And now Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to Move the Sticks. DJ Bucky ret with you on a recap Monday here, coming off a short night for me, Chargers home game, night game, a lot of traffic. Apparently we had the triple header with be was Clippers concert Chargers night game. So Inglewood was a little congested getting out of there last night. Uh don't know who was.
In the concert.
Yeah, everybody stayed to the end. Everybody stayed in. It was a great atmosphere. Yeah, I bet. And by the way, Jason's in my ear telling me it's Sabrina Carpenter was at the was A the LA Forum. So the KIA form is that what it is? Now? I don't know it's ah might I think it is?
Yeah, I think it's the key.
Yeah, packed house. We're gonna get to that game. That second on the list. Today, we're going to start with what was, you know, literally one of the best matchups in the regular season we've seen in the last half dozen years. If you look at where Kansas City was coming into this game at Buffalo, a game that felt man Buffalo had to have this for a whole host of reasons, but just to know that this collision is
coming again into the future. Fascinating game there, Buck, I'll give you the first word on this one on what your takeaway.
Was, Look big time, and I'll say we've talked about Josh Allen playing at a high level before, but this was big time, a big time performance for him.
Now.
I won't do like the overreaction Monday where everyone is like, oh my god, he's overtaken Pat Mahomes is the best player in the league in those things. But what I will say is the Pat Mahome experiment that the Buffalo Bills decided to use, meaning take away some of the notable names, make it maybe a little more comedye on the perimeter, It has allowed him to really be the best version of himself. We're seeing Josh Allen do things that we've seen before, but he's doing it in a
more controlled manner. The running, the passing, utilizing all of the weapons, managing the game, all of that shows significant growth and maturity in his game, where he certainly is deserving of being in the conversation as MVP because he's playing that well.
Yeah, I think, Look, I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Josh Allen was the more dangerous player in this game. When you look at the way that the Chiefs were still able to get pressure on and twenty six pressures.
On Josh Allen didn't sack him once.
It just it felt like they were the more explosive team, certainly down the field in the past game.
I mean dominant really in that category of it.
And for a Chiefs offense that at times has been pedestrian, you ran up against the team that had a lot of different ways to go at you, and so much of that has to do with the number seventeen leading
the way a quarterback. So I was really a fan of the way that Josh Allen played this game, and you know, knew when he needed to take off and go get yards for his team, like you did hear on this incredible touchdown run that was just kind of the exclamation point on the whole night for a day in which you look, he was better than Patrick Mahomes on this day.
Not to say that he is a better player overall.
I'm glad we get to see these guys go at it each and every year, and I'm excited to see him go at it again in the postseason if that comes to fruition.
Yeah, I just I want to start on the Allen side of things. You just look at his legacy, what it looks like if they don't have that miraculously Casey comeback with. However many seconds were left on the clock. Uh in that playoff game. How differently we view Josh Allen And this is literally it is peer. It is peers with him and Patrick Mahomes if they're able to finish off that game. But you guys talked about the athleticism watching the tape on that They were on a
lot of empty runs with Josh Allen. Some of them are scrambled, some of them are designed runs. But man, that is deadly. It's like it's like high school football where you just gonna spread. You're gonna put your biggest best athlete at quarterback. You're gonna spread the field, try and you know, get as many defenders away from the box as you can and then let him just do
his thing. That was that was impressive watching that. On On the Buffalo side of things, I do want to when we get to the Bears game a little bit later on, I do want to talk about scrambling quarterbacks and how maybe there's some negativity skewed towards Oh, you know, we need to play on time, play on schedule. If you're scrambling around, then you don't you know, that's not why the game's played. I've got some interesting stats on that. We'll get to that when we get to the Bears thing.
But I do want to get to the chief side of things here. Patrick Mahomes last year sacked twenty seven times sixteen games. Patrick Mahomes been sacked twenty two times and ten games this year. Only sacked a couple times in this ballgame. But this is an offensive line that's deteriorating from what they were from as dominant as they were when he first got going twenty eighteen, those early Chiefs offenses, which we're averaging I want, I believe two
touchdowns more than this team is averaging. And a lot of it we've talked about the weaponry or this, that and the other. This offensive line buck is nothing like it was early on. Here. The tackles are not good and it puts a lot of pressure on him and you're not going to have a vertical passing game if you can't secure the edges, and that's that's been a big, big problem.
Yeah, it's been a huge problem because you talk about they've tried to commit to it. So Wanie Morris playing on one side, Juwan Taylor who they paid big money for from the Jaguars to.
Put at the other tackle, like, they have not been able to secure the edges.
The interview three are solid, but the edges that's problematic because you're right, DJ, you can't sit in the pocket for long and push the ball down the field. He's always under pressure and the rest and so he never can get comfortable and even though he likes to improvise, it's still the big part of Pat Mahomes that played really well on schedule and they lose that part of the game. And so yeah, it's a big problem going in.
And the Chiefs are different because they don't have a tie end that they can waste by leaving in protection. They don't have someone that can say, oh, we're gonna let you chip and do all these other things their best when all of the guys are eligible in the route.
It's something that we know Andy Reid will address.
It's been exposed and he'll continue to tweak and refine how they go about it. But it's a huge issue and as to one thing that could keep them from going.
To making that three pet that some of us are pining for.
Look, it does, in a way feel like where this team was when they ran up in the COVID season against the Tampa Bay Bucks and lost the Super Bowl because the locker Bucks absolutely got after him off the edges right and they went and that's when they went and made the addition to go get Joan Taylor. And then they went and made the addition to go get
Orlando Brown, and then that was short lived. And now they're kind of recycling that process again, and I think we're kind of back to where they were before.
Now here's the thing.
Kingsley Suwamatilla is not the answer this year, and they figure out a way for him to be an answer for them at one of the tackles moving forward. I would say that's probably at least still a possibility. It doesn't feel like it's certainly the way that we'll find them success this year. So how do they minimize that moving forward? I think is really where you have to look if you're the Chiefs at this.
Point, Yeah, Well, it's not the last time we're going to see these teams together. They're going to meet up again in the postseason and we'll see again. Only one loss separates them in the lost column, and now Buffalo has a tiebreaker. So we just to see how this season unfolds for both these ball clubs going forward. All right, let's get to the Senna night game that I was at Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. I'll start on the
Charger side of things. You know, calling their games for seven years, I've seen the Chargers lose this game a dozen times, if not more, where things start going bad and they can't stop the bleeding. This was different last night. They get out to a big lead. Offense was really clicking. I mean, I thought you had a quarterback and a coordinator with Herbert and Greg Roman in sinc they were running the ball with the you know, just in terms
of committing to the run. But then they were going heavy boxes play action and hitting shots Will Disley down the steam. You had Quinton Johnson getting another touchdown, but they were just loading up the box. And then they're getting a little pull from the second level off play action, and then they're letting Herbert attack vertically and then Herbert using his legs has been a nice component to this offense. So anyways, all clicking second half, they get out of rhythm,
they can't find it. Herbert has a fumble on a run, he misses some throws, the defense has given up points. It's, you know, Joe Burrow's playing out of his mind as he has all season long, and just felt it slipping away. They get a couple miskicks, but then when they had to have a drive, you know Herbert can can do
it within you know, two three plays. It's just really two throws to Lad McConkey, who's been excellent and who's someone I think is going to be a high, high, high end two, if not a lower one.
But Buck.
I was watching them, and I've said this for a few weeks now to Money up there in the booth is when I watch this Chargers team, it feels like I'm watching the Lions of like a year or two ago. Man, like they are. You can see where this is headed, and they're going to get some more skill around this group. But man, it's exciting to see. This is kind of the ground floor and it's it's going to be a playoff team when they're here on year one.
So the comments that I heard after the game, I heard Joey Bosa talk about like their culture and how they believe that the work and the preparation that they do puts them in a position to win games, and they feel like something specialist brewing hearing the other comments from some of the other players saying that in the past we have lost this game, but we just know that we're so connected and so together that we were going to find a way to win it.
To me, they are.
All in on their leader, and that connectivity between players and coach is essential. The fact that they believe in Jim Harbor and he's done a really good job of creating an environment where they do buy into the work, the toughness, the physicality in those things. DJ, they don't even have the pieces of the puzzle yet, right, So you talked about, you know the guys they brought over lab McConkie.
They got JK.
Dobb and Gus Everards and all those guys, but they haven't upgraded. They've tried to flush out the salary cap situation and just win with what they could. So when this team is really constructed the way that they want it to be, It's gonna be a problem. And that energy, that attitude, that toughness that they bring it certainly is going to be a thorn in the side of the other opponents in the AFC West.
And I would look at it as you know, all right, you've is you make the analogy with the Lions DJ, It's like, okay, well, how can you hold on to the majority of this and push it forward? And I think one of the big, you know, things that you're gonna have to hold on to is Jesse Minter, defensive coordinator for the Chargers, has just done a phenomenal job.
I mean, look, he's got some great players back there.
I get that, but man, he is who ordinated this this unit very well.
I mean, like generated thirty six pressures.
They generated pressure on Joe Burrow almost seventy percent of his pass attempts back there, Which kind of brings me to the point for Cincinnati, like they're not altogether in much different of a spot than the Kansas City Chiefs
were after their Super Bowl run. Remember the year before the Bengals went to the Super Bowl, they kind of remade that offensive line made a bunch of those those free agent acquisitions, but now it feels like they're kind of back in a spot where they're giving up pressures all over the place, Burrows taking hits and he's got to be superhuman back there trying to complete some of these passes under duress.
That's just not sustainable. And we're going to be in.
A position here where you're getting your quarterback knocked around again and the last thing you want to do is see him, you know, have to miss time like he did each of the last couple of years. So you know, as you look at that, it's kind of like a cause and effect Chargers again, exposing where the Bengals are from a pass protection situation. And you know, the Chargers defense has just flat out really good and would be
a big reason why they are a playoff team. But here's the thing that was a little concerning to me, guys, and I'd love to get your opinion on this. You've listened to all the comments from Bengals players after the game, Jamar Chase, maybe with some of.
The most you know, explosive.
It feels like a team that's unraveling, you know, and look, maybe some of what he's saying isn't wrong. But do you go out there and say it, like, yeah, yeah, you paid McPherson go out and make the dang kicks. I get it, he didn't make the kicks. You know, you pay Zach Taylor to help get this team in a framework to go finish games.
They're not finishing games right now.
But it's not like you and you and you, it's it's us, and that to me feels like that's not the messaging that's happening in Cincinnati, and there's no way they recover from this if it keeps getting singled out, you, singled out you.
All I got to do is worry about me. That's that is not one.
So I wouldn't plan on going into this direction. This might take us a minute here, so I have to ask for some patience. But if we were talking on here the last couple of weeks and Buck, I know we've had this conversation about Ben Johnson and we've made the case that hey, unless he gets blown away, just just just make Detroit pay it, you know, head coach money to stay as the offensive coordinator because it's just so hard to find the right fit for you to
be successful. And if you look at the jobs that might pop up, and we know who the where those jobs are, we know who the quarterbacks for those teams are, and there's some intriguing names. There's nothing like Joe Burrow. Burrow and seeing it in person. You mentioned those pressure numbers rhet He is an assassin. He is a stone cold killer to the point where as great as Josh Allen and his greatest Mahomes, both those guys are I'm not if you give me equal talent, I'm not. I
don't know that I'm picking against Joe Burrow. So if i'm if, I'm the Bengals, and I'm never going to advocate for anybody to lose their job. And I think there's a lot of other issues with this team, but if they did make a change, to me, that is easily the most desirable job that would be available. And if I was Ben Johnson, I would call them before they called me.
Here's the thing, though, I thought they extended Zach Taylor where it would make it almost cost prohibitive.
Knowing the Bengals, and that's.
Not the way they normally do business, and that's that's not business.
Will I will say this about what Red is talking about.
And I would say the comments that come off as selfish, no, they are selfish from Jamar Chase. Here's what happens when you run the risk of not playing pain your players before you get into the season. So now all of those feelings of feeling disrespected and that stuff, you're seeing it not in their performance, but the body language and the actions of T Higgins and Jamar Chase. At some point, you want to try and keep the family together and
keep the family happy. And I know we're talking about businesses business, but I feel like they're disjointed because of contract negotiations that have gone awry. And now you're just having them say, well, I don't really care. I'm trying to get mine, I want to be healthy, I want to put up numbers, and then whatever happens to the team happens with the team. And that's not a way that a team can be successful in this eraor yeah.
Look, look guys, I mean this is a situation for the Bengals. It's just man, they've lost so many close games, and you know, I think you're seeing some of the frustration that comes from that. Look at the Ravens game, you look at the Chiefs game. You look at this game. They've had opportunities, haven't been able to get it done. So I think that's why all this stuff is really starting to bubble up. All right, let's keep it moving here and let's get to another big time game, big
time performance by the Pittsburgh Steelers. They take care of the Baltimore Ravens in a field goal fest. For the Steelers, they didn't finish drives, didn't get things done the way they wanted to. But this is a game ret where they controlled the clock, They had the ball for thirty six minutes, twenty two minutes for the Baltimore Ravens, and Baltimore penalties twelve turnovers three. There's your ball game.
There's really no other way to describe it.
This was a mistake game, full of mistakes for the Ravens and uncharacteristic like mistakes. You would talk about the turnovers and the penalty shore, but how about the two misses in the second quarter for Justin Tucker, the most accurate kicker and NFL history, is now barely middle of the road in field goal made percentage so far this season.
I mean miss back to back kicks, Sure not gimme's forty seven and fifty yarder, but those were I mean, in Tucker's landscape, those are gimmes and so he's had some misses now this year. And it starts, oh boy,
there's a drop obviously concentration drop for Zave Flowers. He made up for it with a touchdown later, but it just it felt like from the jump Derek Henry fumbles on his second carry and it was like, holy smokes, you know that the onsought of negativity was just really hard for the Ravens to overcome, even though they went down and scored and we're leading at the half and just just couldn't find a way to take advantage of the Steelers kind of keeping them in the game and
ultimately Steelers find a way to win.
Yeah, this is frustrated for the Baltimore Ravens because this is a team that has been so good this season, but the issues that have hurt them in the games that they've lost are the dbos, don't beat ourselves, turnovers, penalties.
Big plays allowed. When you do that, you're gonna lose games.
Twelve pen is too many penalties, too many self inflicted mistakes, three turnovers plus two additional miskicks which we could really count as turnovers. It's just hard to win when you have so many mistakes. And they'll look at the tape and they're going to kick themselves knowing they didn't give themselves a chance to win because they had so many egregious errors that they have to eliminate. And so the next time they see the Pittsburgh Steelers, we'll see if
they can tighten it up. But the Stealers feel so confident whenever they see the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson for whatever reason, they just have a hold over this team and the Bravens somehow have to get past it.
And a lot of times it's games like this one. Remember remember last year all the drop passes that Baltimore had at Pittsburgh as they Flowers had to drop touchdown in that game last year. I mean they they just something about the Pittsburgh Steelers brings out some funky stuff from the Ravens. And I do think there is I think with Lamar Jackson and the rest of the league, or most of the league, I should say there's a
fear factor. You don't see a lot of them, and when you do it's like, oh gosh, okay, hey, be disciplined, don't get caught out of your lanes. You're cautious to rush the quarterback, you know, you just there's a fear factor there. And I think familiarity buck, I know, I know your Dodgers beat my Podres. But the but the Potteries don't have any There's no awe, there's no fear factory. If they see him, they see them all the time.
So like it takes away some of that. It takes away some of that when you have a team of foe that you're so familiar with.
Well, now, yeah, because they go after him, they say in pressure they come after him.
They don't, Uh, they're not scared on their heels like, oh what's he going to do?
They're not at all.
But I think the thing that stood up to me was uh, Mike Tomlin playing the motivational tactics, first sending Patrick Queen out for the coin toss and making sure he praised them at everything, talking about one man's trash is another man's treasure. You knew Patrick Queen was going to be on ten, and they come up with that big turnover, uh to rip the ball away and to make the play that he had to make to kind
of seal the game is huge. And so when you get a motivated guy like that, that's exactly what you want. And so the Pittsburgh still is I have a young collection of playmakers that are emerging. Look, they people will not talk about them being the best team in the AFC, but man, they gonna be a tough team to deal within the postseason because they just play a stout that is so different than everybody else is they ugly up the game and they know how to win these ugly games.
And that was the other thing I'll go back and just kind of clarify again. You know, you felt like the Ravens, despite all their issues early in the game, We're going to take the lead into the half seven
to six after scoring a touchdown late. But then they get the ball back and they fumble deep in their own end and you give the Steelers a chance with just seconds remaining in the first half, a chance to kick the field goal from Chris Boswell, and then end up still having the lead nine to seven at the end of the first thirty minutes. Like that was so descriptive of the way this game ended. Up going for Baltimore. Like every time you'd find a way to generate some positivity,
something would pull you back. They two steps forward, one step back, and it just ultimately it came back to bite him.
So this was Pittsburgh's first.
Division game of the season, so we've gotten much more of this still to come. But man, Ravens will look to turn the tide and they get him in Baltimore.
And I don't know that it was a cruise to victory for the Green Bay Packers. It was definitely not a cruise for the Chicago Bears to defeat. But this was a game I teased this earlier, and I want to lead with this because I want to start first of all, on the Caleb Williams side of things. In this game they lose, Bears lose twenty nineteen. I start first. They if they make a kick in this game and they don't just completely flub on the Hail Mary against Washington,
these are two signature comeback wins for Caleb Williams. Late drives to lead the Bears to victory. As a Bears team that's six and four. If that's the case, Man, the vibe is so different. It just shows you how narrow the line is here between being a hero and a goat. But Buck, I want to get to you on this point because this is a saucing nug for you.
I was looking this up because I was thinking about just playing on time and the importance of playing on time and playing within structure, and how much we talk about that and how that had been. You know, it's a lot of discussion about Caleb. It needs to get more comfortable in that regard. So I said, okay, well, if we're going to kind of label guys who scramble around as maybe that's not the way you win games in this league, let me give you the top scramblers
in the NFL who scrambled the most. Number one is Jayden Daniels, followed by Brock Perdy, Bo Nicks, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes. Those are the top scramblers in the NFL. So, and all those guys, even with Bonix being a young player, they're all those quarterbacks are playing at a very high level. And if you were to go longer on that list, I could make a case that ten of the eleven are playing at
a high level. Guys that are scrambling around. So I don't know that we need to remove scrambling from Caleb. I think what we saw in this game, which was encouraging, which was whatever you're going to do, do it, you know, don't get The worst thing you can do is just get stuck back there. So if you want to get the ball out your hands quick, get it out of your hands quick. If you don't like it, then go use your legs and make something happen. But be more decisive.
And I thought that was a positive take away from me with this Bears game. I don't think you need to. I think there was some part of him maybe and I don't know if they're telling this or maybe just subconsciously, it's like I've got to put my feet and cement back here to prove that I'm something, you know, And I'm like, that's not the way the NFL plays anymore. Man, you don't have to do that now.
What's interesting is his comments after the game when you talked about Thomas Brown in the Biggest Change, and he just talked about Thomas Brown's decisiveness, decisiveness with his play calls in and out the huddle, the.
Way that he seeks the calls he just said.
It was more up tempo, on pace in terms of just the operation in and out the huddle. Like Thomas knew exactly what he wanted to get to and it allowed him to be more decisive, which is my why you may have see him, why we may have witnessed
a more decisive player inside and outside the pocket. When you take a player like Kayleb Williams, you have to take him knowing the player that you got at USC is the player that is going to show up in Chicago, and your job is to build around what he showed at SC and if he plays like he played yesterday.
Then you continue to build it out.
But it's about teaching him how to be decisive, making decisions fast and going with it.
Don't make him something that he's not.
Yeah looking, you know.
On the Packers side of things, you know, they come up with a win here, remain within striking distance of the Detroit Lions. But the more I kind of watched you know, Green Bay and then Detroit, which we'll get to here in just a couple of minutes, it does feel like the gap is fairly significant there, especially you know, with the fact that Jordan Love can't quite get rid of these turnovers. He's now had an interception in every game this season, and it just happened to come down
in the red area. Intercepted near the goal line, they're thwarting a scoring opportunity. And then actually the Packers turned it over on downs down in the red area as well. So for them to be a viable post season contender that you can trust, it does feel like they've got to find a way here to get this offense to finish with points on the board and not with those some of those costly turnovers in there where you are taking away the opportunity to score some points.
So otherwise like it was a fairly efficient day. They didn't have the ball very much.
Only twenty three minutes of top in this one for green Bay and just seventeen pass attempts.
For Jordan Love.
So they figure out a way to minimize those turnovers, and I think you'll have a much better opportunity for Green Bay to try to make a run at this thing.
Yeah, I looked that they gave up nineteen points. I don't want to ding their defense, but Chicago was nine to sixteen on third down and this has been an offense that is obviously massively struggling. So that was a little bit of a concern on the on the Green Bay side of things that weren't able to get off the field and weren't able to get off the field late either bailed out by you know, the block field goal attempt. But that that you know, and we'll get it.
This will get us into this next game here before we get into Jacksonville Detroit. But just go around the horn real quick, because I'll get both your takes on it. To me, it feels like NFC Detroit's in a tier all by themselves nobody. I think they're playing much better in a belt. I think Philadelphia is behind them. I
think I don't think there's anybody close to Philadelphia. Is the point I'm gonna make, Like, I feel like it's those two teams, however much distance we want to disagree on, like how much difference there is between Detroit and Philly. That might be closer, like you said, but but I think after those two teams, it feels like there's I don't think Green Bay. I think they're significantly Minnesota.
You don't feel like Minnesota.
I don't trust Minnesota. We'll get to Minnesota. There's something there that I don't trust, and it really is more about their defense. When their defense plays the better quarterbacks, I think that that sell out, you know, way of playing defense against top tier quarterbacks is going to be a dangerous way to live. But that's my opinion there. But do you think those two are cut above everybody else?
Buck?
Yeah, the only thing I would say, I think those who are definitely there. I put Minnesota right there with Philadelphia because I would say that their defense being able to create turnovers in those things, and it is a Gopher broke style of play I'm more of. I think their postseason hopes hange on Sam Donald's play and watching him a week ago and then talking to some of the people around the building. They just said like, hey, if he plays within himself, we can win and knock
off any team. He just has to make sure that he stays within the boundaries his limitations. If he does that, they can win. So I'm just more worried about Sam Donald in the postseason.
Can he just continue to be the player that he was?
The player there was Yesterday's certainly good enough to help them win against any team.
That's the only thing.
But I think Minnesota, Philly and Detroit, but Detroit way up there over the other two.
RTT you want in on that just in terms of know, what do you think the pecking order is there? Real quick and then we'll keep it moving.
Yeah, I think you guys are right on the Other thing that I would say, and it's a huge if, and it's a major caveat, is that there's gonna be a team out west in whether it's the Cardinals, whether it's the Rams, it is all of the are all there healthy, and then the Niners, Like I just don't know if I'm ready to count them out either. I feel like there's gonna be a team in the West.
And man, when Matthew Stafford is on like he was with Kup and Nakua yesterday, that's that's some good offense out there in the NFC.
I put that right up there with everybody else.
Yeah, And not just to put a bow on it. With Minnesota Golf and Stafford the two quarterbacks who beat them, And that's what I worry about, is those the type of quarterbacks you're going to run into in the postseason and you want to sell out and play that aggressive,
They'll make you pay with really good quarterbacks. Jacksonville Detroit buck full disclosure when I you know, when I look at all the games and I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna watch, and I prioritize I did not watch lick a film of this game, because I was just going to let you take the floor and tell me what you saw in person. I wasn't gonna subject myself to that.
Okay, So what I saw was every year in the college football season, you put a game on the schedule where you're just trying to work through the kings. You know you're gonna beat the team, but you're trying to work everything out. I feel like Detroit put the Jacks on the schedule to do just that. The way that they attack the Jack wall from beginning to end.
From beginning to in.
Yeah, this is an old school a let's bring them in, we're gonna pay.
Them, fly the way, give them a buffet, pre and post, or.
We're gonna beat them down. That's how they did it. But in reality, here's what I'll say about the Detroit Lions. I believe the Detroit Lions are a perfectly constructed team. To be a title contender. On offense, they can play a variety of ways that gives.
Them multiple paths to be able to win.
They can run it, they can throw it, they can play with power, they can play with finesse. Defensively, they've really come on and the loss of eight and Hutchinson is significant, but they found a way to do. What we talked about last week is rush the quarterback by committee, but in the back end they are terrific.
Brian Branch is everything that we thought he did.
I don't know why he didn't go in the first round, but the guy plays like a first rounder all day, every day. And then Kirby Joseph who plays alongside of them, They may be the best safety tenem in the business because they do a great job of working off of one another.
So the way that I look at this now is yeah, I mean you painted the picture.
That's that's what happened in the game.
The Lions far superior on paper and in this game right now, what do you do? What are we doing it for the Jaguars here? So how do we figure this thing out?
Right? What do you build around?
If you look at the pieces that you just that are must haves moving forward next year. Trevor Lawrence certainly tied to him after the big contract. Brian Thomas has proved to be a major player this past year. Is the first round draft pick. I think outside of that, I mean, you're hoping Anton Harrison can be a guy at tackle after being a first round pick in twenty three. But like and then on defense is Trayvon Walker and Josh Heines Allen mm hm am I missing anybody that that we must have?
Right?
Here's my here's my question. Here's my question. So if you're the Jags and the highest you have, the two highest rated players on your board are ones a wide receiver and one's a corner? Who are you taking? Trick questions? Just one player? You're taking Travis Hunter? And now we have Travis with BTJ out there as well as we're getting him some work on the defensive side of the ball.
What's that, Coach Belichick? What was that play called? Okay, I got it all of a sudden, Now, Jags, this sounds a little different and looks a little all sudden. Trevors there, that would be that.
Yeah, I'm with you, But here's what I'll say. I'll say this like with a little envy sitting on one sideline looking over the other. The complete buy in that the Alliance have had, from top to bottom, front office, coaching staff, the players that they have. There's a clear vision of how they want to play. There's a clear vision of the type of players that they want and their style. You feel, DJ, it's a rare opportunity where you get a chance to see the backups go in.
I guess so when the backups went in, the energy and the attitude did not change. They were out to literally bust the clock. And I mean, I'm just mo. Gay comes in in the fourth corner, He's running. I'm like, who is this? And oh, by the way, as fast as you think Jamiir Gibbs is, he is that much. He might be the quickest running back I've ever seen in terms of on that turf.
He is unbelievable.
Like that combination they have in the backfield with him and David Montgomery is tough.
They are a really good team and they are locked in.
All right, guys, let's get through a rip of games here. We can get through a bunch of more games here with the time we've got left Minnesota Tennessee RTT. What was what was your takeaway here?
Vikings did enough, you know, Vikings did enough and found a way to minimize mistakes, you know, and got Jordan Addison going a little bit after he had a quiet spell for a couple of weeks, had a couple of big catches in this game. And look, I think the one other thing that I come away with here is Tennessee plays hard man, especially on defense. That is a good looking group. Jeffrey Simmons again is a game wrecker.
But the Vikings found a way. And here's the thing, like, if you're the Tennessee Titans and you can't run the ball all and you've got a quarterback like Will Levis like we kind of been talking about, does not fit the bill yet of those of those elite passers that can find a way to make you pay when you're bringing that aggressive pressure that the Vikings do. So no run game, not yet a quarterback who can deal with that kind of pressure.
You're in a lot of trouble. And that's what it felt like to me.
Yeah, a lot of trouble, a lot of problems.
Sam Donald bouncing back after watching him basically keep the Jaguars in it the week before he came back, played.
More discipline ball.
That's the Sam Donald that needs to show up for the Minnesota Vikings. If they do that, they're good enough to win and make a deep postseason run.
Yeah.
I mean one of the big concerns I had was with Darrisaw going down and missing Darrisaw button. You make a trade Cam Robinson, right, Cam Robinson's playing one.
Yeah, Cam Robinson comes over.
Yeah, Yeah, So that was and he's hanging on in there, and he's hanging on in there, so that was a good move. All right, Let's get to Seattle, San Francisco. Buck. This is a big win in a very clustered and crowded NFC West. But that's a g. I shouldn't say good. That's a great win for the Seattle Seahawks to go on the road and knock off the Niners.
Yeah, great win for the series. But I'm gonna stay on the Niner side. It may be time to hit the panic button. This is a team where we knew that the Super Bowl hangover would probably be kind of in play. And look, they're five and five and a team that has been able to really kind of do what they want to do against most opponents. Offensively, they're
not the same. They can't impose their wheel and the defense, which has always been like part of the formula, like run the ball, play great defense in those things, they're not getting the same kind of contributions from the defense
that they've gotten in the past. To me, if the Noters are going to get back to being the team that we talk about being in the conversation to win the NFC, they got to get back to being who they are from an identity standpoint, physical run game, selective play make and on play action and in defense playing LIFs out. They're not doing They're not checking the boxes in any of those areas right now.
Yeah, I mean, the one thing I'll say, DJ and I know you know you and I kind of talked about this and it just has not felt like the same forty nine ers run game for the last what six eight weeks of this season. And obviously this is just Christian McCaffrey's second game back, and you've get to play a game and won't play a game where you have CMC burning then I UK, Indebo Samuel all together all at once. Same with George Kittle, and it just feels like the pieces come in and out of the
lineup and it's hard to find consistent rhythm here. So I'm not ready to press that panic button yet. On the forty nine ers, I feel like this team has proven that they find they can find ways to win when they get down to it, and I I think this division will allow them the opportunity to do that.
Yeah, division's not going anywhere, that's the good news. It is all clumped in there together. Seattle did a great job living in big plays, just kind of put a lid on the on the forty nine ers, both run and pass. I thought that was the key. All right, Atlanta Denver. I'll start us off on this one because I wanted to watch the bo Nicks awesome game. You see the first rookie QB with eighty percent completion percentage,
three hundred and four passing touchdowns in a game. So that's where I wanted to start, and I went to the entire game, watched every single snap of this one. For Denver's offense, I thought they did a good job of it was like a sandwich. Like they start. It was a run, The bread was the run, and the pass was the meat. They got into the game with some run game got them comfortable. Then they were able to throw it all over the place, and then they were able to run it towards the end. But everything
was clicking. And look, I know that some folks, you know, we'll look at Sean Payton and oh, you know, he's cocky or he's their again, and he maybe rubbed some people the wrong way. The guy can the guy can scheme and call offense and there is no debating it. I mean, you talk about four strong buck hitting backside slants. He unloaded the screen game in this one. Every type of screen you can run. They ran it. They were effective, they ran they tight end leak got one wide open
on that one. So they got a lot of scheme stuff that I thought bon Nicks benefited from. But then Bonnicks, you see his confidence soaring. He's ripping a seam ball between the triangle defenders, and it was just like textbook how you handle a young quarterback. You ease him into the game, then you kind of cut him loose, and then you don't ask him to do too much. We're still screening late in the game, we're running late in the game, minimal minimal risk involved with a lot of
stuff that they were doing. I thought, buck to me, this was a masterclass by Sean Payton and bon Knicks.
Look, man, he gets it, he understands it. He understands how to make the game very, very easy for the quarterbacks. Just think about all the quarterbacks that came through New Orleans that had success, small sample sizes, but think about how James played for him, how Teddy Bridgewater play for him, what he's been able to do with quarterbacks outside of
Drew Brees. He understands the position for bow Knicks. One of the things that excited me about the possibility of them getting together is bow Knicks has experienced the significant amount of snaps that he played in college, the high iq that he has, the leadership and the maturity that he displayed. You put that with Sean Payton, who wants to put a lot on the quarterback. You can just see how this is going to continue to grow. And just wait till when they get more pieces around the quarterback.
You can see where the foundation is being built in Denver. And if you're a Broncos fan, you have to be excited about him.
A couple of quick things there maturity, intelligence, accuracy. I think that's what you've seen from bow Nicks in a big way, especially in this game. I mean, DJ I haven't watched all those snaps, I'm sure you could see the way his head moves from right to left or left to right. And it's not just like he's trying to look somebody off. He is moving through what Sean Payton gives him to assess post snap, and that's been really impressive and again speaks to the experience and the
amount of football that he has seen. The other part of it is like outside of the quarterback, you know, processing and all that kind of stuff, which is obviously huge and very important, especially early for a rookie. But I think the other part of it is you talk to folks in that building. They will talk about how
he is beloved in that locker room. He has won those dudes over in a big way, how calm he is throughout game situations in timeouts like just low heartbeat player, not just in the pocket in a hostile environment, but even as you know situations are developing, even at the end of that Kansas City game, you know, before they went out and one against the Atlanta Falcons, this week.
So there's so much to like.
I'm just telling you, like, if if bo Nix and the Broncos keep ascending and the commanders keep stumbling, it might end up being more of a conversation about offensive a conversation.
He's already he's already a conversation. You should already make that a conversation. All right, we're gonna work through three more games. But it's just a it's a speed round here. So it's one player, the one takeaway, one player, one takeaway, Buck the Indianapolis Colts knock off the Jets. I think there's an obvious one here, but I'll let you have it. One player, one takeaway.
I'm gonna give Anthony Richardson his props for being able to learn hard lessons over two weeks. Maturity, professionalism, all of those things that came out what they were talking about.
I love the fact that he embraced it.
I love the fact that he was vulnerable with his teammates and that he came back and showed out in a major way, played even beyond I would say the coach's expectations. And so if he can do that and learn the value of preparation and putting in the time and doing all those things that franchise quarterbacks are supposed to do are expected to do. Now he has an opportunity to realize some of that potential that made him the number four overall pick.
All right, Rhett, you're up next here and we're going to I think this is probably another easy one for you Rams, New England Patriots. You can go win or a loser here, But what's your takeaway?
One lot to love about the continued progression of Drake may too. I just think that when the Rams are healthy and they're still getting there along the offensive front and trying to figure out how to get the best five guys out there, they've been moving a lot of pieces around. But I'm telling you that triangle and then with the run game of Kien Williams, but Stafford Pooka and Cooper Cup, there's not a whole lot of trios that I take over those three right there.
Yeah, that's fair. They feel like the old old man's team that shows up at the y MCA and somehow they just run through everybody, all these young college kids. That's what it looks like when you watch the Rams play offense. Cleveland, New Orleans.
Man.
I mean, look, you get the I guess I could go fully. You know, jamis full Jamis Winston experience in this game as well as the the the perfect Taysom Hill experience in this game with what he did just making all kinds of plays. Aaron Rizzy's got him going, man. So they they're playing well, the Browns saw him in person a couple of weeks ago. It's just I don't want to say play out the string. That's probably insulting to a bunch of professionals, but they're playing out the string.
I mean, this is a that's a wrap one more buck, one more game, Vegas, Miami. Give me a takeaway on that one.
Well, let's let's talk about Miami maybe finding themselves back into rhythm in terms of being able to get it done. And it's, you know, it's the offense is so different when to a tongue of b low is there, Like they're able to get it going, They're able to kind of play dink and dunk ball. They still do kind of like the lightning round running attack, but it's such a unique offense. So for them to get back on track thirty four points being able to kind of find
their way. Not quite ready to say that they're back in the hunt of being a playoff team, but they have enough intriguing pieces offensively.
That they can give you problems as we get down the stretch.
Quick one, quick one, here, go ahead.
Yeah, what do you know?
Bill Belichick gave all that money to Johnny Smith.
Yeah he's back, baby.
You know what why?
He was a little premature found there he is. That's the guy. All right, there is one more game and it's time for the Monday night football preview. I can tell you this, uh story here real quick. I called the first game between the Houston Texans and it was against the Dallas Cowboys. And that was David Carr at quarterback, our colleague, I should say I called it. I spotted. I was working for ESPN right out of college.
I was all right.
I was up in the blue. I think bucks heard this before. I'm up in the booth. I'm spotting for Mike Patrick, Diisman and McGuire.
And old Sunday night game.
Yeah, old Sunday night. I'm right out of college. So I've got my binoculars on and I look, and I see David Carr's got a rubber it was like the first rubber wedding band that he had on, and it was except it was I think it might even have been just athletic tape, like they didn't even make those back then. I think it was just like athletic tape around his wedding finger. So I told I told, like Thimer one of them. I said like, oh, I think
like this guy. You know, David Carr is such a good guy, Like he doesn't he wants to have his ring on. So it looks like he's either taped his ring up or he's got it and his thing. And uh, but I don't know this is true. He could have had a cut on his finger. So I just tell that. And then this is like my first game working out of college as a spotter, and they set it on the air and I thought, oh my gosh, I hope that this is true. I hope this is not. I'm
gonna get favored. I don't even know. And I believe it was Stuart Scott on Sports Center ran the highlight and they close up on his hand and go, oh, he's got he loves les so loves his wife. He's got that. I'm like, oh, my guys, I know this is not I don't even know if this is true.
I was.
I was a twenty twenty two year old kid scared to death that I was going to get fired because of the inaugural Texans game against the Dallas Cowboys. So that's not really the preview I think people listen to us for. But that's what I thought.
So one thing I mean, that's that's a good job.
That's a spicy g good guy. That is good.
Good eyes that out because that's about the most excitement that we can talk about with this game, because right now there have no expectations on the other side when it comes to the Cowboys. Dak Prescott is out, the defense has been bad. You talked about playing out the string. They're playing out the string in down.
Rets Ret's and he give me a reason to watch this game, give me, give me a reason to want to sit on the couch and take this one in.
DJ Stroud will remind you why he was the first tape we wanted to watch every week last year.
And it just hasn't last year. I know, man, I know, and I.
Know that he misses having Nico Collins out there, But you know, I.
Think is Nico back this week.
I think feel like it might be might be back.
I think, yeah, so we'll you know, we'll see if that rekindles some of that explosive downfield passing attack that we loved from the Texans a year ago and just haven't seen enough consistently this year. They've really been a team that runs through the run game with Joe Mixon and well, that's that's fine, and Dany I still I want.
To see some of that that's spectacular c J. Stroudness in this game.
To I Uh, I've got to go because I've got a text David Carr now that I have his phone number after all these years, and find out if this is really true. I've just never asked.
I gotta still haven't asked, all right, confirmation.
I'm gonna find that information out. That's my goal. All right. This has been a fun one. I do want to remind everybody we've got a bunch more shows coming this week where we'll dig into quarterback change with the New York Giants, amongst other topics. So planning to get to this week, but we appreciate you hanging with us today right here on move Stick