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Mike DeCourcy Joins to Talk NFL Playoffs, CFP Games, & CBB
SportsGrid
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1/7/2025
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Sports
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00:00
All right, Mike, of course, he is the legendary scribe of the sporting news.
00:04
He's also a big basketball head on Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network.
00:09
And he's also on Coast to Coast every week.
00:11
Thank God for that.
00:12
Mike, good to see you.
00:13
I was in Pittsburgh for the debacle on Saturday night in the five degree weather.
00:21
And I said to the audience earlier, the only thing good about my my night was going to
00:26
the Capitol Grill for a thousand dollar dinner before the game.
00:30
I thought that the Steelers looked awful and they have looked awful now for a month straight.
00:37
And I mean, they are finished and they are done.
00:42
Here's where I'll disagree with you.
00:44
I don't believe that Saturday night's performance was at all connected or similar to the games
00:52
against the Eagles and the Ravens.
00:54
They were in the Eagles game until Najee Harris fumbled.
00:58
If Najee Harris doesn't fumble, the score goes likely to minimum twenty one seventeen
01:04
and possibly twenty one twenty one in.
01:07
I don't remember the exact point, but at some point in the third quarter in the Ravens game,
01:12
they were actually on the way to taking a 14 to seven lead.
01:16
If only Russell Wilson doesn't decide to try to be a hero and tries to take on a defensive
01:23
back and winds up fumbling the football at the at the basically at the goal line.
01:29
So instead of a 14 seven lead, they wind up in a hole.
01:32
So those those were performances that were against exceptional competition.
01:38
And they they failed because they are the team that has to rely on you turning the football
01:44
over and them not.
01:46
And in those two occasions, they turned it over insignificant.
01:50
There was a pick six as well in that Baltimore game.
01:53
So that's that's the fundamental truth about those two games.
01:57
Kansas City was a mess.
01:58
Kansas City is way better than the Steelers are on any day, let alone Christmas Day with
02:03
what an hour and a half worth of rest.
02:05
But then the Cincinnati game was an entity unto itself.
02:08
It was a complete debacle from the offensive side of the football.
02:13
The coaching staff seemed to have no interest at all in opening the playbook beyond page
02:18
one.
02:20
It felt to me as I got through this, I'm watching it and I'm trying to figure out what are they
02:25
doing, what are they trying to do?
02:26
And Scott, there came a point in the game where it felt like it was an exhibition game
02:31
and they don't want to show anything to week one opponent or week two opponent.
02:35
That's what it felt like.
02:36
They had 11 first down plays.
02:40
To take that were not part of the end of the first half two minute warning or the attempt
02:45
to come back from more than two scores down in the fourth quarter, 11.
02:49
And on those plays, they ran the ball 11 times.
02:54
You can't win like that in the NFL unless you're gaining 15, 20 yards on every one of
02:59
those.
03:00
And out of those 11 plays, Scott, eight of them went for fewer than five yards and seven
03:06
went for fewer than four.
03:08
So they weren't going anywhere.
03:09
It wasn't like this is working.
03:10
Let's keep doing it.
03:11
It was this is failing every time and let's keep doing it because we're going to control
03:16
the football.
03:17
But you don't control the football if you don't move it.
03:19
They make you give it up eventually.
03:22
They suck.
03:23
OK.
03:24
But they, they is a strong, no, they is much too encompassing because they went against
03:31
the best offensive unit in football with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.
03:36
And they didn't allow they allowed one touchdown on the opening drive.
03:40
And then they controlled the game at that end where they where they failed miserably
03:45
is on the offensive end.
03:47
Now, if George Pickens is dropping everything that's thrown to him, which he literally did,
03:51
say, for one sideline pass on the opening drive, if he's doing that, I can't say they're
03:58
going to move the football successfully against anybody.
04:02
But when they play the game the way they can and have, they're they're a challenge for
04:08
anybody to beat.
04:10
And they decided against the Bengals.
04:12
And maybe it was the weather.
04:15
But the weather, if it's not working, Scott, you can't keep doing the same thing.
04:20
That's just there's just no way that's defensible.
04:23
And Tomlin tried to defend it by saying that, well, we want it's a lower risk proposition.
04:30
But again, if you are getting less than three yards, three yards or less on every first
04:35
down play, you are not moving the football.
04:39
And if you're not moving the football, you're not possessing the football.
04:42
And so in that in that part of the game against the Bengals, they failed miserably.
04:47
They were badly outpossessed by the Bengals, who chose, look, we're not running against
04:53
these guys.
04:54
We can move the football in the air.
04:56
And they did.
04:57
They just couldn't complete drives against the Steelers defense.
05:01
So you wrote about the Eagles resting Saquon Barkley.
05:05
You think it'll pay off on Sunday afternoon?
05:09
I do.
05:10
I think that that that was the right move.
05:13
I think he needed to be rested, healthy and ready to go.
05:17
And that record to me really didn't mean anything, Scott, because if you're getting an extra
05:23
game to break it, what does it really matter?
05:25
And this is football.
05:27
You were a kid in Pittsburgh in the 70s and early 80s, as was I.
05:32
And we didn't worry about numbers in terms of football.
05:36
I mean, we all knew 714 and 4192 and 4191 and all those kinds of numbers.
05:43
But nobody paid attention to football records other than how many Super Bowls and championships
05:47
you won.
05:48
So for Saquon to get that record, it really wouldn't have meant anything.
05:53
He's one of, I believe, now nine guys.
05:56
I think there were eight before him that gained 2,000 yards in a season.
06:00
That's a number we'll respect forever.
06:03
It's a very short list.
06:05
It's not always a distinguished list because one of the guys on it was O.J. Simpson.
06:09
But it's a very short list of NFL greats that have gotten 2,000 yards in a season.
06:16
And Saquon's a part of that now.
06:18
So those number ones, Kansas City and Detroit, how advantageous is it for them to have the
06:25
week off?
06:27
I believe it's significant because every NFL game is difficult now.
06:32
The talent is more balanced than ever for the most part, except at the pivotal position
06:36
of quarterback.
06:38
And so for Kansas City to have the rest, to get a little bit healthier, Detroit, I don't
06:43
know how many of the many players they have that are injured will have a chance to get
06:47
back because they've got that week of rest.
06:50
But I think any team that wants to win a Super Bowl better be pretty close to healthy.
06:55
So whatever break they can get to get back more of their guys is significant.
07:01
They showed a lot in that game on Sunday night against Minnesota.
07:05
To be able to dominate that game in the condition they're in, I thought that was pretty extraordinary.
07:11
I still don't trust the coaching staff to make the right decisions if they get to a
07:16
critical situation where it's a fourth and short and the right play is to punt or kick
07:24
a field goal.
07:25
I still don't trust that'll happen.
07:27
So I'm a little bit guarded about my optimism for the Lions getting to the Super Bowl.
07:32
But they showed they're an extraordinary team in that performance.
07:35
So college basketball, last year, St. John's didn't make the tournament.
07:41
From what you've seen of them so far and what Patino has, does that end and they make it
07:45
this year?
07:46
I think they'll make it, but there's no guarantee.
07:50
The Big East did not have a great non-conference.
07:53
So the number of bids that will be available to the league will probably be pretty limited.
07:58
So you're going to have to finish in the top three or four of the league to feel good about
08:02
having a chance.
08:03
I think they certainly can.
08:06
They showed a little bit of struggle early on trying to sort of adapt to Patino's demands,
08:13
to alignment situations.
08:15
They brought in two point guards and weren't really sure whether to play them together
08:20
or how it would work.
08:21
I think they're starting to figure that out a little bit better and starting to form better.
08:26
But if you're St. John's right now, you've got to watch for Creighton.
08:31
Creighton can get a lot better in a hurry.
08:33
They struggled early on, but they're still dangerous.
08:36
Xavier, Zach Fremantleback, they can get dangerous, as well as Villanova, which is starting to
08:42
play better.
08:43
All those teams can take a run at one of the three or four bids that likely will be available
08:48
to the Big East.
08:49
What do you think of Pitt tonight getting 14 and a half at Duke?
08:53
They're both 12-2.
08:54
Yeah, I think that the key for Duke here is they know they only get so many quad one opportunities.
09:02
To get Pitt at home, I don't think they'll mess around with this at all.
09:05
I think they'll go right after it.
09:08
Whether they can cover, that's a big number.
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