2025 Week 15 NFL Recap: Mahomes and Parsons Injuries, Broncos and Bills Statements, Wild Card Race Decided?

00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where two things can also be true.

00:00:09
Speaker 2: It could be one of the best days that the NFL's had.

00:00:13
Speaker 1: All year, and yet it can be filled with a lot of bitter sweet energy at the end of Sunday afternoon because so many of the great stars got injured in Week fifteen.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: I'm here in the Chris Westleying podcast studio with my friends Patrick Claybond, Jordan Rodrigue, and Nick Shook from Cleveland, and Nick, you're you're with us right off the top, because the biggest injury of them all, Patrick Mahomes, occurred in the game that you were covering in Kansas City. And I don't know what to say other than yeah, multiple things can be true.

00:00:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a bummer of a way for well, not to spoil anything, but.

00:00:50
Speaker 4: For it's the bummer away for the game to end in Kansas City.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: We'll leave it at that. You never want to see a star go down like Patrick Mahomes didn't. It didn't look good on camera either, And for somebody who has seemingly avoided so many injuries or played through so many injuries during his run of greatness, it's really disappointing to see him go down like this today.

00:01:09
Speaker 2: It is.

00:01:10
Speaker 1: It's just a crazy day, I think since we've been doing the show, because you have this league changing injury with Mahomes, you have a season changing injury with Michael Parsons, which we'll get to on a day too, where Philip Freakin Rivers comes back, and that's like the fifth game on the schedule because Rams Lions was so amazing and meant so much, and there's a big injury there too, and the AFC East looked like it was one and then it.

00:01:32
Speaker 2: Wasn't just so much. Jordan, are you ready for everything?

00:01:35
Speaker 5: I think we're gonna have to have a serious chat with Joe Burrow about what type of crystal he wore during his pregame arrivals today around his neck, because I don't know, I'm not trying to put one in two and make it five here, but the day he showed up in that crystal, the weirdest energy possible happens across the entire league.

00:01:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, and everybody's kind of channeling that injury because you can make a case that three guys that are going to be inducted in the camp go down for an extended amount of time today.

00:02:03
Speaker 1: Okay, so I don't want to. I don't want to because.

00:02:07
Speaker 5: Philip Rivers is coming back, so he can't go for five more years, and Eli's gonna get in.

00:02:12
Speaker 7: So this is the halls.

00:02:15
Speaker 8: We'll get on that theory later.

00:02:16
Speaker 2: We have so much to get to and that that is the thing. Football does suck.

00:02:21
Speaker 1: It's like whenever there's a team that's healthy, they're no longer healthy after the next week, because it's football, and as you said, the injury rate in this league is constant. And yet there was awesome football today and results and performances that will shape the rest of the season.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: Let's get to one of them. In Kansas City, Minshew.

00:02:37
Speaker 4: From the shotgun. Mahomes has already gone into the tunnel.

00:02:40
Speaker 8: Here comes pressure.

00:02:41
Speaker 2: Minshew stands tall, throws downfield.

00:02:44
Speaker 9: Turwid James and the game Derwin and the game Turwin.

00:02:49
Speaker 8: He did money.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: Second consecutive week.

00:02:55
Speaker 10: The Chargers end the game on an interception last week Tony Jefferson, this week Urwin James just.

00:03:06
Speaker 1: A minute roughly of game time after Patrick Mahomes went down with a knee injury that was later confirmed by the Chiefs to be a torn acl Derwin James calls game and for the Chargers to start the season in Brazil and knock.

00:03:25
Speaker 2: Off the Chiefs and let everyone know it's maybe.

00:03:26
Speaker 1: Gonna be a little different season in the AFC West, and then to cap it this way is just amazing. We'll get to the Charger side of it, Nick, but let's start with Mahomes. He made a statement on Twitter after the game, and I'll read it here and it just radiant makes you wonder, man, like just where you were when this sort of injury happens. You're gonna remember, he said, I don't know why this had to happen, and not gonna lie. It hurts, but all we can do now is trust in God, attack every single day, over and over. Thank you Chiefs Kingdom for always supporting me, for everyone who's reached out and sent prayers. I will be back stronger than ever. Obviously, the Chiefs are done for this season. They're eliminated. It raised a lot of questions about next season and their build. Talk to me a little bit took just about like what you saw today from Mahomes and just everything that that kind of meant about this season too.

00:04:22
Speaker 3: I saw a team that took the field with urgency in the first half and seemed to grab control of this game. They were correcting a lot of the mistakes that they'd made in the previous week, which is catching passes on third down on target throws to Rashi Rice. But what I also saw was the Chargers team that took the field with legitimate intent, and that was to win the physical battle and to let the Chiefs know that any catch that they were going to have was gonna be met with a defense, a blow from a defender. Tony Jefferson's out there just laying guys out in this game. He flattened Rashi Rice twice and then ends up getting tossed from the game. But it was a back and forth battle, a bit of a rock fight, very much an AFC West battle between two rivals, but a bit of a change to the guard. Maybe not a passing of the torch, but a changing the guard. Not that I'm overlooking the Broncos or anything, but the Chargers came through with a statement which is that we are not afraid of you anymore, and and so.

00:05:08
Speaker 4: Ultimately that's what they do to win the game.

00:05:10
Speaker 3: They pull it out in the second half, but Mahomes played pretty well, and he was dealing with this knee already was already you know, ailing him. He did not look as mobile as he had before. A lot of what we've seen over the last few weeks, which is scrambles, not finding a guy open, you know, the guy who always extends plays and finds somebody open. Nobody came open for most of this game and most of this game. And yeah, the Chargers got away with some things, a couple of debatable you know, should have been pass interference didn't end up getting flagged and end up being you know, killing early chiefs drives. But ultimately, like Mahomes is playing well until he goes down, playing well, not playing as well as usual, but still playing well.

00:05:42
Speaker 4: They're in this game.

00:05:42
Speaker 3: Then he goes down, and that's when the season goes down for them, essentially.

00:05:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the injury happened with a minute and fifty three seconds left in the game. The Chargers are trailing by three. They have it just over or near midfield, that the forty six yard line, and yet it's tough to see. We were talking afterwards, Patrick of you know, you thought Minshew comes in there, he actually you know, completes a couple passes before the interception. It was setting up to be a Bucker long field goal attempt to try to send it to regulation, and you were like, well, you know, it's like, if Mahomes is in there, they win that game. And I the way that the Chiefs have played this season, watching it with self interest, rooting for the Chargers, I'm thinking the Chargers are going to find a way to win that game that actually Mahomes or the offense, or maybe it'll be an overtime where the defense gives it up finds a way to lose, because that's that's what's happened all season long. And in the second half they did, you know, go three and out, and they punted twice, and Mahomes threw an interception in the previous drive, a great one handed pick by dayon Henley. So it's just been a cursed Patrick Mahomes and Chief seasons and you hate to see it.

00:06:50
Speaker 6: Yeah, well he's making he's rolling to his right trying to make a play, which is essentially a similar play to the play he got hurt on where pressure was forcing him to flush from the pok.

00:07:00
Speaker 8: For the majority of the game, Khalil Mack.

00:07:01
Speaker 6: Who won early a whole lot in the opener, and Brazil I was doing the same today, and I really think, like Tony Jefferson getting run from the game, it was a consequence, but it had a huge Tony Jefferson had a huge impact on this game to the extent where a lot of these short and shallow routes where Rashee Rice, I mean.

00:07:20
Speaker 8: Some of it.

00:07:21
Speaker 6: You got to put on Andy Reid that Rashie Rice and the routes schemes are so consistent from Kansas City that defenders like Tony Jefferson got an early break on the on the ball where he blasted Rashi Rice because he knew exactly where the ball was going to go and where the catchpoint was going to be. Where you get late in the game, Xavier Worthy, there was no Hollywood to start the game. Xavier Worthy left the game to be evaluated concussion. Somehow able to get back into the game and make plays down the field late where the downfield options weren't necessarily there. Travis Kelcey was of course having to deal with Derwin James as we saw the game end, I think Mahomes at least gets them closer to the end zone with with Gardner mentioned Harrison Bucker is going to miss the twenty twenty five version of the Chiefs, Harrison Biker was going to miss the field goal, I think, regardless, but I feel like Mahomes might have had a chance at least taking a couple of balls into the end zone.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard not to just think big picture after an injury like this. But if we're looking at the twenty twenty five Chiefs and they're done now, I mean, they had forty nine yards rushing in this game, and that's the thing about the Chargers. You talk about their physicality and for them to be able to stop the run. They only end up with two hundred and thirty nine yards overall, and both teams got all over the opposing quarterbacks. We expect that for Justin Herbert. But it's interesting to look at just these lines. Nine quarterback hits for the Chargers, five sacks and nine tackles for loss.

00:08:39
Speaker 2: The Chiefs on the other side.

00:08:40
Speaker 1: Twelve quarterback hits, four sacks, six tackles for loss. So it's a defensive game and the Chargers have been built for that. Now, like zooming out a little bit took kind of I don't know, what do we think about the next version of the Chiefs because with the torn ACL, we're not going to see Patrick Mahomes. You would assume for a chunk of next season they're gonna have decisions to make on Chris Jones and Travis Kelcey and we're gonna get into all that in the offseason. But it's it's hard not to think about, like a certain moment in time ending doesn't mean that they're not going to be back, but this is gonna be the first AFC championship since twenty ten without Ben, without Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady. I mean, not only do they get eliminated, but.

00:09:20
Speaker 2: I mean they've been to the AFC Championship game every single time with Mahomes.

00:09:24
Speaker 3: It felt like the fourth quarter of this game defined this season for the Chiefs and also the melancholy vibe around this team going into next year. Obviously, mahomes injury has a big part to do with that, with the fact that he is going to miss a good portion of next year because he tours ACL, but it was also the shot of Travis Kelcey on the sideline between their penultimate and their final drive in which is just staring into the abyss as if I don't know what has gone wrong with this team this year, why we can't put it together. It's the fact that you know, they get the stop defensively and they can't get into good enough field goal range and Mahomes goes down. They just felt like they could never get over the hump and do that, you know, make the magic that the Chiefs always throughout all these years. And it casts an uncertain light on this team going to twenty twenty six, not just because of Mahomes, but some of your key participants are near the age of retirement, being Travis Kelsey being the main one.

00:10:11
Speaker 4: And how do you adjust with this team?

00:10:13
Speaker 3: Like the Chiefs ran up a pressure rate at four to four point one percent, today Spags blitzed at the second highest rate he's ever blitzed since being the Chief's defensive coordinator, which stretches back six years now.

00:10:22
Speaker 4: Like they move.

00:10:24
Speaker 3: Out of desperation, they operate out of desperation because they're just not as strong personnel wise across the board that they were in previous years. And the salary cap dictates that to every team in the NFL. That's why parody reigns in this league. But how do the Chiefs adjust? And I think back to the Eagles were in this place a few years ago and Howie Roseman kind of got this fluid rebuild going. The Rams were in this place a few years ago and less Sneed gets the fluid rebuild going, and they were able to turn it around. But the difference was the Eagles struck goal with Jalen Hurts at quarterback. The Rams were still able to have Matthew Stafford at this point and come back from injury and everything else without having Mahomes for a decent Portionman next year. I don't know what to think about where they're going next year. And maybe this is the point where they do what the Rams did a few years ago, which is, hey, you know what, maybe we won't be that good next year, but this is the year that we're gonna bite the bullet to be better in the years to come.

00:11:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it could be a little bit of a reset.

00:11:09
Speaker 1: I remember when Tom Brady tore his a cl and then the next year he doesn't look quite as good and they lose in the playoffs, and everyone said, Okay, the Patriots dynasty is over that followed obviously with the best portion of Brady's career, but literally with the best offenses, and so I think they can reset, but it's it's obviously disappointing. This is such a bummer on a great day for the Chargers too. They are very much in the AFC West mix, and we're going to get to the team they're going against the Broncos now. But I think to just like cleanse us, before we get to another great performance and another unfortunate injury to a superstar, I think we should listen to a Call of the Year nominee and a play that.

00:11:46
Speaker 2: Didn't even count. I don't care. It could still be the call of the year.

00:11:50
Speaker 8: From the twenty. The defense is putting their hold on it. Videl Is the back here comes with blitz by on works hitters.

00:11:57
Speaker 11: It throws acepted and I'm picked off on the point.

00:12:02
Speaker 2: For rookie. That's a sick pick.

00:12:06
Speaker 12: Didn't try to twenty Oh.

00:12:08
Speaker 8: He's a big man with a w.

00:12:10
Speaker 5: A here.

00:12:14
Speaker 7: Kind of the opposite of you, Nick.

00:12:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, well.

00:12:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, I love that big man.

00:12:25
Speaker 2: Called back by penalty. That's the rule of cool.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: You can't call that by back by penalty. New York's got a It was called back by penalty right, you're looking at me, Funnier, Did that interception count? I a crazy? I'm an idiot. We could we could take that out the record or not. Either way, I love you, Kevin Harlan. The the last comment is why he just goes from Hall of Famer to the greatest of all time.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: Let's go to Denver.

00:12:49
Speaker 1: We're gonna welcome Shook back later in the show for the rest of his games. Thank you for your service, and thank you to bow Nix for finally making the believer is like myself pleased.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: On Sunday outside.

00:13:04
Speaker 11: In the Franklin in motion, Bo takes a snap four man pressure, bow climbs the pocket, throws the.

00:13:09
Speaker 12: Ball to the end zone, touchdown Denver Troy Franklin, bow Nicks's fourth.

00:13:20
Speaker 8: Touchdown pass up the jam great anticipation on that one.

00:13:26
Speaker 11: Franklin goes high above his helmet with two hands to snag the ball four yards deep from the south end zone, and Denver is in front twenty seven to twenty three.

00:13:38
Speaker 1: The Broncos would not relinquish that lead. They win thirty four to twenty six. On a day where bow Knicks had four touchdowns. Had Jordan Rodrieg and Patrick Clayboan honking in the newsroom, Yes with the h Dare I say the best performance of bo Nicks's young and career, Jordan.

00:14:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so. Honestly, I think that it wasn't just that. I will get to sort a little bit more of the breakdown. A lot happened in this game, Greg and Patrick. It felt like nine games all stuffed into one actual football game with all of the sort of drama chaos, and then actual football happened as well. But yeah, this was to me that the game that sent a message to the rest of the league that Boonix is ready to lead this team to a playoff push, is able to play a complete four quarters, but not just that to give his offense an advantage in those four quarters. And you saw it with some of the ways that Sean Payton took the training wheels off the offense at a certain point of this game. The biggest thing, though, that we have to start with is on the Green Bay Packer side, because these two teams entered the game as among the best of the NFL, and one team doesn't just leave with a loss, but with the looming and very ominous questions of what the f mature of this season is because the Green Bay Packers lost Micah Parsons to a knee injury, a non contact left knee injury that reports so far are saying is feared to be a torn ACL. Matt Lafleur didn't have much more of an update after the game, but it wasn't just that. They also lost top receiver Christian Watson to an injury the team is calling it a chest injury, and offensive lineman Zach Tom, and they.

00:15:23
Speaker 7: Were also without Tucker Kraft.

00:15:25
Speaker 5: So you have to really start this thing by wondering what is what does the near future look like for this team?

00:15:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to We've we've had so many you know, we've already had this, this Mahomes conversation that I wanted to give BoA's love and we will get to because I think it could be a transformative win for the Broncos. But you're right, Parsons going down with what sounds like an ACL injury. Matt Laffleur said, it doesn't look good as you mentioned. And Evan Williams is another guy along with Zach Tom, who are really important for their team. Zach tom at tackle that Lafleur said, doesn't believe that they are going to be long term injuries, but he's not sure if it's going to be weak or two weeks or three. So those two guys sound weak to week, whereas the omitting Watson in that scenario might mean his could be long term, like Micah Parsons, but this has been a difference making like defense all season. But it's also felt like Michael Parsons has covered up some things, not getting a ton of pressure from other players on the Packers and their cornerbacks, you know, not the strength of their team. And Bo was making great throws today, but maybe we saw some of that even today after the injury.

00:16:32
Speaker 7: Yeah, well you saw it throughout the course of the game too.

00:16:34
Speaker 5: I mean, the thing that Bo Nicks is doing is it's like the synapses are connecting when it's like time for Bonnicks to run and extend to play and also not over commit to a throw or take the risky trick shot or make the decision that maybe is the lowest probability decision, and it's all connecting really well. There were times where he was on the move avoiding pressure. Micah Parsons before he got injured, was coming off the ball so fast and getting to him so fast, to the point where.

00:17:08
Speaker 7: We talked earlier this week about.

00:17:10
Speaker 5: The Sean Payton and bo Nick's plan probably would get a lot of the screen game going well. They were playing Micah Parsons in a way where he was detaching quickly from his block and covering the screen so blowing up these plays. But the plays that bon Nicks made came on crucial downs third and long where he worked out of structure, avoided pressure twice and gets the ball downfield for a conversion. Another third and three where I'm choosing to coin this play. It wasn't designed, but it probably will be moving forward as this moving screen where he was working to his right again to avoid pressure and sort of like fakes out the defense by thinking he's just going to go out of bounds. But then he dumps off the screen to Troy Franklin, who made a great connection with a really beautifully feathered, layered long pass to Courtland Sutton for a forty two yard explosive. A fourth and three again to Courtland Sutton where they're just going for it, and you could see in this game I mean he missed. He only missed his second throw, like in the third quarter, and this was an incredible game where you didn't just see the way that he could.

00:18:13
Speaker 7: Make these plays happen, but also.

00:18:16
Speaker 5: His situational awareness and the entire team situational awareness. But really bone Nicks catching it's like a much more veteran player catching some of these defenders out of a personnel change with twelve men on the field and snapping the ball quickly so they get five more yards. The clock management at the end of the game, the communication between all of the receivers and the offensive lineman and bone Nicks, it feels like a mature operation for him only being in his second season. And like I said, it feels like coming together at a time where the Denver Broncos are sending a message to the rest of the NFL that they are going to be a nightmare to face in the playoffs, not just because their defense this time, because also because of their offense.

00:18:57
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're expecting and calling for a majority of the first Oh, here's this rock fight in Denver between two very good defenses, and al sudden, Jordan Love and bow Knicks start going crazy. Where you you only saw next Gen stats only credited the Packers with one quick pressure.

00:19:12
Speaker 8: Other than that, it seemed and again.

00:19:15
Speaker 5: Because you know, yeah, and I would I gotta say too, this is where I buy. I'm taking your take on like next Gen. You know, I love somebody alert because Micah Parsons was there.

00:19:24
Speaker 6: He was there, and Nicks, to his credit, uh and just like Jordan said, was very imaginative with how to manipulate the pocket, including on the play where Michael Parsons got hurt because he got away from Michael Parsons. Yeah, I'm on that play and kind of forced him to try to make that move that ultimately injured his left knee. But so much of this seemed like the culmination of two seasons of work in play calling between the head coach who's calling the plays and his young quarter younger quarterback the most I know Bo played a lot of college football.

00:19:54
Speaker 8: But for for you to.

00:19:57
Speaker 6: Have this game in this situation against this Packer's defense where the screens, yeah, he was hitting on the short quick passes he had two touchdowns, but the extended plays, especially on third and fourth down, where Bonnicks was seven of ten for eighty four yards one hundred and twenty eight passer rating on third and fourth down in this game eight point four yards per attempt, Like this is not dunkin and Duncan Knicks was taking shots down the field and hitting most of them in the.

00:20:20
Speaker 1: Second And this has to be a game where you say they won because of bo Nix, not with bo Nicks, because look, their defense literally gave up points on the first five Packers possession, so the Packers' offense is essentially destroying them through the first possession of that second half, and then after that the Broncos defense we expect to see shows up, but the bow Knicks helps to keep them in this game. Maybe Sean Payton does too by going for it on fourth down in two spots late in the fourth quarter under five minutes to go, showing faith with in his offense on fourth in short multiple times, once giving the ball to Alex Prentice like John Payton loves him a full back.

00:20:57
Speaker 2: Like in the biggest of spots.

00:20:58
Speaker 1: The other time Bonnicks had had an incompletion on the throw, but that kept the Packers in the game. But ultimately, what a what a great team win. And then you know you're thinking about the Packers Jordan. Long term, it just feels like they're not going to be at the same level. And right now they're now behind the Bears in the in the NFC North, and they're you know, the chances for the one seed are obviously lesser.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: I think they have a chance, but just feels like they're ceiling.

00:21:24
Speaker 1: It's significantly lower without Micah Parsons, to the point where like, Okay, if you're in the AFC, I might throw you right near the top of the mix, but you're not. I'm putting you a level below the Rams and the Seahawks.

00:21:34
Speaker 5: And I want to say too, just that it's not just that you're missing one of the best players in the NFL today, but also you know, you remember when he first came in. He came in late before the start of the season obviously when they made that that move, and it took them a couple of games to build a plan around him and to really understand as a group, because you can't really, you don't have time to do that during the season. That's what training camp is for, is to install scheme. Right, you don't have a ton of time to do that. You run your plays, the best ones according to the defenses that you face. That's game planning, but you have to design now and do something in a sudden change, and that's very.

00:22:10
Speaker 7: Hard to do.

00:22:11
Speaker 5: And you saw it at first they were it didn't everyone was playing well individually, but they didn't quite come together in a way that we really wanted to see right away. Well, then they started firing on all cylinders, especially after the bye week, really came together and looked like one of the best defenses in the NFL were playing like it. Certainly, now they've got to do another sudden change, and that's what I think is more significant, sort of the underlayer of losing a player of that status because he is the center of a solar system. When you have a player like that, I saw it with Aaron Donald for years. When you have a player who is the center of the solar system, every other piece falls into orbit around it. And and that is Micah Parsons. And now you have to figure out how all of the planets, you know, float around each other without him, and it's really tough to do, especially in December. That's it's going to be an enormous test for this coaching staff.

00:23:00
Speaker 2: It will.

00:23:01
Speaker 1: And I thought that you know there was a moment when Love got the ball back down eight.

00:23:06
Speaker 2: If he was ever.

00:23:06
Speaker 1: Gonna stick himself into that MVP conversation, it would have been some miracle come back year that's gone. But it could sort of make and I think that's over with for Love. Like I it does make me just think that they're just gonna have to go nuclear on offense, which it's possible, Josh Jacobs with some crazy awesome plays today, it's certainly possible. But as Matt Lafleur said today, what was it If it doesn't hurt, why are we doing this? Why are we doing this if it doesn't hurt? I mean, you know you're hurt.

00:23:35
Speaker 5: You know you're in trouble where you're on the of the Shanahan tree. Guys, you're on the side you're vacillating towards Shanahan Vibe dark ominous. No one knows if we're going to be here Sunday Vibe versus the peppy, perky We'll get him next week, Sean McVay vibe. You know, Matt Lafleur's taking a turn.

00:23:52
Speaker 2: No question.

00:23:53
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Sean Payton, remember before the season, I'm saying he thought he had a Super Bowl team. Well, they're the one seed with three games to go and that upcoming game against the Chiefs, and to just like think about that, it's often about who you play when you play them, like the Kansas City Chiefs, when you think about who they play the rest of the season. They have a game against the Broncos that now just like looks like a total layup for Denver, whereas before not so much. All Right, Denver's number one, in part because of what happened in New England. The Patriots were one half away from winning the AFC East two weeks before Christmas, but they couldn't close the deal.

00:24:34
Speaker 13: Two tight ends set, but they're split out to the left with Shakir two on the right in an empty set, third and goal from the fourteen.

00:24:40
Speaker 2: Here's the snap, four man rush.

00:24:42
Speaker 13: Allen steps up, fires, and he's got knocks.

00:24:45
Speaker 2: In the end zone for a touchdown.

00:24:48
Speaker 13: Josh Allen with a laser to Dawson Knox for his second touchdown reception of the game, and the Bills for the first time, have come all the way back to ja the lead oh Chris.

00:25:02
Speaker 1: Brown on wg R thirty five to thirty one.

00:25:08
Speaker 2: The Bills win this game. And I chose that.

00:25:13
Speaker 1: Touchdown in particular because on every third and long, on every play where the Patriots could just get the Bills off the field in the second half, Josh Allen did something awesome. And it wasn't It wasn't just one thing. There was play making. There was gutsy decision making. I think the fourth down decision by McDermott to go for it was obvious enough. But the fourth down decision from Josh Allen to go for a seamball up the middle to Khalis Shakir and put a perfectly placed past in his hands where they called the pass interference. Patrick's making a face.

00:25:51
Speaker 8: I'll pick you up.

00:25:51
Speaker 1: Greg to the victor, goes to bold. I mean, like you know, he was bold. He put it right on him.

00:25:57
Speaker 5: A questionable nobody cut the ball anyway, A lot of those today.

00:26:02
Speaker 2: I thought that was an it's a bang bang call, I think complaining about the calls here. But he caught the ball.

00:26:07
Speaker 1: He caught the ball in the end on that Shakir play, they ruled that he had the catch before Jones pulled it away. Either way, whatever, Josh Allen and the Bills offense were trying to do. They got done in a span of five straight touchdowns. They go five for five in the red zone, keeping the Patriots in the last place. They are the worst red zone defense in the NFL by a decent amount, and yes, down twenty one to nothing. It's the first time the Patriots have blown a seventeen point lead in one hundred and twenty attempts at doing so. Only Josh Allen could do it. Mike Rabel spoke after the game about last year's MVP.

00:26:49
Speaker 14: Just watch all the games. You know that it's just the same as it was last week. You had a guy free weren't able to make to play. Last week's team had a guy free weren't able to make to play. It's why I draft him, and it's why I pay him sixty million dollars.

00:27:05
Speaker 8: I don't know what to tell.

00:27:05
Speaker 2: You, poor Mike.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: That came after about thirty to forty seconds of him just kind of rattling off a list of reasons why Josh Allen had him a little resigned. Remind me a little bit of that Josh Allen playoff game where Bill Belichick and the Patriots did not force a single stop of the.

00:27:23
Speaker 2: Bills in Josh Allen.

00:27:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was gonna Actually, I'm glad you brought that up, because I was like, he's he's feeling a little like depressed at the podium late stage. Belichick right there, certainly different vibes overall in New England. It's also really disheartening to lose like that when according to next Gen Stats, the Bills had a win probability of just eight percent at a certain point and they came all the way back. And I just felt like coming into this game, we talked earlier this week about the Bills and you just can't because of Josh Allen and because also of the variance that this team plays with for the positive in the second half of games. You can't really count them out ever, and certainly you could not count them out of a sweep of a potential sweep.

00:28:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were plus ninety four in the second half of games going into this week. They trailed twenty four to seven at halftime in this game, so you know, they make up a seventeen point deficit and win by four. And that part of it didn't shock me, because like, the Patriots are a flawed defensive team and the Bills got it going before halftime with the touchdown drive. I think they won this game in part because in the second half of this game, their coverage held up and they got the Patriots off the field quickly every single drive. Now, one time they got them off the field quickly because it was a one play Travon Henderson touchdown that took.

00:28:46
Speaker 2: Back the lead.

00:28:47
Speaker 1: But overall, it was just the Patriots were living on the field, and they had a lot of designer stuff and stunts and everything cooked up early in the game where they were kind of winning, and I felt like the Bills and Joe Brady and Josh Allen figured it out and they relied on their quarterback but also on James Cook in the second half of that game, and it felt like a prayer anytime the Patriots were trying to stop the Buffalo Bills.

00:29:09
Speaker 6: After that, I think the big play was made by Joey Bosa. Yeah, late in this game where the Patriots had a crucial fourth down, Mike Rabel's going for it, Drake May and the Patriots had just had a kind of woeful drive considering how explosive they were. And I guess it's the plague of all these most explosive offenses where it's tough to sustain a lead when all you can do is get giant chunk plays.

00:29:35
Speaker 8: The Patriots were doing this entire game.

00:29:37
Speaker 6: Where they have Bosa actually drop as a spy, and of all the difficulty every single Bills defender had in keeping up with Drake May this entire game, Bosa is able to get his foot in the ground in the right moment where there's nowhere for Drake May to go, and then when May decides to throw over him, he knocks that pass down, essentially saving the game for the Buffalo bill.

00:29:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a great point because in the first half, Drake May and the Patriots coming out of their by remember that they're coming off that week off. It really felt like, Okay, we're getting close to the end. Maybe let's press that Drake May design run and scramble button a little more than previously. And he had two rushing touchdowns in the first half of the game after having two all season long, and he was playing fantastic. There was a great throw down the sideline to Booty like mc collins had a couple of nice plays. But you're right, it's so dependent on the big play hell, let's let's listen to a moment in time, because I have a feeling our friend Scott Zolek is gonna have a great call on the Trayvon Henderson touchdown.

00:30:35
Speaker 15: Now, New England goes to work from the I formation, two receivers to the left with many under center, tosses it right for Trayvon Henderson.

00:30:42
Speaker 2: The Bills haven't defended well. He tries to bounce it back off to stretch it off.

00:30:45
Speaker 16: Party twenty five forty two, beach twenty five to fifty.

00:30:50
Speaker 2: Time to get home.

00:30:53
Speaker 17: Take to kidding me and like New England, hell's the lead. I'm sitting here getting riplet because they went toss right into the mass up the defense.

00:31:07
Speaker 18: It's a bad call. The rookie kicks it backside and your quarterback recognizing and he busts his ass to get out in front of the steed guy because he's got wills and he plucks two guys.

00:31:21
Speaker 8: You're what is it?

00:31:22
Speaker 18: Something that is really starting to come together.

00:31:25
Speaker 8: For this team?

00:31:25
Speaker 2: Oh man?

00:31:27
Speaker 7: That's so good.

00:31:29
Speaker 1: Almost as good any reasons as the most lowsome man in sports media, Dave Fortnite. They send me a video about how they own the East and there a new dynasty has started.

00:31:39
Speaker 2: In the middle of this game.

00:31:40
Speaker 1: It make it they're making it hard to be a Patriots fan out here, no one who's with you.

00:31:48
Speaker 2: And then they blow that game.

00:31:50
Speaker 1: But I think it makes sense to me there they're a young team to sweep the Bills. Man, it doesn't mean they can't win the division. There's still one up. That game of against the Ravens looks even bigger next week. It just makes sense to me to beat a team like the Bills. And after that Henderson play, by the way, it was like, man, their defense cannot get off the field before that, and it's just very methodical. James cook up the middle up the middle to secure penalty on Carlton Davis who's struggling, and is just very methodical. The Bills didn't mind, and they answered, and they are right near the top of my contenders in the AFC.

00:32:26
Speaker 7: I like what you.

00:32:27
Speaker 5: Said mentioning the youth of this offense overall, because I think that the Bills know something and are very practice and experienced in something, especially with Josh Allen at quarterback, that the Patriots are still learning and figuring out, which is the explosive plays are awesome, But if the other team's strategy is to get the ball back into the hands of the quarterback as much as possible, your entire strategy has to be avoiding doing that, which means playing more ball control on offense. I'm not saying it's not a good thing to have explosive plays, that's fantastic, obviously, but balancing those things out with a ball control offense, you are more than capable of doing it. This quarterback is capable of doing it. That balance is necessary when you have an absolute like unit of a weapon on the other side in Josh Allen, who is going to make you pay for it if you give him one more chance to snap it.

00:33:13
Speaker 1: I just think these are two really heavy, offensive leaning teams, and ultimately Allen was better today. Drake May there was a couple plays in the second half where he makes a bad throw, he gets away with one interception, he has an arm punt. I don't mind that decision at all on a play where Booty goes up for a pass on third and long. But I think that's a good point because look, they ran the ball well all day. It wasn't just big plays. They had a designed success rate of fifty four percent, but they just couldn't keep the ball in the second half. Shout out to Josh Allen, who's not out of the MVP race. Patrick, I think you should score some points because you know what gets some extra points when.

00:33:49
Speaker 2: The spreadsheet the.

00:33:51
Speaker 1: Camera shows you on the sideline puking during a game, you come back to win on the road.

00:33:57
Speaker 2: And that's just what Josh Allen does.

00:34:02
Speaker 19: That's I mean, if they don't catch it every game, I don't know, Like it basically happens every game.

00:34:09
Speaker 5: You know.

00:34:09
Speaker 19: If I don't get it, get enough out pregame, you know, it usually happens at halftime. If I don't get enough at halftime, it usually happens in the third or fourth quarter. And that's just I don't know why I do it. It just happens, and it's do it to nothing else but other than just like a weird feeling, just got to get it.

00:34:25
Speaker 1: Shout out to productive nerves, you know, like the greatest athletes of all time, they feel it a little bit and uh just a boot.

00:34:32
Speaker 7: And rally the other way.

00:34:35
Speaker 2: No question, this Bill's team.

00:34:37
Speaker 1: They've turned around since Eric Roberts was in the crowd watching them. Big day in the MVP conversation, We're going to get to Matthew Stafford.

00:34:47
Speaker 15: After the break, with three tight ends on the field, they fake that off the corn, they roll right, they throw to the right flat.

00:35:02
Speaker 20: It's called Mitch another touchdown.

00:35:05
Speaker 2: Colby Parkinson go off this second.

00:35:09
Speaker 8: Story of the day.

00:35:11
Speaker 20: The Rams are touch on top by two possessions. It's a multi touchdown performance for the MVP front runner. Matthew Stafford, a cat just former franchise.

00:35:26
Speaker 1: If it's a day that ends and why it's a Colby Parkinson touchdown day and a great call by JB. Long Day on KSPN when he said MVP can it? I thought like, all right, let's slow down. Parkinson's been good, but that's a little much. Matthew Stafford goes for three sixty eight and a couple of touchdowns in a game that the Rams trailed by two scores in the second quarter. They get a field goal right before halftime Patrick to cut it to one touchdown and then they roll second straight week. They go over was it four hundred yards and forty points? Five hundred yards and they win the game forty one to thirty four. What impressed you the most out of these rams.

00:36:09
Speaker 6: It was the Colby Parkinson game. Who makes a play in the first half where you and I are going in the next gen stats to try to figure out what's going on with Aiden Hutchinson who has a turnover in Aidon Hutchinson's running free nothing but green turf in front of Aiden Hutchinson. He hit a top speed of eighteen point five six miles per hour. Kobe Parkinson put up a twenty on the mph and chased him down the big tight end that comes up with that. After that, he has two touchdowns in a game where Davante Adams leaves with a hamstring injury, not sure about the status long term. They're a scary one in Puka Nakua in and out of this game in spots where this Lion's defense and Kelvin Joseph have a plan that bothers quarterbacks and it has bothered them to the extent where Matthew Stafford missed an absolute layup to Ferguson in this first half where Stafford it's that ninety nine out of one hundred times. But the Lions were scrappy and unfortunately for Jared Goff, who famously on Fantasy Live Adam Rank calls an indoor cat. He's got an indoor game at Sofi Stadium. But he's not beating the pressure allegations because his first half was great, two hundred and twenty one yards, three touchdowns. He was not hit, and Young and Verse combined had one pressure in the first half. In the second half you get a sack from Young, excuse me, from Kobe Turner. After that considerable difference, Like post sac, the game goes the other ways. The Rams keep marching down the field, Nakua comes back in again. Puka's in and out of the entire second half. But there was one drive in this game where Sean mcavay goes for it on fourth down twice. Both of those fourth downs Stafford to Nikua converts there in Great game by Blake Korum, Great game by Karen Williams. The run game a little bit of the difference there. But you have to talk about this Rams pass rush down because Emmanuel Forbes got put in some really rough situations. The Lions had a chance to make this a closer game. Fourth and one on the goal line. It is Emmanuel Forbes right there on Aman Ross Saint Brown, Jared Goff everybody in the stadium knew exactly where that ball was going. Unfortunately, the Stripes officiated Emmanuel Forbes in the same way that Riley Moss has been getting officiated all season long, where there wasn't a whole lot there. They get the flag and they get a David Montgomery touchdown, but too much Puka and Stafford late as the Rams are.

00:38:33
Speaker 8: Able to do.

00:38:33
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy is like Puka can go for nine for one one.

00:38:37
Speaker 7: And miss half the game.

00:38:38
Speaker 1: It's just that and also that we're not talking about him for him VP and his season is just absolutely outrageous because it's the big plays and the crazy catches, but because it's those fourth downs as well, like a couple like one of them, I know was a really difficult contested catch, and this dude, it's just carrying like an offense as much as you can carry an offense. When obviously Stafford is the MVP candidate, and I think he's the clear front runner now with three weeks to go in an offense where Devontae Adams is scoring all those touchdowns, but now we don't know how long he's going to be out with a hamstring injury. It'd obviously be very surprising if he plays on Thursday night. But it's just another Lions game where I think, Okay, we're getting used to the fact that the other good NFC teams have significantly better run games and have better defenses, and so, yeah, like Jared Gofflig, he has to try to keep up in a shootout. But it's just not The Lions aren't as good at the other stuff this year. And the defense, which looked great for a while, like the floor, has kind of fallen out the last month.

00:39:45
Speaker 2: And a half.

00:39:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's some of its personnel, right, because they yes a lot of it. Yeah, and they've been so injured on the back end, and I think that especially once they were able.

00:39:57
Speaker 7: To sort of sift through.

00:39:59
Speaker 5: What the coverage is, we're doing when Matthew Stafford and some of their route combinations that the Rams were using.

00:40:03
Speaker 7: You saw, of course, you saw their thirteen.

00:40:05
Speaker 5: Personnel and you saw they were using the tight ends a lot, which does give them a significant, I think, size advantage. But also you saw them mess around with like two two at well was in there a little bit.

00:40:15
Speaker 2: Connaught Samley he's back.

00:40:16
Speaker 8: Yeah, a big catch as well.

00:40:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, a great catch it was like scooping an inch off the ground type of catch. It was incredible on the sideline and it was it was also using both running backs and it was also it was just throwing everything you possibly could at this Lion's defense. Obviously, the significance of this win is not lost on anyone in that building, not just because the history between the two teams organizationally, but also the Rams clinched a playoff spot by winning this game, so it is certain that they will go to the postseason. And they built themselves to do this. This is why they built in so much variety into this offense.

00:40:52
Speaker 7: And the one weak.

00:40:53
Speaker 5: Spot that we've been talking about all year again showed up over and over and over again because when they're there's no pressure. And in the first half the Rams front as great as they are, but we're really struggling to get pressure.

00:41:05
Speaker 7: To Patrick's point, and.

00:41:07
Speaker 5: They played that that zone that they like to play in the back, and they the lines receivers were just getting explosive after explosive after explosive against these guys. A Kello Witherspoon was a healthy scratch, so Aka was benched, and so it's Emmanuel Forbes and it's no Quinton Lake, who they badly miss in the middle of the field directing traffic. And it is Darius Williams, and it is Kobe Durant, who's been really great when he's been good, but can sometimes get picked on a little bit too when he's not having a good game. And it's it's like a rotating planet safety and basically if you can't get enough pressure, these corners are in trouble and teams know it and they try to key in on it.

00:41:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ollie Connelly, who does a Saturday show, noted, you know, in the second half they went fifty four percent single high. They went from kind of the split safeties they usually have and they go single high just to put some numbers on it, and that that really helped on the back end. You mentioned Kobe Hell, let's let's actually watch a tough moment for him. It was Jamison Williams's second touchdown. Jamison Williams and the Dan Campbell play Colera era is freaking insane. Seven for one thirty four in a touchdown. I'm on Rago's thirteen for one to sixty four. I mean they're putting up fantasy numbers while while the run game for the Lions is not. But yeah, just just watch the Durant dive at the end of this absolute dime by Jared Goff long count.

00:42:23
Speaker 18: There's the snap Jared back, Jared looking looking growing, White side wants.

00:42:26
Speaker 13: Jame oenzil god touchdown detroit lyve Wow baby one a dive from sixteen thirty one yards on the connection Kobe Durant coverage but Jame old plus right by him.

00:42:39
Speaker 1: I had one of the best celebrations of the year to the forty yard dash. Everyone wants to see was seeing Jamier Gibbs and Jameson Williams, but the dive by Durant, he was like fifteen yards away.

00:42:48
Speaker 8: Face it was.

00:42:49
Speaker 6: It was top five futility dives of all time. If folks want to go back and watch that play because there's no chance it gets to that ball. But nobody's going to be mad at you in the fill room, like that's that's selling out for no reason.

00:43:00
Speaker 8: But let's selling out.

00:43:01
Speaker 5: Jamo's gotten really creative with the celebrations. Patrick and I were talking earlier in the day, right right as the game started in a great a big first down conversion, and he pretended to pick his nose through like the sort of like scarf thing or face mask thing that he wears, pretended to pick his nose and flick it, but pointed the first down conversion as the flick.

00:43:20
Speaker 2: It's amazing.

00:43:21
Speaker 7: I like, why I never seen that one before. That's pretty great.

00:43:24
Speaker 1: Jamo always entertaining. I think this was as big a win for the Rams as it was as crushing a loss for the Lions, because I know people kind of had this choked up, and there's a long way to go. They are two losses behind, a game and a half behind the Packers now for the seventh seed. The forty nine Ers are a couple losses ahead, and they have an uphill battle now to make the playoffs. And the Rams now back into the first seed at least for now. Thursday Night pending, would the Seahawks do their part and take out Philip Rivers and set up a great Thursday night game.

00:44:01
Speaker 9: Seahawks Rams first and ten eleven seconds Taylor in the backfield.

00:44:08
Speaker 8: Four Rivers takes the snap, four man rush. Rivers gonna throw down.

00:44:12
Speaker 2: The scene gonna be intercepted.

00:44:15
Speaker 17: They're not gonna do it.

00:44:17
Speaker 16: Fall is high to the intended receiver in his pick off by Kobe Bryant and he races the south end zone gives fourth interception of the season, a career high the Seahawks defense. They nail it on the second to last play of the game, picking off Philip Rivers.

00:44:41
Speaker 2: Oh, our beautiful boy was so close. Our beautiful Grandpa.

00:44:47
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers directed a drive These are facts in the fourth quarter of a National Football League game against the number one defense according to DVA, that led to a field goal being kicked to take the lead with under a minute and a half to go. How dare the Seahawks score too quickly to even set him up for that interception? Throwing over ten yards was not going to be Philip Rivers' strength today, we learned that, but he did have them in position to win the game. Ultimately, Seahawks pull it out eighteen to sixteen in a field goal fest for the Colts. I'm torn on what to think about the Seahawks side of things, so let's just start on Phil. How did it make you feel, Patrick to see to see this man who was in the NFL when you were just like cutting your teeth as like a college reporter making passes out there.

00:45:48
Speaker 8: It was great.

00:45:48
Speaker 6: It made me think about n C State and Ta McClinton and all those guys playing for the Wolfpack with Philip Rivers. No, but to be perfectly honest, just to see the release of the back bettle. Obviously the physical stature is not necessarily the same for Philip Rivers, but to see him operating the offense, to see the way the team and yeah, I joke about the team try and harp to see these guys rally around Philip Rivers, especially the Colts that were there back in twenty twenty. And I think about that final possession where it's a third and five and Philip Rivers is thinking, you.

00:46:19
Speaker 8: Know, hey, the world's like, what's Philip Rivers got?

00:46:21
Speaker 6: And he checks to the draw because he believed in Jonathan Taylor and Shane Steiken sends out the kicker because he believed in the decision that Philip Rivers made at that point. And it comes through and it makes it even more frustrating the way that things ended, because that's storybook stuff.

00:46:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I misspoke when I said under ninety seconds ago the Blake groupie hit a sixty yard field goal in Seattle to take the lead with fifty two seconds to go. It was third and seven and yeah, Rivers checks to a run there. I think he saw a look. He gave it to his best player, you know, Taylor picks up four yards in the moment. I was talking to you, it's tricky because you're going against the Seahawks defense, but I would go for the fourth and three.

00:47:06
Speaker 5: You're laughing, Jordan, No, I'm I agree with you. Yes, I love I love the group you made this kick that was You're gonna need every single person to be at their best on this team for this Colts team to pick themselves back up. And that's certainly what you saw today. But we were just talking before. It's like, listen, we're getting the Philip Rivers experience here, and so why don't we just go all in, tush push do it.

00:47:30
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, it's funny because I saw a lot of body shaming for poor Phil today.

00:47:35
Speaker 2: You know, a little bit of a dad boss.

00:47:36
Speaker 7: Anyway, he was set up for failure.

00:47:38
Speaker 2: He was also wearing that petion. I don't know.

00:47:40
Speaker 1: Over on Blue Sky there was a lot of Hank Hank Hill backside comparisons to to Philip Rivers' body, which I don't think.

00:47:46
Speaker 5: Is he was set up for failure. The white uniforms will set you up for failure.

00:47:50
Speaker 7: I couldn't time, I.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: Couldn't unsee it.

00:47:52
Speaker 1: But it was a fascinating game management game overall, Like at the end of the first half, at the end of the second half. And so the decision there is, do you have a better chance of picking up those three yards and getting to finish with the ball and whatever the groopye field goal attempt is gonna be, or the chance of winning first group, He's gotta hit the kick and then you got to get the stop. And even though they didn't give up a touchdown all day, it felt like as the game wore on, the Seahawks were certainly moving the ball better and better. And I had very little faith with this new kickoff rule that the Colts defense was gonna prevent the Seahawks from hitting a field goal, and they did. You know, it took a couple plays for them to be in field goal range. They did stop them. So they got that like one or two plays at the very end. But it's not a decision I can kill either way. I think I think it was just a very difficult decision, and Groupie made him look better, and ultimately his defense, which played awesome today, like played their hearts out, just couldn't get a stop. And Jackson Smith and Jigba put another like credit to him on the offensive player of the Year Canvasy because it was his big catch and run that set them up in the second half, and it was a really key catch where he gets open to help set up that game winning field goal.

00:49:06
Speaker 2: So it's just good ball.

00:49:07
Speaker 1: The fact that Philip Rivers was in this game, I mean, they were thirteen and a half point underdogs.

00:49:11
Speaker 2: Let's give the man some credit.

00:49:12
Speaker 8: Absolutely, and a lot of credit going to lou Anarromo.

00:49:15
Speaker 6: Yeah, because maybe even more as far as a defensive play, college performance and the way that leatu Altu played and getting pressure on Sam Donald and this Colts defense as a whole. They hold Donald to a negative four completion percentage over expected. They were five of thirteen on third down, which I also think plays into the field goal decision. Like all right, lou all right, everybody, boys, you guys have almost pitched the shutout essentially against an offense that was screaming up and down the field the first ten weeks of the season.

00:49:44
Speaker 8: They just couldn't about ten more yards.

00:49:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, the problem was I think because of the game situation was like the second half of this game, and even really how the first half ended nine play drive by Seattle, eleven play drive by Seattle. Then the Colts did have a good drive to force a punt, but then an eight play drive from eleven play drive from Seattle, and that's what set up that final sequence. So they were moving the ball and look, Rivers's arm strength was not there compared to where we last saw him, and it obviously wasn't like an upper tier strength for him even then. But he made good decisions, he avoided mistakes, and I think he managed the game, and he even had a touchdown pass it was all worth it.

00:50:28
Speaker 10: Third down and three at the seven yard line, Rivers backs into.

00:50:32
Speaker 8: The shotgun, looking over.

00:50:34
Speaker 11: That defense full on the play clock, takes a step three step drop, looking rolls.

00:50:38
Speaker 18: Inside the five, touchdown for the Colts, and it's touchdowns across the goal line. Touchdown id why.

00:50:48
Speaker 11: And the Colts now are on top twelve to three man.

00:50:51
Speaker 8: Philip Rivers came off the Colts. It came out here for down.

00:50:56
Speaker 1: Awesome call there by bat Taylor and Charles Arbuckle on W and I and Rivers stild the broadcast team on Saturday. Oh yeah, okay, could He told him I could get killed out there tomorrow.

00:51:07
Speaker 2: It could go horribly.

00:51:08
Speaker 1: I know, the Hall of Fame thing, like I pushed that five years back. But he said on Saturday it has all been worth it because I had so much fun this week practicing with everyone. So it's really got to be worth it for him now. And it does make me even more interested to watch Mounday night football against the forty nine ers. It's got to be a tough one against the Jaguars, and then you're at Houston. It's a brutal slate of games for Philip Rivers, but he's going to entertain us at least.

00:51:36
Speaker 7: How will his body feel tomorrow?

00:51:40
Speaker 2: Not great.

00:51:41
Speaker 1: He did get rid of the ball as quickly as he could, but he still took, you know, a hand more than a handful of hits in this game it was against.

00:51:48
Speaker 6: Seattle, including one from the logo where he takes a step back into the logo, slips down, but to his credit, gets back up and gets a few yards where it's like you see the spry, the spry forty four year old doesn't even know his own way.

00:52:05
Speaker 8: Shout out to Philip.

00:52:05
Speaker 7: Rivers, what's that mean?

00:52:06
Speaker 5: Where it's like the player is twenty nine, he's like, oh, he's the older than dirt. He's out, And then all of the rest of us, like normal people, are thinking, oh, that's really that's great.

00:52:19
Speaker 2: Well to you, Philip Rivers is older than dirt.

00:52:22
Speaker 7: Yeah, to me, he's like your status.

00:52:23
Speaker 2: He's still a couple of years younger.

00:52:26
Speaker 1: I was already a cover in the league when he was getting drafted. Unfortunately, look Seahawks, this first half offense being a little slugg as Sam Donald's certainly not playing nearly as well as the first half. It's a thing the running game not being quite as consistent over the last two weeks. I know they played great in the second half last week. It's a thing just like the Rams secondary is there bugaboo, yeah, Sam darnel on and overall this offense is not up there with the elites. But can their defense make up for it? I think all these NFC teams have one issue. This is an eleven in three team. They had an over undergoing into the year of eight and a half wins. They're awesome. I almost see too much negativity from the Seahawks fans of like, oh, they're not real contenders.

00:53:03
Speaker 2: Why not?

00:53:04
Speaker 1: We'll find out on Thursday night. In the meantime, let's talk about another team that could be a contender.

00:53:10
Speaker 2: The Baltimore Ravens play clock at one.

00:53:13
Speaker 10: Burrow takes a snap drop the throat, let's pressure coming.

00:53:16
Speaker 8: It's intercepted at the five.

00:53:18
Speaker 9: Cony hands them off to Gilman, on to their sideline, Aloie.

00:53:22
Speaker 2: Gilman in midfield.

00:53:23
Speaker 9: He's gone forty thirty twenty ten touch down Riven Hello, he Gilman and with seven thirty eight left, top play in Cincinnati the Hazel the Bar.

00:53:39
Speaker 1: Love that call by Jerry Sandusky on w b A L one of those most mature, responsible handoff slash laterals from a defensive player of all time.

00:53:51
Speaker 7: Please take this, Oh.

00:53:54
Speaker 6: I don't want this right now, just an easy The Bengals don't seem to be trying right now.

00:54:00
Speaker 8: You take this. He was trying to hand the ball all for twelve.

00:54:02
Speaker 7: Yards, so self aware.

00:54:05
Speaker 2: I absolutely love it.

00:54:06
Speaker 1: Compare it to a Giant's interception later in the day, where there's three laterals where they're just winging it out there.

00:54:12
Speaker 2: That was awesome.

00:54:13
Speaker 7: Baton. It was like it was like running the four hundred.

00:54:17
Speaker 1: Such a weird game here, twenty four to nothing. The Ravens win a much needed win. Lamar Jackson only threw the ball twelve times in this game. That's all he had to patrick. He still ended up with a couple of touchdowns in one hundred and fifty yards. How you feeling after a shutout victory? A little revenge for your Ravens.

00:54:34
Speaker 6: The first thing I wrote when I got the game assignment and I had my trusty notebook. I've been tryingling to channel Greg Rosenthal with mixed results because I forget how bad my handwriting is.

00:54:43
Speaker 5: I was going to say, I'm looking okay.

00:54:46
Speaker 1: That took me a couple of years. I just write in all caps. Now it looks like a serial killer, but then I could read it.

00:54:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, I struggle with my own because I know it's bad. Can the Ravens win without a pass rush? The Ravens got a pass rush today to the extent where Joe Burrow had one of them worst games I've ever seen Joe Burrow play. He was shut out for the first time as a professional. You gotta go back to the season before, they had the greatest offensive season in college football history against the University of Alabama, the last time Burrow had a team where he plays the game and they get and they get shut out where they were dominant early. Jamar Chase had a turnover in this game. Alt credit Jamar Chase with a turnover because the pass rush gets to Joe Burrow, the arm angle changes, so Chase jumps early because he's expecting he's, you know, he's played with Joe Burrow a lot that that ball is going to get there.

00:55:31
Speaker 8: The ball's a little fluffy.

00:55:32
Speaker 6: He jumps late, ball goes off his hands, it's intercepted by Marlon Humphrey, and thinking it's going to go back and forth because Lamar has a repe Goldberg interception of his own where he throws.

00:55:41
Speaker 8: A pretty nice ball to Zachers.

00:55:43
Speaker 6: Yeah, shout out to Rube Goldberg and all those machines where Zay Flowers boots the ball to Jordan Battle and I'm thinking, oh, here we go. The Ravens are gonna have weird turnovers again. It's gonna be back and forth. No, that's essentially it. Baltimore plays a pretty clean game on offense in a dominant game on the d defensive side of the ball, where Mike Green, who it's been like missing. Is Mike Green gonna eventually make a play? It would be worth all this, you know, the consternation of bringing m onto the franchise, considering the questions for the draft, and you know he contributes with a sack. They get multiple pressures from all types of guys and the Ravens have a dominant win.

00:56:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, full team win too.

00:56:21
Speaker 1: In the second half of this game, I'm surprised the Ravens Russ success rate isn't higher than forty seven percent because in the second half they were starting to blow open big holes for Keaton Mitchell, who ends up with sixty six yards and then Derrick Henry who had kind of a nice runway during it.

00:56:35
Speaker 2: And look that.

00:56:36
Speaker 1: I know the Bengals defense is bad, but the Bengals offensive line had been playing well, and certainly Joe Burrow had been playing well leading into this game. It is interesting, and we're going to listen to Joe Burrow's comments during the week to just think about this performance in the context of these comments.

00:56:53
Speaker 2: These are actually from Wednesday.

00:56:55
Speaker 21: I want to keep doing this. I have to have fun doing it. You know, I've been through a lot and if it's not fun, then what am I doing it for? So let's the mindset I'm trying to bring to the table.

00:57:11
Speaker 8: Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but seemed frustrated.

00:57:15
Speaker 21: There's just a lot of things going on right now. A lot of things going on right.

00:57:18
Speaker 8: Now, all related personally.

00:57:20
Speaker 21: I'll do both.

00:57:22
Speaker 1: So Joe Burrow addressed that after this game, and he said, you know, his comments had nothing to do with with Cincinnati, everything to do with my mindset in football. He also pointed out look last week where he seemed very resigned.

00:57:34
Speaker 2: That was a weird press conference too. After the game last week.

00:57:37
Speaker 1: We seemed very resigned for Joe Burrow after the game, just kind of accepting.

00:57:42
Speaker 2: I guess it's just not our year.

00:57:43
Speaker 1: Hey, you know, he pointed out he thought he played near perfect last week and that this week was one of the worst games that he's ever played. And it's just a lot. I don't know, what do you think is going on here?

00:57:57
Speaker 6: I think that on the outside, there's been questions about the long term viability of Zach Taylor as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. I think if if the coach's job is anything, it's it's to manage the way that the players are coming into the game plan the way that the players are feeling throughout the week. The Bengals went through a lot as Joe Burrow has to get back to this point, and I know that the end of the the game and the loss to Buffalo was frustrated. He had those he had to pick to six, He had back to back weeks with a pick six and the Eloie Gilman reluctant not unreluctant handoff from Kyle van Noy on that play where I know he says that it's you know, it's not Cincinnati related. I don't think it's related to the land mass and the people in pay Corse Stadium on the day, but perhaps related to one in particular.

00:58:46
Speaker 1: Fair and it can't be really about ownership because he signed that kyr Not that you couldn't be frustrated a little bit, But I think he's in it in Cincinnati. I think that that's a fair read, although I point a little finger at ownership. We actually have a picture, I believe, of the un snowed you know, seats at the game courtesy of Nick Westling's sister in law. Despite this being an audio medium, some people do watch on YouTube. You can actually see the unshoveled seats and shout out to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. You know, sometimes it seems a little overly litigious, but.

00:59:27
Speaker 2: Pointing out that it's an NFL rule, you gotta you gotta get the snow off those seat, those seats, Mike Brown, You're making everyone show up in like zero degree wind, chail, and you can't even get the seats clean for the poor Bengals fans out there. Give me a break. Yeah, it's just like, come on, this is it's a professional football Yeah.

00:59:45
Speaker 5: And I think it's when you're the quarterback you represent that, you know, I think it's a lot to think about if you're Joe Burrow, like what exactly it is that you're representing, and what exactly it is that you're the face of. And certainly you can, I think and probably should, in some ways criticize the push and pull of power that gets him, you know, the players he wants, but the team is also not capable of being constructed in clearly in a functional way around him. And it's it's to me when I watch a person who is in his late twenties at this point will be entering his thirties. Now this is a little bit more like my recent memory of of of of a lifetimeline is you go through another sort of transition mentally.

01:00:41
Speaker 7: Where you figure out, like what you're going to be in the world.

01:00:44
Speaker 5: You have chased the career, you've chased what you do right, you chase what your structure is, but you have to now think start thinking about like what you want your life to feel like and representing the team and where you are and the place that you are in. Mentally, I see a person who's lost in that regard, and I hear a voice that that's very close to the surface. When you're laughing and smiling off these oh yeah, it's a little both and all these things, you're usually masking something else that's significant. And I think it's very close to the surface for him. And I'm not trying to overly psychoanalyze. He's the one wearing the crystal, not me, but I will say, like it's it's to me.

01:01:25
Speaker 7: I'm concerned about him.

01:01:26
Speaker 5: I think mentally, just from Afar, I don't have as much concern I'm glad Joe Burrow is willing to share, yeah, and to be.

01:01:33
Speaker 6: Open, because he could very easily have just nonsense, oh yeah, looking forward to this, blah blah blah, taking that.

01:01:40
Speaker 1: But when you watch the whole ten minutes, like, no, I'm totally normal and in like open and not at all concerning. Like when you watch the whole thing, these are sometimes taken not out of context, but just like when you're that honest for ten minutes straight that things like that do popus.

01:01:56
Speaker 6: And then to have the nastiest game of your career, yes, four days after that, you know, causes people like us to go back and.

01:02:03
Speaker 5: Yes, listen to the whole thing. And I'm not saying I'm like, oh, he's saying he wants out Like I'm not saying that at all, But I'm I hear some things to be concerned about on a human level, for sure, That's what I'm saying.

01:02:14
Speaker 1: And I think the coaching thing is fair. I think both of these coaches are. They're so every coach is a little up in the air in the AFC North, probably not Tomlin, but I don't know. He started like putting those things out, making me it just made me wonder like if does.

01:02:29
Speaker 2: He want out?

01:02:29
Speaker 1: Because I don't think the Steelers want him out, but does he want out? While the Ravens they got to seven and seven, we'll see if that's good enough for a tie for the AFC North lead the Steelers game pending, obviously, but I know John Harbis feeling better, and you knew it was kind of the Ravens day when Nolmar almost threw a pick and then the very next players or certainly that drive, he hits that long touchdown to Zay Flowers. So the big plays we're back for the Ravens. Speaking a big plays, how about the offensive juggernaut in Houston.

01:03:00
Speaker 2: Look, I don't care how we pick up thirty six inches. I don't know anybody does. If you gotta throw it, throw it, It doesn't matter to me.

01:03:06
Speaker 8: Just pick it up.

01:03:07
Speaker 2: Find a way to get this thing in.

01:03:08
Speaker 10: If you're not.

01:03:08
Speaker 2: Getting movement, who's CJ out throw it? Whatever you gotta do.

01:03:12
Speaker 12: Put this thing in thirty goal with the once strout under shutter and they staff.

01:03:15
Speaker 2: It directly the marks what it.

01:03:18
Speaker 12: CJ got out of the way, Marx got the snap, got the touchdown.

01:03:23
Speaker 9: Wrassle, dazzle, the texit score on thirty.

01:03:27
Speaker 8: Short good thing in those thirty six inches.

01:03:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got it in. Andre Ware moved it around. He made sure.

01:03:36
Speaker 1: Mark Vandermere and mister Ware on Ko Kilt could have picked many touchdowns. The Texans put up a forty burger on the pathetic Cardinals defense, forty to twenty.

01:03:48
Speaker 2: It is. It is bad.

01:03:49
Speaker 1: They're not even that injured, by the way, They're pretty healthy up front and he's a defensive coach. It's not going well, but let's give credit where credit is due. What he Marx made sure he got that thirty six inches and Nny he got about like I don't know, I would have to do the math, but five more feet, yeah, like one hundred and ninety more inches. He jumped from the two. He landed about six or seven yards into the end zone. That was incredible, Jordan.

01:04:13
Speaker 5: I know, I loved it because that and we talked about putting this play as the highlight, even though there were so many to choose from, because it was such a ass kicking by the Houston Texans all day in both in every phase, including special teams where they forced an early takeaway and early fumble by on the kickoff unit. For the Cardinals, but that Woody Mark's play was a play to me that sums up that the Texans offense is how they're coming back to life. Young players such as Woody Marks are really giving it a boost. Like there's no actual reason for Woody Marks to launch himself through the end zone like Ralph Wigham coming through the window, but he does it.

01:04:51
Speaker 2: Why not?

01:04:51
Speaker 7: Why not?

01:04:52
Speaker 2: Why the heck not?

01:04:53
Speaker 7: There's no reason, by the way for CJ.

01:04:56
Speaker 5: Stroud to make maybe the toughest throw available to him on this play, a sixteen yard pickup to Dalton Schultz, where look at this guy's he throws it to Yeah, oh yeah, there's a player there. You can't really tell it first because it is so unclear, because there's so many defenders crashing down and another eligible receiver in front of it. Why not take the hardest play in front of it. I do posit this as a Throw of the Year nominee just in terms of sheer difficulty and because it is so absurd in terms of its difficulty level and the tightness of that window that you almost felt like it was maybe an accident that CJ strouted particularly through it and Schultz there.

01:05:37
Speaker 6: I do think the touchdown to Woody Marks was an accident either.

01:05:40
Speaker 8: That was great fake work by c. J.

01:05:42
Speaker 6: Stroud turning around with his eyes as big as saucers after the snap, goes between his legs to say, oh, the ball's going to the ground, and then it's directly like a weird wobbly pass that hits Stroud's hand on the snap on the way back.

01:05:56
Speaker 8: I think that might have been an accident.

01:05:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, and it was rolled a fumble recovery because the snap was bad and then they mishandled it. But then Woody Marks, like like I said, he just launched himself.

01:06:07
Speaker 7: But it was great.

01:06:08
Speaker 5: And you know what I mentioned the young players, The kids are all right in Houston, guys, because when Woody Marks kind of he left the game because he was dealing with some ankle issues that he was in and out of the game throughout. For Juar Jones, a former six round pick, he came in and became the texans first one hundred yard rusher of the season, played outstanding, had a great game. In between Woody Marx and Jaden Higgins and Juwar Jordan and these guys are growing up together. And it's very interesting because the defense is so mature. The defense is such a like we talked about them being like professionally violent as an unit, and so the offense going through its growing pains early in the season and then coming out and putting together a really really solid and complete game. Yes against a bad team, a bad defense, but an absolute thorough beating that was over in the first quarter.

01:07:00
Speaker 7: Really, it felt like it was over because.

01:07:02
Speaker 2: The seventeen nothing first quarter.

01:07:04
Speaker 7: Yeah.

01:07:05
Speaker 5: Well, and it was over at ten zero because before it was ten zero, before Jacoby Brissett even touched the ball, because CJ. Stroud on the second play from scrimmage hits Nico Collins on an explosive touchdown, and then the very next play or on the kick on the following kickoff, then the Cardinals fumble it and the Texans set up a field goal. And then when you play from an early deficit against this defense, you're screwed because of how sound and aggressive this defense is. So it felt it felt over immediately, and the Texan just piled on.

01:07:34
Speaker 1: Well, they're starting to do things that real deal teams do, like the Seahawks, for instance, they just put the away the Cardinals quickly and hid and it's It's not like they had like a million possessions or had defensive scores. I know the special teams in defense did set up two short fields, but they had nine scores. I mean, they had forty points in I believe only ten drives, which like they either missed the field or scored on every drive but one today they had. It's like CJ Stroud And one thing I noticed in the post game with from his teammates, they're all talking him up as like, well, yeah, like CJ's the best quarterback in the league, and and like we expect set like CJ is that dude. He he is as good as any quarterback in the league. And now, obviously I don't put him there yet, but I do believe that they believe that. And that's that's a dangerous combination. A lot of continuity, a great defense, a good court, a really good quarterback, and some young players developing like they got a chance to win the AFC.

01:08:38
Speaker 2: All these teams do.

01:08:38
Speaker 6: And I'm wondering because I know the early start for the offensive line was miserable, but there was some Stroud involved there. And I think as both have improved and CJ has gotten more healthy, Uh, there were eleven Cardinals that got pressured today.

01:08:53
Speaker 22: C J.

01:08:53
Speaker 8: Stroud was having to to make moves in the pocket.

01:08:55
Speaker 6: It wasn't necessarily easy up and down the field every single opportunity for the Houston Texans. But but I think he knows and trusts where they're going to be to the extent where he's able to make these plays that we're.

01:09:06
Speaker 8: Used to seeing c J.

01:09:07
Speaker 6: Stroud make at the start of his career, and that's why they're they're hitting the explosives he's he's making these plays on third down and they're a fun team to watch.

01:09:16
Speaker 1: And in the end, only two quarterback hits in one sack for the Cardinals, so that's a great game for them. Derek Stingley did leave with an injury, but he was speaking to the media afterwards, which would indicate it's maybe not too serious. Kamari Lassiter with a big time interception, could they possibly get two All Pro corners? Don't I don't think it's crazy.

01:09:33
Speaker 7: They played so well.

01:09:34
Speaker 5: One of my favorite moments of the game too, is when Jalen Petree took a massive hit of a smelling salt that he was holding with him on the field before a snap and then dropped it as the ball is snapped and then goes and makes a tackle like it just this defense, it just knows what it's about. It has all year. It's my favorite defense to watch in the NFL, Like it's.

01:09:53
Speaker 7: It's just cool.

01:09:54
Speaker 5: And then on the other side, the only player that really gave this deck Texans defense any brule was Trey McBride, who was twelve for one point thirty four and two touchdowns, and it was basically like there was a tunnel screen that he had where it took multiple Texans defenders to bring him to the ground. No other player on any part of this Cardinals offense was giving the Texans defense even making more than one person come to tackle them. And I just thought, I have these thoughts sometimes. I'm sure you guys. Do you ever watch a player and you think, man, I wish he was on a different team, or like you watch a player who's really really good and you think, man, I wish I could just pick him up and put him somewhere else. It was really strange because I felt when watching Trey McBride against the Texans, man I wish Trey McBride played for the Texans because he was bringing the same energy against their defense that the defense was bringing against him and have all season against their opponents, and he fits them and he's like this lone island there and in Arizona that it's the only positive, the only bride spot.

01:10:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've lost six straight. They are now looking like a three and eleven type of team. They're sixth right now. In terms of a tank athon, they they could easily get into the top three or four picks here. I don't know if Jonathan Gannon deserves to be fired or not. That's for another day, but this absolutely looks like a team who was coaches going to get fired. Let's take a break. The Texans helped serve. It was kind of a day where the two teams now atop the AFC South had to just take care of business. We'll come back on the other side and listen to Jaguars.

01:11:25
Speaker 23: Jets shotgun formation. Bunch right dropping his Trevor. They're swinging out of the back. So this is Travis etn with running in forty thirty five yard line inside of the stage to say thirty yard line twenty five hold on in.

01:11:39
Speaker 18: Here, sot of ten come touched down.

01:11:42
Speaker 16: Traversydna score again from forty five yards away.

01:11:48
Speaker 2: How good is that? It's great, It's amazing.

01:11:59
Speaker 1: It's maybe a third straight week someone could credibly say, is this the best game of Trevor Lawrence's career.

01:12:04
Speaker 2: It's a wild streak.

01:12:06
Speaker 1: Frank FRANGI there on WJXL, the Jaguars put up forty eight points on the Jets, final score forty eight to twenty, and you might say, what did Trevor Lawrence really do on that play?

01:12:17
Speaker 2: It's like a.

01:12:17
Speaker 1: Little dumb off pass to etn if travel. If Trevor Lawrence puts up six touchdowns in a single game, Patrick, we're playing that six touchdown.

01:12:28
Speaker 2: I don't care what it looks like.

01:12:29
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, absolutely.

01:12:30
Speaker 6: If it were that easy to do what Trevor Lawrence done, it would have been done before in NFL history. The first player in NFL history with five or more passing touchdowns, a rush touchdown, and fifty yards rushing in a single Wow, has never been done. But congratulations to Aaron Glitz Jets as they come in and.

01:12:47
Speaker 1: Pour one out for all the qbs who did that, but without the fifty yards, right, No, that's why the show for.

01:12:51
Speaker 7: All the qbs that are like that guy did it.

01:12:55
Speaker 8: He did it, averaging ten yards of carry.

01:12:57
Speaker 6: As you know, Trevor Lawrence got that rushed a law rushing touchdown where the Jets actually held on defense. I believe it was Britain Strange. I got held down the field on a third and fifteen in the red zone. Trevor Lawrence runs it all the way back in for the score where trev had You know, he had a Throw of the Year nominee in this.

01:13:18
Speaker 1: In fact, we will play it while you talk about it. It was to Parker Washington that thing was beautiful.

01:13:23
Speaker 6: Trevor Lawrence rolling drops even further back as pressure comes and I'm thinking, well, don't don't do it. He throws a Jordan Love fade away. It's perfect to Parker Washington. Then he Jordan shrugs to the sideline to show that Trevor Lawrence was in fact feeling it where the Jets and Brady Cook, Hey, congratulations, Brady Cookie did have his first career touchdown.

01:13:44
Speaker 2: I gotta say that that's got a chance.

01:13:46
Speaker 7: Do you think this while he's being hit too.

01:13:49
Speaker 8: He is. It's Will Johnson pressure.

01:13:52
Speaker 1: The fact that you're rolling left and then you set you're taking the hit right, you're throwing it to a guy I in stride who It's not like he's wide open. There are two defenders in the area.

01:14:06
Speaker 2: And then and then I think the key here is the shrug.

01:14:10
Speaker 1: That adds a little extra I think that will help with the judges. It definitely beats out as well a similar one from.

01:14:16
Speaker 2: A week ago.

01:14:17
Speaker 1: We're the judges, we are judge and the jer and it's a third and long that helps to I don't know why like it.

01:14:24
Speaker 6: One of the few chances the Jets had to get off the field. Trevor comes up with that. There's you know, Brady Cooks again. Edna Mitchell caught his first career touchdown pass. Great moment, whereas fiance and mom and dad are celebrated in the in the stands. Not a lot of great moments other than that, as the Jets offense looked pretty rough here against the team that again no players ran for over one hundred yards. No player's gotten close to one hundred yards against Josh Hans Allen in this Jags defense and a dominant start to finish win for the folks.

01:14:57
Speaker 1: And it's the first game I believe where it's Jaco be Thomas, who again has a nice day sixty six yards and a touchdown, and Trevor Lawrence was completing very difficult throws throughout the game and his rushing the last month is absolutely a coaching point and it absolutely like shows up.

01:15:15
Speaker 2: But it's the first.

01:15:16
Speaker 1: Game with Jacoby and Thomas and Parker Washington and Bretton Strange and yeah, this team just looks better each and every week and they and they did what you know, real deal contenders do and squashed the Jets.

01:15:28
Speaker 5: I have to know what Liam Cohen is saying or doing in the headset because you see that Jordan Trug that he's doing that at Liam Cohen like he's facing the side of the play caller and the sideline and the headset can click. It clicks back on at the results of the last after the results of the last play, so you can hear him if he's losing his mind in they're like excited, you can you can hear it. So I'm like, this is cool because they went from you know, sometimes yelling at each other similar to Bo Nicks and Sean Payton, like they would they would kind of get after it with each other, to now, oh, they're like sort of like, you know, almost competing with each other, but in a good way, in a functional way.

01:16:05
Speaker 7: It's it's pretty cool.

01:16:06
Speaker 1: To the to the point where you know the teammate who might know Trevor Lawrence the Best talked about this recent streak after the game traves ETN.

01:16:16
Speaker 24: Back in twenty two, Trevor got hot in the second half of the year. Does this kind of feel similar to that in a little bit. I mean, obviously, I know different plays, different games and stuff, but just him starting to get on a roll at the most important times, it feels similar.

01:16:28
Speaker 22: Nah, not at all. I don't think I ever seen Trevor like this, you know, And I feel like we want to we want to now. So the championship the good and I feel like he's just out there. He's on fire man, like you've seen it. He rolled out again and he just kind of stops and just parks down here somewhere.

01:16:45
Speaker 3: You know.

01:16:47
Speaker 22: He launched it and Parker made a great catch.

01:16:49
Speaker 7: That's so good.

01:16:50
Speaker 5: That's awesome by travck for Washington's back, he's great.

01:16:53
Speaker 2: He really helps.

01:16:54
Speaker 1: And yeah, ETN had three receiving touchdowns seventy three yards in addition to do an on the gun. I've been saying all year, Drake May's ascension is right there at the top of the just the biggest stories in the NFL this year.

01:17:06
Speaker 2: Trevor's got a ways to go.

01:17:08
Speaker 1: Three weeks is not a season make, but if he can play great the rest of the way, and we'll see this team is a real deal contender. That that's one of the biggest developments of this NFL season.

01:17:19
Speaker 5: Sounds like you're giving the Jaguars some of that much searched for respect that Liam Cohen was one.

01:17:25
Speaker 1: I mean, we did a whole show on them back in October. But look, they to the choir, they stay one game ahead of the Texans.

01:17:33
Speaker 2: They are very much in the mix.

01:17:35
Speaker 1: Let's go to the NFC another team that is in the mix, and they got served a big fat bowl of chicken noodle soup. Just we'll fix whatever you need to get over your sickness.

01:17:48
Speaker 2: It's the Las Vegas Raiders.

01:17:50
Speaker 4: First and goal fall up before Hurts of the gun.

01:17:54
Speaker 8: Barkley was left. Hurts gives it off on a pitch. I'm running, I'm dash him for the touchdowns.

01:18:01
Speaker 2: Gunner four yard run A little click on that looked pretty easy.

01:18:11
Speaker 1: Eagles win Merril Reese Mike Quick on WIP. I saw these awful announcing rankings of the local radio announcers. Let's just say they have JB. Long in MJD and then Matt Mney Smith and Danny Jeremiah criminally low. But there's a ranking of this duo too that I think Eric Roberts, our producer, would disagree with, and I'm on his side too. Thirty one nothing, Eagles win easy. I don't know if my analogy really worked coming into the thing, but I was like, the Eagles were sick and the Raiders will heal them.

01:18:46
Speaker 7: I think it was very creditable.

01:18:47
Speaker 5: Okay, Dallas Goddard had two had two touchdowns, both off of little wrinkle plays, a pitch touchdown in the first quarter, in a sweep off rum fake in the third quarter, and he could have had another touchdown and it didn't even matter that he dropped, and easy would be touchdown off a little Jalen Hurts quick pass because this was such a tail whooping the entire time. Jalen Hurts ran for forty yards, including some key third and long convergence to set the Eagles offense up into scoring position. Hit a couple of really great throws, one to Devonte Smith, a deep shot on the perimeter really sticks out to me on that and the Las Vegas Raiders were the Las Vegas Raiders.

01:19:24
Speaker 7: This one was a blowout that.

01:19:26
Speaker 5: Got Tanner McKee in this game at the start of the fourth quarter, and at that time that Tanner McKee entered the game, the Raiders themselves had just sixty six net yards.

01:19:35
Speaker 1: Well, the great thing about them is that they only finished with seventy five. Usually when you're like writing down these stats, you're like, oh, they're gonna get some yards in garbage dime and it's going to ruin it. I couldn't fathom a world where their performance against the Chiefs was not the worst performance by any offense this season, but we found it. Seventy five total yards by Kenny Pickett and the Raiders the lowest yards for play according to Josh Dubou of the Associated Press in the storied history of the Raiders. I mean some bad offenses over the years, and this was the absolute worst. And so I think it supports the idea that this Eagles defense could just be the best thing in the NFC playoffs. It's possible and can the offense be good enough? Can they find enough things they like on offense? They obviously, you know, this wasn't the week to totally find out, But I think they'll still feel better about themselves.

01:20:29
Speaker 8: Yeah.

01:20:30
Speaker 6: I think the doom and gloom questions about the viability of the Philadelphia Eagles maybe we're a bit too much after especially after a game where there were some flukey turnovers, two turnovers and one play by one quarterback in a situation that has never happened. You get those types of things to happen, you lose the game on a turnover where they could have very easily won that game. They could have won the game in regulation and in over time, but it went the Chargers way. And like you said, Greg, this is more than a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup. This is like a censu bean. This is this is a healing touch from mister Miagi, like the Raiders will will give you everything you need to end more in a game where Ashton genty only runs for thirty five yards, but it's still the majority of the offense that the one player had.

01:21:17
Speaker 5: For the Raiders, they allow you to work on stuff which I saw the Eagles doing today. That's a kind way of saying that about the Raiders. I guess is you can do stuff that you don't normally do and still win. What you know, like the way that they did and totally shut them out. That the Eagles ran more play action. It's a small sample size because Jalen hurts only through the ball fifteen times. He was remarkably efficient with those throws. Usually they're only about a twelve or excuse me, a twenty five percent play action rate team, but today forty percent of his dropbacks or play action for seventy yards and a touchdown, so really clean and efficient when using play action. The Eagles version of play action makes me laugh because it's really slow developing and it's clear that not every you know, it's just not something you see some teams and they do the ball fake like very fast, and then they get into their drop and they're only flipping their back for a second.

01:22:07
Speaker 7: This takes its time to develop.

01:22:09
Speaker 5: And again it did not matter, and so you can just do you can create and set up those those explosive plays, and I liked seeing it. I liked seeing them work on things in that regard because they're going to need to have more dimension to their offense and they're going to need to be more layered.

01:22:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, their success rate was fine, but considering it was against the Raiders, Like the running game does rack up one hundred and eighty three yards, but still Saquon and Tank Bigsby like go for under three and a half yards per carry even against the Raiders, so that that's not necessarily totally fixed. But I did like Jalen Hurts as you mentioned, just ripping a third and long design run. Do not see that out of the Eagles too much, so that might be an end of the season type of thing. Okay, let's use his legs and then even getting aj Brown involved after it looked like Hurtz was banged up a little. He comes back from the injury and finishes the game with a long touchdown to AJ Brown. Great win for the Eagles. Everyone is huge for them. They step a little closer to winning the NFC East. Let's talk about a team that's like quietly still in the mix for their division title. It's the San Francisco forty nine.

01:23:12
Speaker 8: Cure out of the shotgun.

01:23:13
Speaker 2: He takes the snap on third and goal, Purty under pressure.

01:23:16
Speaker 12: Jump fall, Kettle's got.

01:23:19
Speaker 9: It, touchdown, touchdown forty What a play from mid air, Purty.

01:23:28
Speaker 2: Off both feet suspended in the airs.

01:23:30
Speaker 18: He throws it to Kittle in the back of.

01:23:33
Speaker 11: The end zone and George is having a big day and he connects with the score.

01:23:39
Speaker 1: Not since Tim Tebow have I seen a jumping pass like that, Rock Purty. That was the most Rock Purty pass of all time. Three touchdowns, two hundred and ninety five yards. Back in my day, Tim Chebo and the Cats. Any chance he gets, let's talk about tea. But now I mean you throw it jump pass? Oh no, you throw a jump pass like that. That's the name that gets mentioned. Although that was more athletic and kind of incredible because him and Kittle have to be on the exact same page there, he wasn't that open. Kittle finishes with eighty eight yards and a touchdown. Perdy continues his excellent play that he started against the Browns, and the forty nine Ers survive a game titan second half effort. They win thirty seven to twenty four. Really, what we've been talking about is the forty nine Ers playbook right now, which is you're just gonna have to be awesome on offense each week and that's their path.

01:24:30
Speaker 2: They've won ten games this season.

01:24:33
Speaker 1: I don't like they are still in the mix in the NFC West' I won't roll them out totally.

01:24:38
Speaker 6: No, And you saw a continuation of the things that has kind of carried them this season, not kind of Christian McCaffery in the receiving game has literally carried this forty nine ers offense. But you get back and you get because Kittle missed significant time this season, he had a big game, Ricky Piersoll missed significant time this season.

01:24:56
Speaker 2: Even in this game he went out for a minute.

01:24:57
Speaker 6: And so like to see them back and kind of fully formed to the extent like, no, it's not we're not thinking peak Niners where it's like this world beater dominant, like gonna out talent you on both sides the ball. A lot of those guys are still there, but they're in different stages. They're succeeding to different levels. And against the team like the Tennessee Titans, they you know, can come out there and kind of groove their way to a win where yeah it was a jump pass, it was a cool highlight. I don't necessarily know it's necessary. He's fading away. Brock's feeling it, you know, he's.

01:25:27
Speaker 2: A little pressure in his face.

01:25:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean most jump passes aren't really necessary, probably, but it was cool.

01:25:34
Speaker 6: One of the more superfluous jump passes in league history. I would say that touchdown to Georgia and.

01:25:38
Speaker 1: It would have looked bad like if it didn't get completed, because, yeah, the Titans were doing some things in the second half of this game. So there was a two play sequence. And if Jeffrey Simmons does not make the All Pro team this year, and I'd have to go through I don't want to be unfair because there's other defensive tackles to look at a two play sequence where he forces a fumble on Party. It's thirty one to ten to start the fourth quarter. You figure this game is absolutely over, but he forces a turnover. They cash in with a touchdown pretty quickly. And you know who that touchdown.

01:26:13
Speaker 8: Was too, Who was it good?

01:26:14
Speaker 5: Jeffrey Simmons's so great. It's the coolest part of this coolest moment of this game with Jeffrey Simmons catching a touchdown.

01:26:24
Speaker 6: And not just a touchdown where the defensive player comes in. They scheme him up, like who's going to cover the defensive guy. It's a defensive tackle kind of running a little bit of a eight where he looks like he's going to be a lead blocker and then he goes into the flat. He does that, but then he's not open look at him, and so cam Ward has to roll to his right and Jeffrey Simmons is adjusting, is going on.

01:26:47
Speaker 7: Works with the quarterback in a scramble drill.

01:26:49
Speaker 6: But when are they What are the Titans running a scramble driller practice with?

01:26:53
Speaker 8: This is just a dude figuring it out.

01:26:55
Speaker 6: The dude who loves ball, who's out there like, oh man, I'm not open for this play.

01:26:58
Speaker 8: Let me make a play for Camo. Look at him.

01:27:01
Speaker 25: Well.

01:27:01
Speaker 1: The crazy thing is he knows cam Ward so well that most receivers, lesser receivers would run towards the quarterback. When he sees Camroard rolling left, he says, there's some open space over here. My guy is so great thrown across his body that there's about seventeen throw of the Year nominees of that exact throw. And that's exactly what cam Ward does.

01:27:20
Speaker 5: I see you and unnecessary unnecessary flourish jump past by Brock Purty, and I raise you an unnecessary but awesome flourish of a jump catch by Jeffrey Simmons, who bounced about three inches off the grounds catch that was coming into his chest anyway, and so he had it, you know, he had it locked and secured, and they're you know, all of that, but he's still you know, just a.

01:27:43
Speaker 7: Little emphasis, you know, just a little emphasis.

01:27:45
Speaker 5: I loved it. It was the most fun part of this game. On the side of the forty nine ers. They some of this obviously is cam Ward being able to scramble around. But the thing that will we talk about these contending teams and these teams that are going to make a real playoff push, especially in that tight like really crowded NFC West and the forty nine Ers cannot get pressure and regardless of whether the quarterback can scramble or not, they cannot get pressure. And on the other side, I think it's very cool kind of what seems to be forming here, which is George Kittle who is now back to doing kind of his yards after the catch thing, but they also are using perimeter receivers and they're taking some of that It's almost like they're blending the two eras or iterations of these modern forty nine Ers defenses and trying to see what kind of becomes of it as they enter this most crucial stretch run of their season.

01:28:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, like Kendrick Bourne goes over five hundred yards to get a five hundred thousand dollars bonus. I always like those performance bonus notes that he's a little part of the offense. But yeah, you have a chunk play to DeMarcus Robinson, you have a touchdown and a chunk play to Juwan Jennings that was a great play, and then chunk plays to Pearsall, who's been very quiet since he came off his injury, and Kittle. So it's all coming together. And I keep saying that about the division because Seahawks rams they're going to play each other. Yeah, one of those team is going to lose, and quietly, the forty nine Ers have every tie breaker possible. They're gonna have to beat the Seahawks the second time around. But they're eight, which is gonna be very difficult. But they are eight and two in the NFC, they're four and one in the division, and so they are danger mac Jones.

01:29:14
Speaker 7: Mac Jones won one of those tie breakers.

01:29:16
Speaker 1: Shout out to mac Jones and Davis Mills for helping their teams backups of the year. We should make that an award. Jameis Winston would maybe be a nominee. He did play on Sunday for a little bit. Let's go to MetLife.

01:29:29
Speaker 8: McNichols is the back they go RPO. I heard he's got time passwack.

01:29:34
Speaker 2: Got a little field?

01:29:35
Speaker 12: Why up with Terry mcloorn at the twenty tries to get through a teckle he does, spits back cluck yard cluckdown Washington a fifty one yard striker.

01:29:44
Speaker 2: Terry.

01:29:45
Speaker 26: Are you saying why do you want Terry mcclaurin on the football field?

01:29:49
Speaker 8: Is because it plays like that.

01:29:52
Speaker 6: Marcus Mariota just one on one coach on the house side.

01:29:55
Speaker 8: He falls absolute. Talk to Terry mccordy. He's done the rede will get to the inseel.

01:30:02
Speaker 7: Hmmm.

01:30:03
Speaker 1: Haven't heard enough from Bram Weinstein in London Fletcher this year two of the best in the business on WB I g yes, scary Terry also one of the best in the business. Making it a tough day in the film room. There for Dane Bellin because he got turned around, and then Paulson Adebo came in there. It was like the Keystone cops falling off. I'm trying to make that tackle. Twenty nine to twenty one. The Commanders get their fourth victory of the season and the Giants stay in first place in terms of Tankathon. They are slated right now for the number one overall pick.

01:30:37
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, to have the safety with a whole lot of green grass between him and Terry McLaurin.

01:30:43
Speaker 8: Going one one.

01:30:43
Speaker 2: I know, but what do you do. It's hull three sixty. It just doesn't look.

01:30:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, but it's, you know, considering the decision making from the Giants coming into this game with Mike Kofka and Brian cox U having their disagreements.

01:30:55
Speaker 2: Where survivors, a whole lot of folks.

01:30:57
Speaker 6: In East Rutherford are rushing to tell people it was strictly related to the seats.

01:31:00
Speaker 8: On the plane.

01:31:01
Speaker 6: I started a wonder because the defense has been a problem. It was a problem once again today where you get the other team's best receiver matched up on the safety the three way go. There was so much grass there there for Terry McLaren to operate in where Marcus Mariota didn't even necessarily have that grade of a game, and Jackson Dart once again is getting evaluated for a concussion.

01:31:25
Speaker 2: You know it's crazy.

01:31:25
Speaker 6: Our friend James Palmer pointed out today half of the games that he started, he's been evaluated for a concussion.

01:31:31
Speaker 1: I will not accept your Mariota slander over ten yards per attempt today. Just only needed to throw to eleven nineteen throws, but he gets his two eleven and they ran the ball better than they have all in a while, at least the Commander's Bill Merritt back in the mix. But yeah, the Dart takeaway was the biggest one for me in this game because it was full Dart and you don't want to go full Dart. Never like, there were some great throws in this game. I went and checked PFF had him as three big time throws and that that's a huge number, big time FoST I mean just monster touchdown to Tyrone Tracy for instance. There was a great one to Wandal you love you love to see it. There were at least three I think turnover worthy plays. They only had him for two, but yeah, they he had one where he nearly threw an interception on fourth down, but it was dropped. He fumbled the ball on a rushing attempt that he probably shouldn't have, and then he had a brutal interception which had the combo where you almostould give him two turnover worthy plays where it was a really bad decision and a bad throw and that got picked off. And yet all of that together wasn't even the thing that bothered me the most. It was the fact that he's running near the goal line and putting his head down and they're blaming the coaches. That was a busted play. It was supposed to be a pass and he just decided to run. There was a design run though earlier, on an inside give on the goal line, where he took a pretty big hit two. So it's just kind of the same story. And then again, he did have a bunch of good runs in this game. He ran for sixty three.

01:33:03
Speaker 5: Yards in the Tale of the New York Giants' twenty twenty five season.

01:33:09
Speaker 7: It is possible to blame everybody.

01:33:11
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that's a good, good call, including the whole defense, except today for abdul Karda.

01:33:17
Speaker 2: I was watching him closely.

01:33:18
Speaker 1: Three quick pressure sack force fumble like he's at least getting into the bubo.

01:33:21
Speaker 2: Well I like that.

01:33:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, and good because playing playing that way after some of the you know, miscommunication meetings or miss time or the benchings and all of these things, he knows people are watching him.

01:33:34
Speaker 2: Good.

01:33:34
Speaker 1: I mean the crazy thing is Dark comes out for the concussion check Missus. Two plays, Jamis comes in, they're on the goal line, Jamis can't hit the touchdown, and then they bring Dart back for the fourth down. And that was the play I was talking about that should have been intercepted and was dropped and ended.

01:33:50
Speaker 2: Up just being an incompletion.

01:33:52
Speaker 7: Just just let it end. Yeah, the Giants seas if anybody end.

01:33:57
Speaker 6: If anybody could sim to the finish as bad as we talked too as things were for the Arizona Cardinals right now.

01:34:02
Speaker 8: It's been like this for the better part of months.

01:34:05
Speaker 1: It's really both these teams. But the Commanders have been better this year and they deserved that fourth win. They're four and ten Giants at two and nine. We're gonna say goodbye to you guys, and I'm gonna thank you for a clutch job. You guys have the clutch gene stretcher, like this was a show that required the best of us, like a big day in the NFL with these injuries and everything changing, And I know you.

01:34:28
Speaker 2: Could feel it before the show, and you delivered.

01:34:31
Speaker 6: We're gonna turn it right back around and thank Greg Rosenthal for allowing us to be a part of this franchise.

01:34:35
Speaker 1: I don't know why we're having thanks when we have three big games to go to on the other side. Let's hit Bears and Browns. Shooky coming back before Sunday Night Football.

01:34:45
Speaker 8: Your flowers, Greg.

01:34:55
Speaker 16: Snap played pig ROLLI was right, catile, running out of time, Gotta gut it into the end zone.

01:35:00
Speaker 12: The end zones?

01:35:01
Speaker 2: What Steve J Moore touchdown? Bears?

01:35:05
Speaker 26: You thought that play was a throwaway and Caleb Williams launched it to DJ Moore of the end zone, twenty to three Bears, his fourteenth completion, second touchdown of the day for more right, deep corner of the end zone, crushing from left to right.

01:35:25
Speaker 1: When you first watched that play on the broadcast, copy chuck felt great, but it felt a little lucky. The more I've watched that throw That's Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer. By the way, on WMVP. Bears win thirty one to three against your Browns. Big time effort.

01:35:40
Speaker 2: The more I watched that throw, that's a Throw of the Year nominee. That is an.

01:35:44
Speaker 1: Outrageous feat of athleticism by Caleb Williams on one of his best days as a pro.

01:35:50
Speaker 3: My first reaction was, oh no, oh no, oh no, you're throwing it into traffic. Oh my god, he came down with that. What, Oh my god, that's like a cam Ward play. We've seen kan Or do that like three times this year.

01:36:02
Speaker 1: You're right, but the miles per hour on that see, I don't know, it's even better. Like, yes, of course you need a little bit of luck to get that ball through, but I don't I literally don't know if there's a single quarterback in the NFL that could put that much velocity on that throw. From where he was throwing, that was unreal.

01:36:18
Speaker 3: That's part of the shot too, is you can see his eyes scanning the back of the end zone, finding DJ Moore and then just being like ohing it putting it there, and he put it right on him.

01:36:27
Speaker 1: Just an awesome game, and I think an interesting step forward for the Bears, who just keep checking boxes thirty one to three. They entered today with a negative scoring differential on the day. So I do think they've gotten better and better, even though you know they've been winning all season, They've gotten better. And this was a great example that their offense could perform against a great defense and that they could just win in a total blowout.

01:36:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, a blowout that they earned, like there was there was nothing cheap about this. You know, their first touchdown drive was six plays, forty two yards, three minutes and forty three seconds, so it took quick DeAndre Swift touchdown and then they go back and score with DJ Moore and it's fourteen nothing, and at that point the game was basically over and they were not like dominating, but they were winning, just flat out winning against that Brown's defense. Now you could say, like, oh, was the weather part of it, because it was frigid and everybody looked like they were pretty miserable, it didn't matter to me. The Bears had more fight in them. They look like a team that is ascending, that is fired up about making the playoffs, is fired up about playing football on Sundays, and they dominated on both sides of the ball. Probably the worst performance from the Browns defense, which just felt like they were chasing Caleb Williams and chasing you know, those who caught passes from Kaleb Williams throughout the day, which, by the way, the rollout of the playoffs rollout was magnificent for the Bears all day.

01:37:39
Speaker 4: But it felt like the Browns.

01:37:39
Speaker 3: Defense is just out of sorts and it's probably their worst showing of the year since maybe that early season lost to Baltimore. And it's all the credit in the world due to the Bears. I've been a huge fan of watching Kaleb Williams play football over the last six weeks and I just think he continues to stack good games and this is another good one.

01:37:55
Speaker 1: Well, I know the weather was absolutely brutal, the wind chills down in the single digits or negative. We should have mentioned that with the Bears Bengal, I mean the Ravens Bengals game two, Like, yeah, that's absolutely something to consider in context. But they put up three hundred and sixty one yards. I know they slowed down in the second half, but their success rate for the day throwing and running was like fifty percent, which is outstanding. Meanwhile, the Browns absolutely can't do anything on offense, Like I don't think they barely had a successful run the entire day. Shadur Sanders struggle. So it's a great game plan game by the Bears defense too. So you can't blame the weather when one offense looks like the weather's fine and the other is terrible. What did you see out of the Browns offense in the Bears defense?

01:38:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, well, I'm back to that point real quick.

01:38:39
Speaker 3: I mean Kleeb threw for two forty yes, in freezing cold weather like that, that's an accomplishment. But from the Browns offense a lot of the same. You know, Shador had a few nice throws. He actually got robbed of what could have been a touchdown pass. He put one absolutely on the numbers on Jerry Judy down the sideline that should have been a touchdown. Hits Judy in the chest, falls through his arms and right into the hands of Jalen Johnson for an interception, one of three shud Or Sanders interceptions. The other two were his fault. Good defensive plays made by CJGJ and the linebacker DeMarco Jackson. And look, that's what you're gonna get from a Rooie quarterback. He still holds on the football too long. I feel like I'm a broken record at this point. His pressure rate is sky high because he holds on the ball too long. And the Browns offense, I mean, he hit a couple of really nice balls to Isaiah Bond, he also missed a couple of open targets for Isaiah Bond downfield. It's just it's not a good offense. They didn't run the ball well at all. They didn't really stand much of a chance. They just looked like a team that was outclassed on in all three phases of the game, which has been pretty much the story for them all year. Today might have been the first time where I was like, yeah, I don't think hevins defans, he's going to survive.

01:39:38
Speaker 2: Like, oh man, right, I was there a month ago. I was there a month ago.

01:39:43
Speaker 1: I just I just he's a good coach, I think, but I just don't think he's going to survive.

01:39:50
Speaker 8: Run out.

01:39:51
Speaker 3: They're just it's run out. There's no more tape left there. They're out.

01:39:54
Speaker 1: And I think it's good for DJ Moore to score a couple of touchdowns, ends up four for sixty nine for him. To make big plays, and Luther Burden continues to break out. I know he left with an injury. Doesn't sound like it was two series, but he leads the team with six catches in eighty four yards. So the rookies are really playing well. For the Bears. They get a big time win which puts some back in first place in the NFC North.

01:40:15
Speaker 24: Oh.

01:40:15
Speaker 3: Also, we have one more thing. I don't want to rupt you real quick, but we got one more thing. Miles Garrett sack tracker. Yeah, only one and a half now. He had one and a half today, He's won away from tying the record.

01:40:23
Speaker 2: What a bad job.

01:40:24
Speaker 1: That's like literally the only note I wrote down, and then I don't look down at my notes. That's all I care about with these proud games. He's eight and a half sacks now ahead of second place. I mean that's a lot of sacks, Like not that many players have eight and a half sacks.

01:40:40
Speaker 4: You got a half sacked today. He should be a twenty two right now.

01:40:45
Speaker 1: Ban the half sack, go back, fix the Rake record book. For however, it's got to be half sacks are a travesty. It's a stupid set, and I totally agree he should have two sacks today, but he is only one away from tying that record. That man is one of the all time greats. You know who else is an all time great? Trying to think of someone in this Saints game? How about Kim Jordan, our podcast mate here at the NFL. Let's go to New Orleans.

01:41:14
Speaker 6: Forty seven yards with six seconds left towards the Smoothie King.

01:41:18
Speaker 2: Said, Charlie Smith would have been a better pick.

01:41:21
Speaker 6: Actually, Bike Roger Waits looks, hold is down, kick is away, flag is down?

01:41:29
Speaker 2: Kick is good?

01:41:30
Speaker 8: What's the flag offside? Offsides?

01:41:34
Speaker 13: And Charlie Smith has put the Saints off top twenty to seventeen.

01:41:39
Speaker 2: There's still two seconds to play the game.

01:41:43
Speaker 1: This typical NFC South annoying finish. We didn't need the penalty to kind of ruin the call. We didn't need two seconds left Kellen Moore to kind of ruin the call.

01:41:53
Speaker 2: Because it wasn't exactly a game winner. That was my cost. Induce McAllister.

01:41:58
Speaker 1: The New Orleans Saints have sweat the Carolina Panthers shook. They beat him twenty to seventeen. I propose that that is grounds for elimination from the playoff.

01:42:09
Speaker 2: Race.

01:42:10
Speaker 4: He just fair because the other team in the playoff race with them just lost to the Saints last week.

01:42:15
Speaker 1: I know, it doesn't really make a wedding streak. It doesn't make sense. It's not really fair whatsoever. The Panthers have actually beaten some great teams this year, but they can't beat the Saints.

01:42:25
Speaker 2: How did the Saints get this done?

01:42:28
Speaker 3: Well, if you watched last week's game against the Buccaneers, you know that Tyler Schuck channeled his inner clutch gene in the fourth quarter, and I'll tell you what. He did it again on Sunday in the Supernome. This time he wasn't on the road, he was at home. He had an opportunity after it seemed like they'd wasted their best one fourth and one. He gets what's listed as a sack, but he tries to scramble and comes up just inches short of the line to game turnover. On downs, they get a stop, they get the ball back. They have basically like eighty yards to go and he's just slicing and dicing, just throwing it down the field. Panthers are playing soft coverage. He's taking what the defense is giving him. You can't go broke when you're taking a profit and he's taking profits all the way down the field. And then he ends up getting a one on one situation. Chris Olave versus jac Horn. He fires a bullet. Jacy Horn tries to undercut it, he misses out, doesn't intercept it or break up the pass. Olave scores celebrates tie ball game. That's when you realize, oh, Shuck's got the clutch gene. It's just ic in his veins every week. But he wasn't done. They got another stop and they got the ball back with less than a minute, and he leads them down the field with a couple of quick connections to none other than Audric Estime, who catches and runs down the field. He hits Olave one more time, and then with the clock running, they spike it and you think, okay, they're just on the edge of field goal range. We'll see if Charlie Smith can do it. We know he's got a leg, but we'll see if he can do it. No, Kellimore dials up a QB keeper a good old quarterback draw. He runs forward. The Panthers get caught by surprise. They go after Shuck as he slides personal foul fifteen more yards and now we're well.

01:43:52
Speaker 4: Within field goal range and the rest is history.

01:43:54
Speaker 3: In the Saints have won two games in a row in twenty twenty five.

01:43:58
Speaker 2: Great play call there by kell More.

01:44:00
Speaker 1: I think this was easily their best win of the season in terms of they showed great fight and some of the play calling was really inventive. And I love them calling that QB sneak there when the Panthers are just giving it to you, and I think a bad job by there By a Giro Everro for the Panthers defensive coordinator, and a good job by Shuck selling it a little bit too on the hit, but there was multiple flags they were calling that regardless. And he's done it enough Nick that it's absolutely a pattern. He is playing his best late in these games, and he's really good in the hurry up situation. I bring it back to the preseason game I went to. The one time he looked great was in the hurry up and he has absolutely brought that forward. For them to get off eight plays in under a minute, I mean they got the ball back with less than a minute, they get eight plays off, and before that they get seven plays off in a p pretty quick drive to get that tying touchdown. He's been great and just a killer loss for a Panthers team that that's trying to win the division.

01:45:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, a blown opportunity for the Panthers.

01:45:09
Speaker 3: I mean, the Buccaneers lose and you think, all right, this is our opportunity to get a game lead in this very tight battle. We're going to ascend while they descend and fall apart, and Todd Bowles with an exploit of laced rant after their loss, Right, this is when we sees the moment.

01:45:23
Speaker 4: Now, this is when we let the.

01:45:24
Speaker 3: Saints back into the game and lose a tough one in the Superdome that we're definitely gonna wish we had back by the time this regular season ends. It's rough because I thought for two weeks in a row, I was going to get a game in which we had a total of eight possessions for each team, you know, one of those weird games. Because the Panthers are going on these methodical, very long scoring drives and Bryce Young makes a beautiful pass to Jalen Kocher down the sideline for a touchdown, and I'm thinking, here we go. They're going to do just enough to win, but I forgot about the fact that Tyler Schuck was standing on the other sideline there to ruin the Panthers.

01:45:53
Speaker 2: He's becoming a shuckhead. I love it.

01:45:56
Speaker 4: I've gotta get a better nickname than that.

01:45:58
Speaker 2: He's going to be the same starting quarterback next year.

01:46:01
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, what did I say this week? He's got the goods, he just needs reps.

01:46:05
Speaker 1: I don't know if he has the goods or not. They're down to seventh in Tankathon, tied with a couple of teams, but right now they're at seventh. Now that they're four and ten, I just think he's played well enough that they're gonna want to see more. And I certainly expect Kellen Moore to be back in everything, and I think they're gonna push it forward. And I think that makes sense at this point, the way that he's played. He keeps playing better each and every week. And yeah, it was a game with very few possessions and the Panthers get the ball three times in the fourth quarter, they don't score, and the Saints play their best then And I misspoke on our Thursday Night pod, I had it wrong kind of thinking about well, if you know the Panthers and the Bucks split. Now the Bucks could lose the division and it wasn't could, it was they would. And if the Panthers had just won this game shook, they could have won the division next week just by beating the Bucks the first time, because all they needed was a split. And so that's really what changes in terms of the stakes. Now the Bucks are right back pretty much on even ground, although the Panthers I believe, have the tiebreaker right now, and it just gives life. And it's kind of like we talked about with the Bears, they pass a certain test, like blowing out a team you're supposed to. Well, the Panthers not only didn't blow out the Saints, they got swept by the Saints.

01:47:22
Speaker 3: I also think that this part of the season is such an interesting examination of the psychology of different NFL teams because I compare that to the game we just talked about, Like, the Browns look like they're ready for vacation right the Saints are playing their tails off for Kellen Moore, like they're playing with full effort as if they're in the playoff race. The Panthers are somewhere in between where they don't really know how to handle the fact that they're at a playoff race and get a job done and take care of business in a game like this, and the Buccaneers can't figure anything out. Like you can be in so many different places in December in the NFL, and oftentimes where you are, your record doesn't reflect that, which is why it's so fascinating.

01:47:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, So they're at seven and seven and I think a big concern for the Panthers is the run game success has really fallen off the map over the last five or six weeks, So they just have slimmer margin for era. We'll see between them and the Bucks, who is the better flawed team. Speaking of flawed teams, let's.

01:48:13
Speaker 2: Get to Sunday night.

01:48:14
Speaker 1: The Vikings and the Cowboys may have some wartz, but they are fun to watch.

01:48:19
Speaker 25: What's Hawkins in emotion first and goal JJ looking right, throwing right, cot touchdown, Shalon Newer with a tune touchdown game and the Minnesota Vikings have taking off thirty to twenty three lead.

01:48:36
Speaker 1: Oh, it's great to hear a happy Paul Allen on Vikings radio. The second touchdown for Lucky Naylor on the night. We're calling him Lucky from now on. I don't know when that happened. I missed it. The first one was a die from JJ McCarthy. Vikings win thirty four to twenty six. The Cowboys are all but eliminated from playoff contention. The Vikings were officially eliminated earlier on Sunday, while the other NFC teams won but took. The season goes on long enough for JJ McCarthy to suddenly be a hero the last two weeks, and it's gone long on long enough for the Cowboys defense to be the worst, and then everyone says Jerry saved the season, and now we're right back to being one of the worst again.

01:49:22
Speaker 2: The season is rather long, but we're getting to the end.

01:49:24
Speaker 3: And the marathon continues long enough for your over under choice with the Cowboys to be in peril as we have three more games left in the schedule now, ye yeah, bring.

01:49:34
Speaker 1: It up if you don't think that. That's all I was thinking about. Could they win two out of these last three during this game? And should I actually send out a tweet about like, oh, it's been a journey if you've been tracking this over under. But I don't want it to make it all about me, let's make it about the Cowboys. It's the most Cowboys way to tank the season. You beat the two Super Bowl teams from a year ago, who I know are not at their best, and then you followed that up with these back to back losses, including giving up thirty four points to this Vikings team.

01:50:04
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, the Cowboys defense is back to being terrible. It's back to not being able to stop the run on crucial downs. It's back to getting bullied in the interior in the trenches on a night when they didn't even give up a ton of rushing yards but just in key spots, couldn't get stops in third and short and fourth and short, and ultimately, yeah, you give up a gross total to JJ McCarthy led offense that a couple of weeks ago, two three weeks ago was basically dead on arrival as soon as they took the field, and then they put up a bunch of points against the low the opponent last week, and now suddenly they can apparently throw the ball over the yard because JJ's worst pass was one of his first of the night that resulted in a bad interception.

01:50:39
Speaker 4: The rest of the night was pretty good for him.

01:50:40
Speaker 1: That was literally his first pass, I believe, and you're thinking, Okay, it's going to be a long night, but no, they moved the ball well, and I think last week they managed him well and he played well within the scheme and that was true tonight to some degree.

01:50:56
Speaker 2: But he had some great throws. He has a.

01:50:59
Speaker 1: Seamball to Dotkinson that he absolutely ripped. He had that bomb to Addison. The first touchdown that I mentioned to Naylor was money. He looked great tonight and I know that the Cowboys offense has made a lot of quarterbacks look great, and so maybe they had the right answers to the test, but he got to show off his athleticism. He's doing the gritty like before he gets in the end zone on a rushing touchdown.

01:51:23
Speaker 2: This final month.

01:51:24
Speaker 1: Could be really big for JJ McCarthy and the Vikings just feel better about themselves.

01:51:28
Speaker 2: They're looking more like the Vikings team we expected.

01:51:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Vikings fans are gonna lament the fact that he came too late, but it's all encouraging signs of progress going into next season, which is all you can look toward now that you're eliminated from playoff contention. You know, on that as he's grittying across the goal line and watching the way he's holding the football and I'm thinking, oh God, don't drop it. Don't don't drop the ball doing the gritty, Please don't drop the ball. But we have one more thriller we need to bring up that I thought was his best throw the night of any which was the fourth and three play where he hits Naylor on a twenty three yard or down the right side where he throws a back shoulder to him. And this is like I think a player too sure He's sailed a pass to an open justin Jefferson and he comes right back and puts it perfectly on Naylor where the defender I think it was revel and coverage again could not make a play on it.

01:52:09
Speaker 4: And he did that well on the run like it was. It was an excellent toss.

01:52:12
Speaker 3: It shows you the glimpses of yeah, he might not have the strongest arm of the world, because if he had left, you know, a little bit more out there, I believe as Addison would have been able to catch and run it into the end zone for a touchdown instead of giving that touchdown to CJ.

01:52:23
Speaker 4: Ham, which shot out for a fullback touchdown.

01:52:25
Speaker 3: We love those, but he still has this accuracy that comes and goes, and I think we'll be fixed over time with more work with Kevin O'Connell. You know, he's talked a lot about marrying the eyes and the feet, and you're seeing small steps of progress. But you know, give him a year or two. If they give him that long of a leash, maybe he gets a lot better in that department. It becomes a more complete quarterback. Because I'll tell you what, We've always known this about him. He's a gamer and he's a tough player, and he definitely showed that off tonight.

01:52:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they've gone to eleven personnel, so yeah, three wide receivers on the field at all times and changing the offense a little bit and it's worked. So you could either look at that as a positive or wonder maybe they should have done that before. But that's neither here nor there. It's just funny to me that the Cowboys had so many things go right this year. Dak playing great, the rise of Pickins, you know, the trade for Quinn Williams looks great for a while, and then here they are with the defense looking worse than ever, we learned that Treron Diggs was not activated for this game, and it sounds like he might be done with the Cowboys for good. Revel comes back from that injury he struggled, which he's coming off a serious injury. I'm going to give some grace to a rookie, and we're questioning George Pickens's effort, who had another mediocre game, and even Dak Prescott said, like I could tell like he didn't have it pretty early last week, and that was a game to go to Ceedee lamdmore So, it's just more of the same and it's disappointing.

01:53:45
Speaker 2: They have not officially been eliminated.

01:53:47
Speaker 1: But if the Eagles beat the Commanders on Saturday next week that's one of those Saturday games, then the Cowboys will be officially eliminated. So they're done. And I was looking at that Christmas slate. I feel bad for Netflix here, you know, as bad as you can feel for like a billionaire corporation, whatever you want to call Netflix.

01:54:09
Speaker 2: And those games do not look great.

01:54:10
Speaker 1: Four out of the six teams have already you know, been eliminated. Commanders and Cowboys are out, and now the Vikings, of course are out.

01:54:19
Speaker 2: And the Chiefs.

01:54:20
Speaker 1: Who would have thought the Chiefs in big spot would would kind of be a dead team walking. But just to recap the day before we say goodbye, the Chiefs eliminated, the Vikings eliminated, the Bengals have been officially eliminated. And yes, as Jordan mentioned, the Saints, I mean the Rams rather have clinched the playoff spot. They're the only team in the NFC to do so, and the Broncos should have given them their flowers are the first to do so do so.

01:54:48
Speaker 2: In the AFC.

01:54:50
Speaker 1: And this raises the final big picture thought I'll have for you, Shook. I'm all about these playoff races, and there's a lot of really good games and seedings, and we still got to figure out who's gonna win the AFC North between the Steelers and the Ravens, they got a big matchup. We got to figure out who's gonna win the NFC South. We got to figure out who's gonna win the NFC West. And of those first two divisions, only one team is gonna make the playoffs.

01:55:14
Speaker 2: There's actually not a lot.

01:55:15
Speaker 1: To decide in these wildcard races down the stretch. I feel like, you know, if the Lions have two games to make up on the forty nine ers or else we know who's making it in the NFC, and then forty nine ers have a tough closing slate there where where they could lose two games they finished with the Bears and the Seahawks. The Lions do have hope and in the AFC, unless Philip Rivers leads the Colts on like kind of a miracle run, we kind of know who all.

01:55:42
Speaker 2: The teams are gonna be in the AFC as well.

01:55:44
Speaker 1: Just figuring out who's gonna win the AFC North a little disappointing.

01:55:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, the puzzle pieces can still move around with some of these division battles still being up for grabs, you know, Houston making interesting the South with Indianapolis and also with Jacksonville. But ultimately, yeah, for the most part, we know it's a bad time for the in the hunt graphic because you're losing, right, And so I think to close all of that, I'll just say, in honor of our dear friend Chris Westling, to all the teams that you just listed, he going they go.

01:56:13
Speaker 4: They're all gone.

01:56:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm glad you raised that point because the division races are great, and we have a lot of matchups that are going to be playoff preview type games and really decides seeding, including that Rams Seahawks game on Thursday night where the Rams can be thinking either we're going to be home and indoors and have a buy or we're potentially on the road and playing outdoors for three weeks. So it's a lot of those types of games. Broncos, Chargers, Patriots and Bills. We still don't know who's going to win that division, Texans and Jaguars. Who's gonna win there? But you have the wildcard races not done, but they're kind of decided, and you know what could be even further decided. Dolphins playing to stay alive on Monday Night Football, obviously a massive game for the Pittsburgh Steelers. You and I Shook will be recapping the game live on YouTube. Steelers and Dolphins appreciate you, my friend.

01:57:04
Speaker 3: I appreciate you, and I'd really appreciate it if somehow a football could get stuck in the mud at Akroshuer Stadium and just repeat that great moment from a primetime game between these two teams years ago.

01:57:13
Speaker 1: Okay, hit the music I totally agree, and I think that's going to be a fun game. That game means a lot. So we were thinking of taking the YouTube live and just putting that on Thursday, but why not do it on both nights. So we're going live on YouTube after each one of those games. Bummer of a day with Parsons and Holmes and DeVante, but the football carried us through. Join us Monday night. We'll see you that