NFL Week 7 Power Rankings + MNF Double-Header Recap

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I know there were some mistakes tonight, right?

But what can you say about the way that you guys were able to fight back and get this big win?

Now three straight wins.

That's who we are.

We fight.

That's what Coach said.

You know, we went 0-2 in the first two games.

We tied it back up, went 2-2, and now we're 3-2 because of our fight, because of

how we face adversity and how we come through and come together.

Heyo, welcome to Heed the Call, an NFL podcast.

Dan Hansis, Mark Zessler, Justin Graver on the ones and twos, and that is Caleb Williams on ESPN.

Moments after

Jake Moody.

Yeah, you remember him.

Third round pick.

Moments later, did that interview with his helmet on.

Just like

such a kicker move.

Like, I just wanted to go out there and make the kicks, and I'm proud to help the team.

It's like, take the helmet off, bud.

This is your moment.

Mark, Jake Moody, take the helmet off, kick.

Yeah, I want to know what you look like.

I want to experience you.

And, you know, you're acting like you're in a downpour and you've got protective gear on.

Like, this is your television moment.

That was his moment.

But really, the true moment for Jake Moody, of course, course, was with three seconds on the clock.

He pipes one from about 37 yards out, I want to say.

And that was his fourth field goal of the game.

And crucially, the one that decided it for the Bears, 25 to 24 over the Washington Commanders, a game that,

you know, it's one of those games, Tesla.

And by the way, we're going to get into everything.

We got a doubleheader, of course.

Falcons Bills we'll talk about.

We got the power rankings week seven, which is gonna get interesting is are there any good teams in the league i don't know a coach got fired justin is nude right now uh and he's been that way since about uh 11 a.m central time uh we'll get to that um but yeah that this game we'll start with this bears commanders game is like one of those games

that explain why head coaches end up looking like two-term sitting presidents uh by four months into into a season.

I mean, both the Commanders and Bears killing themselves with mistakes.

The Bears looked like they were going to absolutely coming out of this game and us having the same conversation.

This is why we can't take Chicago seriously.

They never actually put themselves in position to win football games in big moments.

But then Jaden Daniels on a wet night in Landover, the ball slips out of his hands.

Krowski Merritt never touches it, and it sets up a kind of stunning loss for the Commanders who fall to 3-3.

The commanders move to three and two.

It's one of those games where you'd have to say the weather was a factor because of the condition of the footballs.

But

yeah, like the story to me in many ways is that we've seen this Bears team

evolve and grow up a little bit this season.

But the defense tonight, and you know, part of it is Washington's inability to protect the football.

But there was the Jaden Daniels interception early.

There was the early Crosskit merit fumble.

These were killer turnovers.

And then in a moment when it's like we're expecting Washington to make a big play and seal this game with three minutes to go, you're up 24 to 22 and another botched handoff.

And like, because I look at Jaden Daniels, it's like, you are, you have proven to us you're too good for that to happen.

That was a really unfortunate moment for them.

But if you're in a game like this, if you give the ball away three times, Chicago,

that's what's going to happen.

Like

they took advantage of it.

And I don't necessarily see them as the better team, but in that situation,

the lost real estate, the lost balls are the difference.

Yeah, and that fumble occurs with three minutes and seven seconds to go in the fourth quarter.

Washington has a 24-22 lead.

They actually had an eight-point lead that got cut down to six on the DeAndre Swift touchdown reception.

And the Bears go for two.

They fail.

And now we get to a point where really it feels like Washington's, you know, one completion, one Jaden Daniels scramble, one whatever away from icing the game.

So when that ball hits the ground and pops right into the arms of a Bears defender for the turnover,

it's pretty stunning.

And to their credit, and they did it mostly on the ground, they're able to then take that ball and move it into not just field goal range, but deep into Washington territory.

Because I thought this is one of those games where you think you kind of know how it's going to end and it just doesn't end the way you expected.

I fully expected them to recover that fumble,

not be aggressive and settle for like a 51-yard Jake Moody field goal in poor conditions, and it would get blocked or he would hook it.

But instead, they do put the kicker who's in for Santos, who's out with an injury, in a much better situation.

And they did it because they could run the football.

DeAndre Swift entered this game averaging 3.3 yards per carry, but he had 108 yards in this game and gave them some balance.

And I thought Caleb Williams also played a pretty steady game as well, making some big throws despite all the times that the Bears continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

That was the difference because, you know, we talked on Thursday or earlier last week about the fact that

This is not like Ben Johnson's Lions team because they had not been balanced.

They They weren't able to run the ball.

Tonight's 5.4 yards per carry, 7.7 for Swift, who had that huge run.

Because I think Moody is an absolute X factor in all the wrong ways.

And that 8 was like an 18-yard run to set up what is a very makeable field goal in ill weather.

And that's the game changer because I don't know.

He like that might not have happened at all.

Like he had a kick blocked earlier in the night.

So it's, you know, anything could happen here.

And I really thought that

Chicago, like maybe I can think they snuck away a little bit with this because of the turnovers, but they did just enough.

And to go do this like on the road was a huge win.

They're a team I see differently in the NFC if they can keep it going.

Yeah, I can't,

I still can't get there in terms of like trusting the Bears or seeing them as anything other than kind of

middle-tier fodder in the league right now.

But as we'll get into at the power rankings, it's such a

whole league sort of middle-tier?

It's such a big, soupy mess.

It's almost like they're the most

you know what the Bears are.

They're either the worst best team, the worst good team, or the best bad team.

They're like, they're like the Dalton line right now in a very straight and what's rapidly turning into kind of a strange NFL season as you try to figure out what's up and what's down.

But yeah, I thought the other takeaway, and what I thought we were going to be talking about before the big turnover was the commanders stacking a win here at home, surviving, surviving, and Jaden Daniels starting to look like Jaden Daniels again.

I thought he was much more mobile in this game,

but the interception and that fumble kind of marred otherwise what would have been a productive and positive night for Washington.

So, really, just a really frustrating loss for Washington.

And

if you remember the last time we saw these teams on the field together on that insane Hail Mary that sent both seasons in opposite directions, I would imagine as a Bears fan, if you're listening right now, congratulations, because you feel like he maybe stole one despite everything kind of working against you.

Gravity was pushing against the Bears, pulling this game off.

And then they catch this huge break and then cash it in.

And that does feel a little bit different than, let's say, the Eberflus Bears of yesteryear.

So maybe, just maybe, things are changing in a wide open NFL season.

Because, yes, because that's what I'd say.

When I want to view the Bears differently than I have for at this point, like two decades, Ben Johnson's a factor.

We don't know how good Caleb Williams can be.

There are some actually really good players on this team.

The defense is creating problems.

So put all that together, and you can see nine or ten wins.

And then, and that's really only year one under Ben Johnson.

I will say for one thing for the commanders, because you don't have Terry McLaurin.

For them to be in this game where they were, you don't have Terry McLaurin and to watch guys like, I thought Luke McCaffrey had a big night tonight.

It was good to see him step up.

Jalen Lane, who clearly was brought up in their meetings with the crew like a lot because they love him.

They think he's the best punt returner from the draft.

He had a big 37-yard catch tonight.

So you're developing these other guys around the return of Terry McLaurin.

And it just doesn't change what I think about the commanders who also feel in that middle world to me.

Maybe a little higher than the Bears.

It just wasn't their night.

All right, let's move to the early Monday night game, or as I call it, the fake Monday night game.

Whenever it's Riddick, or Lofsky and Fowler, it's like, okay, that's the fake one.

It's like,

and that's the real one.

So here's the fake one.

But you know what?

Still an interesting game,

a saucy upset.

And let's get into it right now because,

yeah,

listen to that.

Oh, is this the you're the winner song?

You're a winner.

Fight for the best things you can

do.

I'm convinced a sitcom from 1983 used the same song, but we'll

be able to see it.

And reach out to the stars and take your vitamins.

America's counting on you.

You know, remember when we heard from Raheem Morris and he said,

B.

John Robinson, this guy's the best player in the league?

That was a few weeks back, and it's like, yeah, sure, the coach is saying that.

I don't know.

Am I starting to believe it?

Because when when I watch Bijan Robinson play football, I'm like,

he's doing stuff right now.

He's like what Saquon Barkley was last year.

It's just like, nobody's doing it like him.

Bijan Robinson had 170 yards rushing, including a gorgeous 81-yard scamper to the end zone.

Added 68 more yards receiving.

Pair him with fellow former first-round pick Drake London, who had 10 catches for 158 yards and a touchdown.

And then sprinkle in some really saucy Falcons defense.

Jeff Ulbricht, former Jets DC, who always gave Josh Allen troubles in those Jets Bills battles.

Well, he did it again here, holding the Mighty Bills to just two touchdowns in a 24-14 upset win for the Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

That's a nice win, Ceci, for the Falcons.

A very nice win.

Well, and I think you are someone who, and you weren't, you know, this, you had a rightful, reserved approach to the Falcons Falcons for a number of years.

And it's like you're waiting for these pieces to actually amount to something because you see it like on the roster.

Now it's games in a row where we're starting to see that this might work.

And Bijan Robinson, I was a lad when this occurred with the great Bo Jackson, the last running back to cross 230 all-purpose yards on Monday night football.

Bijan Robinson.

was the next tonight.

A complete difference maker.

And you're right about Drake London.

Like the idea that just works between him and Penix, but it's the defense, man.

Like four sacks of Josh Allen.

I think they tackle really well.

They're ferocious.

They

dart to the ball and caused a lot of problems for a Bills team that, frankly, let's be fair, was missing a ton of guys on defense.

And like Khalil Shakir is your number one wide out tonight.

You're missing people all over the place.

And they were losing more defensive players during the game, which I think all of this played into Bijan Robinson's big night, but he is a dangerous receiver too.

And it's like he can do it all.

And it's kind of like if you're going to get Bijan Robinson playing at this level, they can have signature wins like this.

We were waiting for the Falcons to have a signature win.

And I think that you have to look at this.

Now it's two weeks in a row that the Bills are the victim of a signature win, but here we go.

Yeah, and we'll get to the Bills a little bit more.

Yeah, the Falcons,

they

what makes me a little bit optimistic about them for the first time in a long time is that there is an identity here.

You have this superstar in Robinson that you can anchor the offense around.

And what you were seeing from Pennex in this game and at times this year, although, you know, it's been spotty at times, but

Penix, if he can just be a complimentary piece,

he's not the focal point of the offense, but if he can move the ball.

Now, if he throws that...

If he throws a pick six to Terrell Edmonds in the final minutes of this game, which he almost did, again, we're having a totally different conversation, but that's why sports is weird.

And that's what makes sports random and great and terrible at the same time, because he drops that potential pick six.

And instead, they're able to kick the field goal to essentially ice the game.

But this was the Falcons offense that went into this game, averaged just across the board.

They're 14th in yards per play, 18th in yards per carry, 10th on third down, 25th in the red zone.

And then against the Bills today, they scored 21 points in the first half.

They come within half a yard and an overturned review on the last play of the half of putting up 28 points.

They average over nine yards per play in the first half.

They have, in this game, in the first half, 335 yards of offense against Buffalo.

And then for the first time in so long, the curse of John Abraham, it does seem to have lifted.

They're getting after the quarterback.

And if they can do that and combine that with a great running game, Tyler Algier is a really good compliment to Bijan.

It's all there.

I mean,

we feel far away from the 30-00 loss

to the Panthers.

At the same time, this is exactly the type of team, Mark, that you have to just keep everything in perspective because they haven't earned our trust yet.

And we need to see it over a longer stretch.

But here's the best version of the Falcons, and that's enough to beat.

any team in the league on a good night.

And we saw it here.

Yeah, I think like three of the four teams, because I'm not putting the Bills in this conversation despite some troubles, like we don't quite know what we're dealing with here, but when the parts are aligning, yeah, I mean, the Falcons also overcame a blocked field goal.

I think Parker Romo, they're going to be in tight games, and it is clear the coaching staff does not feel like Parker Romo is going to save the day reliably.

They also, you know, Bijan Robinson on that first possession, they were lucky that what would have been a lost fumble was wiped out by a Bills penalty.

I mean, it's these little tiny things that create the story we're talking about because it was a very tight game.

I thought, I don't know, I was thinking like sitting here watching two games at the same time.

First of all, my head is on fire and like darts are coming into my consciousness.

But it's like, oh, the Bills are going to find a way just to win this.

This is just a classic.

Like Josh Allen runs for 80 yards on the final drive.

And like, we're talking about Josh Allen.

And it didn't happen.

And I think that's like this season is creating these unpredictable moments with teams that I didn't even think we'd be talking about as early or as late as middle October at this point.

Yeah.

And with Buffalo, you know, they start out 4-0.

But like you said, now back-to-back losses and, you know, the injuries are an issue.

The defense is not good enough right now.

And while Josh Allen and the offense is still as good as any in the league when it's on, this was a game where they were held in check.

I believe they had four three and outs in this game.

Allen threw two interceptions.

It was just not good enough.

And when the defense is playing as bad as it does in this game, it puts so much pressure on the offense to be nearly perfect, and they weren't.

And so when you look at Buffalo, it's like this is a team, as we've talked about, that it's like, you got to get to the Super Bowl.

But right now, you see a lot of holes on the defense.

You're not getting much at all from their draft class.

They have six rookie defenders.

Five of them have made really no impact to this point.

So there's something missing with this Bills team.

And I think obviously Brandon Bean and Sean McDernet have to figure it out or things could get interesting.

Because by the way, technically, they're not even in first place in the AFC East anymore.

No.

They're like the Patriots, four and two, but the Pats have the head-to-head win, of course.

So

interesting, they go into their buy.

I do wonder, depending on some of these injuries and the way that they look at their overall team,

do we get a surprise type of of trade here in October with Buffalo adding something to the lineup?

They've got to be that desperate to figure out any problems they have during a bye week.

We'll see.

They're also tight up against the salary cap, which would complicate bringing in a potential high-priced veteran.

So, yeah, but that's all stuff

they have to figure it out.

Their wins in the season, by the way, are teams that are combined 3-21.

The 1-5 Ravens, the 0-6 Jets, the 1-5 Dolphins, the 1-5 Saints.

I believe

I took the 11.5 over on the Bills, and I'm starting to get nervous.

We might want to check in on our over-unders.

Let's flag that, Justin.

Maybe we'll check in next week or the week after and see how we're doing.

It's usually not good news for us from a PR front, but sure.

Right.

Well, speak for yourself.

I mean, you're the one that went 0-4.

Well, you've cited one team that you already potentially have botched, but fair enough.

No, I feel okay.

I feel okay about the Bills, just for like the, I feel like the Bills are going to be all right.

But now getting to 12, this might be closer to an 11 and 16.

Like, I, but I'm not, I'm not panicking, put it that way.

I would panic if I were you.

Like, you're like, I don't even remember who I picked.

And it's like, uh-oh.

That's where I come down as a sess dog.

Don't, please.

Yes, Justin.

Here's what I can do to help us out is I'll just check and see how we're doing.

And if things are looking good, especially for you, Dan, then we'll definitely do that segment.

If we look like morons, then we just, maybe we just can it.

Well, we know, well, we know the, especially if you do, part of it was the code.

Yeah, so our typical modus operandi, if you will.

Check on how I'm doing.

Right.

And we'll flow through that.

That seems fair, Mark, right?

Well, and it's a little icing on the cake if Mark is flailing.

That adds a little spice to the

episode as well.

It's like, it's the sugar in the cake.

It's like, ooh, tasty.

Take a bite.

All right.

Let's take a quick break.

When we get back, we dig into the news that, I mean, and think about it, Mark.

Justin, who on the surface is a good guy, right?

Celebrating a man's dismissal and his life being turned upside down.

Is that really something worth celebrating?

Let's think on that.

And when we get back, we'll break it all down.

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All right, we're back.

All right, we, the three of us sat in silence thinking about that question that I posed.

Uh, Mark, your thoughts about Justin celebrating a man being fired and his dreams evaporating

over one sit-down in an office.

Yeah, I think it raises

overt questions to any of us that are

sentient, almost adults.

It adds nuance to Justin's character, confusing nuance, because I took him to be a caring individual for the most part.

And

here we are, Justin.

Let me stop you right there.

It's clear that you guys didn't listen to either of the two episodes that I recorded already today for Music City Audible.

Well, that is

In the hotel for me, I opened the first podcast by saying, Before we talk about this, let's talk about the human element and acknowledge that this sucks for Callahan and every coach on the staff and all of their families who are going to have to uproot their lives.

That's how I began things.

So, thank you very much.

Wow, don't you?

Let's give you a little blue ribbon.

Yeah, how about a round of applause, huh?

Give myself a round of applause.

A little ribbon in your hair.

Let's

hit the news.

I had to hold for applause.

Okay, news.

Where is she right now?

What do you mean?

Where's Amy Adam Strunk right now?

Yeah,

she's at her home.

Why isn't she here?

I'm here representing her.

Oh, man, what a major league ball buster that Koharski is.

I'll tell you what.

Kind of love that.

What's she doing?

Sipping white wine at home?

Oh, she's sipping on that Chardonnay out of a straw.

Yes, that was,

I don't know, independent Tennessee journalist Paul Kaharski, who covers the Titans beaten, has for many years

asking the hard questions like, Amy Strunk, you

hire all the wrong people for the Tennessee Titans.

And now after you announced that Bill Callahan's son almost got tripped up on that one, Brian Callahan was fired on Monday, six games into his second season as coach.

Why isn't she here answering questions?

It is a fair question to ask, and it left Chad Brinker.

Chad Brinker?

That was.

I wasn't familiar with Chad Brinker before today, but isn't it great that is the Titans president of football operations to say, well, she's at home.

Imagine, imagine hiring all these people.

And after it all goes to hell, you get to just hang out in your mansion and let Chad handle it.

Wasn't there a better answer, though, to that question?

I'd say she is fastidiously working on these issues right now.

She's extremely busy.

She's at home.

It sounds like she's got kicking her feet up on the

something to aspire to.

That may we all have a Chad to handle the dirty business of life if you can get

to a certain level of fortune, put it that way.

Anyway, Callahan finishes with a 4-19 record, including 1-5 this season with number one overall pick Cam Ward.

You know from our show and our producer that Callahan was not a popular figure in Tennessee.

Didn't seem like he had the answers.

His press conferences, many times incited by Kaharski, actually,

had delved into uncomfortable standoffs with the local media.

And it did feel like a matter of time.

I said it on the the Sunday recap that this is exactly ground zero for firings.

That Monday after week six, and sure enough, the first coach goes down.

It is Brian Callahan.

Here is Chad Brinker.

Chad Brinker.

I don't know why that name is so funny to me, but it's a fing hilarious name.

Here is Chad Brinker on the dismissal of Brian Callahan.

It's not funny, though.

This is a man.

We were looking for growth in this football team.

Brinker.

And that's what this is about right now is we're we're not seeing enough growth from this football team.

We're one in five

and we got to be better in this.

And I want to acknowledge the fact that we're all frustrated.

We understand that you the fan, you're frustrated with everything that's going on.

But

we're doing everything we can.

We will do everything we can to build a football program that you can be proud of.

Yeah, when he says you the fan, that was a mistake.

He thought Justin was the only Tennessee Titans fan, and he confused that there's two Justins on the Vivolos Titans podcast.

Yeah.

But

he should have said the fans

to encapsulate both Justins.

Anyway, Mark, I'd like to get your thoughts, and then we're going to clear the runway for a really jam, just action-packed episode of Go Off King.

It had to happen.

I think like being a coach these days compared to 1995 or something is you're out, you're front-facing 24-7 in the media.

And if you do have a little flare-up with Paul Kaharski or fill in the blank, like everyone's talking about it.

And he started to lose, I think, the locker room.

He lost the media.

He's losing games.

There's nothing he's winning.

Whatever argument there was for him in theory ever had vanished probably last season.

He was one of the more surprising people to bring back.

And you've got this so-called precious commodity in the number one overall pick in the draft, who is yet another young quarterback drafted first overall, dealing with coaching changes.

And you've got to, if you're Chad Brinker or whoever you are, like you've got to find a way to create some stability.

This was an unstable, sinking ship.

You had to do it, Justin.

And you were talking about this since August.

So this is not a surprise.

Let me just, before I clear that runway, mention that senior offensive assistant Mike McCoy will take over as interim coach.

Yes, that is the same Mike McCoy who wowed us as head coach of the San Diego Chargers from 2013 to 2016.

I'll also note that Brian Callahan,

his father, Bill Callahan, who is the offensive line coach and a coach on the staff, also stepped down.

He resigned after his son was fired.

All right, Justin, your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, Mark said it.

This had to happen.

You just had to get Cam Ward out of this situation because this whole season is about developing him.

And the only thing he was developing was bad habits in this offense.

And Mike Borganzi said, the Titans' general manager, if you don't know who that is, was also at the podium with Brinker, said that Mike McCoy's version of this offense is going to include changes that will help Cam Ward.

And then Titans media didn't really follow up on that.

But Mike McCoy will speak on Tuesday.

So we'll get to hear maybe some of what those changes are.

I'm just, I'm a little surprised the Titans actually did this.

I just thought that because they had been preaching patience all since January, and there was even a report in ESPN a couple of weeks, maybe four weeks ago, that the Titans had considered firing Callahan in January and decided to give him another chance.

And Brinker talked about how they wanted to, he was a first-time head coach.

They wanted to give him a chance to grow into the head coach they knew he could become, and he never became that.

So it's time to move on.

The season is lost.

Mike McCoy is not going to come in and make this a good team.

Like, that's not anyone's expectation.

But you have to do something different with the offense around Cam Ward to give him a better opportunity to succeed.

And he hasn't had that.

And he's flashed at times, made some incredible throws and some incredible plays.

And he's also made some killer mistakes.

Not as bad as the Titans' previous quarterback, but still bad.

And so let's get him under a new staff and see what happens.

And they'll let the first head coaching search of 2026 begin.

Yeah, the one thing that I would push back against slightly is saying that the season is lost because the Titans were never contending this year anyway.

True.

And success when you have the, and the difference between, let's say, your team and my struggling team is we don't have our QB of the future even on the roster.

So you're just trapped in this weird purgatory slash hell.

You can come out of this season, even if you're not going to have a lot of wins, it feeling good about the Titans if...

with McCoy leading the way and some changes in their, you know, their attack, maybe you get Cam in a better place than he's been so far this season.

They play more competitive football, and then they make a decision.

I would imagine they're going to want to hire outside the organization at the end of the season.

But who knows?

Maybe McCoy really impresses them.

It's unlikely.

But I'll also mention that Nick Holes, another great name.

Give the Titans this.

They got some great names.

Nick Holes.

There's a silent T in there.

Holtz.

I'm not interested in the silent T.

Nick Holtz.

There's no T in the name.

There's a pronoun.

You say a T that doesn't.

Sorry, I said that backwards.

But I respectfully pass on that.

Okay, fair.

Nick Holes, offensive coordinator, he's there.

So you have the OC there.

You have McCoy now promoted to interim coach, and we'll see if they can start going in the right direction.

Last thing on this.

Firstly, just another point about how bad and uncompetitive.

You said play some competitive football.

That's the key to me is we just want to see competitive football.

The Titans lead the NFL with four losses by 10 or more points.

That's how bad they've been.

But there was a little bit of good news from the Titans ticket office who started contacting fans today.

This was good.

The tact is a little bit questionable, but again, Kuharski on the beat.

What a ballbuster.

That guy is a major league ball buster.

That Kuharski.

Friend just got this, and then a screen grab.

Somebody, I don't have this number saved to my phone, so I'm not sure who this is.

It's Dan, not me, by the way.

It's Dan from the new stadium team.

You told me I'm in if Brian Callahan is fired.

Is that really?

Is that real?

With the exact date and time that this person supposedly said that they're in if Brian Callahan.

Yes, this is real today.

Really 8 p.m.

This isn't the only person who got a text from Dan in the Titans ticket office today.

Here was another tweet.

Again, Dan S, not Dan H.

Noah, it's Dan S.

from the Tennessee Titans.

Over 70% of seats in the new Nissan Stadium are already sold.

As a past PSL holder, you're invited to our Titans house preview.

This was sent at 4.09, so approximately an hour after the dismissal of Callahan.

And he follows that kind of informational text up with a follow-up text.

Titans part ways with H.C.

Brian Callahan.

I think the Titans released a statement saying we weren't cool with this, but Cal Inn was a deeply unpopular figure, and now he's gone.

And let's see if your Titans can have a little.

I want to get in those DMs of Amy Adams Strunk and see what's going on over there in the Palladium.

Strunko?

Yeah.

Do you think Strunko even knows what happened here?

Well, that's a good question.

I think this was her decision, and Borganzi and Brinker are taking the, I don't know if it's a fall, but to the credit, maybe.

But

this was a huge, huge point of contention in the press conference.

And there was actually a pretty hostile, I mean, you heard it between.

It's a concern if you think it was her decision.

Like, it's possible that it wasn't, and she's floating in the abyss.

I like this idea of Strunko

in her kidney-shaped heated pool on her fourth boxed wine, Carlo Rossi boxed wine.

And someone is just reminding her that she had fired a man earlier in the day.

And she's like, oh, for heavens be.

I did that.

You got him.

I don't.

I couldn't have done that.

Well, Helen's the Betsy.

Did I really?

Like, obviously, she's involved in the decision, but it's different if Brinker and Borganzi go to her and say, hey, we got to make a change.

They're going to be.

Versus her being like,

Mike Vrabel's coming to town next week.

I don't want this guy coaching my team against him.

Get him out of here.

Which very well could be what happened here.

She's like, why would I fire a man in Septober?

It's like, I don't know.

It's actually October.

It's not that.

Those aren't one month.

Oh, Septober was the previous month.

Does that mean I need to replace him?

No, ma'am.

Chad Brinker is on it.

Oh, excellent.

You send Chad my regards.

I love that little Chad.

You send Chad over here.

You tell Chad I want to have a lunch with him.

I want to thank him for all the work he's done.

Thank you, Chad.

You send that serious flowers.

Remember in the old days when all of that would just be removed from the podcast and no one would ever hear it?

Yes, I do.

All right.

Moving on.

So now that Callahan's done, here's Mike McDaniel.

He's like, ah, shit.

Is this happening now?

Okay.

Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive, stay alive.

The Dolphins are coming off another disappointing loss, this one in the last second to the Chargers.

And McDaniel, in addition to dealing with the frustration of the last second loss,

finds out like the rest of us, minutes after the game, his quarterback steps in front of the podium and essentially says that the circus is

circus 10 is up.

In the locker room, guys are not showing up to players-only meetings.

Guys are showing up late to players-only meetings.

And it was kind of a strange move for ostensibly the leader of the team to talk about how no one's respecting the leaders of the team.

And also, that reflects poorly on the head coach, who is very close, you would imagine, to getting his own pink slip.

McDaniel addressed to his surprising comments on Monday.

Regardless of intent and

what was onto his mind,

after a loss as the franchise quarterback, that's not the forum to displace that.

I think he knows that now.

I do honestly believe it was not, there's no ill intention, but you're talking about,

I think, kind of a misguided represent...

representation of

player orchestrated film sessions.

And, you know, the bottom line is no one's going to be happy and always is looking for reasons

for failure to succeed.

So you're trying to look for reasons that,

you know, you can attribute to losses.

And there's a, you know, heavy is the crown of being a franchise quarterback.

I think,

you know, what I do know is that he's directly communicated with

a lot of guys

starting with last night.

and that's what

teammates do.

Okay.

He speaks in a flat monotone cadence.

McDaniel,

it's the cadence that led Rex Ryan to call him, I believe it was

nerdboy.

Nerdboy.

I believe, yes, nerdboy.

But I'm going to use my coach speak.

Genius guy, whatever the hell he is, nerd boy.

I'm going to use my PhD in CoachSpeak to tell you that that's a pissed off Mike McDaniel.

Like, he is pissed off that his quarterback would put this on his plate at a time when the team is and the organization is kind of in crisis.

And I guess

I actually admire, and maybe it's,

maybe it's a little bit of like

they could fire you, but they can't eat you type mentality

that McDaniels is flashing here.

He's like, I'm going to be critical of Tua here because I'm going to keep my dignity even if I'm heading out the door right now.

And that was a shitty thing for my quarterback to do.

So, you know, I'm going to give McDaniels some pop there.

I'm with you because I think McDaniel, he's had to

overtly, and it started on the plane ride.

to the Dolphins facility where he created videos specifically talking about he was going to partner with Tua, had 100% believe in him when the owner was looking at other quarterbacks, like Deshaun Watson, and everyone was looking.

The previous coach, Brian Flores, apparently had talked down to Tua to some degree about his talent.

And in comes Mike McDaniel, and he supports him.

And this is, I agree with what he said.

I don't think he's a nerd boy.

I think no matter how his voice cadence is, I think he's right.

Like that's, if you're the quarterback and you're seeing this from what are essentially, it sounds more like not coach run meetings, but player run meetings and player film sessions, you're the quarterback.

Like if they're not, if they're showing up late or dodging stuff that they should be doing to get better when they're a bad football team right now,

you're the guy that we are paying a ton of money to to rally the troops and speak truth to your teammates and get them there on time.

And so

it's on, it's on Mike McDaniel to some degree, some of this stuff, but it's like he's right there.

Like that wasn't the place for Tua to do it.

And Tua is a pretty measured speaker typically.

So it wasn't like, oh, here he goes again.

But I didn't think that was, that didn't help any of this mess at all.

Yeah.

And I, and I think Tua probably, as he's stepping off the podium was thinking to himself man i wish i had that one back because yeah it doesn't reflect well on tua i mean that's it

and

and i don't think what he said was meant to make mcdaniel look bad even though it did or make himself look bad which kind of did but it just speaks to the frustration of being on a losing team when there's so much negativity now closing in from all corners.

And this is the type of stuff that happens.

Like, it's one of the weird things having covered the league now for all these years,

you actually see these teams dying.

Like you see them as organisms

taking on battle damage and then falling to one knee and then they keel over eventually.

And that's what happened with the Titans this morning and what's happening with the Dolphins.

And you see it, it's usually not some like, you know, one-shot death blow.

It's like death by a thousand cuts.

And they're about probably at 998 cuts right now in Miami.

Yeah.

And like, as you said over the weekend, like

for shows like this, if you get a good McDaniel clip, play it because there may not be that many more.

In other news, there are infinite clips of Mike Tomlin speaking because he's been the Pittsburgh Steelers coach since 1912.

But usually you don't get a Tomlin quote.

or really quote from any coach in the modern NFL.

This isn't like Jerry Glanville for the 1987 Houston Oilers just shitting on somebody in his own division, like the good old days.

You don't see it a lot anymore.

You don't see, yeah, you don't see Sam Weisch, you know, picking up the PA microphone and yelling at the fans

to clean up their act.

It's just, it's just a more,

everything's a little more tucked in in the modern-day NFL.

So I appreciate it when Mike Tomlin goes out of his way to shit on the Browns, but I also understand why a Browns fan,

dealing with their own 998 stab wounds don't want to be involved with what's happening and don't need the 4-1

Steelers head coach to be piling on.

But Tylen did offer some criticism of the decision-making of the Cleveland Browns tied to Joe Flacco being traded within the division.

You know, to be honest, it was shocking to me.

Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us

because it doesn't make sense to me to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your opening day starter to a division opponent that's hurting in that area.

But that's just my personal feelings.

And you know, Mark, like,

that's usually that head coach keeps in-house or maybe like over drinks at the scouting combine in the Weston Hotel

might.

shit on Andrew Berry.

But like to say in the press conference means that Tomlin was probably pretty pissed about that, you know, and he spoke on it.

Yeah, I mean, and you know what?

The Browns deserve to be called out.

He was the perfect person to do it.

They've owned that team in Pittsburgh against Cleveland for 20 plus years.

The Browns are in their ninth rebuild and watching the Browns, and I get it.

We've tried to be positive, I have, about the rookie class and what they drafted and the fact that it's a youth movement.

But among the teams that are in the bottom five of the league right now, they are moving into the mode where I don't see what the vision is.

They are trying to escape future cap-hell.

They are not competitive.

And I think it was, it did go against code a little bit.

And I think that's what Tomlin's referring to to trade a capable quarterback.

I'm not saying that Flacco is lights out, but he's going to go in and change what the Bengals might be from a veteran quarterback angle.

It changed what the Steelers have to deal with.

And it goes against code a little bit.

Like when Belichick traded Bledsoe to the Bills, it stood out as an odd, atypical type of trade because you don't do that too often inside your own division.

And I thought this kind of like said two things.

The Browns are giving up, and we're not afraid to play by any code because we're also the team that signed Deshaun Watson and annoyed 31 other owners and organizations.

Yeah, and if you just look ahead at the Steelers schedule, he's saying this because they're going to be in Cincinnati in week seven on Thursday night.

And then they have the Bengals again in the middle of November.

So they're going to get

Flacco.

And actually, when you think about it, when we talked about the

last year when,

well, actually, no, it was like two weeks ago.

We talked about how Tomlin mentioned about the Colts last year.

And he's like, let's not hurt Anthony Richardson because we don't want them to put Flacco in the game.

Like, he has a lot of respect for Joe Flacco, apparently, Mike Tomlin.

So, like,

he thought that, oh, we dodged Flacco because now he's benched and he's behind Dylan Gabriel.

And who knows who else, who else he he was behind in the Browns pecking order after that, he was sat.

Now he's right back in the mix of things.

So Tomlin's just feeling good about himself right now.

I think he's looking at this AFC and he's like,

we kind of suck a little bit deep down, but God, we might be better than most of these motherfuckers.

I think that's what he's looking around right now.

He's looking at his own division.

He's like, we're not great, but

is anyone here great?

Isn't it funny how it works out?

Like, Aaron Rodgers, this is like his fourth or fifth choice,

and uh, it feels like a perfect spot for him now.

Maybe Minnesota would have been better, but yeah, it's worked out.

Um,

and isn't that great?

Isn't that great for everybody?

Uh, in other

coaches on the ropes news, this is outside the NFL sphere, but I figure let's talk about it.

It's the Monday night show, Mark.

Bill Belichick,

it's an absolute shit show at UNC.

Uh, they've been blown out by

any program that they face.

That's, what is it called?

The power something.

What is it?

Justin, help me out with this.

Power.

Power 4 now.

It used to be the power 5, but

anytime

UNC has played a power 4 team, they've been absolutely obliterated.

The whole idea that Bill was going to come with the Godfather Lombardi and they were going to be able to go toe-to-toe with these teams.

And that is not the case.

And there was a report out there that a buyout could be looming for Belichick

not even halfway through year one as the coach of UNC and it prompted both the school and Belichick to release statements last week and then today Belichick

coming off I think a buy for UNC

to speak on the whole thing let's just check in with Bill man what's going on with Bill if we must

Just the some of the reports out last week about my looking for a buyout and trying to leave here and all that.

It's categorically false.

There's zero truth to any of that.

Glad I'm here.

We're working towards

our goals and the process.

Yeah.

I mean, your thoughts on this, Mark, because I know you, Belichick, is

an important figure to you.

Do you think he's the coach of UNC this time next year?

No.

Not at all.

Whenever I hear categorically false and we're all releasing it.

That means it's categorically true whenever that happens.

I'd stake a claim, whatever that means, coming from me.

But I absolutely thought it aligned with a lot of stuff out there when the reports came out that he was going to buy out and not finish the season.

Like, number one, you factor in quickly, you factor in age.

Like, does he really want to rebuild a pretty moribund college program where you're going to have a bunch of people probably leaving through the portal versus coming to this team?

This is not the one thing,

there's some good stuff on the athletic about all this.

And Lombardi and Belichick from the very beginning kind of assumed that all these star players were just going to run to them because it was Bill Belichick.

That's not how college football works.

They've been tagged with not treating it like college football, but like the pros, and that they have been aloof and unapproachable.

And not treating, these aren't kids per se like school children, but they are non-pro professional players who need to be treated differently than the New England Patriots.

And the other job that Belichick has to do is to recruit.

When When you have a bye week or you've got downtime, you are churning the recruiting process non-stop.

And then there was someone, something out there about the fact that, like, when he had downtime, he's out on his boat with

Jordan or whatever.

So it's like, I mean, listen, this is a

grinder's job in many ways.

And Belichick, it's like, do you want it?

I don't sense that you do.

You thought you would come in and change this program.

They are a massive apocalyptic disaster to the eye.

They're an eyesore.

And how long will it take to dig out from that?

And is this a guy that wants to do it?

Negative.

That's the other part of it because I read that article too.

And like,

I am far from a authority in college football, but Justin, jump in as you see fit.

But part of this whole

new era of college football is like the idea of rebuilding a program is not something that takes years necessarily.

There are shortcuts to be had through the portal program, and you're expected, especially if you're the highest paid state employee in North Carolina and you have your GM, the consiglieri, Lombardi, getting the highest paycheck for any GM in a college program to be doing exactly what you're saying and bringing in a ton of top talent and taking

this

team from

an afterthought to a potential contender.

And yet they view it as, well, you know, send this out to the season ticket holders and the alumni that this is a long road of a rebuild.

And it's like, I think you're in the wrong business, old man.

And that's part of the problem here, too.

I think there's two sides to it because

I think it's not that easy when you're coming in to a team that, I mean, North Carolina was good and then they fell off.

And that's why they bring in Bill Belichick.

It's not like there was a huge track record of established success.

It's not like somebody's going in and replacing Kirby Smart or Nick Sabin, right?

So I think there is, like, it takes more than one season.

you can't you're not just gonna come in and immediately be the greatest nfl head coach of all time transported into college football at the same time they're getting what i would call embarrassed on a fairly weekly basis so i would have expected better than that it's almost like what we talked about with the titans like be competitive if you're not there yet and they're not even really competitive right now but i also do think it's it's gonna take a year or two or three before they are like you know competing for the spot in the college football playoff.

What I didn't like about that article, though, on the athletic was their attitude.

Not the fact that this needed to happen right away, just like, are you really working with these student athletes to your highest ability and availability?

I didn't get the sense that was the critiques seemed to suggest otherwise.

And that's sources.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, you know, to use another high-profile NFL figure, Deion Sanders, now he took a different path.

He was at Jackson State.

He gets the job at Colorado.

They're four and eight of their first season, one and eight in their conference.

And then they have just an influx of talent.

And Deion kind of electrifies the program and they go nine and four the next year.

And, you know, that's now leveled off a little bit.

But I think that's what UNC expects from the Bill Belichick tenure.

But yeah, anything short of giving him or him quitting within a year is like, why did we do this in the first place?

You have to have a little more patience, but he also has to have that dog in him.

And Lombardi, I read another thing.

Lombardi's like letting everyone know that he uses a typewriter.

And it's like, dude, could you feel more disconnected from the modern role that you're supposed to be handling right now?

You Tom Hanks?

Right.

And we, as editors back in the day, worked with a lot of people that went on to take football jobs after.

And Lombardi was one of them.

And I would just say wasn't

not a lot of interaction, but the ones that I had, not the coziest

and kindest individual I've met in terms of like, let me help a young guy through this process.

That's not how those phone conversations of editing those articles would often go.

And I think some of the critique is that when agents and other people have reached out to speak to him, that he's a little bit aloof.

And I don't think that's the

that you haven't saw, you haven't mastered this business yet, to your point.

It's not pro football.

It's a different world.

All right, let's move on.

Um, we touched on this on Sunday night, but Lions safety Brian Branch

set off a little mini melee at the end of the Lions Chiefs game.

Uh, he refused to shake Patrick Mahomes's hand, and then Juju Smith-Schuster got in his face a little bit and held his hand out, and then he whacked.

Smith Schuster in the head, uh, and that led to a big, a big showdown.

You know, Branch was suspended one game for his role in Sunday Night's Altercation.

Here is Dan Campbell after the game,

already pissed that the Lions got thoroughly outplayed by the Chiefs and then had to be answering questions about Branch being a dumbass after the game.

I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable, and it's not going to be accepted here.

It's not what we do.

It's not what we're about.

I apologize to

Coach Reed and the Chiefs and

Schuster.

That's not okay.

That's not what we do here, and it's not going to be okay.

He knows it.

Our team knows it.

And

so

that's not what we do.

And not a great thing.

Not a great situation for a Detroit team that's dealing with a lot of injuries in their secondary.

They are scheduled to play Monday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Branch is appealing or plans to appeal the suspension, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

But don't hold your breath.

The league does not like

on their, this is their signature telecast in primetime, the number one watch television program in America,

that level of,

you know, disrespect of the sport and all that sportsmanship and just the general energy of it was a very negative way to end the telecast.

And 345 don't like that.

So expect Bridge to miss that game.

Right.

And one in one game is a light suspension.

I I don't know why you'd even plan to appeal it because clearly your own head coach and the Lions organization feel that you should face some consequence for it.

But you are right.

It is coming at the wrong time.

DJ Reid out, Terion Arnold, Avante Maddox, Kirby Joseph.

These guys are all banged up.

And that's part of the reason.

It's one reason why the Chiefs thrived the way they did against that defense.

So this, you also hurt your team.

You hurt your team.

And speaking of injuries, two quick ones to report here.

Rams wide receiver Puka Nakua, the NFL's leader in catches, suffered an ankle sprain.

And according to Rapsheet and Garifolo, he's likely to miss some time.

Rapsheet reported on Monday.

It would make sense for Nakua to be out next week against the Jaguars.

The Rams then have a buy after that where they can regroup and assess.

It sounds like a high ankle sprain, the way the wording is there.

And then the New York Jets, as if things couldn't get worse for the Windless Jets.

Adam Adam Schefter reports and MRI revealed that Garrett Wilson hyperextended his knee and he's expected to miss time potentially up to a couple of weeks.

I guess the only positive take out of it is it wasn't more serious than a hyperextension.

That was a bit of a concern going into Monday, but Wilson is out.

Now, I do not know,

I do not know who Justin Fields or Tyrod Taylor is going to throw to on that offense if you take Garrett Wilson out of it.

I believe it is not too early to start having concerns about Owen 17 and this Jets team.

I think

it could be that bad, and I believe that Aaron Glenn,

if he doesn't

put it this way, Aaron Glenn, for the first time yesterday during that game and then after the game, like, uh-oh, he might be in trouble.

So Aaron Glenn might be a one-and-done candidate.

And that's crazy after all the optimism in the summer, but that's also very New York Jets.

They have to find a way to play respectable football and get out of the laughingstock business, or I would imagine ownership could have a freaking New York Jets.

We're built for this shit.

Itchy trigger finger.

Yes, those are more innocent times.

Let's take a break.

And when we get back, we're going to do some power ranking.

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Yeah.

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all right we are back welcome it is time

for the week seven edition of the heed the call power rankings the only power rankings that matter in our business mark sessler how are you feeling about this exercise i feel like it's getting harder week by week uh because all the teams that we want to install as the like tier one big dogs, it's hard to really find that group right now.

There's a show that I watched a lot a couple years ago.

Alec Baldwin narrates this incredible National Geographic special called Journey to the Edge of the Universe.

And it starts like on Earth, but you just get farther and farther out to like deep space.

And like they take you through like the Jupiter moon of Europa and like nebula scenarios and black holes and sunken star systems um that's where i feel like we are with this exercise because it it was clear

and it i will say this week was kind of like because for me this is my virgin voyage and really doing this on a weekly basis it felt like um i took three chocolate mushroom uh edibles and then it was like now rank these teams that's where i'm at at this point but i tried my best

heavy is the current number one according to dan Hanses power rankings today.

Thank you, Paul Rudd.

It's a Dan Hansis.

Shout out.

He's not mentioning my name, so I feel like I have some ground to make up here.

Paul Rudd.

You know, you know,

it is a

tough gig, Mark.

I remember I had several appearances on the Pat McAfee show

where McAfee would really come hard after me.

And

I'll just say,

again, just me just

sitting you down and

giving you the encouragement that you need as a rookie, stand strong, stand by everything that you go with, because once you start backpedaling,

you are a wounded animal in this game.

So that's as we go into week seven, please stand by your choices.

Don't I will, because that is one thing.

Like, I spent a lot of time on these, and when I turned them into Justin, like you're kind of moving stuff around, but it's like, I feel good about them.

And I kind of think that you've got to know what, you've got to be ready for what's coming up next, too.

And I've tried to look at it from before and forward and the present day.

Very good.

Past, present, future.

Absolutely.

And with balance.

With Farbik hanging over your shoulder, too.

There's a lot of pressure in this game.

Let's head to, without further ado, these are the combined power rankings of Mark, myself, Justin, and Connor Orr, of course.

And there they are.

Can you believe believe it?

You don't even need, this is the state of the NFL, this weird, wacky 2025 season.

You don't even need a winning record to be number one in the power rankings right now.

And I suspect, not that any other power rankings matters, I suspect we won't be the only ones that have the Kansas City Chiefs sitting at number one.

Me and Connor have Casey at one.

Mark and Justin have him at two.

Number two, they're up five spots.

So the Chiefs Chiefs

off that win over the Lions move all the way up to number one because the other teams lost footing.

Not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

They continue to win.

Now, here's a big discrepancy, Mark.

I have the Bucs at number seven in the power rankings,

which is a very, it's a nice place to be number seven.

But,

and thank God for the old Zeuser.

I do not, I don't believe in a world where the Bucs are the best team in football right now.

I've watched watched all their games.

You have them at number one.

Connor has them at two.

Justin has them at one.

I take all comers on this.

And this is maybe, maybe you could say they should be in the top five.

I get it.

But if not for me, they're the number one team in football, and I'm not there.

Clearly, not.

So

go ahead.

What do you have to say about this?

I would counter that by saying that

you're working with three other football professionals who have them ranked, as you mentioned, one, two, and one.

You have them down at seven.

So either you are

operating in genius mode or you're a little behind on the Bucks.

I'm not, I mean, I don't want to use those words negatively, but seven feels a little unrich for what they've done, who they are.

What the Bucs have done is win.

They found ways to win

many times in far less than dominant fashion.

They've needed four last-second, last-minute drives.

With injuries, but yeah.

Needed or executed to perfection.

Yeah, sure.

Of course.

I mean, that's why to me they're in tier one.

But I don't see them as a dominant team.

And I see them as a team that, you know, almost every week they can, you know,

things go a little bit different.

Put it this way.

This team could be.

I'm not going to say one and five, but they could be three and three just as easily with just a little touch of fate jumping in.

Like our number one team.

Exactly.

I think the Chiefs could easily be 5-1 themselves, but they're not.

But anyway, that's interesting, and I'll sleep with that tonight and think about how I was alone.

It's weird to be alone on the island in the segment,

but I'm going to live with it for now.

And if they continue to win, I'll continue to march them up.

The Lions.

They fall, as we said, to the Chiefs, and they fall two spots in our rankings to number three.

The Colts, they win.

Not overly convincingly.

They have a lot of injuries they're dealing with, obviously, as well, but they keep winning.

They're five and one, and they move up one spot to number four in our rankings.

Mark, Justin, and Connor all have them at fourth.

I have them at sixth.

The Bills coming off that disappointing Monday night loss to the Falcons, they drop.

I have them at five.

Mark has them at five.

Justin has them at five.

Connor has them at five.

We are in lockstep down

three spots, the Bills at number five.

The Seahawks are up to number six in the power rankings

after another win, this time over Jacksonville on the road.

The Rams,

they squeeze by the Baltimore Ravens and move up two spots to number seven.

And the Packers

are another big discrepancy here.

I have the Packers at number three,

but not in lockstep with the gang.

Mark has has him at 10.

Connor has him at nine.

Justin has him at nine.

And ain't that interesting?

I mean, I don't,

it's, it's really for me, like, do I think the Packers, do I look at the Packers as a stone-cold top three team?

No, but I don't, I can't really make a case for any other team to have that spot over them.

The Rams, I had it four, so they would be the closest, but and the Bills five.

But yeah, like the Bills losing tonight really jacked things up a little bit.

I think so, too.

But you are like when you go on like a guy trip

and like everyone's staying at an Airbnb together, and there's always one guy that shows up like late at night or the next morning.

That's you right now.

You are far afield from the rest of this group.

And so I hope it works out for you.

You know what?

It feels dangerous, and I like it.

I'm feeling dangerous.

Like Baker Mayfield, ironically, who I'm buried in tier one.

You guys are in cahoots.

Let's move to tier two.

Two quick notes before we move on, just to point out, because it's fun.

Mark and I had the exact same one through six, which I don't think that's really happened yet this year.

And secondly, all of us having the bills at five, spoiler alert, that's the only team that we are 100% aligned on this week.

We gave this the name, by the way.

It's our connect four.

Oh, right.

One Connect four in week seven.

All right, let's move to tier two.

All right, we have the Eagles down six spots to number nine.

I have them at the lowest at 10, Mark at nine, Justin and Connor at seven.

They're down six spots, struggling the last couple of weeks, back-to-back losses.

The Broncos

biggest drop of the week.

Wow.

That makes sense.

The Broncos, very unimpressive, at least on the offensive side of the ball against the Jets.

But, you know,

thinking about that game some more afterwards, like Peyton played that game, especially in the second half.

Like, I'm going to take the air out of the ball here.

I'm not going to do any of my customary downfield passing.

I'm just going to, I know the Jets

don't have it in them to beat us.

So, we're going to play very conservative and let our defense win the game.

And that's exactly what happened.

So, I'm going to give them a little bit of a pass there.

And they're very good.

Well, they don't dazzle the viewer.

I just find them to be, I think they're a very solid team, but like, I don't run to the television set to observe what they're they're up to.

Yeah, I think they have their best football ahead of them still.

I really do because I think they can be a fun team to watch on offense with Sean Payton, and they've shown that when they do open up their air attack,

but they've been inconsistent, that's for sure.

And yet they're number 10 in our power rankings.

Number 11, the Steelers, begrudgingly, we're starting to move them up the board.

They're up four spots.

Mark and I have them at 14.

Connor has them in the top 10, Justin at 12, so they sit at 11.

The Niners, conversely, they're going the other direction.

Here we are again with a big discrepancy, Sessler.

I don't see how.

I have them at 18.

And it's not the power standings, it's the power rankings.

Like I look at the Niners and I see a deeply flawed, injury-destroyed team right now that can absolutely be beat by any of the teams that I have above them on the list and a few behind them.

You have them at number eight.

Like, how is this version of the Niners a top eight team, a tier one team?

I think they've survived through terrible circumstances, and

they've survived inside their own division.

And, you know, you've got three four and two teams, and I agree that they don't strike fear into the heart, but it's a little bit about the fact that they've done it so banged up, as banged up as any team in the NFC.

It's like, what is next?

I'm not basing this on what's next, but I think that they've shown me more than some of these other teams that I don't trust.

I trust them more.

Fair enough.

Up next in our Twilight Zone at number 13 is the New England Patriots.

I have them at 11, the highest in the group.

I really like this Patriots team, and I think they got a chance here.

Mark has them at 12, Connor at 15, Justin 13.

They're up three spots this week.

The Chargers, they survive against the Dolphins and stay right where they are at 14.

The Commanders, yes, I was all excited.

I was going to have the Commanders in the top 10.

Everything was going to be nice and clean.

And then they blow the Bears game tonight.

And instead, I have them at 12.

Mark has him at 15.

Justin, 16.

Connor, 16.

Down three spots.

Number 16, the Jaguars.

We try to believe in you, Jaguars, but you let us down.

And as a result, you fall three spots to number 16 in the power rankings.

Tier 3.

Okay, this is where you're a little bit on the edge of things.

The Falcons.

How about the Falcons?

Up four spots to number 17 after knocking off the Bills.

Falcons fans probably think they deserve to be in tier two after that game.

I understand it, but I think as a group, we're like, we need a little more before we give you that type of pop.

The Bears steal one.

I'm a little surprised here that we didn't give the Bears a little more love, but 17, 18, 17, and 18 are respective voting, so they move up one spot to 18.

It wasn't the most impressive win when the

other turns the ball over as many times as they did.

No, I agree.

18 is fine.

I hear you.

Not overwhelming

the performance, but they got the W, move up one spot.

The Vikings on by,

down one spot.

I can live with that.

Nothing irresponsible there.

Nothing for Farbuck and his team to sniff around.

The Cowboys, I was...

Farbuck.

Farbuck.

I was all set to put the Cowboys maybe in the Twilight Zone at 13, maybe even sneak them into top 12, but then they can't find a way against the Panthers.

The defense stinks out the joint again.

So instead, we clock them in at 20, down three spots.

The Texans

are down one spot to 21.

The Panthers, okay, the Panthers are up to three and three.

They got a couple impressive wins under their belt, but we're not buying in quite yet, especially not Sessler, who has them at number 25.

He has him as a tier four team.

Little harsh.

A little harsh.

I'll examine my method on that one, but I don't have a problem with it.

I don't think there's that big of a difference between 22 and 25 in today's NFL.

Okay.

They're a little bit of a cop out there.

See, I'm learning to finesse any sort of critique.

I finesse it verbally.

But in the power rankings, every spot matters.

If you're telling us it doesn't matter where I put them within these four spots, it's telling me that you're not putting in the work that you're saying you're putting in.

25th matters, and that's where I had them.

Okay.

Number 23 is the New York Giants.

And again, I'm really impressed by the restraint of our little big blue boys, Connor and Mark.

Mark, who is blowing up our text, supposedly on an like we give Mark the night off on Thursday and we're just getting these like sea poems about how much he loves the Giants.

And yet,

at the break of dawn, somehow there's a purity and cleanliness of mind, and he has them where they belong at number 21.

I thought you were going to have them at like six or seven coming off.

I operate out of self-control, wisdom, logic, and world experience.

That's it.

That is it, Sessler.

I love that.

Good answer.

Connor has him at 25.

What have

that's surprising, right?

Sometimes I swear to God, he just does with it.

He just fks with us on purpose.

I think so.

Yeah, they're up three spots to 23.

The Ravens keep losing.

Down to 24 in the power rankings.

let's move to tier four the tier you do not want your team to be in

and let's see the cardinals they cannot pull it out against indianapolis they don't have their quarterback in the lineup kyler murray's down potentially for multiple weeks and they're down two spots to 25.

the bengals they they have a better effort um with flacco but they lose again they're up one spot to 26 the raiders raid raiders finally win up one spot spot.

The Saints move up one spot to 28.

The Dolphins are up one spot to 29.

Reality is setting in for the Browns because the defense isn't quite good enough to swing games and the offense can't move the ball.

So as a result, they are down and back into the 30s,

down six spots.

The Titans

get whooped by the Raiders, so they stay at 31 and the Jets remain winless.

And there's another Kinect 4, by the way, Connor, Justin.

So there were two connect fours all four of us had yeah the Jets we all agree to the worst team of football that's a type though I had them at 31 so that's not right

now it's too late this this is the record I'm sorry Justin can't have two teams at 32 though does it what does it say my titans rating is I can't even 30 31 30 30 and you have the Browns 31 at 31 that works that's it that's those are your they went to press this is it went to press okay it's like when Michael Lombardi is on his typewriter, it's like, I can't change it.

You can't change it.

I had the Titans at 32, and I was going to make a whole thing about how the team that fires their head coach first and has lost the most 10-plus-point deficit games should be the worst team in the world.

You did it, though.

Yeah, but you don't have a little thing because we're looking at it right here.

You had the Titans at 30.

The Jets lost to the Broncos by two points.

The Titans lost to the Broncos by eight points.

So that's a pretty good comparison point there to see who's better.

Sure.

But you have them at 30.

It says right here.

I'm going to change this by the time our our audience sees it.

You can't change it.

Because now we're talking about...

That's a social graphic that goes out, at least.

Can't do that either.

We're going to have to pull rank here, Mark.

I think we're in agreement.

It's Heath the Call of Dan Hansis and Mark Sessler.

And once we go live on the show like this, these are the rankings.

It's editorial integrity, Justin.

It just simply sits right there.

It's anchored to editorial integrity.

This is what happens when I'm trying to make these graphics during the show, whatever.

Right.

That's obviously, that sounds frustrating,

but we love what you do for us and the program.

And we're very happy for you on this day.

That Titans helmet's spinning a little bit faster behind you.

Congratulations.

Thanks.

Your team was the first team to fire their head coach.

Callahan is dead.

Long live Callahan.

We root for easily the three worst teams in American pro football.

They've combined for two wins in in six weeks.

It's pretty crazy, man.

All right.

Good stuff.

Wednesday, End Around Wednesday.

Our buddy Sheila is going to join us.

Can't wait from the ringer.

And we're going to do a little

fun little deep dive on the panic index facing teams across the NFL spectrum.

So make sure you're there for that.

Check out patreon.com/slash heed the call.

New content going up there every week.

Big announcement.

Big announcement.

Hit the announcement horn, by the way, Justin.

Which one, or all of them?

I like doing all of them.

I don't know.

That's your call.

Okay.

How about this one?

Back by

back

Backed by popular demand, the Friday Fun Show

will be

returning to the Patreon on a monthly basis during the season.

It might not even be on a Friday.

I don't know.

Maybe it won't.

But isn't that kind of fun too?

Wouldn't that be zany?

But the Friday Fun Show,

our fun kind of rundown of things,

you know, pop culture, news, current events, dead celebrities, whatever catches our fancy.

We will have that back on a monthly basis during the regular season and into the and through the playoffs before it returns on a weekly basis in the offseason.

So you have that and I won't say the other, I won't say in

exactly what's coming, but there's a new Mark Sessler offering percolating in the distance

and could be landing in about a month or so

that is going to be must-see Patreon content.

So we continue to churn out original content.

We'd love you to check it out.

Patreon.com slash heed the call.

Mark, the last word goes to you on this Monday night.

I want to say one quick thing about the Friday Fun Show because I think it's spilled over into everything that we do.

It was such a joy and ease to make.

And we get to, it's not just celebrity deaths, it's investigations into celebrity deaths.

And we, you know, we take things to new territory.

And so, of course, we'll bring back things like that.

And we'll, you know, it never really went away.

It just took a little bit of a nap.

Now it's awoken.

A dirt nap.

But now it's crawling out of the grave.

Yes.

And we're going to hose it down.

Always.

Put it in some clothing.

Like in Cino Man.

All right.

That's the point.

Enough.

Thanks, everybody.

You're the best.

We'll see you on Wednesday.

Till next time.

Do what you must.

Heed the call.