Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're always on Pacific time, or at least that's helping me forget that. It's two fifteen in the morning in London as we start the show in the beautiful talkSPORT studios. So lucky today to be joined by Ali Connelly fresh off is amazing debut preview show performance, Phoebe Scheckter straight from the airwaves at Sky Sports, and Will Gavin, who I believe lives here at Talksports.
Yeah.
Literally, I've left the studio in seven years, so it's a delight to be back with other people because Coffidy gets lonely at this time on a Monday morning.
This place is impressive and I love this foursome that we have. There is no one I would rather be in a car with at one point thirty in the morning on the way to the studio than Phoebe sector Like. We love honking so much about football and ourselves that we actually talked the whole way here after doing Sky Sports all day.
It is lovely to be here with you.
We were also at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium about twelve hours ago.
I was going to say three different locations today for the win from the stadium. I mean, I don't know if I'm okay to bring this up and with your fans. You took a motorcycle to sky and then we took a car. So planes, trains and automobiles is occurring today.
Yes, and we will get to that. We won't bore the people at the top, but we'll talk about that later. We're going to talk about the Bears impressive win today. We were all at that game, but we're not going to start with that game because we got to start with Ali's favorite game.
Here Washington Baltimore. Let's hit it.
Hev me all over to the back field.
He'll get the carry up the middle.
Big hole potch down for the King.
Derek Henry strikes again and the Ravens extender lead.
That was Darry Sandusky of w b a L.
Dereck Henry on a day where it felt like he wasn't even that big a part of the game plan, wasn't that big a part of the win?
And then I looked up.
At the end of the game and he has twenty four carries for one hundred and thirty two yards. It is amazing what this offense is doing. Everyone is looking fantastic. Let's start with you, Alie. I almost am surprised looking at the final score that they only ended up with thirty points in a day where it just felt like they could have kept playing this game and the Commanders were not gonna stop them or catch up.
Yeah, you get Zay Flowers in the first half where it gets what nine catches in the first half and then nothing the rest of the way. And Henry you mentioned with running the ball, the huge kind of game changing aspect he brings to the offenses. The after the tackle stuff is just as never ever a bad down to run Derek Henry. I think he's up to now full games this season with thirty yards over expectation. I don't know what an expectation could be for Derek frankly,
but next gen comes up with those stats. Last season, Greg only one player at four games all season, Christy McCaffrey. Henry as full already this season. And so I you've mentioned this before, what is the option to stop these guys when they're trying to run the ball.
What can you possibly do?
The idea of picking between Lamar has the ball or Henry has the ball. Now the passing game is expending. There's just no simple way to stop.
Yeah, the linebackers for Washington, Frankie Luvu, Jordan Rodrieg's favorite player who's been playing great all year, rendered almost irrelevant in this game.
And then they picked on Bobby Wagner. I thought of dec amount.
Also.
I apologize Ali because I went around the room and we did the little hey, how you going, and I didn't include you, And I gotta say, like, like your hair is it's better than Kirk Cousins.
In the morning.
You saw me zoning out after fourteen hour a day. I'll give this guy a break.
Well, it was kind were you like, we're watching this game, this was our game on Sky Sports Phoebe, and like, is your takeaway here more about how unstoppable Baltimore is or some concern with Washington?
Where are you going?
I think it's about how unstoppable the Ravens are right now. I mean, to Allie's point, they were finding ways to win every single time they were on the on the field. And you know, the first half with a definite z flower show. Then you give to the second half mark Andrew starts stepping up. You start just finding ways that
they are attacking you and Derrick Henry. I know it didn't feel like he did much, but they're finding ways to utilize him, whether it's outside of the pocket, you know, straight downhill runs and he's always wanted to punch it in the end zone.
Four hundred and eighty four totally yards in this game, and Lamar Jackson afterwards called it a pick your poison offense, and I think that's before with this bottomore team, when we've seen them and expected them to go on deep runs and then they've stumbled in the playoffs. There's been a lack of balance, there's been a lack of weapons, There's always been something to point to. It feels like there's no more excuses for this offense at this point.
It feels like they're going to be able to attack
you in so many different ways. But I have to say, on the other side of the ball, from what I saw of Jadean Daniels today, both the touchdown throws I thought were absolutely sensational to Terry McLaurin, brilliant timing throws, particularly that fourth down, and you know, yes, we should be pouring praise on the bottom or Ravens here, but Jadan Daniels still continues to impress and probably his first time going up against a proper heavyweight on the other side.
Yeah, there is there is a sense with this team every week when they're facing a new kind of test.
Last year it was last week.
Rather it was the Browns defense, which obviously presents certain challenges in every week. It's like another piece of evidence that yeah, this has stay in power. This is a real thing. We know the defense just doesn't have the personnel and maybe not the scheme to overcome that personnel. But Daniel's doing next level things as a rookie quarterback. Keeps happening, and this is a case where he didn't
really get help from his running game. I think we've seen the running games dried up, especially without Brian rape But I don't think Brian Robinson would.
Have saved them today.
The running game is kind of stagnated other than his scrambles the last couple of weeks.
Yeah, and even in the passing game, this was one of those My guy Cliff Cliff comes into this game. You know it's big TV spot. He knows it's a Lamar Daniel's show. He wants to show off, make sure people remember Cliff Kingsby. Some of the situational play calling was really quite off, and I just didn't feel like Daniels has put in very good spots to succeed. It was really just on him. This was one of those ones where it's like this guy has the special stuff.
It was one of those anticipation throw games, go and make your own play games. It was not one where he's getting a bunch of help from the line who's played really well for most of the season, receivers springing open all over the place. It was him and Terry McLaurin in certain spots and tended him just go on and making plays.
Ollie, are you saying we might have overreacted to the first few weeks of the season as this Cliff Kingsbury renaissance.
Cliff Kingsbury great play designer, not always a great play caller. He is a guy who I've mentioned before likes to show off early in the season. Here's all my bag of goodies, and I would like him sometimes to pass over the year all the different stuff. He brought a lot of the goodies today and they had no chunts when there was no blocking.
Go from I think that what happened too, was Jayden Daniels did a really nice job of responding to what the Ravens showed him. Right, So we talked about the first half there was a lot of those those passes outside of the numbers, which we hear so much about. And then second half they challenge him and he's throwing over the middle, he's finding zach Ertz, he's finding Noah Brown, and I think that just goes to show the versatility.
He didn't have to use his legs that much either, which was nice to see because he almost became the top rusher for a second there based off of, you know, really not having Brian Robinson.
Yet he ended up just twenty two yards on the ground and that was the top rusher for Washington. It is kind of crazy that a rookie quarterback is leading one of, if not the best offenses in football with zach Ertz, Noah Brown, Yes, Terry McLaurin, who's one of the best receivers in the league, and Zakias as his top guys. Echoler making plays in the passing game and this could have been a blowout. Baltimore ended up with twenty eight first downs, four hundred and eighty four yards.
The early interception was the worst throw Lamar Jackson made all day, But other than that, he was spot on three hundred and twenty three yards and twenty six attempts and it could have been much more one sided, but you mentioned it. Ali Jayden was just making special throws where a couple of the third downs to McLaurin on the outside where there's really like no window and he's hitting it, he's looking off defenders. It was a back shoulder for one of the touchdowns. Like it's all just
awesome stuff. And it's a wide open division and they're four and two and they still kind of feel like the team to beat, and the Ravens are maybe the team to beat in the AFC four straight wins. Travis Jones has another big day, like Bateman and Andrews finally do a little What gets in the way of this Ravens team at least? Do you think during the regular season.
I can't really see anything. The only thing I would have thought of coming into the year was would the defensive front really hold up? Did they have a special pass rusher? Could they get that? Can you be a team that blitz and sims your way through an entire season. We haven't really had a full body of work of these style of defenses playing over a full season, particularly
going into a postseason having great success. But we've now got a Deafa Alway who has become one of the top preminent pass rushs in the league, seemingly out of nowhere. They've been flashed in the past. Now he's developed into being a true every downthroat.
I almost keep throwing it to Ali because I'm just like looking straight at him and and I'm intimidating a little bit. Will by your your radio voice, you were you were going to do this, and I'm hearing myself in my ears and it's like listening to Tom Brady or something for three hours.
And this is with my voice feeling pretty rough after the four hour calls though, which Ollie did join us on on Talk Sport. Look this whole when zach Or brings in danps as like a kind of an advisor, and it did start to look as Alli was talking about, like it worked sure that this was going to be
a sustainable thing. I just can't figure out if today was a case of Brian Robinson was out, Cliff Kingsbury didn't call a great game and that's why they were so stout up front, or whether this was a really good performance from this run defense, which hasn't necessarily shown up so far this season. They've got the Bucks up next, which I think we saw how powered their offense can be earlier today, and so that may be a better test for them. That for me is probably the place
that they fall over. You know, Kyle van Noy, who has had a sensational start to the season but has been their best player on the defensive side of the ball. Is that really sustainable? Is not having those very special But.
I did it for a whole year with them before they are crazy.
When Yannick and Gakway had a key sack in this game, I was like, they've done it again. They've signed a guy no one wanted in the middle of the season and he's gonna end up having some big play that wins them a game in the division around.
It's just what they do.
And one thing we talked about Phoebe was the play action and the under center game. At the beginning of the season, we said it's almost like they have two offenses and they're not really married up. And now it's like, oh, they almost have two offenses and both of them are awesome.
Yeah, and they've done a really nice job of planning it out too, right, so you're looking at what they're doing. They might go in have a deep pass, they usually would return to the run. They mix it in a little bit. You got some nice play action. They found it really great ways to move the ball around and again utilizing Derek Henry, they didn't even have to really use Justice Hill. I mean, he's pretty much coming in as a pass blocker at this at this rate. But
I like what they're doing. I think that Lamar's enjoying it out there. I think he wants to have a cleaner game. I think we all want to see them have a cleaner game. But it doesn't phase them in the fact that, yeah, they're getting turnovers, but they're still finding ways to win.
Ultimately, Yeah, they look awesome. I feel I was a little nervous before this was like two thirty. We haven't all ever done a show together. Well, this is your first time on NFL Daily. That's very excited.
Thank you so much for having me.
And I gotta say, I think we're gonna kill this show. We're gonna knock it out. Let's go to where they were killing it in Dallas.
Lions from the road forty eight for the first down, Golf up under center, single back Montgomery.
Jared takes tosses to Montgomery, flips it back to Amed Rock.
He gives it to Golf. He's gonna throw down field.
He's got Laporta missed the grab.
Twenty fifteen ten five ye touchdown Detroit Lyons help.
Out a little raffle dazzle in the lone star state fifty two yards.
That was Dan Miller on w X Y T yes.
Jared Goff on one of the roughly seventeen trick plays that the Lions decided to call as they got the ultimate revenge on that nonsense game that they lost in Dallas a year ago forty seven to nine. I thought it'd be one sided if you listen to the pick Show with Neil Reynolds, but I never thought it would be this one sided. Them just dropping a hammer. Jared Goff completing eighteen passes once again this week, this time
for three hundred and fifteen yards and three touchdowns. Both sides of the ball dominated up front for the Lions. Phoebe and after this game, Like, are what is your biggest Like, what's the best part of the Detroit Lions right now?
The best part, my goodness. I love the defense. For me, I love how much they have grown and developed. We've talked about it a bunch earlier. This tandem of safeties that they have going on, Brian Branch, the way that they stepped up Kirby Joseph, the way that they're able to play and read off each other and take chances because of that trust. I mean, they're being opportunistic and I think it's so exciting to watch because this is what they needed. We've asked for the secondary to be
kind of bolstered. You bring in Terry and Arnold. I think they've done a great job of putting it together.
It's really interesting. We call it with Brian Brownsch at the Super Bowl this year, he and Aidenholmler were kind of doing some well, you know, this is what we
do talk sports check out. But look, he was really down on his own rookie season that actually wasn't keen on his own performances, and we talked about how he grew into the year, but but realistically he thought he could do a lot more and I do love the back end, but we are talking about this game without talking about kind of one of the most significant moments, which is Aiden Hutchson goes out of the game. It's
a broken leg. He goes immediately into surgery. He's going to end up staying in Dallas for a period of time and missing you would imagine the rest of the season and.
As much okay is ever now, Yeah, I don't want to like my Hostina Bill Well, you didn't mention the catastrophic injury.
That kind of put a cloud over this whole thing, like we were going to get to that. But we can talk about the win first a little bit.
It's fine. It was a phenomenal performance and they go into Dallas and we're going to talk about what an absolute stink show the Dallas Cowboys are. But I just Phoebe brought up the defense and there's so much to love about it. But I do worry about upfront without aid. Okay.
So yeah, when we saw that in and they show those replays in slow motion and they didn't show it much on the broadcast, and yeah, it's horrifying. It's horrible, and the I don't even think it's worth speculating because you just don't know what these injuries, but it obviously looked like a clear fracture, and you just hope it's the type of injury that is as a lot less long term in terms of what he's going to be like when he comes back from the injury as possible,
and that he can just fully recover. And there's no sense speculating on that. But we can't speculate on this defense moving forward. I think if the Lions had an issue, it might have been the lack of pass rush depth after him. That it's really just Selene McNeil and they have injuries. Marcus Davenport has been out. Derek Barnes should be back, who's a linebacker, but they certainly use him to rush. I mean he might be a starting edge
player for this team. Now, Like, what is your concern, Allie about what this team looks like moving forward?
Yeah, it's obviously a major concern. You lose the best pass rusher in the NFL through the opening weeks the season. The only thing you would say, maybe I've said it, is they've been so good in the secondary, which I didn't expect it to coalesce that quickly. And hutch did his face a pretty rough slate of starting players in the NFL. Most have been rotational backup guys that he's gone to work on. And you can go and find
Ed Rusher's on the trade block. You can call everyone up and say, hey, sarm Reddick, do you fancy doing six weeks for us? It is a thing you can find and maybe patch together, bringing in a vet off the street trading for someone and they will never give you what Aiden Hutchson does, where you can kind of scheme some things up and bring in a couple of veteran guys. If they were a mess on the back end and lost Hutchinson, it would obviously be a huge concern.
But I think they've been so good on the back end that they might be able to find a way to piece it together.
And immediately thinking teams out of the mix, like who would be available?
Is that area Smith that could be one?
I immediately saw a speculated trade list from a Lion's Beat writer that included Max Crosby, Okay, Trey Hendrickson, Like, those are teams out of them?
I request the trade before the season.
The Bengals would have to fall pretty far out of it for them to consider that. They also, I don't think have made a transaction in the months between September and January since like nineteen seventy five. They don't really get off their asset and do that. But there could there could be some players out there that is fair to point out. And yes, yeah, the secondary tearing on
Arnold with some nice plays. This was an example I thought of what Mike McCarthy has been criticized for not creating easy passes even against a team that plays so much manned defense. There there wasn't a lot of separation and they weren't completing those throws Dak Prescott tonight.
No connection issues resurfaced with Ceedee Lamb in this game that we've seen time and time again, continued attempts to force throws into tight windows which just weren't working. Terrible inception thing. It's five turnovers on the day in the end, and I just I know, when you're chasing a game, obviously you're going to have to try and make big plays to have to go after those big moments. But just every single time, the decision making from Dak Prescott, who I think pre snap is one of the best
quarterbacks in the NFL. But that just the decision making once the ball is in his hands just wasn't there today at all.
I think there's an element of that, but I still think there are a lot of issues with this offensive line and it's not necessarily giving him the time. He's having to throw into these tight windows. He's one of the top quarterbacks that has to do that in the league, and I think it doesn't help when you don't have a run game at all. I mean, you look at what Ezekiel Elliott was I say able to do. I mean he had eight carries today an average of two point one. I mean, you just can't survive like that.
And if you have no run game, then the defense knows that you have to pass. Because they fell behind in points so quickly, I mean, there's naturally gonna be pressure and the Lions are able to do whatever they want essentially because you're constantly playing form behind the sticks.
They were so desperate, you know, they had to go for a and there was that Branch interception early, which was a great play where I think he baited Dak Prescott in it. Branch made it look like he was gonna cover the defender in the flat and Dak fell for it. And that's amazing that Branch is pulling off plays like that, But you weren't thrilled with some of the routes CD ran. They also went for that fourth and two in their own and they had to at that point they're down I think it was fourteen or
seventeen points. It's like early third quarter, and it's basically the game's over because we know we're not going to make any stops. We have to go for fourth downs in our own and and yeah, I'm with you. I don't think it's been the best CD LAMB season so far either.
No, And I get your caring frustration with you, but you're fourth and two. You know that you are the guy they've paid you to be that guy, and you do a slow, kind of heavy release off the line. You've got the defender sitting at the sticks the whole time. You don't even make him move or or you know, have that like explosiveness that we need from you, and then the ball gets thrown and nothing's carried in. I mean, and that happened multiple times throughout the day.
Phoebe loves herself some football, so I like it when she kind of puts on her Ali Connolly.
Hat a little more critical.
Yeah, I mean we spoke about this in the preview. Everything they do on offense just looks like hard work, every single part of it. And I love Dak probably more than anyone, but missus Prescott. I really believe he is. I've called him before. He's the closest thing we have to Peyton Manning pre snap as Will were seeing, he just loves to go out there to pick people apart, and he is a true football genius. But there comes a time when it's like we need some easy buttons.
There's nothing in that offense that is easy. Even when they have they try and put different receivers out there, the commitment the effort is so poor. They have to pull explosive guys off the field to put not explosive guys on they think we'll actually try. It's a huge, huge problem. Everything about the offense, from designed to details, to effort and intensity, the talent and technique, it's all so lacking.
And at a time when the league is all about simplifying, right, it's all about even just presenting quarterbacks with his read one, two three, we're not even gonna make you read the defense. We're going to make it so easy for you within the structure, and Dak Prescott's being told, no, you have to do literally everything.
The most embarrassing part of the game is just watching the other side of the field and seeing all the creativity, all the movement, all the effortlessness. To the point where has there ever been a team play in their own building get hammered the way that they did. And this has happened now multiple times. It's four games in a row they've been hammered. And then you have a team the Lions, in the fourth quarter to say, our only job is to get one of our tackles a touchdown.
That's all we care about.
And you were on a Jerry Jones beat. It was indeed, please give me the report.
This is Jerry jones eighty second birthday today, and this is coming off the back of the Cowboys allowing one hundred and sixty seven points over their last four home games. So it's not a happy time in Jerry world right now. And he was asked afterwards about the potential for a head coaching change. I'm not going to do the accident because it would be horrible at any time of day, but particularly at half two in the morning or whatever it is. Jones said, I haven't even considered that. I'm
not considering that, so we're clear. And when he was told he had made it in season change before, he bristled and responded, do you think I'm an idiot? I'm not so, Jerry Jones in fine Jerry Jones form afterwards, going and addressing the media, and this is their worst
defeat in the Jerry Jones era at home. The last time they lost, the last time they lost by this many points was the year before Jerry Jones bought the team, So right now he could be understood if he's having some pretty tough conversations with Mike McCarthy and the rest of that coaching staff.
The positive spin is, for as many issues as they've had, they've sort of managed the season well enough that they're three and three at this point. They got that win in New York, which is a division whin, they got that fourth down pickup against the Stealers, just that at least there's hope if you're Jerry Jones, the eternal optimist. At three and three, the bigger issue is if they lose to the teams that are their biggest rivals, or
were at least in the NFC. You're going to San Francisco, then you're in in Atlanta for Philly and washing Houston and at Washington. It is a tough slate coming up. So everyone's gonna be on Mike McCarthy watch. We get it, but it's it's not gonna happen.
I don't think going into a bye week as well. This is the bye week with San Francisco.
Yeah, but that's what I mean.
Wins, those wins, Those wins saved him his job. I believe for sure he's gonna give him a chance against those rival teams and for Michael Parsons to come back.
But they're in a very difficult situation. Before we move on from this.
Game, at least we should just give it a little love to like the line, this is the game we're gonna probably gonna send the most time, we watched it very closer. I mean, Montgomery going twelve for eighty, Jumior gives twelve for sixty three. They're just leaning on Deffinitly, it was like Ben Johnson was just cycling through the team. Oh, we haven't gotten a mon Ross Saint Brown a touchdown late in this game. Let let's get it to him. And then Saint Brown for some reason just sprints to
the bench and starts screaming into the air. I don't know what he was so worked up about, but I loved him. Oh, let's get the deep shot to Jamison Williams after he has a drop early. Let's have Tim Patrick make it insane. One Hen did catch early where
he comes back for the balls. Ciam Laporta, who has been quiet our season, only has one catch, but it goes for fifty two yards out of beautiful thrist and it's like everything is just beautiful right now in Ben Jonson then, like they just feel like they're in the fourth year of their tenure, and it's like, if you could write a book out of how to rebuild an organization, this is it.
Almost everything is beautiful, and Ben, You're right. So the only thing that he was so desperate to get alignment a touchdown after what happened against the Cowboys last season, and he tried it four separate times, and each time they got called for a penalty or something went wrong on the play, to the point at which he was just stood on the sideline looking bewildered after another one
got called back. I felt bad Ben Jonson was clearly looking to do something, and this is a league where you're not meant to run at the score and you're not meant to embarrass other teams. You felt like this was a bit of an emotional win for the Lions after last year, and I feel like Ben Jones was just a little bit disappointed to not get the hands all in the hands of a big man.
Love that they kept going for that.
If that's the topic on the Dumb Debate shows on Monday morning, I'll be so annoyed. But I thought you were going to point out, actually there was something bad that happened for the team. It was the catastrophic injury to the heartbeat of the team. That's like the number two overall pick in the draft.
Watch.
Yeah, I forgot to before we go.
I do want to just get your guys thoughts on Tom Brady after six weeks, because this was the most locked in I was to a Tom Brady performance.
I've been on Tom Brady beat Watch. Essentially most important player in the history of the game modern wise steps into a booth gets paid, Yes, how much money by Uncle Rupert to come on cold games. The first week was horrifying, boldline, embarrassing. He got really, really good, really quick. No one noticed. Now the voice is a concern. Certainly the voice is slightly grating, but he is that.
Can be overcome just charm and one liners.
It's fine, he's really settled into them. I'm allowing him to nerd out over football. When he's nerding out of a football he is as good as it gets with anyone in communicating when they force him to do football cliche, let's talk guy. He's brutal. You can see he's playing a character he's watched on TV. So we get these like four or five snapshots a game of Tom Brady being Tom Brady, which is, let me just be a
football dog, and he's really good at it. The more they can do that, the more they can maximize that. The moys is best.
But surely there's an element that he is still growing into this role. Just I get it. They've played him a lot of money. Everyone thinks he should be wonderful, but it doesn't happen like that. I mean, all of us have been in that situation where you're building chemistry with the person next to you you're trying to figure
out so you don't have these awkward pauses. I think he's trying to figure out who is he as a broadcaster, because that can't exactly be the same guy when he was on the field, and that's all he's known for so long. So I think he's going to keep getting better. Like you said, he's very coachable, right, I mean that's why he's been so successful. So he's going to be self scouting. He's going to be doing all this work on him his own to make himself.
I mean, we're doing it right now on our first try as a fourth and it's not taking us.
A while in the world now, I'm buying all the stock. I think he's gonna be a super stuff. Someone who is that homicidely competitive is going to go home every night. He's going to fix the voice, he's going to watch the tape. He's going to make himself be the best. You got Romo hitting the links, you know, five days a week, Brady is going to be in the booth at home practicing. U. Okay, He's gonna be great. So today was the day that convinced me that I anger, right.
I think there are certain things I'll like other guys more for or less. He's still got a ways overall to catch up with, like a Greg Olsen to me. But today I was like, oh, he is going to be really good at this.
And I think part of it was that he enjoyed today watching championship level offense. He was like, finally someone who meets my standards, Like I can accept these guys. These guys are worthy of me watching them, I am enjoying great football.
Yeah, after he'd have to sit and watch the Cowboys from the first five weeks of the season, he was excited to see a team who legitimately have a Super Bowl possibility. Look, I think for me and I'm with Ollie when he gets nerdy, I love it. But we are a room of four nerds, so like, of course we're going to love that. I'd like just a little bit more kind of honesty slash reflection on his own career.
There was a brilliant moment in week two when Jalen Brooks lost his footing on what was a wide open throw and ended up not catching the ball, and Kevin Burkhart turned to him when was like, Tom, would you go back to him immediately on the next play, and these stock answer is yet, you go back to your guy. You have to trust them, you have to prove that you trust me. You have to build up their confidence. And Bradi just went, no, that guy's not seeing the ball.
The rest of the game, just was honest about it. I'm not throwing to him again for the rest of the set.
Welcome to Bethel Dance in his career And the best example of that was the Baker Mayfield one, because they had a pre set ready to go. They did it in the meeting and they had the graphic ready to life. We're gonna throw to tom what you're gonna say, and they figured it out, we'll go to camera, it's Kevin and it's Tommy and Cameron will do that. But before they could get to it, they mentioned it on air. He let out how he really felt, which was passive,
aggressive and pissed off and annoyed. The Baker Mayfield said that and then was anadyne when they actually threw it to the part they'd pre planned. So if he can just let slip out more how he really feels, I don't know if you can do it. When you become a team owner. Maybe he's just gonna be watching and seeing Ben Jonson. I'll hire him for the Raiders. Maybe
that's what he was thinking in the third quarter. But that real guy who's in there, who is part dork, partner, part business guy, I think if he can just let it come out more often, he's gonna be great.
You forgot like the seventy percent like pathological killer, which I like when that comes out to. So, yes, we're not gonna do a like a five minute Brady recap every week, but maybe every six weeks we'll just check in out him. All right, let's take at one quick break. We're gonna come back. I'm gonna talk a little Saints Bucks. Yes, the agenda, how did it too?
Or second down five promotion Godwin play action fake Bayfield, looks downfield, throws up to caught ball on the left side.
Put across the fifty to the forty five is Godwin. He breaks another.
Tackle, Godwaight down the sideline upside of the numbers to the ten, five, three two one touchdowns.
T have a bay Chris.
Godwin fought through a tackle, King, got his balance and scoots fifty five yards to the promised lamp.
If it's Sunday, you know it's Dean Deckerhoff on w f US. Another victory for the Go Go Buccaneers offense. They put a fifty burger on Dennis Allen in the Superdome. Chris Godwin showing up week after week ends up with eleven catches, one hundred and twenty five yards and two touchdowns.
We went into this game, Will thinking Spencer Rattler, and I left this game thinking, Dennis Allen and this defense that they've been building for so long is no match for one of the best offenses in the league, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Yea, I think your buddies at the Saints block party aren't gonna be happy for what they saw from the Saints defense today because Tampa.
Bakolu joining me on Thursday night.
Not to cut you off, sorry, Will, but Thursday night could be a funeral for Dennis Allen with Sean Payton coming into the building. So I am looking forward to that post game with them on NFL Daily no matter what happens. For their sake, I hope the Saints win, but if they don't, it'll be probably a better show.
Look, this was a super fun game. Fifty one twenty seven is slightly slightly harsh, I would say on Spencer Ratler and then Orleans Saints twenty fourth coarter points for Tampa Bay put a late kind of hurting on them, but five hundred and ninety four yards of total offense, and Baker Mayfield had the most Baker Mayfield of days today opening drive five to five fifty eight yards, brilliant touchdown strike. I was like, this is the Baker that has come out in last year or so, had really
shown out. In the end, four touchdowns, three interceptions for his three hundred and twenty five yards. I would say only one of them was truly on him, was a truly bad throw, but otherwise a really good all round performance from Baker Mayfield. But it was the rushing. It was the performance on the ground. It was John Tucker coming out and having fourteen carries for one hundred and
thirty six yards and a touchdown. It was a total rushink stats number of what they had three hundred and seventeen in the end, two hundred and seventy seven yards on the ground. Astonishing.
Yeah, and they've really struggled to run the ball for much of the year. This is the first game last week they started to get it going a little bit. This one was where they were pairing the efficiency with the explosiveness. I think they ended up with ten explosive runs over the course of the game. I think they had ones of thirty one, thirty twenty nine big gashing runs and Dennis Allen, if nothing else, will be furious that that team was pushed off the ball like that.
Even the way they played defense, bunch of defensive backs, tons of dime. It is built structurally that we at least stop the run, then we kind of get funky on the back and then try and force turnovers. They got the turnovers, but they couldn't stop the run.
I know I'm paying attention more to the Saints than most teams.
When while Brian Brant was having that game, I was thinking the Saints drafted Isaiah Faski over Brian Brandt at a moment where they really could have used that position.
Oh hugely.
I mean it was.
It was definitely a situation where they need to be stacking their defense a little bit more. But even just looking at the game overall, I mean, just going to the Saints for a second, the fact that they scored twenty seven points in the second quarter, and that was all that they scored in the second quarter. That Tampa Bay let that happen. But then they said, no, we've had enough of this. This is not going to carry on anymore.
That was really what was noticeable from Spencer Ratler's day. And it was a tough day in terms of chrys Olav goes out with with a concussion on that fantastic defensive play. The fumble was returned for the touchdown, but in the first half, ten of thirteen one hundred and thirty seven yards had the touchdown as well across the Saints' first six strives. And then it felt like at the half Todd Bowls went sorry, why are.
We getting his spy?
Like, why are we making a fifth round rookie do this to us? Dialed up a ton of interesting pressures forced him into going eleven of twenty three with two interceptions in the second half. And ye, he was doing it while they were taking a Rasija heat away down the field while he had no Chris Lava. You know that the guy who was seeming to see most of his looks was the fellow fifth round rookie Bub means what a name that is. By the way, five catches,
forty five yards and a touchdown for him. Overall, I thought for a first game for a fifth round rookie Spence, the rattler did enough for me to say, Okay, this guy could be something in the NFL.
Yeah, certainly, maybe one of these long term career backup swing start guys comes into a spot and you get a three week run where you're all really excited about its rattler ball season. You can move around and create. This is why I will always go down with Todd. He has never met an answer to a question that has not just let me blitz more. And it was very clear that you could see just seeping through the screen was Ball saying, I am gonna light this young
guy up. It's annoying me right now. And they sent plenty of heat in the first half too, but he just decided it's over. I'm sending everything. And it was pretty clear too that Ratler was told stop taking off early, see it, read it, look it, throw it. And he was actually playing efficiently as you mentioned will early on and had a few decent scrambles as well, and so he's sitting in not wanting to move, and balls is sending all kinds of heat, and you pair the two together,
suddenly you get a bunch of negative plays. But I thought it was, as you said, for a first outing against a really tough defensive look, I thought he was impressive.
Yeah, they need to support him more.
It was fourteen nothing and all he had done was throw a completion into a lava where it was a fumber return and that was just bad luck. But your defense is not expecting to give up a touchdown on the first drive. Your defense, which is what the whole Saland thing is really about, like, Hey, I can't hire an offensive coordinator. We're going to figure out how to
have an offense that's just good enough. We're going to play this defense that there's so much continuity in terms of the scheme goes back practically a decade at this point with Alan and the players that we're going to keep ourselves in games. We're going to try to run the football with Alvin Kamara that certainly dried up over the last handful of weeks, and we're going to be
a top five defense. So if a division opponent comes into your building, this is one of the lowest moments of the Dennis Allen era.
It just blows my.
Mind that I did a podcast talking about how great the Saints were and maybe some Super Bowl hype in New Orleans and stuff, and that was just a few weeks ago, and now they're on a long losing streak with Sean Payton coming into town and they just gave up fifty points for the first time since the Giants and Eli Mannon came in.
I remember this game well. It was a Sunday night football in October.
Now, if I get this wrong, Everyone's like, actually, you didn't remember well, But I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday night football in October, and I was in Stamford, Connecticut, just waiting for that game to end so I can take a car back to the city at like one in the morning. It reminded me of tonight with that Lions Cowboys game. Phoebe and we were just like, let's hurry this thing up with the reviews and everything. A
big moment in the same season. It's a long way to go, but I do just want to give the Bucks credit because I just think this offense has been dockingly consistent and consistently good and now they're getting the
running game involved. And Mike Evan said before the game that this game wasn't just about them, and I'm sure it was not lost on anyone with the devastation of the hurricane this week and they're spending the week in New Orleans, a city who it almost sounds like familiar to that it's only a football game, But it's also awesome they went out and won this game, and this team has a chance to do something pretty special, which is win a division again, like they could win at
four straight times, which is crazy.
Yeah, and it's amazing to see what they've done with Baker Mayfield over the years. I mean, he is someone that's really come into his own from when he left the Rams to coming out to Tampa Bay. I mean, he's got an incredible crew around him. Like you said, you get the run game going. That's such a big part of what they've needed so far. And to run all over a New Orleans Saints defense that with keeping them in the games early on as well. So I think that they have a lot to be proud of.
And I think it's impressive that, you know, this team want to represent Florida, they want to represent Tampa Bay and be a beacon of hope essentially, and this is this is a pretty good way to feel. Fifty one to twenty seven is a nice ending to this game.
I also want to give just a bit of a shout out to the defensive side of the ball in general. We talked about those blitz in the second half, but Kelijah Canci comes back, have some time out wrecked the middle of that offensive line throughout, and they've got so much kind of great talent on the back end of their deals, good young talent. But we mentioned the fumble player, the crystal Abby Tike Smith who made that play also had an absolute day from himself, and they just keep
seeming to find these gems in the draft. When they went on that Super Bowl run, yes there was all the talk about it was Tom Brady and Gronk coming back and all that excitement on the other side of the ball, but it was the brilliant drafting they've done on the back end of the defense that I thought really won them that Super Bowl, and they just seem to keep doing it again. So the Bucks are kind of a team that we're probably not talking about enough as could have an impact come January.
Yeah, I worry about the sustainability of them. Defensively. I don't think the pass rush is a true pass rush. I mean they're playing today, it's a rookie quarterback. They're on the third center the scenes. Who is in charge of figuring out who's going where, who's blocking who? What are we all doing? Do we even know all the words and the calls? We've had the three days to work together, and top Balls is sending six to seven guys every other play in the second half, so we'll ruin our fun.
Sean Tucker had hundred and ninety two yards from squimmage. Sterling Shepherd had more Russian yards than anyone on the Dallas Cowboys.
Sterling's he's back.
I tried to warn you the Liam Cohen was a major upgrade of a day of Canalis, and here he's rolling now. They play with such incredible tempo and that feel of when to go to things, all the end the rounds today, all the creativity they get guys wide open. Baker's playing really well, decisive, taking off and making up plays with his feet. He has become way more decisive with Cohen than of almost lush. You.
I gotta say yeah.
That gino ish contract they gave Baker was very similar, where it's like you're not quite a super franchise quarterback, but you're you're not a mid level guy. It's somewhere in between. I think it's aging pretty well so far. There is separation in the NFC South. There are the havelves. That's the Buccaneers. That's the Falcons, who will get to in a bit, and then there's the have nots. It's the Saints and the Panthers. Let's go to Green Bay where they were having a lot of fun.
DoD's not a played the motion to the right side snammed the love under pressure.
Love looks he's a down the right side, making it testable. Tip toes into the eight sout play six sat like desperations through.
Charge love to his good buddy, throw me up stub to the Packers twenty yard touchdown pass re established control this game.
It's thirty to thirteen, Wayne Laravie of w r n W. Good buddy he is. It almost felt like when they dialed up some big playser like, we gotta get Dobbs some touchdowns today. So he's happy with everyone and they give him big hugs after the touchdown. Jordan Love finally has a normal game, at least normal for him, which is throwing just bonkersly talented throws to his receivers. Jayden Reed,
Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs all get it done. Four touchdown throws for Jordan Love thirty four to thirteen is the final, and maybe this Packer season is just kind of settling into where it should be.
When they brought him back in Week four and throw him in against the Vikings and he still clearly didn't quite look right, and you knew that he was going up against that Brian Flores defense and all the exciting stuff that they do, Like there was some little little bit of kind of almost panic mode of okay, how has Lafleur managed to scheme up some really amazing performance out of elite Willis? And then Jordan Love comes back and looks that bad. This is the Jordan Love that
we saw last year. He still will have those moments and Ollie or test for this, I'm sure where he'll make some boneheaded throws and just plays that you just do not expect a top tier quarterback to make. But I thought he was sensational today the Romeo Dobs touchdown,
the one we just heard. Ben was one of the players of the day for me, both in what Love did but in the catch itself as well, And it was just fun to see them up and firing again in an NFC which at the moment, outside of the Vikings has looked like there's no one grabbing it by the scruff of the neck. This is a Packers team who actually finally might be figuring things out.
Yeah, this was the Love stripping away any of the ears of the last few weeks here. He has been throwing it to everyone all over the place, no matter what since he's returned, and this just kind of trimmed down some of the fight. He still had some of the most unbelievable throws of the day. The inbreak to Doubs that he hits it's between three players at once is a lifetime type throw, one of the all time throws you'll ever see that will be forgotten. What was incredible.
He just the things that used to be really difficult for him when he first started picking up pressure attack in the middle of the field are now the things that are easy for him, and the things that were easy before He's just now mastered. I'm such a huge Jordan of fan. When you pair the efficiency, the instincts, the anticipation with some of the offscript creativity, that's when you start ratching up to like, Okay, how high is
he going up? The peck can go to here? When he's at his best game, he's probably in the six to seven range already, and I think climbing.
Oh yeah, and the great plays are so great that you forgive some of the downside. I think Packers fans had just been a little panicky and overreacting to the start. They were weirdly like unhappy about it situation where you were three and two and Malik Willison started a couple of those games.
It's a long season. This is a young team, one of the youngest, maybe the youngest team in the league. It's them in the Rams, I believe. And look, it's an overmatched Cardinals defense at least talent wise. But both sides of the ball played well for the Packers, and they have to feel really good where they're at coming out of week six.
Yeah, and I mean look, and he was injured for those first couple of weeks as well. I mean, what Lafleur does, and the way that he schemes things up and the play calling that he has, he puts Jordan Love in a great position. I mean, he is a coach that's able to really understand the piece of the puzzle he has, and we saw that again Malik Willis earlier on. There's not many coaches we're seeing that nowadays that have answers to the test for his players. Jordan Love.
I love that he sat, you know, for a while behind Aaron Rodgers. He's still learning. His actual rep experience is not as high as some of the other quarterbacks out there. So yeah, his line of success he's going up, but it's not going to be without its pitfalls. And you're kind of taking that as he's still developing as a young guy.
Yeah, I just want to take a time out here where we've reached three am. Phoebe was actually a totten about like nine am or something like that, doing early hits. I want to just do a little bit of a welfare check because as we were we were in our break, Will said that you eat more than any person he's ever met, and it just felt like you needed a little more energy. So we'll give you a break to eat that candy bar if.
You can too.
And for our American listeners who haven't ever watched any of the stuff that we put out and talks for I am a man who weighs well north of so I'm saying that you eat too much. He's really saying something.
Oh baby, Hench, No, Look, I just I need to constantly be fed here. So I appreciate y'all letting me have a couple of bites in my candy bar.
Yeah, and if you if you check out Phoebe's workout routine on Instagram, you understand how it all makes sense. Thirty four to thirteen. Does any reaction to this Cardinals team Ali who's up and down? Not really up and down on the defensive side of the ball. They seem like one of those teams that on defense they spin the wheel a little bit and sometimes it'll work.
Usually it probably won't. But offensively a disappointing day, I would.
Say, yeah, And particularly in the first quarter, they just couldn't get anything going to open the game, and it just felt they were playing from behind from the get go. I think it speaks just more to the packages disappointing. It was for the Cardinals. This is one of those take care of business. If you're a real contender and you know you're overmatched and you can you're just more talented the other team. This is a take care of business,
win by two, three touchdown type game. When you watch the Cardinals play, particularly on defense, they're just not as athletic as everyone else in the NFL, and they're not as athletic, for certain as that package team, and you can just feel the talent imbalanced all throughout the game.
Yeah, they need their offense and Kyler Murray to be special. They need their running game to be way more consistent than it's been this year. A little bit of a disappointment to me, and they just weren't up for it today like they were in that visional matchup last week.
We've waited long enough. Let's let's head to the game that we started with.
It is time for the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camera to Tottenham.
Mercedes Lewis and Colcomett on the right hand side the line on the left roma Tunday, they've got a fullback in in the form of an extralignment.
They put the ball in there, Swift de Andre Swift into the end zone touchdown, Chicago Bears, a one yard punge for the former Detroit Lion now Chicago Bear.
And that is the cherry on top of a very good Sunday for.
Chicago in North London.
Oh, put that on the Call of the Year list. It is Will Gavin of tx Sport Radio.
You have the power to do that, Will Varney behind the glass right, you could put it on unless Eric Roberts editing it behind the scenes. Yes, that was Deandres Swift finding pay dirt in a thirty five to sixteen victory for the Bears. Came into this game wondering can the Bears continue to beat up offensively on under their overmatched defenses.
They absolutely did it.
Caleb Williams ends up with four touchdowns on the day and he didn't even feel like he had to work that hard throughout.
The game to do it.
Yeah. I don't want to suggest a negative against the Jags immediately, but we knew going into this game, and we talked about this a lot with Ollie going into this weekend and on our call on talkSPORT today that they are a defensive play and a ridiculous amount of press man without having any talent in their back seven whatsoever. I actually thought the linebacker's played well today comparatively for
a Jags defensive performance. I said, comparatively, Ollie, I see you shaking your head over there, But I just on that back end. You know, Andre Cisco had the pick today, but on that culomet touchdown, had two separate opportunities to tackle him and failed on it. Just was picked on all day long. Out side of that, and I thought that schematically, they again made it quite easy for Caleb Williams. But this felt for me like the day where we really got to see the fun side of Caleb Williams.
Four scrambles for fifty six yards. He made the right decisions in the right moments of when to tuck and run and when to pass the ball, and yeah, I just thought all round it was a not coming out performance, because the last three weeks have gradually got better and better, but this was his best all round game for me, and like getting to watch it live, it was a real, real joy.
This was the first superstar performance, I think it's fair to say, and it's a payoff really for all the pain they went through in the early weeks, you know, Shane Waldron was getting just crushed by everyone gang. He's burning through this young rookie. They threw the motherload at him.
With the expectation by the time we reached this week we gate, week ten, week twelve, we could start blending everything together, which is we have this really expansive, cool, cohesive offense that Caleb is running the show at the line of scrimmage all throughout the game. He's checking everything the whole time, and then when needed he can take off and create. And it was for him to figure out on what plays can I do my Caleb Williams things, and on what plays am I playing within the rhythm
of the offense. In the last two weeks when they came alive, he was just purely strictly I play in this stroke, ture, I do my thing. They face a Jags defense that plays a bunch of press bank covers, like will said, does nothing to disguise, create, blitz, do anything up from or on the back end. So it was time for him to say, if it's not that, I can take off and play. And it was just finally seeing the first glimpse I felt of the USC style Williams in the league.
And look, you still see some plays.
There was a scramble to his left in the red zone where or no coming towards us in the deep bread zone where he couldn't outrun the defender where he finds. Oh Man, it's not as easy to outrun people in the NFL. Even on one of his long runs towards the end, towards our end, where he has a chance to maybe make someone miss, and you can almost see him thinking like what juke am I gonna do? And he just sort of jukes back and forth and he gets tackled. But that's I mean after a twenty yard run.
I've been really impressed. And I know Kurt Warner was on the NFL Network broadcast and he's a hard greater when it comes to real quarterback and stuff that he seems so comfortable in this Waldron offense. And your guy does deserve a lot of credit calling up good plays, I think, making it for easy for him sometimes. But also Caleb is making the right throws, throwing back shoulder,
looking off defenders, getting to his second read. All the things that really weren't emphasized when he was a prospect are the things I think he's excelling at the earliest as a pro.
Yeah, and it's been great to see because he has been stacking these bricks week in and week out, and he faced a lot of criticism and he's overcome all of that and he's just putting out great work right now. I mean, look, it helps you get DeAndre Swift, who's doing a great job with that rushing. The offensive line is doing much stronger. We'd seen previously really great glimpses of what Caleb Williams can be when he had an
O line that could protect him. So now his accuracy, his decision making, all of that is really coming together. And he's got this great character of receivers, you know, amongst Roma Dunze with your Coolkmets, Keenan Allen's. These guys are all really doing a great job. Of course Dj Moore, so it's been great to see.
Like they had a break at the end of the third quarter and I believe the score at that point was twenty one to ten, and you're thinking, this is where like, if the Jaguars have any chance to win, you're putting so much money in that defensive line and resources with Trayvon Walker as the one pick and Ark Armstead, you know, has a good game to start out in Josh Hayen's island, like go make a play and they're on the goal line and he doesn't allow them to
make the play. He makes the absolutely perfect throw to Keenan Allen, and being there, we were in that corner.
It's such a basic observation being there live, but you just realize how perfect a play like that has to be, How there's so little margin for error for Caleb Williams to be even a quarter of a second off and Keenan Allen to make that throw, and that throw has to have the exact right velocity but also the right touch in the smallest window windows, and he just hits it, and you realize like, oh, well, great offense can just neutralize whatever the Jaguars wanted to do on this day,
and that was the case. The Bears now officially have an offense that will punish bad defenses, which is a pretty major step, because I don't know if we can say that about any Chicago Bears offense that I've been alive for, maybe like a great month of Jay Cutler that I enjoyed quite a bit.
I I And the thing for me as well is that it wasn't completely perfect and there is still room for growth. You mentioned some of the scrambling. There was the one where he got his long scramble of the day, the twenty three yard of where he got to midfield and ended up sliding down on the sheld well. There still wasn't a guy within.
Yes, that's what I mean with the instincts, so he's like in his own head a little bit.
It felt like he could have gone another ten to fifteen yards there. And the inception I think when you watch that play back, DJ Moore is wide open two or three steps earlier in that throw, and that's something he's going to have to learn to trust his instincts,
learn to trust the play a little bit on. But I think it's the fact that he throws that interception when the game is still tight at seven to three, and then gets the ball back and comes out and has probably his best drive of the game on the next drive to make it fourteen three and essentially wipe out any chance it felt like the Jags had of
coming back. And it's that short term memory we always ask for quarterbacks to have on top of making the right decisions, on top of calling the plays and making the great throws, and yeah, just all round, really really impressed.
I think the pig is an important point because there was a bad pig. Bad throw got out of the timing of the offense, took like two three extra beats, and he should have done as you mentioned, it's wide open by the time he liked to go. No on is a bad ball. He hangs it inside. He lost up for some strange reason. It was it never had a chance because he just didn't get out in time.
And what he's done so well in the past couple of weeks is understand which throws our need timing and within the flow of the offense on which are the ones he can go and create on. And this to me was the most all around package game because we got to see, you know, the creativity and the good size. We got to see him play within rhythm with instruction.
What I think he showed today that he's not shown a great deal of in the past is more general management of the game, not in terms of just you know, dealing with things at the line of scrips and getting the ball out to the right pieces. Not going big game hunting. They didn't really spark to begin with, and his default has always been to slip into bad habits
and just chase the deep ball every single time. And this was the first game where he's just kind of committed and stayed to what the offense is asked of him, and then if he needs to do something, then he'll try and take off and do it. So this was like a true pro quarterback performance with some like magic doest sprinkled on top, and that to me, will be the most exciting part of this development.
Love it, Love that recap, and I love that they took the buy after London. I always think it's a mistake take the buye after.
You get the win. You sit on this.
They're at a perfect point in the season. They're at four and two. They beat the teams they were supposed to beat. The schedule will get harder down the stretch, but everything is on schedule. The defense we just take for granted is going to be solid and iber Flus's mix things up a little bit more. If it was allowed, Kevin Bayard would be a good comeback Player of the
Year candidate. But now I think you're not allowed to come back from just being bad, so like Philip Rivers that year where he went from the eighteenth best quarterback in the league to the fifth, like that would not have counted. But they were rock solid, even like first drive of the game, you know, they give up a long drive and then they make the play to break up the touchdown in the end zone from Gabe Davis.
Maybe Gabe Davis could have brought that in if he didn't double clutch it, but still Elijah Hicks didn't give up on the play. And in their defense, it's just a rock solid defense. And one thing I really appreciated being there was of all the London games I've gone to, and you can tell me if you disagree, this was the biggest home field advantage. Like it was a true
BEARSS crowd, which was a cool place to be. I think just being there you could see it in the crowd of course, but it was more of the reactions that there were a couple of plays because we were doing sideline, Me and Olivia Harlan Decker, who was fantastic.
It was a lot of fun.
Occasionally we weren't turned towards the field for whatever reason. We had to look at the monitor, and you could hear the crowd go ah, and then the cheer and the oh was oh, Caleb Williams just threw that ball a little too high, but then the applause was oh Roshawn Johnson came down with it with a one handed catch and just everything the reactions to like a near
face mask in the official reviews. Everything was just like a home game, which felt very cool for someone that I've gone to these games quite a bit and I thought it was pretty unique.
You heard it from moment one when in the pregame warmups the Jags came out to wall up and got booed out.
I know, you never hear it at this game. I've never heard booze at this game.
And we were in the locker room afterwards we were asked about that and Jonathan Owens actually said like, did you hear them boo? I was like, yeah, but the biggest boo of the game did come for a Packers Sucks sign, which he didn't buy on. Unfortunately. I thought we might have some fun.
There was also a lot of Packers sucks chance yeah, which is you gotta be careful of that. Ali you've lived in Boston, although you lived there after two thousand and four. But yeah, Yankee sucks after two thousand and four. It feels way different than how often it was before two thousand and four. And it feels like an inferiority complex when it's your chanting Packers sucks in London.
Just just enjoy your team. That's sort of saying where the little brothers it is.
But I think they recognize we got Caleb Williams. Okay, it may not be for too long. You know, we'll get another year in of this and then maybe just maybe we could be having division races for the next okay, ten to fifteen years.
Okay, I love that.
I thought the Pan's defense is the other thing that really highlighted from each there. You mentioned it, but you know they lost to Kwonbriska before this game. Tyrek Stevenson out of this game. Even Terrell Smith didn't travel, so they're missing their third corner as well. Kyler Gordon, who's you know, the big nickel corner who blitzes a huge amount, goes out of this game as well, and just the rotational guys that come in. Josh Blackwell had a big game.
Jalen Jones had a big game. Elijah Hicks, who you mentioned, had a big game, and just like when those rotational guys can come in and have a big performance, I think that defense right now looks like a top five defense in the NFL, which you pair that with the quarterback that we're all very excited about. Maybe I'm overstating it on a performance against the bad Jags team, but I really impressed with that side of the ball as well. And you mentioned taking the buye after London. I like
taking the buy after London. What I'm probably less keen on is teams who stay in London after a horrible loss like that, because what a rough week this is going to be for the Jacksonville Draguars.
I mean it'd be rough in Jacksonville too.
You're right, Doug Peterson might be how b to be here because I think there were questions about his job security before this game, whether he was gonna make this trip. They win last week, it's close, next week feels do or die. Just he sounded very tight in the postgame press coming. He sounded tight at halftime speaking with our NFL network. It just it's a tough situation just on field.
Did you have any takeaways of like watching Trevor Lawrence and what this product is right now, because there's just like a not a lot they can hang on to.
And Trevor Lawrence played okay in this game.
Was kind of a typical Trevor Lawrence performance where you look up and you're like, he didn't play that poorly, but he just leaves you wanting in crucial situations.
Yeah, and it's not always on him, right, we saw, you know, fumbles from Evan Ingram, Tank Bigsby. I mean, I mean that just puts even more pressure on running game. Really No, yeah, no running game as well. I mean we were all thinking they had a little bit of momentum from last week's When you're coming out to London where you're pretty much the home town here, you've got two weeks of being able to build off of what you've done. I mean last year they were really successful
winning back to back games here. I just think that kind of since the beginning of this season that there's been issues in Jacksonville, and whether we're talking about when Trevor Lawrence was playing the Bills and he's rolling out from pressure that's not existing, or there's conversations from Doug Peterson around, Hey, I'm calling the right please. There's there's tension that's constantly building.
There was a moment on the sideline right towards the end of the game where you had Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk, Evan Ingram all stood there silently, shoulders slump staring out onto the field. So after they sent Mac Jones into the game in place of Trevor Lawrence and I just won.
For one, Trevor Lawrence is saying.
Trevor Lawrence is supposedly not a big rara guy, not a big kind of locker room leader in terms of making speeches and geeing people up. He's more of a do as I show, not as I say, kind of guy. And I look through that entire roster and I think, right, who this week is going to grab this team by the scruff of the neck and lift them up. Who
they're like? We went through it on air, and I think maybe Eric Harmstead, who's just come in there and he was like four time waterpayon Man of the Year nominee in San Francisco, Like he's a good locker room guy. But actually, there's no big veteran leaders on either side of the ball there, And so I think Doug Bederson's
got a real problem this week. Where you could get to Tuesday, you could get to Wednesday, and these units have all gone off into their separate meetings or complained about each other, complained about what the issues are, put blame on somebody else, and I think you could get quite toxic quite quickly.
Yeah, yeah, And I think you're right. I mean, there is really no veteran leadership. And when a team is struggling like this, even if you're faking it so you make it, you need some you need some sort of help from within the amount of head coaches that I've known that have that player, that veteran player on the team that they kind of have those private words with
to really kind of help share that message. I don't know who's talking to Doug Peterson, and I don't know who Doug Peterson's talking to you right now, because you're right, they all feel like they're all working in their own silos.
They could also see some cornerbacks.
That would help, and then you maybe change your system. If you don't have cornerbacks, maybe a staff meeting that could have been had. I'm with, will you know I don't buy into the ra ra stuff that much, but I was genuinely shocked watching them today. I've been doing so many games in high school college NFL. When you first start scouting, you get sent to really bad college games and they say, just watch the sideline, check the vibes. Put it in the report. I don't think I've ever
seen anything that bad before. It was so flat, the vibes were so off. The number of clicks that were building throughout the game, which it would start with everyone together slowly becomes seven, slowly becomes four, slowly becomes sections of three. That just does not happen in pro football. It was really odd, and we'll mention the lack of leaders. There really isn't when you go through them, someone who's talented and has some like juice to them. Trevor's not
like that. Peterson is not like that. Armsteads you mentioned. Is more of like a Nobel piece candidate type, lovely intelligent man than he is like somebody's gonna grab someone and say like, we've got to do well. Devin Lloyd is the only guy who profiles like that, and he has been shocking for most of the season, So you can't walk into a staff meeting and say everyone's gonna pick the game up. They'll throw the film on and say, yeah,
you shouldn't be playing in the league. So I genuinely think, having watched them on the sideline today, it's a bigger mess, and actually thought it was just watching the tape.
But surely that comes from the head coach ultimately, because I honestly thought the past couple of years, you bring Doug Petersontain in, he's, you know, this great coach. He's a quarterback himself, he's got all his experience is gonna share. But then I still go back to that press conference a couple of weeks ago where he's saying, well, I made the right decision. Well that's that's ultimately you.
He said after this game we need to have like a culture change, and the culture change and everyone had the obvious reaction, which is like, you're it, bro exactly.
Well, andre cisco I mentioned before, was also interviewed in the locker room afterwards after he'd said that, and he basically went in and went, yeah, everyone kind of took the second half off, basically accused all of his defensive teammates of just just giving.
Up well, it's true. Being there, just there was no resistance. It was tough to watch. But I've seen it so many times. I've seen teams right before they fired their coach, and it's crazy how that happens so often. So no one's going to enjoy that. The London curse is real. We're gonna it might hit twice this year.
We've we've never had a coach fired and they leave him in London as they continue to keep playing and go on and playing with you. Now, that would be and I know they wouldn't do that. I know that you wouldn't do that because you've ever done it before, you do it after. But that was a someone should get fired game. It was a someone should get fired performance. They change. He's not gonna let Press Taylor go. He's been banging his head against the drum with this thing
now for so long. They're not gonna change Ryan Nielsen. The only one you could change is Doug Peterson. I get Logistically, it's pretty much impossible because they're over for over a week.
Book.
That was not a that was like an embarrassing time.
Tony Khan coaches on Sunday.
They kind of make it a crossover where it's connected to the wrestling.
Like everyone wins.
I think you do? You move the rest day from Monday to Tuesday, and Monday Shad Khan just hosts any head coach who isn't currently in a job. Mike Rabel's flying over as you speak. Bill Belichick flying over as we speak, all joining him on his multi billion pound yacht on the Thames, just to talk about that job. We're gonna see. It's gonna be all over the paparazzi tomorrow, don't you are.
It is unfortunate. It does remind me Doug Peterson of the arc that he had with Philadelphia. Obviously it's lesser here, but it's still similar. They won that playoff game. There was a moment, but it just got a little stale. And who was a rough watch today? And that was the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camri. Whatever your vibe, it's a camera vibe. Learn more at
Toyota dot com slash Camry. I wanted to learn more about the new England Patriots new franchise quarterback Drake May and I did today in Foxborough.
Mixon in the backfield.
CJ.
Other setter.
Stroud gives the Joe over left guard boxs to.
The outside fifteen ten five to the pilot.
He's got it. Touchdown.
Joe Mixon checked back into the game and checks out of the end Zoon for six on a twenty yard TD run. Patriots fans headed for the exits have an hee day.
Enjoy the shower.
Oh, just sticking it. Mark VanderMeer k I lt he killed him.
I mean that is that is a Scott Zolac level called by the Texans. They were enjoying themselves a forty burger in Foxborough, forty one to twenty one. We'll get to the Drake May of it all, but I'll try to pretend that that wasn't the most important thing in this game and recognize there was a five and one team in this game that had everything rolling on offense.
This Patriots defense has quietly been among the league's worst this year, and C. J. Stroud, with Joe Mixon and Damian Pierce back in the lineup, really didn't see a lot of resistance from them.
Yeah, big, big rushing day for them on a day where we've had a few of those two hundred and thirteen yards on the ground. Mixing one hundred and fifty nine of those seems to really kick start as a little just a five and one team. They're five and one team where the only game they've lost was that road game against Minnesota where that defense just really really picked them apart. I think other than that, they've been incredibly impressive and they've beaten some really good teams on
that run as well. And overall today, as much as Mixon was absolutely huge for them on a day when Nico Collins was out, you have Tank Dell's step up and have his best game of the season. You mentioned Damian Pierce coming back into the lineup, he getting his touchdown, lovely run to the outside reaching for the pylon. I just this Texans team, Okay, again, a little bit like saying I don't want to overreact to a Bears team
facing a bad Jags team. This Patriots side have lost to some pretty bad teams this year already, but getting really excited about watching the sexist team play.
I mean, there's no quarterback I like watching more than c Distrot right now.
No, No, he's he is, I think in his own category with how he's actually playing at the moment. They operationally. Design wise, it's nothing that impressive. I think Bobby Slower got a lot of attention in credit because CJ. Stroud walked in the building was very special from day one, and their run game has been a mess for most of the time he's been there. This one of the
first time we got to see it actually succeed. And it was interesting because he often looks really uncomfortable even though he's playing very smooth and bailing them out of trouble. This was a great time to see you look how easy in effilus it looks for them when they're playing a poor team and then the operation becomes easy for him. He can just pluster bad defenses when at least everything
is okay or good off fine around him. And if they can find ways to develop and improve, if the line can get a bit better during the season, if the run game can hold up, then yeah, they're gonna be in the hunt in the AFC.
Yeah, there's success rate actually wasn't even that high on the rushing place It wasn't terrible, but it was essentially they popped a couple big ones, but Stroud on Placey wasn't under pressure in this game.
Was nearly perfect.
He did have that one interception early, but they scored early, they scored often. It was you know, it was pretty much fourteen nothing before Drake May got to do almost anything. And that's it's nice if you're a Texans fan to see that they can cruise to a victory like that, because that wasn't the case a couple of weeks ago.
They barely won against the Jaguars.
They've kind of been skating by and maybe not been quite as good as their record indicates because Stroud's been playing so well. Well, this was a game where they look like, Okay, this is the real deal contender, even though they're playing without Nico Collins.
Yeah.
I mean the run game week one, that was the Texas we thought we were going to get. Then you get some injuries and you know, so it's really great for today to be able to see Joe Mixon taking off one hundred and two yards, Damian Pierce, I mean, really mixing that in, and then Stefan Diggs is just continuing to grow and develop and become that number one receiver. It almost feels like their game against the Bills the other week has somehow brought them together and they're even
better friends than they've ever been. But that's kind of Stephan Diggs's vibe. He wants to find he wants to be that number one receiver, go to guy for their quarterback. But Tank Dell continues to do some great stuff, you know, a really nice relationship with Dalton Schultz.
So c J.
Stroud, I think he's just an anomalye ultimately where his poise, his patience, and then his ability to throw with such an incredible arm strength is pretty spectacular to watch.
Do you want to give me your Ali Connolly review of Drake May's first start? Just your first impressions before you really grind, you know, grind it all the tape. I know you're going to give the review on the sub stack, and I was happy to learn that some of our listeners signed up. So I go check out Ali Connolly's substack and you know, continue to make us look good for Ali Connolly for doing this work for us.
I will say up front, this comes with a bias that I think Drake May has a chance to be really, really, really special. I had him very close to Caleb Williams coming out of the draft, and so I'm going through that prism slightly if I am looking for confirmation bias that there may be some secret sauce in there. That to me was everything you could expect from a rookie
starting his first game with no offensive line. They get the left tackle injured on the first drive of the game, so they're rolling through guys no one's ever heard of up from their facing the probably, if not the best defensive front in the NFL least the one that gets the pressure at the highest rate. So for him to have only a couple of brain thoughts, if we can put it that way, to have the deep shot to Kashan Booty to make some plays of his legs, I
thought he looked a little bit overrowed. The footwork stuff was a real problem. It's going to be that way for some time with him, and I just don't know how you can really critique him for it. When you're trying to time things up with an offense where there's no protection, there's no help. It's not a great offense in general, in terms of design, there's not great receiver help. So just seeing the traits translate the arms there, he can move, he can create. He's got good instincts when
he bails from the pocket. The throw down the field to Booty was like a really high level timing, anticipation, placement throw. What more could you really hope for us? Like a flash of hope.
Yeah, everyone that was so worked up about, oh, you can't have let am play football. The Texans have a high pressure rate. He has more touchdown passes on the season already than Jakobe Brissett. That that's nice on players that he wasn't pressured in this game, and there weren't that that many. He was pressured almost fifty percent of the time, which is huge number, but place he wasn't. He goes twelve for eighteen one sixty two three touchdowns
and that interception. I believe that was the early one where he just might have been a little too hyped up in any sales a pass. But overall it was like, yeah, let's let's see our rookie quarterback play. And it's crazy that that might be four games this year that they've lost an offensive lineman in the first quarter.
It just like keeps happy.
Like even as bad as their offensive lineman is, it even gets worse that they always have a first quarter injury to one of the key spots. So overall, it's like, yes, at least give the Patriots fans some reason to watch this drek.
It's it's six different offensive lines in six games basically, and their starting sentence there was a guy they signed off the Raiders practice squad three days before this game. Like that is a level of not front office in competence because you can't help the injuries.
It was incompetence how they went into the season. Now it's just bad luck on top.
Of the Yeah, exactly. And we talked a little bit about short term memory earlier. I think to have that bad overthrow which led to the Kalen Bullock interception on the second drive after going three and out on the first drive, people feeling a little bit wobbly puts together the nice drive, hits it, hits Kalen Boody for that deep Kishon Booty for that deep shot, and suddenly a little bit of juice, a little bit of something in that offense and that you already mentioned Greg more touchdowns
on the season already than Jacoby Russett. First time. They've passed the twenty point mark this season six games in as well, Like, Okay, it wasn't a great performance, but at least on the offense, there was something to get behind and enjoy, and Drake May was the driving force for that. Even with past protection issues and interceptions and everything that came with it.
The bounce back stuff will never be a problem with Drignae. He is like Eli levels of unflappable. Yes, just ket balls all over the place. Whenever he thinks there's any kind of sign of trouble, that will never ever be concerned. The concern is is he just going to get in his own head and start ripping it way more than he should? I thought he played with more control than
you could expect. You got pressured fift percent of the time against a really good defense to do an all kind of quirky things on the back end to change the picture and you don't know what's happening. That overthrow we had was Puel like, I don't know what's happening. I'm just gonna throw it, and the bowl sales on him because his feet got lost. To not have ten, eleven, twelve of those in those circumstances is to me pretty impressed in a really good place to build from.
Yeah, Ramandre Stevenson was out for this game of Antonio Gibson gets the start, has nineteen yards on thirteen carries. A man named Terrell Jennings was significantly involved in the running game. And you know who else was involved in this game. A man that Tom Curran, who has the best eye out there of any Patriots beat writer said was maybe the best receiver in all of training camp other than Pop Douglas, and that was Casean Bhute. And I love that you got him on the field with
Drake Maye. I just I know we're not having a lot of extra calls today, but I do want to hear the first touchdown pass of Drake May's career.
And now the Patriots havelet trom mc forty shots this Statt Bacul, he's in the pocket, he.
Runs back if there's a long ball down the right.
Sorry, this touchdown pass shun body on a perfect time from.
Trick May He he beat Stingley down the right side.
May dang, what a time for the first touchdown of his career as a Patriot.
Just desperate for the injection of Zola at this time.
I wanted to hear how zolaks fine. I would say that was like a five out of ten. Zoe Lac. The fact they were down fourteen nothing at the time probably just like dimmed the level of sounding like he's on crack. But good to have Scott Zolac on the show. Let's take a break. We are going to be back and talk about a high scoring game in the NFC.
Sound Cousins under center, McCloud emotion. Here's out here, straight ahead touchdown atlantaar just banging away at the north end zone. It's his first rushing store of the year.
That was Tyler Algiers first rushing scorer of the year, as West Durham of w z d C says thirty eight to twenty. The Panthers hung around in this game for a while, the Falcons pulling away late as they do in their shootouts in this wild NFC South season, the Falcons are on a roll, and I thought phoebe in this in this late window, we might get a little bit of a shootout.
We kind of needed a close game.
We didn't get it, but we're getting a good divisional race now between the Falcons.
And the Buccaneers.
Yeah, and we had a version of a shootout between the Falcons and the Panthers in this situation as well. I was quite honestly shocked by the fact to hear that Bijon Robinson it was his first time scoring two touchdown rushing touchdowns in a game like that, considering how incredible he has been. Look, when you get the Falcons, you just don't know which version of Kirk Cousins you're
gonna get. So you know, he wasn't perfect by any means, nineteen of thirty throughout the game, but he was finding ways. Again you get the run game going, you know, great to see Tyler lgier Be, John Robinson doing their thing and then spreading the ball around his kind of top guys essentially Drake London, Kyle Pitts.
It was.
It was kind of just a regular Kirk Cousins game for me.
In every year.
Every week rather I go to the next Gen Stats box score to see the breakdown of like, okay, are they adding anything where Kirk Cousins moves, just like even a little is there any play action? And every week it's pretty disappointing for them, and yet they keep scoring. So today on play action three of seven for twenty nine yards, so it's still not happening, and yet they're one of the like highest producing passing games.
In the league. Yeah, and even those play action things are quite junkie. A lot of it is flash fake stuff. It's not really turn the back true play action heavy cell because they don't trust him to move. And the Panthers got nowhere near Kirk Cousins today. They had four total pressures in the entire game, three game from one player, and they came in back to back to back plays. So for the most of the game he is untouched. You would really expect and hope you would see even
more from them. I think in that situation, if Cousins's going to sit back there and play see it throw at football, you would expect that he'd be able to carve it up if there's no pressure there. But they get the wrong game going, and that's a huge thing. If they could not get movement from Cousins, they have to find movement somewhere from the wrong game, and they're now integrating new things into the offense in the wrong game,
they're balancing it more between Algier and Robinson. So that would be the exciting thing to take out the game.
The Panthers defense are not a viable NFL defense. Thirty four or more points in four out of six games this season. And actually we're talking about tradable pass rushers earlier in the show with the Lions. Jadavian Clowney another one who probably should be on that list and probably could be picked up for something mid round.
But it needs to get healthy. But yes, that makes a lot of sense.
It just felt like last week Kirk Cousins, what fifty eight passes and five hundred and nine yards in that overtime win over the Bucks. Today they just relied on the ground game, two hundred yards between their two leading rushers, three touchdowns between them as well. And it was one of those games which was a little bit like Buck Saints that was actually quite tight in the third quarter and you were surprised it was so if you were watching the game flow, and then the better team just
pulled away later on. And you are establishing quite a strong division between those top two teams and the rest of the division.
Yeah, and this isn't a great week to measure it, but they keep trying to get this outside zone running game working, and that's going to be important for them to get better at or just stop doing it. Over the course of the season, and every week I look and see I look for one stat, is Tyler Aldia's success rate higher than Bijon Robinson's In every week?
It is?
And so then I have to stop myself from criticizing them for using Algier equally with Robinson, because he is an effective player and he is fitting what they do. But this was great that they both had a great game. They both had very high success rates. There wasn't much difference between him and they're using their weapons. And you
mentioned that about the Panthers pass rush. If you were just like power ranking different units in the league, like every possible units run defense, pass rush, like safety play, the Panthers pass rush might be there with the worst unit of any unit in the entire NFL.
Yeah, I mean, we're picking between allful things. But I would encourage you to go through the Cordinal's death Shaw and you take the Cordinals are starting a team that, if you just go through name by name, is the second string on every of the team in the NFL outside of Okay.
It's fair.
It's a fair point. That's why that's why I like Ali to be here to check me. But yeah, this this past rush is rough. My other biggest takeaway from this game is Xavier legets you know, I've got big balls touchdown celebration or the horse riding.
What what is it?
And it's week after week. I love it? And did he do that in college?
I'm in it was it was have to be better than the afternoon tea celebration that we saw in London today from the bear.
Surely like it must be his thing because he's now he's now broken it out on multiple one of his touchdowns and it it looks like it was Nick van Exel right after he would hit the big three pointers and he would jump around and Xavier like it is either bringing that back or he's riding a horse.
But I I think it's how.
Well I love about Like, yeah, I think he's trying to throw people off. He's got the accent thing. He's doing this big balls thing. People start thinking this guy's not up too much. He plays really, really intelligently, and he's seamlessly slotted in and being a way bigger part of the offense. And I thought he would be just based on skill set in college. So I think he just throw defensive backs off with all this this ancillary.
Good Jawn making a real point.
Thank you. We'll not only going to tell you that Xavier gets riding a horse in his celebration, but I can tell you that he's riding his horse a dollar bill. Apparently he's dedicated the celebration to his horse.
And we've got the outset he as a cowboy.
I could have used Google and you've ruined my fantasy here.
Well, let's go from one exciting NFC South game to an AFC South game.
Colts, Hey, I had emotions.
Josh Allens out of the right side, clack all five drop crowls office.
Back foot into the end zone, going up and making.
A bit on the balls. Michael pittm you got it?
Hide why Pittman puts the Colts on top a ten yard pass Flacco to Pittman and the Colts lead nineteen to seventeen in Nashville.
They can't keep letting him get away with it. Don't blackout it again. Twenty to seventeen.
That was Matt Taylor on w f N I.
Michael Pittman, who was supposedly going to injured reserve earlier this week and then ends up playing in this game, not only plays but catches the game winning touchdown on a.
Play where he landed on his injured back.
A crazy Joe Flacco throw, very similar to the throw he made last week which started the comeback against who are they playing last week? It is absolutely late Jacksonville in this game. The Colts win this one though, a key division win for them. They're managing the season well like, not playing great, but they're three and three. They put the Titans in a world of her only one win
on the season. Will Levis doesn't crack one hundred yards in this game, Ali like, I'm just happy Joe Flacco was still in our lives.
I am happy to That was not a good throw though, right am I misremembering now? It's a terrible throw of Pittman grubs it between two guys.
I go on it.
Even it's a.
Results space business, sally, it's still counts.
Pickman did all of the work there. He's going to get the best corner in football last year and somehow to make it.
It was third down and Joe Flacco has decided I am too old to do anything but just throw it up.
It was third down in Flacco, That's what it was, and.
He missed the one to Piers too. They had the big shot to pierce out another third down and just throw it up that. I cannot even imagine the toughness of Michael Pittman. I'd know what's going on with the back injury. Back injuries to scare me no matter what. Anyway, if it does a school teacher, football player, whatever it is, to say, you're going to go to ir, he says, no, let me give it a go for a week and we'll figure out afterwards. He gets to catch on collision
with two guys for the game winning score. Then they go back to him to ice the game, and on both plays basically the design and or end product is you have to fall on your back. That's what this is going to do. And he comes up for it and must have it moments. They only go to him three times. He gets them all, just big time, big time plays.
I mean, it's pretty amazing what drugs can do to make you feel whilst playing a game.
I mean, but it's put the football player here, the choir.
I got you, guys, don't worry about it's too late. I have no filter anymore. But look, I mean, Joe Flacco is just incredible. What he's still able to do. I loved a clip from last week where he has throwing the ball and he has just stood there amongst the mayhem. He kind of is just living on free money right now. He's able to just have a great time and you know he's he's enjoying himself. He gets to keep playing week in and week out.
And this was a weird situation where Anthony Richardson did practice during the week. He was a game time decision. They said they wanted to be extra safe, so he was the third quarterback. I think part of that was probably a calculus of Flacco's a little more regular with the timing and I'm sure Richardson isn't one hundred percent. But it's also not a franchise quarterback where, well, if he's at all able to play, he's going to play. You know what, Like if Dak Prescott had that level
of injury, they would just play Dak Prescott. And that's fine. Like there can be gray area, doesn't mean that his job is at risk. I would like expect he plays next week. Who knows, but they're happy that Joe Flacco got them a win in the meantime on a day where look, they're starting running back when eighteen for twenty nine trace sermon, their defense carries the load, holds Will Levis under one hundred yards passing.
This was it. They were fairy fortunate that on the other side of the ball, while Joe Flacco was statuesque as always, they had Will Levis, who with DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley, Tyler Boyd, Like there is no way, Like I almost feel like I could complete over one hundred yards of passing with that collection of receivers against an NFL defense. But Ridley caught zero of eight targets last night, And you just think to yourself, like, the Will Levis
experiment feels like it's already done. I just don't know what the next answer is for them. They just seem to be floating through the rest of the season, Titans fans. And it's a rough point to be after six weeks.
Too harsh like that it's done. One in four. This was a sneaky big game, not to the rest of the NFL, but to the Titans. This was a big game.
This now it just feels like they're they're pretty buried there, and yes, they're not getting growth out of their quarterback.
With a coach that was hired in part to develop this quarterback.
I don't know if he has had to develop, and I think it was hard to figure out within six weeks is he a real guy or not? And I think they got their answer pretty quickly. It's not even if they had lost that that would be okay in terms of just Levis himself. When you watch him play and they're playing a defense that does absolutely nothing. They don't really have much of a pass rust. They have been cooked for four weeks. They do nothing on the
back end to try and weird out quarterbacks. This would be the game where you say, okay, even if we get the two or three classic bone headed Will Levis plays, we should put up two hundred and fifty three hundred yards through the air. We can make some plays. We can still evaluate Levis. So that would be more concerning to me than even the record and even some of the unfortunate dom turnovers we've had this season. Because you
just think the lake count happened forever. You would hope, but the fact you can't punish bad defense is gonna stay consistent.
I think the biggest problem is that you would just hope to see development and learning, and it's you can see why they're getting frustrated when you're making similar, if not the same, exact mistakes week in and week out. And yes, there's an element where he still is a younger guy in the NFL terms, you know, only going in his second year. He didn't play obviously a full season last year. But you can't keep making the same mistakes. You've got to be able to show progress.
Yeah, I will see your making the same mistakes, and I will raise you from Will Levis Adshaun Watson.
Let's go to UH Eagles and the Browns.
Hurts in the gun sloped to the foreside.
Mark Legan was right on second down.
He's back, he's looking, he is going deep down the fore.
Side of the field, and it is caught. He the town.
Well put on. It's just what a prow, what a cat.
That's just fun.
There is something absolutely beautiful about a Meryl Reese call on wip. But there's something even more beautiful, Will Gavin about a Dalen Hertz go ball to AJ Brown. You can say whatever you want about Dalen Hurts, like that man throws a perfect go ball and he has the perfect man to catch it.
In AJ Brown.
It's funny, how you know, you bring AJ Brown and DeVante Smith back and you're a little better on offense, at least enough better to win twenty to sixteen over.
The Brown six four one hundred and sixteen AJ Brown today. But the touchdown, he had zero point three yards of separation for that one according to next Gen Stats. And you had that, and you had DeVonta Smith in as you mentioned, three catches sixty four and that fourth quarter touchdown as well, and suddenly the Eagles offense kind of starts to get rolling again. They still struggle to finish
drives a little bit. This game, it felt like it's the Browns defense we've known, have their strengths, and therefore, restricting the Eagles to twenty points in a day where they are getting big games from their big receivers is relatively impressive. And actually Deshaun Watson didn't have a terrible game. Dare I say, probably his best performance for the Browns this season. So this wasn't much much tighter game than I was expecting. Came away with it at.
You probably watched this game closer than me.
Someone explained to me how the team with one hundred and forty four net passing yards and nine points, like had a better quarterback performance, Cause there might be an answer, There always can be.
But what's had a very good game against the Readers, and other than that, he's not like an NFL player.
Honestly, it's just one drive and basically he had one really good drive and that's essentially better than he has most weeks.
And the only caveat well, let me just say on Watson, the weird thing with him now is he used to be dying against pressure. Not only would he beat pressure, he was by far and away the best quartersback in the league get throwing when he was under pressure. Now he is just in full on seeing ghosts, can't see the past rush connovated mode, and it's just become an absolute disaster. He's turning down wide over open receivers, he's bailing too early. Then he's hanging in too late on
other opportunities. But there is a broader issue with him. I think it's way too easy to say it's all on Deshaun Watson. He's not good enough. He had an excellent game against the Raiders and they stung in that game as well. Just operationally, they are a disaster. Coaching wise, it's really been really, really poor. Every single time they get into the red zone. Every single time and they're barely there, they get some kind of penalty, and it's
always a pre snap operational one. It's not a holding. It's always a false start and illegal shift something to back them up. They had a chance to go and win this game down the stretch, and they blew it because they're having penalties in the red zone.
I mean, we talked earlier about bad body language. I mean, this whole team gives bad body language. I mean, I know Omari Cooper has a little bit of that in him, but how do you how do you watch this team and think, Man, these guys really want to play for each other. They love playing together, Like you have no strong leadership. You've got a quarterback in there who I truthfully don't believe that everybody wants in that building anyways. What makes you want to go out week in and
week out and play for each other? I mean, I think back to the video clip of Joel but TONI when when you know he doesn't help up, he doesn't want the help of Jean Watson. That for me and Joel is the nicest man I've ever met like that for me, says so much about a team, And so no, I'm not surprised that if you have no discipline in the classroom, you're not gonna have discipline on the field either.
And it's getting to me pretty evident that there's some mandate that they can't bench the guy even for a couple of series.
Well, because.
They are running stuff. They had a second and fifteen they called a droll play. They had a third and seventeen they called a tight end screen. That is, we don't like and trustock quote back with paying in more than anyone in the league. And it's second and fifteen. And if that's Dak Prescott, Josh Allen, any of these guys, you try and find a way to rip it down the field and they're like, we are avoiding this, we
are out of this drive. We may as well just put on second down because we don't trust to Sean Watson, Then why is he the starting quarts back if we don't trust the guy?
Right, I should mention that the Browns only touchdown in this game was on a field goal block recovered by Rodney McLeod. So when I say nine points that that was what they scored on offense, just three field goals, And I think they're testing that theory of yoursali that
you can't bench him. Although I think his play has warranted benching, I think considering that once they bench him, he will never play for them ever again, and everything that goes in that in ownership, I actually think it's predictable that to this point they wouldn't have benched him. I think this week is one inflection point. I think there's a chance that he is benched. On Tuesday, Kevin Stefanski said, yes, he's our star quarterback after the game.
They always say that right after the game, so it's gonna take a larger conversation. I think it's a week to week basis now and the next catastrophic game, and maybe this is somewhere in between. So they string it out one more week like it's coming. It's not going to continue like this. They just owe it to the
rest of the team. And the reason is, even though operationally they're a disaster, and even though the defense is clearly not as good as it was a year ago, we've just seen every other quarterback who was playing under Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland have such higher moments that you just got it, just just to feel like you're being honest with the rest of the team.
The ridiculous thing is there's this idea that they're making a business decision because there's this one hundred and forty million dollars worth of cap money that is still there over the next two years. But guess what, that's still there even if you bench him or even if you cut him, and at least you might have half decent quarterback play Like Jameis Winston. We know is not a franchise quarterback, but what he is is a guy who gets people going. Teammates love him, gives you that bit
of juice. And we've seen him on the sidelines, leading these these huddles and leading these big speeches. He's a priest team while he's also then going back and sitting on the bench and letting Deshaun Watson go in and make these horrible plays. And I just I cannot fathom at this point how he is still even on the roster, let alone starting for them. It's it's mad he.
Can father way he's on the roster because they can't afford not to have him on the roster. It's on the weirdest situations ever. They gave him the most ludicrous contract of all time, and now they have to just live with it. The business decision now is who wants to keep their job in the building. Does Kevin's fans want to have a job Morgan, he wants to pay because he's going to have to start someone else to
show something here. If, like you said, Greg, we've seen bring Joe Flack off a couch, we can score points. He could bench him and show it's not me, it's this guy. You screwed up the contract.
You're gonna have to start around. I've seen that. Yeah, I feel like we have seen that over and over again.
But you're you could prove it on this particular hell trade for Jacoby Brissett.
I mean I wouldn't want to give him.
I kind of like I like him having there with Drake May, but we've seen Jacoby with them, and this is a perfect win for the Eagles because you know, coaches like to say yeah, you like you like to coach them hard after a win, and there are things that they won't like about this. Saquon Barkley only ends up with forty seven yards rushing, but more importantly like it's a perfect win for the media in Philly, because no one's gonna be happy with a twenty to sixteen
win over the Browns. Everyone loses Eagles, Browns. Let's go to a game where a team definitively won. That team was the Pittsburgh Steelers in Las Vegas?
Or was it Las Vegas? It didn't sound like it if you saw the crowd there.
Harris alone setback.
We'll get the pitch as he was trying to seal the edge. Naji oh able.
To slide inside one tackle, get down the sideline.
Naji Harris Cracy towards the Enzo scrawls out busy in touchdown.
Steelers. What a run by Najie Harris. What a run by the iron Horse?
Did you see him?
He coasted two men on the end of the line.
Then he took it up the sidelines and like Superman, lay it.
Out and jock the end zone.
I love it. Nase Harris with a big play. Just haven't heard that enough, Not this season, not in a while. Wdvee Rob King, Craig Wolfley. Yes, Harris ends up with one hundred and six yards on the ground and that touchdown, the Steelers pull away late. It's twelve seven at halftime, it ends up thirty two to thirteen. Will It's been a season where the Steelers make the most out of
their offense. On a day that Dustin Field maybe had one of his worst games as a member of the Steelers, they still win by three scores in Las Vegas.
Yeah, and Naja Harris is one of the most frustrating running backs I think in the NFL, because you see him have games like this and you see that there is clearly a level of talent there. And yet this season, prior to the today where he averaged seven point six yards per carry, there was only one previous game where he went over four yards to carry. There's a lot of fourteen for forty twos in his past like he had last week, or thirteen for nineteen like he did
against the Colts. That feels like Najeris isn't the guy who falls forwards. He's not the guy who gained you those extra yards. And yet today really really impressive thought, fought through multiple tacklers, picked up yards after contact, and really carried this team for huge, huge stretches. So if you can get a run game going, and you've got the defense the Steelers have, then you've got a very
good chance of winning games of football. Because you know who we haven't talked about as much this year because he's one of those guys who's always in the defensive player of the year conversation. TJ. Watt had an absolute day today. Two forced fumbles, both times proper peanut punching the ball out, one of them right on the goal line, just when the Raiders looked like they were coming back
into the game. And you feel like, regardless of whether Fields has his best day or not, regardless if they end up giving Russ, Wilson and Troy, this defense is going to carry them to the playoffs and maybe even to a couple of wins in the playoffs.
But I think anytime you have TJ. Watt, you've got a chance.
Right.
I love the way that he plays because he doesn't he doesn't play like you're winning or like you're losing. He is just consistent and he's consistently coming after you. His ability, his physicality, the way that he's able to manipulate the offensive line. I mean, anytime there's a third down, you're like, all right, we're's CJ.
Watt.
He's about to make a play, and he's terrific. I mean, he gives that team life. He is completely the leader of the team, especially when Justin Field doesn't necessarily that guy you look at who totally embodies the Steelers, that is TJ.
Watt.
All right, we've reached four am. We are circling back for the Phoebe wellness check. You've been sneaking in bites here? How is everything they have?
I have been awake for twenty two hours.
We were almost there.
One more game after this than we throw it to our friend Nick Shook for Sunday Night Football.
But I don't know.
I don't know what to think about this Steelers team, but I do like that they're like a maybe not a main character of this season, but a solid supporting character that like could get some awards.
Buzz.
Yeah, we had Wilson on the sideline right he's he's hanging out there trying to poke his head around seeing if he can get involved. My I'm just still trying to recover. I'm very very UPSETM going through a personal thing right now. Zach Fraser left the game in a walking boom. Who was my pick for Rookie of the Year and still would be as good as Jane Dines as being one of the most talented players that's come into the league in a long time, as being unbelievable. That is a huge blow.
If they give us a minute on Zach Fraser here, because this is this is your.
Chance, four m in the morning. Zach Fraser breakdown. Just the most well crafted, well honed center that's come into the league in generations. I would say I'm not used as effectively honestly as he could be, but his ability to read things, pick things up. Mostly in past protection, he was known coming in as this undersized, explosive get out in space blocker. You can do things where you can pin him and you can move from you can
build a wrong game around him. What's really being impressed about him is teams have gone after him, trying to attack him in passport. They've tried to get after him by blitzing Kim standing two guys over him. He just has a great sense of awareness for what to pick up, who to pick up depths really nerdy things. None of you guys are interested, and I can see around.
Them so interested. I'm writing notes to support your point.
So yeah, he just he has walked in from day one an all pro caliber level at center, which you never ever ever see these guys. Usually you will see some flashy plays, some clips that go around and you think, oh, this guy's going to be really, really good, but it takes them all two three to pick up all the nuances of the position. He stepped in in day one was immediately perfect. His tape against the Colts is the best tape of any center you will see in the league this season.
That is incredible that you know, this is a team in the Steelers that has an insane history at the center position, and so it's so crazy you say that that generational how he's come into this season and so that's so important for him. So think about it, Mike Webster back in the day, Dermani Dawson and then Marquise Pouncy and now it's the lineage. And there is something about the Steelers that they have a history of these edge rushers and certainly their defense, and they have these
centers and they have an identity. And I was speaking with someone this week who is trying to pick what team that they should root for as a like a British person who's learning about the NFL, and they were kind of honing in on the Steelers, and I said, that's a great choice. And it was because of stuff like this, like that they actually have an identity that when you think of the NFL, you think of the Steelers.
There's the lineage all the way back to the nineteen twenties when they got that team by having a good day at the horse track. And it's still the same family one hundred years later. And so that's when I say I like that the Steelers are part of this season. It's because of all of that stuff.
It's given me salute life that we are doing a breakdown of the Steelers' center history four five in the morning, and that I love Olly Connley more than maybe any member of his family. I could listen to him talk about football all day long. I still will not get behind the idea that a center is gonna win Rookie of the Year, no matter how good.
His boat, though, that's why you've got to have some boats of other people.
I know he's not going to win. I'm saying talent for talent, play play. He has been as good as Jayden Daniels at his job. Jayden's is more valuable and slightly more impressive because he's a quarterback, but being a center is not. He's just seven on day one and he's been just so good. I will just say quickly, you mentioned TJ Watt before doing this without Herbig and Highsmith. When those three are all together, they don't use her
Big as much as they probably should do. That is as good a front as we have in the league. So for them to continue to play at this level with those two guys being out for a couple of weeks is really importsive.
Yeah, and we got the news from the Raiders before the game, like, hey, we might not actually trade Davante Adams, which translates to, hey, we're not getting any good trade offers for Devontae Adams. I do believe that they're willing to hold on to him until the trade deadline, and that's maybe what this is signaling. That he could be on ice or he might even be back on the field and show that he's healthy in the meantime. The trade deadline still a few weeks a week. I do
not believe he'll be on the team after that. And yeah, Raiders fans, like, if you want us to talk more about your team, do more Rock Bowers. That's all we have for you, Like alex and Alexander Madison is your leading rusher with thirty three yards and eight. O'Connell's back in the starter. But it doesn't really make much of a difference here.
No, it doesn't. Like you said, I think Brock Bowers is probably the most exciting player that they have going on, you know, kind of getting my vote for Rookie of the Year essentially from a tight ends perspective, I mean, I think he's been phenomenal what he's able to do and how he's he's kind of transforming what tight ends are doing out there.
But nine for seventy one today, nice game.
It's a nice game. Nice game for the young man.
There was this idea that he was a level of talent coming out that should be And listen, we're giving Raiders fans their flowers by giving them some love with this. They climb into the league as a guy who should be the best prospect of the position, but landed at maybe the worst landing spot possibly for him because of the quarterback play, because they traded drafted a tight end high last year and he's just blown all that out of the war and been absolutely brilliant. Yeah, and there
we go, Raiders fans. We were positive about your team.
They're not done at two and four.
But whenever a team falls two games under five hundred, that's when it starts to feel closer. I've just seen too many teams bounce back after that. But this team does not have the bones of a team that you would expect. Meanwhile, Max Crosby's out there getting eight pressures and two stuffed runs on half an ankle, and so he's still being Max Crosby. But at two and four, they had higher expectations in the building. Outside of the buildings,
there really weren't that many high expectations. All Right, we're going to take a break. We'll be back in a second.
So a third and two from the four, Herbert to Dobbins.
Dobbins bounces off a defender, reaches the ball out touchdown.
JK.
Dobbins, with the extra effort to reach out, punches it into the end zone for his third rushing score of the season.
That was Matt money Smith. He knows what he's doing. He's not letting Daniel Deremia get a word in edgeways so.
That he can get onto his favorite podcast, the podcast he actually listens to. Twenty three to sixteen. Chargers win this game in Denver. They race out to a twenty three to nothing leading. I'm feeling like I'm feeling a little something this Chargers team, Phoebe.
It makes me.
It makes me feel things that like we need an interesting sixth or seventh seed option in the combination of Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert is enough for me to be interesting interested in this team, even if their style of play is a little blah. This game was weird, a lot of injuries early for the Chargers, and that Jim Harbaugh leaves the game and is treated in the medical tent. John Harbaugh, his brother, actually left his press
conference concerned about Jim. But then he's back on the sideline. So that's good to hear. And Yeah, a big division win on the road.
Yeah, and it's look, I love what Harba has done with Justin Herbert. This is really what he's needed for so long. I mean, we've been criticizing Herbert over the years for not being able to kind of open up his arsenal essentially, but you bring Harbaugh and he starts to change the culture in the building. He's doing a really nice job. I love to see that. Lad McConkey has been like the dude for them the past couple of weeks. I think he's done a really nice job. Laughing already.
No, that's an ALI guy, right, Yeah.
Yeah, it was a full face bumb And what I love from Lad McConkie today as well was there was real frustration from himself when players weren't going his way, like he was getting legitimately angry, and then when things started to work out, geared up quite a bit. But I was just like, he is proper He properly cares about this team being successful. I really really enjoy it.
It's such a weird dynamic with this team because Herbert's numbers are awful this year, and the offenses it's figuring things out, I guess to put it nicely, and this was a good step forward, and yet it I agree with Phoebe that it still just feels like it's it has a stronger foundation.
To build off of.
Yeah, that's the perfect way to put it. Think they feel like a professional team who wins games. They're supposed to win, and when you go play by play, you go, everyone's doing their job, Well, why is the ball not moving? And it just hurts my brain slightly when they do that. You know, they came out in this game the first time really they've tried to open up early. They've done the classic Jim Harbor think we're going to run the ball,
run the ball, will take some shots. In this game, they open up first ten players, they throw the ball ten times. You can see Justin Herbert, which I absolutely ador from quarterback being like, I have three plays and corn the one where I to throw the ball first nine of the first ten times. Then gets a little bit of a telling off. But they've got a big lead and they start running the ball.
It goes nowhere.
And then to close the game they return to saying, okay, Justin Tran gets over the line and we'll we'll drive down the field and turn out yards that way. So when they let him throw the ball early, I think they've got a better chance. And when they're trying to slam away with the run.
Jesse Mentor's unit on the other side really impressive today until that kind of fourth quarter. Was it garbage time was that. Did the Broncos figure it out? Difficult to kind of tell, but twenty five quarterback pressures today, Khalil Mack with six of those, and that's without Joey Bosa, who should return to this lineup at some point. So
really impressive on that side of the ball. And actually, like you mentioned, Jim Harbor going out of this game with his ar trill flutter apparently had one in San Francisco as well. They never kind of came out like
slightly concerning that. But actually when he went out of the game, Jesse Minter took over as the kind of assistant head coach role, but Greg Roman was left to call the plays on his own, and they had a fourth and goal at the half yard line and decided to kick a field goal from there, when I'm convinced that Jim Harbor in the game would have told them, no, we're absolutely going for that, at which point it would have been twenty four nothing at that point and there
would have been no concern about a second half comeback. Bizarre decision from Greg Roman, But.
I love your killing Greg Roman at this point.
Kill Greg Roman all day long, every day.
In his defense, Jim Harbor I believe went for his first fourth down of the year late in their last game, so they have gone for it less than any other team. Although the half yard line, Yeah, that's too much.
JK.
Dobbins. I think it's big for them. They need to be able to run the ball to be the team they want to be. First couple of weeks he pops off a couple of big runs after that, really not much. Today was a little more consistent out of him, twenty
five for ninety six and then offensively. Yeah, you get your boy Mconki involved, but it's gonna just have to be different guys kind of popping up, not even with games, but with plays like Semi Fioco had a play in this game, and Kamani Vadal had to play in this game, and Josh Palmer, who has quite been quiet this year, surprisingly like had to play in this game.
And that's what they're gonna need to do. And they did it against a defense that's been giving teams a lot of trouble and they showed one way to possibly beat them. The Broncos have to be disappointed.
Sean Payton, like I said, going into that Saints game on a little bit of a role coming into this one and really to be humbled down twenty three to nothing, you more disappointed. Ali, I know you watch this game closely, the defense or the offense for the Broncos.
The offense still for me, it just does not look functional for such long stretch of the game. It really only gets going when they're able to crank things up, move with some pace, slim things down a little bit, go no huddle when they're trying to run the true classic Sean Peyton offense. There's just so many issues all across the ball. Protections bad, boon Nicks is bad. They
get out the huddle sole ly. They all panic. The first player of the game, he throws an exception the first play of the game, and they get to the play clock with two seconds left. Which is a guy who does not know if he's ready or not, doesn't know everything set properly the way he wants it to be, drops back, Panics throws a pig That happens to them five six times a game. And we're not early in the season so much anymore, where you should be either saying,
let's slice some of this stuff off. He's not ready, or he should be figuring it out. And they've had weeks where they have completely stripped the playbook back, let him just play the screen game and then create game. They've had some success doing that. This was the first time they tried to say, Okay, let's ramp things back up. I'm going back home and next week out really like to run my offense and try and beat Dennis doing it that way, and when trying it, it was not a success again.
And we talked Caleb Williams scrambled today and he made smart decisions and he ended up with what fifty six yards on the ground. Bonix ended up leading this team in rushing today and almost all of those scram will look like just pure panic and actually something opened up for him and he managed to.
Although that's that's been all year and it's been quite effective. It's the best part of his game, like rushing value by QBR and everything. He's one of the better quarterbacks in the league for that. I'm with you, though it seems like there's no plan to it, and it often happens when they're trailing, but at least he makes that works.
Yeah, why would you not just lean into that being the offense be the most up tempo RPO offense in the NFL. Try and move into twenty twenty four. Go and see what Washington is doing with Jaden Daniels. This is where he's being effective. Let's lean into this for four or five weeks. When he's more comfortable with the other things, then we can go back to that. So that is proper coaching. Just running your offense when the guy doesn't get it, that's not coaching.
But I think there's a bit of ego that's just in there with Sean Payton. Imagine would you imagine? But genuinely, I mean, look, he's saying that this is my quarterback, this is my guy, We're gonna win my way, and I don't think he's in a position where he wants to step back and be like, ooh, maybe this wasn't the right scheme here, Maybe this wasn't the right move. Maybe we shouldn't have put bo Nicks in these situations.
And then ultimately it's probably quite frustrating when you look at the score line and you think you have two turnovers, you actually might have even won that even with the poor display of football that was out there.
So that's the Chargers winning record three and two in the mix.
I think there's just a spot here for whoever's second in the AFC West to make the playoffs because their schedules are very easy, and so this game to me is a big one because these are the two candidates to b second in the AFC West and you get a win on the road in the division. Not a flashy game, but I think an important one for the Chargers. This was an important week for myself for NFL Daily. It is always a huge treat to come over to London.
It's always one of my favorite weeks of the whole year. Today like Sunday game Day, that's probably, you know, my favorite work day of the whole.
Year, and.
Made it so long.
It's true, I just don't want it to end. That now I'm gonna like honk for a while more.
Yeah, I'm getting emotional listening.
To talking about it. It's different this year too, like I'm not here with Dan and Mark. I feel their absence more this week. I always feel Chris's absence this week going to hot Tottenham Hotspur where they remembered him and we lived out our dreams and it was really special. But doing this show with you guys, like we could
talk more. I love that we're breaking down bo Nix's like running ability at four in the morning, and you guys have such great energy and you love the game so much that this particular podcast was like a total treat and something that I'll remember. And thank you Will for providing us this studio and the energy, because if we were all in our hotel rooms right now, this show would be about three hundred percent worse. And adding your voice and your analysis, it was overdue. We need
to have you on much much more. And also thank you to the will behind the glass, Will Will Varney.
But thank you absolutely gushing. I cannot get over it. I'm a man who has the ego of champaignon now. I'm just going to be on a high all week long.
Chase, Greg, That's why we thank you for having I've long tried to keep you in your place and not let you get too big, but this time I got to give it up.
This is why the debut has come so late in the day. It's just like I could not let him on the podcast before now he just would have been insufferable.
And we did have a wonderful lunch a couple of days after the Super Bowl at a Caribbean restaurant in Santa Monica. I think of that often when I'm driving past that place. I was like, this is where me and Will and his wife. A lot of people to think like la, I mean, London's crazy. I'm not trying to brag, but it's the only place in the world world that a cab driver could possibly recognize.
Me, which is easy to me.
And they have the little speakers and they just are you, Greg Rosenthal And I'm just like, it's fall why can't you say th h? But yeah, he was a big NFL fan. He was a big around the NFL fan. He's a big he'd the call fan and he says he's a big NFL Daily fan. And it really didn't
mean a lot to me. Today at the game, when we were outside on the riser, Olivia and I and so many different people came up because that was the time where it's our people, it's the people at the game, and so many fans came up and they said, hey, we love the around the NFL, but we really love what you're doing with NFL Daily too, and we love it all and we love seeing you here.
And that was very cool. So thank you to everyone and did that.
I do think the listener is going to be slightly annoyed. Right at the top of the show, we tease that you're going to tell us about getting a motorbike from So yeah, he still not told us about this magical motorbike ride.
Yeah at Alex Jackson, jacko, producer at Sky Sports, called me yesterday evening and said, asked me, I'm not going to do the accident because because I know how to hate the accent, but that you know. He asked me if I would take a motorcycle from the game because I was going to be there doing hits through the end of the third quarter and he was hopeful he'd it'd be great to have you there for the start of the What here is the six pm games at home?
It's the ten am games in LA And he's like, the only way I think we could do it is if it's on a motorcycle.
And I was like, Oh, I don't have to drive it. Do that would be crazy?
Like?
And I did ask the question.
That's me.
I was like, do I have to be like holding the driver the whole time?
That's it?
He's like, no, there's handles. I said sure that that would be fun.
So I felt very cool, very like I don't know, like superheroish, having to get to like the chase and we're in the motorcycle, first motorcycle ride i'd ever been on.
Seemed like pretty normal at first.
Then you get on the highway and you're like, okay, this thing is is moving if you look down and everything. But the scary part is definitely weaving through traffic, which is why they wanted us to take the motorcycle. There's London traffic's crazy, it's worse than La and yeah, he's he's weaving through that and we're like two inches on either side of me and people are giving us dirty looks and I'm afraid they're gonna like open their door.
But yeah, we made it the wind, you know, flying not through my hair because there was a helmet on. But it was pretty bad ass.
It was awesome.
You know.
Neil did the same thing last week as well, Neil Reynolds getting on a motorbike from Tottenham to sky It's just I can't even imagine.
I don't know who looked like less of a bad ass. Because I did have them take a picture. I put it out on my Instagram story, I'll put it out there. And like, I was worried that I was gonna be really cold because I didn't have a heavy jacket or anything, and they they had it all ready for me. They're like, oh, yeah, we've got a huge heavy jacket for you in gloves, and I looked like a three year old, like it was made for a much bigger person.
But I will say the difference between you and Neil is that we were literally counting down thirty seconds to going live and they are having you run onto the dance floor. You have no idea what's happening. We're like, hey, we're hitting this, this, this is and we're live. Neil, I love you, but you did not do that last weekend.
This was Greg.
That was the moment I got out of the of the motorcycle and I'm walking up to the building and then I see our producer Yell and he's like, why don't you run Greg worth Worth three minutes from error? And I'm like, is he being serious or is he like like being sarcastic like? And I was like okay, and I started running and yes, I got there about thirty seconds before it started, and it was really fun
doing that show. Hannah Wilkes was just a beautiful host, and her first day back from having her lovely daughter, so that she had a hero performance too. I mean she's feeding her baby in between breaks, so that is pretty freaking amazing by Hannah. And it was so fun
to work with everyone this week. I'll stop talking, but thank you also to the NFL for sending me out there, and Matt Schneider and Jason Kleman and Eric Roberts back there, and Randy Chavez who who were helping us all out, Henry Hodson, who makes a big difference in all of our lives. I'm just gonna say it, just try by make growing the game. When I see this game out here, Ali, like you're a young man, isn't it a different game?
And I hate to ask this question, but it's true.
It's different than it was doing an NFL game than when they first started doing these games, and certainly like the last like even since Tottenham hotspurd Stadium's open, like it's different.
Yeah, well, the atmosphere so much better at the Tottenham Stadium for one. The Wembley next week could be fun, I'd like you said at the top. I've never seen an atmosphere like that in London that we saw today, which was a true home crowd type vibe. There was not the fifty percent home twenty percent fun of another team, and then to spread around with all of the kind of Joseys. We still had some of that three that which is always film with. This was like a legitimate Baz home crowd.
I love that I made you talk about the how the game has grown over here to close this show, the little I like the last.
Thing that Ollie wants to talk about. I blew it.
My brain is still hurting from the idea of having to dig a moator bike through in the middle of London to see a Mike McCarthy football team.
It's like about yes to get there for the very first step to get there for like the little build up, it was a lot of fun. And I do not forget that we that we are lucky to do this and that there's nothing guaranteed. So if this was the last time they ever sent me to London, I feel like I made a count. And thank you to everyone who is listening, and I'll stop saying thank you. I apologize to anyone that I forgot to say thank you, yes for Will Gavin, Phoebe Schechter, Ollie Connolly, Will Varney
behind the glass. When we are wrapping this thing up at four twenty two in the morning, you know football is back and it's time to send it to Nick Schuk to wrap us up.
Here, take us home, Nick, Bengals and Giants.
Third down and eighteen on the Bengals first drive of the game.
Again the Bengals with an empty.
Formation, shotgun snap.
It's a five man rush. Burrow run for thirty five, twenty five, twenty fifteen, ten five times for the pie on touchdown, a forty seven yard touchdown run by Joe Burrow.
I'll tell you you talked about a defense getting.
Distorted to New York.
Giants, gave up half a football field.
Old baby score score. Yeah.
Wealk to the.
Sunday Night football recap Patrick Clavon here with Nick Shook as that essentially was it.
Nick.
Joe Burrow's long career long touchdown run almost held up as the score in this game as the Cincinnati Bengals knockoff the New York Giants at Bengals that was scoring a billion points seventeen to seven, but one was a touchdown that probably shouldn't have been late by Chase Brown. But yeah, just an odd game, but one that Cincinnati was able to come out on top of in the end.
Yeah, and the Chase Brown touchdown a perfect example of broadcaster timing where they show a graphic that says the Bengals are like one in one thirty eight when they score ten points or less and they're winning ten to seven, and then the next play Chase Brown makes it seventeen to seven, and oh, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Yeah, this game lacked highlights when it comes
to scoring plays, but didn't lack highlights overall. A bit of an ugly game, but I wouldn't call it a clunker or a snooze fest, but a defensive battle, if you will. We learned a lot about the Giants defense. We actually learned a lot about the Bengals defense, which has been a sieve upfront for most of the season. They got a little bit healthier up front. They did get run through pretty emphatically for one drive, but when it came down to making a play, they made the
plays they needed to. They stopped Tyrone Tracy, they stopped the Giants offense, which didn't have a ton of life if it wasn't running the football, and they were able to hang on and leave the Metal Lands with a much needed victory.
And the victory that was hard fought that came ultimately Nick on a fourth down stop. Where this was something that Brian day Ball was doing. It was almost consistent, pretty much in lockstep with the next Gen stats recommendation. I'm not sure if there's a particular sheet and situation that the Giants staff has, but these go situations, they were successful for the Giants for the most part, until
they weren't. Ultimately at the end, when you saw, in similar fashion the two fourth downs that the Giants did not get in the second half, Mike Hilton was back there doing his I'm Mike Hilton, I'm a veteran pointing a direction almost kind of lebron esque on an inbounds play kind of guiding guys. He got the pass breakup.
I think it was DJ Turner that got the ultimate one that kind of sealed the deal where the Giants were band aid and duct taping their way down the field and eventually, you know, with Greg Joseph missing kicks, it's tough to sustain an offense like that.
Yeah, that's the key is the fact that they scored one touchdown all night, and you know, you missed two field goals and there goes your opportunity. But yeah, they go three for five on third down or on fourth down. It felt like they went for fourth down ten times. They were using all four downs, like that high school coach who refused to punt and made waves in the internet. Basically, the Giants became that team on Sunday night, and I
think it was at a desperation. It was, look, hey, we know we're not only Merlin to get so many chances to move the football, and if it's fourth and short, I think it's anything inside of six as usually a go. I would envision a world in which they have the next gen stats about model up in the box and like radioing down like Bryan, next gen sys, go for it, go for it as if they don't have their own
analytics department. But yeah, they went for it willingly and often, and most of the time they got it, but they didn't get the most important ones. And that's often the difference in a game like this, where the Bengals offense that had put up a ton of points, like you said, wasn't scoring and the game was within reach, and it's a Giants team that took.
A step back.
I guess, I don't know.
I wouldn't even necessarily say that it was a rough night for them against the Bengals defense that played better. I mean, this is not the Giants team that we saw play the Seahawks a week that's for sure. But I mean sometimes it's about matchups, and they lost out tonight.
Well, are the other matchup that you pointed out the last time we were doing a Prime Tom breakdown. I'm sitting here in my garage and I'm celebrating. I'm heaping Dimes with praise, like this is a top ten Dimes game. And you looked as you do, down into the screen and you're like, it was on the road Patrick, the home road spits for splits for Danny Dimes of not being kind, and here we are low and behold, Dimes is back at home and the offense can't do anything. What is it?
Nick? Do you have a theory about Daniel Jones at MetLife?
You know, I don't know. I mean, I've been to Met Life once, the lighting there is a little weird, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. It's just a little weird on the eyes. It's got a bit of an orange glow to it at times, honestly, like they didn't run the ball well until the third quarter, and they had a very strong third quarter, but their offense felt very unbalanced, and every time you saw him
drop back to pass. In fact, I looked at the pressure numbers and they were way lower than I thought they'd be. The Bengals got fifteen total pressures at thirty three points three percent, exactly one third few math wizards, and it felt like he was constantly under duress. Are just slow, hesitant to make a decision. I think that speaks to coverage being sticky. If guys aren't blatantly open, you know he's going to be somebody's a little bit indecisive and wait a second or two. But I mean, yeah,
the home versus road thing, I don't know. I think it's kind of strange. I know New York's a big market, and if I put myself in his shoes, I would have a hard time handling that. I guess, as most people would. But it is kind of strange there as a team really bad at home in terms of winning percentage and in terms of primetime games over the last decade too. So it's not just him, but when he was doing this, he was going up for those of you who watched on YouTube and putting my hand on
an upward trajectory on the screen right now. He came back down a little bit. We'll see where he lands in QB index this week. And yes, that is a plug.
Yes, well you have to because it's a lot of work and people should pay attention to it. There was an opportunity. But because the Giants on their best drive of the night, I believe what was the penetration here? They got down they were at the twenty. No, they are snapping this ball at the fifteen yard line. First and ten from the fourteen yard line. Dimes has the rookie Tracy out in the flat. DJ Turner is covering Tracy in theory, but he turns to run to grass Nick.
Tracy is ultimately wide open, and for some reason and Collins were pointed to us out on the game, Dimes takes his eyes off. Tracy gets hit as he throws and throws a ball to Jermaine pet Pratt, he picks his off runs it back to the twenty seven. That was essentially their chance, that was their best opportunity, and there it went just on a weird decision by Daniel Jones.
And that came in the first quarter, end of the first quarter too, in a game that was only seven to nothing and they'd put together a strong drive. But that also speaks to what we've seen from Daniel Jones for most of his career, which is this is a guy who when under pressure, tends to flail or tends to you know, have an issue where he gets hit when he throws and the ball goes sky high and it's easy for an interception. I mean, is just kind
of who he is. It's unfortunate that this is an offense that's so limited that they have so few chances that it then you know Lingers and by the end of the game, you look back and think, man, that was one of our big opportunities early in this game. But it is what we've seen from him for most of his career, which is why he has the reputation he has, which I was cheering for him, man, just
like you were. I was like, man, he's putting together a nice month, like he's starting to build upward, and you know, it's a little bit of a setback.
Yeah, a setback where that they're going to have to get better. Their next game is coming up against the Philadelphia Eagles, who just came off a win against the Browns, albeit an odd one, but they got aj Brown back. And speaking of the Browns, that is next up at a visional matchup for the Cincinnati Bengals, who I guess, I mean the caveat that it was the Giants knick, but the defense did you said it lose?
Squad played better today?
Yeah, I actually honestly think that that match up that the Bengals face next to the Browns will be very similar to this and another offense that's incredibly limited primarily by quarterback play, much more than the Giants are, but against a defense that's going to give them trouble. And that really speaks to the Giants defense. You know, we look at them right now and they lose tonight and they're two and four overall, but they're better than two
and four on the defensive side of the football. That front four has been very good. Dexter Lawrence is a machine. He breaks through a double team tonight and gets a sack of Joe Burrow like he's a monster. He's doing a chunky soup ad and he totally deserves it because he's a beast. You know, they didn't have their full group out there Asizo Julari though, has had a great stretch and had a great game tonight as well. So like, it's not all bad news to the Giants just because
they put seven points on the board. They do have a really strong defense, especially up front. It's just that in order to win this league, you gotta put it together. So I think that, you know, like in comparison this game tonight, the Browns Bengals game is going to be similar, but the Giants, the Giants got to figure out some way to put more points on the board like they were in the weeks prior, because that defense is going to travel, it'll come to play.
Yeah, the defense that deserved better tonight, especially as he's those Jalai I am Brian Burns who were playing incredible tonight. But you want to talk about a great team, what about a team that spans between uh here in Ohio, Nick, we got two thousand plus miles.
I got five thousand miles.
Going to London thanks to Phoebe Scheckter, Will Gavin, Olly Connelly, Nick Chuk, Randy Eric, everybody. This is a global edition of NFL Daily. We appreciate you guys and to get for Week seven because this is what we do. This is who we are, this is what we're about. We're about autros, we're about fun, and we're about football. See you guys on the next edition of NFL Daily.