2025 NFL Week 9 Recap: I Don't Know $#!t

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Speaker 2 Just trusting my feet, trusting the 10 players around me.

Speaker 1 That's really all it comes down to.

Speaker 2 Going out there trying to make good decisions for the ball where needs to be. The importance of this win in the AFC.

Speaker 4 Morning O.

Speaker 1 Heyo, welcome to Heed the Call, NFL podcast, the flagship show week nine. Dan Hansis, Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver on the ones and twos.
The whole gang is here.

Speaker 1 And yes, of course, that is Josh Allen,

Speaker 1 reigning MVP and Victor in the latest showdown between

Speaker 1 Allen and the great Mahomes. A 28-21 win for the Bills over the Chiefs.
And we're going to get into all of the games. And shout out to our league.

Speaker 1 Per my demands, they delivered a great football Sunday. I think that game seven in Toronto really was the final kick in the old heiney.

Speaker 5 Mark, I think that was it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think football is not normally feeling pressure from other sports, other events, other human events.

Speaker 2 But baseball kind of snuck in there and said, get your act together. And football had to respond.
And I think you're right. I think they did today.

Speaker 1 It did. It did.
And yes, let's get into the first game. Let's get into this 28-21 win, Connor,

Speaker 1 because I thought this was the most complete game from the Buffalo Bills that we've seen. I thought this was the best Josh Allen game.
I thought this was yet another excellent James Cook game.

Speaker 1 I thought this was yet another example of how much damage the Bills can do with that tight end group, even without a premier wide receiver.

Speaker 1 And in the end, it was the defense that scrambled up the great Mahomes and got them to a place where Mahomes won 15 of 34 in this game.

Speaker 1 Very, very impressive effort by the Soldiers of Western New York.

Speaker 6 If I'm not mistaken, to his worst completion percentage, I think, in a regular season game,

Speaker 6 which is pretty stunning.

Speaker 6 And I love the way that the Bills are playing right now.

Speaker 6 And it's funny how, you know, I'm not going to call the fan base entitled, but if you look through kind of all of their reactions to this, well, we're not doing this, we're not doing that.

Speaker 6 I love what the Buffalo Bills have become. It's Eagles-esque to me, where.

Speaker 6 Yes, I mean, you're not throwing the ball downfield a lot, but you're taking a lot of risks out of the game.

Speaker 6 I think they have the most skewed run-pass ratio or one of the most skewed run-pass ratios in the NFL, but you're running the ball well to every single side, and it's complimentary for your defense.

Speaker 6 It's taking a lot of pressure off their shoulders. We saw what they could do with a little bit of lightness tonight.
So I love this transformation.

Speaker 6 I think it's effective, and I think it's going to play really well in December and January.

Speaker 2 And you're right, that they've forced 19 incompletions from Patrick Mahomes, and you needed Josh Allen just to play a clean game. It couldn't be one of these

Speaker 2 side shows where he has two killer interceptions in the red zone or something. He had the highest completion percentage he's ever had, broke a Bills team record, and they were really clean.

Speaker 2 I thought they just basically played the best version of themselves. And James Cook is a huge part of this.
And Dalton Kincaid, like everyone kind of showed up.

Speaker 2 It wasn't the prettiest performance, but they found a way to kind of pull the plug on the Chiefs that we've seen from the last couple of weeks where it looked like the offense was about to explode.

Speaker 2 Like, they, I think they really missed Isaiah Pacheco tonight. Like, they just could not run the ball

Speaker 2 the way they wanted to. And it was a very complete Bills performance.
Not super flashy, but very Bills-esque.

Speaker 1 I thought it was kind of a really clean, like high-level performance, just because how balanced it was throughout and how they just put the Chiefs to sleep the way they did.

Speaker 1 They were dominant. I mean, shout out to Joey Bosa.
Now, I don't know if he's going to stay healthy when it comes time to win a championship in January, but he's been on the field.

Speaker 1 He is routinely making plays for this team. They were getting at Mahomes.
Mahomes got hit in this game more than he's ever been hit in his career.

Speaker 1 I couldn't believe that because he's taken some beatings now. He's been around for a while.
One of those Super Bowls against Tampa comes to mind.

Speaker 1 Another Super Bowl against Philly comes to mind, but this is the most hits he's ever taken in a game. Bosa was a menace.
Everyone was getting in on it. They were really just cooking up the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 And it's unusual to see a Kansas City attack not really have answers.

Speaker 1 And this is a Bills defense that's missing pieces,

Speaker 1 but they were able to step up, especially on third down. This is a good one, Connor.
The Chiefs converted just three for 13 on third down in this game, and they entered this

Speaker 1 game. This is via ESPN's Elena Getzenberg, converting 44% of their third downs, sixth in the league.

Speaker 1 So the Bills, who we just a few weeks ago, we were asking questions about, man, this team is unbalanced, and is the defense going to hold them back.

Speaker 1 This is the type of performance that makes you think, yeah, this team can travel. This team can win, this team can finally go all the way.

Speaker 6 And it's just, it's a lot of long situations. And Mark, I think, nailed it with, you know, Pacheco is one thing, maybe not getting what you want out of Kareem Hunt.

Speaker 6 But what this offense has historically been able to do really well is just get Patrick Mahomes into convertible first down, you know, like third down situations. And that was not the case at all.

Speaker 6 I thought the Bills front seven played really well. They flew around.
They took away a lot of his options.

Speaker 6 And I feel like you know that it's one of those Mahomes games where he doesn't have answers because he just, then he just lets the hose out. And it's a game that just stops making sense.

Speaker 6 And he hopes that he can scramble them with this big, long completion. And it didn't really happen for them.

Speaker 2 Well, I think also the Chiefs, like, have, we saw it today, legit offensive line injury issues. And that, and that reared its head.

Speaker 2 Like, they're missing people, and that's a different situation for Mahomes.

Speaker 2 But they still had this moment where it was fourth and 17, 17, and they complete, you know, Mahomes completes that pass to Rashi Rice.

Speaker 2 It's like they're still going to hang around in these games, but they were not who they wanted to be today.

Speaker 2 And I think like injuries could be the one thing that could take the Chiefs away on some level, and they've got to get healthy on the offensive line.

Speaker 1 They're missing three starters now on the offensive line. That obviously is going to make things difficult, both in pass protection.
and running the football.

Speaker 1 I thought, you know, and you saw it with another really smartly designed red zone play with Rishi Rice for his touchdown in the first half.

Speaker 1 They did a great job erasing Rice from the game plan in the second half. He had that one long reception on a fourth and forever.
But other than that, that was his only touch of the second half. And

Speaker 1 Travis Kelsey

Speaker 1 took a wicked shot.

Speaker 1 It was just like Buffalo, like legit.

Speaker 1 They sent a message, I think, to Kansas City in this game. That was a vicious shot, a legal shot to Kelsey's ribs at the end of the first half.

Speaker 1 Mahomes, trying to keep a play alive near the sideline, gets absolutely smoked throwing one down the right sideline. And I credited Mahomes for getting up because that was a vicious hit as well.

Speaker 1 So I just thought the Bills brought like kind of the best version of themselves. And I know what he said there, Mahomes, or Alan said at the end of the game to CBS, which is, oh, yeah, just 1-0.

Speaker 1 But no, it's not just 1-0. They now have the head-to-head matchup.
And

Speaker 1 if they have a tie, they're going to play the AFC potential championship game or division playoffs in Buffalo. And not for nothing, Kansas City now is 5-4,

Speaker 1 and they're third in their division.

Speaker 1 So any idea that they're going to, everything's going to go through arrowhead again? It looks like this might be final of the year that does not happen.

Speaker 6 They're not just 1-0.

Speaker 6 They've gotten through the last two weeks with nine rushing attempts for Josh Allen. He rushed for 14 times in the season opener.
And this is a massive sea change for Buffalo.

Speaker 6 And it's what they tried to do all along. This is why Ken Dorsey got let go in favor of, you know, the directive for Ken Dorsey when he was there was make Josh Allen run less.
Figure it out. He tried.

Speaker 6 They got rid of him. They brought in Joe Brady.
Make Josh Allen run less. He let him run more.
They ended up going on a deep run.

Speaker 6 This year, they're actually effectively allowing Josh Allen to run less. And it's the best.
I mean, only nine attempts over two games.

Speaker 6 You're saving his body for the end of the season, which is exactly what you need to be doing.

Speaker 1 And he still finishes with two rushing touchdowns. He's still kind of automatic on the goal line, but they're protecting his body.
You're right.

Speaker 1 This is all stuff that's kind of like it could be a difference maker when we get to the gauntlet of the playoffs. One last thing, Prater hits the upright.

Speaker 1 And I think a lot of people have the same feeling

Speaker 1 after Kansas City looked like they were dead and buried. They take over near midfield, but they don't have any timeouts.

Speaker 1 And I could hear, you could hear the audible disappointment, I thought, in both Nance and especially Romo. They just want Mahomes always to do the thing.
And I get it.

Speaker 1 Like, you want to see all-time players do all-time things, but sometimes it's almost a little needy, I feel like, with that particular broadcast team. Like, they like, oh, this is it, Jim.

Speaker 1 You know what's going to happen now. And it's like, well, it didn't happen.
It didn't, like, the Hail Mary. Romo had a funny call.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think it might have been Nance, actually.
He's like on the Hail Mary at the end. He's backpedaling.
And the Hail Mary falls like 10 yards short of the end zone.

Speaker 1 And somehow in this one play, they're able to shoehorn in a compliment to Mahomes. Like, oh, look, he still throws it this far.
And it's like, no, well, not even. He's 10 yards away from the end zone.

Speaker 1 We don't always have to

Speaker 1 sugarcoat.

Speaker 2 Well, I think Romo is a little bit of a little bit of a pull toy when it comes to Mahomes, and we've known that for...

Speaker 1 A little bit. Yeah.
A lot of a bit.

Speaker 1 All right. There you go.
So that's. Too many balls.

Speaker 7 Too many for you, Jim.

Speaker 1 That is the game of the week, maybe the game of the year. And yes, it is much more than just 1-0.
So shout out to the Bills. And I know there's a lot of Blue Jays fans who are also Bills fans.

Speaker 1 So good job. You could take that.

Speaker 1 You can take that. Hey, Isaiah Kiner Falefa, get a better secondary lead.
Okay?

Speaker 1 Just let's work on that in the winter.

Speaker 1 Just work on it.

Speaker 6 I thought of you while I was watching that game because I was like, this isn't baseball showing up the NFL.

Speaker 6 That was last week, the NFL getting out of the way for 10 seconds to allow the beauty of baseball to bloom. It's like when plants kind of, some plants die.
So

Speaker 6 they can bloom. This was, this was, it was beautiful.
It was like nature-esque, you know?

Speaker 1 I would say I agree with half of that.

Speaker 1 The NFL certainly got out of the way by being not so interesting for a week, but that was certainly not their intention because Thale will never give ground to anyone or anything for any reason.

Speaker 1 They are absolute brutal assassins, the NFL.

Speaker 1 They are working to take down

Speaker 1 the entire world. Right.
By the way, are we able to watch Monday Night Football on YouTube TV on Monday? Come on now.

Speaker 1 We don't know. Come on now.
Figure it out. Oligarchs.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be very pissed.

Speaker 2 Powers that be.

Speaker 1 All right, without further ado, before we get into the rest of the games, the theme of the week for week nine with Mark Sessler.

Speaker 2 The theme of the week for me after last week's car crash was Pappy knows the secrets.

Speaker 1 Do we?

Speaker 1 Hmm. Okay, we're back into

Speaker 1 more.

Speaker 1 I feel like I'm looking through stained glass and I can't see what's on the other side. Pappy knows the secrets.

Speaker 2 And Pappy is your grandfather.

Speaker 2 I didn't want to ask you, but that's who it's meant to to be referencing if I spelled that correctly.

Speaker 1 It's Poppy. It's Poppy.
P-O-P-P-E-E. But how would you know? How would I know?

Speaker 1 A Poppy? I mean, do I look like a guy that calls my grandfather Poppy? Okay, that's true.

Speaker 2 Yes, you're right. It sounds more like a guy at a bar out here, Aaron Hines.

Speaker 1 Poppy,

Speaker 1 we'll edit this in post. Poppy knows the secrets.
Do we?

Speaker 1 I don't know. Connor, take a shot at it.

Speaker 6 I was hoping this wasn't because, again, I didn't know your grandfather. I wasn't lucky enough to

Speaker 1 have met him.

Speaker 1 No, you did not hope that.

Speaker 6 I don't know if this is Mark kind of getting back into astral projection, which he was very much into when we met.

Speaker 6 If he's looking for secrets to the life beyond, or if this does have some tie-in to football, I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 Okay, we're stuck, Mark. What does this mean?

Speaker 2 So I think that your wonderful grandfather, who was like a lifelong football fan and just generated generated and garnered and accrued knowledge over the years.

Speaker 1 I guess, yeah. Go on.
Well, I mean,

Speaker 2 sitting on the couch that he was Charlie, he watched a lot of Giants football.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't say he was like tearing up the agate on a daily basis covering professional football. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Well, fair enough, but I kind of think he knows just as much as any of us do because, like, I thought today had some sort of wild upsets that I didn't see coming.

Speaker 2 And, like, in the end, whatever I predicted on Thursday pretty much went completely wrong. And so it's like, I get to this point with some of these weeks where I'm like, I don't know shit

Speaker 2 and I'm comfortable with that. I don't know crap.
And like someone is just.

Speaker 1 Can we maybe? Because I kind of like that a little bit better as a theme of the week. I don't know shit and I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1 Yes, we could do that. How about that? Theme of the week.
Hit it, Mark.

Speaker 2 I don't know shit and I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1 I like that one.

Speaker 1 Now that one I could see. Okay.
All right. Let's get speaking of

Speaker 1 shit. Let's talk about the Bengals defense.
No, let's get into the game in Cincinnati, the highest scoring game of the year. I think so.
And one of the craziest games of the season. Let's do it.

Speaker 1 Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1 The Bengals are coming off a heartbreaking shootout loss to the New York Jets of all teams last week, but they had a chance

Speaker 1 to even the ledger

Speaker 1 with an unbelievable comeback, wiping out a 14-point deficit at the two-minute warning.

Speaker 1 Touchdown, two-point conversion, Anse kick recovery, touchdown, all of them thrown, all the touchdowns from Joe Flacco because he's the greatest quarterback/slash man who's ever lived.

Speaker 1 But there was still 14 seconds, excuse me, there were still 54 seconds remaining after Flacco rip one deep to Andrei Yoshivash for that touchdown.

Speaker 1 Enter Caleb Williams and the Bears. And not only did they

Speaker 1 erase the deficit, they didn't even need the field goal. They get the touchdown because Williams connects with Colston Loveland for 58-yard touchdown, 17 seconds to play.
Bears win 47-42.

Speaker 1 Three touchdowns in the last two minutes and two lead changes in the final minute mark.

Speaker 1 This was an outrageous, outrageous back-and-forth game, and another crusher for Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 Like a sensory overload. It's just incredible.

Speaker 2 I feel like if you went to an alien planet and were introduced to some sort of job that aliens do, and you'd be like, I have no idea what's happening on day one.

Speaker 2 That's how the Bengals defense seems to me. They've given up.
It's insane how bad this defense is. They absolutely crumbled today.
They've given up 1,400 yards.

Speaker 2 in the in 27 points in eight consecutive games. Like this is a wild, messed up defense.

Speaker 2 And it was, it wiped out one of the most heroic quarterback performances that I've seen in a long, long time by Joe Flacco. He just is operating on a different level.

Speaker 2 And as they were leaving that field, the offensive players were just like, what on earth do we need to do to win a game here? Because they absolutely punctured the Chicago defense left and right.

Speaker 2 And, you know, that play by Colston Loveland at the end to win this thing was an incredible catch and run.

Speaker 2 And it just seemed like one of those games that got completely out of control where it's like everything's tilted, it's spun out, and there's no defense happening here.

Speaker 2 And someone was going to win, but the Bengals defense will make sure it's not them.

Speaker 6 It's cultural. It has to be cultural.
Like tackling is cultural. I mean, Dan, you and I have talked about this with the Jets last year.

Speaker 6 These are all talented football players capable of bringing another human being to the ground.

Speaker 6 And I think we can get into some of the post-game comments, but I think the most telling thing to me was reporters saying, some of the defensive players laughing, saying that they're not going to talk to reporters and that, yeah, I'll just see you on Monday.

Speaker 6 So no accountability, no desire to bring another human being down. And these, so what's wild is the, the Bengals missed tackle stat.
in context is insane.

Speaker 6 The next closest team is like 55 missed tackles behind them. It's not even remotely close.
It's so embarrassing.

Speaker 6 And I mean, man, just killing this wonderful chance that they had to get back into the playoffs and to hand the football back to Joe Burrow in December. Like, it's gone at this point.

Speaker 1 It's a terrible look for Zach Taylor that the defense is not having that.

Speaker 1 I mean, if you're going to blow the game and blow multiple games and over seasons now, the way the Cincinnati defense does, the least those guys can do is talk after the game.

Speaker 1 So, so that's a sign of a locker room in decay. Here is Zach Taylor

Speaker 1 after just a crushing loss for the bengals yeah just i can't i can't believe it can't believe it um

Speaker 1 being is right there and then we just we don't find a way to get it done and win again we just got to make one play just one play it's sick it's sick to to lose like that it's sick and if you think that zach taylor is frustrated and he is those defenders that aren't talking to the media after blowing the game i you can imagine how the offensive players feel about that that lack of accountability and the lack of production they can't get a single stop.

Speaker 1 Chase Brown, I think, spoke for the entire offense in his emotional comments after the game.

Speaker 8 We just got to play complimentary football. Like, we put the ball in the end zone and go up a point at the end, finish the game.
Like, just end it. Like, that's it.

Speaker 8 Like, that's that's like, that's what we need to do. Just end the game.
Like,

Speaker 8 make them get us the ball back. Let us go to 22 victory and let's end the game.
That's how that's like, that's how I feel.

Speaker 2 Do you know how hard it is to be a quarterback and come in like Joe Flacco did, sight unseen, and run this offense the way that he has? And that this is the same team.

Speaker 2 It's the same issues as a year ago. It's cultural.
You're right, Connor, because you can change the coordinator, but you've given up. You've scored 38 plus in two straight games and lost both games.

Speaker 2 That's the first team to do that since the 1966 Giants. It's like a historical outlier how broken this team is.
And you're going to see a fractured locker room. It's completely fractured.

Speaker 1 It's a minor miracle to get what you've gotten out of 41-year-old Joe Flacco and to essentially have wasted it.

Speaker 1 And I think we could all agree at this point that the Bengals season has taken on enough water where it's sinking to the bottom of

Speaker 1 one of the rivers there, Insert River.

Speaker 1 But like

Speaker 1 one of the three rivers? I don't know.

Speaker 1 But like,

Speaker 1 that is, that's the shame of it. Like, I remember before the season started, we were just having some fun and talking about Flacco and the Browns.

Speaker 1 Because remember, the Cleveland Browns traded Joe Flacco in division to the Bengals.

Speaker 1 And we said, if Joe Flacco ever led the Browns to the Super Bowl, I mean, he's a Hall of Famer, right?

Speaker 1 And I don't think Joe Flacco is going to the Hall of Fame, but these games that he's putting this tape he's putting together and these stats, I'd love to check in again on his career totals.

Speaker 1 It must be creeping up the list with these shootout performances.

Speaker 1 He's in my Hall of Fame, if that means anything. Like, he is in my Hall of Fame.
He's wearing a gold jacket at Hanses' version of Ken. He's just so much fun to watch.
It's a shame.

Speaker 1 We should talk about the Bears, by the way. Oh, my God.
Because the Bears, I still, coming out of a game like this, Mark, I still struggle to take them too seriously.

Speaker 1 They just seem to be flawed, but they are, I mean, they're winning. They're winning more games than they're losing.
And they found a way in adversity to get it done.

Speaker 1 Here's Ben Johnson on the Colston Loveland go-ahead touchdown.

Speaker 2 I just told Jeff

Speaker 1 that I really was hunting one coverage there before halftime and end of the game in the two-minute scenarios and

Speaker 1 couldn't get it, couldn't get it. There was probably three or four calls I had, and I just didn't get it.

Speaker 1 And then finally, we got it on that particular play, and Caleb did a great job seeing it, delivered a good ball.

Speaker 1 Figured it was going to be explosive.

Speaker 1 Wasn't expecting it to be a touchdown, though. And I think that was Colston's speed just taking off and going for it.
So it was good good to see.

Speaker 6 His offense, if you think about any of the teams right now in that division, this offense grows like a weed. It's like an invasive species.

Speaker 6 It's going to be more complicated to tend and to cut off as the weeks go on. I'm probably more worried about the Bears.

Speaker 6 I mean, certainly than the Vikings and maybe even than the Packers at this point. If you look at their offensive output of late,

Speaker 6 every single one of his calls has such a complexity to it, and everything matters.

Speaker 6 And even the trick plays, like I heard someone saying, Oh, you know, he just does this for style points and show points.

Speaker 6 When Ben Johnson was in Detroit, I think he called something like whatever, like 100 trick plays. The EPA on that was almost literally a point per trick play.

Speaker 6 And it Fs with the defense because now you're lining up and you're thinking, Well, what if they could do something weird? And that's in your head. And he calls more trick plays than anybody else.

Speaker 6 He had the throwback to Caleb Williams, which is awesome then the philly special for the touchdown i mean this guy is so much fun and he's replicating it and it just works and god it's just so much fun to see a bears offense they had 283 yards on the ground seven and a half yards per catch well you also know deandre swift like colin meningui comes in out of nowhere and like runs for 176 yards on the ground and to connor's point Four different players threw a pass in this game, but the trick plays work.

Speaker 2 They're not just style points. They matter, they work.
And you kind of do when you think of this division, you're like, the Bears are going to come out and surprise you.

Speaker 2 And it wasn't super pretty today, but I see young players being developed in this offense too. And Loveland is a great example of that.
But it's like, there's something to latch onto with the Bears.

Speaker 1 They just need consistency because

Speaker 1 they're more fun to watch. I imagine Bears fans are like.
They're losing their mind in a game where the offense is putting up yardage like this and winning that way.

Speaker 1 Just need week-to-week consistency. I think a lot of that goes back to the quarterback, but there's a lot of potential here.
A lot of potential.

Speaker 1 Put a bow on a Connor.

Speaker 6 The biggest number to me. So, Caleb Williams, when he was trailing in this game, threw three touchdowns, more than 300 yards, 124 quarterback rating, no interceptions.

Speaker 6 And this is a guy that historically has drifted, has improvised, has tried to take the game in his own hands, not call the plays that have been given to him.

Speaker 6 Ben Johnson has him on track, and that was the best and perfect, most perfect example that we've seen so far this season.

Speaker 1 A young, promising quarterback with the tools and a smart, offensive-minded head coach.

Speaker 1 That's what teams should be going for.

Speaker 1 My team, we keep hiring first-time defensive coordinators. I think we should go and get one of these guys.
That would be my tip to Woody Johnson.

Speaker 1 All right, up next, let's move to Pittsburgh, where the Steelers made a statement.

Speaker 1 Who's going to stop the Indianapolis Colts? Who's going to stop Daniel Jones? Who's going to stop Jonathan Taylor?

Speaker 1 The Steelers, of course. I mean, now it seems possible, but it didn't seem possible 24 hours ago.

Speaker 1 But after a game in which Pittsburgh absolutely rattled Danny Dimes, definitely more Danny Dimes than Indiana Jones in this game.

Speaker 1 In fact, Daniel Jones had five of the six turnovers the Colts coughed up in this game. In the end, 27 to 20 Steelers over Colts.
The fact that it was only seven-point

Speaker 1 margin with six turnovers tells you a lot there. But that is a huge performance for the Pittsburgh Steelers

Speaker 1 on their defensive side of the ball. Because as we know, that side of the ball has been the problem all season.

Speaker 1 Aaron Rodgers has come in and absolutely done what they asked him to do, which is run that offense professionally, take them up a level, and he has certainly done that.

Speaker 1 But what's been killing this Steelers team all year long is their inability to cover and their inability to get a big stop. And they did that over and over and over again.

Speaker 1 And I talked about it on Thursday. They have been very bad against the run, which, you know,

Speaker 1 was set up for Jonathan Taylor to have a huge game. But

Speaker 1 they have been good at getting at the quarterback, and they were all over Jones in this game. And Jones really struggled.

Speaker 1 He

Speaker 1 messed with his rhythm. You could see that he, even

Speaker 1 on plays where he wasn't picked off or fumbling, he was kind of rushing his throws. He felt the pass rush.
It looked a lot like the Dimes that struggled at times with the Giants.

Speaker 1 Now, is that a sign of something to come? We'll see, Mark, or a sign of, oh, look, he wasn't so good after all. I'm sure all that's going to come now.

Speaker 1 But in the here and now, I'm going to focus less on the Colts having a really bad day and more on Pittsburgh showing that they have this in them and how that makes them a more serious team in the AFC.

Speaker 2 It's a huge win for Pittsburgh because

Speaker 2 you were on the edge, you being all of us, of kind of selling them down the river in terms of what their defense is and what it means for who they are.

Speaker 2 And like to come out and take the hottest offense in the NFL and do this,

Speaker 2 It's it's sort of where my theme came from. Like, I didn't expect this, and now I have to look at both of these teams differently.

Speaker 2 and like are I wanted to fight against the concept that the Colts are a mirage that Daniel Jones is a mirage that it's all going to be it's going to turn midnight at some point here and like um here's the kind of game where it's like

Speaker 2 Well, the Steelers are who we think they are. They're going to win about 10 games.

Speaker 2 And they've come and undressed a Colts team that I want to believe in, but I watched this and saw this and the turnovers.

Speaker 2 It was atypical of them. But with Daniel Jones, there's always this thing in your mind.
Like, it's kind of like the Sam Darnolds in the early Baker Mayfield scenario. It's like, who is this real?

Speaker 2 Is this real? Is a quarterback transforming before our eyes or is he not? And like, I watched today, the Daniel Jones of today, and I'm kind of like, I'm back concerned about where this team goes.

Speaker 6 Well, we complained about that Steelers' defense, and it was old, and it just looked like everyone was out of place. I think you switched Jalen Ramsey to safety, and then Peyton Wilson.

Speaker 6 I mean, the second-year guy, 25-year-old, had a career high in tackles.

Speaker 1 He had the pick.

Speaker 6 He had the other tip that led to the other interception. That's what you need.
I mean, you need young blood in this defense getting after the quarterback.

Speaker 6 Mike Tomlin is great at designing ways to get to the quarterback. His guys just weren't getting there.

Speaker 6 So when you have TJ Watt kick it off with the strip sack, then you have some of these backers that can move, that can actually get after the passer.

Speaker 6 And finally, the floodgates are starting to open a little bit.

Speaker 2 And that's true. And here's my second annoyance.
I locked this team, the Colts,

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 1 weren't alone.

Speaker 2 You know, I wasn't.

Speaker 1 It was two of of us.

Speaker 2 And I would like to enjoy one football Sunday where anything occurs the way that I desire it. Like, even ones, like a shred of one thing, a shred.

Speaker 9 Well, this is why I don't like to be Lockbros because we both lose. It's no fun.

Speaker 1 What do you mean? It's fun for Connor and I? Yes.

Speaker 1 We check two boxes there. Stupid.
Okay. With one game.

Speaker 1 Wonderful.

Speaker 1 Wonderful. Yeah.
Listen,

Speaker 1 and I also talked about it last week. You're not hearing a lot of doubts around Daniel Jones, the way you kind of heard that murmur throughout the season with Sam Darnold.
You're going to hear it now.

Speaker 1 And I just want to, I'm going to pump the brakes on that because I feel like people are going to overreact to this one game. The Steelers had a really good day.

Speaker 1 TJ Watt bringing him up, like they've been waiting for TJ Watt to make that impact play all season long. And

Speaker 1 he finally makes a big play. That was the turning point, I think, of the game in that.
And you even have Cam Hayward getting up in his face.

Speaker 1 There's a very memorable moment in this game, Connor, with Hayward, his eyes lighting up right in front of Jones as Jones flings a pass for another incompletion.

Speaker 1 Like they showed up and they cooked him up.

Speaker 1 They got traditional pass rush. They also blitzed well.
And all game,

Speaker 1 Dimes had three interceptions, two of them on deflections. He had three fumbles.
Two of them lost. It was a nightmare performance for this offense.

Speaker 6 But here's, I'm going to make my excuse for Danny Dimes right now, okay? And it goes back to Jalen Ramsey playing safety. And you saw him, by the way, headhunting.

Speaker 6 I mean, he was knocking guys out at safety. He looks great there.
The Steelers played split safety, two high safety, with the second lowest rate of the season going into this game.

Speaker 6 Today, they played it at the highest or the second highest rate of any team. So there was no context for Daniel Jones to study this defense.
It's a completely different defense now.

Speaker 6 Looked completely different than anything he'd seen on film.

Speaker 6 And while you can say, oh, he should have overcome that, the game plan was probably tailored to the Steelers' defense that we'd seen throughout the course of the season.

Speaker 6 And so he was the test case for that. That's a big speed bump moment for him.

Speaker 1 I mean, to the theme of the week, Mark, like this is a perfect example. The way we were talking about Pittsburgh on Thursday, and now teams can change, teams can shift.

Speaker 1 Teams have coaching and they study tape and they adapt and they move players to different positions. And maybe they lock into something.
And we'll see what happens here.

Speaker 1 Mike Tomlin kind of spoke to that

Speaker 1 nature of football after the game. It's a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes in this business.

Speaker 1 It's nothing dramatic, you know. It's really not.

Speaker 1 And that's why we respect it so much.

Speaker 1 It's a limited number of plays or sequences that can really change the trajectory of an outcome. We're still the same group that stunk it up last week.

Speaker 1 That's football. And Shane Steichen on the other side kind of had the same message.
Like, he feels good about this team because he's seen a lot of good things in prior weeks.

Speaker 5 Well, I think you take away the takeaways and we don't turn the ball over. I think we're moving the ball down the field and scoring a lot of points again.

Speaker 5 So I got a ton of faith in our offense and our guys for sure.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, you're allowed to, like, that would be my other comment to Connor's point of, like, not selling Daniel Jones down the river. It's like.

Speaker 1 You're allowed to have a poor performance.

Speaker 2 Like, there is just ultra mediocrity across the league right now. And every one of these teams is going to have a stink joint performance.
And this is where it came today.

Speaker 2 But it's like, I'm not done with the cult at this point, but it just leaves you wondering what the ceiling is.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, so you, it kind of sounds like you are worried about him now.

Speaker 2 I'm not sitting around my living room worrying about the non-stop, but it's like, in terms of thinking about football teams, I do.

Speaker 1 I mean, get off the fence, Sesler. You think they're in trouble now? Are they not? Are they good or not?

Speaker 2 Tell me. I don't think so.
I'm with Stike, and I think that, like, you're like, if you were shown a completely different defense, like you've covered the full spectrum during this conversation.

Speaker 2 Maybe I am a little uppity about the whole thing, but I also lost my lock, so I'm just in a bad mood.

Speaker 2 Like, you know, man, Jonathan Taylor lunge

Speaker 1 45-yards, season low, hit at or before the line of scrimmage on six of his 14 rushing attempts. Just an awesome game by the Pittsburgh defense.
Did not see it coming.

Speaker 1 Let's take a break, and when we get back,

Speaker 1 some more football.

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Speaker 1 Surprise chargers, enough of that. We don't need it.

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Speaker 1 All right, we are back. By the way, Connor, did you keep

Speaker 1 your Halloween tradition of

Speaker 1 full candy bars? My favorite Connor personality trait?

Speaker 6 Yes, we did.

Speaker 1 Oh, baby.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 6 just very quickly,

Speaker 6 normally you buy the full-size candy bar bulk package at Costco. And, you know, my wife and I were waiting for the price to hit a certain threshold where it makes the most financial sense to get it.

Speaker 6 And then something happened. And then all of a sudden, they sold out.
They were completely gone. So Friday morning, I said, we need, it doesn't matter.
This is a full-size candy bar house.

Speaker 6 And my wife's like, well, what are you going to do? Go to the checkout counter where, you know, at the supermarket, right before you check out, all the candy bars are just sitting there in the thing.

Speaker 6 And she's like, what are you going to do?

Speaker 6 Go over there and buy like 100 candy bars from the checkout counter at the grocery store and i said you bet your ass i am and so i went over there and literally just emptied out like

Speaker 1 a section of of the grocery store to get uh to get full-size candy bars so i mean i it's like i said my favorite personality trait i think it's a la ravile magnifico in the greatest of ways um you know i i turn my front yard into a haunted house on halloween uh it's for the community you're doing it for the community mark what's going on in in hollywood i is it i imagine it's like the purge where like all crime is legal for one night.

Speaker 1 You just have to lock down.

Speaker 2 I live right on Hollywood Boulevard and I will tell you that it looks no different than any other night.

Speaker 2 Like, I mean, like literally every night there's people dressed up is everything you could ever imagine.

Speaker 2 It might have been a little more intoxicated or psychotic, but I didn't spend a lot of time on the street.

Speaker 1 Good. You're safe, though.
That's good.

Speaker 2 I'm on an apple with a needle in it, guy. I don't need that on Halloween night.
Don't give me that.

Speaker 1 No razor blades in the candy.

Speaker 1 All right, let's get to the next game, the big upset of, or one of the big upsets of week nine. Let's head to Ford Field.

Speaker 1 Oh, baby, J.J. McCarthy was back in the lineup for the Vikings, and man, did they need him? Carson Wentz out of the picture.
Max Brozmer, next in line.

Speaker 1 They need the second-year player to not just stay on the field, but perform.

Speaker 1 And he did, counting for three touchdowns. And most importantly, the game ceiling completion to Jordan Addison, excuse me, to Jordan, Jalen Naylor on third and five from the Minnesota 28.

Speaker 1 A play that allowed the Vikings to run out the clock on a 27-24 win over the Lions. Vikings move to 4-4.
Lions fall to 5-3.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 this is a big win. Connor.
This is a real big win for the Vikings. And after

Speaker 1 a lot of talk and debate and hand-wringing about the quarterback position, McCarthy coming in, staying healthy and playing well, it really lifts all the boats in Minneapolis.

Speaker 6 So it's really interesting. I went back and, and so let's put

Speaker 6 the broad statement here is that McCarthy was at least effective enough to hand the ball over to Brian Flores' defense, which was unbelievable.

Speaker 6 The Lions' offensive line is pretty brittle now, and they just collapsed that with regularity. I think it was like a 50% pressure rate, ton of sacks, ton of everything.

Speaker 6 I mean, they were in Jared Goff's face the whole night. But what's interesting about J.J.
McCarthy is he's getting better at the plays where, like the scripted plays, right?

Speaker 6 First 15 plays of the game. I think the first game I went back and I counted the ball against the Bears, he was like two of four.
And then the next game against the Falcons, he was like five of six.

Speaker 6 Today he was six of eight, 68 yards and two touchdowns within the first 15 plays of the game. Those are the ones that Kevin O'Connell writes out all week.
They practice and they work on.

Speaker 6 And to me, that's like the ultimate sign of progress, right? Because that's a picture of what he's comfortable with, what he's good at, and what the coach feels good enough calling for him.

Speaker 6 And he's acing that part of the test. Now, the rest of the game, little Blake Bortle's in there.
He was a little high and hot.

Speaker 6 Little Zach Wilson, little behind your receivers, but a couple of really nice off-script plays and the back shoulder throw to win it. So it's good enough.

Speaker 1 Let me say this.

Speaker 1 This is what I would love around J.J.

Speaker 1 McCarthy because I was already seeing it in my mentions because I've been pretty vocal about my feelings about the Vikings and how they handle the quarterback situation.

Speaker 1 Can we turn down the temperature on the J.J. McCarthy discourse?

Speaker 1 Because now, just like I thought it was a little hot about how much credit he was given for his first win as a pro, I feel like now people are going to say, oh, this kid is unbelievable. And

Speaker 1 I saw good things in this game. I also saw, as Connor pointed out, some not so hot things.
He threw for, I think, 143 yards, but he made some big plays.

Speaker 1 Like the throw, I mentioned the throw that clinched the game. I really like the ball he threw

Speaker 1 to Justin Jefferson for his first touchdown. He showed the guts and the instincts he has on the rushing score.

Speaker 1 There are good things, but he has obviously a lot to work on in terms of consistency in his game. So I wouldn't say this was an incredible game or a bad game, but it was a promising game.

Speaker 1 And I think, Mark, I feel like that's okay to say without saying the Vikings are now saved or going to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 It's just like the second-year year kid who's actually a rookie was pretty good in this game and good enough to win a game and a big game in Detroit.

Speaker 2 And I think it's fine to say that because like outside of like Michael Pennix,

Speaker 2 he's got less starting experience than anyone in the league. And to Connor's point, you're seeing growth.
And like, what is the patience level with these players?

Speaker 2 Like, I know that you were suggesting like if he weren't healthy or something that you go get like a Gino Smith or something. Like I think like they've got to believe in him and grow him.

Speaker 2 And if you're paired with what Brian Flores and that defense did today you got a chance because that was a masterpiece to shut down the Lions the way they did on the ground especially

Speaker 2 this is a shocking result because I was ready to basically say goodbye to the Minnesota Vikings and like now you're formed for

Speaker 1 this division is all kind of smushed together at this point and I don't see dominance from any one of these teams and if McCarthy can complement the defense this way you can win games down the stretch goff was sacked the season high five times finished just five of 17 on third down they ran for just 65 yards david montgomery had a big fumble that led to a touchdown uh it was uh yeah flores and connor flores' defense has been a little hot and cold this year um but uh they like pittsburgh had their best game of the year in a big spot Yeah, Javon Hargrave looked like Aaron Donald in this game.

Speaker 6 And, I mean, the Taylor Decker side of that offensive line, I mean, they were down to, I think, their third string guard, and Decker was hurt going into this game. So, again,

Speaker 6 easier to expose in that situation. But it's interesting, like, Dan will protect some young boys, but then J.J.
McCarthy is just ripe for the picking.

Speaker 6 But tell me how many young rookies within their first three starts win offensive conference offensive player of the week, and then follow that up, Dan, with the even more prestigious Tom Brady LFG Award.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 This is what I'm talking about.

Speaker 6 The Tom Brady LFG Award, which is is arguably

Speaker 1 prestigious.

Speaker 1 I am a very important figure in the football discourse around J.J. McCarthy because you have people, because he's charismatic and he comes from Michigan.
I wonder why Tom Brady likes J.J. McCarthy.

Speaker 1 He sees himself in J.J. McCarthy and that Fococto award he got for one quarter when nobody else was there to take the award away.

Speaker 1 This is what I'm talking about. Just let the kid develop.
We don't have to crown him. We do not need to crown J.J.
McCarthy, just like we don't need to send him out of the league.

Speaker 2 Did you just call yourself a very important figure?

Speaker 1 Yes, a key figure.

Speaker 2 Still processing whatever that leads to.

Speaker 1 I'm a key figure in managing the J.J. McCarthy discourse.
But listen, I like the kid. I think he's an interesting figure in the NFL because when you see the way that teammates respond to him,

Speaker 1 the team likes him. And when he speaks, you could tell he has leadership qualities.
Check this out.

Speaker 7 It was awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 7 When you're hurt, being on IR last year and being out for five weeks,

Speaker 7 it absolutely kills me not being out there with those guys because I love every single one of them.

Speaker 7 I know they got my back and I got there the rest of the way.

Speaker 6 He's wearing a, he's wearing a, oh, if you can't see this on YouTube, he's wearing like a mechanic shirt with the name of the show and like

Speaker 2 did you see what the name is?

Speaker 1 It's his name. It's JJ.

Speaker 1 this guy's never been in a garage before god almighty

Speaker 1 i'm feel i'm feeling stuff at all corners of my body i want a quarterback like that this is a sports illustrated profile piece coming into focus in real time

Speaker 1 but good for him good return and the vikings again we're going to talk about our i don't remember the over-under win totals for any other team except for the vikings i definitely took the vikings over and so i

Speaker 1 go for it, JJ. Go for it, kid.

Speaker 1 I'm pulling for you.

Speaker 2 Let's move on. You wanted them to trade for Geno Smith about 70 hours ago, but

Speaker 2 I understand what's happening.

Speaker 1 Well, no, but like, see, you're trying to trap me on that, but

Speaker 1 they needed a better plan. Like, nothing changes.
Like, this is the same thing I was getting at on social media. Like, oh, Dan, looks like JJ.
No, their plan of quarterback sucked.

Speaker 1 They brought in Sam Howell to back up JJ McCarthy, and he was so shitty in training camp that they just spun him him off for a bag of nickels.

Speaker 1 And then they went and got Carson Wentz and put him in for a month and a half. And we saw how that went.
They still could use someone, because, guys,

Speaker 1 JJ McCarthy has still played four games at like 25 in his career. They still need a backup quarterback.
They still need an insurance plan. They're not going to get it, though.
They're all in.

Speaker 1 And good luck. Stay healthy, kid.

Speaker 2 Four very special games.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 I'm just saying the four games he's played have been very special in my view.

Speaker 1 Oh, you guys get sucked in Louise.

Speaker 6 I would venture to say that he's probably tied for the all-time lead in Tom Brady LFG Awards.

Speaker 1 I bet.

Speaker 1 I bet.

Speaker 1 All right, let's move to New England. Speaking of Tom Brady,

Speaker 1 I'm important to the discourse around the Vikings.

Speaker 2 Tell yourself as much.

Speaker 1 It was important.

Speaker 1 Kickers. Kickers are important.
They're too important. That's the problem.
The Falcons battle to the very end against the Patriots.

Speaker 1 Really gutty effort by Atlanta on the road against a really good rising Patriots team. They tie the game on Drake London's third touchdown catch of the game.
That guy

Speaker 1 is a stud, Drake London. And then what happens?

Speaker 1 Parker Romo misses the extra point, stays 24-23, and then after Drake May, as he does, because he's a great young quarterback, converts on a third down to Hunter Henry, they can run the clock out.

Speaker 1 So that missed extra point is the difference

Speaker 1 for the Patriots who win their sixth straight game.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, May is just so impressive. I just,

Speaker 1 you know, his

Speaker 1 first touchdown pass in this game, the touch that he shows, his ability, and he had two turnovers in this game.

Speaker 1 He wasn't perfect,

Speaker 1 but the way he just plays the position, the way he's so, for a guy that doesn't have a lot of experience himself, obviously came into the league the same time as J.J. McCarthy.

Speaker 1 Pop Douglas, the 17-yard teardrop, he just drops in the bucket for the first touchdown.

Speaker 1 The way he's able to keep plays alive with his legs, his accuracy has really gotten so much better than it was last year and even in the beginning of this season.

Speaker 1 And even at the end of the game, that Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels could say, you know what, there's a case to be made here to take the air out of the football, punt it away, and let the defense take us home.

Speaker 1 But we trust this kid to make the right decision. And

Speaker 1 he does with that last completion to Henry. So it's the difference.
And again, like, we were looking for signs from the Atlanta Falcons that they should be taken seriously. We had a pep talk with them

Speaker 1 last week, just trying to get them straightened out.

Speaker 1 And I saw real progress, but to lose the game the way they did, to lose to the Patriots of all teams, obviously the Falcons, and to lose the way they did, the kicking game has been really hurting them for a while now, and it reared its ugly head once more.

Speaker 2 It feels like Vrabel and McDaniels are the ideal combination. coaching-wise.
And I have been pretty down on the McDaniels outside of New England experience.

Speaker 2 I thought that the Raiders situation was a disaster, but you can't look at the growth of Drake May without saying like, this is a big part of it.

Speaker 2 But they're a pretty, they're growing into this complete team because we talked about also like the key to stopping Atlanta's flow on offense is shutting down B. John Robinson in the run.

Speaker 2 And like, they did that.

Speaker 2 They've got a good defensive front and they've been able to do this week after week.

Speaker 2 And it's like, I watch the Patriots and I'm just like, I don't don't quite know what you can become, but it's pretty hopeful because at the most key important positions, you've got special people involved.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I think if you're the Bills, it almost helps to have this team in the division to keep you on your toes.

Speaker 6 I'm just a little bit worried, and I wonder if we can address the fact that Drake May has been sacked 16 times in the last three games.

Speaker 6 And this Falcons defense, while improved from that sense, is not necessarily a world beater in terms of pressures.

Speaker 6 You know, I mean, I think what their best game was, what maybe against, well, it was that Bills game where they really got after Josh Allen.

Speaker 6 But other than that, they haven't really blown me away as a pressure team. They're going to face the Bucs soon, which I think will be much more formidable.

Speaker 6 And they're going to blitz them from a lot of different angles. That's like the one Achilles heel that started to pop up for me a little bit that I'm like, yeah, Drake May's getting hit a lot.

Speaker 1 Yep. And

Speaker 1 you keep getting hit and Eventually, you get hurt. So that's something they have to work.
And I want to hit on the

Speaker 1 big play within, you know, it was kind of a little bit lost. And then there was some discourse after the game.
And I wonder if there's going to be more this week because the Falcons,

Speaker 1 after

Speaker 1 Roma misses the PAT,

Speaker 1 the defense of Atlanta

Speaker 1 gets the Patriots off the field. They take over, down one,

Speaker 1 late in the fourth quarter. They get a couple first downs.
They drive to the Patriots 48,

Speaker 1 and there is a play where clearly

Speaker 1 Pennix was not ready for the snap, and then the whole thing was thrown out off the timing, and then he kind of flicks it down, and they eventually take the flag out and hit him with an

Speaker 1 intentional grounding. It makes it third and 20.
They don't get a completion then, and then they're facing fourth and 20 at midfield.

Speaker 1 And Raheem Morris makes the decision: I'm going to punt the ball away and hope to get it back, which they never do, as I said, because the May to Henry completion.

Speaker 1 Now, after the game, Falcons coach Raheem Morris said, the Patriots clapped their hands to simulate Penix's snap call on the play, which I don't think you're allowed to do.

Speaker 1 Here is Morris after the game.

Speaker 5 Hey, we're clapping, simulated out snap. Got to snap the ball.
And that's why the ball was snapped earlier on, Mike, when he wasn't ready for the snap.

Speaker 1 Now, I don't know if that's, Connor, maybe you could help me out with this.

Speaker 1 Is that just a little bit like in baseball on a pop-up where if you're the base runner running by, you don't say, I got it? Is it more like a

Speaker 1 way that you don't play the game that way? Or is it actually illegal outright?

Speaker 6 So here's the thing.

Speaker 6 I mean, when I was reporting the sign stealing story a couple of weeks ago, one coach told me that literally every team has a recording of the other quarterback doing his snap count, and you're listening to it over and over and over again, and you're simulating it in practice, and you're playing it in practice so that your defensive players can get a jump on the ball.

Speaker 6 Now, are you allowed to, you know, mimic it to the other team? No, but how do you police clapping?

Speaker 6 I mean, I think that's something that good on New England for recognizing the muddiness of that situation and exploiting it because it's not like it's not a verbal thing.

Speaker 6 And so if that's such a big part of your snap count, I think that's on the offense to change that, you know?

Speaker 1 The other way to look at it is the Patriots are cheating, cheating, cheaters. And once again, they've done it.
And they are, I hope everyone sees what's happening.

Speaker 1 It's a meteor that's coming right towards us. And if we don't do something about it, and thank you again to Mark.
I know you're doing your best with a curse.

Speaker 1 If we don't stop this, they're going to be just monsters again. So we must kill the monster before it kills us all.

Speaker 1 That's a word of warning to everyone on the New England Patriots.

Speaker 2 My powers have not worked thus far.

Speaker 1 Almost. Almost today.

Speaker 1 But maybe, you know, we'll see. We'll see.
But yeah, that's six in a row for the Pats. They are a very good team.

Speaker 1 And I do agree, like, with the Bills, like, yeah, that's going to turn into a real fight down the stretch potentially because I think New England is now starting to find a way to win these games.

Speaker 1 And that is going to make them very dangerous, both now and in January. By the way, we now have proof that Cardi B knows Stefan Diggs is a football player.
This is amazing.

Speaker 1 This is one of my favorite moments when they flew it it up there.

Speaker 1 There's Cardi B next to Robert Kraft. You know, this guy, Kraft, he cracks me up.

Speaker 2 What are they talking about? I don't know.

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 1 Cardi B at one point was doing, I think, like Stefan Diggs' celebration.

Speaker 1 So I just thought that was interesting. And Diggs scored a touchdown today for Cardi B.
Like, I want... I want CBS to cover Cardi B appearances the way they do Taylor Swift appearances.

Speaker 1 I think it would be

Speaker 1 fair and just. It would be right.

Speaker 2 It would only be right to do that.

Speaker 1 The Robert Kraft attempts at making conversation with Cardi B

Speaker 1 has to be off the charts awkward. It's just got to be.

Speaker 2 It's like the Nixon tapes.

Speaker 1 You're from

Speaker 1 New York?

Speaker 1 I like that city.

Speaker 1 She doesn't even know who he is. Do you think she knows who that is? No.

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, maybe by now.

Speaker 1 Probably just calls him boss man the whole time.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Just wonderful. Just give us a hot mic.
Give us something. We need more Cardi B Bobby Craft content.
All right, let's move to Lambo. Another upset.
What is going on?

Speaker 1 What is going on with the Packers, man?

Speaker 1 Ugh.

Speaker 1 Are you good or are you not? Anyway, what about the Panthers? Are you good?

Speaker 1 Well, Rico Dowdle there.

Speaker 1 They got a chance. Dowdle, once again, elevated into where he always should have been, the number one rushing role on this team.
He goes for 130 and two touchdowns.

Speaker 1 And his big run in the final minutes set up Ryan Fitzgerald, who pipes one from 49 out. Carolina beats Green Bay 16-13.
They move to 5-4. Green Bay now 5-2-1.

Speaker 1 And yeah, this has been a common theme, Gravy, as we welcome in Justin, not just the ones and twos on the flagship show.

Speaker 1 A lot of people are saying, why did the play down to their competition at home, not finding a way against the Panthers, who are better than people realize, but still, that the Packers are supposed to be a Super Bowl contender.

Speaker 1 You don't lose this game.

Speaker 2 You just don't.

Speaker 9 Yeah, the offense was all sorts of out of sync in this game. They missed a field goal.
They just, they couldn't get it together. They were bad in the red zone.

Speaker 9 Jordan Love on fourth down floats a ball that should have been intercepted and it was dropped in the end zone.

Speaker 9 And if that was picked off, this game wouldn't have even might not have come down to the wire because he could have potentially taken that all the way back.

Speaker 9 I think it was Jackson who dropped that interception. And

Speaker 9 I don't know. I came out of this game pretty concerned with the Packers, but also this is sort of the same Packers team we've seen every week.
They've just managed to win most of these games.

Speaker 9 With the Panthers, it's the Rico Dowdle show, baby. Sorry, are we keeping it on Packers' side right now? I don't know what happened to the Packers in this game.
They just looked, like you said,

Speaker 9 they

Speaker 9 played down to their competition. They also were dealing with a ton of injuries.
Tucker Kraft, who's been an absolute menace this season, went out in the first half.

Speaker 9 They're saying they're fearing that it could be a torn ACL, which would just be a brutal blow to that offense. Matthew Golden got hurt in this game.

Speaker 9 A few other guys got hurt in this game as well for this Packers offense.

Speaker 9 Christian Watson is back, and he made a huge explosive play at one point in this game, but it's not enough.

Speaker 9 They need to find more big plays, and they had a few, but yeah, just not enough to really get in. Like, they scored 13 points against the Panthers.

Speaker 1 Like, come on.

Speaker 1 They've managed 19 total points in the first half of their past three games. So they're starting slow.
And I know Love stepped up in crunch time and got the game tied,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 that interception he threw, he had one that should have been caught in the end zone, as you, as you mentioned. But they had a first down.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he targets Watson in triple coverage and just throws it up for grabs. And it's like,

Speaker 1 I feel like with love, sometimes, Justin, it's like, I feel I'm ready to welcome him into like the elite quarterback club. And then he has these moments where it's like, can you fully trust him?

Speaker 1 Of course, he's coming off a game where he was absolutely nails in outplaying Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.

Speaker 1 But again, there's just this inconsistency that pops up in his game at times in the decision-making.

Speaker 9 Yeah, and it wasn't like he was bad today.

Speaker 9 It just in the big moments were like the conversion opportunities, the high-leverage situations, like what Mike Tomlin talked about, what we just listened to a few minutes ago.

Speaker 9 Like, they just didn't make the plays at the right time. And Love, like, Love made a handful of really nice throws in this game.

Speaker 9 He had one play where he got the offense moving to the line quickly and caught the Panthers with two defensive penalties, too many men on the field and offsides because they couldn't get set.

Speaker 9 And hits a huge completion down the field to Romeo Dobbs, but

Speaker 9 just not enough

Speaker 6 high-leverage conversions.

Speaker 9 Like, this is the moment, Jordan Love, to go win your team the game. They need him to be that guy.
That's how much money they paid him.

Speaker 9 And he's doing enough to keep the offense moving at times, but he's not being that guy that goes out and wins you the game. And I think that's the issue.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the funny thing, it actually wasn't very funny at the time, but Dowdle, his second touchdown in the day, put the Panthers up 13-6 late in the third quarter.

Speaker 1 He does a celebration that

Speaker 1 was an homage to Kian Peele,

Speaker 1 their famous Kringleberry Two Pumps sketch. By the way, Kean Peele, here's a hot take.
Kean Peele better than the Chappelle show. That's just a hot take for sketch comedy.

Speaker 1 I'm going to throw it out there.

Speaker 2 Well, I would agree with you.

Speaker 1 I would agree with you.

Speaker 1 I'm going to give Chappelle the credit for being the Trailblazer, but I think Keen Peel actually did it better and more consistently.

Speaker 2 They were just very consistent, yes.

Speaker 1 Anyway. Unbelievable.
It was so, but because he gets penalized for that,

Speaker 1 because on Key and Peel, three pumps got you the penalty, two pumps get you the penalty in the NFL.

Speaker 1 Dowdle did that, and it pushed back the extra point and made it a 48-yard extra point and really bad windy conditions for a kicker. The PAT falls short.

Speaker 1 So, when Josh Jacobs scores late in the fourth quarter, instead of it being still a one-point deficit, the game's tied.

Speaker 1 So, Dowdell had this to say about his big run that set up the game winner, kind of making up for his mistake.

Speaker 7 Yeah, that's good. That's my understanding, from my understanding, and everything I've learned.

Speaker 5 Uh, we go over stuff like this every week in a meeting room. Um, I definitely think it's too cost.

Speaker 1 Hopefully, I'll get a pop.

Speaker 2 There's like actual time devoted during the week to that conversation. I love that.

Speaker 9 I want to talk about this split because you know, we talked about it on the preview show. Dave Canalis talked about it in the lead up to this game in the last two weeks with Hubbard back.

Speaker 9 The run game hasn't been as explosive. Dowdle is so, it was like, it was crazy because Hubbard did have five carries in this game.

Speaker 9 He managed 17 yards on those five carries, but Dowdle, 130 yards and two touchdowns on the ground on 25 carries, averaged 5.2 yards per attempt compared to Hubbard's 3.4.

Speaker 9 It's like the difference when he is in the backfield. You can feel it.
Like it's noticeable.

Speaker 9 It's not just like one guy's a little bit better than the other or one guy happens to be on the field when the blocking's a little bit better. Like Dowdle was electric.

Speaker 9 and he's been electric every chance he's got this season. And I think the Panthers are going to do the right thing now and ride him.

Speaker 9 But if you look at their wins and losses, it's like the games where Dowdle was the lead back, those are the wins.

Speaker 1 It's like this has already been settled, though. What are you going to settle for? They split him.

Speaker 1 He was nails for the games when Hubbard was hurt. Then when Hubbard came back for two games, they tried to make a split and it didn't work.

Speaker 1 And then they came out in the media and said, we're going to give Dowdle the job because he deserves it. And then he out-touched him and carries 25-5.

Speaker 2 It's done. They did it.
Like Canalis just did a good job with that last week, basically.

Speaker 1 Sure, Sure,

Speaker 2 what a big win for

Speaker 1 you about it, Justin.

Speaker 9 I just wanted to acknowledge that it played out the way that we all foresaw that it would. Daoudo legitimately is a lot better

Speaker 9 at this stage of their careers.

Speaker 1 It's a good player.

Speaker 9 And Bryce Young did lead the field goal drive.

Speaker 9 One other last thing I thought was interesting in this game was Dave Canalis making the very smart decision to give himself the chance in the second half to pick which direction they were going.

Speaker 9 And Greg Olson pointed this out on the broadcast multiple times so that they could kick with the wind to kick that game-winning field goal and not be in the situation they were in when they missed the long extra point try.

Speaker 1 Gotcha.

Speaker 2 Thanks. He's coming coach of the year.

Speaker 1 I like that.

Speaker 1 He's on a little heater. Canal is on a little heater.
They're five and four. They're frisky teams.
Yes, they are coach of the year.

Speaker 1 Let's take a break. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 1 You know that appointment, right? Yeah, I know exactly the one you're referring to. I don't know how you know so much about my personal life, but go on.

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Speaker 1 all right

Speaker 1 oh we gotta you know you want to talk

Speaker 1 in the nfl sometimes a game can start one way and finish in a totally different way

Speaker 1 which takes us to the desert and the jacksonville jaguars and the las vegas raiders

Speaker 1 Trevor Lawrence, he's imperfect,

Speaker 1 but he'll step up. He has his moments,

Speaker 1 and he did on Sunday in Las Vegas. He had two rushing touchdowns,

Speaker 1 which included the winning sneak in overtime.

Speaker 1 And when the defense couldn't find a way to stop Brock Bowers, who is absolutely a menace in this game, as he scores a touchdown in the final minute of overtime, They get one more big play.

Speaker 1 Devon Hamilton, the nose tackle, jumps up and swats down the Geno Smith pass, denying the Raiders a winning two-point conversion. Final score, Jags 30, Raiders 29.
Jags moved to 5-3.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a true story. The Jacksonville Jaguars are 5-3.

Speaker 1 And what, like a game out

Speaker 1 in the AFC South?

Speaker 1 And the Raiders fall to 2-6. Connor, your thoughts on this one? Yeah, a game that was 9-3 at half ends up 30-29 after OT.

Speaker 6 This game was wild. It included some of the worst play calls that I've ever seen that succeeded on a consistent basis.

Speaker 6 Lawrence threw one of the worst red zone interceptions that I've seen this season. But what's I at first I was hypercritical until I saw his wife's Instagram post about how sick they were.

Speaker 6 And then Liam Cohen said that Lawrence was as pale as a ghost. He was throwing up all night last night.
And Trevor Lawrence's wife said that she is still down bad

Speaker 6 based on whatever illness they've had.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine? Like, we've all been there. We're human, right? You have a stomach bug, and it could be coming out one way, it could be coming out the other.

Speaker 1 And then you're all of a sudden, if you're a professional football player, like there's no calling out sick or working from home.

Speaker 1 Like, you have to be on that field with the lights on in front of 70,000 people and a few million more watching at home.

Speaker 1 And a bunch of like 300-pound guys are trying to literally knock that, you know, whatever is coming out out of you some more. So, credit to Trevor Lawrence and football football players in general.

Speaker 1 It is not an easy sport.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 When there is a threat of various liquids coming out of various orifices, you don't want to be squeezed by big, heavy men for the most part.

Speaker 1 Or flattened or just even molested in any way. Just want your distance, and yet these football players, just heroic.

Speaker 2 Well, you want to be the wife who gets to stay home in bed, probably a really nice bed in a very nice large mansion.

Speaker 2 She kind of wanted to.

Speaker 1 Well, how do you know what she has at home isn't even more challenging? Because mothers have their own challenges, Mark. Have you even thought of that?

Speaker 2 I will now.

Speaker 6 Just to put a bow on that, big, big, big day for black pants for the Jaguars. Thank God that they weren't in home whites.

Speaker 1 Strategically in the black.

Speaker 1 Hey, I want to touch on Cam Little for a second.

Speaker 1 The kicker for the Jaguars at the end of the first half.

Speaker 1 He set the NFL record.

Speaker 1 I'm not alone, I'm sure, but I called this, it was happening this year. I think I said there's going to be a 70-yard field goal this year.
Kamit's a 68-yarder. It breaks the Justin Tucker.

Speaker 1 Justin Tucker just being erased from history. It sets the regular season NFL record for field goals.
It would have been, I think it hit the bottom of the net.

Speaker 1 And I just want to like, I don't want to be too critical, but I do want to play the audio of the team.

Speaker 1 You know, when we do our announcer power rankings, the

Speaker 1 Chris Myers

Speaker 1 Schlereth team.

Speaker 1 Just an electric duo. Yeah, they don't tend to rate very high.
And as the team's celebrating after Little hits the kick, I'm thinking to myself,

Speaker 1 has this announcing team mentioned that they just set an NFL record?

Speaker 1 Let's listen to the call and also, Justin, give me a clock and let's see how long it takes either Myers or Schlerith to mention that an NFL record had just taken place.

Speaker 1 All right, so Cam Little has 70-yarder a in the preseason. Now, in pregame warm-ups

Speaker 1 in here, he did make from 60.

Speaker 1 This will be 68 yards with four seconds remaining. And Trey Tucker is back in the end zone.
Maybe we return this if the Raiders have a chance for playing. No, Chris, mention it.

Speaker 1 Say it, Chris. 68 yards away.
It's up there. It's out there.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's gone. It's gone from 68.

Speaker 1 NFL record. Say it.

Speaker 1 Say it. Cam Little came up big.
Someone say it.

Speaker 1 To be kidding me.

Speaker 1 Just driving that ball. You see the low trajectory.

Speaker 2 Someone fucking say it.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's good from 70.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this is regular fucking season. Wow.
And

Speaker 1 he's had a rough year of sophomore slidesville. You know, they

Speaker 1 did a great rookie year out of him.

Speaker 1 And he was 0 for two of the last couple of games. 50 yards.

Speaker 1 It's an NFL record set.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 One minute and eight seconds.

Speaker 1 It took you 68 seconds

Speaker 1 on a 68-yard field goal

Speaker 1 to mention that we just set an NFL record.

Speaker 1 What are we doing?

Speaker 1 Who's in the year?

Speaker 1 I mean, I haven't been this mad since Justin missed the 20th lock

Speaker 1 prediction. Like, I,

Speaker 1 I, come on, give Cam Little his due. But all kidding aside, like,

Speaker 1 congratulations to Cam Little and 68 yards. And it turns out to be a very big kick because the game ends up 30-29.
We have a new, we have a record, and now the push to 69 or 70 begins.

Speaker 6 Hashtag push to 69.

Speaker 1 Speaking of 69, Connor, I thought of you when they showed

Speaker 1 Chip Kelly celebrating with his buddies in the booth at one point. I asked Justin to grab the shot.
Look at that. That's your boy.
Look at that.

Speaker 1 Chip with his boys.

Speaker 6 So two more quick things on this. Brock Bowers was awesome.

Speaker 6 Obviously has an

Speaker 6 12 catches for 127 yards and three touchdowns. But if, like, it was better than that.

Speaker 6 Even better than that.

Speaker 6 He was so good, and he was so awesome after the catch. And he had a one-armed grab that they initially called incomplete that was maybe one of the best catches of the season.

Speaker 6 But I saved a little something for you, Dan. I got a little dessert for you.

Speaker 6 I thought you would enjoy this, a little Geno Smith Schadenfreude.

Speaker 6 And so at the end of the game, Pete Carroll decides to go for two to win it, analytically the correct choice in overtime because the Jaguars scored first.

Speaker 1 Look at how

Speaker 1 damn wide open that guy is.

Speaker 6 And we don't hit it. So there you go.

Speaker 1 They flashed to Pete on the sideline right after the pass got knocked down and he goes, what happened? What just happened?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I never played quarterback.

Speaker 1 I feel like, are we getting on him for throwing the ball too low, the trajectory of the throw, or is it you just give credit to the defensive lineman that got his big meat paws up? I don't know.

Speaker 6 If Cam Little can find an appropriate trajectory to hit a 68-yard kick, Geno Smith should be able to get that ball to the back of the end zone.

Speaker 1 It's a fair retort. I will say that that kick, when you watch the side angle, how does that not get blocked? It's just a howitzer

Speaker 1 that front, and somehow nobody got a hand up.

Speaker 6 Another horrible job by the broadcast because I went back and I watched it again and again. They didn't show the kicker angle.

Speaker 1 Come on. Come on.

Speaker 6 Like, that's what you would want to see. How close was it to being blocked? Actually, how close? That's what what I want to see.

Speaker 1 They just didn't grasp that moment. Such a weird moment not to grasp.

Speaker 1 And, you know, Geno, let's give him credit. He actually balled out in this game

Speaker 1 that last play, notwithstanding. And I just want to last thing about Bowers.

Speaker 1 His numbers were outrageous in this game. And all you Bowers fantasy owners are...

Speaker 1 are thinking to yourself, oh, this guy might actually take me to the promised land if he could just stay healthy. And we'll see if that knee can hold up.

Speaker 1 But in this game, 12 for 127, three touchdowns on 13 targets. Don't be surprised if Geno starts playing a lot better now that Bowers is on the field all the time.

Speaker 1 His first touchdown you mentioned, beautiful job coming down with it and his ass hitting the end zone before he goes out of bounds.

Speaker 1 The second one I thought was the most impressive because it showed him catch the ball over the middle and then just run past everybody in the end zone. It showed that he was healthy.

Speaker 1 And then the third one was impressive in its own way because it was one of those things where a receiver or a tight end in this case is so locked in that you know he's going to score the touchdown that they need like he's going to get it and and Gino to his credit got it to him they just couldn't get the two-point conversion probably should have targeted

Speaker 2 Brock Bowers maybe it would have been different but uh to think we had a show a couple weeks ago where our friend Arif Hassan suggested that Brock Bowers be sent out of Las Vegas for a couple of lower round picks um

Speaker 1 I think that was a joke I think it was a prank and a good one at that on us yeah Brock Bowers I wouldn't trade him for a first-round pick or two. He is a guy you build around.
All right, let's move to

Speaker 1 Houston, where the Broncos look to keep their winning ways

Speaker 1 going.

Speaker 1 Keep their winning ways going. Wish I had that one back.

Speaker 1 Just like Gino. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 The Broncos win ugly. That's just what they do.
Sometimes they win fun and exciting, but there's a lot of these. They are 7-2 after an 18-15 win over the Texans.

Speaker 1 But they include games like this. Nicks throws two touchdown passes,

Speaker 1 and they are able to come back with 11 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. Will Lutz makes a 34-yarder as time expires.

Speaker 1 And yes, that was the difference for Denver, whose winning streak is up to six games.

Speaker 1 Here's Nick's on the ugly nature of Broncos football at times, even though it is successful and that's all that matters.

Speaker 12 It just proves that we can win tough games and it proves that our mentality can adjust to where we expect to find ways to win. And it's, I think, a really good

Speaker 12 issue to have is when you're finding these ugly wins because playoff games and tough games in the postseason are one-score games. You got to learn how to win those.

Speaker 1 I mean, incredible grit, Connor, for the team of Heed the Call.

Speaker 1 Those are our boys. Oh, God.

Speaker 2 Your boys.

Speaker 6 I mean, Davis Mills was in a quarterback for most of this game. C.J.
Stroud got knocked out.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 his mom posted on Instagram after the game that he is okay.

Speaker 1 His old lady posted that? Good.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 So I don't know. I mean, this was not a game where I had a gigantic takeaway from Denver other than the fact that every time R.J.

Speaker 6 Harvey is on the field, something magical happens, and then he's just on the field for like six snaps a game. And I don't understand why.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, J.K. Dobbins has been on balance,

Speaker 1 a good thing for them. He's had a nice season.
I think he's given them more than a lot of people expected, but Harvey does seem like the more explosive player. Can you tell me a little bit more,

Speaker 1 Connor, about, as I dropped my pen,

Speaker 1 the Stroud play? Because

Speaker 1 Damiko Ryan was not happy about it after the game.

Speaker 6 So, yeah, D'Amico Ryan said it was unnecessary roughness

Speaker 6 and it was flagged initially, but it ended up not being a flagged play.

Speaker 6 It was an awful slide. And

Speaker 6 you hate to blame the person who ends up getting hit and knocked out there, but it was like a broken baseball slide. And so when Stroud was going down to one knee, he left his chest exposed.

Speaker 6 And the Broncos defender just hit him hard enough in the chest where where he was at a bad angle, couldn't support himself backwards, and then his head just snapped back.

Speaker 6 So it looked really violent in the moment, but I mean, even as that was going on, like the whole Broncos defense, it's like, how, how much cleaner could we have possibly hit the guy?

Speaker 6 Uh, so I think D'Amico is always going to stick up for his guys in that scenario, but I, it was, it was a clean hit by letter of the law, and they picked up the flag or, yeah, yeah, there was, yeah, it did not strike me as a super dirty hit or anything.

Speaker 2 I, I, I'm with you on that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a bummer. And hopefully, Stroud doesn't miss more time than this game.

Speaker 1 Any other thoughts on this game?

Speaker 6 Okay, I'm going to use this to tease an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated, which you should all buy.

Speaker 6 But so the Texans almost won this game with no offense solely on the strength of their special teams.

Speaker 6 Frank Ross, their special teams coordinator, I mean, it was punts, it was returns, like through the gauntlet, like blocks, everything.

Speaker 6 They had everything in this game and literally almost won it on all special teams if you spend five minutes talking to this guy you'll be blown away he was the last two winners of the um what's that uh the special teams coach of the year award that it doesn't exist anymore there was like an old rick dosling special teams coach of the year award so super impressive and legitimately as a special teams coordinator almost pulled this win out for the texans which is wild wow

Speaker 1 So close, yet, so far.

Speaker 2 One quick question, Connor, because I know this was probably visually not a feast in terms of what you witnessed today, but Garrett Bulls, left tackle for the Broncos, called this the best, the Broncos the best defense in the NFL.

Speaker 2 Do you think

Speaker 2 that's fair?

Speaker 6 I mean, at this point, they might be. I mean, Vance Joseph's been in his bag for the last two seasons.
Brian Flores' defense, when they're humming, it's hard to bet against them too.

Speaker 6 But man, I mean, the Texans just had nothing. And again, it's Davis Mills and C.J.
Stroud wasn't in for most of this game, but I guess it doesn't matter, right?

Speaker 6 If you're blanking your good opponents and your bad opponents, yeah, I mean, I think it's an elite defense, but yeah,

Speaker 6 I think it could be.

Speaker 1 Let's move to the Meadowlands where the Niners tried to survive again with their backup quarterback, but they're getting used to that now.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 We're loving up some Mac Jones this year, but on Sunday, Kyle Shanahan looked at his matchup against the Giants and said, we're running the damn rock. Christian McCaffrey, Brian Robertson Jr.

Speaker 1 Running straight through that defense for New York.

Speaker 1 And Mac Jones chipped in with two more touchdown passes, winning his fifth start as Brock Purdy continues to work his way back from a toe issue.

Speaker 1 And the Niners cruise to a 34-24 win over the decimated New York Giants. Giants dropped to 2-7.
The Niners right in the mix here at 6-3. And

Speaker 1 eventually, I guess, getting healthy. Mark, a nice win for the Niners.
And yes, showing that their running game can carry them is a nice little bonus here as well.

Speaker 2 It feels like Niners' wins this season have a similar look and feel each week. And it was another one of those.
I thought they really exerted their will.

Speaker 2 Mac Jones,

Speaker 2 I'm not like quarterback controversy guy, but it's like, I have to think that Kyle Shanahan is just falling deeply in love with this player. He didn't have an incomplete pass until the third quarter.

Speaker 2 Like he just does everything you're asking. And against a Giants defense that I thought, you know, look at this defensive line could be dominant.
It could cause a lot of problem.

Speaker 2 They cannot stop the run. And the Niners just simply went out there and played like a pretty basic game plan that was like, we're going to blow you up with the run over and over and over.
over.

Speaker 2 And there was nothing the Giants could do until they scored a couple late touchdowns. But this was not a very close game.

Speaker 2 And it was an example that a compromised Niners team can win games in different types of ways. But Mac Jones was just so super clean that you're not even thinking about Brock Purdy.

Speaker 2 Like it's like, I don't know what the difference between the two of them is at this point.

Speaker 2 Like this was as clean a first half as I've seen from a quarterback in a while inside an offense that creates this environment for someone like this player.

Speaker 2 And it was just like, you can see them, their record is real because they absolutely, the Giants were not really a part of this game until late.

Speaker 2 I think Jackson Dart is absolutely for real, but I just think that the Niners offense was like,

Speaker 2 we're going to tell you exactly what we're doing, New York Giants defense, and they did it from A to Z.

Speaker 1 The Niners ran the ball 39 times for 159 yards with the two touchdowns. So a really balanced attack.
Christian McCaffrey continues to have a big-time comeback year.

Speaker 1 He went over 100 yards, still less than four yards of carry. It hasn't been a flashy year running the football, but his all-purpose yards are just off the charts this year.
Five for 67 receiving.

Speaker 1 And you mentioned on the Giants side of the ball, and I understand like with the Giants, it's... It's a weird season for them, right?

Speaker 1 Because it increasingly looks like they nailed the quarterback pick. And if you nail a quarterback pick, you can live with anything because that's a long-term solution at the position.

Speaker 1 And this season on some levels is a success just because of that.

Speaker 1 But then you factor in the nature of the Malik Neighbors injury and then the Cam Scataboo injury and how that kind of took the air out of the balloon.

Speaker 1 And now I'm looking at this famed New York Giants front with all these first-round picks and high-paid guys. Kayvon Thibodeau, one tackle.
Abdul Carter, one tackle.

Speaker 1 Dexter Lawrence. One tackle.

Speaker 1 This was supposed to be the, and I mean, it looks like based on just looking at the stat sheet now, so I'm not going to go crazy, but looks like Brian Burns at least showed up. But like,

Speaker 2 Brian Burns stood out today.

Speaker 1 I think he's not. That's not enough.
Like, that was supposed to be the strength of this team, and then the offense was going to hopefully develop. And that has not been the case for the Giants.

Speaker 2 I think you're right. Like, we thought, Connor, we thought this pass rush was going to be a complete difference maker.
And it just,

Speaker 2 you know, when your quarterback's going like 14 for 14 to start the game, he's not feeling any pressure. They're running the ball the way they want.
Like these players aren't the

Speaker 2 sum of their parts.

Speaker 1 Here's Kayvon after the game.

Speaker 13 I think there was a point in that game

Speaker 13 late in the fourth quarter, midway through, where they had almost six yards of play on average for the game.

Speaker 14 What do you think of that?

Speaker 1 That's bad, man. That's real bad.

Speaker 8 We got to do a better job as players, coaches, support. Everybody got to do a better job.

Speaker 2 It's unacceptable.

Speaker 1 Anyway, Connor?

Speaker 6 This is,

Speaker 6 I mean, I would consider myself like a little bit of a pet Project Giants fan like Mark, but this was a happy game for me for two reasons.

Speaker 6 One, I'll help Justin and remind him that I locked the shit out of the San Francisco 49.

Speaker 1 Nicely done.

Speaker 6 And two, as the son of a referee who once made my dad so mad during a basketball game, I was his clock operator that he came over and like literally almost pulled me by the ear and dragged me out of the gym.

Speaker 6 There was this great moment where the referee yelled at the play clock operator, and I asked Justin to flag it because it made me laugh.

Speaker 1 That's good defense support.

Speaker 2 Called out in front of 70,000 people.

Speaker 1 Everybody wanted to get on to me three and get the hell out. We heard that tone? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Can I just mention one quick thing? This game also

Speaker 2 had a little flashpoint point with our new friend Adam Shine, who is part of these Sundays.

Speaker 2 This just made our friends. Our new friend? Well, I'm just saying, like, he's part of our Sundays, I should say.
Not a friend, but like, just this is absurd.

Speaker 2 But, Justin, if you want to play this quick thing from shit.

Speaker 1 Let's go to Adam Shine in our studios.

Speaker 1 Kevin, Trent's fourth in goal, Michael Pennix Jr. to Drake London.
What a catch. Third touchdown of the game for Drake.
Extra point, no good. Hey, Trents, up by one, back to you.

Speaker 2 I mean, he's cut into a different game, but I just like, I'm listening to this, and it feels like, is this, I feel like it's 1928, and I'm listening to radio on like this. Listen,

Speaker 1 I think Shine's having a big year.

Speaker 6 He is too.

Speaker 1 And I know Shine's been around for a long time.

Speaker 1 I think Shine's a Rockland County guy like me, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 Same New York suburb area. But like Shine,

Speaker 6 I've grown, I can't,

Speaker 1 what's the right way to put this where it doesn't come off?

Speaker 1 I wasn't always a fan of Shine, but at some point, I think it was around week three or four, they threw it to him, and he, he, you know, he gave his update with a similar update like that.

Speaker 1 It was like a little panache to it, and he was just having fun with it. And I was like, you know what? Adam Shine's bringing something to these broadcasts.

Speaker 1 And ever since I kind of was able to hit the reset button on my mind on Adam Shine,

Speaker 1 I think it was when he was writing those Shine Nine columns, Mark, where you and I would be grinding these long shifts in the newsroom, and then Adam Shine would drop this like weekly NFL media column to Shine 9.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, that seems, I think I was just jealous of Adam Shine, actually, now that I look back on it for having a better career at that point. But like, Shine

Speaker 1 is a net positive. And I just, I'm glad you pointed him out here.
He's like, Kevin Trent, Michael Penix out here in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 A couple weeks ago, I don't think we were doing this on Mike, but we were talking about like cutting away to Adam Schein for different moments in like world history. He's like, oh, this just ninja.

Speaker 1 I'm shots fired in Dealey Plaza.

Speaker 1 The Kennedy motorcade rushing to Parkland. Uh-oh, back to you.

Speaker 1 Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 Like, I want Adam Shine updates in all ways in life now. All right.
Anything else in this game?

Speaker 2 No, I think we covered it.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's take a break.
And when we get back, more football.

Speaker 11 What's good, y'all? It's Von Miller, Super Bowl MVP, SAG Master, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets real talk.

Speaker 11 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 11 Welcome to Free Range with Von Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts. New episodes every Wednesday.

Speaker 11 Listen and follow Free Range with me, Von Miller, wherever wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1 Thanks, Mark. I appreciate that compliment.
You're welcome. All right, we're back.
We have a few more games to get to, and then Sunday night football. My goodness, Sam Darnold, my boy.

Speaker 1 My beautiful boy is all grown up.

Speaker 1 Anybody tracking?

Speaker 1 I mean, we're tracking. We're like the only people tracking, but like what's going on on Doc, Fox's

Speaker 1 drama, medical drama of

Speaker 1 it.

Speaker 1 I mean, we are.

Speaker 1 You know, I thought it was a little bit

Speaker 1 some red flags, the season two

Speaker 1 trailer where it seemed to be a little bit more soapy.

Speaker 1 And then they did the move where they brought in one of the desperate housewives chicks to spice up the cast. And I was like, uh-oh, that could go one of two ways.

Speaker 1 The latest trailer, and if you're not watching on YouTube, check it out.

Speaker 1 The latest trailer, really,

Speaker 1 they're really ramping it up. It's almost a supernatural show now.
Let's check this out.

Speaker 1 Doc on Fox.

Speaker 3 Oh, my God.

Speaker 13 i don't understand what's happening to him it's a priest with bleeding eyes you know suspended our transplant program because we liked him in the hostage crisis

Speaker 1 they're gonna make you the fall guy for this we need to find out what happened with dr larson and dad we need to get into her computer

Speaker 1 i'm not giving up on you

Speaker 1 interesting all new two weeks from tonight now is that demonic connor or now that i'm now i'm hearing that is it because the bleeding eye the priest with bleeding eyes, is that something that could happen when you need a transplant of some type of organ?

Speaker 1 Or is that is that some occult shit that they're dropping into the plot?

Speaker 2 It's stigmata.

Speaker 1 Yeah, stigmata would be the hands, right?

Speaker 2 Well, but it can't, it's, it, the hands and feet. I believe it's through multiple,

Speaker 2 there are multiple varieties of it, but typically right.

Speaker 1 Are you just making this up?

Speaker 1 No, no, no.

Speaker 2 Typically, it would be like, um, it's happened to,

Speaker 2 in theory, it's happened to people where they're bleeding from let me Google priests eyes bleeding it's normally where the

Speaker 2 nails went through like the wrist of jesus um but i think eyes is another version of it

Speaker 1 a bleeding priest's eyes is not a recognized medical condition but the term likely refers to a spiritual phenomenon called the stigmata where some individuals experience wounds including eye bleeding that resemble those of jesus christ um so you know stigmata creeping its way into the plot summary of an episode of doc we're kind of drifting from the mission statement of the series, which originally felt like a gritty look at the high-stakes world of medicine at the top levels and how a devastating car accident that includes a head smacking against the side window, bang, could have a devastating effect on your life both in the operating room and off it.

Speaker 1 Bang! Bang! Bang!

Speaker 2 Bang! Well, it's almost as if they're running out of ideas.

Speaker 1 I mean, in in season two, that would be a bad sign.

Speaker 1 My concern, Mark, is not that they're running out of ideas, that they're changing it into a different show to save everybody's jobs. We're concerned about our doc P-scale here at Heed the Call.

Speaker 1 I mean, where are we at, Connor? It's got to be over eight at this point, right?

Speaker 6 Yeah. I mean, anytime that you...

Speaker 6 All of a sudden are like, it's also a spy thriller and people are going to be bleeding out of unusual places and it feels like nothing is tethered to just the idea that this woman is recovering.

Speaker 6 For like, you could do there's so many ideas with a doctor who doesn't remember things. I mean, come on, that's great, you know, the high comedy, but uh, not here.

Speaker 1 Well, drama, I don't think it's supposed to be play for joke.

Speaker 2 Somebody gets a comedy. Some of the, I think they got 24 episodes here in season two, so there's a long way to go.

Speaker 1 Maybe too long. I'm worried, maybe too long.

Speaker 1 Yeah, all right, let's move to Nashville.

Speaker 2 Must we?

Speaker 1 That's what we do.

Speaker 1 That's what we do.

Speaker 1 Los Angeles Chargers, they, you know, they seem to be on the wrong side of some type of demonic event themselves

Speaker 1 with all the injuries, especially on their offensive line. And Joe Alt went down again.
with yet another high ankle sprain, we're hearing. So expect the star left tackle to miss but

Speaker 1 thankfully justin herbert's still around and even though he lost his right tackle to an injury he lost his left tackle to an injury he gets sacked six times he still finds a way to throw for 250 yards and two touchdowns he runs for another score and the chargers beat the titans 27-20.

Speaker 1 The Titans made some plays defensively and on special teams to keep this thing close, but it is the Chargers who find a way.

Speaker 1 And here is Jim Harbert, Jim Harbaugh once again, absolutely absolutely in lust with his young quarterback.

Speaker 1 There's no other ways I think that he can

Speaker 1 impress, you know.

Speaker 1 But then every time I think that, then he finds a way to, you know, it's like another rung on the ladder of esteem.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 he's that guy. He's that competitor.
He's that

Speaker 1 kind of player that

Speaker 1 it's reserved for the great ones that find a way and they'll

Speaker 1 do it

Speaker 1 whatever the situation presents.

Speaker 1 But I mean, some of those runs, I mean,

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 the physical nature of those runs. I mean, look like Levy Zonka

Speaker 1 at times. Zonka? Okay.

Speaker 1 You know what this reminds me of? It has

Speaker 1 parallels to Doc, actually.

Speaker 1 Superstar. Where you keep amplifying and raising the stakes to the point where, dude,

Speaker 1 it's only season two. And in this case, like, dude, it's only week nine.
Like, what's he going to say in the playoffs of Herbert as a big game? He's just going to start sobbing uncontrollably.

Speaker 1 Superstar.

Speaker 1 Justin, your thoughts on the game.

Speaker 9 Yeah, but to his point, there was a couple plays where Justin Herbert took his shoulder and just ran it through Titans' defenders to pick up first downs.

Speaker 9 And the Titans' defense, you mentioned both tackles. Joe Alt went down.
Bobby Hart, who they signed a couple weeks ago off the street to play at right tackle, he went down in in this game early on.

Speaker 9 So they're missing both tackles. The Titans defense, which has not been good at rushing the passer at all this season.
I bet you guys can't even name a pass rusher on the Titans.

Speaker 2 They had six sacks today.

Speaker 9 And yet, it doesn't matter because Herbert runs it seven times for over 50 yards, killed him with his legs, killed him with his arm.

Speaker 9 The pivotal moment in this game was the Titans get stuffed on a fourth and goal from the one attempt. And at this point, you know, it's like, I think it was a three-point game at that point.

Speaker 9 And the Chargers turn around and march 99 yards over like nine minutes to really salt the game away, to go up 10 points.

Speaker 9 And that was, I mean, the Titans were able to manage a field goal after that, but not much else. They didn't touch the ball again.

Speaker 9 And that was, the Chargers were able to salt the game away in the four-minute offense, too. So despite the offensive line injuries, the Titans are terrible.

Speaker 9 And despite the Titans' offense getting spotted 14 points from a punt return touchdown and a pick six, they still only managed 20 total in the game. And just terrible.

Speaker 1 Justin, I'm willing to give Cam Moore to pass on year one. It's been rocky.
The head coach was already fired.

Speaker 1 But you just never like these,

Speaker 1 you never like a number one overall pick being the pilot of an offense that ranks last in points, last in yards per game,

Speaker 1 second to last in yards, passing per game. Now, again, he has so much working against them.
They're also last in rushing yards per game.

Speaker 1 But it just feels like, how is this guy going to be able to develop in the back half of the season? Are you seeing any signs that this can be a healthy environment for your prize number one pick?

Speaker 9 The only thing I'll say to that is that he's extremely resilient and confident, and he doesn't seem to be shaken by anything.

Speaker 9 And despite the fact that he's been sacked more than any other quarterback, I don't see any of those signs of a guy getting skittish in the pocket or dropping his eyes or not trusting protection.

Speaker 9 Like, if you turn on the tape, I think Cam Ward is flashing enough to give you hope. Now, he's not, obviously, he's still making mistakes.
He's not perfect.

Speaker 9 And he made a handful of mistakes in this game.

Speaker 9 Had a wide open Van Jefferson on third and 16 and dirted it at his feet because he was running out of the pocket and like jump through it instead of just resetting his feet and throwing it.

Speaker 9 And had a couple other misses in this game. But for the most part, he's getting out of pressure.
He's making improvised plays. He's also hitting throws in structure.

Speaker 9 He hit a deep one to Elekaia Manor.

Speaker 9 The frustrating thing for me is that because you've already fired your coaching staff and the guys remaining know they're not going to be back next year, the front office has an agenda, which is develop for next year.

Speaker 9 Let's get the young guys in there.

Speaker 9 That's why I think you'll see the Titans be big time sellers at the deadline because they need an excuse to get the young guys in because the guys on the coaching staff who are left are auditioning for other jobs around the league.

Speaker 9 So they're going out there and they're doing everything they can to try to win these games. They're not playing the young guys.

Speaker 9 They're not letting Cam Ward get experience in moments where where he needs like game rep experience, like big time fourth downs where you got to convert or near the goal line in the red zone.

Speaker 9 Cam Ward marches them all the way down the field. They get to first and goal from the eight, and they don't let him throw a ball, throw a pass.
They go for it four times. They're all run plays.

Speaker 9 One of them is a flip-forward reverse run that counts technically as a pass, but they don't let, they don't, they keep taking the ball out of his hands.

Speaker 9 The Titans on three separate third downs in this game

Speaker 9 motion Cam Ward out as a wide receiver and run a Wildcat play. And all three were extremely failed attempts.
One of them, they lose a yard. There's a 10-yard holding penalty.

Speaker 9 That's what turns into a third and 16. The other two, they just get completely stuffed.
On third and short, they keep going into this wildcat formation three times. Why?

Speaker 9 It didn't work the first two times. What are you doing? Let your quarterback throw the ball.
So frustrating.

Speaker 1 So frustrating.

Speaker 2 Anyway, I'm listening to you, Justin. I'm listening to you.
This could be the worst roster in the league. That's not helping helping your young quarterback.

Speaker 9 I think it is, and it's going to get worse because I, again, I think it's going to be a good idea.

Speaker 1 I got to call it. Okay.

Speaker 9 All right. One last thing from this game.
Ross Tucker. I think Ross Tucker is a very good broadcaster, but he made a really corny joke in this game.

Speaker 9 And I'm just going to play the audio of that because I thought it was funny.

Speaker 1 Well, he said 7-7, but they hadn't kicked the extra point yet. So it was actually 6-7.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. You know what that is, Tom? I do know what that is.
Your kid's too old. No, no, no, no.
I ironed up costume this morning.

Speaker 1 We had to stop Justin's monologue. I got to stop the 6'7 stuff, too.

Speaker 9 I think I know about this whole 6'7 trend.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 I get it. All the dads.
We get it. We know the lingo with the kids.

Speaker 1 6'7, man. It's turned into the macarena over here now.

Speaker 1 You're right.

Speaker 1 All right, next.

Speaker 1 Let's head to LA. Right here, backyard.

Speaker 2 Backyard.

Speaker 1 The backyard. SoFi Stadium.

Speaker 1 This is the one game on the slate this week that went exactly as you would expect. Tyler Shuck steps into the starting lineup.
Doesn't matter. Who cares? 15-24.

Speaker 1 Doesn't find a way to move the needle for this offense because nobody could, really. The Saints are terrible.
And Matthew Stafford continues to play at a very high level.

Speaker 1 Throws four more touchdown passes, does almost all of his damage in the first half. He's got nine touchdowns and zero interceptions in the last two games for the Rams, who cruised to a 34-10 win.

Speaker 1 Rams are now 6-2.

Speaker 1 The Saints 1-8 and as bad.

Speaker 1 Down bad as I could remember them. It's been a while since they've been

Speaker 1 this

Speaker 1 rough.

Speaker 1 Alvin Kamara, I would love this to be Alvin Kamara's last game, and he gets moved at the trade deadline.

Speaker 1 But I don't know if Kamara has given anything to anybody at this point. He has a fumble in this game,

Speaker 1 and they can't get a stop, and it's just easy, easy, easy work for the Rams.

Speaker 1 And I do think with Stafford, guys, that

Speaker 1 considering where the discourse was around him in the summer to where he is now, he's just attacking with so much confidence. Puka Nakoa went out of this game

Speaker 1 with a chest injury. Didn't matter.
He just finds Devontae Adams or any other of his receivers.

Speaker 1 Their running game was really impressive in this game, and I understand it's the Saints, but sometimes it's good to just see a superior team just take care of business.

Speaker 1 Packers take note, and that's what the Rams did in this game.

Speaker 2 Devontae Adams was awesome in the red zone in this game.

Speaker 2 The one thing about the Saints, because I get that they are a non-entity, but they've played teams close. Like, this is one of the few

Speaker 2 true lashings they took from a score angle.

Speaker 2 Like, I don't know why you made this quarterback change, other than the fact that you're going to draft someone else in the offseason or sign someone else and you want to see them both.

Speaker 2 But Spencer Rattler was more competitive than Tyler Schook. But it's not,

Speaker 2 there's not a lot of parts here, but

Speaker 2 they went to the fourth quarter with a number of teams with Rattler at quarterback. So I don't know what their direction is.
They feel directionless.

Speaker 6 I traded this game, so I felt really good about that.

Speaker 2 It's a good trade.

Speaker 6 I traded this game to watch Cam Little kick a historic field goal, and I want credit for that.

Speaker 1 Well, you get credit for it. Congratulations, Connor.
I have three TVs set up, and

Speaker 1 I saw the kick as well. This was a game.

Speaker 1 Sometimes these are underrated games, actually, on a Sunday when you can kind of check out emotionally, just like the opponent that's getting its ass kicked by halftime.

Speaker 1 And I was able to focus more on the Bills Chiefs, even though this was my game. So I think there's like positives to take out of it as well.

Speaker 1 But there are very few positives for the Saints, who I don't know how many wins they have left on their schedule, but that could put them in line for the number one pick. We'll see.

Speaker 1 By the way, the injury

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 1 Puka Nakua, he kind of landed on the football and sustained a chest injury, but he did come back into the game. And I do want to shout out Blake Corham.

Speaker 1 This is Kyron Williams' backfield, and he went under over 100 yards in this game, scored a a touchdown, but I thought Blake Corham moved really well as well.

Speaker 1 He had 13 carries for 58 yards and just looked really shifty. So they have a nice little tandem there, and not much else to add on this one.
So let's move to Sunday night football.

Speaker 1 Sunday night.

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 1 Sunday night football is

Speaker 1 just an epic blowout. The primetime games lately have

Speaker 1 been a little wonky, but

Speaker 1 Sam Darnold

Speaker 1 was absolutely locked in

Speaker 1 and the Seattle defense was every bit as good in a 38-14 shellacking of the commanders. The commanders have gone from the NSC title game to

Speaker 1 just a fiasco. Now a 3-6 and worst of all

Speaker 1 midway through the fourth quarter, even a little later than that, Jaden Daniels gets tackled down near the goal line, and his left elbow bends in a direction. Left elbows were not designed by your God

Speaker 1 to bend,

Speaker 1 and he leaves in a cast, air cast, or a brace, and who knows what happens, but it certainly looks very bad for Jaden Daniels and the Commanders.

Speaker 1 So the Seahawks improve to 6-2 and are a force to be reckoned with in that outstanding NFC West. And the Commanders,

Speaker 1 I mean, it couldn't get much worse worse than tonight. This felt like the bad old days, Mark, of the Washington Commanders.

Speaker 2 It's even before the Jaden Daniels injury, you would have to look at this evening as a complete and utter raging debacle for what the Commanders thought they would be this season.

Speaker 2 They've dropped five of six. They were utterly blown away by Seattle's offense, by Sam Darnold, by Clint Kubiak.
Like, it looked like two completely team different teams going in different directions.

Speaker 2 And then you, on top of it, you lose faith in the commanders' coaching staff this evening, whatever it is they think they are at this point. They're the oldest team in the league.

Speaker 2 And then you lose your quarterback. So I don't know how you would script, draw up, sketch, or dream up a worse evening for a football team in the NFL.

Speaker 6 It's probably too early to be talking about this, but the fact that Jaden Daniels got his elbow completely shattered. And to Mark's point, you are the oldest team in the NFL.

Speaker 6 This requires, to me, an immediate pivot for someone like Adam Peters. And you need to become front and center at the trade deadline.

Speaker 6 And, you know, Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, like all these guys were a really special part of a special team that is clearly past its prime.

Speaker 6 And it's time to see if you can get a return for some of these guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Darnold, four touchdowns, 330 yards. He has more touchdown passes than incompletions in this game.
And

Speaker 1 yeah, to your point, Connor, I mean,

Speaker 1 there are teams that are in a tough way midway through the season. And yeah, we're just at the midway point, right?

Speaker 1 And you say, okay,

Speaker 1 we can get hot. We can peak at the right time.

Speaker 1 Don't sell. But the Jaden Daniels injury, I mean, even before the injury, you probably would have to have some hard conversations with the trade deadline coming up.

Speaker 1 But with this injury now, you would imagine best case scenario, the guy's missing, you know, a month, right? I mean, who knows?

Speaker 1 But worst case scenario, you're hoping he's ready for training camp, depending on how serious this injury could be. And yeah, you got to, you got to just, sometimes you got to know when to fold him.

Speaker 1 And the Commanders are a team. This is a crazy stat from Grant Paulson.
The first NFL team since the 2020 Jaguars to lose three straight games by at least 21 points.

Speaker 1 Those Jaguars, I believe, ended with the number one overall pick. So the Commanders aren't just losing right now.
They're getting filleted and destroyed.

Speaker 1 And it's making their trip to the NFC title game look like either a fluke or

Speaker 1 I don't know what you want to call it, but right now they're the most disappointing team in football.

Speaker 2 They also, I mean, you know, it's one of these teams that hired a defensive-minded head coach, and the defense has had its doors blown off week after week. Like, it's all fallen apart.

Speaker 2 And if you want to see an example of where it works, it's across the field where Mike McDonald is is

Speaker 2 basically formed a team that goes on the road and has won, what, 10 of 11 on the road, I believe at this point, or 11 of 12. They are

Speaker 2 in just a number of years, post-Russell Wilson, post-Geno Smith, like they look like a completely different operation.

Speaker 2 And Sam Darnold, you are like, I don't, I would, I just wanted to learn more about what's happening behind the scenes because Sam Darnold in this offense and the way that he played tonight,

Speaker 2 I don't know what they can achieve. Like, I just feel so differently about these two teams.
And Seattle is high in our power rankings.

Speaker 2 They're an interesting, complete team that's really well coached.

Speaker 1 They're about to go higher. And yeah,

Speaker 1 they are a well-rounded machine. Like, Collinsworth talked about at the end of the show that this is a

Speaker 1 team that's secondary so deep that they could bench Rick Wollen, a guy who was a rising star when he came into the league a couple of years ago.

Speaker 1 They're dominant up front. They have a good two-headed running back.
They have a superstar level wide receiver in Jackson Smith and Jigba, and then good players around him.

Speaker 1 And then Darnold's at the center of it all. And on the pregame show

Speaker 1 for NBC, they had a sit-down with Darnold and kind of went through each stop of his career and what he learned from each stop and what he took away and the disappointments and

Speaker 1 the things that helped him get to this point. And it's just like he is playing with such confidence and belief in himself and and in the system.
He's such a perfect fit

Speaker 1 that, man, I know there's still going to be doubters.

Speaker 1 There's always going to be some Darnold doubters, but Connor, I think the way he's playing football right now is as good as any quarterback in football. And it's really been that way since week one.

Speaker 6 You know, what's really scary about it, too? This is a play-action offense, and the Seahawks are the fourth worst rushing team in the NFL.

Speaker 1 They're not there as a running team.

Speaker 6 And they will get there, to your point, right? I mean, this is a great two-headed backfield. I expect them to add in the offensive line at the trade deadline.

Speaker 6 And I think that'll make this offensive line work and the running game work a little bit better. We have not seen this team top out.
And that's what's insane to me.

Speaker 1 Check out the NFC West, by the way. This is crazy.
You now have the Seahawks at 6-2 atop the division with the Rams also 6-2. The Niners 6-3.

Speaker 1 The Cardinals who play on Monday night are 2-5. They're the only team, obviously, not in the mix.
But, you know, you can make a case for any of those teams winning coming out of this division.

Speaker 1 But I think the Seahawks are the team that has, to me so far, looked the most balanced. And they also cannot lose on the road.
They're 4-0 now away from home.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 they don't blink.

Speaker 1 They're battle-tested and playing with a ton of confidence.

Speaker 1 Man, the Daniels injury, though. I mean,

Speaker 1 do we want to get on the Commanders and Quinn for having Daniels in the game?

Speaker 1 I understand that criticism, why I have him running out of the pocket when you're down that many points.

Speaker 1 But I guess part of me is thinking

Speaker 1 it's football. And like, he's in there.
He was back in the lineup. They're trying to get into some type of groove, maybe have something to build on for next week.

Speaker 1 And if the guy is going to have injury issues,

Speaker 1 it's a scary thought, but they're starting to pile up these injuries. And it really makes you wonder what the commanders are thinking because this guy is the franchise.

Speaker 2 Isn't it a little bit like the Wentz thing though, where it's like, we I understand critiquing the coaching staff for late in the game where it's like, what are we doing here?

Speaker 2 Pull most of these guys out of the lineup, but the player wants to play. Like Jaden Daniels wants to be in the game.
He doesn't want to.

Speaker 2 I think it looks weak to pull everyone just because you're getting your butt wiped like late in the game. But

Speaker 2 that, you know.

Speaker 1 That was gross, by the way. That was a guru.
Well, the butt wipe thing was gross too, but the

Speaker 1 an elbow bending the wrong way,

Speaker 1 an elbow bending the wrong way in slow motion is also not what we need.

Speaker 1 And after the Cam Scataboo injury, I feel like I'm going to call for a moratorium on grotesque NFL injuries for a while, if we can.

Speaker 2 I hope they listen to you.

Speaker 6 But to your point, right? He refused a cart. He wanted to walk off the field holding his hand up under his own power.

Speaker 6 And every time that I've met him, spoken with him, he's, you know, so in tune with his place in that locker room. And so that's the reason why he's in at the end of that game, right?

Speaker 6 I mean, he does, he would know how it would look if Marcus Mariona was in there taking the hits that he believed that he should be taking. And so that's the complicating factor in all this.

Speaker 6 Like, I think we can get our swords out and we can fillet Dan Quinn for this, but there are different reasons why coaches leave guys in games. And Dan Quinn is so in tune to his players.

Speaker 6 And man, like, I think a lot of other coaches probably would have made the same decision.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 if you, if, if you were to tell me in week 10, we're going to get like a Dan Quinn stigmata situation on the sideline, I'd buy it at this point.

Speaker 1 I mean, I think there's, there is blood coming out of the eyes is in play now for the Washington Commanders in 2025. That's the season it's been.

Speaker 2 Big episode for Stigmata

Speaker 2 aficionados.

Speaker 6 If it happens, we would know who to call at least.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, that's true. There he he is.
Unbelievable that that would happen in an American hospital.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Good app.

Speaker 1 This is trade deadline week, as we just alluded to.

Speaker 1 We'll have our regular Monday night show with MF recap and power rankings and news update. Tuesday, we might go live.
If it's a juicy trade deadline, we might jump on live on YouTube,

Speaker 1 but we'll keep you in the know on that. If it's more quiet,

Speaker 1 you'll hear from us again on Wednesday where we'll do a recap.

Speaker 1 And I'm looking forward to this. We're going to check in on our over-unders halfway through the season.
And I might throw, I might throw a, you know what I might throw in there, Connor.

Speaker 1 I just might, for a little game, throw in a

Speaker 1 change. You never know.
There could be.

Speaker 1 Christ.

Speaker 1 You know, Connor,

Speaker 2 we're just part of a larger Matrix scenario that we have no control over. We understand.

Speaker 1 You never know. So make sure you're there for Wednesday.
And thank you to everybody for your support. Hope you enjoyed the flagship show.
And we'll see you in 24 hours.

Speaker 1 Until then, do what you must. Heed the call.

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