2021 Week 6 Recap

life's better. Maybe that's something. Maybe the Chris Westling dossier about the Bengals like this is kind of what he was getting at more above the treetops that said I'll never leave my fandom, but I get why it's probably a healthier move. I always thought moving to the West

Coast from the East Coast where we all grew up. Um, the games start at ten am, and you know, typically the Jets and Browns and Patriots would be on at ten am, and you'd go back in the day before we started doing this, I'd go watch them the Browns get Shelax somewhere. But the great thing was you're you know, the the butt kicking ends around one pm, and you still have the rest of your Sunday. Uh. When you're here,

you're sort of still just doused in the ill. Yeah, I mean it's you got people laughing and giggling throughout the office. I don't know what you're talking about. First of all, I only see I mean as a as an l A like fan was two thousand one, you know, the greatest, But you've had a broad I was gonna say the Patriots, Yeah, sure they lost, but have you noticed they leave the league in moral victories? And I'm

more of like a fan of football. I'm like Rob Low, you know, with the the NFL on the on, it's like they're really providing great entertainment, great ratings, and big time games. So I think the Patriots are winners. I feel like you've taken a pill and you're saying exactly what certain people want you to say. Um, all right, Week six in the NFL, we're gonna go through every game. Coming up a little but a little bit later is Nick Shook our buddy. Um, who's gonna help us out? Now?

The gating the day that was in the NFL market to have you back for Sunday show. We are feeling good. I think we need to stop the marks back for each iteration of what we do. I think it's people. It's probably tiring Thursday Night recap. This Thursday, Thursday Night recap with an underman Browns team and a virtual must win, I feel like I'm going to have a good Mark Sesler show lined up. Will happen. It's actually you don't have to even do it. It's gonna be Mark and

Ernest Biner for Broncos Browns. We can pull it off. You can have the night off time. I would marinate in that. All right, let's get to it. Let's start, yes with the moral victory of the day. It went down at Gillette Stadium. Flight fake boot to the right, looking down the pail, lamp him five victory. The ghosts

are exorcized. Brad Sham the sham God k R with the call for the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network Dak Prescott connected with Ceedee Lamb on a thirty five yard touchdown passing overtime, the winning score in a win for the for the Cowboys over the Patriots. The Cowboys have now won five straight games, and then this one. They overcame a litany of mistakes penalties for the most part, some

turnovers as well, and they outlast. Yes, there are no moral victories in our league, but it was a very game Patriots team that battled in this game and greg one of the most exciting games of the year broke out out of nowhere. The Cowboys dominated for most of the contest and regulation, then uh the game changed with three touchdowns and four minutes of play in the fourth quarter. Uh. And in the end Pat's got the ball, couldn't do anything in overtime, and then the Cowboys took over. It

felt inevitable, at least to me. After the fourth and four Layton regulation, Patriots trying to get the Cowboys off the field and Dak Prescott drops back to pass and Matthew Judan wins with an inside spin move immediately like that was the play, That was the move that you gave Matthew Judan all that money for. He could have been the hero. He is on Dak Prescott and under two seconds Dak sees it, gets rid of the ball a little quicker than he wants and delivers a perfect

throw that only Cedric Wilson could catch. And Cedric Wilson makes an even better play to get it. I know, I know a lot happened after that. I know Mike McCarthy tried to give it away. I know Nelson Agilar gave it away. I know Bill Belichick, you know, crawled up like a little turtle into a shell, like like he's doing for much of this season. But I think it comes down, dude, no one's playing quarterback better than Dak Prescott, and I feel like the Cowboys offense can

overcome so much, and today he did. Yeah, I mean we have to now look at the Cowboys as a legitimate Super Bowl uh contender. That's what they are. And Doak is playing as well as anyone in the league.

And I think the game raises your opinion of everyone that played quarterback because Matt Jones, I think, you know, as a first year rookie to come back with the ice cold CounterPunch on that throat, on that throat to Kendrick Bourne the seventy yard or after the after the pick six, and you know you could see someone else crumbling there. It was. You know, it's a tough one for New England. But if you're a Patriots fan, I know Greg is basically taking the Patriots and throw them

off a Cliff. At this point, you've got to say, I mean long, long term. I mean, you have to be very encouraged by Mac Jones. But if you're a Cowboys fan and it's been a while for them too, you're looking at something special. Intel. Yeah, and I think we all kind of saw the Cowboys even entering this week as uh, legit NFC contender to make it out of the conference, get back to the super Bowl for the first time in a quarter century. Um So, in its own way, this game, even though they didn't play

um you know, the cleanest brand of football. This is different than other Cowboys teams as well, where you don't play your best game where you shoot you yourself in the foot constantly and some and you still find a way to get a get the job done. And yeah, Dak the throws that he made um in crunch time. I mean, the Patriots had I think three different chances to win this game in regulation on that final field goal drive, and every time Dak stepped up, including the

huge downfield connection. I think it was a twenty five yard strike the Ceedee Lamb on third and twenty six that got them into field goal range. So you know, we also have and this is a little inside baseball. But uh, in the newsroom here I recently discovered we have access to the truck feed. The truck feed which shows you the telecast, Um, no commercial breaks. You see all the raw feed. And we saw Dak limping significantly going into the tunnel after the game with a big

smile on his face. Um, but that is something to watch your Again. This is a guy coming off a serious leg injury. Wonder you wonder if it's connected, but either way, he was unstoppable when accounted. It's also a guy that throughout hard knocks basically told anyone bringing up his injury, go f you, because I'm going to get back on the field. So I don't I think we're

gonna see him next week. Well, I found it interesting the Patriots seemed to really load up and try to stop the Cowboys running game and see what else could happen. J C. Jackson was in man coverage. Man, he's he's made himself a lot of money this year. Like j C. Jackson's playing great, and he did he did for the most part in this game. But they almost stared the Cowboys, you know, to move the ball with throwing it up and down the field and then cosm mistakes and they did.

But the moral victories that you know, I said it with you know, tongue in cheek. They've had chances to win these games. You know, you get the ball in overtime. You know, maybe you don't get a call here, but you had the Agilar drop and then you get the ball late in the first half, and you get the ball even with twenty five seconds left. I know it's nothing, but Belichick sits on it. It bothered me more with nineties seconds left in the first half. Also, even punting

on fourth and three. I think the way that the Cowboys offense was moving the ball on the field goal wins the game here. I would they hated them going for that either. I know that hands it over to him. But you you've seen a very conservative trying to win, like it's two thousand one style from the Patriots, and it's gotten them pretty close to beating the Bucks. It's gotten them pretty close to beating the Cowboys, but they

didn't win either game. It's also like this game, they had fourteen plays in the first half and forty five in all of regulation before overtime. A bit of an apiration. Very strange game because the Patriots scored fourteen points on their first seven plays from scrimmage, then went totally in the tank in the second quarter, shot out, third quarters, shutout, came to life and scored fifteen and the fourth uh to take the lead. But it was not meant to be,

I thought. On the Dallas side here I mentioned it Cedric Wilson. It won't really jump out to you in the box score because he finished four forty two on seven targets, but I was surprised and multiple big spots in this game. UH dak went to Wilson and he

came through for them and then ceedee lamb. I think a lot of people, myself included, saw this as his breakout year where he was gonna go a hundred for fifteen hundred yards and twelve touchdowns, and he might still end up that way, but it's been quiet at times. Nine for one, nine and two touchdowns on eleven target. That's big boy, big boy pass performance, including the game winners.

So you know football Trayvon Diggs getting to pick six to look like he's gonna win, you know, to win the game when he's trying to get defensive Player of the Year. Seven interception six games. That's just insane. Mike McCarthy appearing to make every wrong choice he possibly can, kicking the field goal with two and a half minutes to go that looked like that could have cost him.

And when the Patriots like scored on their seventy five yard touchdown pass on the very next play, I said, well, it's almost like they scored too quick the only way you're just not gonna stop this Cowboys offense. And they got close, They got close a couple of times, but it didn't happen. You know, I defend McCarthy more than anyone on the show. I'm the only one that sometimes does, because he is the head coach of this team that's

five one everybody's in love with. But then when you see things like that, it's fourth and one with this offense, and you settle for a fifty one yard field goal late in the four quarter and Trayvon Digs bailed you out with the pick six on the next series. But that doesn't matter, because it's that type of stuff that you wonder in the crucible the playoffs, if McCarthy's got

another one of these up as sleeve. Uh, and I understand if you're a Cowboys fan who's nervous even taking a time out before the zer line game time field goal with twenty seconds left, when you could have just let it go to five seconds. It's just someone who's a little overwhelmed by the moment when it comes to game. The school you're not running the offense the defense, then you gotta be good at that. That's the school it comes from it. I mean, that's who they knew they

were hiring. I do wonder if you're Kellen Moore, do you have like text threads with longtime friends saying this stuff drives me nuts because it's like it's Kellen Moore. I I will make the announcement here Kellen Moore will be the next Dallas Cowboys head coach. I don't know if it's gonna be at some point he will just take over for Mike McCarthy. Could have been right. It might be like I'm gonna I'm gonna take a job

somewhere else if you don't hire me. Although they control whether or not he's allowed to interview Um and Mark, I will make some news. I can guarantee Dak Prescott is not playing next week. The Cowboys are on by got you baby, let's roll that was affect got you another overtime lock there for hands locking up, baby drest Come on, great digger, give it to me, give me my lock. I earned those, sorry, great bigger filling in

for Ricky. There it is all right. Now it's hit the Jackson fake the hand off looking at zone fires, touchdown, Mark Andrews and Ravens put up six more points. Jerry Sandusky with the call for w B a l Lamar Jackson threw for Bucks sixty seven and a touchdown. Not too impressive, but guess what didn't need to be. The Ravens defense shut down Justin Herbert and the Charger's final score thirty four six. Greggy. The Bolts could not be stopped against the Browns on offense, and it was just

a totally different story in this one. It was insane. I saw Usta after the game that Justin Herbert was pressured on thirty three of his forty two dropbacks three times in a single game. I've never seen anything like that, and they all weren't deep drops. I mean sometimes this is a pretty quick throwing offense. Now they got stuck in third and long quite a bit, and they've been so good on third and long and so good on fourth down. Maybe it was time for aggression to happen.

But regression works the other way too, sometimes there's positive regression.

And to me, the Ravens is running game and their defense has been mediocre all year or worse, and in this game they look like the old Ravens where they're blowing up holes where it almost seemed like they were challenging how big a hole do we need for Devanty Freeman and Latavious Murray and Levy on Belts to get through because it has to be huge and the place take forever to develop, and guess what, they were big enough.

And the defense, as I mentioned with the pressure, was old raven style defense to the point where as you mentioned, Lamar didn't need to do too much he wont He made some big plays from the pocket, but it was the run game, it was their defense. And I think, if you're the rest of the a f C, the idea that the Ravens have gotten a little lucky to get out to this four and one start, but I have a lot of room for improvement moving forward. They are a very scared look at my locks. This season

off to the fast start. Some people say, oh, maybe a little lucky, but the just improvement is on its way. That's one of the biggest stories in the on the sports scene. But Mark being back in the studio is so great just for the look on his face that he had right there. It was not discussed. It's just like it's you know, we will spend the show in various forms of self promotion, and there that's the first.

By the way, Greg, I mean that running on the chargers has not been a huge tour for teams this year. I mean the Browns had two thirty last week, the Chiefs had a hundred and eighties six, The Cowboys had a hundred nineties six, So that's a weak spot for them. But I think the Ravens, you were dealing with a completely new crop of running backs. You've had issues along

the offensive line. They've had a month now to get into shape, and to me, I mean, it's like, I don't know how many other ways they can win games to provide enough proof for everyone watching, this was the most completely to win thirty four to six against a good team. You know, a lot of people including myself, that the Charges will win this game. That is that's different,

and that is scary. And you're right about the run defense for the Charges because Matt money Smith was sitting in your chair one of those weeks and look, he pointed chair. You know it is your chair. You I am a green, he said, Like their defense is sort of designed to funnel runs. You know, they want you to run the ball. But there's a point and they were missing they want you to run for two d That's what I mean. Like they were missing two linebackers today,

Tranquil and kause youre white. They don't have anyone in their front seven who's good except for Joey Bosa. That's a that ends up being a pretty big problem as they keep continuing down the season. Um. Yes, they were in total control of this matchup. All three of their veteran running backs on Tavius Murray, Levan Bell, and Devanta Freeman score touchdowns, Bell wearing number seventeen. Just it's hard to watch. Even his touchdown took like it was like

a three yard run that took like an hour. Patient that patient, but no Herbert yards touchdown in a pick. Give them pass. They've been great all year. Sometimes you have a bad week. This is the bad week for the Chargers or is there something more to read into here? Well, I think the defense is what I'm concerned about. The offensive line, we'll see if that continues. Yeah, I almost thought like it was good for him to he had a bad game too. He missed throws, he made bad

decisions on those thirty three times he was pressured. He averaged one point one yards per tempt on this place, so he was not coming up with the answers that he usually does. The defense is what I am concerned about because I just don't think they're rounding into anything but way below average, which is not what Brandon's Daley expected. All Right, So the Ravens, they really make a statement there.

In week six, Greg and I have some breaking news breaking as we're just talking about the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott and the truck feed and the limp heard around the world. It's a calf strain suffered by Dak on that final play of the game, and he will be reevaluated with an m R I to come on Monday. Like I said, they have a bye sometimes year like that's maybe it's the Cowboys. Yes, what I said was two weeks for us not to worry about it now.

But we'll see a calf can be tricky and we'll see what the Mr I comes up with their um. All right, let us move on. Daryll Williams along set up. They take it to him. Let's quick cast touch store turns a city on the quick slant at the back of the end zone, off play action tie prekill and the Cheetah finds the sweeten neck or the end zone. When the Chiefs needed the most, Mitch hold us with the call w d a F. Has the glow returned?

Maybe not, but Patrick Mahomes got his act together in the second half on Sunday, leading three touchdown drives to make up for two turnovers in the first half, and he led the Chiefs to a thirty one to thirteen

come back win at Washington. The defending a f C champions get back to five hundred with the win, and uh came out a game where in the first half he threw his seventh and eighth interceptions of the year he threw six all of the last season, and the second one, which happened late in the first half with seconds to play on a third down deep in Washington territory. He muffs the snap and Shotgun picks it up and then kind of has like a panic where he just

throws it up for grabs and it gets intercepted. And you're just thinking yourself, what is going on with the Chiefs this season? Because Mahomes that was probably the worst play of his career, you could argue, and you just wonder, is this really going to go sideways? Well, at least for this week, they got it together, and uh, Mark, the Washington football team is a good team to get healthy on against on offense. What you would never said before the season started, But that's just the way it is.

Because we saw it again. As the big place piled up for Casey in the second half, Washington looked increasingly confused about what the hell was going on on the field. Yeah, I mean, the the Washington defense, which has been under fire by you know, analysts rightly so gave up four d and nine nine yards. So the glow is off. A team that had five hundred yards, put up thirty one points, had twenty nine first downs and a really bad play from Patrick Mahomes. I just I guess it's

like October. What sixteenth or something. I want to wait a little bit more time before today's oct Well, you know, I mean, it's there are facts that I'm missing. What do you want to wait for? I mean, I am not going to you know, drive home and maybe you know, veer off the high way over with concerns about the chiefs of the I mean, I am like, well, I'm saying this is this is, this is right. The Washington Football teams maybe the worst team in the league other

than you know, the Jaguars, the Lions of Texans. You know, there's one of the worst teams. Okay, that's a better way to say it there. But they're they're there for me because they're asking Tyler Taylor Heineke to try to keep up with this dreadful defense. It's just not gonna happen. The Mahomes pushback is driving me a little crazy. First of all, that first pick was another drop, So he's

had three picks. Three of those picks were dropped, and a few of them were these third down desperation places which you shouldn't make. This play reminded me a lot of the Ravens interception, which was which is one of the worst places of his career too. But I saw multiple tweets today. One mentioned his mother that she couldn't make an excuse for this. I guess she was tweeting about it. Um that one wasn't This wasn't wasn't like

his mom can't blame it on uh, someone else? And then it asked the question has the league figured Patrick mohomes out? Wait? Who's tweeting this? Someone who I had to block, who has a lot of follows, who has a lot of followers. I blocked him just because sometimes your take is so bad, you don't get muted, you get blocked. Uh. And then spot Rack, which I love, did a tweet halfway through the game. Again, don't up spot spot Rack. You know that I like. Don't tweet

halfway through games too much. Uh. They put up something about how much money he has left on his contract and how much is fully guaranteed, as if the contract was a problem. Just shut up. What are you talking about? They are literally first in the league in in yards and points per drive this year. I just want to point that out, Just want to point that out. I'm with you, although I'm after your your tirade. There, I'm I'm I would say it's fifty Dan that I've been

blocked by Gregg. It's something if I not annoyed him, I won't say who it is, but if you want to, just like I was able to put together the clues based on Greg's commentary, you could find did and said that person probably or maybe or possibly is listening, and Greg is just she's just burning more bridges left and right. But then then have better takes than that. That's a it's a terrible take, because yes, if you are really watching the games, uh, you're not seeing a league that's

figuring out Mahomes. You're seeing a little bit of a wonky start to the season, some bad luck and then some pressing. And I thought the interception at the end of the second quarter, which is why I was just like scratching my head, is like, man, one of you seen mahomes um look kind of scatter brained in a moment like that, and it just doesn't happen a lot. So I thought the second half here was very important, uh for the Chiefs in terms of just okay, let's

calm things down. We're back to five. The Chargers just got their ass beat, uh, so they're not going to run away and hide on us. We have a chance to get this thing under control. Uh So I think it's not a win that solves all their problems, but it's a very nice victory to take. Uh. Moving forward, right, And I'm not even trying to say there aren't problems.

I'm just saying, let's use the context that he's coming off the best first three seasons as a starter in the history of the NFL three years ago, that's three years from now. He's going to make this interception that has everyone you know, mildly melting well that it would be the one time he's done that. I take it all, right, Uh, let's take a break and then we'll bring in the pipe. Second and thirteen, Cousins shotgun looking to the left, steps up in the pocket. He'll fade to the end zone

for kJ touchdown. Seven Minnesota games have walked off on the Carolina Panthers. Paul Allen with the call K and cut Cousins completed a twenty seven yard touchdown past the kJ osbourne on the first possession of overtime, lifting the Vikings to win over the Panthers, who were oh and three. Since they're three and oh, start now we welcome in as promised. Nick Shook the Pipe, who had eyes on this game and wrote about it for NFL dot Com Shookie.

For the second straight week, the Vikings gagged away a fourth quarter lead, and for the second straight week, they found a way. They found a way after I would say two to two and a half quarters of some of the most frustrating football you're ever gonna watch. If you're a traditionalist, you say, well, that's just great defense.

But if you're a realist, you realize that it was one offense struggling to move the ball against a good defense, and the other offense struggling to do anything because it's quarterback couldn't get out of its own way and they were missing the best playmaker on offense. And then that all didn't matter. Suddenly, within the course of a blocked punt and a fourth quarter, everything just flew off the handle.

We ended up in overtime of a game that I didn't even know if we'd ever actually get to the end of because it was so quiet in Bank of America Stadium that I thought people might just fall asleep. Uh completely turned it on it on its head and became a thrilling game. But yeah, Um, you know, we got a thrilling overtime finish, and really it was a product to the fact that the Vikings don't know how

to close the game. There was game too, and he was very frustrated at the page to your point, Nick that like you know, it's it's sitting there and overtime, Um, you know, with it And I'm watching the Browns Cardinals game first quarter end, so it waged on and I think if you watched the end of the game, you'd think differently about Kirk Cousins and the Vikings off winch, which you're right, was extremely frustrating and went into a

deep slumber for long stretches of this game. And Sam Donald spent three plus quarters convincing you that he's not going to be able to carry the Panthers through this season unless they get Christian McCaffrey back for the rest of the year when he comes back from his injury. I mean, yeah, but but but nothing like that, right, I mean that's six un answered points and stormed back. But they really looked troubled for a big chunk of

this game. Yeah. I think at one point for on the Panthers side, Sam Donald had as many completions overall as Adam DeLand. DeLand had receptions, they both had eight, he did and Dan and I noticed that that Darnald at one point um was so off targeted through an oh you overthrew a pass into the end zone area and Gray's day woman, Yes, an attractive one, young woman took but he and she was she wasn't really watching

the game closely, and it's it's surprised her. And then yeah, and Donald kind of saved saved himself with a ninety six yard drive there they convert a fourth and forever from his own goal line and then march all the way down the field get the two point conversion. So it kind of saves Donald for a lot of criticism

this week. But he'll finish with a couple of turnovers, right, So it's like for me right now, like listen, nobody's breaking news here that Sam Donald is not a guy it's gonna be able to carry this team by himself, and which ties in, I think, and it connects to the Panthers watching the Christian McCaffrey situation here. There's no way around it that they know how important he is to the offense, so they kind of set things up in a way where they try to get him back

maybe sooner. They didn't put him on I R initially. Obviously, now there's a setback because now he's back on I R or he finally heads that I R, and now he's back week nine at the earliest. So now you're in a situation, Shoki, where you have Sam Donald's gonna be out there alone with Robby Anderson who has very little chemistry with all of a sudden, and you need

DJ more to step up week to week. None of this really points in a great direction, especially when the league best as it was set up to us going into this game. Panthers D got shredded today by the Vikings. I thought we were tossing those rankings out. No, this is uh. This is an example of two defining traits of the David Tepper Panthers and really the Matt Rule Panthers so far. It's one they don't know how to

manage Christian McCaffrey injuries. They didn't really manage it very well last year either, if you go back and think about that, when they probably should have shut him down in a lost season and toyed with it and toyed with it and toy with it until the final few weeks. And also they're hyper aggressive because they thought, you know, they get out to the three and other start and they're like, we have to capitalize on this. We're gonna make moves, you know, We're gonna make trades and so

on and so forth. And ultimately, what do you get. You get a team that's still it's fate rests on the shoulders and on the arm of Sam Donald who does not have his best player because you can't manage his health effectively. And this is what you get. And I know they got to overtime and they almost won the game, and they should be commended for fighting because

they were down eleven in the fourth quarter. But man, I have a debate ongoing with a buddy, which three and O team is for real or less real than the other one. And right now between the Broncos and the Panthers, I think the Panthers are losing that battle, and games like today kind of tell me that. Yeah. I mean I still look at the Panthers like the

Panthers has a well coached team. Um from the Vikings side real quick, because I know this drove Greg nuts that I put Mike Zimmer in that Mike McCarthy category where this is not a cutting edge um time clock manager or sort of late game decision guy, but also

positive for the Vikings. kJ Osborne, I mean, like you start to realize that this wide receiver group is dangerous, and to talk about the Vikings going to sleep, You're still getting moments from Kirk Cousins, and I know that the probably the experience will end at some point with Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. He's playing really well when he when things are going good for the vis he's great. He's very good. And Osborne has won them a couple of these aims with the plays that he is a

legit number three. You have multiple chances to put the Panthers away late in the game. And Mike Zimmers still coaching like he's coaching some elite defense and that it's you know, two thousand and two or something like that. All he had to do was call a couple of passes and let Kirk Cousins win on first or second down on some of the last drives, and then you wouldn't have had to go to overtime. Sam Donald only got a chance because Mike Zimmers running on third and long.

It's like, let let your best players make the plays like thelan Jefferson Cousins. Let him make that. I do enjoy being back in the office just to hear Greg's temperature. I guess to to to see temperature just rising. It's always these tough guy head coaches to like like we're gonna be really tough. And then they coached pretty scared, like they coached like they're afraid to lose. So that part I don't get. Yeah, it's exactly what. You're exactly right.

He's coaching not to lose. And the funny thing too, is, you know we talked about five hundred and seventy yards a total offense and and how it didn't look like that at all. Here's another stat for you that people won't realize when they talk about Kirk Cousins. He's thrown three or more touchdowns and zero interceptions in five of his last games. He has eleven such instances in which he's done that since only one quarterback has done that more,

Aaron Rodgers. And yet Kirk doesn't get kept and sometimes he doesn't get the ball's hands to go do it it's gonna happen again. Everyone's gonna bury Kirk Cousins during the season, during the off season. Then you look at his stats, like, oh, what do you do last year? He's probably like one touchdowns, three picks, pass rating eight seven. No, he's gonna throw for thirty seven touchdowns and twelve interceptions and throw for forty seven hundred yards. And uh, he

is not the problem in Minnesota, never has been. He's a little annoying. I think that his shove of Zimmer actually was like my favorite thing Kirk Cousins has maybe ever dig now I'm all in on Kirk, yet highly

awkward because he specializes in't highly awkward. My favorite Kirk Cousins moment, other than his declaration that he would put himself in a plexiglass cube to protect himself from coronavirus instead of getting the coronavirus vaccine, was when he put up video of his own gender reveal his wife's was expecting and his job was to throw a football and hit the targets or reveal like blue or pink pluma, not his own gender, reveal the gender of I think

that's established. Yeah, the child. Uh, and he basically missed the target with the ball, and they're like, let's throw it up live anyway, Let's put it up on the old Graham A retake on that, all right, Chooky, I know you. You told me You're in downtown Cleveland and there's some upset people outside the window, hopefully not climbing up to the window because some crazy, unfortunate stuff went

down for your hometown Brownies on Sunday. Straight drop back for Kyler, steps up, lobs it back in the z quite open as Hopkins and a touchdown. Kyler stepping up again finds de Andre Hopkins and that's a big score late in the third to make a twenty nine of more team Dave pass k t a R with the call Kyler Murray's is it too soon Greg to talk about m v P marches because it's in full swagger mode.

The Cardinals quarterback through four more touchdown passes without a pick in a thirty four win over A. Let's let's just call it an outclassed and beat up Brown's team in Cleveland. Mark Um watches next to you. You had a foreboding vibe from the start. You didn't feel good about it. And if you take out a Hail Mary. This thing was almost an embarrassment for the Browns. Yeah, I mean, but let's you know, the Cardinals a team

that passes every test. I don't think that we understand how many challenges arise when you don't have your head coach, um, going to the game, when essentially your head coach is the only play call you have to apparently not that many. Well, no, I mean that's the thing that completely made it look easy.

And you have like Colt McCoy and Kyler Murray and a gaggle of coaches helping a call plays on the sideline, and they come pletely outclass Cleveland at the point where in the middle you know it had time thinking do I need to give a Super Bowl ticket to Jason Zumwalt, our our voiceover friend, our friend and our Cardinals fan, our resident Cardinals fan here because they looked that like that kind of team to me right now, it depends what kind of text he sent you today. Was nice

about delightful, delightful. He's a classy guy too, Um, but you know, shook and eye texted a little bit during this too. And you know, this reminded me of the Browns because you remove both both tackles, right and left tackle not in this game, and you would Baker running for his life and it led to two killer strip sacks, eat a bad interception in this game. It just it reminded me of old chaotic times where everything that we've seen and observed of her Kevin Stefanski, that structure was

missing today and the floor fell out. And you're playing a team that I think you know from a Cardinals side, just I mean DeAndre Hopkins three touchdowns, one where he was all alone in the end zone, total breakdown. They find a way to completely overwhelmed defenses. And in this case, I mean, you know, you guys got a little annoyed at me because it was like five minutes into the game and I just said, this thing is over. But

Browns fans understand. And I think if you're white, you say that every Browns game for any time, they haven't said, I really haven't said that in a long long time, was scoreless and you said they are gonna get dropped today, and you were right, you were right. A lot of it has to do with the Cardinals and who they are. They're so aggressive, they're so resilient when they make a mistake. They don't care. They keep pressing, and today I think

they basically said, forget the Cleveland Browns. Where the team you need to be talking about. Yeah, I mean Mark had great reason to feel that way because they just played an aggressive offense the week Prayer and got forty seven hung on him, and they were about as banged up going into this game this week, So there was no reason to feel otherwise or expect anything else. So so for this to be the product I was actually,

come on both you Browns fans. Don't act like now that you were some everyone keeps I could care less. You're in your building. You're in your building. You have a great, great group of playmakers. I mean, let's not say like the little old Browns have no chance in this game. They got whooped in their building and then sometimes just get beat up. Well, no, not everybody picked them, because I didn't pick them. I picked the Cardinals. I don't know how they were possibly favored. You don't have

Nike shub going to this game. You didn't have Jarvis Landry. Yes, that's right, I will stand on this. Uh, they didn't have Jarvis Landry. They did have both their tackles their center was questionable until the game today. You know, you went into the weekend questionable. You had a number of

injuries and guys kind of coming back from injuring. The defensive side of the football, the Cardinals doesn't have Tyler Jones or their head coach, and they had ever They had Kyler Murray, and they had all of their top receivers. They had DeAndre Hopkins, Christian kirk a J. Green All who victimized the Browns as expected. James Conner had probably

his best day as a Cardinal today. Uh, everything that happened was what I expected when I didn't expect that the Browns would fall apart even more than they did. Baker hanging onto the ball too long, getting strip sacked twice, reinjuring his shoulder. The interception was horrible, but I come to expect that from him every once in a while. It's just who he is. And then you have the most negative part of the game, which is losing Kareem Hunt to a non contact calf injury, which I'm you know,

they sounded everyone was like, oh, it's not achilles. We're really optimistic. That's great news. Like a stretch and they played Thursday, and so we have no idea what sort of shape they'll be in, bad timing for the Thursday night game. Baker, by the way, after the game, his arms in a sling and he reaggravated the injury on a hit from J. J. Watt where he kind of got driven into the ground awkwardly right on that bad

left shoulder. After the game, he said, when asked about how he was feeling, he said, feels like so he's pretty straightforward, but he wants to play. And Baker is a badass. He's a tough dude. Um, but the short turnaround here makes you think that case Keendom's in play for Week seven. Maybe. I mean he came back and played in this game. I think it's gonna be a

pain management thing because the nature of those injuries. And I am no doctor, but I have suffered, and I'm not a quarterback either, but I have suffered Tory labor before. It can't really get that much worse, and it's his non throwing shoulders, so I think he could be able to manage it. I wasn't surprised to see him come back in the game. That's also kind of the guy

he is. Um. But you're right. The short week, I think that they've got a long road ahead of them unless they can get healthy in a relatively quick fashion, which you know, you leave that up to medicine. It's it's not like you're just trying to bounce back from something. But I do want to say this. We've had some listeners in the last couple of weeks give us some some crap for not giving the Cardinals enough credit. So I'm gonna give them their flowers. They dominated this game.

I don't think this was their statement win of the year. That was the Rams win because of all the guys in the problem. But the Titans, they have three of the best victories that any team has had all year. All three are on the road, all three were blowouts. Week one was such a stunner. I know it's the Titans, but the Titans are or a playoff team, and that that was huge. They destroyed the Rams and they destroyed the Browns. They they have to be Their coaching step

has to be given a lot of credit. Like this offensive line, especially which doesn't look great on paper, always protects very well and they're getting the job done. It's helps when you're protecting Kyler Murray too, and I think they're just playing great football right now. Now you could say they got the benefit of I think there were six penalties and seven plays in one drive, but that was not the course of this game. They they dominated this game and I'll feel very confident picking them going

forward no matter who they're playing. I mean, they're there's some they're basically legitimate. I do wonder if you're Cliff Kingsbury or any coach, were suddenly your home on your couch and the team dominates, It's like, wait a minute, what, what? How? How do we need you? Are you important? I mean he is just stay home that well when we missed you in London? But did you send some of that when we were thriving in London and you were like

do you do you know me at all? I spent the whole time thinking like I'm getting replaced by every other guy in the studio on every show. So this is troubling today. Were the same CBS three weeks from now? Um, all right, Chucky is it are you in danger? By the way, because unruly Cleveland fans that that sounds dangerous. Potentially you're a big man. You could you can fend for yourself though. Okay, so you said, I hope they don't climb up through a window. I mean, I'm not

penthouse here. We're low level, but we're you gotta be spider Man to get up here because this is a very tall building. So we're okay. They're having said that, I'm still within ear shot, and I went to go make a pot of coffee right before h Sunday night football kicked off, and all I heard was people shouting and laying on the horns to get out of the traffic jams. And one guy just goes to the corner of the street I happened to be looking out there. He just looks up to this guy the night sky

in Cleveland. He goes, I hate the Brown. This means good anything. We need to send you down there and do some on the street reporting in the future. It's like, you know, war combat reporting. How about it? You like you have a pot of hot coffee you can throw out the window. Secondly, imagine being like a wayward Brown's fan of climbs up a wall and breaks into someone's apartment and it's Nick Shook standing there. I think that

would be. It just got worse and that's you know, there's real, real fans in the Midwest and in western Ohio, anywhere in Ohio. What I mean, Mark kind of just suggested, maybe just this guy just pour some scalding coffee out of just for yelling ugly you have hot coffee at your side. I was just I was just saying that

I assume that fan was returning from the game. Sometimes you sleep on, like when you go to a game and you you pay the hundreds of dollars for the ticket and the eighty dollars for parking and then the concessions, and then your team gets waxed and you're miserable for four hours in the building, and then you're in traffic.

You might react to the heavens as well. It's it's one of the more underrated things about live sports is that it's so much worse to be there live like I ultimately, in a heartbreaking circumstance like that, you would have rather been at home. And the money is part of it too, because you're thinking, I just spit, spent five dollars to feel like I got kicked in the Conversely, if you're at a truly special event, it's something it stays with you forever, and you can't put a price

on that. All right, Chuckie, we love you, baby. I will say that's how I spent most Sundays of my childhood. I was fortunate enough my family had season takes to the Browns for many years. Right, this is not territory for you. A lot of sad car rides home, you know, talking, Dad's not talking. The boys know to be quiet. All right, there he goes, Nick, choke, Thank you, buddy. All right, let's move on. Yes, the Cardinals are the only undefeated

team in football. Through three weeks. The Raiders and Broncos were also undefeated. Things went sideways for both teams, especially in the case of the Raiders, but things took a turn for the better on Sunday. Car takes a snap, loves it down toward cut five Edwards. He's freet pushed out of bounds at the twenty yard on. Edwards broke free and Derry Carr loved it to him down the

nearest sideline. That was the play of the game. Brian Edwards down the sideline in the fourth quarter, beautifully thrown ball by Derek Carr. The third down conversion salted away a really big victory for the Raiders who go to Mile High and lay a win um hand to th loss, I should say to their rivals in a game Greg that obviously with the background with John Gruden's stunning resignation and the taking over the special teams coach takes over,

and you wonder which way this is gonna go. Well, they went the Raiders way in a big way on Sunday, the fighting Bacia's watch out. I mean, they looked like a team. I felt a little free. You know, here we go, this is old narrative. I'm just having a little fun with Hey, you get rid of this guy who was the domineering um personality. You come out for this first week and you play free. You play when they were three and O was his domineering out of

the pably this good. They didn't play a game this complete. I'm not saying, don't a solution. All I'm saying is they showed up and they played excellent football on both sides of the ball. Derek Carr has been great all season, and I do think part of this was a matchup um advantage for the Raiders that they you know, they probably would have won this game anyways, because I think their biggest problem right now is their offensive line, and

the Broncos just don't have a pass rush. They could not hurt the Raiders as biggest weakness, which is which is up front. And if you give Derek Carr a little bit of time, he's gonna spend some magic. He only threw seven passes to get the three forty one.

He has been awesome this year and his receivers Rugs, Edwards, Waller, he even Drake made a great play that the running back all made great catches on some really pretty throws and just goes to the show like you can have a great secondary, and I think the Broncos have a very good secondary. It's not gonna matter unless he gets some pressure up front and on the flip side, like the Raiders destroyed Teddy Bridgewater, like he was shook by

the end of this game. They hit him early often, almost every time he went back in that Raiders pass rush we saw and week one was all the way back. Max Crosby played about as well as you can play a game today, and they took it to him. There was some garbage time, uh sprinkling on here, but the Raiders could have won this game by even more the Teddy. The Teddy interceptions were these, uh, you know on him or not with There are three of them. One was,

one was you know, with twelve seconds left. One was terrible, but really the first two were yeah, we're absolutely on him. One was kind of a you just threw it up at a certain point in the game where you almost felt like the decision was justified because they weren't doing anything and he throws up a jump all and gets picked off. The first one was on a on a fourth down, bad throw. He he didn't play great. They had penalties and key spots, They had drops and key spots.

But I felt like, at least the way these two teams were constituted today, they could have played this game ten times and it wouldn't have mattered. Every phase of the Raiders was superior to what the Broncos put out there. They also missed what should be a layup touchdown. Of course, that was a big play in this game. Down the left sideline, he was wide open, he had his defenderve

beat by four steps and he overshot him. Um, but I'm not just no need to pile on Teddy Bridgewater, but I think it's probably his worst game that I will will. I mean, his stats don't really tell the story because he did ended up going over three d with three touchdowns, but he was you know, he's just He's Teddy Bridgewater and that's just who he is. And if he doesn't have the right set up around him,

it's not gonna happen for the Broncos. And for the Broncos, the whole idea, Greg, and I know injuries have played a role with this team as well, the whole idea was that the defense was gonna be nasty and von Miller. You know, this is a disappearing act for von Miller

in this game. Not to put all the loss on anyone player, not Teddy, not von but when you need somebody to make a big play and you're talking about where is the Broncos pass rush, well, von Miller is a guy that you need to step up in a game like this, and he was not a big presence. That's absolutely right, and I think he's played pretty well for the most part this year. But when you only have one pass rusher, it just makes it easier to

stop that one pass rusher. They're very injured at the second level to their lie backers are are getting smoked, They're getting pushed around. Even the Raiders could even run the ball a little bit. The play calling I thought was good from Greg Olsen. It's a new play caller and some some big time Raiders, you know, backers who watched this. We're noticing some different variations to what they were doing. Uh, create creativity, some plays down the field.

But it's also just the players. Ruggs is turning into a really good player. Cars having the best season in my mind, of his career so far. I love seeing this for the Raiders. Looking at the long receptions rugs forty eight, edwards fifty one, they have a thirty three yard or a thirty one yard or I mean, just go be that offense. Just go throw the ball down the field and you know, throw caution to the wind. Posaccia. It's the Psaccia era. I'm not into it the way

you are. Greg. I mean really we heard because Dan like as annoyed that I think that I was. It's on my radar a little bit. I gave spice Rack some love on the show. I thought it was amazing.

Spice Rack basically had had idea to fade, you know, to go against the racial controversy a week and it worked, and then this week he felt just this strong that the Raiders are gonna walk in this game because they're all because his big theory, when you get the interim coach, you get one great game like this and to be spot that was great. It was right. You know. Andrew Hawkins, a former player who has been around some fired bad coaches, he said the exact same thing. He said that first game,

you're so excited. He picked the Raiders because of it too. It seems silly, but I don't know where the differences to. Is that typically the interim coach comes in to take an absolute disaster, a ship sinking, you know, for four or five weeks. This is a better team. It's an okay team. So that's okay team. That's the point I wanted to make because and I don't want this to get painted is like Dan's defending John Gruden, because no one's defending John Gruden right now. But you know that

you don't think he should have been fired. You couldn't paint it that way. It's just email. No, they obviously he got he got his just desserts. Uh, if that's the right way to put it. He deserves everything that happened to him. But um, some of the recency bias in the analysis immediately firing following the resignation, it was like John Gruden was a terrible coach and a terrible team builder, and this team is bad. It was bad

when he got here and bad when he left. Well, yeah, because they lost back to back games to the Chargers and Bears, but this is also a team that won three games to start the season. Now we get another big performance. All I'm saying is that, first of all, I'm team Bessacci. I'm on the army on that. But it wasn't like when Gruden left that this Raiders team was in total disarray. There are pieces in place here for this team to continue on a trajectory towards the playoffs.

And it's not over just because Gruden's guy. I agree, And I think, look, Gruden has been there four years. He's way under five hundred in those four years. But I think this is the best Raiders team he's had, even kind of saying it's not just you, there's there's a lot of think Their defensive line is a thing, and they've never had anything on defense, and it really is a thing that My point is, yeah, that after the fire was like Gruden was a terrible higher and

look where the Raiders are now. It's like, all right, if you only paid attention to football in the last fourteen days, you would say the Raiders are a total mess right now. But this team has a chance uh to do something still the season. I thought this performance wakes everyone up to that that the Raiders aren't dead, even if John Gruden's career is, and that Broncos three

and a start that shook mentioned. They beat the Giants, the Jaguars, and the Jets beat so that it's fine, but this is they never scored more than twenty seven points in any of those games. And so my favorite story during the broadcast, I don't know if they were talking about Teddy or was this tight end Souberg about how he does not have TV at home, so he didn't know Gruden had been fired until the whole next day. I was like, well, he doesn't have internet either, Um,

he doesn't. He's never watched TV. He's like all day and then he gets home and he just that's it. And I think, you, this is something you said as well. Greg, when I was pushing back on the Broncos as I often do, was Broncos fans getting mad about that, and I was talking about their schedule, and He's like, well, good teams beat up on bad teams. That's what good teams do. No, Actually, good teams beat good teams and they win those games. Beating bad teams is okay, whatever.

You gotta beat some good teams, and we have not seen Denver do that yet this season. And their strengths their strengths, and a lot of it is injuries, you know, losing six or seven starters. They were not a team that could that could deal with that um but some of their strengths in the secondary, we thought they were going to be great. That feels a little overrated right now.

And certainly the depth of their their skill positions have been diminished to a point where, you know, the Browns have to be very excited that the Broncos are the team they're playing on Thursday, will get to premium. Broncos could be equally excited, right. I just mean that that could be a get right game for for one of those teams that absolutely will be all right, Let's take a break and then we will continue on. They got fourth and one from the Giants. Three from a bunch

to the right, here comes Robert Would. They picked the hand off his way, roll right, throw right to the pilot, Cooper Cup. He's got it, touchdown l JB along with the call for CASPN. You know Marie Jones, true m j D. Every buddy loves in London. Who's still in London this week? So what did he just He tells the Rams, I'll see you in a couple of weeks, and JB just sits in that booth by himself like Vince Gully. We have to do some digging on this

one and got a good set up. It's a great move by m. Matthew Stafford through three of his four touchdown passes in a point second quarter for the Rams, including that connection to Cooper. Copy continues to be other worldly this season. The Rams cruise to a thirty eleven win at the meadow Lands Mark. Sounds like this one

went the way everyone pretty much expected. Healthy, good team, beats up on injury, decimated bad precisely, a total butt wamping, the kind of game where you know, recovering these things. Did you write down boat whomping. Total swamping is how I how I described the game to myself. Um, it was it was a tough bla that's how I w h O mph And it's highlighted. And he also could I say he also wrote traveled three thousand miles to

drop a dirty bomb on the genus. It's it's constantly we're always talking about these now the charges are an example. You West Coast team that goes east, it's these stats and they're sleeping through it. The MS had that narrative and they, I mean, have you seen how these guys fly to games now? It's not ninety four anymore, exactly,

not taking the plane with the propellers on the side. No, you're not bagging steerage with like pets and bags like if if they can ask Trent Green to overcome jet Lag to announce the game, I think the RAMS will be fine traveling like four hours in a private Plane's

very true. I mean the jet Lag team looked to be the giants, and this was you know, Daniel Jones had two turnovers coming into this game, and there were a lot of reasons to look at Daniel Jones and say, maybe he's finally rounding into shape today was a master uh strip sacked picked both. Let you know, four turnovers led to twenty one points for the Rams and Stafford, whose finger was hurt two thursdays ago, looked clean throwing the ball. And you mentioned Cooper Cup. Cooper Cup. This

is from ramspr in the last thirty five years. Here are the list of players with six hundred yards receiving in seven touchdowns through weeks six Cooper Cup and in two thousand and seven Randy Moss. That's the list. Listen. That is such an interesting staff because we all love Cooper Cup. He's been an impact player for them since he came into the league. I think he was a

second round pick um. But the fact that he's taken his game and he had a reconstructive knee surgery in the mix here as well, he's taken his game to this level. I don't think anybody saw this coming like that. He's like at a like a rich Man's Adam Feeling level. Not to go apples to apples. Someone called them Steve Smith, and ever since then I've been watching him as if he's Steve. He's a little bigger in Steve than I'm like I can that peak peaque? Steve Smith, I gotta

give Dana Dyer mike crap. I mean, he kind of was in on this cook Cup thing like before the draft, and he's doing his job if he he was correct, that's what his job. They are. They are five and one. The top of the NFC is like really good. I mean that it's a very basic comment. But like Cowboys, as Bucks, Cardinals, Rams are all five and one or better and they all have to feel like, well, we

can win the Super Bowl this year. Of course, of course they all feel like that, and they've all it's gonna be a big, you know, tough race, especially in that division. One of those teams is gonna have to play three road games. Between the Cardinals and Rams. At this point, it feels like a two team rights. I will tell you you know, Dan, we grew up watching these g men back in the day, and there wasn't a lot of this back in the eighties and early nineties.

But you could audibly hear the Giants fans having a bad time at this game. It was it was rough. We do have a little bit of breaking news though, really putting gravers like I just want to let you know to eleven. The final score is a score of GAMI. It is the one thousand and sixty seven or unique final score in NFL history. I know that that categorizes breaking news on this show. I'm assuming the only thing

I hate more than score GAMI is win probability. But what is why do you what is for unnecessary use of breaking news? It's a nice special breaking news. You got the news hours ago. Well you didn't know that. You didn't know that I did because for some reason, Ealie. Well also because you just spent three minutes looking at this,

so you know I exactly. I've been um living out here in Los Angeles for eleven years now, but I'm always in my heart I'm a New Yorker, and um, it's been a tough tough ride for New York sports for the past decade or so. And Giants fans, you know, you turned to football as a something to fall back on after the baseball season turns at uh and then the Giants are dead and buried by the middle of October. And that's exactly where they are. There's no coming back

for the Giants from this. So now it's next season and the Knicks are undefeated. In the preseason and maybe that turns out, maybe you get excited at the the NFC wild Card, like the seventh New York City Ballet areus Tony was the one reason to be excited about this team. And he goes out with an injury early

in this game, and that just feels so timid. And he has three catches for like thirty six yards in the first couple of minutes then he was out, and so all right, we can't make you wait any longer, and we thank you fans um for your patients. Here is the Texans Cults analysis burst and Tin wins outside zone and big hole Taylor thirty down on the far sideline. Ticktoey, he's at the fifty, he's at the forty. Cuts back, he's at the thirty twenty the tan and he's finally

cracked down inside the Tin. He'll be trapped at the four yard line on a one. Jonathan Taylor the biggest gallop all day, first bell for the Colts. I was chasting those curly fries. I don't know, I don't want the context now. Put that. Put that in the in the vaults for best cause of the year. Just the curly flies alone. That was Rick Venturry. I think with the curly fry comment with Matt Taylor of w f N, I oh yeah, Jonathan Taylor, he's on a roll now.

The running backs set up a touchdown with that eighty three yard burst. He scored two more touchdowns of his own, and he thirty one three romped by the Colts over the Texans. Carson Wentz also threw two touchdowns for Indy, who bounced back beautiful from the savagery of their Monday night meltdown to the Ravens six days earlier. Greg life in the a f C South is good and how it provides the soft landings in this guy. That's true.

By the Tuesday, the Colts could be only one game back of the Titans if the Bills can can win that Monday night er. And I like that. We saw with the Colts a little bit of identity here which we have not seen, which was blosive place. Paris Campbell catches a fifty one yard touchdown on a really nice throw by Wentz. Then Paris Campbell goes out with an injury, so you kind of got the ultimate Paris Campbell performance.

But you also got fifty two yards on a catch from t Y Hilton, who was playing his first game of the year. And you had that explosive Taylor play and you had some explosive defensive plays. It didn't feel like this game was thirty one to three. There they were. They were very even in yardage. The Texans actually had more first downs, but the Cults were in control. And

their defense has really shown up. I know they didn't finish out that Ravens game, but they've really shown up the last uh what seven you know, for the most part, the last three games, when they didn't at all in the first month of the season. And that gives him some hope that at least we can crawl back. And Carson Wentz keeps getting better every week. Really, I was gonna ask, why does Jonathan Taylor, who's playing the way

he is, have only fourteen carries? We had now because he was like six for eight before the eighty three yard in the third quarter. They were not running the ball very well until well and Wentz had twenty attempts. They had forty eight offensive plays. That's less than the Patriots. And in that abnormal game, and I mean the very

strange game. But Davis Mills, I look at the New England game now, and I'm wondering was that just total I mean, obviously that you know, he's got a lot to work on, but that seems like it stands out as a total aberration because he came crashing back to earth. More or less, he made a couple throws on the move that you didn't hate, but ultimately they scored three

points against him. Kind of a He's a tough cop in general, because not only is he not like a premium draft pick quarterback, he's also playing on like one of the most talent poor roster. Right may they actually put up three fifty yards, they go nine and seventeen. He made a couple of plays, but it's I know you're looking at Barry Davis Mills Market Analysis on Thursday pointed to that no, no, no, I mean what I

wrote last week for our website was completely opposite. I mean, I do he does have Brandon Cooks who is quietly having pretty awesome do keep score though, and it was thirty one, two three at the end of the game, so that doesn't reflect probably well, it doesn't work too on the quarterback that I think in three of a four games they've been in single digits. Problem. By the way, the quarterback that used to be their quarterback, Deshaun Watson,

is still on the team. Some of these teams that have been connected to Deshaun Watson are not having great seasons with their respective quarterbacks. That's continues to kind of lurk on the periphery. Houston has lost five straight overall, six of their last seven against the Colts. That is that. Let's move on to Detroit, where the Bengals look to build some momentum. Receiver goes in check motion, he throws, it's caught Mixon streaking down the sideline to chase Fan

runs it into the end zone. What a call? What a block? Touchdown? Cincinnati. Oh, they having fun now. Dan Horrid and Dave Lapham w c K y Joe Burrow tied a career high with three touchdown passes, leading the Bengals to an easy thirty eleven win over the still wind unless Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Greg The Bengals have already equaled last year's win total. You're drinking that orange juice, yes, because of the decause it's good. That was that was good. They have a lot of juice

juice was the right word. There. There is something and this is why maybe you don't invest in defense because it's so unpredictable, But there is something indefinable. When a defense has juice. It's just like hustle and energy week after week, whether you're winning, whether you're losing. This Bengals defense has juice, and they squeeze the life out of this lion. I didn't think I was gonna get this

amount of run. It really is true, and they've had it all six weeks and that keeps them in tough games and it helps them win a game like this easy where the offense took a while to get going, but you know what, eventually it did get going and you blew them out. I mean the Bengals defense a coordinator is you know, absorbed, probably to thirty poison arrows from this. We love the lu on a room, Oh Captain lou Way to stick with them. You know, the easy thing would have been to just fire him with us.

He was not about Taylor. You want to talk, guys, take some slings of arrows on this, but I'm not ready to give him too. I think it's like when someone is not doing their job for three or four years in a row. You stick with them. That's the lesson here. Three or four is to say, I'm just saying there are people out there doing that. This is year three for Zach Taylor, I believe, and they won one or two games this first year. They won four games last year, So that we talked about it, he

was on the hot seat. They needed to show something. I don't know. Man. Again, Sometimes I feel like when we talk about head coaches, if we decide we liked them, we give them credit. And if we decided we don't really like him, we give credit. Let's give and Jamaar, Chase and Joe pick and choose which coaches are doing

a good job. Sometimes that's on my radar in this room. Well, we can evaluate, like if you're gonna kill Zach Taylor for the team making no progress in the first two years, when the team makes progress, you know it's maybe not I I kind of I still watch their offense and I do want more. I think they can be better. I kind of think they will be better. And this

game was a good like example of it. They really were held and checked for much of it until that mixing screen pass where it was a blown coverage, but then Jamar Chase had one of the defining plays of his rookie season with an awesome block running down the field and Mixing is going crazy and he's just like pointing to it like that's Jamar's touchdown. That's Jamar's touchdown.

And then Jamar does the Jamar Chase thing where he gets a fifty three yard catch two in the game he gets it's just a week after week he does something special that that really makes you think they have

something really good. They're a fun story this year. You wish that that kicked in and hit the upright last week because then the Bengals will be flying high at five and one, But four and two puts them in second place in the a f C North, and I think that's one of the biggest surprises of the young season. One last note on the Lions. Yes, the NFL is only winless team now because we'll talk about the Jaguars later. They've now lost ten straight going back to last season.

That is now the league's longest active losing streak. And Dan Campbell, who's you know, relentlessly positive, loves his guys, believes in his team. Um he couldn't help but be a little bit critical of Jared Goff after the game. Let's just listening on that. Yeah, look, I think I will say this. I still don't feel like, Um, I don't feel like we can accurately judge him one way or another. UM, I don't feel that way yet. Now

I will say this. UM chose those words. Here's the real feeling that I feel like he needs to step up more than he has and I think he I think he needs to help us, you know, just like everybody else. And let me check this step. I think he's gonna he's gonna need to pulling down on his shoulders here, and it's time to step up and make some throws and do something. That's it. I thought that the grave is he still talking? I thought the grave Digger had just hit pause for effect there, which would

have been a classic grave digger move. Get that grave Digger drop in there. You've got to build a brand, Graver. I mean, I'm giving you a brand on a plate. Take it. You're talking to a brand coach here. I can promise you that. UM. But I look, and this is good news for you, Mark, because you know who's number two on the step chart as the well, you don't the president of the blau Hard Association. What do you mean? I don't? I do? Oh, you kind of were giving me a blank look when I was trying

to set you up there. I mean, I'm running the fan club into you. I mean, year three or four, the fan club here, take it, take it and run. Here's the thing. Golf is oh and thirteen. With every coach not named Sean McVeigh, he's played pretty well, he's been fine. But with cand today was not today was that he did not play well sixty one yards in the first half. And the reason they did is because of all of them. It's not just Jared Goff. I mean, he's been a little spicies because of that. But but

he missed them open throats. I'm a little surprised though, because he he measured those thoughts as much as I've ever heard of coach measure of thought before saying it. But he's not there's no phony. I like that, He's not just dropping phony lines because that was real raw. I mean, is Jared Goff like a Dan Campbell type of guy? Ultimately? Is he is he a kneecap fighter? Is Dan Campbell ultimately feeling like he wants to get

for one year. People acting like with the scrutin controversy, Um stunt Oh, we're stunned to learn that the NFL is so chummy behind the scenes. All these guys know each other all across the league. What are you talking? Wait, what are you talking about specifically here? What do you mean the chummy part chumming it? Well, I don't mean chumming this like the way Gruden was being chummy on email, but just they all know each other and they're all when you see these guys at League of bench Back,

I did know those guys knew each other. I'm not saying that Dan Campbell knows Sean McVeigh, but I'm not saying there's not a possibility that Dan Campbell sent Sean McVeigh text and night like this guy sucks well, or that there came from the rams. I mean, like, yeah, they all knew who golf was. All right, let's take a break. Three receivers, lot quick, cal Rodgers tixs pump fixed once and again, scrambles to us right fine time takes him felt pay to the five and for the touchdown.

Rogers justin put Hello, Packers leader twenty three to fourteen. Wayne Larava with the call w T MJ. Aaron Rodgers through for two touchdowns, ran for another score and we'll get to that in one second. He led the way for the Packers in fourteen win over the Bears. The Packers have now won five straight after that week one set back against the Saints in Jacksonville, which feels like it was a million years ago. And as for Aaron Rodgers,

it was more mastery over the Bears. The Packers beat them for the twentieth time in twenty three games counting the playoffs. They improved to twenty two and five with Rogers as a starter against Chicago and after that clinching score that we just played, Rogers was very vocal with the fans at Soldier Field and Grave Digger, I believe we have that. Yes, I still own you. I still own you to the Bears. Mark, I know you're very You're not a big Aaron Rodgers guy. Where did you

where did you come down on this latest Well? It's I mean, you know, it's factual, so I'll like, let's give him that. Um. But he's spent you know, days before this game waxing poetic about how much Chicago meant to him, how he spent days in the past. There was a night he walked down the Chicago streets and met a mother in the sun and took photos with them and walked for blocks, and the Sun tweeted the you know his his photo is Aaron Rodgers, so you

know that child's sake. I love I love Chicago if I was Aaron Rodgers, of course, But I mean, if you're that child, you're thinking, what's happened here? I mean, this guy now has just told my city to go take a dirt nap. I mean, that's sports. I love that. I love it. Maybe he even knows it might be his last time there as a as a member of the Packers. Has to be sweet. He was going up against a great defense, or very good defense at least. Yeah,

this was a a nice performance by the Packers. The Bears, you know, we talked about it. Their defense has gotten better and better. It's been solid this season, and and Green Bay wasn't just gonna walk over them, and they didn't. This was this was a battle, and Justin Fields, unfortunately for the Bears, was not able to really get anything going in this game, he was at I believe early in the fourth quarter he was at nine yards passing, and uh, that's going to continue to be an issue

for Chicago. The offense is inability to put together drives and keep up with the team that has a big offense. Because what happened in this game was Chicago's d was game. They battled back and forth. But you can only do that for so long before a good offense gets a better review. And that's eventually what happened, and that's the Rogers scramble that effectively ended this game. Aaron Jones and

A J. Dillon. You know there were years under Roger's where they didn't really have a good run game, and I this is right now with Kareem Hunt out of the mix in Cleveland, is I would say the second best running back tandem in the league, other than maybe Zeke and Pollard or you could argue es two are Dylan's good another GOODA Cuns picked that everyone hammered. Uh,

and he adds something to their team. I've been focused on kind of what the Packers don't have, but what they do have, your right, Like, they have a good running game and they have a defense it's ultimately gotten a little better throughout the course of the season, and they have some potential to get better and get some more players back, so maybe they don't need to be

a lights out offense. It feels like a slightly underwhelmed in five and one, but it's five and one, and it should be said that the Bear has made this a game. This is you know, rogers Um. That touchdown to Scramble came after Justin Fields connected with Darnell Mooney on a five yard touchdown pass cut the lead to three with eight and a half minutes to play. But as you see it happened with Tampa Bay on Thursday night.

These teams that are just a cut above even if you get close to them, even Dallas today, Dallas today, they will say, Okay, that's cute. We're pawning with you a little bit. We're gonna go finish thing this thing off. And that's what they did. I mean, you know, again, this show is so heavily based on uh self branding, self promotion. Hit it. That's just another lock I think

I was trying to make. I was trying to make a football analysis point, and I see, like Mark really edgy in the corner of my eye, like looking and pointing at Grave Digger. I'm like, I'm like, what, Maybe he's got some breaking news here, maybe he's got something hot to add. I mean you, I mean we spent four minutes discussing Dan's lock. I got a lock. W't too, I didn't even miss d and I are tied a

trying to bury I'm trying to bury the locks. I should have reminded Dan Greg the Chiefs unlesser achievement very brave, all right, any other thoughts in this game? Anybody kind of what you expected from this ball game? So let's move on. I still own you. That's it's great. It's pretty hard. I like it. I would love to yell that at a crowd of fans. How great would that feel?

I own you? And here you go of fifty three yard or he kicked a fifty four yard or a minute ago, kid Matthew Right win the game for the Jaguar. That was brilliant. Put it down right, kicks it up the yard is good, good, good Right in the Jaguars have wanted one off a three yard field goal by Matthew Right. What a magnificent ending in London. Holy cow, Wow, three hundred and ninety nine days ago was the last

Jaguars win. Oh yeah, that calls for the Bungos w O k V. Great call for Frank Frangie jaff logging in the old pass arting specialists for again green Tony Caselli and that moved as well. Maybe anyway, Matthew writes, fifty three yard field goals time expired gave the London Jacksonville Jaguars victory over the Dolphins at the Big Top

thot Totty Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Right playing just this third game for the Jags, also drilled a launch fifty four yard and to tie the game at twenty with less than four minutes to play. And it is a game win mark for the Jaguars that snaps a twenty game losing streak. While at the same time I think it sinks the Brian Flores are in Miami to its lowest point. Yeah, I mean, outside of Washington, they're

the most disappointing team in the league. I would not have been surprised if someone told me back in August they'd be five and one, one in five. The floor has fallen out to some degree. I knew. I listened to to I had a good game, and this was what I actually forgot about the London game last night. And it woke up midway through the second quarter of this which is an unpleasant way to start your work

day to find out you're already behind. But to everyone was going nuts over to a start, but I thought it was It was a really good day for Trevor Lawrence, who maybe outside of that Bengals game, this was his finest showing and you can kind of see it with their offense at times that you know, who knows what's gonna happen. With the whole Urban Myer thing. I found Urban Meyer slightly annoying. Um celebrating this game at the end.

I don't know what it is. I mean, I I do in general, but why it could be entirely unfair. It's just the body language, much self satisfaction for a guy that was and five with a It's like, hey, I'm getting on the plane home. I wasn't totally sure if I was going to get to go on the plane. Huh, But I'm just get on the plane with your team's on. Let's start there. Borton might not let me get on the plane. But it's it's happened in the past. Coaches

do get fired coming off the London game. But you know even this quote after the game and referring to the kicker again who saved your butt, Matt Matthew Wright urban Meyer said, I don't think anybody on our team ever heard him speak until about ten minutes ago. I don't know something about this guy rubbed me the wrong way and was going to overtime. The game was going to overtime until Brian floores Cat and I don't say

this lightly. One of the all time worst stretches of game management I have ever seen from a head coach. There were an incredible amount of mistakes, but that last one, uh, was that he took the time out to make them theoretically punt the ball to him on fourth down with with eight seconds ago. Instead they could have they could have just run a Hail Mary. So you're giving them a free hail Mary because it would have taken that long. But instead the Jaguars smartly, I'm sorry it was five

seconds left. The Jaguars smartly ran a play where they got a first down in only four seconds and then kicked the field goal. Which was creative and it was great execution. The players deserved a ton of credit for that.

But I'm not sure what flores was expecting there. I guess he thought they would punt it, but it didn't make sense with five seconds and for that to happen after he didn't take a time out on third and twenty when there was about fifty one seconds left, showing no faith into h or his defense in that moment, after he had already challenged two plays in a row that he had very little chance of winning and lost both time outs, which put them in a bad spot

after they played so conservative on offense the last couple of drives to set up that Jaguars. It was a rough, rough couple of quarter, a couple of minutes for Brian. I'd like to know how many times in a season a coach loses two challenges and a half because you know, this isn't all right. There are people in your ear saying no, no, no, we don't do this, like, don't challenge this. To lose two is not good. So yes, the Dolphins obviously taken out a lot of water. And

here's what Florence had to say after the game. You know, I'm not doingod enough job. Again, these guys ready to play. Um,

I'm not playing consistently enough. Um So when I coaching well enough and when I playing well enough, A big part I don't want to say big part because I don't want to take away from what the Patriots did over those twenty years, but a part of it, uh, the success was the constant cycling of these a f C. East teams, UH from one coach to the other, one quarterback to the other, Dolphins, Jets, Bills, and never finding any type of momentum. And now Dolphins fans are asking

themselves again, where are we at right now? Do we still think we have the right guy at coach? Do we still think we have the right quarterback? It's a I'm not saying they don't, because it's just it's a bad star to season. There's time to to write the ship still. But I mean the fact that we're even having this conversation tells you how often I think they are a dark horse. And I know that we we don't bring this up, but Deshaun Watson sits out there

as a as a trade deadline possibility for them. I just still think the owner their owner has shown he's capable of surprising you in many ways with that possibly, who knows. I'm sure Floris isn't feeling too good. I'm more concerned about their team building. But Floris has a huge hand in that him and Chris Career have cycled through so many different players over the last couple of years.

In these picks haven't quite It is worth pointing out they were missing, you know, three of their top four wide receivers today and their two cornerbacks Navy and Howard and Byron Jones, were just supposed to be the identity of that team. I know, I'm just pointing out, like a lot of their best players weren't on the field today. But they they lack, you know, they lack anything that they do well. You know, they really are struggling in terms of their third down even they dominated you what

you miss, what you slept through was perfect football. They dominated, and they should have been up by way more than thirteen three, and they again they got they got into a shell before the end of the first half. They they could have easily been up in this game something like three and it just wasn't. It's a disturbing backslide

because everything. I can't believe talked about this in August and leading into the season or early September, this Watson Dolphins, Dallian's um this forbidden dance that hypothetically could be going on right now. When it was early September, it was like, they're not going to do that. But I remember saying, like, if it's October, if one in four, one in five two hasn't established himself or whatever, like it's right there

now the trade deadlines November one. Keep an eye on this because you know that that owner Stephen Ross is impatient and probably super hyper annoyed and thinking I need to hit a major reboot on this franchise, will do that. Anything could happen. I'm also it was it a bad move for me to even verbalize that I was asleep during the part of part of any NFL. I don't think it's fine. It's fine for two to three more times. Now.

You did miss one of the most fun moments of the weekend, which was a Dolphins fan ran onto the field and almost kicked and weirdly in weirdly in the UK for some reason, like no one tackled them. No, everyone was cool. A player literally like low five them on the Jaguars. It almost was like he almost got the kickoff off. It usually blocked that from television field. That's a well, that's a that's a uniquely American thing.

Perhaps I don't know, but I always found it, although I've been a stadium where this has happened as well. When the security guards get to the guy and they just like concuss him and pile drive him into the dirt face first at eighteen miles per hour running speed. Everyone's like yeah, and it's like does that really fit? Just was standing there around the players. There's another view of it from a fan who was in the crowd for a solid thirty seconds and he's like talking to

the players, he's talking with the official. Is very strange. If nothing else this game it was. It was not a good game and these weren't good teams, but at least the London fans got kind of a fun, crazy ending. So we had we had reports that they were that many of the London fans were nonplussed, but not sorry some when we're getting tweets but there is being thrown. But on balance, I think it was another successful international series.

I'm just saying like when you when you run onto the field, you could typically say, because everyone's like, hey man, these guys are a threat to the players, and you've got to enforce to make sure that you don't get Most of these guys just bombed, fat guys with shirts off, waving their arms around. Do we really need to try to kill them? I want to know. The Jaggars player who came over and like dapped him up, was like,

oh man, good, try man. We don't condone this activities and let the bosses on the shadowy league figures that are listening. We don't condone fans running out the wheel, but perhaps we just just shepherd them off the field into the little jail cell under the stadium. We don't the beating is unnecessary. That's my taste. Good goods A right, there wasn't expected. Let's move on. Maybe the last time

you rod seize the ball. Tina Smith will drop deep, he'll drop He'll take clost the football the cover board. Devin Bush, who circles the right way. He almost wants the call, but he's getting at the sixteen force by the defensive star ah Mike Direko with the call. Jane oh Oh Jane oh Oh. Greggy's must fumble in overtime recovered by Devin Bush t J Watt making the big plays he does every single week. Chris Boswell kicks the field goal a couple of plays later. Final twenty three

Steelers Seahawks tent and ot. Pittsburgh gets back to three and three. The Seattle Seahawks, without Russell Wilson for the first time, fall to two and four. Greggy listen, Gino he did some things. He did some things. That was a conservative game plan by Shane Waldron and the Seahawks, but they came back. They had fallen behind. They pushed it to overtime. But that Geno mistake, it's always haunted

him his whole career. It happened again. You seem to enjoy it a little too much, you know, You're just like saying, this is the worst game of the year, and I don't like football anywhere. I want to go home home. And then and then that was the general It was not a good Geno fumbles. And then it's like Dad was like, yeah, yeah, do you know why I celebrated like that because you love Geno. So that's what I'm saying. I mean, it was. It wasn't a

Zach Wilson like performance, but it was. It was out okay. If Zach Wilson went to Zach Wilson, did the attempt a couple of touchdown and come back. If insert yet did this, you'd be happy. Troupe is strong with you, Greg, But go on, Geno blew the game. Now the tables yours. It was very conservative. They ran the ball well, they came from behind. His problem has always been taking sacks uh and he did, and they didn't trust their protection to hold up. I think that's why they were so conservative.

And it makes sense. Alex Sie, high Smith and TJ what went wild? I mean the box scores insane for Highsmith and what considering how few times they had real dropbacks there. Offensive line got drilled there. But I thought we were headed towards the tie. That's that's what Mark was rooting for, because it didn't seem like Ben Roethlisberger was gonna do anything either. He had five point seven yards for attempt on forty throws, like he did less

than Gina. I mean, the Seahawks in that first half, you never would have predicted that it would have wound up in overtime to begin with, he had sixties seven sixty five total yards, five punts. They're playing around their quarterback. They came out in the second half and ran the ball really well for two straight touchdown drives, and you know you're looking at two essentially defunct offenses. I mean, big Ben, you know, did a little big gen thing for a bit there, but then he I know, I

don't trust this. I thought that he can't a big person named Jen be successful. Well I didn't say what he did. Maybe maybe they won the game, so maybe, I mean he fumbled the ball, just like dropped it. That was bad. Well how about this another ex jet um Jamal Adams, you know, has the ballchet off his head would have that would have been a huge inner option for them, And you know that looks like Ben Roethlisberger said, I'm sick of everyone's saying I don't have

a strong arm anymore. I'm gonna try to throw the ball as hard as I can on one of the biggest plays of the game, right off Jamal Adams's head, fifteen yards away from me. And he did it. By the way you could have he could have given Javala a light shovel pass and it would have clanked off Jamal's helmet. He has no uh ball skills. Now I'm not salty, I'm fine. Everything's good. That The thing about this is it's been a long day of football and the game started at six thirty in the morning, not

for me but in London. Uh And when you get to the Sunday night game and it's just trudging along and it's a Geno Smith led Seahawks against late period Ben Roethlisberg Steelers, there's just it's hard to squeeze the juice out of this game, Greg. And the fact that its competitive and close and come back and and big plays as you could possibly want, but it feels like these two teams aren't going anywhere. To your point, m that's you said, there's many big plays as you could

possibly want. I'm saying in a game like this in terms of like a comeback, and they were like meaningful moments in the fourth quarter. I mean it was a drag Darryl Taylor, who has been such a great story getting stretchered off and stopping the game late for so long like that that put a damper on it. Like

I'm not saying it was great football. I'm just saying it was like Michelle Tafoya did mention the Taylor because I mean, when when he left the field, you were wondering what condition he would be in that he is his extremities, he's moving extremities, So that is your first sign that a positive note. That's why you pay t J Way all that money. Three passes defense, three tackles for lost, two sacks the force Fumbo. I mean, like three guys are blocking him on that play before Gino

tried to step up. So we have next week for the Seahawks, you have the Saints in prime time? Am I reading that right? Three straight prime time games for Gino against the two of the s past defenses in the league. That is what the social makers were aiming my hopes who were low coming into this. And it

was forteen nothing at halftime. And it's not like Geno played that poorly even in the first half, but it just it just felt like there's no way against this defense that they're going to do anything, and that I fear. I fear what I mean, what do you know? What do you The ratings for the Geno pot are starting to go down, but what are you showing the next couple of teams you're playing on tape like you can't

treat Gino Smith this way. You've got it, You've got like he made a couple of throws late and you cannot go in with this game plan next time around, You're not gonna play Pittsburgh's defense. And I'll leave you with this, Mark Seessler. The Steeler's head into a bye week. They come out of the bye fully rested and go to Cleveland with revenge on the mind for a Halloween matchup. I'm not even thinking about Cleveland right now. I mean they have they have pushed me into a dark place emotionally.

There's a lot of work ahead, you know, to go wrong. Ye right, I like Mark, Mark said as as we started to watch that that game, and you know, Seattle starts coming back and I'm like, oh you yeah, you're root in Seattle, right Mark, And You're like, I don't care about the emotionally to Cleveland's seems determined to lose to every playoff. You know, hopeful out there, so we should do all these you know games. Very tired and

little Jet last. Yeah, I will say congratulation, congratulations to the Westling Brothers uh for once again locking locking it up. It was the Jaguars, and it's a little it's tough one to figure out because Larry attempted to punish his brothers, undermine, undermine the entire operation by locking up the worst team

in football, but they won. So I don't I don't know where Larry's headspace wise, And I think it's like, you know, you're sort of you went in with the villain role, not that he's typically a villain, is a nice fellow in every way, but then he came in with a Matthew alien plan. That's why brothers called him precious, you know, because you know she you know, Mama Wesley and wanted a girl, got Larry last one and well

tonight he delivered another surprise. So absolutely, and I just can't wait to see what's next with the Westling brother soap opera, Like, I don't know where you go from there when you're already by week six there's the undermining to the point where one of the brothers Brothers is trying to ruin the season for the other Westling brothers, Like what what happens from here? It's gonna be exciting, great delivery was a high bar for it. Was he trying to ruin it or was he trying to say, like, hey,

let me make a pick. You guys didn't let me make the pick last week. Here I am getting this one right that no one saw. There's no doubt that he probably felt left out. But I think he was trying to undermine the entire opera. I think he was trying to undermine the operation and send a message that I will not be overlooked in the future. It was the best best week yet. So it's so I kind

of love it. Upset pick like I'm a huge Larry Westling, like the Westling brother power rankings, Like Larry surged forward in a big spot. Call that. So we'll see what happens next. Um, all right, that's it for Sunday Night, the Flagship Show. We'll be back on Tuesday. Make sure you check that out. Dan handsOn signing off for a quiet storm the old Boss Grave Digger behind the glass. Until then, here the call m