Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast slightly weaker than the NFC East.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast,
Speaker 1: presented by the United States Marine Corps. My name is
Speaker 1: Dan Hansas, and I come to you from a virtual
Speaker 1: room filled with some heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal. What
Speaker 1: is up? Boys? I take umbradge with that little intro.
Speaker 1: We're stronger than the NFC East. It's the day after Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: and look at us like we're the fittest, smartest, most
Speaker 1: best looking trio on the block. I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, personally, I'm battling like a massive
Speaker 1: head cold right now. So the fact that anyone on
Speaker 1: if you're logged in the NFL dot com and watching this,
Speaker 1: I apologize personally, or if you're listening to yeah, no, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it was tough. Thursday. Thursday Thanksgiving this year
Speaker 1: was you know, they're at the Handsas house. It was
Speaker 1: just the four of us, and for some reason it
Speaker 1: was the hardest Thanksgiving ever. I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1: But my wife and I my wife, and you know,
Speaker 1: God bless her. She's great, she's cool, she's hot, and
Speaker 1: she does good stuff in the kitchen. She knows how
Speaker 1: to cook, but there's just so much to make for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: even though it's just four of us. And then you
Speaker 1: have to clean all that, and then the children sessler
Speaker 1: the children, Greg, they need to be entertained for seventeen
Speaker 1: straight hours and cleaned up after. I I can't tell
Speaker 1: you I am less of a man now than I
Speaker 1: was yesterday morning. I can tell you that fighting through though,
Speaker 1: my goodness, what was you look great? You You wouldn't
Speaker 1: know it. Um, that's why you know, that's why I
Speaker 1: think the move on Thanksgiving. You got a call to
Speaker 1: the bullpen, pick up some of the food. Catering, make
Speaker 1: some so it's a little bit of a mix. Take
Speaker 1: a little bit of the load off because I'm not
Speaker 1: helping in the kitchen. So I hear you. It's it's
Speaker 1: too much. Yeah, I did fry a turkey that was
Speaker 1: nice and that and that tasted well. But that tasted good,
Speaker 1: but that was like, you know, that's a lot of
Speaker 1: work too. I'm dying here, says Um. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of work. And you listen, I think you're you're for
Speaker 1: all that anyone's going through. I always look to you
Speaker 1: as sort of the heroic figure. Thank you that you're
Speaker 1: you're taking on more and uh, I really do appreciate
Speaker 1: your efforts. And we have so much to get to
Speaker 1: here with week twelve on the horizon. But Mark, I
Speaker 1: I have to ask because it is the number one
Speaker 1: food day of the year on some level, and you
Speaker 1: are a food aryan famously you don't like to eat.
Speaker 1: What do you do on Thanksgiving? Take the audience through
Speaker 1: what your Thanksgiving was like? Well, it's rather bleak. It's
Speaker 1: not going to impress anyone. I mean actually, Uh, Simone's
Speaker 1: family has hosted Thanksgiving, huge thanksgivings for years, and I've
Speaker 1: often missed them because you know, of the NFL slate.
Speaker 1: But um, Simone and the kids went and met with
Speaker 1: uh the grandparents in a remote locale near Yosemite. Um.
Speaker 1: So I was home, you know, watching the games, doing
Speaker 1: our little pod and UH doing this thing today. So
Speaker 1: I actually ate um a piece of pizza that I
Speaker 1: had ordered um uh from two days before and not
Speaker 1: I and I don't really I haven't had turkey since
Speaker 1: like nineteen seven, so I don't. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what it tastes like at this point, remember it being
Speaker 1: very meally like you too. It would just stay in
Speaker 1: your mouth and you're like, get this over with please.
Speaker 1: But that probably wasn't the best version of Turkey's such
Speaker 1: a gross, gross description. Sorry, you shouldn't have come to
Speaker 1: me on that. No, I mean, I I shared on
Speaker 1: Good Morning Football the other day, hot takes of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Turkey's bad. I mean, can we calm down everyone thinking
Speaker 1: they're special because they say turkey is not a tasty meat?
Speaker 1: All right, we get it, You've you've nailed it. You're
Speaker 1: an outlier. Way to go, everybody. So you're saying what
Speaker 1: I just said is a very cliche trip. But I
Speaker 1: also have I also just sent I don't I don't
Speaker 1: have it. I'm not on a hill, you know, and
Speaker 1: some anti turkey hill. I think it's a tad ponderous
Speaker 1: that everyone's like, oh, I'm gonna have like turkey sandwhich
Speaker 1: is for the next six days. It's like, alright, fine,
Speaker 1: like whatever, I mean, that's fine. I hope everyone had
Speaker 1: a nice time. Mark Sassler one slah some pizza on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it, and you know how
Speaker 1: we do it, draft style as we go through each
Speaker 1: of the games. Of course, as as you just heard
Speaker 1: Mark said. Greg and Mark handled the Thanksgiving the two
Speaker 1: games on the slate, so you knocked those off. No
Speaker 1: teams on by this week unless a team has to
Speaker 1: be our two teams have to be uh not playing
Speaker 1: this weekend. And we'll get to that later in the show.
Speaker 1: But let's focus on things that we know are happening,
Speaker 1: or we think we know are happening. And I have
Speaker 1: the first overall pick. Big moment for the old Zeuser
Speaker 1: and with the first overall picked house, Kansas selects Kansas
Speaker 1: City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers mott Own at the
Speaker 1: Big Pirate Ship. Uh, this is a Sunday late game,
Speaker 1: Joe Troy, I think so Aaron Andrews Jim nance him
Speaker 1: at that. Oh wow, this is gentle and up Tony. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, that's good. So I'm really excited about this,
Speaker 1: I mean more excited. Uh. And for obvious reasons, you
Speaker 1: have Patrick Mahomes. I still think despite the Steelers being undefeated,
Speaker 1: I think this this league goes through Kansas City. Still,
Speaker 1: I think this is the best team in football. I
Speaker 1: loved what we saw against the Raiders. Maybe you could
Speaker 1: pick up their defense a little bit. You let Derek
Speaker 1: Carr go off on you, but that is a good
Speaker 1: Raiders team that was feeling confident in playing loose and
Speaker 1: free in primetime in their building. And you almost got
Speaker 1: picked up what you didn't because you have Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: and then you have the Bucks and this is greg.
Speaker 1: This is a fascinating game for Tampa Bay because a
Speaker 1: month ago we saw them as the team in the
Speaker 1: NFC and they have now lost two of three losses
Speaker 1: to the Saints, lost to the Rams, and now a
Speaker 1: big test against the defending champion. Yeah. I looked at
Speaker 1: this game, you know, a few weeks ago. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: this is the game of the year. Like, let's see
Speaker 1: the Bucks against the best. Are the Bucks a true
Speaker 1: Super Bowl contender? Now we're thinking can the Bucks even
Speaker 1: hang on? We don't know who's gonna pop up in
Speaker 1: the NFC who could possibly take a spot from them,
Speaker 1: But they look so good or so bad to me,
Speaker 1: they are like the biggest value add the most fascinating
Speaker 1: team in the league, whether they're good or they're bad.
Speaker 1: Like I love to watch them. I think after a while,
Speaker 1: we're almost taking for granted, uh that Tom Brady is
Speaker 1: on a team in with Antonio Brown, coached by Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians and Rob Gronkowski, and that this is all happening,
Speaker 1: and that not only that, but that they're like number
Speaker 1: one or two by every advanced metrics analytics along with
Speaker 1: the Chiefs. Let's say it's one of the top two
Speaker 1: teams like that. The defense is awesome, yet when they
Speaker 1: look bad, they look so bad, right then, Yes, that's
Speaker 1: I absolutely. I was surprised to hear you say that
Speaker 1: because I feel like what we've seen in the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks is this team be exposed as a
Speaker 1: non superpower in the league. But perhaps, Mark Sessler, this
Speaker 1: is just a slump that all teams tend to go
Speaker 1: through unless you're the Steelers are the Chiefs, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They have some of that classic DNA of the build
Speaker 1: a team, um that just doesn't quite work out. But
Speaker 1: they're not that entirely because outside of Brady, Antonio, Brown
Speaker 1: and Gronk, this was the team last year. So I,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to slash them with that label,
Speaker 1: but I do think that there's an element to this
Speaker 1: offense that, um. I remember back in April, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: the one thing I want to know is how are
Speaker 1: you gonna set up Tom Brady with running backs who
Speaker 1: can catch the ball out of the backfield. It was
Speaker 1: such a huge element to New England's offense last year
Speaker 1: in New England, you know, with Tom Brady not quite
Speaker 1: the play quite the pastor he's been in years of old,
Speaker 1: those running backs had eleven hundred yards and six touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Leonard four Nett and Ronald Jones are not doing that
Speaker 1: this year for the Bucks. That's just one little aspect
Speaker 1: that kind of concerns me. They've got a great group
Speaker 1: of wide receivers, but I just not totally sold on
Speaker 1: this team, as I believe you, Dan that I think
Speaker 1: that you know, in the a f C you go
Speaker 1: through Kansas City, and I think the Saints showed us
Speaker 1: basically that you're gonna come through us, Tampa Bay and
Speaker 1: everyone else. I still think Tampa may get to eleven
Speaker 1: wins if you look at the rest of their schedule,
Speaker 1: even if they lost this game, their schedules pretty cupcake
Speaker 1: from here to the end. They can get to eleven wins.
Speaker 1: But I don't trust them as an NFC superpower at
Speaker 1: this point, being too hard. Good matchup for them, This
Speaker 1: is a good matchup because the Chiefs have not been
Speaker 1: rushing the pastor that well Ali Marpet they're great guard
Speaker 1: the Bucks looks like he's gonna be returning. You can
Speaker 1: run against the Chiefs and that helps Brady to like
Speaker 1: They've been very matchup specific. When they play a great defense,
Speaker 1: then Brady is in trouble. This is not a great
Speaker 1: Chiefs defense. So I think this should be fun. Maybe
Speaker 1: not too different than that Raiders Chiefs game where it's
Speaker 1: just back and forth in the thirties at the end. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it. I think it's a little bit off
Speaker 1: for anyone to say, well, maybe this isn't working as
Speaker 1: an experiment with the Bucks, because we already saw them
Speaker 1: locked in where it all had come together earlier this season,
Speaker 1: where the defense is playing out of its mind Tampa
Speaker 1: and Tom Brady was cooking and and everything was clicking.
Speaker 1: So it's like this, Yes, it did work. The experiment
Speaker 1: worked in this team coming together, but now they have
Speaker 1: to find a way to fight through a little bit
Speaker 1: of a slob. But even on Monday Night, I don't
Speaker 1: think the Bucks played poorly. I think Tom Brady played poorly,
Speaker 1: and and that's something to watch out. I've been waiting
Speaker 1: for the Brady decline forever and now it's finally you
Speaker 1: know that year, and I think there's one there's one element.
Speaker 1: When Logan Ryan intercepted Tom Brady in that playoff game
Speaker 1: in January, took it to the house, ended his Patriots career.
Speaker 1: That's when my animosity for Brady went out the window. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't have that same feeling about him in Tampa,
Speaker 1: but I do worry about him. I have to say
Speaker 1: in terms of when you have a pass rest for
Speaker 1: instance that Los Angeles had last week, He's gonna see
Speaker 1: these matchups that are not in his wheelhouse. Is a
Speaker 1: forty three year old man, and I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: get the picked off eventually. Maybe you're right, Maybe the
Speaker 1: Chiefs Um aren't that team that's gonna give him trouble
Speaker 1: uh in terms of a pass rush and making him
Speaker 1: uncomfort bowl. But I've lost faith in Brady for sure. Well,
Speaker 1: I will tell you one thing real quick that I
Speaker 1: look at the coaching matchup and I've been a Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians file, if that's how you describe that um for
Speaker 1: a long time. I've always liked Bruce Arians, but I
Speaker 1: don't think that he gives you the advantage um that
Speaker 1: a top three or four coach does. And I think
Speaker 1: Andy Reid is gonna have a lot to say in
Speaker 1: this game. And I, you know, arians, I thought, I
Speaker 1: love his honesty, but he's kind of like calling out
Speaker 1: Tom Brady a little bit last week for some of
Speaker 1: those um gaffs that he made. So I feel very
Speaker 1: confident in Kansas City and confident enough for the first
Speaker 1: time all year to lock up the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1: I've checked with our sources um in the desert, and
Speaker 1: we are in fair territory. With that, I'm looking in
Speaker 1: the mirror proudly and I'm gonna ride with Kansas City.
Speaker 1: That's a That's a good one. There's a rule. There's
Speaker 1: a rule with our locks that, like, you know, how
Speaker 1: how shaky someone feels about it, depending on how much
Speaker 1: they defend themselves as they build up to it. So
Speaker 1: I put Market about a six and a half out
Speaker 1: of ten, like he's not makes no sense. I think
Speaker 1: this is a dangerous game for the Chiefs if they
Speaker 1: can lose. If they lose this game, they're probably not
Speaker 1: getting that one seed, by the way, and this is
Speaker 1: the toughest defense they've played all year. I don't feel
Speaker 1: shaky about the lock. I feel good about it. I
Speaker 1: feel shaky about having to defend locking the Chiefs with
Speaker 1: this crowd because I would come at someone doing that.
Speaker 1: But it is a It's a much tighter matchup than
Speaker 1: nine out of ten Chiefs, I guess. I guess when
Speaker 1: it comes to our locks competition, whenever you can lock
Speaker 1: up the Chiefs, you should. And Mark Sessler has all right,
Speaker 1: let's move on now to the second overall pick. Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Well like this pick. You know, I've been critiqued um
Speaker 1: in weeks of old for some of my draft picks
Speaker 1: being a little bit out there, but you have to
Speaker 1: have a vision this time. This is just a good
Speaker 1: meat and potatoes pick. Tennessee at Indianapolis, a f C
Speaker 1: South showdown. It's one of these weird deals where these
Speaker 1: teams just met. It feels like years ago, but they
Speaker 1: just met recently on Thursday night, and that I thought
Speaker 1: was one of the best games we've seen from Philip
Speaker 1: Rivers in the call and we were waiting for that game.
Speaker 1: There was also a lot of weird Tennessee was annoyed,
Speaker 1: I would imagine with the way that thing went down
Speaker 1: there was a lot of weird special team stuff going on.
Speaker 1: They had Trevor Daniel like a third string punter, um,
Speaker 1: creating a lot of chaos. You've got the bad version
Speaker 1: of Stephen Guskowski on a huge field goal. So I
Speaker 1: I kind of throw that game out to some degree. Um,
Speaker 1: But I don't throughout the fact that DeForrest Buckner is
Speaker 1: on the COVID list for the Cults. I think that's
Speaker 1: a huge loss. Um. I've said it before, this is
Speaker 1: my favorite defense to watch. But they're both very resilient teams.
Speaker 1: The Colts coming back from a fourteen point deficit to
Speaker 1: beat the Packers. That's the kind of game that made
Speaker 1: me think, you beat the Titans and you go and
Speaker 1: pete the Packers. I start to believe in you a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot more than I did a month ago in
Speaker 1: this Indianapolis Cults team. But Tennessee, they were eleven down
Speaker 1: to Baltimore and fought their way back in one of
Speaker 1: the tougher showings and a game that left us just
Speaker 1: criddled with questions about the Ravens in general. Pre this
Speaker 1: week's chaos. So, guys, I don't know really what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen in this one. But I know I like it.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's gonna happen. I thought like if
Speaker 1: I knew, I would, you know, there would be things
Speaker 1: I would do about that. But I can't. Well I
Speaker 1: I would. I'll tell you what's gonna happen. The cults
Speaker 1: are gonna beat the Titans again. Uh, They're gonna beat
Speaker 1: him twice in three games. They're gonna have beating the Packers.
Speaker 1: All the little Philip Rivers honkers like Dan out there,
Speaker 1: who is waiting for another old quarterback to hit the skids.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to admit this cult steam is a
Speaker 1: little dangerous because I think they're more complete this Titans defense.
Speaker 1: I know they survived against Baltimore. They lost their linebacker
Speaker 1: Jayon Brown for the season. I thought that was a
Speaker 1: big loss. He's one of the few good defensive players
Speaker 1: they have. Jeevan Clowney has been out, so I really
Speaker 1: think if Philip Rivers has time to throw the ball,
Speaker 1: even though there's some tight windows there. Dan, he's been
Speaker 1: playing well and the running game has been there the
Speaker 1: last two weeks. You give Philip Rivers some protection, a
Speaker 1: running game and he is just five. You know, Greg,
Speaker 1: you're you're funny. Um. You know, I've been doing this
Speaker 1: podcast with you for a long time, and you know,
Speaker 1: if there's one thing I know, there's two things I
Speaker 1: know about this podcast, and it ties directly into the
Speaker 1: two thousand four draft class. Greg hated Eli Manning for
Speaker 1: reasons that obvious and not obvious, and because he's overrated
Speaker 1: and he was never a top ten quarterback like one s.
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers was doing it every season. See how those
Speaker 1: Super Bowls still hurt Greg the Patriots spent. And the
Speaker 1: other one is Greg will always have faith in Philip
Speaker 1: Rivers and will go down with the ship every year
Speaker 1: no matter what. And you are right, Greg, he is
Speaker 1: playing very well and mistake free. But I I have
Speaker 1: to I have to tell you, Greg, it's gonna happen again.
Speaker 1: He's gonna kill you again at some point, just when
Speaker 1: you believe in him, and it's gonna cost the Colts
Speaker 1: perhaps their season. That's that's my general feeling on it.
Speaker 1: I will say this, getting the running game going is
Speaker 1: huge because it does give them the balance that they
Speaker 1: need because they can't lean on Philip Rivers because that
Speaker 1: will expedite whatever happens. Whatever Greek tragedy befalls them at
Speaker 1: quarterback at some point this season. But if you could
Speaker 1: balance his offense with that defense, I think they are
Speaker 1: a better all around team than Tennessee, and I think
Speaker 1: they're in a good spot at home. But I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say it's like a slam dunk win for the Colts.
Speaker 1: Mark was not a pretty dunk at all. I think
Speaker 1: they're fairly closely matched teams. Oh yeah, of course, and
Speaker 1: DeForest Buckner, has Mark mentioned, is a massive loss for
Speaker 1: the Titans. But I just think the Titans each week now,
Speaker 1: because their offensive line isn't playing well, is really counting
Speaker 1: on Tannehill and A. J. Brown and Derrick Henry to
Speaker 1: do special things by themselves, which they can, like they're
Speaker 1: capable of it. But I'm a little worried about Tannehill. Man.
Speaker 1: He takes a ton of hits each and every week,
Speaker 1: and at some point that I'm not I would never
Speaker 1: want to predict like something going wrong. This guy seems indestructible,
Speaker 1: but you can only take so many big hits, so
Speaker 1: he's gotta be worried about that. Today. They did not
Speaker 1: protect him well in this matchup a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I would say it's Oaks. Sometimes it's okay, though, if
Speaker 1: you're like, look at we have these three guys, Um,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's November, we're into December. We have these
Speaker 1: three guys that we rely on, and yet every week
Speaker 1: they get it done. I mean, like the way it
Speaker 1: happened against the Ravens last week. They broke ball to
Speaker 1: more and I think they can break other teams too.
Speaker 1: And I they've been through a lot this season. Some
Speaker 1: of it's on them, some of it's not. But the
Speaker 1: Titans are very resilient. And I am just simply am
Speaker 1: a little bit surprised at your confidence that the cults
Speaker 1: would walk in here and and make mincemeat of them.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if I buy that. What do we
Speaker 1: see about? What do we see last week? And out
Speaker 1: of respect for the Titans, what do we see last week?
Speaker 1: I know you could say, look at the tape and
Speaker 1: all the Ravens outplayed them, blah blah blah, but they
Speaker 1: stole that game away, they won that game. That's your team, Greg,
Speaker 1: That's another one of your the Greg tropes. You love
Speaker 1: the Ravens and you will defend them to the end.
Speaker 1: You go down in Baltimore, you take care of business there,
Speaker 1: and that that's what this team is. They're a team
Speaker 1: that they got They got beat obviously in the first
Speaker 1: time we saw this matchup with a special team's total meltdown. Um,
Speaker 1: so I don't I don't foresee that happening again. And
Speaker 1: with Philip Rivers, yeah, I think he's taken a lot
Speaker 1: of hits, but also you know, this has been a
Speaker 1: tough little run for them schedule wise against defenses Chica,
Speaker 1: I goo Indianapolis, Baltimore now Indianapolis again. I think tann
Speaker 1: Hill has been playing okay. I think he's been good overall.
Speaker 1: He's just his numbers aren't as great as they were
Speaker 1: about the month or six weeks prior to that. So
Speaker 1: I feel good about Daniel. I like the Titans. I
Speaker 1: think the culture might pick here, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a field goal game. They're mentally tough, these Titans. They
Speaker 1: they are okay up next, Greg, I know it hurt
Speaker 1: you when I took a game that had Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady and Tony Romo in the booth. That had
Speaker 1: a hurt. But you gotta recovery, you gotta regroup and
Speaker 1: pick third. I'm scrambling by the way, I know I'm
Speaker 1: like I'm I'm like the Giants right now after the
Speaker 1: Chargers took Eli Manning. I'm just gonna give you whatever
Speaker 1: you want in a trade after the show. But for now,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take the Chargers head into Buffalo. This is
Speaker 1: a really fun game because Justin Herbert is the most
Speaker 1: watchable young quarterback I've ever seen, having one of the
Speaker 1: best rookie seasons I've ever seen out of a quarterback,
Speaker 1: playing the Buffalo Bill's defense coming off of by and
Speaker 1: making me wonder, are they ever really gonna get it
Speaker 1: together this season? Is Sean McDermott ever gonna come up
Speaker 1: with some solutions this season where they're not average? Or
Speaker 1: are they gonna have to rely on Josh Allen to
Speaker 1: win in shootouts week after week? It's a lot to ask.
Speaker 1: Maybe Josh Allen can keep doing it. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: have John Brown this week, and that has hurt them
Speaker 1: when they have not had Smokey out there, they have
Speaker 1: not quite been the same. And the Chargers and Herbert
Speaker 1: get some players back, we might see Austin Ekeler on
Speaker 1: the field. I think we're gonna see Chris Harris, their
Speaker 1: great cornerback back After more than a month, their offensive
Speaker 1: line is getting a little healthier. So the Chargers are
Speaker 1: that berserk or team mark down the stretch to me
Speaker 1: that I don't think anyone would want to face. You're
Speaker 1: so right about John Brown, the like the metrics show
Speaker 1: that Josh Allen just doesn't have the same numbers without him.
Speaker 1: So that's a loss. And can anyone make life difficult
Speaker 1: for Justin Herbert out of the gate? I mean he's
Speaker 1: absolutely on and I know, I know is the Jets
Speaker 1: last week? But the Jets are not. You know, they
Speaker 1: can do a few things well, and what they can't
Speaker 1: do is stop Justin Herbert. No one else can do
Speaker 1: it either. And you know a year in years past,
Speaker 1: i'd say Sean McDermott in the Bills or the team
Speaker 1: that can do that. Um, not this year, there's no
Speaker 1: there's no suggestion of it. And I Austin Nekeler coming back. Um,
Speaker 1: they've missed that running back that they can count on.
Speaker 1: He can do everything, he can catch passes out of
Speaker 1: the backfield. I mean, he comes back to a Chargers
Speaker 1: offense that is so vastly different than the one that
Speaker 1: he had been in in years past. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just completely it's completely remade. Um it's the most watchable
Speaker 1: attack I think in the around the leads top three
Speaker 1: for me. You said it about Justin Herbert, So this
Speaker 1: is a this is a rough game for the Bills.
Speaker 1: Anyone that can take out anyone that could slow down
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert at this point wins me over. I'm not
Speaker 1: convinced it's Buffalo Dan. Well, we saw we saw the
Speaker 1: Dolphins slow down Justin Herbert two weeks ago, so there
Speaker 1: maybe that's the Bills. They can study that tape and
Speaker 1: see if there's something to take out of that. UM.
Speaker 1: I put it this way, Well, let me start here.
Speaker 1: I want to start and gives it the wide receivers,
Speaker 1: star widers hear was on this team, some love. Stefon
Speaker 1: Diggs has been everything the Bills could have asked for.
Speaker 1: Uh and then some Uh. That was such a great
Speaker 1: trade in retrospect, and it wasn't it. Din It seemed
Speaker 1: like a slam dunk to me at the time. They
Speaker 1: gave up first round pick to get him from Minnesota
Speaker 1: and he has come in there and become the guy,
Speaker 1: a true number one receiver. And then on on the
Speaker 1: other team Keenan Allen coming off a six team catch day.
Speaker 1: I believe it was against the Jets. I think he's
Speaker 1: the most underrated receiver of the past ten years. I
Speaker 1: think he's at that level the type of guy that
Speaker 1: does it week in and week out, year after year.
Speaker 1: And don't don't sleep on that as being a major
Speaker 1: reason why Justin Herbert has been so good. And now
Speaker 1: let me lead into my second part here, and I'll
Speaker 1: tee let me tee Mark up on this because I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure I know Greg's answer. Um, Mark, who would
Speaker 1: you rather have for the next ten years, Josh Allen
Speaker 1: or Justin Herbert? It's easy for me. It's it's Justin Herbert.
Speaker 1: I would take Justin Herbert over any quarterback in the
Speaker 1: league outside of maybe Patrick Mahomes right now, and I
Speaker 1: I mean maybe gave him a baby with my homes.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying my homes gets a definitely. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard, but I said outside of outside of my homes.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like I'm I've not seen any bad
Speaker 1: tape on Justin Herbert. And you know, maybe you wonder
Speaker 1: what will happen in year two when people have a
Speaker 1: chance to you know, dissect him more. But it's not
Speaker 1: just about scheme. I just think this guy can do
Speaker 1: at all. And and like you know, every once in
Speaker 1: a while, a player comes along and you're just you're
Speaker 1: watching him and you're saying, bingo. The Chargers are never
Speaker 1: going to be the same because of this. Well, Alan
Speaker 1: still has some limitations. I I totally support the fact
Speaker 1: that he's made the leap and then some. He's been
Speaker 1: a top six quarterback. I would say this year six
Speaker 1: or seven. I think the one thing he still needs
Speaker 1: to improve on in year three is decision making, and
Speaker 1: he gives the other team a chance a few times
Speaker 1: a game. He's had eight interceptions over the last six weeks,
Speaker 1: and I think he can keep getting better because this
Speaker 1: decision making has absolutely gotten better. His accuracy is through
Speaker 1: the roof compared to where it was. But I do
Speaker 1: think kind of when you play the Bills, that comes
Speaker 1: down to can you make Josh Allen make a few
Speaker 1: bad decisions. He's gonna give you a chance. He's gonna
Speaker 1: make a ton of amazing plays too, but he's gonna
Speaker 1: give the defense a chance to make a couple of plays.
Speaker 1: I think that's the way the Chargers trying to win
Speaker 1: this game. I mean to Dan's point, though, like the touchdown,
Speaker 1: two digs would have been the incredible story for the
Speaker 1: Bills coming out of that game. You got bit by
Speaker 1: a Kyler Murray, Hail Mary, and when that happens, you
Speaker 1: forget everything happen a pick right before that, he threw
Speaker 1: a couple of picks in that game. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to I'm saying it's a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like you you forgot the picky through right
Speaker 1: before that, and the Cardinals gonna get I just did
Speaker 1: not mention it. I didn't a note for the listening
Speaker 1: audience that Mark wagged his finger at Greg instead very negative.
Speaker 1: I feel like you were doing that verbally, and I
Speaker 1: just had to do it, you know, with my good stuff.
Speaker 1: All right, Greg, that's a good game. I like that one,
Speaker 1: and anybody anybody got the charges winning. I do, uh No,
Speaker 1: I mean in a you know, just up in the sky.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I haven't logged it anywhere officially, but there
Speaker 1: you go. I do have them keeping it close on
Speaker 1: NFL game picks dot Com. There you go, that's the website. Okay, good,
Speaker 1: all right, Greg, you are up on the Snakes. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take Broncos Saints in the late afternoon window.
Speaker 1: Who would have thought Taysom Hill would come into the
Speaker 1: lineup and would be almost under the radar because no
Speaker 1: one's gonna be watching this game in the late afternoon.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like his first start got a little pop,
Speaker 1: and I feel like he's making everyone a little crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's made this shower, He's made everyone crazy.
Speaker 1: But there's so many people that came into the game
Speaker 1: with the agenda that they weren't really buying it. And
Speaker 1: I would say, I want needed to see something first
Speaker 1: before I believed anything. But I don't get watching that
Speaker 1: first game and coming away thinking it was a fluke
Speaker 1: or thinking that this isn't gonna last, or that the
Speaker 1: Saints are in trouble. We it's only one game, but
Speaker 1: that game was encouraging. If any other quarterback had that game,
Speaker 1: you would say, Okay, let's fly with this, because Taysom
Speaker 1: Hill's not taking over uh, some garbage team at three
Speaker 1: and seven. He's taken over a team that's in the
Speaker 1: top five in d v O A and defense is
Speaker 1: in the top five in d v O A and
Speaker 1: special teams and has an incredible running game, of which
Speaker 1: he's only going to add to So he doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be a top ten quarterback. He needs to make
Speaker 1: a few throws. He did that a few times under
Speaker 1: pressure in the pocket. That's all I needed to see.
Speaker 1: They look like a very good team, maybe one of
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league, whether Taysom Hill is
Speaker 1: a quarterback or whether Drew Brees that quarterback that they
Speaker 1: actually and they improved on offense. D v o A wise, Greg,
Speaker 1: I know that you would appreciate that. Um, they went
Speaker 1: up a spot after the Hill starts, So I'm not
Speaker 1: you know, well, I'm just gonna say that, how dare
Speaker 1: you use d v o A on me? Markt as well? Listen,
Speaker 1: I know I know how to speak your language, but
Speaker 1: I vo I'm with you that it's Taysom Hill and
Speaker 1: like they kind of they kind of had him do
Speaker 1: things they think he can do. So where's the aberration?
Speaker 1: Why couldn't he do those same things? Uh? You know
Speaker 1: this week and against the Broncos defense that played really
Speaker 1: well against Miami though, and I that was kind of
Speaker 1: the Broncos performance. I was waiting for. Um, they destroyed
Speaker 1: the Dolphins on the ground, not being able to do
Speaker 1: that against the Saints, a Saints team that sacked Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan eight times, a Saints defense that is Super bowlworthy
Speaker 1: right now. So I'm not expecting that Broncos offense to
Speaker 1: show up. But I don't see what changes for the
Speaker 1: Saints too too much in this from an offensive angle,
Speaker 1: Like we're gonna find out, and we saw what what
Speaker 1: they did to two last week. Stand for defense plays
Speaker 1: hard for vig Fagio. They've overcome injuries and the thing
Speaker 1: with Taysom Hill, and I get it, that's part of
Speaker 1: this job on on some level, and you want to
Speaker 1: be ahead of the curve when it comes to judging
Speaker 1: young quarterbacks. You don't want to be behind it. But
Speaker 1: I need to see more from Taysom Hill to see
Speaker 1: if this is gonna work. And I thought he did
Speaker 1: nice things um against the Falcons, but it was against
Speaker 1: the Falcons and it wasn't a kind of a perfect setup,
Speaker 1: uh for him to get his feet wet. Now, now
Speaker 1: this is a nice test here, you go on the road,
Speaker 1: you go to Denver against the defense has just made
Speaker 1: a young quarterback look silly. And even though Taysom Hill.
Speaker 1: I believes in your thirty years old as a quarterback,
Speaker 1: he's a baby because this is his second start. He's
Speaker 1: barely thrown passes in the league before last week, So
Speaker 1: this is an interesting game for me. I I guess
Speaker 1: you could say I'll be a believer if he delivers
Speaker 1: a similar similar performance. Uh, this would do it. But
Speaker 1: I just can't. I can't go off one game and
Speaker 1: be like Saints are all set. And I also saw
Speaker 1: some things like how Alvin Kamara was at part of
Speaker 1: the passing game, how he can't throw a deep ball,
Speaker 1: how they played from ahead, what happens if they're from behind?
Speaker 1: Is he the same type of guy using his legs
Speaker 1: to get it back in the game. I feel like
Speaker 1: that presents some limitations for their offense. Potentially we need
Speaker 1: more time to really figure out if this is gonna work.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, I don't know if this game is
Speaker 1: gonna tell you much because I think, like most weeks,
Speaker 1: Taysom Hill is going to be part of a great team.
Speaker 1: And that's more what I'm buying into that, like he
Speaker 1: can be part of a super Bowl contending team while
Speaker 1: he's the starter. I don't think he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: do much. The Denver defense can't stop the run. The
Speaker 1: Saints have a dynamic running game, especially with him, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if Drew lock is going to be
Speaker 1: able to survive with no running game behind him. So
Speaker 1: it's like Taysom Hill might not even need to do
Speaker 1: much and they could win this game by three scores,
Speaker 1: and it could be another week where we're just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Taysom Hill was fine. That's all they need for him
Speaker 1: to be, like his own version of Teddy Bridgewater from Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, Sean Payton being undefeated with backups over the
Speaker 1: last two seasons has a lot to do with Sean
Speaker 1: Payton's great coach. He's a great coach. One last thing
Speaker 1: to note, Alvin Kamara has some type of foot issue. Uh.
Speaker 1: They cut down on his snaps last week. I think
Speaker 1: it's just something to watch because we could talk about
Speaker 1: the quarterback all day, but Alvin Kamara is the offense
Speaker 1: runs through him. We'll see what kind of workload he
Speaker 1: has on Sunday time. Now for a Road to Victory
Speaker 1: presented by the United States Marine Corps. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get into it. We're gonna do a primetime game here,
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers. Mark, I know you're
Speaker 1: very excited at the prospect of another Bears primetime game,
Speaker 1: as is the rest of America. But look at the
Speaker 1: look at the plus side, I think everyone's a little
Speaker 1: bit bummed out having to watch Nick Foles, and it
Speaker 1: is trending toward a new quarterback behind center in Chicago. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, let's you know, play the hits when you can,
Speaker 1: and let's bring Mitch back into the offense to um
Speaker 1: revive some of the heroics that he unspooled in years
Speaker 1: of old. Um. I don't know. I you know, it
Speaker 1: becomes a bit um, it becomes just sort of a
Speaker 1: tired exercise to take down of old reference today. I
Speaker 1: think you said weeks of old earlier in the same
Speaker 1: Now it's just surviving today. That's when I'm in survival mode.
Speaker 1: Look at the Bears are thirty second and rushing their
Speaker 1: thirty second on third down, their thirty first in the
Speaker 1: red zone. Everything that Nick Foles was supposed to come
Speaker 1: in and do, Um, he didn't do. He didn't stabilize
Speaker 1: that offense at all. So you know, why not get
Speaker 1: another look at mitched Busky. I don't know what it
Speaker 1: means for the future because if he has I mean
Speaker 1: the most ever, right, I mean, what if he had
Speaker 1: like four or five games and then he looked good
Speaker 1: and then they resigned him to a forget all that business.
Speaker 1: None of that's happening. So it's not none of that's happened.
Speaker 1: So he's essentially a lame duck first round pick. Right.
Speaker 1: If someone had declined, you know, an option on me,
Speaker 1: I would not be feeling too great about anything. So
Speaker 1: I I think that you know, Mitch probably knows the
Speaker 1: future Green Bay. You know, you come you're coming off
Speaker 1: a really rough, a really rough defeat. You've got to
Speaker 1: find a way to just come in and take care
Speaker 1: of business. And I think they can. You've got Jalen
Speaker 1: Johnson on Davante Adams probably in a big part of
Speaker 1: this game, rookie cornerback for the Bears. He's played all right,
Speaker 1: but Davante Adams is playing at a different level. Um,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see a little bit more from Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: who hasn't crossed seventy five yards on the grounds and
Speaker 1: tweak two. I mean he was injured for a bit,
Speaker 1: but the help well, right, A little nice little X
Speaker 1: fact would be a strong run game down the stretch here.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a tough matchup for them, though,
Speaker 1: even though I fully expect the Packers to win, and
Speaker 1: it'll take Mitchell Trabsky playing a lot better for it
Speaker 1: to be close. I do think it's a good test
Speaker 1: for the Packers offense, which is one of the best
Speaker 1: in the league. But they're going up against a Bears
Speaker 1: team which I would say has a better defense this
Speaker 1: year than they did a year ago. I would put
Speaker 1: them in the top four. I would say defenses this year,
Speaker 1: and they shut down Aaron Rodgers two different times a
Speaker 1: year ago. And I know the Packers offense is better too,
Speaker 1: but Roquan Smith is making that leap as a middle linebacker.
Speaker 1: He's kind of been a running back killer, and so
Speaker 1: he's a guy who can go around with Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: whether in the passing game or on the ground, give
Speaker 1: them problems. The Bears defense is very sound, doesn't give
Speaker 1: up a lot of big play, so it's a nice
Speaker 1: test for the Packers when they have the ball. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think Rogers, you know, goes up and down
Speaker 1: the field. We just don't see it in this matchup.
Speaker 1: It often. Yeah, it sets up well for the Packers
Speaker 1: for sure. Uh, They're playing at home, you have Mitch
Speaker 1: Drabinski in the lineup. And at the same time, I
Speaker 1: was really you know that loss against the Colts in
Speaker 1: week eleven. It does instill a little bit of doubt
Speaker 1: around the Packers. For me, I had a little bit
Speaker 1: going into the game that they were a good team,
Speaker 1: but just a tier below. And then when you blow
Speaker 1: a two touchdown lead at halftime and you score three
Speaker 1: points in the second half and overtime, uh, total, it's like,
Speaker 1: what's going on? But I guess you could write it
Speaker 1: off as a blip on the radar. They were great
Speaker 1: in the first half against the Colts. And it comes
Speaker 1: down to this with Mike Petton's defense is very up
Speaker 1: and down, as we know, uh, and he has been
Speaker 1: a polarizing figure. Um maybe more of a lightning rod.
Speaker 1: He seems to be not particularly well liked as a
Speaker 1: d C by Green Bay fans. Well, don't don't let
Speaker 1: Mitch Robissi get hot here. Don't don't let this turn
Speaker 1: into some type of like kind of situation where this
Speaker 1: time next week everyone's talking about how the Packers defense
Speaker 1: is a mess and it's gonna kill their chances. Take
Speaker 1: care of business here. This should be a Packers win
Speaker 1: and if it's not, yes, major issues in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: Avoid the ponderous narrative. That's always a way to go
Speaker 1: for any football team. So I'm with you Dan these
Speaker 1: Bears that this Bears offense is a slump buster. You've
Speaker 1: got a bad defense, you show up and play the Bears,
Speaker 1: Suddenly you're ranking like skyrockets the next week. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1: I mean you did get me thinking now, Mark, Well,
Speaker 1: just like as a fun thought exercise, what if Mitch
Speaker 1: Drabinsky returns and he's Patrick mahomes You know what what
Speaker 1: would it take for the Bears to bring back Mitch Drabinsky?
Speaker 1: Would it? Would it be mahomesy in play for the
Speaker 1: six weeks? I mean, then then you have Matt Niggy
Speaker 1: telling you all off season we believe in Mr Robinsky. Um,
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna build an offense round him. It's
Speaker 1: just like the wheel just keeps going. I want the
Speaker 1: wheel to come off, the vehicle roll off into a
Speaker 1: field and we build a new car. It's just him.
Speaker 1: Please excuse me. Sorry, I think it would take him
Speaker 1: saving their jobs. I think they're all together, Naggy, Uh, Ryan, Pace,
Speaker 1: the GM and Trabisky. They're all in the same car
Speaker 1: right now. It's up the Mitch to drive him to safety.
Speaker 1: That that is highly frightening and we talked about on
Speaker 1: the podcast. This week we went through the our Hot
Speaker 1: Butt rankings of head coaches facing danger entering the last
Speaker 1: six weeks. I put Naggie at at fifty chance of
Speaker 1: survival here, Well, we're getting a big win at Lambeau.
Speaker 1: That would help his case. I would imagine mighty fine.
Speaker 1: That was Road to Victory presented by the United States
Speaker 1: Marine Corps. All right, Mark, it is onto you in
Speaker 1: the draft. Alright, well, I'm gonna go San Francisco at
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Rams. You know, I know on our
Speaker 1: our entrevious podcast, Stan, we forked San Francisco and so
Speaker 1: weeks ago, weeks ago, I mean a long time ago,
Speaker 1: weeks gone by, what was it, wait, weeks of old
Speaker 1: that's when we forked them. Um, but they're getting healthier,
Speaker 1: and so you know, forget what you did to them.
Speaker 1: What can they do to a RAMS team that they
Speaker 1: beat about a month ago? Deebo Samuel back at practice,
Speaker 1: Raheem Mustard is practicing. I think that is a huge
Speaker 1: difference maker right there. I am a way into Raheem
Speaker 1: Mustard as a starting running back who can pummel teams,
Speaker 1: and they've missed that element. They seem to have like
Speaker 1: eighty two running backs on that roster. There's always someone
Speaker 1: that they plug in. But that helps a lot. Richard
Speaker 1: Sherman is practicing. So this team that has been as
Speaker 1: banged up UM and you know, Corona adults as any
Speaker 1: team in the league up until a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: UM is getting healthier. I always trust Kyle Shanahan to
Speaker 1: scheme up well against division opponents. But I really love
Speaker 1: that the way that the Rams in general, outside of
Speaker 1: a couple of games, have protected goth only thirteen sacks
Speaker 1: allowed all year, while they are punishing quarterbacks with thirty four.
Speaker 1: So you don't have Garoppolo and there you've got Nick Mullins.
Speaker 1: And there's still a lot of issues with San Francisco.
Speaker 1: So the Rams, after surging the way they have and
Speaker 1: they've won me over to some degree over the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. UM. This is kind of remind Green
Speaker 1: Bay Chicago go in and take care of business against
Speaker 1: a team that's not entirely you can't get swept by
Speaker 1: the forty Niners. Not this year. I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: big game, and but I do think this is one
Speaker 1: where the old cliche throw out the records when Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan face off. It's true if you
Speaker 1: look at these two teams when they've played with these
Speaker 1: two head coaches, whichever team is much better, which has
Speaker 1: been the Rams most of the time, Uh, it hasn't mattered.
Speaker 1: The games have come down to the last possession and
Speaker 1: the result. Earlier this year, as you mentioned, Mark kind
Speaker 1: of points to that the forty Niners dominated that game.
Speaker 1: They're getting much healthier. I think these two coaches understand
Speaker 1: each other so well that they know what they can
Speaker 1: do to stop one another. And the forty Niners are competitive.
Speaker 1: I've really been impressed with their defense. Robert Sala, who
Speaker 1: got a lot of love last year, maybe you should
Speaker 1: get even more this year because they're so banged up
Speaker 1: and yet they're highly competitive. I just don't expect this
Speaker 1: is gonna be easy for the Rams. The big challenge
Speaker 1: for Robert Sala. Sala is Cooper Cup and Robert Woods.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was an unbelievable show they put on
Speaker 1: on Monday Night. I believe they combined for twenty five
Speaker 1: catches a thousand catches. It was something in that range. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you have that element of the offense. That's the
Speaker 1: one thing I'm waiting to see with see with with
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles. Now we know the defense is elite.
Speaker 1: I think it's in the top three. I think it's
Speaker 1: it's certainly there with Pittsburgh and New Orleans. For me,
Speaker 1: can the offense take that next leap uh and become
Speaker 1: uh okay, too good? Because if you got a good
Speaker 1: offense and an outstanding defense, now we're cooking so um.
Speaker 1: I want to see how they bounce back. Jared Goff,
Speaker 1: I think we have a similar viewpoints on him, that
Speaker 1: he's an up and down passer. But if, if, if
Speaker 1: Sean McVeigh has a chance to improve this offense down
Speaker 1: the stretch, that's gonna make them to me to take
Speaker 1: that step and actually be a true NFC Super Bowl contender.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I'm there yet, but I think
Speaker 1: there's room for growth. Just because I believe in the
Speaker 1: coaching that much. I share your view. I don't like
Speaker 1: the idea of Andrew Whitworth uh not being on the
Speaker 1: line at left tackle right now. That's a big loss.
Speaker 1: They've done a pretty good job with the same cast
Speaker 1: of characters they had mostly a year ago. But that's
Speaker 1: a that's a huge loss in a in a veteran presence.
Speaker 1: When you lose those veteran guys off the offensive line,
Speaker 1: I think it diminishes communication, um and other in other
Speaker 1: you know, things that keep the things running smoothly. So
Speaker 1: if you're golf like that, consistency factor is going to
Speaker 1: be challenged by that. But I'm with you, Dan. If
Speaker 1: they can do what they did last week, um, they
Speaker 1: essentially be unstoppable. It's just not you can't count on
Speaker 1: that week to week in the passing game. Gotta have
Speaker 1: a running game. Both of these teams are kind of
Speaker 1: old school, even though they're you know, led by coaches
Speaker 1: who are thought to be as cutting edge as anyone.
Speaker 1: They are the most run dependent teams I can think
Speaker 1: of in terms of great offenses, and the forty nine
Speaker 1: is getting most there. And possibly Deebo Samuel who's huge
Speaker 1: in the running game too as a blocker and as
Speaker 1: a runner like makes all the difference. I don't trust
Speaker 1: either of these teams when they're not running, and so
Speaker 1: that that's something to watch. This is a good staff
Speaker 1: from Next Gen staff about Andrew Whitworth, their veteran left
Speaker 1: tackle who's out potentially for the year. Uh. Time to
Speaker 1: throw with Whitworth on the field two point seven five
Speaker 1: seconds for golf without him, two point five five air
Speaker 1: yards per attempts seven point one with Whitworth five point
Speaker 1: eight without his completion percentage. Uh, expect the completion percentage
Speaker 1: slightly up. But yeah, he's He's a huge piece of
Speaker 1: this and they survived without him last week. But let's
Speaker 1: see what happens against as Greg said, a bit of
Speaker 1: a frisky Niners defense. All right, let's move on. The
Speaker 1: old suitor is up in the draft, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go and get him. I'm gonna go and get the Jets.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get the Jets against the Dolphins. Uh. And
Speaker 1: obviously I I started by saying the Jets, but really,
Speaker 1: this game is about the Dolphins and about what happens
Speaker 1: at quarterback. After two, Tongua Volo was benched. Uh. Really
Speaker 1: in a surprise benching. One of those one of those
Speaker 1: moves that if you have your Twitter open, your tweet
Speaker 1: deck open on a Sunday, all of a sudden you
Speaker 1: just see wow, oh wow, whoa and you're like, what
Speaker 1: is this? And you click in and sure enough, there
Speaker 1: it is. Ryan Fitzpatrick had replaced to Uh early in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter against Denver, and he damned near saved
Speaker 1: him UH if not for an interception in the end
Speaker 1: zone by Justin Simmons. So I I think we you know,
Speaker 1: we discussed this len last Sunday show. We don't have
Speaker 1: to relitigate whether or not Brian Flores UH did his
Speaker 1: quarterback dirty um by benching him and what it means
Speaker 1: for the future. I will say this, though, there may
Speaker 1: be a method to the madness here that Flores caught
Speaker 1: in between a little bit last week in Denver, on
Speaker 1: a five game winning streak, he said, wait, maybe I
Speaker 1: could try to steal this game and still developed my
Speaker 1: rookie quarterback and that opened Pandora's box a little bit.
Speaker 1: But at the same time he had to know I
Speaker 1: have the Jets UH. In week twelve, even if Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: saves the day and everyone's talking about fitz magic, I
Speaker 1: put the kid back in against a rific Jets secondary,
Speaker 1: and we should be able to get things back on track.
Speaker 1: I think that's where this ultimately ends up. Greg. I
Speaker 1: think this ends up with Ta plays well against the Jets,
Speaker 1: and by Sunday night, no one's talking about what happened
Speaker 1: in Denver anymore. Yeah. I mean to quote you know
Speaker 1: the great Jets coach her Med Whords you play to
Speaker 1: win the game. I mean, that's what Brian Flores is
Speaker 1: trying to do. He's trying to make the playoffs. He's
Speaker 1: trying to develop to a wasn't happening in that game.
Speaker 1: This is a team that needs to play with the lead.
Speaker 1: The Jets are a team that is pretty used to
Speaker 1: playing from behind the Dolphins. They want to get ahead
Speaker 1: of the down and distance, and you can usually do
Speaker 1: that against the Jets, and that keeps to a in
Speaker 1: comfortable situations. He was lost last week to UH and
Speaker 1: he his deep ball. I do worry about his health
Speaker 1: right now. He's been on the injury report with a
Speaker 1: foot injury. He's taken some hits and that's why you
Speaker 1: gotta keep an eye on Ryan fits Pagrick. But he's
Speaker 1: not the only young quarterback in this game. We're getting
Speaker 1: Sammy d back Sam Donald in a tough match up
Speaker 1: for him. That is that have we done that? I
Speaker 1: don't know if the Dolphins get ahead. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: the team that shut out Joe Flacco. So we don't
Speaker 1: need to see Joe Flacco against the Dolphins anymore. Let's
Speaker 1: see what donalin. I don't need to see Flacco ever. Again.
Speaker 1: I'm all set on that front, even though he's done
Speaker 1: a little bit this year. Yeah, I've had my fill
Speaker 1: of Joe Flacco to not not. I'm sure he's a
Speaker 1: nice person to speak with, Um, you know, in a
Speaker 1: coffee shop. Maybe not a great coffee shop guy. Actually,
Speaker 1: maybe a nice guy. That's totally possible too. I'm just
Speaker 1: on siding with the benefit of the doubt. But I
Speaker 1: mean to his first passes accounting for fifty yards. So
Speaker 1: this is not what we're talking about when we talk
Speaker 1: about like justin Herbert where like the production is out
Speaker 1: of control and so you know, I do give media
Speaker 1: in general some credit. Um, I don't think the place
Speaker 1: set on fire and like created a big firestorm controversy.
Speaker 1: I think we kind of get what the Dolphins were
Speaker 1: trying to do there. Um, I'm as fascinated though, with
Speaker 1: what Sam Donald does um from now to the end
Speaker 1: of the year, because he if he were to play
Speaker 1: lights out, he could essentially wipe out what seems to
Speaker 1: be the plan everyone's accepted in New York. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just wonder what's going through his head because people
Speaker 1: have already moved on to some degree, and you know
Speaker 1: that's what happens to bad teams, you know, surging toward
Speaker 1: the first overall pick. But you know, Sam Dortald, they say,
Speaker 1: hold on a minute, I want to change the narrative
Speaker 1: here and I want to stay here and be your quarterback.
Speaker 1: Or maybe he'll be thinking I could be, you know,
Speaker 1: the Bears quarterback a year from now with a whole
Speaker 1: new coach and snap I'd like I'd love to Q
Speaker 1: and a him. Uh yeah, I would listen. I as
Speaker 1: a Jets fan, I can tell you that Jets fans
Speaker 1: have moved on and they're looking ahead and they want
Speaker 1: to just reboot the whole machine. Keep Joe Douglas and
Speaker 1: a couple of these pieces they have on the roster
Speaker 1: right now, but and start over. But there is no animosity, uh,
Speaker 1: toward Donald, and it's just a kind of a weird situation.
Speaker 1: I would love to see him go somewhere man, go
Speaker 1: to San Francisco and push Jimmy g next year or something.
Speaker 1: I would love to see him in a in a healthy,
Speaker 1: uh functional set up. I don't know, if anything. I
Speaker 1: think the best way this is how it would work
Speaker 1: out for the Jets. In the best case scenario, they
Speaker 1: would they lose a bunch of games, thirty eight, thirty five,
Speaker 1: they go one in fifteen or oh and sixteen, get
Speaker 1: the first overall pick, uh, draft the kid out of college,
Speaker 1: and then you, because Donald plays great down the stretch,
Speaker 1: you can move him for a late first round pick
Speaker 1: or you know, an early second You like that is
Speaker 1: that is that is the best case scenario for the Jets.
Speaker 1: So it's you're in this weird kind of world where
Speaker 1: this guy that was your great hope, uh Sam, Donald
Speaker 1: is a guy that you're already disconnecting from. But you're right, Mark,
Speaker 1: there is also this world where he lights it up
Speaker 1: and they win three games, and maybe the organization says
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep him and use all these other pieces
Speaker 1: to build around him the right way. I look forward
Speaker 1: to watching these last six games for that reason. Go
Speaker 1: in a ball game. I mean, Frank Gore said, the
Speaker 1: entire team is thinking about going oh in sixteen every day.
Speaker 1: These are these are humans here who do not want
Speaker 1: to go down in infamy. They do not want to
Speaker 1: be part of Greg Williams's second oh and sixteen in
Speaker 1: the last four years. This is a potentially win a
Speaker 1: ball game, and it's miserable to be winless. So go
Speaker 1: win a ballgame, same game. Yeah, all right, let's keep
Speaker 1: moving here, Snakes to the old Zeuser, the old Snake
Speaker 1: always a big, big decisions to be made. All right.
Speaker 1: Let me go with Carolina at Minnesota as my third
Speaker 1: game on the schedule. I mean, it's the two of
Speaker 1: the team. Was zeus til easy for me to say
Speaker 1: the Vikings coming off a really disappointing loss obviously against
Speaker 1: the Cowboys that actually looks worse now after what we
Speaker 1: saw from the Cowboys on Thursday UM against Washington. However,
Speaker 1: I knew there would be a speed bump at some
Speaker 1: point for the Vikings. I didn't think they were gonna
Speaker 1: win out and there us. So now, if you still
Speaker 1: are a team that's going to be relevant come weeks sixteen,
Speaker 1: in weeks seventeen, which I think the Vikings are You're
Speaker 1: going to take care of business here at home against
Speaker 1: the Panthers and UM, So that's where I stand on
Speaker 1: the Vikings. I don't want to. I'm not deflating all
Speaker 1: the era out of there balloom after what happened last week.
Speaker 1: The Panthers, of course, represent a um difficult challenge because
Speaker 1: they're well coached and they hang around in almost every
Speaker 1: game they play. Where are we at with injuries? Uh?
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey, I know, has been in the mix this
Speaker 1: week at practice. I believe we're Teddy Bridgewater. I think
Speaker 1: we're getting him back to right Greg, Yeah, we are.
Speaker 1: He's not even on the injury or port Teddy that is.
Speaker 1: So he's starting Russell Kung, their left tackle who's been
Speaker 1: out for a while. Uh is question one has the
Speaker 1: chances And McCaffrey has been limited in practice this week
Speaker 1: throughout the week, and I think there's some optimism here.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, Dan. This is the team of
Speaker 1: Zoostil versus the team of Sestl. It's really a battle
Speaker 1: for the hearts and minds of YouTube gentleman. And what
Speaker 1: a coaching job Matt Rule has done. I think they're
Speaker 1: very even teams. I don't think this team of well,
Speaker 1: I've got a number of them. You or die with
Speaker 1: one because you got the Browns. Also, I mean, how
Speaker 1: many teams do you have market I mean witness Suddenly
Speaker 1: there are no rules here. We know that everyone does
Speaker 1: that does as they plead. I've always said the Panthers
Speaker 1: to me, it's not a this year team, but I'm
Speaker 1: really impressed with the way they're coached. And the only thing,
Speaker 1: the one thing that changed for me a little bit
Speaker 1: against the Lions, and they were playing the Lions, but
Speaker 1: they shut them out. Um, they tackled well for the
Speaker 1: first time the Panthers really all they've not been a
Speaker 1: good tackling team on defense. They got five sacks, so
Speaker 1: I think they present some threat to the Vikings. The
Speaker 1: Vikings probably would not have lost that Cowboys game without
Speaker 1: those two killer fumbles. It was the strip sack of
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins and the Dalvin Cook fumble. Cousins played really
Speaker 1: well in that game, and I thought he was in
Speaker 1: pretty good control, so uh, you know that was a
Speaker 1: rug loss. Um. You know, they can't make mistakes. Neither
Speaker 1: one of these teams can make a bunch of mistakes
Speaker 1: and hope to win. So I I think it's a
Speaker 1: fascinating game. Um, I think it's pretty interesting how the
Speaker 1: Carolina coached up p J. Walker last week. Other teams
Speaker 1: struggled to even get their starters to play well, so
Speaker 1: that that was notable to me. They they're very similar teams.
Speaker 1: They both struggled to close. If you look at all
Speaker 1: their you know, metrics, in terms of offense defense, they're
Speaker 1: they're pretty similar. The Vikings offense has more juice. I
Speaker 1: mean Kyle Kirk Cousins, remember when we were saying he
Speaker 1: was on pace to have Jamis Winson season. Since that moment, uh,
Speaker 1: he is leading the league in yards per attempt and
Speaker 1: I think he has like nine or ten touchdowns in
Speaker 1: one interception since that moment too, So he's he's playing great.
Speaker 1: But these teams are both like they find ways to
Speaker 1: blow games. And the Vikings to me, are too run heavy.
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook has more than twenty five more carries than
Speaker 1: anyone else in the league over the last four weeks.
Speaker 1: It's like thirty a week, and they always set up
Speaker 1: Kirk to be thrown in third and seven and he's
Speaker 1: been coming through lately. I don't like that approach. I
Speaker 1: like the path first approached by the Panthers against the
Speaker 1: bad Vikings defense. All right, I mean, I guess I
Speaker 1: could see your point. You want a little bit more
Speaker 1: balances are still in terms of total offense, a top
Speaker 1: ten offense the Vikings this year, and Dalvin Cook is
Speaker 1: their best players. So I understand their temptation to just
Speaker 1: get the ball in his hands as many times as possible.
Speaker 1: And you have to say, Greg, even if it feels
Speaker 1: like he's they're giving them too much work. Kirk cousins
Speaker 1: revival is directly tied to the fact that this these teams,
Speaker 1: these defenses fear Dalvin Cook so much. It's all connected, sure,
Speaker 1: but he's like, if it's only a month, but if
Speaker 1: you gave him the workload he had the last month
Speaker 1: for the whole season, he'd have five hundred carries. And
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of studies when you keep giving,
Speaker 1: when you keep giving guys thirty twenty seven thirty touches,
Speaker 1: that they break down. So give it. Give the ball
Speaker 1: to Alexander Madison and hey, give the ball to Justin
Speaker 1: Jefferson a couple of times on first and second down
Speaker 1: till it's third and eight. They were trying to save
Speaker 1: their season though, too, and it was like do whatever works,
Speaker 1: and Dalvin Cook was working times tense, so you know,
Speaker 1: it's probably not what they game planned back in August
Speaker 1: necessarily worked them. Now, if they lose this game, the Vikings,
Speaker 1: I think you'd dine if they lose this game, I would.
Speaker 1: I would certainly, you know that I would be off
Speaker 1: the band wagon for sure if they if they would
Speaker 1: lose two straight games. And one thing to keep in
Speaker 1: mind with the Panthers who listen there four and seven,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't act like they're totally out of the hunt.
Speaker 1: If we're saying the Vikings aren't at four and six, uh,
Speaker 1: they they have to win out though as well. It
Speaker 1: does make you wonder what happens inside that coaching room
Speaker 1: with Matt Rule Christian McCaffrey. Like we said, he's inching
Speaker 1: toward a return. They have a bye week next week, though,
Speaker 1: so it almost it would make sense to give him
Speaker 1: this this Sunday and then you get two weeks and
Speaker 1: then he's back full bore. But maybe you can't. You
Speaker 1: need your best player on the field. It's a tough decision,
Speaker 1: but uh, I think Rule has shown us. Uh, he's
Speaker 1: capable of making the right ones so far in his
Speaker 1: rookie season. All right, Mark, you are up next. All right,
Speaker 1: well I'm gonna go. Uh. You know, Cleveland, cha Exonville
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a stunner to anyone that follows the show. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many every time there's always that
Speaker 1: because I know this is what you expect. We get it, buddy,
Speaker 1: you don't need the audience gets it. It's cool. I
Speaker 1: think it's a fair comment because normally I would steer
Speaker 1: my eyes away from Mike Lennon, um, who will be
Speaker 1: starting for Jacksonville. Um, And I know this is this
Speaker 1: is kind of what I'm what I feel a little bit.
Speaker 1: It was some of the Corona stuff, like certain teams, Um,
Speaker 1: things catch on fire, and then there's other teams were
Speaker 1: like there are problems, but it's a little bit overlooked.
Speaker 1: And I'm not like, I get it's the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 1: They almost beat the Packers a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: They're not totally defunct. Um. I they Cleveland should come
Speaker 1: in and take care of business, but they have no
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett Den because of Corona alright. Porter Gustin, who
Speaker 1: has been a really like interesting developmental player who's gotten
Speaker 1: to the quarterback a bunch and was essentially going to
Speaker 1: replace Myles Garrett in this game to some degree, is
Speaker 1: out with Corona Siona Siona Taki Taki, who had the
Speaker 1: fifty yards. He had to pick six and I don't
Speaker 1: know what when he called Corona, but he caught it
Speaker 1: to jefreck Wills, the left tackle is Home was homesick
Speaker 1: this week. Denzel ward Is out with a pretty severe
Speaker 1: injury that they're that they considered putting them on I R.
Speaker 1: For this team is has is a three win team
Speaker 1: without Denzel Warden, Miles Garrett. So I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: if you want to look at potential trap game world
Speaker 1: and I love this, I'm not hearing it because the Jaguars,
Speaker 1: first of all, they're much worse than the Browns if
Speaker 1: they were healthy, and their situation is so much worse.
Speaker 1: No team has been devastated more by injuries in the
Speaker 1: last week alone than the Jaguars. They've lost their best
Speaker 1: pass rusher, Josh Allen. They've lost their best two cornerbacks
Speaker 1: d J. Hayden Um and who's the other one Sidney Jones.
Speaker 1: That's just in the last two weeks. I'm gonna add
Speaker 1: some more. DJ Chark by far their best wide receiver
Speaker 1: out for this game. Andrew Norwell the best guard out
Speaker 1: for this game. Uh. And they showed me a lot
Speaker 1: when they announced on Wednesday before they even practice that
Speaker 1: Mike Glennon starting this game, even though Gardner Minshew has
Speaker 1: been practicing and throwing the ball. And you never want
Speaker 1: to say a team is showing their cards here, but
Speaker 1: you're starting Glennon over a chance that Minshew could be ready.
Speaker 1: He's been practicing for two weeks now, and you're not
Speaker 1: playing Gardener's clear. You know, it's a difficult different type
Speaker 1: of It's not a fish tank. It's I don't know
Speaker 1: if you would. You don't really put Jaguars into a tank.
Speaker 1: But well, it's not your ja play at the big
Speaker 1: chlorine tank. Well, I think, I don't know with Minshew,
Speaker 1: he's more popular on this podcast than in other places,
Speaker 1: and I think maybe that that locker room as well.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if the Jaguars love
Speaker 1: Gardner Minshew as I mean, if anything, your boy Jake
Speaker 1: Lewton made him look good though, because Jake Luton was
Speaker 1: not it, and I just don't think Mike Glennon would
Speaker 1: be it. What are you suggesting that, like like other
Speaker 1: players are not fans of Minshew. I've not read anything.
Speaker 1: There are some whispers about his ability to throw the
Speaker 1: ball downfield and and there were some frustrations I think
Speaker 1: come emanating out of that locker room. But Minshew, I
Speaker 1: mean just statistically and all that is superior. I understand
Speaker 1: where you're coming from and the angle that this could
Speaker 1: feel like a tank move, but we'll see. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a big game for the Browns, though. You
Speaker 1: gotta win, no excuses, doesn't matter who's heard. It's Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: They've lost nine games in a row. They're they're starting
Speaker 1: a third or fourth string quarterback. Uh. And then you
Speaker 1: have after this game, if the Browns take care of
Speaker 1: business and get to eight and three and then hypothetically
Speaker 1: get Myles Garrett back, you have at Tennessee home Baltimore,
Speaker 1: you get both New York teams and then Pittsburgh. So
Speaker 1: it's not a treacherous back half of the schedule, but
Speaker 1: you want to give yourself a little bit of a
Speaker 1: cushion there by getting to eight and three. If you
Speaker 1: get to eight and three and take care of business here,
Speaker 1: you have no business miss in the playoffs. So just
Speaker 1: win on Sunday. They've been able, they've done that so
Speaker 1: far this year. They haven't had that like massive trip
Speaker 1: up loss yet and maybe at this point they've earned
Speaker 1: the benefits and offensive explosion. Let's see put up thirty
Speaker 1: five in a good weather game. I think I'm just
Speaker 1: say looking forward, looking forward though, like you can't lose
Speaker 1: to the Titans, Ravens and Steelers and be taken that seriously.
Speaker 1: You gotta win one of those games and show that
Speaker 1: you made progress. That's for another week. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: beating the Jets, Giants, and Jaguars to get into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: that's the kind of team I would critique in in
Speaker 1: in other scenarios. Um, but they've taken care of business
Speaker 1: against bad opponents. That's a good trade. Here's the And
Speaker 1: yes there's weather involved in this and everything, but just
Speaker 1: looking at their schedule they had they put up thirty
Speaker 1: seven against Cincinnati in Week seven, but starting with weeks
Speaker 1: weeks six, outside of that game, seven points in the
Speaker 1: lost six points in the lost ten points in a win,
Speaker 1: and they scored fifteen point or was the thirteen points
Speaker 1: on offense last week? Right? Yeah, but that's like saying,
Speaker 1: why didn't they get like a tan on a snowstorm.
Speaker 1: I mean they were dealing. That was like some of
Speaker 1: the worst weather games I've ever seen, and it impacted
Speaker 1: Look at the teams they played weren't throwing up thirty
Speaker 1: points either. So all right, so let's see thirty points
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Cleveland Browns up next. Greg Rosenthal, Oh boy,
Speaker 1: it's time. It's time for me to pick the Bengals
Speaker 1: and the Giants. Get ready. The Giants have been um
Speaker 1: on a on a by um. They've been had a
Speaker 1: very eventful by and we haven't talked about it much
Speaker 1: on this podcast just because the timing. UM. But you know,
Speaker 1: they fired their offensive line coach after he got into
Speaker 1: some sort of problem with the head coach didn't like
Speaker 1: that they were bringing in Uh yeah, I mean use
Speaker 1: the word uh Ian. Kim Jones didn't say the word,
Speaker 1: but said it was one of the worst words you
Speaker 1: could think of, and then I guessed it to uh
Speaker 1: our guy ian rap war. He said that guess was right.
Speaker 1: So I mean there's only I mean, there's only like
Speaker 1: one word that's preferred to that way, So I don't
Speaker 1: think I don't think it was like necessarily Sherlock Holmes. No, No,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. I'm just trying to let the
Speaker 1: ultimately of Colombo and the coaching staff was the run
Speaker 1: to the litter. You gotta get rid of them. It's fair.
Speaker 1: It's a fair point, and they've done that and that
Speaker 1: that's a big run to the litter. Six ft eight
Speaker 1: guy he played in the NFL. So good for Joe
Speaker 1: Judge for sticking up for himself there. I think one
Speaker 1: overlook thing about this Giants team and and they've been
Speaker 1: playing better all year, is they are a power running
Speaker 1: team and Daniel Jones is now a bigger part of
Speaker 1: that running attack each and every week, and I think
Speaker 1: that's important, Like they need to focus on their strength.
Speaker 1: They can block for running pretty well. They and they
Speaker 1: Wayne Gallman's running hard. They're like reviving Alf Morris and
Speaker 1: once you add Daniel Jones the mix, they're a little
Speaker 1: bit dangerous running on the ground and that's kind of
Speaker 1: all they should need this week against the Bengals team
Speaker 1: that is now starting Brandon Allen. I think that gives
Speaker 1: the Bengals a little better chance in this game. Ryan
Speaker 1: Finley was such a dud and we've seen Brandon Allen
Speaker 1: play a few times and look like like an NFL
Speaker 1: backup that helps him. But either way, it's a call.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Bengals on defense have given up an
Speaker 1: a f C high thirty nine completions of t plus yards.
Speaker 1: So if there was a game where you could get
Speaker 1: a little bit going through the air. For Daniel Jones
Speaker 1: two straight appearances without a turnover, I think that's a
Speaker 1: fair thing to credit him for after that being the
Speaker 1: number one knock on him. Uh, the defense, you know,
Speaker 1: last time we saw them, they when they played the Eagles,
Speaker 1: they held them to oh for nine on third downs,
Speaker 1: which is the first time that happened in Philadelphia since
Speaker 1: two thousand four. Now, that is not a juggernaut you faced,
Speaker 1: I get it, But this is a pretty well coached
Speaker 1: Giants team. And I think that Wayne Gallman is someone
Speaker 1: you could point to that was sort of just floating
Speaker 1: in the abyss under previous staffs. Um and you had
Speaker 1: se Kwan to but se Kwan has been in and
Speaker 1: out of the lineup, and they get these guys to
Speaker 1: play pretty well. So I look at the Bengals as
Speaker 1: a pretty spiritually broken team right now. You've lost the
Speaker 1: one glowing light Um that gave fans and everyone I
Speaker 1: think on the roster um hope. He was your rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback who was annoying to captain with no preseason, no
Speaker 1: no essentially no off season. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: Brandon Allen is going to necessarily um inspire the group. Uh,
Speaker 1: they just hope to hang on. But Zach Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: is fighting for his job. I mean, the Bengals, even
Speaker 1: before Joe Burrow went out, had forty six big plays,
Speaker 1: which I think is I think that status plays of
Speaker 1: twenty yards are over, which was thirty in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So even with Joe Burrow, this team was not you know,
Speaker 1: the type of offense that was gonna gas you and that.
Speaker 1: And now you take Burrow out of the mix and
Speaker 1: you put in Brandon Graham bigger, much bigger, at bigger
Speaker 1: arm than Joe Burrow. Yeah. Well, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't have a very good feeling about this, and
Speaker 1: I think the Giants defense has made strides. This sets
Speaker 1: up very well for the Giants, who are yes, absolutely
Speaker 1: in the middle of this NFC's race, especially with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys loss. Here, the Cowboys recede into the background again
Speaker 1: and Washington Philly and the Giants battling it battling it out,
Speaker 1: and it sets up so well, Dan, what sets up
Speaker 1: so well this Giants? And I know you're you're saying,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, oh, he's getting a little excited. No, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't lock up the Giants, who are oh and seven
Speaker 1: out of the division. They haven't even won a game
Speaker 1: out of the division all season. But hey, I think
Speaker 1: this is a tough looking team. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: get their first win out of the division. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm locking up. Let's see, I was wondering while you're
Speaker 1: talking up Brandon Allan so much, and it was just
Speaker 1: to justify this lock No, No, that wasn't that wasn't it.
Speaker 1: I don't need to justify anything. I'm I'm I'm annoyed
Speaker 1: that I didn't lock up the Texans. I was debating
Speaker 1: between Giants and Texans, and uh, I made the wrong
Speaker 1: choice because I could just be sitting here, like just
Speaker 1: laid back on Sunday and feeling fa You've had a
Speaker 1: lot of proud moments Craig on this show. Um personally
Speaker 1: throughout life. Um, this has to be right up there.
Speaker 1: I mean, locking up the Giants over a woe begone
Speaker 1: um quarterback free Bengals team stuff, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know they're owing seven UM out of the division
Speaker 1: and seven out of the division. Business Like, it's like
Speaker 1: they can only be the team, you know, So that's
Speaker 1: like you're trying to break new ground. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of turmoil, but I think they can overcome it. I
Speaker 1: think they can overcome it. On two more comments on
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks, Daniel Jones. Ever since A Kwon went out,
Speaker 1: that's when they decided to let him run more, which
Speaker 1: seems like it didn't have to be that way, considering
Speaker 1: he's one of the fastest quarterbacks in the league. But
Speaker 1: good for I mean, let's hey, Jason Garrett. He at
Speaker 1: least was able to adapt and add a layer to
Speaker 1: that offense. And we didn't talk about it, but the
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow injury, of course, because it's you know, connected
Speaker 1: to the Bengals. It was it was not just a
Speaker 1: simple A C L. Tare. It was the M C
Speaker 1: L though went and other we're told structural damage. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna his surgery, then rehab is gonna push him
Speaker 1: right up against Uh, we're hearing the start of the
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one sees and if you recall, Carson
Speaker 1: Wentz suffered a similar injury a couple of years back
Speaker 1: and they held him out until week three, I believe
Speaker 1: of the nineteen season season. So uh, really tough break
Speaker 1: for the kid. Hopefully comes back and he's the same
Speaker 1: guy he was. All right up next, Greg, it's snakes
Speaker 1: to you, buddy, Well, that's lame, a lot of snaking
Speaker 1: when you've got three people on the show. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take the Las Vegas Raiders against who John Gruden
Speaker 1: calls the best three and seven team ever. The Atlanta
Speaker 1: Falcons not even share the three and seven team this
Speaker 1: year because the Panthers were three and seven, and I
Speaker 1: it's a toss up. I only think the Falcons are
Speaker 1: dangerous when Julio Jones is in the lineup, which seems
Speaker 1: like an obvious point to make um, but he's been
Speaker 1: so important this season to them. And if you watch
Speaker 1: that that say game Julio played, but it wasn't in
Speaker 1: the box score too much because he was on the sideline.
Speaker 1: So much. He had a hamstring injury early, they say
Speaker 1: he's a game time decision. And when you take Julio
Speaker 1: Jones out there, they're not dangerous. All they are is
Speaker 1: Calvin Ridley and Matt Ryan and a lousy running game
Speaker 1: that they won't give up on because that's just sort
Speaker 1: of them m O and I guess Todd Earley is
Speaker 1: the new Levy on Bell this year. Just run into
Speaker 1: the line for three yards and it's very hard to
Speaker 1: watch and snaps to Brian Hill right. And your defense
Speaker 1: is a little frisky and if you scheme up some
Speaker 1: things against bad teams, but it's really not that frisky.
Speaker 1: It's just better than it was in the first month
Speaker 1: of the season. So this is a game where I
Speaker 1: think the Raiders should win. And uh, it's a test
Speaker 1: for them. They were six and four a year ago
Speaker 1: at this time. This is a ten am Pacific time
Speaker 1: game in a dead dome. Derek Carr talked this week
Speaker 1: about how he thinks they're so much better than they
Speaker 1: were when they were six and four a year ago
Speaker 1: and when they went ended up going seven and nine,
Speaker 1: losing five out of six at the end. I totally
Speaker 1: agree with their car. I think this team is much
Speaker 1: better than they were a year ago, and this is
Speaker 1: the type of game than that you win. Oh, they're
Speaker 1: They're a completely improved team. And I, you know, hats
Speaker 1: off to Mike Mayock because I think there was fair
Speaker 1: speculation how that would go UM a GM in general,
Speaker 1: pairing with Gruden, um a media you know member becoming
Speaker 1: a GM. We've seen that happen multiple times. Now I
Speaker 1: think it just was because it wasn't because of of
Speaker 1: Mike Mayock. It was just more like I wanted to
Speaker 1: see how it worked. But he has built he is
Speaker 1: in the process of building a really interesting corps. I
Speaker 1: think one area that concerns me is just still like
Speaker 1: their bottom two in sacks, their bottom six and QB
Speaker 1: hits and last week well completely unseated Atlanta. It was
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan being destroyed by the Saints defense. So I
Speaker 1: don't really trust the Raiders defense to be able to
Speaker 1: impact a game that way. But if you're the one
Speaker 1: difference between last year six and four and this year
Speaker 1: six and four, they faced like the third toughest schedule
Speaker 1: to y and they now have let me. The chart
Speaker 1: here says it is the thirtiest easiest UM down the stretch. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't care about schedules in April and May, but
Speaker 1: by now we know who these teams are, so so
Speaker 1: that matters. And I think that they're set up for
Speaker 1: a run because we just mentioned like Cleveland. We just
Speaker 1: mentioned this group of a f C teams that you're
Speaker 1: gonna see a tenant six team not make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: The Raiders have to find a way for that not
Speaker 1: to be them. They've got the tiebreaker over Cleveland that's huge,
Speaker 1: and if they can coast and start to pile up wins,
Speaker 1: they're the team that's deserving of an a f C
Speaker 1: playoff birth compared to you know, some of these a
Speaker 1: f C wild card teams from old I think the
Speaker 1: Raiders could could take the Chiefs in the playoffs. I
Speaker 1: think that the one team that somehow seems to match
Speaker 1: up really well with the Chiefs. So I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: kind of rooting for them not to fall off the grid.
Speaker 1: Here Derek Carr faces of Falcons defense that allows three
Speaker 1: yards passing a game thirty one in the league. Um,
Speaker 1: only Seattle allows more. Somehow Seattle has been allowing and
Speaker 1: I know they've been getting better, but so this number
Speaker 1: is better than it was almost three yards a game
Speaker 1: through the air. Unbelievable anyway. But Atlanta's defense over four
Speaker 1: hundred yards a game they're allowing, uh, that is on
Speaker 1: pace to be the most allowed in a single season
Speaker 1: franchise history. Derek Carr especially, he's got to be playing
Speaker 1: with more confidence that he's ever played within his career.
Speaker 1: Coming off that Chiefs game where I just thought, you know,
Speaker 1: and we talked about on last Sunday Night show, I
Speaker 1: thought it was the best quarterback game of the year
Speaker 1: with Mahomes and Car. So I think Car, for all
Speaker 1: the fun we have with him, is really having a
Speaker 1: great season. And one aspect of the offense that I
Speaker 1: thought was important to see take off a little bit
Speaker 1: against the chief was the Darren Waller uh Derek car connection,
Speaker 1: which has been like sneaky under the radar, not great
Speaker 1: this year. It's been very low in terms of yards
Speaker 1: per catch, and it wasn't an explosive element of their offense.
Speaker 1: He was more a chain mover, almost like a Jason
Speaker 1: Witten type producer. Uh. And maybe not this current Jason Whitten,
Speaker 1: but like four years ago Jason Witten. So then you
Speaker 1: finally got to see him going up to see him
Speaker 1: and ripping off big plays and be looking like an
Speaker 1: athletic freak on Sunday. That's that's such a Sunday at
Speaker 1: that's such a big part of their offense being next
Speaker 1: level good. So let's see if Waller can continue to
Speaker 1: stack up. And by the way, the Falcons are like
Speaker 1: one of the worst teams in the league against tight ends.
Speaker 1: So I think that's that's dead on that you could
Speaker 1: see him having a big game. Mark you are up, Well,
Speaker 1: we're running out of options here. I'm gonna go Arizona,
Speaker 1: New England. A little surprise, this is still hanging around
Speaker 1: minorly spicy um A little bit of news here that
Speaker 1: Larry Fitzgerald tested positive for Corona and will be out
Speaker 1: of this game. I just you know, we can get
Speaker 1: into that another time. But it just feels like some
Speaker 1: of the names being impacted by this. That's that's big.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not He's not the centerpiece of their
Speaker 1: offense right now. But Kyler Murray. I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons Seattle uh best in Arizona on Thursday night
Speaker 1: was that the shoulder injury to Kyler Murray was one
Speaker 1: that you know, I think moved him away from running
Speaker 1: the ball the way he would have something they could
Speaker 1: not have defended. So that's um, you know, he's practicing.
Speaker 1: But I think that there, you know, there will we
Speaker 1: get the full version of Kyler Murray. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: And if you can take that away. New England, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, their defense has been pretty bad. But the
Speaker 1: Patriots just are freaky to me. They hang around in
Speaker 1: games you wouldn't expect. So this is a concerning, concerning
Speaker 1: one for the Cardinals. I think I know that you're
Speaker 1: very down on New England's deal. I'm not, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not that down on them. I just they're a
Speaker 1: competitive team. Their defense is terrible. I mean, the front
Speaker 1: seven of their defense, I would say is the most
Speaker 1: talent poor front seven in the entire NFL. And I
Speaker 1: would say their wide receiver position with the mere Bird
Speaker 1: the definition of a journeyman and Jacoby Myers as their
Speaker 1: top two guys by far, are the most talent poor
Speaker 1: wide receiver corps. So they have major problems. They have
Speaker 1: good coaching, they have a good running game, their secondary
Speaker 1: should be better. They're just good enough to have the
Speaker 1: ball late in games and lose. It's happened four times
Speaker 1: this year where Cam Newton's had the ball, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think they're getting what they could have gotten out
Speaker 1: of their offense, and they're about they're close to average
Speaker 1: efficiency on offense, but they needed their defense to be
Speaker 1: close to where it was last year and instead it
Speaker 1: totally fell off a cliff. And they've played all these
Speaker 1: young dynamic quarterbacks. Uh, Belichick's been on like the tour
Speaker 1: of the quarterback Revolution. Here's who they play, Lamar DeShawn,
Speaker 1: Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. You want to throw Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: in there earlier in the even Derek Carr, who's playing well,
Speaker 1: like they've played great quarterbacks and ultimately they haven't been
Speaker 1: up to the test defensively, and there's no reason to
Speaker 1: think they'll be up to the test against Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I am uh all good points. I'm very
Speaker 1: interested to see what version of the Cardinals offense shows up.
Speaker 1: Though Mark mentioned the shoulder injury to Kyler, and that's
Speaker 1: you can't I mean shoulder injuries and quarterbacks and December
Speaker 1: or close through December, don't X And I'd be very
Speaker 1: very concerned and on edge and on pins and needles
Speaker 1: from the Cardinals fan until we get into game action
Speaker 1: on Sunday and see how he looks. They're gonna play
Speaker 1: him because if there's one knock on the Cardinals, it's
Speaker 1: that it's Kyler's world. And it's like, if they're gonna
Speaker 1: go on like a beautiful run in January, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be because of Kyler. If they're gonna flame out and
Speaker 1: miss the playoffs, it's it's because of Kyler. And now
Speaker 1: you have an injured shoulder. The Fitzgerald absence to COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: I know he's not Larry Fitzgerald anymore, but he was
Speaker 1: still the second most targeted player on this team after
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hopkins. So that's asking Christian Kirk, who I think
Speaker 1: should be the guy getting more targets to step up
Speaker 1: in his absence, and maybe even Andy Isabella. And then
Speaker 1: my my third point on this game, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tee up, Greg, Greg. I've been thinking about this for
Speaker 1: a few days. I'm really looking forward to asking you
Speaker 1: this question. We are where the Patriots right now? What's
Speaker 1: the record again? There four and six, so they got
Speaker 1: six games remaining. Cam new Newton has been a really
Speaker 1: interesting quarterback this year. We've seen almost different Cam Newton's
Speaker 1: throughout the year. He certainly has not been bad, he
Speaker 1: hasn't been great. He's in that not bog gray area
Speaker 1: in between. Is the quarterback of the New England Patriots
Speaker 1: currently on their roster, the starting quarterback in I I
Speaker 1: guess no um if I had to go, but I
Speaker 1: think it's pretty close to fifty fifty. I think it
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense to bring Cam Newton back
Speaker 1: on affordable deal and drafts one because to me, he's
Speaker 1: probably around the Dalton line this year, although the Dalton
Speaker 1: lines now moved so far down that ultimately that's a disadvantage. Like,
Speaker 1: I think Cam Newton has been okay for a replacement start.
Speaker 1: He's been amazing for a million dollars. That's why I
Speaker 1: put it on the defense. Their defense is so expensive
Speaker 1: and they're terrible. What do you expect out of a
Speaker 1: million dollar quarterback? He's a he's a replacement level starter,
Speaker 1: but that means he's like probably the league that's not
Speaker 1: that's not ideal right now? Uh, if you can get
Speaker 1: that low, I in my heart, I don't. But then
Speaker 1: when I actually stack up who's playing, like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of quarterbacks even like the average ones are having
Speaker 1: like okay years, So he's probably between twenty and twenty five.
Speaker 1: If I wrote him down, I think if you can
Speaker 1: get him back on a relatively affordable deal, he makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense to bring back because I just
Speaker 1: don't know if you're going to do better. Also, they
Speaker 1: have like the fourth most cap space projected right now
Speaker 1: for next offseason, So like if you tell me they
Speaker 1: get creative and get someone with like a huge ceiling,
Speaker 1: but I don't know who that is, like other than
Speaker 1: developing a rookie, you know, not, why not Sam Donald?
Speaker 1: That's not gonna mean trade Sam Donald to the Patriots
Speaker 1: in I mean, unless there was some type of trickery
Speaker 1: where the Jets Jets trade him somewhere and then Belichick
Speaker 1: got frisky and somehow, you know, double cross the Jets
Speaker 1: that way, which I wouldn't put it past him. But
Speaker 1: he ain't going straight to New England. Maybe they believe
Speaker 1: can get Fsky enough to trade Drew Bledsoe to the Bills.
Speaker 1: Maybe they believe Cam can get better with the second
Speaker 1: year in the offense and better weapons around him. That's
Speaker 1: why I'd leaned towards just keep them, because what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do that's any better that Jarret's did him?
Speaker 1: Like eighty five snaps that he has has soured me
Speaker 1: on Jarrett's did him because he's looked so overwhelmed and
Speaker 1: a neped. Maybe that's too small a sample size, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. He's an interception every other throw. They're
Speaker 1: probably gonna lose nine or ten games, right if you
Speaker 1: really had to, let's say seven and nine. Let's say
Speaker 1: they go seven and nine, that would be a victory.
Speaker 1: Going three and three down the stretch with this schedule
Speaker 1: for real, I think six and ten about the six
Speaker 1: and ten that will give them probably what like the
Speaker 1: thirteenth pick in the draft, maybe maybe ten to thirteen,
Speaker 1: let's put it in that range. I find it hard
Speaker 1: to believe that Belichick won't take this as the offseason
Speaker 1: to go get his his guy. That has not happened.
Speaker 1: Uh really, and obviously it hasn't. Tom Brady was there
Speaker 1: that this might be the year where they really go
Speaker 1: all in, even if it means trading up or something
Speaker 1: of that nature, to go get a quarterback. I think
Speaker 1: that their rookie quarterback next year is a high first
Speaker 1: round pick I hope. So I think impairing that person
Speaker 1: with Cam, I think is great because Cam's not gonna
Speaker 1: do any better than this opportunity either. I think they
Speaker 1: kind of need each other. It's just figuring out the money.
Speaker 1: I think Cam can succeed in this offense, and he
Speaker 1: has to a point. Um, but if you, if you
Speaker 1: help him out a little more, I don't know, they're
Speaker 1: not They're not going to roll into next year with
Speaker 1: just Cam like this was. This was like, if anything,
Speaker 1: that what I think people are sleeping on with the
Speaker 1: money and the resources and what the offseasons could be. Like,
Speaker 1: this is a one year press pause and rebuild thing.
Speaker 1: This is not a five year rebuilding plan. Old right
Speaker 1: now right He was a bridge guy and that's really
Speaker 1: how it's played out. All right, let's move on. My
Speaker 1: wife hinted by the way um that she wants a
Speaker 1: custom charcuterie board for Christmas. What does that know? What
Speaker 1: that is? It's I think it's cheese related and I'm
Speaker 1: going to be doing research and if anyone wait, the
Speaker 1: actual food or the board. I mean charcuterie is like
Speaker 1: when you order the meats and the cheeses, the board
Speaker 1: if anyone out there is in the custom charcuterie board sector,
Speaker 1: like with her name on it or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't like you know what I saw, Yes, a
Speaker 1: lot of people, um taking pictures of what you're describing
Speaker 1: a charcuterie board to be like, look at my spread
Speaker 1: and look at this amazing table of food. So maybe
Speaker 1: there's some nothing could discuss Mark more than we could
Speaker 1: barely get that out of his mouth. But how about this,
Speaker 1: I do have one, and I'm not I'm not like
Speaker 1: trying to be down on Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful time
Speaker 1: for lots of it. But I would say that one
Speaker 1: thing that people a piece of frozen pizza by yourself
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving, that was just situational. That's not what I
Speaker 1: would do if, like I was around my family. But
Speaker 1: game script went awry, don't you understame? But hear me,
Speaker 1: hear me on this for a second. On Twitter, all
Speaker 1: these people taking pictures of like just their plate of food,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's typically like grayish, a lot of
Speaker 1: grays and browns with like a little green. I would
Speaker 1: just I'm just saying they look it looks better in person.
Speaker 1: The photos of Thanksgiving food are really typically kind of
Speaker 1: gross and because people aren't good photographer food photographers, not
Speaker 1: because the food is gross. It's not a food comment.
Speaker 1: They just understand your perspective marks someone that doesn't like
Speaker 1: food and doesn't like meat and things of that. That's
Speaker 1: just going to from your eye. You're gonna see that
Speaker 1: and it's gonna look gray and no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: because it's just simply like there are other for instance,
Speaker 1: like I I love like food blogs about food. I
Speaker 1: don't even um eat on Instagram. I'll look at a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff and it's got to be photographed. Well,
Speaker 1: but I think it's got You've got someone who likes
Speaker 1: snapped like they're like in weird light, like their plate
Speaker 1: on their iPhone like half blurry like brown products and
Speaker 1: then put it out and being like our meal for
Speaker 1: the day. Like you know what, maybe I'm the only
Speaker 1: person that thinks everyone else I think cancel atoms just
Speaker 1: taking the rest of these photos and I think something here.
Speaker 1: I think, if you're gonna send it out, um a
Speaker 1: lot of colors and it doesn't look too good on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: like it's fair just I mean, these are people that
Speaker 1: are celebrating a holiday and then have a communal experience.
Speaker 1: Why do we need to get on people first. This
Speaker 1: is not a social justice commentary. I'm just saying I'm
Speaker 1: happy to see your food take It takes some time,
Speaker 1: could take some time with the food photos. A moot
Speaker 1: point at this to wait till next year. All right, um,
Speaker 1: this here's my next pick. It's going today. It's going
Speaker 1: to be you know, like in a in a draft
Speaker 1: in real life where it's a someone with a high ceiling,
Speaker 1: but there's some character issues, off the field concerns, so
Speaker 1: they drop way down the board and then you grab
Speaker 1: this player and it's like this could pay off or
Speaker 1: it could blow up in my face. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take Pittsburgh at Baltimore right at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the draft here, and the reasons should be apparent why
Speaker 1: this is a game. Uh that picking in a draft
Speaker 1: might not work out because it might not exist. Because
Speaker 1: the Ravens have a genuine h COVID nineteen outbreak and
Speaker 1: it led to the Thanksgiving game, Thanksgiving primetime game being
Speaker 1: wiped away, pushed a Sunday late afternoon, and then just
Speaker 1: when you thought I couldn't get any more complicated, there
Speaker 1: you go. Lamar Jackson. On Thanksgiving we learned that he
Speaker 1: has tested positive for COVID nineteen. And it gets even
Speaker 1: more messy because in addition to all these continuing positive
Speaker 1: tests for the Ravens. Uh, this is not a situation
Speaker 1: where you can move it again to the old mun
Speaker 1: double Monday Night or Tuesday window unless you than impact
Speaker 1: week thirteen, because Week thirteen kicks off with, yes, the
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night football, so an absolute mess.
Speaker 1: The NFL, as we've talked about on the show, is
Speaker 1: danced through the rain drops all season long on this
Speaker 1: but as the numbers for COVID night teed uptick and
Speaker 1: rocket skyrocket across the country, Uh, we were kind of
Speaker 1: overdue for the next uh schedule based crisis for the NFL,
Speaker 1: and here we are Steelers Ravens Week eleven. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I think the timing of Lamar Jackson getting COVID one
Speaker 1: thing you know, I didn't really think about when we
Speaker 1: first saw the news was he's probably out two weeks
Speaker 1: if if they play both these games on time, and
Speaker 1: so everything's up in the air. We're taping this Friday morning,
Speaker 1: and by Friday afternoon they might have an announcement one
Speaker 1: way or another, and so we'll find out they're not
Speaker 1: going to be competitive with Robert Griffin the third against
Speaker 1: the Steelers, and uh, if they have Robert Griffin the
Speaker 1: third against the Cowboys, anything's up in the air. Because
Speaker 1: they're not just missing r G three, they're missing there too,
Speaker 1: starting defensive tackles to injury, not to COVID. There two
Speaker 1: of their best running backs and and other players throughout
Speaker 1: the week and their coaching staff, and they got to
Speaker 1: play a Steelers team that I think is more dangerous
Speaker 1: lately because I think Ben's there on the ball better lately. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, and you know, even if you had Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 1: there's no one he's played worse against than the Steelers
Speaker 1: over two starts. I mean, they've they've totally figured him
Speaker 1: out and taking him to town. So every time I've
Speaker 1: watched r G three come into that lineup, and I
Speaker 1: know he was sort of trumpeted to someone that maybe
Speaker 1: you can, I guess you could be like a scout
Speaker 1: team Lamar Jackson in practice if you're RG three, that
Speaker 1: kind of a player. But their offense has fallen off
Speaker 1: a cliff every time Lamar Jackson had not been in there.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially last year when you come in for
Speaker 1: a quarter here and there they were a mess. So
Speaker 1: it's I mean, it's total competitive imbalance. And I guess
Speaker 1: at some point to me, the whole season has this
Speaker 1: um every team as an asterix. But you lose Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson to Corona for two weeks and they have well
Speaker 1: what I mean, I guess that just but everyone's lost.
Speaker 1: Not everyone is lost the same amount of stuff at all. No, no,
Speaker 1: not at all, Like but I mean, yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: it's part of like the basically it's like injuries this year,
Speaker 1: and some teams have been hurt harder than others. It's
Speaker 1: I'm more interesting what this means for the league kind
Speaker 1: of like Dan said, like, what are they They're not
Speaker 1: gonna do a forfeit, but they have suspended that coach,
Speaker 1: so they're sort of admitting some fault here that Steelers
Speaker 1: players are upset, and I get that, but I don't,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's this year you just got
Speaker 1: to kind of accept anything. It's a one fifteen game.
Speaker 1: How do they decide on that? By the way, every
Speaker 1: other game is at one, but the NBC raven Steelers.
Speaker 1: Is that one fifteen. It's like, oh, we're special, but
Speaker 1: we're only fifteen minutes apart. That is that. Uh, this
Speaker 1: is the Alan Chris games still, by the way, So
Speaker 1: Alan Chris is are either going to have the week
Speaker 1: off or they're gonna be on a one fifteen game.
Speaker 1: That's weird. Tony Dungee and Mike Tariko are announcing Packers
Speaker 1: Bears Sunday night. The whole thing is whack. Well it's
Speaker 1: with the on the Steeler side too, Like there's a
Speaker 1: couple of ways look at it. They are annoyed, they're upset.
Speaker 1: We saw a bunch of angry tweets from Eric Ebrown
Speaker 1: and others. They had their by wiped out. Uh during
Speaker 1: the Titans outbreak, which was on the Titans and not
Speaker 1: the Steelers, and now the Ravens have an outbreak and
Speaker 1: because of that they lose what they were viewing as
Speaker 1: a mini buy on Thursday. They would play on Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and then have three or four or five days off.
Speaker 1: That's not happening. And then if there by any chance
Speaker 1: there was a forfeit, uh, they wouldn't be paid the players,
Speaker 1: so that they really want to see us now that
Speaker 1: these the other The other side of this is this
Speaker 1: is a huge break for the Steelers from a competition
Speaker 1: standpoint because if you play end up playing this game,
Speaker 1: the Ravens are so compromised. I think if these teams
Speaker 1: were at full strength, and I'm I'm more down on
Speaker 1: the the Ravens than others, but I think a Raven
Speaker 1: team it's six and four, healthy and desperate would have
Speaker 1: been a really tough challenge for the Steelers. And quite simply,
Speaker 1: it's just if they play this game, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be that way. The Steelers, barring some type of really
Speaker 1: crazy happenstance, are gonna be eleven or Oh that's where
Speaker 1: I'm coming from. Like I get that everyone has to
Speaker 1: deal with it in quotes, but come on, I mean,
Speaker 1: like like this, this to me is like dancing through
Speaker 1: the rain drops. That's one thing they were doing for
Speaker 1: a while. That's not what they're able to do now
Speaker 1: in in Baltimore season. I guess what's the other option?
Speaker 1: Because to me, it's like it's a miracle they've gotten
Speaker 1: through all these and it's it's no perfect solution. But like,
Speaker 1: but like week eighteen that they talked about like if
Speaker 1: things became serious enough, Like what is serious enough? Because
Speaker 1: it's not it's clearly you know not it doesn't you
Speaker 1: lose your quarterback, doesn't matter. But if there's if it's
Speaker 1: spreading through the building, that's what would cancel games. Right,
Speaker 1: So it's more safety impacted than you were saying before,
Speaker 1: greg On like the particular player. But to me, like
Speaker 1: if you're looking at the course of your season as
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens and the Steelers have a right to
Speaker 1: be annoyed to I mean, I don't know you're gonna
Speaker 1: You're gonna lose part of the locker room with this
Speaker 1: situation because it's like you're you're you're not You're not
Speaker 1: able to compete against Pittsburgh in the biggest game of
Speaker 1: your year that is being asked to save your season.
Speaker 1: It's not you have no mark Ingram, you have no Dobbins,
Speaker 1: I mean your offensive line attest there. The team's resolved.
Speaker 1: If they quit because of this and they go out
Speaker 1: like lambs, that's an indictment on the whole roster. But
Speaker 1: I I like am I but am I like screaming
Speaker 1: into the wind here. I just find it to be absurd,
Speaker 1: Like what what do you do. I guess that's why
Speaker 1: I'm saying the season to me has an asterix on it.
Speaker 1: I don't say canceled the season, but it's not legitimate
Speaker 1: to me the same way now it's legitimate for like,
Speaker 1: I think, twenty three to twenty four teams. Here's my question,
Speaker 1: what is the trigger where the NFL would open up
Speaker 1: the playoffs much. We've heard that they would have an
Speaker 1: expanded playoffs out. I think it's gonna take multiple games
Speaker 1: being pushed to a theoretical Week eight team. Listen, Mark there,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, but they are in some in
Speaker 1: some ways just a victim of circumstance, and I don't
Speaker 1: I wouldn't put it on an entire asterix on the
Speaker 1: season because it could have happened to anyone, but it
Speaker 1: it is just it's a different year and it's not
Speaker 1: ideal luck as part of it. But they also are
Speaker 1: at fault. I mean they're they're they literally suspended their
Speaker 1: coach because he isn't you know, because he didn't follow
Speaker 1: the that's the that's their organization, and we don't know
Speaker 1: everything else, but he didn't He reportedly didn't have the
Speaker 1: wrist band on, and he didn't know it wasn't wear anything,
Speaker 1: and that's a strength coach who's around every single player.
Speaker 1: It's one of the only people that's around every player,
Speaker 1: and so you know that that's part of it. They're
Speaker 1: at fault. So we'll see what happens. As of right now,
Speaker 1: the game is still on, but that could change by
Speaker 1: the time you hear this show. Finally, let's wrap things
Speaker 1: up with the primetime game Monday Night Football. It is
Speaker 1: the Seattle Seahawks seven and three at the Philadelphia Eagles
Speaker 1: three six and one. Now the Eagles, you know, they've
Speaker 1: lost two straight games out of there by and Washington
Speaker 1: with that win over Dallas, moves ahead of them in
Speaker 1: the wind column. So now there's some pressure on here.
Speaker 1: You've kind of run out of your room. Even in
Speaker 1: the NFC East, there's a limit to how much rope
Speaker 1: you have. You can't just keep losing. You gotta win
Speaker 1: at some point. The problem is here, Greg, that you
Speaker 1: got the Seattle Seahawks that are maybe, just maybe over
Speaker 1: the last two weeks showing signs that they are figuring
Speaker 1: it out on defense and getting where they need to be,
Speaker 1: which is average because average will take care of the rest.
Speaker 1: I totally agree, and they're gonna get Chack Griffin back,
Speaker 1: their starting cornerback, would say, their best cornerback for this game.
Speaker 1: They're probably getting Chris Carson, who makes a huge difference
Speaker 1: for that offense. They're probably getting Postic, their center, who's
Speaker 1: been one of their best, if not their best offensive
Speaker 1: alignment other than Dwayne Brown. So you're getting healthier and
Speaker 1: the Eagles just found out they lost Lane John's and
Speaker 1: for the season. You would think this would be a mismatch. Anyways,
Speaker 1: you know, like Carson Wentz that they're doing the opposite
Speaker 1: of letting Wentz cook. They're just trying to like limit
Speaker 1: him making mistakes, and he's still making them, at least
Speaker 1: against the Brown. So it's it's like they're going into
Speaker 1: a shell and even that's not working, and they're talking
Speaker 1: about simplifying the offense even more. I just it's hard
Speaker 1: to see a much later at the end of the
Speaker 1: tunnel for them. A little bit of a weakness on
Speaker 1: weakness here because the Eagles are allowing a league high
Speaker 1: forty sacks so far, total chaos for Carson Wentz. He
Speaker 1: walks into a few himself. Um, but Seattle, you know,
Speaker 1: they still can't rush the pastor. But Carlos Dunlop, who
Speaker 1: I think some people when when Seattle traded for him, like,
Speaker 1: you know, he's passed his prime, he's not the same guy.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, he made a play when they needed someone
Speaker 1: to make a play against the Cardinals. I don't really
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, throw out all the metrics and stuff.
Speaker 1: They needed someone to come in and make a difference.
Speaker 1: And Bobby Wagner and I know this means nothing to media,
Speaker 1: people typically said that there were like there was it
Speaker 1: was a matter of pride to show up in that
Speaker 1: game and they weren't perfect and they're not going to
Speaker 1: be perfect, but that there are a lot of veterans
Speaker 1: on that defense, and you know that was Seattle's bread
Speaker 1: and butter in the old days. Um that they had
Speaker 1: been hearing it, you know, for a week after week.
Speaker 1: That there's an embarrassment. So I think it matters more
Speaker 1: than just you know, and then we would realize sometimes
Speaker 1: with these players, and I look at the Eagles team
Speaker 1: and I see a coaching staff that is asked about
Speaker 1: the same issues every week. It's Carson Wentz's play, it's
Speaker 1: Jason Peters not being the Jason Peters we used to know.
Speaker 1: It's would Jalen Hurts get more of a chance to
Speaker 1: operate in this environment? And each time Doug Peterson basically says, well,
Speaker 1: that's on me, that's on me. That's on me, and
Speaker 1: nothing changes. They have no answers for any of this
Speaker 1: and one more loss. Um, I don't know. Projecting Philadelphia
Speaker 1: into the the Crown makes no sense anymore. Though the
Speaker 1: team I'd least like to see of any team in
Speaker 1: the NFC East in the playoffs. All three other teams
Speaker 1: are more intriguing. Look at their schedule. If they can't
Speaker 1: find a way to win this week, they are absolutely
Speaker 1: uh done for I think, um kind of thing. Where
Speaker 1: to have this schedule? I just it's brutal. You're right,
Speaker 1: they finished with two division games. When I look at
Speaker 1: the out of division games in this division remaining. The
Speaker 1: Giants have the Bengals this week. That's nice for them,
Speaker 1: But I don't see a lot of potential wins for
Speaker 1: any of these teams out of the division, So it
Speaker 1: still seems like it's gonna come down to those division games.
Speaker 1: The Eagles would have to sweep their their but read
Speaker 1: Phillies because it's here is the schedule, so you have
Speaker 1: obviously Seattle at home, at Green Bay Home, New Orleans,
Speaker 1: at Anza at Dallas, Washington. So I think you could.
Speaker 1: I mean, we were talking about the NFC East here,
Speaker 1: so I I find it hard to fork them even
Speaker 1: if they lose on Sunday, but they are in deep
Speaker 1: deep due to if they don't find a way to
Speaker 1: step up, and um, if you it's let Russ cook,
Speaker 1: like what is it like? Let whence watch? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't want him in the kitchen right now. There's
Speaker 1: nothing that that he can do. And I know you're
Speaker 1: very downmark on Doug Peterson, but maybe this is on
Speaker 1: Doug Peterson, but it's the same way. Sometimes I think
Speaker 1: you're a little overly hard on Naggie. It's like at
Speaker 1: some point, like the quarterback is going to submarine teams sometimes.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what's happened here a little bit
Speaker 1: with their offense, that they could try all these different
Speaker 1: ways to get Carson Wentz going, but if he doesn't
Speaker 1: get going, everyone's gonna look bad as a result. And
Speaker 1: so I think that that's that's just a big part
Speaker 1: of this. Is he ever gonna turn it on? I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think the light goes on at this point.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's a tear down project here. And Carlos Dunlop,
Speaker 1: to your point about Dunlop three and a half sacks
Speaker 1: in three games in Seattle, he's also getting to the
Speaker 1: quarterback seven quarterback hits five tackles for lost when he's
Speaker 1: not getting sacks. Jendavion Clowning, I know he won the
Speaker 1: you know, the wind raid on the edge. You know
Speaker 1: one's better than Jendaveon clown We all have our guys
Speaker 1: that were pretty hard on. Yes, he had three sacks
Speaker 1: in you know, thirteen games last year for Seattle. So
Speaker 1: Dunlop has made the difference and filled that Clowney whole.
Speaker 1: That's the last thing I would do, though, is coming
Speaker 1: out of an Eagles conversation suggesting that maybe Doug Peterson
Speaker 1: is this is a big part of the exciting solutions ahead.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just I think part of his quarterback
Speaker 1: coach relationship, that relationship is broken right now. And I
Speaker 1: don't feel like in like I need to have a
Speaker 1: lot of patients with with coaching staffs that like can't
Speaker 1: figure out any creative solutions when we're seeing such creative
Speaker 1: creativity around the league. I think to Mark's point, and
Speaker 1: this is partly a victim of Doug Peterson's success. Could
Speaker 1: I imagine Shanahan, McVeigh, Reich, even McDaniels, considering the situation
Speaker 1: they're looking at read having anywhere close to this level
Speaker 1: of failure with Carson Wentz. I don't think I could.
Speaker 1: I think I mean that is conjecture because entering the
Speaker 1: season Wentz doing this like, that's what what's made this
Speaker 1: such a baffling subplot that season that he was never
Speaker 1: this was never supposed to happen. He doesn't get it.
Speaker 1: It's just like and we say, we look at other
Speaker 1: coaches in the league and offenses taking off, well, those
Speaker 1: are offenses with dynamic, young quarterbacks that are going off
Speaker 1: and playing well and playing with confidence. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The Eagles don't have that. I get it. But okay,
Speaker 1: let's use the Patriots example. You know, and they have
Speaker 1: an offensive line, which which matters. But you look at
Speaker 1: a team that's been close to average in terms of
Speaker 1: efficiency with Cam Newton and with those receivers, and or
Speaker 1: you look at San Francisco and what they do with
Speaker 1: Nick Mullins, like the coaches don't feel like they're helping
Speaker 1: Carson Wentz. That's that's for sure. Whatever it is, it's
Speaker 1: a failure on both of them. But the coaches are
Speaker 1: failing too. Yeah, I think listen, there's definitely a case
Speaker 1: to be made for both sides. Have you invested in
Speaker 1: that Doug Peterson Prudential Company or whatever that we mentioned
Speaker 1: on it? He sounds like suddenly it's just all in
Speaker 1: on this guy now. It's one of the things that
Speaker 1: sometimes I get on my radar analysis that buryes a
Speaker 1: head coach because the quarterbacks thinks. It's like sometimes it's
Speaker 1: it feels unfair on the coach. That's part of It's
Speaker 1: like the quarterback was playing at m v P level
Speaker 1: with a certain coaching staff. Um the coaching staff has changed.
Speaker 1: The quarterback is failing. The offense is the most boring
Speaker 1: offense in the entire league, and was boring last year too.
Speaker 1: So at some point, like the stink is going to
Speaker 1: be on the people that are being paid millions of
Speaker 1: dollars to run the show, right that is that is
Speaker 1: the nature of the game. I just sometimes feel it
Speaker 1: to be unfair. That's all, Well, this is a very
Speaker 1: unfair business. Men are fired weekly. I mean, what do
Speaker 1: we sue? So well, let's give Adam Geza another couple
Speaker 1: of years to figure his plan out. I mean when
Speaker 1: when who gets picked on and who is allowed to
Speaker 1: just continue on in mediocrity? I don't know at less,
Speaker 1: So it's un air. You've made it amazing, Adam Gates
Speaker 1: based point mark, You've done it again. Congratulations. All right,
Speaker 1: we are done. That's it. That's the full preview of
Speaker 1: week twelve. We'll be back on Sunday night as we
Speaker 1: always are, hopefully with Chris Westling in to If not,
Speaker 1: we will um four John without the great Mr Westling.
Speaker 1: But fingers crossed on that. Everyone enjoy You're the beginning
Speaker 1: of the holidays. How about that? It is nice. It
Speaker 1: feels good to get over this hump for real. I like,
Speaker 1: I like seeing the end of the I like a
Speaker 1: little change to the routine, and I like seeing the
Speaker 1: end of the season a little bit of change. We've
Speaker 1: only got like five what weeks left? But only three
Speaker 1: of them are normal? Then we get into Christmas, we
Speaker 1: get into the week seventeen, it's like we only got
Speaker 1: three kind of routine weeks left. Let's do I just hope.
Speaker 1: I just hope things don't get worse on that other
Speaker 1: with the other thing. I'm nervous about that. All right,
Speaker 1: good stuff. Dan has a signing out four Quiet Storm
Speaker 1: and the Old Boss kill Sunday, then turn to attendent
Speaker 1: down to