Speaker 1: Around the NFL podcast is Bighty Kneecaps seven from the
Speaker 1: Chris Wesley podcast studio. It's Around the NFL the flagship
Speaker 1: program Sunday Night. We're here now, Dan Ass Heroes, Greg
Speaker 1: rose A, Dolf, Mark Sessler and boys you know, oh Macron,
Speaker 1: that's going next level. Feels like we are this close
Speaker 1: to another global shutdown. I get very nervous about that
Speaker 1: on a number of levels. Um, this whole place, this
Speaker 1: building feels like a ghost town. And this the NFL
Speaker 1: is not alone. It's happening everywhere. As people are kind
Speaker 1: of going underground. Is this virus is mutated into something
Speaker 1: very dangerous. But the big story right now, I think
Speaker 1: is the long simmering analytics culture war that is really
Speaker 1: now coming to a boil within the football cogness empty.
Speaker 1: And this week has been a big one because it
Speaker 1: started with Thursday and Brandon Staley saying I hate field goals,
Speaker 1: I only want to score touchdowns and all the drama
Speaker 1: around that on Thursday. Then it comes around to Sunday
Speaker 1: the Late Game with John har Harbaugh for the second
Speaker 1: time in three weeks going for two down one and
Speaker 1: once again failing. We're gonna get to that game, but
Speaker 1: it feels like you're either on this side or the
Speaker 1: other side. I even could draw some parallels Mark to
Speaker 1: the political climate of this country a few years back,
Speaker 1: where it's getting more and more angry and I and
Speaker 1: I think what makes us even more fun that we
Speaker 1: have Greg on one side of this battle me and
Speaker 1: you maybe on the other. Uh, maybe you on the
Speaker 1: fence a little bit more Greg Mark, And that's gonna
Speaker 1: cause some spicy tension in the studio all throughout the episode.
Speaker 1: I I agree with you. I think it's like I
Speaker 1: look at all the stuff that creates the decisions that
Speaker 1: are being made, and and like it's the way that
Speaker 1: we played like Madden and Tech Mobile growing up, where
Speaker 1: you just never punted, you went for it, and like
Speaker 1: all of it lines up and makes sense in the numbers,
Speaker 1: Like there's reasons that analytics is blowing up all of that.
Speaker 1: Agreed with I think sometimes for me it's just like
Speaker 1: you can't even look at what happened at the end
Speaker 1: of the Green Bay Baltimore game, which we'll get into
Speaker 1: um and even make a comment about it. You just
Speaker 1: have to say, yes, that's all. If you if you
Speaker 1: don't be afraid it's because because when the climate is
Speaker 1: as it is, it's like there's a group of smart
Speaker 1: people and a group of like lumbering, lumbering oaths if
Speaker 1: you if you in any way from the from yesteryear.
Speaker 1: But it's not, it's not that. It's just that I
Speaker 1: think it's a there. It is a place where there
Speaker 1: could be debate, not about what is the more mathematically
Speaker 1: probable situation, but just other elements of it. Like Dan
Speaker 1: got us into this. It's like, hey, omicron on fire
Speaker 1: this week, and you know what else is on fire? Analytics.
Speaker 1: I'll get the tweets like Settler doesn't know what he's
Speaker 1: talking about. He's a dinosaur. It's like I am telling
Speaker 1: you I agree with but I'm just saying that you're
Speaker 1: not even allowed to have a discussion. Now. Of course
Speaker 1: you are like we should have it, and I would say, like,
Speaker 1: I think what you're reacting to, and what I do too,
Speaker 1: is like the discourse is tiring in theory and right,
Speaker 1: but then but just don't just try to ignore it.
Speaker 1: I guess what I am bathed in it trying to
Speaker 1: have your own football game on every night of the week.
Speaker 1: Now you don't have to watch you don't have to
Speaker 1: mute mute the Twitter. I'm saying like it's become annoyingly
Speaker 1: omni president as a discussion if you cover the sport
Speaker 1: now and I do get the feeling for it's a
Speaker 1: perfect example. So I thought I was I thought they
Speaker 1: should have kicked that extra point Baltimore. This in this
Speaker 1: game three weeks ago or two weeks ago, I thought
Speaker 1: they should have went for two. But for some reason,
Speaker 1: you're not really allowed to take it game by game
Speaker 1: or a moment by moment. It has to be all
Speaker 1: this way. I think always you keep saying like you
Speaker 1: could say whatever you want, if you're back up whatever
Speaker 1: you want to say, and like stand behind it. It's
Speaker 1: not a big deal. It's a football opinion. It's like
Speaker 1: any football page. I just feel like this feels different
Speaker 1: to me than just a football opinion. Get you get
Speaker 1: labeled an sp to use scientology parlance, you're a suppressor
Speaker 1: this this decision, This is where I guess I would
Speaker 1: think you guys are off with this because in this decision,
Speaker 1: I would say, you know what I'm saying is all
Speaker 1: the analytics people are going against each other because I
Speaker 1: like that numbers wise, this this decision was far from clear.
Speaker 1: The numbers would have said to kick it, It would
Speaker 1: not have said to go for it necessarily. Harbaugh was
Speaker 1: kind of doing what you're saying is he was feeling
Speaker 1: like the flow of the game, and he was looking
Speaker 1: at other factors that don't go into the number, and
Speaker 1: he was just saying, like, I like Tyler Huntley right now.
Speaker 1: You know, I like going for it, even though the
Speaker 1: numbers would say I should kick it and trust by
Speaker 1: defense here. I don't really trust not to get down
Speaker 1: that wormhole. But you are right because as well, because
Speaker 1: we haven't even we'll get into that game. But they
Speaker 1: lost thirteen point nine percentage of win probability according to
Speaker 1: next Gen stats, not next gen mark um when they
Speaker 1: when they went for the two point and I think
Speaker 1: the last time they did it. His reasoning because their
Speaker 1: secondary was shattered. It's still a mess. We got that
Speaker 1: made sense? Do do you see? Mark? And I sps No,
Speaker 1: I don't even I think that's it's it's straw man.
Speaker 1: It's a change is uncomfortable, you know what I'm looking see.
Speaker 1: You're suggesting that change is uncomfortable to Mark and Dan.
Speaker 1: But Greg is beyond the I'm saying, like, think of
Speaker 1: that Bill Belichick decision. I go back to this a lot,
Speaker 1: going for it with the lead on fourth down against
Speaker 1: the Colts. That was that stopped football for weeks. Now,
Speaker 1: that was a unique game, was a big game. Those
Speaker 1: sort of decisions now happen fairly routinely and it doesn't
Speaker 1: really stop football. I think this last week and certainly
Speaker 1: this season has has been kind of a watershed moment
Speaker 1: of guys going for two and whether that I don't
Speaker 1: think there's gonna be a not everyone's gonna Harbor and Stanley.
Speaker 1: They're getting the heat because they stand out. There's not
Speaker 1: that many coaches like them, but more and more that
Speaker 1: this is what football is gonna be like more and more,
Speaker 1: and so the reaction is not gonna be quite as much.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna be part of it. I think kids
Speaker 1: growing up watching now, they're just gonna get used to
Speaker 1: like that going for two as part of the games.
Speaker 1: It's the fourth dono it is. It's become the situation
Speaker 1: where I think, you know, this is a copycat league also,
Speaker 1: and I think beyond just what their analytics departments are
Speaker 1: telling them now, all the like quote unquote top coaches
Speaker 1: all are consistently going for it as well, So I
Speaker 1: think it's caused this chain reaction where everyone goes for
Speaker 1: it except for you know, Bill Belichick. I think Belchi
Speaker 1: is a great example because he is the most conservative
Speaker 1: coach in the league this year, and he plays to
Speaker 1: what his team is in the past as aggressive as ever.
Speaker 1: Trivia question, first two point conversion in NFL history? How
Speaker 1: did it happen? Kevin Mack running over the Mr Conservative
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick shooting Tom Toop with her punter right into
Speaker 1: pay dirt like that? Maybe you're not an sp I'm
Speaker 1: not an sp I. I enjoyed debate from you know Whoever.
Speaker 1: Let's get into all the games, uh, and remember it's
Speaker 1: not all the games of the week, not even close
Speaker 1: to it. We got two on Monday, we got two
Speaker 1: more on Tuesday, but we had ten to dive into
Speaker 1: today and another one to go through from Saturday night.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that in just a few minutes, but
Speaker 1: let's start, yes with the game that we've already been
Speaker 1: arguing about. Hit it, Ricky. Green Bay's lead is one
Speaker 1: thirty one. Can the Packers get one stop here on
Speaker 1: a two point conversion motion from a tight end of
Speaker 1: the wing of the left side Huntley in the shot
Speaker 1: down lot Tavia Murray to his right snapped hunt The
Speaker 1: rolls right throws right side of the ends on tennis
Speaker 1: in complete, incomplete, right corner of the ends on in
Speaker 1: front of the pylon and incomplete. The Packers are gonna
Speaker 1: hang on and win this game. Yes, Wayne Larity with
Speaker 1: the call w T m J. John Harbor did it
Speaker 1: again for the second time in three weeks. The Ravens
Speaker 1: scored a touchdown in the final seconds, then opted to
Speaker 1: try for the two point conversion for the win rather
Speaker 1: than the game tying p t and for the second
Speaker 1: time in three weeks, Baltimore walked away with a stomach
Speaker 1: punch defeatt thirty Packers hold on just barely and Mark
Speaker 1: this is a game. Lamar Jackson out with a springed angle.
Speaker 1: It's the first game he's missed due to injury in
Speaker 1: his Career's missed a couple of games due to illness.
Speaker 1: Uh and Tyler Huntley really played well and brought this
Speaker 1: team back from a thirty one seventeen deficit. And just
Speaker 1: the fact he had two rushing touchdowns where he just
Speaker 1: stayed cool under pressure. Saw running lane took it, scored once,
Speaker 1: scored again in the fourth quarter, and that I guess
Speaker 1: in Bolden John Harbor to say, I know it's not
Speaker 1: Lamar here, but I trust this guy to win this game.
Speaker 1: It didn't work out, but really a nice performance by Huntley.
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, the Packers clinch to the
Speaker 1: NFC North with that win, Well, they showed total faith
Speaker 1: in Eiler Huntley. And you know this is there's a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on that entire offense because you're playing
Speaker 1: the Packers. You don't have Marlon Humphrey, Marcus Peters is
Speaker 1: out of the mix, Jimmy Smith tested positive for COVID.
Speaker 1: Their secondary was totally shattered, which I think again, like
Speaker 1: that last game where John Harball made that decision at
Speaker 1: the end, contributed again to this. It's like, do you
Speaker 1: really want to tie the game and give Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: um and less than a minute um of regulation and
Speaker 1: then potentially the first possession in overtime? So I get
Speaker 1: all that. Um, I look at the Ravens overall, who've
Speaker 1: got like eighteen nineteen twenty guys missing every game that
Speaker 1: were this another organization, another team, their record would be reverse.
Speaker 1: I know they're out of the playoff mix right now.
Speaker 1: I fully trust that they'll get back in it. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what, I every time I say that that
Speaker 1: goes south, I I strongly that they play the Bengals
Speaker 1: next week, which will you know, basically decide for that
Speaker 1: week who's ahead in a f C North. They lose
Speaker 1: that one, they they're in real trouble. Well then they
Speaker 1: have the Rams and the Steelers. So fully let's let's
Speaker 1: strike fully from the record, but they are as a
Speaker 1: resilient team around and uh helped you out there. I
Speaker 1: know it's been a bit of a I cannot believe
Speaker 1: that I am even talking about anything at this point.
Speaker 1: It's just been a nightmare. But um I I don't
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be shocked if that Steelers game still has
Speaker 1: meaning in Week eighteen. Oh yeah, I fully expected to.
Speaker 1: This was an amazing performance by the Ravens to be
Speaker 1: down that many players. I mean, you just mentioned their
Speaker 1: entire starting secondary. Oh yeah, by the way, Chuck Clark,
Speaker 1: uh DeSean Elliott, like their safeties who were so good,
Speaker 1: like none of their starting safe their starting group was
Speaker 1: around except for Tavon Young, their slot corner, who leaves
Speaker 1: this game with a concussion. So that's I think part
Speaker 1: of the equation in deciding to go for two. This
Speaker 1: was not a game with a lot of possessions. Each
Speaker 1: team only at eight possessions in this game, and yet
Speaker 1: look at the score thirty one to thirty. So I
Speaker 1: think what you said, Mark was was well said, was
Speaker 1: that there was a chance here, you know, seventy chance
Speaker 1: if you wanted to go for the numbers, that the
Speaker 1: Packers were gonna get two possessions before the Ravens got any.
Speaker 1: You know, they knew that they were gonna get forty
Speaker 1: seconds left to go kick the field goal. That's why
Speaker 1: I figured he would kick the extra point, you know.
Speaker 1: I I assumed that the Ravens would just take the
Speaker 1: tie because either way the Rogers can go get the
Speaker 1: game winning field goal, and that should be some enough
Speaker 1: time for Rogers to do it, So you might as
Speaker 1: well just tie it and not not risk missing the two.
Speaker 1: But he just I think thought like, let's go win
Speaker 1: it now. We don't want to play any more football
Speaker 1: because we're the inferior team. That's also a lot of
Speaker 1: trust in Mason Crosby has been like a hot and
Speaker 1: cold semi nightmare. I just thought it felt a little
Speaker 1: different because they did get the stop that proceeded the
Speaker 1: second touchdown, and they were at home and they were
Speaker 1: just it seemed like the momentum was on their side.
Speaker 1: But you know what, it didn't work out, and you
Speaker 1: know what annoys me. We just had that long conversation
Speaker 1: and Ricky just sent me this tweet from Scott Zolak.
Speaker 1: This is exactly what I'm talking about. L O L
Speaker 1: l O l l O L shove your analytics. Oh
Speaker 1: and to Baltimore, l O L l O L. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is like the Capital Riots portion of our side
Speaker 1: of the the battle. Here's yeah, these are the people
Speaker 1: that these are the problem. When you look around and
Speaker 1: your in and it's some sort of argument on Twitter
Speaker 1: and you're like, wait, why is this guy on my side? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that's that's not good. We try to separate from
Speaker 1: that because again I don't think um. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a smart, well ballsy decision in both cases, but
Speaker 1: really smart to do it the first time. This time
Speaker 1: it felt a little bit reckless and almost like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's like, if you are if you view
Speaker 1: yourself as a Super Bowl contender, as a big a
Speaker 1: f c team, a team that's a division leader in
Speaker 1: that moment, maybe put some faith in your entire team
Speaker 1: there to to get it done, rather than what felt
Speaker 1: to me a way to steal a win. Um, not
Speaker 1: just how it kind of came off to me like
Speaker 1: maybe a minor crisis and confidence like oh wow, we
Speaker 1: might extually be able to steal this thing and get
Speaker 1: out of here, rather than saying, Okay, we've take control
Speaker 1: this game, let's go. I guess I think that's why
Speaker 1: in twenty years it won't be as big of an argument,
Speaker 1: because to me, it's still it still is trusting your
Speaker 1: team to win. You know, it's trust. But like I
Speaker 1: I think if you just change your perspective a little,
Speaker 1: it's like it's trusting our team to go win by
Speaker 1: scoring the two points. It's just a different way to
Speaker 1: try to go win. The The annoying thing, and I'm
Speaker 1: with you Mark on this, is that after these games,
Speaker 1: the entire sixty minutes get spoiled down to that one decision.
Speaker 1: And number one, it's crazy that the Ravens like are
Speaker 1: in this game at all, Like that they that the
Speaker 1: Packers blow this lead. Uh, that the Packers should have
Speaker 1: put up thirty one points, and they did. The surprising
Speaker 1: part is that they're giving up so much yardage to
Speaker 1: Mark Andrews over and over and over. Uh. Obviously they
Speaker 1: didn't have an answer for Huntley, like they didn't adjust
Speaker 1: like that was that was surprising to me to give
Speaker 1: up thirty points. There is reminder that you know, with
Speaker 1: the possible exception of the Patriots, even the teams that
Speaker 1: we pump up as big defenses, they seem susceptible week
Speaker 1: to week to having letdowns. Um, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: how I saw this game. They had a chance to
Speaker 1: close it out, and there a few they repeatedly failed
Speaker 1: down the stretch there. But Rogers needs his tackles back.
Speaker 1: It's not just bock tr it's Billy. Billy Turners out too.
Speaker 1: And bock Dry was practicing a little more this week,
Speaker 1: so that'd be good and they might get those two back.
Speaker 1: That's that's been a big problem for them. He was
Speaker 1: under a lot of pressure today. They early in the
Speaker 1: fourth they were averaging over nine yards per play on
Speaker 1: first down Green Bay. I mean, they they were doing fine.
Speaker 1: And we'll get to the Cardinals in a in a
Speaker 1: few minutes. But with this win, a Cardinals loss. Of course,
Speaker 1: the Packers have a tiebreaker individual head to head tiebreaker
Speaker 1: on the Cardinals. Things are shaping up very well for
Speaker 1: Green Bay. I just wanted to I wish that we
Speaker 1: could go back. I remember Tyler Huntley preseason star. I
Speaker 1: talked him up one of these episodes way back at August.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the preseason matters. This guy he was. He was
Speaker 1: I think the number one ranked PFF guy in the preseason.
Speaker 1: He went undrafted. He's a second year player. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing all these tweets, Like I saw a couple it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: where will Tyler Huntley be starting next year? Like he's
Speaker 1: not starting anywhere. He's got to be the backup for
Speaker 1: the Ravens for two more years. They know what they got.
Speaker 1: This is amazing to to hit on a guy undrafted
Speaker 1: that's this good this early. Like he has been pretty
Speaker 1: good in all of his starts in his relief appearances.
Speaker 1: Are you hinting at some QB drama that I did
Speaker 1: see some of those tweets too. It's like, Oh, they're
Speaker 1: like they're better with Tyler Huntley right now. I mean
Speaker 1: they have moved the ball better. There are six quarters.
Speaker 1: They're a well run organization. So it does not surprise
Speaker 1: me that they've now developed a really good backup quarterback.
Speaker 1: That's why they're always good. They just know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean they're gonna make the playoffs this
Speaker 1: year because right now they sit mark in the eighth seed.
Speaker 1: By the way, it does not I'm sure in two
Speaker 1: years there'll be eleven teams from both conferences making the playoffs.
Speaker 1: In twenties six regular season games. But alright, so yes,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a big game. A top the NFC
Speaker 1: standings with Green Bay getting another win, Let's now look
Speaker 1: to the top of the a f C standings where
Speaker 1: the Patriots were looking to get back into that one
Speaker 1: spot on Saturday night. Let's go back in time. It's
Speaker 1: under center, hands off the Taylor Taylor Tift twenty tipte
Speaker 1: Taylor to t great call by Matt Taylor, w f
Speaker 1: N I Bill Belichick will take away your best weapon.
Speaker 1: Well not when Jonathan Taylor's involved start running back dance
Speaker 1: through a loaded box and took it to the house.
Speaker 1: Sixty seven yard rush the clincher in seventeen win over
Speaker 1: the Patriots in front of a raucous home crowd. At
Speaker 1: Lucas All Stadium. That was a great home crowd. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's Saturday night, probably was holidays, people
Speaker 1: maybe on vacation, even with all this crazy stuff going on,
Speaker 1: getting a little loose, having fun, great vibe for a
Speaker 1: game anyway, Greg, that's the end of the seven game
Speaker 1: winning streak for the Patriots, who couldn't quite dig themselves
Speaker 1: out of a deep hole of their own making. As
Speaker 1: for the cults, they belong in that a f C
Speaker 1: contender conversation. Yeah, they're eight and six. They got a
Speaker 1: big Christmas Day game against the Cardinals, which is really interesting,
Speaker 1: like they're a team that's tied for that last spot,
Speaker 1: and yet it feels like they're about as good as
Speaker 1: any team in the a f C. I think it's
Speaker 1: all very even at the top. And the reason they
Speaker 1: got out to that big lead was both lines, really one.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially the Colts defensive line, which is not
Speaker 1: something that we've talked a lot about this season. I
Speaker 1: thought in the first twenty minutes of the game, and
Speaker 1: that's basically when it was won, they were darting into
Speaker 1: the backfield and stopping runs. They were harassing Mac Jones,
Speaker 1: and they discombobulated and forced a lot of penalties from
Speaker 1: the Patriots offense, whereas the Colts offensive line on the
Speaker 1: flip side was very cohesive pushed Patriots upfront around. It's
Speaker 1: just a couple of long drives, but that's sort of
Speaker 1: how the Patriots try to win. And when you're team
Speaker 1: is based on like not making the big mistake and
Speaker 1: just playing smart. Well, when you have a bunch of penalties,
Speaker 1: you lose the turnover battle two to one. Uh, and
Speaker 1: you get a punt blocked, uh, then you lose. Like
Speaker 1: the margin for error for like a team like the
Speaker 1: Patriots is a little bit smaller. And it was surprising
Speaker 1: to see both lines get handled early before they kind
Speaker 1: of settled down in the second half. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it harked back a little bit too, some of the
Speaker 1: up and down playoff from New England before the wind streak.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think they both want to do
Speaker 1: the same things, these two teams. And yes, you're right,
Speaker 1: like Bill Belichick wants to take away your best player
Speaker 1: and he couldn't do it last night. Um, I thought
Speaker 1: the Colts and Frank Reich were much more successful at that.
Speaker 1: Are they imperfect? Yes? Are they scared of anyone. No,
Speaker 1: it had massive game of the year energy because I
Speaker 1: think the Cults uh went in with this with a
Speaker 1: great plan, which speaks to their coaching, and trusted their
Speaker 1: players to go out and dominate in the defense. To me,
Speaker 1: what they were able to do to New England early on,
Speaker 1: especially against the run, was they just took New England's
Speaker 1: identity a way a little bit. Yeah, I thought that
Speaker 1: was interesting that this is a twenty nothing game after
Speaker 1: three quarters. I think New England did miss Damien Harris
Speaker 1: and the physicality he brings to their running attack. And
Speaker 1: I also it's a weird game because um, I came
Speaker 1: out of it actually feeling as weird as it sounds
Speaker 1: a little better about the Patriots and maybe a tiny
Speaker 1: bit worse about the Colts, if that makes sense, because
Speaker 1: like with the Patriots, sure they failed to execute. Um
Speaker 1: they get a punt block. That's the third time this
Speaker 1: year they give up a touchdown that way, I think
Speaker 1: was Jamie Collins has a potential pick six go through
Speaker 1: his hands. You have Mac Jones who throws two picks,
Speaker 1: including one in the red zone, and yet they get
Speaker 1: off the mat and so many and I've seen this
Speaker 1: up close with my team so many times, so many
Speaker 1: when you have a rookie quarterback, when things kind of
Speaker 1: snowball against you for a couple of quarters or a
Speaker 1: couple of really bad drives in a row, you just
Speaker 1: lose that guy for the game. And it's just like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a growing, growing game for a rookie
Speaker 1: QB like Mac Jones. So for him to get off
Speaker 1: the mat and really thrive and get them back in
Speaker 1: the game, I was like, okay, I mean, he's already
Speaker 1: wearing big boy pants. And then on the on the
Speaker 1: colt side of the ball, you cannot you cannot watch
Speaker 1: that game and see what happened with Carson Wentz when
Speaker 1: he throws that interception at the beginning of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter when it's twenty seven, and then see how Frank
Speaker 1: Wright calls the rest of that game and not see
Speaker 1: it as a direct a direct viewpoint that he doesn't
Speaker 1: trust his quarterback. He was not gonna let Carson Wentz
Speaker 1: ruin this game for him. And that's something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on, because Wentz had a chance to really
Speaker 1: bury the Patriots. And after I saw that pick, he
Speaker 1: was like, no, man, I gotta give it to tailor
Speaker 1: no matter what. Well, the best version of the Colts
Speaker 1: is to get out the way they did, let guys
Speaker 1: like Darius Leonard make plays, let the defense line the
Speaker 1: line basically shut down and eat thing else you know
Speaker 1: an opponent wants to do, and then right Jonathan Taylor.
Speaker 1: I mean that hasn't that they've gotten up big in
Speaker 1: these games. They did when they have big leads, though,
Speaker 1: that is their m O. Like this was this They
Speaker 1: turned the corner in this game from a cult single.
Speaker 1: I mean, they got play calling. I thought when they
Speaker 1: had a chance to put it away and you could
Speaker 1: kind of feel at the tension building and they almost
Speaker 1: They went from twenty nothing to and giving it to
Speaker 1: Jonathan Taylor with a stacked box, and he just happened
Speaker 1: to make an amazing play. I think this game could
Speaker 1: have very easily swung all the way over to the
Speaker 1: Pig got close. I mean, I don't I guess they
Speaker 1: don't trust Wentz. I hear that, but I mean Wentz
Speaker 1: has been sturdy and completed five passes and and and
Speaker 1: all the games against good teams they've had big leads
Speaker 1: and they've blown them and lost in the other three.
Speaker 1: This time they blown him and Jonathan Taylor was incredible.
Speaker 1: You know, the thing that impressed me was before that
Speaker 1: big run he go. You know, the first two runs
Speaker 1: of that driver up the middle for a first down,
Speaker 1: the Patriots know the run is coming. And even in
Speaker 1: the in the fourth quarter, I think with nine minutes left,
Speaker 1: they got two first downs by not being aggressive. So
Speaker 1: that that was impressive by the offensive line. But on
Speaker 1: that game winning played, don'ts a high tower and Devin
Speaker 1: mccordy are in the whole unblocked. It wasn't it was.
Speaker 1: It's not even the offensive line. It's just Jonathan Taylor
Speaker 1: being awesome. Uh And and I'm with you. I thought
Speaker 1: Dan that that was you don't want to lose. But
Speaker 1: that was a good experience for mac Jones and the offense,
Speaker 1: I think to be put in that position and respond
Speaker 1: the way. And I think UM and the defense for
Speaker 1: that matter, because the defense after the first quarter held
Speaker 1: up terrific. They were put in some terrible spots until
Speaker 1: that one play basically they had they had shut him
Speaker 1: down quick. Aside for the UM media side of things,
Speaker 1: I think Greg Olsen is coming for Tony Romo, coming hard.
Speaker 1: He's closing fast. I thought it was very interesting the
Speaker 1: way he explained how Jonathan Taylor makes guys miss in
Speaker 1: the hole, that he actually sets guys up in ways
Speaker 1: that makes him think he's going one way, and it's
Speaker 1: just like he's playing the game at a higher level
Speaker 1: than most running backs. I thought that was really interesting
Speaker 1: and that's I'm sure a skill he used to get
Speaker 1: away from those two defenders. There um heet seven points seven.
Speaker 1: He averaged seven points seven yards carried between the tackles.
Speaker 1: The Patriots knew was coming. Mbe number one right now.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Kevin Burkhardt, by the way, incredible, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're great. Theorious Leonard like those two interceptions that Mac
Speaker 1: Jones through. Those are incredible plays. The Leonard play mentally
Speaker 1: and physically. And then the Okareki play was that, I mean,
Speaker 1: those are incredible plays by athletic. What about the throw
Speaker 1: across his body under Durest to Hunter Henry, I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't come out disliking either team, but I do
Speaker 1: dislike something that happened in this game. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I need to bring it up, but I lost
Speaker 1: my lock on this and I'm tired of it. This week,
Speaker 1: this week of football has been an ill treat. I'm
Speaker 1: a half game up now in the battle with the
Speaker 1: Vikings up ahead. Now you got root for the Bears
Speaker 1: on Monday night. How much worse can we get for you? No,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be I'm just gonna sit back and
Speaker 1: watch let life unfull. I thought you meant like Carson
Speaker 1: Wentz at five completions in the fourth quarter or the
Speaker 1: second half. I didn't realize it was five. Wait, what
Speaker 1: why is it? Why is it? Frank Reich a genius
Speaker 1: for like putting his quarterback and putting him on ice
Speaker 1: and giving it to his running back thirty times and
Speaker 1: that's not the same thing, and you know it, and
Speaker 1: uh not for nothing. You know, we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about four downs this week, and you didn't hear a
Speaker 1: lot of like, holy cow, Frank Reich blew the game
Speaker 1: for because all those fourth downs he went for, including
Speaker 1: his own end with the late Oh wait, that's because
Speaker 1: he went three for three and they won this game
Speaker 1: partly because he was aggressive on fourth downs late in
Speaker 1: this game. Where you gotta give wins the credit for
Speaker 1: those QB sneaks then, because I think the Patriots knew
Speaker 1: the second two word. That dude is a tough he's
Speaker 1: a great QB sneak. We gotta move. But like speaking
Speaker 1: of being uh, being very confident and being aggressive, I
Speaker 1: can't believe Bill kicked that field goal. Well, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was bad. Should have went for that. Say, this isn't
Speaker 1: like Team Zolac over here, not at all. It's put
Speaker 1: him in a really bad spot. Yeah, it was really strange.
Speaker 1: I think he thought the flow of the game, he
Speaker 1: trusted his defense too much. It's strange because in the
Speaker 1: past Belichick has been one of the most aggressive guys
Speaker 1: going for it, but he's clearly coached differently this year
Speaker 1: with this quarterback in defense and just uh, it was
Speaker 1: fourth and goal at Indy's seven yard line and it
Speaker 1: was town it was and he opts for the field goal.
Speaker 1: He makes, but then Indy has a five minute drive
Speaker 1: that's fruitless. They punted. But by the time New England
Speaker 1: gets it back there down by ten with only to go,
Speaker 1: so it didn't work. They needed a three. And now
Speaker 1: basically we're separatists, were not sps because I think we don't.
Speaker 1: We don't exist in this box where no matter what,
Speaker 1: I'm a robot that says you must do everything aggressively
Speaker 1: or do I and what do I live in? Okay,
Speaker 1: but this is what I'm I'm I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: a moderate to then by that, I I don't think
Speaker 1: there's that many people in either camp. There are the Zolaks,
Speaker 1: and there are a couple he's at the Capitol right,
Speaker 1: There's a couple of members of football Twitter. Is a
Speaker 1: couple of members of football Twitter um who are like,
Speaker 1: no context, uh analytics guys. But I actually think most
Speaker 1: of the people who are kind of pro analytics are
Speaker 1: all about context in the situation depends over from the
Speaker 1: other side of the aisle, and I am I want
Speaker 1: I want us to be We're in the aisle. Were
Speaker 1: about a Roman handshake, Papa, Papa, We're in this together.
Speaker 1: All right. Let's uh, let's go back to Sunday. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is annoying for you, Mark, a little bit for everyone.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break and then we will
Speaker 1: continue on the Sunday slate. Fourth down and seven, he
Speaker 1: gets a snap, he's back, he throws a passion and
Speaker 1: pull in and that's gonna be a tackle? Is it
Speaker 1: short of that lead stick? No way, No, he didn't
Speaker 1: make that first down. Marker let's answer the question. Bradley
Speaker 1: Rogers is their space between the nose and the ball
Speaker 1: and the lead stick no overackdown. Bill hill Grove and
Speaker 1: Craig welf league with the call for w d v E.
Speaker 1: They call him Joe Money. Joe Hayden made a huge
Speaker 1: impact in his return to the lineup. No moment bigger
Speaker 1: than when he stuffed Nick Westbrook a Keno's inches short
Speaker 1: of the first down. Really it was a half yard.
Speaker 1: It was a very uh, a very nice spot there
Speaker 1: for Tennessee to even make it close. But either way,
Speaker 1: he was short of a first down at the Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: ten in the final second ceiling. A nineteen thirteen win
Speaker 1: keeps the Steers alive very much so, or perhaps undead
Speaker 1: to put it in a different way in the a
Speaker 1: f C playoff picture. Um, you know, man, Pittsburgh, it's
Speaker 1: not pretty. It never is with them this season, but
Speaker 1: they do have a survivalist mentality and their defense. On
Speaker 1: a day where the offense managed a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: eight yards total, the defense really stepped, forcing four turnovers
Speaker 1: three on consecutive Tennessee possessions in the second half. And
Speaker 1: that's just ten days after they got whipped by the
Speaker 1: Vikings and uh, you know, so basically it was the
Speaker 1: defense and Chris Boswell being like under the radar one
Speaker 1: of the very best kickers in the league, kicking four
Speaker 1: field goals in December in Pittsburgh. Uh, and that allowed
Speaker 1: the Steelers their second win over division leader in three weeks. So, um, listen,
Speaker 1: let's hear from Big Ben by the way, just like
Speaker 1: where he's at, where the Steelers are at, and then
Speaker 1: we'll open up the conversation. You know, I think we
Speaker 1: I think we sell a bolts in this thing, so
Speaker 1: we'll see where it goes from here. Notice a little
Speaker 1: tell there. I think we still have a pulse. He's
Speaker 1: now winking this is the zombie Steelers and Mark, they're
Speaker 1: not gonna die. I know you wanted him dead, but
Speaker 1: it's not happening. I didn't expect them to die this
Speaker 1: week necessarily. Um. I thought one thing about the Titans.
Speaker 1: If you've got last week's version of the Titans, and
Speaker 1: I know they played a a floating, wandering opponent in
Speaker 1: the Jaguars, but from their angle with a cobble together offense,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm trying here like they they didn't have
Speaker 1: turned the ball, they didn't get the ball away. They
Speaker 1: had three lost fumbles in a in an interception today,
Speaker 1: and this game was always going to be close. I
Speaker 1: was surprised that the Steelers were not favored in this
Speaker 1: looking at the personnel on Tennessee's offense. Um, they were
Speaker 1: eventually by the by game time they were slight favorites
Speaker 1: for Yeah, it just I'm not I'm not stunned to
Speaker 1: see the steel This is sort of what they are.
Speaker 1: And I think they'll probably go like eight eight and one,
Speaker 1: like I've been um hoping, but you've got to get
Speaker 1: two wins out of four. Here's the thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough. You've got the Chiefs, the Browns,
Speaker 1: and the Ravens. So I totally see them as survivors
Speaker 1: that will go down again. I said that not at all,
Speaker 1: not at all, but because I think that the league
Speaker 1: is essentially seventy eight percent totally middle of the road operation. Well,
Speaker 1: what about the A C North if they went if
Speaker 1: they win two of their final three and they go
Speaker 1: nine seven and one, that probably wins the C and
Speaker 1: they probably they've earned But like, think about that because
Speaker 1: and I got a chance to watch this game. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys got good eyes on it yet,
Speaker 1: but this does not feel like a team that's ready
Speaker 1: to make a deep run in January or be taken
Speaker 1: seriously against the big team. And yet they do hang
Speaker 1: around and fight their way through these games. And then
Speaker 1: there's something that's again like with John Harbor and the Ravens, uh,
Speaker 1: there is something to be said for the coaching that
Speaker 1: they do feel like they are maximizing their potential right now.
Speaker 1: Is as as middling as that, maybe it's great. I mean,
Speaker 1: if I'm glad Mark didn't watch this game because I
Speaker 1: was here in the early session, and we'll get to
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, but there was a lot of stress if
Speaker 1: he if he was watching this closer, he would have
Speaker 1: seen a twenty three yard field goal drive by the Steelers.
Speaker 1: This is other field. There's scoring drive, a thirty nine
Speaker 1: yeard touchdown drive, then their final three drives in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, they recover three straight turnovers in Tennessee's end
Speaker 1: and they get a total of two first downs in
Speaker 1: those three drives, kick field goals for all three. That
Speaker 1: is a crazy Our defense is taking over and winning
Speaker 1: this game for us, while the Titans are collapsing type
Speaker 1: of comeback. It is a t J. Watt Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year type of game. In the first half,
Speaker 1: he had a play in the red zone where he
Speaker 1: shut he had a quarterback hit force phone boy, I
Speaker 1: believe it was shut down to drive. There got three
Speaker 1: quarterback hits in the game, a sack and a half.
Speaker 1: A lot of this was pressure and it's these teams
Speaker 1: kind of being exactly who they've been all season. The
Speaker 1: tennis Tennessee has shut down the run. They kind of
Speaker 1: dominated up front, like they didn't give up many yards
Speaker 1: at all, but Tennessee it just doesn't have any offense.
Speaker 1: And Julio Jones got hurt again with a hamstring injury. Again.
Speaker 1: Who's not gonna like that's that's these are whose Grave
Speaker 1: Digger um of course of the Titans Film Room podcast
Speaker 1: and by the way, just announced you know how like
Speaker 1: in UH on Saturday Night Live on Twitter, they'll show
Speaker 1: the little note cards like who's coming up in the future,
Speaker 1: episodes coming up on TNF and a huge TNF game
Speaker 1: between the Titans and the Niners. Grave Digger will be
Speaker 1: sitting in with us on Mike UH to talk that game. Now,
Speaker 1: Grave Digger calendar allows for such. Yeah, we're not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta pull that. We he respectfully made the request
Speaker 1: to stop talking about his private life because he's got
Speaker 1: something simmering, he's got something on the burner, and we
Speaker 1: have said absolutely respect you as a friend and his colleague.
Speaker 1: So we will not ask you about what's going on
Speaker 1: with that married woman. But what we will ask you
Speaker 1: is about ask you about is how concerned you are
Speaker 1: at this stage. That was a tough second half and
Speaker 1: and if the if the story has overblown or is
Speaker 1: over talked about it it is now is like Ryan
Speaker 1: Town Hills on an island and he's not good enough
Speaker 1: to make it make a difference. Man, it really does
Speaker 1: check out when you watch these games. It's crazy. They
Speaker 1: had a ten play span on offense where they turned
Speaker 1: it over three times. That's unbelievable. They did this in
Speaker 1: the two games against Houston and New England, the two
Speaker 1: games before the Jacksonville game where they just kept turning
Speaker 1: the ball over and yes, nine in two games. And
Speaker 1: it was like, is this a fluke? Kind of like
Speaker 1: this nobody can turn the ball over this much? But
Speaker 1: is it because all the offensive players, skill players are
Speaker 1: hurt and now that it's happened three times in four games,
Speaker 1: it's like, yes, it's I'm starting to think A. J.
Speaker 1: Brown is maybe like not just more valuable, but like
Speaker 1: way more valuable to this offense than Derrick Henry even is,
Speaker 1: because because they ran for two hundred yards. They did
Speaker 1: that against the Patriots too. They ran the ball well
Speaker 1: a week ago. They've run it fairly well even without Henry,
Speaker 1: and yet, oh my god, their past coverage seems to
Speaker 1: be getting problem more problematic by the week. But I mean,
Speaker 1: a hundred sixty eight yards Pittsburgh had in this game,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that Ryan Tannehill took serious abuse a week ago,
Speaker 1: and the sacks are piling up, and it's just like,
Speaker 1: it's not It's why I don't take them seriously. I mean,
Speaker 1: they could win, they could win a playoff game because
Speaker 1: they're well coached and things can happen. But you're not
Speaker 1: gonna win three with that offensive protection. Aaron Brewer's the
Speaker 1: backup guard. He's kind of a swing guard, and he
Speaker 1: got worked in Roger's Affoeld's absence. They did a pretty
Speaker 1: good job keeping T. J. Watt from making a lot
Speaker 1: of plays in the first half. But then in the
Speaker 1: second half he was all over the place. So I
Speaker 1: don't know. And if you're curious how Titans fans are doing,
Speaker 1: and they're very upset because I had them at twelve
Speaker 1: in the power rankings this week and you know they're
Speaker 1: probably not gonna move up one. Uh. Such user tweeted
Speaker 1: at me after the game. I hope you have the
Speaker 1: decency when you do your rankings to understand that this
Speaker 1: is not the Titans team. Henry will be back a
Speaker 1: j back next week. All Caps, now, please do not
Speaker 1: put calls ahead of them. That would be that would
Speaker 1: be what does it matter to them so much? I
Speaker 1: mean it's not for you, that would be all knowledgeable.
Speaker 1: Stop doing these rankings as with bias, be a pro.
Speaker 1: It better be a that's your soul act. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: that's not if the Colts and Titans, they're playing in
Speaker 1: a neutral field this week, Colts minus seven. All right,
Speaker 1: grave digger hanging there, buddy, Let's keep moving. Golf leads in.
Speaker 1: There's the snappy's back golf looking looking throwing deep right
Speaker 1: side wants Reynolds got him ends touched down Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: Oh baby, what a dark to Reynolds who got the
Speaker 1: inside position on Byron Murphy and the Lions and found
Speaker 1: the end zone again. Oh the bongos for the Motor
Speaker 1: City Kitty Kings. You have fun with your bongos co
Speaker 1: co co like a week ago situation. And what a
Speaker 1: voice on Dan Miller. It is good to be hearing
Speaker 1: him with some regularity regularity on the show. He's just
Speaker 1: good w x y T with the call. Jared Goff
Speaker 1: is Cliff Kings very scryptonite, the punching ba qb. Let's
Speaker 1: face it, that's what he's become in the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. Lit up the Cardinals secondary for three touchdowns,
Speaker 1: including that twenty two yard strike to Josh Reynolds. The
Speaker 1: Lines cruise to a thirty twelve win over the Cardinals
Speaker 1: at Ford Field. Mark. Your Cardinals had been unbeaten on
Speaker 1: the road. Your Cardinals have looked like the most balanced
Speaker 1: team in football. Your Cardinals are suddenly in some trouble here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean it's it raises some of
Speaker 1: the more esoteric questions that we had about teams like
Speaker 1: the Rams when they went through a rough patch. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: the Cardinals in primetime games, Uh, the lights are too
Speaker 1: bright Uh with in in in playoff clinching scenarios under
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury, They're oh for four at this point. Um,
Speaker 1: this looked like one of those games where a good
Speaker 1: team gets on an airplane travel somewhere and you can
Speaker 1: tell within eight or nine minutes this ain't happening for them,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you jump the gun with that feeling. But
Speaker 1: this never got um into questionable territory and it for
Speaker 1: we can get into the Cardinals part. But huge credit
Speaker 1: to Dan Campbell the Lions. I mean, this was a
Speaker 1: team that going in to not have DeAndre Swift. Jamal
Speaker 1: Williams was out with covid t. J Hawkinson is out.
Speaker 1: They are playing with guys like Charles Harris on defense,
Speaker 1: who has been awesome as the first round pick. Josh Reynolds,
Speaker 1: though has has stepped up as a receiver, Guys like
Speaker 1: Craig Reynolds, Mon Ross and Brown is really Brown. I mean,
Speaker 1: they just but if you look at the roster up
Speaker 1: and down, it's like, wait a minute, what you get?
Speaker 1: Why the wreck? This is why the stories about the
Speaker 1: Cardinals like the Lions, It's like that's really They've showed
Speaker 1: a lot of positive signs the last few weeks, and
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell's such an upgrade, it seems over in Matt Patricia.
Speaker 1: But to be as talent deficient as they are, to
Speaker 1: be as banged up as they are, and to blow
Speaker 1: out the Cardinals, Like, I'm with you and that you
Speaker 1: can't overreact, because like the Rams and so many other teams,
Speaker 1: there are times in the season where you're going to
Speaker 1: a funk. I think that's where Arizona qualifies right now.
Speaker 1: I will say I am concerned about this Cardinals season
Speaker 1: without DeAndre Hopkins because he has now gone at least
Speaker 1: untill the NFC Title game if they got that far.
Speaker 1: That was a report they came out today. So he's
Speaker 1: not coming back. Is this a situation where their offense
Speaker 1: is gonna just struggle to score points because they did
Speaker 1: the last two weeks. I want to see more because
Speaker 1: I feel like all these teams get this so called
Speaker 1: Mulligan scenario. Um, maybe that's what this was. But I
Speaker 1: totally agree with you that DeAndre Hopkins, that his absence matters. Uh,
Speaker 1: they did not have Rodney Hudson. I think that was
Speaker 1: a factor today. Kyler Murray just miss throws. They they
Speaker 1: seemed completely out of sync. They opened with three straight punts. Uh.
Speaker 1: They basically at one point had a fourth down pass knockdown.
Speaker 1: It was in the red zone. It was the lions
Speaker 1: first red zone stop all season. There was a terrible
Speaker 1: Murray interception where he was out of sync with a
Speaker 1: miscommunication scenario with a J. Green, which has happened a
Speaker 1: couple of times this year. They just don't They did
Speaker 1: not seem to me like the weld oiled machine. It
Speaker 1: was really the defense too that got beaten up in this.
Speaker 1: I mean Craig Reynolds, who is from the Wilderness, undrafted
Speaker 1: back and looks great two weeks in a row, ran
Speaker 1: through them. They dominated time of possession when it mattered
Speaker 1: early on, and they tired out Arizona by the end.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think it's fair to be like whenever
Speaker 1: a team that we're talking about is the best team
Speaker 1: in football gets conked out this way, it's not good.
Speaker 1: It's not good. I mean, the Lions, though, are not
Speaker 1: the record. I think that we've they tied the Steelers,
Speaker 1: they beat the Vikings, and they're getting better each week.
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted to start with them, because it's
Speaker 1: like they can get lost in the what's the problem
Speaker 1: with Arizona. They made a problem for Arizona today too,
Speaker 1: now they there. That's a fair point. I feel like
Speaker 1: they're more of a four or five win team. You
Speaker 1: certainly would rather see the Giants on your their scheduled
Speaker 1: in than them or many other teams with better records.
Speaker 1: That said, you're the Cardinals, you lose by eighteen. And
Speaker 1: the problems that they have are now becoming repeating problems.
Speaker 1: Number One, they have gotten pushed around in terms of
Speaker 1: their run defense, and now you have the Colts coming
Speaker 1: to town, so we'll get into that game later week.
Speaker 1: But that's that's been a problem. And then Hudson being
Speaker 1: out is huge. But their interior line in general has
Speaker 1: been a problem late, and especially when you've got, you know,
Speaker 1: a shorter quarterback. That whole idea of Kyler Murray as
Speaker 1: the m VP that that is uh, that is long,
Speaker 1: that's long gone. And Mark during this game it was
Speaker 1: I remember I said one of my favorite or surprising
Speaker 1: moments of the season was was watching him melt down
Speaker 1: when the Bengals were losing a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and it was confused because he was he was mad
Speaker 1: about his take being apocalypse forel right now, which is
Speaker 1: terrible week, which is strange because if like we would
Speaker 1: all be happy to apocalypse, as if I could even
Speaker 1: remember what my takes were if Um, during this game,
Speaker 1: he said, he muttered under his breath, you know that
Speaker 1: cutting sort of mutter where it could cut glass. I'm
Speaker 1: done rooting for any teams this year, That's what. And
Speaker 1: then there was multiple multiple I wrote it down multiple times. Um,
Speaker 1: oh god, there was I think, oh god, happened three
Speaker 1: times and it was Cardinals related. So Cardinals fan, you
Speaker 1: got a man that has your back here in Marxis. Well,
Speaker 1: I look at It's like, um, what I'm done with
Speaker 1: is pet teens. I mean it's like I grew up
Speaker 1: in a no pet household and I'm back in a
Speaker 1: no pet household. I'm not clinging to anyone or anything
Speaker 1: at this point. I'm just gonna do the best I
Speaker 1: can from here to the end. That's good. Um, all right, well,
Speaker 1: oh you we should say that Cardinal started seven or
Speaker 1: oh now they've lost four or seven. And I know
Speaker 1: Patrick Laban one of our favorites and a honorary hero.
Speaker 1: If you're listening, Pat, listen to this quote very closely
Speaker 1: from tight end zech Ertz. We can't let the We
Speaker 1: can't let this thing. Spiral momentum is real in the NFL,
Speaker 1: good and bad. It's coming from an NFL play from
Speaker 1: a champion. It's third and twelve from the Panthers twenty
Speaker 1: yard line snap Alan. What's written now changes the direction,
Speaker 1: fire straight down the middle. It is caught in the end.
Speaker 1: Touchdown Buffalo Gabriel Davis touchdown Bills a twenty yards strike
Speaker 1: from Josh Allen, John Murphy w g R with the
Speaker 1: call the copy here, John Murphy, Eric would Eric? Would
Speaker 1: I assume the color guy? Yes? I thought for a
Speaker 1: second the man's name was John Murphy, Eric Wood. A
Speaker 1: lot of names, but it kind of all rolls off
Speaker 1: the tongue nicely, these people with multiple middle names. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that was just j M. I call him Murph. Josh
Speaker 1: Allen threw three touchdown passes, including that hook up with
Speaker 1: Gabe Davis in the third quarter, and the Bill snapped
Speaker 1: the two games skid with a win over the moribund
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers. The win, combined with the New England lost,
Speaker 1: moves Buffalo back within a game of the a f
Speaker 1: C East lead, with a massive Week sixteen showdown on
Speaker 1: the horizon, and we'll get to that. But Greg, we
Speaker 1: trusted Buffalo to handle broke Carolina and it's broken offense.
Speaker 1: But how did the briandable attack look here? They looked
Speaker 1: like they were working on the running game. It's almost like, okay,
Speaker 1: we get an early lead, let's uh, let's see what
Speaker 1: we can do by giving Devin Singletary twenty two carries.
Speaker 1: And it was okay, it was fine, Like this was
Speaker 1: a game that he went six and a touchdown, so
Speaker 1: that's different than normal, but almost every other aspect of
Speaker 1: this game that's gorgeous. For this all right, that's a
Speaker 1: fair point. And and they moved the ball when they
Speaker 1: absolutely needed to. It was a little closer, I think
Speaker 1: than the score indicated. The yards for play were pretty
Speaker 1: close throughout. It was a ten point game, and the
Speaker 1: Panthers had the ball in the fourth quarter. Like it
Speaker 1: wasn't too crazy. But almost everything that you would expect
Speaker 1: to happen in this game like happened. It was Cam Newton,
Speaker 1: you know, the poor Man's Josh Allen. Now I used
Speaker 1: to when Josh Allen came into leg I called him
Speaker 1: the poor home man. Time is a flat circle, and
Speaker 1: they really are similar, I think. But Josh Allen is
Speaker 1: so much better obviously now at throwing and running, I
Speaker 1: would say, but but especially at throwing, and he is
Speaker 1: approaching or passing as good as Cam Newton ever was
Speaker 1: in terms of just throwing the ball and making plays
Speaker 1: on his own. That Josh Allen did enough, and you
Speaker 1: got out of here with a pretty comfortable, a little
Speaker 1: bit deflating um if you're a Panthers fan, I imagine,
Speaker 1: because when Cam came back and all the excitement around that,
Speaker 1: and it felt like he was going to kind of
Speaker 1: revitalize the whole operation, and then kind of reality sets
Speaker 1: in that that that Cam that you fell in love with,
Speaker 1: that one m v P, he's gone and the guy
Speaker 1: that's here parachuted into a very difficult situation. Not his playbook.
Speaker 1: Uh doesn't have the same skill set. And I guess
Speaker 1: every time I saw highlights on Twitter, it was something like,
Speaker 1: oh man, the Panthers offense is terrible. Like I saw
Speaker 1: so many of those things they ran. I mean, like
Speaker 1: Cam like he's been okay for fantasy. He has more
Speaker 1: rushing touchdowns this year than than like Alvin Kamara and
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones like he had the rushing touchdown every week one,
Speaker 1: but they're passing game is terrible. They passed it forty
Speaker 1: two times for a net of a hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: four yards. I mean they It's funny because Rule came
Speaker 1: in and he said, we're just gonna run like crazy.
Speaker 1: They actually ran for one fifty one. They were down
Speaker 1: two scores for much of this game, so it was
Speaker 1: tough to stay committed to the running game. But they
Speaker 1: were pretty good at running and they hit Josh Allen
Speaker 1: a lot. That is my number one concerned with the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills is not their defense, and it is not
Speaker 1: their running game. It is just their offensive line in general.
Speaker 1: Because when you combine a lack of a running game
Speaker 1: with not being able to protect Alan, that's problematic. And
Speaker 1: he had to really earn his two ten and three today.
Speaker 1: He was hit a lot of times by this Panthers.
Speaker 1: They've got the Pats up next. Uh. You know, every
Speaker 1: time I watched the Panthers, I feel like Matt Rule,
Speaker 1: his face on the sideline is getting more and more
Speaker 1: agitated with the concept of life that he that is
Speaker 1: just not um this this star has fallen so far
Speaker 1: at this point that the Camas back stuff from a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. It feels like a strange dream
Speaker 1: from early autumn. It's going to be interesting and a
Speaker 1: lot of fun to watch the Bills and and Pat's
Speaker 1: rematch that I feel like that's I think for you,
Speaker 1: the best thing that could happen for you in the
Speaker 1: world would be the Bills to drop a bomb on
Speaker 1: New England and it would confirm kind of everything that
Speaker 1: you have been trumpeting about the Patriots up late. I
Speaker 1: am not. Did you hear my analysis of their performance
Speaker 1: on Saturday night? I came away impressed by them? I wasn't.
Speaker 1: But I think it's I think it's um it's the
Speaker 1: next level in this psych warfare that we have going
Speaker 1: on to use that space where they lost to praise them.
Speaker 1: Well if that cat's a Belichick move to praise and
Speaker 1: when you lose and and heart heart on them when
Speaker 1: they win. But that's interesting. UM. I just wish that
Speaker 1: my favorite team isn't uh losers of thirty since Week
Speaker 1: one last week last year, So if I could find
Speaker 1: something to root for and be happy, Okay, I guess
Speaker 1: it's rooting against the Patriots, but I just I just
Speaker 1: want to see how the Bills react now, uh, three
Speaker 1: weeks after the events of that Monday, because how much
Speaker 1: do you take from this game? I think, I know,
Speaker 1: I gotta see the offense how it looked, But it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like it was locked and loaded again. So
Speaker 1: it's fine. It was what you expected. I didn't change
Speaker 1: my view in either way. It also was a very
Speaker 1: much a veteran team taking care of business, as that's
Speaker 1: what we asked for this Bills game. Though next week
Speaker 1: we said it how the division is not over. Patriots lose,
Speaker 1: Bills win this week, now they're only one back. If
Speaker 1: the Bills could win next time out, they get four
Speaker 1: and two in the division. That then that comes down
Speaker 1: to like the Patriots having to beat Miami and getting
Speaker 1: the other tiebreaker and a much At this point, I
Speaker 1: think the Patriots would have the edge, but it gives
Speaker 1: the Bills a real chance to win a division. Well,
Speaker 1: the Bills would have the Falcons and Jets to close
Speaker 1: the season, so that is a dangerous matchup there you go, uh, Ricky.
Speaker 1: By the way, I just want to circle back. We
Speaker 1: had the the the lock of the Patriots that didn't
Speaker 1: work out for Mark but you had locked against the Patriots.
Speaker 1: Does that? But do you get the lock sound or
Speaker 1: you get the sad horn? Because I locked the Cults
Speaker 1: technically right, But didn't we standings wise? Weren't we thinking
Speaker 1: that when you do the reverse lock, you should get
Speaker 1: credit for losing but be penalized for winning. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know where you took the l I think ultimately
Speaker 1: I definitely did. I definitely did, And the listeners were
Speaker 1: great letting me know on Twitter that I lost, that
Speaker 1: I lost my streak. What do you think that? What's
Speaker 1: our official ruling? Is she getting credit for wins or losses?
Speaker 1: It's very convoluted now, especially now, I think had she
Speaker 1: had the street continued, we be onto something. I think
Speaker 1: we're just in media low, the low, the low part
Speaker 1: of mediocrity at this spot. I mean, I think it
Speaker 1: was like six in a row locking against the Patriots.
Speaker 1: So either the winning streak ended of the losing streak.
Speaker 1: I don't think, yeah, you get credit because some of
Speaker 1: those times, wait, they were always locked against it. You're
Speaker 1: getting credit for a win when the Patriots were like
Speaker 1: out of the number range for instance. So that also
Speaker 1: would be she was fearing and mine mine and you
Speaker 1: had a lockoff win over Mark. But was it really
Speaker 1: it was kind of a lockoff law. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: kind of operating on a different level than the rest
Speaker 1: of us right now. We're just trying to play catch up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough, alright, to be fair, she only switched to
Speaker 1: that strategy because she was in a hole. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't need to say, we don't need like week
Speaker 1: Ti Man spreading. Okay, we don't need this masculinity. Ricky's
Speaker 1: just doing her best here. I mean I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: right there near the body. We got your back, right, Um,
Speaker 1: all right, we gotta take a break, right, all right,
Speaker 1: then we'll be back. The ban goals don't huddle. They
Speaker 1: snap it to Burrow throws down field, grow wide boy,
Speaker 1: catch us at the thirty great up cut back of
Speaker 1: the town. But five touchdown band goals fifty six yard
Speaker 1: answer Joe Burrow to Tyler boy, that's like that, goals
Speaker 1: are back. That's me doing color commentary. Nice, nice, looks good.
Speaker 1: That reminds me the guy used to work with. Um.
Speaker 1: His response to anything, which just nice. It's going to
Speaker 1: be getting paid for it. That was Dan Horde and
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham w k C. Why Uh, thank god this
Speaker 1: game had that play because there wasn't much else to
Speaker 1: get juiced up about. Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense
Speaker 1: was silent on Sunday in Denver, that is until Burrow
Speaker 1: connected with taj Boyd Nice on the fifties six yard
Speaker 1: touchdown that allowed since to escape. Ricky, can we isolate
Speaker 1: that Nice for future Bengals talk escaped town with a
Speaker 1: win over the Broncos. Greg, It's hard to feel like
Speaker 1: we could trust the Bengals even after this win. But
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the first place team, sure, and
Speaker 1: that's good. Go get a win. It doesn't really impact
Speaker 1: how they're gonna play next week. But I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear that this is some sort of great Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor mans. I mean, they had twelve first downs in
Speaker 1: two forty nine yards in this game. You got the
Speaker 1: job done. The defense made it stops against Drew Lock
Speaker 1: when they needed to. Teddy Bridgewater left this game, yeah,
Speaker 1: with a really scary hit. Body wasn't moving, but they
Speaker 1: did say he had a feeling in his extremities and
Speaker 1: it was a concussion or they were checking for a concussion. Uh,
Speaker 1: and he was in the hospital being checked that So
Speaker 1: the Bengals got it done. But my focus here is,
Speaker 1: you know, as it often is, on game management. Bick
Speaker 1: Fangio is terrible at it. Broncos fans, No, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes like we can get lost in the game management
Speaker 1: and that's not the most important thing. And in this
Speaker 1: game where so little happened, give Joe Burrow credit. Makes
Speaker 1: a nice third and ten play on their last offensive
Speaker 1: drive under pressure, getting hit to Tyler Boyd's great job,
Speaker 1: you know, kept the jet drive going. He made a
Speaker 1: couple of clutch plays. Okay, Fonio blues six points, a
Speaker 1: six point swing at the end of the first half,
Speaker 1: and then totally mismanaged the clock. Not that Drew Lock
Speaker 1: was probably gonna do it at the end, but they couldn't.
Speaker 1: They could have had two minutes for Drew Lock at
Speaker 1: the end of the game and instead that he he
Speaker 1: just wasted forty seconds and the and the sequence at
Speaker 1: the end of the first half where he ended up
Speaker 1: allowing the Bengals to get three points instead of being
Speaker 1: aggressive and getting the three point. I could really break
Speaker 1: it down play by play if you guys want, but
Speaker 1: I don't think you want to hear it, it's like
Speaker 1: I just like, I like knowing that you could if
Speaker 1: you wanted to. That shows me that you're locked in
Speaker 1: on this game. And like they were, so can they
Speaker 1: were setting up okay, they were setting up for a
Speaker 1: long field goal at the end of the first half.
Speaker 1: They were not trying to move the ball down the field.
Speaker 1: A guy goes out of bound with seventeen seconds for
Speaker 1: some reason, Fondo takes the time out even though the
Speaker 1: guy was out of bounds, and instead of doing whatever
Speaker 1: they could, which they easily could have it was a
Speaker 1: third and one to make sure if you're gonna be
Speaker 1: conservative to bleed the clock out, that they throw a past.
Speaker 1: They don't get it. They end up kicking along field goal.
Speaker 1: Then they play this terrible, like way too safe defensive
Speaker 1: coverage which just let Joe Burrow get twenty yards to
Speaker 1: kick their own field goal. That was a six point swing,
Speaker 1: and the whole drive leading up to that was mismanaged,
Speaker 1: and me and Broncos Twitter, we're first guessing as it
Speaker 1: was happening. So that's like a little six point swing
Speaker 1: in such a close game. And then at the end
Speaker 1: he took this time out before the two minute warning,
Speaker 1: where if you are a guy who plays Madden or whatever,
Speaker 1: you just knew that Fio or a girl like wasted
Speaker 1: like he could have had forty seconds more and the Broncos,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be a defensive team, I've been ranting
Speaker 1: too long, but if you're gonna be a defensive team
Speaker 1: that was trying to play in these types of games,
Speaker 1: and I think Fenjio's finally has the defense he wants playing,
Speaker 1: then you gotta be able to win on the margins
Speaker 1: like that, and he's terrible. Here's my question, because we're
Speaker 1: we're nearing the end of year three with Vick Fonjio,
Speaker 1: and I think we get what he brings defensively and
Speaker 1: there's he's unique and on that front, I mean, Brandon
Speaker 1: Staley loves him for multiple reasons. Why isn't there someone
Speaker 1: else like well, I'm wondering, just is there someone in
Speaker 1: the ear of Fongio or in general saying this is
Speaker 1: not your skill set will take over these decisions? Is
Speaker 1: why is Fongio making these decisions when he's been proven
Speaker 1: to be an utterly subpar time game management. The game
Speaker 1: is moving fast. I don't know either. He hasn't put
Speaker 1: someone in position that it feels how they approached that drive.
Speaker 1: It's teddy a little bit too in terms of the
Speaker 1: you know how lack of daisical it was, but it
Speaker 1: almost felt like that's how they were coaching it. But
Speaker 1: it was more the the use of the play calling
Speaker 1: when there was seventeen seconds to to throw a pass,
Speaker 1: They're not like foreseeing exactly what happened and if it
Speaker 1: honestly felt like whoever is winning six three at halftime
Speaker 1: is gonna win this game because there's so little offense.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while on the show, you have
Speaker 1: a summertime take that you get locked into and you
Speaker 1: end up saying it repeatedly, and then it becomes a thing,
Speaker 1: and then the fans get on you repeatedly. And me
Speaker 1: being against Drew Lock was something that brought much derision
Speaker 1: from Denver. What do they call themselves, Broncos Nation? I
Speaker 1: don't know what do they have a thing? I'm sure
Speaker 1: some use that term goes wagon. They killed me on
Speaker 1: Twitter for weeks and then I just we fast forward
Speaker 1: to the President and Drew Lock that last offseason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: West pushed back for you a little bit. You wanted
Speaker 1: to give Drew Lock a chance a little bit that
Speaker 1: last drive. I'll just go through it. First and ten
Speaker 1: of the Denver twenty five down five point sixty four
Speaker 1: seconds on the clock. Uh, incomplete pass holding. So now
Speaker 1: it is first and twenty from the Denver fifth, incomplete pass.
Speaker 1: I know there was a penalty, but it could have
Speaker 1: been intercepted. We should throw that in. Then Drew Lock
Speaker 1: passed incomplete short middle to Jerry Judy, also could have
Speaker 1: been intercepted. Now now it's second and twenty from the
Speaker 1: Denver fifteen. Drew lck sacked from minus nine yards. Now
Speaker 1: it's third and twenty nine at the Denverse six. Drew
Speaker 1: Lock short passed right to Jerry Judy. Pushed out of
Speaker 1: bounds nine yard game penalty on Cincinnati off side. So
Speaker 1: it's third and twenty four. Drew Lock throws into coverage
Speaker 1: Jared Judy in complete. Fourth and twenty four Drew Lock
Speaker 1: throws it twenty seven yards out of bounds. Game. Oh over.
Speaker 1: I just want one of the Drew Luck people that
Speaker 1: are Bronco's fans to come to my Twitter feed and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, respectfully, I apologize for all the mean
Speaker 1: things I said. You were right about Drew Luck. Just
Speaker 1: one of you can speak for the entire Broncos, that
Speaker 1: would be, uh, the next level step by them. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we lost some Drew luck people when he
Speaker 1: appeared earlier in the season was a total disaster. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like all the you know, Teddy. Teddy had one
Speaker 1: of the worst games of the season before going out
Speaker 1: to injury. Unfortunately, but we've seen what happens when Teddy leaves. Uh,
Speaker 1: they would not be seven and seven. Uh, they would
Speaker 1: be four and ten. But in the end, I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's much of a difference other than they're
Speaker 1: gonna have a worse draft pick because they needed this game.
Speaker 1: We gotta keep moving. I don't want to get into
Speaker 1: the Teddy culture wars, but if they had someone better
Speaker 1: than Teddy, they'd probably ten and four and we wouldn't
Speaker 1: be talking about it. I'm not staying well, yeah, but
Speaker 1: how do you find someone better? It's like Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: is someone better? You know? It's like who who are
Speaker 1: they going to? Again? Who are they? We don't need
Speaker 1: to Let's move on empty back flat pattern yard for touchdown?
Speaker 1: What a devote Parker on it? Both pattern gets it
Speaker 1: FID for the touchdown that was Jimmy Sevlo w q
Speaker 1: A M. DeVante Parker caught an eleven yard touchdown pass
Speaker 1: from tah Tongue of by Law with three thirty seven
Speaker 1: to play. The Dolphins extend their winning streak to six
Speaker 1: games by topping the Jets at hard Rock. Duke Johnson,
Speaker 1: that's your boy, Mark. He ran for a hundred and
Speaker 1: seven yards and not really two touchdowns, and the defense
Speaker 1: held the Jets the three first downs in the second
Speaker 1: half of My Boy as Miami continue to feast on
Speaker 1: its ridiculously soft schedule, weird game. Tua was miserable at
Speaker 1: the onset. It was like him and Zach Wilson had
Speaker 1: been in some type of body switch comedy. He threw
Speaker 1: uh interception, he threw another couple of balls up for grabs.
Speaker 1: He had a fumble and the Jets weren't able to
Speaker 1: reel Uh push it to take it to him. But
Speaker 1: they were up tend nothing the Jets in this game,
Speaker 1: and they had a lead for the first time at halftime.
Speaker 1: But to have got things back on track, they Dolphins
Speaker 1: took control of the game both in the trenches and
Speaker 1: with two of making some nice passes down field. They
Speaker 1: get the game under control. They go from down seventeen
Speaker 1: seven to seventeen and then too it makes another terrible mistake.
Speaker 1: UH throws a pick six that ties the game up.
Speaker 1: And yet you never felt in the fourth quarter even
Speaker 1: that the Dolphins were in any real danger because the
Speaker 1: Jets offense, after a promising start, completely went to bed.
Speaker 1: Miami's defense took complete control of the game, and to
Speaker 1: to his credit in an up and down day, he
Speaker 1: did lead them down the field for that go ahead score.
Speaker 1: Cut to fourth and eleven, fourth and ten for the
Speaker 1: Jets in the last possession of the game, and Zack
Speaker 1: Wilson throws a nine yard pass short of the sticks,
Speaker 1: and that's how it ends. So Dolphins become the second
Speaker 1: team in NFL history to get to seven and seven
Speaker 1: after starting at one and seven. UM and we will
Speaker 1: we will see if this ends with a playoff birth,
Speaker 1: but I guess I still want to see it against
Speaker 1: some real competition. But they deserve a ton of credit,
Speaker 1: So that's not an easy thing to do. This what
Speaker 1: happened with the Jets. UH, Like this happened twice now
Speaker 1: in the last three weeks, where Zach Wilson everyone is
Speaker 1: loving what he did. In the first half, like they
Speaker 1: come out pretty fast, but then I saw fifty four
Speaker 1: yards only three first downs in the second half. It
Speaker 1: seems like a trend with him that he has put
Speaker 1: together like half games, Like you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: it's not terrible in this game, but then it didn't
Speaker 1: stay he Yeah, the first couple of drives, he was
Speaker 1: on target, he was going through his progressions, and then
Speaker 1: I have to say the offensive line got completely destroyed
Speaker 1: in the last i'd say two and a half quarters
Speaker 1: of the game and put him in a bad spot.
Speaker 1: He was running for his life. Uh a lot. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how much to put on Wilson, but
Speaker 1: I will say that it might be a coaching situation.
Speaker 1: I thought Michael Floor had a really it's not it's
Speaker 1: not him. I thought Michael Floor had a really interesting
Speaker 1: fund first half. It was like a kitchen sink thing
Speaker 1: where you had all these trick plays. He was empty,
Speaker 1: emptying out and some of them were working. And then
Speaker 1: the switch got flipped for the Dolphins and Brian Flores
Speaker 1: with that defense and they just absolutely dominated from that point.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I can't really make sense of it other
Speaker 1: than to say that I think, well, Flora had a
Speaker 1: good game plan early but wasn't able to adjust once
Speaker 1: Miami did. Miami's in the wrong conference. Because you win
Speaker 1: six games in the NFC, it's like punch punch my
Speaker 1: playoff ticket. But despite winning all these games, they're still
Speaker 1: only eleven UH in the conference. And and yes there
Speaker 1: are only one game back, and they can certainly make
Speaker 1: it if they win out, but that's probably what it
Speaker 1: will take. And they're at New Orleans, not a gimme
Speaker 1: at Tennessee in New England. So you you've been waiting
Speaker 1: Dan to kind of see them against better teams. I
Speaker 1: think like their pass rush is something that will travel.
Speaker 1: It's it's legit. It took a little while to get going,
Speaker 1: but the coaching and the players combined, like week after
Speaker 1: week they are just maulling people up front. But I'm
Speaker 1: curious as you are to see how to in the
Speaker 1: offense who didn't have Jalen Waddle. Today we'll look against
Speaker 1: some better defense is and they're about to play pretty
Speaker 1: good defense. I mean, they gave up fifty five points
Speaker 1: over five games before coming into this, and I know
Speaker 1: what the schedule is, what it is, but their defense
Speaker 1: was legitimate last year under Brian floor as it is again,
Speaker 1: I'm with you Dan though that there aren't a lot
Speaker 1: of things to point to and say the ceiling is here,
Speaker 1: the way we look at the culture, the schedule. Even
Speaker 1: you know they're out of this insanely soft portion now,
Speaker 1: but you say they're in the wrong conference. Well, they
Speaker 1: got the Jets twice in the Texans once in the
Speaker 1: six game stretch, uh, and then out of conference games
Speaker 1: included the Giants and Panthers. I just mean, like the
Speaker 1: seven in the NFC you're in right now, um and
Speaker 1: in the a f C yere bear. Do I think
Speaker 1: the Saints are Titans? The next two weeks are bad
Speaker 1: matchups for them. I don't so. I think they have
Speaker 1: a chance to really get sneak into the playoffs. They
Speaker 1: don't like their chances once they got to postseason play.
Speaker 1: But man, that it's been Why was this Johnson by
Speaker 1: the way on the street twenty three for one seven?
Speaker 1: This guy can always play on third downs. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying he's like the best player ever, but like receptions
Speaker 1: from running back since he's entered the league, he's in
Speaker 1: like the top three players in the NFL. There must
Speaker 1: be something else he's he's always had those numbers that
Speaker 1: like he that project him to be more than he is. Frankly,
Speaker 1: that's all. I just think it's just to be a guy.
Speaker 1: He does live in this I saw um live in
Speaker 1: the same I believe, like a apartment complex type of thing,
Speaker 1: as to a tongue of viola, which gets to one
Speaker 1: of my my favorite Adam Levitan theories, which is like
Speaker 1: the neighbor theory. He he does little thing he has
Speaker 1: like the shower narrative, like if guys showered together in college,
Speaker 1: they always have nice big fantasy numbers together. But also
Speaker 1: the neighbor. Yeah, the neighbor narrative if like because Tua
Speaker 1: was saying how they they see each other, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like going out to get get watered pick up.
Speaker 1: I'd like to hear more from Adam Levitan on his
Speaker 1: that'sguing to me. All right, Let's check in with the
Speaker 1: other Moribund in New York franchise Second and Gold. At
Speaker 1: the one M motion play, fake Prescott looks right, looks left,
Speaker 1: throws in the John Caught touchdown, the Dalton Schultz, Brian Sham,
Speaker 1: the Sham God k r l D with the call
Speaker 1: uh Drew Prescot Dak Prescott through just one touchdown pass
Speaker 1: that going to Dalton Schultz, but that was enough for
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, who rode their defense to six win over
Speaker 1: who exists mostly in theory at this point. The Cowboys
Speaker 1: defense forced four turnovers for the third straight game. But Greg,
Speaker 1: how did you feel about this perplexing offense? Same this
Speaker 1: is that this was the ultimate just re repeat of
Speaker 1: their last four weeks. It's like, remember it felt like
Speaker 1: the Chiefs were in the same game every week for
Speaker 1: that month. That's the Cowboys to Marcus Lawrence and Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott made a bet of some sort. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: just sort of an on or you know, because they're
Speaker 1: not officially out, that the defense would force more turnovers
Speaker 1: than the Cowboys offense scored touchdowns and DeMarcus Lawrence won
Speaker 1: largely because of DeMarcus Lawrence, who was an absolute beast.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the slightly newest narrative out of this. He's
Speaker 1: been good the last few weeks since returning, but he
Speaker 1: absolutely took over this game for a big chunk of it.
Speaker 1: And just if he's peaking in parsons and speak, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Treyvon Diggs had his tenth interception. Uh. Gregory had a
Speaker 1: big return last week. They have so many pieces on
Speaker 1: defense that I just I struggle. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's just because we were so used to looking at
Speaker 1: the Cowboys as this like offense first juggernaut. Like I'm
Speaker 1: struggling cognitively to kind of make this process that they're
Speaker 1: now going to make a playoff run on the backs
Speaker 1: of their defense. Is that just where we're going now? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that that wait. Wanting any of these teams
Speaker 1: just to ride their defense to the Super Bowl. I
Speaker 1: mean that feels tricky because when their offense was special,
Speaker 1: it felt totally unstoppable, and it maybe just it is
Speaker 1: what it is at this point. Well, they they're like
Speaker 1: they really are just like the Chiefs I think earlier
Speaker 1: in the year, and I think they're just glad to
Speaker 1: be banking wins while they're struggling offensively, and they they
Speaker 1: almost have to know that their offense has to be
Speaker 1: a lot better for them to go where they want.
Speaker 1: They are ten and four, uh, and that's pretty amazing
Speaker 1: if you think back to the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: we did not expect them to be ten and four,
Speaker 1: much less with Dak Prescott struggling this forty one dropbacks
Speaker 1: against this Giants defense, which is like, no great shakes,
Speaker 1: two hundred to net yards, no great sacks. Baby, they
Speaker 1: didn't have a play over. They didn't never play over
Speaker 1: twenty yards. The Giants with Mike Lennon who had ninety
Speaker 1: nine yards passing and three interceptions, and then Jake from
Speaker 1: who came into the game late, actually had more yards
Speaker 1: per play than the Dallas Cowboys in this game. And
Speaker 1: that's that's just weird. And the Cowboys ran the ball well,
Speaker 1: so that narrative forget about that. It was it was
Speaker 1: all about their passing. Excided he was feeling healthier going
Speaker 1: into this game that he looked a little better. He went,
Speaker 1: he look, uh, Lamb dropped two or three passes which
Speaker 1: would have helped. But Cooper had five targets for eight yards.
Speaker 1: Like it's just not there right now. So now yeah,
Speaker 1: we have the They are the mirror version I guess
Speaker 1: of Kansas City, or at least before the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. And that's I don't know, that's slightly underwhelming.
Speaker 1: As a football fan. I like the Cowboys when they
Speaker 1: were to shoot it out offense. But this works too.
Speaker 1: I guess they're gonna win the division. They're not gonna
Speaker 1: you know, Philadelphia is not going to catch up with them.
Speaker 1: So if you look at the Cowboy schedule, you know
Speaker 1: it's all in the division, and it's they're not out
Speaker 1: of it for the one seed, as crazy as it is,
Speaker 1: because they're gonna be favorites in their next three games,
Speaker 1: and and if they could get a little help from
Speaker 1: from Green Bay and Tampa. Who knows, rock solid lock
Speaker 1: to get taken out in January? Oh definitely. Wait, I
Speaker 1: thought you were giving up on takeoffs. Okay, Well that's yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm not even suggesting it's that's true of every team
Speaker 1: except for one. I was wrong. It's not all in
Speaker 1: the division. They do play the Cardinals in week seventeen. Wow.
Speaker 1: This Cardinals scheduled down the stretch really sets up for
Speaker 1: them to kind of be in the cross airs. All right,
Speaker 1: let us now move to the forty niners. We're going
Speaker 1: to keep their momentum going. Forty seconds to go in motion.
Speaker 1: Jeff Wilson Jr. It's a hanging off to Deebo. One
Speaker 1: of the techpool gets rocked. Left you. I love it, great, Papa, Yeah, Papa,
Speaker 1: can br with the call. Jimmy Garoppolo through for two
Speaker 1: five yards in a t D. It's a very Jimmy
Speaker 1: Garoppolo line, and San Francisco ran for three more scores,
Speaker 1: including yet another Deebo Samuel scamper that you heard there.
Speaker 1: Niners one for the fifth time in six games, beating
Speaker 1: the Falcons thirty one thirteen. Mark nice take care of
Speaker 1: business win over a fraudulent Falcons operation. Yeah, you said,
Speaker 1: it felt like what we've seen from Debo, and it
Speaker 1: felt like what we've seen from the Niners during this
Speaker 1: hot streak that they're on. Um, a little bit of
Speaker 1: a slow start, then they scored on five straight drives,
Speaker 1: including four straight touchdown drives. And the difference here early
Speaker 1: on was their defense. Um Nick Bose was awesome in
Speaker 1: this game. Left for a little bit with a presumed concussion,
Speaker 1: but came back in. They shut down the Falcons three
Speaker 1: times inside of San Francisco's ten yard line. Uh. They
Speaker 1: also recovered a fumble at one point. Um. They just
Speaker 1: they to me, this was what you look at with
Speaker 1: the Niners and say you can project them as a
Speaker 1: playoff team and feel comfortable with what they are. George
Speaker 1: Kittle had a George Kittle game. Deebo Samuel did what
Speaker 1: he did and Jimmy g When you get a game
Speaker 1: like this where he's not turning the ball over and
Speaker 1: turning Uh, Kyle Shanahan's face beat red. Uh, you're fine.
Speaker 1: I mean the Falcons, we know that they came into
Speaker 1: this with the lasting team d v O A A
Speaker 1: little bit suspect not their record. They looked like today
Speaker 1: they couldn't protect Matt Ryan, they couldn't get anything done.
Speaker 1: M Pretty daddy. I know they got lucky last against
Speaker 1: the Bengals somewhat, but there are five and one in
Speaker 1: their last six. Yeah, with some pretty good wins in
Speaker 1: their rams Bengals, you stomp out the Falcons, which is
Speaker 1: what you're supposed to do. But I hate that term,
Speaker 1: like the team you don't want to play in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But they certainly feel like a team the table. But
Speaker 1: they also feel like a team that could that could
Speaker 1: compete or beat any team in the NFC. They were like,
Speaker 1: I would want to get away from them and get
Speaker 1: to whoever has taken that seventh seed. This is what
Speaker 1: I wanted a wild card team. You know, they're they're frisky,
Speaker 1: they can get hot. They have some exciting players. Make
Speaker 1: that first weekend as fun as possible. Mark, because I
Speaker 1: have a buy in my fantasy playoffs, I didn't have
Speaker 1: to struggle through a Falcons game. Looking at Kyle fifth
Speaker 1: Pits is an inevitable march to four for thirty eight.
Speaker 1: Where did he finish this week? Four? You had a
Speaker 1: big play like a fifty yard or so, no touchdown,
Speaker 1: no down. I was monitoringbo Is back at a wide
Speaker 1: receiver Fox and So on Friday on the broadcast on Saturday,
Speaker 1: but which by the way, around the NFL broadcast. There's
Speaker 1: some pop going on right now. There's some heat both
Speaker 1: behind the scenes and in the Twitter verse. People are
Speaker 1: into the show. They love the rebranding of it. They
Speaker 1: think that it's really it's captured the spirit of the podcast,
Speaker 1: hasn't it. Greg's I think it's captured the spirit of America.
Speaker 1: At this time when Oh Macron is just going across
Speaker 1: the people are wondering where can they turn to. Well,
Speaker 1: they know on Saturday mornings at four am Pacific, check
Speaker 1: us out. We're there for you. We will be there
Speaker 1: for you. Probably at that time. We are here for you. Guys.
Speaker 1: They might take us out of the students. They've been good.
Speaker 1: They are. They're different than the podcasts, yes, somehow at
Speaker 1: the same time, check it out, Yes, every Saturday. And
Speaker 1: you could also check it out on game Pass and
Speaker 1: Ricky right, people have access to it on YouTube as well.
Speaker 1: That's right. It streams live on YouTube and then stays
Speaker 1: up on the main NFL YouTube And how do they
Speaker 1: find it? Just type in what Yeah, if you go
Speaker 1: to the main NFL YouTube page, it'll pop up as
Speaker 1: like being streaming live. I think it's ten am Pacific,
Speaker 1: which is one pm Eastern Eastern and then eight something
Speaker 1: like that. Sex all our blokes and bloke cats out
Speaker 1: in the They put it up pretty soon after that.
Speaker 1: You have a point and the enjoy the show on
Speaker 1: a on a Friday. That sounds nice. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: let us take a break and then we will wrap
Speaker 1: this thing up. Bloke ats it? Just that it doesn't work?
Speaker 1: What is it? It's blokes and well I don't know
Speaker 1: what they would you're saying, what, what is a female
Speaker 1: version of bloke? Yeah? In the UK and surrounding territories,
Speaker 1: Well I don't, I don't. I'm not going to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, territory unlocked four years old when I lived there, Ricky,
Speaker 1: while we while we dig into this awesome Houston Jackson game.
Speaker 1: If if you were a grave digger could find the
Speaker 1: female expression for bloke over there, that would be great.
Speaker 1: Maybe a bird is it? Like I'm not saying that breathing. No,
Speaker 1: that's Australian Australia. I think the bird would would be it.
Speaker 1: It is Sheila actually, but that's a that's that's that's
Speaker 1: also British North England's I don't know what you're maybe
Speaker 1: these are you know, let's all right, let's let's hit
Speaker 1: the game that everybody's been waiting for. Third down and nine.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get a million tweets about that, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. That's the first Animal thirty twenty tip Tip
Speaker 1: five rock and Roll touchdown Houston. Brandon Cooks to the house.
Speaker 1: Something about that Rock and Roll one. It's like a
Speaker 1: play by play guy from I like it. It's kind
Speaker 1: of throwback Mark vander Meer with it called K I L. T.
Speaker 1: If only the Texans could play the Jaguars every week.
Speaker 1: David Culley's team completed the season sweep of its division
Speaker 1: rival with at at the Big Glorine Tank and Duval.
Speaker 1: It was the Jack's first game without the deposed Urban Meyer,
Speaker 1: proving definitively he was not the problem in Jacksonville and
Speaker 1: should see every penny of the five year deal he
Speaker 1: signed with the team. That's business. That is business. Mark.
Speaker 1: Everything I said is correct? Yes, Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: I go so far as to huddle, Um, if your
Speaker 1: team ownership team brass to say he's not the problem,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe we bring him back via culpa start this
Speaker 1: over fired with cause? How about cause for apology? The
Speaker 1: results that we saw today in jackson Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it might have helped today. Um, you know this is
Speaker 1: the rare game on this one, Mark, huh quick on
Speaker 1: this one. I'll be quick if you'd like, how quick
Speaker 1: do you want me to be? Seconds? How about a
Speaker 1: little love for Brandon Cooks, who's you know, been It's
Speaker 1: sort of been a hostage scenario for him in Houston,
Speaker 1: but a hundred yard game today, he's been kind of
Speaker 1: He's been there, dude, week after week. Davis Mills, who
Speaker 1: started last week fourteen for fourteen, open thirteen for fifteen today.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you, like, I don't know, obviously they're
Speaker 1: gonna have bigger plans, and they could. They could have
Speaker 1: a whole new coaching staff after the season. Their GM
Speaker 1: gave like a vote of no confidence a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, so TB d um. But Davis Mills gives
Speaker 1: you a lot to think about in terms of not
Speaker 1: a lot. It gives you something to think about because
Speaker 1: he's not been a disaster. I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: you've got you found your solid number two. But that's
Speaker 1: not the worst thing. Okay, he's been okay, but it's
Speaker 1: like he's been as I mean, just in terms of
Speaker 1: his performance, he's been as good or better than Trevor
Speaker 1: Lawrence and and Zach Wilson. There's no question. I don't
Speaker 1: think the degree of difficulty with what they're having them
Speaker 1: do um some faith in him. They let him throw
Speaker 1: only up a touchdown on third and log late in
Speaker 1: that game, and people like people were surprised. It was
Speaker 1: almost like the coaches were a little surprised. It's because
Speaker 1: it got a little rainy during the game. I kept
Speaker 1: thinking it was a rainstorm during the game. But you
Speaker 1: might have known a little earlier in the week that
Speaker 1: it was gonna rate all over Texan Bill because I
Speaker 1: used to Texas, don disrespect them as big time underdog.
Speaker 1: The Rainmaker breaks the rain Briggs. How do we not
Speaker 1: have the graphic? Ricky? Where that horrific graphic? Did he
Speaker 1: tell you not to use it? Say anything? We're back
Speaker 1: here again, hey, Mark, you gotta give it up when
Speaker 1: the Rainmaker brings too, I mean, deliver if you if
Speaker 1: you want to. And by the way, I threw another
Speaker 1: one out during that show, and that was the bills covering,
Speaker 1: which also came to check the file on that. And
Speaker 1: you weren't clear, really you were a little bit like
Speaker 1: give it to the Rainmaker bills by forty Well, I said,
Speaker 1: the bills to cover. That's bills cover. Okay, we're just
Speaker 1: trying to parse the language of the Rainmaker. But that okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. It's just Rainmaker. They barely did. It
Speaker 1: came down to the last play, but that that's too
Speaker 1: and oh and another one got moved. But the Texans
Speaker 1: was the one I really felt in everyone got all
Speaker 1: cute with, like, oh, urban Meyer's gone. That's worth the points. Uh,
Speaker 1: not so much that you're going against Davis Mills. You
Speaker 1: actually said that about what the fact like the spread move?
Speaker 1: Do you know a part of the This Pat McAfee
Speaker 1: empire that's been built has been built on the back
Speaker 1: of him getting very involved with the sports betting and
Speaker 1: his listeners cashing in on the McAfee predictions. We could
Speaker 1: get our listeners rich off the rain This is not
Speaker 1: what we want to be. I thought we attempted our
Speaker 1: last time, right we are now. The Rainmaker hit an
Speaker 1: unfortunate drought, if you recall, and that's what led to
Speaker 1: the end of the Rainmaker. But if he's on a
Speaker 1: hot streak, is there's no accountability. You only talk about
Speaker 1: it when you win. You pay for Christmas. Get behind
Speaker 1: the Rainmaker right now because he is on a heater. Right.
Speaker 1: What happened last time was a couple of families were
Speaker 1: put out on the street during Christmas because they did.
Speaker 1: You're asking a finger to help anyone, know, it's just
Speaker 1: like you know, then it's not so then we got
Speaker 1: the Eagles. It's the worst case two in one, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I got the Eagles coming up. But this this was
Speaker 1: the one that I was near and near to. But
Speaker 1: you're saying you're gonna walk away from the Rainmaker, Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see if any I don't think if any you know,
Speaker 1: I feel if I feel this was one of my
Speaker 1: favorite of the year, heavy underdogs to the worst offense.
Speaker 1: Mark said it the worst offense he's seen in about
Speaker 1: five years. That's true. Getting getting rid of Urban Meyer
Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't solve that in one one week. About an
Speaker 1: act of like altruism. Just you want to help our
Speaker 1: listeners pay for college on prep school? Uh? Christmas? Have
Speaker 1: you seen my locks record? I don't feel confident enough.
Speaker 1: But this is different. This is a special skill of yours,
Speaker 1: a special talent. What are some other things we could
Speaker 1: be paying for? Leisure? I mean next level leisure. Night
Speaker 1: at the pub, multiple nights in a pub while staying
Speaker 1: upstairs like a new outfit. Because when you when you
Speaker 1: look good, you feel good, and when you feel good,
Speaker 1: you play good. I mean you get someone like you know,
Speaker 1: the grave Digger has extra expenses that are cropping up.
Speaker 1: You could pay for those types of extra expenses. Well,
Speaker 1: we don't talk about though, I said it in a
Speaker 1: roundabout way. Yeah, but we he had He had asked, respectfully,
Speaker 1: Erica has expenses that I don't even know how to
Speaker 1: drill down to. But I'm sure that there that you
Speaker 1: have a lot of lush hobbies. What is that that
Speaker 1: cost money? I don't know he pivoted you. That was
Speaker 1: a weird little I'm just listing things that might cost money.
Speaker 1: But congratulations, rightmaker, because you're feeling it and you're lighting
Speaker 1: up the wallets and persons of all the blokes and
Speaker 1: lasses across the way. All right, Sunday night, football, Sunday night.
Speaker 1: You can afford that territory. Of course, gratty pressure escapes
Speaker 1: are acepted. Gardner Johnson cuts underneath big turned pretty over
Speaker 1: in bridge eight interceptions in these regular season matchups the
Speaker 1: last two years with the Saints and the New Orleans
Speaker 1: Saints are knocking on the door of a headlong, brathing
Speaker 1: wind in Tampa against the Chaps. Mike Ko who, by
Speaker 1: the way, could not have set this conversation up any better.
Speaker 1: He does that on the cuff, off the cuff. He
Speaker 1: just nailed it, and as his partner Chris Collinsworth soon
Speaker 1: followed up with nobody likes sticking out their tongue more
Speaker 1: than C. J. Gardner Johnson, which was kind of a
Speaker 1: weird take anyway, Speaking of weird Saints nine buccaneer zero.
Speaker 1: That was the final score of Sunday Night football in Tampa.
Speaker 1: The Saints shut out a Bucks team that was besieged
Speaker 1: by injuries to Chris Godwin to Mike Evans, both exited
Speaker 1: the game with injuries uh knee and hamstring, to Leonard
Speaker 1: four Nette to a hamstring, and what was left was
Speaker 1: not nearly good enough when Tom Brady is trying to
Speaker 1: target Tyler Johnson and Scottie Miller just wasn't playing boys,
Speaker 1: and then you give it to Cashawn Vaughan who can't
Speaker 1: do anything. The former third round pick added all up,
Speaker 1: and it was one of the more frustrating nights of
Speaker 1: Tom Brady's career, at least in the regular season. It was,
Speaker 1: and it was like a moment that I'm glad this
Speaker 1: Saints defense and the Saints team had and maybe we'll
Speaker 1: continue to have over the next few weeks. We talked
Speaker 1: about the forty Niners are like that team you want
Speaker 1: to see maybe in the second How about the Saints
Speaker 1: as like the seventh seed that really isn't gonna make
Speaker 1: any noise, But it's this, I get a two lane guy,
Speaker 1: But okay, here's have four seventh seeds and have them
Speaker 1: all playoff. We want to city this scenes defense to
Speaker 1: see them have a night like this, and I get it.
Speaker 1: The injuries are what they were for the Bucks. They
Speaker 1: were three and o against the Bucks with Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: Uh before these injuries. Those injuries didn't start until midway
Speaker 1: through the third quarter. They had four They had stopped
Speaker 1: at four times at that point too. So yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: they don't hold them to zero. But Cam Jordan's getting
Speaker 1: after it early. Marcus Davenport, that's secondaries wild. This That
Speaker 1: to me explains why the Saints in some ways are
Speaker 1: like the two thousand twenty one team more than any team.
Speaker 1: They are four no right now against the teams as
Speaker 1: of right now that rank in the top four of
Speaker 1: current Super Bowl conversation. Okay, the four Okay there. They
Speaker 1: have played the teams that are the top four in
Speaker 1: current Super Bowl winning odds. They are four no against
Speaker 1: those teams. There are three and seven against everyone else. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, and it does matter that there's
Speaker 1: no Sean Payton. Um I says a lot about every
Speaker 1: time the head coach and Mr is a I think
Speaker 1: they're like seven and in those situations, just the Sean
Speaker 1: Payton his difference maker. But Dennis Allen Um did an
Speaker 1: incredible job this evening. I mean Cam Jordan's stacked on
Speaker 1: the same side as Marcus Davenport, caused total chaos, and
Speaker 1: I thought that the defensive backfield was super sticky. I'm
Speaker 1: with Greg. I mean, yes, I know the injuries occurred.
Speaker 1: I don't think it mattered. I mean they made up
Speaker 1: for a Saints offense that had nine drives down the
Speaker 1: stretch that went for less than twenty yards and most
Speaker 1: of those went for less than five yards. I mean
Speaker 1: they were put back on the field over and over.
Speaker 1: And this is a situation where it's like we wanted
Speaker 1: to know do they do they have Tom Brady's number?
Speaker 1: Do they have this offense's number? Yes, Had the injuries
Speaker 1: not occurred, would this been maybe ten nine? Would they
Speaker 1: have lost? I don't know. I don't care. They got
Speaker 1: the job done. Matters, but they of course thumping them
Speaker 1: to be start, of course it matters, but the Saints,
Speaker 1: Saints fans and the Saints don't want to hear about injuries,
Speaker 1: mattering like this team has been death made it by
Speaker 1: injuries throughout the course of the season. They had to
Speaker 1: keep playing, and even tonight they didn't have either their
Speaker 1: top two pro Bowl tackles. So I'm just saying, like
Speaker 1: the tweet of the night was from dap boy Wolf.
Speaker 1: Here it is his quote, I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: about Bucks injuries, but be out here throwing passes to
Speaker 1: Amazon delivery driver exactly. So they have that's partly their
Speaker 1: own doing by dressing uh and developing for the injuries
Speaker 1: celivery drivers for the Bucks punt punt punt, missfield goal
Speaker 1: punt punt. Then it started to happen. It's like it
Speaker 1: wasn't like there was an electricity or like, okay, I
Speaker 1: hear that, and the Saints deserve all the credit for
Speaker 1: their defense and how it played. But once you lost
Speaker 1: your top two wide receivers and you're missing Antonio Brown,
Speaker 1: so now you're missing your top three wide receivers, and
Speaker 1: you're missing Leonard four Nett, who has been sneaky the
Speaker 1: most important part of that offense this year besides Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: and you take all those guys out of the mix.
Speaker 1: When it became time for the Tom Brady to do
Speaker 1: magical Tom Brady stuff, it just felt complete letely impossible
Speaker 1: because he was like he turned it to Ryan Tannehill
Speaker 1: and and Brady obviously a superior player to Tannehill. But
Speaker 1: once again it shows you when you take a quarterback,
Speaker 1: no matter how good he is, and you take away
Speaker 1: all his weapons, and offense is gonna suffer, especially against
Speaker 1: a good defense like New Orleans, who really got after
Speaker 1: it right. They they didn't The Buck's offensive line, which
Speaker 1: has been so good all your Brady's barely been touched,
Speaker 1: did not win that battle. They came out wanting to
Speaker 1: throw when everyone knows healthy. They threw eleven straight times
Speaker 1: to start the game. And he was getting hit then
Speaker 1: and and he he wasn't getting enough first downs. Then
Speaker 1: he had that interception, you know. Late. Of course he
Speaker 1: had the fumble when they were in position for a
Speaker 1: field goal. I mean, they could have scored points here.
Speaker 1: They missed the field goal. They had a two minute
Speaker 1: drive at the end of the first half that also
Speaker 1: got styming. They threw it to Rob Gronkowski. Brady did
Speaker 1: eleven times. And Gronk is having an amazing season, but
Speaker 1: he's nice as a compliment. He had two catches out
Speaker 1: of those eleven UH targets and at least three drops
Speaker 1: where he could have either come away with the ball
Speaker 1: or he wasn't paying attention on one that was in
Speaker 1: his bread basket would have put him on that like.
Speaker 1: They also did not come through in some key moments,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a massive win because I think the
Speaker 1: Saints now really have a real chance, a good chance
Speaker 1: to go get that seventh seed, which I didn't totally
Speaker 1: see coming into this game, and Tom Brady's m v
Speaker 1: P case, and more importantly, Tampa's chances to get the
Speaker 1: one seed take a big hit. They're not done yet,
Speaker 1: but they take a big hit. I mean everyone's m
Speaker 1: v P, you know, campaign seems to take a big
Speaker 1: hit the minute we start to mention that Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: he's played awesome for four seas. He's in the driver,
Speaker 1: him and Taylor and Brady after Week one with Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers like we were, you know, what's happened to this
Speaker 1: human being? He's not the same guy. I mean, I
Speaker 1: just I'm impressed with his Saints defense that passed a
Speaker 1: mask over an offense that was also without both of
Speaker 1: its tackles, an offense that had twelve plays in sports
Speaker 1: seen yards in the third quarter. I mean, that can
Speaker 1: break a defense. We have to keep going back out
Speaker 1: there over and over. They absolutely play with no fear
Speaker 1: against Brady. I mean, they're up in his face and
Speaker 1: it's the one team I think Dennis Ellen has done
Speaker 1: a better job coaching against Tom Brady than any coordinator
Speaker 1: in the league the last couple of years. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt they this. I just want to I don't want
Speaker 1: to be the Devil's advocate on this one, but uh,
Speaker 1: somebody has to say it that Taysom Hill can't really play. No,
Speaker 1: he can't. So that's a problem. And as much as
Speaker 1: we want to see some of us want to see
Speaker 1: the Saints in the playoffs, I have from what I've
Speaker 1: seen personally, and these what is it four starts now
Speaker 1: is a guy who is exactly suited to where he
Speaker 1: was previously in his career as a gadget player. And
Speaker 1: when you put him out there as the quarterback, it's
Speaker 1: just not It's not happening. Is his The people around
Speaker 1: him in the offensive line matters, of course, but if
Speaker 1: you're asking him to win big games in December in January,
Speaker 1: I just don't see it. That's true. I mean, they
Speaker 1: scored nine points. Now, they're gonna play the Dolphins, Panthers,
Speaker 1: and Falcons. None of those are w's you know, automatically
Speaker 1: one that Dolphins games on Monday Night. None of those
Speaker 1: are els. That's just who this Saints team is. But
Speaker 1: I think with Hill, if they can especially if they
Speaker 1: can get the offensive line healthy again, I think he
Speaker 1: makes sense just for the style of play that there
Speaker 1: that they have, and no quarterback would be succeeding that.
Speaker 1: They clearly just went into this season with a huge
Speaker 1: mistake without getting enough pass catchers. I mean, they just
Speaker 1: don't have guys who can make up play Nick Vannette,
Speaker 1: make up play trout and make a play. I thought
Speaker 1: Hill in the first half of this game through the
Speaker 1: ball pretty well. You know Michael Thomas situation played out.
Speaker 1: That was a huge setback for this and I agree
Speaker 1: with you on that. Mark. Final word to you on
Speaker 1: this Sunday Night masterpiece. What would you like me to say?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've got to know Greg always has
Speaker 1: one in the chamber, but I was wondering maybe Mark
Speaker 1: has one in the chamber. I absolutely come away from
Speaker 1: this game Saints well, I know Sean Payton wasn't there,
Speaker 1: but he was my Coach of the Year guy for
Speaker 1: so long, and I just think that they're one of
Speaker 1: the best run teams out there, and to do this
Speaker 1: three times, four times to Tom Brady and a couple
Speaker 1: of seasons is pretty impressive. Has a little something special
Speaker 1: sauce you can't measure when you watch, just the energy.
Speaker 1: But that's not my last one. My last. My last
Speaker 1: has two final thoughts and he's gonna have a third
Speaker 1: and a fourth. The Best Actor award for the one
Speaker 1: season goes to Bruce Arians. Over the last three weeks,
Speaker 1: when he kept answering questions about Antonio Brown and said, well,
Speaker 1: we're not sure yet. We haven't made that call. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you made that call, well before you saw your receivers
Speaker 1: go down. Tonight there was confirmed now that he will
Speaker 1: be coming back on the team Antonio Brown, but there
Speaker 1: was no situation where they were ever getting rid of
Speaker 1: this guy, and tonight was a reminder, well, especially now,
Speaker 1: and also he's acting because also it's not his decision,
Speaker 1: it's Tommy's decision, Tommy boy, right, Tom and he have
Speaker 1: a bunk bed in Tom's bedroom where Tom Brady sleeps
Speaker 1: on the top bunk in Antonio Like. It's the size
Speaker 1: of the bunk beds that my son's Jack and Harry
Speaker 1: share the bunk bed size, they sell their legs hang
Speaker 1: over the end and they just talk each other to
Speaker 1: sleep and tell stories and giggle and then eventually, guys,
Speaker 1: that's enough. We don't want you cranky in the morning.
Speaker 1: Come on now, who's saying that mom and dad? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm struggling to figure out who the mom and dad
Speaker 1: is in Tom Brady's house, but fair enough, think about it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna okay, that gives just something to think about.
Speaker 1: All Right, We're We're done. Final thoughts, go row, get
Speaker 1: me out of here. Um, that is the week. Well,
Speaker 1: it's not even full. Obviously we got four more games.
Speaker 1: This is is a different week. Obviously it's Christmas Week,
Speaker 1: and uh that's fun and we love that, but it's
Speaker 1: also football week in a big spot. So we had
Speaker 1: one game Saturday, we had one game. Thursday, we had
Speaker 1: one game. Saturday, we had ten games Sunday, will have
Speaker 1: two games Monday, and we'll have two games on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Is that all right? Yeah? And then another game on
Speaker 1: Thursday and two games on Saturday, which is Christmas eight
Speaker 1: out of ten nights of prime time. Like, if you
Speaker 1: wanted to know what it would be like if football
Speaker 1: as your favorite sport, which fits so well that when
Speaker 1: your work week was done, there was a game on
Speaker 1: your weekend. Now you know what's what it's like if
Speaker 1: it were baseball and we're every night of the week.
Speaker 1: This is this reminds me of Peter Schreeger was texting
Speaker 1: us this weekend and mentioned that his son, his young son,
Speaker 1: I think he's five years old, watches every around the
Speaker 1: NFL broadcast UM in the morning, which is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: And uh. He said that he has takes from watching
Speaker 1: our show, and one of them is that Mark hades
Speaker 1: the schedule well, the seventeen the nature of the seventeen
Speaker 1: game schedule, and Peter Schreeger mentioned that his wife agreed.
Speaker 1: So I've got two thirds of the family that Peter
Speaker 1: did not. Peter respects Greg the most. We know that
Speaker 1: he did not respect my take, but his wife and
Speaker 1: child do all right good stuff. Perhaps he does respect it.
Speaker 1: I don't know why am I still talking in the show. Anyway,
Speaker 1: We'll have a show Tuesday night show recapping the four
Speaker 1: games left to go, and then a Thursday previ and
Speaker 1: then a Friday Saturday TV show. It's all there. Until
Speaker 1: then he had the call