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The Heed the Call podcast

always goes for the scoop and score.

It's me, Ball, baby.

Yeah.

Listen, that ball's bouncing on the turf.

I want a thick six.

You know what I mean?

Welcome to another edition of He the Call.

I am Dan Hansis,

and I have

heroes along for the journey.

Jordan Rodrigue and Michael Sean Dugar of the Athletic.

My dude, Mark Sessler, tending to some personal matters, and he should be back soon enough.

But we are more than equipped to handle week 12.

What's up?

Hey, Dan.

Hey, how are you?

I'm good, man.

I'm a little cold, but that's just me being soft.

Yeah, no, come on.

It's about 60 degrees in Southern California.

We're okay.

How about you, Mike?

What's new with you?

I'm doing okay.

I'm glad I have power.

A lot of people in Western Washington currently do not, including the Seahawks, who are dealing with some weather power outage issues over here.

Their locker room was completely dark earlier this week, and they still let us in.

It was so weird.

You know, guys are already in there naked, but then it was like, wow, the mood is set here.

Also, shut the lights off.

Why not?

Yeah.

We were a playlist away from

it being a party uh right it's like why is that guy in the corner drawing a bubble bath

yeah it could be an interesting one i don't know how long they can just practice with no power uh in the facility so we'll see how that goes this week uh three-person weave uh so old zuser is excited uh to get into today's show

Justin.

That was well done.

That was well done, Dan.

Hey, Dan.

I'm great.

Thanks for asking.

You know, we got something in the old HTC Gmail inbox.

Oh, we did.

I love when that happens.

I still get excited.

Going back even to the early aughts when you signed into AOL and you got the you've got mail.

Yeah.

That guy kicked it.

He's gone now, but he'll be remembered for that.

What do we got?

What's in there?

Here, here's what we got.

I'm just going to play it.

Let me tell you about my buddy Dan Hansis and some of his self-appointed nicknames.

Old Zuzzer, new all blue eyes I don't know how you are new and old at the same time but daddy red he makes a shit

and at some point he became god of bongoes danzes

we love you so mr.

tugboo

That was lovely.

Who is that?

Topher Kurt.

Christopher Christopher Kurt, but he's signed Topher.

You know what?

And we need more Tophers.

I think a Topher Uprising is in order.

Thank you so much, Christopher slash Topher.

I love that.

That was jaunty.

Great voice, too.

That high note.

Beautiful voice.

And while we're here, I think we're overdue.

We need a Jordan theme.

We need a Money Mike theme.

So please send it along to what's the email address, Justin?

Heed the

podcast at Gmail.

No, that's not it.

That's my producer, folks.

Heed the Call Football Show at gmail.com.

Yeah, you can see it on your screen if you're watching on YouTube.

All right, here we go.

Week 12.

Let's get into it.

Six teams on by: the Falcons, Bills, Bengals, Saints, Jets.

Thank God.

The Jets aren't playing.

The Jets are not playing.

All that woody stuff that came out between this show and our last show, actually, is a twisted Jets fan.

I'm thinking to myself,

you know, him being outed as an absolute goober who is not just bad at his job, but embarrassingly bad at his job.

That's a type of embarrassment oligarchs hate, and it could actually lead to change.

That's just like, that's my

glass half-full viewpoint on it.

I wanted to know, I'm very curious.

I'm following this with great interest because I want to know if Aaron knew that

that meeting that, you know, that Diana Rossini, my colleague, or Mike and his colleague over at the athletic, reported about how

Woody Johnson reportedly suggested benching Aaron Rodgers.

I would like to know, did he, did Aaron Rodgers know about it before that that report came out?

And I would like to know, just on a personal level, what his reaction to that might have been.

I mean, there's so many things things that were, and shout out to Zach Rosenblatt of the Athletic, who

penned that deep breakdown of everything that happened and all the dysfunction behind the scenes around Joe Douglas's dismissal as GM.

And it does make me think like I buried Rodgers as being complicit with the Robert Sala firing.

And now it's like, now that I know that he was trying to get Rogers bench potentially before that, maybe Rogers was in the dark as well.

Grim times, grim times.

But But

yeah, so the Jets are on bye and also the Jacksonville Jaguars, another team that could use a bye.

All right.

And a reminder or an announcement that Mark and I are going to be part of the Sky Sports coverage over there in the UK.

It's huge.

We're really excited.

The pregame show for their national slate of games.

Can't wait to be back with the gang over there.

So Sky Sports, we're going to be on it periodically throughout the regular season going forward and then hopefully in the playoffs.

But starting Sunday, Mark and I will be on the pre-game.

So make sure you are there for that.

All right, let's get into the games.

We'll start with the primetime games.

And

first up, Sunday night football.

The Philadelphia Eagles, number four in the

HTC power rankings, the power rankings of record, travel to SoFi Stadium.

I feel like SoFi is getting a lot of primetime love

this year to take on the LA Rams.

Jordan, here we go.

It is a big moment for the Rams, who obviously, accepting the Miami game, which was a disappointing outcome for them, have really gotten their house in order

in the past month.

Now here's a chance to make a certified statement.

And an NFC, as I talked about on our Wednesday show, is wide open.

I mean, right now, is it a Lions coronation to the Super Bowl?

Who's going to to step up and be a big dog?

Well, the Rams have a chance here against an Eagles team that is on a six-game winning streak.

Yeah, I am so excited for this game for so many reasons.

The caliber of the collision that is about to happen, especially up front, young defensive line that's really leading the league in pressure rate for the Rams right now, facing this like savvy physical

Philadelphia Eagle, well-coached Philadelphia Eagles front.

But actually,

there are elements to this game that I don't think we're talking about enough.

And I know I get like stupidly emotional about this sport sometimes, guys.

And I know I ramble, but could I get a ramble permission?

Just a one ramble card for ramble permission has been

granted.

Yes, rule change.

Okay, so I don't think that people actually understand.

Rule change change.

Yes.

I don't think people actually understand like how dramatically vic fangio like pretty much inadvertently altered the course of the league and like a lot of lifetimelines involved um this and mine included actually um and this game between then the vic fangio coach chicago bears and the los angeles rams in 2018 in week 14 they held the rams to six points in a year that in which they were i mean look at that if you're watching on youtube look at the score discrepancies where they're just double-digit blowing out other opponents.

And then all of a sudden, this game that nobody watched happens.

And everybody wrote it off at the time as like this pre-postseason run, like fall game.

Like maybe the Rams were just like checked out, preserving themselves for the playoffs at that time, especially that late in the year.

But it wasn't.

It changed everything.

The way that Vic Fangio played the Rams was getting a wider aligned defensive front with an extra player than normal to cut off the middle and the outside zone that really propelled the Rams run game that other teams were starting to adapt at that time and then sometimes make Jared Goff the extra guy sometimes make Jared Goff imagine there was pressure that wasn't actually there and then the coverages that he used matched down out of a shell in order to swallow up those trademark three receiver route combinations that McVay was just spamming against opponents at the at an unprecedented rate at the time.

And then Bill Belichick and Brian Flores were probably the only ones watching that game after it happened.

And they did the unimaginable, a feat to this day that people I don't think appreciate enough.

They changed their entire defensive scheme over the course of two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl to mirror elements of Vic Fangio's.

And we know this.

This has been talked about, of course, but three point, it leads to the Rams just getting embarrassed in the Super Bowl and Sean McVay, the Wonderkinned head coach, like sitting despondent and unreachable in his hotel room.

And then it started getting copied by everyone else.

And then then all the changes that were happening across the league, everybody copying McVay and that reaching a saturation point and this seeming like the answer.

Everybody, the McVay copy trend was happening.

And you have to understand, like, that game was the reason why.

And that, and that.

Chicago game that nobody watched was the reason why he brought in a new defensive coordinator to run Vic Fangio's defense, which everybody copied then too, to the point of, again, oversaturation.

It was the reason he traded Jared Goffaway for Matthew Stafford.

It was the reason he won a Super Bowl.

It was the reason he hit rock bottom in 2022 on a personal level.

And it was the reason he burned out after reaching the mountaintop and like seeing higher mountains around him once he got there.

And this is the first year that Sean McVay has faced off against Brian Flores with Matthew Stafford, the quarterback who is the catalytic answer to this entire problem that Vic Fangio created for Sean McVay.

And the Rams put up 30 points on Thursday night football against Brian Flores' defense and won.

This will also be the first time that Sean McVay will face off against Vic Fangio with Matthew Stafford.

And like everything changed when nobody was looking, you guys.

And like these shots at redemption are now unfolding in front of everybody.

It's all happening in prime time.

And it's like it altered the course of several people's lives, including Jared Goff, who's thriving now in his new, in his new home, including Matthew Stafford, who finally got out of Detroit and won the Super Bowl, including Sean McVay, whose teams now are tougher than they ever used to be because he hit rock bottom and then climbed out of it.

Flawed people got better and flawed teams got better and problem solved and people worked their way out of their flawed situation.

So this is the best goddamn sport in the world because one game that nobody watched and nobody cared about changed the course of like several people's schematic, philosophical and life timelines.

And we get to watch them collide again in completely different planets than what they used to be on Sunday night.

And I was talking to Darius Williams about this the other day at practice.

And, you know, he's one of the few players that had been there through the entire thing and kind of watched almost from the sidelines because he was buried on the depth chart at the time.

As everything started to happen and all of the little intersecting timelines started unfolding course after course after course.

And we just started laughing because it's so freaking beautiful that in football, everything is a piece of everything else and it rolls.

Okay, I'm done.

You know, that's called making the most of your ramble.

Yeah, ramble card.

Kanye is well behind.

I'm very proud of that level of ramble there.

Yeah, beautifully said.

I don't know that I want that comp.

Well, Kanye is a, Kanye's, well, he's an elite guy, you know, at that.

To me, he has a few like elite special powers and a few bad things, but one of them is like when he gets it rolling,

I'd be locked in.

I'd be tuned in.

Okay, I accept.

Jordan's a total.

Any validation, I'll take.

No, it is.

It is that game behind the game, behind the game, behind the game that separates football to me from the other sports.

And yeah, so storylines are abound.

And on the Eagle side of it, Mike, you have a Philadelphia team that, like I said, six-game winning streak.

They have a top 10 scoring offense, nearly 26 points a game.

Their defense is in the top 10 as well, allowing less than 18 points a game.

They're in a good spot right now in terms of where they are.

And

going across the country.

I like this as another measuring stick for them.

Yeah, and they've got a

secondary that's like borderline needs a nickname territory.

Like we're getting some, we already have one for Coop.

What's our Cooper Dejine?

Dejine Parmesan.

There we go.

There we go.

Dejean.

I've been referring to him.

Well, for me, I like that one.

I like, I think this week it was established.

They're going with Quinnanimo Bay, I think, for the corner, who's been locked down over there.

He's been nails.

Kind kind of had a little bit of a coming out party in that Thursday night game against Terry McLaurin.

I've always been calling Reed Blankenship Ed Reed Blankenship anyway.

And yeah, now like Cadillac Coop over there,

Cooper Dejine.

They're balling, though.

I like it.

I think this game has a lot of...

Every football game has a lot of big matchups, but there's some extremes here.

Like Quinny and Mitchell, basically, you just can't complete a ball on them.

And then you have Jalen Hurts, who is playing well but quietly is like just a vacuum for negative plays.

We have a metric in True Media called the splint measure, which is basically sacks and interceptions per dropback, which is really, really bad.

You don't want to be high in that.

I think Jalen Hurts is like top five.

He has like the third highest sack rate.

I think he allows a lot of pressure.

And he's going against, like Jordan mentioned, one of the best D-lines in the league at generating pressure.

So we have like a real extreme there.

Then the Ram secondary

can give up a lot of big plays.

You know, we see them be susceptible to that.

Well, you get AJ Brown and Devontae Smith, and Jalen is just a master at getting those big plays to them when he's not taking sacks or throwing picks.

You know, so not to mention the Eagles D-line, you know, Jalen Carter and those guys just going nuts.

Like there's some really, like, there's obviously good players in every game and every matchup, unless it involves like the Panthers or something.

But this one in particular has some real extremes, like the best at some things.

Some teams are like the worst.

People who are at the worst of some things.

I think this is going to be really good.

It feels like this could be one of those,

if you believe in momentum or not, I don't know know if we've had that debate on here,

but they feel like there's going to be a ton of big momentum swinging plays here because of how extreme some of these matchups can get with AJ versus secondary, Quinyon versus the Rams, and then up front and all that stuff.

And I didn't even mention Saquon, who was just going nuts.

So yeah, I love every part of this.

Also, shout out to my boy Clint Hurt, the D-line coach at the Eagles.

He's got those guys playing really, really well.

Yeah, and shout out to linebacker Zach Bond, who has emerged as an absolute monster in the middle of that defense, leading the league with 64 solo tackles, and he's going to get a massive payday out of this season.

So credit to Howie and that whole team for putting together

Howie and the whole team for putting together a very strong roster that is playing well together.

You mentioned Saquon, by the way.

Good job.

Schefter tweeted this out.

Saquon Barkley's backwards hurdle has now been added to Madden NFL 25.

And like, if that is not the truest sign that you've done something iconic, I don't know what is.

Look at that.

This is why you got to watch the YouTube show.

I don't play Madden, but this does for my homies that do who complain about it and still buy it and still play it.

Being able to add this so rapidly amidst all the other complaints about the game does feel like those old school episodes of Pimp My Ride where like those people's beat down cars will get to exhibit and he's like, yeah, maybe your alternator doesn't work, but here's a bowling alley in your back seat.

It's like, well, great, but something to get to work.

You know, it doesn't matter.

We're like definitely the only NFL podcast out there that mentions exhibits Pit My Ride once a month.

Like it just comes up and it's always organic.

I love that show.

I mean, I was a kid when it came, you know, but now I'm like, that's kind of nuts.

They're putting fish tanks in people's cars.

I mean, I was like 18 or whatever, and I'm watching, you know, the shit shitboxes that now have a hot tub in the back seat.

And they're like the final shot of the episode is like this thing crawling around a corner somewhere in Long Island.

And it's like, even as an 18-year-old that knew nothing about cars, I was like, that's not going to work out in the long term.

You kids don't know what Pit My Ride was about.

That was a Pit My Ride and Cribs, man.

I would be really on board with reboots.

I feel like we're in the age of reboots.

I'm on board with both of those.

All right, let's move on to the next primetime game, Monday night football.

It is the Baltimore Ravens, number six in the HTC Powerings after tough loss to the Steelers in week 11, traveling to SoFi Stadium.

I mean, it's a little bit.

It's a little bit much.

Now we're going to do double SoFi's?

I don't know why that population is.

I think it's

five primetime games of some nature, including,

I think including college football.

Fact check me on that in like 15 days or something like that.

That's a lot.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

It's a nice facility.

You know, I just like, I like a little variety to my prime time

settings.

You know, show me, show me everywhere.

Yes, Justin.

Imagine if we still worked at that building Sunday night and Monday night.

I mean, it was always a drag when there was a game at that stadium, especially a prime time game, trying to get in and out of work.

My goodness, two in a row?

Justin, my therapist told me that I should never try to imagine working at that building.

Maybe that's why we don't need need

to have all these games at SoFi.

Here we go.

Let's get into it.

The Ravens, yes, at Chargers.

Great game.

A tremendous game, in fact.

And

I'd like to see the Chargers, you know,

blowing a huge lead against the Bengals, catching a break with the kicker for Cincinnati, botching it, but then recovering

Mike and then winning the game on the touchdown run in the final minute.

And there is, you know, it could be seen as lazy narrative, but I, as someone that's relentlessly watched the Chargers blow games like that in the life of our podcasting career and just in general being a human that follows professional football, it does feel like one of those things that's like another reminder that the Jim Harbaugh effect and there's only so many coaches that actually can move the needle and change culture.

And I think Harbaugh has done it with the Chargers, and that's why I think they should be taken seriously in the AFC.

And I think the Ravens are going to have their hands full on Monday night.

Oh, yeah.

No, I love this game as well.

Two really good primetime joints.

We had some duds earlier this year, but

these two are nice.

Yeah, I think Justin Herbert's not like a secret, like how good he is, but I think a few weeks ago I did mention that all of us on this show accounted for like 90% of the viewership of the Cardinals on ESPN Plus.

And it was just during his stretch there where Herbert was balling, and it just seemed like not enough attention attention was being paid to it, perhaps because of all of the passes of consequence he was throwing to Will Disley, who caught a touchdown in their last game.

But that game on Sunday night, man, it was just kind of felt like everyone got a chance to see what this dude has been doing.

He is killing it right now with his legs.

Obviously, he can do it with his arm.

I thought he, that was a great game to see.

I missed the first half of it because I was coming back from Seahawks, but I re-watched it, and he was balling.

Yeah, the Ravens took a tough one, though.

I do think the Ravens, I was talking to one of my homies who's a Baltimore Baltimore Ravens fan this week.

I was like, there is something to be encouraged about because of the pride that defense took.

I think I mentioned Marlowe Humphrey last week, and he was basically like, yeah, we beat the Bengals, but we suck.

You know, so we got to fix that.

And you see, they took some pride in it.

They were just like, we're just going to not suck anymore.

And sometimes football does come down to that, particularly on defense, where so much of it is getting off blocks and tackling.

They took some pride.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to this one.

QB play, defensive play.

Jordan is in the rant, very,

it was very good and mentioned all all the scheme stuff going around, all the ties to Fangio and all the other things.

It was a ramble, not a rant.

Sorry, yes, the ramble.

This one has guys from this tree that's becoming kind of Fangio-like in terms of popularity.

Zach Orr is Ravens' defensive coordinator.

He's running the same scheme that the Chargers are running.

Their defensive coordinators.

Jesse Minter

comes from Michigan.

The Seahawks are running that same scheme with Mike McDonald.

The Dolphins and Titans are also running that same scheme with coordinators who came from the Ravens staff as well.

So we had a nice little coordinator battle here, a nice little matchup.

The Chargers have been, of all those teams that I just named that are running the scheme, they have been the best one by far.

They are kicking ass with it.

And it's kind of surprising because you look at their roster, you get to Derwin James, Khalil Mack with some groin injuries, Joey Bosa.

And then after that, you're like, who the hell?

You know, T.

Higgins scored that touchdown on Sunday.

I was like, who the hell did he just run by?

But they're killing it with that scheme.

So we got a nice little scheme matchup for the nerds like Jordan and I here on Monday night.

You know, all of that stuff before you even get to the fact that the coaches are brothers.

You know, I love that.

That's for me, that's like towards the bottom of the list because of all the on-field stuff that's cool.

Yeah, once it happened in the Super Bowl, everything's anticlimactic after that.

So it is cool.

And Jim, who's, you know, Jim's on one right now,

you know, you know, I love Jim Harbaugh.

Jim Harbaugh, you mentioned the

you mentioned.

How well Herbert's playing and Herbert is playing out of his mind.

Harbaugh on Justin Herbert's play.

It is what it is.

Enjoy it.

He's not only one of the best in the game currently, he's one of the best of all time.

Also, Harbaugh this week on the media praise of the 7-3 Chargers.

When people are giving you accolades and compliments and telling you you've arrived, kick them in the shins.

You kick them right in the shins.

That's what you do.

They're trying to make you soft.

And finally, he's also talking about totally out of nowhere, first time I've heard this group referenced in probably a decade.

The Black Eyed Peas.

Hit it.

The prime time.

Always, always thought that.

You know, it's like

tonight's going to be a good night.

It has a Black-Eyed Peasant feel.

That's always the kind of feeling.

We're going, got my friends with me, and

we're going to go out.

Let's make it a great night.

Black-eyed peas sad.

Who isn't?

Right?

The best part is like Jim doesn't know that black-eyed peas are one of those, you know, pop culture artifacts that are now famous for being terrible.

He's like, who doesn't love the black-eyed peas?

He still thinks, like, he's still in 2008 somewhere, Jim, on some level.

Yeah, he, he,

I will just say, like, I, I need someone in my life with that type of unbridled encouragement.

It's like, not only is he one of the greatest playing football right now, but the greatest of all time.

Like, we're not even going zero to 25 miles per hour or 0 to 50.

We're going zero to 600 face melting miles per hour.

And I agree, Justin Herbert's.

Football is completely different than basketball.

Justin Herbert's playing amazing football right now.

And I like how, Mike, kind of what you brought up with the other primetime matchup as well, how you're getting like best on worst in some places or best on best in other places, and best on worst.

And I admire the pride the Ravens are taking in their defensive backfield.

But Justin Herbert is seven touchdowns, no interceptions on passes, explosive passes, so passes traveling 20 or more yards in the air.

And that's the third most touchdowns without an interception through 11 weeks since 2013.

That's per next-gen stats.

Well, the Ravens have allowed the second-most yards through 10, their 10 games and are tied for the most touchdowns, seven, two deep passes this season.

So this could be

either catastrophic or really, really fun.

But I love that we're getting smart scheme on both sides of the ball.

I particularly love these two defenses.

And I also love how, well, I love the concept of these two defenses.

And the Ravens have a ways to go, obviously, but with Jesse Minter, I really appreciate how this system, they've sort of used college football to incubate it a little bit as sort of like a testing ground.

And then they roll it out in the NFL when you're handpicked by a Harbaugh or a Harbaug affiliate.

And it just, it's just so fascinating to me the way that people are trying to develop these new systems faster than ever to try to counter what we were seeing offenses do better than ever, despite the moaning and groaning at the beginning of the year about offense.

Let's pick this game.

Mike.

Ooh, put me on the spot here.

What's the line?

I'm going to check the line.

Wait, wait, wait.

I got it.

Minus three.

There we go.

You degenerate.

I think

I like Chargers Money Line.

I like Chargers' Money Line.

I've already forgotten what that means, but I like to win.

Just win.

Chargers to win.

Okay,

I am going to pick the Chargers to win this game at home in SoFi.

I do hope Ravens fans travel, though.

This is going to be really, really fun, and there will probably be some seats available.

Yeah, most likely.

It is Thanksgiving week.

That's a tricky travel week.

Okay, I don't want to make it a clean sweep that doesn't.

God, I feel like Baltimore is...

A clean sweep for the underdog, though.

I don't even feel like that's like, you know, kind of my mentality.

That's kind of cool.

Everyone believes in the team.

Yeah,

I will take...

I'll take the Ravens to grind one out and John to best his brother once more.

But I like that game.

And yeah, the spread...

spooks me.

I think it's a field goal game.

I think it's a low-scoring game.

And I think Black Eyed Peas had some songs in retrospect that maybe, maybe we clown on them a little too much.

I know they were not some, they're not radio head, but they did, they filled a role at a certain moment in time.

There was a time when America needed my humps.

And people, you know, people want to say that America didn't need my humps.

Now we don't, but

in like 2007 or whatever, 2006 or whatever, we needed my humps.

A lot of confused kids at ninth grade formal just really needed to let off some steam to that song.

My lovely lady lumps.

But that's gross, though.

Now, I can say that objectively.

Ladies out there, you should get yourself checked, okay?

Get those things checked.

Yes.

Can I give a random contract?

Nice job on the breast cancer awareness plug, Jordan.

Yes, Mike.

Fergie is the first concert I ever attended.

God.

Oh,

we had, there was some contest when I was a freshman in high school that if you had to show spirit, like dress up really nice or whatever for like a week, it was a national contest.

And if you won, Fergie came and did a show at your school.

So I didn't dress up, but we did win.

And Fergie performed at the Franklin High School Gym in Seattle in 2006 or something, whatever that was.

And it was great.

She was great.

Fergie not tough to look at and she's got a good singing voice.

I went to a, when you're living in New York, you know, you'll end up every once in a while getting invited to weird random parties that you get into.

And it's like, oh, do you want to go to a Tommy Hill figure party with the Black-Eyed Peas performing?

I'm like, is there an open bar?

It's like, yeah.

It's like, all right, let's go.

And I'll never forget we, you know, it was like, this was peak black-eyed peas.

And, you know, so Fergie's doing her thing and William is in the mix.

And then they had this guy.

I don't remember if he was like Native American, but he looked like he was at like central casting as a Native American dude.

He might have dressed like a Native American.

I don't remember.

Anyway, but the whole show, he's just doing like flips on the stage.

That's his only job, just to do like cartwheels and flips.

And sometimes he would almost hit Fergie.

I'm like, is Fergie pissed secretly that

Native American guy's doing this?

I don't know.

It was a wild scene.

Good black-eyed peace talk.

Just what, just what we needed in 2024.

So

let's

conversation.

Let's take a quick break and then we will get into the games that we cannot wait to watch.

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Did you guys hear any of that?

What a promo.

That is great.

Who is that?

Terry?

I thought it was the guy from the gravy boat at first.

It sounded a little bit like you, Justin.

What do you mean?

It was clearly a guy named Terry.

That's not me.

How could it have been me?

I'm

speechless.

I don't know what to say, but let's get into the games that we cannot wait to watch.

My only regret is that Mark did not listen to that live.

Mark will never listen to that.

He's not going to listen to this show.

Is he?

He's not going to listen to this show.

I think we need to put it on his radar because I think we just heard a violent felony.

Anyway, I jumped into the document this week because it is,

you know, not the hottest week in terms of matchups

outside the primetime window.

So I ran and I went and I got the number 12 49ers traveling to Lambeau Field to face the number nine Green Bay Packers.

And

listen, it's the Burkhart-Brady game.

And,

you know,

49ers really surprised me.

And shout out to Geno.

And the boys up there in Seattle and Michael Sean Dugar covering relevant football in December now,

getting it done and ripping the hearts out of the longtime rival in the NFC West.

But it's just like, I don't know,

and there are now questions out there, at least amongst 49ers fans, it seems, about, okay, like, so what's wrong with this team?

Why can't this team get going?

And there's so many things you could point to.

But, you know, just not to be lazy about it, but like they're not healthy.

Like, they're so beat up.

And it continues to be an issue for this team.

Shanahan, even in the presser this week, you know, with Nick Bosa, who exited last week's game and was watching from the sideline when Gino scrambled for the game-winning score.

We don't know if Nick Bosa is going to be available.

We don't know if Trent Williams is going to be available.

Shanahan said, We're, you know, going to know on the day of the game.

And Brock Purdy, who's struggling a bit right now, he has a shoulder issue that he's working through.

And these are just such vital players to what they're doing.

So they have to get back on track.

But it's not going to be easy because now they're on the road against against the Packers.

This is a big spot for both these teams because Jordan, to be quite frank with you, like if I can't figure out the San Francisco 49ers, I can't quite make sense of the Green Bay Packers either.

So I think we're going to learn something about these teams in this game.

Yeah, the Packers are kind of a frenetic team to me.

Like they have multiple personalities and they...

you know, sometimes when Jordan Love is under pressure, he'll just throw these wild turnovers and other times he'll make these unbelievable plays.

And I'm kind of waiting for them to figure out their red zone issues as well.

Less than half of their red zone trips result in touchdowns.

That's 27th in the NFL right now.

It's a little bit of everything from play calls situationally and then to execution errors and all of those things.

They're just streaky.

They're kind of feast or famine because they're also taking the ball away still on defense.

But at the same time, this defense is vulnerable in certain places as well.

Now, on the 49ers side, they're hard to figure out because they've just been so brutally injured.

And key players around whom you would normally see them build big pieces of their game plan, offense and defense.

And I think that's why they felt so disjointed is because it's okay, it's one week, it's this guy, and you were going to, you know, run it a million times with Christian McCaffrey out of all kinds of different contact points and launch points and all of those things.

But now he's hurt.

Okay, so now you rebuild around this other guy and this other.

And then, so even though, you know, George Kittle saying to reporters this week that he'll be back for this game, Nick Bosa has been concerning in terms of, you know, saying he's in more pain and things seem to be declining in that regard for him with the injury.

And it's just, it's so disjointed because it's almost like, which spot on the map do you pick this week to actually try to install and deploy an effective game plan when sometimes you're getting guys back midway through the week.

Sometimes you're losing them midway through the week.

Your quarterback is not throwing in Wednesday's practice.

Like, I never want to count out the 49ers from, again, rising kind of from the cave like I've talked about the last couple of weeks on the show.

But at the same time, there's a certain point in the year where it's going to be too late to do that.

And they are flirting very dangerously with that point in the season.

Yeah, and every team, you know, injuries suck, obviously, but I feel like the 49ers, perhaps more than some of these other teams,

they get devastated by injuries because Kyle Shanahan's whole thing, at least with this current iteration of the Niners, was like, I got better dudes than you.

Like the scheme is cool, but you look at how many, obviously every team has good players, minus a few,

but their guys were like all pros.

Look how many guys on their roster when healthy have been like first team all pro like on their current contract, not like in yesteryear, you know, like Trent, George, Debo, Brandon, Christian, you know, like just so many, Juice Check, like all these guys, Triverius Ward, Hafunga.

Maybe Triverius hasn't, but you get the point.

Like they got all these guys, Bosa, they're just, we just got better dudes than you.

So we're going to block, we're going to tackle, we're going to catch passes.

And when you lose those guys, like Shanahan, he can raise your floor so you don't get like blown out of the gym on any given week.

But it's just tough for him to just, this to be this dominant, you know, juggernaut.

You know, by the fourth quarter of that game, like you mentioned, Dan, they didn't have Bosa on the field.

That was on top of not having Brandon Ayuk, not having George Kittle, not having Charvarius Ward.

Like these are the dudes who were the reason that the Seahawks hadn't beaten them in six tries.

It wasn't just because they had Kyle Shanahan.

They had blue chip players playing like blue chip guys.

And by the fourth quarter, they were rushing Yatura Grossmatos and Leonard Floyd at Gino.

And he was like, well, I can beat those guys.

You know, they scored all of their points, I think, when Nick wasn't on the field.

You know, that's pretty crazy, you know, as an on-off number, as a defensive end, as TJ Watt type stuff.

So yeah, I do think they are in trouble.

I will, especially, I mean, Brock can't throw, like Jordan said.

What the hell?

Quarterback can't throw.

You're screwed.

But I do think if there's one, like maybe silver lining, it's on top of getting George back.

It's that Kyle has proven to be one of those guys.

And McVay's like this too.

If he knows that he's going to not have a guy, he can build a decent game plan enough around that.

It's the in-game losing guys where teams can just be kind of screwed.

You know, you saw that when they lost a bunch of dudes against the Cardinals this year and then losing Bosa.

They had a couple games last year where they lost Ebo and Trent in-game and struggled.

So I think when Kyle has, if he knows, like, all right, this is how wounded we are, I think they'll be in a little bit better shape.

And as far as for the Packers, I got a text from one of my Packers homies homies this week because I couldn't watch the game.

I was looking at the score.

I say, yo, what's up?

He was like,

we're getting bad Jordan Love today.

Like he's, he's very much, Packers fans already prepared.

There's either good Jordan Love or bad Jordan Love.

There doesn't seem to be an in-between.

And it sounds like on Sunday, they got bad Jordan Love.

But I think they'll get good Jordan Love this week, particularly if he doesn't have to deal with Nick Bosa.

But it is pretty strange how he just like has this thing in his brain like Josh Allen used to have.

Like, ooh, I haven't thrown a turnover in a little bit.

Let me check that box right fast for no reason at all.

Let me just check it.

You know, because I think he, Gino, and Patrick Mahomes lead the league in interceptions right now.

It's a weird, funky group of guys to do it.

But yeah, they all just seem to just throw one every week for seemingly no reason.

Yeah, and he, yeah, he's, like you said, tied for the league lead in interception, but he also leads the league in yards per attempt at 15.44.

So it doesn't sound like this is a quarterback dealing with confidence issues.

He's letting it loose and attacking.

And you wonder if part part of maybe some adjustments on the LeFleur side is how do I rein him in without taking away that aggressive nature that makes him so dangerous?

Or maybe he just does what he did last year, which is clean it up and then not throw an interception or throw one interception in two months, which happens.

So you know that's in Jordan Love as well.

And on the other side, yeah, we mentioned like it reminds me of one of my old favorites, Chad Pennington, who never was gifted with a strong throwing arm, but had all these other great attributes.

But then when he hurt his shoulder, it's like then it becomes a problem because if you didn't have a strong arm to start with and then you're banged up, the ball starts floating and hanging up.

And that leads to real issues for the offense.

Here's what Kyle Shanna had said on Purdy when asked about,

I wouldn't say Brock Purdy's struggling this year, but

the fact that the quarterback of the 49ers past mid-season is 13 touchdowns, it jumps out at you.

I think Brock is playing at the exact same level as 22 and 23.

There have been different circumstances around him.

I agree with that.

It's just like the Ayuk thing, the holdout, and then the injury, taking him out of the mix has been devastating.

Debo has never really gotten it going this year.

Kittle's been great, but he's banged up always, it seems.

You know, and now you have McCaffrey back, and he's been back, and I think he's went over 100 yards totally offense first two weeks, but has not found the end zone yet.

They kind of need him to go and be the dude of this offense.

And we don't know yet if he's capable of that.

So interesting.

Good game.

How about you, Jordan?

What's the game you can't wait to watch?

I cannot wait to watch.

And Dan beat everyone into the document this week.

Like immediately, as soon as Justin said that text out, I was in.

And you left a really nice note.

I want to read that out loud.

Note, colon.

Have fun with the scrap suckers.

Wow, you hit the perfect number of A's that I wrote.

As a writer, that's a pride point for me.

Okay, so I also, when I started seeing, you know, how

active the dock was already, I did.

I was driving.

I pulled over on the 405 to get in the dock because I am sick.

You went across like four lanes of traffic.

You did that thing where the car spins and like stops exactly as it's, yeah.

And then I, and then I screamed, damn you, Hanses!

Because you had already gotten that.

Echoing through the canyons of Los Angeles.

Yeah, I heard it.

Crows fly from the trees.

Okay, so a game that some, I have number seven, Minnesota at, number 22, Chicago.

I like crows.

Enough with the crows, Jordan in Christ.

1 p.m.

Eastern on Fox.

This is the Kugler-Johnston-Achman game.

And a game that some might consider skippable is my pick, if only because a team with nothing to lose in Chicago is playing an FC North Foe with everything to gain by notching wins just like this.

I think there's high weirdness potential here as well, and also possibly, like very tiny possibly, but possibly upset potential even.

Although ultimately, I believe that Minnesota will likely keep on rolling.

And you guys, we talked last week about what it means to be coached harder and kind of like what, you know, schematically, there's not huge sweeping changes that Thomas Brown was going to be able to implement right away.

You saw him tweak a couple of things.

You know, they got more zone read going, for example, which was great for Caleb Williams.

They got the screen game going, which was great for the alignment that they went out and got in the offseason.

They look like they're changing their center quarterback balance a little bit.

You know, Coleman Shelton, who I covered in Los Angeles for a long time, he did a ton at the line of scrimmage.

And then he also was active as a part of their screen game.

Well, Thomas Brown knows that because he coached him.

And so I don't know the calls specifically, but they looked like they were just managing that balance a little bit more, allowing Caleb to play a little bit freer and get him going and the types of things that really work for him.

There were more out-of-structure, positive plays as well.

Downfield Taroma Dunze strikes me as a play that, like, just go be free, guys.

Like, go play free and play together and figure out that rapport.

And you also heard that the vibes were good.

You saw energy.

I mean, you saw the headset go flying and the LFG, you know, and you saw like, I heard some, you know, whispers out of that building afterward that the players felt it.

They felt that, like, okay, we were really on the details this week, but we also had fun and we felt like we went out and did everything we could.

They kind of got hindered by their own coaching staff.

Now, I don't think that's enough, or their own like decision makers, which is Matt Eberflues making some of those late game decisions, the kicks, and all of those things.

And obviously, that's a heartbreaking loss for them, despite the progress.

But I want to note, too, what they got out of the offense.

Bears week 11 offensive season ranks.

This is from Mike Sando's pick six column, which is really, really well done every week, but I especially enjoyed this one.

Sunday, you know, this last week, they had their fourth most points scored, their third most yards, their fourth most first downs, their third most points per drive, their second best EPA, their second best EPA per play, their fourth best success rate, their first best, their actual best.

third down percentage and tied for their fifth best in red zone percentage.

That is significant to pull that much out of the same group of players.

So I think that this is kind of maybe, as Mark would say, a berserker game a bit for the Bears because they feel a little bit better.

They feel like maybe they've got a tiny bit of positive momentum, which I think is real.

And

this is maybe dangerous for the Minnesota Vikings, but I fully expect the Vikings to handle business.

It's just a little bit of a dangerous spot for them, particularly NFC North.

Just to underline that, Jordan, like Thomas Brown, when did he take over officially?

like Tuesday last week like it was the shortest of short weeks and to see that much change in motion and just the

just concepts and execution really does

you know speak to obviously the change was overdue and the and the players are ready to respond to something different so just a reminder how that that can help a team now is it enough to save a season Mike we'll see they do need you know for all the positives they lost in heartbreaking fashion on a botched field goal attempt in the final seconds.

So they desperately need this game.

And what do you think about the Vikings side of this, Mike?

Yeah, I think both teams really desperately need it for different reasons.

I mean, the Vikings are in a dogfight, you know, in their division.

Their division is still good.

I mean, I think every team still has a positive point differential in the NFC North, despite the Bears being a few games under.

I think it's like in the single digits, I believe.

It's better than what the Seahawks are at 5-5.

They got negative 8.

So, I mean, I think the the Bears aren't that bad.

And it also doesn't surprise me that that game was close.

I think I mentioned last week.

I thought it would be.

I don't want to just totally pile on on Shane Waldron because that happened last week already.

But sometimes there is just an addition by subtraction effect.

We see that sometimes with interim coaches, too.

I feel like the Panthers dealt with that

a few years ago, whenever they had Sam Darnold for their back half of the season.

Like I said, so I thought that was going to help, and it did.

I don't think Caleb is bad.

I think he's very capable of playing well with the right coach, and he's got the players around him.

I think their O-line was healthy.

The Vikings, though, I do,

it seems like they've cooled down a bit, which we kind of figured they would.

You know, as someone who just refused to step into the Sam Darnold hive, I just couldn't do it.

I can't.

All right, all right.

We didn't need you anyway.

We got plenty of company.

Well, I just couldn't, I couldn't do it.

I couldn't do it.

But also, who's cooled down on top of that?

Sam, by the way, who I think is up there in that splint metric i mentioned also just a vacuum for negative plays which you do not uh want to be in which is a big reason why i could not step in there even though the food looked good and the vibes look great and the inside just like black-eyed peas just bumping like yeah see that's decibels yeah that's not that's how you get me to not uh walk in but also

It seems like we've hit the

Flores is kind of getting to be not to the extreme, but almost like the defensive coordinator version of Cliff Kingsbury.

Cliff's offenses notoriously kind of fall off a cliff, no pun intended, when the weather changes and the weather is not the same driving force perhaps of like what's happened with Brian, but they're just not the boogeyman anymore.

They might be against Caleb because he's a rook and that's just kind of a mismatch.

But just in general for their long-term like outlook for the Vikings, I mean You got to be careful you're not just fall into a little upset, trappy situation here because they look a lot more vulnerable than they did when they started the season on multiple fronts.

I still like them in this game, but this will be another one.

Second straight week, it would not surprise me if this is close and comes down to the Bears just doing something stupid to find a way to lose, which they've done on the Hill Mary and then now the field goal attempt to lose in heartbreaking fashion.

And for you, I still do have this for you in the hive as you're holding it down, like in the corner booth over there.

Sam Darnold still has the fifth best passer rating in the NFL when under pressure this year.

So he is healing at least.

And Mike, I might push back just a little bit on the Flores thing because, yeah, they've taken somewhat of a, I guess, like narrative dip a little bit, but they're still handling its business, their business overall.

They're stopping the run, so they're second in yards per carry allowed.

They're still taking the ball away, their first and interception rate.

They're fourth in points per game.

They're only letting 17 points per game.

And then they're fifth in forcing opposing passer ratings at 79 and a half.

And I just think that like they're just doing it.

They're attacking teams in different ways.

And there was an interesting theory floated

out by a couple of people in that market where it's like, okay, you know, your defense is going to kind of go through ebbs and flows because it's almost like a living thing the way that he runs it because he

subtracts certain pieces and creates like as he goes.

And you have the veteran players that can do these things.

So I think I actually would expect an uptick in sort of the narrative around around this defense to kind of kick back up over the next coming weeks and months because I think he's like kind of in the lab as he goes here.

And I just, I would not rule that out with him.

Yeah, and I like the way Sam played last week.

I thought he played a much better level.

He could use a little more help in their running game, which has been a little flat this season.

And obviously losing Christian Darasaw was a huge,

you know, setback for that offense at left tackle.

Cam Robinson is not obviously close to the same player.

So it is kind of put a little bit more on Darnold to make plays, and

we'll see.

We'll see if

this can graduate from a nice comeback story to him being a dog down the stretch.

He's just got to protect the ball, especially in the red zone.

And we'll see how he does in a big division showdown here.

One more game.

We cannot wait to watch

Jordan.

I just went, Dan.

Michael Sean Dugar.

That's me.

I did not run to the dock.

I saw how bare it was.

I almost wanted to challenge myself and see which, like, the worst possible game I could talk myself into because there is some

legit slop.

We'll get to that in the gravy mode, which is a very sloppy, wet mode this week.

Yeah, yeah, real sloppy.

But this week, I'm back-to-back weeks going with the game that I'll be at in person.

I got the Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks, got the number 11 Cardinals in the power rankings of record at the Seahawks, who are 14.

Yeah, no, it should be good.

I mean, it's kind of do or die.

So this is a big swing game.

I don't know how it compares to some of the other games in the league, but for instance, our Austin Mock, we're just shouting out athletic people this week, it seems like.

Austin Mock at the athletic does our projection model for playoff odds and everything like that.

So this week he has, right now, the Seahawks had 11% odds of making the playoffs, 8% odds at winning the division.

So things are pretty dire, right?

This game, with a win, the odds of the playoffs go up to 21%, odds of winning the division double to 16%.

With an L,

the playoff odds drop to 4%

and the division odds drop to 2.

So, I mean, I don't think it's hyperbole to say the season is effectively on the line on Sunday.

And the Cardinals, their swing is pretty big too, but because they're already in first, it's not as dire if they lose.

And these two teams play again in a few weeks in Arizona.

So there's a little chance of redemption for the loser on Sunday.

But I bring up those numbers to kind of quantify the impact of this one.

They kind of quote unquote saved their season by beating the Niners because falling to 4-6, 0-3 in the division, like it'd have been nasty around here.

They'd have been talking about firing Mac McDonald like they're talking about firing Kyle Shanahan down there in the bay.

Like it would have just

flipped because they won.

People are talking about fire, Kyle Shanahan.

Let's get him to the Jets.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Now it's bad up there.

It's either people down there saying they should or explaining why they shouldn't.

But the fact that it's even a discussion down there shows how nasty it is down there in the bay.

The Seahawks avoided that for at least a week by getting back to 500, but you got to go do it again.

This is a Cardinals' offense is rolling right now.

I really like to see Mike McDonald seems to have turned a corner with his scheme.

You know, he had to basically punt on both of his inside linebackers in the middle of the year to do it.

But like Ernest Jones is a dog.

He made a real, he was the best player on the field on Sunday, which is like really surprising because he just showed up if he wasn't.

He's really, really good football player, by the way.

Really good football player.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

That was a move there by Sean and Les.

But for the Seahawks, they're very happy that they got him.

He was the best player on the field.

I think in that matchup, he's going to have to be going forward.

The run defense is killing it now.

They haven't allowed an explosive run by a running back in the last two weeks.

And anyone who's watched the Seahawks, you know, for the first eight weeks, you know, if you play fantasy, your running backs were good against the Seahawks.

You were good for a buck and a touch.

You know, every time a running back played the Seahawks now, you're not.

So I think that they may have turned a corner.

This Arizona team poses a real threat.

And then on the defensive side of the ball for the Cardinals,

they're kind of Buddha Baker and some dudes.

I feel like Buddha has 100 tackles already, which is nuts.

And then the rest of the unit is kind of just whatever.

And I think this could be a real get-right game for the Seahawks offense, who they've seen an emergence of Jackson Smith and Jigba.

They took him first in the 2023 draft thinking he could be a guy.

And now he's their leading receiver in catches and yards.

I think he's like top 15 in yards among receivers.

And he's got the same number of touchdowns as DK.

He's coming off a buck 10 against a Niners.

So I think this is a big game for both teams.

Hashtag big game.

But I mean, the swing for the Seahawks is massive.

And that's part of why I cannot wait to watch this on Sunday.

One of the things that's been cool about about watching both of these defenses which i think will be part a big part of the story um this this game is that they've both gotten better as time has passed and you could see where coaching has really started to to take um and the cardinals are i think more dangerous than um even now with their record and their winning streak, I think they're more dangerous

than I think a lot of people thought they would be.

And I think the defense is outplaying expectations based on some of the just names we would see on paper on the roster.

James Conner is the heartbeat of that Cardinals offense, which is so cool when you consider everything he went through with the cancer and

remission and just all of the things that he has been through as a person.

And then to emerge as this leader for this like feisty, like hitch in the mouth.

smart, modern, and yet very old-fashioned offense.

I love it.

And that's going to be a challenge.

The Seahawks are much improved in the run game, in the defending the run.

But James Conner has 18 broken tackles, which leads the NFL, and he gets a first down on almost 30% of his carries, which is first in the NFL among all running backs, including our king, Derrick Henry.

And so I think that this has been really cool to watch the personality of this Cardinals team take shape.

And I want this season to happen so badly because I think about my mom, who is a die-hard Arizona Cardinals fan.

And she,

every weekend, Dan, like, this is part of some of what made me totally become enamored with around the NFL, was she turns on the radio call.

She puts the TV on mute and she paces around the house and watches every single game.

But she listens to the local broadcast with Dave Pash and Ron Wolfley.

And she screams her head off and she like repeats what Wolfley says.

And like, she is like, live and die.

And I hate, I've hated how the Cardinals have let her down so many times to the point where I like kind of held them at arm's length because I just didn't like to see her be upset by anything.

And you guys would play those calls on the show.

And it just made me, every time I would be somewhere in the world, like Charlotte or Seattle or North Carolina or Pennsylvania or wherever, and I'd listen to the show, and you guys would always have like a great wolfly call on there for better or for worse, whatever they were doing.

And it would always make me picture my mom standing in front of the TV, screaming her head off, and has the broadcast, the radio broadcast cranked and the TV broadcast totally muted.

And I just, so thank you for that, first of all.

But also, like, I want this for the Cardinals because I want this for my mom.

All right.

And that's beautiful.

Sorry, Mike.

I want you to cover fun football, but

it's okay, man.

Win or lose with direct deposit till the bottom.

Let him come under the radar.

Silent.

Yes.

Don't talk about him.

And by the way, one thing I do have to talk about, just to circle back, I went and watched that clip of Kyler Murray in New York City on his bye week.

I mean, he was not just at some, you know, he wasn't at Salaros at times.

He was at Joe's.

That is, I mean, that's the mechanic.

I was going to ask you if that's where he was.

Yeah.

And I got this guy who probably,

you know, not to put him in a box, Kyler, but who probably

during his like Call of Duty, you know, week-long sessions is probably living on Cool Ranch Doritos and Sour Patch Kids and Mountain Dew.

I have this guy.

Here's some quotes

as he was trying the slice, which just looked tremendous.

It was a pepperoni slice from Joe's, which is an iconic pizza place.

I had it recently when I was in Brooklyn near my brother's place.

They also have a place in Manhattan.

Anyway, his opinion of the pizza, this per ESBN, he said that the slice was a bit too saucy and that the bread ain't breading.

A little bit too sweet.

You know what I mean?

First of all, bro, it ain't bread.

It's dumb.

The bread ain't bread.

The bread ain't bread-in?

How dare you?

I love Joe's.

My twin sister lives in Brooklyn, and she took me to Joe's pizza when I went out and visited her, and it was like the best slice of pizza I've ever had in my entire life.

So I don't relate to this clip at all.

It gets me so mad.

I don't know.

All right.

What are we doing, Justin?

We're taking a break and then jumping in?

All right, let's do it.

Be right back.

Feeksens.

Feeksens.

Don't put your Feeksens all over that pizza.

We don't need your Feeksens on the pizza.

That's the California thing.

What did you guys say?

Mark was like ranting about like regionally separated, like Italian people running around building restaurants or whatever.

Yeah.

A lot of pushback on Pizza Capital of the World not being in Italy.

Just

you know what?

This is, I adore our overseas listeners, but their default response is, oh, look at the ugly Americans don't realize that pizza wasn't invented in America.

Of course we know pizza comes from Italy, Italy, but the Neapolitan-style pizza that is in Italy is completely different than the traditional American New York slice.

And as someone who aspires to one day go to Italy and try it, I can't wait.

But everything that I've been told is it's delicious, but it's a whole different category.

So, what I'm talking about is obviously a traditional slice of pizza stateside here.

And you, you, you know, you can't go wrong.

You cannot beat a Joe's slice of a pizza.

It's, it's, it's iconic.

Yeah.

The, um, do you know Pizzeria Bianco, Dan?

It's like Neapolitan style, like very famous.

And he has a shop in Phoenix in Scottsdale.

And I went back when I was at league meetings a couple years ago, I went back and I sat up at the counter and like the chef brought, you know, it was a very special, like treat yourself thing.

And I sat up at the counter and I got the pizza, the famous margarita pizza.

And I took the slice and I folded it.

And the guy who served it to me goes,

and I'm just like, what the f?

Like,

this is how you eat pizza.

Oh, man.

You got to fold it.

All right.

Let's take a break and we'll be right back.

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All right, welcome back.

It's time to dive into that gravy boat.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oh man, really gross this week.

Super gross this week.

Man,

really gross this week.

Nasty.

Is it safe?

Oh, oh.

No.

Got her.

Got her.

Yes.

We got you, Jordan.

Yes.

Good job, Justin.

We plotted that earlier this morning.

We said we're going to pretend like the gravy boat drop is over, wait for her to put her air pods back in, and then hit it again

gotcha you gotcha for the grossest part too the justin moans

yes

again that's supposed to represent a guy who just feels enveloped by warmth and comfort and nothing else so if you're reading too much into it might be and you're telling me that's not the same guy that was

potentially beaten to death in a gymnasium earlier in the show today i don't know we've never got confirmation on the name of the man in the gravy boat.

It's not me.

Neither of these gentlemen are me.

Gravyboat Guy and Terry, I'm Gravedigger, Justin.

Totally different names.

So I think this sounds like a way a guy would lie to try to explain something rather than the truth.

I don't know.

All right, let's get in.

Did you send me pictures of gravy boats online now?

Did you see what?

Who is it?

The Buffalo Sabres or some hockey team is giving out gravy boats to people, like the first whatever people to show up.

Pretty good.

If there's a Titans gravy boat out there, I would love to get one to you, Justin.

I'm going to work on that this holiday season.

All right, let's get to it.

All right, first game.

First, let me preface this by saying every game in the gravy boat this week, the lowest point spread is five and a half.

Most of the games are greater than a touchdown.

So this is a really, as you alluded to earlier, Dan, a really sloppy selection here.

But we'll start with stopping wet, dripping gravy.

But also, we want people to continue listening to the show, so these games could also be amazing.

Oh, you know what that means?

Upset special alert on every single game.

There you go.

Now we're thinking.

Now we're spinning it the way it needs to be spun.

Okay, let's get into it.

First game, Chiefs at Panthers.

Carolina is on a two-game winning streak.

Did you know that?

I bet you didn't know that.

Like, who's talking about that?

Then they went into their buy.

Yeah.

Yeah, maybe you did know that.

Anyway, the Chiefs need a bounce back in the worst way.

And if I could handpick my opponent for a bounce back spot, there's only a few teams that I would choose over Carolina at this point, as well as they've played the last two weeks.

And the Chiefs are favored by 11 and a half points, probably for good reason.

No.

Nah.

No?

The Chiefs, the Chiefs, they'll play this game into a one-score affair.

That's just who the Chiefs are now.

And I'll say this, Mike.

The Panthers,

they are much better than they were last year, especially on offense.

There's signs of progress with that improved offensive line, and now you have Bryce Young looking like some tangible gains are being made.

I'm not saying like the Panthers are all of a sudden going to beat the Chiefs, but in Charlotte, I could see him hanging around and the Chiefs playing with their food again.

Well, I think what you're seeing is the Panthers having an identity on offense.

Shout out to Dave Canales and his staff.

They brought that to life there in these last couple of games.

I mean, they've had it in some of the games they've lost too, but you see Bryce looking competent, look competent in the London game or wherever that game was, maybe Germany.

It just wasn't here.

Sorry for everyone listening who knows exactly where it was.

It was a game played in the world.

Yes, yes, exactly.

You know, he looked competent.

They've realized, okay, let's run this rock, try to make the life easy on Bryce.

I think that's really good.

And it speaks to what Jordan mentioned talking about the Seahawks and the Cardinals' defenses.

You can see where coaching is having its impact.

I would say that the Panthers are one of those teams.

You can see where it's happening on offense because Bryce was jumping to throw check downs like a couple months ago, and now he looks far more confident, uncorked a couple deep balls in the last couple of weeks.

You know, he just looks like more of an NFL quarterback.

I'm not quite sure he's a starter in this league, but he looks more competent.

And Dan, I think you should push it, man.

You sound very confident in the Panthers.

Come on, take the upset.

Come on.

What?

You mean the Panthers' money line?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Come on.

Nah, but I feel pretty good about them covering this spread.

Just, I, Because, yeah, the Chiefs, I don't, you know, with them, it's like, I don't know, like, it was disturbing to me that Travis Kelsey disappeared from their offense again last week.

It's like, he can't disappear.

Travis Kelsey has to be a main part of their attack.

And if that's just who he is now, where he goes in and out of the offensive scheme and they're throwing to other white dudes that are like numbers in the 80s, it's like, no, we need an actual, you know, game changer.

The other part of it is how close are we to

Isaiah Pacheco returning to action because I feel like that's going to help their offense a lot when it does go down.

All right.

Next.

Next.

Titans at Texans.

Now, I'm holding strong on my stance that the Texans are fake good.

Jordan, you may disagree, but I will say to their credit, they do beat up pretty handily on bad teams, as evidenced by the recent 34-10 shellacking of the Cowboys on Monday night.

I think it was more the Cowboys being bad than the Texans being good that led to that final score, but the Titans are also bad.

So theoretically, the Texans should take care of business in this game.

However, if the Titans want to have a chance, they'll need the big boys up front, Jeffrey Simmons, Tevandre Sweat, to take advantage of a very poor interior offensive line for Houston.

And they'll need Will Levis to continue limiting mistakes.

Yeah, Jordan,

I thought the Texans didn't overly impress me on Monday night.

It was like the Cowboys kept on saying, take the game, take the game.

And eventually they did with the defensive score in the fourth quarter.

But But otherwise, this still has a team that I think needs to clean things up to be taken seriously in the AFC.

Yeah.

And that's been the case really since Nico Collins has been missing time.

Like you could just really see the impact that he adds to this offense in so many levels of it.

It's not just that he is an absolutely dynamic and outstanding outlet for any part of the field for C.J.

Stroud, who just plays better when he's on the field.

But also,

his presence sort of seems to settle settle the offensive line because the defense is accounting for more of the voids or the areas in the field where Nico Collins could end up.

And then you're maybe sending less pressure or you're not tightening down as much.

And then Joe Mixon running the ball has really been what has saved them.

He has been sort of that, that pulse in games that they have looked competent in because

he tightened down.

Sorry, he said tightening down, so I had to hit the tighten down draft.

No, I love the drops.

It's like, never apologize to me.

You know, I'm a huge dork about the drops.

So, but I just think that Joe Mixon, like, you just saw him sort of take matters into his own hands.

Like, this is a guy who's just refusing to let this team slide.

And they have some things to clean up, but I actually do expect them to continue to

get out of this sort of slide or this neutral zone that they've been operating in with their issues with the offensive line, obviously.

And then, you know, minus Nico Collins, because you get him back and everything just sort of heals and gets better.

And so I do think that that's going to be the case here, too.

Justin, question for you.

Tajay Spears, I know he's been working through the concussion protocol.

Do you have any updates or anything on that for him?

Shit.

One more thing on this game before we move.

You know, your boy, the quarterback, I call him Bill Mayo.

He was

in his press availability this week, he showed me something, a little bit of self-awareness that he's become

kind of famous as an NFL meme machine.

And he was asked about his uptick in play since returning from injury.

I haven't thrown the ball underhand or trespassed it.

So that was an improvement.

That's funny.

Bill Mayo, good job.

Tajay Spears did not practice on Wednesday.

He's in the concussion protocol.

Typically, if you don't practice on Wednesday, you don't end up playing on Sunday.

It's not impossible, but he's got to go through all the stages of practicing, seeing a neurologist, practicing again, seeing a neurologist again, getting cleared for contact and all that.

So I would expect him to not be out there this weekend.

Okay, and let's move on.

Alrighty, next game, Lions at Colts.

The Lions have won eight straight.

They're nine and one.

They've been atop the HTC power rankings for weeks now, and they seem to absolutely crush inferior opponents, which applies to most of the NFL.

The Colts, they eked out a win last week.

Anthony Richardson looked like, you know, more than a functional passer, might have been his best game as a pro.

However, taking on the Lions is a different test.

So let's see if he can pass this one.

Yeah, Mike, I would say the

Richardson start was obviously progress for him, but I need to see it against,

you know, a real defense.

The Jets at this point don't have a real defense.

And this is a major, major, major heat check for Richardson's development because the Lions is a reason why they're number one in the power rankings.

Like,

is there a team that even approaches that you're confident week to week in the performance they're going to give you?

Like, I just know the Lions are going to roll.

And this one is an easy cover, the spread as well, because I think the Lions are just going to decimate the Colts in this game.

Dan Campbell definitely comes across as a coach who cares about the spread.

Yeah.

Because, boy, he is running it up.

And then you just listen to the players after the game.

They're like, yeah, we're running it up.

Do something about it.

You know, I think it was Kirby Joseph who was like, if you want to stop us, if you want, if you don't want us to score on you, you know, play better.

You know, I was like, oh, damn.

I mean, it's a cool mindset.

You just don't really see that much in the pros, I guess.

It usually makes for like a contentious

midfield meeting between the head coaches, typically.

I think one of those involved Jim Schwartz, maybe when he was the Lions coach not too long ago.

But I mean, Dan Campbell's just so damn big.

I mean, I guess who's going to press him at midfield, I guess, right?

No.

But it's like, yeah, I mean, I can't think of a head coach who would maybe feel comfortable maybe if Raybull comes back into the fold, maybe.

But otherwise, yeah, Dan's like, dude, yeah, we scored 50.

I'll kick your ass.

What's up?

There's

nothing you can do about it.

I did go back and watch all of Anthony Richardson's dropbacks this week just because I was curious.

I didn't get a chance to watch them live.

It reminded me of what I saw from Bryce last couple of weeks.

Competence.

It's all you really want, you know, from these guys.

They're not going to be superstars right away i think anthony though you want to talk about a hive i'm not quitting this dude he might be my drug i'm on it i i'm going to believe until he is in the ufl i'm just never going to give up because the talent is too there man he is a it's you can just see it i'm sure stain steichen and all those dudes are just like guys he's gonna get us paid we're all gonna get like tokens

like he's gonna carry those guys careers at some point or get everyone fired but i'm thinking it'll be the former man like he's he's he's a special dude he just can't hit layups right now.

I think he boxed a couple like screen passes and stuff in that game, but I believe he's just like slowly losing his shit.

I'm not giving up on him.

No, no, I'm cool with that, and I think a lot of people agree with you, and I agree with you, and that's why everybody was so like in their feelings about Joe Flacco playing because, like, everyone is still in the back of their mind thinking Richardson can be a superstar.

I'm just saying, you can't get, you can't, there's no Richardson hive drop.

Like, if Mike Dugar wants to have his own little richardson fan club he needs to come up with a hook to it and then he has to come up with an accompanying drop you can't just give him a hive i mean that's

that's just fair let's be fair about it but i'm not it's not it's not just me i'm telling you man there's there's a lot of people who are just look you watch this dude and he misses like he had one play where i think he tries to run like a little rpo action and just can't even throw it three yards in front of his face to the running back and it sells over his head and i think like maybe the next snap is a dot to josh down like see come on i'm not going to do it.

It's there.

It is there.

I totally agree with you.

And that's why that was such an important game and a perfect opponent for him, a scuffling Jets defense to kind of get back on his feet and gain some confidence.

And not to mention, like, the one thing that has never gone away is he is a bruiser and he's a tank.

And he had a touchdown run.

He had two in the game, including the game winner.

But the first one, there was a poor, I don't know if it was a slot corner or a safety that really, to his credit, for a Jets team that's been criticized for poor tackling, like he tried.

Like he met Richardson at the goal line, put his shoulder into him, and Richardson bent him over like an accordion.

And it's like, that's a quarterback that just did that to a defender.

And so it's all there.

Let's see what he does against the Lions.

I think it's going to be kind of a fun game to watch.

He's also got to stop doing that because if he does, I understand that.

That's part of it, too.

I get that.

Just more to the point of him being a physical marvel.

And the Lions, this via True Media, before we move on, they've already beaten three teams by at least 38 points this season, and their point differential, which is nearly 16 points a game per game, is on pace to be the second highest in the NFL

since at least 2000, behind only the 2,000 Patriots.

That's what we're talking about right now.

Like, they're historically stomping teams.

And

to my point on the Wednesday show, like, who in the NFC at least is going to stand in their way and be the version of the Jets defender getting in front of Anthony Richardson at the goal line right now?

Like, that is my question.

Next.

Next game, Patriots at Dolphins.

The fourth game in a row we've talked about with a spread larger than a touchdown.

This one in favor of Miami.

And look, the Dolphins just need to keep winning to stay in contention.

The Patriots, they just need to see progress from Drake May, who at this point, I would say, has the look and feel of a franchise quarterback.

Jordan, that's a narrative that's taken hold around the Patriots that nothing matters this year as long as Drake May continues to look good.

Perhaps simplified, but

there are worse

goals to a season than developing your top three pick quarterback.

And yeah, the Dolphins absolutely have to have it here, and I think they will.

Yeah, even if everything looked medium and you didn't have a quarterback, that's still a worse case situation than what New England is dealing with right now.

Watching Drake May in person play probably the best game, one of the, certainly the best game of his career so far, and then one of the best games a rookie quarterback has played.

Obviously, the interception at the end was a killer, but just all the things he can do are so,

you just see the future.

You see it apply to where the game is at and also where the game is moving.

He can make any throw and he can also create, he can work out a structure, he can run, which we know.

But this, this is going to be a, I think this is quietly a very cool game, actually, because they're going to, the, the Dolphins' defense has really been, um, you know, I know they gave up a lot of points last week, but the week before, they put veteran Matthew quarterback Matthew Stafford in an absolute like time warp, didn't know what he was seeing downfield, some of the coverages they were running.

And when they play like that, and with Calais Campbell still doing crazy things at 38 years old, you know, this is a very sneakily fun defense when it's on.

And then to us playing some of the best football, you know, know, he's kind of right on schedule for what we know of him to be.

He's he, both quarterbacks, I think this are going to make this one really fun.

And I actually think quietly this is going to be one of the more exciting watches of the weekend.

I almost, in fact, I almost picked it as my game.

I couldn't wait to watch just because I think it's going to be fun offense and fun quarterback play on both sides.

I would like to see with the Dolphins

Because Devon A-Chan's playing excellent.

Whenever Tua is on the field, he's a big difference maker.

You got Tyreek Hill looking like Tyreek Hill a little bit more last week.

Now let's get Jalen Waddell back in the mix.

Jalen Waddell is way too good a player, way too talented a playmaker to be essentially phased out of this offense.

He had three targets and had two for 37 last week.

And

that's like the Jalen Waddell experience right now.

And it's like

you take advantage.

of these dogs on offense.

And they have, I think, look good.

I feel like we're due if it's in them for an offensive explosion.

And the Patriots, I know they have a big-time corner in Gonzalez.

They can be exploited, especially in this type of setting in Miami.

I look for Miami to roll in this one.

I think they will.

And forgive me if I'm misremembering this, but wasn't playing Miami one of the games that really

thrust Christian Gonzalez into like the collective dialogue about really great corner play.

Because I thought he clamped down Tyreek Hill in a previous matchup.

I might be misremembering, but he is outstanding.

But the Dolphins have showed us they have multiple people to get the ball to.

You just got to go do it.

Right.

And if Gonzalez ends up minimizing Tyreek Hill,

go win some football games, Jay Waddell.

Like make some plays.

All right, let's move on.

Next.

Next, Buccaneers at Giants.

It's Tommy DeVito time, baby.

I actually can't wait to see Tommy DeVito play again.

Like, this is exciting times in New New York.

I can't wait to watch Tommy DeVito play again.

I can't.

He's a great stories.

He's a local kid, undrafted.

He won three games in a row last year.

Let's see if he can dig New York out of this darkness.

Come on.

We already did this subplot.

Even DeVito's like,

I'm going to kind of throttle down a little bit on the outside stuff.

I'm going to try to be the quarterback.

You know why he's doing that too?

Because he knows this has been a traumatic week for the organization where they phase out Daniel Jones, who might be the number four four quarterback on the depth chart, which I don't think we're going to see Daniel Jones again this season.

And then you have Drew Locke, who's an outspoken gentleman.

I don't know if you got to know Drew Locke at all, Mike, and your coverage of the Seahawks.

But

here's Drew Locke, who was signed.

He got $5 million to be the backup quarterback.

And he was the number two quarterback all season.

And then they benched Daniel Jones and then promote the number three quarterback to the number two quarterback.

I'd be pissed.

We haven't really heard from Drew Locke.

Let's hear from Drew Locke.

When they tell you, you know, it's based on what they saw last year, like kind of the juice that it gave the team.

How do you not wonder, well, why was I the number two the whole time then?

Why wasn't he the number two?

Yeah,

again, that's

you know, that's a question I might still have for myself.

And, you know, is expressed to me that I was going to be the two.

I don't know.

It's just an interesting situation.

Yeah, interesting situation.

That's something that me and my buddies growing up used to say to each other as a term of like annoyance or when you were surprised by something or just expressing dissatisfaction.

You just go, ah, interesting.

Yeah.

Girls say it to each other when they hate the outfit the other one is wearing.

But they don't want to be like brutally mean.

So they say, oh, that's an interesting choice interesting interesting so i i did get to i did get to know drew a little bit uh dan uh to your point uh yeah and i know that he went to new york you know because he wanted a chance to to compete you know he was kind of inspired by geno's story as a lot of quarterbacks i'm sure probably are uh especially when they're high picks like oh if g could wait his turn get better and have a chance to be the franchise guy then i can do the same thing you know i can play too had the big game-winning touchdown drive against the Eagles on Monday Night Football late last season.

And if he was just going to be a backup, he would have probably stayed in Seattle.

You know, he just got married.

I think he just had a kid.

His kid's probably not even one yet.

I doubt he would have wanted to move his kid across the country just to back up Tommy DeVito for vibes.

And I think

the Drew Locke version of this is actually pretty relatable when you frame it that way.

Like you take a job across the country because the employer says a thing,

you move your family up there and then they go back on the thing for reasons that don't make sense.

Like you just put that in a tech job or construction or whatever.

That would piss you off.

Like the that human side of that, I do feel bad for Drew because, like, it Tommy is just vibes, it's purely vibes.

It's not because he's any good.

They did win those games last year, not because of him.

He didn't play well.

Their defense was nails, I think, in those games.

So I do feel bad for Drew.

This game is all vibes, but also you mentioned QB4 for Daniel Jones.

I saw a report earlier that he was playing like Scout Team Safety in practice now.

Like, that dude should just go home.

That was from our Dan Duggan at the athletic.

Like, he should

blow out your knee playing scout team safety.

Would that guarantee your contract?

I don't know.

I just think he should go, man.

Maybe he should go to Joe's.

Just leave practice.

Yeah.

Go get some pizza.

Mike.

And, you know, go to a Knicks game.

There's no reason for him to be at the facility anymore, man.

That's just, that's, that's just bad business, man.

Go home.

Yeah, and maybe I'm being petty here because, and the Jets earn every bit of, you know, mocking derision they get.

But, like, the giant, it's a little bit of a sloppy ship over there right now, too, where they're clearly tanking and they're starting this kid, the Italian kid, because maybe he can get some meat in the seats in December otherwise when they're just trying to play out the string.

It's none of it's about winning right now, which is for a Tiffany franchise.

They've come down quite a bit.

One last thing, we didn't really talk about the Bucs, so I'll just mention I still like the Bucs in the NFC South, and they listed Mike Evans and Tristan Wurfs as limited participants in practice, I believe, on Wednesday.

So those guys are coming back.

I think when the Bucs get their dogs back, they're going to make a charge in a weak division.

Next.

Next, Cowboys at Commanders.

Man, this could have been a fun matchup if Dak Prescott was healthy.

And even if he was healthy, if the Cowboys didn't just suck.

But alas, it's more of a get-right opportunity for Jaden Daniels and the Commanders who come in as a 10-point favorite.

Okay, let's see.

Let's see, Jordan, here, if we get the

healthier Jaden Daniels,

and I think what this game will be will be a beautiful get-right game for the Commanders.

Favored by 10, Dallas is a perfect elixir for an offense that hasn't been able to go in recent weeks.

I think they do here.

Yeah, and you have to, because Cliff Kingsbury has to beat the very real allegations about...

Sorry, my dog is talking in his sleep right now.

It's really loud.

It sounds like a gravy for it.

I don't think the audience will be able to hear it.

Okay, yeah.

No, but

Cliff Kingsbury has to beat the very real and statistically sound fizzle out in cold months allegations.

And

people are right to, I think, point that out.

And I think, you know, it's also fair to point out that Jaden Daniels is playing through a ribs injury, and that's going to affect some of the caliber of play and some of the things that he is able to do.

I just, if the Cowboys just weren't everything about the Cowboys this year, like you said, this would be fun.

But you kind of have to, if you're Washington, you kind of have to go, you know, make sure that you handle business, particularly at home.

You know, you have to make sure that you're kind of resetting yourself because this is a team that does want to make a stretch run.

They want to make sure, like A.

Marshawn Lattimore, for example, is healthy for a stretch run.

It seems to me that's why they've been giving him the time that they have on this hamstring.

So this is all setting up to be the correct reset game for Washington.

Now it's like, all right, you're kind of a young team and you're kind of, you know, you got veterans in some places, but essentially you're a new group.

Now let's see how you handle this.

Let's see if you can really kick the door down and get your sights fixed on the postseason and your plans for that.

I have a question for you, Dan.

Yeah.

Do you think Dan Quinn wants to embarrass Jerry Jones in this game?

Do you think he wants to come in there with his backwards hat and put up 40 points on a defense that he had playing very well that the new guy, Mike Zimmer, has playing very poorly?

I figure it's something you'd enjoy.

Yeah.

Dan's like that kind of stuff.

We like to really stick it in the face of oligarchs who overstep their boundaries.

So, yeah, I would think that

he would love to do that.

I'd like to see this is a good stat over, man, the athletic.

A lot of...

Great info coming out of the athletic this week.

Jaden Daniels is 24th in EPA per dropback, minus 0.08 in the last two weeks compared with

second in the league in the first nine weeks, 0.35.

So yeah, this has been a little bump in the road.

Is it because of the rib?

Is it because of Kingsbury's offense getting stale?

Cowboys are perfect.

Get right spot, though.

Perfect.

Perfect.

And by the way, it's just a matter of time now as the Cowboys break this down entirely.

Cee Lamb will be out for the rest of the season.

Blah, blah, blah.

They're going to just start shutting down dogs now because it's gotten that bad and they want that top pick or something near it.

All right.

One more, Justin.

One more.

Broncos at Raiders.

Is Bo Nicks going to win rookie of the year?

We heard Pat Sertan say he's on track to be MVP last week.

That's a little extreme for my taste.

But if Nick's can keep stringing together these big-time games, especially against bad defenses like he did last week against the Falcons, There is a chance that he unseats Jaden Daniels as the favorite.

Something to watch.

Will Gardner Minshew get benched against the Broncos for the second time this season?

Because it already happened back in week five.

Yes, I think Gardner Minshew,

Mike, will be benched four more times before the end of the year.

That's my prediction.

So that would be a seven, lucky number seven.

And yeah, I think everyone is excited to see this Bo Knicks thing now as he's really taking flight and coming off

maybe the best game any rookie has had all season.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's very clear that AP is exhibiting why the interim coach tends to not get hired usually, because it just seems like he is just guessing on what to do.

Maybe we should do this.

Let's do that.

Let's bench the quarterback.

Oh, never mind.

We should instill confidence in our quarterback, huh?

Maybe.

Yeah, duh.

AP, what's wrong with you?

So this is week 11.

Yeah, I think it's important to make your quarterback confident.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, you got there.

Oh my Jesus Christ.

Like, it's not just like Gardner is clearly playing below the level he's played literally everywhere else in the NFL, but everyone's playing their worst ball at quarterback.

I mean, you know, I don't think that's a coincidence because they're all worried about one mistake getting a bench.

That's just not the way to live.

You know, Bo Nick's in the offensive rookie of the year convo.

I think Brock Bowers, man, would probably be my pick if the season ended this week.

Or yeah, if the season ended right now, that dude is balling.

Like, not even balling for a rookie or balling for like a tight end, just as a pass catcher.

You know, he is putting up numbers that are right there with some of the best receivers in the league, not just the tight ends.

You know, this is a kind of good offensive rookie of the year showcase for both guys.

Not to say Jaden's out of it.

He's not.

He's just got to overcome the cliff thing and get healthier with his injury.

But I do like right now, if I had a vote, I don't.

I should get a vote, but I don't.

I would probably go Brock.

I think he's killing it right now.

And the Raiders are...

They're an interesting team.

You know, I revert, relate some things to the draft.

They very clearly went what they felt was best player available in the draft.

You know, teams say they want to do that, and fan bases asked for it.

The Raiders did it.

And it was a non-premium position pick.

But I mean, you look at the dude, like he's a baller.

It doesn't make their offense any better.

They still stink.

But

he is killing it.

So, yeah, that's the intrigue in this.

Whereas our previous game, that was clearly the NBA League pass game of the week.

This one, though, actually has some legit intrigue, I think, because of the two dynamic rookies.

And by the way,

I mean,

the only thing I want to say about the Broncos is their schedule is outrageously soft.

And credit to Sean Payton, who I'm sure it meant a lot to him as the old Saints coach to sweep the NFC South, a division that stinks.

So you get four wins there.

They beat the Jets 10-9.

They beat the Raiders in their first matchup 34-18.

Those are the six wins.

And now they get the Raiders again, and then they get the Browns.

So it's like, man, the path is there for Denver.

And they don't have a lot of monster schedule challenges.

Now it gets tighter in the back end.

They end with at Chargers, at Cincy, home Chiefs, but you could be set up really well for the playoffs if you just take care of business.

And so, yeah.

And to your point, you know, Bo Nicks against a bunch of bad defenses can really start to stack numbers and make that case.

It's a confidence booster, which I love that for a young quarterback.

And I would love that road for all of these young quarterbacks here coming into the league, as exciting as they all are.

And I love this extremely endearing one.

Last, the athletic plug for the day.

Uh, our colleague Nick Kosmider, who does great work in Denver, he captured Cortland Sutton's very, very endearing, really nice quote about Bo Nix, where he said, I would need to find a good thesaurus to describe how excited I am for him.

It brings me joy to be on this journey with him.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I was like, that is so nice.

Very nice.

Very sweet.

See, humans loving each other.

I like that.

All right.

Let's

do we take a break here, Justin?

Okay, we'll take a break and then we will get caught up with fearless predictions and then say goodbye.

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This is electric performance redefined.

Hey, I love it.

Mike kind of does have a song, you know, but

we want some lyrical content connected to Michael Sean DeGar.

All right, Mike, we're coming off.

What kind of week?

Let's see, Justin, how did Money Mike do?

He was, of course, on his honeymoon, and then he comes back.

And

what does he do?

What does he do for our listeners and viewers?

He dropped a five-legger last week that hit four of them.

Was it the modified Greg Olson you're talking about?

The modified Greg Olson.

That's right.

Green Bay money line, Rams money line, Texans covering, Chargers covering, Kansas City money line hit four of five.

That Kansas City money line.

Oh, I know.

Oh, Josh Allen.

Jesus Christ.

He's a baller, man.

Like, if you just took each bet on its own, you're profitable off that.

But, of course, the parlay aspect.

aspects the chiefs.

Yeah, that's the chiefs.

The undefeated team let you down.

And yes, for those perhaps not as plugged in on the scene, Jordan now is a theme, so she knows.

But others don't know.

The parlay, you got to hit them all.

So I'm sorry, I'm going to have to hit you with the sting penalty drop.

I love Sting.

I love Sting.

Oh, man.

Deserved.

Unfortunately.

Unfortunately.

Derek Stingley Jr., by the way, balling right now.

Bawling right now for the Texans.

I'm pivoting here.

Sting, the famous singer-songwriter, is probably somewhere in a villa in the south of France eating a peach after a long session of tantric lovemaking with his wife, Trudy.

That would be what he is up to if we're just connecting all those things.

Wow.

That was something.

I was initially going to go with some props, but because the gravy boat was so heavy with underdogs,

let's take some dogs to cover this week.

Let's take the Titans plus eight.

We'll take the Patriots plus eight, and we will take the Raiders plus five and a half.

Let's take three dogs.

Three leg, G-Reg, seventh-floor boys, parleg.

Let's go with taking three

dogs.

Dan didn't inspire enough confidence in me to add the Chiefs, or excuse me, the Panthers to it, but we'll take take those three.

Let's root for some dogs this week.

Okay.

I'm going to ride with you this week and just see what happens.

Oh, yeah.

Beautiful.

All right.

Let's check in with.

Big spreads, man.

Jesus.

Yeah,

it's one of those weeks.

Let's check in with our fearless predictions first, recapping week 11.

One of the all-time beats.

Actually, I've had about...

I'm going to talk about bad beats.

My God.

It was the final pass of Lamar Jackson's day.

Oh, my God.

I had Mike Tomlins' defense holds Lamar Jackson under 200 yards passing, under 50 yards rushing.

His final pass, that touchdown, put him over 200.

He rushed for 46 yards.

So, again, in spirit, I drilled it in that I thought Lamar would struggle against Pittsburgh once again, but I lost the prediction.

I'm 2-9.

Michael Sean Dugar, there will be at least three games in which a team wins by 20-plus points.

Look at that.

How many?

Four, I believe.

See,

I'm going to do the thing this week that you do.

Give yourself the entire league to work from.

I can't zero in on these players.

It's too hard.

I mean, it was kind of dicey there for a little bit.

The Saints scored like a garbage timer, I think, to get to 21.

And then the Texans got it off the mixin' that didn't matter touchdown and the pick six all in the fourth quarter.

So it was kind of dicey there.

Not the easiest, but yes.

We got there.

Gravedigger, at least one game in week 11 will finish with zero touchdowns.

Sorry about that, buddy.

Jrod.

She loves that.

Four quarterbacks throw three or more interceptions this week.

In fact,

NFL quarterbacks.

This is a hat tip to Bill Barnwell.

I was just about to read this tweet.

This is

the chance.

NFL quarterbacks collectively in week 11, 67.2%

completions, 7.7 yards per attempt, 43 touchdowns, 16 interceptions collectively, a 98.1 passer rating, and a 63.5 average quarterback rating.

So pretty much the opposite of what I predicted.

Right.

It's basically like an average peak season of Peyton Manning in Denver or something.

That was the 11th best week for QB since 2000.

So

only one quarterback threw more than one interception, and you'll never guess who it was.

Patrick Mahomes

of all people.

Sports, man.

They're weird.

See how cursed I am on this.

I'm a terrible, terrible, terrible at picking things.

All right.

Mark had a starting QB will be a lost for the season, which is just bad karma.

Terrible job by him.

Yeah, instead, we lost Terry.

You know?

Yeah.

Terry.

We lost Mark for this episode.

Yeah, exactly.

See how the universe operates.

Terry.

Okay.

Let's make our predictions.

What do you got, mike

uh so in the spirit of i was working on a jackson smith and jigba story this week uh so i was looking at some stuff from his draft class there were four receivers taken in the first round with him uh quentin johnston of the chargers zay flowers uh of the ravens and a jordan addison of the vikings uh in the spirit of them uh they're all playing well uh in the spirit of that uh Those four first-round receivers from the 2023 draft class will combine for at least 300 receiving yards this week and at least three touchdowns.

Okay.

All right.

Interesting.

Mike always.

He's good at this.

Yeah.

Very thoughtful.

Jordan, how about you?

Okay.

Keep in mind.

Oh, God.

What do you got going on?

What do you got cooking?

I don't know.

I did not factor in things like the spread, for example.

Even the way you say it, the spread.

The spread.

And

Mike and Justin and I had a fun conversation about this earlier as well.

But three teams beat their opponents by 17 or more points this week.

And I thought about this, again, did not think about or look at or really know where to find the spread.

But also, I'm sorry.

But also,

I just looked at all the teams that are on bye weeks and thought, okay, there's way less chances.

So this makes this a little bit tougher.

Plus the weirdness potential with a couple of these divisional matchups

with all the teams that are on by.

So I just thought there's less bites at the Apple.

This makes this much harder to do this week.

No, but there's also several fatty spreads, like big old fatty spreads.

Would I say fearless here?

Maybe if you take it up one.

But I'm not saying that.

I'll take it up one.

I'll do four.

I don't want to put you in that spot.

Do you want me to take it up by three more points or do you want me to take it up by another team?

Mike, what do you think?

What do you think, Mike?

Yeah, actually, Mike, you just decide all of this for me, please.

Let's take it up another game.

Let's go for it.

We'll take it.

Okay, I accept.

There are games with some big spreads.

17 or more?

Yeah, that you know what?

There are just such massive spreads this week that

well done.

This via

absolute wagon.

Oh, my God.

Oh, what a drop.

Oh, that's a great one.

My fearless prediction, this via NPR.

I'll be part of NPR's Thanksgiving coverage next week.

Check your local listings.

Ding.

This season, kickers are hitting nearly 72% of field goal attempts from at least 50 yards out.

That's a record for the league.

An astonishing one.

NPR writes, given that the odds of making such field goals were worse than a coin toss as recently as 2007.

Yeah, there's been an absolute, I've been talking about this, a lot of people talking about this,

a revolution in kicking, and it goes back to

specialized training and better athletes.

More and more great athletes are going into the kicking realm now than they used to, and it's just changed the sport.

In fact, it was striking to me that

a 64-yard field goal made by Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey was taken off the board by a personal foul by the defense on the play.

And that 64-yarder would have been an NFL record

a few years back.

The 63-yard field goal stood for like 30 years as the record.

Now teams are taking it off and taking a first down instead.

So, with all that in mind, I'm going to dig into this kicker game and I'm going to dig into the all 32, or in this case, 32, minus 6, and 26 teams to choose from here.

Those are my odds.

There will be multiple attempts from 60 yards and at least one make

this week in the NFL.

All right.

Don't read those numbers about the efficiency from 50-plus to any Ravens or Bengals fans, though, Dan.

That's

pouring salt in the wound there.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

My team has lost multiple games on makeable field goals as well.

And

the stat about, we mentioned Mahomes being the only guy that had multiple interceptions or whatever.

Like, it's crazy that, and this is all happening in the year where Justin Tucker has fallen off and is having a little crisis himself.

That's just the way it is.

And finally, Justin, I have not forgotten you.

Wow.

Your fearless prediction.

Your prediction, does this not happen every week?

Maybe it doesn't.

I don't know.

Do you want me to jump up?

You want me to bump?

No, maybe it's like

the 58, 59, 57 yarders are super prevalent.

I guess the 60 pluses are that was my thinking.

Because originally I was thinking 58, but I said, let me tick this up.

If you guys want me to jump up to three,

I can.

If you feel that I should.

Look at how nice we're all being to each other today.

Thanksgiving, right around the corner.

Would you like me to jump to three, or is this fair?

Multiple.

I think multiple is fair.

I would personally like you to jump up a little since I also was very brave and did that.

Yeah, but Mike and Justin voted that multiple is fine.

I'm looking at the slate, and I don't really see an obvious op for a 60-yarder tonight.

A make, Boss.

I think that

Dicker.

Cameron Dicker.

The make is the part that I think is going to be tough.

I think you're going to get the attempts, but I'm not really confident in anyone.

A lot of guys kicking out doors, and then the guys in domes are not super confident in.

So yeah, you can leave it.

That's fine.

Good.

All right.

Should I read?

Should I read mine first or Mark's first?

We'll get to Mark's.

What's yours?

Mine is at least three teams ranked in the bottom 12 of the HTC power rankings will win outright this week.

I love the faith in the dogs.

I like it.

I like it.

Throw up the board, and I'll read off Mark's.

All right, Mark has the 2-8 Browns beat the 6-2 Steelers.

8-2.

8-2 Steelers.

All right.

Browns upset the Steelers.

Sure.

For tonight.

All right.

Anything else?

Good stuff, everybody.

Appreciate you.

Appreciate

football, the grandeur of the sport, as Jordan alluded to during a 14-minute monologue.

Thank you to everybody

for watching and listening.

And remember, we're going to recap every game that we just previewed on Sunday night, the flagship show with Mark and Connor, and read everything and take in everything that Jordan and Mike have going on at the athletic because it's all top-tier content.

And that's it.

Until next time, use the call.

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