NFL Week 4 Recap!!

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The Heed the Call podcast.

Sam Darnold, MVP Yod, Sam Darnold, MVP Yod, Sam Darnold, MVP Yachts.

Heyo!

Week four,

Sunday.

Heed the Call.

Dan Hansis, Mark Sessler, with Connor Orr.

And Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

And Mark,

I feel like things are starting to feel

starting to feel real tempers flaring

spicy press conferences you could sense pressure building in different places I found Sunday to be one spicy taco yeah I think we're at that point where

you know coaches that spend all summer in cozy relationships with the press and everything feels wonderful and now that you've got the coaches who are when things get tough, they start dropping the F-bombs left and right.

That's just who they are.

But then, even when you get coaches that don't typically do that, when they start doing it and their children are asking about them, a couple teams are in some pretty dark places.

And that's kind of what we focused on on Thursday a little bit.

And we got it today.

We got it from a couple teams.

Well, Connor, now that I think about it,

that's a great observation from the SESDOG.

Coaches

usually don't start hearing the F-bombs.

You don't hear it in September typically, the first couple of weeks, because there's a level of control and

you're kind of within yourself a little bit more and you have so much in front of you.

But now the frustrations and leaking out with some spicy F-bombs, that's a sign that things are going next level.

I think it's like a recognition of the fact that coaches, especially, are the easiest ones to fire when all of this goes wrong.

And it really does, after four weeks, it's a good indication of like hope and hopelessness.

And I do think some people have

fully embraced the spiral.

All right, so you know how this goes by now.

We're going to go through every game that was played on Sunday, finishing up with Sunday night football, Bills, Ravens.

So, without further ado, by the way, let's start a new tradition.

Justin, do you have the Jersey Shore DJs air horn?

I think that's a good way to send us into action.

Hit it, baby.

It was a tale of two halves at Lambeau Field on Sunday between the Packers and the Vikings, with the Vikings racing out to a 28-0 lead.

Sam Darnold tossed three first-half touchdowns, but it was the return of Jordan Addison that helped spark the early offense for Minnesota.

He found the end zone twice in the first 20 minutes of the game, but in the second half, the Packers' offense came alive, rattling off 22 unanswered points as part of a 29-3 scoring run.

Jordan Love returned to the lineup for this game through for 389 yards and four touchdowns, but also three pretty costly interceptions.

Two missed field goals from the rookie kicker Brayden Narvison proved to be the difference as Brian Flores' defense allowed over 400 yards for the first time this season, but ultimately made enough timely plays, forcing four turnovers, two failed fourth-down conversions to secure the 31-29 victory.

Byron Murphy was awesome in this game and Kevin O'Connell has the Vikings off to their first start, 4-0, their best start, 4-0 since 2016.

Now, Aaron Jones in this game,

returning to Lambeau Field, had 139 total yards, but did not find the end zone.

They did everything they could to get him in the end zone on one of their last drives.

He wasn't really the story of this game.

Like this one felt like it was going to be over at halftime.

And then the Packers came out.

They forced some crucial turnovers.

They executed on offense, got themselves back in the game.

But ultimately, what it felt like watching this was when Jordan Love had time in the pocket, which was most of the second half, very rarely in the first half, he made a lot of big plays down the field.

But against the Blitz, he was 16 of 25.

25 attempts against the Blitz for just 157 yards, one touchdown, but two of his three interceptions.

Yeah, from a distance, it...

It was playing out because what is this game?

It's 28-0 going into halftime, and then a horrific special teams gaff

by Minnesota gets Green Bay life, and then they're able to build on that and make this game interesting.

Did Love look like a rusty quarterback early on, or was this more of Brian Flores cooking?

What was the kind of breakdown, in your opinion?

I think a little of both.

Like, it really felt like if he had time to throw, he was on point.

I think there were a few early misses where he was like a little low on a throw, a little high on a throw.

But for the most part, it felt like, you know, if he had an open receiver and he had time to find them, he was going to find them.

It was all those times where he was under pressure.

And it felt like in the first half, half, he was just consistently being beaten up behind the line of scrimmage.

And it was one of those things where we talked about it on the pregame show: like, do you bring him back to face this kind of defense when he may not be fully 100% yet?

I don't think he looked not 100%.

There was commentators talking about, like, can he really move and escape the pressure as well as he needs to be able to?

And I thought that that wasn't really the issue.

It was just Flores blitzing from every direction on defense.

And really, I don't know if it was confusing him or if it was just like he had to get rid of the ball.

And a few times it was like, I'm just going to chuck it and hope my guy's there.

They, I mean, talk about spicy coach behavior.

Matt LaFleur got an unsportsman-like flag for going absolutely nuts.

And I'm pretty sure it was because of a situation where he thought that there was a timeout that he had called, and they wouldn't let him do it, and it caused chaos.

But I mean, it kind of shows you the intense pressure they were under at that point in the game because I think that first half arguably is the worst half in LaFleur's coaching era.

And like he was probably went into the week as the coach of the year, like front runner, if it's not O'Connell, for what he had done without Jordan Love.

So you get Jordan Love back, and like the running game withered up, and you got, you know, it looked not like the Packers of a couple weeks ago and last week.

So that was an interesting development to see them crumble the way they did early on.

All right, spicy Matt LaFleur, sign me up.

Let's listen in.

There was a lot of critical mistakes that we made.

Not all, obviously, by the players.

I'm absolutely embarrassed that I got unsportsman-like,

and when

you know, you expect composure from your team, and then you're doing that, like that, that's a bad look.

So that's fair.

What happened was they he uh love threw a pass to I think it was Romeo Dobbs, and he caught the ball in the end zone, but then he was being tackled out of the end zone.

He sort of juggled the ball and then he went down at the one and like he didn't really gain control of the ball until he was not in the end zone anymore.

It's clearly not a touchdown.

And everyone on Twitter and the commentators, everyone seems to to think when LaFleur went psycho mode that he was like, that should have been a touchdown.

But then they showed an angle of him running down the sideline, jumping up and down, calling timeout, and they didn't give him the timeout.

And that's when he throws the headset and goes absolutely crazy, unsportsman like 15 yards, takes him from the one-yard line to the 16-yard line, but they scored on the next play.

So it actually didn't hurt them.

That was like one of the mistakes that didn't hurt them.

So it is, it's good to see the accountability from the head coach, but that one actually was fine at the end of the day.

And let's talk about Darnold.

So three touchdowns, as you said, in the first half.

It looks like for Green Bay to get back in the game that they cooled off in the second half.

But, you know, just watching the highlights, I saw the second, I think it might have been the second touchdown pass.

The throw to Jefferson is just a perfect throw.

And Jefferson is such a great receiver, one-of-one type guy.

He's got what they call the quiet hands.

So the CB, who thinks he's got him step for step, he just go, boop, he just sticks those hands in, the ball hits him, and it's just like, here is an absolutely an outstanding wide receiver, but here's a quarterback that's playing at a very high level.

And you heard the zum drop at the top of the show.

Like,

listen, it's early, so we're not going to talk MVP, but the fact that Sam Darnold, MVP odds, the fact that Donald.

Sam Darnold, MVP odds.

Okay.

Okay.

Shut up, Dan.

The fact that Darnold's even in this conversation, and the Vikings are 4-0, and now they get on the plane.

And if the script couldn't get any juicier Connor or now he Darnold is going to play the New York Jets the team that failed him one of the teams that failed him and he gets a little revenge game in London so that is a nice setup for a potential 5-0 start for the Vikings so life is good for Minnesota and all the fans and we'll get to the Jets but this is like absolutely a critical linchpin point of their season.

And it's Sam Darnold that could come and effectively deliver what could happen.

I don't want to spoil it for you, but you want me to?

It's going to go terribly for the New York Jets.

That is my prediction, but it's not even a prediction.

Just stand by.

That's all.

Here's my thing, though.

The Vikings cannot let Darnold off the plane without a contract extension.

They need to do it now.

Or they could do what I said.

Get that rookie out of the building.

Trade JJ.

Get him out of the building or.

Darnold started this game nine of 10 for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

He was on fire to come out.

And just a couple more notes.

Christian Watson was taken off on a cart, ruled out with an ankle injury pretty early on.

Man, he's

struggled to stay on the field the last couple of years.

That's very frustrating.

It is.

And I also mentioned Byron Murphy had a great game, just to expand on that quickly.

He had an interception on a deep throw from Jordan Love, and then on the next Packers' possession, Byron Murphy punched the ball out of Tucker Craft's hands, and Minnesota recovered.

And those were key moments because that interception, I think it was in the end zone, and then they were driving down the field on the next possession.

So holding off that Green Bay comeback, comeback, I mentioned it was like timely plays by the Vikings' defense.

It really was like every time the Packers got close to coming back and really taking the lead for the first time, bang, here comes the Vikings with a huge play.

And Byron Murphy had two of those.

And one last question for you, Justin.

Fine work on this game.

What is the name of the Packers kicker again, or maybe soon-to-be former Packers kicker?

Braden Narvison spent training camp with the Titans, got cut right before the Vikings.

I didn't need any Titans info.

Didn't need it.

You almost made it through.

You were so close.

What number does the kicker wear?

Oh, my God.

Number 44.

I'll help you out on that one.

If you want to be taken seriously in our league, do not suit up like a fullback, okay?

Because it's going to affect your kicking.

And I hope Narvison resurfaces somewhere and has a long and storied career, but it ain't going to happen with number 44 on your back.

Yeah, because all the number changes that are happening with the other positions, I've grown accustomed accustomed to, you know, they look, they're normalized to me, but not a kicker in double digits, you know, too much.

Let's learn and get better.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now we pivot.

Good job, Sam.

Oh, this feels so good.

I'm so happy for you.

But just let's calm down on the hero narrative in London if we can.

If you can.

To Houston we go.

Sess dog.

A wrenching day at the office for Jacksonville Club determined to tease their fans with the concept of a victory, but not the reality of one.

Lost moments from Trevor Lawrence were a factor.

Trailing early in the third, Lawrence missed on a deep laser to a wide-open Christian Kirk.

Plays later, he's demolished in his own backfield to trigger a punt.

There was a first half sideline shot to Brian Thomas that fluttered away due to miscommunication.

The next drive, another rope to Thomas, was overthrown.

I believe Thomas is like a, he looks the part.

He is a core weapon.

Tank Bigsby looks really good on the ground, but it feels like a chore when Lawrence completes 54% of his throws.

He's missing open targets.

His massive frame also wasn't enough to punch in a critical fourth and goalkeeper.

It's just like it boils down to Lawrence too often.

On the flip side, CJ Stroud and Nico Collins continued their deep ball dark magic.

Stefan Diggs was a help, but this was a slog.

The Texans overcame a second half snooze, five straight punts, and a whopping 12 penalties.

That has been a problem for them.

Laramie Tunsell, especially wearing red gloves, getting flagged for holding.

Don't wear red gloves.

His entire body seems to be made of flags at this point.

The Texans can win up and down games like this.

The Jaguars, though, feel farther and farther away from a plan.

Texans 24, Jaguars 20, and a crusher.

Doug Peterson was not happy.

Yeah,

why don't we start there?

So we'll get to the Texans.

They're 3-1, and they're in good shape.

But the Jaguars are 0-4, and

the 1992 San Diego Chargers are the only team to make the playoffs after an 0-4 start.

So they're cooked.

I mean, history tells us that after the game,

Doug Peterson, who, to your point, Connor, you know, someone's head's going to roll at some point if this continues.

It could happen sooner than later.

It's not the craziest thing for a guy to lose his job after four games.

You know, this press conference starts very, very early in a,

I wouldn't call it an antagonizing way for Doug Peterson, but the real reality of the situation about his job security.

My status?

Yeah.

After an 0-4 start.

I mean.

No.

I mean,

it's kind of a strange question, but okay.

All right.

And then he was asked if, you know, Peterson, who obviously, you know, he's a guy that was known as a play caller, would he be potentially taking over for Press Taylor as the play caller of the Jags after an 0-4 0-4 start.

For what?

I thought he called it a great game.

As coaches,

we can't go out there and make the plays, right?

It's a two-way street.

So,

you know, you guys can sit here and point the finger all you want, and that's fine.

Point it right at me.

I can take it.

Okay?

What do you think there, Mark?

It sounds like

he has to make a choice there, I guess.

Like, he defends his play caller, and that is not defending the players.

He's kind of going after them a little bit for not executing.

Well, yeah, I mean, this is a game where the Jaguars had so many chances to win this.

It's got to be extremely frustrating for the coaches because they ran the ball well.

They ran the ball for 6.6 yards per carry.

They had some big plays on the ground.

And you've got, like, Brian Thomas is wide open on plays, and you've got Christian Kirk open in areas too.

And it's like, there are five, that's what I point out, five or six moments where it's not Trevor Lawrence making the play he needs to play.

And so it wasn't like, wow, Press Taylor is in way over his head.

This doesn't look like a functional offense in terms of scheme.

And I don't think that's the case.

I think they're just, some of their better players do not get the job done.

They put a lot of heat on C.J.

Stroud.

I thought their defense made C.J.

Stroud uncomfortable.

They had like six straight punts at one point.

They took a complete nap in the second half.

And then the difference was Stroud making plays on the final drive, unlike the Jaguars.

And the other difference was that Stroud and like Nico Collins

have a special ability on deep passing schemes to absolutely connect.

They've got great chemistry.

Stefan Diggs got involved because Tank Dell was not in the game.

So, I mean,

they did what they needed to do when it mattered most, but it was a rough outing for the Texans offensively compared to coming off the Vikings game.

You would have liked to see a little bit more against divisional opponents that know each other, but the Jaguars players simply didn't execute, and especially at quarterback when it mattered most.

Take us through that final drive for the Texans.

They're down 20-17 after a three and out by Jacksonville, and Houston goes nine plays 69 yards over 236 to take the lead.

Well,

to me, it had a lot to do with Stroud just absolutely keeping his composure, making plays, and there was a little bit less heat on him than there was on previous drives.

They made life tough for him early on, but they just went on and executed.

They really honestly were asleep for,

I think, five or six drives in a row.

They looked not like the Texans that we know.

And then it was come out, make big plays, plays, and

that's the story of the Texans for me.

Like, they just execute a quarterback at the quarterback position.

There was a couple times, like, interesting, like the Stefan Diggs touchdown on what was going to be, like, that really cool throwback to C.J.

Stroud, which I really wanted to see them actually complete that because you saw Stroud kind of going out and sneaking out, running the Matt Saracen route for all the Friday Night Lights fans out there.

But, like,

Diggs then just cut through the defense and ran it in for a touchdown anyway.

And to me, that's like, you know, you're seeing some of these teams that are actually in it, right?

That are actually, and gang tackling for a lot of these teams, you know, it's evident of like the effort and the desire.

This one was just like, yeah, all right.

They just kind of like let him score.

He, well, he had great vision on that play, but you're right.

That went, that went completely not to script.

And they, it almost like it was an open barn door just allowing him to dance into the end zone.

It's a strange play.

It's interesting.

You know, Tank Dell was having a great year before he got hurt last year.

Stefan Diggs, he's the guy with the resume, and he's been solid from them overall.

But yeah, Nico Collins is the first Texan to surpass 450 yards receiving in the first four games, which is, you know, when you think about some of the history of the Texans, Andre Johnson

jumps to mind.

That's a big deal.

And yeah, so the Texans go 0-4 for the first time since the start of the 2021 season.

And Peterson can say it's a strange question, but that's a question I think that has to be asked in that press conference, and he's going to have to deal with that.

And we'll see what happens next.

Who do the Jaguars have next?

I mean, they host the Colts next Sunday.

You lose that game.

You almost ownership's got to do something.

You're not going to bench a quarterback, right?

Or are you just going to go through a miserable season and lose every week?

At what point does something change?

But it could not be worse.

What's weird, too, is they have that extended stay in London, too.

So that puts the whole coaching staff in a weird spot as well.

It's very odd.

Tough start.

Tough start for the for them.

I think not to belabor the point, but it's like if Doug Peterson wanted to show us all what he thought was the problem, like it does seem like he's intimating that Trevor is the problem, then that's really his only recourse.

And I remember Ben McAdoo did that to Eli Manning, and then he immediately got fired after that.

So it's almost like one of those things you can't do.

But if you really do feel a conviction, I mean, Ben McAdoo is right.

It's just, you know, it's just something we're not allowed to do.

Also, like, that was Eli in the Sunset years.

Right.

This is a 27-year-old Trevor Lawrence that just got a massive contract like two months ago.

And it's like, I don't know, man.

Like, that contract is looking dicey.

And it really, what it does, the point that you're making, which is a great one, is like it handcuffs the head coach.

What is he supposed to do about it?

You know, it's whoo-ee.

All right.

Let's move on to Atlanta.

Dateline, October 5th, 2017.

Two weeks ago, Koo was kicking the ball fine.

Anthony Lynn said, Anthony Lynn,

he had the one bad outing in Miami.

Players have a bad day.

But watching him over the last couple of weeks, pregame and practice, you know, I've seen enough.

It was time to bring in someone with a little more consistency and experience.

Kick in the door, you know, with the sun blast in behind them and the smoke.

Kick in the door.

Sure.

Nick Novak, career journeyman, replaces Young Wei Ku.

Hey, Anthony Lynn.

You blew it!

Young Wei Ku is an absolute assassin.

The kicker pipes one from 58 yards out with two seconds left.

The difference in an Atlanta Falcons 26 to 24 win over their hated rival, the New Orleans Saints.

And my goodness.

tough one

the tough one for the Saints obviously I mean the Falcons

won without scoring an offensive touchdown they got scores from their defense

on

a pick six from their special teams

and

in the end a 58 yard field goal is what they need to win the game and afterwards Dennis Allen who again you know a couple weeks ago we were all saying the Saints are on top of the world and their offense and

the offense had kind of they've unlocked something with Clint Kubiak.

Again, it sputters a little bit.

In fairness, they're batting a ton of injuries, and that's, I think, really slowed the momentum that they had in the first two weeks.

But

despite all that, to give up 14 points on defense and special teams and then get beat on a 58-yarder, you could understand the frustration.

Here was Dennis Allen after the game.

Those are the kind that

rip your heart out.

But I know we got a good football team in that locker room.

Now we have to play better.

We can't spot a team, 14 points,

a good team, and expect to win those type of games.

Yeah, so you come into this game, you're missing two offensive linemen.

DeMario Davis is such a key part of their lineup.

He's out.

Guys like Alvin Kamara, Olave playing through injuries.

Taysom Hill also, I can't believe I'm saying this in 2024, but Taysom Hill is a big part of this offense.

And when he disappears, he scored two touchdowns in the first half and then left at halftime with an abdomen injury, and their offense really dried up without them.

So they've become inconsistent.

But before I want to kill Kubiak or say Dennis Allen should be the next guy fired, it's like this team is going through it right now on injuries.

And if you're the Falcons, you'll take the win.

And you absolutely love it, Mark, because it is a rival and you really stick it to him in a heartbreaking manner.

And you hear the head coach dying at the podium.

So you love that.

But their offense leaves a lot to be desired and has really for most of the season.

They've stolen two games.

Otherwise, they'd be in Jacksonville territory.

Well, and this was the Saints team that, you know, not thanks to Jameis Winston, not to Dennis Allen, piled on at the end of last season with that final touchdown that was a slap in the face.

I think if you're Atlanta, because we're learning a lot about this division team by team, they're they're very much to me like,

how I feel about like the Saints gets altered a little bit, how I feel about the Falcons.

The Falcons are an up-and-down mission, but they are learning to play with the vice grip tightening at the end of games.

I mean, it seems like to be a weekly thing, and to get out of here with no offensive touchdowns and not the kind of game that you'd want to design out of the gate, but to have a complete game.

Like, I thought that the pick six by Troy Anderson was a huge moment in this.

And Troy Anderson is a guy that like played both ways in college and had like 38 touchdowns.

So that's not the kind of guy you want to throw an interception to.

But little moments like that, I would ask you, though, like the Derek Carr experience after two weeks, and this is just sort of what I mean is like, is he coming back down to earth?

I know that you're more pro-Derek Carr than some, but do you see a difference in his play?

Or is it the injuries, the offensive line issues and everything else?

Yeah, I think the offensive line, which was such a big part of those first two weeks, to lose two guys, not just, you know, two guys, not Jags, but guys that were playing at a high level, has really affected what they've they've been able to do and there's also we talked about with what faggio did in week three uh taking away some of the things that really worked well so this is where clint kubiak and and derek carr and everyone else in that building need to try to pivot and figure things out because nobody cares that you're beat up with injuries like you got to find a way uh to to make it happen but yeah it is it's just interesting to me that Taysom Hill, like it felt like the offense changed for the worse once he exited the game.

And you wouldn't think that would happen.

I think he's like 34 years old now, but it's that important.

So if I'm a Falcons fan, yeah, I'm pumped today, but I'm also, I understand that we're a little bit fortunate.

We know how we won that Eagles game.

Great comeback at the end, but it could have easily went the other way.

This one, same thing.

Even, you know, they get a pass interference that sets up the coup kick, and Cousins gets three passes.

And none of them move the offensive yard.

So you got to settle for a damn near 60-yard kick.

But in 2024, that's a kick you can make, which is so crazy.

Uh, but there you go, both teams two and two.

Uh, and you have the uh

let's see,

you have the Saints traveling to Kansas City next Monday night to get the Chiefs.

Good luck with that, and the Falcons down a short week against the Bucs.

All right, let us keep moving.

We move now to Tampa.

Speaking of the Bucs, how'd that one go, Connor?

Climb aboard our magic train.

Join us inside.

Pocus pocus, Joker's ride.

Come and take a spin on this carney ride.

Philot Jay of the Insane Clown Posse wrote this in 1997, quite possibly about being high on cough suppressant.

But it could have been the foretelling of the wild and unpredictable Buccaneers dynasty to come.

This 33-16 throttling of the Eagles was a bigger beatdown than the score indicated.

Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Cohen dissected a confounded and sloppy Eagles defense.

Baker Mayfield bowled into the end zone on a zone read.

Mike Evans got single coverage in the red zone and scored.

Mayfield hit Trey Palmer on a ripper that put Tampa Bay up 24-0 just before halftime.

The Eagles, without Devonta Smith and A.J.

Brown, had no answers for Jalen Hurts, who looked every bit as ho-hum as his 56.4 QBR indicated.

Baker Mayfield played well despite the fact that he got a little heat from Tommy during pregame.

I love it.

What was that?

Wait, tell me more about that.

What was the heat he got from Tommy?

Tom Brady, I assume you refer to.

Yes, Tom Brady was the color commentator for the game.

So I thought he just went and took vacation with the Cowboys.

He actually goes to other games.

He did.

He showed up for this one.

It was good to see him.

So earlier in the week, Baker Mayfield had made some comments about, you know, he was just being himself, brought a little bit lighter of an energy, and all the

the Buccaneers are playing really tight and nervous, basically, with Tom Brady.

And so, Tom Brady had like one of the strangest responses that I've ever heard because it includes a very weird flex.

So, he said on the broadcast, he was teed up by Kevin Burkhart, and he said, I thought stressful was not having any Super Bowl rings.

So, there was a mindset of a champion that I brought to work every day.

This wasn't daycare.

If I wanted to have fun, I would have went to Disneyland with my kids time tom relax bro probably should have anyway

exactly it's not like you could didn't have that option it doesn't have to be either or tom you should really do that you should go to disneyland with your kids he's got a bitterness streak you see it in that commercial of his too there's just an element a little beeline of bitterness like news flash tom like Actually, spending the time with your kids in Disneyland is more important than championship rings.

Like, maybe that's something that could have been considered.

Anyway, moving off that.

shout out.

Yeah, when Baker is in the Baker groove, he's a lot of fun to watch.

I can't wait to watch this one on Game Pass and the numbers back it up.

I think it's cool that Bucky Irvin and Rashad White both ran 10 for 49.

That's just cool.

That works.

That will play.

And on the other side, yeah, you said that

Hurts' stats look bad.

You're saying the play looks bad.

And the Eagles are 2-2, which isn't terrible, right?

But it does feel like it's still maybe not the greatest operation.

What were you hearing after this game from Siriani, my boy?

Well, so the Eagles at this point are, I would say, like Chicago and maybe New York, depending on what's going on, probably the three worst markets to be losing and to have your back against the wall.

And right now, Siriani has kind of assumed the posture of my back is against the wall.

He came out and he basically accepted the blame, said, I'm not doing a good enough job.

And if you remember, he had some really aggressive high wire attempts to kind of gain favor with Philadelphia early in his his career.

There was the flower analogy, and then people started mockingly showing up, dressed as flowers to games, like when the team was not doing well.

So, Siriani is always one of those guys that has amazed me with his ability to endear himself to this place.

But as it turns, we're now seeing him kind of combat the perception that, because what they've lost, how many of their last, you know, they had the losing streak towards the end of the year, two game two losses to start this season.

So, I think he's really in the thick of it right now.

I saw that Mayfield, he was 30 of 47 for 347 yards.

And I also can see that there have been moments in the past when A.J.

Brown or Devonta Smith were not in the lineup that it definitely affected the play of Jalen Hurts.

And I thought that the absence of Lane Johnson today also equaled a lot of havoc because now I don't believe it's his brother or his son, but Fred Johnson came in in Lane Johnson's place and gave up nine pressures in a sack.

And when that stuff starts to happen to this version of Jalen Hurts, we've seen a lot of turnover-worthy throws.

He's had problems.

He had another fumble today as well.

So I don't know if it's a combination of like, my guys aren't in there, the protection's bad, but Jalen Hurts is creating mistakes as well.

And it's like,

it's all that, but then it's also this Bucs team has their number.

I mean, they destroyed them in the playoffs.

And then you would kind of think you'd find a way to not have this happen again.

And it's, look at both teams have been banged up.

Like, this is a wild beatdown.

And it leaves me thinking like the Eagles are just going to be this all year long.

Well, you know, it hurts, by the way, he's now one and four at five career starts against the Bucks, including two playoff losses.

And I, and Siriani, like, let's get a little more specific about, hey, Nick, about what you can do to be better.

How about, let's understand, especially with A.J.

Brown out of the lineup, Saquon Barkley is your best player, and he has 94 yards in this game on 10 carries.

Like, is that a game script situation?

But even if it is a game script situation, I don't know.

It's just like, give that boy the rock.

So

it's a good point that you brought that up.

So they had designed something for Saquon that had him so painfully wide open on this route down the sideline.

And Hurts just like, either he saw him late or didn't see him at all and just fired the ball out of bounds.

And you have this wide open Saquon Barkley being like, what is happening here?

But the one thing that I'll note too is so they have the broadcast view with that kind of dangle camera.

And sometimes you can get right behind the quarterback and you can see what he's looking at in a play.

Todd Bowles' pressure packages in this game were just ridiculous.

And on basically every third down, it looked like every single person was coming.

And then all of a sudden, about half the people would drop back.

And then some passive nickel corner who didn't even look like he was in the play just come screaming in off Hurts' blind side.

And it was like that every third down.

The Eagles constantly back themselves up into these situations.

And at best, you're hitting like these check downs for three yards and everyone's getting gang tackled.

So it was just

one piece of hell after another for Jalen Hurts in this one.

Man,

the Bucs, good for the Bucs.

Three and one.

And kind of a hard team to figure out because they didn't look like a very good team last week, but they've had some really big games now.

And this is kind of the Baker experience, right?

Like he's very high-low guy and the team kind of follows him.

They're not boring.

They're They're not boring.

I think Baker legitimately has grown as a quarterback, too.

I mean, when they got wiped out a week ago, they were banged up as well.

It's like Vita Vea in there is like a completed six sacks today.

I think they came in with two on the whole year.

So if they can do that, like I don't know about the Bucs.

They feel to me like they're just proud of who they are, how they're built, and they kind of have a DJF attitude to the rest of the league.

All right, let's take a break.

And when we get back, we continue to roll through Sunday.

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all right welcome back let's get right back into it bring back in gravedigger and to sofi stadium we go

all right

Kansas City at LA Chargers.

Patrick Mahomes entered this matchup looking to get his ninth win in 11 games against his division rival.

But the Chiefs found themselves in a hole early after a Carson Steele fumble on the first drive and a Patrick Mahomes pick on the second drive.

Rashi Rice suffered a brutal injury on that interception return, was carted off the field, and quickly ruled out.

We'll get to him in a little bit.

But that left us wondering, who's going to step up for Kansas City?

Isaiah Pacheco, he's out.

Hollywood Browns, already out.

Now Rashi Rice is injured too?

Well, it wasn't pretty, but the Chiefs went back to their Super Bowl formula, relying on a stout defense and timely plays from Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes to grind out this victory.

The Chargers finished with just 224 total yards on the day.

Their 10 points that they scored came off of those first two drives as a direct result of Chiefs' turnovers.

And Kareem Hunt is back.

He played a big factor on the Chiefs' final go-ahead drive, helping lead the Chiefs to victory 17 to 10.

And I want to talk a little about Travis Kelsey, who finished this game with 89 yards on seven catches.

He came into this game with 69 yards on eight catches total over the first three games combined.

The only real explosive play in this game outside of a big early completion to Kelsey, which led immediately to the steel fumble, was Mahomes' longest touchdown since 2022, his longest completion by air distance, 62.2 yards in the air, of his career.

A beautiful bomb to the rookie, Xavier Worthy, got behind the Chargers' defense for a crucial touchdown.

Worthy also had the game ceiling catch on third and six with just over two minutes remaining that allowed the Chiefs to bleed out the rest of the clock.

So Rashi Rice goes down.

Travis Kelsey steps up big, and Xavier Worthy, we're wondering where the explosive plays have been.

Haven't seen him since week one.

He came through in a major way in this game.

Yeah, I got to watch this one a little closer, Justin, because I had a rocking chair game in San Francisco.

You know, I guess it's just like get used to it.

The Rashi Rice injury is terrible.

I mean, it was one of the more catastrophic interceptions you'll ever see.

It was a bad Patrick Mahomes overthrow that was picked off by the Chargers.

During the run back,

the ball carrier loses the ball.

That leads to a scrum and diving back towards a loose ball.

And that's where Patrick Mahomes is directly involved with a collision with Rashi Rice.

So Mahomes throws the interception, and it's not his fault, but he's the one that actually ends up injuring Rice on that collision.

And immediately, you knew it was serious.

And Rice

gets carted off.

And you know, it's bad when Andy Reid is asked at halftime by the on-field reporter, like, and obviously he's not involved.

He's not back in the locker room where they're doing x-rays, and he makes it be known.

I don't remember, Connor, do you remember what was the exact words he used, but like that it wasn't good, I think it was.

Basically, like, did you have an update?

And he said, no, but it's not good.

Right.

So, as we're taping this, we don't know for sure, but we will not be surprised.

Yes.

Ian actually, yeah, Ian Rappaport

mentioned they are leaning towards believing it's an ACL.

I mean, but that's

not a surprise after watching it.

That was grisly.

Right.

And so if that is indeed the case, Rashid Rice, who was a guy that was on pace to be, you know, the guy that they needed, which would have been like

100-catch guy, 12,000, 1,400-yard guy, an end zone, a red zone threat, you take him out of it.

And then my two thoughts on this one, Connor, are A,

get used to this type of Chiefs game because this is just what they're going to be now to me.

It's going to be a lot of 17, 10 type wins.

And there was a time in the summer where I was like, I want the Chiefs to be exciting again.

But they have a formula, and now they have to use this grinded-out formula because, and they're going to need Travis Kelsey to give them this type of game.

There's no more, let me just chill out with Taylor until January.

Like, things are going to have to change now.

Rice is that big a part of what their formula was.

And quite frankly, I don't know, know they're 4-0, but I think they're in danger here in a real way now that you take Rice out of the picture.

Well, I'm eager to see, like, the Chargers kind of did go after him sometimes.

And the whole Fangio no-blitz thing was basically invented as a way to just stop Patrick Mahomes from shredding people to pieces and Sean McVay and a couple other guys.

But like, it was two years ago, Sean McDermott was the first one to just stop blitzing him.

And it actually worked for a little while.

And so everybody just stopped blitzing Mahomes.

But now he's going to be in the pocket more.

It's going to take more time for him.

It's not going to be as automatic without guys like Rice in the lineup.

So I'm wondering, can you get back to that old formula if you are being threatened in the pocket on a more consistent basis?

So I think there's, because the tide's shifting a little bit right now.

I mean, if you knew in August that you look at like the box score today, that Kareem Hunt, Samaji Pirine, and

Steele, the rookie, are like your guys on the ground and that Travis Kelsey is leading

with seven catches because you've lost Isaiah Pacheco, you've lost Rashi Rice.

Noah Gray is making the second most catches on your team.

It's like

they're pretty compromised.

Like I would say Pacheco and Rice were the two most important people next to Bahomes if you think we're in a post-Travis Kelsey universe to some degree.

I'll tee you up on this,

Justin, something on the Chargers because obviously everyone's going to be talking Chiefs, but what did you see on that side?

Well, I thought the Chargers had a chance in this game and they got down very close to scoring range and was fourth and one from like the five or four yard line, something like that.

There was a really weird play.

I hated that play call.

I hated it.

I hated the play call, and I feel like, first of all, the Jim Harbaugh chart challenged a clear catch by Justin Watson earlier in the game, and then they got down to the situation where it was third and one

or third and five or something, and they throw a pass to Palmer, who like catches the ball on the ground and rolls forward for a first down.

But like, was he touched?

Was he not touched?

It was kind of hard to tell.

And instead of just challenging it, Harbaugh calls timeout instead of challenging it.

And I guess I don't know if he's hoping for like a replay to step in and say, actually, he got the first down.

We'll never really know, I guess.

I don't know why he challenged the first one.

And then they go for it on fourth down.

Don't like the play call.

They don't convert.

And

that was basically it.

Yeah, I thought it was very odd.

This is a team that runs the ball very well, obviously.

And you have Herbert, who is grinding through these games.

I was surprised he even played in this game.

And he was banged banged up, as you might imagine, with that right high ankle sprain.

And they call from what was the two-yard line, just a straight drop back pass.

And it's just nothing, it doesn't come together.

It isn't even a close play, and that was the defining play.

And to the Chiefs' credit, these are the stops that they always seem to get.

We saw it happen against Atlanta.

So they will continue to be

with that defense, with Spaggs, always seeming to be on the right side of the biggest crucible moments of these games.

And the offense has to give them them just enough.

And you're sick to your stomach if you're Jim Harbaugh because you didn't have Derwin James in this game who's suspended.

You're missing Joey Bosa who once again is in street clothes and you put together this great effort on defense but the offense just can't get it together and that is what it is.

Yeah, the offense really couldn't get it together.

Their first drive went for 74 yards.

After that, from that to the end of the game, they had 150 total yards for the rest of the game.

And they had over 50 of those on the drive that ended on that fourth down.

So, like two drives was over half their yards in this game.

It was crazy because they just could not get the ball moving.

And there was a ton of pre-snap penalties on both teams, offensive lines holding about.

It was kind of a sloppy game overall, and it was like 10-10 with eight minutes left.

And you're like, this is the Chiefs Chargers, it's 10-10.

I was hoping for a little more excitement.

And

I saw some tweets out there, people like, you know, because Rishi Rice had an eventful off-season, to say say the least, and has to work on some things in his life off the field.

But

whenever you see the guy getting carted with the towel over his head to the locker room,

you just,

it has to be such a surreal feeling to go from being in the middle of the battle and being a high-level player, and all of a sudden your season, your career in some cases, it's all, it flashes in front of you.

It's tough to watch, and we'll see if the Chiefs will be tough to watch on offense without their best wide receiver.

All right.

Up next, we head to the desert with the SESDOG.

Cardinals, commies.

With Cliff Kingsbury on the enemy sideline, lusty booze poured down in Arizona as the Cardinals did that thing where a bird flies into an airplane windshield.

Just a big old mess.

That's what they looked like by the end of this.

Arizona's defense was utterly overwhelmed.

And once again, Jaden Daniels thrived under pressure.

Beyond one pick, his first of the year, the rookie was a ridiculous 26 of 30, points on seven of nine drives.

They were nine for 12 on third down.

There is just something watching him, and we all see it now when we see this guy.

He oozes calm.

He makes rapid decisions.

No player has notched a higher completion percentage through his first four games in the history of professional football.

And the broadcast talked about Kingsbury specifically pointing out that Daniels was like the smartest rookie quarterback he's ever worked with, that he's obsessive over reps and process.

And I think you can just see it compared to a lot of these other young guys and veterans in little plays.

He patiently waits for the most positive result.

He's comfortable on the move.

The speed that the ball comes out, the way that he just gets into rhythm, he's like a jazz musician filled with just the right amount of whiskey.

Washington 42, Cardinals 14.

This was never, ever in question.

How about this stat, Seci?

The Washington Commanders have punted once in their last three games, scoring 101 over that stretch.

This is a new world.

It is.

They're 3-1.

They sit atop the NFC East, which looks a lot more winnable than it did a month ago.

Their offense is just so crystal clear and clean.

I watch it, and it's like the Cardinals had no way to deal with this.

And there's something else happening, too, because I think, you know, when you get the quarterback and all this happens, and Arizona is a plumb victim for this, like, um, in too many home games, by the end of this, Jaden Daniels was running around the field, lifting his arms up to thousands upon thousands of Commanders fans who were five times louder than the Cardinals fans.

It's like this fan base that's been in abstentia for, you know, 20 years outside of an RG3 blip on the radar, like they are back.

Like, they are feeling it.

Like, everything is crazy.

And I think if we want to listen to what Dan Quinn, the coach, said after this game, it's like, we have not seen this from the Commanders in the run of working in sports together.

That way,

victory is produced by fing everybody.

And that's what tonight was, man.

Fast, physical.

We said, anybody, anywhere, any motherfucking time.

So we did what we came to fing do.

So there'll be a number of game balls that will be issued out, I'm sure, tomorrow.

But there's one motherfucking ain't leaving this city without one.

yes.

That's a great clip from the commander's locker room.

Cliff Kingsbury run out of town in Arizona, just never worked.

His reputation in tatters.

And look at this.

Now he is, and Connor, I think

you thought about or threw out the idea that Cliff could be back in a head coach chair very soon.

And then I think that could happen.

What, I mean, what a stage he's on now.

And why would you ever want to leave this quarterback?

I would just stay there forever.

Yeah, this is the move where you like poison Dan Quinn's oatmeal and you just hope that you can assume the role of head coach.

But yeah, I mean, Jaden Daniels is a once-in-a-blue moon prospect.

But the fact that Cliff set himself up so brilliantly where he was interviewed for the Bears' offensive coordinator job, too.

So he knew he was either going to end up working with Jaden Daniels or Caleb Williams in this one.

And it looks like he's picked

wisely.

To that point, do you think Bears fans are starting to get that Panthers fans feeling right now?

Like, and I don't, I'm not taking shots at Caleb Williams, but Daniels hitting the ground running now with back-to-back, just eye-opening games, and overall has just been a very strong player immediately out of the gates.

It's like, whoo-wee, the number two overall picks have been pretty good the last two years.

Here's what I will say: four games is always like, if you you talk to defensive coordinators especially, that is their sample size, right?

They always say give it four games because that's about how long I like to go back and look at things and I can start to remove the player from the scheme and see what's really attackable.

That said, I mean, Jaden's incredibly accurate.

He gets rid of the ball quickly.

He can move without, you know, setting himself up in harm's way.

But we are now at that four-game threshold.

Let's see what they can do with Jaden Daniels now that they have all this information on.

It's just that it's not like smoke and mirrors when we see that.

It's like he just is processing so quickly.

And it is a good fit with Cliff because he's really doing a lot of the same stuff that he did in college.

They didn't throw him into a completely new type of situation.

And like, to speak of the Bears real quick, like, we're coming off a week where a bunch of offensive players, including Caleb Williams, had to go to their offensive coordinator urging him to coach them harder.

So

the feel here is completely different.

And I mean, here's what else that started to happen is Brian Robinson, 101 yards, Jeremy McNichols, who looked really good, 68.

They had over 200 on the ground, and part of it is that opens up Jaden Daniels to run as well.

It's like the offense is clicking.

So it's part, considering where we were like a couple of weeks ago, four weeks in, but then I'm like, where are we going to be with this team two to four weeks from now?

Because it's real.

It's really,

it's tangibly like good football.

And it's almost impossible to prognosticate these things because you can never assume a rookie can hit the ground running like this.

It does happen occasionally, and now it's happened two straight years with Stroud and apparently what we're seeing right now, Daniels,

and it just changes everything.

And yes, the NFC East is wide open.

The Eagles seem like a sloppy mess.

The Dallas operation is going in the wrong direction.

The Giants are where the Giants are, and it's all there.

And real quick, Mark, before we move, on the Cardinals, they're a tough team to figure out right now.

And this is a team that was up against a commander's defense.

Now, we all know the offense is a lot of fun.

The defense has not been good in Washington.

But after an opening drive, they completely, even the Cardinals offense failed in this game.

So they seem to be a team that just is searching for it right now.

They seem to go where Marvin Harrison goes more than I think they'd want that to be the case because he was electric and had a great touchdown on the first drive, then completely vanished and everything vanished.

And it's like they popped.

There was a moment where they popped up in the third quarter and James Conner ran the ball really well.

They got back into a world where you could think maybe they could make this a game again.

But then it was Daniels who went right down the field and made a couple insane third-down decisions that worked out and was just like, you've got to find a way to keep this team.

They almost had almost 500 yards.

So that's Arizona's defense, not just not being able to keep this competitive on any level, put the offense in a bad spot.

Offense wasn't great either.

After that opening touchdown by Arizona, they were outscored 27-0 as the game got away from them.

All right, let's move to the Saggy Meadowlands.

Nards, Broncos ten, Jets nine.

I'm going to start with some

necessary context here.

It was miserable at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

Soaking rain, early, steady rain for most of the day.

Connor, you're in Jersey right now.

I'm sure you could attest to this.

Just not a pleasant Sunday.

There was this...

group of there's this family under a poncho that they kept showing during the game and they looked like

they looked like these two people who had escaped the dust bowl and they were looking for gold, and they were like, we heard there's good football here.

But they were just dying inside.

It was cool's gold.

They were misled.

This is always going to be bad news for both offenses, but that's not an excuse for what we saw in this game.

And I'm sure Sean Payton and

the optimistic corners of Broncos Nation will

spin this as a positive development for Bo Nix.

And, you know, he got the win, and he deserved to be pumping his fists as he was coming off the field.

But that was also Bo Nicks that was at minus seven passing yards at halftime, which was the fewest by a quarterback in the first half with multiple completions since 1978, according to Elias.

This is a game

that had 21 total yards, both teams in the first quarter, which was the fewest since 1999.

It was the first game with one or fewer first downs in the first quarter since 2000.

There were no first downs for either team in the first seven possessions.

And for the Broncos, okay, the Broncos have a rookie quarterback.

The Broncos are on the road, though.

The weather sucks.

Bonix's hands look sneaky small.

Maybe the draft experts could tell me

if I was seeing it right.

He didn't look comfortable throwing the ball at all in bad conditions, and that's something that would concern me.

But that's so the Broncos you knew probably weren't going to have a big game offensively.

The Jets, I mean, this is the Jets that have Aaron Rodgers, who has giant hands, by the way.

This is the Jets that have Brees Hall, and the Jets that have Garrett Wilson, and the Jets that have the remade offensive line, and the Jets that rolled up 400 points against the Patriots 10 days ago.

But I don't know where those Jets were

because this game was a slog from the start.

And so much of my concern about the Jets is not about the roster or the fact that the quarterback's 40 or the idea that the defense maybe is a touch overrated in certain ways, although they were fine today, obviously.

It's the coaching staff.

And

I don't trust Saleh, and I don't trust Nathaniel Hackett, and I don't, this team kind of came into this game flat, which was my concern that I talked about on Thursday.

And I thought that Hackett was unimaginative in his play calling.

He couldn't get the Jets out of the funk.

He couldn't find a way to get Garrett Wilson away from Patrick Sertain enough, can't find a way to get the running game going.

And it just was inexcusable.

And it should be said: the Jets win the game if Greg Zerline hits a 50-yard field goal in the season where everybody hits 50-yard field goals, but he knuckles it way wide right.

So they have a chance to escape with a win.

They cannot.

So instead, it's the Broncos 2-2, the Jets 2-2, but these teams are feeling very different as 2-2 teams at the current moment.

I mean, the statistical improbability of throwing the ball 15 times in an NFL game and winding up with negative 7 at half.

And if on the flip side, I told you on top of that, the Broncos are only going to score in this game 10 points, and you are the Jets, and you've got a choice.

You can run the ball, use your two good running backs, and grind this thing out, or you can have Aaron Rodgers in horrible weather throw the ball 42 times.

And he was pretty critical of his own play after the game, I thought.

Let's listen to Rodgers.

Yeah,

I think we were kind of killing ourselves.

I can't say I had a spectacular game.

I missed some throws.

The weather sucked,

but so did some of my throws.

Yeah, and let me just say this, though, Mark.

One thing that should is deserving of scrutiny here is I'm not overly worried.

I'm not like on the edge right now because they scored nine touchdowns in the first three weeks, which took them half a year last season.

And the weather was shitty today.

And it was just like, so I'm not going nuts, but what I do want to see is,

well, Rogers has to stay healthy.

He came out of this banged up.

He had a left leg injury, which is the Achilles injury, a leg late.

He He was limping on the field that played a part in their last drive being short-circuited before the field goal miss.

But what I need to see, like,

we can't run the football.

The New York Jets cannot run the football.

And Brees Hall is one of the reasons why.

Brees Hall is having a bad year.

The offensive line got wrecked by Denver's defensive line in this game.

I think the Broncos,

people are sleeping a little bit on their defense.

I got an up-close view of it in this game, and they are going to keep them in games all season long.

But I think Brees Hall looks slow.

I think Brees Hall, even when there is a crack, he's not getting into the hole.

And this guy is supposed to be potentially joining the Superstar Club.

Garrett Wilson, listen, we all know Patrick Sertain is an incredible cornerback, and he played excellent in this game, Sertain.

But Garrett Wilson is supposed to be a potential superstar himself.

You shouldn't get erased.

He was mostly erased in this game.

So I think Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson both need to step up their game.

And I think you saw it a little bit with the coaching staff, Connor.

Braylon Allen, their rookie running back, took carries from Brees Hall in the fourth quarter.

And I wonder if we're going to start seeing more of a timeshare because the offensive game plan has been absolutely shot in the foot by a running game that is not working with Brees Hall leading it.

It's interesting, too, because most of the teams that have really good running games now, you get it going because your quarterback is part of the solution, right?

Your quarterback is another guy that the defense has to account for.

But how did the Jets do this?

And Nathaniel Hackett knows firsthand, but defenses have evolved to stop it.

How do you do this when Rodgers can't really be part of your running game?

And he was your second leading rusher today, which is an absolute disaster.

It's absolutely not what you want.

But what do you do in a situation where Rodgers can't really open things up for you in the running game?

He can't help in that regard.

And that's on Hackett, right?

That's on the offensive staff to design things a little bit differently to open it up.

We saw other teams in similar situations where they were able to kind of get that going today.

And we'll talk about that later in the show.

But I do think it's interesting that there now becomes kind of an incredible burden on them to unleash these superstars at this point.

Yeah.

So we'll see.

And

the Broncos, it was so bad with the Broncos.

I have a buddy here in the town where I live that's a massive Broncos fan.

And I texted him.

I was like, man, I know Nick's is the guy.

But he is not giving them a chance to win.

You guys will watch the tape and you'll be blown away by how off he was on so many of his passes in this game.

To his credit, he did lead them on the one touchdown drive

ending with a pass to Cortland Sutton.

So he deserves credit for that, but he's going to need to get to a baseline level for them to actually be in the playoff hunt.

But they might have the dogs on D to stay in this mix.

There you go.

Let's move on.

Again, it's like, this is the shit that pisses me off about Sal and the Jets.

You win on Thursday night against the Pats.

Spirits are good.

You get 10 days.

And then what happens?

I mean, you just, you crap your pants at home,

give up five sacks, 10 penalties.

Rodgers can't get them in the end zone.

They're first and goal from the one.

They can't get in the end zone with two Brees Hall runs and a play-action Fugazi play before a false start leads to a field goal.

They never sniff the end zone.

It's just a joke.

It's a joke.

It's a problem that you and other Jets fans saw this coming and basically verbalized it, and then it just showed up exactly as you expected.

That's not good.

We'll get into it more during the week, but there's more mounting evidence that the QB does not like the head coach, also, but I'll stick a pin in that.

Let's move to where are we going next?

So let's move to a break.

Let's take a break.

I'll calm down.

I'm calm.

Everything's fine.

Watch a game.

My dad's in town.

Watch a game with my dad.

You know, God forbid we have a nice day together.

Watch a goddamn Jets win.

Like, God forbid.

A guy hits the goddamn field goal.

Like, God forbid.

No, it's got to knuckle right and not even hit the net.

Enough.

Like, there's nothing cute about this.

Not cute at all.

No.

Jessica walked into the living room while I had that game on at the very end.

And I was like, she was like, wait, the Broncos are beating the Jets.

And I was, right as they're lining up for the field goal.

And I'm like, wait, wait, let's watch the Jets win right here.

Here we go.

Game winning field goal.

And then the kick is right.

And she's like, or not.

And I'm like, all right, I'm sorry.

I don't know what to tell you.

By the way, Sean Payton, you know, some of of the, Sean Payton lost two timeouts on one play, by the way.

He calls a timeout, then challenges a play and loses the challenge.

And on the last drive that the Broncos have, they have a chance to ice the game, some bizarre play calling, followed by missing a 50-yard field goal of their own that gave the Jets the chance.

Just not a clinic in the Metal Ends of football.

Now let's take a break.

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All right,

let's go to Vegas with Connor Orr.

Everybody wants to go to Vegas with Connor Orr.

Gardner Minshew and a team of high school-aged children signed just before kickoff from St.

Catherine of Siena's CYO basketball team stunned the Cleveland Browns 20-16 in Las Vegas on Sunday in an absolute guerrilla effort from a team-missing Devontae Adams and Max Crosby.

Deshaun Watson was sacked three times, including on a fourth and three from the Raider.

Nine-yard line with the game on the line.

Dan, a game-tying field goal was not an option because Dustin Hopkins missed an extra point earlier in the game.

And you want to talk more about kicking, Dan?

Sorry.

This was a punter clinic led by Raiders bootman AJ Cole, who did this really hilarious, mean mug, Frankenstein celebration after blasting the rock and having it land just inside the far five-yard line.

One of the prettiest punts I have seen all season.

Watson had no chance in this game.

Offensive line battered.

He actually played really well.

A massive 82-yard touchdown that he threw to Amari Cooper, which would have been the most explosive play of his Browns tenure, was called back on a very suspect holding penalty, which you hate to see.

And Minshew only had 130 yards passing.

The leading receiver was Jacoby Myers.

I have no idea how the Raiders won this game.

Patrick Graham, their defensive coordinator, in all seriousness, cooked up an absolute heater.

He was excellent.

11 QB hits in this one.

Whooba.

Wait, can I see that tweet again?

Because who was it?

This is the punter mean bugging?

Yes.

Yeah.

It looks like he was like a dweeb at the high school where a jock put him on a coat hanger and then hung him up on the wall of his locker or something.

Like hung him up on the hook on the locker.

That's what he looks like there.

An odd look, yeah.

AJ Cole.

Good for that.

That's true.

Bad podcasting on my part.

I'm not

describing it.

Watch this.

Look at this thing I'm looking at.

Yeah.

Sest Dog, you have eyes on this one as a Brownies fan?

This sounds like a tough one.

I watched it.

It's just extremely frustrating.

In different ways, maybe than your experience with your team, but in similar ways, too.

You know, I feel like every week, like almost every week, like Watson's had a chance.

And he did play.

I think he started like 10 for 10.

He played better out of the gate, and he was under a ton of the rest.

He was the best game of the year.

Yeah, I mean, he looked like he was motivated to play better out of the gate, but then I, there, they always seem like he has a chance to win the game, and it doesn't happen.

And like, I watched that final, you know, one-minute plus march there where they had a shot, and it's like the first play is a hideously botched snap to Watson.

They lost their center.

I think that had something to do with it.

Next play is pass is batted down.

Third and 16, pass to Cooper, but it's fourth and three.

They're totally disorganized.

They call a timeout, then Watson is completely destroyed, manhandled, ripped to shreds, and the game is over.

And it's like too many

at the end of halves, there's too many drives like this for the Cleveland Browns.

And I just see a team that, under this coaching staff, because it's not like I can't just pin it on like the Jets' coaching staff in your case, where there's no proof that they've been a great offense.

Like, Cleveland has been more organized, craftier, wiser situationally, and found a way to get through a number of injuries, and it's not happening right now.

They looked, I thought they looked terrible for moments out there.

Here's a question: because

we know the offense, no chubb, the offensive line beat beat up, all the drama around Deshaun and all that.

And they're trying to figure it out on that side, right?

The defense, on the other hand, which was very strong last year, that hasn't been up to par, right?

And they give up 152 yards on the ground to the Raiders who couldn't run the ball to save their life before this game and didn't have Devontae Adams.

And it's like that defense is not playing at the level they need to play either, right?

There's this Ross Tucker was one of the people on the call for the game, and I love Ross.

I think he's really good.

And

he summed it up perfectly.

Like, Gardner Minshew just ripped them down the field on one drive, and the Browns were just playing like this super passive coverage.

They were allowing all these balls to get completed, and he's just like, he just said straight up, the Browns have really good players.

I don't know why they're doing this.

And that's true.

There were moments like that during the game where

Alexander Madison played well.

He was ripping ripping on on carries like very physical the very few times he touched the ball and gave them a spark when they needed it but there's no way this game should have gone the way that it did I have to I'm gonna give a little flowers I gotta hand a bouquet to Antonio Pierce because I've been hard on Pierce this year and I've I've wondered about him openly but when you don't have

Devontae Adams, when you have Max Crosby beat up, they're also missing four starters overall in this game.

That's a nice effort.

And I know it's the Browns and the Browns are having a tough season, but

they seem to be teetering a little bit.

And this is how you stabilize the season.

Good job by Pierce and the staff.

Two guys, Charles Snowden, who is Max Crosby's replacement, had three QB hits.

And Isaiah Polomau, the nephew of Troy Palomalu,

undrafted free agent out of USC, had a massive game in his first start.

So to your point, Dan, an excellent one.

Like, Antonio Pierce is just getting these guys fired up.

Ready to go.

He got to win that game, Browns.

No Max Crosby, no DeWalt Adams.

He got to win that game.

If you look at

the status of Cleveland's offensive line, it's easy to diagnose why some of this is happening.

They lost Jordan Hicks on defense, which is he's been very productive for them.

But that's every team.

So I'm with you.

They were a good team last year.

What?

Well, we should also note on that with a different quarterback, Deshaun and his offensive line were not in the best of spirits.

There was like a very verbal moment there where he screamed at Dewan Jones, and there was like a free runner that came and hit him.

He had Amari Cooper wide open in the end zone and he missed him.

And he very clearly said, Come on, man, like you can't screw that up.

He was pissed.

And then later on.

After Jameis Winston oddly like jumped in to try to like make peace on the sidelines.

We need a real adult in the room.

Let's get Jameis Winston.

And now I'm starting to make more.

Gave him like a half hug.

But the whole thing was very, very strange.

I mean, I guess to Watson's credit, he did try to clean it up afterwards, but very he was very demonstrative in this game, was not happy about the offense.

And let me just say, Connor, before we move on,

we got a violent J reference.

No shaggy, too, dope reference in this setup.

If we don't get a shaggy, too, dope reference by the end of the show, I will be disappointed.

That's all I'll say.

All right, to

Indianapolis with the Gravedigger

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis.

Justin Fields had his best game as a Steeler but his big day was spoiled by

an old AFC North foe Joe Flacco.

Flacco came in for an injured

you can't make it up

came in for an injured Anthony Richardson and pretty much picked up where he left off last year when he won comeback player of the year, slicing up what had been a very good Steelers defense through three weeks, particularly on third down.

Joe Flacco threw eight passes on third down and converted six of them for first downs.

The Colts as a team were six of 10 on third and five or longer, and Josh Downs was the key piece of this, picking up six first downs himself on his way to 88 yards on eight catches.

The Steelers defense did step up, make some timely stops, which allowed the offense to sort of get back into the game.

And Justin Fields, man, Justin Fields, put the team on his back, piled up 357 total yards, three total touchdowns, two of them on the ground.

But it was a series of self-inflicted wounds throughout the game, a failed fourth and one from their own 39-yard line, an unfortunate red zone fumble by George Pickens, and a really crazy weird sack fumble of Justin Fields that had the Steelers playing from behind all game.

With their last chance to even the score and a promising drive developing, it was like a good early setup paying off in the third act.

Another self-inflicted mistake of a snap bouncing off Justin Fields' face mask as he turns to the side that ended any hopes for a comeback.

All right, so final score, Colts 27, Steelers 24.

All right, so a Colts team that desperately needed the dub, they get it.

Steelers come a little bit down to earth.

I want to hear more about Flacco.

I want to hear from Flacco, but first I want you to tell me what is this Anthony Richardson injury?

You know, I said last week that not only was his passing abysmal to this point, some of the frustrations of trying to make plays, to me, it seemed like he was running a little recklessly again.

What happened on this play that got him hurt and how seriously

hurt?

It was a big bummer to see him go down because he opened the game playing really well.

I opened the game with a long pass to Michael Pittman Jr.

and he's he was dealing early on.

It wasn't like the disaster Richardson we saw the last couple weeks.

But yes, can he stay healthy?

It's like when he runs, he doesn't look to avoid contact.

In fact, it feels like the opposite.

He wants the con he wants to punish linebackers, but like, dude, you're not in high school.

You're not in your however many eight starts or 12, whatever you had at Florida.

Like these are NFL players.

So he runs, he takes a, I can't remember if it was designed runner if he just kept it, runs up the middle, fumbles the ball and gets injured on the play, but the Colts recover.

So he goes to the sideline for two plays.

He's like sort of limping around.

He's like grabbing at his side.

He like looks kind of hurt.

Comes back onto the field.

The very first play he's back onto the field, they call a designed quarterback draw.

He runs up the middle again and just gets punched.

What are we doing?

Like, what are we doing?

And then it was like, he goes back to the sideline and it was almost immediately like sideline reporter on the game.

Can't remember who it was, like, yeah, Anthony Richardson has been rolled out with a hip injury.

And, I mean, one of the things we say about this kid is like, he's really young.

He's shown a lot of flashes.

If he can just stay healthy, right?

He'll develop and all the flash plays will become more common and all the mistakes will start to go away.

But if he can't stay healthy, that's not going to happen.

And I just.

Well, you got to protect him, too.

To your point.

Like, if he's banged up and he misses a play, comes out, you don't do a design run.

That's ridiculous.

Why was there not more critique around putting him in danger like that?

That's what we're doing, Ceci.

Well, no, I mean, like, he got, he got like the helmet

shot he took was awful, too.

I mean, this seems to be every

fourth or fifth quarter with him.

And I don't know.

Like, like i think like then it's nice that you can keep getting a backup that comes in and shines like i'm at this point not surprised that joe flacco would probably like win go on like a six game win streak with him or something i honestly think joe flacco at this point in their careers is a more i mean i don't know about better i think he is better but he's without question a more consistent quarterback he's gonna make the right raids he's gonna manage the game he's not gonna make those disaster plays he's also not gonna like throw it 65 yards off his back foot while getting sacked and turn that into a touchdown but you're gonna be a lot more consistent with Joe Flacco.

Shane Steichen was asked, why did Richardson go back in after the first injury?

And he said he felt good to go back in.

Then he felt it on the next play.

He was feeling it and we wanted to hold him out.

The follow-up question was, why did you run him on his first play back from that injury?

And Steichen said, well, they were in base defense.

He said he felt good to go.

And that was the look.

If we get that look, we're running the QB draw.

So we ran it.

Richardson also has to protect himself better.

It's on the coaching staff, but he's got to start sliding at some point.

But, and just for context, and this is important, that it was, and that also makes it a little bit the mystery deepens a little bit.

It was said to be a hit pointer, uh, which is unpleasant, but not thought to be a serious injury.

So, just the whole thing's weird to me because why would you immediately rule him out with something that's a minor injury as your quarterback, whatever.

Uh, what, what was the another person who was fired up on uh spicy taco uh Sunday here in the NFL was Minka Fitzpatrick.

What was that all about?

Yeah, so this was a pretty bad call that happened.

Um, the Colts were up by a touchdown, and the Pittsburgh had just scored, and it felt like they had some momentum going, and they were starting to put some stops together and some drives together.

And then the Colts responded with a really nice drive where Joe Flacco completed three different third and seven, third and ten, third and ten plays to advance the ball.

But on a second and 10, in the middle of this drive, he goes deep for Adenai Mitchell.

Minka Fitzpatrick's coming across the field and sort of throws his shoulder into Mitchell as the ball is arriving.

And it really did not look like a penalty.

They got Gene Sterator on the broadcast, and he's like, No, this doesn't look like a penalty to me.

I don't know why they threw this flag.

And Minka talked about it after the game, and we can listen to his opinion of whether or not this should have been a penalty.

I mean, I thought we were playing football.

I don't know what we're playing at this point.

Very different game than what I grew up playing and what I grew up living.

Can't hit nobody hard, can't be violent.

So

I don't know what to say anymore.

I get the frustration.

You understand what the NFL is trying to do with the protection of the players.

But so many times, and this is why

I always talk about this, like the game is so fast, and

these guys are in a full sprint in the middle of the field going towards the ball carrier, and you can't dictate what the ball carrier is going to do or how his body reacts.

And you don't have time to move your body and do it in a way that makes it clear to the official that you're not headhunting.

And then even worse, a lot of these calls, or many of these calls, it's a legal hit and it isn't even a violent hit.

Or well, they're all violent, but

it isn't a helmet to helmet hit.

It could be shoulder to shoulder.

Like, why can't we take a look at these and quickly reverse personal foul calls?

Because they're so huge in these games.

They turn games.

I mean, he was...

pulling up for sure.

Look, he's coming full speed from like the deep third of the field to try to break up this pass.

And the ball sort of hits him in the hands and glances off, and he starts to slow up.

It's like it's, you really can't ask him to do anything more than he typically does.

And you can't blame officials.

You can't blame officials because the game is that fast, but you do have an eye in the sky that can help those officials, and that's what drives me crazy.

I agree.

Anyway, let's give Joe Flacco the last word.

He was with our old colleague, Adidi Kinkabwala,

talking about, hey, here I am again, and I'm kicking ass again.

Isn't it funny?

This is cool.

I do have to tell you, Anthony Richardson told us that you were cooler than he thought he was.

Listen, he told me his mom is eight days older than I am, so there's no chance in the world that he thinks I'm cool.

Is that possible?

I guess it is.

I was doing the math on that, like, and it was kind of confounding me in the middle of the day, then I stopped pondering it.

But yeah, I mean, Flacco's 39.

Wow.

Okay.

I mean, it does check out.

It is possible, but it's just, man, it's crazy, dude.

Richardson's 22.

What a journey.

What a journey Flacco's NFL career has been.

It's really crazy.

Connor.

He was totally moribund like a number of years ago, too.

And then one of the spiciest veterans known to man over the last season plus.

I was at a Jets practice like three or four years ago when Flacco was on the team.

And

he was just running scout team and just ripping up like a really good first string Jets defense.

And everyone was high-fiving them.

And so, I made some calls after the practice.

I was like, What's happening?

And, you know, I talked to someone, and they were like, listen, Joe Flacco is planning to play into his early 40s, and he thinks he's still got it.

And so, I wrote something about it, and everyone was just like, What are you talking about?

And then, like, two years later, he's become the consummate backup.

And one interesting note on this: some people who played the, you know, who know the Colts really well, I think were

we're more happy to see Anthony Richardson in the lineup than Gardner Minshew last year.

And I do think that we're seeing a little bit of deja vu where I think opponents would probably rather Anthony Richardson than Joe Flacco.

And I do kind of expect this team to go on a little bit of a run.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Let's move to Charlotte, where the Panthers are looking to build something approximating a win streak.

Bengals just trying to get a win.

Sestdog.

Campaign on the edge.

Birds and babies were unconcerned, but the Cincinnati Faithville needed to see these Bengals deliver at last.

Joe Burrow and his blonde die job and Cincy's fast-starting defense were too much for the glowing red ginger man.

The maligned Bengals defense engineered a saucy goal-line stand on Carolina's opening drive.

On the following March, Cincy tipped an Andy Dalton lob that wound up in the arms of Von Bell.

These are things that have not been happening to the Bengals enough on defense.

That kicked off a Burrow tarot that saw Cincy author four straight touchdown drives, highlighted by a starry 63-yard catch and run by Jamar Chase.

I think it's the best catch I've seen like this weekend and a lot of other ways.

Just it's incredible what he does with the ball.

Chase Brown in the run game warmed up when it mattered, and these gnarly little Bengal boys were lucky that a late Burrow pick only led to a Panthers field goal.

Lucky that Andy Dalton's final two possessions fell apart.

If you watch any Burrow pass from this day, though, find his 21-yard connection with Zach Moss that saw him evade waves of pressure to make the throw.

Bengals 34, Panthers 24.

Cincy still breathes.

Man, needed it.

Needed it.

And they have the Ravens next week.

So obviously, if you didn't find a way against the Panthers, it would be every bit as dark in Cincinnati as it is in Jacksonville.

This was the game

that...

The type of Jamar Chase plays we're now seeing, Mark, are the ones that you expected from the start of the season that was achingly missing from the attack.

And it's no surprise that now they're starting to go on offense.

Yep, they also targeted T.

Higgins 10 times.

They didn't have him before.

I was really encouraged to see Chase Brown and Zach Moss run the ball the way they did down the stretch.

I thought that that's been hot and cold for them, and it really, really helped.

But their defense,

they need to generate some of these plays that they did early on.

That goal line stand, Zach Taylor said at halftime that that completely changed the team.

He was like, we kind of needed something like that to unfold.

Because really, Carolina's marching right down the field with Andy Dalton, and it's like, this is a disaster.

And so they snuffed that out, created turnover on the next one, and then Bengals offense just got going.

I really, I was, I found it impressive to see how

they were able to basically like, I thought Burrow made some of the best throws that he's made today.

And that one that I mentioned to Zach Moss is just, he is dancing around, seeing pressure, evading tacklers.

And it's kind of like, cool, Jamar Chase looks like Jamar Chase.

The run game is trustable now, and this version of Burrow can do it.

One little injury note: Trey Hendrickson had an, like, he hurt his neck, and it was one of these things where it's at the end of the game, you see him like walking off the field, and like it's kind of looking down if you can feel his hand almost.

So, I don't know, like, we'll find out what more that is, but he is so, yeah,

I'll be one of those Twitter doctors.

This one looks like a stinger, nothing serious.

He'll be back in one to two weeks.

He is like hard to release defense.

What?

It's also a doctor?

Isn't it?

Isn't it?

Well, I guess

a psychologist.

like a psychologist can't diagnose someone without talking to them in person, but a doctor apparently can't.

Like, I guess they just view it as like Teladoc almost.

Right, there's no way if you're a doctor that's, you know, worth your, what is it, worth your

salt?

Salt?

Does that make sense?

Is that what it is?

Is that worth your weight in gold?

If you're a doctor of any of any level of respectability, you're not throwing out...

You're just not throwing out diagnosis on like a public forum for someone that you've never met before and is like playing football 2,000 miles away from you.

Like, grow up, Peter Pan.

Like, enough.

Anyway, big win.

And the Panthers, hey, at the very least, Panthers fans listening to the show, Xavier Leggett, he's shown some things, obviously.

Dalton has made the offense functional.

A lot of work to do over there, but at least these games,

they're a real football team, Mark?

Yes or no?

When you watch them, I think they look completely like you can start to scout them correctly and get an idea of what they are.

And, you know, Dalton had a bad pick in this, but

Dalton gives them a chance to win games.

They were hanging around in this later than I thought they would be.

I can't remember.

Sometimes I get them mixed up.

Did you have the Panthers going to the playoffs last week?

What was the prediction you had?

It's something Panthers-related.

Panthers and Commanders going to the playoffs was Mark's.

Well, I nailed one of those, I think.

Let's see about this other one.

All right, let's take one more break and then we'll close out Football Sunday.

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All right, we are back.

Let's get into the rest of the Sunday games.

Let's go to the Big Bell bottom.

Ooh, jaunty.

You know, it's days like this that I count my blessings as a football fan wherever I could find them.

Because while it's true that the Jets are still very much the Jets and always will be, barring some type of, you know, Bill Parcell's Benjamin Button scenario, I can at least take solace knowing that the Patriots are no longer the Patriots.

New England flew across the country, got its butt whipped for the second straight week, this time at the hands of a 49ers team that looks superior in every aspect of the game.

30-13,

a take-care of business conquest for San Francisco.

And, you know, I think

you have Brock Purdy, even though he doesn't have all of his weapons, Christian McCaffrey, chief among them.

Although we got a good report, a promising report, I thought, I think it was it from Rapsheet, that McCaffrey could be back by early November.

So that's good.

Right.

So that's good.

But they still have been shorthanded with Debo Samuel missing games coming back today.

Brandon Ayu continues to be weirdly just off the reservation.

I don't know what's going on there.

But they're getting really, I think, good play from Bach Purdy.

And although he wasn't, his stats didn't, he didn't really light things up.

His scrambling ability I found to be really impressive in this game.

And you got another big performance from Jordan Mason, who really carved up New England in this game.

You had some big turnovers.

And in general, San Francisco just doing what good teams are supposed to do against bad teams, which is just put them to sleep early and coast to the finish line.

So that's what we got in this game 30-13.

It's, I want to know what's going on with Ramonde Stevenson because he's not been that guy in some of these games lately.

Jacoby Brissette, just, he's,

he had a terrible interception in this.

It was just an, like, I got to wonder how much longer that experiment goes on.

But I did see Brock Purdy, and I think there's one great development for the Niners.

Like, Juwan Jennings, for instance, like, stepping up the way he has weeks in a row,

like, that's just another weapon you've developed.

And Purdy had a downfield shot to him late in this game.

It was one of the prettiest throws and catches of the day.

And it's just like Purdy can still do.

They rolled up 400-plus yards of offense.

So

it's like there's no, I'm not panicking about the, the, the Niners on any level.

All right.

So we'll start with, you asked about Ramondre Stevenson.

So he has now fumbled in four consecutive games, and that's a problem.

Uh, yeah, and they, they got away with it the first couple fumbles, but the last two have led to points for the opponent.

And, you know, if Bill Parcels was still in the building, Stevenson would be under the mass pike right now.

Uh, but that shows an example of how Gerard Mayo is different than his predecessor.

But that's going to lead to him losing snaps.

And I thought if you look at the breakdown, that's probably the case in this game.

And Brissette, I'll push back a little bit about,

I thought it was an amazing play by Fred Warner,

who to for a Mike linebacker to make the leaping grab that he makes.

So he snares a bullet Prissette pass over the middle,

high pointing it, comes down, lands on the turf, gets back up to his feet, and then takes off down the sideline and does his best.

James Harrison in the Super Bowl diving at the pylon and scoring the pick six.

Just like, oh my God.

The problem, though,

is injuries because Fred Warner went out of this game at halftime with an ankle injury.

George Kittle, who made an incredible catch in the back of the end zone and also got absolutely robbed on a

bogus holding penalty that wiped out

a

Jordan touchdown.

He leaves with a, or he deals with a rib injury in this game.

So they're dealing with a lot of injuries.

They're getting through it, though, and the the Patriots are the right opponent.

I think now the next question around New England is: how much longer does Brissette play?

He's giving them kind of what you expected, more or less, but the Patriots, after the first win to open the season, obviously are trending in the wrong direction.

At a certain point, it's time to get Drake May in there, I would think.

And now it's just, it becomes now a question not of if, but when.

Could happen very soon.

I don't know, man.

Like, Jerob Mayo was asked about it after the game, and he's just like, Jacoby's our quarterback.

And he was like dry heaving on the field.

Like, he's like, please, God, just take me out.

Like, I don't want, like, remember the Jets game on Thursday.

He had like, he took like 11 quarterback hits.

He's like, just please make this stop, but I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon.

We'll see.

We'll see.

All right, let's move on to Chicago where the Rams and Bears went at it, Connor.

I better get that Shaggy Tuth.

I'm begging for it.

No, no, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus.

You are currently not wearing Duluth Trading Company's special buck-naked cooling underwear, voted by Reddit as the number one underwear for swamp ass or general overheating.

It's just that your seat got significantly less warm after a 24-18 win over the Los Angeles Rams, sealed by a game-ending pick with a minute to play.

The story of this game: DeAndre Swift is alive, led the team in rushing, led the team in receiving.

36-yard touchdown on the ground.

the bears spent all day prodding the left side of the rams defensive line their right side then swift cuts this one back up the middle for a huge gain 27 yard reception that set up a critical pre-halftime field goal and while the floodgates haven't opened offensively yet for caleb williams we're starting to see the plan materialize a really nice uh touchdown pass guys to dj moore it was beautiful little toe tapping goodness on third and six and i don't know if this you guys know this but they're doing they're having an offensive lineman in the running formations again, and they're calling it the mini fridge.

And I don't know how I feel about that.

So I just thought you guys, Doug Crane, I like it.

I love it.

How much smaller is he?

I mean, he's, I guess anyone comparatively is smaller than William Perry, but like, I just don't know if I like the, you know, it's just, you know.

Probably, like, the guys are so much bigger now.

William Perry was probably like 187 pounds.

That's the way he looked at 1985.

Yeah, Caleb, here's a good stat from ESPN, Connor.

Caleb Williams had completed just 44% of his passes against the Blitz through the first three weeks.

Eight of nine for 75 and a touch against the Ramses Blitz.

And that's why I didn't want to even go down that road too much earlier, but it was just worth referencing because Daniels is playing so well.

But Caleb Williams, after a strong finish in week three in the fourth quarter, okay, so there's some things that we're building on here a little bit.

Mark Sanchez was on the call for this game, and by the way, I think is the best former quarterback in a booth right now.

And I don't know if he's really particularly close.

Well, we've had Sanchez on the old show.

We liked him so much.

We were on the ground floor with him.

Yeah, excellent.

And he made a great point that, you know, at the beginning of the game, Caleb made this throw to Keenan Allen where...

I saw him open.

I had to confirm he was open.

And then I threw the ball.

And Keenan actually made a great catch that only like a 15-year veteran could make.

And then towards the end of the game, he's throwing guys before they're open.

And so he's just kind of easing into the speed.

You can see him evolving in real time.

And I really do think, you know,

while you might not be able to catch Jaden Daniels statistically, I do think by the end of the year, he's definitely going to be there.

Very good.

And it helps that DeAndre Swift, who had been, you know, statistically the worst running back in the league to open the season, less than two yards of carry, he leads the team in rushing and receiving in this game.

The Bears did so much formation work in this game, like even from the very beginning where they were were targeting spots on the Rams defensive line.

They like ran to the right like 10 times in a row.

They threw out a bunch of weird formations where there's two or three guys on one side additionally to the tackle.

So they were trying everything to get the run game going in this and specifically to get

Caleb Williams some check downs too.

And so I think that is a huge development for them.

I do like this defense.

I think like Montez sweat for the Bears has just been one of the best pickups over the, you know, without that has worked for them.

I'm wondering what, how they made Matthew Stafford uncomfortable.

I see that there's like the interception at the end, a fumble, a misfield goal.

It's like this was, the Rams can't, they can't afford that with their personnel right now.

Yeah, they did a really good job with their pressure packages.

And again, it goes back to a little bit what we were saying before.

A lot of these quarterbacks that were not used to, I mean, pressure kind of vanished there for a little while.

And what was the most popular, like what, it was basically like Wink Martindale blitzing half the time and then everybody else blitzing 25% of the time.

And these numbers are going up at a massive rate and these quarterbacks are having to adjust on the fly.

And Stafford with no other receivers, like Jordan Whittington was really good in this game.

Six-round pick, the rookie out of Texas, really liked him.

But other than that, 2-2-Atwell, you don't have a ton of options right now.

And you do see him kind of holding the ball a little bit longer, struggling and making some uncharacteristically bad decisions.

Tough start for the Rams.

Obviously, they had the spirited comeback to beat the rival Niners.

That's still their only victory.

If you look at their schedule, I believe they have a week six by.

And if everything stays on the timeline that it is,

you might have Cup and Nakua back by then.

So it's kind of just like stay alive, try to hang around, and that would help to win next week.

But they got the Packers next week, a pissed-off Packers team, I would imagine, as well, after a poor performance against the Vikings.

So we'll see how the Rams handle that adversity.

All right, to Sunday night football.

Oh, man, the Baltimore Ravens.

There's some tough teams to figure out in our league right now.

Ravens 1-2 to start the season, but they put on a clinic on Sunday night in their building.

35-10.

They stomped the previously undefeated Buffalo Bills.

And leading the way,

none other than the ageless Derrick Henry, who goes 24 for 199 and a touch and a dominant effort.

kicked off with an 87-yard touchdown run that really set the tone for the whole evening.

Conman,

by the way, what are we doing, Ravens, on their last play from scrimmage?

They throw a swing pass for one yard to Derrick Henry when he's at 199?

No, you've got to give him the ball to run.

Just give him the rock, give him the pill, get a yard, and get the 200.

Anyway, that's the only thing the Ravens did wrong tonight.

They're that selfless.

Chris Collinsworth had the great line at the end that was like, oh, they're just so brilliant first.

I think think Derrick Henry.

And it's like, yeah, I mean, on a night where he runs for 199 yards, sure.

And when 84 of them come on whatever, like the first play of the game from scrimmage, like this is, you know, Todd Munkins.

Absolute dream, right?

This team is designed and was always designed to get that first touchdown and then to ride Derrick Henry towards the end of the game.

And I think the one nice thing that we saw about this was that it is possible.

Derrick Henry is still healthy enough to do it and he can still sustain a big workload.

We saw it last week, too, where he can be a good volume runner, and that's really all Baltimore needs him to do.

And every once in a while, he breaks one, too.

And that he fits in, that he fits in this offense, which I think, you know, the first earlier parts of the season was like, well, does he?

But last two weeks, it's like, absolutely.

And the way that they did a good job tonight showing how they create...

complete misdirection to F up like the opponent right up the middle of their defense and Lamar fit in well running the ball.

Patrick Ricard is a complete wild man.

And they just were able to completely wind down Buffalo's, right up the gut of Buffalo's defense.

Because I was a little concerned coming out of the half, because we know what our experience is with the Ravens.

You get this Ravens, then you get the one that gets it in its own head.

They go three and out

back to back to open the second half.

And it's like, oh, they show Lamar going up and down the sideline, yelling at everyone.

And it's like, what's going to happen here?

Because

our memories are fresh.

But then they go, and I think part of this game is about their defense, speed on their defense, chasing down Allen and making life hell for Allen.

They blew him up on the one play, but then it was like there were two long-range takedowns of Allen that ended drives and caused complete havoc.

And Allen never seemed right after that hit to me in this, but this was like Baltimore exuding its nucleus.

It's like when they can do this, and you know,

they're a matchup offense sometimes.

I think you've got to get them against a team that can not expose them to have to pass the ball.

When they can do this and ride Derrick Henry, this version of Derrick Henry, it's like, holy smokes, like that was an absolute

smothering of the Bills.

All right, because I thought you were going in a certain direction because I want to focus in on the beginning of the third quarter because you're right.

There's a three and out by Baltimore when they have a chance to kind of put the game away.

It's 21-3.

Buffalo takes over.

They go down the field.

Allen has one of his signature throws that you'll ever see scrambling scrambling to his right near the sideline.

I think what is he?

Was it Shakir that he hit downfield to set up the touchdown run by, I believe, Ty Johnson.

And now it's 21-10, another three and out.

And here come the Bills.

And

there's six and a half to play in the third quarter.

They're in Ravens territory, and they got two cued by half.

And I say that 20-20 is hindsight, right?

Because if it works, we're talking about, oh, and all of a sudden it was 21-18.

And then Joe Brady, you've done it again.

But in this case, a disastrous play call where it's a direct snap to Shakir, who tries, who it immediately gets snuffed out, but he flips it back to Josh Allen.

And now Josh Allen has a bunch of traffic around him, and he still tries to make the play work as it originally planned, only they didn't fool anybody, and they had traffic in the backfield, and Allen makes a mistake of trying to go deep.

He gets hit from behind.

Kyle Van Neu recovered, and the Ravens put the game away after.

I think they go on to score a touchdown on that ensuing drive.

They race down the field.

Yeah,

Derrick Henry had a big run.

Lamar Jackson rolls in, and then Buffalo, with one more kind of final gasp, Tyler Basqu shanks the field goal, and like you just knew this thing was crumbling at the seams.

Right, because at that point, it's 21, 28, 10.

Basque lines up for the field goal, and, you know, it wasn't, it didn't feel like even at that point, obviously, it was Buffalo's night.

But at least you hit that field goal.

It's a back-to-two-score game.

we know baltimore struggles connor in the fourth quarter are a real thing but it just like that fumble and the turnover and then missing the kick was like okay this is not buffalo's night and then to top it off they even when derrick henry's going in i guess that would have also been the 200th yard if you want to look at it that way he fumbles going in for another touchdown and it bounces around and into the ravens hands so one of those cursed nights as a buffalo fan and as a ravens fan it's like oh i wish they could all be like this it's weird it's funny too because sean mcdermott's timing on on trick play calls has never been good.

I mean, we had the DeMar Hamlin fake punt last year in a big spot that was an absolute disaster.

And, you know, it's one of those things where you need to do that when you have like Jacoby Myers and Gardner Minshew, and those are your best players, but you have Josh Allen, and so you should just continue to run that part of the plan, right?

Josh Allen, who's just finally starting to feel it a little bit, it seems and you and you get too cute.

So tough one.

They roll up 427 yards, the Ravens do in this game, 22 22-12 to

the first downs.

They're five of nine on third down.

Just a real dominant win.

And, you know, for the Bills, Mark, I don't come out of the game

feeling terribly about Buffalo in the sense that they had a bad night and in primetime against a Ravens team that does play well at home.

And it was set up in the stars, really, for the Ravens to get right here.

So I do want to see what version of Buffalo shows up next week, but they're going to be okay.

I think this is just, to me, this is like just one of those nights that happens over the course of a long season.

So I would not be in panic mode if I'm a Bills fan, but I would get it if you were upset because this, there are a couple teams that, as a Bills fan, you look at in the AFC, and at the top of the list, I would say, is Baltimore and Kansas City, and Baltimore just embarrassed you in primetime.

So that can't be pleasant.

Yeah, I think it was the nature of the beating is a little uncomfortable if you're a Bills fan, but I also think this is a team that You know, we were giving them credit, rightfully, for.

They've got a lot of new faces trying to make their offense function.

And it was a big night for like keon coleman i thought he made some big plays like and so i liked seeing also like with coleman specifically kind of making some big catches they knew how to use them tonight so i'm not freaking out if i'm a bills fan it's just there is a little bit of a work in progress situation like 10 days ago we're freaking out about the ravens so you know this stuff is a

roller coaster ride can i ruin your night dan real quick It was ruined about six hours ago, so you don't have to worry about it.

Okay.

All right.

So the Bills have the Texans next, which is going to be a tough game.

And let's say they either play well against them or worst case, maybe.

I know where you're going with this.

The next game, the get-right game, is the Jets

coming home from London.

And the Jets, I think, if I remember this correctly, requested not to have a week off after the London game, wanted to play after London.

And then the NFL said, here's Buffalo on Monday night.

Listen, if I know my team, Robert Sala on that flight back from London after they absolutely crush a Vikings team that entered the game undefeated.

Sala will say something so inspiring.

I'd be surprised if Buffalo even gets within 25

tonight.

I think with leadership like the Jets, I think they can't go wrong.

I believe all of that to be completely true.

There you go.

So that is the Sunday of week four.

Can you believe it?

Four weeks down of the flagship show.

We will wrap up the week four schedule tomorrow, two Monday night games.

We have the Wheel of Fortune game,

Justin's Tennessee Tytoons,

hoping to get on the board themselves against the Dolphins.

And who's the quarterback?

Snoop Huntley?

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

Wow, Tytoons.

We don't need to.

In a big spot.

You said it.

You haven't seen it.

Listen, it has to come out organically, and it did.

So until you, if you, listen,

it can go away if you can beat Snoop.

I mean, I feel like Snoop Dogg would be a better option for the Dolphins, but if it has to be...

Snoop Bar to remove Tito.

Snoop Hunley's a Pro Bowler.

That's right.

I apologize.

All the Snoop heads out there, I apologize.

And then, of course, Monday night football, Adandi.

I don't say that word enough.

Adandi.

The Seattle Seahawks at Detroit Lions.

All right.

Good stuff.

Connor, as always.

You know,

this time next week, Connor, it could be you and I...

you know, talking a little Yankees-Orioles baseball.

We'll just send the other guys home and just do an hour or 20 on that.

I would love that.

I was on like a Baltimore area radio station once, and they're like, do you get sick of people asking you about football?

And I said, well, you've never asked me about the Orioles.

And I talked about the Orioles then for like 20 minutes.

It was great.

I really enjoyed it.

Why do you assume that I wouldn't want to be in a Yankees Orioles hour and a half long show?

Why do you assume that?

Because I've literally talked to you.

I know I produced a baseball podcast for like a year, right?

Right, but look where you are now.

Yeah, that's true.

Do you want to be a part of the the combo?

You can join us.

Hey, man, is Aaron Judge better than Shohei Otani?

It's the real conversation.

The Foxman.

That's a Foxman right there.

Erstwhile.

All right.

Thank you to everybody for listening and watching.

Remember, if you haven't, if you're listening right now, please check us out on YouTube at youtube.com slash at heed the call pod.

And if you want to follow us on Patreon,

patreon.com slash heed the call.

Thank you to everybody.

And until next time, do what you must do.

Heed the call.

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