2025 NFL Week 12 Recap: Hang On!

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Speaker 35 Week 12 in the NFL.

Speaker 31 Can anyone stop the Rams?

Speaker 15 Can anyone save the Raiders?

Speaker 40 And have the Browns, Mark Sessler, finally found their savior in Shadur.

Speaker 4 Oh, it's got my heart beating. We will see a flutter.

Speaker 31 We hit that all right now on the flagship show. Let's go, hedonists.

Speaker 37 Hey oh

Speaker 31 welcome to another edition of He the Call, an NFL podcast.

Speaker 2 It's the week 12 flagship program covering every game that was played

Speaker 2 on Sunday in our league. Dan Hansis, Mark Sessler, Connor Orr, Justin Graver, all here to take you through the day that was.

Speaker 4 good week good good day of games sese good day of games we're on a we're on a little bit of a heater um it feels in the distance are those couple of sundays that felt like we were watching a different sport that was um both underwhelming and a bit snooze festy not now yes well here's the thing well we're gonna start with a game that was a little bit snoozy um but we did have listen we're gonna pull back the curtain here we had a conversation do we uh do we want to uh put rams bucks up top?

Speaker 48 Even though we kind of had our eye on the game, it was going the wrong direction when we were recording the show earlier tonight.

Speaker 50 And we're like, you know what?

Speaker 51 We can't count out Baker Mayfield and the Bucks.

Speaker 50 We should have counted out Baker Mayfield and the Bucks.

Speaker 52 A little bit of a slip-up.

Speaker 53 At least on this Sunday.

Speaker 9 So we're going to start with Sunday night football, but we promise the game's going to get real good right after this one.

Speaker 55 Let's hit it, Justin.

Speaker 55 Sunday night.

Speaker 37 Yeah.

Speaker 26 A bloodbath at SoFi Stadium, where Matthew Stafford continued

Speaker 1 to build on his MVP resume.

Speaker 43 I think he's the top dog in this race.

Speaker 8 I know that you can make a case for a lot of different guys, but Stafford, week after week, between the team's success,

Speaker 19 now 9-2 after a 34-7 win over the Bucs, and his statistical success, just a Sterling box score, week after week after week.

Speaker 8 He's up to 30 touchdown passes before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 43 He throws three more in this game.

Speaker 56 Again, no interceptions.

Speaker 8 Two of those touchdowns go to Devontae Adams.

Speaker 18 And yes, the Rams cruise and remain atop the NFC West.

Speaker 5 And Connor, I'll start with you on this one.

Speaker 20 You know, Baker Mayfield has a hell of a time in the first half, takes some bad hits, bangs up his left shoulder, tries to...

Speaker 33 tries to go deep with a Hail Mary at the end of the first half and crumples to the ground.

Speaker 61 And it's Teddy Bridgewater the rest of the way.

Speaker 62 So we're going to get to that and what that means to the Bucs in the NFC playoff picture.

Speaker 34 But the Rams, number one in our power rankings, I mean, what else has to be said?

Speaker 65 There's no team playing at a higher level in all phases right now.

Speaker 66 I don't think, and we'll get to the Eagles later on in this, but I don't think that there's a single team in the NFL that other than the Rams, where if you spot them a 14-point lead, and that's what happened after the after the pick six or the whatever you want to call it, and the Rams got up 14-0 in this game, where it feels over.

Speaker 66 And, you know, as much as we talked about the potential of, you know, Baker maybe making this game interesting, there's no give in this staff. It is just a complete all-gas operation.

Speaker 66 And they can beat you in so many different ways that I just felt like there was no way the Bucs were going to come back in this one. And man, I mean, they're just, they're peaking at the right time.

Speaker 4 They, um, they're like, everyone involved is super dialed in. Like, it's the best Matthew Stafford season.

Speaker 4 Um, Devontae Adams, who you're kind of wondering before the season, like, what, who is Devontae Adams at this point? Playing great. Puka Nakua, fantastic.

Speaker 4 Like they could completely victimize Zion McCollum in the Bucs secondary night. They just find a way to tear you apart.
And you're right. If they get up,

Speaker 4 it's hard to figure out and discern like the labyrinth that needs to be

Speaker 4 won over to get to them. They're just too invincible right now.
And they deserve to be number one in our power rankings.

Speaker 55 All right.

Speaker 49 And they're going to stay at number one, spoiler alert, tomorrow night.

Speaker 20 The Baker situation, he comes out and joins the team on the sideline in the second half with his injured left shoulder in a sling.

Speaker 20 We're literally recording this right after the final gun.

Speaker 72 So we don't know

Speaker 18 exactly how serious this may be.

Speaker 54 But this has been an absolute nightmare of a three-week stretch for Tampa, which, you know, three weeks ago, they were a team that was six and two,

Speaker 13 viewing themselves credibly as a Super Bowl contender.

Speaker 59 And then they get beaten pretty handily by three actual contenders, and now the quarterbacks hurt.

Speaker 17 And you just have to wonder,

Speaker 76 you know, at the state of the NFC South now, you have

Speaker 20 Carolina has a golden opportunity.

Speaker 18 They're tied in the win column.

Speaker 9 The Falcons are probably cooked. The Saints are obviously gone, but the NFC South just got a lot messier, Connor.

Speaker 66 Yeah, and

Speaker 66 it's hard to fathom because this Buccaneers team, what did we talk about throughout the entirety of the beginning of the season?

Speaker 66 The depth, the fact that when one guy goes down, you find eight more and you lost your first two running backs and your third one's even better.

Speaker 66 And, you know, the fact that this was going on for so long, it's crazy to me to see the way that they've run out of gas. And I don't think that Carolina will catch them.

Speaker 66 I think that the Buccaneers will write the ship at some point, but that's all dependent on Baker at this point. And he didn't look healthy three weeks ago.
He didn't look healthy four weeks ago.

Speaker 66 So I don't know if this is just kind of getting him down, the accumulation of too many hits.

Speaker 74 We all like Teddy Bridgewater.

Speaker 29 He's done a nice job in that ad campaign.

Speaker 72 I don't think his coaching career at a lower level went very well, as I recall from various newspaper clippings.

Speaker 49 But in general,

Speaker 18 asking him to step in and pilot an NFL offense in 2025 does not seem like a recipe for success.

Speaker 61 Their season is very obviously, as we record this, at a crossroads.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And I mean, the identity of the Bucs has been Baker Mayfield, right? And like the, you take that away.
If he's out for, you know, a big stretch,

Speaker 4 they're in a very dangerous place. I think the other side of it is because it's obvious like we're going to focus on Mayfield's injury, but look what's happened over the past couple of weeks.

Speaker 4 Like the Todd Bowles defense that we've talked about for years as being the other part of the identity of this team, they were destroyed by the Patriots, ripped apart by the Bills, and tonight by the Rams.

Speaker 4 Like, it's starting to fall apart. Here's the thing.
They played the Panthers twice over the final three weeks.

Speaker 4 It may come down to that, but I don't know how they get out of the rest of their schedule if it's Teddy Bridgewater and what we saw tonight.

Speaker 4 I mean, against, you played the Rams tonight, but it feels like it's vanishing.

Speaker 37 Yeah.

Speaker 71 And, you know, just to...

Speaker 10 For a little history on this, if Baker Mayfield's still with the Browns right now, we're going to talk about the Browns later.

Speaker 29 The Browns might be in first place in their division, but he's not.

Speaker 6 But what led to Baker Mayfield leaving the Browns or the Browns leaving Baker and Mayfield and turning to Deshaun Watson was a left shoulder injury that lingered all that season, impacted his play, and it somehow convinced the front office in Cleveland that he wasn't the answer.

Speaker 47 If this is a similar injury, you might have

Speaker 24 similar results for Baker.

Speaker 10 And again, yes, season at the crossroads for the Bucs and the Rams keep on not just passing tests, but they're like Val Victorian right now in the NFL.

Speaker 18 They're acing every test, and they're starting to make it look easy.

Speaker 81 They're starting to roll over teams.

Speaker 69 As I kind of, if you look at their, let's see, they are now on a five-game winning streak during that 17-3, 35-7, 34-10, 42-26,

Speaker 30 and obviously.

Speaker 83 21-19 against the Seahawks, close one last week.

Speaker 74 And then today, obviously, a blowout

Speaker 37 34-7.

Speaker 4 And maybe like a more likable valedictorian.

Speaker 4 Because a lot of times, let's just be real: when you're young and you're not fully formed, like it's the nerd, and like, you know, we're not, we don't love the valedictorian all the time, or it's a distant remote type of, you know, person, girl.

Speaker 4 You know, go make your little speech. Like a valedictorian.
Go make your little speech.

Speaker 84 Okay.

Speaker 32 A distant remote type girl?

Speaker 4 I don't know. Like, just like, it's not, they're not typically like a lot of fun to hang out with.
Back in that day,

Speaker 85 this is the Val Victorian that's also the star of the football team.

Speaker 37 Dingo.

Speaker 19 This is the Val Victorian that you kind of hate for different reasons.

Speaker 52 It's like, how did you get everything?

Speaker 42 Right. And that's why that's what a lot of people look at the Rams right now.

Speaker 37 So it tracks.

Speaker 7 Analogy tracks.

Speaker 37 All right, let's take a quick break, and then we're going to get into all of the Sunday action in the NFL.

Speaker 51 Stay right there.

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Speaker 28 All right, We are back. All right.

Speaker 88 Sunday Night Football in the rear view.

Speaker 67 Now it's time to dig in to the rest of the Sunday slate.

Speaker 34 And we cannot do that.

Speaker 18 We will not do that without first teeing it all up with the great Mark Sessler, who every week has given us the theme of the week.

Speaker 23 So the theme of the week for week 12 is what, Mark Sessler?

Speaker 4 It is as follows.

Speaker 4 Hang on. Is this season a fing sex bomb?

Speaker 24 All right connor i mean this one this one's pretty straightforward why don't you uh decode this one

Speaker 66 uh a little bit dicey to look into mark's personal life and try to decode what sex bomb means to him in especially coming off another weekend in hollywood yeah yeah yeah okay um i would say very generally that we're exploding in in great ways and in new horizons and it's like uh being with a new partner for the very first time yeah i think you nailed it i i would add to that after the the professional sports gambling scandal broke out, strangely, you saw the meter of fun football go down for a few weeks, but now that's kind of calmed down.

Speaker 60 It feels like we've gotten back to a level where we want to be and the games are entertaining again.

Speaker 15 I'm not making a correlation necessarily.

Speaker 18 I'm just pointing out the last couple of weeks have been great. So Cessler, we have this one right?

Speaker 4 You do. I know that some of them have been a bit quizzical or beguiling in terms of their meaning.
A little more straightforward.

Speaker 4 I've had a great time two Sundays in a row, and I think that we had a legit complaint about kind of daytime Sunday football for a while, and it was legit.

Speaker 4 It's been great two weeks in a row, and it feels different. It's like

Speaker 4 how I felt growing up loving this sport. So it's a sex ball.

Speaker 80 It's good today.

Speaker 37 Let's get into it.

Speaker 58 Let's start.

Speaker 74 Yes, Justin.

Speaker 68 Love the theme. I will say it's going to be a bit challenging turning that into the audio podcast title this week.
So we might have to come up with a workaround, but.

Speaker 37 Okay.

Speaker 65 Well, we'll work on that in

Speaker 49 the off hours.

Speaker 34 Now,

Speaker 74 back to the show.

Speaker 92 There's that inner monologue again.

Speaker 37 Hmm.

Speaker 57 We were supposed to put up the Christmas tree this weekend.

Speaker 48 No big deal.

Speaker 93 It's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Speaker 57 But she does love Christmas.

Speaker 26 Did I let her down?

Speaker 51 Mark, that was your cue.

Speaker 44 If you wanted to throw one in before we get in,

Speaker 4 I don't know how to respond to that.

Speaker 37 It was just too real.

Speaker 23 That's weird.

Speaker 78 My check engine light was on earlier today.

Speaker 78 The one thing my dad told me was: never ignore a check engine light because it becomes a lot more expensive down the line.

Speaker 44 I think I'll take the car in in the morning.

Speaker 4 I bought three carrots. Should I peel them and eat them before or after the show?

Speaker 80 Amy's drunk?

Speaker 37 I don't know.

Speaker 37 All right, let's get to it.

Speaker 94 Let's get to it.

Speaker 64 Let's head to Big D, where there was a big comeback.

Speaker 46 Connor Orr's worst nightmare. Everything's coming up.

Speaker 37 Jerry Jones. Go Texas.

Speaker 95 Brandon Aubrey kicked a 42-yard field goal as the final seconds ticked off the clock in regulation.

Speaker 40 And the Dallas Cowboys behind their great quarterback, Dak Prescott, and some great plays from defense, special teams, just a total team effort.

Speaker 90 Rally back from 21 down to knock off the reigning or defending champion Eagles 24-21.

Speaker 20 Yeah, this was a game.

Speaker 48 Again, you know, I'm down. I am down.

Speaker 52 I'm always down on win probability, Ceci.

Speaker 20 And sure enough, after this game, you saw it. The Cowboys had a 3% chance of winning this game in the second quarter after the Eagles scored their third unanswered touchdown.

Speaker 64 And yet everything flipped in this game.

Speaker 46 And we talked about it Monday night after the Raiders stomping.

Speaker 67 The Cowboys had this three-game window to show us something, and they showed us something tonight.

Speaker 4 They absolutely did.

Speaker 4 And you nailed it because it felt like two entirely separate pro football contests because my whole thought process coming out of when the fact you're very early in the game the eagles are up 21 nothing the aj brown drama has been tempered by big plays um they looked dominant they were in control of a defense that we don't trust in the cowboys then everything flips and the eagles created an environment in the second half where they went back to looking like an offense that had no room for error.

Speaker 4 But then you get a Saquon Barkley fumble. You have a punt that is a punt return that's fumbled.
You've got Hurts taking a terrible sack inside the two-minute warning.

Speaker 4 It was just like the Eagles kind of claiming all the critique and stumbling and bumbling that we've that has dogged them here and there.

Speaker 4 And I will say that there was something about this Cowboys team today.

Speaker 4 You needed to go beat a division opponent like this that is coming off a Super Bowl win, you need your best players to step up and become stars. And the George Pickens performance was illustrious.

Speaker 4 Dak Prescott played like the best quarterback in the league today. I mean, it all kind of came together and they overcame some CD lamb drops.
They overcame some of their own mistakes.

Speaker 4 But the second half performance, it's like, yeah, I want to say they saved their season because there's still a long way to go, but you changed like your season in a big way today.

Speaker 4 And you got Kansas City coming up in a couple of couple days. Like you can make a second massive statement.

Speaker 4 And at the end of this game, as they, the players of this team that have quietly been through something that we don't understand are waving a Marshawn Nealon flag.

Speaker 4 Like I really think that Brian Schottenheimer, this was a signature win for a coach that had to guide them through this and a team that had to go through a very dark couple of days and are still in there.

Speaker 4 And to come out and do what they did in the second half today was one of the more impressive halves of football by any team I've seen all season.

Speaker 66 You mentioned that Jalen Hurts sack, which was reminiscent of some of the bad ones that he took in the playoffs leading up to their Super Bowl run that everybody kind of conveniently forgot about once he had a good couple of games.

Speaker 66 This is the reason why they play a more condensed style of offense because he gets really uncomfortable when he gets pressured.

Speaker 66 And to Jerry Jones' credit, as Dan mentioned during his intro there, 15 pressures in two games for Quinnen Williams since he's been there, 19 pressures before that all season with the Jets leading up to this point.

Speaker 66 He's turned into a different player. And without Lane Johnson in the second half, that pocket just completely collapsed.

Speaker 66 And while, yes, that sack was awful that Hurts took and he should have just thrown the ball away. I've watched it a couple times now.
And you look at the manner in which that pocket came down on him.

Speaker 66 There wasn't a lot of places he could go. There was pressure from all sides.
It's been a really good job by the Cowboys' defensive front these last two weeks.

Speaker 10 Quinnen Williams quid on the Jets. Mike Collum.

Speaker 19 Here is Brian Schottenheimer after the game.

Speaker 96 You know, you've heard me say it a thousand times. You can't win the game in the first quarter, second, third, but you win the game in the fourth quarter, man.
And we just talked about that.

Speaker 96 We shot ourselves in the foot. I told him that.

Speaker 96 But I told him to believe, you know, believe in each other, believe in the fat world, find a way to do it.

Speaker 81 Good quote.

Speaker 67 It's a good time to be shoddy, who's, I think, been successful so far.

Speaker 18 Even if the 5-5-1 record doesn't jump out at you, all the bad vibes of the beginning of the season, starting with the Parsons trade, and then the tragedy involving Nealand,

Speaker 17 he's got this team really humming.

Speaker 73 And

Speaker 24 I think what I was looking to see in this game or one of these three games or multiple of these three games was do something different, Dallas.

Speaker 14 Like, we know you could beat bad teams.

Speaker 97 We know there's good teams when you're sloppy that can stomp you.

Speaker 25 We kind of saw both sides of the Cowboys in this mark because you saw the sloppy beginning to this game when they had two penalties to keep alive Philadelphia's second touchdown drive.

Speaker 15 You had Tyler Guyton with a killer fall start from the one-yard line that set up the DAC interception in the end zone.

Speaker 19 I think at that point, it just felt like, oh, this is the same old Cowboys.

Speaker 9 And yet, it's like a light switch was flipped.

Speaker 59 So

Speaker 23 you just got to give them a ton of credit for making adjustments and finding a way.

Speaker 28 It's the coaching staff all the way down.

Speaker 15 And on the Philadelphia side, listen, this was

Speaker 19 the biggest Philadelphia collapse in decades.

Speaker 25 This is the biggest blown lead by a defending Super Bowl champion since 2003, the Buccaneers.

Speaker 23 And while I'm not going to go overboard with this game and say that the Eagles have been exposed or whatever, it once again does show that element of Philly where it's just like, is this team a little more vulnerable than their record indicates?

Speaker 20 I think it opens the door up for that conversation once again.

Speaker 4 It's yeah, because it's in contrast to a year ago where if that Eagles team got up 21-0, they are in their super beautiful, lush comfort zone where you just unleash Saquon Barkley for explosive runs to utterly bury the opponent.

Speaker 4 And the exact opposite happened today. And I know, yes, A.J.
Brown was more involved, but that's just one of the players on this offense.

Speaker 4 I think the Lane Johnson absence mattered more than was advertised to us at this point in his career.

Speaker 4 It seemed to make a big difference today and improve the Cowboys' defense, but that's a lingering concern.

Speaker 4 And the fact that we watched this collapse in what would have been the perfect structure for the Eagles that we've known to dominate, instead, all these questions, what's a greater division win win than when you beat your opponent like the Cowboys did, and it raises like a bushel of questions, concerns.

Speaker 4 Philly radio is going to be going nuts tomorrow. You love it if you're the Cowboys.

Speaker 66 I think Nick Siriani is like one of the best coaches in one score games since he's become the head coach of the Eagles. I think this is just one of those weird outlier losses.

Speaker 66 I mean, you have bad fumbles. You have missed field goals.
You have stuff that, I mean, Nick Siriani said after the game, if it's that big in totality, sure, you can put that loss on me.

Speaker 66 But I didn't see anything like clinical outside the fact that, yeah, you lose one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL and you make a bunch of really dumb mistakes.

Speaker 66 I mean, good on Dallas for capitalizing on that. But I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 4 But it is a season where their offense has not looked

Speaker 84 the way we would expect.

Speaker 23 Barkley, 10 for 22 today.

Speaker 9 And if you look at his entire season now, he's averaging, I think, about 3.8 yards per carry.

Speaker 18 He's outside the top 150 in the NFL and yards per carry.

Speaker 28 That home run ball continues to be elusive for this offense.

Speaker 48 And it is, yeah, they used to just knock teams out when they got ahead. They're not doing it, not doing it right now.

Speaker 63 And the other weird thing about this game was Barkley had what looked to be a killer fumble in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 93 Cowboys didn't take advantage of it.

Speaker 67 They had the punt return fumble by Xavier Gibson that set up Dallas first and goal inside the five.

Speaker 9 They don't convert it. They go for it on fourth down, and that doesn't work.

Speaker 50 And yet they still find a way to win and get Brandon Aubrey on the field because of, in large part, the greatness

Speaker 37 of

Speaker 67 wide receiver George Pickens, who, by the way, this is the first game I'm watching.

Speaker 37 I was like, is this guy better than CeeDee Lamb?

Speaker 15 Because I know CeeDee Lamb is a little bit of a weird receiver because he can be brilliant.

Speaker 40 And then he'll have games like this where he just...

Speaker 17 His head seems up his ass and he'll have these terrible drops.

Speaker 10 Then he has this weird thing where he has this like ultra confident body language after terrible drops that really messes with me.

Speaker 47 And I imagine it would mess with the rest of the team too.

Speaker 24 Like, he'll have a terrible drop, and he'll be like shaking his head and like smiling and stuff.

Speaker 13 Like, dude, aren't you supposed to be mad or something?

Speaker 10 It's just like strange.

Speaker 28 Here's Jerry Jones walking to the locker room talking a little George Pickens, who, by the way, is in line for a massive payday based on this breakout season.

Speaker 101 Well, I'll tell you,

Speaker 101 George has been such an integral part of our story.

Speaker 101 And he has his story to a degree that that's our story. And I'm so proud for him.
Everybody on this team is.

Speaker 101 And he certainly has absolutely been the difference as we've played over the last two weeks. And we can let it come as well.
It's something when you've got 88 and Pickens.

Speaker 42 All right.

Speaker 4 He's made good trades. I got to get her.

Speaker 35 He's on a bit of a run here.

Speaker 19 He's sitting at the blackjack table, and he's hit on 16 a couple times.

Speaker 58 He's getting some fives.

Speaker 62 Things are working out.

Speaker 66 And like a good gambler, I hedged my hatred of this entire situation by taking the Cowboys over the eight and a half wins during our August competition. So I'm good either way.

Speaker 37 All right, there you go.

Speaker 9 What a comeback. 24-21.

Speaker 79 Cowboys over the Eagles.

Speaker 74 All right, let's

Speaker 71 move on.

Speaker 17 And head to Kansas City where the Chiefs found themselves in yet another one-score game.

Speaker 55 What would happen this time?

Speaker 95 talked about on the thursday show that's why you got to listen to the thursday show because then that all kind of ties together what's weird about this chiefs team is that they won every one score game last year

Speaker 56 and now they've lost every one score game this year entering week 12 and yet they were a better team by almost every statistical measure something had to give was this the day where things changed for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 56 The Chiefs get a good performance in Patrick Mahomes, who threw for a season high 352 yards.

Speaker 43 And the big rallying drive late in the fourth quarter, something that's been absent all year with this offense,

Speaker 44 ending with the Harrison Bucker field goal and overtime, giving Kansas City a 23-20 win over the Colts.

Speaker 28 A big win, a huge win for the Chiefs, who really would have been in very, very deep danger to miss the playoffs if this one didn't go their way.

Speaker 18 And Justin, instead, they find a way, and it took them digging out of an early 14-3 hole.

Speaker 72 Mahomes throws an interception early.

Speaker 17 The offense can't convert in the red zone.

Speaker 97 And yet, finally, the Chiefs showed up, the Chiefs that we know making the stops on defense and finding a way on offense.

Speaker 68 Yeah, I think the making the stops on defense was what was the key here. They closed this game, including the overtime possession, forcing three straight three and outs from Indianapolis.

Speaker 68 And for the Chiefs' offense to get things going, they finally committed to the run game. And it wasn't super efficient, but Kareem Hunt, Kareem Hunt, with 30 carries in this game for over 100 yards.

Speaker 68 And that, when you do that and you commit to it and you start forcing Indianapolis to come up and play the run, you can really open other things up.

Speaker 68 And I thought Mahomes was a little scattershot and all over the place in the first half.

Speaker 68 And in the second half, really started putting it together, especially the longer the game got on, the more inevitable it felt like Kansas City is going to break through.

Speaker 68 They're going to get in the end zone. Then they did.
Kansas City's going to tie this game. And they did.
Kansas City's going to win this in overtime. And exactly, that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 72 Let's hear from Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 102 Yeah, I mean, we've been in these games. You know, all five of our losses, I feel like, felt like these games where there was plays here and there that we didn't make.

Speaker 102 And we could have won all of them, and we didn't. And until you prove it, you can talk about it all day, but until you prove it, it's not going to happen.

Speaker 102 And so we're able to prove that we can win a game like this, you you know where it's not always going great where multiple guys got to step up um and then you can make the big plays in the big moments and i thought our guys did that so uh um hopefully we can build off that um as we go through the rest of the season It was those two drives in the fourth quarter, the 11-play drive and the 15-play drive that broke it open because Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward were awesome in this game for like three and a half quarters.

Speaker 66 And Luanna Rumo played a ton of man defense. He said, I'm going to take away some of your best guys.
And he had what we're starting to see is like the quintessential Annie Mahomes defense, right?

Speaker 66 It's, I'm going to put five guys up front. I'm going to drop a different number every time, but one of them is going to be athletic enough to spy you and to keep you from running and using your legs.

Speaker 66 That really bothered him throughout the course of the game. But what's amazing about this is Kansas City still won.

Speaker 66 And it kind of goes back to my conspiracy that like this team was always really good.

Speaker 66 They're good in all the pop the hood metrics offensively, defensively, you know, Stip Spagnol had a great game today. And I think it's just a condition of the schedule.

Speaker 66 Like, everything is so front-loaded with some of these premier teams to satiate your broadcast partners that like you're just exhausted by November and you kind of look like shit by default.

Speaker 66 But we can see that the good teams can survive that like Kansas City is.

Speaker 4 And I think like to Dan's point about the Thursday show, like no one here was in panic mode about the Chiefs losing these close games because intrinsically, that's not who they've been.

Speaker 4 It just seemed like that was a case with this season.

Speaker 4 This is a team that piled up nearly 500 yards of offense today. And you're right.
Like, Gardner and Ward, I mean, who they didn't have either of them three weeks ago. They've got both of them.

Speaker 4 It matters a lot. But 33 first downs to 10 for the Colts.
And I think it meant a lot for this defense to shut down the Colts' offense.

Speaker 4 Like, to your point, Justin, down the stretch, I think it was 4-3 an outs. Or was it three? But like, it was a complete shutdown of the Colts' offense.

Speaker 4 And it's like the Chiefs seemed like we inevitably know we're going to win this game. And it took everyone and they did it.

Speaker 19 And it's like, all right it solves our concern about this like a statistical anomaly in the close games uh let's let's also check our receipts uh how certain were we that the chiefs were going to break through yes sesi and i the lock brothers hit us with another one justin bang one for each club dub times two uh on the other side of it let's talk on the other side of it here because i thought bad shane steichen game i thought it was the the colts um offense completely disappeared in this game and i thought jonathan Taylor, who's probably the best player on the field for either team in the non-quarterback category, didn't have the role that I expected.

Speaker 77 They got very pass heavy and Spaggs had a totally sniffed out.

Speaker 32 And after the game, Steichen talked about the disappointment of not being able to get it going.

Speaker 38 Obviously, very frustrating, not up to our standards today. We got to be better.
And it starts with myself. I don't know.

Speaker 38 I mean, I felt there was a lot of stuff that I wanted to get called that I felt good about in the past game.

Speaker 38 And we just weren't efficient doing it. And it starts with me.

Speaker 68 And you called it a bad steichen game. Shane Steichen, we heard it there.
Those are two different answers I cut together.

Speaker 68 Almost every single answer in this press conference, Steichen ended with, and that's on me or I have to be better or I take the blame for that, which good on him for doing so.

Speaker 70 Probably when he saw the stat sheet in his hand and it said, Jonathan Taylor, 16 carries.

Speaker 15 You got to give that boy the rock in a big spot in this game.

Speaker 69 When that game is tied with eight minutes to go and you get the ball back after your defense gets a stand and you have this hot shot offense.

Speaker 50 You got to find a way to get him in the central role of it.

Speaker 9 I just didn't think they kind of had a cohesive game plan, and I guess I'll just leave it out there that I'm not like saying, oh, the Colts are phony or whatever.

Speaker 23 But

Speaker 42 I feel like we're seeing some cracks in the veneer when we talk about who are the real top of the top in the AFC.

Speaker 85 And I need to see a little bit of a bounce back.

Speaker 4 Like, to the one thing at least, they had no turnovers and suffered no sacks today. So

Speaker 4 it moved off the terrain of like the turnover machine from the last couple of weeks. But I think they sit out there as like, are they the record or do we need to we need to see more?

Speaker 4 And they're a need to see more type of team.

Speaker 68 I almost think it's more concerning if you're a Colts fan or a Colts backer that they lost this game and it wasn't one of those like Pittsburgh meltdowns where they just like these turnovers that haven't been happening all season where you can maybe say that was a fluky game.

Speaker 68 That's not who we really are. But then you can't overcome not having those turnovers.

Speaker 68 There was a point in the game where Jonathan Taylor, I think in the third quarter, had like 10 carries for 22 yards and then immediately rips one up the right sideline.

Speaker 68 But that I think was his only really impactful play.

Speaker 68 And Daniel Jones, I thought, was pretty good in the first half, like hitting some throws, some tighter window throws, and their Chiefs were not getting pressure.

Speaker 68 If it wasn't Chris Jones, there wasn't really any pressure. And then in the second half, Spaggs really starts dialing up some more pressure looks, some blitz looks.

Speaker 68 And I thought it rattled Jones, and he was throwing off his back foot high over receivers in the second half.

Speaker 68 And that's the scary thing is if that version of Daniel Jones shows up against this level of, this is playoff level defense, right?

Speaker 68 What are the Colts going to do in the playoffs in this kind of matchup? Is this game an indicator or just a fluke?

Speaker 37 By the way, by the way.

Speaker 53 They get the Texans next week.

Speaker 23 Did you see the way Texans were playing defense?

Speaker 90 Thursday night, Connor.

Speaker 94 This is the AFC South.

Speaker 23 You know, it's just a reminder to all of us. We all just like checkboxes.

Speaker 80 All right, the Colts, this is their division.

Speaker 58 That's a race, especially if the Texans step up in a big spot in that game.

Speaker 68 And look at Jacksonville's record after 50.

Speaker 37 Yeah, right there.

Speaker 48 And they stink.

Speaker 7 Go ahead, Connor.

Speaker 37 Put a bow on it.

Speaker 66 We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. The Falcons in that overtime game in Germany put the pressure packages that bother Daniel Jones on tape.

Speaker 66 We've seen other teams try to replicate that in recent weeks, and it's just putting something in his lap, up the gaps that he doesn't want, clogging the lanes that he doesn't want clogged.

Speaker 66 And again, I just go back to it's a condition of the schedule. Like the Colts had the Dolphins and the Titans and all these teams that you start building this ground swell momentum.

Speaker 66 The NFL has gotten so good at figuring out a way to force parody through the way that they stack their schedule. And we're seeing that now because the Chiefs are inevitable.

Speaker 66 The Colts are going to struggle to make the playoffs. And that's just, this is how it works.
This is why it happens this way.

Speaker 66 Interesting.

Speaker 53 It's getting interesting in the AFC South.

Speaker 7 All right, let's move on.

Speaker 24 Let's hit Soldier Field, where another close game decided by three points.

Speaker 20 And it was, if it's a close game, it's a game being played in Soldier Field, the Bears are probably going to win.

Speaker 58 Let's give the Bears some credit.

Speaker 15 This team finds a way to win.

Speaker 18 For the eighth time in nine games, the Bears win 31 to 28 over the Steelers.

Speaker 14 They get three touchdown passes from Caleb Williams.

Speaker 18 They get a big defensive stand in the final minutes to seal the game.

Speaker 14 And,

Speaker 18 you know, they had to rally in the final two minutes the previous two weeks.

Speaker 1 This time, it was the other way around.

Speaker 95 They were able to stop a Steelers team that even with Aaron Rodgers sideline, the Steelers erred on the side of caution and went with Mason Rudolph.

Speaker 92 They were able to put up points and move the ball, but ultimately could not get enough big stops.

Speaker 28 So the Bears continue to move forward and have success.

Speaker 69 And And you saw some other things that if you're a Bears fan, it's like, okay, this is good.

Speaker 29 Colson Loveland continues to show out a little bit now.

Speaker 48 He had a touchdown catch.

Speaker 53 They had DJ Moore, five receptions, 64 yards, two touchdowns after having one

Speaker 29 catching just one pass over the previous two games.

Speaker 25 Kenneth Gainwell helped keep Pittsburgh in the game with some crazy plays, including a 55-yarder that led to a touchdown late in the first half for Pittsburgh.

Speaker 59 But ultimately, Chicago finds a way.

Speaker 67 That's been the story of their season.

Speaker 66 How the hell did they do that without their three best linebackers, like two best cornerbacks? Then Tyreek Stevenson got hurt in this game.

Speaker 89 Like, what?

Speaker 66 I don't understand. Like, I know Pittsburgh's offense isn't explosive, but how the hell did they manage to pull that off?

Speaker 71 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 23 I think we've been asking that question all season, right?

Speaker 13 And I think a lot of it starts with Caleb Williams, who really has made great strides this season, playing clean football.

Speaker 53 Now, this is the worst pass defense in the league statistically, so that helped.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 17 he is finding a way, and he has this ability with his legs and with throwing to make the clutch throws.

Speaker 76 He can hit on intermediate passes. He can hit on deep passes.

Speaker 30 And I just give him a lot of credit.

Speaker 5 And also Montez Sweat and that front, like they stepped up and made plays in this game

Speaker 20 and were allowed to, which allowed them to overcome mistakes like Caleb did have one killer mistake in his own end zone trying to get away from TJ Watt, who stripped the ball, turned into a touchdown recovery, which

Speaker 64 looked like it could be a game-swinging play.

Speaker 49 But instead, they're able to regroup and find a way.

Speaker 4 It's just kind of,

Speaker 4 they're an interesting team because...

Speaker 4 You think where they were a year ago, coach fired, offensive coordinator being called out in public by players for lacking accountability or holding players accountable.

Speaker 4 Your rookie quarterback is melting. And here you are a year later.
They've gone 8-1 in their last nine games.

Speaker 4 They spread the ball around really well. Like three different running backs involved today, eight different receivers.
They've got a lot of young weapons.

Speaker 4 You mentioned some of them are just kind of evolving as the season goes along.

Speaker 4 And I think this is one of those teams where every time we listen to like a locker room speech over and over, it's like they totally believe they're going to win these games.

Speaker 4 And in converse to the Steelers, that at this point almost have like psychologically capitulated to the Baltimore Ravens winning the division, I just feel like I'd be much happier as a Ravens or as a Paris fan right now.

Speaker 88 Yeah, we talked about with the Steelers, like, oh man, they have this big lead on the Ravens, but they got to play Baltimore twice, and they're playing in week 18.

Speaker 50 That could be the week where the Ravens might finally catch them.

Speaker 80 They already caught him. Yeah.

Speaker 37 Six and five. They're both six and five before Thanksgiving.
Turtle and hair.

Speaker 23 And just once again, like, yes, things change so quickly in the NFL.

Speaker 19 And it just feels like Pittsburgh's back is against the wall.

Speaker 24 The reports out there that Aaron Rodgers will be back next week, I believe, against Buffalo.

Speaker 9 Man, that's another tough game for Pittsburgh.

Speaker 42 So

Speaker 72 Chicago now also plays on Friday.

Speaker 88 We're now in the Thanksgiving week.

Speaker 9 As we spin forward, they'll get the Eagles.

Speaker 9 Both have tough opponents, and it is the Steelers looking their wounds.

Speaker 25 Shek said it

Speaker 86 last week.

Speaker 70 He thought this was an almost a must-win game for Pittsburgh.

Speaker 53 And I see what he's saying.

Speaker 32 It just, it feels like it's getting late early for the Steelers as they get settled in once more in the cul-de-sac of elite mediocrity.

Speaker 4 She was also slightly agitated that the Steelers traded away George Pickens, and that seems to be a fair

Speaker 37 exactly.

Speaker 15 What was his Sheckism on that one?

Speaker 4 Do you have that, Justin? It makes me sick in my balls.

Speaker 37 Poor Shek.

Speaker 4 Poor Sheck, he's a Steelers fan. What am am I saying?

Speaker 37 Poor Sheck.

Speaker 4 Yeah, let's check ourselves at the door there.

Speaker 25 All right, let's take a break.

Speaker 63 We'll be right back.

Speaker 31 You know, Mark,

Speaker 12 you know that feeling when fall hits and suddenly life goes from lazy summer evenings, classic sessler, to back-to-back everything between new routines, shorter days, and trying to eat something other than cereal for dinner.

Speaker 69 It can get chaotic.

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Speaker 6 I love it.

Speaker 39 We use Factor in our house. We are a,

Speaker 48 you know, both parents are working.

Speaker 70 It's busy.

Speaker 39 My wife needs all the help she can get in the kitchen.

Speaker 17 I do a lot of grilling outside, but now we can kind of do a little hybrid thing.

Speaker 2 And Factor kind of fills in the gaps.

Speaker 1 It's been such a lifesaver for us.

Speaker 76 And it tastes good and it gets the variety.

Speaker 103 And the kids, shut up, shut up, kids.

Speaker 23 You'll eat what we give you, but sometimes we keep giving them the same thing, so you kind of understand in the back of your mind, egg.

Speaker 39 I mean, how many times are they going to have the same three or four meals?

Speaker 16 No, factor has changed all that, so very good stuff.

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Speaker 11 Thanks, Mark. I appreciate that compliment.

Speaker 37 You're welcome.

Speaker 105 Somebody's coming after me.

Speaker 4 You're a maniac. Now just sit back and watch the powder kick explode.

Speaker 105 Maybe something.

Speaker 37 Wow.

Speaker 4 I need to know whatever's on there.

Speaker 105 I think we need a reckoning.

Speaker 36 You ought to to lose your license.

Speaker 101 Keep your mouth shut.

Speaker 105 This is out of control.

Speaker 106 Nope, it's ain't our control.

Speaker 66 And this is going to be fun.

Speaker 4 And this is going to be fun.

Speaker 37 Doc. Fall finale next Tuesday on Fox.
Who is the

Speaker 23 fall finale of Doc?

Speaker 4 Who is the off-brand Timothy Chalamay goth individual? If you're...

Speaker 50 Timothy Chalamay not.

Speaker 4 I don't get what this show is attempting to accomplish, but so.

Speaker 37 So we're not even in.

Speaker 94 I mean, let's be real here, Connor.

Speaker 95 And you're the closest thing to a doc fan that we have.

Speaker 34 But, like, we're not even in the hospital anymore for these episodes.

Speaker 52 Now we just have some hacker kid, Timothy Shalomay not, who is planning some type of like AI-rooted terrorist attack.

Speaker 80 And it's up, is it?

Speaker 84 What is it up to Doc to not only like remember where her keys are because her brain's all jacked from hitting the side window, a bang into the side window.

Speaker 81 Now she's got to foil a terrorist plot?

Speaker 45 Like, where?

Speaker 45 bang into the side bang into the side

Speaker 56 like that's too much on the plate of the good doctor connor

Speaker 37 i uh

Speaker 66 yeah i just keep going back to like the original premise of the show was fine it was like totally easily like it would have been fine and it feels like i mean you guys are more connected to show business than i am but it's like let's just take like eight other scripts that we didn't buy and just cram them into season two and see if something just kind of holds on here.

Speaker 19 Yeah, yeah, just like we were talking about.

Speaker 67 CJ Stroud probably get his job back because of the money, follow the money.

Speaker 47 The numbers weren't great in the book in season one, so now we're doing a goddamn soap opera.

Speaker 75 You know what I mean?

Speaker 19 Anyway, I hope that's not the last episode ever of Doc because it is my favorite show.

Speaker 4 I think it's a coin flip.

Speaker 37 Yeah.

Speaker 19 All right. Another show.

Speaker 23 The Giants every week.

Speaker 13 Every week is another show.

Speaker 10 And it's a

Speaker 59 it's the New York Giants season is what the dock showrunner wishes doc would be.

Speaker 10 Just like filled with just a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Speaker 5 Usually ends in heartbreak.

Speaker 52 Let's head to Ford Field.

Speaker 46 Stand back, stand back.

Speaker 16 Jameer Gibbs.

Speaker 43 Let's give Jameer Gibbs his flowers.

Speaker 29 This guy might be the best player in the NFL.

Speaker 22 He ran for a 69-yard touchdown in the first snap of overtime.

Speaker 67 Career high, 264 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns.

Speaker 12 And that was enough to get by

Speaker 56 Mike Kafka and the New York Giants 34 to 27.

Speaker 8 And I don't want to give all the credit, Sese, to Gibbs, although I think he did all that damage on like just 15 carries.

Speaker 17 It's insane

Speaker 52 how effective he is but you also had a kicker

Speaker 100 in bates who pipes one from 59 out

Speaker 82 to bail out the detroit offense in the last possession of regulation to get the game to overtime and that was like when we look back at the end of the season and we look back at where everyone you know comes down in terms of the standings and seeds and playoffs and buys, like your kicker piping one from 59 in this year, the kicker, what a money kick.

Speaker 30 And then Gibbs took it home.

Speaker 4 Absolutely. And it was a weird,

Speaker 4 well, it was a weird game for like 14 reasons, but it was the Giants that typically these Lions games, you can go and point to on tape two or three trickery-based elements that helped the Lions overcome any sort of defense.

Speaker 4 But in this game, like the Giants were super aggressive. Like Gunnar Olszewski threw a touchdown to Jameis Winston for 33 yards and had Winston like rolling through the defense like a wild man.

Speaker 80 Like it was a miss.

Speaker 37 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 It was an amazing watch. It was a 39-yard flea flicker from Jameis to Wandale Robinson, who had a great game.

Speaker 4 And the Giants, like, Connor, you made this point previously that Kafka, for anything, for whatever you want to say about him or whatever his future is, hyper-aggressive.

Speaker 4 It's like, put yourself out there and advertise what you can bring. And I think he's doing that with this Giants team, but it took, it was more than a thousand yards of offense in this game.

Speaker 4 And that is, that, and it looked like that. But Jameer Gibbs, I wrote the same note, Dan.

Speaker 4 I was like, outside of like removed quarterbacks and maybe like Miles Garrett, is this the best player in the league? Like, he just looked like it today, and they could not stop him.

Speaker 4 And he paved the way. It wasn't just him, but he paved the way and a wide road to overcome the Giants.
And the Giants, they needed the Giants to have a Jameis Winston interception at the end.

Speaker 4 Like, this was about to be a wild upset that would have put the Lions in a really rough place record-wise, but they used their best player to make sure that didn't happen.

Speaker 72 Let's hear from Dan Campbell on the great Jameer Gibbs.

Speaker 107 Gibbs, he's electric. And,

Speaker 107 man, when he found a crease, he was going to the house. This was not about first downs and, you know, picking up a few yards or exploiting.

Speaker 107 I mean, this guy's going to the house, and he's got the juice to make it happen. He's got vision.

Speaker 107 He's a difference maker.

Speaker 11 So he was, I mean,

Speaker 107 he bailed us out today in a big way.

Speaker 66 It's, I love that he's like, like scratching himself at the podium. He's such like a large Sasquatch-like individual that just has no niceties in terms of like being in public.

Speaker 74 He's like Shrek or something.

Speaker 66 Yeah, he's just like talking. He's like, yeah.

Speaker 66 And then he's just like, you know, like, hold on, and just like burps and like rubs his stomach and is like, yeah, we, we really got out there and got after him.

Speaker 66 But what a, like, it was such a Jameis paint by number game that you could follow along on Twitter, and there were Jameis experts who are saying, like, okay, now here's the big pick, and it happens in real time.

Speaker 66 And it's almost like he has an Andy Kaufman-like commitment to being himself in such a weird way that, like, it has to be performance art at this point.

Speaker 66 Like, there's no way that, there's no way that what he's doing is just that replicable unless it's like, it would be so funny if I threw a pick here and it just doesn't. You know, it's Andy Kaufman.

Speaker 23 It's like the Giants have reached like

Speaker 81 just like the peak of whatever it is that this type of season can be.

Speaker 77 It's just art because now you have

Speaker 6 exactly the right quarterback in, you know,

Speaker 16 don't give a f quarterback in Jameis Winston, the all-time DGAF quarterback.

Speaker 75 And you have in Mike Kafka give him credit for this.

Speaker 60 And I know he got some criticism for some decision-making late in this game, as chewing a field goal that would have put them up six, that would have required Detroit to go all the way down the field.

Speaker 82 And

Speaker 81 I'm not going to get on him about about that because I think Kafka is doing what all interim coaches should do, which is just hang onions and go nuts because that's the only way you could keep the job is if you actually instill some type of culture like, whoa, this is the guy we've been waiting for and get the fans on your side and get the WFAN hosts on your side.

Speaker 37 He looks like a coach, too.

Speaker 91 Yeah, I like everything that the Giants are doing except for how every game ends, which is terribly, which is why they're doing 10 and 0-7 on the road.

Speaker 4 That's the one thing, Connor, that's not changed, right?

Speaker 4 Because like the Brian Dayball story this year was like, you've got this thing for 58 minutes and then the floor falls out and you fall into an abyss. And the same thing did happen today.

Speaker 66 Legitimately, I mean, well, factually the only team to have lost two games this season, putting up 500 plus yards of total offense.

Speaker 66 But I did think a couple times over the course of this game that if Cam Scatabo was in this game, they would have won by 10 points.

Speaker 66 Like Tyrone Tracy, there was a couple times when he just had these wide open swaths of field and he just like died. And I didn't understand what happened.

Speaker 66 Like sometimes the run game just melted down on them and they had space and they had room to go.

Speaker 10 And then seeing him like

Speaker 66 juxtaposed with Jameer Gibbs was stunning. Just the change in athleticism and talent there.
My God. I mean, it was just, it was like two different planets.

Speaker 32 A couple other odd things from this game.

Speaker 18 Amon Ross St. Brown had two drops.

Speaker 17 I think he had one drop.

Speaker 18 In what was the number? He had one drop on 152 targets last season.

Speaker 50 He's he had two today and four four on the season.

Speaker 18 I'm not concerned about it, but it is notable.

Speaker 17 And as I was saying, Jameer Gibbs, 219 yards on the ground on just 15 carries.

Speaker 23 That is an average of 14.6 yards per tote.

Speaker 37 It's wild. And 11 catches.

Speaker 10 Throwing 11 catches as well.

Speaker 74 So

Speaker 50 I think Campbell put it well. He bailed them out.

Speaker 19 Detroit defense has got to be better.

Speaker 18 Listen, Detroit came very close to falling to 6-5 and getting beat by a 2-9 Giants team.

Speaker 18 And they're playing again, obviously, on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 51 They got to tighten up the operation, but they do find a way, as good teams tend to do.

Speaker 65 So let's move on.

Speaker 37 Two,

Speaker 10 I know where we're going. We're going to Cincinnati.

Speaker 47 We're on to Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 Remember? It's not this funny now, considering the coach you said.

Speaker 34 Remember that?

Speaker 37 Get beat by Duke this weekend?

Speaker 37 And Christian Leighton are on that team? What are we doing?

Speaker 37 Christian Leightoner, what?

Speaker 37 Idiot.

Speaker 54 Here we go.

Speaker 18 Mike Rabel and the New England Patriots are 10-2.

Speaker 91 They keep winning.

Speaker 16 Nine straight victories.

Speaker 20 This one was ugly.

Speaker 58 This one came at a cost.

Speaker 14 But they do find a way.

Speaker 56 They get the defensive stop of Joe Flacco in the final minutes to hold on to it for a 26-20 win over the Bengals, who are, by the way, 3-8.

Speaker 81 And I know Burrow practiced in full all week and was with the first team.

Speaker 40 And Cincinnati does make the decision here to keep him on the bench.

Speaker 52 And I understand it because he is the franchise.

Speaker 62 But now they're on a short week because they're playing on Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving night, and you're three and eight now.

Speaker 81 So it's like, what are we going to do?

Speaker 19 So what's the goal here?

Speaker 49 We're just going to put in Burrow.

Speaker 22 Is he 100%?

Speaker 17 Because you now have to win six games in a row.

Speaker 24 And it's just not realistic because they blew every opportunity to keep their season alive when Burrow was out.

Speaker 17 And this was no different.

Speaker 30 And I don't think New England played great in this game.

Speaker 71 Drake May, especially, was not sharp early on, including throwing a pick six, the first of his career.

Speaker 88 Cincinnati got out to a 10-0 lead, but then they just kind of let it slip away.

Speaker 19 And the Patriots, as they have shown all season, they take advantage of your mistakes, just like Joe Flacco throwing a ball that Marcus Jones picked off, and he goes the other way for 33 yards for a pick six.

Speaker 25 Their kicker, Andy Borregales, has been really good for them.

Speaker 69 He had four field goals in this game, and

Speaker 59 they just keep on winning.

Speaker 9 Now, the injuries are a big part of it, boys.

Speaker 79 I just want to get this out there.

Speaker 85 Will Campbell, their star rookie left tackle, had a knee injury, carted off, has the towel over his head, looks like a potentially season-ending knee injury.

Speaker 28 Left guard, Jared Wilson, injured an ankle on the game's first series.

Speaker 22 We got a report.

Speaker 69 There's reporting out there that both these guys sustained injuries that look like sprains rather than season-ending injuries, and that could be a season saver for the Patriots.

Speaker 28 So a war of attrition for New England.

Speaker 18 They get the job and they get some good news on their offensive line after the game.

Speaker 4 Like, we don't, we, when we talk about Lane Johnson being in or out of the lineup with the Eagles, there's... a big body of work to show the difference there and what it how it affects the offense.

Speaker 4 But we don't know that with Will Campbell.

Speaker 4 so your hope tonight as a patriots fan that it is a sprain or something that ensures he'll be back when things really matter um this is this is a wild i i mean i think if someone had offered you to put money on this before the season the patriots finished undefeated in october and november for the first time since that 2007 year Like this is happening very fast.

Speaker 4 And they weren't perfect today, and they found a way to still win. I think that matters a lot lot to learn to win different ways.
But what happened with T.

Speaker 4 Higgins, by the way, because he was also injured, right? Like this Bengals team is cooked, man. I know.

Speaker 83 Actually, it's funny because they're down six and Flacco's got the ball at midfield.

Speaker 9 And I think I even texted our group chat and said, is Flacco about to...

Speaker 19 beat the Patriots with Jamar Chase suspended and T.

Speaker 70 Higgins in a dark room because he has a concussion.

Speaker 50 No, he doesn't get it done. But that's what happened to him.

Speaker 48 He went up to get a ball and came down and landed awkwardly.

Speaker 72 And now he's in the the concussion protocol on a short week.

Speaker 18 I didn't even think of that. So now

Speaker 25 you get Jamar Chase back and maybe Joe Burrow, but you don't get T. Higgins.
It's been that kind of year for the Bengals.

Speaker 76 Here is Mike Frabel talking about the injuries and the struggles and overcoming it for the Patriots who are now 6-0 on the road.

Speaker 96 That's what happens in this league.

Speaker 88 You know, you need everybody and you go through the season, you go on the road, and you know, it's tough, and

Speaker 96 nobody wants to talk about numbers and records.

Speaker 38 That doesn't mean

Speaker 37 all right. All right, Mike.
Calm down.

Speaker 19 Talk about guys that are feeling it, man.

Speaker 5 Mike's feeling it.

Speaker 71 And I would be too if I've won nine in a row.

Speaker 4 Yes, you would. Yeah.

Speaker 20 I mean, they are, they're taking advantage of a soft portion of the schedule.

Speaker 26 It's going to tighten up later.

Speaker 47 They get the Giants on Monday night football next week.

Speaker 34 But listen, hats off. Nine in a row is nine in a row.

Speaker 19 And after another Bills loss on Thursday night, they have a stranglehold, not just on that division, but they're now the top seed in the AFC.

Speaker 18 The playoffs going through Foxborough really is a nightmare coming to life for the good people of the world.

Speaker 37 All right, let's move on to Lambeau Field where we could see if Noin could get something going.

Speaker 35 Spoiler alert, no.

Speaker 108 Not good.

Speaker 92 Not good for the Minnesota quarterback.

Speaker 35 The Green Bay Packers, on the other hand, they're slowly putting it together.

Speaker 12 And it's good to have depth.

Speaker 56 With Josh Jacobs out, Emmanuel Wilson steps in.

Speaker 18 He runs for a career high, 107 yards and two touchdowns.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 26 you get mistake-free football

Speaker 23 at the quarterback position once more from Jordan Love.

Speaker 25 And the defense does the rest, stifling J.J.

Speaker 9 McCarthy and the Vikings' offense.

Speaker 25 McCarthy threw for, I believe, 87 yards in this game.

Speaker 41 Final score, 23-6.

Speaker 34 Connor.

Speaker 72 Connor, Connor, Connor.

Speaker 20 Where do you want to start on this one?

Speaker 86 Take it away.

Speaker 66 All right, let's get

Speaker 66 the nine discourse out of the way. Okay.

Speaker 66 There are two absolutely stunning statistics from this one. The first one from our buddy Arif Hassan.

Speaker 66 So if you take out like kind of the quick little dropbacks, like the designed screens and stuff like that,

Speaker 66 this was the 344th ranked quarterback performance of the year out of 346 in terms of EPA.

Speaker 9 So the second worst.

Speaker 28 The previous weeks can't be much too far behind that.

Speaker 66 If you take a collection of all of his dropbacks and you put him against every quarterback since 2000, he is the worst since Jamarcus Russell.

Speaker 66 And they're the bottom two. So it's like 851 and 852.

Speaker 79 The biggest first round bust of the century.

Speaker 42 For those that don't know, he went first overall to the Raiders in 2009.

Speaker 8 He didn't do any homework.

Speaker 50 They once gave him a blank disc that they said the playbook was on just to test him. And then when he came back after the weekend or whatever, like, hey, how's the playbook look?

Speaker 13 He's like, oh, it looks great.

Speaker 70 And they're like, oh, this guy's the finging worst.

Speaker 37 Blank disc.

Speaker 4 That's how long ago that was.

Speaker 19 Now, I'm just saying, that's Jamarcus Russell.

Speaker 72 That's not what we understand J.J.

Speaker 51 McCarthy to be, but he is obviously frustrating to watch if you're a Vikings fan.

Speaker 99 And I would imagine if the best wide receiver in the world was on that team, he'd be frustrated too.

Speaker 67 Here's Justin Jefferson after the game.

Speaker 109 Yeah, it's frustrating. It's frustrating to lose.
You know, it's frustrating to

Speaker 109 be up here and say the same things every single weekend,

Speaker 109 expecting for something to change the following weekend. You know, we're still in the same spot.
So

Speaker 109 we just got to figure it out and see the things that we need to change and get better.

Speaker 4 I don't know because I think the argument on why J.J. McCarthy,

Speaker 4 inexperienced as he is and was, was that you've got a great team around you. You've got a Brian Flores defense that at times has been dominant

Speaker 4 and puts you in a good position. You've got star-wide receivers around you.
But when things don't go well, like all of that becomes probably a hothouse inside the locker room.

Speaker 4 Because we're two weeks, two or three weeks removed from J.J. McCarthy marauding into the locker room with his eye paint and everyone loving him.

Speaker 4 But it's like things can turn sour pretty quick when you've got a. I don't think Jay Justin Jefferson is a diva, but he's one of those wide receivers.

Speaker 4 I mean, right now, it's like, you know, that salt, the old salt girl, when it rains, it pours on the salt containers. Like,

Speaker 4 well, I mean, some probably don't, but like you're dazed.

Speaker 24 So we came down this road before. No,

Speaker 8 you brought that analogy up, and we were like, what is he talking about? And then

Speaker 68 the label of the Seahawks.

Speaker 37 Well, it is a product from one's youth.

Speaker 4 But here's the thing: here's how it gets worse. They place Sam Darnold in in the Seahawks next week.

Speaker 42 That's pretty good.

Speaker 65 Yeah, it's not good.

Speaker 99 And

Speaker 23 where are they?

Speaker 9 They're four and seven now, Connor.

Speaker 25 And I was curious if KOC was going to say anything after the game in terms of, do you give this guy another mental health break?

Speaker 34 But it's like, I don't think you can.

Speaker 9 I feel like they have now, like I've said a hundred times, boxed themselves in a corner where it's like, you got to ride it out and see if he can get it straightened out.

Speaker 41 But I don't know.

Speaker 55 He should probably stop talking to the media and saying he's a cork that's about to explode and then throw for 87 yards.

Speaker 10 I mean, there's a lot of things that need to be cleaned up over there.

Speaker 66 It was strange, too, because

Speaker 66 they reported during the game that he apologized to all of his teammates, basically, and thanked them for their patience as he grows.

Speaker 66 And it just, like, it just, I feel like he's trying so hard and you have so much empathy for him. But outside of scripted plays, I mean, I did this look back two weeks ago.

Speaker 66 Outside of the first 15 plays, he's non-effective. He's a non-presence.
And it makes me wonder a little bit why, if you're Kevin O'Connell, why can't you puppeteer him a little bit? Kind of what

Speaker 66 Sean McVay did with Jared Goff early in his career, where he was in his headset until like right before the cutoff, right? Helping him read the defenses, showing him where the ball is going to go.

Speaker 66 Can't you kind of reorient yourself?

Speaker 10 Connor, it's possible he is doing that.

Speaker 37 I know, but that's the thing.

Speaker 19 It could be even worse than we realize.

Speaker 37 Yeah.

Speaker 66 Because KOC is a guy we all universally know to be a respected guy and if you know if mccarthy can't get it figured out with him i don't know if he does still early but i don't know it's not been good how about the packers side of things i mean this was to get that performance Matt LaFleur offenses can't thrive without that premium rushing game.

Speaker 66 And to be able to have that, Jordan Love looked more comfortable. He was able to spread the ball around.
The loss of the tight end didn't seem to really affect them as much.

Speaker 66 Micah Parsons was great on the other side of the ball. So this was like your complete tap-in Packer victory.
They just look a little bit different than they used to on the personnel front.

Speaker 66 But I mean, this team is just kind of like in a non-sexy way, just managing games.

Speaker 66 They're taking Jordan Love's worst impulses away, and they're just finding ways to control the game on the ground, which is exactly what they want to do.

Speaker 4 And they did it without Josh Jacobs, Matthew Golden, inactive. And it like, I mean, depth is everything.

Speaker 4 And Emmanuel Wilson looked good when he replaced Jacobs a week ago, and he had, what, 107 yards today. It's like that stuff matters.

Speaker 50 Also, I just want to give a you're welcome, Packers fans.

Speaker 25 You're welcome because ever since I kind of called out Micah Parsons, he's been an absolute menace at the highest level.

Speaker 10 He had a huge game, as I understand it.

Speaker 76 This is a game. It's one of those game pass games.

Speaker 21 I got to go back and check it out.

Speaker 25 But he abused Christian Darasaw by all accounts.

Speaker 5 He had a two-sack day, and now he's at 10 sacks through 11 games and is on a warpath.

Speaker 79 So, I don't know.

Speaker 18 after a bit of a rocky middle part of the season, Connor, it seems like Green Bay is starting to find its feet a little bit.

Speaker 69 And now another big test in Detroit on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 66 Well, that's the thing. Like you need to see them against

Speaker 66 teams like Detroit again, because when Micah Parsons can go against an offensive line that's being piecemealed together and against a quarterback who can't operate a functional NFL offense, he's going to destroy people.

Speaker 66 We saw that in Cleveland, and we'll talk about that in a couple.

Speaker 66 We'll talk about that in a couple minutes. But I need to see that on a more consistent basis.
I still am not sold that this team is playoff bound at this point.

Speaker 66 I just don't know if they're that good beyond some of the injuries that they've sustained. But this is one of those games they had to win and they won it.

Speaker 55 All right. Let's move on.

Speaker 83 Let's head to Baltimore. The Ravens had to keep winning.

Speaker 55 Let's see if they could do it against the lowly New York Jets.

Speaker 26 This song's a little too like

Speaker 12 propulsive to talk about this game.

Speaker 68 This is a little bit like 80s jazzer size step up, step down kind of

Speaker 4 don't you want me, baby?

Speaker 44 This game was like watching

Speaker 72 like a turtle cross the 405.

Speaker 68 Okay, I got you

Speaker 4 with the appropriate results.

Speaker 81 Anyway, yeah, the Ravens, they don't still don't look like the Ravens. Okay, so there's the bad news.

Speaker 97 The good news is as long as you're playing teams like the Jets, that's not going to be much of a problem.

Speaker 20 Just stack the win and keep trying to figure things out.

Speaker 56 23 to 10, Ravens over Jets.

Speaker 20 Derrick Henry scored two third-quarter touchdowns, and Baltimore

Speaker 20 gets it together after a very lackluster first half in which they were held to a field goal and were down after two quarters.

Speaker 53 So that's five straight victories for the Ravens.

Speaker 28 As we said, they're now tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers atop the AFC North,

Speaker 73 and all seems to be well.

Speaker 99 Well, not quite.

Speaker 25 I'll just say this about this game, Mark, as I throw it to you because I know you watched it closely.

Speaker 70 Like, my big takeaway from this game, I knew they were going to win the Ravens.

Speaker 13 The Lamar Jackson, the lack of athleticism, and the lack of escapability, and that element of his game that is clearly still not there,

Speaker 65 it makes them a much more earthbound operation.

Speaker 25 So it's just something to continue to keep an eye on, despite the fact that they are ostensibly one of the hottest teams in football.

Speaker 4 From a win-loss record, one of the hottest. Yes, I'm totally with you.

Speaker 4 They're completely uninspiring to me.

Speaker 4 I get that they're going to make the playoffs probably win a bit.

Speaker 89 In fairness, you hate them with a

Speaker 4 even when we talked about them surging down the stretch, and it starts and ends with Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 4 Like, you're expecting to see last year's Lamar Jackson or a different, you know, a healthy, I don't think he's healthy.

Speaker 4 And I, you know, they've been asking him and he's kind of hedged a little bit, but like he's just not healthy. He's not 100%.

Speaker 4 Like he's, they've talked about keeping him out of practice every Wednesday, which they've done in the past, but it's like they're just trying to manage his health.

Speaker 4 Like he doesn't, to me, he has no elusiveness. And when that happens, like, you look at the score was the score, but the Jets held him to 72 yards in the first half.

Speaker 4 And it felt to me like it could have gone in a different direction and been a signature Sunday for New York.

Speaker 4 And, you know, the Jets aren't there yet, but neither are the Ravens if we're talking about how special they are and where they're going to go. They're not.

Speaker 4 They're a meat and potatoes type of team right now that are about three injuries away from having almost no meaning in the National Football League beyond appearing in the playoffs potentially and then disappearing.

Speaker 66 Do you think that there is an active effort by him, though, to not move around?

Speaker 66 And, you know, like we've seen some of these quarterbacks where you know that you're in a position where you could probably just kind of briskly walk past your opponent.

Speaker 66 And do you think that that's kind of part of the injury effort on his part? Like, does it look like he's actively trying not to run? Does he just look pained when he's running? Like, what's the...

Speaker 37 He just doesn't look himself. Yeah, let me click.

Speaker 78 I want to call attention to one play in particular.

Speaker 25 I wish you could tell exactly when it was, but it was about midway through the game, and he scrambles, gets out of the pocket, and then gets to the second level of the defense.

Speaker 34 And he got gets kind of dragged down from behind. And then he pounds the turf like three times with his hand.

Speaker 23 And I can tell he's doing it because he's like, damn it,

Speaker 34 I can't hit that extra gear that allows me to turn that three-yard game into a 23-yard game.

Speaker 52 And it's such a big missing element of their offense because even with Derrick Henry scoring two touchdowns in this game, and statistically,

Speaker 59 I know his numbers are where they usually are.

Speaker 28 I don't think he's the same guy this year either.

Speaker 25 And And I know Lamar's not the same guy he is this year as he's been in the past. And outside of Zay Flowers, I still see a team that doesn't have

Speaker 25 a lot to go to offensively.

Speaker 34 So I don't want to dwell too negatively on it, Mark, but

Speaker 30 it did stand out to me that this was a little bit harder than it needed to be against a Jets team that, you know, by the third quarter looked like they were ready to pack up.

Speaker 4 And I'm not looking to verbally hammer them like left and right every time we talk about them. I just think that this isn't a special team in in the AFC.

Speaker 69 They are

Speaker 4 they just don't look like themselves.

Speaker 52 And I'll just give a just a quick summation of the Jets.

Speaker 76 It remains a very open question whether Aaron Glenn is the right guy for the Jets.

Speaker 70 And I know he likes to present himself as bold and

Speaker 50 in the mode of like a Detroit Lions type figure.

Speaker 17 But it happened again in this game.

Speaker 72 They decide to go for it on fourth and two from their own 42.

Speaker 25 This is a game where the defense is really playing well.

Speaker 50 It's a one-score game at this point.

Speaker 10 And it's not so much going for it.

Speaker 28 It's the fact that Brees Hall is not on the field for this.

Speaker 48 And he wasn't on the field for third down in short.

Speaker 81 And then after they go for it, it's just like an awkward play.

Speaker 25 He throws it at a receiver that's not even looking.

Speaker 24 And it's just like...

Speaker 10 You know what's happening next.

Speaker 30 This is what happens with truly bad teams.

Speaker 50 You're fighting hard.

Speaker 16 You take a chance like that.

Speaker 19 You want it at least to be a well-thought-out risk that you're taking.

Speaker 60 It didn't feel that way.

Speaker 25 Tony Adams, who is terrible in their secondary, makes a bad pass interference, sets up the Ravens at the goal line.

Speaker 5 Henry goes in game over.

Speaker 76 And it's just like,

Speaker 84 I just don't know about the leadership of this team.

Speaker 30 Tyrod Taylor is better than Justin Fields has been.

Speaker 50 They actually let him throw the ball, which was nice.

Speaker 56 They have some pieces.

Speaker 70 Some of the guys that they brought in,

Speaker 50 whether it's pickups and trades or whatnot, have given them something, including John Menchie, who's, I think, been pretty good for them since they picked him up.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 28 yeah, it's just tough to watch a bad team knowing there's no margin for error. And then they traded away their best player.

Speaker 98 So it's like, what are we even doing here?

Speaker 79 What are we doing?

Speaker 71 2-9.

Speaker 55 2-9.

Speaker 14 Anything else on this one, Mark?

Speaker 4 No, I think we wrapped. I think we put a bow on that, if that's what we want to call it.

Speaker 37 All right, great.

Speaker 81 Let's take a break.

Speaker 28 Let's take a shower.

Speaker 25 And let's dig into the rest of week 12.

Speaker 104 What's up? It's Draymond Green. I'm back for my 14th NBA season, and my podcast, The Draymond Green Show, is back too.

Speaker 104 This season, I'm breaking down games, reacting to the biggest NBA stories, and sitting down with teammates, rivals, and culture shapers. And trust me, I'm not holding back on the court or on the mic.

Speaker 104 Two new episodes every week. New segments, big conversations, real basketball talk for the real hoop heads.
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Speaker 35 All right. We are back.

Speaker 74 The Seahawks. All right.

Speaker 41 Seahawks coming off a tough one.

Speaker 42 What would the doctor order for any team coming off a tough loss?

Speaker 10 How about the Tennessee Titans?

Speaker 37 To Nashville.

Speaker 37 Woof.

Speaker 58 They stink them tight.

Speaker 44 Sam Darnold

Speaker 20 coming off the worst game of his Seahawks tenure.

Speaker 44 Looks a lot more like the Sam Darnold we've seen for most of the year, throwing for 244 yards, two touchdowns.

Speaker 92 The big play, a 63-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Smith and Jigbo in the second quarter.

Speaker 9 Very nice.

Speaker 26 30-24 Seahawks over Titans.

Speaker 59 That is the fifth win in six games for Seattle, who stay hot on the heels of the Rams in the NFC West.

Speaker 90 The Titans, meanwhile, fall to 1-10 and 0-6 at home.

Speaker 41 Justin, what did you see from the Seahawks in this one?

Speaker 68 Yeah, this game was more competitive than I was expecting. A six-point win for Seattle, but some of that was a little lipstick on the pig.

Speaker 68 You know, Titans score with like just over a minute left, fail to secure an on-side kick. Seattle wins it.

Speaker 68 But the number one thing, number one takeaway from this game is Jackson Smith in Jigba continues to play like the best wide receiver in the National Football League with, what do you have, 167 yards today?

Speaker 41 He's at a 2,000-yard pace.

Speaker 83 He's above a 2,000-yard pace.

Speaker 4 He broke the franchise record. Yes,

Speaker 68 those were the next two statements coming out of my mouth. But yeah,

Speaker 68 that's just where he's at. I mean, two touchdowns.

Speaker 94 We got to let Justin talk.

Speaker 37 Go ahead.

Speaker 4 Well, that was a little rude of us. So continue.

Speaker 68 No, you guys are fine. The 63-yard one was

Speaker 68 Clint Kubiak has been doing this all year, you know, playing with personnel groupings and everything.

Speaker 68 And he manages with preset motion and different alignments and stuff to get Jackson Smith and Jigba matched up one-on-one with a Titan safety.

Speaker 68 And like this Titan safety, Yamani Hooker, he's a good player, but no safety in the National Football League is going to cover Jackson Smith and Jigba on a slot fade when he has 20 yards of space to build up speed and stop that in the one-on-one coverage.

Speaker 68 Nobody's going to be able to do that. So Clint Kubiak continues to get...
him lined up with advantageous matchups on an almost per-snap basis.

Speaker 68 There was a point in this game where Darnold had like 160 passing yards and Jackson Smith and Jigba had like 120 receiving yards or something.

Speaker 68 He had like almost all of the Seahawks' yards at one point in this game. And I think the other big takeaway for me is their depth is underrated and maybe not talked about outside of Seattle's market.

Speaker 68 They have this guy, Patrick O'Connell, who's been on the practice squad all year, elevated for this game because Ernest Jones is out, and he is smashing into people the physicality this defense plays with.

Speaker 68 Finished with nine tackles, a guy you probably never heard of. Had a great game.

Speaker 68 And I think the Seahawks, this game was a little closer and they've been doing this a little bit with some teams where like the game's a little closer final score than maybe you expect or want.

Speaker 68 But ultimately, they were never really in jeopardy of losing this game.

Speaker 6 I was happy to see Darnold airing it out and not looking gun shy

Speaker 55 after what happened last week.

Speaker 7 Here is Mike McDonald on his quarterback.

Speaker 110 Well, actually, you know, he was a spark for us. You know, the big touchdown to Jax.

Speaker 8 Like

Speaker 110 to see his emotion and his excitement, I thought really got the team going, which was which is something that we needed. So, like we said, same guy, just ripped it, did a great job.

Speaker 110 There's some plays that we want to improve on. We want back and learn from those plays just like the rest of the team.

Speaker 111 But I thought Sam played good football today.

Speaker 4 You know what's like when I think of Sam Darnold, because I feel like he's

Speaker 4 prone to this. It happens to him all the time.

Speaker 4 Because they have a defensive-minded coach, like Clint Kubiak is going to get a job somewhere, and he's going to have his like 18th offensive play caller in his career. They really work well together.

Speaker 4 Justin, though, was this Cam Ward's best game? Because I was watching this out of the corner of my eye and like it seemed clean. He was good on the ground.

Speaker 4 It just seemed like might have, he took a step here.

Speaker 68 Yes, this was Cam Ward's best game as a Titan.

Speaker 68 He was making play. This was the first time I felt that he was elevating the offense around him.
Like, I really think he put the offense on his back to carry them.

Speaker 68 For the second straight week, he leads them in rushing yards. They have like 30, 25 rushing yards outside of his production on the ground, which is just abysmal and doesn't help any quarterback.

Speaker 68 Converted a number of third downs, was making incredible plays out of structure.

Speaker 68 Had what I personally think is the throw of the weekend, get knocked out of bounds right at the sideline, across his body, over the middle to his buddy, Xavier Ristrepo, who finally got the call up from the practice squad, undrafted free agent who played with Ward at Miami.

Speaker 68 And he just like, he, he was doing, he didn't make a mistake in this game, which I think it's probably the first time I can say that this year.

Speaker 68 He had a very couple missed throws, like two missed throws, and that's it. And I think he really showed us he's the franchise quarterback the Titans been looking for.

Speaker 68 It's very similar to what Drake May went through down the stretch last season, where he really started showing those flashes.

Speaker 68 This guy is the guy in a terrible environment, and that is not an independent thought.

Speaker 68 Somebody tweeted that, somebody national who doesn't have Titans bias tweeted that, and I can't remember who it was.

Speaker 4 Jane Pauley, I believe.

Speaker 37 Okay,

Speaker 68 but he was great in this game. The rest of the Titans' offenses, I mean, they have young rookies making plays, but the rest of the...

Speaker 42 It was Ralph Macchio that sent that tweet.

Speaker 37 Yeah, probably.

Speaker 4 That is good, Justin.

Speaker 42 That is good.

Speaker 37 I'm happy for

Speaker 37 something that's great. That's what you're looking for.

Speaker 28 You need the quarterback to show growth.

Speaker 44 Connor, put a bow on it.

Speaker 68 Another bow. Connor saw zero seconds of this game.
I'm guessing.

Speaker 66 I'm just really happy for Justin.

Speaker 42 So happy for you, bro.

Speaker 68 Rookie returner Shimeri DK had a 90-yard punt return touchdown and could be an all-pro return man as a rookie.

Speaker 4 Cool. By the way, it was last night around 11:30 p.m.
that I

Speaker 4 was scrolling through Twitter and realized that Justin had posted, I believe it was Twitter, a hype video from the Miami Hurricanes of Cam Ward and this Restrepo fellow in their college tape together.

Speaker 4 I was like, this is a Retrue fan.

Speaker 84 He is involved here.

Speaker 94 Let's head to the desert of Arizona.

Speaker 44 Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 20 Trevor Lawrence had

Speaker 44 the most Trevor Lawrence-y game that's ever been Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 26 And it was enough when you're facing the Cardinals, put it that that way.

Speaker 32 Lawrence

Speaker 8 made the big throws when it counted the most,

Speaker 26 including a late touchdown pass that allowed the Jaguars to escape with a 27-24 win over the Cardinals.

Speaker 9 Improving to 7-4, 7-4.

Speaker 15 And yes, right behind the Indianapolis Colts now

Speaker 33 in the AFC South.

Speaker 15 Justin, you were on this game.

Speaker 108 A lot of fun.

Speaker 3 Kind of chaotic.

Speaker 34 Yeah. A lot of energy in this one.

Speaker 68 This game was a little drunk, I think.

Speaker 68 I still don't think Trevor Lawrence is playing that well. I think he really struggled in the first half to see this.

Speaker 85 He is all over the place.

Speaker 68 Holding the ball way too long. I mean, he turned the ball over four times in this game.
Three interceptions.

Speaker 68 Got stripped, sacked, ball pop in the air. Walter Nolan catches it.
The first-round rookie for the Cardinals scores his first career touchdown.

Speaker 68 And then the fourth quarter of this game was just absolutely so much fun, chaotic back and forth. Ends up in overtime.

Speaker 68 The Cardinals' offense just can't make enough plays, and or the Jags defense really stepped up and made the plays when they needed to.

Speaker 68 And to survive that many turnovers and that much of a turnover disparity really shows that this, I think, is a complete team.

Speaker 68 And that to me is the difference this year is that while Trevor Lawrence hasn't taken the step that a lot of people hoped and expected he could take necessarily, is that the team around him, they don't need him to.

Speaker 68 Like he can just be sort of more of a game manager. Like you said, make the throws when you need to, throw that touchdown pass at the end.

Speaker 68 He had a chance a few possessions before that to seal it on a fourth and one, and they go for it and they don't come up with the conversion. And he gets another chance and does come up.

Speaker 68 So as long as he can make those plays when they need to, like this team can hang with just about anybody. And on the right day, like we saw a few weeks ago, they can smash somebody.

Speaker 98 But

Speaker 68 I do think Lawrence has limitations that are going to like limit the long-term upside this season for what the team can do in the postseason.

Speaker 66 I know Jonathan Gannon, I think, said something like this: like the decision was dope as hell, but

Speaker 66 why did Jacoby Brissett throw like 90 yards beyond the marker on fourth and four when they had a potential to set up a game-tying field goal?

Speaker 66 He didn't have single coverage. Looked like he had a guy that was open that could have made a defender miss two, maybe, to get a first down.

Speaker 66 What the hell happened there?

Speaker 68 I honestly don't know. I think,

Speaker 68 yeah, maybe he maybe just

Speaker 68 didn't want to throw it short of this. I don't know.
I mean, did he see a matchup he liked down the field? Like, that's a great question.

Speaker 37 That's Jake Brisket, baby.

Speaker 37 He's going to make it happen, Captain.

Speaker 68 He had a decent game overall, over 300 yards. You know, he set the completion record last week.
He's going to, his jersey is going to Canton for that, I think, because of the.

Speaker 41 No, don't get me started on that.

Speaker 66 No, that's not.

Speaker 50 I saw a tweet of that.

Speaker 4 That doesn't work around me.

Speaker 23 You lost by 20 points. You lost like 42 to 20.

Speaker 40 And they have this thing in Canton, the jersey, the whole uniform.

Speaker 24 And it was too cool.

Speaker 90 I couldn't see what the inscription was, but it's like, I hope we note pretty high in the lead here that though they were getting blown out by 30 points in the second quarter and none of the completions meant a damn thing, he did technically have the most completions ever.

Speaker 37 Can we, I mean, let's have a higher bar in Canton.

Speaker 4 You want an inverted pyramid on the inscription in Canton?

Speaker 37 I never thought we needed to put any type of guardrails into, you know, Canton in terms of what should be in there and what shouldn't.

Speaker 95 But

Speaker 3 yeah,

Speaker 80 that certainly qualifies.

Speaker 35 I also want to say, like they, Michael Wilson for the Cardinals, like he's a dude.

Speaker 3 He's a dog.

Speaker 50 He's gotten this opportunity with Marvin Harrison out and he's two straight weeks over 100 yards looking like a true like playmaker.

Speaker 17 Trey McBride every week is going to give you games and be productive.

Speaker 24 But he does the double move there, Wilson, late in the regulation, runs it beautifully, totally toasts the defender.

Speaker 73 And

Speaker 60 Brissette hits him, maybe underthrows him just a little bit, which leads to him getting brought down inside the 10, I think it was.

Speaker 23 And I think there's six seconds left.

Speaker 90 No timeouts, right?

Speaker 25 After they get to the line, instead of spiking it, they try to run a play.

Speaker 50 It's incomplete.

Speaker 30 Yeah.

Speaker 62 And then they bring out the kicker for the field goal.

Speaker 23 And I'm like, six seconds on the clock.

Speaker 13 You are who you are.

Speaker 69 You are where you are in the standings.

Speaker 37 Like, try to win the damn game there.

Speaker 19 I thought that was a little curious, too.

Speaker 68 I think they botched the whole sequence because the fact that they only got one playoff is crazy.

Speaker 81 Right.

Speaker 23 You got to get to the line, and that's on Jake probably too, but you got to get to the line.

Speaker 24 You got to spike that football and then give your chance, give yourself at least one chance and maybe two to win the ball game.

Speaker 17 Instead, they settle for three, and then that ends up not being enough.

Speaker 18 I mean, Zum Walton, the Cardinals fans know it.

Speaker 70 This is a team that is, like the New York Giants,

Speaker 24 will always find a way to lose.

Speaker 32 And when that happens and there's talent on the roster, go check what's going on with the coaching staff.

Speaker 68 I agree 100% because when the people people in charge are making this decision at the end of the year, those are the moments they're going to evaluate.

Speaker 68 It's not like, oh, was your starting quarterback on IR? Oh, we're just going to throw our hands up.

Speaker 68 It's like, no, Jake Brisket played really well in this game, and you had a chance there, and you botched it.

Speaker 68 And that's the whole point of being a head coach is to not botch those moments and to put your team in a position to win the game, not in a position to blow the game, which the Cardinals have to do.

Speaker 71 Have them prepared for that moment.

Speaker 41 Right. Have them prepared.

Speaker 28 It's frustrating. I don't know if they are a prepared team.

Speaker 55 All right. Let's move on.

Speaker 81 Let's head to Las Vegas.

Speaker 70 Raiders football is so depressing, man.

Speaker 6 You're going to mausoleum on the strip.

Speaker 37 Nobody even goes to Vegas right now. The whole city gets a bit of a butter.

Speaker 23 Everybody just goes in there and has a great old time, including the Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 19 Good for you, Sess Dog. What a fun game this one.

Speaker 18 I had eyes on this one, and I was enjoying it because...

Speaker 56 People focus on Shador Sanders because he made the start and he became the first Cleveland Browns

Speaker 20 quarterback to win his first start.

Speaker 18 And I don't know what the stat was, Mark, like a million years?

Speaker 35 Well, 1.3 million years.

Speaker 37 17 in a row

Speaker 4 have lost. You have to go back to Eric Zaire, who was Vinny Testa Verdi's understudy in like a year.

Speaker 37 That's a long time of people.

Speaker 17 And Sanders was, he made some plays in this game, and we'll get to Sanders, but it was the defense of the Browns that won this game.

Speaker 69 10 sacks of Geno Smith.

Speaker 64 10 sacks, including Miles Garrett continuing

Speaker 15 his journey, which I feel like is starting to feel inevitable to giving the sack record its dignity back.

Speaker 5 He has a couple more in this game, and he has already set the Browns' record.

Speaker 17 And I think he needs six in the last seven games.

Speaker 4 I think it's five in the last six.

Speaker 72 Five in the last six, excuse me, to set the NFL record that Strahan stole from Gastoneau 25 years ago.

Speaker 20 Anyway, Brown, Browns, 24 Raiders top.

Speaker 70 I'm going to get my sacks.

Speaker 37 Sess.

Speaker 50 Or Connor, excuse me, you had the eyes on this one, Connor.

Speaker 66 Yeah, so we'll start there.

Speaker 66 I have no idea how even deep into this game, it was like stone Forsyth one-on-one against Miles Garrett. And it was one of those

Speaker 94 things where, you know,

Speaker 66 Ross Tucker had the game, and early on he was talking about, you know, the technicality, the moves. Miles Garrett was just running around him and then just sacking Gino Smith.

Speaker 66 Like, there wasn't physical contact. And then Aston Jenny, they were keeping him in sometimes to protect.

Speaker 66 And there were times where he just moved out of the way and he was like, all right, you can just go and tackle a quarterback. Geno Smith was terrible in this game.

Speaker 66 He couldn't throw with any degree of anticipation. If he had hit.

Speaker 66 If he had thrown the balls the way that Chip Kelly designed them to, the times that he would have, they would have won this game despite being sacked 10 times.

Speaker 66 I mean, they had open receivers in this game. The whole thing was, I apologize to Raiders fans on social media during this.
I was like, I had no idea how bad it got.

Speaker 66 It's been like two weeks since I've kind of checked in there. This is awful.
It's unwatchable football.

Speaker 4 This was the worst game, too, I think. The Raiders.
Sorry, guys.

Speaker 53 Wait, but we just saw the Monday night game wasn't that good either.

Speaker 15 I think Pete Carroll's in a little bit of danger now.

Speaker 28 I want to just, again, shine the light on Miles Garrett, Mark, because he's the first player in NFL history with 12-plus sacks in a four-game span.

Speaker 20 And yeah, that I don't know what's going on with the Raiders.

Speaker 17 I got a feeling if Pete Carroll doesn't get fired, Chip Kelly is going to be miles away from this team the next time they're playing relevant football next fall.

Speaker 13 Like leaving Stone Forsyth on an island repeatedly against the greatest pass rusher of this generation is a fireable offense, quite frankly.

Speaker 66 And Ross Tucker made the great point, too. And he did make up a lot of time in this game and make up a lot of sacks.

Speaker 66 But this was probably the largest block of time that the browns defense has had a lead all season right and miles gare is getting a lot of these sacks and is it's not padding at this point because this team almost never has a lead and so i thought that that was just kind of hit me like a ton of bricks in the middle of this game like he's going to break the record during a season where the browns win five or six games at best right i mean that's incredible Yeah, I mean, there were eight different players involved in a takedown of Geno Smith today, which is unusual.

Speaker 4 It's one of the wildest-looking defensive box scores I've ever witnessed. And it was a little bit of a day of history because

Speaker 4 there's the Shador thing in the quarterback record that we talked about.

Speaker 4 You are looking at what I think is the best defensive player of all time that I've watched.

Speaker 4 I can't talk about the 40s and 50s, but to do it now in today's world, I just think it is.

Speaker 4 All that's happening. And I was just thinking to myself, like having watched Browns football dating back to the mid-80s, and there were some really good defenses there.

Speaker 4 This is the best defense the Browns have ever had on one of the worst teams the Browns have ever had.

Speaker 4 So it's kind of like, oh, f, because like, had this been paired with like even the offense from a couple of years ago when they snuck into the playoffs twice, like it, you don't know what they could have done.

Speaker 4 Um, I want to say one quick thing before we talk Shador. Like, Bernie Kozar, who came very close to dying, had an incredible feature on ESPN.

Speaker 4 We can only show a photo of it, but like it honestly, it kind of set the tone for this day. Like Kevin Stefansky went and met with Bernie.
I mean, Bernie like came days away from passing away.

Speaker 4 I really think that that's how close it got.

Speaker 4 So all of this happened on one day for Browns fans in a very lost, weird season where there was a couple hours where like I felt it felt like the old days a little bit.

Speaker 4 And there's the Shador part of it. I mean, that's just a young quarterback.
I don't know what to do. I'm talking about Shador.

Speaker 9 And get well soon, Bernie Cozar.

Speaker 55 And great to hear that he was able to find a donor.

Speaker 42 And Bernie is like the last great Browns quarterback, right? So

Speaker 24 Shadur Sanders, I'll give you a little before and after.

Speaker 86 Here's what Shadur said before the game.

Speaker 4 Feels good, but

Speaker 103 we cool, calm, collective. Like

Speaker 4 this ain't nothing to us. And what do you hope to show against this Raiders defense, your teammates, yourself, and these Browns fans with your play today?

Speaker 4 I'm who they've been looking for. Appreciate it.

Speaker 22 And here's Sanders after he threw for 209 yards and a touchdown on 20 attempts.

Speaker 111 You know, so a lot of people wanted to see me fail and

Speaker 111 it ain't gonna happen. You know, it ain't gonna happen.

Speaker 70 Connor, if you would give us a little review of Sanders' performance around those

Speaker 37 quotable quotables.

Speaker 66 So

Speaker 66 I used to work at a golf course and the starter at the club would lock the golf carts so we couldn't pull the governor off and make the golf carts go faster.

Speaker 66 And he would, and so that was the entire Brown strategy where Tommy Reese and Kevin Stefanski were like, I don't want you to do basically anything. And they barely allowed him to take any chances.

Speaker 66 As soon as the ball got into the red zone, it was quidchon Junkins. It was wildcat formation.
And they didn't want him to throw in the red zone.

Speaker 66 They punted the ball in this game in their opponent's 27-yard line, which I don't think I've ever seen before. And Shadur,

Speaker 66 he made this one incredible play. It was like a 55-yard bomb on a third and eight where he scrambled.

Speaker 66 Otherwise, it was very much, let's get the ball to our yard-after-the-catch monsters. And you have a lot of them.
Harold Fannin made an incredible play in this game.

Speaker 66 The other rookie running back, whose name escapes me at this moment, took in his first touchdown on like a 60-yard check down that was blocked so phenomenally well by the rest of the Browns.

Speaker 66 It was it was unbelievable. And so this was very much a, we don't want you to do anything game.
And in those little moments, I mean, he threw a pick. He had another near pick in this game.

Speaker 66 And I think there were some moments where, you know,

Speaker 66 he had some check downs, like perfect example. There was like a third and 27, and all they wanted to do was just move up closer in field goal range.

Speaker 66 But Shadur is bombing the ball down the sideline because he wants to hit a guy in single coverage and is not getting them any closer to a field goal. So he wants to do more.

Speaker 66 The coaching staff doesn't want him to do anything. And that battle, I think, kind of went on in ping-pong throughout the game.

Speaker 4 That's a totally fair assessment and totally accurate.

Speaker 4 I mean, I thought that when he was backed up in his own end zone and made that pass to Harold Fannin, who did, if Harold Fannin did more on that, but that was seeing the field pretty well.

Speaker 4 I thought the bomb was, that's the longest play they've had all year. I think his nature is to be aggressive.
And you're right. That's a clash with philosophy, with how they want to use him right now.

Speaker 4 But I will say one thing because I do think there is, he's a different type of, he's in a different situation that only comes around at quarterback every once in a while.

Speaker 4 And there's a lot of like, and it's understandable. I'm not, I don't, I'm not defending the person, like, but there's sort of like a willingness amongst some people to want to see him fail.

Speaker 4 But the like the reporting coming out of the building this week was that he was all in the locker room like some here. And these are things you'd want.

Speaker 4 Like, it shouldn't be unexpected, but like, he was super plugged in and did everything he could to be prepared. So it's like, I don't feel that this is like a, there's a toxicity here.

Speaker 4 I see the opposite.

Speaker 4 It's probably not easy to beat him, and he's going to grow, but it's like he's under a bit of a different telescope or microscope, not telescope, than other players. That's just the nature of it.

Speaker 4 The Browns are in a weird situation at quarterback once again.

Speaker 79 I do feel like a a lot of people would trade places as Shadar Sanders in a second.

Speaker 53 I think it's pretty easy to be a Sanders in some ways.

Speaker 4 Right, but you get what I'm saying, right? Like, I feel like he's a lightning rod, and I think a lot of people aren't rooting for him. I just sense that.

Speaker 23 Yeah, I mean, there does, I just got to be real with you.

Speaker 24 I do sense an arrogance to him that I think in addition to everything else.

Speaker 4 Right, but we like that in other quarterbacks. Like, we don't like it in him.

Speaker 41 Well, you got to back it up.

Speaker 80 You've got to be a player.

Speaker 47 And he hasn't achieved anything anything in this league, but he did win a game today.

Speaker 14 And let's see how he does next week.

Speaker 42 Yeah.

Speaker 66 My problem is with this whole discourse, like the pro Shador camp, even in their most outrageous thoughts, have been able to mainstream their complaints to where the broadcast led with, oh yeah, Shadur's getting more first-team reps this week, didn't get any last week because he's the f ⁇ ing backup and the starter is also a rookie who needs all the starting reps.

Speaker 66 I mean, we can go through this ad nauseum, but the fact that it's still a complaint that he didn't get any reps last week and that things are going to change so much now that he's getting all these reps, it's like it's ridiculous.

Speaker 66 Like, we have to, we have to conform to the normalcies of an NFL life. He's not going to just get eight starter reps every week because he's Shadir Sanders.

Speaker 66 Like, no other quarterback gets that, you know?

Speaker 74 Let's move on.

Speaker 108 Let's finish up with the Falcons and Saints who played football today.

Speaker 80 Hey, Kirk Cousins is back.

Speaker 47 And he wasn't sad.

Speaker 81 Okay.

Speaker 83 The 14-year vet through for 199 yards, two touchdowns, filling in for Michael Pennix, who had ACL reconstruction surgery, unfortunately, and he's out for the year.

Speaker 20 But on this day, Cousins did the job of a backup, guiding the Falcons to a 24-10 win over the Moribund, New Orleans Saints.

Speaker 10 Yeah, Cousins was

Speaker 25 steady.

Speaker 17 Kind of what you would have hoped he would have been the last two years for the Falcons.

Speaker 5 It has never happened for a number of reasons.

Speaker 23 But he had a little vintage performance at times.

Speaker 50 He had a 49-yard scoring pass deep down the middle to Darnell Mooney in the fourth quarter to give the Falcons breathing room here.

Speaker 64 The Saints were, I mean, just this team.

Speaker 55 They just put me to sleep.

Speaker 20 I know Shuck has had some moments.

Speaker 42 Tyler Shuck, their rookie quarterback, they didn't score an offensive touchdown in this game.

Speaker 37 Their only touchdown in the game came on a pick six by Justin Reed

Speaker 55 in this game.

Speaker 50 But otherwise, yeah, it was just one field goal for the offense in four-quarters.

Speaker 63 So the Falcons and their losing streak, the Saints continue to steam toward a top three pick.

Speaker 55 And in many ways, this game,

Speaker 37 if

Speaker 25 there were people in the stadium and certainly some people watching at home,

Speaker 14 but I don't know if three days from now anyone will be able to definitively prove this game happened.

Speaker 4 It's a very fair.

Speaker 4 I had this on a Deep laptop at one point, and I looked over somewhere during the second quarter, and I realized that the programming was not the game, but a sailing event called the Race to Abu Dhabi.

Speaker 4 So it wasn't that it captured the interest of my own mind today. today.

Speaker 52 Yeah, this was the race to draft day, basically.

Speaker 29 It felt like what I was watching.

Speaker 52 Yeah, the Saints, like, even

Speaker 50 this is like the first year where even you don't get like fun Taysom Hill highlights.

Speaker 1 They had it.

Speaker 4 He had one wild play, though.

Speaker 9 Yeah, but I mean, on a fourth and one, they gave him the ball.

Speaker 13 He tried to throw a pass.

Speaker 49 It fell incomplete.

Speaker 6 On another play, they were knocking on the door and a snap gets fired right over his head, picked it up and threw it away.

Speaker 55 And then the flag comes out for intentional grounding.

Speaker 81 It's just like nothing really works

Speaker 10 for the Saints.

Speaker 6 And man, they go to Miami next week.

Speaker 55 So that's going to be another game. It'll probably be at the bottom of our rundown.

Speaker 29 I don't have much more to add on this.

Speaker 55 Mark, you said you kept your eye on it.

Speaker 65 Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Speaker 4 No, I was watching a sailing event.

Speaker 37 Like, I mean, I saw that play, but

Speaker 4 I kept it on the sailing contest.

Speaker 37 All right, there you go.

Speaker 9 Let's see.

Speaker 37 Ooh,

Speaker 37 all right, is this

Speaker 51 we're learning the identity of Nate Burlson's tailor?

Speaker 37 What the hell is he wearing today?

Speaker 83 Like, I know he's a fashionable guy and everything, but holy shit,

Speaker 41 somebody's got to talk to him.

Speaker 20 Not as like looking like a like someone from Sessler's home planet in the flying saucer.

Speaker 89 I am Zoltan,

Speaker 7 the all-knowing,

Speaker 92 And I got my very own podcast.

Speaker 37 You shush.

Speaker 94 What is the breaking news, Justin?

Speaker 97 And they gave your man my very own podcast.

Speaker 68 The highest paid offensive coordinator in the NFL has been fired. That would be Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.

Speaker 37 Bye-bye.

Speaker 37 Well, how about that?

Speaker 4 I feel like we knew that was coming.

Speaker 52 We were just talking about that.

Speaker 51 I think I said he won't be within 100 miles of the team by next year.

Speaker 10 Well, I guess by Monday morning was the answer.

Speaker 44 Connor, this is probably a very emotional time for you. Go ahead.

Speaker 45 Yeah.

Speaker 65 You've always been a chipologist.

Speaker 41 You've been a chipologist.

Speaker 79 You have.

Speaker 4 You've been a win-piece writer of Chip Kelly for going back a decade.

Speaker 13 Give Connor some sad music underneath him as he gives the eulogy of his beloved Chip Kelly fired after 12 disastrous weeks.

Speaker 65 Man, what the hell is going on with the Raiders? They are a mess. Go ahead, Connor.

Speaker 66 Well, clearly, it's someone else's fault.

Speaker 66 I don't know if they're not running the plays the right way, but

Speaker 66 I just hate that this keeps happening to like one of my favorite people in the world.

Speaker 66 It's such a bummer.

Speaker 98 And, you know, am I wrong now?

Speaker 66 And that's never a place we want to go because I'm never wrong.

Speaker 65 But the thing I'm 100% serious about is

Speaker 66 this was a Tom Brady connected hire. You go out and you poach him from Ohio State and you make him the highest paid offensive coordinator in the NFL.
And I think that that's the stunning piece.

Speaker 37 Okay, Justin, that's good.

Speaker 66 That's kind of the stunning piece of all this is that really Tom Brady's first staff with its fingerprints all over it is an abject disaster. And there's no 3D chess to this.

Speaker 66 I mean, Pete Carroll was on a short-term deal. He might not be back next year.
You lost your offensive coordinator 12 weeks into the season, and

Speaker 66 Ashton Jenny is in no way looking like something that can be replicable for next year in terms of like, okay, he's in great shape offensively. You know, we got it all rolling here.

Speaker 66 So outside of a few sprinkled in nice games for Brock Bowers, really a strikeout from that first year of the Davis-Brady partnership. And you got to wonder what happens from here.

Speaker 37 I mean,

Speaker 4 who made this? How does this decision get split up in terms of the power structure? Is it Brady dialing in and saying this is an embarrassment? Get this out of here.

Speaker 73 I mean, I thought it was a little odd when they would, there was a game a few weeks ago when they showed Chip and his crew in the booth and then like in the same booth, a row up, it was Tom Brady in like a full Tom Brady suit or whatever.

Speaker 51 It was, I guess, during a Fox Buy week.

Speaker 42 Who knows how that all works.

Speaker 25 But yeah, like I'm sure Brady's seeing the same thing we saw.

Speaker 55 And I think it didn't help matters that they look so bad and non-competitive on Monday, and then they come back today, Sunday, against the Browns. And I know the Browns have

Speaker 74 a very good defense,

Speaker 25 but they just look unprepared and like no answers.

Speaker 74 And it's embarrassing.

Speaker 16 Entering week 12, Vegas was 30th in points per game, total yards, rushing yards,

Speaker 79 EPA, and red zone efficiency.

Speaker 13 So, yeah, total strength.

Speaker 3 It looked that way.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 37 Hmm. All right.

Speaker 25 So Pete, see, Pete doesn't even get to flip that lever in the offseason.

Speaker 41 That doesn't help Pete either.

Speaker 37 Because Pete,

Speaker 42 you, you want to be able to fire the coordinator, not you don't want to, but have that as your option in January.

Speaker 18 Now, if this season continues to go the direction it's going in, um, it's going to put a little bit more of Pete Carroll in the crosshairs, Connor, I think.

Speaker 66 And imagine how bleak it got that, again, this is sort of the makeup of your staff. There's no clear second option here.

Speaker 66 It's not like, you know, in some other teams, there's maybe a guy that you want to get a fresh look at this. That's not how this staff is constructed.

Speaker 66 I mean, Chip was supposed to be the offensive czar. Pete was supposed to be the defensive czar.
And they were supposed to, you know, run this thing on kind of parallel tracks.

Speaker 66 And there were even people talking about legitimately when Chip took this job, that that was someone that Tom had hoped would maybe get the head coaching job, like when Pete was done with coaching.

Speaker 66 And so this is a big swing and miss. You knew he wanted an innovative offensive mind with how hard he went after Ben Johnson and that recruitment process, but Ben was always going to go to Chicago.

Speaker 66 And so this really puts him as a salesman, as a pitch man out there in the wind this offseason. I mean, he's got to get some work done, Brady.
This is...

Speaker 4 You'd also have to ask,

Speaker 4 do the Raiders, and if you're Brady, Pete Carroll feels in a different category to me than other coaches that you would fire in season, but do you get a jump on the hiring cycle by cleaning house?

Speaker 4 Because what's the future here?

Speaker 66 You would hope that that's the advantage of having Brady if you're Mark Davis, where Brady's already met with all these top candidates because he interviews them all in Zoom, right?

Speaker 66 He's already seen these guys, he's already spoken to these guys, he's spoken to the guys that they coach. And so you're hoping that maybe you don't have to do that.

Speaker 66 You can save yourself the embarrassment of an in-season hire because you have the workaround, right?

Speaker 66 You're already doing your homework on the next coaching cycle without saying that you're doing your homework on the next coaching cycle.

Speaker 55 All right, let's keep an eye on it.

Speaker 23 It's the only thing of intrigue left to this Lost Raider season, just the latest lost season in what's been a long string of Lost Raider seasons.

Speaker 53 All right.

Speaker 42 That's it.

Speaker 47 That's a full rundown of the Sunday that was.

Speaker 32 Remember, Monday Night Football Panthers, Niners coming up.

Speaker 50 We'll have that recap on Monday night and the power rankings update, Mark and I.

Speaker 20 And then a full week of shows on Thanksgiving week.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 37 Yeah, I know. I know.

Speaker 80 Oh, Thanksgiving week. You take it easy a little bit.

Speaker 7 No, pedal of the metal. The opposite.

Speaker 42 Mark Sessler insists that we actually work harder during the holiday week.

Speaker 4 I do. That's the makeup of

Speaker 4 our staff. I'm the one that's asking us to grind deeper, and that didn't come out right.
But just to continue to work with incredible effort.

Speaker 37 I'll stop talking now.

Speaker 39 As always, Mark.

Speaker 11 All right.

Speaker 44 We'll see you in 24 hours.

Speaker 21 Till then, do what you must. Heat the call.

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