBD technology that your body absorbs four times better than regular CBD oils. Most CBD oils only achieve between 2% and 10% absorption. So at least 90% of what you think you're getting is wasted.

Next Evo is different. Their products are scientifically formulated to deliver more CBD in a way your body can use. It is the only brand clinically proven to deliver 30 times faster absorption in the first 30 minutes. CBD can't work unless it gets absorbed. Now it can with Next Evo Naturals.

Available in easy-to-use capsules, gummies, and a unique dissolvable powder. Get smarter CBD from Next Evo Naturals. And get up to 25% off subscription orders of $40 or more at nextevo.com with promo code SMART.

That's N-E-X-T-E-V-O dot com promo code SMART. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. The Carolina Panthers. And I know my buddy Mack and Bone and WFNZ are probably going nuts. And they're doing all these Mack victory dances probably on a Monday. But the Panthers have salvaged their season now. And there's going to be a conversation to be had about Steve Wilks.

Now, let me be clear. I don't think the Panthers are making the playoffs. I know they control their own destiny. I know if they win out, they're in. Tampa Bay with Brady, until I see someone else win that NFC South, even with how bad the Buccaneers have been, I'm going to believe that the Buccaneers are still going to the postseason as a lone representative from the NFC South. But Carolina, to be 4-4 under Steve Wilks as their head coach, when that ship was pretty much sinking or if not sunk already with the dreadful start that they got out to this year and they beat Tampa, they beat Atlanta, they beat Denver, and then yesterday they go into Seattle.

And you know what, Hickey? I actually bet the Panthers yesterday. And every betting expert from Beck QL or not Beck QL is like, oh, you got to take the Panthers. I'm like, oh, wow, they're really optimistic about the Carolina Panthers.

So I said, you know what, bleep it. I'll plus the 3.5 points. And also the Kenneth Walker loss for the Seahawks I think is enormous, that he wasn't able to give it a go, because if you're asking Geno Smith, and Geno's had a really good year, not taking anything away from Geno, but if you're asking Geno Smith to be the main guy and it just be Geno to DK or Geno to Lockett and you don't have that threat of a run game or Kenneth Walker's been really good this year, and they're a one-dimensional team and you're going up against a good defense, I will believe that eventually Geno Smith is going to make a mistake in that game. But for Carolina to now be sitting there, and I know it's also a product of how bad that division is, and they've won their games in their division, but for Carolina to be sitting there at 5-8 and the Bucs are 6-7, the Falcons are 5-8, the Saints are 4-9, and think about it this way, Hickey. Imagine if the Saints would have took care of business two weeks ago and finished that game against the Buccaneers.

Then it may have been a different conversation and just the feel of it, but right now I got to give credit to Steve Wilks because, remember, they trade away McCaffrey. Offensively, they've been playing. It was Baker, it was P.J., and now it's back to Sam Darnold. They've always had a good defense. You know, Phil Snow, when he was their defensive coordinator last year, at times it ranked the second defense in the NFL at times. So that defense has always been good. It's, okay, what can you get offensively? And DJ Moore gets out of the game pretty early yesterday. You know, I was dealing with an injury. So for them to win that game in Seattle and pretty much dominate the game and have control of the game all throughout, it's a heck of a job by Steve Wilks.

And here's what I'll say. You don't have to bring Steve Wilks back. You don't have to make him the full-time head coach.

But I think they should learn a lesson, maybe, from the Las Vegas Raiders. You've got to make the right hire if you're going to move on from something that's working, and we don't know how much further into the future it's going to work. Like with Rich Passaccia, he did an admirable job last year in really tough circumstances, circumstances that you can't even imagine. But what he did was help get that team to the playoffs. They, you know, they decided to go with Josh McDaniels. McDaniels has been a disaster this year.

And I'm not telling you, besides you would go on to have a great four or five-year career, but it's about continuing the momentum that you're starting to build and not making the momentum regress. And if you move on from Steve Wilks, the guy that you bring in, you better have a resounding response of, wow, that's a home run hire. Like if they go and go into college and bring in Jim Harbaugh, I don't think anyone will have a problem with that. And Harbaugh, forget what he's done in college, he's been to three NFC title games and a Super Bowl in his four years with the 49ers. If they bring in Sean Payton and they get the trade done with the sanctions, I don't think it's going to happen. No one can tell you, oh, that's a bad move because Sean's won a Super Bowl in this league.

But really outside of those two names, everyone else is a gamble. Like I think D'Amico Ryan's going to be a heck of a coach in this league. Never been a head coach though. How many times will we see a hotshot defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator that everyone loves, and then two, three years everyone's saying, okay, you can't get rid of that guy quick enough. So for David Tepper, who likes to be bold, right, you better make the right decision. Because if you bring in someone and they're a disaster, people are going to look back at Steve Wilks and say, even if he doesn't make the playoffs, and they're going to say, okay, he was doing a decent job with the Carolina Panthers.

So I just wonder what they're going to do. But Steve Wilks right now, even though I did not, you know, you see what happened in his other coaching job for one year, no one could have seen this thing coming. So it is impressive, especially when on the offensive side of the ball, they really don't have much there. Like you don't have a franchise quarterback. That line has been improved.

Outside of DJ Moore, there's not these weapons that really scare you on that offensive side of the ball. So I got to give credit to, and really tip the cap to Steve Wilks, Hickey, on just the way that he's salvaged this ship. And maybe they do end up winning the NFC South. I also think it's going to be Tampa, but if they're going to move on, they better get it right because it could get quickly, it could get ugly rather quickly, like what you're seeing with the Raiders who had something working with Versace. And an important thing here is you have to be realistic about your franchise and where you are, right? They're playing well where they're playing themselves out of a top, let's say 10 pick. So if you are now a prospective head coach, maybe, and you look at the Panthers, there's a lot of other places that you could maybe say are a little bit more desirable based on some of the head coach openings we think could be out there with the Cardinals and the Chargers. So you are right in the sense of like, yes, they're playing really well. But also too, you got to think if you are a head coach, you want to go where you team as a quarterback. They don't have one in Carolina, which so if there's not a really, like I said, slam dunk home run higher, Steve Wilks, he's got the guys playing well. It's a great point that you bring up. Take that into consideration, you know? The Panthers right now, if the draft were to start tomorrow, would be the ninth pick. And win another game or two, that could be 10 or 11.

That's crazy! Yeah. And there's gonna be a lot of jobs open. Like, I don't think the Raiders will be open, but it's a possibility people are saying. I think the Broncos will be open. Could the Browns potentially be open if Stefanski doesn't do things well in the final four games?

Maybe. Colts are already open. Texans, I think Lovey Smith's one and done. If the Cowboys have another short playoff appearance, maybe Mike McCartney's in a good job this year's out. I think Cliff Kingsbury's gonna get fired. Dennis Allen, maybe. Todd Bowles, maybe. Like, there's gonna be a lot of jobs open. There's always a surprise, retirement, or firing that we don't see coming.

So with how many candidates are out there, if you can't get a top three candidate, then you maybe look to bring Steve Wilks back and I don't think it's the worst thing for the short term. So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm interested in making money.

I'm not interested in hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season two, The Dixie Mafia.

Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. So my biggest fear is there's going to be snakes in the toilet. We're all afraid of that one strange thing. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new short 10-minute podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. We unpack where these fears come from. A rat climbed into my toilet. And learn how to manage them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.