2025 NFL Week 13 Recap: Exiting Candyland

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Week 13 in the NFL, and Heed the Call's got it covered from all angles. Hey, Ceci, they say the season doesn't truly begin until after Thanksgiving.
I guess that means game on. I'll put my iBlack on.

Don't threaten me with a good time. Let's Heed the Call.

Heyo!

Welcome to Heed the Call, an NFL podcast.

The week 13 flagship program, breaking down everything that happened on Sunday

and Friday in the NFL. Dan Hansis here with Mark Sessler, Connor Orr,

Justin Graver on the ones and twos

with additional analysis on this flagship program.

And we're going to get to everything as Bill Parcel said, not Bill Belichick. The season starts after Thanksgiving, we are after Thanksgiving, so it is time to get serious.

We're going to get to all the games, as I said, but let's start with the last game that was played on Sunday: Sunday Night Football, an unexpected banger.

The Denver Broncos have won relentlessly this season

because of an overwhelming defense

gunning for the sack record and an opportunistic and timely offense led by Bo Nix. You kind of got it all with Nicks leading the Broncos on an overtime touchdown drive.

And then when the commanders get the ball back in OT and Marcus Mariota, I'm sorry,

Mariota. I don't know.
I'll let Collinsworth do that. I don't know how to do it.

Took Washington down the field, scored a touchdown. They go for two.
It wasn't a sack, but it was Nick Benito.

The stud of Denver's pass rush, getting his arms up, knocking down what would have been most likely a game-winning two-point conversion for the commanders. Instead, it is batted down.

The celebration ensues, and the Broncos win their ninth in a row, 27 to 26,

and a wild game in Landover.

Mark, this is

these primetime games. Sometimes you just assume this is going to be a one-sided affair, but then sometimes you forget a couple things.

The Denver Broncos always seem to play their opponents tight no matter what. And yeah, the Denver Broncos this season always find a way in the end.

You're right. They play to the level of their competition.
And like,

you know, like for me, it's,

I don't know what kind of team or how to assess the Broncos on some level because I think collectively we're not blown away by them, certainly not on offense, or quite feel like they're going to go mow their way through the AFC and the playoffs, but they're the second double-digit win team in the league.

Um, so they've proven something, and this was a battle, and it was it was unexpected. And I will say because it's one game, and then I'll just throw it to someone else.

It's one game where, like, I came out of this, like

kind of feeling something for Marcus Mariota. Like, it was one of these, you could see it on his face at the end of this after what the Broncos defense had done to him in a courageous effort.

And, like, he looks older than he used to. He's been in our lives for a while.
Like, it just felt like the kind of performance that kind of broke his heart, and it kind of crushed that stadium.

And yet, the Broncos prevail in a way that they often do.

I don't know.

It's hard to get on anybody after a game like this because the commanders played so far out of their shoes in this game and came back from like third and 25s, you know, fourth down situations.

And we'll get to the officiating, I'm sure. But I don't know if Dan Quinn would have a second chance at that overtime decision if he wouldn't have taken the ball because.

You had the Broncos defense on the field for 18 straight plays. It's by far the strength of their team.
It's how they win games. So keep them on the field.
They're exhausted.

And yes, you have to go through that same calculus with your own offense, but like, why wouldn't you want Nick Benito as tired as humanly possible?

Keep running the ball, like keep stretching that defense.

And I thought giving them that break, that little bit of extra gas that they had, was the game changer and helped them win that at the goal line.

Yeah, I mean, you can certainly look at it that way for sure.

And on top of it, it backfires doubly because they decide, they win the coin to us, what Connor's referring to, to start overtime they elect to kick after having a long game-time field goal drive that had Denver's defense on the field you could have kept him on the field um

and then it backfires doubly because your defense totally lays down and when they're one position in overtime it takes the Broncos just five plays to go right down the field for 76 yards and the touchdown

and You saw it with even Sean Payton before the two-point conversion. And I don't think anybody can get on Dan Quinn for going for two there.
You're three and eight.

You're thinking as head coach, why not? You're thinking, why not? And you're also thinking, because they don't think the way we think. He doesn't think his season's over.

He's like, I need to win every game to get to nine to have a chance at the playoffs. So a tie does me no good.
So you had to do it. You had to go for it.

You draw up a great play, and sometimes a great player just blows everything up. And that's what Benito did.
And I think there's a,

you know, we texted a little bit about it as a group

that the Broncos, for all that they've done and the fact that they are, of course, the team of HTC and what a great choice that was, there is something a little bit like wanting to them at times where it's like, oh, they're going to get away with it again.

And even like as after they knock down the pass and they're celebrating it midfield, I'm like, part of me is like, oh, those lucky SOBs. But ultimately, the truth is they earned it.

They earned the big stop. They put themselves into position to win with an expertly calculated opening drive of overtime, and they keep making the big plays.

And I thought Collinsworth, in addition to an incredible pronunciation of the backup quarterback of the commander's last name,

he was absolutely on top of that where he said, you know, this team makes the plays

routinely and regularly that the real teams do. I'm paraphrasing, but the teams that go deep have a lot of contributors that are making big time plays.
And they did it again in this game.

And as a result, they are now the number one seed in the AFC on a tiebreaker there ahead of New England.

They don't feel like any number one seed this late in the season that I can recall where it's like, I don't know. Again, I feel kind of like I need to unpack how I feel about this team.

But they escape and you don't have to win. This is a year where like teams with good records don't have to do it in a way that is completely like awe-inspiring.
It's just a strange football season.

I don't know. I kind of like, it's a tough team.
It's a tough team to unpack for me because

I can't quite get a feel for who they are. And that's okay.
And that's a mark issue, I guess. But I think other people feel that way too about the Broncos.

I agree. I mean, I just, again, I mean, you know, we can talk about it deeper as we get on in the show, but like that whole AFC playoff bracket is just that whole thing.
I don't know, man.

There's just, there's not a lot of faith in any of these teams. Like Denver, how much different really are they than the team when they made the playoffs last year?

Like, oh, yeah, they're a year or two away. I mean, this is still basically essentially the core of that team with a couple defensive role players added in.
Not much different.

Did you want to get into anything on the officiating counter before we move?

Sure. Yeah.
I mean, where do we start? My God. I mean, to

I mean, there were like 13 missed calls at the end of the game, like on the final five drives.

And that that officiating crew, Chris Collinsworth brought up Riley Moss not getting flagged for pass interference.

And so they just decided to, in the final six minutes of the game, become the central focus of it, which is so despicable. And it's so annoying.
I mean, they missed the tripping call.

They called an intentional grounding that was an intentional grounding. The whole thing was.
I mean, that was a bad one. That was a really bad one.

Thankfully, thankfully, Washington was able to bail itself out with a big conversion on third and forever.

But at the same time, it's like, if the rules analysts for NBC could come on and say like straightforward, black and white, this is a blown call and we have the tech to fix these things, you got to buzz down and you got to make sure, hey, guys, you actually don't know the rule book right now.

And this is a, and I'm sure that somebody's going to get called to the carpet tomorrow at Park Avenue from this officiating crew.

It's like, you guys can't be on our island game and not know the rules.

I wish I could hear the interaction there, but that was a bad one. It was one of several.
One of several.

I mean, even the, I'm curious what you guys think about this, but the Josh Connerly holding at the end.

Collinsworth made the point that like the Denver pass rushers get really low to the ground and sometimes they will almost trip themselves if they're take themselves down to the ground.

By letter of the law, yes, that is a holding call because of the hand placement.

But like if you're an official and you have a feel for the flow of the game at that moment, why are you throwing the flag there? It's it's not.

I mean, the guy kind of took himself to the ground and his hands were in the wrong place, but you have to view it almost like, it's like a Supreme Court justice.

It's like, what was the intent of the maneuver there? He wasn't chokeslamming him there. It was ridiculous.
I don't know. I hated the whole thing.
It's when I

a lot of the officiating stuff I can live with to some degree because it's like it's there it's inevitable.

But when they become when I see that one official who was the you know, the lead guy tonight, and I see his face and he's got this like thick, kind of, it looks like he had a sprained his neck or something.

It's like a thick black turtleneck around his thing, and it's freezing out.

It's like, when I'm seeing him 25 times in the last 40 minutes of the game, like you're doing the thing where you're trying to take over.

You're being a little bit of an attention whore, and I don't need that in my life. So that's like stay out of the flow if you can, or help us flow.
Well said. Well said.

And my last thought on this game was the

again, in addition to Chris Collinsworth's pronunciation of Mariota,

I was also

told by Justin that, I guess it's finally

said correctly. I don't know why it took us 14 years to get to this point.
The Tyrod Taylor situation, a Tyrod Taylor situation all over again.

Well, that was him saying about he wanted his mom wanted it pronounced. Mariota.

Has never had his name pronounced since he got in the NFL. Correct? But then they corrected 12 years ago.
Like, why is it our fault?

They probably should have, but it's like a

frustration of Titans fans forever because we just wanted people to show some respect to the guy that we loved and that I still

told. It's like, there's no disrespect.
We were, if we were not told, and we're not announcing his name on a national broadcast,

you were disrespectful and just own up to that. You personally were very disrespectful.

But you were, you know what? Because I texted him. I was like, what's going on here? And you were like very,

you were like in correcting mark mode over over the group text i was like i'm asking am i hearing anybody else picking up uh it's it's late uh both east coast and west coast right now after an overtime sunday night game and everyone's a little bit cranky yeah i think that's possibly true i was not trying to direct anything at you guys i was directing it at tv broadcasters who should know how to pronounce the names of the players they're broadcasting i'm picking up what you're putting down yeah it is correct

so we shouldn't be we should we shouldn't be deriding collabs worth because he's actually doing what everyone else should have been doing for the last 12 years. Correct.
I got you, buddy.

I'm with you.

You're not wrong. I just thought that

your tone was a little... You know, it was your tone.
Mario touched.

Anyway, Broncos 10 and 2. Commanders 3-9.

See you next year. Let's take a quick break, and then we will jump into the bulk of week 13.
Stay right there.

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All right. Sunday Night Football in the rear view.
We're going to get into all the Sunday games and also the Black Friday game. A lot of fun.
Before we do that, before we start

with the breakdown of everything, two things. Number one, in case you missed it, I know last week, busy holiday week, maybe something fell through the cracks.
Big news in our world.

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They're talking about different designs. They're talking about we want a hat, we want this, we want Cecil's underpants.
We're working on all that stuff for you, and we'll continue to roll out new

merch. But if you want to get in on the ground floor for something we've been building up for and working on for months and months,

really years and years, heedthecallpodcast.com, exclusive Heed the Call merch.

And without further ado, before we get into our rest of the games,

Mark, what is the theme of the week for week 13 in the NFL? My theme of the week is

it's a two-word theme. It's simple.
It's exiting Candyland.

Exiting Candyland. Okay.
All right. I'm going to, let's try to deduce this one, Conman.

40 to 50% of Mark's themes revolve around, strangely, my grandfather

or

his, you know, as long as I've known him, dream for as many teams to disappear as quickly as possible. I'm going to lean towards the latter on this one and

go with that, like saying bye-bye to certain teams that shouldn't be taken seriously now that the season has begun. What do you think?

When you brought that up, It made me think of an episode that we did together when I was out in L.A. and we were all at the NFL and we had to pick one thing to get rid of

for the summer. And then Mark's was just the entire American football conference.
And

I just like, that always stuck with me. And so you really did nail it.
This has been going on for decades. He's just looking at, he's like, just to pare it down.

Get us down to like six teams. Yeah.

So you're not wrong.

You're not wrong. Like, I think that's part and parcel.
But

I do, I'm kind of hearkening back to your,

as you mentioned earlier in the show, your defense of the legacy of Bill Parcells, that he, he's not some man that walked around saying he was a wizard or a man of wisdom, but he just simply was correct about things.

And like stuff feels real now. And you're either on the train

or you're like, you know, when the train's going down a track and there's like a woman with like a toddler in her arms, like in a prairie waving at the train, or you're them or her or the two of them.

Like you're on the train or you're not. Like we're not here to pamper you anymore.
You're part of this journey, or you are not part of this journey. All right, well said.

The theme of the week, we're exiting Candyland. So, we're going to get into all it.
The season is now started. Happy opening day.
Let's start with what went down in Pittsburgh.

Yes, it really did feel like

the late season version of the NFL as you cut to Accroshore Stadium, I think that's what it's called now, and it's cold and blustery and nobody looks comfortable.

And Aaron Rodgers has a cast on his left hand.

You can just see him thinking, this would be much better if I was just laying on a chair in Malibu.

Like that energy. That's where we are in the NFL season.
And probably it would have been better if he would have done that at least on Sunday because

Josh Allen threw for a touchdown, ran for another.

Joey Bosa had the play of the game, sacking Aaron Rodgers on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, which allowed Christian Benford to scoop the ball up for a game-changing 17-yard scoop and score.

And the Bills continue to push the Steelers deeper into the distance, 26-7.

So, Mark, and I know you were pretty high on the Bills. You must have been because you locked them.
Congratulations. Big time.

Good job, Mark. Key spot.
Key spot.

This was a game that the Bills really had to earn because it didn't come easy, and yet the final score makes it seem like it did.

I have been real hot and cold on the Bills in general in terms of what people's expectations are for them. I thought today

they won in a different

fashion.

I know that you've never been an Accrosure Stadium fanatic in terms of the naming of the place, but they set the rushing record there for all time with 249 yards on the ground. This was a James Cook.

It was a Bills defense, and you mentioned it. It was a Joey Bosa game.
It's like these guys that you went and got, like, made a huge,

huge addition to what happened today. They were missing their left and right tackle and set the rushing record in Pittsburgh Stadium in cold weather.

Like, it kind of spoke to me that, like, when you want to doubt the bills, which I'm prone to do, you've got to maybe rethink it. And Christian Benford was a huge part of it.

He had the interception that you mentioned in the score, but then later, another one that set up a James Cook huge score. And

then after that, it's a Keon Coleman touchdown, a guy that's been deactivated weeks in a row. So it's like new players are stepping up.
They're stepping in.

Josh Allen broke the NFL rushing touchdown record, snapping Cam Newton's streak. So it's like, you know, it kind of quietly in a weird game.

They shut down a Steelers team that to me feels like is starting to disappear from the Polaroid picture. Like in Back to the Future, they had 43 plays for 166 yards.

They booed Renegade. The fans booed Renegade for the first time ever.
I mean, this thing has been going on since 2002 in the playoffs. I looked it up.
Never has it been drowned out by booze.

And it was right before that that the Steelers ended up giving up the Accroshure rushing record. I think this is a conversation, obviously, that needs to be had later on at a different point.

But this to me is like kind of the director's cut of the end of the Tomlin era for me personally. I mean, they've lost their identity as a defensive football team.

They've led nine of their 12 games at halftime this year. That speaks to an inability to make adjustments in the second half.
It speaks to an inability to close games. It speaks to their age.

It speaks to the fact they keep just redoing this over and over again. But I think this is kind of the platter that you serve up when you ask, why is this, why is time running out on Tomlin?

And Dan, this is a team that traded away George Pickens and could not find an explosive play in this game at all.

I mean, I was thinking about that as I was watching this game because the game was over for the last, you know, 60 minutes of real time, or at least it felt that way.

Like, was this the lowest moment of the Tomlin era in Pittsburgh? Because it just felt, in fact, I mean,

I'm going to play a clip. Yes, they were booing Renegade, but I didn't even think that was the most notable thing about what that crowd was doing in that stadium in the second half.
Listen to this.

Yeah, I mean, this is, that's a fire Tomlin chant.

And if you know any Steelers fans in your life, most of us do, there has been a growing sense of frustration around Mike Tomlin the last couple years.

I talked about this on the summer. I thought that with the Aaron Rodgers move, it had a high chance of combusting.
And I don't put this on Aaron Rodgers, but it did change.

It took Mike Tomlin out of his Mike Tomlin zone, which you could say would be a good thing, but maybe it's not a good thing when it's a 41-year-old quarterback on the other side that you're kind of mixing into this.

And I just thought, you know, the shot that he took from Bosa, which cuts his face open, he sits out a series of two and then comes back in, Rodgers. But he just, with the cast, he just looked old.

And he had that look like Favre did, for instance, in his last year in Minnesota, where you kind of, everyone kind of senses that we're watching the beginning of the end.

Tomlin was asked about the crowd and what he heard from them after the game.

I don't know how restless and frustrated I was, and so I assume they were in the same state we were in. Man, I share their frustration tonight, man.
We didn't do enough.

And that's just the reality of it. Now, here's the other part of it, though.
They're six and six, but they're still right there with a chance to piece this back together and win the division.

And you wonder if that's what it would take to save Mike Tomlin's job. It's a major subplot.
But, you know, on the other side, I really, just to, before we move on, you know,

hit the bills again on this because, like you said, without both tackles,

without their tight end that did so much for their offense,

without any real downfield passing options in difficult conditions against a great defensive line or formerly great defensive line, I guess. But

the way that they found a way to win now is a little troubling because no downfield element for this passing game at all, the Bills.

But the fact that they could smash mouth it and the Steelers, TJ Watts said after the game, Connor, that

he, I'm paraphrasing here, but he's never really been involved in a game where the opposing team ran the same play so many times in a row

and continued to have success. They couldn't stop it.
And that just says a lot about both teams. It was, I think it was closer to two.
And I will give Tony Romo credit for that.

Like, I think he was the first one that flagged it. It was like two different variations of the same running play.
And again, it speaks to a lack of adjustment.

I mean, sometimes I think that's not smash mouth, and it's like, why aren't you moving people into the places where, you know, whether it's that cut back to the outside that Cook was doing that they were having a lot of success with, like, why aren't you moving your defense around to stop it?

Or do you have even the personnel to do it? So I don't know. I think that was a pretty stunning referendum on the Steelers, for sure.

And to your point, Dan, like, the Bills had, I mean, both teams had problems completing passes to wide receivers, but the Bills had one completion in the first half to a wideout versus everyone else.

Like, James Cook stepped up, and so they found a way to do this. And it's like it's a much more concerning look at the Steelers than it is to the Bills.
But you're right.

Like, it's going to be the Bills' problem down the stretch. But I just like, I think back to the last time we saw the Bills and Josh Allen was destroyed by the Houston Texans' pass rush.

And to lose two key players on your offensive line and get him out of here without being destroyed destroyed was a moment.

I mean, I get that the Steelers' defense is sort of, at this point, sort of a floating trash barge, but like they, he was protected pretty well in this game. And, you know,

that was a huge win for Buffalo because they would have been kind of in the Detroit Lions space with a loss. Right.
And I still have concerns about them. It does.

There are, for the reasons we just talked about, there are reasons to be like, man, you know, if Allen doesn't have the right supporting cast and they're not able to have balance to this offense, that's going to go and get them eventually in a big spot.

But at the same time, just they showed guts in this game. That was a big win.
And we'll see what happens next for the Steelers who go to Baltimore next Sunday with their season on tilt.

And the Bills get the Bengals at home in Orchard Park.

All right. Let's now exit Sunday briefly and jump to Friday, where the Chicago Bears went to Philly once again looking to say, hey, guys, take us serious.
We're for real.

I don't know.

I don't think I said it like that exactly. That's how they said.

All right, the Chicago Bears. How about that?

They go to Philly on Friday.

And they absolutely bully the defending champions in their own building,

Running right down the throats of the Bicfangio defense.

Kyle Benangay.

130 yards and a touchdown. DeAndre Swift, 125 yards and a score.
281 yards on the ground. And the Bears have won five straight after a 24-15 win.

Over the Eagles, who are

taking on a little bit of water. See,

yeah, the Bears have now demanded it. Take us seriously or else.
Oh, and I do. And I think we all do, right?

I mean, it was, it kind of feels like Ben Johnson, everything's gone so well, like in terms of building the roster, creating an offensive scheme, enacting that scheme, using your will to destroy people.

They, to me, he's world building. Like,

it's very impressive to watch on a weekly basis. And, you know,

it's probably the right time to get the Eagles. So it doesn't feel like there's a lot of wrong times to get the Eagles in the last couple of months.

They haven't scored more than 21 points since week eight. But to see them run the ball, the Bears, the way they did, it starts to feel like here's what's missing in Detroit because you brought this.

to your team and you're doing it with guys we didn't expect and a quarterback that we were unsure what we'd get from and it was a very impressive performance and i think it was like you you know, to be fair, when we do our power rankings and all that stuff, it's like you're waiting for that signature win.

And I'm not sure beating the Eagles is really a signature win at this point. I'm just not sure that it is.
Oh, that's, oh, come on. That's not

going to Philadelphia in that spot? It is by name. I'm not saying it's not.
It's just that I think the Eagles have a lot of problems. That's the other part of the conversation.

But like for the Bears, it absolutely was. And they need to be taken seriously and looked at for what their record is.
It's not fraudulent on any level to me. It's 9-3.

And here was the scene in the locker room afterwards where Ben Johnson

was a folk hero in Chicago.

And this didn't hurt that.

The audio audience, he just ripped off his shirt. He's flexing.

Everybody's going absolutely ape shit.

Let me let it rest.

he's gonna get better, he's gonna get better, he better get bad, he's better, get back, baby, he's not doing better, drink back.

They love him, they love him.

Connor, what's there to learn here? You do a lot of awesome research, and

you're on the phone constantly, and you're always, you know, kind of digging into what the upcoming coaching ranks are in the league, who's hot, who's not, and everyone in between.

And Ben Johnson, gifted play caller out of Detroit. There were questions about if he had the the temperament to handle this job, that type of spotlight in Chicago.

And then you see a video like that, and then you look at their record and it's like, okay, what did some people get wrong about Ben Johnson in retrospect?

Well, I think, I don't know if it was wrong because everything is still going really, really well.

And the Bears are also ranking super high in any metric that you use to kind of measure luck for an NFL football team.

Like, how well are they doing on third down, even though they get to third down a lot? I think they're second in the NFL and reaching third down, which is not great.

It's not something that you want to do. They recover a lot of fumbles, and that's a luck-adjusted stat, right? But I think what Ben Johnson is doing is he's gotten exceptional health.

How many times have we seen an NFL team try to rebuild the entirety of its offensive line in free agency and have all three of those guys play between 97 and 100% of your snaps?

That never happens through 12 weeks. And I think that is the key piece of this Bears' turnaround.
It's steady on the offensive line. Caleb Williams has time, and then you can run all the cool plays.

And that's the formula. That's what Ben Johnson's riding right now.
Yeah. And on the other side, you know, the Eagles,

two weeks ago, it was eight and two. We're going to coast to the division title.
We pass every test, big test. We were marveling at what their defense did to Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions.

And then they blow the 21 lead, 21-0 lead to the Cowboys. And it's like, oh, that was a tough one.
You fully expected them to come and get healthy in a big spot here at home on an island game.

And the fact that they couldn't turn it on, you understood why.

And they're spoiled, but they're not the first fan base to go from having nothing to living in luxury and then not handling it well when adversity returns.

But the fans in Philadelphia spend the second half of that game booing loudly and chanting for the firing of Kevin Petullo, the offensive coordinator, the one that Nick Siriani handpicked from in-house.

And here is what was said after the game by Siriani about

Petullo and whether or not they're planning to change play callers.

You know, we'll evaluate obviously everything, but like I said to you guys, you know, when you win, when you lose, it's never about one person.

We all collectively have to do a better job. And that's going to be starting with us as coaches, starting with me as a coach, finding solutions

to, you know, getting the offense going.

And so I'll put that, you know, on us as a staff and put that on me

most individually

there to help get, you know, get this thing pointed in the right direction. But yeah, no,

still stay with that. You can't, it's the greatest team sport there is, and it's never about one person.

We all have to look internally and all have to get better and coaches and players. Here's one thing about Kevin Petullo that not a lot of people talk about.
Okay.

When Nick Siriani has been in trouble as a head coach, when he's had to make difficult decisions, when he's needed someone's advice to bring in new coordinators or new coaches, the person that he's always gone to has been Kevin Petullo.

Kevin Petullo is one of the few people that has been in that room since day one. How do we organize our practice schedule? Who should we hire as our running backs coach?

Who should be our wide receivers coach? Our defensive coordinators leaving? Who needs to come in and be the new defensive coordinator? He was sort of the de facto, whatever you want to call it.

Who's that? The henchman guy in House of Cards with the glasses, you know, Doug or whatever. He was like the Doug.
Was that Doug? Was a guy's name Doug? Doug Stamper, I think, or something.

Yeah, wasn't it? Like, he was the one that fixed everything.

And so when the attrition got to such a point at the offensive coordinator level, they were losing guy after guy after guy after guy, and Kevin was the next man up.

I think what Nick lost a little bit was like uh was like a concigliere but like you're doug and i think that that's the problem is now he's trying to figure out how to be a great offensive coordinator trying to figure out how to make this work and nick is also trying to figure out how to make this work without the guy that he went to for all these problems yeah but shouldn't shouldn't siriani at this point it's very clear it's not working the offense is broken and siriani comes from an offensive background but he never actually called plays i understand that but it's like i don't know like not to go down the Siriani wormhole, but like, you need somebody needs to step up leadership-wise and change this up.

Now, maybe that is just conversations behind the scenes, and he continues to lean on his OC, but I don't know. It does feel like frustration is growing in and around that team.

And that, and there's been a lot of this conversation. Like, is this team going to suffer the same fate as what happened to the 2023 team? We'll see.
But

things where they are right now, the vibes are not good.

And the last time the vibes were not good, we saw a crater job that was off the charts that led to us putting Nick Siriani on the hottest of seats going into 24 before they win the Super Bowl.

We'll see. I mean, it's just, it's crazy.

Again, it's a reminder how quickly things change in the NFL, that they went from a team that was getting by with shades of dysfunction to being swallowed up by it as we reach December.

Well, they've also gone through from a play caller angle on both sides of the ball as much transition as any team in the league and continue to win.

And like, I think, Connor, that's a really interesting point that like you kind of lose this guy who is your,

it's not a big dom situation, but it's like he's your dude to talk to and to bounce things off of. And it's what's more, it's not cliche because like changing the play caller can work.

But what's more cliche than fans? And I'm not saying us or fans, I'm not pointing out just fans, but like just change the play caller.

Like any of us know what that actually means on a day-to-day basis and what that actually does or why that will work or not. They gave up 425 yards

to the Bears offense. Like that was that was a bigger situation here.
They were run over in a physical way that is not normal for the Eagles. That's what the Eagles did to people a year ago.

But it is, to your point, Dan,

there's a growing concern of like, where does this end? I'm not sure it's going to end without a playoff win and a loss. Saquon Barkley does nothing again in this game.

Even the tush push fails, and what the Giants cracked a few weeks ago, which is send a guy around the edge and go rip in at the paws of the quarterback and rip the ball out.

The referees blew the call against the Giants, but this time they let the play out and it leads to a huge fumble on the tush push.

It just seems like the walls have fallen in very quickly. It's a big test, and no one's been a bigger critic of Siriani, thinking he's built up and puffed up by what's around him than me.
And so

if you're looking for an answer,

or if you want to stick it to me, let's see how the Eagles close the season because this is going to be a real test for that whole coaching staff. And Siriani obviously is at the front of the line.

Anything else on this game before we move on?

They did help AJ Brown get out of his grumpy little world a little bit. Like he had a prototype.

I'm just saying that's one little problem they solved at least for a day. Solve for a day.
Yeah. It doesn't

like 250 yards of offense in this game. Yes,

he's not going to bitch bitch this week, but we did literally nothing else.

Well, that's fair. I'm just saying, you know, it's like they kind of quieted him, just like, sip it.

All right, let's move on. Let's take a break.
And when we get back, we jump back into Sunday. Stay right there.

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All right, we are back and we're back to Sunday and we're going to talk about

one of the biggest, if not the biggest upset of the NFL season based on what people think is going to happen in the desert.

I mean, come on.

The Carolina Panthers,

figure them out. I'm not going to try anymore

because they welcome the mighty Los Angeles Rams

into their building. The 9-2 Rams, the Surging Rams, the number one in the HDC Power Rankings Rams.
And they take every punch that the Rams have and then deliver one more than the Rams could.

With Bryce Young once again. Literally two weeks ago, we were having the conversation.
That's it for Bryce Young. Two weeks before that, well, that's it for Bryce Young.

15-206, three touchdowns, two of them on fourth down, including the go-ahead 43-yard score to Tet McMillan with 634 to play. Then the defense closes it out with a third Matthew Stafford turnover.

Final score, Panthers 31, Rams 28.

Panthers improved to 7-6.

The Rams fall to 9-3 and back into a tie atop the NFC West with the Seahawks. Gravy, this was a lot more than we were expecting in this game.

What an upset and what a big performance by the Panthers. And what a fun game.
Track beat back and forth. I think there were five or six lead changes.
It was so much fun.

And the Panthers MVP is a guy we've talked about a few times throughout the season, especially with Baldy. Derek Brown.

Derek Brown gets his face on the football to pop up the ball into the end zone for Stafford's first interception.

And Derek Brown closes the game with the pass rush that led, he's the one who strips Stafford that led to the Panthers being able to run out the clock. So,

yeah, I wasn't expecting the Panthers to keep up offensively with the Rams.

Obviously, those turnovers are huge, though, because one of them, a pick six, puts points on the board for Carolina, and the other two, we're in the red zone, takes points off the board for the Rams.

That's why they always talk about the turnover battle, and the Panthers win this one three to nothing.

Yeah, when you talk about like the fact that why were the Rams looked at as the Super Bowl favorites of the NFC, and probably still could be was that Stafford goes, well, is it 28 straight touchdowns without an interception?

Anyone doing that is going to put your team into an incredible place and in a place of security. And that all fell apart today.

I was watching this, and the announcers were crowing about that actual stat.

And then like on the next play, Stafford throws the first pick, and there's a pick six in this, and there is pressure on Stafford.

And it's not that he didn't play well, but I think you could say, like, Jero Evereaux knows the McVay offense as well. They pointed that out that he spent a lot of time with McVeigh.

And if there is a little bit of a strategic edge, or if you know the quarterback, if you know the players, like it can contribute to an upset.

This is also the Panthers, the most unpredictable team in football.

I am done trying to predict what they're going to do or what they're going to be on a week-to-week basis because it's completely bizarro. It's a big game for Dave Canales, the head coach.

This is what he had to say after the game about what he said to his team before the game. You know, we have seen the Rams' best football, and they've been playing amazing.

And I said, no one's seen our best yet. And

while they still made yards and they still did things, our best football is still out there in front of us, and that's our goal is to find it. Bryce Young was, this was the best defense in the NFL.

This is the hardest pass rush to figure out in the NFL. Bryce Young was perfect against the Blitz today.

He had a perfect passer rating when trailing in this game.

Unbelievable.

This is a guy that can't make it through half of a Dolphins game and then turns into legitimately the biggest gamer in the NFL against the best defense in the NFL. It's incredible.

Is he the biggest, Justin, is he the biggest mystery in our league right now?

Like who the former number one overall pick whose career with the Panthers seemed over midway through his second year, finished hot, and then has been a total roller coaster this season and now has hit his highest point as we joke about it, but it is.

I mean, this is now we're post-Thanksgiving. This is money time.
And you've come up with a huge win and a huge statement and you are in the division race with two games against the Bucs still to come.

Like when we do the power rankings, like we talk about the Twilight Zone, stick a team at 13 and forget about them because you can't figure them out.

I'm telling you, I'm slotting the Panthers right there because I don't know what to make of them or the quarterback.

And that'd be a seven-spot jump for them from where they were heading into this weekend. It might be totally deserved.

Yeah, Bryce Young, to top off the roller coaster conversation, he is now the youngest player in NFL history with 11 game-winning drives. So he reached 11 game-winning drives.
What?

At the youngest point of any quarterback. The next closest player, Josh Allen, by like 30-something days.
And the next one is Peyton Manning. So he's in that

conversation.

One future Hall of Famer, one guy already in the hall. And on the other side of the...
Can you remember like even like eight of those?

How many of those 11 game-winning winning drives can anyone even recall i remember some of those wins down the stretch that got everybody excited again were of the exciting shootout variety but yeah to your point like they've kind of done a lot of this in the shadows because like last year they were out of contention while he was getting his groove back but now they're doing it when it really matters let's hear from some Rams.

For instance, so Jared Verse was one of a couple Rams that after the game said something along the lines of like, we didn't quite come into this game where we needed to be headspace-wise.

Sean McVay, though, shut that down.

Didn't think that we weren't not ready to go. Didn't think we took this group lightly.
You know, I don't believe that for a second. You know, this is the NFL.
This is too difficult.

They did a great job making plays and they made plays, you know.

I'm very like unsettled.

Like modern Sean McVay sound bites unsettle me. Like if you hook me up to like one of those like EKGs, you would see like spiking in my heart rate.

And like if you have like the pulsators on the side of my temples, like, oh, anxiety is building building because sean mcvey is speaking in a very hey you know i thought we were ready for this and i'm not too upset about we'll be ready this guy oh

it's intense stats are for losers

i don't know go ahead guys let while i recover from that

The Rims were not awful in this game either. I mean, they had like over seven yards per play.
They went four of six in the red zone. They put up 28 points.
Devontae Adams had two more touchdowns.

Kyron Williams leaves the game, banged up with an ankle injury.

He did return, but while he was out, Blake Corham was running wild and free, got in the end zone, broke off a 34-yard run on a play where Jordan Whittington just bodybagged a linebacker.

Like, the Rams are moving the ball, but the turnovers were the difference, and they couldn't stop the Panthers' run game. The Panthers were consistently in third and short,

moving the ball. Led by who? Just when you couldn't get any more confused by the Panthers? Yes.

Who was running the ball with great authority in this game? Chuba Hubbard was

a great today. The absolute master.
Just when your mind exploded because Rico Dowdle became OJ Simpson, you know, the old OJ Simpson, then he kind of disappears and becomes the Cowboys Rico Dowdle.

And now here's Chuba Hubbard back again, delivering a big performance in this game. 17 for 83 on the ground, 2 for 41, and a touchdown.
through the air. This team makes no sense.

Well, they gave Hubbard 18 carries, and I think Rico had 17.

I wonder if

that's going to be, if things will look a little different in terms of timeshare. And guess what? Like I mentioned, they get the Bucs twice.

They get the Saints next week. So it's all set up for them.
Now, here's the thing, Justin. They might lay an egg next week.

We need to be ready for Tyler Shuck to throw for 360 and four tutties, like I did against the kids on Thanksgiving. Like, we have to be ready for that.
But at the same time,

maybe they found it. Maybe this is who they are now.
They were on a three-game winning streak earlier this year before the win-loss, win-loss pattern started. So maybe they find that again.

And something they did find is Jalen Coker, the Cokeheads last year, were super excited about them.

He only had four catches in this game. I think all of them were for first downs, except for the one that went for a touchdown on fourth down.

He was Bryce Young's go-to guy, and he was great in this game. And really what allowed Bryce to be so good, I think.

I mean, not to take anything away from him, but it was that incredible run effort effort because it wasn't like they averaged a ton of yards per carry, but they were just like constantly three yards, four yards, five yards, three yards, five yards.

And it was uh, it was hard for Los Angeles to even possess the ball, let alone get off the field. I'll let other people be worried about the Rams, by the way.
Yeah, I'm not worried about the Rams.

I mean, you don't turn it over three times.

You run the Panthers out of the you could put up 40 if you didn't turn it over three times in the red zone.

So, all right, let's head to back to the AFC, where we had a huge division showdown in Justin's AFC South.

The Houston Texans, man.

0-3.

Left for dead.

Gravy was on Cloud 9. He's like, oh, you know, maybe they should fire D'Amico Rhines.

Ridiculous.

D'Amico Rines is a great coach of ball, and the Texans are back. They won their fourth in a row.

20 to 16

over the Colts. Once again, getting a big performance from their defense.

Shutting down the once unstoppable Colts

offense and getting a really solid, even if the box score doesn't

make it seem that way. Once CJ Stroud knocked the rust off in the first quarter, he played very well down the stretch in this game.
So the Texans, now they have their quarterback back.

Their defense is balling out,

and they are winning close games. They won another one.

And now, guess what?

They are just one game behind the Indianapolis Colts. Can you believe that? It happens quickly in our league.
So, yes, credit.

Credit the Texans and then the questions about the Colts are only going to build because Sauce Gardner goes out of this game with with what looked to be, and this is good news, it looked like a tour in Achilles to

the web doctors out there initially, but it's a calf strain. They think he could be back in a few weeks, and that's good.
But still, the Colts have a lot of problems as the Texans surge.

It's like

if you look at the Texans, my one thing about them, because we've not been enamored with their offense.

So that's a work in progress, but they've got something special.

And to Connor's point about the AFC sort of being like a roving nightmare, it's like something special might win you multiple playoff games, and their defense is special.

And the Colts, to me, feel like a team heading in the wrong direction. I think, Dan, you texted us.
I wrote this down.

Colts vibes not great, RN, right now. If you're a younger person, that's how you write right now.
But like

that's

true. It just feels kind of, and also, you know, Daniel Jones is back in a world where he's not fully healthy, obviously.

Yeah, that was the other big takeaway I had watching this game was that a report comes out that he's got a fibula injury, that's like lower leg, that

is actually

has a crack, he has like a break in the bone. And it's obviously, you could watch it in this game.
It limited his mobility throughout the game.

And when you're facing the Houston Texans, that's a terrible matchup because outside of maybe the Denver Broncos, nobody's getting after you more.

He was pressured on 64% of his drop backs, according to ESPN research. And whenever he was under duress, he could not evade.

He couldn't pick up those yards and scramble like he was doing earlier in the season. He was 2 for 11 under pressure, 1.3 yards per attempt, Conman, on those attempts, the second lowest of his career.

He didn't want to talk about it. He wouldn't even confirm that he has an injury after the game, Jones.
He's trying to sweep it under the rug, but the results spoke volumes in this game.

And it was Houston not just sending pressure, but maybe sometimes even just getting there with four guys, and then they had enough to take away Jones's first or second reads.

Like Al Shair was really good before, I know he got banged up in this game, but early on, especially just being there and getting in those passing lanes.

And it just goes back to what Daniel Jones showed as a Giants quarterback, which is when you muddy the picture to a certain point and then you take away his legs.

And I guess this is true of most quarterbacks, he becomes super ineffective. And this is just kind of the worst case scenario for him right now.

I want to talk about a sequence in the game that was ⁇ if I didn't talk about it, Colts fans would be furious. But this game is tied 13-13

early in the fourth quarter. And it's a third and 15

that the Texans are facing. The play clock ticks down to zero.
And I mean zero-0.

Like the zero where there's another beat, another second, because they'll let you typically get it off even after zero. But this one lasted longer than that.
They let the play go.

it's an incomplete pass, but they throw a flag as well. The officials, a bad flag, a phantom DPI.
So they call pass interference.

They blow the play clock call, even though the referee Clay Martin told the pool reporter afterwards that it kind of fell within where I guess the judgment call was. But no, no, no, that had told.

So it should have been a shutdown play. They let the play go, then they blow the DPI call, set them up first down and 10 deep in Colts territory.
The Colts go in for a touchdown.

And then to top it off, the hat trick of dysfunction for the officiating,

Kayami Fairbairn steps up. He pushes the kick wide right to the, again, to the naked eye, it looks wide right.
The announcers call it wide right. They call it good.

And that becomes a huge situation because instead of being 1913, as it should have been, that ball was not good. It's 2013.
The Colts kick a field goal to make it 2016. and then they have a chance.

If it was 1916, like it should have been, they could have tied the game late, but they couldn't, so they had to go for it. They fail on fourth down, game over.

Just very, very messy operation by the officiating that played a big role in the win for the Texans. You described that really well.
It's almost as if why are humans doing this?

Or why are like accountants who work half the year as accountants and lift weights to look hot on the field in a striped jersey, why are they doing this versus just like this, that especially, like when they bring in the rules analyst he's like well you know when the ball goes over the upright it is no longer challengeable it's like what the f are you talking about

what are you talking about who like what kind of you think you tell us that and then it's like oh okay all right well that makes sense no and like i know they've already extended the uprights uh about five or ten years ago because kickers got more power for all that shit to be able to help you with that uh we need to do something else because that was a huge huge play in the game i i'll also add because now uh, the other side is going to say the Colts were the benefit of another Phantom DPI in the first half that led to a touchdown for them.

But anyway, I don't want to get bogged down at all this stuff, but yes, the Colts offense has lost its mojo, it's lost its way, and with Jones beat up, the Texans look like the best team on the field.

And you know, with all due respect to the Jaguars, who we'll get to, I think, the best team in the division.

The uh, after the game, Tony Dungy said that the NFL was in crisis and that someone needed to stop all these bad PI calls.

And I just want to say, like, do you have any idea how bad things need to be when Tony Dungy, who is like the nicest person on planet Earth and never has a bad thing to say about the NFL, says that there's an officiating crisis?

I'm just like, we have reached the looking glass. Yeah, we'll get.
Yeah, we'll get to that NBC pregame show a little bit later.

I mean, there's a lot going on over there. I mean, every day, like I sit down on Sunday nights after a long day of games, it's like, why is Jason Garrett like talking at me for 60 straight minutes?

It's like, he's in every segment. Jason Garrett.
And why was he talking to me for three and a half hours on

the holiday weekend? Because Collins is like, I ain't doing this shit. Sent to Rico and whoever the f ⁇ .

That's called having juice, Mark. Oh, yeah.
In a couple of years, maybe we'll have it and we'll disappear for certain recaps and things of that nature.

Right, but that doesn't mean that I'll produce Jason Garrett for the listening audience. Like, that's, I'll be kinder.

All right. Anything else on this game, boys?

We want to hear from somebody? Let's hear from somebody. Let's hear from

Shane Steichen about his team in crisis. You lose these tight games.
Sometimes you win the tight games, but when you lose tight games, it's frustrating.

You're like, shoot, we could have had that. We could have this.
Do you speed this up just back? It's three or four plays when you lose the tight one. He's a micro machine.

So we got to find a way to get those three or four plays when it is a tight game like that. Easy.

If you slow him down to like three quarters,

if you slow him down to like 0.75 on YouTube, he is indistinguishable from Jimmy Stewart and It's a Wonderful Life, the Christmas movie.

And it is one of the most mind-blowing things that you could do with your free time. The Texans have won four straight, all four one-score games.
Maybe something's happening down in Houston.

All right, let's move to Tampa where the Bucs were looking to get off the mat with their quarterback on oh hey now who locked it up i did baby so you and that's a sweep for us

and with the added the added challenge of we had to pick a road team did we get four underdogs too

uh three bills were favorite i think we had three underdogs oh way to go mark way to play it safe sest dog oh dude well you know what no one who did you pick two weeks ago no one remembers like just keep rolling baby that was a daring pick you go into pittsburgh that was that took guts connor locked the bears by the ass connor what was that connor locked the bears by the way

did you

i can't remember if i did or not but i remember text before you moved on so that was pretty good for me justin that's pretty good didn't we talk about there we had to have a penalty for justin when he forgot to

i believe we did i don't know if we came up with maybe go down to the old sessler hollywood dungeon for get him in the gimp costume, lash him for a while.

I think that's what I don't want to be part of

that dungeon.

Bring out the gimp.

The rule change is putting Justin in the GIMP costume from Pulp Fiction that Mark definitely owns.

Put him in the trunk for six hours, bring him out. All right.

Let's head to Tampa.

Sounds just like that Stevie Nixon. If you know, you know.

The Bucs got Baker Mayfield on the field. Bad wing and all.

And that makes a big difference.

Baker went 18 for 28. Buck 94 and a touch.
Bucky Irving back on the field. Made it happen, scored a touchdown himself.

And Tampa Bay was able to hold off a late comeback attempt by Jake Brisket, Jacoby Brissette, who had another 300-yard gain. Bucs 20, Cardinals 17.

The Bucs all of a sudden are now fighting for their lives atop the NFC South.

Will remain there for another week. Mark,

what'd you see in this one? I think I told you guys that, you know, I was having a great day. It's been a couple weeks in a row on Sundays watching these games.

The Bucs were the one thing going into all this that made me a little sad because they were one of my favorite visual elements of the season. I really loved today.
I thought it was an ugly win.

It just was simply the definition of like, eke this thing out. But I wanted to see how Baker Mayfield looked physically because we've all talked about it.

When he had a non-throwing shoulder injury a couple of years ago, it ended his... you know, career in Cleveland.
I thought he looked good, man. He made a couple like great throws.
He ran.

He wasn't afraid to run the ball.

It's also a team that has dealt with so much, and you mentioned it, to get Bucky Irvin back, who had, it wasn't like the full workload for Bucky Irvin in terms of what I think where he'll be in a couple of weeks, but he looked like himself.

Chris Godwin was back and made, he dropped an

end zone, a pass in the end zone. But other than that, he made a couple key throws.
That's a huge addition to their offense. So it's like, all right, you're hanging around.
You're still here.

The Cardinals just did Cardinals things. They got a lot out of Trey McBride, who is absolutely awesome.

There was a Michael Wilson, who we've talked about week after week.

One of the key moments of the game was that Michael Wilson was stopped on a big fourth and two on an incompletion that really kind of ended the game. But it was just one of those like slug fests.

And I think the Bucs kind of saved their season. This would have been an ugly, awful loss when you compared what happened to the Panthers.
And

it was another example for me of Baker Mayfield like refusing to be sat down, playing through injury, playing hurt, doing Baker Mayfield things and willing the Bucs to victory.

It was a very 2025 Tampa Bay signature type of game.

Yeah, and if you look at it now, Godwin had been back, but he's starting to look more like Chris Godwin now. You get Bucky Irving back.

Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan, we don't know what their future is, but their 21-day practice windows are opening soon. So they're getting closer to healthy,

and

maybe with one of the easier schedules in the league, they can settle this down even as the division starts to tighten up.

I mean, but it is, it's good to hear what you said about Baker still looking like Baker, because I think that was one of the things that were so frustrating about when he had the same injury with Cleveland when he clearly wasn't himself, and their dumb front office couldn't see that that was the reason why that was happening.

Maybe this is a less serious injury compared to that one, but an important win for the Bucs, especially with what's happening right now with the Panthers. It was, and they had one.

We have some sound on this, but Tristan Wurfs had the classic big man touchdown. And

Baker spoke about it after the game. Nice.
We'll throw it to that.

I think he was more nervous. He hadn't really been bugging it.
If it was Luke, Luke would have been begging for it.

Very different individuals there. But yeah, he did a great job.
I couldn't see where Buddha Baker was on the backside, so kind of had to put a little mustard on it.

But he's a good athlete, made a good catch.

And am I crazy, Connor, or is every single

Cardinals game exactly the same now? Like for the last like six weeks, they're going to get a big statistical performance from the quarterback in place of Kyler Murray.

They're going to get exactly like seven catches for 88 yards and a touchdown from the star tight end.

And they're they're going to get close to winning, but don't win every game just about.

It's Groundhog Day. Right down to, I think it was like the same down and distance on the fourth down that they game ended on for the Cardinals.
So it was very. Right, it's like when

Truman starts, you know, the satellite thing falls out of the sky and he starts to look around and starts to piece it together in Truman show. I wonder at what point

they're going to start doing the same thing. Like Cardinals fans, like, it's pretty, this feels like a simulation at this point they out gain their

every game they out gain their opponent and it doesn't matter they out gain the bucks by over a hundred yards of this game sese and it didn't matter well and and jacoby brissette who is just he's sort of the same quarterback every game too but he had one throw um a touchdown throw to Bam Knight where he did something with his arm that was just really unusual and incredible and unfurled it in a way that was like not a lot of quarterbacks are doing that on a weekly basis.

So you're absolutely right. Like,

I mentioned Trey McBride, like, they've got these parts and these pieces, and it's just not equating to wins.

And we're, because we keep watching the same game, we're saying the same exact thing every time. There's nothing else to say about them because it is the same thing.

Man, there are a lot of pieces on this team. You know, what's missing here? Maybe it's the coaching.
It's like, can we just, this is a team we need to. We got to get to Sugarland.

What is it, Candyland? Well, exiting Candyland. We're going to keep that.

Put them in the express lane to Candyland.

And let's change the identity of that squad while keeping some of the core players. All right, let's take a break, and we will be back with more of the Sunday football schedule.

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

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

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

All right, we are back.

Oh, baby,

the New York Jets.

Don't count out those New York Jets. It's a weird year.
Who knows? Anything can happen.

To the Metal.

I mean, I think there's some things we can count them out from, but sure.

To the Meadowlands.

Yes, the Jets are not good.

And I don't know if the coach is good either. But they do play hard.
They do play hard for Aaron Glenn. And you saw that again.

against the Atlanta Falcons who came into the Meadowlands, had a seven-point lead on the Jets after a fourth quarter touchdown, but but the Jets fight back.

Tyrod Taylor continues to play a, I'll tell you this, is just like a straight fan.

A very boring overall, but efficient

brand of football. And then he'll sprinkle in like, oh, that was exciting.
Like his touchdown scramble that pulled the Jets even in the fourth quarter. It all ended up and ended with a Nick Folk bomb.

from 54 in the rain, a 27 to 24 victory for the Jets over the Falcons. I'm just kidding.
The Jets are 3-9. They're not going anywhere.
But they certainly have gotten off the mat after their 0-7 start.

And the Falcons, like the Cardinals, it's freaking groundhog day

over there. So,

yeah,

the Jets, you know, they, I'll give this to the Jets, and it wasn't perfect because Bijan Robinson was the first skill player since the Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner trade to really trash the Jets.

He goes 23 for 142 on the ground and a touchdown, five for 51 through the air.

He's only good against the Jets, Kyle Pitts.

He goes seven for 82 in this game, but they were able to stiffen up late in this game, get a couple big stops and set the stage for folks so the Jets find a way. How about A.D.
Mitchell?

All right, let's talk about A.D. Mitchell.
On the day that Sauce Gardner goes down with that calf injury,

Sauce Gardner, who was traded to the Colts in exchange for two two first-round picks. A.D.
Mitchell was the throw-in. What if I told you A.D.

Mitchell today went over 100 yards receiving with a touchdown, and it was the first 100-yard receiving game for a jet all season?

And he has been very solid for them, and he's starting to look like a little bit more than a throw-in. I'm not going to go crazy about it, but both him and Mechie.

Mechie had a tough game today, but have shown some things and are making a case to be part of their rotation going forward.

I just continue to track the improvement in this Falcons first-round pick that is now going to one of the best teams in the NFL.

And it is becoming more and more distressing with me by the week that the Rams are going to pick like number eight next year. And that's just so f ⁇ ed up.
And they absolutely shouldn't do that.

But here we are. Yeah, that's the decision that they made.
Kirk Cousins played okay in this game, especially for Kirk Cousins.

If you're curious, I don't know how curious you are, but the Jets did have a turnover, their second of the season, on a muffed punt that led to their first touchdown, but they did not have an interception.

We still do not have an interception as we reach December. And I'm now, I have to be honest with you, I'm rooting for it now.
Yeah. Why not? You got to.
Why not us? That's what I say.

Let's give the last word on this game to Aaron Glenn, who, again, I don't know about Aaron Glenn. Can't quite figure him out.
Don't know whether he should be part of of the future.

He's definitely with these three wins and

a six-week stretch. He's going to get a second year on the job, and he probably should.
But he has these invisible monsters that make me concerned.

Here's Glenn after the game. These guys never quit, and they get bashed.

Everybody on this team gets bashed for everything.

And it's okay. We know exactly what we're trying to do.

And we're going to continue to just block out all the noise and keep our focus straight ahead on that vision that we got and what we're trying to be as a team.

I mean, what is he talking about, Connor?

All these guys do is get bashed? I mean, Aaron Glenn's been getting bashed pretty good in his first year. But you tell me, you're in the market.

Are all the Jets players getting constantly bashed this year?

I wish he would just

tune out the background noise because the job, being the coach of the f ⁇ ing New York Jets is hard enough to have all that noise turned up so loud.

And I I think that's one of the first things he needs to work on when he does his own self-reflection report card at the end of the year.

I had this argument once with the Giants player, a fairly prominent Giants player, who was like, all you guys do is bash us. And I was like, you have no idea what you're talking about.

You clearly don't read anything we write. And by the way, we're judged on how well our articles perform and they perform way f ⁇ ing better when you're winning.

And so it's just like, we want, kind of want you to win. Like, winning is good.
It means more people are reading our stuff. It's like, my God,

this idea that the New York market were just slaughtering everyone on a weekly basis is so ridiculous. You know, it probably is because I obviously read everything around the Jets in that market.

And Zach Rosenblatt for The Athletic had a good idea for like a twin piece, which was like, here are the things to feel optimistic about, about Glenn and the Jets moving forward.

And then he wrote a sister article, here's what to be concerned about about Aaron Glenn and whether he's the right guy.

That was just still ringing in Glenn's ears because he read every word of that piece and maybe six times.

You people with the pens, you have power, Connor, over these guys.

And they don't like that. They don't like that.
Imagine you have power over them. Imagine Aaron Glenn creating a straw man.

There's like so much.

There's like so much. There's so much heat, Connor.
Like, and I'm not. pointing out like your stature because none of us look like we could match up with like a Robert Sala or or an Aaron Glenn even.

But like, I think that's what really bothers them.

It's like, you little shit, you're, you're making my life miserable and there's nothing I could do about it because I can't kill you and I can't tackle you hard and I can't, I can't like throw you in an alley into a garbage can and I just have to deal with it.

This is like, it's kind of dark, but I was like, I wrote something once and I was like ripping an owner and I just turned to my wife and I was like, what's to stop him from completely waxing me off the face of the earth and like no one would like in two weeks they'd be like, Oh, yeah, who covers the NFL for Sports Illustrated?

Like, no one would know, and it would be so easy for them to do that. Like, I don't know why they haven't done it yet.
I don't know, but you know, throw in Connor's wardrobe, that's an added factor.

We got to get that guy out of the locker room. So, I love that.
Who was it that pulled you aside?

Justin Tuck, yeah, Justin Tuck's like, Man, you know why people don't take you seriously? Look at your ass.

And I love that, like, my move was to go to HM, which I thought was kind of the place. It's cute, yeah, but it wasn't adorable.
I mean, better stores existed at that point in time.

I think you're honestly like a fashion icon of our industry. You don't give a shit.
You like what you like.

And you are the new, you're like the parcels.

I don't know if I agree, but I get where you're.

Well, Mark, you look like you're going to a dinner function with the Queen of England today. I know.

Can I, as a quick aside, like,

I don't like to bring up issues that I'm dealing with during the show, but I live on Long Hollywood Boulevard. Tonight is the Hollywood Christmas Parade.
Yeah.

And it's like seven, and you, and Dan, remember, I, this has happened each, each year at this time. Like, um, it is like 7,000 people on instruments and kazoos.

What does that have to do with what we're talking about here? Because I can't, I can barely hear anything. I'm glad it's not being brought up on mic, but you're so dressed up today.

Like, you're like one monocle short of like the

holiday right now. It's the holiday Christmas parade.
So, of course, that's what I'm saying. I got dressed up to celebrate in my own way.
I can't be there, but I'll just be going down there.

Sure, absolutely. All right,

let's move on. Let's head to Miami, where the Dolphins are trying to make Connor proud.
You want to talk about a Connor cause? This is a Connor cause.

Go ahead, Justin.

Say it!

Micket Fitzpatrick recovered a fumble and had an interception.

And the Dolphins continued to win, beating Tyler Shuck and the Saints 21-17 for the third straight victory. Remember, they beat the Bills three weeks ago, beat the Commanders in Spain.

Now they take care of the woe-begone Saints, a little take-care of business game.

And their playoff hopes, while faint, are alive just as Connor had promised. Mark, you watch this game.
I'm sorry to hear that.

Yeah, it was a bit of a chore.

They're one game behind the Chiefs in terms of record. It's kind of wild.
And it's like, I think the story with Miami is like, are we saving the coach's job?

We've talked about that, but they're five and seven.

Devon A-Chan, like, he's having a season. Like, he ran the ball really well today, 134 yards and a touchdown.
He's great this year.

He's been, whether you're like a fantasy football enthusiast or you just want to watch good football, he has been the centerpiece of their offense. He's been really, really good.

And it continued today.

Their run defense has improved.

Those two things have changed what they are right now. And it was another game that ended with their defense making a stop on Tyler Shuck

on a fourth and one, and they stopped him on a sneak to end the game. And it was a test.

It was another, I watched two very ugly games today, but this was another moment for the Dolphins where you're hanging around record-wise, and it wasn't anything special.

I think just the defense, which was absolutely, you know, from a DVOA, EPA angle, like one of the worst in the league, has made plays in the last couple of weeks.

And I get that that's not happening against the 89 Niners against with today's Saints, but they got the job done and they fended off

an incredible performance by Charlie Smith, the Irish kicker signed during the week by the Saints, who had

an incredible 56-yard field goal, then a converted onside kick at the end of the game. And it was his first NFL game.
Those are two hard things to do in your life. I saw some

social media reaction to that. There's some shots from the pub in the village where Charlie grew up, just madness.
Like after hitting a field goal to

trim the lead from double digits or something. But in that village, it was like the greatest thing that's ever happened on an American football field.
It was pretty cool. We love that village.

It's a wonderful place.

But yeah, no, he did it. It was like, wow, they found someone.
And there's also like Devon Veyte, like, was it, they just, they've got some players, the Saints, but

it feels like it's going to be a long way to go. Yeah.
They literally, they do have players. That is absolutely true.
What's the biblical line?

The line from the Bible is like, what? I must decrease and he must increase.

And in this case, for the Dolphins, it's like Tua must just completely be vanished off the face of the earth and A-chan to just have the ball in his hands at any singular moment.

But if you look at their turnaround,

it matches up.

almost completely with Tua never again throwing more than 22 passes in a game. Like he used to have like 32, 40, 36, 34, 32 attempts in a game.

And now he just doesn't drop back and throw the ball anymore. The ball is in A-chan's hands 20 plus times a game.
It is the formula, and it's what Mike McDaniel's writing to the finish.

I respect him for doing that.

Anything else from this one, Mark? Well, you mentioned like the Minka Fitzpatrick performance. Like

this is, we don't see this, but it was a two-point conversion attempt by the Saints with like a minute and 17 seconds left. And Fitzpatrick picks it off and runs the distance.
Like, I don't know.

I love seeing stuff like that. It was kind kind of wild.
I mean, it also ended, it completely ended the Saints' hopes to some degree, but he's been good there. Like,

he's done a nice job. But I don't know, keep going, Dolphins.
No, keep going. No, no, no, no, no.
Yeah.

We do not need the Dolphins anywhere near the playoff picture. Yeah.

No, we don't.

Can we have honest conversations here?

We're in a world with like 12 berserkers and they're a berserker. Who would we want in the playoffs?

Josh Allen,

Joe Burrow, or Tua Tunga Vailoa. I'm not picking any of those guys, but right now we have Daniel Jones.
Okay, we have CJ Stroud.

Like, we have bad, there's, you know, uninteresting quarterbacks are everywhere. Give me a team that's just weird, right?

Do not, please do not waste my time by sending a bad Miami team to its death, to its execution death in a cold weather stadium in the first round of the playoffs.

These games, these games are a

valuable natural resource, Connor. You can't honestly tell me that you want this Dolphins team to finish in the playoffs.
I think he does. I'm just, well, I want them there because

I'm just laying the groundwork for it, and it's like a fun bit for me. But look at every single one of these other teams.

The Patriots are going to lose probably in the first round, the first game that they play in the playoffs because they're actually going to face a team with a winning record.

The Broncos with Bo Knicks are so unreliable. The Jaguars.

The Jaguars are only the third best team in the AFC right now. The Jaguars.
I know, but just don't, just don't do this to me. How is that any different from the Dolphins? Is what I'm asking you.

Like, how is that? The entire AFC is the Dolphins right now.

Well, we've seen it with Miami. I'd say that, to Dan's point.
And by the way, I would never judge because I love to lean into a good bit on the show.

I just want to make sure we're all on the same page that that would not be a good thing. I mean, nothing in the AFC is a good thing.
That's the point I'm trying to make.

This whole thing is not a good thing.

None of it. I don't want them to fire the coach and hire Mike McCarthy.
That's probably where I'm coming from. Like, keep one of the more interesting verbalists around at head coach.

That would be my driving

concern. All right.

I don't even believe that. What do you mean you don't believe it? I just said it.
Yeah.

Like, you're like, you're like, you, you lay in bed at night being like, oh, I hope the dolphins win again this weekend. I need Mike McDaniel.

No, it's more just, I don't need, I don't need the other people.

I'm just saying, can we not pretend to give a shit about about the Dolphins on the show? Is that

I give a shit. No,

Connor gets a pass. But, Mark, I'm not going to let you do this.

I must. I must.
Please don't pretend to care about the Dolphins because I know you don't care about them. I must change.

Let's check out

that footage, by the way.

This is a pub

in Mayo Bridge. It's a village within County Down in Northern Ireland.

In the 2011 census, there were 1,069

residents of this village. And this guy, Charlie Smyth, just piped one from 56

and successfully executed an on-side kick, which is like harder to do than to land on the moon in the modern NFL landscape. This is what was happening in that tiny village pub.

I love it.

By the way, this was this was. Oh, here it is.

That was a kick with 6-10 to play in the fourth quarter and the Saints down 19-8. You got to love it.

Shout out to all our

Irish and Northern Ireland.

Well, it's Ireland and Northern Ireland. Shout out to everybody.

They don't do pubs in the dark out there. That's what I like too.
It's like you turn the lights on and you drink in the daytime. Absolutely.

All right, let's move on. Oh, what a bloodbath in Seattle.
My goodness.

Holy shit.

Poor Max Brazmer. They send that guy to Seattle

and say, go.

Go save us with J.J. McCarthy in hiding in the concussion protocol.
And he goes 19 for 30 for a buck 26 and four touchdowns, well, excuse me, four interceptions.

And

I would call it a Levisonian

pick six

that set the tone for a 26-0 Seahawks victory. The Seahawks

paired with the Rams loss, pull into a first-place tie in the NFC West at 9-3 that the Vikings are done for

at 4-8.

Connor.

Baby boy, this one. I had eyes on this one.
This is one of the crazier ass kickings that I've seen in some time. It was weird, right? Because

Seattle played really well defensively. And Brosmer, if you thought J.J.
McCarthy had like an outlier, horrendous QB performance, he was somehow worse. And expectedly so, right? He couldn't beat J.J.

McCarthy out in the preseason, so he's not as good as him. But

Sam Darnold was also really bad. I mean, Brian Flores had his number going into the playoffs.
He was all over him. I think he dropped them four times.

They were batting down a ton of his balls, like really kind of got to Darnold and bothered him.

And so I thought it was kind of an interesting game there where it was 26-0, but also like both quarterbacks were really bad.

And both quarterbacks are kind of getting their ass kicked in different ways. Yeah, you know what? I think what I mean by that, because you're right.

And Minnesota's defense deserves a lot of credit because the offense, it's been a long time since I've seen an offense look that hopeless. Like the

pick six,

which if you didn't see it, go check it out. Who had it? I want to give the shout out to the right player.
It was Ernest Jones. Ernest Jones.

It's a fourth and short in the red zone. This was after a turnover by Darnold, a lost fumble, gave the Vikings the ball in the red zone.
That would be their best chance to score. It's fourth and one.

And I'm saying to myself, it's 3-0 Seahawks at this time. I'm like, kick the field goal.
Just kick it. Just kick the field goal, man.
Just take points.

Like, get yourself feeling pretty good about things. And then maybe you could build on it.
But they decide to go for it.

They go with this kind of bootleg play action thing that is doomed from the start. And Brosmer tries to just flick the ball away, but this is the NFL, and that ain't working.

So it's snatched on the run by Jones running toward the ball.

And he goes easy, 85 yards. But like to see how outclassed Minnesota was on offense, this team that has Justin Jefferson,

it was just, it was startling. And I think, I guess my takeaway from this, Connor, was like, I was talking about, is this the lowest moment for the Mike Tomlin era?

This has to be the lowest point of the Adofa Mensa Kevin O'Connell era, just because like the just the complete ineptitude.

of the offensive game plan and where they stand and where they were a year ago at this time.

Yeah, so I have a thought on that, but I want to credit first, I think it was, was it, this is a Joe Davis Olson game? I just couldn't remember who was the broadcaster on this.

It was, it was Joe Davis. On that pick, after he throws the ball and Ernest Jones picks it off, Joe Davis just goes, oh, no.

And it was like the best, like, it was just the funniest thing. And it had me just cackling.
It was great.

But I think what has happened is either Kevin O'Connell believed too much in his own ability to be a quarterback whisperer or his GM believed too much in the coach's ability to be a quarterback whisperer.

And I think this is the season, guys, that we can put that idea to rest. Because what is Sean McVay's greatest claim to fame as a quarterback whisperer? I got Baker Mayfield ready on two nights.

That was still Baker Mayfield. It was a good quarterback.
No one is taking Max Brosmer and making him a quality NFL starter.

No one's reviving the Frankenstein body of Carson Wentz and making him an NFL starter. We saw what you cannot do.
And Minnesota is giving us a play-by-play of that throughout the season.

Got him quarterback.

That's well said. Like, I think if you're Kevin O'Connell, the other, beyond the quarterback, whispering part of why you were hired, like, you've got to keep this team intact through a disaster.

Like, this is a disaster.

And, you know, Justin Jefferson, what, two receptions for four yards today? It feels like the fourth or fifth week in a row where he looks like he's just sucked on a lemon.

He looks super annoyed by the end of the game. And I get it, but you got to keep all that intact and find a way to get to a productive offseason.

Because, to your point, Dan, like the gloom isn't today, today specifically is the lowest point because you put in a non-quarterback against a really good defense and everything went the way you kind of would think it went, would go on offense.

But it's like the gloom is the fact that I don't even know if the quarterback who's injured is a real quarterback. And it's like, what do you do with that organizationally?

It's a tough, they're in a corner. Yeah, they are, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

I tweeted during the game that they deserve every bit of shame about how misguided

they were about their roster and how they misjudged it at the game's most important

position.

And I even went back and checked again, and I said, okay, they went into training camp with McCarthy, Brett Rippen, Sam Howell, Brosmer, brought in Carson Wentz after Howell flunked his audition to to be the backup.

Then the trade deadline came. They didn't do anything at the deadline.

And now they find themselves in this really kind of a humiliating place for a team that prides itself on what they're able to do offensively. And I just wonder, like, what happens next?

And this season is now lost, obviously. So

you've already kind of hit rock bottom with this game.

Let's see. After the game, KOC said, we don't know.
He's still in concussion protocol, J.J. McCarthy.
He's going to come out of it.

I guess you're just going to continue to play McCarthy now to the finish line and then make an assessment. But the way they're set up, and there is a little bit, one thing I just want to get out there

in my replies, for instance, there's a lot of Vikings fans that are pissed.

They're like, no, people don't have this right because we wanted, we did make an offer to Sam Darnold, and Sam Darnold chose to go somewhere else.

And we wanted Daniel Jones back, but he took less money to go to the Colts. Like they had in the Aaron Rodgers thing.
They just didn't want Aaron Rodgers.

But like, part of this was, I think, Connor, if I had to like read the tea leaves on this, part of this was Daniel Jones probably would have stayed, but it was very clear that they were saying J.J.

McCarthy is our future, whereas he smartly, Daniel Jones, said, Anthony Richardson, I could beat that guy out.

They knew that they had really invested in McCarthy in Minnesota, and he had to make a judgment call, and it looks like it worked out pretty well for him. So get rid of all that stuff.

They just botched the situation. And how long is it going to take Minnesota to dig out of this?

That's like in the time in this Vikings era of football, the last 20 years of Vikings football, I don't remember a more kind of uncertain time for them.

And it's all because of this total lack of stability at the most important position. And if you look at their behavior

in free agency and in sort of the corrective ways that they built up certain position groups in the offseason, this was a short runway to a build to try to be a Super Bowl team.

It was this year and it was next year. It was like, hey, we're going to do the Jaden Daniels thing.
We're going to do the Commanders thing. We're going to do the Seahawks Legion of Boom thing.

Like, we're going to be here in two years. That's why you go out and you spend whatever it was, $300 million this offseason like the Vikings did.

I think if you're Kevin O'Connell, the only solution at this point, and you hate to say it this early on, but is like, you have to do the Shanahan thing.

You just have to pull the plug before it becomes, it takes on a life of its own. You have to start next season with legitimate competition.

And I think the one thing he has going for him that can correct a lot of these ills is that a lot of quarterbacks would want to play for him still. And to Mark's point.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry.

And to Mark's point, which is a good one, you also have to manage this Justin Jefferson situation. This is the best wide receiver in the sport.

He's an all-time level player in terms of how he started his career. Like you have to, like, how do we survive this situation without that guy saying, I want to get out of here?

Like, it, and how do you, yeah, manage the salary cap going forward and get younger when obviously your franchise is on a different track than you thought they were? There's just a lot.

There's a lot to figure out.

And we'll see how they all, how it goes. On the other side, one last thing, Connor, like Darnold does, if I was a Seahawks fan, I'd be a little worried about Darnold, like in a big spot.

Yeah.

I mean, again, I think that the, I hate to call it a blueprint because it's like when we used to say that about Tom Brady, and I'm not equating them as players, but it's like, oh, yeah, you just got to hit Tom Brady.

It's It's like, well, yeah, no shit. It's just really hard to do it because he gets rid of the ball fast.
With Darnold, the way that their offense works, it's a little easier to get to him.

And I think that we've seen a couple different avenues where teams can find success, cutting some of those early reads, the quick game stuff, and then bringing some of those organic pressures that we've seen over the last few weeks, especially.

So, yeah,

I'm a little bit worried. There's a lot of tape on Darnold now that doesn't look awesome.
All right, let's take a break and we'll finish out the Sunday slate.

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All right, we are back. Let's head to Nashville.
Things are looking good for that number one overall pick, Gravy.

I don't know. I'm trying to stay positive.

And for the Jaguars,

they're like, you, all right, you guys finally admitted about the Chicago Bears. How about us?

Hmm. Trevor Lawrence threw for 229 yards, two touchdowns.
The Jaguars

jog past the Tennessee Titans 25-3 Sunday. Third straight victory with the win.

The Jags strengthening their hold on a playoff spot, and they're atop the AFC South just like that with two games left against the Colts

who are tied. They're both 8-4 in the division.
All right, Justin. The Jaguars, should we be taking them seriously? I know that's hard.

When you're going against a 1-11 team, you don't never want to make too many judgments. But what are you seeing from the Jaguars right now that would have Jags fans optimistic?

I mean, I was about to say I wasn't that impressed with them. I think the Titans are just really, really, really bad.

And I was actually disappointed with like, I thought Jacksonville was going to come into this game the way they've been playing recently and run it down Tennessee's throat.

And they struggled to run the ball today. It didn't matter.
Etn 12 for 28. Tootin, 8 for 17.
Like, they did not have space. Etn's longest run, six yards.
Like, Titans' run defense stepped up.

However, Trevor Lawrence was pretty good today, and he was not that great. The last two games I've been talking about it, he was good today.

He had two touchdowns by halftime. The Jags had a back-to-back possession situation where the Titans fumbled the kickoff on the second, what would have been their second possession.

So you blink in this game, and Jacksonville's up 15 to 3 because there was a penalty on the point after try, and it led to an easy, shorter, two-point conversion.

so Jacksonville goes up really early and from 15 to 3 they sort of put it in cruise control they didn't really have to score much more they did obviously score 10 more points but yeah I mean this was a game where the Titans offense just couldn't get out of their own way it was either a sack or a penalty or a miss throw Cam Ward I think took a step back from his excellent game last week and looked a lot more like a rookie in a terrible environment today he made enough mistakes of his own but without Trayvon Walker on the field Josh Hines Allen was a wrecking machine.

And that was good to see if you're Jacksonville because those two guys did a lot of great work together. And even without Walker, Heinz-Allen was still a dominant force.
It does seem like

if you're a Jaguars fan,

like the Jacoby Myers trade has fit. It works.

I think he was a better player than advertised

with the Raiders, and

he works here.

Liam Cohen, this offense since like the week eight, since their buy in week eight, is averaging more than than 30 points per game. So, why did you bring him there?

And that's all happening without the conversation around Trevor Lawrence not being

completely what we'd want. Like, he's obviously sort of like maybe a B-min versus like an A-minus quarterback.

And I don't know, it's like they're, I don't, I, they're the next team that you said, Dan, like the Bears, where it's like, I don't know if they need to have a kind of win for me to buy into them, like a certain type of victory.

It's like, I'm sold on this versus the fact that the entire conference is a little little middle of the road. I'm with you on that one.

And the good news for Trevor Lawrence, also in this game, coming off another one of his up-and-down performances where he had four turnovers, no interceptions in this game.

First time he didn't throw an interception in a game since October 19th. Let's go to Cleveland.

Another

fun place to watch a home game.

No,

not really.

Hey, Miles Garrett got got a sack. That's good.

Give the sack record. It's dignity.
I want to get my sack back. He's got 19 now

with five to play. But otherwise, this was a game about the San Francisco 49ers who get a two-touchdown day from Brock Purdy, who also overcame his turnover woes of a week earlier.

He had a scramble on that toe,

surgically repaired toe. Did he get surgery? I don't know.
It was a banged up toe.

He did the Dougie afterwards. I didn't know the Dougie was still a thing.

Teach me how to Dougie. That was like a thing from the aughts.
Surprises me. But he did.
People liked it. And the 49ers cruised to a 26-8 win over Shadur

Sanders and the Cleveland Browns. Connor, what happened in this one that we should care about?

Well, do we care about Shadur Sanders or not? Go ahead.

His second start in the NFL.

So he has like, I think it's like 80% of the Browns' throws of like 30-plus yards. And one of them was a touchdown to Harold Fannin today.
I think a little less measured.

I thought he was able to do a little bit more within this offense.

By the time,

again, it's like they're taking the ball out of his hands in critical situations. I think it was something like 10 to 8.
And then they had the Harold Fannin QB sneak.

They had Fannin in to basically run like a version of the tush push. Then there's a fumble.

And then it's just like 20 unanswered points for the 49ers, and you never kind of hear from this offense again. So it's kind of an incomplete for Sanders,

but

there were some good moments in this game. Some overthrows, some kind of, you know, crazy, still drifting a lot, but some good moments.
He's all right.

I would ask you, like, from like the Brock Purdy coming off a bad game last week.

And he, the last time he went to Cleveland, which was a couple of years ago,

it was windy, bad weather, I believe raining, and it kind of revealed him to be that, not that type of weather quarterback. It was pretty, I think there were 50 mile per hour wins today in Cleveland.

Like, Purdy, what did you see from him? Because I thought he at least looked clean in terms of the box score.

Yeah, I mean, he looked all right, and he didn't take any of the killer sacks.

And the 49ers defense is on such a heater right now that, and I know it's, it's, it's crazy to say it, but we said it about Jalen Hurts earlier in the season.

We can say it about Aaron Rodgers earlier in the season. When your defense is playing that well, it's almost just take yourself out of it.
Don't turn the ball over, extend drives.

Like what they've average, they've given up 17 points over the last two weeks. And so I think it's one of those things where he's just, he's doing just enough.

And he's not letting the wind, he's not letting the weather, he's not letting Miles Garrett lose the game for them.

And I think that that's kind of all you can ask for out of Brock Birdie at this point.

Great quote from George Kittle afterwards that I think encapsulates where the 49ers have been this season and where they could be going down the stretch. Let's listen in.

Looking from the outside in, if people would have said, hey, you guys are going to be 9-4 going into the buy and you're not going to have Fred Warner or Nick Bosa and Kittle's going to miss the first five weeks and Brock's going to miss six, seven games, I think a lot of people would have laughed at everybody.

And, you know, kudos to our coaching staff, Coach Shanahan, you know, Lynch for bringing in the right guys to fill in those spots, developing players, you know, to take advantage of those situations.

How about Cleveland Farrell, like just coming back?

I mean, it's fantastic. I think we're set up really well.
Connor, I think that's well said and something we've kind of been banging on throughout this year, how San Francisco has overcome adversity.

Three more dubs until we get that over 11.5 action that we called at the beginning of the season. Very excited about that.
He's the Royal We, but you're talking about me, right?

You're talking about yourself.

I have a habit of doing that, yeah.

Humility.

The only other thing from this game, Dan, is we did have like quote of the year.

And I do think that calling someone a hoe is gaining steam again.

Cultural lexicon. Like, have you noticed that too? There's like I have.
It's happening. It's the same thought.
Yeah. It's happening thought it's a way to really.

I want to say it's.

Well,

let's listen to the sound clip because this is Shelby Harris on Jawan Jennings. Now, you remember, Jawan Jennings is the same wide receiver that got punched in the nuts

by the, who is it? The Panthers.

Who was it? Trayvon Mohring? Trayvon Moering. The Panthers punched him in the nuts late in the game last week.
Got Mohring suspended.

And now Juwan Jennings is in the crosshairs of another opponent, this time Shelby Harris. He's a hoe, and I want that known.

Like, I see why he got punched in the nuts, because that's some, like, he says some things that you should not say to another man ever.

But, like, I don't respect it because you say that, then run behind your O-line. That's some real soft shit, and I want that known.
I see exactly why they punched your nuts.

I'm surprised nobody punched him in the jaw yet.

That is Bravo.

That is by far, other than Miles Garrett, the best thing to come out of the Cleveland Browns 2025 season.

And it actually surpasses my previous favorite use of Ho, which would have been on I Think You Should Leave, the episode when

Tim Robinson's character is on the dating show, but he's only there because he wants to use the zip line in the pool.

And he starts hitting out and he tells the woman uh that's the center of the show i just want you to know i believe carlos is a hoe before you make your decision i just want you to know i believe carlos is a hoe

this beats that even

what could he have possibly said like what could he have possibly said

I think it had to be something personal, maybe about a mother. That would be my guess.
Yes. Or a loved one.
It had to be something that crossed the line involving a woman, a female.

That would be my guess. That feels correct.

God.

That is going into the quad box intro with a bullet, by the way.

I don't want to tease. I don't want to make it a surprise.
It's going. All right, let's head to SoFi Stadium.

Ah, the Chargers taking care of business. Another take care of business game.

Justin Herbert throws two touchdown passes despite suffering a hand injury that we learned after the game is a break in the hand.

I guess the front of the non-throwing hand, he's going to get surgery and it will remains to be seen if he'll miss a game.

So he could get surgery and still play the next Chargers game, which seems crazy to me, but they seem to think that's possible.

He's a tough dude.

He suffered the injury on the first offensive series and then came back and they win 31-14 over the absolutely

dog shit Las Vegas Raiders.

There's not a worse team in football right now.

I really think that the Titans could whip up on the Raiders and anybody else right now.

They're not competitive. And

they even tried to hang around in this game and nobody could take it seriously because...

They are

2-10 for a reason.

So, yeah, keep an eye on Justin Herbert. That's obviously the big headline coming out of this game.

The other thing I just want to mention about this game: you know,

the rookie goes out, the rookie running back goes out, Omari Hampton,

with a long-term injury.

I think he's getting close to returning, or he should be at this point, but Kamani Vidal has been such a revelation for the Chargers.

He had a 59-yard scoring run in this game, he gave them a career high, 126 yards. And like the 49ers,

Mark, I feel like the Chargers deserve credit. A team that's battled a lot of injuries.

The running back has won, but you lose both your all-pro tackles. You know, it's been all around it.
And now even Herbert is dealing with a potentially significant injury. And they find a way.

They're 8-4 and in the thick of it in the AFC. Yeah, it's a question we've had about them every week.

post-tackle injuries like can they look like the team they were built to be and i i thought today was a good example of whoever's in there,

it's a hardball team because Vidal was like,

what, 25 carries, 126 yards. The Chargers blasted the Raiders and we get that it's the Raiders, but for 192 yards on the ground.
And a bunch of that happened when Justin Herbert was being worked on.

Like they didn't fall apart. And so that's just another type of one of these teams.
It's like they're survivors.

Like it's a rough journey and like to have guys step up that way and to yeah, it's a bad team, but they dominated them. And I'm with you.

I don't know what having surgery, even on your non-the glove that Herbert was wearing was like this crazy ass giant like what.

It was almost like an, I wouldn't say it was oven mitt thick, but you could tell it had some real like it looked like kitchenware. Yeah.
So I'm with you. Like it left me a little concerned.

Yeah, like he could, and it did make a difference for him, especially in the first half when he returned.

They had a fourth and short that was clearly Justin Herbert, QB sneak territory, but he wasn't under center, and they tried to hand it off and it blew up a possession.

He also, the ball kind of like rattled around in his hands a couple times. He threw an interception in the first half shortly after coming back into the field.
So I don't know, just keep an eye on it.

And if he has to wear that padding, that's going to change some elements of their offense. I guess the only other thing I'll mention is offense coordinator Greg Olson.

He replaced Chip Kelly, who was fired after last week's embarrassment.

They had their longest scoring drive, touchdown drive in four weeks, 82 yards. They topped 10 points for the fourth time in eight games when Bowers made an unreal one-handed touchdown.

There's some great catches in the NFL this week. Bowers had maybe arguably the best.
Maybe Puka Nakua probably had the best. Go check it out.

But Bowers had an incredible touchdown reception, his second of the game with eight minutes to play.

But otherwise, this is a classic take-care of business performance by the Chargers who keep finding ways to win.

All right, and that is

week 13.

It's a crazy week. Week 13 is always crazy.
I think we're all a little bit lesser of men when it's over and we just have to

get plugged into the wall like a Tesla or whatever or a TNC with a fresh tank of unleaded gasoline.

And then we're back.

You know who else could have used a fresh tank before

Sunday?

You guys, this is what happened with Rodney Harrison during the NBC

pregames?

This was a little bit odd play this, Justin. Well, since J.K.
Dobbins has been out, Washington, very, very just disorganized in the run defense.

I think they get their young running back score tonight and then take shots to your favorite guy, Cortland Sutton. Yeah, I look at

the pumps on Washington defense from that group. Best way to attack that group.

You believe

the best way to attack them.

What have have you seen from Washington's defense?

They just don't have, it's a lot of stuff going on. I'm sorry, guys.
They don't have a lot of discipline on the defensive side of the ball. Yep.

That's it. They sure don't.
And I want to get over to something else, too, Coach, because I was looking at Bo Nick's. What? Did he have an incident? Did he have like a medical incident there?

What happened?

I truly don't know. I didn't know.

You see that with like, they're out there on

like

this happened to this news announcer. Yeah.

Lost their way. And like,

I guess that can happen, but I, but I don't clearly. I mean, like the boom goes the dynamite kid? Is that what you're saying?

What was his name? Dan Harris from ABC. Remember, he had like a panic attack on air and then turned it into like a whole second career.

He has like a really like a cool podcast about it and stuff. But

what's his name?

He almost like stumbled.

In the beginning, he like stumbled back and forth.

I don't know if he was just like disoriented or yeah, yeah, like there was still, yeah, see, like there's a little bit of a stumble there. Something happened there.
I don't know. That was really odd.

I'm not the biggest Rodney Harrison fan, but I also we've done live television, we've done a lot of stuff where you're kind of put on the spot and maybe you kind of lose your train of thought for a second.

It's a bit of a scary moment, and I would imagine that was quite frightening for uh Rodney Harrison.

Not somebody that I typically have any level of sympathy for as a human being, not typically, not my favorite in that world, but in this case, yeah, that was tough.

This is the only other thought I had, because we've all done it, where like you've got, you know, I got an earpiece.

And if you have a group of people or producers screaming at you, you could lose your way.

But he's got to be pretty well trained at that. Can you imagine what was in his ear there? He's like, Rodney, talk, talk.
Now, now, talk, talk, talk.

He also did say and pointed at his head, there's a lot going on. So it could have been a producer.

Another theory I saw floated on Twitter was that there was just like a feedback issue and maybe his like eardrums were exploding because somebody hit his volume too high or something.

That's also possible.

Or if you're watching Pleuribus, maybe it was part of an alien invasion and he was taken in that moment. And now he is the shell of a human.
That's part of a greater like worker bee alien

invasion scenario. Just these are all options.
That would be a bury the lead scenario from

a news angle.

What happened to Rodney? Final takeaway. And before we go, why not? We'll take a look at the updated standings in the NFL because the season started right here

today after Thanksgiving, as Bill Parcells taught us. Let's see the AFC updated standings to the minute.

There we go. The Broncos, yes, by virtue of tiebreaker, are the number one seed at 10-2.

The

Patriots, wait, are they both on nine-game winning streaks too? Weren't they both one and two back in September? That's pretty crazy. Patriots 10-2.
The Jaguars 8-4.

All of a sudden, a division leader as the Colts have stubbed their toe. The Ravens are 6-6.

And thanks to the Steelers fumbling, they right now are in the division lead still.

The Chargers, Colts, and Bills, as things stand, are the three wildcard teams with the Texans, Steelers, and Chiefs all fighting for an opportunity to make the playoffs.

But remember, in the case of the Texans and Steelers, they have two paths. They can get the wildcard or win their division.
The Chiefs, on the other hand, at 6-6.

Bye-bye, AFC West. The Broncos are...
four games up on them right now with five to play.

So that means the Chiefs have to essentially win out and then hope one of those three teams, Chargers, Colts, Bills, stumble. Let's check out the NFC.

Bears, the Chicago Bears, 9-3. The number one seed in the NFC as the calendar turns over to December.
Can you believe it? The Rams, 9-3, coming off a loss. The Eagles, 8-4.

Still, the third seed in a division leader, even though it feels like the sky's falling down. The Bucs, 7-5,

leading that division, but that's just a one-game lead. And then look at this.
Look at this. The Seahawks, 9-3.
Packers, 8-3-1. And Niners, 9-4.
Those are your three wild card teams.

And you have teams like the Lions at 7-5, the Cowboys at 6-5-1,

and even the Panthers, just hoping one of those teams completely falls apart. And I don't know if it happens.
The NFC is wild, Conman.

Yeah, I mean, I almost just think we should break it apart and just give them both of them, just split up the entire NFC and just let that be the totality of the playoff bracket. Conner is

extremely down on the American Football Conference. I mean, can you imagine a scenario just to just to put a

punctuation mark on that conversation, a scenario where the Cowboys finish 10-5-1 and are just Brian Schottenheimer is like coach of the year, top of the world, and they go home at the end of the regular season and the Miami Dolphins are in.

Can we please imagine that as a scenario before we talk about how to root for those Dolphins? Don't turn this around. Well,

we know where

pointing out where some of these paths are going to lead

on the show.

And then there are the Miami Dolphins. Everybody's just, I called this four weeks ago.
I put my foot in the ground, and now everybody's just trying to take it away from me. And that's okay.

When they go on a run here, there they are in a run. I mean, this is great.
You know, don't try to take it away from me.

What? The Dolphins? Dolphins. What about your Cowboys take?

We're going to put our foot in the ground on that one too? Or in our mouths?

I picked the Cowboys over what? Eight wins? Oh, you wrote off the Cowboys weeks ago. Made me say, come on, Connor, believe.

Yeah, you're right.

We're all right. We're all wrong at all times.
It's like one in the morning on the East Coast, and you're targeting Connor. I feel like Judy Harrison right now.

Feverishly checks notes, nothing coming.

All right, good stuff. Thanks to everybody.
Thank you to Justin for your hard producing.

I know you got more work to go tonight, but he'll have this show up on YouTube and wherever you're at your podcast. And then the wheel keeps turning.

And you'll hear from Mark and I tomorrow night for the close of week 13 and the power rankings and all that good stuff. So everybody have a great and safe week upcoming.

And until next time, do what you must. Heed the call.

Heather is a nurse practitioner from United Healthcare. We meet patients wherever they live.
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