2021 Week 9 Recap - What is the AFC?

very natural. Yeah, you're a skilled broadcaster who you know every couple of months, Um, we just see you taking the next leap, and that was part of that process. I think, all right, well, all right, well let me know. Actually, don't tell me. I don't care. I'm gonna start saying it that way. And if there's a real uprising amongst the fans, I think it was an improve and we'll send it back. Okay, the uprising with the fans, we can,

you know, let's move on to new things. At this point, there's been a lot of that Week nine the NFL. It it existed to remind us this Sunday again and this is important that we don't know ship and that and that's that's good. That's what makes our league so fun. There were multiple outcomes today that kind of turned turned the league on its ear a little bit and makes you think about both the a f C and the NFC differently. We're gonna get into those games, Greg, I

mean you were. I'm sure you were stunned. I can't the way our seating arrangement is in the news room now, I can't really see you. I hear sounds emanating from your area, but I can't see your reactions as much as at the old place where you stunned by some of the outcomes today. No, I expected Teddy Bridgewater to go into Dallas and lead them to a thirty to nothing lead with five minutes left, tripling them in yard. And that's what the team of th h L does

back now, if you're just kidding, it was. It was shocking and the and my yeah, my morning games were delightful. I'm excited. Do you think von Miller, who, by the way, it was in an inactive tonight for Sunday Night Football as he gets um recovers from that ankle issue, do you think he was a little annoyed when he saw that today? Even though he's like, I love Denver, Broncos are part of me forever. Like when they go to Dallas and go up thirties Zilch and shocked the football world.

They think he's like, Wow, we didn't need to. I think I think that we would like to think he's annoyed. But I mean, as people, you know, we've all been away at times when this show occurs, me, you know, recently for a stretch, and you don't want the show to be that much better without you, And then when you find out maybe that it is, it's like, I don't know if I like that Dyna interesting yet what

you would disagree they went too without von Miller. I don't think he's so much focused on that, But I know I think there's another guy in Green Bay that was that was just fine. Watching their offense looked like it was. Yes, Aaron Rodgers showed his whole lass last week and because of it, uh, he did not play on Sunday, leaving Jordan's love. After controls that did not go so well for the pack, Let's start Mahomes moving to his right, trying to keep the play a lot

still moving. He fires it on the rock tall first out of the Greenberry thirty five yard line, tie rieck Hill. On the thirteen yard reception, Mahomes able to move towards right at ninety degrees and finds Terrey Hill, who leads the National Football League on third down receptions for first downs. I wish, he said our league, that would have been Mitch Halt has nailed that call. W d a F and I wanted an hour league in a big spot.

It was yet another slog on offense for the Chiefs, but when it mattered most, Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill showed they can still make some magic together. The QB and wide out connected on that thirteen yard completion that clinched a thirteen to seven win over the Packer. Over the Packers at Arrowhead, Greg green Bay's often struggled to find its way with Jordan's love at quarterback. But you know what, Kansas City has turned winning ugly into a necessity.

Let's face it, they they're winning ugly and in such a different way than when they were winning ugly at the tail end of the last regular season, when they kept winning close, high scoring games. Now they're winning close, low scoring games. Or the offenses, you know, turning the ball over. When they were turning the ball over, that like sounds like a light problem compared to what we've seen the last couple of weeks. This is just an

offense that isn't moving the ball. And yet I know Chiefs fans are annoyed with everyone talking about them that like they're like a one in eight team. They won this game with defense. They've played really good defense for ten straight quarters. Uh, they got some fortune on special teams. I would say between a blocked field goal they get a little credit for that, a missed field goal, and

then uh totally botched punt by the Packers. The chief special teams basically scored nine points and that to me was as big a difference in this game as anything. But you have to look at what Steve Spagnolo did on defense in terms of cooking up Jordan's Love went six or seventeen for thirty yards against the Blitz. So a part of the game plan was working, and they kept hammering it over and over and over. Uh, basically until the fourth quarter when the Packers finally started moving

the ball a little. It was for games that I think we get excited about the concept of the worst game of the year in terms of what we were forced to watch to some degree. I mean I I left questioning a little bit if you are the people that have been, you know, in charge of developing Jordan's love, that he's been in the building for twenty four games, and forget the COVID offseason, but let's say one full

real off season and hundreds of practices. And he looked today like watching a high school game where someone is being thrown into quarterback for the first time. I I to me, it's cloud I said on our Friday Network show that it was a good, maybe a blessing in disguise for Green Bay to see Jordan's love and what he could offer in a big spot like this. He offered not nothing but us than nothing to some degree.

And I think it leaves you a little cloudy with what the future is if Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to bolt out of here. Yeah, I see what you're saying. I guess I didn't come out of this game thinking that he's not any good or should have been better. I still think it was a tough situation to kind of come into on the road in that environment. I know Kansas City's defense isn't very good. But I didn't come out and feeling like, oh man, this is this

is a major issue. One thing I did get annoyed with was some of the online uh takes coming out of this game, like that this was somehow Aaron Rodgers nailed this, and it's like one tweet of a blank check, like Aaron Rodgers smiling. It's like, whoa Aaron Rodgers cost his team this game because Aaron Rodgers on the field,

they win. I'm sorry the way Kansas City is playing right now, the way they played once again, I'm just gonna go through this and Greg, you had mentioned it, um downstairs or I guess it's on the same floor.

We're on the same floor as the newsroom. Um. They had the opening touchdown drive and then real quick, this was like their yardage and the outcome of the drives before they sealed the game on that Tyreek reception seven yards, loss of downs twenty five yards, punt nine yards, punt four yards, field goal twenty five yards, game field goal halftime zero yards, punt seven yards, punt thirty nine yards,

punt negative one yards punt. That is what's happened to Kansas City's offense, and if you have Aaron Rodgers in the game, they're they're eight in one right now, and he wasn't and they're not. And that's something to keep in mind. I think we should also point out Eric Stokes, the rookie first round pick who's played well at cornerback, especially without altr Alexander got hurt in pregame warmups, didn't

play Alexander as they mentioned, didn't play. Kenny Clark uh so good up front, got hurt early, didn't play the rest of the game after that. Zadarius Smith, of course, has been out all year. This was a totally banged up Packers team that lost two keys starters during the game, and that is the spot where you expect the Chief's offense just to roll if it wasn't for the SPA so teams blunders in the short fields. I don't know

how this game looks. But for Mark to uh, you know, go on about Jordan's love kind of like Troy Aikman did,

I think was warranted. I get all the like defense of Jordan's love and the reasons why this was a difficult spot and everything, but he he played his he looked about as unready for a starting job as any quarterback that that I've seen play a game this year, Like if Davis Mills was out there and had this game, we'd all killed Davis Mills for his first start playing this game, like he wasn't ready to do two minute um hurry up situations. He was really they were struggle

with the play clock. You can put this on the coaching staff too, that like he wasn't ready, but he was also just missing passes. I think his stat line is misleadingly decent um. But I think if you watched the snaps, it's just one start, but it was a concerning start. It's like, maybe it looks like listen, it's just one I agree with you, it's the beginning. But it takes a lot for Troy Aikman to go as nuts as he was going. He was pulling his hair,

he was unpleased with it. But I mean, then you know, if his line was better than Mahomes from much of this game, which is equally stunning, and Mahomes has thirty six in completions over two weeks, and I guess I'm saying criticized Jordan's love for playing poorly because he did he's a professional, but be mad at Aaron Rodgers for that. That is what and and before we move on to the next game, again, this is weird and we're getting used to it now, but it doesn't change the fact

how weird it is. The Cheese finished with two hundred and thirty seven yards of total offense at Arrowhead Field, a place where Arrowhead said, in a place where that would not be a That's like a decent halftime total yardage for them in their heyday. They've done that in one quarter in the past, averaging less than four yards per play. That's where the Chiefs are halfway through this season. They're five and four. There's time, but there's a lot

of trouble in Kansas City. Let's move on. The potential hero is coming on. Will be a thirty six yard Tuck her hit from thirty seven in the first half game on the line, twenty seconds left, it over time. Nick Moore with a snap. Tucker's kick is up had it is good. The Ravens have one in overtime that pays in the bar and the Ravens are six and two. Jerry Sandusky with the call w B a L. Nobody

climbed into the booth to try to get to the bar. Again, not enough was made the crazed military woman climbing into the booth because there was booze in there. Where's the booth? There's a lot coming on there. Well, it's like I'm rewatching madmen right now when they had all the booze and all the offices. No booze in our office, at least not that they know of. Baby. You said she

was a crazed military woman. If that's accurate, she's probably gonna see the world differently than than to a different lens than you. You might, perhaps a drunken military woman. She was not having her best day anyway. Justin Kicker of Justin Tucker kicked a thirty six yard field goal sixteen seconds slept in overtime, pulling the Ravens ahead of

the Vikings for good. Thirty thirty one was the final I think is the third overtime for both teams this year, which is a lot, and the a f C North leading Ravens rallied from a fourteen point third quarter deficit.

Uh in overtime, Anthony Barr made a tremendous play, leaping in the air on a Lamar Jackson attempt when they were moving into field goal range, batting it up in the air, coming downward for the interception, and then Kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense comes on the field, and you want to talk about offenses that are in a little bit of trouble right now? Three and out, bye bye, kick it away, never get the ball back. Um Baltimore

marches down the field, kicks the field goal. And the reason why that was such a crusher to go so quickly, uh three and out after that potential game changing interception and overtime was Baltimore was on the field their offense all game. Minnesota's defense was cooked. The Vikings only ran fifty two plays in an overtime game the Ravens. That final kick was the eighty ninth play of the game

for the offense of the Ravens. So there are a lot of issues right now, Mark with the Minnesota offense, which does this weird thing where they get out of

the gates super hot. And I reached out to l a research on this because it felt like they scored touchdown every week on their first drive and then go cold up all right, Paul Red, the Vikings have now scored forty one points on their first possessions this season, five touchdowns, two field goals, one punt, and then they just go ice cold, and it happened again in this game, and it costs them and they are slipping out of the playoff picture as a result. It's who they are.

I I think we all know Vikings fans. I kind of want to wish that I could like knit a sweater for every Vikings fan out there because they're having a terror. It's just they're heartbroken at this point. This is how like this was for the from on the flip side, this was Baltimore's. That's the nicest thing that you could do for them, Like you don't have any experience in that in realm as a it also would take about seventeen thousand hours. But it's it's the thought.

It's the thought that for this though from next Gen stats kind of told me a lot about both teams. It was Baltimore's fourth win this season where they had a win probability of fifteen or lower at some point in the second half. They're up by fourteen points twice in this game. But a lot of that has to do with you're playing the Vikings, so you know it's gonna go down to the end. You know they're gonna be streaky, They're gonna be You're gonna get your Kirk

Cousins moments. They've got so much talent on offense. And Dalvin Cook had a good game, justin Jefferson, like, I just you know, it's like somehow they cannot find a way to see this contests. They have a good game. Davin Cook had a sixties six yard run that was beautiful. Uh. In the first half of this game, we all the track that more closely and did nothing else, uh for

the most part. And that was the thing, like, and this is it's weird about their offense, greg And we're gonna get to the winning team because that's more important. But that first drive, they're awesome when their backs are against They scored a touchdown too to go up fourteen.

Nothing right, and then so they went yeah, so they start off hot and from that's from that second score until they got a kick off return for a touchdown out of the half, and then they go ice cold all around that until they actually they absolutely have to score at the end of regulation and they get that touchdown to they're just some type of urgency issue with the team and Baltimore. I will, I will give him this. They they are not they are imperfect. Greg. I remember

you talking before the trade deadline. This team needs to make some moves on the deadline. They did, they tried. Some reports have come out that they try to make some moves to make their roster better. It's an imperfect roster. But again they showed why they are a winning organization. They hung around in this game, kept kept on coming back, and eventually broke Minnesota's will. We're just getting used to

these Lamar Jackson games where they're down two touchdowns. It's funny to think how the m O on him was like, well they can't, they can't fall behind and gave and he ends up with a hundred and twenty yards rushing and then the two and the three touchdowns and the two interceptions passing like this, this is just sort of what the Ravens are this year. But they did pile

up thirty six first downs. The fact that they were able to run the ball, uh, to me, is a good sign moving forward, because they really haven't it not. It wasn't just Lamar, it was Devantie Freem even Levyan Bell, who I really thought would be cut by now, but it hasn't happened. Uh I had some yards, No, he did. He did some things in this game, and uh so, Yeah,

the Ravens are an imperfect machine. But as long as Lamar Jackson's healthy enough, right three touchdown passes, a hundred and twenty yards rushing, he's just he's so special and um he kind of carried them to this win. The Vikings have not lost by more than one score all year. Who are if you look at them like so, they

have one game where they beat Seattle convincingly. Every other game has come down to the end essentially, and they've had some of the most start breaking losses of the year week after week, even that week one Bengals game where it was like the Fumbo was overturned. Then the Greg Joe us have played. You lose to Cooper Rush last week. You lose this one after the big league like it's it's one after another. Mike Zimmer hot seat, welcome to it, Sit on it all right, let us

move on. Hands off, Benjamin off the left side of the fifty pay trucks a dB and walks into the end zone for his first touchdown and maybe put this one out of reach. Oh yeah, Dave passed with the call for k t a R. No Kyler Murray, no new Copkins, no problem for the Cardinals who roll up over four dred yards of offense behind dudes like Colton McCoy. Yeah, Markis, James Conner and Eno Benjamin who put the exclamation point on a SEV win by trucking Dray Kirkpatrick into middle Earth.

Let's now welcome. And Nick Shook, who will help tell you why Arizona had so much success in a division road game where everything was stacked against them. Pipe everything was stacked against them except for Colt. McCoy completed twenty two twenty six passes, and twenty of his completions were less than ten air yards. You know what that means. I'm taking what the defense gives me. I'm dumping it off and I'm letting the rest of my guys do

the strategy. Honestly, an underrated strategy that more quarterbacks h would do well for themselves to follow. Take what the defense gives you. Yeah, it sounds so simple, right, It was simple. On his screen pass to James Conner. It really kind of captured the state of the forty Niners defense at this point, which is, let's make a tackle

in the open field, guys. I mean, it was strange because he caught that screen pass, ran across the field and I'm waiting for another defender appear from off screen into the picture, and it just never happened. He just sprinted his way to the end zone for a touchdown. That was basically the entire day for the forty Niners. Defensively, plenty of miss tackles didn't do their job very well. Let Colt McCoy put up his best passer rating since his rookie season in the NFL when he was back

with the Browns. I'm sure Mark remembers so fondly. And it was a The Cardinals essentially rolled to this victory. The forty Niners didn't put up much of a fight. In fact, it wasn't as close as the final score even indicated. A depressing day. Another depressing day at Levi Stadium for the faithful. Yeah, it's been terrible there. You know, Dan mentioned, you know in the office that does it feel like the Niners have no home field advantage? They

keep getting wiped there. They've lost eleven of twelve home games. Um, the Cardinals, I think, have won six of seven against them in San Francisco. It's not even in San Francisco. It's like forty minutes away in a wind swept terrain. And unless you know, a lesser version of Candlestick Park, and Cliff Kingsbury is out coaching Kyle Shanahan. The Niners team, to me, looks as discombobulated as ever under Kyle Shanahan. And you cannot blame injuries. You cannot blame the lack

of a starting quarterback. They've got two of them they think could be starters. They've given up the farm for their rookie, and they look completely completely lost. To me, I think it's one of the more depressing developments around. Well, it's not shocking to me that their defense, yeah, forces a couple of turnovers. The Kittle fumble and the Auk fumble helped change this game. The forty Niners moved the ball decently well, that doesn't shock me. Cardinal's defense has

been frisky all year. It shocks me that the forty Niners defense shook couldn't hold up better in a game without Nuke. I mean, it's not just you without Kyler Murray, you without DeAndre Hopkins, and you without a J. Green. And I think it does point out to Mark's point, like Kingsbury has done a great job coaching, his entire coaching staff has done well, and that the supporting players specifically James Conner and Christian Kirk have showed up before

this game. Now, this was the game they needed to really, you know, carry this offense. But they've been good all year and I've been so impressed that this offense, like the breadth of the talent that they have, it's not just Kyler Murray. Yeah, when they're fully healthy, you're you're amazed at the at the amount of talent that they have out there. But you're right, they were missing a lot today, so you thought maybe maybe Rondel Moore's data

shine right. Well, heally and five catches for twenty five yards. He wasn't a huge factor in this game. It's the other guy. And that's really what points to what you have to be encouraged by when you look at a team, is how do you weather the injuries? Because every team gets injuries, every team loses guys. How can you weather the storm and come out there and still play complete football. And they proved today. And I know it's the Fortyanners.

I don't know really even what to think about the Fort Danner where we can get to that in a second. It does prove to me, though, that this team is built for the long haul and and bouncing back after a loss like they suffered on Thursday night against the Packers. I was extremely impressed with how well prepared they were, how they executed, and how they went on the road and made it look pretty easy. And Connor finished with a hundred and seventy three yards from scrimmage. He leads

the NFL and touchdowns with eleven. If you got him into the mid to the late portion of your fantasy draft, congratulations on the money that's coming your way. He scored all those touchdowns in the past uh seven games. And yeah, I think it's like one of those things where you're on the road, it's a division game. San Francisco is coming off a big week where it looked like they

might be ready to turn it around. I thought this was gonna be a really good day for the forty nine is uh and the Cardinals ability to win while also giving uh Kyler Murray the opportunity to rest the bad ankle, to let nukes sit a full week. Now get two weeks off with the hamstring. That could pay dividends. So you kind of you get what do they call you? You have your cake and you eat it too. You got to rest the most important guests was that it. Yeah,

that's I mean the cake. Yeah, that's what you do with the cake. I think it's like from medieval times like when when Yeah, so that's what they did, shook. They got to rest their guys. That's gonna help them in the long term. And they got the w and they kind of killed the forty niners. Now who by the way, Yeah, they're three and five. That's last place in the West. Uh tied with Seattle their own forward home. Uh. They kind of put a rival to bed potentially here. Yeah.

They even got to lick the frosting off the knife afterwards. It was an experience where they just they had a great time. Everything's kind of going right for them, even with these injuries not playing in their favor and and and it's it's encouraging again, like every time you think about these games, you have to think about mash up and it's well who they who they play, and and at this point in the season typically there are still

a lot of question marks. But I just don't see a lot of bright spots for these Fortnits going forward, just the way they I know they've lost some guys, but the injury excuse does not hold up this year like it did last year, for example, the previous years in the Jimmy Garoppolo era. The NFC is weird because that seven seed is gonna be wide open for every mediocre team to be going after for a while. So forty Niners aren't giving up on their season because they've

got five losses. Everyone in the NFC has got four or five losses, you know, looking for that spot. But you are, you know, five games behind the Cardinals and that, and you are in this lower region of the NFL, and you are getting more criticism if you're Kyle Shanahan than you ever have. I mean, he punted on the fourth down from the Cardinals thirty nine yard line while

down three scores. It was. He also kicked the field goal down seventeen inside the ten yard line late and Kyle Shane has always been conservative when it comes the decisions like that, surprisingly, But now you're gonna notice it more because you know this is just a losing team. What a night for Cult McCoy and your son, your son namesake took out your wife's favorite team. That's, you know, sort of a microcosm of our household on some level.

So there you go. If you guys have noticed so far, the listeners shook and cessler in the great moods today, Cult McCoy stepping up, and after this break you're gonna really learn why these guys are floating. But I just want to share something is with the audience here. You can't have your cake and eat it too. As a popular English idiomatic proverb or figure of speech, proverb literally means you cannot simultaneously retain your cake and eat it.

Once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It could be used to say that one cannot have two incompatible things, or that one should not try to have more than is reasonable. Well, guess what the cardinals got it all on Sunday. We'll be right back at turns Gifts, chump runch thirty five. There he goes forty fifty, there he goes forty. He's running to the river twenty fifty ten touchdown neck jump. Is he in the river yet? And

now he's in the river? Chin Donovan and Dug Deacon with a called w K R K Baker Mayfield through too touchdown passes, Denzel Ward had a ninety nine yard pick six, and Nick Chubb that guy I used the game with that long TD round. The Browns cap a crazy week by beating up on the Bangles in since Mark. I don't know if the season ends well for the Browns, if it ends with a deep playoff run, if it ends with the playoffs at all, who knows. But I know I know they're not gonna miss Odell beck No.

And I think Browns fans have to be extremely proud with this performance because I thought the you know, after what happened this week, about as messy a situation as you could imagine um in Kevin Stefanski's era, because it's been real smooth otherwise. He has been the same guy throughout Kevin Stefanski. This was a huge game for him.

He's They've done an excellent job rebounding after tumultuous games, and this was another example coming off of a rough week where I thought the real stars of this team stepped up and Odell Beckon was never a real star on this team. Nick Chubb, you mentioned it, but it was also a defense that's been real up or down this season. The best day they've had by the secondary. You mentioned denzil Ward, Troy Hill three sacks, the most sacks by a defensive back in Brown's history in a game.

Greg Newsome is becoming a star in that secondary. They did a great job on Jamaar Chase, whether they were doubling him or having to take him out in one on one coverage at times, and they made life really difficult for Joe Burrow and the Bengals. And on offense, at one point they had thirty plays in thirty four yards in the fourth quarter. It wasn't a tip go Brown's game where maybe you have long drives where you're just working on, you know, getting the clock down in

the fourth quarter. This was a big play offense today. Along with the Denzel Ward nine yard pick six, they had a sixty yard touchdown. Donovan people Jones had two big catches and I thought the Baker stepped up, you know, and did what he needed to do, and after the game, you know, he he refused to say anything negative about Odell. He refused to say, yeah, he's he said, I'm we're moving on. He they haven't spoken since, but he is moving on. And he also had this to say about

the Brown's effort. We'll take wins anyway we can get him. I came here to win. I have said it over and over again. That's why I was brought here to change the culture. To help change the culture. Um, and continue to contribute, you know, towards that winning attitude. And you know, our guys are brought in, they focused up and did their job, and um, that needs to be

a week to week thing. I thought this is one of the biggest games in Baker's career because things have a chance, had a chance of snowball after the O'Dell fiasco, and by delivering a big performance by the whole offense thriving it kind of at least for one week, puts that to bed and makes people think, Okay, maybe the Browns. That was the whole thing about the Odell situation and never felt like a sinking ship. This is a talented team with a lot of upside and this game was

a nice reminder. Yeah, you know you could have said this is Barria burning down to the foundation again, as it has so many times in the history of the Brown since they returned to the NFL, because it felt like that during the week. But it's a credit not only to Kevin Stefanski but also to Andrew Berry for acting firmly uh in this whole situation and trying to keep the organization on a charted course forward and then delivering on Sunday. And what it really was was offensively.

This is the Brown's offense, not quite at its peak, but in its purest form, which is executing the offense

according to the way it's designed. Baker going through his progressions, targeting and throwing to the open man accurately for most of the game, missed a couple passes, but operating within the offense instead of trying to feed the ball to one disc or disgruntled receiver in O'Dell Beckham Jr. I look at their stats, and I think Jervis Landry had the most catches, and I didn't even really notice that he was out there because he didn't put up much statistically.

But then if you look at the entire receiving corps, nobody really did other than Donovan People's Jones long touchdown pass, and that's by design. That's when the Browns are at their strongest offensively, is when they're balanced. They don't feed one guy, they don't rely on one guy, and then they give it to Nick Chubb to hammer at home. He ends up with over a hundred thirty yards seventy of that on one long touchdown run. That kind of

was the nail in the coffin of this game. It was the complete performance, their best performance this year, without a doubt, and just a stunning response to the week that was because I can tell you being in Cleveland, this feeling was this is this is a disaster. We're coming toward a disaster. If they don't win, the wheels are going to completely fall off. It was. It was almost like a funeral because of the departure of Odell in the division that it created among the fan base

and the people here. So for them to come out and win and not only just win, but win in dominant fashion, Uh, it says a lot about the organization who they once were and who they're still trying to become. Right and when in Cincinnati, where they thought they were going to be the fun rising like two thousand twenty Browns type team, and they're sitting here looking at a forty one to sixteen loss, and they're thinking to what

can we do to get Jamar Chase unlocked. Jamar Chase and the targets thrown to him, to me, have been one of the big reasons why they've lost these last two games. They talked after the Jets game about, you know, the way the Jets played them, Uh, you know, Jamar Chase last week really created a lot of problems. They basically sold out to stop Jamar Chase going deep. They've thrown it to him twenty two times in the last two games for six for sixty four years and that

can't be right. But not for forty nine yeards this game in like thirty before. It's been extremely efficient, and they haven't had the other guys step up enough in the defense, which felt like it was like a the getting by on grit and hustle and energy and cohesion for the first six seven weeks of this season hasn't really come to I think teams are like there's much more attention being put on Chase, obviously, and that was

the case today. Early in Cleveland secondary, which has been you know, quietly very bang up all season long, had a lot of guys back today, and you kind of saw what we talked about all off season because John Johnson made big plays like this is the defense that

you thought you were getting. With seven minutes to go last Sunday, the Bengals were five and two and looking like they were gonna stay on top of the A f C. Since the last seven minutes of last Sunday and then four quarters today they've been outscored fifty five to sixteen. So something's going wrong. And the Zach Taylor celebration and the captain Lou Albano celebration, well, they gotta get something fixed real quick or this season is going to go down the drain. Let's move on to the

meadow ends. He takes the snap, he's back, he's looking left the whole way. He throws it left, but it's intercepted by the Giants for Kitty down the right side, like ten five touchdown Giants. Savory McKinny, we're this first career pick six Psachia bump more like Massachia banged Papa with a call for W A F A N Xavier Mcinian, you know, because he was banged. No, I hear you.

It makes seed. You guys are an incredible audience. Proceeded, returned an interception one yards for a touchdown early in the second half, and picked off another errand throw by Derek Carr late as the Giants picked up over the Raiders SHOOKI. The Giants put together another strong defensive effort and this time they're rewarded with a win. Yeah, you know, this is probably the third straight game, and even though they lost the Chiefs the prior week that that they

really played well defensively. This time though, they came through in the clutch. You know, whether it was the Xavier McKinney pick six, the Zavier McKinney pick late on a terrible path, both of them were terrible passes by Derek Carr, or just getting after Derek Carr. Uh, you know, capped off with a strip sack to basically end the game. I think it was Quincy Roache was was the person who who recorded the sack. There to really just put a capper on a quiet performance for them. They didn't

really need to do that much offensively. They're still kind of the same Giants offensively, but because the defense kept them in the game, and they converted their own field goal opportunities and Daniel Carlson missed a field goal, and most importantly, they stood tall in the red zone. The Raiders were one for six in red zone opportunities and one for two in goal to go situations. Today the

Raiders did not convert. You could say, hey, what's wrong with the Raiders and everything else, but you also got to give a ton of credit to the Giants and the wather. They're playing defense, that front starting to get after quarterbacks, the back end not playing too shabby either, and they come away with a win that. I mean, MetLife was rocking today. They were. I think they were stunned by the end. I can't believe we actually pulled this off. They were waiting for everything to come crashing

down and it didn't. And it's a good one for Joe Judge's bunch. That's after like a couple of games at MetLife where you could audibly hear the crowd um, they're they're hideous displeasure with this Giants team. I feel like, you know, going back to even last season, though one of the better coordinator hires has been Patrick Graham. He's done a nice job and like he like this Giants defense.

Lasher I think was ninth and points allowed. They've been up and down this year to sud degree, but this was more of a signature win the way that you wanted Giants win to be on defense. This is the

first game. Go ahead, now, go ahead. I was just gonna say, this is the first game for Vegas since the Henry Rugg's tragedy where a woman's life was taken in a car crash in Vegas, and the Raiders perhaps, um, you know, coming off that and in tune with the struggles to score points today, it was reported by Mike Garifolo that de Sean Jackson is expected to sign with the team. Uh, he'll receive more than the veteran minimum

in his contracts. So they make a move to try to replace Rugs on the roster and add a little juice to that offense. Yeah, it's gonna help them a lot because they flat out and missed that element today. I mean, they just did they They couldn't push the ball down the field. I know car finishes close to three yards passing, but it was it was quite an exercise to get there and um, and and it certainly showed when they needed it late. They just didn't have

the same firepower that they've had in previous weeks. It kind of reminded me of that game they played against the Bears where you just wondered, where are the Raiders? Did they forget to bring their ability to play football at home? This is kind of happened to them again today. So we'll see how quickly d Jax fits into the offense and everything else. But the fact that you have a threat to take the top off, even at his age um should help them at least offensively more than

they were today. And that and and you know, Josh Jacobs had a decent day statistically, but they just lacked a presence with the ball and above all, they lack the ability to execute when it mattered. Right. If cart turns over the ball three times, are gonna lose. They outgained it by a hundred and fifty yards. You know, Daniel Jones gets a hundred and ten yards passing, and you know, another lost fumble to the ledger and they manage to get a win. It almost feels like karma

coming back for the Giants. Because I feel like they've played well and a lot of losses and so you get an ugly win and you know, spoiler alert, you know, I know we haven't gotten to the entire a f C West, but they're they're all flawed. They all have five wins. Like it's I don't think any of them should be that disappointed where they are in the season

right now. In terms of the Raiders being five and three, it's like, these are all teams that are gonna be competitive, They're going to get you know, none of them are going to dominate the a f C. And it's totally a wide open after everything that's happened with the Raiders and just half a season from Grooden and now rugs um. You know, they're a hard team to get a beat on. What what can you rule out them again tumbling out

of this race? You can't and you see him sticking around, Yes you can, because Derek Carr has been so much better this year. But one thing they will always be sure of when you're trying to study what's going on with the Raiders, they will stink. After the bye week. They are now three and sixteen after a week off over the last nineteen years. I don't know what. That doesn't matter. The coaches of the roster is the Raiders stink after about and they have the Chiefs and Bengals

up next. Two other teams were trying to figure out so good Let's say two weeks ago, we would have said that's a brutal slag ahead. Uh. Now we say, okay, those are winnable games. Shook. We win because of you, good Man. Thank you for joining us, you hero, and enjoy the Knikes. I know. Colt McCoy stepping up the Brownies, delivering a big performance. It's gonna be a party in

the gym tonight. Shoot. Colt McCoy has earned Cleveland's respect forever for trying to get out that Thursday night game in which James Harrison knocked his lights out and then he entered the game. Uh, and he almost got hit like that again. Today I was sitting there going, God, he almost get his lights nocked out again. And the other thing is Dan as crazy as that three and sixteen stead in the last nineteen years. Is I got one stat that's worse of you off the top night

the Brown's home opener record. It's terrible. One it's such a Browns fan thing. Why you bringing that up today? Right? Just enjoyed a good week. One nugget though, next week one you should bring that. It's like Chris Rose, you know who works here. We see him comes by our desk, you know, on the way to hosting a show. He's a fellow Browns fan with Mark. He's like, hey, what

do you think about the game? Mark? He was like, oh, you wanted to commisser, you know, talk to him like yeah, yeah, brown and narrative like I don't think I don't think that's not again, that's the enthusiasm at all. In fact, he threw a big wet blanket on it shook. You know that this is just simply a narrative. I was. I was, actually I was engaged. I was engaged in something else. You don't you wanted to dance around the office.

I was engaged in something else. And I told him, I said, I don't know if I trust this team. But it's sort of what Dan just said. This was a signature win for Kevin Stefanski is what I said to him, And I know said the team isn't very good awesome, and then Chris Rose's lights got no on top of it. Chris Rose and I, like, you know, will d M about the Browns here and there, so I know that we'll pick up the conversation. I was engaged in something else that I needed to handle. Time

sessitive nature. He learned his lesson one le one rule about Tessler in excitement. If you want to get excitement from Cessler in the office, he's got to come to you. Thank you, you understand me, you understand my nature. Let's move on. He's got to come to you. That's an interesting team. That's an excellent take, is what it is. And I'm not surprised. Don't go to mark to the left bridge water to come to deep drops set left side.

Next detention different, what's gon touchdown thirty four yards? Whoa Dave Logan ko a with it called Teddy Bridgewater through for a touchdown. Had a QB sneak score as well. The Broncos. All right, this is again football is tough to figure out. Broncos shut down the NFL's top offense, atin ending the Cowboys six game winning streak, and forget that final score that was garbage time. Uh theatrics lipstick on the old hog because this game was thirty zip

in the second half. Greg, the NFL is a way of humbling us all when we think we know too much. Here was an example. Well, unless what you know is that Teddy Bridgewater is gonna give it his all, you know, in a tough spot that I know now I am back in. I haven't been more surprised by a result this season. I'm totally joking on defense until the next game. Right, defensively, especially,

I've been on the quarter. I think their offense has been efficient and enough, and that Teddy has been good enough. He's been about as good as they could have hoped for. Right, that's right, and I and I think their offense has been fine. I expected it to be a top five defense when they've been a bottom five or seven defense

all year. I've been totally confused. And yet for the first I think six drives of this game, you know, the Cowboys had four first downs at one point, it was three nineties something in yardage to one twenty Like this was just a total um domination, mostly by the Broncos offense. On In terms of the Cowboys offensively, it was a lot of mistakes. It was some drops on third downs, Uh, it was some curious play calling going for on fourth down but then throwing the ball. One

time it got tipped. One time it was a strange play call and Dak just missed uh an open seedee lamb down the field. Another time it was a drop. So it's like everything that could go wrong for the Cowboys did go wrong. I know they didn't have their left tackle, Tyron Smith, but I just didn't think that the Broncos had this kind of game in him. Yeah, there was no evidence of that. Right, they have Jerry Judy back and he looked to me better than he did a week ago in his first game back from injury,

and he makes a big difference. Teddy was absolutely on point and made some great throats. But they were missing a lot of people. Do they were missing Garret Bowls or left tackle? They were missing no a fan like they not even healthy, right, they were missing their best pass rusher, Malik Reid, not just von Miller. And yet they came out here and uh they had Vick Fongio

feeling like ultra confident. Uh, Ricky they asked it was just a classic Vic Bongio press conference answer after the game that I really, really enjoyed your Your corners had to play some one on one coverage. Would you think of how they matched up with their receivers for fifty six minutes? It was a goose egg. You can answer that question. Nah, we gotta keep in a big chair. We can't lose him. We can't lose him. Like some Rono fan might disagree with you. But he was on

the sideline celebrating like he was loving this. His guys, Kyle Fuller, his cornerback we brought in, had a great game. He gave him a game ball, like all the all the secondary players. I really think the game plan worked well. And when they suggested that to Dak Prescott that they kind of confused Dallas. He was like, I hope someone runs that game plan every week against us. He was, Hey,

you look at the Cowboys on offense. At least it's all about you know, those big names, And I look at the big names dac nineteen of thirty nine at one point eight of twenty four for one oh two, And that was mid fourth quarter. These two garbage time things changed yards in the first half. Yeah, even with the garbage time touchdowns to Malik Turner, by the way, so they didn't even help anybody's fantasy team. He's still

average less than six yards per at tempt zeke. I guess Greg, you could tell me got game scripted out of this ten for fifty one and then you look at Ceedee Lamb two for twenty three on nine targets, Cooper too for thirty seven and five targets. Whatever Denver did, and this reminds me of a few weeks ago, uh, when the Chargers got shut down. Um, and you thought to yourself, is that give the rest of the league

some tape to study? I mean every team in the NFC studying this game tape and seeing if they could do something to flummix the Cowboys the way they got flummis tonight. Yeah. Except here's what I'm gonna do. Take

nothing out of it. Um. While I while I think it's something that you could say, we've waited for this from Denver with this is what we some of the games we thought we'd get, there's no evidence to suggest this is, you know, a team that found a way to unspool the Cowboys, and it's gonna happen week after week. Dallas will bounce back, Denver will revert to what they were before. Probably, But at the same time, I'm just saying I'm protecting myself from getting swept up in like narrative.

Tornadoes all played better for two weeks, So I think I think it's they played well against Washington that Fngio's defense can at least settle down and be okay and another five win a f C team. If Pittsburgh wins on Monday Night, nine teams in the a f C, we'll have five wins. I'm with I'm crazy, Mark, I'm with you on the Broncos. It doesn't change much about how I feel. I still see them as a five

team around there. The Cowboys. The only thing it does tell me is they are capable of a stinker two And it's also coming off last Sunday night, Halloween Night, when we all got super pumped up and excited. It's like, wow, even when Dak Prescott out, they are such a well built team that you could plug in a Cooper Rush and they're going to deliver a big performance on the road. So to lay a stinker like this thirties zip and the fourth quarter at home makes you think, Okay, the

Cowboys maybe have not built a perfect machine. Maybe they're capable of disappointing and coming up small at some point. It's just it's a little you know it is. I would say, if you Denver had forty one minutes of time of possession, which I think it was like sixteen years since they've had that. I mean, so if you, if the next team has the ball for forty one minutes minutes against Dallas, your your fortunes will be nice.

It was a bit of like a ball rolling down the hill type of game where Denver's offense took such control early, putting up seven seen points in the span of three drives where Dallas was making mistakes that suddenly it's like Dallas got totally out of their game plan. And uh, I didn't know why. And Chris Rose, by the way, did predict the javant to Williams will win Kyle Brand's Angry Runs Award, and I think he's right.

Watching a couple of I like no, because you know what, I don't know why every this is between the two of you. Every episode you try to get me into hot water with some other media figure inside the building. It was a good story and anyone and anyone here behind the scenes anyone armed with logic knows that it is nonsense. You're asking us if you ice out. Chris rose right in front of us for us not it

was not an ice out. If anything, it's like we talked now, We'll talk a couple of times other during the week. It is he's a friend, and I'm I am insulted by door as as more of just like a disappointment for him. I was like, hey, bro, it was like he it was like he went for a big high five. He was also far from our cubes. I'm not going to get into it. There's a whole like you have. If you were there, I think you

would think maybe marqu has a point here. I am just that this was I think Vick loved this game so much because they finally ran the ball hundred nine yards on the ground. I think Williams and Melvin Gordon are very good tandem. There's a chance that this offense could be decent down the stretch. That's all. Let's take a break and then get into even more shocking outcome. With seven seconds left, there's the smut. One step gets

it off. Nobody back for Buffalo Football is gonna hit in bout and the clock's gonna run and the clock's gonna run out, and Jacksonville has the feet of the Buffalo Bells nine to six, the first actual home win for Urban Meyer, actual homes win for Trevor Lawrence in this stadium. Jacksonville wins it nine to six over perhaps the best team in the NFL, the Buffalo bill that calls for bongos, Frank Brangie w O k V. You know, like calls for bongos. You know, that was what punt bits.

Josh Allen stepped up with a huge performance in the Bills game today, but it wasn't the Josh Allen you expected. The Jaguar star linebacker intercepted a pass, registered a sack, recovered a fumble, and the Jacks get the big stop at the end of the game, a nine six upset of the Bills. The class of the a f C or so we've been led to believe. Mark, what happened here,

It's it's more evidence of a totally bizarro Sunday. This was one where I was I was covering this thinking the Bills are it's somehow going to score thirty eight points. It's they are just getting off to a very slow start, They never warm up. This was a game where the Jacksonville Jaguars on offense had a killer scenario where Matthew Right, their field goal kicker, decided not to be a field goal kicker and missed two of them on one drive. Trevor Lawrence left the game with an ankle injury that

looked pretty grizzly, but then returned. Both teams had a hundred and thirty two yards at the half, and I think the Bills banged up on the offensive line. Spencer Brown was out, John Fliciano was out, They lost Zack Moss. And you know whether those were the reasons or whether Jacksonville's defense finally just shined. They put it on to the Josh Allen on the Buffalo side, and it was Jacksonville's Josh Allen, who you know, it's not this game, He's he had ten and a half sacks last year.

He is a start. Like you said, he totally showed up and dominated this game. It was Dwayne Smoot as well. They they just put Buffalo into a place. We've seen this when they played Pittsburgh and you thought, well it's the Steelers. This came out of left field and I cannot find a way to explain this other than the fact that maybe the Jaguars are slightly growing. But I'm not going to do that either because we just said

we're not doing that with the Broncos. But terrible in the Seattle game, especially, like it makes no sense looking at what happened today. You know, maybe these teams that we're putting up in the top three, four or five in the league, you just have to go. You have to give a mulligan, Like what is a FC right now?

It is an LSD soup, Like we don't know. Nothing makes sense if Buffalo, the team that we have all pumped up as the favorite in this conference, is capable of a game like this, and you know, closer inspection and I know what d v o A says, and I know what this says, and what that says. The Bills are having a sneaky, a little bit of a weird season in some ways, and they at five and three, all of a sudden, they have a one game lead

in their division. The Patriots are hot and they're right on their heels, and Greg again, same thing like with the Cowboys. If you can lose this game, you could get beat any week they're they're kind of their armor takes a hit here, Oh, no doubt. I mean to lose to the Jaguars is crazy. I think what you can say about the Bills that's more than just a reaction to one game is that their offense is not as explosive and not as effective as it was a

year ago, not even close. It's it's a good offense, it's you know, if like if you look at d V O A or E P A or whatever, it's an above average offense, but it's not a top ten offense. And that was what you expected. We've seen these stretches, even in the good Josh Allen games like a week ago, where they go cold for a while, where they go cold for a half at a time. You expected them to come out of it today because they're going against

the defense that's basically last in every ranking. But they didn't. And I'm I'm I'm flummixed. I'm sure you were, and I am I I I picked this because I thought it was gonna be an easy to watch blow out, and instead it's you know what was this? That tends to happen as well in our league? And I kind of joked about it entering this uh the week you

know Stefan Diggs. Was there a more sure bet in fantasy circles entering this year, Go gra Stefan Diggs and never worried again about that position as long as he stays healthy. And I think that's a big part of what's missing with this offense. It's it's not that simple. But every time they needed a big play last year, Josh Allen to Stefan Diggs, they were always there for each other. And it's just been And I know his numbers don't look terrible six for eighty five, but this

is I think some of that came late. Mark you could maybe shine a light Oh yeah, you know completely. He's just not the same game changing presence in an offense. Maybe there's an injury involved, maybe it's defense is adjusting after an offseason and tape, but there's something off there well. And but Beasley gets eleven targets for thirty three yards in this game. I mean they have faced a lot of what the Chiefs have faced in terms of the

defensive scheme they're going against. I'm not I'm not like Brandon Staley here, like cracking down the XS and knows. But when you watch the Bills and you watch the Chiefs, you know, generally teams are playing the Bills kind of like the Chiefs, which is with the two safeties back and daring them to run. And similarly to the chief Us there, the quarterback is now having a lot of you know, short completions. Josh Allen's y p A is

going way down. He's throwing a lot of passes that aren't getting a lot of yards, and they're still refusing to run. They ran nine times. Their running backs ran nine times today for twenty two yards. So that hasn't been able to get unlocked for them. And it's a fairly similar problem that that that Buffalo and Kansas City. They also had twelve penalties, and I know that we kind of like penalties don't get discussed much, but they were just simply not disciplined today. And you know, Sean

McDermott brought that up. He was like, we we didn't have our act together on that front, and you just they were killing themselves here and there. That said, jacksonvill was two for thirteen on third down. There's no excuses. I mean, I'm waiting for Mark to finally start crowing about the whole Josh Allen on Josh Allen thing. You know, Dan is very down on it, saying, I think something only uninteresting people are into this. Well, you know, I thought it took over the day a little bit because

it wasn't just ahead of the story. At least it's it is a story because I think the I think he was the much better Josh Allen today, which very few people would have thought that would have been the case.

He's like, but you gotta he's a wonderful place. You said that for this to come through that he needs to make like a big time play like a sack or yeah, you said, for it to really matter, Josh Allen actually has to say not only did he sack him, but he got an interception and he got a Fumbo recovery, kept toping him. Never had an interception or a fumbo recovery in his life, and he had both of them.

Josh Allen, Josh. They did ask him after the game, like do you some you know, the typical reporter question like, hey, when you like have grandkids, are you going to tell them that like Josh Allen sacked Josh Allen and will that be confusing to a grandkid and like that. He's like, I honestly have not thought that far ahead on this, this story, which is a very fair spoke. I guess

I I guess I lost. You were disinterested. You're allowed to be, but you know, coming a little hard for the people that were obsessing with the idea that there could be to Josh Allen's on two different teams in the NFL, I say, there's so much more in this world. Seek it out, seek out one. You tweeted at me, like, go go seek wonderment. It's like, by the way, I'm pretty good at doing that in my own life, replied to you your tweet. You listen, Mark, you're the king

of a subtweet. We all know, Josh Allen sacks. Josh Allen, don't care if you like it or not. Now, who was that directed to? That was not That was absolutely that was absolutely directed at you, because you did not at me at this And I'm gonna find this before we like, hold on, here so many tweets from you today, Please hold on. Got to cycle down through four thousand Sam Donald tweets. But I'm doing my job. That's how

it works. I will I will find it At some point I can't even think, oh, in like, I don't know how Mark could have how this could have gone any better? Is that what I'm saying? This is literally the best game of Josh allen career that the Jaguars. That just right? I agree, I just I'm not sure what I mean, but I guess I lost Bark put the heat on him and he came through. It's like he showed up at the most perfect time to do what skirl and what you can't? What is it? What

are you looking for? Can we move on? And when Mark finds that he can join us, Ryan's gonna hang it down field for Patterson who makes the catch. Court Daryl stays in bounds twenty knocked out of bounds at the fifteen yard line. Holy smokes. Matt Ryan looped one down the forest sideline and Court Daryl Patterson comes through again. What did you find it? Yeah? What is it? You want to talk about? A subtweet? First of all, like this is someone else that to just you know, just

a nice person. Andy s three eight six three trying to get you engaged and have some fun with you about the Josh Allen scenario and your response was in all capitals like an old school headline boring facts for uninteresting people, which I was like, you're calling me on interesting because I've already brought this up. Yes, well you are not. You were on the tweet. Actually that it's still it is a it is a version of a subtweet, so I don't need to like say, hey, Dan hans Is,

here's my thought on the matter. You know what I'm coming at. There are two job downs. You win. Matt Ryan hit corridorl Patterson for a sixty four yard game with just a minute to play, setting up the man the Machine. We saw him up close in London, Young Wai Coup who drilled the twenty nine yard or as time expires, The Falcons beat the Saints one hurt greg in a game between two bitter rivals. The Falcons dealt New Orleans a painful setback in the first game of

the post Jamis era. If you're looking for a game pass watch, I recommend this one. I know it took a little while to warm up, but it was good dumb fourth quarter fund for the whole family. I mean, the Saints scored twenty four points in the fourth quarter. Uh to make this interesting. The Falcons, who have been outscored by forty five in the fourth quarter like almost collapsed again. But when it came down to it, Matt Ryan looks over to his right. He sees Cordurel Patterson.

He sees him matched up on Paulson Adibo, a rookie corner, and that's like basically a running back, and you would think, like, okay, that's that's not a bad matchup for the Saints. Patterson kind of fakes inside a little gets outside and it and Ryan hit him with a perfect pass And it was almost a mirror play of the first drive of the game where Ryan also saw one on one coverage of Patterson on the outside. That time he was on a linebacker. Kwan Alexander hit him for a nice game

that ended up setting up a field goal. And it's just like Cordurel Patterson's season. If he's not running, which he didn't today very well, he's catching six for one. He really was the difference uh in that moment or the Falcons would have had one of their ghastliest losses since to three. I feel I feel good for them that they avoided that. Yeah, and Cordell, I mean this is the guy that people have been trying to unlock

for years. So I think we've had some like good natured conversations about where we're at on Arthur Smith in the state of the offense of the Falcons this season. I mean, the one thing that cannot be debated being able to turn Patterson into a legitimate weapon, whether it's the past. Because you said he's technically running back, I still don't really see him that way. His his size,

he's he's like lining up as up outside. He doesn't seem like he's out of place, and in that position, he's just he's just a versatile, great player, and it's kind of amazing it's taken this long for someone to figure him out and use them in this way. It also was a terrible defensive play by a debo who um, you know, our our friends at the Saints Twitter podcast calls don't vax me bro. It was a it was a bad week for unvaccinated players because, uh, you know,

a debo, where's the goat horns here? You know, ruining what was a truly ridiculous comeback by Trevor Simeon and the Saints. The score was twenty four to six. With ten minutes to go, and the Saints offense had not shown a ton of life in this game, and they go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, with their defense also complying and getting the ball back quickly at a moment where you kind of thought they were gonna go to Taysom Hill

for good because they Trevor Simeon was struggling. Taysom Hill came in, made a couple of plays and then Trevor Simeon turned the ball over, but John Payton actually stuck with Simeon and he led them all the way back. And if it wasn't for a Falcons injured player on a running play that ended up causing a time out, I don't know if they would have had enough time because I don't know if they were going to use that time out, but it gave Matt Ryan enough time

to get the game winner. I mean, the Falcons, you're four and four, you're one game behind the Saints. You've just beaten them. Like I this team looked awful early early in the year. I do believe in their offense. I just think that it's not that's all gonna happen this season. But Matt Ryan has acclimated pretty well, and you know game, he really played well today. But this is Gregg stream because this is his NFC South, you know,

the ravelry in the NFL. I did want the Saints win, but Mark can tell you I was enjoying his films and even at the end of the game, it still was fun. Uh Yeah, that's that's a big win for the Falcons and and the Saints. I guess it's a good if you're looking for Greg. The plus side is that Trevor Simmons has that in him to go stack some points and get him back in the game, because I don't think we've even seen any evidence of that until this point really. But otherwise, that's that's a that's

a tough loss for the Saints at home. It's a tough I mean, I just think it's hard to count on your defense to just shut teams down week after week. And I know they've got a pretty good defense, but when when you said, like you believe in this Falcon's offense, I do. If they're playing a team that doesn't rush the passer naturally that well, and I'd have to throw the Saints in that category. Like ultimately they've been They're good defense, but they're not good winning one on one

matchups up front. And so that gave Matt Ryan enough times that said I thought, you know, three days ago that we looked at the Panthers Falcons game and we looked at the Saints defense and thought they're gonna have a field against Atlanta and it it just no, there

is nothing that seems predictable. Well, their quarterback situation though the Saints, it's it's hard to they put up you put I mean it's like they you know, they didn't put up ten points saying that the idea that they were going to light up the Falcons, they need to prove that they can move the ball. I'm in more of their defense shutting down the Falcons and that and that did not happen. And it tells me that Arthur Smith, you know that they hired him for this, and you're

starting to see it tricky. It's a tricky spot for the Saints here there five and three, And we'll get into it more later in the week. But they have two road games coming up next Tennessee Eagles, then home against Bills and Cowboys. So yeah, it's not gonna be an easy path I still like their chances in that UH conference to get a playoff spot, but it's gonna be tough. And if you want to watch the game pass, I mean you could kind of skip the you know,

the three zero first seven minutes. I think there was some fun. There was some fun plays in there too. All right, let us now move on and check in on another NFC South team, this one at home. Welcome in the hooded one play fake to Hubbard, King bootleg to the near side for Donald under pressure, tosses intercept this j C. Jacksons goodbye to the forty to the fifty, down the middle of the field, of the forty to

the thirty to the twenty. He is head sewed bound pick six touchdown Patriots Bob Sochi with the called W B z Zolak in there as well. That was the human gate raid you heard. Mac Jones overcame two early turnovers. He threw for a buck thirty nine and a touchdown. But it didn't have to be about mac Jones because J. C. Jackson returned one of three Sam Donald interceptions for eighty eight yards and a score. Pats role over the Panthers. It's four wins in five weeks. Uh. Five games for

the Patriots. Uh. What's star here with New England? Uh? And there's a lot to break down the other side, but we're seeing it again with the Patriots. This always felt this why I locked up the Patriots, because it just felt like such a good spot for them, that Bill Belichick was gonna have this defense ready for Uh Sam Donald. And that's exactly how it played out. Even with Christian McCaffrey back, the Panther's offense is completely broken. You don't have any there's no semblance of a passing

game anymore. And you remember last remember in September, when they were going up and down the field and d J. Moore was involved and Robby Anderson was making plays and it just seemed like this was gonna work. These guys aren't even on the field. It feels like the only time you saw Robby Anderson in this game was screaming at Sam Donald after another interception. And Bill Belichick has Donald's number, and that's how this game got ugly. Donald

did not let the Panthers be competitive here. It's been too many games where he doesn't. And I know, I'm sure they did some things defensively, but you night. I watched the interceptions and nothing confusing going on there. It's just man coverage. You know, he's skittish man coverage and kind of showing it before the snap and him making bad decisions in bad throws. Donald skittish in the pocket,

He's indecisive and his confidence is low. And I understand, and you're gonna see it this week and there's gonna be talking about it. And Robby Anderson said after the game, this is a brotherhood, and I was getting on him because you know, he needed to tighten it up. I think that's what he said on the field when he was screaming at Donald. But sometimes that type of thing is not gonna work. When you could Donald is dejected,

you could tell he's in a bad mental place. And I was a little surprised that p J. Walker wasn't in this game because you could tell Donald was in that headspace that we saw with the Jets a few times that we've seen earlier this season, where you know, it's just gonna keep going downhill. And I just don't know what the Panthers are doing going forward. They're in a tough spot now because he's in a really bad place.

Mentally Donald, he's not moving this offense. So you wonder if they're gonna if is gonna have to make a move Matt Rule to keep this locker room. I could see that being a situation now, I think so. I mean, I thought this was a good spot for the Carolina Panthers, who wanted to be not unlike New England, a team that was going to dominate with the run and kind of keep Sam Donald out of the mix. The opposite happened today, like they were completely shut down and Rule

was outclassed by Bill Belichick. And uh, you know it shows you because the assessment was we had Teddy Bridgewater, but if we you know, they wanted other quarterbacks, but you didn't draft Mac Jones, who Matt Rules spent all weeks saying, well, I knew Mac Jones was going to be really good in the pros. And you've you you basically said we'll take Sam Donald over Teddy Bridgewater going

into this season. And it's it's sort of an example and a picture of how sideways your campaign will go when the quarterback implodes and Sam Donald at some point will be benched here. It could even be this week, and he'll never be a starter again. Who, um, well, well, how would you how would you an outside of a pinch spot? How would you justify starting him? Right? I

think you're right. I think his if he wasn't drafted as high and there weren't enough that many people in the league that believed him in the first place, he probably wouldn't gotten this long of a run the second time around. That said, I don't think they went to p J. Walker in this game, possibly because the next time they go to Walker it's gonna be for you know,

an extended period. Maybe he just wasn't ready for that, and maybe he will be on Tuesday, And based on his answers in the pre postgame press conference, he certainly

wasn't committing to Donald for next week. Um, but I think the next time you see p J. Walker, it's not going to just be for a quarter, It'll be for multiple The body language on the sideline, it was all there that at one point Donald is off by himself on the bench and I think Robby Anderson and maybe another skill player was sitting next to walk around the bench and they were commiserating, and it's just it's it's actually it's tough to see um as a Jets

fan who really wanted Donald to be a thing, and you thought he had a fresh start here and things started so well in Carolina. This is the nadir of his career, and I think it's fitting that it's Belichick who's behind it, because he is now. I think he's been intercepted nine times and throwing one touchdown pass in four career games against Bill Bill. A. C. Jackson is making himself some money. I hear Patriots people covering them or fans being like, oh, he's not Gilmore, Who cares?

I mean, the Gilmar was the defensive player there. This guy is playing at a Pro Bowl level. I don't know if they're gonna pay him enough to keep him. He is gonna be one of those free agents. That just makes Gilmore had another good game. By the way he did, he didn't be nice to have Gilmore and J. C. Jackson. Imagine that that would have been very special and a reminder if it hasn't already been said that yes, the Panthers also picked up the fifth year rookie option on

Sam Donald. That just they've made some terrible mistakes in the last two years. Your Pats, though, improve in every week. They're my team, the team of zeus TL the Patriots. What has happened? They are making a push Patrons football. That's a big matchup. Let's take a break and then take it home. Dustin Hopkins, in just his second game

with the Charge, we'll attempt at twenty nine yard field goal. Well, five seconds loud for the league at the uploints two left snap back wall down, white footed kick clears the line. It is god two seconds on the clock. What Chargers take the lead? Isaac lower kron k Y s R. Missing Matt money Smith, Justin Herbert threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score, and Dustin Hopkins kick that twenty nine yard bield goal with two seconds to play,

leading the Charges to win over the Eagles. Mark. There's a big win for the Chargers on the road across the country, with a big performance from their young quarterback who had been struggling. Yeah, it was two teams I thought that came in wanting to attack things completely differently. I mean, the Chargers had eight drives in this game, and so did the Eagles. Because the Eagles came out not unlike what we saw against the troit when they

basically metamorphosized into something completely different. Ran the ball thirty nine times for a hundred and seventy six yards. Jalen Hurts had a couple of big runs down the stretch and this this game got better and better and more exciting and more alluring as it went on. I mean, it was a bit sleepy early, and you know, they held Justin Herbert to three drives in the first half. Herbert on the flip side, they kind of said, here's

what you're gonna do. You're gonna be obedient. We're going to let you show short passes and you'll just you'll, you'll as you say, damn, you'll take what we can do. Mark's kind of game, like a quarterback being told to be obedient. He was, you know, well he had thirty eight passes and only six and completions, but they did. But he kind of said, I'm going to be disobedient, and he did throw a couple deep strikes to Mike Williams and it worked, and Justin Herbert thought played a

really good game. It didn't It didn't you know for me. Philadelphia, Greg, You've argued that they can get back into this three and six They're in a tough spot. Um, they needed to win this. They needed to win this. This was an ugly loss, but Jalen Hurts does show you something every game, and it wasn't just garbage time today. Uh. I think Darius Slay getting injured down the stretch for Philadelphia really hurt them a ton. I mean that was when Los Angeles started to pick up a ton of

steam and early on. I'll just say one last thing that the that the Chargers had a drive end on Philly's two yard line and then another stopped on fourth and two from Phillies twenty seven because of their go forward on fourth down thing, and there was some squawking, and I think it's fair sometimes to say, if you're gonna go for it on fourth down this much, come up with plays that work, because they had showed that

they were. But I know that sounds simple, but it's like they were two for seven and they're just leaving points on the board. Yet what happened was that came back and went forward again on fourth and one in the fourth quarter and then fourth and inches. Herbert had a sneak basically that kept that sealed the game because they would have had to go for a field goal with a minute forty five left or something. If they didn't get that, the Eagles probably win this. That's what

I'm saying. The way that both teams were driving so in the end, Staley's aggressiveness that he is relentless with um. I give it a win because it's how they won this game. But but but early on, it's like when they were two and seven, it was like one of their players was Josh Josh Kelly on a run that just looked like you could have designed something better here. And teams are now keeping the right personnel on the field to deal with fourth downs. They're expecting this to happen.

It's a little bit different than a month ago. I think it's knowing what your team is and what your team is on defense is a team that can't get off the field even against Jalen Hurts. So especially, they're gonna get praised when it goes well, and they're gonna get, you know, criticism when it goes poorly. And they started so well this year that it was almost destined. I almost feel like you can't critique it at all though it's like everyone must do it all the time and

that's it's different. And for a second I thought they might kick that field goal late and I was like, oh, Staley has gotten spooked by all the fails, but then he actually did go for it. Yet again, I just I think it also depends on who your personnel is, and to me, this Chargers defense has shown no faith uh entrusting them. It's the same as I was watching

the Ravens today. The Ravens do not care. The Ravens could be inside their own thirty five down two scores and they're going for it on fourth and two because John Harbor at some point or his analytics team made the point say we are better off risking it, risk the biscuit because we have Lamar and he's gonna get those yards in our defense isn't good enough. We gotta

win with our offense on the field. So I'm all for it, even if it but you have to be imaginative to to Mark's point as well, Um, And it will be interesting to see where the Eagles go from here. As I understand the market, maybe you could shine a little more light on it. Jalen Hurts played pretty well in this game, but they have not won a home game yet this year they're three and six. Is a famously fickle fan base and an owner that's gonna be plugged in to how the city and the region feels

about the Eagles. They're three and six, so I think there's gonna be I don't think the Eagles are a playoff team. I think this is an evaluation period for two months now, and the evaluation is gonna be on Jalen Hurts, of course, and I just wonder if the evaluation is on Nick Sirianni as well. Where the Eagles are. I think the only thing though, I mean, this was not a disastrous game on any level. I don't know.

I don't think, yes, you lost, But if Eagles fans are like up in arms about what they watched, it's it's like, yeah, one was the one that threw flowers at Nick Sirianna's. He went in the tunnel after the game, and it wasn't like a beautiful job, Nick Flowers. That's still a you know, if you're gonna throw something from the stands at someone you're angry at, flowers is a bit of a mixer. And I'm like, what, like, why

did you have that in the first place? They're like, justin, we are really mad at Sirianni after the game, let's bring flowers because that'll like kind of throw people off. That's have been like a pin to my sports coat. Like it's a very strange batteries. And it's like, okay, we can get away with that. Oh Eagles, So do you always to bring up the battery stuff? Hey, how about prevent a quarterback from throwing for against you? I

felt bad for Jalen Hurts and they're running game. This is the fifth quarterback to complete over of his passes. Like most of the time that's happened in the league this year, it's come against the Eagles. That's that's Jonathan Gannon's defense. And Jonathan Gannon and Brandon Staley were childhood friends, I learned during this game. So we did in bo that's a erroneous that's an urban legend. Yeah, we had a jail underneath the old stadium, but so did your stadium.

Oh I love that thug using erroneous correctly there. That was, Um, you gonna get thinking me saying this this year in the NFC, But it's like, to me, the Eagles are still fairly far from evaluation. When you're like one loss behind the Falcons or Panthers for that spot. Like all these teams that, into Mark's point is, are not are not gonna win the Super Bowl. They're gonna be in the mix in like week fIF from a value or from elimination saying like there's I guess we're all being

evalue at it at all times. Right you're saying that, you're saying like they're got the next year, but they don't think it. I can tell you that I do. I don't mean I don't. They just seem to be short of the bar. If we're talking about teams that I'm not saying they're not worth tracking or they're believing in on any level. But it seems like a team that pulled me back in needs to step up and maybe one other team too or else. You know, right now we have some really bad looking teams that are

in the a f C point. Well, go make a seventh playoff game and then be surprised that you get some sort of trash heat playing in January. All right, let's uh, let's get to the game we've all been waiting for. With thirty three seconds back with roll pressure against it's mac Hollins, who makes a diving kids in the back of the end zone and Dolphins finally have their first touchdown in the second quarter of this year. Mac Collins go down and get it in the end zone.

Man feel the excitement. It didn't sound like Jason Taylor, but maybe it was w q A m with the call. In the NFL's most turnover filled game in more than five years, the Dolphins got a touchdown pass from their surprise starter, j Kobe Brossett, and they beat the Texans seventeen to nine in a game between two one and seven teams, two teams on seven game losing streaks. Play it out exactly how we all thought. And Mark, here's

a nice little fun fact for you. No players with matching names, but it was Miami's first win while committing at least five turnovers since October eighteenth. Nine. I'm stunned nine turnovers? Where were you on October eighteen? Mark camp Happiness high school sophomore year. I believe last an inn excess out the trunk and really know the energy in the room. Texas. Kudos to the Dolphins for having like a surprise starting quarterback doesn't really happen in the year one.

No one seemed to know that it's bad's gonna miss this, like the two situations bad because you know, we just finished talking about leading into this game, all right. At least the d Shaun think gets tabled until after the season. Go take off to a take flight, give make him make a difficult decision and maybe you end up in a better place next year. No matter what. Well, he's got to stay healthy and it's an issue with him. It was an issue in college with a hip injury.

He was banged up last year, He's been banged up this year, and um, it's just gonna make it harder for him to establish himself there if he's not playing. I mean, that's that's six games he's missed. Now. Nine turnovers is two more than in what many called the greatest game ever played Colts Giants. I always think like that, they'd say it's the greatest game ever played. There were six fumbles in the first half of that game. Seven turnovers, Like football wasn't really you know, I don't know if

I've heard this before from Greg, and he's correct. Once there's a huge turnover game, you think, you know, the Giants being on the winning end of that game. It maybe plays into your hatred of it as well. Now they lost Johnny You going down part of the legend overtime its like, and then professional football was born. I thought it was some nice black and white photos from that content. I thought that there was a goal line sneak.

It was Johnny who did it? No, that was that was That was the other greatest game of all time. I believe you're talking about the Packers, like the ice pool ball. That's different. There's another one Giants Colts was where Johnny You goes down, you know, in overtime and leads them to the win, the winning thing, and everyone watched on TV and then people start watching TV. All right, Ricky, can you do some digging on this? Sometimes I don't always trust Greg and I brought up the box car

to make sure we on the Colts. What you're on a side on this is I agree with the idea that the best game ever having like two turnovers. There's some from a certain point of view, maybe that's not the best game ever. And do you want to you have anything to add before we move on? Greg? On Tyrod Taylor, you were pretty hot in the path about tie guy three picks act five times. Well, you see, um, he had six magical quarters and now he's got four

terrible quarters. That average it's gonna be tough to rank him on QB index is pretty good though. I tried to do it about like what's the average gate start that you've had, and he's reelly been all over the place. NFL's greatest game ever. I mean, I'm taking the all on this. I'm letting you know, but I'm just trying to think is there a different I mean, they had the book called like the greatest game ever played, and for whatever reason, that's the one they called it was.

But it was at the goal line, the touchdown that decided the game right and over. I think they wanted on a goal line. I don't thought it was maybe Frank Gifford going over the pilot. It could be time to rebrand it was the greatest game. It was Alan Amici with a one yard run in over you like a great two minute drive to to tie it. Send it to controversy on that final play as well as I recalled, and maybe some very much so. I think

you know, it's split people's opinions. Erica, can you edit out the last four minutes since I brought up a turnover thing. It's my fault, all right, Let's never talk about that game again. Let's try to avoid talk about those two teams again. Let's take a break and move to Sunday Night Football, Sunday nine. The touchdown, Madam, it's it's ket Yes, Al Michael's with a call for NBC Matt Stafford through two interceptions of the second quarter to second run back twenty four yards of the house by

Kevin Byard that gave Tennessee a fourteen three lead. After the pad they never looked back. Final score Tennessee Titans twenty eight, Los Angeles Rams sixteen, Maro own in a a day and now at night, Greg of results that sometimes were hard to figure out. I mean, who thought that the Titans were gonna go to l A and

dominate the Rams start to finish? Justin Graver did. Actually he didn't even really feel like he know, he thought Great Digger, remember Great Digger said they were gonna lose thirty eight thirty I believe something like he didn't even have him covering, at least I had him covering. I

believed in you. Titans Nation is really about Gregg picking the Titans to cover the truest words I thought said to today or on the broadcast where Al Michael's to Jeffrey Simmons and the elevator where he said, like, if you have a big game like you're gonna you can make the Pro Bowl off of that, And that was it.

Jeffrey Simmons made the Pro Bowl tonight. I mean he should have made it, uh with his work over the last seven or eight games, But that first half was as dominant a performance by a defensive lineman in any game. He sort of took the game over Didny Guatry. You know, it's kind of a nice robin to his batman. But I don't know if defense adders in terms of like one defense can dominate week after week after week. But you certainly get defenses that can make enough plays and

dominate in a certain matchup. And the Titans defense won this matchup. They did it. Yeah, I thought that this was like a Mike Vrabel fever dream, the way that the first half played out. And you know, the rams, uh you know, you got, you got they were uncharacteristic. You've got the uncharacteristic back to back drives with the picks by Stafford. They didn't really get out of their own out of their own way in the first half. I thought they adjusted well to get him, to get

Stafford out of the pocket. In the second half and in they and they crawled back to life a little bit. But touch your own touchdown drives or would be touchdown drives were field goal drives. And if someone told me going into this night that you know, outside of a late touchdown, Adrian Peterson would largely flop, the run game wouldn't work. The Titans would have a hundred and nine total yards at three point five yards per play. I

would have thought this is a Ram steamroll operation. But they found another part of their team, their defense, to totally step up, and they just completely dominated the Los Angeles front in the first thirty minutes and then hung on for the ride. It was a very of the ball game for the Rams. I think it's you know, some losses, like some of these Cincinnati losses as an example, Uh, the last two weeks, you start to go like, oh,

what's going on here? Um, the Rams. It just feels like sometimes with teams, you know, even the good ones, the stars aren't aligned right and you just don't play your best game. And that's not taking anything away from the Titans, because I think they kind of put their will on the Rams and that played a huge role in this. But the Rams also getting penalized twelve times for a hundred and fifteen yards, that's not the Rams. Um, Like you said, Stafford, with those two killer interceptions that

set up fourteen points, that's not the Rams. And um. You know, so Los Angeles will have better days. I think they'll bounce back from this. They'll get von Miller in the lineup as soon as next week. But the story here is the Titans, and you know, Greg, you tweeted about at it uh as the fourth quarter kind of took shape and we had a better idea of what was going on here. Over the last four weeks, the Titans have beat the Bills, the Chiefs, the Colts,

and now the Rams. And they did it uh tonight in prime time on the road with Derrick Henry uh in a cast on his foot. So we're at the point now where there's you know, they've checked every box, um and you could say, well, it's just one game without Henry, it's gonna catch up to him maybe, but they just seem to be playing so well and have

so much confidence. And most importantly, they've found some figure out some things out on defense that has been long been an issue for them, especially you know, getting to the quarterback. That has been a problem for them for years. The back end hurting them, and a lot of that was because they couldn't get pressure through a natural pass rush. All that is changing now and it seems like it's a more well balanced team. They have more sacks this

year than they did all of last year. And you go Autry, Harold, Landry and Simmons are a great trio. They could get healthier in the secondary. I don't think they're gonna be a dominant defense week after week, but the thing they do well as game plan for that

particular week. And when you think about like those four wins, they were all in such different ways, and they do remind me a little bit, you know, of of other Titans teams, but also of Patriots teams, because Rabel's got that that d NA and him that it's like they're they're different depending on what you need they need to be in a particular week, but they have the ability

to be very complete. He has a winning percentage now of over six thirty as a as a pro that as a pro head coach like Mike Rabels, figured out a way in weird ways to win a lot of games. I also think Kevin Bayer, who doesn't get a lot of attention, It's like every week he seems to make game changing plays. I mean, they just have, you know, stepped up as a defense. And I kind of like to Chris Collinsworth said about Rabel at the end of

the game that he's different than other coaches. Um, he's not one of these you know, newfangled finesse scheme guys that he just did. He is and you can kind of see it on the sideline. He just got a look on his face like he's ready to counter what he's excited to counter Sean McVeigh with what he does. And I mean the one thought that I do think that this game could have turned at one point when Stafford,

you know, he stumbled and he hurt his ankle. But there was a killer roughing the pass or it's back to back roughing the passer calls. The second one was legit. The first one give me a break, and it gave I mean, it gave them New Life, like it just happens.

It happens too much in our league. Uh the and I know it's all about protecting the quarterbacks in the league is all about the quarterbacks, but especially when you throw that flag and that was there off the field the Rams and they're still not in a good spot. They probably, I would say at that point, if you check those FUGA websites, I would guess the Titans have like an eighty five percent chance of winning at that point.

But there was still two touchdowns at the down to touch but it's still it's like, yeah, that's Donald and Collinsworth put it well, like that's you know, two pounds of masks in a full sprint after the quarterback and he's in the process of pushing his arms out as Tan Hills following through on the throw. So that to to ding him on that on a third down where they're getting off the field back that kills him. But

it was the equivalent of Stafford throwing that interception. I mean, that's the only thing I have a little I pushed back at time of it. It wasn't obviously a terrible call. There's been too many of these with roughing the pastor. But like there's this weird expectation I feel now, especially just being on Twitter during HIMS, It's like that refs are gonna get everything right. It's like, of course they're

not gonna get everything right. We I think it was seeing the game on the field, like when we were in London, Like, how do they get any calls right? Ever, like the very best in the world, Matthew Stafford is gonna totally freak out and have a handful of plays every night where he sucks, Like that first interception was was ridiculous, and then the second one he's fooled, and like the officials are going to have some plays. Why Jean McVeigh kicked the field goal down twelve? You know

what I mean. You're saying that day at the office. You're saying, I'm saying bad plays. They're gonna have bad plays. It's just gonna happen. It's not seven anymore. We have the tech. They in fact have technology now where they can correct things on the field in seconds. We've seen it. It's really helped the product this year. That's a perfect thing where New York could buzz down and override a

personal foul like that. And I think everyone would sign off on it, because it's just you can't swing games like that. I don't want us to get bogged down on that because again, the Titans, we're gonna win this game either way, but it does. It's kind of an ugly thing when it happens. One other name I want to throw out there, uh, and then you guys can share your final thoughts and then we'll say goodbye. Um.

We talked about Mike Vrabel a lot. We talk about Arthur Smith a lot, and then he got the job in Atlanta. And you've heard Todd Downing's name a lot. You don't really hear Shane Bowen a lot. And that's the Titans defensive coordinator. And he deserves a ton of credit, uh, as much as head coach does the players. What a great scheme that was cooked up. So the Titans just have it working in all phases right now. They're gonna

be a top three power rankings team. For me, in a week where most of the top ten teams lost in that futile exercise that I go through every week, the Titans are the one team in the a f C that you feel really good about right now. I my my one reservation, Um, they've earned it, and I'd have no problem with you putting them there that I look at what they did on offense and how they were limited on offense tonight to some degree against a

good Rams defense. But they're gonna meet other good defenses. I leave a little concerned with with what they produced. You know that said like huge effort and nothing take to take nothing away from Tennessee. But again under two hundred yards is concerning, just with the way it unfolded to some degree. It's crazy. They won in l A easily on a night where A J. Brown kind of killed them killed two drives. Uh, and they didn't have

much of a running game. As you mentioned, I did think Julio, even though the numbers didn't pop off, there were two plays in this game where I thought I was like, oh, he looks like he looks healthier after having that time off the field. That would vote very well killer really helpful catch down the stretch too. That um alright, So Collinsworth put it well at the end of the telecast. This league is so weird, isn't It's a weird Sunday in the league. Just to like quickly

recap the Packers lost with our on Aaron Rodgers. The Cowboys got spanked when Dak returned. The Bills got beat by the Jaguars. The Rams get beat at home by the Titans without Derrick Henry. The Saints go down to the Falcons. I mean it is. The Bengals get wiped by the Browns. It's it's gonna be an interesting second half of the year because we don't have a lot of clarity on a lot of the teams in the league.

It will be fun but also maybe a little infuriating, uh for fans of teams, because just when you think you understand your team the whole thing's the whole thing can flip like I'm not sure it's what I want. Um totally unpredictable nature, where like you feel like a team is this and it's like the most readable team to me is almost the Vikings, because it's like every game of there seems to be insane in it down to the end. But like, I don't know, I guess

you just that's the best product in the country. I hear you. But like, but if I'm just told that, I'll accept it and I'll I'll share the same message. But I kind of feel like there's no dominant team, and to watch like some of these powers, these heavies get waxed the way they were today, it's a little destabilizing in terms of what we like confidently project going in the next week. But I think, you know what, we shouldn't have been confident about what we're projecting three

years ago. So that's fine. When we always say like we don't know anything, and that there was Greg, I know you think that, you know, I don't think that's your take on No, I'm always saying I don't. I think we know a lot about like the league and how it works and players and all this stuff. But at no point, whether it's somewhat unpredictable of the year or another year, is an anyone consistently good at projecting

what happens moving forward at all. And I don't mean like we are, I mean, like literally, there there's a record out there like no one is good at projecting what happens moving forward, Like that's just not gonna happen. I feel like, you watch the NFL, let's let's get back to the serious matter at hand. So because it was a RAMS home game, primetime game, we're in the new facility that shares. It's on the same grounds as the stadium. Um. Mark and I took the opportunity to

head back home and do this last game remotely. Greg, you opted to stay behind, uh for matters concerning You're set up at home, and it was just better for you to stay there. Ricky a little farther to a little farther, a little further away. Ricky also still the facility now usually we watched the second half of Sunday Night Football in the theater. Chris Rose is there, m j D s there. Some producers are in the room.

After the incident with Mark and Chris Rose earlier today, was there any type of visual heat connected to that situation of his heat so much as disappointment? You know, you would think after something like that would happen that just man to man, like you know, confront him in the like say something to his face, you know, just like sort of repair that relationship, like be there. So it's a no show after that I think was tough. So so your version of man to man confrontation is

that you guys discussed it while I was at my house. No, not man, it's not in the confrontation, but just like, hey, he he did also say how much he missed us last week, remember as we were home for Halloween, and then you you kind of jolted him at the altar. Again, well, I hear we have good male bonding. You know, I got to do that to those I like when you

have traditional male bonding. Greg, you know that, And Mark on an otherwise perfect Sunday, this was the lone blemish, but certainly doesn't sound like anything that can't be corrected with a real honest conversation. Well, it's a totally pre cooked um scenario that I'll play along with for your

giggles and enjoyment. But I am confident that my relationship with with Chris Rose, who I've you know, had a good relationship with for years, is not going to be body rocked because I, you know, like had a short Brown's conversation with him that will precede other conversations. You were short with him during the break joke. And again again that is your take, and like there are other takes beyond what the two of you say in terms of directing my life. Um from A to B two

C NonStop very good? Um, all right, And and not only the Browns, Mark, um uh, not only Colt McCoy. And you got a big W I'm gonna I concede big W two on the Josh Allen versus Josh Allen situation. Josh Allen had a good game against Josh Allen. Therefore, the two Josh Allen's having the same name is really cool. So I can see that as well. Hyper relevant today.

All Right, you know what's coming next Tuesdays? The next time you uh, we'll hear from the bozos, we'll have the great Cynthia Freeland joining us to take a look at what comes next. You know, this is actually very great timing, Greg, because we don't know what's going on, and you can't you can't project forward. While she has a machine, she keeps it. It's actually in her bedroom, which is interesting. Um, and she pumps, she puts things

into the machine and it pumps out. This is how the NFL is going to play out in the second half. We're gonna get some hard answers based on data data however you want. I will not I will note that the last time she was on our show, maybe it was, you know, the last time I was on this when she was. I asked her to send me um a photo of said machine and set up and she promised

you and never did. So I want to follow up on that and uh see where we are with that sounds like another relationship exactly, like I'm not going to say a word. Actually this is this is stupid, like I'm not going to have any associates by the end of this podcast. Please all right, good stuff, so we'll be back Tuesday. Make sure you check in and thank you everybody for listening. And that's Dan had the signing off for the Old Boss, the Quiet Storm, Ricky Hollywood.

Until next time, Eat the Ball. M h m hm