Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Dieter and Hutch from parts unknown, talking about Brock Purdy, talking about the San Francisco 49ers.
Hopefully the.
The joy of Christmas is not interrupted by our talk about this defense.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Jake Dieter's gonna come back at about a week and just be sunburnt to a crisp. But just. Just so content.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: I am directly in the sun right now. Could not be more in the sun in south.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Good. I love it for you. I love it for you.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Okay, let's just go through. There were 156 goddamn plays in this game. You and I watched all of them.
Holy.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: It's a lot of plays. It's a lot of place, a lot.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Of offense, a lot of. A lot of hurry up. And I understand why they were doing it, but I don't appreciate it. That's. That's where I'm at.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: I'll start with maybe my hottest take that. I almost came out of this game slightly optimistic for the defense. Is that an insane thing to say?
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Not. It's not insane.
I think that I might be there. Now, let's. Let's be very clear about what slightly optimistic means. I think immediately watching this game, your general takeaway is, wow, that is the worst defense defense I've ever seen. Right. And then you watch it and you're like, it's bad, but there's some redeeming qualities to it. Yeah. You know.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: In the right lighting, it's. It's a three.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think when you come back to it. 1. Not Bob's best game.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Not even close.
Can we lean into that just for a quick second?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Sure. Let's do it.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Bob got outsmarted. Left, right, and center. That was.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: He got cooked. He got cooked.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: He got absolutely cooked in this game. That was the amount of times.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Performance, the amount of Times that the 49ers were like, again, they don't run a lot of man, but there were multiple times this game where they ran man against, like, mesh concepts particularly early and just got rocked, where it's like D' or Lenore's playing 10 yards off and has to, like, follow a drag route, which is just physically impossible to do.
Not Bob's best. They were clearly, I think, as Dee Winters explained, expecting a run. Heavy, slow, you know, bring it. You're muted.
And there he goes.
All right, I'll. I'll carry us for a second, folks. Yeah, they were clearly. I don't know what to do about these windows.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: All right.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: You're gonna have to stick with me.
They were clearly expecting a run heavy, heavy sort of approach from the Colts, and they didn't adjust. It took a long time. I will say the run defense did its job.
It didn't feel like they were necessarily dominant, but everybody swarmed to the ball pretty well.
Even for Jordan Elliott and Kalia Davis. There were some positive reps. We got Dieter back.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Sorry. Yeah, we're just going to do it with the shitty headphone mics. I'm sorry.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: That's okay. That's okay. You're back. You're alive.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: I didn't. I didn't bring my giant goddamn rig. And working with the USB mic and the SB mics, like, what if I sucked?
So that's what we're at. So now my audio levels are gonna suck, but maybe you'll be able to hear me. So we do hear you.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: I hear you loud and clear. I think what I always hear this loud and clear. Yeah. All I was saying is that they were clearly expecting the run heavy approach. I think the run defense was impressive. I think Jonathan Taylor looks a tad bit washed. Not really reading anything. Sort of running into the back of an offensive line, which, to be fair, lost Tanner Bortolini. But I did think the run defense did a good job for the most part.
Again, I don't think they were dominant up front, but, like, they swarmed to the ball pretty effectively.
And I think Tatum Bethune, while getting, you know, pretty much cooked in coverage, he's just so much more physical and so much more able to get around blocks and just be a physical presence in the run game at linebacker, whereas Curtis Robinson can just get tossed around.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: So, yeah, we definitely saw more than a few plays in this game where, you know, everything is funneled to the middle linebacker and Bethune not just getting off the block, but also making the tackle. There were a couple really tough tackles that he made in this game, and I. One of my big takeaways is that, like, the. And this is nothing new, like, we knew this, but it was highlighted by not having him.
The combination of Winters, who is very good in covering the flats, and Bethune, who's very good at filling in the run game is doable. It's doable for this team moving forward.
And then we got to talk about the safeties.
It's untenable what they're doing at safety.
I do want to give credit. I thought Malik Mustafa had a fine game, right? Not perfect, but fine.
Jair Brown had a couple really nice run fits. He remains very good at that.
Jason Pinnock is a disaster. It's a disaster.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: He's really bad.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: And anytime they put him on the field. And this is what I'm talking about with solid getting out outsmarted. Anytime he was on the field, Philip Rivers is like that guy. We're going at him. Anytime he wasn't on the field, he. And it was. It was a zone situation. He was going to 28. Anytime it was a man or they were able to run deep routes against quarters which. Or six, which effectively looked the same in this game, they went right at Jair Brown in coverage. I mean, yeah, he didn't have to make reads because the susceptibilities were so obvious. But 25. Or they put 57 on the field. Pro Bowler Luke Gifford, 57 on the field might have been the worst rep in this entire game. And there were some doozies.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: And their underneath coverage was particularly problematic where there were multiple times where they just. No one was covered. Like, they didn't have the numbers. And it wasn't even like they were blitzing.
Right. It was.
It was you. You would have enough guys in coverage. And what the Colts would do is they would just let 81, like Mo, Ali Cox and Taylor slip out of the backfield, and they'd say, all right, well, one of these guys is going to be open because the 49ers are having two guys covering the same zone, and they won't have someone cover underneath. And that. That was continually like 8 yards, 11 yards. And. And I think, for the most part, the 49ers schematically will just accept that sort of like, underneath dink and dunk plays, and eventually you're gonna have to beat us another way.
I mean, that's true.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: They're not good enough to not give up something, right? Like, they don't have. They don't have a pass rush. They don't have a secondary that they can truly like. If this was the packers issue coming into the season, all right, this was before they got Micah Parsons. They're like, our secondary is pretty weak, but we can stop the run.
But this is going to be. This is going to be an issue without the pass rush. Then they get the pass rush, and now suddenly that secondary looked incredible, and they were great in stopping the run. Now, it wasn't consistent, and now since Parsons is out, Jeff Halfley's having to go deep into the bag. And I'm excited to actually watch that film later tonight of Bears and Packers, which would be the. Probably. Probably only get to two games. But from what I watched live Happily was on it. Like Salah was just not on it. And you could tell that in the second half he was trying stuff. They finally blitzed in the third quarter. It worked. They stopped doing it after that. And there were two legitimately. He tried dropping Kalia Davis into coverage before he tried.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: I think that came afterwards.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: But yeah, he tried dropping Kalia Davis into coverage before he blitzed.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: There was like one where, where Bryce Huff had to like cover somebody one on one and it didn't go well.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yes, he had Bryce Huffman like Winters.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: You got to help him out there.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: That was a tough rep. That was, I thought that was bad execution, not a bad idea. And to be fair, neither the west drop back, nor the, nor the Kalia Davis drop back was like. That was, that wasn't the problem. But it is jarring. They dropped Collins into.
They dropped Collins back. It was unbelievable. So trying that stuff out. Okay, I have no problem with trying stuff out. But like not just going to a four three under with or I guess it'd be a four two. Bringing D. Winters to line of scrimmage and blitzing like not doing any of that until you've already expunged defensive tackles as linebackers feels like a big swing and a miss from old Bob.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it my concern, I mean there's many concerns with this defense. It's that they don't have like one thing that's clearly working for them and going into the playoffs of like what is their identity.
And you could argue that makes them.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Hard to game plan for. Baby, how you gonna know?
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Right? It makes them more flexible, more adaptable where depending on what the opponent is, they can, they can scheme specifically for the opponent.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: It feels like they don't have a recipe that's necessarily working for them in any consistent way.
I will say there are four defensive ends who are all like interesting and capable and in, in different ways. Gives them a little bit of juice there. Keon White got home in a really good way.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Bryce Huff had at least one like dominant rep. Where they did, it was a three man rush and Bryce Huff just won out clearly.
And, and Weston Collins having some good reps gives him something. I'm just not sure it's enough in the playoffs. But again like you look at this game and they only need, they actually only needed that CJ west sack. That was actually the only defensive play in this entire game. True. That they actually needed because they got that special teams turnover.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: And so the offense was cooking and they got one stop on defense because of that west sack. And as much as the D. Winters play was nice, the. They win with. They probably win without that play.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: So, yeah, they won by 21 points. They won by three tutties.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Is that going to work against the Seahawks? Probably not. You probably need a, a couple more stops. But, you know, again, again, it's like I was saying almost jokingly, like you kind of just want a turnover or two or a couple big plays from the defense, and if that means selling out and just saying, hey, we might get gashed for 400 yards, but if we come up with a stop in the red zone or we get a pick at the right situation, it kind of doesn't matter.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: It's what we've been telling people for weeks. It hasn't manifested because it was the Browns and the Titans and, you know, it wasn't a clear and present danger to actually capitalize. But this defense isn't good enough to keep teams off the board. It's just a question on if they can be plucky and find opportunities to steal possessions.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, my, my takeaways from the defense. I'll just rip through them. Yeah.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: One, just a pure Hell yeah for CJ west and, and Alfred Collins, except no alternatives.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: It's, it's. Davis will give you a good rep every now and again, and I didn't actually think he was terrible in this game.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: And, and having Elliott back clearly did help those two be less of a disaster. Again, they're disappointing overwhelmingly. But like, Elliot had it, had at least one really good rep. Davis had one really good one, and together they're okay.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: On the whole, the balance is off.
You need Alfred Collins and CJ west to be that first.
It's like hockey defense pairings. You know, you can't be having the second power play guys out there for the, you know, first buck 30 of a power play and expect to score a lot of goals. No, they can come in and they can give you the last 30, 40 seconds depending on how things are going. You have to have a second play unit. But the, the idea that those guys are the ones getting the majority of the reps.
Again, noting what Philip Rivers was doing in just dissecting the Niners defense with, with incredible precision, even though he didn't have the physical abilities to execute on everything he wanted to, and the outsmarting of it all, like in the run game when, when it was Davis and Collins, you knew what was coming. It was duos, it was, it was, you know, gap blocks on the inside and it didn't Manifest anything because, you know, Taylor's wash and the offensive line is not that good. Their left guard kind of sucks, but like right guard. Sorry. Their left guards, very, very good. But it is.
Yeah, these are the things you say, like, oh, they don't have anything they're good at and so. Or they don't have anything they can lean on. So it's, you know, it's difficult to game. They also, you can kind of game plan anything you want against them because they can't really stop anything in particular.
Like, they're not taking away anything.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: What's interesting is like the Colts sort of set up a good game plan for the Bears to be like, all right, well, this is how we can dissect this defense. I think what will be interesting is like Caleb's bad at just taking like the in rhythm. This is open dink and dunk. Let's play quarterback like how we should play quarterback and actually like dissect what's available.
But there's also going to be a ton of shot plays available and he's going to rip that thing. And I think it's going to be really interesting how they challenge those safeties and I think it'll probably be a good thing for the 49ers to experience that before they play the Seahawks again.
I think Upton Stout. I, I mentioned it. I. Listen. He had, he had a couple plays where he got whooped by Josh Downs, but he had two where he locked him down. And I thought his, his, his ability to fill and slip tackles in the run game was really impressive. I am.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: I'll take it a step further. Yeah, that was the best game of his career.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: I agree. I agree. That's what I texted you. I think I'm buying more and more Upton Stout stock regardless of the bad plays.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Those reps on the drag routes with downs were really, really good and he kind of jumped over the back and made the play on both of those. He had a couple of really nice plays in the run and to the point where I don't know what kind of information Salah gets as the game's going on. From up top, I'd imagine that someone's noticing this. Maybe he's noticing it on the field.
But we didn't see Gifford. Again, like, when he's making run plays like that, there's no, no, nor should we. But like, when he's making run plays like that, there's zero reason whatsoever to have 57 or any other strong side linebacker on the field.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: It feels like he's Going lower. Like, as much as. That's like a peewee football type of thing. It feels like his tackling form, someone was like, listen, man, you are tiny, and you're gonna have to get low and. And use your speed to get people, because you can't. If you go above someone's waist, it's just not gonna work. Right, Right. And so I have no idea if they specifically told him that, but it feels better.
The other thing, they clearly need green back. Although I will say Luder wasn't as bad as I expected him to be on tape. He wasn't good.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: He was challenging him for some reason.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Yeah. It just wasn't as terrible as I expected. But he does just, like, as soon as the balls in the air start sort of flailing and spamming and sort of do the Akela Witherspoon. Oh, God, where's the ball? Type thing. Yeah.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Oh, he's just Akela Witherspoon. That's all he is. Large.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah. But. But, I mean, Witherspoons wasn't that small.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: But, like, he was 6 foot 2, 6 foot 3. I mean, the whole point of a Keller, it's just. It's a. It's a cornerback from a bygone era. You can't play that way anymore.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: Driving like a. A bright green. It was like a lime green Jeep that he had parked in the lot.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: I. Kellogg, Witherspoon.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: The things you remember about people. Can I throw another one at you here on the defensive side, I agree with you. I think Keon White and Yetor Grossmanos are going to get some slack from the people who like to pretend they deep dive. They didn't watch the film. Those guys were really good in this game. And if I do want to give one little bit of credit to Salah, they started using more stunts in the second half.
And Huff is great coming off the back end of the stunts. Yetro Gross Matos is great with stunts. They rushed keon white at a 4i and a 4 a lot in this game, particularly when west was in.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: He's a problem over guards. He's. He can get home.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: He's a very good player. He is, to be fair, not nearly as good as Mikel Williams was this season. Right.
But he does. He can do a lot of the same things. He is of the same ilk. And again, people keep saying, oh, they should have gotten a pass rusher. They should have gotten a pass rusher. Okay, show me this. You know, Jalen Phillips wasn't coming.
Like, he wasn't coming. He was going to go play for Vick. And they got a defensive end that replaced the defensive end. They lost at a pretty damn high level at a nice conversion rate.
And it's Bryce Huff's job to get to the quarterback. And it's these defensive tackles jobs to give the push inside so that they're at least collapsing pockets. They're not going to get sacks. They're just not. It's too late for that. The guy who was going to get sacks on this team was Nick Bosa. And then the second guy who was going to get sacks was Bryce Huff. And then maybe you'd get 5 to 10 in a year if you were lucky of just coverage sacks. They're all coverage sack all the time now, unless Huff wins off the line.
So they're just not getting sacks. But you can get pressure and force bad decisions. And when they did get pressure, either by playing man on the back end, which, again, it's so strange, they played man straight up with seven guys in coverage, and yet they had a problem doing it with six.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Like, yeah, it was. It was a strange seller called a really strange game. I can't really.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: And then another aspect of that is, you know, they did have Green all week in practice, and I just wonder what changes for Salah. And now it's like, oh, I have Daryl Luder, who does kind of none of the things that Renardo Green does, right? Like, how do I call this? Like, it felt like he was just.
It just feels like you showed up to the test and you studied the wrong material. You know, you're just like, oh, do you have anything on 18th century British poets? Because this calculus is quite difficult.
Like, I was under the impression Robert Sala probably had the same feeling I had when I had my freshman year of college when I skipped all of the lab courses. So they did like two during the week, and then there was a lab course on a Friday. I thought the lab course was optional. Turns out that was effectively where you did all the classwork.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Oh, that's. That's what happened to me taking a desktop publishing class where I was like, how are people finishing this? And it's like, because I didn't have, like, Adobe, I didn't have any of the programs because it was like, all these kids were in this school. And I was like, taking it as, like, sort of an elective, right? I was like, how are kids finishing this? And the teacher won't stop talking. You get like 30 minutes at the end of class. Something I got to See, because I didn't realize until it was.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: I remember showing up and they're like, okay, we're going to have the quiz. The quiz. Here, here's your papers back. And I'm like, ooh, we're going to have to go to the. The registrar's office and drop this class because I've already failed it.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: So I once dropped. That was a Spanish class that was over the month of January because January, just a Geno. So it was a quiz every day and a test like every week. And I went, no, I'm not. I'm not going to be doing that. And that's. My parents didn't find out until much later.
Maybe they don't know.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Well, congrats.
Your son's a failure anyway. Hanging out with other failures. Okay. On the defensive side like that. That's what it is. The safety thing, I cannot stress enough.
They're playing two Hufangas and then sometimes a third Hufanga and thereof diminishing Hufongo returns. And at some point you need a free safety.
Sorry, sorry. I know that, you know, it's not. It's gauche to think that everyone can't play every position all the time, but these guys can't play free. I mean, yeah, you're going to have to commit one of them to being the free safety on the team. You have to. And if it's Malik Mustafa, you know the limitations.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: I really do think their best mode of success is. Is the big nickel thing with Jair's big nickel. And if.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: It's just. It's.
It's. It's exasperating to watch because, you know, like, the right team's going to make them pay for it and it just hasn't happened.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: They might be.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: It probably will be. I mean, that. That's a team that's going to challenge them deep more than any other. And if they don't, I mean, that's just. Probably just going to be a failure on Caleb's part.
And I can't imagine any other way because, you know, Ben Johnson is going to see it pretty clearly.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Yes. Does his quarterback see it? To be determined. I'll tell you who does see it, Jake. That Brock Purdy fella.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: I.
Wow. Yeah. My first takeaway re watching the offense was genuinely like, can they. Can they do this this year?
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Like, I genuinely had the thought of, like, this might be the best offense in the league. And if they have Pearsall and Kittle healthy going into the playoffs, I don't know what Defense can fully stop them. There's defenses that could cause issues. And you know, Seattle could. Could be tricky. Week 18. I can't wait to see what that game looks like. Well, but they, they are dictating the terms of engagement on every single play. Brock is seeing it clearly.
And even the stuff that shouldn't work, like, and maybe that's where they get bit, is brock throws up a 50, 50 ball to Kittle and Kittle's not 100% net and that doesn't work out. And then they get set back and can't run the offense the way they want.
But until that happens, like they are churning at a rate that I don't think I've seen from them in a long time.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: The thumbnail of this is calling Kyle Juszczyk the mvp.
And there were a bunch of tremendous performances. I know Brock won NFC player, NFL, but whatever player of the week, he deserves all the accolades you can throw out his way right now. I'm not taking absolutely anything away from Brock, but Kyle jus check.
That was, that was why you have Kyle jus check on your team.
And it was. And it's funny you mentioned the Seahawks game. Not that you wouldn't have. I mean, Talking about the 49ers here, it's two games away, could be big.
So you know, it is germane. But the Colts like, like to do a lot of five across the front, which we knew coming into the game we saw in this game. And because they have such big nellies on the middle, they did a lot of this where like Latu would stand up or they'd bring 53 over to stand and like they would do a lot of that stuff. And the defining play or the defining set from this game was what I'm calling fake 12, which is juice lined up opposite tight end as a tight end and then coming and doing a pivot motion. So we've seen Kittle do this pivot motion where he comes into the backfield and then he goes out. So it's dash motion but not from the backfield. It's from the tight end position. Pivots into the backfield, then dash motions out.
And the way that Kyle weaponize that in this game was truly awe inspiring. Like it was so fun to watch him. Okay, well now here's Juice going in the B gap, C gap, coming out on a route. Oh, we're not actually going to bring him on the pivot even though you think he's coming on the pivot. And Zaire Franklin is still spinning The Colts defense still has no idea what's coming.
The best run of the season. I thought they had two, maybe even three of their best runs of the season in this game. Off of this 102 of 117 rush yards.
Kyle Juszczyk was on the field for Christian McCaffrey. He went full low, Neil in this one.
And that on top of the passing game.
Excellence really is a fascinating thing. And it's that 12, that fake 12 personnel with use check as the tight end that really creates some challenges for teams that are dropping guys back. You said that it feels like they're dictating the terms of engagement. Something we talked about on the Monday night stream. Like that's huge. Because the Niners issues, if we were talking about chaos defenses, was that they were having to respond to the movement of the defense as the ball was being snapped. And now it's in reverse again, which it was before the chaos defenses came in vogue. And it wouldn't shock me at all if this pivot motion or this dash motion started to become a real trend around the league because apparently you don't have to be remotely close to legal in terms of your motion to, you know, stay for someone to throw like no one's throwing a flag. No one's throwing a flag on that thing.
You know, they tried it with Jordan Watkins, they tried it with Kendrick Bourne. They like, this is, this is their five man front beater, which means that it's their Seattle beater, which means that it might be their one seed getter. And it's just kind of hilarious to me that so many of the very, very important players on this team, the 49ers, had really very little interest in having on this team. Like Kyle Juszczyk was cut. He was out there. No one signed him. And they're like, I guess we'll bring you back. I don't know. But they were ready to move on. They would be. They had no this. Their season changes. But this game is a totally different contest without a Kyle use check that you can't do this same stuff with Luke Farrell. You can't do this with a Jake Tonjas. You can't do this with even George Kittle. They try. And you know, Kittle did have that touchdown that he dropped in the corner, was effectively coming into the backfield and then swinging out.
So it was, you know, kind of a pivot, but it was, you know, before the snap. But the use check as the lead blocker just created massive holes on the left side when they ran it that way.
It gave the 49ers run game an incredible dynamic while not having to do pin and pull stuff, not having to bring traps, not having to bring power.
I'm just, I am in awe of how Kyle was able to take 21 personnel, which is classic Kyle Shanahan and tight splits and modernize it in a way that absolutely destroys every rule of a chaos level defense where you're playing man on corners and anybody in the middle can do anything they want. And the Colts don't do it at the highest level, but they do it and they did it against Seattle and didn't give up a touchdown.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: We liked going into this game and they made them look completely lost.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: I just think that that is.
I don't want to keep using the pinnacle because Kyle's had many games, but this is Kyle. Kyle's offense at his highest level.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: He really, really, really should win coach of the year this year. I mean, it's. Yeah, I don't really understand how it could be anyone else at this point.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Mike Variable has such great culture. Jake. I mean, it's the culture.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: Is that really. Is that. Is that who the competition is? He's also on the east coast, so there's like that level of bias. It probably will go.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: I mean, listen, I'll say this though. You know, all these awards are narrative based and it is all just east coast voters.
The, the argument for Shanahan winning coach of the Year over Variable late is that the Niners are going to have three straight national televised games.
And as we saw with like Fernando Men, if they win out and they have three straight nationally televised games so that every, everybody in the nation's watching them, it's going to be like Fernando Mendoza winning the Heisman. It's like, was he the best player this year? No. I mean, Diego Pavia was unquestionably the best player. Did he have a bunch of primetime games late in the season that people watched and they won and they just went, oh, it has to be him.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Like most probably playing baby lawsuit.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: I mean, really, it's clearly when you have the, you know, this. I don't know how Coach of the Year is voted on. I presume it's an AP panel of voters. So I'd say probably like 50.
This is an ascertainable fact. I just don't know. But it's a pretty large sample size. It's not like, you know, NBA Finals MVP where it's like 12 dudes five minutes before the buzzer who are at the Game. So, yeah, I just think that generally people don't put a lot of work into this stuff, so it will be whichever decision makes the most sense as late as possible, as opposed to taking the full body of work. And if the Patriots lose another game and Kyle wins out, I think that he could squeak in there, even going up against what is, you know, the Kevin Stefanski Memorial Reward for. We thought your team was going to be shitty, and, in fact, they are. Good. Here's your award. He's won it twice. And then the east coast bias of it all. So, I. I mean, not as out on it, but I don't know if.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: I mean, I guess. I guess there's a chance. What's his face? Liam Cohen wins.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: That'd be a good vote, though. Like, I. I honestly, I wouldn't vote Liam Cohen over Kyle Shanahan, but, like, I think that Liam Cohen's a better vote than Mike Vrabel.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Agreed. Agreed. I mean. I mean, if the Jaguars, particularly if they win the AFC south and get. What is it, the two or the three seed? Like, I. I wouldn't begrudge anyone. I mean, Cohen's like, a little bit of cornball. What is it? Yeah, that's the issue. And I think he's just so goddamn annoying.
It's gonna be awesome when that thing blows up because, well.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Never forget how he got the job.
Do you know the story? How he got the job?
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Yeah, of course I know the story.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Okay. I'm just. Sometimes people forget. It's okay. You can forget how Liam Cohen told the Buccaneers that he was gonna stay and took a big pay raise and then got on a plane.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: And he can certainly put an offense together, but, man, it's.
It's not the same because he's not. I'm not going to compare anyone to Harbaugh, but it does feel like the way things flame out with Harbaugh, like there's going to be a variant of that for Liam Cohen at some point.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: With that, we'll also look at Liam Cohen's coaching history and notice how he just pops from one place to another.
You know, he's the Steve Wilts of office.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Hey, now. Hey, now. But he can scheme it up.
Okay, Coach of the year.
Let's leave it at this. This is as impressive a coaching job as Kyle Shanahan has done in two different regards. One, keeping this team from turning.
Because let's. Let's not pretend as if there's not still some serious egos in the room.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: And you Know, they did turn a little bit last year. Not publicly, but, you know, the IUK situation manifested in the way that it manifested, and, you know, Debo was getting in fights with me, you know, at the end of the day, and. Sorry, there's an eagle with a. A fish literally right. Flying right past me.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: That's incredible.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: Circle of life. How about that?
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Yeah, well, hopefully the Niners aren't the fish in week 18.
So it. That was. That's one of the cooler things I've ever seen. I wish you all had seen it with me going on real. He's hot. He's high up here, too. I'm not high. Yeah, no, I'm. Me and Aaron Rodgers are doing an ayahuasca trip right now, but that. Okay, so just obviously keeping the team together. That's great. And then second, the scheming stuff and being able to figure out how to keep this offense on the front foot, get it back on the front foot after, I would say, a good, solid year, you're a little bit plus of defense is kind of figuring it out. In fact, if you want to take Kyle Van Noy's word for it, it's been since Christmas 2023 that the league has Kyle Shanahan pegged. And this year, he. He unpacked himself.
We're gonna pause for effect.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Pause.
I will. I feel like they're. Like I'm looking at it. I think there are five actual, even theoretical candidates for Coach of the year.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Oh, geez. Your songs.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Okay, we're getting out of it. I need to close the loop in my head. Fair enough.
Mike McDonald, Liam Cohen, Ben Johnson, and Mike. I think those are the five.
Who am I forgetting?
Sean Payton. I mean, Sean Payton. Sean Payton's been around too long. I mean, I know he's back, and.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: He'S with that same knock on Kyle.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, Sean Payton hasn't had an entire roster explode in the 49ers. Like, losing Bosa and Warner puts Shanahan clearly into that conversation. So I. I don't think Peyton.
I mean, maybe. Maybe they'll consider him. I don't think Peyton will be.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Here's my general thought on Coach of the Year.
Do you think Kevin Stefanski is a better coach than Andy Reid?
[00:32:54] Speaker B: No.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Okay, well, Stefanski's won it twice and Reed's won it once, and he's never won it in Kansas City.
So you know what? You know who really is the coach of the Year, And I can't believe I'm saying this, given that the current Title holder is Nick Sirianni. But, like, it's who wins the championship.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: That is.
I wish I had the Tony Reali mute button for you. Just knock you down a couple points for that one.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: It's a big Kalashaw take right there.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: God, that is. That is purely cowlishaw coated.
That's awesome.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: I've been trying to get who wins the championship game. It is about who wins the championship.
There's at least one meatball out there who's like Dieter spitting facts right now.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: There is absolutely spitting.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: Okay, so another elite offensive line game. An elite Jake Brendel game.
Trent, actually, did you not see the same thing?
[00:33:50] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. I mean, we've been on the same page. Jake Brendel since coming back has looked good.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: I don't know what happened to his hamstrings, but do it again because it's working.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Particularly, I think you see it most. The play you posted is a good example where he gets that first step quick and seals somebody off immediately. He did it to Grover Stewart and.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: You don't do that to Grover.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Stewart was like a guy. We were like, this could be a real problem.
He was not noticeable in any positive way in this game.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: The pass pro from the interior has been impeccable as of late.
You know, the one time they really great Burford game. I was so impressed with Burford again. This comes Back to the 21. This comes back to the tight splits, the classic Shanahan.
It's nice that they have all the gap stuff. It's nice that they can bust that out. But they're really leaning on the zone stuff. They're not having to get away from their bread and butter. And I think that when we look back on this season, good batter and different.
I think that Burford getting that job and solidifying that job is going to be.
I don't think anyone but us is going to mention it. I think it's a turning point of the season.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: I think there's.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Among so many others.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: No, I think you're right in terms of, like, I didn't think Burford was great. He's really inconsistent. When him and, you know, him and Bart were going back and forth, and I think that's tough to stay in a rhythm. And now that it's like, oh, this is clearly my job, there's an element of like, okay, this is what I do. I'm not doing tackle. I'm not splitting time. I am the left guard. Yeah, I think that helped tremendously.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: And let's not forget that he almost didn't play in this game. I mean, there was questions, not all the way up to the game, but, like, certainly during the week, I would say going into Saturday, it was like, yeah, you know, he's limited. Anything bad can happen.
So that was. That was really impressive.
The Kittle aspect of this is big.
I know that that's the understatement of the decade, but their offense comes down a significant notch. If George Kittle can't play, I wouldn't be. He's really good in the run game, too.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: I wouldn't be shocked this week.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: That's an issue. That's a real issue. That's like. That's like a. There's not a lot of players that can move a line. George Kittle should move lines.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: It's tough because the Cal, especially with the way this team is built where there is no Bosa or Warner to sort of cancel out that effect.
It's interesting because you go, all right, well, we need these guys healthy for the playoffs, but we also can guarantee the one seed and get a full week off if we win out. And is forcing guys to play through that stuff and then getting a full buy worth that shot or do we sort of blow our wad and then these guys are limping into playoffs? It's a really tough calculation.
I mean, I think they will probably try and not galaxy brain it and just go, is he available to play? But when this stuff gets down to it, it's the same thing as, like, you ask guys early in the season, it's like, yeah, I could have played, but it's not late in the year, so it doesn't matter. So those, Those calculations get a little bit more. Can he deal with the pain? And what's the re. Aggravation calculation?
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Another thing that I want to bring up because I just don't think we hammered it home strongly enough. And we were very, very complimentary on Monday night. But Juwan Jennings is so goddamn good.
Yeah, he, He. He sparks something in my soul when I watch him play wide receiver.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: And they're not trying to do the thing where they were doing, where he's like, trying to take the top off a defense and all that. Like, there's occasionally times where he does that and it doesn't work. They're using him on, like the sort of bread and butter stuff where he's getting into it in. Into a corner's chest, pushing off a little bit. And for a guy who's not that athletic, he snaps out of routes really effectively and just Gets. He always gets just enough, just enough to make a tight catch.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: If they can get Pearsall back, that can maybe mitigate a little bit of not having Kittle.
They can't. They cannot afford to not have Juwan Jennings at any point, full stop.
He's so vital. They can't afford to not have Juice at any point.
There's just nobody that can replicate what it is those two guys do. And no, no one can get open man to man the same way that Ricky can. But like guys can get open, right? You can. There's ways around it. You can run the ball more. You can do stuff. No one can do what Kittle does though, you know, you can amalgamate it a little bit without. The problem is it's a tell. You can put ton just on the field. He's got some great mitts, but, you know, and Feral, by the way, the one play where the Niners got totally burned in pass pro was of course the, the Luke Farrell three yard gain that, that he caught the, the strip sack fumble. He's the one who blew the block like, so I can't even give him credit for making a heads up play. He was only heads up because the guy that he was with had run past him and he was looking into the backfield to see how bad it was going to be.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: I mean, that's like a coaching point. Listen, if you're going to blow it, make sure that you don't blow it twice.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: Like get on, follow your shot when you miss your free Throw or your 3, follow your shot.
What else on the offense, if anything?
[00:39:14] Speaker B: I don't think, I don't think I have too much. I think I want to hop into some comments here and let you enjoy this.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: Okay. Before we do that, I got to tell you, I think that Christian McCaffrey looks like he has more bursts now than he's looked like he's had all season.
[00:39:25] Speaker B: He's spinning off and he's like actually missing tackles when they were, when they were doing the thing of like he is the lowest, you know, he. He's making the leaks. What's the stat? And, and then you could hear the guy who's like the stat boy, who is like sort of pulling away from the fact that McCaffrey has the lowest. It's like yards over expectation.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: I think the one who thought they were kicking the field goal.
[00:39:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, the guy who thought yards over expectation.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: By the way, Christian McCaffrey has.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: Christian.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Christian McCaffrey has over 100 missed tackles this season. That's 10, more than 10 than anybody else in the league.
So he is, and it's like, he.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Is like negative 300 yards below expectation or something. And you could hear, you could literally hear them go, wait, he's what? And, and the stat guy went, yeah, it's, it's, I don't know.
That's, that stat is tough.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: So if I, I, I actually like that stat. It ties in perfectly. I like it breaks a lot of tackles.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: It's not to say that.
So like the issue with Brian Robinson, when the Niners got him and I thought B. Rob had a nice game and a really nice run, that little 11 yard game to get him in the red zone. I think it was third quarter.
The issue with B. Rob is he would only get what was blocked for him. But he also didn't break tackles.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Right.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: So it's like, okay, that is bog standard. You can also not get what the offensive line gives you and not break tackles, in which case you don't play. You can break tackles, but you know the, you know the offensive line is giving you more than you want because you know you're not making that cut too fast in the Backfield. That's Christian McCaffrey. Here's the end result. How many yards are you getting? The guy gets yards and they were able to get. I thought, I thought that game for sure was going to have a 20 mile per hour run in it. Just watching it, I mean, it did.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: Kind of shock Winters.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: D. Winters, what did he hit on that?
[00:41:20] Speaker B: He had 20.2 miles per hour. I think it was the fastest defensive player or linebacker in the NFL this year.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: That, that checks out. Because if there's one thing, we've said a lot of things about Dee Winters, good and bad, but if there's one thing we all know about De Winters, that boy can fly. He can really fly.
Let's do questions.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: First off, PDX49ER. Thank you for the bucks for actual journalism. I think that's a shout to Dieter for taking his notes. And look, look at us doing shorts.
[00:41:50] Speaker A: Actual journalism.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Beautiful stuff.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Avoiding my family today so I could watch all 22 tape.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: I love that. Symmetry allowed. How much do we miss Bernardo Green? Quite a bit.
Quite a bit. I think it's, yeah, it's something where it's like you can play looter the last two games because it's like, or whatever. The defense is going to be whatever and it's going to be bad.
But you need Green for the playoffs and it's going to be interesting. Like what we find out after the season about that neck thing. It's gonna be like, yeah, I've actually had like a dislocated.
Yeah, I've had a dislocated.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it didn't exist. My neck went away for a while. It was just a head on some shoulders. It was very strange.
He did practice all week. It's again, so very strange.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: Here we are.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: They did miss him, especially when they ran cover six. You could just see the issues.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: Cam's dad, D. Damn.
Deet is a super white boy today.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: Always been a super white boy. I mean, come on. Come on. Anyone who watches this show by now understands that I'm the whitest. So that's.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: I am what I am. I can't change it.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: Nor should you.
[00:42:58] Speaker A: But as a white male is a victim of everything, I want to be sure that, you know, you all feel sorry for me. Sorry.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: How does, how does IR work with the playoffs? All talk of Fred Nick is crazy anyway. It. Doesn't IR mean they're done no matter what? No, I think it. It stays open if you're in the playoffs. I think that. I don't think that, like, you're allowed to bring guys back. I don't think it shuts.
I'm speaking purely from what I remember and not looking it up, but I remember those windows staying open because Quan Alexander came back, I believe, in the playoffs from, like a Peck injury, and he was so good. Remember, remember that?
Where he could move and couldn't do anything.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: It was a legendary performance. Yeah. No, my understanding is that playoff rosters are the same as just extra weeks of the regular season.
You can still pluck anyone you want off a practice squad because futures contracts haven't been signed or anything. So anyone who's on a practice squad can still be added to your active roster. You can still sign street free agents for the playoffs.
It's. It's just another week. They don't put any.
To my recollection, they don't put any clear restrictions on what it is you can't do because it's the playoffs. And I don't think you have to be salary cap compliant.
[00:44:08] Speaker B: Nevin. With a reminder, they get two extra IR return spots for the playoffs.
Thank you, Nevin.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good knowledge.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: Who also says, you know, half the Brendel thing is not having to babysit Puni and Colby anymore, which I agree there's an element to that, too, but I also think he just looks a Lot healthier.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: So does Puni.
I mean, that's the other thing. You know, he looks healthier. Puni somehow just magically healed his PCL mid season.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: He's still struggling a little bit, but he's surviving.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: He's a warrior. I won't hear any poonies.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: When was the last time that a team won a Super bowl with a subpar defense and a stellar offense? I was looking into this and I was trying to find a good example. The most recent one that's not really accurate would be like, this, the Rams.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: Well, Jay, can I tell you that I was getting a lot of Rams vibes off of. Off of that film yesterday.
It's getting a lot of Rams vibes. They might have done it. They might have fulfilled the Rams.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: They also had Aaron Donald. So it's like, regardless of what the points is. Yeah, but that's where I was going is like, you look at the stats and like, that was the last team that had like a great offense and kind of a meh to bad defense.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Well, and then let's. Let's add on to that. Had they lost that super bowl, it would have absolutely have been the Bengals, who had, like an awful offensive line, a defense that had very good safeties, but generally wasn't all that good.
And then, you know, it was just Burrow and Jason Higgins.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Right. And then you could. The Chiefs, sort of. But the Chiefs in the playoffs, like, had. In 22.
But their. Their defense came around in the playoffs and it was like.
Yeah, I don't know.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: I mean, I think I mentioned this to you. I mean, there is one connecting factor of the last, you know, five, six super bowl champions, and it's elite defensive tackles. So I'm going to need to see more CJ west and Alfred Collins.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:01] Speaker A: And then.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: And then before that, it's like, it takes a while to find one. It's like the Giants in 11 or 12 and then the Saints in, like, 2010.
[00:46:11] Speaker A: Yeah, totally.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: It's really. Yeah, it's really like a defense. It's like you can have a bad to mediocre defense. They just have to have some key players who get it done in key moments because everything just gets so much tighter for the most part. Yeah.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: I would say that the Niners need to have somebody on the defensive side go on an overt heater from this point on. Like, we have to be talking about, like, what a run Bryce Huff is on or what a run CJ west is on or what a run DE Winters is on. Like, or you know, d', Amador, Lenore, like, someone has to go on a legit, like all pro caliber heater and they don't have that many options that you can say might do that. But they do have some still and they got to. They have to individually maximize their play to the point where they're the story. And, you know, I can't foresee that happening, but I also can't tell you it won't.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they got some players. It's just like they're not. No one's at that threshold where you can really believe in them. Rishi, with a good point. Yeah, it should be stellar offense, subpar defense and stellar special teams.
I can't tell you. I can't remember all the special teams units, but like, clearly that. Clearly that's like a factor that is giving the Niners much more of a chance is like they're getting turnovers and advantageous field position on special teams. And that's. That's really helping deal with some of the limitations.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, it's funny because in my notes I'll do, you know, their possession in the number. And the Niners were a possession ahead the entire game and they get that extra little possession. So they play two possessions ahead. They didn't get any points on that one right before the end of the half, but they did get the ball because the Colts took it first in the second half. And just playing a possession up is huge. I mean, sometimes it is as simple as basketball. Just get more shots up than the other team.
And certainly for this Niners team, that's got to be a staple.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: That's what I mean about selling out for the defense. Just steal possessions. Find. Find a way.
Last one. I think this is a good one to end on. Brock gave away Toyotas again. Can we get Dieter's IRS rant part two? So he gave them away to people in need. I don't know if they were veterans or what, but. But someone was like, hey man, like, you gave them to your offensive line. You should probably give them to people who need cars.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: More power. More power to them. Listen, again, there are ways around this where it is, you know, no cost lease of some sort from Toyota and the Northern California Toyota dealerships, which we hear are fantastic, we'd love to do business with.
[00:48:44] Speaker B: They're probably $1 leases, right?
[00:48:47] Speaker A: Like, something like that.
I don't need to get into the depths of it, but the reason that this is something that I'm cognizant of is I grew up in Chicago. And I think we all recall Oprah, the famous Oprah Winfrey. Have you heard of her? Did her show in Chicago and her first, like big Christmas giveaway she gave away and a free car and that was a whole thing. And then it turns out she actually gave away free cars. And all of these people who, and this was like a huge thing on the local Chicago news because they were all Chicagoans and people coming from, but mostly a lot of Chicagoans who got tickets to the show are like, I just got $24,000. My taxes are due. Like, I didn't need this car, I can't sell it. And for, you know, for a win because it's not new anymore because it's a used car. So basically now I just have this like five to $6,000 tax liability for this 20, you know, $30,000 new car that I can't get off of. So it's, you know, you're an offensive line. I'm sure some of those guys really appreciated the car, but I think it's giving it away to people in need.
[00:49:52] Speaker B: I think it's got to be a low cost lease with like a very cheap buyout clause after like 100%.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's the only way that it's, that's the only way that you're not in fact gifting somebody something there. If it's, if it's, if it's a large gift, it's taxable income.
So people in need, it's like, you know what, they don't need a letter from the irs. So I mean, I'm sure they want the new car, but like, not everyone can afford the car you're giving them. I, I, again, I, I'd like to think that since my last rant on this, you know, if it wasn't dealt with the first time around with offensive linemen who can most likely figure it out fiscally, I'd like to think they figured it out on the second go around. And you know what? That's a cool sponsorship thing, you know, not to, you know, shit, I'm not shitting on it. It's a cool sponsorship thing if you're.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: Doing it cheap to, to, for upkeep, like Toyotas.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Oh, they're fantastic.
I've owned a Toyota. I loved it. I mean, Toyota, I would love to own another one, perhaps on a low cost lease. Okay, yeah, no, I mean, listen, drivers.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Are too conservative and BMW drivers are trying to kill everyone on the road. That's how I view it.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Well, don't start me on Subarus, buddy?
[00:51:02] Speaker B: Well, yeah, everyone wants one. And then. And then you get up to the Pacific Northwest and people like, what if I did 20 miles an hour in the left lane?
[00:51:09] Speaker A: They're being courteous, Jake. No, they're not. There's a reason that I no longer take i5 through Oregon.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: Let's put it that way.
Yeah. Last one from Bill. Thank you. Doesn't defense wins championships? Well, we're gonna find out.
We're gonna find out, folks. That is the. That is the question we're trying to answer. Can you win?
[00:51:29] Speaker A: What was your line in your column?
[00:51:32] Speaker B: Oh, if you're an anarcho defensivist.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: I love that. That's so good. I'm so. I'm so pissed. That should have been mine. That's so good.
Narco defensivists, crypto defensivists, whatever you want to call them. We are about to find out if defense wins championships. And I guess the better question is, like, can just a little bit of defense win a championship?
[00:51:52] Speaker B: Just a little bit. Again, I think. I think that's. That's my. My little bit of optimism take from the beginning is I think the Niners have a little bit of juice. It's not a good defense. It's going to get beat. But do they have that little bit of juice to just get him a turnover, get him a sack at the right time, and just. Just that little bit? That's all they need, I think.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it might actually be catastrophic.
[00:52:20] Speaker B: In all likelihood, it will be.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: But let me put it to you this way. The Niners, I think I told you this, like, five weeks ago. The Niners will not have another close game this year. That was my take. I'm standing by it. There will be no close games.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: It's a good day.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: It's. It's just going to be Big 12 football from here on out.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: And it'll be really funny when, like, Caleb Williams throws three picks that all go to Jair Brown in this game.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Here's the thing. Like, I'm excited to get into the film because I legitimately don't feel like the Bears can attack the Niner. Like, I don't feel like the Bears. So the cool thing about what the Colts did was that they're like, we know we suck, but we think you suck more. So we're just going to attack you in all the ways that you suck. And it worked for a long time.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: And then they ended up sucking more.
And I don't think the Bears can get into that pragmatic Mind space like I thought it was. Philip Rivers is out there changing every play. Steichen had him absolutely.
That was dialed in. They were great. I mean really, all the credit in the world to the coaching staff and the Rivers. Mentally that was elite level shit and it didn't matter, but it was elite level shit. I think Ben Johnson can scheme it up, but I also think that Ben Johnson really likes Ben Johnson and I think that they like to run their stuff and I think that teams that want to run their stuff devoid of what the defense does are going to get burned by this defense because Robert Sala, last game notwithstanding, is smart enough to take away other teams stuff like they have to sell out in one direction. He's going to take that stuff away.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: Bob's had like two bad duds this year and then the rest he's been, he's been trying stuff.
[00:54:13] Speaker A: What was the, what was the other clear dud game just to.
[00:54:16] Speaker B: I can't remember. I can't remember what it was. I only remember that it happened.
[00:54:20] Speaker A: It was unquestionably a bad game. I can't, I cannot Texas remember it either.
[00:54:24] Speaker B: By the way, before we close it out, wood gravy. The Toyota's last year were.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: Thank you, wood gravy.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: Thank you, wood gravy.
[00:54:31] Speaker A: This is an important note and I made it very clear I wasn't alleging anything that I didn't know. I just said I hope that they're leases because otherwise you just handed these gentlemen very large tax bills.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: If you're a premium member of the channel, Dieter will help you with your taxes.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: As someone who's gotten in a letter from the IRS before, don't I pay someone a lot of money to handle that and literally was on the phone with them today.
Don't let me handle your taxes. Jake and I have to worry about our tax bullshit with this channel. So continue to give us money.
It's. It's a hot mess. It's a hot mess. But you know what?
We're good honest Americans who pay our taxes, unlike some of you heathens.
[00:55:09] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:55:09] Speaker A: And Jeff Bezos can get bent.
[00:55:12] Speaker B: That's right.
All the billionaires.
On that note, Merry Christmas.
[00:55:18] Speaker A: Merry Christmas.
[00:55:19] Speaker B: Go hang out with your family and stop by.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: We're going to talk on. We're going to talk on Friday after Jake and I escape our families and watch bears film. Because you don't. If you don't think we're in it, baby, we are so in it.
[00:55:36] Speaker B: That's right. We'll talk to you then, folks.
[00:55:38] Speaker A: Bye.
Sat.
