NFL 2025 Week 7 Preview + TNF Recap

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This game is so great, and I think sometimes when you've played it for so long and you've done it all your life, you know, you don't, you can lose some of that energy you had for it.

But I think it's all about your mind and telling yourself that like this is one of the best things in the world.

So I think just stay excited about what you're doing and I think you'll be able to do it as long as you want.

You know, once upon a time,

when we were bloggers for NFL Media, there was a series of posts.

I think we all took a turn writing one about Joe Flacco being tied to a potential film adaption of a Johnny Unitas

memoir.

That project never

took off, but now I'm wondering who's going to play Joe Flacco in the Flacco memoir.

I mean, because he has now reached the status of a great American hero.

After a 33-31 win,

the Pittsburgh Steelers fall to Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals.

A huge win

for

Cincinnati

and a game in which Joe Flacco throws for 342 yards, three touchdowns, and leads Cincinnati on the game-winning drive

capped by Evan McPherson's 36-yard field goal with less than 10 seconds to play.

Dan Hansis, Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

It is the week seven preview, but the week seven preview begins with the recap of Thursday night football.

And Connor, you said a couple weeks ago, maybe 10 days ago, that you were, hell, maybe a week ago, that the idea of Flacco on the Bengals was almost emotional, almost made you emotional.

How did you feel watching this game?

Because

he was lights out from the start.

He was lights out from the start.

And it's funny because after the game, like Richard Sherman will say something like, well, it's that simple.

If you have Jamar Chase, just throw him the ball.

No, if you have Joe Flacco, you can set up a defense in a way where you're getting Jalen Ramsey and Jamar Chase in single coverage, and you feel confident enough to make those throws over and over and over again, and you're experienced enough, or you don't care enough to make mistakes, whatever it is.

He's in the perfect place in his career where he has these two awesome wide receivers.

He understands most NFL defenses.

He's been in this division forever.

He's seen Mike Tomlin a hundred times, and it's the perfect recipe to kickstart their season.

And, God, it was like a 17 EPA game for him.

Again, I said it last week.

This is now the first and second best quarterback games that the Bengals have had this season.

Joe Flacco continues to roll.

And

Mike Tomlin, prophetically, was absolutely correct in his annoyance at the brown.

He had the steam coming out of his ears on the sideline during this game.

I mean, you can see him knowing he's right during the whole game because this is exactly to Connor's point: that Joe Flacco doesn't need training camp and five weeks of practice to get caught up with Jamar Chase and T.

Higgins.

It's automatic.

And you target Jamar Chase 23 times tonight, 161 yards off 16 catches, a touchdown.

And T.

Higgins, and because we've seen, we've had to discuss players not doing this correctly.

T.

Higgins making that 29-yard catch at the end where he goes down to allow the team to kill clock and kick that game-winning field goal.

A selfless move.

But Flacco's done this.

Like as a Browns person, like I saw him, you know, multiple years ago do this and win comeback player of the year.

And like this year's Browns team didn't deserve him.

And I'm glad he's somewhere where he can be

in a place where he can lift up the Jamar Chases and the T.

Higgins.

I'm with Mike Tomlin.

That was a dastardly move to trade him, but the Bengals feel completely different tonight because of it.

Yeah, and just because he doesn't get any credit, he never seems to get credit.

I think it is more than just Flacco.

I think it, and Flacco deserves the most credit, right?

But yeah, Jamar Chase being just a fantastic football player.

16 catches, franchise record.

What was it?

160-something yards, a touchdown.

Higgins scored in addition to that heads-up play at the end.

And I'm going to give Zach Taylor some credit.

I mean, Zach Taylor is an offensive-minded coach.

He was a quarterbacks coach with the Rams before he was hired as the Cincinnati Bengals head coach.

He has a ton of history on that side of the ball.

And whatever they've done to make this, it is not normal to take a guy, bring him in on a Monday or a Wednesday or whatever it is that Vlacco got there, play him on Sunday, and then you have him on a short week, and then he plays at this level.

And yeah, I said it on a Thursday show.

Or the Wednesday show, I picked the Bengals because I knew, I didn't know they were going to win this game, but I knew that

that stadium stadium was going to understand that this was their season.

And they did save their season.

And they not only saved their season, they took Pittsburgh down a notch.

And the Ravens, by the way, coming off their bike, they're watching this, like, yes, okay.

So once again, Pittsburgh is showing themselves as a flawed operation.

And there's Joe Burrow on the sideline, raising his arm, celebrating this win after the McPherson kick.

It's a game, Connor, that has

it.

We could look at it and it could be a blip on the radar in a long NFL season, or it could be kind of this like pivotal point in the season for three different NFL teams while the Browns watch in the deep distance having imported Flacco into the middle of all this madness.

And how on brand is that mark for our teams to do this shit?

Oh, yes, over and over and over again.

It is, but I will say that I was thinking about this during the game that, and Jake Browning is a good backup.

Joe Burrow has liked having him as a backup throughout his career, but what an advantage having Joe Flacco in that building also will be for Joe Burrow when he's healthy and trying to play legitimate playoff football.

I mean, just from a preparation standpoint.

But I like the point that you brought up about Zach Taylor.

We had said that this was going to be an indictment of him, good or bad, right?

Because he is the play caller.

He is the designer of the offense.

At this point, for better or for worse, he's tied to Joe Burrow.

Jake Browning, you could kind of throw that out because it's an outlier at this point in time.

And Flacco comes in and he even sat on the desk with Amazon after the game.

You know, we talked about this with the coaches all week.

They might bracket this guy.

And so I know I have Yosevash over the middle.

Like all this stuff was discussed.

It was planned out.

Zach Taylor had a nice game plan for him, got Jamar Chase in single coverage, which, like, who does that?

And they roll.

So, hell yeah.

I love every bit of this.

Yeah.

And by the way,

I'm not joking.

Like,

if anybody's old enough to remember what Thursday Night Football used to be like when it was just on NFL Network, and then you and then you get in business with Amazon and now every game is like SummerSlam or WrestleMania.

And it's like this one goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

Aaron Rodgers absolutely rises to the challenge.

And

I mean, we're deep enough in the season where like I was dead wrong about Rodgers.

I think he in a better situation, in a healthier situation,

he is performing at a really high level.

And I thought even in defeat in this game, 22 of 32, 244, four touchdowns,

all to tight ends, by the way, two interceptions.

One of the interceptions was a great play that wasn't on him at all.

Ball getting ripped away from DK Metcalf after it was kind of put on the money.

Even the Hail Mary at the end of the game.

It's like, and I know the Bengals without Trey Hendrickson couldn't get near him for most of the game, but the nimbleness in which he moved, and you see a difference difference between Aaron Rodgers two years removed from Achilles and Aaron Rodgers now.

I mean, the guy played at such a high level, and so while this is a disappointing loss for Pittsburgh mark, it's also a reminder that they're going to be okay offensively if they can keep Rodgers upright, and they can even thrive offensively with Rodgers upright.

The defense continues to be something that it's fair to ask questions about.

Yeah, I think the defense, you come out of this game,

you return to questions about the defense that we had a couple weeks ago.

But to get Jalen Warren back and have him go for 127 yards, have the ground game really be part of this.

And Aaron Rodgers, to your point, like, I do feel like he looked like a 59-year-old Alan Arkin in that helmet.

He looks definitely just young Arkin.

Yeah, he just looks older to me.

But like at that, at the end of the game, the Hail Mary, that was like a 68, 69-yard pass.

He was perfectly thrown.

Right?

And he can still do it.

And one thing I'd say about the Steelers, like from a positive angle, this was a big lost opportunity because I think you really could have put somewhat of a knife into the

knife into the Bengals for good if you take them down tonight.

And the Ravens got to be concerned.

But if you want to look positively, like Darnell Washington is becoming like a 6'8, 300.

I went to school with someone named Ranji Iagari, who was awesome in math.

Like, I think Darnell Washington, he weighs like five Ranji Iagaris, and he's like 6'8.

And then you got Pat Fryermuth and like the two of them together, like getting this chemistry with Rodgers and his own teammates, like it's starting to come to life.

So they're going to be around.

It's just that it got a little more muddled tonight.

And Joe Flacco, thanks to the Cleveland Browns, have muddled this whole process up.

Darnell Washington had three catches for two yards today, but he had a touchdown and he did a thing.

You know, I coach a flag football team of fourth graders.

And one move that always works is send the, when you're in goal to go situation, you send the tallest kid past the goal line, have him turn around and throw it high.

And that's exactly what Rogers did in this game at one point.

But yeah, what a disappointment, though,

Connor, for Pittsburgh there, because this all felt like a Cincinnati night.

It felt like a Joe Flacco night.

And you could tell like the 700 people on the Amazon dance were licking their chops.

They couldn't wait for the Bengals celebration.

And then they have a coverage bust and Fryermuth gets the long touchdown.

And you can't even make that that stop.

And they didn't even come close to the stop.

We talked about it with the coverage bust and Jamar and

single coverage, Roman by himself.

Like,

this is such a different Pittsburgh team.

And I'm just wondering, like, Mike Tomlin must be thinking to himself, like,

I know I always figure it out.

I'm Mike Tomlin.

I always figure it out.

But right now, I'm dealing with an organism that maybe is out of my power a little bit.

And how do I fix this?

Because this is, it's usually the certain type of things I need to fix.

How do I score just enough points?

How do I win the special teams games?

How do I win the turnover battles?

This feels like a different organism.

And I'm really interested to see how Tomlin navigates and tries to rein in this Pittsburgh team down the stretch.

Yeah, because when they got that go-ahead score at the end of the game, theoretically, this is when the defense takes over.

And there were six quarterback hits on the night, which is not insignificant.

But once Joe Flacco has to hold the ball for more than two seconds, and he did a great job getting the ball off in like 1.82, 2.1, I mean, he was on fire that night.

But I mean, once Joe Flacco actually had to hold the ball to let a play develop, that's when Mike Tomlin is supposed to step in and just take that game and put a chokehold on it.

They were not able to do that.

And it was interesting to hear Flacco even say there's the big quarterback sneak in that game.

And he said something like, I haven't done that in 10 years or whatever.

Ha ha ha.

Woody Harrelson and True Detective.

We get it.

But like the

whole thing was that whole play was busted.

It was just, it was

up from the beginning.

And he he turned it into like a massive game.

And it felt like, uh, it felt like Pittsburgh's defense was just,

I don't know, like not asleep, but just not that front seven just doesn't have the pop that it used to for something.

I don't know.

I thought that sneak, like the, the Flacco run

was the

razor across the throat of Mike Tomlin and his annoyance that we discussed before that, like, that happened to me.

Totally justified, by the way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there was a great shot, a crowd shot after Flacco makes that run.

And that's when he kind of felt, yeah, this feels like it's a Cincinnati nine and a Flacco night.

It's just like a woman in the crowd just going, like, holy shit.

Well, I mean, I got it.

I got a text from, you know, we get it, we're texting during the game, and Dan said, like, I want to marry Joe Flacco.

Connor's telling me he wants Flacco to enter his household and take his wife and children away.

And it's like, this was my quarterback like 10 days ago.

I know.

Listen, it's nothing to do with the Browns.

Like we've been saying all season,

you got to find the joy.

And Flacco is the joy, and he's a relatable guy.

And here's a video.

Phil Wesling, Wes's brother, was at the game.

And here are some just happy Cincinnatians.

Is that the go-by?

Leaving that stadium all decked out in white, as you can see.

And

Phil said the energy was great in there.

And it was.

It was a great crowd.

Great, great Cincinnati crowd, great Pittsburgh crowd.

AFC North, man.

Juice, always on Thursday nights, always.

All right, just getting started.

So we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to dive into all of the week seven slate.

We're going to dig in.

We're going to have a good time doing it.

Stay right there.

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All right, we are back, and there you go.

Thursday night football in the rear view.

And now we spin forward to the rest of week seven.

I'll tell you what, it's official.

The 2025 season is drunk.

It's weird.

And I think this is kind of a good little inflection point, Connor, because you have two teams that are supposed to be superpowers in the Bills and Ravens.

Obviously, the Ravens are in a lot worse shape than the Bills, but the Bills are no great shakes at this moment either.

Both on bye.

So you kind of remove these teams on the AFC that were supposed to be kind of leading the way.

And just here's some numbers.

Through six weeks, there are 12 teams with two or fewer wins.

Eight of those 12 teams are in the AFC.

12 teams in the NFC have a winning record compared to just seven in the AFC.

And we have a top three,

two versus three matchup this week on Monday night football in our power rankings.

And in total, five games between two teams with winning records.

So it's a big, soupy mess, Connor.

Do you like it better this way as a football fan slash hardcore journo?

Or do you want there to be a little more of a, you know, here's the big dogs, here's the middle pack, here are the shitbags?

Like in our power rankings, we have a 500 team at number one.

It's a strange situation as we near the midpoint of the season.

I wonder if there is,

we've seen the way that schedules have been altered in the last few years.

And I do think that they're starting to become like a science to it.

I mean, you can pair it to sweeps weeks where all the networks want their numbers coming up and things going well at a certain time.

But you also seem to have some worse teams that are having easier schedules that are front-loaded.

And then those harder teams are playing a ton of prime time games at the front end of the schedule so that we don't know whether they're good or not until they hit the back end of the schedule.

And so I do think that the NFL has probably gotten wise to this a little bit because I do think it has impacted, I mean, the fact that our power rankings, there's like 13 teams that could easily fit in the top 10 right now, I think is right up their alley.

And if parody doesn't exist in the sense that like during the playoffs, we see everything on a bigger scale, you can like force parody almost in a certain way.

And I think that might be what's happening.

I think that's really well said.

Like, you could say that this is a lost league.

You could say the league is on deep psilocybin, and like Ken Kesey and Neil Cassidy are at the wheel of a bus about to course off a mountainside.

But if you

could say that, like, one could say that.

One person in the world, it's Mark Sessler, could say that.

Go on.

Yeah, I just think that if

we've been traveling with the NFL for decades and this was the goal, right?

So-called parody, and I'm not going to go down the road of it.

And like, I don't know if it's better or worse.

I miss the days of two or three teams being utterly dominant and just dropping ultra hammers on people on a weekly basis.

But that said, like...

There was a mystery and a strangeness to the season right now that I don't really remember.

I got to also push back a little bit, Sessler, because I've been doing this with you for a long time.

Those are the teams that Mark Sessler dismisses out of hand as boring.

And many times, like the Bills of last year when they got rolling, like, I'm bored of the Bills or the Packers.

You used to be down on the Packers for like the teams that are just rolling over opposition.

I feel like this is right up Sessler Boulevard this type of season.

No, I'm talking about, but I am also old, and I'm talking about like the the dynasties of the old NFC, like San Francisco and Dallas.

I don't buy the, I don't need to watch the Ravens go 14 and three and then lose in the playoffs because these teams that we call superpowers now in the regular season have failed over and over again outside of the Chiefs.

I feel like there's, I could draw a through line also to the teams you just mentioned to games you might have been watching with your friends from Camp Happiness in the early 90s and just vibing out and enjoying life in a different way, more innocent time.

You could say that, but we did it for televisions and it was in the summer jesus how old are you huh well no but it was like this was in the deep adirondack berkshire mountains so it's like tv free and in the summertime before football you know began i got you

you know justin i don't know if we need that right now i understand what you're doing justin but we don't need that so

uh all right let's spin into some more football talk let's uh and try to figure out this this crazy mixed up league we'll start in the late window a much better window on sunday than the early one the quad box is coming.

The quad box is getting girthier by the week, and I just, I'm so thrilled about it.

So just a little tease for that.

Let's start with, we got to start with the Giants for a couple of reasons.

One,

they are just the absolute apple of the eye of

Connor and Mark Sessler.

Number two, Connor just got back literally minutes ago from New York Giants camp.

And I would imagine as they prepare to hop on a plane and head to Denver the number 23 Giants at the number 10 Broncos that the vibes as they say as the kids say must be pretty good at their complex these days Vibes are great, man.

Today was Coordinator Day, so I got to talk to Shane Bone and Mike Kafka and just kind of see how everything was going.

And then Brian Dable did a quick drive-by before the field, and then all of a sudden public enemy starts blaring over the loudspeakers.

You can't don't believe the hype, which is.

Yeah.

Don't believe the hype.

How old is Brian Dable?

This is, yes, he's a 50-year-old.

That's a go-to hip-hop jam to get the kids going.

Not only to get the kids going, but the message behind it, right?

Everybody's talking about you after that Eagles game.

Don't go onto that plane sniffing your own farts because this is a big game in Denver.

It's going to be a different game.

And the Broncos could, I mean, depending on how the run defense goes, right?

I mean, how Denver's run defense goes, they could completely wipe the floor.

A lot of spice in this matchup, too.

I mean, there's some cat calling between both of these teams going back and forth, saying that Jackson Dart's not that special.

This is starting to become like a vintage New York matchup where like these old Giants teams used to get overrated very quickly because of the market.

And then all these other smaller teams would talk a bunch of shit about them.

And it's awesome to have that back.

I really do enjoy that as part of

the football zeitgeist yeah there's linebacker denver linebacker jonathan cooper on the um dart mania yeah i mean he's a young young guy he's you know feeling himself a little bit he's out there running around he's got the chain on he's dancing

you know

i feel like everybody needs something so you know

but we've went against qbs who have ran around in the pocket and have you know trying to do stuff with their legs oh i love it ain't nothing we ever seen you know what maybe mark i just because i never i have never abandoned uh the denver broncas as the team of htc and i believe i i i truly do believe there's going to this is going to be a humbling week for not just jackson dart but for you guys and all of giants nation because this is this is a matchup that

This is a matchup I think doesn't set up well with this Denver defense, which is stellar.

They just embarrass the Jets at biblical levels.

The pass rush really gets after it.

And also, Jackson Dart holds on to the ball and tries to extend plays.

I feel like this is an opponent that could expose him for being the inexperienced quarterback that he is.

I can't wait to watch and see because if he does ball out,

it is.

Then you guys will believe the hype around the Giants.

Yeah, like the

Broncos, 30 sacks

through six games.

You have to go back 35 years where that's happened before, Tied with the 2013 Chiefs.

But for anyone who did more than that, they

are the fourth best team against running quarterbacks.

They shut them down.

And you're right.

We've seen that tangibly week after week.

It's tough to play in Denver, too.

I will never forget when I went skiing in Denver as a youth on a winter break.

And I was nauseous for the first two days.

It is like a real thing going on when you go to Denver.

It's a weird place to play.

um

that said

my heart was set afire aflame uh last thursday night when i was allowed to uh skirt through the city and watch the giants beat the eagles and um i just think they'll do things that don't really measure up statistically or factually or logically and that's what i that's my belief in them and i i really want to see

that's a vibey belief huh that's a vibey belief you got but maybe it's maybe it's true maybe there's a vibey belief

Where does this all begin with these football teams?

It starts with the feelings.

And like, you know, it starts with like, we don't, yeah, that's cool that that guy can say we don't like Jackson Dart, blah, blah, blah.

Like he's dancing around.

Yeah, but you know what?

He's lit a fire under a dead Giants team.

They were a corpse floating through a pond, and now here they are.

I absolutely, I believe with, I believe what you're saying is accurate.

I will say this, Connor.

I do think with Jonathan Cooper, sometimes when you see a quote like this, and then especially when you watch it and you see the way it's delivered,

I think that's words coming from a very, very confident Cooper

who sat and watched film of the Giants and watched film of Dart, and they're licking their chops because they think this is a very good setup for them to not only get a win at home, but also kind of shut down.

I think teams love shutting down hype bunnies like the New York Giants.

So, yeah, I sensed

a big level of confidence from Cooper that is not not unearned based on what their resume of the season.

So, a couple of things.

You're nearing the very dangerous four-game threshold for a rookie quarterback.

That's the

statistically proven number of games that a defensive coordinator wants on you before he can start clamping down.

And I used to do, like, I used to trade players after four good games in fantasy football because you can oftentimes see a decline in performance after teams get that amount of library of film on you.

And the other interesting thing is here, I think that this is,

you know, maybe they're missing because the Eagles are missing that defensive interior too, but I think this is a better defensive interior than they faced with the banged up Eagles.

And especially off those edges, I don't think in Benito and Cooper, I don't think Dart's getting the kind of runs off that he was in some of these other games, especially if they can fill with the safeties and the talent they have there.

I would never sit here and just read EPAs to you guys, but this Broncos run defense, again, is really good.

And a lot of the reason that the Giants are so good is because they're rattling off a lot of these QB runs that I just don't think they're going to be able to get off.

And I think it's just going to be a different kind of game for them.

Can't wait.

It's going to be really interesting.

And

as a native New Yorker, like even though I'm a Jets fan and I've never been a Giants supporter on any level, I saw this tweet this week.

It's been 5,000 days since a New York team has won a championship in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL.

I think three of us were in the building when that happened when Eli and the Giants beat the Pats in

46.

Yeah.

That was 5,000 days that have passed.

Holy shit.

And Justin was in fourth grade.

So like we all were having different experiences.

He maybe watched it.

He maybe watched it.

So,

you know, New York having a team that's exciting is cool too.

So either outcome, I'm cool with.

And I like to see Mark lit up like this.

A kid's like a, he's like a kid again when he he talks about these G-Men.

Well, that's the first team I watched.

Same with you.

You know, it's like, um, or Jets or Giants, but like that, you didn't have it.

You couldn't flip around and watch every team back then.

Yeah.

Um, all right, let's move to

um the Colts five and one, number four in the HTC power rankings at the number 14 Chargers.

Uh, some uh

some fun sound here as well, just to get us into the conversation.

Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin commenting on the scuffle between Brian Branch of the Lions and Juju Smith-Schuster.

I kind of was wondering about this too, because people were like framing it as, oh, he blew up Patrick Mahomes, and then Juju Smith-Schuster tried to shake his.

No, Juju is a he's like a Koharski-level ball buster, I believe.

So let's check out

Franklin's viewpoint on this whole thing.

First of all, Juju needed his ass.

Let's just go there, number one.

Why does everybody say that?

No, he really, him specifically really needs his ass.

What do you mean I'm wrong with Juju?

What I mean, bro.

He's been needing his ass for a minute.

Brian Bear's doing the work of the Lord, bro.

You're going to hold you.

Why did that fight?

What did Juju do?

Bro, he's an asshole, bro.

Okay.

I heard that up.

Yes, there it is.

That's the Club 520 podcast with Jeff Teague and DJ Wells.

That's a nice job.

And, you know, they've got a point.

I mean, they know these these guys better than us, but like Juju was the one who incited the city of Cleveland by ushering his the Browns is the Browns comment

and basically leaking like the way the Steelers spoke about the Browns.

So this guy, I get it.

He's got a little bit of a energy to him.

I mean, I was destroyed for saying this last week, like roundly, like

people were feelings were extraordinarily hurt.

And I was like, isn't the possibility that this guy got upset and hauled off and punched somebody not just because one guy has a bad attitude?

Like, have you all lived in society before?

This, it takes two to tango.

All right.

So let's, yeah, let's talk about this game now because you have a Colts team that continues to win.

They

lead the league, and speaking of EPA, per play, Daniel Jones playing at a high level.

The Chargers barely, barely found a way to get past the Dolphins and obviously continue to be very banged up.

We talked about on the Wednesday show, Connor, how it feels like Russian roulette with Herbert right now because maybe they can hang together and continue to scrape by enough wins to get healthy and then be a force in January.

But if you continue to let the quarterback get hit, it's going to be all over.

And you're going to be, before you know it, you're going to be seven and nine going into your last week.

So let's see if A, Herbert can stay upright and not take another beating.

And B, if the Colts are just going to to continue to roll here,

I don't know.

I mean,

looking kind of more granularly at last week's matchup against the Dolphins, they had Udafe Owe come in, and,

you know, he was adding a lot of pressure in third-down situations.

He looked really good.

And while it's not a one-for-one Khalil Mack replacement, Harbaugh is one of those guys that has recycled a lot of players like that and has found talent in former first-round picks.

And he had a good couple couple of years in Baltimore before he started to kind of phase out of that defense.

And so I don't know.

If you kind of improve little areas of that Chargers team, I think it builds up everything around Herbert and makes being Herbert a little bit easier.

It does help that they still just have overt issues.

The question is, if Joe Ald plays this week, it sounds like there's a possibility of that.

That would help a lot for what they want to be.

Quentin Johnston's banged up.

Derwin James has missed some practice this week.

So who are you?

I think the problem with the Chargers the last couple of weeks is like simply who are you?

And like if you can pressure Daniel Jones and cause problems, that would be great.

But he was nine for nine last week for 93 yards and a touchdown when he was under pressure.

Like Daniel Jones is just simply playing in a way that like we've all waited for forever and it's happening.

And it's like, does the bubble burst at some point?

And are the Chargers the team to do it?

I don't know about that.

We'll see the Colts.

This is a crazy stat from the Athletic.

194 points through six games.

Franchise best in the Super Bowl era.

That's Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts.

That's pretty wild.

Andrew Luck's Indianapolis Colts.

So they continue to score points.

And

on the Charger side, one last note here.

They got from Kamani Vidal a running game last week.

And can you expect that again?

Or is Vidal one of those classic, like, flash-in-the-pan type dudes?

Like a

Gore Vidal.

Yeah, like, is he going to turn,

yeah, is he going to turn into a pumpkin, a Gore Vidal-like like pumpkin connor?

One other note that I just is not going to be interesting to anyone else except for the people who are watching this game.

Indianapolis is the best play-action team in the NFL, and the Colts are actually arguably the best play-action defense team in the NFL, thanks to Derwin James and Jesse Minter and some of the stuff they got there.

I think if there is a foil or a team that can at least put an interesting schematic blueprint on the board to slow down the Shane Steichen offense, it is the Chargers.

Let's move on to another game in the late window, The number eight Packers, three, one, and one

at the number 25 Cardinals, two and four.

Albert and Ug

Wilma on the call.

Mark, I think you've been patient with the Packers.

Are you reaching a point where you need to see them get back to week one and two Packers before you

truly jump ship?

I feel like maybe you've already jumped ship off the good ship Packer, but where are you at on the Packers as we enter week seven?

No, No, the three, one, and one.

Very few teams have only one loss.

I'm not jumping ship, but I will say that the shine is off to some degree.

It just feels like I was expecting the defense, especially to be dominant, and we've not seen that.

And I understand what Justin's doing playing the music right now, but I think you might be getting the perfect opponent at the perfect time.

You go into the easiest visiting stadium to play in the entire NFL, which I think is Arizona.

A soft crowd that sells their tickets to a rabid fan base like the Packers.

And it's time for the Packers to basically, I think this week, to reassert dominance.

And we will see them on Monday night on our show rise up our power rankings because we understand what kind of team they are.

They'll be 4-1-1 at that point.

I've not given up hope, but I also think like all these people saying that I curse them, they're 3-1-1.

Farbuck, farbuck

that's absurd to say that's a curse i don't think that's a curse

i think

here's what i think has happened with you and the packers it's kind of a fascinating thing because you were kind of uh chest puffed out and everything and then as soon as things got a little murky i feel like you distanced yourself so now you're kind of in this like in-between world where are you Are you standing strong for the Packers or have you moved off to the New York Giants or whoever else as your true team that you believe in?

Where are you?

I'm like a dad on a business trip, and I call the check.

The Packers are my child, and I call them once over the course of a week and check in.

So you're an absentee father, basically.

No, not entirely, because I called them, but it was.

Right, but it's a box check rather than something that you want to do.

Yes, you got it.

You could call it that.

Okay, so you're pretty disconnected then.

Sounds good.

I feel like shows in a row, my parenting skills are being put on blast.

Well, I just ask you these questions and then you just like,

I don't tee you up to answer these questions in this way.

You just somehow veer into this lane every time.

The problem with the show in general is I can't, I don't have a,

I don't hedge my bet verbally.

I just speak about things that are real.

And then it's like, what's wrong with Mark?

Fine.

I don't care.

Yes, Justin.

Oh, are you going to answer what's wrong with Mark?

Go ahead.

Oh, everything.

This is going to be an interesting game because it's a curse off.

It's Mark's previously cursed Cardinals against Mark's currently cursed Packers.

Kind of a no-lose situation for Ceci.

No win situation and a no-lose situation.

Even Steve.

Somebody's got to win unless the Packers want to put a two

where they currently have a tie in their record.

And we don't need like a blank dash blank dash two on a team's record.

You lost me.

Yeah, what are you talking about?

Somebody has to win, but technically, they doesn't want to.

Yeah.

All right, let's try to get the show back.

Okay, Archie.

I'll try to dig us out of this a lot.

Go ahead, Connor.

The Cardinals thrive more when they're playing kind of a lighter defense, when they can, you know, have more help on the back end to defend the pass.

But Green Bay is going to come in and they're going to put their two tight ends in, and they're going to run Josh Jacobs down their throat.

Like, I'm very confident that this is going to be a huge Josh Jacobs game.

And I mean, last week, I thought that the Packers' offensive line really found their footing.

Josh Jacobs said that his one touchdown run was the best blocked run that he'd ever had in his career.

And so I think we're going to kind of get, you know,

after all that stuff we talked about about this offense, I really think this is going to be Jacobs like 120, 130-yard game.

Yeah, can I, you know, just...

Give Josh Jacobs a little love.

I feel like he's always under the radar.

Always.

Part of it was he was a first-round pick for the Raiders who came out of the gate with some bad teams and didn't play maybe at the level that was expected.

Although he was very good as a rookie, but then it got to the point where it was like,

did they even pick up his fifth-round option?

I don't know if they did, the Raiders, but he lands with Green Bay and he has a monster year last year.

And then this year of like the cursed running backs, where nobody seems to be having a big year, or at least the guys you don't expect, there's Jacobs once again trucking along

with

a steady, steady game.

But even he's below four yards

per carry.

Just strange in that regard.

Maybe we'll talk about that a little later with ball.

And they did not pick up that fifth-year option because there was a regime change.

And look at this.

Before we go, Jonathan Gannon, our friend.

This quote is dope as hell, talking about his emotions and

how he has to take his emotions and put them on a shelf when it comes to pro football.

Dope as hell.

How early in your career did you have to start

trying to figure out how to take the emotion out of coaching as far as when you have all these injuries and you have all these different pieces?

When's the first time that you can recall it?

2007 when our quarterback went to jail.

Jesus Christ.

Coach, thank you.

I was hoping you would leave in the last part.

That's the best part.

I like that.

Thank you.

Sometimes nothing else needs to be said.

For the young ones out there, Michael Vick was once a prominent NFL quarterback who went to prison for running an illegal dog breeding operation.

Something terrifying.

Dog fighting fighting.

Dog fighting.

And breeding.

Gambling on

dog fights with their dogs.

Go check it out on Wikipedia or don't.

But yes, that was a massive, massive story when it happened because Vic was one of the biggest stars in professional sports at the time.

Okay, last game in this window that we'll talk about is the number 15 Commanders, 3-3 at the number 20 Cowboys, 2-3 and 1.

Big news coming out of this one.

By the way, did we talk about the Kyler Murray?

It's maybe, maybe not.

for Arizona.

We'll see.

Marvin Harrison's still in the concussion protocol as we record this.

So we'll see if he plays in that game.

Injury news here, and I'll throw it to Shoddy on this one.

CeeDee Lamb could be returning to the Dallas Cowboys, and

Brian Schottenheimer made it clear it's not like he has to pass a ton of different checkpoints to re-enter the starting lineup of America's team.

With CeeDee, what do you need to see from him in practice to say, okay,

he's back.

He's good to go.

Yeah, if he's breathing, I'd feel pretty good.

I love this matchup.

I love division matchups.

It makes me think of Poppy sitting on the big brown chair with his root beer and his pretzels in the den, get back from mass, and there he is sitting there watching Lawrence Taylor trying to chase down Randall Cunningham in the good old days in Pearl River, New York.

Right there

off Forest Avenue, Cardian Place.

That was my camp happiness market.

Dan, are you okay?

No, I'm not.

I love this matchup.

I love NFC's matchups, though.

And here's the Cowboys defense that Connor is at next level bad.

We saw it again against the Panthers.

We've got Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Bryce Young, you name it.

You're getting lit up.

So here's Jaden Daniels now, one of the best young quarterbacks in the league, coming off a game where he started to look like Jaden Daniels again.

If the Cowboys are going to win, they better get CeeDee Lamb back in the lineup, whether he's limping or not.

Not just bad, Dan.

The worst defense in the NFL and EPA per play, the worst defense in the NFL and EPA per drop back, the worst defense defense in the NFL in quarterback opposing quarterback success rate, and the third worst team in the NFL in explosive play percentage.

And here's what the commanders...

And they can't stop the run, Connor.

They can't do anything.

I mean, that's just, yeah, that's just the part where I'm trying to lead into, you know, so what the commanders do is they just, they leave 11 personnel on the field and they run sugar huddle.

So they trap your defense on the field so you can't get any subs.

They're going to get a look from Dallas with their shittiest defenders on the field, and they are going to run play after play after play after play after play, trapping those guys on the field and forcing them to use timeouts just to get help.

And listen, there is no help because this is the worst defense in the NFL.

And so I don't know.

That was when Jerry Jones was saying, oh, I'm not going to move on from this guy.

That's when I just completely cut him out of my life in terms of listening to anything he had to say because I just felt like that was such a worthless take.

But I mean, there's, I think there's there's solutions there, but they're certainly not going to explore them, Dallas.

So

healthy boundaries, Connor, I like that.

Yeah, I had to.

Here's a prediction that I have, Mark, because it happens every year with one team and Jerry Jones.

It's right up Jones Boulevard.

At least one team every year looks at their roster and then tries to make a statement on draft weekend, and they use every one of their draft picks on defensive players.

That will be the Dallas Cowboys in the spring of 2026.

That could be.

And that's why there's an article on The Athletic right now that's front and center of saying why Dak Prescott is the NFL's most betrayed quarterback so far this season.

And I think it has to do, obviously, with the defense.

And it's not a great look for Matt Eberflus, who apparently conjures up disaster from town to town wherever he travels.

It's a huge spot for like Bill Krosky-Merritt and Jaden Daniels to erase the turnovers that we saw in that island game and just go to town and score and show us what this offense can be.

Because I don't know if you guys feel this way, but with the commanders, it's like waiting for them to kind of emerge and be that team.

I don't know if they can be on offense this year.

They will get Terry McLaurin back.

It sounds like potentially this game that would matter a lot.

They've been a little light on that front, but it's like they, who is this team?

Are they the team from last year or a lesser version?

I feel like they're just sort of in between somewhere.

I think no team or no quarterback or no player has more on his shoulders on a Sunday-by-Sunday basis than Dak Prescott.

I'll just say, like, not that I'm some big Matt Ebert flues fan, but like, we get, we've said multiple times on the show, and maybe because he's a bit of a sympathetic figure,

that, oh,

poor Brian Schottenheimer, like, how could they do this to him?

How could they take Micah Parsons off the roster right before the season starts?

Well, what do you think the DC thought about that when it happened?

I mean,

what are we expecting Connor, the DC, to do with a defense that is this talent poor?

Yeah,

and there is certainly a, well, again, not if you asked Jerry Jones, who was talking about the other day how great Kenny Clark is and how he swung the land rights deal of the century or something like that.

But yeah, I mean, I think that there was certainly in just kind of talking to some people there, this sort of, all right, well, hard swallow, here we go kind of mentality going into the season.

And how could there not be?

You have to feel a little bit betrayed, for sure.

Here's an insane stat.

The Cowboys are 0-3 when they don't score 37 points.

I don't think they will score 37 in this game.

I love the Commanders in this game.

All right, let's take a break.

And when we get back, we check in on the old London series one more time this year.

Stay right there.

All right, Mark, Bob's discount furniture.

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I'm with you.

And, you know, at Bob's Discount Furniture, Let's be real, you can get high-quality furniture in the latest styles for a fraction of what you'd pay at other furniture stores.

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One thing that I love is that they do bundles.

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It's called bundle and save at Bob's Dan.

For sure, Mark.

And I feel like people sleep on Bobs because they hear discount and they think it's cheap furniture, but no, I can attest, I have these two beautiful chairs, these outdoor chairs that me and my wife just sit on and we say, This is as far as we're going to get to off our property right now.

And we just have a nice glass of wine together.

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We know we're going to have this chair forever.

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They don't do sales, it's everyday low prices all year long.

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Walking around the streets here, people are coming up to me.

Where did you get that?

What's it about?

Why do you look so good?

Wow, that's cool.

Nobody comes up to me ever.

But I, you know, I also went on the site and I got the Tower Parka.

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Dode D,

D D D

Liberty,

something,

something

king.

Welcome back.

One more time in 2025, we have a game in London.

It's a good one.

Number seven Rams at number 16 Jaguars, Jaguars, both teams.

Four and two.

Mark,

what's so funny?

This is not God Save the Queen, by the way.

I don't think it is, is it?

I think it is.

Are you sure?

Some

liberty.

Some liberty.

It's the same tune as My Country Tizivity.

King Charles transition.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Wow, did we just like clown England by taking that tune and writing my country tis of thee on it?

Like, was that like the ultimate battle rap

in the 1700s?

Kind of a reverse slam dunk.

Oh, take that.

Wow.

Well, it's possible that the guy that wrote the British one moved over to the States and it was his Hasselhoff thing.

We've never been in more need of a Wikipedia search.

It's possible that's not true.

Google AI Overview, which is known to be extremely flawed.

Hold on.

My country Tis of Thee, and God Save the King are the same melody, but with different lyrics.

The American Patriotic Song uses the melody of the British royal anthem, which had been in existence for decades before the American version was written in 1831.

So it's like the start of like hip-hop sampling, maybe.

If you want to look at it.

Well said.

All right, let's get into it.

Two, four, and two teams.

Mark, I'm totally down on the Jaguars after what we saw from them in a big spotlight game last week.

Kind of no-showed all the the way around.

So, in their adopted hometown of London, England, let's see what they have in store against the Rams team that's going to give them all they can handle.

Yeah, I think the most fortunate thing going for the Jaguars is that Puka Nakua.

Okay, I'm good with that song, by the way, Justin.

Go ahead, Mark.

Keep going.

But, like, yeah, Puka Nakua not in the lineup.

That drastically changes the Rams' offense.

He's arguably like an MVP candidate and the engine of that that attack.

You know, I'm with you, Dan.

Like,

I want to latch on to the Jaguars on some level, but it's like, it's so up and down.

And last week, Trevor Lawrence sacked seven times against Seattle.

And so you got to get the ball out of his hands quick.

Like we need Brian Thomas Jr.

to awaken.

I think Travis Hunter is waking.

We need a game from Travis Hunter that kind of becomes the game we've been waiting for.

And you got to nullify this Rams pass rush by getting the ball out of your hands quick.

I think that's the thing here.

It's like, if you want to operate, and that's not Trevor Lawrence's number one skill, but it's like get the ball out of your hands quick and get it to your wide receivers and have them function correctly.

Like this team's been a little bit out of whack all year long.

We're waiting for the rookie to become a full adult and we're waiting for your number one wide receiver to play like one.

You make a great point on that.

And Jacksonville actually is awful at short passing.

And when I looked that up, it actually blew my mind.

They have one of the worst EPAs in the league on short passes, and they're trying to use that to get Travis Hunter involved early in the season, and he just kept getting tackled at the line, and it just kept getting worse over the course of the season.

Whereas the Rams are awesome at defending short passes like that, and they're also pretty good at defending the middle of the field.

So, this is either going to have to be a deep shot offense, or it's going to have to be Liam Cohen figuring out, like you said, like I think part of the reason why we're having a hard time getting Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas involved is you can't do it at the intermediate level.

Like there is no like quick at the line kind of game for them right now.

It's just non-existent.

It is a talking point around

the Jaguars this week from London because everyone is wondering when is this Travis Hunter thing going to truly happen.

And

Liam Cohen spoke about this from the Grove Resort where the team is staying and practicing this week in London.

Scheming them open is part of it, is the number one is my job ultimately, our job as an offensive staff to make sure we're putting him in the progression and and putting him in the position to be number one as you know him a little bit more often in some ways and then when he is the primary you know we got to throw him catch you know we got to make sure that we identify it find him be able to be at the right spot at the right time from a we just had this conversation so it's um i think it's a combination of a lot of those things that ultimately can

all be controlled.

There you go.

And Hunter had, you know, this time last week, we were talking about, oh, maybe they're figuring it out and they're finding a way.

Hunter had four catches for 15 yards, including a 14-yard catch and run on seven targets against the Seahawks.

And I think a big part of this, too, Connor, is like

either Brian Thomas is going to revert to what he was last year, or we're just getting this guy that's afraid to play football,

going over the middle and dropping balls and just being an inconsistent.

That has not helped.

And I'm sure Gladstone, the boy GM, is super pissed about that because he's like, I kind of put my reputation on the line for this Hunter kid.

And I figured I would have this number one that would allow my number, my phenom to develop.

And all of a sudden, we're trying to, in the middle of the season, scheme up ways to make Hunter a number one because they're trying to jumpstart this offense because they don't have a consistent top wideout that they thought they had in their back pocket.

It's a major, I mean, when I was reporting out the story on Jamar Chase and T.

Higgins in the offseason and talking to their offensive coordinator about the true value of someone who can not only run routes that gives another guy single coverage like Jamar Chase does for T.

Higgins, but to also run complementary routes and be willing to run those complimentary routes to open guys up.

It's a game changer for that offense.

And it's why people are still thinking that the Bengals can make the playoffs with Joe Flacco.

And if you transfer that over to the Jaguars, Brian Thomas really isn't doing a lot of the dirty work, right?

He's not doing any of the heavy lifting.

And so we saw saw Travis Hunter make that catch, that phenomenal catch against Kansas City two weeks ago.

And it was, you know, it was an incredible effort, like a Herculean effort, just to get the ball in his hands.

And I'm sure that's what they're feeling right now.

All right.

Let's now move from the late window, from the London early, early window to the early games.

That was a little confusing, but you guys know what I mean.

And best of all, it's time to open up the quad box.

Jim!

Oh my god, that is so tight.

Our ass is in the deck box.

Oh my god, your socks are

in your box.

Hey, NFL fans, Kathy Bates here.

Kathy Bates?

Where's that from?

Just absurd.

Where's that from?

Did you AI Kathy Bates, Justin?

No, that's all natural dates.

That's natural dates.

That's a promo.

That's a CBS promo that was running.

I guess you guys missed it.

I didn't miss it.

I sent it right away over to the producer.

Kathy promoting.

And I'm wondering where Bates comes down on it because they're now promoting Matt Lock as a Lady now with another show as kind of a two-hander.

I think it's called Elizabeth or something.

And I'm wondering if

Bates is comfortable with that because she's the madam,

the great dame of the Tiffany network.

And now here comes this other young gun actress playing the lead in Elizabeth, and it's being promoted as a two-hander.

And you just wonder, Mark, because egos, they can run wild.

They absolutely can.

From what little inside information I have here on the Hollywood streets, I'm not sure Kathy Bates is aware this is even occurring.

Or that she's on a television program?

Or that the promotional campaign is what it is?

I think we're drifting a little bit with

her awareness.

As far as the top 10 insider, folks.

Wow.

That's right.

Hey, NFL fans.

Kathy Bates here.

All right, let's get into it.

Again, what is the quad box?

We're here in part on these Thursday shows to help you strategize how you're going to watch football.

And the most games are in the early window.

So let's get into it.

Mark, pick the first game for the quad box.

And remember, be careful with your choices because you do not want a quad box violation.

Okay, well, it's an easy choice in this quad box world.

We've got the number nine Eagles.

They don't love being at number nine versus the number 19 Vikings.

They go to Minnesota.

Adam and Michelle.

I don't think they know.

Speaking of who knows what, I don't think the Eagles know that they're number nine in the Heath the Call Power rankings.

Just call me crazy.

Farbuck.

I'd like to think they do because you've had the head coach in your sights for about two years now.

And

there may be a PR lackey tracking that.

But

this feels to me like a very important game

for the Eagles.

Because suddenly now, to go down to number nine, even in our, it's like we're in a different place than we were two weeks ago and a week ago, where it's like, we're kind of starting to question, like, and I don't, it's sort of annoying, but is this the Eagles of two years ago?

Like, that sort of annoys me.

But, like, are they kind of crumbling from within?

You've got A.J.

Brown.

Grumbling.

You've got Saquon Barkley looking like he was in lesser seasons with the Giants.

The offensive line isn't the same.

The offensive coordinator is getting destroyed.

Is it WIP or like,

right so it's like that was the offensive coordinator handpicked by

the head coach oh okay okay I won't have much to say about this no so I think Dan I think to be fair and I'll throw it to your lives everybody if you if you care to Yeah, like when the Eagles' problems start to congeal and bubble into the soup that you have predicted when I thought you were being a little bit harsh, but now it's starting to look a little bit real.

Like, is this a cliff scenario or is it fine?

And you're going to go knock off a Vikings team and we're back to good.

I'm finely concerned.

I knocked the Eagles far down my rankings because I'm like genuinely a little

perturbed by who they are because I've got half their players on my fantasy team, and that's a different situation that no one needs to deal with.

Never fun, never fun.

Well, let's, I want to hear Connor's thoughts, and then we'll stick a pin in this game because we're going to talk about it with Baldy in a few minutes.

But your thoughts, Connor?

I still think that, and there's certainly been, you know, whether it's Lane Johnson Johnson talking about their tendencies that are out there and whether they're undercenter in the shotgun and some of the stuff that might be predictable.

But as a new play caller, you're going to run into some of that stuff early on, especially with such a small sample size.

And I think what Kevin Petulo's goal was ultimately was like last year, was to transform at some point during that season and to start playing off the tendencies that you previously had.

And I think that there are some breadcrumbs on this team.

It's still a top 10 rushing offense.

The Vikings are one of the worst rushing defenses in the NFL, and it's still a really good team when you can line up in 12 personnel and put Jalen Hurts under center and kind of run that old-fashioned NFL offense.

I think that the analytics would prove that out, but I think that we have allowed the narrative, I think, to get out of control on this to some degree.

And yes, the offense looks unoriginal.

Yes, there are games when I don't think that their best players touch the ball, but I think six games, as I learned last year, I mean, I said this Eagles offense was irrelevant because they hadn't played any top 10 rushing offenses, but I did, or rushing defenses, and I didn't know how good they were.

And we saw that.

And I think that this is kind of the inverse of that, where they played some good teams early on and they've had some tendencies that they have to break.

But to say that they won't is ludicrous to me.

Are they that rushing offense now, though?

Can they are

not

Barkley?

They still have the Lion.

They're still a top 10 rushing offense.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's what's crazy is like, they're not like 30th in the NFL in rushing.

You know what I mean?

I think it's the explosive runs have disappeared, though.

Yeah.

Saquon Barkley, and this is a crazy stat to that point, doesn't have a 20-yard rush this season.

Like, it's, it's that was them last year.

And then, if, um, and they have plenty of time to figure this out, to Connor's point, uh, but to my point about Siriani and the daughter line conversation from the summer, like, this is where a head coach really proves his worth.

Can he get this fixed up?

Can he make sure he puts out the fires in the locker room for a locker room filled with egos, championship, champions who have egos?

Like, there's a lot of work to do.

Let's see what happens.

All right, let's move on.

Don't know if we're going to have a quad box violation this week because it's not the hottest slate of games, but

let's go with the game.

This one's an easy one for me.

Get this in the quad box because I think this is a team to keep an eye on, especially in the strange AFC.

The New England Patriots, number 13 in our power rankings at 4-2, traveling to Nashville to face the number 31 Titans.

1-5, the Titans who just fired head coach Brian Callahan, interim coach Mike McCoy takes over.

There is that famous kind of dead cat bounce that we talk about all the time with teams after they replace a coach.

Besacea bump.

The Bisaccia bump.

We like that.

The iconic Rich Basacea, who got everybody up, fired up in those locker rooms as they piled up wins down.

And so let's see what happens.

Because the two things, Mark, I'm looking for: do the Patriots continue to kind of surge with Drake May asserting himself as one of the best young passers in the league?

And number two,

McCoy said, I'm going to tailor this offense to Cam Ward, which is an insane thing to say because how is that not the case with Brian Callahan?

But maybe it was his version of tailoring the offense.

And McCoy has a different vision.

Let's see if they're any better because they couldn't get much worse.

Yeah, he's working with an empty breadbasket.

The biggest thing happening right now in the AFC is Drake May, and he's been the best passer league wide on throws of 20-plus air yards.

I just feel like we're watching something very special, and I mentioned it to you before, but

I'm getting like 2001 Patriots vibes with this team where it's like, I don't even know if we've even seen what this Patriots team can be.

Your task this week is, if you're the Titans, unleash your best player.

And who is that?

Jeffrey Simmons against the Patriots' offensive line and try to disrupt Drake May and this offense.

I don't see how Tennessee doesn't float away to some degree in general.

And the Patriots to drop a game here, it would drastically shift how we feel about them.

Because right now, I feel like they're a playoff team that can win a playoff game if not two.

On October the 18th,

2009, it will be almost almost 16 years to the day.

The Patriots in a crazy snowstorm game beat the Titans 59-0.

Oh, I remember that one.

Would it be crazy if that happened again?

Like, how crazy would that be?

The snowstorm's hard.

I'm the craziest.

That was, listen, that's a thing.

And

I get it.

Like, we're invoking the old Patriots dynasty and saying maybe this is the next thing, but that was peak Bill Belichick, peaked Tom Brady.

I don't even remember.

Was that a 2009 season?

Yep.

What did they do that season?

I think that was actually the season where Brady was back from the ACL,

and they got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the Ravens.

So that wasn't even a great Patriots team, if I had that right, Justin.

You are correct.

Yeah, so that was

randomly at the

Madison Square Garden.

As happens when you're living in the city, every once in a while,

either one of your friends or one of your friend's girlfriends works for a company, like, hey, we have

passes for the luxury suites at the garden.

And I was like, oh, yeah, where are we going?

It's like, and it was a football playoff weekend.

I was like, oh, it's the like national bull riding championships.

And I was like, shit, can we get a TV on in the suite to check out this Ravens Patriots tilt?

But it was a fun time.

But I'll always remember that, like, the Patriots going one and done that year uh anyway

yeah very odd tale thank you i will um i'll get a plug-in here um connor was on the justin justin justin pod well it's a justin justin justin minus one justin podcast um

and you guys are talking about all the the everything that's happening with the titans right now so please please check that out um and uh we'll see we'll see what happens with this game oh i i hope they play competitive football, Mr.

Graver.

Good luck to you.

That's what we're hoping for.

By the way, so now I'm looking at a screen of four of us, and two people have been invited on the Justin, Justin, Justin Minus, Justin podcast.

And it's like, we don't really think Mark talks about football.

He's just going to come on and talk about trees and shrubs.

Like, I get it.

Message received.

We'd love to have you on the Titans, Titans, Titans Vamos.

As of two seconds ago.

No, we'd love to.

We just, you know, I don't want to bother you on your days off because we're sacred marketing.

Just to be

fair, Mark, we're always very nervous about asking you to take on extra tasks like something like that.

So, you know,

we're very, you know, we know, we know how to, we got to get the most of Mark.

Bang for the buck, you know?

Let's get this on the books.

Week 14, Titans Browns.

Justin and I like to bring on somebody that knows or covers the opposing team on our Wednesday show.

If you're down that Wednesday in Titans Browns week, we'll probably...

How long is the show?

How long is the show?

Lock him in for a minute.

Probably be an hour and a half to two hours.

Lock him in.

25-minute maximum.

Lock it up.

No, back it out.

No, backing out.

25 minutes.

You said it was 25 minutes.

All right.

Justin, pick a quad box game.

All right.

First, let me lock up Mark on the music.

So you got him?

Yeah, you got him.

And then I'm going to pick a Codbox game.

Boot in his mouth in that one.

Wow.

So Mark just stuck that Doc Martin right in his own mouth in a big spot.

I am going to go with the Nansen Romo game because that's like the biggest draw out of the rest of the games here is just the announcers.

And Raiders Chiefs.

Can we check in on Romo's face, by the way?

I think we pulled something.

Oh,

you know what?

I got it on my hard drive.

If you want,

let's come back to that.

Do you have it on your personal hard drive?

Is it like a

personal hard drive?

It's on my HTC four terabyte.

Tony Romo.

LEC.

And I will ask you.

These are my Tony Romo JPEGs.

Get this on in the show here.

But first, I'll explain why I've chosen Raiders at Chiefs.

Okay, go ahead.

Because I kind of want to see this Rashi Rice Chiefs offense.

And this is one of those moments where we've talked a lot on the show about what makes a good team a good team is that they beat down a bad team.

And I know the Raiders are coming off a 10-point win, but they are also coming two weeks off a 40-6 loss.

If the Chiefs are truly the number one best team in the NFL as they are currently ranked in the HTC power rankings, then they should annihilate the number 27 ranked Las Vegas Raiders, or else they don't deserve to be number one in the power rankings.

The only caveat is division games can be weird, but not that weird.

Yeah, it's going to have to be really weird.

Yeah, this one could get grisly because on top of it all, Connor, the Raiders are catching the Chiefs just as they're starting to achieve liftoff on that offense.

And maybe, maybe I'll make a case for Rashi Rice.

They're obviously going to want to make him a focal point immediately in the offense.

And maybe there's a little choppiness in the first week of that that leads to the offense taking a step back.

But, I mean,

that's just me trying to be nice to the Raiders fans listening right now.

I I think the Chiefs have been totally awoken.

I mean, in addition to the lift of having Rashi Rice back, you had that physical win over the Lions in which, and again, I mean, I think it just happens as it does with some of these dynastic teams.

You run out of things to get angry about.

Like, nobody, even when the...

Chiefs started the season winless, everyone was like, ah, they're probably going to still win the Super Bowl.

But then one of your players gets rocked in the mouth and all of a sudden you get a little bit more lead in the pencil.

And I think that

there's something to that.

Well said.

You know, Rashi Rice, like you, if you've forgotten, he was playing in an all-pro level as a year two wide out before he kind of suffered like a freak knee injury on a on a

Patrick Mahomes turnover.

And he had a very promising and productive first year.

So this guy is a guy that has the ability to step in and play at a all-pro level at wide receiver.

It's a huge piece.

Do we have the Romo

face?

Okay, we have it.

Let's check in on Tony.

If you're watching on YouTube, sound off in the comments.

Is this really Tony Romo?

In the booth last Sunday.

Yeah, there's a smooth

to the skin.

What's happening?

It's, well,

I understand we don't want to get technical, but

we do, Mark.

That's why.

This is a person that pays for...

Botox and Botox adjacent products to puff up the skin and remove wrinkles and recreate use.

Now, in general, there are other oddities occurring that I'm not quite sure how to describe.

It's the coloration of the skin.

It's like

presidential almost.

It's fascinating.

Even the hairline, it almost looks like

a Kendall.

Like, there's a strength to the hairline that

you're not used to seeing on a man of his age.

I mean, it's just fascinating.

I still think it's a different person, but that's just my theory.

All right.

Maybe Max Crosby goes off in this game.

Who knows?

There's some weird stuff going on with Josh Simmons, the Chiefs' left tackle.

Yeah, what's going on there?

Because he missed for personal reasons last week.

Let's see, what's the latest there?

It was like Andy Reid wouldn't comment on when he was going to return to the team.

It's, you know,

you feel for the young man as a human person.

Like, is everything okay in his life?

And you also feel for Patrick Mahomes because Simmons came in and was playing well, protecting the blind side for the Chiefs in an area that had been a weak spot for a while.

And it looked like they finally had it fixed.

Like, this is the one potential spot where this Chiefs team that appears to be back to their powers might not be all the way back if Simmons mentally isn't there for them.

Well, how about physically, isn't there?

Well, that

he grew up in San Diego.

He's he was in California, his native California, when he missed the game last week.

And

let's see.

Yeah, this is being deemed as extremely unusual.

Yeah, I think we're going to get some more information on this.

But ESPN Kansas City beat reporter

Nate Taylor said this.

Andy Reid

didn't want to answer it because it is somewhat becoming clear that maybe Andy Reid doesn't have an answer.

He didn't say that definitively, but he also didn't give us a legitimate answer as to whether or not he's, A, talk to Josh Simmons, B, know what Josh Simmons is exactly going through for what the team called a personal reason, and he doesn't know when he's returning, and he won't say that.

That is,

yeah, very interesting.

And remember, we talked about this with Pete Sweeney, and maybe we'll get some info from Pete as well, whatever he has,

that Simmons was greeted as a conquering hero over the summer, as somebody that would come in and was kicking ass and

was going to stabilize such a vital position.

And now they don't really know what's going on with him.

So, yeah, keep an eye on that.

And one quick thing for the Raiders, Brock Bowers did not practice Wednesday, nor did Jacoby Myers.

Like, we'll see about what happens between now and Sunday, but you don't really have an offense with those guys out of the lineup.

All right, one more game for the quad box, Connor.

All right, I'm going to a little vindication for Justin, who was penalized for trying to quad box this team a couple of weeks ago, but I want to see quite possibly the defensive MVP of the year to this point, Derek Brown, when the number 22 Panthers, 3-3, take on the number 32 Jets, 0-6.

The Carolina Panthers over the last few weeks have not only been their best running team in the NFL, they might arguably be the best run defense in the NFL right now.

Like, go and look at Derek Brown's last couple games.

He is beastly playing on another level, and this Jets team has no interest in tackling anybody.

They have no interest in doing any of the things to stop them that the Panthers are doing well.

I want to see Rico Dowdle get three bills on this one, and I think I might.

Well,

the only thing I'll say on the positive, the one positive that came out of a ghastly Jets loss to Denver is that their defense actually showed up.

Now, as I said earlier this week, I think some of that can be contributed to Sean Payton in real time being like, there's no way this team can beat us unless we turn the ball over and take too many chances on offense.

So take that with a grain of salt.

But they did play better.

They tackled better.

They were penalized less.

So maybe, maybe, maybe Steve Wilkes has that unit going in the right direction.

But this is also a Jets team, Mark, that will be playing without Garrett Wilson.

There is no depth chart at wide receiver, arguably worse than the Jets after you get past Wilson.

So even if Justin Fields cleared his mind and had a better game and Aaron Glenn was able to kind of clear the cobwebs after what was probably a pretty rough week for him in terms of the court of public opinion.

I don't know what Justin Fields is going to do.

I mean, other than them run the football a ton.

And the Panthers obviously are going to game plan knowing the Jets have no one that could beat them on the outside or inside passing.

You kind of want the Broncos game because I'm with you.

I thought that you can, maybe it was Sean Payton veering away from getting edgy, but the Jets defense showed up in that performance.

And I think Bryce Young is still someone where I'm like, am I in on this guy or not?

Like, well, it's a week-to-week proposition.

And this entire offense, they've been much better of late.

But is this where the Jets' win occurs?

Because like we talked about this week, Dan, like the Aaron Glenn experience, like we need to create some positivity before this spins out of control in the New York City market.

Connor knows better than anyone covering these teams as a beatman that like it can get just so negative.

Like don't the

feel in

visiting New York, doesn't this feel like an avenue to

get your first win here?

Like, if not here, I don't know when.

No, like, I mean, I don't know when, though.

I mean, I'm not saying

it's quite the opposite.

Like, the Panthers, when we looked at the schedule in the summer, perhaps, but right now it's a Panthers team playing very well with a lot of confidence.

Like, if you watched Bryce Young last week, it's like there's a lot to like about where Bryce Young is right now.

And I think they're catching the Jets on top of everything else at a very physically and probably emotionally vulnerable moment.

I feel very good about the Panthers on the road in this game.

The Rico Dowdle, like two-week experience, is one of the wilder.

He's up there with like four or five running backs of all time that have done this over the course of two weeks.

Yeah, pretty wild.

All right.

Hot take.

Yes.

This is one of those random, no one can explain why moments where the Jets get their first win of the season.

I'm with you.

I think they're still the Panthers, so I think someone could explain it.

But yes, that's fair.

And the Panthers win all their home games, but

this one's not at home.

From Joe Beningo,

as Joe Beningo says, from your lips to God's ears, because as much as I want the number one pick, I also don't, I feel for Aaron Glenn and all those guys.

I mean, it's just been a really, really rough go of it.

Get a W.

Let's see.

Let's see.

All right.

Let's take a break as we exit the the quad box.

And when we get back, Brian Baldinger.

Baldy joins us.

Stay right there.

You know, Dan, we had a softball team for years, and I touted myself as the manager, and it's because I couldn't see anything.

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It's time to get glasses.

And I walked by Warby Parker here in LA and like got a great pair of glasses.

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Oh, baby, you know what time it is.

We're joined by Odyssey NFL insider Brian Baldinger, host of the best football show podcast.

Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.

Nationwide is on your side.

What's up, Baldi?

Well, it's that time of the week, I guess, guys.

Joining for our little weekly chat.

You know, we talked about it.

I can see your goosebumps from here, Baldy.

Huh?

I can see your goosebumps from here.

Oh, I mean, look, I mean, I see the Jets helmet behind you, Dan.

You know, I mean, I see what's going on.

It's dark.

Dark times, Baldy.

Hey, we did

a little conversation piece earlier in the week on our podcast.

We called it the Panic Index.

Yep.

Teams that are kind of in tough spots.

And the Eagles came up.

The defending champions have been going through it a little bit.

You're actually going to be at the Twin Cities this weekend for the number nine Eagles at the number 19 Vikings in our power rankings.

Where's your panic index on the Eagles and their offense specifically, but maybe the whole operation?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Well, I live outside.

Yeah, I live in South Jersey, so I'm on top of everything that's going on in Philly.

The sky is falling.

You know, it's falling, and they've had 10 days since they've played, you know, losing to the Giants and losing badly to the Giants, you know.

And so

after losing to Denver, so you lose two in a row in this league.

For any team, it's rough.

In Philadelphia, you get a lot of questions about everything.

So the coaches have had to deal with it.

They've had their little player meetings.

Honestly, like this game, either they turn it around this week in Minnesota or they're going to start making all the comparisons to two years ago when they had the monumental collapse.

Yeah,

where is the line, Baldi, with this type of stuff?

And that's why someone with your level of knowledge is helpful for our show.

Like the line between big market hysteria, because I'm seeing this, like as a Jets fan, what's going on with Darren Glenn, who's just been lambasted for seven straight days,

and then reality.

Like, do you see an Eagles team that is actually teetering, or is it just a fan base that expected this team to just roll roll through the regular season the way they did in the playoffs?

Well, they're not the same team as they were a year ago.

I mean,

literally, if you look at just the last week against the Giants, the starting defensive line that started in the Super Bowl, it was all out.

Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Josh Wett.

I mean, they're not there against the Giants.

And so it's, I mean, if you just start there, forget about Quinn Yon going out in the game and, you know, really problems all year at left corner.

I mean, the pass rush isn't the same.

They're not taking the ball away the way they did, especially in the postseason.

So, you know, they gave up five touchdowns to a Giants team led by two rookies.

Like, that's not supposed to happen, but it happened.

It's real.

And then offensively, I mean, here's just a bizarre number.

I mean, obviously, Saquon is not anywhere near the production that he had a year ago, but 40% of his runs right now have gone for a yard or less.

You know, and that's just way too high.

You could live with that if you had the 30 or the 40, the 50-yard runs like you had a year ago.

But the longest run he's had is 18 yards.

So the run game isn't anywhere near as efficient as it was a year ago.

And you could say it's personnel.

You could say, you know, you could say a lot of things.

But the fact is, is that they're not running the ball anywhere near

at the rate that they did a year ago.

You know, Buffalo Springfield back in the day.

in a song for what it's worth was the title, said there's something happening here.

What it is, ain't exactly clear, right?

And like, that's how I feel about the Eagles a little bit.

Like,

they're a little mysterious, and you're close to the team,

and there's discussions on this show and others about Nick Siriani and

his world as a head coach.

And it seems to kind of go up and down in these seasons.

Like you mentioned two seasons ago.

How close is Siriani to the players?

And is this an offensive coordinator issue?

Are there changes they can make?

Can this be different in three weeks?

Or are they stuck in what we are seeing right now?

Nick's tight with the players.

They respect him.

They like Nick.

I mean, the outside world, it's different.

I mean, they were calling for his head at this time of the year, a year ago, in really close games against Cleveland, Jacksville, New Orleans.

I mean, they were questioning all his decisions when the Super Bowl kind of goes quiet for a while.

But there are some real problems here.

I mean, you know, the quarterback, Jalen Hurts, is a great leader.

He's not performing real well.

The stats say differently.

I feel like he lives in fear of making mistakes.

And I just don't think you could play quarterback that way.

When you have to really throw the ball, I mean, you just got to pull the trigger and go.

And you've got to throw guys open.

You have to throw with anticipation.

And right now, he's...

Especially if they have a lead.

If they have a lead, he's not putting the ball in harm's way.

And so that's why they don't blow teams out.

You know, they just,

everybody kind of plays to their level.

And when they get behind right now, outside of one quarter against the Rams, they have struggled to really kind of throw it well.

And so that's got to change, regardless of whatever else happens on this team.

I feel like the passing game has to take off.

And it has to start with Jalen just, you know, throwing it with no fear in the middle of the field when there's throws to be made.

On the other side of the ball in this game, the Vikings, they're kind of a tough team to figure out.

And the quarterback play, obviously, is an issue.

And again, I keep thinking back to Daniel Jones, who's kind of a fringe, maybe not even a fringe MVP candidate.

He was on this roster.

Sam Darnold, another fringe, maybe not so much fringe MVP candidate.

He was on this roster.

And it maybe helps inform me anyway why the usually cool, common, collected Kevin O'Connell for the first time seemed to bristle a little bit at the media when they were asking about the situation at QB

as we approach this pivotal tilt.

Let's check this out real quick.

Where do you think stand as far as your starting QB for Sunday, Calvin?

They stand in the same place they did Monday when I answered that question.

And, you know, that's about as hot as KOC gets.

I kind of miss your era of the NFL, Baldy, where like if a head coach got pissed, he might like crawl off the podium and attack a journalist.

That's how it felt anyway in the old days.

But we'll take what we can get at this stage.

I mean, how big is this problem?

Because it does feel feel like self-inflicted, number one, by Minnesota.

But also, is it something that you think they can find a way to win consistently and get a high level of offense out of either of these quarterbacks?

Well, I mean, anytime you're like, Carson's gone in there, he's played well.

They won two of the three games.

They lost the Pittsburgh game, but, you know, they were 10 days over in Europe.

That wasn't, you know, that was going to be a tough assignment to begin with.

But Carson's played well.

And Kevin's a great designer of offense.

I love watching his designs and some of the little tweaks week to week.

But, you know, I mean, the problem is, is that J.J.

is just getting started and he's hurt again.

So he's got the high ankle sprain.

You've got to get healthy.

Yes, they want him to be the guy, but there's growing pains there.

Outside of one quarter against Chicago, he hasn't.

particularly played very well.

And so they've got a lot of talent around the quarterback position.

Jordan Addison now back in the lineup, you know, and probably Aaron Jones can get back soon if he's not back this weekend.

They got a lot of talent there.

So the quarterback's job is to distribute it.

And if Carson, look, Carson, like everybody that Kevin touches, it seems like he's got the magic touch of the quarterback.

Carson's played well.

And so he's got to deal with that.

That's just a question.

He might bristle, but that's a real dilemma for not just for him, but for the team.

I mean, the team wants to win games and put the best guy out there that gives the best chance to win.

I mean, Justin Jefferson, I don't think he's going to pick a favorite, but he's like, whoever gets me the ball ball in the best spot, I want him playing quarterback.

I feel,

based on your answer there, Baldi, I feel like you're a little higher on Wentz than maybe some other people and me for sure.

Like, I see him as like, at best, a guy that you could survive for a short stretch, but this is a team that I would imagine had real aspirations for January football.

Do you think he's the type of player at this stage of his career that can improve enough to make the Vikings a true player in the NFC down the stretch?

If he were to continue playing.

He's been around Andy Reid now.

He's been around Sean McVay.

You know, sometimes you got to go to rehab, you know, and you got to be around these guys.

Kevin O'Connell has done this with Sam.

He's done it with other guys.

Sometimes you just, I just, just knowing Carson,

he has to be coached hard.

Otherwise, his fundamentals go to pieces.

And, you know, like he, but if you really stay on him and really, like, the talent, he's still a cyborg.

He's still 6'5 ⁇ .

He's still 235 pounds.

He still can run.

You know,

he's thrown the ball better that I've seen than he did at any point when he was in India or some of these other stops he's made.

So I feel like there's a lot there.

And it's just a question of, you know, what kind of commitment they have towards him.

Great.

And insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.

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Baldy, let's move to the Falcons going to San Francisco to face a Niners team that's lost major pieces on defense.

They're one of the most banged up teams in the league.

I still believe in them.

I would ask you this.

This is a little bit of a different than a game question, but if you were starting a team with what you've seen right now, would you pick as your quarterback Michael Penix,

Brock Purdy, and I'm going to throw it in there, Mac Jones.

Which of the three would you say I can anchor my team with?

I'd probably go with Brock just because of

the track record that he has.

I know he can play and

he can make all the great decisions you need to make.

I'd probably go with Brock.

And that's not to slight Mac because he's played really well.

And I'm a big, huge Michael Pennix fan.

And I just think he just has to keep playing and he's going to be okay.

But I'd probably still go with Brock at this point just because of just his ability to see the whole field and make

great decisions and make great plays.

Regardless of who's around him right now, I still think he's their best option.

You're a trench dog, Baldi.

So I'm going to ask you something.

It involves the 49ers, but also it's a bit of an epidemic with Hall of Fame level rushers, whether it is CMC, whether it's Saquon Barkley, whether it's Derrick Henry,

not rushing at the level we're accustomed to.

A lot of running running yards per carry averages in the low threes, and that's been the case for CMC, who's remained a titan in this offense in terms of his all-purpose ability.

But when you watch the tape of CMC using him as the example,

is he any different than he's been in past years when he's been

at the top of the league statistically?

Does he look a step slower, or is this a scheme issue that they haven't quite executed in the run game this year?

You know, typically

what happens, and you throw Saquon in this conversation, is they're not getting the big runs.

You know, they're not getting the 60, like what we saw from Bijan on Monday night.

They're not getting the 80-yard touchdown run.

And it just isn't there.

I think Saquon could break one like that.

I think Christian can break one like that.

They just haven't done it yet.

And so typically that is what takes that,

you know, average per rush.

from the low threes to fours into the fives.

Derrick Henry has a couple big runs.

That's why his is still high.

But I think that McCaffrey to me still looks like the same player.

But until he starts breaking some of these runs and making it a 30-yard run instead of an eight-yard run, then we're going to just say that there's, you know, he's not going to be the same guy as what we saw in 2023.

Am I crazy to look at this Falcons defense and what they've kind of evolved into in the last month plus, like a top three defense?

It seems like things are clicking.

How do you feel?

I feel good about it.

I think the big part part right now is just Jeff Ulbrick and his ability to put guys in positions.

A couple of blitzes he had last week against Josh Allen, got home, knocked him out on fourth down, knocked him out on third down.

And then when they're not blitzing, they've got some real rushers now.

I mean, you know, whether it's James Pierce or, you know, Jalen Walker or,

you know, Floyd, I mean, they've got guys right now, inside and outside, that can win one-on-ones.

And it's been a long time since any Falcon defense could claim that.

But then if you look at the secondary,

you know, AJ and D and you know these young kids, Xavier Watts and Bowman, they've been outstanding.

They defended a lot of passes the other night against Buffalo.

I think they had nine or ten defended passes against Buffalo.

They're getting near the passing lanes.

And so I feel like, and what they're not doing, which we're used to seeing from the Falcons defense, is they're not just breaking down on the back end where guys are just running free.

That's been good.

That was going on when Dan Quinn was there.

That seemed like it was going, it's not happening with Jeff Albrick.

So he's a great coordinator.

And I feel like the communication on the back end is better than it's ever been.

And the linebackers are really good.

So Diablo can run like the wind.

And Caden Ellis, I feel like they don't really have a weakness right now in that defense.

All right, Baldy, thank you very much.

By the way, we talked about Angie in Indianapolis last week.

Was there an Angie in Minneapolis during your playing days or St.

Paul?

Anybody you could connect?

I know you're in a relationship now, but is there someone from your past?

Yeah, I guess.

Yeah, she's still a Viking fan.

There was another Angie.

Yes.

I bet she's a Baldi fan, too.

So, yeah, her kids are all Viking fans right now.

These are the questions you were hoping to receive on this weekly segment.

Yes.

Have a great weekend, Baldi.

All right, guys.

I'll talk to you next week.

That was Odyssey.

There's an Angie in every city with Brian Baldinger.

That was Odyssey NFL Insider.

Brian Baldinger, host of the Best Football Show podcast.

Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.

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There he goes, Mark.

Welcome back, Connor.

Here's an idea, Mark.

A memoir.

Brian Baldinger.

The photo, Pensive, Looking Into the Middle Distance.

The title, All My Angies

by

Dan, Mark, Justin.

Throw Connor in there to give a little pop.

A memoir.

I mean, if we can mock up that cover, Justin, who says no?

Because that man is going to tell the stories.

I don't even want to, it doesn't even need to be about football for Baldi.

I just want to hear about all the Angies because now we have a confirmed Angie in Indianapolis.

We have a confirmed Angie in Minneapolis

at all the Apolises.

I want to learn more about that man's man's life.

I do.

I think Simon and Schuster does not say no.

Penguin Books does not say no.

I think, if anything, though, this is the kind of journey where, from my angle as a writer, I want to go on the road with the Baldy of today, too, and find out what he's up to when he's not talking to us.

He's up to a lot from what I can gather.

And this book is screaming.

I love how Mark slips into his Trump.

I'm not doing Trump.

I'm saying I think

Baldy is someone to aspire to be as he's not a, you know, he wouldn't call himself a young man.

He's older than us, but

you would aspire to have that kind of active lifestyle that he does on many fronts,

to say the least.

Indeed, indeed.

All right, let's pivot.

We'll get you caught up on it, Connor.

Please do.

Yeah, check out the latest edition of Heed the Call.

So

with Your Honor.

So from one primetime game to the other, let's check in on, is this our last Monday night football doubleheader?

Please say yes.

It is, right?

Yes.

Please say yes.

The number two, we'll start with the

real Monday night game.

I always can judge by the announcers.

The number two Buccaneers in our power rankings, five and one, travel to Detroit.

I mean,

at least

these are not telecast on top of each other.

It's a three-hour difference.

Not good news for somebody like Justin, who will be editing deep into the night as a result.

But at least the Bucks and Lions get the runway they deserve.

So, a number two versus number three showdown here.

Absolutely love this one, Cesi, for obvious reasons.

And I, you know, some games you just feel very confident.

Make sure you check the last two minutes of the fourth quarter because the game will be decided.

That's how I feel this one will go.

Let's buckle up.

It's a huge game for the Lions coming off what happened last week.

The Baker-Mayfield Bucks right now feel

like there's more pressure on the Lions in this game.

And I feel like the Mayfield Bucks can be, they're a little loose and free, but they are banged up too.

I think we kind of overlook this sometimes.

Like Chris Godwin, Bucky Irvin, Amika Abuka, Mike Evans may play, but these other guys may not be in the lineup.

It makes someone like Tez Johnson, who stepped up last week and considered himself an MVP

a little early for that, but I found it enjoyable.

But he's got a big role suddenly potentially in this game.

And I think the key for me is can the Todd Bulls, Bucs defense, the run defense specifically, take the Detroit run game out of this?

Because if you let Detroit, and they're always a little bit better in their dome than they are somewhere else, I don't love that for Tampa Bay versus being in Tampa Bay.

They're always a little bit better.

And can you stop this run defense down, this run game down the stretch if you're Tampa Bay?

Then you're in it, you're at in the final couple of minutes, and Baker does what Baker does.

I wonder how the Viking or the Lions defense is going to, you know, does practicing against one of the most unique offenses in the NFL, seeing all this motion, seeing all these players shifting places all the time, does that put you in a better spot against someone like Josh Grizard, who is just like, I mean, he's just motioning people to death pre-snap and making you think, oh my God, I'm seeing this completely different play, and it's the same one.

You might get the same play two or three times in a row, and they're getting really comfortable running it just out of a bunch of different looks.

And so to me, this is maybe proof of concept of how far this Lions defense has come this season.

Can they just stay home and recognize those concepts?

And can they shut down

this Tampa Bay offense?

I don't think it's impossible that said Baker Mayfield is the hottest quarterback in the NFL right now.

Let's pick this one because it's fun.

I said that I think it's going to come down to the final two minutes.

I think it's going to be one of those whoever has the ball last situations.

I think Detroit has the ball last and as a result, it's 34-31 Lions.

What do you guys think?

Connor?

I have to kind of, you know, I've been pumping up the Buccaneers since the beginning of the year.

And so I feel like I kind of have to dance with the date that I brought here.

And so I'm going to take, and I've been on both sides of that.

I've done, I've danced with the date, and then sometimes you just kind of leave her at the punch bowl and you go find someone else.

And it doesn't feel as good actually.

A real swordsman.

Yeah,

yeah, we've been there.

Sometimes you need to be.

And so, I would say I'm going to take the box like, gosh, 28 to, I don't know, what's a dumb score, Agami?

Can I do like 28, 26?

They're all six.

Yeah, quick question.

28, 26, because there's an extra point block in there somewhere.

How about that?

All right, Mark.

I'm with Connor on the Bucks.

I felt that way too.

I'm going to go Tampa Bay 31, Lions

26.

Lions secondary, very banged up.

All right.

Finally, Justin.

What was funny about that?

I don't know.

It's funny.

Justin.

I have the Bucs ahead of the Lions in our HTC power rankings.

Okay.

However,

I'm going to think that will change on Monday night.

because

I'm going to pick the Lions to win 31-27.

All right, good stuff.

So we're split on this game.

Can't wait.

One of the games of the year, potentially.

So make sure you're there for that.

And then if you feel like staying up, I mean, not optional for us as professionals in this business, but for you, you can watch the number one, number 21, excuse me, Texans at 2-3.

Yeah, that's a real good sell.

Hey, you want to watch the Texans late night?

Like 10 p.m.

Eastern if you're Connor.

Christ.

The number 21 Texans, 2-3 at the number 6 Seahawks.

So you do get

the Seahawks.

We love the Seahawks around here.

Fowler, Riddick, and Orlofsky on the call.

Yeah, Texans coming off their bye here, Mark.

And this is a big test for them if they can.

They got the benefit of the Ravens catching the Ravens at the right time.

But this will be a different test going to the West Coast in a tough environment.

But as I've said, the Seahawks aren't the old Seahawks.

They're not great in that building.

In fact, they're much better on the road.

So maybe this is how you want to face

Mike McDonald's bunch.

Yeah, that's one way to look at it.

I feel like the Texans are still trying to find themselves on offense a little bit.

And, you know, like we mentioned, Seattle took down Trevor Lawrence seven times last week.

And what's the diagnosis?

How do you attack the Texans?

It's their offensive line, which has been a hot mess.

And so I don't love this one for Houston on any level.

I think Seattle's defense, defense, who they are under this coaching staff, has grown up really quickly.

And this, to me, I think this could get kind of ugly and reveal once again what the Texans really are, which is a mid-level operation attempting to survive through the season.

Right.

The raw numbers aren't great.

And even though Houston kind of got its theoretical rebound win, then you got to disappear for a week, you know, the rushing offense is maybe barely a top 20 rushing offense in the NFL.

There's almost no explosive plays

out of this offense.

And you're not going to beat a team like Seattle that is, I mean, here's the crazy part about the Seahawks.

They're not even running the ball well yet.

And this is a Clint Kubiak play action offense that's still not running the ball well.

And when they do, and it's a matter of when, because that offensive line is good and they're coming around and they're getting better every week.

This team is going to start to really separate from people.

And I think this could be one of those those games where, I mean, listen, D'Amico Ryan's going to have to give it all he's got because there isn't much cooking on the other side of the ball.

Here's a good stat from the athletic.

If you want to get an upset pick in here, that you know, Darnold's playing great, obviously, he's third in the NFL and EPA per dropback when using play action.

The Texans lead the NFL in defensive EPA per dropback against play action.

If you can remove that aspect or neutralize that aspect of Seattle's attack, maybe Houston can find a way out there in Seattle.

All right, let's move on to the other ones.

These are the games we haven't hit yet for one reason or another.

So put 90 seconds on the clock and let's go.

We'll start with the number 28 Saints at the number 18 Bears.

A lot of drama.

A lot of drama around the Bears this week.

Surprisingly amount of drama.

Almost an annoying level of drama, Connor, around Caleb Williams and whether or not he's playing well just because Troy Aikman was a little bit critical.

I was surprised, in a sense, the Chicago market and everything, but I don't know.

I'm a little surprised this continues to be a story and Caleb and the coach are all talking about it.

Yeah, I mean, Ben Johnson was the one who brought it up on the radio.

He said he heard the game when he saw his kids watching the second half because they couldn't stay up for it.

And he was the one who mentioned the commentary.

Now, is Troy Aikman being cranky because Caleb Williams didn't show up to the meeting and then the two of them couldn't connect later?

Or does Troy Aikman really think that Caleb's not playing well?

I think there's a difference between those two.

But I love the fact that the Bears are standing up for their quarterback in this regard in the social media age.

You happen to hear it.

And I think Caleb is playing phenomenally well.

And sometimes Troy does get cranky and just kind of haul off on people during broadcasts.

And that's happened in the past.

This time, I think, might have with a little bit of an error on his part.

I love Caleb Williams under Ben Johnson in this situation this year.

And like, I thought Troy Aikman was really fair in that broadcast.

And it's okay to be critiqued.

Like, you're a growing quarterback, and we're going to diagnose and see things that you need to improve on.

And Troy Aikman's early years in the NFL, he'd say the same about himself.

It was a really rough road until things started to shine with those Cowboys teams.

Like, he's just being honest.

I

keep an eye on this as another potential upset this week.

Spencer Rattlers had some success this season quietly, and I don't trust the Bears yet.

I'm sorry.

Don't come after me, too.

Up next, the number 29 Dolphins at the number 30 Browns.

Let's clear the runway here for Mark Sessler.

I have a prayer

to read for the Browns Dolphins game, okay?

Here we go.

The Dolphins and Browns game in Cleveland could have 50 to 60 mile per hour wind gusts, says a weatherman.

The weather channel from our youth, Dan, soothing during snow days, days of eastern snowfall, the tri-state area, under weather warnings, hills and vales, woods and cul-de-sacs.

Now these stations and affiliates come to eat the red meat off tables, the red meat of the dead.

It is time for the angels to remove both of these teams, the Browns and Dolphins, from our consciousness.

Both ridiculous units.

We lost people, Connor knows, from the Bible.

We lost people.

from the Bible, Connor knows, who mattered viciously.

And quickly they were gone, taken out of our style

in the way of the departed.

Agnostics lost Tony Soprano in their day.

Marilyn Monroe was taken out by precious Jack and Bobby Kennedy, my guys at one stage.

Allegedly.

Then they were taken out by warlords and hitmen from deep worlds in Sicily.

Don Draper is gone.

God, we ask you, come down now with your holy wind, icy hail and blaze of glory, and wipe these two teams away.

Shed the Browns and dolphins off the earth.

We are done with these operations.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray.

If you actually love me, God, versus what I suspect you think.

Use weather/slash nature devices to remove both of these teams from human worlds this Sunday.

I believe in you.

Do you care for me?

Do you care for me, God?

If so, wipe out everyone involved in a holy fire.

God,

call me maybe.

Are you there?

It's me, Margaret.

If I were a girl, that would be what I'd say.

Maybe you're more into girls.

Seacrest out.

I'm done with these teams.

Picked up on that.

There you go.

You don't need any more insight on that game.

Let's move on to Blind Locks.

And by the way, with that said, if we

it's just kind of tough to pivot out of that one, but

but

I'm about to zonk your asses right now.

I'm about to

shock the world here because it's time for a good old-fashioned blind lock

rule change.

Jesus.

Rule change.

Hit it again.

Rule change.

Yeah, it's a three rule change drop.

That's when you know it's a big one.

Fascism.

Are you ready?

Are you ready?

Can you handle this, Connor?

Because here is the rule change.

This is a special.

This is a special, a week seven special.

you

must

pick an underdog this week

and let me tell you something oh wait but how do i know who's an underdog is it's a blind lock that's your problem if you pick a team that is not an underdog you're already out this week for sake so be careful be careful don't try to pick a team oh this oh maybe maybe my uh blessed giants are minus one this week you better watch out

because if it goes the other way, you're already out.

So, with that said, it's underdog week in the pick'em

blind locks.

And here are the standings, by the way.

Right when I get tied for first place, there's a rule change instituted by Dan, who may or may not have already seen the spreads for all of us.

No, you take that back.

You just went too far.

That's too far.

Well,

I have no idea what the spreads are.

I'm going to take that back because I had a similar suspicion.

No,

if you want to impugn on my integrity,

this whole thing's up in flames, okay?

I don't know what they are.

I have no idea what they are.

As soon as he started getting tickled in first place, he got a little nervous, and now all hell's breaking loose.

And this is how I know this rule change was effective because I know Connor's freaking out now,

which will lead to him

blowing this.

So without further ado, let's check out the no spreads showing, the picks.

Remember, you have to pick an underdog to win outright and if you pick a team that's not an underdog you automatically lose before the game's even played um who who's brave enough to go first here

jesus i'll go first all right justin go ahead go ahead baby Basace a bump, give it to me.

Let's go.

59-0 Patriots or the Titans somehow win a game under Mike McCoy and probably maybe for the last time this season.

But hey, if they win this one, we're all feeling good.

Well, I love it.

So he gets behind his Titans.

Who I can guarantee are an underdog.

Guaranteed underdog.

You don't have to worry about anything.

All right, let's take a look around here.

It's got to be an underdog.

All right.

I feel it's a little bit tricky because they're home.

I feel like the way to kind of win this or get yourself in a good position is find an underdog

at home that has a home field advantage if things start to get hot against a team that's better than them, but maybe not in a great spot.

So, the Vikings.

It's a good one.

At home against the Eagles.

I think I'll be okay there.

I would imagine, even with the Eagles in a slump, that they're going to be getting at least a couple points here.

So, I will pick the Vikings.

Oh, baby, this rule change is flying.

Connor.

Yeah.

All right.

Don't mess it up.

I'm going to try to.

Ooh, I wouldn't do that.

I'm going to try to see if I can sneak one in where there's clearly a better team, but they're on the road.

And I'm wondering if I can just slide underneath, like, you know, how the home team usually gets a little bit of a bounce if the game is kind of a pick'em.

Yeah.

And so I'm going to

lock the Colts

and hope that the Chargers are a small favorite.

Ooh, that's dangerous.

Come on, Daddy.

And last but not least, Ceci?

I am staring at this grid of games.

We figured.

Well, yeah, that's the exercise, but I'm going Giants over Broncos.

I think that's a good

week.

I got my butt bit, and I'm not, I want

to thrive.

All right.

Now we're going to do the reveal.

And remember, if any of these teams are not underdogs, you automatically lose.

I'm going to keep my eyes locked on the Colts Chargers.

Let's see.

Oh, Chargers by one and a half.

The Eagles by one and a half.

Phew.

The Denver Broncos laying seven points against the Giants.

And yes,

the Patriots also lay in seven points.

So we all survived.

I mean, let's be fair.

Connor, let's be fair.

That was a lot of fun.

That brought the drama.

That's tugboat at his finest in a big spot.

I think you've looked at the standings and you came up with a device to

save some of us.

We're all within a game of each other.

I wouldn't do something like this if,

for instance, like later in the season, I won't do this.

But right now, this is a perfect week seven, is a perfect moment to get freaky, get nasty.

You know, like Sessler on a Saturday night in Hollywood.

Just get a little weird.

Well, it's your party.

Put a blindfold on.

Put some leather on.

You do the bitch.

You know,

your little party hat.

Rotate the wall.

Now it's a bunch of stone and chains.

No.

All right.

That's it.

Hey, everybody, have a quick quick.

Can I draw your attention to?

I always like to just point out one spread.

The Vegas desert does not agree with our power rankings at all because they have the Lions as two and a half point favorites over the Buccaneers.

That's all.

I think it says five and a half point favorites.

Does it?

Yeah.

Nice job, Justin.

You are correct, sir.

Five and a half, which means it's more than just being the home team.

That means

that's like on the 4th of July when you want to end the show with the fireworks at their best.

That's what I that's what I like to say, that last little interjection.

What I do best, baby.

Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.

No, we should really go.

Thank you to everybody

for dope as hell.

Thank you to everybody.

Have a great and safe weekend, and we'll see you on the other side.

Remember to check out the Patreon show where we will draft these games.

Till then, do what you must.

Heed the call.

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They're one of America's largest financial services companies.

Like, how I'm more than Saquon Barkley, the NFL's reigning leading rusher, I'm also the NFL's leading husher.

Hush up back there.

Wow, I might have just set the hushing record.

Well, almost.

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