2020 Week 4 Preview

come with us on a journey. This is such a it's become a Greg trope. Every month or so, Greg picks out. This time it was five or six nations, but normally it's one nation that he'll pander too for two or three shows in a row to collect, you know, fandom from said nation. And I see completely through it. And I'm sure any you know, sentient listener will see the this is way on Mark's radar. Remember how Maddie

got about the Canada thing. This is well because it was both of you jumped on one of those you give yourself away in what you notice in others. You have all these sort of internal thoughts here and it's like, no, I appreciate our listeners, and you have no you have nothing happening internally in terms of caring for others, So you're giving the way it's utterly absurd, Like I'm just saying the UK. So sometimes I feel bad. I feel bad. It's like there's more than just those Brits. We love

the Brits, but there's there's more. Well, I'm sure they'll survive there, you know, it's they've not been mentioned for shows. You know that we've gotten this far al right. Of course, the Around the NFL podcast is presented by the United States Marine Corps because we love America too. We get the whole world. We just want to put our arms around the whole world and give it a hug with football,

especially during these trying times for Earth. The whole thing with COVID nineteen, and unfortunately it has now officially impacted the season. The Steelers and Titans scheduled to play on Sunday, I've been postponed and definitely so it's up to the schedule makers to figure out how to make that work.

And now we just cross our fingers that there are no other issues COVID nineteen related to other teams that might be connected to the steel to the Titans who had multiple positive tests, and it has continued to The numbers continued to grow as the week has progressed all the way into Thursday, which prompted, of course, the decision to postpone as opposed to playing on Monday or Tuesday. Greg, where's your p scale on COVID nineteen? Right now in the NFL season, I think all the rules they have

made sense, and this is them following the rules. So if this happened once every month that they had to move a game around and it wasn't a gigantic outbreak. Right now, I think it is it. It's five players and a few more on their staff. I don't know that you have to expect it. It's still happening everywhere around us. You know. One is, your pants are totally dry, no problem? Uh ten pants soaked? Got to get to the bathroom. Hopefully have a change where you at one

to ten. I'm gonna say five, just because it's more like a global thing that the postponement of football games and the larger scheme isn't got me, you know, not too much p about that. I've got I got bigger concerns. Why you always do that, you always try to like if they move a game around every month, I'm not I'm personally not that worried. If they're doing everything they can to make them say they are, so I'm not, I'm not doing How about I'd put it higher just

be you know, for me, it was, it was. It's a gloomy development because the first you know, the training camp into a non preseason, you know, rush to week one, week one and week two, week three. Great, then this happened. So I I guess, like to Greg's point, they're following all these protocols and it has worked that this still occurred, and so it becomes a more raging wild card for

me than it was. So the pants or the underpants, Um, I'm wearing a bathing suit actually right now off camera, but that's you know, there's it's damp, it's damp, but but it is so yeah, right, And to be fair, it it didn't really work that well because at least one and multiple Titans players played that game with the virus. Um so that's that's a problem. My favorite because we missed Chris Westling. We wish he was with us right now.

My favorite pre marriage West thing was every once in a while he'd turn up for a podcast like looking dapper, dressed to the nines. He'd be wearing maybe some khakis and a collar shirt with a pullover sweater, just an outfit you haven't seen a lot and be like, Wes, why are you so dressed? I was like, oh, all my clothes are dirty and I haven't had a chance to do the laundry, so I had to get my fancy clothes out. Thank God for Lakisha. Uh yeah, I

loves all right. Here we go week for one less game, unfortunately because of what we just discussed, but still plenty of pigskin to dig into here on the Around the NFL podcast. And you know how we do it on the Thursday show. It is draft style and picking first Greg Rosenthal. Wow, feels like a no brainer given your fan leanings. But you take the podium and make your announcement. It doesn't matter who I'm rooting for. The Patriots Chiefs with Tony Romo on the call is the game of

the week anyways. I mean, this Patriots team is fascinating and they're so different. Their defense is not playing well, but on paper they kind of have the offense that can take advantage of this Chief's defense. Right now, the Chiefs are struggling against the run. They're very good against the past, So what do you do? You you bringing the Patriots offense that is so diverse in terms of their running game. And oh, by the way, they take Damian Harris off of I R. A lot of people

expected him to start at running back for them. James White is now back with them, uh in practice, so we'll see if he returns to the field this week. And you think about what their offensive line is doing right now, it sets up well for that strategy. That's like, well, you gotta shorten the game against Patrick Mahomes. I always thought that's kind of a sucker strategy because you know, like losing shorter is still losing. You have to outscore them,

you know, in the number of possessions. That's sort of presuming you're a worst team than the Chiefs. But I guess, I guess that's okay. Most teams should presume they're a worse team than the Chiefs right now. I would just I mean, the Chiefs those score quickly. I mean, it's not like if you go and pull off a six and a half minute drive. If you're the Patriots, that that's really gonna lessen what Kansas City can do. I mean, how many games have we seen them explode for twenty

one points in eight or nine minutes. I mean, it's just that's who they are. At the same time, I like the match up of New England, like last week, it was such a tell Bill Belichick talking about Darren Waller all week. We didn't get a lot of that this time around, but you know, you can tell he's always gonna try to erase some shut down Tyree Kille over the years when they so there you go. I mean, but they're always just gonna be one person he's gonna

try to eliminate and you go from there. But I was watching a Belichick game from back in and to Gregg's point on offense, he was using three or four running backs in Cleveland. When I thought it was just one with memory, he was using three, four, five guys. So he's been doing this for a long time. And the way they adjusted against the Raiders last week tells me that they will completely from a mental side, they are the perfect match and showdown with Andy Reid and

what he's doing with that cheats offense. Some incredible stuff happened against Baltimore. Here's the difference, Uh, this week and last week of the Patriots. You shut down Darren Waller and you're in good shape against the Raiders. And Matt money Smith on our Power Rankings program this week, pulled up some tape that I loved that shows again how Bellichick is so great at this. He knows the game

better than anyone. That they were double team. They were double teaming the check down for Derek Carr because they know that's where Derek car looks almost immediately, especially if Darren Wallers is having troubles. But you can, good luck, good job you. Let's say, hypothetically you take Tyreek Hill out of the game. What's made the Chiefs such a special offense is that that's just one piece of a

superstar STU on the Kansas City offense. And what you have with Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, Uh, Travis Kelsey, Nicole Hardman making plays, Uh, Sammy Watkins. You have so many choices for Mahomes and you know he's gonna find it. So I think I think that is the difference there. And then the other point of it is for me, guys? Is that and Greg, I I had my fund in

the off season the Patriots aren't special anymore. Well, this is the game, Greg, where if they go into Kansas City and uh beat the Chiefs, I'll throw up the white flag in before leek of October. If they can do that, then I'll know that this is still team that absolutely is in the mix in January. I don't think they're there. I think the Chiefs are gonna have their way because I don't think the pay Roots are special. But let's see, I agree with you. I think this

game came too early for them. I think there's a chance the Patriots evolved into a really dangerous team. I don't think they've expanded their offense enough. And then, oh, by the way, this is the worst defense they've had going up against the Chief teams. So Mahomes is struggled in the past relatively against Belichick, and it's very relative. But right now, Stephen Gilmore struggling. Like Stephen Gilmore had the worst two games of his season to end the

regular season last year. He has given up a lot of plays This year. He has a number of penalties, but he has penalties on plays where he knew he was beat so Gilmore struggling. They're giving up a lot of plays through the air. They've just been an okay defense, I would say below average defense. Chase one of it is playing well, but it's tough if you don't have a pass rush, I don't care how good your secondary is.

And if you're not, you know, getting into situations where they're in third and long and they can blitz, then they just don't have many guys other than one of Itch who's fine, that can beat you. And if you give Patrick Mahomes time, it's just you're right, Dan. It's just like choosing the way you want to die. And one of the reasons they had to switch to that run heavy attack against the Raiders was they didn't have a wide receiver in that game with more what they

had won with more than thirty yards. They do not have a lot of weapons New England at all. That said, the Chiefs defense has been one of the most generous against running quarterbacks this season, and some of that trail back last year, so it sets up well for Cam Newton, you know, and plus these Patriots. They got little Ernie Adams tucked away in his cave somewhere coming up with

something right now. Well, no, it is because it's like we forget about him, and it's like, what, wait, suddenly, how did Bill Belichick with an undermatched roster pull off this upset In Kansas City? There's always Ernie Adams with this little glasses sitting up in a room to buy some plan right now while we're talking away that we

have no idea what they're gonna do. You would think if Ernie Adams was truly the architect behind the Patriots dynasty, they would do them better than putting them in a cave. I mean, put them up in a some place, a cape cod or something. Get Mark, Now, you don't even do something. You don't put him in the lord him. You keep him in the dark because he's just standing with his little computers. Well, that's not how it works here.

And one more thing before we move on, Let's give some love to the Chiefs defense, because it's always all about the Chiefs offense. And that's fair because it's uh an iconic level offense led by the best quarterback in the world. However, Uh, this Chief's defense held Lamar Jackson over a hundred passing yards the Raven on Monday Night. The UH leading receiver for Baltimore was J. K. Dobbins, who had thirty eight yards and a safety valve role. Uh they kept Lamar got his yards on the ground,

but it also they didn't let him run wild. They did a great job of that. The Chiefs defense is good. I'm not saying it's close to what the offense is, but it's good and it's a deadly combination. Stagnolo's got. The history against Belichick hasn't really done, you know, great, I would say in Kansas City against the Patriots. But he's a game plan coach and sometimes he can come up with a game plan that the other team just has no coming for. That was the case last week.

I've come he's a champion. It sounds like you're getting when Eli hoisted the trophy along the competitive Alright, Mark Seso, you're up next now. I teased earlier in the week that you had to be ready because your favorite team, the Browns, are playing the Cowboys, and in the draft format of this program, could you risk letting them drop because the old zeuser might need to make a football decision on Sunday and take that and risk the loss of our friendship. So right now you still control the

board and the narrative. You're up. Well, you hinted at that, and I took the hint seriously, and I also, you know, I think this is legitly a good game. Right here, Cleveland goes into Dallas, and for me, what I want to see is, I think this game tells us a lot about first year Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, because you've won two in a row by playing Brown's football like nineteen sixty four. You've got the only two the only team in the league with two backs the two hundred

plus yards and Nick chov and Kareem Hunt. They've been great. And now you go into Dallas and the only thing is if you watched what Seattle did Tyler Lockett, dk metcalf against the Dallas secondary, aren't you tempted to unleash the ball? Unleash Baker Mayfield after two games where he really hasn't you know? He's been not want I don't want to use the word game manager, because I think he's played well, but they have been a run team.

Why do you not air it out against the secondary that got absolutely flamed and has been flamed week after week. It might be the game that helps Odell Beckham get back in a really good mood. Jarvis Landry my questions if you can trust Baker Mayfield to have that kind of game. I mean, we just haven't seen it this year. He was really clean against the Bengals, but it hasn't been these sort of Matt Ryan four hundred yard performances.

This may be the game that begs the breakout because I don't really trust Cleveland's secondary, even if they have Denzel Ward to shut down what I think is the best group of wide receivers in the league in Dallas. I'm with you. I think Baker the last two weeks he reminds me it's like his postgame interviews. It's like this buttoned up Baker. The way he's playing the game isn't doesn't. It feels like the real Baker is underneath.

He's being held down. They're barely throwing the ball fifty times in two weeks is outrageous and the way to take advantage of this Cowboys secondary, which they don't understand what's going on, Like Mike Nolan is running his graduate level. All these crazy blitzes and different coverages, and every fifth play there's some huge bust And so you look at that, you're right mark on film and you think we attack, attack, attack, And I think you'll only get so far running it

as heavily as they have. They have to get a little more out of their passing game. So it's a big show me game for Baker. I was curious what you guys thought about the Browns in Week three because I watched the game, and Chubb jumps out obviously because he's a star and he's a closer. I didn't think they played that well against Washington and and and they took the they were trailing in the fourth quarter, and they got the big plays, and they got the gift

of some Dwayne Haskins interceptions. But it's the Cincinnati game of prime time. Was a fun game that got them back on their feet. I was expecting them to kind of trounce uh Washington, and it was way closer and less impressive than I thought it would be. So I think this is a game, and I know the Desert people like the Cowboys a lot as well, uh that they're gonna have to play better. And I'm on the

same page as both of you guys. To do that, you're gonna have to have more balance, especially when you're playing at Dallas offense, as good as they are. If the Cowboys and Dak Prescott go up, let's say four teen three, and you can't lean on the two headed monster in the backfield. Is your passing game ready for that challenge? Well? Nor should you. I mean you have Audell Beckham, you have Jarvis Landry, you have a great group of tight ends. You can throw to your Kareem Hunt,

you can throw to Nick Chubb two. I mean you've got to diversify that. I am with you on the Washington game. I think what happened a little bit. They had a terrible third quarter. I liked it. They stuck to who they were in the fourth quarter, came back and got the win. They didn't completely lose themselves, which you saw a lot last year and over the last twenty five years. Frankly, but this is an acid test for their offense. So Dan, I think you're right, you

need to see more. I would say I watched a little miked up Week three action with Baker Mayfield, and he wasn't the guy is in front of the press. He was all lit up and talking to people left and right. So I don't think that he's quite I don't think we completely have like a body snatched scenario here from Baker Mayfield. So personality they they have though with the Cowboys often. I mean it's been a lot of rust letting rest cook talk this year. How about

letting that cook. I mean you could tell Jason Garrett is no longer on that staff when they start a game throwing the ball six straight times and he's throwing it fifty times. They have three receivers on pace for more than yards. Michael Gallup might be the best receiver in this game. I mean he is so physical, he is so fast. He is playing as well as Amari Cooper as well as Odell Beckham. Certainly like the way he can get catches at the catchpoint, like in a

tough situation, aation. I really love what I'm seeing out of him. When Ceedee Lamb can be your third receiver, that's that's a great situation. Wilson scoring two touchdowns out of the blue, I mean they've got their loaded. Yeah, that guy was a fantasy nightmare for people, But good job by him. And yet with the Cowboys, like, here

we are again. They're one and two, they're very they're non side kick away from oh and three, and the defense is a has been a travesty so far, and you just you just wonder whether all that summer of hype again was talking about an eight and eight team. I mean, they've allowed what about eighty points, seventy eight points and close to I believe, eight hundred yards of total offense in the past two weeks alone. They just they need to be so much better than they are

right now. They get Tyrann Smith back this week, but you're right, the defense is harder to figure out. They have the guys on the defensive line, Jalen Smith, that linebacker, you know, that should be the identity of this defense, and he's struggling. He really misses Layton Vanderesh next to him. So again, it's a game. I think you're gonna have

to score if you're the Browns. All right, I am up next in the draft, so I will go with, Oh, it's gonna be a great late Sunday because not only so, you're gonna put gonna have two screens up, so I'm gonna have Pats Chiefs Romo Nance on the big screen, and then on my monitor, I'm gonna have Bills at Raiders, and uh, I think the Bill can look behind it your text scenario over there in handsas manner. Yeah, it's a little peek behind the curtain here in a pandemic essential.

But yeah, the Bills are kind of musty TV right now because of the way they're playing in the game. They're coming off against the Rams, which was just wild when you watch that game, how they jumped out ahead, how things flamed out and then the recovery and uh. And I got some heat from Bills fans because I thought it was a little fraudulent to get super pumped up about Josh Allen his final touchdown drive when he was essentially bailed out by a suspect pass interference call.

But also that's not necessarily fair because he did convert that third in twenty and then got them on a on a second, third and forever, which he was responsible for with a face mask, but still getting them to fourth and eight, which set up the uh the p I call, and then he made the past across. So like, yeah,

I mean, look what Josh Allen's done. He's still doing the stuff that occasionally drives you crazy, but everything he's just such a they We entered this year like, oh, if he could take the next step the Bills, he's taking three steps. I mean, let's face it, he's a guy that is to be game planned and feared for. Uh And now you go to the Raiders at at the what do they call it, not the black Hole

at the Death Star? The Death Star which is which is a Star Trek reference, of course, and it's just like, I don't know, uh no, I know market Stars, but I just think the Raiders are frisky. They're gonna be frisky in their building this year. It's another test for this Bill's team now at three and oh, to continue to stack stack wins against the Raiders team where you don't really know which team is going to show up. You love this Bill's team, Mark, I mean, you can

just enjoy it. You say, you know, walk your wife, you know, take a premature victory, laugh about Josh Allen. You know, nothing could go wrong the rest of this season. Enjoying I mean premature, premature. I mean, I'll roll with him week to week with the way he's playing. I mean, I guess, should I be getting more excited about Derek

Carr and the Raiders. Who, Hey, you want a chance to beat New England, how about don't turn the ball over three times, and one of them in the end zone when Derek Carr's dropped for a safety, loses the ball and it ends up being the game ceiling touchdown for New England. The Raiders are an interesting team. You know, we all know about Darren Waller, I love Josh Jacobs.

We've talked about it week after week. But they are not a team that's gonna go in and beat teams like Buffalo in New England with a lot of mistakes. They just aren't. And and and if you want to scout against their offense, you've got three plus decades to look at what John Gruden's done on all because it's not really changed a bit. Well it's good though, I'm not worried about I mean exactly when it works, it works. When it works, it works. But you can't go and

put the ball on the carpet three times. They totally melted. They totally a little flu But part of it is injuries. And uh, I think that's a huge story in this game, Like most of these games this year. UH, the Raiders are missing both of their rookie wide receivers. We know Ruggs is out, We'll see about Brian Edwards, but that removes a lot of the speed that they were really expecting to have. They haven't had Trent Brown in a while.

The right tackle and his replacement, Denzel Good was a big part of that problem, was a big part of those fumbles. Mark, and so you look at that matchup and then you you think about can we keep up scoring against the Bills. Devin Singletary is a guy to watch this week. I Mean, everyone got excited about Zack Moss before the season, but he he has no Devin Singletary. Singletary just has the vision and the moves that that's rare. Like he's not that fast, he's not that sudden, and

yet he is so effective. I think it's because he just sees the field well. He's like a young, smaller Frank Gore and man, he can run well. And uh, the Raiders to me, Tony Romo was talking all last week, Oh wow, they have great effort. That's fine, they don't have the talent on defense. This is not a good defense. To Mark's point, to alright, the talent isn't great on the defensive side of the ball, but they were moving the ball against the Patriots in New England early on

in that game. Uh, and just weren't playing clean enough football. You can't go to Foxboro and be putting it on the carpet and getting drawn off sides on fourth and two and all that stuff. You just gotta be sharper to be the Belichick team. But uh, I love this game because it's a nice test. It's a litmus test for the Bills. How good are the Bills Because they can go on the road here and not have their best game and lose, and it's fine, there's three and

one and they'll go on. But if they go there and just whip up on the Raiders, it's like, Okay, we might be actually dealing with a potential superpower in the a f C. Uh So I'm excited to see how that goes. You want to lock that game up. By the way, we just talked about how did you how did you know that doubt from Josh locking up the Bills? Bills Nations, stop Bill's mafia, stop coming at me. I just locked you all right, there you go. They're still gonna come after you. Okay, alright, moving on to

snakes to the old Zeuser. Alright, so I beautifully set up my late afternoon with two really solid games, so now I'm gonna take a game of intrigue early. I also don't have the Jets on my plate dirty out of the way on Thursday, so nothing to make me depressed. I'm gonna love this Sunday. So let's go with the two and one Colts at the Chicago Bears, the undefeated Bears, that Soldier field with Nick Foles now as the starting quarterback.

And let's let's face it, like nobody bought into the start of the season to the Bears when they were two and oh, and even last week, you know, they get to three and oh. But the Falcons are just like a morgue of a football team right now, and it's just really sad, and they don't know how to close games. So a little bit of fortitude there. But you know, I think that Nick Foles makes this team

kind of interesting. Now you spot them three wins, so he takes over a team now that's three and oh, and I don't think they're by any stretch a you know, a real difference maker or a team that's a Super Bowl contender in the NFC. But you can't discount them, especially with fowls have shown us in the past, so you have foals and the other side of it is the Cults, who to me are very interesting because you don't really know. We talked about this on Sunday's Last

Sunday's podcast. Greg, don't really know what to make of them so far. They have that kind of old style Philip phil Rivers loss in Week one, and the last two weeks the schedules lightened up and they've taken care of business and been kind of a ball control, defense oriented team. Where do you stand on this one, Greg? I like the Cults because I like them up front, but you're right, I don't know who they are offensively. That's especially true because they didn't have to do much

against Minnesota and the Jets. This is a game though, where you like the Colts offensive line to win the battle against the Bears as best players Khalil Mack, Achem Hicks, Robert Quinn. They've been a little up and down this year. The Bears defense has been good overall, but I think you look at that side of the ball in the trenches and then you flip it over to the Colts defense. You got the forest bucking, you're playing outstanding. This could

be a team with two top five lines. Like Philip Rivers has never done so little to win two games. He's loving life and that the football heads tell you you'll win the game and the trenches Cessla. That's the Indianapolis Colts ways. Listen to those I listened to those football heads, especially when they when they sound like that. Greg. I needed the Bears to become something different than the Mitch Drabinsky lad Bears. It's just my personal bias. I found them dull um. I still don't know if I

need this much Cordarold Patterson in my life. I'm not. Maybe I need to be higher than on David Montgomery than I am. But I tell you what, Nick Foles, it wasn't just he came in and beat them. They overcame a lot. He threw a bad interception in that game, they had some weird calls, they punted a couple of times out of the gate. Then he got hot, and it really reminded me of the Nick Foles when he gets that little magic wand touching his head. Suddenly bang,

he becomes this completely different players. So the Bears arrow up on their intrigue. But I'll tell you what, I like the way this Cults uh matchup lines up for Indianapolis, and I have to do this. I have to lock up the Indianapolis Cults in this game because I just cannot imagine an undefeated Bears team. You know what, I thought the same thing last week with the Bears when they played the Falcons and the Genius for three and a half quarters and they got me. I almost locked

this one up two Mark. I think it's a really solid lock because I think the Colts, especially what they've shown on defense, and again small sample size, he got a factor in the opposition, but statistically they're the number one defense in the league right now. And if Rivers can just play smart with Jonathan Taylor, I think they're gonna win a lot of games. And the Bears kind of like what I was saying with the Bills situation this week, if the Bears lose their they're gonna be

all right. Like they're the sense of I'm not saying they have less sense of urgency, but like this feels like it sets up well for the Colts to go get a w the Bears go home, or they're they're still at home. They're like, all right, we're fine with three and one, and the Cults are somebody. Now we start to talk about as an a f C player, cults are thin, though, you know, I'm curious how this

offense does against a good defense. Now, they're not just missing Marlon Mack and they miss him because Jonathan Taylor is not quite seen holes. He's having the problems a lot of rookie running backs have. The games just moving a little fast from there without Paris Campbell, there without Michael Pittman. So we we were very excited about this young group of playmakers around Philip Rivers. Three of the most important ones aren't there right now, so that they're

a little more limited. And that's why I'm with you, Mark, I think the Cults are gonna win. I thought about it too as a lot, but I think gonna be white knuckling this one. This just feels like a low scoring close game that the Colts getting, you know. And yeah, and Dan's talking about his multiple TVs and all this other stuff at his house and how fun it is

to be watching like five games at once. When I'm doing that, and I'm you know, at the same time, I'm dealing with a lock that's heading in the wrong direction. You know, Sundays can get real, they can become a bubbling mess. So I need to be happy, enjoy it, I know. But according to Dan, that means I have no sense of urgency at this point, and I'm just sort of walking into a loss. So I'm not worried about your urgency level. It doesn't really affect this game.

But yeah, I I understand why there could be stress and locks. We've sat next to you for years in that newsroom. Mark. When the lock is on the line, there's it gets real for you. So I hope, I hope it works out. I'm a competitor. You are, You're one of the great, but you're Michael Jordan when it comes to NFL locks for meaningless competitions, you are Michael

Jordan's in. Well, there's like four or five of us participating at all, so you know someone has to be Time now for a road to victory presented by the United States Marine Corps up next draft, Mark Sessler, all right, well, you know this game is not something I would have probably picked a couple of weeks ago, but I'm gonna go Detroit, New Orleans. I am impressed with what Detroit

did on defense against the Cardinals. You know, we were all talking about the Cardinals as the team that had arrived and fulfilled the hype, and I think that there's a lot to that team. But Detroit, after getting really lacerated a couple of weeks in a row, got a

little healthier in their secondary. Intercepted Kyler Murray three times, gentlemen, four first rounder got to pick what it should have been for your right, so they really I thought they threw Kyler Murray off his access a little bit in that game, and so they're not a team however that rushes the passer at all and said they don't even choose to And that sets up well for Drew Brees, who gets you know, Michael Thomas is working this week. He's back at practice. Uh. In theory, the offense could

be completely different with him back in there. So this is I just want to see, like with all the panics surrounding the Drew Brees and the Saints in general, you know, and Sean Payton sound at you know, Sean Payton gets agitated when people talk about him or his team, and it sounds like he's been agitated and responding to some of the criticism. So I didn't get fired up Saints team and against the Lions here. I love it

when he gets fired up at his own coaches. I mean, he seems a little agitated about his defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen saying that the blown assignments they had last week was like watching a high school team. I mean, you know, that reminds me of Sean Payton with Greg Williams. It reminds me of Sean Payton with Rob Ryan. It's like it used to be one of my favorite recurring segments. Sean Payton throws his defensive coordinator under the bus. And

maybe now it's back for a new season. They need their starts to play better. Cam Jordan's hasn't done much. Marshawn Lattimore uh is not playing at the high level he did as a rookie. So there's some frustration in New Orleans. It makes it fun. I agree. I totally agree this frustration. There. There's a sense in building that they are way better than what they've showed so far, and uh, you know, I still think this is a

team that's gonna be okay. I I in my power rankings, I dropped them down near the bottom of the top ten. But that's still that shows that I think that the team that's ready to be a big push, that they're gonna be okay. And I think it starts here. I think the Lions. Yes, I was impressed as well that their defense showed up and contain not just Kyler Murray through the air with the three picks, but also on the ground where he had a bit I think twenty

nine rushing guards. I mean he almost he took Jeff of Cuda Soul on that one touchdown scram within a Kuda showing some resiliency, jumps that route and gets a big interception that sets up points. So respect to the Lions and Matt Patricia, who man, Matt Patricia needed that win, that he was staring down the barrel potential. He just

the one eleven in their last twelve games. Right, It's like that is not a streak that Matt Patricia can say, yes, but look back on my multiple playoff wins from years. He needed he needed that. He absolutely that was a much needed win. But I don't think he's gonna follow it up with another w I think with especially if we got Michael Thomas involved Drew Brees. Everyone is obsessed with how far he's throwing the ball, but he was moving that offense last week. The defense is gonna wake up.

Watch out for Cam Jordan to have a monster. I'm the leader of this defense team. And when you put it all together, it's time to get up. Let's Saints get straight, get right. The Falcons absolutely took my soul in this uh, in this game UH last week. The Saints are gonna get right, get behind good coaching and a good roster. It's good luck. I like it. I like it. I do want to bring up a new segment.

I want to introduce to the show. Um, and that's something I'm gonna call Mark, Are you still ready to die on Taysom Hill? And that's to say, it's a question till that. That's pure straggling. It's tough for that. They Taysom Hill fans out there right now. Well that's the whole thing. It's like people like Taysom Hill when he you know, made bad games fun and he he operated as a completely unpredictable uh. Skill position, talent andlike we've seen before. And then it's like just it's very

Twitter middle school for everyone to turn on him. No the minute. The minute he you know, makes a big play, it's like the big mistake, it's like, oh, suddenly, like everyone knows the secrets on Taysom Hill. We're revealing who this player really is. I'm still completely in the camp of Taysom Hill. This guy is going to do things that we've never thought of before. Down the road, Greg, I still like Taysom Hill. They'll dye in on Taysom Hill. Okay,

that still he's on top of Taysom Hill. Yeah, he hasn't really done anything to make the offense better through three weeks, and he may have cost him the game in week three, but he could still be I'm not I I like that you're having fun with Mark and getting them fired up here, but I think he could still have moments of this offense. Maybe he won't have eight touchdowns again or whatever. But Drew Brees needs to calm down. If he's behind the scenes chirping that Taysom

Hill shouldn't be involved with this offense. Not that I know he's doing that, but can't you see it? I was like, are you breaking some news there? Can't you see a closed door meeting? All right, Greg, it's up to you. I'm going Chargers Bucks. I am intrigued about this quarterback matchup. I mean, it's got you know, one guy who might go to Canton, but it's got another guy justin Herbert, who I'm enjoying watching. Yeah, probably wow,

I think he I'm joking. I mean, he's the greatest of all time, but you know what you're gonna get. Herbert has been a pleasant surprise to me. I love the way he moves. I can't remember a six six quarterback this athletic. It almost feels like this is happening in every sport. Like there's taller tennis players like Nick Curios who are just more athletic than ever. There are taller NBA players who are just more athletic than they've

ever been in. Herbert moves so well. I know he's only an inter two taller than Cam Newton, for instance, but he's sort of movement skills and some of the plays he made a very natural feel in the pocket, getting outside, rolling to his left and just flicking at sixty yards down the field. That is some Aaron Rodgers stuff, and he's made them really fun to watch. I don't know if they're a great team, but I think that he'll make this game entertaining. I'm happy with this pick.

I mean, I think some of the taller athletes are being made up by much shorter sportswriters. This show includes at least two of them, and you know, that's just the way humanity works. But I love the fact that you know there's there's two plus decades separating these two players, and I know Tom Brady is thinking about that. He's like, I'm not gonna go lose to a rookie here, although he's not on defense. The problem, I think a little bit for the Chargers is the injuries are piling up.

You've lost Chris Harris. I mean, yeah, you still have some you still have some genuine talent up front, but it's not the way that they were, that's not the way they plan to come into the season. You're just you're down a lot of guys and you're basically started with the rookie quarterback. I mean, that's that's a the Chargers wanted to win games. We talked about it's like seventeen to sixteen. The Bucks want to win games thirty to twelve. And you know they don't have Chris Godwin.

That's an issue. Um, you know, they've got injuries of their own on offense. But I still think that the Tom Brady and Mike Evans chemistry that did not take long. Those two are on the same page. I mean, that was very straight. That was a the strangest stat line I could ever remember was Sunday for the Bucks against the Broncos. Mike Evans two catches for two yards for

two touchdowns. So while they aren't necessarily lighting it up at least against Denver, yes, you could tell there's a comfort level between those two players that you can look at week two also, I mean they've had they've had their moments. Ye yeah, I think that it's interesting looking at the Bucks on a week to week. They've definitely made into incremental gains on offense. But even last week they I think they had about fifty total yards and

three points in the second half against Denver. So they're

not all the way there, but the defense is. And you just got to kind of give credit organizationally to them understanding what they needed to do in the offseason, keeping Jason Pierre Paul and dom Kin, Sue uh Shaq Barrett, keeping them all in the building knowing they had Devin White and Lavante David and just have this fearsome up front seven And I thought it was interesting with Arian said after Sunday's win that when they got Tom Brady, they were like, Oh, Tom Brady is our savior. He's

the guy. Now it's gonna take us to the super Bowl. They viewed it and his quote was he was Brady was icing on the on top of the cake. That that was how they view it. They think this defense is that what's gonna take them deep, and based on what we've seen both this year and how last year closed, I think they're gonna be a lot of trouble and they certainly have the look right now, especially if the Bucks offense continues to grow as a team that's gonna

be near the top of the standings late into December. Yeah, we talked about them, Scory. Remember you're making fun of me for saying they were going to score forty points on the rag. I think it's what I said, which was an absurd thing. Someone twenty years younger than you should say, but I stand by it. I with you, Dan, This offense is gonna get better and better week after we've been good. Though it hasn't been good. It's a mediocre offense. There twenty four yards per play there there

below that. I think in net yards per tempt they don't have. I don't think he has good chemistry with Evans right now at all. He's not really sure what he's gonna do. Scotty Miller is a little banged up Godwin's and and it almost doesn't matter, Like they don't need to have a great offense. They are kind of embodying what everyone said about the Bucks a year ago. They're just like, you know, if Jamis Winston didn't turn the ball over four or five times every game, they'd

win a lot of games. And like that's the Bucks. They'll get better. But you're right, it's a defense. It's the Bowls of Sons. Give your boys some love, Dan, Todd Bowls. I mean, he's not my my boy. I like Todd Bowles. He was an unsuccessful head coach for the Jets, but he's a perfect defensive coordinator, just like he was in Arizona. And I'll just say this. Greg.

On the last week on the Around the NFL podcast Flagship show on Sunday Night, when we recap all these games, you had mentioned the lateral play Keenan Allen to Austin Ekeler that nearly led to a miracle win for the Chargers. That was I can't believe that that did not Was it happened? It was it, and it's it's it's it's such a Chargers thing. It's such a Chargers thing. There's only a handful of franchises that would let the game

end that way. Maybe Herbert was a little late on the throw that led to Keenan Allen how to catch it and flip it in one motion, which led to the accuracy issue on it. But it was way closer. Oh, it's such Oh my god, let's move on, Greg. It's snakes to you. Some teams, man, they know how to twist the knife on the fans. Alright, Kate. Week four, these are these are two teams that need to win badly. It's the Vikings and the Texans. And you know how about a team that likes to twist the knife on

their fan. That's that's the Minnesota Vikings. I choose this game, even though they haven't won, because there are two playoff teams from a year ago that really you to win bad and I'm not ready to dig dirt on the grave, at least not of the winner of this game. Oh and four, though, is a tough hill of the climb out of I like the Texans in this game because of Deshaun Watson, because of what he showed uh last week,

and because he's playing this Vikings defense. Even though Minnesota's offense has had some moments this year, the defense really hasn't. I mean the defensive line, especially on the interior. I think the Texans will be able to run a little more in this game, and I think the Texans passing attack has gotten a little better each week. They have four receivers that they can go to their None of them are amazing, but you don't need to be amazing

to take advantage of this Viking secondary right now. And so it comes down to like who do you trust, Kirk Cousins or Deshaun Watson. I'm taking Watson. Well. I trust Watson as well, and I trust him not dealing with you know, Pittsburgh's front front seven like you did last week. I just he looked to me. I was like, is this guy having any fun in this offense? Because he has just taken a lot of punishment and they've

been on they haven't been as productive. The one thing that when when Will Fuller is the kind of guy that you can trust for about seven games a year before like a hamstring blows up. But he really I really like him when he's in there. I think he's a difference maker. I'm not sold on the rest of the attack right now, though, I am I wrong on this.

I just Houston defenses in the league. Well that's so, I said, Yet so sell so sell me now, I mean, because you're running out of time to sell us on anything. If you're the Houston Texans. Yeah, well we are at a point now. Last week we were in the games for the Texans and Vikings. That was the cornered animal game for both of them. We present that as the game where it's a frisky team, a team that should be good, that got out of the gate slowly and when you put an animal in a corner, you better

watch out. Well, after two more losses for these teams oh and four, there's no coming back from so we will call this, they go from the corner, animal cornered animal. This is the road kill game. Folks do grow look away children, because whoever loses this game is scrape them off the side of the road. Animal control, do what you must. I don't know who. Maybe it's a state trooper. I always wondered who has to handle that because it seems like gnarly work. Uh, it's all over. Your season

is over after four weeks. So that's why I think this is a fascinating game, because neither of these teams, to me, are truly oh and four teams, their teams that had either schedule problems or some personnel issues on the Viking side where they can't get things straightened out in time, and now all of a sudden, there against each other. So the road kill game. Someone's alive, someone's dead, and there's some drama there, some football drama there. I

like seeing Mike Zimmer snap at a reporter yesterday. I mean, I think that they're feeling it. Both these coaches and teams were feeling inside this building. So you lose this one, Dan, and you're right, you're not much better than a squirrel that was squashed by a you know, a big mac truck. Let's hear that again. I'm just curious, but that would sound like gross. Look away, that's the road kill game. All right, steaks couldn't be higher, could not mark y'ar

up next? Alright. I know this might not be the popular pick in terms of like to uh two Titans. There's one team I really like in this though, the Eagles visiting the Niners. And I'll tell you what Kyle Shanahan is telling you right now who he is. You want to give me seven or eight backup players, I'm gonna go into New York two weeks in a row and drop sixteen or seventeen a bombs and last week

against all right, that's fine. But the Giants people thought were a little frisky, and a lot of people a week go over saying all this Niners team, are they gonna get away with all this? You know, all their guys are gone, their starting quarterback when you're starting quarterbacks, and that's a fair complaint. They don't punt the entire game. They literally never allowed the Giants to really show a sign of life in that. And suddenly Nick Mullins is

back in our life and he is absolutely looking. He gets to the point where Shanahan has to answer questions this week and say, no, there is absolutely no chance that Nick Mullins is gonna upstage and up unseat Jimmy G for the starting position here, because Nick Mullins looked as good as Jimmy G has in a while. I'm just saying, I think that this isn't a really important game. Also, and you guys, I'll let you guys handle the Eagles drama this, but look at the Niners schedule coming up

after this game. You got the Dolphins, but then after that is a rough stretch of the Rams, Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, and Saints. That's like a double playoff runs. So you need these games against these wanting, desperate teams, and the Eagles feel like a desperate team to me right now, gentlemen. For the Niner side of it, absolutely great job taking

care of business. The Giants and the Jets are the two worst teams in football, and you need to win those games, and they did, and you having good they want them buy a lot and they want them with like kill backups. That's those games when you of good coaching and you have depth on the roster. So good job by them, and now you start to get hopefully you start to get healthy. You lost some guys unfortunately for the year in that terrible little stretch of a

week there. But I you tip the cap to the Niners. But then you also wonder, okay, now, what happens when you start playing against real NFL teams. That's the only thing I'll say about them in terms of couching it all due credit for them for do you consider the Eagles a real team? I think the Eagles because they're a desperate team as well. Right now, I think this will be a great test for both teams. I think it's a good game. I think it's fascinating. But the

Eagles aren't playing They're playing like a real defense. I like Malik Jackson. The pass rush is totally healthy, by the way, and they should be fine, but the the offense is terrible. I mean, Carson wentzays double the amount of turnover worthy plays according to PFF than any quarterback in the league. And by the way, he doesn't have

any receivers healthy again for this game. Not only is ray Or gone and Dallas Goddard's gone now de Sean jack Sin's a little banged up too, so we're kind of like right back to where we were in the playoffs a year ago. And I think as much criticism as Wentz is taking, you have to look at Doug Peterson. I mean, think of it about this matchup. Would anyone in the world rather have Doug Peterson calling plays than

Kyle Shannon? Do you think Kyle Shanahan would ever let a team have twenty nine yards per play thirty three weeks into the season. I'm not you know, I'm not trying to like be harsh on Peterson, but it's a full offensive system that's collapsing right now, and you don't see the great offensive coaches allowing that to happen. And there are a lot of Eagles fans who like to point out the Eagles record since frank Reich left the building. Frank Reich has gone to Indianapolis, is one of the

best offensive minds in league. And right now Peterson searching because there aren't easy throws out there for one to either. And quickly on top of that, I mean the Winz thing, it feels like you've had a quarterback that has played, you know, touched m v P type level play, has passed under this coaching staff. Now he looks mentally broken. I mean it looks like a guy that needs like a month off. I mean, at least legitimately a week

off to regather himself. I'm not sure that's how that works with starting quarterbacks, but this coaching staff is a part of that. What Like they asked Doug Peterson what is going on with Carson Wentz and he basically said, I don't know. Well, you need to know. You've got to figure this out. Well, that's part of the problem with sports, right, like you, Carson Wentz was an m

v P level guy. He's played at or near that level in the time since the A C L tare in And I believe he was great for stretches last year with a with a supporting cast that wasn't there. And there is something wrong with him now and and it's it's tough. I mean, it's kind of a what do you do? Though, It's like you say, you say, it's Carson Wentz's fault, Okay, you don't want to put it all on him. Now it's Doug Peterson's fault. I

don't know. All I know is Sanders is streaking down the field wide open, and Carson Wentz overthrows him and cost the team a touchdown. Is like, that's Doug Peterson's fault. Now, Sometimes I feel like it's a little easy just to put it on the coach a combination. You know, he's not the Wentz isn't thinking clearly though, and that that relationship between Peterson and Wentz is like what you give Peterson credit for when things are going well. His mind

is so cloudy. You can see on this last week where he just predetermined he's going to throw it to Deshaan Jackson no matter what, even though there's a guy underneath. They do a lot of the r p O s right now, and a lot of it I think is Wentz making bad decisions when when there looks like there's a positive running play available and he holds onto it

and there isn't anyone open throwing the ball. So I think that is partly coaching and unless it's just like when's having a total collapse, I think it's a combination of both. All right, I'm up right. The old zuser third person George Kittle back in that game though you mentioned, uh you mentioned some people coming back. George Keettles on our in Our Lives Sunday Night Football, Deebo Samuel back at prat this He's got a couple of weeks before

we coun see him again. But they are getting healthier. Thank you that time. I've been caught by surprise for some reason. All Right, my choice will be let's go Seattle at Miami. Uh. Don't see a really great option here, so I'll just grab that game. Uh, just because that means I get to watch Russell Wilson good. So Russell Wilson is on pace for seventy five touchdowns. So in a depressed draft class, if I have a chance to

take that guy and watch him, I will. Uh. They have issues though, And I don't know what Jamal Jamal Adams status is after he he tweaked his groin at the end of the game against the Cowboys. But their defense has been terrible with Jamal Adams as well. So if you take him out of the mix or put a compromise version of him on the field, you wonder

how are they ever gonna get stops? Well, you know, the Dolphins present the challenge because as much as we want to just disregard Miami as they stank and Ryan Fitzpatrick's there. He's funny. Look at all that chest cabbage. Then he that he can light people up if you if you give Ryan Fitzpatrick uh time, he will find receivers. So everyone is going to pick the Seattle Seahawks to

continue rolling and get all excited about them. But at the same time, would I be totally stunned if this is a game that's very competitive in Miami in the fourth quarter because of all the issues with Seattle's defense, I would not be stunned at all. Yeah, I think the Dolphins have done a good job coaching up what they have, and they're a team I think, you know, if Brian Flores is like Bill Belichick, this team is going to be different in November December than they than

they are to start the season. But I just don't see the talent, Like I just don't see enough playmakers, even in a game where they control the lead. It's like they sat on that lead a little bit against Jacksonville because they knew that they could stop the Jaguars and against Seattle like good luck. Russell Wilson reminds me so much of Ben Roethlisberger at the same age around

thirty two thirty one. I thought Roethlisberger, who was like a Hall of Famer already in my mind, went to another level because like his his mind, Dan uh, you know, caught up with his physical skills. And now it's like Russell Wilson is so three steps ahead of the defense mentally and he's still got all of his physical skills. It's like that's meeting up in the middle. And I

don't know how you stopped that right now. I mean you're going back to like when Bruce arians had enough trust and big bend to let him just call series at the time, you know, so that and there's not a lot of quarterbacks that are in that situation. So I like that comparison Seattle's offense. Uh, you know what

it kind of reminds me of. I don't know if you guys ever dealt with these, but when you were like in your twenties and you'd go to like some park and there'd be a bunch of bros with one of those like giant sling shots that you put the water balloons in and shoot them like three hundred yards across the park and like hit some girl in the head with the water balloons. Was like what I just want to do? You not, I have never been that sling shots that you could shoot like water balloons or

other objects, but it was meant to be safe. But I just commercial of that at like three am ones it existed. It existed, and I literally saw a girl get nailed on the head with it. It was not it was not a pretty picture. But um, their offense just is so different than it used to be. And they have two legit star wideouts and I don't see how Miami hangs in this game at all. How far the sling shots go? Are we talking like fifty yards or like what was the max? It was like a legit.

First time that I saw it was on a college campus and was one of these campuses where there's like eight giant green lawns in a row, and there was like some girls on a towel, like three lawns over, which was like legit hundreds something yards away, and these guys kept aiming and hitting like it was when parents

are dropping their kids off. So it's hitting kids and little brothers and moms and dads, and it finally hit these people sunbathing and sounds like early nineties campus life was like every was like, all right, go to the quad, we'll do some frisbee and then we'll do the balloon launch and then everybody back to the dorm to watch Real World. It was very soft early nineties Franks like I was on the M d M A back at college,

so I didn't have this experience. I greg it was a different experience than too Late, and trust me, it was. We weren't wasting time sitting on blankets playing Hackey Sack. Let's uh, let's move on at uh snakes to the old zeus Er. Let's check in where where Lamar Jackson is after Monday night? Not own? You're kidding me, Bro, I know that was a total team meltdown. We talked about it on the podcast earlier this week. You can't

just put everything on the quarterback. But when you're the m v P, uh much as expected, and he did not rise up to the occasion. So now he gets the Washington football team, which is playing now without number two overall pick Chase Young, who has a lower body injury I believe a groin. So good news there for Lamar and bad news for Washington. But they could still get after a quarterback even without Chase you wonder, and I don't know if Washington is the team to do this.

And I don't want to put disrespect on Ron Rivera's name. He's a he's an accomplished defensive coach. But do you take this stuff? You take the tape from Monday night? Did you learn anything from that? What what clearly had flummixed the Ravens offense? Was it clearly just the games games situation that got them where you got ahead of them, which I don't imagine the Redskins, excuse me, the Washington football team are going to be scoring a lot of points.

So maybe this is completely out the door, or is there something you could take from it to slow them down after what Kansas City did. That's what I'll be watching for. I think you can take some broader strokes of how to rush them. I don't know if they this was mysterious, that who you need to keep the edge, that maybe don't go totally after him, just kind of lay back and and make him make decisions. But who are the Washington football team right now? I mean, there's

supposedly they're right. I mean, they lost Chase Young, but they also last my matt Ionidas for the season, and so I would say he might be there second or third best defensive lineman. You still have Jonathan Allen and Deron Payne and and Sweat like they have players, but they're not nearly the same without those two guys. I think Scott Turner has actually done a pretty good job, you know, scheming up this offense, but Haskins is a beat or too late, and the talents not there. Um Like,

there's been plays. I think that can work for Washington, and I like Scott Turner so far, but Haskins he needs a bounce back game because he seems to be losing a little faith from his coaches. And I would say that game against Cleveland was as bad a game any quarterback has had this year this season. It was because Dan you you sort of you were right. I think that you thought that, you know, Cleveland could have

lost that game. But then then Washington lost Chase Young and their defense was not the same after that, and Haskins, you know, willingly through some of the worst interceptions I've seen in the past, you know, twenty years watching football. It was like he just seemed completely out of his element, and the Browns defense caused I don't think they caused that opinion. No, I mean, yeah, that seems harsh. They

were just you know, some bad reads. They were really ugly because I just feel like he's not there um neck up right now, like the Cleveland didn't cause those by what they were doing to him. I just don't He's not crazy accurate though, He's not crazy accurate or athletic. So you have got for a first round pick quarterback, let's put I think he's probably better than all of this if you if in time. I do, but you

can see he has anticipation. But you're right, Mark, I think actually he is a type of quarterback that has to win from the neck up, and that in a long term view is the kind of player that he is that can read through the progressions. And you see that he does do that a little bit. He's like a little bit more of a a safer, not as exciting quarterback. But then it just seems like there's five or six plays where he just throws it up and

he doesn't see what's what's happening. What we call cessler a bit of a a premonition here that Kyle Allen is playing in this game. In the second half because the clock is officially ticking on Haskins. Earlier this week, Ron Rivera said there will be a cut off point for Dwayne Haskins and that that is damning when the coach is saying that this is early in the season. He's still a very young quarterback. But all it does is remind you that Ron Rivera had nothing to do

with Dwayne Haskins coming into this building. Ron Rivera's tasked with rebooting the entire machine. And usually when you have that responsibility, you're gonna do it with your own quarterback. It seems like Haskins is doomed. And oh, by the way, Rivera went out of his way to bring in Kyle Allen, a quarterback that while he is hardly Patrick Mahomes or even half of that, uh is someone that he knows and knows his abilities. Uh So you imagine he's not

gonna have any issues tapping him to come in. You can totally, can't You see the Ravens being at as hell and putting up, you know, twenty eight points in the first half, and with the Washington offense not moving, it's Kyle Allen time in a blowout and then an

announcement coming shortly after on Tuesday. For Rivera, it all seems like it's in the stars right now, I can happen, right, I like I like Scott Turner too, but Andy Reid, like completely beguiled Patrick Queen, the rookie linebacker for Baltimore and much of that defense. I don't think that Washington is going to offer that kind of challenge. There's also this like Washington Baltimore rivalry with this game right big time once every four years. One of the great ones

is Washington fans. There's also there's also of the Baltimore Washington Parkway. I think it's called I don't know which is. I mean, I only took the train when I area, so I don't know that the actual highway name. But like they don't. There's a legit dislike between these sports and entities in both towns, right and the Ravens Now, I've had the edge there for a while. And Ron Rivera, I'm not saying there tanking, um, but take a time out at the end of these games. He kind of

just let these games two weeks in a row. He's had to answer some questions and he literally said, like I am worried about guys not getting hurt. It's like you're only down two scores with seven minutes left two straight weeks. I don't know. All right, Mark, all right, let's see here. Where are we gonna go? I like you, I'm caught off guard. Um, you know what I'm gonna do. And this is simply for scheduling reasons, because I don't have a four o'clock game. I'm gonna go Giants at Rams.

I also feel like that could be one where you kind of soft track it and maybe I, you know, get a little get a little son in the yard that's kind of like a wrong place that's not doing, that's not doing. The listeners proud they you know, they want they want aggressive watching. I will watch it aggressively. Greg. Thank you for setting me straight. That's why Greg is the old boss. I cannot get away with that here. I mean, imagine if Greg wasn't here to to set

us on the right path. This game scares me. You got Aaron Donald against Giants offense, the Giants running back situation, I mean DeVonta Freeman thrown in there, thrown into the fire right away. They've got Dion Lewis they're just not a balanced offense. I think McVeigh is fired up after that Bill's game. And one thing I like about McVeigh is he if they if the Rams make a mistake of any sort, he basically just says it is absolutely said.

I did a terrible job of putting us in really poor situations against the Bills when they got down early. And you know what's lost in that was the real Rams team and the one that h that they can be is the talent the team that climbed back into that. I still think this is one of the more intriguing offenses in the league. Um, nothing about last week changes that for me. They if more anything, it was some of the stuff that happened on defense would have me concerned.

I mean, to your point, Dan that Josh Allen that they got lucky, a little bit luckier or whatever it was football god stuff with the call at the end Josh Allen got against the Rams. Defense got them matter some jams too, and there's a third and twenty two play a couple of items like that where I mean, that's that's a Ram secondary. You want to trust more

than that. So this Rams team, to me, she has no reasons not to go in here and handle this with very little concerned with very little concern, because I think they're gonna flex their muscles in a bit of an angry contest after coming out of a game they thought the other they should have bought the other New York team last week, and they don't like what happened at all. I feel like good, good defenses right now

are gonna lose the good offenses. There's only four or five defenses I think that really matter and can can clamp you that. I don't think the Rams are going to be that team. They need to play good situationally, and they need to count on Jared Goff doing his top ten quarterback thing. That's what he's doing right now, just this time. Um, he's got a nice little running

game going. Darrell Henderson has some juice. I mean, the cam Akers injury and might end up being a little bit of a blessing because Wow, Henderson just feels like the game's coming a little slower to him this year. He's making the right reads and he has major juice. That is a fun backfield with Malcolm and they were talking about him doing that last year, like at the combine two combines ago and it never really happened. And now he's got like a hundred plus yards two straight games,

and everyone wants to talk committee. It still will be a committee, but this off it's it's the removal of this one lead back that takes up one eighth of your salary cap and you have to base the whole Their whole offense is different. Now they're using like his fullbacks. That's how bad that contract was. He's still taking up

an eighth of their salary cap. Yeah, to score twenty nine straight points in Buffalo, which the Rams pulled off, wiping out three and then give up third and two and then third in giving up you know, big yardage to set up that p I that that is a gut punch loss. And the Giants are the perfect team for them at home. This game is over by the end of the first quarter. I mean, this is not

going to be competitive. And that's why you have to look in the mirror with the locks game, because if you can lock up anything and there are there are shows and over there and they just they just lock up anything they want and they'll say, oh yeah, the Rams over the Giants is my lock of the week. Oh screw off. You can't lock this game up. But there is no game that's more certain in terms of outcome to me than Giants at Rams Week four. I don't like the Giants chances if I haven't made myself

clear on that. All right, I think we got that, uh, Greg, all right, I think I got a couple of picks the Giants. There was that too much? I know. Well, let them tell you that I believe in Daniel Joe Owns and that he's coming off one of the worst games he's had. Uh. Here's another reason to be depressed if you're a Giants fan. The four tackles were drafted in the top fifteen picks this year. Three of them

look pretty great right now. I know it's only three games, um, but Andrew Thomas is not looking great for the Giants. He's been struggling and it doesn't help that the other three one of yours, McKay Beckton. You know, the Browns have a nice looking tackle here. But they might have they might have missed, they might they might have missed. In New York. I'm going to the prime time I'm going to the prime time games. Packers Falcons. I've heard

some talk. It's like, oh, why the Falcons in prime time? This is? This is They're a fun team to watch. I mean, I know, like defense isn't I guess. But if you watched Bears Falcons, and if you watched Falcons Cowboys and you had nothing at stake in the game, which you know, which I didn't. I worked for the NFL, I was fully entertained. You got a great quarterback in Matt Ryan, and you great drama and like, how can they possibly lose this game? What a mismatch? When the

Packers have the ball. This Falcon's edge rush, which has been bad for as long as Quinn's been there, and we talked about it every obfouson and it's maybe worse now than it's ever been. So you just don't expect Rogers to face a lot of heat in this game, and that should make for a fun Monday night. You know, they can sell this game. I could sell it. What

do you think, Mark? You know my favorite play from the Falcons game was this amazing um moment where Matt Ryan just like willingly flung the ball out of bounds and it nailed a neiled one of these like sitting um cameraman like cameraman guys right off the end zone, like sitting with his neil, his knees all bent, and he had like a ten tho dollar lens and he

was just completely removed from reality. The bravest men in America, by the way, the guys that sit uh criss cross apple sauce is the accepted turn now with their ten thou dollar camera as these like thorough bread sprint at them on like end zone fades. It's pretty impressive that they have the guts that just hang in there. I enjoyed that. But then you know, there was also the Matt Ryan that started the fourth that fourth quarter, that

critical fourth quarter over seven. You know, then then that kind of opened the door for Folds to shake out of a little mini funk and turn into magic folds. And so I agree with Greg that this is an interesting matchup because the Falcon's offense is amazing. I think Calvin Ridley is everyone. They might get Julio, but you know what with Calvin Ridley, like he is a total luminary.

I mean, I you know, I hate people to talk about their fantasy team, but I reluctantly drafted him, and he is kicking people's butt week after week, would like him. They didn't. You read the zeus or Calm that he was gonna be joining the Superstar Club. Missed, I missed that. That that data from you. That's on me. Unfortunate, that's on me. But fourth time you've referred to yourself in the third person, it's all there is a pointed it out.

But we're never going was ready, it was time. We're never going back to the someone else calling him by his name. Hell, this is an easy matchup two for the Falcons offense. They're they're playing a defense that's also struggling. I mean, there's not really much the Green Bay defense is doing well right now, um even their best players and Aius Smith maybe not quite as many big plays, but it's more of the run defense and in the

back end. Like there should be points there. Really, there really should be plenty of points for the Falcon I guess I'm just saying it would have been really fun this game was played in Atlanta. When the Falcons collapse in the fourth quarter, you would get that Aaron Rodgers come back. You would have the back and forth action earlier in the game. But I think at Lambeau. I don't think we get to see the Falcons collapse because I don't think they get to the point where they

can collapse. I like the Packers. I I don't know. Do you think the Falcons still have a soul after what happened the last two weeks? These are two in terms of early losses back to back. I can't remember another team that. There's never there's never been a team that's last two games in a season similarly, much less back to back. You're right, but they did come out last week and then started off well, I don't know

that's what they do. And you know what, to the point of is this gonna be a fun game to watch Aaron Rodgers in primetime at Lambeo, even though there's no fans there. That's worth the price of you and Matt Ryan playing pretty great too. I mean, this is like, wipe out what's happened and just watch it on its own, enjoyable. All right, up next, Greg, it's snakes to you, Okay, Um, what is still left? How about the Jaguars Bengals. I'm I'm intrigued by this game. Everyone thinks this is the

spot for Joe Burrow to get his first win. Makes sense. He has not played um a defense as forgiving as Jacksonville. This could be the first game where Joe Burrow theoretically gets protection. I think Joe Burrows, coming off his best game in Philadelphia really was sharp. He's shown if you protect him, he is gonna be on time, on target, and make good decisions. The deep ball isn't quite there. They're still condensed like that. It holds up a little bit.

So he doesn't have like the big arm of an Aaron Rodgers, certainly, but this is a game you would expect him to go up and down the field, and he's hungry for a win. He said it this week, he said, we we absolutely need to win this game. I think they know their favored It's that I came the last time the Bengals were favored to win this game. You're locking locking it up? Is that easy? I actually think that Jaguars are gonna win this game. Well, what do you say? Yeah? Because the Burrow and you know

they have to do a better job predecting Brow. He got the snot knocked out of him by the Eagles, including one shot. And I know you guys know what I'm talking about where it would have put ninety nine point three percent of humans into a hospital. And I know he got up because he's tough and he's a

world class athlete. But you continue to get this kid destroyed, He's gonna end up on the I R on the other side of We didn't get a chance to talk about it as a group, but obviously very disappointing performance by the Jaguars on offense against the Dolphins last week on Thursday Night football. Uh, we're gonna chalk that up mark as just a bad week or a sign that this is going to continue to be an up and down offense. Well, I think it's an up and down offense.

And I think that Minshew, you know, for all my you know, I still am a I'm still a minshu Vin, but he may be an up and down quarterback where you're gonna because because if you want to look back at last year, he had some of those games. Now, I don't know. I mean, I think that a lot of it had to do with DJ Shark not being in the lineup. They have a great connection and that changed a lot. And you know, Thursday night football is weird, and I don't I'm not writing off Minshew at all.

But I think he's capable of that kind of game, the same way he's capable of surprising us, you know, the first two weeks. So I Flora's cook him up. Flora's cooked him up. Is lu on a Rumo gonna cook him up? He gonna scramble him? I don't know. But they're getting they're getting DJ back to I think that's a big part of this. And you know, like I liked them to be frisky. Um to me, can you do what the other teams done to borrow who's to your point and has had forty two pressures in

the past two weeks. That's not cool. I mean, you're gonna you're That's how you get a quarterback at the end of the year, no matter how much promise that person had. I mean, they're seeing ghosts and they're they're not making good reads and they're learning bad habits. If you if that pressure continues, like it's outs like Jonah Williams and for like beefy male strippers that don't have any work because strip strip places aren't open at this point.

A mail strip places are also hard. You're talking about steakhouses, sure, luxury steakhouses. Um it, I know it cost him sleep Minshew missing that deep throw down the right sideline. I think it was the con ley which would have potentially changed that game completely. That's just the stuff, you know. Everybody misses it throw every once in a while. But the difference with for Minshew is that seemed like a setting at home against Miami where he puts together another

nice performance and it's like, Okay, look at us. We're we're in October now, and this guy's doing it week after week. The fact that he laid down there makes you puts the doubt back there. It's like, okay, is he just this guy up and down and that is not the guy that the Jaguars are gonna stick with if they have a high draft pick, uh come next spring. So yeah, I think this is a good test for him to see where he's at, because you don't want to stack good game two good games too bad games. Uh,

it's pretty good. It's not a bad draft pick. This snaps for the Bengals defense, this is always this is my corner. I don't know if you guys know this. It's it's the which defense played in an incredible amount of snaps the week before and are gonna be tired. It's the Bengals defense snaps and the Jaguars have been very rested for this game. I mean that it's a good case. I mean that Eagles Bengals game. I mean it's it went on for so long and for some

reason I was tracking on this TV over here. It's like this. This feels like, um, like a double feature that is of no interest to the person watching it. Why is this? Why is this still? Then they both get to overtime and basically say we don't have a lot of interest in closing this out in overtime was finished.

I don't think I've watched the worst overtime and that mark closes out all right, I'm gonna go with the Well, there's only one choice left, so it's essentially I don't want to call it the what's what do they call the last man in the draft? Mr? Irrelevant? Yeah? I

think the Panthers have in this pick almost every week? Yeah, Mr Irrelevant, Yes, I guess this would this would be I don't agree that this is irrelevant because you know, there's some interesting history to this coaching matchup Cardinals Panthers. Cliff Kingsbury Matt Rule. We all saw the stories floating around that Kingsbury, like me, thinks a lot of Matt Rule. That Matt Rule called him up when Baylor knocked out Texas Tech in the game, and it got Kingsbury fired.

Look where they are now. I think there two of the more interesting coaches in the NFL, and I'm twelve coaches just making the leap to the big game with the big salaries it for them. Look at that. I think they were making plenty of money before, they're making plenty of money now. But there's a reason they're making this money. These jobs. I'd put like like four zeros on that and like houses and cars. We don't know

about undocumented. But if if we want to talk about the game, um, I think that I want to see how Kyler Murray and the Cardinals respond after last week's affair. And I think that on the Panthers side, you're starting everyone's like, oh, they'll go to and fourteen this year, then then the change will happen. Like every other Matt Rule team, I don't care about the record. I don't think it'll be great, but I think Teddy Bridgewater is

having a good season. Overall, the offense without Christian McCaffrey is functional, and the defense has got a little bit better each week. A lot of coaches love Mike Davis, so I don't know what the tone of voice there is. I mean that was that was a celebration of hiss from scrimmage. Okay, I thought it was just like bordering on potentially a little snarky. But I will assume that it wasn't. But I don't know. This to me is an interesting matchup. I will be this is what I

won't go to sunbathe in the yard. Right the Panthers have been weirdly, uh predictable, like we kind of thought before the year, this is gonna the The offense actually will be a little frisky. It'll be better than you think. Their twentieth in d v O A right now, So that sounds about right, like Teddy Bridgewater, you could do a lot worse. I actually think he'll he'll play better. He's been good. I wouldn't say he's great, but he's in that like twenty five probably of quarterbacks that's around

where he is a pff. That sounds about right to me. He's going down the field more and their defense is bad. I know they made some plays last week. Brian burns Um made a number of plays, and your boy dj uh move the sticks. Dan, I should do a podcast. He loves Jeremy Chin, their safety, who made some plays last week too. So they got a couple of players. But I'm not really to buying into the defense being good.

There's still thirtieth right now in efficiency. And you would think if the if the Cardinals are rolling offensively and DeAndre Hopkins has missed a couple of days of practice, this should be a game where they mix up that tempo. I'd love how they do that. They speed up and they slow down better than any team. Uh, you would think the Cardinals offense can go win this game on their own two But then, like who who would have thought that? They would have been stymied by the Lions.

I haven't been that impressed with their passing game yet this year. It's been a little erratic, and especially if nuke Um isn't a or or he doesn't play, although he did finish that game out, so you would expect him to play that. Yeah, it's a bit of a concern. Teams that are lacking firepower and their wide receiver room messed up on Robbie Anderson. I include the Jets at the top of that list because I never quite understood

the rush to get him out of the building. That's on Joe Douglas because Prashad Perriman has not been an upgrade for them so far. Robbie Ederson has been very good in Carolina. He's been a guy he always he's always been a guy that stays healthy. That he had been hit with a tag that he takes, plays off and is maybe a little bit limited as a route runner.

But I think he's really helped their offense. And uh, if you remember he not at the level of Cam Newton, but another situation where he was just kind of sitting out there, he ended up signing a very team friendly deal. Uh, and I think he has been a big lift to Bridgewater.

Well haven't you always, like, as a Jets fan, had people whispering to you that he was not the first guy that the Jets what we're thinking about wanting to, you know, give big money to on a multi year deal because he had some sort of I would call some knuckle point knucklehead moment he was. He's a he's been a knucklehead in the past. He had an arrest that was very ugly. Um. But at the same time, he was always a guy that could make big plays.

And when his when his salary got to the point where anybody could have had him um, and I think he signed two years twenty million. Uh. It just jumped out to me that, uh A, the Jets didn't have didn't think that he was someone that could help him at that price and be that there wasn't one other team that thought, Okay, maybe that was maybe Mark to your point, I think there was off the field issues

that just scared teams off. I think that this is another Matt Rule difference is that Matt Rule and Robby Anderson knew each other very well and there's a lot of trust between them. And I think Matt Rule, like when he came on our show in the summer and just openly defended Teddy Bridgewater when we were trying to throw some Bridgewater yard per attempt stuff at him, I think he's a player's coach and when he likes you, he's he's gonna put everything in you. And Robbie Anderson

is there are players like this. If you're getting the wrong system you're gonna have issues if you're in the right system. Everyone's asking why everyone what everyone else didn't sign Robbie Anderson big came for the Cardinals. Everyone talked about like this, look at their schedule and go six and oh while they lost that Lions one. Now in the NFC West, you cannot fall behind by losing to kind of these mid level teams that if they want to keep up in that division, you gotta win games

like this. All right, there you go. That is the preview of week four. Reminder that Sunday night we will recap all the games that we just previewed today and if you've missed it, make sure you check out our Thursday night mini pod where Cecila and I breakdown Jets Broncos speaking of a road kill game. Uh, showdown at the Meadowlands. Uh so, plenty of content to enjoy. Uh. This is Dan hands A signing off for the Quiet Storm, the Old Boss or Crnicky Hollywood behind the Virtual Glass

until Sunday m m m HM. As