Hour 1: Cowboys Defense Balls Out, Shedeur Starting, plus NFL on FOX’s Mark Schlereth

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1:00Rich Eisen:This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to three Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Go, go, go. Got a lamb wide open on the right side of the end of the Ryan Flannoy. Touchdown. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Today's guest, Fox Sports NFL analyst Mark Schleritz.

1:48Steelers Radio Network host, Jerry Dulac. Co-host of Good Morning Football, Kyle Brand. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:59Rich Eisen:Well, hey everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show on Disney Plus. On the ESPN app and ESPN radio presented by Progressive Insurance. Hello, Sirius XM Channel 80 listeners. Just because you're driving around in your car or wherever you are and you're bouncing something off a satellite interior doesn't mean I don't say hello to you. because that's the type of guy i am uh we say hello also to the uh podcast listeners and anybody who listens to us whatever you want it you're right uh please also listen to overreaction monday no contest wrestling uh the jim jackson show just some of the offerings from us for your ear gate 844-204-rich is the number to dial on this program uh mark schlereth is first up now that week 11 is in the books and then in hour number two jerry dulac is joining us there is a report from my guys uh ian rapaport and tom pellicero that there is no break in um interesting let's put it this way there is a break he doesn't need surgery aaron rogers does not need surgery and he's pushing to play against the bears which makes sense because he wants to play in soldier field where you know he's on the fans and he wants to play the bears one more time yeah uh he doesn't know if he's ever gonna get this shot again he is pushing to do that we'll talk to jerry dulac on the latest from pittsburgh pa in our number two and speaking of the bears uh it's interesting kyle brand uh knows this and i will introduce him as such an hour number three uh my colleague from nfl network and uh one of the stars of good morning football he has an anytime pass here anytime he wants to come on he can come on and um he just has chosen this moment he called and said i can do this tuesday i wonder what he's got to say interesting uh good to see you over there Chris Brockman.

3:39Rich Eisen:How are you, sir? Hey, Rich. I would have been better if CeeDee Lamb caught that ball and scored at the end of the game last night. Is that a reference to something as an NFL employee I'm not allowed to acknowledge? Perhaps. Okay. Good to see you, DJ Mikey D, Mike Del Tufo. Good morning, Rich. DJ Mikey D, as in D's nuts, which is interesting because that's the shirt that TJ Jefferson has chosen to wear today. It looks like your shirt, don't block it, there it is. It says D's and then there looks like some lug nuts. on that. These lug nuts. These lug nuts. Your Dallas Cowboys looked really impressive last night, so give it to them.

4:17Rich Eisen:Whenever the Cowboys win, there's that. Play the one whenever they lose. I don't even want to do it. Don't worry. No, you just couldn't. There you go. I could find it. That's not today. That's not today. I'm just letting everyone know the way things work around here. That's all. Really impressive. Really impressive. Very impressive. Oh, very impressive. And they played a AAA team. I'm going to. Oh, really? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to hear that stuff. Can we discuss this with you? No, no, no, no, no. I don't want to hear that stuff. I don't want to hear that stuff. And not because it's disrespectful.

4:52Rich Eisen:But no, you wouldn't say that to Max Crosby if he was sitting here. I think he knows he plays for a AAA team. And I'm sure that gets him very upset. And we'll talk about the Raiders later on. But you have to play who you have to play. And you have to play who you have to play. no matter what and what that team did the raiders did the last time against the broncos they damn near beat the denver broncos you could say that has a lot to do with the denver broncos but these are grown-ass men who are paid to play in the national football league who are on monday night football and don't want to be punked i'm just giving tj and and on top of it you know but no i think you're also giving voice to what a lot of people might view the dallas cowboys performance last night listen we all know that dallas defensively has been positively dreadful all year and almost damn near historically dreadful but they're not historically dreadful because the cincinnati bengals play football and and i know that sounds disrespectful but it's all just speak speaking facts about their defense and this dallas cowboy defense allowed a season low 16 points last night while Dak Prescott showed up and threw four touchdown passes and had a passer rating just south of 139 and it was the only the 18th time in franchise history that four different Dallas Cowboy receivers caught a touchdown and it's just you gotta give it up man you gotta give it up because this was all done while the team is grieving the loss of one of their teammates and we all know that this Cowboys team was sitting on the bye week coming off of a loss to the Arizona Cardinals and Marshawn Nealon we all know needed some help and decided to do what he did and it leaves a hole in so many people's lives and hearts and the Dallas Cowboys showed up with their t-shirts and their memories of him in many different ways trying to honor his memory and in the middle of all of that the head coach brian schottenheimer found it necessary to discipline his two top receivers by sitting them on monday night football cd lamb and george pickens standing on the sidelines watching the Cowboys go three and out.

7:24Rich Eisen:Cowboys get the ball first. And they have CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens standing on the sidelines. So in the middle of everything that's going on with this team, Brian Schottenheimer says, I am benching these two guys. And what did they do? They balled out when they got on the field. And had their best game of the year. Now, maybe not statistically for CeeDee Lamb. Five catches, 66 yards, and the first touchdown of the game. And in so doing with that touchdown, he broke a tie with Des Bryant for the third most receptions in Cowboys franchise history behind Michael Irvin and way behind Jason Witten.

8:10Rich Eisen:CeeDee has 536. Irv's got 750. Jason Witten's got 1 ,215 career catches. He's going to the Hall of Fame. He's eligible this year. He could even be a first ballot guy at the end of the day. And then George Pickens, man, he showed you exactly what the Cowboys were hoping to see when they acquired him from Pittsburgh. And he's exactly what the Steelers knew that he could do. But whatever was going on behind the scenes, and again, we're talking to Jerry Dulac in hour number two they just couldn't countenance him being on this team anymore and i guess you saw it all you know with him catching a touchdown pass and then celebrating in exactly the same manner that caused a flag to be thrown earlier this weekend as well on jameson williams and he You can't say, well, I didn't see it because it was on Sunday night football.

9:12Rich Eisen:The whole country's watching. Unless George Pickens was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, which may be the reason why he was standing on the sideline to start the game. The better he wasn't watching. I don't know. What happens in Vegas stays there. But this is what happens when teams travel to Vegas for a Monday night football game. Potentially, we don't know what's going on. but amongst all of that amongst all of that the cowboys emerge and they play superbly i mean javante williams as well what a season he's having 93 yards rushing and dac's throwing and again sit here and say the raiders stink and this that the other thing it's still a team that still has much of the same guys without jacoby myers who went in a week one in New England and beat the Patriots, and I understand that feels like years ago for various reasons.

10:07Rich Eisen:But give it up to Brian Schottenheimer, man. Give it up to him. Here he is about sitting George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb to start the game last night. It's tough, you know. Made a coach's decision. There were some things that were missed, and so I had a conversation with those guys, and that was easy. But, I mean, you look at the energy those guys play with, you know. Clarence, I like, you know. They literally, they jump-started the offense when they got back in there. They didn't hang their heads. They didn't do any of that stuff. And that's why I love those guys, man. And, again, this was a great team win.

10:47Just a couple things missed. Practice, meetings, curfew. A couple things missed. A couple things missed.

10:56Rich Eisen:by the way unbelievable that he's being asked the questions by clarence beaks uh handing off the crap report that's clarence hill everybody uh who's a couple things missed won't tell you what they missed but he's disciplining them on monday night football hey cd hey george the whole country's gonna have you stand there and it's gonna definitely be a first report yep and you know and lisa salters is gonna find out what's up and then there's gonna be a whole bunch of speculation, but then we'll put you in the game and you better help us win. All while the team's grieving. Honestly, in the midst of let's all come together and win one for Marshawn.

11:37Rich Eisen:I'm going to have to sit you down. And this is what he had to say about playing in support of their comrade who is now gone. So proud of these guys, Calvin. I mean, the way that they grieved, cried laughed but they wanted to honor him and we're not done honoring him he's a part of our family forever but it's been tough man I mean these past 11 days have been really tough but I'm proud of those guys because just the way they played today they played with Marshawn's play style man give it up to this guy because again everyone's like why are you hiring him he's never done it before you can have anybody you want You're the Dallas Cowboys.

12:22Rich Eisen:You got to give it up. He's the consoler in chief, and he's the discipliner in chief, and he's the head coach whose side of the football that he's calling the plays on looked superb last night in the middle of all this. I mean, that's a heck of a trifecta to pull off and come through with flying colors. Give it up to him, man. And then the defense. listen seeing quinn and williams up there with kenny clark i i i know there's a lot of questions about the the raiders play calling and we'll talk about it later on why they threw it 31 times and ran it just what twice in the first half or three times or whatever the split was it was absurd um listen i i i know jenty's known for having that serial killer pose, but those two guys up front, and Clark and Quinton Williams, that call's coming from within the house, too.

13:20Rich Eisen:And then on top of it, what did I say? Who did I point out yesterday to you, TJ Jefferson, and all Cowboys fans? They're Marvin Overshown. He only had one tackle, and it was a tackle for loss, so he didn't show up much in the stat sheet, but that guy was everywhere. He was. And he is 1 million percent supercharging a defense. those guys were buzzing everywhere and I understand the Raiders have problems protecting Geno and Geno is having problems staying upright and the run game has been way spotty and the play calling is off and I know the Raiders have not lit up many scoreboards but they can and they didn't and that defense didn't look at all like the defense we saw in the first 10 weeks of the season 9th games for the Cowboys.

14:12So, now what?

14:14Rich Eisen:I understand. I know what you're all thinking. Now what? So what? Well,

14:21Rich Eisen:Dak giving some also credence before we move on to what I had to say about Overshawn. Hit it. Special. Overshawn's my favorite player. I've told him that. His locker, y 'all know, is right by mine. I knew he was going to go out and have a great game. That's because of the way that he approaches the business. each and every day with the same attitude. A hell of a leader. Special player. That's no surprise. I mean, he really is. He's really my favorite player. I love that. That's cool. So good feelings for the Cowboys outside of mourning the loss of one of their teammates, obviously. But in terms of football, onward.

15:04Rich Eisen:What a way to go into the game against Philadelphia. What a way to go. Because they got to sit there and go, we had him week one boy did we have him until they let him off the hook and then there's a thanksgiving game against kansas city then there's a visit to detroit exactly a week later then there's a sunday night game against minnesota then there's a next game against the chargers then they have two against the teams that they're now looking down upon in the NFC East. So, yeah. You're now 4-5-1. Let's see what happens, man. Cowboys go on a little bit of a run that would get a lot of people sitting upright in their chairs and people like you, TJ Jefferson, talking about the varsity being back and all sorts of stuff and Stephen Aven clapping back.

15:55Rich Eisen:It would be great. I've got to be honest with you. It would be great. I know Eagles fans and Chiefs fans and Lions fans will go, Not so much. But... Well, especially with the latter two kind of fighting for their playoff lives right now. Chiefs and Lions. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking at their schedule and, you know, respectfully, you know how I feel about Washington and the Giants. I look at those as dubs, but, man... Sir, we... There's some tough teams. We talk about Brown and Devontae Smith being one of the best wide receiver tandems in the National Football League. Pickens plays like this? I think we're better.

16:30Rich Eisen:You can make a case. Because, hold on a second, overreaction Monday on Tuesday. Okay, very good. We'll put a pin in that. Because one quarterback's regularly targeting one of them, if not both of them. I don't know if they weren't Kelly Green. Okay, we'll put a pin in that. But the run game is good. Defensively, they can start buzzing around. They stopped the run last night. Well, the Raiders might have done that on their own. Yeah, we didn't really have much. But still, when Gentry got the ball all six times. Yeah, he didn't go anywhere. We're definitely better this week than we were two weeks ago defensively.

17:15Rich Eisen:100%. Better with the acquisitions that we got. The secondary looked better. Well, that's going to work if the front. Warren Sapp always tells you, front and back end have to work together. The front seven is much better, buzzing around, covering more ground, getting upfield, stopping to run on the way to the quarterback. Back end is going to look a hell of a lot better. I like it. There's been a few times this year that Davian Clowney has had, you know, he's turned back the clock at the end of games a little and got a sack or, you know, just put pressure on the court. He doesn't do it the full game, but it's kind of like coming in and like a closer.

17:52Rich Eisen:Let's get Philly in. Let's get up early because you got the horses to do that and tell Philadelphia. You better find 11 because if somebody showed up with Janky Rondo after a win, how's he going to sound after a loss? You know what I mean? Like, let's go Dallas. Let's get them all. Let's get them all. Yeah, go full Pantangeli coming out of Vegas, right? Actually, that's a bad thing. You don't want to ever go full Pantangeli. Certainly, you know, in Nevada, with the gaming commission and all that sort of stuff. I don't want to go too deep in Tahoe, going fishing. Your brother comes down. From the first movie, what happens when you're trying to get a drink at the table?

18:36Rich Eisen:Yeah. Spoiler alert. I mean, Vegas, it's made for it. Okay. Let's take a break. God can't make enough Godfather references on this program. Great use of the drop, sir. Thank you, John. The best thing about us is about us. Listen, we've got ourselves a great chat with Mark Schlereth coming up. Let's do it. Jerry Dulac. I want Jerry to show up with the x-ray from Aaron Rodgers' visit. I don't know if he's aware that that's my expectation level. Jerry might have it. Maybe I'll text him real quick. Here, coach. Let him know. And then Kyle Brandt's Bears are in first place. Is that why he suddenly has time in his schedule?

19:15Rich Eisen:Feels like he had a 20 minutes open up. It's weird timing. I can't wait to bust his stones later. About what, though? Good question. First place team. First place. Mark Schlereth coming up next here on The Rich Eisen Show.

19:33Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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21:41Rich Eisen:Mark Slareth here on the Rich Eisen Show. We just were chopping it up on the Disney Plus ESPN side of our simulcast. We're also now back on ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. Talking about a wide open league right now, man. I mean, and the Eagles as well haven't been lighting it up on offense in the way that we're accustomed to seeing from last year, but their defense. I mean, I was talking about it with Chris on our Overreaction Monday podcast. This may be, again, I know Denver won Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, where Super Bowl 60 is taking place. And Von Miller was the Super Bowl MVP of that game.

22:21Rich Eisen:We might see another repeat, right, where a defense carries the day, maybe against an MVP quarterback like they did against Cam Newton in that game. the defense carries a day and the defensive player is going to win Super Bowl MVP because the defenses we talked about it last week are still entering week dozen seemingly ahead of the offenses in this league. Yeah, it's been incredible to watch, like you said, Philadelphia what they're doing on the defensive side of the ball, what the Denver Broncos are doing defensively, hell, what the Rams are doing defensively to be able to stop the Seahawks on four drives and make them kick field goals Like, that's been kind of a theme throughout this NFL season is some of these dominant defenses and the way they're playing.

23:08And you've got to remember, Denver's win against Kansas City last weekend, not only did they not have J.K. Dobbins, their starting running back, but Singleton, their middle linebacker, who's the play caller, he's the extension of Vance Joseph, the defense coordinator, and the best cornerback on top of that in the National Football League and Pat Sertan. And so they did that and had that defensive performance. The Kansas City Chiefs only converted five of 16 third downs. I thought that third down defense by the Broncos, that was a master class in coaching and execution by the Denver Broncos defense.

23:46And it was come get a taste defense. We're going to line up and play you man to man, and you can't beat us. I don't care if you have Patrick Mahomes. I don't care if you have your receivers healthy. I don't give a crap. We're going to play the way we're going to play. We're going to bring pressure, and we're going to play man-to-man across the board. It was, like I said, it was an absolute master class in playing defense, and the Broncos are big-time legit going into this thing.

24:14Rich Eisen:You know, and it's kind of wild. You know, back in week four when Baltimore was at Kansas City, that wound up being one of the last games that Lamar Jackson emerged from healthy, even though the Chiefs beat the crap out of the Ravens. And we're thinking, Chiefs are back. Here we go. And now both are 5-5 with Lamar healthy entering week 12. And we feel completely different about each of these teams and how they arrived at getting to 5-5, right? So let me ask you this, starting with the Chiefs at 5-5, like the Ravens and now the Texans are. The Chiefs at 5-5, how concerned are you that they're not going to be able to flip a switch this year, or you're unconcerned, Mark?

25:03No, I'm concerned. I mean, like, I'm concerned. I still think, like you said, the Baltimore Ravens are on the uptick. They're rising. Houston doesn't have enough offense. Their defense is exceptional. I just don't think they have enough offense. I don't believe right now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, even though they're sitting there right now. I just haven't seen enough improvement for Trevor Lawrence to think that Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars are going to figure it out. So I still think the Chiefs are viable for a playoff spot. But, man, they've got some tough games coming down the stretch here.

25:41They've got, obviously, a first-place schedule. And they haven't played enough consistent football, especially on the offensive side of the ball, to make you feel super comfortable. I just think that the other teams ahead of them right now are very flawed, and that's why I think they get in as a wild-card playoff team. Okay, so the Chiefs eventually force the issue on whoever welcomes them

26:07Rich Eisen:into their wild-card house to say, we're the ones who are finally going to put the nail in your coffin before the Super Bowl. First one since basically Joe Burrow, right? You know what I mean? So that's what you see as the Chiefs' January path here from you. Yeah, I mean, I think they'll get in. You can never discount Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid and Spags because they're damn good, you know, and they have a track record, pelts on the wall. They understand what they're doing, and they understand what playoff football is all about. I mean, they have more experience than anybody, right? They've been to, what, seven straight AFC championship games?