Hour 2: Overreaction Tuesday, plus NFL on FOX Analyst Mark Schlereth

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0:45This 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 +, from noon to 3 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.

1:18Rich Eisen:Sam Darnold is one of the best stories we've seen entering a Super Bowl week in quite some time. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm happy to be a part of this team, man. You know, I'm really happy to be here. Earlier on the show, ESPN analyst Marcus Spears. Coming up, three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour two of the Rich Eisen Show. We're on the air, everybody. ESPN app, Disney Plus, and ESPN Radio Sirius XM Channel 80. 844-204-RICH, number to dial over Reaction Monday on a Tuesday. Coming up and more of your phone calls this hour. But joining us right now is three-time Super Bowl champ Mark Schlereth back here in his usual spot.

2:04Rich Eisen:Good to see you, Mark Schlereth. How are you, sir? I am doing great. Thank you, Rich. How are you, my friend? I'm doing great. So many different ways to go about our chat. But let's start with the play that essentially broke the Broncos back, which was the drake may keeper and uh for a first down that essentially sent the patriots to the super bowl mark and we're learning that may and josh mcdaniels dialed up the play themselves and didn't tell the offensive line to help sell it uh better is that ever happened to you mark yeah you know i'll go on all the way back to my idaho days i don't know if you can see this University of Idaho.

2:49Yes, sir. Under Dennis Erickson, we used to do it all the time. We would run a, you know, run pass option. We would call the run play. And then if you had a slot receiver, because we were always in three wide sets, if you had a slot receiver that was uncovered and somebody was, you know, 12 yards off him, the quarterback had the free for all or the right just to throw it over there. And so you'd be into like a handoff to the right, you know, we call it 34 dive or whatever it was and all of a sudden the linebacker that you're comboing up to you know you're like here I go and all of a sudden he just takes off and goes the opposite way because the quarterback threw it out there so it's great that the offensive line didn't know because they're going to execute that play and make it look like a run and that will effectively hold the outside edge and that was Jonah Ellis out there held the edge there and he barely made that first down but if you don't sell that Ellis gets to him and stops it before the first down and the Broncos get the ball back and then probably go three and out um oh wait did I say that you know the Broncos get the ball back and and uh you know and still don't score so um but the bottom line is the bottom line is a great execution great plan by both Josh McDaniels and Drake May and uh I think it's the right way to go don't tell anybody man this is what we're doing because it's going to affect the defense that much more.

4:12Rich Eisen:All right. So then let's get to the tongue in cheek portion of your commentary about the Broncos offense and what you thought of the day in total for Denver. So I went back through it, Rich, and you know, you've got what, 18 or 17 games in a regular season. You've got a playoff game and then you get to the AFC championship. And I get it that It's your backup quarterback. But the number of mistakes, just the blocking assignment mistakes, and just the lack of execution as an offense. And Sean Payton, I agree with him. He came out and said, hey, man, I'm not worried about our quarterback. I'm not worried about Jared Stidham as much as I am worried about everybody else doing their job.

4:58And there were just so many just breakdowns of, you know, lack of getting to the second level or chasing the second level and not blocking the first level up front. Their run game was atrocious. It was embarrassing. And a lot of it was due to just lack of communication and lack of execution. And those things to me, like, what are you doing? You're in the AFC championship with a backup quarterback. Those are the things that have to be executed well. And they just flat weren't all day long. And then I get to the fourth down and one situation from your own 14-yard line in the second quarter. The Patriots at that point have had 12 yards, 12 plays, and 12 yards of total offense.

5:47And you know, I mean, if you listen to my radio show in the morning, we had the weather guy on. You knew it was going to get blustery in the second half. Maybe you didn't listen. I can't believe he didn't listen. He knew it was going to get bluster. He was going to get snowy. He was going to get – if you go up two scores in the second quarter and your defense is playing the way they were playing and you've shut them down for 12 yards on 12 plays, you kick that field goal and it almost becomes insurmountable. And then you start thinking about how would that game plan have changed. All of a sudden you're going to put Drake May in a situation where, hey, man, we're going to rush him.

6:21He's going to have to drop back. Now the strip sack fumble situations that have come up the last two weeks, six fumbles, three loss fumbles in their first two playoff games. Maybe those things come up. Maybe you're the one that gets to turn over close to your own end zone. You know, all those different things. I just thought, again, and this is endemic of the league in general. I thought it was a horrendous decision not to kick a field goal. And I'm back in, you know, I'm back in Peyton Manning suite with Peyton Manning, Brandon Stokely, myself and Mike Shannon. And we were all, all four of us were like, kick the field, kick it, just kick it.

6:55And, you know, and that's, but again, that's part of this league. And that's part of the trend of this league that I personally just have a really tough time with.

7:04Rich Eisen:You and me both, you know, and again, I know there's math and I know there's probabilities and I know there's percentages. And I understand you're saying a two score lead, 10 points would feel insurmountable. well, then 14 would even be what's insurmountable plus. But that's the two in the bush with the bird in the hand with a 31-yard field goal. And the other bird in the hand is, you're saying, the Doppler radar picture. Right. Well, the other thing is, even though you had at that point 127 yards of offense, most of it was on one big throw over the top to Mims that was just a bust in coverage.

7:43Other than that, you really hadn't done much, and you had done nothing in the running game. So all of a sudden, like if I'm sitting there as a defense, and these are the things I think you have to think about, and it's hard to think about them in the moment. If you're sitting there saying, hey, man, we haven't run it for two inches, all right? So the defense really isn't going to respect that. And then on that particular play, man, you completely misblocked it. They shifted down inside to make it almost a 6-1 front, and you didn't know who to block. and so you let you turn not one but two guys free in the face of jared stidham and that play was doomed from the start and there were guys that were going to be open uh had it been blocked up but you just didn't get it done so you had made mistakes you hadn't run the ball you know the new england patriots are probably playing the pass in that situation like all those factors are stacked up against you and um and and still you went for it and and i get it i mean you got to make a gamble you got to take a try to make a play every now and again but uh i think eventually

8:43Rich Eisen:i think it costs you the game and and my follow-up to all this mark schlereth uh is a bit of a page turn in our conversation here um where you're saying you watch the film you see a lot of missed blocking uh assignments uh inability to get to the second level by the broncos blocking scheme but you also did say in that crucial fourth and one i watched it too i watched uh new england pre snap go ahead and make some movement with their defensive line to pack it in tight in the middle and and they got free free runners so shouldn't we tip our cap a little bit to a Patriots defense that is now going to have their hands full with with Seattle and Super Bowl 60 Mark absolutely I thought the Patriots like all things considered um I thought they didn't panic they knew what kind of game it was and you know when you look at you look at the way they controlled the tempo of that game and the lack of panic you know when they went down seven to nothing they're still trying to run the ball um you look at um stevenson still had i think 25 carries he's averaging maybe three yards a carry it like it was it there was nothing there in the running game that said hey man let's let's keep pounding this and yet they kept doing it because they knew in the end our defense is really good and we're playing against a backup quarterback and a team that doesn't run the ball well and we're just going to bide our time and let them make the mistakes and it goes back to the bill belichick thing he used to say it all the time and i agree with him is more games are lost than one and that game to me and you tip your cap to new England because they did a great job but that was more lost by the broncos than necessarily won by the patriots mark schlareth here on the rich area with the accurate accurate accu weather forecast as well as the stinking truth podcast here on the rich eyes and show so your your view of the nfc championship game looking back on it is what now mark yeah i i just thought it's amazing like we've talked about the sam darnold story all that sam darnold has been through but if you would have said here's your bingo card and one of the squares was sam darnold would out duel matthew stafford i've been like you're crazy Like you're just absolutely crazy.

11:01Sam Darnold, both quarterbacks were exceptional. But Sam Darnold's pocket presence, his ability to climb the pocket, deliver a strike. Smith and Jigba was absolutely unbelievable, uncoverable on the top of his route. And this is one of the things, and I know you do a great job covering the combine, but we always get so enamored and so excited about guys that run 4-3-40s. And Smith and Jigba, I think, was a 4-5-2-40 at the combine. And that dude creates more space at the top of his route. He is uncoverable. And when they throw him a little bubble screen, you can't tackle him. The first guy doesn't bring him down, doesn't even touch him.

11:43He was absolutely phenomenal. And I tell you, you got to tip your cap to the Seahawks, general manager John Schneider, what they're doing offensively under Clint Kubiak. They just were exceptional in that game. But Sam was unbelievable. Hit two deep shots, one to Shahid down the sideline, and then another one that was a post-corner deep one to Smith and Jigba that was just a dime piece as well. So got to tip your cap to the Seattle Seahawks, what they did. And Sam Darnold, this story, to me, it's a remarkable story, basically tossed to the curb by three different franchises to find his home in Seattle.

12:22It's just a great run.

12:24Rich Eisen:You could make a case the best throw, if not most important throw, was the third down throw to Cooper Cup to get that first down that really put the Rams behind an eight ball with the amount of time remaining and their timeouts remaining. It was a great catch by Cup. He did reach for the first down. There is a conversation about should they have challenged it or not. But that throw to Cup and obviously the catch is something that leaps out at me, too. like you want to talk about a pressure situation if he throws that where maybe it tips up in the air you you know he throws that a little bit off he throws that in in in a spot and we're talking about same old sam donald despite him being incredible and he was just it was just on point like the rest of his night man yeah it was absolutely money um although 12 year old mark slareth uh playing nerf football in anchorage alaska would have said that's not a catch um but I don't know anymore what a catch is.

13:25I get it. You get two feet down, and then you make a football move, and Graham can't cause a fumble and all this stuff, but I'll tell you what, over the last couple of weeks, man, there's so much controversy about what is and what isn't a catch, and maybe I just don't know what a catch is. I do these games every weekend. That's why we have one of them rules analysts, but there are some times where I just look at this real speed stuff, and I'm like, I don't know how we differentiate.

13:48Rich Eisen:Well, I think if you just want to linger here for a second, And what it looked like was two feet down. And you don't need a third foot. I know we keep hearing that all the time. And Walt Anderson comes on NFL Network, NFL Total Access every Sunday. And we're appreciative of all that. He constantly talks about the third foot. But there is something called a football act. And I kind of think him being brought down to the ground and reaching for the first down before he was down was in the estimation real-time call of the official, you know, a football. act similar to the way that Des Bryant reached for the end zone back in the day.

14:25Rich Eisen:You know what I mean? I hear you, and it's amazing how it kept coming up from, obviously, Bills versus Broncos, and then later on that night, Devontae Adams over the middle with the Bears, who thought they had an interception. Instead, he was ruled still a runner now down by contact as opposed to a receiver going down to the ground. It's amazing how that kept on cropping up. It might happen in the Super Bowl too, Mark. Or yeah, you never, you never know. And I, and I, listen, man, they've got a tough job and they get most of them, right. It's the ones that get wrong that bother me. So I got you.

14:59I hear you. Yeah. That's the whole catch thing is just, it always is one of those things that creates controversy. It depends on what your perspective, but I probably agree with you going back and looking at it and rereading the rule and all that stuff that, that it was a catch. And back to your original point though, unbelievable. like throw, hoist, ability to hit that ball across, you know, on that shallow cross to get Cooper Cupp that first down, amazing in that point of the game as well.

15:28Rich Eisen:And what you said, too, that Darnold outdueling Stafford, I mean, they both had over 300 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions, and he did have a better passer rating of just.2, and they were both off the charts. just knowing you know having a front row seat you know obviously Elway won two in a row and then strolled off but just knowing what it's like to uh be a player in advancing years uh what what do you think is going through Stafford's mind right now because so many fans think it's as simple of why would he walk away but you know there's more to it than that so yeah what do you think Mark it's not it's not Sundays I mean obviously what you saw he was exceptional and you know I was surprised how much just straight man-to-man, cover one, lurk that Seattle play.

16:21I think there's a couple of things. When you play a lot of cover one, you say a couple of things. One, we think our defensive line can get there. We think that we can get there and affect the quarterback too. We're not really worried about the quarterback taking off and running. They played a lot of man-to-man coverage. That was a Stafford game plan. He picked it apart. His receivers at the top of their routes both davante adams and and uh and puka naku were just absolutely outstanding tight ends as well so they were great in that but it's it's not sundays right sundays are the easy part it's it's your willingness to prepare um in you know march april may june july to get yourself ready it is it's the grind that you put into it um monday through saturday um it's it's a lot man man, it wears you down.

17:13And especially if you're constantly nursing, and I don't know how, you know, I know the big conversation, the top of the conversation before the season was Matthew Stafford's back. But I just will tell you, as a guy that played his whole career injured, man, it wears you out when you're physically, like physically, it's not only the preparation mentally to get yourself ready to play and to make sure that you don't make mental mistakes and that you're perfect on your execution and your assignments and the way you go about it. But then at the same time, you're fighting your own body. And so that's a full-time job, just getting healthy.

17:51I mean, I just remember my own career rolling in at 5 a.m. I'd be the first guy in the facility at 5 a.m. doing two, three hours of rehab before our first meeting, studying film, going through the whole day, and then coming back home, eating dinner, and packing myself in ice and going to bed at seven. And that was my everyday routine for the last five years of my career. And basically, it's not only a physical grind, but more importantly, man, it just mentally wears you out.

18:21Rich Eisen:Yeah, there's no way that the whole back thing that caused us to wonder if Stafford's going to take a snap all season long. The fact that he did what he did. it's not because whatever he did in august he got through it and then did nothing the rest of the year to have to maintain it right like yeah there has to have been something significant that was going on without question there you're spending so much time in the training room so much time getting treatment um i'm sure there's you know and and i mean stuff that he wouldn't talk about right that no one would talk about yeah ever i mean you can drive to work and sneeze and and you know it just goes oh you know i mean it just is it's so it is so frustrating i've had multiple back surgeries uh the back is the worst possible injury uh way worse than knees and elbows and all the other things i went through the back is the one that drove me i mean it just The back is the one that drove me to retirement more than anything else.

19:27I mean, it just is so hard to manage on a day-to-day basis.

19:31Rich Eisen:All right, last one for you, Mark. Your first blush Super Bowl 60 preview top down is what? Man, I think the Seahawks are just an all-around better football team. Defensively, if you went kind of a position-by-position confidence poll, if you will, I think their O-line is much better. I think their receiving core and the tight ends are better with Seattle. I think the running backs are close to a push, although I probably would give the nod to Kenneth Walker in that regard. I'd give the right now the way they're both playing both quarterbacks. Maybe that's a push defensively. I just think the Seattle Seahawks are really, really good, especially linebacking core and back end.

20:17So I just I think it's it's a good matchup. I don't think there's any question. I just think Seattle's playing better than any other team in football right now.

20:25Rich Eisen:All right, we'll put a pin in that and then have you on next week. Mark, we'll pull the pin and get even deeper. Thanks for the time. I really appreciate it. Sounds good, Rich. You're the best, Mark. Thank you. Thank you, buddy. That's Mark Schlereth, the stinking truth, only the stinking truth from Mark Schlereth, as always. And with, you know, the free football world second-guessing, Sean Payton's decision to go for it on fourth down rather than taking a 31-yard field goal. How do you think that still potentially burning fire will sustain what we heard that he, Peyton Manning, Brandon Stokely, and Mike Shanahan are second-guessing that in real time together?

21:08Two figures from one Super Bowl-winning Broncos team

21:14Rich Eisen:and two figures from a dynastic Super Bowl Broncos team sitting there with their chicken tenders and i'm actually surprised you let that go like you didn't give them crap about oh peyton manning's box up there in the suite no this we already did that we've been there we we already heard about the dessert cart and the catering and all right right now but but just you know interesting uh tidbit we take a break right here overreaction monday on a tuesday and your phone calls 844-204-RICH

21:48Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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24:33Rich Eisen:Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, 844-204-RICH, number to dial. All right, Matt in Maryland's been hanging on pretty much since jump. What's up, Matt? How's it going, Rich? How's it going, everyone? What's up, Matt? Well, so I have a very interesting little question. As long as the question's little, don't make it big now. Don't make it big now. Don't make the question big now, Matt. I'm just kidding. What's on your mind? We got three big-name quarterbacks who have new coaches. Okay. All right. So we got Lamar, we got Herbert, and we got Allen. Okay, and you're referring to the new OC, obviously, for the Chargers with Mike McDaniel for Herbert.

25:11Rich Eisen:Okay. The question is, which of those three quarterbacks receives the most blame if they don't get over the hump next year? Oh, most blame. Do you want to bust out the finger? Finger of blame. You have the finger of blame, TJ? Because I thought you were going most pressure. Because Lamar never feels pressure. Ask Justin Herbert and Josh Allen with their gajillions of dollars and dating Madison Beer and being married to Haley Steinfeld. When you say Madison Beer, I don't know. Okay, excuse me. I'm talking about Xander's. I mean, nobody will ever overtake Taylor Swift in Xander's life, but Madison Beer is making a hell of a run right now.