Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Week 3 Recap. Nick Foles vs Mitch Trubisky, Eagles, Darren Waller, and Superlatives with Rob Ninkovich.

Episode Date: September 28, 2020

(0:52) - Open and Recaps of Dallas vs Seattle and NE vs LV. (26:30) - Questions and Answers on Philadelphia Eagles, Darren Waller, and Mitch Trubisky vs Nick Foles. (54:52) - Superlatives with Rob Ninkovich. Sign up for your DraftKings account at https://www.draftkings.com/ and use promo code : Greenlight Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pack show today, gambling, shoutouts. I'm going to run through the Rams, Bills game. It was my favorite game of the weekend. And then we got a special guest because my co-host is out. I'm trying out a new co-host. My co-host is doing his day job. And an old friend stops through to hand out some Sunday awards in Rob Ninkovich.

So without further ado, let's get it going. afternoon everybody this is the green light pot i'm your host chris long and i'm all alone that's right my trusty co-host is missing milkbox for making gunner he's actually slinging mLS uh i don't know what that stands for it's maybe multiple listing sales usually he would tell me i'm wrong or laugh at my stupid jokes but uh i'm not sure it's a real estate term he's pushing single family homes he's out for the day we're going to have him every other day uh for the rest of the season so i did get one message on the hotline though that that seemed a little out of place howdy chris this is nathan from texas i love your show long time listener first time caller

hey my question is that uh thursday night time machine your co-host making gunner nearly hit the score exactly and you said if i remember correctly that you would eat a bowl of mayonnaise if the miami team won't more than two scores so i'm wondering are you eating that bowl of mayonnaise on the friday program or will you not hold up your end of the bargain as per usual appreciate you y'all take care it's a weird message it really sounds like makin and it almost sounded like the guy said his name was macon but he was from texas i think he was Trying to say Nathan, it came out, it came out Macon, which is very appropriate because it sounds a lot like my co-host. But what that guy was asking about was me eating mayonnaise.

That was the punishment from our Thursday night time machine, the meltdown I had last week where I was so confident that I set the line at plus 15 for the Jags. and I said if, well, it was plus 14. If the dolphins won by more than two touchdowns proper, I was going to eat a small bowl. Small was a word that I was really happy. I slid in there of mayonnaise. I fucking hate mayonnaise. Can't eat mayonnaise.

It disgust me. I'm nauseous thinking about it. My mouth starting to water, but not because I'm hungry. It's kind of starting to water because I'm thinking about vomiting. And I'm going to have to eat some mayonnaise this. this Friday on the Friday show. I'm not going to do it today. I'm not going to do it alone.

I need support. And please, one more time, the really, the cocaine white mayonnaise, not the off-yellow mayonnaise. I don't know anything about mayonnaise. I know that I just see it sometimes and it looks disgusting.

I'm way happier eating a small bowl of mayonnaise than a sandwich with a cold cut and mayonnaise on it. That's the most disgusting sight in the food kingdom. It's disgusting. I don't know how you people eat that stuff. It's just gross. Also down three games out of three to Macon in Thursday Night Time Machine as a whole.

And as you guys found out last weekend, if I'm worse than making at predicting these scores, which so far has been the case on Thursday night, and if you're going to be bad at predicting any scores, Thursday night football is probably the game because it's just chaos. If that happens and this trend continues, and I lose the season, I have to spend 24 hours in a Waffle House.

I'm not even afraid to spend 24 hours in a Waffle House, really. I might even be entertained by what goes on at 2 a.m. I'll get a lot of work done. I'll be productive. Waffle House has some nice options on the menu. It was funny the other day, my lovely wife, Meg and I were going mattress shopping, and we pull into the shopping complex, and there's the Waffle House, a day after I go down 0 and 3 to my co-host, Macon.

Who does not watch as much football as me? So either he watches it really efficiently, or the moral of the story is don't watch football because it cloud your brain when it comes to predicting games. Speaking of that, gambling was a roller coaster ride yesterday. Boy, oh, boy, was it. You know, it's, it hit me, and I haven't been out of football this long. I tweeted this yesterday.

I haven't been out of football this long, but I think that, you know, sun going down, Sunday scaries, the 60 minutes preview on CBS with the ticker. When you hear that noise, that's like when you're chasing late in the day and you're down big or moderately big and you're just hemorrhaging units. that's kind of like the football player's version of or it's the gambler's version of a football player waiting for a coach to come in the locker room after a bad loss it's just the impending doom of that moment you know dusk sunday you're chasing that stopwatch comes on i'm like make it stop make it stop i'm just so i'm so out of sorts and yesterday was one of those days

Let me run you through this. The predicament, which I'll get to in a little bit in the Philly game, was I have big bucks, many units on Cincinnati's win total, which was set at five and a half. Now, keep in mind, they already blew an opportunity at winning a very winnable game one, lose the Browns. And then yesterday I'm kind of thinking, okay, there's a bright side no matter what happens. Obviously, I want the Eagles to win. My allegiance is to the birds, so I root for the birds. but the consolation prize is if they don't win, were one win closer to me bringing home a sizable amount of money.

Of course, neither thing happened. Also, I had the Chargers, the Justin Herbert's, in a teaser. So all I needed them to do was win by half a point. I teased them with Green Bay plus nine for a unit or two. And of course, I probably don't deserve Echler to catch that pitch, but in the moment, I really felt like I could have used it. And if anybody watched the end of the game, Echler could have walked in. Whatever next-gen stats is good for, they say it was a 70% chance he walks in.

I'm going to put it at like 85. Of course he didn't catch the pitch. I'm sorry, Austin. It was my fault. I had money on the bolts. and then in the biggest twist of irony the entire Sunday for your boy, I'm sitting there on the couch. And Foles just comes in and murders a huge parlay. But the Falcons were the last leg of.

I had the Falcons in a five-team parlay. And of course, my personal friend, Nick Foles, Super Bowl MVP, rides his horse out onto the field and just lays waste to my Sunday. But it's a mixed feelings thing. I mean, I'm happy for the guy. I might even be a Bears fan now. Even though I put it all on the pack last night

and damn near got it back, and by the way, last year they made me look really smart, me saying they weren't that good. This year they're going to make me money, okay? I've said, Uncle on the Pack. Of course, I'm getting ready to watch that game and I'm nervous and I'm trying to keep it together

my lovely wife's watching with me Mike Tariko with the kiss of death immediately well the saints came back from Vegas like most of America this week losers and I was like fuck you Mike

I mean seriously fuck you to give me that middle finger when you know I'm hurting to just twist the knife and call me a moron nobody calls me a moron Mike Tarrico doesn't call me a moron. I feel like he was speaking to me.

Well, guess what, Mike? The Packers pulled it out. All in all, I paid to watch football yesterday. And it was so good in a lot of ways that it shouldn't have been free. It couldn't have been free. So I'm doing the justification thing. I paid to watch ball. And it was a lot of fun.

I mean, there were some really crazy sequences, a lot of close ball games. Yesterday was the day that I felt like football was back. You know, the injury thing settled a bit. There were crazy finishes, like four dogs, one outright. It was just chaos, and the bank account is reflective of that. A lot of fun, though. A couple shoutouts, Akeem Hicks, huge sack on third and seven. That forced a missed field goal.

It was 2610 at the time. The Bears' defensive tackle has been one of the most dominant inside rushers in the game. one of the most dominant players, period, across defensive lines in the NFL the last few years. And we paid so much attention to Khalil Mack and now Robert Quinn as well. That is a hell of a defensive line. And Akeem Hicks, I don't know. That sack on third and seven that ends up in a missed field goal could make the game 29-10. I know that the Bears probably could have won anyways.

They proved that. but a team going down three scores, like getting in a hole like that, it's going to be really hard to keep your psyche in a healthy place. So there's a big difference between 16, two touchdowns and two point conversion. They didn't know that they'd need to score three times

at that point, but it sure helped the mindset of that team. So I also love seeing Stephen Means out there getting a lot of action on the other side for the lowly falcons, but that's my guy. All right, Stephen Means, if you're an Eagles fan,

used to terrorize South Philly for years in obscurity. Nobody saw it, but I saw him kick the asses of some of the best O-Lyman in football on the Eagles practice squad. And then we'd go out and see him in preseason, dominate yearly. I mean, I remember one game, he had like four sacks and on the fourth one, he ends the game

and does his big, like, pound the ground, celebration right as he does at fireworks. I mean, like the guy's a legend. The guy's a Philly legend in my book, and it's good to see him getting some burn in Atlanta. I mean, he had an ACL, I think, and now he's getting a lot of snaps. So good for him.

Also, OBJ with the finger wag. OBJ broke up a pass as if he was a defensive back, and he did it really well. I mean, it looked really natural. Good heads-up play for him there. also the Brown's first winning record since 2016 at this point. Stefan Diggs, big shout out to him. Okay, two touchdowns got called back consecutively.

One on a review, I believe it was. One was negated because of penalty. And that's really tough. The only thing I can compare that to as being a pass rusher and getting a sack wiped off because of a penalty, which is the worst feeling in the world. you work so hard. I'm sure it's the same thing

as a receiver getting in the end zone getting a quarterback down to see that wiped away really sucks. To see it wiped away twice you feel snake bit. The good thing is

the guy's catching balls left and right. I had one call back the year I had 13 I should have had 14. I actually think I should have 15. I had two call back and that's a bad feeling.

Big shout out to the fullback in Oakland. This is in true full back analysis fashion I can't even recall the guy's name, but I'm a big fan of him. I mean, he hurtled a guy yesterday, and that's less than a week after he scored the first touchdown in Las Vegas home team history. Best week for a fullback calendar week in NFL history?

I don't know. But it's got to be up there. Final shout out, Kelly Pew. Kelly Pew, you guys might not heard of Kelly, but one of my favorite trainers of all time I've ever worked with. She's a UVA fixture, a staple with the football program, and she got to break the rock after our big win over Duke this weekend. By the way, we've got a young wide receiver you might want to take a look at. The guy's 6'7. He's a true freshman. He is a man among boys out there, grown man. But shout out to Kelly. We love Kelly. The one big game that

I was really excited to talk about today. I mean, there were a few exciting marquee matchups yesterday, but these were two teams that, admittedly, I haven't been able to watch as much of. I mean, I saw L.A. in prime time playing Dallas with one eye on the game as I'm studying for the pod. I also watched them beat up on my Eagles, but I'm looking at the Eagles.

And the Bills, to be honest, I had watched the All-22 sparingly, but I also wasn't going to carry away with a dolphins win and a Jets win. This was the game I'm looking forward to because the Rams have me saying, Mayaculpah, I was wrong pretty early in the season. This team looks more like the 2018 Rams. If you've heard that 100 times over the last two weeks, I wouldn't be surprised. The bills are really good.

And the bills don't blow that lead with fans in the stands. I really don't think that. that would have been the belly of the beast filled with Buffaloans. Is that how you say that? Buffaloans? I don't know. But they would have been rowdy, and that would have been a hell of a path

to have to walk for a team that just flew across the country from the East Coast and back. It was a big culture clash, okay? It's a quarterback clash. One guy's great off script. One guy's like color inside the lines. and I think me being a color outside the lines guy and I guess most of America,

you're more drawn to a Josh Allen. But it's a build that's been really gradual in Buffalo, maybe the most honest build in football versus a build that's been kind of a roller coaster ride. You've had ups and downs. Sean McVeigh's kind of figured things out. Golf's been bad.

He's been good. The O-Line's been bad. It's been girly. It's been running back by committee. It's been an offensive team. It's been a defensive football team. It's interesting because this weekend you look at it. Buffalo's in the top five in offense.

and the Rams are top five in defense, and not the other way around. The defensive powerhouse is good at offense, and the offensive powerhouse is good at defense. Josh Allen is a roller coaster ride where they give you meth before you get on it. I mean, you got to be tall enough to ride, and you got to hit the,

I don't know how they say that in meth circles, but you got to have some of this ice, man. You got to have some of the ice before you get on the roller coaster. He's the crazy but really hot chick. I mean, he's, you know, it's going to be fun at times, but it's also going to be terrifying. And the last drive is proof, okay? The first play, and to set the table, obviously,

for those of y'all who didn't see the game, 283, the Rams find themselves down in the second half, which is, I should have seen it a mile away. The most dangerous fucking lead in sports. and they're down 283 after the half. They're down 21-3 at the half. They got jumped in Buffalo, okay? And coming to the game, the Rams,

you know, you worry about the travel, you worry about the East Coast, the early starts, but Sean McVeigh's averaged like 35 points since he's been in L.A. When he plays in these East Coast early starts, so I'm not worried about them scoring, but they got jumped, okay? And maybe it's weird playing in Buffalo.

It's kind of like playing in Green Bay right now. somebody pointed this out to me. It's like, could it be weirder than playing in a tiny town with nobody in the stands? It might have just been sleepy? I don't know. But they got jumped. They found themselves down. They come back and take the lead.

And then our guy, Josh Allen's got one chance to drive the field. And this seemed like the moment. Okay. MVP talk, Bill's Super Bowl talk the entire first half, the entire, you know, first couple weeks. This is that like, okay, go prove it moment. Against a good defense. And he's already proved it enough through the three games and then, you know, now through a really dominant game versus the Rams.

But first play, he's spinning around like a drunk. He's holding the fucking rock like it's a Nerf ball. Sack for a loss of 11 and now it's second and 22. He killed the decent field position they have. And it's almost like he was like, no, I don't like this field position. I got to mess it up. Then he's running towards the sideline, fucking freaking out like he's getting stung by bees.

I swear. He looks like he's getting stung by bees. Just out of control, incomplete into traffic, but kind of like a beautiful throw. Then you've got third and 22 to Beasley and yikes Rams. He converts. Then he's going to bail backwards out of the pocket, just grabbing people's face masks and just shaking them like he's an aggressive Peewee football coach. backpedaling it's a grown man thing though

I've actually never seen that and he still throws the ball it's so casual to me third and 25 30 seconds ago he hits digs fourth and nine and this is the call and that's another big yikes but we can get back to that in a minute

he hits croft it's 3532 and the rest is history I mean it's a nice little loft and croft was open all day yesterday by the way we'll get to that as well there were calls okay yes, there was also an awful interception call earlier that led to points on the other side. So that's the way this thing goes. And by the way, shout out to Dave Damashek, who said that Buffalo's America's team,

he looks to be correct getting that call in the final moments of the game. And I think that call was way less irritating to watch than that interception. Both offenses took turns kicking defense's asses. Both defenses were in the matrix at different times. It just took turns. Buffalo went first. I mean, look at their drives. First drive, I think it was three and out.

Second drive, you know, it's a touchdown. You see why Josh Allen is really special on this drive. There's one play that people didn't notice. But if you did, if you were a rusher, you hated it because Ebukam is unblocked and Alan has him on his, I think he had him on his blind side. I'm not positive, but either way, tough tackle, but also a tough thing to get out of for Josh Allen,

and he makes him whiff and throws a strike. And then the next drive, touchdown to Lee Smith. There's a Lee Smith siding. A lot of y'all don't know who Lee Smith is. He's the guy that comes in and you're like, okay, they're running the fucking football. He was in Oakland. Now he's in Buffalo. He was inactive.

That's when you have the digs touchdowns reversed. The next drive, you get another touchdown. And this thing's becoming a pattern. At this point, we've seen single Terry Pickings, up some steam. We've also seen them get Davis into the ball game at wide receiver, and it ends in a Josh Allen rushing TD. This is another wrinkle. They have so many different ways to get different runs. You know, they got the option game, which is really annoying for a defender. Forget rushing the passer. You're going to be perpetually obsessed with what's my job on a speed option,

what's my job on a read option. And we see, you know, that QB keep on an option where he a pitch, and I think he spins and ends up down in the end zone. It's just, this is really emblematic of the problems you have as the defender playing the Bills, and Daibel did a great job throughout the game, throughout the first half, to be sure. The next drive, it's a bunch of Yeldon, and you've got guys that are just wide open, big chunks, uncontested, Beasley, wide open. you get a touchdown to Croft on a play fake. You know, when it came to open receivers,

two of the top 10 most open receivers in a league yesterday played for Buffalo. And that's something the Rams have to figure out. And I got to dig in and see how that happened. But it was bad. Then it's halftime, and it's 213, and they've been jumped, and they come out of the gate. And it only gets worse for the Rams.

It's 28 to 3, as I mentioned. But the Rams really moved the ball all game. Anderson was great. They never went away from him, even when they were down, which I really liked. Cup had nine for 10 targets, Robert Woods was great. 74 yards, a touchdown. He even had three carries for 30 yards.

And golf had his moments. You know, I didn't think he was bad, but there were the sputters for LA that really hurt them. The first drive, right of the gate, ends in a Milano sack. That's basically a high red situation to miss field goal. Second drive is an interception. Third drive, they settle for a field goal.

they get down to the 12 you know Henderson dive pitch for a loss they burn a screen due to pressure and you kick a field goal okay and you're already chasing then it's half time basically so like those are three drives they have in the first

in the first half that are relatively productive and all you have to show for it is three points and time of possession somehow the Rams win in the first half so it makes no sense and again I mentioned I mentioned the struggles on defense for the Rams, no doubt about it.

They share in this, but the Rams have to capitalize, especially when you get in the high red, in the fringe. And that's not going to show up in their red zone kind of statistics, but they need to punch the ball in when they get on the opposite end of the 50. They seem to sputter yesterday. Second half, though, after, you know, that first drive where they fail a fourth and four and go down 28 to 3, they get a touchdown drive, a touchdown drive, and on that second drive

you got a great throw to Higby screened to Woods only took him a minute and by the way golf stood in there got drilled and delivered the touchdown the third drive though of the second half

the third scoring drive was a drive I was really impressed with they're down 28 to 17 huge punt booming punt rolls down to the three okay they're backed up they go play action out of the end zone

you get a third and 11 backed up as well. Huge throw to cup. Third and eight again, down to the 15 on the other side of the field. Conversion after conversion and a cup touchdown, you get the two-pointer. They go 97 yards to make it 28, 25.

And you're like, oh shit, Buffalo's doing this again. They get it back with 724 to go. Henderson, you know, running through a really worn out, Edmonds was emblematic of the second half of the bills. They just got tired. and we'll talk about maybe why they're giving up these leads but the game ends up now 3228 and it's in the hands of Josh Allen and they barely get it back but I guess all in all what

I'm saying is both of these offenses are exciting both of these teams are good both these teams are complete and they're a lot of fun I still like the bills better because I trust Josh Allen more when things break down because I don't don't think the Rams are so good that things are always going to be perfect offensively for them this year. I also think it's going to be easier in that division, the AFCEs, than it is out west. Another takeaway is Aaron Donald's a machine. I could say that every Monday. Henderson and the running back by committee thing is working out well. But again, the bills won't see an offense like this in their division. They won't. And the Rams won't see a defense like that in their division.

So felt like a big matchup, and both teams have proven that they're really good. McVeigh didn't sound defeated after the game. He shouldn't because although they got their ass kicked in the first half, they showed me something. And the bills need to be better with leads. They need to figure the pass rush out. We know they blitz a lot, but guys have to be able to get home in four-man. And we see it time after time two minute early in the year,

and I'd have to chart this. It's been rough for defense. I feel like, I don't know if that's because defenses are gassed, or they haven't been able to kind of get the reps that they want to in real live bullets, like preseason, but it hasn't been so great. And that's played itself out on the football field through three weeks. Teams down big have closed the distance.

It's happened left and right. So without my co-host here to keep the ball in the air, I want to talk about some of the other games but I decided to bring in a ringer he's unpaid he works hard though which would be problematic except for the fact that he's four years old

let's get my son Whalen in here to ask me a few questions shall we actually to be to be honest I just voice recorded him this morning at breakfast so Waylon what do you got for me Is it unfair to bench a guy that's two and oh

Thanks, Waylon. Making, you better look out, man. I mean, the guy's doing the same, I mean, like, kind of the same thing you're doing. Might actually like picking against him better and I like picking against you on Thursday night. So, okay, you're talking about Waylon.

You're talking about, you're talking about Dad-Daz's friend Nick Foles coming in the game for Chicago last night, right? Right. So I thought about making Trubisky my hollow man, which is obviously later in the show when it comes to superlatives. No thank you.

I actually feel bad. Hollow Man's kind of a fun segment. Matt Nagy made the best decision of his of his football career when it comes to being a head coach. This had to happen. And it's probably the boldest one he's made yet. And I suspect there was pressure

to let this thing play out from upstairs. It seemed over for a while personally to me when it came to Nagy. and Trubisky. This felt like a formality, but the painful decision had to be made. And in the third quarter, it was definitely the right time.

No, Trubisky was not awful, missing throws the entire game. He's been worse. This was just the straw that broke the camel's back, right? I actually can imagine after that pick in the third quarter they threw, there's like this big commotion

on the Atlanta sideline. Everybody's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, today's the fucking day. We're going to Magic City with our masks on and Lou Williams. Williams is gonna be there and it's gonna be awesome. And people, it's pandemonium. And then I imagine that Dan Quinn and Nick Foleslock eyes

from across the field just momentarily. Dan Quinn, of course, looks down. Avoid the eye contact. You don't want the, you don't want beef with the goat there. So Dan kind of looks away, Nick just keeps staring and he's just nodding. He's just nodding. It's time, Dan.

Time. I'm the Grim Reaper. I'm 10 advisor, Nick Foles. You can't kill me. I've already been killed. I've already been dead. This is a perfect spot for me. Okay, uh, I've been benched. I've been called pick foals by people in St. Louis. I've also been to the mountain top, okay? Like, he's the fixer. He's the, he's, he's, uh, what is it, the wolf in, um, in Pulp Fiction, but like a really Christian version of the wolf. Like, you got a big mess. I'll clean it up. And we've got a mess here.

How scary are Bears fans for Nick Foles? They're not very scary. I mean, like, he's thrived in Philly. And you know why it wasn't scary on top of that? The fucking Falcons are ready to give it up, as they always are. Yeah, Mitch wasn't terrible. He didn't miss badly all day. He did get almost picked early in the game on a play action pass.

He connected on a bunch of slants and shallow crossers. When you go back and look at it, there are a lot of uncontested quick throws, the occasional uncontested chunk. But if you're a Bears fan, you're used to this. There was a gutsy scramble in the red zone. We know he's athletic. There's a touchdown to Graham to make it 1610 before the half.

But when you're hanging on by a thread, like Mitch is hanging on, you can't do what you did out of half time. You can't. The leash is not that long. I mean, and you can't miss Anthony Miller before the half. And by the way, that's the same play that Nick Foles delivered a strike on for the go-ahead touchdown, which is, that's the day in a nutshell.

And he missed Miller in stride. That would have been a score that would have, I think, put him up before the half. But the pick after the half was bad. He doesn't see Wilson sitting in the zone waiting for the ball, and Jimmy Graham sees him too. But Mitch didn't, and it's too late. and 2313 turns into 2610 just like that and the guards changed in Chicago.

I don't think it's going back. I feel bad for Mitch, I really do. The psychology of losing a job like that in a big city, it's really something that a lot of people can't comprehend and like I can't even comprehend it. Like I know the pressures of playing pro football, but I don't know what it's like being a franchise quarterback, a high draft pick in a big city like Chicago.

which by the way, beggars can't be choosers in Chicago now, okay? You guys have had a lot of quarterbacks for a long time. Not many have been very good. And Mitch, like the weirdest thing is this all felt like a formality, but people were trying to will this to happen. And Khalil Mack, you saw him miced up before the game. There was this little viral thing yesterday where he was loving up on Mitch and trying to will his confidence over the edge.

And you can tell guys respect him, but it's just not happening. and I hate that because all he's done is played really well in North Carolina, showed up, busted his ass, got overdrafted, and now everybody kind of hates him, and it's stupid. I think it's stupid how we do this. And for some people, it'll never, that's all Mitch will ever be. And all I wish for him is that he has a new opportunity and that he has a strong mindset because it's tough.

It's tough getting benched in pro sports no matter what. but to do it with the heights he's been to, Pro Bowl, whatever that's worth, playoffs, one really exciting year, and it's just over like that. And again, all he did was try his best and played pretty well. And it felt from the beginning like an unfair situation for him. And I know some people are like,

oh, whoopty fucking do, he's making a lot of money. That's fine. Would you take all that money? And you probably would to be hated in Chicago your entire life. and like, I don't know that people are going to hate him, but it's just, you know what I mean. It's, it kind of, people make it personal. And I just wish him a fresh start and a positive attitude.

Football is hard, okay? And it was no surprise, the only thing like bolder than benching a 2-0 quarterback in the third quarter was the play of Nick Foles. I mean, he's somewhat erratic. He takes chances, we know that. But he makes the offense more dangerous. And the perfect example would be that 50-50 ball to Robinson that's picked by Knard. I mean, which was a great throw.

Honestly, I don't know what the right call is there. There's the throw to Graham that goes through Isaiah Oliver's hands in a pile of four Falcons. Honestly, this was the most insane thing I've ever seen. They looked like a glitchy video game. I mean, they were just writhing around on the ground, like tripping each other. And I don't know how this ball got through Oliver's hands, but I feel bad for the kid. Like, they look like they were throwing the game. I had a buddy text me

Falcons minus 3 is like picking apples during the third quarter I said have you watched football this year and he had more bad luck too Nick as well I mean the fourth and 17 to Miller on a slant which was a great throw and would have been big for them was called back and that's usually a backbreaker

if you remember where they were in the game it's 10 minutes left they're down 26 to 10 you get the ball back next with nine minutes to go you just lose Cohen to an ACL, by the way. My brother pointed this out. He got his deal dumps. So in all seriousness, I'm really happy he did.

But you get the ball back with nine minutes to go. You need two scores at this point, you think, which makes it even crazier to think they didn't have to go the two score route. You're going to need two touchdowns and two two-two-point conversions. You get the gutsy chunk play to Ginn on a conversion. and it ends in a gram touchdown. So no two point conversion. They picked that, I believe,

or it went up in the air, batted around. So what? You don't panic. You're playing the Falcons. You still need two scores. Nine minutes to go? Fuck it. Don't mess it up.

Because here's what the Falcons did. They just got done having the ball for like a minute, and they did it again. They followed that possession up with girly to incompletions. and they give it right back. And then it's a Robinson comeback, you know, with Zip.

That was a nice throw by Foles to get it out there. It's a tougher throw than you think to get it there where you, in timing, he can make a play on that ball. He breaks the tackles, does the rest of the work, 26, 23, okay? So now it's like butt holes in Atlanta are tight, really tight at this point. They're like, tight. and I don't know if the Falcons, when they get the ball back

with four minutes to go up three, misinterpreted what four minute mode means. Four minute mode in the NFL means like hold onto the ball. And another quick possession. And I'm thinking it wasn't Shanahan after all, this whole time. I mean, talk about a watch party superlative later. We might give the watch party award to Kyle Shanahan, who just got done scoring 39 points with Nick Mullins

and he's watching Dan Quinn blow another lead. Maybe it wasn't me all along. The third and 15 overthrow cements it and then you get a punt, of course a penalty, subsequently a short field. And then you get the throw of the weekend. Foles with a face full of pass rush delivering a strike to Miller.

Reminded me of the ball he threw backed up. I mean, totally different throw, but he got blasted on this was the clowny hit he took, backed up against the goal line in 2018, and completed a bomb in Philly. Just stood in there. And it's off to club dub. One big stat today that kind of tells the whole story for me

is Mitch Trubisky under pressure six times. Got three passes off, all of them incomplete. Okay, Nick Folles, six pressures, six attempts with four completions, 102 and two touchdowns. Nick's going to be able to, Nick's going to be able to take risks and push the ball downfield. You don't know which Nick you're going to get,

but if you get the good one, it could be pretty good this year. Bears have the Colts, the Bucks, the Panthers, before they get the Rams, they could go two and two heading into the Saints. That could be a game with playoff implications, believe it or not. We said before the season,

okay, this Nick Foles thing was a Nagy, Kansas City, Foll's connection, you felt good schematically about it, never got to see him, I mean, the guy came out cold. We talked about Herbert last week who's a rookie. You got a Super Bowl MVP, hasn't seen any preseason, hasn't taken snaps in a game situation. Trots out there and leads a comeback like that.

He's got the locker room right now. And I knew last year Jacksonville didn't work out for the moment he got his collarbone broken on that dime he threw for a touchdown. Okay. Once he came back, the Minshew thing was already a big hit and they just kind of sucked. Okay. And the rule is with Nick Foles, one bad stop, one good stop. one bad stop, one good stop. It's like duck, duck, goose.

And I don't think that's a good thing for the NFC North because I think he's due for a good stop. And it was really good to hear that white 80 cadence from Nick Foles. It just made me smile. It's good to see a friend, have a good day. Hey, Daddy, do you want to walk back Waller now? My take that Waller was the best tight end healthy Sunday. No, I don't.

Kelsey. Kelsey plays tonight on Monday. Also, I mean, like, no, son, you got to have conviction here. Okay, I made a bold statement. And even if I'm overreacting to a really small sample size of a player having a breakout game on a national stage in week two, I got to stick with it. Okay, Waller didn't have a target for what felt like the entire game. First two targets were almost picked. Finished with two catches on four targets for nine yards.

No first downs. Against New Orleans, he was 12 catches on 16 targets for 105, seven first downs, two third down conversions, a fourth down conversion. And going into this game Sunday, he was second league in first downs to the first two games. Okay, so it's not like he wasn't great in 19 either. I just think this is a national breakout player, not a football breakout player. He broke out last year.

And Gruden said he was more open than you think. Okay, so that's fine, but either way, the Raiders were three of nine on third down and didn't have a conversion for like almost the entire game. It was really apparent that New England decided, okay, Renfro is going to be the guy that we let beat us. Look at this little white guy out here in the slot.

We'll let him beat us. That's what they do. 83 yards, two touchdowns for Renfell. fro, but that's not going to win you the game. And you knew that this week when Bill talked about him, when he gushed about him, he was like, he's taking that fucking guy away. That's like, that's what Bill's going to do. If Bill Belichick talks, speaks highly of you in the press, he's going to take you away.

So if you like prop bets, take a look at Bill's, you know, press clippings through the week. He had a ton of different people covering him, tons of different coverages, especially in the first half. And as a rusher, that's the only analogy I have. When you throw a lot of different looks at people as rushers, they get frustrated. I know I used to get frustrated. Even when the starter went out with an injury to have to adjust the backup in the middle of the game, it was like off.

And then some teams, like the Texans, I remember in 2013, I want to say, they were really just rotating tackles in. And I was like, this is so frustrating. I got to believe it's the same thing with the pass catcher. He also got a ton of doubles as well. the Raiders did not lose because of Waller and he's still really damn good uh they lost because they made a ton of mistakes in in new england and you don't want to do that no matter who the quarterback is you know they had four penalties two turnovers in the first half uh and they had kept those things down they finished with six penalties three turnovers car fumbled twice they lost the fumble uh in the end zone as well and they lost the fumble on a bad call what is it with the raiders and getting shitty calls against the Patriots that was the the Josh Jacobs phone that he got back. Also, the Patriots won time of possession by 10 minutes, okay?

The Raiders were bad in the red zone, two of five after starting six of eight in the first two, New England took away Waller, that shows up in the red zone. And it's not a surprise, this is what like, all they talk about up there, red zone, red zone, take the best player away. They also took about running the football

and New England ran the football, 250 yards on the ground, not a shock to me. The one disappointment for me with the Raiders, well, actually they were two, one, they had a really big chance for a two for one, which they kind of squandered coming out of the gate in the second half. They had a long drive and then missed the field goal. I also hated, and at that point the game is very much in phase,

also hated the call late in the game, to me at least, and I haven't checked Twitter because you know you can't really criticize or praise a coach unless you make sure Twitter's okay with the game management decision making from said coach, but I didn't like on fourth and first, at the seven late, Gruden not trying to get the score.

It was a two-score ball game no matter what. And it stayed that way with the field goal. Cam looked kind of human, but before Sunday, I was looking at his comps to the 2015 year and the numbers are on par. He's up in rushing yards per game, yards per attempt,

his ratings is on par. He had one of the highest rate of passes over 10 air yards. You know, when it comes to completing those throws, I think he was highest in the NFL. NFL coming in Sunday. Okay. And his rating coming to the year was like 75 on deep balls.

Going to Sunday was like 120. Okay. Edelman's getting the ball down field more air yards per targets up. He's running more slants for your hitches and outs. And that makes sense because everything I heard about Cam was I'm worried about him making the big throws outside the numbers and down the field. Well, he's done that in the middle of the field. He's made some nice throws to Jules, but we still haven't seen him throw the balls out,

throw the ball outside the numbers from inside the pocket much. I mean, broken plays, rolling out. That's one thing. And that isn't a disturbing trend, as long as it doesn't hurt them in the middle of the field is open. But he did look a lot more human yesterday. He missed and throws. You had the Abram pick.

And I think the question is, down the line, if somebody takes away the middle of the field and the underneath stuff, can Cam make the big sideline throws? I think it's safe to say the offense is better than it was last year in the defense. is worse. It seems obvious to me.

And that's what I suspected coming in the year. They got gashed on the ground, which is no surprise either. You know, Las Vegas went away from Josh Jacobs, even with the game in phase, which is kind of a disappointment because there's hay to be made there. By the way, I should have shouted him out. Winnevich has played really well.

You know, and I said he's got to be like a one rusher. He's got to win one-on-ones. New England has not won a bunch of one-on-ones over the last couple years. They're going to manufacture pressure, but he's got to win them. And he did that yesterday, forced to fumble. Not a big, powerful guy. So he can kind of get stuck in rushes because he's not huge.

So if he goes to power, he can push the pocket, but then he can't snatch off. He can beat you a lot of different ways. He's crafty. I like him a lot, and they're going to need him to play big down the stretch. Crosby also got home on a pretty swipe and a finish and a hustle play as well. So two sacks for Max Crosby. The funniest moment of the day was probably when they were lamenting over that bad call.

back in the AFC championship eons ago, the tuck rule. And Romo's like, hey, it happens, you know what it's been like to live with that Descaught it moment. Essentially, I'm like, no, dude, that's not really the same thing. You saw what's happened to these two franchises since that call.

The Eagles are your panic team, right? The Eagles game stung for a lot of reasons. Obviously, I mentioned that in the gambling part of the open. And that's become a really brutal total to be playing with the Bengals now blowing games one and three. But I was pulling for my birds, and it is time to panic.

Okay, coming in the weekend, the Eagles wanted to do everything to avoid going O&3 for the first time since Doug E.P. was, the Eagles quarterback and McNab was a rookie. It's been a while, and they did just that. They found a way to tie the game. And during overtime, I tweeted, I know a tie when I see one.

I played in a lot of sloppy ball games, and at least one of them ended a tie against the Niners in 2012, I believe it was. And it's just the worst feeling in the world. You don't know what to do, especially if you're on the road. It sucks. You've got to get on a plane and it's just like,

do we laugh? Do we stay quiet? And then later in the year, we almost tied the Niners again at home. Same team. Overtime and a tie. Somebody asked me if Doug should have played for the win. I love Doug.

I think one of the hardest things, things to do in my new job is having to criticize friends, as long as it's not personal and people that I really owe a lot to. I consider Doug a friend and I appreciate everything that he's done for me. I just, I'm in a tough spot here because I do think he should have gone for the win. And I think this was a miss for them.

You know, the Doug Peterson from 2017 wasn't there in overtime. And I kind of get it because neither was the Carson Wentz from 2017. Arthur Carson went from 2019 for that matter. So there is a confidence factor, but he didn't play to win. And somebody asked me what he should have done. My response is, well, what does it feel like in Philly this morning?

It feels like the worst fucking loss in the last two years, but it's a tie. So what's the difference, save for the math? I get that there's a bigger weight that should be placed on the standings, but it doesn't feel very good in Philly this morning. I'm pretty sure of that. And I think it felt like such a bad loss,

those cardboard cutouts were getting ready to start walking the fuck out of that stadium in a rage as they lined up to punt. So the situation is overtime, right? It's, you know, it's not cutting time, it's the game winning possession. There's, you know, you're doing the math and you're like, this is it.

This is kind of it. And I felt like Doug got comfortable when the ball was around that red TV goal line or the field goal range line. Like I'm, I'm thinking to myself, are they good with just this red line? Or are they gonna try to, to make this thing a little bit safe

and because they played it kind of safe on first and second down, they got a tough third and seven that gets knocked down on a slant. And they got 18 seconds to go, but you ran the ball twice and you still have a surplus of time for Cincinnati. Then they line up to kick. It's in Jake's range and his range is big. But then Matt Pryor goes full Hollow Man. And boy, it's a good time to save that trick

for when there's nobody in the stands in front. nobody in the stands in Philly. Jesus. The penalty. I guess Doug thought it was on the edge of his range and then it was knocked out of his range. But the thing that's tough for me is I saw Jake Elliott kick a 61-yarder with 10 yards to spare in 2017. It's a hot, humid day. I don't know what difference that makes in Philly. I know the record's like a 64-yarder in Denver, but Jake could have hit from 64 that day to win the game against the Giants back in 17. And I'm talking about Talking to players on the team, I know that he has the leg for it.

I know he does. He kicks from 70 in pregame with regularity. But he didn't think it was in his range. And he opts to punt and not go for it. He takes the penalty and back him up even more punts. And I'm thinking to myself like, so you didn't decide to take the field goal, which I understand you're afraid that if you miss it,

you don't trust the defense to knock one play down or two plays down to avoid Cincinnati picking up 15 yards and making an equally improbable field goal. You know, they got the guy that came up with a cramp week one. I get like what's going through their head, but I would have played to win, man. And they don't know the Dallas result at this point. I get the fact that you don't want to go for it on fourth and 12

because you don't trust your quarterback at this time, your offense, everybody's banged up. But it just reeked of like scared to win. Not scared to lose, just like scared to try to win. Defensively, the D-line was humming. who's on, Fletch got a sack in like a fucking second, like three minutes ago. They tattooed Burrow all game,

including the Malik hit, which I'll ask our guest Rob Ninkovich about, but I didn't think it was dirty. And I love Burrow, believe me, there's no homerism here. Besides, I'm gonna need him to be healthy if I'm gonna collect on that big bet for their over five and a half wins.

They played for a tie, okay? And again, they didn't know anything about the Dallas result. In a division where a win is a huge deal, like you gotta try to win that game, my opinion, whether it's the fourth and 12 or kicked the field goal. Doug came out today and says he wished he played to win. Okay, it's too late.

You know, Doug went for two in 2016 against Baltimore and lost. They didn't do that yesterday, of course, because they had a chance to win early in the game outright. The bad part is it probably doesn't matter. Even if they got the win yesterday, it's not a good football team. Like if they had won that ballgame, I'm still feeling the same way about this team. And they have Baltimore, San Francisco, Pittsburgh coming up next.

The saving grace is that the division, mathematically wide open. But that's a good football team in Dallas if they figured this thing out offensively like they did yesterday and the day before or the week before. The roster has fallen off really subtly. It's been compounded by being

the most snake bit team in football when it comes to injuries. I get that. Rager, Deshawn, Goddard yesterday. They've gone youth and the youth hasn't stayed healthy, okay? I know I'm like biased. I'm the old guy and I kind of like moved on and this might sound like sour grapes.

I'm only airing this out because I'm analyzing the game. You know, like, 2017 was fucking lightning in a bottle. I mean, that's maybe magic we can only recreate. And that's, we didn't build to that. And I say we, I wasn't there before. We didn't build to that.

It just kind of happened. And then there was a regression to the mean. And now here it is. And it looks like the windows kind of closed. They're not a good football team right now. We had a veteran infusion in 17. We had a dynamic mixture of Doug and Frank Reich. We had two of the best offensive and defensive lines in football.

And we were a fucking bully, and there was never panic. Like in a situation like yesterday, we don't panic because we were good. The reason Carson's not playing well, part of it's on him, part of it's because they're not good. And the reason they're not feeling balls in that situation, the reason Doug's balls aren't so big, he has to put them in a wheelbarrow like Stan's dad from South Park is because the team's not good. and they haven't showed him much offensively. So as we saw with last year, even a cratered roster can be carried by a rare quarterback talent.

That's what I think Carson is. But for some reason, in 2020, Carson isn't getting it done. The throws aren't there. I'll take a deeper dive on that. But there's no secret. He's not getting it done. He did have the gutsy drive to tie it, multiple conversions with legs,

75 yards, 11 plays. He was trucking people. He wants it bad. I want it for him, but the throws aren't there right now. He went from a top five fringe guy last year to a guy I don't recognize so much this year, and it sucks. And Doug even acknowledged last week, you know, what's up with the regression in year five?

Unfortunately, I worry that the heat upstairs is going to cause people to make out-of-character decisions. And Carson is a rare talent. He's much rarer, in my opinion, than some of the people upstairs. And that's nothing against the people upstairs. He's just, if you think you're going to move on from Carson at some point, and I know we're for a guy that just passed like Donovan McNabb for fastest to X, Y, and Z this Sunday, it sure doesn't feel like it. If you're thinking in the back of your head, you're a Philly fan, and I said this last year,

we're moving on from Carson. For what? And are you comfortable with him ending up somewhere where things are rolling and him getting it going? You have to ask yourself that question. Somebody's job is going to be on the line soon. I don't know who it's going to be. Also, I hope J.P.'s all right. I really feel for him to struggle, come back to the team.

if he's hurt bad, that's a really unceremonious ending. It sucks for him to have to deal with this anyways. Week 3 of football is in the books, and now it's time to review the tape and get ready for week four. There's no better place to get in on all the action than with Draft King's Sportsbook. America's top-rated sportsbook app. To add to the excitement of week four,

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So, welcoming back to the program, my good friend, Rob Dankovich. Niko, what up, dude? What up? Raise the roof, baby. How are we doing? The guy in a Hawaiian shirt, raising the roof off the top, you have fully morphed into a suburban dad. I have some khaki shorts on right now

and a shirt that my friend gave me because he thought it was ugly. And I was like, it's soft, so I'll wear it. It does look soft. Is it like one of those vintage kind of worn? Yeah, it's vintage old, like worn out. I love it. Is it short's,

is weather in Foxborough right now? It is warm. It's a little humid right now today. Well, I don't want to bore you with the, I don't want to bore the listeners with the Patriot stuff. Oakland just, Oakland just wasn't, they were just too sloppy to expect to beat a football team.

It's probably a little bit better than them right now. So the game last night, though, I guess the way I'd asked, question number one. as somebody who you paid more attention to quarterbacks and their arms through your career because I was just always rushing them

you were dropping you were you know you're analyzing the passing game more than me like yeah we know your coverage skills are a little suspect so you're good going forward not so much backwards I could say the same about some of the pass rushers in New England but you know

hey let's not go about the past rush you know I couldn't get behind the quarterback or I'd be paid it's fucked up you had 46 I think you could ended up in the 60s or 70s. I had 50 with the playoffs. You know, it was a good solid. Playoff.

Playoffs? I would have been like 60 to 65 if I had no restrictions. Yeah, but on a good team 60 to 65. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the question is, is Drew Breeze's arm completely dead? I mean, in 2006, he had a 360 degree laboral tear. In 2006, he tore this whole thing. thing all the way around. They had to put all the little things all the way around. You don't

think his little wingy, you don't think his little wingy is getting weak? I mean, dog. First of all, he was never a power, he was never a power thrower. So he was always a, like, remember Chad Pettington at the end of his career? Yeah. Remember John Pettington? He put that, he would throw the ball and you'd count one one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, then the receiver would turn and the ball would hit him. Yeah. He had, like, he had to anticipate because he couldn't throw the ball with power. I feel like Drew Breeze right now at this particular moment. I'm concerned about accuracy, which you know,

you would never think you'd have to deal with accuracy issues. But, I mean, he is 40 years old. And when you start seeing ghosts, you know, jets, about that. But, like, I think the problem is, like, that internal clock when guys are flying around you. I feel like as you get older, it just gets quicker and you just want to get rid of the ball. And I'm concerned about the accuracy problems. Yeah, I mean, because that's the one thing you've always had. I mean, the pick he threw against the Raiders, I said earlier in the week,

I don't care if you didn't see a guy in a black jersey on the black midfield logo. Like, you can't, it was still a throw that was bad. It was like the Carson pick yesterday that got deflected. It still would have been a pick. I mean, he's throwing it right out of a dude in the low hole spot. I mean, so it's these like decisions that you're like, maybe he's pressing because he knows his arm doesn't feel good. The funny thing to me was that was really telling us they asked him how he felt after that Raiders game.

And he was like, I feel very, I feel good. Borderline great. You know, like, which to me, somebody who's so self-aware of their body, like, and also not a liar. Yeah. He does not feel great. He just feels good. You know what I mean? You know, like, and so it was funny.

I heard, I read all these stories coming to the year about all the things he was doing the off season. Emmanuel Sanders saying, man, he doesn't look 40. He doesn't look 41. The arm looks good. it's just hard to know with quarterbacks when the bottom falls out and I think the most unfair thing is you're being compared to a 43 year old

who's just like never gets old avocado ice cream you know that whole thing Tom's not gonna he's not gonna fall off the map as much as Drew who never really had a cannon yeah I mean well also too you think about just structural of like a pitcher if you think about a pitcher right

some guys can just throw 100 miles an hour and you're like how does that person throw 100 miles an hour. It's just like the way you're built, like your body and the way you're built and you're put together. I feel like Tom is able to last a little bit because he's kind of like long and lanky, you know, and you can kind of just whip the ball, but Drew's not very big. So he's like, maybe six foot. He's not, he's a shot putter. He's a shot. So he throws it, he doesn't like whip the ball. He like pushes the ball. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So when you lose just a little bit, like that is a lot when you never really had a lot. If you had a three out of ten,

and you go to a two and a half, that's a big difference than going from a 10 to an 8 and a half. And like, so. And I think, I don't think that he plays like last year, if it didn't end the way it ended, I don't think he plays this year. I think he was thinking about retiring and then just saw what he had coming back and then decided to come back. Because didn't he say like this was going to be his last run or like we don't have much time? Yeah.

I've heard explicitly that he wants. to beat the bad play. And unfortunately, it looks like he might not beat it. And I still think one thing, you know, coming to this game, I was like, if this, if his arm looks bad again, because I was thinking acute injury. And yeah, the yards per temp had been bottom 10 since 2016. Now it's the, it's the bottom of the bottom, 4.8 yards per temp. I mean, you knew it was bad last year when they would bring in Hill to throw the deep ball.

So when you bring in another guy to throw a deep ball, like that's not good. It's not good. But I would say I was giving him a chance. I wanted to watch him last night. A lot of the yards through the air where the Kamara breaking tackles and that sort of thing. I literally was watching the game because I had money on the Packers and I'm like, the only guy who can take money out of my wallet right now is Alvin Kamara. That's the only thing that scares me about this offense.

I also think, though, that confirming that something's wrong with his arm doesn't mean it's a death sentence for this team. They'll be competitive this year. because you can see what Sean Payton can create and I think the Packers are a very good team very good team I believe him this year I didn't believe in them last year but the spacing is tough you know people are just going to crowd

the underneath the middle and make him you know throw the ball outside the numbers yeah I mean so you're playing I mean you're going to play against certain defenses and they're going to understand okay what do we do against Drew Brees all right well first we crush the pocket around him

to where he can't see much because he's short so he's looking over his long line. If you crowd that intermediate route stuff, like let's make him push the ball down the field. Yeah. That's when you're going to run into overthrows because when you start to try and throw the ball, like if you can't throw the ball with confidence down the field, that's when you're inaccurate. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I mean, and some people make it look easy long enough or relatively easy long enough that you just don't even, I don't even recognize it when it changes. So it sucks. I mean, he's had a rough year and it's only looking to get rougher.

Do you like Seattle or Green Bay better? I like Seattle better. I just think that when you look at what they have offensively, their weapons and they have a big time tied in that I feel like is a good red zone target. You got Metcalf, who I feel like is another huge red zone target. Not only that, but you can just throw the ball up to him and he's going to come down with it. Hopefully, you know, in the future he learns from him, his mistake of celebrating a little bit too early, which

hit me off because that would have been more points in my fantasy, and he screwed me out of those. I know he was thinking about that. Oh, that's a bad one. So I'm just going with Seattle. Russell Wilson right now playing out of his mind, you know, the most touchdown passes in the first three games. And I like Aaron Rogers. I like Green Bay. I thought that they were, I thought that Green Bay was going to be the best in the division, you know, before the season season started. I was on TV with, you know, some very, very smart people and they disagreed with me joking that they're very smart. I won't say their name. Yeah. And they're all on the Vikings.

I'm like, the Vikings. Like, why would you go with the Vikings? Why was on the Lions because I just refused to pick the Packers because like last year I just felt like I can't trust this team. They're not physical enough on defense. They just, they would sputter offensively randomly. And I was like, they didn't make themselves any better. Like, you know, there was that big draft narrative. You know, you don't get many weapons. Okay, now you're going to pound the ball. But it's like they just look different. Supposedly, Aaron went back and look and watch some old tape is what I hear. I don't know which year it was, but supposedly he picked up and had like an aha moment. And for people listening, like, it is that easy sometimes as a player. You see something on tape that you forgot

you used to do and you have this epiphany that changes your entire game. I can only imagine for one of the goats what that could do. Yeah, I mean, and look, he's not having any issues with arm strength right now. So the guy is just all over the place. Some of his toes are ridiculous. I don't know how he throws the ball like perfectly on the run like 60 yards downfield. But whatever. I was watching Pat McAfee.

He was on that show on Pat McAfee's show. And he said that in the offseason, he found joy. And he was able to just enjoy the moment. And I feel like this year it's going to be scary for everybody that's facing him because he's just out there having fun, slinging the rock around. And I know I faced him. And I don't, I mean, I wouldn't want to. He's on some Zen shit.

Like he started doing yoga or something. Weird like pretzel stretching. Good. Good. Good for him. I mean, everybody seems happy when they do that stuff. I don't know if they're just putting on a front for social media. I might start doing yoga.

Yeah, no, I like Seattle as well. I mean, you look at it. You mentioned, I think that's terrible, though. I think that's where Green Bay has the edge there is. Seattle doesn't have anybody that scares me as much as Zadaria Smith. And I love me some Zadaria Smith. I mean, both the Smith brothers are real good. And Seattle's secondary has just been getting torched.

But to your point, and we'll see what's up with the Chris Carson injury, which is going to come up in a minute or two. But they just, they're so explosive. and although Aaron has been able to overcome the Adams injury and not look like he missed the beat, there's going to be a point where Lazard is not going to get it done for you in the year. And I think both of these teams are on a collision course for a second straight playoff meeting.

And last year, Green Bay, if you got to feel good about anything, got the best of them at home. So, yeah, the only home field advantage, ironically, when you look at it in football right now is weather. Yeah, weather. So there's an advantage for Green Bay when it comes to getting the Super Bowl is if they can secure a one or two, that's going to be really tough relative to. I mean, because Denver was the guys with the altitude and they're not going to make the playoffs. So let's pass out some awards for the weekend.

How about that? I'm ready. Oh, also, by the way, that Tassam Hill shit is just irritating to me. I can't watch it. Like, what are we doing? I don't understand it. I don't understand. I'd rather see James Winston.

I mean, I get it. They enjoy, I mean, they enjoy like having the trickery, foolery stuff going on and like, then strike your throat. I get it. But at the same time, on the flip side, you can't get too cute. Yeah, I just get a little too cute. A little too cute. Let's go worst and best plane ride. Give me your two entries. I'm saying the worst is the Rams going all the way back home after they should have beat Buffer's. But did you see that call that they threw the flag on to give the give Buffalo another chance? It was on fourth down. Yeah, I was going to ask you what you thought of that. Because honestly, I thought the interception was worse earlier. So it kind of balanced out a little bit.

Yeah. I just think that you, how do you make that call at the end of the game? It was late too. He was like, yeah, yeah. Flag. That's a bad, you know, that plane ride, those guys were like, we won this game. And I'm going to say the best plane ride,

has got to be the 49ers going back from escaping the sticky turf where everyone's going to tear the ACLs. You know, when your head coach is. Oh, you would have been so insufferable if you were playing for the Niners going into that game. So, I mean, when your head coach is complaining that he's never seen, you know, so many injuries, I mean, that whole team was probably like, I don't want to play there. I don't want to play there. So they play, they get the win. They're happy to get out of there, get out of MetLife, get home, get to some grass.

Yeah, it's like the personification from a regular season standpoint of the fourth preseason game or like the last. Yeah, like get me out of here. I don't want to get me out of here. And they somehow may just win 39 to 6. I will push back though. I think the Rams probably, I think the Rams learn something about themselves. I think a lot of teams that are really good late in the year, they have that one loss that pisses them off early. but I learned that the Rams

I came away thinking the Rams are better than I thought they were coming into Sunday because they moved the ball all day it was just they didn't finish in the first half and they showed toughness so I'll go best could have easily been Chicago but you know

I want to be respectful of our guy Mitch Trubisky because it wasn't a great plane ride for him which is really awkward I'm gonna go Carolina that was just they've been knocking on the door fun fun ride Yeah, back east.

They're probably hammering liquor the whole time, I'd imagine. I mean, that flight was probably like a party, I hope, unless Matt Rule's not with that shit. And then I'll go worse is the Jets. Well, they are bad. They need to just fire that coach. They need to give, isn't Greg Williams a D.C.? Yeah. They just need to make him the interim head coach for the rest of year.

I think they'd play harder, I think. They would. People play hard for Greg. And also, Greg's got excited. experience as being an interim head coach. And I just think you need to rip the band-aid off sooner and later. I don't understand the whole thing of like wait till the end of year, you know, assess, see what you have.

And if you're them, are you, and I'll ask you this question again for the Giants in a bit, but are you looking at sunshine down Trevor Lawrence if you end up in the cellar? I mean, I guess so. I mean, look, they're going to have one of the top picks. So I mean, I think that core, it's a tough one because you go get sunshine. You have a quarterback there who I think if they, if he had the right coaching, maybe he would be a better quarterback because I'm, you know, the one play through that touchdown pass.

I'm not giving up on that kid. I'm not giving up on him yet. So a hard for you say go for the go for long hair sunshine when you have a quarterback who I feel like make some plays where I'm like, oh, he's pretty damn good. I don't know if I should give up on him. yet because if you do and he goes somewhere else and he ends up the next the next far over somebody crazy you're going to be like well what the hell we had this guy right here and we didn't have to go and do what we're doing here in the draft so because the draft is a big question mark too i mean

you don't know what you're going to yeah i don't know i think everybody does this thing automatically where Trevor lawrence is going to be a hall of famer and we don't know and i don't envy uh joe douglas when it comes to making that decision in the midst of such a terrible roster that he inherited too I mean, that's just an untalented football team. No, man, nothing is fucked here. Nothing is fucked? No, man. The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain.

Give me one team or player that we should panic about and give me one that we shouldn't panic about. I mean, if I'm the Falcons, it's full panic mode. Like, the head coach got to be, they got to start thinking like, what are we doing here? That's not working. We're losing, you know, these games. in the third and fourth quarter.

We're not finishing. We're not very tough. You know, Maddie Ice throwing picks at the end of the game and you should be marching down the field and putting yourself in position to win. I mean, it's bad. So I'm going panic on the Falcons.

Oh, yeah, it's over, dude. I think they're past panic. I'll go panic maybe on the Titans defense. They're missing some pieces from last year in the past rush and very good because, like, it felt, like you kind of made at least a tepid investment in your D-line and in the front. And all of a sudden, Kirk Cousins looks halfway decent again, getting back on track against you. It's not a good sign right

now. And they're a team that I'm really excited about. I was last year, but if their defense is going to play like that, the defense stepping up in the postseason is what allowed them to make that run. I would panic a little bit if I were them. I already did the Eagles earlier. It was really ugly. I'm glad you missed it. That's probably the layup panic team. Give me a don't panic. Oh, I mean, you got to go straight from Billy O's voice. Hey, we're not hitting panic. So, I mean, I got to go Texans just because of the fact that they have a quarterback who I feel you can never count out. I think trading away your best receiver was probably a big mistake. And I'm sure Bill O'Brien is probably thinking like twice about should I really said I was going to do the GM and the head coaching job.

because now you're getting it from both ends. You know what I'm saying? So it's like for him, I'm sure it's extra stressful to see not only the way that they started out, but who's your go-to guy on offense now? I mean, you traded for running back. It was good to see. You traded for a run back, but that's, I can only get you so far. Like you see what Arizona is doing with Hopkins right now.

Yeah, absolutely. And it hurts to watch, I'm sure. I mean, I was going to ask, are they the best O'N3 team in the last decade? But it's funny, the 2018 Texans who ended up winning a division were undoubtedly better. The good news here is that I see a path for them. And by the way, that 2018 team was, it was all one-score games the first three weeks. They've been outscored by 40 through three. They play the Vikings, Jags, Titans, Packers.

Okay, if they can get the three and three before they host Green Bay, after Green Bay they've got the Jags, Browns, Pats, and Lions. Out of those four games, Jags, Browns, Pat, and Lions, I don't know, I don't see them being big dogs to any of those teams. If I was to set a line against, you know, Pats and Texans right now, it'd probably be four and a half. It'd probably be New England minus four and a half. So they're not that far off.

And they just beat the Pats last year. I think they could get hot here. And Deshawn looked better yesterday. Cobb went off, Fullerhead moments. So we'll see. Yeah, so don't panic on the Texans. That's my, don't panic. I like that.

I like that a lot. So what's it like being a ghost? Ghost are dead. I'm very much alive. Let's go Hollow Man. This is my favorite one. Have you ever seen the movie Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon? Yeah.

And Rona Mitra, more importantly. Yeah, it's one of my favorite scenes. So DJ Metcab was almost Hollow Man. If there were fans there to warn him, do you think he, do you think he sees it? I know. That was too, like, he caught it and he was like, there's no way this guy's touching me. And then boom, boom. Imagine being that good that you just feel like.

I mean, I wouldn't wear a shirt if I was that rip. Neither would I. The guy's just a freak of nature. I was going to say he was going to be my hollow man, because when you're that good, like those play shouldn't happen to. Oh, it's bad. I mean, imagine they'd lose the game on that as tight as as that race was last year. I mean, that could be the division. Who was your hollow man? I was going to say Metcalf. That's what that's going to play. Yeah, because just that fact like when you're that good, like you don't, I can never think in my mind of a player that was that good

ever having a play like that happened to him, you know? No. Leon Lett. A big time receiver. Yeah, but you know a big receiver a big time receiver like they want to finish finish I couldn't believe it I couldn't believe it I'm gonna go the kid Tristan Hill in Dallas you saw the dirty play on Chris Carson right yeah I did I thought that was dirty I mean I'm all about playing on the edge but that's just like hey you're trying to injure somebody's lower body after a play that's just not a natural way to tackle I know some people are like oh you're throwing them under the bus I mean I'm just calling how I see it another thing he did is he uh extended a drive that ended up being a pretty big deal with that, with that leaping helmet to

helmet on Russell Wilson that just seems so pointless. Have you ever had a bad penalty in your career that extended a drive or wipe points off or something like that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I could think back to 2012. We're on the Super Bowl. Thank God they punted on this particular drive.

But it was like third and five. I went to Maddie P. this is this is bad part like i went up to mattie p and i said put me on deal david deal yeah this particular rush because i'm i'm i'm going to get them i just felt it like i was going to get them so i mean when you watch the tape i didn't jump off sides i did not jump off sides when you watch the tape the ball in my head are at the same exact point so as the ball snapped i went off with the ball perfectly timed up and everybody else was like a half tick and yeah you had a good get off so it was perfect like you can't get any better yeah so they threw the flag on me and i'm like

no i that look at it no there's that's that's bullshit but then once you throw the flag it's done so you know obviously had to come like ran off the field after they punt i'm like like in that particular play what was the score at this point i think we were up man listen i was so afraid of all sides in the super point we're up four points they were driving they punted to us we went three and out we punted back to them

and that's when they drove down and scored we lost by four because that was the that was the game where if West just caught the ball we would have won because the game would have been over it like we could have just scored or kicked the field goal and it's out of hand that was the Indianapolis Super Bowl that was a rough trip for me as well

I mean that was not a fun place to party so I I could imagine how you were feeling I also was... Let's all go to St. Elmo's and have some spicy shrimp cocktails. Don't say that to McAfee. Hey, listen, I was so petrified of when I finally got on winning teams. I was like, man, it's awesome.

We're going to be in Super Bowl. I was like, oh, you could also really screw up the Super Bowl, too. Yeah, or you could be like, make one play that people talk about. Dude, when I hit Matt on his legs and it ended up being a hold, I thought for a solid. I don't know if you thought this when it happened, but I thought for five seconds that it was a low hit. Oh, man. It's so nervous. I mean, like, for example, the Colts Saints game.

Yeah. That outside kick, the surprise onside kick. Yeah. I think the pink basket, he was the one that missed it. Oh. The guy for Green Bay that missed the kick, the onside kick when Seattle went on that long run. Yeah. So it should have been Green Bay should have won that game.

And we would have played Green Bay in the Super Bowl, which I don't, I'm happy we didn't see Aaron Rogers. Thanks to that guy. How about the fly on the wall? One meeting you'd like to sit in on or? I want to know the true feelings of Bruce Ariens. Like I want to know like the closed door talks that he has with the GM. Yeah. About like Tom and Rob and like because with his crazy interviews where he was just literally like,

yeah, Tom screwed that one up. He threw a pick. That's all on Tom. And then just talking about Brunk like, yeah, well, we're not throwing the ball to him 50 times. you know. Do you think he resent, do you think he kind of resents the autonomy that Tom had? That was like my little working theory that like Tom, hey, you brought me this guy down here out of retirement. Yeah, like why. Yeah, the power. Power. Because at the end of the day, I don't care who you are. Most of these head coaches, they are like on power trips. So they want to be in charge. They, you know, like they're the alpha.

I tell you to do something. Yeah, I don't care how cool you are. Like you're still, it's like presidents. You've got to be psychotic to be a president. No matter if you like the president or not, you have to be a psycho. You kind of have to be a psycho to be a head coach too. Yeah. So when I think about that, or what Bruce was saying early a couple weeks ago,

it makes me think like, well, maybe it was the GM who brought in these guys and the head coach is just working with that. You know what I'm saying? Because he's really quick to say, yeah, well, Grunk isn't as fast as he used to be. you know, Grunk's a tight end.

He's not a receiver, which, I mean, with what he has done in the past, I mean, I wouldn't you want to give it to Rob because of how good he was in the past? It just felt like you could have said that in a way that was just, hey, however he can help us win. That's why he's here. It's not always going to be catching the ball. Like, there's just a way to say that. And especially a week after Tom Brady, and I got that part like a little bit more because

Tom might like tough. We talked about that. But the gronk pile on the next week was funny. Listen, I'd love to sit on that Drew Breeze and Tassum Hill quarterbacks meeting. Taysam fumbles the ball and then they go to the sideline. And Drew's just staring at his tablet. Won't even look at him.

Taysam keeps looking at him like, like, yeah. Can you tell me it's okay? Can you tell me it's okay? And he wouldn't tell him it was okay. I do want to sit in on a Joe judge meeting with ownership and Gelleman. Look, we're going to reflect. We're going to reflect. Look, Jersey is a hardworking society here.

We're going to work. Hey, look, we're going to work. room coming every day. We're going to work. We got to restart practice. We're going to restart practice. I don't care, man. Hey, listen up. When the guys come to locker room, they're going to respect everybody in there. We're going to play free throw. We're going to play fast. We're going to look like Jersey. We're going to be hardworking. We're going to hit people. It's like you've sat in on a Joe judge meeting. We might punch somebody in the face if we really have to. But look, hey, listen up. I could say more, but, you know, he's got to. Yeah. Listen, I just want to know what's happening when he talks to

Gettleman and the owner about, are we tanking? Like, because that's a question. We had the same question with Darnold. Are you going to, are you going to look? I would look a lot harder in that situation. Yeah, no, I look. I think that right now, if you were a first year coach in these crazy times, you're just, you might have the first overall pick because you had no preseason.

You had, you know, like the team. doesn't even know your coaching style. But what do you do if you get there? What if you get the number one pick? Yeah. What if you do? What do you? I asked about Sam Drona.

What about Danny Dimes? You traded away for two numbered ones. And where does he end up? I say San Francisco. Oh, San Fran. Huh? Danny Dimes? Danny Dimes?

No, I'm saying I'd keep Danny Dimes. You trade the pickaway. I traded the pickaway. Okay. Pick away because bodies are more important than the number one pick to me. if you feel like you have a quarterback, that's serviceable. That's the question. And I would love to know behind closed doors, do they think that Danny Dimes is the guy?

He'll show me sometimes that he is. It's hard to really give him an evaluation to your point with everything going on up there. But he does flash at times. What happened, Dadda? Let's go, what happened, Dadda? What happened out there? What's the craziest shit you saw this weekend? Dude, I couldn't walk.

I couldn't walk. watch the Raiders crack toss on the D-Ns. The Raiders' defensive front, the way that they played the running game, made me scream. I was screaming at the television. I was watching a television and I was screaming at it. The Patriots ran a crack toss about 12 times. And the D-N was in a three-point. Right.

Zoned in. Right. Tunnel vision. Yeah. Motion, motion, motion. Wow. Take out everybody. Outside run.

20 yards. Yeah, it's like they never seen it. Like, get a crack alert. Yeah. Stand up or look at the guy and hit him in between his eyes and freaking flatten the receiver. It's only Harry. Harry couldn't knock me. Harry couldn't block me right now.

Okay. You have to. The rule on a crack toss, the way I was always taught to play it, is widen that ride receiver and take him straight to the sideline. You don't cross his face till the ball crosses the wide receiver's face, but you got to, you got to dent him backwards. You take a step and you turn and you put your foreman. on his forehead and he cannot take that. Yeah.

Because he's a receiver. Yeah. You stop, you come, you hit him right in the face. He's doing the old man fall. Yep. And you just keep driving him and you try to put his body into the running back. Yep. Yep. And of course you need a force player to make that tight for you.

I'm going to go probably very aptly my what happened at that moment is I gave out the over in the Patriots game on draft kings for our Greenlight gambling show. and then I forgot to get the bet in. So on a day where I was in the red, I'm sorry, son. You know, I think Christmas this year is going to be all about minimalism. There's a lot of kids that don't get a lot on Christmas. And you just might be one of them. I used to get used shoes.

Use shoes. Let's go St. Louis Rams Memorial Award. This is a guy that's bawling out in obscurity. I mean, I want to say the kicker, Gaskowski, Stephen Gascowalsals. is killing it right now. Yeah, that's your guy. And the first actual week there, he missed four kicks. So I feel like, you know, in the kicking game right now,

is struggling no matter who you are. But I don't want to give him that. No, because he's not obscure. He's like they talk about it. Let me give you one. Nick Mullins. Is it Nick Bowen's job to lose? No, no.

Jimmy G's coming back as the starter. Like they don't pay you that money to be a backup. they don't pay you that much money to let the back of you're right fucking with you no matter what you do you could go out there and throw 10 touchdown passes the second jimmy d's back they're going to put your ass back on the bench because you don't make enough money to be the starter let's go viewing party i'll start i think it was really funny to see tony romo watching jason witten play football in front of nobody in foxborough for four million dollars and tony's making 19 in the booth

Why is Witten playing football? Like his arms have deteriorated into just skin tubes. Like he wears the bands on his arms and it's like just a flat white arm. And like he had no bicep. He has no tricep. He has no shoulders. I'm like and he shaved his head. So he went from like the booth with like like a toupee or something.

And then he just shaved his head like he just took all the hair off. My man is going through a lot. The only thing I can hope for him is that that that that that. Las Vegas is good because I would hate to just thinking about being retired and how hard it would be to come out and like go play physically, mentally, emotionally. Like you went from making money talking about the game to saying, fuck this. This is the most difficult thing in sports. Commentating it. And then Tony in the booth like, hey, old friend, what are you doing down there?

I mean, give him, like, I don't know. What do you do? Every time I see him catch the ball. Every time I see him catch the ball, some young 23-year-old headhunter comes down and just table tops him. And I'm like, fuck, dude. When I saw him get tackled the game before the Patriots, somebody took his knees out. And like when he hit the ground, he like rolled an extra. I know the one.

He like rolled twice. And then when he got up, I was like, what the hell? Get up, Jason. Oh, I love the guy. He's a legend. But it just sucks. It just sucks. But maybe this is what he wants to do.

I mean, maybe he loves football this much. You know there's those lifers. Let's go game balls. I'm going to split a game ball between Teddy and Matt Rule. Teddy Bridgewater, I mean, meet somebody that has something negative to say about Teddy Bridgewater. The guy has taken every role he's assumed and ran with it. Maybe Joe Brady and him are a pretty competitive pairing. But when it comes to Matt Rule getting his first win, I love that he didn't make it about him.

he deferred to his players in the losing streak. He said, it isn't about me. These guys in here have been battling through 10 in a row in the loss column, and this was about them. And I thought that was big, because you and I both know,

coaches get carried away, and he won it without CMC, he won it without the two charger pieces that he got in the trades. They were competitive in their first three weeks. I thought it was a great win for them. So game balls to Teddy and Matt Rule. I got a couple.

So I'm going Rex Burkhead, three touchdowns. I took a pay cut. I'm sure he's really happy about that now. They cut your pay down and then they up your reps and then you score a bunch of points for them. And then I'm going with a couple of guys I play with, all right? But Gisgowski, the Steve Giscowski, six for six on his field goals right down the middle and wins the game winner. It puts them up by a 55-yard field goal. He doesn't wear socks anymore because he missed the first game.

He said I had socks on. I'm taking my socks off. Now he doesn't wear socks to kick the football. A little bit, good for him. But I'm just, you know, like, I like to see guys, you know, when they get released somewhere. And they kind of don't join a team during the off season. There's the question marks like, because we had talks like, he's like, should I still play? I don't know.

Like, I think I'm going to give it one more go. And then he moves to Tennessee just because that's where his family's from. And then he signs with the Titans. So I like that. Yeah, that's a cool little story. He's a good dude, too. He is a good kid. So, I mean, he's not a kid, man.

He's fucking old. He's a good dude. So I'm happy that he was able to not only find a nice house in Tennessee, but sign with the Titans. And then, you know, he's been really good since that first game. I know that sucked. Still won the game for him at the end. Yeah, yeah. What a big turnaround for him.

He just said, I talked to him after that game. He's like, I just feel so old. That's what he said. Because you are. But you're a kicker, too. You can do this a while. He walk in the locker room and it's just like everyone's looking at it. because, you know, the kickers, you know, the guys aren't really going to.

A lot of the younger players are like, why is there a coach in the locker room? Stop spying on us. Yeah, like, what's up with your gray hair in your beard? And then they're on the sideline like, oh, fuck, that dude missed that kick. I thought he was a coach. Well, it could be worse. You could be full from the Patriot. Yeah, yep, could have full gray.

Anything past 40 yards, it's shanked or pulled. You missed a PAT. That wasn't good. Never good when you miss a PAT. There you go. those are the game balls and Niko took care of his buddies. It's always great having Rod Nickman. Should I not do that?

Should I not do that? Should I say screw them? No, I love you taking care of your buddies, man. That's why you're a good friend. Yeah, I'm a decent guy. And you stepped up. You took care of me today. You stepped in because Macon's out of the out of town and we needed something to break up

the monotony of me monologuing games. So thank you. Yeah, I brought the flowers out for you. Yeah, you got the Hawaiian shirt. looking sharp man we'll hope to get you back on soon and again you can catch ninko on pretty much anywhere you watch football on TV he's a real superstar at ESPN right now so no big deal thanks all right buddy yep i'll see you see you bud