NFL Week 10 Recap!!

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the heat the cold podcast

we'll look at the tape before making any decisions got to

i'm not going to stand here up at this podium and tell you what you want to hear I'm going to get together with my generals and make the decision that's the right decision for this team.

Dan Hans is here.

With Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, the gravedigger, Justin Graver,

doing the job that we have to do, which is go through every game that was played on Sunday of week 10.

It is the flagship show.

Mark, how you feel?

You know, I feel great when we get into November because

finality sets in on some level, like teams that we had lauded.

Finality?

Yeah.

It does.

Because teams that we lauded as like, hey, this is a playoff team.

Although they've never proven it to us, they are.

And then we're here now and like their bodies are being dumped over the side of like a sea vessel with weights on them.

It's a finality for a subset of teams that are disappointments.

Yes.

The weight of the voyage becomes more focused because we are dumping dead weight on a weekly basis.

And I think this was another week where dead weight was removed from our lives.

We'll still have to mention them here and there and remember them the way you like sort of like a eulogy, but they aren't an active member of our lives at this point.

That is a very Sessler way to dig into the week 10 setup.

How about you, Connor?

How about this stat?

Through nine weeks, 75 games had been decided by seven points or fewer, the most in NFL history.

In the early window today, that includes the Munich game, which we'll get to at the bottom of the show, we saw six more one-score games.

And, you know, life has a way of evening things out.

There were zero in the late window.

But to the point being, parody is taking hold at a level that we have literally never seen before.

I feel like the NFL tweets this stat every year and then just dares us to fact check it, and it just doesn't seem like it's accurate.

And then, how do you fact-check Roger Goodell?

Roger Goodell's just like, parody's never been better.

It's like, yeah, sure, we're not going to develop any critical thinking.

That's true.

All right.

Justin, all right, you have 90 minutes to figure that out.

Start digging.

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audience only.

I'd say this, Dan.

Wow.

If you're Justin and you've been doing edibles since before the Panthers Giants kickoff, like that's that felt completely common serene to him.

All right, let's get to it.

Week 10 talk begins now.

Mike Tomlin, a seer

whose trademark aviators shield eyes that can see tomorrow.

He's not just a head coach.

He's the modern Nostradamus.

Speaking in quatrains about a future that's yet to occur.

The man who doth crown himself Lord Unlimited will rise from the ashes, unlocking the girl from the closet so she may gaze upon a sun that shines upon the Paris of Appalachia.

A new maker of plays will be summoned from the swampy green underworld to feel joy on the gridiron once more.

Sure enough, on Sunday, Russell Wilson connected with Mike Williams on a Moonball TV late in the fourth quarter, the decisive strike and a thrilling 28-27 win over the Commanders.

Remember that nine-win ceiling we once saw for the Steelers?

They might have that by Thanksgiving.

Of course,

Tomlin Stramos.

No, Tomlin Damas

knows that too.

The Steelers, man,

even in a game, so this wasn't like a great Russell Wilson game.

In fact,

after back-to-back 400-yard games,

they managed just 97 yards in the first half.

They finished just over 300 yards in this game.

They have a major special teams gaffe early in this game on a terrible,

actually it was a really well-designed special teams fake punt deep in their own end that gets doomed by a terrible drop, but that comes with the territory of risks like that.

So it wasn't a perfect Steelers game, but this team just has, there's something, something about them.

And

so they wipe out a 10-point deficit in this game in the second half.

And yes, Mike Williams, I think he played about 10 snaps in this game, maybe nine snaps.

And the one that mattered most was a perfectly thrown Wilson ball.

And then,

again, like to the point of Mike Tomlin just being on a major heater, Connor Orr.

Like even after, so they, you know, they turn to Russell Wilson, that works.

A move like Mike Williams pays immediate dividends.

And then in this game, when they're trying to run out the clock, it's fourth and one near midfield.

And Mike Tomlin says, you know what, I'm sending out the offense on a hard count, draws an encroachment infraction on poor Johnny Newton to end the game.

Everything the Steelers do just works right now.

Six, I think it's five quarterback hits, six passes defense, three sacks of Jaden Daniels, and you could tell it was possibly two in Tomlin's favor, just like a little taste of that physicality that maybe he didn't have to deal with before by virtue of how the offense was set up.

And it was always kind of putting him in really good positions.

And I feel like it was, like you said, playing off of that beautifully written intro, by the way, that he could just kind of feel the game coming to him, even when the score got a little lopsided for a second because of, you know, that tone that they were able to set.

You know, I like your opening, too, because...

This to me was the Mike Tomlin game because I think Mike Tomlin is sort of just a brand.

Like the same way if I say like, if you can imagine, if you close your eyes and imagine putting like a McDonald's french fry in your mouth we all feel what that tastes like you know we don't do any other work on that right but like that's a Steelers game in general the Steelers in general feel that way to me like they're gonna come and present problems for anyone that they deal with and when I watched Cam Hayward crush Jaden Daniels at one point in this game.

I thought this pass rush, and that's their brand.

It's like, we aren't going to be flashy.

We're going to do it our way.

And they made him uncomfortable.

It's the most uncomfortable I thought I saw him look since he kind of broke out in prime time and became what we think he is.

And I still think he is, but it's like the Steelers could beat 90% of the league in the right place in the right time.

And a lot of it has to do with Mike Tomlin.

They're not totally special, but I would say this, Russell Wilson.

He is throwing the ball better than he has in a number of years, like two or three or four years.

Like

it's a couple of throws.

So this offense is kind of working.

That's the thing I didn't expect to happen with Pittsburgh.

And it's happening now.

And Mike Williams, days on the team, fits in right away.

It's kind of like that's such a Steelers thing.

Here's Mike Tomlin, the seer, on

Russell Wilson's ability to make those throws.

How many times have you seen that Russell Wilson throw like that over the years to just throw it up there and connect?

I've seen it a few times on highlight shows.

It's a little better in person.

I bet.

Yeah,

the Pittsburgh defense, obviously, you know, we could talk about Mike Williams and Russell Wilson and all that, but the defense is the one constant with this team, and they really did make Jaden Daniels look

mortal.

And 16 of 33 passing for 194 yards, you know, the accuracy wasn't there.

The pass rush was consistent.

You know, there was one shot where TJ Watt, you know, really crushed Daniels in the end zone and took him out.

And then, you know, sure enough,

there's that heat pack wrapped around Daniels that troublesome ribbit injury he's dealing with.

And this comeback was made possible by the defense just completely shutting down Washington's attack and allowing the offense to make the plays that it needed to make.

So

really just a all-around

strong effort from a Pittsburgh team that I don't know where the Steelers fit in when you talk about the true juggernauts in the league.

But Mark, I agree with you that They have already, to me, proven that they are not a team that you want to face on not your best day because because they're going to give you hell every game and especially in their building.

So another big win for the Steelers, the Commanders, that's a tough loss.

But, you know, I just think this is a tough place to win right now.

And you just give Pittsburgh credit for getting it done.

Well, I think, number one, like...

If you match them up against Baltimore division opponent, they know them better than anyone.

Like, cool, that's an advantage.

Like, I don't see a team they can't beat in the AFC.

It just needs to be the right place in the right time.

And one little thing on that fake punt or on the fake punt situation, like that was risky, and we saw their amazing special teams coach being disappointed this time versus him running up and down the sideline in jubilation.

But that thing worked.

It's just that it was a James Pierre.

Like, he dropped the ball.

Like, otherwise,

it would have completely worked.

Right.

You know, that old man, the special teams coach, Connor, what's his name again?

I know you know all the special teams dudes.

Sorry to put you on the spot.

They had it all like teed up to get another celebration.

And this time it was just like frustration for the drop.

I should bring up, because Commanders fans will be upset if I don't, before we move on, that fourth and nine at the 50-yard line, you got to give credit to Pittsburgh.

Like I said, they got every stop, including on fourth and nine at the 50.

But Jaden Daniels drops back.

He gets Zach Ertz, hits him over the middle.

To me, from my perspective, that's a first down.

He catches it at the sticks.

He kind of twists his body around, but where the point of the football is, it looks like he got it.

Officials race in and very, in a very confident manner, spot the ball full yard short of the marker, which was not the right marker.

It triggered an automatic review because it happened with 128 to play in the game.

And they reviewed, they upheld the call, which just, it just was a little bit, listen, we're not going to go down the referee wormhole again here, but I thought that, you know, if they convert that and then Daniels is at midfield of the first down, you don't know what happens.

But it just feels like everything, and then that set up the Johnny Newton encroachment penalty a couple minutes later.

Just everything is coming up Pittsburgh right now,

even when it seems like it might not.

All right, let's keep moving.

The gravedigger, he was checking out the Chiefs and Arrowhead.

Could they stay the NFL's only undefeated team?

Black magic is defined as magic involving the invocation of evil spirits for evil or selfish purposes.

And how else do you explain what we saw in Kansas City on Sunday?

Bo Nicks led two first-half touchdown drives and the Broncos' defense pretty much shut down Kansas City's offense in the first half.

But as the Chiefs always do, they simply found a way.

One of four in the red zone?

Deh, doesn't matter.

A running back signed a few weeks ago off the street is the leading receiver for your team?

Doesn't matter.

The opponent, possessing the ball for the final five minutes and 57 seconds, slowly working into field goal range, bleeding the clock out, lining up for a game-winning 35-yard field goal as time expires, doesn't matter.

Leo Chanel blocks Will Lutz's kick.

Patrick Mahomes runs onto the field, arms spread wide, celebrating Kansas City's ninth straight win.

Final score, Chiefs 16, Broncos 14.

Man.

I mean, Justin,

I say it all the time on the show, the Chiefs are inevitable.

And even when it does look like the end, in this case, the end of their hopes for a perfect season, something happens.

So is that just like a gross breakdown by the Denver special teams there or a special play by Chanel?

I would say a little bit of both.

There was a lot of bodies breaking through the line of scrimmage to block that field goal.

And like the announcers even had trouble figuring out who actually came up with the block.

I had to look at the box score to figure out that it was Leo Chanel who did it.

But I mean, heartbreak city for Denver, who just came off the pummeling last week, talked about it being a measuring stick game, lose 41-10 to Baltimore and bounce back so strong.

Like, you cannot bounce back stronger than this against what could be the NFL's best team by record.

They definitely are the NFL's best team by power ranking.

You know, we have them at number two.

We'll see how, if or how that changes this week.

But I just thought, like, I mean, I'm sitting there watching this on the couch.

Jessica's next to me, and I'm like, Jessica, the undefeated season is over.

Here we go.

The Broncos are in field goal range.

The clock is right.

Like, there's nothing Kansas City can do.

What is her concern level one to ten?

She's like, she was like, the Chiefs, they can't lose to the Broncos.

What?

You know, like, she's cursorily aware.

She's not like super aware, but she does pick them.

She plays fantasy.

Like, she kind of knows what's going on, but she wants to hear.

Total shock.

I mean, just absolute shocking moment that that kick didn't split the uprights and end the end-defeated season.

Here's the quote, Mark, from Sean Payton.

who I feel like is a roller coaster.

Every week we get a Payton quote from a totally different perspective.

felt like we outplayed them, but we didn't finish.

That one will take a while.

It'll sting.

I mean, how many teams come out of these Chiefs games thinking the same exact thing?

Well, and aren't they exactly what we asked the Bucs to be?

That you take the clock down to zero and you got the chance at the field goal and it's blocked.

So the black magic...

suggestion by you, Justin, is exactly right because you could look at probably at this point three or four Chiefs wins and be like, wait, what?

How did this happen?

And like, we can keep saying it's because of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, but it's like the Chiefs, there is a bit of luck involved in this, or just is it black magic?

I don't know.

But the Broncos did everything you asked, and they just missed the kick.

There was some officiating.

I quickly want to talk about it just because we've harped on how bad it's been this year.

And Broncos fans, like you said about your game, Dan, Broncos fans will be mad if I don't mention it.

Like, there was one play that led eventually to a Chiefs touchdown that should have ended the drive where Mahomes gets sacked almost immediately after catching the snap.

It's like a free rusher comes through and sacks him.

And after the sack, a flag comes out and it's illegal contact on a defensive back down the field who makes contact illegally with the receiver down the field.

I'm not disputing that, but he does it after Mahomes is already wrapped up.

It's like the illegal contact didn't cause Mahomes to have to hold the ball a second longer or anything.

And there was a couple other, like I think on the next play, Chiefs' offensive lineman has a fistful of face mask of a a Broncos defender.

No call on that play, right?

So there was, and that wasn't the only one that was questionable at best in this game.

But at the end of the day, those plays didn't matter.

You know, make your field goal as time expires, and you beat the Chiefs.

And they just, I don't know, the Chiefs just pull it out of their ass every week.

Wasn't he caught on a hot mic asking the official to notify him the next time the defender was that close?

I don't know what that was about, to be honest.

Like,

it sounded and looked like him saying, hey, just, hey, next time, let me know when he's close to me.

Let me know when he's close to me.

But he's like off to the side of the screen.

The camera's not focused on him at all.

The commentators picked up on it and they're like, oh, Mahomes is asking the officials to let him know.

But, like, he could have been talking to anybody.

He could have been talking to a coach of his on the sideline.

Like, I don't, from my standpoint, I don't think he was talking to the official.

That's going to blow up all over social media.

You know, the Chiefs and the refs and all the memes about them being together are going to spiral off of that.

But I don't, I don't know.

I couldn't really tell what to make of that moment.

Dob Kleiman jumped all over it, Dan, just to let you know.

He's

not a good story.

True journalists are a dying breed in this country, and he's well, he's actually somewhere in Israel.

But

true journalists, it stands the point.

Bo Nix,

one more point because I have a Broncos fan buddy in my town who got on me pretty good.

He said, hey, you didn't even talk about the Broncos in your preview of Broncos Chiefs, and now they're going to stick it to the Chiefs and make you guys look like asses.

Well, first of all, it almost happened.

But as a consolation prize to my buddy Scott, Bo Nicks continues to make strides from what I saw in this game.

What did you see from the rookie QB?

This might be blasphemous to say, but I actually feel like he outplayed Patrick Mahomes.

Like, he was honestly dealing out there.

The first touchdown was to a wide open receiver, breakdown in coverage, but it was a good read.

And he got the ball out on time and accurate.

Touchdown to Vele.

And then the second touchdown, deep down the field to Cortland Sutton.

We've seen that a few times this year already.

Like he's got the deep ball.

He was using his legs when he needed to.

Not that he did that too often in this game, but I actually thought Bonex played really well.

They kept the offense moving.

In the second half, the Chiefs' defense really tightened up.

I think heading into the final drive for the Broncos, they had like nine passing yards in the second half, so obviously that's not very good.

Um, but I think there was a lot of like the defense stiffened up, and they, as a rookie, making mid-game, in-game adjustments is not as easy.

But he came out so hot, took a lead into halftime with great first half play that the Broncos could have survived a bit of a letdown in the second half but overall I mean for a rookie going up against Patrick Mahomes in arrowhead in this environment in this situation I thought he played really well I mean listen like that is the fourth quote-unquote walk-off win for the Chiefs this season like as a fan of a downtrodden franchise I hope for one of those every five years to get four by November 10th it does feel like you're you're playing with fire a little bit but this is also a team last stat before we move here that has now won eight straight games in which it was trailing at half after halftime, like or at halftime.

Like that, there is there might be some luck involved, but their ability to close and for other teams to not be able to seize the moment ties into the grandeur, I think, on some level of the Chiefs and what it takes to beat a champion.

Unreal.

All right, let's move to

Indianapolis with Mark Sessler.

In rom-coms, the guy keeps trying, no matter the odds, we all see it.

She desires something he can't provide, unflinching DNA, attraction, and play, height, muscles, money, car.

She wants that guy.

But fumbly, caring, lovable rom-com guy keeps trying, and he should, because in rom-coms, it works.

In real life, get a hold of yourself.

In the NFL, a rom-com populated by men who are physically 2% of the population, you keep going.

You have no choice.

Joe Flacco's first pass of the game, pick six by Teron Johnson.

Joe Flacco's fifth pass of the game, taken away by 300-pound Colts be a myth, Austin Johnston, down 23-13 in the fourth quarter, and a Flacco pass flicks off his wingman's body into the arms of another man for a third interception.

Booze rained down.

What would Anthony Richardson have done?

It's a shame.

The Bills couldn't stop the run and fought without Amari Cooper or Keon Coleman, but Flacco couldn't keep it clean.

Josh Allen had two picks, too.

But here comes the team that's going to come over to your house, drink all your beer, and tenderly kiss your wife in the kitchen while you plunge a toilet.

Bills 30, Colts 20.

So now there's an adultery factor to this.

You know, it always has to go somewhere else with Mark into

a dark

undercurrent of relationships.

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say, huh?

Who got in the kitchen and is kissing my wife?

Well, that's the Bills.

I said Josh Allen had two picks, too, but here comes the team that's going to come over to your house because they are.

Because the Cults are this, I think, a feisty, sort of lovable rom-com target where you're like, if everything went right in the world, like you'd marry the Cults, but it's not what you want out of the gate.

And this was the game, I think the question for this game for the Colts was like, okay, Flacco melted down a week ago.

Was that, are we getting the Flacco from a year ago who was the comeback player of the year?

Are we getting this Flacco?

Flacco or Flucco?

Was that a dress?

We got Fluco.

And like, it reminded me, to be honest, of like when the Browns went and faced the Texans in the playoffs, and Flacco's interceptions literally cost them the game.

That happened here, but they found a way to come back and tie the game.

And they really fought.

And Jonathan Jonathan Taylor if I see one weakness in the Bills this is the one that I was like is are the Bills this beam it that's not going to be stopped they got ran over by Jonathan Taylor I mean he had a hundred yards in the first half alone

and there yeah there's a way to like there's a way to puncture them but you can't go turn the ball over the way that the Colts did I think had that had even one of those interceptions not happened they had a chance to win this the score looks a little uneven a little more uneven than the game was it got on out of hand late but you get if you get a cleaner game and and the one thing I would say,

it's like

the crowd in Indianapolis, which was like half Bills fans, like the Bills defense was actually like arms up asking the crowd to get loud like during Colts drives, which was embarrassing for the Colts.

But booze raining down on Flacco and the fact that I think in their mind, it's like,

what's the cost here?

We aren't developing Anthony Richardson our future.

And he's sitting on the sideline.

And they're really crumbling in the red zone, especially where Anthony Richardson's legs, I think, would have been more helpful.

That's the concern.

All right, let's listen to Shane Steichen, who, of course, when he gets to the podium after this loss, after two Flacco losses, people want to know, is it time to turn back to the second-year quarterback?

You saying you consider going to Richardson at all?

I didn't right there.

You know, until I say otherwise right now, Joe's our guy right now.

Connor.

It's hard because I totally understood the move when they made it.

I thought it made sense when they made it.

I didn't think Anthony in that headspace would have been able to play against the Vikings.

But the counter to that is, like any quarterback, once you get sample size, like Joe Flacco had a good run in Cleveland, but it was a short run.

He had a decent run in Indianapolis situationally, but now we're getting sample size on him again, just like we did when he was a diminishing starter in Baltimore.

And we're starting to remember the things that he doesn't do well, starting to be able to build game plans around his weaknesses.

And so the surprise element of Flacco Flacco is being lost and is becoming less effective with every given week.

There's a Twitter account, Barstool Indy,

that tweeted out during the game.

Security is taking free AR,

Anthony Richardson, signs from fans.

That's stupid.

Be better, Ursa.

Yeah, first of all, don't take signs.

Why are you not letting

it explicit or somehow like, you know, not promoting a family-friendly environment.

Do not touch the private property property of a fan who brought it to the game.

But, you know, can you throw up another tweet here, Justin?

Because I just want to, this annoys me a little bit.

You know, that I have my issues with the Twitter echo chamber

where everyone is such a genius and everybody just, you know, echoes the same take over and over and over again.

And everybody's really proud of themselves.

You might see that in other places in the world, like presidential elections, for example.

Anyway, Cameron Wolfe, we used to work with, and I think Cam's a really good reporter and a great guy.

So it's not a shout against Cameron, but But

he quote retweeted, Shane Steichen says QB Joe Flacco will remain QB1 until he says otherwise.

And then Cameron wrote, more patience slash grace with 39-year-old Joe Flacco with 193 NFL games than 22-year-old Anthony Richardson with 10 NFL games.

I can't stand this whole thing about...

like it's somehow disrespectful or not treating Anthony Richardson,

a player who's accomplished nothing in the NFL, that struggled horrendously when he was on the field this season, that we need to treat him with a level of dignity and grace, or we somehow have not done that, I would say that Shane Steichen probably has done exactly that.

And he tried very hard to keep Richardson in the lineup until he felt like he had to try to save the season.

And if we remember, Flacco played so incredibly well, both in an elite earlier in the season and with the Browns last year, that it, yes, it made sense to play him.

Now, after two starts that didn't work out, it's fair.

But to get on the colts and to get on shane steich and to talk about dignity and grace and all this bullshit it's like no man like that that was a tough decision it's not working out but it's such that's that type of second guessing that drives me nuts because uh it's easy to say now that you should have never went away from richardson but you easily forget how piss poor he was on the field before flacco got into the picture in the first place yeah and we don't like also we don't there's no predictive energy behind what anthony richardson would have done against the vikings um or today and so i I'm completely with you.

It's just, it's much easier to sit on the sidelines and do that.

I will say there was one tasty

moment in this game of justice for people that didn't like...

Now, I might have liked it that Joe Flacco won comeback player of the year, but people were up in arms about that too on Twitter and other vehicles and plays.

I mean, that was a horrendous decision by

seeing

you agree with that.

But there was a strip sack of Flacco in this game by Gregory Rousseau, I believe, to have the strip sack, but it was recovered by DeMar Hamlin, of all people, and so on.

And they had just been talking about DeMar Hamlin like seconds earlier.

It was like the announcer's dream where they had just been talking about DeMar Hamlin saying, like, even Joe Flacco agrees he should have won comeback player of the year.

And like a second later, like, he recovers

a fumble.

It's like that Johnny Unidas Flacco starring as United's film that never got off the ground

that went into turnaround and development hell.

Like, it's almost better that that happened because then, you know, we could always think it might have been better.

That's kind of what it's like now with Flacco as quarterback of the Colts.

It would have been better if he just, there's always a promise that he could be in the game and make the team better.

Now he's not.

I mean, I don't expect Richardson to be back, but we have time to talk about that.

One little note.

Like, Connor said he has a.

Connor, you had your assigned stolen at a stadium at some point?

When I was a freshman at Syracuse, we played Penn State, and I went to the, I walked into the carrier dome with the sign that just says,

Joe Paterno's old as.

And then

the

security guard was like, You can't take that into the stadium.

And I was like, What if I change it to hell?

And then he was like, Just give me the, and then he just like took it from me.

And then, so yeah, I missed it.

I missed a chance.

I really wanted to bring it.

It's a funny sign.

It is funny.

And it was not inaccurate.

No.

Paterno was probably 114 at that time.

He was old as.

All right.

Up next, we head to Norlands with Connor Orr.

In the darkest of times, when all light seems lost, when a hero is needed, the obvious choice is to turn to the guy who talks expressively about what happens to him in the work bathroom and a wide receiver who is not good enough to play for the Chiefs or the Bills.

That's how New Orleans shocked the world on Sunday behind interim Darren Rizzi and Marquez Valdez-Scantling, whose three-catch, 109-yard, two-touchdown performance, helped the team break a seven-game losing streak, resulting in the firing of then-head coach Dennis Allen.

Rizzi, who started his day like shit, turned out to be the shit.

The Visacea bump is not just alive, boys.

It's on fire.

And according to reports after the game, Rizzi could not feel his hand as he approached the podium because he got shoved so hard by one of his players that it aggravated an old injury.

Saints beat the Falcons.

Let's go.

Yeah, let's spin through some Rizzi sound.

First, Rizzi on clogging the toilet this morning.

No, man, I'm a pretty open guy.

So

this is how my day started.

I get down here to the stadium, I get down to the Superdome.

I go in the head coach's locker room, which, you know, I've never used before, right?

So here I am early in the morning, I go to the bathroom, and this is how my day started.

I clogged the toilet.

And I'm like, this is going to be a crappy day, pun intended.

And so we listened.

I'm like, okay, this is not really a great start to the day.

Here we go.

And so,

yeah, I'm not really feeling like a head coach of an NFL team right now.

So I'm like, really?

This is really how we're going to start my day.

So

Rizzy, no, I'm not done yet.

Rizzy on that arm issue.

Let it rip, Darren.

Oh, yeah,

I'm going to tell you exactly what happened.

I yelled at Peyton Turner with 30 seconds left because he's celebrating before the game's over.

So I screamed at him.

And so he's spraying water and I ripped his ass, quite frankly.

So when the game was over, he wanted to get me back.

So he

was looking jacked me the fact I had a history of slingers.

So my left arm went completely numb.

Literally went completely numb.

So I'm sure the video has me like this.

I'm like, I'm looking at my thanks lap, Peyton.

So

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I just, I got a little C5, C6 going for years from the old.

Sound like the old guy, but I am.

That's what happened.

Literally, he gave me a stinger, for lack of a better phrase.

Right out of central casting, Connor.

I mean, this is the type of interim coach that they make movies about.

You have to go watch the end of the game, too, because there's like shots of him celebrating.

And even after he seriously aggravated an injury, he is in like a full extension pass set, like jacking up one of his players in the middle of the field.

And like, we go back to like Antonio Pierce, and we're like, this is what you're supposed to be.

This is what you're all about.

You get five games, you get to be weird as shit, and you get to just beat like a six and three Falcons team for no goddamn reason with like three deep shots to Marquez Valdez-Scantling.

This is exactly what you're supposed to do, and I love every minute of Rizzy Ball.

Yeah, and some chaos too, right?

Because you win by three points

in a game.

We had some kickers that really struggled this week.

And one of the best kickers of the last five years or so has been Young Wei Ku, and he had a game from hell.

He missed three field goals, and interestingly enough, so after the game, he comes off the field and he's just like pounding his chest because he's like, it's my fault.

It's my fault.

And then Arthur Blank walks over and like grabs him and like kind of like shutters him from attention and like walks him off the field and like is trying to like talk him down.

Reem Morris, like everybody defended him to a man saying he's one of the best kickers in the league.

This is just an aberration.

But obviously you see how this snowballs with some kickers.

And, you know, this is something to watch because he's a legitimate weapon for this Falcons team.

And he's having not a good year.

This was his worst game, but I think he's kicking it 70%.

The old Parcells line is like, if my kicker's not making 80% of the kicks, he's not on my team.

I know Ku is a guy that, you're right.

It puts them in a difficult spot when you have a great kicker, and he's been one of the best in franchise history

to have to ride out that storm.

It's a storm that, Mark, can cost you your season.

So the Falcons are obviously in touchy waters right there.

Well, yeah, like they've sort of lived and died by the sword at the end of these games.

And, you know, I'm looking at, I was watching this, but the Saints finished with four punts.

And the net yards on those were, like, they shut down that Saints team in the second half, especially the fourth quarter.

And if you're the Falcons, you know, we've seen them win these games at the end.

It's a punt, it's a misfield goal, it's an interception, and then you're done on downs.

Like, does it raise concern, Connor, for you about the Falcons in general?

Or is this just the way the NFC South works?

I saw a lot of people saying, well, okay, you missed three field goals, and that's what happens, and that's why we lost the game.

But I would go back to the Saints' opening drive.

Like, they ripped their way down the field.

Their first play was technically an 88-yard touchdown to Taysom Hill that got called back by the lamest Phantom holding call that really kind of took place kind of after Hill was passed as defender.

And then they made it down to the goal line anyway, and Hill got stuffed on like a fourth and two on like the five or the six-yard line.

So I don't think this is necessarily, oh, well, we technically did outscore them, and their kicker didn't do a job.

They ran the ball well.

Kirk Cousins was rusty in the first half, and then it was too little, too late, right?

You're a little bit behind the eight ball, and if you're facing a team that played as explosively as New Orleans did, you know, you're going to struggle to get back into these games, no matter how good your weapons are.

One more thing before we move on.

I have one more bit of sound.

It's from Derek Carr, post-game with Fox.

What What a week.

Emotional, all sorts of things must be going through your head, but finish was the word that I got from Coach Rizzi at the half, and you did that.

Yeah, absolutely.

We just want to win.

Our city deserves a winner, and

that's all we want to do.

So shout out to DA because he helped us build this.

I know he wasn't here today, and I know Rizzy will say the same thing.

Shout out to DA because he helped build, you know, pave the way for us.

And so, DA, we love you, but I'm happy for Rizz, too.

That's his first win, and hopefully that gets us back on track.

All right.

All that's all great.

And Dennis Allen's collecting the paycheck somewhere.

He's okay.

Derek Carr, I've talked about this before, Mark.

Derek Carr is from Bakersfield, California.

That is about a four and a half hour drive from where we are right now in Los Angeles.

Why does he sound like his name is Tex and he lives on a ranch outside of Dallas?

I mean, it's like he

is on the phone with like Brian Kelly, who went down to LSU.

He was like, hello, everybody.

I just want to let you know how much I love the Hales and the Vales.

Like, I mean, like, what are we doing here?

I'm with you.

Like, there's no, there's no, um, I, we've all done like that New York Times quiz that can pinpoint exactly where you grew up based on word, how you, like, how you say words, how you speak the word choice you use.

Like, is it soda or pop?

Kind of things like that.

There is no way to diagram Derek Carr having that accent coming from where he came from.

So, I, it's up to anyone's theory at this point.

It's a common ailment, if I can just weigh in here.

I suffer from it too, where if you're around a lot of people from a certain part of the country, your dialect just takes a hard nosedive to try to mirror exactly where they're from.

And it turns out to be this very like painfully embarrassing thing where you get caught basically doing the Brian Kelly thing in front of a large group of people.

I'm lucky that I've trained myself.

I've caught myself.

My mom, for example, like sometimes you really like, we really have to like, it's like a full-on stage hook to try to get that

situation.

It's tough.

And I'm looking at his wiki page and it's every it just keeps on getting more confusing.

There is a Texan type.

First of all, his middle name.

Do you guys know this?

It's Derek Dallas Carr.

What the f?

Also,

his high school,

but I'm just saying, like, you know, put it on the board.

Let's red string this.

And then his high school career began in Sugarland, Texas, but then he finished his high school career back near Bakersfield.

I don't know, man.

Something's going on.

Well, that suggests some Texas roots, though.

I mean, that

eases some of the suspicion, does it not?

He sounds like Conway Twitty right now, though.

That's really me.

Like, last time we talked about this on the other show was probably about two years ago, and it wasn't nearly that thick.

I could barely understand him at this point.

And my wife's Texan.

All right.

Let's.

He's like, nah, we're going to do an ombre for our old coach.

You know, he built this.

Built what, by the way?

Right.

Built a team that was on a seven-game losing streak?

Yeah, well, is everyone just crazy now?

All right, to Tampa with the gravedigger.

We're built something really special here with Dennis.

Like, what?

Today we spell redemption M-O-O-D-Y.

As in 49ers kicker Jake Moody, returning today after missing three games with a high ankle sprain, kicked through his first field goal attempt but then proceeded to miss three of his next four after that wide left from 49 wide left from 50 wide right from 44 the last one leading to Debo Samuel grabbing the throat of his holder as he exchanged words with the specialists no idea what that was about it was kind of a swipe of his throat it was half grab half swipe it was a bit of a he went for it and the kicker or the holder kind of moved out of the way you're gonna see it a few times here if you're watching on YouTube mid-recap.

I mean, he went for the throw.

He pushed him more than I guess anything else.

But

he's really, really angry that his kicker has missed three field goals at this point.

And

the 49ers hold a three-point lead.

Baker Mayfield drives him down, gets the tie for the game.

But then, game in the balance, Moody steps up and kicks through a 44-yarder to hand Tampa Bay their second straight loss on the final play of the game.

Niners 23, Buccaneers 20.

I mean Tampa Bay has had the run through hell these last four weeks.

It's a four-game losing streak.

You lose Evans and Godwin on the same night in primetime, and then you lose to the Falcons by five, the Chiefs by

six, and overtime, the Niners

by three,

and now you are four and six, and your season is on life support.

Another big-time performance, Justin, as I understand it, from Brock Purdy.

Brock Purdy and Baker Mayfield dueled it out.

They both played, in my opinion, outstanding games.

Brock Purdy, his ability to navigate a pocket under pressure and make a throw down the field, not just a little check down, although those help too, is really, I think, one of the best abilities of anyone in the league.

And he, like, he was able to keep this 49ers offense afloat through all the injuries and stuff.

And obviously, still without Brandon Ayuk, but also the emergence of the rookie first-rounder, Ricky Pearsall, who was involved in the insane, tragic shooting incident that, you know, put his rookie season off to a terrible start.

He scores his first touchdown of the, yeah, of the season with a 46-yard catch and run.

Showed some really nice speed and burst on that play, had a couple of really nice catches on the final drive where they kicked the game-winning field goal.

Christian McCaffrey, obviously, I think is the headline of this game, was his return.

He played 54 of a possible 61 snaps on offense, no restrictions at all.

But on that Ricky Pearsall touchdown, Jordan Mason was in the backfield.

George Kittle was on the sideline too.

So the Niners, you know, there's a lot of great scheming going on here in addition to a lot of talented players.

But I think Baker Mayfield, I mean, we got to talk about how incredible Baker Mayfield was in this game because you mentioned how disastrous the last four weeks have been for the Bucs, the injuries, the losses.

Tristan Worfs goes down in the second quarter.

He's quickly ruled out of the game.

And from that point on, well, not from that point on.

Nick Bosa had a really quiet first half.

And even against Worf's backup, he had like eight pass rushes and zero pressures at one point in the game.

But then Bosa turned it on, especially after Moody missed the third field goal.

Baker Mayfield was under pressure for the rest of the game.

He's running for his life in the backfield.

And he made play after play under intense pass rush pressure to just scramble out of the pocket and find a receiver or to just get hit in the face in the pocket and draw multiple flags that way.

But the play of the game was a fourth down play.

I mean, the play of the game for the Bucs who lost, but a fourth down play, game on the line.

Baker is chased out of the pocket by Nick Bosa.

He's stiff arming him with one arm, with his left arm.

Bosa is like grabbing him by the arm, grabbing him by the wrist, trying to get a grip on him.

And Baker rolls out.

And this, they were connected for like seven or eight yards of Baker rolling out, trying to pull out the stiff arm.

Finally throws the ball to, I think it was a running, Rashad White.

Maybe I can't remember exactly who he threw it to.

Past the sticks for a first down.

Incredible play.

I mean, Baker Mayfield on that final game tank drive was, he was like a hero, just like shrugging off tacklers and making it, it was unbelievable.

This was a, this was such a good game.

If you're a game pass person, put this one top of your list.

This was an incredible game.

I believe Tom Brady calling this game for Fox said it was the Baker play you're referring to.

And I didn't realize it was Bosa that he was fending off.

That makes it even more impressive

that it was one of the best plays he's ever seen a quarterback make.

So the Bucks season might be going down the tubes here week by week, Mark, but the quarterback play has certainly not been the issue, and they just haven't been able to finish any of these games.

And that's as simple as that.

Well, it's like I think Baker Mayfield's extended his career by tangible, like a real part of his career by.

Well, we're past that now, Mark.

We used to talk about that when he was a backup and he had big games.

Like, he's going to stick out.

Like, he's an established starter, like, playing at a high level level at this point, right?

Well, I agree with that, obviously, but I think what's different is, you know, if he had gone into the tank when you take away his two top wideouts, and today is much more recent, but his star left tackle, like, we'd all get that, but he's not.

And I was listening to this alongside my game, and Tom Brady, what, about a month ago, got, you know, nailed for critiquing Baker Mayfield and getting called out for it.

And like the way he spoke about Baker Mayfield today, and it's Tom Brady, so I don't know what level of genuine reflection is happening there I can't comment on that but like a chummy make good please There is probably some element of that, but I think he sees something in Baker Mayfield that Justin was just talking about.

And I think the Bucs do too.

And like he's just sort of one of these quarterback warrior guys who, no matter what's happening around him, you're going to get it.

And there was a lot of inconsistency early in his career when players would get hurt.

And now you're getting the best games from him with all this happening around him.

So it is one of the the better stories.

I would say the Ricky Parasol touchdowns, like, wait a minute, like, this is a Shanahan type receiver.

He is going to turn this guy into something really important down the stretch.

But I mean, I can't imagine where we'll be two years from now with this player.

Like, that was such a Shanahan-type play design, catch, touchdown, player, everything.

And Jawan Jennings was also really good.

So the Niners have a few bodies that can help fill the void of Brandon Ayuk's injury.

Debo Samuel made a bunch of plays, including a really long downfield play.

George Kittle had an incredible touchdown, toe-tap back corner, the end zone grab.

An awesome year, like first-team all-pro type year.

And he had another play where he just rumbled through the defense for like what felt like 75 yards.

It was probably like 30 or 40 yards.

That led to a Jake Moody missed field goal, but really nice catch and run play by Kittle.

So the Niners are clicking on all cylinders.

I do, real quick on Tom Brady.

I feel like if you're a 49ers fan watching this game, you got to feel a little,

I don't know, a little jaded by Brady's commentating because it felt like he was trying hard not to root for Tampa Bay in his analysis of this game, which, you know, he has an obvious connection there and won a Super Bowl with them.

So I get it, but there was a lot of comments.

Fan base is always thinking, and now you're speaking that into existence.

And now you're really going to go nuts.

By the way, you know, give a little credit, you know, I always got the kickers' backs.

Like, yeah, Moody sucked today, but he did hit the game winner.

And it just tells you, like, the intestinal fortitude, or as Gorilla Monsoon once said, the testicular fortitude necessarily, necessary to miss three kicks, have a superstar player like, you know, swipe at your long snapper's throat after he said something nasty about you, he's your own teammate, and then have all that swimming in your head and then still pipe the game winner, you got to be

strong of mind to be an NFL kicker.

Doesn't that is the truth?

Doesn't testicular fortitude make more sense than intestinal?

Right.

Like when I think of my intestines, it's not like, wow, that guy's strong.

He's got strong intestines.

Like, he's got huge balls.

Like, we're like, we get it.

That guy's going to walk.

Right.

So, you know, Gorilla Monsoon refining the dialogue.

Yeah, we had an old editor at NFL, just a guy that was not kind to us in many ways.

David Ely.

And then eventually saw, no, not David Ely, eventually saw his way out of the company in dramatic fashion.

But I once put testicular fortitude in a write-up, and he called me into the office and he gave me a talking to.

How dare you?

Like I'm writing for the fucking gray lady over here.

All right, let's take a break and then we will continue to roll through week 10.

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Yeah.

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All right, we're back.

Let's keep on rolling on.

Up next, Connor Orr, take us to Soldier Field.

What's going on with the Bears?

Monday morning agenda for Matt Eberflus.

Get a plate.

Cover it in salt.

Find a white candle.

Has to be white.

And before lighting, conjure the spirits that haunt you.

Place the lit candle on the salt and imagine your demons are the wick.

Once extinguished, your protection spell is complete.

After a punchless 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots, this may be the only thing that saves Chicago from the curse of the Hail Mary.

This, according to Cora.com spellcaster and demonologist, Dinah Sage.

This team continues to sleepwalk into the abyss, having failed to score a touchdown in back-to-back games for the first time in 20 years

and cherry on top of that guys literally the hardest schedule in the NFL yet to play this season

not good it I mean

the Hail Mary

if the Hail Mary doesn't have the Hail Maryland with Daniels what are they five and two if that happens

instead that play happens and

And I'll count that game too because they were really bad on offense for most of that game Connor the absolute collapse of this attack under offense coordinator Shane Waldron and with rookie quarterback and supposed future superstar Caleb Williams, not putting everything on him.

Apparently, he's getting the crap kicked at him again.

It boggles the mind that you could get hot the way they got going into their buy, and then this team comes out of the bye, and all of a sudden, and you did a nice job laying that out there, like with the schedule up ahead,

we feel like we're back to the bad old days, and I just kind of whiplash about the Bears right now.

This is the first time that a Bears quarterback has been sacked six or more times in back-to-back games since 1993 for the Bears.

Almost every throw was behind the sticks.

And I will say this, if we're going to scapegoat anybody, more offensive line injuries in this game, basically an entire offensive line on the injury report at this point.

And to Shane Waldron's defense, he tried everything to try to mitigate the pressure.

They had a tight end and a running back in in the backfield for a lot of it, but what happened was the interior of the offensive line would collapse so quickly that those guys would rush up to help, and then Blitzers, who were watching the two guys as wide receivers, would come in and just knock Caleb Williams over.

They tried the big moving pocket thing where they had the jumbo offensive line, but half of that would collapse.

And like Caleb Williams would basically just walk into a sack.

And so it's just like everything that they tried wouldn't work.

You can still see these tiny little moments of really beautiful play from him, but it's few and far between at this point.

Like,

it doesn't look good.

Isn't it kind of what we were worried about with Drake May?

Like, if you put him in and we can't really get a good diagnosis of who he is because of that offensive line, well, he's fine.

Like, it's the other way around where the Patriots, they had their season high and pressures, and they register nine sacks.

That's not because the Patriots have a dominating, monstrous defensive line.

It's because Caleb Williams is playing behind a battered nightmare of a front.

And it's hard to get a diagnosis on Caleb Williams when that's happening.

Well, let me ask this question, Connor, because sometimes sacks can be misleading.

Is the rookie quarterback playing a role in these sacks, too?

What's he doing in terms of holding the ball, or is he just having no chance?

Like, what is the breakdown to you when you watch?

We're at 2.7 snap to throw time, right?

So if you look at a lot of the quarterbacks in like this week, for example, he's middle of the pack.

I mean, 2.7 is not, you know, know, you have guys like Lamarge Action, Deshaun Watson, hold the ball 3.2, 3.3 seconds.

Tom Brady's like the, was like the gold standard at like 2.49.

So you're not really that far off from getting rid of the ball fast.

And he is throwing the ball.

He completed this ball to Keenan Allen at the beginning of the game that like

the window of opening was the size of a dime.

And he threw the ball like 95 miles an hour right into his chest.

And that's what he's doing.

And I'm not saying he's spectacular.

He's missing some throws, but this offensive line is just,

it's collapsed.

And I really don't think that there's any answer for it right now.

142 yards of offense in this game, one of 14 on third downs.

And this is against one of the worst teams in football in the New England Patriots.

It's hard to believe.

And, you know, Ibra Fluce, and there were chants about Fire Fluce late in this game.

I don't know, and we'll see.

Like, as I was hearing about this, I was watching other games, and you're getting, you're seeing all the tweets about how bad things are around this, and this conversation obviously backs all that up.

Like,

it feels like he could be in very, very grave danger of being the next guy to lose his job in season, which the Bears historically do not do that.

But this is also a different type of disappointment in Chicago this year, both because they have the number one pick and because they had success earlier in the year.

And I wonder about his safety there.

He is, they are now 14 and 29 in two and a half seasons under Eberflu.

So I don't know if it's Shane Waldron, Connor, that loses his play calling duties or a bigger change, but I feel like something has to shift to try to save or change momentum here.

Yeah, so there's a couple components here.

A lot of times, like I was talking to some people about why wouldn't you make a move in this place?

Why does this guy get to finish the year and why doesn't that guy get to finish the year?

And one thing that doesn't work in Matt Eberflus' favor, at least in my opinion, is there are some good coaches on Chicago staff that are of high regard.

So first, Richard Hightower, who's their special teams coordinator, is one of those special teams coordinators that people have talked about as potentially a head coaching candidate.

You have Thomas Brown, who's from the Sean McVay tree.

He called it plays in Carolina for a couple of games last year.

You have Chris Beattie from the Chargers, another guy with play calling capabilities.

And so you have a lot of these younger, dynamic coaches, guys that they might want to get a look at.

And so if you're Eberflus, like, I don't know.

I mean, some places, like in Jacksonville, there's not really anything you can do at this point.

It doesn't matter, it's not going to add a benefit.

But, you know, do the Bears see a benefit in that at this point during the season?

And I don't know.

I really don't know the answer to that right now.

One more thing: Josh Norris, who kicks ass for us here at Underdog, him and Hayden, you got a Camp Miss show that they do, their fantasy program.

You know, he had a good chart of Caleb Williams passing in this game, and

everything is 10 yards and in.

And you have a number one overall pick, Caleb Williams, who's a fantastically talented player.

You have DJ Moore, Roma Dunze, Keenan Allen,

and

that's how you're calling the game.

You're putting a lid on this offense.

I feel like something is, if the shoe doesn't drop by the time we wake up, I feel like it's overdue, quite personally, and let's see if it happens.

But bad, bad, bad.

All I'd say, though, like shattered offensive line will make any team one-third of itself on offense.

Like, it's there, there will be scapegoats, and there should be for other reasons, too.

But, like, I don't know, put that line in front of almost any quarterback, and things change drastically.

But should we talk about the team that won the game?

Yeah,

I was going to say,

the coolest play in this game I thought was one that wasn't even a completion, but like Drake May is starting to give me like very serious Josh Allen vibes

in both ways, right?

Like he is, he's kind of a cowboy a little bit, which is really cool.

And it hasn't led to like total boneheaded moments really necessarily, but there was this one where he was just like, you know, defender all over him.

He manages to switch the ball from his right hand to his left hand and just like fire a half legitimate pass down the field to avoid like a, you know, a huge loss on a play.

And he just has this, again, it's like Josh Allen.

It's like this wild stallion kind of element to his play that I just, I mean, I guess you can never really expect it because they're kind of protected in their college offenses.

And here's what happens when bullets start flying.

But it's very cool, and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Very good.

Hope in New England.

Because I watched, we'll get to it a little later.

I watched Mac Jones today.

And yes,

sorry about that.

It's a new dawn.

It's a new dawn up with the Patriots, even if the wins have been hard to come by.

Let's keep moving.

Up next, we head to, oh man, dark times at Jarrow World, Mark Sessler.

Cowboys Eagles, Dallas, a doomed vessel, run haughtily by rich, drunk whites, vastly mediocre, treated today like a sally boy by Siriani and his cast of characters.

Dak or no Dak, we see who you are.

Micah Parsons playing out of his mind, but it's not enough.

In fact, it's meaningless.

While Roger Goodell bites the head off a fish in a beer garden 5,000 miles away, chewing and masticating his small intestine aglow, making $600 million a year and vaguely drunk in Germany, we watch the Eagles destroy a Cowboys team with no clear vision or future.

A fraud, a false idol.

One of these teams can be taken seriously.

Nick Siriani jabs?

Sure.

But how about Mike McCarthy?

Zaddy?

More like Uncle Shabby, stopped along the highway with a broken truck

and a kidnapped victim in the trunk.

The victim is us.

The permanent vacation comes soon.

Eagles 34, Cowboys six.

Okay, so we're going to excuse the Bears because of their offensive line injuries, but, you know, the Cowboys get that assassination treatment, huh?

Can we talk about how Mark does his recaps with the microphone two inches inside his mouth?

It feels like you have to be a little heightened during those, so that's what I'm

part of the show.

Well, hold on.

The Cowboys were bad with Dak Prescott.

That's part of my frustration.

I'm just saying, yes, the Cowboys stink.

They do.

But,

you know,

they've now gotten to the point where it's not even fun to talk about that they stink anymore because now they just seem hopeless.

And I don't know if this happened, I think, after our last show, but the Prescott injury now looks like it's going to be season ending and is going to require surgery.

And Cooper Rush, Connor, obviously not the answer in this game.

So, yeah, the Cowboys are, you know, now we're talking about the Cowboys could be picking in the top five of the draft.

That's how bad it got.

But so you hit the nail on the head, though.

Why isn't Trey Lance in this game?

The minute that Dak Prescott goes down, and then you have a week to prepare, the Packers took Malik Willis, who had was much rawr than Trey Lance and had this spectacular skill set and turned around and created these game-winning plans that were fantastic and spectacular.

And despite the fact that all their opponents knew it was going to be short, manageable throws in a run game, game, they're blowing people out.

And so you have Trey Lance sitting on the bench.

If you're Mike McCarthy, go out there and save your job.

Like, go make it interesting.

And I'm not saying that the Packers are the Cowboys and you have the same component parts, but you have good players.

Like, make them go.

And I know he came in at the end of this game, but like, he needs to start this game.

All right.

I'm not going to

get to the point where I'm like defending the Cowboys, but there's a lot of evidence that Trey Lance can't play.

And they know more than we know about it.

But I'm just saying, like, they thought Cooper Rush came into this 4-1 as a starter.

They were under the impression that he was going to be able to steward this offense.

I didn't see this game, so I don't know how bad he was.

But, like, that would be the logic for starting Cooper Rush this week.

Now, if you want to say, okay, that didn't work.

Now it's time to go into full development and let's see where Trey Lance is.

Okay.

Suddenly, I'm just like...

They brought Trey Lance in.

Then they put Cooper Rush back in, which confused a lot of people.

Like, there were updates, like, Trey Lance is in the game.

Then suddenly Cooper Rush was back in the game.

Then they brought Lance back in, and he was

mediocre would be a glowing, an overstatement of what he was, and he threw a bad interception.

And my assessment of that, because I agree with you, Connor, it's like, why not look at the upside?

Although you've just signed Dak Prescott to this long-term deal, so what future does Trey Lance have on your team anyways?

But as your backup, I think that's a good idea.

I think he's picked third overall is hanging over this.

Like, we feel like we should be treating him as a real prospect when he's given no indications that he could play in this league.

I think they've seen him in practice and they don't have a lot of faith in him.

But to your point, Connor, like, if, and it's not just like, I don't think we're just like punching Mike McCarthy week after week.

Like, we get it.

He's won multiple 12 win seasons in a row, but like there was zero creativity with their approach today, and there's been zero creativity in general.

And it's like, you do have Trey Lance and you, and Cooper Rush did win games a year ago with a better roster.

And it's like, they just look like they're laying down today.

Let's Let's talk about the Eagles.

Well, the Eagles, for everything, for all that we crushed the Eagles, like, they were dominant in this game.

They dominated a bad team.

But what I thought was important was, and because no critical situations came up, the game was pretty much over by halftime.

Like, you didn't get any wacky Nick Siriani moments where he's doing something that we're all going to talk about for the week.

It was a clean team victory, and they dominated their hated rival.

It's like there almost wasn't a lot to talk about with the Eagles in the sense that they went out and played a very Eagles game.

It's so important when they have A.J.

Brown on the field, I think they're such a better team.

It's like everything changes.

It was another 100-yard game by him.

Saquon Barkley, not a giant

output today, but they didn't need it.

They didn't need it.

And like I said, Micah Parsons had a number of huge plays in this, and it didn't matter.

Like they found a way to overcome all that.

I'm seeing this.

They found Jarrah outside the building.

Apparently, CeeDee Lamb loses what would have been a touchdown catch

in the lights in that funny little window.

This is when seasons go really bad.

Now, these type of storylines, they compound all the misery.

So now everybody's like, oh, we got to get rid of the windows where the sun goes in.

So someone asked Jarrah about it, and he replied, well, let's tear.

This is not Derek Carr, by the way.

This is Jerry Jarrah from the cowboy.

Well, let's tear the damn stadium.

Build another one.

Are you kidding me?

They have curtains, though.

But there were pictures.

They have curtains when they have other events at the stadium.

Like WWE WrestleMania was there.

They put up giant curtains to block these windows.

The only time they don't put those curtains up is during the football games when the sunlight directly impacts what's happening on the field.

The crazy thing is that

was the same issue with the age-old Cowboys stadium, where part of it, like during games, like a third of it, like the corner, would be a blinding sunlight where kick returners and punt returners would drop the ball.

The pictures that they put out there on Twitter, like in the video of him dropping the ball, like that is a problem.

Like, that shouldn't be happening to pro players, I think, like, compared to like a high school.

I feel like that's pretty low on their priority list of things that are messed up right now.

Well, that's fine, but they don't, their priorities are messed up also.

So

they are.

They're a mess.

No doubt about it, Mark.

Anything else in this one?

No, but I feel like you're annoyed that I find the Cowboys to be a fault, like a faulty organization like I get it and I know it's like I we've been doing this for years but it's really it's like they're a disaster and like who is culpable nobody like we're too critical of Mike with

interesting that the preview kind of gave the bears a pass because they're injuries but the cowboys are a disaster of an organization they've had a ton of injuries this year as well that's all

well done

They went into the season with a bad roster.

They overvalued who they are and what they are, which is not unusual for them.

That's every year.

And there's zero accountability coming from your owner.

I mean, it's just you're shooting fish in a barrel here.

I mean, what else do you have for the Cowboys?

I'll let you get it all out.

Well, we should have, you know, dispatched them a fortnight ago.

Like, this is a bad football team, and they were bad before the injuries.

Like, this is one of the, this is the most disappointing team beyond the Jets.

I mean, right?

Or equally.

Like, and sorry, I don't like bringing that team up either, but like, this is an absolute nuclear disaster.

So

do you think I'm an idiot?

I don't know why you don't want it, like why you are like...

Because the Cowboys, to me, have ceased to be an interesting story at this point.

Well, this would be the last time we'd speak of them this way.

That's fine with me.

They are a disaster.

All right, let's move on.

Next up, we had to Duval.

Even in my cocooned, vision-obstructed vantage point deep within the Darnold Hive,

I could still detect enemies surrounding the nest.

The doubters, the know-it-alls, the dementors, milling about, eyeing our home for weaknesses, ready to watch us fall.

Oh, that sounds like a little shit swatting at the hive with a stick.

Oh, what's that now?

Some ass spraying the hive with poison?

Like he was Colt McCoy in a progressive ad?

Nice try, Dillweeds.

This hive was built to withstand battle damage, battle damage like today's three-interception hiccup.

The Vikings overcame their quarterback's mistakes with relentless ball control and a defense that easily had its way with the overmatched Florida man, Mac Jones.

Vikings get four field goals from a guy named Parker Romo and escape with a 12-7 win.

The hive rallies around its king.

It was a bad Darnold game, and

I have,

even as a Darnold fan, I have been saying on the show the last few weeks, he's come down.

He's come down a little bit, and this was the worst game yet.

Queen Bee, bitch.

I am the Queen Bee of the Darnold Hive, but I will admit that Darnold has been more mistake-prone and not been nearly as sharp as he was in September when he was actually showing up on

MVP odds lists and all that stuff.

So, credit to the rest of the Vikings for picking up their quarterback.

And they're really just lucky who they got in this game.

It's a bad Jaguars team that did not have Trevor Lawrence who missed this game with the left shoulder issue.

And we'll see if that's a long-term absence.

And Mac Jones just was not

competitive in this game.

So

the Vikings at one point in this game, and, you know, I don't know where it finished at the end.

It might have even finished in totality, but they had run more plays in Jacksonville territory than the Jags had run in total.

And they were talking, this is late in the third quarter.

So it's not like the Vikings couldn't move the ball against the Jags.

They just couldn't finish in the red zone.

And I think Darnold is going to have to learn that if a team, one thing Jacksonville did well in this game was they said, we are not going to let Justin Jefferson beat us.

And they bracketed him.

And all three of the Darnold interceptions came when he targeted Justin Jefferson.

So Darnold's thinking, I have the best wide receiver in the world.

He'll figure something out.

But if defense is really going to gear up to stop that, you're going to have to figure out how else you could be successful.

So I think it was a potential learning lesson from Darnold, and we'll see how he comes out of this.

The one thing that should be known, Connor, is that

immediately Kevin O'Connell dismissed any notion that Nick Mullins would come into this game or would perhaps be their quarterback going forward.

They're chalking this up to a bad day at the office that they survived.

This is what pisses me off.

And I'm not just saying this to try to get into your good graces again after the Cowboys thing, but I'm saying this because, in all seriousness, if you're a quarterback that starts out bad and then becomes good, you're like Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield, your first two or three games where you struggle, everyone's like, ah, it's just the bad guy that we knew was always bad.

Whereas if you're, you know, Matt Stafford or Tom Brady or any of these guys, Peyton Manning, you're allowed this elongated time where you can slump and you can readjust and your opponents adjust to you and then you can do something different.

And to, you know, for people to talk about a quarterback change after Sam Darnold's throwing to the guy, if he had avoided Justin Jefferson the whole game, what would we have been asking him about after the game?

You know, Justin Jefferson's an alpha, go get it, 50-50 ball wide receiver, and even in double coverage, you're going to throw it to him.

And so, all right, he has two or three bad games in a row, but he's still the reason that this team is here.

I'd also argue, like, one of those interceptions came, you know, at Jacksonville 7 on a 17-place, play 76 yard drive that tells me good things about your quarterback and your offense like the other one came you had the ball for over 42 minutes well yeah justin Justin put this incredible stat into our into our feed here that per

research from ESPN the Vikings ran 39 more plays than the Jaguars the highest played differential in the game of the last two seasons so I like I look at the wider sample size of Sam Darnold and view this year as more of a revelation then you're gonna have a couple games where things didn't go well well.

Let me take a look at this upcoming Viking schedule because now I'm going to have to say it from the other perspective.

It is fair to keep an eye on it now, though, because

he had three turnovers last week, three more today.

He had a fourth interception today that got called back on penalty.

So they got at Titans next week, at Bears, home Cardinals.

So schedule is a little bit soft right now, allows him to kind of find his way.

And on the flip side, yeah, for a team that had the ball, again, over 42 minutes of possession, the Jaguars had the ball near midfield with the chance to win the game.

And Mac Jones just throws this absurd pass,

heaves this absurd pass, and has a miscommunication with his wide receiver who runs a post instead of a go.

And

it leads to like an interception that looks like the defender was the targeted receiver.

And that was in general the the thing that I had forgotten about, which was petulant Mac Jones.

Like, oh, good to see you again.

Storming off the field, all huffing and puffing like a frat boy who just, you know, had his beer bong taken away at homecoming.

It was good to see Mac again.

I'll say that.

But anyway, so the Vikings, very fortunate to escape with the win, and

Darnold, let's keep an eye on him.

Let's see how he bounces back from a very difficult game.

One positive note about their offense.

TJ Hawkinson, second game back from the major knee injury and surgery,

made some plays in this game.

And that's a guy that can help Darnold see himself through this slump because he's not even playing with a brace on, and he was looking athletic and making plays.

So maybe they're just in a bit of an adjustment period with Hawkinson back in the mix.

Let's move up next with Connor Orr.

The Jets travel to the desert.

What could go wrong?

Promise we'll talk more about the Cardinals in a second, but

on ayahuasca, one can see the space between molecules, the colors beyond the spectrum of human consciousness, and feel the healing power of love.

Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, after multiple sessions with the medicine, has seen a bottom-third Iowa-based high school offense circa 1997.

After the Jets were blown out 31-6 by the Cardinals on Sunday, only one possible explanation remains.

Aaron Rodgers never did ayahuasca.

He was smoking mids.

Swag, Nixon, Cabbage, Snickle Fritz, gooch, the kind of STEMI stuff that you get from a dealer named Spider in the back of your Ford Explorer with the broken dome light and can't tell whether it's actual pot or crinkled-up leaves.

And you're not going to say anything to that guy because it's hard to explain a broken nose to mom, especially when she thinks you're at the library studying for a physics test.

Mostly true story.

A game that began in earnest with a powerful James Conner catch and run at the 13-minute mark of the first quarter.

Kind of ended there because, as it looks, the Jets don't really give a shit.

They don't give a shit.

That was like, and

I want to talk about the Cardinals because you're right.

And you've been good at pointing out that, like, just continuing to pile on, not because of your fandom, but it's just, we know that they're not bad.

But this game in particular was coming off of the Texans when such a stunning loss of lack of effort, like

missed tackles, blown assignments.

And, you know, it was unfathomable for a team whose strength at one point was supposed to be its defense.

But again, ask me about the Cardinals because they weren't.

No, I was, my thought I'm watching the game is, can you fire an interim coach?

I mean,

the level of effort was so low.

Right from the beginning, the James Conner touchdown,

where the tackling was so bad, I thought

the game was officially over a little bit later in that half when

the Jets, who never got off the field.

In fact, I I don't know if the Cardinals punted.

If they did, it was late in garbage time when everybody had tuned out, but

they have a pass to Trey McBride on third and about seven.

And Sauce Gardner, who I've been harping on him on this show, has been having a really bad year.

By his standards, a horrendous year.

And at the top of his list, he's failed at coverage in big spots, but he has been one of the worst tacklers in the league.

He goes through an arm tackle.

I think Adam Archoletta for CBS called it out for what it was.

This is one guy wanting it more than the other guy.

McBride races past Sauce, gets the first down.

They go on to score.

And yeah, I think this was two teams.

And we talked about it on Thursday, Connor, that this was, you're going to learn a lot more about one of these teams

or both of these teams, depending how you look at it.

For the Jets, bye-bye.

We'll see you next year, probably in an even lesser form than this, if that's possible.

The Cardinals are a team that's continuing to gel.

And,

you know, if they're not a great team yet, they've at least now graduated to a very good team that could kick the hell out of really bad teams, which is what the New York Jets are.

So the Cardinals right now are the second best team in the NFL on opening drives.

And once they get ahead,

they have this like spicy, fun defense that's just getting after people.

And then Drew Petsing as a play caller, fourth most efficient offense on a play-by-play basis in the NFL this year.

Some of the calls this year were this game were just like, you know, Ben Johnson in Detroit has these, you know, the fun hook and ladder and there's like all this stuff, but Drew Petsing on a down-by-down basis, there were times when the camera was lost on some of the zone read stuff.

I mean, certainly the Jets were lost, and the way that he is able to just sprinkle in Kyler's mobility just a little bit, just to mess you up, you know, that used to be such a crutch for this team, and that's how Kyler would get hurt.

Now it's just this little knife twisting part of their game plan, kind of like Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowls, a little bit, but a little bit turbocharged.

And I just, I love watching this team.

It's so much fun.

I don't know if you seen the final score, by the way.

It was 30 to 60.

31 to 6.

They gained 179 of their 266 receiving yards after the catch.

And that speaks to the play you mentioned, Dan, where it's like they just seem to want it more.

They have

not allowed a touchdown at home in three straight games.

That hasn't happened for the Cardinals since 1926.

This coaching staff has grown this team up quickly.

And I kind of think, in a way, it's the team that the Jets would have wanted to be.

It's the team a lot of teams would want to be right now.

It's just to me, I'm watching certain players, like Buddha Baker, who we knew was good, is playing like an all-pro.

It happens every game.

He's showing up.

I think the best tight end in the league is Trey McBride.

Like, there were real players on this team.

And it happened kind of quietly because they were very inconsistent for the first five, six weeks of the season.

But they are now the team you don't want to deal with.

They are pummeling people.

They're more physical.

I picked them as a wild card as sort of a playful fetish, but it's starting to look now.

I'm going to shift into like, that was smart by me move.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, yeah, I saw that ahead of everyone.

That's what I'm going to do from here on out.

The Jets allowed touchdown drives of 70, 70, 70, and 88 yards before forcing a punt.

This might have been the most one-sided game of the season.

And you could look at maybe the Eagles, Cowboys game.

There were some dog games in the late period, but this was a total, total

ass-kicking.

And we mentioned with the Bears, another team lost with bad coaching, had no plays over 10 yards.

Aaron Rodgers completed only one pass that traveled at least 10 air yards per next-gen stats.

Garrett Wilson and Devontae Adams are on this team.

You have to be.

I was on a Jets text chain after this game, and I was trying to put a little bit in perspective.

It's like when you look what comes ahead for this organization,

they have gone through 13 straight years without making the playoffs, and it feels like the bad times are just about to begin.

And that sucks.

All right.

Yeah.

Anything else on this one?

Kyler looks great, by the way.

Yes.

Total command of the offense.

He did take a hit of the year today where his helmet was shotgunned off his head.

Oh, don't get me started on that either.

Quincy Williams.

I like Quincy Williams, but that was first and 10.

Quincy Williams blitzes off the edge, wipes out Kyler Murray, who holds onto the football.

Williams races down the field 20 yards to celebrate, and it's second and 17, and five plays later, the Cardinals are in the end zone with another touchdown.

And I'm like, this guy, Williams celebrating like they won the Super Bowl tells me everything I need to know that these guys are playing for themselves and for getting a highlight, and there is no team unity at all with the Jets.

But yeah, Kyler did take a lick, but he popped right back up.

He had talked to, there was a lot of talk among the sideline reporters.

It was a discussion point with the Cardinals during the week about Kyler Murray's comfort in this offense.

And it's funny how the Cliff Kingsbury offense was legitimately tailored to him since everything that Kyler had been running since high school.

But this is a different thing, and he is more comfortable as a player than he ever has before.

And I think that's really cool.

Like, it's super unique and something that I certainly didn't see coming when Jonathan Gannon took this job.

All right, let's take a break.

And when we get back, we will finish up the Sunday flagship program.

Heed the call with Dan Hansis and Mark Sessler is on underdog.

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All right, we are back.

We move on

to SoFi Stadium.

Ooh, jaunty.

A wise man once said, his name,

Mark Edward Sesson,

said that Justin Herbert could be the NFL's answer to Michael Jordan.

What, you don't remember the origin story behind the iconic drop?

Football is completely different than basketball.

Time will tell if Herbert ends up having an MJ-like career arc.

Don't scoff.

Mike didn't win his first title until 27.

Herbert is still just 26.

But in the here and now, A healthy and commanding Herbert is doing the football equivalent of dunking from the foul line.

I love the way Justin Herbert's playing right now.

He ran for a touchdown in this one, threw for another, and the Chargers take care of business, winning their third straight game, 27-17 over the Titans.

The Chargers are now 6-3.

They've won 4-5.

And this is a good stat from the AP write-up boys.

They are the fourth team since 1990 and the first since the 2013 Chiefs to allow 20 or fewer points in each of their first nine games.

So, Mark, while Herbert didn't have the biggest statistical game, he is playing tremendous football.

They are running the football well, and the defense week after week is giving a consistent high effort.

Jim Harbo is one of those coaches that does seem to lift all boats.

He really does.

And it kind of makes you wonder, like, why aren't there 16 head coaches like that that have that ability?

Because it really feels like there's only two or three at any time.

I think a big development for the Chargers and Justin Herbert is that, you know, getting over the ankle injury that he had, like him on the ground

weeks in a row, but today too, like is a big factor in this offense.

And I think a big help to Jim Harbaugh.

I mean, if you go back and you look at quarterbacks that Jim Harbaugh liked in the NFL, you know, there was Alex Smith, who is a pocket passer, but there was Kaepernick, who they elevated and took him on a Super Bowl run.

It's like mobility matters, but Justin Herbert added that to his game.

But I think the thing we didn't see coming, because this defense, and we've talked about this, was just such, there was so much money put into a defense that utterly failed under Brandon Staley that it had the pieces.

There's so many similar pieces and they didn't decide to sell their defensive ends, their edge rushers the way they did with their wide receivers this past offseason.

That matters a lot.

I mean, they've got a couple of, like, I just, I think they can, that's why they can play with anyone because they can stop almost any team.

And they're pretty complete and pretty weird and pretty unusual.

And they're sort of a wildcard operation in the AFC.

They are.

And

you mentioned, yeah, Herbert moving really well right now.

That high ankle sprain that really limited him early.

It's clear that that is something he has moved past.

And so, you know,

he has size and speed, and he's slippery, and then has maybe the best arm in the NFL.

And you put that all together, and it's all there.

And now he seems to have structure around him.

I do want to talk about it, Justin.

I know you were watching this game, obviously, as the Titans fan.

The game, the turning point of the game, it's a 21 seconds to play in the first half, and Herbert gets hit in his own end as his arm is coming forward.

The ball comes out, it's scooped up by the Titans, who take it into the end zone.

They rule it a touchdown.

Initially, it's tied at 13.

Roger McCreary ran it back 20 yards, but they go to break and they come back in a replay review, overturn the call to an incomplete pass.

And it was, I don't know, Justin, it was a tricky one.

I don't know if it ends up making the big, you know, if they would have won either way, but

he's so strong.

And I think that factored in, Herbert, that he was going overhand, and then he gets his arm grabbed, but he's still able to use torque to push his arm forward, a kind of sidearm, to get the pass to make it look like enough where an official overturned it.

But it was that close to a tie game, and then you don't know what happens.

Frustrating for a Titans fan, I imagine.

Yeah, and it's what's interesting to me as a Titans fan is this has happened to the Titans once in each of the last three seasons.

There There was the week 18, 2022, Josh Dobbs against Jacksonville to go to the playoffs game.

That one was clearly a forward pass, and they rolled it a fumble.

The Jags return for a touchdown.

Week one of the next season, Derek Carr gets hit, and Kevin Byrd scoops it up, and he's on his way to the end zone when the refs come in signaling, no, no, no, incomplete pass.

They review it.

It is the exact same play as the Josh Dobbs play, but this one's an incomplete pass, no fumble.

I think they both should have been incomplete passes.

Today, the same thing happens happens to the Titans, and it just feels like this is sort of one of those calls that could go 50-50 either way.

It just never goes in favor of the Titans, and that's just a Titan fandom complaint.

But I do think, like, after seeing it multiple times, what was the same thing?

It's a conspiracy.

Well, no, but it's just crazy.

It never goes the Titans' way.

But after seeing it a bunch of times, it felt like every angle we saw, the ref was blocking Herbert's hand at the moment that the ball is released.

So you can't actually ever see how clear of a control he has at the time he loses the ball.

But the refs were asked about it after the game.

Pool reporter, Joe Reedy, interviews the instant replay guy, Mark Butterworth, which is a hilarious name.

Butterworth.

I think I kicked a hornet's nest now.

Tell us about the pool report.

Butterworth says, you know, we were going through angles.

There was an enhanced angle from the broadcast.

We were moving frame by frame.

As his hand was moving forward, he had control and then lost it.

So we overturned it into an incomplete pass.

And if they have an angle that the fans don't see, then you kind of just have to accept it.

I don't necessarily think the Titans win anyway because you say 27-17 final.

It was a 27-10 game.

The Titans score with a few of them.

Can we back the truck up just a little bit here?

Like, can I just say one thing?

Like, the Titans, and Justin,

I don't dislike the Titans more because you like them.

I just want to say that

things that are utterly irrelevant don't involve conspiracies.

Like, conspiracies aren't raped around things that are utterly irrelevant, like the Tennessee Titans.

I'm not saying it's a conspiracy.

It's just like a fan frustration where it always goes against this, like, oh, the lowly Titans, they never get anything to go their way.

Like, their quarterback that they draft is supposed to be talented, and he freaking sucks, and he takes seven sacks behind an offensive line that's makes it.

It's the Tit Music Miracle podcast.

Five times in three games.

All right, I'm done.

You guys can move on.

Justin's like the guy at the party.

You're like, I know what he's going to talk about if I go into that corner and try to get a beer over there.

Like, I know what he's talking about.

I'm not getting out for 10 minutes, 20 minutes.

Big Mayo did throw a couple touchdown passes.

Justin has been an asset to us, man.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

All right, let's head to Sunday night football.

Oh, no.

Wait a minute.

You know, that's why I knew I had a bad draft this week.

We're like, and you're right.

Like, I drafted last, but like, my games were just down in the basement with like a

bunch of the game that was played early this morning here in LA in Germany.

Mark Sessler, finish it up.

Giants and Panthers, vanishing before our eyes, the New York Giants.

Can you throw on them when lodged in deep Germany?

Yes, you can.

Can you run on them if your name is Chuba Hubbard and you're playing like Arnold?

Yes, you can.

Can Daniel Jones get blown up on a doomed flea flicker where two giants are wide open deep as Brian Dayball blows a gasket on the sideline?

Yes, he can.

Can one of the worst defenses in the NFL coax Jones into a hyper-dumb interception that bounces off the helmet of a Jadavian Clowney into enemy hands just before half?

Yes they can.

Will Daniel Jones still do Daniel Jones things to ensure this game goes into overtime minutes before 22 other football games erupt?

Yes he will.

Can the Giants fumble the game away seconds in overtime while Justin wakes and bakes heavily in a Los Angeles apartment courtyard?

Yes they can.

Is the NFL consumed with covering the entire earth, not unlike a post-internet superhighway Genghis Khan?

Yes they are.

Is there a little bit of hope around Bryce Young and the Panthers?

Yes, there is.

Panthers 20.

Giants 17.

Oh, man.

You got a fired up Zesla today.

Stupid game.

Totally.

Giants are a mess.

Giants are brutal.

I'm going to be doing a, in just a couple hours, a live hit on WPIX Channel 11

on the status.

Is this the right national anthem?

Instrumental.

Can't go wrong with instrumental.

Okay, just checking.

And

yeah, this is like the worst day of New York football probably of the century.

So that's going to be an interesting topic.

And the Panthers, you know, they give them this mark.

They got three wins now.

And for a team that has maybe the worst defense in the league and all sorts of issues at quarterback,

back-to-back wins.

Oh, you know, I mean, I think part of it for them is like, can Dave Canalis do what we're asking these other coaches to do with a young quarterback?

And the mission looked over.

And in this game, I thought Bryce Young, I think there's a small thing that matters to me.

And I think, Connor, you mentioned this too

another time.

He's smiling.

He did, like, he got a first down on a run at one point, just like did like the first down thing.

Like, he's having fun.

He's doing what you want your quarterback to do with your team.

And I kind of think it helps that like the Adam Thielens and the Deontay Johnsons of the world, who are probably frustrated veterans might be not on the field.

I really think something about the younger receivers like Xavier Legette, like these guys seem to just work with him better.

That's just a conspiracy theory, but their offense looked good, but Chuba Hubbard, man, that he just signed that huge four-year, I think it was like a $30 something million dollar deal and had the career, he had a career game and was absolutely dominating New York's defense.

And, you know, New York's staple has been destroying quarterbacks.

They couldn't do it today.

They seem lost to me.

They seem really lost.

And yet they did, Connor, you've seen this a thousand times.

They were giants enough to climb back into this just when you were ready, like at halftime, to write off the, I think beat writers in New York are like wondering when and if Daniel Jones gets benched for Drew Locke.

And I thought, I think they thought it would happen and halfway through.

More than the beat writers.

Well, it's just that I think it's kind of like, why do it?

What's the big, he's probably not your quarterback next year, so what are you actually looking at if you're going to do it?

But he came back and like he just did, he does enough to kind of frustrate you because then you see it and then you don't.

But

it was a very giant finish.

At least they got out of overtime quickly because it was like I was watching it.

Tyrone Tracy ensured that.

He fumbled the first snap of overtime.

Yeah, but he's like one of the best things they have.

So that was a mistake.

But like he's, I'd call him a bright spot.

There's this, there's this great meme where it's like your team while everybody else was wisely tanking for Jaden Daniels.

And it's like the, it's like the, hey,

like the Mambo Italiano.

and it's just like Tommy DeVito's father kissing the you know, the agent agent guy, yeah.

Oh my god, that agent guy.

But to Mark's point, I mean, I do think that there is a valid,

unlike the Cowboys, and we've made some kind of arguments for that.

If you're the owner, if you're John Mara, and even though he's already said this about Joe Judge and he said this about,

you know, really a lot of his last few coaches, you know, he said that, you know, that Brian Dable is safe.

So is there there some sort of a purpose in giving Drew Locke a little bit of a runway here?

Because Daniel Jones is just, he's uncomfortable.

He's done.

He's out thunk himself here.

He needs to be somewhere else.

And, you know, if you are going to bring this coaching staff back, is there at least some reason to

give some.

And there's seven games left, and there's a whole locker room of guys, and they're trying to play with some sense of

comport themselves, with some sense of dignity and professionalism, and the quarterback's not getting the job done.

Quarterback stinks.

No, that flea flicker play was,

I think you could see it because like the receivers, you know, were frustrated.

If you're on YouTube, we're playing it right now.

And like, you've got two wide open players downfield.

Like, it's what you're asking for.

And he couldn't process and move and get it done quick enough.

He looks like

a broken quarterback who's not seeing the field.

And I just don't know, like, if you're Brian Dable,

even if you have nothing to play for or whatever, other than a draft pick, that you can't to keep running that guy out there, just it's bad optics.

And I just, I expect, what do they, do we have sound on Dable out of this game?

Let's hear what he said about the quarterback situation.

Yeah, I'll say, Jordan, obviously we're not where we want to be.

We'll go back.

We'll have our bye week.

We'll evaluate things in bye week, do the things we need to do.

We'll practice a couple days next week and

evaluate everything.

Oh, that sounds like Drew Locke is the quarterback when you come back from the bye, but I'll be surprised if I'm wrong on that.

And then he announced that like on a stage of Coachella, like with the like, did you hear like the no rules?

It's Germany.

With the acoustics on that?

It's like if he's talking to a million people.

Speaking of Germany, how about Sean Hockey?

Shout out.

His father, once upon a time, did a penalty call in Spanish.

I guess the game was in Mexico, I'd guess.

This is

a man that's after the heart of the people of Alian Stadium.

Ferstad Angriff.

Oh!

Funst Jatz Grafen.

It's by the center.

It's third down.

Oh, look at Sean Hocker.

Oh, we got

showing up.

All right.

Good job, Sean.

It's not an easy language.

Doesn't sound like it anyway.

Anything else on this one, Mark?

No, but I took German in

sixth grade.

They kind of cycled you through Spanish, French, and German.

And I was largely a disaster at all three.

Maybe save Spanish, but like I had a very harsh

German woman that like would, what they do is like, there'd be like 25 scared kids in the class, and she'd just say, like, say shirt in German.

And like, I'm like, the only word that I know is pantalones.

Like, it's stuck in my mind.

And like, like, and she's cycling through, and like, 18 kids, she's like, Marik, say pants.

And I was like, pantalones.

And she's like, bang, that kid knows what he's doing.

I was like, oh.

So it's like, you know, sometimes it works.

Your school district just cycled you through different languages?

Well, in their minds.

You just choose one, and that's the one that you study through.

No, in their minds,

it was impossible.

Well, it was a chore.

It wasn't, I don't think anyone, I didn't meet anyone that enjoyed it, but like

in their minds, it was like you get to test run

the three languages that we're offering.

And then choose for the next year, I think, like, or the second semester what you do.

Yeah.

Which language spoke to you, as it were.

Well, no,

French was a complete puzzle.

German, like I said, I knew one word.

So I went Spanish, and

I'd say I survived with some of my lowest grades.

All right, throw us to the Sunday night game with a sentence in Spanish.

Mark Sessler.

A como esta, Lions de Detroit, a Texans de Houston.

We bien, we bien.

I do.

Ante de mingo noche.

Oh,

Sunday

Do you believe in teams of destiny?

I don't know.

I'd say no.

But then I watched the Detroit Lions on Sunday night football down 23-7 at halftime.

Jared Goff throwing the ball everywhere but to his fellow teammates.

Five interceptions by midway through the third quarter.

Just, you know, not going to be one of those nights for the Lions.

And you you try to get better next week no no not at all in fact the lions outscore the texans 19-0 in the second half and get two bomb field goals each so close to the uprights that you could see the shadow cast of the ball and they each go through the game tire from 58 the game winner from 52 lions 26 texans 23 and sestog there's two ways to look at it.

Houston gagging in

an epic manner in their building in a game they kind of had to have in certain ways if you wanted to take them seriously.

But we should probably start with the Lions, a team that always seems to find a way under Dan Campbell.

And they do it, unlike the Chiefs, Mark.

They do it with some pizzazz and flair that's a little bit different.

They really do.

And it was another example that they can win any type of game because a five-interception nightmare for almost any team in the league would be a complete unplugging of what you hoped you would accomplish that night.

Our friend Bill Barnwell noted that Goff, Jared Goff, had four incompletions last week, three in completions the week before that, three the week before that, and zero in completions in week four.

And so the Lions were winning with this incredible precision coming from the figure of Jared Goff.

And tonight, to have a complete meltdown, I also think it's like not all five interception games in the rare are created equal.

Like, they were still down 10 points when he threw his fifth interception.

And it's always felt like you've got to find a way to make more

good of those interceptions for the Texans.

The defense fell apart in the second half.

And Detroit,

we talked about the Chiefs being inevitable.

It feels that way with Detroit.

It's like, I just never thought they were out of it no matter what mistakes occurred.

And at the end, Jared Goff came up to Dan Campbell and like put his arm around him and like he talked to him for a while.

And I really want to know what that conversation was about because this team just seems to believe in each other to such an extent.

Like I spent the most of the second half wondering like what we'll talk about during Super Bowl week when we talk about the Detroit Lions.

My curiosity here is the fact that, like, I don't know if you remember when the Rams played the Patriots in the Super Bowl back in 2018 and there was all that discussion about whether Goff could handle the moment.

Bill Belichick comes out with that ridiculous kind of like X-style defense that completely just hacks the Rams in pieces and then Goff really couldn't do anything.

What did D'Amico Ryans, it was a lot of zone coverage, what did D'Amico Ryans put on tape that totally freaked Jared Goff out?

Because, you know, towards the end of the game, it was just, you know, he had guys one-on-one and he was just under throwing balls.

But earlier in that game, what were the components of this zone that really messed with him?

And how does that factor in towards the end of the the season?

Like, will the Lions see more and more and more of what D'Amico Ryans put on tape this week?

This game was hammered drunk, by the way, in the second half.

I just want to go through the, you look at the

all-play summary

of the third quarter.

Interception, first play of the third quarter by C.J.

Stroud.

Lions take over, interception on the third play of that drive.

The Texans take over.

They go three plays, one yard, and punt.

The Lions get that.

They go three plays, 44 yards, score a touchdown to make it 23-13.

Texans get the ball back, interception on the fifth play of the drive.

Lions get the ball back, second play of the drive, interception.

And then, you know.

The game ends, you know, after some punts and another Lions field goal and another Lions touchdown, and all of a sudden it's 23-23, and then you have a decision that needs to be made by D'Amico Ryans where the ball is at the 40-yard line of the Lions in the final minutes, and it's fourth down after another suspect non-call of a potential pass interference instead of first and 10

in Lions territory.

The Texans are facing fourth down and long with the decision to go for a 58-yarder.

It is missed badly, and that sets the stage for the Lions to work down the field, move 18 yards, and then get another field goal from Bates.

So, just like a tough decision there.

Did anybody have an issue with the decision to attempt the long field goal there, or should they have punted?

According to the bots, the play there was either to go for it or punt it.

Field goal was the lowest winning percentage move there, but that's the one Houston chose.

I don't have a problem with it when you consider their second half was such a roving disaster.

Interception, punt, interception, punt, punt, punt.

And then the misfield goal.

They can't, what they wanted to do, they couldn't do.

Like Joe Mixon, I thought, was a huge key to this game, and he was completely defunct tonight.

Their running game couldn't move at all.

So in that situation, when you have a chance to put up points, I'm not one of these people where it's like, you got to go for it on fourth down every single time.

It was like maybe Fairbairn might have been the one guy you can rely on in that situation because CJ Stroud.

Your defense has five interceptions in this game, right?

So that is the other move.

You don't have to go for it.

You could try to pin them deep and then ask your defense, Connor, to make one more big stop.

And especially if you're D'Amico Ryans, you really have a couple clubs in your bag here because as a former defensive player, you could spin that as, hey, I had faith in my guys.

I like the way that we were playing, yada, yada.

But to Mark's point,

I've been surprised at how many coaches that I've talked to that, that, you know, it's part of the calculus.

Like, how is my kicker feeling on the sidelines?

Like, how have I observed him throughout the game?

How have I observed my quarterback?

And, you know, it's not really like, well, it sounds crazy.

It's like, yeah, I could pick my kicker in favor of my quarterback right now.

And I could, you know, that's a totally fine thing to do.

So I didn't have a problem with it necessarily, but, you know, you hate to see a game fail because of like a 58-yard field goal attempt, even though you're indoors.

So it's excusable.

Mark, I got got to say that, you know, I think we both, you're a big fan of Stroud last year, and

I thought very highly of Stroud entering the season.

I thought he was a real MVP candidate.

And

I understand he's had obstacles with injuries to the wide receiver group, but I mean, I expected more from him in this game.

There was a, I thought the big play of this game, it was

after

they were trading the interceptions back and forth to start the third quarter.

It's 23-13,

and

you have C.J.

Stroud rolls to his right, and I believe his tankdale gets, it's a busted coverage.

He's by himself.

He's just waiting for the ball for what would have been a huge touchdown.

And instead, he waits too long, C.J.

Stroud, and then underthrows him, and it's intercepted, leads to a touchback.

That's like, that was a gimme touchdown.

And, you know, you have to make that play.

And when you're playing a big-time team like the Lions are, you have to be the guy who makes the plays.

And I thought that play in particular is when I, in my, as, as not a Texans fan, but I could see the way that the building was groaning at that point.

It's like, oh man, are we going to blow this game?

And sure enough, they did.

That was a huge misfire by Stroud in a critical point.

Yeah, like that, you're right.

This was, there's two stories here, and that's the other one.

And it's been kind of weeks in a row with Stroud where there's these moments where it, I don't know what to call it, because if we, if he's already achieved what he achieved last year, like, is he regressing?

I tend to think that, like, there's just so much more tape on Stroud.

That, to your point about Goff, Connor, that, like, defenses have seen things that they're picking up on.

And it's not just the injuries, because look, there was no Aiden Hutchinson for Detroit.

Zadarius Smith is on the sideline.

Like, you've taken away their pass-rush in theory outside of the fact that their defensive tackles against Houston's interior line is not a good matchup for Houston.

But there were just missed passes.

And

to go out and score no points in the second half, like there's a couple moments there.

Like, if CJ Stroud is what I was saying he was going into the season, like, no question he puts up points.

No question he finds a way on critical third downs to convert.

And it didn't happen tonight.

Just to underline a Connor, if he hits that throw, it's 30 to 13 if you make the

PAT with 8.55 to go in the third quarter.

Yeah.

And to Mark's point, this is not just a short-term trend, right?

Like after the team waxed the Patriots, his quarterback ratings in subsequent games have been 58.8 against Green Bay, 99.5 against the Colts and a narrow three-point win over a not-great Colts team, 59.2 against the Jets, and then tonight is 64.

So, I mean, he's not playing anywhere near the standard that he set for himself last year.

All right.

So, the Lions improved 8-1, as we said.

The Texans fall to 6-4.

Up next for the Lions, they got home jags at Colts, home Bears.

So, they, you know, they have one game lead in that division over Minnesota, and they can continue to stack wins.

And congratulations to Lions fans.

You have a fun-ass team to watch.

And thank you to everybody for checking out the flagship program in week 10.

Mark, I feel like we covered the league with both vigor and clarity.

Yeah, those two words I would use.

And,

you know, with a bit of fun as well, Connor and Justin make this an experience unlike any other.

And the show is becoming our show.

And it's because of not only you and me, Dan, and especially your courage and valor, but also the feats of Justin and Connor.

Whenever you try to set me up, I end up talking for about a minute and a half too long.

You know what it is?

It's always that it's the last part of the statement where we just lay out and let you try to bring the plane in for a landing that I live for.

It doesn't land.

It lands like

it lands in like East Mariches Bay.

Remember that disaster way back when?

Absolutely, Mark.

Absolutely.

All right.

Thanks, everybody, for watching and listening.

Reminder, please subscribe on YouTube.

We're trying to get to that big number, 48.4.

We're going to work there surely, slowly but surely, but we need your help.

And check us out Monday night.

Mark and I will be back with Justin on the recap of Monday Night Football, a game between who, Mark?

The Rams and the Dolphins.

Ah, I thought I had you.

All right, make sure you're there.

You did too.

Connor, thank you, buddy.

See you on Wednesday.

Until next time, heed the call.

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