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Speaker 1: and welcome in to the Final Drive as always, joined
Speaker 1: by Haley Elwood and Eric Smith. Chargers lose thirty seven
Speaker 1: to twenty three to the Seattle Seahawks and SOFI Stadium
Speaker 1: on Sunday. They dropped to four and three. It was
Speaker 1: a concerning loss on a number of levels. I think,
Speaker 1: chief among them just the injuries keep piling up. Guys, Haley,
Speaker 1: I'll give you the floor first, your overall takeaways from Sunday.
Speaker 1: Brandon Staley after the game called the defense up and down.
Speaker 1: But to me, that's how I feel this entire Chargers
Speaker 1: team is. And we've seen a couple of these games
Speaker 1: where you get, Okay, a couple sides of the ball
Speaker 1: are doing well, but then one maybe isn't. But yesterday,
Speaker 1: to me, it just didn't seem like a great performance
Speaker 1: really from the get go. And I know, Chris, you
Speaker 1: tweeted specifically about the first quarter and how the Chargers
Speaker 1: just do not are not performing right off the bat
Speaker 1: points wise offensively, So I don't know. I mean, it
Speaker 1: is really tough obviously with the injuries, but at the
Speaker 1: same time, you are now in week seven. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of teams that are dealing with injuries. I
Speaker 1: know the notable names obviously with the Chargers, but I
Speaker 1: look at a team like the Buffalo Bills that at
Speaker 1: one point a couple of weeks ago, their injury report
Speaker 1: was like fourteen people. It was something insane, and they
Speaker 1: were able to sort of overcome it. Yesterday was just disappointing,
Speaker 1: specifically obviously with how the game started with Seattle jumping
Speaker 1: out to a seventeen nothing lead. And look, this Chargers
Speaker 1: team is some holes over the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but it almost felt like this one, like everything sort
Speaker 1: of caught up to them at this point that what
Speaker 1: they've kind of been able to overcome, they weren't able
Speaker 1: to do yesterday in Sunday's game. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I think, to me, I know, you don't want to
Speaker 1: go into the buy with a loss. But I almost
Speaker 1: feel like this team needs to reset, Like this team
Speaker 1: needs this time to sort of reset, reevaluate, look at
Speaker 1: everything that's going on, injuries, not injuries, whatever, scheme, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, and really sort of just take a beat
Speaker 1: and get through you to the next chunk of the season,
Speaker 1: because as we will, I'm sure look ahead, there are
Speaker 1: some tough ones coming up that aren't just gimme's right
Speaker 1: off the bat, and I think you would look at
Speaker 1: Seattle and you'd probably put Seattle in that same category. Heck,
Speaker 1: they're leading the NFC West right now. The biggest question
Speaker 1: for me, and I actually plan on asking Brandon Staley
Speaker 1: this later today, is just what is the identity of
Speaker 1: this team? Like y're in week seven, what are we
Speaker 1: looking at? What is the identity of this team? Because
Speaker 1: I think it has been a very week to week
Speaker 1: league with them, and I'm just looking for, I think,
Speaker 1: just some consistency because overall they've been pretty inconsistent on
Speaker 1: all sides. Well said, and you know, these slow starts.
Speaker 1: You can do it against Cleveland, you could do it
Speaker 1: against Denver, who doesn't have much of an offense. But
Speaker 1: Gino was cooking from the start and then Kenneth Walker,
Speaker 1: that rookie one hundred and sixty eight yards on the
Speaker 1: ground and a pair of touchdowns. Eric, There's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that need to be fixed, but I mean
Speaker 1: those first quarters really put this team in a hole. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt. Um. You know, I was kind of trying
Speaker 1: to take a break after the game last night, and
Speaker 1: I was on Twitter. Probably not the place if you
Speaker 1: want to take a break, were you? So? Are you
Speaker 1: taking breaker? But Chris, I thought your tweet and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: this is exactly what I had in mind to talk
Speaker 1: about on the final drive, because you just it's not
Speaker 1: sustainable to to do that, you know, like if you
Speaker 1: have to play catch up every week, you're gonna you're
Speaker 1: gonna tie yourself out. And if Hayley said, eventually, you're
Speaker 1: just gonna kind of run out of steam and you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to do it every week. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think we saw that yesterday, like again Cleveland
Speaker 1: and again Denver. You said, okay, like we kind of
Speaker 1: clawed back. We had a chance. But even when it
Speaker 1: was seventeen fourteen yesterday, me personally, I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: the Chargers had it in him to maybe complete the
Speaker 1: comeback just because it was it was so wildly inconsistent. Um,
Speaker 1: and we've seen that all season, Like Hayley you said,
Speaker 1: it's been an up and down team. It's been an
Speaker 1: up and down season, you know. And we asked, like,
Speaker 1: you know, the like the questions about, you know, what's
Speaker 1: the identity? Like who who? Who is this team right now?
Speaker 1: And I don't know, you know, Um, they're four and three.
Speaker 1: That's probably where they should be honestly, given how how
Speaker 1: they played, you know, but it's like what what what
Speaker 1: the identity at the good way to put a Haley
Speaker 1: Like their offense, it looks great sometimes it looks terrible
Speaker 1: other times. We still can't run the ball outside of Cleveland,
Speaker 1: you know, it's been terrible trying to get the run
Speaker 1: game going. The defense makes good plays here and there,
Speaker 1: but then they give up long runs almost every game
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. Special teams have been for the most
Speaker 1: part solid. It's just I don't know who the team
Speaker 1: is after seven games. And I would agree that the
Speaker 1: buy comes at a much needed time just to get
Speaker 1: a physical break, which is needed, but a mental break
Speaker 1: as well, Like I think people need to kind of
Speaker 1: get away. Maybe not coaches. Coaches need to kind of
Speaker 1: harp on it and figure out what the planet is
Speaker 1: going forward, but player need to get away and kind
Speaker 1: of reset as we get ready for these final ten games. Haley,
Speaker 1: I think you brought this to my attention yesterday. Austin
Speaker 1: Eckler's receptions. He is fifty three this year. So what
Speaker 1: I did last night I look to see who was
Speaker 1: closest to him among running backs is Christian McCaffrey, who
Speaker 1: I think has thirty six. So there's like these extended
Speaker 1: runs they're dumping off to Austin a lot. They have
Speaker 1: not been able to get the running game going. Entering
Speaker 1: week seven, Seattle had given up nearly a thousand yards
Speaker 1: on the ground. I think they were thirty first against
Speaker 1: the run and the Chargers for whatever reason, they could
Speaker 1: not get the running game going. There needs to be
Speaker 1: a balance there, and you know those Austin dump offs
Speaker 1: they need to be rushes and then some of those
Speaker 1: receptions need to be down the field to guys like
Speaker 1: Mike Williams. So I know it's hurt right now. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that Keenan Allen and some of these receivers.
Speaker 1: So you know there was a there was a stretch
Speaker 1: Hailey where they punted the ball five straight times and
Speaker 1: then turned the ball over on downs from the second
Speaker 1: quarter to the fourth quarter, and that's kind of where
Speaker 1: that game was lost because Eric mentioned it. They got
Speaker 1: back into it, but they couldn't sustain it, and the
Speaker 1: Seahawks did. I think the biggest thing too, when you
Speaker 1: look at sometime, you know, moments in the game of
Speaker 1: momentum and shifting, was the safety for instance, that happens
Speaker 1: that the defense gets the safety, you get the free kick,
Speaker 1: and then I think they went three and out after that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean those are the types of things that
Speaker 1: if you don't capitalize on that, your chances of I
Speaker 1: will say this, when they got the safety, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: here we go. Like maybe this is the momentum shift
Speaker 1: and sort of the kick in the pants that that
Speaker 1: they need to turn things around. But then going three
Speaker 1: and out, that's not going to get it done. This
Speaker 1: is the second straight game that that Justin Herbert has
Speaker 1: had over fifty pass attempts, and a lot of that
Speaker 1: again because the yards per attempt is not there. I
Speaker 1: think it was four point eight or something in this game,
Speaker 1: So again you mentioned it. It's those checkdowns, those you know,
Speaker 1: short passes, getting Austin involved, but it's not sustainable and
Speaker 1: has reminded me at times of the Jags game of
Speaker 1: just you know again with fifty yeah, fifty three rush
Speaker 1: yards on the day, it's like you get in this hole,
Speaker 1: so you have to pass, but yet your passes aren't long,
Speaker 1: like you're not. I don't know, it's just not computing.
Speaker 1: It's just not working totally in sync as to how
Speaker 1: it should right now. And I think that's sort of
Speaker 1: the frustration of every Chargers fan because we've seen what
Speaker 1: this offense is capable of. We saw it last year.
Speaker 1: You know again, Yes, we'll mention it. There are some
Speaker 1: health issues and all of that, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: they're just as there seems to be like a lack
Speaker 1: of rhythm that they're just not totally getting. And maybe
Speaker 1: that Browns game wasn't anomaly. You know, we saw them
Speaker 1: just crush it, but maybe it sort of was the aberration.
Speaker 1: And Houston too, I mean, their rush defense wasn't fantastic
Speaker 1: even going into that game. So I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: it's just it's just kind of tough all around. And
Speaker 1: I think the most like disappointing moment was the safety
Speaker 1: that then led to three and out and nothing could
Speaker 1: happen after that. I mean even getting it to thirty
Speaker 1: seven twenty three towards the end. That touchdown happened with
Speaker 1: almost like three and a half minutes left in the game,
Speaker 1: and so at that point it's like, okay, well, you
Speaker 1: know it was can we say garbage time touchdowns? I
Speaker 1: mean kind of at that point, like they attempted the
Speaker 1: on side kick it failed, but you know, really it
Speaker 1: felt larger than that, and it pretty much was most
Speaker 1: of the day. You know, Eric, Defensively, we've seen some
Speaker 1: breakdowns in the secondary, and we're starting to see this
Speaker 1: this theme of the opposing running back breaking off huge runs, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, we didn't see it against the Broncos. They
Speaker 1: did a pretty good job bottling up Melvin Gordon and
Speaker 1: O'tavius Murray and Boone. But Kenneth Walker twenty three for
Speaker 1: one sixty eight to pair of touchdowns. First of all,
Speaker 1: that kid's awesome, Like he's going to be a really,
Speaker 1: really good player for a long time. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: going back to even week two, I think there was
Speaker 1: a Clyde Edwards a layer fifty plus yard rush m
Speaker 1: the seventy five yard touchdown by Pearce and Houston. We
Speaker 1: know what Chubb did, you know? And then you and
Speaker 1: then you see what Kenneth Walker was able to do
Speaker 1: on the ground two hundred fourteen yards on the ground. Um,
Speaker 1: some big plays giving up in the secondary as well. Um.
Speaker 1: I think the by comes in a nice time for
Speaker 1: this team in general. Just to excuse me, just to
Speaker 1: reset in all three phases defensively, What are you think's happening,
Speaker 1: especially on the ground. Yeah, it's been a content theme,
Speaker 1: you know, like like you obviously rattled off almost every
Speaker 1: game this year where they've given up a long run. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Brandon Daily talked about that after the game
Speaker 1: yesterday and said, you know, we're losing at that on
Speaker 1: the edge and at the point of attack, and then
Speaker 1: the second level isn't there. And I think that my
Speaker 1: biggest concern is on all those long runs. It took.
Speaker 1: It took, especially with Walker, right, Like I'll say this
Speaker 1: about Walker first and Drew Tranquilt that the two there
Speaker 1: were so many times yesterday where it looked like it
Speaker 1: was going to be a one or two or three
Speaker 1: yard game and then he found away to make it
Speaker 1: seven or eight yards. And that guy is the beast
Speaker 1: and he is very good. And I think that would
Speaker 1: frustrating to me is when like it seemed like we
Speaker 1: had him near the line and then you kind of
Speaker 1: sneak out and muscle away for five or six more yards.
Speaker 1: In terms of the long runs, the back end has
Speaker 1: got to step up and make those plays if it
Speaker 1: and I forget what game we talked about this, but
Speaker 1: if it gets to the second level, you have to
Speaker 1: make that a ten or twelve yard run and not
Speaker 1: a seventy four yard run. And that's been a breakdown
Speaker 1: all year long. One another thing that that Staium mentored
Speaker 1: after the game that really kind of caught my ear
Speaker 1: was he used the phrase the right combination of players
Speaker 1: maybe four or five times, and I don't I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see what he means by that, and we won't
Speaker 1: know maybe until that Atlanta game, but you know, if
Speaker 1: you think about taking people out of the lineup or
Speaker 1: like having people play more or less, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but that phrase has really kind of caught my ear.
Speaker 1: Like I said, but then I thought about it more
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, who are you going to put
Speaker 1: in there? Because a a lot of people are are
Speaker 1: banged up, you know, like the whole team is banged
Speaker 1: ub But then like on defense, you're playing with your
Speaker 1: guys like the people you brought in and like your
Speaker 1: starters are in. You're not gonna take derwent out or
Speaker 1: Khalil out right or Drew out the like or the
Speaker 1: backgan out. So who. I don't know what that means
Speaker 1: by right combination and players, but I think you have
Speaker 1: to go back to the drawing board during this bye
Speaker 1: week and really figure out, like who you want to
Speaker 1: be what works, because especially the run game, Like I
Speaker 1: think we were giving up five point seven yards to
Speaker 1: carry that's tied for the worst in the league. So
Speaker 1: like the run game is not working at all on
Speaker 1: defense or offense. Really, yeah, I don't know it. It's frustrating, Haley.
Speaker 1: You mentioned it too, like injuries happened around the league.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Bills are the best team in football.
Speaker 1: You referenced their laundry list of injuries. M the charge
Speaker 1: has been hit hard. I mean it's there's no way
Speaker 1: around it. Right. You lose Rashaan Slater, you lose Joey Bosa, Um,
Speaker 1: you lose j C. Jackson at the end of the
Speaker 1: first half and what looked to be a really tough
Speaker 1: knee injury. Yeah, UM, Mike Williams with an ankle injury.
Speaker 1: They didn't look great. UM. Keenan made his return to
Speaker 1: the lineup after not playing since Week one. UM, was
Speaker 1: kind of on a pitch count. Didn't didn't do too
Speaker 1: much to affect the game offensively. Um, you have to
Speaker 1: find ways to win. Um. And depth gets tested for
Speaker 1: all thirty two teams. Um, But two big hits yesterday
Speaker 1: in in j C and potentially Mike. You know, I
Speaker 1: guess we'll know the status of both players maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit more today when Brandon Staley speaks. But both
Speaker 1: injuries didn't look good. J C. Jack is jac Jackson's
Speaker 1: rather in particular. Oh my gosh. I was in that
Speaker 1: corner of the end zone because I was waiting since
Speaker 1: I had to do our halftime presentation. I have never
Speaker 1: been that close to an injury in my life, in
Speaker 1: all my years covering the NFL, because usually obviously we're
Speaker 1: in the press box, I'm never really on the field.
Speaker 1: It was I mean, you saw him essentially go down
Speaker 1: before he even went down. If if you will, like
Speaker 1: hit the ground in that sense, that was harrowing and
Speaker 1: just horrific. It's tough, and I think you know, the
Speaker 1: case with j C. Jackson was we have seen obviously
Speaker 1: games and he was the biggest storyline this past week
Speaker 1: of what happened in the Monday night game getting benched.
Speaker 1: He's going to come out, you know, we had a
Speaker 1: great week of practice and all of that. He's been
Speaker 1: tested obviously throughout the season. But their depth has already
Speaker 1: been tested. And when you lose someone like him, who
Speaker 1: at times you know hasn't played anythink to the standard
Speaker 1: that everyone anticipated him playing at, you're still losing a
Speaker 1: body you know for how long he's going to be out,
Speaker 1: and so your depth has now taken a hit because
Speaker 1: whoever's behind him is going to have to come in,
Speaker 1: and then whoever's behind that person, you know it's going
Speaker 1: to be the backup and whatnot. It's really really tough,
Speaker 1: and I mean, dear Lord, the receiving chord towards the
Speaker 1: end of that game with no Keenan, my goodness, like
Speaker 1: it was just bananas. You know, you knew going in
Speaker 1: you weren't going to have Joshua Palmer, you weren't going
Speaker 1: to have Donald Parham, maybe you were gonna have Keenan,
Speaker 1: and they kind of did, you know, essentially for a
Speaker 1: period of time. But that is really obviously tough because
Speaker 1: it's it's like, who are you throwing too? But that's
Speaker 1: where I feel like I wish the run game was
Speaker 1: more consistent because then you can at least rely on
Speaker 1: that in Austin said it after the game, you know,
Speaker 1: they essentially made us one dimensional. They took it out
Speaker 1: and we had to go to the air and it
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily the best possible thing because the team was
Speaker 1: very battered and banged up in that sense. So you know,
Speaker 1: you hope that obviously Mike's injury isn't extended like an
Speaker 1: extended period of time, and you mentioned Staley speaks to
Speaker 1: two will obviously learn more today. But there are things
Speaker 1: though that they have to overcome and deficiencies that they
Speaker 1: have to overcome. And if your receiving core does take
Speaker 1: a hit like that again, you know, again, it's where
Speaker 1: I'd love to see, like the Run game just kind
Speaker 1: of try to find it stride, try to get worked
Speaker 1: out because you need it. You need it again, these
Speaker 1: these you know, fifty seven attempts against Denver, fifty one
Speaker 1: passing attempts against against Seattle. That's not sustainable in terms
Speaker 1: of trying to actually, you know, put the foot on
Speaker 1: the gas and like throttle these opponents. And you know,
Speaker 1: we say that Justin needs to get the ball down
Speaker 1: the field, war, I think it's also fair to say
Speaker 1: it's difficult to do that too to who right? Uh?
Speaker 1: And I just go back to the Jalen Guiden injury.
Speaker 1: Jalen is the fastest receiver on this team, and he
Speaker 1: at least you know, he was out there to stretch
Speaker 1: the field. You have to respect that speed when he's
Speaker 1: on the field. Um, DeAndre Carter's playing a lot of
Speaker 1: receiver now. And you know, he came into this as
Speaker 1: a specialist and a guy who had showed some flashes
Speaker 1: to be that that wide receiver five. He's played a
Speaker 1: lot of football. Um this first half of the year.
Speaker 1: Palmer has been injured in the concussion parhad with the concussion.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of DeAndre Carter, It's a lot
Speaker 1: of Gerald Everett. And you know, I just I don't
Speaker 1: know what you do, Eric, I mean, hopefully you get
Speaker 1: Keenan one hundred percent going into Atlanta. Hopefully they get
Speaker 1: good news on Mike, because you saw what Justin was
Speaker 1: able to accomplished in twenty twenty one. He had those
Speaker 1: guys out on the field, and you gotta have playmakers
Speaker 1: out there to make plays. Yeah, I had the same
Speaker 1: thought you guys did watching the fourth quarter yesterday after
Speaker 1: Mike went out, like who who are we throwing to
Speaker 1: right now? Because you know, and that's not a dish
Speaker 1: to any of the guys that were on the field,
Speaker 1: It's just not who we expected to be on the field,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're trying to make a comeback like that.
Speaker 1: You know, with Mike out and Keenan out and Palmer out, well,
Speaker 1: that's your top three receivers that are not on the field.
Speaker 1: Guidens out, that's four of your top five. And then
Speaker 1: DeAndre I think we can all agree he probably thrived
Speaker 1: more of the number four or five receiver. And now
Speaker 1: I guess it stands now he'd your number one receiver
Speaker 1: in terms of health, which you say, think going to work,
Speaker 1: you know, and then you're essentially putting you know, Bandy
Speaker 1: and and other guys in there. He had to call
Speaker 1: up from the practic squad. It's just it's just a
Speaker 1: mash unit for that group. And Chris, you asked, like,
Speaker 1: what are we going to do. I think you got
Speaker 1: to hope that guys come back and get healthy, you know.
Speaker 1: But I wonder now about the trade deadline, because that
Speaker 1: is a week from tomorrow, November first, and if Mike
Speaker 1: is gonna myth an extended amount of time and we
Speaker 1: don't know that he will, you know, it didn't look great.
Speaker 1: I wonder if if you have to go add someone.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they will, I'm just putting it out
Speaker 1: there in the thought. Yeah, it's an option because, like
Speaker 1: you know, we don't know, you know, concussion or tricky
Speaker 1: with Palmer, we don't know how long he's gonna be
Speaker 1: out guiding it out for the year Keenan feeling his
Speaker 1: way back. If Mike had the myth, I don't know
Speaker 1: a month or more, you're gonna need bodies there. And
Speaker 1: even if you bring in someone new who maybe doesn't
Speaker 1: know the playbook kind of what Haley menton earlier, it's
Speaker 1: a body. You need someone because right now you're simply
Speaker 1: running out of guys. So let's go to the silver
Speaker 1: lining portion of the program. All right, they're there, they're
Speaker 1: four and three. It's way too early to even think
Speaker 1: about the playoffs, but we'll just do it for this
Speaker 1: purpose that they'd be the seventh seed. Right now, they're
Speaker 1: four and two in the AFC. Right, this was an
Speaker 1: NFC loss. Um, they're two and one in the divisions
Speaker 1: still and there's still a lot of football to go.
Speaker 1: You go into the bye and Haley, you mentioned this schedule.
Speaker 1: Let me just pop up this schedule here. Um, so
Speaker 1: after the bye, you go to Atlanta, who's a tough
Speaker 1: team to play because they're kind of unconventional. You don't
Speaker 1: see them on your schedule every year. Arthur Smith's a
Speaker 1: really good coach that's on the road. Then you go
Speaker 1: and they run the ball exactly. Um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: will cor Darrel Patterson be back for that. That might
Speaker 1: be the game that he could be right, yeah, healthy, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's something to monitor over the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Then you got the forty nine ers, who you know,
Speaker 1: you look at the final score that Chiefs Niners game,
Speaker 1: it was it was closer than that. It really just
Speaker 1: got away from San Francisco in the fourth quarter. Um,
Speaker 1: we know they have a good defense and they just
Speaker 1: got Christian McCaffrey. It'll be at their place. It'll Sunday
Speaker 1: Night football. Then you come back to SOFI for a
Speaker 1: huge game against the Chiefs, and you know that's a
Speaker 1: that's a game where, hey, if you're going to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs, that's where you make a statement. You go
Speaker 1: to Arizona to take on Kyler Murray and the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: After that, DeAndre Hopkins is back. It's never easy against
Speaker 1: the Raiders. That's in Vegas. And then you have three
Speaker 1: teams in the AFC competing for playoffs spots back to
Speaker 1: back to back, home to the Dolphins, home to the Titans,
Speaker 1: who've reeled off fourth straight, and on the road day
Speaker 1: after Christmas, Monday Night football against the Colts. Then you
Speaker 1: come back for the Rams on New Year's Day and
Speaker 1: close with the Broncos. So Haley, It's that's not easy.
Speaker 1: That's not easy. The bike comes in a good time.
Speaker 1: To figure this out. Try to hit the reset. Get
Speaker 1: ready for Atlanta. Yeah, I think ready for Atlanta for sure,
Speaker 1: And I'm going to look ahead as we always do.
Speaker 1: It is so weird to me, and we said this
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season or when the schedule
Speaker 1: came out that the Chargers chief Series is going to
Speaker 1: wrap up? What is that week twelve eleven? I don't
Speaker 1: have the numbers too early for math, too early for math,
Speaker 1: November November. Now I have in front of me that
Speaker 1: that series will get wrapped up by then, would you
Speaker 1: say week eleven? Week eleven? All right, that was closed. Um.
Speaker 1: It's so strange to me that that that's going to
Speaker 1: happen this year because usually though you know, that second
Speaker 1: game is played in like week fifteen, sixteen, fourteen, seventeen,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, that usually that's like the oh, you know,
Speaker 1: the NFL stacks him towards the back of the season.
Speaker 1: But um, I think that game is going to tell
Speaker 1: you a lot. And I think if you can split
Speaker 1: with the Chiefs, fantastic. Um. I think that if they
Speaker 1: come in and beat this Chargers team, that's going to
Speaker 1: be a huge bummer, you know obviously, And I think, um,
Speaker 1: you can't look too far ahead. We obviously always do.
Speaker 1: But I think this this stretch, this three greame stretch,
Speaker 1: as we sort of kind of chunk everything out, um,
Speaker 1: is pretty tough. And to come back from the by
Speaker 1: and then have to hit the road twice. You know, again,
Speaker 1: this is the schedule is so weird. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think there was about a month or so in between,
Speaker 1: you know, three weeks in between home games. You got
Speaker 1: another sort of like month ish stretch in between home
Speaker 1: games of kind of finding that rhythm and playing at
Speaker 1: your place. But um, but it's it's not an easy
Speaker 1: back end. And you saw Tua come back for the
Speaker 1: Dolphins and they won. The Titans won on Sunday. These
Speaker 1: are all teams that are frisky. The good news is
Speaker 1: the AFC is bananas in general. Um, the AFCAS, Chris,
Speaker 1: you and I were talking about this though, that is
Speaker 1: like the sneaky division. Now. I think the the West
Speaker 1: was going to be, I think moved east to the
Speaker 1: AFC East, and that could be the division that really
Speaker 1: puts multiple teams in the playoffs if it doesn't come
Speaker 1: from the West, if you will. But there's a lot
Speaker 1: of tough football that's coming up for this team. And
Speaker 1: that's why the identity question to me is so big,
Speaker 1: because you want to find it, you want to hit
Speaker 1: that stride because you got a lot of really challenging
Speaker 1: games that are coming up on the schedule, no question,
Speaker 1: and Eric, you go, NFC, NFC, NFC. You don't want
Speaker 1: to lose any games, but you prefer to stack those
Speaker 1: AFC wins. For me, it's it's gonna be really important
Speaker 1: for this team to get back on track in Atlanta
Speaker 1: on the road coming off that by because I think
Speaker 1: it'll show us what the bye did for this team
Speaker 1: right off the bat, right. Yeah, for sure. I was
Speaker 1: walking out of the stadium last night talking to them people,
Speaker 1: and you know, we were already kind of looking ahead
Speaker 1: to Atlanta and someone that you know, this person that
Speaker 1: you know, I don't really know what to make of
Speaker 1: the team. I think we can all agree with that.
Speaker 1: But the and A game will tell me a lot,
Speaker 1: just because they'll have a break. You know, they can
Speaker 1: rest up mentally, physically. But you kind of have to
Speaker 1: win that one really because then you go to San
Speaker 1: fran and at home against KC. If you if you
Speaker 1: can't win that Atlanta game, and then you fall to
Speaker 1: five hundred and then you got a bunch of tough
Speaker 1: games coming up, You're you're kind of positioning yourself out
Speaker 1: of the playoff race a little bit in November, and
Speaker 1: that's not the direction you want to go. You obviously
Speaker 1: want to be trending in the right direction. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, a to a tough stretch after the by
Speaker 1: four of the five games are on the road. Um,
Speaker 1: you know to two AFC West games in there. I
Speaker 1: mean if you go what three and two in that
Speaker 1: five game stretch, I think we probably take that and
Speaker 1: just try to stay afloat and keep keep grinding away. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, a lot of eyes are going to be
Speaker 1: on that Atlanta game. You know, like I said, they
Speaker 1: like to run the ball. Maybe by then, you know, um,
Speaker 1: something dramatic will change with the run defense. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll sit down this week and kind of go back
Speaker 1: to the white board and figure it out. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know. Um, I think we all
Speaker 1: just kind of need a breather from this and then yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's time to go and what of that week nine?
Speaker 1: Week nine? Hally, let's just end on this. And I
Speaker 1: think it's a great point by you earlier, like depth
Speaker 1: has been tested now and it's gonna be the guys
Speaker 1: in that locker room right now that have to make
Speaker 1: this happen, right, they have to turn this around. So
Speaker 1: you know, you're not gonna have j C. Jackson. Let's say,
Speaker 1: you know, Joey's been out for Shaun's been out. Whoever's
Speaker 1: in that locker room needs to come together and turn
Speaker 1: this thing around, because you know, trade deadline or not,
Speaker 1: one or two guys, they're not gonna change what's going
Speaker 1: on at this moment um. And they have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to turn this around, but it's gonna take within to
Speaker 1: make it happen. Yeah. I was reading Daniel Popper's takeaways
Speaker 1: last night from The Athletic and he had some quotes
Speaker 1: from Sebastian Joseph Day and SJD talked about an urgency,
Speaker 1: that there is an urgency now for everyone, and he
Speaker 1: goes not just on us, but the urgency that the
Speaker 1: coaches are also putting on us. And so I think
Speaker 1: he's a captain. I believe it was voted one this
Speaker 1: year and it's gonna take some tight, tight knit kind
Speaker 1: of camaraderie to bring this group together. And I think though,
Speaker 1: if you hear someone talking about that, that's what you
Speaker 1: want to hear, right, you want to hear about that urgency.
Speaker 1: You want to hear sort of the recognizing of yeah, shoot,
Speaker 1: we got beat yesterday, and we need to turn this around.
Speaker 1: And he ended it by saying, we've just got to
Speaker 1: ff and pick it up. That's all I gotta tell you.
Speaker 1: It's all I gotta tell you. They got it. They
Speaker 1: got some message right there. Put that on a bumper sticker.
Speaker 1: But um, I think that is what it's going to
Speaker 1: come down to. The eyes that are out are out.
Speaker 1: Like you mentioned it, they're out, and it sucks and
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate, and it has happened before. I've said this
Speaker 1: a couple times on here. In twenty fifteen, they lost,
Speaker 1: dear lord. I mean, I honestly forget that. They had
Speaker 1: the most players on injured reserve in the entire NFL
Speaker 1: that season, and it sucked. But you've got to try
Speaker 1: to pick it up. And if there is that urgency
Speaker 1: within the guys who are healthy and in that locker
Speaker 1: room to do it, you got to have the faith
Speaker 1: that they will. But again, I think that's where something
Speaker 1: like the buy is coming in. It's just the exact
Speaker 1: right time to actually hit the pause button, reset and
Speaker 1: get that urgency going moving forward. Well said, bye week,
Speaker 1: I think everybody needs a bye week right already. For
Speaker 1: the bye week teams. The final drive needs a bye week,
Speaker 1: so we'll be off obviously next week. We'll see in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks after the Charges take on the
Speaker 1: Falcons in Atlanta for Halio would at Eric Smith. I'm
Speaker 1: Chris Harry. This has been the final drive. H