Can be Around the NFL Podcast, smokes macanudos and tassus a disc around. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hands and I am joined in a stadium filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Westling and Gregg girls adult what is up? Boys? As we get farther away from our home country, the intros by Matt money Smith become more mcguileing. I have Greg and I looked at each other. We have no
idea what that meant, no idea at all. None of you also around something England related would have been nice. We are in the middle of London right now, famous new stadiums in the world. It's in office. Remember someone deemed me and all of us. We're talking about macannodos and throwing up, throwing a disc around and like we got thousands of men shows. Well there wasn't within the last forty eight hours. We don't remember it. But this
place is not filled with heroes. It's empty. It's a little unnerving but also beautiful to be in a huge stadium with no people in it. This is Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and I have to get that right because, first of all I thought Sunday's game, so it was very busy. It was a whirlwind getting here. I thought the game was played in Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Took a little
heat for that, I I saw. I did none of you notice me say that on the show once and correct me, you know gently Dan, By the way, game was at a different sometimes just like you. It's that was an effective shifting to blame right there. Um Uh. And then I called this place Tottenham Stadium. That is
not good either. It's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Neil Reynolds got on my case about that, and uh, yes it's it's a beautiful new facility, just open in April, and it's a it has a field specially designed uh for the NFL. And uh, one day perhaps will be the home field of a team that calls London their home on a full time basis. One can dream. By the way, I want to try this again. I did it off my four It is empty. Uh. Nick Pike, who works at the UK office for the NFL, can I scream just
to hear the echo? Okay, here we go. I don't know if that's sounded. Probably will alert Uh, I mean this isn't just anyone stadium either. This is the Champions League finalist, Tottenham Hotspurs, second places, first loser. You gotta put it out. We we got a cab from our hotel and I'll get into the to the hotel in a second. Um and the guy driving us had a west Ham um air freshener hanging from his roo view mirror. And apparently that's the big rivalry west Ham and Tottenham Hotspurs.
And he asked us if we were if we if we went for Tottenham, and I feel like if we answered him wrong, that was it. It just would be blood everywhere. Well, he had claimed that he in the past been to a number of matches where a lot of blood and guts were spilled. And you made the faux pa here in the UK of saying soccer to him where we are on their turf, Now it's football. What I'm doing is American football. I'm introducing my culture to him. It's a very American sentiment to back, Hey,
what about the soccer matches here? Oh well, there will be more faux pause, I'm certain anyway. Yes, this is the first purpose built NFL stadium outside the US. World class facility just open and we are sitting in it as they are preparing for the second London game between the Panthers and the Bucks on Sunday. We will be here their preppy. It's a mad scramble that they are painting the end zones later this week. And we were walking on the field and we got to check out
the locker rooms. Such a cool place, so really a thrill to be here. Locker room was nice, state of the art, like a club. I do feel like if you look up behind us, there's definitely like an assassin's perch up there somewhere, ready to take one of us out. Um. They were given a tour earlier to eight. Someone recognized Ricky Hollywood. Yeah, it was very cool, very cool, met leather jacket on. It was like perfect timing a large mail. You described him as very tall, very tall. Yes. Um,
So today's show it's gonna be fun. We got a whole week lined up of great activities. Today's show will be focused on several things, kind of almost like a typical Tuesday show in a non typical location. We have Monday night football recap to get to market. It sounds like you picked up good time to fly across the world in MS Brown's game. Yeah, to say the least. And now I know why there's a bounce in your step, as we would say, is my team took a trouncing
while I was asleep on an airplane. Um, you're a sick man. I'm excited to be in London. I don't care about your crappy team that much. We also will do a segment great moment on the plane, A couple of great moments on the plane. Greg and I are in the same row on Virgin Atlantic, which great job by you, Virgin Atlantic. Um. Greg turns the iPad to me to show me, UM an ESPN page that showed that my New York Yankees had swept their way to
the ALCS. I was very excited to see that, and that the Browns had been trounced, which apparently I was very excited to see as well. And it was like it was like it was in the middle of the night and Dan just starts hooting and hollering and UM. So then that gave us the idea for a segment. Uh. If you were handed an iPad on a plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean, UH, and you had been out of the loop for instead of one night the first five weeks of the football season. What would what would
stun you about what you were reading? So we'll do that Thursday night preview Giants at Patriots at Page. Are you kidding me? Now? The Patriots get both New York teams. Something spishy but uh. And we'll do some news, including the first firing of the twenty nineteen season and it probably won't be the last. Uh. But before we do that, let's talk Monday night football. And he's got this running game working at you see what Metta and look at the speed on Brita. What a way to start it?
Free yard touchdown. Yes, Matt Brita got it going for the Niners and they never let up. An absolute trouncing at the Big Bell Bottom as the San Francisco forty Niners took it to marks Cleveland Browns a thirty one to three final, a game that could have been even worse than it was if not for some missed field goal attempts by the Niners um a game where Baker Mayfield struggled mightily and the San Francisco running game piled
up two D seventy five yards on the ground. And absolute whipping Um West, I know we were are flying. You got a chance to check out this game on game Pass in your hotel before we came over, And was it as bad as the box score and all the write ups seemed to indicate. Well, I was half delirious from lack of sleep, so take this with a
grain of salt. But it reminded me quite a bit of the forty Niners Bengals game from earlier in the year, where it was just a wall to wall thumping, and it looked to me like the forty Niners were playing downhill. They were just the faster team, playing at a different speed and intensity, and on both sides of the ball, on special teams, every area of the game. The forty Niners look like a superpower. They the forty Niners are
the toughest running offense in the league to defend. And we'll get to the Browns, but to me, the forty Niners are weirdly the bigger story here because we've been waiting to find out who is right that I just mean maybe on this show, we've obviously been focused on the Browns, not just because of Mark, but also nationwide, people have been focused on the Browns all offseason. We weren't talking about the forty Ironers as kind of the cool rising team that's gonna take over the NFL, but
they are. They're so hard to defend. I love on ESPN how they show who's on the field on offense in terms of the skill position players every play. And you could appreciate a Kyle Shanahan offense when they do that because you realize how often it's two tight ends in a fullback and one receiver, or it's one tight
end a fullback kind of a blocking wide receiver. There was a lot of levine to Loylo in the In the game, there's of course a great game um by their entire defense, but on offense, it just feels like Kyle Shanahan is always one step ahead of the opposing defenses right now. And it's interesting because him and Sean McVeigh in theory kind of come from the same school and they do some similar things, but they do it in such different ways. You would never see two tight
ends and a fullback in a Sean McVeigh. It's a huge This was the game where I think people were waiting on San Francisco to find out Oh, this will be the week you're legit it or you're not. And I'm not sure the Browns are actually a test at
this point. I'm not. I'd come out very concerned about them for a variety of reasons, but to to thump Cleveland the way they did, and I haven't had a chance to watch it, and never will I watch it, But it's uh, it's it's encouraging because you know, the Niners weren't talked about this offseason, but they were talked about all off season last year. They were the team. You have always been a big Kyle Shanahan fan and
a big forty Niners fan. By extension, I have just u it's a neat My wife is a Niners fan. I mean, it would create family unity. That wouldn't be the worst thing. So you know what I was thinking
of during this game. I think it was Peter Schreeger when we had him on from the swimming pool, and it was him who said that the guy everyone in the NFL is talking about is the next head coaching candidate is forty Niners defensive coordinator Robert Sala and that they are right up there with the Patriots as the best and you know, throw the Bills in there. The best defenses in the NFL this year, and you could
argue they have more talent on de guys. It's starting to rain, a lot of electronic equipment sitting on our laps, and Ricky has it in front of her. Very dangerous moment right now. Speaking of dangerous, the Cleveland Browns are supposed to be dangerous. They're supposed to be feeling dangerous, and we we have what's now a major issue. Baker Mayfield eight of two hundred yards four and a half yards per attempt, two interceptions, um. He leads the NFL
with eight picks this year. Odell Beckham two catches for fifteen yards three points total. This is one of the biggest uh surprises of the early season, right that this is happening right now with the I think it is, and I this is tangential to that. But when I read the story where before the game he refused to shake hands with Richard Sherman and a couple other Niners players, I know that a lot of Baker Mayfield stuff gets blown up and I and I kind of brushed almost
all of it off. To me that that rubbed to me the wrong way and to go out and then lay a total egg. His career is still very young, and we want these guys to be fully developed products seven or eight games into their career. But it is concerning because the trajectory coming out of last year. Not unlike Jimmy g I thought after his little six game sample size where everyone thought he'd beat Joe Montana Part two and he struggled and got injured. It's it takes time.
Reminds me a lot of as a Jets fan Rex Ryan when he started, he always ran his mouth. He always, you know, played to the media and clap back at people that came after him. And when you're winning, it works and it's fun. But when you're not playing well and you're losing, it just it turns ugly quickly. And you know the fact you had two issues with Mayfield outside the game. You had the handshake thing that Richard Sherman then came after him in UH interview with Mike Silver.
After the game. You had Nick Bosa, who got a measure of revenge Mayfield during his college days at Oklahoma planting the flag at midfield against Bosa and Ohio State. So after Bosa gets to mayfield. He does a simulated plant flag and Bosa had an outrageous game. Uh two sacks, lived in the backfield, forced to fumble. Um, oh my god, it is starting down. We need to take a time out. All right, I need help. All right there. It is the first ever around the NFL podcast rain delay. It
happened the first podcast rain delay period. Did we make history. It's about a twenty nine minute delay. It involved many unathletic man men scampering and carrying equipment through the rain inside and uh and Erica said, ain't all back up for us? Inside there are unanswered questions if I might have damaged a dollar lens. So if so, I will just also be leaving the company. I also take issue with, as usual, Greg's commentary, you know, making comments you know
about other people. Uh did the least Greg did far the least amount of work. By far. Greg was grabbing two chairs at the time he was picking up. I went back out there three times. I don't know what you're talking about. You're actually actually you're totally in the roadway. You're staying keeping your hair dry. Give me a break. Once once we got outside, Greg was like, oh, that's enough of physical labor for the decade for me, I'm
shutting it down. Well, you know, we're working with the wires, just trying to get when we're gonna try everything off, Why did it need to go into this direction. I was making a joke that we're all making a run run for it and you're taking shots when I'm the one out there getting things. Otherwise it was still sitting there. I don't know. I just didn't think it was a
complete effort by you. I thought it was happening. I mean, Mark picked up a case and then one of my extremely extremely expensive lens is just rolled out onto the rainy field. If I just mentioned, yeah, you did it, but you scurried right back up and picked it up, and it was it was amazing, very quick. Well, I also found your phone in the middle of a wet grassy field. Had that not happened. Let's get back in a chuck. We're now inside. We're right outside the Tottenham
Hotspurs dressing locker room area. Yeah we are, which I would imagine there. You know, hundreds of thousands of people in this area that would die to be in this room, and here we are just viewing it as a place to get under a roof. Well, we were aware of how special it is to be here, and it's very exciting. Let's get back think of all the history that's happened here in the last ten months. Let's um, let's get back to the game. And uh yes, so Nick Bosa.
Listen to this stat line for Nick Bosa on Monday Night football get ready. Two sacks, two tackles for loss, four tackles, five quarterback hurries, a forced FuMB and a fumble recovery. He announced himself as an NFL star in prime time this week. I think it was a big deal to get the bye week for Nick Bosa. And this was healthy Nick Bosa. He had come back very quickly from a pretty serious ankle sprain, had been playing through it even in games, had gotten hurt kind of
as the game went along. They get the bye week, he comes back out and he looks like a superstar. He looked like the best player on a field that included Odell Beckham and Baker Mayfield and plenty of other great players. I think it's the fascinating story going forward is the NFC West is loaded and bizarre, and there are a ton of NFC West head to head competitions coming up, Mark where's your peace scale? On the on the Browns one pants totally dry, weren't wasn't trying well.
I'll put it this way because I think it's like one you you made one trip, brought one thing in your dan like or like three you made a three chip back out into the rain to get everything that makes sure everything was say something that actually gets Greg mad. You know you've you've done well. It's it's three plus trips.
I know the feeling I had, And I think any whenever you're a fan and you're stuck in a place where you can't track a game of a team that you care about very much, and like I intentionally didn't want to go minute by minute with this thing on the airplane if it was going south. It's two, so I you know, I knew the game was over and long after after the fact, and I did the thing where I purchased the Internet, uh, you know, hour long
service just to get the score. And you're that moment where I'm typing Browns forty Niners score, You're rolling the dice, a hundred side of dice. It could have ended in a billion ways had it had it ended forty five to seven Browns, I would have just stood up on the airplate and walk up and down the aisle and start slapping people five. But it's thirty two three. It's about as awful as a dice roll as you could have said. You understand the scale by now, but you
didn't give me a one attach. I said initially it's three plus chairs. I brought into three plus trips because I got that wet, because there's that that much p on me. I guess the peak is coming down literally from the sky on me. It's not coming from me. So it's bad, yeah, and not sort of what's been the experience of a Browns fan for a long time at this time. I mean Baker Mayfield, you know, acts tough before the game. It felt like he had a
little bit of a pace scale in this game. Very early on, has a wide open Odell Beckham for a big play, just overshoots him the first third down of the game, not really any pressure, he decides to try to go make a play on his own, ends up throwing up a pretty good throw, but Ricky Seals Jones can't come up with it. Ah, he fumbles in the game there is a lot of pressure on him, and the offensive line didn't play well. But some of that
is the scheme. I think some of that's Mayfield. Some of that's the running backs and tight ends who got Mayfield and the running game blown up in this game when they were trying to protect. So it's a little bit of everything. But Baker is not playing well. I mean, that's pretty He's been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league this year. Statistically, You're right. In a league where it's where it's hardware right now, not many quarterbacks
are truly struggling. You're right, I'm not just statistically like not being comfortable with what he's seen, seeing ghosts in the pocket. He hasn't been a good quarter And we went from oh, you know, his interceptions are playful, and Brett Farvelake because he's a Sea pirate throwing balls to mostly his guys too too. Now it's he's turning the ball over at a crazy race. But there's just no rhythm.
There was no rhythm in this game. This is one reason why I always pushed back against when people said, well, though that doesn't count. You know, the Rams racked up numbers in garbage time or this team did in garbage there's no guarantee that you're gonna get anything in garbage time. The Browns were worse in the second half of this game than they were in the first half. They end
up with, yeah, like a hundred yards. Beckham had his two catches for twenty seven with about twenty seven minutes left in the game, and it's twenty eight to three, and the Browns couldn't even do anything when there was nothing going on, when they had all the time in the world to just try to pass, and they couldn't do it this time. Let Jimmy j a little credit, though he's a difference. The difference between Baker and Jimmy G is Jimmy G's got a great defense and a
great coaching staff, everything for him. His first read. He has not really had to do anything this year. And therefore, now Nick bose with the last word on his rival. I don't know how anybody thought he would be able to see over Eric Armstead and DeForrest Buckner. But he was panicking. He was double clutching, rolling back and forth. We had him rattled all game. And that's it. Mark. We won't talk about this game ever. Again, let's do some news. Oh, I'm so sorry, you need a UK
passport to check those files. Therefore, British eyes ugly. Oh you need the song in there, the a song as what makes it? Well, we just got the song, all right. Let's get into the big news and the only really big news item here, which is Ja Gruden is out as Redskins head coach, falling an oh and five start uh and a thirty three to seven lost to the Patriots. On Sunday, Gruden was fired. The team confirmed a report that was out there. Gruden uh spoke out on Monday
saying that you know he has he's not bitter. He had time to get things done, but it just never happened over five and a half years. He did also add though, that he wished he had a little more control over who came into the building and who he was coaching, which is at the heart or one of the main issues around why Washington has been irrelevant for years now and the idea that under Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen, the team president, I believe, uh, this is
an organization that has not been cohesive. And as Jay Gruden goes out the door and Jake Gruden. I think we'll be fine. Jake Gruden will get another job as an o C and maybe even get a second chance as a head coach. You look ahead to the Redskins West and when you look to find a new head coach, and right now the interim coaches Bill Callahan. I don't imagine he'll be the long term answer. There isn't it
a scary job for any coach to look at. Yeah, I've been through this with the Bengals going back to the nine nineties, where you know there's only thirty two of these in your life. Is better when you're head coach than it is when when you're a coordinator most of the time. So I think people are gonna want it, but maybe they don't get the first or second choice. Maybe they get the third or fourth choice. They apparently want Mike Tomlin. I mean that is the the coach
that Dan Snyder wants, which is great. Why would Mike Tomlin want to go from one of the most stable, well run organizations to an organization that hasn't settled on a way to run things really since this ownership took over. I mean they've they've played two playoff games in the last eleven years. They've won two playoff games since Dan Snyder took over, and one of those was in his first year. And you look at the structure that they always have. Bruce Allen took over this team in two
thousand ten. Back then he was the president and general manager, and then he wasn't the general manager and they hired Scott mcglewen and he lost it his job, and then Alan is somehow taking over again, but Doug Williams is involved, but the owners picking the quarterback. They let j Gruden coach one more game, I think, to let him coach Colt McCoy. I really believe that, because Gruden had sounded like knew he was about to be fired, and this was kind of like I didn't choose r G three.
I never really wanted him. I was always ambivalent about Kirk Cousins. Uh, And here I am with Dwayne Haskins, who I didn't really want anyone. They're like, here have Colte McCoy for one game, You're gonna stink and then we're gonna fin thought they had something going when McCluin
was picking players and turning the Redskins. There was a season or two where they had a toughness vibe to them, where they'd occasionally go and beat teams up, and they were an enjoyable watch when they were on right West. You agree with that. I remember you and I there were weeks where we would just get fired up about the Redskins imposing their will on other teams. But they didn't just beat other teams up, they beat themselves up.
And that's one of the reasons why after five and a half years, I still don't know if Jake Bruden's a good coach, you're a bad coach. I don't think he's a bad coach because of how much that was working against him, including the litany of injuries, which were you know, up there with the Chargers as the biggest plague in the league. There's here's part of the problem with Bruce Allen here because they asked him uh and his press conference about you know, is their culture issue
with this team? He responds, you know, the culture is actually damn good. These people care. We have a very young core of players that we have brought in here or accustomed to winning. If you look at the record of these guys, they're accustomed to winning. They want to win some of that is just GM speak and presidents speak, but also there's a lack of accountability and the understanding that maybe it's time to shift the dynamic of how
things are operated with the organization. I was on the airplane and had a chance to watch this press conference, and first of all, this this is the guy you have to wheel out to answer what I thought were some tough questions by some very frustrated Redskins beat writers try to ask the questions that this extremely frustrated fan base wants to ask of their owner and of Bruce Allen, and it felt to me answer after answer like fraudulent
soft sell military industrial complex solutions to stuff that will never actually get a real answer on. It was impossible for me to take it seriously and it was offensive, to be honest. Sometimes these NFL press conferences are really tough to watch because you can see through it. You can see through it, and this fan base is one that I think has less hope than almost any in the league. Because even if you're a Dolphins fan, you can say there's some vision here, what is the Redskins vision?
And Bruce Allen basically said I couldn't be happier with what I've done up till now, I thought he took no accountability at all. I think it's the toughest job in the NFL, even tougher than then the Bengals, you know, for a head coach. And I think they're a great example of what a golden goose the NFL is. You know, their situation and on game day is not very popular. Fans are not showing up, The stadium experience isn't great. The team has been, you know, one of the very worst,
and the franchise only keeps increasing in value. They keep printing money like owning and running the Redskins is about as profitable and you know, risk free of business as possible, even though compared to the other thirty thirty one franchises in the league, they're run poorly. To your point, one quick thing about Bruce Allen was asked, why what was your response to against the Patriots? More than half the stadium was Patriots fans who were drowning out the Redskins
and cheering on Tom Brady. And that's happening in other stadiums too. But Bruce Allen, instead of saying this is a you know something and I understand looks bad and we need to bring our fan, this proud fan base back. Basically put it on the fans for selling the tickets on the second market. He basically said, this is on the fans for creating that environment. This is on you. This is on a team that has coasted forever in
terms of team building. Okay, and one last note before we move on Callaghan, as I said, the new interim head coach, so that Dwayne Haskins won't be starting, uh anytime soon. So it'll be Colt McCoy, or it will be case Keenum. Uh. So get excited, Washington, But probably the right move based on what we've seen and what
we've heard about the first round pick so far. I thought there was a subtle departure from j Gruden in that Bill Callahan seemed to go out of his way to say Haskins isn't an option now, but that doesn't mean he won't be an option later in the year, whereas Gruden seemed to be going out of his way to say, this guy is just not ready. You know, we we can't put him out there. You know, there was all these reasons. It just seemed like Gruden was
at wits end. Basically, he didn't want Haskins, and now you know he knew he was a dead man walking. He's like, oh, now I'm gonna put in your quarterback because I fired a struggle. That's all right, which goes to what we're talking about. I I, you know, that's not a good look for Gruden, but what are you doing letting your coach in first round pick go into a season when they don't want each other. Gruden is gonna be the head coach of the Jets in January.
That's my pro I think offensive coordinator for the Raiders the Gruden boys. All right, let's uh now move on. Before we move on, we checked into our hotel right before we got in a cabin headed over here to the stadium, and um, you know, as I was getting getting my things together my room, I don't know if you guys have there's a bit of a weird energy to the hotel rooms. Anybody else picking that up? Well,
this just like the vibe to it a little bit. Yes, I agree with you, and m and I started, I took out my phone and hit record because honestly, listen to what happened in my room as I was getting ready to meet you guys downstairs in the lobby. That's the sink. Yes, when I shaved. Wait, wait, who are you? Are you that it's talking back? What are you trying to tell me? Now? Listen to this part? Am I in danger? See how the pitch went up like it's
you're having a conversation. It sounds like a woman, maybe one of Jack the Rippers victims. We're on the east side of London and and she's trying to tell me something. It's a clear cut poultr geist. And Erica asked, are you gonna ask to move rooms? And absolutely not. I want to try to help her. I've got the same situation going on, and my pipes are singing. All right, so get the phone out and we'll track this day.
They put me up on the top floor and I have a number one, a beautiful view of the city and it's an enormous room. Just jike in it, really beautiful, huge, multiple bathrooms. All right, let's uh, let's get to it now. Yes, Greg takes out the iPad. He shows me the sports update and it was an exciting moment um and you know, also Greg the spill on the guy, Oh that was tough.
Because Greg. It was a minor spell. Greg is a guy that you know when he's in his in his realm and he's in his world and he's got his book and he's relaxing on the plane, he doesn't want people messing with him. You know a lot of people aren't like that. You know. Um And the last thing, you never wanted somebody to spill on you. When you accidentally spilled on this gentleman who was very nice about it, I I felt very badly for you because that's the
guy made. The guy made a real big like he kind of he was nice about it, but he kind of made a big scene. He like stood up and he's wiping down. And then as he's going to use the rest room to wipe himself off some more, he knocks Greg's drink over and it's it's basically a giant disaster. And I mean, I was next to both of them. Was kind of a fun show. But I also did feel for Greg. He was early man. Now he was not he was he was a petite young man. He was a man. He was a man who watched Mrs
Doubtfire I think twice. He might not have been twice, but it seems to be going on for a long time. He just he you have a two hundred and seventy five entertainment options, and you go straight for the doubt fire, like right off the top while the plane was still on the runway. It was only about an eighth of the water. That plane hadn't even taken off. And then he knocked his whole thing over. But I wasn't sitting there.
You know, we all we all avoided me. Anyway, Greg hands the iPad over, I get the update on my baseball team, and they got got us thinking. Uh, Like I said before, what if the iPad got handed to you on that plane and you have not seen anything about the NFL until that very moment, what would be the biggest surprise to you to see on that iPad? You look at this guy would be like, give it to me. I want some more doubt fire need it. And also the guy Greg was nice enough to hand
over the iPad. He had a hand it over, this gentleman, and I could read his mind. Like I asked at the beginning of the Floyd if you if you guys want to switch seats. He got me the middle of this mess. Now we see what you're doing guy. You just wanted anile seat, which you know. I don't blame play. It was going to happen. Didn't work out eat the middle seat. In fact, when I checked in my bag, the woman said to me, oh, you could be a look the seats empty right now, and it got me
all excited. And then you see him there, so he got well. I was told that too. You're fine. Listen, there's a gaping wide middle seat. Where did you check end in Los Angeles? And they were British. Yeah, that's crazy. You haven't You haven't noticed sometimes foreign airlines that they're often employed by the countries in which they served. Greg dunking in the States only slightly condescending, Yeah, Greg towards America.
But Eric was being condescending and judging me. But that was the I just thought you were stuck in the that's the norm. So Greg was defending Dan by being viciously condescending, coming coming back at her in the same time. This jet lacks hit. Okay, let's get to it, Greg,
I hand you the iPad. I'm stunned to see that the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers lost their starting quarterbacks Drew Brees and Cam Newton, and they've gone three and o since that, They've each won three straight games against pretty good competition. Of all the things that have happened this season, that seems the most remarkable to me. We did not give the Saints much hope of running
the gauntlet of these last three weeks. When Teddy Bridgewater took over, none of us even thought they were gonna win. In Seattle. We you know, West locked him up and we all agreed with him in the room like that was a game that they were not gonna win. That seems a little less surprising for the Panthers to rally around uh Kyle Allen, who's had his moments, and certainly
the rest of the team has to that. That to me is as stunning it as anything, and it proves in the NFL like it really it's such a cliche, but it's such a team game. Even if this uh coma that we're in for the first part of the season began after that Thursday Night lost to the Bucks, we'd be surprised that the Panthers did this. We were talking about the coach being flushed out, Cam Newton gone forever, et cetera. Let we get a little Kyle Allen here.
We got a panther's helmet, right, and I mean the team, Yeah, Kyle Allen has had some moments, really the first game, but they really rallied around the greatness of Christian McCaffrey. And with the Saints, well, I guess what surprises me or is what's been the most impressive is they're getting better every week. They they you know, from the Seattle game to the Dallas game and now what we saw on Sunday against the Bucks. They're just I mean, they
are scared. There's no lower The Falcons and fans have had some low moments, and certainly the Super Bowl is the lowest. But when when Drew Brees went out and the Falcons are coming off a Sunday night win against Atlanta, the talk was can the Falcons open up a little bit of a lead there in the NFC South before Breeze gets back. Fast forward just three weeks and they're buried in last place. Yeah, West, I'm heading you the iPad. Well, I'm looking at this is let's let's say I'm a
Steelers fan. I look at this iPad. My team is one and four with an undrafted four string rookie quarterback about to make his first NFL starting The Dolphins have my non lottery protective first round draft pick, rough Sitch. That's a surprise when I look at that that iPad with a lot of turmoil. That's beyond the worst case scenario. At the time, Josh Dobbs would have been your third string quarterback. So instead you have a guy named deviled eggs Hodges here who's starting on. His name is Duck.
His nickname is Duck. He's like a nineteen quarterback with a leather helmet. Here's the hell of it. That's the straight the dire straits you're in. But if Marlon Humphrey doesn't push punch that ball out, that same undrafted four string rookie quarterback might have just led you into first place in the f C North last week. Close and let me see that. I pad a second. We're not going to dwell on it, but it is pretty stunning. At the Browns have a quarterback that leads the NFL
interceptions and their offense isn't moving the ball. We knew Cincinnati was bad, maybe not quite this bad. And I mentioned, uh, the Steelers and the Ravens. Maybe they're the only team in that division where I'd be like, Okay, this makes sense, that's what I expected. Said they just got bombed by Cleveland a week ago. That division is all over the place. Yeah, but you kind of could see them being maybe up and down, um hot and cold. But the rest of
the division is really wacky. Mark, take the iPad, what do you see? The story that I would be clicking into article after article after article as an odyssey that took us to such bizarre places, but that I don't want to rehash entirely right now because everyone knows so much about it is the odyssey of Antonio Brown and what happened if you went to bed in August and
you woke up. Now the fact that at any point he went to the Patriots and things got even worse from everything that you knew about, and hard knocks and the way it ended with Oakland all that, But I want to spend it more positively that a team that has changed the way I feel about them, that I can't wait for them to play each week to check them out is the Lions. And I'm not saying that they have a a roster filled with magical parts like some of these teams that are leading the division and
staring towards the playoffs. But the Lions to me have been deadweight for a decade plus dating back forever, and have never had any belief in them. And I can't stand their dome and all this other stuff that I railed against them, their uniforms, everything from from start to finish.
Matt Patricia, who I thought had come close to a player revolt at points in his first year, has instilled some different type of culture in Detroit where he's got the right type of players and that that meant bringing in some Patriots guys, some known products, and that is it is. It has turned the NFC North to me into a much more interesting division because it isn't just green Bay and it isn't just Chicago. The other quick thing I would notice is green Bay's defense, another team.
I've always been down on green Bay their defense, and they're not perfect either, but the way that they can hassle a quarterback and you're cheating right now? Why Yeah, Well, the NFC North being one a division that I enjoy when I I really disliked the NFC North and I can't explain why Antonio Brown thing. This guy is not even in the league. I haven't. Haven't we spit through that. The Antonio Brown thing is outrageous. The Patricia thing. I agree.
I'm totally surprised because it seemed like after year one I hogged the iPad. He was going. He was going the way of so many other Bellcheck disciples, where you go it along and go it alone and flame out. Darryl Bello was a great higher by him. If you look at their them, the way they're producing on offense, they you know, things went so well Jim Bob Cooter initially and then that stopped working last year. They're running
game is up um seventeen yards of game. And Matthew Stafford who before the season West, I remember I was talking about, who is Matthew Stafford? What is he um? Through four weeks, he's he's got career best rates and yards per attempt adjusted, yards per TEMP, yards per completion uh. And he's attempting the ball down the field more than any quarterback this year on average. He's throwing deeper passes. Well. They they've gone up in one of the most crucial stats.
I think that every NFL team tracks which is the around the NFL podcast usage rate. The Detroit Lions barely mentioned for many months in the off season. Now we can't get through a show without talking about the Detroit Lions. We love them. If we had a team of a year not fun to watch, They've got a better point differential than the four and one first place New Orleans Saints. Do we have a team of a T N whoa
out of nowhere? Is it coming naturally? The team wants to shine up t This is a very special higher It's always better when it comes naturally. All right, I'll close it out, Mark, I thought you were going when
you mentioned Antonio Brown during your winding narrative there. Um, I thought you're gonna give the Raiders some shine and John Gruden specifically because if you went out of pocket at the end of training camp, right after Hard Knocks ended, and right when Antonio Brown was hiring a social media expert to craft tweets that would get him fired by his team, and the Raiders got absolutely savaged for the experiment, which you know is fair in the moment to do that.
There was nobody that said, well, the Raiders, not only are they going to survive without Antonio Brown. They are gonna be absolutely in the mix, and they're even gonna go to London and beat up the Bears and win a game. They are three and two heading into their bye week, and uh, they are not a great team.
I don't think they are going to be someone that puts a scare into any a f C superpower, but it is undeniable thus far from what we've seen that there is progress in the John Gruden uh empire here from year one to year two, and there was a lot of writing grudening off immediately. We had to give him time to start building something and they could finish five and eleven. It's certainly possible. But where we stand
right now, they are they they are success story. Uh. In the NFL, Sara, I thought you were going to mention that we lost a quarterback to a teen kissing illness. I don't need to talk about that anymore, but that would surprise you if you read that on an iPad. That team, though, the Jets, and we forget about it now, there was a lot of this is going to bloom into something very watchable too. Forget about that. There was
a very favorable shine to them. Yeah, the Raiders. Even two weeks ago we had given up on I mean they had just gotten beaten up on the Chiefs and the Vikings and back to back weeks, and they were in the middle of what appeared to be the toughest road trip in NFL history and they still have a while to go on it. But they just won an Indian and they just beat the Bears in London. It is shocking to me because you look up and down, it doesn't really makes sense in terms of their talent.
But I think their offensive line is good, and I think John Gruden has done a very nice job coaching that offense to be about as efficient as it can be. And Josh Jacob is one of those players that they got essentially for Khalil Mctrade, which I'm not defending that trade, but it should be noted that he looks like a young start running back and and this team has some pieces. Now, uh, they're they're a team that could be on the rise,
could be. How about you hand me the iPad and I check out the NFC West standings and the Rams are in three and two, but they're in third place. This is the best division of football. Forget the NFC, NFC North. These are three teams that I find all of them really fascinating. The forty Niners, Seahawks, and Rams.
I think they're all legit contenders. I don't know where they're going, but I think the Rams with the forty Niners coming in this week, and we can talk about that on the previous show, obviously they have to be a little worried here because you do not want to be third place in your own division. This becomes a monster game this week, and all three I don't think they're flukey. I think they're talented, and I just I'm looking forward to watching these three teams played each other
all season. I point to one thing too that I I the Niners coming off that game, you're four No see you? But there isn't one clear cut dominant team in my mind, just because I have sudden ling green questions about the Patriots offense, but they'll probably go fourteen and two. I think that's especially true. Yeah, you're right. In the NFC, how many teams could go to the super Bowl? You love my mind? My brain. I mean, she's contractually obligated. Let me see that I've paid. Okay,
last one we gotta we gotta keep moving. But go ahead, West. It says here Aaron Jones has more tds than Aaron Rodgers this year, and yet only Bill Belichick has more wins than at the flower As Mark like, there's a lot going on there, a lot going on there that's pretty special. I did think. I did think that. I always because you know, you know, a quarterback Aaron Rodgers looked happy obviously most of that game against the Cowboys, but not throwing a touchdown pass. You know, he's Aaron Jones,
you know, score all four of the touchdowns. It's like Walter Payton and the Bear Super Bowl when didn't he didn't score, He never got over went and hid in the closet that they get They gave the fridge the ball at the goal line that had give him Walter the hard earned uh super Bowl touchdown that he always prayed that might have been a higher instance than this random regular season. Shouldn't it shouldn't be considered a shocker. That glory boy Mike Dicka was wasn't thinking about people.
How about that Gregg. It's got to take the dicker shot Dicka got bang oh two at that Super Bowl twenty probably dominant win, a dominant win for the Bears. Of course, it was not Dicka who got carried off the field. It was Buddy Ryan. Yes, it was the defensive coordinator that team. You could feel the implosion coming. Why are we expanding into a deep look at the You know, I was about the second. Dick's got the steakhouses,
so he won in the end. Uh. And he's got the Dicka and uh and Dwarsky cigar bash that happens every Super Bowl week. That's a big thing. He's got the Saturday Night Live skit. No one's done more about Dick tam pose he's gonna kill that was done more with one Super Bowl than well here in England. Here in England, from what we can gather, the love of the NFL really started to bloom in the eighties. I've talked to had many conversations with Handsome Hank about this.
And the Dolphins, Dan Marino and the Bears, that famous five Bears team are are teams that captured the imagination of this region. And that's why you heard so many Bear fans going nuts during their comeback against the Raiders last Sunday. Uh. And then they let them down because of the curse. The curse I call it of Walter Payton. How many Super Bowl titles since they didn't let him go into the end zone? Big old zero. That's a good talk. Maybe that's the Maybe that's who's in my hotel.
Forget the billy, go set them free, Walter. We did not need to fashion that. All right, let's before we get out of here, Thursday night football, which uh man, that game is gonna start late here, huhne in the morning. The New York Giants dream. Mark Brady said he's staying up for it until four thirty to make sure the editing processes goes smoothly. Lying he's gonna say that to his bosses, but they'll be asleep. I have it demon
travel to Foxborough the Pats. Let's go over the path the records of the New England Patriots opponents so far this year. Week one, they got the Dolphins, right, No, Steelers, Steelers one and four. Week two they got the Dolphins. They got the Dolphins, yeah, oh and five. Week three they get the Jets, oh and four. Week four they get the Bills four and one. Nice. Week five the Redskins, oh and five. Week six, the Giants two and three. Week seven, the Jets oh and four. That's nice. That's
a nice setup for the Pats. It seems a little crooked. I'm not gonna lie a little bit crooked, Greg, it's been a little lucky, I mean, especially defensively that even the good team you played, the Bills, do not have a good offense. All these numbers. Let's calm down, Patriots fan, they've seen these articles. This is is this the best
Patriots defense ever? Are you kidding me? Did anyone watch football in the beginning of the Those teams were insanely talented on all three levels, dominated opponents, and did it throughout the playoffs. This team is dominating cream puffs. It's the it's the season. I'm not sure if they're top five defense. I think they probably are. But let's calm down. With the combined records so far of New Englands opponents five and nineteen, whoa, all right, let's get to this game.
Five of those losses came from the Pats. Yeah, you gotta take those apps, alright, Alright, let's get to it. Danny Dimes, Greg, once upon a time you hoped that you could end Eli Manning's career as if that would take away the agony of those two Super Bowl defeats at the hands of the great Elijah Manning. But instead he's a long gone now he's he's in the rear view mirror. It's Daniel Jones against Tom Brady. Uh. Interesting matchup between a twenty two year old passer and a
forty two year old passer. Who will last longer in the league not clear at this point. Uh do we expect the game at Foxborough? You know? The people in the desert don't um and I and I can see why, because the Giants are gonna be without Sterling Shepherd. It sounds like Sae Kwon Barkley is still a long shot
to play. Wayne Gallman might not play. And I think we saw last week against the Vikings what can happen when this Giant's offense plays a more talented defense with a coordinator who knows how to attack a rookie Daniel Jones, And it certainly wasn't all on him, But he's not enough to save this organization right now? Well, no, and then you lose Sterling Shepherd, you lose se Kwon Barkley.
So he's been playing without some of their best players, and you're expecting him to repeat these heroics that he did against the Buccaneers. This is a bad team and they've been playing like and the bigger thing is they never have the ball because their defense can't get us. Belichick absolutely adores facing young rookie quarterbacks, and this is
a good matchup for him. I meant it. I put it at the level of I would be utterly, humanly shocked if the Giants won this game, humanly shocked if it was in the Metal Lands, maybe in prime time, and I don't care if it's I don't care if it's played in Eli Manning's backyard. The Patriots have a lot to work on, but I don't think on both sides of the ball, especially on offense. But you look at this Giant's defense and it's you know, it's still
right there with the very worst in the league. If the Patriots can't get healthy in terms of running the ball and being having a little more rhythm on offense, they're not gonna have Philip door set in this game. Then that's caused for concern at this stage of the season. But you you said it. They have the Jets and then they finally kind of face the meat of their schedule.
They have about a six or seven weeks stretch against a bunch of playoff type of maybe through the ball thirty one times in the first half on Sunday, and they were not doing much. It wasn't until they really started moving the ball on the ground that Brady was able to get loose. And uh, they opened the floodgates on the red skin. They intentionally abandoned the run and they I came out of that game they by in the end. They did everything you would have thought, and
you look at the box score, it looked fine. But they if they get tangled with an opponent that forces them to make explosive plays, the Patriots don't have that right now. They missed Gronkowski and Josh Gordon and and Brady. There was a deep connection where Brady just completely overthrow. They're not completely in sync. No, he doesn't know what Gordon is gonna do. That's the key to being of Tom Brady receiver is you have to see the defense
the same way he does, and Gordon doesn't. Breaking news speak of the devil, speak of the sentient keg Rob Gronkowski will make his Network debut this week on Fox NFL Thursday. And let me tell you something that is all that is. Don't worry about the debut one as an analyst. That's not his future. We all know that's not what he's gonna be doing. That just takes him one step closer to the game, one step closer to the field, and the Patriots, who do not have a
tight end they could rely on. Right now, get ready, everybody, it's happening, and this is the first step toward his return in December, which will not only um, you know, really helped the Patriots win another super Bowl, it will get me sandwiches. And that's the great thing. I um, I still think it's about on that whole sandwich thing.
But I don't know how you got. This moves him closer to the field by him moving into these remember distinctive away Remember but he was at like a taco hut opening and he was getting choked up and he said he you know, he couldn't play and he was hurt. Uh, and he was trying to get away from football. Well, now he's talking about football. He's gonna be on the football field. He's gonna be talking to Terry Bradshaw he's gonna be reminiscing about the good old day and it's
coming back. Here comes the I think Taco Hut would bring him closer than actually broadcasting the games. I would hope if they do bring him back, it goes better than the Ben Watson reunion, who they had to release this week after he came up suspension. It is a very w w E move, and Gronk is very much a w w E guy and fan to kind of come back late in the season. It's happening, do it. I mean, come on, Ryan is oh ways, and the
analysis of this, let's not glaze over this. Rob Gronkowski is going to be an analyst, okay, because we are definitely coming back. What are half of these hires. It's personality, it's charisma, it's shouting at the camera, you know, that's It's not I wouldn't. I wouldn't. We're not getting mathematical. He's you know, camera magic when it comes to you know, thinking of his feet and breaking things down or in
a funny joke I just thought. I mean, it's it's a certain skill set to thrive in the job that he's taking. That's all A bunch of regular stand up comedians in the Fox Sports broadcasting group. Please all right, let's get out of here. Um. Yes, here's what's coming up this week Thursday, Hey, Moose and Goose, let's go down to the chuckle Hot the Taco our Thursday preview. You'll get that a video show. We'll go up at noon Pacific, three m Eastern, three pm Eastern eight pm BT.
I guess that's the time zone. News to me. UH, Sky will be at Sky Sports on Wednesday, so if you're UH from this region, check that out. Inside the Huddle Show airing on Sky Sports, hosted by Neil the Great Neil Reynolds. A venue show at Tottenham Stadium shop coming up exclusively to Game pass subscribers. Can we share the number of the people that the number of people that try to get tickets to this? Eighteen thousand people UH signed up to get the tickets we had to
turn away roughly seventeen thousand, nine fourteen. Mark. Are we sending those notess back to Culver City for various bosses and higher ups to just so we have a shadowy late figure is confirming this figure. It felt like maybe an extra zero had gotten put on there by a type of that seems outrageous. No, I asked the guy to repeat himself. I said, I'm sorry, you said thousands. I mean the Charlotte Hornets don't draw that much. I'm starting to think we gotta the venue was too small
that we booked for our Friday live show. How well, all right, that's it. We let's catch up on some sleep, Let's get some room service. Let's let's snuggle under the blankets together. Boys, all of us in the same room. You in this female ghost in your room. Let's go jealous of your female ghost. You have a robot in your garage. You got a female ghost signing off for the Quiet Star on the mail Man. Bill Voss, Ricky Hollywood on the scene until Thursday m