Top 7 NFC Contenders' Kryptonite with Ollie Connolly

00:00:00
Speaker 1: It's a tough sports not for everybody. You gotta be a little sick to love this game. And we got some Welcome to NFL Daily where yes we're just a bunch of sickos. I'm Greg Rosenthal and for the first time breaking boundaries here on NFL Daily as a member of the NFL Daily family, I want to welcome in Ali Connolly. Ali, I've been trying to hire you on this show for like a year and a half and we actually did it. We're going to have you every Saturday on the show, and yes it's a show just.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: For ciccos we did it. Look at us, who'd have thought.

00:00:39
Speaker 1: You're kind of joining us? You know, we're we're like a winning organization. We have a lot of good players. We can create open receivers. But we're putting you in a spot that we think is gonna work. But it's a lot of pressure on you. It's a lot like the JJ McCarthy situation in Minnesota.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: Oh, that's brutal to throw me in with JJ. I hoping maybe like a Brandon Graham, like you bring a guy and can you bring the last drops out of someone for championship run.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a better comp and you know, maybe JJ can turn around. We saw the Minnesota Vikings in person Ali and I. If you're not familiar with Ali's work, you know he's done some great work at The Guardian. Obviously you should check out his sub stack where you can catch him in John Ledyard podcasting and in also Ali writing. But we wanted to get you in Ali in the door. At least for now. We're going to be doing Saturdays and kind of taking like a step back, like a look at the league overall, and just taking some big picture thoughts. And it's a way for me to just like wind you up and start the take machine. So we decided today we're gonna talk a little bit about the International Series at the back end and just our impressions from it and yours covering some of the games for Talk Sport. But we're gonna start by looking at the content in the NFC. I can't remember a conference that's this good but this deep at the top, and kind of picking through what we think might be the one thing that gets in the way the biggest problem for each of the NFC contenders. And I'll have you get us going with the Los Angeles Rams, right now the number two seed. Losing that tiebreaker with the Eagles.

00:02:21
Speaker 2: The Rams one is hard. I think the special team situation is obvious, but I do think hiding under the hood and the Seahawks expose this slightly is against the best of the best competition. I'm not sure the interior the offensive line is up to snuff and has the potential to kind of submarine everything else that's going on. They are such a complete team. They've played well above the expectation. I think that interior. But when you go good on good and we saw what I thought of fel played out like an NFC title game preview with how good those two teams are, that it's not quite on the level that they need it to be.

00:02:52
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're not buying like a Steve Avula resurgence because that's a former NFL Daily guest. I feel like he's kind of been mowing down people to my untrained eye the last few weeks.

00:03:03
Speaker 2: I love Steve Avila. I think he could be the best center in the NFL if they moved him there. They choose not to. They still play him out left guard. I think he's incredibly explosive, But when you get them all isolated one on one. They got real issues I think in past per in term to speed off the ball, and it limits some of the flexibility of what McVeigh wants to do. I know Jordan's being out here talking about the thirteen personnel stuff when they face the team's like, we do not respect that in the slightest. So you just take that off the table. We both have Imma Wori and we don't respect it. Just conceptually and structurally as a defense, what is their pivot point to try and play more spread out to return to all class at McVeigh bill. It puts those guys in more one on one situations and they lose pretty quickly.

00:03:41
Speaker 1: See I'm glad you brought that up because it was a point I meant to make on our previous show this week because Jordan's beloved thirteen personnel. When they have the three tight ends on the field and they go heavy in that Seahawks game, if you look at the numbers, you know they average under three yards per play out of that personnel. The Seahawks were more than prepared for it. They played fine, They played well when they were kind of back to their regular McVeigh ball which is you know, the thirteen I mean rather the three wide receivers on the field. Like, what is it you think structurally that the Seahawks did in that game to cause them problems? Because the win was great and it was just a great football game, but the win overshadowed the struggles that the Rams ultimately had at home that they needed those four interceptions from Darnold to kind of cover up that the offense wasn't moving the ball enough.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the downfall for Seattle is just so dominant and deep as well, and they have so many different skills and styles of plays. They can just roll through to the deep and then whatever kind of ants they need on the chess blow, they're going to throw a different body out there, and then it's Dexilauren's next Lenard Williams and they throw someone else in there. So they just can create matchup night Mez for you. And then on the back end, because of the monoory, they can just get to different shells in a way most defenses on equipped to do from what is that base personnel with the big nickel stuff, with the monmoory out there, It was just really really hot for the Rams when you look even on the opening drive of the game, when they're in the thirteen stuff and they try to take a deep shot to DeVante Adams, you could see almost the fu from McDonald on the sideline where it's two guys out in the pattern, it's Davante Adams down the field, it's Karen Williams leaking out underneath as a checkdown, and seven defenders in coverage. It is a pure we don't respect this as a true way to get to chunk play action shots, which is how the Rams have been successful, which is we put the big bodies on the field, you match it up, we take our shots from there. So if that's off the table and they have to play more from the guns spread ball, which they just have not been all season, they've really pivoted the entire offense. I do wonder about that offensive line holding against true speed when you might have to go through the books in a wild card game, you might have to go through the Eagles with Jalen cart when everyone inside, and then maybe face the Seahawks again.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's kind of going to be a trend here because I have the Lions and the Eagles coming up, and the Bucks, and there are all some offenses that struggle, and you think about how the NFC is built and strong right now, and you're thinking of you could have a gauntlet of defensive matchups. The Rams would be included too. If you're facing the Rams, that you might have to play the Eagles, the Packers and the Rams or the Seahawks like all in a row, which is a brutal matchup. How do you think they've looked just running game wise, on the interior of their offensive line?

00:06:18
Speaker 2: Running game wise, I would say fine. When they have a premium look, when it's like all set up by design and there's some kind of overload, those guys get after it. They are big, they are physical, they're explosive, and they pop people. When it's a non premium look, and you are then reliant on do we have superstar talent? You can see the issues and a lot of run throughs, so guys just screaming through untouched, which is where you get down to do we have a superstar or not? Who can cover that up? For as I, it's not perfect. So when it's the perfect patron the ants they always have is Stafford gets into premium looks eighty percent at the time, he'll just move the pieces around and check the play. He doesn't like it. So they're often in premium looks way more often than they are in the negative ones. But I just don't see. I love a Vila, and if they could move him around and do a little bit more with him in space, I think that could ownlook more potential for the group. But because of some of the struggles he's had, I think they've just kind of put him back into a box and they're just trying to play team football. And it works okay, particularly when they were in the center. My concern is more so around when they get into the passing game.

00:07:20
Speaker 1: See, this is just like inject it straight into my veins. This is why I've gotten cold turkey off the Read Optional podcast over last month. I was hoping this day would happen, that we would get it done. Thank you to iHeart in the NFL, and I thought, you know, I want the Ali takes to be as fresh and just just mainline it when he comes to join the show, and I don't want it infecting some of my thoughts. I'm listening to these guys and they're really sharp on it, so I recommend everyone go get a subscription check them out here. But I'm really excited. We're going to have it every Saturday. So the idea is we're going to go through the different contenders, and with the Eagles, that's what I'm up with next. I had this whole thing prepared, trying to be cute because when you look at the numbers that well, actually like this was their passing game last year and they won the Super Bowl, that the real falloff is in the running game and the amount that Saquon Barkley's getting hit in the backfield and lack of explosive plays and how low their success rate is running. I had this whole thing planned and then I turned it on. I'm like, let me watch this game again, and it's just like I should pick the obvious answer. It should be Jalen Hurts and whatever the hell is happening here. I just can't believe we're at a point where they're literally the number one seed in the NFC and the top headline, which to me is telling of what America is interested in on ESPN right now, is Jalen Hurts not concerned with the criticism that's happening inside his own building, And it was mystifying to watch that film, particularly because it just seems like they're running this really basic offense that they go back to, where they're asking their guys to just win matchups. I'm not an x's and O savant, but i know enough to know what I see there, Like what do you see and what do you think could possibly be the reason why the Eagles have regressed so much and have been so basic, which to me, you know, they have to get out of at some point to possibly win the Super Bowl, no matter how good the defense is.

00:09:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's nauseating to watch. And it's funny you say that. I was seeing a clip before of like Jason Kelsey on local radio crying about like the locker room and the impact in the locker room. It's like they still could go on and go back to back, like that's still in play. The defense is absolutely dominant, but because of the struggles and the quarterback and aj Brown and whatever is happening there, it's just overshadowing everything. The main takeaway when you watch them is just it seems completely misset up to the talent. They have to not have any sense of like man beating concepts in there where you open guys through play design is just frankly bonkers. And I know people always come back and say, well, every time they change the coordinator winds up back in this spot. It's just the quarterbat and that's how he wants to play. And that is true. But you could at least try and find some answers and then you can go and bury the quarterback with the wink and the nod at the podium saying guys are open, they're not throwing him the ball. Their response to man coverages, we have better guys than they have. Our man beta is everything vertigal to aj Brown, Davonta Smith. They will just win one on one and it just puts them in such a bind when they have no running game to support it. They have the worst what three and out rate in the NFL. The explosive play rate is dried up. It's a disaster, and there's just no fluidity or ability to sequence the offense when the wrong game isn't there. And honestly, one of the main criticisms that I have is everything they've tried to do to course correct at mid season has made things worse. I know, everyone is like me, obsessed and excited about Oh, the extra lineman is a major trend around the NFL, and how do you get to explosive plays from there? And they've dabbled with some of that. People are very excited when they started rolling that stuff out. That makes them worse. It condenses everything. They are so much more effective when it's really spread out. When you give Hurts as many options as possible, He'll probably not always pick the right one, but you're just putting more options on the plate. Even the Lions game, the big third and eleven conversion came on the little rap concept they have with the center wrapping around a little fullfold thing. With Jalen Hurts carrying the ball spread to run. He had a quarter by draw, third and ten spread to run. And even the numbers they're running game, they're one of the best five in the NFL when it's a spread formation and they're running is they bring more of these bodies in to try and play bully ball and mash things and get the run game going. Things have got worse.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are the fourth worst team. So what is that twenty ninth in the NFL? If you look at EPA per play on just straight dropback situations. I believe there was a couple of funny teams in front of them. I think the Jets were in front of them and the Titans. I was really shy, like in just straight like you know, nothing going on, take away the RPO stuff and everything, just like they can't do it, and watching it, it's crazy because we have seen Jalen Hurts play as very best football when it matters the moment, and yet they throw off and revert to it. To my eye, like the biggest problem I see is just like it just takes him a while to get to the right read. Tell me if you think that's wrong, because I saw that a couple of times, and yeah, the concepts are not helping him and aj Brown, you know, in a big play doesn't get open against rock Ya Sin last week like that, that's not helping Jalen Hurts either. But there were a couple of times when I saw like, Okay, I think a lot of quarterbacks would have gotten to DeVante here or would have gotten to aj Brown here, and they are open, and he's just not necessarily getting to that secondary receiver fast enough.

00:12:36
Speaker 2: No, but I do think it comes down to coaching. He's not a relentless rhythmic thrower. He never has been. His best games in the Super Bowl went not relentless rhythmic games. There was like all time put the capon, I'm gonna make something happen. There was some rhythm throws. He can do some of that stuff. Everything he does that is like the A plus skill in the NFL is throwing the ball down down the field, often to a spat, you know, just throwing it to a lemmarck, letting a guy go make a play. You can still design stuff to spring guys open. You go watch the Ben Johnson offense. It's a bums away offense, but it's designs get guys open. It's not just two by two static. We've got two studs to receive a we think they'll win, and we'll just either throw a deep hinged to the sideline or we'll make it vertical and we'll try and throw over people's heads.

00:13:18
Speaker 1: Well, maybe the Cowboys defense can help solve it. But I did have an image suddenly last night. It's like, I don't know, maybe this is actually the one where they slip up. Going to Dallas, a familiar opponent, the defense is a little better, and obviously they're playing a much better offense. I'm looking forward to that, but we're not previewing the game here, and I do feel bad, like for your first episode, Olie, we're going pretty hard negative, like in terms of the thing that could get in your way. Like Ali loves him some ball. He's not a dour guy just because you know he's from Manchester and over in the UK. You are breaking ground. By the way I'm thinking about this, you're the first overseas NFL daily correspondent, maybe the first NFL media overse correspondent ever. I don't know. I can't think of can't think of any but let's stay dour. Give me the reason this one seems easier. Are we putting the Bears? By the way, in the contenders? Do they count or no? They're the three seats based on we're skipping them, right.

00:14:16
Speaker 2: I think the Bears based on standing we have to the schedule is pretty brutal coming up, but could also tell us that they could be in the thing. I mean, the defense is playing like a wagon, you know.

00:14:27
Speaker 1: Okay, give me, give me the Bears, then give me your Bears. Unless I'm surprising you.

00:14:32
Speaker 3: Right.

00:14:32
Speaker 2: No, No, the pass rushes is not championship worthy. They are to win the whole thing. To win the whole dance, you have to win with a downfall. It's just that simple. And you can try and do it creativity and sims and zone pressures and all the different things people have tried. We're now in probably year five of simulating pressure in different creative blitz packages, being like the full crim of most defense in the NFL. We've yet to see someone rip through three full playoff rounds just playing that way that at some point, because the quarterbacks are so good, the opposing offense is are so dominant, you're gonna have to just get pressure with four and hope you can hang it on the back end and then have you a quote about make plays at least through one of those rounds to win the whole thing. They just don't have the downfall to compete at the highest level. The twenty seventh in full man pressure rate, and it's all really really slow. They have like the slowest time to pressure of any team in the NFL that now blitzing oh wakad level. Dennis Allen is just coming after it, and it is so unbelievably ineffective that it's almost not worth the investment at this point. But it's the only card he has to play. So they just don't get enough pressure for me. And I think that will show up during this really difficult strutch.

00:15:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, they weren't before Odengbo went out for the season. It was a big free agent pickup. Although he personally wasn't getting like a ton of pressure, but he was still better than what they have. Montes Sweat is there, who's a solid player but maybe not playing at his absolute peak and not a huge difference maker. Perhaps they can get the quarterback to hold the ball a little longer when they get some of their players back in the secondary. Kyler Gordon and Jalen j should be back, whether it's this week or sometime soon, that would help because their schedule is getting much tougher. Yeah, that one see seems like a clear one. I'm going to go with the Lions next, okay, And mine is is their offensive line special enough? And I think you could have gone a line with a lot of these teams. And I don't think you're a fan of past block win rate. Do you have any or run block win rate? At all. I think I've heard you talk about that. First of all, why is that true? And do you think it has a little more credence like as a team wide stat in comparing it year over year?

00:16:37
Speaker 2: Possibly as a team wide stat. I think you'd have to sit down with the people programming some of that stuff to find out just a lot of it doesn't match up with the iteest. And when Brendon Thorn, who is probably the best individual analyst covering the old line so off, he literally goes through in childs every single pressure in SAG in the NFL, and he's charting very rarely matches up to any of the metric systems. And I know that he's going through every single play one by one. I get a big queezy around some of the numbers.

00:17:05
Speaker 1: That's fair And uh yeah, Ali for the listeners out there getting to know him has a scouting background, what exactly was the scouting background? It's always very mysterious and confusing to me though I used.

00:17:17
Speaker 2: To work helping teams the year before the draft would happen, So you got to find out, is there a guy Yyel playing tight end who is draft eligil, who we should bother sending a scout to go see you got to go through all the schools in the country. Then I spend time at Western Michigan when the Broncos went twelve and oh one won the MAC. No big deals, Oh yeah, but some good players out into the league. Who was still there right now, Corey Davis top what fifteen pick was on that team? Taylor Motesen still with the Panthers.

00:17:43
Speaker 1: Good thing you were doing what like advanced scouting for them? What were you doing?

00:17:47
Speaker 2: That was the pre nil era with very specific staff requirements. I don't want to get anyone in any kind of bother or trouble about this international staffing with the Western Michigan Broncos. Jalen Moore was on that team, was now well was for a while the left tackle protecting Patrick Mahomes.

00:18:02
Speaker 1: That was a quick go yeah, okay, don't we don't want to get into any trouble. Ali was not a bag man though, just to be clear. So the Lions, that was a long way of getting around to okay. In terms of past block win rate run block win rate like they're they're not in the top twenty this season, and it's down pretty significantly from where they were last year, and then it was the idea coming into the season, will this be the problem? And when I'm watching them on a week to week basis, like we know that Jared Goff is better compared to you know, when he's kept clean versus pressure, compared to other quarterbacks, Like the difference is much more drastic. Just to put some you know, numbers on that he is fourth in the NFL. I believe in EPA per play when clean twenty ninth pressure, it's pretty similar success rate, like second in success rate when cleaned twenty six when under pressure. And you've got a situation where Taylor Decker is sounding a lot like Frank Ragnow this year, where he's playing through a serious injury and retirement might be right around the corner based on the way that he's stocked. Publicly, he's very close with Ragnow by the way, So that's your left tackle, and then who took over for rag noow is Graham Glasgow. In the middle, you have a rookie and Tate Ratletz, who's certainly had some struggles, and then you have a replacement at the other guards bot Iowa Seka right now, and you think of the path that this team has and going back to that where it could be the Packers, the Eagles and the Seahawks, let's say to try to go, you know, make the super Bowl, especially if they don't win the division, and it's tough. You can't quite imagine this line necessarily holding up. And it's been what made this team so special. It's true in the run blocking game. Two, what are you seeing right now out of this offensive line? Do you think there is a way out where they could be special enough to get to the Super Bowl.

00:19:54
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. I don't think specially enough. And you saw it in the Eagles game when they face a team that is just more them in the trenches where you just starving to bring bodies in and you're just hoping you can get through with numbers, and all of a sudden you become a really static offense where it's all outside the numbers, one on one shots, looking like the Eagles offense frankly at times, and that's just not who they've ever been and not the way I think Jared Goff wants to play. He needs as many options available as quickly as possible, and he will just decode you on the fly. That's his superpower is winning from the neck up. And so if you start drawing extra bodies into try and cover up for errors everywhere else, it kind of, you know, tilts the whole thing downwards. I think the impact in the run game is probably the most understated part of the lines. I think just because the area of Dan Campbell's like, well, they'll always have a physical dominant run game, but they're really siloed now and how they can get after. They used to be the most They had the deepest menu of run plays in the league. And it was not just that Ben Johnson was hanging around there and was really smart. It was that the talent of the players was everyone was available to do anything you could ever dream up or drow up on a napkin. And now they've just got these moles where it's all vertically based, and it's the same in past, where these guys play on like a linear plane. They don't really have to speed or the g to move and pull and play out in space, and it's really narrowed down what they're able to get to, and it has had a big knock on effect on some of the play action stuff they can do. Even if you look at some of their numbers rushing outside the tackles. They have the most electric back in the NFL, probably the single best pound for pound player in the NFL and Jamie Gibbs, and they have a thirty six percent rush success rate, which is one of the worst marks in the NFL. That should not be allowed to happen. But it's because these guys play really well. When it's all the combo blocks, it's like mass on mass and just who wants to fight for it and wants it more and who can play with leverage. They can bully people when you've got to try and be more intricate and have more of a pin pull and guys out in space field to the offense, things fall apart and has a real knock on effect on the play action game, which, as you said, is where they're at the best.

00:21:42
Speaker 1: I wanted to go back to what you just said. You think Jamir Gibbs is potentially the best all around player in the NFL.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: I think pound for pound, if you're putting people on the podium, you'd have what Parsons, Garret Bijean, Jamir Would that be a fair top four?

00:21:56
Speaker 1: That's a good one. I tried to make the case in our show the other week that like, as great as Bizon is, I don't know, just as a pure runner, like Jamir Gibbs is my guy. And Patrick, you know, Claybaugh and and Jordan were like, oh, you don't have to always compare him. I was like, well, but you can. That's I think I would take Gibbs. I'm glad you agree, or maybe you don't. I don't know. You have Bizon on the podium too.

00:22:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just on the lines just so I get this correct for the listeners. Mike consume with them the offensive line, Robin just the talent is they don't have any horizontal element in the offense anymore. Over then Jimmy being special in space, that's like the only like advantage edition they have is when just funnel the ball to Jamarian space, he'll figure out and it's all the jet sweeps and the motions and things like that. It's a little bit more gimmickified than traditional Lions Ben Jonson's style offense. And so now you have to play really vertically, and that's where those guys are best in their past sets too. It's just like straight drop back vertical play.

00:22:59
Speaker 1: Action game.

00:23:00
Speaker 2: They can't roll the pocket with Gared Goff because he doesn't move. He's not a scrambler, so he just puts them in this siloed style of offense, and they are not a bombs away outside the numbers offense. So they probably should be with Jamison Williams and rolling Teslaura in there for a certain number of reps.

00:23:13
Speaker 1: I was gonna say they could be, couldn't they? I mean Golf can make those yeah, bros. Maybe it's not what he majors in, but he certainly can make those throws. Get our guys to slaw in the mix like they could be. Do you think they could potentially adjust a little bit down the stretch?

00:23:27
Speaker 2: I think they should do. It would come down to stuff we'd never know, communication between Campbell and Gough of a willingness to say we're good with you throwing four down there and then taking one away. We'll just live with that. You know, if we give up a turnover, we give one up. You'd have to kind of reprogram yourself on the fly. But Goff has now made himself as the closest fact similarly, not in production or overall talent, but style wise to Tom Brady like, that's what the game is modeled on. Hit the back foot, get the ball out. Brady was able to adjust, and the greatness of Brady was whatever playoff game demands, that is just what I will produce. I'm not sure we can have a suggest that Chard Guff has that kind of internal n ten. I have exactly what a playoff game needs, and so I just think that they are way more get aftable than they have ever been during the dunkembol run.

00:24:12
Speaker 1: I'm not giving up on my Lions because I did have them in the Super Bowl this year, but and I do think they still will win the division. If I have to take one of those teams, I think they would be my team. But I just don't think they're as complete a team as the Seahawks or the Rams, and especially if they don't win the division, it's going to be a really tough path. But that's true for all these teams. It is deep. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back. We're gonna do you know the one thing that could stop these contenders from making it all the way to the Super Bowl, And then we'll talk a little bit about the International Series. Yes, it's The Show for the Sikos, Episode one with Ali Connelly. Back in a minute back on NFL Daily, our first Saturday show with Ali Connolly, they called it the Show for the Sickos right before break. That could work. I feel like we need, we need a name, Ali, and so you know, I know you've been a writer, you've been an editor. I'm going to put you on this task, but also put the listeners. If anyone listening out there has ideas we need some sort of special Allie Connolly Saturday Show branding, it's gonna be ours forever. I'm not I'm not ready. I'm not ready to pick one quite yet, Ali, But if you got any I'll take it.

00:25:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, the listeners quo with unbelievable names. I'm slightly worried that it opens up the door for some ad hominin attacks on my possible smokeness nd al arrogance. Which would is you know, some well concerning book Saturdays for the Sickos or something like that.

00:25:43
Speaker 1: You know, something positive would be does that's pretty good? Uh No, I don't think they would do that. You've gotten a lot about the resemblance to Kirk Cuns over the years. I think I feel like you're growing out of that when you're not wearing the hat. I think you don't. You don't see that the hair is looking good here. And I that you were gonna say, because I know when you've dealt with people within the NFL, the first reaction is like, what really you know about the American football as a British guy, like they cannot get over it. But we're gonna put you to the test. All right, you are up. Let's talk Seahawks. This is one I was very curious to see where you went.

00:26:20
Speaker 2: With one I had the hardest time with because I just think it's the most complete team in the league. And say, for like a Donald meltdown game, is that just the floor that both he can play like the MVP of the league for seven eight weeks, but then there's the full meltdown. I guess more big picture, there is a slight concern of how adaptable enough of they offensively given some of the issues with their run game. We haven't seen them play form a negative game script an awful lot the season beyond the Rams and then things did snowball on Sam Donald. And although they throw a lot of cool stuff, they have more personal packages than any offense in the NFL. They're not all as effective as one another, and I do just wonder if they're not quite as adaptable as some of the best offenses in the league. Having said that, that's a concern I've had for them for like five six weeks. Then they went and got Rashid Shaheed and they were like, we're going to be pretty more adaptable now because we've got under the absolute zoomer on the outside.

00:27:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was interesting that, you know, they had him in the backfield a little bit. What did you see. I know he hasn't gotten a ton of usage for them with how you think they will use Shaheed to make them maybe a little more adaptable.

00:27:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think before they just didn't have any three level receiving threats that wasn't JSN someone who could attack short, intermedia, deep, And now with Shihiedo, I think it's just a way more nuanced all around receiver than he's been given credit for, which is just like he's a burner. I think there's way more to his game than that, and so opening that up particularly, I think in the wrong game, just having someone you can stretch the field and he has that kind of os factor for safeties was like, oh no, that's real speed. We got to back up and make sure we're capping someone to that side and maybe you can draw two bodies, like the gravitational pull of speed is a real thing and clear people out to try and free up the rung game. The main thing in his first game was just not understanding what was happening in the offense a lot of the time. It really submarined that two minute drill. Greg Olsen was excellent on it on the coal being like they out burning seconds have to remind him where he is in the formation. And it's kind of strange because he did work with Kubiak last season, so hopefully he can get up to speed pretty quickly.

00:28:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Donald, can you survive like it's a stretch. Maybe it's the consistency in the run game. And Mike McDonald indicated this week that they might go to Kenneth Walker more like percentage wess. He said that before, but the fact that he said it right now at this point in the season after that performance, I thought was telling. Maybe they're not quite consistent enough. And then you know, Donald and Kubiak, especially offensively, doesn't mean they just because they haven't done it before that they can't do it. We've seen a ton of Super Bowl teams do it that way. But it's gonna be very tough for them, especially if they don't win the division, and now you know they have to get that Rams game coming back to make this defensive gauntlet too. Can those two guys like can Kubiak put enough good game plans together and can Darnell devoid the meltdown through let's say like a three game NFC gauntlet would be pretty tough.

00:29:11
Speaker 2: He also is making some of the most absurd throws you'll ever see, the highest degree difficulty not open. He had the best, the most absurd rate you've ever seen off tight window throws well under pressure, and they're all complete fifteen plus odds down the field. So that just doesn't happen. You don't complete those throws. To think that will sustain throughout a playoff run against the best, the best I think is you're asking for kind of an ELI on the Giants level. Flacco with the Ravens level of hot streak through a postseason when the degree difficulty is really high, and we've seen one game when the degree difficulty cranks up slightly and his brain just kind of falls apot.

00:29:47
Speaker 1: I'm like the president of the don't allow Eli Manny into the Hall of Fame committee. And yet I will always point out to people if you watch his run towards the end of the eleven season, it's like it was so incredible, not just in the playoffs. He kind of started it at the end of the regular season. The Flacco comparison is good. He kind of did the Flacco playoff thing, but for about seven or eight weeks just hitting some low percentage, incredibly difficult throws that were just all him for a couple of months. So Eli's got that, all right, I will I'll finished with the Bucks and it is Baker. It is stringing those four games together. I think that is the right answer. Because he's thirty first in success rate this year when having a clean pocket. It's crazy, like the only people ahead of behind him are Dylan Gabriel cam Ward and JJ McCarthy, like the people with fifty throws, and it's just chaotic. And I was curious for your take because I don't feel like I've heard it of how he's played lately. He does fit the profile of a guy like an Eli or a Flacco that could get high and because he is a streaky quarterback. But right now I'm seeing a guy that's like just not necessarily seen the field well, or he's not willing to take the positive plays that are there and he's either hunting for big plays or he's just holding on. That's at least my impression. I'm curious what you think he's looked like on film.

00:31:19
Speaker 2: No, I agree with you. And one of the worst things I think that could have happened to Baker was getting any kind of like MVP buzzle being put in Patrick Claiborne's conversation, because now he's just going pure hearable at a times when it's completely unnecessary, there's wide open targets. He's like, I'm just going to take off and do my own thing. And those late game comebacks bailed him out almost narratively, from the fact he was playing really poorly for twenty five snaps a game during those games and he had all the issues with the offensive line and receivers going down. He deserves credit for overcoming that, but you've just read off the numbers when pressured, even when he's being blitzed this year. Bake has always roasted the Blitz. It's always been one of his biggest strengths dating back to college. He has had such a stark decline this season against the Blitz, and it's just missing wide open targets, misreading the field consistently. And the difference with him, I think to someone like a Fleacco or a Manning, all those guys who get hot during the postseason is Baker's streaky in game, you don't know what you're getting drive to drive with Baker. He's not a guy who it's like, oh, the three weeks have been absolutely electric than the next two weeks are a bit of a struggle. That is kind of the general view sometimes and true, but even within those electric games, there's two or three drives. It's just like he buries the offense on his own with bad decisions and trying to do too much. So I just really struggle unless they get all the guys back together, and Grizzard has like a magical series of game plans for the postseason, which you just don't get from first year OC's that's always a mess throughout the first season. It's kind of wild. The run they've been on to think you can go three times in a row with just a great game planning go see is really difficult to do. I just I can't see Baker holding up without giving people plenty of opportunities to get some takeaways in the playoffs.

00:32:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the offensive line has a chance to be really good, and they're getting healthier and their defense I think overall, even though they've given up a lot of big plays, it hasn't been great lately. I think is better than the last couple versions. And that's what's a little disappointing about this Bucks team is I thought, I think a lot of people thought maybe this is the year that they escape out of that. Well, we're winning the NFC South almost by default, and actually we're pretty talented, playing maybe our best towards the late in the season, but we're clearly like a step below the real deal teams. It felt like they've they've had enough continuity coming into the season, and the injuries have hurt on both sides of the ball, to be fair, but it doesn't feel like they're escaping that. In fact, they could be in second place, like by the end of the weekend. If they lose that game to the Rams, Like, do you see them a tick below some of these teams we've already talked about in terms of the Eagles, the Seahawks, the Rams, maybe even the Lions.

00:33:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I put them right by the Eagles because I don't think there was fundamentally flowed as the Eagles. I think the Rems and just in a completely different tear, they're own to everyone in the league in terms of all around completeness. One of them does happen to have Sam Donald. The other one can't play one of the three elements of the sport, which is they can't play special teams. So that's a little bit of a ding on those two teams. But I just think they are in a different strates for the books. To me, if they were healthy, that is the best offensive line in the league. It's them in the Broncos. Those are so clearly superior to everyone else, and it puts so much on the menu for them, as we saw in the Bills game last week, how they're able to completely rechoreograph the wrong game in one week in a way they have not done all seasons, only available because of the talent the offensive line. So if they were healthy particularly with Hassam Reddick. Defensively, I think that they are as loaded as any team in the league with playmakers and then have a ton of stability in the secondary and the old line, so they get the playmaking explosives, and the stability is just so happens that the most important guy who touches the ball every play offensively is the most like destabilized portion of the team.

00:34:50
Speaker 1: Right and they basically are healthy on the offensive line. They don't have Bretison right now who's at guard, but the other four spots are solid and get a key is back. Yeah, I'm not I'm not crossing the mouth by any means of making around. I think they have the talent to possibly do it. Last team we'll talk about at length here is the Green Bay Packers. I believe it was your Super Bowl team before they made the micro Parsons trade, and then certainly you were sticking with them afterwards. What do you think could get in their way?

00:35:20
Speaker 2: Again? I think it's the offensive line. It may sound boring, but the interior that offensive line has just been brutal, some of the rung game issues of blown protections. I just think they placed a bet on a style of football that has just completely busted out and now they're trying to like work them back their way out of it. They got so big on the interior, and now you look at Banks, Sean Ryan, Jordan Morgan that you just cannot go into a game in Philadelphia. I think you're gonna have any chance with that group unless you can completely reorient the style of offense. And unfortunately, to reorient the offense, you bas have to say we're trading off any sense of efficiency. We cannot drive the field. Our guys aren't good enough, so now we've got to go hunt for big chunk plays and gets. You know, Jordan Loove's eyes all big and excited, like, oh we get to go hun chunk plays. Let's go have some fun, and you kind of lay slightly into some of his worst instincts where he goes chasing it on every single play.

00:36:11
Speaker 1: Wow, this is as down as I've heard you with the Packers, because you know you're you're a lafleur believer. And as as disappointing as some of these games have been, they're still like in okay position. You look at the overall efficiency in terms of DVOA, for instance, like they're one of the teams that is in the top ten of both categories, although it's like eight and nine, they're not elite really at either. Like where where do you think this offense in particular that you're mentioning, and this is coming up for all these offenses, Like where do you think they go in terms of like how they want to adjust down the stretch?

00:36:47
Speaker 2: That is when I don't know. And that's why I just love Mount Lafleux so much. I have. I'm just excited to see what he comes up with. He's one of those guys where the brain is so large. I'm just like, I can't wait to see how he figures out. I'm sure he'll get it right and I'll be all excited the to figure out. However, is he ideed was the solution? I don't think right now. Having on the opening drive of the game, leaving Dex Lawrence unblocked, as like the way he wants to go with this stuff, you would think that would be maybe in the key to the game. Let's make sure we block the best player on the field, so they just have so many breakdowns inside it's a problem. I did think that was Jordan Love's maybe best game of the season, just snap for snap, how he's throwing, decision making, and so you kind of just need him to elevate to a level that is I offset all interior line concerns. The tackles hold that well enough, we've got enough playmaking. We can at least go and get some chunks down the field. And so he would just have to rise to a level of consistency we haven't quite seen throughout his career.

00:37:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe Christian Watson, you know, continues to improve, Jaden Reed gets healthy, like they can definitely get healthier.

00:37:50
Speaker 2: We'll see if you have I will say though Laflor himself, this has been a really rough season play calling wise for a guy who I think is the best in the business. The situational play calling has been so off all season long. The I just am concerned as a fun of his work that he's misidentified his own team and is now driving ahead with something philosophically like you see with the Falcons and Psach Robinson, when it becomes like a coach's quest to prove his philosophy as opposed to looking at his personnel and going what will actually help us.

00:38:21
Speaker 3: Get out at this situation, I can't believe the real whispers beyond just like fans being mad about like could.

00:38:32
Speaker 1: This be it for Matt Lafleur and God to cunts depending on how this goes and their schedule is tough, Like there is a path towards that happening with and it would be a mistake and it would be great for content because there would be an absolute huge competition to get Lafleur and maybe good counts. Maybe they're back in the year. I don't know what their relationship is like.

00:38:55
Speaker 2: Doesn't that just feel like the part in the America's Game film at the end of the year with the fly all the tweets and then it like ends with them holding the trophy. Yeah, that's what it feels like to me. It could still happen.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: It's I look, I love I love all the seasons, you know, they're all they're all beautiful children, but this one, especially in the NFC, it's why we started here. It is so fascinting because the stakes are so high and all these teams are so talented that they all have a legit shot to change their story around except for the forty nine ers. Sorry, I feel bad about this because the more I thought about it, we decided the forty nine ers weren't going to be in our mix for contenders just because the defense, like there's just there's just no path with that pass rush and just the overall defensive talent. And yet, you know, the more I thought about it this week, and I was like, could they put up forty a game and Kyle like has his best season as a play caller the rest of the way, and it's just like the season you never saw coming from the forty nine ers. You never know. So we're not gonna talk about you at lank forty nine ers fans, but don't be mad. You never you never know. They could put a forty game or something crazy.

00:39:55
Speaker 2: Like.

00:39:55
Speaker 1: It's not like there is It's a smaller path I think than the rest of these teams that we talked about, But.

00:40:00
Speaker 2: I think there's definitely a path to win a playoff game and maybe win two. I think goes all the way they put a faulty game, but they get you know, cobD over the head for faulty five by the rams or something right.

00:40:11
Speaker 1: You would have to have like the right matchups. I don't know what that would be, uh to escape like facing a great offense throughout the playoffs. But yeah, that defense just doesn't seem like it's going to be competitive enough. Before we wrap up, Ollie, let's talk a little international. You know you've been back in Manchester. How long now? Oh?

00:40:31
Speaker 2: God, ten days? I think I had the Berlin flew for seven days. Don't don't google what the Berlin Flew has. Too many fun nights in the greatest city on Earth. Oh wow, okay, well let's start there then. Wow, how was the Berlin week? Beyond just like why and how you got the flu? Berlin was incredible. It was that I felt the first time, you know, every six months or something, mister Goodell goes out and floats and floats the idea of a London super Bowl and the wolfs Rejournal whoever will write about could they do a game in London? Yeah, you know, because all the owners read that journal. This was the first time it felt like a European super Bowl in Berlin. It was a really really cool week where it like takes over a major European international city. You've been to the London Games. The London Games are great and cool. The NFL doesn't quite take over the city, because there is so much going on in an enormous international city, just is impossible to have that degree of footprint, but in Berlin it did. There was eleven teams who have the home market rights and they were all on the ground there. Then you have the league as well doing stuff and it was just absolutely everywhere all over the week. So it was really really fun to see that scale and have that kind of Super Bowl feel.

00:41:40
Speaker 1: What was the vibe like in the city, Like among like the NFL fan base there. I guess you're not like an expert, you're not, you're not living there, but like in terms of they're not, you know, we do here from a lot of German listeners in general. I know you were you were out and about. I don't want to blow up your spot, but you might have been like see and some teams out and about. How do you think like that whole experience was out out in the city.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was in the city. It was incredible. Everyone's having a fine time, wonderful time. Berlin, as I said, probably the greatest city in Europe, So that was a lot of fun. The level of knowledge is just different to everywhere else. I mean, if you think of the end of NFL Europe, every team but one was a German teams. Like the domestic built in love for the sport, is it like a granular feel it in your bones level, as opposed to just the circus comes to town and it's kind of the Erasmus as in the shiny helmets that kind of maybe get someone interested initially. There's like a real earthy feel and love for the sports. So you're out there talking with guys at the at the bar about DVOA. People are talking special teams DVOA at the bar. You don't get that in many other international visits. And then you also get on the top of it all kinds of the big temp hole the league doing all the different stuff they want to do.

00:42:53
Speaker 1: What player watching it live? So you were broadcasting the game for Talk Sport with our friend Will Gavin and who, by the way, I can break the news here is coming back to NFL Daily Next Friday's actually gonna be the three of us. So in general, Ali and I are going to do Saturdays until the end of the regular season and we'll figure out what's the right day for us to do our shows. Once we get to the playoffs, we won't do it Saturdays because there's games obviously, but next week's a little weird with Thanksgiving, So you're gonna join me in Will Gavin after the Black Friday game to talk the Thanksgiving games and recap that. So we'll get the three of us together. What player, I'll put it this way, or players maybe stood out to you the most watching them live? That just popped?

00:43:37
Speaker 2: Honestly it was Jalen Walker. Is my first time seeing him live, and I think he's gonna be a super dupe stuff the highest order.

00:43:45
Speaker 1: Yes, I love it. He's really improved to my eye this season. Like the first month, the wasn't getting a ton of run. He still is, you know, a part time player, but he's getting more run. Seemed like he was trying to figure out what to do. But you can see the athleticism now popping, at least on tape. What did you see in person?

00:44:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the intelligence is what stands out with him, whether it's in person on tape, the understanding of what's happening. I mean, because they are such a package based defense where it's like roll out different groups of people, I think it just kind of limits how often he's on the field more than it being like there's like an issue in the in his game somewhere. He just bigger, quicker, stronger than everyone else in the field. And sometimes you just see it in person, it's like, wow, that guy even when you go by the numbers and the weights, like why does he look so much bigger than BERNARDA.

00:44:32
Speaker 1: Ryman.

00:44:33
Speaker 2: That guy's a huge human being, and he just looks thicker and stronger than that guy. So he just completely jumped down. And it's on a field with you know, unbelievable athletes all over the place, and the guy moving at a different speed with Dale and Walker.

00:44:45
Speaker 1: I gotta study him more because that's my type of guy. I mean, totally different type, a different type of player than Trevon Walker. But I do just like the guys that are bigger, faster, stronger, and you can see it because it's like I never fell out of love with Jeevian Clowney and oh, by the way, he's still getting it done at his age for the Cowboys. Okay, let's let's I'll go back to Dublin because it was a similar vibe to to start the International series, where it did feel like it took over the town in a way that I hadn't seen in London, and everyone was so like thrilled that that the game was in Dublin, and I just have to think that that has to be in the heavy rotation, especially the vibe of I walked to the game and just the vibe of the entire city almost walking together leaving it. Now that I've now left a Premier League game, it had a similar vibe where it was just like absolutely packed getting out of the stadium and it's like elbow to elbow for streets on end leaving there, and it just it just made a lot of sense there And in terms of you know what stuck out, it was our guy speaking a bigger, stronger, faster Darnel Washington to me, now I'm mixing up the Dublin and London games, like Darnel Washington in person was just like a site to behold and you realize, like, this dude really is one of the best players in the NFL at what he does and almost no one really does exactly what he does. As a long time Mott Washington believer, I just want to give you the floor for a second to say how you've enjoyed this season.

00:46:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's fun to see like the almost international breakout of Donnell Washington. And if he was, you know, on a team with anyone over the NOUTHA Smith, I think would be like this huge household name of doing the most absurd things in pro football. And I still do have slightly in the back of my mind like if he just moved to tackle, I know that's out there quite consistently, could go and make himself fifty million dollars a year. Jalen Moore is a backup with the Niners, got like, well twelve fifty million dollars a year. It's go be a swing tackle for the Chiefs. I feel like he's only now, what twenty three pounds shy I being like tackleweight three eleven might even be solid tackleweight for him, and you can move so well. He could consider that. But I think there's so much potentially him as a truly explosive play threat. You see it with him kind of just throwing small dudes off him down the field. People just bounce off him. He's a truly a unique weapon. Way. It's like Mercedes Lewis at the tail end of Mercedes' career. But I think quicker down the field way, you could do some really creative things with him if you had the kind of offensive mind too, you know, try to be creative.

00:47:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, the breakout last week in terms of you know, just running over a couple Bengals, but I almost like the play where he hurdled one of them earlier in the game just as much. And that was a great game to call because you're not sure exactly where to look every play or before the play, There's so much to look at. And I just found like, if you just watched Darnell, like, first of all, it's gonna be fun, but also like you'll figure out how that play is going to work. He really is a skeleton key. And yeah, I just dublin shout out to Michael McQuaid and as we kind of wrap up like the International series, I just I just I just think they made such a great first impression and Croke Park is just like the perfect place to play those games that I'd be shocked if they're not doing an annual game. It just makes so much sense. How have you seen the London game experience evolve? And just sort of as someone who obviously grew up loving the NFL, like, how that how you've seen that change with the people around you in England.

00:48:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, the evolution has been interesting. I think the how to put this, I don't know if it quite has the same event feel as it once did, where you know there would be packs of eight nine friends who would build the year around we're going to that game. I think the part of the international expansion, and I met a bunch of these people in Billin was like we chose to do the Berlin game rather than do the Loving game. It's fun for us to go on tour. It is such a regular feature of the scheduling to make it a bit different though, Like we're gonna go to Island this year, we're gonna go to Bilin this year. Next year there's gonna be a game in Paris. Do we do a weekend in Paris? Or do we do a weekend in London? When we've got multiple London options? So I think that is a kind of interesting pivot point for the league in general. Is there any kind of not necessarily staleness and a lot of that is matchup base too, but how do you kind of inject some more sizzle into London and make it have a really special feel.

00:49:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean the matchups didn't work out like like they wanted to the games themselves. At least Broncos Jets was close. But I was happy that that you were handling that the next week, or that that was that was happening the next week from that first game we watched together. What is there anyone in that Vikings game that that stands out to you?

00:49:39
Speaker 2: Well, I just want to see Brian Flores in person. I just enjoyed Maya all the wizardry and madness up close and personal, which I was I was pleased to do.

00:49:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that that was going up against a team that really wasn't ready for them in terms of the Browns. And watching justin Jefferson in person is always a treat because it's just like so smooth if you just focus on him every play just makes it look so effortless. And he is someone that absolutely moves different than other people and it's fun to see. One thing I've noticed over the year is like going to London every year, is it does feel like the like the casual there's either more casual fans or the casual fan of the NFL. They're just more aware of it. In a way that I do compare it to how the Premier League is here, where I think the NFL in England is almost like where the Premier League is here maybe five seven years ago, where now like sort of everyone has a base knowledge, where like when I whenever people ask what I'm doing in town, if it's like the uber drivers or whatever, like they always know what I'm talking about, which is a nice surprise.

00:50:44
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah. And all the old stuff in the stadium where they would tell you like what the rules are, and sometimes they flush that stuff. But like even the most casual like I'm going with my friend, has a general enough understanding way you don't need that stuff anymore. I will say, my favorite memory from that, besides calling the game with you and Will, was Greg Newsom getting into it with Kevin O'Connell and then Kevin O'Connell dialing go play specifically to a tyg Greg Newsom and is a great reminder for like a film dog like me, like these people are human and real and sometimes you just want to stick it to the colin it. You're shouting at the head coach of the sideline and you get the cold plays and it's like let me go and embarrass the coin it the next two snaps. I enjoyed that.

00:51:19
Speaker 1: That's awesome, and he put that on tape. So I feel like other coaches have been copying the game plan to just pick on Greg Newsom. Ever since, that was an interesting moment in that season because you I remember calling at the time Carson Schwessinger just drilling Carson Wentz in the open field, and I do think back to what if, what if he hadn't hurt that shoulder, And after these last couple JJ McCarthy games, thinking like, would they be winning these games with Carson Wentz the last one, I kind of think the answer would be yes, Like sometimes you know, you don't know how good you had it when you had Carson Wentz.

00:51:56
Speaker 2: I agree, maybe you could even look at Brosman. Maybe we could do another soft injury Benching.

00:52:01
Speaker 1: Well, that was one of the more exciting moments of the game where we saw Brasmer warming up on the sideline. Okay, last last thing has absolutely nothing to do with international or the things that are going to get in the way of contenders, But where where? What do you think do you think they should go to Brosmer?

00:52:19
Speaker 2: I would like to see it. I would like to have a quotesback who can throw it to his left. If I'm playing in Pro football and I have the best receiver in Pro football, would be helpful to be able to attack the full field.

00:52:30
Speaker 1: And do you think it's like specifically a left problem. I do know that on the past on the spray chart from MGS. Yeah, it's it's not working out, Like is that just random? Do you think this could be salvage because there are positive plays? Vikings fans got mad when I said that performance was TBO like, and it wasn't saying he was at TiVo's level. It was more just like it was Drek until the fourth quarter and somehow they're gonna manage to pull this out, Like do you think there could be improvement here in the shorter term?

00:53:02
Speaker 2: Well, that's one of those things with the Vikings fans, like when your brother says something to you and you know it's true deep down, so it hurts more. It's because they know that that's what that game was like. It's just production wise, it was a TBOS game, and he's had multiple t West games where you can't complete wide open passes and then you kind of get hot in the two minute drill, and that for me is the thing with O'Connell. We've had this weird thing with them where they can't get lined up. The huddle is a mess, the whole operation is a disaster. And then every time they play in the two minute, which happens with a lot of these young guys when they come into the league, everything looks, you know, it clicks and things look smoother and operate better. Why would you not just play out the no huddle more? Why would you not just clean things up more? And maybe you're a little bit more restricted in what you want to do, but the guy isn't. The complex stuff you're doing isn't working anyway because the guy can't operate it. So you may as well slim things down, put some more temp in the offense, go and steal what Cliff did with Jaden Daniels last season, where it's it's no huddle, it's temple all the time. It's having a really small menu of plays, it's packeding all the plays as one drivers an eight play package, which is a lot of what the command as dip with Jayden Dniels last week. Way you just raped that throughout the week that I already know what the next play is going to be three and four plays ahead. That is a really clean way to help these guys out. And then you can start getting into the discussions of what low buddy mechanics, like why is he struggling throwing to one side the field? Why is he fall off throws only going one way? You can start getting into the nitty gritty if you get kind of the big picture right, and given way his game's at I do think they failed him slightly on the big picture. Stough.

00:54:25
Speaker 1: Oh, it is really fascinating different agendas O'Connell. And then you got QUESSI, you got JJ McCarthy, and you got obviously they are ex quarterbacks doing well elsewhere. I'm looking forward to that Vikings Packers game. I'm looking forward to doing this each and every week. I do not think the Vikings are gonna raise their hand and be the team that goes overseas for two games again after the way this season has gotten for them. But they did get that win over the Browns with us there. Thank you to Ali Connelly, thank you for everyone checking out our first Saturday show, and yes, hit us up and give us some suggestions for what we should call this Saturday show. We will be back on NFL Daily Sunday Night. No Jordan this week. We're gonna wave to her as she goes to Ramsbucks across the street to cover that game. So it'll be me, Shook and Patrick for the whole show. And yes, Oli will be back next week on Black Friday. We will see them