The Around the NFL podcast knows the NFL ai overlords put two games on tonight to annoy Mark. Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. I am Dan Hansens, Scott Mark Sessler.
Here.
It's got Greg Rosenthal and yes, two Monday night football games a source of annoyance. Sure, but then the games unfold and I have to say, and I'm curious your thoughts, Mark, that was the most fun I've had watching football this year because of the two games, the quality, the uniqueness of them, the endings for both the plot lines. This probably means we'll have two Monday night football games for the rest of time now because the NFL will think
this can happen every week. But I really had a great time watching football tonight, and now we get to talk about it, which is cool as well.
Yeah, like I told, I told Greg before we got on that I had a not even a hot take just to take about what this evening, What what had unraveled in terms of like a red carpet for the rest of our lives is. I think this set the table for this happening probably eight weeks a year, if not every week.
Because it worked tonight.
Let's be real, like I mean, I think you watched the end of this Giants game, and we'll get into it. And at that point, there was about two two plus minutes left in the Dolphins game, which seemed out of reach. It's like, of course, one of these will kind of be sealed up, and then what unfurled from there was complete zaniness. It is an NFL schedule makers and NFL masterminds dream, and I think the Dolphins game was was one of the craziest endings I've witnessed all season.
I mean, this was this was a bolt of lightning.
You get.
You could put two Monday night games on every Monday night for the next five seasons, and you might not get a Monday night like Tommy Cutlet's going down the field after they coughed up a big lead, followed by a team gagging away a lead in a manner that literally hasn't been done this century at the exact same time. So these were two of the most memorable games of the season, and they happened to happen on the exact
same night. I'm with you, There'll be more of these nights, but I don't think there'll be a night quite like this one because it was just too freaking crazy.
And you know, I know, working with Zumwalt on the drop today. One of the other kind of angles I was going to take was that this was a mistake made by the AI bot and they just said, all right, well, we didn't realize until it's too late. We sent down the schedules, so let's just play two games. And did anyone else find it odd and maybe borderline disturbing that at halftime of these games it was the same score, the same general game script, the same vibe with a
underdog leading a favorite. It was almost like the simulation was exposed Truman. Truman's shows a style that changed in the second half, so that was also comforting to me.
Yes, And I mean, you know we have we do text with Zumwalt a little bit during these affairs when they're these Island games, and you know, naturally he was going nuts over Davito.
And I like it too. I mean, I'm from the Tri State area.
I think it's a cool story, but like there was a part of me it's like if all of this, Sorry, I am from multiple places, but I lived like like I know, I know, I understand the day that you grew up in a like this hard hitting, cold town where everyone, like you know, has a lung disease, but like we actually grew up like about thirty minutes away from each other and like the DeVito thing, like I knew a billion people just like that, as did you.
And it's like to me, it was like.
Is this this is so surreal at the end of the season that it feels like a like someone's coming and scripted large chunks of what we experienced with the NFL, and both of these things were happening tonight at once.
Because Will Levis also feels like he.
Was pulled out of nineteen eighty eight, like WWF Paul Orange. So I am I am kind of just like floating and wondering what's happening?
Yeah, so why don't we dive into it? And I find myself like actually feeling as someone who grew up in the same area as Tommy Cutlet's I almost feel
like I'm missing out. And not only I felt like this my whole life, to be honest with you, Like growing up in a town that everyone was a Giants fan, I always felt like I was missing out, And once again, it just feels like, it's just fun to be a Giants fan, even when there are dark times, they just you mix in these like moments and they're having one right now with to Vito and having to kind of download the whole Tommy DeVito situation to my wife on the couch today, and then my kids roll over and
they get invested in the game like it was. It was so much fun. But we got to start. We got to start with the game that I had because I was kind of distracted because my whole family was so into this the Vito situation. That game is twenty seven thirteen. Of course, Dolphins and Titans. It's twenty seven to thirteen with less than five minutes to play. After two monumental gaffes turnovers by the Titans turned a tight game into one that Miami was kind of coasting to
a win, and then things got super weird. Let's start with the final play of note here. So he did not get out of bounds apparently, and there's the.
Difference, right, didn't get out of bounds.
The Titans were getting.
Out of bounds on a regular basis in their situation, and they had the.
Ball two yards here to keep the dream him alive here to in.
Traffic, he'll be broughted out. At Tennessee. He's going to secure an incredible, improbable come back victory and win for the road on the first time this year.
My goodness to a taken down was that Howld Landry with the sec Yes, that was the nail and the coffin for the Dolphins, who were four minutes and thirty four seconds away with a two score lead from taking over the top seed in the AFC with four games to go. Instead, they watch it all fall apart as Tennessee goes touchdown two point conversion, three and out touchdown pat Dolphins drive stalls, final score twenty eight to twenty seven and one of the more probable comebacks in the
history of Monday Night football. Greg, we could talk about either team here, because the Dolphins obviously are the team that are still nine to four and in great playoff position and still heavy favorites to win their division, so their season is not over here. But at the same time, for Miami, it's like, you really want to see how the Dolphins react, what kind of stomach they have, how they move forward after a game that sucked a lot out of their sales I.
Mean, it is unconscionable, like there is no precedent at We got all the researchers out there trying to figure it out, but it's believed this is the biggest lead anyone's given up in that short of time to lose in regulation. You see all these stats out It had been seven hundred and sixty seven straight games with a fourteen point lead three minutes to go the team wins. But most of those when you have the fourteen minutes
you win in overtime. People are going back. The closest they can find is a seventies game with the Steelers and the Dolphins, and even that took a little longer during this comeback, and it happened because a Levis's huevos like the plays he made. I know he didn't have a good night overall. But there's a crazy play that Taji Spears makes, who is part of a very similar comeback for two lane against USC in the final five
minutes of a huge bowl game that was insane. Then there was the best throw he had of the night to Westbrook, Akina. The two point conversion might change how coaches look at two point conversions forever more they already were, but Mike Rabel passed the down by eight, going for two point conversion two, which a lot of people all season longer like why are they doing this? I don't understand why they're doing this. Them getting on the plane with a victory is why they did it. They hit
the two so that they could win in regulation. After the Dolphins messed up two offensive positions, they tried to run it three times, they dropped back to pass on their third down. It ended up being a three and out after Tua made a bad decision to scramble and then right back down the fields to de hop Tuo conco. The defense just felt as much as Tua looked frazzled
and blew that ending sequence. And we can talk about how the Dolphins blew it, the fact that their defense had been so good all night and then just watched Levis and Hopkins go hero ball in Westbrook, Aquina and Spears. It was an amazing defensive collapse from a defense that had been playing so well over the last two months.
Yeah, because I go back to when, like the DeAndre Hopkins decided to go to the Titans, and I know he didn't have a billion offers, but it was like that feels like an fit. This team feels slightly out of it. They don't have a lot going on on offense. He dominated tonight. They don't win that game without DeAndre Hopkins looking like the Hopkins from years ago. Tajy Spears
was incredible. The Dolphins defense, which has been you know, even without Jalen Phillips, like a total positive in the last the last couple of weeks and a reason that you believe in them, completely collapse and I part of me wonders, like the players just from a human angle, think when they're up, by the way they're up historically, Greg to your point that no one comes back in that situation, did they kind of just collapse and were
they taken out of the game a little bit? I mean, I also I want to, you know, from a Dolphins angle real quick, like Tua had plenty of time and was put into a situation that if you're a you know, a to a believer, you want to see that happen for that argument, and if you're too a doubter, you want to see what happens for your side of that. I think the loss of Connor Williams early in the game mattered a lot in this They didn't have toront Armstead.
We know what happens to Miami's offense when they I don't have Toronto Armstead and Tyreek Hill was not present for large chunks of the game and not present at the end there, and it's like you take a few pieces away from the Dolphins and they look completely different. And this was a Titans defense that took them down
at the end without Jeffrey Simmons. I mean, it was kind of just like an insane collection of events all at once in some of the personnel situations on both sides don't make a lot of sense for how that happened. And it was kind of like a classic Mike Rabel win when you didn't expect what happened.
Yeah, and Tyreek Hill suffers the ankle injury early, look really bad. Another hip drop tackle and they're gonna, obviously, I think, change the rules to protect these guys because it's so gnarly every time it happens. And he's out
of the game for the rest of the half. He shows up in the third quarter and just like hits the ground running again, like you know, looking like full cheetah with some big chunk plays, but he's kind of in and out of the lineup, including at the beginning of that final drive, and it's it's with two, yeah, I mean that that final drive. You know, that's that's kind of money time. You got to find a way at home to stop the bleeding, to kind of pick up your team, and they just didn't seem to have
it together. It was almost they were playing a little bit like a team that was shell shocked by what happened there. And I know Bradley Chubb said after the game, according to our own Cameron Wolf, that you know, we probably let our foot off the gas a little bit, and then when it was time to pick it back up, I think there was like a general sense of panic and you could even even in the building. You could feel it. At hard Rock Stadium, there's just this like, wait,
what just happened? Just going over it again. So, like I said, with four thirty four, there's a touch back, it's twenty seven thirteen. Tennessee then goes nine plays seventy five yards, ending with a Levis to de Hop touchdown connection. They get the two point conversion, as Greg said, and that was an expert drive that you know, they got
out of bounds. They it was just clinical. So Miami takes over, but there's still there's still up six with two forty to play, and it's just like, get a couple, get a.
Couple four to go that that touchdown, that's crazy.
Yeah, just get a couple first downs and it's over. Uh. And yet they go run a short run gain, short run gain. Tennessee burns both timeouts and then to a scrambles. They're short of the sticks again, but Eisenberg gets caught. Eichenberg gets called for a holding, which is critical because it allows the clock to stop. Tennessee gets to keep their final time out in their pocket. And then there's
the punt. So when Tennessee takes over and they go sixty four yards and four plays another d hop catch was the big play, they have two minutes and fourteen to play. So that's the craziest thing greg about all this is.
They left much time.
They left so much time, and we hear all these stats that we're hearing like, uh that this is the one of the greatest comebacks ever, Like they got the ball back in good position with good time, and then they they took advantage of it. It wasn't even like a scramble to score that go ahead touchdown. It went Everything went their way.
And there wasn't anything other than there was a spears bobble that he turned into a nice game to start the first drive. There wasn't anything fluky or weird. There were just incredibly ballsy throws by Levis. I mean the touchdown throw. His composure to sort of open up the passing lane that he ends up finding Hopkins with was awesome. The throw before that was just beautiful. And he had an insane night where I can't remember a quarterback taking
that many big hits early in the game. There was one after he had already taken a massive hit and they were checking his shoulder out on the sideline where he was running it on. I think it was a first and ten at like the twelve, and he's got a big runway and he's got three defenders in front of us him and he does a little hop like he's kind of looking at the guys like I'm gonna get myself momentum here to try to run you over
on the goal line. And it didn't work. He just got blasted and he got knocked down at the two and this guy just plays with an incredible aggression. Some poor guy got chest bumped out of his out of his shoes on the sideline some stafford for the Titans. Meanwhile, Tua absolutely came up small in that final drive. That the taking that sack on that final play and the
quick throw. I know that's where the play call was probably going to go over to h Chan who kind of saved the play, but not really before Like I just didn't. He didn't seem like a quarterback who felt calm and knew what he was going to do in this situation.
Here's Tua on how things played out in the end.
We got to do a better job finishing the game with the time that we had while we had the ball, not allowing the opposing team's offense to get that opportunity to go down and potentially score. It's a team sport, can't blame one side, but I would say, I'm an offensive standpoint, there's things that we could have done a lot better to not have gone through what we've gone through tonight.
What a what a couple of days for the Baltimore Ravens, because we've seen the Chiefs go down the Jaguars go down, the Dolphins go down. They now hold a one game lead in the AFC. They look like they should too. I some of these losses, I can think of a couple in the past couple of weeks where it's like, oh, oh, this is what the Dolphins playoff loss will look like to me. And I felt that way with a couple of these Lions defeats. It's like, oh, this is how
they'll go down in January. It's like there's gonna be this moment where we're left talking about a Dolphins team that you know in the final moments, like this is what they were in, this is how they were incomplete, and like, to me, it's like if they if they're missing a few people, they're just not the same team. And I think Mike McDaniel is an incredible coach and has done so much well out of the gate, but this was a total collapse and a lot of it
to me felt kind of neck up. Like we both we've also talked about it, like they just seem shell shot, they seem lost, they seem to not understand what was happening in the final couple of minutes against the team that came in with four wins.
Right, Dan, I think we shouldn't lose for people that didn't listen what the first three quarters of this game were like, which was the worst offensive game in the Mike McDaniel era. So I think that's the combination of why we're being so hard on them. They didn't have a touchdown through three quarters offensively, they had a defensive touchdown, and they kept settling for field goals because they refused to run the ball at the goal line. It took
three turnovers, two inside the ten. Yet these points where they only got punt return you know, fumbles to get these points because Tua was making a lot of bad decisions. He fell on one red zone play, he fumbled another with a bad snap, which wasn't all him, but it was a little on him, like it was just ugly.
I'm glad you said it first, Mark, because you know, I've tried to kind of hold my tongue a little bit on the Dolphins because I just don't I don't believe in them. I don't buy into him. I haven't felt that way about them all I felt that way about them all year, and and they get hot and go nuclear and go through the AFC in January. It's certainly possible because listen, you've mentioned the Ravens in a great day this was for the Ravens and it was.
But I'm watching that we did the game rewatch on a NFL Plus, which you could check out now the Ravens dramatic win over the Rams. I'm not overly like impressed by the Ravens either. I mean, this isn't that.
Feel like two good teams and two good quarterbacks playing well and tonight did not feel like.
Yeah, well, yeah, that's that's true.
True.
I don't mean to take away from the Ravens, but I'm just saying, like, what who is Like, who's gonna who wants this conference and who's the team that's gonna
step up and get it? Because I'm totally with you, Mark, like I've seen enough of kind of meltdowns and failures by this Dolphins team in this regular season that's been otherwise, you know, great nine and four to tell me that we're we're gonna see some issues in January as well, like you know, make me eat my words, but it just I feel like this team is a pretender.
Well agree, in the injury situation has been massive for them, and that has to be said. At one point, that's got injuries.
No, no, I like everybody.
I get it. But at one point, for most of tonight, they were down to the one offensive lineman, one of their starters. So Robert hunts out, It's not just arms said, Robert hunts out. Connor Williams is now out maybe long term. Armstead is out. Austin Jackson is the only one left and he's getting beat and Harold Landry had five QB hits in this game. Harold lander has been playing great lately, coming off in ACL He did not look like himself for the first half of the season, and he dominated
this game. But it wasn't just that. Is Avin Howard was in and out of this game. We talked about Tyreek in and out of this game. Javon Holland was out of this game injured before it. I mean, they I think they were missing five starters coming into it. I'm just saying, like when it rains, it pours, and they had a couple things, especially on the offensive line, that it is not helping them.
I'm glad you brought it up because that's important. And you know, if Tyreek kills one hundred percent. Does this game and this way, I don't know if it does. But to win the Super Bowl, the teams that win the Super Bowl, they are the ones that fight through it. This is a long season, it's a hard season. It's now it's been a grind for all these teams, and the teams that can manage these bumps in the road and these injuries. I just need to see more kind
of mental toughness from the Dolphins. And if it hasn't shown up by December eleventh, I'm not sure when it will. But they still have time to pull together and they're still in first place, and they got a nice lead over the Bills. But you want to talk about another team that had a great Monday Night. The Buffalo Bills are saying, hmm, we just got the biggest win of our season. The Dolphins just gagged away a Monday night
game at home. We get that team in Week eighteen, and now we just need like a couple more things to fall our way and we might steal this division. So this is in terms of like losses. This is about as bad as it gets in terms of going from the number one seed and being in the driver's seat to everything being up in the air. So we're gonna learn a lot about the Dolphins in the next few weeks.
I think this one hurts more because obviously because of how it ended, but also because it felt like, to me, was one of their biggest problems. I know, the defense collap but the defense play. You know, they didn't have Jalen Phillips, they didn't have who's the other safety that was out, you know, holland every I think they've played well, but Tua was struggling throughout the game, and that to.
Me is a very worrying sign. Last word mark.
If you don't have Tyreek Hill, if anything like that lingers, if he's dealing with a you know, if he feels like when he's hurt, he's still one hundred percent. He's a weird player that way to me. But when he's simply not able to be on the field, they're not the same team. I mean, we kind of keep saying it over and over. They feel like like I'm looking at the at the AFC right now, real quick, like you've got a Jaguars team that has a banged up quarterback.
Although we didn't look that way entirely. A fifth place Browns team that's played with ford different starters at this point, a Steelers team without their starter, a Colts team without their starter. It's like the whole AFC is going through this, but that doesn't matter. A lot of them are like flotsam and jetsamen down below. The Dolphins are sitting there. They we're our number one seed for a bit, and if, like you take one or two pieces away from them,
they float away. And that's why I lack a little bit of trust in to echo what you said, to echo what I said before, to echo what you said.
And I said, I.
Love the echo echo of fact. James Bomber, the dude love James Palmer here at NFL Media. He notes that the broadcast noted teams had lost seven hundred and sixty seven straight games when down fourteen in the final three minutes, and that ended tonight. The AFC is drunk. All right, Let's take a break and get into the other one, because that one was like just as crazy in different ways. Football bea back.
Officially thirty seven yards, behold the cat, the ram for the Giants.
And tell me DeVito and Brian table one three strength, Oh man, that's Joe Buck with the call this is a night. Yes again twice in one week. That's pretty good. Tommy DeVito goes four for four. I mean, it's crazy we're talking up to as an MVP candidate. And then Tommy DeVito, this undrafted kid out of don Bosco Prep in Northern Jersey, says, this is how you handle end of game drive. You go four for four, including a thirty two yard pass to Wandel Robinson to set up
big Bone Randy Bullock thirty seven yard field goals. Time expires a toning for a miss earlier in the game, and the Giants nip the Packers previously red hot Packers twenty four to twenty two at the Metal ends. And what was like, I said, my whole life, I've been jealous of Giants fans because it just seems fun. What a scene at MetLife Stadium, what a celebration, and a lot of it is like you know how like Creed the Bad band has become a meme this year and
everyone's kind of ironically enjoying Creed and it's everywhere. That's kind of what this Tommy DeVito thing is in a way, like where everyone's ironically enjoying this guy who's not really much of a prospect, but they're winning with him. It's three in a row, and you have all the memes and the crazy family and the agent that looks like he's an extra from the Sopranos. But then which on YouTube that is on the right is the agent who
will probably be fired in less than six weeks. But today, tonight, I actually saw Tommy DeVito make big time plays in this game. And the stat line doesn't jump out at you, Greg, but big time plays that helped the Giants win this game, like he was a part of winning the game more than he had been previously, and just like a fun, silly night and a bad loss for Green Bay.
Yeah, it's one of the things I love about backup quarterbacks now. They all can run like there is no such thing as in a mobile quarterback anymore. They literally don't exist. So in a worst case scenario, and Dommy DeVito is way better than a worst case scenario for a backup quarterback, he can put his foot in the
ground and go. And he came into this game knowing I am taking sacks at a higher rate than like Sam Howell on his worst day, I am taking sacks at a rate that is just absolutely insane, and I'm fumbling and all this, and I refuse to take sacks. And so when he wasn't seeing the open receiver quickly, which happened plenty, he was just kind of putting his foot in the ground and going and it led to
some pretty frustrating offense. Early. You were commentating on our text threat They're like, this is not fun to watch. But he was picking up seven eight yards. He wasn't making a mistake, he wasn't turning the ball over. And in the second half, they were finding open receivers and Wandel Robinson and Isaiah Hodgens made nice catches that throw to Robinson who ran a beautiful route. This is what
this season needs to be about for the Giants. They're finding young players that can be part of their future, and DeVito is gonna be part of their future. By the way. He might not be their starter next year. I don't expect that, but he might make it easier to move on from Daniel Jones and have him solid as a backup for a long time or whatever it's
gonna be. And seeing Hodgens like standing over the packers defender and kind of flexing, and then the fast cut to mister DeVito and the agent giving him kisses on the cheek. I mean that felt that was from the scriptwriter. That was Straat. I couldn't believe this was happening.
It's very surreal to watch it kind of at one moment, like even in terms of physical bodies like hitting Wandie Robinson. At one point it looked like it was like Jeff Hostetler throwing it downfield to Phil McConkey, like thirty five forty years ago for the Giants. It just was a very strange evening. But I will say this, like DeVito might his numbers don't look flashy, but here's what he Here's what you want him to do is not make major mistakes, and he didn't. He was seventeen for twenty one.
I think two of those incompletions came kind of right away. He was money down the stretch either one twenty six yard run that showed off his speed. And for me, it's an argument for Brian Dable in a season where he was losing the argument in a big way, where you're wondering what Brian Dabele was about after winning Coach
of the Year. It's like, this isn't someone you'd think someone could coach up and turn around and have a game like this and do what he did in the final couple of minutes and look the way he did, and it's just a completely improbable NFL narrative. It feels totally surreal to me, but so enjoyable. And I kind
of think we're at this point now. Whe're always every one of these games where an unlikely quarterback does what they do, like you're cutting away to the parents, and doesn't that just look like the most parental situation ever Fordvito Dan, Like I think you mentioned kind of this could have been you in another reality, like you know, fifteen twenty years from now.
Yeah, there's there's a resemblance between me and Timy DeVito's father, a more prominent nose on him. I got the smaller like Irish nose. He's got the Italian honker. But like otherwise, there's definitely some there's some blood there. He might be an uncle. It's certainly within the realm of possibility. You know. First of all, de Vido on the touchdown throw to Hodgens, he reached sixteen miles per hour on the run, which is like a top five speed for a quarterback on
a completion. This season, the run that you mentioned mark down to the goal line, which you might have gotten in on that they got the touchdown. Anyway, with Barkley, that was really I mean, this guy is not like rec league basketball fast, like he's legitimately pro athlete fast. And he's also making four hundred and sixteen grand this year,
which is pretty nice. But Daniel Jones on the injured list, is making forty six million this year, so that is I mean, it's crazy, and it's kind of a cruel irony for me because we all want to be right on the show when we go out on a limb, and I said, I don't want to fork the Giants when they were one and eight or whatever, because they've already been through the worst of it. The schedule softens up.
I think Dable's a good coach. They have to get better if they don't blow that ninety nine percent game against the Jets. They are in the they're in the playoff mix in the NFC. As crazy as that said are now they are they're on the fringes still.
They're they're literally one game out of the playoffs. I mean it, granted it's six teams there, I think are five teams at six and seven, but that sort of blew my mind when they said that. Going into the game, they said, well, if they win this game, that knocks the Packers down a six and seven, they're only one back of the seven spot.
Good, I mean good for Dable. Obviously, a great story with Tovido, who will never buy you know, eggplant parmesan in that town ever again because he's already stamped his legend now, just kind of seeing he's playing with house money almost already in his career, and you just want
to see where it goes from here. But what a fun scene now the Packer side of it, Mark, like we and you, you've been as high on the Packers as anyone the last few weeks, as they've as they've risen, and with good reason, because they've been playing so well. I kind of want to kill them because they are
they got to win this game. But at the same time, like it was a a bit of a weird energy that they went into on the road on Monday night, and then it felt like there was some magic on the air in the air while they didn't play at a high level and Love came down in the offense in general was discombobulated. This they kind of ran into a little bit of a sneaky buzz saw. I don't want to I'm not going to put him out to pasture off this loss. Now you disagree with me, I'd
love to hear it bad loss, but I don't. I still believe in the Packers. I think it was a rough night with a little magic in Northern Jersey.
I think it was just, you know, these NFL moments, there is energy to it. I understand that, you know, certain people that Patrick Claibun's the world want to believe it's just, you know, robots playing against each other. But there is something that happens in these stadiums. And I just think about the noise in the Baltimore Stadium in the game we just reviewed today and the way it
felt tonight. There is just something going on right. It's like if you're pulled into that world, you're part of it. And I mean, I think the Packers have grown up so quickly that we forget where they were just three or four weeks ago, and where Jordan Love was just three or four weeks ago.
So I'm with you.
I'm not out on them at all. Tonight happened, But you've got the Bucks at home, you go to Carolina after that, you go to a Vikings team that feels kind of floating away a little bit, and then you got the Bears. Those are four manageable games. I think you probably got to take care of three of those. Probably, But what we've seen from green Bay, I mean, we were coming off of Matt Laflor's I think two best
coach games. Tonight arrowed down on all that, but like it's not enough for me to think that the whole thing was a mirage. And there's a lot to like with Green Bay in a really weak NFC with a bunch of pretenders vying for wild cards. So I'm not out on them either.
Yeah, this was a game where like, unlike the Titans and the Dolphins looked like two teams kind of just blowing it back and forth, the Packers just looked like the better team for two and a half quarters of this game and just kept making mistakes and just handing it to the Giants. You know, with the they had three turnovers that there was the interception by Love there was let me think he had one interception we had also,
what was it the two fumbles? They had it like a punt return, Like the games were like copying each other on some level, but they kept setting the Giants up in good spots. Love had the fumble and had the interception, and the Giants weren't doing anything with it. I mean, the Giants had very little offense for three quarters and the Packers would move the ball and then
just blow open receivers. Love was just missing open receivers, and I thought Wink Martindale did a good job just setting pressure after pressure after pressure, and it made Love overthink it. And he was just like a step late almost every throw. And it was a rough really three and a half quarters for him, until he got the ball back a couple times down eight points and had
two really good drives. One they ended up setting for a field goal, and the next he made his three best throws of the night and end up getting a go ahead touchdown. And that finished by Love for me, helped wipe away a lot of what we saw before, because if DeVito didn't come up with heroics, we'd be talking about how yeah, it wasn't a great game for Love, but that he saved his best stuff for the fourth.
Courter right, and you know the Giants. It should be stated that the Giants kind of had this game nearly salted away. They have a first and ten at midfield with four minutes to play. Barkley bounces off right tackle goes thirty four yards, so they're set up inside the red zone first and ten with under four minutes to play with a twenty one to sixteen lead. But then he stumbles and fumbles the ball, which is an outrageous
turn of events. He's barely fumbled his whole career. And then a great job by Valentine who scoops it up and returns it fifty yards to the Giants thirty six and then the Packers then march thirty six yards on nine plays for the go ahead touchdown, and Love made big throws. I actually thought he we've had the touchdown, the great play at the pylon. I thought it should have been a touchdown before that too. I thought he got two feet down the possession of the ball. It's like,
how do they How's that not a touchdown? But they got it anyway, So you saw you saw that and missing the two point conversion. Man, The Ravens got the two point conversion on Sunday and it saved their butt when the Rams went down the field. Here's what happens when you miss on that two point conversion, because it allowed Randy Bullock to beat them with the field goal
and when the defense couldn't get the stop. And I think I've seen some frustration from Packers fans out in the Twitter verse about how Joe Barry and the defense played that final drive too soft, letting the Giants kind of and I kind of this drives me crazy a lot. It happens almost every single week where it almost feels like the defenses are more worried about getting the clock to go down, and then all of a sudden you blink in that team's inside your territory and it happened again here.
Yeah, it was bizarre. You're so worried about trying to keep them in bounce that they give up two straight I think it was seven yard plays to start it. And you were right about comparing Devido in two of there. Because Divito wasn't messing around. He got rid of the ball right at the back of his drop with those first couple throws and with a minute thirty which they
had in timeouts, there was no need to hurry. And on the fourth play he hits the big one and then they sit on it like they they had plenty of time. They were inside a forty yard field goal with like forty seconds to go, because that's the thing. You can happily take those six seven yard games and then you just have to pop one pass, and they
did it. And again, I don't think we should underrate how well Wandel Robinson played in this game because the routes he was running, he's coming off the torny Aco. He finishes with six for seventy nine on seven targets and also has a thirty two yard run that set up their first score. Like those that first score was all schemed up plays by Dable and Robinson. He looks like he's a player. Like I'm not saying he's going to be a number one receiver, but okay, there's one
receiver we can have. We think we like Jalen Hyatt. Okay, like the Packers, maybe we have two young guys that are going to be part of a nice rotation moving forward.
You do get a de Vito versus Jalen Hurts twice between now and the end of the season.
He also plays the ram.
I mean the way the Eagles are playing, the prize of one or both of those games are competitive, right, and I.
Think the defense, to be fair, it's played a lot better, including tonight too, that it's giving them a chance to win these games.
I think they're a classic berserker with a very with one of the most interesting quarterback situations of the last five years. So I am suddenly plugged into watching the New York Giants.
Yeah, I mean, we got berserkers all over the place. The Titans are a classic berserker. I think that's a team that could have another weird win here. Giants are a berserker, and the Bears have been playing like a berserker too, with like a top five type of defense and a dangerous key be Like, there is not much separating these playoff teams from the four to five win teams.
I mean, there's no I said to my wife, Divito's agent, who looks like he's about twenty three. I even, I said, he looks like an extra the Sopranos. That's too kind. He could be a great guy. I'm not trying to bury him, but he looks more like a guy from Entourage. And I said, he better get a good night's sleep because he's got a lot of work to do tomorrow. Like he's that the amount of money to be made
for Tommy DeVito at this moment of time. I just hope that he's got his business affairs with the right individual. I have my doubts, but I will apologize if de Vito is minted by the end of the calendar year.
He does look a little bit to me like like a cousin of Mad Doug Russo. If you if you take, if you know, if you go on your own time, go and examine it, Like if a cousin of Mad Doug Russo were dressed in all black, you know, a gold chain and a black fedora.
There's some Russo asque, but you know.
It's like So was younger, and it was Halloween and the and the Halloween party theme was a gangster party from the nineteen twenties.
There you go.
If he doesn't have his name as like the title sponsor owner on a Ford dealership in New Jersey, by next Tuesday, the agent's not doing his job.
You gotta move You gotta move on. You gotta get somebody else, because you know what else is gonna happen with Tommy. Probably his parents are going to get the phone call because they are his legal guardians in a lot of ways. Still, there's gonna be a lot of actual like established agents being like you gotta lose, you know e, from entourage. We gotta we gotta be serious about this, So that will be a test of loyalty.
And loyalty is a bit I'll tell you what. I'm not Italian, but the Italian Americans that in New York, New Jersey, it's all about loyalty. Let's see if he is loyal to that guy, Dan.
Let me ask you one question because I was, I was, you know, talking with this about somewhat on our text like they kept and I look at I get it.
It's a very East Coast thing. I can already answer my own question a little bit.
But it's like that the de Vito family, that all these people are bringing food over to the house, and so in general, like you bring food over to the house of someone who's you know, no one's able to cook because they've lost a close relative, and like there's a lot of grieving, and you don't want to make someone have to toil and cook for a bunch of you bring food or a baby's just been born. But it's like, your son is a successful and one of the most successful New York sports stories of the last
you know, two or three decades. So we all bring you food. Is it just because we want to be part of it? I mean, it's not because you need us to cook for you.
I think that's a good I think there's probably some of that because that it gives the excuse to go over to the DeVito house right now. But I also know that an Italian culture of food and the sharing of food is an expression of love and intimacy, so that's probably part of it too. And it's it's it's very there's something very warm about it. And I love.
It, and I know it's a cultural thing. But he's going to start he's got to start getting antsy about I mean, he's a twenty five year old living at home with his parents. I know there's the culture thing. It's like that. I don't know, it's a tough it's got to be a tough spot. I mean, I remember I went back. I know He's in a much different
place and everything's different. I remember spending that one freshman summer after I went away to college back at home, living at home, and I was like, oh man, I'm never going to do this again. This was a mistake. Why did I even come home for this one summer.
There are two types of people in the world, the people that cannot wait to get into their own apartment after college and the people that are no like great rush, I was actually more in the Davido camp. I was out of the house. I think right at my twenty fourth birthday. I think we moved into Hoboken, which is probably like where Tommy DeVito's dad is from, right around twenty four. And I didn't mind living at home. I
didn't have any money. I mean, like it was that's great. Yeah, And that's the thing with DeVito, Like that's what he's saying, is like I live rent free, I get my laundry done, I get amazing home cooking. Everyone's nice to me. They give me some space that I need. My bed is made for me, Like it checks out. But yeah, I know a lot of people that are like that too. Where it's like college is the demarcation line where I don't need to be at home ever again.
It's a great motivation to make that rent money, but more just like you want to be you know, you want to feel free, you want to get out. But it is working for him and I love it.
It is.
It is the most fun, giant story that there has ever been.
Yeah, well those two forty six.
I'm just saying fun.
Yeah. Fun.
By the way, it gives me a little bit of insanity, which I was in New York for. It's totally different, and yet it feels like it's of the same piece of.
That is a good parallel. Like Dan and I just started working in NFL.
Back then.
We were writing NFL dot Com articles about linz Anity for NFL dot com, which makes no senseball.
I remember we were at the Super Bowl when Lynsanity ended. They got blown out when we are an indie Super Bowl week and it was kind of like the unofficial end, let's give Tommy cutlets the last word?
Did you have fireworks go off for a non touchdown?
I'm not gonna lie.
That was the first time I was like, I was on the verge of celebrating on the vergin not I was like.
It wasn't a touchdown, but we got we gotta say the guy.
Who watched the fireworks, so it was a touchdown.
Appreciate it for that. I appreciate the belief.
He seems like a nice boy.
Shout out to Big Bone Randy by the way hitting that kick.
Anybody else think he was going to miss that?
Troy and said what I think we were all thinking was like, he looks like he has a lot on his mind right now. Such a good call.
You can't be number forty six as a kicker especially, and also, like listen, I empathize, you know, with Big Bone Randy, Like, you know, big guys, we got enough to worry about with our appearance, but when you wear number forty six, it kind of just it just makes you look a little bit thicker. I think he's got to go down to a single digit.
Maybe he's leaning into it, you know, he's comfortable on his own.
You take the lizo of you run out of numbers or something. Speaking of Troy, that reminds me when this game was less interesting, I was going to give Troy a lot of love for the rant he took, which I was I was absolutely feeling in my annoyed as the end of this first half was interminable and this game started falling behind the pace of the Dolphins game down in Miami. I think we have that, Eric, don't we.
I mean, if it is out of bounds, it's ball at the forty you've got no timeouts.
But maybe with.
Thirteen seconds left you try to get the ball downfield. Well, here's a spot. The problem with all this is just make a call, you know. I mean, there's thirteen seconds in the half they're gonna get you know, just make a decision. And this is what offs all these games. And the officials, I know they've been they've been talked about every week, but this is ridiculous. So we're watching right now. I mean, we see something, it takes five seconds, it takes them five minutes.
Troy knows he's got known to answer to, so he gets to call it like he sees it. And that's why they're the best. Finally, according to Next Gen Stats, before the first touchdown of the comeback for the Titans, the Dobbins had a ninety six point six percent win probability in this game, so zero point four percent for the Titans. That is the second most improbable comeback in the next Gen stats era, which started in twenty sixteen. Mark Sessler, do you know what is number one on the list?
I would guess if I really had to last year's Jets Brown's game.
That seems so absurd to me.
You're right. It was point three. That was the Joe Flaco game where the Jets were down thirty seventeen. They got a bomb touchdown on side kick recovery Garrett Wilson touchdown to steal that game in Cleveland. That is Week two of twenty twenty two. And then number three the Vikings Week fifteen of twenty twenty two. I think that's the thirty three nothing game. They had a zero point four percent chance of coming back in that game, and they did the Niners, And this one just escapes me.
Week eighteen, twenty twenty one point four percent also, and then the Titans back in Week ten of twenty nineteen. Fans of these franchises know exactly the game that I'm referring to point five percent chance, So.
Any in regulation, that's the thing that at seven hundred and sixty seven numbers, that's all winning and overtime. I think they'll find out. But all indicasions are. This has literally never happened to win in regulation.
Right, relatively speaking, plenty of time to go win the game because it happens so quickly. They did it with such ease as unbelievable. And I feel although you know, Jets fans never feel bad for the Dolphins. I love me this one.
You were enjoying this one.
I love me some handsome Hank and Henry Hotchen commented on X he's a diehard Dolphins fan that he stayed up. Let me see it. Hang on, let me check something here.
It's a tough night.
What time is it in London?
Well, that game would have ended around four thirty in the morning, round four to forty in the morning.
Wait, let's see a series got this, Hame. What time is it in London?
You don't believe me.
It's five am in London, England.
She just has a little more charisma, Greg no offense. Yes, Syria, it's five forty nine right now. So yeah, he and that man is a power player Mark in uh in all international dealings in the NFL, and in the UK and and and now he has to get up in the morning. So being a fan sometimes it's a shot to the crotch.
Let's be honest, possibly the future Commissioner. I mean, I would say in my he'd be in my top three lists of legitimate humans that could be the Commissioner right currently lives you know, during the week at some points in the in the room above a pub in London. So I'm not sure what was going on at four thirty in the morning in his world, but he could not have been pleased with the results.
All right, good way to close it. Let's get out of here. Nice Monday night. Get used to it. Mark. I think you're right.
It's the future.
We will be back on Wednesday. It's the Connie Connie Fox Show, so please be there and like I said, NFL plus check that out, Rams Ravens rewatch. We had a good time with that until then, Heath the call