NFL Week 13 Power Rankings + Spicy Monday Headlines

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Speaker 1 All right, Heat the Call brings in week 12 for a soft landing with a San Francisco Francisco snoozer. But good news, Ceci.

Speaker 2 What could that be?

Speaker 1 Monday night headlines are fire this week, and the power rankings are back.

Speaker 1 It's time to heed the call.

Speaker 1 Heyo!

Speaker 1 We back.

Speaker 1 Did we ever leave?

Speaker 2 I don't think we left.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Heed the Call and NFL Podcast. I am Dan Hansis, and that is the voice of Mark Sessler.
His name's on the show, too.

Speaker 1 Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

Speaker 1 We are in the

Speaker 1 afterglow.

Speaker 1 Like the first time Mike Mark

Speaker 1 got to second base at Camp Happiness. Okay.
And he was just walking through the woods, reflecting on it

Speaker 1 and just knowing that from this point onward, nothing would ever be the same

Speaker 1 after

Speaker 1 Mark and Becky Slater

Speaker 1 rounded first base.

Speaker 1 That's how I feel after 49ers 20, Panthers 9

Speaker 1 Monday Night Football.

Speaker 2 Well, that wasn't her name. You're not wrong.
That's what's concerning is you're not wrong. But

Speaker 2 it is an afterglow. And I enjoy our text threads during these games because it definitely sets the tone for how,

Speaker 2 along with Connor the four of us are feeling about these contests. This felt a little, I wouldn't say inconsequential because it has consequences, but it kind of, the evening floated by.

Speaker 2 It was a weird, sort of ugly, strange game. Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I have some issues with the Carolina Panthers. Yeah.
I mean, I have issues with the entire NFC South, maybe both Souths, but specifically the NFC South.

Speaker 1 Like, can you at least try for three and a half hours to be serious? If you're going to have the the attention of the national

Speaker 1 audience and you're going to get the top of show conversation on our program,

Speaker 1 which is very important,

Speaker 1 can you at least show up?

Speaker 1 Can you at least give Dan and Mark and Justin an opportunity to take you seriously? Because

Speaker 1 the 49ers did not play great in this game.

Speaker 1 They were very fortunate. Brock Purdy was an absolute disaster in the first half of this game.
I mean, he's always throwing those little biscuits over the middle.

Speaker 1 And it's part of the reason I like, I respect Purdy because he's got Moxie. He doesn't have all the arm talent in the world.

Speaker 1 He's far from a perfect quarterback in terms of cleanliness of play. When he gets into a zone, he's beautiful to watch.

Speaker 1 But he was not in the zone in this game. No.
And then

Speaker 1 Christian McCaffrey, who's on pace for like 700 touches this year, I feel like, he puts one on the carpet as well, on the turf turf in this game.

Speaker 1 And so what do the Carolina Panthers turn three interceptions and a fumble that's bouncing on the turf with three Panthers around, surrounding it into Bupkiss.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 after Bryce Young throws for 450 damn yards last week, he's at 28 yards at halftime and it doesn't get much better.

Speaker 1 So it's like Panthers, you know, the six and six thing, you're going to go seven and six, then seven and seven, and then eight and seven, then eight and eight. It's like great.

Speaker 1 Niners, they're the team that matters. They're eight and four

Speaker 1 with a couple very winnable games ahead. So they're going to put themselves in very good position positioning for the playoffs as long as they play well enough, which is what they did tonight.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think like to get to this record through all they've been through,

Speaker 2 and even this game being a bit of a microcosm of that, because you open with,

Speaker 2 and I really,

Speaker 2 I sent this to you guys. I think Kyle Shanahan loves to get out of these evening games quick and dirty.

Speaker 2 And like they open with this 15-play, quintessential 15-play, 72-yard, 8-plus-minute drive that, like, suddenly it's like the game starts at 5.15 and it's like 5.28 and you're almost set up.

Speaker 1 It's a fever dream.

Speaker 2 Well, it is what I dream of, absolutely. And like,

Speaker 2 and it, and they, you know, a Jawan Jennings touchdown. And it's like, I think they may be like back entirely, but they're not.
You're right.

Speaker 2 Because I think Jay, you can't, like, the one Panther, I won't blame you.

Speaker 1 Can we just say, let's stay with that drive for a second, Mark? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Christian McCaffrey, who I believe had 31 touches in this game, had nine touches on the first possession of this game. So, you know, I don't remember, I don't remember the Niners.

Speaker 1 He's always been healthy, the focal point of their attack, but I don't remember him being ever at this level where both in the passing game and the running game, he is the guy.

Speaker 1 Like, did anyone else even get a touch out of the backfield for the Niners today? Let me check on that. Go ahead, Mark.

Speaker 2 No, you're right. I think it feels like it's him and George Kittle right now

Speaker 2 and a couple others, but you're right. He was used.

Speaker 2 Now, I don't, I think if you go look at his yards per attempt over the season and stuff like that, he's not having like a typical Christian McCaffrey first pick in your fantasy draft type of campaign, but they lean on him hard.

Speaker 2 And, you know, they overcame the mistakes after him. Like, I don't, I don't come out of here like um, freaked out by Brock Purdy.
I think JC Horn made one insane interception in this.

Speaker 2 Like, you know, it was, it was, there were athletic interceptions in this, but it was like,

Speaker 2 I don't know, it kind of leaves you a little concerned about who they are in general, but, like, they found a way to get out of this

Speaker 2 in a pretty unaesthetic way.

Speaker 1 I, yeah, I don't know how I missed this, but Brian Robinson Jr. actually had seven carries in this game.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 He had one

Speaker 2 thumping run. Like, he's a good runner, but he's definitely number two by a long stretch.

Speaker 1 But yeah, McCaffrey, 24 for 89, 3.7 yards per touch, which is basically what he's been doing all year. Right.

Speaker 1 And then add seven catches for 53 yards. He does score a touchdown on a 12-yard run.
Yeah, I disagree a little bit. I do think Brock Purdy is

Speaker 1 something to keep an eye on here.

Speaker 1 I just think, you know, he's missed a lot, obviously, a time this year.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 Mac Jones obviously played very well

Speaker 1 while Purdy was out. And I think that now, does that plan a bug with Shanahan? Maybe, maybe not.

Speaker 1 It certainly did with the 49ers fans as they were, you know, the booze were building inside that building over the course of the first half. And, you know, as good a story Brock Purdy is, being Mr.

Speaker 1 Irrelevant

Speaker 1 out of the 2022 draft, really bailing out the entire organization after the Trey Lance Boondoggle at the third overall pick.

Speaker 1 And then in that same draft at 262, Lou Landis, starter, who plays at such a high level, he gets a huge second contract. But I also like

Speaker 1 my whole Purdy thing, and I've always had the same take on Purdy.

Speaker 1 It's never vacillated, which is when he's hot, he's a lot of fun to watch, but he has games like this, and he is always a danger to have stretches stretches like we saw in this game.

Speaker 1 And if you look at the 49ers over in the Purdy era, they've been successful most years. They almost won Super Bowl one of those years,

Speaker 1 but they have not gotten over the hump. And I do think he's part of the reason why it hasn't happened.
So it's something to keep an eye on. Like I said, the schedule is very soft.

Speaker 1 I shouldn't say very soft because we just saw what the Browns can do on defense. I know it was the Raiders, but at Cleveland,

Speaker 1 that is not a gimme. And again, keep an eye on if that pass rush heats up, Brock Purdy.
We'll get to it during the previews.

Speaker 2 Well, they beat the Niners a couple years ago with that exact four.

Speaker 1 There you go. Then they have the Titans at home.
But after that, they get bang, bang, bang three eight and three teams in a row where we stand now.

Speaker 1 So this is their chance to bank wins, and Purdy is going to have to just clean up his game.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because if you know, so tonight was the third time in his career that he had a trio of interceptions. That happened against the Chiefs

Speaker 2 last October.

Speaker 1 And we know you're on the sideline.

Speaker 2 We do. And I think Mac's personality in these press conferences plays a little bit into the fan reaction to what's happening here.
But like, Purdy also had that meltdown against the Ravens.

Speaker 2 It was 2023, I believe. And like, that was, he has meltdown games.

Speaker 1 Was that the Thanksgiving game? Thanksgiving. Or Christmas night, I think it was.

Speaker 2 It was Christmas. It was Christmas.
Yep.

Speaker 2 He has these meltdown games once in a while. And he did against Cleveland, but that was in terrible weather.

Speaker 2 We were in England when that happened, and we were watching that together.

Speaker 2 So, I'm with you in the sense that, like, it's not that you don't know what you're going to get, but these things pop up. And this isn't the Niners' team of two years ago, where

Speaker 2 everyone feels a little bit lesser, other than George Kittle, who feels like he might be better than ever, but that alone doesn't save this offense.

Speaker 2 So, they're the story, but then I think also you come out of this from a Panthers angle, and it's like we're right back here with Bryce Young.

Speaker 2 Like, is this team not looking for a different quarterback after this season?

Speaker 1 I think that's yeah, I don't want to short drift Panthers fans listening to the show, but it's just like, I watch a game like this, and again, it's like, how much time do we want to talk about this team that's clearly just treading water?

Speaker 1 And you're right. And, you know, JC Horn does make a beautiful interception on a great read coming across the field.

Speaker 2 They could do nothing with those turnovers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they did. Just to make, I did say they didn't get anything out of it.
They did get three points out of it.

Speaker 1 They should have had at least 10, but Bryce Young makes one of the, you know, one of the worst decisions I've seen.

Speaker 1 It's funny when Purdy had those three interceptions and he had a couple others that were up for grabs, but the worst decision a quarterback made in this game or any quarterback in week 12 was first and goal from the two or whatever.

Speaker 1 First of all, bad job by play calling by Carolina. Just give the ball to Rico Dottle.
He's going to bang it in there and you're going to have a lead or you're going to tie the game there.

Speaker 1 But instead, they decide to call a passing play for Bryce Young. He rolls out.

Speaker 1 He could jog into the end zone, but he doesn't see it. And maybe because he's like, I mean, I feel like he's one of those guys that seems to get smaller every week we see him.
He seems so tiny.

Speaker 1 But instead of running it in, he decides to throw it. It's intercepted.
Terrible decision. And from that point on, it just felt like Carolina was just going uphill this whole game.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, I mean, there were good things. The defense did play well.
I mean, even though McCaffrey had 142 yards from scrimmage, they bottled him up for most of the game.

Speaker 1 Obviously, the secondary stepped up and made the plays necessary. Just offense was non-competitive.

Speaker 1 And the Bryce Young thing, to go from 448 yards to what we saw in this game, when you look at his final numbers, because he did heat up a little bit in the second half, 18 of 29, 169, one touchdown.

Speaker 1 The pick I mentioned, another bad one when they were still in the game in the fourth quarter. It's just like,

Speaker 1 I don't know, man.

Speaker 2 It's such a week-to-week proposition, and that's not an NFL quarterback that you can hang your hat on for very long.

Speaker 1 They only ran the ball 13 times. What was that time of possession in this game?

Speaker 2 Well, I think the Niners had

Speaker 1 22 minutes.

Speaker 2 Right. The Niners had 19 minutes of time of possession.
And it was that first drive we mentioned, but like that set the tone. But the Panthers had 28 yards passing, I believe, in the first half.

Speaker 2 That's that's an I know it's a weird year statistically for stuff like that. And it feels like that happens, but that's an outlier.

Speaker 2 And like we're talking about a quarterback that threw for almost 500 yards last week. Like what's happening with this team?

Speaker 2 It just feels like a 20-sided die that you're rolling, and you don't have to go to the middle.

Speaker 1 And they didn't have a sack, right? You know, and San Francisco only had one sack. Cleveland Farrell got one late in this game.
That's the only thing to keep an eye on.

Speaker 1 The Niners cannot get a pass rush going after they lost Warner and then Nick Bosa. So, anyway, Niners get the job done.
Eight and four, up next, Cleveland.

Speaker 1 And let's see what Miles Garrett can do to heat up Mr. Purdy.
All right, let's take a break. We got a lot to get to.

Speaker 1 Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh,

Speaker 1 well, we've had a good week down, so we don't care what happened here.

Speaker 2 But yeah.

Speaker 1 Remind me of this, Justin.

Speaker 4 So, our locks competition. We have a little bit of following up to do because Connor locked the 49ers.

Speaker 1 Oh, he did. That's right.

Speaker 4 In fact, he locked them, and they were outside the blind lock mirror zone of a five-point spread. They were seven-point favorites, which means.

Speaker 1 Double it up, baby.

Speaker 4 Connor needed them to win by 14. Of course, they win by 11.

Speaker 1 So, yes, Connor gets the loss.

Speaker 4 And in fact,

Speaker 1 I believe that might drop him into a tie in our standings. Is that

Speaker 1 with you?

Speaker 4 Should we check out the standings?

Speaker 1 Yeah, why don't we check out the lock standings? Usually do this on Thursday, but while we're here, look at that. The Zuzzer back on a streak.
Three straight wins. Ties Connor at 7-5.

Speaker 1 Mark just a game back. Gravy bringing up the rear at 5-7.
But this is anybody's race, the blind locks. I mean, Connor, I mean, on our group text chain, he was furious.
Yes, furious.

Speaker 2 He's very competitive, and you could feel the rage. And also, I feel like on these Monday night shows, just because we like he's got a lot of other writing and stuff to do, like

Speaker 2 he's not on these Monday night shows, but like

Speaker 2 we're able just to speak about him.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I wish we could like hear from him. I can read this.
I can read you something he

Speaker 1 texted as they were kneeling at the football San Francisco. Connor Orr, football is stupid.
I am a lock god and have been tinkered with in order to be stopped.

Speaker 1 He doesn't like the blind locks.

Speaker 4 Well, if you want to hear from him, he actually did send in a video message.

Speaker 1 Oh, conscious.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Yes, I would love to hear that.
Please

Speaker 1 play that right now. Send me this video right as the game.

Speaker 4 was ending. Oh, please.

Speaker 5 Well, I don't feel I should be penalized for

Speaker 7 the 49ers not having the fortitude to go down and score there at the end of the game and punctuate that victory or give Brock Purdy a feel-good touchdown,

Speaker 1 I congratulate Dan and Mark

Speaker 7 on making this a little bit more of a competition.

Speaker 7 I understand that you continue to need to tinker with me and to alter the rules in order to make this closer.

Speaker 7 I look forward to next week when I beat your ass.

Speaker 1 That's real.

Speaker 1 That's aimed at you, Dan. That's a broken man.

Speaker 2 That's aimed at you because he knows I'm just a pawn and all of this too. Like your little rules and ideas and stuff.

Speaker 1 I know it's messing with him.

Speaker 1 And it looks like Iron Sheik just delivered like a backbreaker to Connor.

Speaker 2 It did, where the child's drawing over his right shoulder.

Speaker 1 All right. Listen, another reason why to keep track of the locks every Thursday we make them and big payoff there.
All right, let's take a break.

Speaker 1 We have power rankings coming up for week 13 and then, yes,

Speaker 1 get caught up on the news. There's a lot cooking.
All right, stay right there.

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

Speaker 1 All right. We are

Speaker 1 back.

Speaker 1 Mark, shall we do some news? A lot of stuff went down on this Monday.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we're in that time of year where the sands are shifting, so we shall. We should.

Speaker 1 Yes, well put. Let's hit some news.

Speaker 1 Update time. Adam Shine in New York.
Jim Tony, take a look at this. Mike Castle is back.

Speaker 1 Next level trickeration. Pisses by Maruszewski.
Throwing to Jameis Winston. Look at those moves.
Are you kidding me? The Giants lead Detroit by 10. Back to you.

Speaker 1 Back to you. I mean, listen, we've been on this beat for weeks.
Yes. That Adam Schein in his new role as the highlights guy for CBS has really brought something to the telecasts

Speaker 1 every Sunday. And I saw Awful Announcing did a write-up on this.

Speaker 1 And, you know, as is the way, and Awful Announcing does great stuff. I like that site quite a bit.
But we're usually ahead of these type of stories and these types of

Speaker 1 insights.

Speaker 1 And then usually the football world catches up. Anyway, shout out Adam Shine.
You're the man.

Speaker 1 Let's do some news.

Speaker 1 The Giants, man.

Speaker 1 What's the point? I don't know.

Speaker 1 You've already fired the head coach, but after yet another meltdown where you blow a double-digit fourth-quarter lead, the Giants have blown a league-leading five fourth-quarter leads this season.

Speaker 1 I think that the five,

Speaker 1 see, that kind of short sells it. It's five

Speaker 1 10 or more point leads, which I don't think has ever happened.

Speaker 1 We're in historic territory,

Speaker 1 and I guess ownership is just going nuts. They're like, what?

Speaker 1 Let's fire someone else. So there goes Shane Bowen fired after

Speaker 1 the Giants could not find a way to close out the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 1 And it is, I'll just say this

Speaker 1 because obviously the Giants are not a big story otherwise, but the drama around them continues to exist, even though they're far out of the standings.

Speaker 1 Football and sports are weird because, like I said, Jake Bates hits a 59-yard field goal to push this game to overtime.

Speaker 1 And Mike Kafka, not Shane Bowen, made the decision not to kick a field goal the previous Giants' possession.

Speaker 1 That would have put them up six, which would have put the New York defense in a much better position to close out that game. And instead, they don't.

Speaker 1 So some of these things felt out of his control, and yet that's not how it works. It's a results-oriented business.
So Bowen is gone.

Speaker 2 Well, you know, Bowen also, I mean, this is a team that allowed, what, 33 points to the Broncos in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 2 That's pretty historical.

Speaker 2 But John Mara, even after last season, talked about wanting to make changes like on defense. And it was kind of a surprise that he stuck around because Justin, you know better than anyone.

Speaker 2 He was with the Titans for, what, three seasons before this?

Speaker 2 And they weren't, I don't think he was the big problem, but he was no, there was nothing super special about him and like they've found a way to collapse in a way that it's their identity this season it got their head coach fired i think the whole staff's going to get fired so i don't know what matters by doing this it felt a little bit like fan service to me right just a little to be like the giants fans that i know um and i had a couple fans friends that went to the game yesterday um in detroit randomly and like they They're furious of this defensive coordinator.

Speaker 2 It's been, because this was what, when Connor and I were all fanboying out about the New York possibilities, it was about the pass rush, right?

Speaker 2 It was about what this defense could do to an opposing quarterback. And instead, they are a fold-the-tent defense that gives every Sunday they're creating a new catastrophe.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know. Like, it feels like

Speaker 1 I guess it could read as giving a pound of flesh to frustrated fans. But it's like once you fire the head coach and you're just playing out the string, usually you keep the staff intact.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, it just speaks. Maybe there's a reason behind it.
Maybe they want to get shift some chairs around and get a look at who got promoted. I don't even know.

Speaker 1 Whoever got promoted, give him a ton of money. Raggedy Ann.
Raggedy Ann. Give whoever that is, Justin.
You check that out for me.

Speaker 1 A look in the big chair on defense. And it is, after all, an evaluation period now for the Giants.
But

Speaker 1 yeah, the DC being fired after the head coach has already fired, it feels unusual, and yet nothing has been normal about this Giants season. Right.

Speaker 4 Charlie Bolin, Giants outside linebacker coach.

Speaker 4 That's the new interim defense.

Speaker 1 Okay, there you go. Good luck, Chaz.

Speaker 1 What was that, Mark?

Speaker 2 One note on this game.

Speaker 2 You know, you've got your bosom buddy Bob, and the first friend I ever really talked about football with was my friend Matt Hogan. And he was a Giants fan, and I split.

Speaker 2 I went separatists and became a Browns fan, but he went to this game and brought his son Davis to his first ever NFL game. Here's a picture of them.

Speaker 2 And Davis in a Jackson Dart uniform, jersey, you know, he didn't get to see Jackson Dart, but he was able to get down in front of the, down by the players and throw his jersey down to Russell Wilson.

Speaker 2 And we've, it's been a rough season for Russell Wilson. But Russell Wilson was nice enough to sign, to autograph the Jackson Dart jersey.

Speaker 1 The boy throws down the jersey of the young quarterback who replaced Russell Wilson. Yeah.
and Russell Wilson signed the Jackson Dart jersey happily and kindly.

Speaker 2 Like it was, I just thought that was a nice thing that he did.

Speaker 1 But also this is a crazy thing, isn't it?

Speaker 2 It's kind of crazy, but it was like he, I know that I kind of told him because he's like, oh, we're not going to see our favorite.

Speaker 2 I was like, I remember when my dad took me to a surprise me by flying me to Cleveland to see a Brown Steelers game when I was very young. And like, it blew my senses.

Speaker 2 It's like, I don't, I remember what happened in the game, but it was the stadium. It was the atmosphere.
It was everything. And that's exactly what happened to

Speaker 2 this young boy. I think he'll never forget it.
So these things matter. You're going to take your kids to these games, too.
And we've done that a few times, but it's very special. So

Speaker 2 Giants fans' experience aren't, it's not entirely terrible, right? There's a little fun in there.

Speaker 1 Sure. I mean,

Speaker 1 you're the fool. I mean, you had a chance to ride with your best bud and be Giants fans and hoist championships and go Super Bowls together.
Utter fool.

Speaker 1 And you've literally walked into the pit of hell. Utter fool.

Speaker 2 Literally, I walked into the drive, and he had a Super Bowl championship under his belt three months later. So it's like

Speaker 1 what a disaster.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 In other news, speaking of disasters, Baker Mayfield, former Browns quarterback, now with the Bucs, had a tough Sunday night, got that shoulder banged up, and it looked pretty bad when he showed up on the sideline in a sling.

Speaker 1 But an MRI Monday revealed that Mayfield's injury is a sprain and not regarded as a serious or

Speaker 1 a severe sprain.

Speaker 1 But it is an AC joint sprain in his left shoulder. It will be a pain management issue.
So we'll see if he plays against the Cardinals at home. The Bucs are optimistic.

Speaker 1 According to who, Justin, I see this. The Bucks are optimistic.
Adam Schefter.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's get that in there. Adam Schefter says the Bucs are optimistic.

Speaker 1 I already said this yesterday, so we don't need to double up on it, but this is exactly the injury to the exact same shoulder that ruined his last season in Cleveland.

Speaker 1 So even if Baker plays, we're not out of the woods yet because I can't imagine, Mark,

Speaker 1 many things more unpleasant than being a NFL quarterback and having a bad shoulder as 300-pound bohemoths crash in every time you call hike.

Speaker 1 It's living in the danger zone.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and it's like a sport where we're like, well, it's not the throwing shoulder. Well, it's still your upper body and it's your

Speaker 2 emotion. Absolutely.
And that's certainly, we know with his body that mattered, as you mentioned.

Speaker 2 24 hours later, the most optimistic thing is that the Carolina Panthers feel like a fraudulent operation. You're getting Bucky Irvin back soon, Chris Godwin back soon.

Speaker 2 Like, if Baker can play or if he's back in time, like, you still can win this division.

Speaker 2 I think we all feel differently about this entire NFC South and the Bucs, but like, Baker, I don't feel differently about Baker, but I do think he needs to be him not healthy.

Speaker 2 It affected his ground game the last number of weeks, and him with a shoulder injury could be the rest of the season. So it's perilous waters.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I feel where we stand on November 24th, the Bucs ceiling is squeaking out that division with nine or ten wins. And then Baker giving somebody a scare early in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Maybe they win a game, but I know there was talk that this could be a Super Bowl team or they take the step this year. This kind of feels like so many

Speaker 1 Bucs teams

Speaker 1 in the past. Good.
NFC South good.

Speaker 1 Not actually Super Bowl good, but we'll see. He needs to get better.
He needs to get healthy and he's far from that right now.

Speaker 1 In other quarterback news, Dylan Gabriel of the Browns has cleared concussion protocol, but Shadur Sanders will get the start against the Niners per Stefanski here as the coach.

Speaker 10 Shadur will start this week. Obviously, you know, number one job of a quarterback is to win.
So excited to get that first win under his belt. And then next thing is improvement.

Speaker 10 And that's what young players do. Certainly young quarterbacks do.

Speaker 10 You get one game better, and that's just from working at it. So that'll be our focus.

Speaker 1 I know you're quietly into Shaddur Sanders, Mark, so I'm not going to reign on your parade.

Speaker 1 But the Niners are going, even without a pass rush, are going to be a lot different than the Las Vegas Raiders, who are barely an NFL team right now.

Speaker 1 That couldn't have been a better landing spot for Shaddur Sanders. So for those of you who might, because I understand it's a narrative now, like, oh, everybody wants this guy to fail.

Speaker 1 Well, you might get a chance here because he's going to play a real NFL team in week 13.

Speaker 1 Maybe he'll surprise or maybe he'll be exposed. Your thoughts, Mark?

Speaker 2 Yeah, like I'll remove

Speaker 2 my fandom part of it a little bit, where I think that if the Browns want to say there was a goal to this season, because they basically threw the season away at the quarterback position, right?

Speaker 2 So you gave Dylan Gabriel six starts.

Speaker 2 I don't see a reason to not give Shador Sanders, against the toughest possible competition that you can find,

Speaker 2 six starts also and just see where you are at the end of the season. Just from what was the point of all this?

Speaker 2 Like, evaluate both of them and find out what you're going to do because you can't go into next year with this cobbled mess at quarterback.

Speaker 2 I thought Chador did a couple really good things in the game, and he's got a long way to go. It was his first NFL start.
Like, I don't,

Speaker 2 you know, for me, it's like, I just want to see more. I don't think I need to see a lot more of Dylan Gabriel.

Speaker 2 Maybe others disagree, but most Browns fans feel comfortable with what Dylan Gabriel is, and that's not next year's starter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, going back to draft weekend, I just, I thought the process was flawed. Like, is that it?

Speaker 1 So you used a third-round pick, which has value in this league on a quarterback, and he gets six starts for a dog shit team. And now

Speaker 1 you're going to look at the fifth round pick, and he's going to get six starts. And then you're going to go draft a quarterback in the first round in April.

Speaker 1 And then it's like, why do we do, why do we do any of this? It just feels like ultimately like, why did we, why is any of this happening? Because it doesn't seem like this is going to end.

Speaker 1 No, maybe Shadura plays lights out and they have something exciting to look forward to.

Speaker 1 But this all seems to me headed straight toward a B line to the Browns bringing in a brand new quarterback in the spring. And this will all be so forgotten.

Speaker 1 And I think some of the Sanders blowback, as much as some people want to make it about it being personal, like people want to see me fail. It's like, nah, you're not that important, kid.

Speaker 1 I think people just think, some people just see it as like, why should I care about a fifth-round quarterback? Why should I care? Like, make me care. Do something on the field.

Speaker 1 And that doesn't mean completing a couple of long passes against the Raiders.

Speaker 1 I would say this, like, it's a fifth round pick that many, like, leading, it kind of, I think some of the antagonism comes from the draft industrial complex totally blowing the concept of where he'd be picked because he was in many mock drafts, like top five, second quarterback to go maybe even the second overall pick and then he drops to the fifth round like nfl teams felt so differently um but some of that also was we're doing it again we're in the shador vortex right but like uh some of that's the things that the people that analyzed the draft didn't know what the teams are learning is like through the interview process and things that like we don't like the cut of this guy's jib we don't like the way he's interviewing we don't like the way he carries himself and we know that we all learn that in real time on draft weekend, whereas, you know, the great, great draft experts out there that had him pegged as a potential first-rounder didn't know exactly what those whispers were behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 No, and the last sentence that I'll offer on this is that I never get the sense listening to Kevin Stefansky per that interview we just heard, I never get the sense that he really wants to be involved with any of this.

Speaker 1 You mean the Cleveland Browns? Well,

Speaker 2 I think the Browns thing has been a tough, it's been a tough task task to begin with, obviously. But the Shador experience, he never seemed to me like he's very excited to start him.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. In other quarterback news, I mean, come on.

Speaker 2 We got all the hits tonight. We're playing the hits.

Speaker 1 Here's the one positive about being a Jets fan.

Speaker 1 And Browns fans can say the same thing. You know when a quarterback can't play.
It happens pretty quickly with some of these guys.

Speaker 1 J.J.

Speaker 1 mccarthy can't play can't do it i saw some tape dog i don't want to even bring up who it is because obviously he takes it very seriously but there was a guy out there that put out like a 20-part tweet burying people that don't watch ball i am the ball noah i am the ball noah Correct.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. But people that, people that just watch every snap this past Sunday.
And if you watch every snap, he actually was pretty good. And it was like, oh, man,

Speaker 1 we're going to have these conversations about J.J. McCarthy until he's no longer on the team.
Because look what the Vikings did today.

Speaker 1 As much as you want to tape dog it from the outside, the Vikings announced that JJ McCarthy self-reported some concussion symptoms on the plane

Speaker 1 after, you know, the wretched loss on Sunday when he threw for less than 100 yards. And that puts him in the protocol, the concussion protocol.

Speaker 1 And now it looks as if there's a fairly decent chance that undrafted free agent quarterback Max Brosmer

Speaker 1 will start Sunday against the Seahawks. Now, if this doesn't smell past every smell test of a quiet benching, a soft benching, a how the hell do we get out of this? Like, I'm Kevin O'Connell.

Speaker 1 How the hell do I save myself and not lose this locker room?

Speaker 1 I'm going to sit next to J.J. McCarthy on the plane.
This is just my speculation. And I'm going to say, JJ, this isn't working right now.
You know, it's not working. We have to figure some things out.

Speaker 1 We need to kind of find a way to make that happen. And the one way you could pull that off on the injury report is by self-reporting some type of head injury.

Speaker 1 And that's not me making light of head injuries or saying that it's a loophole that teams can use, but it is a loophole that teams can use.

Speaker 1 And this feels like quite possibly what happened because there's too much,

Speaker 1 there is too much smoke here that the Vikings have reached a point where McCarthy is unplayable and now looks like he's not going to play.

Speaker 1 Here is

Speaker 1 the head coach, Kevin O'Connell.

Speaker 6 JJ McCarthy,

Speaker 6 you know, over the course of our travel home, reported some kind of symptoms and

Speaker 6 in regards to his head. And we wanted to get back here once we kind of heard that he was evaluated last night.

Speaker 6 And after completing those tests, our training staff and doctors and medical team have decided that the right place for him is to put him into the protocol for now and he'll go through that process this week and didn't

Speaker 6 you know didn't have any

Speaker 6 you know any early updates other than that he's in the protocol now he's been in meetings and and you know here today in the building and and we'll update you guys as we go I want to be fair here Mark I'm watching a play

Speaker 1 501 in the fourth quarter. He gets hit, driven into the turf, and you could tell he's kind of on his back for a couple seconds before teammates come to get him.

Speaker 1 Okay. I mean, he looks a little banged up there.
So

Speaker 1 I just want to couch that, that I'm not saying out and out that this is farce, but it does allow the Vikings to

Speaker 1 push pause on this because once again,

Speaker 1 the offense, he's off to a historically inept start.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like I also, I got a chuckle out of on the course of our travel home, it sounds like you're crossing the sea. But like,

Speaker 1 uh,

Speaker 2 well, what is factual is it's timely, um, and it's beneficially timely for him not to go duel the Seahawks defense in Sam Darnold.

Speaker 2 Like, now you're throwing in a quarterback that the vast majority of the human population has never heard of, and so um, the stakes are much different.

Speaker 2 Um, he needs to, he needs rest, development, and like the team to figure out what are we doing with this guy. Because you're right, maybe he just can't play.
Um, we do rush these guys really quick.

Speaker 2 Like we kind of decide in mere games if they can play or not. I'm not standing up for the fact that I think he's going to turn into something different.
He doesn't look like the guy right now.

Speaker 2 I don't think it's the worst thing to get him out of there. And if it comes through this,

Speaker 2 it's to your point, like when you say head injury, it's not that we don't think he has one.

Speaker 2 There's just no counter argument to it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it feels convenient, but also, again, watching that video and I'm looking at a video from KSTPS Sports. It's certainly possible, but either way, it's just a tough, it's a tough situation.

Speaker 1 And I think one of the biggest,

Speaker 1 maybe we get a flashpoint focus going, maybe with our buddy Arif

Speaker 1 around the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 1 Like, what are they going to do in the offseason if he doesn't have, now he might do that thing because there's always a quarterback, Cecily, sometimes you and I butt heads in the summer about it because you usually take a little more out of it than I do.

Speaker 1 There's always a quarterback that plays well in weeks 16 and 17 or 17 and 18, and it's like, well, he's all fixed now.

Speaker 2 Well, I'm starting to learn my lesson a little bit.

Speaker 1 Michael Pennix corollary or whatever it is. Like this,

Speaker 1 every year it happens, maybe he finishes strong and the Vikings can use that to say, well, we'll just go get Mac Jones or whoever and roll with him. Or they might make a bigger decision.

Speaker 1 It's an interesting thing to keep an eye on.

Speaker 2 Well, the one other thing, too, real quick, is like it's, he's,

Speaker 2 missed more games than he started over two seasons. Like, you need these guys to be hyper-durable.

Speaker 2 That's not been the case. It's not like you can predict these injuries, but you got to be on the field.

Speaker 1 This is now the third time he had his rookie season wiped out by the knee injury, and then he missed, what, six weeks with the ankle, and now he's out with a head injury potentially.

Speaker 1 He might even be playing on Sunday. This is all conjecture.
It's Monday night.

Speaker 1 In other news, oh, the NFL.

Speaker 1 Mike Carafolo, our buddy, reports that the Saints are working out veteran kicker Justin Tucker today. Tucker,

Speaker 1 really the GOAT NFL kicker, certainly the best kicker during this kicker revolution of the last decade or so in the NFL, just a brilliant, brilliant place kicker for the Baltimore Ravens for over a decade, and then had his whole career and life changed by allegations of improper

Speaker 1 behavior involving massage therapists in the Baltimore area earlier in his career. That led to the suspension.
10 games, that suspension is now told. He's been a free agent.
And

Speaker 1 you know what? Part of me, Mark, wants to say I'm surprised that this is happening, but this is the NFL. And it's like

Speaker 1 the NFL forgets. It feels like the Me Too movement is ancient history for the NFL.
Deshaun Watson feels like ancient history.

Speaker 1 So, of course, Justin Tucker has a chance to do his job again in the NFL because Blake Group or whatever sucks. I mean, that's the way it works.
Well,

Speaker 2 you said it. I mean,

Speaker 2 if you're good, if you have talent, if you can help win games,

Speaker 2 you're going to get a second chance no matter what you did.

Speaker 2 And I'm not even saying he shouldn't or he should.

Speaker 2 That's for all of them to decide. But this is the league where

Speaker 2 it doesn't, there's a lot of lip service. None of it matters.
I don't know why the worst team in football outside of the Titans is doing this right now because it comes with this kind of conversation.

Speaker 2 But I don't know if Darren Skyrizzzi would have done this if he were still the

Speaker 1 charmer, but yeah, I guess we could single out the Saints and say, how could they?

Speaker 2 Well, someone else probably would have, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I just, it just feels like,

Speaker 1 I don't know, like the way things come and go. And we were there for all of it.
Ever, ever, ever, ever, okay, ever.

Speaker 1 We were there for all of it. The reckoning that started really with the Ray Rice elevator incident.
It just feels like the waters have calmed a little bit and a team like,

Speaker 1 obviously the Saints decide how we can get better, even in a season where everything is lost. Remember, it wasn't just the Cleveland Browns that wanted Deshaun Watson.

Speaker 1 A lot of teams wanted Deshaun Watson. And that was at the height of that era in culture.

Speaker 1 All right. And so we'll see

Speaker 1 if he's kicking for the Saints. It's a weird thing, but it certainly can happen if he beats out anybody else in that building.

Speaker 1 Things are not not going well for the Las Vegas Raiders. We know that.

Speaker 1 I think we have video here. Geno Smith flipping off fans as he leaves the field at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.

Speaker 1 Let's see.

Speaker 1 Yep, that's it. That's the bird.
Now, I want to add that the NFL

Speaker 1 shamefully allowed the Raiders to move to Las Vegas, which removed one of the great home field advantages of Los Angeles, you know, when when they were either, whether they were in Los Angeles, but especially when they were up in the Bay Area and in Oakland.

Speaker 1 It could have been Browns fans burying him, for all we know. We can't see who it was, but

Speaker 1 it could have been Raiders fans too, because Geno's been terrible. But I don't know if he's the next demo to fall in Las Vegas, but obviously it's been a tough, tough ride there.

Speaker 2 This team cannot exit public consciousness fast enough.

Speaker 2 We've got a nuclear winner heading to Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 it's not a great look for Geno Smith. Like, I'm sure you're very frustrated.
You took as much punishment. I think it was like 2018 that a quarterback,

Speaker 2 back then that a quarterback was sacked 10 times in a game. He was mauled.

Speaker 2 You've got to feel frustrated with the entire team, the offense, the whole thing. But

Speaker 2 there's just no benefit. to flipping off fans and having knowing that's going to get caught on camera.
I don't know. He can do whatever he wants, but like

Speaker 2 Geno Smith is out of here in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 Yeah. He gone.

Speaker 1 He is,

Speaker 1 geez.

Speaker 1 I was going to say, he'll never go back to the Jets, but Geno is going to find,

Speaker 1 he's going to find a home next year.

Speaker 1 And I think he'll be again in that Russell Wilson situation this year where he'll have a chance to compete or even have a job out of camp, but he's entering a different phase of his career.

Speaker 1 But this Raiders run has been tough. Finally, in the news,

Speaker 1 shared our thoughts about Cam Newton and whether anybody should listen to anything he says. But he had those comments about the Patriots being fool's gold.

Speaker 1 And then Drake May said to the media that I don't even know what kind of show he's on or whatever. Well,

Speaker 1 Cam is on an ESPN program, and then Stephen A. Smith smelled some blood in the water, some chum in the seas.

Speaker 1 So he took exception. This is so stupid.
He took exception to Drake May not knowing what Cam Newton's program was.

Speaker 1 He actually called May a liar, which takes us to Big Daddy, Big Zaddy, Mike Vrabel being asked about all this, and Vrabel said it straight.

Speaker 2 Stephen A.

Speaker 1 Smith wants to know if you could put the first take on in the weight room for the guys.

Speaker 1 We don't have, I don't even know if the TVs work in the weight room. Okay.

Speaker 1 He's wearing this raid, though.

Speaker 6 We'll make sure that the audio and everything works.

Speaker 1 I mean, it is a number one show.

Speaker 1 Is it?

Speaker 1 I find that. I find find that.
It's number one in 20 years. 20 years.
I find that harder. But I mean,

Speaker 1 I like this great sports center that I grew up with. Yeah.
No, it's a lot different. Ooh.

Speaker 1 It's not the sports center I grew up with.

Speaker 1 He's,

Speaker 2 I watched, I went and watched this entire

Speaker 2 segment that he,

Speaker 2 it's the weekly segment. I think Belichick used to call in on the phone and be grumpy, but Vrabel is great at this.

Speaker 1 It's such a nice.

Speaker 1 Vrabes? Rabes. He's wearing a gas station attendant shirt with a tag there for the audio, the audience.

Speaker 2 It just said Rabes. We invited him to our Thanksgiving table for a reason.

Speaker 2 He's such a refreshing culture shift from the whole Belichick business.

Speaker 2 I do think it's funny because

Speaker 2 to reference Sports Center, we all just work in a completely different

Speaker 2 sports media environment than we grew up watching. It's just completely different.

Speaker 2 I love his mustache. I love the way he speaks.

Speaker 1 I think he's. I'm down.
Well, I know.

Speaker 2 I just think he's. I think he's.

Speaker 2 And I'm sorry, Justin, because it's your old coach, but like

Speaker 2 he kind of just is at the right place at the right time. I think he's having a

Speaker 2 ball right now. Am I wrong? It just seems to be a little bit less cantankerous.

Speaker 1 I don't want to focus on what he's talking about. He's hot, Mark.
I agree. He's really attractive.
And I understand why you're so attracted to him sexually. But like,

Speaker 1 people like our buddy Rich Eisen and anyone that was on those 90s shows,

Speaker 1 you keep looking better and better as the time passes because so many people have a similar viewpoint on the direction of ESPN's programming and

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 navel-gazing and the

Speaker 1 creation of storylines and driving things into the ground rather than just giving people what they want, which is

Speaker 1 highlights and

Speaker 1 fun chatter

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 personality, winning personalities.

Speaker 1 I get where he's coming from because the embrace, I don't even know if they use, if this is a thing they ever internally actually used as a phrase, but embraced the debate, which really came of age in the 2010s as the prevailing, dominant programming on ESPN.

Speaker 1 But Stephen A. Smith is the face of so much of their most popular programming.
I think it just grates a lot of people. And that story and the way that's handled and

Speaker 1 the way that ESPN turns a

Speaker 1 into a story about themselves and their personalities,

Speaker 1 that's frustrating. And it's not everyone there because there's a lot of talented people there, and you know, people like Dan Orlofsky, Amina Kimes.

Speaker 1 There are smart people covering that at least. Scott Van Pelt's awesome.

Speaker 1 But some of this other stuff, I think

Speaker 1 there's a backlash that is building.

Speaker 1 And you saw a lot of that, I think, reflected in the ESPN YouTube TV

Speaker 1 clash, where typically the audience that's getting screwed, us, will side with the network and not with the carrier. But in this case, you saw the opposite.

Speaker 1 And I thought that was so interesting as a gauge of the temperature check about how the average sports fan views ESPN in 2025.

Speaker 2 Yes, I think that that was a real break from

Speaker 2 reaction, traditional reaction to stuff.

Speaker 2 You know, when someone says, like, I wish it was just like Sports Center, back in the day, like, when I had Sports Center in my college dorm, like they'd replay it like multiple times.

Speaker 2 But now it's like it's 24-7 shows, and there is a cultural mourning war between like FS1, ESPN, and other places to like get everything out of there. And you've got social media.

Speaker 2 It's mostly on Twitter

Speaker 2 where in X, where this kind of rises up to become a massive conversation point, too. It's like, it's, it's, it's, like, that's what's changed.

Speaker 2 It's like, you can go find out what they said seven hours later because it's on Twitter, where it used to just be, you got to be sitting there in front of the TV.

Speaker 2 Everything's kind of just turned into this like content waterfall. How much of it is, what, how, like, what percentage is necessary? Very little.

Speaker 1 Um, Barnwell is awesome. We love Barnwell.
Yeah. Kornheiser and Wilbon, iconic.

Speaker 2 Like, yeah, these are like old school like dudes, right?

Speaker 1 I mean, there is, I guess my final thought on it is because ESPN is, it's still on a lot in my house, but like I specifically, there are certain places for ESPN that I'll go, whether it's digitally or the network, obviously the game coverage, Buck and Aikman, home run higher there, like that they still do it great.

Speaker 1 And then there's some things

Speaker 1 that get amplified the most, it seems, that are kind of the toughest.

Speaker 2 It's that morning, it's that morning battle. It's those shows.
And it's across, you know, it's not just ESPN.

Speaker 2 It's hot takers

Speaker 2 trying to be hot takers more than the next hot taker.

Speaker 1 And we would never do that.

Speaker 2 Not I.

Speaker 1 We're above the fray. Not us.

Speaker 2 We shall not.

Speaker 1 No, we're goons too. It's just different.
All right, let's take a break. And when we get back, we dive into the power rankings.

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Speaker 1 with great power comes great responsibility bigger powers yeah then when you get the money you get the power category orange incident power behind the power

Speaker 1 Wow you're playing with power according to dan hands us power ranking

Speaker 1 Neck you, Paul Rudd. All right, it's that time

Speaker 1 as we close every ridiculous Monday night program with a look at the HDC power rankings, the power rankings of record. And yeah, we're different, right, Mark? We're different.

Speaker 1 Vastly. Yeah, Justin Tucker and the Saints, it's like tisk, tisk, tisk as Kevin Spacey and Kanye West roll through our bumper every single Monday.

Speaker 2 We're versatile.

Speaker 1 Is that the word? I don't don't know.

Speaker 1 I was really surprised when you were pounding the tables. Like, get Kevin Spacey in the clip.

Speaker 1 Well, you can't have a mistake. And the best would just like shrug their shoulders.
It's like, give him what he wants. His name is Jesus.

Speaker 2 You can't both claim that Mark puts zero effort into the production elements, but then also blame me for something like that. So I did not.
That surprised me.

Speaker 1 This is what Mark wants. He wants more Spacey in the show.

Speaker 2 No, well, he's homeless, apparently. So it's, you know, you can be a little concerned.

Speaker 1 It doesn't seem to be in real life. I saw that.
He's homeless.

Speaker 2 He's not. He came out.

Speaker 1 He's singing opera like in some other part of the universe.

Speaker 2 I don't know what's going on with him. He came out with a statement, not that we need to go deep down this, but like

Speaker 2 that he is not homeless the way that like out on outside my window in Hollywood, there are many. It's like he's living in Airbnbs and working non-stop on various in a very spacey way.

Speaker 1 I think he said, I'm not homeless in the colloquial sense. Right.

Speaker 2 The ex-president.

Speaker 1 All right. Anyway, I was trying to look up an article about whether Kevin Spacey is homeless or not, but I got hit with an ad blocker, and it's fine.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we got the ref whistle like we used to get at the office.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. We got to move on.
Let's check in with the power rankings.

Speaker 1 Anything to share before we get into them, Justin?

Speaker 4 What does that mean?

Speaker 1 Thank you, Justin. All right, let's go to board number one, which is the top eight teams in the NFL.
Hey, you got to be quick on your feet when you're the producer with the mic. All right, the Rams.

Speaker 1 It's a connect four for the Los Angeles Rams.

Speaker 1 After a dominant performance on Sunday night football, they stay atop our power Rekes. Sazler doesn't like that sound effect.
He doesn't like the drop.

Speaker 1 He likes Spacey.

Speaker 2 He likes Spacey, but not that. No, okay.
I like neither.

Speaker 1 The Seahawks up three spots to number two. And I just want to,

Speaker 1 you know, I just want to say something. I want to, because it's very important

Speaker 1 when you're a power ranker to

Speaker 1 say when you're right. But more importantly, Mark, and take notes, say when you're wrong.

Speaker 1 And I had the Saints, I believe, at eight last week, and we had a conversation about it, and they came in at five, and I said, yeah, maybe I should have kind of come in there at five.

Speaker 1 I do feel that way now. I probably should have had them a little higher going into this week.
And then when the teams around them stumbled or didn't overperform, I had them up at two.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, that's a little outside what I was expecting. So there you go.
I apologize. I got this one wrong.
It won't ever happen again.

Speaker 2 Well, I think it speaks to the character of

Speaker 2 your co-host.

Speaker 2 I'll leave it there.

Speaker 1 All right. The number three team is the New England Patriots.

Speaker 1 Sessler's got that hard on for Vrabel, so he has them all the way up at two.

Speaker 1 The rest of the

Speaker 1 shout out. And three, thank you, Paul Rudd.
The Eagles lose. They blow a 21-0 lead in Dallas, and as a result, they drop to number four in the power rankings.

Speaker 1 The Lions barely survive against the Giants at home, but they move up two spots.

Speaker 1 I don't know about that. I had them at seven, but they come in at five because Sessler obviously thinks the Giants are a good team.
So

Speaker 1 he had the Lions at four.

Speaker 2 That's not the thinking, but fair enough.

Speaker 1 Graver did. Connor did, had them at six.
The number six team overall in our rankings is the Denver Broncos. They stay right there from last week.

Speaker 1 The seven team is the Chiefs who've moved back into tier one,

Speaker 1 where they should have never left, quite frankly, but they did. And now they are up three spots.

Speaker 1 The Bills, they stumble badly against the Houston Texans pass rush on Thursday night football and dropped four spots to number eight that's I think the lowest they've been all season in our rankings let's move to the second tier the people are gonna be pissed the Bills just beat the Chiefs

Speaker 1 shut up

Speaker 1 it was not a good Bills performance

Speaker 1 yeah the Bills have not been able to really put it together

Speaker 1 for the past month or so and bills fans if they're being honest with themselves they they know that all right the packers they stay at number nine in our rankings. No movement.

Speaker 1 The Colts, the Colts can't find a way to close out the Chiefs. And as a result, they drop two spots to number 10 in the power rankings.
Hey, Chicago Bears, they're making their move.

Speaker 1 They are up three spots to number 11. I think I might have said if they won, they were going to maybe hit the top 10.
It didn't get there. I had them at 12.
Mark had them at 12. Justin had them at 10.

Speaker 1 Connor had them up at 9, but that gets them up three spots, and they are knocking on the the door of the top ten and if you're a bears fan you would have absolutely signed up for that three days before thanksgiving uh at number 12 is if the bears beat the eagles on black friday bears fans i think you'll see some movement up into for sure a region that makes you

Speaker 1 think i think they're tier one baby absolutely i don't know how you guys rank but i'm just guessing so yeah that's that is that is a tier one opportunity if you're knocking on the take care of the eagles So it's all kind of been building to that, right?

Speaker 1 Like, this is what's so great about the NFL season. These teams, these, like the Bears, a perfect example at eight and three, but haven't always been overly impressive.

Speaker 1 Eventually, you get to this, like, where the rubber meets the road moment, where you really get to prove to people one way or make your doubters look smart or stupid. There you go.

Speaker 1 A big spotlight island game against the defending champions. Yum.

Speaker 2 I'd reframe that and say that's what's so great about our power rankings.

Speaker 1 I mean, mean,

Speaker 2 the NFL season is one thing, but our power rankings is a whole different baller round.

Speaker 1 Crowd's on its feet. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You just blew their balls off, Mark. And also, Dave.
No, wait, no, wait. That sounds like a smattering, Mark.
I'm sorry, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 Well, this will involve you, but you and I had the same exact ranking for the Packers, Colts, Bears, and Niners this week.

Speaker 1 Look at us. Look at us in lockstep.
Excellent. All right.
So the Niners win, but they don't win impressively. And as a result, they actually drop a spot.

Speaker 1 Connor has them at 13, which he's probably just pissed that they didn't cover the 14 points in the blind lock game. That would be my guess.

Speaker 1 The number 13 team, that is the Twilight Zone. Now, the Twilight Zone is the number 13 spot in power rankings for HTC.

Speaker 1 It's a team that nobody can quite figure out. So you stick them at 13 and you say, let's turn the page to next week.
The Baltimore Ravens, perfect, perfectly spotted there. I actually had him lower.

Speaker 1 I had him at 16 because I just don't like the way they're playing. Mark, you had him at 14.
Connor at 12. Justin right there at 13.
Good job, buddy.

Speaker 1 The Cowboys, we've been talking about this. They've yo-yoed up and down this board all season.

Speaker 1 This is now close to uncharted territory for them at number 14, up four spots after their great comeback against Philly.

Speaker 1 And they have another big test, obviously, on Thanksgiving when they play who, Justin?

Speaker 4 The Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Bang, that's going to be big for both teams. AJ.
Could they? Could they?

Speaker 1 Jim?

Speaker 1 Trickeration.

Speaker 1 If... Habit in his back.

Speaker 1 Next level trickery.

Speaker 1 If the Cowboys beat the Chiefs and did it handily, would they flip tiers?

Speaker 1 Could the Cowboys enter the top eight?

Speaker 1 The Chiefs almost certainly would drop back into this 9-16 zone. But the Cowboys have a chance, Mark.
Just like we said, you get three games. Tell us who you are.
They already got one huge win.

Speaker 1 Thanksgiving win would change their season on a whole different level.

Speaker 2 Eagles and Chiefs back to back.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You're tier one, baby.
Here's another opportunity.

Speaker 4 You should crown them last year's Super Bowl champions if they do that.

Speaker 2 Beat both teams in the big game, right?

Speaker 4 I mean, come on.

Speaker 1 We'll take that out and post. Number 15, we have the Chargers.

Speaker 1 They were on bye this week, if I'm not mistaken. So that's cool.
Number 16,

Speaker 1 the Texans up three spots after

Speaker 1 their great Thursday night win over the Bills. Let's move to tier three.

Speaker 1 Tier three, Sessler. Now it's getting a little murky.
The Jaguars can't get no respect from,

Speaker 1 well, Cesi, a little bit on an island here. Cecily's like, oh, but they have a good record.

Speaker 1 Dan has him at 17.

Speaker 1 Connor has him at 18. Justin has him at 17, all spot on, right where they need to be.
Mark has them all the way up in the Twilight Zone at 13.

Speaker 1 Tell us why.

Speaker 2 I think they find ways to win games. They had that one crushing loss, and I thought that could have kind of put a nail in the coffin in terms of who they were this season.
And they rebounded.

Speaker 2 I don't love Trevor Lawrence at this situation. I don't think 13 is that different than where you guys have him, anyways.
I get that it's a bit of an outlier, but

Speaker 1 it is different. Like, could they beat you don't think they're the 13th best team in the league? I don't think you sincerely believe that.

Speaker 2 Well, so 13 being that weird Twilight Zone, they kind of fit in that Twilight Zone spot for me on some level.

Speaker 2 That was my thinking a little. I don't know what they are.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 The Bucs in the biggest freefall of the week, down six spots to number 18. Zuzzer had it right on the nose, as did Justin.

Speaker 1 Mark,

Speaker 1 15, so you're not totally out on them, but they're in a tough spot. Three-game losing streak.
Baker hurt. Team's not playing well.
The Steelers, this is a good spot for them at 19.

Speaker 1 I had that, as did Justin, as did Mark, all at 19. Justin, Connor has him at 21.

Speaker 1 The Panthers is perfect. It's like, did it even happen? Do you even exist?

Speaker 1 Do I even remember Monday night already as I'm recording this at this very second? Barely. I had him at 20.
Mark had him at 20. Justin had him at 20.
Connor at 19.

Speaker 1 They come in at 20 in our power ranking, same as last week. Just sit there until the end of the season.
Stop messing around. Sit and spin.

Speaker 1 Sit in your own mess, Carolina kitty cats. The number 21.

Speaker 2 You know one thing, by the way, like in the middle of this,

Speaker 2 that game tonight,

Speaker 2 my final game note,

Speaker 2 our cat actually turned, changed the channel to Jeopardy.

Speaker 2 That should tell you how actual cat felt about the Panthers' performance.

Speaker 1 I love Jeopardy.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, we didn't see it. It's like the one show when I go home and I'm hanging out with my parents for a few days.
It's the one show where you're like, all right, we're all going to enjoy this.

Speaker 1 This is going to be a nice 22 minutes together. Yep.

Speaker 1 And then if you,

Speaker 1 what are some of the things in the hands of this house when you watch Jeopardy?

Speaker 1 If nobody gets the answer right,

Speaker 1 but you get the answer right, if none of the three contestants get the answer right and you get it when you call it out, that's a triple stump.

Speaker 2 What occurs?

Speaker 1 What's the... I mean, that's the ultimate.
Like, other than getting Final Jeopardy right, when you get the answer right in Jeopardy or the question

Speaker 1 and all the actual contestants get it wrong, and then Ken Jennings has to go in and tell the dummies, oh, it was actually, you know, who is Ty Cobb?

Speaker 1 But you already said, who is Ty Cobb from your living room? You're 12 feet tall in that moment. No, you're far.

Speaker 2 You can go in the backyard and fire a rifle into the sky. I get it.

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 1 You take a giant bite out of a turkey leg, and then a beautiful golden retriever sits at your side and your woman cozies up underneath your huge bicep because you just want the triple stump

Speaker 1 anyway falcons 22 it's getting grim now here with some of these games j and the vikings down to 23 down two spots uh the the bengals sitting their mess at 24 with joe burrow officially coming back on thanksgiving night and and i appreciate that i appreciate that that's a really good thanksgiving schedule we're going to get to all the games the preview um on early Wednesday.

Speaker 1 You're going to get that show. And all three Thanksgiving games have juice, even the one at night between Ravens and Cincinnati, because Joe Burrow is back, and that's fun.
Let's go to the final tier.

Speaker 1 No T. Higgins in that game, by the way.
He's already been ruled out with the concussion, as we told you, was going to happen yesterday. Jamar Chase is coming back, though, after a suspension.

Speaker 1 Let's see. Cardinals 25, up one spot.
Look at the Brownies. Cesar's secretly annoyed.
He's like, but I want to suck the most. No, you're up four spots.
Well, I put them in.

Speaker 2 They're at 26, and I put them at 26.

Speaker 1 As did I, as did Justin,

Speaker 1 and Connor actually has them at 25. So up four spots.
That could be the highest the Browns have been. They're a little bit of a berserker

Speaker 2 archetype, depending on the quarterback play.

Speaker 1 Because they do something great. They play great defense.
And if you can do something great, especially defense, especially as the weather starts to turn, you can jack up some seasons.

Speaker 1 I like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Wish Flacco is the quarterback.

Speaker 2 Well, you can't have everything you want.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right.
The Giants at 27, down two spots. The Commanders.
Giants.

Speaker 1 The Commanders at 28. The Jets at 29.
The Saints at 30. Look at the Titoons up one spot out of the cellar for the first time in a month.
Congratulations, Justin. I looked it.
I wanted to look at it.

Speaker 1 Week eight. Nice.

Speaker 1 excellent and yes oh look at this we're all on lockstep in lockstep connect four the las vegas raiders are the worst team in football where things stand right now and it's hard to say oh double double connect four there and hard to hard to argue that they are that's not you got connor

Speaker 2 even connor has raised the titans out of the last and final spot that is a coup d'état of violent nature absolutely um all right that's it um Reminder that the 30K challenge is still on.

Speaker 1 We are nearing 28,000. And the 30K challenge, not only is it important to our show to get the YouTube subscribers up there,

Speaker 1 you're also going to get an incredible yarn from Connor Orr about a clash with one Sean Payton, head coach of the first-place Denver Broncos.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 please, if you haven't. subscribed do it right now bang that subscribe uh leave a comment Bang the algorithm in a big spot.
Smash it.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Mark. Smash it.
Smash it all. And let's win this 30K challenge onward and upward.

Speaker 1 We'll be back

Speaker 1 late Tuesday, early Wednesday morning. You're going to probably get this show wherever you are in the world.
A full preview of week 13, including of Thanksgiving games.

Speaker 1 And Connor will be joining us on our next show. So

Speaker 1 stay tuned for that. And thank you for your support.
And Mark, I'll give you the final word.

Speaker 2 At this point, it's so important we get to the 30,000 goal as a group of people.

Speaker 2 I am expecting the story's been so pumped up with Sean Payton. I hope to find out that he

Speaker 2 operated with Oswald in the book depository at this point.

Speaker 2 It better be controversial and large.

Speaker 1 Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 Is that what you were looking for? And a last word from our football.

Speaker 1 As always, Mark, you said it all. All right.

Speaker 1 Till Wednesday.

Speaker 2 Do what you must. Heed the call.

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Speaker 5 I might have just set the hushing record.

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