Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast, Terrible English Texans, not Choe.
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 Hansis. I'm joined in room filled with the heroes
Speaker 1: Mark Cecila, Chris Westling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up? Please? Hey? Dan?
Speaker 1: Very disturbed by the cup of soda that you had
Speaker 1: resting partly off the edge of the desk and in
Speaker 1: your hand, gingerly touching it as you were total pro
Speaker 1: good energy Bill. Dan's got a new jacket. He broke
Speaker 1: out new pre show song. I don't know if you're
Speaker 1: in my mind it's it's called in my mind It's
Speaker 1: too There is no tone of surprise that would be
Speaker 1: the top of a funky b We're excited. We have
Speaker 1: Kevin Harlan as a guest on our Thursday recap show.
Speaker 1: So I mean we're tapping into the zeitgeist right now.
Speaker 1: The shadowy leaf? Is there a shadowy leaf figure behind
Speaker 1: the glass right now? Give me a head nod or
Speaker 1: sort of someone? Yeah, you got to check the bank
Speaker 1: account for that categorization here, hit. We attempted to add
Speaker 1: a fourth podcast to our stable, Um this season. We
Speaker 1: went to the Shadowy League figures. He said, we want
Speaker 1: a fourth pod. They said no, Why they said no.
Speaker 1: We never really got a real answer on that. We
Speaker 1: just didn't get it. They said, no, stick with what
Speaker 1: you're doing. Well, when you have one podcast that far,
Speaker 1: you know outrate, saw the other podcasts that you have,
Speaker 1: why add more? I mean, we don't need to get
Speaker 1: into that, but you are right. So what we did
Speaker 1: instead was we circumvented the situation. We searched from rented.
Speaker 1: We took the Thursday Night recap, as you know, we
Speaker 1: made it a standalone and now tonight and we just
Speaker 1: recorded it and you'll hear it tonight Kevin Harlan with
Speaker 1: the Heroes. Uh So that's basically a full podcast. So
Speaker 1: that's how you beat the system. That's how you take
Speaker 1: down the man while he slumber as you do your work.
Speaker 1: What happens when he wakes up? The man never wakes up?
Speaker 1: Al Right, guys, that bozo sleeping real average Joe's here.
Speaker 1: Um a lot to get to, a lot to get
Speaker 1: to because well not as much as usual. And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you why. Thirty two teams six teams I'm by
Speaker 1: equals two teams already talked about four divide by two
Speaker 1: twelve games to talk about just twelve this week, which
Speaker 1: means we can chew the fat or fear in your
Speaker 1: eyes trying to divide by two. Now, imagine imagine me
Speaker 1: at sixteen having to pass the test to avoid summer school.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I feel like the challenge would
Speaker 1: have been the same. I don't think the skills have advanced.
Speaker 1: I always thought it was kind of a big but
Speaker 1: when we had to do some division while playing darts
Speaker 1: in London, I realized not a bit. No, I'm not
Speaker 1: great at math. Everything everything I say in this podcast
Speaker 1: is real. You know, there's there's no character. Math is hard,
Speaker 1: all right, So let's get into all the games and
Speaker 1: we do it draft style. And by the way, it
Speaker 1: is true. Remember when you used to think and complain
Speaker 1: to your friends, why do I have to take this
Speaker 1: trigonometry course? All I need to know or like, you know, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
Speaker 1: That's true, So your younger listeners out there, it's true.
Speaker 1: But being able to like add and divide and multiply
Speaker 1: quickly does help you throughout yours. I have a child
Speaker 1: that already one of them despises math, and I've basically said,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. It's also the sign of a
Speaker 1: creative so you know, don't worry about it. Everybody. That's
Speaker 1: not always the sign of that. That's the way to
Speaker 1: look at it. I didn't know that a default scenario. No,
Speaker 1: there are studies the left brain, right brain, and all
Speaker 1: that stuff that tell us more. There are plenty where
Speaker 1: left and right not as not much as occurring in either.
Speaker 1: There's so much going on. It's funny that the sun
Speaker 1: have both both gregs like I have balls. No, I
Speaker 1: like that. I don't like Uh. Let's hear a little
Speaker 1: just a little tease, as they call me of the
Speaker 1: Kevin Harland interview that you could hear in full tonight
Speaker 1: after our Thursday night recap, like when you when you
Speaker 1: threw that sponsor read in, like right before you did that,
Speaker 1: you must have known that this was this was magic.
Speaker 1: Oh well, no, listen that Howard dinner off is Ore
Speaker 1: was her producer, and he was giving me the card
Speaker 1: because the giants at the other end, we're about ready
Speaker 1: to enter the CDW red zone. Cd W people you
Speaker 1: can count on. Uh So I had it right there
Speaker 1: and then I'm looking at the Cat and the card
Speaker 1: is in my hand, and I get a nudge, and
Speaker 1: so I read the car as it turned out, So
Speaker 1: we didn't want to miss a sponsor man, regardless of
Speaker 1: who we're scoring, the Cat or the Giants. And Kevin
Speaker 1: Harlan will join us to talk about that very call
Speaker 1: and much more tonight after Mark and I recap Chargers Raiders.
Speaker 1: All right, draft style, assuming the game happens there. Even
Speaker 1: if the game doesn't happen, we'd probably get together for
Speaker 1: even more important reasons to discuss why right, you know,
Speaker 1: pack the car, get as much water, bottled water as
Speaker 1: we can, all that stuff. Um, let's do a draft style.
Speaker 1: The old Zeuster is picking first. The draft order is
Speaker 1: as far as West. Pay attention, uh, Zeuster, quiet Storm,
Speaker 1: the old Boss West with the snake. All right, and
Speaker 1: I picked first and this one and remember have your
Speaker 1: locks ready as well? Oh all right, you know there's
Speaker 1: a reason you're in last place, Wes, I need more craft. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, this is an easy first overall pick for me. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not not a killer slate of games to start with
Speaker 1: in terms of the best, yes so, but the games
Speaker 1: that are available for us for the purposes of the
Speaker 1: draft not so hot, so I will go to lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: I have a rule, I don't you guys are all
Speaker 1: about who's calling the game, and this might work out
Speaker 1: for the old juser as well. But I'm like, Oh,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers playing under blue skies or maybe some snow
Speaker 1: or whatever at lambeau Field and his prime coming off
Speaker 1: a bad loss. Um a tough loss against the Panthers,
Speaker 1: who are a five and three team. Uh that got
Speaker 1: back on the horse, as they say, after a really
Speaker 1: bad game against the Niners. So I am going to
Speaker 1: watch and cover this game for the podcast. And I
Speaker 1: think I think people that look at what happened with
Speaker 1: Green Bay against the Chargers and say, oh, they're not
Speaker 1: that good, or this could be the start of one
Speaker 1: of those slumps that of Submarine Reese and seasons more
Speaker 1: to think about it. I think every team has a
Speaker 1: game that doesn't go their way every once in a while.
Speaker 1: And also the possibility which could be proven wrong. But
Speaker 1: we'll see that the Chargers are ready to make a
Speaker 1: rise and a few weeks from now that won't look
Speaker 1: like such a bad loss, even though it looked bad
Speaker 1: in the moment. So I feel good about the Packers
Speaker 1: still and the Panthers, of course, now they move forward
Speaker 1: without Cam Newton, who is on I R. And it's
Speaker 1: Kyle Allen's world. So it's Christian McCaffrey on one side,
Speaker 1: it's Aaron Rodgers on the other, and let's have some fun.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I think you just throw out
Speaker 1: that game for the Packers offense. The Packers defense is
Speaker 1: a totally different story that this is not a one
Speaker 1: week problem. Since Week four, they are thirty first in
Speaker 1: the league in yards per play allowed. They are down
Speaker 1: there with the Bengals and the Dolphins as the worst
Speaker 1: defenses in the league in terms of just getting off
Speaker 1: the field. If you believe Bob McGinn, who does a
Speaker 1: great job doing you know, port cards every WEEKND would
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. He's watching every every snap. He's killing Blake
Speaker 1: Martinez thing he thinks Blake Martinez needs to be benched.
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark, who has been a really good nose tackle
Speaker 1: for them the last few years and people thought maybe
Speaker 1: have a breakout season, is struggling. You know, they're certainly
Speaker 1: struggling against the run, and that's not good news when
Speaker 1: you're about to face the best running back in the league,
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark's playing too many snaps. He's playing more snaps
Speaker 1: than any defensive tackle in the league. And Blake Martinez
Speaker 1: is making tackles, but they all appear to be four
Speaker 1: or five yards down field with the runner running him over.
Speaker 1: I also like, on the Packers side of things, Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers comments about that Chargers game where they went there
Speaker 1: a day early to l A to acclimate to the climate,
Speaker 1: uh and the time change, and he kind of hinted
Speaker 1: that some of the guys didn't make right decisions and
Speaker 1: and maybe went out partying in l A, which again,
Speaker 1: sometimes you forget these are twenty five year old millionaires
Speaker 1: that when they get the opportunity in the million the
Speaker 1: middle of a harrowing NFL football season to have fun,
Speaker 1: they're gonna go have fun and maybe have six more
Speaker 1: drinks than they expected to or whatever they do to
Speaker 1: cut loose. And that could be something that happened whatever,
Speaker 1: but you would expect if that was a real case
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, that this would have been a focused
Speaker 1: week where everybody was like got their head on. Maybe
Speaker 1: they were trying to live up to Packard tradition. Famously,
Speaker 1: you know, the first Super Bowl in Los Angeles, they
Speaker 1: you know Max McGee from two Lane booze so hard.
Speaker 1: He showed up, showed back up on Super Bowl morning
Speaker 1: at six in the morning as the coaches were leaving,
Speaker 1: and he goes out and gets, you know, a couple
Speaker 1: big grap hangover. I mean, that's a bit of a
Speaker 1: different These teams put a clamp on that business. And
Speaker 1: you know, not to point to Matt Lafleur, but maybe
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur needs to. If Aaron Rodgers mentioned it, because
Speaker 1: we're asking if it happened, I'm going to assume it happened, right,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming he was not part of it if he's
Speaker 1: calling out the people he was with, but if he
Speaker 1: wasn't hang out with his teammates, that probably feels realistic
Speaker 1: to They only ran forty nine plays against the Chargers,
Speaker 1: and I mean, we'll get to if they and them,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to the Chargers before this because we'll
Speaker 1: talk about them tonight, but I want to see how
Speaker 1: they follow it up. But well, that's how the show works.
Speaker 1: We've already talked about the Panthers. I thought took the
Speaker 1: training wheels off. Kyle Allen last week, or he just
Speaker 1: was more aggressive because he went for it, like he
Speaker 1: made a lot of tough downfield throws and he hit
Speaker 1: quite a few of them. I thought he had one
Speaker 1: of his best performances. And I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was just a change in philosophy or something they decided
Speaker 1: to do during the bye week, but they were a
Speaker 1: much more aggressive passing game, and I think this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a high scoring game. I think he picked well, Dan,
Speaker 1: thank you, and I did also look in the mirror,
Speaker 1: and even though it's on the edge, I'm gonna stay
Speaker 1: away from it. I just feel I'm very strong in
Speaker 1: my conviction that the Packers will take care of business
Speaker 1: and get back on track. Um. Next up in the
Speaker 1: draft is Mark Sessler. Alright, well, last week, I don't
Speaker 1: like what happened in the draft. Last week, I got
Speaker 1: stuck with two late games, and I I'm threatening to
Speaker 1: do the same again because I'm going early with the
Speaker 1: Browns game once more, one more time, because this is
Speaker 1: the end of this is where I maybe you know,
Speaker 1: last week could argue was the end of the brown
Speaker 1: season if they were to lose this week. I stopped
Speaker 1: picking the games and I'm going to let one of
Speaker 1: you handle Browns games from here on. Alpoton. Well, it's
Speaker 1: because it's not a pleasant surprise anymore. It's ay, it
Speaker 1: makes Sundays longer. Don't need it. The Browns to me
Speaker 1: feel like I imagined. You know, the season started so
Speaker 1: poorly against the Titans, and it's almost like they never
Speaker 1: really woke up from that nightmare. But here's my concern.
Speaker 1: If you took them in a time machine and you said,
Speaker 1: all right, you know everything you know today, coaching staff
Speaker 1: on down to the last guy in the roster, we
Speaker 1: we this was your preseason. We're gonna take you back
Speaker 1: in time and start over again. I don't trust this
Speaker 1: coaching staff or any of the players to change the
Speaker 1: results if they had a chance to do it all
Speaker 1: over again from scratch. I see a club that is
Speaker 1: completely discombobulated and simply cannot get out of its own way.
Speaker 1: And the offense. To me, the biggest concern is really
Speaker 1: some of these teams that cannot close drives. They have
Speaker 1: not been able to close drives all year long. The
Speaker 1: aggressive downfield nature of Baker Mayfield from last season's withered up.
Speaker 1: He's one of the he is the worst quarterback in
Speaker 1: the league right now when not facing pressure. So all
Speaker 1: this about blaming the offensive line week after week doesn't
Speaker 1: hold a lot of water. He's simply not playing well.
Speaker 1: And I look at the quarterback coach, and I look
Speaker 1: at the offensive coordinator. Where is Todd Munkin in the
Speaker 1: middle of all this? It's not his offense from Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay that I just think that they have to re
Speaker 1: look in the mirror and reorganize from the bottom up
Speaker 1: to the criticism, especially this week after the Broncos loss,
Speaker 1: is really starting to mount at the quarterback position. And
Speaker 1: to talk about that a little bit more, I got
Speaker 1: a surprise guest calling into right now, Freddie Kitchens. Baker's
Speaker 1: busy looking in the classifiedes um. We have a special guest,
Speaker 1: big bombshell announcement that came on Twitter that Nick Shook,
Speaker 1: our old friend the Bodybill dirt Uh is back with
Speaker 1: NFL Media. He's the new writer for the around the
Speaker 1: NFL um news operation we have and now he joins
Speaker 1: us on the pod to talk a little Browns because
Speaker 1: previously he worked for the Browns. What's up, Nick, are Wow?
Speaker 1: Shooks back, Welcome back, And just so you know, we
Speaker 1: have a live stream on YouTube right now, and then
Speaker 1: people can watch at anytime. I took the liberty of
Speaker 1: going through your public facing social media and picking out
Speaker 1: some of my favorite photos of you, and we're just
Speaker 1: gonna have that on a loop during this conversation. If
Speaker 1: you're comfortable with that, good. If you're not, you know,
Speaker 1: let me know. I'm a little frightened by what might
Speaker 1: be up there, but we'll go with it. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of biceps, it's a lot of a lot of sleeves.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of I'm a bit shocked that Nick Shook
Speaker 1: entered back into this dynamic that he deals with on
Speaker 1: this show. You talk about not wearing sleeves. Brown Special
Speaker 1: Teams coordinator Mike Freefer and I used to run into
Speaker 1: each other in the hotel on road trips, and he'd
Speaker 1: usually run to me after I was coming back the
Speaker 1: hotel gym. So he started this thing where he go
Speaker 1: into every press conference and I would sit in the
Speaker 1: front row and he just looked at me and go, oh,
Speaker 1: why why you were in sleep today? Why don't you
Speaker 1: showing off the guns? You guys don't the only one,
Speaker 1: so chuckle. We're talking Brown's bills and um, you know,
Speaker 1: you not only were working for the Browns until this week,
Speaker 1: you were traveling with them. What has been your sense,
Speaker 1: h with what's went wrong this season and what is
Speaker 1: the vibe behind the scenes there in Cleveland. There's a
Speaker 1: little bit of of just uneasiness. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I would call attention. I think tension often UH intimates
Speaker 1: that that things are are in a negative white and
Speaker 1: it's not that. But you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on this team going in the season. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of new faces and a lot of moving
Speaker 1: parts that didn't have a lot of time to get
Speaker 1: used to each other. And I think you're seeing the
Speaker 1: results of that to an extend in the field, and
Speaker 1: and and it does affect you know, the moods Ryan
Speaker 1: the team. You know, where are they going to turn
Speaker 1: it around, especially after this losing streak, and really especially
Speaker 1: after this lost to Denver, because you looked at their
Speaker 1: schedule through their first seven games and he thought, Wow,
Speaker 1: they've really played some tough opponents. You got Seattle, he
Speaker 1: got San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Page Tree, It's Baltimore,
Speaker 1: which is who they beat. So you know, a tough
Speaker 1: schedule to start, but you thought, all right, well maybe
Speaker 1: we'll get on track when they played Denver and they
Speaker 1: didn't do that. So now it's really like, well, are
Speaker 1: they ever gonna win a game again? So, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there are there are I think some concerns. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I would go so far as to call
Speaker 1: its issues, and I think that implies that there's there's
Speaker 1: some discontent or disconnection in the locker room, and I
Speaker 1: think that's necessarily the case. But I just think it's
Speaker 1: a group that's not, you know, figuring out how to
Speaker 1: play together and really get into a rhythm. That's the
Speaker 1: thing that they have struggled to do with the most
Speaker 1: is get into some type of rhythm that they could
Speaker 1: establish in a game and then ride to a victory.
Speaker 1: And so far that's how they pretty much ended up
Speaker 1: at this point. They have Kareem Hunt back this week,
Speaker 1: and I'm just wondering, you look at this coaching staff
Speaker 1: and you know you are, you were couched with them,
Speaker 1: So I'm not asking you to flame anyone, but do
Speaker 1: do you trust I am, um, well, do you trust
Speaker 1: this coaching staff to say we have a new weapon.
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn how to maximize him. After what we've
Speaker 1: seen with rather star studded group of skill position players
Speaker 1: playing rather underwhelming football. You know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say I don't trust them, because I think these are
Speaker 1: all good coaches, but I think it's a it's again
Speaker 1: another new piece that doesn't hasn't had a lot of
Speaker 1: time to get acclimated with these guys. Now. The good
Speaker 1: thing is Kareem has been the building. He's been able
Speaker 1: to practice for the last few weeks, so he has
Speaker 1: had some time in some reps of those guys. But again,
Speaker 1: you just wonder, you know, how are they going to
Speaker 1: work him into the offense. How are they going to
Speaker 1: establish a rapport with him when they're still struggling struggling
Speaker 1: to establish a rapport with really anybody on this team.
Speaker 1: And and I think it all goes back to really
Speaker 1: the rhythm and the play calling and the way that
Speaker 1: they've gotten in the way of themselves, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: a self inflicted mistakes, penalties, turnover is that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But then even last week they eliminated that and they
Speaker 1: still couldn't come away with a victory. So you know,
Speaker 1: today I kind of thought about it and said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, there were three different times where they had
Speaker 1: the ball late, they were down to single score and
Speaker 1: they had the opportunity to take the lead or at
Speaker 1: least tie it and send a game to overtime. You know,
Speaker 1: there was Week three against the Rams and they couldn't
Speaker 1: score from the four yard line on four straight plays.
Speaker 1: There was the game against Seattle where they had the
Speaker 1: ball lad down four and they threw an interception off
Speaker 1: the hands at Don trelle Hilliard. And then there was
Speaker 1: last week where it was fourth and four and they
Speaker 1: couldn't convert there to try to get to go ahead
Speaker 1: touched down in Denver. So even if you add these
Speaker 1: new pieces and all those talents there, can they really execute.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing that we've heard from Freddy
Speaker 1: Kitchens a lot is execution execution to lack of execution.
Speaker 1: Once they get rid of the penalties, they just couldn't execute.
Speaker 1: And you know, it sounds overly simple, but I really
Speaker 1: do think that is the case. Let's talk Let's talk
Speaker 1: about the Bill Shook. Let's talk about the Bill side
Speaker 1: of things, because this is a what a big spot
Speaker 1: for Buffalo here because now New England and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna go crazy here because no one has ever thought
Speaker 1: the Bills have a chance to contend in this division,
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying that they can. But they're one
Speaker 1: game out and their schedule, which we all know, continues
Speaker 1: to say stay soft. I mean, the Browns are one
Speaker 1: of the biggest disappointments in the league. They get Cleveland,
Speaker 1: they go to Miami, then their home for Denver. If
Speaker 1: they took care of business, they could get to December
Speaker 1: at nine and two. The Bills, to me, west are
Speaker 1: a team that if they continuare this business, we should
Speaker 1: be taking them easily, even though there is a sense
Speaker 1: that people don't view them in that way. I've taken
Speaker 1: them less seriously of late because they have a major problem.
Speaker 1: They are one of the worst run defenses in the NFL.
Speaker 1: The Eagles went over two hundred yards on them. They
Speaker 1: made Adrian Peterson looked like two thousand fourteen Adrian Peterson.
Speaker 1: They are the worst screen pass defense in the league,
Speaker 1: which is why I expect Kareem Hunt they have a
Speaker 1: big role this week, and I expect Nick Chubb to
Speaker 1: run on there. I am not impressed with their defense
Speaker 1: anymore like I was in September. No, the the underlying
Speaker 1: stats are pretty bad for the Bills. You know, if
Speaker 1: you look at d v o A, which is Football
Speaker 1: Outsiders way that they measure efficiency, the Browns are one
Speaker 1: spot ahead of the Bills on the season. If you
Speaker 1: look at the way they do estimated wins, which is
Speaker 1: more about yards for play and it you know, takes
Speaker 1: in the opponents. Again, the Bills are worst, slightly worse.
Speaker 1: They're like the best teams in the league. And that's
Speaker 1: why the Browns are favored in this game. You know,
Speaker 1: And and I'm not I'm not surprised by that. This
Speaker 1: is a coin flip game. They're at home. I do
Speaker 1: kind of wonder that you think, is it a home
Speaker 1: field advantage right now for Cleveland because the second they
Speaker 1: fall down to score that it's like you feel that pressure.
Speaker 1: I don't know, It's not so much that six and
Speaker 1: two team maybe not as good as the record indicates.
Speaker 1: But the Browns have shown is nothing to say that
Speaker 1: they're going to win a game against the winning team.
Speaker 1: I guess that does. I mean they've been close. They
Speaker 1: were close against Seattle, they were close against the Rams,
Speaker 1: they were wiped out Brandon Alan. This is this is
Speaker 1: a team. Their biggest problem is themselves in a lot
Speaker 1: of in a lot of ways shook before. I'm curious,
Speaker 1: how do you think Baker Mayfield just you know, is
Speaker 1: handling his first real struggles and adversity on the field
Speaker 1: since he was a freshman in college like on a
Speaker 1: day to dab. I know there's a lot of jokes
Speaker 1: this week about how he looked after last week's game
Speaker 1: and all that, But how how is he kind of
Speaker 1: handling it because he came in he's all about confidence,
Speaker 1: and I have to imagine that that it's it's not
Speaker 1: the same as it was eight weeks ago. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny seeking that press conference, it never occurred to
Speaker 1: me that he looked like he did in photos and
Speaker 1: on TV, But then after seeing it again, it was like, wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: he looks a little disheveled there. And obviously we we've
Speaker 1: heard some of comments about how he shaved twice from
Speaker 1: the time you get to the stadium to the time
Speaker 1: he left looking for cans in the back alley after.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's it's interesting because if you consider
Speaker 1: his career and you kind of mentioned it there, Greg,
Speaker 1: he hasn't really gotten to a point that he got
Speaker 1: to this summer which was this is this summer, this
Speaker 1: offseason was the first time where he didn't have the
Speaker 1: whole world doubting him or not expecting him to succeed.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody loved him, everybody loved his potential and
Speaker 1: and and all the things were positive about the Browns,
Speaker 1: and you almost wonder if not that he lost that fire,
Speaker 1: but you know, that's what drives him, and and it
Speaker 1: makes you wonder if, if you know, not having all
Speaker 1: those doubters might have maybe for the first time, led
Speaker 1: him to be a little bit complacent. Now I can't
Speaker 1: obviously confirm this. I don't know him well enough. I've
Speaker 1: interacted with him, but I don't know him well to
Speaker 1: know whether that was the case or not. But I mean,
Speaker 1: he did spend the summer, you know, doing some some
Speaker 1: commercials and getting married, and I'm not saying that really
Speaker 1: affects it, but it is an illustration of the fact
Speaker 1: that he had this love from the outside that he'd
Speaker 1: never really had before. And you wonder if that affected
Speaker 1: the way he's played and the way you know, he
Speaker 1: he was he approached this season. I do I will
Speaker 1: say that having been there for every training camp practice
Speaker 1: that they had. He's been inaccurate this entire time, and
Speaker 1: he was inaccurate in practice in July and it was
Speaker 1: just slightly off and you thought, well, maybe it's camp,
Speaker 1: maybe it's just something that they'll work on. But it
Speaker 1: hasn't gotten any better. Now in the last few games,
Speaker 1: he has to played a little bit better that interception
Speaker 1: on the on the touch pass, notwithstanding against New England,
Speaker 1: you know, statistically he's played a little bit better, but
Speaker 1: they still haven't produced wins, and they haven't been able
Speaker 1: to come up in the clutch, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the most concerning thing, you know, like Mark said, they
Speaker 1: their biggest problems themselves, and if they could just execute,
Speaker 1: they could probably come away with some wins. And that's
Speaker 1: why I think that they still have somewhat of a
Speaker 1: chance to resurrect the second half of the season, but
Speaker 1: they would pretty much have to win out to really
Speaker 1: do that, which is obviously a tall task for anybody,
Speaker 1: especially with the weather playing right now. So I mean,
Speaker 1: these next day games are gonna tell us a lot
Speaker 1: about the makeup and moxie if Baker Mayfield, because right now,
Speaker 1: so far, he just hasn't been anywhere near where he
Speaker 1: was as a rookie. You know what I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: with Nick Shook on the phone, I'm locking up Cleveland
Speaker 1: because either this thing, either this thing is gonna be
Speaker 1: you know, like glorious Sunday, or I'm going to continue
Speaker 1: just to burn up like a nuclear bomb landing on Earth.
Speaker 1: With the locks situation, I go where Mark goes best
Speaker 1: to what I actually kind of like this one there.
Speaker 1: I do think the Browns are gonna win. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I didn't I worry about Sunday night. I
Speaker 1: didn't I worry about what happens when you lose a
Speaker 1: lock and the Browns lose. I mean, I've shown literally
Speaker 1: no emotion all year. I think we're good. I just
Speaker 1: saw some emotion locking up a two and six. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what it is. There's these these model shots
Speaker 1: of Nick Shook like shooting free throws. Why don't you've
Speaker 1: you've clearly hired a photographer Nick at some point to
Speaker 1: get to maximize this. Check out our YouTube show, Nick,
Speaker 1: we gotta move on the draft. The clock is up.
Speaker 1: But thank you for joining us and welcome back. We're
Speaker 1: really excited to have you and see you at I
Speaker 1: know you're gonna be doing your work back in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure we're gonna get a chance to see
Speaker 1: you every once in a while, including at the various
Speaker 1: tent pole events. And that's great news. Yeah, I definitely
Speaker 1: you know what ill day one thing? Mark? You know,
Speaker 1: For as emotionless as you've been, I don't think you've
Speaker 1: been able to encounter an emotional uh impast or or
Speaker 1: challenge like the one I encountered in which they fly
Speaker 1: to San Francisco for a Monday night game and you're
Speaker 1: with the team and they get the doors blown off
Speaker 1: and then you have to fly back in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night five hours on the team. Boy, guys,
Speaker 1: you just got destroyed. So at the level then you
Speaker 1: were too close, Nick, you flew too close to the
Speaker 1: sun literally with the plane. All right, Nick, Chuck, Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, that guy works out. All right, let's move on. Uh, Greg,
Speaker 1: you are picking third. I am, and I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with one of my maxims. It's the Tony Romo game early,
Speaker 1: it's Chiefs, it's tight ends. I don't think this will
Speaker 1: necessarily because but I want to enjoy Romo in the morning.
Speaker 1: I want to enjoy Patrick Mahomes has returned to the field.
Speaker 1: That's not official as we tape this, but he is
Speaker 1: practicing fully and it sure looks like he's gonna be back.
Speaker 1: And I don't think the Chiefs needed a reminder. They
Speaker 1: shouldn't have because they were a super per Bowl championship
Speaker 1: level team last year. If they want to coin toss
Speaker 1: they probably win the Super Bowl. They should be reminded
Speaker 1: after last week. Really the last two they can win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. You beat the Vikings with Matt Moore
Speaker 1: at quarterback, and I think look like the better team
Speaker 1: doing it. You hold the Vikings the three hundred yards
Speaker 1: when Tyree Hills back, and their whole offense just makes
Speaker 1: more sense when Tyree Hills playing at his best, which
Speaker 1: I think he is now. Watkins is now the number two,
Speaker 1: Damian Williams is the clear running back. I think they're
Speaker 1: settling into who they are and I think the defense
Speaker 1: is better this year and they're playing a Tennessee team,
Speaker 1: which is I think earning Dan's ire more. I can't
Speaker 1: I was gonna say the word, but I can't even
Speaker 1: do it. What No, I'm kind of out on even
Speaker 1: that because there that Mariota was a big issue with
Speaker 1: the Tytoons scenario, and but they just they exist, that's
Speaker 1: all they exist, and I don't think they can hang
Speaker 1: with a team with this sort of championship level talent.
Speaker 1: I think losing Malcolm Butler is a big loss for
Speaker 1: a team that if they're gonna go anywhere, and if
Speaker 1: they're gonna get anywhere close to the wild card birth
Speaker 1: fifth or six splot slot in the a f C,
Speaker 1: it's you. It's through your defense, and so when you
Speaker 1: lose a starting corner, I just I don't like that
Speaker 1: situation for them. I think the Chiefs we've forgotten about
Speaker 1: because they haven't had those magic moments from the homes
Speaker 1: and because the Ravens just took down the Patriots, and
Speaker 1: I think Baltimore became that team that people are focusing
Speaker 1: on as the number one or two slot in a
Speaker 1: f C. This is gonna be a different narrat narrative
Speaker 1: after Sunday night. I see you look like you're you're
Speaker 1: not happy with what I was saying there. I did not.
Speaker 1: I thought the Vikings were clearly the better team, and
Speaker 1: they were get out gained by five yards with Matt
Speaker 1: Morrick quarter, but they were about to run away with
Speaker 1: the game driving down the field and an illegal man
Speaker 1: downfield call changed everything. They were about to go up
Speaker 1: two scores and that was the turning point in the game.
Speaker 1: And then Damian Williams ninety one yard touchdown happened. Right
Speaker 1: after that. I thought the Vikings were in control. The
Speaker 1: Williams touchdown was so huge because, yeah, I think More
Speaker 1: played very well in these two weeks, but they kind
Speaker 1: of needed somebody to step up and and get that
Speaker 1: game back in their favor, and they did that. And
Speaker 1: by the way, you mentioned Tyreek Hill, is he healthy?
Speaker 1: Damian Williams runs a four four? Tyreek Hill caught up
Speaker 1: to Damian Williams during the touchdown sprints and what does
Speaker 1: he run like a three six? What's going on in
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill? It has a chance to have his best
Speaker 1: like stretch for like he hasn't. There's been different parts
Speaker 1: where he's him and Mahomes have been healthy at the
Speaker 1: same time. Not this year, and I just feel like
Speaker 1: he's about his dominant and offensive figure and with them healthy,
Speaker 1: he could he could take off the difference though West
Speaker 1: I think is the defense is is something this year.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty good it's a pretty good past defense.
Speaker 1: They're not great, but just the fact that their defense
Speaker 1: can kind of help them win some games is way
Speaker 1: different than a year ago. Somebody. I've had a few
Speaker 1: people ask us to explain d v o A. Basically,
Speaker 1: if you're watching a game and you say, hey, that
Speaker 1: yard on fourth and one is worth a lot more
Speaker 1: than a yard on first and ten. D v O
Speaker 1: accounts that if you say a yard versus let's say
Speaker 1: the Patriots defense against a yard versus um the Dolphins defense.
Speaker 1: De v o A factors in your opponent. If factors
Speaker 1: in all these different situations during the game, to even
Speaker 1: out the stats and make them make sense like he's
Speaker 1: actually watching the game. There's a factor in garbage time,
Speaker 1: absolutely factors in garbage that's important. That's where that's where
Speaker 1: totally yardage sometimes can get skewed. The Titans, this matchup
Speaker 1: reminds me of you know, Mike Mularkey and and Mariota
Speaker 1: leading them to a playoff win in Kansas City, and
Speaker 1: John Robinson, their general manager, has been there for a while.
Speaker 1: On paper, their talents like a little better, but there's
Speaker 1: no progress since then. I mean, there's no juice their
Speaker 1: their their draft picks are either Okay or or or
Speaker 1: less and their free agent pickups like Saffold has been
Speaker 1: a bust for them. Dion Lewis has been a bust
Speaker 1: for them. Cameron Wake is not really playing lately. Although
Speaker 1: I liked that signing, The just don't have much juice.
Speaker 1: That come back when by the Titans would never ever
Speaker 1: have occurred on our Earth history of Patrick Mahomes were
Speaker 1: at quarterback either. It wasn't all on Alex Smith. But
Speaker 1: the um the biggest thing I'm looking for in this
Speaker 1: game is had his Mahomes? How is he moving? Because
Speaker 1: he came back a little earlier on the timetable, we've
Speaker 1: heard that this is something that he might still need
Speaker 1: surgery for after the season. If he comes back, is
Speaker 1: he Patrick Mahomes or is he gonna be limping around
Speaker 1: after one hit in the second quarter? That I mean
Speaker 1: that that could decide whether or not the Chiefs are
Speaker 1: a real contender. West, You're up. I am going with
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Rams at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aaron Donald's return.
Speaker 1: Oh wait a second, it is time now for the
Speaker 1: road to victory. Chris lessel And, presented by the United
Speaker 1: States Marine Corps, tell us about it. Well, this is
Speaker 1: a matchup where you have a Rams team that has
Speaker 1: not been quite as good this year. Their offensive line
Speaker 1: has struggled. Brandon Cooks will not be playing. He's going
Speaker 1: to you a concussion specialist. So this is not the
Speaker 1: Rams of yesteryear. And this is a very good Steelers defense.
Speaker 1: I believe they're up to a top five defense in
Speaker 1: d v O A. Now, secondaries on fire, Cameron Heywards
Speaker 1: having a good year. T J. Watt is as good
Speaker 1: as any edge rusher in the league this year. Great matchup.
Speaker 1: And on the other side, I'm not gonna disparage Mason
Speaker 1: Rudolph anymore. I realized the problem is inside of me,
Speaker 1: and it's not with him. It's the mid season duldrums
Speaker 1: and bad football has just got me a little bit
Speaker 1: more upset than You're higher on him than before. You're
Speaker 1: just you're not on that beat anymore. I I should
Speaker 1: allow for the fact that players can improve. Well, you're
Speaker 1: you're you're testing yourself by taking him once again. I
Speaker 1: think this is like your third straight we got the Ruto.
Speaker 1: It's a very self destructive. Every week, Greg says a
Speaker 1: Steelers or West of team he watches him every week
Speaker 1: less goes that's not true, and then he picks them
Speaker 1: in the draft. I don't think it was a Steelers
Speaker 1: as said that about wasn't I don't know this Rams team.
Speaker 1: I thought they did a couple of good things going
Speaker 1: into the by. They had some good opponents to do
Speaker 1: it against, but they played with tempo. They really split
Speaker 1: the snaps between Darryl Henderson and Gurly, I mean right
Speaker 1: down the middle, and Henderson gives them a little bit
Speaker 1: of juice. I'm curious we've given this coaching to have
Speaker 1: a lot of credit over the years. They just got
Speaker 1: there by. They kind of survived the first half of
Speaker 1: the season five and three. I'm curious to see what
Speaker 1: type of team they come out as because it wouldn't
Speaker 1: surprise me if they look like a better team in
Speaker 1: the second half of the season. Come on, give him
Speaker 1: a little credit. Steelers a first in the league in
Speaker 1: sas Jared Goff can get that deer in the you
Speaker 1: know during the headline, second in the league and turnovers FORCET.
Speaker 1: It got me thinking if they had Roethlisberger healthy, with
Speaker 1: the defense that second in the league and turnovers forest,
Speaker 1: that's a Super Bowl contender for sure. I will not
Speaker 1: be surprised when they are in contention in Week seventeen
Speaker 1: four playoff. Let's pick this game. Mark the Rams have
Speaker 1: allowed twenty points in two weeks against You know, suspect
Speaker 1: teams to be kind in the Falcons and Bengals, but
Speaker 1: I think that they are going to put the clamps
Speaker 1: on Pitts bricks offense and wine to the Pittsburgh quarterback
Speaker 1: who should not be named gets a little panicky under pressure. Well,
Speaker 1: he gets a lot panicky under pressure, and Aaron Donald
Speaker 1: brings as much pressure as anyone. So as much as
Speaker 1: I like the Steelers defense in a home game, and
Speaker 1: as much as I don't trust Jared Golf on the road,
Speaker 1: I just I got a lean toward the Rams. I
Speaker 1: don't know how's this Rams team traveling this year. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I trust them in this game. Quarterback
Speaker 1: never traveled. I think this is a field goal game,
Speaker 1: and I'll give it to the Rams because I think
Speaker 1: they're a better team. But it would not surprise me,
Speaker 1: I'll say. I mean, there were three and one on
Speaker 1: the road and lost their only game on the road
Speaker 1: to Seattle by one point, right, and they probably should
Speaker 1: have one. I have the Rams and this was I
Speaker 1: debated between this game and another as my lock. I'm
Speaker 1: not locking it, but I I do feel pretty good
Speaker 1: that the Rams are gonna I think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a better team in the second half. All right, there
Speaker 1: you go. And that was the road to victory present
Speaker 1: did by the United States Marine Corps. And love those
Speaker 1: means their heroes, the real heroes. And now Wes, it
Speaker 1: is time to snake slither your way to your next pick.
Speaker 1: I hate to do this to Greg. Oh, but you
Speaker 1: love it too. Sorry, No, I don't love it at all.
Speaker 1: I don't really love this game, but it's clearly the
Speaker 1: best one favorite rivalry in the league. Falcons at Saints.
Speaker 1: I mean it's seen better days. Well, I think Saints
Speaker 1: fans are still ravenous and want to put it on
Speaker 1: the Falcons regardless because this rivalry it has surprised me
Speaker 1: at times the extent to which feelings get hurt in
Speaker 1: this rivalry and the intensity of it. But the Saints,
Speaker 1: with Drew brees back, I don't know that they have
Speaker 1: a weakness at all. Uh. The defense is phenomenal. The
Speaker 1: way this team is built. They have nailed draft picks
Speaker 1: and it's not just that they're all proble. There's guys
Speaker 1: like Von Bell and Marcus Williams. Their two safeties might
Speaker 1: be the best safety tandem in the league this year.
Speaker 1: Um Cameron Jordan. Everybody knows about Da Mario Davis nailing
Speaker 1: that free agent pick. He's playing at a Pro Bowl level.
Speaker 1: And the offense Alvin Kamar is supposed to be back
Speaker 1: to So what what is the weakness on this team?
Speaker 1: Drew Brees mentioned this week he wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: to get the other wide receivers involved, thinking about how
Speaker 1: they were slow at the end of last year and
Speaker 1: that he hasn't really played this year and you know
Speaker 1: they didn't exactly do that in Arizona and so that.
Speaker 1: But when you're looking that deep to like, hey, we
Speaker 1: gotta get more guys involved. Just because our dominant you know,
Speaker 1: wide receiver Michael Thomas and our great running game, it
Speaker 1: is kind of doing everything for us. That's a good problem.
Speaker 1: I mean, because Michael Thomas is on track right now
Speaker 1: for a hundred and forty six receptions, which would beat
Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison's record of a hundred and forty three two
Speaker 1: thousand two. Why so keep Marvin Harrison's name and well
Speaker 1: I don't feel concerned personally, but I you know that
Speaker 1: that's probably not news to him. Hundred forty three well
Speaker 1: especially they're trying to spread it around to this extent.
Speaker 1: But what other team in the league loses their quarter better,
Speaker 1: loses Alvin Kamara and finds a way to improve, get deeper,
Speaker 1: and get better. I mean, Lettavius Murray, who there were
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about, totally stepped up and did
Speaker 1: the job we know Teddy Bridgewater did. And the Falcons, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: of lost Mohammed's Mohammed sanew and down, They've stepped down
Speaker 1: and been a total disappointment. I think that one of
Speaker 1: the most disappointing players in the league all year has
Speaker 1: to be DeVonta Freeman. Yes right, I mean he's just
Speaker 1: been week after week and he's getting touches. Can't make it.
Speaker 1: They changed their kicker. Everyone thought they might fire Quinn.
Speaker 1: They changed their kicker and their punter during the bye week,
Speaker 1: so we got young Wai coup Michael Vick's number seven,
Speaker 1: which is just feels like, uh, put in the target
Speaker 1: on his back. It's not what I wanted for a
Speaker 1: two point That was a good idea. What a year
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Wow, alright, we do have to Taysom Hill
Speaker 1: where at that reached seven, and I think it's arrow
Speaker 1: up because it was a sandwich bet and he's at
Speaker 1: three and I was real concerned about this week ago
Speaker 1: he got three. He got his third last week and
Speaker 1: with with breeze back, I think they're gonna use him
Speaker 1: more in the red zone and in ways where he's
Speaker 1: gonna he's gonna meet that sandwich bet. Like this better
Speaker 1: because when you're rooting against the Bucks pass rusher Shack,
Speaker 1: it felt, it felt there's an ugliness to it. Well,
Speaker 1: that was that's a prepared vengeful streak made by the
Speaker 1: three of you. However, being against anyone in this case,
Speaker 1: you're rooting for a man to succeed, which I like that.
Speaker 1: I've also learned that sandwich bets are much more enjoyable
Speaker 1: when you have an entire year to find out if
Speaker 1: they happen or not, versus predicting like a tornado taking
Speaker 1: out two animals and people in week four, I think
Speaker 1: then it doesn't happen. Um that you, when we were
Speaker 1: in London, predicted that a player would miss time with
Speaker 1: an animal related injury. We came close that at if
Speaker 1: the cat just could have nibbled on someone and they
Speaker 1: needed a you know, a raby shot in the bell.
Speaker 1: He gets infected and he just gotta take a week off.
Speaker 1: I would say this. Met Life Stadium released an update
Speaker 1: suggesting that they have not found the cat. The cat
Speaker 1: is still there and the cat probably you know, even
Speaker 1: animals need attention. Not I shouldn't even say he or revenge.
Speaker 1: I mean, he got a lot of attention. Next time
Speaker 1: he hears that crowd roar, maybe he comes out and
Speaker 1: this time he bites someone. He comes out with purpose.
Speaker 1: You know, he was a little skittish, didn't seem to
Speaker 1: know what he wanted when he was on the field
Speaker 1: of Monday night. Comes out Sunday or this time. Remember
Speaker 1: the he's gonna bite Sam Donald right in the butt.
Speaker 1: Remember the groundskeeper the Seattle Mariners took a cat off
Speaker 1: the field once and spent like five seconds trying to
Speaker 1: stop being bit by the thing is it was taken
Speaker 1: off angry cat? All right? Next up, Greg Rosenthal, is
Speaker 1: it now? I I'll know this silk. I'll take the
Speaker 1: Cardinals Bucks game as a backup in the morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw you tweet about that and so I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, when he's right, he's right. I kind
Speaker 1: of like watching this Cardinals team a little bit more
Speaker 1: every week they get David Johnson back. They're intriguing. I
Speaker 1: think it's a good sign Cliff Kingsbury has changed up
Speaker 1: what they did so dramatically between September and October. That's
Speaker 1: a that's a sign of a good coach. This is
Speaker 1: not a talented offense at all, and they're kind of
Speaker 1: getting it done. I think Kyler Murray is very calm.
Speaker 1: He doesn't make mistakes. He just feels like a professional.
Speaker 1: I mean, a professional that's gonna be around for a
Speaker 1: long time. I just like what I've seen, and this
Speaker 1: is a game where it's gonna be really hard to run.
Speaker 1: Every team has got to kind of decide, do we
Speaker 1: just go crazy pass heavy against the Bucks because they're
Speaker 1: so good stopping the run. Uh, that would be interesting
Speaker 1: if the Cardinals do it, because they're they're not a
Speaker 1: great passing attack. It's not on Murray, but it's just
Speaker 1: not a talented group. I'm feeling good about Murray the
Speaker 1: second half here, and he made some throwers, including that
Speaker 1: one where he dropped down. I think on the Cardinals
Speaker 1: Twitter feed. They called it a fadeaway touchdown pass. Uh
Speaker 1: that was just perfectly placed and not a lot of
Speaker 1: guys can move and put the ball put that much
Speaker 1: zip on the ball. He's also one stat that really
Speaker 1: jumps out to me, especially Mark, as we know with
Speaker 1: young quarterbacks how turnover prone they could be. He hasn't
Speaker 1: had a turnover in five games. Now. You can also
Speaker 1: say there's a lot of you know, low risk passes,
Speaker 1: and he's throwing short of the sticks a lot, perhaps,
Speaker 1: but that means he's just protecting the ball and in
Speaker 1: a first year starter that's been thrown into fire, I
Speaker 1: think that is a very good sign. And he's running
Speaker 1: a lot relatively. Yeah, and I will I will say
Speaker 1: on the subject of Kingsbury that there was certain when
Speaker 1: you're around the league as much as we are, and
Speaker 1: you talk to people and you hear, you know, certain
Speaker 1: we're bathing in this information that's secret information that just
Speaker 1: comes sweet when you're around it. What you idiots don't know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which you people don't understand. But there was a certain
Speaker 1: man that would be great to see Cliffsbury fail. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it was coming from people
Speaker 1: that also study the college game closely and thought that
Speaker 1: he squandered talent in his job and that he didn't
Speaker 1: do a good job when he was at Texas Tech,
Speaker 1: and they thought, oh, now he's the hot shot that's
Speaker 1: gonna light the NFL on fire. And he hasn't lit
Speaker 1: the NFL on fire. But to Greg's point, this team
Speaker 1: is improving as the season's going on, and they and
Speaker 1: they were very competitive. There's no shame and losing by
Speaker 1: three points than I am kind of like super punk
Speaker 1: on Adam Gaze. Was it for Kingsbury to bring in
Speaker 1: Kenyan Drake off of you know, sight unseen a couple
Speaker 1: of days and he blows up against the best defense
Speaker 1: in the league. I think Adam Gas has bigger things
Speaker 1: to worry about, but he does. But it was just
Speaker 1: a little thing he didn't need to need to deal
Speaker 1: with on a Thursday night. When they get Edmunds back,
Speaker 1: I mean Edmunds, Drake and David Johnson that that's a
Speaker 1: wild backfield. I also think the Bucks are playing better.
Speaker 1: You know, they offensively did really well in Seattle. I
Speaker 1: think Jamis has had his two best games of the
Speaker 1: year in a row. It has to be the unluckiest
Speaker 1: team in the league, right they are if you look
Speaker 1: at the expected wins, for instance, on football side, this
Speaker 1: is more of a four and four team. They've lost
Speaker 1: a lot of close game. They find ways to lose
Speaker 1: close game, but they've played good teams tight and then
Speaker 1: they find ways to lose. What's impressed me about the
Speaker 1: Bucks is how many teams have had as many breakout
Speaker 1: sort of stars as they have. Godwin, Ronald Jones, Vida Vella,
Speaker 1: Shaq Barrett. These guys were not nucleus players a year ago.
Speaker 1: And on the other hand, O. J. Howard has been
Speaker 1: on nothing for them. Cameron Brad has been a nothing
Speaker 1: for them. They don't use tight ends, but they have
Speaker 1: found some nucleus players. The question is when are they
Speaker 1: ever going to fix the secondary? And is their quarterback
Speaker 1: a franchise quarterback. Winston played his best game though. I
Speaker 1: mean they had touchdown drives, a seven, nine, twelve and
Speaker 1: ten plays last week. It was the best three quarter
Speaker 1: stretch I think he's had. I'm gonna do the ultimate
Speaker 1: lass half full Bucks. Take care that Jamis Winston, non
Speaker 1: consecutively with games, has had an amazing half a season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they played eight games and he's been legitimately good in
Speaker 1: four of them. He's been very bad in the other four.
Speaker 1: That's who he is. Here's the thing. They're unlucky, but
Speaker 1: they're unlucky and they should be like a seven or
Speaker 1: eight win team. So it's there's no middle ground are
Speaker 1: talking about. I get why people are that he drives
Speaker 1: coaches mad, but also enticees coaches because he's not just
Speaker 1: a bad quarterback. He's not like a Mariota type. He
Speaker 1: has more highs and lows. That's some pretty threat he does,
Speaker 1: like the throwing of the football. He does. But when
Speaker 1: you watch him versus Russell Wilson, you see that Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson has timing touch and three that Jameis Winson just
Speaker 1: doesn't rush Wilson. That's dangerous, bro. That's your m d
Speaker 1: P right now. Someone asked me, if Andy Dalton plays
Speaker 1: to the level of a surrounding talent, wouldn't you want
Speaker 1: him on the Bucks? And I said no, because why
Speaker 1: why would you give away Jamis Winston's upside for Andy Dalton.
Speaker 1: He's the middle, right, They're both in the middle. They
Speaker 1: just get their different ways. Well, put, Mark, you are up.
Speaker 1: That was really well put, Greg, that was you know what.
Speaker 1: That was the best. That was the best little side
Speaker 1: of the season. I'm not speaking about Jamis ever again.
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm gonna strategically take a four pm game
Speaker 1: on the East Coast, but it will be one pm,
Speaker 1: one oh five PMR time for people that don't care
Speaker 1: about that little nugget Dolphins at cults. Now, you don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of choices. Well, let's be honest. The
Speaker 1: whole slate is bad game. I will not look forward
Speaker 1: to this the back half of the one. We should
Speaker 1: be quick so that we leave time for these nice
Speaker 1: prime time I'm with you on that, and I would
Speaker 1: I would view it this way instead of telling me
Speaker 1: I'm picking a bad game, I'm taking it away from
Speaker 1: you guys having to deal with it because of that
Speaker 1: giving spirit that I have towards the three of you
Speaker 1: in theory. There we go it. My one thing about
Speaker 1: the Dolphins is I know, first of all, if I
Speaker 1: were this whole organic tank situation, I would look at
Speaker 1: teams that when oh in sixteen or one in fifteen
Speaker 1: or two and fourteen got the quarterback they wanted and
Speaker 1: where they are a year two later, it does not
Speaker 1: solve all your issues. I give it. It's a nice idea.
Speaker 1: See what happens there. The Dolphins I think are gonna
Speaker 1: go about four and twelve. They play the Jets, Giants, Bengals,
Speaker 1: and Browns down the stretch. I have know they the
Speaker 1: way that they're playing each week. No, you're gettingre getting
Speaker 1: a little bit better Fitzpatrick, and I'm just saying they
Speaker 1: could get two or three, which can pull you. When
Speaker 1: you've got the Bengals the Redskins in that mix, you
Speaker 1: could be the team with the third competitive. They're too
Speaker 1: competitive they were. Can I just tell you they're not
Speaker 1: the same team as they were last week when they
Speaker 1: beat the Jets. Their best receiver was Preston Wilson out
Speaker 1: for the year. With they're little not winning streak, but
Speaker 1: the little streak of playing competitively coincided with Mark Walton
Speaker 1: being a physical, bruising running back suspended four games. They're
Speaker 1: two best offensive weapons are gone, so Xavian Howard. I
Speaker 1: know that's been for a few weeks, but yeah, they
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of top shelf talent. You would
Speaker 1: think the Colts offensive line could just grind this defense
Speaker 1: into dirt the by the end of the game. If
Speaker 1: they're as good as as as we think they are.
Speaker 1: I do like Zach Pascal though he really looks like
Speaker 1: a little player dog like a legit starting receiver. He's
Speaker 1: the only receiver left in the court. We never I
Speaker 1: don't think we were talking week to pick up bring
Speaker 1: up Mike francessa by the way. A tough time from
Speaker 1: Mike um but t Y Hilton that non contact injury,
Speaker 1: that's you know, he's had a tough years. This a
Speaker 1: way less watch and is what's going on with Jake Briskett?
Speaker 1: Where are we at right now? As if practiced penatively
Speaker 1: expected to It seems like he wants to and he's
Speaker 1: pushing for it. He's not, you know, he's not a
Speaker 1: fleet of foot guy. Will he be able to move
Speaker 1: in the pocket? And again same thing with Mahomes. This
Speaker 1: would be even more extreme because he just got hurt.
Speaker 1: Is he survived? You know, a couple of pass rushes
Speaker 1: his way. It's a good team to uh to be
Speaker 1: out of the field against. Though it fits his playing
Speaker 1: pretty well though I mean, is I was thinking about it,
Speaker 1: He's still the second best quarterback in the a f C.
Speaker 1: They shot too high for their shot too high with him.
Speaker 1: He's He's sort of a luxury that I think a
Speaker 1: lot of teens with young quarterbacks who are playing behind
Speaker 1: awful offensive lines would like to have just to give
Speaker 1: that young quarterback a mental break for a month and say,
Speaker 1: all right, once we get all of our talent back,
Speaker 1: then we'll put him in. I don't know, let's crunch
Speaker 1: some of those analytics might be the best quarterback in
Speaker 1: they've let's let's crunch some. I'm just saying, this guy's
Speaker 1: a career delicias. He's having fun. I love fits. I'll
Speaker 1: never may. I want him to. He'll come to New
Speaker 1: England beat Tom Brady's backup or something that would be fine.
Speaker 1: All right, I am up on the snake, so I
Speaker 1: will take I'm glad this game is still here. Well
Speaker 1: I'm not snaking yet. Mr slithers, Mr slitherers. The Lions
Speaker 1: at the Bears, now, well that's an upset. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, gentlemen, um, The Lions will drive you crazy.
Speaker 1: If you're a Lions fan of Kevin patra type. There's
Speaker 1: only one Kevin Patrick, of course, but you look at
Speaker 1: three four and one and you're so angry because we
Speaker 1: know they kicked away that week one game, and they've
Speaker 1: had several games now this season where they just executed
Speaker 1: a little bit better. If they gotta stop here or there,
Speaker 1: they are in the middle of the NFC playoff phrase
Speaker 1: and instead they're there about to fall out of it.
Speaker 1: And that has nothing to do what's happening on the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the football. In fact, I think one
Speaker 1: guy that has kind of flown under the radar for years.
Speaker 1: I've always loved him, Marvin Jones. He is a great
Speaker 1: player in this offense. He is he is really he's
Speaker 1: on pace for career high and yardage totals. He's a
Speaker 1: playmaker for Detroit. And you put him across from Kenny
Speaker 1: Golladay and they are in terms of one two tandem.
Speaker 1: I I didn't look it up, but they have to
Speaker 1: be right up there against any tandem in football. Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford is as we know, as we've been talking about,
Speaker 1: has been very good this season. Great even so. The
Speaker 1: offense is built to sustain and the team can survive
Speaker 1: with a shaky defense. But this is a bad defense
Speaker 1: and it's killing him a week off, a week after week.
Speaker 1: They can't get off the field, they can't get stops
Speaker 1: and and they lose these close games as a result. Um, now,
Speaker 1: let me say this. They go to Chicago, and I
Speaker 1: know this is a bad season for the Bears. It's
Speaker 1: been probably one of the more disappointing seasons in recent
Speaker 1: franchise history. Maybe just take out they've been around a
Speaker 1: hundred years franchise history. Given this what people thought coming
Speaker 1: into the season to be three and five and and
Speaker 1: come be reaching the realization that you you picked the
Speaker 1: wrong quarterback. That's a tough spot to be in. However,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a four and twelve team,
Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna win enough games to keep
Speaker 1: this from becoming a total embarrassment. I'm not saying they're
Speaker 1: gonna re enter this race. I think it's like a
Speaker 1: seven and nine team. I think the defense will improve,
Speaker 1: and even though the lines contend every week, um, I
Speaker 1: think this is a game where Chicago gets right and
Speaker 1: this is a heat check because the old jusers picked
Speaker 1: four in a row. I'm locking up the Bears to
Speaker 1: steady the ship a sinking shape. Plug plug some holes
Speaker 1: in the h and so I'm gonna lock up the
Speaker 1: Bears to beat the lines. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's a total heat check because I could see you
Speaker 1: going the other way because the lines on balance have
Speaker 1: played better this season. I could see Chase Daniel winning
Speaker 1: that lock for you if it happens, because I think
Speaker 1: we're on Chase Daniel watch at this point. Not even
Speaker 1: an unnecessary shot at Trabisky. But you know, I know
Speaker 1: the Eagles had a couple of players back on their defense,
Speaker 1: but to do what happened against Philadelphia. Chicago's offense is
Speaker 1: as concerning a unit as there is in the league
Speaker 1: right now. They bring back almost identical personnel from last
Speaker 1: year when they were pretty good, and their offense doesn't
Speaker 1: do anything well. I'm not sure what their defense does
Speaker 1: well anymore. You can run Jordan Howard was running through
Speaker 1: gaping holes all game. Enough team to throw on, you
Speaker 1: would think match. But where's Eddie Jackson who got like
Speaker 1: defensive player of the Year mentions last year and I
Speaker 1: don't think i've heard his name this year. The pass
Speaker 1: rush hasn't been as consistent they've They've played against a
Speaker 1: lot of good offensive lines. That's not the case this week.
Speaker 1: This is an ultimate like weakness on weakness matchup when
Speaker 1: the Bears have the ball, because the Lions are driving
Speaker 1: their fans crazy because they never blitz. There's something some
Speaker 1: fan bases just get obsessed with little things, and Lions
Speaker 1: fans and Lions writers are obsessed with the fact that
Speaker 1: the Lions never blitz. And it's true, they blitz way
Speaker 1: less than any other team. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: that would I don't think that would solve their defense.
Speaker 1: But this is kind of the ultimate you know, movable object,
Speaker 1: job object and movable force. This disasters going against each
Speaker 1: that's what you like to say. And the Lions are
Speaker 1: forever a top ten, top five pain rankings team because
Speaker 1: certain teams just invite tragedy and the type of head
Speaker 1: scratching ways to lose that just make the fan base
Speaker 1: suffer even more. And when they had the game on
Speaker 1: the line, they get to the goal line on Sunday
Speaker 1: against the Raiders and the rushing to the line and
Speaker 1: the Raiders call time out and everyone's like, what is
Speaker 1: Oakland doing. You're giving the lines a chance to to
Speaker 1: get on the field and get their offense set Well.
Speaker 1: Guess what Matthew Stafford said after the game that he
Speaker 1: had a play set up in his mind with his
Speaker 1: best playmakers on the field as he was running to
Speaker 1: the line to get the playoff. And then after the
Speaker 1: time out, their offense sends out a package that has
Speaker 1: Marvin Jones, Kenny Golladay, Danny Amidol all on the sideline
Speaker 1: for the last play of the game, which is leads
Speaker 1: a harmless interception and of course gotta get the ball.
Speaker 1: The logan you cannot, that cannot be the way you
Speaker 1: play football at the game on line. That's just poor
Speaker 1: execute jumbo package with their lead with t J. Hockenson
Speaker 1: not on the field too. And Darren Bevill specializes in
Speaker 1: answering questions about the final play of the game dramatics.
Speaker 1: But that was a buzz point too. That's could be.
Speaker 1: That's could be kind of like an ugly fun game,
Speaker 1: you know, so bad. It's good, all right, and we'll
Speaker 1: snake now. Now we'll slither Mr slithers uh to the
Speaker 1: Snoopy Bowl giants at jets Uh. That's you know, this
Speaker 1: is some hero work. Because I know nobody wants to
Speaker 1: watch this, and I get that, um, but I'll watch
Speaker 1: it just because I need to see, um, how the
Speaker 1: goffin teams can go because it's been this is every once,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't happen very often, but it happens maybe
Speaker 1: more than it should when you have both of the
Speaker 1: New York teams having dreadful seasons, and this one happens
Speaker 1: to sync up with the every four years when they
Speaker 1: play each other. So in the metal ends, you get
Speaker 1: a two and seven against the one and seven, and uh,
Speaker 1: Adam Gates, as we know, is run out of excuses,
Speaker 1: the pressures at a season high after the loss of
Speaker 1: the Dolphins, you get a Giants team that anybody can
Speaker 1: score on. Uh. But as we see, here's the crazy
Speaker 1: thing about the Jets off. It's the last two weeks.
Speaker 1: This the game's starting incredibly well with well oiled, well
Speaker 1: executed touchdown drives, ending with Donald Donald touchdown passes, and
Speaker 1: then once you get past that scripted portion, the whole
Speaker 1: thing drives up. Uh, is what is up with that?
Speaker 1: Is that on the player or is that on the
Speaker 1: coaching or is it on both? So I want to
Speaker 1: see the Jets not only get out of the gate
Speaker 1: quickly but not completely shrivel up. And then on the
Speaker 1: Giant side, Uh, it sounds like and I that's had
Speaker 1: a star star Cross career, um Sterling Shepherd might be
Speaker 1: ending up on the i R with concussion issues. Evan
Speaker 1: Ingram has this is not good a midfoot spring, which
Speaker 1: sounds an awful lot a lot like that Harlot, that
Speaker 1: wretched woman Liz Frank can trust well Camp said the
Speaker 1: same thing. It was diagnosed as a midfoot spring. To Shank,
Speaker 1: I don't want that to be the she's so she
Speaker 1: lacks so much trust that she'll suddenly appear, as listens,
Speaker 1: the worst kind of one. So many great women, she
Speaker 1: is not a good one. Um. So we'll see if
Speaker 1: Evan Ingram comes back next week. But he's not playing
Speaker 1: this week. So two bad teams going at it. Somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna win, probably, and both teams really needed. The Giants
Speaker 1: have lost five straight and you know all about the
Speaker 1: Jets of struggles this season. I thought Leonard Williams showed
Speaker 1: up pretty well in that first game for the Giants,
Speaker 1: and it's an interesting you know, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: buy any of these revenge games. When employer A has
Speaker 1: given you millions of dollars to buy a big home
Speaker 1: in the Tries State area and they were nice enough
Speaker 1: to trade you somewhere, we're in theory he probably didn't
Speaker 1: even have to move properties and still plays in the
Speaker 1: same I saw him get in the backfield a couple
Speaker 1: of times, but that felt like a regular Leonard Williams game,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know he could he hit and there. Well,
Speaker 1: so what's so? So what's the biggest issue for the Jets.
Speaker 1: It's their offensive lines. So I'm just saying Leonard Williams
Speaker 1: could be an annoying Maybe he does, but I have
Speaker 1: four years of evidence that he won't be getting to
Speaker 1: the quarterback much. They should be a game where you
Speaker 1: feel better about your quarterbacks afterwards. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of resistance. The Jets defense has not played well. I
Speaker 1: mean the tabloids are loving it. The back cover of
Speaker 1: the New York Daily News was Dumpster Fire nineteen and
Speaker 1: it's a picture of MetLife Stadium, almost disrespectfully photoshopped with
Speaker 1: fires I think from Los Angeles. You know above it.
Speaker 1: You know it's it's like slightly disrespectful. It's that it's
Speaker 1: a lot and it's brutal. Because you know what, New
Speaker 1: York is a great football city. I think that gets lost.
Speaker 1: You could say it was the capital of professional football
Speaker 1: for the first half of this century. I mean this,
Speaker 1: this is a town that loves its football in the
Speaker 1: history goes back and it's and it's I mean two
Speaker 1: thousand to two thousand, like eight or not. No, I'm
Speaker 1: saying that. I'm saying nineties fiftiesties. You want a big
Speaker 1: football game, you play it in New York. I mean
Speaker 1: and you and you know that it is a big
Speaker 1: football town. Uh. In terms of and it's a bad Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a bad time right now. It's a shame Ingram's
Speaker 1: injured because what Mike Kasecki did to this team, Mike Kasecki,
Speaker 1: who has never played well against anyone. And then to
Speaker 1: hear Adam Arceoletta announcing the game say, these Jets cornerbacks
Speaker 1: cannot cover the Dolphins wide receivers. The Dolphins wide receivers,
Speaker 1: they said, Truman Jackson. Johnson to I R with two
Speaker 1: ankle sprains and said, you took all the money and
Speaker 1: I'll get out of our life. Uh. The Jets, I believe,
Speaker 1: have just five quarterbacks on their roster heading into this game.
Speaker 1: Not not that it should be any excuse, but on
Speaker 1: top of all the other misery with the Jets this season,
Speaker 1: they are the most injured team in the league terms
Speaker 1: of guys on I R and also on the injured list,
Speaker 1: so they are shorthanded. Breaking news, Oh Tremayor Johnson just
Speaker 1: robbed a bank where the Jeffs to keep their money.
Speaker 1: Philip Lindsay is moving out of his parents house, thank god.
Speaker 1: All right, it is about time that man is a millionaire.
Speaker 1: Just came across our email. Big story. Where do you go?
Speaker 1: Natural write of pass or got one of those like
Speaker 1: apartment like the new apartments that's above town Starbucks and
Speaker 1: Pokey plays. It's breaking West's work. He's working on the
Speaker 1: you know, the first detail. His plan is to move
Speaker 1: to the city eventually, but he's starting there on a
Speaker 1: by So I guess you had to go breaking. We
Speaker 1: weren't going to get to their game, all right, last game?
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler, all right, well I'm gonna go, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's no other options here. But I don't hate
Speaker 1: this game. Ravens at Bengals, I don't hate it. I
Speaker 1: want to see I want to see a little Ryan
Speaker 1: Finley action and see what he can do. He feels
Speaker 1: to me like a little bit Andy Dalton two point oh.
Speaker 1: But I don't think he's the future. He's just a
Speaker 1: stop gap at this point, and you know, I have
Speaker 1: no concerns about the Ravens not completely sweeping up the
Speaker 1: Bengals because the one thing about the first time they met,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to see what the Bengals due to
Speaker 1: answer it after the horrendous first outing where Cincinnati looked
Speaker 1: like a team and I mentioned it on that Sunday
Speaker 1: Night wrap up that had never observed read option plays,
Speaker 1: that they had no concept that a running quarterback could
Speaker 1: be part of the NFL and do the damage that
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson does. And the story is coming out of
Speaker 1: the New England Sunday night affair where Baltimore totally took
Speaker 1: care of business. Was Bill Belichick throwing everything at Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson early in terms of disguise, coverages, every type of
Speaker 1: coverage out of the gate, and the Lamar Jackson not
Speaker 1: just with his athleticism which everyone's went to, but with
Speaker 1: his with his neck up abilities or dan his mind there.
Speaker 1: I am now conditioned to try to talk around that
Speaker 1: actual in your well. I mean not always I do
Speaker 1: it to you, you know, but how are you're telling
Speaker 1: me that you're going to go from Bill Belichick to
Speaker 1: what the Bengals are bringing you and not completely drop
Speaker 1: a total destructive bomb on an O N a team
Speaker 1: that has no continuity issues at this point at all
Speaker 1: on either side of the ball, Ravens in a blood bath.
Speaker 1: How sad would it be to be a non destructive bomb?
Speaker 1: Now I'd feel bad. Well, there are bombs, like draft
Speaker 1: bombs that don't do a lot of destruction for well,
Speaker 1: they do to their own team's salary cap in their
Speaker 1: own teams, but not the intended targets existential crisis. Not
Speaker 1: the easiest, not the easiest first matchup for Ryan Finley.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Ravens through some blitzes at Tom Brady
Speaker 1: that fooled them. If you if you're able to fool
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, you're gonna be able to throw a lot
Speaker 1: at Ryan Finley. And the reason I think they could
Speaker 1: be different down the stretch defensively is they're so good
Speaker 1: and deep in the back end. I think they're they're
Speaker 1: willing to let those guys play man coverage one on one,
Speaker 1: you know sometimes, and just get wild up front because
Speaker 1: they're not really nierating much pass rush on their own.
Speaker 1: And so you would think, wink Martin Dale's breaking out
Speaker 1: that chain and he's gonna be fun. This week we
Speaker 1: talked about Earl Thomas, who had a bad September but
Speaker 1: has played really well the last few weeks, and Marlon Humphrey.
Speaker 1: I thought about putting him on my mid season All
Speaker 1: Pro team. He's had a great year covering number one
Speaker 1: receivers and holding his own and making big plays. That
Speaker 1: is out piece out on the internet. Is in my
Speaker 1: editor's hands. It's not contentious in anyway. They are doing
Speaker 1: their did you hit the deadline? I think so. I
Speaker 1: mean West by the way, twenty minutes away from driving
Speaker 1: out to Palm Springs, so the edit desk will be
Speaker 1: handling any you know I did. I did a risky
Speaker 1: thing because I I referred to your mid season All
Speaker 1: Pro team and then wrote like insert link here, assuming
Speaker 1: you would have filed ahead of but my game picks
Speaker 1: are up already. That was a little risky. Turned this
Speaker 1: in hours ago. He nailed it. In other words, I think,
Speaker 1: so it's in someone else's hands to deliver to the people.
Speaker 1: That's nowhere. I'd rather have it beaten in someone else's hands. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, let's move on to No. A. J. Green
Speaker 1: in that game for the Bengals. By the way, he
Speaker 1: declared himself out. If you're the Bengals, he's ready to
Speaker 1: be gone. The number one pick if you're the Bengals,
Speaker 1: or do you want to see Ryan Finley play? Well,
Speaker 1: you can only have one of them number one pick? Yeah,
Speaker 1: no way do you, Anchor? I don't think yourself. I
Speaker 1: think you can play fairly well and you still end
Speaker 1: up one. I have that same angst with the Jets
Speaker 1: in Saint Donald. I would love them. Yeah, you have
Speaker 1: a lot more. At what cost? All right, let's move this.
Speaker 1: Now we have two great primetime games, starting with a banger.
Speaker 1: The Vikings travel to jeral World Big d to face
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, who, um uh, you know this is a
Speaker 1: really good game. Was because we know the Vikings came
Speaker 1: very close and perhaps should have won that game in
Speaker 1: Kansas City they did not. And now this is the
Speaker 1: this is what we've talked about was this is here.
Speaker 1: It is Kirk Cousins on the road in prime time
Speaker 1: against a good opponent. In all history he has flunked.
Speaker 1: Will he flunk on Sunday Night? I think that goes
Speaker 1: both ways. The Cowboys have beaten Cupcakes this year, so
Speaker 1: they need to prove something too. I guess the narrative
Speaker 1: is more that Cousins under more pressure. But what I
Speaker 1: like about this game is, remember when all the smart
Speaker 1: people were telling you that nobody, nobody who knows what
Speaker 1: they're doing runs the ball anymore. The top five rushing
Speaker 1: teams in the league all have winning records, and these
Speaker 1: are two of the top five. Both run the ball
Speaker 1: really well well, I mean, the Ravens are doing it
Speaker 1: totally differently. The forty Niners are pretty run heavy. I
Speaker 1: worry in Houston. Texans are a top five rushing team.
Speaker 1: They've had some leads and they have been good to
Speaker 1: the Vikings. I do worry about though, when Pam Oliver
Speaker 1: comes back from halftime of last week's games and basically
Speaker 1: said that Mike Zimmer growled at her about out their
Speaker 1: lack of rushing attempts. And then that's every week, right, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, but it's like Kirk Cousins has three great
Speaker 1: weeks and then there's a bad half and he's just
Speaker 1: like he's like mad again. It's this pussing pull And
Speaker 1: you know what, they actually did play pretty well in
Speaker 1: the second half, running the ball and throwing the ball
Speaker 1: to their running backs. But it's I don't know it's
Speaker 1: Smith is playing really like Kirk Cousins is streaky. That's
Speaker 1: part of the Kirk Cousins experience is when he's hot,
Speaker 1: he's hot, and sometimes he's not. That was not a
Speaker 1: good game by Cousins. I know he made some plays
Speaker 1: and they got in the end zone three times, but
Speaker 1: he was really bad early on missing guys high and
Speaker 1: then he missed missed a couple receivers late the last possession,
Speaker 1: which I got on him on Sunday Night Show. That
Speaker 1: was more a breakdown and past protection than it was
Speaker 1: on Cousins. But in general it's still that is a
Speaker 1: money moment at two thirty to play in a tie game,
Speaker 1: and they kind of wilted as a team, including the
Speaker 1: punter and then the defense um because they were and
Speaker 1: after all that, it's still twenty three all and it's
Speaker 1: second and twenty one after a fumble by the Chiefs
Speaker 1: and that more gets him back in field goal range.
Speaker 1: So the Vikings just did not close out the game.
Speaker 1: That was disappointing. I don't love breakdown and pass persection
Speaker 1: for the Vikings. When the Cowboys pass rush looked awesome
Speaker 1: against the Giants, and I get it, it's the Giants,
Speaker 1: but the Vikings like Kirk Cousins in Dallas dealing with
Speaker 1: DeMarcus Lawrence and the rest of the hot boys, which
Speaker 1: I feel like that was a Greg thing for a while,
Speaker 1: that became a national thing. So yeah, no, no Adam Feeling,
Speaker 1: no Adam dealing and also a MARII. Cooper went to
Speaker 1: a doctor today for a check up on his knee
Speaker 1: and m R I and we'll not practice, so we
Speaker 1: will see. Jane s Later is reporting that even with
Speaker 1: the m r I, he thinks he's gonna play. He
Speaker 1: thinks he's gonna practice Friday and really be the same guy.
Speaker 1: Though it's a good question Adam Feeling. The problem with
Speaker 1: not having him is that Stefan Dick then gets all
Speaker 1: the pressure, all the coverage and doesn't do much. I
Speaker 1: don't want to take off the bandage and reopen this wound, Greg,
Speaker 1: but what's happening. Perhaps Adam Feeling could have used another
Speaker 1: week of rest before he came back, an interesting even
Speaker 1: though the doctors decided he was good enough. Doctors just
Speaker 1: like we're not We're not privy a hamstring injury, which
Speaker 1: can be tricky, especially for an explosive playmaker. Maybe another week.
Speaker 1: There's sixteen of these things. You bring up, Dan a
Speaker 1: fair point, it's a fair point of discussion. Just thrown
Speaker 1: it out there. But the information in this situation, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make a hard left turn and make an unfair
Speaker 1: criticism of Kirk Cousins. You ready do it? Don't you
Speaker 1: think that? I don't know if you remember the play
Speaker 1: last week that was third and eleven and then he slot.
Speaker 1: He slid one yard absolutely nowhere. I saw that play
Speaker 1: and I was kind of like, that's why everyone gets
Speaker 1: crazy about Kirk Cousins. I don't I can't imagine any
Speaker 1: other quarterback in the last Top Brady and other great
Speaker 1: quarterbacks wrestle. None of them were sliding right there. Somehow
Speaker 1: it just doesn't happen. I've seen other quarterbacks do that,
Speaker 1: and I have a problem with it. I agree with you,
Speaker 1: but I don't think Kirk cut I think think yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the Cowboys are much more complete. Their line
Speaker 1: is offensive line is playing great right now, unlike the
Speaker 1: Mason Rudolph puts down his shoulder and gets four more
Speaker 1: yards now he runs backwards. Does anyone think the Vikings
Speaker 1: win this game? I don't know. I agree with you,
Speaker 1: I think the Cowboys are just complete. I gotta feeling
Speaker 1: we're gonna get another stink bomb at the quarterback position.
Speaker 1: I just got a feeling. I hope I'm wrong because
Speaker 1: I like although I just like the I do like
Speaker 1: the soap opera of Kirk, and it would held off it.
Speaker 1: It would help the soap opera if he delivered a
Speaker 1: monster game in front of Al Chris at Michelle in
Speaker 1: the world, I don't see it. You think it's gonna
Speaker 1: go sideways. Yeah, well, you don't want You would rather
Speaker 1: have him have a great game or a terrible game.
Speaker 1: You don't want him to have just a you know,
Speaker 1: okay exactly. And I don't think he will have an
Speaker 1: okay game. I think it's gonna go one way or
Speaker 1: the other. I think he's gonna be You're gonna hate
Speaker 1: it West, but he's gonna be a big story either
Speaker 1: way after this game, right playing without Adam feeling, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be all on Kirk Cousins fault. I'm sure it will.
Speaker 1: Twitter will tell me that. All right, let's move on
Speaker 1: to Monday night football to close it out, and another
Speaker 1: good game, a great game, even uh the Seattle Seahawks
Speaker 1: seven and two they travel to the Big Bow bottom
Speaker 1: to face the eight and oh, San Francisco. This is
Speaker 1: glorious because, uh, I don't need you know why. It's
Speaker 1: glorious because you got Russell Wilson travel into San Francisco
Speaker 1: to try to knock off a team that hasn't lost yet.
Speaker 1: And if there was one one quarterback right now, greg
Speaker 1: that I would trust to go into San Francisco and
Speaker 1: go get a win, it's Russell Wilson. That's absolutely fair.
Speaker 1: I do wonder if he'll get enough passing attempts in
Speaker 1: the game plan to do all the things that Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson come. They finally yeah through the ball out last week,
Speaker 1: but that was against the Bucks where they trailed. And
Speaker 1: it has a great run defense. The forty Niners are
Speaker 1: kind of the opposite. It's strength on strength when uh
Speaker 1: so Wilson goes back to pass the forty Niners defensive
Speaker 1: there's any weakness. It's against the run, and so I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be tempting for them to run a lot.
Speaker 1: It's just it's such a weird Seahawks team that it's
Speaker 1: an elite Seahawks offense, especially the passing game and a
Speaker 1: bad Pete Carroll defense, and that defense is by far
Speaker 1: the worst group in this game. I think the forty
Speaker 1: Niners are very bounced. I think the Seahawks offense is great,
Speaker 1: yet the Seahawks defense is below average, maybe even like
Speaker 1: one of those seven or eight worst defenses in right now.
Speaker 1: And that's why I don't think it's so crazy to
Speaker 1: walk up the forty Niners in this game. Oh, I
Speaker 1: like it, Like it almost always of undefeated teams getting
Speaker 1: locked up, You're you're saying, what's going on in the mirror,
Speaker 1: But that's all right, that's that's well within this is solid.
Speaker 1: It's fine too. I think it's fascinating to have Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson and that offense having to deal with Richard Sherman.
Speaker 1: Not last year's Richard Sherman, but this year's peaking Richard
Speaker 1: Sherman is someone that you cannot throw to. Right now,
Speaker 1: mid season All Pro has the lowest opposing passer rating
Speaker 1: of any cornerback. How about that, because near the end
Speaker 1: of his Seahawks run, you kind of got the feeling
Speaker 1: he wasn't the same guy that he blows his achilles
Speaker 1: and he comes and he signs with a bad San
Speaker 1: Francisco team. You think he's kind of going out to pasture.
Speaker 1: He's o J in his San Francisco years. Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: roaring a strictly football player the end of a run,
Speaker 1: and you'll remember him with the first team only. No,
Speaker 1: he's a big time player. Again, he is a big
Speaker 1: time player. Forty Niners are getting healthy in some senses.
Speaker 1: Joe Staley there stud left tackles coming back. Kyle You's
Speaker 1: check best fullback in the league coming back. They had
Speaker 1: to put Kwan Alexander, their middle linebacker on I R
Speaker 1: and they are not deep at linebacker. They do have
Speaker 1: Drake Greenlow, a rookie who's been pretty good, and Robbie Gould,
Speaker 1: theer kicker, is injured. So you've got Jason Myers for
Speaker 1: the Seahawks shaky, arguably the shakiest kicker in the league
Speaker 1: at the moment against I believe Chase McLaughlin, who the
Speaker 1: Chargers just cut in the Forts picked up what I
Speaker 1: gotta do? How does Kay not get the call here?
Speaker 1: I think he's telling you something when he keeps not
Speaker 1: getting picked up by anyone. George Kittle also might be
Speaker 1: out for the forty nights, which would be a huge.
Speaker 1: He hasn't practiced. No one really knows he played through
Speaker 1: his injuries. He said, they'll they'll find out. It's make
Speaker 1: anyone else they'll take. It's a Monday night game, so
Speaker 1: that really would change him. But I also noticed last
Speaker 1: week Commanuel Sanders burning up Patrick Peterson, and that just
Speaker 1: makes you think that that signing is gonna be great.
Speaker 1: The fact that they can run, and they did it
Speaker 1: a couple of times last week against the Cardinal. When
Speaker 1: they can, When you can run on third and three
Speaker 1: and third and four, that just makes your offense so
Speaker 1: dangerous because they're picking up first downs running and then
Speaker 1: they hit you with the big play to Kiddo sometimes
Speaker 1: on third and short too. You don't know what's coming.
Speaker 1: And we've gotten on Jimmy G for kind of not
Speaker 1: knowing whether he's playing well or not. He played awesome
Speaker 1: and that was one of his best, if not his
Speaker 1: best starts as a pro. But Jimmy G that we
Speaker 1: expected when he closed that season two years ago, three
Speaker 1: years ago at this point, so magically not just hitting throws,
Speaker 1: but standing in the face of pressure and hitting throws,
Speaker 1: moving around in the pocket and hitting throws. That was
Speaker 1: a great game. Maybe if Russ performs in this game
Speaker 1: and they win and he plays great, I mean he
Speaker 1: is having He would be my m v P right now,
Speaker 1: and his Their schedule of opposing defenses is brutal down
Speaker 1: the stretch, So anyway he gets the m v P,
Speaker 1: he'll have to with really no second or third wide
Speaker 1: receiver with tight ends to keep getting knocked out of
Speaker 1: the line. They've got two. Dk metcalf And and Tyler
Speaker 1: Lockett are both having good years. I just say it
Speaker 1: feels like whoever gets hurt a tight end, the next
Speaker 1: guy comes out. Jacob Hollister was awesome last week. I
Speaker 1: mean that's they and he finds a way anybody can
Speaker 1: catch these passes. Because Russell Wilson is making keyhole throw
Speaker 1: after keyhole throw after keyhole throw for the last five
Speaker 1: or six weeks, it's got to be number one in
Speaker 1: that QB index that they they still put out there.
Speaker 1: They still they said they should do it. The editors
Speaker 1: dot com, Ali bon Pouri and his guys Tom, they
Speaker 1: do a great job. Who help us every week and
Speaker 1: they vote on it. They that Ali's grinding that tape.
Speaker 1: But I'm Russell Wilson's got to be number one. That's
Speaker 1: all I'm saying, Well, why don't we check he brought
Speaker 1: it up? Now you can keep talking, you know, program,
Speaker 1: Yeah he is, okay, thank god? All right, Well they're
Speaker 1: getting it right. We said it all, We've done it,
Speaker 1: and uh a reminder that later tonight. In my mind,
Speaker 1: the best Thursday Night recap we're gonna have because in
Speaker 1: addition to Chargers at Raiders, which is a great a
Speaker 1: f C West battle, we will also have Kevin Harland
Speaker 1: of Westwood One Fame. Kind of feels like we could
Speaker 1: just coast and just hand it off to the Harlan.
Speaker 1: Would you say it was the best one if it
Speaker 1: was a week that West and I were hosting it
Speaker 1: or of course, and that would be like a lower ceiling.
Speaker 1: You know what I said? What I said, it's what's
Speaker 1: the great line by Luke Wilson and hard knocks the season?
Speaker 1: It is what it is and it's not what it's not, Ricky.
Speaker 1: How about a plug for something's going on on our
Speaker 1: social which is blown up? Thanks? Oh yeah, you guys.
Speaker 1: So we created an Instagram for all things A t
Speaker 1: N and it's the A t N Podcast. The handle
Speaker 1: um started it from scratch. We started it from zero.
Speaker 1: We're already over six hundred, um posting a ton of
Speaker 1: behind the scenes content. Did I say a hundred? I
Speaker 1: mean I mean by the time we reconvene Sunday, I'm
Speaker 1: saying this thing's at least five. Let's challenge, Yeah, how
Speaker 1: about this a challenge to the listeners. We love you.
Speaker 1: You do everything for us, but one thing you could
Speaker 1: give us for an early Christmas gift. Get that thing
Speaker 1: up into the thousands, a ton of different content. A
Speaker 1: lot of people are always, you know, tweeting at us, like,
Speaker 1: oh you always cut off stuff, you know at the
Speaker 1: end of the pod. Sometimes that's the best stuff. All
Speaker 1: that all that type of stuff is going to be
Speaker 1: on on the i G we're doing. You know, it's
Speaker 1: going to be so fun. And you gave us each
Speaker 1: the password to put our own contenta who knows what
Speaker 1: that will lead to exactly. And this is the a
Speaker 1: t N podcast t N podcast and we got and
Speaker 1: we a teen like Erica running it. So not none
Speaker 1: of the old guys that will get you know, get
Speaker 1: things rolling in a good way anyway. Thou people following
Speaker 1: it by Sunday night or the podcast is over, We're done.
Speaker 1: That's it, all right, Let's let's get out of here.
Speaker 1: Is Dan Hands signing off for Quiet Storm, the Mailman,
Speaker 1: the Old Boss, Ricky Hollywood, Ryan Bartlett and everybody behind
Speaker 1: the Glass. Thanks for everything. Watch our show on YouTube
Speaker 1: and listen all the time until Sunday. S