Speaker 1: Think is great Thanksgiving really begin key, I could be
Speaker 1: Around the NFL podcast lost turkey. Oh yes, it's Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: one of the great times on the calendar, and we
Speaker 1: do have so much to be thankful for here on
Speaker 1: the Around the NFL Podcast, Dan Hansas with Heroes, Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler. Um, boys, how are you? It's doing wonderful,
Speaker 1: feeling great. Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various
Speaker 1: states in the United States, Canada, Granada, Granada, St. Lucia,
Speaker 1: and Liberia fun facts. Celebrated on the second Monday of
Speaker 1: October in Canada. So sorry, guys, we missed that fourth
Speaker 1: Thursday of November in the US. Now, Ricky Jump in
Speaker 1: annual preview show quiz Time. What is the And I
Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, get into any culture wars here,
Speaker 1: but I want to hear the traditional belief what was
Speaker 1: the beginning of Thanksgiving? The beginning of Thanksgiving that people
Speaker 1: think is that when the Native Americans and the pilgrims
Speaker 1: came together, they finally shared all their food together, and
Speaker 1: they had a big feast together and friends and happy
Speaker 1: and everything was good and nice. All right, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: That's like the you know, nineteen forties to nineteen nineties
Speaker 1: school um version of it. But after doing some further research,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like a East coast West coast
Speaker 1: UH nineties hip hop feud going on here between Virginia
Speaker 1: and Massachusetts. Were you guys, Hail, Greg and Ricky and
Speaker 1: the Massachusetts people said, you know, it started in the
Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds. The Pilgrims came over from England, and then
Speaker 1: they gave their food to two Native American tribes in
Speaker 1: exchange for protection from another, uh Native American tribe. The
Speaker 1: people in Virginia say it's a religious holiday, so that
Speaker 1: is the history of it. Well, how is that a
Speaker 1: religion or how did a religion spring up out of that?
Speaker 1: I mean people were undreds. I mean yeah, there's so
Speaker 1: few Jews in Massachusetts. I remember someone once asked me
Speaker 1: if we celebrated Thanksgiving and it was my favorite, I
Speaker 1: would say the number one on my Mark's favorite for sure.
Speaker 1: All the food, and I mean food, the last I
Speaker 1: grew up, loving my family. My wife and kids go
Speaker 1: away to her parents house during this these stints where
Speaker 1: I covered you know, these games with you guys, so
Speaker 1: literally sits out Thanksgiving because he hates food so much.
Speaker 1: I mean, I will allow you to say whatever you wish. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's not like I'm a magnetus. What
Speaker 1: do you eat? Where are you gonna eat tomorrow? I
Speaker 1: don't know, like an apple? I mean, I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not sitting around creating like mincemeat pies in my house
Speaker 1: or something. No one else is literally no one else's
Speaker 1: and by the way, everyone else seems to be meat pies.
Speaker 1: Well whatever, fill in the blank, whatever it is. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone's debating over like the worst side dish. It's like
Speaker 1: chill out. It's a nice holiday. I have nothing but
Speaker 1: opinions on food. Because he hasn't had an opinion on
Speaker 1: food since he has an opinion. It's just kind of that.
Speaker 1: It's terrible. That's the one that covers it all. That
Speaker 1: covers it all, and I should just say the whole
Speaker 1: Massachusetts vir Gina debate. In sixty three, two weeks before
Speaker 1: he was assassinated, JFK made a statement striking a compromise
Speaker 1: between the of the Rivals Era era era over three
Speaker 1: centuries ago, off of fathers in Virginia and Massachusetts. Ra
Speaker 1: Ra Ra far from home in a lonely wilderness arra arra,
Speaker 1: set aside up Thanksgiving Arara. They will now be celebrated
Speaker 1: to gaba arra arra. Wait a minute, what was the
Speaker 1: era business? What was that? What was that all about? That?
Speaker 1: That's JFK, that's what he sounded like. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: A lot to get to. We got three Thanksgiving games
Speaker 1: to preview. We have the rest of the week, holy god,
Speaker 1: twelve games to dig into. UM and yes, since Thanksgiving, Greg,
Speaker 1: by the way, is the traditional UM start of the
Speaker 1: holiday season, I do have a gift for you, Like
Speaker 1: the first gift of the holiday season comes from me,
Speaker 1: the old juser to Greggy and it's from uh was
Speaker 1: take And from the latest edition of The Power Rankings
Speaker 1: television show, there's a segment called Player Pushback. Originally it
Speaker 1: was William mc ginnis and Derek Carr and they it's
Speaker 1: like a three minute segment where they pushed back on
Speaker 1: the rankings in one way or the other. Willie after
Speaker 1: like two episodes, is like he's gotten somebody's here and
Speaker 1: said I ain't doing this anymore, and they got They got.
Speaker 1: Mariyuchi involves Steve Mariuchi and we love Mooch and Mooch
Speaker 1: comes on in the segment and usually just uh talks
Speaker 1: about one of the teams in the top three and
Speaker 1: why they're good. Uh. But you should know, uh that
Speaker 1: the Cardinals were his subject on the latest Power rankings,
Speaker 1: and he had this to say, all right, you know
Speaker 1: they should be on the top of the list because
Speaker 1: your record says you know who you are, right, But
Speaker 1: you know what. The most important position in football obviously
Speaker 1: is the quarterback, but I think the second most important
Speaker 1: position is your backup quarterback, and your third most important
Speaker 1: position is your third string quarterback. He even said it
Speaker 1: with the little the little Chaz cast Relee pizzazz there.
Speaker 1: You think he was doing an impression. And the fourth
Speaker 1: most important person in your group as your quarterback coach,
Speaker 1: and your fifth most important player on your roster is
Speaker 1: your first thing quarterbacks mother. I mean, he's sneaky lifting
Speaker 1: up cult McCoy as he as he should be doing.
Speaker 1: So appreciate it, Culte McCoy. So that was for you, Greg,
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed. I did. I did, all right.
Speaker 1: Let's hope our new listeners who are like, what are
Speaker 1: they talking about? Um? Just go back listen to all
Speaker 1: our episodes and find our Charlie Casserly references from season six.
Speaker 1: You're now probably four through eight, episode four hundred and thirteen.
Speaker 1: You dug into it, um with with a distinct, you know,
Speaker 1: exploratory vibe. All right, let's start with the Thanksgiving games
Speaker 1: and um, just a little program note, we will be
Speaker 1: uh delivering a mini pod it goes. We'll go up
Speaker 1: late Thursday, Thanksgiving night, um recapping all three of the
Speaker 1: games are about to preview. So let's get into the
Speaker 1: first one. We don't need to dwell on it because
Speaker 1: it's almost become overdone. Now how terrible these teams are
Speaker 1: and how bad this game is. And I've already said
Speaker 1: my piece that the line shouldn't be on Thanksgiving, but
Speaker 1: they are, and that's just the way it is. So
Speaker 1: you get the three and seven Browns on a five
Speaker 1: game losing streak, with the coach halfway out the door,
Speaker 1: going to Ford Field to face the O nine and
Speaker 1: one Lions. Uh so the Lions coming off a narrow
Speaker 1: loss to the Browns, they should have Jared goff back.
Speaker 1: Tim Boyle was wretched uh playing or you know, the
Speaker 1: blowhard nation was up in arms. I know that Mark
Speaker 1: because Boil was brutal and Jared Goff should be back
Speaker 1: in the lineup. Unfortunately, the one thing that would have
Speaker 1: maybe made this game somewhat intriguing as a neutral fan
Speaker 1: would be Justin Fields in this spot. But he ain't playing.
Speaker 1: He's got bad ribs. So Andy Dalton is the starter.
Speaker 1: So digging on this on Turkey Day, I mean, the
Speaker 1: Bears have faced uh and Matt Naggy like the darkest
Speaker 1: of the darkest timelines he could possibly be in. There
Speaker 1: was literally a headline from the Associated Press Naggy denies
Speaker 1: report of his own firing. It's like, oh, we have that.
Speaker 1: Let's listen to poor Matagi who had to h speak
Speaker 1: to that because of the Chicago press, Like the rest
Speaker 1: of the people in the Midwest right now are out
Speaker 1: for blood. You've been performed the year last game as person.
Speaker 1: That is not accurate. You know, I have not um
Speaker 1: You know, I have great communication with ownership with George
Speaker 1: and Ted and Ryan, but I have not had any discussions.
Speaker 1: It makes me think, um, Greg because it usually this
Speaker 1: happens to one coach every year, and you really and
Speaker 1: I feel like Adam Gates was kind of the guy
Speaker 1: last year. But the guy think of the most is
Speaker 1: Chuck Pogano And it was one of Chris Wessling's favorite quotes.
Speaker 1: When I knew he was finished in Indie and the
Speaker 1: same situation was happening before the acts fell on him,
Speaker 1: he had a very kind of zen way of looking
Speaker 1: at it. He refused to get kind of caught up
Speaker 1: in the misery of it all. And he said to
Speaker 1: the media, they can fire you, but they can't eat you,
Speaker 1: and they can't eat that Naggie, but they will fire him,
Speaker 1: and the rest of the city wants about as well.
Speaker 1: They're kind of eating him though, Just to put this
Speaker 1: into context. Number One, that report was from some non
Speaker 1: sports reporter on Patch dot com. Hey, how about like
Speaker 1: the rest of us, don't give the Patch dot com guy. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm a former Patch alone understand sports reporter, so it's weird.
Speaker 1: Number Two, Matt Naggy was at a football game, his
Speaker 1: son's football game this week, and some kids there started
Speaker 1: a chance to fire Naggie. That was on money, like
Speaker 1: fire Naggi, and the the organization or the whoever runs
Speaker 1: the game's up, you know, sent out an apology without
Speaker 1: mentioning Naggie his name because they were trying to make
Speaker 1: it not into a bigger story. Then it came out
Speaker 1: later Tuesday. Naggie actually did meet with ownership on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: This was after this report, and after the meeting with ownership,
Speaker 1: he canceled meetings for the rest of the day. So
Speaker 1: that is just leading me to the point that this
Speaker 1: is a mercy firing. It's time to go um. Matt.
Speaker 1: Patricia had faced these reports last year too, before Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: and they proved to be right. I think the proper
Speaker 1: way for him to go out um is to lose
Speaker 1: and to give Dan Campbell and all of us a
Speaker 1: nice moment on the on Thanksgiving. Lose this game, and
Speaker 1: that's why I'm locking up the Windlass Lions. Oh I
Speaker 1: like that a lot. By the way, you're not You're
Speaker 1: not the only person or a group of people locking
Speaker 1: up the early Thursday game hit it. Ricky. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: hello gentlemen, Nicky here again. I was out of commission
Speaker 1: for the last two weeks. Emboided my brothers blew it
Speaker 1: while I was gone. The Columbus Westlings are now oh
Speaker 1: and three on the year, which means the Cincy Westlings
Speaker 1: are a salad six and two. Speaking of the Cincy Westlings.
Speaker 1: We've seen Andy Dalton on national TV enough to know
Speaker 1: he stinks the Lions. Keep fighting, get a legendary eight
Speaker 1: to five win on Thanksgiving over Dough Bears. Lock it up,
Speaker 1: Good day, Happy Thanksgiving to Nick and the entire Westling family.
Speaker 1: You guys are the best. Did this just happen? Do
Speaker 1: we have to t two groups locking up the windless
Speaker 1: Lions in late November? I unn, I mean the whole
Speaker 1: point of locking that up is you know, that was
Speaker 1: like a special thing to lock up a do and
Speaker 1: nine d Even now now two of us are that's
Speaker 1: too bad. But I believe in this DeAndre Swift led
Speaker 1: Lions offense. Let's get it done. I mean, the Bears
Speaker 1: have been a disaster. They've lost five straight. Um, there's
Speaker 1: utter chaos unfolding. Yet it would be an even bigger
Speaker 1: disappointment with Andy Dalton to go into the Troit and
Speaker 1: lose this game. I know that Detroit has been frisky
Speaker 1: in the sense of keeping it close, and you know,
Speaker 1: four games against opponents where you can look at the
Speaker 1: opponent and say, if you knew before the season, you
Speaker 1: think the lines will be better than they were. But
Speaker 1: I look at the Bears and say you still have
Speaker 1: Robert Quinn, you still have Roquan Smith, who was insane
Speaker 1: last week against Baltimore. I mean, if he had a
Speaker 1: career high seventeen tackles all over the place, and Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton was not a disaster in that game. I it
Speaker 1: sounds like you're not gonna Allen Robinson, Darnell Mooney is
Speaker 1: making plays. But this is the better team. If you
Speaker 1: can't beat if you cannot beat the Tyler Huntley, read
Speaker 1: Lead Ravens, and that team is in all those players.
Speaker 1: They stink Chicago. I mean, yeah, I'm not. I think
Speaker 1: it's good to both sides of this. I I get you, Mark,
Speaker 1: and there are players that have been favorite. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: certainly heavily the Bears in this game. They SAPs on defense.
Speaker 1: It's a short turnaround. I kind of think Dalton gives
Speaker 1: them maybe a slightly better chance. Maybe that's heretical to say, um,
Speaker 1: but I'm in too deep now. They just wanted to
Speaker 1: faith in Jared Goff, who they also, by the way,
Speaker 1: had net seventy seven yards passing in that Steelers game too.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just Tim Boyle. When's the last time a
Speaker 1: team had seventy seven yards passing two games in a row.
Speaker 1: I mean this, this might shock you, but I don't
Speaker 1: really have that much faith in the Lions. I'm just
Speaker 1: having some fun here. The middle game, the bank is
Speaker 1: giving up on the locks. That's what's happened. Well. The
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Raiders five and five, riding a three game
Speaker 1: losing streak out of there by good job Boys travel
Speaker 1: to Jaral World to face the Cowboys, who have lost
Speaker 1: two of three, including that disappointing nineteen to nine loss
Speaker 1: to the Chiefs at Arrow Head. Uh. This game sets
Speaker 1: up extremely well, uh for the Cowboys, given how poorly
Speaker 1: Vegas is playing and has played for the better part
Speaker 1: of a month. However, Amari Cooper is not playing because
Speaker 1: he got COVID and did not get vaccinated, and Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones gave him some public grief for that UH this week,
Speaker 1: saying it's a team sport and that was not a
Speaker 1: team decision. Uh. And Amari Cooper as of this taping,
Speaker 1: UH is still working his way back from a concussion
Speaker 1: on a short week, so the Dallas offense could be shorthanded. Uh, Greg,
Speaker 1: do you have concerns about dak post cash strain at
Speaker 1: all to two of his worst three games of the season. Certainly,
Speaker 1: I think Tyrone Smith being out was a huge part
Speaker 1: of that, but he also just missed throws and he
Speaker 1: he was like the opposite of poised and understanding what
Speaker 1: the defense was sending him in two of those games,
Speaker 1: which was surprising. Um. You know you mentioned Seedee Lamb
Speaker 1: might not play. He's trending towards playing, and so is
Speaker 1: Tyrone Smith. And that makes me think that they can
Speaker 1: cover this seven points spread here because the Raiders just
Speaker 1: aren't pulling off any big plays over the last three weeks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean the splits for Dak Prescott with and without
Speaker 1: Tyrone Smith, the lineup or noticed are are notable, um,
Speaker 1: and gets huge to have them back. Um. You know
Speaker 1: they were eating up by the past Rush a week ago.
Speaker 1: But I when I watched the Raiders, you know, I
Speaker 1: was gonna block up the Bengals, um or the the
Speaker 1: Steelers over the Bengals. And when I watched what Cincinnati
Speaker 1: did to Las Vegas, I changed my mind entirely because
Speaker 1: that game was close at the end. Um, I just
Speaker 1: look at the Raiders team that I think beyond the
Speaker 1: off the field, Uh, you know, tragedy of it all.
Speaker 1: Losing Henry Ruggs in the offense has really allowed defenses
Speaker 1: to basically put everything on Darren Waller. And there was
Speaker 1: a terrible car pick against the Bengals late in the game.
Speaker 1: I think it was twenty two to thirteen where he
Speaker 1: floated it to Waller and it was just taken away.
Speaker 1: And it's like they just don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: other weapons on that team. They're depleted. Their run game
Speaker 1: isn't very good. They've got three offensive lineman who ranked
Speaker 1: in the bottom ten percent of performance by PFF right now.
Speaker 1: I think they're missing Richie Incognito. They just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it isn't the same as the other Raiders
Speaker 1: collapses necessarily, but they're falling apart. And when you get
Speaker 1: Derek Carr mistakes um tacked onto the depleted roster, I
Speaker 1: don't think they can survive. And this is you know,
Speaker 1: I don't I can't believe we're back in a Cowboys
Speaker 1: bounce back spot. But this is a great bounce back
Speaker 1: spot for Dallas. You know, I think this is a
Speaker 1: very important final six, seven game stretch here for Derek Carr.
Speaker 1: Also because I think we all saw how well he
Speaker 1: played Um in the first two months of the season,
Speaker 1: but he he's kind of gonna find himself back in
Speaker 1: the same place if this season spirals and goes completely south. Um,
Speaker 1: because I think you're seeing with Ryan Tannehill and Nashville
Speaker 1: as well, where he's a quarterback. He was a very
Speaker 1: good quarterback, but he's lost pieces around him. And then
Speaker 1: you know, he threw four interceptions last week, and you wonder, oh,
Speaker 1: is he a type of guy that gets exposed a
Speaker 1: little bit when he doesn't have the right supporting cast
Speaker 1: around him. Car is gonna have to answer that. I think, Um,
Speaker 1: if this offense doesn't get going again, if he truly
Speaker 1: is you know, a top twelve, uh, you know, back
Speaker 1: into the top ten quarterback quarterback, then he will get
Speaker 1: this offense going again. If he doesn't, I think it's
Speaker 1: very telling at the stage of his career. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's he's not transcendent. I don't think he's been the
Speaker 1: biggest problem over the last few weeks. He's thrown some
Speaker 1: bad plays once they were down a couple of scores late.
Speaker 1: Other than that, he's kind of looked similar. I just
Speaker 1: think it's problem. It's some regression to the mean from
Speaker 1: his play. We've seen him enough that probably wasn't going
Speaker 1: to keep it that level. And I think it's a
Speaker 1: lot of regression from the offense just generally. I don't
Speaker 1: think you can put it all on rugs. We've seen
Speaker 1: other teams lose pieces, they don't collapse like this. I
Speaker 1: guess my point would be every quarterback is a function
Speaker 1: of the players around him. Tom Brady Um was getting
Speaker 1: his grave was being danced on at the end of
Speaker 1: ten because the players around him were so bad. Like
Speaker 1: no one thought he was a top ten quarterback. We
Speaker 1: were like joking on this podcast of what a joke
Speaker 1: he was essentially Um And now he's back to being
Speaker 1: like the number one quarterback in the league because he's
Speaker 1: got a great surrounding situation. That's all. Oh, or is
Speaker 1: this say Greg nothing really matters response? In general? I'm saying,
Speaker 1: maybe there's three or four quarterbacks who could survive, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's just kind of regression to the mean. I
Speaker 1: think he's having a very good season and actually hasn't
Speaker 1: played that bad over the last couple of weeks. His
Speaker 1: problem is so then put it this way, because you
Speaker 1: were leading the charge about how great Derek Carr was
Speaker 1: earlier this season above anyone else really, uh in the
Speaker 1: national media, I kinda can state I think that is
Speaker 1: he just the same Derek Car Then ultimately this isn't
Speaker 1: a better version of the players. He's the same guy
Speaker 1: has always been and now that his players are gone,
Speaker 1: he's gone. Is like a real functional, high level quarterback.
Speaker 1: I think he can't overcome what's around him now and
Speaker 1: that him playing at that level was was unsustainable for
Speaker 1: just anyone but for another contract with if he like
Speaker 1: I get that, you can say that's every quarterback, But
Speaker 1: I can't equate Derek Carr with Tom Brady. I hear you.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just saying, like, who hasn't fallen victim
Speaker 1: to that this year to some degree, like Josh Allen
Speaker 1: is playing much worse, like I, I just haven't looked
Speaker 1: He's not gonna overcome his surroundings. He did for five
Speaker 1: or six or seven weeks, and that that probably was
Speaker 1: not the real Derek Carr. That's a fair point. The
Speaker 1: three games out of the bye for the Raiders at
Speaker 1: Giants sixteen points, home against Kansas City fourteen points home
Speaker 1: against Cincinnati thirteen points. So uh, you know, they gotta
Speaker 1: show up against Alice and Michael Parsons, who's playing at
Speaker 1: a level that's maybe even transcending defensive player there. He
Speaker 1: could be in the defense defensive Rookie of the Year,
Speaker 1: I should say it could be entering into defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year territory, especially with a big performance in
Speaker 1: an Island game on Thanksgiving, which takes us to the
Speaker 1: final game on Thursday. After this, the Buffalo Bills panic
Speaker 1: in the streets of Orchard Park after at fifteen thumping
Speaker 1: at the hands of the Colts on Sunday. Now they
Speaker 1: head to the Superdome UH to face a Saints team
Speaker 1: that has not won UH since Halloween and Mark this
Speaker 1: is This is kind of a tough one because, you know,
Speaker 1: it makes sense that the Bills if you think the
Speaker 1: Bills are a team that is going through things, but
Speaker 1: ultimately it is very talented and well coached and understands
Speaker 1: the stakes of a game like this. They should go
Speaker 1: to New Orleans and take care of business. But there's
Speaker 1: been so much evidence over the past month or so
Speaker 1: that there's something really wrong here. Where do you come
Speaker 1: down on this one? Well, I would say this that
Speaker 1: the Saints have been one of the feistiest, more enjoyably watchable,
Speaker 1: tough nosed teams around, but they are struggling right now.
Speaker 1: I like this spot for Buffalo just based on health alone.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got it's Alvin Kamara's probably not happening,
Speaker 1: mark Ingram's not practicing. Ryan Ramscheck is not around right now.
Speaker 1: Toron Armstead will see on him, but even his backup
Speaker 1: land and Young has has not missed practiced this week.
Speaker 1: So they are the season he broke his foot. They're
Speaker 1: about as banged up as possible. And we I think
Speaker 1: last the last couple of weeks. What we see with
Speaker 1: the Saints is they're pushing as hard as they can
Speaker 1: to stay in these games. But two weeks ago, um
Speaker 1: killer mistakes down the stretch. It happened this past week
Speaker 1: the floor starts to fall out. Um. Yeah, Buffalo is
Speaker 1: back and forth, but but I think they're clearly the
Speaker 1: better team and it would be kind of stunning to
Speaker 1: see them fall in this situation. To Trevor Simeon that said,
Speaker 1: the only thing that I kind of feel, and this
Speaker 1: is has nothing to do with next gen stats or
Speaker 1: anything else. I just see visions of like a totally celebratory,
Speaker 1: um super Dome on fire, lathered up on Thanksgiving night,
Speaker 1: and maybe sometimes things like that can happen where the
Speaker 1: Bills get lost to the moment a little bit. But
Speaker 1: that's not a logic base, that's just sort of a dream, right.
Speaker 1: I was ready to pick the Saints to win this
Speaker 1: game because of that, because I think I think they've
Speaker 1: been so mentally tough, and I think their defense has
Speaker 1: a chance to have a great game against Buffalo, who
Speaker 1: has been all over the place. The Bills have the
Speaker 1: highest variants of any team in the history of football outsiders,
Speaker 1: so just they're putting a number on it. But basically
Speaker 1: they are literally the most inconsistent team they've ever recorded.
Speaker 1: That they're good, games are insanely good, and they're bad.
Speaker 1: Games are insanely bad, which which passes the eye tests.
Speaker 1: And the Saints could could win a game like that
Speaker 1: if they had their guys, But they went over the
Speaker 1: cliff last week in terms of injuries. Like it was
Speaker 1: cute too, like Trevor Simeon and Sean Payton's cooking up
Speaker 1: plays and like, yeah, that all makes sense when you
Speaker 1: have to all pro tackles and Alvin Kamara with the
Speaker 1: worst collection of skill position talent on the outside of
Speaker 1: any team in the NFL. Now you just have the
Speaker 1: least talented offense in the NFL period. Maybe armsteads back,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't sound like Camara's ingram might be out
Speaker 1: that Marcus Davenport has been their best defensive line it
Speaker 1: might be out too on. Even so, even if you
Speaker 1: get like a great defensive effort, this is this is it,
Speaker 1: I would I would rank them thirty two of thirty
Speaker 1: two teams in terms of offensive talent, Like where that's
Speaker 1: a lot to overcome. Yeah, without those three times, where
Speaker 1: would you have ranked up at the start of the year,
Speaker 1: Because I'd say start of the year they were still
Speaker 1: in the twins. Yeah, I would say they were in
Speaker 1: the twenties. But you when you have to all tackles
Speaker 1: and a really good center and Alvin Kamara and a
Speaker 1: great coach, it's like they were finding ways to get
Speaker 1: it done. And now I just I don't think anyone
Speaker 1: could get to coach up for seventeen straight games. At
Speaker 1: some point, it's, you know, talent's got to take over.
Speaker 1: If the Saints, um, you know, can make it happen,
Speaker 1: because notoriously they never seemed to have a lot of
Speaker 1: salary cap space. Maybe that's changing. I haven't checked in
Speaker 1: on there. I haven't checked there, like sixty overgoing into
Speaker 1: next yeah me, because I was gonna say, they make
Speaker 1: so much sense as a team that would have a
Speaker 1: really hyper aggressive offseason beefing up that offense, but perhaps
Speaker 1: financially that is not an option. But then they will
Speaker 1: use the draft obviously um to add pieces because yeah,
Speaker 1: with Kamara out there, ordinary if you take Ingram out,
Speaker 1: who's got a bad knee and he's he didn't practice
Speaker 1: on Tuesday after practicing Monday, which is not a great sign. Uh,
Speaker 1: then you really get into a dark place. So I
Speaker 1: think there's this situation here where I think Buffalo can
Speaker 1: not necessarily overcome their offensive issues but still win like
Speaker 1: a seventeen to ten type game. But I think uh
Speaker 1: Bills fans might be sweating this one out. And if
Speaker 1: you look at their schedule, man, you know, they had
Speaker 1: a great win way back in Week five on October
Speaker 1: t they beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead thirty and that
Speaker 1: was the fourth straight win. They had beaten the Texans
Speaker 1: forties before that, blown out Washington Miami before that, and
Speaker 1: they were, you know, pretty much seen as the best
Speaker 1: team in the a f C. Since then, they lose
Speaker 1: the Tennessee By by a field goal thirty one, they
Speaker 1: hit their by, they beat Miami, and they beat the
Speaker 1: Jets Miami when they were at their lowest, and they've
Speaker 1: lost to Jacksonville in Indianapolis. Uh So there's just not
Speaker 1: been a lot of signature wins for this team in
Speaker 1: quite a long time. So the concern, if you're his
Speaker 1: Bills fan, is real. But I'm also I'm not ready
Speaker 1: to jump off ship here. I think this is a
Speaker 1: team that it's all there, they just need to put
Speaker 1: it together. I think that in this game, even a
Speaker 1: week go, you know, they're being called the best team
Speaker 1: in the a f C. And well that's by default
Speaker 1: though that's because the a f C is so weird,
Speaker 1: right right, But default doesn't exist at this point in
Speaker 1: my mind. For me, I like, I'll I'm find crowning
Speaker 1: no one with that title this moment. But they were
Speaker 1: like embarrassed by the Cults. They knew what the cults
Speaker 1: were gonna do with the Cults just went and did
Speaker 1: it to them. Um, yeah, we're you know. Their defense
Speaker 1: was was a non factor it was a negative factor.
Speaker 1: I just to me, I totally see what Greg is
Speaker 1: saying about the variance. When they're lad, they look completely
Speaker 1: unprepared for prime time on any level. Well, they're very
Speaker 1: lightweight team just in general. They are light fast defense.
Speaker 1: And you do look at the a f C and
Speaker 1: you look at the other teams in it Tennessee, New England, Baltimore,
Speaker 1: Cleveland if they got there, these are power running teams,
Speaker 1: and I think that could be a problem for for
Speaker 1: the Bills and some matchups Colts. All right, let's start
Speaker 1: the draft. Let's get into it. Mark, you have the
Speaker 1: first overall pick. Well, I'm going to go with the
Speaker 1: game that just this is what I did last week
Speaker 1: and it it delivered one of my favorite um weeks
Speaker 1: of the season. I'm just gonna go after simply what
Speaker 1: I enjoy the most, and it's Minnesota at San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I think it is arguably the game of the week
Speaker 1: to me. I mean this, by the way, this week
Speaker 1: is special Week twelve. It is the first time in
Speaker 1: NFL history were nine games feature one five plus team
Speaker 1: versus another five hundred plus team in Week twelve or
Speaker 1: beyond that, we've waited for a week like this, so
Speaker 1: let's see if it delivers or if it's history in
Speaker 1: the making. Have history in the making, yes, but I
Speaker 1: think with the Vikings, you know at this point having
Speaker 1: to go to San Francisco, that would scare me in
Speaker 1: the past. What we are seeing right now is a
Speaker 1: Vikings team playing at the height of their powers. Watching
Speaker 1: that Green Bay Minnesota game was a total delight. And
Speaker 1: justin Jefferson, I don't know what else we can say
Speaker 1: about what he's showing on tape. Who he is. He
Speaker 1: is one of the more fascinating athletes around today, and
Speaker 1: that they've used the past two games to focus on
Speaker 1: him to such a degree it changes who they are.
Speaker 1: It's changed Kirk Cousins, Greg, this is notable to you
Speaker 1: that Mike Zimmer. They asked, what is going on with
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins. Are you happy with him being as aggressive
Speaker 1: as he is? And he said yes. He said, also,
Speaker 1: our relationship has changed. Greg has been tracking the Cousins
Speaker 1: Zimmer relationship all season. It has obviously been fraught. They
Speaker 1: seem at times to be hugging slash punching each other
Speaker 1: at the same time. But Zimmer, I think is on
Speaker 1: board with what's happening, and they they can play this way,
Speaker 1: they can beat anyone in the league, and I'm willing
Speaker 1: to say they can probably lose to a lot of
Speaker 1: teams too, if you get the old version of the vikings.
Speaker 1: But what I also find appealing is that you are
Speaker 1: getting the Niners right now at the height of their power,
Speaker 1: and their season is still hanging in the balance, around
Speaker 1: the fringe of the NFC playoff race, but very much
Speaker 1: alive if they took this game or next. The way
Speaker 1: they've been running the ball um eating up forty minutes
Speaker 1: of time of possession a week, They've been utterly dominant.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the Jaguars, it was over the ram.
Speaker 1: And you've got Deebo Samuel, who's gonna want to go
Speaker 1: do what Davonte Adams did to Xavier Woods a week ago.
Speaker 1: But Deebo Samuel so versatile that he led the team
Speaker 1: in rushing a week ago, he led them in receiving
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. I think this, to me is the
Speaker 1: greatest game out through this week. I'm all board, I'm
Speaker 1: all about it. It makes sense to me you had
Speaker 1: to take this now because it's the team of zeus
Speaker 1: til versus a team of Sestio. I think, yeah, this
Speaker 1: wasn't making it back around, kind of kind of like
Speaker 1: your your second teams that that you both enjoyed watching
Speaker 1: an impossible game to pick. I love it. I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think it's a I see San Francisco's favorite, which
Speaker 1: surprised me just because I don't know. I know, but
Speaker 1: like they haven't been good at home. I know they
Speaker 1: were last week, and I just feel like Minnesota has
Speaker 1: shown more this season than the Niners. But I guess
Speaker 1: you just gotta put a lot into what's happened the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. It's a great matchup, and I
Speaker 1: do I do want to see quietly Jimmy g has
Speaker 1: put together is his longest run of solid play. I
Speaker 1: know he had a terrible miss on that twenty play
Speaker 1: drive it should have been a touchdown, but in general,
Speaker 1: he's been better and he's staying on the field. Um.
Speaker 1: I love how they're using Deebo Samuel Um. That is
Speaker 1: excellent usage of him. But yeah, I think the Vikings
Speaker 1: are just a team that you know, no matter what
Speaker 1: happens here, this isn't gonna be a blowout. They've now
Speaker 1: shown that this is who they are. They are going
Speaker 1: to score points. They're going to have stretches where perhaps
Speaker 1: the offense goes cold and the defense UH struggles that
Speaker 1: lets teams back in games. And I think that's what
Speaker 1: makes them so fun, that they always are involved in
Speaker 1: UH high scoring affairs and they always give the other
Speaker 1: team a chance to win it. So I think this
Speaker 1: is not a game that I would lock as much
Speaker 1: as I like the Vikings, because they just haven't earned
Speaker 1: the trust of the lock. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I do like their chances because I still think they
Speaker 1: are as good as anybody in the NFC UM right now.
Speaker 1: I have them number ten in the power rankings at
Speaker 1: five and five, which again speaks to what's going on
Speaker 1: in the league right now more than anything else. That
Speaker 1: there's the parody is so strong the season, but that
Speaker 1: is my feeling. I'm all in on the Bikes. I
Speaker 1: like him, but I don't trust them. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: trust them this week too, because that's you know, an
Speaker 1: emotional division win, big game. You go on the road
Speaker 1: and you're gonna be missing two starters I assume on
Speaker 1: the defensive line, one Dalvin Tomlinson, who's probably their best
Speaker 1: run stopper is out. And then Everson Griffin who was
Speaker 1: involved in a incident which required police, which is still
Speaker 1: unfolding as we're taping this, but he posted some messages
Speaker 1: on social media that we're disturbing and he was afraid
Speaker 1: that people were and shoot him. So he's had mental
Speaker 1: health scares before and this seems very serious and you
Speaker 1: obviously just hope he's okay. But just like in terms
Speaker 1: of the matchup, those two guys being gone versus a
Speaker 1: San Francisco offensive line that's just killing it. Um p
Speaker 1: F noted, like Trent william says, the highest grade of
Speaker 1: any run blocker in history of them grading right now
Speaker 1: he is, I mean an epic season. They also are
Speaker 1: number one in e p A expected points um you know,
Speaker 1: per play. Since the moment that Kyle Shanahan was on
Speaker 1: the fence about starting Jimmy Garoppolo, the moment where I
Speaker 1: think he would have gone to Trey Lance actually was
Speaker 1: after that Colts game, but Tree Lance wasn't healthy enough
Speaker 1: to play that week. Remember, he was like they asked him,
Speaker 1: and he was like, I would guess. So when they
Speaker 1: when he asked if Jimmy g would start but tree
Speaker 1: Lance wasn't ready that week, and since then their number
Speaker 1: one in E p A with these long, slow drives
Speaker 1: that gets Marco and and it is fun to watch.
Speaker 1: It is funny though, to think of this matchup as like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's Kyle versus the one that got away.
Speaker 1: You know, he's watching this Kirk Cousins having his best
Speaker 1: season ever tape and being like, man, if we had
Speaker 1: that guy, we'd win the super Bowl. He was so
Speaker 1: fascinated with Husins for so long and he never got
Speaker 1: I mean, Cousins would do this in spurts, but right
Speaker 1: now you're getting like an unbridled bad boy version of
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousin that, uh, he's winning me over. I used
Speaker 1: to the Packers had like held onto either of those
Speaker 1: interceptions that he almost threw, and I thought he played
Speaker 1: a really good game overall. But then just like the
Speaker 1: story is different coming out of that. And that was
Speaker 1: why Zimmer was asked about it, because Kirk Cousins said
Speaker 1: after the game, maybe I shouldn't have been so aggressive,
Speaker 1: and and Zimmer's whole thing was and now you're getting
Speaker 1: the sense maybe it's more about Kirk than the offense.
Speaker 1: Zimmer said, like We've been telling him to be aggressive
Speaker 1: all season, like we want him to keep taking those
Speaker 1: shots and throw it to Jefferson will be better off
Speaker 1: that way. That sports. I know what you're saying. I
Speaker 1: saw other people saying, Oh, it wasn't a great game
Speaker 1: by Cousins. That was a good game. The way it works,
Speaker 1: it's the way it works. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes
Speaker 1: you don't. Um they're attacking downfield and that's made the
Speaker 1: offense so much better. All right, Greg, You're up next.
Speaker 1: I am, and I'm gonna take the the Homer pick.
Speaker 1: I'm taking Titans. I'm taking Patriots. I'm taking Vrabel versus
Speaker 1: the man who taught him how to set an edge,
Speaker 1: Bill Belonship. H Uh. The Titans are so weird. It's
Speaker 1: someone noted in like their last eight games, the team
Speaker 1: that had left fewer yards you know, one six of
Speaker 1: those eight. They just have these bizarre games like they
Speaker 1: did a week ago, and a lot of times they
Speaker 1: were coming out on top of these games where they
Speaker 1: would look like they were outplayed and then they'd win
Speaker 1: the game. I just think they're in a similar situation
Speaker 1: right now. If A. J. Brown is out as we're
Speaker 1: taping this we don't know. But not only do you
Speaker 1: lose a j Brown, Marcus Johnson, who had stepped up
Speaker 1: nicely in Julio jones absence, is out for the season. Um.
Speaker 1: This team is so injured that they're doing walkthroughs on Wednesdays,
Speaker 1: which is you know, some teams do that, but it's unconventional.
Speaker 1: But in Brabel doesn't want to do that. He just
Speaker 1: is saying, we're so injured right now, we really can't
Speaker 1: hold like a full practice. And I think what is
Speaker 1: helping to um come out now that Henry is not
Speaker 1: there is that their past protection stinks. It's one thing
Speaker 1: for Tannehill to try to carry this team without the players,
Speaker 1: but this is one of the worst offensive lines in
Speaker 1: the entire league in terms of protection, and that's like
Speaker 1: a big change from previous years. And I think this
Speaker 1: is a Patriots team on defense with actual pass rushers
Speaker 1: that can take advantage of bad offensive lines more more
Speaker 1: than any Patriots team I've seen a while. This is
Speaker 1: a terrible spot for the Titans. I mean, it is
Speaker 1: really bad. They you know, they're still in good shape
Speaker 1: and that division to keep an eye on the cults
Speaker 1: here surging Um. The fact that they are missing these players,
Speaker 1: the fact that they have a bit of an identity
Speaker 1: crisis post Derrick Henry, the fact that the Patriots get
Speaker 1: after you as a quarterback in Tannehill just came off
Speaker 1: that game where he's throwing the ball to the other
Speaker 1: team repeatedly when they had chances to get back in
Speaker 1: that game. I just think this is a bad, bad
Speaker 1: timing for the Titans. I'm locking up the Patriots here.
Speaker 1: I think this is uh, this is a game that
Speaker 1: they are going to continue to roll. They will roll
Speaker 1: into Orchard Park at eight and four and in first place,
Speaker 1: because I think they're catching the Titans at the exact
Speaker 1: right time. And the Titans, if they are fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to make the playoffs, which they taught probably will if
Speaker 1: they're healthy and they see New England again, maybe even
Speaker 1: up in Foxboro, I might feel differently about the game,
Speaker 1: but right now I think this is a really well
Speaker 1: set up situation for Belichick and friends. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: one of the biggest non stories of the season was
Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson, who was let go by the team. And
Speaker 1: I hear you that the Saints on paper right now
Speaker 1: look like the worst offense, But the Titans are getting
Speaker 1: close with the bodies they're putting out there, and I like,
Speaker 1: who do you trust the most in this contest? I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the Patriots defense that week to week is
Speaker 1: throttling people left and right, and on offense, just keep
Speaker 1: running the ball and get you know, lower mistakes from
Speaker 1: Matt from Matt Jones than what the Titans offer. And
Speaker 1: we're good here. I mean this this really there's no
Speaker 1: excuse for New England not to win this thing. Great.
Speaker 1: I don't totally dismiss the Titans in this game because
Speaker 1: their defense and Rabel's coaching has earned such a great
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt. I'm surprised the Patriots are almost
Speaker 1: a touchdown favored in this game. It's keeps going up.
Speaker 1: It's up to six and a half, which I you know,
Speaker 1: I I think I think it would be, but now
Speaker 1: it wasn't earlier. And it's just people. People see these
Speaker 1: injuries and they're and they're worried about. And yet I
Speaker 1: don't feel entirely comfortable because I do think the Titans
Speaker 1: have something you can't measure. They're also the team I
Speaker 1: think that helped rebuild this entire Patriots organization when they
Speaker 1: beat up on the Patriots in that game, not that
Speaker 1: Tom Brady was necessarily coming back, but in that playoff
Speaker 1: game a year and a half ago, I think Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick left and hated the fact that the Titans were
Speaker 1: like the bigger, stronger, more physical team, better looking team
Speaker 1: coming off a bus. Not that Tom Brady would be
Speaker 1: there now. But you look at the way the Patriots
Speaker 1: are built now, big dudes. I think they're so different
Speaker 1: with Trent Brown in the lineup to they're just a
Speaker 1: mawelling group upfront, but on both sides, it's like they're
Speaker 1: they're trying to be like the Titans, and I think
Speaker 1: right now they're a little better version of what One
Speaker 1: little thing on Trent Brown and is it just me? Um,
Speaker 1: he looks like an adult baby to me, Like he
Speaker 1: looks like he has a baby's head on an adult body.
Speaker 1: I'll leave the comment right there, but I whenever he
Speaker 1: is unhelmeted, is my takeaway on his appearance. I see
Speaker 1: where you're going quote. Can we get that quote to
Speaker 1: Trent Brown? Well, it's, by the way, that's not to
Speaker 1: suggest that he's not a good looking man. It's just
Speaker 1: that he he has sort of a baby is face.
Speaker 1: That's not I mean, there's a difference between saying somebody
Speaker 1: has a baby face, like a Zach Wilson type and
Speaker 1: saying he actually looks like he has a baby's head. Well,
Speaker 1: i can't win on this show today, but I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to kill the guy just said. It is an
Speaker 1: observation that I've made, and you know, it is not
Speaker 1: an attack on anyone. I wouldn't argue. And yet I
Speaker 1: also would never say that if I knew Trent Brown
Speaker 1: could possibly hear it. He is six eight, he is
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy five pounds, and yet he is
Speaker 1: faster than all of us. That that is quite a combination.
Speaker 1: It's stunning to me, though, that I see a baby's
Speaker 1: head on top of a six ft eight body. So,
Speaker 1: you know, every day, just that the streets are rumbling
Speaker 1: with my you know, insanely, which powers about whichever team
Speaker 1: I lock, other one wins. And I feel like I should,
Speaker 1: you know, use this time to lock the Titans. But
Speaker 1: I am actually so afraid of this game that I'm
Speaker 1: I'm actually afraid, okay, but it's working every week when
Speaker 1: you lock against True and but I just feel so
Speaker 1: bad for Justin and you know, but Dan, I love you.
Speaker 1: You you picked the Patriots, So I just feel like
Speaker 1: it's fair if I locked the Titans. You know that
Speaker 1: that always that leads to good things for the person
Speaker 1: on the other side of the ledger. Another lockoff between
Speaker 1: Ricky and I. All right, let's hit pause here, we'll
Speaker 1: be right back. All right, let's move on. I will
Speaker 1: grab a eight game the Rams at the Packers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to see this all, you know, after the
Speaker 1: Rams hit the bye week, and the whole thing about
Speaker 1: the Rams is they can't even tackle anybody. They're so soft.
Speaker 1: There's a week and I wonder if Sean McVeigh is
Speaker 1: a great head coach. Uh didn't clip off a few
Speaker 1: of those conversations that have been had in the mainstream
Speaker 1: media about how the Rams aren't a real rugged team,
Speaker 1: They're not a real football team. They're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to handle it uh in the crucible of the
Speaker 1: playoffs and all that stuff. I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's pretty good motivation. UH. And now you get a
Speaker 1: test right off the bat. You go to lambeau Field
Speaker 1: to face the Packers. UM, and I just think, this is,
Speaker 1: this is a great game, and this is and I know,
Speaker 1: right now, uh, you look at the NFC and the
Speaker 1: Cardinals are deservedly so seen as the best team in
Speaker 1: that conference. But I wonder if at top gear, if
Speaker 1: the two best teams still ultimately are the Rams and Packers,
Speaker 1: and whether it will play out that way in January.
Speaker 1: And I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility
Speaker 1: that that these teams have that ceiling to be playing
Speaker 1: in the NFC title game. So I kind of see
Speaker 1: that as potential preview of that. I think this is
Speaker 1: another coin flip game. It's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: fun to see it. And if you're a Rams fan,
Speaker 1: you want to see Matthew Stafford rise to the challenge
Speaker 1: here after a couple of down weeks and go toe
Speaker 1: to toe with Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers with a bad toe,
Speaker 1: by the way, so you got two healthy toes against
Speaker 1: one healthy toe advantage Los Angeles. I just I'd also
Speaker 1: think toe or not. Aaron Rodgers last week looked insane.
Speaker 1: I thought one of the best games I've seen him
Speaker 1: playing a long time. I mean some of the throws
Speaker 1: he was making, the one across his body to Josiah
Speaker 1: Degra for his first touchdown ever was wild. I mean
Speaker 1: just that he was all over the place. But if
Speaker 1: you're Matthew Stafford, if you're Cooper Cup, if you're Sean McVeigh,
Speaker 1: you have to also like what the Vikings did to
Speaker 1: that defense, You've got to think there's opportunities there. I thought,
Speaker 1: Sean McVeigh, who is you know? I thought after that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl loss, we were at the combine, Sean McVeigh
Speaker 1: was up on the Good Morning Football Risers doing an
Speaker 1: interview with Peter Schraeger and friends, and like, to me,
Speaker 1: it just seemed like it's still haunted him. There was
Speaker 1: something gone in his swagger, and you know he's gotten
Speaker 1: it back here and there. But after that loss to
Speaker 1: the Niners and going to to the bye week, his comments,
Speaker 1: where I thought, is telling and desperate and humbled as
Speaker 1: i've heard a coach at least from him at all.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I think that they probably are coming out,
Speaker 1: to your point, Dan, hyper determined to reverse the narrative
Speaker 1: that they are that they're a soft team inside this
Speaker 1: NFC playoff race. I don't buy that. I don't think
Speaker 1: any of us truly do. We're talking about guys like
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald, but they were pushed around. Legitimately, this is
Speaker 1: not this kind of The Packers aren't going to do
Speaker 1: it to you the same way as those teams might have.
Speaker 1: But this is a dangerous scenario because if they suddenly
Speaker 1: dropped this game the Rams, a lot of questions are raised.
Speaker 1: I think the Packers like have something about them that
Speaker 1: you can't quite measure this season, you know, whether you
Speaker 1: wanta called mojo or camaraderie, I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: Like They've won in such tough situations, and I think
Speaker 1: that does build up over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the Rams have had that. Like
Speaker 1: the Rams seem worse than their numbers, the Packers seemed
Speaker 1: better than their numbers. And yet this week, even if
Speaker 1: I like the Packers better long term, is a nice
Speaker 1: week to catch Green Bay, who's kind of limping to
Speaker 1: their bye week. They have one of these late buys, Jenkins.
Speaker 1: Elton Jenkins is out for the season. We know Bactr
Speaker 1: had a setback in his knee recovery and he had
Speaker 1: another surgery, and they still hope he's going to come
Speaker 1: back this season, but it's not for this game. So
Speaker 1: the offensive line is very thin, and yet I'm with you, Mark,
Speaker 1: like that that Rogers performance was at like a warning
Speaker 1: to the rest of the NFC, because I thought that
Speaker 1: was the best game he had all the season. It's
Speaker 1: been like Aaron Rodgers game manager all year, and that
Speaker 1: was just like Aaron Rodgers v I don't give an
Speaker 1: the last the last four possessions, he threw four touchdowns
Speaker 1: and like it was one of those things where the
Speaker 1: Vikings only chance was that the clock played out the
Speaker 1: way it did and they had the ball last and
Speaker 1: they kept Rogers off the field. So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's that's gonna be a fun to watch. I mean
Speaker 1: he did. He did pump it up um the serious
Speaker 1: nature of the toe issue um after the game, so
Speaker 1: I guess it is worth watching. But it certainly didn't
Speaker 1: seem to bother him in that game. It seems like
Speaker 1: Mason Crosby has ten injured toes to me, But no,
Speaker 1: that's a whole different conversation. Know, he's only on that team.
Speaker 1: Let's face it, he's been so bad. He's only on
Speaker 1: a team because of the relationships he's established there with
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers and the trust he's earned over being as
Speaker 1: good as he's been overall in his career, but he's
Speaker 1: become a major liability for them. You wonder if it's
Speaker 1: at this point the auditioning for kickers has to be
Speaker 1: one bad game away at this point. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: this draft really set up well here, UM, I will
Speaker 1: grab and I will run to Tampa Bay at Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Um in the early window. Great, great game the Bucks
Speaker 1: on Monday night. Uh, really it was clinical. It was
Speaker 1: exactly the type of win that you want. They started
Speaker 1: six and one, they hit that bump in the road
Speaker 1: with back to back losses. They hit the by and
Speaker 1: then come back and just take care of a Giant's
Speaker 1: team that was totally lost. And we'll get to the
Speaker 1: Giants and the Jason Garrett news when we get to
Speaker 1: their game. But Tampa was just more of the same.
Speaker 1: I thought that they're just taking care of business, biding
Speaker 1: their time. They're gonna get there, you know, eleven, twelve,
Speaker 1: thirteen wins, and then we'll be see you in January
Speaker 1: and they're gonna they'll be ready to roll barring any
Speaker 1: serious injury. I feel so good about them on a
Speaker 1: week to week basis, even with the somewhat recent struggles. However,
Speaker 1: they go to Indianapolis and face a Cults team that
Speaker 1: fears nothing, fears no God right now because they have
Speaker 1: the most unstoppable player in the league at this time
Speaker 1: unless you, you know, want to go on Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: corner um. Jonathan Taylor is such a beast and it
Speaker 1: will be a great challenge. I don't know where Vidavea is.
Speaker 1: It sounds like he he sounds like he's gonna play.
Speaker 1: He's such an important part of their run defense and
Speaker 1: really everything that Tampa does. But Taylor has I believe,
Speaker 1: eight straight games now with over one yards from scrimmage.
Speaker 1: He was completely unstoppable in Buffalo. So you have a
Speaker 1: great Bucks team, a champion on the road against the
Speaker 1: Colts team that's feeling itself pumping in my veins with
Speaker 1: the fourth over. Yeah, that's a great one. It's it's
Speaker 1: too really good run defenses. The Colts are top two
Speaker 1: I think right now in the in the Bucks are
Speaker 1: always great, but doesn't feel like one matters more than
Speaker 1: the other. It's like, yeah, if if you stop the
Speaker 1: Bucks riding so hot, you know, if if if the
Speaker 1: Bucks doesn't matter, if you can slow down Jonathan Taylor running,
Speaker 1: then then they're in big trouble, even a guy as
Speaker 1: good as Jonathan Taylor. To me, it's football. It's like
Speaker 1: he's partly a function of his surroundings. Early in the season,
Speaker 1: the offensive lines totally banged up. He's pretty much held
Speaker 1: in check the first month of the year. Now that
Speaker 1: like the numbers show that he's not getting touched before
Speaker 1: contact sometimes until four yards per carry per play, which
Speaker 1: is insane. It's like two yards more than any other team.
Speaker 1: It's because that offensive line is playing so well, and
Speaker 1: and he's the most talented, i think, best pure runner
Speaker 1: that there is in terms of making people missbreaking tackles,
Speaker 1: going long, so that combination is unstoppable. I don't think
Speaker 1: the Cults will be one of those teams like the
Speaker 1: Patriots are and other teams that that look at the
Speaker 1: Bucks and they're like, oh, we're not gonna run. They're
Speaker 1: still going to try to run. It's just like, who's
Speaker 1: going to be better. Well, it was a week ago
Speaker 1: we were talking about Buffalo's defense and how you know
Speaker 1: the railroad probably stopped at that point for Indy. Andy
Speaker 1: went and said, we're just gonna continue to do it
Speaker 1: more and more, and they blew the doors off of Buffalo.
Speaker 1: You know, on the blocking front, Nate Tice had to
Speaker 1: I thought he was pointed out very in good fashion.
Speaker 1: How Jack Doyle has been a huge part of that
Speaker 1: as well for Jonathan Taylor. They they are suddenly this
Speaker 1: team that I think could beat anyone in the A
Speaker 1: f C. I mean, they look phenomenal. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's a Hard Knox HBO type of spiritual metaphysical
Speaker 1: bump they're receiving, but it's real, and it's the rare
Speaker 1: game where I feel like Tom Brady, this doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: It's not really the A storyline. It is Jonathan Taylor
Speaker 1: and the one thing I knowed about the Bucks, and
Speaker 1: when they get hot, they get hot, so who cares.
Speaker 1: But they have been huge variance wise in home and
Speaker 1: away splits. They're scoring fifteen fewer points per game on
Speaker 1: the road and allowing eleven more points per game away
Speaker 1: from Raymond James Stadium. It's been happening all year long.
Speaker 1: So from that angle, I kind of like the idea
Speaker 1: that the Colts just can keep doing what they're doing
Speaker 1: and say, come bring it, Tom Brady, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: bring something back your way too. You got a disguise
Speaker 1: stuff though defensively, and they can do it more than
Speaker 1: the Giants did Monday night. I know we didn't get
Speaker 1: a chance to recap that game, but it's crazy just
Speaker 1: how well Brady is moving right now. And I swear,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's just like memory, I'm maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: I swear I've watched every Brady started his career right
Speaker 1: and like he moves better now than he did in
Speaker 1: two thousand one. There's just no question. People joke about
Speaker 1: that twelve yard game head which was all fired up
Speaker 1: about like he is faster now I think than he
Speaker 1: was in O one oh three oh four, and he's
Speaker 1: absolutely as good in terms of moving around in the pocket.
Speaker 1: It's it's insane. He's the m D p F. Jonathan
Speaker 1: Taylor him. Wow, that's strong. Um, I guess I would.
Speaker 1: I'm dubious. I would like this take the stop Watch
Speaker 1: out one or twenty four verse forty four. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, like man who knows he's he's obviously
Speaker 1: put in a lot of work. Um, I think maybe
Speaker 1: what makes him seem more nimble is just how much
Speaker 1: he uh you know, dominates in terms of the mental
Speaker 1: side of things and his ability to quickly react more
Speaker 1: quickly than most quarterbacks, knowing when to now flee the
Speaker 1: pocket or when to step up. He just everything is
Speaker 1: in slow motion for Brady obviously, um and he just
Speaker 1: seems more nimble as a result. I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's obviously one of the great uh medical marvels
Speaker 1: in the history of professional sports in our country. About
Speaker 1: that taking it up a notch? All right, great game,
Speaker 1: we love it. Let's pick that game. What the hell
Speaker 1: I took the bucks on? No old the NFL dot
Speaker 1: com slash game picks do it? By the way? In
Speaker 1: that in general, are you're having as it has to
Speaker 1: be a very difficult season to pick games obviously, I
Speaker 1: mean it's hard to not great against the spread? Is
Speaker 1: like six or seven over, which is which is not
Speaker 1: great but not terrible either. What's like industry average? Are
Speaker 1: you in that in the I have no idea. I'm
Speaker 1: sure my my straight up picks are probably badly against
Speaker 1: the spread. I would think average would be close to five.
Speaker 1: I'm slightly above that. Nothing. Who's killing you? Who's killing
Speaker 1: you week after week? The team that every time you
Speaker 1: pick them to cover, they don't? I think that I
Speaker 1: like gave up on the Eagles right when they became good,
Speaker 1: after having way too much faith in them for a while.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you finished without a troubling record at
Speaker 1: the end of the season, what happens in house? Does
Speaker 1: you know? Ali bun Pori? Yeah, you're taking you on
Speaker 1: the hand or something. You're taking over. You've got it
Speaker 1: next time? Why you get two columns instead of on? Um?
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on, Gregg. It has worked its
Speaker 1: way back to you after the snake slithers away. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll take the remaining late game on the docket. That's
Speaker 1: Chargers Broncos and what are you gonna do? You know?
Speaker 1: Two teams I don't have any feel for whatsoever, like
Speaker 1: to total old disappointments, Um. Two defenses that are very
Speaker 1: similar in their strengths in which they don't really have
Speaker 1: right now, in their weaknesses which are built in Brandon's
Speaker 1: Daley got to where he is because of Vick Fongio.
Speaker 1: Came from a small college school to work for him
Speaker 1: in Chicago, uh, and then in Denver too, So he's
Speaker 1: been on this Bronco staff. Brandon's Dalely, it's amazing how
Speaker 1: quickly like his career rose he was like a linebackers
Speaker 1: coach a couple of years ago, and their defenses are
Speaker 1: both terrible. And I trust Justin Herbert more in this
Speaker 1: game than I do Uh Teddy, of course, but I
Speaker 1: kind of just expect both offenses to win. I expect
Speaker 1: it to be a high scoring game. You can't fall
Speaker 1: here if you're if you're l A, you can't. You can't.
Speaker 1: This is your six and four. You'd be seven and
Speaker 1: forward put you in a great spot. You've got the
Speaker 1: Bengals and Giants after that, and then you're often running.
Speaker 1: And like Justin Herbert, which we we we watched with
Speaker 1: our eyes live on Sunday night. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's not just his arm, it's what he did with
Speaker 1: his legs in that game. He he is someone that's
Speaker 1: going to challenge Denver in every possible way. And I
Speaker 1: kind of love these coaches when they know each other
Speaker 1: this well, and it is mentor verse, you know, pupil
Speaker 1: versus teacher. Um. You know that these things don't always
Speaker 1: amount to much, but it's kind of spicy going in.
Speaker 1: I think it's you might be trying to project that
Speaker 1: into the world. The Broncos can engage in a shootout, Greg,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I know l A wasn't overly impressive
Speaker 1: on defense. I mean, the Steelers just engaged in a shootout. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Broncos are an above average offense or an average
Speaker 1: offense just by the numbers they put thirty on the
Speaker 1: Cowboys a few weeks ago. I just mean, like anyone
Speaker 1: can get in a shoot out with this Chargers defense
Speaker 1: right now. I know that. But if you look at
Speaker 1: even the game last week against Pittsburgh, Um, some of
Speaker 1: those drives weren't exactly marathon marches down the field for Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: I know they were able to tally up points. Um.
Speaker 1: I understand that you may not trust l A, but
Speaker 1: I don't think Teddy and the Broncos really have shown
Speaker 1: that they can go toe to toe. If it's one
Speaker 1: of those good days for the Chargers offense, I guess
Speaker 1: I want to see consistency from the Los Angeles attack.
Speaker 1: We saw it obviously against a deeply underman Pittsburgh defense.
Speaker 1: That's a totally different game of t J. Watts playing.
Speaker 1: It's a totally different game of of making Fitzpatrick's playing
Speaker 1: and Joe Hayden's on the field. So show it to me,
Speaker 1: show me that you can do it back to back
Speaker 1: weeks and and really start gaining some momentum in the season.
Speaker 1: I think it's a really important game for the Chargers
Speaker 1: if they want us to kind of take them seriously
Speaker 1: as a credible a f C contender. I think it's
Speaker 1: fair because, like they rolled against Pittsburgh five and thirty
Speaker 1: three yards, but that came a week after they put
Speaker 1: up to fifty against the Vikings. They had two hundred
Speaker 1: against the Ravens, and this was what we thought. I mean, defense,
Speaker 1: we'll see, but we thought this offense had a chance
Speaker 1: with Herbert to to shine and it's been somewhat disappointing.
Speaker 1: But if they look like they did last week, that
Speaker 1: Steelers defense was seen a lot of guys too, so
Speaker 1: I don't put everything on that game, but they're starting
Speaker 1: to warm up. We should point out since we last
Speaker 1: talked Broncos, they've signed Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick, both
Speaker 1: two big long term deals. Love Tim Patrick. What a
Speaker 1: story to bounced around the league. Undrafted guy gets a
Speaker 1: nice contract. I think a nice deal for Denver. Frankly
Speaker 1: was almost underpaid, but I get taken the guarantee and
Speaker 1: Sutton stay in long term too. And you got Jerry
Speaker 1: Judy obviously under that rookie contract for another uh three
Speaker 1: years after this season if you picked up his option.
Speaker 1: It's almost like really well set up for them to go,
Speaker 1: whether you know it's a draft or free agency or
Speaker 1: trade to say, hey, we have pieces here, come here
Speaker 1: and be our Matt stafford um that they're kind of
Speaker 1: setting things up that way, it seems. Unless Teddy can
Speaker 1: go on a heater or here and keep himself in
Speaker 1: the mix, we shall see. Still a lot of football
Speaker 1: to play in the season. By the way, I asked
Speaker 1: Ricky to look it up for me, and she, uh,
Speaker 1: she did it. She did a nice job with it.
Speaker 1: We talked about it last week, get length about how
Speaker 1: home teams were actually under five hundred through ten weeks
Speaker 1: of the season. Things did not get better in week
Speaker 1: or leve. Then the home teams won six games uh
Speaker 1: and lost nine. So six and nine they went last week.
Speaker 1: So they're now four games under five hundred as we
Speaker 1: hit Thanksgiving. So keep an eye on that. Doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if the Broncos are home, doesn't matter that anybody's home
Speaker 1: in this strange What about what about the air? People
Speaker 1: like to talk a lot about they get tired. That's
Speaker 1: the advantage, all right, Mark, that's have you ever gone
Speaker 1: skiing or something like that in Denver as a kid
Speaker 1: like I didn't like you are hideously sick for about
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. I'm just telling you it's real, the
Speaker 1: real phenomenon. I know. I just feel like, um, you
Speaker 1: don't hear as much about it when like the Broncos
Speaker 1: are getting drilled by the Eagles left, No, it seems
Speaker 1: to not play as much then, Um, all right, you
Speaker 1: want me to pick a game, I'll do it. I
Speaker 1: would like to. I'm going Pittsburgh at Cincinnati in the
Speaker 1: early time slot. There good old a f C North
Speaker 1: between two teams, and I think it's at a major
Speaker 1: turning point for both. I mean, the loser of this
Speaker 1: is in a little bit of trouble. I they thought
Speaker 1: Cincinnati like they you know, that game was close against
Speaker 1: the Raiders last week at the end. But Joe Mixon
Speaker 1: is not getting talked about enough. I don't know if
Speaker 1: just because there's so many other running backs that are
Speaker 1: having good seasons, but he's quietly you know, fourth in
Speaker 1: the league and rushing you had a monster has had
Speaker 1: a couple of my Monster game last week, and I
Speaker 1: thought they just ran really hard and that you know,
Speaker 1: they didn't have him for ten games last year and
Speaker 1: they didn't have Burrows, So that this all leads to
Speaker 1: why the transformations happened a little bit on offense and Chase,
Speaker 1: you know, Jamar Chase. I want to see what happens
Speaker 1: against Pittsburgh because he's had three games in a row
Speaker 1: where he's been under fifty yards and you know, Mike
Speaker 1: Tomlin basically said yeah, because it's the product of a
Speaker 1: rookie showing that he's earned the respect of game planners
Speaker 1: and like they are. There was there was a play
Speaker 1: last week where they threw him like a slant and
Speaker 1: like he had three guys on him. So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a different journey for him. But Pittsburgh, you know,
Speaker 1: we just talked about that Chargers game and how they
Speaker 1: rolled over this defense. T J. Watt coming back, make
Speaker 1: it Fitzpatrick sounds like he's coming back. Joe Hayden. That
Speaker 1: helps a lot. I thought last week what they were
Speaker 1: able to do was basically put a ton of attention
Speaker 1: on Cam Hayward, and it mostly worked when he wasn't
Speaker 1: batting a past that was intercepted, or punching Justin Herbert
Speaker 1: in the chest while he was on the ground. Obscene.
Speaker 1: I don't know what even know why he's eligible this week?
Speaker 1: How are we getting away with that? But anyways, this
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a blood bath right down to
Speaker 1: the end. I almost locked up the Steelers, but I'm
Speaker 1: a little too freaked out by they're like five point
Speaker 1: underdogs to know that. I think this is how I
Speaker 1: see the a f C North right now. Um So
Speaker 1: in the power rings, I have Ravens at thirteen, Browns
Speaker 1: of fourteen Angles of fifteen, Steelers at nineteen. I think
Speaker 1: there is a difference. I think that the Steelers are
Speaker 1: just a tick below these teams, certainly when they're compromised
Speaker 1: as they were on Sunday. Um now, we'll see where
Speaker 1: are we at physically on their defense, or we can
Speaker 1: have these guys back in the field, because that makes
Speaker 1: obviously a big difference. But I just I don't like
Speaker 1: their chances. Uh. If Cincinnati's moving the ball well and
Speaker 1: they need big Ben in this offense to score points,
Speaker 1: I just don't see it on a week to week basis. Uh,
Speaker 1: it just seems like an old team and It really
Speaker 1: stood out to me. And this is you know, we're
Speaker 1: just talking about Tom Brady at age forty four appearing
Speaker 1: to be, by some eyes to be faster than he
Speaker 1: was when he was twenty four. Uh, Big Ben. That
Speaker 1: is nobody saying that about him. And I think it
Speaker 1: really stood out to me in that game against the
Speaker 1: Chargers that when a play broke down for l A,
Speaker 1: they had a young quarterback who was able to escape
Speaker 1: the pocket. He ran for ninety yards. That was the
Speaker 1: most yard ast you've ever seen in from a Charger's quarterback. Actually,
Speaker 1: And when a play breaks down for the Steelers, when
Speaker 1: things aren't set up perfectly right and the protection isn't there,
Speaker 1: it's over. It's a rap. Because Ben is maybe the
Speaker 1: greatest and the most obvious stone age pony marks since
Speaker 1: late period Dan Dan Marino at the stage. So I
Speaker 1: think that's a problem for Pittsburgh's offense that the quarterback
Speaker 1: is so immobile that it takes away just any element
Speaker 1: of surprise and getting plus plays out of negative situations. Well,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't have the big arm to make up
Speaker 1: for it. Now to you mentioned that play to Claypool
Speaker 1: last week, Greet kind of under threw him deep. That's
Speaker 1: that said, right, that said, I think their best to
Speaker 1: bend games of the year are the last two, and
Speaker 1: I think the offense is at least trending up. You know,
Speaker 1: you said like they didn't exactly light it up. Every
Speaker 1: drive they had was successful until the last two. I
Speaker 1: mean they got they got stuck at the two yard line,
Speaker 1: but there's only three drives they had in the first half.
Speaker 1: They marched right down the field against the Chargers. Then
Speaker 1: they put up a lot of points in short fields,
Speaker 1: which is lucky, and they couldn't come through in the end,
Speaker 1: but they did move the ball pretty well. And I
Speaker 1: think they there's just something beyond like who's playing who's
Speaker 1: not that when I see Mike Tomlins speaking on Tuesday
Speaker 1: and I think about like the fact he's never had
Speaker 1: a losing record, and I I disagree with you in
Speaker 1: terms of your power agains. Where I put this division.
Speaker 1: I put the Ravens ahead of the pack and probably
Speaker 1: have them as about a top ten type of team eight,
Speaker 1: eight or nine, and put the other three in a jumble,
Speaker 1: all very equal. And there's something about this Steelers organization
Speaker 1: that there it's not about like XS and knows that. Like,
Speaker 1: I just look at this and I just feel like
Speaker 1: there's something with this Steelers team and Tomlin that I
Speaker 1: just I think they're gonna overachieve in the end. I
Speaker 1: just in and overachieving is ten and seven and probably
Speaker 1: losing in the wild card round. But that that's the
Speaker 1: type of team I see with this, with this group,
Speaker 1: you know what, you convinced me. I'm gonna go stick
Speaker 1: with my initial instinct. I'm locking up Pittsburgh is the
Speaker 1: kind of game they win. It's just the kind of
Speaker 1: game they win. That's a good one. That's That's an
Speaker 1: onion hanger right there, Mary, that is I like it.
Speaker 1: We were going out underdogs across the board here on
Speaker 1: on lock so far with Dan to go, West took
Speaker 1: on the Westley, I got, I got a favorite, a
Speaker 1: heavy favorite. As it turns out, I have Erica. Oh
Speaker 1: that's right. Dan took the Patriots, Erica took one. I
Speaker 1: got the Lions. What a week and watch I'll be
Speaker 1: the only one who loses, especially favorites, not only our
Speaker 1: home teams losing favorites. I think have a losing record
Speaker 1: over the last three weeks to combine. So that's pretty crazy. Alright, Mark,
Speaker 1: you have the snake here. After this, I do have
Speaker 1: the snake. I'm gonna go Carolina at Miami. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I I typically try to take a game that is
Speaker 1: like an ultra trash bag is my second early game.
Speaker 1: But I'm intrigued by the Panthers as much as any
Speaker 1: team around right now. And I don't think it's just
Speaker 1: Cam Newton's um arrival. I get that. So it's like
Speaker 1: an ultra trash bag? Is that like the quality? Is
Speaker 1: it like a trash bag that it's on the top
Speaker 1: shelf in the trash bag aisle of the grocery store
Speaker 1: and it's really made of the type of materials that
Speaker 1: it will not break, will never rip, will never let
Speaker 1: you down. Or is an ultra trash bag at the
Speaker 1: bottom shelf and it's the one that's sold by the company.
Speaker 1: It's like the supermarket version of it, and you put
Speaker 1: more than a certain amount of weight in it, it
Speaker 1: will just come crashing through the body. Because the top
Speaker 1: of the shelf scenario sounds like a compliment. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking more like, you know, if you get your trash
Speaker 1: picked up and it's the first like smelly bag of
Speaker 1: trash you put in the trash can and it's still
Speaker 1: there at the bottom. Um a week later when the
Speaker 1: trash trucks come back again and it's probably worse than ever.
Speaker 1: That's well, that's it. And you know what, that's a
Speaker 1: different take on it. I didn't even consider looking it
Speaker 1: from that. So you're saying, like the physical placement of
Speaker 1: the trash within the bin, Okay, yeah, the stench, I
Speaker 1: mean the stench coming off a bad team. The first
Speaker 1: of all, it wouldn't be you know, rolled up in
Speaker 1: a nice little box. It would be it would it
Speaker 1: would be hideous to the nose. Um. So I almost
Speaker 1: you know, but then I almost went jets Houston. But
Speaker 1: that's just too bad. I can't deal with that. But
Speaker 1: I want to. I want to be interested in these teams.
Speaker 1: It is Carolina to me. It's like I get that
Speaker 1: it's Cam Newton is back, but it's Christian McCaffrey is
Speaker 1: the real transformation on this offense. Like the idea that like,
Speaker 1: you know, Donald went for weeks and weeks without him.
Speaker 1: He's got his own issues, but it's the perfect timing
Speaker 1: to have him and Cam together them exactly. Um, they
Speaker 1: ran a couple of trick plays last week. I think
Speaker 1: they're feeling themselves. But Matt Rule came out of that
Speaker 1: game pretty furious actually, with the fact they give a
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety yards rushing, saying that if you're in
Speaker 1: the race, good teams don't do that. They lead the
Speaker 1: league in penalties as well, So they're not a perfect
Speaker 1: team on any spy any stretch. But I think that
Speaker 1: they the Panthers at this point are warming up a
Speaker 1: little bit um, as has the Dolphins defense to some degree.
Speaker 1: So I'm kind of intrigued by that matchup. Um I'm
Speaker 1: on the fringe of not buying into the Dolphins at all,
Speaker 1: but these were two teams I picked for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: So it's my which one will I'd be more right
Speaker 1: on by Sunday night. The Dolphins, You're not going to
Speaker 1: be right on either way, because I know that we
Speaker 1: keep making this case. They're like playing all these bad teams.
Speaker 1: There's still three games back right now in the lost
Speaker 1: column with well, you never know you're going against type
Speaker 1: there by counting them out. At this point, they're still
Speaker 1: you know, seven six seven games together. You're right, they
Speaker 1: they gotta win this one. In theory, they might have
Speaker 1: an offense that could do okay against Carolina because I
Speaker 1: think to beat them in their pastors, either got to
Speaker 1: run the ball, and teams have done that pretty well
Speaker 1: a handful of times. Or you gotta just have that
Speaker 1: quick passing game, which is what the Patriots were so
Speaker 1: afraid of, this pass rush that they everything was like
Speaker 1: a three step drop, and no one loves a three
Speaker 1: step drop more than two h two is very predictable
Speaker 1: at this point. He is a He's really good at
Speaker 1: the quick game. He makes the worst offensive line in
Speaker 1: the league look better, which is not nothing. That's something. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he can't do much down the field. It's just
Speaker 1: like not gonna happen. But I think you could probably
Speaker 1: beat the Panthers that way. Thinking I would say now
Speaker 1: that we're starting to get a better look at to
Speaker 1: uh and you know, I'm keeping the door open that
Speaker 1: he could really play well over the last month and
Speaker 1: a half and and change some minds maybe in that building.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't necessarily strike you as a special player.
Speaker 1: I mean, is it too soon to make a comment
Speaker 1: like that. He doesn't have in the best case scenario,
Speaker 1: He's like a poor man's Drew Brees, which never struck
Speaker 1: you with physical to us, that was always his path.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can get there, but that's
Speaker 1: his path, all right. Market was that your second? That
Speaker 1: was my second? That was a snake. Okay, Gregg, it
Speaker 1: comes back to you. I'm trying to leave a game
Speaker 1: open for Shook, you know, just to make it all work.
Speaker 1: So I'm taking Falcons Jaguars as my second game. I
Speaker 1: said it, Uh not because I want to. It's sad
Speaker 1: that when Jamal Agnew got hurt last week, he's out
Speaker 1: for the season for the Jaguars, it was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: their offense is really in trouble now. It's like this
Speaker 1: guy was getting cut and was a sixth receiver on
Speaker 1: other teams, and he's a special teamer and he was
Speaker 1: a really key part of their passing attack. It's been
Speaker 1: it's been tough to watch them. And they look at
Speaker 1: the Falcons this week and I'm sure they think, well,
Speaker 1: this is a team we can at least move the
Speaker 1: ball against. We should be able to protect Trevor Lawrence,
Speaker 1: we should have a game. We have not seen much
Speaker 1: progress out of this Jaguars offense, but this Falcons team,
Speaker 1: if they win this game, which they obviously can they
Speaker 1: got to be one of the worst five and six
Speaker 1: teams we've had in a while. They are thirty second
Speaker 1: in d v O A, by the way, right now
Speaker 1: they are They're the worst team in the NFL according
Speaker 1: to d v A, and yet they could be five
Speaker 1: and six very realistically after that. I'd ask you this
Speaker 1: because I've been up and down on the Falcons and
Speaker 1: I was proven decisively well, but my battle is over
Speaker 1: on the ups for the Pros to this point. Let's
Speaker 1: put that way, But which program under first year head
Speaker 1: coaches do you have more faith in going forward? The
Speaker 1: Falcons just because they're not the Jaguars. I mean, if
Speaker 1: if Ridley Hurst and Patterson were out there, I think
Speaker 1: you had and then you you pick some holes on
Speaker 1: the offensive line, you've got an offense at least you
Speaker 1: can cook with a little bit. But they're not out there.
Speaker 1: They're not Trevor Lawrence versus probably having to replaced Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan down right with program, And to me, I'm already
Speaker 1: looking forward to the next Trevor Lawrence program. This is
Speaker 1: it's a tough year for him. This has not been
Speaker 1: what he expected his rookie seat him to look like.
Speaker 1: I think he has eight touchdowns and three attempts uh
Speaker 1: this season, but he needs help and he needs things
Speaker 1: to get calmed down there. And there was too much
Speaker 1: of a circus this season as a rookie. Um. And
Speaker 1: we're not even to Thanksgiving yet. But he was for
Speaker 1: three for thirteen yards last week and the score was
Speaker 1: seventeen nothing. He had literally done nothing wrong. It's like
Speaker 1: it's it's tough to watch him because you know there's
Speaker 1: really promising, potential superstar there and he's just trapped in
Speaker 1: a bad situation. I think the Falcons and Arthur Smith
Speaker 1: are in a very tough spot here because Matt Ryan
Speaker 1: looks shot to me. I know he can do it
Speaker 1: when you protect him, but he is right, he's in
Speaker 1: that big Ben mold now as well. He's just too
Speaker 1: old and he's aging like the quarterbacks used to age,
Speaker 1: where he's in his mid thirties now, and he's just
Speaker 1: if you get to him with a pass rush, he
Speaker 1: will just get absolutely she lacked and the team will
Speaker 1: get blown out of the building. Um. I know he
Speaker 1: can put together stretches and he still has the accuracy
Speaker 1: and enough arm, but they own so much money still,
Speaker 1: but they also need to move on and get younger
Speaker 1: and more dynamic and get with the times that I
Speaker 1: think being the head coach of the Falcons at the
Speaker 1: end of Matt Ryan's career is not a great safe
Speaker 1: place to be because it's if he's the quarterback next year. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Like, I don't care what you build up
Speaker 1: around him. I think the season is gonna have a
Speaker 1: similar look because he's just the player and decline. It
Speaker 1: reminds me a little bit. The situations are not exact,
Speaker 1: but the tough nature of it. When Jimmy Johnson took
Speaker 1: over the Dolphins, like Jimmy Johnson and Dan Marino are
Speaker 1: gonna take over the NFC, and like Dan Marino, you know,
Speaker 1: like two years later lost his final game, like but
Speaker 1: here's the difference. This is why this is a different situation.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Johnson was one of the most heralded gets for
Speaker 1: any owner as a head coach in the last thirty
Speaker 1: years when he left the Cowboys and then ended up
Speaker 1: with the Dolphins. So he had that that that job
Speaker 1: security to be able to withstand the end of that
Speaker 1: era and then try to start a new one. It
Speaker 1: didn't work out, obviously, Jimmy Johnson in Miami, but Arthur
Speaker 1: Smith does not have the pelts on the wall. So
Speaker 1: I just wonder if if this season goes the way
Speaker 1: it's going and then he has another season where it
Speaker 1: doesn't go well because you have an old quarterback you
Speaker 1: can't move. Now, he's gonna be two years in. That's
Speaker 1: what I mean by I think Arthur Smith's in a
Speaker 1: little bit of danger based on the timing of Ryan's career.
Speaker 1: They have a big They're gonna have a big offseason.
Speaker 1: They're they're one team we could fork, even though I
Speaker 1: know they're right in this all that said about Matt Ryan,
Speaker 1: and I don't totally just I don't disagree with what
Speaker 1: you said, Dan, Like you put him on the Saints
Speaker 1: and they actually have their tackles in and stuff. It's
Speaker 1: like that team might go to the super Bowl. So
Speaker 1: it's like, I think Matt Ryan still something to give.
Speaker 1: I really do. Now. I think he's better now than
Speaker 1: Big Bend, for instance, So he's not at that level,
Speaker 1: but he's also it's a problem and you saw it
Speaker 1: against against New England for sure. All right, let's take
Speaker 1: a time bomb sitting on deep deep down the train
Speaker 1: tracks and the trains not they can't go left to right.
Speaker 1: It just has to go over the bomb and he s, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: He just stresses me out when he's rips off that
Speaker 1: helmet and he's got that red face made. It's just like, God,
Speaker 1: this is not gonna get better. Um, let's close it out.
Speaker 1: You guys left me with the two New York teams.
Speaker 1: Who are they post fifteen straight prime time games? Uh?
Speaker 1: New York Sports is in a really bad place, big
Speaker 1: picture wise, but specifically in the NFL. Of course, I'll
Speaker 1: grab the Jets at Houston. I'll be quick on this
Speaker 1: because we don't need to dwell on the game because
Speaker 1: who cares about the Texans. Good job getting that win
Speaker 1: last week, but you also potentially cost yourself the number
Speaker 1: one overall pick. So bad job the Jets. It only
Speaker 1: the only thing that matters is Zach Wilson's playing again.
Speaker 1: And it is notable that since Michael Lefloor the Brother
Speaker 1: the Bearded Boy um had other quarterbacks with more experience
Speaker 1: and had their heads on their shoulders more. Uh. Excluding
Speaker 1: the Buffalo game when Mike White completely bombed out, the
Speaker 1: offense has been better since Zack Wilson left and There
Speaker 1: are a lot of different factors in there that led
Speaker 1: to it, but the play of Zack Wilson, obviously and
Speaker 1: how poor it was was at the top of the list.
Speaker 1: Does he come back, is he a better quarterback upon
Speaker 1: his return? Does he grow and build uh down the
Speaker 1: stretch here, or does he have a really bad season
Speaker 1: all the way through? And then if you're a Jets fan,
Speaker 1: you're asking questions about, oh God, is it happening again
Speaker 1: at quarterback? It's too early to make any decisions, But
Speaker 1: I will throw one thing out there, hypothetical. Me and
Speaker 1: Claybourne were talking in the news room yesterday. Would you
Speaker 1: we see what's happening in Seattle this day? You know
Speaker 1: this is all nonsense, but fun Russell Wilson to the
Speaker 1: Jets for Zack Wilson, and they also send back that
Speaker 1: Seattle number one pick that they lost to Jamal Adams.
Speaker 1: So Zach Wilson in a one to Seattle for Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: Who says yes? Who says no? I'm saying yes if
Speaker 1: if I'm the Jets, say no. If I was Seattle,
Speaker 1: I think but um, because we have to see what
Speaker 1: happens there. If I was the Jets I would say
Speaker 1: yes to the second because I think there's no more
Speaker 1: precious commodity in the league than a functional franchise also
Speaker 1: all pro type quarterback that you can build around immediately.
Speaker 1: I mean, Zack Wilson remains an unknown project at this point,
Speaker 1: like the idea of them. But but that's that's that
Speaker 1: gets people fired if it goes south, a little bit,
Speaker 1: a little bit of feisty that trade, right, I like
Speaker 1: it also like a lot of how what he has
Speaker 1: seven starts to go, so that's just as many as
Speaker 1: we've seen. There's a lot of runway to evaluate him.
Speaker 1: They were dead last in e p A when he
Speaker 1: was the starter. They were ninth in offensive e p
Speaker 1: A in the starts that he missed missed overall. So
Speaker 1: but there was a lot of other factors. I don't
Speaker 1: think that's all on him, but you you do want
Speaker 1: to see him keep keep it rolling that they're at
Speaker 1: least competent, and it's good, good start for him to
Speaker 1: start off with Houston. YEP. I agree, all right, we
Speaker 1: have to u let's we got one more game and
Speaker 1: then the primetime games. All right, the other Giants, the
Speaker 1: other New York team, the Eagles at the meadow ends
Speaker 1: against the Giants. Uh quick post mortem for the Giants
Speaker 1: after Monday night. The offense a total mess against the Bucks.
Speaker 1: They have multiple opportunities to make that a game, to
Speaker 1: maybe even steal that game, and they kept on getting
Speaker 1: bogged down. And people like Brian Baldinger. Baldy called out
Speaker 1: a specific play And I'm not saying this is what
Speaker 1: got Jason Garrett fired, but I thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: that the internet seized on that one particular play when
Speaker 1: the Giants against a three man rush um had three
Speaker 1: players all converging in the same spot eight yards down field.
Speaker 1: Uh and they're basically ping ponging off each other and
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones has nowhere to go with the ball. And
Speaker 1: Jason Garrett gets fired twenty four hours later. Uh so
Speaker 1: the Giants they're starting over on offense. And I wonder, Mark,
Speaker 1: if do you think that is gonna help Joe Judge
Speaker 1: now that Jason Garrett has been sacrificed to the fans.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a terrible spot for a coach when
Speaker 1: you're in no, it's November and you have to start
Speaker 1: producing scapegoats. Not that Jason Garrett, uh, you know, didn't
Speaker 1: deserve to be demoted slash let go. I think that's
Speaker 1: been you know, in the in the soup for a
Speaker 1: long time. They've been talking about that happening. But I
Speaker 1: don't think it saves Joe Judge or is a good
Speaker 1: thing for Joe Judge, because the overall makeup of this offense,
Speaker 1: looking at who they have personnel wise, it's inexcusable what
Speaker 1: they produced. Um A lot of them have been injured
Speaker 1: though too. I think a week ago we're saying we
Speaker 1: can't judge Jason Garrett, we can't judge Joe Judge, we
Speaker 1: can't judge Daniel Jones because who's not on the field.
Speaker 1: And it's just like, look at at this point, like
Speaker 1: Joe Judge is saving his own job by getting rid
Speaker 1: of other people that usually now maybe not in the
Speaker 1: Giants organization, that usually is a stepping stone. Did weaving
Speaker 1: goodbye to him come January? Right? I think you know
Speaker 1: it only helps him if the offense improves under Freddie Kitchens.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that's the real big story here. It's
Speaker 1: the return of Freddie Kitchens to our life. Um. I
Speaker 1: I think you could look at Calarious Tony's usage alone
Speaker 1: and be like that's a fire able offense just because
Speaker 1: you see him and I just see a super duperstar.
Speaker 1: It was just his movement is exactly what every team
Speaker 1: in this sort of open nfls and they just haven't
Speaker 1: figured out how to use it. There was another play
Speaker 1: fourth and one where Tony Slayton and Gola Day weren't
Speaker 1: even on the field and they just throw the most
Speaker 1: predictable like passed to their backup tight end and everyone
Speaker 1: was covered and Jones had no chance at that place.
Speaker 1: So I think it made sense absolutely to change offenses
Speaker 1: because it wasn't working and just try something different, because
Speaker 1: I think everyone's getting swept out, including Judge if this continues.
Speaker 1: They are eighteen and forty under Gettleman and Ali talked
Speaker 1: about which made everyone mad, was we want to run
Speaker 1: the ball and we want to stop the run. They
Speaker 1: are thirtieth in stopping the run this year. They're terrible
Speaker 1: at running the ball. So even that idea, which didn't
Speaker 1: seem like a great idea, has not played out at all,
Speaker 1: and I think they're all gone if if they don't
Speaker 1: turn it around in some fashion. I think you're right,
Speaker 1: and I think they've made se Kwan Barkley boring, and
Speaker 1: you know he's struggled to stay on the field, but
Speaker 1: even when he plays, he just he doesn't pop anymore
Speaker 1: like he did initially. And Candarius Tony, we all see
Speaker 1: the same thing. When the balls in his hands, he's
Speaker 1: so much fun. And Kenny Golladay has been, uh previously
Speaker 1: in recent seasons one of the best downfield playmakers in
Speaker 1: the NFL when healthy, and neither of those guys have
Speaker 1: a single touchdown this year. So the Giants obviously, uh,
Speaker 1: this was in a lot of ways overdue, even though
Speaker 1: it happened in the middle of November. Right compared the
Speaker 1: development of Candarius Tony to to Vonta Smith and Philly
Speaker 1: who who they will see this week. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just like you've got a general manager in New York
Speaker 1: who feels full of old ideas. They had a no
Speaker 1: ce who was full of old ideas, and we're not
Speaker 1: sure what Joe Judges ideas are. That's not a good mix.
Speaker 1: On the Philadelphia I don't trust any defense stopping this
Speaker 1: Eagles rushing attack right now unless they got something specially
Speaker 1: going on, and the Giants do not. It does feel
Speaker 1: like the Eagles, who are playing with a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence right now, and they have they have a personality,
Speaker 1: they have a mindset that they're gonna run run you over.
Speaker 1: I like their chances here. All right, let's say pause here,
Speaker 1: we'll be right back prime Time. Start with Sunday Night football.
Speaker 1: The Cleveland Browns head to Baltimore against the Ravens. All right, Mark,
Speaker 1: Well just tee it up for you, buddy. How you
Speaker 1: feeling on this one. I like the idea that they
Speaker 1: will have Kareem Hunt back, likely Jack Conklin back. I mean,
Speaker 1: you get back to being who they were. Maybe that
Speaker 1: can help Baker Mayfield coming off the worst game of
Speaker 1: his career. But I put a lot of what's happened
Speaker 1: on Baker Mayfield on Baker Mayfield, and this team is
Speaker 1: in chaos. To me, I don't trust them right now. Um,
Speaker 1: you asked who they were on our network show with
Speaker 1: the real Cleveland Browns. Please stand up. Uh. I think
Speaker 1: they are who they are. They're just a middling team
Speaker 1: right now that feels compared to a year ago. UM, discombobulated, disorganized.
Speaker 1: I don't like watching them. They make me nervous, they
Speaker 1: make me agitated. UM, I don't like the idea of
Speaker 1: them going up against the Ravens team that you know,
Speaker 1: when put with their backs up against the wall, losing
Speaker 1: the game, Tyler Huntley leads them to victory. That's who
Speaker 1: the Ravens are and the Browns right now. I mean that, Yes,
Speaker 1: they've been extremely banged up. They produced six pressures last
Speaker 1: week against the Detroit Lions. On defense, you just even
Speaker 1: even the defense it feels like is so hot and cold.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of weeks We're thinking this could
Speaker 1: be one of the best defenses in the league. Then
Speaker 1: they get utterly torched the next week. So I don't
Speaker 1: see anything consistent from week to week. Their unpredictable. I
Speaker 1: don't like them in this game. I don't like that
Speaker 1: they have this that a bye week than another Ravens game.
Speaker 1: I see. It's very possible they lose both and their
Speaker 1: season I don't care about mathematically, their seasons spiritually and
Speaker 1: emotionally would be over at that point. Can they surprise us?
Speaker 1: Can they pull it out? I'm very close to switching
Speaker 1: my lock to the Ravens because I'm very annoyed with
Speaker 1: what's happen. Really, because I was gonna locked the Ravens
Speaker 1: the only reason I didn't was just out of like,
Speaker 1: that's mean to Mark. I am locking him up forget
Speaker 1: to steal, un locking up the Ravens because you know
Speaker 1: what they put They have put me in the They've
Speaker 1: put me in this position at this point. Are you
Speaker 1: punishing the Browns right now? Well, remember what I said
Speaker 1: to them on our show, obey me, do not get
Speaker 1: whacked a couple of weeks ago against that opponent. They
Speaker 1: got destroyed. And it's like they don't answer the call
Speaker 1: of the fans. Um. I look at I love Kevin Stefancy,
Speaker 1: and I like the I don't answer the call of
Speaker 1: the fans. I mean, what do you want him to do?
Speaker 1: And I were just an interviewer. He said, I don't
Speaker 1: care about what the fans say. So I guess that checks. Well,
Speaker 1: that's the other thing I hear. Now, it's where at
Speaker 1: the point where everyone is suggesting, and I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it's a looney suggestion that you ride case Keenum. Now,
Speaker 1: the question I'd have is that is because you want
Speaker 1: to get Baker Mayfield healthy. If you want to try
Speaker 1: to get him healthy, he's got one injury that's not
Speaker 1: going away the season no matter what I think the
Speaker 1: case Keenum fetish would would quell once you get a
Speaker 1: couple of games of case Keenum. That I have a
Speaker 1: not an especially healthy comp here um in terms of
Speaker 1: mental health. But when I was watching Baker play this
Speaker 1: past Sunday, he reminded me of like Mark Sanchez when
Speaker 1: things really turned sour for the Jets. I mean, missing throws,
Speaker 1: just the offense being stuck in mud, no energy to
Speaker 1: the drives, no rhythm. I don't think it's crazy. I
Speaker 1: don't know what do we really think that Baker if
Speaker 1: he really is as bad as he's been. Uh, and
Speaker 1: a lot of it comes back to injuries. Case Keendom
Speaker 1: is one of the highest paid backups in the league.
Speaker 1: We we really don't think case Keendom can run this
Speaker 1: offense better than Baker in this current state. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy to bench Baker because I know he's hurt.
Speaker 1: He moved pretty well last week at points. He had
Speaker 1: some dimes in that game. And so that's where I
Speaker 1: have at struggle with, like, well, he's hurt, so he's
Speaker 1: missing throws, or like the that's not why he's necessarily
Speaker 1: making bad decisions. Maybe it is. I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: he is to her and that's the reason to bench,
Speaker 1: but that that would be it. Like he had a
Speaker 1: couple of throws in that game that were awesome, he
Speaker 1: just had about fifteen more that were head scratchers. Like
Speaker 1: he's leaving the pocket at the first sign of trouble.
Speaker 1: That goes back to his his rookie year. That's not
Speaker 1: an injury thing. I I do think that the Patriots
Speaker 1: game might have exposed a couple of things too, and
Speaker 1: how to attack this defense up the middle. In terms
Speaker 1: of the running game that the Lions had some success,
Speaker 1: They're they're letting clown like um Garrett fly by. Clowney's
Speaker 1: turned totally silent. He had six games in a row
Speaker 1: with at least four pressures. He has three total in
Speaker 1: the last four, so that's been a big decline. The
Speaker 1: Malik's up front, Mcdoalen Jackson are kind of getting pushed around.
Speaker 1: I I hate this game for the Browns. I was like,
Speaker 1: I said, I was gonna lock it up Mark, but
Speaker 1: I just thought that'd be mean spirited. But now you
Speaker 1: just locked it upside. I was just like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not like I'm not at the point where if you
Speaker 1: go anti Browns with a take or something else that
Speaker 1: I can't have disorbit, I get it, but I see
Speaker 1: I'm done this, you know, I'm I'm I'm so buried
Speaker 1: in last place that at this point I just wanted
Speaker 1: to like keep you, you know, stay on your good
Speaker 1: side seems more important Lions express if you'd like him
Speaker 1: right well, plus me locking is putting the stink on them,
Speaker 1: so maybe that's good. I don't even know the final
Speaker 1: games Monday Night football the Seattle Seahawks at Washington Football Team.
Speaker 1: All right, I mean the Seahawks basically need to We're
Speaker 1: getting into win out territory if they flex this. They
Speaker 1: did flex the Seahawks out of next week next Sunday
Speaker 1: Nights game. First flex of the year. But yes, that's good.
Speaker 1: What what got flex then? Not even a particularly great game,
Speaker 1: just not the Seahawks Chiefs. Not a great game, but
Speaker 1: it involves the Chiefs that the Seattle Seahawks travel to
Speaker 1: FedEx Field. Taylor Heineke coming off a excellent performance in
Speaker 1: that win over the Panthers, and uh, he's fun to watch.
Speaker 1: I that might take away watching that game was Heineke
Speaker 1: is just like you know, he knows his whole career
Speaker 1: he's been you know, look down upon and seeing as
Speaker 1: somebody that is not to be taken seriously, and you
Speaker 1: see it, and just the way he carries himself, the
Speaker 1: way he bounces up when he gets hit, the way
Speaker 1: he celebrates a big play. The guy plays as cliche
Speaker 1: as it sounds, with a chip on his shoulder, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think the team thrives off that. I think he's
Speaker 1: a really passionate player. I like those type of guys.
Speaker 1: Uh so Team Heinek, even if he is ultimately limited
Speaker 1: in that Ryan Fitzpatrick mold it's not all there physically,
Speaker 1: but I think he makes up with it, makes for
Speaker 1: up with it, up for it with the way he
Speaker 1: carries himself. But that's what I'll be watching the game
Speaker 1: because there's no passion coming out of the Seahawks operation. No,
Speaker 1: they're they're incredibly tough on the eyes. Um they're an eyebleader.
Speaker 1: But I could not side and agree with you more
Speaker 1: on Taylor Heineke. You know, we want like we watched
Speaker 1: these games during the week and a lot of times
Speaker 1: just like sitting on a couch, you know, watching in
Speaker 1: silence taking No, it's Taylor Heineke is like the one
Speaker 1: guy that got me kind of I needed to take
Speaker 1: a break after the game and get up and walk around. Um,
Speaker 1: he fired me up. I love his demeanor. I think
Speaker 1: that he's also fearless. He made a couple of throws.
Speaker 1: There was one through dense traffic to Cam Sims, uh
Speaker 1: touchdown pass that just showed his arm strength. Um, he
Speaker 1: saw the field really well on a throw to John
Speaker 1: Bates where he looked like he was gonna get knocked around.
Speaker 1: He's scrambling, he's running as he's gonna take off, and
Speaker 1: he saw the second third option and it's just like
Speaker 1: he's doing things that show growth and progression. And I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, they're in a place to where
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to always bring up Scott Turner,
Speaker 1: It's not a joke. I think that they found a
Speaker 1: way to answer drives over and over. They got more
Speaker 1: from the ground game. Uh, Antonio Gibson outside of the fumble,
Speaker 1: looked good to me. They at this point sounds like
Speaker 1: Curtis Samuel might finally play this week part exactly like
Speaker 1: he he is. He has done a nice job of
Speaker 1: getting paid a lot of money and not doing a
Speaker 1: lot for it. But getting him back would be great.
Speaker 1: This team is on the rise. I understand like that.
Speaker 1: You know they think they can start every season two
Speaker 1: and six. Well, it's working, and I want DeAndre Carter.
Speaker 1: One last guy I wanted to mention. I looked up
Speaker 1: because he looks so small to me. He is my height.
Speaker 1: He has five eight and weighs forty five more pounds
Speaker 1: in me, and that is not fatty tissue. So I
Speaker 1: that tells you how these football players are built breaking.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, such a little jitterbug. And I was like,
Speaker 1: how tall is that guy? And it was like super
Speaker 1: excited that he was my height? But did he have
Speaker 1: a baby head? No, he did not know. It is crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember interviewing m J D when he
Speaker 1: was like a Pro Bowl running back and he's he's
Speaker 1: five six or seven and he's like two fifteen and
Speaker 1: and that that was like his legs were bigger than
Speaker 1: in my entire body. It's wild. This is this is
Speaker 1: the low moment of the Pete Carroll era by far
Speaker 1: that almost goes without saying their their defense, Uh, just
Speaker 1: has so many guys you can pick on in coverage.
Speaker 1: Wagner is getting picked on sometimes two even Brooks certainly
Speaker 1: at your boy Adams with a huge penalty last week, Dan,
Speaker 1: like he you know, they have they play this old
Speaker 1: school defense where they keep the linebackers on the field
Speaker 1: and they kind of have a strong safety that you know,
Speaker 1: it's not great in coverage and it's like you can
Speaker 1: find mismatches and yet I don't know, there's something about
Speaker 1: I can't imagine them going three and eight and I
Speaker 1: don't know. I was not in on them last week
Speaker 1: bouncing back, but this, like losing this game with everyone
Speaker 1: watching and Russell Wilson going to three and a it's
Speaker 1: like a bridge too far for me. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: this is not dancing on the Jamal adams grave situation,
Speaker 1: but it is. It is a bit of a cautionary
Speaker 1: tale that because Seattle is in such a tough spot
Speaker 1: and obviously the Jets have only gotten worse since he left.
Speaker 1: But you know when you kind of say, I can't
Speaker 1: take the losing. I gotta get out of here. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be part of this operation. I want
Speaker 1: to go play for a winner. Well that doesn't always
Speaker 1: work out. I mean, we'll see if Jamal Adams is
Speaker 1: playing for a winner now. He just signed a huge contract.
Speaker 1: I think ultimately that's what it was all about. He
Speaker 1: wanted to get he wanted to maximize his potential as
Speaker 1: earning potential, and you can't sagren him for that. But
Speaker 1: the other part of it was I'm sick of losing.
Speaker 1: Get me out of here. I want to go to
Speaker 1: a proven winner. I don't know what Seattle looks like
Speaker 1: over the next five years, especially given the quarterback situation.
Speaker 1: But that was also a we're one player away self
Speaker 1: evaluation of the roster um, a very expensive move, and
Speaker 1: they are about twelve players fifteen players away, because that
Speaker 1: was the whole the whole hook of that trade was
Speaker 1: exactly that that we are a very good team. We
Speaker 1: are a playoff team, but we are one big time
Speaker 1: defender away from being a super Bowl team. And they
Speaker 1: have just went down since then. It's not adams fault,
Speaker 1: per se, but it is notable that they kind of
Speaker 1: misread the whole situation and put themselves put themselves in
Speaker 1: a very difficult situation. Going symbolizes it. It's after all
Speaker 1: that happen. I did think Russ looked better in that game.
Speaker 1: They put him in such tough spots. I just it's
Speaker 1: still funny to me in year thirteen or what. Every
Speaker 1: reason that like they refused to throw it when it's
Speaker 1: third and twenty or third and fifteen. It's just like,
Speaker 1: let him let him throw. So boring, they're so boring.
Speaker 1: DK Metcalf did not come down with a couple contested
Speaker 1: catches that were pretty well placed that could have helped
Speaker 1: out of us. I think I think he'll come around,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying with Russell Wilson. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be suddenly terrible. If I had to pick
Speaker 1: one wide receiver on the field in this game to
Speaker 1: start a team with, it would be your boy, Terry
Speaker 1: McLarin It, no doubt not Metcalf. He is excellent. All Right,
Speaker 1: there you go, Week twelve. That's the preview show. We
Speaker 1: hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back on Sunday night when we recap
Speaker 1: all these games. Well that's actually not true. Thursday night,
Speaker 1: we will have our recap of the three Thanksgiving games,
Speaker 1: so make sure you check that out, and then Sunday
Speaker 1: we will complete the recaps with our flagship show. Alright, boys,
Speaker 1: thankful for you. You know, we got our TV show
Speaker 1: too on on Saturday on NFL. We're not going to
Speaker 1: do that that week right weekend? Tune in you DVR it. Um.
Speaker 1: It's on early in the morning on the East Coast
Speaker 1: late night. I know, I know some people that watch
Speaker 1: it on the Saturday night. I don't think I'm gonna go. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so are you okay, You're just not gonna show up
Speaker 1: at all? But that just be Greg and I have
Speaker 1: to do a lot more though. Yeah. I think I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna enjoy the holiday weekend like everybody else, like
Speaker 1: you know, so good luck, guys. And I'm totally bailing
Speaker 1: if you're not, Like, there's no way I'm going. If
Speaker 1: you're not going, Greg, it is your show. It's got me.
Speaker 1: Ricky and the Grave Digger. Actually, Ricky are you yeah?
Speaker 1: You available you around Friday Friday? Yeah, I'm here, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right. I would never miss something in football seats
Speaker 1: and have heard all right? Good again, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
Speaker 1: Uh Dan had to starting off a quiet storm the
Speaker 1: old Boss Ronicky Hollywood behind the Virtual Glass sun Still
Speaker 1: Thursday night, He's the call eight