Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast Hates Baths. Welcome to another
Speaker 1: edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is
Speaker 1: Dan Hanss. I come to you from a room filled
Speaker 1: with hero the virtual room that is Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 1: and Chris Westling. What's up, boys, Hey, Dan can't say it,
Speaker 1: can't say that the A d N Podcast hates baths
Speaker 1: when West is on the flagship. So at that point
Speaker 1: it is no longer unanimous. And I don't think it
Speaker 1: was even before that. So when erroneous money dropped West,
Speaker 1: what's up, buddy? What's um? It's not so erroneous because
Speaker 1: I baths are on the ounce. Oh wait a second,
Speaker 1: last time we checked in on this West, as you're
Speaker 1: going through your latest courageous bout against the Big Sea.
Speaker 1: You've been dealing with the thought of pain and a
Speaker 1: lot of attempted management of said pain. And the bath
Speaker 1: has been your sanctuary bastion, and you've spent hours in
Speaker 1: there and there's candles involved in jazz. What has happened
Speaker 1: to give us an update? There's been some drama in
Speaker 1: the meantime, some bath drama. First, Um fell asleep watching
Speaker 1: Game Pass, woke up to a to an iPad did
Speaker 1: no longer work, so um, so I went back to
Speaker 1: my I went back to my old iPad from four
Speaker 1: years ago, because you still works. This was not the
Speaker 1: one that was stolen at the two thousand sixteen Women's
Speaker 1: that's never been recovered. That is that that one is
Speaker 1: uh whereabouts unknown. So this one wasn't the one that
Speaker 1: was in your car that disappeared one day and was
Speaker 1: never seen again either. So those are inwhere but whereabouts unknown?
Speaker 1: Who knows? But uh, I went back to my old iPad.
Speaker 1: I started watching Game Pass in the bath, woke up
Speaker 1: and that one was water logged and no longer gonna. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's fine, West, We're gonna we're gonna edit out
Speaker 1: the second mention, and uh, the NFL is gonna hook
Speaker 1: you up with a new one because it's been four
Speaker 1: or five years. You're fighting cancer so that you can
Speaker 1: do do a job, you know as best as you can,
Speaker 1: and accidents happened. They owe you on every couple of years.
Speaker 1: We're gonna edit out the second mentioned. They will, they
Speaker 1: will buy you, they will get you an iPad. I
Speaker 1: think at this point, if I take another iPad into
Speaker 1: the bathtub, Keisha is gonna have some punishment waiting for me.
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought the whole the gist here was
Speaker 1: the Keisha was gonna at at times not maybe you know,
Speaker 1: wire to wire, but sit in the bathroom with you
Speaker 1: and and maybe there would be a doorway to um, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, stuff that we wouldn't talk about on
Speaker 1: this podcast typically. But instead you're alone in the in
Speaker 1: the iPads are falling into the top. So yeah, both
Speaker 1: of these incidents were more in like two thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning range. Kesha may have been awake to feed
Speaker 1: the baby, but other than that that she would not
Speaker 1: have been awaken sitting on the edge of the top.
Speaker 1: Damn West, that's crazy, all right. So yeah, baths, they've
Speaker 1: they're not quite so romantic one one man romantic without
Speaker 1: the iPad. Yeah, I guess. So, I guess that's what
Speaker 1: we've learned. I guess you could continue to take baths
Speaker 1: while not watching game pass. But also, why mess with
Speaker 1: the process of the scientist? If if that's how you
Speaker 1: consume your football, who am I to say, maybe take
Speaker 1: the iPad out of the mix? I like that be
Speaker 1: my campaign manager A good line of questioning Dan, because
Speaker 1: that led to what I would consider an explosive update.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a lot of new information there.
Speaker 1: I mean that was a breaking news. West was lost,
Speaker 1: and now that we've known less, he's up to three
Speaker 1: down iPads um and I hope this just continues to
Speaker 1: go on forever and ever, because it's kind of amusing.
Speaker 1: I believe that's factually correct. I've fawne through three and
Speaker 1: I'm now on my fourth. Incredible, incredible stuff, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, so that's not great news. And and I
Speaker 1: did like that you had your little moment or you're
Speaker 1: a little time to yourself in the bath. So I
Speaker 1: don't like that you've turned on baths. But I love
Speaker 1: Wes that you are here with us to go through
Speaker 1: all of the action here on the Flagship Show Week eleven.
Speaker 1: A lot to get through. Um As, as we say
Speaker 1: NFL things change every week, A lot changes, and it
Speaker 1: happened again, and also one notable injury that's kind of
Speaker 1: uh West the West side of Cincinnati cries tonight. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to all that. Let's start though, with the
Speaker 1: game of the week, I believe, or if not, the
Speaker 1: game of the week right up there. Let's add to Baltimore,
Speaker 1: Henry gets to carry running laugh Henry to Henry to
Speaker 1: the twenty, to to the ten, to the oh yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: touch down Titans as the Titans will run out of
Speaker 1: Baltimore where the shocker in ot. Oh you know what
Speaker 1: the best thing about and of course that was Mike
Speaker 1: Keith and Dave McGinnis going nuts for w g f X.
Speaker 1: Best thing about the play is when you watch it
Speaker 1: on the teleprompter screen thing or the telestrator. UM, the
Speaker 1: run by Derrick Henry's is in the shape of the
Speaker 1: letter L. He was giving the Ravens literally an L
Speaker 1: with that run and overtime, hadn't He picked up nine
Speaker 1: of his one and thirty three yards after a halftime,
Speaker 1: including that twenty nine yard TD dash and OT to
Speaker 1: close out the Ravens, a huge win for the Titans
Speaker 1: in Baltimore. UM. The Ravens actually started the ball and
Speaker 1: Overton started the overtime with the ball. And again just
Speaker 1: this this thing boys with the Ravens, where something just
Speaker 1: doesn't seem right. You win the coin toss, you have
Speaker 1: the ball, you had driven down the yield at the
Speaker 1: end of regulation to tie the game. It kind of
Speaker 1: made sense that now against the Tennessee defense that is
Speaker 1: scares no one that you're gonna go win a ballgame
Speaker 1: and take control and be at the top of this division.
Speaker 1: But instead, how how the Landry sax Lamar Jackson sets
Speaker 1: up a third and seventeen defense holds uh Tennessee's defense
Speaker 1: holds punt, and then before you know it, Henry and
Speaker 1: the Titans are celebrating a huge win for the Titans
Speaker 1: after their ugly Thursday Night loss in Week ten, and
Speaker 1: the Ravens West just more questions about where they're at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think by this point we should we should
Speaker 1: start pointing to the offensive line and why they haven't
Speaker 1: been the same and why this might just not be
Speaker 1: their year. They don't look like a serious contender to
Speaker 1: me anymore. And when you lose, you know, one of
Speaker 1: the best guards of his generation retires and marcsha Yanda,
Speaker 1: and then you lose left tackle Ron Stanley, who's one
Speaker 1: of the top two or three left tackles in football,
Speaker 1: and you expect this offense to run on all cylinders
Speaker 1: like it did last year. That's just not gonna happen, right,
Speaker 1: And you're hurting two tackles spots uh you know, by
Speaker 1: moving Brown from right tackle the left tackle, sudden they
Speaker 1: got a problem at right tackle. But they still moved
Speaker 1: the ball enough in this game. And you watch the
Speaker 1: closer Dancy, you can speak to it better. And when
Speaker 1: you get the ball at the fifteen yard line on
Speaker 1: a catch the Dez Bryant of all people, with about
Speaker 1: a minute to go, you think that's when the Ravens
Speaker 1: are gonna cash in and score a touchdown. That's in regulation.
Speaker 1: And they went one for four in the red zone.
Speaker 1: There weren't many days like that in rather absolutely and
Speaker 1: and they had a ten point lead in this game
Speaker 1: at home against a huge conference rival, just like against
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers a few weeks back, another game that
Speaker 1: they lost. And after the game, uh Lamar Jackson, who's
Speaker 1: been somewhat outspoken about his frustrations with the team this year,
Speaker 1: talked about against the rival, and these teams do not
Speaker 1: like each other, and there's some bad blood that we
Speaker 1: could get into. But Jackson was very frank when talking
Speaker 1: about why the Ravens were not able to win this game.
Speaker 1: You know what, that team, we looked like that team
Speaker 1: wanted them more than us. You know, it was playing
Speaker 1: physical when we went up. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: we just took off without the games, but we just
Speaker 1: gotta keep it going, just teams. So Lamar said he
Speaker 1: thought the Titans wanted it more than us as a
Speaker 1: game that started with the Titans players all standing at
Speaker 1: midfield on the Raven shield. That led to not just
Speaker 1: Ravens players approaching them, but John Harbaugh and other Ravens coaches,
Speaker 1: which which stunned some of the Titans players to see
Speaker 1: them that aggressive. And then after the game, Mike Rabel
Speaker 1: goes up to John Harbaugh to shake hands and Hardba goes, now,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm all good. They don't I love when coaches
Speaker 1: get caddy. It's a little bit of mark, a bit
Speaker 1: of a caddy business head coaches, and we saw that
Speaker 1: at the end of this game. Yeah, it's it's almost
Speaker 1: like some of these head coaches have pretty large egos um.
Speaker 1: But to me, like it's something about the Ravens um
Speaker 1: has an effect on the Titans, and I point to
Speaker 1: that a what what Derrick Henry did in the playoffs
Speaker 1: last year. But the Ravens did their job and their
Speaker 1: down men on the offense, on the defensive line. Thirty
Speaker 1: six yards for Derrick Henry on thirteen carries at the half,
Speaker 1: but then by the game then he he Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: became the guy that we think in the A. J.
Speaker 1: Brown catch um in the touchdown where four different Ravens
Speaker 1: had a chance at him, he he over two over
Speaker 1: two catches that he had. He broke seven tackles. So
Speaker 1: the physicality of Tennessee mattered here. I totally agree with
Speaker 1: you Wes about the offensive line. They also benched their
Speaker 1: center who had a series of gaffs in their last game.
Speaker 1: So you're just not everything went right for Baltimore year ago.
Speaker 1: Now they're facing a ton of adversity. They're facing injuries,
Speaker 1: and you know, each seems like every week someone is
Speaker 1: dropping some sort of hot quote that becomes a narrative
Speaker 1: in a story, and sometimes that's kind of tells you
Speaker 1: where the team is mentally. Not in a great place
Speaker 1: right now. Well, they lost two games they should have
Speaker 1: won at home against their a f C rivals the
Speaker 1: Steelers and and Titans. So this game is so big
Speaker 1: for the Titans, who have to play the Colts again
Speaker 1: next week, and they could have been in a tough
Speaker 1: spot here where they needed to win that Colts game
Speaker 1: or else they would have been on like a huge
Speaker 1: losing streak. And so it's massive for the Titans that
Speaker 1: Brown touchdown and the way they ended it with Henry.
Speaker 1: It's sort of symbolic that they want to be the biggest,
Speaker 1: most physical, most athletics strongest team in the league. And
Speaker 1: like you you said it like if they just pulled
Speaker 1: a J. Brown down before fourth down? Who knows, Rabel.
Speaker 1: You know it's fourth down and the game's basically on
Speaker 1: the line there and a J. Brown like runs through
Speaker 1: them all. Did you know Dan? By the way, um,
Speaker 1: I saw this from Garofalo garat Folo. I know you're
Speaker 1: you're into the fighting after the game that after the game,
Speaker 1: the Titans were all singing seven Nation Army, which I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize as a Ravens thing. It feels like
Speaker 1: it's everyone's thing, but no one even like fought them
Speaker 1: on that one. That is interesting. I guess I'm little
Speaker 1: surprised they know the sun, but I guess it's one
Speaker 1: of those songs. It's the White Stripes song. That know.
Speaker 1: I know, I've just seen every team. I know every
Speaker 1: team plays it, but Ravens games in Baltimore that is
Speaker 1: they've kind of taken ownership in the NFL of that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that there is definitely some heat there. I
Speaker 1: love heat. And the thing I think Lamar Jackson that
Speaker 1: quote about the other team wanting it more, I think
Speaker 1: it's directly related to A. J. Brown getting into the
Speaker 1: end zone there. Uh I think so. And also if
Speaker 1: I'm the Ravens, I'm like, oh, geez, you're gonna watch
Speaker 1: his tape and you're gonna see that the Titans didn't
Speaker 1: even play that well for most of this game and
Speaker 1: they still found a way to beat you. Uh So
Speaker 1: this is probably crisis time in Baltimore. There's still okay,
Speaker 1: I mean record wise, but they're also on the outside
Speaker 1: looking in in the a f C. I believe as
Speaker 1: we head toward December, Let's move on. Bill fakes the
Speaker 1: hand off, looking to throw, running out to his left
Speaker 1: looking down field, He's gonna tuck it and run. At
Speaker 1: the time the fund touchdown tight them ow Zack Street
Speaker 1: with the call w w L Sean Payton decided to
Speaker 1: go with Taysom Hill as Drew brees Is replaced him
Speaker 1: on Sunday, and it paid off. Hill will count for
Speaker 1: two scores and the Saints defense sack Matt Ryan eight
Speaker 1: times and win at the Superdome. Greg Everyone's gonna want
Speaker 1: to focus on the quarterback and how that decision played out,
Speaker 1: but it was the defense that really was the star
Speaker 1: of this game from Saints. The defense absolutely destroyed Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan and the Falcons, who came into this game playing
Speaker 1: quite well. I mean, they had less yards in this
Speaker 1: game that the Falcons did. Uh, then they average in
Speaker 1: the first half of their games under Raheem Morris. That
Speaker 1: that's how That's how much they just destroyed him. I've
Speaker 1: never seen Matt Ryan that, at least in my memory,
Speaker 1: look as frazzled as he was. You know, sometimes you
Speaker 1: hear the announcement be like you know, I don't like
Speaker 1: you know, the look on his face like this was
Speaker 1: like a look on this face play and not even
Speaker 1: maybe just on the on the sideline as much as
Speaker 1: when he had the ball. He was waiting for those
Speaker 1: it's to come, and they were coming. At first it
Speaker 1: was with blitz is uh, and then later it was
Speaker 1: just the four man front really on your Mata Davenport
Speaker 1: a little bit, but mostly Hendrickson and Jordan's just doing
Speaker 1: work and making it happen. There is one little delicious
Speaker 1: um Sean Payton nugget from this game. Roddy White, the
Speaker 1: former Falcons receiver, tweeted out in quotes, um Saints about
Speaker 1: to get whipped, trying us with Taysom Hill at QB
Speaker 1: were about to snack them. And Sean Payton after the
Speaker 1: game retweeted it, which is just like you know, you
Speaker 1: you like your little head coaches with a little bit
Speaker 1: of bluster and edge, a little bit of cattinus. Um.
Speaker 1: I enjoy it thoroughly. There was one of the things
Speaker 1: I was watching Kenny Albert and John Vilma announced the
Speaker 1: Cowboys Vikings game, and they had been with the Saints
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, and they said that the reason
Speaker 1: that they were like one of the few people that
Speaker 1: were not at all surprised um that Taysom Hill got
Speaker 1: the start, when I think most of us were, like,
Speaker 1: we assumed it was tasting Hill. We had, you know,
Speaker 1: he tape something because of all that business, and then uh,
Speaker 1: you know that that basically Sean Payton said, at any
Speaker 1: point that Breeze got hurt in a game, he would
Speaker 1: put Winston in, but if he had a week to prepare,
Speaker 1: he would choose Hill every time. So I just added
Speaker 1: a little bit of context to what how the decision
Speaker 1: was perhaps made right a little adenom that that was
Speaker 1: like a month ago where he said that, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's and it. But they finally got that week to
Speaker 1: give him full starter starter reps versus throwing him in
Speaker 1: the third quarter or something. So that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: This is clear, and this has been the plan for
Speaker 1: weeks and months, and to be clear, I think that
Speaker 1: should be this story Taysom Hill, because Drew brees On
Speaker 1: I R. That's happened since we last talked, and m
Speaker 1: it's a testament to this organization how strong it is.
Speaker 1: That there's seven and oh with their backup quarterbacks the
Speaker 1: last two years now, and this defense is bawling and
Speaker 1: the offensive lines great, in the running games great, that's
Speaker 1: all great. Like we we know that about the Saints now.
Speaker 1: But Taysom Hill played really well today. You know, he
Speaker 1: had a slow start in his defense kept a minute
Speaker 1: to are in that slow start, um is deep ball.
Speaker 1: You know, got some some laughter, you know, it hangs
Speaker 1: up there and everything. But he made good decisions and
Speaker 1: more importantly, I think he made about three or four
Speaker 1: throws as a true drop back guy when he was
Speaker 1: under pressure where he didn't see the pass rush, and
Speaker 1: he delivered some nice throws. And so his running, not
Speaker 1: unlike a lot of running quarterbacks, sets up advantageous matchups
Speaker 1: in the passing game. And that's what happened today. The
Speaker 1: Falcons tried to shut down him in and Alvin Kamara
Speaker 1: and he's gonna get one on one and he made
Speaker 1: him pay. But let's say this, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: like this set up. I don't like this set up
Speaker 1: long term, and it doesn't feel like a Dan hans Um.
Speaker 1: It's not that long term. It's a couple of live
Speaker 1: at this point. I lived on Taysom Hill today. You know,
Speaker 1: I locked up the Saints. I rolled with him and
Speaker 1: got the win. Visit to Taysom Hill. But you're right,
Speaker 1: first of all, he that I thought the deep ball
Speaker 1: was troubling. I thought that that tells you there is
Speaker 1: an element of their game that has just not involved
Speaker 1: when Taysom Hills your quarterback. I also found it's also
Speaker 1: threw breathe his quarterback Eiven. Okay, but there's a difference
Speaker 1: in what happens on the intermediate intermediate routes with Drew Brees.
Speaker 1: They're very different quarterbacks that way too. But like you had, so,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have a deep all presence with Taysom Hill.
Speaker 1: I thought it was odd that Alvin Kamara wasn't involved
Speaker 1: at all in the passing game either. Maybe that's just
Speaker 1: an aberration, but it just seemed like this is not
Speaker 1: something that is going to work long term. I maybe
Speaker 1: I'll be wrong on this, but that's why I thought
Speaker 1: the defense played awesome in this game, and they they
Speaker 1: set up the Saints well and hild it enough and
Speaker 1: good for him in the red zone he found a
Speaker 1: way to get in the end zone twice. Uh, but
Speaker 1: I still wonder if this is the right decision. Well,
Speaker 1: he he held the ball too long and he was indecisive.
Speaker 1: I don't think he sees the field well at all
Speaker 1: for a quarterback for an NFL starter, I think he'd
Speaker 1: be well below average in that area. Um. But but
Speaker 1: then again, for all the things you take off the table,
Speaker 1: you're you're putting things on the table too. His ability
Speaker 1: to make plays late in the down UM one one
Speaker 1: play where he hits Michael Thomas coming across the middle
Speaker 1: of the field late and the down was really impressive.
Speaker 1: His numbers would have looked better than the Saints score
Speaker 1: would have looked better if not from Michael Thomas drop
Speaker 1: in the red zone early in the game. Um, but
Speaker 1: I did think that was the kind of performance was
Speaker 1: to me was not even that impressive, but still pointed
Speaker 1: out how ridiculous the anti Taysom Hill people have been
Speaker 1: all along, how how the bar is for for what
Speaker 1: they're they have found him to be laughable. It's funny
Speaker 1: that that you say that, West, because it did cross
Speaker 1: my mind today that Twitter Middle School was all set
Speaker 1: to go off on Hill today, like this was supposed
Speaker 1: to be the culmination of all the years of teasing.
Speaker 1: Uh and it was supposed to be Hill going down
Speaker 1: in flames and destroying the Saints today. It just it
Speaker 1: did not. It didn't happen. So it was kind of
Speaker 1: like Michael J. Fox at the end of Teen Wolf,
Speaker 1: when he's not the wolf anymore, he's Michael J. Fox.
Speaker 1: He's got to win it as just himself and the
Speaker 1: whole high schools need to pounce on him, but Michael J.
Speaker 1: Fox prevails. He though like he was he started off
Speaker 1: a little nervous ian Rapport reported that he was a
Speaker 1: little shaky in practice early in the week, which had
Speaker 1: some people wondering because he kind of was feeling the
Speaker 1: enormity of what was going to happen. And maybe there's
Speaker 1: a little bit bit of that early in this game.
Speaker 1: The Falcons defensive was had been playing fairly well coming
Speaker 1: into this game. I don't think you just put it
Speaker 1: to the side that he runs ten times for fifty
Speaker 1: one yards and two touchdowns like that's that's a game changer.
Speaker 1: And and he goes, you know, he only has five
Speaker 1: in completions his numbers, you know, throwing the ball where
Speaker 1: you could say, you know, Thomas had that big drop,
Speaker 1: but he also got a little lucky on one deep
Speaker 1: throw that was you know that Sanders made a play on.
Speaker 1: But I look at Michael Thomas and I say, Michael
Speaker 1: Thomas goes over a hundred yards and catches more on
Speaker 1: time throws in this game than the three games combined
Speaker 1: he had with Drew Brees. I mean, there's no question
Speaker 1: about that. And I don't know if that's just Michael
Speaker 1: Thomas getting healthier or what. But the reason why I
Speaker 1: wasn't as as um I'm not as worried as you,
Speaker 1: Dan Is, there was a lot of like on schedule
Speaker 1: throws in this game. It didn't seem totally Flukeiah. I
Speaker 1: guess here, all right, let me put it this way, okay,
Speaker 1: And we all know Jamis Winston is at this point
Speaker 1: in his career, what we've seen not a high level quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And I'm not making I'm not making the point that
Speaker 1: this is a travesty that Jamis Winston isn't playing right now,
Speaker 1: but when it happens, and it will when the Saints
Speaker 1: go down fourteen to three in a big spot at
Speaker 1: some point down the line, Taysom Hill feels like the
Speaker 1: last guy you're gonna want in the game, uh, to
Speaker 1: try to get you back in the game. I would
Speaker 1: I would like to see how they their offense looks
Speaker 1: when they get put behind the eight ball just a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah. I think that's I think that's not
Speaker 1: totally different than where they were at with Breeze, with
Speaker 1: these long, slow drives. And I think, look, if Winston
Speaker 1: had been the quarterback, and I trust obviously Sean Payton
Speaker 1: deserves the benefit of the doubt, to put it mildly, um,
Speaker 1: and he he knows Taysom Hill is the better option
Speaker 1: for them, that's who he wants. But if they had
Speaker 1: a week to prepare for Jamis Winston, they probably make
Speaker 1: a pretty good plan there too, because they're an awesome
Speaker 1: team with great coaches, you know, like and that that
Speaker 1: that goes along with I would say also the way
Speaker 1: that they know the quarterbacks in their own division, what
Speaker 1: they did to Tom Brady and the Bucks a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, what they do to Matt Ryan today?
Speaker 1: And Greg, are you saying that perhaps Sean Payton should
Speaker 1: be trusted over um, you know a bunch of talking
Speaker 1: heads on Twitter on who should start at quarters? I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that contract. I mean order that he's
Speaker 1: gonna have a great career as a starting quarterback, like
Speaker 1: we'll see. But in this spot, how can how can
Speaker 1: you be worried? You can't be too worried about it?
Speaker 1: I mean, they handled the Falcons and then some and
Speaker 1: if they're we we talked for years like, wouldn't it
Speaker 1: be great if Drew Brees had a defense? Well, here
Speaker 1: we go. It's a it's a different time right now,
Speaker 1: but here we go. They're one of the best teams
Speaker 1: in the NFL for for the fourth straight year. It's
Speaker 1: pretty impressive. One of the possibilities here, you know, just
Speaker 1: to counter with Dan said that, what Dan it? It
Speaker 1: is a possibility that they'll eventually live to regret this.
Speaker 1: One of the possibilities is how they get better every week,
Speaker 1: they get explosive, they find another gear they didn't even
Speaker 1: have with Drew Brees and they hit there. They had
Speaker 1: They ride the wave into the playoffs. Bree Breeze is
Speaker 1: eligible to come back week fifteen, he has eleven broken ribs.
Speaker 1: According to ESPN, that was a big common question. I
Speaker 1: had it too. I was like how many. I thought
Speaker 1: it was twelve, so I know nothing about my own body,
Speaker 1: twelve on each side. What was the rib thing in
Speaker 1: the Old Testament? How God took the rib of Adam
Speaker 1: and you know, created Eve. Yeah, there you go. Good times.
Speaker 1: That was like a big thing with the ribs. You
Speaker 1: sticking at that? Your it is that your school of thought?
Speaker 1: Dan on how the first career ribs story ever created? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Mick Ribs, that was a thing, remember very I like
Speaker 1: the smoker a few racks of lit ribs. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm just just you do us and you're quite capable
Speaker 1: at it is tonight that night I'm gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: take on the Bible. No, I won't do it, Mark,
Speaker 1: but I will say perhaps in in today's times, in
Speaker 1: the idea of the man's rib being used to create
Speaker 1: a woman, is that gonna hold up under scrutiny? Well,
Speaker 1: I see if you if you came out of nowhere
Speaker 1: with that concept tonight and just said here's what I
Speaker 1: think happened like, you would be met with some resistance
Speaker 1: on social media. Yes, all right, I think we should
Speaker 1: move on. Save it for the theology podcast that's coming.
Speaker 1: A thirty nine yard field goal from Blanket Ship to
Speaker 1: give the Colts to win out of the whole of Sanchez.
Speaker 1: Here's a staff falls down, take us on the way
Speaker 1: and it is it's doll walk off winner for Rodrigo
Speaker 1: blanking chip call tread one in over time. Look at
Speaker 1: that the number three and number four overall pick in
Speaker 1: the draft. On Thursday, Games one and two in the recap,
Speaker 1: Zusar nailed at Mark us, I told you it was
Speaker 1: a good draft. Um credit where credit is to thank
Speaker 1: you Rodrigo. Blanket ships field goal was true and the
Speaker 1: Colts had their biggest one of the year one over
Speaker 1: the Packers at Lucas Oil Stadium. That game winning kick
Speaker 1: was set up a Marquez Valdez scantling fumble on green
Speaker 1: based opening possession in overtime. Matt Taylor there w F
Speaker 1: and I with the call, Aaron Rodgers is not going
Speaker 1: to forget that MBS bumble boys. Uh it would be
Speaker 1: naive to assume that MVS is even alive as we
Speaker 1: record tonight because the nature of that turnover and west
Speaker 1: the Packers have no one to blame but themselves. They
Speaker 1: had a two touchdown lead at halftime. They're putting the
Speaker 1: ball in the carpet over and over, four turnovers. They
Speaker 1: just let this game get away. No business losing this
Speaker 1: game once you take control. But they found a way
Speaker 1: to blow it. And it's troubling. Yeah, it almost felt
Speaker 1: like they thought they headed in the bag and close
Speaker 1: up shop. We're done for the day. We have Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: even if the Colts tried him out of comeback. He
Speaker 1: can move the ball at any time, and it didn't.
Speaker 1: It just didn't happen, and uh C MVS go from here.
Speaker 1: It's got After that big fifty yard catch um setting
Speaker 1: up an opportunity where they were hoping to get the
Speaker 1: field go and had a chance to go for the
Speaker 1: win in regulation. Um, that's heartbreaking. I don't know about
Speaker 1: this narrative that Aaron Rodgers is gonna have him buried
Speaker 1: underneath the Bay bridge or whatever. I just don't put
Speaker 1: it past them. It's it's surprising too, though, because Rogers
Speaker 1: had such a big part, you know, in the collapse.
Speaker 1: Now the only reason that they are ahead by that
Speaker 1: much is because Aaron Rodgers, you know, absolutely fill aid.
Speaker 1: You know, the Colts defense in the first half, but
Speaker 1: when the Acker's offense goes three and out, three and out,
Speaker 1: they fumble the ball. Uh, and then the Colts stop
Speaker 1: him on fourth down, and at that point you thought
Speaker 1: the game was over before that game tying field goal, Like,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty long stretch of uh failure by the Packers.
Speaker 1: And like I was shot on that fourth down play
Speaker 1: where Rogers couldn't connect. I was shot because it was
Speaker 1: one of the rare times this year where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe good defense can be good offense. Because this was
Speaker 1: that sort of game. Yeah, and and the you know,
Speaker 1: the the defense was up and down for Indie, but
Speaker 1: DeForest Buckner a huge play, and they knew what they
Speaker 1: wanted when they went and traded for him. He's been
Speaker 1: an asset for them all along. So I mean, you
Speaker 1: look where the Colts were two weeks ago before they
Speaker 1: beat the Titans on Thursday Night Football, and then this game,
Speaker 1: and it's suddenly there seven and three. Now. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that they are a classic seven and three team
Speaker 1: or that I see them that way, but my perception
Speaker 1: has changed a bit about who they are and what
Speaker 1: they can be. I still don't know if I trust
Speaker 1: this offense though outside the good day today, but you
Speaker 1: are starting to get guys like Michael pitt in Um involved.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of these younger players are coming back.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Taylor has been a bit of a disappointment, but
Speaker 1: they might have a chance to be much more functional
Speaker 1: than they were for large chunks of the season. I
Speaker 1: have a question for the crowd, yeah right, See, where
Speaker 1: ten games into their rookie years, one was traded up
Speaker 1: for in the second round, the other one was undrafted.
Speaker 1: Whose career would you rather have going forward, Jonathan Taylor
Speaker 1: or Richardson in Jacksonville? I mean James Robins Robinson. I'd
Speaker 1: say Robinson just because he looked like the better player,
Speaker 1: although it sounds like Taylor had about his best day
Speaker 1: of his career. Robinson been a top ten running back
Speaker 1: in the league this year. Maybe wonder what James Robinson
Speaker 1: would look like behind this Cults offensive line. This Cultural
Speaker 1: offensive line, though, didn't they have about nine holding penalties
Speaker 1: in this game? I mean the end, the last couple
Speaker 1: of minutes of this game, how it was managed was
Speaker 1: was just insane in a million different ways. All those
Speaker 1: holes you know, the Packers another chance, but one I
Speaker 1: just one small thing I want to point out that
Speaker 1: I feel like the analytics or maybe just like evolution
Speaker 1: will eventually get rid of is unnecessary spikes. And there
Speaker 1: was another And even when you got the smartest quarterback
Speaker 1: in the league taking an unnecessary spike at the end
Speaker 1: of that game and giving them one less throw to
Speaker 1: the end zone, that's a pretty massive deal to me.
Speaker 1: It's like, at some point I think people are gonna
Speaker 1: wise up and know when to spike it when not to.
Speaker 1: With about forty seconds left in the game, he takes
Speaker 1: a spike to two throws and then the game's over.
Speaker 1: Greg second guest and coaches on the clock management, Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny because I had that thought a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Similarly, when somebody spiked it like way too
Speaker 1: many times and the announcers were griping about and I said,
Speaker 1: it won't be long before analytics are tracking this, and
Speaker 1: then somebody's gonna get in big trush. Some quarterbacks gonna
Speaker 1: be great at it, and some of them been getting
Speaker 1: criticized for it, and we had no idea was even
Speaker 1: a thing. And here Greg's already all over It's We've
Speaker 1: been doing these shows for so long that the and
Speaker 1: I saw that, I was like, Greg will comment on that.
Speaker 1: He will comment on that in this show. So if
Speaker 1: you're a Packers fan, you're sick to your stomach. They
Speaker 1: had twenty eight points at halftime, like I said, a
Speaker 1: two touchdown lead, and then they didn't score for twenty
Speaker 1: nine minutes and fifty seven seconds in the second half
Speaker 1: before the field goal um right at the end of
Speaker 1: the fourth UH to force overtime. So that that to me.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, I talked about it. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I if I trust the Packers, and I kind of
Speaker 1: feel the same way about the cults, to be honest,
Speaker 1: even these these last two weeks they have wins against
Speaker 1: the Titans and Packers, so that's definitely they've that has
Speaker 1: raised my esteem my my viewing of them um right now.
Speaker 1: But they're kind of mirror images. Maybe not as teams,
Speaker 1: but they're both seven and three in their conferences, and
Speaker 1: I think the teams that are ahead of them, uh
Speaker 1: in the conference are much better, but there are a
Speaker 1: full step up ahead of the teams that are right
Speaker 1: below them. So it made sense that this went down
Speaker 1: to the went down to the wire and just keep
Speaker 1: an eye on Philip Rivers, you know, as just as
Speaker 1: we see Drew Brees is up to what like twenty
Speaker 1: seven broken ribs. Now, these old quarterbacks start to get
Speaker 1: hurt unless you're Tom Brady and you're unstoppable. Rivers had
Speaker 1: a foot slash, ankle, something happened at the end of
Speaker 1: this game. We'll we'll track that because he's already guy
Speaker 1: who can't move and if he has, if that's a
Speaker 1: lingering injury, that is not going to be good for him.
Speaker 1: One little kicker note, I do like this Rodrigo blanket ship.
Speaker 1: I think he'd be kind of a sneaky fun guy
Speaker 1: in the kicker club. I'm not allowed in there myself,
Speaker 1: but I'm just sort of presupposing from the outside. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we we we haven't let him in with open arms.
Speaker 1: I want to say that it's it's gonna be. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a Christmas gift that I'm gonna share with
Speaker 1: you boys. Something I stumbled upon, uh just today actually
Speaker 1: about blanket ship, but I don't want to share it.
Speaker 1: What is it that he's actually thirteen years old? He
Speaker 1: just doesn't look like an adults me. But it's the
Speaker 1: respects or whatever he's got going on. I have a
Speaker 1: gift of the podcast, but I want to save it
Speaker 1: for another time anyway. So good for the cult. So
Speaker 1: that's a nice win and a great great showdown again
Speaker 1: when they have a rematch against the Titans coming up
Speaker 1: in week twelve. Let's move takes the snap play action, Fake,
Speaker 1: He's back, He's gotta get hit, HiT's up in the air,
Speaker 1: Crack off Tucky, Tucky's gotta downa tideline, twenty hard, twenty fifty,
Speaker 1: Tannis gets award on the tap and the pack pie
Speaker 1: Tucky Tucky touchdown. It's just a fun name. Jim Donovan
Speaker 1: with the call for w k r K. What you're
Speaker 1: doing Carson stepped in front of the Carson Wentz pass
Speaker 1: and took it fifty yards of the house, Cleveland's opening
Speaker 1: score in av Win Brown's latest conquest and miserable conditions
Speaker 1: at their home stadium, Mark The Browns lost Miles Garrett
Speaker 1: to the COVID nineteen list this weekend, but it did
Speaker 1: not really show against the Three Falling Giggles. Yeah. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we've talked about Cleveland's defense as you know,
Speaker 1: being subpart and you just they're living with it, and
Speaker 1: they've they've learned to live with it, but they do
Speaker 1: have Uh. You know, you got Myles Garrett, who's essentially
Speaker 1: I think helped win three or four games for them.
Speaker 1: Denzel Ward wire to wire has been uh, absolutely one
Speaker 1: of the toughest looking quarterbacks cornerbacks to me, and he
Speaker 1: did it again today. Uh. They got pass rush from
Speaker 1: guys that have been relatively quiet this season. Adrian Claiborne
Speaker 1: had a sack and a half. Uh and because of
Speaker 1: his arm issue, he can only line up on one side,
Speaker 1: so like you already, you always know where he's gonna
Speaker 1: be coming from. I think that's one reason he doesn't
Speaker 1: get as many snaps. But Olive a Vernon had three
Speaker 1: takedowns today. Um, one of them a game changing safety,
Speaker 1: so that was huge. I mean, they got help from
Speaker 1: guys um on the Sunday. They absolutely needed it and
Speaker 1: it was really a defensive oriented win Cleveland's. This is
Speaker 1: the second week in a row where I've watched h
Speaker 1: Last week it was the Texans. This week was the
Speaker 1: Eagles come into this game saying we're going to say
Speaker 1: all out to stop the Cleveland's running game. Eight men
Speaker 1: in the box, time after time. I think it was
Speaker 1: thirty six snaps against the Texans and the Eagles had
Speaker 1: nine today at times and it worked. They really like
Speaker 1: Cleveland at halftime had about fifteen yards rushing and it
Speaker 1: was the Eagles that had piled up you know, nineties something,
Speaker 1: so they looked like opposite teams from what you're what
Speaker 1: you'd expect. What Cleveland does does pretty well though, is
Speaker 1: that when you're using Chubb and Hunt the way that
Speaker 1: they do, they have found ways just to wear teams
Speaker 1: down in the fourth quarter and that broke free the Chubb.
Speaker 1: One big chub fifty two yard runner, so which you
Speaker 1: know he does a Cleves patented stiff arm and uh
Speaker 1: sets up the Browns near the goal line. Then Kareem
Speaker 1: Hunt had an unbelievably um acrobatics sort of diving touchdown
Speaker 1: and that was it. I mean, Cleveland's offense was was
Speaker 1: rough and the weather, you know, is certainly a factor. Um.
Speaker 1: I I come out of this with questions about their
Speaker 1: passing game, um Baker Mayfield and with two or three
Speaker 1: real money throws in this game. But I just don't
Speaker 1: know if I trust them minus oh b J to
Speaker 1: be consistently productive. They were lucky that they were playing
Speaker 1: an Eagles team that has a broken down quarterback, and
Speaker 1: it's in many ways, this game from the Eagle side
Speaker 1: is just more of the same and what you'd expect.
Speaker 1: Uh Whence to me just is there's just it's almost
Speaker 1: like you can't almost diagnose everything that's happening to him.
Speaker 1: He just seems a completely different person, like he was
Speaker 1: body switched with like Eric Hippell. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to explain what's going on with this guy mentally. But
Speaker 1: Cleveland we on our preview show and I came to
Speaker 1: agree with you guys. I think you talked about this
Speaker 1: being a potential like let down game because they've had
Speaker 1: this sort of soft part of their schedule, and I
Speaker 1: really thought all game long that's how it was going
Speaker 1: to go. But they played a team that I think
Speaker 1: just has way too many questions um and and a
Speaker 1: team that people have assumed and just put into the
Speaker 1: crown ship of the NFC East. I don't see it.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're winning this division. Not the way
Speaker 1: they're playing right now. Carson Wanz is exhausting. He played
Speaker 1: exactly See, he's the only quarterback in ever soon it
Speaker 1: plays a whole season in one game. Like how many
Speaker 1: quarterback controversies can you have in one game? Like seven times?
Speaker 1: Eagles fans had to be like, take him out, No,
Speaker 1: put him back in. That was a good play, That
Speaker 1: was a good playing No, you know he's got how
Speaker 1: can you possibly keep playing this guy? Yeah, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's like when it was early in the season and
Speaker 1: you thought it was a situation where he's having this
Speaker 1: walkie season where he has these ugly stretches and then
Speaker 1: he gets hot and then he maybe steals a win
Speaker 1: or gets the game close enough where you have something
Speaker 1: to build off. It was, man, Carson Wentz has been
Speaker 1: pretty hot at cold, But now I feel like in.
Speaker 1: You sense it from Eagles fans out there, Connie Fox
Speaker 1: and John Gonzalez amongst them, that there's just an exhaustion
Speaker 1: level that's been hit with with his struggles this season,
Speaker 1: and you have to I mean it's fair to wonder,
Speaker 1: at what point do you try to save the season? Uh,
Speaker 1: if you want to look at it that way, and
Speaker 1: bring in the guy you you drafted Jalen Hurts in
Speaker 1: the second round, and just see if it could spark
Speaker 1: the offense, which seems like hart while according to their
Speaker 1: own head coach, that's Harrisy. Let's hear what Doug Peterson
Speaker 1: said after the game. I think you're you're sending a
Speaker 1: wrong message to your football team that the season's over.
Speaker 1: And and um, that's a that's a bad message, and
Speaker 1: and um, you know we have to we have to
Speaker 1: work through this times. You know, when when when times
Speaker 1: get tough, it's you know, sometimes that might be the
Speaker 1: easy thing to do. No, it's the opposite of saying
Speaker 1: the season's over. If you bench Carson Wentz, you're telling
Speaker 1: your players, Doug, I think we could still be something
Speaker 1: this year. But whatever we're doing right now isn't working.
Speaker 1: And I want to save this year, you're not putting
Speaker 1: on the white flag. And I think his attitude speaks
Speaker 1: to a general malaise that's fallen over this entire organization
Speaker 1: this season. Well, I would be I have about benching
Speaker 1: Doug Peterson. It's like I think that the pairing of Wentz,
Speaker 1: you should be you should be a little annoyed. Doug Peterson.
Speaker 1: You you went out and wrote this keep seeing, you know,
Speaker 1: auto biography after the Super Bowl. This book has been
Speaker 1: on your radar for a while. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: a little much, but it's also very common. Like the
Speaker 1: winning coach just gets like a kind of toss. I
Speaker 1: needed that as much as I needed, Like the Tim
Speaker 1: Tebow autobiography after one NFL season, Yeah he didn't. You
Speaker 1: didn't have to read it. We're talking about Doug about
Speaker 1: Peterson's book again. I'm just saying like, maybe, you know,
Speaker 1: like there were other coaches on that Super Bowl staff
Speaker 1: that maybe should have had the books written about them.
Speaker 1: It might be, you know, it might be a common
Speaker 1: um or a somewhat of a statement about how they think,
Speaker 1: you know, Jalen Hurts looks, which which is part of it.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that they have the best feel,
Speaker 1: but this coaching staff hasn't given us much reason to think,
Speaker 1: and neither as Jalen hurts his snaps, UM that they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to cook up an offense with most anyone.
Speaker 1: But you're right, he's sort of at the point now
Speaker 1: whence where you almost have to, you know, seriously think
Speaker 1: about taking him out, just because if you're if you're
Speaker 1: turning the ball over this much every week, at some
Speaker 1: point like you gotta make ancision. There's still in first place,
Speaker 1: though still in first place, and the Browns are seven
Speaker 1: and three. Speaking of a seven and three team that
Speaker 1: might not feel like if they're one and two against
Speaker 1: teams that have a winning record. But I give the
Speaker 1: Browns a ton of credit for their coaching staff coaching
Speaker 1: them up well enough to take care of business in
Speaker 1: all these games. It's not their fault that they've had
Speaker 1: an easy schedule. It's actually kind of awesome that they
Speaker 1: haven't been picked off week after week in all these games.
Speaker 1: I mean, the last time they were seven and three
Speaker 1: was and I think if it weren't twenty, I'd feel
Speaker 1: like I'd be more plugged into the excitement around this. Um,
Speaker 1: it's just obviously a weird year. But I think the
Speaker 1: thing I take away from it is that every week
Speaker 1: they seem outside of that Steelers and Ravens disaster zone games,
Speaker 1: they're they're well coached, and that's the weirder. The weirder
Speaker 1: thing than the record is just the fact that they
Speaker 1: aren't a disaster on game days coaching wise, because that's
Speaker 1: been the case for twenty five years. All right, let
Speaker 1: us move forward with a five man rush steps through
Speaker 1: the pocket Tolls zone, US is gonna be intercepted, intercepted
Speaker 1: by Justin Simmons in the end zone. Simmons his fourth
Speaker 1: interception of the season, his fifteenth of his career. None
Speaker 1: bigger than that one was sixty three seconds left. Dave
Speaker 1: Logan with a call ko a. Ryan Fitzpatrick replaced the
Speaker 1: ineffective to a tongue of by Lola on Sunday, but
Speaker 1: Justin Simmons end zone, I n t ensure there'd be
Speaker 1: no fits magic at Mile High and the Broncos thirteen
Speaker 1: win greg The Dolphins had been the league's feel good
Speaker 1: story for the past month. What did the Broncos do
Speaker 1: to snip out all that good year? They got after
Speaker 1: toa they got some third and long plays from Drew
Speaker 1: Lock and they got Justin Simmons to make one of
Speaker 1: the defensive players of the year. If you if you
Speaker 1: see on like the All twenty two, look how far
Speaker 1: away he was when that place started. And whether it
Speaker 1: was through tapes, study or his feel or whatever, right
Speaker 1: his knowledge of what Fitzpatrick was gonna do. You can't
Speaker 1: even kill fits too much for for throwing it because
Speaker 1: he saw Blackman his way off the screen and and
Speaker 1: the Broncos defense deserved to win this game. Their whole
Speaker 1: team deserved to win because they dominated. The Dolphins were
Speaker 1: extremely lucky. I would say, uh, to be close. Late
Speaker 1: in this game, they go to Fitzpatrick to give the
Speaker 1: team a spark because to a tongue of voloa, UH struggled.
Speaker 1: He did not push the ball down the field at all.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was because of a foot
Speaker 1: injury that he came into the game with or what.
Speaker 1: But after an awkward sack, they take him out early
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter and fitz comes in and immediately
Speaker 1: within two plays moves the ball more than than two
Speaker 1: have had in about two quarters. So I think the
Speaker 1: move made sense, and I think if you listen to
Speaker 1: the comments after the game by both players and the
Speaker 1: coach that To is still the quarterback. I was impressed,
Speaker 1: and I think this is what you can do and
Speaker 1: what you should do when you have adults in the
Speaker 1: room and you don't treat the quarterback position like there's
Speaker 1: some like week egoed little like your non professionals, and
Speaker 1: To and To and fits totally reacted in the way
Speaker 1: that you'd want to, and you gave their team the
Speaker 1: best chance to win at the end of this game.
Speaker 1: And now you go back to two next week. It's
Speaker 1: like raising children. If you treat your if you treat
Speaker 1: your four year old like he's one, he's still gonna
Speaker 1: act like he's won let him grow up. I'll how
Speaker 1: you treat quarterbacks. I agree with you so much. Greg. Alright,
Speaker 1: so Devil's advocate here to a struggles again in the
Speaker 1: first half. Next week, do you put Ryan Fitzpatrick again?
Speaker 1: And if it happens the next week, do you do
Speaker 1: it again? Because it wasn't the point of this too.
Speaker 1: All Right, we know we're kind of on the fringe
Speaker 1: of the playoff race. This is a few weeks back,
Speaker 1: but we were gonna go to this kid we want
Speaker 1: to get a look at him. Maybe you could raise
Speaker 1: the ceiling. For better or worse, we get we get
Speaker 1: a guy that gets valuable experience. Don't you start messing
Speaker 1: with that if you start yanking him in and out
Speaker 1: of the lineup. I mean, it was one quarter the
Speaker 1: experience he was getting year. It was no longer useful now.
Speaker 1: The injury, even though Flora didn't it, I mean, we
Speaker 1: don't know. Flora said it didn't and they sort of
Speaker 1: don't want it to be a story. And two it
Speaker 1: doesn't want it to be a story. Um. But the
Speaker 1: same foot he was on the injury report got rolled
Speaker 1: up on and stepped on on the play before he left.
Speaker 1: But he made it clear and this has happened in
Speaker 1: a couple of games, his first start and now this one,
Speaker 1: that he wasn't moving this offense. You know, they the
Speaker 1: offensive line wasn't protecting him. They couldn't run the ball,
Speaker 1: and the three times he tried to push it down
Speaker 1: the field, it wasn't closed. So it wasn't pretty. And
Speaker 1: the Broncos defense was dominating. They had a hundred yards
Speaker 1: and eight drives. The only reason, uh they got a
Speaker 1: touchdown early was because of a bad Drew lock interception.
Speaker 1: The only reason they got that touchdown is also because
Speaker 1: another Justin Simmons beautiful interception of Tua was overturned by
Speaker 1: a questionable penalty. So so I don't blame him. They
Speaker 1: they're they're trying to win games. I think that's the goal.
Speaker 1: Dan is to play to us and to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: to do both, and they tried a thread that needle.
Speaker 1: I see the complete opposite situation to like Justin Herbert,
Speaker 1: where Justin Herbert is you know, all the big names
Speaker 1: around him um on defense and special teams are not
Speaker 1: propping him up at all. Uh, He's doing a lot
Speaker 1: on his own. Two remarkable extents, um to A has
Speaker 1: played a couple of games where I have seen you know,
Speaker 1: quarters go by at a time where I'm just not
Speaker 1: seeing it. I think he can do really like you
Speaker 1: see them, the awareness, the accuracy, uh, the poise, UM
Speaker 1: a couple of plays where you're just like, yes, he
Speaker 1: will be a productive, intriguing starter. But he has been
Speaker 1: highly supported. To Dan's point from our Thursday show, UM,
Speaker 1: you know Andrew van Ginkl can be linked to like
Speaker 1: two of their wins they've had, um endless turnovers, they've
Speaker 1: their defense has played as well as it's as you
Speaker 1: could possibly ask it to. Special teams has been super impactful.
Speaker 1: So on a daylight today when that didn't quite happen, Um,
Speaker 1: and it was more just on toa you get caught.
Speaker 1: And I think it's fair to say we just talked
Speaker 1: about Carson Wentz not being benched. I mean, why not
Speaker 1: treat Carson Wentz like an adult and sit him and
Speaker 1: see what you have as well? Not to go back
Speaker 1: down that alley. But um, I hear that, Like you know,
Speaker 1: there's I think the standards are different in different situations,
Speaker 1: I think. And it's also, yeah, I think you're a
Speaker 1: head coach. You get paid to kind of evaluate the
Speaker 1: situation that's in front of you. At that point, we're
Speaker 1: we're a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: a game that was all you know, felt all felt
Speaker 1: all but over. It's it's to me, it's a little
Speaker 1: different than going into a game like that. But I
Speaker 1: think it does point out one of the Dolphins as
Speaker 1: big as flaws, they were always going to play with
Speaker 1: a small margin for air, but the number one flaw
Speaker 1: they have is they're one of the worst rush defenses
Speaker 1: in the league. Philip Lindsay and Melvin Gordon ran all
Speaker 1: over them almost for two hundred yards on thirty carries,
Speaker 1: and they have gotten into these games scripts where they've
Speaker 1: been ahead each and every week. They're the best first
Speaker 1: quarter team in the NFL, and it's really limited the
Speaker 1: other team from trying to run. I mean, the Broncos
Speaker 1: ran on a third nine eight in the game when
Speaker 1: they needed points because they didn't want Drew Lock to
Speaker 1: throw an interception didn't even work. But that just gonna
Speaker 1: showed you where they're like. Run game was today and
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a problem for Miamis they kind of do.
Speaker 1: They are a team I think because of their defense
Speaker 1: that really can play with the lead a lot better.
Speaker 1: All Right, speaking of Justin Herbert, Herbert rolls to his left,
Speaker 1: still holding the ball, goes to the end zone to
Speaker 1: touchdown Chargers Keenan Allen. Why not at a touchdown to
Speaker 1: all those catches and yards today, a nice bowl on
Speaker 1: a half of an afternoon and the third touchdown toss
Speaker 1: from Herbert. Keenan Allen's had a lot of big games
Speaker 1: in this league, but this is gonna end up being
Speaker 1: the biggest when it's all set up. Thank you who
Speaker 1: got what we needed. Matt money Smith with the call,
Speaker 1: k Y s R. Justin Herbert through three touchdowns in
Speaker 1: the game for the fifth time this season. That's a
Speaker 1: new NFL rookie record. And Keenan Allen, what else can
Speaker 1: you say? You piled up an amazing six team catches
Speaker 1: in this game, including that thirteen yard score final score
Speaker 1: Chargers over the Jets at Hollywood Park. Herbert was great.
Speaker 1: My concerns about what his haircut could mean for his
Speaker 1: rookie season unfounded. He threw for nearly three yards in
Speaker 1: the first half, picking on an underman Jets secondary that
Speaker 1: was starting three rookies. Uh, so you kind of saw
Speaker 1: it coming. Uh, And yet it was still impressive to watch.
Speaker 1: And Herbert is on a game by game basis so
Speaker 1: impressive to watch. That said, if your charges, then it's
Speaker 1: still a little bit annoying watching this team, even when
Speaker 1: they win. Uh. The game starts with a blocked punt
Speaker 1: that leads to a Jets touchdown followed by a fumble
Speaker 1: at the one yard line. Uh, when they were going
Speaker 1: in for a score. Then they get the game together,
Speaker 1: they take control, and then they almost give the game away. Uh.
Speaker 1: They give up three straight long scoring drives to the Jets.
Speaker 1: The Jets in the second half and then go three
Speaker 1: and out with a chance to salt the game away
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, giving Joe Flacco the ball and
Speaker 1: an eight point deficit which should have been six, but
Speaker 1: Sam Ficken uh missed two extra points. Uh. Credit to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles for making the stand at that point, uh
Speaker 1: and getting the Jets to go um turnover on downs.
Speaker 1: But even then, like Jets were knocking on the door.
Speaker 1: They were, and I believe the thirty yard line of
Speaker 1: the Chargers with a minute or so to play before
Speaker 1: a fourth down in completion in the end zone to
Speaker 1: Denzel Mims. So they close out the game. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, if you're Chargers fans, you're just you're
Speaker 1: just a little bit exhausted by the trajectory of all
Speaker 1: these games in the Anthony Lynn era. But that's my
Speaker 1: general takeaway. There's that frustration. But men, justin Herbert would
Speaker 1: stud he's gonna like smash the rookie touchdown record. Um,
Speaker 1: he leads the league in fifty plus yard completions. I mean,
Speaker 1: he can do it all. And like I you know,
Speaker 1: we're watching, you know, four games at once, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to keep track of of my game, but all
Speaker 1: I can do is my eyes are just drawn to
Speaker 1: what Justin Herbert is doing. He's that watchable and that unique.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I guess it's a Jets man, Dan.
Speaker 1: You kind of would like to think that a year
Speaker 1: from now, um, after this horrible autumn into winter, you'd
Speaker 1: have a quarterback like that, um capturing people's attention the
Speaker 1: same way. And Joe Flacco again not a star performance
Speaker 1: by any stretch. And in fact, he threw a grizzly
Speaker 1: pick six the play after that Charger's fumble in the
Speaker 1: first quarter. He just floated one into the flat. Uh
Speaker 1: and a Chargers defender stepped into it. I want to
Speaker 1: give him the love that he deserves. It was oh
Speaker 1: Tavon Campbell stepped in front of it for the touchdown.
Speaker 1: Uh tavan Campbell, so that the former Lakers player, Yes, Campbell,
Speaker 1: I believe it is uh so. But Flacco again showed
Speaker 1: he's the one thing he has left is a deep ball,
Speaker 1: and he kept on bonds away. Uh Rashard Perryman will
Speaker 1: give him to the Saints stand Well, maybe Brashard Perryman
Speaker 1: had another long touchdown. Chris hern didn't even have a
Speaker 1: touchdown in this game, and and uh, you saw some
Speaker 1: nice things from Denzel mims Um, who I really think
Speaker 1: is going to be a player if they could ever
Speaker 1: get an offense figured out. He's really flashed the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks since coming back from those hamstring injuries.
Speaker 1: So that's where the Jets are out there. Oh and
Speaker 1: ten for the first time enfranchise history and six losses
Speaker 1: away from guaranteeing themselves. Trevor Lawrence, I feel mistreated and
Speaker 1: lied to by the NFL draft industrial complex about Justin Herbert.
Speaker 1: I understand why twofl a few spots coming off that
Speaker 1: major injury, but all the doubters for Justin Herbert and
Speaker 1: look at I'm too lazy to watch it take myself
Speaker 1: when it comes to college football, so I can't say much,
Speaker 1: but I can't believe this guy's arm and just the
Speaker 1: style in which he plays that he had so many doubters. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it goes to you know, you gotta look
Speaker 1: at their coaching staff in college and the type of
Speaker 1: offense that they run that people just never saw him
Speaker 1: in the position to make it. But yes, you would
Speaker 1: think that a guy with that armstring. You saw it
Speaker 1: show up today, like on the Mike Williams touchdown. The
Speaker 1: fact that his arm is so strong is why the
Speaker 1: defenders are out of position for Williams to go run
Speaker 1: after it. You know. Night our former guest Nate Tice
Speaker 1: pointed out this sixty yard bomb that he threw where
Speaker 1: like the ball never even left the screen because it
Speaker 1: was it was so hard. I mean, he he is
Speaker 1: getting to the point where he is gonna be in
Speaker 1: the mix of the best rookie seasons by a quarterback ever.
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, he's a top ten quarterback in
Speaker 1: the NFL right now. I've never seen I've never seen
Speaker 1: a rookie quarterback play better than Justin Herbert. I haven't,
Speaker 1: I haven't, right, you mean in terms of overall NFL.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I could give me any quarterback in
Speaker 1: the league. I'm not saying word. I'm even just saying
Speaker 1: for like a game tomorrow. You know, I'm just for
Speaker 1: like right now, Yeah, easy, top ten. He's been as
Speaker 1: productive at any quarterback in the league since he took
Speaker 1: over the starting lineup. And we'll get to it a
Speaker 1: little bit later. Unfortunately, He also locked up Offensive Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year today with the injury to Joe Burrow unfortunately.
Speaker 1: One quick thing to West's point, I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: the Oregon coaching staff, how do you like, Hey, season
Speaker 1: ticket holders, we had what potentially was a Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame quarterback for four years and through screen passes and
Speaker 1: ran run play option, buy tickets. Now, Yeah, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the stats. He he had thirty two touchdowns, six
Speaker 1: interceptions of seven passer rating yards, seven sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: completion completion percentage, good numbers in Oregon. A r look.
Speaker 1: I don't watch a second of college football, so that
Speaker 1: was not coming from an educated place. But no, we
Speaker 1: had heard that that he his college game had some flaws,
Speaker 1: which obviously um there was some bad talking of him.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he's a stud. Good for Chargers fans, move
Speaker 1: Walker to throw as time on courts, A long one
Speaker 1: end zone, Samuel Yes, our touchdown, Carolina McK mixing with
Speaker 1: the call, welcome back to the show, mcmix and it's
Speaker 1: been a while. W bt T. No Teddy Bridgewater, no
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey. No problem for the Carolina Panthers who got
Speaker 1: a touchdown pass from XFL legend p J Walker and
Speaker 1: a shutdown performance in their defense twenty zip over the Lions.
Speaker 1: Mark did the Lions forget to show up there? What
Speaker 1: had happened exactly? Fireball offense. This this is the game
Speaker 1: that I would I would point to Um for the
Speaker 1: reasons you just mentioned who was not on the field
Speaker 1: for Caroline and just say, Matt Patricia, you gotta be
Speaker 1: kidding me here, you gotta be kidding me. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. P J Walker, Um, he had he had
Speaker 1: two interceptions in the end zone, so it was not
Speaker 1: a perfect game. But this guy can throw and like
Speaker 1: he had a fifty two yards strike to d J Moore,
Speaker 1: who blew up in this game. And it looked like
Speaker 1: they had been practicing together for weeks. I mean, the
Speaker 1: thing the first thing you look for is that they'd
Speaker 1: be at a sink um and there were moments like that.
Speaker 1: But Robbie Anderson was there for and Robbie Anderson and
Speaker 1: p J Walker played at Temple together under Matt rules.
Speaker 1: So again it's like I think there was trust and
Speaker 1: p J Walker and they didn't really change the offense
Speaker 1: that much for him. They kind of let him wing
Speaker 1: it and and you know, Matthew Stafford had the hand thing. Um,
Speaker 1: I didn't notice any effects from that. This It's just
Speaker 1: that I think into this game that that was not
Speaker 1: an issue at all. Well it wasn't an issue, but
Speaker 1: but the way they coached the game, it made me
Speaker 1: think that they were a little concerned about Stafford's ability
Speaker 1: to air it out against a defense that's allowed teams
Speaker 1: to do that to some degree. They ran the ball
Speaker 1: NonStop in the first half. They they really looked to me, uh,
Speaker 1: like they were in tank mode. I mean, and I
Speaker 1: know they're not. I know they're not. I think they're
Speaker 1: just a confused organization. I mean it was an barrassing
Speaker 1: lost like you're You're Dragon Lions fans through a lot
Speaker 1: because on top of it, I mean, they could not
Speaker 1: protect Matthew Stafford. The Panthers had five sacks today and
Speaker 1: that's not been there calling hard all year. So I
Speaker 1: just think they got They came in and got completely
Speaker 1: outplayed by a team that believes in itself more no
Speaker 1: matter who's on the field. I mean, and we've seen
Speaker 1: the Panthers get close and it's like it's time to
Speaker 1: close out one of these games. Um, and so that
Speaker 1: happened today. I'm not shocked that, you know, they gotta
Speaker 1: win like this at some point, but I'm surprised it
Speaker 1: came with no Teddy Um and Christian McCaffrey's losses. You know,
Speaker 1: there's no replacing him, but Mike Davis has been a
Speaker 1: pretty awesome filling week to week and so you know,
Speaker 1: they this this to me. Like I pointed the Lions
Speaker 1: and say, if you stick with this coaching staff, um,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of answers to give to your
Speaker 1: fan base, who should be as frustrated as any fan
Speaker 1: base in the league right now. Dealing with injuries is
Speaker 1: like the number one sign I think of good coaching staffs.
Speaker 1: So the Lions had massive injuries too. When I saw
Speaker 1: that Amondola and Gola Day and Swift were out, I
Speaker 1: mean where is their offense? They were a tough offense
Speaker 1: to watch with those three guys. You know, Amondola's kind
Speaker 1: of you know, tertiary compared to those other two. But
Speaker 1: that is there are like Swift, Swift, that Gola Day.
Speaker 1: That's it. So it doesn't surprise me their coaching staff
Speaker 1: couldn't scheme up much to do. But still the get
Speaker 1: out I'm not expecting them to get shut out. I
Speaker 1: would not have been. I'm saying it's it's inexcusable, But
Speaker 1: that's a sign I think when you compare these two
Speaker 1: coaching staffs with the difference between them. Yeah, and on
Speaker 1: the other side, God like Mike Davis, who two coaching
Speaker 1: staffs in Chicago and Carolina couldn't do anything with him
Speaker 1: last year. Yep. But Matt Role staff can and p J. Walker.
Speaker 1: How many other guys are out there who are, like
Speaker 1: you know, it's just playing in other leagues or not
Speaker 1: not in the NFL. Come come straight in and win
Speaker 1: a game like this. The only time the Lions showed
Speaker 1: life in this game. They got a flee fu flee
Speaker 1: flicker touchdown uh from Stafford to Marvin Jones um that
Speaker 1: was wiped away in the third quarter on a legal
Speaker 1: formation call on Marvin Jones. So that would have made
Speaker 1: it fourteen seven, and then maybe who knows what happens.
Speaker 1: I think that was the spiritual end of this game,
Speaker 1: because it just you could just could tell that the
Speaker 1: Detroit could do they could get nothing done here. It's
Speaker 1: it's the watches on, It's I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: more question, because this Lion's team is not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: We know that they're heading towards nine or ten losses,
Speaker 1: and they will be one of the teams it seems
Speaker 1: destined to be searching for a coach come January. This
Speaker 1: was a big step toward that direction. Let's move on
Speaker 1: top top switch. I feel you, Lions fans. We're in
Speaker 1: this together. Play fake looking. In the middle of the
Speaker 1: end of two Schultz touchdown with a minute thirty seven left,
Speaker 1: Dalton de Schultz and the Cowboys have regained the lead.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, aren't at sham the sham god? Okay, l
Speaker 1: d oh, Greggy, I'm talking about the Eagles stone first place.
Speaker 1: Guess what. There's another team in the mix now, the
Speaker 1: NFC East, four of them. Don't you ever? Don't you
Speaker 1: ever count out the going Gingerman Andy Dalton with three
Speaker 1: touchdowns in his return from a concussion and COVID related absence,
Speaker 1: including that go ahead strike. The dune of Dalton salts
Speaker 1: late in the north quarter. Cowboys beat the king Mark
Speaker 1: You talked to Bathom. But yes, the Cowboys are now
Speaker 1: in the mix legitimately again in the NFC East, which
Speaker 1: says so much. They are They play Washington on Thursday,
Speaker 1: so you know, they have a chance to pick up
Speaker 1: another win and separate from Washington. It's just it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird in like mid November, late November, to watch
Speaker 1: like a two win team come into Sunday with so
Speaker 1: much to play for and uh they looked like you know,
Speaker 1: having watched the Eagles, you know, minutes before, this team
Speaker 1: brought much more life. I think their defense is improving
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um guys like Laton Vanderesh looked to
Speaker 1: me over the last three or four weeks the way
Speaker 1: that I remember Laton Vanderesh from the past. Uh. There
Speaker 1: like the scheme. Maybe maybe you know, people complained about
Speaker 1: the scheme being tough to deal with. Maybe it just
Speaker 1: took you know, the a Brother's team that could have
Speaker 1: used a real preseason to go through some of this.
Speaker 1: But the story of the game was both quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: the offenses. I felt what I felt like it was
Speaker 1: tough to watch one of them lose because Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: was lights out and I mean the wide receiver play
Speaker 1: in this game was unbelievable. I'm sure you all saw
Speaker 1: the Ceedee Lamb catch, which was um, you know, I uh,
Speaker 1: the Odell Beckham catch. There's one of these, like there's
Speaker 1: maybe two or three of these these kind of plays
Speaker 1: um a year or even every five years, because that
Speaker 1: was something that was just remarkable to watch. Adam Feeling
Speaker 1: had a one handed touchdown grab in this. He had
Speaker 1: a second one handed grab as well, so the wide
Speaker 1: receiver and Justin Jefferson did more Justin Jefferson things, So
Speaker 1: that was the fun part of this. There were six
Speaker 1: lead chain is four of them in the fourth quarters,
Speaker 1: so it's just sort of a matter of who would
Speaker 1: um have the ball last, and Dalvin Cook Dallas did
Speaker 1: a nice job against him early. He got real hot
Speaker 1: towards the end, and I saw Dallas' defense get worn down,
Speaker 1: and I thought a couple of times the Vikings were
Speaker 1: gonna kind of blow the lid off the thing and
Speaker 1: just walk away with it because their season is obviously
Speaker 1: on the line as well. But Andy Dalton, like give
Speaker 1: him credit. I mean this Dallas team, uh, they have
Speaker 1: so many parts they look so they look like, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone's ditching all the parts getting rid of them off
Speaker 1: your fantasy team. But guys like Ceedee Lamb brought life today.
Speaker 1: Um Amari Cooper had a couple of big catches as
Speaker 1: Zekiel Elliott ran for his first hundred yard outing of
Speaker 1: the year. Tony Pollard, I think it's a nice compliment
Speaker 1: to him at a big, huge touchdown run himself. So
Speaker 1: Dallas has life and they're more fun to watch in
Speaker 1: the Eagles. So I'm I would rather see Dallas, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, make something out of this. Uh and and
Speaker 1: and four? John, This shouldn't be impossible that if Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton could just be basically Andy Dalton. He doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be special because he never really has been, but
Speaker 1: he's been proficient for large chunks of his career. They
Speaker 1: should be able to score to thirty points a game
Speaker 1: with this team, even if it's not the same offense
Speaker 1: it used to be. The offensive line isn't as good,
Speaker 1: there's still enough there and Dalton is capable. West am
Speaker 1: I crazy? I mean? Is it crazy to think that
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys this should be not an aberration this
Speaker 1: week but something we see more often going forward, Dalton
Speaker 1: getting more comfortable and the Cowboys becoming not embarrassing anymore
Speaker 1: on offense. I think you're right, and I think we've
Speaker 1: seen a team that's kind of transformed. They seem like
Speaker 1: a different team November two than they were October two,
Speaker 1: Like they've I think Mark mentioned their improved defense, and
Speaker 1: it's not just a little bit. I think they're much improved.
Speaker 1: And they did get worn down today. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not good to be given up a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: yards to Dalvin Cook and great games for Thalan and Jefferson,
Speaker 1: But but I do think you're not gonna roll into
Speaker 1: Dallas and just pile up yards and points on on
Speaker 1: the Cowboys like you could earlier in the year. Well
Speaker 1: say they won the game too, write they mean they
Speaker 1: did win the game. They got Zack Martin back and
Speaker 1: he played right tackle actually um and played really well.
Speaker 1: So I think that, you know, the line health in Dallas,
Speaker 1: and it seems to be a theme with all these teams,
Speaker 1: like they have I think more offensive line combinations and
Speaker 1: pretty much just about anyone. But getting him back today
Speaker 1: was a spark. Yeah, everyone was crushing, including me, Mike McCarthy.
Speaker 1: So we should give them credit, you know, their offensive line,
Speaker 1: not just it's not just that they lost, like future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famers and all this stuff. It's just it
Speaker 1: all happened at once where you had like four or
Speaker 1: five new starters at once, and so it's very encouraging
Speaker 1: if you think back to the last time Dalton played,
Speaker 1: which was against Washington, and this offense was inoperable, that
Speaker 1: they've gotten it together and that that does go to coaching,
Speaker 1: it goes to these these young players. Um. But part
Speaker 1: of it is is more of it is the defense
Speaker 1: to me, and I know they gave up a lot
Speaker 1: of points here, but when Kirk Cousins gets the ball
Speaker 1: the way that they were rolling today and they go
Speaker 1: four and out when all they gotta do is kick
Speaker 1: a field goal to get it to overtime, and Alden
Speaker 1: Smith get who has been awesome, gets a quarterback hit
Speaker 1: and Randy Greggy Gregory, who looks pretty good coming off
Speaker 1: a couple of years off because the suspensions, looks pretty good.
Speaker 1: I mean that that's major. I mean they touchdown past
Speaker 1: the Schultz was absolutely outschemed the Vikings and Mike Zimmer
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it was a busted coverage
Speaker 1: or what, but the fact that Schultz didn't have anyone
Speaker 1: around him within about six or seven yards in the
Speaker 1: end zone with one thirty seven to play on the
Speaker 1: go ahead score. So yeah, maybe it's this is a night.
Speaker 1: We'll give some credit to Mike McCarthy and Kellen Wore
Speaker 1: because certainly it's been tea off all season long on
Speaker 1: these guys, and it's been deserved because they entered this
Speaker 1: game two and seven, and quite frankly, we're not uh
Speaker 1: competitive after a Dak went down initially, But you just, man,
Speaker 1: who's gonna win the NFC East? If the Cowboys start
Speaker 1: playing like this, you would think, well, someone's gonna get
Speaker 1: someone's gonna get a fourth win on Thanksgiving and we'll
Speaker 1: have the most wins. I don't. I guess that puts
Speaker 1: them in first place either Washington. Uh. And it's a
Speaker 1: tough last for the old team of zeus Ciel also
Speaker 1: stuck on four wins. It's a tough one, yeah, because
Speaker 1: this felt like a hiccup game. I talked about it
Speaker 1: on Thursday. I didn't think they were gonna end up
Speaker 1: ten and six. They were gonna shoot themselves in the
Speaker 1: foot at some point, and but doing it at home
Speaker 1: against Alice, it's it's not it's not a good look.
Speaker 1: I'm not writing them off. I still think they can
Speaker 1: get to nine wins and find their way into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But now they just made their path a lot more difficult.
Speaker 1: I will say that they have the Panthers and Jaguars
Speaker 1: coming up, so they can get back to six and
Speaker 1: six by mid December and be okay, but not good,
Speaker 1: not good. Alright, and before we move on, let's welcome
Speaker 1: in the great Nick Shook. He has been an invaluable
Speaker 1: bench player for the podcast this season, and now he
Speaker 1: joins us along with I love when there's the two
Speaker 1: bald guys on at the same time. What's up, Shook? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have the good bald duo right here, right next
Speaker 1: to each other in the screen for those you good.
Speaker 1: I love that chair for you. It looks like your
Speaker 1: trap muscles never stopped. Yeah. See this is like this
Speaker 1: is the back. Yeah, so that I should probably not
Speaker 1: wear black, but a lot of what I have is
Speaker 1: black because it's first at all. You look like you're
Speaker 1: right now in the holidayl volcano in the middle Pacific Ocean,
Speaker 1: ready to blast some island off the face of the earth.
Speaker 1: I am very much not in that setting. I mean
Speaker 1: the windy cold Bluff Street, Cleveland. All right, let's check
Speaker 1: in with the Cincinnati Bengals. A tough day in Cincinnati Burrow,
Speaker 1: now running to the side, tried to get to the
Speaker 1: corner of the end Zode Oh. Chase just tagged him.
Speaker 1: The ball is out and recovered there. There's a flag down,
Speaker 1: which I think it's gonna be a hole to get Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: But Young caused a big turnover crushing in the borrow.
Speaker 1: It was recovered out of bounds. That was violent. But
Speaker 1: Chase going up against his fellow teammate from Ohio State
Speaker 1: that's Bram Weinstein and Juliet Donaldson for w t e
Speaker 1: M number two pick. He's Young reacquainted himself with number
Speaker 1: one picked Joe Burrow at the goal line on Sunday.
Speaker 1: His crushing hit on fourth down a huge play in
Speaker 1: Washington's twenty to nine wins over the Bangles. Sadly shook
Speaker 1: the big news out of this game. There was a
Speaker 1: different hit on Burrow, uh one that ended his fantastic
Speaker 1: rookie season. Yeah, and it kind of swung the entire
Speaker 1: tone of the game. The Bengals had to leave when
Speaker 1: that happened, and then pretty much just fell silent for
Speaker 1: the rest of the game. Outscored thirteen and nothing for
Speaker 1: the remainder of the contest, and you can kind of
Speaker 1: feel the air sucked out of them when they saw
Speaker 1: Burrow leave on the cart. You saw a lot of
Speaker 1: players from both teams, a lot of former Ohio State
Speaker 1: players who were teammates that Joe Burrow for a couple
Speaker 1: of years going over to give him their best wishes.
Speaker 1: But um, I mean it kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: you know, you lose your your alpha male, your a leader.
Speaker 1: Because Burrow is a guy. Although he's a rookie, he's
Speaker 1: a guy this team has rallied around almost from the beginning. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a kind of guy. You know. Somebody like to
Speaker 1: talk to you about about the game, likes to say
Speaker 1: that he's the kind of guy where if you find
Speaker 1: yourself in a fight, he's coming over the top to
Speaker 1: to throw a haymaker and get in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: He's sitting on the side like some pretty boy wood
Speaker 1: And I think that's the type of guy. Um that
Speaker 1: this team has has rallied around. And and you take
Speaker 1: that away and suddenly they're the Bengals of old, which
Speaker 1: is the Ryan Finley Bengals, which is the Bengals that
Speaker 1: don't stand much of a chance even if they are
Speaker 1: improved in other areas and that's kind of what you
Speaker 1: saw for the remainder of the game. It really kind
Speaker 1: of punctuates to me what has been a concern for
Speaker 1: a lot of people and I know definitely myself this season. Kid,
Speaker 1: they protect Joe Burrow long enough to get through the
Speaker 1: season and and keep his health in order, because he
Speaker 1: is obviously the franchise guy. He's looked like the guy.
Speaker 1: He can be their guy for the next decade plus
Speaker 1: if they can keep him upright and keep him on
Speaker 1: the field. Unfortunately, the nightmares came true today and we'll
Speaker 1: have to wait until next year to continue. Joe Burrows
Speaker 1: young and extremely promising, still career. HM. When I saw
Speaker 1: the moment I saw the replay, I knew he's done
Speaker 1: for the year. And just images. Cincinnati is such a
Speaker 1: heartbroken city when it comes to injuries, and to see
Speaker 1: just flash through my mind Carson Palmer sacked by chem
Speaker 1: of on olha Um, Kenyan Martin University of Cincinnati basketball
Speaker 1: player breaking his leg, ka Johanna Carter tearing his knee
Speaker 1: in his first preseason before he ever plays a game.
Speaker 1: I mean Ken Griffe Jr's hamstring. It just goes on
Speaker 1: and on. Tim crumb Rose broken leg in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Just a heartbroken city and just to have to deal
Speaker 1: with this again. I had had boots on the ground
Speaker 1: and since you are boys spice track. He texted me this.
Speaker 1: Every Bengals fan I know hope for one thing this
Speaker 1: season borrow avoiding a devastating injury. That's it, no exaggeration.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, yeah, it's it's unbelievable that that's certain organizations
Speaker 1: just can't shake terrible things like this happening to them.
Speaker 1: Because that was the big takeaway of this season was yes,
Speaker 1: the Bengals were not going to be a playoff team
Speaker 1: this year, and who knew if they had the right
Speaker 1: leadership on the sideline at this point, and they certainly
Speaker 1: need need more players around, but they had this guy
Speaker 1: to build around and they still do. But now you
Speaker 1: throw in the complication of a reconstructive knee surgery and
Speaker 1: the timing of it, you would think sets him up
Speaker 1: to be ready for Week one, but then, of course,
Speaker 1: in the back of your mind, you're wondering if this
Speaker 1: affects him as an athlete going forward. We've been talking
Speaker 1: everyone just trying to figure out Carson Wentz, what's wrong
Speaker 1: with Carson Wentz and one of the theories is that
Speaker 1: after he blew out his knee and then he suffered
Speaker 1: the back injury, that he lost some of that quick
Speaker 1: twitch ability. You just hope that with the advances and
Speaker 1: where we are technology and medicine and rehab, that he'll
Speaker 1: come back and be the same guy. But we didn't
Speaker 1: even want to have to have this conversation, and yet
Speaker 1: here we are. Yeah. I had had a conversation with
Speaker 1: another another friend today during that game before he got
Speaker 1: hurt about how you know, they just haven't been able
Speaker 1: to really protect him well, and a lot of that
Speaker 1: is due to injuries up front, but also a personnel decisions.
Speaker 1: You know, they've tried to invest in the offensive line
Speaker 1: the last few years, Jonah Williams being one of them.
Speaker 1: He couldn't play his entire rookie year because of an injury,
Speaker 1: and he was able to come back and has been
Speaker 1: part of the mix. But you know, you make decisions
Speaker 1: like going and resigning a right tackle like Bobby Hard
Speaker 1: who wasn't strong, who's been a little bit better since then.
Speaker 1: You've had a rotating cast or right guard for much
Speaker 1: of the season. Um, you never want to pin a
Speaker 1: devastating injury on decision makers. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: when you do spend your first overall pick on a
Speaker 1: franchise quarterback and you set him out there behind an
Speaker 1: offensive line that's just not the best, you are setting
Speaker 1: yourself up for a risk for something like this. I mean,
Speaker 1: we could go back into history of the league and
Speaker 1: think about a guy like Tim Couch for example, who
Speaker 1: was put behind a terrible offensive line in Cleveland. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not the first time this has happened. It's
Speaker 1: just a terrible outcome that you never want to see
Speaker 1: any happen to anybody. And the fact that it has happened,
Speaker 1: now you know you have to double down an offensive
Speaker 1: line protection going for it. But again you worry, did
Speaker 1: he lose something that he might never get back with
Speaker 1: an injury like that? Now that how does it affect
Speaker 1: next year? You know, how does it affect him? A
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of times. You know John Watson
Speaker 1: even you know, slightly different player and not quite the
Speaker 1: same in that first year back. It just makes the
Speaker 1: evaluation of Zach Taylor harder. So we'll see my my
Speaker 1: sense because it's Mike Brown and the contract that Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor got in the history of the Bengals is they
Speaker 1: might not even really be thinking about firing Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: and the way that that fans would um. But it
Speaker 1: just at this point, you're gonna be playing out the
Speaker 1: string with Ryan Finley, and so you gotta you're basically
Speaker 1: almost making your decision on Taylor right now. Is he
Speaker 1: the right guy to shepherd Joe Burrow for the next
Speaker 1: few years? Is he the right guy to coach up
Speaker 1: in offensive line? Because coaching is is a huge part
Speaker 1: of uh the offensive line, and they've struggled to put
Speaker 1: it out. But I remember a show like back in
Speaker 1: April when we you know, Unsolved Mysteries, and one of
Speaker 1: the topics was we have no idea who Zach Taylor is.
Speaker 1: I'm not a lot closer to knowing who he is now. Um,
Speaker 1: And they're clearly gonna if you look at the way
Speaker 1: this game played out after Burrow went out, they're gonna
Speaker 1: free fall. So you're gonna you're gonna, you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're not gonna learn much about Zach Taylor from here
Speaker 1: to the end of the season. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: mean you you know, I could see them they're gonna
Speaker 1: do one or two things, probably cling to him too
Speaker 1: long or bring back Marvin Lewis would be the other thing.
Speaker 1: I can see they're gonna be picking in the top five,
Speaker 1: and I guess you can learn from this invest in
Speaker 1: that offensive line that feels like a no doubt or
Speaker 1: a no brainer for Cincinnati. Hopefully there's a prospect they
Speaker 1: hit on and do a better job protecting Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: and year two than they did in year one. And
Speaker 1: a shout out to Alex Smith. He won a game
Speaker 1: for the first time since November eleven, two th eighteen,
Speaker 1: one week before he broke his fibula and tibia in
Speaker 1: his right leg and nearly died from it. So his
Speaker 1: comeback story kind of now has come all the way there. Uh,
Speaker 1: and good for him and he's, you know someone for
Speaker 1: now he's going to yeah, exactly. Now he's gonna be
Speaker 1: on the most watched game of the year traditionally is
Speaker 1: the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving. Alex Smith in a big spot,
Speaker 1: trying to get into first place. They're a frisky team
Speaker 1: and they've been a better offense with Alex Smith behind center.
Speaker 1: I just don't think it's that hard to to say
Speaker 1: that they've been better. He's an inspiration for me. M
Speaker 1: west go on, I want to hear that. That's I
Speaker 1: just wanted to say that you. So I've read where
Speaker 1: studies have been done on pro athletes, specifically NFL players
Speaker 1: on I R and the depression connected to it. Because
Speaker 1: first of all, you're anybody who is taken out of
Speaker 1: society for a while in their job eventually comes to
Speaker 1: ask what's my purpose? What am I doing? That's a
Speaker 1: big one. But second of all, and this is particularly
Speaker 1: pertinent for Alex Smith, is our relation to pain and
Speaker 1: time spent by yourself? Um is one thing. Time spent
Speaker 1: by yourself with pain is something entirely different. So for
Speaker 1: him to go through all that, that gets my respect.
Speaker 1: Well put of course, West and we see the parallels
Speaker 1: to what you're dealing with. And you know you have
Speaker 1: our respect through the roof, buddy, and we love you.
Speaker 1: And every time you're on this show, that's a better show.
Speaker 1: And you've on it again, So thank you, Thanks guys us.
Speaker 1: The legend Chris Westling goes out on you know, do
Speaker 1: they have what's the podcast awards as a Webbys or
Speaker 1: whatever whatever it is that that money again, what is
Speaker 1: the one that got We got a Stitcher Award, Civil award,
Speaker 1: the physical award is on someone's mantles, like in on
Speaker 1: the East Coast somewhere at this point we did I
Speaker 1: think we also got Best New Podcast iTunes Honorable Mention
Speaker 1: or something. We were like, oh, that's right. They gave
Speaker 1: it to a Yeah, they gave it to like five
Speaker 1: or six, and were one, yeah, give it to alright,
Speaker 1: let's move on. Chuoky. He gets the snap, throws it
Speaker 1: long down the near sideline Chase clay Pool with a
Speaker 1: diving crab for a touchdown for clay Pool, the rookie
Speaker 1: out of Notre Dame. That is here's seventh touchdown receiving.
Speaker 1: Make that number eight on the year, Bill Hill Grove
Speaker 1: w d V. And there's that check music, and we're
Speaker 1: playing it every week because the Steelers win every week.
Speaker 1: They're now tenant. Oh. After Ben Roethlisberger through two touchdown passes,
Speaker 1: including that thirty two yard connection to Chase Claypool, Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: cruises as expected to a seven to three win over
Speaker 1: the Jaguars. Claypool, um I would like you to think
Speaker 1: about him when you're evaluating the best rookie whiteouts. This season.
Speaker 1: He has ten touchdowns in ten games. Greg this one
Speaker 1: win his playing. Yeah, it did. And you know, I
Speaker 1: know we're maybe like a little heavy to use an
Speaker 1: industry term on the show. We can save some time
Speaker 1: here that that. Two big takeaways I have from this
Speaker 1: game is that Ben Roethlisberger's arm has looked better the
Speaker 1: last two weeks. I think he's made more impressive throws
Speaker 1: in the last two weeks than any part of the season.
Speaker 1: He had some plays today where just his anticipation and
Speaker 1: arm strength was awesome, kind of the old Ben plays.
Speaker 1: And that's what I was looking for. Early in the season.
Speaker 1: He was playing effective, but you weren't getting those Ben
Speaker 1: Roth the spurger throws. And you got him today, you
Speaker 1: got him last week. I love that. And then we
Speaker 1: talked about this group as like a bunch of like
Speaker 1: really great receivers, and they are, for sure, but Deante
Speaker 1: Johnson's the one. I mean, if you look at the targets,
Speaker 1: he gets it. He gets fifteen targets a week, he
Speaker 1: gets eleven or twelve catches a week. This guy is
Speaker 1: a problem. Like he is by far their number one
Speaker 1: receiver and he's doing a week after week, which is
Speaker 1: it just makes it more impressive. It's really impressive too
Speaker 1: when you consider the consistent impact Chase Claypool's head usually
Speaker 1: in scoring out so much in yards, but definitely in
Speaker 1: scoring that they can spread it around this well between
Speaker 1: him and Deonti Johnson to where you know, correct being
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, but Judrew Smith Schuster is bordering on
Speaker 1: an afterthought at times. I don't know a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: but at times you forget that he's part of that
Speaker 1: receiving corp as well because of the effectiveness the other
Speaker 1: guys and Eric Ebron also kind of doing his part.
Speaker 1: Fore catches for thirty six yards in a touchdown today.
Speaker 1: He's been a nice little edition for the tight end.
Speaker 1: Not quite as lucrative as people thought when he's signed there, um,
Speaker 1: but great. He's been effective for sure. So um. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a team that It's not necessarily that they
Speaker 1: rushed super effectively, although James Conner was really good today
Speaker 1: six point eight yards per carry. You expected this against
Speaker 1: this team, but the fact that they're so balanced, and
Speaker 1: of course Ben Roethlisberger playing a big part of that,
Speaker 1: it makes it really hard to ever pick against them
Speaker 1: or or think that they might lose a game. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously they're tennant, know, so they get to this point.
Speaker 1: But when I look at them in a week by
Speaker 1: week basis, I'm like, well, it might be close, but
Speaker 1: I still have them winning because they've won games by
Speaker 1: every every fashion possible. It's been close, it's been comebacks,
Speaker 1: it's been blowout, has been everything in between. They have
Speaker 1: the mark of a winning team and one you know, Dan,
Speaker 1: for you as the president of the Luton Night's Um,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of game it's you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: writing these newsletters is tough. You gotta dig dp. He
Speaker 1: had four interceptions today. He does not appear to have
Speaker 1: the skills necessary for this career at this level. So
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just gonna encourage you because I've been
Speaker 1: on the on the wrong side of some of these
Speaker 1: fan bases that just you're gonna have to take it
Speaker 1: to a new level. The coverage, think the dedication. I
Speaker 1: think it's time for me to pull back the curtain
Speaker 1: a little bit on what this was always really about.
Speaker 1: Out Remember the Remember the Bodyguard, Remember that movie? Sure,
Speaker 1: Kevin Costner Houston Um look at Jake Luton Luton as
Speaker 1: the maniac that was trying to off the pop star
Speaker 1: played by Whitney Houston look at me as the Kevin
Speaker 1: Costner type. And I was looking, which makes sense. And
Speaker 1: what I saw going into this, Jake Luton Arrow, was
Speaker 1: you were going to gravitate towards him and latch onto him.
Speaker 1: And I knew that you were just going to be
Speaker 1: hurt again. So what I did, I constner the situation.
Speaker 1: I jumped in front of the bullet, right in front
Speaker 1: of you. You're Whitney Houston, congratulations. Took the bullet, took
Speaker 1: the gut shot so you wouldn't be hurt. And now
Speaker 1: and now I'm injured and I'm hurt. But I know
Speaker 1: I did the right thing. I was doing my job,
Speaker 1: which was always to protect you. Whitney Houston. I will
Speaker 1: always love you. I mean I I you live in
Speaker 1: a in a special fantasy world where that's the narrative
Speaker 1: you're coming out with this. I appreciate um. If any
Speaker 1: of that, if any of that were true, I would
Speaker 1: appreciate it. I mean, you should be Gardner Minshew's biggest
Speaker 1: fan right now, Dan, you should be uh get our
Speaker 1: let's go letter. He was questioned about the injury report
Speaker 1: this week. I think. I think he's coming back in
Speaker 1: this Jaguars team. I know it doesn't show what the score,
Speaker 1: but their defense is playing better, and minshew, maybe you
Speaker 1: can get you a win and get the Jets up
Speaker 1: to number one. They I know they didn't show it.
Speaker 1: I didn't watch this game, but I know they didn't
Speaker 1: show anything here. They're gonna win a game once they
Speaker 1: get means you back in there. He's gonna have one
Speaker 1: of those games. But that doesn't happen until he's back in. Mark,
Speaker 1: I will always love you. Let's move on and I'm
Speaker 1: way to Houston. I don't like the future, but here
Speaker 1: we go. Shotgun, here's here's uplift wants to wait from it?
Speaker 1: Steps up? Who wants to run? He's drag path flings
Speaker 1: the ball forward. It's dead and Tea were on town
Speaker 1: waiting twenty When I'm at an eleven ago, Mark van
Speaker 1: Demir haven't heard from him. A lot k I l
Speaker 1: z Cam Newton could have found anyone scrambled was forced
Speaker 1: into an incompletion, the game clinching fourth down stop for
Speaker 1: the Texans. They beat the Patriots. It marks Houston's first
Speaker 1: one of the year over a team that is not
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville shook this loss. It's a killer for the
Speaker 1: Patriots and no other way around that. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: killer because of the uphill climb that they face. Um,
Speaker 1: but when I watched it, I I kept coming back
Speaker 1: to the same point, which was, you know, for as
Speaker 1: much as we've talked about how this offense has had
Speaker 1: to adjust to have a little bit of a different
Speaker 1: scheme with Cam Newton and they run the ball with
Speaker 1: him and this and that, he aired it out a
Speaker 1: lot today. I mean, I know they lost the game
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be tough going forward, but if you
Speaker 1: want some encouraging signs, you get out of Cam Newton
Speaker 1: for three or sixty five yards in a touchdown. He
Speaker 1: he found his guy today was Demir Bird converted a
Speaker 1: ton of third downs with them. I think the third
Speaker 1: down percentage was over thanks to the contributions of Demir Bird,
Speaker 1: who had I believe it was a career day and
Speaker 1: and uh it was in couraging even if it doesn't
Speaker 1: end up meaning that much because of the fact that
Speaker 1: they're in a pretty deep hole at this point. That
Speaker 1: Cam Newton is not just a guy that you try
Speaker 1: to run a QB power with, but can also find
Speaker 1: open receivers from time to time. Well, their defense has
Speaker 1: been the story to me this season, the total collapse,
Speaker 1: you know, Gilmore. I know they had some moments against
Speaker 1: Baltimore and they're gonna you know, they'll probably have some
Speaker 1: moments during the season, but this none of this season
Speaker 1: was gonna make sense for the Patriots with the defense
Speaker 1: that's in the worst ten I would say of the NFL,
Speaker 1: and I think they are they are comfortably there. This
Speaker 1: This feels like a game where it was like two
Speaker 1: teams that getting closer to a record that actually, um
Speaker 1: is where their level is. Because Houston's about as good
Speaker 1: at two in two and seven team that I've ever
Speaker 1: seen with Watson having you know, he's been a top five,
Speaker 1: top six quarterback this year. They deserve to be three
Speaker 1: and seven, and the Patriots probably deserve to be four
Speaker 1: and six. That's about their level. And and it's short
Speaker 1: circuits and he hopes they had for the playoffs. But
Speaker 1: the way the NFCS, the a f C is looking,
Speaker 1: I mean seven and three is like you need that
Speaker 1: right now to be in the playoffs. That's how the
Speaker 1: a f C is looking. Usually that stuff kind of
Speaker 1: levels out and as but there is every once in
Speaker 1: a while. Happened to the Patriots actually years and years
Speaker 1: ago that eleven and five didn't get you in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But it is interesting, uh to see how many teams
Speaker 1: are on pace for you know, eleven and even twelve
Speaker 1: wins right now. It's funny because, like we've we talked
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert, who's playing like amazing and changing everything we
Speaker 1: thought UM on a terrible team with a terrible record
Speaker 1: that for some reason, I maybe just because he's young
Speaker 1: and I feel like there's hope around him. Like this,
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson, this incredibly stellar season lost on this direction
Speaker 1: list team UM depresses me. And I think it's because
Speaker 1: I'm not certain that there's a very clear way out
Speaker 1: of this darkness for the Houston organization on a lot
Speaker 1: of different levels that we can talk about down the road,
Speaker 1: but it just feels like a we're wasting and almost
Speaker 1: will be we'll have forgotten about Deshaun Watson's incredible work
Speaker 1: this year. He looks awesome. Well, they need to get
Speaker 1: They got to get past this wreckage of the Bill
Speaker 1: O'Brien sure era as a GM and that's gonna mean
Speaker 1: getting past a couple of drafts that are have been
Speaker 1: compromised by when now moves he made that in hindsight
Speaker 1: were not the right move. So yeah, that's and the
Speaker 1: general kind of vibe around it with easter be involved, uh,
Speaker 1: and the fact that they have the interim coach, there's
Speaker 1: just a for sure, a different kind of picture around
Speaker 1: the Texans as compared to the Chargers, even when to me,
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson at this stage is a better quarterback than
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert, although maybe closer than anyone could have possibly
Speaker 1: thought we should know because we never we never mentioned
Speaker 1: this on a show that easter be Um. I think
Speaker 1: he did enough and got on got on enough people's
Speaker 1: radars that they had to make a very clear statement.
Speaker 1: The team president did mid last week that he will
Speaker 1: not be the GM, and then the owner came out
Speaker 1: and said over the weekend he will not be the GM.
Speaker 1: I think just that's fine. If he's choosing the GM,
Speaker 1: I don't care. It's meaningless, but there was the prm
Speaker 1: of that they're making and I get it. But my
Speaker 1: I guess my point is if he's ultimately the most
Speaker 1: important person in setting up the GM coach structure, which
Speaker 1: at this point. We have every reason to believe he
Speaker 1: will be then all that stuff is is bogus pr
Speaker 1: But we don't need to talk Easter be all day again.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I will say that they do have some
Speaker 1: pieces in place. They have. You know, Justin Reid had
Speaker 1: a good game today. He had a clutch sack lead
Speaker 1: in the game that put the Patriots in in a
Speaker 1: hole and ended up resulting them settling for a field
Speaker 1: goal when they had a promising drive going to look
Speaker 1: like they could end up tying the game. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: have Deshaun Watson. The biggest thing they have to do
Speaker 1: in the offseason. I gotta figure out how to fix
Speaker 1: this running game because again no semblance of a rushing
Speaker 1: attack whatsoever. Deshaun Watson led them and rushing with six
Speaker 1: attempts for thirty six yards. He had a touchdown run
Speaker 1: that basically punctuated Greg's point about the defense when he
Speaker 1: ran right through Devin mccordy for a touchdown. I mean
Speaker 1: and and trucked him like he was a big running back,
Speaker 1: not a quarterback. Could we expect to make that guy
Speaker 1: miss or outrun him instead of running through him. But
Speaker 1: there are still a lot of holes to fill. It's
Speaker 1: not a complete wreckage. This ship isn't entirely sunk with
Speaker 1: Bill O'Brien going down as the captain. But they're gonna
Speaker 1: need more than some life preservers to keep it afloat
Speaker 1: or keep their people on board a float. Well put
Speaker 1: Nick Shook, which takes us to Sunday night football. Great
Speaker 1: protection again Mahomes to the ends of light off and
Speaker 1: touchdown Kelsey, Patrick Mahans, who exchanged plays like no other
Speaker 1: Al Michael's little skipping his step in Las Vegas with
Speaker 1: the call Patrick Mahomes to the great Travis Kelsey with
Speaker 1: twenties eight seconds to play in the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: the deciding score and a thirty five to thirty one
Speaker 1: Chief's victory over the very game Las Vegas Raiders. Um.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs moved to nine and one, the Raiders fault
Speaker 1: to six and four, and can only ask what could
Speaker 1: have been if they get one more stop? Greg Both
Speaker 1: teams have reasons to feel good about themselves. I know
Speaker 1: only one team could win. Uh and you go all
Speaker 1: the way top to the quarterback position. This to me
Speaker 1: was the best quarterback game of the season. Maybe Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson Kyler Murray one. You can say rust Cama was
Speaker 1: pretty solid on Sunday Night, but this one was better. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: you can talk about that one. But I thought Derek
Speaker 1: Carr and Patrick Mahomes put on an absolute show in
Speaker 1: this game, and it was a joy to watch. Really,
Speaker 1: it was amazing. I mean, I love watching this Chiefs team.
Speaker 1: I don't want to take it for granted. Just the
Speaker 1: small things that Patrick Mahomes does, but Car matching him
Speaker 1: throw for throw and Car being the one for much
Speaker 1: of the game that went down the field and when
Speaker 1: he really needed to was able to create is what
Speaker 1: made this game so surprising, uh and delightful. The only
Speaker 1: thing that wasn't surprising was the last one fifth, the
Speaker 1: that that the Chiefs get the ball back after Jason
Speaker 1: Witton of all people, you know, give the Raiders the
Speaker 1: lead and they just march right down the field. I
Speaker 1: think Mahomes is brilliance though, came out the drive before,
Speaker 1: like the fourth and one play where the blitz is
Speaker 1: time perfectly and he has the backpedal and time that
Speaker 1: thing like he made. That's where like a guy like
Speaker 1: Mahomes makes it look easy. Another play where he pump
Speaker 1: fakes and gets it to Kelsey on the scrambled drill.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's those are the plays no one else
Speaker 1: can do. And so yeah, the Raiders get a lollipop
Speaker 1: and they feel good, but it's a brutal loss because
Speaker 1: they're not gonna win the division there six and four now,
Speaker 1: and the Chiefs way by Rex years to take them
Speaker 1: out on the other end of the get it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I like, I I see a Raiders team fueled um,
Speaker 1: And I don't mean this negatively. I mean it almost
Speaker 1: positively fueled by anger, anger towards the Chiefs, and like
Speaker 1: from a bird's eye view, Um, you know, Dan, you
Speaker 1: say that it's the boat. Teams have things that can
Speaker 1: take away Mike Mayock, Um and John Gruden together are
Speaker 1: building a formidable a f C contingent here. I I
Speaker 1: look at guys like Josh Jacobs, Um, Jonathan Abram, Max Crosby, Hunter,
Speaker 1: renfro Um, and it extends to everyone else. It's just
Speaker 1: that they I think, you know, even looking at the
Speaker 1: box score three quarters in, they almost mirrored the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: I think they're they're They're not the Chiefs. They don't
Speaker 1: have Patrick Mahomes, they can't be. But they won the
Speaker 1: first about to go one and one if you said
Speaker 1: you'd go one and one and be sitting here where
Speaker 1: you are with your record. Um, the Raiders have to
Speaker 1: be thrilled. I I think they can hang with anyone
Speaker 1: in the a f C. Um, They're they're well coached.
Speaker 1: Uh to me, I I watched this team and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you fell tonight, but I have no problem with it. Like, um,
Speaker 1: I think the Raiders are just well constructed, well built,
Speaker 1: well coached, and you're you can't give the ball back
Speaker 1: to Mahomes with you know, one for five or whatever
Speaker 1: was going on there. Um. I also would throw in
Speaker 1: a side comment that I don't think that al Michael's
Speaker 1: respects Leam mckugh at all. He had to he had
Speaker 1: to mention Leam mckugh sort of postgame theatricals at some point,
Speaker 1: and you could tell that this was also one of
Speaker 1: the best for all the negatives around Corona. The audible
Speaker 1: the audible like audio energy of this game. Being able
Speaker 1: to listen to Derek Carr and others like do pre
Speaker 1: snap and um, you know, like line of incredible stuff
Speaker 1: like so, I don't know, it was a wonderful football game. Um.
Speaker 1: The Raiders hung in there. To me, the Chiefs, this
Speaker 1: is what they do. Michelle will interview the star of
Speaker 1: the night in and then Leon wraps up the weekend.
Speaker 1: Am I wrong about that? I just sensed a sense
Speaker 1: um a potential potential lack of respect there. Al Michael's
Speaker 1: called the Miracle on Ice forty years ago. Al Michael's
Speaker 1: has betting slips that are older than Liam mcku. So
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of time. It's just maybe in time,
Speaker 1: Lee will earn the respect of al Michael's, but we're
Speaker 1: not there yet. I think that that anger is personified
Speaker 1: by Jonathan Abram, who it became clear to me two
Speaker 1: or three weeks ago when the Raiders are playing the
Speaker 1: Browns that Jonathan Abram is a borderline psychopath on the
Speaker 1: football field. In that game, he made a tackle on
Speaker 1: Kareem Hunt and ripped his own helmet off just to
Speaker 1: talk trash. He flies around the field like that every game.
Speaker 1: He took that type of anger and into this game,
Speaker 1: and I think it becomes frustration for the Raiders going forward,
Speaker 1: because you're right, they are kind of building a similar fashion,
Speaker 1: but they don't have the X factor. Derek car is
Speaker 1: a good quarterback. But Patrick Mahomes is is one of
Speaker 1: a kind. And when you take the field with you know,
Speaker 1: a minute twenty or whatever it was left, you know,
Speaker 1: less than two minutes. It's basically what Gregs tweet was,
Speaker 1: which was, Oh, yeah, I'm sure that will wrap this
Speaker 1: game up. You know, that's a good job, Raiders. Congrats
Speaker 1: on the wind. Yeah that's not gonna happen because you
Speaker 1: knew Mahomes gonna lead him down the field. They made
Speaker 1: it look so easy that it is really frustrating. But
Speaker 1: this would be such a fun matchup if we got
Speaker 1: this in the divisial round. Let's see the Chiefs of
Speaker 1: the one seed and let's you know, somehow they downed
Speaker 1: the Steelers in the feet of the say the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are undefeated or not undefeated, but they take the one
Speaker 1: seat and they meet in the divisional round in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would make for a great postseason matchup
Speaker 1: because I don't think the Raiders are that far off.
Speaker 1: And I know they still gave up thirty five points,
Speaker 1: but this was one of the better defensive showings against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs I think this season. Um relatively speaking, they
Speaker 1: gave they gave them problems until that final quarter. They
Speaker 1: definitely gave them problems. There was a moment there I
Speaker 1: was like, are the Chiefs gonna struggle to well? There
Speaker 1: was a vote where I thought, I want to have
Speaker 1: to cha. They got two stops. I mean, they choosing
Speaker 1: their choosing, And it's the problem with playing the Chiefs
Speaker 1: in the in the impressive thing is the Raiders can
Speaker 1: match them, but do you do you want to lose
Speaker 1: fast or slow? And they chose to make them go
Speaker 1: in these long drives, but they weren't getting stops. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, and for the most part you're especially in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, but there was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a period there in the second half I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: they're actually standing up somewhat well, considering again that this
Speaker 1: is the Chiefs, which most teams struggle to stop. So
Speaker 1: it would make for a really fun playoff matchup if
Speaker 1: we could get there. And until then, it's it's a
Speaker 1: fun rivalry in this division, and it's kind of a
Speaker 1: return to, you know, a rivalry that is strong decades
Speaker 1: ago and looks like it's going to be for the
Speaker 1: near future. All right, So it's Jason Witten that catches
Speaker 1: the go ahead touchdown pass with one to play. We've
Speaker 1: been We've really been all over the place. We're jumping around,
Speaker 1: We're trying to figure out how much time was left.
Speaker 1: And I said, abe is the exact number when Witton scores?
Speaker 1: And how about that? Jason Witton had almost had the
Speaker 1: game winning catching a big primetime game in and this
Speaker 1: is what happened when the Chiefs took over. It took
Speaker 1: him seven plays to go seventy five yards in one
Speaker 1: minute fifteen seconds. Mahomes to Tyreeke for ten, Mahomes incomplete,
Speaker 1: Mahomes to Tyreeke for nine, Mahomes to Hardman for sixteen,
Speaker 1: Mahomes to Kelsey for fifteen, Mahomes to darry uh Darris
Speaker 1: Williams for three, and then after a time out by Casey,
Speaker 1: Mahomes to Kelsey for twenty two. It's we we shouldn't
Speaker 1: take it for granted, like what we're seeing here with
Speaker 1: the Chiefs and how they can make everyone look terrible,
Speaker 1: uh so amazing, and the Raiders they fall to six
Speaker 1: and four. I was just I just took a look
Speaker 1: at the a f C standings. It's still obviously a
Speaker 1: log jam. They have the tiebreaker as Shook and Cessler
Speaker 1: no very well on the Browns, who there are one
Speaker 1: game behind, and also now the Ravens have dropped down
Speaker 1: into this six and four territory. I think the Raiders
Speaker 1: are a playoffs team. Maybe something changes from now. I
Speaker 1: think they're a better team, uh than the Browns Tennessee.
Speaker 1: I think they are a better team than the Titans
Speaker 1: and the Ravens. As weird as it is to say,
Speaker 1: I think they could be better than the Rates the Ravens.
Speaker 1: So I expect the Raiders to bounce back from this. Well.
Speaker 1: More importantly, their schedule finally opens up. It's been one
Speaker 1: of the toughest in the NFL all season, and the
Speaker 1: rest of it is not bad. The only thing I
Speaker 1: would I would caution against and I think they could
Speaker 1: be a dangerous team in the playoffs, is like now
Speaker 1: is their time? Okay, yeah, maybe they're building something. That's
Speaker 1: what they thought last time, That's what a million teams think,
Speaker 1: and so it's when you're at this point, like you
Speaker 1: gotta advantage. I think they have an offense that can
Speaker 1: go deep in the playoffs right now, and their defense
Speaker 1: makes a couple of plays like no no team has
Speaker 1: given the Chiefs as much trouble as the Raiders so close.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid that's exactly it. I think that maybe
Speaker 1: it's a Grooden thing, UM, and we don't know what's
Speaker 1: happening behind the scenes. But if you can only imagine
Speaker 1: Gruden's speeches to this team, and you know he knows
Speaker 1: Andy Reid. Uh you know, as Greg mentioned, Andy Reid
Speaker 1: is John Gruden's or Grant the godfather of of of
Speaker 1: Andy Reid apparently, But like, um, there, well, I think
Speaker 1: there was just no fear. We're gonna go, We're gonna
Speaker 1: go take it to the Chiefs and like, uh, I'm
Speaker 1: with you, Dan. I think the Raiders um came into
Speaker 1: Cleveland and outmuscled a Cleveland team that missed some of
Speaker 1: its key components. But that tiebreaker is killer. I could
Speaker 1: see a ten and six team in the a f
Speaker 1: c UM watching the playoffs from home. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure we will get that. Huh. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: you know what's happened, and it's gonna happen probably the
Speaker 1: same team twice UM in the course of a tenure.
Speaker 1: This is a nice little in joke on the Browns
Speaker 1: and maybe saved for the Browns podcast. I wouldn't call
Speaker 1: it a joke. It was not funny. Uh shout out.
Speaker 1: The only thing more impressive than the quarterback play today was,
Speaker 1: as Mark alluded to NBC Sunday Night Football, the best
Speaker 1: best best production in the game, from the booth to
Speaker 1: the highlight, to the uh different camera angles to the sound.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable what they can do. And it was like
Speaker 1: having Derek Carr in the living room all night and
Speaker 1: hearing all this, which I don't know that I want,
Speaker 1: but I'll take it tonight. I don't need that seven
Speaker 1: nights a week. But I liked Mamba, James Harden, Pistol Pete,
Speaker 1: Chris Mullen, all NBA players that are name dropped, uh
Speaker 1: in the cadence also Sammy Davis got a name dropped.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun and U and one
Speaker 1: other thing in the telecast the weakest link, Ricky. Now
Speaker 1: they're you know, now they're selling it as in big
Speaker 1: block lettering. Could this be the weakest team ever? So
Speaker 1: I know Patrick Laban was optimistic that, oh, that's just
Speaker 1: kind of like the stick of the show that the
Speaker 1: host is going to get on everyone. But now we
Speaker 1: have ever more evidence that something happened on this show
Speaker 1: that maybe wasn't great. Yeah, I don't know. If you're
Speaker 1: listening to this on Monday morning, you gotta check it
Speaker 1: out tonight. And if you're listening to it late night Sunday,
Speaker 1: I gotta check it out tomorrow. I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: reverse that narrative I expecting Tuesday. I guess you're screw Yes,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to listen to it yesterday. Another theory,
Speaker 1: I expect a littlebron like performance out of Ricky Hollywood
Speaker 1: on the weakest link to Alright, from one week team
Speaker 1: to do another real quick new segment that Eric and
Speaker 1: I cooked up. We we should do a round up
Speaker 1: at the end of every Sunday show. Just where we
Speaker 1: are at with the lock of the week? Ricky? How
Speaker 1: how are we doing this? Alright? So here is Oh,
Speaker 1: it sounds nice. What's this? Oh? This is the club
Speaker 1: for the Dove the Doves. So if you've won your
Speaker 1: lock this week, you get I bottle service a separate table.
Speaker 1: This week it's just Dan alone. Naturally, this segment occurs
Speaker 1: now Mark always thinking the worst than meet and utter reality. Alright, well, Mark,
Speaker 1: you're in the room with me. Right obviously, No. No,
Speaker 1: Greg and I like went into our you know, our
Speaker 1: Dolphins finish. Oh, I'm I'm alone. Where where's the rest
Speaker 1: of the gang. H We're outside the club, dub Now
Speaker 1: it's only you. What happened? What? Ricky? The conceit of
Speaker 1: this is to let people know what the locks were
Speaker 1: this week? Us absolutely so. Greg originally locked up the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: but switched it this morning, um to the Dolphins. Bad move.
Speaker 1: Mark also locked up the Dolphins. Dan, as you alluded
Speaker 1: to earlier, you took the Saints even with the Taysom
Speaker 1: Hill announcement, West has locked up. This is a big one.
Speaker 1: You guys the Rams on Monday night football against Tom Brady?
Speaker 1: What about you? America? And I locked up the loser
Speaker 1: Patriots total non factor. Kang in there, Ricky. Will this
Speaker 1: segment occur next week? If Greg and I were to
Speaker 1: win our locks and Dani were to go down in
Speaker 1: the House of Fire, I can't hear you. It's still
Speaker 1: loud in here, Mark, of course not. Maybe next time
Speaker 1: you can can join me. All right, absurd Greggy, you
Speaker 1: can come on in, Come on anyway, all right, here
Speaker 1: we go. It's like the only third place allowed inside
Speaker 1: only coming in. Somebody said, all right, why did you
Speaker 1: switch off the Chiefs by the way, because the line
Speaker 1: was seven and a half and we had said it seven.
Speaker 1: My whole my whole point was with the whole thing
Speaker 1: is I don't like this game. I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: I'm still in first and if there is a rule
Speaker 1: if you win two years a row, which this would be,
Speaker 1: then you can kill it. But my whole point with
Speaker 1: my problems with the segment was you need to have rules.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're gonna play rules, then then what
Speaker 1: are you talking about. I'm saying if if I win
Speaker 1: the two years in a row, everyone knows that's the rule,
Speaker 1: then you can kill the segment. The segment will never die.
Speaker 1: The segment will die when I'm off the show. When
Speaker 1: I won the picks two years in a row, then
Speaker 1: I got to kill that and this happen. You can't
Speaker 1: be killing the idea of this, uh you know, part
Speaker 1: of our show, but also be writing picks for NFL
Speaker 1: dot com. Think he thinks he killed the other You
Speaker 1: can't have that, you know. Every way you know we
Speaker 1: did is Greg Rosenhall, the fun Ler'll be on that
Speaker 1: for a long time. That mystery has been sold. All right,
Speaker 1: that's it. This is a Den Hanson signing up for
Speaker 1: a quiet storm. The mail Matt, yes uh, Nick Shook,
Speaker 1: the unshookable Nick Shook. Working on it. We'll figure out eventually.
Speaker 1: The old Boston Ricky Hollywood behind the velvet roast on
Speaker 1: the wrong side. Until six