Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast is still waiting to find
Speaker 1: out about Latyo. Welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I come
Speaker 1: to you from the virtual room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, Greg Rosenthal. What is up the boys? Hey? Dan?
Speaker 1: Sometimes I try to figure out what the money tag is,
Speaker 1: but then I figured there's more important things to talk about,
Speaker 1: So you just leave it. You take the l personally
Speaker 1: and you get onto the business at hand, which is
Speaker 1: week three Sunday in the NFL. And isn't it strange? Boys?
Speaker 1: When you take the Ravens and Chiefs out of the mix,
Speaker 1: they play, of course on Monday Night, big spot for
Speaker 1: Brian Greasy there who dog? Doesn't it how wide open
Speaker 1: the league feels through three Sundays when you take those
Speaker 1: Juggernauts out, Like I mean, there are some truly wretched teams,
Speaker 1: but even the three and oh teams, you could definitely
Speaker 1: make cases against those teams for various reasons, and then
Speaker 1: everybody else is kind of fighting it out. Uh. This
Speaker 1: seems like, uh, in what's been a weird year, we
Speaker 1: could have a wild season. Yeah, It's it's like you know,
Speaker 1: mom and dad went away for the weekend, and you know,
Speaker 1: the teenage sons and daughters think that they are full
Speaker 1: fledged adults, ready to you know, flex their muscles and
Speaker 1: show their wares. But um, mommy and Daddy will return.
Speaker 1: That's all I'd tell you. It's all I'd say, who's
Speaker 1: mommy and who's daddy. I guess we'll find out. We'll
Speaker 1: find out tomorrow. I mean it also, it also depends
Speaker 1: what kind of relationship that is. I mean, in some
Speaker 1: who's stronger, Yeah, who's to say one is the one?
Speaker 1: The victor is this person? And you know, right you
Speaker 1: attempted to but we got we got you out of
Speaker 1: that corner. I just steered right out of there. Uh.
Speaker 1: Interesting because last week, at this time, I would have said,
Speaker 1: there are clearly some dominant teams running away with things,
Speaker 1: and and the difference between the good teams and the
Speaker 1: bad teams is even more start than normal one. We
Speaker 1: can change a lot well, but the game's all look
Speaker 1: so similar. I think that that, to me is was
Speaker 1: striking that every games in the thirties that you know,
Speaker 1: two guys thrown for over four yards feels totally normal,
Speaker 1: No lead feels safe. That the lack of penalties and
Speaker 1: the amount of scoring is all historic, and so that
Speaker 1: that that is what is striking The NFL cooked up
Speaker 1: a whole new uh sport here. There's penalty thing like
Speaker 1: interesting because it reminds me of last season when baseball
Speaker 1: they juiced the baseballs, and they're like, oh, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna completely change the sport by there being an
Speaker 1: uptick of home runs by about if they really are
Speaker 1: serious about lowering the level of penalties calls, that that
Speaker 1: is juicing the ball, that's juicing the offenses. They've been
Speaker 1: doing that for forty years. I mean, that's every rule
Speaker 1: change is geared towards offense. And actually the penalties now
Speaker 1: just kind of brings it back to about fifteen twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. It's not a big deal West jumping. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's a big triplet era in which he wasn't happy
Speaker 1: unless he's seventy three penalties were called. This sport had
Speaker 1: reached a point where it wasn't even football anymore. Is
Speaker 1: hard to walk because he couldn't get any rhythm into
Speaker 1: a game. Too many penalties. Right, West and I are
Speaker 1: agreeing here, they're just bringing it back to about you know,
Speaker 1: year two thousand level of penalties. Uh so it's not
Speaker 1: like breaking records. They're just bringing it back. Penalties had
Speaker 1: risen and risen and risen and risen and back. No
Speaker 1: one care. Sometimes tell the coaches to chill competition, and
Speaker 1: you're like, we want you to concentrate on this this year.
Speaker 1: You know, call this all the time, and it's like, hey, no, no,
Speaker 1: how about we think about the fans for once. Everybody
Speaker 1: nice and loubed up. So everybody's warmed up to get
Speaker 1: into the games right now, every little hot and bothered. Alright,
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of games to get to. So
Speaker 1: let's dig right in, starting with a really memorable showdown
Speaker 1: between undefeated teams in Orchard Park. Josh waiting. Now the snap,
Speaker 1: Josh gonna throw it, looks looks, fires into the end zone.
Speaker 1: He's got Tyler Croft open touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, Buffalo touchdown.
Speaker 1: Fills up for your thoughts, Josh Allen to Tyler Croft
Speaker 1: for the touchdown, fifteen seconds left on the clock, hitting me,
Speaker 1: John Murphy and Steve Tasker with the call for w
Speaker 1: g R. The Bills blew point lead on Sunday and
Speaker 1: lived to tell the tale. The Bills happily received the
Speaker 1: gift of a questionable p I call on fourth down,
Speaker 1: then won the game on a Josh Allen to Tyler
Speaker 1: Croft took up with fifteen seconds to play. Final score
Speaker 1: thirty five thirty two. Wow, Greg. The Rams came this
Speaker 1: close to a comeback for the Ages, only to let
Speaker 1: victory slip away. They left too much time on the clock.
Speaker 1: You know, when you come back from three, you've got
Speaker 1: a time that final touchdown just to go to overtime
Speaker 1: and then win the coin flip, which is probably the
Speaker 1: only way the Rams defense was gonna get a stop
Speaker 1: in a big moment here, because Josh Allen did it
Speaker 1: all in this game in terms of the roller coaster
Speaker 1: the whole experience. They had nine possessions and they and
Speaker 1: they scored five touchdown. So I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: anything about the Bill's offense being in any way of letdown. Now.
Speaker 1: He helped set up the comeback with a couple of turnovers,
Speaker 1: one of which came on a very questionable UH call,
Speaker 1: but was also a terrible throw by Alan, so you
Speaker 1: know he was at some fall. Aaron Donald took over
Speaker 1: the game, as Aaron Donald does, But my big takeaway
Speaker 1: is that the Bills are an offensive team. You want
Speaker 1: to get on part of their team for blowing the lead,
Speaker 1: get on the defense. I look at them more as
Speaker 1: a team that's gonna make mistakes offensively, as we saw
Speaker 1: here and there. But they had two third and twenty
Speaker 1: three situations with the game on the line, and they
Speaker 1: wound up converting them both. They got one into a
Speaker 1: fourth and nine. They got that questionable call as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: Dan and and if they didn't get it, we'd we'd
Speaker 1: be talking about how they blew this game. But I still,
Speaker 1: as a global view take a look at this Bill's
Speaker 1: team and think this offense is really dangerous and Alan's
Speaker 1: gonna have some ups and downs, but the conversion that
Speaker 1: they've had into an offense that can score over thirty
Speaker 1: regularly is massive, and they are gonna be a tough
Speaker 1: team to beat when that's the case. Well, one thing
Speaker 1: that stuck out to me was the uproar over the
Speaker 1: the controversial call at the end of the game. And
Speaker 1: to be honest, I I caught a lot of this game.
Speaker 1: The only reason the Rands were in the game was
Speaker 1: because of a bad call in their favor, in which
Speaker 1: there was a simultaneous possession interception which was clearly caught
Speaker 1: by the offensive player and then once they hit the ground,
Speaker 1: was wrestled out of his hands by the defensive player.
Speaker 1: It was a horrible call and they tried to defend
Speaker 1: it afterwards. Al Riveron did and it didn't make any
Speaker 1: sense when he tried to defend it either. I hate
Speaker 1: terrible throw though too, and they gave up four touchdowns
Speaker 1: and four possessions very quickly, so I think it's giving
Speaker 1: the Rams a little too little credit saying that's the
Speaker 1: only reason. It was definitely a turning point. But it
Speaker 1: was a bad decision by Alan and more more to
Speaker 1: the point, the Rams offense started cooking, uh in the
Speaker 1: third and fourth quarters. I hated that call. It's funny
Speaker 1: we just started the show talking about how the referees
Speaker 1: are keeping the flags in their pockets. That to me
Speaker 1: at the end of the game there, and I know
Speaker 1: Al river N got behind his boy there, but that
Speaker 1: seemed very ticky tack with the game on the line
Speaker 1: to call that. But you know what that happens ultimately.
Speaker 1: I think if you're the Rams, yeah, you're smarting from
Speaker 1: that call. But also there are two third in forevers
Speaker 1: that they had the billing and all you gotta do
Speaker 1: is make a stop. And that was you know, um,
Speaker 1: that was two opportunities they had and they and they
Speaker 1: let it go by the boards. And that is a
Speaker 1: credit to Alan. I didn't get a chance to see
Speaker 1: this game yet, so I can't really say too much
Speaker 1: about it other than his ability to just move this
Speaker 1: team up and down the field. For three straight weeks.
Speaker 1: He is passed for three plus yards UH in three
Speaker 1: straight weeks, and they are averaging I believe four and
Speaker 1: thirty yards UH total yards per game and thirty one
Speaker 1: points per game through three weeks, which is obviously franchise
Speaker 1: records across the board. There's something special happening with this offense.
Speaker 1: I just find it so interesting that like Allen continues
Speaker 1: to be I mean, for basic reasons, extremely polarizing signal caller,
Speaker 1: but I mean the idea that his production, that what
Speaker 1: he's producing weekly is not completely legitimate, that this offense
Speaker 1: isn't built, um really well by Brandon being their GM.
Speaker 1: I mean, Cole Beasley is making plays every week, John Brown,
Speaker 1: uh Stefon Diggs. You know, Zack Moss was not in
Speaker 1: the lineup today, but You've got a solid backfield there,
Speaker 1: Tyler Croft. I just think that this Bills team is
Speaker 1: well run and well organized. And I mean the Rams
Speaker 1: were down twenty one three and had not punted, they
Speaker 1: had kicked a field goal, thrown a pick kicked another
Speaker 1: field goal. Then it was the end of the half,
Speaker 1: and it's like it wasn't just that the Rams were,
Speaker 1: you know, to Greg's point, it wasn't a Bill's defensive
Speaker 1: um dominance. But I just think this Bill's offense is
Speaker 1: for real. And I let the doubters, let them doubt
Speaker 1: what happened, what happened when it was three and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I mean GoF made some great
Speaker 1: plays on third and long. Neither defense looked great the
Speaker 1: whole game. I thought the difference in the first half
Speaker 1: was got through a really bad pick um and the
Speaker 1: Rams missed the field goal, whereas the Bills had unbelievable
Speaker 1: field position the whole game because of their kicking game,
Speaker 1: because of their return game, and because of the turnover
Speaker 1: and dable To your point, Mark, I mean, guys were
Speaker 1: wide open, and Alan made some tough throws too, but
Speaker 1: there was also just guys streaking open the field and
Speaker 1: that's without John Brown for most of this game. John
Speaker 1: Brown left within injury and and I remissed not to
Speaker 1: say that Stefan Diggs, I mean, has been such a
Speaker 1: transformative pickup. And you look at the stat line and
Speaker 1: I don't think it ended up, you know, too flashy
Speaker 1: for Digs. It was four forty nine and a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Well his touchdown he beat Jalen Ramsey one on one
Speaker 1: um and that was one of the best players that
Speaker 1: Allen made on a third and long under pressure in
Speaker 1: the red zone and another touch passed the Alan threw
Speaker 1: on on a key drive late in the game, Digs
Speaker 1: just made an unbelievable catch on the sideline to keep
Speaker 1: it going. So when things were falling apart, and at
Speaker 1: no point did the Bill's defense, um look great. They
Speaker 1: really haven't this year at all. They have been pretty mediocre.
Speaker 1: And um, you know they would have they would have
Speaker 1: had the goat horns here if they lost, but they didn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, every this game had everything with Alan though.
Speaker 1: I mean he also had two penalties on the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: one for yelling at the official because they didn't know
Speaker 1: the rule book in terms of you can't have a
Speaker 1: horse collar in the in the pocket and then another one,
Speaker 1: uh for a face mask. I mean, this is your if.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna bet on a quarterback to have a
Speaker 1: face mask penalty, it's Josh Allen. I mean, he is
Speaker 1: young Cam Newton. Especially in the red zone. They were
Speaker 1: five for five in the red zone. And that's to
Speaker 1: me that the thing that's sustainable is that the Bill's
Speaker 1: team is so tough to stop in the red zone
Speaker 1: and the Rams will be Okay, they're gonna be fine here,
Speaker 1: but when you come back from down, take the lead,
Speaker 1: then lose, that's a tough loss. That's a tough one.
Speaker 1: If he if he really has learned how to touch pass,
Speaker 1: and to me, that's by far the biggest difference this
Speaker 1: year in last year's he's ahead of Cam Newton's development.
Speaker 1: Cam Newton wasn't throwing these touch passes in year three.
Speaker 1: He didn't have the year your second year that that
Speaker 1: Cam Newton had. But certain certainly right now he is
Speaker 1: playing great. I like it West and there are things
Speaker 1: Josh Allen can do on a football field that Cam
Speaker 1: Newton has never been able to do. Eat Greg on
Speaker 1: the ropes, Rosenthal on the ropes. Let's move on Hey,
Speaker 1: people are allowed to change their minds. Red cap locket
Speaker 1: to the left side, Jenna four man Roush Russell looks
Speaker 1: has talk gonna throw the end zone? What good deck
Speaker 1: he make the catch touchdowns? I couldn't see it for
Speaker 1: a second, and suddenly he flashes in the end zone
Speaker 1: and it's DK Metcalf, and he in fact makes up
Speaker 1: for the play earlier. And it's only fitting, isn't that
Speaker 1: heats a guy who comes up with the big reception
Speaker 1: the touchdown with one seven left to play. You knew
Speaker 1: that was gonna happen. Metcalf makes one of those bone
Speaker 1: head plays that happens every couple of years, catching the
Speaker 1: bomb and then not paying attention and getting the ball
Speaker 1: knocked out for a touchback. It happened to him, but
Speaker 1: you just knew he was gonna score, and probably scoring
Speaker 1: a big fashion down the down the stretch of that game,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what happened. Russell Wilson's fifth touchdown pass
Speaker 1: to Metcalf. But the Seahawks ahead late and then Ryan Neal,
Speaker 1: promoted from the practice squad, had the game ceiling end
Speaker 1: zone pick. Seahawks eight cows thirty one shootout at the
Speaker 1: clink uh Steve Railey and Dave Wyman with a call
Speaker 1: for ki are. This game is certainly lived up to
Speaker 1: the hype. Uh. Two teams with great offenses and great
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and suspect defenses. And it played out exactly that
Speaker 1: way where the no, the defenses could not get big stops. Uh.
Speaker 1: And every time it seemed like the Cowboys were about
Speaker 1: to get blown out. No, because Dak Prescott is kind
Speaker 1: of like playing out of his mind, thrown for four
Speaker 1: yards every game. Although it should be said, and it
Speaker 1: was rightly pointed out by Troy Aikman on the Fox call,
Speaker 1: the interception that ended the game, it shouldn't played out
Speaker 1: that way. That was not fourth down in desperation, heaved
Speaker 1: up into the end zone. That was lived for one
Speaker 1: more down if if, if it's not there, But you
Speaker 1: know what, that's the way it went. Uh. So the
Speaker 1: Cowboys now one and two, and the Seahawks, who are
Speaker 1: the most entertaining team and up all through three weeks,
Speaker 1: are three and oh m hm. Well they're entertaining partly
Speaker 1: because their defense can't stop anyone. They had given up
Speaker 1: the most yards in the league going into today, and
Speaker 1: then they give up five hundred yards in this game,
Speaker 1: and they lost Jamal Adams during the game, and so
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to cook up a pass rush. It's
Speaker 1: just fascinating to see a Seahawks team, you know, so
Speaker 1: pass heavy and so offense heavy. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: obviously got the best the opportunity to have the best
Speaker 1: offense in the Russell Wilson era. Um their offensive lines
Speaker 1: playing really well too, but it's just it's just disarming.
Speaker 1: And I do wonder if there's gonna be a correction
Speaker 1: at some point for a lot of these teams, the Bills, Seahawks, Cowboys,
Speaker 1: where you know, the defenses do get better as the
Speaker 1: course of the season goes on. Because the Seahawks probably
Speaker 1: they need it that way. I don't think they want
Speaker 1: to play this way every single week. It might be
Speaker 1: hard to correct. I saw Chris Carson went down late
Speaker 1: in the game, look like a pretty bad knee injury.
Speaker 1: M um, So that option took to saddle him up
Speaker 1: like they have in previous years might not be there.
Speaker 1: And you see such a difference in philosophy. That last
Speaker 1: touchdown to d dk Metcalf. It's third and short in
Speaker 1: a really game and they're going thirty or forty yards downfield,
Speaker 1: and I think Russell Wilson might be the most consistently
Speaker 1: accurate deep passer I've ever seen. Yep, He's just always
Speaker 1: right on the money from twenty to forty fifty yards
Speaker 1: to downfield. It's always right where it needs to be.
Speaker 1: And then and they're talking about let Rust cook and
Speaker 1: he's cooking for about six d and fifty people at
Speaker 1: this stage per game. But um, same with Dak Prescott.
Speaker 1: He's the second quarterback in league history to throw four
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards and back to back games, and
Speaker 1: they really are just you know, you've got Zeke Elliott.
Speaker 1: You don't have an issue in the backfield. I thought
Speaker 1: the fact that Dallas Um suffered a safety and two
Speaker 1: missed extra points changed that game a little bit down
Speaker 1: the stretch. That they little mistakes like that in a
Speaker 1: game like this, Um are killer. The Cowboys now backs
Speaker 1: against the wall one and two. Well you say that,
Speaker 1: but I think that are they in first place? Much
Speaker 1: time to get things right because the NFC East has
Speaker 1: been so bad and we're gonna gets it, uh later
Speaker 1: in the show. So while you certainly there's every reason
Speaker 1: to be very concerned about this defense, which doesn't have
Speaker 1: Laton vander esh and did get a nice game from
Speaker 1: Aldon Smith, who was very active. I think he had
Speaker 1: three sacks in fact, which is pretty incredible considering the
Speaker 1: arc of his career. But overall the defense stinks. I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of what we thought was something that
Speaker 1: was possible. West Entering certainly turning out that way. That's
Speaker 1: that's maybe not as big as concerned, or maybe it was.
Speaker 1: The Seahawks also was a big concern although they had
Speaker 1: gotten Jamal Adams, that the defense was gonna be a problem.
Speaker 1: And I guess that's the only thing I would say
Speaker 1: like the Seahawks, I think Mark, I saw you tweeted
Speaker 1: they're gonna win the Super Bowl. Maybe they will. Maybe
Speaker 1: this is a magical season and Russell Wilson is that guy.
Speaker 1: But they need to figure out some things on the
Speaker 1: other side of the ball. Luckily they have a lot
Speaker 1: of time to do it. What one note that I
Speaker 1: I will find a way to tweet that about different
Speaker 1: teams and then retweet when I nail one of it.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll get one of them correct. And that's
Speaker 1: you know. I saw a tweet that Greg pointed toward
Speaker 1: an article by I think Bob Stern from The Athletic
Speaker 1: where you saying the best defensive lineman for the Cowboys
Speaker 1: is Tristan Hill, who barely got on the field as
Speaker 1: a rookie last year. Their best linebacker is Joe Thomas,
Speaker 1: who's an undrafted journeyman. Their best their best secondary guy
Speaker 1: is is Treyvon Diggs, who's a rookie. Like, this defense
Speaker 1: just has nothing that you think those Tyler, those Tyler
Speaker 1: Lockett touchdowns, it was like pitch and catch. It was
Speaker 1: like there was nobody else on the field between Wilson
Speaker 1: and Lockett. It shouldn't be that easy. Well, there there
Speaker 1: was a big change, you know. They brought in a
Speaker 1: coordinator and Mike Nolan has been out of the league
Speaker 1: for a few years. Um. They've been in the same
Speaker 1: scheme under Rod Marinelli in some form um for how long?
Speaker 1: That was seven, eight, nine years? And I don't know
Speaker 1: if these players uh quite fit where they're at. I'm
Speaker 1: impressed though, I mean, Tyron Smith didn't play in this game.
Speaker 1: It's maybe a future Hall of Famer. Lyle Collins is
Speaker 1: maybe the best right You're you know, the Cowboys believe
Speaker 1: he's a top five right tackle. That they're playing without
Speaker 1: their two tackles and they're putting up points like this.
Speaker 1: They're they're a little lucky they got that on side
Speaker 1: kick gir else they b oh and three um, but
Speaker 1: it's pretty encouraging they can put up this many points
Speaker 1: without either of their starting tackle. I would say one thing,
Speaker 1: if you're all in Smith, it's like that would be
Speaker 1: essentially like one of us leaving sportswriting for half a decade,
Speaker 1: returning and in the first blog post that you publish,
Speaker 1: twins the Politzer Prize. They have blogs still. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that that. I don't know what you I don't
Speaker 1: know why the equivalent is. It's just that it's like
Speaker 1: he's vanished for half a decade. He returns, he looks
Speaker 1: like the best defensive player on the field. I again,
Speaker 1: there's all these human arguments to take more time off
Speaker 1: away from work and toil oh, that's where you're going
Speaker 1: to say, I'll let others paint Alden Smith as a
Speaker 1: field goods comeback story. That's someone else's profile to write.
Speaker 1: But I see greater point mark that maybe just walking
Speaker 1: away for five years and then walking back into a
Speaker 1: seven figure paycheck. Uh, that is maybe the way to
Speaker 1: do things ultimately. Food for thought, any other thoughts on
Speaker 1: this game doesn't sound like it. Let's keep moving and
Speaker 1: I'm on the right wing, Pert Kid behind you. It
Speaker 1: takes the hat off, runs it left Pert cat n
Speaker 1: I switched it him too the end zone with a
Speaker 1: timing touchdown for the Patriots. Per Cat for the second
Speaker 1: time today, leaves his feet bats to annoy the lead
Speaker 1: as job Rex That's the healthy Rex Perk hit right there.
Speaker 1: Sezoac isn't the same anymore. It's like you deflated him.
Speaker 1: Bob Sochi and Scott Zolac with a ball for w
Speaker 1: bz rex Burg had had two rushing touchdowns and a
Speaker 1: receiving TV part of the two fifty yard rushing day
Speaker 1: for the Pats thirty six win over that rate. Mark.
Speaker 1: I didn't see a lot of Cam Newton highlights today,
Speaker 1: so I guess you can see that as a good thing.
Speaker 1: But the Patriots, and even when Newton doesn't go off
Speaker 1: and still square points, yeah, I think the Patriots. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and this is the rare game where you
Speaker 1: get the matchup between two of the only head coaches
Speaker 1: around that have been traded. Um that that was on
Speaker 1: my radar early and I enjoyed it. Sal Baby right
Speaker 1: and Um Belichick. To me, I think they made a
Speaker 1: nice adjustment in hat time. Cam Newton was kind of
Speaker 1: struggling in this game. I wouldn't call it like a
Speaker 1: big problem, but he just the passing game was not
Speaker 1: what we saw last week against Seattle. And they went
Speaker 1: into halftime and I think they came out determined just
Speaker 1: to run the ball with every single running back they had.
Speaker 1: J J. Taylor. You know who is he four weeks
Speaker 1: ago He's running the ball, Sony Michelle burkehead with three
Speaker 1: touchdowns and they and they were able to succeed that way,
Speaker 1: and the Raiders to me, fell apart offensively down the stretch.
Speaker 1: I I this is this was just a case of
Speaker 1: where you can look at the Raiders team and say
Speaker 1: there's a lot to like. Early on in this game,
Speaker 1: the Raiders wanted the more intrigued. They were developing into
Speaker 1: one of the more intriguing teams that I've seen in
Speaker 1: a while. West and I were tweeting about a little
Speaker 1: bit there's this is a potential wild card type talent
Speaker 1: um the Las Vegas Raiders, but to meet New England.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of showed that you're gonna hit a
Speaker 1: wall against this team. New England's defense is just too
Speaker 1: good and they you know, it's interesting that we talked
Speaker 1: about Bill Bill Belichick talking about Darren Waller during the
Speaker 1: week and that's usually the death knell for that player.
Speaker 1: And Darren Waller, I think, finished with two catches for
Speaker 1: for nine yards and had really nothing going into the
Speaker 1: UM when I think it's Las Vegas is best weapon
Speaker 1: along with Josh Jacobs, who had a all right service,
Speaker 1: serviceable game but not a difference maker, and it was
Speaker 1: a classic UM in an empty, totally empty no stadium
Speaker 1: looks more empty to meet than Fox Borro. It's it
Speaker 1: has to do with the camera shots, I think too,
Speaker 1: but it just looks empty and desolate in New England.
Speaker 1: UM made the Raiders look empty by the end of
Speaker 1: this game. Yeah, I called that the Darren Waller the
Speaker 1: kiss of death was the quote when Belichick went out
Speaker 1: of his way to to paint him as a generational
Speaker 1: type talent. You knew he was gonna like quadruple team
Speaker 1: him from the first half and he'd finished with about
Speaker 1: nine yards, which is exactly what happened getting that Tony
Speaker 1: Gonzalez coverage. I'd be worried about the Raiders defense and
Speaker 1: this one. Sony Michelle couldn't make anyone missed last week,
Speaker 1: and now he gets thirteen yards a carry in this game.
Speaker 1: That's first big place he's made since the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: You know, they they they find different ways to win game.
Speaker 1: And you can hear Kim Newton in the in the
Speaker 1: postgame presscomer just being like so impressed. I think they're
Speaker 1: just like, it's a nice change of pace for him.
Speaker 1: How like every else is doing things too, because you look,
Speaker 1: they had Joe too, and he started center. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's ever played center before at the pro level.
Speaker 1: He's their franchise tag. I mean, they have one of
Speaker 1: the best centers in the league who's now in I
Speaker 1: are that happened since we last talk and Joe tune.
Speaker 1: He just moves to center. Everything's fine. You know, they
Speaker 1: run the ball so well. Chase Winovich has turned into
Speaker 1: a really good player for them. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a great sign that he's by far the best player
Speaker 1: in their front seven. I mean it's one of their
Speaker 1: worst defensive front sevens. I would say you know of
Speaker 1: the Belichick era. But but they still find ways to
Speaker 1: make car make mistakes and those two fumbles that that
Speaker 1: car had seemed to be mark kind of the Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see a little concerning you know, Greg, you pointed
Speaker 1: out to the skill position, um, depleted skill position talent
Speaker 1: for New England. They didn't have a wide receiver with
Speaker 1: more than twenty eight yards at half, and like, they
Speaker 1: just don't have that guy they can go to. And
Speaker 1: that's why you're leaning on suddenly Rex Burkehead who played
Speaker 1: probably the best game he'll ever play in the NFL today,
Speaker 1: But how can you count on that week to week?
Speaker 1: I mean, they he found a way to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: The Raiders to me, outside of Max Crosby just front
Speaker 1: have a whole lot going on on defense, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know is typical New England sort of. They choked
Speaker 1: the life out of out of Las Vegas. Um, I
Speaker 1: would be concerned if they have to go up against
Speaker 1: the Kansas Cities and the Baltimore though. Give me, well,
Speaker 1: they're playing Kansas City next week, so that that's a
Speaker 1: tough spot for them. Um. John Gruden, by the way, uh,
Speaker 1: you basically got on the plane when he kicked a
Speaker 1: field goal down thirteen points on the seven yard line
Speaker 1: on fourth and five late in the game when their
Speaker 1: defenses was not making any stop to cut it from
Speaker 1: thirteen to ten. I mean, that was they have like,
Speaker 1: what what is that index? There's a Twitter account like
Speaker 1: the gutless Index. I don't even know what it was.
Speaker 1: Gutless decision. That's the most gutless decision I've seen by
Speaker 1: a coach, at least in week three. The only index
Speaker 1: that matters to me by Chris Wesley. Oh yeah, great
Speaker 1: job this year. You said that Rex Burkehead or the
Speaker 1: Atriots choked the life out of Vegas. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Corona did that initially, but then you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I was gonna say, it's been quite a
Speaker 1: twenty for poor Vegas, but the team that plays there
Speaker 1: will live for another week. All Right. We have a
Speaker 1: bunch of cornered animal games on the schedule, Ricky, Let's
Speaker 1: get a drop there. Let's check out the first one
Speaker 1: from Hines Field. Then each Connor gets a block on
Speaker 1: the flat inside the tenny inside the five touchdown James
Speaker 1: Conner from twelve yards out, James Conner off the right side.
Speaker 1: But I defer to my offensive lineman in the booth.
Speaker 1: He there's a lot happened up. Matt Filer hooked when
Speaker 1: Whitney merciless and he hooked dump and that's why James
Speaker 1: Conner skirted outside. I can tell you Filer took no mercy.
Speaker 1: I'm the merciless one. Bill Hill go up and touch
Speaker 1: Elkin with the call for w b E. I like
Speaker 1: this steel damasheck gem Let's just play this with Steelers games.
Speaker 1: James Conner put the Steelers ahead for good midway through
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. The Steelers defense smothers Deshaun Watson in
Speaker 1: the final two quarters after the Texans quarterback had had
Speaker 1: a really nice first half. But it was all over
Speaker 1: after that one. The final Steelers are three and oh
Speaker 1: for the first time in a decade, the Texans oh
Speaker 1: and three for the second time in three years. And
Speaker 1: you'll remember, perhaps you won't that in team that's Texans
Speaker 1: steven started owing three, went eleven and five. But you
Speaker 1: know what, this feels different. Probably didn't feel too good
Speaker 1: at own three and two thousand eighteen, but it certainly
Speaker 1: doesn't feel good right now. And I think the most
Speaker 1: disheartening thing about this game was the way it played out. Um,
Speaker 1: because yes, we're all aware by this point Texans got screwed.
Speaker 1: The scheduling gods were not fair. Chiefs Ravens Steelers weeks
Speaker 1: one to three, those are three of the top five
Speaker 1: teams in football, you can say, um, and they just
Speaker 1: were outclassed in the first two weeks. But on Sunday
Speaker 1: this did feel like the classic corner and animal game
Speaker 1: where the team that's owing two that desperately needs the win.
Speaker 1: They might not be better than their opponent, but they
Speaker 1: need the game so badly they just find a way
Speaker 1: and you maybe get behind your best player and he
Speaker 1: gets he gets you the w desperately need. And Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson had thrown for over two yards in the first half.
Speaker 1: He threw two touchdown passes. He was evading tacklers and
Speaker 1: making all those Deshaun Watson plays. All the wide receivers
Speaker 1: were back in the mix, and it just looked like
Speaker 1: the Texans had a real shot and then it all
Speaker 1: got wiped away once the Steelers changed up their defense
Speaker 1: a little bit, got a little more aggressive and uh
Speaker 1: and from that point on it was there's nothing cooking.
Speaker 1: They had uh five sacks overall, they had less than
Speaker 1: a hundred yards total. I believe in the second half,
Speaker 1: Houston no points and the Steelers grinded it out. Um.
Speaker 1: Mike Hilton had an interception earlier early in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter which set up a long Pittsburgh touchdown drive that
Speaker 1: was followed by three and out by the defense and
Speaker 1: then another grinding drive by the Steelers that ran out
Speaker 1: the clock and that was it. So it wasn't a
Speaker 1: dominant effort by the Steelers. We really haven't seen that
Speaker 1: yet from Pittsburgh. But they're three and oh and and Houston.
Speaker 1: When you lose the when you lose the corner and
Speaker 1: animal game and you go oh and three, you're you're
Speaker 1: essentially on life support. And that's where they're at before
Speaker 1: we even sniff October. It typically means dead animal. If
Speaker 1: you lose cornered animals scenarios, they have no identity. They
Speaker 1: second week in a row, they have no running game
Speaker 1: to speak of, and second week in a row they
Speaker 1: could not stop the footprints on their back in the
Speaker 1: second half of the game. And you're gonna think I'm
Speaker 1: crazy because he went over a hundred yards for back
Speaker 1: to back games. But I think James Conner is a
Speaker 1: problem for the Steelers. UM. I think he's the slowest
Speaker 1: starting running back in the NFL, and I think for
Speaker 1: the last week he had a fifty yard run at
Speaker 1: the end that padded his stats. This week, Steer's offensive
Speaker 1: line was blowing Houston off the ball almost every fourth
Speaker 1: quarter run, and James Conner had plenty of room to
Speaker 1: work with. But I think you saw why they started
Speaker 1: to get their rookie I think his name is Anthony
Speaker 1: McFarland involved today UM for a change of pace role
Speaker 1: because they need a big play element. And and I
Speaker 1: think that James Conner stats are not reflective of the
Speaker 1: way he's playing. I mean, that's a good problem to have, though,
Speaker 1: you know you can survive if she can. If that's
Speaker 1: your biggest problem. Their defense puts up crooked numbers if
Speaker 1: you look at kind of the The box score's an
Speaker 1: issue here too. Their their secondary is not nearly as
Speaker 1: good as last year. And you asked me last week
Speaker 1: after the Broncos played them closer than one might expect
Speaker 1: what was wrong. I went back and watched them during
Speaker 1: the week, and Devin Bush is getting dragged around the
Speaker 1: field by tight ends. He's a problem Joe Hayden looks
Speaker 1: like he's lost a step um. Stephen Nelson has been
Speaker 1: burnt a few times, Hilton. They had the intership interception
Speaker 1: today but also got burnt by Randall Cobb. Um pass
Speaker 1: rush is legit. I just worry about the coverage of
Speaker 1: their secondary right. It's all pass rush. They twelve quarterback hits,
Speaker 1: five sacks, seven tackles for loss for you know past defense,
Speaker 1: which is partly the pass rusch. It's like that pass
Speaker 1: rush in that offense that'll that'll beat you beat some
Speaker 1: bad teams. They haven't played like a team I think,
Speaker 1: off the top of my head that's how to win
Speaker 1: this year. So they haven't really faced a tough competition
Speaker 1: quite yet. I'd be concerned with the Texans defense. And
Speaker 1: you know, they came in as the I think the
Speaker 1: second or third worst defense against the run. And for
Speaker 1: James Conners deficiencies that you point out west that might
Speaker 1: be there, like he's still get putting up these numbers,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, the Texans to me, you can't
Speaker 1: really be you can't counting them to really run the
Speaker 1: ball effectively and dominate that way and they and stop
Speaker 1: the run. And I don't think oh and three, I oh,
Speaker 1: in three against these three teams, Um, you gotta, you
Speaker 1: gotta sort of stop yourself at the door and see,
Speaker 1: let's see who they are, you know, a month from now.
Speaker 1: But they're owing three for a reason too. I just
Speaker 1: think that they're a weird team that. Uh, I don't
Speaker 1: trust them at all. Does someone trust them to like
Speaker 1: go on this run that they did two years ago
Speaker 1: after that rough start? I don't, can't, you can't. I'll
Speaker 1: give you one stat that tells the story of Sunday
Speaker 1: and then one stat that and some of its luck.
Speaker 1: But it's terrible. Uh if you're a Houston fan. Uh,
Speaker 1: the exact figure is fifty one yards in the second
Speaker 1: half today and just two for two first downs. That's
Speaker 1: it in the final two quarters. That's a Deshaun Watson team,
Speaker 1: UM led by Bill O'Brien, and they don't have a
Speaker 1: turnover yet the season zero turns. I'm not gonna win
Speaker 1: if you don't have an explosive offense and your defense
Speaker 1: is only so so and maybe less than that, and
Speaker 1: you get don't get turnovers. Look out. And in one
Speaker 1: difference between eight, I was gonna say, between now and
Speaker 1: is AFC South is better. I mean you have the
Speaker 1: tight entreprene You know, the Cults are a solid team.
Speaker 1: A f C is a completely different conference too, so
Speaker 1: you know it's now waltzing into the a f C
Speaker 1: title game based on a you know, eleven and five
Speaker 1: record where you've got plenty of weaknesses. Speaking of a
Speaker 1: f C. South teams for the lead, snap sack, kick, god,
Speaker 1: holy five yards for the lead. Wow, it was insane.
Speaker 1: I love the national Oh coming to the club, Mike Keith,
Speaker 1: you've come into tricks on us. Stephen Koskowski has offered
Speaker 1: up the finest comeback story of this young season, from
Speaker 1: the utter embarrassment of Week one in Denver to the
Speaker 1: glory of Sunday six or six on field goals, including
Speaker 1: that fifty five yard glass never a doubt to cut
Speaker 1: through the Titans ahead for good in an eventual thirty
Speaker 1: one to thirty win over the still windless, still cornered,
Speaker 1: still limping Vikings. Oh you got you. I don't know.
Speaker 1: We got to invent. We have to invent a new game.
Speaker 1: Did you know who plays next week? The Vikings and
Speaker 1: the Texans? Is it the rare double road kill game.
Speaker 1: We're just like poking them with sticks. There's always one
Speaker 1: psycho kid in the neighborhood that would be like interested
Speaker 1: in the dead cat on the side of the road.
Speaker 1: That's who's gonna be interesting in that game? Is that
Speaker 1: you mark? Uh? No, I had friends, Um they got
Speaker 1: it a this thing which was really uh I didn't
Speaker 1: approve of, although I participated in first grade where you
Speaker 1: take a frog. We live near a pond. You take
Speaker 1: a frog and throw it up fifteen feet in the
Speaker 1: air and it would land on the cement and suffer
Speaker 1: um incredible bodily injuries. And I walked away from that
Speaker 1: contest after about a week of that thinking, this doesn't
Speaker 1: feel right in my heart, if that's what you're asking Greg.
Speaker 1: So what happened to the rest of your future serial
Speaker 1: killer friends? I don't know, unaccounted for, probably out on
Speaker 1: the run. Very concerning, all right, So yeah, no real deal, Gaskowsky.
Speaker 1: Good for you, man. It just shows you how with
Speaker 1: kickers it's having that resiliency and that it's like a
Speaker 1: good closer in baseball Wes. You know you need you
Speaker 1: gotta be able to put the failure behind you, and
Speaker 1: the mental side of it is almost as important as
Speaker 1: what what the power in the leg, so good for him.
Speaker 1: And as for the Vikings, I think we all have
Speaker 1: teams that were wrong about that we feel strongly about
Speaker 1: in late August and Earli member. For me, it's the Vikings.
Speaker 1: I thought they were just I thought they were gonna
Speaker 1: be a solid team. I didn't think they were super
Speaker 1: Bowl team, but I thought they were a team that
Speaker 1: was gonna be in the mix and uh taking a
Speaker 1: playoff spot. But that's hard to make a case for.
Speaker 1: And it goes back to their defense. Four and forty
Speaker 1: six yards allowed today. I mean, you wasted. These are
Speaker 1: the two things you wasted. Dalvin cook career best running
Speaker 1: day a hundred and eighty six yards in a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson I talked about it last week that one
Speaker 1: of the problems of the Vikings in the first two
Speaker 1: weeks was the offense looked like it had a quarterback
Speaker 1: that only trusted one guy, Adam Feeling. Well, here's Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 1: The first round pick goes seven for one, seventy five
Speaker 1: and a touchdown, and you lose because you can't get
Speaker 1: a stop on defense for the for the life of you,
Speaker 1: and now you're owing three with two home losses. And
Speaker 1: it's just grim so that the Titans are three and oh. Conversely,
Speaker 1: and they have their three wins by a grand total
Speaker 1: of six points. So try to figure out where they
Speaker 1: placed in the packing or that's my job as power
Speaker 1: rankings guy. Uh so I have to figure that out
Speaker 1: later tonight. But they are three and oh and the
Speaker 1: Vikings are in a world of hurt at own three
Speaker 1: with a road kill game coming up. I'll take your
Speaker 1: closer kicker analogy one step further here Dan as a
Speaker 1: general role, both species tend to be overrated simply due
Speaker 1: to their usage. But the exception is that a lights
Speaker 1: out closer, just like justin Tucker, is invaluable, right, just
Speaker 1: invaluable exactly. I saw some of the quotes, and Guski
Speaker 1: might be their m v P. By the way, or
Speaker 1: at least Rabel's decision to keep him, uh is he
Speaker 1: was amazing last week. I mean last week too, but
Speaker 1: he was better from field goal range, but he had
Speaker 1: he had two tough field goals at the end of
Speaker 1: uh you know, the halfs and then and then today,
Speaker 1: or at least the decision to to keep him is amazing.
Speaker 1: Mike Zimmer, on the other hand, I think is losing
Speaker 1: his mind. I mean, he's not a guy who handles
Speaker 1: losing well. Um, he called their last drive that the
Speaker 1: tech since that I mean they got the ball back
Speaker 1: down one time and he called it chaos. And they
Speaker 1: asked Kirk Cousins about it, and he just said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what he's referring to. You'll have to
Speaker 1: ask Mike. So that that that's not great because they
Speaker 1: never even competed in that last drive. Zimber also, you
Speaker 1: know when they were kind of picking on his cornerbacks,
Speaker 1: he then threw his two safeties under the bus and
Speaker 1: saying they're biting on play action and giving up these
Speaker 1: big plays. They got the big names, but they're making
Speaker 1: big time mistakes. Talking about Anthony Harrison Harrison Smith. So
Speaker 1: it's like it's tough times right now. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Vikings last drive was four plays for negative fourteen yards
Speaker 1: with an interception. What is cloudy to Kirk Cousins about
Speaker 1: what was And I will say in the defensive Cousins,
Speaker 1: when you go back and watch it, I don't know
Speaker 1: what happened, but there was some type of agregious breakdown
Speaker 1: on the offensive line in that last possession because every
Speaker 1: he snapped the ball and he had three guys in
Speaker 1: his face. It felt like almost immediately. Um So could
Speaker 1: sometimes be on the quarterback to for a variety of reasons,
Speaker 1: but it was in all phases a total breakdowns. It's
Speaker 1: just there's no juice with this team right now. And
Speaker 1: and like I said, when you when you get that
Speaker 1: game from Cook, when you get Jefferson stepping up and
Speaker 1: you're oh and two and you're at home and you
Speaker 1: gotta leave. They had a twelve point lead in the
Speaker 1: third quarter. You gotta win that game, and you did it,
Speaker 1: and now you gotta pay the consequences. I enjoyed your
Speaker 1: tweets about Jefferson because various stute he does change everything
Speaker 1: with this offense. It's exactly what they needed. It's what
Speaker 1: they haven't had cousins, trusting receivers, other than feeling to
Speaker 1: even be open. Um That's exactly what this offense needed.
Speaker 1: Do you think, though, inside the building in Minnesota, that
Speaker 1: there are people thinking, we have got to think about
Speaker 1: the quarterback position. They just gave him a contract that
Speaker 1: kind of knoked under the radar, but they just gave
Speaker 1: him a second contract. I'm just wondering if they're what
Speaker 1: they're thinking to kill Cousins. Maybe a second contract was unnecessary,
Speaker 1: that was my vibe, because you could have had him
Speaker 1: as a lame duck hub and and explored your options.
Speaker 1: But this game was not. They had more yards in
Speaker 1: the first half this this game than they did in
Speaker 1: four quarters last week. And it seems like, especially if
Speaker 1: Jefferson is a guy who can put together multiple weeks
Speaker 1: their offense with Gary Kubiak there, I think they're going
Speaker 1: to be back on track. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's a solution on defense. So far it is you
Speaker 1: can't you can't just take Kevin Stefanski out of the
Speaker 1: building and think that you're gonna, you know, seamlessly roll
Speaker 1: into the next season as a playoff that mark, that's
Speaker 1: a fair question about Cousins in regret, because go back
Speaker 1: to that division championship week against the Packers when when
Speaker 1: they broke Cousins, and in what four or five games
Speaker 1: since then, they have gone like three full quarters without
Speaker 1: moving the offense at all. It's been downright dysfunctional, and
Speaker 1: you just don't see franchise quarterbacks go through games like that, right.
Speaker 1: He feels like someone that could be broken. That is
Speaker 1: sort of my concern about him versus other quarterbacks out there.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move up. Quarterbacks break all the time.
Speaker 1: This could be the last play of the football game.
Speaker 1: Single high safety, perfect on the back pedal, being pressured,
Speaker 1: throws underneath and it's caught the hook and ladder, but
Speaker 1: it's dropped. The balls Loosi the twenty. The Panthers fall
Speaker 1: on it, and Carolina is gonna win this football game,
Speaker 1: the first win or no flags, the first win of
Speaker 1: the Matt Rule era, and it comes almost three thousand
Speaker 1: miles away from home. But what a joyous flight home
Speaker 1: it will be for these brand new Panthers. Wake up mcmixon,
Speaker 1: who only now I realized sounds exactly like famed wrestling
Speaker 1: announcer Jim Ross, like I thought it was him. Carolina
Speaker 1: forced three turnovers, Joey slide kick, five field goals. Man,
Speaker 1: the Kickers have really answered after the closed door meeting
Speaker 1: at the Kickers Club, The last two weeks have been excellent,
Speaker 1: and the Panthers beat the Chargers sixteen, giving Matt rule.
Speaker 1: As we heard from the Jim Ross impostor, his first
Speaker 1: victory in the NFL mark the Panther's defense was a
Speaker 1: mess in the first two weeks. But a date with
Speaker 1: a rookie QB and Justin Herbert was a recipe for
Speaker 1: getting right, I guess, and I think that'd be the
Speaker 1: story of the game. I mean, we you could have
Speaker 1: looked at the Panthers defense and with evidence and logic
Speaker 1: said it was a bottom three defense in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and that may still prove to be true. But Derrick Brown,
Speaker 1: who had not really shown up a lot in the
Speaker 1: first two weeks, the first round pick, played well today.
Speaker 1: Brian Burns had a strip sack. Uh. You know, I
Speaker 1: just Justin Herbert. I still totally believe in this quarterback.
Speaker 1: He still does some things that just make you think
Speaker 1: they've got something here. But you know, I would imagine
Speaker 1: that the idea that he needs to come out and
Speaker 1: do what he did last week and just do it
Speaker 1: week after week. Um, it's a tall order. I Austin
Speaker 1: Nickeler played a really good game for a part of this,
Speaker 1: but they struggled, and you know, they're like, to me,
Speaker 1: they're just a team that, Um they're limited, They're just limited.
Speaker 1: I just I don't love their passing game at all. Um.
Speaker 1: I give the Panthers a lot of credit. I mean
Speaker 1: they this was their first win, by the way, he said,
Speaker 1: of the Matt rule era, their first win in three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty nine games days, So games would be notable,
Speaker 1: games would be notable. Um dates their London game was
Speaker 1: that the last win. It was November, I believe so.
Speaker 1: I think it would have been a little bit after that.
Speaker 1: But um, but Joey Sly your boy Dan um I
Speaker 1: he took your conversation to heart. He was five for
Speaker 1: five on field goals. He's in that. He's in that.
Speaker 1: You know, you've got your you know your butt ker
Speaker 1: and those guys up at the top. But creeping into that, well,
Speaker 1: I call him those guys. He's creeping into that next
Speaker 1: tier though. And yeah, sly Is, let me he's money
Speaker 1: on the practice squad now, so you better not slip up.
Speaker 1: You could almost hear it in the call though from mcmixon.
Speaker 1: I mean the story to me was the last two
Speaker 1: plays of the game. Number one, you have one on
Speaker 1: one Keenan Allen versus Trey Boston. You throw it up.
Speaker 1: Oh you like those odds. Trey Boston makes a play.
Speaker 1: The next play they had it. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: the play of the year. It was all set up.
Speaker 1: It was perfect. Ekeler scoring that touchdown. There's no one
Speaker 1: there on the edge Keenan Allen catches it. He he
Speaker 1: makes a bad pitch to Alan, but it was it
Speaker 1: was drawn up perfectly. No one was really on top
Speaker 1: of Allen. He sort of rushed the throw, you know,
Speaker 1: like and you know this is easy for us to
Speaker 1: say on the sideline, but it was exactly how you
Speaker 1: draw it up. No one was really right on top
Speaker 1: of Alan and all he has to do is complete
Speaker 1: the pitch to Ekeler. And we are talking about that
Speaker 1: play as one of the plays of the year. It
Speaker 1: I mean, it was right there. It is gonna be
Speaker 1: a brutal play to watch for them the next day.
Speaker 1: It right, It was that. It's also like that's how
Speaker 1: you're stuck having to try to win these games. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just they're not a dominant team that separates from
Speaker 1: anyone else on offense. Um. But but you know what,
Speaker 1: like to be here in week three with Herbert as
Speaker 1: the starter. Uh, I will see what happens with Tyrod
Speaker 1: Taylor and Anthony Lynn and the rest of it. But
Speaker 1: I would stick with just I just I really would
Speaker 1: Now that and I don't know the severity of the injury.
Speaker 1: Obviously unfortunate circumstances with a team doctor and the needle
Speaker 1: and the collapse alung. But you're coming off a loss
Speaker 1: now where Herbert didn't light it up. If if Ethany
Speaker 1: Lynn wanted to show Tyrod Taylor of the respect and
Speaker 1: maybe avoid a lawsuit, I don't know what he turned
Speaker 1: to him. The indefinite, the the injury, the way they
Speaker 1: talk about it, it it does not sound like something that
Speaker 1: he's gonna quickly recover from. All right, Well, let's move
Speaker 1: on more more cornered animal action. Here we go, thirty
Speaker 1: nine yard at tip hash mark left side, Lions trying
Speaker 1: to pick up the victory craters Ready you about to
Speaker 1: snap there it is spots to spot kick away and
Speaker 1: it is gone And the lion took one it, sir,
Speaker 1: the lion could gone to the desert and picked up
Speaker 1: victory number one. That's why you never corner a lion.
Speaker 1: Who corners a lion batman, you're gonna get those big
Speaker 1: old paws in the big old mouth and those angry eyes.
Speaker 1: Matt Bright Prators game winning field goal temper is true
Speaker 1: and the Lions beat the Cardinals. Was to snap an
Speaker 1: eleven game losing streak that dates back to last season.
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford put on a clinic on the final drive
Speaker 1: of the game Milk in the better part of five
Speaker 1: game minutes before that game winning boot right prator who
Speaker 1: wears an earring in one ear Greg the Lions. Everyone
Speaker 1: associated with the Lions, including Kevin Patrick, needed this one.
Speaker 1: They did. I mean, you don't you don't corner the lion.
Speaker 1: You said, you don't qunder a panther, those big cats.
Speaker 1: You don't corner him? Gonna do it? I shouldn't. I
Speaker 1: saw a lion at the Santa Barbara Zoo on Saturday.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't want to quarter that that guy. Definitely, he's
Speaker 1: gonna come out scratching Greg. Greg. He's in a zoo,
Speaker 1: so he's been cornered and beating a center. Actually, he
Speaker 1: was kind of just like she just kind of just
Speaker 1: chilling there. To be honest, it was. It was actually
Speaker 1: a little sick. Yeah, he was sitting there, but he
Speaker 1: was a beauty. Although all those zoologies come along the way,
Speaker 1: especially in their exhibits where they tried at least recreate
Speaker 1: the setting of their natural habitat compared to you go
Speaker 1: to the old l a zoo in Griffith Park, it
Speaker 1: basically looked like an insane asylum from the seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 1: You'd stick and it would just be like, my goodness,
Speaker 1: my own now at least there's no progress. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your coming along zoo diet tribe, but I mean zoos
Speaker 1: are still I would not call that a This was
Speaker 1: like a rescue. It was, you know, one of those
Speaker 1: they always say, well, we rescued him, otherwise he wouldn't.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, Matthew Stafford, he can survive in
Speaker 1: the wild. You you said it, Dan, and I thought
Speaker 1: he was. I thought he's been a erratic um through
Speaker 1: two and a half games. Really, this game too hasn't
Speaker 1: been quite what you would want. Missed a lot of
Speaker 1: throws in this game, you know, they they picked off
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray three times. They dropped the fourth pick. They
Speaker 1: had great field position that they didn't take advantage of Um.
Speaker 1: But on that drive it was like so calm, Every
Speaker 1: decision was right. He saw where the blitz was coming from.
Speaker 1: He had one of the prettiest throws of the year
Speaker 1: that would have put the Lions down at the one
Speaker 1: with just over two minutes left, called back by a
Speaker 1: holding penalty. I mean, this was an unbelievable throw to
Speaker 1: Marvin Hall, and you just figured, well, that's the Lions moment.
Speaker 1: You know, that was like they were gonna win the
Speaker 1: game and now they're gonna lose the game because of
Speaker 1: the Lions and Stafford who has you know, I think
Speaker 1: as many game winning comebacks in the fourth quarter is
Speaker 1: just about anyone. Just like showed you how it's done.
Speaker 1: They killed the clock nicely and they got out of
Speaker 1: there in a game that I was like, frankly surprised
Speaker 1: every time they got to stop it felt like a
Speaker 1: little bit of a miracle. Every time they stopped the
Speaker 1: Cardinal's offense. Wow. So that's where we are with the
Speaker 1: Lions defense right now, because we can expect with Kenny
Speaker 1: Golladay back that they might have a frisky offense. But
Speaker 1: the difference between these two teams and I don't think
Speaker 1: the Cardinals defense is very good either, but but the
Speaker 1: Lions defense is the worst unit in this matchup. I mean,
Speaker 1: J B. Collins made a pick Dron Harmon. Jamie Collins
Speaker 1: really forced to turnover. So he earned his big paycheck today.
Speaker 1: Dron Harmon, another former pat had to had to pick Murray.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he wasn't seeing the guys. That
Speaker 1: was Brady Quinn's guess because of Murray's hest I don't know,
Speaker 1: bad decisions. I don't know he made bad decisions. Um.
Speaker 1: Probably the worst decision he made was late in the
Speaker 1: game on a third and night. Again, I'm telling you
Speaker 1: that they had a hard time stopping the Cardinals temple
Speaker 1: when it looked good. It looked good, but it was
Speaker 1: just turnovers. They didn't punt till the fourth quarter. He
Speaker 1: had a third and nine where he has Isabella wide open,
Speaker 1: and instead he decides to throw its X the yards
Speaker 1: down the field. Double coverage goes incomplete, and and that's
Speaker 1: where Stafford goes and wins the game right after that.
Speaker 1: You know, some people uh tend to miss that. Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray is not the tallest quarterback, but because of the
Speaker 1: size of his helmet, which is truly gargantuan, he appears
Speaker 1: to be seven ft six, but when you take the
Speaker 1: oversized helmet off, he is only four ft seven. That
Speaker 1: is a fun fact for you guys struggling seven. I mean, man,
Speaker 1: he his good plays, they were so good I mean
Speaker 1: there's two touch that his rushing touchdown, the move he
Speaker 1: put on Okuda was just outrageous, and that the throw
Speaker 1: he had to Isabella for a touchdown was just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I mean, his his good plays are are just so good.
Speaker 1: They just make you believe everything is possible. But they
Speaker 1: they're they're not quite there. I don't think they're passing game.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's been any better this year than
Speaker 1: it has a year ago with DeAndre so far, I
Speaker 1: would say it's worse. They've relied on him scrambling, and
Speaker 1: Hopkins has had another monster game has over three hundred
Speaker 1: fifty yards, but no one else um is above a
Speaker 1: hundred or maybe Isabella just went over it. So they're
Speaker 1: they're just a little, a little uneven. I actually thought
Speaker 1: they looked like the Cardinals I expected, except for the
Speaker 1: turnovers today. But that's a big except. But no one
Speaker 1: had more than forty seven yards outside of Hopkins. But
Speaker 1: so the Hopkins things is working. It's working out. But
Speaker 1: you're suggesting that maybe he's that's too much attention. No, no,
Speaker 1: just that they're passing game as a unit has not
Speaker 1: been better this year. I don't think his Papkins's been better.
Speaker 1: I think it'll get better, but that's not the reason
Speaker 1: why they've been winning these games, at least the first two.
Speaker 1: I was thinking it was going to be the ewing
Speaker 1: theory in Houston, but it hasn't been that way so far.
Speaker 1: He's been phenomenal as a scrambler, like Lamar Jackson, good
Speaker 1: as a scrambler. But please stop talking about Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: and m VP candidate in the same sentence. It's September.
Speaker 1: Onet of all, and second of all, he hasn't He
Speaker 1: hasn't passed well at all. The three picks, so we'll
Speaker 1: help you out there, plus Russell Wilson's in the league.
Speaker 1: Um Eddie Isabella, by the way, was the pick, the
Speaker 1: Josh Rosen trade pick, and he has gotten off to
Speaker 1: a bit of a slow start, the former second round
Speaker 1: pick by two touchdowns in this game. Uh so that
Speaker 1: is that's a positive on the non DeAndre Hopkins beat.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on. Good job Patra running back
Speaker 1: is Rojoe Ronald Jones tied into motion, Brady will Thaw
Speaker 1: a fade route near side like cowd Ball. Mike Evans
Speaker 1: touchdown Tampa Bay Bucceteers get two catches on the end
Speaker 1: zone from Big Mike Evans fifty two career touchdowns, and
Speaker 1: the Bucketeers lead twenty three to three. James Dacker half
Speaker 1: w f us with a call. Tom Brady threw three
Speaker 1: touchdown passes, including a pair to the eternally overlooked and
Speaker 1: underrated Mike Evans in my opinion anyway, and Shack Barrett
Speaker 1: celebrated his return to Denver with two sacks, including a safety.
Speaker 1: Sorry mark the buck win over the windless, hapless Denver Brons.
Speaker 1: So you can corner a Bronco because the beast is
Speaker 1: so large that it it. Putting it in a corner
Speaker 1: essentially paralyzes it. It can't move. Hm. And if you
Speaker 1: ever get nervous, Ricky, what do you do? You try
Speaker 1: and get Yeah, not a cruel teeth to animals here.
Speaker 1: West West Tampa Bay's defense against UH Jeff driscoll felt
Speaker 1: like a mismatch. Apparently that was the case. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I fully expect everyone to keep talking about the Bucks
Speaker 1: offense because of the names involved. But to me, the
Speaker 1: more fun unit to watch and the better unit is
Speaker 1: the defense, which for the second week in a row,
Speaker 1: basically had a feeding frenzy at the expense of the
Speaker 1: quarterback turnovers. Galore sacks. Um Blitz is from Todd Bowls,
Speaker 1: which Greg always loves. He's lavante David one interception almost
Speaker 1: had another UM Devin White turning into a great linebacker
Speaker 1: there in the middle. This is this is a really
Speaker 1: good defense. And in the offense you can tell they
Speaker 1: came out trying to get Grounk involved. I think he
Speaker 1: had like six first half targets in this game. M
Speaker 1: h still moved the ball. This was not a game
Speaker 1: in any way. Well, I think that was like his
Speaker 1: you know it is. That's my that's the feed me call,
Speaker 1: like you guys are gonna I'm gonna act like I
Speaker 1: enjoy blocking. But still a few passes coming my way.
Speaker 1: It would be nice. He's got to go on to
Speaker 1: his Instagram and scrub all mentions to his team. That's
Speaker 1: how I should have had a t D too, But
Speaker 1: Brady overthrew him in the corner of the end zone. UM,
Speaker 1: one of the few mistakes Brady had. Brady had a
Speaker 1: pretty good, pretty good day passing the ball. Well, I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask you us, like, where are we with
Speaker 1: Tom Brady? Three weeks and where do you I know, Larry,
Speaker 1: where is he in your QB index? Where is he
Speaker 1: in your QB overall world? He was fifteen going into this. Um,
Speaker 1: he will climb a few spots based on what other
Speaker 1: people did and what he did. Um. I don't see
Speaker 1: him as a big issue like the way I see
Speaker 1: Drew Brees. Physical limitations are an issue. I don't think
Speaker 1: Brady moves as well in the pocket as he used to,
Speaker 1: but he's shown that he's making the throws. Throws are
Speaker 1: not a problem. If I know Wes, I know UM.
Speaker 1: I feel like you probably like a little Antoine Winfield Jr.
Speaker 1: They do have some defensive backs that Bowls really knows
Speaker 1: how to use. Winfield Jr. And then Murphy Bunting when
Speaker 1: he's healthy. Carlton Davis is playing well. It's like no
Speaker 1: one knows these guys, but I think I think they
Speaker 1: will know them eventually, because I'm with you, it's early,
Speaker 1: but they look like one of the very best defenses
Speaker 1: in the league. The funny thing about the Bowls ass,
Speaker 1: what Greg is that you got on a little prematurely, um,
Speaker 1: but now riskiness. It's the aggressiveness blitz for you. You
Speaker 1: were like a guy that like showed up at the
Speaker 1: movie theater seven hours before Bad Boys three or something,
Speaker 1: thinking that you would need to do that and to
Speaker 1: get in. But it wasn't the case at all, So
Speaker 1: you had a front center seat. Um, but like, ultimately
Speaker 1: thank you, I mean the talent and the aggressiveness. He
Speaker 1: caused a fun game. I know it was to talking
Speaker 1: about at least, like if you're gonna just be on defense,
Speaker 1: make it fun, you know, blitz like freaking crazy. Oh
Speaker 1: you got Vita Vea eating like cushion berries, launch, you
Speaker 1: got j Jpp making no offense look like a chump.
Speaker 1: It's bucks defenses everywhere. Do you think that Rippian, the
Speaker 1: nephew of Mark Rippyan, will take this starting job away
Speaker 1: for good? Is it a ripping? Is it rip Rippian?
Speaker 1: He Ripping came into playing garbage time. Um, you can't
Speaker 1: really it's that as much it was deep garbage time.
Speaker 1: There wasn't much of a pass rush. He got throws
Speaker 1: out early, but they were like four and five yards
Speaker 1: at a time. It's really hard to tell. Um. My
Speaker 1: my sense was they figured drisc wasn't moving the ball
Speaker 1: and he's getting killed. He's getting hit Like every series
Speaker 1: let's just get some data on this other guy and
Speaker 1: help us make a choice next week. But I don't
Speaker 1: think Ripping is like some high upside guy fam a
Speaker 1: super Bowl champion, Mark Rippion. I have always said Rippion.
Speaker 1: But I also like take that New York Times um
Speaker 1: survey they do about certain words and how you pronounced them,
Speaker 1: and realize that of America does not say words that
Speaker 1: I sit the way. But there is like a right
Speaker 1: or wrong way to say a last name, So it's
Speaker 1: not like it's in specialized in getting some of those
Speaker 1: way off. Philosophical Like Brett Farr pronounces his name incorrectly,
Speaker 1: But who are you to tell to him that? Thank you?
Speaker 1: Tyrod Taylor. He doesn't even know how to pronounce his name.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's move on. Fakefield under center. The ball
Speaker 1: chups it out to the left. He's getting led by
Speaker 1: Wyatt Teller. He's top down. Nick Chop, He's done it again.
Speaker 1: He is amazing. Jim Donovan, Doug Deacon. You just haven't
Speaker 1: heard those names a lot on this program. W k
Speaker 1: r K with the call. Baker Mayfield through two touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Nick Chubb ran for a couple more. The Browns over
Speaker 1: the Washington football team playing without Marquie Beyond. The Browns
Speaker 1: are over five for the first time since That's crazy, um,
Speaker 1: Mark watching this game from afar, you see the ticker
Speaker 1: telling you Washington is up in the fourth quarter. I
Speaker 1: guess things changed under hurry huh Yeah. And to your point,
Speaker 1: an incredible um and incredibly depressing stat for the city
Speaker 1: of Cleveland was produced early in this game. That had
Speaker 1: been eighty four straight game that the Browns had been
Speaker 1: at five hundred or below five hundred. That is years. Okay,
Speaker 1: that is years. Uh that is that tells you a
Speaker 1: lot about my mood that in dealing with many of you, UM,
Speaker 1: over the course of half a decade. I it's not
Speaker 1: an excuse, it's not a fair excuse. They're better players
Speaker 1: are playing well right now. Miles Garrett's two straight weeks
Speaker 1: with a strip sack. UM in a pivotal moment. Nick Chubb,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm not trying to like look at
Speaker 1: Nick Chubb differently than I would other running backs. I
Speaker 1: just love the way that he that he operates. He's
Speaker 1: just fun to watch. He is a punisher. Um. They
Speaker 1: are lucky to have basically, UM lwered in Kareem Hunt
Speaker 1: and then resigned him I think at a very very
Speaker 1: incredibly like um affordable market value and have what I
Speaker 1: think is the best backfield in the NFL and Mayfield
Speaker 1: two games in a row. Um, it wasn't the Bengals game.
Speaker 1: They were not perfect, but Odell and Odell and Mayfield
Speaker 1: had a connection again in this game. And to me,
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield played another clean game with it with with
Speaker 1: a with announce of confidence that I think was missing
Speaker 1: last year. And I think the difference is and it's
Speaker 1: not to pile on the Freddy Kitchens business, but they
Speaker 1: just seem to go into the last couple of games Baltimore,
Speaker 1: I think you just dealt with a super Bowl type team.
Speaker 1: But the last two games they just seem to be
Speaker 1: more organized on offense to have a plan and to
Speaker 1: execute it um, which is a really unusual thing for
Speaker 1: the Browns. And when you look at Washington, UM, Dwayne
Speaker 1: Haskins had three interceptions in this game and they were killer.
Speaker 1: You know, he just there isn't I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: seeing a lot from Dwayne Haskins that points to me
Speaker 1: and says if there's any way that Washington has a
Speaker 1: chance to draft one of these quarterbacks early um next April,
Speaker 1: that that that, and nothing would stop them from doing it.
Speaker 1: It's not He's not in a great situation. He's in
Speaker 1: a talent poor offense UM with a new regime. But
Speaker 1: there's just not much there that I'm seeing and Cleveland,
Speaker 1: you know, are learning how to win. I don't know
Speaker 1: what to take away from this. I think that there
Speaker 1: are a team that is beating up on lesser competition
Speaker 1: and we'll see what they do when they face a
Speaker 1: real team. They played they played Dallas next week. That
Speaker 1: will be more of an acid test. In terms of
Speaker 1: their defense, which Cleveland's defense is concerning there are problems,
Speaker 1: they're they're banged up, but they're also just not a
Speaker 1: very good defense. What's really jumped out to me compared
Speaker 1: to last year is their offensive line and a guy
Speaker 1: like Wyatt Teller, who they picked up for peanuts before
Speaker 1: last season, and the offensive line gurus on Twitter are
Speaker 1: are writing him up every week talking about how improved
Speaker 1: he is. And he's one of the better guards in
Speaker 1: the NFL now, and you throw in one of the
Speaker 1: better centers, Joel Patonio. That is one of the best
Speaker 1: interior offensive lines in the NFL. There's no reason this
Speaker 1: team should not run every single week on defenses. And
Speaker 1: if you can run, then there's no reason why Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield can't do play action fakes every week too, right,
Speaker 1: They only seem to lose their way there. They had
Speaker 1: a hideous third order. If you go back and watch
Speaker 1: this game, they got away from what they're good at.
Speaker 1: Just run the ball sixty times a game and see
Speaker 1: where it gets you. Well, that's not that's not enough
Speaker 1: to go as far as they want. It makes sense
Speaker 1: when you're going against Washington. I'm with you though. On
Speaker 1: the offensive line, I mean, and I was wondering if
Speaker 1: I've seen things that check PF. They basically have the
Speaker 1: best offensive line in football through PF scrading through two
Speaker 1: weeks in terms of the combined run blocking and pass blocking,
Speaker 1: especially run blocking, but even pass blocking, they were third.
Speaker 1: I mean, Baker Mayfield, in your right, they gotta play
Speaker 1: better competition. Although Washington's defense is fine, he's in a
Speaker 1: he is in a great situation, and I'm I'm eager
Speaker 1: to see, as you say, Mark, as they kind of
Speaker 1: step up in competition the next few weeks. You assume
Speaker 1: they're gonna continue to do well on offense based on
Speaker 1: what we're seeing from Dallas's defense. But yeah, this once
Speaker 1: we gotta jump up. This is a nice little pocket
Speaker 1: for them. Cincinnati, Washington. Uh. There, that's gonna be Uh,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a hotly. Listen, Mark, I don't know
Speaker 1: where you draft next Thursday, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: are if we want to watch that Cowboys Brown's game.
Speaker 1: I don't know where your pick is. What you think
Speaker 1: that one of you are going to be able to
Speaker 1: wrestle that game away from me. That's not how this works.
Speaker 1: Even if you pull that off on NFL network or
Speaker 1: wherever whatever you know platform you attempt to pull that
Speaker 1: off on, we will have back water talks that removed
Speaker 1: that game from you. In a minute. I'm planning. I'm
Speaker 1: planning CNN is where I planned to swipe the brand's Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I have another guest spot on CNN on Tuesday night,
Speaker 1: by the way, so please um tune in at seven
Speaker 1: pm Eastern. By the way, Chase Young, we you know,
Speaker 1: all amped up about the Washington UH front four um
Speaker 1: after week one he left this game in the first
Speaker 1: half of the groin issue he did that affected them.
Speaker 1: They were never the same they. I really think that
Speaker 1: Chase Young is such a difference maker on that defense
Speaker 1: when he went out, and I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1: They were never the same Montest sweat though that guy
Speaker 1: had one of the better guy I don't feel like
Speaker 1: he been on my radar much um during his career,
Speaker 1: had one of the better games I've seen. He looks
Speaker 1: better this year. I mean, if you if you win
Speaker 1: the turnover battle five zero against Washington, you better went
Speaker 1: by all right. Let's let's move on to bleaker affairs.
Speaker 1: Sets up throws right side and pick for the cults.
Speaker 1: The cults are running the other way with it. D
Speaker 1: J carry carry six two of them all day down
Speaker 1: Why pick seven? Day the Matt Taylor, Rick Venturi, w
Speaker 1: F and I with the call. Sam Donald through three interceptions,
Speaker 1: including a pair of picks sixes, and the Colts coast
Speaker 1: to a thirty six to seven win. They improved the
Speaker 1: two and one on the young season. Philip rivers seventeen
Speaker 1: seventeen yards his first turnover free games since joining Indie.
Speaker 1: He's also now and I know this doesn't matter on
Speaker 1: this podcast, but it matters to me, damn it. He
Speaker 1: becomes the six player in league history a throw for
Speaker 1: four career touchdown passes and he's now over sixty thousand yards.
Speaker 1: The fact that they were even debating on the telecast
Speaker 1: on CBS whether he was a Hall of Famer for
Speaker 1: all his failures to win the Big One and get
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I just think he's been one
Speaker 1: of the best pastors of his generation that should get
Speaker 1: a gold jacket. Um. You know, the Jets actually moved
Speaker 1: the ball well against and do you enter this week
Speaker 1: with the top ranked defense in the first half, but
Speaker 1: the wheels fell off and um, and things just kept
Speaker 1: getting worse. Donald look bad on the He made some
Speaker 1: nice plays, as he does every week where he looks good,
Speaker 1: and then he makes some bad decisions. And it seems
Speaker 1: like when he makes a bad decisions a bad decision,
Speaker 1: he pays for it. And the Colts secondary was all
Speaker 1: over him when he put balls up for grabs and
Speaker 1: made him pay dearly. And as if it couldn't get worse,
Speaker 1: McKay Beckton, who has been really the only shining star
Speaker 1: uh for the Jets and what's quickly becoming what looks
Speaker 1: to be a one in fifteen type season, and they
Speaker 1: might be lucky there he leaves with a shoulder injury,
Speaker 1: and he never want to hear a giant tackle having
Speaker 1: a shoulder issue because those things tend to be issues.
Speaker 1: So the Jets are the worst team in football. The
Speaker 1: Colts took care of business as they should. There's not
Speaker 1: much to take out of Jets games right now. You know,
Speaker 1: the Jets are terrible. You know they're gonna fire their
Speaker 1: coach um, But I mean more from the perspective of
Speaker 1: the team that's playing them. Like I didn't learn really
Speaker 1: much from the forty Niners last week. I didn't learn
Speaker 1: anything from the Cults this week. Although they could bully
Speaker 1: a team that's um really would be relegated if the
Speaker 1: league was structured a different way. But nice job by
Speaker 1: the Cults. Got the W and stayed healthy and they
Speaker 1: move forward. Cults are in a weird spot after these
Speaker 1: two games against the Vikings where the bike I mean
Speaker 1: Vikings are a better team, but just the way that
Speaker 1: game played out. They've had a strange season. That Colts
Speaker 1: dominated Week one against the Jaguars, you know, but they
Speaker 1: found a way to lose. They've played Bay you know,
Speaker 1: three of the worst teams in the league. Certainly three
Speaker 1: of the worst defenses. Um, the way they're playing, it
Speaker 1: almost feels like their season hasn't started. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I'm still not exactly sure what's up with the Colts.
Speaker 1: But that's fine that you're two and one, that they're
Speaker 1: my super Bowl pick, so that when when that happens, Dan,
Speaker 1: then Philip Rivers will be an obvious skull jacket guy.
Speaker 1: What you need You think they need to he needs
Speaker 1: to win a Super Bowl? Well, I don't know, but
Speaker 1: when he does, because I would do it, it's so
Speaker 1: that would do it. I don't think so. I think
Speaker 1: it's a Hall of Famer. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who hold his many many seasons of high turnovers
Speaker 1: against him. Sure, sir, I mean, I mean who do
Speaker 1: the Jet The Jets top three receivers today were Brack's Barrios,
Speaker 1: Kalen Ballage, and Lawrence Cager. Yeah, there was a there
Speaker 1: was an epically bitter that last guy. I had to
Speaker 1: I had to google this first. These are guys being
Speaker 1: pulled off the practice squad. There was an epically bitter
Speaker 1: Jeck's Jets text thread that I was on with my
Speaker 1: uncle Stu Keith, my brother, a couple of my cousins
Speaker 1: and talking about all right, what are we gonna do
Speaker 1: with the Jets? What are we gonna do with Donald?
Speaker 1: And first of all, Donald can't have too many more
Speaker 1: of these type of games because whether it's his fault
Speaker 1: or not, if if things implode and they do go
Speaker 1: one in fifteen and he fins finishes with twenty five
Speaker 1: interceptions and four pick six is or something, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: gonna get the one pick and they're gonna feel like,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's just reset this thing with Trevor
Speaker 1: Lawrence and or whomever it is. UM. But the bigger
Speaker 1: of the broader picture with the Jets, UM is that
Speaker 1: they have so monumentally butcher these last three years that
Speaker 1: coincided with Donald being drafted. They they have so undermined
Speaker 1: themselves from an organizational standpoint that there is no way
Speaker 1: to accurately judge if Donald is good, bad, great, or terrible.
Speaker 1: So it's a on ownership to me said that the
Speaker 1: whole time there's been you know, to me, it's it's
Speaker 1: a hundred percent on ownership. The way that they fired mcagnet,
Speaker 1: the way you know, the just the sequence of events,
Speaker 1: how they decided to hire and fire and the decision
Speaker 1: they made, you know, by hiring gays. This is systemic
Speaker 1: and it's ugly as it is, as it could be
Speaker 1: a West. That's why your tweets about Donald lately make
Speaker 1: me really sad, because you want so well, you want
Speaker 1: so much to believe that he's not the problem. He
Speaker 1: is fixable. And I think it's sad because he's impossible
Speaker 1: to evaluate. Three years into his career. You don't know
Speaker 1: what he is because everything Adam Gates was hired to
Speaker 1: develop and make sure isn't ruined is going ruined. Right,
Speaker 1: And this may work out for Sam Donald because he
Speaker 1: could get traded for a second or third round pick
Speaker 1: in a role to a better organization that has more
Speaker 1: around him, and he could and Jeff fans don't want
Speaker 1: this to happen, but he can end up having a
Speaker 1: successful career elsewhere. Uh And that will all be fine
Speaker 1: if it goes Kyler Murray for the Jets with Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 1: But you know what it feels like if you're a
Speaker 1: Jets fan. It feels like you're just gonna hit reset
Speaker 1: and you're gonna take out the dirty laundry and then
Speaker 1: welcome in uh new future victims of your organization, right,
Speaker 1: because the other yeah, like the other half to like right,
Speaker 1: we all have a Chilly Smith ends up replacing David
Speaker 1: Klingler and it's you know, the same routine all over again. Right.
Speaker 1: The other half of Kyler Murray is Cliff Kingsbury, who
Speaker 1: had who had a total conviction on what he wanted
Speaker 1: to have a new coach, and they'll have a new
Speaker 1: coach and games to go thirteen games ago. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of tape and and Darnald is in a tough situation,
Speaker 1: but I I do think there's a way for him
Speaker 1: to show um what a talented player he is. Thirteen
Speaker 1: games is a long time here, and you're right, he
Speaker 1: his job and that's the only thing left for this
Speaker 1: season is he needs to convince the powers that be,
Speaker 1: Joe Douglas specifically that he is the guy that the
Speaker 1: rebuilt should continue around. So far it's inconclusive at best.
Speaker 1: Let's move up. Here's a end around. Do I yoke
Speaker 1: with us? Check out to block and also Garland Girland
Speaker 1: a big time block touchdown San fran Cisco, Brandy a
Speaker 1: US first in the NFL. Get that rookie the rock
Speaker 1: and it's not even a reception Gregg Popa and Tim
Speaker 1: Ryan all so it's a fired up about Brandon Aiyuk
Speaker 1: first round pick. He let the Niners at all receiving
Speaker 1: categories and scored on the ground and back up Nick
Speaker 1: Mullins through forty three yards and to touch the Niners
Speaker 1: control action in all phases. Thirty six nine win at
Speaker 1: MetLife Stadium over the Giants. Greg this East Coast vacation, uh,
Speaker 1: embarrassing the Jets then the Giants. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of family trips. Some bad things happened, sure,
Speaker 1: but a lot of good memories, good great memories. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm so impressed with Kyle Shanahan, your boy, Mike mark
Speaker 1: Um when you make the case that he's like the
Speaker 1: best coach in the league. I mean, show these last
Speaker 1: two weeks. There's this game reminded me of that Bear Bryant,
Speaker 1: I mean that bum Phillips quote that West likes to
Speaker 1: bring up every once in a while, and it was
Speaker 1: about Bear Bryant. But the quote was he can take
Speaker 1: his and beat Urine, and then he can take turn
Speaker 1: around and take Urine and beat his and and I
Speaker 1: and I, of course I believe that you give him,
Speaker 1: you give him the Giants raster, he would have smacked
Speaker 1: this forty nine ers team around just like he did.
Speaker 1: And some people and I mentioned, going, well, they haven't
Speaker 1: played a real team. Give me a friend, give me
Speaker 1: a break with that. He's playing with like twelve or
Speaker 1: thirteen backups. He's got Nick Mollins at quarterback looking great,
Speaker 1: but you know, looking good by the way, making some
Speaker 1: good plays against pressure. His entire defensive line is totally
Speaker 1: wiped out. So you gotta give credit to Robert salah Um.
Speaker 1: They dominated on defense too. They didn't you know, they
Speaker 1: scored every possession today. They scored every possession they the
Speaker 1: Giants did not get a single stop. And if they
Speaker 1: make the playoffs, the forty niners, that is I think
Speaker 1: you look back at these two weeks, maybe what comes
Speaker 1: up against Miami and Philadelphia too, and it's like managing
Speaker 1: the schedule because a lot of these players will come back.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna survive forever this way. But I think
Speaker 1: that's impressive to to to embarrassed, to blow out actual
Speaker 1: NFL teams on the road with this array of injuries
Speaker 1: is something something your boy, Mark, I I am a
Speaker 1: huge Kyle Shanahan person I always will be. I don't
Speaker 1: need to go deeper into that, but he finds a way,
Speaker 1: no matter whose quarterback is, to get production. Nick Mullins
Speaker 1: three yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. They let
Speaker 1: him throw the ball thirty six times. I mean these
Speaker 1: New York teams, but the New York teams are not
Speaker 1: even really NFL. I get it. But okay, steel they
Speaker 1: played the Steelers way tough for you know the Bill.
Speaker 1: The Jets played the Bills way tougher. It's like the
Speaker 1: Giants were in the game last week like they're a
Speaker 1: professional team. The forty Niners scored every possession. I mean,
Speaker 1: all these quarterbacks that are like in year four or
Speaker 1: five or like, when will they ever show us who
Speaker 1: they are? I mean we could. There's eight of those
Speaker 1: guys incomes, Nick Mullins, Kyle Shanahan, unleashus and for thirty
Speaker 1: six passes, sit unseen bang. I mean they dominate. They
Speaker 1: dominated the Giants. I mean, what a what a what
Speaker 1: a statement against the Giants secondary that Charlotte and Shanahan
Speaker 1: looked at the tape all week and was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can attack these guys with our backup quarterback and
Speaker 1: all our wide receivers heard it doesn't matter and George
Speaker 1: Kittle out they just I mean, they're better, coach, They're better.
Speaker 1: Where are we on the Giants? The last Joe Josh
Speaker 1: Jordan read today I thought was a big right on
Speaker 1: the Jordan injury is right on cue. But the Jason
Speaker 1: always say a week two is it time for Jason
Speaker 1: Garrett to start getting some heat? Greggy, you want to
Speaker 1: take a victory because the Giants offense, isn't it Well?
Speaker 1: The line, the line is no better. They're right back
Speaker 1: to where they were. The lines been terrible the Giants
Speaker 1: the forty night. That was what got me. I expec
Speaker 1: you know, not shocked that Shanahan came up with some
Speaker 1: good plays. There were open receivers. I mean, Mullins made
Speaker 1: a lot of plays against pressure to The Giants had
Speaker 1: more pass rushing in this game, um than the forty
Speaker 1: Niners probably did. But yeah, I don't know, They're just
Speaker 1: they they were the worst rushing team in the league
Speaker 1: with Sae Kwon Barkley, so yeah, they had seventeen yards
Speaker 1: rushing on ten carry. Said there was a couple of
Speaker 1: flukey plays. Early Jones has a bad pitch. He has
Speaker 1: a terrible interception which wasn't flukey to end the first half,
Speaker 1: and that just felt like I felt like curtains. But
Speaker 1: when your defense doesn't get a single stop all day
Speaker 1: against Brandon Ayuk who had over a hundred yards, you know,
Speaker 1: looking good? Um, I mean that's on them. That's pathetic.
Speaker 1: All right, before we move on to our next game,
Speaker 1: it's time for the handoff. Unless Wes you want to
Speaker 1: stick around your call, we need to take it from here.
Speaker 1: All right, Nick Shook fresh from the gym, it's like
Speaker 1: he's expected to explode out of that Nike shirt. West,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. We'll see you later in
Speaker 1: the week. Chock, looks like the Rock about to endorse
Speaker 1: alrights later minute. All right, Chock, welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Flagship Show. It's the start of a beautiful tradition. We
Speaker 1: had two games on the schedule with you and Sunday
Speaker 1: Night Football. Ready to dig in, buddy, Yeah, absolutely, even
Speaker 1: though these games were less than ideal. Alright, well we'll
Speaker 1: knock him out here we go. No, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a fourth and seven personal The outcome was gonna do
Speaker 1: and this is going to be a fifty nine yard
Speaker 1: field goal attempt for j Kelly. Well, we've been here before.
Speaker 1: We've been here before. Here it is no penalty. Flag
Speaker 1: flow enough. Oh, don't tell me the Eagles are gonna
Speaker 1: I think there was movement by the Eagles, oh on
Speaker 1: a field goal to win it a five yard penalty.
Speaker 1: I that's inexplicable. How they can't line up for a
Speaker 1: field goal. That's what they did. They backed Jake Elliott
Speaker 1: out of a fifty nine yard attempt. It's oh, Nick,
Speaker 1: Nick's getting this treatment in each week. It's not just
Speaker 1: that you disappointed merl Reie. I mean it disappointed the
Speaker 1: whole city Eagles. Jake Elliott lined up for a fifty
Speaker 1: nine yard field goal nineteen seconds left in overtime, false
Speaker 1: start on Matt Pryor force the Eagles to punt it away,
Speaker 1: punted for the tie. That's how it ended. Three kiss
Speaker 1: your sister. Everybody loses shook. The saddest thing is the
Speaker 1: Eagles needed a mini miracle just to get to this.
Speaker 1: What a disaster the Eagles have been. Yeah, I told
Speaker 1: Erica to choose that call because no moment in the
Speaker 1: game captured how bad of a game. It was more
Speaker 1: than that, you know, you're already lining up for an
Speaker 1: improbable field goal, not impossible, but improbable, and then you
Speaker 1: immediately commit another error that then puts you out of
Speaker 1: field goal range, forces your coach to punt so that
Speaker 1: you can avoid perhaps turning the ball over near midfield
Speaker 1: and giving the Bengals a chance and then going forward
Speaker 1: from there. I mean it was Carson Wentz was asleep
Speaker 1: at the wheel for the majority of the day. He
Speaker 1: still looked pretty bad except for that last drive that
Speaker 1: tied the game. It's almost like he woke up and
Speaker 1: was like, hey, oh, I gotta go seventy five yards
Speaker 1: here and under four minutes to tie the game. I
Speaker 1: could do this, and he did it just fine, and
Speaker 1: and it kind of illustrated that the Eagles still have
Speaker 1: some talent ability to do things. They just haven't done
Speaker 1: it consistently. And they couldn't do it in overtime, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, capped off by that false start penalty and
Speaker 1: just an ugly way. No tie has every but this
Speaker 1: is an ugly tie. I mean, they punted three times
Speaker 1: in overtime. It's not like you didn't have a ball before.
Speaker 1: Like I think you could criticize Peterson for not going
Speaker 1: for it on fourth and twelve because there's only nineteen
Speaker 1: seconds left that the play that play itself is gonna
Speaker 1: take six or seven seconds, you know, but you understand
Speaker 1: it because their offense is the worst in the league
Speaker 1: in terms of yards for play entering this game, and
Speaker 1: their yards will play against the Bengals defense actually went
Speaker 1: down and they got the ball at the forty five
Speaker 1: at at you know, at their own forty five with
Speaker 1: whatever it was a couple of minutes left, They only
Speaker 1: needed twenty yards to go kick a field goal with
Speaker 1: seconds twelve. There was nineteen left, you know when they
Speaker 1: snapped it for the for the punt, So you know
Speaker 1: it would have you know, you do the fourth and twelve,
Speaker 1: that takes another five or six seconds at least off
Speaker 1: the clock there there would have only been about twelve
Speaker 1: for the Bengals. They would have been at the four.
Speaker 1: Could do you could have done a hook and ladder
Speaker 1: type thing that runs out the clock. You can done
Speaker 1: a hail Mary that's gonna take ten seconds off the
Speaker 1: clock and maybe you get a penalty or a catch
Speaker 1: and kick a field goal and win the game. He
Speaker 1: had no faith that there was any chance they could
Speaker 1: do that. And Nick, it sounds like there's there's reason
Speaker 1: they had no faith in Yeah, if you saw the
Speaker 1: three place prior they were crawling, I mean they basically said,
Speaker 1: you know what, Okay, we're gonna try and just get
Speaker 1: a yard here, a yard the next play and then
Speaker 1: we'll just like there's the target line overlay on the field.
Speaker 1: They were inching towards the target line in the final
Speaker 1: minute and a half that they couldn't get ten yards,
Speaker 1: get a first down and get closer. It was they were.
Speaker 1: They were playing not to lose in a tie game
Speaker 1: against the Bengals, against the surrender index, that's what it's called.
Speaker 1: I do find it. I do find it delightful that
Speaker 1: these two teams tied. Um. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: anniversary would be. But back when Donovan McNabb this happened
Speaker 1: with the Eagles against the Bengals, and McNabb had admitted
Speaker 1: after the game that he had no concept of the
Speaker 1: overtime rules to begin with. I would ask you this, though, Nick,
Speaker 1: how did what did you see from Joe Burrow? Because
Speaker 1: the pressure that he is under, and I think he
Speaker 1: was he's been pressured forty two times in the last
Speaker 1: two weeks eight sacks today, like it. That was the
Speaker 1: huge question about his ability to you know, progress as
Speaker 1: a quarterback behind a terrible offensive line. They need to
Speaker 1: start hiring, like just to look, just find some large
Speaker 1: men in the Cincinnati area that are nimble and can move.
Speaker 1: I just I worry about him staying like staying safe
Speaker 1: in that situation. Yeah, well so I was concerned last
Speaker 1: week being at TNF and watching him drop back over
Speaker 1: and over and over again. He saw the amount of
Speaker 1: passes that he threw it. You were loving it. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: I mean it's down the rock. You were like one
Speaker 1: of the sixteen people there. That's pretty good. But uh,
Speaker 1: I mean that the many times that he dropped back
Speaker 1: in that game, I understood because they needed to push
Speaker 1: the ball down the field to try to keep pace
Speaker 1: in the Browns offense. That wasn't the case today, and
Speaker 1: he still had forty four attempts. I know overtime was included,
Speaker 1: fifty two total drop backs today, the eight sacks, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, mark the forty two pressures and the last
Speaker 1: two weeks split evenly, twenty one today twenty one last week.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna have a quarterback that you spend the
Speaker 1: number one pick on and you base your franchise around
Speaker 1: you have to invest in protecting him better to understand
Speaker 1: that's not all done in one off season. But how
Speaker 1: about limit the amount of times that he's gonna take
Speaker 1: shots from guys. Today he got destroyed by Malik Jackson
Speaker 1: after getting a throw off. It drew a roughing penalty.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I felt that here five miles away
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia, so I had can't even imagine what he
Speaker 1: felt like. It's still got it out the rest of
Speaker 1: the game. This is happening to him on a week
Speaker 1: by week basis. Now they're gonna crush the guy before
Speaker 1: they get to the end of the regular season if
Speaker 1: they don't at least try to shorten their offense or
Speaker 1: hand the ball. If you got Joe Mixon back there
Speaker 1: and you had a lead for a good amount of
Speaker 1: the second half today and still for some reason, kept
Speaker 1: trying to throw the ball down the field, You're owing
Speaker 1: to the Bengals come to your building and you're lucky
Speaker 1: to tie. You got half a game. You caught up
Speaker 1: a half a game in the NFC, in the worst division.
Speaker 1: NC thrilled that no fans are allowed in I mean
Speaker 1: that is why scenario where like you're thankful that Corona
Speaker 1: reared its head in March, that'd be throwing car batteries
Speaker 1: all right. Next, here's the snap like Eagles fans like
Speaker 1: the end zode how beautiful pro ballad And the Bears
Speaker 1: have the lead in Atlanta terrific come back in the
Speaker 1: port and Anthony Mother hangs onto this one. Nick Bulls
Speaker 1: took a crunching hit as he got rid of the football.
Speaker 1: Oh do you have, Johnny I with the call? The Falcons,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Surrender a sixteen point lead in
Speaker 1: the final six and a half minutes of play, and
Speaker 1: the Bears get three touchdown passes from Nick Foles who
Speaker 1: came in from Mitch Trabiskie, who spanks the Bears of
Speaker 1: three and oh somehow and the Falcons oh and three
Speaker 1: become the first team in nf FELL history to lose
Speaker 1: backspack games in which it led by fifteen or more
Speaker 1: points in the final quarters. Shook. Dan Puinn has had
Speaker 1: eighteen lives, lives, thirty six lives, like he's like worth
Speaker 1: four cats? Where are we at here? Enough is enough?
Speaker 1: You know? He showed his frustration in the final moments.
Speaker 1: They had to call a time out when he knew
Speaker 1: the game was out of hand, that it was no
Speaker 1: longer in reach after two Shawn Gibson's interception, and he
Speaker 1: just he took his help and his headset off and
Speaker 1: all threw it down then stopped himself. But you could
Speaker 1: just see it the look in his face. He was
Speaker 1: struggling with the fact that his team can't get a
Speaker 1: win even with, you know, a huge lead. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was texting my buddy who's a Bears fan for
Speaker 1: the majority of the second half before the actual comeback
Speaker 1: really started, and I was like, Hey, maybe your team's
Speaker 1: at two and oh fraud. You know, they don't look
Speaker 1: very good today. Mitch didn't look very good before he
Speaker 1: got pulled. Time for them to finally get a loss,
Speaker 1: and then you come back, and of course they found
Speaker 1: their way back into the game. So you wonder, is
Speaker 1: it Nick Foles heroism, which we've seen plenty of in
Speaker 1: the past, or is it the Falcon simply not understanding
Speaker 1: any concept of how to close a football game, because
Speaker 1: so far through three weeks, they have no idea how
Speaker 1: to do it. It's a little ball. That game winning
Speaker 1: touchdown was folds kind of mad. You know, that was
Speaker 1: Folds in a nutshell him getting hit in the arm.
Speaker 1: There was It reminded me of the play got hurt
Speaker 1: on last year and he's watching the game winning touchdown
Speaker 1: from his backside and had a couple other nice throws.
Speaker 1: Might give them a little more juice. They are the
Speaker 1: first team to ever come back the Bears from a
Speaker 1: sixteen point fourth quarter deficit twice in a season and win.
Speaker 1: They've already done it in Week three, like every different quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: two different quarterback It's outrageous. But you're right there about
Speaker 1: the Falcons not closing because you can't put it all
Speaker 1: on the defense either. The the offense didn't score their
Speaker 1: last six possessions and had a bunch of three and outs.
Speaker 1: Not to bring it up again, but just like the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and so Matt Ryan is the guy behind
Speaker 1: center both of those games, there's something wrong with this
Speaker 1: Falcons team and it's screaming to to be blown up.
Speaker 1: Let's face it. Let's just be totally honest. How do
Speaker 1: how do you your fan base is dying? You know,
Speaker 1: there's a difference. I don't know what's worse like to
Speaker 1: be a fan like I am of the Jets. I
Speaker 1: think it's a team that's hopeless or a fan of
Speaker 1: the Falcons, where you show that not only can you
Speaker 1: hang with teams, you could beat up on teams and
Speaker 1: then completely pe down your own leg during money time.
Speaker 1: I mean that that just can't happen. It can't happen
Speaker 1: once in a season, let alone twice in three weeks.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's worse between the two, but I
Speaker 1: think I would rather having been a Browns fan. I
Speaker 1: think I would rather be in the Falcon situation than
Speaker 1: having no hope at all, because like Calvin Ridley had
Speaker 1: a nice day, Todd Durley looked kind of encouraging at times.
Speaker 1: They did jump out. They've proven that they can at
Speaker 1: least play with another team or jump out to a lead.
Speaker 1: They just can't finish a game. So you go to
Speaker 1: bed that Sunday night upset that they lost, but thinking
Speaker 1: go off only they could just put four quarters together
Speaker 1: or just give up, or you can give up. That's
Speaker 1: an option. You can enjoy the sport more and not
Speaker 1: be chained to a miserable experience. Because the Falcons right now,
Speaker 1: I think they're number one in my pain rankings because
Speaker 1: as three goes further and Patriots fan laying out the
Speaker 1: pay pain rankings, right, they are they at least the
Speaker 1: Falcons were vaguely interesting. But I would say dan Quinn
Speaker 1: was brought into revolutionize their defense as a defensive you know,
Speaker 1: Seahawk x Seahawks defensive wizard, and their defense has been
Speaker 1: the issue years in a row. I just I mean,
Speaker 1: the the issue is not Matt Ryan, who's been the
Speaker 1: best quarterback in that division, it's the defense. I wasn't
Speaker 1: plugged into the beginning of the same. Did Robisky just
Speaker 1: get benched because he was playing terribly or how did
Speaker 1: that play out? Yeah? Killer pick, didn't he? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: didn't see any sign of anything on the sideline that
Speaker 1: they were examining him for any reason. It just look
Speaker 1: like he looked bad. He was really being risky early
Speaker 1: to just kind of heaving the ball around the field
Speaker 1: and was not the ha no momentum with him and
Speaker 1: h you know, you get the classic coaching line when
Speaker 1: they make it a mid game quarterback change, all we're
Speaker 1: just looking for a spark. We're just looking for a spark. Well,
Speaker 1: they got their spark today, Sonny and then all and
Speaker 1: that felt like politics too. Like they You know, there's
Speaker 1: all these teams that are stuck trying to like hoist
Speaker 1: up certain quarterbacks to make the front office look good
Speaker 1: based on bad decisions, past past decisions like the Trabinsky
Speaker 1: two game thing. Two plus games thing was a political
Speaker 1: maneuver and now they're stuck. Way to do it, it's
Speaker 1: the way to do it. They're three and oh. Now
Speaker 1: you set them up, you sent them up to. Then
Speaker 1: that's fine. They're not three and o just because of Trabinsky.
Speaker 1: But then my point is they they got there. They
Speaker 1: I don't know why they did that, but if you've
Speaker 1: got to make a change, like the work, you know,
Speaker 1: you're happy to do it at three and oh with
Speaker 1: a comeback Victor. I mean, he's still broken on the sideline.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like kind of funny how fading it
Speaker 1: was with Rabinsky though, because if if you would have
Speaker 1: I don't know if the desert does these things, Greg,
Speaker 1: we know better than me, but if you would have
Speaker 1: had to set an over under for when Nick Foles
Speaker 1: got into game action, you probably would have set it
Speaker 1: around like two and a half and a half games
Speaker 1: something like that. And right on right on cue there
Speaker 1: he is all right, let's move on Sunday Night football.
Speaker 1: Look the first shot Rogers trying to get deep down field,
Speaker 1: and it's a first round take. That doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: round I was taking forty eight on the catch for
Speaker 1: Alan Lazard, the undrafted player Aaron Rodgers having his way
Speaker 1: with yet another defense. This time it's the New Orleans Saints.
Speaker 1: Alan Lazard finished six for one forty six in a
Speaker 1: touch Rogers twenty one of thirty eight three three touchdowns,
Speaker 1: no interceptions, passer rating, another sterling effort from the future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer in a thirty seven to thirty win
Speaker 1: at the Superdome. The Packers moved to three and oh.
Speaker 1: The Saints fall to one and two, and they have problems.
Speaker 1: Nick Shook, I'll start with you on this one. A
Speaker 1: lot of focus has been and you get it. That's
Speaker 1: how football works, that's how sports fandom works. A lot
Speaker 1: of the focus on the Saints has been about Drew Brees.
Speaker 1: Is he and decline? Is he? This? Is he? That? Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Saints defense continues to be a major issue uh
Speaker 1: slowing down opposing offenses, and the penalties continue to pile up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the penalties piled up late in this game with
Speaker 1: two engine Orris Jenkins that put the Packers on the
Speaker 1: doorstep of scoring the game of the game ceiling touchdown. Really, Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess you can't discredit the Saints for
Speaker 1: or not to severally discredit the Saints for not being
Speaker 1: able to stop in Aaron rodgers let offense. But this
Speaker 1: is a trend. This isn't just a one week thing,
Speaker 1: as you said. And and no matter how well Drew
Speaker 1: Brees plays, they don't have the talent and especially with
Speaker 1: Michael Town Michael Thomas out to really go toe to
Speaker 1: toe with a team that can really play high level
Speaker 1: offense if they can't get a stop on defense. So
Speaker 1: that's definitely concerning for them right now and the reason
Speaker 1: why they lost this game. I watched this with um
Speaker 1: with our son Luke, who's a Saints fan as of
Speaker 1: a better season ago and when yeah, he yeah, he's
Speaker 1: that's the team he's chosen. And um, he was very
Speaker 1: upset Um to see Genorris Jenkins get flagged like eighties
Speaker 1: seven times for past interference. At one point he said
Speaker 1: him a again, He's innocent. This was his quote, him again,
Speaker 1: He's innocent. He's probably so stressed wasn't. He's not innocent.
Speaker 1: He was clearly guilty of some of those infractions changed
Speaker 1: the game. You you watch your boy Aaron Rodgers, Dan Uh.
Speaker 1: I know, you know, some things in this season not
Speaker 1: going your way a hundred percent, but that all pro
Speaker 1: pick you have for Aaron Rodgers is looking freaking amazing.
Speaker 1: And you watch him and you just think he's having
Speaker 1: so much fun. And I think about when Jay Sternberger
Speaker 1: caught a pass in the fourth quarter and he immediately
Speaker 1: starts having fun with him because Sternberger had a couple
Speaker 1: of big drops last week and that was his first
Speaker 1: career catch, and then he keeps going back to him. Uh.
Speaker 1: Early in the game, He's like wiping down Lazard's uh
Speaker 1: face after that amazing catch Lazard had, which was an
Speaker 1: even better throw from Rogers. I mean, just feeling himself
Speaker 1: moving to his left and like dropping it in the
Speaker 1: bucket from fifty five yards away. It's just it's fun
Speaker 1: to watch. I mean he is. To meet him and
Speaker 1: Ruffel Wilson, maybe they would be the best to right now.
Speaker 1: Three weeks that easy flick from Rogers, which you saw
Speaker 1: uh on that touchdown, that's probably my favorite throw in
Speaker 1: NFL history. I'm not old enough, uh to take in
Speaker 1: peak Nameth when he had an amazing fall through and
Speaker 1: he would zip the ball like nobody else but Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: The way he can just on the move, square shoulders
Speaker 1: and then just flick it and then it's just perfectly
Speaker 1: precise hits a target. I mean, the man when he
Speaker 1: is right is just so fun to watch. And Alvin
Speaker 1: Kamara from the running back position is is like Rogers
Speaker 1: in that way, Like when Kamara is what right? And
Speaker 1: he was in this game when he had just six
Speaker 1: carries but for fifty eight yards, and then as a
Speaker 1: receiver stepping up with Michael Thomas out of the mix,
Speaker 1: thirteen catches, a hundred and thirty nine yards, two touchdowns
Speaker 1: including that insane fifty two yard catching run where he
Speaker 1: got some help from I believe his center who was
Speaker 1: motoring up the field. That was h It was special.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a fun game to watch, not
Speaker 1: just because it was competitive, but to see Rogers at
Speaker 1: his peak right now, to see Kamara healthy. These are
Speaker 1: some of the best players in the world at their peak. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the funny thing is the similarity between both
Speaker 1: of them while they were very different players. The one
Speaker 1: thing I keep going back to with them, it's how
Speaker 1: light they are on their feet. I mean, Rogers just
Speaker 1: bounces around throughout the pocket, floating left right before flicking
Speaker 1: it like you said. And then Camara of course regaining
Speaker 1: his balance on that long run. And I like Greg's
Speaker 1: sweet about it, which is the Saints entire offense is
Speaker 1: basically built around camera breaking tackles, which he obviously showed
Speaker 1: he's very good at. It's not really a reliable strategy,
Speaker 1: of course, and that was kind of what they ringed
Speaker 1: on tonight with him leading them and receiving everything else.
Speaker 1: But it's still fun to watch. Yeah, I mean Dan's
Speaker 1: favorite stat average depth of target A dot. I mean
Speaker 1: it had its night to night. It was an aid
Speaker 1: dot night. All they did was talking about aid DOT
Speaker 1: I feel like the whole time. And it's because Breezes,
Speaker 1: you know, he they made the point Breeze is always
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the league in that category, so
Speaker 1: maybe this isn't that big of deal. But now he's
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the league by like a long shot.
Speaker 1: And this this offense, it's been fine the last two weeks.
Speaker 1: It's taken a little attention away from their defense being
Speaker 1: even worse. I think Jeff Duncan pointed out they've they've
Speaker 1: forced one punt in their last seventeen drives. So it's
Speaker 1: really the defense that to me deserves the l more
Speaker 1: than anything today, than than the Saints um. But it's
Speaker 1: also not quite the Saints offense, even even putting Michael
Speaker 1: Thomas back there. I don't know, Well, let's talk about
Speaker 1: the taste of Hill play. That really was the shifting
Speaker 1: playing the game. Rogers is not attacking downfield. Is average
Speaker 1: air yards per tempt I believe is sub five in
Speaker 1: this game, maybe even closer to four. And they bring
Speaker 1: Hill out near midfield, he fumbles Zadarius Smith with the
Speaker 1: force fumble. Hill has not had the same success in
Speaker 1: this offensive as last year. I wonder how much of
Speaker 1: that has to do with Drew Brees and how the
Speaker 1: offense is so one dimensional right now that you bring
Speaker 1: Taystom Hill out there and there's just no fear in
Speaker 1: the defense that there's gonna be a big play. It
Speaker 1: certainly hasn't happened yet. It's small sample size at this point,
Speaker 1: but you're right that like the Breeze Taysom Hill combination
Speaker 1: is less effective. I mean, the way thing is, if
Speaker 1: I were to wake up tomorrow and if people still
Speaker 1: read newspapers and I were to look at the Breeze
Speaker 1: box score, any other person would be happy if their
Speaker 1: quarterback had that box score. It's just that what we're
Speaker 1: seeing with Breeze is a little bit different. I still
Speaker 1: think that he's reading the field as well as anyone
Speaker 1: and made a couple of really smart throws um in
Speaker 1: that situation, but Hill is on the Hill is in
Speaker 1: there for that play because they have comprehensive trust in
Speaker 1: him to not turn the ball over, first of all,
Speaker 1: So for that to happen, I mean, everything went completely
Speaker 1: sideways from there. I wasn't even on the field the
Speaker 1: st at thirty points at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: Even that was a killer turnover. It really doomed them
Speaker 1: in some ways. But uh, that to me, to go
Speaker 1: back to how I set it up with you, shook,
Speaker 1: this game is on the defense, and a defense that
Speaker 1: a lot of people saw as one of the best
Speaker 1: in the league potentially entering the season, and they just
Speaker 1: got to be a lot better. And I'll add one
Speaker 1: more point, and it connects to the defense, not all
Speaker 1: home field advantages are created equal, but that was a
Speaker 1: big deal. And Chris collins Worth mentioned it during the
Speaker 1: telecast that nobody in that stadium at the Superdome made
Speaker 1: life a lot easier for Aaron Rodgers and company. And
Speaker 1: you just wonder if Aaron Rodgers is as comfortable and
Speaker 1: it was casually dissecting this defense, if there's not seventy
Speaker 1: five thousand screaming, Uh, Louisiana's down there, Uh tonight. But
Speaker 1: that's that's football. And you know, I wonder, like what
Speaker 1: kind of effect that's had another environment in the league.
Speaker 1: But that environment, especially because of the way that the
Speaker 1: stadiums built, your indoors sound reverberates, they're they're famous for
Speaker 1: being very loud. We've seen this across sports in the
Speaker 1: time we're playing these sports in right now. I mean
Speaker 1: even the NBA, Like you got the Lakers and the
Speaker 1: heat and heat in the finals, and you wouldn't expect
Speaker 1: one of those teams to be making it so and
Speaker 1: it's because they're playing in the bubbles. You get kind
Speaker 1: of a similar situation in some of these teams and
Speaker 1: there's no fans, you don't have that effect. And Rogers,
Speaker 1: like you said, toyed with them multiple times tonight with
Speaker 1: those hard counts that they would never implement uh in
Speaker 1: one of those environments when they typically be going with
Speaker 1: a snap count. And that kind of changed the game
Speaker 1: because they got a free play there uh and and
Speaker 1: threw up the past ended up in in the passenger
Speaker 1: fence to set them up on the goal line. But again,
Speaker 1: you're right, that defense has not stood up and done
Speaker 1: its job. Last week it was Malcolm Jenkins getting victimized
Speaker 1: by Darren Waller or most of the defense getting victimized
Speaker 1: by Darren Waller. This week, when they had a chance
Speaker 1: to get a stop get the ball back for their
Speaker 1: offense down three, they couldn't do anything even close to that,
Speaker 1: and they did it without Davante Adams. To me, that
Speaker 1: makes this all the more meaning. I mean, their offense
Speaker 1: is just in such a different space. Um then they
Speaker 1: were a year ago at this time when they were
Speaker 1: trying to can figure each other out. You know, Collinsworth
Speaker 1: made the point a lot of times it's really Rogers
Speaker 1: calling the play. I mean he has like a menu
Speaker 1: of a million different options that La Fleur is setting up.
Speaker 1: They're in such amazing sinc right now. I mean to
Speaker 1: do it without Adams where their three tight ends tight Tanyan, Tanyan,
Speaker 1: Sternberger and Lewis were like their third, you know, second, third,
Speaker 1: and fourth leading receivers. I mean, that's that's amazing. And
Speaker 1: the Saints. The Saints missed Jadevian Clowney tonight. I keep
Speaker 1: keep bringing it up. But like Marcus Davenport is a
Speaker 1: whipping boy for Saints Twitter that you know two firsts
Speaker 1: that they were missing two first again. He uh, he
Speaker 1: missed his third grade game. They had zero pass rush.
Speaker 1: So Rogers does have weapons. It's it's that offensive line
Speaker 1: that's Aaron Jones, that that's all he needs right now.
Speaker 1: And Maddie Lafleur the little man, right, We're all exactly right.
Speaker 1: We're only like eight nine months away, you know, out
Speaker 1: from Dan's dad delivering the little Boy with a Beard
Speaker 1: comment about Matt Lafleur that we all chuckled at and
Speaker 1: believed in because it made some much sense. He seemed
Speaker 1: like a small young man attempting to lead a football
Speaker 1: team into battle. But now I think Matt Lafleur is
Speaker 1: one of the stories of this game, that he has
Speaker 1: become a dude. And I was killing their record last year.
Speaker 1: Just inherited right Aaron Rodgers to night that was a
Speaker 1: good job by him. Well that's you know, that's fine.
Speaker 1: But I mean Matt Lafleur though, is adding value too,
Speaker 1: and he just he just took down Sean Payton and Greg.
Speaker 1: I want to find out at some point, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go through the accounting what kind of profits are you
Speaker 1: making off of Saints Twitter. You mentioned it at least
Speaker 1: three times a week in various platforms. We get you
Speaker 1: in Saints Twitter, you know, and you know, if people
Speaker 1: didn't see it on the network, you gotta get the
Speaker 1: two first. I like I like that as like a
Speaker 1: running thing. The Packers went fourteen and four in the
Speaker 1: Bearded Boys first year. They're now three and oh that's
Speaker 1: seventeen and four. Did the math, and they have more
Speaker 1: points through their first three games this season than they've
Speaker 1: ever had in franchise history. And there's been some great
Speaker 1: offenses in the history of the Bearded Boy. I think
Speaker 1: that was more a general commentary my dad made on
Speaker 1: the youthful appearance of the Floora. I don't think he
Speaker 1: was commenting on him as a coach, but I'll have
Speaker 1: to double check with Keith on that. But let's let's
Speaker 1: stay focused here because there is a developing news story
Speaker 1: before we say goodbye. And I've been making a lot
Speaker 1: of phone calls and shoot a lot of text. Uh,
Speaker 1: just kind of reach out to my story. Who can
Speaker 1: figure out where was Al tonight? Al Michael's not in
Speaker 1: the booth? You know? Last week it was justin Herbert
Speaker 1: shows up for a snap one for the Chargers, catching
Speaker 1: everybody off off guard. Today it's al Michael's replaced by
Speaker 1: Mike Tarico along with Chris Collinsworth in the booth. Do
Speaker 1: we have any info on where Al was tonight? Ricky, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was decided before the season that he was. NBC
Speaker 1: said that Michaels would miss a few weeks this season
Speaker 1: Moheretrico would subben for him, as described as by weeks
Speaker 1: to limit travel. And apparently al Michael's is this is
Speaker 1: a great schedule for me and I'm all in. I
Speaker 1: have a source that works high up is a major
Speaker 1: player in the broadcasting game, makes huge money success who
Speaker 1: feels that this could be a reaction to a potential
Speaker 1: al Michael's pay cut behind the scenes, and he made
Speaker 1: the decision. I'm not calling every game if you're not
Speaker 1: gonna give me the money I need. This is again
Speaker 1: conjecture that we're still early in the process. Why is
Speaker 1: an Al doing a full slate of Sunday Night football?
Speaker 1: Maybe bye week? You know he's up there years. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a pandemic. Uh, there's all sorts of reasons. Why
Speaker 1: are you making a lot of money? Yeah, you gotta
Speaker 1: earn that right, talking about Trico's basically your Tassome Hill
Speaker 1: that they have to find out. Let's make this wouldn't
Speaker 1: have had a holding penalty in a fumble, you know,
Speaker 1: like Janico's not Tastom Hill. Tastom Hill's not a real
Speaker 1: human being. Thank you for saying that, so I didn't
Speaker 1: have to jump in. And Mike Tarko is Steve Young
Speaker 1: and Al Michael's is Joe Montana. That's where we're at.
Speaker 1: It's Taysom hillstyff. Well, No, here's what I would say though.
Speaker 1: The whole this whole idea of you know, media people
Speaker 1: getting a bye week during the football season, all this
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. You know, we didn't what
Speaker 1: do we get about four days off this entire off season,
Speaker 1: like you know, suddenly Cessler was week seven off to
Speaker 1: just completely vanished, and that means all shows for the
Speaker 1: entire everything. It just makes a lot of sense should
Speaker 1: you get involved in that week? Where's al all right?
Speaker 1: When a song? Good stuff? Um um alright? So Nick
Speaker 1: Shook you said it all. Thank you so much. We
Speaker 1: love this new tradition. And also notice uh Shook behind
Speaker 1: him has the NFL helmet that they give you when
Speaker 1: you leave the company and then you sign it and
Speaker 1: you say, oh, Shock, it's been so great, best of
Speaker 1: luck in your journey. And then ship goes to the
Speaker 1: Browns for about seven days and then comes back to
Speaker 1: the NFL. So he got the signed helmet and beginning
Speaker 1: to come back to the NFL. So Shook, we're really
Speaker 1: game in the system in a big spot. You know.
Speaker 1: It's my third stint, so I figure, you know, five
Speaker 1: or tenures, maybe we'll be up the number five. I
Speaker 1: don't know how many. I think you also got the
Speaker 1: real life Browns experience, which is going thinking that you're
Speaker 1: gonna be there for twenty to thirty years, and you're
Speaker 1: there for twenty to thirty hours, and that's that's probably
Speaker 1: about as long as it goes. And the big joke
Speaker 1: on Twitter when I left was oh, you got off
Speaker 1: just as the ship was sinking, when really it was
Speaker 1: a completely different set of circumstances. But we'll let the
Speaker 1: public believe that. Speaking of Yeah, speaking of deep dives,
Speaker 1: the old Zeuser has another expose in the can. I
Speaker 1: just have to get a few more quotes and a
Speaker 1: couple more sources. What happened to Nick Shook in the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns. It's a secret that or a story that
Speaker 1: has not been told yet, but we hope to get
Speaker 1: it down the line. Another helmet I have here, if
Speaker 1: I and reach for it is from the vaunted, the venerated,
Speaker 1: the venerated desk of Mark Sessler. Hang on, I can
Speaker 1: only wonder what this is. It is Mark Sessler's old
Speaker 1: Brown's helmet, the helmet. Did you steal that because you're
Speaker 1: so much larger than physically or did he give it
Speaker 1: to you? He gave this to me after I left.
Speaker 1: I gave it to him because he's so much larger.
Speaker 1: First time, you're the you're the Billy Martin, Billy Martin
Speaker 1: of NFL media right now, Um, all right, good stuff,
Speaker 1: thank you, choock, and it's getting grosser. We'll be back
Speaker 1: on Tuesday with the podcast, and the wheel continues to
Speaker 1: go around and around and around. This is Dan Hansens
Speaker 1: signing off for Nick Shook. Get Shook with Nick Shook,
Speaker 1: the Old Boss, Quiet Storm, and of course The Mailman
Speaker 1: and Ricky Holley until Tuesday