Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain

Questions continue to swirl around Jake Browning, his recent performance, and his knee injury. Short of a serious injury, what would it take to give Jake Haener the start in Saturday's game against Utah? Let's be real, it's not going to happen. How concerned should we be with Browning? Where do you fall on the Browning Confidence Index? The Mariners are pretty much done after losing to the Padres. Did the team re-sign it's GM and manager too quickly this year. Dipoto's biggest mistake was not picking up a starting pitcher at the deadline. Even a mediocre starting pitcher would have been helpful.

Today's Fact or Fiction pick: Nortre Dame minus the points. The Hawks are going to have a tough time against Khalil Mack and the Bears' front seven. The best thing they can do is just run right at them. Chris Carson has proved he deserves to be the dominant running back, at least until Rashaad Penny actually shows us something. Petros Papadakis had an interesting theory about why the Seahawks have been in decline. We discuss that, last weekend's Pac-12 action, and a look ahead to this weekend's Husky game against Utah. Textimonials evaluate their confidence in Jake Browning.

Rick Neuhsisel joins the show to talk about everything happening in college football. How concerned should we be about Jake Browning? How will the Dawgs match up against Utah? Can we count on Auburn to run over LSU to help out the Dawgs in the Battle of the Tigers? Kevin Harlan will call the Seahawks/Bears game on Monday. He looks ahead to how the Hawks will perform. Dick was right. Diaz shouldn't be used in non-save situations. He has a 6.97 ERA when pitching in non-saves vs. an ERA of less than 2 in save situations. You can't obviously always restrict him to only save situations, but you've got to as much as possible. The numbers are clear. Softy sits down with Jake Haener after playing his first game for UW on Saturday.

Hugh Millen and Dick Baird join Softy every Tuesday at 3:00pm on KJR for the Husky Honks. This week, we break down the team's performance in the 45-3 win against North Dakota. Jake Haener showed up in this game and looked great. With the way Browning's been playing, some fans are starting to ask the question, so is there a quarterback controversy? What's up with Jake Browning anyway? And we've talked about this seemingly every year for the past couple seasons but, what's wrong with the Husky run game? We look forward to the Utah game; now that we've discussed everything wrong with the team, what are they doing right that's going to win this game in Salt Lake?

It's time for Fact or Fiction, and it's Dick Fain's first pick of the week. He's got confidence that the Vikings can beat the spread. Doug Baldwin's out with an MCL issue and is going to miss a couple of weeks at least. Our options at wide receiver just dropped substantially. Is Brandon Marshall the best option in that position right now? Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News takes a look around the Pac-12. He tells Dawg fans what DEFCON level they should be at after a couple shaky weeks of QB play. Textimonials share their confidence in Jake Browning, and is there any shot the Hawks win the NFC West?

Some fans are questioning Jermain Ifedi's play in the game on Sunday. Walter Jones shares his thoughts and takes a look at the Hawks' overall performance as they head toward week 2 in Chicago. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk takes us around the league after the first weekend of NFL football. Pete Carroll talks to the media about next week's game in Chicago, including the latest on Doug Baldwin. Time is running out for the M's. They'll try to pick up a win against the Padres. We'll set the lineups and hear from Scott Servais on Baseball's Heritage Pre-Game Show. Tod Leiweke and David Wright, Vice Chairman of Seattle Hockey Partners, discuss the importance of local ownership on Tuesdays with Tod.

The good news is the NFL season is finally underway. The bad news of course, is that the Hawks lost the opening game in Denver. There's plenty of blame to go around, but it's hard to ignore Russell Wilson's disappointing performance yesterday. Maybe it's just because he's been so consistently good and we just expect too much of him, but he definitely seemed to have some problems. The problems go beyond quarterback though. The Hawks clearly have a talent problem. We give listeners the chance to vent after the loss. Mike Holmgren provides expert analysis on the first game of the year, and tells us if we're off base about criticizing Wilson.

We announce last week's Fact or Fiction winner, and make our pick for the Rams / Raiders game. We spent the first hour crushing the Hawks for all of their mistakes, but there were a lot of positives in yesterday's game too. Michael Dickson and Will Dissly are examples. Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt breaks down the Washington vs North Dakota game, Jake Browning's performance, and why he hates backup quarterbacks in his weekly look at Pac-12 football. Textimonials today assign slices of the Seahawks blame pie.

It was clear yesterday that once the officials on the field made the call on the Demaryius Thomas touchdown, there wasn't going to be enough evidence to change it. The point job on the field made it impossible to tell where the line started. We grabbed all of the best audio from around Week 1 of the NFL, and we have it for you on Hey, Did You Hear That? Bill Krueger isn't ready to give up on the Mariners this season quite yet. He explains why. Earl Thomas spoke with the media after yesterday's game. He explains why he decided to come back, and his reasoning isn't really a big surprise.

We've heard this one before, but it's re-surfaced yet again. A new SI article claims that there is a division in the locker room between Russell Wilson and most of the rest of the players. One thing we hadn't heard before is that Wilson is supposedly seen as a snitch, running to Pete Carroll with dirt on all of the other guys. Even if all of this is true, will it really have any impact on the team going forward? Most of the guys who might have had this opinion are gone. The new kids coming up were in high school, or just starting college when Russ entered the league. They're likely to treat him with more reverence anyway. Hugh Millen has been in locker rooms at all levels. He gives his thoughts on the article, and how the attitude may impact the team. Seahawks running back Chris Carson talks to Dick Fain about coming back after a season of injuries.

Our final Fact or Fiction pick of the week, take the under 42.5 in the Seahawks / Broncos game. The first two games of the year are against teams with new and unproven quarterbacks that likely won't win more than 7 games. Should the Hawks be expected to win the game in Denver or is it not a big deal if they lose this one? With 22 games left being 5.5 games behind Oakland, are the Mariners on life support? Corey Brock gives us the latest on Kyle Seager, the brawl, and all things Mariners. Shaquem Griffin talks to Softy about how he's handled being considered an inspiration by so many people. Textimonials on the Hawks' biggest weaknesses, Russell Wilson, and Softy's mayoral aspirations.

The talk of Seahawks locker room issues has re-surfaced yet again with a new Sports Illustrated article claiming among other things, that Russell Wilson is viewed as a snitch by some players. Cliff Avril, former Seahawk and current midday co-host at 950 KJR contributed to the article (not regarding the claims involving Russell Wilson). He talks about the locker room atmosphere following the Super Bowl loss, and shares his own thoughts on Russell Wilson. Bob Rondeau breaks down last weekend's UW game and looks ahead to North Dakota courtesy of Simply Seattle. If Jacob Eason had started last weekend instead of Jake Browning, would the Dawgs have won? Things are getting dire for the M's, and it won't be an easy weekend for them, facing the New York Yankees. We get you ready for the game on Baseball's Heritage Pre-Game Show.

We're broadcasting from the Central Bar and Restaurant in Bellevue, as we will be every Thursday throughout the NFL season, hanging out with Mike Holmgren. Seattle Storm point guard Sue Bird talks about the upcoming WNBA Finals against the Washington Mystics, and the win over the Mercury that got the team there. We didn't see as much of Salvon Ahmed as we thought we would last weekend, and that needs to change. Softy believes North Dakota is the perfect opportunity to test him a bit more before the Dawgs start playing conference games. We look ahead to Denver and break down the Hawks expected performance against the Broncos. Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports gives us his picks for college football and the NFL.

It's another edition of Fact or Fiction at 4:00, and today we predict the outcome of the Stanford vs. USC game. Mike Holmgren has a lot to say about our pick in that game when he joins us for The Mike Holmgren Show live from the Central Bar and Restaurant in Bellevue. This week, we talk about Earl Thomas returning, just as Coach said he would, his impressions of Michael Dickson, and his thoughts on the Dawgs' red zone play calling. Chris Petersen sit down with Softy for a few minutes to talk about last week's game and offering a few thoughts on North Dakota.

Earl Thomas is back as of earlier today, just in time for the first game of the regular season. Softy is ready to completely forgive and forget. Are you as quick to dismiss him holding out? Rumors abound that Dallas offered a second-round pick for Earl but the Seahawks wouldn't bite. Would it be worth it to get a second-rounder in exchange for giving up Earl for his likely final year as a Seahawk? We play regional reaction, asking a representative from each region around the Puget Sound to answer the question. Chris Ackerley, son of former Sonics and KJR owner Barry Ackerley, explains why his family is choosing to get involved with the effort to bring an NHL franchise to Seattle.