Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Take Talk Episode 27

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

Another week of games, another week closer to playoffs. Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Steven ORourke (@callmesteveo7) take you back to Week 13 and got into some playoff implications for the coming weeks. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Hello, everyone, and welcome in to the Take Talk podcast. As always, I'm Stephen O'Rourke, and I'm with my co-host, Brett Whitefield. Brett, it was a good weekend of a lot of playoff, playoff implicated. games and the 49ers this week came away with a great win but at what cost. Ah.

They. And the words of Thanos, everything. They lost everything. After losing everything earlier this season, the 49ers just can't seem to keep a quarterback healthy, which is unfortunate because, I mean, the offense, and it showed. because Brock Perry stepped in and helped win the game. But this offense is built to kind of be like quarterback proof. Yeah, but that's not true for any team, is it?

I don't think it's actually true. It's not, but it's like as close to as you can get. Definitely the closest team to accomplishing a QB proof system. I mean, shoot, they have Jimmy Garoppolo is the quarterback. They were Super Bowl favorites out of the NFC, basically. that tells you much of what you need to know really and he was playing you know well this so far this season he was doing everything that he needed to like listen to me though exactly it is he play well until he doesn't you know the 49ers won this game 3317 over the miami dolphins and it was a it was a

absolute i mean they just tore Miami apart limb for limb it was It was a very strong defensive performance. Probably the strongest defensive performance we've seen against Situwa led Miami offensive season. Oh, yeah. Miami's offense was completely useless. I mean, they got some garbage time, you know, yards in the fourth quarter there. They started the game with the bang, the 75 yard at a Sherfield.

Right. It looked like that moment. Yeah, from that moment until, gosh, late in the fourth quarter, they pretty much did nothing. I guess it was the beginning of the fourth quarter, right, when Tyree scored that touchdown. But, I mean, they went almost three quarters straight of absolutely nothing. Yeah. I mean, Tua had, I think he had a 24% off target throw percentage on Sunday. Like, that's far and away his worst of the year.

Yep. Because, I mean, that's two as one, that's not his one thing. But, like, that's Tua's thing is he doesn't throw off target. balls. He may not have the greatest arm strength, but listen, the guy's going to put the ball on the receiver. And that's, I mean, that's something you can kind of lean on. But, yeah. And because, I mean, his season percentage is 11.6%, which I think is top three to five in the NFL right now. So like the 49, yeah, it's number two. The 49ers beat him up. And I think, like, how much of it do you think it?

it is the 49ers or how much of it do you think it is that the Miami lost there or a starting left tackle well it's some of that for sure uh I mean two was definitely feeling the heat in this game it also like turnover luck is such a big deal yes I know 49ers also turned the ball over but two ahead two interceptions that really weren't his fault one of them you know the receiver kind of fell down um I'm trying who was the receiver on that play it was like a first and 25 I think it actually was the running back. He was throwing like a little Texas route or angle route, and he kind of just falls and ball gets picked off.

The other one was definitely, it was an inaccurate throw. It was a little high for Tyreek. But Tyreek went up. There was no defender really in the vicinity to intercept that ball, but Tyreek got a hand on it and it changed the trajectory of the ball. Right. Instead of just being an overthrow, safe and a safe overthrow.

It actually ends up bouncing towards a defender. Right. And he picks it off. It's like, yeah, it's a bad throw. So it's to his fault from that standpoint. But he's not expecting a throw pick there if it's an overthrow. Right. It's one of those where it's like nine times out of ten that goes over his head,

no harm, no foul, lived to see another down. But that happened to be the one time that, you know, it tipped the right way and went to the defender. Yep. And that stuff is just kidding. I mean, it sounds so coach cliche. but turnover the turnover battle is the battle, right? Especially against two good teams.

Like you, you know, if one of those goes Miami's way, this game probably looks a little bit different, you know, maybe Miami ends, I think one of them they were actually driving, that maybe they score seven there, and it's a little bit closer of a game. So, but the big story here is Jimmy going down, and how does that affect the 49ers long term?

The most sources are saying it's a seven to eight week recovery. like that's a reasonably optimistic view. Yes, like he avoided the, what is it, Liz Frank? Liz Frank. Liz Frank. Which is that Liz Frank is not terrible for quarterbacks, but that's a career killer for wide receivers. Oh, yeah.

It's a, I mean, it's a doomsday for a lot of people. I know like NBA, even like wide receivers, anybody that needs any type of athleticism and cutting ability. But now it just comes down to can Brock Purdy keep this thing afloat? And more so, can their defense just keep them in games enough for Purdy to do enough? Yep. One, man, it's, this has so much impact for a lot of reasons because. Oh, a ton.

The 49ers were four and four or four weeks ago. they've won four straight. You would assume that they're going to fall off a little. They play the Bucks this week, which is a tough matchup without your quarterback. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Seattle, whose current seven seat is only a game behind them. And they've got a pretty reasonable schedule coming up, I think, right? They play Carolina this week.

Right. Yeah, Seattle's not like, I mean, they don't have like a murderer's row or anything. San Francisco, looking at their schedule, they, what looked to be like a, a very, very conquerable schedule. I would have, you know, looking at it with Jimmy G. at quarterback, I probably would have said they go at least four and one. Yeah. But now everything changes.

Like you said, they go, the Buccaneers present a tough challenge for a new quarterback. And then they play the Seahawks who, you know, it's a divisional game. And it's at Seattle, which, again, offers its own challenges to a new quarterback. quarterback and then they go commanders raiders cardinals that's only really like Cupcake game on there is the Cardinals and they play the 49ers reasonably tough so that's uh all of those games now become interesting for them because they're not like I would have predicted them to win most of those games for sure but without your quarterback now your top two quarterbacks really because trey lance was the day one starter I mean these these turn into pretty tough games man

I will say that throw the Purdy made to Kittle down the middle under pressure, I think it was like the third quarter. That shows like he's got something there. I mean, his arm is not that strong. He is not the most athletic. And obviously there's a reason he was a third stringer. But at least in the game, he showed some signs of being able to. to make a throw when you need to stand in the pocket, escape pressure.

Yeah. The rumor around San Francisco is that Shanahan loved Purdy throughout training camp. Purdy can sling it. He reminds me he's in that Kurt Cousins, Derek Carr, even Baker-Mayfield mold, where he kind of has that guns mentality, even though the talent isn't necessarily the best you've ever seen. It's not bad, though. trust me, this guy, this guy can actually sling it.

But he definitely is closer to Baker Mayfield on that spectrum. I mean, he was an undrafted rookie for a reason, or I'm pretty sure he was undrafted, right? Or was he a late-round pick? I think he was undrafted. So there's that. Plus, you know, he's just, even in this game, he showed a real pension. Oh, no, he was Mr. Irrelevant.

Okay, he was the last day with that. He was 256. Cool. Yeah, but so even in this game, he showed a pension for just making. making those boneheaded plays, which we saw in college. So I tried to explain this to Joe because I've watched a lot. I'm actually a big Brock Purdy fan, which is weird, but because his freshman tape was outstanding.

And him and Lawrence, Trevor Lawrence, were in the same recruiting class. They were both freshman at the same time. Right. And Purdy almost matched Lawrence, throw for throw, their freshman year in college. Purdy was being talked about as a lock first round pick in the future. Yeah. Just never got better. No, to be fair, Lawrence didn't really either.

But Lawrence's baseline was like already a little bit higher. So I think he kind of just gained that and rode that where Purdy kind of came out of nowhere to put up the freshman year he did. And then just kind of got progressively worse. But fun fact about Purdy, he once through an interception that was caught 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage in college. I don't even know. I'm trying to envision how. that happens. It's one of the funniest plays of all time.

I remember at the time I was a pretty big Purdy fan. I think he was a sophomore when it happened. And Costco, John Costco from PFF, messaged me one day and he was like, one play scouting, Prock Purdy is undraftable. One place, I love it. John was pretty close.

But that's the kind of thing you see with Purdy a lot. And you saw it in this game. The first. I don't actually remember if it got intercepted or no it didn't get intercepted but it's like a third and ten play in the first quarter he's it's like play action to the right it's like a boot right and he throws like 20 yards across his body outside of the other hash mark Steve it's just like oh that ball should have been picked off the corner just didn't know the ball was there but he ends up making a play out but that's just the stuff you cannot do in the

the NFL. Like, you see a lot of these super athletic big arm guys starting to break that roll a little bit throwing across your body. But they do it for a couple, like a little bit. Like the angle isn't that crazy. You know, like you saw the homes do it a few times on Sunday. Yeah. Where the angle's not that crazy, it's slightly behind them. Purdy literally through this thing at the other side of the field, rolling the opposite direction. And that is the kind of stuff that you see with Brock. And I really think he's capable of playing good football if he can clean up the mental part of it. Like he's just really gets in his own.

Like he's feeling himself, man. He's going, I'm going, I'm going to make a play, man. I don't care. I'll throw an intercept 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage. I don't care. But that's the type of stuff that could sink a team. 49ers are really going to have to rely on that run game in that defense to keep the the truck moving or the train moving, so to speak.

Yeah, because, I mean, it's all about obviously taking as much of the outcome of the game. out of Brock Purdy's hands as possible, in my opinion. It's just like you have a defense that, I mean, they're really good. Their defense is really good. And they showed it on Sunday. They finally were the first team to really kind of shut down to a McDaniel in that offense. Yep. And I mean, like, Tua's over the middle game was not, not existent for the first time this year,

which is, I mean, which is amazing. I mean, San Francisco's linebackers are so good at shutting down the middle of the field. And your boy, the safety, Hufunga? Yeah, Hufunga, yeah. He's fast. He's, he plays. Surprised me with his coverage skills. He plays like a banshee.

It's great. But they just need Brock Purdy to do as little as possible while also just keeping the offense on tasks, keeping it moving. It's all he has to do, which I think, again, this is a team that that can work with. If there were ever a team that could still keep rolling a little bit, this is the team. I mean, we've seen it and we've talked about it over and over again. They have so many weapons on offense. Just get the guys the ball and let them go. And not just so many weapons on offense, but so many weapons on offense that simplify things for your QB.

Yes. These aren't guys that you have to scheme up 30-yard bombs to make work. These are guys. You literally just get them the ball in space, which Shanahan is amazing at doing and let them do the work for you. They have five of them, for God's sake. They got Christian McCaffer, Demo, Iuk, Kittle, even Kyle Usecheck is a valuable asset in that regard. Joanne Jennings is really good after the catch. Like, just make this easy on Brock.

let him get the ball. Almost, they need to run the two of offense, really, which is obviously a variation of what the 49ers are already doing. True. True. Just keep it that simple. Maybe cut down on those heavy rollouts and those plays where Purdy's, you know, being asked to kind of capitalize a little bit.

Just keep his like, keep his time to throw below 2.3. Keep his average time to throw below 2.3. And just, I mean, shoot, like you said, you can put every play you can put McCaffrey and Debo. on checkdown routes. And they're two of the best guys to take check down routes and go get you 10 yards when they should have gotten, when everybody else would get you two. That's the joy of being a quarterback in that offense, I'm sure.

But all that to say, it sounds great on paper. Now Purdy has to go and actually put it out there because this division just became a lot more competitive. A lot more competitive. Seattle, you know, their offense is still humming. their defense has taken a step back a little bit, but they, I mean, San Francisco still controls their own destiny.

Yep. Yeah, and Seattle just continues to win games, too. Like, even when they start to falter, then, I mean, granted,

it was the Rams. This game, honestly shouldn't have been as close as it was, especially because Gene, Gino Smith was playing pretty well. Yeah, Geno Smith made like,

you know, four throws, his average of about four throws a game. where he just lights the world on fire, puts it in a spot where everybody, where nobody thinks he can, even though he's proven that he can, every single time this year. And he let him do a victory. But it's honestly ridiculous.

It is. It's awesome. And I wish that they, I can't wait for when Seattle plays someone legit again. And we can talk about them again because, you know, like, I feel like we haven't talked about, we haven't been able to talk about the Seahawks as much lately. And I mean, Gino's, like I said, Gino's still absolutely rolling.

Yep. Or not to get off track. Yes. The other side of this game, this Dolphins 49ers game, was the Dolphins. Yes. The left tackle issues

certainly reared their head. When, do we have a prognosis report on Armstead? I'll look that up. You, because they got the Chargers this week, and I know the Chargers have kind of been one of the most frustrating teams this season. One, all of the injuries, too,

their play calling. They've taken themselves out of being competitive in multiple games just from game plans perspective. But they do have Joey Bosa coming back, right? Is he back? He's got to be coming back soon. All right. I,

I should have looked up all of this injury news before we jumped on the podcast, Steve. But I, okay, never mind. Joey Bosa not close to return is the most recent headline about him. Toronto, Gerard Armson has just a litany of injuries. That's not surprising. It's just like he has a toe, he has a peck, he has an ankle. Did you know he's never actually played a full season in the NFL?

I mean, I'm looking at, looking at this synopsis, it's not surprising. The dude's just a walking, the walking injury. report. You can make your own injury report about him. So he was, he was, he was, he was ruled out before the game, basically. So I'd say there's a he's going to be like week to week. I got to go on a side tangent really quick. All right. I know you were asking me before we started the show, do you have anything interesting you want to start with? And I didn't because I was just having marble brain. But now I want to talk about this. Found it. So a lot of the injury experts in our space, even our own,

Edwin, Dr. Edwin. Yep. Great opinions, great facts. They're very well-studied people, obviously. Yes. But they constantly always talk about how injury prone is not a thing.

Okay. Yep. There's no way that's true, right? I want to sit Edwin down at a corner and just, I don't know, torture him into telling me the truth about this. I feel like it's,

it's not nice to say a guy's injury prone so that's why they avoid it but it can't be true that it doesn't exist you think it's just like it's this dark dark state secret that doctors are holding on to because they don't want to ruin anybody's lives or their opinions about themselves but i i feel like injury prone is a lot like momentum it's all it all depends on who you are and what you believe do you believe in momentum oh i 100% believe in momentum Anyone that played the game of football believes in momentum. The only people who don't have never played. I know, I agree.

But there's a large sector of people that are like, no, momentum isn't real. And I think it goes to, like, injury prone is the same way. Like, if you're a person who has never really been injured and, like, maybe you've been injured once or twice in whether it's football or whatever sport, but that's it. And you're like, no, nobody's injury prone. Like, I'm not injury prone. I like, it's like all you clearly, whatever, if they come up with whatever reason they want. But like other people who maybe have gotten hurt more often, I feel like they're more, you know, inclined to say like, oh, yeah, injury prone is a thing. All right.

So maybe then for the layman like you and I, maybe we can't conclude that there's such thing as anatomical injury proneness. But maybe there is other contributing factors. Well, there's mental toughness, but there's also play style. Like George Kittle, the way he plays football, I guarantee you it incurs more injuries than the way normal people play football because he's not normal. He literally takes his face and he throws it into a fan, play and play, you know, play after play. Right. He plays the game more physically violent than most people play the game. Right.

He ends up injured quite a bit because of that. Taron Armset is very much the same way. he this guy's never played a full season but he is an absolute mauler grinder phenomenal in pass pro but in the run game he will also stick his face into a fan and tell you what's up play and play again like so does that maybe there's a play style contributor here sequoan barclay yes i would 100% agree with that because if you think of a guy think of a guy like uh tyler locket or even omin ross st brown guys who understand when and where to take chances. Otherwise, it's like, catch the ball, run a little bit, get down on the ground.

Like, it's not worth the hit. It's not worth the hit. And then there's also guys who like, I've been watching DeAndre Swift the last couple weeks. All I can think when I watch him is like, dude, you're going to get hurt doing this. Yes. Because it's, and it's not in the same mold of kiddle. No, it's the opposite. Exactly. It's the opposite of like shying away where it's like, dude, you're going to get hurt because you're pulling up. Nobody else has pulled. pulling up because you're not a quarterback. And so, like, you're taking these hits at angles that, like, you don't normally take hits at.

And he's, but he's another guy that, like, he, we see him pop up on, we've seen him pop up on the injury report, like, every week since he entered the league. And so I think there's a lot of merit to that. I think it's more, it's maybe not the anatomical, like, yes, maybe we can't point to bones, not healing all the way or ligaments, not healing all the way. we can't get down to that level, but you can, like, definitively watch a guy play and say, that's a method that's going to get you hurt. Right.

Swick is an interesting one, too, dude, because you're spot on with that. He, like, he plays so shy sometimes where, like, every time he gets tackled near the sideline, he falls so awkwardly. Yes. That's because he's pulling up, like you said, and the defender, he's like, that's not a quarterback. I'm going to hit that man. Right.

I'm going to get that guy in the ground. Right. A lot of Swift, even when he runs out of bounds, he still takes a hit. I swear to God. It's so annoying. I swear to God, every single one of his injuries have come from a hit going out of bounds. You're 100%. The shoulder this year was that, right?

Yeah. He was like five yards out of bounds when he fell down. What was it last year? Because last year, I swear to it was the same exact thing. Same exact thing. So like, yeah, like injury prone may not be, we may have cracked it. Injury prone isn't necessarily a thing. Like, you can point to an x-ray and say,

this guy is more likely to get injured than this guy. You know, just looking at, like, put A-B testing, put two, just random X-rays, knee MRIs or whatever, up on the screen and say who's more injury-prone. That might not be a thing. But, like, I think that it is playstyle, and there are guys who are more likely to get hurt based on the way they play than other guys.

think there is a lot of merit to that. One last point on this, too. NFL teams for sure think players are injury prone. Oh, I mean, the medical examination part of the draft is one of the most underrated aspects of the combine

than really not a lot of people talk about. Well, I mean, those medical reports are huge for them. There is always one guy. There is one guy every year. I swear who we like, who we talk about where something pops up in their medical report and they slip. for whatever reason.

It happens. It's guaranteed to happen every year. Yep. The most memorable one to me is Maurice Hurst. Yes. That's a good one. He was a top 20 player on, I think, just about every team's board. Granted, he hasn't worked out to the level we thought he would in the NFL.

But then he had that heart thing come up and teams were deathly afraid of drafting him. Yeah. So, all right, let's move on. We covered 49ers, dolphins. We covered injur. injury prone, nis, nis, maybe we'll get Edwin on. He's one of the few fantasy points guys we haven't had on.

That's true. That'd be fun to be a fascinating segment to like go in detail about injury stuff. Yeah, yeah. It'd be a good like playoff primer who's injured, who's not. Where do we see that type of idea? Yeah, that would be fun too.

I also just want to like corner him and make him talk about being injury prone. I don't think this game really, just to like say one more thing. I don't think this game really had much. I didn't draw much for. from it as far as Miami. Like, Miami got beat to have played a bad game, you know, for the first time in a while. It's just the way it goes in the NFL sometimes.

I'm sure they'll bounce back. And, you know, not often are you going to see a lineback in court coupled with a front four, like you will, against San Francisco. And they won't see anything like that really the rest of the way. So, you know, good on San Francisco because that, I mean, The defense is going to need to keep him rolling. Next game. All right, let's go,

let's go Philly, Tennessee, because this game went about, is exactly how I thought it would, except that it went nothing like I thought it would. I mean, I did think the Eagles would win. I thought the Eagles would win rather easily. Right.

But this was not the tail. There was a point, because I threw out the number of 80 rush attempts. Yes. We ended up with 45. Okay, we barely made half of 80. No, I didn't think they'd actually get to 80, but I thought it was in the realm of possibilities for what this game could look like.

And Philly just said, nah, no, this is Agent Brown, Devante Smith game. We see flaws in Tennessee's secondary. We also want to get Tennessee's GM fired. Yeah. So we're going to force the ball to AJ Brown and make that guy look silly. How crazy would it be if, like, Philly signed him to their, uh, front office staff in some way, shape, or form. Just as like the ultimate full circle, F.U.

But it is funny because he found him, right? He drafted A.J. Brown. He drafted A.J. Yes. That's a win for his career, but then he decided he didn't want to pay him and then traded him. You live by A.J. Brown. You die by A.J. Brown. I guess that's life. But, I mean, I did you see this type of passing performance

like coming? I didn't think they're going to throw the wall this game. I thought they were just going to run. Tennessee had been bad against the run recently too. In Tennessee's past defense from week seven to 12 was top five in the NFL. Like they were rolling. Yeah, they did flip, right? Because they were a dominant run defense.

Right. They were terrible against the past, really good against the run early in the season. Just kind of flipped. Right. And then they had a young secondary. Their secondary started to figure it out. David Long, Jr. has been so good this year. Like, they just got in their pass rush started to figure it out.

They started to figure it out a little bit too. But their past defense was, I mean, they were giving up 80.4 pass a rating from week 7 to 12, like 61.5% completion percentage, 5.4% turnover where they throw rate. Like, I mean, they were playing really, really well. into this game. And then Philly just said, hey, watch this. If we remember this guy, and they just dunked on them for the entire game. Yeah. It, and it was a bloodbath, man. Holy cow. Now, granted, the Titans did play, did Davis Mills in that stretch. You know what, though, they had Mahomes and Burrow, I think, in that stretch, too, didn't they? It's, yeah,

it's not like they put. the Cupcake schedule. I don't think they played a ton of like interdivisional games. Yeah, so they played, they had Mahomes, they had Rogers and Burrow in that stretch. They also had Mills and Russell Wilson. So, but to your, yeah, to your point, it completely flipped. When Jeffrey Simmons got hurt, at the time he got hurt, he was playing like probably the best detackle in the league not named Aaron Donald. Yes. And then when he came, he has not been the same guy since he came back. I think maybe that's why their run defense slipped a little bit. I didn't pay close enough attention to see how they were managing that group this game,

but the Eagles clearly thought that the weeks one through six Titans defense was the accurate one. So they attacked it appropriately. Yeah, I think this put Jalen Hertz, I think he had not necessarily been slipping, but he had just been kind of average. He was coasting. Yeah, he was coasting. But I think this like immediately reinserts himself right back into the MVP conversation. I think Mahomes, I think Mahomes is leading the way still.

But Jalen Hertz, you know, he said, hold on a minute. We still got six weeks in this thing. Let me bring myself back into the conversation. He was 74% completion percentage, 130 pass rating. His ADOT was 8.9, 0% turnover worthy throw rate, 5% while throw rate in this game. Like, he completely controlled and dominated this game from the opening drive. He also got some help. The Titans decided not to cover players multiple times.

Yeah, that's. Like one of them being AJ Brown. It's a bold strategy. Rarely does it work. Didn't work. Do you think Braebel maybe told that corner, hey, don't cover? AJ on this play. That was it.

I want to get revenge on my GM. It was this all just one big inside scheme of they've been waiting for this game all year. It's like if I don't get, if I don't get to hire my own GM, then I'm, I'm leaving. I'm going to Ohio State. Yeah,

that's your, that's your rumor that we can bring to another day for. Well, we can't say rumor. It's conspiracy, conspiracy. Yeah, conspiracy. Sorry,

not a rumor. But Philly. rolled, what does this mean for Tennessee? Like, do you take anything away from this going into the last five weeks, coming into the playoffs? You absolutely can. Because what it proved, again, this has happened a few times this year, probably five, actually, where when they play a defensive line with a modicum of talent, they cannot

run their offense. And we saw again this week. This offensive line for Tennessee is the worst offensive line. Derek Henry has had the privilege of playing behind by far in his career. Privilege. It's not good. And any team that has a decent defensive line has the ability to shut them down pretty quickly. When you shut Henry down, you shut down that passing game pretty easily as well because, you know, old cliches, play action is not working.

You know, Tana Hill can't get in a rhythm. They're looking at a lot of third and long. You know, you do Tanna Hill with this receiving core on third and long. Like, holy crap, look out. That is not going to be a pretty sight. They can't pass protect either, so that makes it even harder. There's a lot of issues there. Timil got six times in this game.

Yeah. And they just, I mean, at least probably for this week, they lost their one bright spot in their receiving core, or at least one of the few bright spots and they're receiving core. so far and Traylon Burks. Whether you want to admit that he's good or not, he's been at one place where they're like

they can produce numbers in the last couple weeks. I don't know what happened to Robert Wood Steve, but that dude has fallen off a cliff. I just think that he's being asked to be a number one receiver and that's just not who he is.

He's a complimentary guy. He's a number two guy. He's a guy that you want to You want to have him matched up against. He doesn't even look like that to me, though. That's, that's fair. Yeah, he doesn't even, they really need Kyle Phillips back. They're superstar rookie wide receiver.

They need him back. And I don't know when, but this is supposed to be, December is supposed to be Derek Henry's month. True. And it's not off to a great start. He hasn't hit over 100 yards since, I can't do the week, I can't count the weeks backwards, but it's been four straight games without. over, without over 100 yards.

And two out of those four games, he's gone under 50, and he's only lucky because one of them was over 53. Like, was that 53 yards in those four weeks? He's been completely neutralized. Yeah, this offensive line is scary bad. Back to Birx, though. Am I allowed to make my poor taste joke on this podcast that I made the other day? I mean, you can do whatever you want.

It's our podcast. Yes. So what I said in our company chat, well, our you, me and Chris chat, is that if Trailin Berks had a vertical bigger than 10 inches, he wouldn't have got knocked out on that play. That's right. So even when Berks makes a great play, I find a way to discredit it with something like that.

But no, for real, that was a phenomenal catch. I'm still not sure how he held on to the ball. Yeah, I don't either. He got shalacked. That was one of the worst. Did Epsk get penalized for that? He did, right? Yes.

He should have. I feel like there were a decent amount of those hits this week, but. I was thinking the same thing. There was so many defenseless receivers just getting whacked. Justin Jefferson took a couple this week, too, but we can get to that in a second. But I, this worries me as far as the Titans finishing the season. And I mean, gosh, the AFC, the AFC.FC. South is just a disaster.

And so Tennessee probably, I imagine Tennessee ends up winning that division. Who's, who's catching them, bro? You could probably lose out and they would win the division. They probably could. They play another, like, they play the Jaguars twice, the Texans, and then they get the Chargers and the Titans in there as well. They still have a three game games in the Cowboys. Yeah.

Wow, that's what I mean. Jaguars have two games against them. That's a great way to make up grass. But I just, again, just give a team or give the NFL a fourth wild card instead of making us watch both South divisions in the NFL. Yes. But Titans lack of offense and it hasn't really, it's not showing any signs of improvement. I mean, if you look at it, most of their wins this year have kind of come on the heels of their defense. they have not put up a lot slash many points in any game this year.

I think, what is that? It looks like their highest scoring game this year was 24 points. They've done that twice. So like, if they face an offense that can go off, they're kind of screwed. And especially if they face an offense or a defense that can shut down Derek Henry, the entire thing just goes to crap. And this is the iteration of the Titans that we kind of. of thought would happen going into this year. It was a team that looked to be marred by not

having a lot of offensive firepower. They like talent in general. Right. And a defense that lost their two best pass rushers. And the emergence of David Long has been awesome. I think he's been playing great. But still, they're a young defense that, again, doesn't have any difference makers outside of like Simmons and David Long. And that's an interior defensive the lineman and a linebacker. Yeah. Kevin Biard is good too, but you need your corners to hold up better if he's going to make an impact because he's a deep safety. Right, right.

Closing thoughts on this game. So we've been skeptical because Rable is such a good coach. We've been really kind of reserved about saying the Titans are a non-factor in the AFC. I'm pretty confident now just saying they're just not a factor in the AFC. They're just, I think they're probably, you know, destined for a first round playoff loss again. Yeah, I just can't see their offense. I just can't see their offense keeping up. And their defense plays great for stretches,

but it's a matter of, I don't think that they can hold up for an entire game in a way that's like, basically at this point, they need to hold a team to 17 points or less. And I don't know if they can do that against a lot of the teams that they would face in the playoffs.

I'll take this a step further. I think if you look at the top 10 teams in the AFC. So real quickly, that's Buffalo. Kansas City, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Miami, New York, New England, and the Chargers, and the Raiders. I don't know that I would take Tennessee against any of them in a playoff situation. Nope. So, yeah. So that's not good.

All right. As far as the Eagles go, they're back in the number one slot. They didn't lose it for very long. Didn't, right, didn't Minnesota take it for a week? No, they didn't. The Eagles have always had it. I'm absolutely true. tripping right now.

Yeah, so the Eagles are still in the one seed. They are. They basically just wanted to remind everyone that they're still here. I think that that's what this game was. They kind of, like we said, they were kind of coasting. You can make the argument, too, that that's like the best team they've beat since Minnesota, week two. I agree.

They get the Giants this week. So the Eagles look great. Nothing really to change there. Let's move on. do you want to do chiefs bangles? Yes. Banger of a game came down to the wire-ish like we thought it would. So the Kansas City Chiefs go into Cincinnati.

They lose 24 to 27. They had the Bengals on the ropes going into the fourth quarter. They had a seven-point lead, and then the Bengals just turned it up a little bit. They made those extra plays. And they scored 10 points in the fourth, held three. Kansas City scoreless. And they get it done. And the Bengals continue to remind everyone that they are back.

Yeah. I mean, this is all about what the, like, I think this is all about what the Bengals and Joe Burrell are and have been and are going to continue to be for the last like seven weeks. I think there's six and one in their last seven games after a two and three start. That's, that's awesome. Like, Burroughs playing better QB right now than anyone. Yeah, definitively, I think.

Yeah. He's, I mean, he's standing in, making every throw. He's completely cleaned up, like, footwork, eyes, all of that in the pocket. Which was my challenge in preseason on the preseason podcast. Right. Right. Because like the offensive line hasn't gotten better as the season's gone on. Not like in any, like, real big way.

They've improved in spots and, you know, they have their games where they do better. but like overall that offensive line still is not very good it's just that now burrow is standing in he's making the throws he's not panicking he's he's understanding that nine times out of a 10 his receivers are better than every other secondary in the NFL and that someone's going to win and it's just a matter of finding that guy and he is finding that guy that's what i was going to say the the the reminder here too with chase back in the fold is that it's been T. Higgins for the last five weeks, tearing it up or four weeks or whatever. Yeah. And he had three catches for 35 yards in this game. It just shows you that they can do whatever they want with whoever they want because the chances are you don't have three corners that can cover these three receivers. It was just impressive.

You know, they ran the ball incredibly well too. That was, so the Bengals have been running the ball very well. I'd say, your end looks good. That I, so that was just going to lead. into it. Who do you like, I think Pyrine gets way more snaps now. I think he deserves it. He was,

P. Ryan was always like their third down back. He had been their third down back for since last season. Everybody talked about it in the Super Bowl. Oh my gosh. Why is P. Ryan in? Why do they throw in the ball? Like that, that was a whole discourse for a week. But P. Ryan just had, I think P. Ryan has just a more complete game than mixing.

Yeah. A little bit. I think they're both pretty complete players, to be honest. Yes. I think they do a lot of the same things when they do them well. But there's no reason to give Mixin 30 touches in a game when you have P-Rine on your team. Right. I think that's the biggest thing is that, like, if anything, they learn that they don't have to.

Because that had been kind of their thing all season is give Mixen 25 to 30 touches a game. And that's fine. great and you know it was working but i think that it can work even better now and now like when you have i feel like when you have a third down back you it's you can tip your hand a little bit a little bit like it's just the nature of it you see a back come in you're like okay i think like we can surmise that it's like an 80% chance that they're going to throw the ball here right based on on personnel based on the back that's in and i think that they have a chance that's to like take that out of their,

take that out of their, uh, tells, which, you know, any way you can, any way you can continue to keep defenses on their toes. I mean, you got to do it. Yep. The other angle of this with the chief's offense, I thought Mahomes still played pretty good, but I think this was really, so the literal opposite of what we saw with Cincinnati is where you do see the talent deficiencies at wide receiver. When you're playing a defense as good as the Bengals,

who is they're going to play patient. They played patient this entire game. They didn't get too cute. They blitz Mahomes a couple times early in the game. Then they really backed off that. They were, you know, playing really, really sound zone coverage for the most part. They'd mix in a little man when necessary. But the reality is, is like Mahomes couldn't run the ball with his legs.

Yep. In most past plays, he was dropping back. He was holding the ball forever, Steve, trying to get a guy to come open. And he just couldn't find a guy to come open. Outside of Valdez Scantling on that scramble drill, there really wasn't much going on, like in the intermediate or downfield. Like Mahomes' air yards just game were like really, really low.

Everything, he had to take everything underneath. And he only completed 16 passes. I do think the Chiefs got a little cutesy, though, with the run game. They were running the ball pretty effectively. They did take that lead. And I think they, for whatever first time we've seen in a while, they'd get a little conservative, probably because of how patient

the Bengals are playing on defense. But all it takes is one three and out to change the whole game. And that's basically what happened. And I think that's what the Bengals want teams to do against them. Like, they want you to have to be patient. And that's why I think they're so good against Kansas City. Because if there's one thing that you can like, I don't know if knocking is the right word,

but if there's the one thing that you can say about Mahomes, it's that a lot, he loves to make a big play. He loves to make plays. And I think sometimes patient, like sometimes his patience runs thin when the game gets on the line. Yep. And that's what, and that's why Cincinnati is three and oh against them in their last three games,

all of which were pivotal, have been pivotal games over the course of a season. Yeah. And we've talked about this a lot on the pod, too, where Mahomes has been very good at playing the patient game until it's time not to. And so what normally happens in a game is, you know, Mahomes has to take all these underneath throws or these really short throws. It doesn't work the intermediate deep parts, you know, for a while.

And then eventually the defense, they make mistakes. And Mahomes exploits those mistakes. Then they get the big plays. Right. They get a ton of big players. They start piling up. Well, the Bengals just don't make mistakes. Yeah.

In all three games, they just don't do it. They do not allow it to happen. We will give you the short throw every time, but we are not going to make a mistake in the back end of this defense and give you a freebie. And they got one early in the game to Valdez Gantling, and the Bengals shut it down after that. There was nothing, not to beat a dead horse.

But it really is remarkable. So eventually, you know, either Mahomes is going to have to force a ball, which he didn't do in this game, credit to him. or they're going to have to play this conservative game plan. And if it's not working, then they're not scoring points. So Bengals seem to be in the chief's head right now. But this game had massive playoff implications, right?

Because the chiefs are fighting for a one seed. The Bengals are fighting for the division. They're tied with the Ravens. Ravens currently own the tiebreaker. But they have quarterback issues there. That could change very quickly. The Bengals are now sneakily in play for the one seed, well. It's the bangles

schedule down the stretch though. It is. They do have a rough schedule. It's a brutal schedule down the run. Point being, we've seen a flawed chiefs team now. We've seen a flawed bills team. I'm betting favorites. One of those two teams is the one seed. But if the Bengals win out, definitely don't count them out as

potential one seed there. If the Bengals went out, they're, I mean, what, they're, hold on before I say that. They're, well, for sure, the two seed. Kansas City would have to slip up once. But if they won out, they would have, they face the bills. Oh, they do. In week 17, which, okay, great.

That's a, that's a battle for essentially two or one seed or an AFC championship. I mean, I think that we can confidently say that it's the bills, the chiefs, and the Bengals and the AFC, and then it's everybody else. Am I right? What if Armstead comes back quickly? Does that elevate the dolphins in your mind? Gosh, that's right. I forgot about the dolphins.

It does, but I still like the defenses of those three teams to manufacture a game plan in that week. When it's push all your chips on the table one game to win it all, I think that those three defenses match up better against Miami's offense than. Miami's defense matches up against any of those. Yep, I think I agree with that. And I think that's where, like, I don't disagree that Miami's offense could still put points on the board. I just don't know if their defense could hang with those three offenses for an entire game. Yeah, fair.

And so, yeah, no knock against Miami's offense. I think that if and when they get Toronto arm said, and even if they don't, I think that McDaniels, smart enough that they can manufacture ways to continue to produce 28 plus points a game. Yep. It's just, I just think, I just don't trust their defense when it comes in a shootout to get a pivotal stop. Agreed. I do want to cover the Tampa Bay, New Orleans game. Before we get to that, though, I do want to make a couple other notes that are

playoff relevant. Okay. One, the Dallas Cowboys destroyed the, Colts. I don't really want to get into that game. But it's worth noting because Dallas is absolutely surging right now. Yes. And other than the Eagles, I think Dallas is probably the other favorite to come out of. It was, it was the 49ers for me, but obviously with the Jimmy G injury.

Yeah, for sure. The Cowboys offense is completely different with Dak. And Dak is like finally back in the swing of things, I think. Like he's fully back integrated into the offense, healthy, confident. And that's scary because that offense, every time, it's the only issue with the Cowboys is that DAC hasn't necessarily been healthy for extended periods of time. But when Dak is healthy, that offense has gone. They go with him.

And they're doing it again. And I think that this feels like a different Cowboys team than the last three years. Well, they've learned from. past mistakes. Like since, like the big concern when Zeeke came back was like,

oh, this is going to turn into the Zieg Elliott show. And they have found a way to maximize Zique while also maximizing Pollard. And it's a two-headed

monster that's a little scary. And Pollard's out touching Zique since he's been back. Yeah. Just a few touches, but it's still, it's more that 50-50 split we wanted that we thought

was appropriate rather than the Zique show. And it's really helped his offense because Pallard is such a weapon in the past game. Yes. He's so explosive. He's just a player that you want on the field all the time, and we were concerned that they

were going to take him off, and they haven't. And also, C.D. Lamb is coming alive with DAC behind center. Yes. I think he trusts and enjoys playing with DAC more than anyone. Well, Dak is more willing to put the ball in some of those tight windows for CD. And CDs, they're getting him more involved. with some manufacturer touches as well,

which I've never understood why that wasn't a thing. I would be getting, CD is one of the receivers similar to Debo where he's so good in space and after the catch, I would be looking to get him the ball pretty often, pretty frequently. Yeah. I wouldn't try to get those deep targets for him.

You should be a 10 to 15 touch game. Yeah. In this game, he had seven targets and then two carries on trick plays, which great. I love the trick plays. He had 23 yards rushing and then, and then they need five catches for seven ones so they're getting close to that

they didn't have to do much in this game because this one i mean that it's the colds is terrible but the cowboy's defense is fun to watch and you know everybody like we we said it earlier in the in this podcast that you know turnover luck is a thing but i guess if the cowboys are just going to carry this turnover what it's not for the cowboys. That's just not for two years. Yeah. Like we're going on two years here.

So I, until until it completely turns its head, the cowboys are great at producing turnovers. And with deck in the game, they don't turn the ball over that much. That it's, it's a recipe for a, it's a recipe to make a run in the playoffs. It's reminding me of, of early Legion of Boom. Now, they don't have this quite the secondary talent that that team had. but like the system's pretty similar. They're utilizing other zone concepts more than just that Seattle cover three.

But they still play the Seattle cover three quite a bit. They're playing a lot of cover two. They'll mix in some quarters, some six, a little bit of man as well. But this defense, they're all ballhawks. They're all going for strips. They're all going for picks. They have the pass rush talent. Like that Legion of Boom team, the secondary got all the credit.

But what people forget, man, is they had multiple demons rushing the passer. Well, yeah, that's what helped them make the leap. Was when they brought in Bruce Servant and Cliff April. And Michael Bennett and Chris Clemens, like all those elephant Leo type players that just put that scheme so well, they, in the Dallas, they have their guys. They've got a bunch of them. It's not just Parsons either.

Yeah. It's Dorrance Armstrong, when they need him to make a play, he's been playing plays. It's. To Marcus Lawrence when he's available. Yeah, to Marcus Lawrence, obviously. it's the the one they brought in from Atlanta. Foller, Dante Foller.

I love Donovan Wilson. I love how they play Donovan Wilson in there as like their... Cam Chancellor. There's the enforcer. Put him in the box. Like we'll even use him as our second linebacker a lot of times. Yep. He's the enforcer in that defense.

Like if you want to throw the ball over the middle, you're going to have to deal with Donovan Wilson. Yeah. The Cowboys are a force to be reckoned with. and they play the Eagles one more time this year, right? Yes. I think that could be a very fun game to watch. It could be up there for a game of the year.

Steve, we've hit all the podcasting cliches today. We've said hashtag fun to watch like seven times. Love it. So I didn't even want to talk about that game. We just wanted to note that the Cowboys are surging. Yeah. Another quick note too before we, we're going to end with Saints Tampa. is the

Las Vegas Raiders right now, Steve. They're having a Detroit Lions-esque coming out party. They've been shalacking. I mean, they're not winning by huge margins, but they look good. I honestly had not been paying it. Like, I had not been paying attention to them

hardly at all because after the beginning of the season and Josh McDaniel being there, their offense looking, okay, their defense looking like a sieve. It just, you know, it spelled a recipe for, you know, a 6-11 team. And it was like, okay, we can forget about them. But here they are. They won three in a row.

What is it for their last five? Their offense is humming. Devante Adams is right up there leading the, like right around leading the NFL and a lot of receiving stats. Josh Jacobs is the greatest running back of all that. Yeah, Josh Jacobs is technically on pace to break Eric Dickerson. and single season record if he maintains his per carry. Wait, is that true? Yes, he would beat it by one yard.

Holy crap. Like Josh, yeah, which again, crazy. They didn't sign him to this fifth year on his rookie deal because it was like, like it seemed like he was kind of cooked. Like he didn't bring a tonne and he's completely flipped the narrative. He's been amazing, incredible to watch. Their defense still concerns me in ways, but. Yep.

If they get a lead though and they can get those pass rushers going, that defense plays a lot better. Yes, that's true. And Derek Carr looks to be much more settled within the offense than he did at the beginning of the year. The beginning of the year, he looked, he had happy feet in the pocket. He was escaped. I mean, granted, their offensive line is not good. But it's not good.

There were plays early in the year where you could tell Carr knew so little about what he was supposed to do on the play. It was like they blindfolded him, and then he just had, they just had Devante shouting at him, Derek, I'm over here. And then he would just chuck it in that direction. Yeah. Like, there were games like, I think Devante like week two had like 17 targets and only like six of them

were car or something. He's like, it literally as a car was blindfolded throwing to Devante's voice. Where are you, Devante? Where are you? And they're like, Derek Carr is usually, he's always been kind of an in command quarterback,

whether they're off. But like, holy cow, did he at the beginning of the year look panicked and just like, oh my God, I'm going to get out of this pocket right now. And like exactly like turn, flip the hips, say a prayer and launch it to Devante Adams or just, you know, the three 60 yard passes to Mack Collins, a game that never get completed. Yep. So, Steve, they're in risk of winning six games in a row because they get the Rams this week. You're at risk. You always love the way I phrase things. They're at risk of winning six games in a row,

which would give them an eight and seven record, and they would be in the playoff picture. I mean... That seventh spot is going to be a bloodbath. It is. It is. Because that's... Because right now, unless...

Right now, that's really the only spot in my mind that is really up for grabs, other than if Baltimore were to completely falter with Lamar Jackson out. Like if they were to drop three in a row, which I don't really think they will, they kind of have a favorable schedule. If they were to drop three in a row, then like, okay, maybe we have the six and seven spot in play. But right now looking at it, the Jets feel like the spot that could be got because the Jets have a tough schedule. You know, they're kind of, you know, they're playing with.

house money here they were never supposed to be in this position young team robert saula's but teasing that zach wilson might return at some point which just chalk him up for however many else he starts in like it's you know it feels very like the like it could falter and so the raiders are yeah the raiders have a chance um look at the the raiders schedule coming up too this is why i said they're in risk of winning six in a row because they have the rams this week. Yeah, which have to assume that's a dub. I know it's the NFL, but the Rams team that might, a Rams team on Thursday that might

start Baker Mayfield. That is tomorrow's game, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm actually going to watch a Thursday night game because I want to see Derek Carr smell the blood in the water and just go get it. And just play that, play that, against that stupid soft zone that the Rams just continually drop into. Yeah, watch Devante just tear that.

that. Yeah. And then McDaniel gets his revenge game week 15. Which historically, they win. Belichick's like his tree. I swear to God he does it. Usually it was when the Patriots had Tom Brady and he would keep that coach in position for like two or three years longer than they should because everybody would look back

and be like, look what they did to the Patriots. They shut them down. They beat him. It was crazy. And I feel like about. It's a little bit tighter situation now because Belichick and the Patriots are right in play for that seven seed as well. Yeah. But traditionally.

Oh, that game is going to have a ton of playoff implications. Because they're both going for that seven seed. But I think it could, I know it was true at one time. I don't know if it's still true. But the only like subset of people build Belichick as a losing record to is former coordinators of his. Yeah. that's actually crazy Matt Patricia beat Bill Belichick

in a football game and he got like a year more of like in Detroit because of that game they dumped Gatorade on Matt's head after that game yeah it was like week three or week three or five or something like that

yeah the Raiders finishing stretch though that's where facing the 49ers and the chiefs back to back hold on though they get the Steelers after the Patriots so they could win those three games easily. Yes. Which would put them at 8 and 7.

Yes. And then it gets real when they have to play the 49ers. That's basically a home game for them even though it's not technically. Oh, it is a home game. Well, wait, home game for the Raiders? Yeah. Oh, yeah. But it is actually a home game.

I was looking at the wrong side here. Yeah, it is legitimately a home game. Yeah. But I was like, even if it was San Francisco, they would get a ton of Raiders fans there because a lot of them still live in the Bay Area, obviously. But that game's going to be without Jimmy Garoppolo. I'm not saying they're going to win. I'm saying they could be more competitive than we initially thought.

And then the chiefs, you fully expect the chiefs to demolish them unless, Steve, the chiefs have the one seed wrapped up. True, true, which is a 100% of possibility because the Bengals play the bills in the, what was it, the second or third, either week 16 or 17. 17 and if they if the bengals won if the bengals won that game they would both and let's say the bengals also won the rest of their games going in the bengals and the bengals and the bals have four losses and the bengals have the two seed if the chiefs win out and are like in no there's actually there's not sorry it all would come down to the bengals if the bengals won out

this game matters for the chiefs because they have three losses if they lost to the raiders they would be at four losses and they'd be losing the tiebreaker to Cincinnati for the one seat because of the head to had. But if the Bengals faltered any point in that, you know, they have five losses and the bills have, it doesn't matter if they have four losses because Chiefs have tiebreaker. You know, it really all comes down to what happens with the Bengals and if they win out or not. Point being, though, sometimes to have the crazy comeback story the Raiders are trying to put together, you need to both get better and you need some luck along the way. Yes.

And they could very well get lucky. Yeah. They have a chief scene that's not playing for much. Yeah. They could. And like you said, luck, the 49ers, playing the 49ers without Jimmy G. That's huge. I don't, it's, yeah.

Del comes down to can Derek Carr produced against 49ers defense? Because I think this entire season hinges on the Raiders continuing to put up like 27 points a game. because again, their defense just, it's not that good. Their secondary is not that good. And they need to put themselves in a position, like you said, to have their defensive line pin their ear backs, pin their ears back and go like the whole game. Correct. Okay.

Let's get to our last game here and then get out of here. Enough Raida's talk. The New Orleans Saints. fell to the home team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1716, on a Monday night thriller. That was, it was a good game. It was a little bit low scoring. The buck's offense did basically nothing until Tom Brady was in a two-minute situation, was allowed to call the place.

Speculation, of course. Speculation, but it would track because the difference between the Buccaneers and hurry up and the Buccaneers in normal offense is like, insane. They lead, I mean, they're the number one offense and hurry up and they're like the number 25th offense when not in hurry up. But Tom, Tom makes another incredible comeback. It just, he just always seems to do it. And this one was very, uh, it was very fun to watch. Hashtag fun to watch. But Tom looked awesome, those final two drives, honestly. He did. He did. Rashad White looks great. I think that he's, I think he's supplanted.

to Fournette, in my opinion. I think he's way better. He's way more. Hornet did have more touches in this game, but you can see the explosiveness with White. It's just a little bit better. I mean, how much does it mean that Rashad White was in for that last play, not Fourna?

Probably a good bit. Yeah. I will say that Rashad White's whiffed and some past pro responsibilities, which is probably the only thing keeping him from completely taking this job, right now. Right. So they just say, yeah. If him and Tom can get on the same page there or him in the offensive line, I think

the writing's on the wall for Fournette. I don't know what they're going to do with Fournett's contract because he's way overpaid to be a back of running back. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not sure they can sidestep that. But that's an offseason discussion. Yes.

But the reality is the Buccaneers, every time they seem to falter, then they pick themselves back up. And they are in a terrible division. and they're kind of like firmly in first place in that division. I don't see anyone catching them now. With that win, yes. I think it. Yeah, with that win.

With that win for sure, I think that it's pretty much, they're good. Unless something crazy happens, they owe the, they should send a division like ring or whatever they get for that. They should send one to Mark Ingram. Now, I think it stinks because he's catching a lot of flack for it, but like the situational, awareness was a little hard to watch from yes but also how do you expect your team to not get a third one and then punt from the teams 44 i didn't understand the saints game i didn't understand what the saints were doing at the end of the game at all zero percent of me understood what was what they were doing what do you what do you mean steve why are you why like all of it any of it

Andy Dalton was playing super well. Their running game was terrible. Andy Dalton was playing very well. He has been playing very well all season. Just keep throwing the ball, in my opinion. Yeah, so for those that are not sure what Steve's talking about, third and one, Tampa Bay 44. There's five minutes left in the game.

The Saints were up, what, 16 to, was it three at that time? Yeah. Was that? It was 16 to 3. three was five minutes left in the game was that the drive before was that the drive before the first touchdown for the box yeah yeah okay 16 3 third and one from the Tampa 44 uh for whatever reason the Saints decided to throw the ball there instead or I would have ran the ball twice and they run a they ran like a hurry up into it yeah they ran like a hurry up and it was a it was a

one read one route call and it was a it was a slant route and it got broken up which fine i don't you know hey i don't hate going back to the dj shark thing on thanksgiving the dj shark bomb you don't call the pass play on third and one from the 44 unless you're ready to go for it on fourth down yes that's my firm stance especially against tom freaking brady i did see a chart um i think it was it arjun manon i think it might have been him but i saw it on twitter of the same have gone for it on fourth down, like zero percent of the time when they should.

All season, zero percent. Good job, DA. It's been. Yeah. Just so we're clear. Just so we're clear, they get to the fourth and one from the Tampa Bay 44, and they decide to punt. And Brady gets the ball from the nine, marches them down, they score touchdown.

Then they get a stop, get the ball back. Brady marches them down again, score another touchdown. Actually, they had to do it twice, right? Yeah, two in a row. Called back. Yeah. Well, no, because Godwin scored and then it got called back. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that was a great throw and catch, too. Oh, my goodness, that throw was ridiculous. Godwin's a monster. And then, yeah. Oh, was the third in one play of the throw to taste him over the middle? It was a slant route. I thought it was a back side.

it was a front side slant. It still might have been Taysen, but I thought it was a front side slant that it was just tight coverage. I don't think it was a slant because it was a layered throw. Dalton had to put that over, it may have been a post, Dalton had to put that over a linebacker, basically between two defenders.

And it was, it was a very nice throw. I'm looking at. Oh, that's, yeah, I know what you're talking about. because there was there were two plays that that was a sick throw to taste them that was a good one no that was a third and that was not the third and one that was the second time they were coming around the third and one again i'm pretty sure it was a front side slam single route hurry up like just go win your route and yeah yeah i think it was uh i think it was jemelle dean that locked him up pretty well there and then they punted there and then

it was they punt they and then they got the ball back andy dalton i think got sacked on second down He got sacked on second down and then ripped. Yeah, that absolute insane seam ball to Taysam. And that was, it was just a really good play on the ball by both the Bucks defenders. Yeah, Taysam should catch this. He should, absolutely. It ended up for throw of the week, though. This was third and 17 after the Tampa Bay, their first touchdown.

This should have ended the game, but it didn't. Um, anyways, long story short, Tampa Bay gets the W. They're cruising. I mean, they've, what if they, they've won four of their last five? No, three of their last four. They should have won last week against Cleveland. So they're kind of low-key surging right now as well. They're playing their best football of the year.

Offense still is a long way to go, but their defense is really putting the clamps on people. It's so funny to say that because, like, the record says it. everything says it but every time i watch the game i feel like zero percent excited or confident or anything about the buck in the years in this situation where it's it's a drive with the game in the line i am confident because i know tom's the one calling the place it's just a matter of how many games is he going to get that chance if this office keeps playing like this exactly but they have a reasonable schedule down the stretch. So the only tough, I would say, like,

mountain they have to climb is versus Cincinnati at home. But they get San Fran this week, first game without Jimmy. That could be, you know, it's still going to be a tough game because San Fran's defense, as we've noted for the 70th time on this podcast. But then they get, after Cincinnati, they closed the season with Arizona, Carolina, Atlanta. Yeah, that's. Those are three 500 teams, basically.

So, I mean, they're, or no, I mean, not 500 teams. significantly less than 500 teams. Yeah. So. I wouldn't be surprised if, uh, the Buccaneers just blitz, Purdy like crazy.

I would be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if Devon, or if, yeah, Devin White take, doesn't drop back once into coverage. And just they send him out after him like a banshee. Cause he's going to,

because Purdy will throw those yolo balls. I, I'd like to see some gap exchanges too, just try to shut down this run game early. Yeah. Just get real, real aggressive, which you know Todd Bowles has no problem being. That's what, yeah, I think he'll smell blood in the water. It hasn't been, like, hasn't been as great this year as it had in previous year. They've had injuries on the, on the back end of their defense.

And we've seen Devin White be more of what he is than what a lot of people thought beforehand. And, but I still think that if there's a, if there's a, if there's a, defensive coordinator who's good at it, it's bulls. He's a head coach not, but if there's a person who runs a defense that's good at smelling blood in the water, it's bulls. For sure. And I think he'll attack Purdy a lot. Yes, sir.

All right. That's it. What a action-packed. You know what we didn't mention, Steve? Gosh, dang it. There were a lot. I mean, the Jets, Minnesota. You need to be done.

Jets Minnesota is, you know. That team honestly was terrible, though. Such an awful game to watch. Mike White is, he's nearing his precipice, I think. Like, he's due for, it's either going to happen this week or next week where he's going to throw for like 130 yards and he's going to have two interceptions. It's just like, it's coming. Like, it's close, but it's coming.

It happened last time. I think we're seeing it happen again where I think that we could see Mike White a little fall back more, fall more back to Earth than. than maybe the Jets want. Yep. Minnesota still keeps pulling things out by the skin of their teeth. They're 10 and 2, so. They're 10 and 2, but they, every game's a nail-biter.

It's the craziest 10-and-2 team of all time. And then what was the other, what was the one other thing? Oh, we didn't talk about the biggest blowout of the week. I know it doesn't have a ton of the playoff implications yet. No, the, the, the, the, we talked about the biggest blowout. We didn't talk about the biggest surprise blowout. No, we didn't talk about the biggest blowout in my heart, Steve. Yes, yes.

The Detroit Lions hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars and absolutely took care of business. The first game in, I don't know, recent memory, five, six, seven years where the line, you never for one second doubted that the Lions were going to win that game. First time. They didn't punt. They scored on every drive that didn't end of the game. They scored on every drive. How many times does that happen in your lifetime?

As a Lions fan. The last time it happened was, I think it was 2015 or 2017 against the Packers in week 18 and a not, it doesn't matter game. Was there turnovers though? Because no punts, no turnovers is incredibly rare. That I don't know. I know it was no punts. I can't speak to the no turnovers, though. So the Lions scored four touchdowns, four field goals, eight drives, eight, eight.

eight scores. Defense was absolutely ridiculous. All I can say is watch out. These next two weeks are their season, in my opinion. These next two weeks are... One game at a time.

Week 14 is their season. But yeah, Minnesota, I think Minnesota Jets are going to define what the season is. It's either... It's either an, like, if they win both of them, it's an awesome playoff run that some saw coming most gave up on

unfortunately they got absolutely boned by the commanders and the giants deciding to tie that screws the lion's so bad people don't realize it but listen if they get all all it matters is that if they get to 10 and 7 they have like an 83% chance of making it to the playoffs yep

and that's what they like that means they have to win out it does it does but again it's these next two weeks if they win if they can win two in a row those last three games of the year are winnable and you're in business business. I mean, the defense is clicking. They're all super young, but they seem to be figuring it out. James Houston has the greatest been since Von Miller. Just kidding. But the skip to my Lou move was hilarious and insane. You know why that worked, right? Because he had he been like bull rushing all day.

No, no. First quarter, he just hits. Who's their left tackle? It's Cam Robinson. Yeah, I was going to say Robinson. First quarter hits Cam Robinson with a peer speed rush and a dip. He gets around the corner and waxed Trevor Lawrence. Doesn't get a sack, but he wax him. Yes, that's right. Trevor, that was a sick ball by Trevor Lawrence. That was an insane out route. It was like a 15-yard out route that he threw while James Houston just stuck a helmet right in the center of his gut.

So then he hits that, he changes the temple on him and hits the skip to my loo. And, dude, look at Robinson's body language. Like Houston stole that man's soul. I don't know that Robinson will ever be the same. No, probably not. So James Houston's a six-round pick for the lions. He led the, or he broke the HBCU sack record last year, correct? Yes.

He did over 20 sacks last year. Yeah. He's a baller. Like the only reason he hadn't been getting, like the only reason he hadn't been getting on the field is that Dan Campbell and some of the, like, some of the coaches of Detroit, basically like said that yeah he's great at he's great at rushing the passer but he's still learning a lot of the other aspects of the game like containing and functional strength is a big issue with him as you saw in preseason because he was getting a ton of reps in preseason they were moving him a lot

of they were playing a lot of him in a lot of off the ball linebacker situation in case they were doing that and in preseason preseason it was less than camp and then now it's none yeah now they've completely abandoned that and they're like just go pin your ears back and go which that is so great to have a weapon like that. Yes. But all that to say, the defense is coming alive and the offense is healthy.

And if there, I don't, I don't know how many teams can stop this offense. Like, they've put up 31 points a game at home. And the two games on the road that are, the two games that are ruining their road points for game, They played not healthy.

They played the Patriots and the Cowboys, which was that two-game stretch where they got beat up. They lost by a combined, what would it be, 53 to 6. They put up six. They played about St. Brown, basically. Yep. In the Dallas game, he played, like he was hurt. He tried to play, I caught one pass and then never came back in the game.

And they were missing Swift, and their interior offensive line was a little bit in flux. And just, they had injuries kind of all over. but the team they're getting healthy the offense is humming ben johnson is really is really good at calling plays and the defense is kind of figuring it out yep we'll see what happens it's it's regardless they're a very very fun watch they are yep say i will say it again hashtag fun to watch because that offense that offense goes and that defense they're producing turnovers the turnover luck is switching for them that's what's been big too yep huge pressure in the quarterback there were a lot of drawbacks

in this game where Lawrence wasn't like so a lot of times in the past the lines would have one player that gets pressure yep and then the quarterback just moves the pocket and he's going there were a lot of drawbacks in this game where the entire thing was collapsing on Lawrence so alim was winning it dude alim had a rep against brandon sheriff where he just threw him like 17 miles he did a hump move called him right into the armpit and just threw him on the ground, like, violently. On the James Houston sack, Pascal just bull rushed his guy all the way back into Lawrence. Like, if Houston doesn't get that sack, Pascal gets the sack immediately.

Yeah, Houston got out there in like 0.5 seconds, though, so it's hard to. It's true. It's hard to compete with that. Yeah. All right. We won't pour you with any more line stock, but they will become playoff relevant, I bet, at some point in this season. maybe the next two games. They just have to win.

One way out. One way out. Have you seen Andor yet? No, I still haven't seen it. Dang you, you, Steve. I know. I do, one way out.

It's so much pressure to choose a TV show and run with it. It's not when it's as good as Andor. Just freaking watch it, man. All right, all right, all right. And then when you get to episode 10 and you're feeling emotional revelation and a spiritual connection to the show, you can call me and we can talk about it all right deal all right yeah all right that's going to do it we're out of here the goal was one hour we're at 122 not bad for us because we're long-winded individuals

but uh anyways thank you so much for listening um check out some of the cool content on the fantasy points website we've got some really awesome stuff i know the fantasy football playoffs are heating up now is the time to capitalize let's get after it engage all right we're out here i'm your host bro Whitefield's my host, Stephen O'Rourke. We are out. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.