First Things First - 49ers beat Panthers, Chiefs favorites vs. Cowboys, Ja Morant scuffle, Mahomes Mountain

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

(0:00) 49ers beat Panthers, Lamar Jackson vs. Joe Burrow, Chiefs deserve to be favorites? (27:32) Must Win for Week 13 (40:29) Brou’s MVP Ballot (46:24) Mahomes Mountain (01:08:17) Eagles offense, Are the 49ers a serious threat for the NFC? (01:21:15) Ja Morant and Klay Thompson get into a scuffle (01:28:38) Danny’s Top 10, Should the 49ers feel better or worse after beating the Panthers?  (01:52:00) Joe Burrow expected to play vs. Ravens (02:02:22) He Said, We Said (02:10:44) Did You Catch That? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York. It's a show that is getting ready for Thanksgiving. Getting ready. Thinking about foods. It's also the show that over the Thanksgiving break might have to recalibrate a bit. I agree with that. Drew's going to agree with me. And the audience has noticed or Reddit pages noticed.

Your on Reddorf now? You're on Red. It is a little harsh. But you're at Redd. They're more harsh than the regular. But here's the thing. Here's what everyone's noticed. As Wilds's realty,

team, the Patriots, have become contenders. Wilde is changing. Yeah, no doubt. Cockier. Yes. Not as sweet and chummy. And like let and really wants to be like the take guy. Which by the way, we have no problem. We have no problem with but it takes a recalibration from all of us. All that fun loving silly junkies done with it. They're playing for real sticks.

For the record. If you give me an. option, another option I will take it. But with the risk of your team being out of the Super Bowl and wheeled in on the hospital bed. And you're on the verge of being 500 by Thanksgiving night. Someone's got to do the heavy lifting. Someone's got to be the villain. It's like wrestling.

All of a sudden, I'm the villain. I'll switch back around. Speaking of villain. Today, three interceptions and a win. How should we? what do you feel about Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers? And should they start Mac Jones? Meanwhile, wow, a special Thanksgiving edition of the most competitive segment in all of sports must win.

We are on the doorstep of destiny here. Yeah. Nick going for his fourth straight must win championship is outrageous. I question the judging, but still. What? It's unwise. That is unwise. And finally, will Mahomes Mountain be renamed after?

Stop. Really? Stafford. Stop it. That's on the board? Now we're going to, it's going to force me to take shots at everybody's All-American. You guys are going too far. He's unbelievable.

Listen, nobody on the show's a bigger Matt Stafford fan than me, but that's too far. Also, quickly, I just want to get this out of the way early. We have put an end to the rare. double must win. Felt like it was being used as a crutch. And that's the real answer. I want to introduce scarcity into the marketplace.

It's the rare double must win. I wish it was. We're starting with the 8 and 449ers. They get another win. Classic Wilds. Brock completed 26 passes. 23 to his team. Three to the Panthers.

Second time in his career. He's thrown three interceptions and a half through. Nevertheless, San Francisco prevails. I know that. Here's Brock Purdy. The other one was against your Ravens. No, Toe's fine, feels good out there. It's really just seeing the play develop in anticipation

and letting it rip at the end of the day. Number one, but not in succession, you feel we need to save him? No, absolutely not. No, I mean, he's as poised as they, you know, nobody needs to, he's a professional and a really good football player. Nobody needs to tell him anything. You know, I think it's like if I make a mistake, I know I make a mistake.

Or if I have a drop, I know, you know, somebody says, catch the ball. It's like makes you want to knock them out. You know, it's like, you know, those aren't, there's not really nothing to say. You just keep on playing. Brewery, are you worried about Purdy? Worried? Okay. Come on, man.

No, sir. Mr. QB wins. Asking me if I'm worried? He has won three games. Yeah, in four. He's three and one. They're eight and four overall. Last night they beat a playoff contender handling.

And I'm supposed to be worried? I ain't worried at all. I'm quaking! I'm trembling like a twig in a windstorm. That's how worried. You're worried. I wish I was only worried. Just cancel the show.

We can't. better than this. You're the best. You've got to be a solo. Google me, Wilde. You're unbelievable. Google me. Check my IMD page. I don't belong. You don't think a brother cannot. Now you know. I don't belong here. I need to go to AAA or something. You're the best. Brock, get it together. Get it together. And if your toe is bothering you, sit out. passes and better decisions because

the team actually looks pretty good. Yes. And you, you know, I ride with you, but you're looking like the weak link. And so you got to play better. Drew, I appreciate that. All serious. Yeah. And this is, listen,

this, so I respect the humility that that took and the honesty that took. I'm keeping right, because this is a problem. and you can't really say it's an outlier. So like here's the last few years, guys who have had three straight drives with an interception.

You're going to note, like, so it's Purdy yesterday, and then Dak, who's really good, and then quarterbacks that either aren't starters or we don't trust. So you might say. Well, James is appropriate. Like, lately that's how Brock's been. Like, he has some big plays, but he's. It's like a reckless.

It's a great, it's a great comp. Like, James when he actually, this is James with New Orleans, but you're thinking of like Bucks James. Yes. You know what I mean? It's like, hey man, no risk it. Even now, I mean, we know if he plays more, that's what's coming. And so that, the fact that it, okay, it's happened once,

he's done it once, don't have five times, makes it feel like it's an outlier. But what about multi-pick halves in the last three years? Brock has eight, Joe Flacco, who hasn't even been a full-time with the same type of a guy, and the prince, who I'll be honest, has a turnover problem. He has a turnover problem. And so this is my concern, because I really agree with the last thing you said.

I don't quite know how other than Shanahan's a brilliant tactician, Big Bob Sala is See if I had a vote If I had a vote for Assistant Coach of the Year Which exists that's an award that exists It'd go to him right now He might get it

I mean he's definitely got to be at the time Yeah I mean I'm not sure even who's the major contenders But it feels like the fact that they have lost Warner And Bosa and going into the year We were like the defense has lost a lot of people in free agency And they are He's been brilliant and Grishman Capri's out of this world.

I don't know how long you keep it up, but he's out of this world. And then you have this question of, it's unfair to Brock to say, was it a fluke because it was an extended period? He legitimately played well. There's no question. But now it's the first two years of his career versus the last two years. And if we put him side by side, you look and you say,

oh, is he just forget the win, record. Is he just not going to reach the heights that we saw? And if that's the case, if he is still, because you can deal with a bunch of turnovers if you are having as many of the boom plays, but particularly KW with the toe injury and the lack of mobility, which was one of his kind of underrated strengths. Man, if I'm the Niners, I am. I'm on a, if his next game is awful. I think I might have to go to Mac and blame it on the foot. Let me add

just quickly before I know you want to go. You can write three touchdown or three interceptions and a half. You might say, okay, that's an aberration, even though he's done it before. But he's got seven interceptions in four games this year. If you go back to his last

three last year or last four games, he's got 11 interceptions in his last seven starts. So this is because, and I'm going to be honest, when you talked a couple years ago when he was like, I want to be more aggressive and lighted, you know, things like Tom Brady compared himself to. Not that he said he was Tom Brady. But he wants to step on people's throat at the killer. He has been more reckless or aggressive instead of just kind of playing within the system.

And he needs to go back to that because he's making too many myself. So I was, so I'm going to show you Purdy's deep passes, but then I'm going to ask you a question. In 2025, he is one touchdown for interceptions. 2023, I think is what your kind of line. Yeah, his first is. Unbelievable. But Brew, what you mentioned speaks to a combination of health and decision making. What part of his struggles are health and what part are decision making?

I think there's both in there. I think a lot of it is health. I don't know the status of his toe. they said it would be all year. But at the end of last year, he was kind of banged up. And he's banged up quite a bit. We've talked about that. And I think he, even at Iowa State, I think he was, you know, an aggressive guy that would try to make throws.

And that's what McCaffrey was talking about. I like that he continues to do it. Second half last night, he stayed relatively aggressive. They kept him throwing short passes for the most part. But look, I do think he can get it back. And I'll bring up a benching possibly. because Drew Breeze was benched at one point in his career. Kurt Warner obviously was bench.

Troy Aikman was benched. Like I think the third year for Breeze and Aikman. So Purdy's in his fourth year. I'm just saying you can come back from a benching. If it comes, I wouldn't do it now. But if he continues to throw two interceptions a game, then you're going to have to. Those are three good examples.

Nick, do you mind rattling off the guys who got benched and did not play well? Yeah, I mean, 70 of them. Right. So, like, those are, but I'm just saying. Your point that it's not a death knell is true. Typically, though, if you're a veteran quarterback, which in year four you are, and you lose your job, it is a after you've been paid, it is a horrible sign. And here's what I would say.

He plays, and I don't want this to sound patronizing, but I guess it will. He plays with an undeserved arm arrogance. like Baker a little bit but Baker has a crazy strong arm Baker has some other weaknesses whatever and Flacco is a guy Flacco you know what I mean has

I don't know if he still does to a degree James he plays a style of the guy that's like man I don't care that he's covered I'm going to rip it in there and certain guys Brett Farve is the pinnacle example of that right

and then there's the anti-example of that is Jeff George, who had as strong of arm as Brett Favre, but just made awful decisions. I don't know of many quarterbacks that I've seen in my lifetime that play that style without having a strong arm. And Purdy, even when you, at his peak, biggest defender, nobody was like, man, that guy's got a cannon. It's that his processing, decision-making, accuracy, timing, those things. And so that is what is, what is, you. so odd to me. Even if you remember, gosh,

I think it was two years ago, it might have been the first game of the year, the touchdown pass he threw that Shanahan said that's the worst decision he's made when he was here. Right, but you... And that's part of what, I mean, again, McCaffrey was referring to... And so, but he just has... He can't make the mistake.

It does... I don't want to say he is bought into the hype, because it is unfair, even though I've been a lifelong, or a skeptic of his forever, to call it hype. Because it wasn't hype. It was top five in MVP voting. They made a Super Bowl. It wasn't make-believe.

But it seems like for some reason or another, he got sick of making the easy plays and wanted to make the wow plays. Maybe because there was a jerk on TV saying count the wows or the oh-nose. It's like, I'm going to prove these people wrong. And then you, and then so that change in style, plus less talent around him, plus being banged up. up plus maybe a little extra pressure of, not that he hasn't played without pressure, of, oh man,

Mac Jones played pretty well, he's putting him 300 yards, I want to do the same thing, has created it with the contract, too. Right, and the pressure of the contract has created a scenario where that was, he and Bryce were having a mid-off yesterday, and that is complimentary. No, yes. Uh, 22 for 24 under 10 yards, one for eight, three interceptions. And it could have been five. there were two other

in the first half there were two that were Aikman almost fasted out. He was just in a zone Yeah a zone of throwing hits. All right, let's head to Baltimore. Say it ain't tow. Joe Burrow returning from his toe injury. Lamar on the injury report yesterday with a toe. Now the good news is that he practiced today

John Harbaugh was asked if he thinks injuries are affecting his quarterback. Take a listen. I can't really say. I think he's like I said. You know, I'm always proud of him. He's playing winning football. He's working really hard every week to be prepared and be ready to play and doing everything he can do to win the game and win the next game and be ready to play winning football.

Here's the injury report this season. Toe week before ankle, week 11 knee, and then he missed the games with the hamstring. On the bright side, it's moving south and after the toe is nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. It's slowly escaping. Then we go up the other leg. How concerning is this, bro? I think it's concerning because I feel like injuries or being banged up to some degree

is really the only explanation for how he's been playing. Like you can have a bad game even two. You might not be quite at your peak. But this is the first time in his eight-year career. He's been under 200 yards passing and 60% completions in three straight games. And we saw, I think we have a graphic, his first five. games, he was lighten the league on fire. And even when they were losing, it wasn't because of the offense.

And you see 15 touchdowns. 2 is 136 pass the rating, which is out of this world for multiple games. And then the last 3, 71 passer rating, one touchdown since he's been back two picks. And it's concerning because this offense, while it might, it can win the AFC North. Like with this offense playing this way, they can't get to the Super Bowl. No. Even if the chiefs are out, to be honest. Correct.

And that would be a tragedy for Lamar or Josh not to reach the Super Bowl in a year the chiefs are either down or out, whatever it might be. Now, I do believe he can get it going and I feel confident that he'll play better. But if it is injuries, you just might not be able to at that point. So he alluded to it after the game. Somebody asked him about his health, and he said, I can't call it, but since I'm out there, I should be playing better. So he kind of, you know, he didn't kill, no, I'm fine. And so I do think something's, it's affecting his running, his escapeability, and he hasn't been the same, no question. All right, I don't want this to be misconstrued.

So I'm going to try to be very deliberate with what I say here. Because I think Lamar, remember I did a couple years ago, maybe a year ago, the all-time. Mahomes Mountain. And I had Lamar somewhere in the 15 greatest quarterbacks ever. And there obviously have been quarterbacks that are dynamic with their legs that are just not good passers. And that is not who Lamar is. With that said, I have thought for the last few years that the biggest Lamar fans in the analytics community and in a lot of writers, to be totally honest, that talk about him as a passer are watching a different player than me because they talk about how elite he is within the pocket. And that's true and how

precise he is. And that's somewhat true. And they talk about it as if it is divorced from his running. And I have never felt that way. I have felt that what has made Lamar so special is that because he is such a dynamic runner, you almost have to defend that first, which then has cleared the picture in passing, and he has improved in the passing from OK, when he first came into the league, to pretty good,

and that made him have 40 touchdowns, four picks, all of these things. The last few years has been unbelievable. He doesn't run anymore, and teams, I think, are realizing it. And for the first time, I believe he is being defended like a mostly traditional quarterback. And I think he's struggling with it. So I think that.

So you think the injuries are affecting his running? I think either. I think he was already paring back on the run. And now the pairing back plus the injuries make it to where he's not really a threat to run. And if Lamar, if you would, this sounds ridiculous. But if they passed a rule, like flag football or whatever, like you can't run as a quarterback. I don't believe Lamar would have these gaudy passing numbers. I don't think he'd be terrible.

I think he'd be out of the league, but I think it'd be just fine. And so now it appears to me, teams are less afraid of him as a runner. They are more defending him as a passer. And he is, even though he's in year eight, seeing things, he's not usually seen, seeing coverages and seeing those things. And you're seeing it show up in the number. I don't, that is not a sweeping indictment on him as a player because you get credit for your legs and you get credit for what you. Right. As a quarterback, it's all like your ranking, including his running.

Including everything and how you force teams to guard you. But I give that long explanation to then say this. This is super concerning if he can't put on film in short order. I will bust. I'll go 11 for 120 like I used to do a couple times a year because teams weren't respecting it. I will beat you that way because if he doesn't do that, I think teams will treat him more like a traditional quarterback

and I think that's going to be tough and not just because of whatever his limitations are or aren't, but they also I don't, you know, I've never been a huge Zay Flowers guy. They don't have great receivers that's just like, all right, we're going to line up and beat you that way. So I think this is greatly concerning.

They're not full. fully, but you could compare them. Their receivers are better than Buffalo's. Yes. But they have the tight ends like Buffalo had when they're healthy. Now, obviously, they both got great running backs too. But I think his lack of running is affecting Derek Henry, too. I do think Henry's aged a bit and doesn't have the same.

But if you don't have to work last year, you had to worry about Lamar running, Lamar throwing, and Derek Henry. Now it's not the case. So that might not be out of the question. Sacked 24 times this year and missed the games last year just 23 times. Right. Eight games he's been sacked more than last year. Let's look ahead to Thanksgiving afternoon.

Chiefs in Dallas. I'm on the couch. Trying to stay awake. Get that triptophan. I'm going to be on the West Coast. This is a 130 West Coast, which means there's no way for it not to conflict with the meal. Listen, I'll be holding my granddaughter, but my wife's going to be super pissed. Cowboys currently at 13% to make.

the playoffs, Chiefs at 61%. Nick, are you surprised the Chiefs are favored in this game? I'm not. I know you are, and here's why I'm not. The Chief's offense has been hit or miss, I think is fair. And even in that, not even

in, maybe especially in that Colts game, where they moved the ball at will, but they had a turnover inside their own five and inside the other team's five. They weren't good in the red zone. And I think that was, I thought, Patrick was brilliant when he absolutely had to be, but was mediocre in the first three

quarters, and that was after two bad performances. The pick was bad. But they have carved up bad past defenses. They score about 30 a game. Patrick is really good, and the one loss they have against the bad past defense is the Jacksonville loss, where they should have scored 38. They scored 28. And so the touchdown interception ratio, is not as good as you would like, and they have a lot of Kareem Hunt, one-yard touchdown runs in there, but they're scoring 28 a game,

and that's with taking the foot off the gas in some of these fourth quarters. I respect Quentin Williams a ton and what he has added to the Cowboys defense, and I think that, and you can say, well, the bills don't have a good defense. The bills don't have a good run defense, and the Chiefs didn't even try

or maybe couldn't take advantage of it. I don't trust the Cowboys back in. And the Cowboys themselves have been like, we had to, we built a team to stop the run. Okay. And so I just think that while I think the Cowboys, when they have the ball, can do real damage, I think Patrick against this past defense presents a ton of problems for Dallas. And I think that's why I can't see his favor. I also think, look, backs, both teams, backs are against the wall, must win, literal must win for both.

Who are you taking in this? Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid or Brian Schopenheimer and Dak Prescott. Like when if that and Dak is having a phenomenon. He's having a much better year than Patrick. Yes. Or a better year than Patrick for sure. But his history is not that he goes crazy and delivers in big games. I'm not saying he hasn't ever done it.

But we know his playoff record, two and five, I think. And Mahomes, I mean, that's his legacy, delivering in big games, big moments. So I just think with that. Cowboys haven't won three straight games since November of 2023. So I just feel like we saw it a week ago, not even, but last weekend where the Chiefs absolutely had to deliver and they beat one of the top teams in the AFC.

At the time they played the Ravens, that was viewed as a huge game. The Chiefs had one of their best performances. Same thing, you know, against Detroit. That's a big game. Now, I know they lost to Buffalo, which they always do, but they lost to The Philly and Denver. The big game they didn't step up in was Denver. That's the big game.

In Philly, they played where they lost. I mean, Denver, they were close too. But I just think that they, in a close must-win game for both teams, you got to take the chief. If it's a shootout, do you think the Chiefs win it? I think they can. I mean, my homes, I just think is capable. Until I really, until they are buried, it's hard. You can't write them off.

I agree. But you like Dallas. I like Dallas. It's a little bit of vibes, a little bit of, I think it's going to be a high scoring game, and I just really trust Dallas to deliver. George Pickens has 144 and 146, the last two games. The Chiefs are a little bit better than 500. They're one and four on the road.

I think this Thanksgiving game in Dallas, Cowboys are going to be fired up. The Thursday night game on the road, 11 Thursday night games, not count. I took out. Thursday games. I took out Eagles. Chiefs, yeah. Eagles Cowboys. For the opener.

Home team is eight and three. The three losses, the Ravens beat the dolphins in Miami, so it's like the Ravens are the better team. 49ers beat the Rams. It's basically a home game for the 49ers. And the Seahawks beat the overmatch Cardinals. So when it's close, I feel like I give it to the home team, including Eagles Giants. I just feel like the Giants should not have beaten the Eagles.

They did. So here's two things. One is you say when it's close, you give it to the home team. I don't think this is. I know the records are close. The Chiefs are one of four teams in the league that are top 10, scoring offense, scoring defense, yardage offense, yardage defense.

The Cowboys are number 31 defense. Now, it's different since Quina Williams, but one player does not, and I understand they got overshone back as well. So when we talk about close your eyes and do the Lombardi test or whatever, can you see a team winning the Super Bowl? The Chiefs are on that list.

The Cowboys are not. And so in that regard, they're not close. Here's the other thing that I truly believe matters in this spot. Both of these teams just had huge comeback at home season-saving victories, right? They then play four days later in what should be the most watched football game that is in the playoffs ever. Which team do we expect to have the maturity and experience to handle that moment Sunday and be ready to play Thursday? I will take the team that has played in 20 games bigger than this over the team that two weeks ago had guys partying at a casino 12 hours before,

18 hours before a game allegedly. But they can handle their liquor. And I, so I just think the Cowboys are more, even though the Chiefs have not been consistent in any regard this year, I trust them in a big spot to know how to get ready on a short week. Look, the Cowboys are capable. It wouldn't shock me either. I got to take the Chiefs as you're picking them.

We are going for four straight victories for Nick Wright and must win. Can Drew and coach shut him down. We'll find out next. Coach is ready for this. Coach has been on a cold streak. Coming up on Black Friday, live at 10 a.m. Danny, Greg, Willie, and Coach looking great bunch of leaves. That is a great breath.

It is a great picture. Special episode of First Things First OT. Right now, it's a special episode of Must Win. Nick Wright going for the unprecedented four Pete. Unbelievable. We're starting with Packers in Detroit. This one starts at 11 a.m. Eastern on Fox. Just putting out the shrimp cocktail in the Wilds family.

Dan Campbell, just one win in four Thanksgiving games. Remember last year got close and that Bears game. Nick, we'll start with you since you're the reigning champion. You can pass or play. Thank you. Obviously. Who is this a must win for? I'm going to pass to coach.

Wow. I didn't know you could pass. I can pass wherever I want. Wow. Another new twist of the must win game. I'm going, this is absolutely a must win for the Lions. They haven't won two in a row now in six weeks. They've struggled against Philly to score.

And this is after we make the big pronunciation, or the big announcement that we're going to change. coordinators, the head coach is going to call plays. They lighted it up against Washington, and then they fall back down to Earth. So they struggled there. They struggle against the Giants. They lost the Green Bay at the start of the season. Didn't score very many points there either.

They're 4 and 1 at home. They're currently 8 in the playoffs. Obviously a must win for them. It's obviously not a must win for the Lions. It is, however, a must win for the brain trust of the Green Bay Packers. A story that we discussed three weeks ago, and then thanks to a couple

unimpressive wins against unimpressive teams it's gone by the wayside, which is wait, are Matt LaFleur and Brian Guttencunz on the hot seat? No it contract extensions,

the Super Bowl or bust expectations, the trade for everybody's All-American Micah Parsons. If they lose this game, week one, which is the high watermark of their season, feels like even more of an aberration, they then fall,

to that dreaded 8 seed trying to just sneak their way into the post season. And if this Packers team misses the playoffs, all the local reporting seems to imply if not outright say, Matt LaFleur might not be back next year. So it's a must win for Matt LaFleur and his boss, Brian Guttencunce. Wow. What a start. If you have followed my advice and checked my IMDB page in between the break,

you would have seen a lot of the characters I played are Rebel. can't be controlled, can't be tamed. So in that spirit, double must win. We banned double must win. Right out of the game. But the lions, they need their swagger back. One Dan Campbell brought swagger. That's been the whole thing.

We're the measly lions. We're no good. We're terrible. Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, endomicant soup. Barry Sanders. couldn't win here. He brought swagger, but that swagger is gone. Did it walk out of the door with Ben Johnson?

You scored nine points against the Eagles, and you barely beat James Winston. Your linebacker got run over by James Wisden. They need their swagger back. And for the Packers, Jay Lowe has to be Jay. Oh! Because nobody believes in him. They think he's the reason they won't get.

get to the Super Bowl. Double must win. I was trying to introduce scarcity back into must win. I said no double must wins. I was proven wrong. Right away, Brew, with the victory. Right out of the gate. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. You know what, Brew, you earned it. I'm proud of you. Bears in Philadelphia. Caleb versus Jalen, a brilliant offensive play caller who hates the Tush Burr push versus Kevin Petulow. Strength of schedule, not close, but the records are. Both teams, 8 and 3. Points. The nod goes to Chicago.

Defense. Nod goes to the Eagles. Turnovers. Differential. The Bears are feasting. That's why they're okay. 26 points of game is pretty good. The defense is 16 turnovers.

It's too many. Turnovers. It seems not sustainable. But with Chicago, Peanut Punch, that team that made all the way Super Bowl. No. I'm just helping out. No, it's me.

Oh, I'm sorry. It is. You're going clockwise. I'm sorry. I got lost. I apologize. It is Nick. He leads off.

I get this thing in control. The easy answer and the answer, I assume one of them are going to go with is something about the Eagles, having me get the offense back on track, AJ Brown, Nick Siriani. Yeah. Yeah. M&M. The real answer, and wild you know this, is this is a must win. First and foremost for Ben Johnson, who this offseason, who this offseason, my,

Did everything but walk up the Rocky steps and spit on them? That's true. Take a hammer to the Liberty Belt, another crack in him. Another hammer. Yeah, another, exactly. When he said, I like explosive plays. Much less we did see just this past weekend. I don't know who tweeted it.

Someone very smart, likely handsome tweeted it. An explosive play from the tush push when the Pittsburgh Steelers turned it into a 50-yard play against these Chicago Bears. go bears. Ben Johnson's locker room post game speeches. They border between corny or inspirational. You've got to beat Nick Siriani and the Philadelphia Eagles who you, who you, what's the word, baited this off season into running even more tush pushes against you. It's a must win for Ben Johnson and his boy genius reputation. Well, it is a must win for. It's a must win for.

for the Bears, but not for those reasons. It's a must win. Who are they? Like one of the mantras of this show is not the standings. Eight and three, okay, that's nice. So what? Who've you beaten? You beat one team with the winning record, Pittsburgh, and that was with the backup quarterback, Mason Rudolph. Can you beat, last time you played a team with a winning record, they beat you with Tyler Huntley and beat you badly. And the time before that you played a team with the winning record, they beat you by 31. So you can beat up on the little chunk change

in the league. But how do you stack up against playoff teams? Because that's where you're trying to get. And four of their last five games after this one are against teams with winning records. So they got to prove to themselves, not just us, themselves, that they are a legitimate team. Excellent. I really liked yours. I think I think yours is excellent. And I agree with you. I think this is obviously a must win for the bears. And it's for the reason that you talked about. They won eight out of nine. They won four in a row, but they haven't beaten anybody that's had any sort of significance. And if you want to be taken serious, you've got to beat someone who is serious. And this will be their first opportunity to do that. And at this point with Caleb,

It's up and down. It's, is he, has he turned the corner? Has he not turned the corner? Nobody knows. And until he shows and can prove that he can play with the legitimate contenders in the league, we're just stuck where we are. We were looking for must win for the Eagles. No points awarded.

What? I'm sorry. I would have given it to Bruy. Thank you, coach. Coach is just trying to prevent the dynasty. This is the bonus round. And who gets to go last on this one? You are running the anchor leg on this one.

So Brues first. Brew goes first. Burroughs back and looking for a win against Lamar. Hard to come by. Lamar has owned this particular matchup. Six wins to one. More yards, touchdowns, turnovers. Joe Burroughs got twice as many passer rating about the same,

but the nod goes to Lamar. This is your guy. Who is this a must win for? This is a Lamar must cook. We must see old Lamar. They've won five straight, and nobody's been that. impressed with the offense. We're worried about the offense, right? Lamar is 10 and one against

the Bengals, six and one you had against Burrell, 10 and one against the Bengals. He has owned them and they need to blow them out. This is the worst defense in the league in every way. Total defense, scoring defense. They're giving up 33 points a game. The Ravens not only need to win, but they need to win impressively, particularly if they want to see the robe in. anytime soon. Just throwing that out there. That was nice. So this is obviously a must win for the Bengals. Currently I went and looked at it. They've got less than 1% chance of making the playoffs. But here's the reality. If they went out, then they have a 46% chance of winning the playoffs. They've won five games last year, so there's precedent here.

And they lost to the Baltimore last year, 41, 38 in overtime, and then 35, 34. So they were high scoring games. So they've shown that they can. can still be high scoring, but Baltimore hasn't shown the same thing. Since his offense remains explosive, even with Flacco, this is a Jamar Chase redemption game. So you've got that going. And then there's also the element of you're risking your future by bringing Joe Burrow back. So you need to make that count. And I'd say the last thing is you can't win all five unless we win this first one.

And let me just go to another stat here that I want to bring up because talking about 1%. So just take a look at this. So here's the must win. Right now it's nine to three for coach nine wins to three wins for coaching Greg. But look over here at Upset Alert, the extensive lead that we have. So I'm not saying there's a conspiracy, but since we have that lead and Wilde is the judge, there may be a little must win bias. So similar to my 1% chance for the Cincinnati Bengals, that's similar to the chance that Greg and I have on a weekly basis,

which I just thought we should all be aware of. Wow. Coach, it feels like a little bit of a low blow, but it did feel that way. I wouldn't impugn the integrity of the joke. I'm not impugn. And I, this is, I'm just attempting to be, you know, nimble on my feet. And coach, what do you say about playing a game the way it's being officiated, doing business as business is being done? Now that I know we're a little loose on the regulations, I'm going to get.

give you my real answer. This is more so than any of the other games and obvious to everyone. A double must win. For the Bengals, this is the only hope that they have to coach's point of saving their season and for Jamar Chase to save a bit of his reputation after a very nice, long apology note. But we all feel they could have given the Patriots more of a scare had he been there. He watched his T. Higgins get knocked out of the game. And does Zach Taylor survive? Three straight seasons of missing the playoffs. For the Ravens, on the other hand, we've been talking for a month that get Lamar back,

beat the cupcakes, be six and five going into this game. Now all of a sudden, this game, it's not a cupcake because you are facing Joe Burrow. If you lose to Joe Burrow and the Bengals in their first game back, you give them life to make the postseason. You squander your two days of a lead in the AFC North, and we start wondering, oh, could it possibly be that removing Papa shot didn't fix a professional football team?

But either team that loses is in a bit of crisis. That is the definitional double must win. Unbelievable ride my coat tails. Exactly because you started double must win earlier. And I specifically wrote in the document, there will be no double must wins. We are reintroducing scarcity. And in three questions, we got two of them. Coach takes it.

Coach wins on the technicons. Congratulations, Coach. Your first must win an agent. Wow. Unbelievable. The dynasty is over? I appreciate it. Coming up next cruise ballot,

to Christian McCaffrey run his way up into the MVP race. That's next door. One by a double DQ. Last night, CMC had 31 touches. Expect you to do what comes natural. At 142 yards, and it scored a power of the 49ers. How are the 49ers brew to their eighth win? But was it enough to play his way onto Brew's ballot?

Let's find out. Honestly, the eye test. If it's just eye test, I'll probably, there's a good chance I would have McAfrey on there. Yeah, because they've got the wins and he's the engine of the offense. But his numbers are weird. I don't think he's even averaging four yards of care. No, so I can't. It's just all the touches.

Yeah, yeah. So he's been great though. But coach, I don't care what Wiles is. Miles Garrett. Love it. Might be too low, bro. Love it. It might be.

Look, he's got 18 sacks in 11 games. That's five, three more than anybody, or five more than anybody else in the league. And some guys have played more games than him. He's on pace with 28, coach. The record's 22 and a half. He's one of the dudes that gets the contracting, like, oh, that was worth it. Absolutely. That money's worth it.

I mean, I got it. So I got no shame in putting Miles Garrett on there with a three and eight record. All right. Hold on. Before you reveal number four, can we stay around on Garrett for a second? Is it reasonable at all to you, Wilde, that record should matter less for non-quarterbacks?

For this, because quarterbacks can impact winning so much more. It's so for if you're a defensive end and you have the number one defense and you are having that type of year, that the fact that your offense has just been incompetent for the better, part, not all of, but the better part of 50 years, shouldn't be held against you?

Yes, I don't want to own this spot on the Monopoly board. The Miles Carrot. It's like the Baltic Avenue. But it's just the pay. He had five and a half sacks against the Patriots and we scored 30 points. And he wrecked the game and we had no problem going up and down the field. So I have a hard time squaring that circle. And that whole game, they had two guys.

They were chipping them with backs. They were chipping with tight men. He was unbelievable. And he still got for 30 points. I don't, yeah. I get it. It's weird. But again, I don't, I'm okay.

I think he should win the MVP. And this is a slot where it's not like, you're not going to win it. But we're just going to give you that recognition. Number four, Jackson Smith and Jigba. Now, he's still on pace to be the first 2,000 yard receiver ever. He's the only receiver with 35 remorse. more catches to average 16 or more yards per catch. That's huge in today's game.

You don't see a lot of guys averaging a ton of yards per catch if they get a lot of catches. So, all right, at number three, Jonathan Taylor, I know he didn't do, you know, much against the Chiefs. I'm shocked. I am really enjoying this ballot. Thank you, coach. Thank you.

I mean, look, I get it. He didn't have a great game. They shut him down. But that just showed most of the three games they've lost is been because the defense focused on him and shut him down. And you see he's clearly the most valuable player on the team having one of the best seasons in the league. Well,

lost help him a little bit. And they also didn't. I had him three last week, but I don't think anybody's played well enough to take his spot. And in fairness to him, the Indianapolis Colts shut him down. They stopped giving the ball in the second half. To me, a player like that you keep giving the ball to because he's probably, even though there's eight in the box, he's probably going to make sure.

someone miss and make a dynamic play, you get talked out of giving a player like that the ball. It's a win for the defense no matter what. And they were going three and out anyway. Yeah. I agree with that. Take your chance with him. At number two, Walsh, you got, look, you said it last. He's not, at least for the most part, spectacular.

He doesn't, he has some great plays here. The pass out of the end zone. He does have wild moments for sure. It makes it look easy. But it's just, it's at, you know, it's just kind of playing at times. But look, a young team. 10 and 2 record, best record in the league.

He is playing well. There's no question about that. I don't want to poo-poo him like he's just managing the game. No. He leads the league in total yards. He only got over 3,000 yards. He's top five in like passer rating yards per attempt, you know, touchdowns, everything, and win.

So I got into. He's 2025 Dayton Daniels. Yeah. Yeah. That's what he's doing. I don't think that. At number one, everybody's all-American. He 30 touchdowns in 11 games, two picks.

That's just ridiculous. It would, do you, it would take a collapse for Stafford not to win. Yeah, and you got enough time for a collapse. I don't think he will. No, no, you do. You do have enough time. You do have enough time. Did, in a weird way, did Darnold's four interception game help in Jigbaugh?

Because it removed Darnold, it feels like, and now we just feel like we're giving him the credit for it. Yeah. Can I ask one other question before we go? Any thought of Jemir Gibbs? Yes, but just looking at the overall. Because he's saved him this weekend, obviously. But I just think looking at the overall numbers, like his numbers aren't close to historic. They don't give him the ball enough.

I mean, you got Montgomery's good too. But he is spectacular. I mean, he's one of the top backs in the league without question. But yeah, it was a thought. But I just feel like Taylor, just for the consistency. Coming up next, Mahomes Mountain. Live from New York, it's a show that is not jealous of the team of people who are deciding who is going into the Football Hall of Fame.

You know what I would do? I put in about 20. No, that's why. I know, but it's right. It's too much. It's why the Pro Football Hall of Fame is perfect. Because like the new time of newly eligible, among others, Breeze and Fitzgerald. So they're just snap in, which just means you have three spots for everybody else.

For 30 good guys. Oh, I think there's 24. 26 semifinals. Yeah. Philip Rivers, going to have to wait. Eli Manning, going to have to wait. Yeah. Poor Tori Holt and Steve Smith going to keep waiting.

Tori Hull. It's unbelievable. Numbers are crazy. Didn't Terry? The snow? One of the... Second hour of first things first. Today, are these chiefs?

On upset alert in Dallas? I made... I convinced you guys a little bit. We're waiting to hear what coach has to say. They went to like, yeah, I could see it. No, we were all... We were both already there. You didn't convince us.

We came closer to convincing you. They're like, oh, wow, she's got a good point. You were... No, they are bad on the road. Eagles, do the Eagles have a Seekwan problem? Guess who wrote that? Dusty. I thought it was AJ Brown.

Hey. Thank you. But right now, get ready for some puns. Take a listen. Don't worry, we're not doing some big Thanksgiving pun fest, okay? We do celebrate Thanksgiving on the mountain, but it's straightforward. As we head towards the beak. Some QBs are hobbled.

These guys are gobbled. Either way, it's all gravy, so let's cranberry sauce and mashed meat. potatoes. It's time for Moles Mountain. Those ones don't even really make sense. What do you want to say, buddy? Weird part about doing this for a living is I also just watch TV as a consumer, you know, I watched TV. Yeah. I didn't like the person that. And it's me. You know, again, I don't want to. It's tough for the identity and ego. I didn't like that guy. I don't, I don't want to be, I don't want to overstep. But we jokes, but seriously, the other day, about how your wonderful and talented wife has Emmys and P-Bodies and other things like that.

Do you think she ever watches TV and sees you doing that? And is like, wait, what? Never watched the show. No, they watched it once and told me about it at dinner. They're like, guess what? I'm like, what, we watch the show. What, it's on every day every three or four years? Time now for the mountain.

Sorry about that. So before we even get to any piece of the mountain, coach you weren't here last week, so let me just update people. Thank you. Last week, row three was just vacant. Remember? We had no one in row three.

I didn't love that. Well, so this week that's fixed, but that does mean there's some ability to move up even if you didn't necessarily have a upward mobility performance. But also, as you will see from who's off the mountain, we've a lot of quarterback injuries still. So we might have to be in a bit of a quarterback crisis. again. So here's who's off the mountain. Can we show it? The top two rows, seven starting

quarterbacks are off due to injury. Now Burrow luckily is back. Rogers, we think we'll be back soon. We hope CJ could be back this week. Jackson Dart should be back. But my might be back. Jayden could, you know, could be back soon. So but man, oh man, it's a lot of guys. The guys who are off the mountain but healthy, here's the thing about it. They're not starting quarterbacks in this league anymore or ever. Nine is not going to work out, JJ. I'm sorry. J.J. McCarthy.

Marcus Marriota is literally a backup. Gino, get to a better place than Vegas, Gino. It hasn't worked out. And Tyler Shuck, it's not working out so well. Which makes the seventh row rough spot if you barely staved off being off the mountain. What a first three. Brock, the Prince in a win, but we saw, Brock and the Prince had very similar wins.

They are right, they keep winning. Yeah, they keep winning, but it's ugly. A lot of money. A lot of money between them, more than $100 million a year combined between them. Bryce, there's six games away from having to make a decision on Bryce's fifth year option. I think I know which way they're leaning. Shador gets on the mountain.

With that, gets on the mountain. Tyrod Taylor, in a loss, gets on the mountain. Joe Flacco, probably about to be off the mountain. He's going to give the job back. It's fine. Mason Rudolph, I didn't hate his performance. I know it was fine. He's on the mountain.

Again, we're in a bit of a quarterback crisis here, as you're going to see in a moment. Row six, a lot of people moved up. Daniel Jones had every opportunity to move up. It was all out in front of it. But whenever the commentary after a game is, you know where that team really really, screwed up. Putting the game

in his hands, you're not going to move up. Davis Mills was fine Thursday night against Buffalo. He moves up. Cam Ward, from literally forgotten to be placed anywhere on the mountain to row six. Whoa. Look at Cam Ward. Making it work.

He was actually, I thought, the second half against Seattle, now they probably let their foot off the gas a bit, were some of the better drives of his career. Shout out to him. Tua moved up without playing. That could be the key to to a move out. Jacoby Versette keeps Janet fresh off a 47 completion game, had him in overtime. Bo Nix, by week stays where he is. So here's what I mean

when we're in a bit of a quarterback crisis. So show row five, and I'll address it in a moment, but you'll see on the far right as Tom Brady. And here's why. Well, I saw this clip before the game, or during the game, of Brady. playing catch with AJ Brown. And I said to myself, are there 15 guys better than, like is anyone beneath Tom Brady on this mountain with their teams if they were allowed to? Show them out again, if they were allowed to.

Be like, all right, just for the rest of the year, Sean Payton. You can switch. You can get Tom out of the boot. Hey, Indy, just for the rest of the year, you can switch. It sounds true, he should be higher. Oh, what? I mean, he's 48 years old.

old looks great. Again, we're, he's not going to happen. We love to have him in Fox, but I just saw him throwing football. He's like, he's got to be on the mountain this week. Baker stays where he is. Again, you could argue he should drop, but I don't know who he's going to drop four. Like this is, if you're a legitimate starting quarterback row five right now, seems like about the floor. Nix could take a spot. Jones could at some point, but Jones had a bad game. Nix was off. Justin Herbert was off this week. Jordan Love, another game. James.

James got to be a starter next year. James is so much fun to watch. James just has to be a starter somewhere. Somewhere he's going to be a starter. Now to the top 10. Too much respect for Lamar to drop him. It was potentially a drop-worthy performance, but he had already dropped because row three was vacant,

so that's a fair spot for him. Jared Gough moves up. Jalen hurts. I didn't think he was the problem. I thought he played, you know, I thought he had the one rushing, two rushing touchdowns, but one was a true, like, quarterback-driven run that I thought was really good. I thought he threw the ball fine.

I know coach who feel like he threw it too much. He's not calling the plays. And contrary to Wilde's propaganda, Caleb played well. He had one goofy play. Nobody denies it, but he played well in a game that they needed to win and they did win. Row three. Slight dip for Drake May after really hanging out in row two. Drake May's last three weeks, not great.

This past week, 19 offensive points against the worst defense in football, the pick six that for some reason Kevin Wilde's liked, but no one else did. He drops just a bit. Josh Allen, I know it was Thursday night, but he was brutal, and it wasn't all his fault, but he has to, fair is fairer, he has to drop. And Sam Darnold, somebody's throwing Jackson Smith and Jigman those passes. Sam Darnold moves up. Row two,

Dak Prescott, who's playing the quarterback position, the second best of anyone in the league, and Patrick Mahomes, who is now 7 and 0 in his career in overtime games, 20 and 18 in games his team trails by double digits, and just had the largest fourth quarter comeback of his career to the tune of about 350 yards in a game against a team that everybody told me all week was super dangerous

and could go to the Super Bowl. and then atop the mountain for the third, maybe fourth consecutive week, one Matthew Stafford and his 30 touchdowns and two interceptions. That coach is a perfect edition of Mahomes Mountain. I do love the Brady edition. I think that's probably the best edition I've seen you make in a long time. But I have an issue with where you have Patrick Mahomes. And I know you're dingin Drake May for his pick six,

but Patrick Mahomes shows a pick that goes down to the three-yard line. Who made the time? They score on the very next play or the two plays later. So you've got that. But my issue with Patrick was later in the game. And if you go to the final drive of the game, so it's a nice drive, it starts to the five. But they get down.

They've got first and goal from the three-yard line. And the reason they're going in overtime is because Patrick Mahomes couldn't score. And I don't know if we have the play available, and it's not drawn up, but that third-down play where he takes the sack, you're going to see Travis Kelsey breaks away from the coverage he's wide open but Patrick's in the in the pocket he's looking initially to try to get this

underneath route it's not there Kelsey's gonna come clean here but he goes backside it's just the fact that they had first and goal from the three they ran the ball they get stopped then they have the incompletion then they have the sack then they have to go to overtime the reason what are you doing over time yeah I understand that but also let's take a little I know this is a rich tapestry, so let's take a look at the rich tapestry that Patrick Mahomes has painted over the last three weeks. So this is only the second. That's why he had drops over. This is, this is only the second time in his career where he's had three consecutive

games with under an 80 quarterback rating. The last time it happened was 2021. He's got three interceptions and one touchdown in the period. He's one and two. He's been sacked 10 times. So yeah, They won in overtime. That's positive, but they shouldn't even have been in overtime. The Patrick Mahomes, we all know and respect, would have scored typically if he wasn't in this drought that he's in. Where did you say that drive started from, the game tying drive? Where did you say it started from the five? It started from the five.

And I give him credit for that. I understand that completely. It doesn't sound like a lot of credit. But we get down to first and goal from the three-yard line with the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, and we got to kick a field goal. That's not what we've been used to. And I was at halftime last night, I was looking through the rulebook, because I often do. And I was frustrated with the Carolina Panthers. And I know, Nick, and you wrote it, look, after three consecutive weeks on Mahomes Mound,

if Mahomes isn't on the top, you have the option to rename the Mowin. And that's what I'm suggesting. I'm workshopping names, but this is what I'm suggesting. I think we should go with Maddiewood. I like it. It's a little bit of a workshop, but I think. If you were going to go with someone, I would have gone with Stafford Summit. I know Stafford Summit was part of the consideration, but I think we have to give him

O to Hollywood. I get it, Coach, but you're right, and the bylaws are the bylaws. The bylaws are the bylaws. You should read them. I've read them front to back. And you said it. We can't run it back in real time, but you said the most imperative word you said was option. I have the option to rename Mahomes Mountain.

I'm choosing now. Okay, that's fair. Drew, go ahead. It doesn't say it's your option. No, no, no, read it closely. It says it's ready to last month. Read it a bit closer. Go ahead.

I agree with you, coach. I think Mahones should have been lower. I think he should drop a little more. But I'm going to focus on Caleb. Now, look, he's having a nice. year, a solid year. And he's showing that a star, he might be a star, maybe a superstar still on the table. So it's been a good year for him. I'm not trying to ding him or anything like that. But I do think he should be lower, one level lower. I would put Baker, Herbert, or Love ahead of him.

You would have killed me. If I raised Baker after this week, you would have killed. I just think I would take Baker. I know he didn't have much of a week, but I would trust him. more than Caleb. Now, Caleb doesn't throw picks. That's the one thing I'm certain. We all certain about. He doesn't throw interceptions. But, and you talk about completion percentage.

And I get it, but his is so low. He's below 60%. The last four games, he's been below 59% in each of his games. So he leaves the league in bad throws. And so his accuracy or inaccuracy is an issue. He leaves the league in batted throws as well. So he's just, you know, he's kind of hit or miss. He ranks 20th coach in touchdown percentage.

So he's only got 16, but he throws it a lot, but only 20th in percentage. 17th, and I know a stat you love, yards per attempt. Yes. I'm going to keep digging you with him. And he's 20th impassar rating. He is actually below the league average in passer rating. So I just think, look, they're winning. They haven't played a tough schedule, but they are winning.

I give him credit for that. there's definitely been a lot of growth with Ben Johnson, but I just don't think he's there yet where that would be what, top 10? So here's the thing, because I knew you were doing Caleb. I didn't know who you were going to say to replace him. I didn't think it'd be Baker because Baker just had, it's about your whole season, but this most recent week has, and, you know, a real impact on this week's rankings.

Herbert didn't play. James, we raised incredibly, and Tom Brady's been retired for three years. So I assume Brady should. You were going to say, yes, if you want to say Brady should be up higher, so be it. I assumed you were going to say Jordan Love should take his spot. So I did have them prepare Caleb versus Jordan Love because I think those are the most obvious comps here. So team points is Caleb, completion percentage obviously is J-Lo. Yards per game is Caleb.

Yards per pass is J-Lo. Touchdown to turnover is Caleb. So the argument I would make is I think they are having. roughly equivalent seasons. And so if one guy is coming off an ag game and the other guy is coming off a three touchdown game, that to me feels fair. I would say, though, Caleb has far better weapons. Everybody loved the Packers weapons going into the year.

No, I mean, we had a whole argument about it. They don't have a legit number one receiving. They lost their best tight in. They don't have a legit number one. They got a bunch of twos or threes. Agreed. And Caleb's got some potential number one receiver. Tucker Kraft, I would argue, is maybe the best weapon on either team, but he's now out.

But Jordan Love had him for most of the year. It doesn't have him moving forward. I just think Caleb's year has maybe been a touch. Underrated is my argument. He's coming off, I thought, a really good game despite the Yakety Saxon. And in fairness, Nick, when Micah went there, everybody assumed that that was the missing piece for the whole Super Bowl puzzle, where the Bears were just like, can they survive? You know, can we make progress?

KW. I didn't know coach was going to go this hard at Mahomes, so I don't want to make it feel like a gang-up session on Patrick Mahomes who's a friend of the show. That being said, I would flip Drake May and Patrick Mahomes. Again, it's a rich tapestry, but these are just the raw numbers, and Drake has him beaten in, obviously, team wins,

completion percentage, yards per pass, TD's close enough and pass rating by a decent margin. And then Mahomes went into this year. I'm like, you know what I want to do? The deep ball. Drake's been better at deep passes. There's no question about it. He's been amazing.

So this is on deep passes, five touchdowns, no interceptions. No question. No question. The passer rating is out of control. And one of your arguments for moving Mahomes up is that he battled out from a deficit. Well, part of the deficit was his fault. Drake May was battled out from a deficit too, but I'm not mentioning it because he caused the pick six. The first pick six of the year, I do give Mahomes credit for two Tide Turning tackles that Drake May is yet to make.

So here, so listen, since we've now referenced on a few shows, let's show the Drake May pick six that yesterday caused such the kerfuffle on the show. Because all I said was that's a really bad play. that I don't think that is any better of a bad play than Caleb's fumble touchdown. And you, I don't, for some reason you said that's like a normal bad play, so it's okay. But Caleb's is a funny bad play, so it wasn't. I thought one was a physical mistake, and I thought the other one was a decision-making in the end zone of trying to outrun TJ Y. I think the tight end, Hunter Henry was supposed to be wider and inside the numbers, which is why he threw the ball right through it.

Boom. Okay, so here, so I thought you might say that something about the physical mistake piece of it, which is why, because we're not talking about kill, we're talking about Drake versus Patrick. Because the one thing, none of your graphics included, and none of those passer rating stats or yard stats or touchdown stats or turnover stats will incorporate as this. Drake May, as great as he's been. And listen, I'm a Drake May guy. I'm beloved in New England. Everybody knows them.

That's true. His propensity to take brutal sacks has been a problem for them. Now, some of that's on the offensive line, no doubt about it. But those are significant negative plays that because he takes them, hold on, coach. I'm not doing anything. Coach, because he takes them instead of throwing the ball away, his completion percentage is crazy high. His passing stats stay elevated because the sack, unlike college football, doesn't hurt your yardage.

And so when you look at another Mahomes versus Drex, Drake May comparative full screen. Yards per game is to Patrick. The touchdown to turnover ratio barely, but it is to Patrick. And the sacks are to Patrick. Now, all the other sets you mentioned, completion percentage yards per attempt, and obviously team record is to your guy.

Yeah, we play one more game too, just to be fair. Yeah, so the, and so the, which is why I did yards per game instead of total yards, seems more fair. With that said, KW, what is this? It's a rich, rich tapestry. And after what I would. consider one of Drake May's poorer performances.

It was $294. And no, well, it's just, again, it's the, but from all the other stats you were showing us, the touchdowns, the turnovers, the yards, this was one of his, or pass rating, one of his poor performances. And after Patrick's season saving performance, I think it's okay to ding the young guy just a bit.

He's at his three worst pass, of his three worst passer ratings all season, two of them have come in the last three weeks. It's the two weeks ago, I forget who you played, And then this past week. And what, Coach, what do you want to say? Patrick Mahomes has the three, has three of his worst passer rating in a row since 2012.

He's been sacked 10 times in the last three games. Coach, he showed us this. But I mean, how are you killing Drake May for getting? I'm not killing Drake May at all. He's doing the old Drake May's completion percentage, even though he was throwing the ball away. Last game he was throwing the ball away. Right.

And all, right, and all of a sudden he didn't, that he doesn't have 100 pass rating in that game. All of us, like, you are, All of a sudden, he started throwing the ball away, and that streak of the 100 pass rating things gone. He had like pass reading of like 87. But here's the problem with the Mahomes discussion, and then I'll end it. There is a lot of Mahomes is too high, and Mahomes is too high happening in this segment. And then in the next segment, if we do, how scary are the chiefs?

What coach will be like, well, as long as they have 15, man, nobody wants to play. I don't know if he'll do not. So it is, so there is an element of that where one guy's lineage, if you will, is seven years. And the other guys is a great seven weeks. So yeah, tie goes to that guy. So that's all. What happened to the pre-we? We got one, nine in a row.

Seven. Yeah, seven, right, but I didn't think it was very good this past week. So the previous eight weeks, whatever it is. I know we don't count week one because it was bad. Week one doesn't count. No, week one, of course it doesn't count. All right, coming up next, we discuss Cowboys

versus the Chiefs. And can the 49ers actually make some noise in the playoffs with all those injuries? and a quarterback who keeps throwing a ball to a long team. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. How are you going to spend it? Oh, watching Packers Lions on Fox. Well, good.

Coverage begins at 11 a.m. Live from Detroit, Thanksgiving Day, only on Fox. Welcome back to First Things First. Coach Manjin is here defending Drake May. Thank you, Coach. San Francisco moved to 8 and 4, purdy through three interceptions, but the defense shut down a frisky panther squad. Here are the odds to win the NFC.

San Francisco behind the Rams Eagle, Seahawks, Lions Packers, and then finally you get Brock and the team. Drew or Nick, do you think the 49ers are a real threat? I certainly would not want to play them. Really? Absolutely.

Really? Like right now, the playoff bracket as it is, and we know it can move. But if the Niners get in, they are likely getting in as the seven. And the most likely two-seed by a decent margin is Philly. I would not love that matchup if I'm Philadelphia. I feel like Kyle Shanahan

is a great coach. I know that Nick Siriani has a great record. I don't know that he's done what I consider a great job this year. I think that Robert Sala is coaching as well as anybody in football right now with and figuring and here's what's scary about that Niners defense. He is week by week learning how to best make do without. his best players. And by the time you get to the playoffs, you'll really have that figured out. And as long as Christian McCaffrey, Christian

McCaffrey just seems to give them a floor offensively. And they are pressing, we can show you the pace he's on for. They are pressing the Christian McCaffrey button more than any team has pressed a button in a decade. Oh, that's 17.

Yeah, on a 17-game pace. He's on pace for 422 touches. Like, Sequin last year had $4.50, including the playoffs. They played four rounds of the playoffs. Now, maybe that doesn't bode well for them next season, or obviously McApury gets hurt. They're, you know, because it's so many catches.

Yeah. I think he's top 10 in the NFL in catches. So I, it's hard for me to see with how the quarterback's playing, them winning three rounds. But it is, I also think they could beat anybody. We know Shanahan's history against McVeigh. And they're the best team. So, yeah, to me, coach, they are a real threat.

Yeah, I don't, I see it totally differently after watching the game. And one of the reasons that Chris McAfree is in San Francisco is because Carolina pressed that button so often when he was a Carolina Panther. And he broke down. And so you're at this rate right now, whether he can continue to hold up through the remainder of the season and actually get to the playoffs healthy, who knows? It's too much for him. And then you watched the game last night. if Carolina could have done anything at all, we would be having a radically different discussion today.

That's totally true. Because Mack Jones would have come in, and then it would have been who's going to start the next week. And when you look at Purdy's number, he had the really good game against Arizona. Outside of that, he's got five touchdowns and seven interceptions. It's been a real issue that doesn't look like it got fixed last night by any stretch of the imagination.

And they are overachieving in some elements. and Robert Sala's done a great job, it just doesn't seem like there's enough for them to be. Yeah, I agree, Nick, in that I could see them upsetting somebody, but I can't see them, like, I don't think they're a legit threat. I think they're a second-tier contender in the NFC, which would be that second group of playoff teams. I think that Philadelphia, the Rams, I'm putting Green Bay in there.

I'm hoping that, you know, they get the offense going. But I think that obviously that defense is tough. But I think those are the three top teams. Detroit has fallen off a little bit. I could put Seattle, I'm not as high on them as some people. Man, they're pretty good. Because Donald, again, in a lot of these big games, he just hasn't proven that he's going to show up.

So I kind of put. Get some Rams where he throws some picks. Yeah, I mean, even if you don't win or you, I mean, heck, if he had just been bad, not horrible, they probably win that. Here's my only question, though, on this. And this is not a Brock Purdy statement about his, it is a Brock Purdy statement, actually, but not about his run to the Super Bowl. There is no quarterback in the NFC, or there is no coach in football, I should say,

that we have seen more instances of him coaching in the playoffs around the limitations of his quarterback than Kyle Shanahan. He like interception, though. No, I mean, we talk all. all the time about Jimmy G. They won a playoff game when he threw eight passes. They want, he has,

he has gone into playoffs with a quarterback. He flatly doesn't trust and found a way around it. And so I think that, and you're right that if McCaffrey breaks down, it's a wrap for them. But if we show you, here's the thing that I think they have going for them, if we show you their schedule.

So they have, and I think we can show it, they have coming up, a Browns, listen, the Browns are hard because of the defense. but they lose. They have the Browns and the Titans. If they win those two games and get to 10 wins,

I think it's in play, coach, that week 18, they're like, you know what? We can't win the division. You know what I mean? That we're just going to give ourselves a buy. So they would have the latest buy imaginable, plus a potential a self-buy late in the year. Not bad.

And playing a team that maybe was fighting and clung their way to the postseason, like, I don't know. Like they, and you know, I didn't believe in the Niners before this year. But that's, I've been so impressed by their coaching and by McCaffrey and Kiddell being backs a big deal. I was, I don't think they have enough weapons to really do damage in the playoffs, which leads me to a promo for a podcast. Hey, Brandon Ayyuk, what's going on?

That's all we're going to say. Don't expect to see him. What? Like, you want the money? Like, nah, I'm out of here. Okay, all right. Yesterday. Yeah.

Coach gave out what we call free game in the business. If you're up 21 points, run the ball. Eagles only gave Seekwan 10 carries. Here was Siriani on Sequan's usage. Take a listen, coach. Obviously, we always want to get the Sequan the ball as much as we possibly can, because we know what type of playmaker he is. But Tank's doing a really nice job when he comes in and gives him a burst.

and gives him a break. But make no mistake about it, we want to get Sequin the ball as much as we can because we know good things happen. Coach, your reaction to that sound like. I mean, as far as I know, if you want to give the ball to a running back, you can call a play where you turn

and give the ball to the running back. You would think. So that's allowed. You don't have to throw it to him. You can actually turn, you can call that play. And then if you're the head coach of the team, you control every aspect of who, gets what and at any point you can trump the offense coordinator and say okay we're going to give

him the ball so after they're up 21 points they gave sayquan the ball four more times he got 10 total and i know he talked about tanks so i'm thinking well tank must have the ball a bunch of times he got the ball one time so and tanks got in the ball this season 18 times now he's averaging over nine yards of carry so maybe tanks should get the ball more but you have absolute control over who gets the ball. So to say that we would love to do it, it just didn't come. It just wasn't possible. Like, I don't, I don't understand that presentation.

Yeah, look, I think the comment, yeah, I think the comment is disingenuous, but I do think it's the right thing to say. Like, I think he said, because I think they need to and will get Tank Biggsby more involved. And so you want to say, look, we're trying to get it. to Saekwine as much as possible. And I'm not saying next year Saquine won't be very good. But this year he struggled.

Tank, you're right, nine yards of carry. I know it's only 18 carries. So who know, you know, obviously that's a small sample size. But he does have a burst this year that Saquine hasn't seemed to have. So I would give, without marginalizing

Saquine, I would find a way to get Biggs be more involved because they need some explosion. This maybe is like a third rail Eagles topic. But is it on the board that one of the things they're

battling is right now because, again, I think it is purely because of how much they used them last year. We can't talk about football and be like, man, every carries a car crash. And they'd be like, yeah, the guy had 450 car crashes last year and he's not the same guy.

Is it on the board that they are trying to weigh man, our best option for running the ball right now isn't Saquan. But if all of a sudden, we are giving 15 carries to someone who's not Saquan,

a locker room that's already been a bit of a tender box, it's a whole different problem. If Saquan's the change of pace back. So like, if it's, if he has to be the featured back and he's giving you, I know coach that he only had four carries once they're up 21, but that

also means he only had six, en route to the 21 point lead. Like throwing the ball was working, running with Saquan has not been working. Like that's a weird thing that they have to balance because he's such a great player coming off such a great year. If he's just

not that, this is a bad example, but it almost feels like the end of Clay Thompson in Golden State. Like, man, like, does he play, but he's not our best option? Like, what do we do? Yeah, I don't think it's the end of Saquan. His history has had great year.

A great year down yet. Yes. So go ahead and give Tank Bigsby the ball. And in line with everything else that comes out of Philadelphia, you do whatever you have to do to win the game. So I don't think Sequin's going to be the type of guy to go to the athletic and do a 16-page article or get on Twitch or whatever and say, I'm not getting the ball enough. He'll probably say, okay, you know, this is what we had to do to win the game.

And when you've got a guy who's averaging nine yards of carry, you give him the ball until he brings his average down. Yeah. And just see what it is. And if you've got to split the carries, you split the carries. But to sit there with 11 carries and not know what you have and then say, hey, we'd love to do it differently, but we can't. No, you fed the beast that complained. And this is where it brought you to another loss.

That's all you did. Because most teams have two backs anyway that they feature. I mean, heck, we talk, Jamir Gibbs is awesome. And they're using, Montgomery's good too, but they use two backs. Yeah. So I'd I if I were consulting for Philadelphia after this Black Friday game, I'd tell him, see if we can tell Sequin, hey, long season last year, you know, we have an opportunity to give you 22 days off. What, you know, why don't we, you know, your hamstring's starting or whatever, why don't, why don't you sit weeks 14 and 15? You know what I mean?

No, again, with the argument being like, hey, be fresh, be fresh going into the playoffs. I don't hate that. You don't like that? I don't hate it. And as a side benefit, also getting the knowledge of like, hey, what does the run game look like it win tank bigs,

he gets 20 carries as just a secondary benefit with the main benefit being, have Sequin be fresh going into the postseason? This would be my, push back. He had a whole off season. Yeah, that's true. How many months off were he just chilled? It recorded a lot of commercials, coach. I don't know. And now, yeah, two

weeks after what? Several months of being hit every week. I don't think that would make that much of difference. And now this would be, I guess, good for Philadelphia. What if Tank Biggs Week goes crazy? That's what I'm saying. Like Rico Dowell did. But I think that would be great. He wasn't, Rico wasn't a starter initially, right?

Yeah. And he went crazy. I think that would be great for them. I think that'd be great. But I mean, Sequin. It would be one of them good problems. I think Sequin wouldn't make a big deal out of it. No, I agree. His feelings be hurt, but he wouldn't make a big. Should John Morant want out of Memphis? We discussed this

interaction with Clay Thompson. That's next on first thing. Memphis won out of the job. I was trying to make it a little more. Hey, Big Noon Saturday, the greatest rivalry in all of sports. Number one, Ohio State, heads to Michigan for the game. Nick, you know what this is?

three hour edition of Big New Kickoff, live from Ann Arbor, bro. What do you got in this game? You're a Michigan guy, kind of. That's tough. My daughter is going to watch the game at a Michigan bar. She went there. But I'm from Ohio. Okay.

When I was paying Michigan all this money, I was pulling for them. Over the weekend. She's out. She's graduates. Mavs Grizzlies. Santee Aldima grabs Cooper Flag's leg. Clay rightly says, hey, what's going on? And Jah comes over and has words for,

Clay and after this all settles down, Clay has words for Jah post game. Take a listen. He's a funny guy. He has a lot to say all the time, especially for a guy who rarely takes accountability. It's funny to run your mouth when you're on the bench. It's kind of the story of his career so far, just leaving us wanting more. You know, we all want to see him out there and do his best, but he's just been letting a lot of other things. stuff getting the way of that. We need that in the NBA. We need our best players to be out there. And when you're a star, it comes

with a great responsibility. And I hate to see that go to waste. Your reaction to this entire incident. I think Jaws a clown. That's my reaction. And I think, and Brew, you and I were talking about this off the air, but it is hard to find a player of that caliber that squanders it all without there being a drug problem

like there was for a lot of guys in the 70s and 80s when the NBA had a bad drug problem. And I'm not alleging that job at all. I'm saying without that or without a devastating injury. Just rank immature. And we have seen guys blow it or not achieve full potential, but I don't think we've seen someone who was top five-ish and certainly en route

to this quickly be non-factor bad contract and for no reason other than just a real unbelievable dedication to being a clown and of all the guys to go after one of the most well-liked, well-respected listen I know Clay's had his moments, the Four Rings thing

and like I'm not acting like Clay's, you know, never made a mistake. I like that. It is, no, I know, but it's so unlikable and it is so predictable for a guy who I think we all see him blowing it and he just seems not to care. Yeah, look, and Clay really, I mean, some people might think he was going at him. He's a funny guy. He was really saying the truth.

And if John Moran, I'm sure he won't do this, but he really should listen to him. into what Clay. Clay was saying, look, we need you in the league, man. Like, John Morant was arguably, maybe it's inarguable,

the most exciting player in the league. Yes. If he, like, he was so much fun to watch in a league where a lot of guys are doing the same

manufactured moves, a lot of guys are just shooting threes all the time. He was going to the rim dunking on people. Like, John Morant, if he just would

stay out of his own way off the court could be a face of the league type guy. And not to mention how great he was as a player beyond just the spectacular. But you're right, Nick, and I thought about guys, I mentioned like Steve Francis. Steve Francis didn't really do anything. He just wasn't, his game kind of fell off. He wasn't as good as Jai even at his height. And Steve Francis had a high upside.

Stefan Barberry kind of rubbed guys the wrong way on his team attitudeally and things like that. Stefan wasn't off the court issues. Penny Hardaway and some people might think, wow, you comparing John. Yeah. I mean, Penny, if Penny had not gotten hurt, he may have been better than Jai. But still, Jai was that type of player.

Penny got hurt. Derek Rose got hurt. Like, that's what derailed their careers. This guy is blowing it in such. a huge way and... And he's blowing his whole prime. The thing is, all of his greatness was pre-prime. Like, so much of that, and that's how good it was.

And it was based on his athleticism, which is probably way. But so much of it was like, man, imagine when this guy gets to his prime years. And he's not having him. He is recreating to a degree, because Derek Rose had a peak as high, maybe higher. He won league MVP. Yeah. But it's like if instead of blowing out his knee, Derek Rose just decided to be a jerk to everybody.

And that's like the, and that's what I don't, I don't, I don't get it. And I don't understand why he doesn't KW seem interested in course correcting. Career lows in field goal percentage, three point percentage, down to 17%. That's time to stop shooting. Points are basically at his rookie numbers, where he won't rookie at the year. career high turnovers, career low rebounds,

and he's only played 12 games. He needs to be out of Memphis. So that's what I was going to ask. Where do you think he could succeed? Look. That makes sense contract-wise. Minnesota, it's a risk to take him on

because he's, this is all self-inflicted. So it's a risk, but Minnesota doesn't look like they're going anywhere. You know, they obviously have Anthony Edwards, who's great. I might try it.

I know. It's a risk. basketball-wise and just, you know, bringing them into the organization. But I think they could use the boost. And maybe that's the place he can get the most out. Miami, obviously, they got structure. I don't know if he can handle it. Obviously, there's temptations all over Miami.

But beyond that, I don't know if he can handle that structure. Because they're serious there with Pat Riley and Spolstra. I just, maybe Orlando. I don't care how talented he is until I see John Morant. be an adult. And I know I sound like a crusty old man. I am a grandfather. Yes.

But he is young enough and talented enough to have this be a long but just unfortunate chapter. If at some point he's like, you know what, I was being silly, a little too proud, a little too immature. I want to play 10 more years of great basketball. Take a chance on me. I'll get back to me and John Morant. one press conference like that, and I'd be back in.

Instead, even back when it was the gun stuff, it was a lot of, woe was me, this is unfair. The sad thing is, is he will probably realize that one day, but he'll still be, he'll be an average player by that. He won't be able to be a star in. All right from New York, it's top 10 Tuesday here on First Things First, overtime. We'll see where my patriots are and the bears are.

About to find out. Today, are the Chiefs back on top of Top 10 Tuesday? Are they ever on top of Top 10 Tuesday? Yes, they were after Danny bent the knee and was like, I'll never doubt him again. They're the best. They're going to. You talk about the roller coaster. Yeah.

I mean, with the Chiefs, he is on the roller. That's what happens with your six and five. Yeah. Meanwhile, Joe Burrow versus Lamar. And all of a sudden, is Joe Burrow the healthier quarterback? That's strange. Yeah. But right now, we're starting with last night's game.

The eight and four 49ers get yet another win. Brock throws three passes to the wrong team. Second time his career, he's done that in a half. Nevertheless, San Francisco prevails. Here's Brock post game. Menently as a quarterback, you want to play aggressive. You want to take what the defense gives you, but when you turn the ball over, really three drives in a row, it's like, all right, like, you feel it. You feel a little bit of pressure and stuff, but I mean, this is why we're put in this position. I can handle this. You know, as a quarterback, you can't lose confidence in yourself. You can't, you know, shrivel back, and then all of a sudden take a bunch of checkdowns and stuff. Like, so you still got to read the play out and stay aggressive. and be better. You got to learn from your mistakes, too. So hands up, that's on me.

We showed the walk-in video of Purdy yesterday at the end of O.T. And I mocked the Toyotathon jacket. I should have seen three interceptions coming. Yeah, he's got a name on the back of it. The jacket is questionable. This is, and this is, this was true when LeBron wore, and I know you loved it. The shorts, the Tom Ford suit with the shorts. You loved that?

Tom Brown. Thank you. You're right. My bad. Tom Brown, you're correct. You got one else? That you just need, you have to have, if I win, if I lose, outfit options. And for LeBron, the short suit. Now, that was right before the three, the three one comeback. So it ended up being fine. But that's not a great look after the loss. 40 can't, 40, 40, purdy can't wear the Toyotathon NASCAR car heart multi, branded jacket after three picks and a half. He won.

I understand, but he didn't win. The Niners won, he lost. He did win. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Mr. QB. win. Yeah, sorry. Danny, should the 49ers fans feel better or worse? Worse? That was a sound the alarm, purdy performance.

And I know, like, when the Seahawks lost to the Rams, and it was a close game, and they had the field goal to win, and Donald had thrown the four picks, I came on the air and I was like, I actually was impressed by Seattle because it was like if they could keep it close throwing four picks.

But that was because it was the Rams. And it was the best even. Looking like that against Carolina, that should have been a loss if it wasn't Carolina. Like if Carolina executed off of those picks, we're talking about a Niners loss today.

And Purdy, I don't know. He said after the game it wasn't injury related. and you called me a doctor yesterday on air, and it's sticking with me. But I'm not buying it. You think his injury related?

He's never had the strongest arm, right? He's not Allen or Mahomes or Herbert or anything like that. I understand that. But those were blobs. They were soft. What did you call him wild? You got a muffin passes? I've never heard of it either.

You call them muffins. Hockey in Chicago, and it's like, I think it's a hockey term when the ball looks like, or the puck looks like a muffin. So now I just use it for any. Soft interceptions. This is just a nice. But I think it's better for, if I'm the Niners,

I would kind of rather these be injury related. Yeah, but I don't know that he's going to recover. I mean, I get that. Like, well, you'd rather, you'd rather that for your long term faith and purdy over years, but not for this season. But, well, so I, look, I think they should feel better. To your point. Now, long term.

If Brock keeps playing like this, then you got an issue. So I get that. I don't think you'll keep, obviously not going to throw three and a half regularly, but I think he can turn it around. But if he keeps playing like this, you have a huge problem because you paid him all that money. But for the team, it's kind of like you said about Seattle. He threw three picks and they won. And Carolina was six, what are they're six and six.

Are they six and six now? Yes. Yeah. So, I mean, they beat the Cowboys. They have are a legitimate, I don't think they're very good. But they are a legitimate playoff contender. Bryce was bad yesterday. Bryce was terrible.

But my point is just that you beat a team with your quarterback, a playoff contender with your quarterback throwing three interceptions, and you beat them handily. So I definitely think they should feel better. And because Brock, even if he doesn't get back to what he was doing this, you know, Years ago this year, he's not going to throw three interceptions a game. I don't think he's going to throw three interceptions a game, but there was just, there was a common threat of those interceptions.

It was because he was great when he was checking it down. Yeah. When he was throwing short. And let's just put up the, if it traveled 10 yards down the field, right, yesterday. He was obviously terrible. He had the three interceptions, a pass a rating of 2.4. And two more almost picked. Right, exactly.

It felt like you could have had a handful. I didn't know 2.4 could even pop up. I was surprised. But at the bottom, was around there. 22 of 25 for 168 yards and a touchdown on passes under 10 yards. So it was like, all right, well, he hasn't actually always been that bad at it. Never had a strong arm.

He's been good at Shanahan is so great at scheming guys open. I think why Shanahan loved Purdy was he could execute the passes. Even without the field. So right, even down the field. So Purdy for his, the last three years on passes that traveled more than 10. Prior to this year. Prior to this year. Yeah, he was great at it.

He was the best in the league. Pre-injury. Pre, because he heard his toe in week one, came back in week four, then missed all that time and came back. So last three years, he's been great at it. But this year, so yesterday's game and the previous, whatever, it's been four games that he played, he's been consistently awful at it.

And so I just, I wonder we have the last graphic that shows the whole year of it on the passes that go 10 yards. This just, it feels like this year's going to be the outlier to the last three. And if all you do is dink and dunk, there's a real ceiling. I get if you're saying, quickly, I get if you're saying concerns about Purdy. I'm just saying as the team, eight and four, you beat Seattle with him throwing two picks. You beat Carolina with him throwing three. I just, I wouldn't want to count on that.

KW, before we get to what you want to get to, can I jump in here? Yeah, then I'm going to. Yeah, you're going to take this car in a different direction. I understand. And you've been very patient on this day all day. You've waited all that time. So here's why I would feel better if I were the Niners. Because this was a reality check for them.

And I do think as long as Christian McCaffrey's out there, and as long as Shanahan's calling the offense and Bob Sell is calling the defense, they're dangerous. Like right now, the 2-7 is San Francisco going to face Philly. If that game were played next weekend, I'd give San Francisco a real chance of going into Philly and upsetting them. Now, granted, Philly maybe by the time the playoffs comes along is operating at a higher level than they have been all year. But right now I'd give them that shot.

And I, we don't have to have a big picture over the last four years purty argument right now. But I've always been a skeptic. Yeah. And I think a lot of those numbers were a fact more a virtue of he had better guys than, he had better players around him that, put teams in really tough positions. He was not going to have that this year because it's McCaffrey who's great, Kittal who's great, and then a

really blah receiving core. And I think this is a reminder for Kyle Shanahan. Hey man, we know you hated living in this world, but for the rest of this year, you're back in the Jimmy Garoppolo world. I don't necessarily think that's cool. Well, but

KW, you want them to go to, he wants them to go to Mac Jones, but Mac Jones is the Jimmy Garoppel world, where you are Mac was not taking a ton of chances. Mac was playing. Right, he was playing now he threw for a bunch of yards, but it wasn't a ton of bombs. It was more Jimmy Garoppolo-esque.

And so if you're, I mean, I want you to say whatever you want to say, but they, I just think them throttling back on Purdy's aggressiveness and saying like Purdy, you don't deserve this arm arrogance. You're not going to step on people's throats like Tom Brady. What you're going to do is what you did after the three picks yesterday. check it down, lean on Christian McCaffrey, trust George Kittle. I think that's a path for them. You think the path is go to Mac Jones.

Here's what's going to happen, and I'm 98% positive. The Browns are going to beat them up. The Browns and Miles Garrett are going to make this a nightmare game for Brock Purdy. Yet the 49ers will win Chador's second start. It'll just Robert Sala. I will give that nod to the 49ers. Also, let me add something for you there. Snow.

Oh, is it snowy? Snow in the forecast on Sunday. So we know that this tow, we got a report. It's going to last all year. I think there was a report. It might last his whole career. Well, no, that wasn't, I mean, that wasn't a report. Troy Aikman's like, man, Dion's dealt with this for 30 years.

If Troy Aikman says it, I believe. Yeah. Danny put the numbers down. You went from the best in the league to bad at it. 2.4. You're hurt. It is what it is. So he's going to come out.

Mac Jones is going to go in. Mac Jones is going to be throwing pillows around the field. And be like, oh, what is the difference between pillows and muffins? Good question. Pillowy ball is easy to catch. Yeah. For both teams sometimes. So how's that different than a muffin?

A muffin is just kind of floating up there. A pillow is like nice. So what's Matt going to lead them to? I think Mac will make them a dangerous team in the playoffs. And Brock is going to sit until he's healthy, which isn't going to happen. You can't go into the playoffs with a quarterback. who has eight touchdowns and seven interceptions and being like we've got the better

quarterback. I mean, look, I do think, I mean, they've said it's not going to be healthy this year. If the toe is bothering, he needs to sit and try to get healthy. And I think Danny's graphic shows the toe is bothering him. So try to get healthy for next year. Because look, we know the contract and it's a no trade clause. Yeah. And I do think even if

it were a legit, like if Purdy isn't hurt, I would not bench him now. But if he were to continue, continue obviously to play poorly like this, then you could bench it. And I think you can bounce back from that. I mentioned guys earlier who have been benched. He's a young, he has no choice. Yeah, but you got no choice.

What's he going to do? I'm saying the curse, though. He's a young player that has to, I mean, like I said, I mentioned, Aitman, Breeze, Kurt Warner. To Danny's point, all those guys were before they got big deals. But what is he going to do if he's bent? He's not going to do anything. He's going to have to fight for his position. they're going to want to play him, but he's going to have to fight for it and get better.

My question is, I don't think it's like he's done. We wasted it all his money. Because they play the Browns, then they have a buy, then they play the Titans. The tricky spot is KW playing poorly and winning. Would they, like, let's assume you're right about the Browns game, but they don't bench him. They're like, we're going to buy, you know what I mean? And so they play, then the Titans game rolls around. You win a game.

And he plays poorly. And they, right, it's not quite as bad as yet. yesterday, but again, would they bench their $50 plus million a year quarterback on a winning streak at 10 and 4? No. The answer is no. And I don't, and I think you... It's the wrong decision.

But KW, I think you normally would not... That wasn't great every game either. I think you would never advocate for a team benching their starting franchise quarterback on a winning streak unless your guy was his backup. I love winning

streaks and I love momentum and I love quarterback wins. Yes. Here is the hottest take I can give you. The 49ers should play the better quarterback. That's it. And it's not anything to do with his contract. The guy is in a very, the opposite of the Goldilocks zone.

Healthy enough to play, not healthy enough to be good. And he's like, oh, what am I supposed to do? I'm not the same guy, but I look the same. It's a toe, which is weird. If it was a hamstring, I think it's like, well, my hamstring. I think it's weird because like toes are little, even though there's too. It is. They're important.

It's just an odd thing. It's like, well, it's your toe. Just get out there. You got a lot of them. Mack Jones is going to start a game, or at least he should for this 49. If he's hurt, they should just sit him. Because if he's, if he's legitimately hurt. They have an excuse in the injury.

Yeah. He's hurt. Okay. Bears. Bears. Caleb Wilson. Caleb Williams, three touchdowns and a great win against the Steelers. Did they do enough to crack top 10 Tuesday?

We're about to find out. Well, they're not coming in at the 10 spot wilds because the Indianapolis Colts. I'm not going to drop them a lot for losing to the chief. Bears ahead of the cult. No. No. Should I spoil it earlier? Well, obviously they are.

Well, or obviously. There's no way that bears are on here. Hey, the Bud list is motivational. You guys have 10 hours. I only have. I got to move my motivation into top 10. If the Bears don't show up on them, we have a big problem. Okay.

Well, go ahead. Well, the offense is trending in the wrong direction. Five touchdown, seven turnovers in the last three games for Daniel Jones and the Colts. But I think that they are still worthy over their offensive production of the season to hang on to a top 10 spot. Number nine, the Lions. I don't like that my Super Bowl pick out of the NFC allowed over 500 yards to James Winston and the New York Giants. I don't like it. But I do like the fact that they were good enough to win in a game where they did that.

Jemir Gibbs deserves to be in that conversation for best running back in the NFL. Number eight, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. Wow, your Super Bowl match. I know, nine and eight. Not really, coordinate he's ranking. Yeah, down arrows next to them. They had a streak where they had it, they won the turnover differential in 26 consecutive games. In the last seven, it's not so.

I think they're two and five in the last seven. Yeah, two of the last seven weeks. They've won the turnover battle after going 26 for 26. They're going to have to write that if they're going to win the AFC and make me look good for my preseason Super Bowl pick. Coming in at number seven, Nick's Kansas City Chiefs. Bears ahead of the Chiefs. They're not... Nick, don't make me look bad in Chicago.

Well, let's see. I guess I can stay tuned. Time spent listening. Time spent watching. That was the first game where I really felt like it looked like a Chiefs game from last year. year. Double-digit comeback entering the fourth quarter, one score win. Other team, like, forgetting basic strategy, like giving the ball to Jonathan Taylor and the Chiefs, the, you know, heart of a champion coming out with a win. Number six, you know how good the Denver Broncos look when they're not playing? Because I got questions about every other team on this list. I really only think one team in the NFL is good. We'll get to that at number one. It's a

good place to put them. But they've out-sacks their opponent in every game. They've got an elite defense. They didn't lose this past week because they weren't playing. gets to stay in the six spot. Number five, the New England Patriots, highest they've been on top 10 Tuesday, and we should look at the resume for the Patriots because it's undeniably impressive. Eighth in points per game,

sixth in yards per game, the most explosive plays in the NFL, the most takeaways in the NFL, the 31st ranked strength of schedule. It's an impressive resume. Everyone agrees an impressive. One mistake. That's the resume of the show.

Chicago. Oh, wow. Yeah, the resume of the Chicago event. Wow. I don't think we have that many take away. Yeah, no. You don't know, wow, it's a good team. They absolutely deserve.

What a turnabout. That was good. Absolutely deserved to be there on the list. So is it the Patriots? Is it the Bears? Nobody can really tell, but those are the Patriots, right? So wait, so the Bears, is that like that take?

No, it was just a way. And number four, apparently. No, no, no. It's just that's where the Patriots are. My point is it could be the Bears. Coming in number four, the Baltimore Ravens. What? What?

Nick, relax on the bears. I know I'm now a guest. You love the Ravens. Brutum they would have the Ravens this high. The Ravens have held their opponent to under 20 points. You like defense. Six weeks in a row. Yeah, all of these teams have massive question marks.

So what can I count on? I can count on the Ravens defense. And I think Lamar is going to get it together. Get it together, Lamar. Coming in at number three. The Philadelphia Eagles. Now the Eagles. they have a formula.

And it's win ugly, have an impressive resume, and then they blow a 21 point lead to Dallas. But all three of their losses are following the exact same path. They have a lead, they look good, and then they do nothing in the second half. Nick Siriani, this feels like it's on you. Petulow, Jalen Hertz, A.J. Brown, Instagram post, Twitch streams, figure out a way to not be a terrible second half team

when you lose the game, and you could still win the Super Bowl. Coming in to number two, Seattle Seahawks. What's the prettiest win? Look this up. Jackson Smith and Jigma, 46% of the yardage game. The second highest total for any player in the NFL since 1970. You got to go back to Ken Burrow, double zero on the old Houston. Root cover him.

I remember Kim Burr. I think I was a kid. Not Derek Henry, not Christian McCaffrey, not Randy Moss. Jackson Smith and Jimba, number two for the most yards there. There should be a huge gap between two and one. The Rams come in at number one. And this is, came up with this this week, wanted to show it to you guys. If you have a quarterback with over 30 passing touchdowns and a defense allowing 17

or fewer points per game through 11 games in NFL history, Dan Marino's MVP year in 84, 07 Patriots, you guys have heard of them, and the 2025. So it's a great recipe to lose the Super Bowl. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no. Losing a Super Bowl and be the-s sign up for that. And be the best team in the league. Yeah.

L.A. Rams. Perfect top. That's a crazy list. Not really. I was going to, honestly, I was going to be like, for now, the Ravens are too high. But I say, you know what? I'll ride with it. Put on the road, bro. You want me to take the road? I'll let you go with it.

Packers. I'm putting the Packers. I'm putting the Packers ahead of the lions. So get the lions out of there. Because here's why, Wiles, as you do all your little shenan. I got an idea. It's week one. If we want to find out who's better.

Are they going to win this? Let's have them play each other. How about that? There's a chance they get crushed. There's a chance they get crushed in Detroit. Let's have them play each other. All right, because the last time they played, the Packers won by two touchdown. That was week one.

Okay. You know what wasn't week one? just a few days ago when the Packers manhandled Minnesota. Who? A Minnesota. Here's why. Because a Minnesota team that a month ago beat the Detroit Lions. Transitive property.

I just say like the Lions have, I get it. The Packers have not been incredibly impressive, but have the Lions? No, I mean, because as bad as Minnesota is, the Giants have been worse, and the Giants took the Lions to overtime, which brings me to my. issue. All right. What's your issue, Nick? Christina, if you would, just put up my bar because I don't have a singular issue.

My question is why even play the games? Because because why are we even playing the games? If Baltimore, which the only reason you or others believe Baltimore can win the Super Bowl is a Lamar Jackson, that offense. How many times if I had to hear you say if you have a top five offense, you're in the The offense has been MIA for a month of the actual games. Have they lost? You don't care about record.

They're six and five and they're number four. I don't understand any of it. The Lions this week, you don't believe in the Packers for, I believe, preconceived offseason notions. The Lions have not looked good for a month. They just needed a 60-yard field goal at the gun. to escape against the Giants. They barely move down.

The Patriots move up despite playing one of their worst games of the year after refusing to respect them all year. We are. Best team in the entire elite. Right, but those times you guys have looked impressive. Danny would give you no credit. And the Bears, how do you, how do you not have the Bears who yesterday you told us? Yeah. We're in the playoffs.

We're a legit good team. They are. your top 10. Well, 14 teams make the playoffs. This is top 10 Tuesday. Here's a question for you, Nick. Yeah. So why do they even play the games?

Again, I don't, I have, this is motivation, it's list, it's all things coming to one. Can I see Nick's tears from this week, please? Sure. Can I see, can I see the tears? I don't know you're going to blame like Albert or Quincy. We did the mountain. Yeah. No, did you not.

Last week. Last week. Oh, these were entering last week. Yeah. Some of these teams, because Brew, can you help me remember Ramsey? Eagles? Who won the game? I didn't say anything about head-to-head. You assumed, let me tell you something.

You assumed I was going to make an argument I didn't make, and now you're bringing up last week's tiers. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Bill's and Patriots, they played each other, right? Yeah, but they're on the same tier. I understand that. I get that entirely. The bills beat the Chiefs, right?

Yes, I get that entirely. I'm just curious. Why do we even play the games? Again. Why do we even play the games? You need to get, why aren't the bears where the lions are? He doesn't, I, no one knows. I want to see them be in Philly.

It's motivation. It's motivation. No one knows. Coming up next. You really tricked us with the Patriots Bears graphic. They could have done a good switch of them. Chiefs Cowboys. Who do you trust more this Thursday?

What do you have in this game doing? I'll tell you coming up. Wow. What do you do after you've had a great Thanksgiving? You watch off. You hang out with us. Coach is going to work Black Friday, Willie? surprise no days off right it's been my dream to work with you guys on black

Friday I finally didn't realize dreams do come true you'll be hanging out the brothers on Black Friday D's beat like I always yeah right I got an invitation to the cookout very much come see us 10 to noon Black Friday special hang in at you baby laugh from the peanut gallery over there we go to Cincinnati Bengals fans lots to be thankful for I guess head coach Zach Taylor he spoke yesterday he's expecting Joe Burrow to make his return on the On Thursday, the Bengals, of course, facing the Ravens in Baltimore Thanksgiving night. Here is Joe Burrow, who spoke today ahead of his return.

It's a division rivalry. You got respect for him, but it's intense out there. It's something I wanted to be out there for. Playing on Thanksgiving is something I've always wanted to do that I've pushed for in the past and the NFL gave it to us and then the injury happened and thought I wasn't going to be able to play. I got closer, I felt like it was a real possibility. It's a national stage to go out and improve yourself again after not playing for several

weeks and every opportunity that you get to go improve all the hard work that you've put in. The type of player you are is something that I try to take advantage of. And then this was how he announced it. If him saying it, you didn't believe it. He wore a LeBron jersey, flashed the guns and said he's back. That thing is tight. Yeah, it is. Jordan did it first, though, with the he's back.

It was a fax, though, back in the 90s. Coach, what are your expectations for Burroughs return? Yeah, I'm not sure what to expect. He's only throwing the ball 36 times a season, and now he's coming back. And if you look at last year's games against Baltimore, they were both shootouts. They lost one, I think it was 41, 38 in overtime, and 35, 34.

So the offense for Cincinnati's been explosive with Flacco, it should be equally as explosive with Burrow. I would imagine Jamar Chase, this is a little bit of a redemption game for what missing last week. So that's good too. It's just with so much time off and such limited exposure this year, it's hard to not imagine there's some rust that he's got to knock off, especially early in the game. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just don't understand why he's playing. And I know we brought this up the last time.

They're like, well, he's a competitor, but this team is three and eight, man. Like, I don't understand what you're going to accomplish by trying to beat the Baltimore Ravens. It's not like you win in your end type of situation. you win the division or you're ahead in the division. What do you make it what he said, though? He said he's always wanted to play on Thanksgiving, and it's an opportunity to continue to prove who he is. It means nothing when your franchise quarterback is dealing with a gimpy toe.

And I understand from him being an emotional spark. I understand him kind of really elevating the offense. But like coach said, Zach Taylor's been here before. We know that first 15 is going to be easy throws, quick slants. You're going to see a choice for hours with Jamar Chase. I get all that. But you're putting your future quarterback at risk for a reward that means nothing. So I'm struggling with that overall, but I expect Joe Byrd to be accurate.

I expect him to understand that the Ravens are going to dial up. Blitzers are going to try to get after him and they're going to try to test his process. So we'll see. But I just don't get why he started. Now, they did win five in a row last year. If they went all six, they've got a 46% chance to making the playoffs. It's not great. But with the way that division is set up, and if they can beat Baltimore twice, who knows?

And that's where I come out on it. Like, my expectations is he's going to be great because I think he's a great player when he's healthy. Like, when he's healthy, he's great. And I'm with you, if he's not going to be great, then there's no reason to be doing this. But we can't judge if he's going to be healthy until he plays this game. We don't know where he's at. Everybody looks great in practice.

And I obviously have even seen the practices. I'm just saying he's not going to be able to be graded on a curve. They're basically, they have to win out to even have a shot. Flacco has not. If he comes back and is worse than Flacco, then it's, well, then what are you doing? Their next three are, it's Ravens, Bill's Ravens. He'll treat those like they're his playoff games. Sure.

These guys worked year round to play these 17 games a year when he saw this schedule come out nine months ago. He was like, oh man, we get the Ravens on Thanksgiving, then we get the bills, then we get the Ravens again. He's probably been thinking about this pocket of the schedule for eight months. Yeah, I just don't think the risk is worth of reward. You know he's injured prone. He's been in this position before.

He is the future of your franchise. And now you're talking about a defense that can't do anything to combat what the opposition tries to do to them. And I think Joe Burrow is a hell of a quarterback. I expect them to be great. But I just don't, I think if this thing goes left against a very worthy defense of the Baltimore Ravens, now you have a, you're giving yourself a bigger hole. I just don't think it's worth it. So you shut them down for the year? Yeah, you're three and eight. This season has been lost two weeks ago. With the division the way it is, though, and the fact that you're playing the Ravens twice the next three weeks, I honestly think they're going to beat the Ravens?

Yeah. I don't. I think they, I think that based off of how they played last year and the Ravens offense hasn't been clicking very much this year. They got hot at the end of the season. I think who knows. Let's see what happens. If it doesn't go well, then you think about it differently than the following week. Well, we'll be talking about the results on the Black Friday special. To Dallas, Cowboys host the Chiefs this Thursday on Thanksgiving.

Another game we'll be talking about 10 a.m. on Friday. Chiefs are 6 and 5. Cowboys are 5, 5 and 1, both obviously in virtual must-win mode and both coming off huge wins. Here's Patrick Mahomes from earlier today. I think throughout the last few weeks here, teams are really challenging us and man. And I got to be able to make those throws in those big moments. And I was able to make the throws. Guys were able to get themselves open.

Coaches called the plays really well. And we executed. And I think whenever we're able to do that, it forces defense to have to adjust and play zones where I feel like we can play at a high level as well. And so being able to prove that we can do both, I think it's something that we have to continue to do through the rest of the season. These offenses are both really scary. Cowboys have a few numbers that are better. Chiefs have a few numbers that are better. Coach, which offense do you trust more?

On Thanksgiving, I'm going with Dallas. The last three Thanksgiving, they've won by average point differential of 16.7, so almost 17 points per Thanksgiving. So there's that. They play well on the day. And then when you look at the two quarterbacks, if we can just pull up where they are comparatively, you can see how well DAC is playing right now.

Fifth in completion percentage, second in pass TDs, pass a rating. And then if you want to go bigger picture and look at how the offenses are playing, it's hard to argue with what Dallas is doing. Fourth, first, six. 11th, there's a little bit of drop there, but they're still better than Kansas City. And then time sacks. He'd dachs done a great job there, too, of avoiding sacks. So I like where Dallas is offensively.

I like the fact that they were able to fight back the way they were last week. And I also like the way they play on Thanksgiving. Yeah, I trust the Cowboys, too. And the simple fact, they get it done in the red zone. The Chiefs don't. And that's been a big bugle of the last couple weeks for them. I got a graphic to show you how bad they all if you throw it up. It's a graphic off.

Yeah, we got to go right at each other. But this is who they are. I mean, this is not the chiefs we expected to be. This is not the chiefs that we think are going to make it to playoffs and cause damage. This is who they are. And they've struggled, especially last week. I thought they were going to get over the kind of the buglebone they dealt with in Denver. And you see how they pretty much went one for six in the red zone this past week.

And I'm saying to myself, Patrick Mahomes, the cape is wearing thin. He can only shoulder this offense for so long. And I trust Dak. I trust the trio, Pickens and CD and Ferguson. They do it right. And they win their one-on-ones. And Dak, it keeps Dak up right. So I got the Cowboys.

So, I mean, that graphic shows me that the last two weeks are more the outlier in the first nine. I'm assuming is what they're going to be. It's weird. So it's a clean sweep. In terms of the offensive side of the ball, I do trust Dallas more. But I'll just flip it to you guys and say, like, even though I think Dallas's offense is more explosive, we agree. this year, DAC has been more consistent than Mahomes. I think we all would agree on that.

I still trust the Chiefs in a must-win spot to get it done. Like the Cowboys playing well on Thanksgiving. That doesn't mean much for me. It's different coaches. It's different years. Like one year it's against the Giants. Like, you know, I don't know that like this Cowboys team with George Pickens who didn't play in the last couple of games.

Like I don't know that they're going to be ready. I don't think there's any challenge that the Chiefs could have where it's like, oh, we don't know how to get ready for a Thursday night. game. But it's like even though the Cowboys' offense is better than the Chiefs, I still trust the Chiefs to win the game when both teams need the game as much as they do. What's interesting, though,

is we've talked so much about how bad the Dallas defense has been. It's been better recently. It's been a lot better recently. The addition of Quinn Williams has made a significant difference. I think collectively they're playing better in terms of understanding the scheme. And the defensive coordinator, Matt

Iberfrews, being able to understand the players better what they can do well. And and can't do well. So that's been good also. And I get what you're saying about last year and the year before it doesn't necessarily matter. But there are some moments where you have a tradition like Dallas has this tradition that can be a little bit different

and can be an edge for you if you used to playing it year and year out. A lot of those guys have been part of that. Yeah, I think the Cowboys just aren't beating themselves like the Chiefs are. Penalty-wise, they just riddled. I mean, back to back weeks, you talk about this team, especially on first and second down, they're just not getting it done.

and they're getting dumb penalties that's really pushing this offense back. But overall, I just trust the Cowboys down the Groove. And I'm with you, coach. That went against the Eagles. It showed me a lot. They got hard, right? They could have laid down being down to any one zip. They didn't.

It's kind of a remarkable thing. Like, Dows then, with this offense that we're now saying, we trust more than the Chiefs, but they lost to Carolina. They lost to Arizona. And it's probably too little too late for them to actually go on in here and make a run. Well, the other thing with Mahomes, if you look at his last three games, he's got three games in a row now of sub-80 quarterback. rating. Yeah. It's only happened one other time in his career and that was 2021. He's in a slump that he hasn't seen in quite some time, which, which you wouldn't really think because he comes off such an exciting overtime victory against Indianapolis. The Vegas odds makers expecting a ton of points in this game. Game expected to be played into the mid-50s with the total. Coming up is the Eagles offense finally going to get clicking.

Time now for he said, we said, and we start in San Francisco off last night's game. Christian McCaffrey, he was used a lot. But he was also asked about Brock Purdy's three interception performance. Take a listen to CMC. He's as poised as they, you know, nobody needs to, he's a professional and a really good football player. Nobody needs to tell him anything. You know, I think it's like if I make a mistake, I know I make a mistake or if I have a drop, I know, you know, somebody says, catch the ball. It's like makes you want to knock them out. You know, it's like, you know, those aren't, there's not really nothing to say. You just keep keep on playing. You

know, it's a long game and anything can happen. I love that. That's the Disney movie thing. People in my profession who stick microphones in front of your guys' face, like, what did the coach say at halftime to turn it around? It's like, not much. You know what I mean? Like, what do you say?

You don't, hey, hey, Brock, don't run the interception play. Like, I think what Christian McCaffrey did right there was perfect leadership. And while I thought Purdy was atrocious last night, the first person who would know that is Brock Purdy. Yeah, I credit CMC. I think he's right. I think it's just a blip. You kind of keep the mouth shed and allow Brock to kind of reset himself and get going.

But I trust this defense. I trust Kyle Shannon around who I throw a coach the hell of a game. And CMC is actually the stabilizer for this offense. You talk about the second half of this game. You know, Brock Purdy pretty much calmed down. He went nine for nine for 79 yards. All short stuff, though. Right.

But you saw CMC with the tosses and the screens in the zones. That kind of calmed everything down and the offense got in rhythm. So I trust them they'll be fine. Purdy will be fine. Yeah, I don't think anything positive comes when one player criticizes another player because everybody's going to make mistakes and that that coaching really needs to come from the coaches you can encourage them that that's that's positive but but outside of the arizona game he's got five touchdowns and seven picks and I think if Carolina had been better at converting

those interceptions into something meaningful we probably would have seen him get pulled this this game worked out really well for as badly as he played it worked out well for him because the coach didn't have to make the decision where they're down 21-0 because of his turnovers. And now you're still looking at Mack Jones and everybody else's two. And you've got to make a call. Yeah, Bryce Young was, his numbers weren't quite as bad, but he was equally bad. Bad. He was also really bad last night, which a lot of saying.

He played Brock Purdy. He absolutely did. Up next, here's Jalen Hertz on the offense after, man, they started out hot and then a tough loss to the Cowboys. I think overarching, you know, we got to find a way to finish the game. We got to find some consistency in what we do. Definitely the tell of two halves, but in the end, we didn't play a complete game as a team. And today it got us to give a lot of respect to Dallas

and their team, how they competed. Are you described as an offense of this Monday? You have consistency, we can't wake out? No. We've been before. We'll figure it out. Take your time, Jalen. No rush.

Right. And it's weird, because like, He is right. They're a lot to make the playoffs. They're a lot to win their division. So that allows him to have some calmness. And he can point to the ring on his finger and the banner that hangs out there. And he can try to not be bothered by AJ Brown and Twitch and Instagram and

whatever the next controversy is going to come from. But at some point, I'd like to see a little bit of a sense of urgency there, coach. Yeah, look what happened in this game. You give Sequin the ball 10 times. and you give tank big to be the ball one time. So the total of 11 carries. You're up by 21 points, and your running backs have a total of 11 carries. Now, the flip side of that is AJ Brown.

He got 10 targets. And Devante, he got 11. So they all got an equal amount of targets. Fantastic. You know what happens? You lose for the first time with the 21 point lead in 26 years. So that's what it is. They complain.

You know, there's problems. So you think that was because of the complaint? Yeah, I think when you're throwing the ball 39 times, when you have a 21 point lead and these are the fine, this is the final stat sheet, that's a problem. And they have a way they win and it's been very successful. And when they deviate it, the numbers of the numbers. It just is. Yeah, I appreciate Jalen Hurst not hitting the panic button. But the truth of the matter is the health of this office align has been bad, right? I think it's really regressed the offense. And when you talk about who they are, they run the ball and they marry the person. play action off it and they just simply having to be able to do that. And now you're talking about Sequin and you talk about the deficiency you had in the second half only having 22 yards. You're looking at this office kind of sputter, right? And even though AJ got his targets, but I think I'm with you, DP, I just don't know who

they are. I can't look at the tape and say, are they run dominant or they're a pass happy team? It looks like they just get by because the defense has played better. But really it's on Jaylon Hurst to correct a lot of it. So we'll see what happens in a couple weeks, but it's, it's, they're running out of time. I would just like him to figure it out after they play the Bears. And just don't figure it out on Black Friday.

You know what I mean? And then figure it out a week 14, 15, something like that. Now the Rams are in first place in the division, first place in the NFC, first place in Top 10 Tuesday. Six weeks to go, though. Here's Sean McVeigh on all the first places. The only thing that would matter is if the season ended right now.

So, you know, it's, you know, do you remember who was in first place with six weeks left last year? me either so but point I'm making and I appreciate the question they've done a great job through 11 games of putting themselves in this position and when you look around this league every single week something inevitably occurs where you're saying I can't believe that happened let's stay humble let's stay in the moment let's continue to lean into our preparation have the appropriate urgency but also the enjoyment this team has fun and good football is fun so I completely understand that mindset and coach I got to imagine you've preached things like that before or heard things like that preached before. And we looked it up. Like last year at week 12, the Falcons were in first place. They missed the playoffs. The Seahawks were in first place.

They missed the playoffs. So of course that's true. It does feel a little different to me this year with this team. Their quarterback is the MVP favorite. They've got the number one defense. They've won a Super Bowl. Like they have pedigree. This doesn't feel like a team that where this is just like a snapshot or a moment in time and they're going to fade. No, it's amazing. Sean McVey looks like he just started training camp. He looks like refreshed and relaxed. You see most head coaches at this point in the season, they're beat up.

Haggered. Yeah, it's not him. L.A. son of fish tops. It is really, yeah, he's living the good life. But we had an experience like that in New England. So the first year that we went to the Super Bowl, we were five and five through 10 games. And Bill Belichick actually showed the Kentucky Derby, and he stopped it midway through the race and said, who's ahead? and people yelled out to horse, you know, four or whatever.

And his point was it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's ahead at this point. It matters who's ahead at the finish line. We ended up going on a long run and winning the Super Bowl. So it's the same type of message, and it's spot on. I think Sean McVeigh also understands this is when the season gets hard, right? Because you go from being a hunter, now you become the hunted. So now you're focusing on this.

You're hoping this team remains focused and pretty much stay consistent. But also, you know, I've been in this position, too. You don't talk about where you're going to end up. You talk about the nuances, right, situational football, being better at Goal Line, being better on third and second, being better in the red zone. There's all little goals along the way that you want to execute. So when you do have a place at the table, come playoff time, you're really firing all cylinders.

So I think that's where he's trying to get this team to be and not read the headline because every time you turn on the TV, it's Stafford, MVP, the best defense in the league, who can stop the Rams. And these guys, because of social media, they're drinking all that up. But if you have a bad loss to the Cardinals or Falcons, Now everybody's like, oh, Panic City, all the Rams for real. So he's trying to tell this team, don't drink the water, stay consistent, be ready to go. Yeah, I think I said yesterday, do they have any weaknesses?

That's probably not the message as a coach that you would want them to be hearing. Yeah, probably not so much. There was a moment from last night that I felt like needed the examination of coach and Willie Colon. We'll get to it coming up. I'm here too. That's Caleb Wilson, North Carolina star coming up. After us, St. Bonaventure takes on number 16, North Carolina, Jeff Lebering, and Lafonso Ellis on the call. You can catch it all right here, right after us on the OT on FS1.

Time now for, did you catch that last night? Yeah. Joanne Jennings had to be held back after he took a swipe at Trayvon Merrig. And, you know, I get it. Yeah. If I'm being honest with you. Yeah. Kyle Shanahan also supported his player.

Willie, we asked you about the Jamar Chase, Jalen Ramsey incident. How do you feel about how this all went down? Well, I'm going to take the words from the great Mike Thomas, do what comes natural. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, listen, my only input for Jennings is there is like, do it in, catch them in, you know, the lobby, catch them in backstage. Don't do it on the 50.

We got a million people watching all the cameras around you. You know, there's a bus where the other team has to leave. That's where you catch him. You don't catch him on a 50. It's a veteran move. I really hope Jennings doesn't get fined or penalized for retaliating. It makes total sense while I retaliating. It's this ridiculous.

Yeah. And if you have a cast on it, like a soft cast. I don't know what this is going to cost, but this should cost a lot when you take a shot like this. Good coach points for Kyle Shanhan being like, I was proud of Jennings for not losing his mind. I feel like that scores points in the locker room. Yeah, it's the right answer, but it's just so wrong.

Not a good look for Merrick. Pretty good for judges. Catch him by the bus, homie. Enjoy the basketball. We're back tomorrow.