NFL 2025 Week 11 Preview + TNF Recap

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Speaker 1 All right, boys, how about this for a tease of today's Heed the Call? Week 11 in the NFL, the most consequential week in the history of the NFL, in 2025 at least.

Speaker 5 Democracy's on the table.

Speaker 2 This is the meaning of our lives.

Speaker 1 Everything on the line. Heed the Call starts now.

Speaker 1 Hey,

Speaker 1 welcome to Heed the Call NFL Podcast. I am Dan Hanses.

Speaker 1 joined by my

Speaker 1 sultry co-host, Mark Sessler,

Speaker 1 the great scribe,

Speaker 1 and just like a highly effective talker, Connor Orr.

Speaker 1 And Justin Graver on the ones and twos for the week 11 preview.

Speaker 1 What's up, boys?

Speaker 2 Dan, where are you? You've got like an ornate... If you're on YouTube, you have a beautiful looking fireplace behind you, all sorts of framed photos, elements, furniture.

Speaker 2 This doesn't feel totally like your normal surroundings.

Speaker 1 I'm in New York City. I am in Manhattan.
I'm very proud of my bosom buddy Bob Castrone, who is a staff writer for

Speaker 1 the tonight's show

Speaker 1 starring Jimmy Fallon.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I am visiting Bob while he's here, doing this assignment. He lives in L.A.
still. He's kind of been working the Fallon side for a few months now.
I said, Bob, let me get out there. I'll stay with you.

Speaker 1 We'll have a nice time in New York City. And Bob is living in an apartment that's been sublet to him.
And it's clearly a very classy woman. A woman, I don't know where this woman is, but

Speaker 1 I'm going to treat this place with dignity and respect because

Speaker 1 she's all class all the way. So, yes,

Speaker 1 I was stunned when I walked into this apartment this morning for the first time because I've been in many New York City apartments. I've lived in New York City apartments.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 This one's a little different. It's a little different.
So, yeah, that's where I'm at. I'm very excited to be in New York.
Last night I flew in, and

Speaker 1 I took a cab from JFK to my brother's apartment in Brooklyn, and he took me to a couple different bars. I went to Duff's, which is an iconic heavy metal bar in Williamsburg.

Speaker 1 Actually, if you tag it on Instagram, if you check out my Graham, its actual name is Duff's Alcohol Abuse Center.

Speaker 1 And I did abuse it a little bit. We also went to the Commodore, which is this great dive bar that has an incredible hot breast chicken sandwich that I ingested at about 1.30 a.m.

Speaker 1 And I'm still dealing with the remnants of that in addition to several PBRs and tequila shots. So it's Zuser is getting away.
He got out of LA.

Speaker 1 I told my wife, I said, part of this trip to see Bob is also, I got to get out. I got to just get out for a few days.

Speaker 1 And here I am, but I brought the equipment with me because we got to talk football.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Connor, whenever Dan goes to the tri-state area, I worry slightly that he might not return to the West Coast.

Speaker 5 We've got all the bells and whistles on this week. We just had a hail storm.
The leaves have changed. And so

Speaker 5 we're really putting it out there for Dan. We're trying to suck him in.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I see that. Yeah.
And there is, amongst many details in this beautiful ornate apartment, there's a skylight above me.

Speaker 1 So if you hear the rain coming down, that's a little different than a typical LA broadcast. Also, sirens in the background.
This is, oh, it's so gritty here, Mark.

Speaker 1 So gritty.

Speaker 2 I hope the woman doesn't come home in the middle of our preview. I think she'd be stunned.

Speaker 1 I'm taking a football podcast. Look at home.
All right, let's get into it.

Speaker 1 Because with all due respect to the sports pope, Mike Francesa, who has famously said, season doesn't start till Thanksgiving. No, I think the 2025 NFL season truly starts right here in week 11.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of interesting, fun games, Connor, on the slate that we're going to get to. It starts out a little wonky.

Speaker 1 We're going to hit that at the bottom of the show, Thursday night football with Jets and Patriots.

Speaker 1 But we have several games this week that I think will really set the tone for the home stretch of the regular season.

Speaker 5 Highly consequential

Speaker 5 and a little bit of a recovery from last week. But yeah, this week is one that has ramifications that'll echo throughout the remainder of the season.
And that's what we want, right?

Speaker 5 It's just like, it's a Sunday of meaning from beginning to end. And that's what really gets me going.

Speaker 1 Well said. And without further ado, let's get into it.
And we'll start with one of the great matchups of the year.

Speaker 1 Sunday night football.

Speaker 1 Detroit Lions numbered three in our power rankings at six and three, traveling to Philadelphia. They get the number five Eagles at seven and two.

Speaker 1 And I'll let Dan Campbell set the table here.

Speaker 1 Campbell, who played in the league, he's coached in the league now for many years, talking about the energy and the vibes when you come into Philadelphia as a visitor.

Speaker 6 You know, I just mentioned mentioned this before. You go some places, man, they wave at you like, man, we're so happy you're here to play against us.
This is not one of those places. That's it.

Speaker 6 It's as far from that as you can possibly get. And

Speaker 6 it's just, I mean, I don't know. I love to play in atmospheres like that.
And I just know the type of guys we have. I think they're going to eat it up.
I really do.

Speaker 1 Mark, I know this is. I'm going to wave at you.

Speaker 1 I know Detroit, obviously, if they're at home here, you're feeling you're feeling maybe better they're better suited for this but i i think detroit's also a team that i trust to travel in a big-time spot as well and i think this game is going to be a lot of fun to watch yeah no i i'm with you um there certainly are splits and studies on jared goff playing in the dome versus outdoor um in a nighttime environment, cold environment with fans that aren't waving at you.

Speaker 2 This is a rough place to go and try to ply your trade.

Speaker 2 It's two organizations that are willing to change and willing to create new scenarios during the season.

Speaker 2 I just think that I think back to it was a rough Eagles Packers watch, but Jalen Phillips made such a big difference. And I think this defensive line will pose problems for the Lions to some degree.

Speaker 2 But then you've got Dan Campbell on the other side, like taking over essentially play calling and opening up Jameson Williams.

Speaker 2 And I think that this offense, the way they looked with him calling plays, he might just be sort of a poet and in the center of his self-being.

Speaker 2 And this might be exactly what the Lions needed to maximize who they are. They were a little bit down on offense for a couple of weeks, but if this is what it looks like going forward,

Speaker 2 it is, this is, I don't, I'm done with game of the year, but this is like at the right time. These two teams are clashing, and it is a fascinating watch that we've waited for.

Speaker 2 And I just can't wait to see Dan Campbell versus Siriani, the whole situation in this wild Philadelphia environment.

Speaker 5 I have some thoughts too, but Dan, before I do, there was one team that played the Philadelphia Eagles this season that voted to keep the tush push. Do you know what team that was?

Speaker 1 Oh, it was definitely the Lions. It was 100% the Lions.
It was definitely Detroit. Yes.

Speaker 1 And Dan Campbell, as the face of the Lions,

Speaker 1 I feel like it would be an affront to him to vote to ban it for masculinity reasons alone.

Speaker 5 He turned up the Lions play action game last week, which was stunningly kind of removed under Johnny Morton. And not really removed, but just kind of placed in a backseat.

Speaker 5 And anytime you have someone like Jameer Gibbs just in there as a pass protector, you know that there's something that's not working with that offense.

Speaker 5 And so I think that they're peaking at the right time. And like Mark said, I think that Philly defense is peaking at the right time.

Speaker 5 Vic Fangio made a lot of adjustments coming into last week's game against the Packers.

Speaker 5 Now Quinyon Mitchell is kind kind of ISOing more on good wide receivers, and maybe that's kind of their evolution at the mid-season point. But I can't wait to see what they do with Troy.

Speaker 5 Like, this is going to be

Speaker 5 a slugfest. It's going to be great.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think to that point, like, you know, it was an interesting comment this week from Lions assistant head coach Scotty Montgomery that said, this is the most talented defense we'll see from top to bottom.

Speaker 2 I think their level of talent is truly elite. And I totally agree.
I think that, like, for all the ups and downs of the Eagles' offense and the drama with A.J.

Speaker 2 Brown and Saquon kind of being hot and cold, it has been this defense. And especially like, I mean, Green Bay's defense was awesome last week too, but that Eagles' defense like really shone bright.

Speaker 2 And I think that's a key, key part of this game.

Speaker 5 And we're going to find out whether what it is, right?

Speaker 5 Because I think the one thing that we should all caution about the Eagles' defensive performance against Green Bay while elite was the fact that the Packers are broken offensively right now.

Speaker 5 They can't run their two tight end system. They can't get the running game going.

Speaker 5 And so, and it's, and it's going to be great because the Eagles started taking off defensively around this point last year.

Speaker 5 Vic Fangio said it takes about this long to figure out my pieces, to figure out what I'm going to do.

Speaker 5 And so was that a manner of the Eagles' defense taking off or was this Packers team just that broken offensively last week? And now we'll find out.

Speaker 2 And one thing I thought, like, because that Dan Campbell took this play calling over, I was like, doesn't Nick Siriani, with an offense that's hot and cold, like not just do the same thing to be equally alpha and male and out there?

Speaker 5 If he hasn't done it already, probably not for the best.

Speaker 2 I'm just for show, for show, if for nothing else, just for show.

Speaker 1 I'd like to see it. I'd love to see it and see what happens to the offense because why wouldn't he already? And on that note, A.J.
Brown, more drama this week.

Speaker 1 I wonder if this comes to a head this season, by the way. I'm starting to wonder if

Speaker 1 he starts to create a situation where there could be a fracture in the locker room and they start

Speaker 1 deactivating him or whatever. Like, here is

Speaker 1 Brown this week. I think Justin during a live stream of some kind, talking about his situation.

Speaker 1 Fantasy owners, beware.

Speaker 2 He's on my team. It's my number one wide receiver.

Speaker 7 Hey, but look, everything be good, though.

Speaker 3 Like, you know what I'm saying? Everything be straight. You know what I'm saying? Mental good, kids, good.
You know what I'm saying? Wife good. Everything.

Speaker 3 Where have you been?

Speaker 1 Hey, hey.

Speaker 3 30-yard line.

Speaker 1 If you got me on fantasy, man, get rid of me.

Speaker 1 Is this

Speaker 1 like a thing officially now that these players, they do these Twitch or you know, streams playing video games, and they just say like very honest shit.

Speaker 1 And I think they don't expect it to get aggregated and get out there. And then all of a sudden, you have the head coach answering to something you said while high playing Madden.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like it's a very modern culture.

Speaker 2 How do we know that's going to to get out there, though.

Speaker 1 It doesn't even matter. Modern culture.
I mean, he doesn't seem to care, right? It just

Speaker 1 trade me.

Speaker 1 It seems like he's gone beyond Connor, like, you know, I'm reading on the sideline to disengaged from the operation. I just wonder if there's more to this story before we get to January.

Speaker 5 I've gone back and forth with him more than any other player because A.J. Brown and I have talked about this kind of stuff, right?

Speaker 5 I mean, we talked about his trust issues that developed when he got traded from Tennessee to to Philadelphia.

Speaker 5 And I think that there's probably some remnants of that now where it's like, okay, you're going to come here and be a star.

Speaker 5 And then two years later, it's you're going to come in here and be a blocker. And too bad.

Speaker 5 And I know you wanted to maybe make the Hall of Fame, but that's just not how it's going to work at this point.

Speaker 5 And so I understand the disappointment from a fundamental level, but it's also like you have to see the forest through the trees here.

Speaker 5 If you stayed the course in Philly, if you ran the offense the way that it was supposed to be run and you set up the run game and got eight when the situation dictated, you'd be a legend in Philly forever.

Speaker 5 I don't know if he's on track to be a Hall of Fame player anyway. And so to me, it's like, why don't you just learn how to play in the band at this point? You know?

Speaker 1 Hey, Gravy. Gravy.

Speaker 1 Hey, what's up? Bring him home. Bring him home.
Absolutely. Bring AJ home.

Speaker 1 I'm sure he'd love to go play for AD Amy Adams Strunk.

Speaker 1 AJ, I've missed you so much. Welcome back to the family.

Speaker 2 Come on back to the bungalow.

Speaker 1 I never spoke to Mike Vrabel ever again. He's dead to me, but you, you can live.

Speaker 2 Just bring one set of clothing.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 I don't know what that means. Neither do I.

Speaker 1 Eagles cornerback Jair Alexander has informed the team he is stepping away from football to, quote, focus on getting himself right physically and mentally, Per Jay Glazer.

Speaker 1 Philadelphia acquired the veteran corner from Baltimore before the trade deadline, and he never played for them. So there you go.
Howie Roseman, not perfect. Not

Speaker 1 10 for 10.

Speaker 2 You had that in your holster.

Speaker 1 I don't have any issues. I have no issues with Howie Roseman.
Check my receipts, as the kids say. Very good at his job.
Very good at his job. Incredible at his job, even.

Speaker 1 He's so good at his job that he could have a bad head coach and they could still win Super Bowls. I mean, that is,

Speaker 1 I couldn't give a higher,

Speaker 1 you know, a higher compliment. All right, there you go.
That is the big, big, big game on Sunday night football.

Speaker 1 And let's take a break. And when we get back, we dive into the late window.
Stay right there.

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Speaker 1 Hey, Mark, the way to a woman's heart?

Speaker 1 The stomach.

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Speaker 1 All right, welcome back.

Speaker 1 An incredible

Speaker 1 week 11, highly consequential. And we'll start with the late window here.

Speaker 1 Two total bangers in this late window. And

Speaker 1 you'll have to stay tuned if you're a Patroni. And shout out to all the hedonists that support us on Patreon, this humble, independent podcast.

Speaker 1 We will have our draft of week 11 for the games we watch on Sunday. Mark, I believe you have the first pick this week.

Speaker 1 Do I?

Speaker 2 Well, I'm going to take advantage of that.

Speaker 1 Hello. Okay.
Maybe, maybe not. I guess you'll have to find out on Friday.
Whoever does, though,

Speaker 1 Connor. Oh, the con man at a big spot.
Yeah. Well, you just pulled the rug out from under me.

Speaker 2 I was getting excited there.

Speaker 1 They'll bait and switch there on the sess dog.

Speaker 1 So, yes, Connor will almost certainly take the number two Seattle Seahawks in our power ranking 7-2, traveling to SoFi Stadium to face the number one Los Angeles Rams.

Speaker 1 Also, 7-2, Joe Davis and Greg Olson on the call.

Speaker 1 Interesting.

Speaker 1 And, God,

Speaker 1 how perfect is this, Connor? And Tom Brady, nowhere to be seen. This is really just a dream palette for the Ormeister.

Speaker 5 It is, and it's an Olson game, right? I mean, Greg is steeped in the offense. He's steeped in the theory of the game.
And there is such a richness to this matchup. I mean, where do we even start?

Speaker 5 The Rams came off last week with one of the most stunning offensive performances performances of the season.

Speaker 5 They're basically rewriting the playbook, but this is an excellent, versatile defense that finds a way in the Rams and creating pressure and generating pressure.

Speaker 5 The Seahawks are going to have to come out and run the ball.

Speaker 5 And this is the thing that I brought up a couple of times on this show that no one keeps talking about is they are an effective play action team despite being like the 30th best team in EPA per rush.

Speaker 5 I think it's like 27th or 28th if I'm being totally fair to them.

Speaker 5 But they need a downhill ground control game because I'm telling you, Chris Shula and Sean McVay, who have figured out every single way to run play action on God's Green Earth, are not going to be fooled by this if

Speaker 5 the Seahawks don't come out and punch them in the face. It's an identity altering game.
It's an identity forging game. And I can't wait.
I mean, this is going to be like...

Speaker 5 I need the kids to not be in the house for this. Like, this is how much fun this is going to be, you know?

Speaker 1 Clear the deck.

Speaker 2 It's kind of one of these games, and it's kind of rare in the NFL because usually you can look to one side of the ball on one team and say that's the key.

Speaker 2 But it's everywhere you look in this game because it's Sean McVay versus Mike McDonald.

Speaker 2 It's Chris Schula's under, I think an underrated Chris Schula doesn't get enough name mention for what he's done with that defense versus Clint Kubiak.

Speaker 2 And you've got the factor of Rashid Shaheed being added into the offense for the Seattle Seahawks. Like everywhere you look, there's surprises, galore.
I think if you're the Rams. Now,

Speaker 2 it's different than last year because it was Sam Darnold on the Vikings, not on this team. But the Rams befuddled Sam Darnold in the playoffs.
They unspooled him entirely.

Speaker 2 Like, they know who this player is. So what does that happen here? What happens here?

Speaker 2 Because in the last couple of weeks, the one weakness or maybe the opening, the door opening on how to take care of the Seahawks has been turnovers.

Speaker 2 It didn't matter when you're blowing out the Cardinals a week ago, but it does matter in this game.

Speaker 2 I think the Rams want to use their defensive line, their defense in general, to get up on Seattle and put it on Sam Darnold to win this game. Do I think he can do that?

Speaker 2 Yes, this is a very good quarterback. But I think if you put Seattle's played from, they played with a lead in most of this, most of their games this season, and they're very effective doing that.

Speaker 2 But if you can get up on them and you put Darnold into an oven, like that's a different type of game for the Seahawks.

Speaker 5 I think this is going to be the week of Nick Eamon Warrior, the Seahawks second round draft pick.

Speaker 5 You know, we talked last week about how I didn't really care that the Rams drafted a tight end in the second round and that ended up changing things.

Speaker 5 I did care when the Seahawks drafted Eamon Warrior because Mike McDonald is a big nickel guy.

Speaker 5 He loves having these physical players that can play in the slot, play in the safety, and also act as linebackers.

Speaker 5 I can't think of a better single person at this moment in time to counter the Rams three tight end sets. So I'm dying to see how, like, this guy's been kicking ass.

Speaker 5 I think he was the rookie of the week last year or last week in the NFC. And so I think he's the key to this matchup.
I'm going to have my eyes on him the whole game.

Speaker 1 On the advanced analytics side, of course,

Speaker 1 your mileage may vary on where you stand on PFF, but they had a great kind of setup to this game in their latest preview column that really lays out how good this game is and how evenly matched these teams are and how like every for everything that the Rams have the Seahawks have a counterbalance, and vice versa.

Speaker 1 The Seahawks and Rams are both seven and two

Speaker 1 as they battle for the NFC West.

Speaker 1 They've got the two highest-graded quarterbacks at Matthew Stafford, second, and Sam Darnold, first, and the two highest-graded receivers, Puka and Akua, first, Jackson Smith and Jigba, second.

Speaker 1 On top of that, the teams are first and second in overall team grades: Rams, 93.6, Seahawks, 92.9. It's going to be so great.
These are two teams that are playing.

Speaker 9 Yes. First and second in the HTC power rankings, baby.

Speaker 1 Most importantly, of course. That's the headline, right? And I just, I think when it comes down to it, and I hear you on the Darnold side, could they get Darnold to make some mistakes?

Speaker 1 Seattle hasn't played perfectly clean football on offense at times,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 I don't know if a team can beat Matthew Stafford the way this team is. playing right now around him, how they're protecting him.

Speaker 1 Now, Seattle, again, when you talk about why it's so great, the counterbalance, Seattle has one of the best pass rushes in the league.

Speaker 1 Outside of Denver,

Speaker 1 they are an easy second in the league right now. They know how to get after QBs.

Speaker 1 But even under pressure, Stafford has been excellent this year. There was some crazy.
I was in the airport yesterday and the ESPN was on one of the TVs. And it was kind of a blanket, like

Speaker 1 lower third graphic, but it just stopped me in my tracks. It was like, Matthew Stafford has,

Speaker 1 in the last six games, has been the greatest quarterback of all time. It was something like, what?

Speaker 1 What are you using as data points? But I guess in at least the most basic of all metrics, 20 touchdowns, zero interceptions,

Speaker 1 he picks you apart. And there was a play, I believe it was his last touchdown pass, Connor, last week that I wanted to mention on Sunday and I forgot.
So I'll mention it now.

Speaker 1 I think it was the touchdown pass to the tight end.

Speaker 1 And he did the no-look Stafford thing. He's just finging around, right? He just does, he hits him with a no-look.
And you see the middle linebacker on the replay, because it's a reverse end zone shot.

Speaker 1 You see him whip his head around like, wait a second, where'd that ball go? And it went in the opposite direction, right on the money for a walk-in touchdown.

Speaker 1 I think the game is coming so easily to him. And

Speaker 1 a great point was made by Brady on the telecast that how,

Speaker 1 you know, when you get to this level of your career as a veteran quarterback, it feels like you have all all the answers to the test before the test.

Speaker 1 And watching Matthew Stafford is a joy right now because it's a quarterback who has mastered the sport. And that's why I can't pick against him.
And that's why I'm not going to.

Speaker 1 And I'm going to say it's going to be a great game. But I'm going to say 31-27 Rams.
What do you guys got?

Speaker 3 Connor.

Speaker 5 So I have a weird take on this that I just think it's almost with a lot of these genius offensive and defensive head coaches, it's so thoroughly game planned that I think a lot of times when one side's will is broken and game plan is broken, these good games turn out to be blowouts just because you have an idea of how it's going to go.

Speaker 1 Don't jinx it, Connor.

Speaker 1 We don't want it.

Speaker 5 I hope it doesn't because

Speaker 5 I got a, you know, if I'm starting with this game, I got a potential big dub coming in the Patreon draft. You know how much I love that shit, just taking home gold in that category.
But

Speaker 5 I'm going to go like, I'm going to go like 40 to 20 Seahawks.

Speaker 5 But the reason that I'm saying that is it could be Rams. It could be Seahawks.

Speaker 5 And just the way that we mentioned guys a week ago or a couple minutes ago, the Eagles defense against that Packers offense.

Speaker 5 I think the same thing can be said about the Rams and how comfortable Stafford looked against the 49ers defense. That was just not a matchup for them.
Like they were too banged up.

Speaker 5 They play a lot of light boxes. The Rams came out with 13.
Like it was a perfect storm. And so I don't think they're going to have that luxury against Seattle.
I think one side blows out the other.

Speaker 5 I just don't know which.

Speaker 2 I like that.

Speaker 2 I'm going to go Seattle 2.

Speaker 2 I'm going to go Seattle 31

Speaker 2 to 21. And as a small announcement, I'm also going to, I have thought about this.

Speaker 2 I'm looking to birth a child. I'm going to birth a child or have one birthed and name it 13 personnel.

Speaker 2 Just as a celebration of what's occurring here. And it's just a very exciting time.

Speaker 1 is this uh

Speaker 1 connected at all to jj mccarthy giving himself the alter ego nine like your your kid will just go by 13

Speaker 2 uh i was kind of looking into it because i was like what would you call him

Speaker 2 it would be like 13p would be like another way to call it like if you if you dug into it but 13 personnel would be the official birth name After this whole thing happened last week, I was wondering how long it would take to crawl up your guy's skin.

Speaker 5 Like just the proliferation of like the discussion of three tight end sets. Like, I was like, it did all happen at once.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's much more a Mark thing. I'm fine with it right now, but I know Mark, who was on his radar.

Speaker 5 I was like, I think we're going to get like one more week out of this before it just gets completely, you know, annexed out of the show.

Speaker 1 We're there.

Speaker 1 Last note, Cooper Cup, the former Super Bowl MVP for the Rams. The Rams are apparently planning a tribute video for Cooper Cup.
His response to that was, I didn't die. I'm here.

Speaker 1 Fair enough.

Speaker 1 All right, Mark.

Speaker 1 Let's go on. Let's move on

Speaker 1 to the other great game, another matchup between two top 10 teams in the HTC power rankings. The number nine Kansas City Chiefs,

Speaker 1 five and four. And right now, on the outside, looking in in the AFC playoff picture, traveling to Mile High to face the number eight Broncos, eight and two.
This is the Nance and Romo game.

Speaker 1 Man, our boy Andrew Marchand

Speaker 1 of the Athletic. How about that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that was a column. Or it was from his podcast.

Speaker 1 He kind of ethered.

Speaker 1 What is that? What is that podcast name? Justin, can you give him a shout out?

Speaker 1 Because Andrew's great. And I know his brother's a listener to the show, too.
So the whole Marchand clan is,

Speaker 1 you know, in cool ways.

Speaker 2 We love the family very much.

Speaker 9 Marshand.

Speaker 1 A little too accurate. A little too accurate, Ceci.

Speaker 1 Go on.

Speaker 9 Marshand. Is it Marshand or Marshand?

Speaker 5 Marshand.

Speaker 5 Marshand.

Speaker 9 Marshand. Okay.
Sports Media is the name of the podcast.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I thought it was like everybody loves sports media.
I thought it was that. Anyway, yeah, he basically said, yeah, Romo continues to regress.

Speaker 1 And it's clear, this was an opinion, but

Speaker 1 it's clear that there's no real camaraderie between Romo and Nance.

Speaker 1 And I think there was one real Bunsen Burner blowtorch, Connor, where a reference was made that too often Romo will say something inane, and I'm paraphrasing here, and Nance will kind of deal with it like

Speaker 1 an uncle putting up with a, you know,

Speaker 1 you know, ADHD like nephew that it just is always in his ear, buzzing in his ear. You know what I mean? Like

Speaker 2 that's

Speaker 2 not what you want.

Speaker 2 And he talked about him making weird grunting sounds, which we've referenced.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? anyway so yeah go ahead

Speaker 5 i do wonder that was a weird one i do wonder

Speaker 5 i i i am curious if part of the reason that his magic has gone is because we're in a new offensive era and i think he retired in his wheelhouse and he could predict plays and he could do all that stuff because these are the offenses that he was running right up until he stopped playing.

Speaker 5 And now everything has changed. He's probably lost that predictive ability.
And now you're filling the gaps with just like this very strange kid in the back seat energy.

Speaker 5 And I defended Romo to the very end, but Martian is right. Like it really is grading.

Speaker 1 And he's also on top of it, birded this whole new generation. Like I got after that, the Monday Night Football B team on ESBN where

Speaker 1 stop, stop predicting, stop trying to get things right and saying how, showing how smart you are. Right.

Speaker 1 Just tell me what happened. Explain what happened.
And Romo, I think, became a sensation.

Speaker 2 He was baked on my ears also. Yes.

Speaker 1 And got 20 million a year because of that fantastic rookie season in the booth. And he's been chasing that ghost ever since, as is CBS.
Anyway, so here we go. Nance and Romo, Chiefs, Broncos.

Speaker 1 Listen, I think we are all a little bit annoyed by the Denver Broncos after what happened on Thursday night night football last week, where it was just like a grisly performance by the offense.

Speaker 1 And I think there's a lot of eyes on Bo Nick's, I think, right now, Mark,

Speaker 1 how he performs in this game.

Speaker 1 I think Kansas City, I think this is going to be a very tough, I'm going to say it, this is going to be a very tough game for Denver to win, even at home, because I think the urgency for a battle-tested Chiefs team that I still think is a very good team, knowing that they have used up up most of their wiggle room if they plan to win this division at five and four.

Speaker 1 They almost have to win this game. You know what I mean? Like, this is not a must-win game, but it's pretty close to it, and it's going to feel like a playoff game.

Speaker 1 And that's going to, and Andy Reid and Spaggs, they're going to have that type of mindset, and Mahomes is going to know it.

Speaker 1 So I think Bo Nix is going to have to play at a high level. And that's been something that he hasn't done consistently this year.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's been in a whirlwind.

Speaker 2 I guess we're in a world where it feels like you almost expect some of these prized first-year quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 You go offseason saying like, you know, he and Sean Payton are tied at the hip, and then they have a second-year regression. Like he really looked, he's looked confused.

Speaker 2 And, you know, you can see that to the eye, but then there's all these film studies coming out showing why that's exactly the case. And

Speaker 2 it's been a number of ticks down.

Speaker 2 And that's my concern for them in general, because I think the Broncos are are built like any other team in the AFC West to confront, attack, and take down the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 Now, they're not, no one's actually done that, but this is an eight and two team that's gotten closer record-wise than anyone else at the moment. And can they? I don't know.

Speaker 2 I think it's a huge factor that you don't have Patrick Sartan. It might not be every week, but it certainly is this week.

Speaker 2 And it's like the only way to take down the Chiefs coming off a bye week, because Andy Reid coming off the bye with Patrick Mahomes has been nearly invincible.

Speaker 2 So it's a tough draw for Denver on that front. But you've got to find a way to make Patrick Mahomes extremely uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 And it kind of reminds me of when we'd say that about Tom Brady all the time. It just doesn't happen that often.
And is this the defense that can do it? I think so.

Speaker 1 I think so at home. There isn't another defense in the league that you would pick, right?

Speaker 1 There isn't, but I do think the Patrick Sotan abs.

Speaker 2 No, but the Patrick Sotan absence probably

Speaker 2 can be attacked differently here than it would be in a different situation.

Speaker 2 I like the way the Broncos are built. I find them to be confusing.

Speaker 2 They're a tough watch for what we talked about on offense, but this is the defense that has a chance in Denver, which I think is a huge home advantage, to unspool the Chiefs to some degree.

Speaker 2 I just don't know that I trust it until I see it. I don't trust it until I see it.

Speaker 5 I love, I think the one thing that, and Vance Joseph, I mean, every coach, right, has gotten plenty of credit. We always say, this guy hasn't gotten enough credit.

Speaker 5 I mean, like 10,000 people every day say how awesome they are. So they've gotten plenty of credit.

Speaker 5 But the fact that he's run this defense, the way that he has, and if you actually look at what's happening, there always have five guys up on the line of scrimmage and only four of them ever rush the quarterback, pretty much.

Speaker 5 I mean, now sometimes there are extra rushers and extra blitzes and stuff, but the guy who drops back is different every time. And it's one of those things that you're like, ah, that's simple.

Speaker 5 Like, why wouldn't you have thought of that? But when you have someone like Patrick Sertan and then you lose someone like Patrick

Speaker 5 that mystery of who's going to be back there covering is pervasive in the quarterback's mind and is almost as effective as having an elite number one corner.

Speaker 5 And so, when you have like Riley Moss against Rashi Rice, like that's going to be a big matchup, but maybe it won't be as punitive to Denver because they just mix up that front so well.

Speaker 5 And I think that's just not, you know, it doesn't just eat up bad quarterbacks. It's going to eat up Mahomes too.

Speaker 1 I would like to make an announcement to anyone listening to this podcast that is also in my fantasy football league of record um stop offering me uh trades trying to get rashi rice i will not trade him i stuck and i think everyone that has rice on their fantasy teams will will connect with me on this we waited out the suspension it was a tough wait and now on top of it we have a buy that we had to sit out we are cashing in the rashi rice chips here we're taking it to a chip that's the goal here.

Speaker 1 So no more offers. I will not field any offers on Rashi Rice.

Speaker 1 He has worked in the slot a lot. He's worked on the boundaries more this year.

Speaker 1 So they've changed and sculpted his role as he's evolved, as he's in year three right now.

Speaker 1 Yes, with no

Speaker 1 Sertan. I'm curious how they use him.

Speaker 1 I also want to point out on the Broncos side, J.K. Dobbins has a foot injury.
He might be heading to IR. So whether that makes the Broncos better or worse, you actually, it's up for debate.

Speaker 1 It gives R.J. Harvey a bigger opportunity at

Speaker 1 a more rounded-out role in this offense. I'll just put a bow on it from my side.
I love the Chiefs in this game, and maybe we'll get into this a little bit more when it's time for the Blind Locks.

Speaker 1 I just, I feel like this is a great spot for them. I think they're going to be ready for this game on multiple levels.

Speaker 1 And the Broncos, who have not played nearly good enough at times this year, despite their record, I think this is the rude awakening game for the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 1 And there's going to be a lot of questions around this team come Sunday night.

Speaker 2 This would have been a great spot.

Speaker 2 This is a big game for Sean Payton and the brand of Sean Payton and what he's done with Denver. It would have been a great spot to hear Connor's story.

Speaker 2 I don't know how close we are to the 30,000 subscribers, but apparently.

Speaker 1 30,000 subscribers gets us the dirt. Payton v.
Or

Speaker 1 the 30K Challenge. When the f did you find that picture?

Speaker 1 Smash that subscribe on YouTube. Smash it.
And you could see Connor in a Luigi costume.

Speaker 5 I have to block you guys on Instagram. Jesus.

Speaker 1 What a moment. But keep, yeah.

Speaker 1 I also thought just a little shout out. We can play a little dirty.
Get a second account on YouTube and just bang that subscribe again. Let's just get weird.
Let's break rules. Let's break rules.

Speaker 1 Let's make our own rules and support.

Speaker 1 We love the hedonists. All right.
Next up,

Speaker 1 late window.

Speaker 1 Late window.

Speaker 1 Number 14,

Speaker 1 San Francisco 49ers, 6-4, travel to the desert to face the number 25, Arizona Cardinals.

Speaker 1 Bummer for the cards here, Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. underwent surgery for appendicitis and is out for at least this week and very ominously, possibly longer.

Speaker 1 Now, does that mean he got his appendix taken out? Or like

Speaker 2 what that leads to.

Speaker 1 Speaking of fantasy, I had a

Speaker 1 really good fantasy baseball team, and Corey Seeger, the star shortstop of the Rangers, he got his appendix taken out and missed like the last month or so of the season because they said, you know, the idea of swinging a bat, you know, with this surgery, you're not playing football again if they cut you open.

Speaker 1 I don't know what the surgery was.

Speaker 2 But also, if your team is floating away, we don't put them out out there.

Speaker 1 Right. So Harrison is out of the mix, and

Speaker 1 the Niners are like, thank God, Connor, because we've been dealing all season with our guys out of the mix. This might be the game where Brock Purdy and even Ricky Pearsall show up again.

Speaker 1 So the Niners start to get a little bit more hole potentially.

Speaker 5 I can't wait to see this offense as it was somewhat designed to function, right? Like, and God bless Mac Jones for holding it down this long.

Speaker 5 But this seems like the perfect opportunity for Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers to start enjoying the schedule as the NFL intended, which is to have a couple of relaxation weeks here and just knock out like a 10-15-point win.

Speaker 2 And it's going to happen.

Speaker 2 Barring something completely unforeseen, because if you're the Cardinals without Harrison,

Speaker 2 without what was your starting running back, you're leaning on Amari DiMarcado and essentially Trey McBride through the air to carry you.

Speaker 2 And this is not the Seahawks they're facing, but the wheels fell off a week ago entirely.

Speaker 2 And it kind of felt to me like a turning point for the Cardinals, where these close games they were playing and whatever belief they had themselves, like we're just losing more and more people.

Speaker 2 Your future is cloudy. The quarterback that you signed up to lead your franchise probably won't be there or ever play for you again.
And we found out as much as we love Jacoby Brissette, the person,

Speaker 2 he's not going to win you games on his own. So it feels like a great spot for the Niners, as Connor said, to kind of, let's get right.

Speaker 2 Let's figure out where we are between now and the rest of the season. And it's a big event for Brock Purdy, too.

Speaker 2 You have to kind of come in and match or outshine Mac Jones because we got to the tipping point where it was kind of like, do we have a quarterback situation here?

Speaker 2 Because Mac Jones did such a great job and they don't seem that vastly different from each other. So Brock Purdy needs to come in and play well.

Speaker 1 We also, I mean, Purdy has the advantage of getting paid a butt ton of money. Right.
So that's going to give him him rope to get acclimated.

Speaker 1 And this seems like a pretty good matchup, obviously, even though it's on the road against the Cardinals team that was down 35-0 before they blinked against Seattle last week, although there were a couple of defensive scores there that helped make that as grisly as it was.

Speaker 1 Still feels like a plus matchup for the Niners' offense. And

Speaker 1 Cards DC, Nick Rallis, he was asked if there's a benefit to facing Kyle Shanahan's offense previously. Spoiler alert, no.

Speaker 10 First matchup, sixth matchup since I've been here, you know.

Speaker 1 No matter what,

Speaker 1 it is hard to prepare for.

Speaker 10 I actually just left the meeting with the coaches, kind of going through some things that are difficult. And I said,

Speaker 10 keep watching it.

Speaker 1 Let me know what you guys figure out here.

Speaker 10 Make sure it's simple, you know.

Speaker 1 This guy looks like one of Travis Kelsey's buddies from Cleveland.

Speaker 2 He's got like a skateboard underneath the desk there or something that he's going to roll off on.

Speaker 1 Connor, you are the expert of all things, Coach Carousel and knowing who's coming down the pike. Give me a little scouting report on Rollace.

Speaker 5 I actually, I was hoping you would ask me that. So

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 5 I have no other avenue with which to

Speaker 5 release this little tidbit on

Speaker 5 Rollis.

Speaker 1 What a platform this is for you, Connor. Go ahead.

Speaker 5 So his brother, Mike Rollis, is the WWF wrestler wrestler, Riddick Moss. And so, and

Speaker 1 wow.

Speaker 5 So that was in one of my coach carousel notes, I think, like three or four years ago.

Speaker 5 And at the time that Nick Rawlis was with Jonathan Gannon, and Jonathan Gannon was the defensive coordinator of the Eagles, he was the youngest position coach, I want to say in NFL history.

Speaker 5 He was like the linebackers coach on that team that made it to the Super Bowl but lost. And he was like 25 at that point.
So he is seen as a definite rising star.

Speaker 5 I think he's only, what is he, 30 at this point? Uh, 32. Looks so.
Okay, so I think he's uh, he's definitely got a bright future ahead.

Speaker 5 Probably going to need another stop or two before we see, uh, before we see him in a head coaching chair.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, where else are you getting that?

Speaker 2 No, that's that was,

Speaker 2 I was just, you know, I was, I was in a movie theater just watching film unfurl at that point.

Speaker 1 It was beautiful to listen to that. All right, let's take a break when we get back to quad box.

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Speaker 1 Oh, baby, welcome back. You know what we're all here for.

Speaker 1 You know what time it is. Early slate.

Speaker 1 We help pick the four games that you should be watching. Q the quad box.

Speaker 8 Jim.

Speaker 3 Dope is hella.

Speaker 12 RS is in your duct top now.

Speaker 11 Put on your socks and tune in your your voice.

Speaker 11 This team is DTF, Justin.

Speaker 11 Of course, the main NFL fans

Speaker 2 here.

Speaker 1 Okay, perfect.

Speaker 1 The show's ruined.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you've noticed, and again, if you check it out in YouTube, we've now had to, because this was a bit of a behind the scenes, I'll pull back the curtain a little bit, open up the kimono and expose.

Speaker 1 Justin inadvertently revealed to me that he had been removing certain elements from the quad box

Speaker 1 to put in new elements.

Speaker 1 And it's not on him. It was a miscommunication

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 the visual that accompanies it, the video could only handle so many seconds, right? And I said, no,

Speaker 1 no, Justin. Bad, Justin.

Speaker 2 There is no taking out anything of the quad box.

Speaker 1 And you find out a way. And it was like one of those things where the guy's like, yeah, but I was like, no, but nothing.

Speaker 1 Find a way.

Speaker 1 The quad box must take over the entire program. And sure enough, there's a new video component to the quad box now to take on the extra tonnage.

Speaker 1 This is this is like high-level shit going on right now.

Speaker 1 Good job, Justin.

Speaker 9 Thanks. Yeah.
You guys like those additional screens at the front now? That clip is very extendable. So we'll be able to make

Speaker 9 pull that out on because

Speaker 1 well done, Justin. The goal here, yes, the goal here is for this eventually to be the only thing that you watch on the preview.
All right.

Speaker 1 Let's see. Let's see.
Let's see. Let's see.
Let's see.

Speaker 1 Mark, get us going with the quad box. And remember,

Speaker 1 as Connor learned the hard way last week, pick the wrong game, you can get a violation, and that's a permanent stain on your record.

Speaker 2 Yes, well, I can't pick the wrong game if I'm going first.

Speaker 2 It's easy for me. I am going our number 11 Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the number seven Buffalo Bills.
It feels like an especially important time for Buffalo, obviously.

Speaker 2 There is just this feeling that Josh Allen and the whole operations centers around the experience of Josh Allen. I just get the sense, and I'll more ask it to you guys, am I wrong about this?

Speaker 2 Like, we get that he's frustrated. That's not the question, but like, is he...

Speaker 2 Is he like from a detailed angle frustrated with this offense specifically? The fact that you don't have an absolute money wide receiver to lean on.

Speaker 2 The running game is good with James Cook, but I just see a player that feels a little separated from the experience compared to other years. I do.
I think, like, the Bills are.

Speaker 1 I know you're hitting this point again. You hit it on Monday.
You think he's detaching emotionally a little bit from the Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 2 I think the Bills, because here's what I'd say about these two different teams.

Speaker 2 Maybe they beat Tampa Bay, but when I watch the Bucs win or lose, lose,

Speaker 2 like they're oozing identity to me. And it starts with their quarterback and that offense, and even with the players missing, just the whole Bucs experience.

Speaker 2 It's like I could paint a picture of the Bucks knowing exactly what I paint. The Bills right now to me feel a little bland, a little searching.

Speaker 2 It's like their entire season is built around a regular season win over the Chiefs. And what else are you? And then you have a massive letdown.

Speaker 2 I think it's a huge moment for them to beat a team that is another type of playoff team at home and do it in a way that reminds me and others who the Buffalo Bills are this season.

Speaker 1 See, I still think there's way too much hand-wringing from the Sess Dog and anybody else about the Bills. I really think they're going to be okay.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 we didn't have any concerns about them after they beat the Chiefs, right, in week nine. And the Dolphins game was a bad game.
Shit happens and you die sometimes. But like,

Speaker 1 like I'm really going to be freaking out about the Josh Allen-led Bills offense.

Speaker 1 Some teams have figured it out by early November, and good for them. Good for you.
Like, the Seattle Seahawks, the LA Rams, the Colts to a certain extent, like, great, bully to you.

Speaker 1 Like, you figured out your team and your identity. The Bills haven't, but here's the thing.
They still got time. They have time.
The GM tried to add some bodies at the deadline,

Speaker 1 and it didn't work out, and he was dejected about it. And you could say, well, that's going to get him.
But I trust this team to figure it out. And I think they're going to be okay.

Speaker 1 And I think they're going to bounce back in a big way in this game. And if we're going to talk about like, oh, you know, paint a portrait and like, you know, the identity, I know who they are.

Speaker 2 I described it. It's like we don't need it.

Speaker 1 Let's move that a little bit. We're talking about what are the bills on offense.
How about the Bucs on offense? They are 29th in EPA since week seven.

Speaker 1 You want to talk about a team that's searching for it a little bit. I have way more, Connor, I have way more concerns about the Bucks and their offense right now than the Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 5 So do you remember a couple weeks ago? It was like a month ago, and we were talking about the Buccaneers and 49ers game.

Speaker 5 And Baker Mayfield had that run where he like scampered down the field and he broke like eight tackles. You know what I'm talking about? You remember that game?

Speaker 1 Yes. Yes, of course.
Beautiful play.

Speaker 5 Guess how many? There was three games that have taken place since then. Guess how many rushes or scrambles Baker Mayfield has attempted since that moment?

Speaker 1 I'm going to say it's going to be low. I'm going to say four.

Speaker 5 Not a single one.

Speaker 1 He's hurt. He's got to be, right? Mm.

Speaker 5 Sorry to be Tony Romo, but like,

Speaker 1 but like,

Speaker 5 or Brian Windhorse. Now, why would they do that?

Speaker 1 But he's protecting himself potentially. Yeah, that could play.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 is Baker Mayfield hurt? Can he no longer extend?

Speaker 5 So perfect example, right?

Speaker 5 And I'm not comping the two players but when russell wilson slowed athletically to the point that he couldn't evade defenders in the backfield his entire game collapsed and we saw that we see it now on a weekly basis with the giants um that's why jameis wincent starting on sunday and i'm not saying that baker is there but if he momentarily loses the ability to evade in the backfield he's the kind of quarterback whose game can collapse a little bit.

Speaker 5 And so is that part of the reason that the Bucs are struggling on offense? I don't know.

Speaker 2 But well, also, I would, not to hit this over and over, but outside of Ibuka, like you're missing what you could consider their top two veteran wide receivers and their starting running back.

Speaker 2 They may get, it sounds like Bucky Irvin may play. I don't know if we're sure about that right now.

Speaker 2 Yes, him. He's important.
But like, it's their key figures around Baker Mayfield are also not at his disposal right now.

Speaker 1 Yeah, now that's been a part of it. And I, you know, I mentioned that last week.
I think Evans is a huge missing piece for this offense. Chris Godwin, it's been a little weird.

Speaker 1 Like, obviously, they're slow playing his return. I don't know if it's a little mysterious about

Speaker 1 where he's at physically right now.

Speaker 1 Igbookba, as Gronk would say,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 he had been banged down.

Speaker 1 He had a hamstring, and his play, even when he was on the field, wasn't as high a level in terms of production, but he bounced back against the Patriots.

Speaker 1 So, you know, I expect him to have another big game. But, yeah, another one.
I think this,

Speaker 1 just like the Chiefs, I like the Bills here.

Speaker 1 I like them getting healthy here.

Speaker 1 But I will be watching because Sese's brought it up now twice. And I even, again, I watched a little presser with Alan yesterday, and I was trying to look for what See sees.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, okay, I could see it. He seems a little weary right now.
And maybe that's just week 11 in the NFL. And

Speaker 1 there's some frustration.

Speaker 1 It's a hard, it's a hard job, especially when you're the Bills. We've talked about it, we talked about this since the summer.
You're the Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 1 You know that your season is a failure if you don't get out of the AFC.

Speaker 1 And now all of a sudden, you're like, shit, I can't even just coast to the playoffs because I got these damn Patriots that all of a sudden won't stop losing.

Speaker 1 And they, I think they, like, like Kansas City, they understand Wiggle Room is gone. We need to turn it on.
I expect them in a big way to to take care of business in this game. All right.

Speaker 1 Next up in the quad box.

Speaker 1 You know, I'm going to make it hard on Connor again. As a penalty, he gets the fourth quad box pick.

Speaker 5 So my thought was like the year that the Seahawks and the Legion of Boom won the Super Bowl, they essentially like held on every play and dared the NFL to call holding on every play.

Speaker 5 I may dare Justin to quad box Marlowe every single week just to see if he's got the stones to keep it up. So good.
Put me in last place.

Speaker 1 Let's see what happens. I kind kind of like that.
I dare Justin to quad box violate me.

Speaker 1 What do you think? Sounds like we're in the Hollywood dungeon. QBB.

Speaker 1 What? Get the latex out.

Speaker 9 Like, are there repercussions that I need to worry about?

Speaker 1 Like, I'm going to quad box violate the shit out of you because it's great for the show. So.

Speaker 1 Well, I would say, okay, let me step in here. John Peacemaker step in here.

Speaker 1 If you lose Quad Box integrity, then you are the one who has committed the violation. Correct.

Speaker 1 So, you need to stay, yeah, you will be brutally violated yourself. So,

Speaker 1 I'll go next, and I'll uh

Speaker 1 I love this game. I love this game.

Speaker 1 How would Obama do it, Mark? Try, can you do an Obama? I know you could do a Trump.

Speaker 2 No, I don't do Obama very well.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 I love this game. All right, anyway, the number 24 Cincinnati Bengals travel to the Steel City to face the number 16 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 1 Trent Green, Kevin Harlan on the call.

Speaker 1 Joe Burrow could be back Thanksgiving night. We want to talk about drama.
Thanksgiving night. Bengals three and six coming off

Speaker 1 a bye and then two horrendous losses. And like I said earlier in the week, they should be five and four and tied for first place right now, but they're not.

Speaker 1 If your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle. You know, it just is what it is and it's not what it's not.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 But they are hanging in every game. One subplot, one narrative that I would love to see heartily dismissed,

Speaker 1 or people that are out here saying, well, look at Joe Flacco's been doing. It shows that Joe Burrow's actually not that good.
It's like, what? No. No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 Joe Flacco, just give Joe Flacco credit and give Zach Taylor and that offensive staff credit for keeping this offense functioning with a strong pocket passer

Speaker 1 that,

Speaker 1 you know, not, he's not Matt Stafford, but has been in the league so long that he was able to go in, soak in the offense, and thrive. I think they'll continue to do that.

Speaker 1 And the Steelers, I think, the reason I love this game, Connor, because Cincinnati is interesting.

Speaker 1 Another team that's used up their rope and they know they have one of the best players in football chomping at the bit to get back in the lineup in a few weeks.

Speaker 1 They just got to not crater and not be three and eight by Thanksgiving, right? They need this game so much. And then you have the Pittsburgh Steelers who fell on their ass on Sunday.

Speaker 1 And afterwards, do we have the Tomlin sound on Rodgers?

Speaker 1 Mike Tomlin was not happy with his quarterback or anyone on the offense. And this is what he had to say.
How would you assess Aaron's performance tonight?

Speaker 1 How would you?

Speaker 1 Next. So there you go, Connor.
So, and then Rogers echoed that. He said, I played like shit.
Let's see how the Steelers bounce back knowing that the Ravens are hot on their tail now.

Speaker 5 So I have a few thoughts. And you guys will have to help me out.
There was a player a couple of years ago that I remember that person saying he was going to be back insanely early from an injury.

Speaker 5 And I think that everybody surmised eventually that that was just the player almost dangling a carrot in front of a struggling team, and that there wasn't really, it wasn't really a reality.

Speaker 5 And I do wonder, I mean, Joe Burrow's not a big media guy, but to come out and basically be involved in like a Sunday splash report where it's like he could be back as soon as Thanksgiving, to me, that's like a heads up, motherfuckers, like start playing defense kind of thing.

Speaker 5 And it's like, and then if you can at least get back to 500, it's like, well, I'm still not quite healthy, but at least you guys aren't totally blowing the season.

Speaker 5 But yeah, this is another test for the Bengals defense. It's what it's all going to come down to.

Speaker 5 The good news is that they give up the most explosive plays in the NFL, but the Pittsburgh Steelers do not produce explosive plays.

Speaker 5 So it's going to be a bit like watching like Rock'em Sock'em robots, but like the broken ones where the heads don't pop up. And so it's just going to be very banal.

Speaker 5 But that might play into Cincinnati's strengths. As long as they can tackle, as long as they can bring down Pittsburgh ball carriers, I think they should be able to edge them out in this one.

Speaker 2 I think also it's, you know, there has to be a sense of immediate urgency, which is sort of a redundant phrase on the part of the Steelers because you've got Baltimore on your tail as well.

Speaker 2 And, you know, the Bengals put it to them. And Flacco put it to him the last time they played.

Speaker 2 I mean, you've got to find a way, whatever it takes, whether it's Jalen Ramsey moving him around, remove Jamar Chase from this game to some degree.

Speaker 2 Because when they confronted them last time, Joe Flacco put the Steelers in Dealey Plaza. It did not go well.

Speaker 2 Bengals defense aside. So

Speaker 2 Pittsburgh is like,

Speaker 2 I don't, I don't, I am totally with you, Dan, that it's absurd that people would make Flacco Burrow comparisons.

Speaker 2 Flacco's just a good veteran quarterback that, like, we're talking about some on the show, he's seen everything, and he can step right into a weapons-rich offense and be complimentary to what Burrow would produce.

Speaker 2 Um, the defense is a complete liability, but Flacco fried them last time.

Speaker 1 Yes, he did. And that, and I think Pittsburgh's pass rush,

Speaker 1 which gave Daniel Jones fits a couple weeks ago, and

Speaker 1 that's going to be what you need, right?

Speaker 1 You need to get home and make Flacco uncomfortable. And I'm curious on the other side, you know, the pass blocking broke down in front of Rodgers on

Speaker 1 Sunday night against the Chargers, and you saw how moribund that offense was as a result. Does Cincinnati have the ability to make Rodgers uncomfortable and skittish? He was skittish in the pocket.

Speaker 1 That was one takeaway from Sunday Night Football was like, okay, that's like, and I saw that with the Jets last year at times.

Speaker 1 He got, look at the sunlight coming in here on the east side of Manhattan. Beautiful.

Speaker 2 This woman has done a great job with this living space.

Speaker 1 He made Rodgers uncomfortable, and it looked like the Rodgers, who would sometimes get overwhelmed by better opponents last year, and he looked like an old quarterback in that game.

Speaker 1 Can Cincinnati do that? I don't know. We'll see.
We shall see. All right.

Speaker 1 Justin, what's up in the quad box next?

Speaker 9 Man, I don't know which game to pick

Speaker 2 because there's three.

Speaker 2 The order.

Speaker 1 So there's three great ones.

Speaker 9 So, Connor, you're going to be left with two good choices here. I'm going to go with the Burkhart-Brady game, which is the number 15 Chicago Bears sitting at 6-3.

Speaker 9 Who saw that coming coming into the season? At the number 18, Minnesota Vikings sitting at four and five. Nines got to get some stuff moving on offense here for this Vikings team.

Speaker 9 Big divisional matchup.

Speaker 9 I want to see how for real the Bears are and if Brian Flores' defense can make Caleb Williams hold the ball in the pocket and get to him and not allow him to evade pressure back there.

Speaker 1 I watched the

Speaker 1 Vikings Ravens game this morning. Just wanted to see nine.

Speaker 1 You know, started well, ended well.

Speaker 1 Not the last possession, but the penultimate one.

Speaker 1 The middle, I was, it did strike me, especially the first Jefferson interception, that, you know, that's part of his learning progression: is like, yes, I have the best wide receiver in the league, but I still have to be smart about how I deploy him.

Speaker 1 The second interception, he actually had Jefferson, it was in one-on-one,

Speaker 1 and you trust Jefferson to make a play in that situation, but he got his feet tangled. So I don't kill him as much.
But

Speaker 1 if you look at the numbers, the targets, and the efficiency,

Speaker 1 JJ to JJ, it wasn't great in week 10. So keep an eye on that.

Speaker 2 It's sort of,

Speaker 2 we've got a bit of a McVay-Shanahan north here with Kevin O'Connell versus Ben Johnson. I think it's a pretty wild matchup for that reason.

Speaker 2 And like in both cases, you could say that we should see and expect growth and evolution on offense each week because Ben Johnson obviously is just adding more to the recipe with each new game with Caleb Williams.

Speaker 2 And Kevin O'Connell deserves the same amount of time to do that with

Speaker 2 nine, with J.J. McCarthy.
It's like, I get the

Speaker 2 critique around McCarthy's very up and down play, but this is someone that's barely been in the NFL.

Speaker 2 And so I kind of can't wait to see the two young quarterbacks, the two coaches go against each other. And if you're J.J.

Speaker 2 McCarthy, the one thing that is probably a bit of an uptick here is that the Bears are not getting to quarterbacks with much pressure this season.

Speaker 5 I want to see Brian Flores against Ben Johnson.

Speaker 5 And, you know, he did some things last year against Caleb Williams that were pretty sinister in terms of just altering his looks after the snap and really challenging Caleb because Caleb's the kind of guy that if it's not there right away, he's just going to start drifting.

Speaker 5 He's going to start trying to create in the pocket. And that's where some of his brilliant plays happen, but that's where a lot of his worst plays happen, too.
And I think Flores knows that.

Speaker 5 I think he wants to take that chance. But how good can Ben Johnson be at protecting his quarterback from his own worst impulses? And that's, I think, going to be the story of that game.

Speaker 1 And let's give Caleb Williams a little bit of credit because he's going against, yes, the high-blitzing attack of Flores. He's been great overall against the Blitz this season.

Speaker 1 He's got eight touchdowns and zero interceptions when blitzed.

Speaker 1 And his turnover worthy play rate when blitzed is also near the bottom of the league per PFF.

Speaker 1 So that part of his game has shown a lot of growth in year two, but it's going to be put to the test in this matchup. Very interesting.
Very interesting.

Speaker 1 Yeah, McCarthy, one thing also is

Speaker 1 he's a little north of 50% completion percentage, 53.7. So, you know, and you're coming off that game where there was, what, the eight false starts at home.
Keep an eye on that

Speaker 1 now as well. And if they've cleaned up the operation

Speaker 1 there.

Speaker 9 One last note on this game. This came from a listener to our HTC Gmail account, Heed the Call Football Show at gmail.com.
Just a little note on Tom Brady being at this game.

Speaker 9 Like, this isn't necessarily the biggest Fox game of the week, so it's a little interesting that they sent Brady here.

Speaker 9 But Brady has a card store or a collectible card merchandise type of store in Minnesota that he apparently wants to go promote a little bit as part of his duties. So just kind of funny.

Speaker 2 He's conducting to Fox, where he broadcasts based on a sports card show.

Speaker 1 It's so incredible.

Speaker 5 Like, he wasn't, he didn't fucking call Patriots Bucks.

Speaker 1 He didn't fucking call Patriots.

Speaker 9 Wasn't that on CBS, though?

Speaker 5 But how do you not get that game for? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Send him in the booth anyway. Yeah, I don't know.
How do you, how do you not get like, how do you not buy that out of the

Speaker 2 unusual assignment compared to the game?

Speaker 1 I think he's a guy that,

Speaker 1 through

Speaker 1 football greatness,

Speaker 1 is allowed to play by his own rules. And I think that's a very dangerous thing.
And

Speaker 1 you have a mutant dog roaming through his backyard as a result. And that's just the beginning.
I mean, that's just the beginning.

Speaker 2 Can I ask a dumb question? Like, I like,

Speaker 2 like we all have, I've gone to

Speaker 2 memorabilia sports card shops, but typically it's like, you know, it's an older guy that owns the space at that point. And like the rent's paid for, and he's making probably a very little amount.

Speaker 2 What kind of business is this that Tom Brady owns? He owns a sports card shop?

Speaker 1 It feels like a low list.

Speaker 1 There are some blanket generalizations of that industry just now, Mark.

Speaker 1 I agree, but I'm saying in general, it's not like you walk in and it's like, well, we're looking at a multi-million dollar business.

Speaker 1 I mean, it is.

Speaker 1 It's run, like the one that's in my town is run by a bunch of guys in their 20s and 30s that they've given their life to this industry, and you could kind of see it, how they carry themselves. Sure.

Speaker 1 And it's also one of the most highly fortified palaces in the South Bay of Los Angeles because

Speaker 1 it has so much valuable, you know, memorabilia. I mean, it's a highly.

Speaker 2 It has an online element to it, I imagine. I'm just saying, in general, when you walk into the, they're dusty, and it's like, it's one, it's like a solo shop or something.
It's not that.

Speaker 2 It's got that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're picturing like the comic book guy from The Simpsons, I think. Like, yeah,

Speaker 1 this is probably a place that has, there's a lot of money involved, I guess. It's not.

Speaker 2 Well, that's why I asked you.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You gotcha.

Speaker 1 Did you? I don't know. All right.
Close out the quad box, Connor. Good luck.
That's all we can say.

Speaker 5 Well, because here's the bullshit thing. Justin's saying that there's plenty of good games.
There's one good game, and then there's games that we should be imminently more interested in. And so do I.

Speaker 5 I said there were two.

Speaker 9 I didn't say there were a bunch, but yeah. Continue.

Speaker 1 Connor, this is a big decision, it sounds like.

Speaker 5 I believe you said countless good games. But it's

Speaker 9 I said you'll have options. I said there are three and I'm picking one, which leaves me.

Speaker 1 Connor's swimming in it a little bit.

Speaker 1 Don't let him in your head, Connor.

Speaker 5 No, because here's the thing, right? The obvious pickle is the obvious pick is the number one, the number 10 Chargers at the number 21 Jaguars.

Speaker 5 But like even CBS doesn't agree that this is a good game.

Speaker 5 Spiro Dides and Adam Marcheletta are calling a game between two winning teams, which means that's how bad and unattractive this matchup is.

Speaker 5 I want to see the Packers get off their asses and play the Giants. And I want to see Mike Kafka interim coach a game because he's trying to win this job.
And I want to see Jameis Winston.

Speaker 5 So all you guys. You violate me all you want.
That's the game that I'm picking.

Speaker 2 I'm totally with you, actually. I think that's

Speaker 1 juicy.

Speaker 1 So the number 13 Packers, 5-3, and 1 at the number 27 Giants.

Speaker 9 Yes, that was one of the two that I had my eye on as two good games. So there you go.

Speaker 1 Okay, there you go. You can't believe it.
I'm going to take a list on it, Justin.

Speaker 9 Who's not putting Jameis Winston on their TV this weekend? Also,

Speaker 5 Jameis Winston being called Drew Brees is back. Like that guy was so bad the first time around that he just disappeared from, they tried him in the studio.

Speaker 5 He just like disappeared from public consciousness. So like there's a lot to see in this game.
It's going to be wall-to-wall entertainment.

Speaker 1 It's a bit of, yeah, from the booth, it's a redemption story. To Connor's point, they tabbed him to be the

Speaker 1 analyst of Notre Dame football on NBC, which is a big gig. And after one year, he was so bad at it, they like kicked him into the studio.
And like Connor said, he kind of disappeared.

Speaker 1 So I'm a little surprised.

Speaker 1 I guess he is taking another shot at this.

Speaker 1 And he does, I ostensibly replaces Mark Sanchez, which Fox quietly announced that they had parted ways with the sanchise after his unfortunate incident in Indianapolis a month or so ago.

Speaker 1 I think this is a good game,

Speaker 1 not so much because of the Giants thing,

Speaker 1 because because the Giants are not very interesting to me. But I do, Winston in for Russell Wilson makes sense at this stage.

Speaker 1 And the Packers, how they bounce back

Speaker 1 after Monday night makes sense to me. But there's a lot of upset,

Speaker 1 a lot of reason for upset on this game. And I'm going to give you three reasons.
Okay. One, it is the Packers not playing.
at a high level right now on a short week going on the road to the Giants.

Speaker 1 Okay, there's one. Number two,

Speaker 1 the Basacea bump.

Speaker 1 The New York Giants have an interim coach in Mike Kafka, and the idea is here traditionally, you see teams kind of even a little dead cat bounce to these bad teams when they replace the coach in the, not always, but in the first game after a coaching change.

Speaker 1 And then finally, finally, number three, you have the Basacea bump. Here's the Jameis jump.
You get Winston in this lineup. He's always going to kill you in Landmark.

Speaker 1 And you saw that firsthand as a Browns fan last year, but he's going to be slinging it around the yard. And sometimes that ends in a good way on a certain Sunday.

Speaker 1 I like the Giants in an upset here and people in Green Bay going nuts 24-20 G-Men.

Speaker 2 Wow, that would be utter chaos for the Packers if that unfolds as you described.

Speaker 2 I think it's a, if I'm Green Bay, it kind of reminds me of the way I feel about the Bills a little bit is who are you? What are you? How do you get back to what you want to be?

Speaker 2 The offense has floated away. I understand that you lost Tucker Kraft, which I think was an absolute huge loss for this offense.
You've got to figure out how to work around that.

Speaker 2 You still have Luke Musgrave. This feels to me because the one thing that the Giants have not solved, no matter who the head coach is, is you can run on this team.

Speaker 2 And I think Josh Jacobs, you just give him the ball and let him go absolutely nuts against this defense. And that's that's your recipe.

Speaker 2 But I think it's a very interesting game for what you both pointed out. Like, this is a team under immense pressure.
And when you get Winston in there, there's just a freedom.

Speaker 2 It's like we don't, it's a DJAF for the Giants. Like, the season's basically over to some degree.

Speaker 2 Your starting quarterback's out. Your head coach has been fired.
Let Winston just go do what he does in these situations.

Speaker 1 Yolo, baby. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Bingo. Yeah.

Speaker 1 By the way, how much, Connor, do you think the Green Bay offensive line has contributed to their attack being kind of stagnant this year?

Speaker 1 That's definitely been a disappointing factor.

Speaker 1 They are not a great pass-blocking unit or a great running blocking unit. And now you lose Jenkins to a possible season-ending leg injury.
That's not going to make it better, most likely.

Speaker 1 The Giants, even though they've disappointed defensively

Speaker 1 profoundly even, are built to take advantage of that.

Speaker 1 Another reason why the Packers, who should win, and I'm sure the desert has them as a favorite in this, but there's a lot against them in this game as well.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I agree. I mean, the offensive line thing, if you go back through Matt LaFleur's entire kind of history, it's interesting.
Like without a dominant run game, he really struggles.

Speaker 5 And I guess you could say that about almost any offensive coordinator, offensive play calling head coach to some degree. But to move on from directly from Derrick Henry

Speaker 5 to in Tennessee to the Packers, But even before that, he was the offensive coordinator of the Todd Gurley Rams team. And so I think that there was

Speaker 5 a lot of there there.

Speaker 9 His Titans teams also had Deion Lewis. This was pre-Henry breakout.

Speaker 9 He gave Lewis for more than half the season more carries than Derrick Henry and coordinated the 27th highest scoring offense in Tennessee for one year.

Speaker 9 And that was enough to go get a head coaching job, which obviously was the right call, but just crazy.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's take a break.
And when we get back, we welcome Baldy back to the show.

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Speaker 14 What's good, y'all? It's Vaughn Miller, Super Bowl MVP, SAG Master, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets real talk.

Speaker 14 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 14 Welcome to Free Range with Von Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts. New episodes every Wednesday.
Listen and follow Free Range with me, Von Miller, wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 1 All right, welcome back. And we're joined now by Odyssey NFL Insider Brian Baldinger, host of the Best Football Show podcast.

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Speaker 1 nationwide is on your side baldy here we are we've been talking about it on the show like this week has a lot of big matchups that i think set the stage for how this regular season will uh unfold and uh the monday night football game maybe not that but the number 22 cowboys at the number 28 raiders i am curious where you stand on the cowboys um after they make the big trade obviously um to add quinnon williams uh do you think they have a run in them or are there just too many missing pieces here?

Speaker 3 Well, I don't really understand what they're doing. I mean, they had a lot of season to fix the defensive line.

Speaker 3 They knew it was a weakness, and they're trying to fix their defensive line during the season, which is just bizarre to me. I mean, you bring in,

Speaker 3 you know, I mean, whether it's Quinn or Clark or Jadevian, I mean, they're trying to fix their defensive line and they knew it wasn't good when they weren't going to sign Micah Parsons.

Speaker 3 And so it's just a little wild, but their offense has not played well the last two weeks. Arizona took them apart.
And that was the strength of this team.

Speaker 3 You know, if they have a run in that, it's got to be some great run because they're not going to catch the teams out west or the teams in the north if they just sort of flounder like they are.

Speaker 3 I don't believe that they have a run in. It's not a knock on Brian or, you know, anybody really, or Dak.
I mean, it's just, I don't think they have enough right now to do.

Speaker 2 It's certainly a good matchup for quinnen williams against this raiders offensive line like when you watch the raiders and they feel like they're a little bit of a vehicle floating away from us um what can they salvage between now and january to come out of this with an experience that says like the early season optimism there's something still there to it or is it a lost cause

Speaker 3 well you're talking about the raiders now right yeah you know if well i mean it would start it would help if they actually um executed basic protections like like they couldn't do against denver um you know

Speaker 3 it's it's inexcusable honestly in week 10.

Speaker 3 uh backup left guard got a you know got a guy in an a gap not sure if he's taking that guy or if he's blacking out uh you know to watch uh as the gentee not sure uh what he's supposed to do on a protection it's just it looks a little bizarre to me uh geo smith is on one leg you know out there the second half of that game trying to you know find plays and they couldn't you know

Speaker 3 they're going against the team that you leads to Lagan Sachs by a mile, and they couldn't get basic protections down. And I thought that was probably

Speaker 5 a big reason why they struggled.

Speaker 3 I mean, look, they got the ball to Brock Bowers one time.

Speaker 3 I just don't, like, Geno Smith came at me online about doing certain things. It's not against Geno, but I'm like,

Speaker 3 you know, I don't, I didn't know Geno's plays and the reads, but why wouldn't you throw the ball to Brock Bowers?

Speaker 3 Why wouldn't you design your entire offense, especially if losing Jacoby Myers that week, why Brock Bowers would be targeted three times in a game and he's healthy is just beyond me.

Speaker 3 They just do fundamentally fit and he's bad right now.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I thought I totally agree with that because Bowers was unstoppable the previous week, had three touchdowns, and then he gets three targets.

Speaker 3 The thing about Brock, and it's

Speaker 3 the same thing in Georgia, like he's always open and he's always good after the catch. And they treat him like they didn't look at it.
It's just,

Speaker 1 I don't know, they don't.

Speaker 1 I mean, what if he balls out in prime time and then he gets interviewed by Lisa Salters or whatever after the game?

Speaker 1 And, you know, he had his famous line, Baldy, where he's like, you know, they wrote me off, but I ain't right back.

Speaker 1 What if he has some type of Baldy-related barb if he balls out and throws four tutties here? Are you a little worried about that in a big primetime spot?

Speaker 3 Gino, no, I told Gino at the end of that game, Barb, traded barbs back and forth. And we believe the I gave it back to him, chapter and verse.

Speaker 3 So I didn't hold back because I don't get a lot of flack from players. But, you know, I was critical.
But at the end of it, he goes, I said this.

Speaker 3 I said, you know, I hope in your next game, which is this game Monday night, I hope that all I'm doing is showing you a bowling breakdown, like how efficient and

Speaker 3 accurate you are. And then he just writes back, I appreciate you bowling.
But, you know, like.

Speaker 3 I couldn't wish more success for him or anybody else. Honestly, I would see good football being late.
We all do.

Speaker 3 Bad quarterback play and bad offense makes us turn the TV off and, you know, turn on some other channel.

Speaker 1 Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs. Nationwide is on your side.
Where are you going this weekend, Baldi?

Speaker 3 I'm hit for one of those games, you know, that you're talking about. And then the Buffalo, him and Buffalo both coming off disappointing losses.
Somebody's going to lose two in a row.

Speaker 3 Somebody's going to go to seven and three and stay, you know, right where they want to be. So

Speaker 3 it really decides a lot because both teams defensively were awful last week. I mean, Tampa gave up a touchdown of 72 yards,

Speaker 3 55 and 69 yards.

Speaker 3 And they gave up a big pass play to Matt Collins

Speaker 3 for 59 yards. And then

Speaker 3 we saw

Speaker 3 Devon Achant. run through and around the Buffalo defense all day long.

Speaker 3 And so somebody has to fix their their defense real quick, or it's going to show up if they get to the postseason or they get to the postseason.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we certainly unpacked the Bills side of things earlier today, but I'd wonder where you stand on kind of the Buffalo experience at the moment, specifically around Josh Allen and the offense.

Speaker 2 Are they, is it, am I crazy to feel like something just feels like the energy is a little down, that Josh Allen's a little, um, a little morose in the interviews lately? Do you make anything of that?

Speaker 2 Or do we, or is that just?

Speaker 1 Jesse's hot on this one, Baldi.

Speaker 2 No, I just, I, I sense something a little off with the whole.

Speaker 3 Is that what just happens when you join the married life? Is that just part of it?

Speaker 1 There you go.

Speaker 2 We don't know. I'm joking.

Speaker 1 I'm going to jump.

Speaker 3 No, no, I honestly, I don't think you're wrong. Like, I feel the same thing.
He doesn't look like he doesn't have that big, luminous smile that he normally has. And he looked frustrated.

Speaker 3 They didn't run the the ball the way they normally run it.

Speaker 3 You know, that's not a good defense in Miami, but they played a lot better than Buffalo's offensive line, James Cook, did. And I felt like Josh Allen seemed a little helpless for the first time.

Speaker 3 And he has dominated that team. You know, his record against Miami is like outrageous what he's done to them.
But I do feel like it's a little bit off. And I'm curious.

Speaker 3 Like, I usually see him down the field before a game. I'm curious to see what his...

Speaker 3 Like, I remember last year to this point, like, they were getting ready to play the Eagles and it was raining It was in Philly and You know it was like it was ugly.

Speaker 3 It was an ugly day and I've never seen him. He was ugly.
He's got this raincoat on he's got this hoodie on and I go Josh you know you might have to run it every play today.

Speaker 3 He goes that's all right with me ball as long as you're ready. I'm good with that.
I'm like, all right, cool. So but it was just it didn't like you could tell the weather wasn't going to bother.

Speaker 3 And it turned out to be a great game one kind of thing over time. But regardless, like that's usually the Josh that you get.
And I looked at it. It didn't seem right right at all last week.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I wonder about that. And the Bucs are dealing with their own issues, obviously, as well.
And their offense has been in a bit of a slump.

Speaker 1 You get a feeling that whatever team, to your point, loses this game is going to be at a bit of a crossroads in their season. So that's a good one to be at, Baldy.

Speaker 3 I think so. I mean, look, Bucky Irving is practicing.
Todd Walls didn't give us any indicator this week if he's going to go or not go. It was just a walkthrough.
But he does make a difference.

Speaker 3 Chris Godwin makes a difference. And I will say this about Moewin.
You know, when when you have Christian Gonzalez, you've got to shut down corner. And he went largely against Ibuka in that game.

Speaker 3 And I mean, he got a couple of catches against Zone, and he did get one catch against him. But he largely took their number one.
You know, I feel like Tez Johnson caught a couple of touchdown passes.

Speaker 3 They largely took Abuka out of the game. There's not many teams that have a corner that can match up like that.

Speaker 1 Last two questions, real quick. Best team in football right now as we enter week 11.

Speaker 3 The Rams look awfully good to me.

Speaker 3 Really good.

Speaker 3 What they did with 49ers, I mean, it was great going to Richmond. You know, I mean, it's 41-0.
You haven't even sat down in your seat yet. Like, they couldn't stop them.

Speaker 3 And I thought, you know, they went to their tight end look and their tight ends and their tight end packages are different than every other team in the sleep. I don't know.

Speaker 3 The Rams looked pretty complete to me.

Speaker 3 They lost it overtime to the Eagles and they lost,

Speaker 3 by three early in the year.

Speaker 1 Best steakhouse in America.

Speaker 3 No, no, no.

Speaker 3 You know, they got this place in Fort Lauderdale, Daniels. Like, it's pretty good.
Like,

Speaker 3 I don't know. Like, every steak they have is good.
And sometimes you have to order two steaks.

Speaker 3 And they've got a new sports bar attached to them. So if I'm going to eat a steak tonight, I can walk to the store.
I can watch the Patriots and the Jets.

Speaker 3 And we know it's going to be a super close game.

Speaker 3 That was so well coped. So, you know, that could be a stop tonight.

Speaker 1 Don't do that, Baldy.

Speaker 1 Thank you very much, Baldy. Have a great time and a great weekend.
Enjoy every steak.

Speaker 1 That was Odyssey NFL Insider Brian Baldinger, host of the best football show podcast. Insider calls are brought to you by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.
Nationwide is on your

Speaker 1 side.

Speaker 1 All right. There he goes, Brian Baldinger.
And now there are some games left on the slate. We call them the other ones.
90 seconds on the clock. Let's hit it.
Starting with the number 20 Panthers 5-5.

Speaker 1 At the number 19, Falcons, 3-6. Bonetti.
There he is. Our boy Bonetti on the call with Brady Quinn.
All right.

Speaker 1 This is a real important game,

Speaker 1 Mark, for the Falcons. At 3-6, you kind of got to have it right here.

Speaker 1 I like teams that got to have it, but I don't like the Falcons. So you tell me, what do you like in this one?

Speaker 2 Well, I think they're 3-6, and they should be 6-3.

Speaker 2 I think your head coach is probably fighting for his job, so there's a lot of urgency to get out of the schneid here if you want to make the playoffs.

Speaker 2 I think the good thing is that you're playing a Panthers team that is playing around their starting quarterback.

Speaker 2 I think Bryce Young is devolving, and this is a good pass rush the Falcons have, and maybe it's a chance to

Speaker 2 a Panthers team that's impossible to figure out. Are they going to be the good team, the bad team? It's the same with the Falcons, unpredictable.

Speaker 5 I'm waiting to see if the Falcons can stop an inside run. I mean, they just haven't been able to.
They've been creative, I think, at figuring out ways to get to the quarterback and to create pressure.

Speaker 5 But if we get another Rico Dowdle up the middle game here, I think it's ball game for the Falcons because they have not shown toughness up the middle on this defense.

Speaker 1 And here's the most frustrating thing, I would think, for Carolina and Dave Canales is that you have Rico Dowdle out of nowhere playing at an all-pro level,

Speaker 1 which ostensibly should help your young quarterback attack downfield as defenses creep up to try to stop your running back who's killing everybody.

Speaker 1 And yet one thing that Bryce Young did great in the backstretch of last season, which is attack downfield, he's doing it

Speaker 1 not at all now. Everything is checked down, Charlie.

Speaker 1 And if Bryce Young doesn't change that in these last eight weeks, like we're right back where we were last year,

Speaker 1 he's not going to keep this job. They'll find somebody who can take advantage of having a great running game like that.

Speaker 1 All all right up next the number 17 texans four and five at the number 32 titans uh you know you kind of figured connor you're going to get cj stroud back in this game after missing a game with the concussion but he still has some uh after effects so it looks like davis mills again uh will be at the controls of houston's offense i'm not ready to call this a mac jones situation but uh in a in a brock purdy situation but what if davis mills cooks again in this game i mean he had an unbelievable fourth quarter against the Jaguars, and he is limited.

Speaker 5 I mean, we've seen the totality of the Davis Mills sample size, so we know what he offers. But what if he gets this team and very likely will get this team to two straight wins in a row?

Speaker 5 They were in a delicate place a couple weeks ago. I don't know.
What could happen in Houston?

Speaker 2 I was going to ask Justin,

Speaker 2 where are we with Jeffrey Simmons? Is he going to play in this game?

Speaker 9 Good question. He didn't practice Wednesday dealing with a hamstring injury.
He tweeted, though, over the bye week, I can't wait to get back on the field next week.

Speaker 9 So, like, based on that, you'd think he's going to come back. Maybe they were just being cautious on Wednesday, but the fact he didn't practice makes me hesitant.

Speaker 1 I think Will Anderson and Daniil Hunter are going to kill your boy, Cam Ward. Oh, yeah.
In this game, Justin. They have 96 pressures between the two of them.

Speaker 1 I mean, when you got two guys that have 100 pressures by week 11, D'Amico Ryan's, what a gift. You don't have to blitz.
You don't have to do anything. You just

Speaker 1 let those dogs hunt. And

Speaker 1 Cam is going to be up against it yet again. We're going to get to, I got a little cam thing.
It's going to thrill Justin when we get to Mark's team.

Speaker 1 All right, next in the other ones, the Washington Commanders, who have seen their season fall apart. Now, number 26 in the power rankings, the 3-7, travel to Miami.
They got the number 23 Dolphins.

Speaker 1 Also, 3-7.

Speaker 1 Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma go from having the President of the United States in their broadcast booth to this. And it's in Madrid to top it off, Mark.

Speaker 2 So they were essentially thrown out of the country. Apparently, the president wasn't in love with the interview.

Speaker 2 I mean, it's. I feel bad for the other part of the world watching this because this is a stinker.
They've had some pretty decent international matchups.

Speaker 2 Washington may be the second or third worst defense in the league right now. And here's one thing I think about the Dolphins.

Speaker 2 No matter what happens to Mike McDaniel, they are playing for him still.

Speaker 2 And to watch Devon A-Chan run the way he did last week and Jalen Waddle these guys, I think it's a big spot for Miami to keep rolling.

Speaker 5 I was actually talking to Cliff Kingsbury from Madrid this morning, and we were joking about the humble brag. Yeah.

Speaker 5 We were joking about the international games and his experience in the international games. And he said, yeah, when I was a coach of the Cardinals, played in Mexico City.

Speaker 5 And Fred Warner was of Mexican descent. And we're playing the 49ers.
And he ran out of the tunnel with the Mexican flag.

Speaker 5 And then everybody erupted and started booing us mercilessly for the next three hours. And he's like, so I knew at that moment we were like totally a host.

Speaker 5 And so I said, I was like, do you have a player of Spanish descent on your roster? And he's like, no, I need to make one up because it's the only way to win these games.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 I want to give a little shout out to Devon Hen and all the

Speaker 1 it's uh it's been obviously a tough year in Miami and many reasons for many reasons.

Speaker 1 And I think Tua could be playing for his job in these last few weeks, but HN's been a stud, and he's such an underrated player. He's got nearly 800 rushing yards.

Speaker 1 He's second in the league in yards per carry, second in runs of 10 or more yards, and even fifth in missed tackles forced. I mean, just a really shifty, great running back.
All right.

Speaker 1 The number 10 Chargers, 7-3 at the number 21 Jaguars,

Speaker 1 5-4. Connor, you might as well take this one because you successfully booted it from the quad box.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 5 The Jaguars' offense looks broken. They're coming off a heartbreaking game against the Texans, and they have to beat a team that game plans in a complete way, unlike any other team in the NFL.

Speaker 5 And what Jim Harbaugh is doing is nothing short of miraculous.

Speaker 5 Like, every week, just loses another key player, but but you still have guys like Derwin James who can come in and shut down Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 5 Because I think what Lawrence struggles with is when he has answers before the snap, he's okay. He's a pre-snap reader, but Derwin James just makes that impossible.

Speaker 5 And I think that that makes it a bad matchup for him. And if they sink to five and five, look out.

Speaker 2 Is there a world where if Liam Cohen, I just sense that there's, it's not like it's an overt rift, but a disappointment in Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 2 Like, I don't see it as a complete rock-solid guarantee that Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars are together for a long time.

Speaker 1 Maybe. I'll find that.
I mean, you got to go a little harder than that, Sese.

Speaker 1 Next year.

Speaker 2 Weird things happen in the NFL. I just don't know if that's his quarterback.
But yes, it's probably hard to move him or anything.

Speaker 1 I would guess he's tied to him for at least another year. That would be my guess.
Like how Kyler, this felt like an important year for Kyler. And now Kyler's probably gone.
What do you got, Connor?

Speaker 5 Six seconds left.

Speaker 5 There are a lot of teams with two first-round draft picks next year, and none of them are going to, maybe some of them aren't going to want to wait for the quarterback position in 2027.

Speaker 5 We have Sean McVay needing to replace Matt Stafford. He's got two first-round picks next year.
There you go.

Speaker 1 I know. It's like,

Speaker 1 you know, like the old saying, you know, it's about the game, not the name. With Trevor Lawrence, it's like, it's not about the main, it's the game.

Speaker 1 And I still, as someone who just missed on Lawrence in 21 and got Zach Wilson instead, giving him a chance with the Jets, I'd be like, okay, if it doesn't cost me a massive haul. But it won't work.

Speaker 1 It wouldn't work.

Speaker 1 I have to add one thing, by the way. Connor, you didn't get the quad box violation and you can't do it later, Justin.

Speaker 1 Or maybe you can. I don't know.
It's your decision, but don't.

Speaker 2 Where did Justin obtain this

Speaker 2 level of power in this particular part of the show?

Speaker 1 I just want to throw this out there. Per Aaron Schatz,

Speaker 1 Sunday's game between the Chargers and Jaguars is the most important game so far this season for playoff odds with 71% combined leverage. Jaguars, 50% playoffs with win, 19% with loss.

Speaker 1 Chargers, 91 playoffs, 91% playoffs with win, 58%

Speaker 1 with loss. Oh, Connie.
Oh, Connie, baby.

Speaker 5 Numbers, numbers, percentages. Hillary Clinton's going to win the election.

Speaker 1 None of this means anything. Shut up.
Let's move on. Yep.
Let's go. Come on.
Don't care.

Speaker 1 Don't care.

Speaker 5 Don't care. Don't care.

Speaker 1 Don't care.

Speaker 1 Aaron Schatz is going to crack your knees, dude, with a lead pipe. Bring it up.

Speaker 1 Finally, the number 12 Ravens, 4-5. At the number 31, Browns, 2-7.
Catalan, Charles Davison, Jason McCordy with this body bag game.

Speaker 1 Ceci, Ravens seem well set up here, but maybe get one of those weird Browns defensive. See, this is what I miss.

Speaker 2 I've been harping on this but this would have been a perfect spot uh for one of those cleveland browns thursday night games where they play awesome and the stadium's going nuts and it's like oh being a browns fan is kind of cool in some ways but instead they just stuck them in all these early windows and they'll probably get stumped i have never seen the i mean i just through the years magnetically have tons of browns fans and press in my um twitter feed and like i've never seen the fan base um because there was like they were divided over Deshaun Watson for many years like and they're post that I've never seen them this down wanting a clean house that

Speaker 2 the idea of Dylan Gabriel is depressing there was a clip of him running by a bunch of like pop warner players and he looked no different than them and I'm not ripping on him for his size but like he's he just doesn't look or feel like an NFL player and I think if this were on Thursday night it would add to all that it would add to all that fury and like I'm sorry like I don't care what anyone else says like can I just see Shador Sanders before we go into the offseason and make a big decision at the position?

Speaker 2 Wake up here.

Speaker 1 What are we, like, what are we doing?

Speaker 1 Don't you think that there's probably, I've been pounding this drum a little bit, a little bit more to this story that they might not like what they've seen from him both on the field or maybe off the field.

Speaker 2 Yes. You know?

Speaker 1 Yes. Or

Speaker 2 he's clearly not ready.

Speaker 2 Or ownership is running this whole thing. I don't know.

Speaker 1 This is a weird, this is a weird stat. Maybe the weirdest stat of the season, by the way, because I think we all like Baltimore to keep winning here and maybe find themselves in a first-place tie

Speaker 1 come Sunday night. But per PFF, Derrick Henry has forced just 10 missed tackles this year.

Speaker 1 Baltimore lowest in the league in that category. How is that?

Speaker 1 Is that just like

Speaker 1 an anomaly? Is Derrick Henry maybe

Speaker 1 not quite the same this year? I know statistically he hasn't been quite the same, but there's been a lot of reasons for that with Lamar missing so many games. Just 10 missed tackles.

Speaker 1 Interesting.

Speaker 5 Well, if you had Cooper Rush for how many of those games who had no threat to run, and so if you're running zone read, everyone just goes to the running back, you know?

Speaker 1 I mean, that's maybe it's yeah, there's maybe there's a way to explain it where it makes sense. But that that really surprised me, even with Cooper Rush prominently involved.

Speaker 1 All right, one little quick note.

Speaker 2 Bernie Kozar has been in the hospital this week with a very serious

Speaker 2 operation type situation.

Speaker 2 And so I'm just wishing him well. I think he's on the mend.
Bernie Pokemon. That's my dude.

Speaker 1 That was one of the great dudes of 80s NFL football.

Speaker 1 Get well soon. By the way, one last thing on quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 This is going to piss Graver off, but he'll just cut it from the show. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Remember earlier in the week. Earlier in the week, we were trying to throw out some

Speaker 1 trades to Mark. I said, hey, Mark, how about Cam Ward in a conditional seventh for what was it,

Speaker 1 a third and a sixth? And you said, no. Yeah.

Speaker 2 With authority.

Speaker 1 And Justin was pretty fired up about that. This is a graphic I saw over on the subreddit, the NFL subreddit.

Speaker 1 The first five starts for Dylan Gabriel, who was mistaken for a Pop Warner football player last weekend. And the first five starts for number one overall pick Cam Ward.

Speaker 1 And if you look at all of this data, I'm not going to go through it all, but check it out on YouTube if you care to. Basically identical.
So Cam Ward equal Dylan Gabriel.

Speaker 1 So I might as well throw this out to you,

Speaker 1 Mark. Dylan Gabriel, flip him to Tennessee for Ward.
Yes or no?

Speaker 2 Absolutely not.

Speaker 1 Absolutely not.

Speaker 5 You're insane. Not identical, Dylan Gabriel.

Speaker 2 I don't want to get mired in the Cam Ward experience because it's first rounder and then you're back. And that's like, you could bench Dylan Gabriel and move forward.
That's all.

Speaker 1 That's a fair, that's a fair point by Sessler. You take on added baggage when you have a number one overall pick in your building.

Speaker 1 How say you, Graver?

Speaker 9 Well, there's a reason he was the number one overall pick. And I said this a month ago or more at some point.
Maybe it was after Callahan was fired.

Speaker 9 I don't remember when I said this, but I said all the stats that Cam Ward has under Callahan, you got to throw out the window. I mean, this guy's a quarterback killer.

Speaker 9 Everyone that played quarterback for him in Tennessee looked worse than they did in their previous season or previous stops, and Cam Ward is no different. So this season doesn't matter.

Speaker 9 The infrastructure is terrible. Kevin Stefanski is a thousand times the coach that Brian Callahan was.

Speaker 9 And if Stefanski gets fired for some dumb reason, I would put him at the top of my wish list for the Titans next season.

Speaker 1 Got to do it. Connor?

Speaker 5 I just like.

Speaker 5 There's a possibility that he sucks, Justin. Just, let's just not let go of that.

Speaker 1 He's not there yet.

Speaker 1 Listen, I've been through it a million times as a fan. It takes time

Speaker 1 sometimes. I just want to say that.

Speaker 9 It's possibility that everyone sucks, but when you have the tools that Cam Ward has and you give up on him in a season and a half or whatever, in five years, he's going to be Baker Mayfield or he's going to be what Daniel Jones is doing this year or Sam Darnold.

Speaker 9 Like, that's going to, like, he has enough.

Speaker 1 tools, drive

Speaker 9 and intelligence to eventually figure it out.

Speaker 2 This is no different than when I saw Phantom Menace in 1999 and spent four years trying to convince myself that it was a quality film.

Speaker 1 I absolutely see what you're saying there, Justin, but Mark is not interested in any type of transaction. No trade.

Speaker 9 I don't care what Mark's interested in.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Without further ado, let's head to the blind locks. Let's check in on the standings where we're at as we reach the back half.

Speaker 1 Connor Orr keeps winning. He's and three.

Speaker 1 Zuzzer gets off the schneid, gets a big dub. He is in sole possession of second place at 5-5.
Gravy got a W, so he moves to 4-6. And there's Mark Sessler,

Speaker 1 also 4-6, and on a slide, a Browns-esque slide of his own.

Speaker 2 I can't defend that.

Speaker 2 You're absolutely right. It's an embarrassment.

Speaker 9 I want to draw the YouTube audience's attention to the image in this week's graphic, which you'll know changes every week.

Speaker 9 This one's meant to represent the idea that, like, you could slip and fall and slide down the standings at any moment.

Speaker 9 And for the audio audience, it's like a rock climbers set of those clips, belays, carabiners. Carabiners, yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, well done.

Speaker 5 Thanks.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do it. Let's make the fix.
Let's go.

Speaker 1 All right, I'm going to go. Again, we don't know what the spreads are.

Speaker 1 If it's over, if it's five points or over, and you pick a favorite, you got to cover double, whatever that number is. So be careful.
I got to put my money where my mouth is, though.

Speaker 1 I really like the two Titans of the AFC, not the Tennessee Titans,

Speaker 1 coming off

Speaker 1 bad losses.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 do I want to pick the Bills

Speaker 1 or do I want to pick the Broncos? I'm going to to go with the Bills. They're at home.

Speaker 1 I think they'll be underneath the threshold for the double-up favorite points. And I kind of want to smash this

Speaker 1 Sessler Josh Allen narrative that he's peddling. So

Speaker 1 listen, there's a lot on the line because you're going to see a very sad and detached Josh Allen if they lose at home to Tampa. But I don't think it happens.
I'll take the Bills.

Speaker 2 Pedaling.

Speaker 1 I'll go. I'll go.

Speaker 2 I really try to avoid this where, like, if I, if the spread is too big and got to double up the score, um, I don't care. I'm going niners over Cardinals.

Speaker 2 I don't know. I could see that being a big spread, but I don't care.
Do not care. Don't care.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's going to be close. I think it's going to be right on the right on there.
But I think you'll be okay, actually. I'm going to say it's going to be four and a half.

Speaker 1 That's where i'll go with it but let's see how about you connie we got to come in under five you said anything that once it hits five it doubles once it hits five it doubles okay um

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 5 this is dicey

Speaker 5 but i want uh i want the chargers even though it's a cross-country game uh 10 a.m body clock game uh i'll take them over the jaguars

Speaker 1 I like that. I feel like the Jaguars might be deadass.

Speaker 5 I think so, too.

Speaker 5 But But I think I might be able to sneak it in spread-wise, you know?

Speaker 1 I bet so. Yes.
On the road, I'm going to say that's going to be right there. You've been pretty good about this, Connor, if I'm not mistaken.
Kind of just coming under that five-point spread.

Speaker 1 That could be another four and a half. It really could.

Speaker 5 Could be five, though.

Speaker 1 All right, Justin.

Speaker 9 I am

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 saying. I really do.

Speaker 9 Can I lock this team with any level of conviction? The Atlanta Falcons.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 I just feel like they.

Speaker 9 I don't know. Yeah, let's do it.
Give me the Falcons.

Speaker 2 That's an adventure.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Putting your faith in the Falcons, man.

Speaker 9 At home.

Speaker 1 That's gutsy.

Speaker 9 They got to stop the run. They got to obviously be a lot better in this matchup than they were the last time these two teams played, but I think they will.

Speaker 1 All right, buddy. Good luck.
Good luck. Get you out of the cellar with a win potentially.
All right, let's check out the spreads.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 All right. The Chargers by three, so you're safe there.

Speaker 1 Mark, you had, what was it?

Speaker 2 Niners.

Speaker 1 Oh, Buffalo is five and a half.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 2 Banged. Delicious.

Speaker 1 How the how

Speaker 9 five and a half?

Speaker 9 When I made the graphic, I'm looking at the spreads right now. It's actually moved to minus six.

Speaker 1 What's happening? What am I missing?

Speaker 1 Did you win by 11? Was Baker Bayfield kidnapped?

Speaker 1 All right. Well, listen, I really do like the Bills a lot.
Do I think they're going to win by 11? I don't know about that, but

Speaker 1 I'll be super, super testy when they win 31-21, put it that way.

Speaker 9 You could have gone with the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know, Justin. I could have.

Speaker 1 Could have, would have, should have. And yet, I did not.
Mark, what did you take again?

Speaker 2 I had niners over the Cardinals.

Speaker 1 Minus three. Okay.
Shit, I can't believe that. I'm like legitimately stunned that the Bucs are not getting any respect.
Huh? I guess it was a tough

Speaker 1 loss to the Patriots last week. People are spooked.

Speaker 1 Or

Speaker 1 the way the desert actually looks, that just means a lot of money is on the bills. So a lot of people are locked in step with where I'm at, that they're in a bounce back situation.

Speaker 1 So let's see what happens. Fun.
All right. Now we're going to take a break.
And when we get back, this is a nice little bonus if you guys are interested.

Speaker 1 Really, like either if you might want to see a happy, jovial old Zeuser with a couple Tito's sodas with orange slice in them at a tavern in Manhattan.

Speaker 1 uh after a shocking upset win by the jets you're going to get that if you like the old like the miserable jet fan if you want annoyed Dan after like another pitiful loss, also with a bunch of Titos in my system, you're going to get that.

Speaker 1 Take a break and then the boys from the studio will handle Sunday night football and I'll be at a bar somewhere in Manhattan after having watched the game. All right, stay right there.

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Speaker 1 Thanks, Mark. I appreciate that compliment.
You're welcome.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 2 We are back. from our break.
Now,

Speaker 2 a couple things here, Justin. Our dear friend Connor is on a very important assignment, so he had to take a phone call.
You and I are here to cover what we just witnessed:

Speaker 2 the New England Patriots rising. They just continue to rise.
A 27-14 victory over the Jets.

Speaker 2 Not surprising, but what is surprising, I think, is some of their younger players, Trayvion Henderson, scoring three touchdowns tonight and really over the course of five days, scoring five touchdowns and becoming an integral core part of this offense and really changing the way you feel about this team and the continued play of Drake May.

Speaker 2 You and I watched it together.

Speaker 1 Your thoughts.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I mean, Trayvion Henderson breaking out for this team. It's not like they were struggling on offense or even struggling to run the ball, but it just adds another explosive dynamic element.

Speaker 9 Last week, the two really long touchdowns that, you know, just completely can blow a game open.

Speaker 9 This week, it's more in the control and the pace of the offense, shows off the receiving skills and the rushing skills to get in the end zone three times.

Speaker 9 I don't want to call any injury a blessing of any kind, but maybe Ramondre Stevenson needing to sit for a couple of weeks is kind of a blessing in disguise for this Patriots team to give the rookie a shot.

Speaker 9 You know, I was a Titans. I'm a Titans fan.
We had Mike Vrabel there for six years.

Speaker 9 I'm very familiar with how he likes to deploy rookies, you know, with the exception of a Will Campbell type of player.

Speaker 9 It can take Vrabel a few weeks to like trust that the rookie is going to know their assignment and going to do all the things in pass protection that they need to do.

Speaker 9 It's like it's not just about getting the ball in their hands, right? And at this point in the season, 11 weeks in, feels like he trusts Trayvion Henderson now.

Speaker 9 I think this can really continue to add just another explosive element to New England's offense.

Speaker 2 I totally agree. And I think

Speaker 2 you would know this as well as anyone having watched Vrabel march up and down the Titans sidelines for years. That like we're seeing this week after week,

Speaker 2 he is the quintessential players coach. Like he is, and and they talked about the end of this game, he's just in everyone's ears.

Speaker 2 And I think it's such an important connection for like a Drake May, who I thought tonight it was, it like I think the Patriots have been contained for some football fans.

Speaker 2 Because, if you're unless you're watching every game on Sunday, you're hearing about it and you feel it. But tonight, it's an island game, and you got this like incredible improv

Speaker 2 throw to Stefan Diggs, who had 100-plus yards tonight. Another great game from him.

Speaker 2 And there's almost like a symphonic elegance and beauty to his game and a calmness and it's just kind of wild to watch this all happening um it's i i don't know what's going to happen with this team but it was the perfect kind of confluence of coach quarterback

Speaker 2 young running back, young players, and a bunch of guys that like failed elsewhere coming into New England.

Speaker 2 And it's like we've seen this before, and it's a little probably disturbing to many football fans who've been around for a long time, but here we are again.

Speaker 9 And Drake May is just, as long as he's not playing against your favorite team, he is so fun to watch because there's so many moments where it feels like, I don't know, it feels like he's in the pocket and the ball doesn't come out right away.

Speaker 9 And the pressure starts to come and move him off his spot. And if you're like rooting for the defense, you're like, all right, here we go.

Speaker 9 They're going to force him into a throwaway or a bad throw or something. And then he like rolls out of the pocket for a second or two.

Speaker 9 And suddenly he's firing a ball to, I don't know, a wide open receiver over the middle middle of the field, or somebody's making, he's dropping a dime down the sideline.

Speaker 9 Like, it's just these plays where it feels like the defense is about to win. And, you know, watch it on the broadcast where you're only seeing like the quarterback in the pocket.

Speaker 9 And then the camera pans as he throws the ball. And it's like, oh no, it's another magical Drake May play because he just continues to make them over and over again.

Speaker 9 And like, it's exciting football for a guy 23 years old in his second season.

Speaker 9 Man, the future is so bright. And that, like, that kind of sucks for the rest of the NFL and the AFC AFC that, like, the Patriots are going to be this team again.

Speaker 9 But with Vrabel, like, Vrabel's coached, you know, one seed, a one-seed Titans team. He coached the team to the AFC Championship.

Speaker 9 When the talent is there and when the quarterback's playing at a high level, I don't think there's any ceiling on what this team can do.

Speaker 2 I agree. And it's like you're getting the best Josh McDaniels offense and Christian Gonzalez on defense.
It's kind of like they don't feel like the old Patriots. That's all I'd say.

Speaker 2 You have to kind of like hit a cut and then restart because it's not that old Patriots theme. It's not just the same old thing.
And so, of course, there is the Jets side of it.

Speaker 2 And our dear friend, our host, Dan Hansis, he's out on the East Coast. He watched this game at a tavern.
And you know what? I think it's special because we don't get a chance to watch our teams out.

Speaker 2 in luscious taverns of the East very often. And it's a special night.
Dan told me that before the game, he went hardcore vegan and sober. So I know this will be a lucid experience for the listener.

Speaker 2 Dan, you're out there on the East Coast. How did this? Well, just give me your take on what's going on out there.

Speaker 13 Mark, Justin,

Speaker 13 salutations.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 We saw your Instagram post. You look handsome.
You look great. The hair is looking very good.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 13 I have to say

Speaker 13 when they went ahead in the first quarter, there was a little bit of a magic in the air in the West Village

Speaker 13 where we were having a few Guinness.

Speaker 13 Me, Kevin Danger, Hansis,

Speaker 13 my bosom buddy, Bob Castrone,

Speaker 13 the co-best men at my wedding.

Speaker 13 Then reality slowly set in.

Speaker 13 And then by midway through, I would say the third quarter, I had shifted more to, well, Trayvion Henderson's on my fantasy team.

Speaker 13 You know what I mean? It's like one of those things. So at the end of the day, we got a couple touchdowns.
It was mostly competitive. And a 27-14 loss almost felt

Speaker 13 best case scenario.

Speaker 2 I still see a Jets team playing hard for Aaron Glenn. Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 Well, let me ask you this, because, you know, Kevin Danger, I've hung out with Kevin Danger, and like, I would imagine, I don't know, you're working right now. You're hardcore working.

Speaker 2 Oh, there he is. I was going to say, I thought he'd be with like three waitresses by now, but there he is, just loyally hanging out with you.
Like, what was it like just to go watch a game as a

Speaker 2 football fan? Like, you know, the way you grew up, what was it like?

Speaker 13 It was actually nice. It's been a long time.
I was thinking about

Speaker 13 the last time I was able to just watch the game as a fan. And it's been

Speaker 13 over a decade. So that was nice.

Speaker 13 Not so nice other than the Patriots uniforms, which my goodness, Maron.

Speaker 13 Those are some of the ugliest uniforms I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 They're very muted.

Speaker 2 Very muted. I thought they're like, they make no statement.
Am I right?

Speaker 9 It's like somebody turned the saturation off. Like, what is this?

Speaker 1 No bueno.

Speaker 13 But yeah, then reality sets in.

Speaker 13 And then luckily luckily

Speaker 13 you have distractions. You have friends and family and Aaron Judge winning MVP and

Speaker 13 just the people all around you here in these fine taverns and

Speaker 13 a comely waitress, just all the good things about life.

Speaker 13 You have an ability. I think that's what it is, Ceci.

Speaker 13 Because there's no one that would understand this more than you,

Speaker 13 since we've been doing this for 15 years. When your team is eating shit,

Speaker 13 being in a place where there are distractions to take your mind off that

Speaker 13 is helpful. When you're sitting in a newsroom or sitting on your couch, staring at this game or getting ready for a show, there's nothing to do but just sit in your mess.

Speaker 13 And so what I'm going to do is daddy's got a Tito Soda with orange. Yes.
We're going to hang out here for another drink. Then we're going to go to a couple other establishments.

Speaker 13 And by the time my head hits the pillow,

Speaker 13 what are the Jets? I don't even know. You could tell me.
I don't know.

Speaker 13 Who are the Jets? What are Jets?

Speaker 13 What am football? Mino, understand. Like, who cares?

Speaker 2 We love you. I think that's well said.
Like, when your team is a trash bag, you need other things to focus on. That's why people smoked like heavy marijuana in Laos in 68.

Speaker 2 But I would ask you one last question because you went to, right? You went to the tonight show.

Speaker 13 Last one for Dan. Last one.
What?

Speaker 1 Last question for Dan.

Speaker 2 You went to the tonight show.

Speaker 2 What came out of that? What was there any notable experience there?

Speaker 13 The Jonas brothers were wonderful. Great personalities,

Speaker 13 really

Speaker 13 show business kids and Jersey boys on top of that. So respect to them.

Speaker 13 Fallon, you know, it's a total pro. It was a great time.

Speaker 13 I don't know what else you want me to say about that.

Speaker 9 Did you meet anyone?

Speaker 1 Yeah, did you get any stage? Did we go to it?

Speaker 2 We'll leave you alone after this.

Speaker 6 I'm being asked, Bob, I'm being asked.

Speaker 13 I'm being asked if I met anybody famous.

Speaker 2 The wonderful Bob.

Speaker 13 That's my bosom buddy throwback podcast. Check it out.
That's a plug, Bob.

Speaker 2 A handsome man.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 13 we didn't meet anybody famous. So, but we had a great time.
So I don't.

Speaker 13 The whole day, it's been a great day and night, and there's nothing the Jets can do that could take that away. Well,

Speaker 2 that is evolution, that's a beautiful thing. Dan, we're going to let you go.

Speaker 2 Hello to danger, hello to Bob, hello to the waitresses, hello to the entire establishment, and farewell, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, farewell to you all.

Speaker 2 Uh, you sign off as you please, and we'll we'll close this out.

Speaker 1 Bye, boys. I'll see you later.
See you Sunday.

Speaker 9 Yes, happy for your good day, Dan. Bye.
See ya.

Speaker 13 What a great day, 2714.

Speaker 1 Well, forget the Jets.

Speaker 9 The day. Bye.

Speaker 2 I think that went the way that we expected it to go.

Speaker 2 We're happy for Dan. Look, let's close it out.
This has been a wild ride.

Speaker 2 I'm losing my voice, so that tells you where we are. Woke up at four in the morning to get ready for all this.

Speaker 2 Look,

Speaker 2 I do think we've got a great week of football coming up. I really do.

Speaker 2 I think I feel differently about this week, as we stated,

Speaker 2 than really any previous week. We're getting into that part of the season.
It's middle of of November, and it's like, you know, you're starting to eat soups and rich foods.

Speaker 2 You've got to like get under big blankets.

Speaker 2 Snow is falling left and right. F everyone, okay? Football is here.

Speaker 1 We're going to roll.

Speaker 2 I'm going to tell you one thing before we go.

Speaker 2 Heed the call.

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