First Things First - Tush push ‘not an excuse’ that Eagles beat Chiefs, Joel Klatt joins, Week 3 Must Win & Nick’s Tiers

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

(0:00) Tush push ‘not an excuse’ Eagles beat Chiefs, Can the Giants beat the Chiefs? (28:01) Joel Klatt joins (40:45) Coach changes MVP pick, Was Joe Burrow’s injury preventable? (46:59) Nick’s Tiers (01:08:13) Chiefs, Cowboys, Bears, Ravens, and Lions in Must Win  (01:23:57) “Chance” that Brock Purdy plays vs. Cardinals (01:28:28) Tua Tagovailoa compliments Josh Allen, Chiefs 0-2 start on Mahomes?  (01:49:21) Packed Stats for Week 3 (02:00:20) Bears potential 0-3 start, Tush Push the reason for the Eagles’ success?  (02:09:40) Who is the 2nd-best player in the NFL?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Must win gonna work. We're getting criticism in our ear. Is that the way we want? No way to know now in a bad mood? We were in a great mood because we were listening to the latest first thing's first song. Cowboy, everyone don't like it. I love it. That is what it goes.

It's a great song. Shout out Kalin Galilee. Absolutely. Thank you, Kevin. Wiles doesn't mind that song making there. Cailin's first song, a tribute to Kevin Wiles. Just calling me Captain Easy Stanton mocking me the whole time. Captain Easy's.

I find it was good, too. It was great. Hold on. We got to get to the sports. We do have to get to the sports. It's an important day in the sports world. It is. It starts.

The first hour of first things first. Today, we produce one of the more shocking segments in the history of this program. I can't believe I'm about to say this. Are the 0-and-2 midst of the dynasty Kansas City Chiefs? I can't believe this. In a must-win? We'll find out. The first time they've ever been on must win.

No, they've been on must-win. Metaphoric. But not literally. Well, as Drew would tell you, even literally, this isn't a literal muscle. It's a literal muscle. It's a metaphorical. I don't know. Wait to you hear the stats.

Oh. Meanwhile, what's wrong with Arch Manning? Watch his throws here, man. I don't mean where the ball goes. I'm talking about his own. That's a side arm, you know. Drew, they get it. They're all like that.

They're all, bro. Watch. Watch his arm, bro. He's, something's wrong. I mean, watch. In Eli, Manning. You should have a pretty standard form. You would think.

I'm just saying. Not great. It's not great. Joel Klutz. Joe Klatt. Voice of Fox College football, Joe Klatt's here to talk to us. And finally,

well, it's the best segment in awe of sports, a fresh edition of tears. Kind of sad, too. Again, this is just, the chiefs. As much as I hate seeing the chiefs

in my home on top. I think our whole show peaked, it's just like, I think we're sad. I just on the back. The chiefs are not always on top of the tiers, as you know, but this might be the furthest the committee has ever had them down the tears. I think that's, I'd have to check the archives.

That's Cromwell's job. Fromwell? He goes by his last name, but he's in the committee archivist. Cromwell? What's his first name? George. Oh. Oh, George.

Oh. Yeah, you've met him. Oh, G.C. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're starting with Tush pushed me too far. Criticism of the Tush push reached a fever pitched after the Eagles ran it for 11% of their offensive plays

while some replays uncovered a variety of violations. The Eagles Jordan Milata has been pushed over the edge. Take a listen. I understand it. I understand the outrage. What I don't understand is they'm, using it as an excuse to why we won the game. Right.

I think it's incredibly disrespectful to our defense and our special teams who bawled out. That kind of irks me a little bit. That pisses me off because we give so much to this game and to, you know, kind of base off a short yardage play that is a football play. Yeah. And say that we won the game off that. I just think it's rubbish.

It's absolute rubbish, man. It makes me, makes my blood boil. was just seeing about it. I started to get anger as the interview went on. Your reaction to Jordan. All right, so a few things. One is, I really like Jordan Milada. I think he's one of the coolest stories of any player in the NFL on his path.

I also think he is reacting not to anything the chief said, not even, I would hope, to anything I said. And if it was, I'll clarify it. I think he's actually reacting to Schefter, because Schefter had the comment Monday morning. the Eagles, the Chiefs didn't lose this game Sunday. They lost it back in March when this rule, when this play was allowed to stay in. So listen, I can't speak for, and I think Adam was trying to be colorful with his, you know,

storytelling. I want to be clear about my take on it. This is not why Kansas City lost. Kansas City lost because at this moment, Philly is better. And in that game, Kansas City made the only catastrophic error. That is why the Chiefs lost that game, okay? And I think the Chiefs would tell you that. Like the...

Yeah, I don't hear... I didn't hear much complaining from... No, I really... No, it was... I mean, Chris Jones talked about the... And was asked about what he was mad about in the false start, but I don't... Which it was in the first thought. I haven't heard any Chiefs say, we lost because of this.

And so I want to make that clear. I agree with that. With that said, it is not accurate to... For anyone to pretend like the Eagles getting away with neutral zone infractions and false starts is new. And to demonstrate that, I would like to play you two clips. One is from Jason Kelsey two years ago saying, yeah, well, I'll let you hear what Jason says about what the refs said to his team and a nice explainer on what the neutral zone

is. Here's Jason Kelsey two years ago talking about the tush push. but they did send a warning that Landon has been in the neutral zone and that that is against like the only player allowed in the neutral zone is a center the ball is a neutral zone no offensive player or defensive player can break the plane of either side of the ball all the offensive players have to be behind the ball other than the center who is obviously holding the ball and all the defensive players have to be on the other side of the ball

Landon has been lining up in the neutral zone so they warned us before the game That's two years ago that the reps were on alert about it. Here is a game I know Brew remembers Ravens Eagles last year on a tush push touchdown. Tony Romo on the replay of the touchdown. Actually, that's a false start technically. Boy, look at that. On the ground, he picked it up, recovered, and got across. Just needed inches.

It's a false start. That should be called a false start. Everyone moved before the ball was snapped. But no flag exists. So that's the frustration. The frustration is it is not something that just happened this weekend. It has been if you really watch the league closely and I know all of us watch it closely, also have always hated the tush push.

You've noticed this for years. The Eagles have talked about it. Romos mentioned it. So I think the problem is people already, the play was already controversial. Controversial enough, it was voted on twice. And there is years of evidence that they have been getting away with. The refs have been allowing them to either line up incorrectly or false start, and there's been no penalty. Are you saying that that always happens?

Or are you saying that this is two examples of it happening? It happens often. I'm saying it happens all the time. What is all the time mean? I think that more often than not, when a tush push is ran, either a player is lined up. where they aren't supposed to be and or they false start. I think very, very rarely upon replay, would you say that was a clean play? And I think that it has gotten worse over the years because they never get flagged for it.

That's my take. Here's how I feel about it. I'm starting to feel about this like I felt a few weeks ago, really maybe one week ago, about the Micah can't, Micah ruined your defense because he can't stop to run stuff. because you and I talked about we never heard stuff about Micah being problematic with the run until he was traded

and all of a sudden it was like oh my gosh well that's the thing too so you brought up the videos okay there's a little chitter chatter there but they when they talked about Micah people brought up stats that proved yeah

you see the run gets better when Micah's not on the field and all that stuff to me is still don't really want to hear it because if the refs let them get away with it, that's on the refs. Agreed. Every team and virtually every player tries to get away with what they can. Totally.

I'm not even criticize Mahomes, but we've seen him do the fake slide here or there or the fake running out of bounds and get a couple extra yards. Like, if the refs are going to let you get away with it in all of the sports, the players try to get away with it. So I hear you, I mean, it was clearly false start. on Sunday. And I just wish that the refs would call stuff. I don't, if it dates back four years, so be it.

But the refs haven't been called it. I'm just not one with the, they've been cheating for three, four years. And that's why they're so good at it. Well, that, listen, I do not consider that cheating by, and I think I, I didn't call it cheating. No, you didn't say. But I might have said it on the podcast, Joe. But I might have used that word on Tuesday. I don't know what else to say.

No, it is to me, it is not, them lining up where they line up or false starting is in the exact same bucket as the Legion of Boom, illegal contacting every play and being like, you know what, we call it if you want, we're going to get advantage of it. So that is not cheating at all. It's not even really gamesmanship. It's just doing what you can get away with. I'm fine with it. The point, my point all week has been, I'm not a man on an island in thinking, we wish this play didn't exist.

Now you can call it. Well, now I think most people, most people feel like it needs to go. On that island with me certainly is the commissioner of the league and 22 other teams. And now some of them might be because they're, you know, competing with the Eagles, but there are some bad AFC teams that voted against it as well. That's not because they're the, it will be. interesting if it comes around, and I always say it, that the Lions were the only team that are playing the Eagles this year that voted to keep the Jewish push. It will be interesting, not to derail your point, if they vote on it again, where it's like, oh, we are not playing

the Eagles and my opponent is playing the Eagles, I'm actually going to change my vote. Sure. I wonder how much gamesmanship was in the vote where it's not just a pure, this is wrong for the game. But the point, that's totally fair. The point that I'm making is when it's already a borderline, I think that's fair to say, and certainly controversial play, I would expect the refs to make sure they adjudicate it fairly. So how come this hasn't been happening? We hear all the time, oh, you know what they're saying? In the press conference, this is actually not only to the media, but it's also to the refs. It's also to the league office. Oh, there's going to be tape of that. They're going to send it. It's going to be a point emphasis for the

rest. This play's been going on forever. And all of a sudden, like you said, it pops up. Like, I think false. Like Jason Kelsey, he said the league reached out to the league. The league reached out to them two years ago. Were teams reaching out to the league? Honestly. We hadn't heard a lot of complaining from TV. I mean, I've got a, yeah.

I mean, I think it hasn't been in the media because the media bucket of complaining about a team getting an unfair advantage has been so full the last couple years with Chiefs talk that there's just hasn't been room for it. There's an element of that. It would have run counter to the narrative of that everything's rigged for the chiefs to be like, hey, you know, you know, Dion Dawkins also jumps early, you know what I mean, like Joanne Taylor does, and the Eagles are lined up off sides. That wouldn't fit, and so the reason I have seized on it is because I have felt this way, and it's documented on this show and others about this for years. And once Brady pointed it out, and then Dean Blandino in a moment that, and I know Dean, I should just ask him, I wonder if he almost wishes he hadn't said, but like a moment of palpable disgust, says, you know, I'm done with this play. It feels like an opportunity to just shine a light on it.

This is the first time I've heard you talk about the false starts, though. Oh, real? No, we talked, no. I haven't heard that. We kicked it around. The question I have, Brut, your point, if Kelsey catches the ball, are we doing tush push stuff? If Kelsey catches the ball and the Chiefs win that game,

you know what? Also, just before we move on with the Chiefs being one-in-one and back in business, I want to talk about the false starts. Maybe not. So there's an element of that where it's like whining in sports, all the refs were for the chiefs and all the memes and it got outrageous and it's still kind of happening. Yes. Now with this Giants game coming up.

And of course the Patriots were accused of doing all sorts of stuff. The Patriots were found guilty a couple times. But not of everything. No, not of everything. Not of interfering with the comms. Yeah, correct. Several things, but, you know, just because you did three guilty things doesn't mean the fourth was automatically. That's right.

That's right. And now it's the Eagles turn kind of on the chopping block. Like, you know what? You are good, but you're also, you're right there on the edge of it. But that's why it's going to get banned is because it's hard to ref. Right by that. I think that's a savvy strategy. The fact that they've been running it more, like they ran it six times.

If they run it, you've always brought up, what if they run down the field like that? And it's been like, there's no way to do it. No, but the more they do it, it does bother you. Like even me. who had no problem with it. But when you start doing it on every third and one or third and two and then. Yes. Like it gets to the point, okay, enough already.

How much you think it's going to happen this week? Oh, they're going to, this season, they probably will use it a lot. I apologize for not knowing. Shoot, I don't know. They play, um. Someone will tell us in our ear. I forgot who they played this week. My guess is they're going to try not to do it this week.

Oh, they play the Rams. They're going to use it against the Rams. Yeah. That's right. They're definitely going to do. weekend. No, if they were playing a, if it was a game that they expected to dominate, I would think they would want the air to cool a bit on the play.

But in a game that they're going to need. They might need it. They also, it's also a sign like, they don't care. I think it is interesting. Like, you know what, we are. No, they sure. Well, we don't know. KW.

My point is this. You can say they don't care. They certainly would have cared if up three with eight minutes. left in that Chiefs game, they had called false start there. Oh, yeah. And they're not all of a sudden at fourth and they should be. And they have to kick a field goal. They would have cared.

Go for it. But they wouldn't from the Sixth. They should be practicing it without the false starts. Yeah. That's what they should be doing. Meanwhile, Chiefs are looking for their first win when they take on Russ and the sneaky hot offense of the New York Giants. Patrick Mahomes met with the media today.

And here's what he had to say. Take a listen. I think obviously it's being 0 and 2. there's more urgency than even last week. I mean, and I felt like we were very urgent last week. So definitely new territory as far as being in O&2, but knowing that we get the guys for it, you know, we have the mindset of going out there and being even better.

And so in my eyes, it looks like what an opportunity, what an opportunity to prove who we are as the Kansas City Chiefs is coming back from O&2 and trying to build up to win a big football game on Sunday night football and try to get our season going in the right direction from there. Is it on the board that the Chiefs lose against the Giants? No, not even a little bit. Not even a little. If the Chiefs lose to the Giants,

I agree with Nick that it is not a literal must win because you look at the schedule, there's still room for them to, you know, win. Like, if they lose to the Giants, they could start one in five, could. I mean, they could beat the Ravens, obviously. One O and three team this century is in the playoffs. Yeah. Look at the rest of the guys.

But if they should. start one in five. Hold on. We're doing must win now. You're doing. So we'll do it. No points. On the board if they look. No. I mean, there's always

in sports and never know what. No, no. I am saying it is not on the board. First of all, I don't think the Giants are very good. Only coach thinks the Giants are very good. All right. So secondly,

the Chiefs, like Mahomes said what an opportunity to prove that like, I think, Kelsey and Mahones both haven't had great starts of the season. They're coming out hyped up. The defense hasn't been great. They're coming out hyped up. And you can say, well, they've been the last two weeks.

They've been like, we want to prove something. We're facing the team to beat us in the Super Bowl. But this week is going to be different because they're not facing one of the elite teams. All right? You're facing bad teams. So here's what I, listen, I'm willing to go a step further. I call this a shave my head game. No, we don't want you to do that.

Well, you don't have to worry about it. If the chiefs are 0-in-3 and you shave their head, we're not. I think not with you're in trouble. All right, all right. But come up with some milk. Listen, never take your feet off. So you're, you would never agree to this. Bro.

That's not something I do. You'd rather shave his head on the airplane that have to keep his socks on. I got to, they got to breathe. My dog's got to breathe, he said. Your dogs have to breathe. What are you talking about? Are these guys out of their mind? Just open wanton lying.

That's a lie. That's a lie. He didn't say my dogs need to breathe. You're such a bad guy. But you are, here's the thing. We're doing this question. So sometimes we ask a question in the meeting, and we're like, well, that would probably be a boring conversation if we all are in universal agreement.

Brew said no. you guys knew I was going to say no and I'll get my reasons in a moment which makes me think wilds might be saying yes yes but okay so here's the thing because you are a bit of a mess on this I know I love Mahomes no it's not because you love Mahomes

you yelled at Danny Parkins for what when he was before the Eagle game and he was talking about how it could get bad for Kansas City and he didn't even say they could lose to the Giants you assigned him that take and that's when you were were like, I'm worried I'm going to get memed here.

You then saw the Chiefs play the team that you think is the best team in football and that you thought was going to blow them out. And it comes down to the final minute. And you feel worse. Like, I would think you, of anyone on the show, should feel better about the Chiefs after week two. Am I the statistician on the show? Am I out here talking EPA or am I talking, hello, vibe meter? I'm catching bad vibes.

And here's the thing. I said I thought there was weird vibes. I thought Chris Jones' vibe was weird. I thought Kelsey's vibe was weird, yelling and like being frustrated. And I'm like, I can't just be the vibes guy and put pencils on my head and expect people to respect it. I need to have some sort of thing. Zach Gilbert of Sports Illustrated came to my rescue. Here's what he wrote.

The chiefs, you know, this would be interesting. Guess how many, how long the chiefs have been ahead since the beginning of, kickoff in the Super Bowl. About four and a half minutes. Two minutes and 44 seconds. Yeah, it's just in the Eagle game. Because they trailed the old Super Bowl, they trailed all of week one. That's why I think the vibes are all. These are three really good teams. I understand they're very good teams.

The Chiefs have been to three consecutive Super Bowls and are a dynasty. So I don't know if like, ha, you know what? The Chargers are actually pretty good. It's okay to be down the whole. I think it messes with them. That's why I think the vibes are off. So if there is a path, I think if the Giants hit Malik neighbors deep right away and then something happens, like the vives, we're like, oh, we don't have Richie Rice, we don't have Xavier. No, I think Xavier's going to play.

Oh, okay. For whatever it's worth. I'm not reporting that. But there's something. I feel like they're no longer, and it's what you said, the mystique, not only external. I agree with that. I think the internal mystique is a little broken. So let me respond to that because I think that maybe.

you're right, but that's why the Giants game's so exciting because you take care of business in that game and you're one game away from rewriting what everyone said about. Oh yeah. Because you get Baltimore in week four. You know what I mean? As long as you take

care of the Giants, you walk into week four saying we win this home game today and not only if we righted the ship, people are going to overcorrect in the other direction. Totally agree. And so but I do want to say this. I'm not predicting a blowout because of what Andy said.

When Andy said this loss is on me, I got too aggressive. I could see Andy being on, you know, fourth down or game planning wise, be very conservative in this spot and feel like this is a, guys, get the first win of the season on the board situation. And, you know what I mean? And get that monkey off your back and move on. And I do think that the Chiefs, I actually think they have good personnel in the offensive line, left guards of significant concern, but the other spots are good. But they're new playing together, and that Giants D-line can present problems.

So I, you know what I mean? I think a lot of the Chiefs' offense, we don't like, the quick hitter stuff is what you're going to see. I agree. So I don't, I'm not expecting them to blow out the Giants. That's not what I'm predicting. but I do not think they can lose in this spot. This is like playoff adjacent, and it's Patrick Mahomes, and they have the better team.

Unlike right now against Philadelphia, they didn't. It turned out. Russ, one in four since leaving the Seahawks against the Chiefs. Thursday night football, Bill's hosting the winless dolphins, Buffalo a favorite by 12 and a half. You know, Tua met with the media yesterday. It was very complimentary of Josh Allen, which is nice. may have also accidentally dissed himself,

not ideal. Take a listen. He's top tier. You know, if it's not with his arm, it's with his legs. You know, that dude can do literally anything he wants. So definitely different skill set for me. I can't do half of what he does when it comes to running the ball

and any of that. And then with how he can just chuck a ball down the field, you know, with how far and the arm strength He has, you know, he's supreme when it comes to that. Do any problem with this? I'm a bit torn. Okay. I respect to his honesty.

He didn't say anything that's not true, all right? But there is a time to bite your tongue. If your wife gets a new hairdo that you don't like, bite your tongue, right? Like, there's a time for that. It's why we don't hear coaches. all the time saying, really? You think we can beat them? We got no chance.

Their backup quarterbacks better at our start. Like, there's a time to bite your tongue or just try to motivate your players. And seriously, like, Tyreek and Jalen Wallow may already, particularly Tyreek, may already be talking to people whispering about how Tua's not this or that. This gives them fodder. and Nick, it allows now reporters can legitimately ask Tyreek, Jalen, whoever.

Tua said he can't do half the things that Josh can do. You agree? And you don't see, like if you ask that and Tua never says this, you sound like you're trying to start something. Now, you can just ask it as a legitimate question and there's no telling what somebody might say.

So it could start beef, in the locker room. So it just, look, he was honest, and he seems like he's a very honest guy in these press conferences. Yeah. But he's got to stop talking.

He has to. Like, I, the, there is, this is just as, in a very different way, bad, as if you saw a quarterback walk up to the podium

and be like, that team we're playing sucks and we're going to kill him. You know what I mean? They're always, like, he went two, far in the other direction

because other than throwing and running there's not much a quarterback does on the field and you are and he is Tua is talking there as if he is Jake Browning this week

a backup you know what I mean that knows he's a backup that's like hey I you know that guy's better than me and everything and Twitter is paid like he is a superstar he got the he was a a top 10 pick that got paid like he's a superstar. And for him to just, if he would have only said the running part,

I would have had no problem with it whatsoever. You know what I mean? Like that's objectively true. Also, he wouldn't have to say it. We all kind of give him grace for not running the ball because of his concussions and they don't want him run the ball. But to then add in, and when it was on the heels of, the press conference the day before,

or not the day before, but after the game on Sunday, when he's like, yeah, I've told Tyreek that when he's running, I need him to kind of look up and track the ball of it because I'm not going to be able to throw it as far as he can run, which reads may be okay. It doesn't sound good when you hear him deliver it, basically saying, Tyreek needs to understand. There's going to be a lot of underthrows,

and I need him to come back for the ball for me. And that's, it's just, there's yet to be one thing, to come out of Dolphins camp since the open of training camp that you're like, that's good. You got team, you got other teams being like they don't practice the way we do. You got bruise video, you got Tyreek

stuff. None of it's been good. Mike McDaniel looks like he is aging by the minute. None of it's good. They were upset. The bears were tackling. Yes, that's what I'm saying. It wasn't great. Here's the how the numbers fall. Josh versus Tua, unfortunately.

Josh is up 8 to 1. It's 33 points. Well, he wasn't lying. He has led the league in passing. We got the numbers right there. But we have proof of this concept that Mike McDaniel, Waddle, Tyreek, healthy Tua, and a dynamic running game, which doesn't seem to work now. They have the same personnel. Clearly figured it out.

And they never adjusted. That's all they have. It's not great for Mike McDaniel. No. It's not. There's a bit of a pie. on with Mike McDaniel. I actually like Mike McDaniel.

Drew, you like everybody. I do like you. Look at this. Who's broke? Well, Joe Clatt is going to come on and talk about Archman and what's going on. It doesn't bother me quite as much as it bothers you, Nick. The end result does. It's supposed to be generational.

That one wouldn't have. I mean, you know, when you're running against the green. No. Start your Saturday Strong, Big Noon Saturday. Utah, Texas Tech, battle for the top of the Big 12. All kicks off at 10. Eastern, Big Noon live from Salt Lake City, then Texas Tech, Utah. With our next guest on the call, Joel Klatte, welcome more on that game in a second.

But want to jump into Arch Manning, Joel. Granted Texas is favored by almost 40 against Sam Houston Saturday. But Arch hasn't looked like the generational player we are promised. Here's Archer's take on his performance. I got to play better. It's not good enough, as you all can see. I got to play better for us to maybe it slides against U-TEP, but it's not going to win us games against SEC. I got to play better.

A lot of quarterbacks and a lot of players are hard on themselves because they want to be great. And it's frustrating because I know I'm better than this and I got to play better. Okay, here are the numbers, Joel, 44% against U-TEP, 114 yards. He's throwing an interception every game. Wasn't great against San Jose State, underwhelming against Ohio State. We kind of chalk that up to Matt Patricia's Patriots, brilliance. Of course. What's going on with Arch here, Joel?

Well, first of all, good to be with you, boys. Let me start by saying, like, I think that there can be multiple reasons for a quarterback to struggle. You know, you can be struggling around the quarterback and at the offensive line and wide receiver positions and not giving your quarterback a chance to succeed. And then there are times when the quarterback is just struggling and not playing well. And generally what happens when a quarterback is not playing well individually, and in particular a younger quarterback, like Arch, because let's, let's face it, he's still fairly inexperienced,

is that they have a timing issue. Okay, so if you go back to the origins of the Steve Sarkesian offense, it really has its roots down in the old historical West Coast system. That's what he kind of cut his teeth under, the old Bill Walsh system, and that system of offense, there is an aged old equation that is used for quarterback play and wider super play that leads to completions. And the equation goes like this.

Timing plus spacing equals completion. So when you're struggling and you go 0 for 10 during a sector of the middle of the game against Utep, what's going on? There's something wrong with either the timing or the spacing of the concept on offense. And I think Arch's timing is totally off. I think he's ahead of the offense. Let me tell you what happens when you're ahead of the offense. For whatever reason, it can be you're pressing, it can be that your feet are moving too quick. What happens when you're ahead of the spacing of the concept is that you generally throw the ball low or low in a way.

And the reason is is because you're jumping at the throw, you're anticipating the throw too early, and your foot is out in front of you. And if you look at the mechanics of arch, he's jumping and hopping at throws and he's not in balance and throwing fluidly. I think that's one of the main issues that he's got. Now, if it's not that, then you have to start speculating about health, but I don't want to do that. And I don't think it's necessarily health. I think he's just ahead of the offense, and he's got to correct that for them to become an offense that can reach their full potential. Um, that's a, to me, guys, it, it's the thing that has to click before he starts playing better. But all right, Joel, listen, I obviously, you are people who don't know, a great quarterback at the University of Colorado.

I don't, I mean, that's, I think you don't throw that term around. Okay. You were a pretty good quarterback at the University of Colorado. You played quarterback. You, you, yeah, there you go. You, you, perfect. You happen to play quarterback in Colorado. I'm not an arm angle expert. I'm not a throwing motion expert, but I watch a lot of football and his throws look funny.

I'm not talking about the result. I'm talking about his arm. When you're watching it, I think one of the reasons people speculated about injury was just because it looked funny the way his arm motion. Does it look as fun? Is that exactly?

explained by what you just talked about? So I went back and watched this film from last year, just because I was like, wait, is this different? And I, and because I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something that is mechanically different from a year ago. And the only thing that's mechanically different is his rhythm.

See, when your rhythm is correct, you can get up on top of your front foot. And when you're not, then your front foot acts as almost a barrier and you work against your front foot. So you asked about arm angle. I keep talking about the feet. Here's the thing with arm angle and quarterback play. It's a lot like a swing in baseball.

Aren't there a lot of different swings in baseball that work? Yeah. The answer is yes. There's a lot of different arm angles in football that can work. We are not trying to build robots at this position. That's a misnomer. It doesn't have to look a certain way from an arm angle, obviously, because you look at Matt Stafford and Philip Rivers,

they go a lot three-quarter. Tom Brady was way over the top as a seethrower. pointing at the label of his logo on his helmet. So there's a lot of different ways to actually be successful from an arm angle perspective. To me, it's more about the rhythm and the footwork and the balance that correlates with it. And he's working against, if you watch him throw,

his feet are too wide, and then his front foot is way too far out. So all he can do is work and kind of like work like this and fall against it versus getting on top of his front foot. Arm angle to me is not important. Last year, Joel, and he didn't play great. great teams, but outside of Ohio State he hasn't faced great teams this year.

And he looked good last year. So first, why do you think there's the difference? Is it the pressure that's on him now, whereas last year there wasn't much pressure? And secondly, we've obviously seen plenty of quarterbacks that weren't great or phenomenal in college become great in the NFL. But I can't recall seeing one struggle like this. I know it's three games, but struggle like this, particularly against lesser competition. So do you still see greatness in him, number one draft pick greatness,

potential franchise quarterback in the NFL greatness? Well, all I can judge is what I've seen. And to answer your question, from the film that I've seen, the answer is no. But that doesn't mean that the film can't change. I would have said the same thing going into the last year for Baker Mayfield or going into the last year with Joe Burrow. They hadn't put film out that would have suggested that they got drafted where they were going to get drafted.

Maybe even Kyler Murray could get thrown into that. as well. So this can certainly change with experience and with development. He is fairly inexperience, like I said a little bit earlier. I will also say this. You say like, is the pressure getting to him? Well, we've just spent seven minutes on a nationally televised show talking about it. That's unique. You haven't asked me one question about Kate Klubnick, who is a more veteran guy and has struggled almost equally at a place that has one national championship and was expected to compete for another. And his last name is not Manning, but that's the point.

Like I think that the pressure is there, which leads to him pressing, which leads to him being ahead of the offense. It all to me is a domino effect. And it's very difficult as a quarterback. And the last thing that I would just say is like, there's absolutely an opportunity to develop, get better, and become great. There's no doubt. That's available for anybody.

But the process has to be followed and you have to lean into the trials and tribulations. You know, as you guys know, like I'm a man of faith and it's like it says it in the book of James. It's like you've got to go through trials and tribulations so that your faith can be perfected, that you can be adequate and not lacking anything. It's the same thing for all of us as individuals where we're trying to grow as people or quarterbacks are trying to grow as quarterbacks. You have to go through the fire to know. who you are and how

you're going to respond. So that would be like my encouragement to Arch is like everything's ahead of you. You can play better. We know you can play better. You just have to go through the fire and come out the other side. I'll be honest with you. That fired me up to become a better host of the segment. I loved it.

From here on out, this segment's going to start cooking. All right, on the thriving end of the quarterback spectrum, Grant Nussmeyer projected to go. Number one, maybe to the Saints. here are his numbers. I know that you're a fan. 12 and 4 since the start of last season, almost 300

yards, 32 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, obviously lineage of great LSU quarterbacks, most recently, Burrow and Jaden. What do you like about nothing? Well, I kind of take in a slightly different direction, which is given where, like

what you said, that Arch is probably behind the projected schedule of the draft Nix. And like I feel like all of sudden, Joel, this is not the year where people are going to fan bases are going to be like, man, are we getting the number one pick? When I watch college football, I don't see. Now, listen, last year wasn't quite that either, and we'll see what Cam Ward turns into. And the guy, you know, Caleb was that and Caleb's, you know, had some struggles. So I'm not saying it's a sure

thing. But is it fair to say that as where we sit here today in college football, we are potentially going to look at an overwhelming quarterback class going into next season? As it relates to expectations, I think that that's accurate. But again, there's a lot of football to be played. You know, three games into Joe Burroughs

last year, did anyone realize that we were about to see, like, Joe Burrow? The answer is no. Like, no one even paid attention until early November when he went into Tuscaloosa and beat to his team in that incredible undefeated showdown, LSU and Alabama. And then he went on an historic run and played.

incredible in the playoffs. So all of that is ahead of these guys. The one guy that I think that has played best early is John Mateer at Oklahoma. I think he's really talented. He's a guy that I like a lot and liked him back to the offseason. And then let's go back a year. Guys, if you go back to the beginning of the season last year, Carson Beck was thought to be kind of a Hysman type of guy and maybe a first pick in the draft going into last spring's draft. But the season didn't go great at Georgia. He had a lot of drops on the outside. Well, guess who's back playing really well for Miami, Carson Beck. And here's also what I would say, and I think I've talked about this on this program before,

but the experience in college is vital in order to have top-line Super Bowl success at the next level. If you take all the college careers of the quarterbacks that have won Super Bowl since Tom Brady early in the 2000s, and if you say, what is their average college career of a quarterback that goes on to win the Super Bowl, they have 30-plus starts on average, thousands of attempts, over 50 touchdowns. So experience at this level matters. Maybe Carson Beck is getting that

and becomes a guy that goes on a historic run with Miami and then we look at him next spring and say, well, he's absolutely the first pick. Could be an option. I like that. Don't want to let you go before we talk about number 17, Texas Tech, at number 16, Utah on Fox Saturday, Big Noon. Is Utah an upset alert, Joel,

what are we expecting out of this game? I think they're incredibly evenly matched. I think these two, along with Iowa State, are the three best teams in the Big 12. And it just would set them apart in a track to try to get to the conference championship game and then have 60 minutes to potentially go to the playoff. Two differing quarterback styles. You've got Devin Dampier. He transfers into Utah from New Mexico.

Short area quickness, kind of a version of Kyler Murray at quarterback for Utah. They're a run-oriented team, great offensive line play. And then for Texas Tech, it's the traditional Texas Tech style. throw it down the field with Baron Morton. He's also a guy, by the way, that I think you're going to hear about in the draft coverage come up this spring because Baron Morton is a big guy.

He can throw it accurately down the field. This should be a great game. It really should. They're evenly matched. It's an incredible environment in Salt Lake. And I certainly can't wait to get out there. Awesome. I was just going to say,

little known fact about the show. Wild has in his contract that we can't have anyone on the show more handsome than him more than three times a month, which means we are limited to three Joel, cloud appearances a month. But we'd love to have you for all three. Maybe on your pot or something.

We'd love to have you as wild contract will allow. We'd love to have you. Yes, I agree with that. Again, it's a more of an aging thing. You guys are the best. We'll see about that. We'll see. No guarantee. Thank you. He's on the call. Texas Tech, Utah. More first things first after the break. Since he's still dealing with the fallout of Joe Burroughs injury, since he's playing the Vikings this week, Bengals OC, you know, trying to explain some stuff. We have special skill players. We want to accentuate those skill players. How do we try to do it in a way that we're limiting the amount of times that Joe is potentially going to get hit?

There's no one decision that solves all. Everything costs something. Not a good explanation. Does anyone think this was a preventable injury? Look, I don't think the Bengals are a well-run organization. I don't think their offensive line has been great or even good since Burroughs been there. But I'm not like I said yesterday, is he injury prone or is it the offensive line? I lean to where he's injury prone.

And it goes all the way back to college. He had the wrist injury at Ohio State where he had surgery. He played in the national championship game against Clemson. Played great for LSU, but had a rib injury. We were talking just, he's had the appendectomy. He's had several knee injuries. He's, you know, two years ago he hurts his calf just rolling out in practice. And then you even said yesterday, Nick, his injuries, or at least some of them, aren't what we typically see for quarterbacks, a wrist injury.

And now there's turf toe. So I'm not trying to defend the Bengals, but it does appear like, you know, he's just a guy. that's injury prone, unfortunately. Well, I'll defend the Bengals because I don't think this is a fair assessment of what's happened. Because when you look at what they've done, so they signed Burrow, they signed Chase,

they signed Higgins, and that's a third of the salary cap, those three players right there. So then to make them work, you think, okay, you're going to have to save other places. But since Burroughs been the league, they've been about 19th and O-line spending, which isn't the top end,

but it's still middle of the pack. They went and got Orlando Brown, which was a high price free agent. They drafted MIMS to play on the other side in the first round. They got some other guys in the draft and free agency that they tried to solidify it with. So for them to spend that many resources on the offensive side to make the firepower that they invested so heavily in, it's a lot. And it's a lot for that organization, and they went out of their comfort zone to do it.

And the OC is right. There are going to be times where there's give and take. And if you're going to drop back to pass a significant amount of the time, there's going to be more chances that your quarterback gets hit. And in that sack where he got hurt, the guy's laying on the ground. Yes. And it's burrow scrambling around. And trying to extend the play inside the pocket. It's inside the pocket.

The guy is laying on the ground. He couldn't be blocked much better than that. And it happens. So to say the Bengals are terrible. They mismanaged us. I don't, there's a lot of times that's right. I don't think this is right in the year. Listen, this feel, I feel like I'm on solid footing on how highly I've spoken

of Joe Burrow as a player and as a guy over the last few years. So this is, I'm not trying to like be unfair to him. There is an element to the way Burrow plays quarterback that is similar in a totally bizarre way to a running quarterback that is going to subject themselves to a lot of hits that other guys won't because he is hanging in there in the pocket and hunting deep shots for his two stars. And if that just like it's, we're always sad when a guy gets hurt, but we're not always shocked when a guy gets hurt.

You know what I mean? And so when you saw, when you play the style that Michael Vick did, you know, I need to go back 20 years, not even talking about anyone right now, it's not shocking if he gets knocked out for a couple games because he's exposing himself a lot more. Burrow has, in my opinion, chosen to play a very brave brand of quarterback

for a guy who has very limited mobility. His mobility is within the pocket, and it feels to me, sometimes when we listen to Tom Brady talk about playing quarterback, and he talks about not leading guys into contact. Like, that throw is actually, even if it's on target, that's a bad throw.

And this is a lesson my guy Trevor has never learned. Like, you know, the ability to, you know, save your guys from contact, the ability to try to make, you lose the battle to win the war, Burroughs not been great at that. And he has subjected himself to it, which oddly puts us in a very unique position, coach, which is I have in one of these drawers. Here we go. Sorry, I'm going to have to get up.

I have the first thing's first bylaws. And it says. Living and breathing, doctor. Yeah, it is. And it says, very clearly, somewhere in here. There they are. There it is. If your MVP, I had knocked it.

If your MVP pick gets knocked out for the season while we're still in the month of September, you're allowed an audible. You picked Joe Burrow. Would you like an audible? I would. And you know, I'm a Lamar guy. I always have been. But it's not going to be Lamar.

Oh, what a twist. It's going to be Justin Herbert. Everyone is coming for Danny's quarter. Hey. And here's why. It's primarily because of confidence. And it's not the confidence he necessarily has himself. It's the confidence that Jim Harbaugh has in him.

You hear the comments where he says he's not only one of the best quarterbacks. Now he's one of the best quarterbacks of all time. And I think that's going to carry over. We saw him lower his interceptions last season dramatically. He's got the potential to have 38, 40 touchdowns. This is the season where that confidence that the head coach has in him pays. He's off and he jumps. I like it.

Danny, unfortunately, was the first mover on this. And now he's got a lot of people trying to push him off the corner. He's going to get more extreme. He's got no choice. I didn't go there first. Live from New York, it's the show that is going to have two back-to-back, unbelievable segments for you. It's unbelievable.

The third one is a... That's always, yeah, you're right. It's a lot of snakes. Just cow rallies. And the snake. You know what I thought you were about to say the show was? What? The show that all of a sudden has become over saturated with Justin Herbert guys.

Bruce got him is atop of Bruce ballot. Coach just picked him his new MVP. Danny has Justin Herbert tattooed small of his back. The whole thing. Tell you something. Yeah. Remember we have like family friends with the charges. We're like, oh yeah.

Didn't he take a picture with one of your boys or something? We're a Chargers household. Oh, that's very nice. Once again, I'm the brave man. All alone. Today, I've never heard that from you. I'll tell you the story in the break. Can't believe I'm saying this.

Chiefs Giants, week three, must win. And coaches here to, I can't believe what coach is about to do. Also, when is Abdul-Farter going to become Michael Parsons today's day? It's in the worst. Although, meanwhile, Philly hasn't lost a game when Jalen hurts. Jalen Hertz at full strength in almost a year. And why did the Packers jump them in Super Bowl odds? Because we're disrespected and the pushers cheating.

But right now, it's time for the best segment in all of sports. And get you caught up to speed in what was happening. Last night in a smoky parlor, an elite group of IPA and EPA fans, bought and doiled and burned the midnight oil to deliver the best segment in all of sports media. It's an honor. It's a privilege. It's a contractual obligation. It's time for next years. Thank you so much for the introduction. As always, Kevin Wilde. We still have all 32 teams making the tiers. It would feel like two weeks in would be too early to eliminate teams. Three weeks in, however, is not. Bottom of the tears facing elimination. Browns, Saints,

Panthers, Titans, Fish. You lose this week, you're out of the tears. The tiers too crowded. This tier's 12 levels. Committee, it can't be spending our time on these teams if they lose this week. Again, you control your own destiny here. And by the way, if you win,

you very well might not be facing elimination next week. But any of those teams fall to O and three, you're out of there. Next level. Really? Again? That's what they're family. you're saying. Like really?

Another 0 and 2 start. Another head scratching embarrassing loss or two. Another year where it just feels like we are the team that everyone in our division looks at and it's like, well, that's a win. That's happening again

to us when you had bearing levels obviously the most for the bears, but some for the jets and a few people for the giants. You know what I mean? Some levels of optimism. Great. concerned. Jags, Vikings, Broncos. Jags lost a game. They had no business losing at all. Brian Thomas Jr., who was one of just not rook best rookie receivers, one of the best receivers in the

NFL last year seems to be on a totally different page than Trevor. They can't figure out yet how to use Travis Hunter, who some people, smart people, kind of oddly, weirdly handsome people. thought could be the Shoahe Atani of the NFL, and they, that's no good. The Vikings, on the other hand, have gotten one good quarter of offense through eight quarters. And now they go to Carson Wins, and now some Viking fans are like, you know what? In the short term, I think it's a quarterback upgrade. That's not good.

And then the curious case of the offseason champion Denver Broncos, who got a week one win, signed sealed and delivered to them courtesy of Brian Callahan. And then in week two, lost an excruciating game thanks to the rarely called leverage penalty on a 60-yard field goal. I think all those fan bases are fairly greatly concerned given they all had real expectations this year. Undefeated and untrustworthy.

These teams are a combined eight and no. Talk to me in a couple weeks. The Bengals, listen, they lost their quarterback. The Niners, they lost their quarterback. The Colts have Daniel Jones a quarterback And the Cardinals have gotten maybe the single greatest open to a season in NFL history, getting the 2025 Panthers and the 2025 Saints.

The combined eight, no, I don't trust any of those teams given the quarterback injuries or given who their personnel are. There's potential here, Patriot, Raiders, Falcons, Cowboys, Steelers. Gotta be open to the possibility of any of these teams making the playoffs. Hell, I picked two of them to make the playoffs. Falcons have been up and down Cowboys,

felt like they kind of could have won in week one and then stole one in week two. The Steelers, we've seen highs and lows, Patriot traders, similar story. But some of those teams are making the post season. All of them feel they can. And honestly, deep down, they're all fine with the one in one start.

They're all fine with where they're at. This tier, I'll be honest, doesn't make sense. Honestly, no idea. I didn't know what to do with the Seahawks or the Texans. Texans haven't won a game, but they have a great defense, quarterback who we've seen be great even though it's been over a year and they've been in these games you know what I mean they barely lose to the Rams they barely lose to the bucks but

they haven't won the offense seems a mess Seattle could be two and oh they you know what they had the it took the purty drive late and then they almost came back I don't know that I fully believe in Sam Donald the demons look good honestly naughty little trepidation that one Lions commanders just a little uneasiness of Ooh, could we be in trouble this year? Now, the Lions, obviously, you score 50. It feels like it goes away. But week one was greatly concerning.

And week two, I still think there are more questions about the Lions defense than we're asking because it's all been about Ben Johnson and golf and the offensive line change. And for Washington is very simply, man, is Jaden going to miss time? How much time is he going to miss? And is our defense actually improved? How much did those injuries? we suffered on Thursday night hurt, but those are good teams, a little trepidation. Unfamiliar territory. This is basically the middle.

This is basically hubs is in my ears of the middle. Mid. You could just put mid in there. Wow. That's a compliment. Mid is one. Right. They're not even mid yet.

Lost three in a row. Oof. They've lost two in a row. This whole three in a row thing, the reason none of the records is that. Technically, me. Texans have lost three in a row. Yeah. Same luck.

Here's the deal, guys. They're 0 and two. They have lost three in a row. Wilds pointed it out, I will reiterate it. And since walking off the field and the Arrowhead invitation will head to their fifth Super Bowl in six years and third straight, they've played 180 minutes of football. They've led for less than three of them.

They haven't looked like the Chiefs in three games. They are awaiting their guys to come back, and the vultures are circled. Luckily, the football gods have graced us with a visit to Met Life and coaches New York Giants. However, it's then right back to the meat grinder of the NFL when you host the Ravens. With that said, beat the Giants. You're at home against a team. You always beat no matter where the game is.

You win that game and you might find yourself back atop the tears. First ever two and two team atop the tears? Don't tell me I didn't warn you. Legit contenders. Bucks, Rams Chargers. That's what they are. They're legit contenders. They're a combined six and oh.

They've beaten good teams. You know, not necessarily all six wins, but they all have beaten at least one good team. We all, to varying levels, all like or love their quarterbacks. I mean, listen, I'm a Stafford and Baker guy. The whole show is about to be first things first presented by Justin Herbert's fan club. But those are legit contenders. We like the coaches.

We like the quarterbacks. We like the skill position guys, legit contenders. 90% great, Bruy and Wilde. You're two teams. 90% great. And it's the same 10% secondaries. The only real qualm I think anyone would have with either of these teams right now is overall past defense most noteworthy the secondary.

And so, I mean, that's really, really good. It makes you a little nervous, given the type of quarterbacks you're going to have to beat to actually get to a Super Bowl or back to a Super Bowl. but you're 90% great. Smooth sailing. I mean, no teams ever been looked like in better shape for the one seed through two weeks in the Buffalo Bills, given who they've already beaten and what their schedule is and what the rest of that division looks like.

I mean, people saw this. Like, man, the bills, they just got to play the Jets. And now tomorrow they play the Dolphins. And then it's just a lot of easy games and jobs playing great. And then I'm ready to call it already, even though we're only. midway through the month. They will be the September champs, the Green Bay Packers. Doesn't mean they can't be more than that, but they are going to be the champs of the first month of the season, and that coach is the latest edition of the tiers.

I bet coach like this to tears. Yeah, it was better than Nick usually does at this point in the season, so that's positive. Better than the Chiefs are doing. So that's good. I disagree on the top, Nick, I would swap Green Bay and Buffalo. And for me, it's about the quarterbacks. And Josh went through his period of being up and down. Nick documented. Roller coaster. Yeah, the roller coaster.

But that roller coaster seems to have straightened out. And he's gotten that under control and he's got that Superman ability without putting the ball at risk. Where when you look at Jordan Love, it's a different formula. He's very streaky. And this is what

I mean. I've looked over the course of his career. When he's when he's hot, it's A plus games. Look at his record. It's 15 to 3. Go right on down the line. 40 to 2 touchdown ratio. Every statistic is great. So it's either an A plus game, but when he has his B or less games,

and there's thankfully a little bit more B games than there were C games. Early on, those games were typically C's. He's 2 and 10, 57.2 completion percentage. You see the yards per game go down a little bit, yards per pass. And the TD interception ratio is dramatically different. And to me, he's not off that roller coaster. And even in the first two games, there were balls that could have been intercepted, easily intercepted that were dropped or mishandled.

And as much as Nick has a love affair with Micah being there, Micah, unfortunately, can't throw the ball. And it's going to come down to the quarterbacks. Silly me, I think the whole team matters. I'm a defense guy. Look at coach. He's so far from the defense guy. Who's the better quarterback?

Oh, I mean, so typical coach. I mean, it's pretty dramatic. No, so listen. And he'll hit, he's hot right now. And then we'll hit that next streak. Can we put coach's graphic back up real quick? What's wrong with Green Bay? So, no, if we can put coach's graphic up, that is stunning.

Because a pass rating between 85 and 100, like 85 to 99, is like solid. You know what I mean? So it's really noteworthy. He only has five of those ever. You know what I mean? He has 18 awesome games, he has 18 awesome games, 12 mediocre to bad games, and only just so I think that is just the, you know, that 84, he's just recently in late later and last year.

Prior to that, it was into the 80s. Yes, it was all 70s or low. That's right. But that's coach. I actually, I agree with your general sentiment because it's why I've said, I think Jordan loves the most interesting player in the NFL this year. Because if he doesn't have to be great, if he is just good, I think they're the best team in the league. And so, like, they can be the best team in the league.

And it's interesting when you watch him because once he gets confident and it's red hot. But if he's shaky early, then it's, you know, goes the other way and he doesn't seem to be able to dig his way out of that hole. Well, coach, that was the old J-Lo. The new J-Lo is here and they should be atop to tears. I'm fine with that. Speaking of old and new, I am going with Danny Dimes and the Colts moving up. I think they should, look, I tend to,

I think your names is always are great. Who came up with the headline? Indiana Jones will put Nick in the temple. That's, I like it. That is a Christina spec. That's quality. Unless he got it from Christina.

Indiana Jones. Is that what they're calling Daniel Jones? Indian heads up there. I didn't come up with it. Go ahead. Sorry. You were complimenting the tiers names. No, the tier's names are always good, but you got some teams not where they should be.

The Colts, they definitely should be ahead of New England, and I know you love them, but you're raiders. All right. And I'm not so certain they shouldn't be up two tiers. Honestly, no idea. Here's the thing. That's where they could be up. They're number two in the league and total offense. All right.

Let's give him some credit. Number four in points per game, scoring offense. They haven't punted, as coach said yesterday yet. I mean, you got to give him some credit for that. They got the best right now the leading rush in the league, and he's not the best running back in the league. But Jonathan Taylor is a very good running back. Right, he could lead the league in rushing this year.

Obviously, Danny Dimes, Indiana Jones, whatever they're calling him now. He can run the football. And the defense hasn't been bad. They shut down the pop lockers in Miami. Sammy. All right. And, you know, they Denver,

before the season, everybody thought they were going to be good. They beat them. And here's the thing. I think most of us, and look, I picked them last in the division, but I think most of us thought around the quarterback,

they actually have some talent. If they could just get decent quarterback, which we didn't think they'd get. But if Danny Dimes can be like above average, not this good. I don't expect you to remain this good, But if the drop off isn't like he just doesn't turn into a pumpkin, they've been 17 and 17 over the last two years with horrific play at quarterback.

So if he can be above average, they should move up. Do you think pumpkin mode is on the board for Daniel Jones? Because I don't. What? What do you mean you don't? I don't. Because I don't think he's playing out of his mind right now. He's averaging almost 300 yards of game.

Buddy, he's playing out of his mind. Nick got me yesterday with a Derek Carr comparison. Yeah. So you could see Pumpkin? Well, I hadn't, I was putting with a back on. Last year's Saints. They were on fire. They were on fire.

They were on fire. They're going to all these points. You know what? I'm going to help the group out because you guys are having some struggles so far this year with upset alert. That's a good one this week. The Titans and Cam Ward get their first win. You know what? After watching, I've been watching the Titans.

probably closer than people outside of Tennessee. Yeah. They're not quite ready to win yet. I understand the cults aren't. I don't know that the cults are ready to be three and O. Three and O is in big state. And so listen, I can't get over the point I made yesterday that coach just reference that I just feel like this is last year's Saints,

a team that had no expectations going into the year except for from their fans through two weeks. their offense is on fire and they're like, see, look at what we have. And this quarterback that like a couple times without his career, people have really believed in. And other times they didn't, he's put it all together and then no. And the fact that you're saying you don't think pumpkin mode is going to table. You know what I think is the great elixir to pumpkin mode? Like if you ever feel like you're like, oh, I'm going pumpkin, you can come like,

I'll save you. Running. Correct. A great running back. If pumpkin, if he starts to like, sprout a green thing out of his head, hand the ball off. If he turns a little, I don't actually, I'd actually go to his running. Well, his running.

Well, his run. Well, his run, but I would prefer to get it to Jonathan Taylor. Like, that's why Sam Darnell's like, oh, if I don't have this, we're in pure PM, pumpkin mode. Okay, got it. Thanks, funny. PPM. Pure pumpkin mode. Pure pumpkin mode.

You don't want to go there. No, you don't. You get a little jaundice. We get it, buddy. I'm putting the lions. I'm moving the lions. Where did I move the Lions up against? Oh, right next to the Ravens.

It's a nice little tease for the game. I thought that, look, that's too much. Well, here's the thing. The Chiefs are where they are, not only because they have historical greatness on their side, but they're like, hey, they lost to two really good teams that are ahead of them. Lions lost to the very best team. So I feel like you should get a little bit of credit for that on the road.

Then they took the Bears down and they looked like the old lines. And golf didn't come out like, we're like, I don't know, can they be any good? Coff's like, yeah, I guess what we do? I'm going to throw five touchdown. So it wasn't like, let's barely win. The offense got on track in a major way. Five or more touchdowns or more seems like a lot. Josh, gee whiz, five or more passing touchdowns and no interceptions.

It's just golf and Lamar. So I kind of, you know, two peas in a pod. They're playing each other. The rest of the NFL three, scoring 40. Most games since 20 or 23, Lions and the Ravens. There to get. together. Bill's in the cowl boys are sitting there.

And since last meeting, which was, which was a blowout, the Lions have actually been, have the best record in league and score the most points. I also wonder how much of this game is, how much of this game is about the Lions trying to. Buddy, you gotta say what I don't quite have it yet. Well then that's what the preps for. Yeah, I know, but I came in like that to go. Big pregnant pause.

Who's the real bully in this matchup? Oh, okay. That's what I'm trying to figure out because the Ravens do get in there and bully teams and blast teams. Yeah, but the Lions and the man Campbell. And the Lions do too. But part of me thinks that one team will wither if the going gets tough and the other team won't. Well, I mean that. Really?

Well, there is in the playoffs in the Bill's game, even if the Lions get down, like they're up. If they're up being, they might win. Here's the thing. And this is my own, my pushback. If we show that where you had the Lions tier up, that I know there's been a lot of talk, you know, last couple years about margin of victory and blowing other teams out. And there was a lot of talk focused on the Chiefs,

like close wins, whatever, the Lions blew a lot of teams out. Ravens obviously blow a lot of teams out. What the Ravens, Eagles, Bills, and Chiefs, All have in common is, they never get blown out. I know the Chiefs did in the Super Bowl, but they, you know, the, and so that Lions week one game has weighs very, like, it is them blowing a team out to me is not worth as much as them getting, where they're down three touchdowns going into the fourth quarter in their week one game.

Like that to me was concerning because it's just so rare. out of the season, two coordinators. No, that part's true. Game one. Right, and I'm not trying to penalize them too much, but you know what I mean? Like the, and the other thing you showed there even, I know that's two years ago. But when they played the Ravens, they got annihilated. You know what I mean?

Now the bills got annihilated by the Ravens too last year. Nobody talks about that. They didn't. We never bring that up. Nobody ever brings that. Oh, an unbelievable episode of must win is right around the corner. Who's the reigning champion? Who's the reigning champion?

Or Greg. Bruised the only one. I won week one, Greg won, week two. Tomorrow baseball night in America on Fox. Aaron Judge and the Yankees hunting for the AL East Crown. Trying to take down the Blue Jays, Coach, you're okay? You're happy now? I'm not happy.

Against the Warriors. Or you might see Cubs Reds. That's tomorrow 630 Eastern on Fox. Right now, our holy cow, we got an on-camera read. unprecedented episode of must win. Now, during the segment, we're mostly talking about vibes, but sometimes we're actually talking about literal must wins. And that's where we're at today.

Here's the stat from Fresh from Josh. Since the turn of the century, 117 teams have started 0.3. Only one team has made it to the playoffs. So if your team is 0 and 2, brew move. And you have the Giants. It might not be a figurative must win.

It might be a literal. Must win? First up, the Chiefs. In New York against the winless Giants, who, to their credit, were a field goal away from beating the Cowboys. Russ looks rejuvenated. Mahomes, looking to break the first three-game losing streak

of his career. Here's the stats when you... Give them a look. Facing the Giants, week 20, week six of last year, quarter of 13 and 1, pass rating 101. 23 touchdowns, 5 intercept. Not good for the Giants. Coach, you are the rain, oh no,

Greg is the reigning champion. So that seat has the power. You can pass or play here. I'll play. Okay, here we go. This is must find a way to win. win. So we just saw the record broken two games ago where they had 17 straight games where they won in one score games. Last year was 12 games where they wanted one score games. Now it's two

games in a row where they can't win in one score games and they're finding ways to lose. They're dropping touchdown passes. They're missing field goals. They're going forward on fourth and one. They can't get that done. And you're sitting there and I'm sure they're sitting there and they've got to overcome a little bit of overconfidence. So even though they're 0 and 2, everybody's them how great they are. Everybody. Who's telling them how great they are? How great they are.

That's a canary. And so and so and and all they're doing, all they're doing is overlooking the giants. And it's human nature to think, okay, well, now we'll get back on track. We're playing this other team. They're not even an NFL team. So the giant, we beat them all the time.

But they're going to walk, they're going to walk into this game or sleepwalk into this game like they have the whole season and the Super Bowl and think that they, they can't possibly be eaten by the New York Giants. This is an absolute must win, must find a way to win, and also must not be overconfident going into this game. Listen, wow.

What a start. Coach put a little too much dip on that chip before being out. First of all, no one is singing all of the Chiefs phrases. They don't always beat the Giants because they never play the Giants. They play the Giants every four years. They beat them a hundred times in a row. No, no, no, no. That was the whole league playing the Giants.

Everybody six. It was a terrible crowd. No, now six shots and shots. But the one thing coach said that is correct is this truly absolutely is a must win. Not even because I care as much about Wilde's O and three stat because I do think it's a little different because they expanded playoffs and because none of those teams that were O and three had Patrick Mooms at quarterback. But I'm not interested in sneaking into the playoffs. You know what I mean?

Do you know how awkward it is for everyone involved to hold the Arrowhead invitational and have the Chiefs not be a part of it? Weird. It's weird. You're going to have to refund tickets, seats, PSLs, the whole thing. And if they lose this game, while I wouldn't write them off for the playoffs,

they are clearly nothing close to a contender. And so that would be devastating. Conversely, when they win this game, they then know when week four and we're absolutely fine. Split with Philly and Baltimore, no problem. Lost a tough divisional game. Playing was to go five and one in the division anyway.

We just lost one early. I'm not on the team, coach. They're overconfidence. Of course we're going to be overconfident. They can't even play the game. And I think everyone is going to be extra locked in as the team's birthday president of Patrick, who turns 30 today.

That would be the first time this season. Yeah, it has to happen eventually. And Xavier Worthy's back. This is the most obvious must win in years. All right. So they're right about that. And I won't call it a literal must win because I agree with Nick. O and three, I'm not writing the Chiefs out of the playoffs.

But it could, in retrospect, have been a literal must win. Sure. Because if, I mean, look, I'm not going to be peacocking about my Ravens beating them until they beat them. All right? So that's a game the Chiefs could win. but still, if they lose to the Giants, one in five is really on the board. And that's, I mean, I'm assuming they would be Jacksonville.

But two of their next three would be Detroit and the Ravens. Right. So if you go one in five, I'll give them, say one in five. Then when your receivers get back, or at least where she rice, you pretty much, 11 and 6 can get in the playoffs, obviously. But you pretty much got to run the table and lose maybe only one more game. But you got the Chargers,

you got Washington and Buffalo remaining. So it could, in retrospect, be a must-win. And I also think Mahomes has to play well. Like Mahomes, in his last 18 regular season games, regular season, he's only hit 100 as far as pass a rating three times. He's only hit 97 times. DAC light up this giant's defense. So I want to see not only a win, but Mahomes.

Obviously, everybody still got faith in him in Kansas City, but it wouldn't be bad for the locker room to see the old Patrick Mahomes return. Thank you. I made the best. I don't talk about overcomments. You weren't even close. You're sitting there eight minutes all my comments. You're like, and look at week nine.

You were eight minute in my comments. How about when you said it's not? not a literal must win, but it could be a literal must win in three months. Retro space. I mean, I thought that. The biggest reaction. That should have. His take was me saying canard.

That's true. But that actually supported it. It's one. This is kind of like the refs doing the tush push. I don't know about this. We're going to head to Chicago. Ben Johnson licking his wounds after his former team dropped 50 on him. In bad news, here comes Dak, whose team just scored 40.

Chicago's defense, we talk a lot about Ben Johnson's offense. It's Chicago's defense that has been the problem. They're giving up 40, 10 touchdowns. That's ridiculous. Passer rating for the opposing quarterbacks is at 137. She's worst in the NFL. Wow. Open-ended.

Must win. Yeah. Brew is going to really regret letting me go first here. Because this is the rare. double and just for the record to the audience, anyone else that says that is just copying off. For the Cowboys,

they have Micah and Green Bay next week. They need to go into that game with some feeling of momentum and feeling of, you know what? We go beat them. We're basically on top of the conference. We lost a heartbreaker to the Eagles, in week one, been rolling ever since.

The Bears, on the other hand, everyone's focused on Caleb, and to a lesser extent, Ben Johnson. I'm going to focus on Coach's guy, and I say coach's guy just because defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. Dennis Allen was supposed to be the guy that came there and made the defense even better. Instead, Bears fans are like, man, maybe Matt Iberfluse's defense wasn't so bad. Same players, and they weren't getting 50-balled like these guys. whichever team wins this game is going,

Cowboys will feel great if they do, pardon me. The Bears will feel like, okay, we've steadied ourselves. And whichever team loses this game, it will feel like the sky is falling. For the Cowboys, their one win would have come in exciting, but a little lucky fashion in overtime against the Giants. And for the Bears, they obviously wouldn't have a win all year. Double must win.

Solid, but getable. This is such poetic justice. He steals my phrase double must win when it's not a double must win. It's not? No. The bears are done. I've told you guys and you guys have agreed with me

and giving me amen's that this season is no longer about the playoffs for the bears. It is about Caleb. So this is a must win for the Cowboys. And for Caleb, it's a must play well and show a little electric. All right, because everybody's looking electric at times against the Cowboys. Jalen, who didn't play great against the Chiefs, was great against the Cowboys with his two

touchdown runs. Obviously, Russell Wilson had the best game of his career statistically against the Cowboys. Caleb's got to go out there and show something. Give me some signs, man, that you are the guy and the Cowboys obviously have to win. here's the thing about the Cowboys. Washington's looking vulnerable. Minnesota's looking vulnerable. Chicago obviously looking vulnerable.

If they win this game, the playoffs are there for the taking for the Cowboys. But if you lose this game to the Bears, you can lose to anybody, and then they're not for the taking. So must win, plus some electricity needed from Caleb. You know what this is? This is a good lesson that it's not a must win the press conference in the all season. And who is everybody's All-American? Ben Johnson, right?

We needed to go and hire the greatest head coaching candidate in the history of the world. And I like what I've seen from Ben Johnson. And then who is everybody's biggest disappointment? Oh, my God, the Cowboys hired Brian Schottonheimer. How could they do? How could they possibly do that? What has he ever done in his career? And here we are, these two young head coaches trying to figure things out.

And as much as we're talking about the fans and that's what you're focused on, It's about the locker room because all those players with a new head coach are listening to what they're saying. And if they're not getting rewarded for the work that they put in and the lessons and the things that they were supposed to bring that elevate their game, suddenly it gets a little bit shaky in those locker rooms early for a head coach. Oh! He stole my phrase. Everybody's all American. But a wrong guy. Any phrase you don't have.

Two guys, they twice stole my phrase. I should get that. That was good though, Michael. See what he calls Matt Stafford? Lion's Ravens. Super Bowl preview maybe? Right now, both teams one and one. Losing to two teams ahead of them on the committee's tears.

But look at the ranks since the start of last season. One in two and points. Drop the banners. Two and one total yards. Lions, two and one yards per play. And Red Zone touchdown percentage. third for the Lions. First for the Ravens. Brew, this is a must

win for you. You cannot go down either three to nothing or just get goose egged in this segment. Well, if this is a must win for me, then it is the triple must win. Because it's a double must win for these guys. That's for darn sure.

Both of them coming off demoralizing week one losses. The Ravens need it. They're at home. All right. The Ravens need, look, their division isn't this tough. as we thought it was going to be with the injuries, so it wouldn't put them in playoff jeopardy.

But you got the Chiefs coming next, and you got the Chiefs coming again. So one in three would be on the board. I missed you. That is not good. For Detroit, you know, Detroit, I mean, you put 50 up on the Bears. That's not much.

That's not much. It can't be excited about it. Look, put the 50 piece on the bears. You're not getting a brother to finish. No, but it's like one misstep on the pommel horse and then you're just done. Putting a 50 piece on the bears does not erase the sour taste from your mouth from what happened on opening night against the Packers. And so they need to be the good team. So double must win, triple must win if you throw me in.

Coach. Yeah, he just Jordan loved this segment right there. So here's my feeling about this is you have your Super Bowl last week, right? You're playing your former coordinator and we don't get enough credit. And we're going to pay him back. And so then we're going to score a bunch of points. And then we're going to dance in the end zone for some choreography that you probably took 45 minutes during practice to get. And guess what?

Now you're playing against someone that's a heavyweight. So let's see whether you can battle against a heavyweight as opposed to a club that's emerging. Emerging. It's a very kind way, kind way to say it. And so, yeah, to me, Detroit's got to show that they can fight with the big boys, with the changes that have been made. And it's also a situation where they're going to be chasing Green Bay. And I don't think Baltimore is chasing anybody in their division, even if they lose.

Well, so here's the thing. If Detroit loses, no one will write them off. And we will say, listen, they lost to maybe the two best teams in the league, season they're getting another shot at Green Bay later in the year. If Baltimore loses then it's like hold on a second because they do go to Kansas City next week and then all of a sudden they're staring at potentially we're one and three and our one win we all know doesn't really count this is the Browns. We played three teams we are the ultimate S-Bob team according to

the inventor of S-Bob Chris Broussard and we play week one the bills we give it away Week two, we lose to a lot, three to a lion's team, and week four lose to Kansas City. So the Ravens have to win this game and they're at home. The Lions would like to win this game. It is a single must win just for Bolton. Yeah, that 0 and three Cincinnati games going to loom big in their mind. We are not doing Steelers boxcboro, which means this was the bonus round. In an unprecedented version of must win, we have our first 4-0 shutout.

Coach sweeps must win four to nothing. Unbelievable. What a performance from coach. Podcast is climbing up the charts. Thank you for subscribing and listening. And our YouTube channel has got a new strategy where we put on very long clips

and they're doing well. You can listen to see the Bud List on there tomorrow. We're not going to promote the Bud List. I'm sorry. Hub said we've got to go to Prime Performance sponsored by Whole Foods Market. Discover all the ways you can save. Charles Shanahan said, hold on a second.

Stop your Mac Jones enthusiasm. Purdy's going to be limited in practice today. And there is a chance, brew, that he's back against the Cardinals. This after a wonderful performance from Mac Jones, do you think the 49ers should be so reckless and rush him back? Are you suggesting there's motive? Like, Purdy was motivated by Mac Jones. No, I'm not.

solid game. I just want Mac Jones to get a shot against the Cardinals. Look, if Purdy's healthy, I don't think you have to rush him back. Matt did play well. Maybe there, you know, a lot of times you see a backup come in. He's got like three or four good games in him. Especially in a plug and play offense like the diners. But if Brock is healthy, look, they need to start stacking win.

They already have stacked too. But stack as many of these wins as you can because, and if you can, if you can keep keep winning before you get Iyuk and all these guys back, that's what you got to do. So, yeah, if he's healthy, playing. Yeah, I agree with that, obviously. I also think if I'm Brock Purdy, I do not want to go out there 80%. I don't, like, I think that, you know, we have big arguments on this show about Purdy, but the truth is that it's just, I think everyone agrees on.

Last year was not a great year for him. We can argue about, you know, where it was. It was not a great year. And week one this year, he had the great comeback, but he didn't play, I don't think he would say, his best game. And so he doesn't want to just have, you know, continue a stretch of, by his standards, whatever those standards are, you know, below his standard football. And I do think that if I'm the Niners, what I saw Mack do last week against now another team, I know the Cardinals are 2 and O, but another. team that is not considered, you know, a top flight team that I would, I would err on the side of caution, especially if I think this team has real playoff viability. You know what I mean?

I, because remember, Brock was dealing with two injuries. He was ruled out because of the, I don't know. He had the toe in the shoulder. I don't remember which one he's ruled out because of, to be totally honest with you. I thought it was the toe. But regardless, like the, So I think they do have the luxury of not having to rush him back. And I think that he should personally not want to rush back if he doesn't feel, you know what I mean? No, he's not going to be 100%. But if he feels like a week would do him good. If I were you, KW, him coming back would be crushing.

I've done the rare 180 within two minutes in a segment. Oh, my God. At first I started the newsread saying, I want Mac to have another chance. And then while everybody was talking, I was like, timeout. Mac Jones did well. Remember that? Probably good.

That was Mac Jones. You want Purdy to come back at 80%. No, I'm just saying I want whatever is good. But Mac Jones's path of... He wants Mac to be a starter in the league again one day. And that was it. Boom, I did it. Brock came back.

He led us to the playoffs. Remember, Arnold only played a couple games. So right. So that's, so what I, I, I, But Darnold wasn't signed to be a starter. Remember, Darnold was supposed to be backing up J.J. And then J.J. got hurt. You know, I actually think Max PATH to a team signing him

and then at the press conference be like, listen, he's competing for our starting quarterback job. I think he needs at least one, maybe two more games. You know what I mean? Because I'm not taking a shot. I think he needs more than one more. Yeah, the bad tape is so voluminous at this point. That one game.

But if he played really well in a second game and then Brock came back, I think that gives him a real shot. And if he played really well in two games, then I think he would get it. Oh, three? Yeah. How about three? Three? Yeah.

Live from New York. It's a show that's going to the Patriots game this weekend. Am I allowed to say that? No. Is that happening? Because then people will think the show's going. I got you guys all tickets. Please say you're fibby.

No, you have to come. No. First of all, Brew, we don't have to go. He won't go to dinner with us when it's across the street from a hotel. I know. Because you're Nick and I were. You bailed on us. You had a meeting.

No, you wouldn't go to dinner with me. I didn't know about the dinner. First of all, we were talking about in Miami. Communication era. When you skipped our day. And the dinner was at 10 p.m. We're in Miami. That was the night.

It's on the East Coast. We were hot, too. The restaurant, they treated us great. Yeah. Pro athletes coming by. Yeah, exactly. You're at a dinner without us. People were calling you an ass hat.

No, people were not. Who were they calling that? I don't know. He didn't mention it. But he was looking and speaking towards you. He was implied. Yeah. Thank you.

Third hour, first things first, first thing's first. We're in overtime now. First versus score, this show's over. Today, what are the chances, spoiler alert, slim, that Aaron Rogers dominates the Patriots. I was not in on the meeting on this one. Meanwhile, another edition of case closed with Danny Parkins. Stats.

Another edition of stats in a suitcase. Another edition of, hmm, might be something. Exactly. I don't mind that one either. But right now, Thursday night football. Dolphins in Buffalo. Two of met with the media yesterday. Was very complimentary of Josh Allen.

Maybe dissed himself. Take a listen. He's top tier. You know, if it's not with his arm, it's with his legs. You know, that dude can do literally anything he wants. So definitely different skill set for me. I can't do half of what he does when it comes to running the ball and any of that. And then with how he can just chuck a ball down the field, you know,

with how far and the arm strength that he has, you know, he's supreme when it comes to that. Okay. Here are the numbers that somewhat back up what Tua was saying. In their head-to-head meetings, Josh's eight wins, one loss. Team points 33 for Josh, 17 for Tua. Everything's bad, basically, if you're on the podcast. Just imagine a graphic with Tua on one side and a bunch of numbers that are West. Josh.

Brew, does this say more about Tua or Josh Allen? Yeah, I'm going to go first because I'm going to be nice to Tua, which I don't think is going to happen on that side of the table. He's being honest, so it says more about Tua. We know what he said about Josh. Everybody agrees with that. but it says he's honest and naive, which is rare this deep into your career. Usually the media comes at you so hard that you learn, you know, I can't say this,

I can't say this. This was naive for him to say this and really not think anything's going to come of it. So it shows his naivete, but here's my fear. And that's the nice thing you're going to say about to us. Brew's going to be nice to him to him. Here's my fear. If he is this honest and naive, what's to stop him from going up there and saying,

it's cold out there. You know my record in cold weather. I don't win when it's 45. I think he needs in general. They're a good team. At least he didn't say that. Well, I don't know. They're a good team.

You know, I only beat. tomato can. So Tua, you've got to learn from this. Sometimes, just zip it and don't say what you're actually feeling. Yeah. Now I feel like I could be as mean as I want. Yeah. That was not very kind. It's a ridiculous thing to say. Tua sounds like he is Josh Allen's backup. Exactly right. Well, he would be. Well, sure. He wouldn't be there. Except Josh Allen makes 55 million this year. Tua makes 53. That's right. Like, it's a very silly thing to say.

I remember talking to Mark Schlerath about how he once felt when his team was getting ready to play the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s. And he said during warmups, he was, like, looking across the field. And he was just thinking to himself, he's like, we've got no shot today. But he didn't say it. Right. Like, imagine if he had said it the Wednesday before they played the Cowboys.

It probably would not have played terribly well in the locker room. Like, how does a Dolphins? player feel when our quarterback doesn't think that he can measure up to the other team's quarterback and is willing to say. I understand the athlete criticism of media is you guys kill us for cliches, you want us to be honest, and then you kill us for honesty. But come on, man. But the reality is we don't kill him for cliches.

You don't. We just ignore him. Patrick Mahomes, nobody's ever criticized Patrick Mahomes for being born. Yeah, being boring at press conferences. And so, right, there is no penalty to it. We do love honesty because it gives us content. But usually it's got to err on the side of bravado, not air on the side of almost woe is me.

But I'm going to spin this a little bit, if I may, Wilds. I don't blame Tua for being Tua. Like, I don't blame Tua for not being mobile. They knew that when they signed him. I don't blame Tua for not having a strong arm. They knew that when they signed him. him. And I don't blame, I think he's been clumsy at press conferences this year. You guys know I thought that he shouldn't have said publicly what he said about Tyreek, even though Tyreek was the villain in

that story. It was an unnecessarily, he unnecessarily added fuel to that story by talking about how Tyreek had to make up to him. I think he's been bad at press conferences. That's not really the problem. The problem is, in my opinion, Wilde, that that graphic existed in large part, the exact same, just a few less games, when they signed him to this deal. You cannot be an elite quarterback and be consistently so thoroughly outplayed by the guy who is your age and your division. Like the Herbert Mahomes thing, if we had prior to this weekend, or the last weekend, put up that graphic, the record would have been jarring. But the other numbers are, it's like, okay, Patrick's better, but Herbert played well in those games, and they were close games.

We talked about at the time. Like, the dolphins are the ones who had all this information about who Tua was as a player, his limitations, his strengths, and said, we're tying all our fortunes to you. And that was, that was honestly the beginning of the end for Mike McDaniel. It was the beginning of the end for this whole kind of dolphins iteration. and I said at the time that I have graded Mike McDaniel on a curve of, hey, look at what he's doing with a quarterback that I feels limited. But once you pay him like he's a star,

and now we're hearing even he doesn't think he's a star. Like, Tuatung of Iloa, clearly, doesn't think he's a star. Like, because unless he thinks Josh Adams is the greatest quarterback in the history of the league. Because if that's how he feels about Josh, and we would say monesty thing, what if he's asked about Lamar or Patrick or for that matter your guy's your guy Justin Herbert like all those guys are more mobile than him

all those guys have a stronger arm than him and so that that's the problem it's a crisis of confidence in Miami I think he does think he's a star though I mean all he was saying is I can't throw it as far as him and I can't run it like him which are just I can't run it or throw it like him which is just the truth

No, but I feel like... I mean, I get you don't, like I said, you don't always have to say what's true out there, but I think he demanded a certain amount of money. No, but let me ask you this. Dak Prescott can't run like Josh Allen and can't throw as far as Josh Allen. Dak Prescott is better at press conferences.

He's only going to say... I'm not even talking about what he would say. Do you think Dak Prescott, deep down, thinks the gap between he and Josh Allen's that big? I bet he doesn't. I think. Delusional confidence. Yeah, yeah.

Like that, right. That Dak Prescott, if he doesn't think he's better than Josh thinks, it's close. To me, you're, and I agree with you in theory about complimenting the honesty, but that was a reveal that, Tua does not think he's close to Josh Allen. And that's a huge problem. That's the guy you got to hate. But we're allowed to think that, right? Like, we're not him. We're not that far away from the dolphins.

having to stop scoring points against the Broncos to be nice. And that was a era. Where it's like, oh my gosh, Mike McDaniel is a genius. Tua has two great weapons on the outside that can burn you down the sideline. They can run the ball. This team is electric. There's been a drainage of confidence from this team that is now exhibiting him. Yeah, it's a bad coach.

But this is the first, because Tua has won. I know he hadn't beaten good teams. Yes. But his record is really strong. It's like 60% of his game. And the team fell apart last year without him. Yes, that's the thing. They win with him, win fairly big, and then lose big without him.

This 0 and 2 has hurt more than any other 0.2. Just very quick. They feel like the post-70-point dolphins or the 70-point dolphins career now, feel like a boxer that got knocked out once and was never the same. Roy Jones. You know what I mean? They feel like once, and I'm not smart enough on the X's and O stuff to know what teams did, but once teams cracked their quick motion or whatever it was.

Because they've been figured out. Right. Since they've been figured out, they didn't have another pitch and they have been rattled in a way. Some of that's probably, or not probably, because of two is limitations. Yes. That's the thing. 100%. All right.

I'm kind of room for the dolphins and not want to be honest. I feel so bad. That would be great. Parkins first to market with this just floated it as an idea. Could the Giants beat the Chiefs? Kansas City favored by six on Sunday night. Here's Patrick Malmes. Yeah, I think for myself, just being better at executing

in some of those earlier moments in the game, especially. If I kind of sit in that pocket a little bit longer, trust those guys, get the ball to the guys down the field. I feel like we can make some more explosive plays. And so that was stuff I scotted on myself. But no, we're going up against a good defensive team this week, especially that E-line. And so finding the right moments to take those shots down field, but not taking the negative plays as well. How much of this 0-and-2 star is on Patrick Mahomes, Danny?

Not much, I think honestly. If we looked at it and said he's done this without Rishi Rice, he's done it without Xavier Worthy. He's done it with a rookie left tackle. You know, I think Mahomes has gotten rid of the ball a little close. quicker than he needs to based on what some of the data says, like, in terms of, like, how much time he has to throw. And so maybe he's trying to figure that piece of it out. But he's like, I got to take deep shots to Taekwon Thornton.

It's not exactly, that's not what Josh Allen is doing. It's not what Lamar Jackson's doing. It's not what Justin Herbert is working with. And so when I've watched Mahomes this year, he's looked like he's scrambling too much, certainly. But for the most part, he's looked like Mahomes. like he's been let down by his situation around him and not him. But when you said, like, I was the first one to float it, it's probably just because I've gambled on football for 20 years, but six-point underdogs win in the NFL all the time. Like, it's definitely on the board that the New York Giants at home as a six-point underdog in a night game beat the Chiefs.

And I know you said it was not possible earlier, Brew, but it just objectively is. Counterpoint, it's objectively not. This is not a pro-Giants thing. It's just a I watch professional football thing. You're just saying that because of the spread? Correct. So if it was minus 11, you would be like a much better chance that the Giants beat the Chiefs than there is that the Dolphins beat the bills.

A much better chance. So here's the thing. I understand that's the gambling spread. It's true. You know it's true. No, I understand that that is correct in that that is what Vegas thinks. I am, what I am sitting here telling you is, of all the teams playing this weekend, the teams, the single team most likely, most unlikely to lose is the back against their wall, got to have it, dynastic chiefs. I'm not saying it will be pretty.

I'm not saying they'll even cover. What I'm saying is that the gap between the chiefs blowing out the giants or whatever, that's a separate thing to the, if Patrick plays, all 60 minutes, are the chiefs going to lose that football game? And in my opinion, the answer to that to no, which is why a first cousin of it to answer this question is how much of the chiefs own to start

his alma homes? The least of any player on the team. And now he's the most important player on the team, but he also, in my opinion, of every player on the team, has played the best. Now, he has not played his best.

And so it's It's kind of, you know, a little trick mirror on what we're asking here. But I thought the only reason they were in that week one game was because of what he was able to do with his legs. And I thought in week two, listen, he missed that first pass of the game and he missed the late pass to Thornton. But then he 90% made up for it by hitting the deep pass to him two plays later. I think given what the Chiefs, how the defense played in game one, what the receivers have done throughout two weeks, what the running back position is done,

I don't think there's any quarterback in the league you could have put on the Chiefs these two weeks and they're not O'N two. And so, like, I don't think. I would not. I agree with you guys that it's not on the Holmes and he would be the least got to blame. Like you said, they're only in that game

against the charges because of his leg. And if Kelsey catches that ball, they're at least in the moment they're a fair. They might win that game. So, but Mahomes, as you say,

hasn't been at his best. He hasn't been close with his arm. He has missed some throws. There's no question about it. And right now, like he's not playing, you know, top 10 for sure football right now

among other quarterbacks. If they had, as much as I think Mahomes has led them. you liked. He's four. No, he is high in that. That incorporates his running.

Yeah, but and these, you guys know, this whole dynastic run, I don't think it happens with any other quarterback besides Mahomes. And he is the engine, even when he wasn't playing well last year, he's the engine that makes it go.

But I can't say, if they had Josh Allen right now or Lamar Jackson, I can't say, or Herbert maybe, that they would be owing two. I will go that far. And I'm not saying those guys,

are better than Mahomes, I'm saying they are playing much better than he is right now. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's fair. Right? If we're all agreeing that Mahomes has missed some throws, he's missed more throws than we've seen Herbert miss so far, right? Maybe. I don't know that I don't.

It's completion percentage. I mean, Herbert's completion percentage is much higher. It's not near the roof. Herbert's 72 percent, I think. No, but so there's a difference between, I mean, I actually think. Missed throws is not necessarily what your, how number of incompletions you have. Right, because Kelsey drop in the ball. I don't remember a thousand drops.

No, no, no, no. I don't think there's a thousand drops. I think right now, offensively, the Chiefs have two, like, massive problems, the first of which I don't know how they're going to fix, the second of which will slowly be fixed is Xavier and then Rashid gets back. First one is they cannot run the football, and no team respects them running the football. So they are the weird team that is never facing a heavy. They weren't great at running.

No. Well, ever since Pacheco broke his name. like they haven't been great at it, but they weren't as bad as they are this year. And the other one is, there is no one on the team right now that can get open against man coverage. There is, you know what I mean? There is, there is, there is nobody on the team that can get open. And so, like, that's, so when we were talking about missing throws or not, but go ahead. No, I'm, what's challenging is the Chief's performance that we try to predict before the game is like, we see all these flaws, but,

Mahomes. Yeah. And But Mahomes has been the answer to like, we'll pick the chiefs to win because of Mahomes. Yes. And then when it doesn't go that way, when they lose to the Chargers, they lose to the Eagles, we're like, well, here are the actual tactical reasons why they lost. Like, but Mahomes hasn't been enough to get everybody over. And now we're in the Giants and we see all of these pitfalls coming.

But I guess what I'm saying is. And we're like, but Mojones again. Right. But that's what I'm worried. I'm like, I'm like, stepping into a trap. as poorly as they played against the Chargers or as kind of intermittently well and then poorly as they played against the Eagles,

they will beat the Giants. You know what I mean? I think in order... You're more confident in that than I am, man. Well, I think, I mean, guys, we all just sat here and said that they are a drop away from potentially beating a team that everybody thinks could win the Super Bowl.

You know what I? And they only lost by six. Right. And so to me, unless you're saying Giants actually sneaky good, Giants might end up, you know, we're going to look up and Giants are going to be five and four. And, you know, the Chiefs haven't played well. And they have played two of the best teams in the league and been right there.

So I think that against the Giants, when they need to play better, and Xavier, I think, is going to play, changes it. So just real quick, transit of property. You think the Chiefs could have scored as many points on Dallas as the Giants just did? No, but I think that game would have been so different. Like, no, but I also think winning is a skill. And I assume the Chiefs are 0 and 2. And so, like, right now they're not exhibiting that skill.

And I'm not calling a blowout here, to be very clear. I don't think this is like a Chiefs remind everyone there the Chiefs this week. I don't think right now they have the horses to blow people out if they're not getting turnover. The other sneaky thing about Kansas City, there are three teams in the league that are not forced to turn over. The Browns, the Jets, and the Chiefs. So like that, you know,

there's a lot of things stacking against them. They're not going to fall to Olin 3 by losing to the New York Giants and Russell Wilson. Russ wants to, Russ might give you one, but if Brian Dayball has like a Siriani-esque meeting where it's like, hey, if they don't take one from us and we don't give Mahomes an extra possession,

We can walk out of a year with a win. I don't mean to be rude. I don't think like those meet. I don't think there's like a hey, we're not turning the ball over this week meeting. I think every team has that every week. And guys who turn the ball over turn it over. I don't think you extra focus. I guarantee you on Mack Jones's schedule with Kyle Schenning.

He was like, honey. I have to stay late because at 4.30, I'm meeting with Kyle. I'm meeting with Kyle. It says, don't turn the ball over. I don't, the agenda just says don't turn. But that's every week. I don't think it's special for who you're playing. I'm saying play a more conservative brand of football.

Certainly Ross started to feel himself and he threw the ball. When he threw the ball of the Cowboys, I would have been. Yeah, you're in a shootout. The moon ball's been great. Oh, he just chucked it up. Can we just like hang out in overtime? Coming up next, a segment with briefcases. Yeah.

It's called packed stats. I never leave home without my stats. We'll unpack a stat and make you change your mind about the games that are coming up. I got a preview of this one today. It's going to be the best one yet. I agree. I didn't like the anti-Eagles stat, but it was otherwise good. Gentlemen, it's that time a week.

It's time for packed stats. Danny Parkins, Willie Cologne, and Coach Manjini. I never leave home without my stats. You know that. Come to work with them every day. So here we go. Lights, camera, stats. A t-shirt.

It is a t-shirt. Merchand-ising? I like it. The first stat. That is zero. That is the number of passing touchdowns that Jalen Hertz has through two weeks. And you're like, well, why is that noteworthy? Because Jalen Hertz is the first quarterback since Dennis Dixon in 2010 for the Steelers,

Willie Cologne Steelers, to start 2 and O without throwing for a touchdown. Why people question Jalen Hertz and the Eagles? Because this is simply not sustainable. They didn't do this last year. Jalen Hertz is either throwing within zero to 10 yards or he's throwing deep. He has zero pass attempts between 10 and 20

yards through the first two games this year. I understand that he does a lot. But zero passing touchdowns in 2 and 0, we haven't seen it in 15 years. It's not sustainable, Willie. Well, let me be very clear. As a former office alignment, this is how I like it in the month of September.

This is how I like my September. It's all about running the ball, setting a turn. playing mistake free, coming out to building with a W. And this is what I loved about Jalen Hertz, too, on Sunday versus the Chiefs, because he took the low-risk shots, right? And he hit the intermediate routes with the receiver coming across. And with all that said, man, I also got to get props to Kevin Petulow

because he understands his team is coming off the Super Bowl. He didn't interject a heavy place, a heavy pass game. He understood what they do well is running the football. And so you start to see him really kind of adjust to the Eagles and what they do well. And I think it's really helped this offensive just evolve. slowly and surely. And we got to understand. You know what defense is going to do. They're going to

pack the box. They're going to condense it, which allows Hurst to win on the outside with AJ Brown and Devante Smith. He hasn't been winning with AJ Brown. He's got six sketches for 35 yards. But right now, we're going to see, I trust me. In a couple weeks, we're going to start seeing the Eagles flop. Watch.

I think this is not only sustainable, it's recommended. It's what they should be doing. And because it's the formula that works for them. Run the ball, play good defense. Jaylen Hertz can hurt you with his feet. Now where it's going to become unsustainable is when AJ Brown goes and gets his book again and he's on the sideline and he's reading it. And I know that somehow that story got turned into a positive, that he was actually taking motivation from

it. But we all know what it was. It was him expressing in a very public way his displeasure with the lack of touches he was getting and the lack of production he was getting. And that's that dynamic is going to have to continue to be monitored, and it's going to have to be, it's going to have to be massage some because they're going to get frustrated with some. You didn't buy that he was just, you know, in a book club? No, I didn't buy it. Well, he's admitted, he's admitted that the book's never coming out again. He understood to the coach's point.

He was being a little bit of a diva. It won't happen against. So I trust him and never go. A little note on this, little post script, Dennis Dixon, didn't even finish that second game. So this is truly very rare to go two and oh without. a passing touchdown to start a season. All right. Give me my lights.

A lot of power. It's a lot of within. You can call for your lights. Second stat. Don't leave home without. The stat is 11. Mm. As in 11 teams have started 3 and 0 with three wins within the division,

which is what the Chargers have an opportunity to do as they are favored against the Denver Broncos. They would have beaten the Chiefs, the Raiders, and the Broncos. What's interesting about those 11 teams, they all. did not go on to win their division, but five of the 11 went on to at least appear in the Super Bowl. And you average about 12 wins per year. So this is a tremendous opportunity in front of the Chargers here. The idea of you beat the Chiefs, you beat the Raiders, you beat the Broncos.

No matter what the Chiefs do, coach, on Sunday night, if earlier in the day the Chargers beat the Broncos, the Chargers would have at minimum a three-game lead on the Chiefs. the division when you factor in the tiebreakers. It's a pretty amazing spot to be in that early in the season. And I know we can't look back historically and say just because that happened in the past, it's going to happen again this season. But you got to like what it says. Half of those teams are almost half of those teams go to the Super Bowl.

That's impressive 12, 12 wins. It's um, I really like what Jim's done in terms of erasing the history of the Chargers. in the sense of the negative history of the charges. And he's so good at that. It doesn't matter what happened before. It doesn't matter who the bully of the division has been. They're going to reset it the way they want to reset it. And you're seeing that unfold or we're seeing it unfold a little bit here at the start of the season.

Yeah, I want you, Coach. I just appreciate them kind of establishing their identity early in the season, right? And you got to credit Jim Hallbar for allowing his team to play fast and free. But I think if you really take a hard look on them, like since your relationship, Situational, they went on third down. They're fishing in the red zone. And overall, man, they flat out get it done with Justin Herbert, with his arm or his legs. And I think right now, if you're in the West, if you're winning in a division, you don't chase standards, right?

You control them. And that's what they're doing. So if they win Sunday against the Broncos, there's a new sheriff of town. And that's the charges. Well, they're already in Vegas, they're already the favorite to win the division. And it's just obviously these numbers are going to be, they're going to start to change a little bit as we continue to expand the schedule. 14 game schedule to 16 and now we're at 17. So there's obviously more time to catch up.

But a three or potentially four game lead with the tiebreaker after three weeks is crazy. What I'm really interesting to see, Danny, is whether or not Herbert can get to that 38 to 40 touchdown range that he saw early in his career. Now that came with 15 picks. Yeah, and 31 is a rookie. Yeah, if we can get that, yeah, and I think it's 38th the next year. But if he can get somewhere closer to that level and keep the interceptions down, I mean, that's, That's your MVP back. It is my new MVP back now that Bergen.

Big Herbert guy. Yeah, but I'm the original. I feel like you're trying to comfort my corners a little bit, Coach. All right. Last one, never leave home without my stats and the lights. This is a bigger number, folks. 123, as in 123 rushing yards for Patrick Mahomes. Too many.

Next-gen stats tracks this on scrambles. So there's the QB sneak, the designed quarterback run. And then there's the scramble where the play call is up. pass and then you run out of necessity. All 123 of Mahomes' rushing yards this year are on scrambles. It is the most by any quarterback through two weeks since at least 2016, because that is as far back as the data goes. The chiefs have been very public with we only want Patrick Mahomes to run when it's the playoffs.

Like they do not do a tush push. They do not sneak him on third and one or fourth and one. Remember because he hurt his knee a couple of years ago. So the fact that they are 0 and 2, and he is now a historic scrambler through two weeks, talk about unsustainable and an injury risk, Willie. This is the thing that the Chiefs probably need to fix more than anything else. Well, Patrick Mahomes rushing is the problem. It's a symptom, right?

They don't have a run game. That's right. And they can't get receivers to really cause separation at the line of scrimmage. So now you find them really scrambling and trying to make a way and it's really shouldering his team. And I'm with you. You don't want to see them scurry up the sideline and get hit. And sometimes he turns the truck stick Patty, and you worry about it because that's their golden goose. So I agree with you on that part.

But overall, I sat here at this desk with you two gentlemen. And I said we're witnessing an end to an error. The kingdom is coming to a close. It's all over. The chemistry team, him and Travis Kelsey, is dying before our eyes. Patrick Mahomes is the last living hero on this Kansas City chief team. And you guys continue to believe in a guy, I don't reason I blame you, because you put him up on that silly ranking yesterday. I didn't sleep last night thinking how.

Danny Park is the most credible man at all of Fox Sports One. They put an O and 2 team on a list when they clearly show you they are deficient on both sides of the ball. Okay. Coach, if I may. Let's just live in this hypothetical world

where this year the Chiefs do not make the playoffs. Today is Patrick Mahomes' 30th birthday. You don't think that next year they'll be one of the favorites? The idea that if they do have a down year or miss the playoff, that the dynasty is over, that strikes me as ridiculous. Like they are going to be a contender as long as number 15 is in Kansas. You're witnessing an agent Travis Kelsey.

Yeah, Travis Kelsey's piece of it might be over, but not a whole line that's dealing with chemistry issues right now because of the loss of Joe Tuni. You're talking about receiving court right now with the machine rights being out and all these other pieces really trying to find what they can do well in this system. We're watching this team deteriorate right before our eyes. sitting here like, well, one down year, he'll catch it to Brady. That's not happened. Catch him at home is a Hall of Fame quarterback, and that's how we want to perceive him from this on. He won't be a multi-multi Super Bowl quarterback.

Really? I'm going to have to. He's already three. You have to say. Is I going to get to a handful? You got to get to five. I'm going to have to disagree with you on this point. I think it's as long as he's there, and especially as long as Andy reads there.

And you add Spagnolo, there's organizationally as well, they're very well run. there may be a piece or two that they could add to be a lot more explosive. But if they hit out one or two major draft picks, which can happen at any given season, I mean, they're right back in the midst of a lot of things. And we're writing their obituary. But last game, Travis Kelsey bumble a pass that gets picked off to 10 points wing. They miss uncharacteristically a field goal. They get stopped on fourth.

There were a lot of things that could have changed that game. Yeah, like Patrick Mahomes hitting Thornton, wide open down the middle of field. You see him time after time. try to make these biggest closer throws and have these misthrows. So my point is, we're watching a digression. No, we see that every now and then, but we've seen him a thousand times hit three. Yeah, but we saw it the last two weeks when they need them most.

And right now, his team is only two. I don't think the 0 and 2 is needed the most. Yeah, we'll see. I do not expect him to be there leading Russia this week, though. I hope, yeah, that's bad news. Don't be surprised if he is. I know he's doing it out of necessity, and it's a must-win game,

but, man, they are going to do everything possible to not make Patrick Mahomes lead them in rushing. Speaking of a running play, the tush push, we can't stop talking about it because they keep talking about it. How much of the Eagles success is reliant on that one very special and annoying play. So the Eagles are 2 and O and according to some, a huge part of the reason why, especially in this game with all the controversy with the false starts and neutral zone infractions and the back and forth, was because, well, the tush push. Jordan Milata, star offensive lineman for Philly, took offense to that sentiment about the tush push's responsibility for the Eagle success. Take a listen. I understand it. I understand the outrage.

What I don't understand is them using it as an excuse to why we won the game. Right. I think it's incredibly disrespectful to our defense and our special teams who bowled out. That kind of irks me a little bit. That pisses me off because we give so much to this game and to kind of base off a short yardage play. That is a football play. And say that we won the game off that. I just think it's rubbish.

It's an absolute rubbish, man. It makes my blood blow just seen about it. Well, it's a rugby play, not a football play. But Willie, offensive lineman here, how much of the Eagles' success should be credited to the tush push? Not a lot. I mean, this is a very good, well-d-oil machine. Listen, if the push-tush didn't exist, they would still mow you down for 60 seconds, right? That's just how they operate.

But I think, listen, in the same drive, you know, they can beat you in three ways. They can have the inside zone, the power. If you overcommit, they can throw the bubble. They can throw it down field. There's nothing they can't do. And what's annoying, I understand what he's saying, it almost seems like people are calling a gimmick team, which isn't fair. Because I think what we're seeing right now, this is a team that has a system, and they have O-line cohesion. So with all that said, man, they do deserve some respect.

These are the champs. And they're pounding teams week after week. And what kills me the most, and if we keep it in a buck, is if this office line was on the Bears, there would be no, there were new gripes about it. You would be extremely happy. I promise you I would hate the play if they were on the Bears. You would not be calling this.

Not a football play. I understand why you would make that accusation. I promise you I would. I'll bet against the Bears. If there's money making an opportunity, I'll bet against them. I promise you I would. I don't like the play. But coach, before I weigh in here, I want to hear,

you've viewed the whole thing, how much of the Eagles success is because of this play? Well, the people who are probably most frustrated are coming out of Kansas City. And this is very much an oversimplification and a justification for why they lost the game. And really, the Kansas City fans are feeling the pain that the rest of the league has felt for the past few years. And think about how many times Kansas City won last year where people said, oh, the rest are in their pocket. Oh, the rest are calling the game. That was a consistent storyline all last year.

how unfair Kansas City was treated versus everybody else. So now Kansas City fans are feeling a little bit the same way, kind of in their feelings, about getting pushed around on this play, and they're going to attribute it to, you know, it's unfair. It's not. It wasn't the refs last year, and this isn't unfair this year. Okay, so if and when I ever get blackballed from the media industry,

I'm going to open up a Parkins Crisis PR firm to help people in a sports crisis. situations. Because I feel like Philly as a city and a fan base and now as an organization has handled the backlash to the tush push horribly. They've come across very sensitive to me. I personally think the tush push is below the Eagles. I think they should abandon it. I think they should have voted to outlaw it because the play is Bush League. It is a rugby play. They do it better than anyone else. But here's the truth. With that offensive line and with Saquan Barkley, I know you look at me like I got three heads, but I'm looking at you like, I'm going to land this plane.

I'm going to land this plane. In the ocean. They're tall to him, coach. Maybe. But with that offensive line and that running back and that quarterback, they would be the best elite short yardage team without the tush push. I just pulled the fourth and one data. Okay. Here's fourth and one.

The Eagles with Jalen Hertz versus everyone else since 2022 when they've started doing the tush push and Jalen Hertz has been their main guy. The league average is about 81%. They average 93%. They run about 10 fourth and one sneaks per year on average. So the difference roughly 9 out of 10 to 8% is one extra fourth down conversion doing it their way. It's not that big of a deal. Now you had to add in third down also. Can I just ask you though, Danny, if you were gambling and I said you can have 93% chance of winning

of 80.8%. But this situation doesn't come on. No, of course you would be like, oh, I can't bet on that. Right. No, no, no. I don't want to win all the time. Of course, but my point is if you removed the tush push element from the Eagles, they would not drop all the way down to the 80%.

They would not be a league average team when their quarterback squats 600 pounds and they have the best offensive line in football. They would be alive. Him squatting means nothing. First ball. Sure, it does. It's the push. No, but let me tell you about the quarterback play.

Well, let me tell you. Let me tell you, it's the system in which they run. They went on first down. If it's second and six and it's third in inches, then comes to the tush push. So it's not like they say, oh, this is all we have throwing a tush push. My point to it all is they beat you in a multiple ways.

If they go into their 12 personnel, they beat the crap out of teams, right? I understand that. Everybody out there, for everybody in America, one titan, two titans, one runner back. Overall, man, 12 personnel, 11 personnel, they have levels to their game. That's my point.

They are great without the tush push. That is exactly my point. They don't need it. Why would I abandon something that's almost 100% to go to something? What beneath them is arguing against people who have no chance of execute. Other teams try to execute. And the idea that they have to win with style points because people don't like the way it looks. No, they just have to win.

Their job is based off winning. Not whether or not you're happy with how they win. I'm telling you. When this thing gets outlawed this offseason, the Eagles will still be at the top of the league next year in third and one and fourth and one conversion. Okay. Okay. And watch him win another Super Bowl. That's my point.

But that's the goal to win at all cost. They don't need it. Meanwhile, in Chicago, unfortunately, the Bears are taking on the Cowboys on Sunday, and now the Cowboys are a point and a half favorite because people have watched the Bears play this year. Ben Johnson facing now 0-and-3 if they lose, talked about the urgency his team. is facing. Take a listen. They played a little bit harder than us. And that's a reflection of me as a coach. That's a reflection of our coaching staff and it's a reflection of our players too. When you play a good team like that on the road that you got to be all out and every single snap. And that just was not the case. So specifically it was everybody.

Are there guys that need to practice better too? I think our practice habits are yet to reflect the championship caliber team. Let me just say, I love that. I mean, Matt Iber Fluse, he talked about hustle and intensity, and then he tried to be everyone's friend, and he had like a player's leadership council,

and then the guys rebelled against him openly, like Jalen Johnson and Jaquan Brisker, guys on his defense, Jalen Johnson was a captain who called his own coach out. The Bears have needed that type of tough love for a while. So obviously if they go 0 and 3, they'll be missing the playoffs, but that right there from,

Ben Johnson long term, whether they win this game or not, I love hearing that. Yeah, I mean, I said up here once again, I told you this won't be a Rubble Stamp situation. I thought when Ben Johnson got the job, I think he looked at Caleb Williams and there are all these superstars around them. This is a home run. We're going to win football games. They have no run game, no pass rush, and they're tragic in the secondary. So they're a big issue.

Other than that. So I'm saying there's bigger issues ahead of the dish practicing. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, practice happens may be bad, but there's some things schematically. they have to just flat out be better in. And I think, and coach can talk to this better than I can. When you're a head coach, man, you're not just a guy on the chalk bar. You got to set the culture, right?

There's a coach in how you handle your business in and out of the building that needs to be established. And I think he's witnessing right now that he has a lot on his plate that he may not be prepared for. And he's going to have to learn and go through his growing pains just like everybody else. Danny's not getting any Christmas cars tonight. He was four and two last year and lost the two days closed and had the Hail Mary. And, you know, so there are things that were positive at the start of the season. But as counterintuitive as this may be, I do think that the fact that they're not at the level that they need to be at from a practice perspective is, is something that's encouraging because it means there's a lot of room for growth. And the culture hasn't set in yet, but he's definitely got an idea as to where it's going to go.

And I think when it gets there, we're going to see some consistent games. Defense has been optional so far in Chicago through two games, both. NFC offensive players of the week played the Bears in order to get that award. Coming up, there is a clear-cut second best player in football. I'll make the case. Time now for first things last. Despite what a player poll will tell you, Patrick Mahomes is the best football player on the planet.

He's earned that distinction for his consistency, statistical prowess, and winning. But the conversation about who's next should be just as clear-cut. Josh Allen is the second best player in football. Since 2020, Patrick Mahomes leads the NFL in pass yards, past touchdowns, wins, and playoff wins. Here's where Josh Allen ranks in all of those categories. That's right. He's second to Mahomes across the board. In fact, Josh Allen has accounted for more total touchdowns than anyone in football in that time.

He's got 34 more than Mahomes who is in second place. The only knock on him has been the turnovers, and that's now a thing of the past. In 2023, Josh Allen had 22 turnovers in 17 games. In the 19 games since, he's had eight. In the playoffs, he's been even better. And yes, he hasn't hoisted the Lombardi Trophy yet, though that does feel inevitable. And yes, he had a drive to go win a playoff game last year and ultimately didn't deliver. But the second best player, losing to the best player, doesn't dim the light on Allen's talents.

Thursday night, the reigning MVP takes on the Miami Dolphins, an AFC East opponent. The Bills have won the AFC East five straight years, and it hasn't been close. Buffalo is 25 and 6 in division games with Allen at quarterback in that span. Allen is on his way to owning the division like Tom Brady did for nearly two decades. And while he'll never have the distinction of being the goat, being the second best of the Mahomes era is nothing to sneeze at. Gentlemen, second best, Josh Allen, open and shut case. No, I'm surprised they have Mahomes at number one.

To me, Josh Allen is the number one quarterback in the NFL right now. And what's crazy, you talk about how he's involved. He remains aggressive and not reckless. You see him put together jobs. You see him stand up in crucial situations. And you see guys follow him solely. And there's a belief in that he's always going to get it done, despite some of the failures you mentioned against Patrick Mahomes.

So for me, he is the number one quarterback in the league, not Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, I think you'd probably have a lot of people in Baltimore who would disagree pretty strongly with the fact that he's the second best quarterback. I've really been impressed with the idea that he's gotten off that roller coaster. And we saw it with the ups and the downs and the turnovers. So that's the thing that I've been most excited about with his growth as a quarterback, is that he's protecting the ball as much as he is and still being incredibly productive in terms of touchdowns, both with his feet and with his arm.

That divisional dominance is ridiculous. He'll get Miami tomorrow night. Add to it. And he's gotten the Chiefs in the regular season more than Lamar has, too. Lamar's got a good statistical argument recently, but Alan, that's my guy right there. My preseason MVP fit too. Well, yeah, I got two. I got this.