Week 5 TNF Recap Bucs/ Bears

I'm Greg Rosenthal with James Palmer on this Thursday night recap with the Bears winning twenty to nineteen over the Buccaneers, and James, I thought this was one of the most entertaining games of the year. I would it right there with the with the rust versus Cam showed down a little bit of defense, a little bit different, but I didn't know what was gonna happen. I thought it was interesting.

You don't You don't seem as impressed with the Bears and Buccaneers and what they gave it down down the strategy, right, it was entertaining. But like you mentioned, Nick Foles, everybody jump on the Nick Foles train. Like I don't know how many text messages from my boys back home in Philly, are gonna send me going? I told you we should have never let Foles go. I mean because I still get those texts like every week, But I mean the

way him and Brady played. I don't think anybody's getting a statue built out in front of a stadium like the last time they squared off, because Nick Foles got one after he beat Brady. Between the two of them, I don't think you want play out of this world. And the sloppy is kind of just slowed the pace for me. The end saved it. I think that that that's fair. So there was a ton of penalties. There's

a ten ton of sloppy plays. There could have been about six Knicks Nick Foles interceptions, So you I don't think your buddies should be texting after this game. I mean, the Bears had under two dred yards of offense um. But it was a fascinating game, I thought, just because I wasn't sure how it was gonna go the whole time. I think there's five lead changes and you expected there to be a six. So let's start there. The Bucks get the ball back um with under a minute thirty

to go. Brady all he needs to do is get them into field goal range. The first you know play of the drive is a perfect twelve yard throw where Mike Evans gets out of bounds. There's about a minute six left. Like everyone watching at that point, I'm thinking the Bucks are going to win this game, and they did not go in this game? Now what what I'd like to go back a little bit behind it though,

like why were the Bears throwing the ball? I mean Brady should have honestly had probably less time to work with if you look at the bears previous drive, I don't understand throwing it those last couple of times. Um, to me, you were trying to you know, it's Tom Brady. You should try to take as much time as you can. And and to me, I was curious about a couple of the throws are I do know the way the kicking history is in Chicago. I think that was part of it that does that does exist, and I know

that plays into it. But we should break down this because, I mean, Brady putting the I first thought Brady screaming at his offensive line on the sideline was going to be the most entertaining clip that we saw from this game. But I think the reason why it was fun yeah, and then then four yeah. Tom Brady does not realize after he throws an incompletion seemed to kind of be in between receivers. I think that one was to break

that he was out of downs. He had to ask the official he thought he had another down, a senior moment for the forty three year old, like in the in the in the I'm not gonna put too much into this. They're missing some players, but he he has said it, you don't really experience, um, You're only gonna gain that chemistry and you get you are around this

team more than anyone. In August, he says, those are the things a lot he lives for moments like this, and these are the moments where you want to build that chemistry. And the Bucks sort of fell short and he did too, not not knowing because who knows if he would have made a different decision on that play if he had known it was a fourth down exactly, And we don't know. All of it is new, right Greg, like the communication what is Byron telling him in his year?

You know, is that something that McDaniels says every single time? You know, you would think at forty three and Tom Brady's career. He would know the downs, but all of it is new in terms of the communication from the headset back to Brady, how the play comes in, how the communication, the chemistry goes with him and his teammates. The one the first play is Mike Evans. That's who he's really grown the chemistry with. But look at who else is out there. There are only a couple of

games into that. Every time I talked to Byron, every time I, you know, Tom Brady addresses us, it's we're learning all of this for the first time, but this is the first time we're going through X. This is the first time we're experiencing why. But the other part of this is you would have loved to see Brady go through this with who we think will be the guys he's going to down the stretch and into a

playoff run. No Chris Godwin, no really Leonard for Nett, Mike Evans could barely run out there and was playing on pretty much one leg. He's now lost O. J. Howard and Cameron. Brad's first catch up the season was a touchdown a year ago. Now, he's had really good chemistry with Brayton camp, but he has barely been on the field. Scotty Miller was leading this team and receiving, but he came into this game banged up with a hip and a groin injury. He was pretty much insignificant today.

So he's going to guys that he hasn't really gone to before. But the whole operation of it is something that we probably wanted to see better. Right Obviously, not forgetting the downs, I think that's probably part of it, um, but the operation of that final drive. We do want to see them take a step now that they're you know, a quarter of the way into the year. I've been with them, you know, every single game this season, and it's been they've grown here, they learned this, We've seen

the know. The biggest thing to me is the red zone between Mike Evans and Tom Brady has been perhaps the biggest growth that they've had. The nonverbal communication with the two of them down there is brilliant. It's a head nod, it's a wave, it's it's something, and they change the play and they've been great down there. But I don't think he really had everybody at his disposal. But everything is new. We wanted to see probably something better come out of it, and obviously Brady probably wanted

something better out of himself. It's a really good point. His leading receiver tonight who looked good was Tyler Johnson, and then Gronk was second. And and Gronk was like, you know hit you know, going for balls that weren't actually intended for him and was you know, a target on the on the second to last play of the game.

And he's not moving well, I mean, I'm a little I'm almost a little bummed out, like watching Gronk lumbering down the field when they set up a nice screen for him, and it's just everything looks a little bit awkward. But the reason it's disappointing, I think is in the context of the game, because they moved the ball well

in the first half. Um, you know, they were in control if not for a fumble, uh you know by who you know by one of the receivers was Hudson or Mickens that had the fumble right well, Keishawn Vaughan got popped right before that, after the rocky running back,

Keishawn von gets drilled. It's very similar to the play that when the opposite direction of them against the Chargers a week ago, right the rookie, another rookie, Josh Kelly, ends up fumbling the exchange with Justin Herbert and sent them up to a touchdown right before the half and flips the momentum. And I think it kind of happened in reverse in this game. It did. But so the Bucks looked more in control. Their defense for the most part,

played well. But there's been some recurring issues with this Buck's team. Number one, like the penalties. Like a lot of these games, they have a lot of penalties. Tonight was sloppy. You saw Brady going crazy. But the thing that surprised me more, and this is where we should give a lot of credit to the to the Bears, is you know, Brady gets the ball back with under three minutes to go, in the lead still at that point, and they go three and out. They spend sixteen seconds.

I'm not gonna kill him for throwing two of those downs, just like I'm actually not gonna kill Matt Naggy for killing I know everyone else in the world, including you, to start this is killing him for being aggressive, but they were. They were trying to win the game there, and yes, it would have gotten it down. You know, are you gonna run two times to set up a long field goal to make them use the timeouts? Uh, you know to get to forty secons or you try to win the game. And they tried to win the

game to their best player, Alan Robinson. I'm not gonna totally kill him there. I'm gonna kill the Bucks a line a little bit, just because I'm so surprised. Um, they've played so awesome. I really respect this guy. Brandon Thorn on Twitter, who watches more, you know, offensive line tape than anyone. He had three Bucks on his All Pro team through a quarter of the season. He hadn't worth Jensen and Mark pet Now I think most people would agree with with Jensen and mar Pet in the middle.

He said there's been injuries at right tackle and he hadn't seen anyone better than worse. So he's been a good pick. But tonight he got a lesson in peak Khalil Mack and the Bears defense, to me is one of the five or six best defense in the league. I would put the Bucks in that category too, But tonight it was kind of the Max Show. You put him against worse. He's creating all sorts of damage. Vita Villa,

who got um? I mean, rather Kiem Hicks made some plays in the middle of this line, and then you put Mac on the other side against Smith and he kind of wrecked this game in the second half. Like this is why you trade all those picks, This is why you give all that money, like if it's almost any other pass rusher there. But the Bears do not win this game. And so this is kind of an old school We have a real defense and we're gonna

be a factor's Chicago Bears team. I don't ever want to say Greg that offensive lineman ever read their clippings, but maybe the Bucks offensive line, and you know that's not a position of guys that go out there and and and and and you know, read their clippings. But Bruce Aaron's raved about this group after the Chart game, I mean, he said it's the best he's seen the in years. Not the best you've seen him play like recently, He's like, it's the best I've seen our on online

play in years. And this was completely different. If you go back and watch the film Ustin Worth's Joey Bosa, he was phenomenal and It's funny that you brought up like Mack any other pass rusher, you know, and Joey Bosa is not any other pass rusher. And and he even made a point to go up to works after the game and be like, you are going to be a great player. But man, they had they were smart to move back around because Donovan Smith has been an

issue for them at left tackle. They have been upset with him early in this season, and he was man handled a couple of times. And and the distinct point that sticks out to me is the time, remember late in the game when he sets out way too wide and trake and makes the point to going you can't let guys go inside about with a guy like Tom Brady, right, you know you want the pass rushers to go inside.

If you're a guy that moves and rolls out and can do things, you can't do that if you are, you know, the left tackle for Tom Brady and and Khalil Mack wrecked this game. I don't know what it's called. You had him one tweet about it. What you what you gotta come up with like a nickname for sacking the car back and the tackle after he threw twist he like hip checked kind of body slammed. I mean, I don't know because I've never done that to um. You know, another human other than my son. He's like

five years old. You know. Sometimes he comes at me, I'll throw him on the ground. That was one of the most impressive feats of strength I've ever seen. You sack. You sack Tom Brady, then then then you want some three forty pound guy, you throw him on the ground. Two. It's crazy because I'm looking at the box score now and they the two defensive lines had I don't know if that's she's She's Mexican, so I don't know if sacked dose is good. But okay, I like what she's

thrown out there. I'll take it. Um. The two defensive lines had similar numbers of the eight quarterbacks hits and three sacks. So that's like a great night. But you expect that when the Bucks are going against um Nick Foles who holds onto the ball and took a lot of hits and that that's just sort of the story of his career and you're going up a really good even You rarely see that with Tom Brady, who who

usually gets rid of the ball. Uh More quickly. He had to just duck into one of the sacks tonight. And that's where you see like they're doing well. I've watched them a lot, and we'll talk about the Bears in the second, but I've seen them be good in spurts, and I don't think if you haven't watched the Bucks every game, and I know you have, James, so that's why I'm asking you, like, I don't think that their

offense has been quite as good as people think. Um, you know, they had that big second half against the Charges, but that that was kind of it. That doesn't mean everything solved. That's okay. You can win games with his defense, clearly, but they're they're working through some things. They really are. And actually that was the opposite of the way the first several games win. They were starting so well and they were coming out of the gate great, and then

they weren't finishing. I mean, if you go look at the second half numbers for Brady before last week, they're there are not good. I mean were they weren't finishing games very well at all, and then that game was kind of the opposite. I think after that fumble we brought up earlier, Brady had a perfect quarterback rating before we go. I do want to ask you, like, what's your faith in this Nick Foles lad Bears team? Because Bears fans like to get in my mentions and say like,

we don't believe in them enough? And this night had a little bit of both, Like I I didn't. I'm no more confident in this offense after tonight than I was really going into it. And yet you know, they find a way to beat a good Bucks team. Uh. The one exchange between Matt, Naggie and Nick Foles on the sideline is the one that gives me a lot

of confidence. Honestly, for him, that's the most animated I've ever seen him on the sideline, pleading to go up tempo, pleading to the coach about this is what we have to do. I think that exchange right there between Naggie and him, and Maggie listening to him, I think tells me a lot about where they are in terms of their relationship moving forward. Hi, well, James, you you said it off as Dan would say, You're the Bucks of the Bucks like Svengali. Right now, you're kind of like

the Bucks. You're at one with the Bucks. You're using Byron Left, which like you got him on a first name basis, So just like when I'm talking to Byron yeah, you know, I mean that he's not on like a share level or anything where he's like a one name guy. I guess, uh or Goda Byron, Yeah, everybody. I think so Byron Left, which the coordinator. It is really weird to me that like Byron Left, which is Tom Brady's coordinator, Like, didn't he come into the league after Tom Brady? Yeah,

he absolutely did. I've been trying to convince him to come back. He thinks he's got something when they throw the ball together. Speaking like Byron Left, which was kind of like a younger version of Nick Foles, like he was out there taking a beating, like he'll stand in there, he'll make some throws, he'll rally the troops. Um um. But James, we appreciate you coming on this Thursday night. You we shouldn't just have you for Buck's talk. We can have you for any talk, and so we'll do

that down the line this season. We should you know, it's uh, it's early. It feels late in the season, but it's only week five. We will be back on Sunday, of course, with our flagship recap show. Uh, if you missed it, you can check out our our preview show. Also, just just a button a few things up that we left open there, the Titans bills. As of this taping has been rescheduled for Tuesday, and Broncos Patriots is gonna

be on Monday. But if you're listening to this show, if you're that big of a fan of the NFL, you probably know that by now. All right, let's get out of here. Ricky for James Palmer, Eric same poste. I'm Greg Rosenthalt. We will see you on Sunday,