GBag Nation
Mark Schlereth on Saints out-physicalling Cowboys; Lamar Jackson
This podcast is brought to you by Men's Tea Clinic. Men's Tea Clinic is the team I trust with my total wellness optimization, and so should you. Five DFW locations with North Frisco, El Dorado Parkway, at Dallas, North Tolway, now open. Call 972-go-men's tea or visit mensteclinic.com. Post-season baseball is here, and it is the absolute best time of the year. I'm Rod Bradford of Baseball's and Boring, and we're gonna have you covered every step of the way with instant reactions from players, and coaches, and managers, and fans, and reporters, and everybody else who is immersed in this awesomeness and all the craziness that comes with October baseball. So follow baseball as I'm Boring in the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcast. (upbeat music) - Thank you very much, Lucius. It's time now for our weekly conversation with Mark Schlarath. He is our Odyssey NFL Insider. Mark Schlarath, host of the Stinking Truth podcast, insider calls brought to you by Hellman's Real Manays, may your game day be delicious, and a good afternoon, Mark, how the heck are you? - I'm doing great, how are you guys doing? - We're doing pretty good, you know, that one hurt a little bit, we're doing crappy stink. - We just got our heads kicked in, bro. - Yeah, we crapped in our Hellman again, stink. - Yeah, yeah, you certainly did. Listen, you know what, I said this on breakfast ball, the show here I do in New York, I've said it on my podcast. You know, I predict the Saints going in there and beating the Cowboys. They're a physical freaking group, man. They're a physical football team, and it's so funny. I just got done doing an interview in Chicago, and it's amazing how you build a football team. And, you know, Chicago has built it from the outside, from the outside in, like, hey, we got so many, like, we got, you know, we got Keenan Allen, and we got DJ Moore, now we've got Roman Dunezay, and we got, you know, a tight end and Comed, we got a running back and swift, and like, we're gonna be unstoppable, we got all these weapons. Well, I guess what, you can't block anybody. Last Sunday night against Houston, 37 dropbacks by the quarterback Caleb William, 36 pressures. So, you do the math, like, how's all that weaponry doing is you're kicking field goals? Let me ask you that. So, it's really interesting when you put a team together that can absolutely dominate the line of scrimmage, and how it just basically beats the wheel out of you. And, like, one thing I would tell you is, you're watching that game, and it's humiliating, getting physically worked at a line of scrimmage, and physically just beat down. How do you respond to that? And the answer for the Cowboys is they had no response to that, because they could not match the physicality of the Saints. And that's concerning, because that's on film, that shows. And then you just start saying, well, hey, listen, guys, we might not be able to out-talent the riders even core, we may not be able to out-talent them, but we can beat them up, and that's gonna be a recipe until they solve it. Like, every team's gonna come in there and try to physically wear them out. - So, how do you become a physical team? - Well, you gotta have the right players, obviously. I mean, that's probably the biggest thing. You gotta have the right players. And then you gotta have a dedication to it. It's gotta become your identity. It's gotta become what you do, who you are, and the way you go about handling your business. And so, it's one of those things that you just come out and say, this is who we're gonna be, and this is how we're gonna work on it, and this is the way we're gonna play the game. Now, unfortunately, listen, it's really hard to work on those things, because I don't know, in a physical contact sport, and you know, where technique and coming off the ball and creating leverage and all that stuff is really important. We're no longer allowed in this league to practice. Like, we're no longer allowed to hit people in practice. And so, it's really, if you don't have it, and it's not something you did in training camp, and it's not really how you're built or who you are, it's really hard to have that happen. It's funny, I was calling a game in Detroit last year, and Roger Goodell came up to me, and he said, hey, you think how's it going? I think he goes, yeah, at this point, like, we had so many quarterback missed games, I think it was 68 games missed by starting quarterback's in the league or something at this point. It was what are we gonna do about all these quarterbacks missing games? And I go, well, I don't know, Roger, you know what I mean? If you keep legislating contact out of a contact sport, and you don't get to work on it as an offensive line anymore, and you don't think there's a cause and effect of guys getting hurt at the quarterback position? I mean, go on, you can't work on it, you can't block people, you don't know how to block people, and now we wonder why the quarterbacks are getting hit and getting hurt? I mean, it's silly to me, the way we operate as a league, but yeah, once that ship sell, it's hard to all of a sudden go, okay, now we're gonna be physical. Well, when you're gonna work on it, I don't know. - One thing we've been talking about as a Cowboys problem, maybe NFL problem, is their inability defensively, when they go up against one of these coaching staffs from the Shanahan tree. You played, of course, for Mike, blocked for a 2,000-yard rusher. What are the keys to that Shanahan running scheme? And has it evolved? Has you been watching it grow with Kyle and LaFlore, and now Clint Kubiak with the Saints? - Yeah, get a lead, and then don't let them run. They're just really good at the way they operate their run game. And I think one of the things that that scheme does, a great job of, is obviously, it's really based out of the wide zone, but it's a lot deeper. There's a lot more involved in it now. There's still a lot of gap stuff they run. They really run a lot of complimentary stuff. And so you're running like, for me, and I don't wanna get too technical, but you're running the backside of tight zone, right? And you've got the same footwork all the time. You're coming off the ball, you're coming off the ball. And I always say, make guys play schemes, not blocks. So you're coming off the ball in that tight zone, and they're playing that, and they're playing that, and they're trying to squeeze, you know, cross your face, but squeeze your face down. And then all of a sudden, you say, "Okay, now we're gonna run power or counter, "and we're gonna double team that. "We're gonna use the exact same footwork "that that guy has seen five times, "and now he's gonna squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. "Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze." And now we're gonna roll him over and take him four gaps out of where he's supposed to be, and we're running counter gap scheme on the, you know, coming back at him. And so you set people up by the way you run the ball. One thing San Francisco does such a great job of is attacking the edge. So one minute, you know, you'll attack a defensive end, and it'll be between tackle and tight end. That's called the trade block. Then all of a sudden, you'll have two tight ends over there in like a West formation, and then it's two tight ends attacking that defensive end, and that's called, you know, that's called a quad. And then all of a sudden, you'll have one tight end over there. The tackle will work in combination backside with a guard, and that tight end will basically kind of arc release, and all of a sudden the full back will come from the back field and log that or hit that guy in the ear hole. And so now, now I just showed you, or I just told you three different ways to block a defensive end on, say, 18 handles. And all three of those things are the exact-- Post-season baseball is here, and it is the absolute best time of the year. I'm Rod Bradford of Baseball's and Boring, and we're gonna have you covered every step of the way with instant reactions from players, and coaches, and managers, and fans, and reporters, and everybody else who is immersed in this awesomeness and all the craziness that comes with October Baseball. So follow Baseball's and Boring in the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC PLAYING] Same play for nine players, but there's just two guys changing their responsibility, but it looks like three completely different plays to a defensive end. And you can get in four different ways, and that's what they do. So they get you just playing on skates, 'cause you're like, where are they coming from, and what play am I defending for the offense? It's really easy, but for the defense, it looks like a bunch of different plays, and so it makes it very difficult. Mark Schlerith with us here on the fan. Now, a broadcaster question for you, because we heard that Brady might not be able to get in these production meetings before these games, because of the ownership stuff with the Raiders. I don't know how true that exactly is, but how important are those meetings? As a guy who calls games, if you weren't a part of those meetings, do you feel like you'd have your hand behind your back a little bit, calling these games? You know, can you do it? Yeah, like a lot of guys do it on Zoom, and I don't know if they're just saying you can't come into the meeting. I don't know, you know, I don't know what that is, and you know, so guys do it on Zoom or whatever. I don't ever, I demand that the teams meet with me in person, I want to be for what I say, and I also want to meet people and talk to people, and ask real football questions. And I want to sit down with Coach and say, "Hey, man, last week on this player, two weeks ago you guys did this, what's it like? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to accomplish? Why is that? Who made the mistake? Like what, I don't want to know, like I really want to learn about football. Like I'm constantly learning about the game. I love it, so I love sitting down, and you know, because I do it that way, I mean, I've probably gotten, you know, five or six consulting jobs over the years, just you know, for different teams, and you know, I've got a roll of decks of head coaches and offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators in my phone that I call and I lean on, because those guys respect it. Like coaches love, you guys know this, coaches love to talk about football. - They do. - That's what they love to talk about. They don't want to, if you sit down with them and you talk about, you know, what every beat writer in America say, "Well, so and so said that, you know, this guy was grumpy because he only played three plays on defense." And then you go in and ask them the same damn thing, they tune you out, but when you ask them a actual football question, like something you want to know about the broadcast, like, and they're like, "Oh, okay, like I want to talk to this guy because it's refreshing that he's actually looked at all the film." - Yeah. - And so, you know, that's just kind of how I do it. And I just, like, I'm not, listen, man, obviously, you know, I mean, break comes into town, I get kicked to the curb. So, you know, I mean, I get where I stand, but I'm not the best in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but I love this game. I'm passionate about this game. And I do it the way I do it. And it may not be the best, but, you know, if you don't like it, I don't give a crap. That's the way I do it. - Well, I know football junkies love your breakdowns right now, we're getting great reaction here on our, our text toy. As Mark Schlareth continues here in the nation, did you call Ravens Raiders this week? - No, no, I had, I had Giants Washington, which was a phenomenal game. First game in history, where the, actually the Giants scored three touchdowns and didn't give up a touchdown and a loss. It's the first time in the history of the National Football League that that has ever happened. - It's amazing. - Where a team scored three touchdowns and didn't give up one and lost the game. So we're trying to figure out, you know, what to make of this Ravens team. Are they Owen too bad? Is this a good team just off to a slow start? What do you think? - Oh, I think, I think they've had some O-line issues. You like, I think that that's definitely true. I also think that they've had some identity issues. And, you know, I think almost, you know, John Harbaugh came out before the season started unsolicited and said, you know, Lamar Jackson is going to go down and history is the best quarterback that ever played the game. And, you know, and it almost feels like there's some self-fulfilling prophecy going on there. Listen, Lamar is a two-time MVP. Lamar is incredible. Lamar is not a drawback, you know, each you from the pocket alive guy on a consistent basis. Sorry, he just isn't. But he's one of the most dynamic athletes I've ever watched. He's one of the very few guys that are watching the NFL. They can take NFL players and make them look like J.V. players. Like he's that gifted. And, you know, John also said, hey, I didn't, you know, I didn't sign Derek Henry to carry it 30 times a game. What? How do you look at it? He's six foot three, 250 pounds and can outrun a DB. You better get a 30, you better get a 25 times a game. Like, what did you bring him there for? He got 15 carries the first game. Listen, you know, I get that you're trying to evolve and I get that you're trying to, you know, save your core, but whatever, you are what you are. And like what Lamar is awesome. So let him be that. I get, it kills me like put a guy in a position to fail. Don't be surprised when he fails. You're the dumbass that put him there. Like, I don't under, I don't understand what it is about NFL coaches that want to look at what a guy can't do and want to live in that realm. Like that doesn't make any sense to me. What can he do? What is he good at? Let's let him live there as opposed to saying, you know what? Hey, we win a lot of games like this, but I really wish we could do some of these things. So let's just let him live there for a while and cost ourselves games. Like that just doesn't make any sense to me. Like he is one of the most dynamic, unbelievable athletes I've ever seen. Let's let him just be that, you know, and let him live there. And we'll win a lot of games and maybe we can figure it out in the playoffs. We want to championship that way. - Great stuff, Mark. Have a good week and we'll catch you up with the next Tuesday. - Sounds good guys, take care. - Mark Slerith with you. Just dropping bombs in absolute carpet bombing of NFL knowledge here with you every Tuesday at 4.40. It's Mark Slerith, host of the Stinking Truth podcast, insider calls brought to you by Hellman's Real Manays. May your game day be delicious. - Okay, in addition to the finest coming up next chief, where are you taking a staggering weakness for the front runner's offense and a Raven sneak peek next year in the nation? - Post-season baseball is here and it is the absolute best time of the year. I'm Rod Bradford of Baseball's and Boring and we're going to have you covered every step of the way with instant reactions from players and coaches and managers and fans and reporters and everybody else who is immersed in this awesomeness and all the craziness that comes with October baseball. So follow baseball as I'm boring in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music)