NFL 2025 Week 8 Preview + TNF Recap

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Speaker 24 Hello, welcome to Heed the Call,

Speaker 17 NFL podcast.

Speaker 19 Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

Speaker 38 It is your

Speaker 39 week eight preview.

Speaker 40 How about that, Sese?

Speaker 6 Well, we're here. And like, I, you know, in our old world, it's like, now you've got to say mid-season.
Like, what are we at the mid-season? Like, we don't even, we just keep rolling.

Speaker 6 We don't need to write all the articles and the mid-season nonsense and stuff.

Speaker 42 Unless, unless come next Wednesday, we can't think of anything to talk about. And then that will be the theme of that episode.

Speaker 37 Mid-season?

Speaker 7 That's not even mid-season.

Speaker 38 We've been through this road a hundred times before. Yeah.

Speaker 45 The season's actually 23 weeks, right?

Speaker 21 So

Speaker 37 get comfortable, Sese.

Speaker 46 We're just warming up, baby.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 7 Yes, this is, as I said, week eight preview, but also

Speaker 50 the recap of the first game of week eight.

Speaker 52 So let's dig into it.

Speaker 25 It was a fairly gnarly affair in SoFi Stadium.

Speaker 55 Hit it, Justin.

Speaker 54 All right, yes.

Speaker 9 The Chargers. It couldn't have started worse.

Speaker 45 Justin Herbert rushed, pass rush in his face, flings one, picked off by Isaiah Rogers, run to the end zone, pick six, and look, the Vikings are off and running.

Speaker 58 Ah, but no, no, no,

Speaker 38 they overturn it, turns into a 14-point swing, and that was kind of the game.

Speaker 23 From that point on, the Chargers were in total control.

Speaker 8 They win 37 to 10, improving to 5-3.

Speaker 54 And

Speaker 38 as for the Vikings, Vikings, they fall to 3-4.

Speaker 59 And for the love of God, Connor Orr, can we please put Carson Wentz in a retirement home for quarterbacks who just don't want to feel pain anymore?

Speaker 62 That was one of the hardest games to watch.

Speaker 64 Like watching Carson Wentz in general is difficult, but the level of pain that that man was in in the left side of his body,

Speaker 45 the Vikings are not a fun watch right now.

Speaker 10 No, he looked like, and not to reference this movie again, Dan, but Tony Danza throwing the final pitch in Angels in the Outfield when he was going to die about three months later.

Speaker 10 Yeah. So, yeah.
But you brought it up a week ago. I thought it was a great point at the time.
Al Michaels actually echoed your sentiments on the broadcast. It's the folly now of your expectations.

Speaker 67 How was he over?

Speaker 10 The folly of your over-expectations at the quarterback position and your own self-assessment. So we have Daniel Jones on another roster, Sam Darnell on another roster, Aaron Rodgers isn't here.

Speaker 10 And this is what we're left with to drive the Corvette. And the offensive performance was pathetic.

Speaker 10 I mean, they're leading Russia at all of their rushing yards in the final like three minutes of the game. This is not a cohesive unit at all.

Speaker 10 It doesn't look like you're going to be able to do anything with it. And you're just going to throw J.J.
McCarthy back into this next week. I don't know what to think about this.

Speaker 6 Yeah, they feel like they've got,

Speaker 6 it's not a crisis, but I feel like Kevin O'Connell, for all his known skills, has been through a pretty thorny trail of quarterbacks over the last couple of years where it's like one thing after another, and it's pretty bleak right now.

Speaker 6 I don't know how Wentz was still in that game by the end. Like, it's like when you get 14 images of him wincing and, you know, the body being crushed, like, I think it's time to move him out.

Speaker 6 The story for me was the...

Speaker 6 It was the Chargers. I mean, they put up 400-plus yards after getting their butts kicked by the Colts a week ago.
Joe Old comes back. They run the ball the way that they wanted to.

Speaker 6 Herbert looked awesome. And are we back? Are we back with the Chargers the way that we thought that we were? Like, you know, three or four weeks ago?

Speaker 6 Like, it seemed like it tonight, but you're right, Dan. They were playing a compromised Vikings operation.

Speaker 40 Yeah, and they, you know, I think Makai Bechton limped off a football field for the eighth consecutive week.

Speaker 45 Injuries, Derwin James leaves this game in the first half, misses his first snaps of the year, and yet it didn't stop them.

Speaker 69 The Chargers were a tank today. And

Speaker 71 again, we've been hitting on this all season.

Speaker 17 Matt Money Smith, the voice of the Chargers, he hit on it with us when we talked about it this team in the summer.

Speaker 52 They have a really great coaching staff, and they're led by a proven winner in Jim Harbaugh.

Speaker 36 And these type of coaching staffs, especially if they have a really, really high-end quarterback,

Speaker 59 they can get through the stormy parts of a season.

Speaker 73 I think that's what's happened here.

Speaker 59 I think they've cleared out of the storm potentially.

Speaker 52 Kamani Vidal has become a revelation now in this game.

Speaker 45 He goes for 117 yards and a touchdown.

Speaker 23 He looks really good.

Speaker 52 So you're going to get Omari Hampton back in a few weeks, hopefully, and that will only help that side of the field.

Speaker 23 Lad McConkey is starting to

Speaker 66 reappear and be a part of this offense.

Speaker 52 Again, he had a really bad drop early in this game, but then he made up for it, finished with six catches and a touchdown that kind of put the game away, I thought.

Speaker 51 But yeah, I mean,

Speaker 5 you mentioned 419 total yards and nine drives.

Speaker 71 The Vikings, 164 total yards.

Speaker 61 And

Speaker 16 our boy Brosmer was in this game by the end.

Speaker 53 I stand by it.

Speaker 50 I feel like you, and by the way, conspiracy theorists out there, I'm with you. If you saw the same thing I did in the first half, a completion to

Speaker 76 Justin Jefferson, he spills out of bounds right into the feet of J.J.

Speaker 78 McCarthy, who does this like athletic leap backwards and then very spry on his feet is signaling like first down in a really swaggy way.

Speaker 79 It's like, wait, this guy can't play?

Speaker 57 He looks fine to me.

Speaker 57 What's going on here?

Speaker 76 What's the real story in Minnesota?

Speaker 79 And here's the thing.

Speaker 76 Here's where the center does not hold, Connor.

Speaker 55 If you put J.J.

Speaker 15 McCarthy back in the game next week and he re-aggravates a high ankle sprain as something that happens all the time in these

Speaker 71 situations.

Speaker 52 You are punting on the season then.

Speaker 45 And even if McCarthy stays on the field, if he doesn't play well, you're punting on the season.

Speaker 76 Was that the goal of the Vikings to punt on the season? You can do something about this.

Speaker 1 The trade deadline's coming up.

Speaker 76 It doesn't have to be my suggestion of Geno Smith, but is there anything you can do to give yourself a safety net because you do not have one right now?

Speaker 10 Well, I mean, if Kirk Cousins plays this weekend, wouldn't that be an interesting

Speaker 57 option?

Speaker 35 Right.

Speaker 10 And is is already familiar with Kevin O'Connell is certainly familiar with Minnesota. But I think that Kevin O'Connell knows that

Speaker 10 once he goes back to J.J. McCarthy, there is no pulling him back out because he's already done what he's done.
He's been able to kind of milk this high ankle sprain for as long as humanly possible.

Speaker 10 And what's really kind of a bummer about the whole thing is that the Vikings defense also doesn't look the same.

Speaker 10 And, you know, stacked heads are kind of hanging on to, remember when they just beat the bejesus out of jay browning and the bengals and that was one of the more outsized defensive performances statistically that we've ever had but that weights your average right and it keeps the vikings like in the top five peren perennially but look at their performances otherwise right like you give up 28 to the eagles 24 to the bears 24 to the steelers uh 22 to the falcons uh i mean this isn't and and you know those aren't enormous point totals but this isn't a dominant unit that could hold them down while J.J.

Speaker 10 McCarthy can win games by scoring 14 or 15 points.

Speaker 6 Yeah, it's the lack of a point-producing quarterback-driven offense.

Speaker 6 Like, because there's like a bunch of these teams around the league where it's like the defense is the thing that you can hang your hat on, and that's fine for two quarters or a first quarter, or if you somehow get into a lead, but

Speaker 6 they can't save this. This is unsavable.

Speaker 6 To your point, Dan, this is unsavable right now.

Speaker 66 well in this current the way it's set up unless mccarthy returns and the light goes on and i think um you don't want to get too crazy about small sample sizes but he did not look ready before he got hurt but it's the only thing most likely because it's unlikely they swing it for the reasons connor points out like you did invest the first round pick you did decide to let all these guys like darnold and and jones and rogers you passed on all of them and you said no we we believe in this kid you got to let him play and it might cost you a season but at least you're going to invest this time in a player that you believe in.

Speaker 72 By the way, Warren Sharp, good stat here.

Speaker 42 Thank you, Gravy, for finding it at Sharp Football.

Speaker 66 Our buddy, the Vikings have played the number one easiest schedule this year to this point.

Speaker 52 They played the number one hardest schedule the rest of the season.

Speaker 80 So, yeah, if this could, you know, they could be picking in the top five or top 10 if things really, the wheels can come off of this unit, especially if the defense doesn't play at the level they need it to play.

Speaker 10 High picks you have are doing weird things too.

Speaker 10 I mean, that shot to the head that their first round pick made was one of the most egregious helmet to helmet, like almost leapt off of his feet to create head-to-head contact.

Speaker 10 And it's just the players that you have that you've drafted high are not performing well too.

Speaker 10 It's just a puzzle right now.

Speaker 5 Not a great Thursday night game.

Speaker 59 I've been kind of sniffing around this idea that there's a little something suspicious about how close these games all get.

Speaker 23 And I'll go a little deeper and put my tinfoil hat on.

Speaker 69 On a day when professional sports was rocked by a gambling scandal in the NBA.

Speaker 2 And by the way, that shit's coming here too.

Speaker 61 Like this is not going to, the NBA is not.

Speaker 42 It's not the NFL.

Speaker 15 Yeah, yes.

Speaker 71 It is just a matter of time.

Speaker 72 So why don't we just count our blessings

Speaker 18 before we're talking about this all the time on our show?

Speaker 66 Pandora's box has been opened and everybody get ready to see the consequences.

Speaker 68 But I wonder if the NFL is like, hey, guys, things are a little hot.

Speaker 61 Let's just go back to the old Thursday night football tonight just to be safe.

Speaker 6 It's always these hey guys, like unnamed sources and rooms.

Speaker 60 I'm 345 Park.

Speaker 57 Chinese boxes of food. Well, that's the thing.
I just want to do that now.

Speaker 77 Yeah, I just want to

Speaker 68 give it up for Al Michaels.

Speaker 40 What a powerhouse performance by Al.

Speaker 35 I mean,

Speaker 81 he

Speaker 15 is just like,

Speaker 47 I tweeted this.

Speaker 17 He, this was like Otani clinching the pennant for the Dodgers last week, level dominance.

Speaker 76 Does not care, says what he wants.

Speaker 64 He's getting wrapped on the knuckles by the league in the middle of the game.

Speaker 32 Here, listen to this.

Speaker 55 This was great.

Speaker 26 32-yard field goal to tuck. The league wants to take my lunch away because I said before that Riker's only missed was hitting a wire in London.
The league says, no, no, it was an optical illusion.

Speaker 42 Not what Riker thinks. Anyway, there you have it.

Speaker 57 We cleaned it up.

Speaker 67 And then to top it off, again, Al doesn't care.

Speaker 66 Al just like, he's hitting three home runs and striking out 10 over six scoreless.

Speaker 87 He gets

Speaker 60 Kirk Herbstreet, who's already turned his attention to college football about midway through the first quarter.

Speaker 17 He's thinking about Saturday

Speaker 5 and a break in the action.

Speaker 18 They're talking about the Chargers' lone Super Bowl appearance back in 1994.

Speaker 66 The blowout loss to Steve Young and the Niners.

Speaker 36 And Herbstreet asks, so, you know, Al, what's your biggest memory of that game?

Speaker 51 Because he called it for ABC.

Speaker 68 And Al just leads with,

Speaker 15 well, the point spread was 19.

Speaker 44 And Herbstreet looks at him like, Al, today we're going to be doing this.

Speaker 75 And then he just keeps going.

Speaker 32 And he's like, oh, yeah, Stan Humphreys, he dropped back to pass.

Speaker 76 They were up 26.

Speaker 45 The spread was 19.

Speaker 77 And a lot of people were very nervous.

Speaker 57 Clearly, Al was one of the people that was very nervous that that Hail Mary was going to be completed. He got to love it.

Speaker 50 anything else on this game boys before we take a break and head to the previews well i'd mentioned one player

Speaker 6 aronde gadston like is becoming a star for the chargers and we've seen it two weeks in a row he's just like he's part of the rise big words well i mean or a star inside of their universe but like he has been dominant two weeks in a row and he's a later round draft pick that's like

Speaker 6 the central focal piece of their passing game along with their wide receivers. So keep an eye on it.

Speaker 6 I try to pick him up in fantasy, and like this one clown in my league that's like kicking everyone's ass picked him up like two weeks ago. So

Speaker 67 good job, Mark. You know, he went to college, right, Connor?

Speaker 81 Here's a hint: your shirt.

Speaker 78 Did you really?

Speaker 10 I am so checked out on Syracuse football.

Speaker 81 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 57 There you go. All right.
All right.

Speaker 25 Go up. Let's take a quick stop down here.

Speaker 51 And when we get back, we dive into all of the week eight action to come.

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Speaker 77 All right, we are back.

Speaker 7 Thursday Night Football in the rear view.

Speaker 36 And now we turn our attention to the rest of the week eight slate.

Speaker 65 Can you believe it?

Speaker 33 Week eight.

Speaker 25 Unbelievable.

Speaker 92 Baby, that's unbelievable.

Speaker 82 What is that shirt you're wearing today, Connor?

Speaker 10 This is a Netherlands World Cup jersey from.

Speaker 10 Maybe 2002, 2004, somewhere in there.

Speaker 67 It does have the vague

Speaker 13 semblance to a prison jumpsuit as well.

Speaker 6 Yeah, with an emblem, but you sure are.

Speaker 57 Yeah, I can see that.

Speaker 10 This was like early college, and I ordered this from like Taiwan for $6, and it just held up tremendously well.

Speaker 31 Beautiful.

Speaker 80 Yeah. Unbelievable.

Speaker 31 Always connecting with an international audience, Connor Orr, a worldly man.

Speaker 67 All right.

Speaker 76 Let's dig into the game.

Speaker 82 So.

Speaker 27 I don't know. This feels like a recurring theme now because as we know, you know,

Speaker 89 I don't know what's going on with the early window in the NFL anymore.

Speaker 59 It's tough, it's tough sledding.

Speaker 2 The late window, though, you could always count on some good games.

Speaker 50 So, let's start there.

Speaker 72 And let's start with the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos.

Speaker 55 I

Speaker 55 love

Speaker 81 this game for two reasons.

Speaker 76 They're two of my pet teams this season, Ceci.

Speaker 56 I've loved watching the Cowboys every week.

Speaker 14 I've been on that since the beginning.

Speaker 52 This is a fun team to watch, an imperfect but fun team that can score as well as anyone in football.

Speaker 59 And Dak Prescott, if you're putting together an MVP ballot, which I'm sure that will be a popular podcast topic across the landscape in the next week or so as we reach midseason, Dak is MVP.

Speaker 17 Can't really, it's hard to argue against it.

Speaker 15 I mean, that he is, he has been so valuable and so excellent for that team.

Speaker 4 They're scoring at will.

Speaker 76 Can't stop anybody.

Speaker 27 And now here are the Denver Broncos, who I, for the life of me, cannot figure out Cesee.

Speaker 48 I know that they have a good record.

Speaker 52 I know they're coming off one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history.

Speaker 79 But are the Broncos for real?

Speaker 60 Are they for real or are they full of shit?

Speaker 48 Where do you come down?

Speaker 6 I think they're getting there.

Speaker 6 I'm with you that like visually and just sort of taking in the entire Broncos experience. I'm a little lost on where they are in terms of why they get some of the praise they do.

Speaker 6 I think one of the problems a little bit is that unlike the Cowboys that come out with fireworks blazing and like, you know, just machetes, Denver has started really slow on offense, like almost like weirdly historically in certain ways.

Speaker 6 Like it's taken late game heroics, and so they don't look the part offensively. We all know the defense,

Speaker 6 you know, until they played the Giants last week, have been, it's been pretty good.

Speaker 6 I think this is one of those crazy wild tests that I think Denver needs to keep winning games that makes us remember them.

Speaker 6 But this like best offense in the league versus arguably top three or four defense is one of those NFL games where it's like, which, who do you go with? I'm going with Dak and the Cowboys.

Speaker 6 I think there's something kind of weird and spicy about the Cowboys that you've latched onto, and I totally agree.

Speaker 6 And I think you got, I think Dak is, I hope there's like sort of some sort of resistance or proof against him declining here. He can't play any better.

Speaker 10 For me, I view the Denver Broncos almost the same way that I view the Chicago Bears, which is the second that they're able to fix this running game and make it more efficient, it blooms and it makes all the explosives and everything else make sense.

Speaker 10 And if you look like at the biomarkers of this offense, they're like 11th in the league in explosive play rate. And that tells me that the bones of the offense are there.

Speaker 10 It's just, how do we get more consistent, whether it's a back rotation? Can RJ Harvey finally be a hot hand guy and they don't have to take him off the field? or it's Dobbins, whoever it is.

Speaker 10 And I think as soon as you iron out that consistency, just like the Bears, when they started running the ball well, I think this thing's going to turn into a monster because, again, I think the bones are there.

Speaker 10 We saw Nick's make the throws last week and everything leads me to believe like this is headed into that like waterfall scenario where it all spills over.

Speaker 35 Yeah, I'm a full-on believer in Nick's.

Speaker 16 I know there's some inconsistency to his game

Speaker 93 at this point, but he made so many money plays in that comeback.

Speaker 58 And to your point, I mean, there's never been a more cold, hot performance by a team than here's score by quarter last week for the Broncos.

Speaker 94 0-0-0-33.

Speaker 4 So it's in them.

Speaker 60 And, you know, partly that's maybe bad coaching by the Giants in the fourth quarter, personnel that was gassed a mile high in Denver.

Speaker 51 There's a lot of factors that led to one of the strangest endings in the sports history, but it also showed the potential of this team.

Speaker 66 But I don't like them in a shootout with the Cowboys.

Speaker 27 It's a really coin-flip game.

Speaker 94 Where is it played? Where is it at?

Speaker 6 Denver. I think

Speaker 6 that always matters. We've talked about it.

Speaker 81 Yeah.

Speaker 27 I mean, for that reason alone,

Speaker 65 I'll take Denver and

Speaker 15 quasi-shoot out here because Denver's defense is as great as it's been in certain spots and against certain types of opponents.

Speaker 45 It's been good better than great this year. And that's from Patrick Sertan all the way down.

Speaker 7 So I don't know if they're going to shut down the Cowboys, but I think they'll make enough plays.

Speaker 62 I got 30 to 27.

Speaker 41 This is such a good game.

Speaker 72 When we pick this one, 30-27.

Speaker 89 Broncos win another narrow one.

Speaker 57 one.

Speaker 10 Go ahead, Mark. I'm like the person who's a girl.

Speaker 44 You have Cowboys, right? Mark, give us a score.

Speaker 6 I'm going Cowboys

Speaker 6 34

Speaker 6 to 28.

Speaker 10 Broncos 33-32. Score, Gami.

Speaker 81 You son of a bitch.

Speaker 6 Dan, one little item

Speaker 75 before we go.

Speaker 6 Yes. We did get some news that, well, there's a lot of news coming from all these teams as we get to the trade deadline.
This is a little different. Some news out of Dallas.

Speaker 6 Justin, if you want to air this

Speaker 6 for us, yeah. The shot didn't come from that building behind me.
It came from back there behind the fence on the grassy knoll. That's where the man was, not the book depository.

Speaker 39 Remember that.

Speaker 6 Just to put a bow on that controversy.

Speaker 61 You and I have been at loggerheads on that one for forever.

Speaker 96 And now there he is, Johnny Fitzgerald Kennedy himself in Dealey Plaza explaining it all.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I don't think you need to triple source that one.

Speaker 96 No, I'm not going to do any double checking on this one.

Speaker 86 I'm just going to say you were right and I was wrong.

Speaker 72 Good job, Mark.

Speaker 57 Thank you.

Speaker 66 All right. Let's move on.

Speaker 65 What's another game to dig into?

Speaker 52 How about the Buccaneers?

Speaker 19 By the way, that's the number 15 Cowboys and the number 11 Broncos.

Speaker 55 So two teams that if you look at our power rankings, and we'll get to a little power rankings convo, Connor, you got got caught in the crossfire.

Speaker 68 We'll get to that a little bit later. Some power rankings.

Speaker 6 He's never there to defend himself either.

Speaker 57 Yeah, it is a thing, you know, whether it's Farbuck or

Speaker 33 well, Farbuck was.

Speaker 61 Connor was on with Farbuck a couple of times, but Farbeck doesn't seem to understand that anyone else is on the line. Everybody.

Speaker 57 Well,

Speaker 18 Connor caught some strays.

Speaker 68 Here's the tease.

Speaker 15 Connor caught like 800 words of strays.

Speaker 59 And this wasn't Farbuck.

Speaker 61 This was a respected member of the media, the national or New England media.

Speaker 79 We'll sit on that until we get to the pats.

Speaker 74 But you'll get your chance to answer to it, Connor.

Speaker 7 Now we have, so yeah, the 15 Cowboys, the 11 Broncos, two teams we're trying to kind of figure out.

Speaker 41 And we're going to get some clarity, I think, this week.

Speaker 72 Up next, the number eight Buccaneers coming off, obviously, disappointing loss to the Lions

Speaker 74 at the number 28 Saints.

Speaker 85 And,

Speaker 23 you know, Connor,

Speaker 74 it wasn't so much for me that the Bucs lost to the Lions in Detroit because a lot of teams lose to the Lions in Detroit in primetime.

Speaker 8 It was at that, I didn't think the Lions played close to their best game, and the Bucs still weren't there to answer the bell.

Speaker 15 And it does leave a sliver of doubt

Speaker 52 that maybe they're not quite at the level of these top dogs.

Speaker 21 What did you take out of that game?

Speaker 10 I don't know that I'm ready to make that determination.

Speaker 10 And it's hard to when you're an offense like this that's built the way that they are, when you lose someone like Evans mid-game and you don't know how that's impacting any of the available calls that you have.

Speaker 10 And yes, I mean, everybody needs to be planned for injuries and to expect stuff like that to happen. But that's one of those like pull the rip cord games.
Anything can happen.

Speaker 10 And nothing that is in this team's DNA has shown me that they're not able to come back for something like this. I'm still very high on the bucks.

Speaker 6 I really agree.

Speaker 6 I get what your eyes saw, Den, but it's just like they're one of these teams that are going through it. They're down to, you know, Amika is compromised by a hamstring.
That's your dude.

Speaker 6 But then it's Sterling Shepard, who's 33, and Tez Johnson. I think Tez Johnson, the former roommate of Baker, has looked really good.
But you're still working with...

Speaker 6 guys that change your game plan and what you can do and what you want to do. And they're also down.

Speaker 6 Bucky Irvin's not in there. And don't tell me Rashad White's the same guy.
And their offensive line gave up like a season record 30 pressures last week to the Lions.

Speaker 6 So kind of everything caved in, but they're not a healthy team.

Speaker 72 Have we talked about that Tez Johnson and Bo Nix are brothers?

Speaker 55 That's a pretty cool story.

Speaker 6 Adoptive, but yes, like they adopted him, I believe.

Speaker 33 Mark, don't put labels on it. Don't.

Speaker 6 Well, I think that's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 95 I think they view themselves as brothers.

Speaker 6 We're not coming from the angle where I am discouraged.

Speaker 98 There's not blood.

Speaker 57 It's not real. Mark Sussler, signing off.
Oh, geez.

Speaker 6 I will sign off.

Speaker 57 All right.

Speaker 68 The cool, very cool story.

Speaker 36 Read about it.

Speaker 2 Tez Johnson was adopted by Bo Nixon's family, and they grew up together, went to college together, and now here they are in the NFL.

Speaker 99 Not on the same team, but thriving in their own ways.

Speaker 50 Yeah, he actually, I don't know if this is such a credit to the Bucs organizationally that he's flashed a little bit, Tez.

Speaker 45 I kind of assume that anyone who's asked to take a bigger role in that offense will step up.

Speaker 60 And that is a credit, yes, to the play calling, to the quarterback, and to their ability to identify pass catchers who can make plays.

Speaker 72 It's kind of like how I used to feel about the Steelers when they would just churn out these guys in the draft year after year. The Bucs are that way for me.

Speaker 10 And the same goes for me, Dan, about offensive linemen, complimentary players. I mean, Jason Light.

Speaker 10 Love him or hate him has probably assembled one of the deeper rosters in the NFL. And we're looking at the bottom third of it.
And they're still very competitive.

Speaker 10 And so to me, Mark Mark put it the right way, going through it. It's like when you have that flu in the middle of the season and everybody goes through it.

Speaker 10 And, you know, yeah, there's nothing about that that scares this team for me or scares me away from this team.

Speaker 57 I just love it or hate it. Yeah.

Speaker 6 What's up? Mark put it right. I just want to mention that that was good.

Speaker 57 That's good.

Speaker 72 We try to pepper those into the program because we know it's important.

Speaker 40 And I feel, I see you've lifted up a little bit.

Speaker 61 Yeah.

Speaker 94 You said love it or hate it.

Speaker 61 Like, I think you're referring to the fact that the GM of the buck hates you, Connor, right?

Speaker 57 So that makes it sometimes a little bit

Speaker 78 tricky sometimes.

Speaker 10 Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 10 I've caught some strays in the past, but

Speaker 10 I feel like we're in a better place.

Speaker 10 Good.

Speaker 82 That's good. That's good.

Speaker 33 Somewhat.

Speaker 50 The story, the last story you had about

Speaker 72 him pointing out that you said they would lose their first two games.

Speaker 7 It seems like he still carries a bit of a grudge.

Speaker 10 A little hospital. And that I had them number two instead of number one in the power rankings.

Speaker 68 Exactly. It seems like he's really picking a little bit.

Speaker 10 Theme of the year is me just getting ramrodded for the power rankings, and I always end up right, but whatever. Let's keep going.

Speaker 7 I love it.

Speaker 56 That's the attitude you need.

Speaker 2 By the way, Baker's got an attitude.

Speaker 98 He's got that red ass.

Speaker 42 That's why we like him.

Speaker 72 Here he is talking about the Saints.

Speaker 101 It hasn't exactly been clean play from their part when we play them.

Speaker 102 It's a physical game.

Speaker 102 It is what it is. You expect it.
Division rival.

Speaker 57 Yeah.

Speaker 102 Not much else to say besides the fact that I don't like them.

Speaker 29 Not much else to say besides, I don't like them.

Speaker 30 Dream out loud, brother.

Speaker 103 I love it.

Speaker 10 Let me gas up it.

Speaker 57 More honesty.

Speaker 32 Give me all the honesty you got, okay?

Speaker 57 Right.

Speaker 10 Let me gas up the absolute worst team on our schedule to make the game that we should be walking away with slightly more.

Speaker 78 You know what? He's a little bit,

Speaker 67 I mean this in a positive way, a little bit of a psychopath.

Speaker 21 Like he wants the saints to like believe and really try to get after him because because he thinks he will be better than them in the end.

Speaker 65 It will make it hurt even more.

Speaker 68 I think he's got some of that.

Speaker 57 He does.

Speaker 6 Also, I think this is organizational because what was the one team when Tom Brady was there that used to get inside his head and really physically mess him up? It was those better Saints teams.

Speaker 6 Those defenses took it to Brady. And I think inside the organization, from Bruce Arians to head coach to GM on down, it's like Baker's bathing in this dislike of this division rival.

Speaker 6 And they must have done something to tweak his ass, too, a couple years back, according to his report.

Speaker 43 Yeah, tweak his ass, Mark. Nice.

Speaker 57 His red ass.

Speaker 103 All right.

Speaker 5 One more late game. Number 31.

Speaker 76 Six teams on bye this week, by the way.

Speaker 4 Six teams, which is, and

Speaker 22 shout out to everyone who's feeling it like I am with the

Speaker 72 fantasy Armageddon of six buys.

Speaker 70 And what do you do?

Speaker 18 For me, it's leaving multiple starting slots open because I have injuries in addition to buys.

Speaker 72 And at a certain point, it's like,

Speaker 94 do I drop a player who's a really good player or do I forfeit the week?

Speaker 13 And when we're at that stage, maybe too many buys.

Speaker 77 Maybe we gotta, maybe we gotta adjust this.

Speaker 6 And one little side note to that, because I delved back into it too, and it's like, it's your high school friends. They're like, oh, this guy worked for the NFL and like has an NFL podcast.

Speaker 6 I have the work. I have a team that looks like it was built by a toddler with a mental problem.
Like it is what it is the biggest mess ever right now. You know, like this guy guy works in football.

Speaker 6 It's like your credibility is just going in a weird season.

Speaker 89 I'm not having a good year. Usually I'm very competitive in the league.

Speaker 72 Don't always win, obviously.

Speaker 7 Rarely win, but I'm always in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 This year, I'm fighting it.

Speaker 61 You know, it's been a tough one.

Speaker 82 It's been a weird fantasy. It's been a weird NFL season.

Speaker 76 So don't beat yourself up, Mark.

Speaker 12 You're a good person.

Speaker 97 No ball.

Speaker 6 Connor shares a team with...

Speaker 6 with a friend, I believe. Is that right?

Speaker 10 I'm in seven leagues, which is far too many. And I've gotten mixed up.
And

Speaker 10 my issue, I feel like it's uniquely a sports writer problem, too, is I'm too rookie-obsessed. And so we have to watch the preseason, and nobody else knows who any of these people are.

Speaker 10 And then I'm foaming at the mouth to get like Kyle Menongai in the seventh round when everybody else is just picking like Calvin Ridley and doing way better because they're not going to be able to get away from it.

Speaker 57 Let me guess.

Speaker 45 Trayvion Henderson is on five or was on five of the seven teams.

Speaker 57 Oh, yeah. Yeah.
So there's no doubt. Yeah.

Speaker 22 Anyway, yeah, R.I.P.

Speaker 72 everyone in fantasy this week.

Speaker 7 And if you're the one team in the league that actually somehow dodged the raindrops and has pretty much a full, healthy roster for this week eight, go f ⁇ yourself.

Speaker 44 It's coming.

Speaker 81 Let's go.

Speaker 61 Let's move on.

Speaker 52 The number 31 Titans at the number three Colts.

Speaker 89 Listen, I'm not going to be negative about it.

Speaker 68 I'm not going to be negative about it because the Colts have answered the bell every week.

Speaker 70 Even the game they lost, they could have won that game easily.

Speaker 103 Okay.

Speaker 45 But does anyone have an easier schedule than the Indianapolis Colts?

Speaker 92 Week after week after week, tomato cans.

Speaker 76 And there's nothing you can do. You just take care of business.

Speaker 94 But I guess I wish there were more fun Colts games on the schedule, but every week it feels like they're against, you know, our sisters of the perpetual misery.

Speaker 82 It's like,

Speaker 72 what am I to learn from this game?

Speaker 57 What am I to learn, Connor?

Speaker 10 Can I venture that I think that this is going to be a very fun game? And that might sound insane to everybody else.

Speaker 27 Okay. Do you know that a quad injury has sent Legeria Sneed on IR?

Speaker 72 So the Titans now lose another key piece of their defense.

Speaker 10 Okay, my point still stands. And this is a compliment to Justin's Titans.
The one thing that they have

Speaker 10 done well is when they throw the ball deep, they do do a nice job. of completing those passes and making those explosive plays.
That's one area where Indianapolis's defense struggles a little bit.

Speaker 10 And if you're Mike McCoy, you don't give a shit at this point, right? Like, and so we're just going to dial it up. This is going to be Russ versus the Cowboys.

Speaker 10 Let's let Cam Ward just air the arm out and let's see if we can catch these guys sleeping in the deep third of the field. That's how I think they're going to attack the Colts.

Speaker 10 And I'm all here for it because I want to see Cam Ward just gas that arm, man. Let's see it.

Speaker 27 What do you think, Gravy?

Speaker 104 I'd love to see that. My faith in the Titans doing anything competently has sunk to levels here for here before seen, not seen.
I don't know the phrase.

Speaker 42 You got it. No, we knew where you're going.

Speaker 104 Here before unseen. Is that? Okay.

Speaker 104 You got it. Yeah, I mean, the last time these two teams played, it was like 17 to 8 at the end of the first quarter, and that wasn't that long ago.
Different head coach.

Speaker 104 If the Colts get off to a fast start, the Titans will have to do what you're saying, Connor. But Cam Ward was at his best last week off play action, like most quarterbacks.

Speaker 104 Eight for eight, 115 yards, perfect passer rating off play action. Like, the more they can do that and not be in obvious drop back passing situations, the better.

Speaker 104 But if the game gets away from them quickly, they're just going to have to be in like shotgun spread formations the whole game.

Speaker 6 All right. I've got some good news for you, Dan.

Speaker 74 For me.

Speaker 6 Because they've got the Steelers, the Falcons, the Chiefs. the Seahawks and the Niners coming up in the next month plus.

Speaker 74 There you go.

Speaker 68 And good for them.

Speaker 46 Like they have taken advantage.

Speaker 51 They are in the worst division in football, but they have also answered the bell against non-division opponents.

Speaker 30 This one is going to put them, obviously, they're going to come out of this.

Speaker 105 They're going to maybe, you know, maybe you're right, Connor.

Speaker 76 Maybe they end up, it's a tougher game, but they're going to come out of this, what, six and one after Satan Care Business?

Speaker 48 Seven and one, and they will be positioned very well

Speaker 16 for when the schedule does tighten up, even if some

Speaker 74 issues

Speaker 58 hit.

Speaker 52 One question for you, Gravy.

Speaker 51 We just did our trade

Speaker 22 deadline primer.

Speaker 36 Not a primer, but we just threw out some crazy trades with the reef on Wednesday.

Speaker 71 Jeffrey Simmons, he is

Speaker 16 age 28 season.

Speaker 61 You know, you could argue he's a top 10 defensive player in the league, maybe top five, if you want to go along those lines.

Speaker 46 You get a call from a team,

Speaker 96 you know, the Cowboys.

Speaker 36 How about this? The Cowboys call. Cowboys have extra first-round picks.

Speaker 52 The Cowboys would probably, they're going to be, probably finish around 500, you would assume.

Speaker 72 So they'll have around the 15th to 17th pick in the draft.

Speaker 25 They say, take a first-rounder for Simmons.

Speaker 8 Would you do it?

Speaker 10 I don't think so.

Speaker 104 There's some Titans fans that may disagree. The reporting out there is that Cam Ward and Jeffrey Simmons are the only two players the Titans are unwilling to trade.

Speaker 104 I just think like trade the veterans that you feel are more or less replaceable with draft picks or free agent signings. Don't trade the literal only potential superstar.

Speaker 104 And I get it, he's not a league-wide superstar, but he's a Nashville market superstar.

Speaker 104 You trade that guy, and I know the timelines may not mesh up because, like you said, he's 28, but defensive tackles are playing high-level football into their early 30s now.

Speaker 104 He could be productive for the next five years and be a good member of this team if and when they finally do get competitive again. So I'm not in the trade Simmons camp, but trade everybody else.

Speaker 104 Anybody else that they offer a conditional seventh for, move them. I don't care.

Speaker 10 Five years.

Speaker 104 I mean, how old is Chris Jones?

Speaker 106 He's been, he's playing good football still.

Speaker 104 There's some, there's defensive tackles that have played Cameron Jordan, maybe?

Speaker 7 I don't think there's a wrong answer because not a lot of industry.

Speaker 92 He's a foundational player.

Speaker 36 He's a superstar talent.

Speaker 11 And if you, you can turn things around in the NFL quickly.

Speaker 65 Now, will the team, oh, a team like the Titans

Speaker 66 with their struggles in in recent years, be one of those teams?

Speaker 90 Maybe, maybe not.

Speaker 41 But it happens.

Speaker 6 It can happen.

Speaker 76 So maybe this is, it's kind of a vote of confidence of your quarterback, too, right?

Speaker 45 If you truly believe in his abilities, you say, okay, if we just can get some more players around and we get the right coach, maybe we're frisky next year.

Speaker 68 And then good the year after that.

Speaker 14 And Simmons will still be age 29, age 30.

Speaker 99 And you have to be in the business.

Speaker 57 You're already in your rebuilds.

Speaker 6 You're not about to rebuild.

Speaker 57 You're already in it.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 6 keep a couple of those guys around.

Speaker 104 Yeah. And Simmons is dealing with a hamstring injury that knocked him out in the first quarter last week.
Mike McCoy called him week to week, and I would be surprised if he plays in this game. So

Speaker 104 another reason the Colts are just going to

Speaker 104 this is another 40 burger for the Colts waiting to happen.

Speaker 68 All right, let's take a break, and when we get back, we head to the early window in the quad box.

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Speaker 112 Don't be too proud, baby.

Speaker 112 What's going on, big blue?

Speaker 34 All right, we're back.

Speaker 110 We'll have Jordan Schultz at the bottom of the hour to talk trade deadline at the NFC East.

Speaker 110 We'll hit some news next, but first, I wanted to touch on something we talked about on the Golden Watch Hour on Patreon.

Speaker 113 Sign up if you haven't.

Speaker 110 Up his ass. This Mark Sessler and his decision to bring his curse to East Rutherford and my beloved giants.

Speaker 110 This Sesler guy, a real creep.

Speaker 57 Who are you?

Speaker 110 He walks around pointing NFL teams that he wants to put into ruins. Last year, he chose the woe-begotten Arizona Cardinals.

Speaker 111 Like a snake in the desert, he brought them to their knees.

Speaker 110 This year, he decided he was going to put a hex

Speaker 34 on the Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 110 But as soon as they started to tank, no doubt thanks to him, he chose the Giants. And look what happens

Speaker 37 in the worst fourth quarter of New York history.

Speaker 110 I don't know what to say about this guy other than

Speaker 110 get behind me, Satan.

Speaker 113 Get behind me, Cessler.

Speaker 110 Point that Juju somewhere else. I don't need it.

Speaker 34 I don't want it.

Speaker 111 Even better help. Couldn't help with that.

Speaker 110 Anyway, wanted to just say my piece there. don't come after me on that cesspool the walking with giant subreddit i will find you and i will end you

Speaker 110 okay let's take a quick break then we'll hit the news sean payton you chatty little kathy stay right there

Speaker 90 I guess, you know,

Speaker 6 parallel universe.

Speaker 14 I guess maybe maybe, Connor,

Speaker 53 you feel like maybe you've been singled out by some in the media.

Speaker 61 You're not alone.

Speaker 36 Mark, obviously, the great, incredibly gifted and successful actor, Christopher Walken, from his

Speaker 105 kind of under-the-radar

Speaker 30 New York Giants fan podcast, Walking with Giants, obviously got in the crosshairs as well.

Speaker 98 Mark did. So, you know.

Speaker 10 A little bit worried about Walken, by the way. Was he entangled with the Shaun C.
Billips thing there?

Speaker 51 Or was that the FBI fbi i think he did no i think that was a sound up i think he he likes his drops i think that okay tied into something he was saying yeah i don't think

Speaker 6 i don't think it's billips related or it sounded like a raid but that's good to know that he's um i mean i'm taking it back but i love christopher walk and i'm annoyed that i agitated him and many giants fans with whatever went down here um

Speaker 6 i'll take my medicine i i accept the critique on this one Yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, is it better to be targeted by Christopher Walken or not for Walken to know you exist?

Speaker 7 And you fall in a category which I probably would probably lean towards.

Speaker 32 I'd want to be acknowledged anyway by the great Academy Award-winning actor, Christopher Walken.

Speaker 55 All right.

Speaker 68 Without further ado, let's head to the early games. And when we head to the early games, we head to the quad box.

Speaker 26 Jim! Oh, my God. That is so tight.

Speaker 6 Your ass is in the deck box.

Speaker 112 Put on your socks.

Speaker 40 When I arrived from 78.

Speaker 28 Hey, NFL fans, Kathy Bates here.

Speaker 6 an audio feast of the last couple minutes here.

Speaker 82 It's getting so long.

Speaker 44 What is it up to now, Justin? How long is the Quad Box intro?

Speaker 76 It's taking up a lot of real estate.

Speaker 13 It is

Speaker 106 12 seconds.

Speaker 57 Okay.

Speaker 104 We started the year at eight seconds.

Speaker 81 It just seems like a little bit more.

Speaker 79 It's creeping.

Speaker 92 It's a creep.

Speaker 68 It's a slow creep that eventually will take over the entirety of our Thursday show.

Speaker 78 Yes, the quad box.

Speaker 95 Kathy Bates, like every week for the rest of time in our lives.

Speaker 17 I can't,

Speaker 30 I can't get enough of her.

Speaker 72 All right, let's get into it.

Speaker 6 She has no memory of recording that soundbite, but that's that's not our that's not here nor there.

Speaker 82 You know, uh, let's let us pick four games or a Let's see.

Speaker 60 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven games in the early window.

Speaker 2 You know the drill by now.

Speaker 65 We'll give you the four that are the most compelling to watch.

Speaker 45 Mark, get us going.

Speaker 40 What are we putting in the quad box this week?

Speaker 6 Well, I will go with my heart, and we're going to talk to our great friend Baldi about this game.

Speaker 6 So we can, and we've already heard about this game and the Giants a lot, but the Giants at Philadelphia, there's a lot happening here. They just played two weeks ago.

Speaker 6 That's a weird little schedule tick.

Speaker 6 And I just want to see how the Eagles, after what happened last week when they came back to life, handle a Giants team that did lose to the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 6 But after putting up 34 on the Eagles, put 32 on the Broncos, a good defense. And I just am wondering what becomes of this team.

Speaker 6 And I'll say one other thing and throw it to someone else because we talked about it before, but A.J. Brown has not...
practiced in full this week at all. He's got a hamstring injury.

Speaker 6 He was on the side on Thursday before we taped with a trainer. That That feels like a potentially not playing type of scenario for the Eagles offense.

Speaker 10 With Brandon Graham back, I wonder how they're going to defend because Vic Fangio talked about it.

Speaker 10 A lot of quarterback scrambles are gutting this team, and no one has been better at it over the last few weeks than Jackson Dart.

Speaker 10 And just getting through backfields, crowded backfields, extending plays, and bringing a play new life.

Speaker 10 What will his plan be to limit that? I wonder if they just totally get after him in this game.

Speaker 10 They're kind of telling on themselves as they get to the trade deadline that they need more pass rush help. Why else would you ask Brandon Graham to come back?

Speaker 10 And so I'm just kind of curious what kind of juice that defense gets now.

Speaker 52 Jackson Dart has, you know, transformed the Giants and made them a compelling, watchable team.

Speaker 82 Not always a winning team.

Speaker 65 I think they're, what, two and two now with him as a starter. Is it two and two? Either one and two or two and two at this point.

Speaker 72 They've been on Pointman television, which is saying a lot for the Giants when you know how terrible they've been in recent seasons.

Speaker 36 Russell Wilson, obviously in the deep background, there was controversy this week around Sean Payton.

Speaker 45 We talked about it on Wednesday.

Speaker 68 But, you know, when Sean Payton's involved and also Russell Wilson's involved, I definitely want to hear Connor's thoughts on all this.

Speaker 98 They are two and two, by the way.

Speaker 72 Thank you, Justin.

Speaker 50 First, here is after

Speaker 53 Payton made his comments to Mara that I'm glad, you know, I wish that you hadn't put in Dart by the time we saw them.

Speaker 62 And then Russ comes out and tweets that it was classless.

Speaker 56 Peyton tried to defuse the situation on Wednesday.

Speaker 114 Look, and

Speaker 114 the euphoria, the way that game unfolded,

Speaker 57 that was

Speaker 114 strictly about Dart. I mean,

Speaker 114 and I,

Speaker 114 that was in no way, shape, or form, anything that was

Speaker 114 directed at Russia.

Speaker 57 He's pointing at euphoria.

Speaker 114 And I might be able to see how he might perceive that, but might be able to come off.

Speaker 78 His most euphoric moment.

Speaker 24 Watch that. That tells me that.

Speaker 30 What a la ravile magnifico about.

Speaker 57 Okay, that's enough. I don't care.

Speaker 61 What a la raville magnifico about Sean Payton that he'll acknowledge when I'm at my most

Speaker 58 euphoric, that's when I really like to like, you know, punch down and take down people that I've already defeated in my life's journey.

Speaker 57 How about you?

Speaker 57 That's my take.

Speaker 78 What do you got, Connor?

Speaker 10 So much to say, so little time.

Speaker 10 I'll say that Sean is unique in that I think that there are some people on my side of the coin who have, you know, really great relationships with him and some people who, you know, you can sit around a bar, a bar somewhere and everyone can be like, Jesus, let me tell you my story.

Speaker 10 And I certainly have one of those that,

Speaker 10 you know, puts me on one camp. But, you know,

Speaker 10 he is like Ed O'Neill and Little Giants, just like the most intolerable alpha,

Speaker 10 I don't even know, like sub monster that ever kind of crawled up. But he's so good at his job that there's no satisfying way to kind of get back at him and be like, ah, look at this.

Speaker 10 Like when the Broncos lost, when they got 70 put up on them by the Miami Dolphins, and I had been championing Mike McDaniel as a head coaching candidate for like three years, that was one of the maybe 30 best days of my life.

Speaker 10 Like, think about that.

Speaker 57 And like, that's how much I enjoyed that moment.

Speaker 10 And I guess credit to him that you can never, they're never bad enough, long enough for me to tap dance on the grave. And it's an ultimately frustrating thing for me.

Speaker 81 That's fair.

Speaker 82 That's fair.

Speaker 25 All right, let's move on.

Speaker 74 I'll go next.

Speaker 27 This is annoying because we have an injured quarterback again.

Speaker 60 The number four Buffalo Bills, led by Josh Allen, coming off the bye.

Speaker 89 They travel to Charlotte, and they get a Panthers team that's won three in a row.

Speaker 45 That's four and three.

Speaker 36 That's really surprised people.

Speaker 63 They're up to number 21 in our power rankings, which tells you that we're not really ready to give ourselves over to the Panthers, but you got to give them credit, too, because this is a team that looked like they were about to clean house.

Speaker 52 And this seems to be a recurring theme in the Bryce Young era, the David Tepper era, the last two years, where just when you're about to just like throw out the baby and the bathwater on the Carolina Panthers, they put something together and like, okay, maybe there's something here.

Speaker 15 Unfortunately, Young sprained his ankle, high ankle sprain, late in the win over the Jets last week.

Speaker 69 So it's the glowing ginger man Andy Dalton that gets a start.

Speaker 76 And I guess my perspective on this one, Ceci, is

Speaker 27 the Bills have been an imperfect machine this year.

Speaker 67 And I think they were humbled by these back-to-back losses going into their buy.

Speaker 94 I expect a very focused,

Speaker 17 obviously healthier,

Speaker 51 potentially deadlier Bills to appear here.

Speaker 51 And the Panthers in their state with a backup quarterback are the perfect spot for the the Bills defense to start trending in the right direction because some of the both the raw stats and the pop the hood data suggested the Buffalo defense could be an Achilles heel of this team but this feels like a good spot for them to get right it it has been that heel I mean they They are the league worst yards per carry defense against the run.

Speaker 6 And here comes Andy Dalton, who are, you know, I think Andy Dalton can do anything Bryce Young can do to an extent. Like, I don't think it's a major downgrade into a no-namer at all.

Speaker 15 Even at his age, he's a solid backup.

Speaker 6 I agree, and I think that in recent years, when he's played, he's been a pretty good deep thrower.

Speaker 6 But you've got Rico Dowdle, who's had 70 carries and nearly 500 yards over the last three weeks against a compromised Bills run D. I wonder if Carolina just keeps doing what it's doing.

Speaker 6 One little psychological note, because you are the Bills coming off of two losses. You've allowed 781 yards on offense in the last two games.

Speaker 6 They've got a serious concern in their own division about the New England Patriots and a pretty rough schedule coming up, including the Chiefs next week.

Speaker 6 Like, mentally, they better focus on this right here and get this done because I can't look at them the same way if they can't handle this game.

Speaker 10 I think it's, it's, there's two advantages here for Carolina. One, obviously, is the running game.
I think this is where Dave Canalis needs to get in their bag.

Speaker 10 They've been good in some like odd formations, like two-back formations that they still haven't used a lot, but they're really effective in.

Speaker 10 They said this week that they meet with their analytics crew once a week. I wonder if that's something that came up in the matchup.

Speaker 10 But I'm not saying that Andy Dalton is analogous to Joe Flacco, but you can put a pretty good receiving core that has not been legitimized with Bryce Young yet and put Andy Dalton just back in the gun and do that run a little bit of that quick game too and challenge the Bills secondary.

Speaker 10 Because if they give you a light box, you can run successfully, but they're going to try to stop that.

Speaker 10 Let's see Andy Dalton take on that Joe Flacco role and just get rid of the ball, get the ball in Tep McMillan's hands, see what he can do.

Speaker 68 My last thought on this game is, you know, Rico Doddle was obviously incredible those two weeks before Chuba Hubbard came back last week.

Speaker 105 And then, you know, Canal's

Speaker 50 put in a tough spot because Chuba, he's our starter.

Speaker 7 He's our guy. Now he's healthy and they want to split the backfield.

Speaker 32 But I kind of, I don't know, like, I kind of want to see, I want to ride with the hot hand.

Speaker 7 And maybe Rico deserves to be the lead sled dog and see if he can give you another monster effort against the Buffalo defense that, as Mark points out, is susceptible to the run.

Speaker 50 I'm curious to see how they split that up because the Jets did a pretty decent job shutting down their offense, their running game, at least comparatively to the previous two weeks.

Speaker 51 Let's see what happens there.

Speaker 57 All right.

Speaker 66 Oh, Josh Allen has advice from a grandma.

Speaker 80 Let's see what happens.

Speaker 6 Well, this is, if you remember at the end of that disappointing Falcons loss before they head into their buy, like there was just,

Speaker 6 I feel like you always see it, just like sad Josh Allen sitting there. And so his grandma called him up and said this.

Speaker 100 Leading from the front, but also having energy and juice and, you know, not putting my head in the sand. And, you know, my grandma called me and was like, I just want to see you smile, you know?

Speaker 100 So get back to some of that.

Speaker 35 Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 90 Good to have a grandma.

Speaker 93 Shout out to all the grandmas out there.

Speaker 61 I miss mine.

Speaker 74 Connor's up. Yeah, what's up, Connor?

Speaker 10 Well, it's just, you know, it's like, thanks, grandma, but like, you were born in the 20s, and there's someone on Instagram who just doxed my address and said he was going to knife my fiancé because I didn't win his fantasy matchup.

Speaker 10 So, smiling is a little bit less effective of a solution than it was during the Great Depression.

Speaker 6 So, what percentage of your inner world did your grandmother ever actually know? I'd put it at like two to three percent.

Speaker 6 You roll in there, you act real nice, and you put on a colored shirt, you know, just like for

Speaker 37 you know

Speaker 87 to be a little more accurate, his grandmother was probably born in 1960.

Speaker 6 that's pretty fair

Speaker 10 how old is she okay hold on you said 20s i mean certainly she's not 100 years old so josh allen is seven years younger than me and my uh my grandmy is 94.

Speaker 10 so i mean so that would put her at what

Speaker 10 19

Speaker 6 58 by my math she's about 58

Speaker 57 1960 the summer of love 1969 it's like early 30s i rest my case. Wrong.

Speaker 35 All right. No, maybe you're right.

Speaker 77 Okay. Well, good advice.

Speaker 45 It's a brutal sport.

Speaker 8 Smiling is a dangerous thing to do, but maybe you will.

Speaker 59 And I suspect that it will. Next up in the quad box, Connor, what do you got?

Speaker 10 All right. I'm going to take the number 10 while I Google how old is Josh Allen's grandmother.

Speaker 57 Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 10 Take the number 10 49ers of San Francisco at the number 25 Texans.

Speaker 82 We got Koogler and the Moose.

Speaker 10 That's a tough one.

Speaker 10 But I think in this one, it's all about what the Houston Texans see themselves as.

Speaker 10 I think that Seattle put a lot on tape that's going to be really effective against that Texans offensive line, the left side of which is just kind of inoperable.

Speaker 10 And Seattle was doing that cool thing where they were overloading one side of the line and creating chaos. It worked really well against Houston, and it made C.J.
Stroud look even less comfortable and

Speaker 10 just capable of running an offense than ever before. That's all on tape.
And Sala's defense brings the heat just like that. So I don't know, man.

Speaker 10 This is a tough one. It's kind of like a car crash game for me.
You just want to, you kind of want to see what's going to happen, look at the wreckage a little bit, but it's weird too.

Speaker 10 I'm just going to, I'm done after this. The Texans are like the best defense in the NFL right now.
So it's such a Jekyll and Hyde team.

Speaker 2 I hate, I've lived this life many times with past Jets teams.

Speaker 72 When you have a defense that is playing its ass off and an offense that is just not giving you anything, it is such, it's frustrating to watch.

Speaker 31 And I can't imagine what it's like on the sideline and in the locker room.

Speaker 2 And that's just something to keep an eye on and another challenge for D'Amico Ryans to navigate.

Speaker 81 And, you know, that was, we talked about it, Mark.

Speaker 56 We were honest with the audience about the Monday night podcast and how frustrating it was to be watching a Texans game that late at night and a game that refused to die

Speaker 72 because the Seahawks wouldn't take the air out of the football in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 67 And during that fourth quarter, which was already a lost cause for Houston, despite them technically getting within one score,

Speaker 1 Nico Collins bangs his head on the turf and he suffers a concussion.

Speaker 82 So he's on a short week, which means you're probably taking Nico Collins out of this lineup.

Speaker 64 Who is C.J.

Speaker 97 Stroud going to throw to?

Speaker 76 Who's going to make plays that are going to keep this team in the game unless they get massive

Speaker 30 touchdown level contributions from defense and special teams.

Speaker 68 It's such a big ask week after week.

Speaker 6 Yeah, you're counting on an unusual type of touchdown, and you're counting on your defense to keep a Mac Jones-led Niners team. It seems like it's going to be Mac Jones,

Speaker 6 from making plays. Because this team can't play from behind minus Nico Collins.
They don't have a ground game to speak of.

Speaker 6 And they seem like for the second year in a row, we can all see the overt problems.

Speaker 6 And so could the Niners and so could the Niners pass rush, which doesn't have Bryce Huff.

Speaker 6 It's not a loaded pass rush, but you like the scheme and like the offensive line you're going up against with the Texans is in tatters. And I watching C.J.

Speaker 6 Stroud, I think one thing that was so frustrating was like,

Speaker 6 it's not all on him, but he seems to be

Speaker 6 going in the wrong direction. Like I watched that game extremely frustrated.

Speaker 6 Him doing things that he wasn't doing as a rookie, did a little bit last year, but it's a study and like if everything around you is evaporating, you will evaporate too to the eye.

Speaker 55 And credit to Mac Jones, um, who has absolutely um done what you want any backup quarterback to do.

Speaker 66 Like, when the QB1 goes out, can the backup quarterback keep things stable?

Speaker 15 Or does the season go down the tubes?

Speaker 89 And that happens all the time in our league.

Speaker 45 And Mac Jones, who I will be the first to say, I've never thought much of him as a player.

Speaker 42 I know he had a very nice rookie year.

Speaker 45 I thought he was just hanging on.

Speaker 14 But what he's shown during this time, and again,

Speaker 14 hey, kids out there, hey, young quarterbacks out there, even if the money's not the same, if you have a chance to sign and play under a guy like Kyle Shanahan,

Speaker 57 do it.

Speaker 27 Do it.

Speaker 62 Get on that team because not only has he reinvigorated his career, maybe not as a guy that can get signed as a starter, but maybe somebody who can compete for a starting job if he hits free agency again.

Speaker 59 He has changed the feelings of a lot of people, including myself, as what he can be.

Speaker 76 And he's fun to watch and he's got a silly laugh.

Speaker 56 So shout out to the Steve Grogan of 2025, Connor Orr.

Speaker 60 Good boy.

Speaker 6 It seems like by the end of these last two games, you've not been moving wonderfully.

Speaker 112 Thank you.

Speaker 26 Do you want to race?

Speaker 57 I know that guy. He's enjoying that guy

Speaker 57 so much.

Speaker 32 He's kind of like Shane Gillis.

Speaker 95 He's got a bit of a Gillis vibe to him and a look.

Speaker 10 To your point, Dan, and we'll get to this closer to the trade deadline, but if I'm Anthony Richardson or Justin Fields, that's exactly what I'm saying to my agent right now.

Speaker 10 And I'm saying, get my ass on a plane to Santa Clara.

Speaker 48 Absolutely. A little career rehab.

Speaker 35 All right.

Speaker 65 We have one more game to add to the quad box.

Speaker 68 And by the way, this could be, let's savor it.

Speaker 36 You know, let's savor the Mac Jones start because I think Purdy's close.

Speaker 45 He's practicing now.

Speaker 65 And again, to...

Speaker 72 to Mac Jones's credit, the reason I think Brock Purdy is not going to play this week is they're like, okay, we're okay at quarterback.

Speaker 64 So we're going to, even though Purdy

Speaker 72 is practicing, we want to make sure when he comes back, he stays healthy this time.

Speaker 51 And that's a direct correlation to getting really good play or solid play, steady play from QB2.

Speaker 65 All right, Connor, Justin, fill out the quad box.

Speaker 104 All right, I am going for our final game. I'm taking a chance on some injury and some health situations here.
The number 14 Bears at the number 24 Ravens Bears on a four-game win streak at 4-2.

Speaker 104 Ravens trying to get their season back on track at 1-5.

Speaker 104 And that's the question. Can they do it? Is this Bears' magical run going to hit a speed bump as they play what could have been a very good Baltimore team, but has turned into a 1-5 squad?

Speaker 104 Does Lamar sort of band-aid over all their defensive problems?

Speaker 57 Okay.

Speaker 94 Here's a

Speaker 7 perfect segue because because Lamar is not healthy.

Speaker 18 He's still not healthy.

Speaker 76 He didn't practice on Monday.

Speaker 52 Okay.

Speaker 14 And then he practiced in limited form on Wednesday.

Speaker 52 And I imagine if they had their version of a Mac Jones in the building for the Ravens and they weren't in this predicament that they're now in, that they might have been like, you know, maybe let's give Lamar one more week because he's that important.

Speaker 27 I got a feeling they're going to put him out there on Sunday and just hope for the best because we are, we have Mark reached, I think, very close now to must-win territory for the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 50 And against a Bears team at home, you can't just keep dropping these games, especially in your building.

Speaker 8 They need this win, and that's why I expect Lamar to be there.

Speaker 82 Now, what version of Lamar, we're going to see.

Speaker 6 Yeah, and like the now Vegas believes in the Ravens almost eternally from what we've seen week after week, but

Speaker 6 I don't if they lose this game. And there is a part of me that I'll start to lose faith in the general matrix if they pull one of these like six straight win scenarios.

Speaker 6 the good news for them though because they've been so battered it looks like ronnie stanley could come back he practiced roquan smith is coming back patrick ricard he's your fullback but he's a big part of some of their offense and what they do like they're getting healthier and if lamar can almost like to your point can you get through this game without lamar having to

Speaker 6 go 100% with what he can do. Can you get him through this game and it gets another week to heal? And like, bang, we start getting there.

Speaker 6 But it's like this team also gave up 37 plus points four times in six games. Like this is not like Lamar and nothing else.

Speaker 6 Like that's the thing I think is a little mystical to watch people react to because we've seen them in the past. This is a bad defense.

Speaker 10 I wonder if it can transform, though. They got Aloha Gilman from the Chargers and Kyle Hamilton's one of those guys that I think was doing too much.

Speaker 10 And now you can just be like, let's put this guy right up against the line of scrimmage and let him try to drive Caleb Williams nuts and be in his face and just be jumping around trying to bat down passes.

Speaker 10 Like maybe freeing him up more to be a little bit more of a, I don't know, just a general berserker back in the secondary might help.

Speaker 10 I mean, just thinking of anything at this point, and minus the Lamar Jackson issue, which is obviously glaring.

Speaker 104 And Connor, you were talking about the Bears run game getting on track last week and how that really opened things up for the whole team. This Ravens run defense has been putrid pre-buy.

Speaker 104 Were they able to fix those issues with this week off?

Speaker 104 Because if not, it it won't matter how healthy Lamar Jackson is if the offense can't get on the field because the Bears are able to control time of possession with their newfound run game.

Speaker 10 Zach Orr, no relation in a big spot.

Speaker 13 And Bears, go ahead.

Speaker 36 Like, drive a stake through the heart of the Ravens and continue to build some momentum.

Speaker 19 Their running game has really gotten on track in recent week.

Speaker 14 I think the Ben Johnson vision is starting to come into focus.

Speaker 72 You're still getting Baltimore.

Speaker 40 Not maybe the past few teams that got Baltimore got them at the best time, but you're still getting Baltimore before they can potentially recover.

Speaker 16 If they recover, it's kind of now or never for the Ravens, and it makes it a compelling game.

Speaker 90 All right, there you go.

Speaker 60 There's the quad box.

Speaker 72 Let's take a break.

Speaker 15 And when we get back, it's baldy time, baby.

Speaker 90 Stay right there.

Speaker 101 What's good, y'all? It's Yvonne Miller, Super Bowl MVP, SAG Master, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets real talk.

Speaker 101 Every week, I'm bringing you inside the game, from locker room stories to league-wide headlines. You want football IQ, locker room insight, and real conversations with the people shaping the league?

Speaker 101 Welcome to Free Range with Von Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts. New episodes every Wednesday.
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Speaker 3 All right, you know what time it is.

Speaker 18 We're joined now by Odyssey NFL insider Brian Baldinger, host of the best football show podcast.

Speaker 45 Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.

Speaker 8 Nationwide is on your side.

Speaker 25 How you doing, Baldy?

Speaker 36 I see you got a little bit of a wet hair straight out of the shower.

Speaker 18 Where are you coming from?

Speaker 26 The ocean. Oh.

Speaker 26 I had a swimming from the buoys to get here on time. So I lost track of it out there.
I was just kind of in my little undersea world out there.

Speaker 92 That's an extra effort.

Speaker 6 I mean, swim into the ocean to do our show.

Speaker 26 Like I really had a good fourth quarter comeback right there to swim to get in.

Speaker 60 You know, Baldy, not to get sidetracked, but like Mark and I are both in the thick of it.

Speaker 19 We both got young kids and going through all the challenges and marriage and career and balancing it all.

Speaker 8 And sometimes we'll just openly daydream about escaping to a different type of life.

Speaker 68 That's your life. That's the Baldy life.

Speaker 26 Yeah.

Speaker 26 So

Speaker 26 how would you describe that? Is that just like the escape right there?

Speaker 39 Yeah, I think like Baldy's like,

Speaker 30 I'm a tape dog of the highest level.

Speaker 25 I'm an NFL veteran.

Speaker 21 I'm fully vested.

Speaker 13 I got women in every city.

Speaker 14 And when it's time to hit the surf, I hit the surf.

Speaker 18 And then I come in and I talk some ball.

Speaker 7 And then I have like a delicious but healthy meal because my bod is a temple.

Speaker 33 Like, you got the whole thing going on, buddy.

Speaker 6 Yeah, a little renaissance angle there, a little adventurous angle. And it's, you know, desirable.

Speaker 44 All right, let's get into it.

Speaker 84 You are going to be at Eagles Giants.

Speaker 20 Yep.

Speaker 76 Let's start here just because

Speaker 82 as a former player,

Speaker 4 there are losses and then there are losses.

Speaker 14 And that's a historic stomach punch loss for the new york giants against the broncos last week um i don't know if you've ever been involved with something at that level of meltdown but like how concerned are you um as a player as a coach how a team reacts to that like is there a panic that envelops is there a sense of like a downtrodden nature the week after a loss that's truly wretched like that one like and how do you think the giants will bounce back against the eagles i haven't been a part of something like that you know a 33-point you know fourth-quarter comeback i went back and watched you know bonix had like 13 unbelievable plays uh a little bit of luck on some of them but for the most part i mean it was incredible football on their part but

Speaker 26 um i haven't been a part of it i the maybe the worst part of that honestly is a four-hour trip home on a plane and you know sometimes you start hungry up in different groups about what happened and sometimes that can splinter offense against defense defense against coordinator, decisions that were made by Brian Dable.

Speaker 26 Like, you know, everybody talked about it all week long.

Speaker 26 You know, TD was, you know, he had his opinions in New York. So everybody's hearing about it.

Speaker 26 I feel bad for John Marott because, you know, he's in the greatest, you know, health right now. He's got to watch that.
That's tough. I don't know how they're going to bounce back.

Speaker 26 I mean, honestly, it's just the number one storyline of this game. I mean, obviously, the Giants played their best game in years.

Speaker 26 You know, two weeks ago on Thursday night, they put up five touchdowns and physically beat the Eagles up. And now they get the rematch, you know, two weeks later here.
And that's the remote storyline.

Speaker 26 How do they respond? You know, is it just as easy as Jackson Dart and Scatterboo and some of these young kids, they don't know any better and they just flush it?

Speaker 26 Because it doesn't look like it's a game that you can just flush. Not when you have total command of a good team on the road and then you just lose it in 15 minutes.

Speaker 6 And just like from the Eagles angle, because it is one of these schedule anomalies where you are seeing the same team two weeks later.

Speaker 6 And that was a pretty shocking defeat by the Eagles in prime time on an island game.

Speaker 6 So you've got, you know, we're here 14 days later or whatever.

Speaker 6 What's different? What's changed? The Eagles looked different last week, but

Speaker 6 how did they attack this when it's

Speaker 6 such a tight window between the two contests?

Speaker 26 Well,

Speaker 26 from that Thursday night game, they will have Jalen quarterback. He didn't play that game.
Quinyon and Mitchell went out of the game, their best corner,

Speaker 26 I don't know, halfway through, and then they were really susceptible in the corners. They don't have enough good corners as it is.
So, I mean, they're going to get those guys back health.

Speaker 26 That will help.

Speaker 26 Offensively, last week, the Eagles went to some play action passes, which they have been reticent to do in the first six weeks, and that produced some big results.

Speaker 26 The touchdown throw in the second half to Devontae Smith, 79 yards. kind of broke the game open right there.

Speaker 26 They made a couple of good plays to keep the Vikings from sporing, where they had opportunities to really go sport for sport with them, but they couldn't do it.

Speaker 26 Carson was off a little bit. I thought the Eagles scored a touchdown in the opening drive, had kind of a loose play to AJ for the opening touchdown.
And they took a 25-minute nap.

Speaker 26 Then they kind of woke up at halftime. That's kind of how they have been throughout the year.
So we'll say, like, they're still waiting to get, you know, unfortunately,

Speaker 26 you know, I had to come back to Philadelphia with all Eagle fans, you know, on the road from Minnesota. So that means I'm just getting bombarded by Eagle fans on a plane with no Wi-Fi.

Speaker 57 So I'm throwing Eagles.

Speaker 26 Like I'm out just trying to take a nap, you know, and follow the Sunday night game. And all I'm doing is, why can't Saquon get a yard? Why can't Petulo call play?

Speaker 26 And I'm like, the quarterback had a historic day, and the receivers got to be happy for at least once in their life. And all I'm getting is Eagle fans, you know, bombarding me.

Speaker 26 So, you know, I feel like. That should give them

Speaker 26 a bunch of confidence that they can throw the football against, I I think, an average giant secondary right now.

Speaker 61 Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs. Nationwide is on your side.

Speaker 58 I'm glad you brought that up, Baldy, because we didn't touch on it when we recapped the game last Sunday night, that even in that big jump for the passing game in Philadelphia, there was this desert in the middle of the game where they just went cold after that first drive.

Speaker 60 So, I don't know.

Speaker 61 They're still a weird team to get a handle on.

Speaker 45 And speaking of weird teams to get a handle on, on, let's talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers, the primetime game, Sunday night football, Packers at Steelers.

Speaker 31 As Aaron Rodgers continues to thrive in this offense, staying upright, staying healthy, showing he's still got the juice even at this stage of his career.

Speaker 7 I become more comfortable, Baldy, with the offense of Pittsburgh.

Speaker 14 I think the offense, as long as he stays healthy, they're going to score points to win games.

Speaker 45 The defense obviously takes another big step back against Cincinnati. What are you seeing on that side of the ball?

Speaker 50 Is there room for hope or is it time to flip the panic switch?

Speaker 26 Well, I mean, Joe Flacco had, you know, with 10 days to get ready for a game in two games, like what he did in that game was amazing.

Speaker 26 You know, everybody lined up on Jamar Chase. You know, it was Jalen Ramsey or Slay or,

Speaker 26 you know, Porter. And I mean, they all took shots of none of them could cover them.
And at some point, you go, why are we going man-to-man against these guys?

Speaker 26 Like, why aren't we sitting here in some sort of, you know, dome, you know, dome defense where we're just not going to let these guys roam free and win one-on-one battles uh it was just shocking actually the way that they played and how they didn't adjust and they stayed in this man-to-man scheme and as soon as joe felt with doubling you know one time that they doubled both jamar and t higgins they hit yosavash down the middle of the field you know for one of the biggest plays of the game and so joe felt the game really really good and you know if you if tj or her bank or highsmith aren't affecting a quarterback, like they're picking them apart right now, it is a concern because they've had trouble stopping the rung this year.

Speaker 26 And now, you know, they've had trouble against the past. And so they've had 10 days to kind of correct things and maybe fix things.
And we'll see if they can do that against Green Bay's offense.

Speaker 6 And if you're Aaron Rodgers, back in the summer, you looked at this schedule and it was like, oh, it's the Packers. Like, this matters a lot.

Speaker 6 I don't care what Aaron Rodgers says. It matters.
It's emotional, right? But he wasn't predicting back then that he'd have to look across at Micah Parsons.

Speaker 6 And Micah Parsons right now, I know it's like that everyone wants him to have 12 sacks, but all the unbers show that he's operating at an increasingly dominant level.

Speaker 6 Do you feel like he's just hitting his stride and like comfortable in this defense? And is that threat level midnight at this point?

Speaker 26 Look, he ruined Arizona's comeback champions last week.

Speaker 26 I don't know what Arizona was thinking, how they just left

Speaker 26 the right tackle out there one-on-one on him. Like he's going to, if you give him one-on-ones, he's going to win.
I don't care who he's lined up against.

Speaker 26 And I don't care if it's Flatano this week or, you know, if it's Robert Jones or Darnell Washington, anybody that's out there, one-on-one, he's going to beat him. And the guy is unstoppable.

Speaker 26 I mean, he is a pass rush.

Speaker 26 You just have to go for defense around him because nobody's going to affect the quarterback more. And if Aaron Rodgers has to move, then like.
Parsons is going to chase him down.

Speaker 26 He's going to suck him up. So you got to have a game plan for him every play or he's going to ruin your offense.

Speaker 42 Let's check in on Monday night football, Baldy.

Speaker 7 And it's frustrating as a football fan because you're geared up for Jaden Daniels v.

Speaker 41 Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 16 But Daniels suffers another lower body injury.

Speaker 72 This time it's a hamstring.

Speaker 30 He won't be playing.

Speaker 72 So now it's Marcus Mariota versus Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 31 So the Washington commanders, at least from my standpoint, Baldy, I'm just like in a hold.

Speaker 20 I'm obviously not counting them out.

Speaker 70 Maybe they round into shape and they stay healthy and they have another run in January, but it's like they're just trying to survive.

Speaker 45 The Chiefs, meanwhile, they're thriving.

Speaker 88 And here they are in prime time at Arrowhead with Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 66 Now has Rashi Rice and Rice immediately makes an impact.

Speaker 98 They take everybody out of the game by the third quarter because they're boat racing the Raiders.

Speaker 8 But what does Rice add back to this offense that we saw immediately in that game?

Speaker 26 Well, as soon as Xavier Warney got healthy and got back in the line, everything changed because now you had Worthy, you had Hollywood Brown, and you had Taekwondo Thornton.

Speaker 26 And their speed is it's a four by 100 meter relay. And, you know, and you open up things for Travis and in the line game, everything got better immediately.

Speaker 26 Now you add a guy like Rashi and you add him to the offense and you let Andy Reed tinker the way he builds 10 new plays every week like nobody else in his business.

Speaker 26 Maybe Bill Walsh back in the day could do it. But nobody creates more new plays and opportunities like Andy.
And Mahomes loves it. He lives for it.
Can't wait for Wednesday to see what he's cooked up.

Speaker 26 And so now you give him all these options. You've got tape threads to open up windows.
You've You've got the whole package right now.

Speaker 26 And then you add a rookie in Braden Smith and his speed and the screen game.

Speaker 26 Like they've got the whole playmate. And Washington, honestly, I mean, I love Marshawn Lattimore coming into this league, but he can't run like he used to.
And

Speaker 26 he's getting abused pretty good. Dallas

Speaker 26 took him to task last week. And so, I mean, I know, and he's looking at Lattimore out there.
I know these guys are looking.

Speaker 26 They've got targets on their back that I think Washington is going to have a hard time. They don't have the type of pass rush where you can heat the quarterback up.

Speaker 26 And even if you do, Mahomes' ability to extend plays and keep plays alive is second to none of his business. This is a tall task.

Speaker 26 The only hope I feel Washington can get is if their one game can really take off with all the different things that Cliff Kingsbury could do with the quarterback that can run, and they can just play keep away and keep the game close and limit the possessions of Kansas City right now.

Speaker 6 That seems like the way out.

Speaker 6 I mean, you mentioned it because I feel like in the last couple of weeks, Kansas City's ground game, and it's not just the amount of yardage, but just the way they're running feels like there's just balance here.

Speaker 6 And it's because the people are getting back. You know, you've got Trey Smith right now.
He did not practice on Thursday with back spasms. The situation with Josh Simmons is still going on.

Speaker 6 Does that, what's your concern level when all of that starts to pile up in front of Patrick Mahomes?

Speaker 26 Well, has Trey Smith ever missed a game? You know, like the guy's not missing. I don't know.
Like, I don't, I mean, I understand the back, but the guy doesn't miss games.

Speaker 26 Like, he just loves it too much. Now, Jalen Lawrence played well out there at left tackle.

Speaker 26 It was a, it was a kind of a weird signing because they gave him a lot of money for a guy that hadn't really produced that well, but he's been very good out there.

Speaker 26 And I don't know what's going on with Josh Simmons. I don't know if anybody knows.

Speaker 26 But I think they're going to be just fine. They've got, I mean, if Trey has to come out of the game, they've got, you know, I think they've got enough in there right now to protect Mahalj.

Speaker 25 All right, Baldi.

Speaker 96 By the way, you know, we talked about it last week,

Speaker 36 the memoir, and just part of the process of book publishing.

Speaker 7 We have cover art that we need to clear with you, obviously,

Speaker 61 the subject of the memoir.

Speaker 40 All my Angies, a memoir forward by Dan Hansis, Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver, the world of NFL legend Brian Baldinger.

Speaker 5 Yay or nay?

Speaker 57 Yay.

Speaker 26 Let's do it. Okay.
Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 26 I'd sign off on it right now.

Speaker 81 Any angie?

Speaker 57 Any Angie on the sea, by the way?

Speaker 32 On the surf?

Speaker 68 Any Angie on the surf where you were just out there on your board and you met an Angie out there?

Speaker 26 No, I did not.

Speaker 26 Not today. There's no mirror maids out there today.
There's no rough for that.

Speaker 6 Oh, there's always another day.

Speaker 90 There's always another day. Another day on the surf.

Speaker 30 All right. Thank you very much, Baldy.

Speaker 68 Have a great weekend. Yes.

Speaker 26 Thank you. Thank you guys week.
You bet.

Speaker 67 All right. That was Odyssey NFL Insider Brian Baldinger, host of the Best Football Show podcast.

Speaker 85 Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.

Speaker 72 Nationwide is on your side.

Speaker 110 All right.

Speaker 37 Welcome back. Welcome back.
Connor.

Speaker 76 You know, the people are still looking for the sandwich video over on the Patreon, Connor.

Speaker 45 What's going on?

Speaker 89 Some technical difficulties over at Orr Manor?

Speaker 10 I just think three kids, multiple jobs, and

Speaker 10 illnesses and everything like that. I have been eating a lot of it, though.
I just haven't made the effort to film it, I guess.

Speaker 51 We had heard, Mark, internally through sources that part of the challenge challenge is that Connor's lovely wife doesn't really want to do it and help him, which I found that a little bit surprising because I thought it was kind of like a fun little

Speaker 66 reverend silly thing that she would think was cute, even.

Speaker 61 But apparently not. It's one of the, like, my wife doesn't listen to our show.
Like, and I can understand why Connor's wife doesn't, she wants to keep some distance as well.

Speaker 6 Yeah, there's been on.

Speaker 6 There's been a pattern of significant others not being interested in the show itself and the circus act

Speaker 6 that is involved with it. But

Speaker 6 that's not one of the problems, Connor. If she doesn't want to film it, that's the only problem you have because it ain't getting done.

Speaker 6 One of your kids?

Speaker 10 I think that would be even worse.

Speaker 10 The phone would end up in the sink. But

Speaker 10 I think I've figured out a way to do it on

Speaker 10 selfie mode.

Speaker 57 It's kind of sad, though.

Speaker 10 It's very sad.

Speaker 30 Can we put Gravy on a plane?

Speaker 95 Gravy, can you clear like 48 hours to do a sandwich shoot over at Or Manor in Jersey?

Speaker 104 Yeah, I mean, maybe Jessica's got work up in New York sometimes. Maybe we can go together and get her company to pay for our travel.

Speaker 10 I think that the only thing that would make her more mad is like, can you film me making a sandwich is I'm having a stranger that you don't know come to our house to stay here for two days while he films me making a sandwich.

Speaker 57 Will

Speaker 45 Will it come up in conversation, Connor, at dinner tonight, for instance, that, oh, yeah, they're talking about on the show how you don't want to shoot the sandwich segment?

Speaker 10 No, because, no,

Speaker 10 well, I don't know.

Speaker 30 You could use that. You could weaponize that if you need it.

Speaker 67 It could backpocket that.

Speaker 10 You know what, though? I have to say that I'm picking my spots too as a husband. And I guess that in a marriage, things will surprise you.

Speaker 10 And I have a great partner.

Speaker 10 But it's it's also like not wanting to push that look that I got when, for example, it's like, hey, can we do a photo shoot on top of the minivan? Because people want to see that.

Speaker 10 And then, you know, just the look that I got on that one. And so it's like, how, how deep do I want to go?

Speaker 6 There's a very easy solution here.

Speaker 6 Like YouTube right now is aflame with like people making and eating food and ordering food and they just simply have a camera in front of them. Like you could make it

Speaker 6 almost your desk, and it would look just as good.

Speaker 10 I feel good about the way that I've planned this out mentally, and I feel like I will be able to get a representative sandwich creation video.

Speaker 6 Keep turning the heat up, though. I promise you that if I keep getting dialed in, there's no question.

Speaker 78 Yeah.

Speaker 60 Here's a little treat for the

Speaker 15 reverse peacemaker.

Speaker 60 Here's a little treat for the YouTube audience.

Speaker 31 Here is a somewhat recent photo shoot that, yes, as Connor's alluding to, he did atop of his Chrysler Town and Country for a project to be named later and revealed soon that will have a direct impact on our audience.

Speaker 72 But yes, here is a wonderful,

Speaker 36 and this was, yeah, Connor's wife was the photographer there.

Speaker 95 I'm sure she was thrilled to do it.

Speaker 74 So thank you to your,

Speaker 14 send your wife our thanks.

Speaker 40 And a gift card is in the mail.

Speaker 48 Okay.

Speaker 7 By the way, with Baldy, we talked, we mentioned Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 59 We didn't get a chance to talk about this.

Speaker 7 I absolutely loved it.

Speaker 96 I loved it.

Speaker 88 I mean, and this is not like anti-Rodgers stuff.

Speaker 89 I just, you know, it's all a little bit of an act, we know, with Rodgers.

Speaker 21 And right now he's like, hey, man, I'm just like enjoying life and going with the flow.

Speaker 15 And football is life and life is football.

Speaker 36 But the mask slipped after the busted coverage touchdown pass to Friar Muth last Thursday night.

Speaker 45 The mask slipped.

Speaker 36 Here is tackle Broderick Jones getting a little little overzealous, tackling him.

Speaker 76 Rogers jumps up.

Speaker 57 F go for me.

Speaker 33 This is a f gool for me.

Speaker 30 It's like John Boy lip reading.

Speaker 57 F gool for me.

Speaker 77 A little bit of a mask slip there, Connor.

Speaker 17 Let's be fair.

Speaker 57 A little bit.

Speaker 10 Okay, you could put it that way. I would go back to the, remember the

Speaker 10 interrupted hug? in his

Speaker 10 comeback in with Robert Sala. I just think it might be a man-on-man intimacy thing.
I don't know.

Speaker 6 I think that's diagnosed very well. But that was a sneak attack, and

Speaker 6 his body is getting thrown to the ground. And he's, you know, 700 days removed from an Achilles.

Speaker 40 I think he's a massive egotist.

Speaker 8 I don't think he views himself.

Speaker 30 I don't think he views his fellow teammates on his level, on any level, either as athletes or as humans.

Speaker 14 And it comes out in little things.

Speaker 40 And his coaching staff, with Bob Sala, with Roderick Jones.

Speaker 27 He's like, don't, hey, guys, I'll wear the same uniform and compete with you, but don't even fing think of getting close to me on any level.

Speaker 10 I will defend Rogers to the death on this one. Have you ever been taken to the ground?

Speaker 10 Have you ever been taken to the ground by someone

Speaker 10 your age or side and size for no good reason?

Speaker 77 Yes. It is

Speaker 10 one of the most infuriating things that has ever happened to me.

Speaker 75 Well, your inner world electrifies.

Speaker 6 And I did it.

Speaker 11 He's been getting hit on the blind side for 30 years.

Speaker 6 I never had someone get more mad at me than during a flag of like some sort of flag football game in college.

Speaker 6 Like, I took someone down when it was unnecessary, like, as he was running, and we had to all take the same bus home. And he was like, I'm going to kill you, and my friends are going to kill you.

Speaker 6 And I was like, shit.

Speaker 57 They didn't.

Speaker 57 Go for me.

Speaker 57 Yes, Justin.

Speaker 104 Did you guys see this?

Speaker 104 I think it was today, maybe yesterday, Keyshawn Nixon of the Packers was talking about when he first got to Green Bay, how Aaron Rodgers was, you know, still there, and how he was, Nixon said he was kind of shy when he first got to Green Bay and he didn't really like being there.

Speaker 104 He didn't know anybody. He was trying to get to know people.
And Rodgers was the one who came over to him and like opened him up.

Speaker 104 And he said that Rogers made Nixon give Rodgers a hug and that it became a thing that they used to just like hug all the time.

Speaker 104 And that doesn't sound like the same guy who's yelling at Broderick Jones here. I don't know.

Speaker 33 Yep.

Speaker 57 Yep. Yep.

Speaker 32 Go ask his family what they think of it.

Speaker 76 I don't know.

Speaker 89 Ask all his other teammates along the way.

Speaker 85 I know.

Speaker 72 I know everybody on the Jets loves him, Connor, according to you, but what does that say?

Speaker 78 Consider the source there.

Speaker 30 All right, here we go.

Speaker 27 The other ones, it's not our fault they're here.

Speaker 30 Put 90 seconds on the clock.

Speaker 52 We'll start with the number 32 Jets.

Speaker 45 0-7 travel to Cincinnati to get the number 22 Bengals. The Bengals coming off, obviously, in that emotional, exciting win over Rodgers.

Speaker 17 And they catch the Jets in impossibly, Mark, in quarterback flux that they've benched Justin Fields.

Speaker 89 And what a moment now.

Speaker 49 Right after

Speaker 59 they planned to bench Fields, Tyrod Taylor's missing practices with a bum knee.

Speaker 47 I don't know if you can go back to Fields if that happens.

Speaker 49 You might have to go to the kid

Speaker 36 on the back of the depth chart.

Speaker 14 What a mess.

Speaker 72 And the Bengals are set up to continue rolling now.

Speaker 6 It's a terrible mess because I would just say from a field angle, as an 0-7 team, they aren't the worst team I've watched that are 0-7.

Speaker 6 You could argue against that. It's everything else they're doing and how they're messaging all this.
Like, this was just another case in point of like, let's botch this as hard as we can.

Speaker 6 And they excel at that, but that's not what we thought we were getting with Aaron Glenn and friends. So I kind of feel bad for like the two quarterbacks in general.
Disaster.

Speaker 82 Is it Brady Cook?

Speaker 44 By the way, I believe so. Yeah.
I think that's who he is.

Speaker 33 God.

Speaker 57 Is that what we're doing?

Speaker 42 Jesus. I don't know.
I just don't know.

Speaker 30 And credit to Justin Fields after Woody Johnson took a cheap shot at him at the fall meetings.

Speaker 17 He kind of brushed it off.

Speaker 36 And what else are you supposed to do?

Speaker 7 You're in a really tough spot there.

Speaker 42 That's your boss shitting on you publicly.

Speaker 60 You can't really fire back at him.

Speaker 82 And just messy. I'd love to.

Speaker 68 Joe Flacco is the story here.

Speaker 23 He's the fun guy to watch here.

Speaker 72 Can he continue it against a bad Jets secondary?

Speaker 68 I think he can.

Speaker 18 I don't even know if Sauce is playing.

Speaker 89 All right, number 30, Miami Dolphins, one and six at the number 18, Atlanta Falcons, three and three, coming off that disappointing primetime performance, but they have a good setup here to get back on the horse there, Connor.

Speaker 10 If I'm Mike McDaniel, and it seems like some of the reporting is leaning toward him being able to get the chance to salvage this thing and to get it right.

Speaker 10 If I'm him, I'm going to Jalen Phillips and Pradley Chubb. And I'm like, if you guys can take this guy down, Kirk Cousins,

Speaker 10 if it's a bone bruise situation, if you guys can get into the backfield and take down one of the more statuesque quarterbacks in the league, you're probably going to get traded to the Lions, which is going to be so awesome for you.

Speaker 10 So I would say get off the schneide and have a great defensive game, you know?

Speaker 6 They're both on the block.

Speaker 6 Darren Waller's on IR. Like a lot's this team, things change quickly on this team.
And I feel like one thing with Tua, it's like, stop talking.

Speaker 6 Like every one of these press conferences seems to go totally south. He's saying he can't find his wide receivers because he's not tall enough.
Like we didn't need to know that.

Speaker 6 We don't need that to be a talking point on all the morning shows, but you allow it to be.

Speaker 74 Yeah, I don't, I'm really surprised Mike McDaniels survived, honestly.

Speaker 16 But if he's going to last to the end of the season, we'll see.

Speaker 71 But yeah, and if Kirk Cousins is the quarterback, this game does get a little more interesting because there's a chance that Cousins shows up out of mothballs and can't do anything.

Speaker 5 And then maybe the Falcons are in a more, this could be a tighter game than we're thinking it could be because I just don't trust the Falcons yet.

Speaker 73 Just don't, I can't get there yet for them.

Speaker 57 All right.

Speaker 105 Next up, the number 27 Cleveland Browns, 2-5 at the number 12 New England Patriots, 5-2.

Speaker 81 Connor.

Speaker 80 Thoughts?

Speaker 10 I mean, every single indication and every single week, we're getting more information about how incredible Drake May is and how he's, you know, the best player to have ever done it, it, the best player to have ever existed.

Speaker 10 I mean, and now you're getting a chance to see the full Vrabel experience, which is a punishing run defense to take Cleveland apart offensively and to play that complimentary football and let Josh McDaniels continue to get in that bag of tricks.

Speaker 10 Like, I think he's so much more interesting of a coordinator than I thought he would plan out to be. So, Patriots are much watched, must watch, man, every week now, which is which is great.

Speaker 10 I didn't think I'd be saying that.

Speaker 6 I think they could win this division. I mean, I truly do.
And I think they're like the kind of team that

Speaker 6 might find a way to peak at the right time. I think that they're candidates to trade for more help all over the place.
And the Vebal thing is working out.

Speaker 6 And you got to face a really tough Miles Garrett-led defense, which is not the same defense on the road.

Speaker 6 And the Browns offense is putting up like 13 points a game and refusing to throw the ball beyond eight yards.

Speaker 6 So I think this is a, if the Patriots don't look past them, they're not in that spot, like this could be a hammering.

Speaker 65 They've had a couple games.

Speaker 54 I know the Pats have played really well

Speaker 90 of late, but earlier in the season, you know, they got beat by the Raiders at home in week one.

Speaker 7 They had that penalty fest against the Steelers and turnover fest that they got beat.

Speaker 70 But overall, you know, it's been a great start,

Speaker 61 and I don't expect the Browns to slow down Drake May.

Speaker 68 He's,

Speaker 103 you know, I don't think,

Speaker 19 you know, anybody in the AFC East wants to see a young gun rising like this, certainly out of New England after all those years of dominance, but they seem to be really well set up right now.

Speaker 55 All right. By the way, while we're here,

Speaker 81 Connor,

Speaker 67 you,

Speaker 11 as we said, your power rankings, we talked about it on Monday.

Speaker 27 I didn't hear from Farbuck, which was good, but you had the Patriots all the way down at 14 in your power rankings.

Speaker 57 We discussed it briefly on Monday,

Speaker 94 that it stood out as a little unusual.

Speaker 65 I had him at 10.

Speaker 17 Mark had him at 11.

Speaker 31 Justin, I think you had him at 12 or 13, something like that.

Speaker 67 But you caught,

Speaker 81 12, you caught, you caught the ear of Tom Curran, who's a, you know, we've had Tom on the show.

Speaker 72 He's a good guy who works for NBC Sports and covers all things New England.

Speaker 81 Curran got after you.

Speaker 84 Curran wrote an entire column about you.

Speaker 76 What is it about you, Connor, that seems to just get

Speaker 60 people fired up?

Speaker 16 Patriots rise through NFL ranks is awakening a long-dormant feeling.

Speaker 70 And

Speaker 52 Curran used his platform to basically point out

Speaker 66 a person, a national writer like Connor, having the Patriots too low in the power rankings and saying it's making him, like, I guess, I don't know, be fired up again about like people, you know, underestimating the Patriots after a few years down, downtrodden.

Speaker 84 But like this downtrodden years, like this column, you're or Connor or misspelled, by the way, clean it up.

Speaker 45 Clean it up, NBC Sports Boston.

Speaker 81 If you're going to write a whole column about our Connor, get his name right.

Speaker 33 Okay?

Speaker 36 Like, let's start there.

Speaker 6 I think it's a little bit of a slap back for him feeling slapped by the power rankings.

Speaker 76 I just think it's fair game.

Speaker 89 Connor is a national figure

Speaker 18 for a columnist to do this.

Speaker 50 But you got to have your P's and Q's buttoned up.

Speaker 76 Connor, your thoughts on being the subject of

Speaker 20 a current hit piece?

Speaker 10 I'm happy for Tom. It sounds like he really wanted to put his cheerleading uniform on again, and he got his chance to get the pom-poms and pick them up and wave them around, his

Speaker 10 little red and blue pom-poms. But I'm handling the situation like I'm handling the situation like I always do, which is like everyone's like, oh, did you see that?

Speaker 10 And I'm like, yeah, isn't that funny? And then in the back of your head, you're like, I'm going to find a way to get his house and take his house and his family away from him.

Speaker 10 You know, and like, you just get crazy in your head. And so

Speaker 10 I'm, you know, striking that balance i think okay well yeah super bowl yeah i feel like the next time you see each other it'll be interesting i mean did should we flag it to nbc sports like how to spell connor's name like if we're gonna anchor a column you know that scene in step brothers where he's like

Speaker 10 the scene in step brothers where he's like now the suits seem kind of up now like after they fart and in the interview it's like okay like because he reached out and he was like i'm gonna do this and i was like okay cool like it'll be funny and then i saw it and i read it and i was like hey my name's spelled wrong and it was like okay okay.

Speaker 10 And it's still spelled wrong. And so I'm like, okay, now the DM seems a little fed up.
You know, that's it. So what do we,

Speaker 78 what's really happening here?

Speaker 10 That's what I want to know.

Speaker 30 They ain't right.

Speaker 96 You know, we got your back.

Speaker 57 Let's go.

Speaker 60 14 was a little high, though. It was a little bit low.

Speaker 10 See, this is like

Speaker 6 not that far from where we had them, but

Speaker 10 I'm so close to, like, there was the

Speaker 10 story like when Crosby stills Nash and Young were going to do the reunion.

Speaker 10 And then Neil Young, like the day the concert came, he just never showed up and he left them a note that said, sometimes things that start spontaneously need to end that way.

Speaker 10 And I feel that way about the power rankings where there's been so much fing aggravation for shit that I've been right about 99% of the time that one day Justin's just going to be like, hey, Connor, can I have your power rankings?

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 10 I'm just not going to respond to anyone for three weeks and just completely leave this responsibility behind. I'm so close to it, honestly.

Speaker 72 Don't do it, Connor.

Speaker 95 We need you, buddy.

Speaker 6 We need you. Connor told me he woke up at one in the morning, and I think we're getting the runoff from that at this point.

Speaker 57 Yeah.

Speaker 16 And speaking of like aggravating things in life, yes, to the 7 million people

Speaker 13 that sent this to me,

Speaker 15 yes, I saw it.

Speaker 103 Okay.

Speaker 67 I saw it.

Speaker 61 I saw the boy at the Meadowlands on Sunday.

Speaker 51 Let's play that clip.

Speaker 6 See if I can get your thoughts on the game.

Speaker 116 I hate this team.

Speaker 116 I was born into this and I'm not going to ever... I'm always a Jets fan, but like...

Speaker 116 I just... I hate this team.

Speaker 35 Oh, man.

Speaker 10 Enough life that Kib seems to have with a $300 replica jersey and his dad shit out.

Speaker 6 I mean, or he's a government plant. Like, I mean, there's, he's not even a real...
Like, he's a...

Speaker 10 Feel so bad for him.

Speaker 57 But I will say, Dan. What is wrong with you two?

Speaker 82 By the way, what is wrong with you two?

Speaker 6 I will say something, Dan. Over the last, like, 48 hours, I've seen like five major Jets fans in the media telling people not to send them this and it's like we get it this happens right like

Speaker 6 how many times have i gotten the starbucks cup that's spelled k a r c

Speaker 6 or c

Speaker 24 what are we talking about

Speaker 6 people send like mark mark with a c they sent it to me oh what c a r k i've gotten this like sent to me 790 times

Speaker 6 a month. It's like, I've seen the joke.
It happens. You're out there, but it's like, of course you're going to get the Jets videos, right?

Speaker 57 Yeah. I just want to be like, why are you attacking this kid?

Speaker 78 I don't know. I am.

Speaker 10 Because, like, if this is the,

Speaker 10 may this be the darkest moment in his life, truly. Like, I'm sure his dad is.

Speaker 76 Oh, you're so, you're such a cynical sports reporter, Connor.

Speaker 78 You don't remember what it was like.

Speaker 76 That's, you've done it too long.

Speaker 33 You don't remember. You don't remember.

Speaker 10 It's that's so false. It's so false.

Speaker 79 It is.

Speaker 82 That, that look in his eyes, that boy, that is,

Speaker 76 that's why you're doing what you're doing now. You can,

Speaker 57 that's that love.

Speaker 10 I remember showing up at one of my best friend's house. For he invited me over to watch Notre Dame and Alabama in the national championship game.

Speaker 10 I came, I brought my own Subway sandwich to not impose on them and ate it by myself on his couch. And I watched them get the absolute shit beaten out of them for four hours.

Speaker 10 And I said, I'm really happy that they were in the national championship.

Speaker 75 I didn't stay there and be like, Oh, my life as a Notre Dame fan has been so terrible.

Speaker 57 Oh,

Speaker 57 are you being serious?

Speaker 80 You're talking about Notre Dame football?

Speaker 14 You're comparing that to Jets fandom?

Speaker 10 They have not won a national championship.

Speaker 57 What privilege?

Speaker 50 You want to talk about privilege?

Speaker 82 You want to talk about expensive jerseys? Privilege.

Speaker 78 I have a simple.

Speaker 57 They haven't even been good since he's a bad person.

Speaker 10 A Notre Dame fan since 1988, which I was born after they won their last national championship. I'm an Orioles fan.
To say that I don't know disappointment and pain is bullshit.

Speaker 56 You don't, for you not to see,

Speaker 32 there's something there.

Speaker 40 I'm surprised.

Speaker 36 I'm surprised. I'm a little disappointed.

Speaker 59 Like for you not to see he's in your home state.

Speaker 66 He probably lives and don't get on him if he, if his family does well and he has an expensive jersey.

Speaker 85 He's still a passionate fan.

Speaker 76 He might not even, and by the way, just because he has a jersey doesn't mean he's wealthy.

Speaker 92 That's silly too.

Speaker 45 Like he might just love the team so much that that's the one gift he got for Christmas.

Speaker 57 That's seriously possible too.

Speaker 11 Just as possible as what you're saying.

Speaker 49 And by the way,

Speaker 45 that boy, I feel him in my heart and I know where he's been because I was that boy in the mid-90s during the wreckage of the Kotite era.

Speaker 58 We know.

Speaker 82 And I wish, yeah, but I know.

Speaker 18 You guys are cold-hearted and cynical.

Speaker 6 No, we're not. But we are.

Speaker 57 And you're just like

Speaker 77 all these other vipers.

Speaker 94 All these other vipers

Speaker 36 that if it's about the Jets, let's all make fun of them.

Speaker 57 And you can't even... That is ridiculous.
No, no, no, no, no. That is ridiculous.

Speaker 6 You cannot ignore other franchises and then taken down all the time.

Speaker 63 You can't let a kid vent without dunking on him.

Speaker 21 And I can't stand for that.

Speaker 56 I hope that kid experiences happiness as a Jets fan, just like

Speaker 16 maybe he doesn't get a championship, but he gets something like a winning season.

Speaker 45 It's been a very, very hard run.

Speaker 10 He's eight when they went to back-to-back AFC title games.

Speaker 92 Connor, how old do you think that kid is?

Speaker 67 I don't, I don't.

Speaker 67 15.

Speaker 10 Connor,

Speaker 92 how old do you think he is?

Speaker 11 Do you think he was eight years old in 2010?

Speaker 41 That boy, like my sons, knows nothing but the Jets' misery.

Speaker 77 And not just misery, embarrassment.

Speaker 10 He looks like he's like six feet tall.

Speaker 94 And by the way, that is not a replica jersey.

Speaker 68 That is the lower, that's the $60 jersey.

Speaker 14 I know, because I bought my sons those jerseys as well, hoping that Aaron Rodgers and Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold would pan out.

Speaker 20 He went with Quinnen Williams.

Speaker 36 I got respect for that kid.

Speaker 6 Well, we'll probably find out he's AI in about a week, so enjoy it for now.

Speaker 72 So don't listen to all these jackals that are all around you in this world, like the ones on my podcast.

Speaker 68 There's the boy.

Speaker 14 I was that boy once upon a time.

Speaker 39 And I love what you said at the end.

Speaker 11 You said, I'm bored into this.

Speaker 53 I'm not going to ever, I'm always going to be a Jets fan.

Speaker 16 And I love that. He's not going to quit.

Speaker 27 I never quit.

Speaker 30 You don't quit on something you believe in, even if it breaks your heart.

Speaker 50 And it's going to, it will help you.

Speaker 53 This, this, what's happening to this boy now and all through his life will help him.

Speaker 68 This, this, all this disappointment, this hopelessness, it leads to all these ugly things like jealousy and envy and heartache.

Speaker 49 But I think you'll channel that into something positive.

Speaker 50 You know, when you grow up, maybe as a priest or a policeman or a politician or a podcaster.

Speaker 76 Maybe even a podcaster.

Speaker 67 Maybe even a podcaster.

Speaker 81 So

Speaker 30 there's a lot of ugliness in this world.

Speaker 4 Shut that out and keep the hope alive, young man.

Speaker 10 Dan is like the Sarah McLaughlin for Jets fanboys. He's just like, I'm going to protect you all from the cold in the arms of the angels.
I am.

Speaker 73 If that's my role, if I'm not going to get to enjoy my team, I'm going to protect the young boys out there and the young women that

Speaker 14 just want to have something to watch on Sunday.

Speaker 10 I'm going to do some digging on this and we're going to get the facts. We're going to get the facts.

Speaker 68 Why don't you go dox that kid?

Speaker 20 why don't you ruin him connor

Speaker 29 you monster

Speaker 30 all right blind locks let's do it

Speaker 76 first off let's see let's check in on the standings

Speaker 57 oh go f yourself

Speaker 29 Connor moves into first place at five and two.

Speaker 78 Zuzzer, four and three.

Speaker 76 Justin Graver, three and four.

Speaker 31 Mark Sessler, also three and four.

Speaker 57 And

Speaker 68 checking on YouTube for a graphic of great interest, I would say.

Speaker 30 What was it, Mark? You had a comment there? I did. I missed that.

Speaker 6 I think you heard it.

Speaker 6 This is you and your little Azriel the cat coming up with little gags. I mean, it's just like 45 minutes of gags.

Speaker 6 Last, I had the same record as Justin.

Speaker 57 Azriel the cat.

Speaker 44 All right, those are the standards.

Speaker 6 Even God is is annoyed at this point.

Speaker 76 All right, time to make our locks. This one will be traditional, Connor.

Speaker 30 Traditional locks.

Speaker 36 The rule, of course, is it has to be within five points.

Speaker 60 If you take a favorite, that's five or above, it doubles.

Speaker 57 It doubles.

Speaker 20 This week seems rough.

Speaker 87 All right, I'll go first.

Speaker 45 There's no spread for this particular

Speaker 72 Jets team that is going to work out for them, especially with all the injuries.

Speaker 90 So give me the bangles.

Speaker 87 Give me the bangles, and I hope that boy has something else going on on Sunday.

Speaker 7 I know I'm going to lean into it.

Speaker 36 I'll have to double whatever it is. I'll take it.

Speaker 6 Well, the Jets are going to win.

Speaker 33 I think they could.

Speaker 6 I am looking around this grid. I'm going to go.

Speaker 6 I could get flamed on this one.

Speaker 6 Packers over Steelers.

Speaker 95 You should be good there.

Speaker 6 It's in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Yeah, that one.

Speaker 42 I would guess that one's probably going to be in the one and a half range.

Speaker 105 Maybe even Packard's favored.

Speaker 55 Be close.

Speaker 10 I'm going to lock off See here.

Speaker 57 Ooh, lock off, baby.

Speaker 106 I like it. The best type.

Speaker 10 The reason why, like you said, there is still that deeply maniacal streak in Aaron, as we saw when he was tackled to the ground and

Speaker 57 his teammate.

Speaker 10 And I just think that completing the double header here of beating the Jets and then beating the Packers is

Speaker 10 truly a ride-off into the sunset moment for him. Like, he may retire after week eight if he beats the Packers.

Speaker 57 I think you might be right.

Speaker 4 All right, Justin.

Speaker 104 I am going to lock the San Francisco 49ers against the Houston Texans in what might be our last Mac Jones game of the season.

Speaker 104 I hope not because I love the guy.

Speaker 44 All right. D'Amico Ryans is like,

Speaker 99 I don't fear Mac coming into my building here.

Speaker 82 I think that's a risky one, bud.

Speaker 43 I think it's a risky one, but man, Houston's offense is so bad.

Speaker 57 All right. There you go.

Speaker 48 Those are our locks.

Speaker 8 Now let's make sure we're all in the safety zone on this one.

Speaker 27 All right, Green Bay minus three.

Speaker 32 Houston, minus. Wow, Houston's favored in that game.

Speaker 57 Yeah,

Speaker 44 that was a good pick. That's wild to me.

Speaker 57 Yeah.

Speaker 72 Since he by six, so I got they got to win by 12.

Speaker 35 Okay, I'm okay with that.

Speaker 83 Um,

Speaker 98 interesting. What else? What else we got here?

Speaker 98 Philly by seven and a half.

Speaker 57 Wow.

Speaker 82 cowboys uh broncos by three and a half interesting okay

Speaker 104 i think that's only four spreads out of the 12 games here that would be within our safe zone eight

Speaker 6 and that would have not worked

Speaker 104 yeah eight of them would have made you double up which is that's a crazy number of spreads over five points that's what happens when you have busted up QB1s.

Speaker 98 You know, that's a part of this.

Speaker 81 Okay, good stuff.

Speaker 68 All right.

Speaker 21 Thank you to everybody.

Speaker 36 Make sure you check out the companion piece to this their podcast, which is over on patreon.com slash heed the call.

Speaker 3 It is the draft where we decide who watches what and then talks about what on Sunday night.

Speaker 8 So be there for that.

Speaker 72 And thank you for watching us all week.

Speaker 3 Have a great and safe weekend.

Speaker 1 Until next time, do what you must.

Speaker 57 Heed the call.

Speaker 57 town,

Speaker 57 total time, town, and town.