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The Heed the Call Podcast.

Wrecked their dad's friend's car and lip-synced in a parade.

Happens.

Basic Tuesday.

Or Thursday.

Welcome to Heed the Call with Dan Hansis and Mark Sessler.

The week six preview.

Heyo

and Sess Dog.

We, you know, sometimes I'll remember that we've been doing this for a while.

And when you do the job for a long time, you start to

understand the heartbeat of a league, right?

I would say we've got our hand on the pulse of the league, and that's been true for over a decade, but even it's even truer now.

We talked about last Thursday how week five is when things start to get real, and sure enough, coming out of week five, multiple teams like just flipped out.

Panic levers of different sizes flipped.

We had a head coach firing, of course.

We learned on Thursday morning that an OC was booted.

Multiple quarterback changes made.

If there was an expression, like that everyone shared, a collective expression to be like, I'm going to, I'm going to, I got to do something.

Yes.

I mean, yeah, people respond to pressure differently.

I know for me that my response to pressure could be positive.

It also could be very negative depending on the circumstance.

And, you know, most of those things that you mentioned happen to the Jets.

I mean, most of those things that you mentioned, I understand.

enjoyed it.

Two of those things, yes.

Yeah, it's like, well, the most, you know, Titanic versions of those things happen to your team, and it seems to happen to that team a lot.

Yeah.

But this is the time where I think these inflection points, you start to see people melt.

People that looked really strong and smart in the summer start to be exposed.

And I think that human process is fascinating.

And that's what I love the most, just to see the meltdowns and everything starts to go very.

I enjoy the human process.

It allows me to feel closer as a humanoid.

Look, you know, to pull back

experiencing enjoyment.

We were four minutes removed from before the show, you going on like a five-minute rant about dogs on surfboards.

So I'm doing the best I can.

I mean, enough.

Like, I love dogs.

I don't doubt that.

Pause off the surfboard.

Speaking of October, at Underdog, we call it Boost Tober.

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Without further ado, let's welcome in

our regular Thursday friends.

It is Jordan Rodriguez of the Athletic.

It is Michael Sean Dugar of The Athletic.

It was Jordan who I said before the show.

She said she was a little under the weather.

The Rams are on bye week.

You know, Ferris Bueller is in the news lately.

It felt like a chance for Jordan to maybe try to get out of work so she could go surfing with her dog in Venice.

I don't know.

I just pieced it together.

Yes or no, Jordan?

No, but Dan, based on how the pre-taping went today, I'm really actually excited to experience the journey you're about to take us on today.

What's up, Mike?

How's it going?

Speaking of panic, I guess, by the time this is out, my team will either be panicking or feeling good.

We're recording this before they host the Niners tonight.

That's true.

And of course, tonight, Sess Dog and I will have the TNF recap.

And yeah, that is, it is good, though, right?

Mike, like you, you don't want to say that to the people that you're connected to on the teams because you have relationships and all that.

But chaos is good for your gig.

Oh, it's great.

Yeah, they should either go 0-17 or 17-0.

Which one doesn't really matter for my purposes?

You know, those subscriptions.

The views will come.

Real question to the beat reporters.

Would you rather your team go 10 and 7 and get bounced out in the wild card round in a forgettable game or go 2-15 full-on dumpster fire and all the intrigue that naturally goes with that.

Oh, I explicitly told a player the latter one year.

He asked me, this was before week one.

He was like, well, how do you think, how good do you think we're going to be?

And I said, I think you'll go like 10 and 6, which I think they did.

But I said, hey, man,

honestly, I forget where the Super Bowl was.

This was 2018, so I think Atlanta.

I was like, hey, man, I could use a free trip to Atlanta.

So I think you guys should either go 16 and 0 or like just bomb.

you know, 8 and 8 is like the worst shit ever.

I told him, legitimately.

So yeah, I'm very fine admitting that, yes, I would rather the extreme on either end than just a regular old

7 and 10 or 10 and 7.

Are you like the old school beat writers, though, that just kind of hope the team doesn't make the playoffs so that you're not working like an extra three or four weeks?

Like you can just stop having to deal with the team?

I live to work.

I was going to say, Jordan, I already know Jordan is different.

Jordan feels her feelings so much that she couldn't stand the thought of all the people in the building suffering through a truly wretched season.

So you don't want that.

They're all so nice.

They care.

And I care about them.

You know, that whole gag.

Gag.

I've never covered a title game.

So I would want to check that box.

And obviously the Super Bowl, too, selfishly.

So yeah, no, I'm cool working all the way to February, whatever.

I'm cool with that.

I don't know if it'll happen this year, but I am cool with it if it does happen.

Respect the honesty.

Jordan, I'm right, aren't I hate you so much right now.

All right.

All right, we have a lot to get to.

So let's dig in.

There are,

let's see, there are four teams on bye this week: the Chiefs, Rams, as we said, Dolphins, and Vikings.

So let's dive in, as we always do with the primetime games.

We'll start with Sunday night football.

The Cincinnati Bengals checking in at number 14 in the inaugural HTC power rankings.

Some people said way too high for a 1-4 team.

Well, maybe we believe.

They go to the Meadowlands in prime time to face the Giants, a Giants team that, you know, if things broke a little bit different, they could be with the commanders atop the NFC East.

But instead, they're 2-3, yet to win a game at home.

And Mark,

if we've been waiting.

And waiting and waiting all day for Sunday night, but also for the Cincinnati Bengals to go, it's now or never time.

Now or never.

It is.

And

I think in our power rankings on Wednesday, I put the Bengals at like ninth or something because I really believe that their offense alone could power them down the street for the rest of this season to double-digit wins.

But it has to happen right here.

What do you mean street?

Well, the street of the season.

If it were, you know, if the way they do those graphics were like all the quarterbacks.

That was a new analogy.

I wasn't familiar with that one.

But now,

I cooked that up out of nowhere there.

But

here's the one thing I think that is a problem because the Giants played their best game on offense that I've seen in a long time last week.

And it was that, but it was also the way that Seattle, and you were there, Mike, but Seattle's offensive line crumbled against that pass rush.

The Giants lead the league in sacks.

When they are cooking, they're very dangerous.

And Amarius Mims carted off last week for the Bengals.

Rookie, first-round lineman, Trent Brown is out.

And I just worry a little bit if you're going to find a way to neutralize Joe Burrow, it's the mismatch with this defensive line versus Cincinnati's offensive line.

That said, I feel like Burrow is like an MVP quarterback right now.

He's just on a team with a bad record.

Like, I kind of have intense trust that Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are going to continue to dominate teams.

I'll leave it there.

It's crazy how well he's playing compare and to the point where, so he's fifth in EPA per drop back right now he's playing at you know among consideration for the way too early mvp conversation but it's still not lifting this team because the defense is that bad and it's hard to even wrap your head around the discrepancy between how well joe burrows is playing and the gap uh and sort of the the lead and weight that this defense is around this team's ankles This kind of does it for me when I was looking, how could I describe this?

How could I, well, it's actually pretty simple.

They've scored 33 points or more in their last three games, and they've only won one of those games because the defense is that bad.

Mark,

he teed you up there when asking what street isn't the Super Bowl in New Orleans?

Obvious Bourbon Street answer.

Oh, yeah, there we go.

There, yeah, you're right.

How did I miss that?

Well, I was stuck in my own world analogy space there, so you're right.

You're building roads, Mark.

Yeah, well,

I was waiting for you to just say that Joe Burrow is going to lead them down Bourbon Street.

I was perfect.

So close.

Yeah, no, it's next time, though.

I believe next time.

I do.

I believe in you.

Yeah, watching the Giants up close, that was wild.

Darius Slayton looked like Randy Moss against the Seahawks secondary.

That was pretty nuts.

Some guy named Tyrone Tracy Jr.

looked amazing.

I don't want to call him some guy.

He's a rook, but I really didn't know much about him before last Sunday.

And all of a sudden, he's just galloping through the defense.

I do think that...

I do think the Giants are going to lose

in part because we were talking about with Joe Burrow and their offense.

Like, it is pretty crazy.

It was also interesting to kind of see a lot of the coverage from the Bengals side of things this week.

It's a lot of people on Mark's side there.

It was like, yeah, the defense stinks, but they got Joe Burrow.

But the problem with that is in the long term is your margin for error when you dug a hole this deep is like really thin.

And as we saw in that Ravens game, just one mistake and you're cooked.

Like, that defense is so bad, they basically on offense have to be perfect.

And that's just hard to ask of any team, even one with a quarterback playing as well as Joe is and Jamar Chase just running wild through defenses.

So I do think, I don't think they're cooked for like a one in four team.

I have a little faith.

But asking a quarterback to be perfect and asking an offense to be perfect, asking your special teams to be perfect as well as what you do when your defense stinks.

We saw how that backfire for Cincinnati, too.

That's just really, really tough.

And it's a shame because if there's like a selfishly, I would like to see them in the playoffs team, it's the Bengals right now because they'll probably score like 40 points, you know, in the wild card round or something like that.

They're really fun right now.

Yeah, that,

and

I don't know.

It's like I want to feel, I want to bang the table for the Bengals and be like, yes, they've been in this position before.

We know that.

They are slow starters and then they come on strong.

And this is exactly the type of game where they start to stack wins.

And that's why I felt so confident last week that they were going to show up and ball out, which they did, but then they couldn't close.

I think the Giants, for all their

success against the Seahawks, and that surprised all of us.

I feel like Cincinnati is going to be in a place now where the urgency is just going to be off the charts.

Now, is it possible that the Giants are just better than we realized and playing at home that there's a little bump there?

And maybe Tracy is more than a one-hit wonder.

And all of a sudden, that, once again, that defensive line is just wreaking havoc.

I think that's in play.

So I'm kind of, I'm torn on this game where, like, one part of me is like, oh, yeah, Cincinnati's going to roll and they're going to kind of start getting things together.

But, Jordan, there's a chance here the Giants end up really surprising people and hanging around, especially, let's give Danny Dimes some flowers from where he was ahead of week one and after the disastrous week one to where he is now.

He's running the offense in a professional way.

Yeah, he's like the living embodiment of that facial expression you make when you are kind of like begrudgingly impressed with somebody.

That's kind of facial for our YouTube listeners.

I kind of look like a thumb when I do that.

So maybe you don't want people to watch that.

I don't know that the Bengals are going to get a bunch of pressure on him either.

I mean, they're not converting even a medium-sized pressure rate into sacks.

You can really run the ball against this Bengals defense as well.

It's like 151 rush yards allowed per game and a 47% success rate, which means like if you put a ball in a ball carrier's hand, half the time he's going to have a successful rushing play against this Bengals defense.

And so all of those things go hand in hand to creating a safe environment for the quarterback.

And so I think that Danny Dimes is going to, this kind of could be a confidence-building game, particularly with the caliber that we believe the opponent should be.

There's a real potential here that he, again, has a clean game in a safe,

I sound like, oh, be safe, you know, in a safe environment relative to the poor caliber of defense, because I just don't think he's going to get hassled very much.

And this is the best offensive line that Daniel Jones has played behind.

There's just no question about that.

That's just not been the case for his entire career.

And so that matches up well with the Bengals.

It sounds like Malik Neighbors is on the mend.

That would be a huge factor.

But even without him, Jones made the most of their weapons.

You mentioned Tracy and it just like something about this Giants team, like Dan Mayold, like Berserker teams, where it's like they're going to win like eight games, but they're going to screw some people's seasons up.

And this would be a prime spot for that.

Yes, it could be.

I mean, if they get to three and three in a primetime win, there's going to be a lot of juice in that building.

And one last thing about Danny Dimes, because he's like one of the most glowing examples of this.

The Football cognacente

does not like to be wrong.

And the football, you know, they have always had Jones in their sight line, in the crosshairs.

And

if he, after getting that, you know, that hot run of play that got him the big contract that everybody laughed at, if he gets things going here this season again, people are going to have to once again acknowledge that maybe he's not as terrible as he's been portrayed at times.

Yeah, but then the Giants will sign him to like an even bigger contract and that will go completely south.

The Giants front office so badly, desperately, deeply did not want to be wrong about this guy that they went out and got the one receiver who could raise his floor to the level that makes them look more right about this.

As long as it works, it doesn't matter.

All right, let's move to Monday night football.

And here we are.

The Buffalo Bills, number nine in the HDC power rankings, travel to the Meadowlands, back-to-back primetam games in East Rutherford to face the Jets.

Obviously, the Jets in a ton of turmoil.

They came back from London.

They fired the head coach.

And again, don't forget, Aaron Rodgers never lies.

Aaron Rodgers would never be dishonest with you.

Aaron Rodgers had nothing to do with the dismissal of the head coach that he clearly hated.

Sound?

I resent any of those accusations because they're patently false.

And

it's interesting the amount of power that people think that I have,

which I don't.

But

I love Robert and it was

one of those days yesterday.

By the way, just I was having a conversation with my dad last night.

Good combo, nice, tightly contested, vintage Yankee playoff win.

And then we pivot to Jet Talk.

Nice conversation there.

And we were just like piecing together the timeline.

The fact that Woody Johnson acknowledged and aaron rodgers acknowledged that there was a phone call the night before the firing and aaron rodgers said he was just asking him about his ankle and aaron was just saying you know i it's i'll play better coat uh skip and all this stuff That phone call obviously was Woody Johnson being like, hey, I think I'm going to fire the coach.

What do you think?

And Rodgers being like, yeah, okay, that's cool with me.

Then the firing happens.

I will not believe otherwise.

And they make another move, announced that now Nathaniel Hackett, which, Jordan, this is interesting to me because everyone has long connected Rodgers and Hackett and Rodgers protecting Hackett.

He has been demoted.

Todd Downing

has now taken over.

He was the passing game coordinator.

He is now

the play caller.

Hackett is still the OC, but I'm not sure what his role is on this team anymore.

What would you say?

You do here.

But he's in the building, but no longer calling plays.

Obviously, interesting wrinkle there as well.

Yeah, and two things are true here.

This was a change that needed to be made, and probably more dramatic of a change has been needed in regards to Nathaniel Hackett.

This is that's a truth that this move had to be made.

It was reported that Rob Salo was considering making the more dramatic decision revolving around Nathaniel Hackett earlier this week, right before he did get fired.

It's also true that this is the type of move that you make as a front office if you are trying to make it, make sure that Jeff Ulbricht gets a little bit of a bump from the powers that be.

Hey, you're making this decision.

You have the power, the autonomy to make this decision.

And it appeases.

parts of the fan base that are concerned that Aaron Rodgers has too much power.

It also moves the onus off of Aaron Rodgers a little bit.

Like, I'm cool.

I'm cool with this and I had nothing to do with this other stuff.

And look how cool with this I am.

Because,

you know, it's just, it's, it's all of those things are true at the same time but this was something that had to happen of all of this mess that is happening with the Jets right now that is

I don't know if Todd Downing is going to be the right guy for this but moving Nathaniel Hackett reassigning him in some way was something that had to happen I mean the one thing I'd say about the Jets it's like that you know all the bubbling up and like looking at this thing from like a bigger from the way that you and your your father Dan spoke very gravely and factually about the whole thing I can only imagine how that conversation went down but um

like

this should have been done months ago.

Like, you didn't believe in this coach going into the season.

There's all this chaos.

And now it's like you got to go in your home stadium on Monday night, deal with the bills on what is a short week because all these chairs on the Titanic have been shuffled around and everyone's doing new things.

And there's no evidence that Todd Downing is going to come in here and save the day.

To me, it just feels like utter chaos unraveling before our eyes.

And while I do like to see it, I don't like to see it for your team, Dan, because it's the 18 times it's happened.

But the number one thing that doesn't change is each of these Jets games I'm watching, and forget the play calls and all this stuff.

You can correct this, but the offensive line is allowing Aaron Rodgers to get destroyed.

There's the clip of him kind of like crawling around like a dog or a pet

during the London game.

And it's like, what's to prevent that from happening week after week?

And Buffalo's, like, I just think Buffalo's, like, how long does Aaron Rodgers last?

Like, in the middle of all this other stuff?

Yeah, that's a real real question because I don't think the off-pass blocking has been terrible, but it's just that Rodgers has to pass so much because the running game has been an abomination so far.

I thought you were going to say the number one thing that doesn't change with the Jets is ownership, and that's why they stay in the middle of the middle.

Well,

that goes without saying, but that is a major, that's like having, you know,

a dictator at the top.

I don't like that.

But the Bills, Mike, are...

I don't think we're getting the Bills at a time where they're fearsome.

And I think the Bills are highly vulnerable themselves right now.

You know, some scary stuff came out of that game besides the concussion potentially that they used smelling salts to snap Josh Allen out of.

That game,

the loss to Houston, he starts one for nine for 24 yards.

This per PFF, he was under pressure, 15 dropbacks, and 13 attempts under pressure, zero completions, two turnover-worthy plays.

And the last thing I'll say in terms of a setup here, Mike, is they're wide receivers,

three catches in that game for 76 yards.

This offense seems out of sorts.

Yeah, that whole everybody eats thing is quickly dying off, which was very predictable.

I think we've talked about this on here before.

I do want to say that Aaron Rodgers clip was really funny because it reminds me that

I generally don't believe people if they use words like categorically deny

and patently false.

Just something about something gets my ears perking up.

I'm like, you're probably lying.

Right, do like, do like an archive search of all the times that was used and then see the figures in history that have used them.

Like Richard Nixon and various other liars of society.

Nixon was honest.

I don't know where you're going with that.

Yeah, you categorically denied something.

I'm like, yep, you did it.

Whatever it is.

It probably doesn't.

It doesn't matter

what the thing is.

I also got a kick out of Aaron Rodgers

downplaying the level of power he has.

I just watched the first episode of that new Netflix talk about the NBA starting five.

And Rich Paul essentially, you know, Rich Paul, LeBron's guy, basically does the same thing in the opening.

He's like, yeah, man, everyone just thinks LeBron controls everything.

And he takes this dramatic pause and he's like, that's not true.

And the fan is like, all right, Rich.

Sure, buddy.

Sure, buddy.

Sure, that's not true.

But sorry, to spin it back to the Bills, like you were talking about, Dan.

Yeah, I've been concerned about this whole we don't have a wide receiver one thing.

I think we talked about this in the season preview.

I'm worried about that with the Packers as well.

I just don't believe in not having someone, whether tight end or receiver, that dictates coverage.

I just believe that's not sustainable long term.

And that's not to mention injuries.

Like even if they were healthy, I wouldn't believe in it, but now you guys should cure her.

And I just don't, I don't believe in that model.

I get why they were maybe like, oh, let's get rid of Diggs.

Like, that's fine.

But like outside of your Jets, Dan, I think the Bills are the team who should be blowing up the Raiders.

Like, yo, how's Devontae Adams' hamstring?

You know, will the flight to Buffalo make him feel better?

You know, and the answer is probably yes.

They should be blowing up their phone to make that happen.

Can you imagine that world where like it's Monday night and somehow this happened and like Devontae Adams is on the Bills and not the Jets?

It's like, can things get any more dark mirror for the New York Jets?

It can always get worse, I think.

It can always get worse.

And all things.

But hey, that's a great point that you guys make on the receivers.

This is the same coaching family of defense.

I will say actually a positive for the Jets here is that this is the same coaching family that just totally wrangled the Bills last week, D'Amico Ryan's defense.

And then Ulbrich comes from this same coaching family.

Bob Sala came from that coaching family.

This would have been a great matchup for Bob Sala as a defensive coach

because they don't,

teams are showing you they don't respect.

Buffalo's receivers.

They're playing them super tight.

They're forcing Josh Allen to throw to them.

They're playing the Texans kind of rushed for a lot with a spy.

So like that player's assignment was dictated on whether or not

Josh Allen went on the move or not.

And then they blitzed a little bit, but they covered like really sticky behind it.

And so, even though Josh Allen has been historically good against the Blitz, they doing this basically said, like, we don't give a shit about your receivers.

So, this is the league sort of telling the Bills and these defenses who can have the, they do have the capability of playing like this, which the Jets defense does have the capability of playing like this.

This is the message that they're sending.

And it certainly is a blueprint against the Bills as this offense is currently constructed.

Sauce Gardner, make a play.

Okay, bud?

Just make a play because your team desperately needs you to be an impact defender beyond just the coverage.

And final thought, you mentioned the NBA show you're watching.

I recently watched, binged the Mr.

McMahon documentary about Vince McMahon on Netflix, which is actually.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah.

And, you know, there's a famous all-time moment of backstabbery in professional wrestling called the Montreal Screw Job, where Bret Hart was told he had to drop the strap because he was going to WCW, but he didn't want to lose the belt when he was in Canada because he's a hero up there.

So,

but Vince, it was Survivor Series and he wanted it to happen there.

So, Vince McMahon concocts this plan to basically turn the match without Bret Hart knowing and have him tap out on the sharpshooter, his move, and have Shawn Michaels get him to submit.

And it was like a big drama

and led to changes in professional wrestling.

But the whole thing about that, after it goes down, and they have the cameras there, and this is going to connect to the Jet situation,

that at the end of it, to pull off the Montreal screwjob, Vince McMahon and his cronies needed to have their story straight.

And so Vince decided, I'll be the fall guy, and I'll deal with Brett.

And Sean Michaels, who got the title out of that, he had to look at...

He had to look Brett Hart in the eyes backstage and say, I had no idea this was happening.

And everyone knew that Sean Michaels knew, but he had to, for the story, say, I didn't know.

I have no idea what just happened.

That's Aaron Rodgers.

He's Shawn Michaels.

Robert Sah is Bret Hart.

And Vince McMahon is Woody Johnson.

History, man.

It repeats itself in different ways.

Let's take a break, and we'll be right back with the games we can't wait to watch.

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Fall is here.

So it's time to step up your wardrobe.

Mark, I know you got a trusty pal, Levi, the big old jacket in the rotation.

But have you figured out the rest of your fall attire?

Well, yeah, actually, Dan, I basically built my entire wardrobe out of true classic apparel apparel because true classic clothes, they actually fit, not too big, not too tight, shirts that accentuate your best features.

I've got plenty of them with a perfect fit, snug in the arms and chest with just the right amount of room in the midsection and they are versatile enough for everything I have going on this fall Dan.

That's unbelievable.

Premium clothes with a tailored fit and an affordable price.

We're talking t-shirts.

waffle hoodies, jeans, some long-sleeve Henleys, love the Henley, button-ups and more.

And I love the active wear too.

With moisture wicking material, it dries quickly and it has odor control.

Mark, odor control.

Yeah, well, thank God for that, Dan.

I'm sure you know that TrueClassic comes with a 100% perfect fit guarantee.

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Absolutely, Mark, because, like I said, fall is here, so it's time to step up your game right now.

You can unlock big savings when you bundle packs.

Just go to our exclusive link at trueclassic.com slash HTC to save.

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Shop now and elevate your wardrobe today.

Coming up, we're previewing Ravens at Commanders.

This is the game of the week, and we're expecting a lot of points, which makes it perfect for building a pick'em entry on Underdog.

Just download the Underdog app, sign up with the code HTC, our show, and receive up to $1,000 in bonus cash for our U.S.

audience only.

All right, we are back.

Before we get into the games, you can't wait to watch.

Money Mike Dugar, we've talked about it.

We need, we need you to hit on

these predictions.

It's for the brand.

And

last week, I believe you had.

What did we have for Money Mike last week, Justin?

We got two Money Mike tips last week: Bills minus one and Josh Allen for MVP.

Oof, oof.

I had a bad week.

And you know what, Mike, I got to tell you, and you know, I love you, but it's the show, and we got to protect the show.

I'm going to have to hit you with the Sting drop penalty for this.

I love Sting.

I love Sting.

I wish Sting.

Oh, man.

Yeah, I had a rough week.

A rough week.

That's all right, though, because he lived to fight another week.

That's all.

All right.

I can't wait to see what you got this week.

By the way,

we're going to get into the Commanders now because I'll start with Commanders at Ravens, which is clearly the game of the week, and certainly on Sunday.

I said last week, you got to get in on this Jaden Daniels MVP pop.

He was plus 3,000, Justin.

Am I right?

Last Thursday when I said that.

Seven days later, if you didn't listen to me, it's down to plus 1,000.

So he is, especially with Alan's struggles, I feel like he has surged and is the guy that makes the most sense to go on a heater now and win that award potentially.

And Jordan, I know it's too early to talk MVP, but it's never too early to make money for our listeners.

Yeah, I think you're moving markets too, Dan.

That's pretty cool.

Like, let the record show you're on this.

That's Big Dan Energy right there.

We talked about that, you know?

I get email updates of all the odds each week.

So there's no such thing as too early for MVP.

I've been getting them since week one.

So yeah, you're just giving us the wrong advice.

That's all.

MVP is so tricky.

I think it's narrative-driven too, very similar to awards in other leagues and this one as well.

Dan's driving this narrative.

He's fully in the driver's seat of this narrative, and it's moving the market, man.

This is going to be fun to watch.

One of these days, I'm going to go on a Coach of the Year rant on why I hate that award and how it's structured.

But anyway,

Money Mike, this week, let's start with the over in Giants and Bengals for the reasons that we all talked about.

I think Kayvon Thibodeau injury, and that hurts the Giants a lot because that is their advantage up front, losing Hemstinks.

So let's take the over there.

Let's take Josh Allen anytime interception in that Jets game.

Just feels like he's due.

I bet you it'll be a bad one, too.

Like one of those just like, ah, that's why people didn't believe in Josh in 2018 to 2019.

Maybe.

Maybe Sauce is the one that comes down with that pick.

And Kayvon Thibodeau, our old friend, week to week following wrist surgery.

So yeah, that is not good.

All right, let's get into this.

Excellent, excellent game, guys.

So, Commanders, number five in the HTC power rankings at Baltimore Ravens, number four in the HTC power rankings.

The Ravens laying six and a half points of wood.

This is the Nance Romo Wolfson joint.

What else can you ask for, Sess Dog?

I mean,

Jaden Daniels, every time you watch these games, he absolutely shreds opponents.

It wasn't even, I don't think, his best game against the Browns, but still, he has like seven different highlight reel plays.

The one part of this Washington thing, though, Mark, and this is why it's going to be so interesting, this test to go to Baltimore, is the running game has been unbelievable as well.

So you have this dynamo quarterback who could do it all, but they have a group of players in that backfield, like a three-headed monster, maybe a four-headed monster, if you include Daniels, that makes them the hardest team to stop just about.

In fact, Mark, number one in the league in rushing yards per game, the Baltimore Ravens.

Number two, the Washington Commanders.

I don't think people are paying attention to that.

Well, I think because the focus is on the performance from a rookie that we really don't have a comparison for.

And so it's understandable that that's been what we're looking at.

But you're right.

The

run game, which is so dangerous, is, I think, partly the product of like, wait a minute, this quarterback has like tubing completions a game.

So there's so much stress on defenses.

And Brian Robinson, you know, he did not practice with a knee yesterday.

So we'll see what's there.

But Brian Robinson's been really good.

Jerry McMcNichols is fun to watch, too.

And you get enough from Austin Eckler versus where I thought we were when they signed him.

Like, I'm not sure I want him being like the guy.

But big play last week, and they're abusing him just enough, right?

He's just a part of it, which is probably where Eckler should be at this point.

Right.

It's like we can be annoyed by committee backfields if you're like a fantasy head or something, but it really works here.

And Daniels is a big part of it.

He has 12.

He's run for 12 first downs.

That is four more than Josh Allen, who's number two, tied with Brock Brock Purdy.

It's like, this is real.

Like, this is all happening in real time.

And you've got a young first-year defensive coordinator for the Ravens.

It's like, we're waiting for a team to slow down.

Daniels.

And I know Cleveland did a little bit last week, but not really, not really.

And it's like, who's going to be able to do it?

But then in reverse, this has been a better defense than people realize, too.

Like, if you go, like, Frankie Luvu, who showed up all the time in Carolina, is making plays.

It's working with Bobby Wagner.

There's a lot of veterans on this defense.

So it's this clash between like this Ravens offense.

It's like, we're just going to blow you up with our run game.

And then Washington that has not been stopped at all in weeks.

If you go back to like that Giants game, which makes more sense now, it's like it is the game of the week.

And

there really isn't a close second.

I like the way they're using Dan Quinn.

King of the backwards hat is using the linebackers because Bobby Wagner, as good as he's been through his career, he's just getting older.

And so you're pairing him with a really young, dynamic partner in Frankie Ludlu.

And in this way, you can deploy them almost the way you're talking about the run game, in this complimentary style that's very strategic.

You're not asking either one of them to go very far outside themselves.

This Ravens defense is still difficult to pass against, but

the Commander's defense is going to be, I think, a little bit easier to run against if you're the Baltimore Ravens, because even though they're playing better than expected, I think, on defense, and you can see them start to get better every week.

They're still allowing the explosive run.

They've allowed 23 explosive runs, which is the most in the NFL, and at a very high percentage, it's 20.9% explosive run rate, which is the worst in the NFL.

And enter the combination of Derrick Henry and the dynamic Lamar Jackson, who's playing, having a better start in terms of like his advanced metrics than his second MVP season last year.

And Derrick Henry alone has 11 runs of 10 or more yards.

So when we're talking about this commander's defense that is playing playing better and better every single week, you still can run on them.

And it's interesting because it might be a little bit more difficult for both of these passing offenses that have been so exciting to get off the this might be a really fun running game on both sides.

My fearless prediction is riding on that.

We'll get to get to that a little later.

Yeah,

I love this game.

Dan, you mentioned one more can you ask for?

I would say that maybe the answer is defense.

The over on this is nuts.

Things in the low 50s.

That's pretty crazy.

I love it.

I don't know if I would take that one just because I feel like it gets to a point, and I feel like the Bengals are going to get here too, and they kind of did at the beginning of that Ravens game, is where the defensive coordinator is just like, yo, I got pride, and I'm going to get my guys to play with pride.

So that thing you do well, we're just going to sell out on that.

Backfired on Lou, the Bengals defensive coordinator, because he was just like, we're not going to let Derrick Henry kill us.

And it was like, we got Lamar.

So that doesn't matter.

Which could happen in this game too, where both teams are just like, we're not going to let the quarterback legs kill us.

And then it doesn't matter because they can both throw.

I do like the Ravens in this.

I think Lamar is playing out of his mind.

Like, I re-watched the, I forget why I couldn't watch it in real time, but the highlights in the film of the Bengals Ravens game.

Maybe one of the best offensive games I've ever seen.

Both quarterbacks were just...

absolutely nuts and both defenses were just absolutely awful.

I like the Ravens defense to possibly bounce back, though, man, to Jaden Daniels' credit, he just seems like competent defense proof.

You know, Jim Schwartz actually did a decent job, I thought, early in that game.

And then I remembered why the Browns stink on defense is because they can't tackle.

So when you can't tackle, it doesn't really,

you're just screwed.

And to beat that, to slow down this Washington offense, you have to be very, very, very sound.

And that's probably true of most good offenses, but like they don't, they can bomb it on you, but they're fine just dumping it down or something like that.

And if you can't tackle, then you're screwed.

And then if you try to come up on them, as Jaden Jaden showed on the deep ball, I think to Terry McLaurin in the first half, he's got a cannon, an accurate cannon, too.

So, if you do want to test him deep with some one-on-one stuff, you're maybe screwed there.

Yeah, I love this game.

I'm glad I'm off this weekend.

So, I'm definitely going to get to just pile up on my couch and watch it.

But I will take Lamar,

reigning MVP, to have an MVP-type performance on Sunday.

I like the Ravens in this game too, but I'd love to see it be the shootout that maybe the Sharks see it as.

Two things.

One,

I'm very happy for Terry McLaurin.

He's like the orphan boy in the movie who gets adopted by the kind millionaires on Christmas morning.

Like, it's like, finally,

here's a special quarterback you could play with and show everyone that you are potentially a true number one receiver.

And that's good.

And last point, Mark Sessler, you said that there's no comparison point for the rookie quarterback of the Commanders.

Here's a quote from Jaden Daniels on Wednesday per ESPN's John Kim.

I don't like when people try to compare me to Lamar.

We're two different players.

I want to be known as Jaden Daniels and not the next such and such,

which is fair.

It's just fair.

And maybe I just want to say it's okay to have Jaden Mania, Mark, but I'm not saying you, everyone, because it's fun.

But me also.

Let's not sleep on Lamar Jackson, who is also very much an MVP candidate.

Again, he doesn't have narrative in his favor because he's already won two.

I don't think the voters like to just keep giving the same guy the MVP if they don't have to, but he's absolutely played at that level again this year.

I would just say two quick points because there was the moment where you had Lamar on the bench head down after the mistake, and you thought, this is just another ⁇ we're going back to this thing with Lamar where he doesn't close out seasons the way he wants.

And it didn't happen.

It's like, this is a different season, a different version of Lamar Jackson.

And a lot of it has to do with what he's telling us each week and where his mind is.

And it's like, don't, Marlon Humphrey, I've said this before, but don't try to videotape me on the airplane.

We're not doing that this time around.

And the Merritt McLaurin thing, like, I know you sort of compared him to like a male orphan annie, I guess that would be.

But like he,

on that Monday night game where everyone started to, like, like the Daniels became part of like public consciousness, the game started with them saying, like, you know, McLaurin's been a really good teammate because he's in an offense where he's not being featured.

But by the end of the game, he had huge big plays and everything changed.

And it's like,

Washington is changed before our eyes, and McLaurin is like the benefits.

So

he is sort of a male orphananny Dan.

Yeah, I nailed it.

Yeah.

I nailed it.

I nailed the analogy.

Yeah.

Right.

It goes without saying.

So

I highlighted that, but I didn't need to.

And I did.

By the way, you mentioned, Jordan, that Dan Quinn is the king of the backwards hat.

That's in the like completely secure, guileless middle-aged dad category.

I mean, that's important.

Like, if I had to pick

who wore the backwards hat best in my lifetime, I would say it was Ken Griffey Jr.

in 1993.

But if we're talking Seattle, Mike,

but if we're talking like middle-aged dad who's not insecure about it

at all, it's Quinn.

Yeah, it's just truly impressive stuff.

You also just want to have a beer with that guy, frankly.

I mean, he just is like probably the top of the hierarchy of would have a beer with that guy rankings, which we should roll out in the offseason, probably.

Sounds like a Patreon episode.

All right, Jordan, what is the game you cannot wait to watch?

I cannot wait to watch the number 10 Heed the Call power ranked Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the number 21 New Orleans Saints in New Orleans, 1 p.m.

Eastern on Fox.

Adam Amon is back.

Great call by Benetti this last weekend.

Greg Wilson and Pam Oliver on the call as well.

Derek Carr's oblique injury means the Saints are going to start Spencer Rattler, a rookie quarterback who Justin Graver has met in person two times, who, after a strong preseason, drew so much buzz from that fan base that it didn't quiet back down until Carr and the Saints offense blew the doors off of week one.

We are a long way away from that offense.

That same group lost three in a row and averaged 16.3 points per game in the losses after averaging 45.5 points per game in the first two wins.

So that buzz might, that rattler buzz might keep growing.

The Bucs, on a very...

vastly more serious note, the Bucs relocated their operations earlier this week to New Orleans because of Hurricane Hurricane Milton's landfall late Wednesday.

It's a really scary situation.

Hoping everybody stays safe in that region.

That said, the NFC South games such as this one are super important to people to the point where a local weatherman tried to paint a picture of this enormously concerning situation by framing it through football.

And I think we have the sound for that.

Mike, we definitely enjoyed the little halftime show that Mother Nature gave us inside Milton, but now we got the second half.

And, you know, I got to remind everyone, you might still be in the eye right now.

There's a lot more to go, I think, back to, you know, the Atlanta Falcons first half Super Bowl winner.

We know what happened to the second half when the Patriots came back to life.

So do not sleep on the second half of Milton.

He just wants to be a sports reporter.

Don't put him on the website.

That's relatable.

Everyone knows what he means by it.

By the way, at that Super Bowl,

Mark, we were set up way up in the rafters right next to some luxury suites, and it was Ludacris's luxury suite.

And in the first half, he had like all his people around him, and it's just like a full-on party.

And then I could not stop looking over at him.

Nobody else was looking at him, but I had clocked him earlier, and I was like, What's Ludacris?

Obviously, like Atlanta to the bone.

And like by the end of the game, he was sitting by himself in those first three rows of seats and those luxury suites.

He was alone, looking like his dog had just been shot in front of him.

Yeah, there was he kind of was a microcosm of we were on the Falcons side of the stadium and they were I give that fan base credit they were going absolutely out of their minds and it just got quieter and quieter and quieter and that is the classic game where like we'd have we had our post-game piece and at halftime I had written like a 700

page or 700 word item on the on the Patriots defense and how it let down the you know the team and everything in the offense.

It's like and with each passing minute of the second half like I was erasing one line of the feature like in another line and another and I had no story by the end and I was just ready to jump out of the bleachers.

Tough one.

Toughie for you, Mark.

That's who I felt for the most part.

That was the central, like, that was the biggest problem anyone faced in that stadium that day.

Certainly.

The Bucks are fun to watch.

They're every week, even there's been some disastrous outliers.

I think somehow, subconsciously, Baker Mayfield, every once in a while, will have just like a truly atrocious game just to help everyone feel more alive because then it's going to be better than next week.

But they're fun, they're frisky.

They're starting to get some of their injured players back.

And I think this is, first of all, these games are always really interesting just because the NFC South games have been super fun so far this year.

But at the same time, this is not the Saints that started the season.

And this is not the Saints' offense that started the season.

They are the offensive lineman injuries that they've been dealing with.

Now you're going to see them put together a completely different plan, a new plan with a rookie quarterback who, to be fair, they do really, really like.

And there was even whispers, like I mentioned the preseason, that Spencer Rattler might eventually take over for a healthy Derek Carr until Derek Carr and the offense, again, like I said, silenced that with how they came out of the gate.

This is not the same Saints offense.

The defense still looks solid, but this is not the same Saints' offense.

And like I said, the Bucs, they're starting to get some injured players back on defense.

And the players who have been available for them, particularly in the middle and the back half of the field, have been making splash plays week over week.

So they're making the most with what they've got.

And Baker Mayfield on a hole, minus a couple of outliers, is playing outstanding football.

I think the one killer matchup, you've got Vitavea, who is playing out of his mind against the Interior Saints line that is down to like its third center at this point.

I think that could literally neutralize this.

And then on the other side of the defense, the Bucs can't cover anybody.

At least they couldn't last Thursday.

This is per PFF, Mike, 37 of 58 attempts were deemed open targets.

The Falcons had 14 plays, 14 of 15 plus yards in the game.

And so, I don't know, to the point where after I watched the game, I was like, eh, we put them in top 10 in the power rankings.

I know, the Bucs are not a complete team to me.

No, their defense is super like Jekyll and Hyde.

One day,

Mr.

Famine.

Yeah.

Yeah, one day they're like making Jalen Hurts look unplayable, and then they're making Kirk Cousins look like a Hall of Famer.

And that was only in the span of, what, a few days, I think?

That was pretty nuts.

Also, speaking of matchups, this one has perhaps the best receiver, most compelling cornerback matchup maybe ever.

And Mike Evans and Marshawn Lattimore.

Like, Marshawn Lattimore is like prime Darrell Rivas every time he plays Mike Evans.

Oh,

every time he plays Mike Evans, specifically against Mike.

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but they're just absolute.

I know they're nuts.

I know they are.

It's pretty crazy.

Like, I'm going to sit down.

I want that.

I want as many camera angles on those two.

You know, I hope Spencer Rowler makes it out here.

Okay.

Like, I don't want Vita Veya landing on on him and killing him, uh, because I don't believe in that Saints uh O-line at all.

Pretty banged up, but yeah, that matchup, man, Lattimore and Mike Evans is great.

I think they're both downplaying it.

I read a quote from Mike this week, but who cares?

I'll play it up.

I'm not in play it up, yeah.

You're doing the Lord's work.

I've got the stats too, if you guys are interested in that.

Let's hear it for next gen.

So, they have since Marshawn Lattimore entered the league in 17, he and Mike Evans have faced each other in 12 games between regular season and playoff.

In those games,

Marshawn Lattimore lined up against Mike Evans on 265 of his 432 routes.

So over 60%, that's kind of the qualification of you're isolated on that guy.

That's sort of what the qualification is.

And

he's allowed just 19 catches for 302 yards and two touchdowns to Mike Evans on the 29 targets face as the nearest defender, forced a tight window on 10 of the 29 targets.

And Buccaneers quarterbacks have combined, because they've had some turnovers here, 27 of 44 passes for 426 yards, a touchdown, and six interceptions when targeting Mike Evans versus all other Saints defenders in coverage.

So that is compelling stuff right there.

Oh, yeah.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to watch that game.

Moving on to Money Mike Dugar.

Oh, my God.

You know, Tom Brady, they pay this guy $350 million to be a Cowboys cheerleader.

All right, Mike, take it.

Yeah, the Brady thing is weird.

He's, you know, calling, I'll start with the game.

I'll call the game I can't wait to watch is the Alliance at the Cowboys.

Yes, Brady is calling this one.

Very strange.

I was reading a story from my homie to Sean Reed.

I guess they're going to discuss Brady's ownership stuff at the next some league meetings somewhere that I'm not invited to.

But I'm like, yo, how is he going to own a team and call games?

It's just

so strange.

I don't really know how

that'll work.

And just for the audience,

when I say who does a great job on this show,

Mike's version is my homie.

But it's the same thing.

It's like, that means that guy does a great job.

So it counts, Mark, and it's more praise for colleagues, which is okay.

I guess the profession is a noble one.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

My shout out to the homie to Sean.

I was like, I was reading that.

I'm like, yo, how does he?

He's not allowed to go in the production meetings if he owns a team.

I'm like, yo, that's part of the.

Anyway, it's so strange.

But I can't wait to watch this game.

I believe this is a rematch of the number 70 is Eligible thing from last year with the Lions.

right damn guy skipper was that that was yes yes i believe a very o-lineman name i think dan energy but yes that's very much an o-lineman name yeah that was a really great game i expect this one uh to be as well i like how dak is playing you know uh i didn't watch the sunday night game live uh but i watched the film of it man dak was balling i i can see why i was reading after like oh man dak kind of had to pull one out of his athlete wasn't playing well i was like i don't know man He was making some throws in there.

I've seen guys that wouldn't attempt, let alone complete.

I just watched Jared Goff and the Lions live in week four out in Detroit, and Goff looked like a Hall of Famer.

He looked like Kirk looked against the Bucs.

So I think we're going to get really good quarterback play, which is always makes matchups compelling.

This is a great, like

1B, I think, to that Washington versus Baltimore game.

I think this one will be just as good.

I also love when the Lions play a team like this because the Lions in the roster construction is almost like a big F you to teams that like invest in the quarterback and then ask the quarterback to kind of be their everything, you know, like the Cowboys are doing.

You watch Cowboys offense, you're just like, hey, Doc, save us.

And he's either, okay, I can save you or no, I can't.

You know, whereas the Lions have constructed this team and they're like, yo, golf, just get the ball to the great guys.

That's all you got to do.

We'll give you a good old line.

We'll call great plays.

We'll throw you a bone and throw you a touchdown every once in a while.

But for the most part, you just have to do very little.

Just don't screw up, make a few great throws, which you can do, and then you're good.

You know, a great contrast in team building that we've seen.

The Lions are really good at that.

They've built their roster around the quarterback as well as pretty much everyone, anyone I can think of outside of maybe the Eagles.

So, yeah, I love this matchup for the quarterbacks, the contrast there.

I know that Dak is probably going to put up some bonkers' numbers in a loss here because he's been doing that this year.

For some reason, the Cowboys also can't win at home, I don't think.

Super odd.

I also wish, it doesn't sound like Micah Parsons will play.

I wish he was because if so, we'd get like really good edge rusher compliment on both sides of this because Aiden Hutchinson is an absolute monster.

Monster, monster, monster.

Can't wait to watch him play.

I like the Lions in this one in what could be, I'm anticipating, a shootout in Dallas.

I totally see a shootout.

The Cowboys have been wretched at home so far this year, wretched, obviously, in January.

So there's kind of a bit of that energy in the air.

A team that's been great in their building before this little slump they're in.

Hey, Gravy, you had a great stat before the buy about Hutchinson, the number two overall pick a few years back.

What do you got?

Yeah, before the buy, Hutchinson was absolutely dominating in basically every category when it comes to pressures, pressure, pass-rush, win rate, sacks, all these things.

But now the Lions obviously were off last week, and Hutchinson was off last week.

So you think, okay, he was leading in all those stats.

No, he's still leading in all those stats.

He leads all players in total pressures with 40 by 11 over the next next closest players, two players, Jonathan Gernard.

And who's the other one?

Jonathan Gernard and Zach Allen are tied for second there, but they are 11 pressures behind Hutchinson.

Despite Hutchinson just having a week off, the gap from Hutchinson to the number two guys in pressures is the same as the gap between those number two guys and the number 25 pressure leader.

He is on a completely different level from anyone else in the league right now.

Meanwhile, Jaguars fans are just like wiping their brow that Trayvon Walker is coming off his best game of his career.

So at least it doesn't look that bad, at least this week.

I don't, I actually don't like this.

If you're the Cowboys, I don't like this matchup.

Their defense is depleted with injuries.

The Lions have showed that they're still like a walking, talking death machine on offense.

They have really come, I think, far from what we saw, a little bit of lack of cohesiveness at the start of the season.

And they showed it with a couple of, including a primetime matchup, that they can still get the job done on offense.

And I just don't think Dallas can stop anybody, particularly all of the different ways that this Lions team can attack you.

And plus, Frank Ragnow, this is insane.

Speaking of insane superhuman performances or things with players, he's back as a full participant this week at practice.

And if you get him back, that makes a significant difference as well in the identity of this offense.

Yeah, big time center Ragnow is.

And by the way, Dan Campbell, Campbell, who, like I've said with Sean McVay, sometimes

when I hear Sean McVay talk now, it feels like he's exited the realm of being like a real person.

And now I kind of see him as an actor portraying Sean McVay using the traits that one would most associate with that person when he was an actual human.

I'm starting to get that Dan Campbell vibe as well.

It's kind of a compliment because, Spellcheck, you could say the same thing too.

Once you kind of take that next jump, you kind of become a little bit iconic.

Anyway, here's Dan Campbell talking about how he knew Frank Ragnow, who tore his peck and is now playing in week six, we think,

proved him that he was healthy enough to come back.

I know this.

I walked, this was last week, actually, almost right before Seattle, and I walked down there to go talk to our trainer, and somebody punches me against the wall, and I'm not even paying attention because I'm...

I'm looking at our trainer, and I keep walking, and then I get punched again, and I realize it's Frank, and he's trying to show me that his pec is great.

All right, so

that's his way of telling me, look how strong I am.

It's good.

It's healed.

I love it.

The credit there to 97.1 the ticket,

Costa and Jansen.

More Big Dan energy.

It's all over the place today.

It is.

All right, let's move to the final game.

We cannot wait to watch.

It's the Cess Dog, and he is, you know, he's not giving up that dream of the Cardinals.

He's back.

Well, like, to be fair, I dove into our shared document a little later than some, and so I'm not pitching this as the greatest game on the planet, but I do like the Arizona Cardinals a lot for reasons that I think others may not believe in as much as I do.

The dock goes out on Wednesday, and Wednesday is a sacred day for the Sess Dog.

It's a little bit of a respite in the middle of the week, and Justin, like, you know, he's got that energy to him.

You know, Levi's coming out.

He's prowling Hollywood.

We had a call meeting with some underdog execs, and, you know, Mark was the only only one that wasn't on camera because he was quote-unquote walking the dogs in Hollywood.

And it was just like, nobody asked any questions.

Mark's doing Mark stuff.

It's Wednesday.

First of all, to suggest that I'm prowling around Hollywood is not the word I'd ask you to use there.

But I literally was walking someone's dog.

And that is factual.

And it was a friend of a friend.

I did a favor for them.

And also, like, this whole rule now that you go on these Zoom calls and you have to have this ornate studio behind you with perfect lighting.

It's like, sometimes I do that and sometimes I don't, but I wasn't even at my place.

There's all right, so here's Zoom etiquette I find.

It's a play by ear.

If I click in and everyone else's screens are up, I'm going to throw mine up, okay?

And

when Sestog keeps his dark,

it's a bit of a power move, I feel like.

It's like, you're not going to see me, but like,

so the boss can just like stare at it MS initial or whatever.

It's like, that's a move.

And that's a play and you made it.

Yeah, like, I think one, the actual boss that was on the call was also not on screen.

So I was showing him, like, it was the boss and you.

Yeah.

So it's like, I am not mimicking, but I am following your lead here.

And the game within the game unfolds.

And Mark,

Game of Thrones and the Zoom call with Sessler.

And I got to tell you,

I have really loved getting to know you guys better through the work that we do in this shared Google document.

And I actually have started writing a note each week.

So I take the rundown that Justin gives us, I copy-paste it over into a new document, and I write my notes in each section.

And I have categories for which games everyone's taking.

And I've started writing under Mark, small parentheses, check back in the morning.

Well, it was

Wednesday.

I think it was like three in the morning at least.

But, you know, I also, I don't want to steal the, I like to, I want to, you know, not just jump in there first and take the shall I discuss this this game, though?

The Cardinals.

The Cardinals Packers we're gonna smoke your weed well okay Justin um so I want to just um here's something I wrote about this game um because it's how I feel about about the Cardinals specifically they're a bit of a pet team um but here we go um have you ever been inside the mind of a clown

what does the count uh what does the clown believe what motivates the clown are the clowns' intentions pure we don't know the answer to that but we do know the clowns are diverse different types different needs

some are there to make children laugh.

Some are there to kidnap children.

And they always get away with it, because why would a clown kidnap a child?

The police say to themselves with their little coffees and donuts in their hands.

Some clowns are sad inside.

The face they put on is a ruse, and we all buy it.

We want to believe in the clown, but not the type of clown who looks past the Arizona Cardinals.

Chalk it up as a W, says the clown.

Then the clown is mauled, run through by James Connor.

The clown is crumpled on the grass as Kyler Murray races to the house with his finger up.

The clown is not prepared for for Drew Petsing, using multiple tight ends and massive heavy sets at a 52.6 usage last week.

Cardinals won, clown 0.

Let's just hope the hyped-up Packers aren't in some Green Bay makeup studio at this hour, applying clown makeup to their faces too.

Only a clown and his or her clown friends look past the Cardinals of Arizona.

I

like it.

You've disturbed Mike, I could tell.

I hate clowns.

So the idea of running through clowns and destroying a clown, and clowns are absolutely known for taking children.

I mean, they're not trustworthy.

True.

So you make me almost want to root for the Cardinals this week because I'm connecting all these dots now based on your monologue.

I want to say, like, they, Justin, I don't know if you have that image that we could put up that I sent you.

When you go and watch the all-22, This is what they did a lot last week against the Niners.

We are looking at a line.

There is a full, there's pistol, you're right, but there are five linemen and like multiple tight ends.

Look at how much like human mass is up there.

And that's the play that Kyler Murray broke through and ran and lifted his finger like two yards beyond the line of scrimmage and just said, I know I've got this thing.

And they really took Bosa out of the game, the Niners' best pass rusher.

And I kind of just think the creativity and the way that they're using, protecting Kyler Murray, but opening up the ground game makes them the kind of, the reason I talk about, because I think when I would go back to the game game where they lashed the cowboys a year ago and they're not a perfect team they're incomplete but they do this every couple of weeks where someone seems caught off guard by what they're able to do and they use pure power and might and this happened without marvin harrison being a big factor last week and so it's not just like other teams where it's this one or two stars like they found a way to really overpower san francisco and demoralize them and that's why i think i give them a chance against green bay i give them a good chance every week and maybe i'm overrating them but that's how i feel about them i think personally i think you are Teams that are super inconsistent annoy me, and I think that's how I would describe the Arizona Cardinals.

Lest we forget, before Jordan Mason coughs that ball up and basically gifts a win to the Cardinals last week, and I'm not taking away credit.

Cardinals deserve a lot of credit for what they did, but they got very fortunate the way that game ended.

They got the doors blown off the previous week, 42-14.

So before we start putting clown makeup on anybody who doubts the Cardinals, this has not been a pristine unit week after week this season.

I agree.

So I'm saying that I do overrate them, but I just have a fetish.

But when the Cardinals are in full flight, nailed it, Jordan, they are a thing to behold and fun to watch.

So I get why, and I know you have a bit of a Cardinals fetish, Mark.

I get why these things are all connecting.

I just can't, it's hard for me to trust them yet.

Mark, I share your excitement about what's possible with this group because when they show you what they actually, when they reach their potential, it is some of the most exciting schematic diversity and also just ideas.

And Kyler can play at ultimately a super high level.

I also want to point out that getting Trey McBride back in the lineup is a big reason why they actually can meet that potential.

He is quietly one of the absolute glue guys on this offense that not just unlocks a lot of their passing game, the consistency in their passing game, also in their run game, also in the various personnel sets that they can use.

You can't just throw any guy in there to run the same type of personnel because it's different calls, it's different language, different assignments, those types of things.

And also when Kyler Murray is a factor in the run game, he had 83 yards in the touchdown last week.

Obviously, one of those was the explosive, but lining up the way that they can when, and I know I screech about the pistol all the time, but like when they can do that, when he actually shows that he's willing to carry the ball and run as an element of the run game and not just as a scrambling quarterback or someone who's throwing on the move or out of structure, It adds this dimension where, where are you going to go if you're a linebacker or a safety?

Like, who are you going to attack?

Are you going to come down and fit the run against the actual running back?

Okay, well, enter these three tight ends who are just going to kick your ass all up and down the field.

And then, okay, are you going to try to spy on Kyler?

All right.

Well, he's going to put the ball somewhere else.

Oh, okay.

Can you catch Kyler?

I mean, he, I'm not going to bring up the top speed, but he hit.

He hit a very high speed.

Yes, he hit a certain number, number, a certain number that shall not be stated.

Not going to say it.

Not going to say it.

And I just think that that's why I get so excited and why they disappoint me so deeply.

I mean, I'm not mad.

I was just disappointed the other week, you know, but like they, it just, they're so exciting with what they're capable of doing that it drives you freaking nuts when they don't actually do the thing.

But having Trey McBride back, I think, unlocks a lot more of the thing that we know they're capable of doing.

Mark, how about this?

If the Cardinals go to Lambeau a week after going to San Francisco and they get another W,

I'll do that game recap on Sunday in a clown mask.

Oh, boy.

Well, the stakes are high.

I need to see this occur.

Anything on the Packers before we move?

Yeah, well, two things.

One, I like the Packers in this game.

The second thing is,

well, I don't trust the Cardinals' defense much.

Like you mentioned, Dan, the Niners kind of gave that one away to them.

It was also funky because they lost their kicker, which, like, there's, there's only a certain few instances where that can change the math.

And one of them happened, where they went forward, I believe, on fourth and 23 in a very makeable field goal range, but makeable for a kicker, not a punter, which is all they had.

Kind of a funky game there.

See, I like the Packers to score.

I mean, I like the Packers to be able to move the ball against them.

The second thing, the only place I've ever got fired from was a company called Clowns.

Fun fact.

What was the

business?

What was the...

I guess officially it was like Clowns Unlimited LLC LLC or something, but they were the company that essentially,

if you order like a big inflatable thing for your kids to jump around in or you're having something at a park or a birthday party, you order a mechanical bull for like a graduation party type thing.

Like that was the company here in Seattle.

It's called Clowns Unlimited.

I worked there summer going into my junior year of college or senior year and I ended up getting fired because of a weird technicality.

But yeah, that's all I could think about when Mark was talking.

Yeah, very open.

The way they did the scheduling was funky.

They changed it to where.

Did you kidnap a child?

I did not kidnap a child.

Let me get that out there quick.

I did not, but I did get fired.

That's the only time I've ever been fired from a job.

Place called Clouds.

One of the things that annoyed me the most about the bounce house era of fatherhood, which Mike, you're heading toward, so get ready.

It's a rough stretch.

You have to pay a shit ton of money to get these inflatables blown up in the local park, right?

Or if you have enough space in your yard or whatever.

I mean, we're talking five rocks.

I mean, we're talking like big money for a four-hour rental of a bounce house that the kids are going to be interested in for about 34 minutes.

And then after you, the guys come and set it up and take down the goddamn thing.

And then you got to tip those guys too.

You know, you could be a bad guy and look the other way.

But so now I'm peeling off 20s for each of the guys that are pulling out the stakes and deflating the motherfucker.

And all of a sudden I'm doing the math at the end of the night.

And when you factor in everything, it's like, did I just drop $600 on an inflatable?

Like put the clown mask on me because I just got had in a big spot.

So Mike, I'm glad you're not associated with that company.

Nope, I'm not.

They fired me.

They did pay well, though, to your plant.

We also got paid for when we were en route to the places, too.

So if they were far away, that was great.

30-minute ride, one way.

Yep, cash.

Pay me by the hour.

But yeah.

What a company.

What a high-quality company.

Speaking of five rocks, Xavier McKinney, the Packers safety, becomes the first player in history to have an interception in his first five starts with a new team.

He's playing really well.

Pretty good.

That was nailed it.

Nice.

Nailed it.

Absolutely.

But you can run on this Packers defense.

And

you absolutely can.

They're having some concerns about their front as well in terms of the pressure to sack rate and also just like the overall

direction of the group right now.

Good defense, though, good DBs.

And know, it's interesting.

I just don't know that you're going to be able to pass the ball a lot or that you're going to want to pass the ball a lot against the Packers if you're the Cardinals, particularly with some of the issues Marvin Harrison's having.

And then the receivers, Romeo Dobbs is going to be back

in action, sounds like, this week, a bit of a, you know, a funky situation last week.

So this offense is with Jordan Love getting healthier by the week is slowly getting back on track for Green Bay.

All right, let's take a break.

And when we return, we jump into the gravy boat.

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All right, we're back.

Mark, I was thinking about it during that extended commercial break.

And

let's make this real interesting, Mark.

Hit the clown music again.

All right.

I said that if the Cardinals go to Lambeau and win, I will wear a clown mask.

I will throw that back at you.

If the Packers win, you will wear the clown mask when we do the game on Sunday.

So, clown mask either way,

and I'm even on Amazon.

I've picked out the mask.

Oh, God.

One of us will wear the mask on Sunday, depending on the outcome.

Yay or nay?

Take the challenge, you love your Cardinals.

No, it's all of the show comes first.

I don't actually own a clown mask, so like you, I'm going to have to go.

I do live on Hollywood Boulevard, and there are like multiple human dress-up shops or costume shops, they would call it so human dress-up shops it's what they do on the holiday they call Halloween October 31st well I'm just saying it'd be very convenient for me to I can just go a couple blocks up well I'm gonna buy this mask right now and I'm gonna expense it to underdog um and it's delivered by tomorrow october 11th so I'm gonna click it you can do whatever you want but just this can't be like when we did a three-month bit with Wes back in the day around the Super Bowl about will Wes eat his softball pants?

And then we got to the Super Bowl city, and Wes is like, I didn't bring the pants.

It's like, Wes,

kill him.

Like, we need you to have a clown mask.

I um, I have like a really detailed scheduler.

I'll put buy clown mask on this and uh for tomorrow

or today.

Good.

Let's do it.

Let's head into the boat.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oh, oh, oh,

Perfect.

All right, here we go.

Let's hit the rest of the schedule.

First game in London.

Jaguars at Bears.

Trevor Lawrence is coming off of his best game of the season against matching up now against Caleb Williams, coming off the best game of his career.

The Jaguars' defense is not very good.

In fact, they have the worst EPA per pass allowed in the NFL.

And Caleb Williams, in back-to-back weeks, has played the Colts, the ninth worst EPA per pass, and the Panthers, the third worst EPA per pass, and torched both of them.

Now he goes against the worst EPA per pass team in the Jags.

We might see Caleb Williams have the best game of his career for the third straight week.

I love it.

I love it, Mark.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's because he's a UFC guy and they're the local team of college record here, and he seems like a good, interesting guy.

I want Caleb Williams to be successful, and seeing him ball out and start to feel like, oh, this guy's having fun at this level, I feel like the Jags are a good setup for this to continue.

Yeah, like there was the preseason game where we saw what Caleb Williams was capable of out of structure, and then it kind of went away.

A lot of it went away, but I think that we're seeing some of that now on a regular basis.

It's really encouraging.

It's encouraging to me that the Shane Waldron part of this, for at least like the last six quarters, has been a much more, and you're right, Justin mentioned that the opponents, and I get that, but still, it's like, I don't really care.

Like, I want to see this work.

They went to Shane Walder and said, like, we need to coach this up.

We need some more stress here, like, some more like actual, you know, let's do this as a group.

And it works, and I think that's a really good sign for the Bears.

And this is the kind of game where

it's a reverse island game to me because half the country will be asleep when it starts.

But like, it is a good chance for people that haven't had a good close look at Caleb Williams to see the fact that he's not Jaden Daniels in this season.

But there is a real reason watching his tape to believe like this is going to work for the Bears.

I think it's going to take time, but they're kind of growing as an offense the last couple of weeks.

Very encouraging.

I love when that we heard about how they got better.

I love that it was very public.

I love that the players were out there saying

it's not personal with this guy with Shane Waldron, who is a very nice man.

We just need better ideas.

We need harder coaching.

We need and the Bears press corps as well.

I mean, I went back and watched Shane Waldron's press conference from that week where his job was sort of in question right before they started turning things around.

And it's really hard to watch with how uncomfortable he clearly was, but it worked.

And we got to see the process sort of evolve and change in live action and live time.

And it's benefiting Caleb Williams.

I also love when a special teams unit, which the Bears have an outstanding one, becomes an actual part of the defense because of how well they're playing and because of how well Tori Taylor is able to pin offenses and flip the field,

they're winning, they can win games now with a little bit better of an offense, but they also can win because they're winning the margins with those crucial plays such as the splash plays they've been able to make in their passing defense and then also with the way that their special teams unit is now an extension of that defense.

I think the Bears could get really fun down the stretch if they keep improving like this.

And shout out to the Jaguars who did get off the schneide last week.

And there's a lot of positive stuff to build off in that win.

You know, Trayvon Walker, as I I mentioned, seven pressures and three sacks, including the clincher

to get the dub last week against Indy.

And, you know, what they have there at wide receiver, there's something cooking there now with Brian Thomas Jr., who's, you know, Malik neighbors had the, obviously,

everyone's attention the first few weeks, but it's time to start paying attention to the rookie in Jacksonville.

11 for 122 and a touchdown, just explosive.

And you put him with Christian Kirk, and that's a really nice one, too.

So, like we said, the Jags have, they need their stars to step up and dig them out of this hole.

And you saw that last week, and we'll see if it continues.

Nice matchup here.

Next up, Justin.

Next up, Texans at Patriots.

So the Patriots were hesitant to play rookie Drake May before they knew, really, if the offensive line could hold up in pass protection, right?

Well, now that they know the offensive line cannot hold up in pass protection, Jacoby Brissette has been pressured on a league-leading 50% of his dropbacks.

Now they've decided, okay, we'll throw the rookie basically to the Wolves.

We'll give him his first career start against a Texans defense that just made Josh Allen, of all people, look like, I don't know, Nathan Peterman.

But the 4-in-1 Texans somehow have a negative point differential.

They have the third worst point differential in their own division, only better than the Jags.

I think they have a good chance to improve that number in Foxborough this weekend.

Money Mike, I think a good way to explain why the Patriots did what they did is what we talked about at the top of the show.

Hamina, homina, homina.

I got to do something.

And that's what a first-year head coach is doing.

So we'll see if Drake May can handle this.

Yeah, I have a,

I don't have time to dive into it now, but I'm like firmly in the

group of people who believe you should play your rookie quarterback, you know, even if the circumstances are good, are bad, or bad.

Just because, A, if you take a guy that high, which I believe Drake was picked three, like, you know, your team's bad already, right?

But you try to build it the best way you can to help him succeed.

But the way you find out what that looks like is by playing him, is giving him first-team reps with the O-line, the center, the receivers, all that stuff.

And you collect that information, find out if your guy stinks or if he's that dude, and then you proceed from there.

So I like that Drake is getting to play.

I actually like when guys get the hard matchups, you know, like go, I think Tua, maybe when he got named the starter, I think his first game might have been against like the Rams defense or something like that, or one of his early starts.

Like, yeah, I'm cool with that.

Like, I want to see how you,

how you...

handle yourself in those situations.

It's almost like training with like weights on your, you know, legs while you run.

Make it hard for yourself so that in the future it feels a little easier.

That said, I think the Texans smoke him.

But yeah, I'm excited actually to see what Drake May looks like.

I was really high on him coming out.

I think he'll be good when the situation around him improves.

But yeah, I actually like this move by John Mayo.

Play your guy and see what you got in him.

I just don't think you develop.

good habits by playing in absolute chaos.

I mean, it's like almost a 50% pressure rate.

So it's like almost half the time the quarterback drops back to pass,

you've got people in your face.

And I hate it for both quarterbacks.

Let me be clear.

I think the bigger fault here is obviously not repairing that environment around him enough.

I don't think you need to feel out what it's like to play with some of these linemen because they're probably not going to be there in the future because they have to overhaul certain elements of that group.

And I just don't think you build good habits by playing in chaos.

I agree that you need to play your players.

And if it's a quarterback that you draft that high, obviously, and then obviously you're probably getting pressure because you're not maybe not selling tickets.

You need people in the stands.

Like you need to, you're probably getting pressure from higher up than even the head coach to get this guy on the field, to show some hope, to show that they're building for the future.

It's a really positive move in terms of all of the optics of it.

I just don't think if you're Drake May and you're still developing and the story on him was he still needs to develop as a quarterback, I don't think that you're getting put in a situation where you can cleanly do that or even like even half cleanly do that

instead of like playing to just avoid catastrophe versus playing to build good habits and good um and good reps.

Well, I think it's going to be a good test of the Patriots coaching staff because while I can agree with you, Mike, that just throw them into the fire and you grow.

With this is why we brought you.

This is your destiny to be this position player in the NFL.

There's also like the

weatherworn situation where like the quarterback's confidence breaks down because he's in constant duress.

And like I just worry about that with rookies.

And in this specific case, like they're going to have to to keep him, his head on straight.

I think the one thing that Houston did against Josh Allen and seems to do weekly with D'Amico Ryans is like create confusion.

Create confusion where the rush is coming from.

And like we mentioned, their sticky coverage against the Bills a week ago.

So it's going to be an incredible test right out of the gate, mentally, physically, kind of the matchup and situation.

Joe Mixon returned to practice on Thursday.

That's a big deal.

That offense was not the same without him.

So I don't know what version we get of him, but that's a big deal.

Ramonde Stevenson did not practice for the Patriots.

That's a big deal.

But without Nico Collins, I thought this offense, because C.J.

Stroud started 10 for 10 a week ago, their offense looked real different without Nico Collins in there, and he's gone.

And so I think they're going to have to grow out of that situation too, Dan.

Nico Collins went from day to day to week to week to the injured reserve for that hamstring.

So not a great situation.

And now this is where it's good to have depth.

They have Stefan Diggs.

They have Tank Dell.

You're going to need those guys to take on a bigger role.

Let's get back into that gravy.

come on all right browns at eagles it's warm it it's nice in here i mean i don't think it's creepy i think it's creepy not at all not even the leaves

browns at eagles

hey cleveland browns cut to sean watson go be the worst team without him win strange games win back the stadium the fans the heartbeat the city hamburger outlets dive bars green parks distant vistas home fronts unintelligible newborns the nearly dead, daughters about to be married, elves, animals, wanderers, those of the forest, the sea, the ocean, the queen of all human things.

They will come back.

Start anew, like a garden from springtime.

Do what is right.

Will you?

This is the biggest point spread of the week with the Eagles favored by

first of all, shout out to Wednesdays with Mark Sessler because that was a dispatch sent from his social media carrier.

Love it, Mark.

I love it.

And I don't, yeah, I'll say this.

You watch the tape, Mark.

I don't think that dude wants to be on the field.

I mean, we all want him off the field.

I don't even think Deshaun Watson wants to be on the field.

We didn't play this a couple weeks ago, but as I was watching their most recent meltdown, Mark,

on offense in week five, it reminded me of Deshaun Watson talking about, you know, making plays with his legs.

Let's play this back.

I'm not trying.

If I don't have to run, I'm not going to run.

So I'm not trying to take any hits.

Because I'm not a running quarterback in a sense.

I can make things happen, but I'm not trying to run.

I'm not a running back.

That's not my specialties.

They assign me to throw the ball, make decisions, and be a quarterback, not a runner.

And like I think about that, and I think about every time this pass rush is coming in on him where his eyes are looking straight down, it's like, I think this,

and there's so many things you can get on about Watson in terms of decision-making in his life and accountability and all that stuff.

But he looks to me like you're watching a guy that had a $238 million guaranteed contract that was been put through the ringer, rightly so, in the public opinion, and is just like, get me out of here as soon as possible.

He might welcome that benching.

Let's put it that way, the way he plays football now.

Yeah, I mean, where that tweet came from me was like from deep within.

Like the reason I started to fall for football and the Browns way back when was like, no matter whether the team is good or bad, you want to believe in the players.

And, you know, there's, at this point, we're beyond the tipping point with Watson.

Everyone sees it.

Everyone's calling for the same thing.

But it's not, it is the person.

And I know that when he, with the thing with Stefanski last week, was a confusion over 12 men on the field.

Amari Cooper saw it too, but it was the body language.

And it was just the general demeanor of watching.

They're at that place where there's clips of how receivers are acting downfield when the ball is 10 yards over their head.

It's just like ultra frustration.

These are pro players not getting to use their skills.

I read this on the athletic that

the 596 rated quarterback in total QB EPA is Deshaun Watson.

And that goes back to when True Media first started charting that in 2007.

596 out of 596 quarterbacks.

He is being paid like he's a king from another planet.

He doesn't seem to want to be here.

I think we're running out of things to say.

Organizationally, you can see it.

They're shipwrecked.

Like Stefansky has no power.

I don't know where this goes because it's getting darker.

And like three of their next four games are at home in front of some of the best football fans ever.

And I just, I just don't, I think there's still room and runway for this to get even worse.

At a certain point, Jordan, I just start to lose respect for Stefanski to make the move.

I don't care whether, no matter what, you have to, you got to vouch for your locker room.

At what point do you have to do something?

And I feel like we've reached that point and if you're Philadelphia you know they get they they're laying nine points here and I don't think that's nearly enough I feel like this this is set up for to be an absolute

mind blast and mark I think a couple weeks ago you had fearlessly predicted uh the Browns benching Watson I was gonna predict it here but it was too similar so I didn't I feel like we might be heading towards a pivot point for the Browns coming off a potentially ugly road loss I think you're right they're too fearful to do it though.

Yeah, you get the sense that Kevin Stefanski is like fully helpless in this situation, which is not a good look.

It kind of reminds you of some of the things you'd see Rob Sala, like, you know, the power to make certain decisions is not in my hands.

It's hard to watch because this is a coach who has enough of a resume to

the illogical thing would be to assume that he is not understanding and looking at this is bad, bad football happening.

His offense is bad football.

And you see that and you acknowledge that and you recognize that as a head coach.

And that's what some of the helplessness sort of stems from to me is like, there's no way he doesn't recognize that.

There's no way he doesn't see how bad this football is.

But, Jordan, at some point, maybe you got to show some backbone.

And we've talked about this with Connor a couple of weeks ago.

Like, even if the organization doesn't want you to do it, do it.

Challenge the organization.

And if they fire you because you bench the guy everybody hates, you're not going to lose that public opinion battle.

It's like, I don't want to keep re-litigating this, but it's like, I almost feel like Stavansky is getting let off the hook a little bit.

It's like, oh, what could Kevin do?

It's like, Kevin's the coach.

Kevin can go out there and say it, and he hasn't.

So it either means he is afraid of the power dynamic and it doesn't have the power, or he doesn't see what we all see, which is equally disturbing if that's the case.

Yeah, and I don't think that it's the latter.

I think I love that discussion that you guys had a couple weeks ago with Connor because that, first of all, that would be totally unprecedented and also seemingly very out of this particular coach's personality.

He's never been an emotional guy.

He's never showed, I mean, he's never showed some of those things on the sideline that we're used to seeing from like a Brian Dayball, for example, or, you know, he's, he's just kind of always been that guy, Kevin Stefanski, you know,

and he's just kind of been calm and quiet and really hasn't made a lot of noise.

And so I don't think you lose, to your point, Dan, I don't think you lose any sort of optics battle or even a battle for future opportunities opportunities if you do take matters into your own hands.

But there has to be the only explanation for this right now, because again, it's just flat out plain bad football, is that there are internal dynamics that we don't see, that we don't know, that are truly creating one of the most obvious lame duck coaching situations that we've seen, not limited to the structure of that contract.

And I also push back at some of the arguments where it's like, oh, you can't field a competent or even NFL level roster with, you know, that amount of dead money that you would incur if you do move on from this quarterback.

And that might be the case, but that's your fault.

You did that.

So you might have to, and that might be the best situation for everybody moving forward, including potentially, you know, the coaching staff, the front office.

Like this, it's about to be ass saving time.

in Cleveland, frankly.

And so you're going to start to see the pieces start moving around and maybe some things start to bubble up in that regard.

And one last thing, not to belabor the point any further, but there's been a a lot of like Browns fans saying, like, well, no quarterback could succeed here.

And this is Stefanski's offense is terrible, blah, blah, blah.

Look, this is the same Kevin Stefanski who I've seen a lot of those kinds of comments on Twitter.

And this is the same coach who led the Browns to the playoffs last year with five different starting quarterbacks.

And

now, now, and one coach of the year, and now it's like, oh, it's his fault because he hasn't.

Well, it boils down to the person, too.

It's the person.

It's not that the next quarterback is going to come in and beat Joe Flacco 2.0.

It's replacing the person in the whole personal situation.

We just saw it.

You just saw it with Flacco.

He can do it if he has somebody capable.

All right, let's move on back into the boat.

All right, next game, Colts at Titans.

Titans coming off their bye, hoping that week of rest will help turn their season around.

Anthony Richardson for the Colts, likely going to return.

His health will be worth monitoring the rest of this week, but it seems like he'll be back.

This will be the first meeting between Anthony Richardson and Will Levis, quarterbacks drafted last year to be franchise leaders for their team.

And these are the two quarterbacks who lead the league in interceptions with six apiece.

There is one other quarterback who has six interceptions, Patrick Mahomes.

Hey, pretty good company for Levis and Richardson to be with.

So we could be in for a wild, fun-filled turnover fest of a game.

Quick note, Michael Pittman Jr.

is expected to miss a few weeks with a back injury, so he'll be out here.

And a crazy betting note on this one, I want to throw this to Money Mike.

This line opened with Indy as one and a half point favorites.

On Wednesday morning, it was still Indy minus one.

By Wednesday afternoon, the line had moved all the way to Titans by two and a half.

That's a lot of movement for like a few hours span.

I'm curious your take on that.

Did that move because of Anthony Richardson's?

I don't think so.

I think it was betting.

I mean, maybe, but that seems like a lot for a quarterback who's not that bad.

I don't know.

That's a lot of movement.

That seems like the Flacco movement inspired because I like AR.

I think he's going to be a very good quarterback.

I also think that Joe Flacco at 57 years old gives him a better chance to win games right now, man.

He can still spin it.

I know he didn't win last week, but he was spinning.

I don't know.

I don't have the stats in front of me, but I caught that game too on the rewatch.

And he was even moving well.

I mean, he's just like, he's playing with so much confidence.

And I was thinking, Mike, like now that the coaching staff has seen it, just like Stefanski saw it last year in Cleveland,

can you really file that away?

Because we all understand Richardson and how much they have invested in him.

And the fans file away.

Yeah, like at what point does Richardson feel heat if he, because he was struggling, let's face it, before he got hurt, he's got to start playing well because now you have a proven backup that's a fan favorite that balled out when he got the chance.

Well, I think the difference is that Anthony Richardson is such an exciting player.

When he puts things together, it just, it's, it's fireworks.

It's beautiful football.

It's these throws that are impossible.

So when he does put things together, I think that's the difference.

With the previous situation, you're like, ah, shit.

Yeah, but you know what I need?

Like, we need like some 12-yard completions.

We need to do some of the easy stuff and mix that in.

And I think that's something that's been missing so far this year.

Flacco had like a 20-yard run in that game, I believe, for a first down.

He's pretty awesome.

He was moving.

I think Mark actually unofficially pitched a new segment there with his game he couldn't wait to watch, admitting that he kind of picked it so late.

I think it was, I'm not pitching this as the best game of the week.

It could potentially be a new segment.

We just talk about a game that just could could potentially stink.

And I believe if we do get that going, Indy at Tennessee might qualify.

This is a NBA League pass game right here.

Very few things compelling.

Even though I like Anthony Richardson, just watching him sail the ball over Alec Pierce's head just doesn't move me on this Sunday, especially with no Michael Pittman Jr.

I like Michael Pittman, but without him, oh, this is really awful.

And Mason Rudolph didn't do what Joe Flacco did, but you know, the head coach coach in Tennessee's already annoyed with Levis.

His rope has to be very short coming off the bye.

Let's see what happens.

Back into the boat.

Well, not to correct you, but Callahan said Will Levis will start the entire season no matter what.

He even admitted that the goal of the year is to find out if Will Lovis is the guy.

Okay.

Not to correct you.

Proceeds to correct you.

Wait, are you saying that a head coach

has

it never happened that a head coach says one thing and then something else happens?

I agree.

And we're very early into the Callahan tenure, but so far he's actually been incredibly open and honest, and I'm kind of like shocked by it.

He

outright age.

Just stick a pin in it, Justin, until the next towering dumbass interception by your

Glory Boy quarterback.

And let's see if Brian Bo Callahan is strong as oak with his word about like this guy's going to start every game.

That's all.

Good attempt there, Dan, to move on to the next game without Justin going

additional comments on the Titans.

That was never going to happen.

Yes.

listen to my Titans podcast for more.

Okay, Chargers.

Wait, name the button.

All right, go ahead if you're going to do the plug.

Really get it out there.

Music City Audible.

All right, Chargers at Broncos.

The Broncos come into this game riding the highs of a three-game winning streak on the backs of an elite defense and solid, improving play from rookie quarterback Bo Nix.

Nicks has three touchdowns and no interceptions during the win streak.

But the Chargers have a great defense.

They are tied for top, or sorry, they are tied for fifth in EPA per play allowed.

They were off last week, so we've all kind of forgotten that they exist.

This could be a low-scoring slugfest between division rivals.

Yeah, the Chargers have become like Steelers West now, which is not my favorite thing, especially when you have a quarterback like Herbert, who has potential to be a fun guy to watch, but is not right now, or at least hasn't so far.

Here's

some sound.

We've been tracking this.

Sean Payton called Bo Nix a Ferris Bueller type.

Here's Payton when he was asked if he likes Bo Nix firing back at him on the sideline like that.

Absolutely.

All good.

All good.

It's the heat of the moment.

It's the game.

It's competitive.

He's fiery.

And it's,

look, we're in the business of passion.

We're looking for passion.

And we're looking for people who have passion for the game, not other things.

And I think that it's so important to him.

I loved his response.

We're on to the next play.

And

it's nothing.

And here's Bo Nicks commenting on Sean Payton and his style of coaching and who he is.

Pardon my French, but Payton is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass in two weeks, you have a diamond.

Okay.

He's got Moxie, this kid.

You know what?

It's interesting, though, because

I actually do believe Sean Payton on this one, that he does like it.

I also think that he believes he created this situation to get more out of the quarterback.

Oh, I believe that.

I hear both of those things in his voice and in his comments.

Like,

yeah, that's a quintessential Sean Payton right there.

Yeah, I'm really excited.

Number 20 in the HTC power rankings, the Broncos.

I had them higher.

I think I even had them in the Twilight Zone at 13 when I made my ranks just because they've really, I've watched them closely the last two weeks in real time, and I just have been so impressed by the defense and then the quarterback starting, some things clicking.

It's like, okay, this is intriguing.

I'm interested now in watching these Broncos games, and the Chargers are a nice little test here.

You know, they could really, Mark, start to build some momentum.

I agree with the idea that this could be a low-scoring slugfest.

The Broncos allowed the least amount of points in the league.

The Chargers, the second least.

It just feels kind of like it's going to be

kind of a fight to the finish on who survives.

I really think that it matters a lot.

The Chargers went into their buy.

It feels like they hadn't played in two months, but Rashawn Slater is back.

Joe Alt is back.

Derwin James is back.

But really specifically from the tackle side of things, because we're not getting the Justin Herbert of Old, and we see that.

They have a very specific thing they want to do.

I like offenses like this, where you've got a lot of nickel defenses and defenses built with lighter, faster players.

And it's like, we're going to tell you exactly what we're going to do.

We're going to come right at you, and we're just going to impose our will.

It's sort of like it's Steelers' West, but it's also maybe Ravens West if it works, if it works the way they want it to.

That said, like, you are going up against a great defense, and this is a game I would have, in years past, deeply avoided until later in the week.

It's spicy this time around.

35 and a half over-under on this one, Mike.

This is a Big 10 noon kickoff over-under.

That is super yucky.

Yucky, yucky, yucky.

I'd probably

take the under in that.

I might even tease that, though, if I was going to really throw some bread on that.

This game does feature, though, a guy who, if I was going to throw some money on an awards person early patrick sertan defensive player of the year hey i said that on sunday night i think he to me is the number one guy in the clubhouse right now i i think fred warner aiden hutchinson and patrick sertan are all like rotating with the they're making just amazing plays each fred's playing out of his mind he you know he really is uh and then patrick's also playing out of his mind and then uh justin mentioned the numbers for aiden hutchins those three would be my guys right now patrick is probably the only thing that makes this game super exciting for me i love great cornerback play.

That dude is nails, even though he picked off my boy Gardner Minshew and got him benched on Sunday.

Very sad about that.

Yes, I think some college in Mississippi.

No, no, where'd Gardner go to school?

Yeah, that's tough.

That's tough.

Although, yeah, Gardner,

proud Koog.

Antonio Pierce, days might be numbered there.

That might be the wrong call over there to bench.

It's been benched my boy.

It's been a little bit shaky.

And by the way, you mentioned Rivas earlier.

Darrell Rivas, he did not not win the Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, which is maybe one of the greatest seasons ever by a cornerback.

So they don't like to give that award to CBs because the stats are different.

They just give it to the guy that had 19 sacks usually.

But open your eyes and see how Sertan has really been just the linchpin of everything Denver does.

Speaking of Gardner Minshew and speaking of

Steelers West, Pittsburgh at Las Vegas Gravy Bowl.

Yes, another QB change.

Aiden O'Connell will start for the Raiders after Garden Minchie was benched mid-game last week.

And at quarterback for the Steelers, Russell Wilson is fully participating in practice, but he is still working with the twos.

For now, Mike Tomlin sort of just refused to engage in anything.

He called it all a hypothetical conversation about the quarterback position.

So for now, we're going to assume that the Raiders are the only team changing starters for this game.

Yeah, translation, Justin Fields was kind of shitty last week, but I need him to be shitty two weeks in a row for me to bench him.

That's how I see it.

Here's Antonio Pierce on why he switched to Aiden O'Connell as the starter.

I mean, it was a quarterback battle early on, and at this point, I think it's best to go with Aiden going forward.

In terms of the quarterback decision, do you envision this being kind of a constant battle throughout the year, or do you plan on making the switch for the good?

I don't plan on making switches at any time.

Just when it's time to make a switch, we make a switch.

I mean, Mike, he could not wait to bench Gardner Minshew.

He couldn't wait.

And once he got the chance, it was Curtin.

So good luck with AOC.

Yeah, I just don't watch the Raiders and see that the quarterback is the source of their issues like I do with some other teams.

We're talking about the Browns earlier.

That quarterback is playing really bad there.

Quarterback's playing bad in Tennessee.

Quarterback's not playing super well in Jacksonville.

There's other situations where it's more obvious, I think, Indianapolis as well.

I just think the Raiders just stink.

The whole thing, the defense is okay.

They're kind of banged up.

Just lost lost Christian Wilkins.

That stinks.

When I watch the Raiders, I'm like, dog, you guys can't run the ball at all.

Like, it's just not a good setup for any quarterback.

Aiden's probably going to struggle.

You know, the Browns remind me of the same thing.

They can't run the ball either.

You know, teams that just, your O-line stinks, can't run the ball.

They're lacking weapons because Devontae Adams is waiting on his flight confirmation to New York, either to the Jets or the Bills.

Like his hamstring is just hurt until that hits his phone.

Yeah, I just, the Raiders stink.

I think this was a bad, bad move by Antonio Pierce.

Honestly, not even just because

I'm, you know, the same school as Gardner Minshew.

Just like the O-line is bad, and they don't run, so they ask the quarterback to bail them out a little bit.

Kind of what I was talking about with the Cowboys do with Dak.

And Gardner is just the more mobile of the two.

He's better at improvisation.

That's kind of why he won the job as well.

It wasn't because of ball security or anything.

So yeah, my unbiased opinion, too, is Antonio Pierce, man.

He's just scrambling over there.

We've seen a lot of Raiders coaches do in this century.

And Mark, Pierce, to me,

his temperament, maybe I wonder about for the job because I think what got Gardner got is when you have a chance to take control of that game last week in a divisional game and the interception he threw that was a total shift, an emotional like H-bomb dropped, goes from scoring a touchdown to a pick six the other way on a bad pass.

Like, you know, that's stuck in Pierce's crawl.

And I just, I get the feeling that he does act emotionally, and that was kind of behind the benching.

And we'll see if it works.

It's just, I agree with Mike that I don't think the Raiders are a very good team, but I didn't look at this team and say the quarterback needs to change to get things on the right track, and yet that's where they went.

No, they rolled out the carpet for this specific dilemma that they're in.

I mean, we all saw this coming from the earliest parts of the offseason.

And so if you know it's going to happen, I think part of the test as a head coach in your first full season is to weather these storms from a public relations angle, too, and how you talk about your quarterbacks and your own players.

And I thought initially, like, going from Josh McDaniels to Pierce would solve a lot of this.

It seemed like that was happening when he took over.

That's one of the reasons he got the job.

I don't like the way he's

dealt with the situation.

And I think we're going to go back to, we're going to flip-flop back and forth between quarterbacks.

Your starred wide receiver has not been won over.

You're not a very good football team.

And I think it matters to your offensive line and to a player like Brock Bowers, who is, I think, the best tight end in the league right now, to have these quarterback switches back and forth.

It creates just a lot of issues.

And so an already bad team doesn't need to pile instability on top of weakness.

And that's what's happening.

One more hot, soggy dip into the gravy bowl.

Falcons at Panthers.

The Falcons have claimed.

What?

Just swallow some gravy?

Yeah.

Falcons at Panthers.

The Falcons have claimed all three of their victories this season in dramatic, game-ending fashion, game-winning drives.

But if they need to do that to beat the Panthers, we may have to drop the Falcons from the 11th spot in the HTC power rankings.

Divisional matchups can be weird, though.

So this game could be more interesting than we think.

A six-point spread here for Atlanta, but just because it's the NFC South, who knows?

Jordan?

Yeah,

I think that when we're talking, so I'm useless at sports betting conversation, but over-under, I do know.

I think that this is like, oh, the entire line or over, I'm failing at this description.

I think that the Falcons will be responsible for the points in this game, is what I was trying to say.

I think, I mean, this defense in Carolina, it's a disaster.

It was not built to be successful in the first place with the personnel decisions that they made.

This is a defense that was like kind of quietly old at a lot of key or premier positions, including outside linebacker and defensive backfield.

And it also just, you know, missing Derek Brown has really hurt them.

And they just, they are not a good unit from top to bottom, Shaq Thompson now out.

That's a huge loss too.

I just think Atlanta has the capability and the potential to put up a crapload of points against this defense.

And I also think it bears remembering that, you know, each Giro Everett, the Panthers defensive coordinator, and I don't know how you can coach your way.

Again, I brought it up a couple of shows ago, like you're signing three corners off the waiver wire in September.

Like that's how bad this was going to be immediately.

But Adiro Evero, there were whispers in the offseason when Dave Canalis got hired, especially because the two were not necessarily paired.

Like Dave Canalis didn't necessarily pick the guy and the ownership wanted to keep the defensive coach intact.

He's one of the best, the brightest young defensive coordinators in the league, despite what this season has done and looked like.

He could not get out of the contract.

And there were other teams that were sniffing around that were going to try to hire him out from under that contract, and they couldn't do it.

And so I think that situation bears monitoring because if this defense continues like this,

you are potentially looking at Dave Canalis trying to make his own decision for that position.

I just don't think anyone can coach their way out of this defense right now.

Tough situation.

All right.

Justin, you see that?

There's like that little ladder on the side of the gravy boat.

You climb out and then towel off.

Let's take a break.

We'll be back with our fearless predictions and then we say goodbye.

goodbye.

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All right.

We close the show as we always do by looking back at our fearless predictions in week five and looking ahead to week six.

Let's see how we did last week.

Ah, just one of the worst beats you could have.

I nailed it.

Joe Burrow was going to seize the moment, throw for over 300 yards and three-plus touchdowns.

He throws for nearly 405, a career high, but I had the Bengals winning, and they gagged away that game in the fourth quarter of 10 points with seven minutes to go.

You know, the cowardice and overtime taking the ball out of the great quarterback's hands and paying for it.

The football god said, hell no, two and three on the season.

Dugar, there will be a game with as many or more defensive/slash special teams TDs as offensive touchdowns.

You fall to two and three.

Sorry, Mike.

That was tough.

There was a bazillion defensive and special teams touchdowns this week.

Like the morning games or whatever.

Oh, my God.

It was just nuts.

And I just

couldn't get it.

I almost got it.

Damn near in the game that I covered.

I think that game was minus one.

Makes it hurt even more, doesn't it, Mike?

It's the game that you got the eyeballs on.

Yeah, that was a weird game, too.

I know we're not just here to recap that, but the way that ended, field goal block, touchdown.

Yeah, it was.

I think there were like two games where there was only just one more offensive touchdown than there were defensive or special teams touchdowns, which, I mean, considering the specificity of my prediction, is pretty nuts.

Mike's like in the Seahawks press box screaming in joy as the Giants are running that last special teams touchdown in.

No cheering from the press box.

You know, life sucks and then you die.

Gravedigger, it lists two games will be decided by 21 or more points.

Oh, got it.

Which games?

I think there were actually three.

Washington, Chicago were in the early, so I stopped paying attention after that.

But I do think one of the late games also hit it.

Nice and done, buddy.

And that pulls you to two and three and into first place tie with me and Mike.

Jordan, we have an asterisk.

I don't know what that's about.

Two skill players attempt TD passes, one completed.

What's happening here?

Well.

Well, all right, let's litigate this.

All right, go ahead.

This is

tough for me to do.

I'm not one to beg.

However, Travis Kelsey handing the ball off, Travis Kelsey, a skill player handing the ball off for a touchdown.

I'm hopeful that the jury decides to allow that as a qualification and finally get me on the board.

I'm also sick.

Yeah.

Nicely done.

What was the wording exactly?

Pull it up again, Justin.

Attempt touchdown.

no absolutely not jordan sorry what do you think this is please charity no look at this i am literally asking for charity right now i am making no qualms about that you have a bye week like you already have you you know ma'am you are 0-5.

I'll ask the jury because let's also include the fact that if I get on the board, Mark becomes the only person not to be on the board.

See, now you're playing to the jury's sympathies, and I like that.

No.

But we can't.

We can't.

I'm sorry, Jordan.

Did two guys even attempt touchdown passes?

We're being generous about the Mitchell.

Who was the Mitchell?

Justin texted us about it earlier this week.

A.D.

Mitchell.

We're being generous.

We're being generous about the direction of the film.

No, the A.D.

Mitchell touched, that was like a throwback, I believe, right?

I'm begging for charity, guys.

I know.

I'm begging for charity.

I don't often say this, but I'm disappointed that you would even stoop to this level with your begging bowl.

No, you're own five.

And so is Mark Sessler, who, you know, four clear underdogs win outright.

And here's the bad news.

Like, Mark, non-competitive, unserious the first several weeks.

He tries to get a layup, and he can't get that either.

So, like, I think Mark's in it right now.

He's searching.

There were three.

Three clear underdogs won outright.

You headed into Monday night, Kansas City, New Orleans, needing the Saints to pull.

Well,

I knew that.

I knew it was over.

And

you don't put your fortunes on the back of Derek Carr.

I saw that you misspelled my my name intentionally.

I'm sure that was a dueling Banjo's job by Justin and Dan, and I accept it.

Does it wait?

Does it get you?

Let me tell you the truth.

I had nothing to do with it.

Does that make you more or less angry?

It certainly, I will find Justin

between now and Sunday.

I will discover where he is.

I'll leave it there.

Oh, dang, Mark.

I thought you hit that.

Were the Dolphins not favored?

The Dolphins were favored in your game?

I looked at the closing lines, and by closing line,

the Dolphins were, and also he said clear underdogs.

I think the Dolphins were like a half-point underdog at the time of our recording, which is like basically a pick'em.

All right, the Texans were like plus one, I think, too.

That was a very close one, I believe.

Yeah, they were plus one.

I'm glad that Justin's deciding when the spread should be observed for this contest.

How did that happen?

That line might have moved too, or maybe they were one of the underdogs that won.

I can't remember now.

Can we move on?

All right, here we go.

Week six: Fearless Predictions.

I'll start.

This is the reason it's fearless is because, you know, 35 years of being a fan.

But the Basacea bump is a real thing.

Interim coaches, teams tend to play really hard and really well when an interim coach takes over.

So this is a shout out to Ulrich, the new coach of the Jets, or at least the interim coach.

I think they're going to play well on Monday night.

Also, obviously, they have a new play caller.

So there's all sorts of chaos around the Jets, but I think the chaos will lead to a really good Aaron Rodgers game and the Jets defense continuing to flummox Josh Allen in search mode himself right now.

Jets win by at least a touchdown.

Ballsy.

I like it.

All right, Mark, you.

Okay, let's see.

What do I have here?

Well,

I think the chaos continues around the league and that another coordinator is fired by the start of next Thursday's preview show.

We lose another coordinator to the ocean.

Otherwise, I'm in my personal water gate and I'm 0-6.

And I want to give Mark a little pop.

Like, Hackett, for instance, counts.

If a guy gets demoted, we'll count it.

Doesn't need to be dismissed out of the building, lose their responsibilities.

What if it's like somebody takes play calling away, but they're still technically the offensive coordinator or whatever?

Does that count?

Right.

Well, that's Hackett.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, he's demoted.

Yeah.

We'll give you that.

Sure, sure.

We'll give you that.

Okay.

All right.

Jordan.

Yeah.

So

I think that Devontae Adams is going to be traded before our next taping.

That's my fearless prediction.

We are still pretty far out from the trade deadline, and Devontae has made it clear he also is wanting to go, which has probably tanked some of the value.

You've been hearing this reporting about the Raiders want more and they'd be open to a second rounder, but it doesn't sound like they're being offered things like that right now.

But I just don't think that Tom Tolesco is going to be able to wait this out any longer.

And I think that Devontae Adams will be on the move before our next taping.

Okay.

Mike?

All right.

I am.

I'm trying to think if the mirror needs to come out on that one.

Do you need to be more specific

about where he's going?

Mark, what do you think about this one?

I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen this week.

Jordan is seeking victory.

Well,

that's what tells me they're not getting what they want and that they are trying to have a stare-down with him, essentially.

Because if it didn't happen, right when they said it was going to, right when all of this is coming out publicly, that I think that now they're kind of in like a face-off situation and a face-off with other teams as well who are trying to squeeze them and continue to devalue the trade.

So that's why I think that this becomes fearless, because if it didn't already happen, then they're trying to squeeze the entire situation.

Okay.

And the Raiders are an unpredictable outfit, always have been.

Mike, close it out.

All right.

I'm going with some points this weekend being scored in a specific way.

I got 10 quarterback rushing touchdowns happening in week six.

Previous high this year was eight in week one.

I like that.

I love it.

Love it.

All right.

That's a good idea.

I love it.

I love Thursday, Thursdays.

I need to pick your brain, Mike, on how to do these.

I mean, I've only got two.

I think you guys are all in good shape, though.

I'm counting on Jaden Daniels and Lamar Jackson to go nuts for my prediction this week.

All right, Justin, I apologize.

I once again have forgotten to include you.

Your fearless prediction before we sign off.

My fearless prediction is that at least one of these replacement quarterbacks, which could be like Spencer Rattler, Drake May, or Aiden O'Connell, will get a win this week.

I love that one.

Great one, Justin, because I don't have a prayer for any of those teams, but

that's a good one.

I like that.

Thanks.

And I apologize, Justin.

It's okay, Dan.

It's been a long show.

Almost two hours.

What are you trying to say?

I'm just like a lot of habits.

Like, I get it.

You're trying to get out of here, trying to wrap things up.

So I get it.

Getting a grace.

I get it.

I've got you two.

Sort of just working through the ups and downs of life together.

Yes, that's all.

I love it.

All right.

Thank you to everybody for listening.

Thank you to Jordan and Mike.

Every game that we just recapped, you will be able to hear, or every game that we just previewed, excuse me, we will recap on Sunday.

So make sure you come back for that.

And yes, Thursday Night Football Recap coming up later tonight.

And tomorrow morning on the Patreon, we will draft these games to see who watches what come Sunday.

Patreon.com/slash heed the call.

All right, thank you to everybody.

Till next time, heed the call.

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