NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2016 Week 11 review

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling, and Gregg Rosenthal – go game-by-game breaking down all the Week 11 action. A week in which the team of ATL finally broke their 4-game losing streak, and the Redskins put on a show in front of Mike, Al, and the world with a 42-24 victory over the Packers.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors.

For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team-building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision-makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategy. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast starts at QB for the Jaguars this week. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys?

Hey, Dan. All right. Week 11, Sunday, in the books. Mark, the train keeps rolling. Keeps going. Whether we want it to or not, and we do. I mean, I want it to keep moving along. Yeah, I mean.

Well, you do want to get those sandwiches for when you've predicted there will be no winner of the Super Bowl. So the train might stop early. I'm not concerned about that. That was a prediction I've nailed already. We're all very worried about that prediction now. Yes, this is the Sunday flagship edition of the Around the NFL podcast, where we recap all the Sunday games. You can watch us right now on Periscope.

Have we sent out the appropriate prompts on our own Twitter? Yeah, we should do it. I just did. Bang little retweet. Very good, very good. So yes, every Sunday you can watch us. just live on Periscope, right around, usually around that 5.45 p.m. Pacific time markers when we get going. And, of course, our audio listeners always, you know where to find us and when to find us.

There's a structure involved here. There's been a couple of really good weeks of NFL action. I thought things slowed down a little bit today in terms of, you know, lifetime memories. But the biggest storyline is that we set a modern, modern Super Bowl NFL record for, missed extra points and that's the big takeaway so far of this week for a lot of people maybe this wasn't the best week but still it's fun to talk about football and that's what we're going to do got a lot of games to talk about should we get into it please yeah well we might as well we might as well start with the best team in the nfcc right now the dallas cowboys this is an eight minute drive for the cowboys second and eight at the raven 13 blitz look here

they come prescott slant des five to the goal line touchdown des bris brayette into the day. The Cowboys have a two touchdown lead. What a sham, Brad Sham, KRLD, Des Bryant, and Dak Prescott hooked up for two scores and the Cowboys scored on each of their final five possessions on their way to a 27-17 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Uh-oh. Who lock that one up? Oh, yeah. Yes, fearless. Mark picking the eight-and-one Cowboys. It's not an upset of the week. I don't know why this continues to be a thing with this so-called. segment. Okay. I mean, all right. You got it right. One and O in week 11 locks. That's how I look at it. Greg. Yes. 27-17 win for the Cowboys over the Ravens. The Dallas

offense sputtered here early before reminding us once again how dangerous they can be regardless of their opponent. I am so impressed by Dak Prescott and the Cowboys coaching staff in terms of their ability to adjust. We've seen this a number of times where they start slow. Dean Pease, who has done a great job with the Ravens defense, despite his unfortunate name. Confused them early. Lots of blitzes, lots of short drives for Dallas. They didn't know where the rusher was going. They made their adjustments.

He got the ball out of his hand quickly. He took a lot of hits early in this game, and then they just make it look so easy. Only ended up with nine drives in the entire game. First four punted, last five scored. I mean, they only had three the entire second half, and they were ten played. drive, 14 play drive, 13 play drives that ended in touchdowns, they get the ball back with eight minutes left, and they basically just kill the clock the rest of the game. At that point, it was still a game. I mean, Baltimore was in this, but Dak Prescott's just, it's shown he can

come from behind. Forget this, let's see what they do when they're trailing. They do pretty well when they're trailing. In that last drive where they closed the game out, you thought Baltimore might have one or two, maybe even two more shots. Right. Dallas is the one team in the league right now that consistently does that in the second half when they're up at will. They're the one team you can count on to do that. I think it says a lot about their offense that they're not one-dimensional. They're playing the best run defense in the NFL statistically. Zeke L Elliott still almost gets 100 yards, but then a guy like Des Bryant,

who's been an afterthought for most of the season comes through with a pair of touchdown. He looked really good. He looked like Dak. I mean, like Des, after the catch, you know, busting through some tackles, out-musling, a defender in the end zone for a touchdown, but I really liked his movement in this game, and you said it. You know, Elliot only had 26 yards in the first half. A lot of those yards came in that last, you know, drive or two for him. They won the game on third down with Prescott throwing by making the right decisions. And he's always just, there were some throws in this game

that he had to have in just the right place to get it over an outstretched defender. They were smart to pick on the side of the field where Jimmy Smith would have been. And they made a really good defense looked pretty bad for the last three-quarters. This to me was another kind of hurdle game for Prescott for anyone that doubts him at all. You know, I was focused on other games at this point of the day, but, you know, you heard, you saw the tweets about how the Cowboys are struggling, and then I saw an update where they showed a trainer looking at Prescott's left shoulder arm, like, oh, again, is this going to be the game where he comes down to Earth?

And then all of a sudden, you know, two hours later, it's same old, same old, and he has another 300-yard game where he plays well. And it's notable to me that before. the games got started today on every pregame show. It's endless footage of Tony Romo. And honestly, our own network had probably of their pregame show, 88% of it was Romo focused. That was the first game where he's back and able to play if there were any issue with Prescott. What he put up today, Prescott, I mean, we keep forgetting he's a rookie. Everyone's wondering, how did Jared Gough do today? Well, let's talk about the best rookie quarterback in football right now. Prescott,

week after week, no matter what you throw at him, succeeds. And the Cowboys defense deserves credit because in the first half, you know, the Ravens had a number of chances to make this a two-score game. And Joe Flacco, who said after this game... Wait, I have that, actually. Oh, you do. That's what Joe Flacco said after the game. I felt very confident coming into this game, and I really feel like we should beat this team. We should beat pretty much every team we play.

And by the way, this was a couple days after Ray Lewis came out and called out his lack of fire, in Lewis's opinion, which didn't seem very fair, since... Joe Flacco is the reason Ray Lewis went out a champion, but seemed like an answer to that in a way. Maybe, but, you know, I don't know if I'm doing this right here, but come back to us, Joe, right? I mean, we should beat them. You're one of the biggest reasons why this team isn't better.

They're a bad passing attack, and Flacco missed a couple routine throws, and he throws it short of the sticks on third and long so much. It really drives me crazy watching this team. Steve Smith played great in this game. He's their best offensive player He is all the way back You know what? Mike Wallace is on pace for a thousand yards

Had a number of good plays in this game They have some weapons They ran the ball Pretty well against the Cowboys for 100 yards They did a lot of things well I think that speaks how good the Cowboys are That a team with a winning record Did a lot of things well

I think the Ravens played basically their B plus game And they still lose by two scores Cowboys nine wins in a row Which they never did Even during the glory days with Troy and Jimmy and Mr. Irvin. Let's check in on the other NFC superpower. Play fake toss.

Baldwin's going to throw back to Russell. He's got it. Touchdown. Seahawks. Are you kidding me? John Baldwin takes the end around to the right stops. Throws back to Russell Wilson. His first receiving touchdown of his NFL career from 15 yards out.

The Seahawks. Pull out all the stops. Steve Rabel, K-I-R-O, Russell Wilson, through one touchdown pass. And yes, as you just heard, caught another one as the Seahawks ease their way past. The Philadelphia Eagles, a 26-15 win at the clink. Chris Wessling, the Seahawks are now 6-2-1, and they've run away with... Seven to them. Excuse me, 7-2-1.

They've run away with the NFC West. That's no longer a race. Are the Cowboys the only team in their class in this conference? You could put the Falcons in there if you wanted to, but the Falcons are six and four. It seems like they're a game and a half behind the Seahawks. It seems to me like the Seahawks and Cowboys are on a collision course for January 22nd in the NFC championship game. Clearly the two best teams in the division, and this is Seattle's time of year. They're 31 and 6 from November on since drafting Russell Wilson.

I thought today's first half, they had 300 yards by halftime against the top 10 NFL defense. Wow. I thought this was the best, most explosive big play offense they've had in the Russell Wilson era when you've got healthy Jimmy Graham, Thomas Rawls is back, Tyler Lockett's as fast as he's ever been now, Doug Baldwin's a top 10 NFL wide receiver, Russell Wilson's alluding pressure, C.J. Pro Seis has a 72-yard touchdown, and that's the one red flag with this victory. They lose C.J. Pro Seis to a scapula injury. Looks like it might be a fractured shoulder blade. Pete Carroll says he's a. a chance he comes back, but it will be a while if that happens. This season, there's a chance. That is a big issue. And again, we were all surprised when we heard on the podcast on Tuesday while we were taping that Kristen Michael was released.

Man, they could really use them right now. Well, what, CJ Spiller was released? Kristen Michael was released. Troy Maine Pope, who got the elevation from the practice squad, had a high ankle sprain in this game. Oh, boy. They're running back depth that's hurting. But almost like Dallas, it seems every week.

someone else is stepping. Someone knew is stepping up for Seattle or someone that wasn't the person who was the focus the week before. They have so many weapons. And Russell Wilson's back to being Russell Wilson again. Here's a quote from Doug Baldwin after the game on Russell Wilson. He's the best player in the league right now by far. Old words. I don't know if that's true or not, but you said this is as explosive as you seen them. And I'm thinking back to the last three weeks what Wilson's put together. And really the offense as a whole, that game against Buffalo, where they had about as good a first half as you could ever imagine. Same thing here against Philadelphia.

You dropped 31 on the Patriots. I think his season was underrated the first six or seven weeks. I don't think he was nearly as bad as the fantasy stats said. That game against the Jets is a good example. A lot of good play from the pocket. But I'm with Doug Baldwin. Russell Wilson might be playing the best of any quarterback right now. I think it's no small thing too.

And it would be a shame if we don't see Dallas and Seattle in the NFC champion. I like the Falcons plenty, but it would be a shame if that doesn't happen. But, I mean, the core of the team that went to the Super Bowl and destroyed the Broncos, those core players, for a large part, are still on this team. I mean, they just, nothing that happens to Seattle is going to shake them psychologically. They, no matter what happened to them at the start of the season, they keep every year finding themselves back in this position. This make you think any different about the Eagles, that they were relatively not competitive in this game.

I'm a little surprised. No, because I don't write for football. outsiders. So I was under no delusion that they were the number one team in the NFL. This seems to me, what, not even to me anyway, a lot Raville Magnifico, it's just this is who they are. They're like they can hang maybe and not get embarrassed by Seattle on the road, but they can't actually. They got embarrassed. It doesn't look like they got embarrassed because of garbage time. This game was over. By the start of the fourth quarter, Russell Wilson had as many receiving yards as the entire Philadelphia wide receiver core. Is that bad? That's not good. If Aguilar wasn't a first round pick, he would be cut by now.

He had an illegal formation penalty that nullified a 57-yard touchdown. They would have been ahead at that point, so maybe it's a different game. Had a brutal drop, yes. You know, the Eagles coach, Doug Peterson, he's waving frantically trying to get him to get on sides, getting the formation correctly, cannot get his attention, and then a long touchdown wiped out to Earth. I think it goes to show you that first impressions in an NFL season have a long shelf life because Philly's start in the start for Carson Wentz had a lot of people thinking they were more than they were. Doug Peterson inherited a lot of junk.

This team was garbage at the end of last season. They're 5 and 5. I think that's what they are. We didn't mention them in the NFC contender list. We mentioned the Falcons is the only other team. And the Falcons went into Seattle and showed that they could compete. Philadelphia is not anywhere close to that point. They've had a road-heavy schedule, 1-5 away from home.

So they've had dramatic splits. I'm not counting them out for the wild card race, but they're in no mix. And I'm looking at the Seahawks 5-0 at home, And it just makes all those NFC East games the Cowboys have coming up because they're basically two up on Seattle for the number one seed. So Dallas is in a good spot, but they have to be careful. All those division games for them are tough to stay ahead of Seattle. Every one of these NFCEs teams still play each other.

We can keep talking about the Eagles like they're a wildcar contender, but they're in last place in their division. They've got to climb the Giants and Redskins to get in that picture. Let's stick in the NFC and take a look at two other teams that are hoping to be in the playoffs. Carson fires left. intercepted, and it's picked off by Terrence Newman, and he speeds to the 30, to the 40. He's inside the checkout, Xavier Rhodes to the 30.

20, touchdown! No black on the field. It's a 101-yard touchdown by Xavier Rhodes, and X marks the spot at U.S. Bank Stadium. Paul Allen K. F-A-N. And does that get in our, let's mark that one, Sidney, for our top 10 calls of the season. Not saying it's definitely going to make it, but it deserves. I appreciate his enthusiasm. He was completely bought in.

The streak is over for the team of ATL. The Vikings got a 100-yard interception return from Xavier Rhodes, which you heard. And a 103-3-yard kickoff return for Corderole Patterson in a 30 to 24 win over the Cardinals at U.S. Bank Stadium. Uh-oh. Somebody locked something up? That's because I got faith in the team of ATL. Way to go, Viking.

Locked it up in a big spot. In a big spot. I picked the Vikings as well. Yeah, that's great. Kiss and Cousins, come join us. Get back in. We're going to get back in. Back in.

This NFC North. It's lousy. We got some special teams touchdowns. I'm in. Glass is in. Mark, come back. Sure. What's the issue?

Well, you picked against them this week. Sure, I did. In a coin flip game. Well, they were the better team in this game. Who was? The Vikings. I mean, maybe. They did have 217 yards, which is troubling.

It's a little bit of the formula early in the season. Yes, it is. They needed to have the first game in more than 50 years with two 100-yard plays in it. Hey, those are plays, though. They did it. They got out gained. Yeah, they maybe outplayed the Cardinals. This game could have gone either way.

Well, wait, Chris, let me ask you something from a different angle. Can we officially be concerned about, the Cardinals at this point. I mean, Carson Palmer. I came on this show three weeks ago and said, let's fork the Cardinals. They don't have an offensive line. Carson Palmer was hit 15 times today. He's the first quarterback all year to be pressured on 60% or more of his dropbacks in a single game,

according to pro football. He also looks like an old man now. He doesn't. He doesn't move well in the pocket. We've been saying that all season. Happened quickly. You know, Tom Brady thing not looking good, but just another reminder here how quickly these things happened. His cast isn't nearly as good or playing nearly as well this year, but especially on

that last drive where they had a chance at the end of the game to actually steal the game outright because it was a six point difference. And the pass rush was coming after him. He had nowhere to go and couldn't move. Couldn't move. I mean, their second leading receiver, if you don't count David Johnson, is Jermaine Gresham, two for 33. Who had a highlight real touchdown. Right. But what happened to that receiving court? Michael Floyd had the flu. today. So that's one reason why you might not expect him to do as well. But I mean, your quarterback is on the run and you're asking a guy who's not mobile to be on the run. We talked about it on Thursday. Whether you think the Vikings have a good pass rush or not,

they got the job done today. Cardinals, though, line will make a lot of teams get healthy on their pass rush. John Brown's a guy, though, that was a difference maker. Now you look at this game, for instance, four targets, no catches. He was the one targeted on that 100-yard reception, or interception return, which you could say he had a little part of. Maybe he was held. Maybe he didn't fight through it. I was shocked to see Xavier Rhodes pulling away from John Brown

on a 100-yard sprint. Xavier Road. You know what I mean? Damn, we'll love this. What kind of miles per hour do you think Xavier Rhodes were each? Well, almost exclusively NFL players run at 21.4 miles per hour. Since you're saying that he pulled away from John Brown, I'm going to say he ran 21.9.

I think it was 22.4, which is best, which is one of the highest speeds by anybody with the ball in their hands all year this year. That play that was behind us there, that drew a pass interference, that trick play by the Vikings, they pulled out all the stops today. It set up what? It set up Aziata's touchdown there right there, but that little flip pass to Bradford and downfield liked it. We talked about that on Thursday, that they could not lose five in a row here, especially with kind of a wounded animal. don't do the drop set.

We don't want PETA coming after us. Cardinals team that did not even look good in their win against San Francisco last week at home. This was a game that Vikings had to have, and they played with urgency and closed out a game. They've been letting too many games get out the door this season. It's a shame their offensive line and running backs have been such a big problem this year

because I think we were right about a lot about this team. Adam Thielan and Cordero Patterson are good wide receivers now. Thelan was a difference in this game. He was their number one receiver with Patrick Peterson basically taking digs out of the game. And Thielen came up huge. He's had a pretty good year. Cordero Patterson is making plays every week.

And Sam Bradford is still having his best season of his career. Go ahead. No, go ahead. No, go ahead. No, go ahead. Wow. No, you go. Wes, why don't you go?

No, Greg. The Cardinals. But I think that, no, go ahead. The Cardinals find ways to lose games. They seem like they have like a losing mentality, that whatever they can do to lose a game, they will. I agree. Even when they look a little better.

It's shocking because, you know, they were about to have another year-long documentary about them and Bruce Ariens and everyone else done about them. And it's, they're a shadow of themselves and as is their division. The NFC West, which was such a beast recently, is just a disaster right now. I think the window is closed on the Cardinals as a Super Bowl contender, at least this group.

Carson Palmer looks old. All of a sudden, that wide receiver group, which, Wes, I'm sure when you wrote your pieces about the best groups, they were always near the top, Larry Fitzgerald could retire after this year. John Brown is MIA. Michael Floyd's a week-to-week proposition. I mean, they re-signed Geron Brown, and people are excited about that?

I don't know. I think he's too early to put them to bed for good as far as their Super Bowl window. It wouldn't surprise me if they protected Carson Palmer better next year, and he has a good year. Do you think he definitely is their starting quarterback next season? I do. I think his contract makes him that, and I think Ariens still likes him. And I think if you look at pure offense, Total yards, they're a top 10 often.

Well, it's a start here for our team of ATL. You know, they got off the Schneide since we picked them. They're on Thanksgiving in a battle for first place. Two wins in four days, potentially. Against the Lions, it's a start. See, we're all on the same page here. We're all in. If they can win on Thursday, that four-game losing streak will be ancient history.

Oh, yeah. Team of ATL. All right. Let's move on. Let's check out what's going on over in the AFC. A EFC. Dolm takes a snap. Final play of the game. The Bengals need a touchdown to win.

Buffalo needs to stop. A heave towards the end zone and it's knocked down. Incomplete and Buffalo will win. Andy Dalton's heave at the horn does not find a home. And the Buffalo Bills have come to Cincinnati to keep their playoff hopes alive and beating the Bengals 1612. Hey, Murph. John Murphy, WGR.

Oh, Sid, this was one of the, those games. Loser unhappy with outcome, but able to keep it in proper perspective. Let's hope so for the Cincinnati Bengals' sake, because Andy Dalton's desperation prayer when unanswered as time ran out. You just heard that. And we all inched one step closer to a January without West of us following a 1612 Bill's victory over the Bengals in Cincinnati.

You know, the big story out of this, yeah, Cincinnati, what are they, three, six and one now? Yes. which is a dreadful record, and that's going to be hard to come back from. I'd rather be 3 and 7 than 3, 6, and 1. I disagree. That's a hot take. That's a terrible take. That's not a good take.

That's the worst take of the season. They're not coming back from it. There's no coming back. Arguably the worst take ever on this podcast. I stand by it. If you're going to be bad, don't have that ugly one there. It's just embarrassing. But it gets even worse.

You're 3.6 and 1, you just lost at home to Rex Ryan. And now A.J. Green suffered what we're hearing is a serious hamster. injury that could end a season and if a j green season's over the cincinnate bengal's season's over let's be honest uh and this is also guys a game where bangles kicker mike nougat missed two extra points of the first half two of those 11 record breaking 11 misses uh nuge and the bank uh Cincinnati had the ball you know around midfield with 30 seconds to play down four points you could do the math there even i could do the math there and i once got a 39 on a state mandated that test That cost them the game, essentially.

So here we are. The Buffalo Bills, Greg, though, still alive. Still alive. They're a team. Got the Jaguars next week. They could be six and five. They're a team that's managing to win games with their number one receiver, you know, at the point of the game when Robert Woods goes out is who,

Mark East Goodwin? Oh. Or it was a bunch of guys. It was a bunch of guys catching passes for them. Only one of them had been on the team in August, and that was Goodwin. It's just Brandon Tate and Justin Hunter and Percy Harvin, who, you know, shocker, hasn't come back lighting the world on fire thus far. Yeah, I think that this is a team. I feel like they were killed by injuries last year, too, if I recall, and it's happening again.

And LaShawn McCoy left this game. This is a really nice win for Buffalo, and I know Cincinnati's not good this year, but being able to hold off. Their defense played incredibly well, I thought, Cincinnati's offense. look terrible. And now you lose Shady McCoy to a dislocated thumb that he's going to have surgery on from what I'm hearing. And the reports are out there that they're going to hope he plays next week. But we've already seen Wes before them be overly optimistic with a McCoy timetable that leads to a setback. Who knows? Yeah, this one, the advantage here is that it's a thumb injury and not a hamstring. So it shouldn't limit his movement at all. You think he'd come back. That's

fine. Where are you at, Wes? West of us not going to happen. How do you fill the void? Well, I mean, they're only a game and a half out of first place. But they have three wins. The Ravens and Steelers ostensibly look like better teams, would you admit that? Yeah. One of those teams should finish with a winning record. Unlike my esteemed colleague Greg Rosenthal, who denied basic mathematical principles by saying he'd rather be three, six, and one.

Well, you can get a better draft pick. You're three and seven. They're not going anywhere anyways. I think the Steelers have to be considered heavy favorites now that they're relatively healthy. in this division. The Bengals play the Ravens next week so they can make up ground on them. I'm a little in denial about Westis, yes.

Well, listen, look at the Bengals are done. Here is their schedule. You've got the Ravens, the Eagles, the Browns. You may even not beat the Browns. You never know. The Steelers, the Texans, and the Ravens. And they've never won a game without A.J. Green since they've reacted.

Well, that's exactly. The splits without him on the field with Andy Dalton is your quarterback. I mean, look, you lost your number one core player on offense. They're best player by far this year. And they haven't been able to find anyone next to him. Forget trying to find people open now that he's gone.

Yeah. Give the bills some. They're probably done. Oh, they're forked. Forget it. They're going to Baltimore next week. The Baltimore can officially kill them. Should we convene the four committee one last time this week?

We need to. Just, you know, tie up some loose ends. And Cincinnati will obviously be one of the teams we talk about so we can leave it. Some house cleaning. The bills will not be forked. No, they got some heart. This bill's team has some heart. They have all but two games at home.

Every game is at home but two games. Mark, Rex Ryan has done a nice job, a coaching job this year. True, I think that he has. I think we've been saying that for a month plus, too. Anthony Lynn has done a great coach. Although, let's also. They have done a good job. But if they go eight and eight, and that's what they're on pace for it,

let's also not get too carried away, year two of their program. We'll have all off-season to get carried away about Rex Ryan. I do think they've overcome a lot. And there was a point in late September, October where people were ready for Rex. You're right. To be sent into Nowheresville, and he's still around. Five and three since week three.

That Miami loss, I think, really is going to haunt them. Most likely. No, no West of us, though. And I was saddens me. He had to work on Westivis last year. For new listeners, West of course, you know, the annual Saturday Bengals playoff loss. One of my highlights of last football season was seeing all of the tweets

from people in New Zealand and Denmark and Ireland, in celebrating West of us along with me. And just last week, you and I were talking about, you know, maybe we could all have the day off and we could have a real fun party together to celebrate. Yeah. Alas. We can still.

All four of us. Yeah, right. How are all four of us going to be off on a playoff Saturday? Rendering ourselves completely non-essential to the operation while we're hammered at some board. And then they're like, yeah, don't bother a Sunday or the next week after that either. We're cool. Nobody said it was realistic.

It was just something that was being kicked around. Rainy on my parade, Greg. Exactly. Come on. Welcome to the Around the NFL podcast. This is Nick Shook, alongside Jeremy Bergman. All right, let's move on and check out another AFC East team. Daniel, back to throw.

Here comes the blitz. It gets it off court. The end zone. Did he make the catch Parker? The dog has to go out of Miami. What an unbelievable throw and catch by DeVonte Parker. I can't believe it. What a comeback.

This has been. The Dolphins were held scoreless for the first 56 minutes of game time on Sunday and faced a double-digit deficit late in the fourth quarter. But back-to-back, Ryan Tannahill-led touchdown drives. Is that onions, I smell? Are those onions? I don't know. Are they?

Kid Ellen, I'll show you a little bit of our growing huge onions. Capped with a game-winning connection to Devante Parker, lifted Miami to a 14-10 win that spoiled Jared Gough's NFL. debut mark sessler talking to you buddy the dolphins have now won five straight uh and they're starting get good at this dramatic win stuff i didn't find this game dramatic on any level i there was a point here where miami and yes they punched in the touchdown to win it that it looked like it was going to potentially go into overtime which i think to any viewer uh it would have been a horror i mean it was a well certainly you for sure well it was it was a rough game to watch there was a period late in

the, you know, second half where Ryan Tannahill was averaging about two yards per attempt. And Jared Gough, for all the hype around his first start, did not look much different to me than Case Keenham in terms of the pure result. I think he's a better, you know, some natural gifts that Case Keenum maybe does not have, but he looked like a complete rookie to me. And it's a lot to do with the offense around him. I give the credit to the Dolphins are six and four. It was an ugly win. You got to get some of these to stay alive. The The way the dolphins are built, they're not going to look pretty every week. There's no way around it.

It's a great defense. 11 drives to start the game with no points, and then two touchdowns in the last four minutes is wild. Right. They at one point had, I think it was eight punts and a turnover, and then they suddenly heat it up. The Rams defense is legitimate. I mean, it is an excellent defense, and it doesn't really seem to matter who they play. It's not a match-up defense. They've shut down four teams in a row.

it's just that their offense, you've got to develop something on that side of the ball. Did you get any sense for whether the Rams coaches were punished for having too conservative of a game plan or play calling? Or was Jared Goff just unwilling to throw it downfield? Well, I mean, I think a little bit of a mixture. They certainly, it was not an aggressive game plan as most Rams game plans or not. But he did not complete a pass that went 20 yards through the air. It was all, it wasn't checkdowns. It was just, I'm going to look for my tight end on a crossing pattern.

I'm going to look for people on the flats. I get it. That's what he was dealing with against. The dolphins only had one sec. I thought that Goff did not look frightened out there. He looked calm. He looked to be in command to some degree. But it's just you're putting them into a bad position and a bad offense.

I thought he looked a little spooked after the second Dolphins touchdown when he had 30 seconds. They actually took over after the kickoff return. Nice run back to about the 40. And they had one time out in 29 seconds. And this was, to me, total Jeff Fisher's Rams, you have that timeout, which is gold in this scenario to have any chance here to get down the field. The first play call is a seven-yard slant. I don't know if it was the play call, but that's how the play ended.

They used up like 10 seconds of the clock and their last timeout that essentially do. I'm probably being a little too gentle on him because it was his first start. I mean, it was unimpressive. He had 64 yards passing in the first half, got a little bit rhythm late, but finished with 134 at 4.3 per attempt. Anyone else that did that, we would look at and say that's sub-NFL level. Their lowest passing output since the season opened. Since week one. You got bordled.

It was also raining. There's a guy on the other side who was struggling that much, too. You have to give the Dolphins some credit. I mean, they lose their left tackle, Brandon Albert. They lose Laramie Tunsell, and they lost pounsy right before this game even started. So that's your three best offensive linemen, entire side of your offensive line. You have to face the Rams. It's not a surprise they struggle on offense.

And yet they're finding ways to win these games. I still think the Dolphins are going to come back down to Earth very soon. Bill Barnwell tweeted out that they've won their last four games during this five-game winning streak by a combined 18 points. So, you know, it's not like they're blowing anybody away. They're winning a lot of close games. And I thought that this was just last week, I was saying the way that the Rams get to 7 and 9, 8, and 8 every year is they win these type of sewer games. I mean, Jeff Fisher got out sludged here. That is seven and nine bull-h-h-h-h-h-h.

His own type of game, that hurts. Yeah, there was a period. There was a moment in this game where, you know, they were, before the first half-ended, they were trying to get the ball back. And the dolphin, they called two timeouts where the dolphins couldn't move the ball. They had precious seconds to have maybe a last second throw-down field by golf. They get the ball back with limited amount of time, and they kneel on it. Why did you call two timeouts?

Why did you extend this contest for us to deal with as viewers, and then you'd kneel the ball? There were a number of tactical errors by Jeff Fisher in this game that I think were bizarre. They decided to go for a field goal deep in territory on fourth down in Miami, and they missed the field goal. Late in the fourth quarter, I mean, you've got this team, why not be aggressive? Why not give yourself a chance to win? We're watching coaches do that all over the league. And it's just, I'm not doing the Rams again all season. I'm done with it.

Nobody out sludges Jeff Fisher. Well, on this day alone, someone managed it, and that makes this game noteworthy for that alone. Dolphins get the 49ers next week. They're going to be seven and four. I might lock that one up. Really? And in the AFC playoff race.

Sure they are? Are they playing at Sanford? They're in Miami. They're going to win that game. Okay. Yes. All right. Let's, ooh, AFC South Showdown.

Andrew takes the snap, sets up looks, looks, throws in the back of the end zone. it is a touchdown for T.Y. Hilton. T.Y. Stole the ball out of the defender's hands. Touchdown, 20 to nothing Colts. What a play by T.Y. Hilton. Bob Lamie, W.F.N. I. Big call. Bob. Liked it.

Enjoyed it. Andrew Lucks touchdown past the T.Y. Hilton was part of a huge start for the Colts, who jumped out to a big early lead then staved off a Titans' comeback attempt. in a 24-17 win at Lucas Oil Stadium. Oh, shit. Speaking of streak's ending, my lock-it-up streak ended here. I counted on the Titans here. You can't predict football. Yeah, they...

Their little statement game last week, they didn't respond well to that. They were getting woodshed in the first half of this game. Colts went up 21 to nothing, and with four minutes left in the second quarter, had a 234 to 77 edge in total yards. Titans were abysmal on offense to that point and really were kind of non-existent on defense.

Luck deserved a better stat line. Dwayne Allen had a brutal drop in the red zone that led to Adam. He kills them. Led to Adam Venetary's first miss in 45 field goal attempts. And then T.Y. Hilton had a bad drop on a deep ball in the red zone too that was a big issue. And that allowed Tennessee to come back in the game,

those two drops. Well, this is a huge result for the AFC South picture. We were all excited about the Titans. I think we all thought they were going to win this week. And now they've been swept by the Colts. Wow. And twice in four weeks, two, or five weeks, not too far apart. The Colts defense has been getting a little bit better all year.

I mean, they were able to slow down this Tennessee offense, which we think is great. They're healthier than they've been all year. And there were several good signs today. They held DeMarco Murray to 3.3 yards per carry, and with the game on the line, Clayton Gether stopped DeMarco Murray on a fourth down, fourth and short behind that offensive line. They also have five sacks against Mariotto,

which is their highest sack total of the year, and their tackling is much better. So the cults now essentially have a game and a half lead on Tennessee in this division because they have the tiebreaker, and there's not going to be a wildcard team coming out of this division. So, yeah, like you said, Greg, this was a huge, huge development today. 11 straight for the Colts. They've played their best games lately.

I mean, the Colts, the result against the Packers, I know the Packers aren't good. You know, if you're a Colts fan, they're our best chance. We need to save America from Brock. Forget West of us. The Texans being an unwatchable mess on the first Saturday of the playoffs could be a new tradition if this keeps up. I can't believe it. So let's go, Colts.

We're back in you now. I mean, they are today. And then two weeks from now, we'll be talking about a different team in the AFC South because this is a bad division that's going to produce a team that goes to the playoffs and gets utterly slaughtered by somebody. I don't think the Colts are terrible. Well, they're not, I'm not saying they're terrible, but it's like one of these teams is going to squeeze out an AFC South title and hang their banner, and it means nothing.

They have pieces. I mean, they have luck playing at a high level. They have T.Y. Hilton, I think it's got to be his best season of his career, or certainly right there with a couple years ago. Moncrief is starting to look like himself again. They do have pieces. Jack Doyle plays well. When luck gets productive, when luck gets protected,

their offense can score with anybody except Atlanta, really. I'm disappointed. I really, I thought at the Titans, if the score was reversed, we would all be feeling great about Tennessee. We all like them. Listen, like this is a team that a week ago was the most fun team to watch, and now they're cast aside and they're gone again. It's just, I mean.

I mean, that's the NFL in 2016. Well, it absolutely is. The soft underbelly of the roster of teams, Like, everyone can get beat pretty handily on any given week. And Tennessee reminded that, reminded us of that today. Let's move out. Manning takes the shotgun snap. Bears bring pressure.

He throws it over the middle. Wide open Shepard. Touchdown Giants. 15 yards. Manning to Shepard. And the Giants are in front. Oh, yeah. That's my boy, Bob Papa, a WFAN.

Sterling Shepard's touchdown hookup with Eli Manning. Put the Giants up for good on Sunday. His big blue overcame a slow start to beat the band. Bears 2216 at the Meadowlands. The Giants have won five straight for the first time since their 2007 Super Bowl season. Mr. Sessler, the Giants are doing something in 2016. They could not do last year. They're closing out teams.

They are. I think it has a lot to do with their defense. You know, Cutler, Jay Cutler and the Bears were driving for a potential game-winning touchdown here, and they got a big sack on him. and then he landed Collins hit fourth straight game with an interception. This was a huge one that essentially sealed the win. And, you know, the New York Giants are an imperfect team.

There's no question about it. But this is the second week in a row where what I thought was their fatal flaw, was their ground game, showed up today. It wasn't from wire to wire, but it showed up in moments. And you're right, they overcame a first half

that a Giants team from a different year wouldn't have had the defense to stay in it. And they climbed back in today. and got it done. It was not a pretty win, and the Giants don't seem to have a lot of pretty victories in general. They won every game by one score. Their biggest margin of victory was the London game,

which was basically an interception return, and you win by a touchdown. Tom Coughlin's team lost this game countless times, as any Giants fan will tell you. So I really, despite the fact that they beat, and that last drive by Jay Cutler, I try to get Greg excited at one point downstairs. Like, oh, he's driving down the field,

but that collapsed in a big way once he got past the field. I flip it over, fumble interception next he plays. I'm like, you're just torturing me. He hit a couple good passes before that. But I thought that was a big win for the Giants because they missed these games historically, and they took care of business. It was also the game that got the very wacky PAT situation from today. We'll go our whole lifetime and maybe not see that happen again

because the last time it happened was 30-something years ago with 11 missed PATs. But Robbie Gould, both kickers missed a PAT. and Robbie Gould in this game, a former bear, against his old team. You'd think he'd know how to kick and practice against this kind of a team. Misses two PATs. What is going on with these people? What are you insinuating? I think Blair Walsh is home in his house with like 18 voodoo dolls of NFL kickers

and just sticking pins and feet because today's felt supernatural. Do you believe in voodoo? Huh? Do you believe in voodoo? Not particularly no. Do you believe in the Giants? Seven and three. Well, listen, I mean, in the NFC, they're 7 and 3, and they've got a chance to, in a sense, you could say they control their own destiny for a playoff spot because they play the rest of the NFC East down the stretch.

All these NFC teams do. And they have a win on the Cowboys. They do, and you're winning, I don't have a problem with teams winning these sort of rough and tumble, ugly games, because every team is doing it. There aren't a lot of teams we can believe in. There's maybe two in the NFC and maybe two in the AFC, I think one in the AFC. They're a different team now. They're more balanced. They have 14 sacks over the last five games after averaging less than one per game early in the season.

Jason Pierre Paul is coming on in two half days. Two and a half. Big, big day for the under the radar sandwich prop, JPP versus Mario Williams, where a committee of people vote who had a better season. JPP took commanding league in the last couple weeks. You know, people have been waiting around for that since the minute you came up with that. people just waiting. Rashad Jennings, 100 yards from scrimmage and back-to-back games after they were

averaging about 40 yards from the running backs for a while. And Landon Collins, I'm ready to put him on the All-Pro team now. I think he deserves it. And your boy, Victor Cruz, had a huge catch today. Oh, that'll buy him another three years worth of media coverage in New York. You got a joke. Sticks and Les's Craw. It's true.

It's the ultimate Annoy West stat line. One catch for 48 yards on two targets. You're right. That'll make all the highlight wheels. Everyone's thinking he's having a great year. Yeah, defense leaves him alone because most players all got the rate that he rose. Wow, it's just, it's personal. It's gotten personal at this point.

The Bears, by the way, lost Zach Miller, who is probably their best pass catcher. Maybe for the rest of the season. Well, I'll sudden Jeffrey suspended. I'm just saying that this team is, if they were even going to be respectable, they're losing any chance. He actually had a really good game before he went out to touchdown 61 yards, and he was really all they had. They're going to have probably the third overall pick in the draft next year.

Who's more boring to watch right now? Bears are the 49ers. Oh, I would go 49ers. I would go the bears are more boring. You still got Kaepardt. Capertick's playing a little better. That's what's called a tease. You can't sign me up for them.

Speaking of Colin Kaepernick. Brady to throw, steps up in the pocket, rolls to his right. He's hit as he throws. It's complete to Mitchell. Into the open field outside the numbers, the 20, the 15, 10. Touchdown, Patriots. for the second time this half Tom Brady was hit as he let it fly

it's a 56 yard touchdown pass and the Patriots are on top 26 to 10 Tom McCarthy Westwood won sports Tom Brady through four touchdown passes including that long catch-in run hookup with Malcolm Mitchell the Patriots cruised what a life to a 30 to 17 win

over the 49ers who aren't even a real team and they've lost nine straight games. Greg, San Francisco actually entered the fourth quarter down three points. Yes. But the Sherrod ended there. Not even charade, charade. Charade.

Tom Brady, we've been talking about on this podcast, has made a living this year improvising plays with his feet. And that's what this game was all about was his footwork, getting out of the way of pressure, delivering while hit. Almost to the point where it's concerning that, that, you know, this is not a way for a Patriots offense to really, you know, make their living. Tom Brady, kind of improvising, making people miss. But it worked for today.

I don't feel like I learned anything about the Patriots today. The same concerns I had going into the day, I still have leaving them, but they're certainly good enough to drop the 49ers. Oh. It's almost. Wait, what? How could we lock this up? Oh, wait.

Oh, Wes had something here. Jeff Triplett. Jeff Triplett bit. Oh, he didn't kick anyone out? No, he didn't kick anyone out. He went out, but he did, you know, I was thinking of you, he did give a penalty to Chip Kelly for leaving the sideline multiple times, which is something only an over-officious jerk would do. Who gives that penalty? It was certainly an out-there lock of the week by you.

I appreciated it. You went for it. I gave the segment, the sincerity it deserved. It's a huge hit segment, Wes. It's about me. I invite you to come up with a replacement. I demand you to try to beat lock of the week. The lock of the week puts a bounce in my step,

but not because I take it seriously. And also, this Tom Brady thing is personal between him and you. Oh, that's true. After you called him up for slight regression, he made it a point to show better pocket movement than he has than he did at 28. 16 touchdowns, one interception so far. He basically beat a JV team today. So I know you guys are going to do your little, you know,

I am not feeling good about that. How great he looked against the 49ers pass rush. This ain't 2012 anymore. This is a different San Francisco 49ers. Let's wait until he starts playing a team. It's nothing to do with the 49ers pass rush. When you go into your, you know, go down into your little cave and watch your game, you crank up your game pass next week.

Just take a look at the way Tom Brady moves this year. He moves better than he did five years ago or 10 years ago. I get it. The jury still out on science. I get it. He's Ken Stabler and his prime. You guys are locked in on this. Hashton market improved.

Ken Stabler wishes he was Tom Brady. Listen, the bottom line here is if you want to get all excited about beating, the 49ers. Go ahead. Have fun. Nobody's excited about being out of the middle of the field,

a straw man. Nobody's talking about the 49ers. It's the whole season. Oh, get excited. I said I have concerns. This game didn't make me feel great at all.

Then again, they were missing Gronk. It's another reminder when Gronk's not there, they're not the same team. Because if Gronk's there, they're not going to have 13. What about Malcolm Mitchell?

It's absolutely true. It's also another reminder that Dan's got another five years of watching Tom Brady destroyed the AFC. A lot of things can change. Even this season, gentlemen,

that's all. I'll say on that. Mark, how many wins against over 500 teams of the Patriots, by the way? Oh, is this our new straw man that the Patriots really aren't a good team? Yeah, now actual stats and records. That's a straw man argument, too. I got it. I'm saying when, Texans, I guess that's probably.

When the schedule tightens up specifically in January, let's see how Tommy looks. Okay. You like that guy in Titanic that's like, I tried to build a nice ship for you, Rose, as the waters creep up around your neck. line. I don't remember that scene. Poignant scene in a hit movie. Anything else about the...

Oh, can I get the throne of these music one more time, by the way? Oh, staff. No, this is for you. It feels organic. Enjoy this. 16 straight winning seasons for the Patriots. The first team to do that since the 83 to 98-49ers. Well, but Greg this week...

Well, they're eight and two, technically. Greg offered a fascinating counterpoint to his fandom over text-mefellers. message to us this weekend. Reminding us on Saturday. I was in a dark place at the moment. All right. Well, reminding us that, hey, guys, you know, it's not always a throne of ease if you're Greg because I'm a big tennis fan and a certain, some tennis players I like aren't as good as they should be. Well, I got to say. I nearly drove my car off the road reading that. It is an insane. Honestly, I care more about them as, I care more about that as a fan than the Patriots. Well, that's, that's a road of east. That is true, though. It's bad. It's bad.

I might as well read the actual text now. No, no, don't even read it. Don't even read it. This was unsolicited. It just came out of the toilet. That's why I am embarrassed. I immediately wrote it afterwards. If it makes you feel any better, I don't know who that was too.

I guess it was Mark and I. No. Yeah, well. My tennis fandom is opposite of Throne of Eve. Yes. Endless heartbreak. Yes. And then you have to back it up.

Well, immediately afterwards, what's next? That may be the single most useless text I've ever sent. Are you embarrassed? Area Mitten Clapper cares more about tennis. By the way, that was the loudest, well, I don't know about the loudest, but that was the best road Patriots crowd. It's embarrassing what's happening at the San Francisco game, that every game now has tons of empty seats and has a road crowd as the home team.

You know, they asked Kaepernick about it. He's like, you know, I didn't really notice. But they were chanting Brady throughout the entire game. I think it's Santa Clara. Same thing happened when New England went to San Diego. It could be that our nation is. you know, tends to jump on bandwagons. And it's ironic that if you go to Gillette Stadium,

it's like the New England Public Library. Well, that's people apparently more interested in men's tennis at this point. Colin Kaepernick's looking a little better the last few weeks and the Patriots pass rush and a Landon Roberts in coverage. Never have this guy in coverage again. Don't do this to 49ers fans. What? Get them all excited about Colin Kaepernick's renaissance or whatever.

He's playing a little better. He's going to lead them to a 2 and 14 record next year. Whatever. Inter-conference action. Stafford takes the snap. Goes on the end around to Ebron, to the one, to the end zone. Touchdown Detroit Lions. Why not?

He took it all the way down there and then he took it home. The Lions have the lead back. That's Dan Miller of WJR. Eric Ebron's first career, Carrie ended with a touchdown as the Lions did just enough to beat the Jaguars 2619 at Ford Field. the Lions have now trailed in the fourth quarter of all 10 games they played this season but they remain in the thick of the NFC playoff race you know they averaged listen guys listen to this stat they average 0.7 yards per attempt on the ground on Sunday

21 rushes for 14 yards putting way too much pressure on Matthew Stafford who despite the stat line isn't going to jump out at you made again some just beautiful throws in this game and basically did things by himself and on the other side Blake Bortles I mean he's the hardest watching the league he doesn't throw the ball downfield now

because he's been burned too many times and cannot complete a pass anything down field of 15 yards or further everything's a checkdown the accuracy is still an issue the fact that the Jaguars almost stole this game is wild but they couldn't pull it off. And this is why they, A, should be relegated

and B, why they're known as the NFL's inland franchise. And the look on Gus Bradley's face, I mean, A, to be Gus Bradley and could go through the season you're going through right now. But Senderick Marks falls for, with 234 left in the game on 4th and 2, Matthew Stafford, attempting to get the Jaguars to fall offside, come off sides. Marks falls for a veteran player, and Bradley just looked at him like, bro, you got to be kidding me.

That was the game. Bradley is known as a positive guy, so you don't see that a lot. And Marks is the same guy who is a respected guy in that locker room who was belly aching last week, saying that it was a slap in the face, that his snaps had been decreased. And this was a guy that led the team in sacks a couple of years ago. But it was, you know, I mean, it tells the story of what the Jaguars are about. The Lions would get another first down after that kick a field goal to essentially ice the game, chew up most of the clock.

So the Lions didn't play great in this game. but again, they've been good at pulling these games out, and they did it again. Blake Bortles finished with a 73.8 passer rating against a defense that turns its typical opponent into Tom Brady. The Lions have an historically bad pass defense this season, allowing a passer rating of about 110. To me, if you can't take advantage of that defense, I don't know what Gus Bradley's trying to prove.

What's left for this season that you're sticking a broken quarterback out there week after week? Maybe he's trying to save his job, and he thinks that even a broken Blake Bortles is better than the next guy up? I don't know. By the way, the Jaguars clinched not having a winning season again for the ninth straight year. 2007. A lot of people talk. We talk a lot in here about the Browns and the Jets, but the Jaguars fan base, and it's probably not a core as large of a. fan bases till the teams who have been around forever, those guys have been through absolute hell.

You want to talk about the charges? You've got to put the Jaguars right there. Because here's why you don't yank Blake Bortles from an organizational perspective. Here's what I would say. We could argue and say you put it, you take them out of there. They are in an absolute fix. The best thing that could possibly happen if there's any redeeming quality is that he somehow in their mind plays better down the stretch. You don't have to completely reorganize the most important position.

We've just seen no evidence. We've seen no evidence of that happening. The best thing that can happen. The only thing that really matters now is whether you can fix Blake Bortles or not. And I don't think you can do that by playing him. Well, I think it would be interesting to pull 32 head coaches to see how they would handle the situation. I agree. Because it's extremely tricky.

That would be interesting. Lions fans have had it rough too, and they got to be having a fun time with this team, which they probably feel like the rug is going to get pulled out from under them at some point because all these close wins. But it's been exciting. Raphael Bush move that he made on the interception was one of the moves and the plays of the year. I mean, his quickness, he looked like Reggie Bush in his prime. It was like you do not normally, you do not see a cornerback with movement like that. They have Eric Ebron, who has really turned into a big-time player for them.

To have a good season. On pace for almost 800 yards this year, which would shatter his career high. If you're a Lions fan, you take it any way you can. This season is just fine. And when they get Amir Abdullah back, he looks like he could practice at some point here. They're hoping over the next three weeks to get him back. I mean, they need some help here. All right.

And now, actual dialogue from a commercial advertising a real CBS television. What's harder than preventing a nuclear disaster? Preventing a nuclear disaster. Thank you for coming. With your mother. I'm sorry, what? More intercompetence action. What the heck?

Here's the snap. Winston, play, active, looks the right, throws it to the right. Cod ball. Touchdown, Tampa Bay. Buccaneers score a touchdown for the first time of the game. And Alan Cross has his first career. Touchdown Graham. How about that?

The Buccaneers turned that interception returned by Chris Conte into a touchdown. Gene Decker-off, W-F-U-S. Buck's quarterback James Winston, threw for 331 yards and hit tight a down cross for a key insurance. touchdown in the fourth quarter on the way to a 1917 upset win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Go figure. Greg, the Chiefs had won 17 of their last 19 games in the regular season before today.

Had they let the Bucs snipe them? Well, their offensive struggles from the last few weeks continued. And more importantly, James Winston was easily the best quarterback on the field. And the Bucks offense did something I didn't think they had it in them to do. which is they really dominated this game. Their first six drives of the game went for over 50 yards, all six of them. They only had eight drives in this game, which is about as low as you can ever have, and they still had 442 yards.

They kept converting on third down, like third in five, third and eight, third and three. James Winston, I think, was 12 for 14 on third down for 133 yards, and he made a really good defense that was missing some points. players. I mean, Marcus Peters wasn't out there. D. Ford got hurt during the game. That definitely hurt them. But I didn't think the Bucks had this sort of complete game in them where they looked like the better team in Kansas City.

And credit to them. They're two best games of the season back-to-back weeks against the Bears. Are you more interested in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the New England Patriots at this point? The Bucks aren't even my second favorite team. They're not even in the top three right now. There is fair question. Mark is hinting at there's a little bounce in green. Greg Step and the Bucks play well, all going back to the scientist, Holy War.

No, Marcus Marriota. They're both, we're both enjoying James and Marietta playing well over the last eight weeks. Winston was... Were you speaking on behalf of West? It's true, though, right? You don't, you have nothing. A little olive branch. Yeah, that was...

You have nothing against Winston. You wrote a very complimentary piece this off season where you said they're both great. It's a nice little quarterback. Oh, stop. Now he's just trying to... Oh, that is not. That is... Those are fighting.

When did Chris Conti turn into this turnover machine? What's going on with his November? Yeah, his interception of Alex Smith in the red zone was the biggest play of the game. Alex Smith made that big error that you kind of just don't expect Alex Smith to make. And that was the big part. Because the Bucks had wasted a lot of their drives. They had a fumble at the end of one of them and they kicked field goals, I think, four times when they were in the red zone. So this game was closer than it should have been.

Does Kansas City lose this game of Marcus Peters is playing? They're without Jeremy Macklin, Marcus Peters, like Greg said, D. Ford for half the game. Jamal Charles, you're talking about, what, six of their, three of their top six players they didn't play? They haven't played well in a little while. They were very lucky to beat the Panthers when in Carolina. That was a fluky game. The Nick Foles versus the Jaguars game, you know, I know Nick Foles was the quarterback, but, you know, they haven't really looked like the Chiefs team that we think could do some.

damage in about a month or so. Spencer wears three least productive yards from scrimmage games have been the three since he came back from his concussion. I find it fascinating that someone correctly predicted this upset on Twitter on Saturday. Not soon after Greg sent his wild tennis text.

Were you motivated by it? Yeah, I mean, I was like, let's get back to brass tacks and start talking, you know, correctly about the sport that we analyze. If I could circle back to the locks of the week segment, now you did a really nice job. Nailed it. Picking the 9-1 Cowboys to win.

It's not an upset of the week. It is a lock. Thank you. If someone is asking me to lock down an aspect of their life, I'm not going to toy around and pick some road team with a five-win record. No, I'm going to lock it. I think it's important, though, to hang some onions in a big spot. That's all.

Oh, so the lock of the week, and I know you're a little salty because you lost your lock of the week. Now you're re-engineering what the segment is. It's a constant moving target where it's actually disguised as the upset of the week. Are you a sports fan? Have you ever heard of a lock of the week type segment? Yes, I have. The one that some people are hung up on, and then this guy says, no, no, no, no.

This is what's going to happen. That's what it is. That is your POV. That is what your POV says it is. The onion hanger of the week would make more sense than lock of the week. I agree. And I offered that on Saturday by predicting the bucks to win. So I gave you both.

I gave you a lock and an upset, and you're still asking for more. Here's the problem. It's not good enough. You're still asking for more. Did you pick the bucks? Please, you have a little bit of a different tone on the first segment, then do something a little bit different with your upset. Are you a sports fan?

By the way, please. No one cares about a Saturday tweet. You want to bring it to the show. It's a fair point. The biggest NFL podcast in the nation, you bring it here. I did bring it here. I got it right. Nobody cares about a Saturday tweet.

Well, by the way, who is down in the news from telling us all the things they predicted correctly, and none of them are filed away in writing or anywhere else? He's upside now. Well, you want to get down to it. Let's get down to it. I'm sorry, you did a great job. A lot of shadow predictions suddenly coming and going on Sunday. You did excellent, Mark.

Greg, how did Doug Martin look? Fantasy minds might want to know. Better than his numbers. He was hit in the backfield so many times. He broke more tackles. I thought he looked pretty good. A lot of yards after kind of their offensive line in the running game was a mess. I want to point out this Chief's team is not a lock here for the playoffs.

This game. Not in the West. This game could really haunt them because it's one you counted on. Now you're going at Denver, at Atlanta the next two weeks. Oh! Versus Raiders, versus Titans, versus Broncos at Chargers. That's as a really, that's as tough ending slate as any team has. You can't blow games like this at home against Tampa.

Time to start thinking differently about the Chiefs then. That's a pretty hard schedule. I think they're good enough if they get their act together and people back on the field that they can win a lot of those games and get to, you know, 10 wins. I trust Danny Reed. I think they'll get to that 10 wins. But if they're still this banged up, Ford and Peter, and, you know, that's probably.

Well, they can go, they could potentially go three and three, but again, it comes back to the question of, like, come on four or five of these AFC playoff teams. How much do you really believe in them? Let's go back to an AFC matchup. Bye-bye, inter-conference talk. That's how you get into something else. He always showed blitz, and they bring the extra guy.

Look out. He's in the end zone, being chased, and he's hit, and the ball's out, and the Steelers, I think, have fallen on it. Pittsburgh says, officials say touchdown. Pittsburgh. The Ryan Harris defensive score took any remaining uncertainty out of the equation on Sunday in Cleveland as the Steelers ended a four-game losing streak with a 24-9 win over the Cleveland Browns. That was Bill Hillgrove of WDVE. Oh, Billy.

Billy. Mark, the Browns are now 0 and 11, and their offensive line continues to be a major issue. Yeah, I mean, it's a theme that's been a terrible one for Brown's quarterbacks. It was another game where we saw Cody Kessler, you know, eight sacks by the Steelers and punishing hits. A team that was among the worst in the league at sacking the quarterback, the Steelers. Yeah, and I think that was something we brought up on Thursday, but the counterpoint is you're playing Cleveland. In Cleveland, you know, it's not always on the line. You did say they would discover a pass rush against his offensive mark.

Some of these are on the quarterbacks, too. If you're Josh McCown and you're holding the ball too long or the same with Cody Kessler, but eight sacks is eight sacks when you get down to it. Kessler was knocked out with a concussion. McCown came in and he does what McCown does. He organized a touchdown drive, then had a horrible strip sack. He resulted in a Steelers touchdown. Had a meeting ahead of it. Well, it's one of the few things that looked organized for the Browns.

I mean, the floor has truly fallen out, and it was interesting to watch. I feel like Pittsburgh approached this almost the way that you would a preseason game where you don't want to put anything on film. They seem to use about one-tenth of their playbook. And I'm not even being salty about it. I honestly, it was two straight 16 play drives that ate about 19 minutes off the clock. They both resulted in field goals, so it looked closer than it was. But you could tell right away that Cleveland cannot tackle anyone outside of Jamie Collins.

And Levion Bell had about 100 combined total yards in the first 10, 12 minutes of this game. and you just knew it was over. And Cleveland hung around to some degree later, only because Pittsburgh really, they didn't take their foot off the gas. They just seemed to know what they needed to do to get out here with that. If you're a Steelers fan, yeah, the weather wasn't great,

but if you're a Steelers fan, and I saw Damashek on Twitter not happy about this, 313 total yards against the winless team, you would think that they would be able to do a little bit more, but maybe they, like Mark, you're saying, they were that conservative knowing that the only way they could lose this game was by being reckless. The only other option we have is to say,

Cleveland's defense clamped down, and that's not the impression this game gives you if you go watch it. I could see why Damashek, who also was spinning this narrative to my dismay all week about how this was some sort of a trap game for the Steelers, well, it wasn't. They were going to win. It wasn't the prettiest win, but the Steelers are five and five. They are not last year's high-powered team or the team from the year before. Reading your recap, it made me think the Steelers treated them not just as a little brother, but as a little brother who's more interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons. I really don't think that they wanted to expose much of a game plan, and they did not need to.

Well, one of the wildest stats I've ever seen is that Ben Rathesberger is now tied, or he has the most wins of any-tied with Derek Anderson. Quarterback in Cleveland Stadium. Oh, what? That's insane. Well, no. Well, number one, it's crazy. It's not crazy when you think about it.

Cleveland's had, what, 20-something starting quarterbacks? Right, but they get to play eight. year there. I understand. I mean, I get it when you think about it. You don't even have a quarterback. You don't even have a quarterback that started three seasons in a row in Cleveland, and the Steelers have dominated the Browns from wire to wire. It isn't that crazy if you start to break it down. Well, we'll break it down. All you need is one quarterback for three years to beat that. It's a depressing stat. It's an absolutely depressing. It's exactly the kind of thing I was talking about on Thursday when I said an 0-16 season wouldn't

even be close to their biggest black mark. That is far more embarrassing, that's stat. And an O'N-16 is in the cards, and that's going to be remembered. That's the thing that every pre-game show will hit on forever more than these niche stats. That's perhaps true that the Rafflesberger stat is worse, but O'N-16 is just like a little ribbon that gets plucked on you, a scarlet letter. Totally agree. And he just gets stuck with you forever. Mark, I want your thoughts on Steelers' legend and all-around good guy. James Harrison breaking the Steelers' all-time sack record in Cleveland.

Well, I called him in the recap age list because you talk about Dan wondering, you know, in the back of his mind, will Tom Brady play deep into the 2020s? I feel like James Harrison, I don't know what age he'll play to, but if it were 53, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm not sure. Still sacking Brown's quarterback. Yeah, you cut him open and there's just machine parts in there. And, you know, that's. It's illegal.

Well, he's sneaky bit on your, he's been on your radar for a long time. Well, ever since he almost killed Colt McCoy. I don't think any AFC North fan that has to deal with James Harrison, it finds him to be likable. Here's why I think the Browns are going 0 and 16. They get worse every week. And it's that off, early in the season when they were frisky and they were playing teams tight, they could run the ball. And you mentioned on our Thursday preview mark that they don't even run the ball.

They don't even try to run the ball because their offensive line is such a joke right now. They're quarterbacks, and you said have been hit more than any quarterbacks in the entire league. So it's crazy because that offensive line was good in the past. They got to get through a game with one quarterback. But can we do that first before we do anything else? When was the last game they've had with one quarterback? Terrell Pryor, who's been the most optimistic guy ever on a winless team. Every week you hear positive things coming from him about his hopes about the team.

He finally after the game kind of went off a little bit. I want to say he went off, but his frustrations boiled over. He called the bull crap that the offensive line cannot protect these quarterbacks. And he hates that maybe it's the, former quarterback in him talking as well and he's just these guys getting killed week after week after week another concussion

for Cody Kessler. All right, let's move on. Which takes us to Sunday night football. Oh, Sunday night. The Packers had no answer for Kirk Cousins who threw for 375 yards and three touchdowns

as the Redskins rolled to a 42 to 24 win over and let's call it like it is an overmatched Green Bay team. Mark Sessler, you told us many times as we watch this game tonight that you were sick of seeing the Packers in the national spotlight. It's starting to look like you're going to get your wish come January. I am tired of seeing them on national television. And what I'm tired of is no matter what happens to the Green Bay Packers,

Dom Capers exists nonstop to preside over a defense that year after year, is, you know, a little bit up and down, and tonight just got torched. And, you know, we talked about, oh, the Redskins exciting to watch. They were tonight. On Thursday, this offense is exciting to watch. Kirk Cousins was unbelievable in this game, Chris Wesley.

He was, as well as he was throwing really well, dropping dimes. This Packers defense is going through a stretch that is as futile as anything they've done in the last seven decades. And it's hard to blame Dom Capers when you are pulling guys. eyes off the street. You just don't have bodies

and the secondary. I rewatched their game last week against Marioota. They simply can't tackle. They don't cover and they don't tackle. And you saw that again tonight. They're the Washington generals of statement games now. Everybody gets a statement game playing in. Right. It's true. How does that feel, Greg? How do you like it? It doesn't really bother me because I understand it's kind of like a fun bit within the scheme of the show so I don't really get

upset. Sure. Look at your eyes right now, though. Your point was sabotaged. You're right, Wes, that if you look back, like we thought that Falcons win was kind of, okay, now the Falcons, that's a big win for them, a home win over a good NFC team. Then the Colts beat the Packers. We're like, wow, that's the best game the Colts will play in a long time.

The Titans beat the Packers. That's, you know, they're the most exciting offense in the league. Every team gets a turn against this Packers defense, and it's no fluke because this Redskins' offense has played great over the last month. This performance have been coming for a while. I have some numbers here. 153 points allowed now by the Packers in their last four games. That averages out, folks, to 38.3 points per game in those four games. The most in a four game span for this team since 1958, NBC tells us, that was before the last touchdown. So I don't even know if that's even the right stat anymore. But

the only thing that we do know is that it is absolutely dreadful what's going on on that out of the ball. And you, Chris, you mentioned it. I'm not upset either. I don't care at all. I don't care at all anymore. I mean, you should have seen, by the way, the amount of back and forth between Sidney and I

on our instant messaging agent about how to play this. Because then right before we started, you went and told Sidney that you wanted to hit Mark. So Sidney reported to me, and then we debated whether to do Greg and then you or hit you because you thought you'd be safe. And then I threw it to Sid and Sid, What was your thought on it?

I just thought we should throw him off the sun a little bit. We make him feel like he's safe. I didn't think I was safe. I understand the bit, and it's an enduringly funny bit. Keep at it. It's duriously funny. I mean, people forget that pre-Bret Favre the Packers, and you go to the year before Magic Man, Don McCowski,

that was a trash heap of an organization for a long time. Yeah, that was a long time ago. It was a super long time ago. But even this four-game stretch with the points allowed, I'm shocked that none of those teams. They were getting absolutely destroyed in those old seasons. There was, I think it was an old YouTube video of, there was a squirrel ran on the field at Lambeau Field a couple of weeks ago

and then did an end-around post about when a fan who was so annoyed with the Packers stinking all through the 80s brought a turkey into the stadium and let it loose on the field. And then you go back and you look at Pro Football Reference to see how bad the Packers were all those years. My God. Yeah, from the time Lombardi left until the time that Reggie White and Brett Far have arrived.

Anything else, folks, on this game? Here's what I think. I think the Redskins have established themselves as the fourth best team in the NFC. I know the Giants have a slightly better record by half a game. They're better team. The Redskins are 6-1-1 in their last eight games, and they belong.

They're going to be in the playoffs, I think. They're offense travels. I mean, Cousins is playing. really well. I think he played a lot worse than his numbers show over the first four or five weeks, but he has been on a role. And now that he's mixing in the big plays, you got Fat Rob

finishing out games. I think this team is legit and it's not going anywhere, whereas the Giants I expect to fall off. By the Reds, those throws by cousins, those deep shots he was taking. Into the wind. Into the wind. We talked about this, I think, last week about how it's working

out for him. He's going to get paid. There is no question right now. I mean, things can change the NFL quickly. But right now, that move that he made, he's making 20 million this year, and he's going to be in the top six or seven paid quarterbacks in the league probably this time next year. Yeah, and you have to look at what Jay Gruden has done too. I think he's someone that personally, I kind of slowed to him. I didn't really take the whole Jay Gruden thing seriously. But honestly, he can coach offense. I mean, what they've done over the last two seasons is the whole team's changed. The whole identity of the team has completely been transformed.

We were talking before we started, though. I still don't rule out the Packers at 4 and 6 because that division is so bad. But they have to go to Philadelphia next week. They have Houston. They have Seattle coming up, too. I think it's a different Packers team this year. I do. But the articles this week were all about Aaron Rogers and what's wrong and he doesn't talk to his family.

Like the defense is, they're the ones who aren't talking to their family. They should, I don't know. People should check if they're talking to their families. I mean, Aaron Rogers played fine last week. I watched that Titans game. Aaron Rogers played pretty well. Aaron Rogers. He played well today.

Played very well today. So their problems go a lot beyond it. It's like Wes pointed out, though. I mean, there are position groups that are run into the absolute dirt at this point. There's no bodies left. And you can't survive that way. I mean, that 2010 Packers team that won a Super Bowl infamously had so many guys. But they have no pass rush.

They've got nothing. And that's not injury related. You're not going to see. Aaron Rogers come out this year and say everybody relax because he knows it right at the end of the game when the tight end Jared Cook fumbled. The game is basically over already. And you could see Rogers' body language. He was just, he can't believe what's happening.

What's happened? And I'm fascinated now to see what's going to become of the Packers if they do flame out totally and miss the playoffs. What happens next? Get a new coach. A lot of people who were. incorrect about the way Jay Gruden handled RG3 and Kirk Cousins. Oh, Jay Gruden, an apology.

Everybody, I think a lot of people, and I include myself, and I think a lot of us expected him not to make it as a head coach, and it looks like it's working in Washington. Hey, by the way, Mark, if you were trying to prevent a nuclear disaster, what's harder than preventing a nuclear disaster? Preventing a nuclear disaster. Thank you for coming. with your mother

I've met your mother very nice woman you think she would help or hinder you if you were trying to prevent a nuclear disaster you think that you're saying would she try to stop me from preventing it or her joining the effort would make it

right you're tasked you're tasked with stopping a nuclear disaster you're in a scorpion Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBS you are tasked with stopping a nuclear attack would your mom help or hurt you towards that she has always given me

great advice that said I don't feel very capable with or without a family member attached to it of stopping a nuclear disaster I don't even know who to speak to how would I even I would be the wrong person to assign that to

I wouldn't want that I think you could yeah that would be true of all of this but personally I know for me I think it would hinder it would hinder it because I would decide to do something she'd be like well you're really sure that's the right the right thing to do to stop the nuclear attack that would be Debbie that would be Debbie

See, I know that your mom listens to the TV show. It's a lot like Brock Castle. I just hear him again. Oh, I can't believe it. She does listen. It's a shout out to Debbie. She's not going to enjoy that moment of the show. Deb Rosethal listens?

Oh, yeah. Deb Hansis has never heard of the show. My mom. Really? My wife has never listened. But, yeah. Wes, what would have? I mean, my mom would come in and clean house.

She would take the bull by the reins. Oh, however that thing goes. Horns. Yeah, it's a long day. It's a long day. My mom would clean house. Yeah, I mean, my mom would probably help. She would help me.

I guess the thing is none of us are able to say who it is that we're clean house who, what, U.S. Congress? She walked into the Joint Chiefs of Staffs meetings and would be leading it by the end. Again, the question of me, why are the Joint Chief of Staffs suggesting that Westmark, Dan, or Gregg? Well, they've tried everything else. We're like the McGruber in this situation. They've got to go rogue. Plot to every sci-fi movie in the history of the world. You have to have a little or a lot willing suspension of disbelief.

Okay. I'm glad we settled on that. We'll be back on Tuesday. This is a different week. It's Thanksgiving week here in the States. We'll have our regular Tuesday show where we'll also preview Thanksgiving games. And then we'll probably be back the next day with our second pod the day after. Is that how we're going to do this?

We will. Yeah. Preview all of the rest of week. 12. So that'll be out of day early. You can enjoy it with your Thanksgiving feast or if you're overseas, you know, with Thursday. And finally, because it's in the contract,

and I didn't say it earlier, this podcast is sponsored by Mr. Flames' economics class in the Hague, the Netherlands. Mr. F. That was a close call. All right. Let's go home. I mean, that guy, you do not want Mr. F on your bad stuff.

He's very fair, but you don't want to take him into a nuclear crisis. This is Dan Hansa, signing off for the mailman, the boss, a sizzler. And I'll see it behind the glass till Tuesday. To, like, the fans that used to do the laser pointers into people's eyes. Why don't we have more of that? Society turned. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you.

Don't let them down. Unlock Elite Gaming Tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next-level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E, and maximize game performance with enhanced overclock.

win the tech search power up at Lenovo.com Lenovo Lenovo Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here And I'm Bucky Brooks On move to six, we take you inside the game From breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies To evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends

And how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.