2025 NFL Week 8 Recap: Love vs. Rodgers, Blowout Sunday, and Teams that Stayed Alive

00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we like a good blowout every now and then.

00:00:09
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal.

00:00:10
Speaker 1: I'm here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio with my friends Patrick Clayband and Jordan rod Reig. We've got Nick Shook coming up a little later. Patrick, your take on the blowout as an experience.

00:00:24
Speaker 3: I think the blowout, if everybody's healthy, it's a great opportunity, especially if you've lost a lot of close games where it's like, hey, you know what they got us. You know, you get beat when somebody like makes a one hand er and mosses you. That's tough, but you know you like bite on a double move and you can just wave to them to celebrate.

00:00:41
Speaker 4: You know, it's fun everyone.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: As a fan, it's almost easier to take. You don't have to think about the different bad obviously. As a fan of the team that wins, I always defend like the Seahawks Broncos Super Bowl is one of the most entertaining, like two quarters, you know, it gives you something.

00:00:54
Speaker 2: This was a day of blowouts. Jordan, we have some stats for you.

00:00:57
Speaker 5: Ooh, I love stats.

00:00:59
Speaker 1: Going into Sunday night football. And yes, we'll wrap with the biggest game of the day, Rogers versus the Packers. The games were decided by nineteen points per game. That's the most since two thousand and nine.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: If that keeps up.

00:01:14
Speaker 1: There were eight games of eighteen points or more. Wow, And yet our show is going to be just as good as it.

00:01:21
Speaker 6: Every single one of these games is a beautiful creature.

00:01:24
Speaker 5: In my mind.

00:01:25
Speaker 2: Thank you.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: So we've got a theme. This was a strange day with six teams on a bye and like I said, a lot of blouts. So we're actually gonna lead the show thematically. And these are teams that I believe the most Jeopardy in Week eight is about teams that are just trying to keep their seasons alive, trying to turn them around. So it's not really the teams at the top, it's kind of at the teams in the lower middle, and that includes your Baltimore Ravens, who I believe had a monster game.

00:01:52
Speaker 2: Let's go to Baltimore Ravens.

00:01:54
Speaker 7: Have it first in goal to nineteen left to play offset one, give us a hand right side head of the live bounces to the outside trek Henry.

00:02:04
Speaker 8: To the one touchdown Ravens and with two oh nine left to play.

00:02:10
Speaker 2: We've waited them up, but they hated the bar.

00:02:15
Speaker 1: Awesome call there by Jerry Sandusky. Good to have him back on the show. W b A L Yes, a game ceiling touchdown thirty to sixteen. The Baltimore Ravens beat the Chicago Bears without Lamar Jackson, who was downgraded to out on the injury report after we last talked, and it didn't matter.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Snoop Huntley saved the season.

00:02:40
Speaker 1: I don't want to overstate things, Patrick, but when they make the America's Game of the twenty twenty five Baltimore Ravens after they win the Super Bowl this year, this is the pivot point. When Snoop Huntley comes in there only five incompletions, the defense steps up, they're able to run the ball, and they avoid a disastrous one and six starts.

00:03:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, people are gonna see two rushing touchdowns by Derek Henry and Negate. Things like that third and seven from Tyler Huntley to DeAndre Hopkins that extended that drive to burn more time off the clock because you know the hay was in the barn, but the Bears would teleport directly down the field and have a goal to go opportunity, like seconds after the hay was in the barn, where so you got those little snippets of ah, the Ravens are gonna do this particular, very common thing that they do again. But it's the timely completions, the timely runs from Tyler Huntley as well, where you start to believe just a little bit.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: It's what you want out of a Ravens win. Because it was a total team effort, I mean, snoop. I thought legitimately played really well. Was Calm was protected well, which helped. But you mentioned the running. He had fifty three yards on the ground, Keaton Mitchell had some big time runs forty three yards on only four carries, and then Zay Flowers dominates in the first half. You mentioned the big new catch Versidhe Bateman had a couple big ones, and I thought it was an awesome game by Todd Monk and the offensive coordinator. They didn't have the ball at all in the first quarter, looked like the Bears might dominate them. They were up one hundred yards in terms of the yards and scrimmage, but the defense kept them in the game by forcing field goals.

00:04:12
Speaker 2: And then the last three quarters was it kind of looked.

00:04:15
Speaker 1: Like the Ravens team we've been expecting all season, even without Lamar.

00:04:18
Speaker 5: Jackson, Snoopinley.

00:04:19
Speaker 6: He started the game eleven of twelve passing, He missed one go and he missed one throw in the first half. Ended up completing seventy seven percent of his passes overall. And you mentioned it, Todd Munkin. There were multiple reports out of Baltimore local media this week of dissent in the ranks and displeasure with his play calling and disgruntled people in that building about some of the predictability of the play calling and just some of the stagnation of the offense overall. He had to have a big game today too, and to do it with the backup quarterback and utilizing every single one of those skill guys and running effectively, I think was important for.

00:04:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of you know, a lot of chatter.

00:04:58
Speaker 1: Patrick, I'm not sure where you think about it about the way the Ravens handled the injury report throughout the week. The expectations from the national insiders were that Lamar Jackson were going to start. They were wrong. That he's listed as full on the injury report on Friday. On Saturday, then they have to downgrade him because they said they weren't aware of the rule that if you're on the scout team you can't be listed as full I don't know if it was scha Canery. Some people think it's almost like they were trying to push Lamar Jackson into the starting lineup.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: Either way, there was a.

00:05:26
Speaker 1: Lot of confidence from people covering this game that Lamar would start on Thursday night, which they have a game in four days, and I have a feeling that ended up being a big factor.

00:05:34
Speaker 2: Let's wait a few more days.

00:05:37
Speaker 1: How do you feel just in terms of them kind of like stabilizing this season and what everything that happened during this week.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, the best case scenario is because if regardless of he's being pushed to play, obviously people would prefer Lamar Jackson be playing with right, they prefer he's healthy. And if the game coming back in four days, the best case scenario is the Ravens gonna win while Lamar can be on the sideline and cheer up the snoop and they have all this this positive activity happened, especially on the defensive side.

00:06:05
Speaker 4: Of the ball. You don't have to worry about it.

00:06:07
Speaker 3: I think like the Bears having to think that they're preparing for Lamar Jackson, Like, yeah, it's.

00:06:13
Speaker 2: The Bears sounded annoyed.

00:06:14
Speaker 1: They talked to the Fox broadcasters and they said they prepared specifically for Lamar Jackson all week.

00:06:20
Speaker 6: And Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen seemed generally annoyed by Mick.

00:06:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you prepare for the quarterback that has played the past couple of seasons at a level that has honestly never been seen before. Yeah, and preparing for him? Didn't have you prepared for Snoop Huntley in this game?

00:06:37
Speaker 2: Was the offense really that different anyways?

00:06:39
Speaker 1: Like Huntley was on the move a few times, not as fast as he once was, although he's still pretty young. I always think Stup Huntley is like an aged quarterback. And then he said after the game, like, well, Lamar Jackson he's a great mentor.

00:06:50
Speaker 2: To me, I'm like, isn't he younger? They're not.

00:06:52
Speaker 1: They're about they're about the same age. But they've been together. And this is another kind of like the Jackson Dart move that I think points out actually flaw in the Ravens offseason, Like you paid Cooper Rush all that money and they might be in a better spot if they had just resigned Snowpuntley all along and he'd been their backup. But I don't want to kill him for that. You mentioned the defensive improvement. Rokwan Smith returns for this game has a terrific overall game. Overall that they're healthier, todobe A Woozie was back in the mix, you got Marlin Humphrey. Everyone's healthy again, and they did a good job kind of helping play complimentary football. Let's switch to a situation late in the game. Bears get the ball, they were down two scores, They get the field goal, and then they have a long field to go while down a touchdown. I texted Jordan at the time and I'm saying like, oh, this is a really interesting spot for Caleb Williams. He hasn't been in this sort of spot and I'm curious what's going to happen.

00:07:45
Speaker 4: This is what happened. Nine fifteen left to play, the Ravens lead by three.

00:07:50
Speaker 9: Williams underset him, dropped the throw from the end zone, fires over the.

00:07:56
Speaker 4: Mid waits for the pick, craves and all.

00:08:00
Speaker 2: The sidline inside the time. Then the Ravens were the first turnover of the Jay and finally this.

00:08:07
Speaker 8: Hoff is on fig.

00:08:11
Speaker 2: Amazing growd.

00:08:12
Speaker 1: We waited a month and yeah, I just thought, first of all, Nate Wings had a really nice season and it was a really good overall Ravens defensive performance. They just looked like a normal defense again, not like the best defense in the league, but just just be a normal defense. It was another bad Caleb Williams performance and it was another game where the operation wasn't good. Ben Johnson said after the game the penalties stuck out the.

00:08:35
Speaker 6: Ghime then eleven penalties out, including multiple false starts and intentional grounding penalties.

00:08:40
Speaker 1: Just sloppy and that happens every single week. At the end of the first half, Caleb Williams had an intentional grounding and then kept the ball and bounds on a couple throws and they kind of ran out of time. They had to rush and have Cairo Santos kick one at the end he comes up short. And then at the end of the game, I know the game was probably over, but they have like four plays from the three yard line. Caleb took a sack at another point where they had a chance to score, and it's just their passing game is uneven.

00:09:06
Speaker 2: It's not pleasant to watch, and we saw kind of.

00:09:09
Speaker 3: The way things can can roller coaster when you when you get the turnovers and you go on this four game win streak and then versus where Baltimore's taking care of the ball, they're getting timely first downs and the explosives, especially because the Bears have more explosive runs than anybody in the NFL, and it's not even close. And you know, while it wasn't like a lockdown performance, they were able to keep DeAndre Swift and Calm a nung guy from having those explosives they've enjoyed the past few weeks. And it's just like that combination leads to a frustrating game for the Bears.

00:09:39
Speaker 6: It's the same thing over and over and over again, where you're seeing guys schemed open, you're seeing the quarterback make great decisions, and you're seeing just like the synchronicity happening on their scripted drives. And it's leading me to be suspicious that they're even extending the amount of scripted plays that they have installed into their playbook. And then after they go outside of the script and they start having to react and do the different things and adjust I believe that what we're seeing structurally, they are making adjustments. However, they're not on the same page as a complete unit over and over again. You see it from the offensive line and all the penalties, and you see it with the quarterback. You see it with the run game, you see it with the receivers, and everybody's not just on the same page.

00:10:23
Speaker 5: And that's just a problem. It showed up in most of their games this season.

00:10:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, to your point.

00:10:27
Speaker 1: Their first two drives both go over ten plays, but they settle for field goals on both of them. And it wasn't like there wasn't one thing that went wrong. It really hasn't been. There was a penalty in the mix in one of them, Caleb took a sack on the third down and the other, but they tried to run the ball inside the five in that first drive. I don't blame them for doing that. They look great, but they've been a really poor red zone team.

00:10:46
Speaker 2: They've been a sloppy team.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson, he was frustrated after I know the Bears were four and two last year and then it all fell apart. I don't think that's going to happen this time. But I also don't think they were playing like a four and two team. They have an interesting game next week against a team that is also in our a block that's trying to save their season, but not in this next game. We came into this season believing Ravens they're gonna be contenders, right, Okay, maybe they will be in the end. We also thought the Texans were heavy favorites to win their division. Big game for them today against the forty nine ers.

00:11:20
Speaker 4: A good mowally in the backfield.

00:11:22
Speaker 10: CJ and the gun Bunch formation left on third and seven at the San Francisco thirty. Here's pressure CJ over the middle caught fifteen ten five. In the episode Rock and Roll Touchdown Houston, who is going to play to Exavir Hotship sid.

00:11:39
Speaker 4: Who Tac Jones sparks the spot.

00:11:43
Speaker 1: Awesome call there by Mark Vandermere and Andre ware on k I LT. Good to hear the folks in Houston happy again. Texans win twenty six to fifteen.

00:11:56
Speaker 2: Jordan c J.

00:11:58
Speaker 1: Stroud goes over three hundred yards on a day where they dominated, and you can pick offense defense anyway you want to go. Because it was a lot of good from these Texans today to get to three and four.

00:12:10
Speaker 6: It was the Iowa State Cyclones offense for c. J. Stroud in a big spot with big plays from his receivers who were all alumnus.

00:12:19
Speaker 5: Alumni of Iowa State.

00:12:22
Speaker 6: Jalen Nol, Jaden Higgins, and Xavier Hutchinson all showed up had really big games. Two of the three our rookies, Jayden and Jalen, are both rookies. They drafted them together in hopes that they could start developing this chemistry with c. J.

00:12:34
Speaker 5: Stroud.

00:12:35
Speaker 6: This offense looked night and day different. When they wanted to play in rhythm and on time, they could.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: When c J.

00:12:41
Speaker 6: Stroud wanted to get explosive pass plays one on a catch and run wood he marks another young player who contributed really, really well today, or he wanted to sling it through the air and get the explosive plays, they were there as well, and because there was no pressure on c. J. Stroud in part, was what helped this offense look like a attacking, functional, multiple cohesive group. The forty nine ers only pressured CJ. Stroud on four of his twenty six dropbacks in the first half, and they ended with seven pressures and it was not good pressure. They only hit him two times, and even against pressure. This is how well things were clicking and how everyone was on the same page and the like I said, the timing plays and the.

00:13:23
Speaker 5: Explosives were there. Six of six.

00:13:26
Speaker 6: He was six for seven on the dropbacks where he was pressured per next gen one of three yards and a touchdown and fourteen point seven yards per attempt. This was a Texans offense that was averaging five five yards per attempt for passing attempt with or without pressure last week.

00:13:42
Speaker 5: It was a total turnaround for this group.

00:13:43
Speaker 1: Someone's got to buy me one of those black rob Low NFL hats because I want to put it on as part of a segment every time. I just say, Okay, here's another team that we're just going to keep in the mix at three and four. I didn't want to bury this team as a team that's just tough to watch. And I'm not saying one game so all, but it gives them a chance at three and four.

00:14:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, the game against the Seahawks, I was ready to do it. And they looked nasty against the Seahawks, and their pass blocking stats were actually better today. Than there were against the absolute dreadful Ravens defensive game where CJ. Stroud looked like he was gonna win like an NFL Heisman Trophy against that Ravens defense. There was a play in that game where like he was running to the sideline, he stepped out of bound so they got a sack. There were no secks by the forty nine ers today. And he's like staring down the barrel on that touchdown to Xavier Hutchinson where it's just you wonder the jackal and Hyde was this like Demko's prior knowledge of the Bob Salah and Shanahan situation. Spicy does that play in? Because I'm at a loss here, I will yield to two great football mounds to explain to me how the team that looked that bad in Seattle looked this good at home today.

00:14:56
Speaker 6: Well, the forty nine ers are really hurt, first of all, and on defense injuries, they were rotating players a lot. They rotated up and Stout in and out of the game because he was banged up. De Winters, their linebacker's been playing well, he was banged up, came into the game, left the game. They're obviously missing a bunch of pass rushers. A couple of their guys are playing with clubs along the defensive line, so that's not really easy to like rip and shed blocking at that point. So this but this game was really when you face a team like this that is as depleted, they're very well coached and Robert Sola's group is and everybody knows that Demico knows these rules of this defense intrinsically right, you get an opportunity to actually play complimentary football, and not in a way where each side was producing, but in a way where the offense actually set up the strength of this team, which is the defense. The offense went the Texans offense went on these long possession drives. The forty nine Ers only had three possessions in the first half. Their first two position possessions were three and outs. They ran fourteen plays total in the first half, and the Texans were able to play keep away and really set up kind of the way we used to see Kyle Shanahan run his suffocation ball offenses, setting up this top tier defense to absolutely smother Mac Jones and another depleted side of the ball in the forty nine Ers offense.

00:16:13
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that Bryce Huff was the Jenga piece for the forty nine to two shout out Dave Demas. I'm not saying no, I'm.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: Not saying that at all.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: But I do think there's a point where injuries at especially at a certain position, like it's just one too many. And you actually think about that game last week with Bryce Huff, like what would they have done without him?

00:16:32
Speaker 2: In that game?

00:16:33
Speaker 1: They go from like a bad pass rush with him maybe to just nothing. And he should be back in a few weeks. But I do think you're seeing the effect of the injuries. It's just one week. They're five and three, and they've been so resourceful that Mac Jones is not going to be the starter all season. See, you know, CMC is not going to be held to twenty five yards on the ground very often like they are due to have some stink bombs, and the way that they've won games that they shouldn't lets them have some stink bombs along the way as they get healthier, if they get healthier at all. But they're always going to be the third most likely team in this division to win it long term because of all those injuries.

00:17:10
Speaker 6: Part of the issue is they have very little receiving help, even the guys they do have on the field. John Jennings has been playing through multiple reason and he almost helped lead a comeback with a massive explosive catch he made down the field, especially right after a tough drop. The forty nine Ers started putting things a little bit together, looking like maybe they were going to try for a comeback in the second half, but the texts installed it out. Mario Lassiter had a great interception to sort of ice the game out as well on the Texan side. But the forty nine Ers are sneaky, hurt in players that are also still playing, and part of that's along the offensive line. Matt Hennessy, another center it made us is starting now for this team. Trent Williams came on and off the field looking like not feeling great. Just looked banged up, the broadcast pointed out multiple times. And so as a result of that, you have to bring George Kittle, their superstar tight end, into the line a little bit more to help with some of the blocking, especially against this Texans front that is so dynamic and ferocious, and you lose him as a receiver. So now you're trying to funnel everything through Christian McCaffrey and Juwan Jennings, a little Dumarcus Robinson sprinkled in there, and.

00:18:18
Speaker 5: That's just not enough. That's just not enough.

00:18:19
Speaker 6: Christian McCaffrey is having such a high production year, high volume year. Part of it's out of necessity, and you just you have to get Ricky Piersoll back. You have to get some of these guys back. But they're also playing through these like really quiet, I think, simmering under the surface injuries that could hurt them down the line too.

00:18:36
Speaker 1: It's brutal, and you hope for the Texans sake, you know, on the other side that like maybe they feel like they figured out some things on the offensive line that will help out. The running game wasn't consistent, still gave up like a lot of negative runs and yet they at least hit some explosives.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: And they're just they're just in the mix. We want the teams in the mix.

00:18:56
Speaker 1: And after last Thursday night, we thought, Okay, there's a path here for this Cincinnati Bengals team. Yeah, to stay in the mix. The Hollywood fairy tale story of Joe Flacco.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: But we forgot about the Bengals defense.

00:19:14
Speaker 9: Jets hoping for their first win of the season. They could get it with a stop. On this play, Flacco shotgun five man rush, looks over the middle, throws low.

00:19:23
Speaker 8: And it did to play hit it out of the.

00:19:25
Speaker 11: Hands of Yosebosh. The Jets are gonna win it. Jarvis Browley there in coverage twenty seven seconds to go. Hey for the Jets, it'll be victory formation. They'll finally get there first of the season. And it couldn't have been more dramatic and come from behind fashion.

00:19:49
Speaker 1: Oh dramatic on what has been a difficult season for the New York Jets and their fans to say the least.

00:19:57
Speaker 2: And yes, a very.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: Difficult day that they got to end on the field on a happy note. Great to see Aaron Glenn there hugging it out. Great to see justin Fields. We'll hear from him later. Get a victory led by the offense thirty nine to thirty eight in Cincinnati, breaking the hearts of a lot of Bengals fans in their long term hopes. Tell Us Jordan about the chaos that was the end of this Jets Bengals game.

00:20:25
Speaker 6: Yeah, let me set the scene here, because the Jets were down thirty one to sixteen at the end of the third quarter, and then they make I think what can only be described as an admirable effort.

00:20:34
Speaker 5: You're running the ball well.

00:20:35
Speaker 6: Justin Fields was throwing the ball really well, making some great decisions, and the Bengals defense started caving in right and so then you started to see, Oh, is this possible? Could this actually happen? Joe Flacco he takes the first sack of the game. The Jets first sack of the game came halfway through the fourth quarter, right on time if you're the Jets, because they were right in the middle of attempting to mount this comeback. And after that sack by Will McDonald and a Bengals punt, Justin Fields had a couple of truly excellent throws to get the Jets into scoring position with the Bengals have us having a six point lead, excuse me. And one of those was a third and two absolute laser to Mason Taylor for a first down, which also was a really situationally smart play by Justin Fields because it happened right outside the two minute warning and it gave them a fresh set of downs on the other side of the two minute warning, and then it's Breece Hall's turn.

00:21:31
Speaker 9: Ruckert motion's right, bell on set back, Brice Hall toss sweep to the right.

00:21:35
Speaker 11: Breese Hall, He's gonna throw the ball, pumpswas throws hands.

00:21:39
Speaker 4: On, it's hot.

00:21:41
Speaker 11: Mason Taylor the option pass right by Brice Hall for a touchdown, and the Jets are a point.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: After away from the lade.

00:21:49
Speaker 1: As that play is developing, you're just assuming it's gonna end in total catastrophe.

00:21:55
Speaker 2: You're saying, incomplete patron. I'm the saying call.

00:21:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm saying what's going on. Justin Fields is having a great game.

00:22:02
Speaker 3: You got bree Hall, who himself with the pump fake acknowledges I probably shouldn't throw this, nah, I've never completed before attempted to pass in college or in the pros. I've got one chance, and he and Mason Taylor bails him out with an absolute you should not have.

00:22:19
Speaker 6: Thrown that ball though the irony too, and it struck me. There was a lot of cool poetry of this game. First of all, that play not only gave the Jets to the lead, but they crossed five hundred offensive yards.

00:22:30
Speaker 5: They finished with five hundred and two yards of offer.

00:22:32
Speaker 2: We're looking at you, Bengals against.

00:22:34
Speaker 5: This Bengals deep we are seeing, we are noticing.

00:22:38
Speaker 6: But also early in the game, I thought that this game was gonna go sideways and stay sideways. After a fourth and one play that Justin Fields checked into a toss play to Breece Hall and it was a huge tackle for loss. The excuse me, the Bengals. The Flacco led Bengals turned in into a touchdown on the other side. This was gonna stay sideways. And then Justin Fields just starts bawling. And so it's funny to me that Bryce Hall is the one that gets a throw at the end of the game because he shouldn't have gotten the play at the start of the game, but then he gets it.

00:23:09
Speaker 5: At the very end and they make hay out of it.

00:23:11
Speaker 6: And I love seeing this for the Jets, Aaron Glenn's first win as a head coach. I love seeing this for Justin Fields, who had a really really hard week some of the not just the criticism he's getting for some really bad football he's played, but also some unnecessary criticism lobbed at him by the owner of the team.

00:23:30
Speaker 1: Right and after the game, you know, he was asked about it a lot, and he kept saying that, you know, it was a tough week in terms of outside noise. It's just thinking like I mean, just you repeatedly said outside noise, but it's like.

00:23:42
Speaker 4: The call's coming from inside.

00:23:43
Speaker 2: Rolls.

00:23:44
Speaker 1: Thank you the perfect words for it. And he handled it beautifully. And I think any team that hasn't won a game in the NFL, it wears on you. And the focus that's been directly at justin Fields, only amplified by ownership, that made it even harder.

00:24:01
Speaker 2: So it was.

00:24:04
Speaker 1: Really fascinating to listen to Fields talk about it after the game.

00:24:07
Speaker 12: I'm gonna get pretty bonner right right here. But this week I kind of, you know, I found myself in my closet crying on the ground, laying down, not because of not because of the hardships, not because of the troubles. I felt like, you know, I was built to handle that, and I was put in place to handle this situation. But so I was just praying over and over and over again, like yo, like just just one one win.

00:24:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he was saying how it was really just about the losing that that was getting to him, and throughout the course of the week. It was unclear, of course that if he was going to start or not sure. Seemed like, you know, the Jets were planning to start Tyrod Taylor if he was healthy. He wound up not being healthy enough. Now, maybe Fields and Tyrod kind of knew all along. That's that's my suspicion that Tyrod really wasn't going to be healthy enough to go. But you just feel happy for everyone there, including Aaron Glenn, who was also really poised. After the game, let's in terms of talking about the win and talking about everything that went on there, but before we wrap this, so let's at least get on the Bengals a little bit here. Giving up five hundred yards five hundred and two May and the two This is one of those games you look at the rest of their schedule and I know they have the Bears next week, which is a winnable game, and I think the Bengals offense with Flacco is showing that they can be competitive in most games. But I think it's all about managing the schedule and they've got some really tough games before Joe Burrow could come back at Pittsburgh home for New England at Baltimore at Buffalo home for Baltimore.

00:25:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was one they needed.

00:25:50
Speaker 1: And it just points out something we've been talking about, which is I would put this defense with the bottom three or four defenses in the NFL.

00:25:57
Speaker 6: It's tough to the Bengal. They can't get any pressure. That's part of the problem.

00:26:02
Speaker 5: You know.

00:26:02
Speaker 6: I noticed some commentary from they have a great group of beat reporters down there noting that, you know, Al Golden's going to have to like face the music and say, Okay, I do need to blitz more because that's the only way that they could possibly get pressure, the only way they really got pressure when they did get it all game and Trey Henderson's dealing with the hip and some of the snaps, some of the pass rush snaps that he had, they sort of isocammed it and oh my god, it looks like he's playing through a lot.

00:26:28
Speaker 2: He left in the at the end. He never came back and he left the game.

00:26:30
Speaker 6: He didn't come back in and so his status for next week and beyond is in question. And it just looked, it looked difficult, it looked painful. They could teams can always run the ball in them this season but especially what was it, two hundred and fifty four yards of those five hundred two yards were rushing. And this is a running back in Breeze Hall who had not had the best productivity over the last couple of weeks. Braylan Allen was actually poised to take over before Brailn Allen got hurt early in the season. So this is a Bengals defense that is in serious, serious trouble. And yes, Joe Flacco can get them, you know, up and down the field, and he had some great a couple of great, sort of savvy veteran moves.

00:27:14
Speaker 5: The Jets were a clean operation.

00:27:15
Speaker 6: They only had one penalty and it was in the fourth quarter. Excuse me, at the end of the first half. Joe Flacco on a hard count, got Quentin Williams to jump off side. It was their very first penalty of the entire game to that point. This has been a highly penalized team throughout, but they were playing pretty clean and then Joe Flacco and the Bengals turn it into a touchdown on the other side.

00:27:35
Speaker 5: So I don't really.

00:27:35
Speaker 6: Worry about that side of the ball, but this defense is a mess.

00:27:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't worry about any side of the ball that gets Jamar Chase nineteen targets.

00:27:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's over forty plan in the past, in the past couple of weeks, like you get the ball.

00:27:49
Speaker 1: Maybe I said, it really wasn't that efficient nineteen targets for ninety one years.

00:27:52
Speaker 4: It's they score thirty eight points.

00:27:54
Speaker 3: Yes, they did all they could and you know it wasn't just Breeze Hall Alan had a nice game. Yeah, Ellen Davis at a nce game on the ground and you know, shout out to Justin Fields. He trusted his I because because that's the thing.

00:28:06
Speaker 5: You know, it's great.

00:28:08
Speaker 4: It's kind of season seeming reluctant to put the ball in danger.

00:28:11
Speaker 3: He hasn't thrown a pick all season, and wow, he trusted his I even when you know to Al Golden's defense against the Blitz. He had a passer rating of one forty six today, So the blitz nothing works.

00:28:22
Speaker 2: Think of who he's thrown too.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: They were without their number two receiver on top of missing Garrett Wilson. Josh Reynolds is in there, so it's Tyler Johnson is easily their best receiver. Who is a guy who hasn't been able to make you know, consistent rosters, who's like a fifth sixth receiver type. Then it's Isaiah Davis, you know, had a big game over one hundred yards from scrimmage as a backup running back who had some pig time catches. And it's a rookie tight end, and Mason Taylor looks very promising. But man, it's easily the least talented receiver group in league.

00:28:48
Speaker 2: So they made it happen.

00:28:49
Speaker 1: They ran for over two hundred and fifty yards on the ground, and it was all on a day that you know, that started with tragedy. And it's so sad to hear what happened with Nick Mangold, their longtime center. And I know a lot of the people with the Jets organization, certainly Aaron Glenn talked about it first right afterwards just sent their their thoughts to Nick Mangold and his family who died on Sunday at forty one years old. It was on Saturday night that it happened. And if you remember Mangold that sent a tweet out. Actually a couple of years ago, he was suffering with chronic kidney disease and he was on dialysis. He was seeking a transplant he was looking for help there, and it just it just breaks your heart. A man, a father, multiple time First Team All Pro, a really great player, and someone that everyone that played with him at Ohio State and with the Jets just looked to him like as a as a leader. I remember on around the NFL we talked about it with Dan like like Mangold might be the Jet of like the last twenty years because he was a guy who always you know, wasn't always easy being with the Jet, but he was there during the best days and he was always there. So so rest in peace to Nick Mangole, dead at the age of forty one.

00:30:09
Speaker 2: We'll be back on the other side.

00:30:11
Speaker 4: Hurts under center Barkley.

00:30:14
Speaker 9: The singles sent by Hurts, the Barkley off left tackle.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: He's across the forty five to fifty forty five.

00:30:21
Speaker 4: Forty He's gonna go.

00:30:23
Speaker 13: Saquon Barkley fively explodes sixty five yards.

00:30:29
Speaker 5: Hello, I know that guy can remember him?

00:30:32
Speaker 2: Yes, Saquon Barkley, remember me.

00:30:35
Speaker 1: Meryl Reese does from w I P A tone setting sixty five yard touchdown run from Saquon Barkley.

00:30:44
Speaker 2: Okay, you can spend the.

00:30:45
Speaker 1: A black talking about all these different teams that are just trying to keep their season life.

00:30:49
Speaker 2: How about some of the teams.

00:30:51
Speaker 1: That are already a top their division and they're saying, yeah, we can get upset by the Giants a couple of weeks ago, but we're gonna restore order in the NFC East. As of October twenty six, get to six and two with the win thirty eight to twenty over the Giant. Saquon ends up with one hundred and fifty yards on the ground. Tank Bigsby ats another one hundred yards on the ground in a game that man. Eagles fans must have loved the scene because it looks so much like last year.

00:31:18
Speaker 4: Right off the bat, that's the second snap.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: First, you know, Jalen got a little wiggly on a pass attempt, threw the ball to DeVante Smith incomplete.

00:31:26
Speaker 4: It's like, oh, well it was offense is gonna be bad?

00:31:28
Speaker 9: No.

00:31:28
Speaker 3: The second play, Saquon goes for that sixty five yard touchdown run right up there on the left side where Mylotta and Dickers and Dickerson blocking for him, just like twenty twenty four.

00:31:40
Speaker 4: And the Giants, though, come right back.

00:31:42
Speaker 3: Jackson Dart hits Cam Scataboo on a touchdown of his own, and then things got kind of wiggly.

00:31:49
Speaker 4: On a weird officiating play. I won't say it's weird.

00:31:51
Speaker 3: It was just a downright jobbing on the behalf of the stripes out there.

00:31:56
Speaker 4: They run the brotherly shove.

00:31:58
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts extends the ball, Kevon Thibodeau takes it away from him, rolls on the ground. Then they blow the whistle and the Giants were thinking they have the ball, but ultimately they say that Ford progress was stopped despite the fact that there was no whistle. So Brian day ball for the first time on the sideline goes absolutely ballistic, tries to challenge it. The referee in explaining why they can't challenge it. It's like I tried to explain to the coach, like this is all in the microphone. The referee is saying this, but ultimately it's the Eagles ball. Hurts hit Saquon for a touchdown. And then with about eight minutes ago awful play. Scattaboo is running an angle route gets target from Dart. If you have a chance to not watch the play, I think it's great because it's a dislocated ankle. Mike Garofolo says he's gonna have surgery in Philadelphia tonight, So it's hard to take away. That's the big takeaway from this game. Saquon goes on another long run later in the game, he would leave. Tank Biggsby comes in and plays great in his stead. There's like a second and twenty six after Hurts takes a bad sack where Tank Bigsby comes up and gets that first down.

00:33:04
Speaker 1: Remember when the Eagles traded like a couple of draft picks for Thing Bigsby and it worked out. That was weird for the last like six weeks where we didn't see him.

00:33:11
Speaker 3: And you know, having Jalen Carter and Quenyon Mitchell play the whole game it helps a little bit. But there was another opportunity involving Quenyon Mitchell that calls Brian Dable to fully blow his top. Where Darius Slayton on fourth and eleven has a long touchdown catch, they call it back for offensive pass interference and looking at the tape, it did not appear to be offensive house no, and yeah, fun, you can watch that replay because Dave all app you can see heat waves coming off of his.

00:33:40
Speaker 1: Head you hate to like put the game in those calls. Ultimately, the Eagles out gained the Giants.

00:33:49
Speaker 2: Four forty six.

00:33:50
Speaker 1: Yeah it was a blow, but you also, if you're a Giants fan, hate to see those calls come up so big, especially just the cave on one who that's when the game is is still in doubt, and he called a BS after the game, and then Brian Burns was listening to him nearby and said, hey, man, like stop that, you'll get fined. And then Kavon was like, that was a great call actually, so we'll see if the retroactive great call saves him. But you're right, skataboo unfortunately down you know, of course we don't expect him back. And I saw the report today that Malik Neighbors is also getting his surgery this weekend, and you just think about, like what could have been with this Giant season And unfortunately I have to take the Rob Low hat off for this one, and like we're crossing off the Giants now, And yeah, it's a shame considering where we were forget two weeks ago, how about five quarters ago, you know, like it really felt like this was going to be something fun to watch and now it's going to be different. It's going to be very challenging, I think for Jackson Dart and them to come up with an offense that works.

00:34:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he recognized that.

00:34:54
Speaker 6: He talked at the podium after the game about how upset he is.

00:34:59
Speaker 5: He hates losing. I think that's fair for me.

00:35:02
Speaker 6: I appreciate when people, no matter their profession, like earnestly feel their feelings and aren't really.

00:35:09
Speaker 5: Shy about that.

00:35:10
Speaker 6: You could see this entire team how much that hurt having Skataboo, you know, be carted off. Every single one of those players came to, you know, wish him well and fist pound him. And Jackson this one actually really did twinge at the old heartstring. Jackson Dart came over and gave him a little head bump, a little head had their little head tap that they do to each other. He gave him one of those as he was on the cart. It's tough. It's tough, and for me, you know, I wasn't gonna see a sweep of the Eagles, Like I just didn't think that was happening. It was good to see Saquon Barkley show flashes of his old self and I want to point out, like the Eagles, they did look like the Eagles, but a little bit different because eight of Saquon Barkley's fourteen carries were either with six offensive linemen right so heavier personnel, or are three tight ends or two tight ends, and so they were loading up and basically saying we are going to will this run game to happen, where previously Saquon Barkley just was not getting the yardage were used to him.

00:36:14
Speaker 1: To seeing from him, you saw a different personnel in part may because AJ Brown is not on the field, But you do wonder if they're going to use that more later. AJ Brown was inactive for this game. They're they're hoping, according to Ian Rapport, that he is back after the bye. And also like you don't want to take Dallas Goddr off the field. He's got seven He's got two more touchdowns today, He's got seven on the season. To quote Jordan Mailatta, dude, he's unreal. How many touchdowns does he have now? And we almost didn't bring them back? Can you believe that's? How funny?

00:36:45
Speaker 2: Is that?

00:36:46
Speaker 4: What a great quote?

00:36:48
Speaker 5: Fail your feelings, everybody?

00:36:49
Speaker 3: I feel like they lined up Dallas Goddard out wide for as AJ Brown like role playing as a J Brown on one of those touchdowns where he gets matched up against the safety, and it was a and to be honest, the Giants secondary already dealing with injuries. It was a tough move for them, where you know, late in the game, Eagles making plays and they already were giving up a lot of deep passes and so it's rough considering the injuries and the defensive deployment. We saw seventy percent of Cooper Dejene lined up at slot corner, and I think that's that's the move for the remainder of the season. We're just not seeing Degene at safety. It's going to be around making plays being Starlin.

00:37:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, and I think vic Fango is going to be adaptable and changing to what he sees in front of him. But why why mess with what's working? And they just look more like themselves the last couple of weeks. And yeah, Cordell Flatt, who's been the best cornerback for the Giants, got hurt again in this game.

00:37:49
Speaker 6: So jam Hurt's played great only through it twenty times. Incredibly clean game, four touchdowns, one hundred and seventy nine yards one hundred and forty one point five passer ratings.

00:37:59
Speaker 1: His numbers for the last two weeks are insane for a guy who like through a total of forty five passes, like half of them for touchdown, seemingly. So, yeah, everything is good. It's happy, uh for Philadelphia and uh, oh, what the heck. Let's let's listen to how familiar it feels to Saquon Barkley, who didn't forget what happened in the meadowlands.

00:38:19
Speaker 2: It's always great to win.

00:38:20
Speaker 4: It's always great to beat the division. You know, for sure.

00:38:25
Speaker 7: We definitely saw how they celebrated and you know when they beat us last time, got to win.

00:38:30
Speaker 2: Going to a bye, it's good to get away from each other for a little bit.

00:38:33
Speaker 5: Also, you just wrinkle that one in at the end.

00:38:38
Speaker 1: You could actually hear Mike Garritfolo and that is courtesy of Mike Garifolo's Twitter account laugh a little bit when said that, Oh, I'm sure they won't make too big of a deal.

00:38:47
Speaker 2: Out of that quote.

00:38:48
Speaker 4: Eagles hate each other.

00:38:50
Speaker 2: We will see if Yeah, after the bye, A G.

00:38:52
Speaker 1: Brown is u is back on the field, So the Eagles get the job done. Some separation in the NFC East, looking like pretty heavy favorites to repeat in that division.

00:39:05
Speaker 2: Would the same be true for the.

00:39:07
Speaker 1: Four time defending NFC South champs.

00:39:11
Speaker 7: Checking down a long one, they moved like shotgun, look handleball.

00:39:14
Speaker 10: Actually think ryd let those pass up field.

00:39:16
Speaker 4: They intercepted depected off of the touchdown.

00:39:19
Speaker 2: For the Buccaneers, it's Anthony Nelson.

00:39:22
Speaker 7: So Anthony Nelson with a forced fuffle with ax.

00:39:26
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was the Anthony Nelson game.

00:39:30
Speaker 2: It was Geene Deckerhoff, Dave Moore w f U s.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: Yes, they mentioned two of Anthony Nelson's bigger plays early in that game.

00:39:43
Speaker 2: You know what else he did. He had a couple of sacks. Uh.

00:39:47
Speaker 1: Everyone on this Buccaneers defense got to eat. But when Anthony Nelson is getting the postgame interview on the field, you know something special is happening. It's a bad sign there for the Saints off in twenty twenty five when that is happening. Man Antoine Winfield was an absolute beast in this game. Yayad Diabi actually had the most quick pressures, three of them for this defense. Vita Vea was making noise in this game. Jameel Dean continue to streak of like making a massive play every single week for it seemingly the entire season.

00:40:20
Speaker 2: He had a force fumble in this game.

00:40:22
Speaker 1: And on a day where they pulled the ripcord on the agenda Spencer Ratler getting benched in the third quarter. The Buccaneers win twenty three to three to.

00:40:34
Speaker 2: Move to six and two on the season.

00:40:39
Speaker 1: Sorry, I didn't want to have fun at the expensive Spencer Ratler. It's a tough day for US agenda folks. But let's let's talk positive. Let's talk Bucks to start.

00:40:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Buccaneers make the plays, especially Nelson, who you think about the past couple of weeks where they all go up to Detroit hurt, have a great performance by the opposing team. Nelson is on the receiving end of a fourth down highlight play Brodermier Gibbs where he puts him in the dirt and goes on to score later on in that drive. And to come back and get that tip intersection interception in the sack that you mentioned as well, where the Saints offense Rattler or Shuck really had no answer long term to the Bucks making plays. And I still believe at the punch out play. Antoine Winfield picked that ball up that Jammel Dean forced and scored a touchdown. I'm not sure how they ruled Jamal Dean have possession of the ball and was down. That could have been another defensive touchdown by the Bucks. But a dominant performance going into the buy and we always say well deserved and well timed, but yes, for the Bucks in twenty twenty five, Week nine, it's the perfect opportunity to not believe for.

00:41:45
Speaker 2: This was a mature.

00:41:48
Speaker 1: Professional championship performance to just get there and get there comfortably on a day where their offense couldn't do much of anything. And that's why I say it's professional, because like sometimes you just need one side of the ball, just carry the other side of the ball, and that happened today, Like Baker Mayfield in the Bucks had two hundred and twelve yards of offense. The Saints defense kept stopping them on the goal line. Seven straight plays on the one yard line over two different possessions. One time it was you know, four straight downs. Was all these runs where they kept stopping it, and they almost did it again and finally Sean Tucker broke through and that made it fourteen to three in the third cord. But that was only you know, that was like the one long drive the Buccaneers offense had all day. But that's all they needed to have because one side of the ball had them locked down a lot of times.

00:42:30
Speaker 6: When Greg and I are watching different games and I don't have full vision of whatever game Greg is watching, then I just listened for kind of what he says or some of the things he says out loud as he's watching, and he just kept going, oh my gosh.

00:42:43
Speaker 5: But it was both sides Baker Mayfield played.

00:42:45
Speaker 1: It was like Chase Young baiting Tristan Wurf's over and over again too that I said it to as.

00:42:49
Speaker 6: Well to fair Yeah, and and Baker Mayfield had another I would say, bad game. I would like to issue a request to all of the like talking heads in national media out there. Would really it if everyone just stopped talking about Baker Mayfield in the MVP conversation.

00:43:04
Speaker 5: Because sun rolling benne.

00:43:10
Speaker 6: I've never said that, that three letter word. I've never said it. That's the thing he needs. He needs the chip on his shoulder. You could hear him the past two weeks. He was manufacturing it for himself. He was coming up with reasons to be angry and pissed off and play his particular brand of football.

00:43:25
Speaker 5: He is not looked good the last two weeks.

00:43:27
Speaker 6: That man is happy for a bye week, I'm telling you, and then hopefully get some of his guys back after it.

00:43:32
Speaker 3: Was really considering these struggles and the quarterback change kind of a wasted performance of a very good performance, not just from the Saints front. Chase Young had a stripsack where he got the ball and then like he's running like he's gonna have an option pitch and that was weird, Like they were didn't even know what to do with their success, like a Lante Taylor had a couple of great pass breakup on you know the rookie Star where we've we've seen you know, a mecha Buca do so much.

00:43:59
Speaker 4: Didn't really get going today.

00:44:00
Speaker 2: Nine targets, three catches.

00:44:02
Speaker 3: There was a moment where Baker Mayfield is looking directly at kool Aid McKinstry and for some reason throws the ball directly a kool Aid mcintry at the corner of the end zone where that gets They were really locking up the Bucks today, But you know, if the offense can't do anything.

00:44:16
Speaker 4: It's not really going to.

00:44:17
Speaker 1: Mark and you mentioned like the winfield like nearly at a touchdown. There was a point in this game where it felt like every other play the Bucks almost scored a defensive touchdown. It was just getting crazy, which is why I did not have a problem with the timing of the Spencer Rattler benching, as much as I believe in him. Last week, I thought he had the turnovers, but he sort of bounced back and most of his plays look like he's looked all year. Today, even though the numbers look okay, fifteen for twenty one, he had a couple more turnovers that six turnovers in about six quarters, and I thought he wasn't a little bit of his head and he was in a bad place where he was almost playing too safe and he was making mistakes, And so it felt like a a worthy time to give Shuck a spin. The problem is everyone else on the Saints offense is not playing well right now either. The offensive line without Eric McCoy was cheeks today, like giving up a ton of pressure Alvin Kamara, and the running game is really poor right now. Alvin Kamara more or less is getting benched now. On third downs because he's been such a problem as a pass protection. Chris Olavey had a play where he almost fumbled it. That was the one I think that got called back, and he left a little banged up.

00:45:30
Speaker 2: At one point.

00:45:31
Speaker 1: Rashid Shahed had one fumble that stood another one that could have stood. So they're not like winning these contested catches. And ultimately Shuck comes in and somehow throws thirty passes in four drives. They don't score any points on him, and it was like four yards per attempt, and he ends up with an interception on a ball that Shaheed got ripped away from him, and it was just like, it's just all bad. There's just like no real bright spot to point out of anything there that doesn't leave you anywhere to go.

00:46:01
Speaker 6: Jordan ipars but well, all I could think of was, you know, the guy who was absolutely losing his mind in the stands when Tyler Shuck came in. I wonder what that guy's doing right now. I wonder what his reaction and takeaway was from the game. He clearly and you could see there a couple of months.

00:46:16
Speaker 2: Describe it for the people that didn't see.

00:46:17
Speaker 6: It, Oh my god, it was this guy who was wearing a Tyler Shuck jersey, I believe, and he when Tyler Shuck finally came into the game, he lost it. He was waving his arms, he was yelling. I think I read his lips. It took to effing long. He was absolutely so. I just when you were saying all this stuff, I just I started daydreaming a little.

00:46:38
Speaker 1: Greg.

00:46:38
Speaker 5: I was just wondering, what is that guy doing right now?

00:46:40
Speaker 3: I'm so glad that Mickey Loomis will watch the game. Among the fans wearing is Tyler Shuck shirts? Now it shows that he's a man of the people.

00:46:49
Speaker 2: I mean, they made a change at quarterback.

00:46:52
Speaker 1: My gut would say they'll stick with Shuck for the next Saints start.

00:46:56
Speaker 2: We'll see, But that's not the change they need to make. You just mentioned the man who.

00:47:02
Speaker 1: To me, I think they risk losing the most diehard fan base one of them certainly in the league if they don't, because they're getting to apathy point.

00:47:12
Speaker 2: And this is what it looks like.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: Everyone wanted the Saints to tank, and they tried as hard as they could not to tank. But this is what it looks like when you do tank. Let's go to Denver, where there's no tank in teams, there's a team that's just getting in gear.

00:47:26
Speaker 7: Harvey resets to the left of Knicks. Three to the right Harvey in the flat, wide open. Harvey gathers it in tiptos to the end zone. Touchdown Denver bow Knicks's fourth touchdown pass of the game and for RJ. Harvey that is his third touchdown, first bypass. It was seven fourteen left in this one. It is all but over the Mile High City. It's Dimver forty three, Dallas seventeen ooh.

00:47:57
Speaker 1: The fourth quarter of Week seven rolled right on into Week eight. A forty burger for the Broncos against the defense that has served up some forty burgers this season. It is it's the house specialty in Dallas. They did it on the road today forty four to twenty four. And the six and two Broncos hasn't always been pretty this season, but they got to feel great where they're at. Whereas the Cowboys fall to three and four and just kind of in every other week type of team, and the Broncos found a defense that they could just victimize.

00:48:32
Speaker 6: Just complete command by the Broncos offense against the Cowboys defense that I fear to say is back to its new normal for this season after a pretty good Week seven last week. That was as the broadcast announced R. J. Harvey's third touchdown. He also had two rushing touchdowns open the game, including one where he took a direct snap. And he's a former quarterback, so it shouldn't have surprised the Cowboys defense the way that it did, but it did because in part, they got to the line of scrimmage really really fast before the defense could read and react to any even the alignment.

00:49:03
Speaker 5: Bo Nix was kicked out.

00:49:04
Speaker 6: And declared as a receiver, and that was a moment that showed me how much command this Broncos offense had over this defense. At halftime, the Broncos had two hundred and sixty four yards of offense and nine point one yards per play, almost an entire first down every time they touched the football in the first half. And this was such a lopsided game that Joe Milton himself was playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys midway through the fourth quarter.

00:49:32
Speaker 1: I do think sometimes the key sequences of games are right off the top, and when the Cowboys got to stop, you know, bo Knicks starts off like bo Nix has been doing so often this season, scattershot and throws an interception to the Cowboys on the very first possession, and the Cowboys get down to the one yard line and they have a second and goal from the one. They also had a first and goal from the and they throw an in completion, they have an offensive line penalty, and ultimately they don't score on another incompletion like that, to me is great complimentary football. So, I mean, we haven't always seen from the Broncos this year, but I think it was like a case of the defense kind of having the Broncos back, and then bow Knicks, you know, became the best Bonnick that we've seen LCS.

00:50:20
Speaker 3: And we had to see the Broncos defense for the majority of the game because on that drive that you mentioned, Dak throws a ball to George Pickens, where that's a touchdown ninety nine times out of one hundred, but Patzertan comes up, knocks the ball away, comes down, has a lower leg injury, leaves the game, would come back to the game, but then leaves with a shoulder injury and doesn't return. And so you're in this situation where Riley Moss, who's getting targeted more than almost every other cornerback in the NFL as having a deal with Ceedee Lamb, has multiple pass interference calls. But you know, the defense holds up and they hold because the Milton to Tolbert touchdown was an absolute garbage time, so the twenty four points is fraudulent. It was a great performance by Joseph's defense without the defensive player of the year.

00:51:02
Speaker 6: Yeah, and here's the thing with and without Pat certain and hopefully he's okay. I was worried, I mentioned to Greg, I was worried watching him on the broadcast walk out walk to the locker room because he was sort of pointing to and sort of feeling his like underneath his pectoral almost to the side of like closer to his armpit, which made me worry.

00:51:22
Speaker 5: That's obviously that could be really serious. We hope he's okay. He's so fun to watch, great player.

00:51:26
Speaker 6: But I thought vance Joseph had a great plan for every single one of Dak Prescott's preferred targets. Generally speaking, in a season where mostly Dak Prescott is playing incredible football, they kept bracketing different receivers as a secondary right, so they were sort of picky. They were playing matchup based football that you really only usually will see from a team, especially a defense, in the postseason or deep into the season, and they were playing that type of football.

00:51:54
Speaker 5: They were pressuring.

00:51:55
Speaker 6: They were pressuring well, or at least well enough only a couple of sacks, but really well enough to really get Dak off his spot. You know, Ferguson only had one target in the entire first half, and they just had good plans for coverage of everything, despite the fact that they were dealing with the personnel issues. Jday, Barron played probably his best game of the season. Had to take away on Dak Prescott. Like it just they are playing so confidently on both sides of the ball, and when their quarterback meets the moment like he did today even after the initial error, they really have something.

00:52:28
Speaker 1: I think that's so well said, and it just makes me think about how many different paths the Broncos have had to win games this season. They have so many different parts of their team, either line, you know, on a certain day like today, like bo Nicks gets it going. They've had days where Harvey and Dobbins pops up. Their defense hasn't been like elite every single week, but sometimes it's the secondary, whereas the Cowboys have such a narrow path to win every week, like they have one way to win and if it's not Dak's day or it's tough match, like no one's gonna pick Dak up. Unfortunately, you mentioned the pass rush for the Broncos, Jordan. Eight different players had quick pressures for that yeah, which you almost never see, and six different players had multiple pressures, and Benito and Jonathan Cooper had had five of those quick pressures between them. But we do want to I do want to give bo Nicks some love before before we move on from this game, because there were some dots in the second half of this game.

00:53:23
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, he made some he made some throws. There was one throw that he made that actually Cortland Sutton dropped. It was a should be touchdown and if this game was gonna swing, that would have been the moment where the Dallas Cowboys could have tried to mount a comeback. But then Bonix hits Courtland Sutton a couple of times late in the game, one of them a thirty nine yard.

00:53:42
Speaker 5: Pass and It's just beautiful. It's just a thing of beauty.

00:53:46
Speaker 6: And all shot, whole shot, defender crashing in, it's ahead of him, it leads him well, even with a defender crashing in, the timing of it is perfect because he is going to get absolutely smoked if that ball gets to him even a little bit later. Bonix, I thought, played some really mature football today and it helped that a supporting cast rose up right there with him. I just think that this was a fully like the most complete game to a position we've seen from the Denver Broncos this season.

00:54:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are around the into form and courtland Ston ends up with four for sixty seven, which to me is like the ultimate Courtland Sutton line. He's just a four for sixty seven type of guy, still getting it done. He's on pace for one thousand yards again, still around like fifteen yards per catch on the season. Like, there just aren't that many guys like him that consistent year after a year. Let's go to a team that I know has been annoying Jordan, that you could describe as perhaps the least consistent team in the NFL, to Atlanta tekn Doun at eight.

00:54:44
Speaker 2: Probably talk with forty three playout can fake.

00:54:48
Speaker 4: Spat to Wattle.

00:54:49
Speaker 2: Wattles got twenty ten five to Miami.

00:54:55
Speaker 14: What a great faker and he played it right on the body with Wattle and start going across Biddle and nobody Noboddy was going to cut that down.

00:55:04
Speaker 1: Oh Joe Rose with a little help from Jimmy Cephalo on w B G G. The Miami Dolphins needed a win in the worst way, and they got it thirty four to ten and Atlanta over the Kirk Cousins led Atlanta Falcons.

00:55:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were a lot of surprising injury.

00:55:23
Speaker 1: Situations this week that we were unaware of when we did our preview show. No Michael Pennix in this game, No Drake London. But it was really the offense of the Miami Dolphins who put this game away and it was a laugher to the point where Tua Tongue of Iloa is doing bits after he gets his touchdown.

00:55:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, coming into the game of conjunctivitis, which I had no idea that this was an issue, or that you could play an NFL game.

00:55:47
Speaker 6: Pink guy right, pink guy yea, Yeah, I think which one is that one?

00:55:52
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:55:52
Speaker 3: No, using the official terminology. Joe Burrow got me to look up the real name of turf too, which I've already forgotten. But so they get the first quarter touchdown from Tua, which hadn't happened in thirteen games.

00:56:04
Speaker 4: Wow.

00:56:05
Speaker 3: Like where the Dolphins are getting a touchdown pass to start off. They had a couple of explosive runs from Devon Han a couple of drops as well. We were thinking, oh, this is the twenty twenty five Dolphins, but no, he gets a Chan in the flat for six because there was no Darren Waller in this game. The quick three and out, the Falcons has another nice drive. Excuse me, the Dolphins have another nice drive. Tua running to his left with the eye which is basically almost swollen shut on that side, fires at seeing eyeball oddly enough to Malik Washington for his first career receiving touchdown sixteen to three. And so you saw, if you're watching us on YouTube, you saw the Jalen Wattle touchdown where he's pulling away from Falcons in the secondary. And I haven't mentioned the Kirk Cousins Falcons offense because they had fifty eight yards in the first half.

00:56:51
Speaker 2: Wow.

00:56:52
Speaker 3: A solid game from Tua in the offense. But there's been a couple of those. This is either the best Dolphins defensive performance of the year far and away, or a woe is Me situation where pinning our conversation, our lengthy conversation we had on the preview show about the pistol, I'm going into next stats, I'm like, can I blame this bad Cousins performance on the pistol? No, they were bad under center the one time they were under center. They were bad in the shotgun. It was nasty in the pistol. There was one point where Darnell Mooney wins on a dig and Kirk Cousins literally toast the ball twelve feet over his head and starts bounding himself on the helmet. I do, I don't really know what was going on.

00:57:31
Speaker 2: We got we got to look for that.

00:57:32
Speaker 1: That'll be for Wednesday show as a potential worst throw of the Year candidate. I also am going to submit the play where Tyler Shook hit a cheerleader with Rashid Jaheed going wide open for a touchdown and he just nailed it.

00:57:45
Speaker 2: Just wasn't great.

00:57:47
Speaker 1: But to answer your question in terms of like best Dolphins offense or worst Falcons defense, Like, you know, why not both?

00:57:53
Speaker 2: Why not? Everything?

00:57:55
Speaker 6: Definitely Statistically, I believe was the Dolphins defense's best run defense of game. They held Bijon Robinson to two point six yards and Tyler Algierra two point six yards per carry. They were the twenty ninth ranked run defense entering the game. This team irritates me. They irritate me. The Falcons irritate me. They I think we kind of came into this game knowing that pretty much anything that was above rock bottom for Miami's defense would be good.

00:58:24
Speaker 5: And they showed up.

00:58:25
Speaker 6: And Miami's offense has not looked terrible the past couple of weeks, certainly since you know, they even with the Tyreek Hill absence, like, they haven't looked awful, even without Darren Waller. You know, they made their plays. This offense. They have the best player in football right now made perhaps in Bijon Robinson, and it's like one every five freaking games. They have a game plan that funnels their entire offense through him legitimately as a mismatch, as a threat. They help him help himself, which good scheme and good players do. And I'm just I'm not seeing it. I don't know what this Falcons team is. I don't know what their identity is. Their defense was playing pretty great at the start of the season, much better than people expected, but they absolutely blew it today this what are you?

00:59:13
Speaker 5: Who are you?

00:59:14
Speaker 4: Well?

00:59:14
Speaker 3: Even the parts that were successful because that Jayalen Wattle touchdown came after Bijan had a fumble in the red zone. Yeah, in one of their better scoring opportunities of the day, and the offense was running thro Kyle Pitts today.

00:59:27
Speaker 4: He had non targets. He caught all of them.

00:59:29
Speaker 3: Unfortunately it was only for fifty nine yards where it just looked clunky. And I guess the ideal situation to make to find a silver lining is well, you know, right before the deadline, if Kirk Cousins comes in here and plays well and then we get Pennis back and we can ship Kirk off.

00:59:45
Speaker 4: No, all that's gone because it just looked like a mess.

00:59:49
Speaker 1: And I think they have such a unique defense that you cannot count on them to be a dominant defense every week. I know statistically they have been for the most part until this week, but it's so game plan specific. It's not based on having more talent that those types of defenses are gonna pop off six, eight, ten times a year at best. But if you're not talented enough, you're gonna need your offense to carry you every once in a while. It's an offensive league, and they've been pretty consistent on offense in terms of being disappointed. I know there's been like one or two games, but for the most part, they've been a mediocre offense. And they now trail the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by two and a half games in the NFC South. That is a significant margin that they need to make up, and they're.

01:00:33
Speaker 6: Ruining the reputation about beloved pistol formation.

01:00:35
Speaker 1: Yes God, and I don't think they're gonna fix it, So good good on Mike McDaniel, because you know, before I say goodbye to you guys, and we're gonna welcome in Nick Schuok, and you guys get to go home and say how to Tucker, say how to your beautiful children. Patrick, you know I'm gonna put the roblo hat back on and say, m glad, just we just it wouldn't be all misery. On Thursday Night football, the Dolphins are coming in with a victory, and.

01:01:04
Speaker 2: So are the Ravens.

01:01:06
Speaker 5: Yeah.

01:01:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's just one of those teams is so back.

01:01:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, if one of those teams is back the other one, at least we don't just have to hear about, you know, someone getting fired.

01:01:14
Speaker 3: All right now, I'm gonna see if down, if down in wardrobe or in costume, if we have the Rob lowhat somebody.

01:01:21
Speaker 5: I feel like we probably need to get that for Greg.

01:01:24
Speaker 1: I can't wait. You know who would wear that hat. Who's all ball all the time. It's Nick Schuck. We'll be back on the other side to talk about the best offense.

01:01:34
Speaker 2: In the NFL. Bye, guys, Hye job under center Jones. On first down, they give it to Taylor left side. He's in the twenty twenty five thirty thirty five. Now the sound line.

01:01:51
Speaker 8: Forty the yard line store going, Tyler up in the song line, chance chau Taylor tax in the eight yards to the house, hoping that sideline. No problem for the great running back calling right now.

01:02:08
Speaker 2: It's the longest rush this season for the Colts. I am for Taylor.

01:02:12
Speaker 1: Oh that's Matt Taylor talking about Jonathan Taylor.

01:02:16
Speaker 2: No relation w F and I.

01:02:20
Speaker 1: The Colts and the Titans were potentially the biggest mismatch you could create if you just looked at the numbers this year in terms of the offense versus the defense, And that's exactly what happened.

01:02:32
Speaker 2: Thirty eight to fourteen. The Colts run away with it.

01:02:35
Speaker 1: They take care of business every week as favorites, they pass all these tests. Many more are to come shook. But how impressed are you with this Colts offense right now?

01:02:47
Speaker 15: I think I was one of the last people on the planet to get on board with the Colts, just because I'm a skeptic.

01:02:52
Speaker 2: Oh, some people are still holding out. Nick right doesn't have them, and they're ti his top ten teams. That's preposterous.

01:02:58
Speaker 15: Give me a break. The last two weeks, I've seen everything I need to. Yes, they played the Titans. Yes they were supposed to roll, but it's the fashion in which they roll. Their offensive line blocks. Well, they have Daniel Jones throwing the ball over the yard. He's got all day to throw most times, and when he has to scramble, he makes plays. He threw a touchdown pass to Josh Downs on a scramble today. There was a perfect demonstration of quarterback and receiver rapport and understanding and they have Johnson Taylor, who's having an incredible start.

01:03:21
Speaker 16: To the season.

01:03:22
Speaker 15: We're almost halfway through the season now. The guy's got four games of three or more touchdowns. If he gets two more games like that the rest of the season, he'll tie la Danian Tomlinson for the most in NFL history. LT won the MVP that season, it was two thousand and six. They have everything in their favor right now. Even their defense is playing better than expected. Of course, they won.

01:03:41
Speaker 1: In a romp today, so one hundred and seventy four yards from scrimmage for Taylor, and I love that he did it on only fourteen touches and that's crazy, like twelve runs for one fifty three and then has a couple catches.

01:03:53
Speaker 2: He's been complete.

01:03:54
Speaker 1: They get Josh Downs back today, which I think really rounds out their offense. One of the best slot receiver in the league. And yeah, I think in terms of weapons one to five they are better deeper than any team in the league. And then in terms of their offensive line, I think their top five. So I'm kind of this is not you know, talking to anyone in particular, What the hell We'll talk to Nick? Right, he listens to the show, like they are to me the second most likely team to make the super Bowl in the AFC. We're not usually about takes here on Sundays, but I just don't think that's a crazy take it off. First of all, they're seven to one and so they're going to have a good chance at not just winning the division but possibly getting a one seed. But second of all, offense travels and like I've seen enough that this offense is going to be one of the best offenses in the NFL, full stop. And other than the Chiefs, there's just so many questions. Where are these great defenses in the AFC that are going to stop the Colts. I just don't see a team that's more likely than the Colts, sorry Bills fans than to make the super Bowl, other than you know, the kansasity.

01:05:00
Speaker 2: So I will give them their flowers.

01:05:01
Speaker 15: Yeah, and I would agree with that. And this is not a take that I came to today. This is not an agreement that I came to today because they roll the Titans. It's because of what they do week by week. And this was a performance in which it was seventeen to seven at halftime and they had you know, they had the advantage, but they hadn't quite dominated. It felt like they were still a couple of plays away from completely running away, which they did Taylor literally running away to eighty yard touchdown. But it's the fact that they can do this week by week consistently, and they didn't fall victim to a divisional rivalry game and even let it get really close in the second half. They put them away like they did it in their sleep, like they knew they were the superior team. They're just playing complete football. Oh and also, by the way they have I don't know what it is about them to this point this season, but it seems like every game there's just a stretch in which everything goes their way. And Michael Pittman makes an incredible catch in this game over the middle where the ball gets tipped up in the air and it's like the sea of hands. It's like the DeAndre Hopkins hail Mary when he was with the Cardinals. There's just a ball in the air and he's surrounded by Titans, and somehow as he's running, he tracks it brings it down and then a few plays later, Jones throws a seed down the sideline to him and he's got a defender draped all over him, hanging all over him. He can't use his left arm because he's hanging all over him, and he just Jones fits it right into his armpit and he just traps it with his other arm. Makes one of the most incredible, unlikely touchdown catches you'll see this season. Everything goes in their favor, but they set themselves up for success, which is why I'm a believer in them.

01:06:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that catches just amazing athleticism and a dime from mister Jones. Let's listen to it. One of the plays of the year. Coltsnear the red zone. Now out of the pistol.

01:06:29
Speaker 17: Actually, they're going to move Jonathan Taylor to the right if Jones out of the gun.

01:06:31
Speaker 9: Now ball in the right hash shot couldn't snap for Jones looking left.

01:06:35
Speaker 8: He's going to take a shot and throws a laser towards the pylon and that is.

01:06:39
Speaker 4: He catch for Michael Pittman JUNR.

01:06:41
Speaker 13: There's a penalty on the play, but Pittman snorts a touchdown.

01:06:45
Speaker 2: Has Pittman snared it in.

01:06:46
Speaker 14: With one hand on a twenty one yard absolute dark thrown.

01:06:51
Speaker 2: By Daniel Jones to Michael Pittman junior.

01:06:54
Speaker 1: This group, whatever ridiculous catch by Pittman, who's having a great year, he goes eight for ninety five, is so talented, and Daniel Jones is so much confidence that the play that I'll remember from this game is Jones for the second straight week, just throwing it as far as he can possibly throw it. Alec Pierce is down there somewhere and he moss the Titans for a fifty yard catch. So you're seeing these great individual plays, and we're gonna get to see the Colts tested again and again in the second half of this season. They have a game at Pittsburgh next week, but they have a game at the Chiefs, they have an at the Seattle. They still have two games against the Texans in the forty nine ers.

01:07:29
Speaker 2: So I just love that they're They're just part of our lives.

01:07:32
Speaker 1: And yes, if you're watching on YouTube in the break, shout out to Chris Pabona, shout out to Drew Christensen.

01:07:38
Speaker 2: They got me a rob Low hat and I'm wearing.

01:07:41
Speaker 16: It and you look like you're in the replay center.

01:07:45
Speaker 1: I definitely would like to either be a replay center guy or maybe like an offensive assistant that's just like grinding, grinding some numbers and telling the coach like when to go for it or not. Great game by them, and there's not much the time about with the Titans right now. I do like that Chimiri Dka has been a way bigger factor. It looked like they found two rookie receivers on Titans. So let's just give the Titans like a little lollipop here for DK and iomanor.

01:08:12
Speaker 15: Yeah, I am manner and DK both kind of settling into the rules. It's just that you can tell they're both rookies and they lack talent. Otherwise, Ridley was not out there again today, and it became very evident to me in the third quarter when they were down and I think twenty one to seven or thirty one to seven, that they were essentially just dedicating the rest of the game to continuing Camboard's development. They knew they weren't going to get back in the game. They're not going to ask them to throw sixty passes. They're going to mix in the run. They're going to try and insulate him and see that development through, which is fine with me. You've already fired your coach commit the rest of the season to developing your quarterback. He's the number one overall pick.

01:08:42
Speaker 1: I've had a correction. This is very important. It was not Drew Christensen. It was Drew Lee in the back. That makes more sense because I was like, Drew is a wool knit guy, beace. He does not wear hats.

01:08:53
Speaker 2: I got it.

01:08:53
Speaker 4: There you go.

01:08:54
Speaker 2: That's totally fair.

01:08:55
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mentioned DK He's a rookie mid round pick who goes seven for ninety three.

01:09:00
Speaker 2: So a little positivity.

01:09:01
Speaker 1: I think cam Word actually has looked a little better and steadier the last couple weeks since they made the head coaching change, but ultimately doesn't help out. They're one in seven colts at seven and one. Let's go to Carolina where the Bills were coming off there by week receiver.

01:09:19
Speaker 4: To each side on this two tight end set. Paused motions hand.

01:09:24
Speaker 13: Off to Cook through a hole and talked it to the open and he is ge oh and he gone twenty ten five touchdown James Cook as the Cook is in the kitchen for the first time in three games.

01:09:42
Speaker 2: Wow, surprise, it's been that long.

01:09:43
Speaker 1: It feels like James Cook has been running all over opponents all season. But Bill's fans will remind you the run game been pretty absent the last couple of weeks.

01:09:52
Speaker 2: That was not the case today.

01:09:53
Speaker 1: James Cook ends up with two hundred and sixteen yards on the ground. That was one of his two touchdowns. Almost eighty percent of his runs went for at least five yards, and the old Carolina Panthers run defense showed up forty to nine for the Buffalo Bills coming through for me, who took them minus seven on our picks against the spread show. So thank you Buffalo Bills. There to five and two on the season. Carolina can't get it done with Andy Dollon at quarterback, but let's give the Bills some love. What did you see out of them coming out of their bye Weeknick?

01:10:26
Speaker 15: I mean obviously a shift back to relying on James Cook. I mean, I'm the guy who has complained about this in their losses, in their recent underwhelming performances. So you go to James Cook against the stingy run defense at LEAs statistically, and you just ride him to success. Nineteen for two, sixteen and two rushing touchdowns. That long run there that wasn't the only one. He's so smooth, he's so fun to watch. He's got great vision, he's got great burst, and they should go lean on him a lot and take some of the pressure off of Josh Allen, especially with a passing game that's just not as explosive as it's been in previous year. So that's great. But also on the defensive side, they finally showed up. They get Maxwell Harriston, finally he makes his out. He has one tackle, but he's on the field. They lose At Oliver to an injury, and yet they still bottle up the Carolina rushing attack, which put together I think thirty or forty yards in the fourth quarter, which was garbage time. Otherwise they shut that down. Andy Dalton's playing quarterback, and the Bills feasted on that. The Panthers turned the ball over three times that got after Dalton plenty. It looked more like a Bill's defense of old. Now I'm not going to say that this is what we're going to see every week because they're playing the Panthers with Andy Dalton the quarterback, but it was really encouraging to see them play cohesively out of the bye week, especially after the struggles they've had recently and the pass.

01:11:28
Speaker 1: Rush look good in this game, and it really hasn't all year. And the Panthers have played well on the offensive line this year. Now they lose Brady Christensen. It sounds like a season ending injury to him. He's been playing. And then Taylor Moten, their right tackle, also left this game. So there were injuries. But there were some real changes we were talking about, you know what would be different for the Bills coming out of the by You mentioned Cook, You mentioned Harrison gets in the mix, rotating in with Tradevius White. They benched Torell Bernard. That was a pretty clear change. So Shaq Thompson, I guess, is the guy who really takes his role. Bernard didn't have a single defensive snap and he was healthy for this game. Dorian Williams has been in there too, and they also get Michael Hoyt back from a suspension, and he had a ton of pressures. He was on the field the most of all their ed rush guys. They also get Larry ogen Joby back from suspension, so two of their big free agency pickups kind of quietly return from suspension.

01:12:22
Speaker 2: There were real differences.

01:12:24
Speaker 1: We'll see if it keeps up, but a good get back to who they thought they would be game for the Bills, and that includes at least one big play through the air. Yes, Josh Allen was in this game twelve for nineteen for one hundred and sixty three yards and one long touchdown.

01:12:38
Speaker 4: Alan gonna work for the shotgun.

01:12:40
Speaker 13: Here two receivers to the right, one to the left, and now shavers in motion right to left.

01:12:44
Speaker 2: Here's the snap back to pass.

01:12:46
Speaker 4: Quick hitter. Shakir spins away from the defender.

01:12:48
Speaker 13: He's up the sideline thirty five thirty get out to the twenty, cuts it back fifteen, ten to five touchdown.

01:12:55
Speaker 2: Kalel Shakir all.

01:12:58
Speaker 13: Reliable goes fifty four yards to the zone.

01:13:03
Speaker 2: Touchdown.

01:13:04
Speaker 1: Buffalo old reliable. The guy's twenty five years old. But in this receiver group, I get what he's he's saying. He's kind of the safe guy, saying, we don't need some explosive threat.

01:13:14
Speaker 2: I think they still do.

01:13:15
Speaker 1: They might pick one up before the trading deadline, but Shakir they don't have to worry about him.

01:13:20
Speaker 2: One other change I did want to mention.

01:13:22
Speaker 1: Sean McDermott revealed after the game he was calling plays along with Bobby Babbage on defense, So that's a little bit of a change too coming out of the by him taking more control. There are you more thinking this is a reveal of the Panthers not really being contenders now at four and four, or just that the Bills are getting back to who they are.

01:13:41
Speaker 15: I think you could be a little bit of both, because I don't want to discount the way the Bills dominated today. Like that touchdown, there was the official point in which the tone of the broadcasters went from this is a game to this is a blowout.

01:13:51
Speaker 16: Let's get into the blow up material.

01:13:52
Speaker 15: So I mean credit to them for really dropping the hammer on the Panthers, but I also think it was a check with reality that the Panthers maybe aren't as good as they thought they where, and it makes you go back and review who they've played. They played a lot of poorest defenses, which statistically this should have been a tough or a great matchup for them on the ground, and it wasn't. So I think that it's a reminder that it is still difficult to turn the corner in the NFL when you're trying to, you know, revive a franchise like Dave Canalys's with the Panthers and probably a good reality check for them at this point in the season. But yeah, so if I had to answer that, it's probably more Panthers than Bills. But it's still really good to see the Bills get a win like this because they needed it.

01:14:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think some of those changes on defense, we'll see if they continue to bear fruit. And I do worry about Ed Oliver because they said it was a biceps injury, which always worries you. I did want to point out, by the way, sure why not hear that I was at a wedding in New Orleans this weekend. Shout out to Lloyd Desusa for having a wedding. You know, it's pretty rare to go to a first wedding now in our mid forties, so congratulations on making that happen. But I you know, I didn't know if I'd ever do a second line down the street, you know, down Bourbon Street again for a wedding in New Orleans. That was a lot of fun, but big takeaway for me, so I'm always thinking NFL Daily. Big NFL Daily fan came up to me at the wedding, Big Time listener and he just wanted to pass along that he is such a big Nick Shook fan, and that makes wow. Two straight trips I've been on where people I don't know have come up to me and say they're huge Nick Shook fans.

01:15:22
Speaker 2: So that's a pretty big deal. We need more second in our lives.

01:15:25
Speaker 16: I'm bad at taking compliments, but thank you very much. I appreciate it. No.

01:15:28
Speaker 1: I when he said that, I was like, and it was not that long ago. I actually woke up in New Orleans this morning. I feel like I was just at that wedding. It was not that long ago that I was like, I will get that to Nick Schuk. So for all the Shook heads out there, we see you, we love you, we love Shuky too. Let's do one more game with him before Sunday night football. Let's go to Foxborough.

01:15:48
Speaker 9: Fifty three rushing yards for Drake May works from the left cash for fifty thirty nine.

01:15:52
Speaker 4: He takes the check the staff, he's.

01:15:54
Speaker 5: Back to throw.

01:15:54
Speaker 4: He loads up a long ball loft the downfield down.

01:16:00
Speaker 2: What a weapon number A pretty throw.

01:16:06
Speaker 13: Booty has played himself in the One Hell of a Player for You.

01:16:11
Speaker 2: Really he really has.

01:16:14
Speaker 1: Drake May has two thirty two to thirteen the Patriots take care of business after an early deficit.

01:16:22
Speaker 2: They were down seven to three in this game.

01:16:23
Speaker 1: It was only nine to seven Patriots at halftime, but a third quarter explosion out of Drake May, and that play is a reminder Shook just based on efficiency accuracy, the most effective play in the NFL this year is not the Josh Allen scramble, as I've often said, it's the Drake May deep pass. The numbers are just outrageous and he was two for three in this game on throws over twenty yards for eighty one yards, and it's just been crazy.

01:16:54
Speaker 2: When he goes deep, they get touchdowns.

01:16:56
Speaker 15: Yeah, and oftentimes those deep passes end up in the hands of Kashn Booty, who, like Scott Zolac said, has played himself into one hell of a player. I'm a little concerned about Zolac's like mental state, like his health over the course of a season, because if Booty continues to play like this is he's still going to be sane by the time he gets a week eighteen.

01:17:11
Speaker 16: That's how well Booty is playing with Drake May.

01:17:14
Speaker 15: And really it's funny because this was a game that was a bit of a slog in the first half, the Browns defense did a good job of limiting the Patriots, but you felt like they were approaching an explosion. And then you get to the third quarter and that play right there, that touchdown passed the booty was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the one that opened the floodgates, whatever cliche you want to use to describe how it became a blowout victory. And another example of Drake May, who by the way, got sacked five times by Miles Garrett today, is unflappable.

01:17:41
Speaker 16: He is unflappable.

01:17:42
Speaker 15: It doesn't matter how many times the pass rus is getting after him, because Miles Garrett wasn't the only player with the sack in this game. And yet despite all of that pressure and all that harassment, he just stayed locked in and he ends up in another great line eighteen to twenty four for two eighty two three touchdowns in an early pick that was probably the worst mistake he's made all year, and it didn't matter because the Patriots, they are Mike Vrabel team. They will fight through adversity and they will see it all the way to the end and run away with the victory.

01:18:04
Speaker 16: Like they did today.

01:18:05
Speaker 1: They almost double up the Browns in terms of total yardage four twenty two to two thirteen. These Patriots games are looking awfully similar every week, which is they feel it out in the first half and they make adjustments and the defense especially.

01:18:20
Speaker 2: Plays better in the second half.

01:18:21
Speaker 1: And I think Josh McDaniels in May have just been such a dynamite combination. You saw it in the first drive coming out of halftime. McDaniels knew exactly what to do. It was a run heavy drive with a lot of Treveon Henderson breaking a couple big plays. They also had a couple plays that if they didn't work, everyone would say, oh, why, why do you get so cute?

01:18:42
Speaker 2: You know.

01:18:42
Speaker 1: They had a running back pass back to Drake May which ended up in the hands of Mac Collins, which worked out.

01:18:47
Speaker 2: McDaniels loves those sort of plays.

01:18:49
Speaker 1: You had a da Mario Douglas run that was an effective run. Like McDaniels has had a knack for calling the right play and making it easy on May to then set up the tougher stuff off later. And they've been really good in terms of dissecting what the defense is trying to do. And in the end, this stat was from Ben Solek at ESPN. The Patriots end up with a fifty four point five percent drop back success rate in this game despite all those sacks, and that is the second worst mark of a Jim Schwartz Brown's defense since he was back there as the coordinator. So they ended up having a very effective day despite.

01:19:25
Speaker 2: The five sacks.

01:19:26
Speaker 1: For Miles Garrett, like, what a crazy Tungsten Odoyle type of game for Miles Garrett.

01:19:32
Speaker 16: You're right.

01:19:33
Speaker 15: I thought that that drive that ended in a rollout pass to Hunter Henry for a touchdown was perhaps Josh McDaniel's best game script of the entire season because he identified why the run game was struggling coming out of halftime, and it was all perimeter runs. It was tosses, it was stretches, it was Trayvon Henderson getting to the edge, breaking tackles and ripping off big games. But it was well balanced where it wasn't every single play, but it was well timed. He mixed in, you know, the running back pass back to the quarterback, like said, and then he finishes it off perfectly with the play action rollout to hun Or Henry who was wide open like it was one of those drives where you see it live and you're thinking, this offensive coordinator has the defensive coordinator completely outfoxed, like he has just a step ahead of him, and this defense has no idea what to do. And that is an illustration of the potential of McDaniels and May. And while we give May all the credit in the world, and he deserves it for his physical ability and you know him completing deep passes and handling all the stresses of the job, he is perfectly paired with an offensive coordinator who knows exactly what to do with him. And now that they have enough talent to succeed Kayshaon Boody developing, Steffan Diggs becoming a bigger part of this passing game over the last few weeks, going between Remandre Stevenson and Treveon Henderson to balance out this rushing attack. It's just a beautiful thing to see it's all coming together. Even on a day in which Will Campbell's getting cooked by Miles Garrett, it doesn't end up mattering because that's how InSync they are.

01:20:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a game that confirmed my priors, which is that the offensive line for the Patriots really isn't very good.

01:20:58
Speaker 2: They got totally dominated.

01:20:59
Speaker 1: The pressure was so high in the front, and yet May is overcoming it because they do have real strengths in the defense. The run defense for the Patriots is one of the best in the league. And they sold out to stop Quinchot Juggins today and they did it, and then Judkins unfortunately gets hurt in this game. I thought it was such a telling sequence. They're showing the montage of the Miles Garrett sacks five of them in one game, and then the CBS camera pans to Miles Garrett just because he was out at that point and he is slamming. Must have broke the helmet. I mean, he's a man who knows how to slam a helmet. Slam the helmet on the ground. I'm not sure why he was so mad, if I had the guess was maybe that they took him out of the game, or maybe just that they're struggling. And I don't really know, but he is frustrated. You know who wasn't frustrated. After the game, Mike Vrabel, who is not above taking a shot, asked about his defense today.

01:21:53
Speaker 17: Taking advantage of the turnovers is huge certainly one on third down there was playing and then the long one there that that halcat. So we got to take care of the ball better and continue to find opportunities. They hadn't turned it over, and then when their gammick plays ran out, I thought we played pretty good defense.

01:22:10
Speaker 10: Hm.

01:22:10
Speaker 15: Yeah, and gimmick plays are handing it off to Malachai Corley, who is a receiver in case you don't know, for a long gain on the first drive. That's the type of stuff the Browns have to resort to doing because they know they're limited offensively, especially when the run game's not working. Dylan Gabriel throws a very ugly first interception that sets up a touchdown, puts the Patriots deep in Browns territory, and then he throws another one on the next drive. That's a fantastic play made by the defensive back. So the Browns are limited. The Patriots took care of business, and the dark season continues for Cleveland.

01:22:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, Gabriel is a man who Kevin Stefanski believes in and made it pretty clear to me that they're going to stand by him. Say that you got to ride the ups and the downs. But he has pretty clear limitations and you know, yeah, it's not going to be your day when Robert Splaine steps into the passing lane for an interception. But even more you referred to the other interception. It was like a one handed catch by Jalen Hawkins fifty yards down the field, which Gabriel probably shouldn't have thrown, but I think he just wanted to show everyone he could throw the ball fifty yards down the field, and he did. Christian Gonzalez also had a really nice game for the Patriots. Enough about this game, I almost feel like this entire show has just been a little, you know, preamble, a little four play to the good stuff. That's Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to Sunday night.

01:23:23
Speaker 9: Here's a snapped the love rush On throws the medal cut up there, Putty Love to the five and the lunch hit.

01:23:30
Speaker 2: Us Tucker Pap having a night Wow touchdown Green Bay.

01:23:36
Speaker 14: They beat Chuck Clark on a Quartzer twenty four yard touchdown reception.

01:23:44
Speaker 1: Oh, on a night where two great quarterbacks go up against the other, you want to see greatness, and we got greatness in Pittsburgh thirty five to twenty five.

01:23:55
Speaker 2: The Packers win it.

01:23:57
Speaker 1: That was Wayne Laravie on w r n W and yes, Tucker Craft was a huge part of the great night of Jordan Love with one hundred and forty three yards and two touchdowns, seemingly all of it after the catch, but ultimately shook this game. This matchup, it was about the quarterbacks, and I just wanted to leave it with something memorable, and I'll admit I'm a little bit of a hater. I wanted it to be a memorable passing of the torch and that's exactly what we got. A second half for the ages by Jordan Love. He ends up with three hundred and sixty yards and three touchdowns, twenty straight completions at one point, and it's not like he's just thinking and Duncan he had some great plays down the field. The Packers dominate after halftime. They knew what the Steelers defense was gonna do and they crushed them. A really impressive night for Jordan Love.

01:24:52
Speaker 15: And a great case for halftime adjustments and just figuring out what you want to do against the defense in the second half, because this Packers offense was struggling mightily.

01:25:00
Speaker 16: They just couldn't finish drive.

01:25:01
Speaker 15: Their kicker couldn't make field goals, and then they come out and look like a completely different offense in the third quarter and dominate, steamroll that Steelers defense, the much maligned Steelers defense back in the cross areas this week after the second half they had because they had no answer for Jordan Love, who was fantastic.

01:25:15
Speaker 16: Welcome back Christian Watson. He makes a big catch deep in the red zone to set up a score.

01:25:20
Speaker 15: And of course, like you said, Tucker Craft, this is Packers offense near its peak potential, and it all starts with your quarterback, who did a great job of outdueling Aaron Rodgers.

01:25:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:25:31
Speaker 1: Ultimately, look, they did punt three times in the first half.

01:25:35
Speaker 2: They were all three and out.

01:25:36
Speaker 1: Some of their third down play calling I found frustrating, Like first drive of the game, you know they throw it on third and one, they are struggling in short yardage. But ultimately, you know, they have a touchdown and it's a couple of miss field goals before halft. After that they go three straight touchdowns in two field goals. You mentioned the Watson catch, and that's what I'll remember about this second half.

01:25:57
Speaker 2: It was one of two things.

01:25:59
Speaker 1: Number One, it was what you said the adjustments, Matt Lafleur and Jordan Love having answers against the Blitz. After Kraft kills you all night, you got Chuck Clark got him one on one, like you're not a good man coverage team, Stop putting your guys in man coverage. They benched Darius Slay at one point and when they were in the Nickel and Broaden branded neckles because he can't cover one on one. But when it wasn't the answer of the scheme. It was just Jordan Love doing things that only he can do. Maybe a young Aaron Rodgers could do, but not anymore.

01:26:30
Speaker 14: Let's listen, here's the snap rush on Blitz On Love rolls out right.

01:26:37
Speaker 7: Watch it over the middle Christian watchings.

01:26:42
Speaker 14: He's tackled the seven yard line up Pittsburgh by putting the neckles Christian Watson and welcome back.

01:26:51
Speaker 2: Wow, that's one of those throws.

01:26:52
Speaker 1: On the TV copy we're like, oh, that's a terrible decision while it's in the air, and then it actually gets there and you see a little what Jordan Love was seeing and what a night Watson to me can help change this offense off the torn acl four catches for eighty five yards.

01:27:06
Speaker 2: He looked as healthy as a guy.

01:27:09
Speaker 1: In his first game coming off of torn ACL has ever looked.

01:27:11
Speaker 15: In my opinion, I feel like it's been so long since we've seen a fully healthy Christian Watson because he's just dealt with so many injuries over the last few years. So it was really exciting to see that happen. But it was especially exciting to see them connect in such a big spot. That's third down, Jordan Love's under pressure, They're down nineteen to fourteen. Their offense is still trying to figure things out. That is a game changing completion that inspires the team, injects confidence into them that yes, we can go into Pittsburgh and beat this team. We have figured it out in the second half. It's a huge play in a huge win for them. I think a bit of a statement for the Packers.

01:27:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, five to one and one for all the heming and highing about how they haven't done this right. Defense hasn't been as dominant as we would expect. They're the number one seed in the NFC, like full stop. Yeah, they were entering this week. They just won this game and they have a lot of tough games coming up in the second half of the schedule. Both them and the Lions are right there in the center of the NFL when they play each other, and then some other difficult matchups like the Packers have the Ravens coming up later in the season. There's an at Denver in there. It's gonna be fun. But they are such a tough out. While we're just giving Love his flowers, let's go back to the earlier in the second half, they trail sixteen to seven at halftime. Ultimately, the Steelers did a good job running the ball in the first half. I thought it was a key sequence. Coming out of halftime. The Steelers go.

01:28:35
Speaker 2: Three and out. They did not run the ball one time in that sequence.

01:28:38
Speaker 1: Packers get the ball back and it took a little Love magic to really turn this game around.

01:28:44
Speaker 9: Single receiver of the Laft snaff to Love looking and waiting the luffs it over.

01:28:49
Speaker 2: The right side plot but Tucker Craft of.

01:28:52
Speaker 4: The thirty, he's done to forty, he's.

01:28:54
Speaker 14: Done a fifty to the forty five thirty and Tony goes inside the thirty at the top five yard live Tucker Kraft on National Tightens Day, another big play thorn Hill and Elliott bade the hits fifty nine yard pass play to flip the field.

01:29:12
Speaker 1: Oh wow, did we make it the whole show without mentioning that holiday?

01:29:17
Speaker 12: That?

01:29:17
Speaker 15: If so, that was a good fake holiday, the fake holiday that was created by George Kittle on a whim a couple of years ago and now dominates one week every year. Yeah, Greg, you ever have you ever played the game Jackpot as a kid?

01:29:28
Speaker 10: No?

01:29:29
Speaker 16: Five hundred where you just throw the ball up.

01:29:31
Speaker 15: I'm talking to my nephew last week and he's like, yeah, one of the games we played with my friends is Jackpot, and I'm like, I remember Jackpot, and so we just throw the ball up in the air. You call it like a value and it's just a jump ball game. Tucker Craft must have been the best Jackpot player in the history of Jackpot because he made a great play there. And it was also a pivotal play in the sequence of this game because Deshaun Elliott gets hurt unfortunately on that play, and then they have to rely on other players you mentioned, like a Chuck Clark, and it creates a bit of a weakness that the Packers are then able to expose.

01:29:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, this method of how the Steelers paid defense, and we just talked about it quite a bit on the Thursday night football lost to the Bengals. It's just too predictable when they're in single high. It took a little bit for the Packers to get adjusted, and I thought the secondary played better for the Steelers tonight, but ultimately the mismatches were there. And they've played seven games this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers. In four of those games, they've given up more than thirty points. I mean, it's just they're just not the defense they expected to be. Aaron Rodgers was game. He looked old at points, and he took a couple sacks that you know, maybe when he was younger he would escape out of.

01:30:36
Speaker 2: But ultimately he was solid tonight. He moved the ball.

01:30:41
Speaker 1: I know they got a late touchdown when it almost felt like garbage tign but they put twenty five points up. I'm not going to kill him or Jalen Warren. I didn't love the play calling in the second half. It's more that they just went up against an offense that is more ready to win shootouts and the Steelers are not. For instance, the Jordan Love completion there on third long He's hitting sixty three percent conversion rate on third and seven plus according to Sam schwartz Thing of Amazon Prime.

01:31:09
Speaker 2: I mean, that's ridiculous. That's more than double the league average.

01:31:12
Speaker 1: They're just that kind of shows who they are as a team that you can get them in third and long situations and they can still win.

01:31:18
Speaker 2: So just an impressive performance.

01:31:20
Speaker 1: And the Steelers can't win this way, and their schedule now four and three, two straight losses, is about to get a lot tougher.

01:31:25
Speaker 15: Yeah, And you know, meanwhile, the Steelers are one for ten on third down. They're constantly in third and long, especially in the second half. I think we should mention though, and we've talked about this many times, so maybe it feels a little ad nauseum. Michael Parsons his role in this game was insane, like in the second half, whether it was sacking Aaron Rodgers while while getting held by two guys simultaneously, or lining up repeatedly in the A gap and just getting into the mind of Aaron Rodgers, a guy who was notoriously unflappable, and he forcing Aaron Rodgers to get the ball out quickly or bail out of a pocket. That's not collapsing on him. We cannot overlook or even overstate the impact of Michael Parsons. It might not be a four quarter impact, but in the big spot the last couple of weeks, he's really made a difference for them.

01:32:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they have other players making great individual plays. Carrington Carrington Valentine has stepped up as a good outside corner. I think he's taking that job from Nate Hobbs, who was the big free agency pickup.

01:32:12
Speaker 2: He made a number of good plays in this game.

01:32:15
Speaker 1: Edrin Cooper was flying around, was maybe their best defensive player and he was for all four quarters being a problem. And I thought they rushed well as a team. Rushan Gary got two sacks, but you kind of mentioned the impact that Parsons had on those plays. So they look like a complete team right now. The Steelers in trouble. And it just is one of those games we kind of circled it at the very beginning of the season. Shook like Aaron Rodgers against the Packers, you know, the hugs afterwards. It's just like one of those games we're going to remember. And I, for one feel like it delivered, but maybe only because I got the result that I wanted.

01:32:51
Speaker 2: Sorry Steelers fans.

01:32:52
Speaker 16: I mean, yeah, that's fine.

01:32:53
Speaker 4: It does.

01:32:54
Speaker 15: If this is Rogers last year, which we all expect it is. It felt appropriate that he would, you know, host the Packers in Pittsburgh and fall short.

01:33:02
Speaker 16: Not because I'm being a hater either, It just felt appropriate.

01:33:05
Speaker 2: Well, and he's playing well, He's really doing his job.

01:33:09
Speaker 1: He's more of a game manager at this point of his career, but he's been a pretty good one. The problem is Mike Tomlin and the defensive talent. Where all the money is. He said that he thought this could be a historic defense. It is not so far, and that division looks open for the taking for the Baltimore Ravens. Who are I know, the schedule's easy and you got to just win one at a time, but man, they're going to be heavily favored and a lot of games in a row. The Steelers will not looking forward to tracking it. And yes, yeah, we're just wanting to keep this season and as many teams as possible going. Even the Bengals were watching somewhere and thinking, Okay, maybe it wasn't as embarrassing as we thought that we lost to the Jets.

01:33:52
Speaker 2: Oh yes, it was Bengals fans head.

01:33:55
Speaker 15: We had sixteen teams in the Super Bowl running right about a week ago.

01:33:59
Speaker 16: Yes, are still there, All options are open up.

01:34:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was only one game all week that was a one score game, which is absolutely preposterous.

01:34:10
Speaker 2: That's not the.

01:34:10
Speaker 1: NFL that I want, the NFL that I love. Maybe we'll improve it, but I'm not so sure. On Monday Night, we're live every Monday Night, and we're gonna make it fun. We're going to add a spicy segment along with Chiefs and Commanders.

01:34:24
Speaker 2: That's a little bit of a tease.

01:34:25
Speaker 1: It's going to be me and the People's Champion, Nick Schook talking chiefs commanders.

01:34:32
Speaker 2: Right after it's done, join us on YouTube. We will see them