2025 NFL Week 15 Late and Primetime Games Preview

00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we can officially announce the Stretch run is here.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal.

00:00:12
Speaker 1: Here in the Chris Wesley podcast studio with Patrick Claybah and Jordan rod Reeg. And I like words to have definitive meaning. Okay, I think we should define the stretch run as the section of the season where the buys are over. Everyone has the same record, four game sprint can be done.

00:00:29
Speaker 3: I am I am co signing this. This is the official beginning of the stretch run. Any previous use is thereby in val.

00:00:36
Speaker 4: Okay, the architect of the conversation speaks.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: These two things are connected because I think the stretch run ultimately decides the conversation. And I made up this definition forty five seconds ago while speaking Yeah, but I like it.

00:00:52
Speaker 2: I think it's just no.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: It should absolutely stand and reminds me of famed sayer of things, Cole Beasley saying that any dogs don't stretch before they run. But famously you see dogs stretching all the time, and.

00:01:05
Speaker 4: Not only that big strep.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: If nobody says big stretch, that never the stretch never happened.

00:01:12
Speaker 1: So last week I called it the best slate of the season, and it was. But I gotta say the top of this slate and a lot of good matchups too, So maybe this, I hope this is in every week thing. I haven't I haven't looked ahead, but we got like five or six bangers plus Philip Rivers returning to football. Just like an amazing combination of things.

00:01:33
Speaker 3: Shout out to Philip Rivers and shout out to everybody under the age of forty four who can now A lot of us look look up and say, hey, somebody older than me getting back into it. So congratulations in that aspect. But we've also got a lot at stick. The Detroit Lions are trying to get into the postseason as that becomes into a threat in the Los Angeles Rams trying to maintain that course towards the number one seed in the NFC. It is a Jared Golf annual, Jared Goff revenge game. Greg rolsent all the Rams were favored by five and a half points against those lines over under his fifty five and a half Kevin Berkhart and Tom Brady there to see these two teams go at it.

00:02:12
Speaker 5: How do you see it going?

00:02:13
Speaker 1: I can't wait to watch it. I think about what Dan Campbell said at the start of the season. It was almost like he was trying to lower expectations. Team might have seen what was coming that Hey, sometimes it's not about the shiny record in the regular season. Maybe this is gonna have to be a team that earns its stripes. And however we get into the playoffs, the important part is that we're playing well.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: Then we're not worried about seeding. Here.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: They are needing a win in the worst way in a matchup that, yeah, they have won in the biggest of spots. You know, they won in the playoffs, and then they won in the following week one, and these two teams just don't feel like those two teams anymore. I should have mentioned Jordan by the way, we're leading with the afternoon slate and the prime time I'm slate this week because they're just there's so many good games in this window and you are not going to be the one to sign to this game. This is going to be a Patrick claybound special.

00:03:10
Speaker 2: I love Rams.

00:03:11
Speaker 4: The Rams can clinch a playoff berth if they win this game, and that is significant obviously, and I have to say, I for one am glad that the most important thing about this game for either team is playoff implications, and that potentially for the for the Rams and also the Detroit Lions fighting hard to stay alive and in the hunt if they are, you know, on the graphic and in the wild card consideration in the graphic right now, not the history and layers and folds of drama that we have talked about for years at this point about what got Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles and got Jared Goff to Detroit. Instead, it's let's tuck football, guys.

00:03:52
Speaker 1: But isn't the matchup in terms of how Stafford right now? Oh, it's great, maybe leading the conversation has a better match up up and is supported crazily by a better running game than the Lions, by a better defense than the Lions, by a better pass rush than the Lions. I think that's really flipped since the last time these two teams played, Not that there was that much of a difference, but it felt like Patrick like the Lions were a more complete team then and that the Rams are a more complete team now.

00:04:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially when you consider the once again the Lions going through injuries in the secondary, albeit there at the safety spot. Now where Kirby Joe's not one hundred percent Brian branch out for the remainder of the twenty twenty five season, where you've seen those guys for the past couple of seasons, even when the rest of the injuries were taking place in the secondary kind of eliminate that mid ten to nineteen yard aspect of the field where Matthew Stafford has been dominant, and again Stafford's dominant everywhere with the bye for Drake May.

00:04:51
Speaker 5: Ye, well, well we'll put.

00:04:53
Speaker 3: An asterisk all because a lot of guys have struggled in the elements. As you know, fans of bad football like this, fifty four points right now has Matthew Stafford in the lead because Drake May was coming off of a bye.

00:05:05
Speaker 2: Out for the conversation, yes.

00:05:06
Speaker 3: This because we do count the Lions as a contender and Jamiir Gibbs has worked his way up into a necessary aspect of the conversation where Stafford will get bonus points for beating a contender and double those as we get it into late this season. So we're tracking that. We keep track of everything here, but it's hard. It's hard to go lines. I know the Lions look great against the Dallas Cowboys, but there's just so many other aspects where Ceedee Lamb left that game.

00:05:36
Speaker 5: Puka is playing insane football right now.

00:05:39
Speaker 3: Like a crazy person who's actually catching everything to where I'm gonna go rams here.

00:05:45
Speaker 4: And the Lions, because of the injuries that you mentioned, they have given up the fourth most number of explosive plays in the NFL to this point, which is surprising because you do watch them play, and they play with such tenacity, and they're very well coached by Calvin Sheppard and and you know, it's a complete miss thing. To your point, Greg, I think it's really interesting how you mentioned some of the flipping of fates of the roster builds of these teams. It's also the flipping of fates in the waves of some of the offensive tendencies. And you know, Sean McVay when Jared Goff was his quarterback, built one of the most complete and explosive run games that we had seen in the NFL to that point with Todd Gurley and got the play action pass game going. Well. When Matthew Stafford comes to town, it's pure drop back and keep the defense in front of you and don't flip your back and throw the ball the hell down the field, right, But no run game to speak of. But now they've got everything and they're not They're using Stafford in some of that play action, which is leading to some of the explosive plays. And the offensive line is protecting really, really well, which is also something that they had struggled with from time to time, despite the fact that they have injuries. And I've got a serious eye on Warren McClendon, who's filling in at right tackle and has for six games to this season for the injured Rob Havenstein, because if there is a hinge point in this game, it's right there, because Aiden Hutchinson lines up on both sides of the defensive line and on third downs. As Patrick clayboughn Astuteley pointed out before the show.

00:07:12
Speaker 5: Jordan, I don't know why she's giving me credit.

00:07:14
Speaker 4: He loads up. That's what we say. You helped me. You helped me access the correct space to look this up. I was like, where's the heat chart?

00:07:22
Speaker 2: Damn it?

00:07:24
Speaker 4: He loads up over the right side, over across from the right tackle. Excuse me. And so that's to me, if Warren mccleaning can keep playing at this level that he's playing at, which is only four pressures given up on two hundred and seven pass block Oh no sacks, then the Rams are going to be able to protect.

00:07:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, they haven't had as deep and dynamic a pass rush to the Lions as they would want. Hutchinson's obviously great, My defensive player the year, Honking from the first half of the scene. That's died down a little bit, but he's obviously still a great player.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: But you need more than one guy.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: Alee McNeil's maybe not had the same impact that he had pre injury after that that first week he was back, But I really just look at the like the running game. I'm glad you mentioned Kirby Joseph that is just like an injury item to watch because he's had this same injury that's been bothering him all year that I think it sounds like it's it might never go away. But he did return to practice on Wednesday, so this might be the week that he gives it. Ago Alex Angzeloni, though, who got hurt late in that Lion's game, was not a practice Wednesday, so that's something to keep an eye. The thing is, when I watch this running game right now, And I know they just played the Cardinals, but the Rams running game, they're just getting such pushed, such cohesion, such great running, and there's no drop off whatsoever. When they go to Blake Koram and he adds a little more juice to what Kien Williams did. I wouldn't say he's better, but he Sean McVay is finally doing the thing that he said that he was gonna do forever, which is truly happening right. Have like two backs that that carried load together, and Korum's kind of doing the thing that Kien Williams did, which is it's not an easy offense for running back and it's a second year leap where it really took him a little while to get going, kind of like Kyrian Williams, and then the second year they just take off on.

00:09:06
Speaker 2: The on the flip side.

00:09:06
Speaker 1: Though you've been talking about it all year, Jordan, as they throw my note, card Rade, these Rams corners uh their problem and I know there was it was a blowout last week, but you know who's getting smoked a lot in that game. Emmanuel Forbes for a second straight week, and a Kello Witherspoon, who hasn't been great this season. So if there's a strength of the Lions, like they know how to pick on your secondary, Monro is hopefully a little healthier off of a mini buy and it could be a fun little shootout.

00:09:33
Speaker 4: Well, to be fair, all Witherspoon's like clavicle was broken in half, So if he was on injured reserve for most of the season to this point.

00:09:40
Speaker 1: Well, since he came back, right, I'm saying he had a rough week last week.

00:09:44
Speaker 4: He had a bad He had a bad week last week. And I would say Emmanuel Forbes had a really really strong middle stretch. But we're in the stretch run, Patrick, That's what I mean.

00:09:52
Speaker 3: Once the stretch run begins, which is officially right now because there are no more buys as to find by Greg Rosenthal and second and third here on the show, this is the stretch run.

00:10:03
Speaker 5: So you can't clavicle or not.

00:10:06
Speaker 3: If you have all your body parts and you're out there getting torched, it's the stretch run.

00:10:10
Speaker 1: We got a notice and the Rams like, yeah, they're trying to win the division. You have the Seahawks and the Lions in a five day stretch, which is crazy, but they're also trying to get the one seed. So I know they could win the division if they gave this game up and then one on Thursday. But a one seed is a playoff victory. So their only route really to a one seed is winning these two games. And the Lions they're not out of it if they lose it, but they'll be in a pretty tough big one.

00:10:33
Speaker 3: You want to talk about one seeds, Let's go over to the AFC, where right.

00:10:37
Speaker 5: Now the number one seed Denver.

00:10:39
Speaker 3: Broncos riding a win streak, a huge thick game win streak, the over under forty two and a half.

00:10:45
Speaker 5: But the Broncos in this wind streak are not favored because Toyota Than is on the.

00:10:49
Speaker 3: December to Remember Sales event, whatever Toyota and Lex's family sales event in the holidays. You want to discuss Jordan Rodrieg because Jordan Love is super hot right now, Jim, I don't know, Jim and Tony Romo on the call, how do you see it going?

00:11:05
Speaker 4: I'm so happy right now?

00:11:07
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:11:07
Speaker 4: The best thing about Jordan Love playing like this every year during Toyota Than is a new tradition that Patrick Clayban and I have started in the Z room month Sundays, which every time he makes a throw, pointing at each other across the cubicles and going Toyota than I love it. I asked Greg if I could have this game this These are my two favorite among my two favorite defenses, it goes Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks up there as well in my hierarchy and no particular order, even though I said hierarchy. I think that this game is going to be an absolute rock fight. Like I know that we've seen both of these offenses really turn on, especially the last couple of weeks. Green Bay especially having Christian Watson as the bona fide dude number one for Jordan Love with five touchdowns in four games, and that beautiful moment the Lambeau Leap last week, and with bo Nicks playing really well and that offensive line just rocking and rolling for the Broncos. I get all of that. I see all of that, But these two defenses are reaching the apex of their powers right now. And the way that Jeff Hafley came out of the bye week and the way that you know and the way that the Broncos avinced, Joseph is scheming things up again with Patrick's certain back. It is absolutely gorgeous to watch, and it's physical and it covers so much ground and it annoys you if you're the quarterback. And I love it and I cannot wait to watch this.

00:12:40
Speaker 1: Which team, which quarterback is like more prepared to deal with the other defense?

00:12:48
Speaker 2: Greg The obviously answer would be would be love.

00:12:52
Speaker 1: But I think in terms of bo Nick's having the coach, you know, I don't think Matt Lafleur is an advantage over Sewan p and then certainly the offensive line, I think bo Nix has the advantage right now. It is interesting the Packers who have been just rotating and trying to figure out what is our best five and everyone is changing positions all the time, and then obviously they have that injury where they lose Elton Jenkins their center. It has allowed them to kind of settle into who they think their five is.

00:13:22
Speaker 4: Now.

00:13:23
Speaker 1: They have their rookie Anthony Belton at right guard. Right now, they have last year's first round pick, Jordan Morgan's just ben he doesn't play anymore.

00:13:31
Speaker 2: They're no longer rotating.

00:13:32
Speaker 1: It seemed like they played pretty well overall last week, but it is a real test for that offensive line this week against Vance Joseph In the players upfront and the types of pressures that they want to give. And so if you're looking for an advantage for the Broncos, I think that's it right there, to test these young players for the Packers.

00:13:53
Speaker 2: I mean, they're not playing any of their first round picks right now.

00:13:55
Speaker 1: Matthew Golden and Jordan Morgan, No wonder y'ah, they felt okay trading away picks for Michael Parsons, like you know what you're getting Michael Parsons. You never know what you're gonna get out of your first round.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: Pick, and I think the biggest bonus of not knowing what they get back. I think all of my fellow ac Aliens, everybody who's ever dealt with it, are pouring through the data right now trying to find what did Christian Watson do, Like what was the exact rehab format? Because coming back he's looked great, he's looked explosive.

00:14:23
Speaker 1: Can I give you the numbers, Yeah, four hundred and fifty two yards and seven touchdowns.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: It's preposterous. How many games does he play not.

00:14:31
Speaker 5: That many right week nine is that the return.

00:14:34
Speaker 1: It's seven games there, I mean, that is an outrageous total for seven games.

00:14:38
Speaker 3: And so like you, you hope to see that. And again I love CJGJ. CJGJ showed a little bit of where on the tire trying to chase Christian Watson across the field.

00:14:47
Speaker 5: The secondary a little bit better in this one.

00:14:49
Speaker 3: And they actually have a pass rush unlike the Chicago Bears, and so both of these pass rushes kind of marquee in this. And I know we I got on Sean Payton for hide and Bonnicks a little. That's the game type I think that's involved here where all of these Broncos screens that they have been running constantly, like it's like why are we doing this?

00:15:09
Speaker 5: Go down the field.

00:15:10
Speaker 3: You can kind of not eliminate micro Parsons in there, but provide that little bit of hesitation for both Parsons and Gary and this very active front seven who you know, we saw that hit on Kylevin Nungai where paints flying off. They're triggering so early, and I think that's when Sean Payton with his you know the yeah, the bifocals and the and the big play sheet, like the screens are big in this one, I lean Broncos in a rock fight. If it's a rock fight, I'm taking the twenty twenty five BRONXEE.

00:15:36
Speaker 4: I love that. I love that point you made about the screens because for the listeners it is such a timing and math play right, because you are timing not only the screen to really pop loose right when the past rusher is, you know, be on the point of no turning back and flipping his body around and then containing that player in the flat right or in the tunnel if you're running in inside screen. What you're also doing is you're timing the cadence. You're making them think that you're going to run a longer developing play, but you're disguising it in order to bait the pass rush into coming at you and then dumping the ball off. Sean Payton designs those It's like him and Andy Reid. Those guys designed those types of screens, the timing screens that really mess with the defensive end's mind and a pass rusher's mind better than anybody else. I think that we've ever really seen. And I think that I love that you brought that up, Patrick, because I think that does become such a massive factor in this game. And then it's gonna ask Jeff Hafley to bring his DBS down a little bit further. And while Keishaw Nixon and company have played great, you know, you also see just as many shots of Matt Leffloor screaming at him on the sideline.

00:16:45
Speaker 2: Right.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: So this this game, I think is going to be such an interesting, like bait and switch kind of mind game.

00:16:51
Speaker 1: Before well, and Quai Walker is back, and Quay Walker will do one thing, He'll fly around It's like not in the right direction.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: Eddrin Cooper.

00:16:59
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a perfect football player and he would be the perfect guy.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: To help stop I love him.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: These screens and both these running games have been uneven throughout the course of the season, and both are feeling better I think about themselves right now than they have for most of the season. I thought Rgi Harvey ran awesome last week, and granted it was against the Raiders, but I think he's just sort of running with a little more confidence in general. And then Josh Jacobs had his big moments last week and it's a brutal stretch run for Denver because like, yeah, they're going for the one seed, absolutely, but they also are playing the Packers, the Jags, they're in Kansas City, and the Chargers. So every week they are in one of these games in our first block. And you say, bo Nicks is playing what did you say better?

00:17:44
Speaker 2: Better?

00:17:44
Speaker 1: He is playing better? I thought he played really well against the Chiefs. I do think there's gonna be moments in this stretch run where it needs to be on bow a little bit more in a way that it hasn't needed to be so far.

00:17:58
Speaker 4: I would like to release a quick statement, Oh wow, okay. On the See You Next Tuesday show, I referred to the actor who bo Nick's most resembles as William Dafoe. What I should have said instead was Willem Dafoe that that's on me and I take full responsibility for my act.

00:18:15
Speaker 5: Wow.

00:18:16
Speaker 2: Wow.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: I corrected it in the moment, just suddenly, you know when I called that.

00:18:19
Speaker 3: As you as Hansom Man, as you do, Yes, and a great, a great villain, as you know, well a lot of you know, you get in a lot of situations in these films where you get a charismatic villain. Yeah, and you have people saying wild stuff like kil Marker was right. Well, Willem Dafoe a good spot. People don't miss the point. It's time for the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota. Let's go places Minnesota at Dallas. The five and a half point favorite, Dallas Cowboys taking on nine who looked great. Greg Rosen's all. The over under is forty seven and a half. It is Sunday Night football, so you get Mike Turco and Chris Collinsworth on the call. How good does JJ McCarthy look against this Cowboys defense that has made some people look pretty good in twenty twenty five.

00:19:08
Speaker 1: I think he'll look better than he did before he sat that game out, because last week did feel like a step forward. I went to watch that back with a skeptical eye. You know, it didn't have a ton of you know, reps in terms of like just dropbacks. That first drive was perfect. He's hitting his first reads a lot, but there were a couple plays later where he gets to the second or third read. There were a couple of really nice deep outs. There were virtually no mistakes at all, and he did seem a little quicker to just try to pick up a couple of yards or take like a lesser sack or in the game. And so if they can get that opening script obviously as on the money as they did against the Commanders, he's not going to be the deciding factor in this game. And then you know, you just hope like the rest of his teammates, which are a great like set up of great teammates, like they had their offensive line completely back. I think that was a huge part of it.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: Ran the ball great.

00:20:07
Speaker 1: It's an easy matchup, I get it, But that one performance did give me some optimism for the stretcher on that he can just normalize into like a normal quarterback who won't prevent you from playing like a competitive game, which is how he was playing before.

00:20:22
Speaker 4: We saw the vision. They brought in Jordan Mason to help compliment Aaron Jones in a really natural way, and you saw what it was supposed to look like, and you understood like the theory behind it. And really, I think last week, and it's been in spurts and fits, right, but especially the beginning of the year and then all the quarterback drama happens last week, you really saw what this thing is, how this really can help JJ McCarthy. That was what Kevin O'Connell and Quasia do Flamensa intended when they made these decisions, was that, yes, we are admitting we have to have a great system and a great supporting cast around this quarterback as he grows up as a human being and also in the National Football League. And so I think that you saw, yes it's the Commanders, and yes this was a weird game and a sad one for the Commanders as well, but you're really seeing these like putting the blueprint on paper, games are really important for a football team, and they were there. Every single one of them is important for JJ McCarthy.

00:21:17
Speaker 3: I think the blueprint that we've seen for so long that did return for the Minnesota Vikings was AVG getting a tipped interception on the edge Harrison Smithinkle extending his active NFL lead in terms of career players in terms of interceptions. But the bit of the outlier against this Commander's defense, which was faulting. And I know that they had Dayron Payne back in this game, but the interior pressure is a real issue for JJ McCarthy when he can't get that full, big stride into the throws and Quentin Williams has changed the interior situation in Dallas where it makes it makes me worried for this whole EBB and flow and roller coaster.

00:21:57
Speaker 5: JJ McCarthy discussion nationally that we.

00:22:00
Speaker 2: May be oh yes, Sunday night.

00:22:02
Speaker 1: I mean that step forward was like a nice little step. It's not going to mean anything if he has like a bad quarter and a half. And we've seen rookies in a tightly managed game like survive well for one week that the test is gonna be this next month. But I think as we saw, you know, against the Lions, the Cowboys defense like still will have holes in the back end.

00:22:25
Speaker 2: Ron Bland's a good player.

00:22:27
Speaker 1: He has given up the fourth most yard in coverage in the NFL. Travon Diggs, like, I don't know if he's gonna return or not. I thought it was interesting that Brian Schottenheimer said that we need to see Travon Diggs do everything the right way as he's coming back. So this weird public back and forth between the team and Digs. And yeah, I just I'm not buying in that the Dallas defense is suddenly like a top ten defense.

00:22:56
Speaker 4: No, but I love their front now. I do. I mean, I loved it with Mike Marsons on it too. I keep spraying at you. I'm sorry, Greg.

00:23:05
Speaker 5: Tells ourself, so sorry.

00:23:09
Speaker 4: It's a nautio medium. No one's seen it, nobody, nobody would have known. I I love their front. I love Quinn Williams. He's playing honestly, with so much joy too. It's it's like he's he's getting to show the world what we've always known. He's he's capable of doing and kind of out of a sad rebuild place once again. And I I really like this defensive front. The back seven I don't trust one bit. Some of it's feast or famine, and other parts of it just have fundamental issues and some tackling and there's yeah, there's a lot of famine in there. But I I do really like how they've been shaping this front and they they're they're attacking the ball. You know, guys like Sam Williams making plays and and Quinn Williams having like the best month and a half of his career to this point. It's it's special to watch.

00:23:57
Speaker 1: And that's the side of the ball to me that will will be interesting and this is a good Sunday Night game despite the Vikings record, because I think they are about the perfect spoiler down the stretch of any team. But the other side of the ball is where it really gets cooking. Like Dak Prescott Bert versus Floor is, and this young offensive line for the Cowboys, which has mostly been good and getting better, trying to figure out everything that they send at it, and they Tyler's Yeah, all the Tylers got the Booker, We got Tyler Smith. Actually we don't have Tyler Guyton, so we don't have all the Tylers now, but we have multiple tylers, two thirds of the Tylers, and and Dak coming off a game where like he was up for the fight. We'll see about Ceedee Lamb's status this week, but that that Vikings defense on on turf and everything, like, I don't know, I'm really looking.

00:24:45
Speaker 4: Forward to, you know what. And we already got through the first George Pickens crash out of the year and so we're good, right, it'll be it'll be great.

00:24:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, the rough Pickins game being true lead from the booth on product.

00:24:57
Speaker 4: Oh my god, don't even get me started on that.

00:25:00
Speaker 3: I'm wondering what George did was to Herbie specifically.

00:25:04
Speaker 1: I missed that because Herbstreet is white noise to me and I just try to block it out.

00:25:10
Speaker 2: Go to the radio if you can.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: But it caused ten days of conversation of like, you know this kind of you know, can George Pickens be trusted with a long term contract?

00:25:21
Speaker 2: Does he give the great up? Yes he can.

00:25:22
Speaker 4: I'll answer it for you, Yes he can.

00:25:24
Speaker 1: Okay, he didn't battle for a couple of those, boss, Multiple things can be true. Uh huh, George Pickens since he came in the league does have more reps. Uh that where he did not give great effort than almost what any wide receiver since he's entered the league. Like that was a thing on tape in Pittsburgh, which is crazy because there's so many other snaps and obviously he's been incredible all season where he gives somehow like more effort than anyone else on the field. So so there, that does just add a little.

00:25:55
Speaker 4: Bit of context and also that you know who you're like, you know who you're paying, Like, I don't think it should affect his conversation about his contract at all, Like have you seen what this guy the play is at, this guy that has been making I mean you. And by the way, you've got the right quarterback, you've got the right receiver's room. Him and CD seem to get along really well. And you've got the right coach that is like Schottenheimer. I would trust, I would trust to handle whatever comes up, honestly.

00:26:22
Speaker 1: And this is a perfect matchup too, because that's the Vikings weakness too, is that second cornerback spot whoever is out there, like they got Byron Murphy. But they can get picked on a little bit on the outside. They're not a big group. It's Brian Flores like like some like small and feisty. Before we take a break, though, I did want to, you know, close the circle here on George Pickens.

00:26:44
Speaker 2: Who's who likes to wear the sisty.

00:26:46
Speaker 3: You know.

00:26:48
Speaker 1: That the face covering popular and so popular. Brian Schottenheimer's been doing it and you might have seen that in Hard Knocks this week where Dak actually gave Schottenheimer a scheisty and the Schottenheimer spoke about it actually to the media this week.

00:27:08
Speaker 6: Yeah, I didn't really like it. I couldn't breathe now. I don't know why those guys like it so much, but I thought, hey, this is the cool thing going on.

00:27:14
Speaker 5: Let me try.

00:27:15
Speaker 6: It's kind of like the six seventh thing a few weeks ago. I'm a hip guy, but yeah, I didn't. I didn't really like it. It didn't didn't stay on very long.

00:27:23
Speaker 2: America's Cool Dad, Brian Schottenheim.

00:27:25
Speaker 4: I'm like regular moms. I'm a cool mom.

00:27:28
Speaker 1: I mis named him earlier when we were coming into the studio and I called him Jason Garrett, and it made me think he kind of is like just a cooler Jason Garrett.

00:27:38
Speaker 2: But there, you know, he's like an evolved cooler dad. Jason Garrett.

00:27:41
Speaker 4: David du Cupney.

00:27:42
Speaker 2: I think he's better.

00:27:43
Speaker 5: Though.

00:27:43
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break. We'll be back on the other side with the game I really.

00:27:46
Speaker 2: Want to talk about. It's Philip riversus coming back to the NFL.

00:27:54
Speaker 3: That was the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota. Let's Go Places. Toyota is all in all season, with another year of Toyota Game Day giveaways coming up. During this week's Sunday night game, the Minnesota Vikings versus the Dallas Cowboys. If there's a scoreless third quarter or a scoreless fourth quarter, fifty fans will each win. One hundred and fifty dollars Uber Eats gift card. Terms and conditions apply. Enter for a chance to win at Toyota Game Day Giveaways dot Com.

00:28:19
Speaker 7: No purchase necessary void We're prohibited ends two eight twenty six. Open to legal residents of the fifty US States and DC eighteen and over. For complete details, how to enter prizes and official rules, visit Toyota's Game Day Giveaways dot com.

00:28:37
Speaker 2: Back on NFL Daily, and we've hit philip Rivers in each show this week.

00:28:45
Speaker 1: Understandably, we're gonna hit philip Rivers in each show the rest of the deal.

00:28:51
Speaker 2: We can just call this Philip Rivers Daily forever more.

00:28:54
Speaker 3: This is a yah hopeful the Seattle Seahawks don't hit Philip Rivers that much. The Indianapolis Colts, Yes, and forty four year old Philip Rivers at the Seattle Seahawks, who are favored by fourteen points the over unders forty two and a half. Andrew Cattle on the best, Charles Davis and Jason mccordy, they're on the call where.

00:29:16
Speaker 5: Maybe maybe Philip Rivers, maybe Tyler Warren, maybe.

00:29:19
Speaker 3: Somebody's taking snaps for the Indianapolis Colts against the best defense in the NFL.

00:29:23
Speaker 5: Jordan, how does it go?

00:29:24
Speaker 4: I mean, I feel like we just have to start out right away listening to Philip Rivers. To be honest, there's only one way to start out this Philip Rivers game, and that is by listening to Philip Rivers first comments to the Indianapolis media.

00:29:35
Speaker 8: I've tried to make this as simple as I can. I'll try to get emotional. Actually you asking that as simple as as can be as a coach that I love and an organization that I really enjoyed being with. You know, mister Ersay believing in me in that year in twenty twenty when it didn't go so good in twenty nineteen, and shoot, the teammates that I was able to we're able to play with she fourteen of them. We're still here. Training rooms are saying. Pr guys are the saying rooms are saying, and.

00:30:11
Speaker 5: They wanted me.

00:30:14
Speaker 4: I'm all the way freaking in, you know me, Ernest comments, I'm in.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: He is obviously overwhelmed. Like, we'll see what the emotions are like if Byron Murphy is like cracking him in the back. You know, in the first quarter of the game, we actually don't know if Philip Rivers is even playing. I'm assuming this on some level and I shouldn't. We don't know if Riley Leonard is available. We do know that Brett Rippon was signed to the active roster on Wednesday, but they would need two active quarterbacks. Philip Rivers for now is on the practice squad. One of my favorite lines was in the ESPN story by Stephen Holder, who does a good job covering the team, and he said, according to sources, Rivers' workout was impressive. He threw the ball well, but in he needs to improve his conditioning. According to source, how that impacts his ability to play this week is unclear. Like, yeah, but he knows the offense. He was running it as a high school coach for his kid. It was Shane Steiken's offense, Patrick.

00:31:14
Speaker 5: And so there's a couple of ways to look at that. Yeah, Like, man, like.

00:31:18
Speaker 3: This offense is these high schoolers are getting at it, or the colts are running a high school offense.

00:31:24
Speaker 4: Well, I think they probably said it was a slimmer.

00:31:27
Speaker 1: I think they simplified that. I mean, it's been working for both. They've been both. You know, this is one of the high scoring offenses in the league. You can say what you want. Patrick no working.

00:31:36
Speaker 3: And I love looking back at this twenty twenty video that we've shown a couple times on Fantasy Clave, like Nahim Hines, t Y Hilton, I think Trey Burton gets a reception coming up here next. If you're watching us on YouTube, where I'm glad he's back. You hear the way the Chuck Amato got him at NC State when the Titan Tigers missed out on this quarterback that they didn't want to play quarterback. The emotion there. He clearly loves the game, maybe a little too much. Hopefully phil uh stays healthy.

00:32:06
Speaker 1: He even said he was like he was like happy to have a real press conference and that it wasn't in a zoom.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: That's how he kicked it all off. He he just loves.

00:32:13
Speaker 1: Ball and I like the people are like other and he's given up five years that he's gonna have to wait five more years of Hall of Fame aled.

00:32:20
Speaker 2: But you think Philip Rivers cares.

00:32:21
Speaker 4: About He's like, I just love ball, man. He just he wants to be out there so bad. I love this game and all of this we couldn't have invented a mad lib such as this, right, and this really will be a game for everybody. It will be a game for the emotional poets of the world who are going in and watching Philip Rivers. And it's basically all heart and desperation to save the Indianapolis Colt season going up against the one of the most well built, complete, aggressive, incredible, complete football teams in the NFL that we've seen in a while, in the Seattle Seahawks. And so it's like when an audacious force meets an immovable object, right, and I cannot.

00:33:06
Speaker 2: Wait for them. I'm gonna be real, I'd rather be against the Titans. I know.

00:33:09
Speaker 4: I want to ease him in.

00:33:12
Speaker 2: Just Gill be like a Titans Saints.

00:33:15
Speaker 1: We'll throw the Jaguars in for some fun maybe and then build up to the Seahawks at the end.

00:33:20
Speaker 4: But with Philip Rivers, he probably wouldn't want it any other way. Greg that he might change his tune again when he'd.

00:33:26
Speaker 3: Want like a game against the Giants on Monday night where Eli is calling the game and he can make his a Hall of Fame came because like, waiting five years to give one speech is one thing. But we we're gonna see him for the next three weeks. We'll get a whole lot of Philips chance to remember.

00:33:39
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, the problem is, yeah, I know, I got eleven years until I'm forty four. I don't even want to know what my body's gonna feel like.

00:33:48
Speaker 1: Then I follow theo ash On on Twitter, and he pointed out just the ages of some notable NFL players that are forty four, like former ones like Wes Welker is forty four years old. He also also has pointed out this week Todd Gurley is thirty one years old.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: If you're just you're just.

00:34:06
Speaker 1: Thinking of the comparison, I hate it. I hate that it's dismatch up because the rest of the cults are not playing well right now.

00:34:12
Speaker 2: It should be pointed out.

00:34:13
Speaker 1: You know how many quarterback hits in Saxo Combuying they had last week?

00:34:16
Speaker 2: Zero?

00:34:17
Speaker 1: You know how much like Jonathan Taylor has done the last couple of weeks, not a lot for Jonathan Taylor. Like the offensive line in general has given up a lot of pressure up the middle lately. The last two weeks on offense, actually really on the line, play for both sides has been a little concerning, and now you've got to play a team in Seattle that's healthier than they've been all season. They got Julian Love back last week at safety. They got John Reid back last week to add to that defensive line mix.

00:34:42
Speaker 2: It's just it's a tough one.

00:34:44
Speaker 4: And shout out to defensive Rookie of the Year candidate nick im and Worry because first of all, he doesn't come off the field, and when you have to, what quite obviously will be lean on a lot of scheme and a lot of you know, attempting to force mismatches for Philip Rivers. Philip Rivers, at forty four years old off of the high school football field sideline does not have to come in and play as much hero ball in this first one out. Nicki min Worri is a personnel neutralizer. And I remember sitting back here a year ago, Greg, we were talking with Nate Tice about what the future of some of these defenses will look like and the future of what defense is having another advantage again against offenses will look like. And nick Emon Warre is that player. And all of this to say, Nicki and Worry is also twenty one years old, which makes him over one nickim and worriy younger than the forty four year old Philip Rivers, and in fact, Nicki min Worri was born on February seventh, two thousand and four, just a few weeks before Philip Rivers was drafted by the New York Giants and then traded to San Diego for Eli Manning. It makes me feel a certain and.

00:35:53
Speaker 1: I think, multiple years after Philip Rivers is first born, came into this world because he was a father when he got dressed.

00:36:00
Speaker 3: Yes, and he will if he plays, he will be a grandfather that is playing in another River's number, which is of course seventeen, which was Daniel Jones's number, which Philip Rivers is now going to war if he gets into this game. It's also been seventeen years since he played in the AC Championship game on a torn acl His forty four is not your forty four if you're like a on the pickleball circuit or in Greg's if you're playing a real sport like tennis. Hey, now his forty four is a little bit different because he's getting smashed by people. So good luck to Philip Rivers and the Indianapolis.

00:36:34
Speaker 1: I love that This next game is announced by Drew Brees, the man that he replaced yep in New Orleans, and Eric asks, what's the first play you want to see the Colts run on Sunday?

00:36:45
Speaker 2: Like a classic version. I mean, it's just simple.

00:36:47
Speaker 1: It's a straight drop back and it's him with that intermedia throw over the middle that like Aaron Rodgers isn't making that throw ever, but that's that is the air, the typical Philip Rivers timing throw. It's probably to Michael Pittman for about eighteen yards and.

00:37:03
Speaker 3: We can basically guarantee that Rivers will have a snap with the Colts down six in the fourth quarter with.

00:37:11
Speaker 1: Just cover the fourteen. I'm taking that as a as a victory.

00:37:14
Speaker 4: Can you guys imagine being Brett Rippan Over the years, and some of these teams have completely altered their franchise, their franchises at the looming thread of Brett Rippon and I love that guy. He's very nice.

00:37:31
Speaker 1: But can you imagine he's probably self aware enough to be excited he's getting an active roster check this week.

00:37:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's what he gets for the throttling of Troy University back when he was playing for the Bronc Wars. The Tennessee Titans, fresh off of lighting up the Browns defense in Week fourteen, going on the road at the San Francisco forty nine Ers. It is the aforementioned Drew Brees and Adaman on a call. The Niners are favored by twelve and a half points. Clearly, Greg, the Titans didn't move the needle so that much last week. Do you feel that that number is a bit too much?

00:38:04
Speaker 1: No, because I think the forty nine ers offense coming off a week off weirdly healthier right now than they have been all season.

00:38:14
Speaker 2: Not just because they had the buy.

00:38:15
Speaker 1: They were actually healthier in that week before they got to buy against Cleveland on both sides of the ball. Then they really had been all year. And you're not getting Fred Warner and Nick Bosa back, but this defense is playing with a lot of aggression. You're getting production out of Cleveland ferreal, getting production out of Ken White. And it's not about that number. Is not about the defense. It's about the offense ready to turn into a wagon against a team that's not complete. And I thought Purdy played great in that Browns game. That one really rewarded a rewatch because the numbers don't pop out, and he had five or six just classic sort of very difficult, pretty anticipation throws throughout that game, made a couple great plays, had a couple of great decisions where he just avoided making the big mistake, and it just made me feel better about what's to come. And I think what's to come here is you know, a top eight offense the rest of the way.

00:39:06
Speaker 2: So I think they'll put it on the Titan.

00:39:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the game we actually wish we could give to Philip Rivers to onboard up because this is exactly the type of game, And I don't want to demean that. The Titans, they just they are going to go through a massive organizational change here in the next couple of months, and so it is what it is at this point. But the forty nine ers basically have to take this game and use it as the wind up for the rest of their sprint and their season. The remaining schedule gets really really fun for us. They get the Colts, we hope with an attact Philip Rivers Sunday Night Football. They get the Bears with NFC stakes that will be significant by that point, and then they get the Seahawks to close the season, and that will probably have massive playoff implications due to the fact that the Seahawks lost to the forty nine ers early in the year, and Seattle also has the Rams one more time and already lost to the Ram once. So this is going to be an absolute like launching, or should be. They should use it as this and attack as such a launch point to really barrel headfirst into the rest of their schedule.

00:40:11
Speaker 1: People sleep and I think on the forty nine ers as a real deal team. If they were in the AFC, I would consider them a Super Bowl contender.

00:40:19
Speaker 2: I don't quite in the NFC. Do you think that's too.

00:40:21
Speaker 3: What AFC division are they forty nine ers going in? I just, I just I want to play this hypothetical all the way out. So let's trade. Let's trade like the Chargers for the forty nine ers.

00:40:31
Speaker 2: Sure, that's a good one.

00:40:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're actually right around like if you kind of look where they are, for instance, like Dvoa, they're like ahead of the Chargers, the Patriots, like the Bucks, right next to the Eagles. Like that all sounds about right to me. I think that's where they're at. The problem is Yeah, they're with the rams Seahawks Packers. I think it's gonna be tough to get through that tournament, so I'm putting them. Sure, put them in the AFC West as a as a wildcard. I think they could win that tournament.

00:40:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they get an opportunity for a layup, you know, before before that tournament, you know, in the stretch run where if you just watched the one game, if you just watched the one game, you saw cam Ward and Tony Pollard and this Titans offense, like you start to believe that they only they limit Myles Garrett to one sack, And I'm wondering if the offensive, you know, if the game plan was built around that and it led to the best offensive output for the Tennessee Titans, who not just have the chance to win the first two game win streak this season, This will be the first two game win streak for the Titans since twenty twenty two, hotly twenty two. So Cam, it's it's not you. This is franchise related. That's how they were in the position to.

00:41:33
Speaker 5: Draft you in danger.

00:41:37
Speaker 3: But hey, the pass rush of the forty nine ers is not even the Browns.

00:41:40
Speaker 1: That's almost as impressive or in the wrong way as the Lions. I think haven't lost how many two straight in three years? Something like that? That is horrifying, What a what a sad franchise. Before we move from this game, I did want to just mention the news because we never hit it on the show, the reports that Brandon ayuk Are is not expected to play this season and it sounds like he's just going to be on the trade block this off season. That the relationship, There's been a lot of reporting out there locally athletic everything is maybe beyond repair and weird statements publicly, and just that would wrap up one of the strangest contract negotiation extension situations of all time. That they didn't like each other. We've been over it before like that. There was a lot of consternation. They gave him the contract, then he gets hurt and never ends up playing, and they never made that trade. So he'll be an interesting person to track this off season because I think there'll be plenty of trade interesting.

00:42:40
Speaker 4: DJ Moore to the.

00:42:41
Speaker 1: Forty nine ers, it's an interesting grade, Bopham.

00:42:45
Speaker 3: How different, how different things could have been if data blocked it correctly. In the final drive, of the Super Bowl and got Brandon Ayuku was wide open. They maybe offered him a deal or maybe an invite to Christian McCaffrey's wedding.

00:42:56
Speaker 1: We're just taking that offer from the Steelers when they thought.

00:42:59
Speaker 4: They were going to maybe Kyle Shanahan just is surfing that morning and doesn't march into John Lynch's office and say, we actually have to get this done even though you guys want to trade.

00:43:08
Speaker 5: Him so many what ifs.

00:43:11
Speaker 4: The waves were probably good that day, Kyle.

00:43:13
Speaker 3: What ifs for fans of a team in purple in the AFC, Because on Monday Night football, the Miami Dolphins are on the road at the Pittsburgh Steelers, the high flying, high octane Steelers, where Aaron Rodgers is running all over folks and throwing deep passes for the first time in several weeks. The Steelers favored by three in this one. The over under is forty two and a half. It is Monday night, so it is Joe and Troy on the call. The path is a little more constricted, Jordan. But do the Dolphins have a chance to win this game? Specifically on Monday Night?

00:43:44
Speaker 4: I think Miami wins this game, and you guys know me, I hate making predictions. It makes my skin crawl, But I do think that they win this game. This run game is all the way back and devonni Chan is going to play according to Mike McDaniel, and between offensive line coach Butch Berry and tight ends coach John Embry, who is a legend. If you know, you know, they have really got that entire collective between offensive linemen, tight ends and running backs cooking in a way. That is what we had hoped. This is what we were promised with Mike McDaniel when he first came into the league. It is their blocking combinations. It is some of the personnel decisions that they've made, Aaron Burer at center, really making the entire engine run up front and doing so without regard for human life on the other side, and this the combination at tight end of Darren Waller and Greg Doltchit it works so well because both of these guys can do so many different things, and Mike McDaniel is not just using them in the intermediate. He's using them on a bunch of different types of leverage blocking. He's using them to create explosive plays, whether for those players or for other players, and that is still where the Steelers, as you know, as well as they can play when their defense plays well, they have still been quite explosive to the explosive play, quite susceptible to the explosive play, particularly particularly against a team that uses a lot of interesting blocking structure and pre snap Mister.

00:45:15
Speaker 2: I think there, don't I really said that cleanly. Yeah, it was great.

00:45:20
Speaker 1: I didn't spit, so it was as effective as the Steelers defense against the explosive place.

00:45:26
Speaker 4: Wow.

00:45:26
Speaker 1: No, I think their second to last. You said you liked it, you know when the inner mask comes out. I think they're second worst than the league, behind the Raiders, and they are bad. The matchup is bad for the Steelers, and he's putting out just like I don't even know what's going on on these running plays, but a lot's going on. He's getting fancy with it. I don't trust them. I don't trust the Steelers either, especially in a game like they're quote unquote supposed to win as a slight favorite. But they've won four straight games in maybe the worst month of to a tongue of ILO's career. It's kind of it's kind of amazing to me how poorly to a tongue of Iloa is playing overall, and that's just expected and he's actually not getting any grief for it. He's been a good quarterback since Mike McDaniel got there in terms of when he's on the field and efficient, obviously, like there's some weaknesses to his game and they're not that now. And they've had two really great games out of the division. I mean in the division. They also had two games where it came down to the last play against like the Saints and the Commanders. So don't I don't trust them overall, but they're they're getting closer to being like a relatively complete average team because the defense is solid, the running game is legit good. If TUA starts playing better, Patrick, I don't think they can win out. There's a reason they have a less than one percent chance to make the playoffs, and the Chiefs actually have like a twelve to fifteen with the exact same record. The schedule doesn't help and the team has its problems. But if TUA could just play better, they are they are quite dangerous.

00:46:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, significantly.

00:46:57
Speaker 3: I would say in this game, if you get a good game, you tell me you get a quality to a low a game like one of his best of twenty twenty five. I'm with Jordan, I've got the Miami Dolphins my inherent biases against you know, the Steelers in this situation, notwithstanding just because of the way that they've had improvement in the places that they've needed to and I understand the schedule is a big part of the twenty twenty five season. But we talked about Jonas Savina right at guard, the rookie guard and having all those difficulties. His improvement has coincided with the improvement in the run game and the way that Mike McDaniel is able to reshape the line of scrimmage kind of choose where the line of scrimmage is ultimately going to be on the field of any given play, where Devon a Chan gets a chance to have these like on field putt returns going like taking advantage of defenses that can be a little aggressive. And that's this Pittsburgh Steelers group where they were releasing guys to grass last week looking like they did at the start of the season.

00:47:56
Speaker 5: In the one game Rogers blip. That's a one game Rogers blip.

00:48:00
Speaker 2: Maybe that's against I mean, I would tend to period, I would know.

00:48:04
Speaker 5: Pass rush whatsoever in that game against the Steelers.

00:48:07
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't think it was about like the lack of pass rush or not. He just was on one.

00:48:13
Speaker 1: Remind me a little bit like I've heard like Serena Williams talk about this or Federal like when you're an all time great and you hit your forties or whatever, like sometimes you do just have it for a day, but you just don't. Like sometimes you show up and it's just not there for you.

00:48:27
Speaker 2: And he had it.

00:48:28
Speaker 1: He he was outstanding in that game. If he plays like that, they were not high percentage throws, but he was on one, then their upside is high.

00:48:37
Speaker 2: I tend to agree that it's a one game blip, but got it.

00:48:40
Speaker 1: Like I'm I'm more curious to watch them play offensive football this week after that performance by him than I was before.

00:48:46
Speaker 2: That's for sure. Maybe he can back it up.

00:48:48
Speaker 5: Okay's excited.

00:48:49
Speaker 2: I'm not excited.

00:48:50
Speaker 5: Arthur Smith and Aaron Rodgers.

00:48:52
Speaker 2: I'm not a.

00:48:52
Speaker 5: Monday night football.

00:48:53
Speaker 4: Smith wishes he was moving gaps around like this run game in Miami's doing. Did you guys see the play where there were three skill plays, including tight ends lined up in a stack next to the quarterback with the running back on the other side, and then there was a motion. So not only with the motion he's changing the gap. I love what you said about reshaping the line of sacreement to Patrick, because not only does the motion change the gap that the running back is supposed to run through to a different one for the defense, but then you don't know what it's actually going to be because all three of those players are splitting off in different directions and one of them is getting the ball, and I just I squealed, I made noises.

00:49:28
Speaker 5: Loves ball.

00:49:30
Speaker 3: Loves ball back to being an offensive genius when it works, but when it doesn't.

00:49:34
Speaker 5: For him, it can get a little bit. I always believe talk about.

00:49:38
Speaker 3: Up and down changes, there's the quantum superposition that is the Carolina Panthers. They can be great, they cannot be one of those teams they have not been great against. Greg is the New Orleans Saints. They are two and a half point favorites on the road against the quarterback rushing machine like it was Cameron Jarrelle Newton aka Tyler Schuck against the Bucks on some over under is forty and a half. Jason Bennetti and RG three on the call in this one, which version of the Panthers do?

00:50:07
Speaker 1: We get grit that's new, We get the version that should win a game.

00:50:11
Speaker 2: You can't.

00:50:12
Speaker 1: You can't get swept by the Saints. That's just unserious and still be in the playoff mix because they would be even whether whether.

00:50:20
Speaker 2: They win this game or not.

00:50:22
Speaker 1: This is kind of where it gets real that, Okay, you're hitting the stretch run, You're hitting games that you have to win, that you are expected to win against the Saints because yeah, getting swept by them would be a little bit embarrassing.

00:50:38
Speaker 4: After this game, and they can't look ahead of this game obviously, but after this game, they've got Bucks, Seahawks, Bucks, Yeah, and all of them will have playoff implications. So you better put your best foot forward and your best tape out in this game regardless.

00:50:53
Speaker 1: Right, if you lose this game, they might not all have a playoff implications. You might be done by week eighteen.

00:50:57
Speaker 5: I'll put you.

00:50:58
Speaker 3: Guys on a theory because folks have wondered, is this about these Carolina Panthers? I think, what what if it's game plan related? What if when there's this opponent that doesn't see a lot of Carolina Panthers Dave Canalis going in uh to the tape room looking at these specific aspects where you can attack defenses on specific plays. There's the micd up clip of Rico Dowdle knowing exactly where the rush and the defenders in the zone were gonna be and taking a screen to the house where they go up against the Saints team.

00:51:28
Speaker 5: There's there's not gonna be a surprises.

00:51:30
Speaker 3: Both franchises intimately aware of others personnel.

00:51:36
Speaker 5: I just I just thought maybe sometimes David.

00:51:40
Speaker 4: Projected a project.

00:51:42
Speaker 5: Go on, like maybe it's not all player related.

00:51:44
Speaker 3: Maybe this is the head coach and play caller sometimes need a little bit of a chain.

00:51:48
Speaker 1: I do think they just have like a slimmer path to the way they win. It's like it's a lot of running on downs where you don't expect them to run, which which is I think, great, you got to pull that off, like you got to hit your third and four runs. I'm always surprised by them running in those situations and yeah it didn't work. And if you're only counting on Bryce lately to just hit these big plays, but you're only throwing the ball twenty to twenty five plays like those plays changed the game, and he hits two long fourth downs on the last one. Yeah, I'm curious. It is a good test for Canals's adjustments. I mean, you lose by ten points to Tyler Schuck a couple of weeks ago, and you're playing a defense that I know you Jordan have noticed statistically is now, you know, solidly in the middle of the NFL, maybe even like a little better than the middle of the NFL when you add up all the numbers. And I went to check because I was like, okay, is this just like a schedule thing. Actually, no, they've played a very difficult schedule of offenses. If anything, it's more impressive that they're a little better than average in general. So the staly Sons much delayed. It's happening.

00:52:56
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I've been noticing this. I know our friends over at the Saints blow party have also been noticing this improvement. Yeah, they're in terms, they're right at the middle, essentially a little bit higher than the middle, in terms of UH points per game, in terms of yards per game, in terms of opponent third down conversion rate. I know we all saw the graphic on the broadcast, Right, I think that there's something there. And when you have that improvement and you're lifting the floor of one side of the football, right, and then you're also getting this like glimmer of hope with the quarterback play, this team can be dangerous. And that's why I love that the Panthers get their bye week when they did, Right, I love that because this is when we're gonna really see. Okay, Dave Knalis, like, what are your bye week adjustments? When you know the stakes you're in the you're in the race, man, Like you know the stakes are so high, Like it's time to show your work. And Bryce Young, if he could play even even a little less than how well he played in that Rams game, they will be fine.

00:53:54
Speaker 1: And just for some context, they lost to the Saints. It was longer ago than I remembered. It was November ninth, It was Week ten. The Saints doubled them up in total yardage plus it was three eighty eight to one seventy five. It was watching it as big of a blowout as a seventeen to seven game can be. The Saints offense obviously has its limitations, like they weren't going to put on a lot of points, but they controlled that game.

00:54:20
Speaker 2: So revenge time show us something.

00:54:22
Speaker 3: And that was in Charlotte as well, and I'm remounted of the early I think it was week one last year, before the benching, before the Dalton conversation and all that, where Bryce and the offense looked miserable, miserable.

00:54:37
Speaker 5: In New Orleans in the super Dome, it's revenge against that as well.

00:54:41
Speaker 1: And vibes revenge game, and the vibes probably will be bad in New Orleans. I have an eye on how many people are going to be in the crowd for these final few Saints games. They have created, through terrible management, apathy among one of the best fan bases in the entire NFL. Pelicans fan base. It's like another level. They're literally allowing people to go free to games and it's half empty. But I think I think the Benson family might notice that, and so these games are big, I believe because you get blown out at home a couple of times with empty fans like that, that catches the attention empty fans.

00:55:17
Speaker 4: I like how you said that, because you meant empty seats, but empty fans is probably how they're feeling.

00:55:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's politic.

00:55:24
Speaker 1: We'll try to add a little poetry to all the early games that's going to be coming up in your feed. We flipped it around, so stay tuned right here. Will be back for the rest of the preview.