Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreigner and Hutch, as I've said once, and I'll keep saying up until the time that this game ends, hazard pay. Hazard pay. For watching the Dolphins, I feel sorry for all. I don't know who is actually still on that beat from when I was hanging around the. The Dolphins facility in. In. Where were they? They were. They were just off.
Yeah, they were just off of 84, but, like, neither. Neither here nor there. This is a great start to the show, Jake. Thank goodness we're live.
This should be pretty straightforward, my friend. Maybe not the show, but the game itself.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: There's. I think, when there's a bad team, it's like, is it a trap game? Because that's, like, the natural place to go of, like, there's an easy explanation for the game. Maybe it's not so easy to explain.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: It's the end, I think.
Yeah.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: A trap game has to be a team that is, like, in some way established what it is and has, like, some sort of point to prove. The Dolphins are nothing. I don't mean that to say, like, they're just. This is not a description of them as bad. I mean, they are, like, this amorphous entity of trying to figure themselves out. They don't. Like, they have concepts of, like, an identity that they want to stick to on both sides of the ball, and yet they brought in seven players off waivers.
So it's like, that's like, what, a fifth of your team? A tenth of your team? Like, somewhere in that range that you haven't even repped with you, like, and it just looked like watching them, that no one on that team felt comfortable, like, everyone should. I think this is where I'm supposed to.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Well, there's. I have. I have a legitimate folder of Dolphins players running into each other, and I
[00:01:53] Speaker B: think there were seven on defense was
[00:01:55] Speaker A: just like, oh, not on offense. On offense, they were blocking each other.
One of the first plays on defense, you got a guy running in behind and just pushing him as, like, go tackle them. It was. It was disorganized, it was sloppy, and they're not talented. So other than that, how was the play?
There's. There's some things that I like, and I guess if I'm really stepping back and thinking big picture, you're like, okay, end of the season, I can see how you'd feel good about this being somewhat of a foundation. What struck me in watching the game against the Raiders was one. How it made the Raiders look like, are they gonna win the Super Bowl? Like, the Raiders look incredible, and Then. Which, of course, they're not. Though I do like a lot of their defensive concepts that they're running, but it made it a lot easier going up against the Dolphins.
I'll give you two things. One, the one strength that I thought the Dolphins might have is that their offensive line would be pretty good. And I don't think it's abysmal. I really don't think it's abysmal. Yeah, but it's not good.
And then.
Well, and that's. That's the other thing.
And you and I were talking about this before we went live.
They're trying out some stuff that is like, master's level. Course, the amount of gap stuff that they're running, not just simple. We're running power. Everyone in high school does it, right? No, they're running, like, split zone crazy
[00:03:19] Speaker B: stuff to run, triple option stuff. And. And it's. There's just no space to operate it. It's a lot of, like, full house, triple option where you've got Dulcich pulling, and it's like Dulcich's lead blocking for, like, Malik Washington who's doing an orbit. And then it's like Malik Willis is like, ah, I don't know. Should I pitch it? And he's like, I'm just gonna give
[00:03:40] Speaker A: it to AJ and HN's like, please don't. There are three men bearing down on me because we decided not to block anyone on the defensive lines. Interior. On defense, it's kind of the same thing, which is they're moving guys around left, right, and center. They're trying out a bunch of different fronts. Not a one of them works. And 11, their safety out of Maryland, who's a lacrosse player. I know a lot about him. I don't remember his name.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Taffy.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: No, Taffy. Taffy. I kind of get Taffy's out of Texas. But the number 11, their. Their safety. Again, a depth chart would have been useful here for this portion of the show. They're just like, be a rover. Just go do whatever you want. You got Dante Trader Jr. Yeah, Dante Trader.
He might end up being good enough to do that at some point. In the meantime, just agent of chaos. And it's like they're playing 10 against 11. It's not even Dante Trader's fault. He's. He's just in conflict naturally.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: It's just a very, very bad roster. Like, yeah, it's a very bad roster.
New coaching regime, and like, in some ways, you know, a chain poses a lot of problems. Right? Because he's sick. And they understand that, which is why we'll get to it. They're going to give him the ball a million times. They're just like, hey, take it, please, God. And that's why he's basically their best wide receiver, too.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: Like, they're just like, we don't. We got nothing, so please do something. We hope. And Malik Willis is like, I'm. There's just so much they're asking him to do on any given play. And I respect that. They're trying stuff and they're almost trying to maximize, like, all right, well, we can't run some of the. Like, they're almost like, let's make it more complex.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: You know, in terms of like running a lot of these option things that are.
In some ways it makes it easier when you don't have the talent because you're just trying to create a numbers disadvantage for the other team. But it's also, like, harder to execute in some ways. So I kind of get what they're trying to do. And also it feels like it's going to take a while and it might not happen.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: That's. That's where I'm at. Before we get into that, let's give everybody some news that they can use, which is frankly just the injury report. I had to come up with a funkier title. I should have created some like big, like big full screen graphics news you could use. Yeah, yeah, we should probably.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Should have had a riff.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that would have been fantastic. But instead, I'll tell you that long snapper Tucker Addington is questionable for this game. Jake, do you know who the backup long snapper is? Larry told me this last night and it kind of, kind of ruined my night. It kind of. It kind of broke my brain.
No, that would be. That would be an unbelievable.
Yeah, they have a lot of former Niners, which again, not a great sign.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: And who's the backup long snapper?
[00:06:31] Speaker A: It'd be Jacob Rodriguez, their middle linebacker.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Is that true?
[00:06:37] Speaker A: That is true. Verified. You see? You see where I'm at now? I'll catch you in about five minutes when you fully processed all of that. In the meantime, I'll tell you.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Wait, how did that. Why?
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Because he's. He's a gritty.
He's a gritty football player. Former quarterback, goes to Texas Tech as a linebacker and like. Yeah, he learned how to long snap. Of course he did. Jacob Rodriguez.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: You said Jacob Rodriguez or Jacob Robinson?
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Jacob Robinson. That would be. That'd be a hell of a switch. But I don't think that would work. It's Rodriguez, their middle linebacker, number 10. They drafted him. Texas Tech kind of a thing. Very good college player last year. I got some real questions about him as a pro and we'll get into that as we get on. But yeah, if Tucker Addington, who sounds like a fake person, just sounds like AI generated non playable character. Tucker Addington can't go with his shoulder, though he was limitedly participating in all the practices, as all long snappers do every week at practice.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: I love.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: When is the full. What is the full participation for the long snapper at practice? Regardless, he's questionable.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: I don't know how to process that. I mean, I know the 49ers have no plan if John Weeks goes out because it's the same thing as the Peyton Manning line. Right?
[00:07:55] Speaker A: That's the Tom Moore line. Let's be. Let's be clear about the genesis, the Tom Moore. We don't practice.
I walked all over that for you.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: And if John Weeks is down, we're.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it's.
God, I love Tom Moore. He is still alive, but he did finally retire.
Regardless.
Yeah, I want to see it.
I want to see it. If nothing else, I think that the Niners, in a game that 13 and a half might not be enough. I think that's factoring in some sleepy times.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: They're putting. I think they're putting up 40.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Like, I. I haven't. I haven't even made a prediction in my head yet.
Usually I am a little bit more cautious with some of this stuff. They should throttle like they should. There's. There's no like, real logical way. And, and sure, maybe it's. They're just off and they do the thing where they come out slow and then, you know, a chain breaks a couple and the game gets weird. That's an absolute possibility.
You know, every coach will do the most annoying thing in the absolute universe where they go, every team in the NFL is good. Not true.
Not true.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: But there are levels to this.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: There's no easy game in the NFL, which if you screw around, sure can be the case. Sure. There's no legitimate argument that the Dolphins should win this game.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Cal can lose to Wagner this weekend. I know Wagner just got 87 3, but they could lose to Wagner this weekend. I mean, that is a possibility. The other team is there.
I. I just have a heart.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: They were the Seahawks. Wagner Seahawks. I knew it.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I covered the. A super regional with them one time. Them and Stony Brook, they were both in the same thing. Down at the University of Miami. University of Miami Baseball. Sneaky. Great entertainment value back in the day. Regardless.
Yeah. Tucker Addington. I'm gonna need whomever's on the interior on special teams to take that shoulder out. I want to see weird long snapping in this game. We will come back to the question that I asked because I haven't gotten an answer yet in my own mind or from you on who should be the emergency long snapper. These are the questions that only we asked 49ers.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
I mean could Daryl Hodge.
I would love for that to be the case.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: It's got to be.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Was it. Was it the last game? Was it wasn't Thursday Night Football. But there's somebody got penalized for lining up over long snapper.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't see that.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I didn't see all that because you can't. You can't be lined up over them. You got to give them a sec. Who.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Who do you think has sneaky long snapping skills? Because I'm going to be very clear after this game. I'm not sure that I'm going to be trying to get into the locker room and get a lot of analys analysis of what happened. So I might just work the room for who is the emergency long snapper.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Use juice. It's got to be juice, right?
[00:10:39] Speaker A: It's probably juice.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: I don't love the backup qb.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Right. Right. Not that they would have used that.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: A lot of time on his hands.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Juice.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Stuff like that.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: I disagree with that. Like that's the thing.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Here's the thing. He. You're right. He has a lot of responsibilities and he shouldn't. But I always. There's always stuff he's doing like before or after practice where you're like, he's got. He's got time to mess around.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: It's probably right. He does have some Jacob Rodriguez tendencies to him.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: There's a little try hard big extracurricular guy, you know.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Hey. Hey. It gets you through elective studies at Harvard. I'm not sure what his major was. I've never asked him. I don't. Don't particularly care.
But Ronnie Harrison, their linebacker is out. Ronnie Harrison's not important.
This one actually somewhat is important. One of the you interesting players.
I'm sorry. Keeping the faith has it. It is 1000% Braden Willis, who by the way is actually I believe their emergency quarterback now. I believe I even wrote a column about this. We're doing great. It's only week two.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Willis actually played quarterback at Oklahoma against Texas.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah. That's what they lose with no Juwan Jennings, you know. Yeah. Not that they ever would use Juwan that way, but put it.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Put a pin in the Juwan Jennings emergency quarterback thought and we'll come back to it because I have. I have a concept that I'm going to explore here.
Chop Robinson had some actual moments, I would say, against the Raiders.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Pretty dynamic, little springy player.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And that would have been a really nice development. And obviously there are still many weeks left to explore that space with Chop Robinson, but he's out for this game with a concussion on the Niner side.
Stripling's out. Stripling was never in. He's out for months. He just had surgery. They just haven't done the procedural IR move yet.
Kalon Black, limited participant in on Thursday and Friday with a groin injury.
That is interesting. And something to keep an eye on there. And then one that is. Again, we're getting some weird, special team stuff going on in this game. The long snapper is questionable and the Niners kicker is questionable and there is no other kicker. Juice is definitely the emergency kicker.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: But they'll have somebody signed up and ready to go for the game. They're not going to. Brian.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: I feel like I could do it.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Did you see the. Did you see the field goal attempt?
I believe it was Syracuse at Pittsburgh last night.
Do you remember?
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Oh, not in the game. I thought you were talking about one of the fan kicks.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: No, what are you talking about? You talking about, like, McAfee?
[00:13:11] Speaker B: They do. Yeah, they do this McAfee thing.
I'm like, are they actually getting that money? And it never really seems. No one's ever excited enough for the money that they're purporting to get.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: You want me? I'm gonna. I don't have tin foil around, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna do a little conspiracy dealer here. Right again. No one's ever done this bit before. Perfectly, perfectly unique bit I think that McAfee uses. If anyone makes it, he uses it as a tax write off, which is why he keeps upping the number, which is, oh, no, I'm paying for a scholarship. So he takes out a scholarship in that kid's name and he uses it as some sort of educational tax write off. To which I say, that guy might be kind of a dumb jock, but that's well played, sir. Well done. In the same way that college football season tickets were tax write offs for decades and decades and decades, we are now in a different spot.
I'm trying to remember the kicker who shanked one almost horizontally for the 49ers all those years ago. Is it Matt McGloin? Am I correct there?
[00:14:10] Speaker B: It's Matt McGloin. A quarterback.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah. That would be a really bad. I cannot remember. Please chat if you can get after it.
That's what that kick looked like the other day and that's what I'm pretty sure an emergency kicker or you would look like in such circumstances.
They'll definitely sign a kicker to the practice squad just to make sure because Eddie has not participated in practice all week. He's sick.
I had two sick kids yesterday. I can tell you something's going around. It ain't fun and I'm feeling fine, but it ain't fun. And yeah, I would. I would guess.
I would guess though there remains a hilarious possibility available, but I would guess that Graham Gano is on a flight to San Jose or SFO right about now. Just to make a little bit extra cash.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: We'll have somebody. Doesn't matter.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: What about Jake?
Is Jake.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: I don't think Jake Moody's even employed by anyone.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: And wouldn't that be.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: We went to special team so quickly.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: I'm going to do this entire show in reverse. We'll mention Brock at the end.
Yeah. Jake Moody is not.
Ravens cut him this week. He's available.
I lean into the bit.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: It'd be a great bit. I think they should lean into it. I don't think they will do it.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: I don't think they can do it.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think. Yeah, I hopefully. Listen, it's going to be a.
It's a game where the 49ers should commit crimes and special teams should not matter. And if we are talking about the kickers at this point, it will be a bad situation.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Well, it's gonna be interesting when they miss like six extra points because it's fine.
Our fan, Corliss Weitman has to hold and kick and it's like. I don't know how to do that.
It's gonna be the.
I need to see.
Okay, I'll give you. I'll give you this before we get into sort of predictions, which is really just a guise to talk about parts of these teams.
Do you think we see Mac Jones in this game?
[00:16:06] Speaker B: We should.
We should.
I would say. I would lean. Yes. That we do see Mac Jones and we see him for about half. Half of the fourth quarter.
Like. Okay, like at least one real drive where Mac is playing.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Playing fair play. I. I think we do in fact see Mac Jones as the emergency kicker, which, you know, he's got it in his bag. No. Yeah.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: That man can't. I. I'm so confident he'd be terrible at kicking a football.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Okay. Again, we're just exploring this space. Great analysis. We spent all this time watching tape.
I feel like Jair Brown has said that he can do it before, but that might be just Jair Brown thinking that he can do anything.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: I think he just saw Reed for this, for the, you know, the.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: These are the things. A couple years ago, I was. You watch some preseason games, and they will try out emergency kickers in preseason games. Not like we brought a guy in.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: But they will, in fact be like, hey, man, if something goes horribly awry, can you do a kickoff? And, yeah, it would be juice. I've seen him do a kickoff before. But they did not explore that space. And, you know, we talk a lot about how great Brandt Boyer is as a special teams coordinator.
You know, push. Push your weight a little bit. Emergency long snappers, emergency punters. Let me. Let me see some reps with the emergency guys. So at least we're not, you know, just naming dudes and thinking, hey, I don't know, maybe he looks like a soccer player.
Okay, let's get into predictions. We got a couple each, and then we have some very tame predictions. Everyone wants to do bold predictions. We're going to do tame predictions, which. The bold prediction, the Hail Mary's, whatever you want to call it. That's like, if we hit it, we're going to gloat all day. The tame predictions are, if this doesn't happen, we're idiots.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: So we'll get to those later.
Let's go with just regular predictions on this game. I want to start, if you don't mind.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Christian McCaffrey is going to catch over 10 passes in this game, is my prediction. Let's reverse engineer this prediction. Let's reverse engineer this. I don't think. I think that they could run the ball as much as they want. I don't think they need to run the ball, like, ever.
And it's because the linebacking situation, the safety situation for the Dolphins is they're spinning, man. It was. It was a tough watch. You watch a chan just absolutely carve them up. All these little leak outs, all these little bubble screens. It was easy, easy, easy. And I.
I just think that you. You have Christian and bump motion, and you just throw it over to him and let him do whatever the hell he wants from that point on. And those are easy, maybe lower stress touches. And if that's something Kyle's trying to do with Black being someone injured, they're
[00:18:42] Speaker B: trying to do that with McCaffrey. I think they're trying to do a little bit of like a chain of like, just let's put him in space. Let's get him away from situations where he's going to get pressed or like really seriously contacted.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: How about. How about I pull it back? How about I pull this back a little bit? Okay. Because you're right. 10 is preposterous. How about this?
McCaffrey has more yards receiving than he has rushing in this game.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd buy that. Okay.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: Okay. I think it's. I think it was easy.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: That wouldn't shock me.
Yeah, that wouldn't shock me at all. Because I do think, I do think the Dolphins. And this sort of goes to. My prediction is like, the Dolphins are trying to like stack the line with five guys and then one linebacker and mug and say, hey, we're gonna just, we're gonna shut you down up front because we're not good, but we can throw bodies at the situation. And the 49ers are going to say, okay, go ahead. We're going to run play action. I think it's going to be a big play action game where they might run it a couple times early. I don't, you know, and I don't know that it's actually true that you have to establish around a cell play action.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: I think it's been proven that you don't, but it does help.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: But you still do need to. To a little bit of an extent. I don't think it's like you need to really like dominate on the ground for people to bite. That's not true. But I think they're. They. They just run cover three. It's always, it's always single high.
And I think there's going to be a lot of space in that middle third. I think it's going to be a big Debo game. I think they're going to run play action. Debo's going to hit a dig over the middle. Like, I just think it lines up so perfectly for that with stribling out, not trusting Watkins, not trusting cowing, and I think that's going to be there. I also think that Kittle corner that got picked off in the last game, I think that's also going to be there for the 49ers.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: I think everything's going to be there for the 49.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's all going to be there.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: I mean, and. And it's. You're.
The flip side of it is this.
They are.
I rarely have any questions. I don't think I've ever really had a question about like the Niners focus. It's always come down to personnel or matchups or this and that, but I've never been like, can I get up for this game? Which is something we talk about in college football all the time. Like the let down look ahead. All this stuff, there's going to be a letdown.
And that is just natural. They got the double whammy of weird travel schedule, which I do think they played it as well as they could. They got the week before, they got the week after.
I don't know, the Rams might feel great about it, but they also lost the damn game. So, like, well played to the Niners doing the logical, normal thing.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: I also think a week and a half is. You're gonna. They're gonna be fine.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: I think they'll be fine, but I don't think they'll be up for this because it's very difficult. If you're watching again, you and me
[00:21:28] Speaker B: are watching the game, which is. Feels just some of those games are tough.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: I mean, what. What other time should they have had it at?
[00:21:36] Speaker B: No, I just mean in terms of like, it's an early, like sort of like it's a sleepy Sunday vibe where it's September, that's still warm out. You're like, ah, what a nice day. And you're like, oh, football.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Okay, yes, I have my prediction on this, and it's a very specific, almost idiosyncratic prediction, but we've seen this a hundred times before, is that we're about halfway through the first quarter and the Dolphins are going to hit like a big pass play because it all clicks just magically. And that's the thing with the Dolphins. They're running all this really wild stuff. It will hit every now and again. It's not enough to have a successful NFL offense, but they can get some chunk yards every now and again with Malik Washington or, you know, they got these nice young receivers in the Texas Tech kid, Douglas and Bell, like there's something there. And you run a big crossing over off of an orbit motion read, option
[00:22:27] Speaker B: shift, all this stuff, Siegel or Jair to miscommunicate something.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: And Jair's crashing because he overdid available against the Rams.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Stafford just didn't hit it right.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: And so they're going to hit one and it's going to be like seven, seven with four minutes to play in the first. And everyone's gonna tighten up a little bit, at least in the stands, and then it won't matter.
But I don't, I don't think that this is. Niners hit the ground running up 21 to nothing. What are we gonna do with the rest of our Sunday? You can flip the channel sort of a game, at least for the early goings. I think that they'll come out slow. They'll need to get punched a couple times.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Seven and a half. And they're gonna boat race them in the third quarter.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Well, I'm not, I'm not sure it gets to half. Like that would be, that would be the more logical thing of like, hey, the Dolphins are going to give them a half. And then the Niners are gonn think it will be like, okay, fine, we'll play football.
Playing with. I think playing with their food might be the better way to, to explain this one. But I do think the Dolphins have an early big chunk play that.
That kind of knocks the Niners into a state of consciousness from their general state of lethargy, which is natural for this game with all the nice things being said about them and then the weird travel and then again, like you watch all this tape and you're like, oh, we should kick these guys ass. Hard to have, as Steve Kerr likes to call the appropriate fear going into this game until they take it.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Kerr's talked about that a lot of. And then people get very mad when he points out like an obvious fact of like NBA life is when it's like, oh, like you're on the back to like the second end of a back to back against a terrible team in a terrible city. You want. No, we don't care. We don't want to be here. No one's happy.
I think the four. I think the, the Dolphins have a lot of potential in their offensive line. I think right now it's incredibly uncoordinated. I think it's bordering on disastrous because they're trying to run. They're trying to run a lot of cool stuff. They're running like full house stuff where they're trying to do some spinner stuff that the packers did that he's. They're bringing over from the Packers. They're trying to do a lot of like triple option, a lot of zone read. And Willis had a lot of mistakes with that.
I think Willis is going to get sacked maybe four or five times at least.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: These numbers are not standardized, but I Have them down for 17 pressures in the last game.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that checks out.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: 50 more than half of their drop backs they were pressured on last. They had five sacks, four hits on release, eight hurries.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: It was brutal.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: The 29% pressure to sack ratio. And by the way, a lot of it came with when the Raiders just had in their second string defensive line. Yep.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: I was going to say, I think it's a chance for Romello height in this game where he just got assaulted. Did I steal it from you?
[00:25:13] Speaker A: You stole it. I thought Romello height, first NFL sack. But I'm with you.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: It's coming.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: That's my, that's one of my predictions for this game. Romello height, first NFL sack, and it's going to be on a stunt. I think that they're going to have Keon White clearing out one side. Romello comes around the back end. No one's going to pick him up. Because the other thing with. They put so much on Dolcich, the, the tight end.
How do I say this nicely? He's not good.
He can't block and he can't run and he can't catch. But other than that, he's a pretty good option. But they don't have any alternatives. And maybe, you know, they're like, hey, Justin Jolly, come on down. It's your time. We just met you, but you're now
[00:25:48] Speaker B: who I like, who's just a blocking tight end, but he is not a complete, complete player.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: No, but like they're using, they're using Dolce as like the motion man. They're kind of using him in a use, check in way. He's in the backfield a lot. Ye.
And I don't. I wouldn't trust him with my quarterback's life.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: And that's really a team that is experimenting to see what might be possible when they have a capable roster. That's how I interpret the Dolphins this year is they're saying we actually don't care.
Yeah. Like how it looks like we. We losing is in our favor. But we're gonna do a cool thing where we're gonna experiment. We're gonna try, we're gonna see. Okay, like, can we run triple option stuff? Like, what is Malik Willis capable of? What could our ideal. They're just running like very tight splits.
Like, and everybody's packed together and they're like, all right, we're going to do some motion and stuff. And then it's like, oh, no. Now we've just created a kill box for ourselves where the other team can Swarm and attack us, which is how it's working on a lot of these plays.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Okay. So another thing to note, and it's amazing we've made it this far. We had to get into special teams and just hypothetical emergency players on special teams. But there, our offensive coordinator is Bobby Slowik, who obviously worked under Kyle for a very long time, had.
How would you categorize Bobby Slowik's time as the Texans offensive coordinator in 23 and 24?
[00:27:12] Speaker B: It felt like it started off okay and then became absolutely disastrous. And I'm trying to remember what the main critiques were.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: I got one. Philosophically, it's called I can't get my good players the ball.
And in sure enough, in week one, they could not get H and the ball enough.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Well, yeah, yeah. I think a lot. I saw a lot of times where they tried to throw him a screen and then it got like, swatted down because, like, Malik Willis couldn't even get the pass off because he was swarmed.
They had like.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Was he swarmed?
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Sweared. And they had a great late reception to him. He made a great catch on the sideline that just got brought back.
So they're trying. They're trying. I will defend that portion. Like they're trying. They know it's not like they're trying to get their best player. They're only really good player the ball. I think it's like, in total, there's like 54 Pro Bowls in total on the 49ers and one for the Dolphins, which is an awesome stat. I know Pro Bowls don't mean anything, but it's still an awesome stat. It's like the biggest differential since, like the 70s. I think Mac Pro. I think Mac does have one.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Do you have as many as Devon HN?
Yeah, I. I was unimpressed with conceding that. I agree with you. 100. They're trying out a bunch of stuff as to figure out what they could, can and cannot do. And they're hoping guys grow into that because they want to run that stuff when they get down the line.
But there's also the argument that I couldn't stop shaking, which is like, hey, you don't have the horses to run this race. How about we don't do crazy gap scheme front stuff? How about we, you know, do a
[00:28:54] Speaker B: couple half of our line one way and then there's motion going in the opposite direction.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: Like, it's super cool if you can do it. Otherwise it looks really stupid. Like there's no. Again, nice way to say that it Just looks dumb because here's the other thing. And this will be preface.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Gets the ball in his hands this game.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Oh, don't threaten me with a good time.
It'd be very difficult from the guard position.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. That's why I'm curious. What are the dynamics of doing that?
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Well, did they even have. They had a couple of goal line situations. They want one for five.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: But can you.
You can't intentionally, I guess, if it's totally illegal.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: No, total. Well, it's. A lateral is fine.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: If. No, I'm saying, like, can you do that with an offensive lineman if you. If you give them the ball, like, if you pull them and you throw him a screen behind the line, that's. That's legal, isn't it?
[00:29:50] Speaker A: So long as the pass goes backwards.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Right. So that's how it would have to be. That's what I'm sort of visualizing here, where it looks like a pull play and then it.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: So you would have to be. Okay, let's just. Let's just run this through. Let's just run this through because I've. I don't think I've seen anyone do anything like this since they used to, like, hand it off to the end in the 1950s.
So the idea is you're going to run power with a guard from under center because it's the only way you can get it backwards. Unless you want to run power orbit motion at the same time.
So it's a guard pulling and handing it off. That doesn't feel legal.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: It's not a handoff. It's not a handoff. It's a. It's. It looks like a screen, but there's no one out there.
And Kaden Proctor is the primary target. So you've got like your entire left side of your offensive line in the center out on the left, and then the play looks like it's going to the right and you throw a screen to Proctor.
This all feels.
Not allowed.
It. I think it is.
This is making me feel very dumb, but I'm.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: It is legal. It is legal. Just no one's ever thought of it before because.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Why would you do that?
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I know why. Because Kaden Proctor. I need to see the tractor run.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: Let's.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Let's pull it back a bit.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Yeah, pull it back. Anyway,
[00:31:20] Speaker A: in watching them, the frustration wasn't even their offensive linemen can't do it. Their wide receivers can't separate their tight end that they're putting at the point of attack for everything. Can't do any of the things that they're asking him to do. It's not even that.
It's that Malik Willis is a textbook definition of a one read Jimmy. And if you don't know what a one read Jimmy is, it's a Jimmy Garoppolo quarterback. Everybody knows if you're here, you know what a one read Jimmy is.
That helmet moved like twice the entire game and makes sense, right? Young, young, young quarterback, young team.
First day with the coordinator. Just go where the play is supposed to go. Especially because they have a lot of deep shots down the field and only like two guys out in formation.
That's a real issue. That's going to be a real issue in this game against the 49ers because the Niners are playing a lot of too high and Jair Brown might give them something. But here is, here is the the prediction. Marquis Siegel has an interception in this game.
I think they're going to be trying to do something try to challenge him in the same way that Tampa challenge. Are you doing okay there, Bubs?
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Seat is collapsing on me. We're fine. Continue.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: So couch it to 27 is a young QB doesn't have that many snaps. Also 27, you may have just gotten drafted out of college in this day and age he's barely older than Romello height. Regardless it is I, I feel like Siegel had an immense game. Obviously everyone's going to look at the run fits which we've always known are pretty damn good.
I thought that he did a really nice job against the Rams in terms of, you know, recognizing and adapting. I think just being able to play half the field a lot of the time, not all the time, but a lot of the time is really beneficial for him in that he doesn't get paralysis by analysis which is what I think happened a bunch. And to be fair, you know they did some nice stuff, especially that Tampa game last year.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: First career interception for Siegel. First career sack for height.
Yeah, I like it.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I should have looked up. I'm pretty sure he didn't have an interception so that would have made this a little bit more flourishful. But yeah, first career interception for Marquis Siegel in this game. I just think that they're going to try some deep breaking thing and he ain't going to see him because Marquis Siegel move real fast and is going to be able to capture.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: I have have had questions about him closing space effectively. But I also think you're right, the ideal quarterback. Yeah. In the past game. Yeah. In terms of getting especially when there's a throw towards the sideline, which is a tough assignment, especially when he's single high. But yeah, I think it's. We'll see. I mean this is a good game for just to get like full reps and hopefully the Dolphins do test them.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Do you have any other predictions?
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got plenty. One, we'll be talking about Chris Johnson, our glorious corner for, for the Dolphins. Sandy souls like hell. Just a real. He looks like a really good player. There's going to be a lot of hit and miss with him, but it's also because he's on a bad team. I saw some good stuff there. I think either way, good or bad, we will be talking about him.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I was very encouraged. He had the plays that he got when I, when I was watching through like the condensed game pre all 22, you're like, oh, there's Chris Johnson. Oh, there's Chris Johnson. But it was all like, oh, there's Chris Johnson getting beat on a crossing route and you know, oh, there's Chris Johnson. Johnson kind of ending up in no man's land and getting wrecked. And then you put on the all 22 and you're like, first off, they are not doing my man Chris Johnson any favors. Just let them hang around on the outside.
It's not like you have any good alternatives at cornerback.
Mostly they are, mostly, but then they keep bringing them inside, which is fine, but not.
It's because he's probably the only good tackler they have outside of Taffy and Taffy's itty bitty.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Agree. They have like a weird sort of interesting linebacker corner, but it doesn't really mean anything.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: What did you think of Rodriguez?
[00:35:20] Speaker B: I didn't watch enough to get like a full picture. I thought they were putting him in some interesting spots, but I don't know. I don't have a full view of what he is yet.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: It's a long way to go. I was uninspired watching it.
Let me know when this guy can get off a block. I think he did it once the entire game. I think he sees it. I think he knows what he's supposed to do. And I think that Spencer Burford just had his way getting up to the second level and forgive me, Tyler Linderbaum had an easy, easy pickings on him. I think we're going to get a Jake Brendel or Connor Colby getting to the second level and putting him straight on his back in this game.
What else do you have for me?
[00:36:04] Speaker B: I want to give you my tame predictions. Wonderful so 1. Devon Achan will get a lot of touches.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: We have a. We have a number 10.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: If we're making it tame, he's gonna touch the ball at least 10 times.
Yeah, that's tame.
That's incredib.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Like here, I'll give you a tame one. I think.
I think Mike Evans has a really nice day on Sunday.
I think it might not be the flashiest performance, but I think he has 45, 50 yards and maybe even a touchdown.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: I like this segment. It's like going into a library where we have to talk. Quiet. Yeah.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Any other team predictions?
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Second, tame prediction. The Dolphins will be inconsistent on offense.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I can see that happening. I can see that happening.
Tame prediction.
I don't think the Niners return a kickoff for a touchdown in this game.
It just doesn't. Doesn't feel like they got that in him. I know Deebot had a really nice return the other day. I just don't think they have the juice to get it to the house.
Dolphins might, though. Something to think about.
Oh, tame prediction. Just real fast.
Nick Bosa is not even gonna have to play this whole game, but when he's in, you're gonna notice when Nick Bose is in.
Feel pretty good about that.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: Team predictions, predictions.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: All right, now back to bold proclamations.
Yeah, Rodriguez. Rodriguez was. It was a pretty tough watch there, and I.
This is not happening all that often, right? Like, so much of understanding Kyle for the better part of this decade now has been like, you toss on the tape and you go, oh, that linebacker is going to be barbecue chicken. But now with defensive getting so interesting and bespoke and chaotic, it's very difficult to do that. But, man, I forget the name of the. The former former Giants linebacker who played for a couple different teams. Middle linebacker, 44, something like that, played for the packers as well.
And you're like, oh, well, that's the only play. Just run. Just do whatever you need to do at him and it's gonna go a. Okay, that was that. That's what I. When I'm watching 10, I just go like, you don't really need much more of a game plan. Make 10 bite on play action. Put it over his head, run at 10 and then counter it out. Run right at 10. It doesn't really matter. And just make that dude's life a living hell, and nothing else is going to fall into place. It's a tough place to be for, you know, young middle linebacker, but, like, Carson Swedzinger was able to pull it off last year, maybe not so much this year, but yeah. What have we got?
[00:38:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that checks out. I mean, I don't know that there's too much more to break down with you these teams. I just think the Niners should commit crimes. I think there's going to be a big Debo game over the middle.
They have, it's. They just. The Dolphins just don't have talent. It's not coordinated.
You can have like and, and sure they could beat the Niners if the Niners come out slow and a chain goes off. I just think like, even if the Niners play like absolute garbage, they will find a way to win the game at the end just on talent and how many mistakes and I would be stunned if it comes down to the end.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: I do need to get a couple things off my.
Oh yeah, I saw it too.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: I have the all timer.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Yeah, you do.
I gotta say that. So we say they don't have talent. Unquestionably.
I do. Like Willie Gay did not have a good game. I like Willie Gay. I think he's a good player. Jordan Brooks is a pretty good player at linebacker. I think that that might make life a little bit difficult for George Kittle in this game. I think that if you're getting anything from the tight end situation, it might just be Luke Farrell on chip and releases, which work pretty well against the Rams. For what it's worth. Maybe they're prepared against that. Even if they're prepared, it might not matter.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: I think it'll look a little better. Better from Kittle. But you're right, like the linebackers are sort of interesting for the Dolphins.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: I'm fascinated to see how they, they go about that because you could also do you one who.
Is this the kind of game where you go, hey, let's get George going. Like, let's get, let's get some, get some, let's get some grease on the gears here. Like, let's make George feel like it's that. Do you want to try that or you just say, hey man, we can like have George out there for like 30, 40 snaps and then doesn't really matter and kind of give him another week to like feel better. But like, hey, you're in the mix of things. We'll. We'll activate you truly soon enough. I don't know. I'm fascinated to find out. I will say this though. You know, Zach Seiler is a guy who. Their defensive tackle is a guy who actually has a bit of a reputation as a pretty good football player.
The tape that he put on against the Raiders was legitimately abysmal to the point where I was questioning if it was a different guy.
And that would be one thing, because it's like, hey, they got Linderbaum. They've done some nice jobs on their offensive line. Spencer Burford was dominating Zach Seiler in this past game. Dominating. So this isn't a prediction, or it might just be more of a challenge. Like, Connor Colby.
Like, you don't get to use the excuse of, oh, that. That's actually one of the good guys. Like, Connor Colby should do what Spencer Burford did in week one to Zach Seidler, because it was. It was kind of a depressing watch. It was like, oh, man, we might be on retirement watching. Yeah.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: And.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: And like, clearly between him and Jordan Phillips and Zeke Beggars. Oh, boy. Biggers.
Yeah, it was rough.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: It's. I. I just can't take the roster seriously. It's.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: There is so much.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: Going to be a lot of Bob.
Going to be a lot of Bob Beal.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: A lot of Bob Beal. A lot of Clee Farrell.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Bob Beal revenge game. It's a very canary in the coal mine situation. I think we should take some questions.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I think we should, too. Though I do do want to take a quick moment before we do that to give everybody the college football viewing guide for this weekend. This is something that I do every Wednesday, and I go through and I go, hey, I'm not going to get to sit down and watch all these games. My children are going to have, like, needs and wants, and I have responsibilities. But if I were to be a true sicko and enjoy the beauty and wonder that is college football, how would I go about that? And I'll tell you, with the YouTube quad box situation going on. YouTube TV quad box.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: I got a friend, Hayes. It hates the quad box. Absolutely despises it.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: It is legitimately challenging. I'm not gonna let, like, it's too much. It's too much football. And it's to the point where I think I'm just going full screen again. But if you were to quad box it, if you were to be able to take in the full splendor at 9am you should be watching Tulane and K State.
I think that's going to be a good one. Arizona State and K State's got a little something to him on offense this year with Avery Johnson. Shocking.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: I own their entire roster and I don't know who to start.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: Arizona State's playing Kansas in England because the Big 12 is normal. That's happening at 9am too. NC State at. Oh boy. What does that say?
Don't even know. Whoever NC State is playing, that should be a good game. I. It's you.
No idea who NC State's playing. That is bad. Henry. I'll just show it to y'.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: All.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: It's not good.
What does that say?
Vandy? They're playing Vanderbilt. That's actually going to be a really interesting game. NC State has been kind of written off after their really, really awful first game against Virginia. Vandy's got a true freshman quarterback. They paid a lot of money to Five Star and then UNC and Clemson in the who will get fired first bowl. That's at 9am 12:30. I think Kentucky can beat A and M this week. Jake. I. I'm feeling Will Stein's Kentucky sm, Louisville.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: Also. Texas A M has it in them every year to just lose dumb games where they're like we're so good and it's like you actually aren't.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Unseriousness.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: They're. They're also like Marcel Reed. Their quarterback has all of this cachet and it's never been validated whatsoever. All he does is throw interceptions and not see the field. But he can scoot every now and again. It's kind of like Malik Willis, smu. Louisville has a chance to be an absolute barn burner in the acc.
Those are two teams that whoever wins that like now, they're going to be the hot team out of that conference. Temple and Toledo. I just had to pick a fourth game, but I think Temple is actually playing some pretty good ball under rc. Toledo is always at the top of the Mac.
This is the game that I might be most excited to watch maybe all day.
Mississippi State at South Carolina.
First off, fraud. Watch for Shane Beamer at South Carolina. He can't lose that game. He can't lose that game. Also, Mississippi State's quarterback Camario Taylor is awesome. He is so sick and I know
[00:44:58] Speaker B: that this might not be like 2:00am about this guy.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Dude, Camario Taylor might go 1 128. I'm telling you right now. He's. He's got the goods. He's got the goods. He's going to be awesome for Texas next year when they give him $10 million to show up when Arch goes to the game. Mississippi. I want to watch Kamari Taylor. I'm also pre scouting for Mizzou next week, but I want to watch that one in South Carolina. There's so much on the line there. Mississippi State, are they going to prove that they're for real? South Carolina, are they going to prove that they're frauds? Good stuff.
We all know we're watching LSU and ole miss at 4:30, but before that you can toss on the Shula Bowl. That's FIU and FAU Classic South Florida matchup. I covered that game many, many times. Or go up the road. And UF at Auburn at 4, which is going to be. That should be a really good one. I don't like uf, but they got some dudes now and Auburn is very well coached.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: And then, yeah, lsu, Ole Miss, but then West Virginia at Virginia has a chance to be really good. West Virginia's got some a really cool run game. And Virginia Tech at Maryland. A lot of people are saying that Maryland should be favored. I personally disagree. That's the watch guide. Jake hated it and we might not never do it again. I might just put it out on Twitter. But that's what we're going to do. Jake, let's get some questions in.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: While we're at it, let's get some questions. JT JTO Sullivan seems to hate dash motion the 49ers use because the receiver starts are out 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. What's he missing?
It's largely for McAffrey, so it does a few things. Creates obviously does the thing that most motion does, which is gives you an identifier of like what the coverage is going to be draws somebody into space.
And especially what it does is creates free release and it's buys weird timing. So it's like it makes it difficult if there's like a route occupying similar space. The timing gets mixed up for that defender at an awkward in an awkward way. I wrote an article about this for a place that I no longer work for during the super bowl.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: Which one of those.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: It's called something like why does Christian McCaffrey keep doing that? Yeah, explained it there. So go read that.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: And that's not so much dash motion as it is bump motion. No.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: Oh yeah, I think but I think he's talking about bump. I think this question's really talking about bump.
[00:47:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I would. I would hate it if friend of the program J.T.O. sullivan didn't care for dash motion, which is creating new gaps in the run.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: He's talking about bump. I think he's yeah, it's probably bump.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: And bump does look weird. It does look weird. But that free release is huge and it does create. It's so bizarre that it forces the defense to have to show some. Somewhat of their hand.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And when it doesn't work, it looks stupid.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: It does.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Next one. Have either of you asked.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: Okay, well, first, I'll start this. This might be the first time. I think I've told this story before. I've certainly told it in other venues before.
So my editor. When I've covered for our audio listeners, it's.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: Have either one of you asked a question that Shanahan has reacted noticeably irritated to?
[00:47:52] Speaker A: I mean, I did one this week, frankly, where I go, like, you know, because I had heard the plan was to rotate it at left guard before they left for Australia. And Kyle's like, no, that wasn't the plan. Okay, listen, we're looking for clarity. I'm happy to look like an idiot for the sake of clarity. So there's. Yeah, pretty much all the questions I ask. He kind of rustles that a little bit because that's kind of how it goes. And I'm usually asking very specific questions off of intel, regardless. The very first, like, first couple days I'm working at the Mercury, they're like, hey, can you write a story about the return of, like, the west coast offense? Because Gruden had been hired and Kyle had been hired, and I even having covered football, I'm like, oh, okay, I can do that. But I didn't know the ins and outs of it all that well at the time. And I go to Bob Lang. Bob's like, yeah, you can ask him as we're walking here. And I'm like, okay, hey, Kyle. I was. I'm trying to write this story about, you know, the, like, the return of
[00:48:47] Speaker B: the west coast grant assets.
[00:48:49] Speaker A: This was, you know, this was me. The return of the. The return of the west coast offense. Thank you. I appreciate the compliment.
Return of the west coast offense and how, you know the legacy of Bill Walsh and all that. And he turns and he goes, it's not a fucking west coast offense.
Of which he is, of course, correct. And of course it would kind of irritate him because it's his dad's offense and Gary Kubiak's offense, and it's like,
[00:49:14] Speaker B: oh, there's been no evolution for what, 30 years?
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Just classic. But, you know, read the room a little bit of this guy mumbling through a question and trying to get something out of it and, like, latch onto the Bill Walsh thing and the genius and all this. It's not the fucking west coast offense. You are correct. I'm happy to look like an Idiot. For the sake of clarity, what Kyle
[00:49:36] Speaker B: does really effectively when you ask questions is if oftentimes reporters will ask a question and we'll go, did that sound stupid? And add like a clarifying thing. And then the clarifying thing at the end will. Will be what's latched onto instead of the actual core of the question, which is smart.
[00:49:52] Speaker A: Kyle does that. Great. You know who does it in reverse?
Raheem Morris. Raheem Morris hears something that he wants to answer and then steamrolls the rest of the question.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Awesome.
Here's mine. I don't know if you folks remember Trey Lance.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: I've heard of him.
[00:50:08] Speaker B: He suffered a pretty bad ankle injury.
And going into that game, we had concerns about the way Kyle was using trail lands. It was like, you're kind of using him like a fullback running the ball up the middle.
And a lot of QB power. Yeah. Or a lot of options where the option is for the QB to keep it up the middle. So people go like, oh, well, it's an option play. Right. But the QB's choice is whether he should run up the middle. So it's not like.
And I understand it, right, Because Trey Lance couldn't bounce it outside. They tried it in camp and it didn't work. Right. But. So that's a little bit of what I'm trying to get to is like, okay, did you have concerns about the way you were using him? Or was it like, this is the only way we can maximize his talent? Which is fair. But my question was this is after the game where he snaps his ankle, and I basically am like, you know, you're running the qb, you know, in the middle a lot. Like, did you have concerns? Not that he would snap his ankle because that's like a freak injury, but it does increase the rate of injuries if you continue to run your quarterback up the middle. I basically asked him, like, you know what? Like, did you have concerns? Or how did you decide? Like, were you concerned at all about the quarterback getting injured by continuing to, like, employ that game plan?
And he snapped. And I like, Tray Lance's ankle.
Yeah.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: It was.
[00:51:39] Speaker B: It was interpreted AF as, why did you break Trey Lance's ankle? And so I was the one who asked that. And it led to, like a lot of follow up questions. And the tough part was that I was sitting next to Grant, who was like, sort of egging the whole situation on, which did not look good for me at the time.
Energy.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: Energy. Vampire.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: Just right.
[00:51:59] Speaker A: Where he's like, yeah.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: And then like adds on to it. And I'm like, no. I practically, like, did you consider that this is, like, a dangerous way to use your potential franchise quarterback? Weighing the risks of, okay, this is the best way to use him. And I probably didn't phrase it as perfectly as I could have never.
But, like, that never happens.
Obviously an emotional moment. I don't really blame him for, like, snapping in that situation at all.
[00:52:24] Speaker A: The.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: But I also, like, don't regret asking the question because it was like, a pretty important question and all that. And it's not like a few days was going to sort of change his answer all that. Anyway, that is the. Kyle was noticeably irritated.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:37] Speaker B: Amongst.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: I've never. Other times I have never had Kyle will. I really do appreciate this about Kyle. Kyle will always answer the question, even if he's pissed off by the question. Now, he can spin it however he likes, but he just won't go like, I'm not answering that or this and that. Though I will say, end of Wednesday's presser, he was a little snippy, but neither here nor there. You all can look that one up.
Yeah. Yeah. It's been a minute, though. I guess it's been since Wednesday when Kyle's like, no, that wasn't the plan. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Kyle. Appreciate it.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: You also, also, as a reporter, you're like, he was so mean to me. And then you listen. It's like, oh, there's a normal. No.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: And that's the other thing too, I think that we internalize just because we're people. And it's like, oh, that didn't go great. Like, it didn't go the way I wanted. But that's not how you have to think about it. Did you get. Was the end result achieved? And if the end result is, oh, I didn't get the answer I wanted, you're doing your job wrong.
[00:53:32] Speaker B: That's also the thing of, like, I'm not gonna. In the nature of pressers is I'm not gonna take a shot anyway. Like, a lot of questions that, like, don't really mean anything or sort of go nowhere get asked because, like, time is passing and someone has to ask a question until, like, a lot of questions that don't really get you anywhere. So, like, we, I think, both try to ask questions that, like, are specific to something that we are earnestly curious about. Sure.
And so that's why I usually don't regret it. I only regret when I'm like, I didn't. I didn't actually care about what the answer was. I just asked Question, ask, question. Which happens.
[00:54:09] Speaker A: Oh, I hate those.
I have ducked out. I think that I was actually talking to Larry about this off air. Like, there is a rhythm to press conferences, and I think. And it changes, right? The room changes. But Niners. The Niners press conference room is pretty static comparatively to every other beat. And there is just an understanding and a rhythm. And I'm not a press conference guy. I'm a locker room guy. But I do, like, if there is silence. I know. Okay, I'll take this one because now we got to get this thing back on track. But, like, I'll say this, you know, publicly. I'm not going to disparage anybody publicly on this one. But, like, Tim Kawakami is the master of the rhythm of a press conference, right? And like, everyone knows Eric Branch, who asks very bespoke specific questions because he's doing a very, you know, detailed profile on somebody. Like, he saves those for the end because he understands there's a rhythm. And Mayoko comes in. What's the injury report? Another question about, like, what. What was your big takeaway from X, Y and Z? From Cam or whomever, Right? And then Barrows comes in and cleans up the injury report. And there's a rhythm and a timing to it. If I'm getting in there, it's a very specific, like, nerdy football thing. But I'm to figure out the right time to ask that amid this, because I don't want to be talking over someone to be like, can you explain dash motion? And they're like, like, that has to be a lull question. The TV people are going to be like, what's it going to be like being in front of the fans on Sunday?
They should save those for the very end. Like, but they never seem to do that. And then there are people who are asking questions just so that they.
[00:55:40] Speaker B: Interesting nugget. And it's like, big crowd.
[00:55:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like, where we're all thinking for a half second because we want to really expound on that point. And it's like, Kyle, what's it mean? Wear red on Red and Gold day on Friday. Like, you know, like, it's just so dumb. But that's tv. I don't know why they think that's good TV copy, but they all seem to think that's good TV copy. But there is a rhythm and a pacing. There's a musicality to press conferences, and it gets very frustrating when they pull the needle off the record. And that is happening more and more. So I would rather Be the person who gets snipped at because the question was, you know, properly, improperly worded or didn't get to, you know, touched a tone or something. I would rather be snipped at by Kyle because I think that that maintains.
Maintains the rhythm to it than to ask something that's completely for sure, non sequitur.
[00:56:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:35] Speaker A: Good question though, Vince.
[00:56:37] Speaker B: Good question.
I'll rip the last few. Feels like a good game to tranq Christian McCaffrey at the watering hole. Yeah. And like Kalon and Jordan do all the work. Never happening.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: I don't know about that.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that could happen. I think. I bet Jordan James is mostly the tranking, especially with K on Black's injury. I'd be shocked if Jordan James is inactive.
Yeah, again, we'll see. But I will find out. I mean, and then this is sort
[00:57:04] Speaker A: of a follow up like, sorry, sorry. Along those lines. I don't think we hammered this point home enough. I really. You can tell me if you think I'm wrong. Really. I mean it. We maintain that standard. And I want it to be well known the reason that Kalon Black got so many carries against the Rams was, yes, in part of a grander design to make sure that they have thunder and lightning and not work Christian too hard and all this stuff. But also because Kalon Black was doing well.
And it's like Kyle. Kyle's ethos is ride the hot hand. It's to the point where they will kill Debo Samuel and they will kill Christian McCaffrey and they will kill George Kittle. They will ride the hot hand and he will spam stuff. And when Kalon Black's in there, is it perfect? You watch it on the all 22 and you go, oh, boy. A little sloppy this, that, but it was effective. It just kept working. And it might be the first time since Elijah Mitchell that they've had someone who they could actually say, that guy's the hot hand. Today we're going to go with him instead of Christian McCaffrey. And that makes. That's the challenge. Everyone goes, oh, they need to give Christian McCaffrey a few reps. How about somebody else plays well to justify more reps? Because you can always go Back to Christian McCaffrey who's going to give you good reps to the point where they're not even that good anymore. So hopefully Black is healthy enough to give them the good reps again because Kyle will. Will continue to give him reps if he continues.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: He only has one speed, so it's like, if that thing is tight, you might just say no, but I. I'd
[00:58:33] Speaker A: love to see Jordan James in this game.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I agreed. Last one bringing this up again, to keep it in the conversation. Do you think Raheem is a better evaluator and developer of talent than Salah, or do you think any performance differential is from the scheme? I. I don't know off the top of my head if he's a better developer of talent. I think this is the same sort of answer that we've had in the past, but I think he's just much better with dbs. Like, he's. He's a secondary oriented coach.
Bob is a linebacker oriented coach who's more about speed and violence, to which they both have their merits. I think I would argue Raheem is a better schemer.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Oh, I don't think that that's debatable. Raheem has had many, many kinds of schemes. And Salah tried out doing scheming last year and he abandoned that thing almost as fast as he abandoned the 49ers. And it comes down to this, and this is something that we did not hammer home when we were talking about Gus Bradley in this process. There are two kinds of coaches. There are motivators and there are schemers. Now, the best can do both, but we are in the age of scheme. Everything is scheme all the time. It's not to say that Raheem Morris can't get the troops up for the game, but very few do it better than Bob Sala. Bob Saleh is a leader of men. The problem is the men have no plan.
And it's just about if you want it more and we play faster and harder than them, we're going to win.
[01:00:00] Speaker B: And you sort of need a proxy on the field. Like, you sort of need one guy who's like, no, this ethos matters. Who's really, like, gets everybody up.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Not even that.
[01:00:11] Speaker B: It's easy to do when you got Fred Warner who's just like, I believe
[01:00:14] Speaker A: in this, who was also the team's defensive coordinator the year prior, so knows what they're about.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: Like, I don't know nothing about scheme.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: No. I'm just a dumb football player. I wasn't calling plays every time I didn't turn off the headset in my helmet.
[01:00:29] Speaker B: Speculative, okay?
[01:00:32] Speaker A: And then it is ridiculous speculation. My point is merely, Raheem, Raheem be scheming, and that's a good thing. He came in with a plan to try out some stuff that they could not execute last year. I think that they did very well in the first game in executing that stuff. He clearly has wrinkles on wrinkles on wrinkles.
And yeah, it's going to come down. I mean, there are still warts with this team, don't get me wrong. But in terms of developing talent, that's a different thing. But going back to Bob for a second, if you're going to be Robert Sala, you need to have your Mike McDaniel. You need to have even a Brian Fleury type like Kyle has had. Not that Kyle isn't a scheme lord, but he always had an ideas guy. He always had somebody who was thinking big picture because you get bogged down in the granular ness of the week to week of the NFL, which is literally 52 weeks out of the year now. And he brought in Gus Bradley, who hasn't run a new scheme in a decade and is just another motivator guy. And it's like, you can't have.
You can't have both. You know, Nick Saban is a scheme guy, but then he has Scott Cochran to be the motivating guy. Like, these are. This is how it works. And that was a. I mean, it wasn't as flawed as the year prior, but, like, that was the flaw in the plan. You have to have the scheme guy. You have to have the motivator guy. On defense, they had only motivator guys, and you saw what ended up happening at the end. Raheem is a schemer and it might not always work, but he's going to try stuff, and I appreciate it.
[01:02:04] Speaker B: Final score prediction.
[01:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I was, I was having a hard time with it. First off, I do want to add. I do think we see McKinley Jackson in this game.
[01:02:13] Speaker B: If you don't send any clips of
[01:02:15] Speaker A: McKinley Jackson out of context, 1145 in the morning last night. Here's McKinley Jackson.
[01:02:21] Speaker B: I was like, woke up to that. I was like, what are you.
What's good? What are you. Okay. And the answer.
[01:02:26] Speaker A: No. That's always been the case. I'm having a hard time with the score prediction. I'm gonna go 36 to 16.
Dolphins. No, I'm sorry.
[01:02:40] Speaker B: Niners 41 17.
[01:02:41] Speaker A: 41 17. Do you.
What are the. Give me a percentage chance that the Dolphins don't score.
[01:02:56] Speaker B: 10%.
[01:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm in a solid, like 10 to 15% that they don't score.
[01:03:01] Speaker B: They're gonna score.
[01:03:02] Speaker A: I think they score. They score. Okay, we will. Well, I'll talk to you guys all on Sunday. We will talk to you Monday. Morning, which is going to be a blast. Really looking forward to another all 22 tape of the Dolphins. Hot damn.
[01:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: Gonna be great. You can check out all Jake's stuff at the Hutch Report, which has been fantastic.
[01:03:21] Speaker B: Raise your back, baby. And cool new stuff is coming. We're matching plays to API and we're gonna have gonna be able to hopefully tell you, like, which offensive lineman is, like, best on gap scheme runs based on my own evaluation and, like, you know, like, who's actually succeeding on stunts. What rate is like Keon White stunt staying outside right now. It's like. Anyway. Stop it.
[01:03:47] Speaker A: Stop it. We're gonna have to. We're gonna have to censor this stream if you keep talking like that to me. And this pff is getting properly roasted online. Just remind everyone, subscribe to the Hutch Report. Stick with us. Me and Larry's stream is up. It only went two and a half hours, and this one is gonna go one hour and five minutes. We'll talk to you all on Sunday. Bye.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: See you, folks.
