00:00I need to explain myself on something.
00:02Please do.
00:02All right.
00:04First thing I want to do is read a text,
00:05and I'm super appreciative of this text
00:08because I love it when there is interaction from,
00:13and this goes on any level, the show or anything,
00:16like when there's interaction and it comes from someone
00:19who was really paying attention.
00:21You know what I mean?
00:22Like, I know you get this all the time.
00:24Like, you do what we do for a living,
00:27and someone's like, you said,
00:28and it's like, I didn't say that.
00:30Right.
00:30That was a different host or a different,
00:31like someone was flying down my road over the weekend for,
00:35you said the Rams were going to repeat.
00:37Well, they didn't win the division or the Super Bowl,
00:40and you know exactly who said that on this show.
00:42It wasn't me, and it wasn't you.
00:44Right.
00:44It was Ephraim Salam.
00:46Oh, I thought it was Grandy.
00:47No.
00:48Anyway.
00:49Anyway, this whole back and forth,
00:50and the person's like, oh, yeah, sorry,
00:52I finally listened to the video.
00:53It's like, just, but this person is listening,
00:57and I want to have a conversation here,
00:59even though the person's not in front of us.
01:00But listen to this text, okay?
01:03925, appreciate you.
01:05Need to call my guy Willard out.
01:06Last week, I texted in and said,
01:08the Lions lost that playoff game by being stupid.
01:11The 49ers and Purdy didn't, quote, come back,
01:15and he vehemently disagreed with me.
01:18Today on the crossover,
01:19Lowe says Dan Campbell lost that game for the Lions
01:22by I was going for it on fourth,
01:23and Willard's immediate response was,
01:26yep, roll the tape, Grandy.
01:29I mean, don't roll the tape.
01:30That's the text.
01:31Roll the tape.
01:32Okay.
01:33Why can't both things be true?
01:35Because in this case, I absolutely think they are.
01:39And this whole, like,
01:41you know how it feels sometimes
01:44like I'm always defending everybody, you know,
01:46and you're soft and you're a homer.
01:49Remember, I, this is a characteristic of me.
01:51I hate it when people try to steal credit
01:55from other people when they achieve something.
01:59That's actually at the core
02:01of all of the system quarterback stuff for me.
02:05That's always been at the core of it.
02:07I can't stand it when somebody does something really well
02:10and then someone in the next table is sitting there going,
02:13well, that's because Kyle Shanahan's your quarterback.
02:15That's because you have Deebo Samuel.
02:16That's because you have Christian McCaffrey
02:18as if being quarterback in the NFL is easy
02:21and all you need is weapons and then you win.
02:23We know this is not true.
02:26So I think both of these things can be true.
02:29You cannot take credit from Brock Purdy
02:32for coming back 24-7 down at halftime of a playoff game.
02:36You can't do it.
02:38Dan Campbell can also have made a bunch of bad decisions.
02:41That's like anything in life.
02:43Opportunity's presented.
02:44You either take it or you don't.
02:45Am I wrong on that one?
02:48You're not wrong.
02:49Okay.
02:49And I think if you want to look at any game
02:52and in particular this game,
02:54yes, the lines are up 24-7
02:56and we all want to look at the two fourth down calls
02:59that Dan Campbell chose to go for
03:01and we can say,
03:03oh, Dan Campbell, idiot, you shouldn't have gone for it.
03:05Well, one of them was a play that was there to be made
03:08and I think it was Jamison Williams who just dropped a pass
03:12that would have been enough for a first down.
03:15That wasn't J-Mo.
03:17That was, what's his name?
03:19And it wasn't Khalif Raymond.
03:21Who's the guy?
03:22Gosh darn it.
03:23Who's the guy who dropped the ball for Detroit?
03:25He's not there anymore.
03:27Josh Reynolds.
03:28That's who it was.
03:29Josh Reynolds.
03:30Anyway, go ahead.
03:31No, I'm just, you can look at that
03:33and just like we do the whole thing about Joukowsky Tartt.
03:36If he would have caught that pass,
03:38then the Niners would have won.
03:39Well, he was at his own 35
03:40and there was about 10 minutes to go
03:42and I'm just looking right here
03:44at the Lions and Niners game log
03:47and so the Niners scored.
03:49It cut it to 24-17.
03:51Jake Moody, touchback on the kickoff.
03:54You know what happened next?
03:55Jameer Gibbs fumbles.
03:57Jameer Gibbs coughed it up.
03:59Sure did.
04:00And Eric Armstead recovered it
04:02and so the Niners go in
04:04and they go out and go on
04:06and score a touchdown for a play, 24 yards.
04:09But Dan Campbell, you went for it on fourth down.
04:12What about Jameer Gibbs?
04:13Sure.
04:14Who coughed it up on the first play
04:16after the Niners cut it to seven?
04:18So we all do this.
04:20Roger Craig, the fumble
04:21and Kyle Williams, the two muff punts, whatever.
04:25Football is,
04:26and I looked at the Niner game in Australia,
04:28I think there was a total of 135 plays.
04:31Okay.
04:32Offense, defense, special teams
04:33and the Niners probably won about 105 of them.
04:38Holy smokes.
04:39And I haven't gone through every play,
04:40but if you ballpark it,
04:42they were dominant
04:43and that's why you win in that fashion.
04:45But we look back at these games
04:47and we look at one tiny micro thing.
04:51Dan Campbell shouldn't have gone for it on fourth down.
04:53It's all complimentary.
04:55Right.
04:55And I'm just a very big believer.
04:57This goes for football players
04:58or any freaking person in life.
05:01You get credit for what you achieve.
05:02It does not mean you did it by yourself.
05:05This goes to this conversation you and I had last week
05:08where I can't stand the whole like,
05:10okay, but is he a quarterback
05:11that could put everybody on his back
05:14and take him to the promised land?
05:16Right.
05:16By himself?
05:17Stupid.
05:17It's a dumb conversation.
05:18It doesn't exist.
05:19Nobody can do that.
05:21Josh Allen can't do it.
05:22That's why he hasn't been to a Super Bowl.
05:23Lamar Jackson can't do it.
05:24That's why he hasn't been to a Super Bowl.
05:25Patrick Mahomes can do it
05:26because he's actually got a lot of really good stuff
05:28going on around him.
05:29He's got one of the best tight ends ever.
05:31Had Hall of Fame receivers at times, Tyreek Hill.
05:34They've got a running game.
05:35They've got an elite offensive,
05:36or a defensive coordinator.
05:37They've got an elite head coach.
05:38They've got an elite home field advantage.
05:40They've got elite, elite, elite.
05:41Really good program.
05:43Really good quarterback.
05:45Everybody gets credit.
05:46That's just, that's part of my belief system.
05:50And it is part of why I think that there is a conversation
05:55to be had today, and this is just him as an example.
05:59There's a conversation to be had about someone like Justin Herbert
06:03because I've decided he's the anti-purty.
06:05And that's not meant to be this rip job.
06:10It's not.
06:11I think Justin Herbert is a pretty good player,
06:13but it is a fascinating study to me how you can have someone
06:18like a Brock Purdy who doesn't get credit for so many
06:21of the things he does.
06:22We look, and I mean we need magnifying glasses
06:25to find other reasons why Brock Purdy wins football games.
06:32Conversely, this guy, what year are we, Mr. Oregon?
06:37It's year seven.
06:39You're right.
06:392020 is first year.
06:40We, like seven years in, there is no playoff win, not one.
06:48There is no division championship, not one.
06:52There's none of this going on.
06:55Seven years in.
06:56But we pull out our magnifying glasses and we go,
07:00that's why he's elite.
07:01That's why Justin Herbert sits right alongside Joe Burrow,
07:06right behind Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes.
07:10These are our five or six or seven favorite quarterbacks.
07:15And I don't care if you feel that way, but my question is, is like, why?
07:21What, where is the achievement?
07:24And why are we pinning achievement on a person who has not achieved it?
07:28There might be reasons why.
07:30He hasn't.
07:31Offensive linemen keep getting hurt.
07:32I get it.
07:33But like, the whole conversation feels damn unfair to me.
07:38Like, you're just playing by a different set of rules, these players.
07:41We always do that.
07:42And it's the same way when you look at, you know, NBA players and MLB players and whatnot.
07:48And a lot of it is, I think, assigned just based on situation.
07:51And I think about Mike Trout in Major League Baseball.
07:54And he's one of the best players of his modern generation.
07:58But he never goes to the playoffs because the ownership and the team around him, et cetera, et cetera.
08:04And yet he's elevated in a spot where he should be.
08:08Baseball is different because it's more of an individual sport.
08:10But if you look at the Chargers as an organization, they've been broken and flawed ever since, I don't know,
08:17I've been alive.
08:18Like, even back to the Dan Fouts, Eric O'Reale days, they were good.
08:22And Kellen Winslow and all the rest of it.
08:24But they never have had sustained success for a one big reason.
08:28And it's ownership.
08:30Yeah, well, that's at the core of it for the Chargers.
08:33But it has been an interesting evolution the last five years because they did finally put really, like, they've got
08:41some legitimate stuff going on.
08:43Jim Harbaugh is their coach.
08:45They brought Mike McDaniel in.
08:48Like, we know these people.
08:50These people have coached here.
08:52These people are really good.
08:53Can I ask you a question, Willard?
08:54Yeah.
08:55Is this conversation for you, is it about, like, crediting players or teams for what they accomplish?
09:01Or is it about the player who you think is better?
09:04Oh, it's a little bit of both.
09:06But I wouldn't describe it as crediting players.
09:09What I want for, to me, this is like, I think this should be every human being.
09:15However you assess things, you should use the exact same rules for all the people you're assessing.
09:21If you want to, if you're looking for a friend, if you're looking for a mate, if you're looking for
09:25a job, or if you're assessing a quarterback, everybody goes by the same rules.
09:29So, if, for instance, your criticism of Brock Purdy, well, you had a lead in the Super Bowl and you
09:36couldn't get, the guys never even won a playoff game.
09:40And he's been to two playoff games and has completely pooped his pants both times.
09:47And nobody ever says a word.
09:51They won't do it.
09:53And I'm like, imagine if Brock Purdy had been here for seven years, had gone to the playoffs twice and
10:01was 0-2 and in one of them threw five picks.
10:04You think he'd still be the QB?
10:07Gone.
10:07Probably.
10:08I mean.
10:09We'd hate him.
10:09I'm looking at Herbert and he basically is Alex Smith.
10:13He's in his seventh year.
10:15He's on his fifth different offensive coordinator, third different coach, fifth different OC.
10:20And so, I'm not just going to excuse it, but we all looked at Alex Smith and he's got small
10:25hands.
10:26And he had a different OC every year.
10:28And then he finally went to a place with, I don't know, Andy Reid and had himself a good little
10:33run.
10:34I like Justin Herbert.
10:36But what I'm seeing is not so much an assessment of player, it's an assessment of assessment.
10:42I just don't, I don't get what the rules are.
10:45So, I'd love for someone to explain it to me.
10:48And, Grandy, I think it was about three months ago, you wanted to corner me on the, would you rather
10:52have Herbert or Purdy?
10:54I think it was more recent than that.
10:55And you told me Herbert.
10:56Ask me again coming up.
10:58Oh, okay.
10:58Ask me again.
10:59You won't.
10:59No, he will.
