Speaker 1: Good drive now put together by the Jaguars.
Speaker 2: Tenth play, first down at the twenty two quick throat Ingram.
Speaker 3: Looking for blocks, getting blocks, and his first touchdown.
Speaker 4: Of the year.
Speaker 1: Third down in about a yard and a.
Speaker 4: Half extra men on the rush, This one floated, caught
Speaker 4: by Chase and he is gone touchdown Cincinnati. As he
Speaker 4: takes it into the end zone he beat Tyson Campbell
Speaker 4: and seventy six yards later, the Bengals have their first
Speaker 4: lead of the night.
Speaker 1: Evan McPherson.
Speaker 5: They will try to end it from forty eight yards away.
Speaker 1: He got it.
Speaker 4: He got it indeed. Evan McPherson pipes it in overtime
Speaker 4: for the Bengals, a game that Cincinnati desperately needed if
Speaker 4: they had any hopes of staying in the AFC playoff picture.
Speaker 4: They get it done on the road, knocking off the
Speaker 4: Jaguars thirty four to thirty one, a thriller in one
Speaker 4: of the best primetime games of the year. Dan Hans
Speaker 4: is here with Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal and Mark
Speaker 4: you this is why you can't judge a book by
Speaker 4: the cover, Because we were all talking about what a
Speaker 4: bummer this game was going to be. Jake Browning in
Speaker 4: for Joe Burrow. There should have been Lawrence v. Burrow
Speaker 4: in a showdown of two AFC elites. Well we didn't
Speaker 4: get Burrow, but we got Jake Browning playing like Joe Burrow,
Speaker 4: and that allowed us to enjoy a classic. And I
Speaker 4: guess you have to also mention because you can't get
Speaker 4: out of a big game this season with a terrible injury.
Speaker 4: Trevor Lawrence exits this game with what looked like a
Speaker 4: pretty nasty ankle injury, and as we tape this, we're
Speaker 4: waiting to find out more.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, there were a rash of moving parts
Speaker 6: to this one. It's like they're you're so right. I
Speaker 6: feel like we come out of these huge island games
Speaker 6: so often this season with a bittersweet feeling because it's
Speaker 6: like watching what happened to Trevor Lawrence, you know, and
Speaker 6: we'll wait and see it was just like it changes
Speaker 6: everything that can happen to the Jaguars. But that's how
Speaker 6: I felt about the Bengals. Even as we were leaving
Speaker 6: the office that we were saying, you know, maybe we
Speaker 6: just will cover the game for ten or twelve minutes,
Speaker 6: then we can dive into news and make the show
Speaker 6: about something else. We get a classic. And the one
Speaker 6: thing I remember reading a couple of weeks ago about
Speaker 6: Browning and I mentioned it on like a on a
Speaker 6: Thursday show before he appeared for the first time, that
Speaker 6: they were behind the scenes saying they just felt that
Speaker 6: he had this like calm and confidence and that they
Speaker 6: had they felt that they could run their same offense
Speaker 6: with him. And that just sounds like malarkey until you
Speaker 6: really see it. But what we got tonight, I thought
Speaker 6: was just one of the most exciting performances from a
Speaker 6: backup you could ever imagine. I mean, he's thirty two
Speaker 6: for thirty seven, he completely works with Jamar Chase. The
Speaker 6: offense was totally functional. He was I thought, he threw
Speaker 6: with total confidence. And I don't know what will happen
Speaker 6: with any of these teams in the AFC. You've got
Speaker 6: four AFC teams right now in the playoff picture at
Speaker 6: the moment, number seeds one through seven that have major
Speaker 6: quarterback injuries. And the Bengals are kind of hovering around.
Speaker 6: And if you get this version of a backup quarterback
Speaker 6: behind Joe Burrow, I don't know what will happen to them.
Speaker 6: They have plenty of other talent. It's like this was
Speaker 6: this was a kind of a revelation and I think
Speaker 6: it kind of just stunned me in real time, Greg,
Speaker 6: just to watch it unfold.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just an incredible game. The Lawrence injury
Speaker 3: changes what we think about Jacksonville. Well, we'll find out
Speaker 3: more about how long it is. Because they're eight and four.
Speaker 3: They're in good position. They're one game ahead of the Texans.
Speaker 3: Although we'll get to their defense. If their defense, if
Speaker 3: McManus could have kicked a go ahead field goal with
Speaker 3: a you know, five minutes to go and then their
Speaker 3: defense holds onto it there, this would have been just
Speaker 3: such a big win to bank before possibly losing Lawren's.
Speaker 3: But we don't know if it's just going to be
Speaker 3: a couple games or if it's the rest of the
Speaker 3: season or anything, or maybe it won't be anything. Jake Browning, though,
Speaker 3: changes how we look at this race too, and how
Speaker 3: you look at when you're gonna play the Bengals. And
Speaker 3: the key play and we heard on the highlight was
Speaker 3: that long throw to Chase just because I think of
Speaker 3: what it showed had already been happening in that game.
Speaker 3: I mean, he started out fourteen for fifteen for like
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty. But on that play they send
Speaker 3: the blitz and Mike Caldwell, the Jaguars defensive coordinator, loves
Speaker 3: to send pressure because he doesn't really get natural pressure.
Speaker 3: They have Josh Allen and they don't really have anyone else.
Speaker 3: They don't have Trayvon Walker, they don't have any push
Speaker 3: up front, and you figure against Jake Browning, you're gonna
Speaker 3: be able to heat him up. And every time they
Speaker 3: sent the blitz early, he always knew right where to
Speaker 3: throw it. Occasionally it was tipped, it didn't work. Sometimes
Speaker 3: they got the Bengals guy down before first down, but
Speaker 3: not usually. But on that Chase touchdown, he throws a
Speaker 3: beautiful ball to Chase against their best Jaguars cornerback, Tyson Campbell,
Speaker 3: it goes for a long touchdown. Campbell struggled all night.
Speaker 3: They lose their slot corner Trey Herndon right away, who's
Speaker 3: played really well for them. Suddenly they're struggling with injuries
Speaker 3: and it's Jake Browning who has the wherewithal to be
Speaker 3: picking on mismatches in the Jaguars secondary. You're right, Dan,
Speaker 3: like if Burrow had this exact same performance. We would
Speaker 3: just be talking about what a classic Burrow game, and
Speaker 3: instead it was a classic Jake Browning game, right down
Speaker 3: to the you know, the figure eight scramble in overtime
Speaker 3: to set up the game winner.
Speaker 4: I mean, in crunch time on the road, in a
Speaker 4: game with your season on the line. This guy is
Speaker 4: calmly going through his progressions and connecting with receivers to
Speaker 4: lead that offense. And you know he's Zach Taylor. I
Speaker 4: know we will butt heads on him occasionally, but you
Speaker 4: don't get a backup that plays at this level without
Speaker 4: having a sound operation. We're gonna get to the Jets
Speaker 4: lit later. That's like the other end of the spectrum.
Speaker 4: I think this shows you that Taylor really has a
Speaker 4: strong handle on his offense and they identified a backup
Speaker 4: quarterback that even though we didn't see him, they saw him.
Speaker 4: And you heard a lot of great things about Browning
Speaker 4: and this is all going to come out beyond Remember
Speaker 4: before we saw him play, Oh he was awesome in
Speaker 4: high school because there was really nothing to go off
Speaker 4: with him yet, and now we see how he played
Speaker 4: in this game. We heard that he was spending his
Speaker 4: day offs in the defensive backs meetings, studying, waiting for
Speaker 4: his opportunity, and now he has a chance to become
Speaker 4: a really interesting story in the AFC. Here's some news
Speaker 4: from Tom pel Serro, the Pell Raiser himself. Jack's quarterback
Speaker 4: Trevor Lawrence's initial diagnosis as a sprained ankle with an
Speaker 4: MRI to follow Tuesday. Okay, so the good news there
Speaker 4: is that he didn't come out of the x ray
Speaker 4: room and they saw it was a broken ankle, which
Speaker 4: certainly seemed like it was within the range of outcomes.
Speaker 4: But we're not out of the woods yet because you
Speaker 4: don't know if he has ligament damage. You look at
Speaker 4: what just happened with Pickett and Pittsburgh. He needed surgery,
Speaker 4: So we'll find out how serious this ankle issue is.
Speaker 4: But at least the ankle didn't snap and we have
Speaker 4: an issue like that, so Jaguars fans, at least you
Speaker 4: at this point maybe avoided a worst case scenario.
Speaker 6: We'll find out more on that. I really agree with
Speaker 6: you about Zach Taylor, who's you know for I used
Speaker 6: to kill him all the time. Greg is not a
Speaker 6: huge fan, and I think part of what was happening
Speaker 6: with Zach Taylor during even the Joe Burrow successful string
Speaker 6: of time. Was that, like the offensive line that we're
Speaker 6: having issues, you didn't see them adjust, and I thought
Speaker 6: they did a lot of six man protection tonight to
Speaker 6: help Browning. The other thing was their run defense had
Speaker 6: been a complete disaster in recent days and they couldn't
Speaker 6: run the ball, and both of those things changed tonight.
Speaker 6: So I don't know if this is a situation where
Speaker 6: it's like the Bengals have turned a corner or it
Speaker 6: happened against you know, in a special situation with situation tonight,
Speaker 6: but they played a really good defense, and to see
Speaker 6: what they did, like not as a holistic offense, I
Speaker 6: thought was a big turning point. And you know the
Speaker 6: same way that Matt Lafleur is getting a lot of
Speaker 6: credit for the past couple of weeks with a young
Speaker 6: quarterback like this, is this has some fingerprints or some
Speaker 6: evidence that Zach Taylor does have some ability to grow
Speaker 6: a quarterback. I mean, just to see where he was
Speaker 6: from a week ago to now, I just I don't
Speaker 6: there aren't there aren't that many things happening like this
Speaker 6: with quarterbacks. With the development is that quick.
Speaker 3: Zach Taylor is making me eat some humble pie tonight.
Speaker 3: This is, you know, one of the most impressive nights
Speaker 3: I think of his career because of what you guys said,
Speaker 3: because it shows all the work and the judgment they've
Speaker 3: been doing for three years. You know, we covered the
Speaker 3: game closely. I have to admit I did not understand,
Speaker 3: you know, throughout the season that Jake Browning graduated from
Speaker 3: Washington where he racked up all those numbers and he
Speaker 3: had ninety one touchdowns in high school going up against
Speaker 3: Maurice Jones Drews School apparently in one season, including one
Speaker 3: game against mauricast Jones Drew School. He was saying that
Speaker 3: was back in like twenty you know eleven. He graduated
Speaker 3: from college in twenty eighteen. He's been bouncing around the NFL,
Speaker 3: first as an undrafted free agent for the Vikings for
Speaker 3: three years and not sticking on roster, and then practice
Speaker 3: squad and the offseason and all that stuff, and then
Speaker 3: with the Bengals organization for three years. So it actually
Speaker 3: reminded me a little bit of Sunday Night and Jordan Love,
Speaker 3: someone that's been in an organization and understands the offense.
Speaker 3: And he obviously doesn't have the talent that Jordan Love
Speaker 3: does or Joe Burrow does, but he does have a
Speaker 3: style that will work. And I think that style is
Speaker 3: a little more agro, is a little more throw the
Speaker 3: ball down the field. And I was really impressed by
Speaker 3: Zach Taylor going for it on fourth down to start
Speaker 3: the game. Remember it didn't work. He's at midfield and
Speaker 3: you go for it with Jake brown I was like,
Speaker 3: that's very unlike Zach Taylor. Doesn't do that with Joe
Speaker 3: Burrow at the end of the game. He's going for
Speaker 3: the win when they only have thirty five seconds. Nick Sirianni,
Speaker 3: I wasn't doing that for Jalen Hurts, And I thought
Speaker 3: so many times fourth down at the end of the
Speaker 3: game when Jamar Chase drops it and again Jake Browning
Speaker 3: is dropping back and he calmly gets it to Chase
Speaker 3: in your right mark like everyone lifted up Browning too.
Speaker 3: The running game was fantastic. Chase, I think, made a
Speaker 3: number of great catches on balls that weren't like perfect.
Speaker 1: It was awesome.
Speaker 3: But it does start with Brownie, and it starts with
Speaker 3: Zach Taylor in the game plan that they put together
Speaker 3: for him.
Speaker 4: Thirty two of thirty seven. Browning was for three hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty four yards averaged over nine and a half
Speaker 4: yards per attempt, one touchdown, passing, one touchdown, rushing, no turnovers,
Speaker 4: Passer rating one fifteen and a half brilliant. It's it's
Speaker 4: really it's a fun, fun scene. It did reminded me
Speaker 4: of the Mike White game. Ironically against the Bengals. We're
Speaker 4: a similar situation where there is a team that had
Speaker 4: no hope and then all of a sudden, this guy
Speaker 4: that had no track record is lighting it up, and
Speaker 4: you could tell, and I think Zach Teler spoke about
Speaker 4: it after the game tonight. Once you see this unknown
Speaker 4: start to ball, the whole confidence of the team rises up,
Speaker 4: and they just kept on going punch for punch with
Speaker 4: the Jags, even when you know it was a great
Speaker 4: night for Taylor overall, but you know, he started to
Speaker 4: get a little cute in spots, including that devastating Tyler
Speaker 4: Boyd pass attempt that looked like a potential turning point
Speaker 4: where the Jaguars would take control of the game, and
Speaker 4: yet they couldn't because Cincinnati kept fighting back. They're kind
Speaker 4: of a really I think I would think you guys agree,
Speaker 4: because I think we're all on the same page. We
Speaker 4: were kind of seeing Cincinnati as an afterthought in the
Speaker 4: SAFEC playoff race the way things were trending, But now
Speaker 4: it's gonna be really interesting to see, like where they
Speaker 4: stack up starting with next week they get the Colts,
Speaker 4: another team that was kind of left for dead, and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden, they're waving their hands like, no,
Speaker 4: we have a chance to get to the dance. A
Speaker 4: nice little shot of adrenaline for.
Speaker 3: The AFC, much needed. By the way, I just got
Speaker 3: a text from Nick Westling. Bad night for me, you
Speaker 3: and all the Zach Taylor haters. But it's good to
Speaker 3: be proven wrong on a night like this because of
Speaker 3: what you said. It adds so much value, I think
Speaker 3: to the Bengals who are in some big games against
Speaker 3: good teams, a lot of matchups against playoff type teams
Speaker 3: that just it's gonna make it more interesting. I think
Speaker 3: you saw what I've been saying about the defense, especially
Speaker 3: the pass defense, is just it's not it. And that
Speaker 3: was the thing that was exciting about this game was
Speaker 3: Trevor Lawrence was playing really well too. It almost felt
Speaker 3: like sometimes he was responding to Browning. Every time Browning
Speaker 3: and the Bengals went down the field, it's like Lawrence
Speaker 3: suddenly had a wow like rifle shot to answer them,
Speaker 3: and it was just back and forth, touchdown after touchdom.
Speaker 3: But you're right, there was that sequence where Trevor Lawrence,
Speaker 3: through his worst pass of the night, should have been
Speaker 3: picked off in the end zone, but Dax Hill kind
Speaker 3: of just mismanages it, essentially drops it, it goes through
Speaker 3: his hand and it turns out to be a Parker
Speaker 3: Washington touchdown for the Jaguars.
Speaker 1: That's a seven point swing.
Speaker 3: And almost like two plays later is that interception, and
Speaker 3: you're thinking, Okay, finally the Bengals are gonna, you know,
Speaker 3: just go run away with this game. But I mean,
Speaker 3: the Jaguars are gonna run away with this game. But
Speaker 3: their defense wasn't good enough, Mark, And it does concern
Speaker 3: me because I'm always thinking, like a good defense is
Speaker 3: like always a few weeks away from just being like,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, they're just average again. And they did get
Speaker 3: their doors blown off by San Francisco. I know that
Speaker 3: was San Francisco. That happens to everyone, but they kind
Speaker 3: of got their doors blown off tonight. You know, in
Speaker 3: every facet Chase Brown, everything was going well for Cincinnati.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I think in another world because even
Speaker 6: you know, CJ. Bethard came in and he almost stole
Speaker 6: this game away. And there's this play that stands out
Speaker 6: in my mind where it's this incredible deep shot and
Speaker 6: Calvin Ridley makes an incredible catch down inside the five,
Speaker 6: and then that's yanked away by a holding call. Because
Speaker 6: if that had if that had stood, we're talking about
Speaker 6: a completely different end of the situation. And they I
Speaker 6: think you would have been right to steal this game
Speaker 6: if you were Jacksonville would have been immense. We'll see
Speaker 6: what happens with Lawrence. But I like a game like
Speaker 6: this because it kind of changes where we are with
Speaker 6: this AFC playoff race, which is a little expect to
Speaker 6: me if you look at the bottom couple of teams
Speaker 6: in here.
Speaker 4: All right, Here's Doug Peterson when asked about the status
Speaker 4: of his star quarterback.
Speaker 2: I don't have any information yet on Trevor. We're still
Speaker 2: evaluating him, you know, so he'll have more you know,
Speaker 2: tests and things done here tonight and tomorrow, so I'll
Speaker 2: probably have a better update for you tomorrow on that,
Speaker 2: but I mean, yeah, we had position players go down,
Speaker 2: you know, but look, that's part of the game. You know,
Speaker 2: it happens, and and it's unfortunate, but you know, next
Speaker 2: guy up has to has to be ready to go
Speaker 2: and play. And you know, I thought the guys, the
Speaker 2: guys that filled in, you know, we're we're, we're just
Speaker 2: that they were ready to go.
Speaker 4: Listen, Carson uh, Doug Peterson's been through the wars. Once
Speaker 4: upon a time, Carson Wentz blew out his ACL for
Speaker 4: an Eagles team blowing through the regular season and everyone
Speaker 4: thought the season was over, and then they won the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl with Nick Foles, so he's hoping they could
Speaker 4: just weather the storm here. But it was, you know,
Speaker 4: a really bad night to lose at home. And I know,
Speaker 4: you know Browning now we look at him differently, but
Speaker 4: going into this game, you got a Bengals team limping
Speaker 4: without Joe Burrow coming into your house in prime time,
Speaker 4: and to lose that game, and to lose Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 4: and to lose Christian Kirk who went out with a
Speaker 4: groin injury, and really to lose, to me, like your
Speaker 4: real chance to somehow if they would have won out
Speaker 4: which was unlikely. They are the number one seed and
Speaker 4: they're still in the mix for that, but you kind
Speaker 4: of I think you're gonna remember this is the night
Speaker 4: they let that slip away as well, so they have
Speaker 4: a lot to recover from.
Speaker 3: Obviously, they play the Browns next week, in the Ravens
Speaker 3: the week after that, So that Ravens game especially was
Speaker 3: gonna be really important for them, not only to get
Speaker 3: the one seed, but to try to cement the division
Speaker 3: because you know, they don't have they don't necessarily have
Speaker 3: the tiebreaker over Houston. That's gonna that's to be determined,
Speaker 3: and so they split the season series.
Speaker 1: They're one up.
Speaker 3: Cleveland gets a little bit of a break here, assuming
Speaker 3: they don't see Lawrence next week.
Speaker 1: CG.
Speaker 3: Bethard is a little different as a backup, just because
Speaker 3: we've seen him play in the NFL before. We've seen
Speaker 3: him play for the Jaguars before, not extensively because Lawrence
Speaker 3: has been durable.
Speaker 1: But Bethard was out there looking.
Speaker 3: Like he thought he was Michael Vick, and he's He's
Speaker 3: not the worst backup in the league, but he probably
Speaker 3: has a lower I think it's fair to say he's established.
Speaker 3: He just has a lower ceiling of like what his
Speaker 3: potential outcomes are, and their defense and their run game
Speaker 3: can't play like this around CJ.
Speaker 1: Bethard.
Speaker 3: You know that that Browns game is going to be
Speaker 3: a toss up at best, and they'll be heavy underdogs
Speaker 3: if they don't have Lawrence back for the Ravens, and
Speaker 3: then the schedule eases up down the stretch if they
Speaker 3: can get Lawrence back for the playoffs.
Speaker 6: I think the thing that you mentioned about the like
Speaker 6: the Browns getting a break because of potentially with the
Speaker 6: Trevor loz I have like half the AFC and half
Speaker 6: the NFL are getting breaks weak.
Speaker 3: To week right, and everyone that plays the Browns obviously
Speaker 3: is getting huge breaks.
Speaker 1: So that's a fair that's a good point.
Speaker 6: There are i think next week five tilts that include
Speaker 6: like a backup versus backups, so it's like we're in
Speaker 6: that part of it.
Speaker 4: We're getting to the point where, yeah, I think we're
Speaker 4: getting to the point where it's mathematically impossible to just
Speaker 4: have two games with starting quarterbacks that were there in
Speaker 4: Week one, which which is a bummer, and it is
Speaker 4: you know, we could. We're gonna stay positive tonight because
Speaker 4: it was a great game and fun to watch, but
Speaker 4: this is a plot line of the season that's going
Speaker 4: to kind of mark when you look back at it.
Speaker 4: This is the year. I mean, it started obviously with
Speaker 4: the Rogers injury and how dramatic that was on Monday Night,
Speaker 4: and it just feels like every week there's something new.
Speaker 4: I mean, look at the Bengals a couple weeks ago,
Speaker 4: where watching that game and they have that dramatic shot
Speaker 4: of him on the sideline trying to throw and then
Speaker 4: kind of dropping down to his knee. Too much of that,
Speaker 4: too much. The game is just not the same without
Speaker 4: good quarterbacks. So even more reason to say, Jake Browning,
Speaker 4: thank you. We needed that. We needed that. All right,
Speaker 4: let's take a break and then we'll get to the news. Alright,
Speaker 4: to welcome back to around the NFL Monday Night Football,
Speaker 4: Out of the Way, Week thirteen, out of the way.
Speaker 4: How about that Week fourteen? Right around the corner. Let's
Speaker 4: get caught up on the news, starting with Shaq Leonard.
Speaker 4: It's finally done. He has made his decision and it
Speaker 4: will be the Philadelphia Eagles who he suits up for. Leonard,
Speaker 4: the former All Pro released in a surprise move by
Speaker 4: the Colts last week he will join a Philly team, Greg,
Speaker 4: that certainly can use a lyft in the middle of
Speaker 4: their defense. They've been getting carved up. We just saw
Speaker 4: it with San Francisco. I guess my one take from
Speaker 4: this Greg is he's a big name brand, but as
Speaker 4: Wes was known to say that the game no longer
Speaker 4: matches the name. So unless he know a change in
Speaker 4: scenery allows him to recapture a spark, I'm not sure
Speaker 4: how much this move makes Eagles better, but I guess
Speaker 4: it's worth the roll of the dice.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So, he was not playing a ton on passing downs
Speaker 3: for the Colts, but he was playing a lot. He
Speaker 3: was playing thirty forty snaps a game. It wasn't like
Speaker 3: he was benched. I can't say he was making a
Speaker 3: ton of splash plays or that he stood out good
Speaker 3: or bad. To me, PFF had him grated fairly well,
Speaker 3: just like as a solid starting linebacker. And if he's that,
Speaker 3: and they have a good way of really bringing out
Speaker 3: the best in veterans, I think he'll help them. But
Speaker 3: the way I've heard Eagles fans talk about it, it's
Speaker 3: like they think they're getting three time All Pro Shack
Speaker 3: Leonard and that he's gonna save them at that position,
Speaker 3: and that seems unrealistic to me. And it also seems
Speaker 3: to be missing the point, which is that they have
Speaker 3: a lot of issues in that secondary. It's not just
Speaker 3: the linebackers like Darius Slay, James Bradbury. Everyone's giving up
Speaker 3: way too much and is not the same as they
Speaker 3: were a year ago go and their front hasn't been
Speaker 3: as special as they need it to be. And so like,
Speaker 3: what's Shack Leonard really gonna do? Like he should be
Speaker 3: a little bit of an upgrade from Nick Murrow. But
Speaker 3: I think in the local markets in Philly, in Dallas
Speaker 3: this was treated like it was like a huge sweepstakes
Speaker 3: and it probably isn't going to change that much.
Speaker 6: I think it's a little bit baked into the fact
Speaker 6: that there's you know, photos being released all over the
Speaker 6: place of Big Dom uh, you know taking a tour
Speaker 6: around with Shaq Leonard and being part of the process too,
Speaker 6: like recruit him there. That was like, what, oh was
Speaker 6: this Big Doms like you know as a security guy,
Speaker 6: like was the guy that kind of brought shack down out.
Speaker 6: But I would do I would say this, why not
Speaker 6: take a shot, and like it really only matters how
Speaker 6: you perform if you're the Eagles against like the Cowboys
Speaker 6: and the Niners. When when we really get there and
Speaker 6: like Niakobe Dean banged up, you know, Zach Cunningham banged up,
Speaker 6: Like we just saw, they give they give up, you know,
Speaker 6: four hundred and fifty six yards. So if it clicks,
Speaker 6: it clicks, and it's kind of like the the Eagles
Speaker 6: are like the NFC version for me of like the Ravens,
Speaker 6: where like they go get this player that someone else
Speaker 6: wanted to trade or move on from, and it works.
Speaker 6: So it's like, I why not try? Why not try?
Speaker 6: It's hard to get a good player at this time
Speaker 6: of year.
Speaker 1: Right, They've done it.
Speaker 3: And the thing that's really interesting, and I'll leave it
Speaker 3: at that, is that there were no financial repercussions here.
Speaker 3: It's a very rare chance where a player is actually
Speaker 3: just choosing which team do I want to go to
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, like to win, which team gives me
Speaker 3: a better chance to win, to play whatever. Because the
Speaker 3: Colts are playing his contract either way, it's all guaranteed.
Speaker 3: It's they're the ones paying. It's pretty interesting he's choosing
Speaker 3: between the Eagles and the Cowboys. I figured he choose
Speaker 3: the Cowboys just because that seems like a more fun
Speaker 3: place to go live or whatever. And he picks the
Speaker 3: Eagles and they play the Cowboys this week.
Speaker 4: That's kind of juicy spicy. I'm trying to find the article.
Speaker 4: But the whole Big Dom story really took a almost
Speaker 4: erotic turn when a former I believe offensive lineman for
Speaker 4: the Eagles, a member of the Super Bowl team and
Speaker 4: I apologize for not having his name off the top
Speaker 4: of my head, was quoted as saying that he would
Speaker 4: give his life for Big Dom. It's like, all right,
Speaker 4: what's going on there?
Speaker 3: It's a blood oath. Once you're in with Big Dom,
Speaker 3: like you're in for life. You're either in where you're out.
Speaker 4: Or you're really in. All right, let's talk about the
Speaker 4: biggest joke in the NFL, my favorite team, the New
Speaker 4: York Jets. This report from The Athletic was one of
Speaker 4: the big stories in the NFL on Monday. It came
Speaker 4: from Zach Rosenblatt and Diana Rossini, and then Jeff Howe
Speaker 4: chipping in as well with The Athletic that the Jets
Speaker 4: are prepared to make another switch at quarterback. After you know,
Speaker 4: Rogers blows his achilles, Zach Wilson takes back over the starter.
Speaker 4: He's bad, They bench him, they bring in Tim Boyle,
Speaker 4: he sucks, They bench him. They bring in Trevor Simmey
Speaker 4: and he sucks. And now the idea is what about
Speaker 4: going back to Wilson. And then the report that Wilson
Speaker 4: was reluctant to take back the job, and the team
Speaker 4: wants to turn back to Wilson, but he is hesitant
Speaker 4: to step back into the role, multiple team sources said Monday.
Speaker 4: Here's another graph from that report. Aaron Rodgers had reached
Speaker 4: out to Wilson in an effort to advise him to
Speaker 4: resume the starter role, but at the time Wilson remained
Speaker 4: apprehensive due to perceived injury risk, per team sources. Okay,
Speaker 4: and then Robert Sala, And there is not a more
Speaker 4: emasculated coach in the NFL and recent memory than Sala.
Speaker 4: Every week he is answering questions and being asked to
Speaker 4: explain things that he has no control over. And now
Speaker 4: it's come to the point where even the bust quarterback,
Speaker 4: he doesn't even control him, and the ability to make
Speaker 4: him play quarterback for his team, or so it seems
Speaker 4: that's not the way Salah is painting it in his
Speaker 4: press conference.
Speaker 5: Well, let's be clear, if he was reluctant to play, guys,
Speaker 5: he wouldn't be here, all right. And I actually coincidentally
Speaker 5: just got done speaking with him. He came in about
Speaker 5: a half hour ago and we had a really good conversation.
Speaker 5: The young man wants the ball, he wants to start.
Speaker 5: He believes he's the best quarterback in the room and
Speaker 5: best quarterback for this team, and the best and the
Speaker 5: guy who gives us the best fans to win. And
Speaker 5: I'll tell you, guys, the same thing I told him.
Speaker 5: I appreciated, I appreciate the fact that he wants to play.
Speaker 5: I'm just not there yet.
Speaker 4: It's just not there yet. And it's just that is
Speaker 4: even absurd, like so he's trying to couch that as
Speaker 4: how you even made a decision yet. But if I
Speaker 4: do make a decision, Zach has now told me he
Speaker 4: wants to play. Boys, what this sounds like to me?
Speaker 4: And tell me if if you think it's something else
Speaker 4: is the Jets, who have been completely misguided about their
Speaker 4: quarterback room since Rogers went down, They finally get sick
Speaker 4: of wilson struggles. They bench him for the second or
Speaker 4: third time since he was the number two overall pick,
Speaker 4: and they say to him a couple of weeks ago, Hey, really, sorry,
Speaker 4: this is not gonna work out. We're gonna go in
Speaker 4: a different direction. Not only we're gonna demote you, we're
Speaker 4: gonna essentially deactivate you. And then after the season's over,
Speaker 4: we'll find a way to kind of part ways, and
Speaker 4: best of luck to you. And because the Jets are
Speaker 4: such a poorly run organization, they miss they underestimate how
Speaker 4: bad these other quarterbacks in their building are, and so
Speaker 4: when those guys are making them completely non competitive, they
Speaker 4: go back to Zach and say, Zach, we need you again.
Speaker 4: And Zach Wilson saying bruh, like you are not bringing
Speaker 4: me back next year. I am sick of being your
Speaker 4: whipping boy. I'm not safe playing in front of that
Speaker 4: offensive line, and I'm trying to restart my career next year.
Speaker 4: And I know you don't like me, so why should
Speaker 4: I play from you for you? I've thought about this
Speaker 4: a lot. Boys. I think Zach Wilson is an anti hero.
Speaker 4: I think Zach Wilson is telling the Jets. You are incompetent,
Speaker 4: so you could take this quote unquote job and shove it.
Speaker 4: And as much as and I know my dad is
Speaker 4: totally on the other side of this and thinks it's
Speaker 4: ace that he would ever do that, but I have
Speaker 4: to say I understand where Wilson is coming from. If
Speaker 4: indeed that is what the backstory.
Speaker 3: Is here, I think that's a great positing of the situation.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he had any promises that, like
Speaker 3: you're done for the season or anything like that. That
Speaker 3: doesn't make sense to me. I'm somewhere in the middle
Speaker 3: that I understand that viewpoint of him kind of sticking
Speaker 3: it to them, And I just think it's career suicide
Speaker 3: to really not want to play. You're not playing for
Speaker 3: the organization. You're playing for your teammates. That's what they
Speaker 3: always say. And ultimately, in a situation like this, you're
Speaker 3: playing for your career, like to put something on tape,
Speaker 3: to try to continue to get it going, to get
Speaker 3: a positive grade, to show something, and you're playing for
Speaker 3: your teammates.
Speaker 1: You feel like you owe it to them. And when I.
Speaker 3: Saw these are I just thought, I never I never
Speaker 3: heard of something like this. This is some ridiculousness. And
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, and we can get into it.
Speaker 3: I want you to go, Mark, But like I just
Speaker 3: was like, what is the motivation of this even getting out?
Speaker 1: There is someone trying to paint him poorly?
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Diana reported that it was coming from many parts of
Speaker 3: the organization that they had heard this, like players, coaches,
Speaker 3: staff had all heard this. And then after she reports it,
Speaker 3: Jeff Howe has this report which just took my breath away. Quote,
Speaker 3: if Zach Wilson were asked directly by the Jets to start,
Speaker 3: he would agree to that. A source familiar familiar with
Speaker 3: Wilson's thinking, what are we doing here? I don't I
Speaker 3: honestly don't even have a take. My take is what
Speaker 3: is what is happening? That is the wildest thing I've
Speaker 3: ever heard as a report. I don't even know what
Speaker 3: that is.
Speaker 1: It's insane.
Speaker 6: I've been reduced to the same place where like when
Speaker 6: we say they want him to start, or they told
Speaker 6: him X, Y or Z, it's hard, it's and this
Speaker 6: is not you know that this is true of the
Speaker 6: Jets too many seasons, and it's true of bad teams,
Speaker 6: Like who is even they at this point, because the
Speaker 6: coach seems to be almost outside the bubble of decision
Speaker 6: making and explaining things that he doesn't have full accountability
Speaker 6: for on some level, and that creates a sense of confusion.
Speaker 6: If you are Zach Wilson, it's been an absolute disastrous
Speaker 6: experience to go out on the field because I think
Speaker 6: part of it is like he doesn't really have the
Speaker 6: support of his teammates. I mean, there's evidence that a
Speaker 6: lot of his offensive teammates feel like, if you're Garrett Wilson,
Speaker 6: like my career is falling apart because of this quarterback
Speaker 6: situation in New York. The team's falling apart, the defense
Speaker 6: is on fire about the whole thing, and so it's
Speaker 6: like not an enjoyable thing to be playing well. I
Speaker 6: would say one thing his resume, like on tape is
Speaker 6: a mess. But I think because you're a you have
Speaker 6: a first round pedigree, another team would say we can
Speaker 6: fix what the Jets couldn't fix, because that's that that
Speaker 6: makes some sense. But if you're saying, basically, my desire
Speaker 6: to go out and be a teammate and play potentially
Speaker 6: doesn't exist, then it's like, cool, we don't need your
Speaker 6: your ability isn't there. It's not like you're a special
Speaker 6: talent enough, Jeff George, and you're difficult, You're just Zach Wilson.
Speaker 6: You're not good and you don't really want to play.
Speaker 6: It's like you are sabotaging. And it seems almost immature
Speaker 6: if that's really what he's saying. That said, I'm not
Speaker 6: sure i'd even believe any of that. I don't even
Speaker 6: know where it's coming from or why and why anyone
Speaker 6: was trying to bury him.
Speaker 3: The first report is too and it was not really
Speaker 3: dismissed by Salah exactly. I mean, he spoke to him,
Speaker 3: but he didn't exactly dismiss the init report. It's it's
Speaker 3: too widely spread and too many different things happening for
Speaker 3: me to doubt that that that part is actually I
Speaker 3: bet that is true, that people that he was just
Speaker 3: saying that that people are saying that, but like for
Speaker 3: them not to understand that that getting out was totally
Speaker 3: burying him, or unless it was someone that was intentionally
Speaker 3: trying to bury him. But it doesn't make sense for
Speaker 3: anyone to try to intensely bury him because it just it's.
Speaker 1: Just all bad. It made me think Dan and maybe
Speaker 1: this was overreacting.
Speaker 3: This was the first time I thought, oh, Salah's got
Speaker 3: to go because this is just embarrassing. And you can
Speaker 3: say this is not so his fault for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: but it's just like it's all embarrassing. And I've I've
Speaker 3: asked around a little bit, and I think there's pushback.
Speaker 3: I think the consent, conventional wisdom is that Sallas stays,
Speaker 3: But I have my doubts, especially if it keeps going.
Speaker 4: Like this, And if he stays, it's because it's a
Speaker 4: dysfunctional organization that doesn't see that this is too far gone,
Speaker 4: that he is not the right leader for this team,
Speaker 4: that Aaron Rodgers is the one now running the ship.
Speaker 4: I mean, it is. It is. Everything's played out in
Speaker 4: in only the Jets fashion. In the worst case scenario.
Speaker 4: It's embarrassing. As a Jets fan. I feel like I
Speaker 4: really am kind of on the ropes right now where
Speaker 4: I know I can't I can't disconnect from the Jets
Speaker 4: and not be a Jets fan. But I'm getting to
Speaker 4: the point where like apathy is going to start creeping in.
Speaker 4: I feel like because I'm just so disgusted talking about
Speaker 4: them year after year after year, as being a joke,
Speaker 4: the joke of the league. And that's why the why
Speaker 4: the comment I said about Wilson being kind of an
Speaker 4: anti hero. There's something cathartic about Wilson, whether this was
Speaker 4: his intent or not. Finally, someone is really holding the
Speaker 4: team accountable and saying, you're a joke, like ownership, general manager,
Speaker 4: head coach, Offensive Courd, You guys are a joke. If
Speaker 4: you think that I'm gonna now come try to bail
Speaker 4: you out after you humiliated me and put me on
Speaker 4: the bench and deactivated me and told me that it
Speaker 4: was worse than Tim Boyle who threw one touchdown in
Speaker 4: thirteen interceptions. For U Kon and Trevor Simeon, these are
Speaker 4: guys that shouldn't even be in the league. You're a joke,
Speaker 4: and everyone's laughing at the Jets, and I'm saying it
Speaker 4: now every show they come up. It's what the joker
Speaker 4: said to de Niro, you get what you deserve. And
Speaker 4: that's what's happened to the Jets. They botched this from
Speaker 4: week one on and now they're suffering the consequences, and
Speaker 4: no one feels bad for him because they never saw
Speaker 4: it coming, because they were so filled with confidence and
Speaker 4: smelling their own you know what that they never realized
Speaker 4: they were this vulnerable, even though everyone else could see it.
Speaker 4: So how can I, as a Jets fan want that
Speaker 4: head coach back, or that general manager back, or hell,
Speaker 4: even the quarterback who's done nothing nothing, Aaron Rodgers has
Speaker 4: done nothing for my team other than end up indirectly,
Speaker 4: you could say, cause more embarrassment and more pain and
Speaker 4: more misery. I'm just sick of it.
Speaker 1: I'm sick of it.
Speaker 4: It's one day they're gonna do it. They're gonna push
Speaker 4: me too far. It's getting close again.
Speaker 3: You know, you could have happy You don't have to
Speaker 3: have an unconscious or what is it conscious uncoupling, but
Speaker 3: you could like take a break, you know, just be like,
Speaker 3: I'll see you in six weeks, just like you know,
Speaker 3: you disconnect as much as you can come back.
Speaker 4: What do I do for a living? Greg?
Speaker 6: No, Well, that's getting away from them, all right.
Speaker 4: Let's just move on before my head explodes. The Steelers
Speaker 4: will be without Kenny Pickett for a while, but hopefully
Speaker 4: they'll get him back. He had ankle surgery the Steelers
Speaker 4: quarterback on Monday. He was on the injury report by
Speaker 4: the way because of an ankle in Juli last week,
Speaker 4: so he aggravated it against Arizona. There's no long term
Speaker 4: timetable for how long he's going to be out. According
Speaker 4: to Mike Tomlin, they ruled him out obviously Thursday's game
Speaker 4: against the Patriots, and get ready, everybody, Mark, you and
Speaker 4: I are going to have a fun with that one.
Speaker 4: Mitch Trubisky will start on Thursday. It's a high ankle spring.
Speaker 6: I mean, I feel like with the point where there's
Speaker 6: there are maybe some larger concerns about pickets durability because
Speaker 6: it's been a you know, a sort of an array
Speaker 6: of up and down hell issues, concussions on this. That
Speaker 6: and Trubisky I don't really see as vastly different than
Speaker 6: Kenny Pickett. Greg, I think you're higher on Trubisky than
Speaker 6: I am. I I it's another AFC playoffs.
Speaker 4: Talking about this for twenty years. Well, he's just like
Speaker 4: he's been in the league for over one hundred years.
Speaker 1: I've always been buried down.
Speaker 3: But I kind of liked him for a few moments
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh last year.
Speaker 1: I've liked him in Pittsburgh this year.
Speaker 6: The few times I just think their floor is is
Speaker 6: I like so that you know that offensive explosion where
Speaker 6: they scored sixteen points and put up four hundred plus
Speaker 6: yards like you know, quintessential mirage. I mean, I just
Speaker 6: think this team is a I said they're gonna win
Speaker 6: twelve games, but they're lucky to have as many wins
Speaker 6: as they do right now. And we'll see what happens
Speaker 6: with Pickett Thursday night, Dan, I mean I need I
Speaker 6: might need you to like drop a bomb on my apartment.
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm not sure I can do it. I'm
Speaker 6: gonna try out there.
Speaker 4: Vegas has the over under at I believe thirty and
Speaker 4: a half now, which is the lowest over and under
Speaker 4: in the NFL in years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's since two thousand and five, and
Speaker 3: it's going down. I saw that ninety five percent. I
Speaker 3: think it was our researcher Kate mag Zurich. I believe
Speaker 3: said ninety five percent of that money is going on
Speaker 3: the under. So it might keep sinking and sinking until
Speaker 3: it goes through the floor.
Speaker 4: We should you know what we're gonna do. Listeners, I
Speaker 4: know you're gonna think to yourself of their one episode
Speaker 4: to skip of around the NFL, it's going to be
Speaker 4: the Thursday night football episode. Mark and I are gonna
Speaker 4: cook up a secondary segment so explosive that will be
Speaker 4: the one everyone's talking about. People will be talking about
Speaker 4: our seg more than they'll be talking about that game. Wait.
Speaker 6: And I appreciate that because I think you're doing you know,
Speaker 6: you're doing us a service as well, because I you know,
Speaker 6: I just sat through six nothing Patriots Chargers, you know,
Speaker 6: a day ago, so it's like, how many you know,
Speaker 6: swings with the baseball.
Speaker 4: Shootout on Thursday.
Speaker 3: I've seen some reporting that it was the the tightrope procedure.
Speaker 1: By the way, I think Trubisky adds the floor.
Speaker 3: I might, I might go over here, you know, just
Speaker 3: Trubisky is gonna throw some pick six. He is the
Speaker 3: Jamis Winston to Kenny Pickett's Derek Carr, where it's probably
Speaker 3: in the end not going to be any more effective,
Speaker 3: but it'll just be more chaotic and more points. I
Speaker 3: saw it reported somewhere that it's the tightrope procedure on
Speaker 3: Kenny Pickett. They did not put him on IR and
Speaker 3: that's a high ankle sprain, and that's you know, maybe
Speaker 3: two to three weeks you're out which is just interesting
Speaker 3: to think about in context of Trevor Lawrence. We don't
Speaker 3: know what's gonna happen, but Cameron Wolf just a little update.
Speaker 3: As we're going, our reporter NFL Network is in the
Speaker 3: locker room there instead he was talking to teammates. Trevor
Speaker 3: Lawrence was and they seemed like a little happy after
Speaker 3: I mean, he's just reading the tea leaves here. He
Speaker 3: was on crutches and ended up walking out with a
Speaker 3: walking boot, putting a little bit of pressure on it,
Speaker 3: but not much really as he left. But they said
Speaker 3: that the teammates weren't in terrible spirits. And then he
Speaker 3: was taken out of the locker room on a cart,
Speaker 3: so they do have a cart day. We finally in
Speaker 3: Jacksonville they found the cart. I mean, so faithful.
Speaker 4: What are we doing the they it's one thing where
Speaker 4: you're limping off the field and disappearing. When when they
Speaker 4: cut ESPN cuts to inside the bowels of that stadium
Speaker 4: and he's moving about six inches every thirty seconds, It's like, guys,
Speaker 4: shod do we have something to take the franchise somewhere?
Speaker 6: And also like so he's six six, he's obviously like
Speaker 6: a massively framed quarterback. Like even the guys you know
Speaker 6: under each one of his shoulders were big dudes too,
Speaker 6: but it's like they were not big enough to actually
Speaker 6: do the job, and they're just like tugging his body
Speaker 6: down this hallway. It's like technology. How many golf carts
Speaker 6: are in Jacksonville, Like.
Speaker 4: A two thousand pound golf cart with eight wheels and
Speaker 4: a flat back that would be perfect for a six
Speaker 4: five two point thirty built out of stone quarterback dealing
Speaker 4: with a nasty lower leg injury.
Speaker 3: You know what we kind of lost in the shuffle
Speaker 3: there and ESPN did too, is that Walker Little, who
Speaker 3: you really feel for. He stepped on Lawrence and this
Speaker 3: is why I've seen some people being like quarterbacks got
Speaker 3: to learn how to protect themselves. It's like his left
Speaker 3: ackle stepped on him during the dropback.
Speaker 1: What do you want?
Speaker 3: I mean, it was just a fluky It's gonna happen,
Speaker 3: and then he fell over it. Weirdly, Walker Little hurt
Speaker 3: himself on that play. Walker Little is their starting left
Speaker 3: tackle because they just lost their starting left tackle, Cam
Speaker 3: Robinson for the season, so that was like a completely
Speaker 3: catastrophic play on a night they also lost Kirk and
Speaker 3: Trey Herndon and Foley Fatukasi. So it was just like
Speaker 3: a crazy, terrible night for the Jaggars.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 4: In other news, you know what's going on in New
Speaker 4: Orleans right now, everyone's an expert. Everybody knows how to
Speaker 4: fix the Saints and what's wrong with the Saints and everything.
Speaker 4: Everybody thinks it's amazing that there's all this talk going
Speaker 4: on and all this mocking of people, And isn't it
Speaker 4: cool that Michael Thomas is sending tweets during the game.
Speaker 4: I can't. I don't know why I'm being so nasty
Speaker 4: nut right now.
Speaker 1: Let be mad like you're mad. They're just mad.
Speaker 4: No, but it's Michael Thomas. It's not the fans. I
Speaker 4: understand their frustration. Michael Thomas is the one who's tweeting.
Speaker 4: You know, who was once a tremendous player and now
Speaker 4: it's kind of just a guy and he's once again injured.
Speaker 4: He's sending cryptic tweets during the game, y'all said, I
Speaker 4: was throwing shade, not at all my not at all,
Speaker 4: my eyes, just work check yours, okay, all that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff, and obviously taking shots at car after turnover
Speaker 4: and the team in general and the coaching staff. Dennis
Speaker 4: Allen was forced to address this on the same day
Speaker 4: he explained that Derek Carr was gonna be missing some time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we'll keep that, we'll keep that in house. But
Speaker 6: you know, I guess I was made aware of that
Speaker 6: last night, so he.
Speaker 4: Deleted Derek took down his Twitter account.
Speaker 3: Was there, Can someone tell him that he had to
Speaker 3: take the tweets down.
Speaker 2: Or why I wear that.
Speaker 4: Derek Carr is in the concussion protocol once again, but
Speaker 4: he's got all sorts of other injuries coming out of
Speaker 4: that game. So it feels like we're gonna get a
Speaker 4: Jameis Winston Taysom Hill jam this week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Thomas liked a hosts that and this was last
Speaker 3: week actually, people were noticing that, like the post that
Speaker 3: joke that Carr gave Thomas a hospital pass to openly
Speaker 3: critique him and stir up drama. And he had been
Speaker 3: like liking some anti Carsh tweets.
Speaker 4: This is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: And then he was watching the game and he was saying,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm just using my eyes. He was just noticing,
Speaker 3: like on the interception, for instance, that there were wide
Speaker 3: open receivers on the other side of the field. So
Speaker 3: he's like openly being.
Speaker 4: And I don't think he's gone.
Speaker 1: Probably he'll be gone, and I think they might both be, but.
Speaker 4: There's nothing like I don't know, maybe there are people
Speaker 4: that disagree. I don't think there's anything cool or edgy
Speaker 4: or whatever about this. It's just like, I think you're
Speaker 4: being a bad teammate and you're using social media to
Speaker 4: kind of cause more issues. I think he's kind of
Speaker 4: a joke personally, thirty years old, grow up.
Speaker 6: He's been a distraction, he's been absent, he's not been
Speaker 6: the player he was, and it's like, how many examples
Speaker 6: of total chaos do we need inside the Saints organization.
Speaker 6: We talk about, like, you know, Michael Thomas being away
Speaker 6: from the team. I think your average Saints fan wants
Speaker 6: Dennis Allen away from the team. And I kind of
Speaker 6: feel like, no matter what happens to them on this
Speaker 6: journey this season, which has been unpleasant to the eyes,
Speaker 6: like it's going to be a massive off season of change,
Speaker 6: and if it's not, what are they doing?
Speaker 4: I've landed on it. Greg. I think now I understand
Speaker 4: why I started this conversation the way I did. I've
Speaker 4: and I've talked about it a lot with Derek Carr
Speaker 4: that he has been bad this year and he's not
Speaker 4: worth the money and it was a bad signing and
Speaker 4: he's been a problem. But I've seen a lot of
Speaker 4: you know, in the what you've talked about it, a
Speaker 4: lot like Saints fans are very angry and frustrated and
Speaker 4: these Michael Thomas story has been popping up the last
Speaker 4: couple of weeks, and it's almost like he's being celebrated
Speaker 4: on some level for calling out this this situation, and
Speaker 4: it's like that's part of the problem too, like that
Speaker 4: I feel like the Saints have just a lot of
Speaker 4: issues internally, and so maybe that is not something to celebrate.
Speaker 4: But I understand, I truly understand where Saints fans are
Speaker 4: coming from that this has been a very rough season, uh,
Speaker 4: and they have not lived up to expectation.
Speaker 3: Right, Michael Thomas is kind of speaking for them. The
Speaker 3: most interesting one that he liked last week, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to find it was about it was from like a
Speaker 3: motiv motivational speaker that was like week leaders avoid difficult
Speaker 3: conversations and the longer you delay, the heart of the
Speaker 3: conversation gets blah blah blah blah, and people thought people
Speaker 3: basically took that, And I think that's been a criticism
Speaker 3: of Dennis Allen that he doesn't know how to manage people.
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of stories going like that. He
Speaker 3: just he's almost afraid to confront his own players, and
Speaker 3: I don't I think he's lost that locker room. So
Speaker 3: for separating the quarterback from this, it just it feels
Speaker 3: like a team that is just a drift right now.
Speaker 6: But Greg, it started with like Chauncey Gardner, John, I
Speaker 6: think it's had Sean Payton been there, you wouldn't have
Speaker 6: lost that player.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that was that was the very beginning of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I would say one thing to Michael Thomas, like, I
Speaker 6: don't know if you're if you're going diving into difficult
Speaker 6: conversations when you're liking other people's posts and tweeting stub
Speaker 6: tweeting your own quarterback, that's not having a one on
Speaker 6: one conversation.
Speaker 4: Injury news, Dereck Henry is not in the concussion protocol
Speaker 4: and is on track to play. In Week fourteen's matchup
Speaker 4: against the Dolphins, he had two touchdowns and over one
Speaker 4: hundred yards in yesterday's brutal loss to the Cults before we.
Speaker 3: Had her next Monday night. Guys, we got little Titans Dolphins.
Speaker 1: This is one of them.
Speaker 4: Nice. By the way, the Titans fired their special teams
Speaker 4: coach after miscues, including that block punt that swung that game.
Speaker 4: Jeffrey Simmons of the Titans will miss a couple of
Speaker 4: weeks with a knee injury as well, according to Mike Vrabel.
Speaker 4: So that is a big loss for the Titans and
Speaker 4: anything to add there, boys.
Speaker 3: No other than that block punt unfortunately ended Ryan Stonehouse's season.
Speaker 3: Ryan Stonehouse, their punter, I would have guessed was a shoeing.
Speaker 3: Maybe for All Pro first team may still make it,
Speaker 3: but punters, you know, the kickers get a lot of
Speaker 3: love on this show. Stonehouse's was out a run that
Speaker 3: rivals any punter that any punters had probably in the
Speaker 3: last handful of years.
Speaker 1: So that is a that is a shame.
Speaker 4: What a devastating play. I know, you lose one of
Speaker 4: your top players, your punter. You you lose you know,
Speaker 4: seven points on the board, and you know swings a
Speaker 4: game that you absolutely needed and then you get it.
Speaker 4: Gets people fired as well. There are very few plays
Speaker 4: this season that have been that devastating for one team. Yes,
Speaker 4: it's almost impressive, but really tragic in a way. Uh.
Speaker 4: Circling back to what we were honking about last night,
Speaker 4: with less than a minute to go in Sunday Night Football,
Speaker 4: Patrick Mahomes fired a deep ball to Marcus Valdegs Valdez scantling.
Speaker 4: He was absolutely tackled almost by Carrington Valentine. They do
Speaker 4: not throw the flag. Instead of first and goal from
Speaker 4: about the five yard, the Chiefs are left to scramble
Speaker 4: and they never do get close. After that final score
Speaker 4: twenty seven to nineteen. You heard the rules guy, who's
Speaker 4: the rules guy for NBC again, McAuley McAuley. He was
Speaker 4: very frank and said this is not good. There should
Speaker 4: have been a penalty. Guess what. That night they trot
Speaker 4: out Brad Allen, the referee, and he explains after the
Speaker 4: game that you know what, it wasn't We didn't get
Speaker 4: this one wrong. Here's the quote. As you may know,
Speaker 4: on every play, whether there may or may not be
Speaker 4: past interference, either offensive or defensive, the covering official has
Speaker 4: to rule whether contact materially restricts the receiver and in
Speaker 4: this case, the covering officials were in good position and
Speaker 4: ruled that there was no material restriction that rose to
Speaker 4: the level of defensive pass interference. The ball appeared to
Speaker 4: be catchable for MVS. Alan did not dispute that I
Speaker 4: am not aware that catchability was involved. The covering officials
Speaker 4: simply did not feel that there was the level of
Speaker 4: contact that rose to a material restriction for defensive pass interference.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know what to say to that.
Speaker 4: That's brutal, like it does either way. It does nothing
Speaker 4: for the chiefs mark, but it's like, at least say
Speaker 4: you got the call along, so we could all just
Speaker 4: move forward as a society.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that would be more pleasant. I guess my thing
Speaker 6: is you can go read these NFL rule books. When
Speaker 6: you go read some of these paragraphs, it's like, I'm sorry,
Speaker 6: what's happening. But like our eyes, the broadcaster's eyes, our eyes,
Speaker 6: Terry McAuley's, everyone is looking at this play and saying
Speaker 6: this doesn't check out. So whatever the written rule is, like,
Speaker 6: maybe we need to examine that. I guess you can
Speaker 6: say whatever you want, but there's never accountability for these
Speaker 6: officiating crews when they blow something.
Speaker 3: He sounded like a politician if you listen closely, you
Speaker 3: read it closely. They never did. They never said that
Speaker 3: the call was right. All he did was just explain
Speaker 3: in great detail that the guy was in position, here's
Speaker 3: the rule, and he thought he was making the right call.
Speaker 3: Like he actually like it was one of those politician
Speaker 3: like non denial denials where it just said a lot
Speaker 3: of words and he's like, well, this is what he ruled.
Speaker 3: He looked at it, he was in good position, and
Speaker 3: this is what it ruled because this is what he thought.
Speaker 3: But he missed the point of like, yes, that's all true.
Speaker 3: We know he thought he was right, but he was wrong.
Speaker 1: That's what we want to hear.
Speaker 4: Weird, annoying sucks all right. Finally in the news, this
Speaker 4: is funny, and Greg, you're way more plugged into this
Speaker 4: world than Mark or I, so you can perhaps tell
Speaker 4: us why if these things can change so quickly, But
Speaker 4: I guess it makes sense. So we've been talking about
Speaker 4: the last few weeks brock Purdy, who's having really an
Speaker 4: excellent season for the Niners, who I think we're all
Speaker 4: in agreement are the best team in football, And why
Speaker 4: is he being overlooked in the MVP race when you
Speaker 4: look at the odds at the sports books, and you know,
Speaker 4: he was kind of in the distant background a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks ago when we first started talking about this. Well,
Speaker 4: after Party threw four touchdowns and the Niners blew out
Speaker 4: the Eagles, that quick quickly changed to the point now
Speaker 4: that Party is the odds on favorite to win Super
Speaker 4: Bowl MVP. In the latest odds, the Niners are also
Speaker 4: the favorite to win the Super Bowl. Party through for three,
Speaker 4: fourteen and four. They're the odds right there if you're
Speaker 4: watching it on YouTube. Parties a plus three hundred Dak
Speaker 4: right behind him at plus three fifty. I think that
Speaker 4: checks out, and then it's a little bit of a
Speaker 4: drop off after that. Plus nine hundred for Lamar, plus
Speaker 4: sixteen hundred for Tyreek Hill. There you go plus three
Speaker 4: Boy and Josh Allen plus thirty five one hundred.
Speaker 3: Hurts at plus three fifty two at plus seven.
Speaker 4: Oh sorry I was reading it wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's confusing how it was set up, just with
Speaker 3: the two things add These things change fast, though, because
Speaker 3: they're just a reflection of what Vegas thinks, people like
Speaker 3: us think, which is very nebulous as you would like
Speaker 3: to say, especially with like eight weeks left in the season,
Speaker 3: and you know they're just trying to like, what is
Speaker 3: the average Joe thinking, essentially, and the average Joe wasn't
Speaker 3: thinking party until now. It's still you know the field.
Speaker 3: You know, plus three hundred isn't that much of a favorite.
Speaker 3: It would still say it's way, way, way more likely
Speaker 3: that Perty doesn't win than he doesn't, but he has
Speaker 3: the closest odds. The Dak thing is more interesting to
Speaker 3: me because I think he was plus three thousand like
Speaker 3: three weeks ago, and now he's like kind of a
Speaker 3: co favorite with Purdy and Hurts. I still like Tyreek.
Speaker 3: I still think actually he has a much better chance
Speaker 3: than those odds, and odds indicate.
Speaker 6: We may be closer to a season where like a
Speaker 6: Tyreek Hill or someone like that, or a Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 6: can rise up and not be a quarterback and win this.
Speaker 6: But like I know where we're all like of this
Speaker 6: world that like quarterback wins, we just ignore them. It's
Speaker 6: almost better if you win three games, but you're a
Speaker 6: pristine like player. But honestly, like Brock Perty, I think
Speaker 6: it matters to voters and like generalists that Brock Purty
Speaker 6: blew out the Cowboys in the game that Dak didn't
Speaker 6: play out play well, and he blew out the Eagles
Speaker 6: in a game that Jalen Hurts played played all right
Speaker 6: in but it wasn't like Jalen Hurts one. And now
Speaker 6: Dak and Jalen Hurts go play each other next week,
Speaker 6: and if one of those really suffers in that game,
Speaker 6: I just you're starting to see, like where where's the
Speaker 6: terrible Brock party game against a giant killer that we
Speaker 6: see recently, Like he's surging and other guys are starting
Speaker 6: to knock each other off. I don't I think that
Speaker 6: affects voting like.
Speaker 3: I think the last five weeks I stand by that,
Speaker 3: like the last five weeks ultimately decided. Now you got
Speaker 3: to kind of be in this top eight probably the start,
Speaker 3: but the last five weeks will be huge. And if
Speaker 3: it's on QB wins, which it shouldn't be, and yet
Speaker 3: that will be a huge factor. All these guys are
Speaker 3: all about the same in terms of their team, so
Speaker 3: how their teams finish obviously is a huge factor.
Speaker 4: And I'll say it again, just because he keeps on
Speaker 4: coming up. But and this isn't coming at you at all, Greg,
Speaker 4: But you know there's still people have to vote, And
Speaker 4: are we really gonna on All Honors Night gonna call
Speaker 4: up Tyreek Hill, who is someone that has just violence
Speaker 4: in his past and has hurt people. You know, if
Speaker 4: Deshaun Watson was having a monster year this year, would
Speaker 4: we be okay given him the MVP? Where's the line? Like,
Speaker 4: where's the separation with these guys and what they've done
Speaker 4: in their personal life? And when did we decide that
Speaker 4: they're worthy for the discussion of these on field awards
Speaker 4: and when they should be disqualified or even be vilified
Speaker 4: as people with no redeeming qualities? Like where is that line?
Speaker 4: I'm little bit.
Speaker 3: No redeeming qualities is a pretty strong statement about any person.
Speaker 3: But I guess I would say we've led him. First
Speaker 3: of all, he's back into the league for five six years,
Speaker 3: He's won multiple postseason awards from the exact same fifty
Speaker 3: voters that are voting on this. So the awards, I think, say,
Speaker 3: you're not supposed to take that into account. Could that
Speaker 3: come into account ultimately on a big award like MVP,
Speaker 3: that's the big fair that's a fair to make.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't tend to think that's getting priced into those
Speaker 3: numbers or into voters thoughts again, but I could be wrong.
Speaker 3: It's a fair point, I would say, though the exact
Speaker 3: same fifty people are voting First Team All Pro year
Speaker 3: after year, which you can say isn't as big a deal.
Speaker 3: It isn't, but it's a big honor. It makes a
Speaker 3: big difference to him, and they've been voting for that
Speaker 3: sort of thing.
Speaker 4: And for people that don't know, he had an ugly
Speaker 4: domestic violence arrest in college and there was a child
Speaker 4: abuse investigation while he was with the Chiefs. That was
Speaker 4: a huge story at the time. So it is a
Speaker 4: spotty record, to say the least around Hill. But you
Speaker 4: know what if he if he goes for two thousand
Speaker 4: yards and carries that offense to historic places. Yeah, from
Speaker 4: a pure statistical breakdown, he's in that conversation. It's just
Speaker 4: you know, anything else.
Speaker 1: It's about it.
Speaker 3: I'll save my Tyreek kill case you write it is
Speaker 3: a little awkward for later, But I got some good
Speaker 3: numbers for later, you know.
Speaker 4: Okay, See that is that's our busy, busy Sunday, Monday Tuesday,
Speaker 4: we're gonna watch some games. We charge our batteries and
Speaker 4: get ready for our Wednesday program, and then a Thursday program,
Speaker 4: and then another Thursday pro. You know the wheel, it
Speaker 4: keeps spinning. Thank you everybody for your support. We could
Speaker 4: not do it with that you And I'm still seeing
Speaker 4: all those in our mentions, all those people that have
Speaker 4: been listening to around the NFL and the podcast. It's
Speaker 4: a big part of their experience, whether they're in their
Speaker 4: cars or at home, or maybe there's an ear piece
Speaker 4: in when they're the wife or the husband's talking and
Speaker 4: you could just shut out the world. Those kids.
Speaker 1: Someone at eighty four thousand, was that like a real thing?
Speaker 1: How is that even possible?
Speaker 4: Eight? It's incredible, it's incredible. So thank you everybody. The
Speaker 4: fact that we still have you guys with us eleven
Speaker 4: years in, we're very lucky.
Speaker 6: Why don't hundreds of people have eighty four thousand minutes?
Speaker 3: That's my question, because do the math, it's like four
Speaker 3: hours a day.
Speaker 1: How is that we don't even make close to that
Speaker 1: out of content?
Speaker 6: So it's just well, someone made someone someone showed that
Speaker 6: it's possible. So you know, lead, you know, follow that
Speaker 6: individual's glory.
Speaker 4: I like that. Mark as as Uh. The great philosopher
Speaker 4: Paul Houston once said, ambition bites the nails of success.
Speaker 4: You just got to keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing,
Speaker 4: all right till next time. Thank you, everybody heed the call.