Fantasy Football Daily - Week 10 All-22 Review and Playoff Implications | Take Talk Podcast

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Steve O'Rourke (@callmesteveo7) and Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) go game-by-game through the 2023 Week 10 NFL slate and break down each game from a film perspective, also hitting on all the playoff implications from each game. SIGN UP FOR FANTASY POINTS WITH CODE GURRIFIC25 AT CHECKOUT FOR 25% OFF: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/⁠⁠⁠⁠ READ DR. EDWIN PORRAS' INJURY [PRO]NE GUIDE WITH CODE INJURYPRONE25: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://injuryproneguide.myshopify.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Use our code FANTASYPTS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- 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 FantasyPoints.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. Yo, and we are back another episode of Take Talk podcast on the Fantasy Points Podcast Network. I'm your host, Brett Whitefield, joined by my usual co-host, Stephen O'Rourke, Steve. How are you, sir? I am fantastic. Couldn't be better.

Great week of football. I'm excited to dive into it. Nice. Before we dive in, I got two things of note. One, I'm going to brag on Steve real quick. This is normally kept behind company doors here or behind the curtain. But, you know, in the data side of the business, anytime there's a standout performer, a standout guy that's just, you know, carrying a heavy load, we acknowledge that with what we call a game ball.

the game ball comes with a financial bonus and uh and also props in the the company chat obviously which is a lot of add-a-boys which might feel better than that the financial bonus honestly especially after the week we just had but um long story short Steve was this week's game ball recipient and you know normally we don't i don't usually give out game balls to guys that are technically full-time but Steve just went that far above and beyond it was absurd um I think he had his hand in literally every single game. So that's not normal. That's actually ridiculous.

So hats off to you, Steve. I wanted to acknowledge you to the millions and millions of listeners. I appreciate that. So yes, thank you very much. It was a good week for it. Yeah, it was. Well, so some backstory there.

One of our top producers was, you know, he got married this week. Shout out to Mikey T. Mikey T. got married. So he wasn't with us. So, you know, that was a big workload off the table that needed to get replaced. And then we had a couple guys calling sick. We had a guy with an unexpected work trip come up for his full-time job.

And long story short, we were massively short-handed. And Steve, he carried the team. He put the team on his back and said, we're getting to that finish line no matter what. You don't know me, son? David Goggins style. Anyways. Yeah, second thing to note, the Buffalo Bill starting quarterback Joshua Allen has retired. and he's being replaced by Joshua Galin.

I don't know. I don't know. This is unexpected news, obviously, but it turns out, actually, he's been playing all season. So Josh Allen, nowhere to be found. Josh Galin, however, is playing for the Buffalo Bills, and it has not looked pretty. Steve's hard time holding his composure.

I just didn't expect this. I was like, oh, my gosh, is he about to break news live? No, no, no serious to that, though. We're going to go game by game this week, so we'll get to that game, but Josh Allen did in fact not look like Josh Allen this week. Or I should say the last five weeks, but anyways, I digress. Steve, let's go game by game, but we're going to do it differently. We're going to do it with like a focus on the playoff process. So we're not going to spend a lot of time talking Carolina, Chicago, okay?

Now, that game was kind of a dumpster fire. it was painful to watch Tyson Badgant is a cool story he's now what is he won two games two and one two and one two and one yeah two and one yeah so I mean that's core maybe three and one now I'm confused

anyway yeah cool story there he's not doing anything special though guys is like yeah he's proved he belongs in the league probably backup quarterback trajectory with developmental upside but for the most part like we're we're just you know there's really nothing to talk about there. So I don't know. Do you have any notes on that game? You just want to move to the next one?

No, I don't have any notes. I don't like that was actually one of the games. I didn't really do Thursday night. And so I kind of made a conscious choice that I don't need to worry about this game that much. Well, I need to, so I bragged on you for a minute. Now I got to brag on myself, by the way. I forgot about that. I gave you and Chris Thursday night football off. Yeah. And it's because I had the foresight to know that Sunday was going to be a crap show with everyone, and in sick and that you would have to pull some extra weight. So I gave you the extra day or two of rest there. Wow, what a guy.

Man, that's impeccable foresight there from me. It is. All right, jumping into the Colts New England game, this is another one where I don't have much. This was the Germany game, Frankfurt, Germany. Yeah, this game was a snooze fest. I think there was, what, 70 carries or 70 design runs in this game or something crazy like that.

New England couldn't do anything but run the ball. I think they only dropped back 27 times. It was a mess. Yeah. And the Colts ran well. I mean, it was an ugly game. It's too bad for the people of Germany that they had to see that after getting all the excitement from the Kansas City Chiefs Dolphins game.

They had to follow it up with that. I don't know. The Colts are, I mean, really the only thing of Noah is the Colts are a frisky team. they find a way to win. I don't know. They are in the playoff race because 14 of the teams in the AFC are in the playoff race right now. But they're in a somewhat light division.

Jaguars are beatable. Titans are beatable. So this is, it's a team that, you know, could make some noise at times because their defense plays pretty well. And Gardner-Binchub runs the offense. And Jonathan Taylor looks to be back. I think that's the biggest thing for them. technically they're only like a half game out of the playoffs right now so right that's what i mean

is there are literally three through 14 the teams in the afc are like fighting for playoff spots yep it's very just uh very different than the nfc picture which is almost yeah feels like it's basically locked in at this point but right um anyway so yeah moving on here Cleveland Baltimore this game obviously had massive playoff implications. Both of these teams would be in the playoff hunt right now. They're battling for that division. They're battling for seating. It's crazy.

I think Steve and I were kind of feeling like Baltimore was showing that they were the cream of the crop and the AFC at least. Yeah. Recent games. And then the Browns, they beat them on their home turf on Baltimore's home turf. This was pretty nuts. 33 to 31. What was your initial reaction to this game, Steve? I mean, it was just the chaos.

that ensued toward the end of the game. I mean, Baltimore was up 31.17, I think, in the fourth quarter. And, you know, seemed to be, you know, at least hanging on to the lead, keeping him at bay. But then Lamar Jackson, through the interception to Newsom, took it back, took it back for six. And that shifted the way the game played. And Deshaun Watson went 14 for 14 in the second half, which... Whoa, whoa, hold on a second. I don't want to cut you off.

I have breaking news, literally breaking news. Oh. This is serious. This is not a joke. Right. Deshawn Watson has suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the first quarter against the Baltimore Ravens and is heading to injured reserve. It's a displaced fracture in his right glenoid in his shoulder. He'll have surgery to repair full recovery is expected.

Pair that with what you just said. He went 14 for 14, you said? Yeah. In the second half with a broken shoulder? That's insane. but PJ Walker now they're starting quarterback that's that's ugly yeah so that can I mean that completely changes the outlook coming out of this game because now you know with Deshaun Watson coming alive in the second half now his numbers weren't insane I mean he obviously didn't

throw an incompletion there's a lot to be said about that but it was a lot of short short completions I think his ad was around like 3.9 he you know kind of just was it was a little bit back to what Deshaun used to be and that was he was being elusive. He was getting out of the pocket. He was extending plays. And a lot of it was checkdowns to guys outside of the pocket, which was fine. I mean, hey, it made it happen. They ended up winning the game. But with him being out, the way this team was playing without Deshaun Watson in the offense, I think that Cleveland's going to have a real tough uphill battle. to try and make the playoffs now.

I mean, their defense is going to keep them in pretty much every game, but, I mean, the ceiling of this offense just got lower to a ton with having PJ Walker be the starter. And it's too bad because Cleveland did look like they were kind of getting into a groove in that game.

And, yeah, that's a huge blow for Cleveland. Yeah, that is. That's, I mean, they have some easy-ish games coming up.

They've got the, Cardinals, well, then the Ravens again, then the Steelers, Broncos are beatable, Rams are beatable, Jags are beatable. So they don't play the Ravens again, right? Huh? I said they shouldn't play the Ravens again. No. I'm looking at the wrong.

Wow. Brain fried live on air. Pittsburgh this week. So yeah, Denver, Rams, Jags, Bears, bears coming up. Those are winnable games. Yeah. I won't write them off, but it's going to be tough. PJ Walker did not look good.

But like you said, their defense will keep them in a lot of games. So obviously their defense is elite having a historical type season that feels like. So for the Ravens, though, Steve, I mean, you feel any less about them? No, I mean, not really a ton. I think that, you know, this is kind of a classic just indivision game where things get fluky. I think that Baltimore's upside is still there. I think that Lamar, you know, it's a tough defense and they hemmed them in. Their pass rush was really good.

It's really the first pass rush, I think, this season that we've kind of seen really give Lamar Jackson issues. Yeah. And so that, I mean, a lot of most quarterbacks in the NFL wouldn't have played well with the pressure that they were getting in the second half. So overall, no, I don't think this worries me too much about Baltimore. I think that they're fine. I think that we could be, you know, outside of a couple plays, we could be looking at this in a different light where they beat Cleveland in a tough, kind of shoot-it-out game.

Or that, you know, that interception is what changed the game. If Lamar doesn't throw that, if that, because that was a tipped interception, right, popped up in the air. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oklahoma, I think, hit it, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you hit it with his, like his helmet. And so, you know, you can't put that, you can't really put that fully on Lamar. and so I like it doesn't really change the outlook for them but it puts it in at least creates so a little bit less distance between them and the rest of the division which I think that if they had won this game they had a good path to close out the division but now it makes it a little bit more interesting that's really the implications from Baltimore side that I see the Ravens were in firm control that game by the way it was it was 24 in late in the third they start the fourth quarter started was 31st 3rd it was 31st quarter started was 31st 1st 3rd

117. Yeah. And it's kind of a little bit of a collapse there. The pick six really is what, you know, did them in, as you said. So I still feel really good about the Ravens, though. I think Lamar is getting more and more comfortable. And then that's a tough defense. Like Lamar played better than pretty much any quarterback has against that defense this year, I think.

Yeah. He's done it twice now. Yeah. They did it when they played the first time. It was 28 to 7. That was when Cleveland had DTR starting. And I think, yeah, I think it was DTR. and their offense couldn't do anything.

So Lamar got a lot of chances. But I think just the fact that he's able to stand up with that defense and at least make plays and their run game, you know, was able to take advantage of some gaps in that defense where they are able to get attacked a little bit. And yeah, they're just a well-rounded offense. And I think that they're going to keep rolling. Yep. All right.

Moving on, the Houston Texans go in to Cincinnati and win a shocker. like an absolute shocker at the buzzer game winning field goal at the buzzer awesome game both these teams are playoff i mean i think they're in the playoffs as of today if the playoffs started today they're both in houston competing for that division that crappy division with jacksonville and uh in Cincinnati they're they're sitting the bottom of the air aFC north right now but they look they've looked great of recent weeks, including in this game, there was a moment they looked good. I think both these teams probably end up in the playoffs.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, especially Houston. I think that this, I think this really flipped the perception of this team, because now if you look at their schedule, what they've got coming up, they've got a pretty lights go the rest of the year.

And winning this game kind of puts them in a kind of in the driver's seat to get to the playoffs. I don't know if they're going to win their division. they could come close but I think that they're in the driver's seat to pretty much for sure get a wild card spot if they keep playing the way they are and with CJ Stroud it looks like it's only getting better with each week. Stroud is let's that's where the this conversation needs to be focused honestly no one expected the Texans to compete this is pretty much all on CJ Stroud yeah unbelievable

um actually I did I did John Hanson's show this morning with ad him Kaplan and Kaplan just made a fantastic point that it's a really simple point but i just hadn't thought about it in those terms of like the mark of a great qb is someone that elevates the guys around them yeah um think about what the texans have gone through this year their offensive line was been beat to crap up until now they're definitely healthy he the first eight nine games of the season he didn't have his offensive line um his receiver core is okay it's average it's probably right smack middle the league there's nothing super special Tankdell's a really good find.

But I don't think they've had their full complement of receivers. And like, I don't think they've had all of their top guys healthy in one game yet this year. Or if they haven't been like one. Probably depends what you consider their top guy. Noah Brown's clearly playing better than Robert Woods. So yeah. From that standpoint, yeah, Noah Brown missed like the first, what, seven weeks of the season. Yeah.

So, so, yeah, I mean, but still, even with Brown on the field, like there, it's just, it's an average unit. Like it's not a bad unit, but it's like Dalton Schultz is kind of jacking. Stroud's getting the most out of him. Nico Collins has got utility. There's some really good things about his game, but he's not a true number one receiver. Tank Dell's like, you know, a really tiny gadgety, you know, speedster who, yeah, he looks great, but like he's got limitations. Stroud is making these guys better. And he's literally, literally throwing into windows that don't yet exist with anticipation and rhythm and playing in structure, elevating that offensive line.

Like everything just looks really, really juicy. Bobby Sloick needs a lot of credit to calling the plays. He's dialing it up. But man, he looks awesome. Yeah, yeah, he looks great. And he's, I mean, you can tell how confident he is right now. The windows he is trying to place it in and the placement he's putting on the ball is, I mean, top three to five in the league right now. I don't mean, there's not many people that are doing it better than he is.

And, I mean, just the poise. he's had back-to-back weeks to drive to take the offense down the field to set him up to win the game. Like that is a, you know, it's intangible that you can't really measure, but he's clearly got it. And that goes a long way. And on the other side, their defense has been playing well. Like similar to their offense, they don't really have, you know, a superstar by any means. They have a lot of guys that do their job well. Greenert and Anderson are coming.

alive together, creating a lot of pressure on the outside. And they just have a, you know, a decent secondary. But same thing. They're just putting it together and they're playing well. They've gotten beat up a couple of times, but they at least give the, give the offense enough chances and keep them, keep them in games enough that they're able to, you know, hang around and win. So it's just it's, it's a credit to the coaching staff and it's a credit to C.J. Stroud, what they're doing to, you know, take it from what we thought was going to be, you know, a full reset year. They were going to, you know, win maybe five games.

And it was a look toward the future. But now that timeline's accelerated for what they can be this year and in the future. Yeah, I think they were tied for the betting favorite to have the number one overall pick this year, which they don't actually have. It's not fair. Right. They're looking ahead at their schedule real quickly. Arizona, Jacksonville, Denver.

I think these three games are huge for them. If they can get two or three wins with this schedule, I think that's huge. Oh, they're all at home, too? Yeah. Three straight home games against Arizona. So, again, they come away with three wins. They got Tennessee twice and the Colts down the stretch.

They're in the driver's seat to make the playoffs. That gets them to win all three of these games. They get them to eight wins. And then you got to basically win two of three against the Titans and Colts. you know and then if that's like they they have a really good shot to make the playoffs i'm feeling yeah yeah they do um for cincinnati untimely loss for them we we do have to move on but real quick like burrow's definitely playing better he had a couple bad pictures or i should say one bad one one

not terrible one um just an untimely loss they needed this game they're they're in the thick of it as we said they're last in their division right now with a winning record which is crazy um You have to think that it's only going to get better for them. Anna Rumo's, you know, he's scheming it up out of his mind. It's all in Burroughs back to Dealing. So I think as Higgins gets healthy, as Chase gets healthy, I think this offense continues to truck and they'll be fine. Yeah.

Yeah, they will be. And they've got a tough schedule coming up. It's a really, it's really going to be a battle to get there. But they've got the horses to do it. think that they're at least going to get, at least get into a wild card spot. And just them being in the playoffs is dangerous enough. That's all that matters is them getting there. It doesn't matter.

I mean, obviously seating is nice, but they just need to show up. Yep. All right. San Francisco, Jacksonville, you know, not a lot to take away from this game. San Francisco goes to Jacksonville and they win 34 to 3. I called this on the matchup points podcast because we know the formula that beating San Francisco. There's two things required.

one, you've got to have decent offensive tackles. If you can slow down the edge rushers of Sam Fran, their secondary has been bad this year. Two, if you can run the ball against them, you can control the clock a little bit. Yeah. Those two things, I think, are not the strength of Jacksonville.

Their tackles are not good. They've ran the ball well against bad opponents, but they haven't done so. They haven't really been able to establish it against good opponents. It hasn't been efficient either. Yeah, true. A lot of running into the backs of their own. guys. And the San Francisco

defense has been susceptible to getting beat up in the run game this year. And the fact that they weren't able to generate much of anything out of that is, that's the most concerning point coming out of this because they click. Jacksonville obviously wants to run the ball. It's a part of their identity.

But the fact that they can't establish it against good teams is concerning because you saw what happens when you get into a straight dropback game. I mean, obviously San Francisco's 's offense was cooking and they, they showed what they can be with their full complement of weapons and everything. But I mean, I just don't, what looked like a great receiving gore coming into the year is really falling short of expectations.

For Jacksonville? For Jacksonville. I think that they're not able to get Calvin Ridley involved. Christian Kirk can go off for games, but. he's not super reliable and Evan Ingram they only use in you know they use in short game they don't mean they don't use him to push the push

the push vertical at all and so I just they're really they're setting their own cap for what their passing game can be right now it feels like through play calling and just the lack of guys breaking out and making plays yeah part of it part of the Ridley thing Steve to me is like

for one like and dude I said this before the season started, by the way. We had no idea what he was going to be. He's been out of football, but for basically two full seasons at this point. Right. So expecting him to come in and still be the dude he was was bad. Those expectations were too high. And I don't know that Jacksonville felt that way, but I know the outside football world did.

I just thought that was too much. Could he still be a good player? Sure. And I think what you see is a guy who has a, he's still got a decent, you know, vertical skill set. And they're using him as a vertical player. All of his route almost are on that vertical stem. It was all outside the numbers. Yep.

And he just doesn't have the juice to beat the physical corners. And they don't have the tackles to hold up to get him the time to beat those physical corners. That's the other problem. So, like, in his game, I mean, Trevor was either under pressure or ball was out before Ridley's even out of his break on most routes. I mean, it was. And that's just been the theme all year. Christian Kirk, he, he, continues to be a stud, but they're down Zay Jones, and Ridley is not what people thought he would be.

I think those two things, like you said, they have a disappointing situation there at Passcatcher, and I think early in the year, too, Lawrence was trying to force it to Ridley to get him involved, and that wasn't working either, so now he's just kind of backed off all together. Yeah. But, man, yeah, they need help. They need to get right, so. Any other thoughts? So, yeah, I mean, the 49ers are in a dog fight with Seattle for first place in that division. Yeah.

And they still have two games against Seattle. They haven't played them yet, have they? I don't think that. This week is the first one, right? I think so. Yeah. So both six and three, really the only guys competing in that division. Sam Fran, obviously, is a great team.

I worry about Brock Purdy long term. Yeah, I mean. This is, I think. I forgot who I saw say it on Twitter, but I thought it kind of summarized, it summarized Brock Purdy pretty well. And that's just, if a defense takes advantage of the couple plays of chaos

that occur with Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers end up being in a close game or losing the game, you know, whether it's a winner loss. It's usually close. If a defense does not take advantage of those couple plays of chaos, then the 49ers run away with it. That's just, you know, that's kind of what their team is, is do, does a team capitalize on the mistakes that Brock Purdy's inevitably going to make?

Jacksonville had a couple opportunities and they didn't take advantage and could have kept them in this game. I still don't think their offense would have been able to get it done, but it would have kept them in the game. But they didn't take advantage of those things. And San Francisco was able to bounce back and, you know, obviously make plays and go down the field and score. So I just think that that's really, I mean, San Francisco rides and dies with Brock. pretty and how he plays. And it's a stressful life, but it's working because of the weapons that they have. So let's do this real quick.

So if the playoffs were today, I don't know who I'm cop, like super confident the 49ers easily beat in the NFC playoff picture. I think Detroit gives them hell, especially if it's on there, if it's in Detroit. Yeah. I think Minnesota gives them hell. We already saw Minnesota beat the Panthers. They already did. Philadelphia gives them hell.

Yep. Dallas gives them help. Well, I mean, they need the crap out of Dallas already. That's true. That is true. Dallas is healthy at offensive tackle now, though, which I think helps. But Dallas can't run the football a lick right now, which is really hurting them. So maybe Dallas isn't as tough as we think they are for the 40-year. And then so then you're left of what?

Seattle and New Orleans? Like, I think New Orleans, San Francisco easily beats them. Seattle, I'm excited to see what that game looks like. Yeah, I think that, I mean, it has a lot of implications, and I think that it could, this Seattle game could turn into what the Jacksonville game is. Yeah. But Seattle can run the ball a little bit better. And if they can, if they can do that, then I think they'll stay in it this week.

Yeah. Seattle also has an exceptional screen game as well, which the 49ers have gotten beat a little bit with, you know, because they do pin their ears back and go after the QB. Yeah, yeah. We have some voids there where they can hit the screens behind that. So, yeah, I just, I don't, all I'm saying is, I think San Francisco is a really good team. I don't feel great about them right now for whatever reason. I think the powers in the NF, in the NFC are all better or all would win on a neutral field right now against San Francisco.

That includes Philadelphia, Detroit, Minnesota, maybe Dallas. But, yeah. So point being, they need to keep winning because they're, going to need, they're going to need the road to go through San Francisco, I think. But anyways, moving on New Orleans, traveled to Minnesota to take an eight-point loss. The Minnesota Vikings continued to be a wow team, started 0 and 3. Yeah. They're like this year's Detroit Lions, actually, kind of crazy.

And then the New Orleans Saints, they're still in the first place in that division, but that division sucks. And I don't feel great about them. Yeah, Minnesota is they keep defying the odds. They did it all last year. You thought that it flipped and it was over this year, but they're bouncing back and they're back to their old cardiac kid ways. I'm just massively impressed with their defense and what Brian Flores has done. Just the way he's able to confuse quarterbacks and confuse offensive coordinators,

is impressive. I mean, it's been impressive. We knew Brian Fler's head. I think a lot of people forgot just because he hasn't been at the helm of a defense in a while. But he is one of the best coaches at getting more out of average players than almost any other defensive coordinator in the NFL. That's a fact. It just took all it just took him a few weeks to get in the groove. Like he had to find the identity.

He didn't really know. I think training camp, you sometimes you get onto something in training camp and then realize once you're playing real games that it just wasn't working what you were doing. Right. And so he corrected, went back to what he did in New England,

went back to what he started doing in Miami. And they look good. He's getting a lot out of that defense. They torment quarterbacks. I mean, they- Yeah, it's hell. I mean, they mug it up at the line of scrimmage, almost every down.

You don't know because of their blitz percentages, which are, you know, their number one in the NFL, they're up near 40%. I don't think they blitzed as much this week. I think that he was a little bit more, he was a little bit pulled back on that. I think that was just because he trusted his guys against their guys and kind of knew that Derek Carr gets a little bit worse

when he's given more time in the pocket. Like if you give him enough, it'd be like, it's kind of funny. If you give him more time, I think he overthinks it, And I think that Flores knew that and trusted that. But they just, they don't know what's coming. They play a lot of man to man. They make you get the ball out quick.

And they've got, you know, DeNeil Hunter's playing really well and generating a lot of pressure for that team. So they're on their way to the playoffs. I think that they can give almost, I mean, they've shown that they can give the 49ers trouble. I think they can give almost any team trouble right now with the way their defense is playing and Josh Dobbs continues to be kind of the story of the year with the way he's playing that is the story.

Josh Dobbs is a story. We buried the lead there. Yeah, we did. By the way, how much, like, so Josh Dobbs started the season as Cleveland's backup. How much you think they'd like him back right now? Yeah, I think they're kicking themselves right now for not hanging on to him because he would be perfect. That would be a perfect drop in right now.

You feel a lot better about the rest of your season with Josh Dobbs and Philip Walker. That's for sure. Yeah. And the biggest question is, you know, we've seen Josh Dobbs play not the greatest in Arizona. He's obviously playing super well. And the complement of weapons he has in Minnesota is vastly better than in the old line. And he's getting Justin Jefferson back. I mean, do you think, do you think that Dobbs?

can keep this up for the year? Do you think that this last week against a decent New Orleans defense, I think they've underperformed this year? But do you think that Dobbs can continue at this pace for the rest of the year? So, one of the things I actually talked about this

this morning with John, but one of the things I said was like, he started this way in Arizona too. He looked good. They obviously won a game. They shouldn't have won early. Maybe week one, they won. And then they competed against some teams. You just did not expect them to compete against. Yeah.

And a lot of it was just Dobbs. And what he brings to the offense that's different than Kirk is a level of creativity. You know, Chris your traditional drop-back gunslinger type, going to throw the ball in the tight windows. You can drop him back 50, 60 times a game. It doesn't bother him. Dobs isn't really that guy, but he has this creative element he brings where he is going to make things happen with his legs a little bit. And it's not always pretty.

Like, you know what it reminds me of? He reminds me of a more athletic Sean Hill. Remember Sean Hill lines back up? Oh, yeah, of course. Dobbs has got just this savvy creative ability where he can just make crap happen and you're just not sure how it gets done, but it does. And he's a legitimate threat in the run game too.

Like he moved the chains multiple times in this game. Yeah. Specifically, he had the touchdown as well. So like, is the passing efficiency going to be sustainable? I don't know. I mean, I would think the track record says no. That's probably why he's been traded four times in the last year and he's played for how many different franchises. NFL could also be wrong about him, too.

There's always that possibility. But I just tend to think that maybe that drops off a little bit. There's got to be a reason, like he's been on, what, five, six teams now that and it just hasn't started. Like, even the Lions traded him. Yeah. Like, and the Lions needed a backup at the time. They had Nate Sudfeld and had not yet signed Teddy Bridgewater, and they traded him to Cleveland. So I don't know.

Like, I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. I think you will see a slight regression, but the creative element he brings to the office. offense plus the the addition of Justin Jefferson I think will kind of level it out I do think he's he's good enough to get them keep them in the playoff conversation though yeah I think I mean I did the way they're playing right now with the defense just kind of just putting their digging their heels in and holding up enough each time they yeah I think that they're going to be front runners for a wild card. And if I mean as as a Lions fan as a person who, you know, pays attention to the

lions, I think that they make me nervous. The Vikings can could give the Lions hell. Now granted, a lot of cover one, a lot of cover one and that could, you know, that's kind of Jared Gough's wheelhouse, but that's a conversation for another day. Yeah, I mean, we know the line struggle with, with mobile quarterbacks and jobs is definitely mobile. So I texted you guys on Sunday watching the game where the frustrating about this is Josh Dobbs is going to give the Lions trouble. I don't think necessarily Minnesota means they'll win, but those games could be a lot tougher than you think. Or maybe they split one win in Detroit, you know, Vikings win in Minnesota. They're definitely better. And to your credit, you weren't

buying the Vikings dip this year. Everyone was projecting. You thought they'd still be pretty good. I thought they'd maintain a little bit. I didn't expect this from the defense. I thought it was going to be a lot of shootout games, and it has been here and there. But I didn't think the defense would take the step of play that they've taken. Right on. Green Bay goes to Pittsburgh and they lose by a score of 19 to 23.

Green Bay is not in the playoff conversation, but Pittsburgh certainly is again. It doesn't matter. And what's crazy about the Pittsburgh, this Pittsburgh team, Steve, is I don't think I, like, it hasn't looked good in any game. Oh, no. They've been. It hasn't looked pretty one single time.

They've been outgained in every single one of their games. And like in every single one of their wins. Maybe every game, I think. It has to be unsustainable, though. But it's, I would say it's unsustainable except Mike Tomlin freaking just does this. Guy just wins games. Yeah. And I mean, I think what's leading to a lot of these wins is that their defense is really good.

And their defense, it's, they're playing similarly to Cleveland. The difference that they're, that they're getting that Cleveland is not getting is that Kenny Pickett just isn't turning the ball over. They are not asking him to do much. All they're asking him to do is just hang on long enough, help flip the field, let the run game continue to pound it out and make a couple throws here. there and the defense will figure out the rest. True.

It's not pretty. It's the most Steelers brand of football that you can ever think of, I think. And it just, that's all it is, is they just, it's just don't make a mistake. Kenny, don't make a mistake, Kenny Pickett. Just hang in there. Keep the defense, you know, keep them on the other side of the 50. Don't give me, you know, short fields. And eventually the run game will break out.

eventually you'll you'll complete a pass that you know goes for a big play something will happen and we'll be fine yeah and the run game has broke out i mean over 200 yards rushing this week uh i think like 175ish the week before like yeah they've definitely gotten back to it reminds me of the um gosh what what year was it it was when they had um it's pre lavian bell that like rashad mendin hall And who was the cat, the undraved, Willie Parker? Willie Parker, yeah. It reminds me of that error a little bit where Mendenhall is the Naja Harris and Parker is the Jalen Warren. And it's just this smashmouth brand of football where they've got like a thunder and lightning combo.

Yeah. I don't know that Warren's necessarily lightning, but he's definitely a fat more quick faster guy than Naja Harris is. And Harris is kind of the hammer. They're kind of finding the rhythm, though, of how to use those guys together. And they're both getting volume too. Like I think this is the second week in a row. They both had over 10 carries. Like really good stuff.

You're seeing that run game come alive. That's going to help pick it in the long run, too. Should open up, you know, some more play action stuff. It's just, all in all, it's just crazy with Tomlin is always able to do with,

you know, we talked about Flores getting the most out of average. I mean, what about Mike Tomlin? Yeah, Tomlin's right there. And when, you know, where was Flores before he came to Minnesota?

He was in Pittsburgh. So he, you know, picked up. He obviously continued to pick up that from another coach. Yeah, Pittsburgh, they've gotten lucky in a couple wins, like that Baltimore win, that very easily could have not been if Baltimore receivers didn't phone it in.

But, yeah, the Steelers are going to give teams troubles. And I, you know, I don't think I can write them. I don't think I can write them out for the playoffs. I think that they're one of the teams I feel more confident in to make the playoffs and a lot of teams in the AFC right now just because of their defense in the way they've been playing. Yeah. Moving on, the Tennessee Titans go to Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay wins by a score of 20 to 6. I don't want to spend a lot of time in this game because these are both boring teams. Titans are not in the playoff picture. They're clearly playing their future cards here with Will Levis now as the starting quarterback. But Tampa Bay, on the other hand, you know, they're four and five, but they are in the playoff mix

because that division is bad. they're only a half game behind New Orleans. I just don't love a lot about this team. My opinion on them is swayed dramatically multiple times this year. I love the receiving core. Mike Evans and Jeff Gotham. They're both playing well.

Baker just continues to put the ball in harm's way in really untimely situations. Now, I know they won this team, so I'm not ragging at him for this game specifically. But with their offensive line being the way it is in their run game not being existent at all, their defense has taken a major step back. Yeah.

Just I don't feel great about them long term. I know that all they have to do is win their division games and they'll win that division. Yeah. I just don't think they're a true contender. So I just, I don't know. I don't really want to spend a ton of time talking about them. But no, I, the baker's starting to regress against pressure. Yeah.

We all predicted it. We all knew it was coming. It's happening. You're seeing it come to fruition. And yeah. They're enough. Nothing. Yeah, they might win the division, but they're not giving any notable teams trouble in the playoffs. The key with Baker is his body language, watch his body language. When he starts getting that frustrated hands on the hips vibe, that's when the wheels are coming off.

And it started to come out the last, this game not as much. The game before that, though, started to come out. And when Baker turns into a whiny baby, that's when things shut the one for him. So when he's out there having fun, then you know his team's probably playing well. He's playing well. But when he gets that pouty, pouty dog face going, he just, the wheels tend to come off at that point. So, yeah. We could probably move on. Atlanta travels to Arizona.

And they lose by a score of 23 to 25 in a thriller, by the way. This game was super thrilling. Falcons finally give Bijon Robinson the workload and Artie Farty Smith takes the loss. Yeah, it's perfect for Arthur Smith's agenda, isn't it? I think you were the one that put it out there that said, oh, good. Now that they lost while Bejohn got the bulk of the carries, Arthur Smith can justify what he's been doing. Yep.

But, yeah. Now, is he back as a starter? sounds like right so yeah yeah i think it's ridder the rest of the way riddra was inexplicably benched for throwing to drake london and kyle pitts so yeah i mean seriously he had his best two games of his career and got benched afterwards yeah it was kind of puzzling but those guys had a lot of targets in those games so you just have to wonder it's like so you not following the script and then john new smith of course only had two targets in this game and suddenly heineke's now on the bench what happened there so

Just saying, just saying, all signs point to Arthur's agenda coming through. No, on a serious note, though, I mean, I don't think the Falcons are in the mix in that division. I think they're kind of falling in. Arthur's just got, I think you're starting to feel the pressure of, because he's getting a lot of hard questions every week now. He's no longer the new coach, the new shiny coach there. He's the, this is kind of boring and stale and you have all these weapons and you don't use them, buddy. So, yeah, what's crap or get off the pot, I guess? the Cardinals, they're not really in the mix either.

So we can just move on. Yeah. Cardinals could make a push. I'm interested to watch them with Kyler Murray. It's a crappy conference. They could make a push if Kyler kind of brings that offense alive a little bit. Yeah. And they have two first round picks next year as well.

If I were them, I just continue to lose. Probably. Build that way. But yeah. All right. moving on the Detroit Lions travel across the country to the Los Angeles Chargers, Steve, and they win in a thriller, another thriller, like the fifth one of the week. 41 and 38 with a game ending field goal.

There was a lot to unpack from this game. Yeah. I'll start with this. Anytime you travel three time zones and get a dub, it doesn't matter how it happened. Right. You did it. Now, we could pick up. apart the Lions performance and then talk about the

defense and how bad it looked at times, but also just want to acknowledge that Justin Herbert played out of his mind in this game. This wasn't, like there's Ben games where the Lions defense got picked apart and it was just then communication issues, lack of pass rush, whatever.

This game was not as much that. It was Herbert was just putting the ball on the money. I mean, what did he have? What did we try to for? Five hero throws? Yes. I think the official was, yeah, right around It was six. Yeah.

Which is a lot guys for one game. I mean, he was carrying this team on his back. And these windows were tight, too. It's not like he was throwing the wide open receivers. Now, there was one to Keenan Allen down the field that was pretty wide open. But the rest, though, he's creating. He's creating with his arms. So anyways, start with the line, Steve.

What did you see in this game from them? I saw an offense that just was doing everything they wanted whenever they wanted. whenever they wanted. I mean, I think it was, you kind of knew what was coming for this game. It was, I think, the second or third play of the game, it was just an insider outside zone to David Montgomery. And the offensive line legitimately got, like,

it looked like just a moving wall that was running at the same speed as David Montgomery. They got legitimately seven yards of push. It was like, I think it was like seven yards before Montgomery got contacted and it was just a wall moving in front of them and that kind of set the tone for you you knew that Detroit was in their wheelhouse and that they were going to be able to take control right from there it looked like a Viking shield wall pillaging a Saxon village is what it looked like it was comical it was absolutely comical but um you see that in college football sometimes

you don't see that a lot in the NFL where a defensive line literally gets moved four or five yards off the ball. No. That's so rare. Like the line of screen literally moved. Yeah, it was, it was absurd. But overall, I think that you, this is Detroit at its health, at their healthiest. They, the only person they were missing was Halapaluti Vaitai. He's on the IR. He's done for the year. So Glasgow's in. That's firm position. So that was the offensive line that you're going to probably see most of the rest of the year. And you saw them finally hit their, stride and they've been close in a lot of games this year, but I think you finally saw them hit their stride and we saw the elite ceiling that they have that we've been, that we've known that

they've had and that they showed last year. And I just, they're, it's a great offense. It's a ton of fun to watch. The amount of wrinkles and the amount of planning ahead and just the way everything fits together, flows together is overall impressive and Jared Gough is throwing the ball really well. I just think that what this offense showed is scary for the rest of the year

because it just shows how much they can adjust on the fly and how well Jared Gough is seeing the field. Things were going so right for the Lions in this game that the 75-yard Montgomery run was a different play call. They got the call in the huddle. For whatever reason,

lines personnel got mixed up. They get to the line of scrimmer, or in golf's words, they broke huddle and he immediately realized they had the wrong personnel on the field for the play that was called. So he checks to this run, and then Montgomery takes it for 75 yards. That's when you know things are just going your way and you're imposing your wall on a defense. Another funny thing, just complete savage moment for Ben Johnson, that critical fourth down run, I think it was in the third or fourth quarter, not the, the, it was an actual

run play. It was the same. the wrinkle to St. Brown. Yes. No, the counterback. Yeah. Yeah. That was the same play that Jacksonville used to beat the Chargers in the playoffs last year.

That was the play that sealed that game. Wow. So Ben Johnson literally, I mean, he admitted in the press conference, he stole it from Jacksonville and then used it against the same team. That's awesome. Yeah, who's the Chargers middle linebacker? Kendrix or Kenneth Murray? Murray. Murray said that after that play happened, they all in the huddle were like, gosh, dang it,

they got us with the same play that Jacksonville hit us with last year. And yeah, and they said a couple of their defenders said that every time they thought they knew what the lines were doing, something they never prepared for what happened. Yeah. And so they were just constantly guessing the entire game. And that's, that's Ben Johnson in his bag. This was, this was elite. Also, Ben's been telling us all season, St. Brown is going to get some more deep target.

like they've got that package you can do it finally happened this game I think he had three deep targets caught two of them one of them is only only not caught target was that was a deep target as well it was a it was a perfectly placed ball it was just an amazing play by Gilman yeah finger barely got in there yeah and but I just it so what's interesting and maybe you'd be able to shed some light on this is that what has really helped the lions is they've been playing against the lot of single high coverage this year. And that's where Jared Gough excels. When he can get it, when he can get into an offense against cover, cover one, cover three, that's right in his wheelhouse. And Los Angeles didn't, they play about 50, 50, 50, too high single high. But they should, they shifted and they played 75, 20, 75, 25, 25 single high, too high. So they kind of went away, they kind of game plan to think that single high was going to be

what, you know, worked well. even though it is interesting though I think it's purely by the amount of dropbacks but in the 25% of the too high coverage Detroit went for what like yeah 1.74 fantasy points per dropback so they absolutely were able to create against their too high coverage

and I think that James and Williams you're seeing him change the way they are able to play against too high yeah so two things there the missing component for golf is but they don't have the speed element the best concepts against two high usually require a true speed element and and Caleb Freeman's fine like he's a good you know fourth receiver but you know he's not he's not like a dog and and Jameson needs to

step up and be that guy the other thing though and why you're probably wondering why the Chargers pivoted because they run too high more than most teams in the league and this game they go high even though they know the the Lions you know tear up single high and I think the main reason for that is you if you don't have two absolute hog molly daddies in the middle of that defense can't play too high against the lions because they will run the ball right down your throat. And even with the extra safety in the box, the line still ran the ball down their throat. So yeah, they did. And not many, I think the Eagles are probably the only team that could get away with playing too high against the lines right now as far as playoff, playoff teams.

Yeah, because they could run a, they could run up, they could run, they could confidently run a bear front against the lions. Yeah. And you're going to force their ability to stop the run. Right, right. So that's, um, I think. think that's the big thing for them. And golf, his entire career, not just with the Lions, he's shredded cover three.

He's great against cover one. You know, the Lions will like to dial up a lot of like Nesh and crossing route concepts. Yankee. Yeah. Those play really well against man coverage, obviously. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Overall, I guess the real big question for a lot of Lions fans, I think a lot of people watching the Lions is, is there concern with, this defense going forward. Yeah, it's, it comes back to the same conversation. Quarterbacks that are mobile that can create out of structure, hurt the Lions. So yeah, I mean, that's the concern. It's the concern's not new or, right. Herbert was also playing out of his mind.

You know, if Herbert plays like five percent less good, I think the lines blow them out, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it looked at that way early in the game. The Lions had a, what, a 17 point lead at one point? Yeah. They were up 17 to 3.

They were up 17 to 3. Yeah. Yeah. They could have been up 24 to 3. It was close. I mean, I'll touch on it quick. The aggressiveness of Dan Campbell is a big takeaway from this game. Because, I mean, again, it's a huge win for analytics.

Huge win for coaches making fourth down decisions because it obviously easily could have flipped the other way. But that you're seeing him get more confident in the offense and that's shown in his aggressiveness and going forward on fourth down. is that he knows his offense is hitting their stride and it's showing with how aggressive he's being. Yeah, I love that last fourth and two call to go for it, the throat of Laporta. Even if they don't get that, I love the call. I mean, you are, you don't want Herbert to get the ball back.

So where we want to end this game with the offense on the field, I love that mindset, that default aggressive mentality. The reality is there's there also was, wasn't a non-zero chance they make the field goal or don't meet the goal. Riley Patterson's not, I mean, it was a 43-yarder. It would have been. So it's not like a given for Riley Patterson that he makes that. He probably makes it, but like I think you have to get that as well.

Yeah, no guarantee. I love the aggressiveness. I love just finishing it on your terms. Yeah. And for the charges from this game, I mean, Justin Herbert, if he can play like this the rest of the year, that's awesome. But the defense is an issue. That's the, their defense is an issue. It's the, you've seen it quite a few times this year.

They've been picked apart. I think that there was, uh, some fools gold the last couple weeks where it looked like they were starting to figure it out. I think that was just a product of playing bad offenses. And you're, you're seeing that good offenses can absolutely shred them. And I don't, I don't know if they make the playoffs. I kind of think that they're going to be on the outside looking in just because of this defense.

It doesn't matter. It clearly shows that even when Justin Herbert plays his best game against, good teams. They're in trouble. Yeah, they they're a full two games back out of the playoff race right now. This is a must-win game for them. It was. And I just, I don't see it happening

with their defense. So, yeah, but we need to move on. The Giants go to Dallas. We're not going to spend any time in this game. Breaking news, the Giants suck. Dallas has a good team. Dak Prescott's playing probably his best ball in a few years right now. This is what Dak does, though. He beats up on good

team, or I'm sorry, beats up on really bad teams. Then against good teams or good defenses, I should say, he tends to struggle a little bit more. So no surprise to see him just mollywop the Giants like this. I mean, they were literally teasing them at one point. Like, they had a three touchdown lead and Dax still throwing Yolo balls to Michael Gallup in the fourth quarter. So, I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

They're getting CD more involved. That's what's notable. Yeah. Oh, CDs on a historic. 500 yards and three games, 166. Yeah. 0.6 yards a game. Dallas was so obnoxious

in this game though. They put in Cooper Rush and threw the ball 10 more times. Yeah. With the backup quarter of them. Usually you bring them in to run the ball to end the game. They're like, nah, screw that. We're racking up points here. Anyways, Washington goes to

Seattle and they, another freaking thrilling game. Yeah. I score 29 to 26 to see how it's done to go to 6 and 3. They're still tied for first place with the 49ers. And that division. I know the commanders aren't in the playoff race real quick. Just want to talk about Sam Howell.

Really quick. He's figuring things out, guys, the last three weeks. And it might be as much Eric B. enemy figuring things out as him. But they are getting the ball out of his hands a little bit faster. They're not getting him on the move as much on purpose. And it's resulted in the pressure rate against him dropping 30. It's down to 30% the last three weeks compared to 39% the first seven weeks.

huge improvement and a lot of that is just throwing in rhythm, try to stay in the structure of the play, throwing the open receivers. And that's really what Howell has done. He has found the open receiver. I think in the last three weeks, 81% of his targets are two guys that we have deemed as open. That's how we charted them.

That ranks first in the NFL. So finding open receivers, throwing in rhythm, that's going to do well for you long term. So also turnover is way down, Steve. He's only two-pins in that stretch, no fumbles. He's only taken seven sacks, and that sounds like a lot. Three games, seven sacks, but he was averaging six sacks a game prior to that stretch.

And these were against good defenses, by the way. Seattle, New England, Philadelphia, Howells putting it all together. Really like what I see from him. Probably not for this year, but going forward, maybe he's the guy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's giving himself another year or two. You know, it's worth seeing him through his rookie contract. And, you know, I think that this was a huge game for running backs, the brand of running backs.

I think that, I mean, they had like four touchdowns totaled scored by running backs between the two teams. Like Brian Robinson getting involved in the passing game for Washington. And that was the little bit of creation that Sam Howell has is that when it's a little bit more controlled, when he's not as frantic, he can create outside the pocket. He did that a couple times. So Washington is a fun team going forward. But for Seattle, you know, they continue to win kind of ugly. It's the last five weeks, five, six weeks,

it's been a lot of just ugly games for them that have resulted in, you know, one really bad loss to Baltimore and some scrap, scrap it out wins and losses with everyone else. And so I just, the offense is good. The defense hangs in. I think that the way they got gashed in the running game was kind of surprising. This is a team that had been playing really well against the run. And the way they got gash days.

Who can you? Do you mean? No, the Seattle. You felt like they got gash in the run game? I thought they, maybe I'm wrong, but I thought I remember them getting, you know, picked apart a little bit at times. I could be remembering incorrectly, though. that's also a possibility.

I think Washington had the least amount of run carries on the week because they were losing. But I mean, so Washington's running backs did have good days, but it was in the past. Maybe that's, maybe I'm, maybe I'm convincing myself from the, all the checkdowns to Robinson. Yeah, he was creating short with that. Yeah, Robinson had 120 yards receiving. Yeah. Gibson had like 50 and they both scored. So that's probably what you're thinking.

But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they only ran 14 times in that game. for 68 yards. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, it wouldn't. I misremembered then.

No, that's cool. I mean, those plays are basically extensions of the run game anyways, but, yeah, the Seattle defense, to your point, though, they just, they, the second level guys weren't tackling. Like, yeah, weird. A lot of short passes for Howell turned into big plays for the commander. So that, that definitely was a little concerning. Yeah, and it just, I mean, Yeah, Seattle's going to be in it.

I think this is a huge game for them against San Francisco. Because if they can hang in and make it a close game, at least keep themselves within a score, whether they win or lose, I think that's a win for them. Because being able to, they've lost to the Bengals, they lost big to the Ravens. Before that, they lost the lines and the close game.

So I think that this is a big game to project how they're going to be in the playoffs and what they're going to look like as a, you know, if they're a contender or just a team that, you know, makes it and doesn't do much. Yeah. One thing I loved from the Seahawks this game, Metcalfe, 7 for 98, Lockett, 8 for 92, Jackson Smith and Jigba, 4 for 53. They got all those guys involved finally in the same game. And that's what's going to take to win in the NFC.

Like you're going to have to get those guys involved. The past game is going to have to be robust. I know it's not Pete Carroll's first instinct to let Gino drop back 50 times in a game. but I think there's going to be game scripts where that's necessary, and it's good to see them do it and do it well and get the W. Yeah, and they're introducing Charbonnet a lot more. I think it's almost been near a 50-50 split, and I think that what he offers in the passing game

opens up their offense a little bit more. Yep. All right, moving on. We got two more games to go, kind of. The Jets travel to the Raiders to lose. Oh, this is a brutal, brutal game to watch, 16 to 12. Steve, I don't, I know we have to talk about it because, you know, both these teams are technically still in it somehow.

Yeah, yep. But I don't want to talk about this game. This is one of the most gross games I've ever watched in my life. It was horrible. Every part of it. I mean, I like seeing Antonio Pierce get another win as a head coach. That was nice. Yeah, yeah.

But you don't get the satisfaction of that until the game's over, which means you had to watch the whole game. So, God, the Jets are just, they're reluctance to divert from Zach Wilson's crazy. And then they're going to lie to you to your face and say he played well in this game. Shut the front door. Who are you kidding? Why? Yeah.

Why? I don't know. Aaron Rogers is telling people he's going to be with the team next week. They're starting this week. Yeah, he said December he could make a comeback, which seems unfathomable. He told McAfee. Maybe I miss heard him. I'm pretty sure he told McAfee.

he's going to be practicing next week. Thanksgiving week he'll be with the team full time. That's insane. I mean, if he can actually get back and get cleared medically and play, as long as they can keep themselves in the playoff race, they have a chance. He'll play unc cleared medically. He'll just sign a waiver.

Yeah, right. But, yeah, I mean, the Jets defense is awesome. It just stinks that they have to tote along this anemic offense. the best play of the day was Zach Wilson's near A.mary completion. Yeah. Like, it's just, it's an ugly. I mean, props to Antonio Pierce and the Raiders for realizing that they have Devante Adams on their team. The last two games, his workload has gone up because it's almost like trying to get your best player the ball is a good thing.

But, well, yeah, somehow both these teams are in it, though. But I don't think, I don't think either these teams project them are going to. make a push. I think the Raiders, you know, their defenses can get beat up and Aiden O'Connell isn't the answer. The Raiders are only a half game out of a playoff spot right now, which is wild. It's hilarious. I don't think it's going to stay, but I did like Antonio Pierce basically through Shade at Josh McDaniels in the press conference when they asked about Devante Adams. Yeah. He was like, what do he say? Like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, he said basically, he basically called Josh McDaniels dumb. Like, uh, like, uh, like, I'm not

I know I know to throw the ball to our best player. That's not something to that effect. But I thought that was great. Like, wow, did he not enjoy working for Josh McDaniels? Anyways, let's move on. Denver, God, another shocker game. Denver travels to Buffalo to win by score 24 to 22. This game also came down to the wire.

I joked about it to start the show. Josh Allen just doesn't he's just not playing well right now just flat out not playing well he's turning down open receivers like on the regular um in opting for either some type of scramble around creation ceremony or whatever it just he's not seeing the field steve and the accuracy is depleted as well which he's always that's always been shaky for him but yeah typically for him the crazy plays though the jaw dropping plays outweigh though what are you doing plays and it hasn't been. been the case the last four or five weeks. And I think that's why you've seen Buffalo come back down to earth a little bit. And that's what I think it is, is that it's not that they're not moving the ball. They were moving the ball up and down the field this game. They ran the ball really well. They ran the ball really well, which you could tell that's pretty much everyone's game

play against Denver is run. They're passing defense is coming into form a little bit. I think that they finally found the secondary combination they want. And they're getting settled in Vance Joseph's scheme. Patrick Sturtain is taking a step forward. They're playing well. But you could run against them. And yeah, it's just, it's not that Josh Allen isn't producing because he's producing.

It's just that he has backbreaking plays or this team in general has backbreaking plays that completely crater a drive and give the ball to the other team. And it just, that's the risk with Josh Allen. Like you said, it's what he is. It's who he is. And you're just seeing more of those plays turn into turnovers than they were before. And their defense is a legitimate concern. The amount of guys that they have out is, is concerning.

And teams are able to really move the ball against them. And that really limits their ceiling. I think that, you know, in years prior, their defense was so good. They could withstand a lot of, you know, some of those Josh Allen screw-ups, and they could bounce back at the ball back, and their offense would keep moving the ball. They had more chances, but the way teams are able to move the ball against Buffalo, it just limits the amount of chances the offense gets.

And that's, it just leads to those turnovers being more back-breaking than they were before. Yeah. How many times is Josh Allen fumbled this year? God, I need to figure that out. It's been a lot. I want to say, it's like, I want to say, he's up to like nine. Wow.

And then interceptions are high for him too. Right, right. All of a sudden, Denver is in the playoff race now and looks to be an interesting team. Again, this AFC is wide open enough and Denver has winnable games down the stretch. They's obviously that division is completely different. I think they can beat Los Angeles.

They obviously can beat the Raiders. And hey, they already. played the Chiefs twice and they beat him once. So, you know, two of their hardest games are out of the way and they went one and one of them. I, it, Russell Wilson is starting to create a little bit more. I think that it's been a lot with his legs. And I think that Sean Payton has completely neutered him to a point where it's like one read or go.

Yeah. Like that's kind of what it is because you're not, I mean, that throw to Cortland Sutton in the end zone was insane. That was like vintage Russ. but you're just not he's not pushing the ball down the field a ton it's just kind of having him be a game manager and have him use his legs to you know create in the run game but the defense taking a step forward has been what's changed the trajectory of this team their ability to defend the pass again is helping them is helping keep them in games it's weird when you put patrick shritan

and man-covered that he turns into a game changer for you. Really good. Just never thought that would happen, I guess. But, all right, I think that's it. We did it. Yeah, that's every game. We wanted to go under an hour, but Steve and I talk a lot. Sweet. Thanks for listening.

We're going to tease some tools, guys. We've got some new tools coming out soon. I don't know. I can't give you a date yet, but I would say, We're weeks away, maybe a month away from a new tool launch at the Data Suite. Some really cool stuff. Again, these tools are focused on making the user experience more easy. So if you don't have time to use all the cool filtering capabilities,

we're just giving you raw data in its finest state and making it easy on you. Some really cool stuff. I can maybe, can I tease a little bit? So one of them is going to be a blitz-centric tool. That's really cool. Another one will be a route-centric tool. That will be really cool. Another one will be a personnel tool, which is going to be really cool.

And there's more to come to. We've got a bunch of in the works. That's just what's coming. That's the next batch of tools coming out. Shoot, we might even have one up today. I don't even know. I know one's in review right now, or I should say, final review, beta testing. So anyways, we'll get those wrapped out.

Make sure you're always checking in, though, at fantasypoints.com. Data.com. dot fantasy points.com for the data suite. That's where all our stuff is. And thank you for listening. We will be back next week. We are out. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast.

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