Speaker 1: Black I'm fake throws touchdown and the Ravens take the lead.
Speaker 1: Black Oh throws and his corn and getting into the
Speaker 1: inch all for the touchdowns. Fish Smith account's gonna go
Speaker 1: deep down the field into double dumbers and get it
Speaker 1: picked off in the engine. Flack is gonna go for
Speaker 1: it all. Parraman makes the catch for the touchdown. A
Speaker 1: lot of Ravens highlights in the second half of Thursday
Speaker 1: Nights to seven victory for Baltimore over the Browns. I'm
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal alongside Christopher Westling the Mailman. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: joined by Connie Fox and Mark Sessler to preview all
Speaker 1: the week ten games in just a little bit. But
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's get some business out of the way.
Speaker 1: Talk a little Thursday Night football. Brown's only at a
Speaker 1: hundred and forty four yards in this game, Chris uh
Speaker 1: proving I guess not a surprise. The Ravens defense best
Speaker 1: group in this game. That means they only had thirty
Speaker 1: eight yards in the second half because they were sitting
Speaker 1: at one oh six at halftime, and that was a
Speaker 1: Terrell Sugs show in the second half. He hit well.
Speaker 1: First of all, Cody Kessler got benched right after all
Speaker 1: of the word was Hugh Jackson wanted to see him
Speaker 1: become the quarterback of the future, because there's a week
Speaker 1: college quarterback class. It didn't take long for Hugh Jackson
Speaker 1: to get benched and for Cody Kessler. Terrell Suggs was
Speaker 1: a nightmare for Josh McCown hit him in the arm
Speaker 1: causing the interception and then hit him in the arm
Speaker 1: causing a fumble that the Ravens recovered, and the Browns
Speaker 1: couldn't get anything going in the second half. Well, let's
Speaker 1: start with the quarterback change quickly, because this will be
Speaker 1: a conversation point in number one, the odds on the
Speaker 1: Browns winning this game, no matter who was that quarterback.
Speaker 1: At that point it's thirteen seven. Ravens were slim that
Speaker 1: the Browns have been outscored a hundred fifty one to
Speaker 1: fifty in the second half of these games. And Kessler,
Speaker 1: in six drives, had one drive go further than twenty yards.
Speaker 1: So I didn't think it was that crazy to go
Speaker 1: to m account at that point, try to give a
Speaker 1: spark to your team, but you know the reality is
Speaker 1: is it went worse than you could possibly imagine. His
Speaker 1: five drives interception three and out, which included a fumble interception,
Speaker 1: lost fumble three and out, and Hughes explanation was, I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna sit there and keep watching missed plays, right
Speaker 1: so he he thinks Kessler hasn't pulled the trigger on
Speaker 1: some open plays the last few weeks. He wanted to
Speaker 1: give his team a chance. It didn't work, but Kessler
Speaker 1: is gonna be back there. Hugh confirmed after the game
Speaker 1: he's gonna be the starting quarterback next week. Didn't want
Speaker 1: to promise uh that he'd be the starter. It didn't work.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go crazy about it. We should probably
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about the team that's in
Speaker 1: the mix here. The Ravens are five and four. Did
Speaker 1: we do we learn anything about them tonight? They can
Speaker 1: be a bad team. I don't know that we learned
Speaker 1: much else. It took them way too long to get
Speaker 1: their off it's going. They needed Flacco to convert three
Speaker 1: third downs on a two minute field goal drill just
Speaker 1: to get with him one point of the Browns at halftime.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that promising of a showing for the Ravens,
Speaker 1: and the second half they had a few crossing routes
Speaker 1: they connected on for shop Briman called a circus catching
Speaker 1: the end zone. Other than that, there wasn't a whole
Speaker 1: lot to get excited about. Yeah, in a in a
Speaker 1: matchup of weakness on weakness Ravens offense, Brown's defense. You know,
Speaker 1: that was the best half we've seen from the Browns
Speaker 1: defense and in a long time. Jamie Collins making plays.
Speaker 1: You know, they hold them to a couple of field goals,
Speaker 1: they have a halftime lead. They've had some halftime leads
Speaker 1: this season. I think that does not speak well overall
Speaker 1: for the Ravens offense. I mean, they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: turn it around if they want to win this division. Well,
Speaker 1: they go to Dallas next week, so that's a much
Speaker 1: stiffer test. We'll find out a lot more about them
Speaker 1: then we will. What else we got in this game,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think that's it. One of my
Speaker 1: other take was just a Cody Kessler is a career backup. Well,
Speaker 1: when you see early when you see a sideline pass
Speaker 1: stop in mid air because he just doesn't have the
Speaker 1: arm strength to complete passes outside the numbers. Yeah, unless
Speaker 1: he has one. Unless he's one of these guys whose
Speaker 1: arm strength greatly improves at the NFL level. It seems
Speaker 1: like a backup to me. Yeah, you know that it's
Speaker 1: tough to pick him on that so early in his career. Physically,
Speaker 1: he's not the most talented guy in the in the world.
Speaker 1: There's there's no doubt about that. I was also thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, watching Jamie Collins out there making plays. Um,
Speaker 1: this this Brown's team. I think I know why he
Speaker 1: made the move. On some level, I think it wears
Speaker 1: on you after a while. I mean, I'm sure it does.
Speaker 1: Their own nine. There was a one score game. They're
Speaker 1: starting to look more like you know, and ten team
Speaker 1: as the season wears on. You know, we've talked them
Speaker 1: up a lot for being really competitive, being interesting on offense,
Speaker 1: but that was really the first five six weeks of
Speaker 1: the season, and as the season is going on, I
Speaker 1: think just the weight of not winning any game, it's tough. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the college trade made sense for the Browns,
Speaker 1: and I think I did too. I just think it
Speaker 1: might be tough to keep them if they if they're
Speaker 1: losing these types of games. That's true, but I think
Speaker 1: that Q was trying to win games, and that's why
Speaker 1: you heard his explanation, I'm not gonna sit back and
Speaker 1: watch misplays. I think it's cool that he was looking
Speaker 1: for a spark. Yeah, he wanted to win the game.
Speaker 1: He wanted to it didn't pan out. The Ravens still
Speaker 1: need to get their running game more consistent. But their defense,
Speaker 1: it's a great team defense. You know. It's not superstars everywhere,
Speaker 1: but solid starters throughout the defense. Brandon Williams, Timmy Journey
Speaker 1: and we've talked about it and they're gonna be in
Speaker 1: the mix. Brown's not so much at oh and ten.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about some more interesting games in week ten.
Speaker 1: And for that, I'm gonna send it over to Connie Fox.
Speaker 1: Around the NFL Podcast only deals in mental reps. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: As my name is Colleen Wolf, and I am joined
Speaker 1: by room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Westling, and
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal. What is uh? How's everybody feeling? Hey? Colleen?
Speaker 1: You good? It's been in a crazy couple of days. Yes,
Speaker 1: it has, and we've been fighting for the last twenty
Speaker 1: or thirty minutes in this studio. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: hide that from anyone, so we'll see what happens today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we do have some great news Dan and his
Speaker 1: wife Emily. We want to congratulate them on the birth
Speaker 1: of their son. Still, I still feel a little bad
Speaker 1: about giving away the name, though, I feel like he
Speaker 1: should unvail. He gave the green light. I mean, we
Speaker 1: texted him and said, please, don't let us steal this
Speaker 1: with this seems more like Dan's announcement than ours in theory,
Speaker 1: and he said, go with it. So you fine, a happy,
Speaker 1: healthy baby boy, you know, doing great. Maybe we will
Speaker 1: save it for Sunday night. I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: I think you guys should I think we should spoiler
Speaker 1: alert it's not Roscoe hands. Should we save it? I
Speaker 1: like that, it's not La Gary didn't. Well, none of
Speaker 1: our suggestions. We're taking it all. Frankly, Dan, Dan is
Speaker 1: lucky that we're We're all still so complementary of him
Speaker 1: after he just disregarded our our name choices. Well, he
Speaker 1: wasn't the only person involved in the in the selection,
Speaker 1: and I think it hit a hard wall when he
Speaker 1: got to the home front. And then that makes sense
Speaker 1: because they were semi insane. Our suggestions, well, I like them,
Speaker 1: you know, what I think we should leave the name
Speaker 1: for him on Sunday like that. That's what's called the tea. Yes,
Speaker 1: so you guys just heard the Thursday night recap of
Speaker 1: the Ravens and the Browns with uh you two right,
Speaker 1: West and Greg. This is an audio medium, Colleen, so
Speaker 1: does not work? Is that what you're saying? All right, Well,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of games to get to. We're
Speaker 1: gonna preview all the week, all the week ten games.
Speaker 1: There's thirteen of them. I did the math ahead of time.
Speaker 1: I'm also not good at math like Dan. So let's
Speaker 1: get right into them, guys. Ready, let's start with Kansas
Speaker 1: City and Carolina. The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for
Speaker 1: their fifth straight win this week as they head to Carolina.
Speaker 1: Alex Smith should be back as the quarterback, and Justin
Speaker 1: Houston was activated to the roster yesterday. While the Panthers
Speaker 1: defense has looked much better over the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: West the offense continues to struggle. What's up with that? Well,
Speaker 1: they left three points on the board last week with
Speaker 1: a missed field goal. But I think it's surprising to
Speaker 1: people who would have thought that Michael Or would be
Speaker 1: the key to their past protection. He's been out since
Speaker 1: Week three with a concussion. Cam Newton has forty eight
Speaker 1: hits in seven games this year. He had fifty nine
Speaker 1: and sixteen games last year, which means he's on pace
Speaker 1: to almost double the amount of hits he's taken. And
Speaker 1: and I think Greg mentioned this that against the Rams
Speaker 1: last week, the offensive line did not hold up well
Speaker 1: at all. That's to be expected against the Rams. Really
Speaker 1: good defensive front. Chiefs are getting stronger to d Ford's
Speaker 1: been on fire, and now Justin Houston might be making
Speaker 1: his two thousand sixteen debut. But they're line was so bad.
Speaker 1: I know it was the Rams, but it was so
Speaker 1: bad that you're gonna lose that game nine times I'd attend.
Speaker 1: You know, thankfully you're facing the Rams who don't have
Speaker 1: an offense. Your defensive line is playing great. But this
Speaker 1: is why Cam Newton he only has nine touchdowns six
Speaker 1: interceptions this year. He's played a lot better than the
Speaker 1: numbers indicate because he's had a lot of throws. They
Speaker 1: asked him to make tough pro deep outs, not a
Speaker 1: lot of easy passes, and so many times he's under
Speaker 1: pressure when he's throwing. Yeah, and I mean we we
Speaker 1: thought that Kelvin Benjamin with him back. I I wrote
Speaker 1: summertime articles thinking that Devin Fungus was just gonna blow
Speaker 1: up this season. He's relatively ghost like in this offense.
Speaker 1: They don't have a touchdown to a wide receiver since
Speaker 1: Week five, and I do think it shows in Cam
Speaker 1: Newton's play and psyche during some of these games that
Speaker 1: he is getting battered. I mean, compared to last year.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons you go fifteen and one is
Speaker 1: because the m v P was protected from wire to wire.
Speaker 1: That's not been the case this season. Cam Newton, he
Speaker 1: was sacked five times last week. But I wonder if
Speaker 1: they're going to try and run the ball at all,
Speaker 1: because you can run against Kansas City, So Jonathan Stewart
Speaker 1: he might have a good matchup. If he can get going,
Speaker 1: then Cam at least might be able to scramble and
Speaker 1: pick up a couple of yards too, so they can
Speaker 1: move the ball. They might have to because Kansas City
Speaker 1: has done a very good job against tight ends as well.
Speaker 1: And if you find a way to reduce or take
Speaker 1: Greg Olsen out of this game to some degree, your
Speaker 1: offense is completely different. This guy isn't following. They're averaging
Speaker 1: more yards per game than they did last year when
Speaker 1: they were fifteen and one. That's surprised. Isn't surprising though
Speaker 1: to the eye the eye to hear that it is.
Speaker 1: And they haven't beaten a team with a winning record
Speaker 1: all season. I don't think it's shocking because I don't
Speaker 1: think for the most of the season the offense has
Speaker 1: been the problem. Hasn't been the solution either, but it
Speaker 1: hasn't been the problem. The defense has been the problem.
Speaker 1: That's why they have to feel so good coming out
Speaker 1: of the bye that Kwan Short and Charles Johnson have
Speaker 1: played right start to has played like they play aid
Speaker 1: in that Super Bowl run, because that's their chance. They
Speaker 1: gotta win this game, by the way, I mean, they
Speaker 1: don't have much. I mean, we can say nice things
Speaker 1: about the Panthers and there's still a lot of the
Speaker 1: same players obviously from last year's team, but do we
Speaker 1: trust this team to go on what they're need. They're
Speaker 1: gonna need to win like five six out of the
Speaker 1: next seven games, no question, to even be alive in
Speaker 1: this thing. And they're not great against teams with good
Speaker 1: pass rushes either, and the Chiefs they look good. Their
Speaker 1: pass rushers have been playing really well. He's been playing
Speaker 1: so much better than I expected him to play. GAM's
Speaker 1: old teammate. I mean he's reached Uh, he's reached the
Speaker 1: point his teammate in college, right right, Uh, you know
Speaker 1: he can remember college. It's true. He's reached the point
Speaker 1: where he makes an impact every week. That's like the
Speaker 1: sign of And we go from one Chiefs game preview
Speaker 1: or review to the next, and they're typically the second
Speaker 1: team we talk about over and over, and they are
Speaker 1: six and two, and I don't think it's a fluke
Speaker 1: in the regular season. I don't see them as some
Speaker 1: sort of super Bowl team, but their record over under
Speaker 1: Andy Reid over the past couple of years is phenomenal.
Speaker 1: In the regular season. They have some comparisons to the
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen Panthers in this sense. They lead the
Speaker 1: NFL with twenty takeaways on defense, and they don't turn
Speaker 1: the ball over on offense. That was the Panthers formula
Speaker 1: last year. This is an opportunistic defense. They also I
Speaker 1: was thinking about when I was watching their game last
Speaker 1: week against Jacksonville, which they easily could have lost, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking, who's the defensive backs coach for this
Speaker 1: Chiefs team. Because Eric Barry is great, obviously, he's talented.
Speaker 1: Marcus Peter is great, obviously, very talented. But they have
Speaker 1: guys pop up every week. You mentioned in our podcast,
Speaker 1: you know, to end that game Steven Nelson with the
Speaker 1: big game. They had Daniel Sorenson practically win a game
Speaker 1: for them, so they know how to coach up past defense.
Speaker 1: Sorenson is playing that day on Buchanan Money Linebacker Rule
Speaker 1: as a safety linebacker hybrid. And he's been good for
Speaker 1: a month now. Emmett Thomas, he's been he's been doing
Speaker 1: it for a while. A great player in his own right.
Speaker 1: Defensive backs coach wanted to give a little and I
Speaker 1: we're talking too much about the child. By the way,
Speaker 1: is that a new shirt? This is new? Yeah? That
Speaker 1: is that a shirt? Or it looks like a little
Speaker 1: house on the prairie, like long sleeve underwear type of
Speaker 1: you don't even know what it is. It's I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's all same dimensional. That looks familiar. Did my paramore
Speaker 1: buy that for you? That would be a disturbing step
Speaker 1: in our relationship by and hers, Yes, uh for West.
Speaker 1: I would think if we're going shopping together. But no, no,
Speaker 1: my wife. Guy West is a confident guy. I don't
Speaker 1: think we'd shake him at all. We are called up right,
Speaker 1: we are we have We are born on the same day,
Speaker 1: West and Night, so we have the same sign. So
Speaker 1: on some level it would make sense if me and
Speaker 1: his paramore at least that we vibed very similar people.
Speaker 1: You and West, you definitely need a celebration every year
Speaker 1: for the birth of yourselves. And I know that's called
Speaker 1: a birthday, but a joint birthday, the two of us
Speaker 1: and Roger Goodell, Oh my god, happy family. All right.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to Houston and Jacksonville, a big a
Speaker 1: FC South rivalry game. Fresh off the by the five
Speaker 1: and three, Houston Texans try to keep their lead in
Speaker 1: the division as they travel to Jacksonville to face Chris
Speaker 1: Ivory and the Jags. Mark Sesler. Everything that we feared
Speaker 1: could happen with the ANFC South is happening all over again,
Speaker 1: because they're gonna hoist up an undeserving playoff entry into
Speaker 1: a pumped up record that they don't deserve. Houston, assuming
Speaker 1: they win this game against Jacksonville, which is not a
Speaker 1: tall order, are currently the third ranked seat in the
Speaker 1: a f C and they're about to go six and three,
Speaker 1: and it is most the most underwhelming, undeserving six and
Speaker 1: three record that I can remember in the NFL, because
Speaker 1: everything that we thought would be an improvement about the
Speaker 1: Texans this year, specifically on offense, has been the office
Speaker 1: the opposite. They are one of the most unwatchable teams
Speaker 1: on offense. It begins right with the quarterback. People watching
Speaker 1: the clip right here, saw that passed by Brock Osweiler.
Speaker 1: That's about a third of his passes right there. These
Speaker 1: wobblers and the fact that Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer
Speaker 1: can have the kind of chemistry they did last year
Speaker 1: with DeAndre Hopkins, and to see what is happening with
Speaker 1: a seventy million dollar quarterback in DeAndre Hopkins right now
Speaker 1: is unbelievable and it's a stigma on this organization. DeAndre Hopkins,
Speaker 1: this is criminal. Is the lowest ranked wide receiver in
Speaker 1: the NFL and passer rating forty four passer rating on
Speaker 1: throws to DeAndre Hopkins, and he is the best contortionist,
Speaker 1: boundary receiver at the catchpoint receiver in the NFL, which
Speaker 1: tells you what you need to know about the quarter
Speaker 1: and it was last year with Brian Hoyer and Mallet
Speaker 1: towards Hopkins. Mark, Yeah, you're you're an emotional guy like you.
Speaker 1: You you'd like to make statements on emotions. You say
Speaker 1: it's the worst team that you can remember as a
Speaker 1: winning team, six and three team. What do you We've
Speaker 1: already given them their sixth Well, what do you think
Speaker 1: about metrics? You know, advanced statistics, stuff like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've factored that into some of my opinions. I've got
Speaker 1: a statistic here that supports what you say. The Football
Speaker 1: Outsiders says the Texans are the single worst team they've
Speaker 1: ever recorded to have a winning record this late in
Speaker 1: the seasons. Passed the eye test. But I think we
Speaker 1: all knew it. I mean, we've seen this in you
Speaker 1: know this. This has been blossoming all season long. It's true.
Speaker 1: Brock Oswiler, he desperately needs to be better in the
Speaker 1: red zone on third down, He needs to take better
Speaker 1: care of the d line thirty yard line. For their
Speaker 1: last game, which they're coming off of a bye. But
Speaker 1: the last game that they played, they beat the Lions,
Speaker 1: they didn't have three hundred yards of offense against the Lions,
Speaker 1: which is a really bad performance. And I watched that thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: he had an okay PF square, like, okay, he's gonna
Speaker 1: have a good game. He had some throws in the
Speaker 1: game that he missed by fifteen yards. All of this
Speaker 1: doom and gloom for the Texans, and we didn't bet
Speaker 1: an eye when Mark just handed them their six winning
Speaker 1: the season. Because the Jaguars are broken. Because their quarterback
Speaker 1: is holding the team hostage and their coach refuses to
Speaker 1: bench him. They can't move the ball the entire first
Speaker 1: half of every single game for the past month. Nathaniel
Speaker 1: Hackett's not going to be able to change anything. Their
Speaker 1: new offensive quarterings, Chris Ivory, looked the best he's looked
Speaker 1: all season. Well, we agreed with you, but let me
Speaker 1: see that over the course of three or four weeks.
Speaker 1: I there's nothing about this offense that is sustainable from
Speaker 1: one week to the next outside of its flaws. It
Speaker 1: wouldn't shock me, though, if the Jaguars win this game,
Speaker 1: because the Texans are a different defense at home I
Speaker 1: mean on the road than they are at home. They
Speaker 1: are shut down one of the best defense in the
Speaker 1: league at home, on the road, maybe not so much.
Speaker 1: But for the Jags before we move on, I do
Speaker 1: want to see some of their their guys we were
Speaker 1: excited about on defense. Also, step up makes some plays.
Speaker 1: Like Malik Jackson has been very quiet this season. He
Speaker 1: he doesn't really play that many snaps for a guy
Speaker 1: that makes that much money. Dante Fowler, we thought he's
Speaker 1: gonna have a good, big impact. Maybe those guys win
Speaker 1: a game for him. Jalen Ramsey hasn't been quiet, but
Speaker 1: he's he's fun. I like him a lot. But I mean,
Speaker 1: if you want to point to why this coaching staff
Speaker 1: has failed, it's it's it's honestly more de fense because
Speaker 1: this is what they were built to do. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get the young players and build it. And their defense
Speaker 1: is the same. The same issues they had last year
Speaker 1: are still present, same defense, same old story. By the
Speaker 1: way West was saying, you know, I can say this
Speaker 1: right you, you've been a little depressed the last few days.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's true of a lot of Americans.
Speaker 1: What a few people are emotional, whether they're happy or
Speaker 1: grieving or not feeling anything inside because they're dead. Um,
Speaker 1: I've only gotten out of bed to come to work.
Speaker 1: They what if you found out though? As a pick
Speaker 1: me up? You know every Sunday we're assigned a solo game.
Speaker 1: You know early in you know, in the ten am
Speaker 1: hour that you get Houston Jacksonville as your game. Like
Speaker 1: that for you that could turn walk out the door
Speaker 1: and walk right into the Pacific Ocean. Call it a life.
Speaker 1: We're doing well here, it's good. Okay, let's move on
Speaker 1: Denver and New Orleans. Drew Brees leads the NFL and
Speaker 1: passing yards per game. But will we see more from
Speaker 1: marketing room and Tim high Tower this week? Is they
Speaker 1: welcome in the Denver Broncos who shaky run defense? Greg
Speaker 1: is allowing one twenty eight rushing yards per game. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's see, That's why it's not just uh last week
Speaker 1: against the Raiders problem. It started before that. I think
Speaker 1: they've given up a hundred and sixty on average the
Speaker 1: last three. Derek Wolfe's gonna miss this game, keep to
Speaker 1: leave is expected to be out again. And and you
Speaker 1: said it that the Saints are the last team you
Speaker 1: want to play if you can't get off the field
Speaker 1: on defense, because they are getting really good at those long,
Speaker 1: slow drives. They have the best numbers in short yardage
Speaker 1: of any team in the league. That's high tower, that's Ingram,
Speaker 1: But it's also a lot of two yard passes that
Speaker 1: you can't stop to Michael Thomas or Willie Sneid or
Speaker 1: any number of guys. Your old boy Josh Hill making
Speaker 1: some plays. Yeah, I wouldn't call Josh Hill my boy,
Speaker 1: but I'm happy to see his progress. I you know,
Speaker 1: we did a hit for NFL Network and we all
Speaker 1: picked the same team to win this game. And who
Speaker 1: would have thought five six weeks ago that we all
Speaker 1: would have picked the New Orleans S to knock go
Speaker 1: off the Super Bowl champs. We all did. By the way,
Speaker 1: you mentioned the NFL Network show, we should plug this
Speaker 1: show with the pick Um Show. Colleen's with us this week.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's on three times every Saturday, NFL Pick Him.
Speaker 1: Set your DVRs. We need some ratings people. We need
Speaker 1: him from you, our listeners. What are those times? They
Speaker 1: are all sorts of times. West We'll get It's not
Speaker 1: a miracle worker. I'm not prepared, but I'll tell you
Speaker 1: later in the show. Oh that's a nice tease. I
Speaker 1: like that. Uh, do we want to touch on anything
Speaker 1: else in this game. Thomas Emmanuel Sanders, I need to
Speaker 1: petition Greg to move Drew Bees. Drew Brees into his
Speaker 1: top tier on the c QB Index. He's been as
Speaker 1: good as any quarterback this year, and he seems to
Speaker 1: get better every week. You look up and he's thirty
Speaker 1: seven and forty eight. He has almost the same line
Speaker 1: every week, forty yards. I have him as the number three. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm just defending myself. I do have a number three,
Speaker 1: and listen, I haven't allowed a three yard passer all
Speaker 1: year the Broncos, so if it happens this week, he
Speaker 1: might need a little bit higher. It's is a it's
Speaker 1: a test for Trevor Simeon. It sounds weird facing the
Speaker 1: Saints that anything's a test, but he's got a show
Speaker 1: and they have to show that they can get into
Speaker 1: a shootout because if you can't, if you can't roll
Speaker 1: up thirty points on the Saints, it's not gonna It's
Speaker 1: never gonna happen. And the problem is with Denver. It's
Speaker 1: what you love is to have your defense in an
Speaker 1: offense that could run the ball and keep Drew Brees
Speaker 1: off the field. We're not seeing an offense that can
Speaker 1: stay on the field at all because they can't run
Speaker 1: the ball post C. J. Anderson, and they've got a
Speaker 1: huge issue when all the pressure is being put on
Speaker 1: what is a third tier, fourth tier type game manager
Speaker 1: quarterback who has a bad offensive line. That's that's the
Speaker 1: I think Gary Kubiak he must be really disappointed because
Speaker 1: he's putting so much on Simeon. He's asking him to
Speaker 1: go deep. They're a past first offense every week. But
Speaker 1: I think it's because he knows they don't have a
Speaker 1: running game and they don't really have a line either.
Speaker 1: Trevor has just been so inconsistent and it just seems
Speaker 1: like there they struggle so much to pick up a
Speaker 1: first down on every single possession. But it reminds me
Speaker 1: of the Rams to some degree. No, Kenny veakr al
Speaker 1: right to spend it. Well, he's not. We don't know,
Speaker 1: you've seen a suspension. He's appealing it. So it's list
Speaker 1: this late in the week. It sounds like he would
Speaker 1: probably play this week and be suspended later, but that
Speaker 1: is would be another huge loss. He's having his best season,
Speaker 1: he's playing well. Another former making the leap. Guess true,
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the Rams and the Jets. The
Speaker 1: three and five Rams visiting the three and six Jets,
Speaker 1: and then let's see the backup quarterback Bowl Mark. The
Speaker 1: Rams have Case Keenom trying to help them avoid a
Speaker 1: fifth straight loss against Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has been limited
Speaker 1: with a nice brain. So maybe there's a possibility we
Speaker 1: might see some Bryce Petty again. I think it's very possible.
Speaker 1: I I was looking at this game before this show
Speaker 1: and wondering to myself, which of these two rosters I
Speaker 1: would rather start with right now, and it's it's interesting
Speaker 1: that one of these teams was a ten and six
Speaker 1: team last year, and I really struggled with the answer.
Speaker 1: I didn't come up with the Rams, give me the
Speaker 1: roster with Todd Gurley and Aaron Donald. It's easily the Rams.
Speaker 1: But I also want to see that before you hand
Speaker 1: out a massive extension to Tavon Austin, that you have
Speaker 1: a player that can actually fulfill his potential, and before
Speaker 1: you take a quarterback number one, that there's some hint
Speaker 1: that he's developing. It's too early to to to judge
Speaker 1: Jared Goff, but it's not too early to look at
Speaker 1: the Rams coaching staff and say there are issues with
Speaker 1: the your ability to develop players on offense defense. I
Speaker 1: get it. On offense. This has been a problem through
Speaker 1: in Jeff Fisher's entire reign. I felt so bad for
Speaker 1: Todd Gurley when I watched the Panthers game and they
Speaker 1: need to put him in the wildcat or swing a
Speaker 1: pass out to him in order for him to find
Speaker 1: any open spaces whatsoever. There are no spaces when he
Speaker 1: runs the ball, and then he's not even on the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're down. They're not even using him at the end anymore,
Speaker 1: at the end of the game in hurry up. But
Speaker 1: that there was the same in London. When they get
Speaker 1: into the hurry up they go Benny Cunningham. But I guess,
Speaker 1: I guess what's the difference. Well, the other factor is
Speaker 1: he hasn't practiced this week with a thigh injury, so
Speaker 1: who knows if he's even gonna play against It's tough
Speaker 1: to run against the Jets anyway. Plus they're having all
Speaker 1: of these this drama with Mohammed Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson,
Speaker 1: who they benched last week in the first quarter, Moniche
Speaker 1: Meta going hard at Mohammed Will I mean he's mohammed.
Speaker 1: Wilkerson's taking a lot of here. I mean, Dan questioned
Speaker 1: him as if he's the guy that you want as
Speaker 1: as a leader. And yet do you what, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can't pick this game. By the way, this is
Speaker 1: a weird one too, because the Jets offensive line is
Speaker 1: so banged up and then you have the Rams front
Speaker 1: coming in, so it's like, whoever is the quarterback is
Speaker 1: obviously gonna get hit a lot. This is another one
Speaker 1: that I would say. You know that we don't assigned
Speaker 1: to West early Sunday because out of the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 1: How much do you like your friend? Would you like
Speaker 1: me to hang around for more years? Well, that's my point,
Speaker 1: thinks I don't want to lose. We could just all go.
Speaker 1: We could just all go into the Pacific Ocean. Since, yeah,
Speaker 1: Heaven's gate typic more. I'll provide the track suits. It's
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I signed up for for this thing
Speaker 1: you're discussing. Yeah, not quite yet. Let's see what happens
Speaker 1: with Brown's Ravens, which you've already proved given the result
Speaker 1: to on this show. Okay, how about the Packers and
Speaker 1: the Titans? The four and four Packers taking on the
Speaker 1: four and five Titans. So many teams with only four
Speaker 1: wins in this league right now? Well, welcome to one
Speaker 1: of the murkiest regular seasons of our lifetime. Wow. Alright,
Speaker 1: So both of these teams are fighting to take a
Speaker 1: division lead, by the way, with those four wins, green
Speaker 1: Bay a game back from Minnesota and the NFC North
Speaker 1: and Tennessee a game and a half back from the
Speaker 1: Texans in the a f C South. The Packers they
Speaker 1: haven't been able to run the ball lately, but they
Speaker 1: have managed to stuff opposing runs. So how much will
Speaker 1: that slow down the Titans in their offense this week?
Speaker 1: Nobody slows down the Titans running game. They've scored twenty
Speaker 1: six points or more in each of the last five games,
Speaker 1: and this has sneaky shootout potential. We keep talking about
Speaker 1: the Packers offense like it's a broken offense. They're averaging
Speaker 1: points yards over the last three weeks. Meanwhile, their defense
Speaker 1: has been the issue, allowing almost thirty points per game.
Speaker 1: I think we could see uh something like we saw
Speaker 1: in San Diego last week a shootout, but it's been underrated.
Speaker 1: How that they lost their top three cornerbacks and then
Speaker 1: they get one back and another one gets hurt. I mean,
Speaker 1: most teams they lose their top three cornerbacks, they lose
Speaker 1: Clay Matthews. It's got to make a pretty big impact. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we we just talked about an ANFC
Speaker 1: South team, a leader in the clubhouse in NFC South
Speaker 1: that we don't believe in really at all. I would
Speaker 1: much rather see the Titans make a run. And they're
Speaker 1: not a fluke on offense. They sit just behind the
Speaker 1: Patriots right now over the past five weeks in terms
Speaker 1: of what they're putting out in terms of touchdowns and
Speaker 1: four plus a game. Marcus Mariota had some backbreaking turnovers,
Speaker 1: but was otherwise absolutely electric last week. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is I if I want to believe in one team,
Speaker 1: and it might it might come right down to the
Speaker 1: last week. It's the Titans in this division. I think
Speaker 1: that they were built in a way that's more fun
Speaker 1: to watch personally. They're a tougher team than a lot
Speaker 1: of the other teams. Oh my god. You know, but
Speaker 1: don't even try to open that door again. West Uh,
Speaker 1: You're right about Mariota. Even though he made those big mistakes,
Speaker 1: it was more like a Jamis Winston game with with
Speaker 1: big high and big lows. No, no, all I mean
Speaker 1: is putting Winston on Mariota's level. They've been pretty similar
Speaker 1: levels this year. But my point is I like that
Speaker 1: he's opened things up the last few weeks. He's going
Speaker 1: for more, he's running more, They're pushing it down the field. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: I think he's playing a lot better the last five weeks,
Speaker 1: and I think that's gonna lead to good things. Playing
Speaker 1: better than Aaron Rodgers the last five weeks. He has
Speaker 1: a one eleven point eight passer rating. Rodgers is in
Speaker 1: the nineties. He's so good in the red zone too.
Speaker 1: It's almost like every time he gets into the red zone,
Speaker 1: you feel like something good is going to happen. Plus,
Speaker 1: the Packers do not defend tight ends well, so Delaney
Speaker 1: Walker there should be a good game for him too.
Speaker 1: I am so impressed with the collective knowledge of tight
Speaker 1: end defense in this room. It's true, we're really that's
Speaker 1: a shot coming from West by the best. Yes it is.
Speaker 1: But by the way, unless you've already seen this in
Speaker 1: our illustrious research packet, want to do a little Titans
Speaker 1: trivia question, going hard on the research packet. Well, Mariota
Speaker 1: multiple touchdown passes in five straight games. It's the longest
Speaker 1: streak by a Titans quarterback since which quarterback in which season?
Speaker 1: Carrie Collins in two thousand five? Was that? What was it?
Speaker 1: I'd give you a plus minus on the year, but
Speaker 1: you're wrong on the quarterback. Okay, I don't even remember
Speaker 1: the questions. I just remember that great Carrie Collins here.
Speaker 1: Remember that multiple TV passes five straight waitings from Mariota.
Speaker 1: The last Titans quarterback to do this Dave McNair two
Speaker 1: thousand three. Good guess I would have gone McNair. It
Speaker 1: is Billy Volick two thousand four. I totally would have
Speaker 1: had that one. I mean, who was the wide receiver
Speaker 1: he was throwing passes? Drew Bennett? You're Bennett. They were
Speaker 1: fantasy football man stretch. They won me some cash that
Speaker 1: I used to spend back in your troubling on an engagement,
Speaker 1: uh to a trip to visit my friend Dave, and
Speaker 1: on that friend I met my wife. Partly responsible questionable?
Speaker 1: What does that even mean? On my friend I met
Speaker 1: my wife. I'm I'm trying to figure out what we're
Speaker 1: not doing phrasing anymore. But a nice story. That was
Speaker 1: really beautiful. Okay, let's move on the Falcons and the Eagles.
Speaker 1: Eagles return home after back to back divisional losses to
Speaker 1: host the scariest offense in the league. The Falcons are
Speaker 1: averaging thirty four points a game, led by Matt Ryan,
Speaker 1: who grew up right down the road for me guys.
Speaker 1: So now he's back in Philly. Greg, can the Eagle
Speaker 1: slow down this wrecking crew? I don't think so. Wait,
Speaker 1: were you and Matt Ryan buddy's growing up. No, he
Speaker 1: was like an extent I was in making. We were.
Speaker 1: We were born the same year, but we grew up
Speaker 1: in towns that were like near each Did you not
Speaker 1: read like local sports page action about him, like lighting
Speaker 1: up area defenses? Yeah all the time you'd being serious
Speaker 1: or yeah, so interesting. Did you ever interview him as
Speaker 1: like a high school reporter? You know? No, that never happened.
Speaker 1: I never got the big interview with Matt Ryan, and
Speaker 1: so very anti climact. He doesn't totally pay off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a reunion of sorts? What were we talking about? I
Speaker 1: don't know, I forget everything. The Eagles defense is great upfront,
Speaker 1: but last week I think you saw the weaknesses Leodis
Speaker 1: McKelvin is not a hundred percent right now. And when
Speaker 1: Leodis McKelvin is your number one cornerback in theory and
Speaker 1: he's not, that's a big, pretty big problem when you're
Speaker 1: about to face the Falcons, it's very scary. The corners
Speaker 1: can be picked apart. If they can get good sure
Speaker 1: on Matt Ryan, then that helps. But I'm not optimal,
Speaker 1: But that's a it's a great offensive line. He gets
Speaker 1: rid of the ball quickly. You know, they're a tough
Speaker 1: matchup for everyone. It's not like they're a tough matchup
Speaker 1: just for the It doesn't matter who they play. And
Speaker 1: the Eagles have gotten really good safety play out of
Speaker 1: McLeod and Jenkins this year. But they're coming off a
Speaker 1: bad game too. They can only do so much. This
Speaker 1: Falcon offense is getting healthier to Mohammed Sanu had one
Speaker 1: of his best games of the season last week after
Speaker 1: he had battled through injuries for a while. Tavin Coleman
Speaker 1: has a chance to play this week with a hamstring injury.
Speaker 1: Those are two of the top four or five weapons
Speaker 1: on offense. Yeah, they talk about the Falcons right now,
Speaker 1: averaging six point eight yards per play. That's insane, Like
Speaker 1: that's video game level offense. And you have to go
Speaker 1: back to the two thousand rams to find a team
Speaker 1: that had a better yards per play figure. I mean
Speaker 1: that shows you they've been in every one of these
Speaker 1: games because their offense has been electra. They you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of teams just rip off, you know, five
Speaker 1: yard plays and it looks routine. They rip off twenty
Speaker 1: yard plays that just look seen. Just he can't you know,
Speaker 1: Ryan goes back there, he throws a slant and it's
Speaker 1: an eighteen yard game. It's just like that's just a
Speaker 1: that's like a three yard run for them. That's how
Speaker 1: It's how I envisioned the Steelers offense would this year,
Speaker 1: but they're not. It's how the Steelers have been when
Speaker 1: and they're very inconsistent, even in some of their better
Speaker 1: years when they hit that peak two or three week
Speaker 1: period where we all think this Spittsburgh team is a
Speaker 1: super Bowl team. But the Falcons have been doing it
Speaker 1: every single week. And whether it's at home all these
Speaker 1: other teams, he's home road splits. They've gone into Seattle
Speaker 1: and score points. It doesn't matter where they are. Here's
Speaker 1: the Julio Jones effect. The Falcons have four players averaging
Speaker 1: over seventeen yards per reception including him. The other three
Speaker 1: are one running back in two tight ends. That means
Speaker 1: they're getting wide open because Julio Jones is getting so
Speaker 1: much coming and because Kyle Shanahan's gonna get a head
Speaker 1: coaching job because he's doing such a great job. Although
Speaker 1: I still wouldn't discount the Eagles chances in this game,
Speaker 1: I feel like the Eagles are good enough to beat anyone.
Speaker 1: I know they're four and four, but they're an unlucky
Speaker 1: for and for. They won their four games by a
Speaker 1: combined seventy US points. They've lost their four by a
Speaker 1: combined nineteen points, I believe. And Carson Wentz has played
Speaker 1: pretty poor two of the last three games, but he
Speaker 1: also made some great throws last week against Do we
Speaker 1: need another big play from Bryce Treggs hang around in
Speaker 1: this game? Well, I mean because they had to find
Speaker 1: they had to go down to players that had not
Speaker 1: been plane to find any sort of downfield element to
Speaker 1: their passenger. Yeah. I was looking at their depth chart
Speaker 1: last week and when they got rid of Hoff, basically
Speaker 1: it was just Tregg's and I'm like, who is who
Speaker 1: is this? Even they had four receivers on the roster
Speaker 1: and they also have Lane Johnson suspended, so that's not
Speaker 1: helping things at all. Carson Wentz, I feel like I
Speaker 1: can see a total difference in the way that they're
Speaker 1: playing because they have liabilities up front, and even if
Speaker 1: the blocking is not on the line, it's with the
Speaker 1: tight ends and it's just not the way that it
Speaker 1: was with Lane in the lineup. And you have to
Speaker 1: go to Darren Sprowls as your primary runner, and he's
Speaker 1: doing a pretty good job with it, but I still
Speaker 1: don't love inside runs by Darren Sprawls on two key
Speaker 1: short yardage situations last week. It just seems people are
Speaker 1: talking about I saw tweets about how Ryan Matthews has
Speaker 1: been relevant from a fantasy perspective because he has at
Speaker 1: a touchdown in three straight games, but he's seen eight
Speaker 1: ten snaps per game, and they continue to talk about
Speaker 1: him as our lead running back. Just stop stop saying
Speaker 1: that we don't need to You don't need to announce
Speaker 1: the lead running back when you're not going to use
Speaker 1: him that way for a month straight. Yeah, and this
Speaker 1: happened last year too, that we saw Darren Sprawls being
Speaker 1: productive in sort of flashes, and it's always like, well,
Speaker 1: what's going on with Sprowls and who's the lead back here?
Speaker 1: And I don't know if Sprowls is underrated or if
Speaker 1: every single situation that they're putting their lead back in
Speaker 1: air quotes is just not the right one for that player. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can ask him to touch the
Speaker 1: ball twenty times game and do punt returns. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can run inside. What is your feeling since you know
Speaker 1: we have you here, which is great, Colleen, You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of the state of the Eagles fandom. How
Speaker 1: are you feeling about the team? I'm not great? And
Speaker 1: how about Wentz? The idea of Wentz in the future
Speaker 1: of wins because it all started out so nice when
Speaker 1: my expectations were not nearly as high as what was
Speaker 1: delivered to me, and so I've been on a roller
Speaker 1: coaster of sorts. I started with I don't know what
Speaker 1: this is going to be. They got to throw Carson
Speaker 1: Wentz out there, he's not supposed to be out there,
Speaker 1: and then oh my god, it was great and he
Speaker 1: was playing so well and he doesn't look like a
Speaker 1: rookie and look at him and Dac and now it
Speaker 1: is not like that at all. The Cowboys have seven wins.
Speaker 1: The Eagles lost to the Giants and the Cowboys, and
Speaker 1: now they have to host the Falcons. They're in they're
Speaker 1: in trouble this year. That Cowboys game, we said at
Speaker 1: the time that was a fork in the road game, right,
Speaker 1: that was the would fork in the road game, because
Speaker 1: their season would feel so much different if they closed
Speaker 1: that game out like like they should have. If Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott was on the Eagles, I think, you know, the
Speaker 1: same sort of things would be happening to him that
Speaker 1: are happening to Carson Wentz. It's the situation I look
Speaker 1: at this different thing you. I think you're the only
Speaker 1: person I know who expected them to be good this
Speaker 1: year like this is They've got enough good things going
Speaker 1: well for them that they can build on it. I
Speaker 1: didn't expect them to have something. There's somehow the number
Speaker 1: one team still in football outsiders is having to like
Speaker 1: explain how this every week they're still the number one team.
Speaker 1: That Steelers win and there's another win and they're packed
Speaker 1: in I believe that. Well, they have the number one
Speaker 1: defense according to them, and the number one special teams
Speaker 1: and and to a point that's been like a narrative,
Speaker 1: but that's actually been proven out too, which is that
Speaker 1: they're by far the worst number one team at mid
Speaker 1: season that they've ever had. They basically don't have any
Speaker 1: teams as as really that top level. Between the election
Speaker 1: results and football outsiders, I'm enjoying all the nerds plaining
Speaker 1: going around just don't mention tight end defensive coverage. Hey,
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. I think you guys have brought the
Speaker 1: knowledge today. I'm just glad I picked myself. I noted
Speaker 1: a little condescended condescension from West that was you know,
Speaker 1: it was a quip we will forge on, but it
Speaker 1: was detectable. All right, here we go. We should pick
Speaker 1: this game for the heck of it? Why not? Because
Speaker 1: it seems like such a Falcons Falcons. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Falcons every week have proven that they're not going to
Speaker 1: be taken down easily. Falcons sticking with the Eagles, you are, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: it seems like a toss up game out you pick
Speaker 1: at home? Yeah, I like it. That's a Greg move.
Speaker 1: At some point I want to touch on this. Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan head coach talk. We don't have to do it today,
Speaker 1: but that's a good tease going forward. Josh McDaniels and
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan and the Peter principle. That should be a
Speaker 1: next Tuesday thing. Accept that call at the Tony Cornheiser principle,
Speaker 1: the Vikings and the Redskins. Just imagining the listener out there,
Speaker 1: that's like, Wow, that was a good tease. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: listen now from now on just to hear that Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan episode. I'd like to think that the many listeners
Speaker 1: would feel that way. It really it really touches on
Speaker 1: the Theology podcast too, So we'll save that for two Tuesday. Oh,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what the crossover is. There is some crossover. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's get back to the Vikings and the Redskins. They're
Speaker 1: going through a bit of a rough patch right now.
Speaker 1: Minnesota's dropped three straight and the Redskins lost in the
Speaker 1: last minute to the Lions, then tied since in London
Speaker 1: before the bye. So Mark the Vikings seem to be
Speaker 1: unraveling at this point. Um does that continue this week?
Speaker 1: It's a team that's put up ten, ten and sixteen
Speaker 1: points over the last three games after this game, You've
Speaker 1: got the Cardinals, Lions, and Cowboys, and I don't like
Speaker 1: this matchup for the Vikings much at all. I think
Speaker 1: the one place that they could take advantage of is
Speaker 1: no Trent Williams. Maybe the defense finds a way to
Speaker 1: disrupt Kirk Cousins and throw that offense off. But I
Speaker 1: think that the Redskins a streaky team. When they're annoying,
Speaker 1: they're very annoying. But when they're good, they're very powerful.
Speaker 1: And I don't like any game for the Vikings where
Speaker 1: the opponents scores more than what seventeen points. Game over
Speaker 1: basically proved me wrong with Minnesota post bye week. I
Speaker 1: thought the same way until I watched game pass and
Speaker 1: saw the Vikings and they left ten at least ten
Speaker 1: points on the board, if not fourteen, They should have
Speaker 1: had twenty six or thirty points. Against the Lions. They
Speaker 1: moved to a hurry up, up tempo offense. And I
Speaker 1: know Greg compared to the two thousand ten Rams and
Speaker 1: Sam Bradford's rookie year, Pat Shermer special Pat Shermer spent
Speaker 1: some time under Chip Kelly too, and it's got some
Speaker 1: of that It's got some of that magic or non
Speaker 1: magic going for it. But yeah, they they hid their
Speaker 1: offensive line by going hurry up and throwing quick short passes,
Speaker 1: and that's their best recipe for success right now. They
Speaker 1: did have that drive. I was really impressed by the
Speaker 1: drive at the end of the game. I thought Sam
Speaker 1: Bradford played pretty well. Right. I think Bradford for the
Speaker 1: most part hasn't been a part of the problem at all.
Speaker 1: I've been protected. That's not right. I there was nothing
Speaker 1: he could have really done in some of those losses,
Speaker 1: and I think to your point, he played pretty well
Speaker 1: last week. I still need the way they ended it
Speaker 1: had had it not, you know, come back with the Lions,
Speaker 1: you would be talking differently about the Falcons where maybe
Speaker 1: they're starting, you know under Shermer Maybey're gonna start to
Speaker 1: construct a different type of offensive works. But I still
Speaker 1: don't see a team that's You're gonna get caught in
Speaker 1: some rough games down the stretch. How do you get
Speaker 1: out of You signed Ronnie Hillman and suddenly he's your
Speaker 1: primary back for half the game. You know they're they're
Speaker 1: in third and one, fourth and one last week going
Speaker 1: for it against the Lions, and you can't you can't
Speaker 1: get a yard against the Lions like no, no running game.
Speaker 1: It's tough to overcome no running game unless you've just
Speaker 1: got an unbelievable quarter. And how easy do you make
Speaker 1: it on opposing defense is to game plan against you
Speaker 1: when you have such an overt weakness you can you
Speaker 1: have to basically run the ball up to twenty times
Speaker 1: a game when you know it's not going to work
Speaker 1: and you're taking away a third of your offensive plays
Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, And for the Vikings defense, they get
Speaker 1: Eric Kendricks back, which is a huge help because Jordan
Speaker 1: read help defend him. Oh yeah, tight end defense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where I was going there. We do. I want
Speaker 1: to see what happens with the Sean Jackson over the
Speaker 1: next day because he's did not practice again because of
Speaker 1: a shoulder intreat. You know, that's someone there's a lot
Speaker 1: of there's a lot of to like about this this
Speaker 1: Redskins offense when they're all in the field. The Redskins
Speaker 1: have gotten better every week this season really as a team.
Speaker 1: I mean that seems obvious when they started out slow,
Speaker 1: but especially offensively. I mean, I think Jay Gruden is
Speaker 1: doing a great job. It's a little I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's underrated, but he creates offense. He's got Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins as quarterback, and he creates offense. Yeah, they have
Speaker 1: the run game is going to be difficult for them
Speaker 1: to Fat Rob Robert Kelly Fat Rob, that's his nickname
Speaker 1: from I don't just like Rob Kelly. I think he's
Speaker 1: he's not gonna you can't do a million things for you.
Speaker 1: But he's ran well, he's from running back you two
Speaker 1: Lane University. Oh that is Matt Forte, Mouldy Moore, Orleans
Speaker 1: Dark Hall of Famers, all of them dark one. I mean,
Speaker 1: why did you list darkwa third? There by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not giving up on these Vikings team.
Speaker 1: I know there's been It's been some rocky, rocky sailing
Speaker 1: for the old team of eight. T L you taking
Speaker 1: them this week? I'm taking them, Okay, are you guys?
Speaker 1: I'm taking them. I actually changed my pick after I
Speaker 1: watched them. I saw some positive things getting Cord Darryl
Speaker 1: Patterson evolved. I saw a lot Kwan Treadwell catch Mark.
Speaker 1: I am not. I feel like it's not a show.
Speaker 1: You have to pick them. If if it's a toss
Speaker 1: up type of game and This is pretty cool. It's
Speaker 1: not a show of disrespect. I and I also don't
Speaker 1: think that their season necessarily over anything, but I they're
Speaker 1: they're on the road, and you know, listen, I I
Speaker 1: think the Redskins are more explosive than people want to
Speaker 1: give him credit for. So good luck to the Vikings
Speaker 1: this week. Miami is back at five hundred after three
Speaker 1: straight wins. Now they have to head west to San Diego,
Speaker 1: where we'll see two of the season's most surprising running backs,
Speaker 1: Melvin Gordon and Jay Agi. Gordon is coming off the
Speaker 1: best game of his career. Terrible timing for the Lions West,
Speaker 1: since they haven't had much luck stopping the run. Do
Speaker 1: you think is Elliots the hottest running back in the league? Yeah,
Speaker 1: why don't you think that? College? It's probably the crop
Speaker 1: top didn't know where that didn't expect that one. Like,
Speaker 1: since Week six, Ji has the most rushing yards in
Speaker 1: the NFL and Melvin Gordon has the second most. So
Speaker 1: this this is a pretty good matchup here of two
Speaker 1: backs drafted last year. I mean, one difference would be
Speaker 1: that San Diegoes run defense has been very good. I mean,
Speaker 1: statistically it's equalled with the Packers as the best in
Speaker 1: the league. Really, that surprises me. I don't think of
Speaker 1: them as a shut down well in terms of teams
Speaker 1: that have rushed for yards. I mean they just shut
Speaker 1: teams down. You know. You know who deserves a little
Speaker 1: credit for that little Brandon me Bayane action on the podcast.
Speaker 1: He's had a really good season for San Diego in general.
Speaker 1: He shows up every week making plays for them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and when I watch him, I guess I didn't really
Speaker 1: lies how big of a guy Mebane is. But when
Speaker 1: you actually see him play and like watch him, he
Speaker 1: is a massive Where he came into this studio and
Speaker 1: he was if you took Greg and I and like
Speaker 1: we if Greg and I were hugging and then you
Speaker 1: had three Greg and Mark's hugging, that was basically Brandon
Speaker 1: Meban's from in between his head and mid section sitten
Speaker 1: here it was red Bryan Mebane and Mike Rob wasn't
Speaker 1: It was an interesting window into mark subconscious there three
Speaker 1: Greg's and Marks hugging. Well, no, because if it were
Speaker 1: one of us hugging West West is a earlier individual,
Speaker 1: it would not have been inaccurate. It was you know,
Speaker 1: you and I are smaller individuals. I'm not as huggable
Speaker 1: as Greg either. I wasn't saying that might be especially
Speaker 1: in this shirt soft. It's true, Ryan, I actually I
Speaker 1: don't know how soft your shirt is. I don't know
Speaker 1: what I said. It's true thing about this Dolphins team.
Speaker 1: The more they keep winning, I think, the more their mercenaries.
Speaker 1: They're high paid mercenaries on defense and checked back in Oh.
Speaker 1: I like this and Dominican Sue Mario Williams. They've got
Speaker 1: something on the line when they're winning. When they're losing,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, I'm trying, but I'm not like
Speaker 1: as invested as I could be at my peak. Do
Speaker 1: you think in Dominan Sue is playing better than people
Speaker 1: give him credit for. I think Dominan Sue is playing
Speaker 1: better than people give him credit for every season of
Speaker 1: his career. People like to pick on Indominkan Sue, whether
Speaker 1: it's for the dirty plays or the money, or being
Speaker 1: a mercenary and being unapologetic about chasing the money. People
Speaker 1: like to pick on in Dominican Sue. Cameron Wake is
Speaker 1: playing really well for them. He started out the season
Speaker 1: as a situational pass rusher. Now he is playing more
Speaker 1: and he it's amazing. He's thirty four coming off an
Speaker 1: achilles injury and he looks like the same guy. And
Speaker 1: he's been a big part of this turnaround. Their defense
Speaker 1: has been a big part of it. This is a
Speaker 1: this is I guess this is obvious, but this is
Speaker 1: a big game for these two teams. This is very
Speaker 1: similar to the Jets Dolphins last week in that I
Speaker 1: feel like the loser loser goes home game. You're in
Speaker 1: big trouble. Those are game. You're the Chargers. You have
Speaker 1: got a coming up after this. You go in five
Speaker 1: and five, you can say to yourself, the craziest stuff
Speaker 1: you could imagine happened to us. We're five and five
Speaker 1: and have a major chance from here on out. You
Speaker 1: go in four and six and it's it's caught up
Speaker 1: to us in a division where everybody else has six wins. Sure,
Speaker 1: it's tough. That division got three teams in in two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen, and unless I'm crazy, I believe that ended
Speaker 1: on a long winning streak by these very same San
Speaker 1: Diego Superchargers. Was also when four straight wins there to
Speaker 1: end the season, So they have a little institutional memory here.
Speaker 1: If we know how to go on these late season
Speaker 1: run institutional memory. They have to protect Tannehill in this
Speaker 1: game too, a little bit better. Melvin Ingram and Joey
Speaker 1: Bosa have been playing so well next to each other,
Speaker 1: just from that game that Joey Bosa started. The way
Speaker 1: that they've been able to change that defense is so unbelieved. Well,
Speaker 1: you could say that they would be their four and five,
Speaker 1: they'd be five and four, maybe even six and three
Speaker 1: had Bosa, you know, been there from the start of
Speaker 1: the year. He's that It's rare that you find a
Speaker 1: defensive player that could change things that much, But you
Speaker 1: look at him playing, you have to believe it. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's such a game that you expect to be
Speaker 1: high scoring, and I don't know if that's you know,
Speaker 1: Ryan Tannehill's type of game. They're trying to limit his exposure.
Speaker 1: This Chargers team third in the league in points scored.
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm confident and I'm gonna make this
Speaker 1: my lock of a week lock it up. Look at
Speaker 1: that we almost totally am I the only one that
Speaker 1: remembered to have a lock of the week. I locked
Speaker 1: it up. I had one, and we went right through
Speaker 1: the game that I picked, so I'll keep it a
Speaker 1: seat pretty so yeah, I mean, I'll just pretend I
Speaker 1: got it right later. I never decide my lock of
Speaker 1: the week until fifty minutes into the show, so like
Speaker 1: Monday Night Football. By the way, very close listeners to
Speaker 1: the show will know it's been a little while since
Speaker 1: Mars had a lack of the week. I believe. I
Speaker 1: think most listeners have no are not tracking it on
Speaker 1: any level. I'm just saying it's it's been a little
Speaker 1: gitimately have forgotten two shows in a row. I need
Speaker 1: to do a better job of having something on the
Speaker 1: desk near me that reminds me to do that. It's
Speaker 1: in our contracts, Sydney. I'm not that was not a
Speaker 1: shot at use, Sydney. I feel like it kind of
Speaker 1: want to help. It's saying like an alarm clock. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not putting it on you. I was blaming myself directly, Colleen,
Speaker 1: attempting to stir things up there between the producer and
Speaker 1: one of the people in the show. I really am
Speaker 1: getting comfortable and Dan c Yeah, if it was a
Speaker 1: stat about tight end defense, you would have remembered it. Well.
Speaker 1: That was accurate. In the NFC West the spiraling forty
Speaker 1: Niners head to Arizona or Colin Kaepernick will face a
Speaker 1: much better pass rush than he saw last week. The
Speaker 1: Cardinals Rosie are coming off there by, and David Johnson
Speaker 1: has a dream matchup against a miserable Rundy. Yeah. Feels
Speaker 1: like the Cardinals haven't played in in months. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. And there they were a little down in
Speaker 1: the dumps. And when you're down in the dumps, you know,
Speaker 1: you just play the NFL's version of prozac, the San
Speaker 1: Francisco forty Niners. Everyone's happy with a little forty Niners
Speaker 1: in their life. They'll come out of this game and
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about the they can overcome their offensive line,
Speaker 1: and the defense is great, and everything's fine in Arizona
Speaker 1: because they're they're playing like an a f L team.
Speaker 1: You got packed ten team. It's a shame we go
Speaker 1: all can't play the forty Niners this week. Matt. Maybe
Speaker 1: they can just bring the team in here to talk
Speaker 1: to us. I mean, there's an incredibly depressing statistic attached
Speaker 1: to the Niners. They are the first team to allow
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy more rushing yards in five straight
Speaker 1: games since that is before Greg was born. No, that's
Speaker 1: not close. Was in the seventies. Well, you were a
Speaker 1: young person and when this last happened. That's accurate. That
Speaker 1: is pressing. I was watching some Top twenty, you know,
Speaker 1: music countdown on MTV. A little Europe superstition was dominated.
Speaker 1: It's a huge humble Bragg area area, White talks about
Speaker 1: listening to Europe. Europe is terrible. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Um,
Speaker 1: Carlos Hide, he's probably I don't know what he's gonna
Speaker 1: do in this game. If he's even gonna player, gonna
Speaker 1: take some touches, it should be going to Duan Harris
Speaker 1: is what he's gonna do. Yeah, how about how about
Speaker 1: him last week? Well, we said last week he ran
Speaker 1: like a man possessed before the bye, and now he
Speaker 1: comes out and he played really well last week. Wasn't
Speaker 1: he got to stay in the rotation. He's been really good.
Speaker 1: He wasn't he the guy that was the car sales
Speaker 1: yes for the Packers. I feel like that Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: raved about him during it was season or the off
Speaker 1: season in Green Band and then he tore his knee up.
Speaker 1: But McCarthy, they could him right now before we went
Speaker 1: any thoughts for you guys on the Colin Kaepernick experience
Speaker 1: after three games. I feel like he's we never talked
Speaker 1: about how he actually plays. The reason that we don't
Speaker 1: discuss him that much. I don't think he used to
Speaker 1: be one of the more captivating quarterbacks in the National
Speaker 1: Football League, and I just think he's attached to a
Speaker 1: sinking ship number one. But he's not saving it either.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a terrible game last week or anything.
Speaker 1: The same guy he was last year in the year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you remember the last time he went to Arizona
Speaker 1: and started last year? It was a disaster to seven
Speaker 1: Tyron Matthew high stepping into the end zone. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: this Saint that Cardinals team, I'll tell you that much. Now,
Speaker 1: it's a better defense, though, it's a good defense. And
Speaker 1: I saw that box scoring. I'm rooting for Kaepernick for
Speaker 1: whatever reason. He was, you know, very entertaining player back
Speaker 1: in the day. And I saw that box scoring, I'm thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: Kaepernick's you know, you gotta go in against the Saintes.
Speaker 1: But he didn't look very good. It was just a
Speaker 1: lot of short a couple of short passes that receivers
Speaker 1: took a long way. I agree with you us he
Speaker 1: looks he looks like the same guy that we saw
Speaker 1: the last few years. I mean, the Chip Kelly thing
Speaker 1: isn't happening. Wasn't that one of your off season uh something?
Speaker 1: You're right, the one of the predictions, right, it was
Speaker 1: some sort of like prediction that we got your justure there?
Speaker 1: What was the thing when I get excited, I do
Speaker 1: jazz that was got that? Well, you said the chip
Speaker 1: Kelly Kaepernick thing was gonna blow the NFL over something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I probably said that. I'm sure of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: so you go, so you spend Tuesday and Wednesday, if
Speaker 1: you're the offensive side of the ball in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: putting together a game plan. But at this point, the
Speaker 1: game plan needs to be we know we're going to
Speaker 1: be down or have given up seventeen to twenty points
Speaker 1: ten or eleven minutes into this game. How do we
Speaker 1: dig out from that? How can you really assess what's
Speaker 1: happening with any of these guys When you're playing from
Speaker 1: behind and giving up a hundred and seventy plus yards
Speaker 1: per game to a running team every week, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That's fair dog can't wait till they have their fourth
Speaker 1: different head coach and the fourth same four straight januaries.
Speaker 1: How about this ridiculous matchup the Bears and the Bucks.
Speaker 1: They've had some time to clear their heads. The Bears
Speaker 1: are coming off of by after we haven't Vikings, No,
Speaker 1: we have not. In the Bucks off a Thursday nighter
Speaker 1: to the aforementioned Falcons. Now Tampa Bay has given up
Speaker 1: over a thousand yards of total offense in the last
Speaker 1: two weeks. West can the Bears take advantage to get
Speaker 1: their third win of the season. Do they have three
Speaker 1: wins yet they have to? Yeah? So their third win
Speaker 1: monitor behind you. If I could look at that turning
Speaker 1: around here? Yeah, so can they do it? No? I
Speaker 1: spent many minutes trying to think of reasons to watch
Speaker 1: this game. I'm sorry. There was Doug Martin might come back.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good reason. Well across there was a
Speaker 1: there was an article, uh task to me early in
Speaker 1: the year when these oh and three or oh and
Speaker 1: four teams reasons for hope and I and like you,
Speaker 1: I could not come up with one reason back then
Speaker 1: for the Bears. I really tried, and it was maybe
Speaker 1: you don't have Jay Cutler after this season and you
Speaker 1: start over. But I see something else. I think you've
Speaker 1: found a running back in Jordan Howard. Am I wrong?
Speaker 1: I don't see him as a guy who's going to
Speaker 1: be the long term starter. I don't think he's got
Speaker 1: I don't think I tried. Sorry, I mean I'm in
Speaker 1: the minority on Yeah, I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: see him. I think he's too slow. Did anybody else
Speaker 1: find it odd one watching the Bears and the Falcons
Speaker 1: last week to see Jay Cutler um going around and
Speaker 1: like there's vikings, Yeah, Bears vikings. To see Jay Cutler
Speaker 1: sort of um patting people on the back and talking
Speaker 1: to them and going around and being like a motivator
Speaker 1: of sorts. Anybody noticed that because it felt really weird
Speaker 1: when I was Maybe that wasn't I mean, it would
Speaker 1: be the most Jay Cutler thing ever to have a
Speaker 1: little run here, wouldn't it. Would people act like he's
Speaker 1: been a terrible quarterback his whole career. He hasn't. He's
Speaker 1: had big time runs and he certainly can light up
Speaker 1: a defense as bad as it's been a few years.
Speaker 1: Al right, so maybe maybe maybe he I thought he
Speaker 1: played well, so did Josh McCown in the same season,
Speaker 1: but I thought he played well. He got outplayed by
Speaker 1: his backup in the stress well, but alright to not
Speaker 1: not to the Bears credit, but he's done enough to
Speaker 1: not force Chicago's hand to make a change of the position.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's not so long that I gave him
Speaker 1: a massive contract. With the state of quarterbacking in the NFL,
Speaker 1: he also played enough to get coaching staffs fired over
Speaker 1: and over again. And if I were in Chicago and
Speaker 1: I'd have a running meter saying games left until I
Speaker 1: have to stop watching Jake, he's gone. I just wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised if he happens to play well down the stretch.
Speaker 1: The game against Minnesota was good, and now he's playing
Speaker 1: one of the worst defense in the league. So if
Speaker 1: you were desperate for a fantasy streamer, it's like, would
Speaker 1: you you wouldn't be surprised if Jake Cutler has three
Speaker 1: hundred yards and in a few touchdowns this week. With
Speaker 1: you whatever, You're never going to get me to admit
Speaker 1: that Jay Cutler is some kind of good quarterback. Nice Tyre,
Speaker 1: I wow, that really hurt. I mean, Cutler will do
Speaker 1: enough to make sure that your team doesn't have a
Speaker 1: top three pick to take another quarterback. I don't know
Speaker 1: why Greg insists on loving heartbreak. I'm not saying he's good.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying there's value in being a league average starter,
Speaker 1: and that's about what if you're also a leader and
Speaker 1: liked in the locker room. Sure this is depressing for
Speaker 1: them that that's a matchup. I'm done with that matchup.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the next one. Steelers. They're back at
Speaker 1: home after dropping three straight. Ben Roethlisberger is another week
Speaker 1: removed from his knee surgery as Pittsburgh prepares to play
Speaker 1: host to the seven win Dallas Cowboys, who have an
Speaker 1: underrated defense sort of Mark Well, I think their offense
Speaker 1: certainly helps their defense. They do they. I mean, they've
Speaker 1: got great coaching on defense, and that's been the case
Speaker 1: for the past few years with Jason garrett Um running
Speaker 1: the show. And I would say that when you have
Speaker 1: an offense that can string off seven or eight minute
Speaker 1: drives that end in touchdowns over and over, that you're
Speaker 1: putting the whole team into a good place. And it's
Speaker 1: you know, I would have thought, looking before the season,
Speaker 1: it would be Pittsburgh that might have the seven and
Speaker 1: one record. I don't think that anyone in this room
Speaker 1: would have comprehended a part of the year where Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: could potentially be losing four straight if they don't get
Speaker 1: it done here. And I don't think that it's crazy
Speaker 1: to think that will happen at all, whether it's in
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh or in Dallas. It's in It's it's in the
Speaker 1: home stadium for the Steelers. But the Cowboys are the
Speaker 1: better team in many ways right now, and they're on
Speaker 1: fire and they're on a roll. I trust Dallas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys haven't allowed a one hundred yard rusher or
Speaker 1: receiver yet this season. And this is a defense that
Speaker 1: coming into the year, we were all I was at
Speaker 1: least concerned about a lot of different parts of the defense,
Speaker 1: but specifically the pass rush and just in general, all
Speaker 1: the pieces that they had to move around to make
Speaker 1: up for the guys that were missing. And they're doing Okay.
Speaker 1: You know what I say to that stet fuck it up.
Speaker 1: Oh he's doing it. You're locking up the stats. We're
Speaker 1: doing a three way lock. Not only did the Steelers
Speaker 1: win this game, too, Brown goes over a hundred lean
Speaker 1: Bell goes over a hundred. Ben Big Ben goes over
Speaker 1: three hundred. Look it all up. The Steelers are a
Speaker 1: different team at home. It's not the Cowboys are the
Speaker 1: best team in the NFC this year. It's not like
Speaker 1: they're unbeatable. They should have lost to the Eagles a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, who are not a better team
Speaker 1: than the Steelers at home. I think the steel I
Speaker 1: liked the way Big Ben played in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: It took him a few quarters. I know he's having
Speaker 1: trouble with cover two defenses. There's a chance we get
Speaker 1: Ladarius Green to make his Pittsburgh debut this week, and
Speaker 1: I think Eli Rodgers looked good last week. Big Ben
Speaker 1: through some dimes in that fourth quarter last week. They
Speaker 1: gotta get Levy on Bell on track earlier in this
Speaker 1: game than they did against the Ravens that they know.
Speaker 1: They never their big trio. None of them played well
Speaker 1: early and they never really you know, figured it out.
Speaker 1: My antidote to Pittsburgh's offense at home would be again
Speaker 1: that Alice, if if if Ezekiel Elliott gets the yardage
Speaker 1: and in the carries and the touches that we think
Speaker 1: he will, you keep the Steeler's offense off the field
Speaker 1: for an extra eight to ten minutes in this game. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's a big test of a Steelers defense that
Speaker 1: I don't know what to think about. Some weeks, I've
Speaker 1: been really really disappointed because I don't think they're lacking talent.
Speaker 1: When Cameron Hayward out there, maybe that's the X factor.
Speaker 1: They tend to look a lot better Stefan too. It's
Speaker 1: playing well. Ryan Shazir played incredible, and when Hayward's out there,
Speaker 1: that takes up attention and Shazir the secondary is obviously
Speaker 1: not very good. Uh, And trying to stop this Cowboys
Speaker 1: defense or even slow it down is is tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: not to pick on your Browns or anything. It's rare
Speaker 1: to see we're far beyond that point. It's rare to
Speaker 1: see a matchup like that Cowboys Brown's one where where
Speaker 1: it looks like one team is an SEC team and
Speaker 1: the other is Nickels State visiting them, you know, for
Speaker 1: home coming weekend or whatever. And that it's rare to
Speaker 1: see an offense that good where it's just like for
Speaker 1: for possessions for touchdown and with with Dallas in that game,
Speaker 1: and I get it. It is Cleveland's defense, but it
Speaker 1: was another example where the whole offense is not reliant
Speaker 1: on just one guy getting it done or two guys.
Speaker 1: They spread the ball around to so many different people.
Speaker 1: They're not just a you can't do one thing and
Speaker 1: their offense they can find different ways to get at you.
Speaker 1: Barry Church still gonna miss this game for Dallas. Mo
Speaker 1: Claibourn gonna miss it. You would think that Pittsburgh. I'm
Speaker 1: envious of this lock. I'm sad that I did not
Speaker 1: pick this lock. I believe in sharing. He's give you
Speaker 1: double locks. I like, I'm gonna I'm gonna stay with
Speaker 1: my lock. I'm gonna take the Steelers. I can't lock
Speaker 1: it up. I already uh locked something up. I didn't
Speaker 1: lock anything up, nor will I. All right, I don't
Speaker 1: need to. I don't need to deal with vaults. That's fair.
Speaker 1: That's fair. Sunday Night. Does anybody have anything else for
Speaker 1: that game? All right? Now? West told you who's gonna
Speaker 1: win Sunday Night football? How about this one? The Seahawks
Speaker 1: on a short week playing in Foxboro against the Patriots
Speaker 1: team that's well rested and looked pretty much unstoppable before
Speaker 1: there by Seattle will be without Michael Bennett West, which
Speaker 1: would be maybe a good game, big game for la
Speaker 1: Garrett Blunt, or what if it's a big game for
Speaker 1: Dion Lewis. Oh, we don't even know if he's playing yet. Hopefully.
Speaker 1: I think he'd see a big share of action if
Speaker 1: he gets in there. No, I don't. I think he'd
Speaker 1: be limited. Mike Garrett Fullo was saying, though the Patriots
Speaker 1: teammates are really impressed with what they've seen in practice,
Speaker 1: Blunt said, he's nasty in the open field. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense. Guy coming back from two knee surgeries,
Speaker 1: who was the most elusive player in the NFL last
Speaker 1: year when he was on the field. He I think
Speaker 1: this Patriots offense can get better, even if the stats
Speaker 1: aren't better in the second half because they played some
Speaker 1: bad defense. Stats couldn't be better, because they're better right
Speaker 1: now than they've ever been in Tom Brady's career, including
Speaker 1: two thousand seven, which is crazy. It's only a four
Speaker 1: game sample, so it's a little under unfair to, you know,
Speaker 1: extrapolate that out, But that's how good they've been over
Speaker 1: these four games. They're gonna be able to play to
Speaker 1: any situation against any defense, when you can pound it
Speaker 1: with blunt, when you need to to kill the clock,
Speaker 1: you can spread it out and go with Dion Lewis
Speaker 1: or Dion Lewis and James White. You can play Martellis Bennett,
Speaker 1: who's finally getting healthy after about three weeks where he
Speaker 1: wasn't healthy and wasn't used much. And Julian Edelman, you
Speaker 1: would assume is going to be better than he was
Speaker 1: early in the season two. You know what I got
Speaker 1: for you? A lock No, a little tight end defensive step.
Speaker 1: Of course you do well. I mean because you're looking
Speaker 1: at the two teams in Seattle and New England that
Speaker 1: combined have only allowed two touchdowns to tight ends. But
Speaker 1: this game gives you Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski and a
Speaker 1: healthier Martelli S. Bennett. I think there's a This is
Speaker 1: a fascinating prime time matchup. The Seahawks gave us one
Speaker 1: last week, and I want to say, keep putting Seattle
Speaker 1: on prime time, keep putting New England in prime time
Speaker 1: against good competition like this. We need these night games
Speaker 1: to stop stinking. This could be the antidote. I love
Speaker 1: this game. I cannot wait for this matchup. I feel
Speaker 1: like Russell Wilson, he looked a lot better. Like healthy.
Speaker 1: He's not as healthy as we've seen it in the past,
Speaker 1: but against the Bills, he's the healthy, healthiest we've seen
Speaker 1: him look. And the offensive line, yeah it's shaky, but
Speaker 1: the Patriots don't generate a good pass rush, So Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: he's going to have time. And just look at the
Speaker 1: games that Brady has won for the Patriots. He beat
Speaker 1: Cincinnati when they fell apart in the third quarter. He
Speaker 1: beat Cleveland with Charlie Whitehurst, the Steelers with Landry Jones,
Speaker 1: and the Bills without Lashawn McCoy and Sammy Watkins. The
Speaker 1: Patriots have not faced a team with as good of
Speaker 1: a passing game as the Seahawks since they faced the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: I'm locking it up for the Seahawks New England. This
Speaker 1: is listen in New England. When I everybody laughed and
Speaker 1: laughed and oh yeah, you can have your fun with
Speaker 1: your lock of the week. When I locked up the
Speaker 1: Chargers against the falcon and then you got lucky. I won.
Speaker 1: What do you mean you got lucky? They won that game?
Speaker 1: Where you get that in this room, sometimes people tend
Speaker 1: to giggle and cast off an idea that might be
Speaker 1: a little different than the rest. You might be right, Colleen,
Speaker 1: that was one of the best teams. You know, we've
Speaker 1: seen in the last twenty five years. It's not crazy,
Speaker 1: but the Patriots have not lost a lot of games
Speaker 1: in Foxburro over there. Well, now that you've gotten that
Speaker 1: scorge Jamie Collins off your defense, everything's looking up for
Speaker 1: the Patriots, right sort. I don't know. Uh, it is
Speaker 1: the first it is the first game for Jamie Collins
Speaker 1: without Jamie Collins. I want to see what this defense has.
Speaker 1: I don't think Bill Belichick is happy with this defense.
Speaker 1: I think he looks at some of those opponents you
Speaker 1: talked about and doesn't give the defense that much credit
Speaker 1: for some of the things that they've been doing. You're
Speaker 1: right that they haven't had a great pass for us.
Speaker 1: I think they could be vulnerable to the deep ball.
Speaker 1: And as our old friend t d used to say,
Speaker 1: no one's got a sexier deep ball right now than
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson. Maybe Ben Roth's mark is pretty sexy right now.
Speaker 1: I mean no, I'm not. You know, last week, we
Speaker 1: as a group talked about that Bill's Seattle game being interesting,
Speaker 1: and we couldn't have been more right. I have the
Speaker 1: same feeling about this one. This is what this has
Speaker 1: the this is why we should care about the regular season.
Speaker 1: And it's not don't give me Tampa Bay Chicago. I
Speaker 1: don't need to see that. I need to see this.
Speaker 1: This is some throwing of these type of stuff. But
Speaker 1: I wish Michael Bennett was in this game. What I mean,
Speaker 1: don't you to Bennett brothers and uh I said it
Speaker 1: in the Who Said It this Week? Tom Brady he
Speaker 1: thought Michael Bennett was the most valuable defensive player in
Speaker 1: the entire league. Why not? I like to see these
Speaker 1: two teams at their best. I I I understand the sentiment.
Speaker 1: I think we all do. But the idea that you,
Speaker 1: as a Patriots fan can just kind of you know
Speaker 1: you're gonna glide to fourteen into fifteen and one, so
Speaker 1: of course you want all the premier players on the
Speaker 1: field more than I like the Patriots. Well it's easy
Speaker 1: to say that, but it's like, either way, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get handed a glowing super Bowl type team either way. Well, Greg,
Speaker 1: this game reminds me, don't be mad, and he used
Speaker 1: to be. I was gonna stop it. But you used
Speaker 1: to be uh excited. I'm thinking back to a few
Speaker 1: years ago in Glendale when a little unknown, undrafted player
Speaker 1: by the name of Malcolm Butler made the greatest play history.
Speaker 1: And this trio in here, you know, Dan was also
Speaker 1: they're not as excited this trio here that was at
Speaker 1: the game. We were all excited in that moment. We
Speaker 1: don't even know who Malcolm Butler was. Dan. Unfortunate thing
Speaker 1: happened to Dan in the game. Two things. One knew
Speaker 1: England won the game. That was not up Dan's tree.
Speaker 1: But secondly, before we were all stuffed into a press
Speaker 1: box where Greg and West and I were stuffed at
Speaker 1: one end, and so we had no choice but to
Speaker 1: be hugging each other because we were up. But they
Speaker 1: moved Dan, Yeah, we moved. They moved in about eight
Speaker 1: or nine seats down where he was all buying, and
Speaker 1: all these people between the city looks over as New
Speaker 1: England's winning the Super Bowl his absolute nightmare. And we're
Speaker 1: jumping up and down, hugging each other. And then a
Speaker 1: shadowy League figure who I won't name, took video of it.
Speaker 1: Yes I won't see who that person was. They knew
Speaker 1: who they were, Wow, I'm gonna take this moment to
Speaker 1: uh moment this game. Patriot Malcolm Butler not only say
Speaker 1: that play, he somehow has followed it up. He is
Speaker 1: playing outstanding this year. I haven't mentioned that at all.
Speaker 1: He is playing great top ten cornerback again. This is
Speaker 1: an undrafted guy who has backed up that play with
Speaker 1: two top ten cornerback Pro Bowl type of seasons. That's
Speaker 1: that's almost less likely as that play was. He's about
Speaker 1: to get paid. He's gonna take Jamie Collins money. Do
Speaker 1: you feel good now? Do you feel better now that
Speaker 1: you got that spot? I have one more I have
Speaker 1: one more thing. You've got another moment. This is a
Speaker 1: better Tom Brady than a few years ago, to better
Speaker 1: on better on the deep ball, nine of fifteen on
Speaker 1: throws over twenty yards this year. And he's quicker, He's
Speaker 1: got his a little more foot speed. I liked what
Speaker 1: you said in your QB Index that he's like a
Speaker 1: mid career Michael Jordan's working on working on different parts
Speaker 1: of his game in the off season because he knows
Speaker 1: he has to get better. And if you read features
Speaker 1: of Tom Brady from two years ago, the one in
Speaker 1: the New Yorker. He talks about that, saying, my team
Speaker 1: needs me to get better because this is a weakness
Speaker 1: in my game. I can take away that weakness and
Speaker 1: become a better quarterback. And that's how you defeat father time.
Speaker 1: Dan hanss that's how you defeat slight regression. You work
Speaker 1: your butt off to eliminate your weaknesses. Or he's not
Speaker 1: a human maybe well just he has machine parts inside
Speaker 1: of him and and no button. No one, but Gizell
Speaker 1: knows that he is advancing the art of football. And
Speaker 1: by liberty of his wife making eighty million dollars a year,
Speaker 1: he can hire personal coaches. Body, I think he's doing
Speaker 1: fine financially with her without her, I mean, like a guy,
Speaker 1: and they have great friends that Prescott can't hire these
Speaker 1: people his diet. I go right back to his diet.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he's allowed to have avoc This is like too much.
Speaker 1: Patriots are wonderful talk. I'm done, We're moving on. How
Speaker 1: about this? Two of the top ten offenses face off
Speaker 1: Monday Night with the Cincinnati Bengals and the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: Both teams have struggling past defenses. But do the three
Speaker 1: four and one Bengals turn things around now that they
Speaker 1: have a healthy Tyler Eiffert Rosie. I think they will.
Speaker 1: I have no real basis for that. I just overrate
Speaker 1: the Bank week after week and underrate the Giants week
Speaker 1: after week. So it's two things collide right now. I
Speaker 1: think Andy Dalton's better. I think they have the EDGECT
Speaker 1: quarterback the Bengals. I think they're a better team than
Speaker 1: they've showed. And I think the Giants, who have some
Speaker 1: pretty clear weaknesses on the offensive line, in the in
Speaker 1: the running game, and the passing game has been erratic,
Speaker 1: are a little lucky to be five and three. Wells
Speaker 1: stats agree with you. Based on the point differential, They're
Speaker 1: like they would be lucky to be a four win team, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, as much as we trust the Giants to
Speaker 1: win a few games, they shouldn't you also trust them,
Speaker 1: even at home, to drop a few they should potentially win.
Speaker 1: But if we're gonna look at a few other teams
Speaker 1: on this show and say, if you don't take care
Speaker 1: of business, San Diego Chargers or Miami Dolphins, you take
Speaker 1: another loss and it's over. You know, I understand, not
Speaker 1: mathematically we could go into deep December with that business,
Speaker 1: But you really want to talk about the Bengals being
Speaker 1: a playoff team. You lose this your three, five and one,
Speaker 1: and they're still in fine shape because of the division
Speaker 1: they're in. In the division, yes, but if you gotta one,
Speaker 1: you gotta start, you gotta come out of this by
Speaker 1: and come on different teams, right, And I think I
Speaker 1: think they're a better team in this matchup. And I
Speaker 1: think that they are a completely different team with Tyler
Speaker 1: Eifford on the field. And they have a running game,
Speaker 1: which is something that the Giants, I feel like, never have. Well,
Speaker 1: the Giants running game. They're a hard team to watch
Speaker 1: in some respects and and they're completely How many teams
Speaker 1: are we going to talk about that have no running game.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of them this season. It's not nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies six anymore. But the Giants have a disastrous ground game.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's hard to watch, and it's going to
Speaker 1: cripple them eventually. Well, they tried to mix it up
Speaker 1: last week by getting some other players involved, Perkins at
Speaker 1: tight end and Paul Perkins Perkins that's not moving the
Speaker 1: need running back, but I think unimpressive and I agree,
Speaker 1: I think the key is Olivier Vernon's been playing through
Speaker 1: this hand injury, and he's not creating pressure. The only
Speaker 1: way they're really getting pressure is when they dial up
Speaker 1: those old Steve Spagnolo blitz is. And the defense has
Speaker 1: been better this year. But the Eagles could have scored
Speaker 1: forty points in that game, which I was really surprised by.
Speaker 1: They attacked him vertically against a pretty good secondary. They
Speaker 1: just don't have the receivers though, to do it at
Speaker 1: the Eagles. But a J. Green can do a J. Green. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a different deal this time. And Eiffort, who was
Speaker 1: really limited two weeks ago and then played more last week.
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I mean that's their offense has
Speaker 1: not been what they want to be without him. So
Speaker 1: that is it, everybody. We got week ten in the
Speaker 1: books here the preview at least Dan as a new child.
Speaker 1: Congrats to Dan and Emily two great parents, is so different.
Speaker 1: Take that out, No, I feel like we just keep
Speaker 1: that in the name. Yeah, did you get it right?
Speaker 1: I don't even know if you got it right, got
Speaker 1: it right right? Little credit. Well, he's a lucky guy,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not you know, congrats to him. You know,
Speaker 1: born into a a wonderful family. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I we agree with you, Greg, Wow, alright, you attempt
Speaker 1: to get out of it. You'll be back on Sunday
Speaker 1: night to recap all the games. Dan will unveil unveil
Speaker 1: the name of his child officially. And thanks Greg doesn't
Speaker 1: beat him to the punch and uh and Sydney now
Speaker 1: is gonna let us know when the pick Um Show
Speaker 1: airs on NFL Network every time. I think she's searching
Speaker 1: for it right now eight thirty Eastern twelve thirty and
Speaker 1: one thirty am on technically Sunday morning PM and am okay,
Speaker 1: and you just do the math in your head, that's all.
Speaker 1: Why would you not or organize your day to watch
Speaker 1: all three? Yeah, that's true. It's not a different show.
Speaker 1: It's the same show. But watch it three times, missed
Speaker 1: off along the way and then and just leave it on.
Speaker 1: You don't even need to watch it. That that gets
Speaker 1: some sort of credit. I believe that's true. Go to
Speaker 1: a sports bar they'll have it all right. That's it
Speaker 1: for us. This has been fun and thanks for having me, guys.
Speaker 1: It was saved us. It's always fun. Wiet Storm, the
Speaker 1: Wolf Woman, the mailman, are you still the boss? I
Speaker 1: don't know. Whatever, It's still Sunday, and now a word
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