NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2019 Week 11 Recap

Episode Date: November 18, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal recap all of the games from week 11 including the Cardinals putting up a huge fight against the 49ers (2:55), the Super Bowl LII rematch between the Patriots and Eagles (10:02) and the highly anticipated Lamar Jackson vs DeShaun Watson matchup. (17:50). Stick around for Wess showing off the holes in his jeans (37:55) and the Broncos blowing a huge lead (44:24).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. The Around the NFL podcast. Drinks, it's coffee black. Welcome to the Around the NFL podcast, presented by the United States Marine Corps. My name is Dan Hansis. I'm joined in a filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Good energy. Good energy right now. I feel like a flat Sunday, and so Hansis is bringing the energy. Got to do it. Good leadership. Maybe not the Sunday that we all dreamed of, but, you know, it was still football. It's fun.

And it was free to the people. I didn't hate this Sunday. Is that the collective wisdom here? No, just like the big games didn't have electric moment. It was just, it was a fine. It was good. It checked a lot of boxes. It's almost over.

That's good. Let's talk about it, Mark. We'll give you the floor real quick before we get into anything. the Cleveland Browns, what happened on Thursday. In my mentions, my mentions were flooded with people saying, oh, I wanted to hear from Sessler. We'll give you the floor for 30 seconds right now

to address the fiasco in Cleveland. It was a fias. It's a very Cleveland-type win. You've finally beaten the Steelers for the first time in five years. Your quarterback played the cleanest game he's played to some degree during a messy season. And all anyone can talk about is a

gigantic controversy that feels like it was spun from the dreamlands of Dave Damashek. I mean, who's been tweeting about it nonstop ever since. So, you know, it's, it's, talk about checking all the boxes. I could not, I've stayed off Twitter ever since.

I don't need to interact about it. We all saw what it was. And, you know, we won't be seeing Miles Garrett for many, many moons, many months in a row. The biggest takeaway there was just Damashek's Twitter account is on your radar. No, no. I interact happily with Damashek a million times,

but it's like, I don't need to go on and on about it, you know? It was a bummer, Mark. I'm sorry. It was. It was. It's hard to draw up a win that produced less enjoyment for you. Yeah, it's reminded me of the Jets win on Monday night when I was essentially, and not because of Dan, but you're not allowed to celebrate that game either because the Jets had like three

professional players on the field. It was just like, this season is mostly a bummer. And just to tie it all together, Miles Garrett broke Trevor Simeon's leg in that game as well. Well, there is a B-line here. It's all been building up. to that. We'll get it more into that perhaps during the week. But we have some football that occurred on Sunday to talk about. And I'm excited, you know, Greg, even when there's not major, major subplots in all-time games, you love all football games. So this is going to be a fun hour and 15, 20 minutes.

I'm going to have a great time. All right. So why don't we start with the game that had probably the most excitement per minute. Let us head to the big bell bottom. Garapolo in the shotgun. Jeff Wilson Jr.'s in. He runs inside. He's got a 10.

Five. Touchdown! San Francisco. Feels great, baby. Wow. Zero blitz. They sent the whole kitchen sink at

Garapolo and who comes up with the Big play, the touchdown machine. Jeff Wilson goes up over his head, collects the rock, and rolls into the end zone. Excellent call by Greg Papa and Tim Ryan of the 49ers Radio Network. There's the energy. We got it. From that team.

Jimmy Garofalo beat the blitz, found Jeff Wilson, Jr. who gathered the past, jetted into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown with 31. ticks to play the decisive score. The Niners, 36-26 win over the Cardinals. Wes, Kyler Murray, and the cards push the first-place Niners to the limit. But it's called a gut-check win for San Francisco. Yeah, you want to play with Fire, Scarecrow? Send your Zero Blitz.

Jimmy G. hitting the game winner right there. What's crazy about this, Jimmy G. throws for a career high, 424. 420 of those came in the final three quarters. He had four yards going into the second quarter And he finished with nine and a half yards per attempt He also threw two red zone interceptions

But before I knew who Namath asked this performance Just in terms of like the mistakes, the yardage Just a wild shootout performance I was ready to push back on the narrative That we have to have a state of the union Of every quarterback after every game When I wasn't sure if Jimmy G was going to emerge victorious out of this

Now do it Well A lot of the same things you're going to hear for Carson Wince and other quarterbacks, what they're missing, what they don't have, why they're not playing well. You say the same thing for Jimmy G. today. He doesn't have his leading rusher, Matt Breda was out. His left tackle, Joe Staley, was out. His best offensive player in the team, George Kittle, was out. Emmanuel Sanders, his number one receiver is in and out of the game with rib injury and was clearly limited when he was on the field.

All these things working against him, a defense that's been dominant gives up three touchdowns to the opposing quarterback, and Jimmy G. steps up big, I thought. You know, he had some problems throwing a little bit high early in the game, and his receivers still struggling to come down with it. But Debo Samuel running after the catch, Tevin Coleman running after the catch, Kyle Eusecheck moving the chains. It was a, you know, it was use all your weapons. And Kyle Shanahan, once again, just a brilliant play caller. I would be concerned, though, that he didn't have a running game. Well, because that's two straight weeks. And yeah, you're missing Breda, but you Here's a step for you.

Yep. 181 yards per game in the first seven weeks of the season and 74 yards per game in the last three weeks. Right, and under two yards per carry. Maybe it's, you know, you're playing a division rival two straight weeks. Seattle has a pretty good beat on what Shanahan wants to do. And now you place the Cardinals two times in three weeks. That's tricky.

But I don't mind. You know, this Cardinals 49ers. Some teams, they just match up great. Have this team. These teams play all the time. Only NFL classic. Well, if I'm a Cardinals fan, And there was reason for depression early on in the season.

And, you know, our friend Jason Zumwold, who is our resident Cardinals fan, has been up and down about it. But I would be enthused. And every season gets one of these teams at around this point in the year, where records aside, whatever's happened aside, toss it. They become the berserker and they can cause major issues for other teams. They play the Rams twice, the Cardinals. They could knock the Rams out of the playoffs between now and the end of the year.

And one of those is Week 17. They play the Steelers and Browns. How about you knock them out, too? This is a berserker team that could cause damage in the AFC and NFC. Although if you're a Cardinals fan, I mean, you hate that Steve Wilkes call. I mean, you're up, you know, he's trying to make a big play to win the game in regulation by, you know, throwing a zero blitz at him with 30 seconds left when, you know, at best, the 49 or at worst. That's Vance Joseph, rather, sorry, not Steve Wilkes.

And you're hoping that maybe Chase McLaughlin misses a, kick, but instead you go all out and you have Chandler Jones covering a running back. And you know what Chandler Jones did? He got undressed on that play. The play was over within one second because Chandler Jones is on the ground because, you know, most there, you know, beats him and that's tough. To be fair, they didn't like a lot of Steve Wilkes calls either in recent history. You can't expect fans to be okay with a loss, but I look at this as sort of an unbiased person. And you found your quarterback. Anything to get you a better draft pick is fine by me. I mean, it was sloppy.

You had to take a quarterback two first rounds in a row. But the brain trust and ownership and the people in the Cardinals with the Cardinals, I think they're feeling really good right now. You'd feel less good about the fact that you had a 16-0-0 lead in this game. That's tough. That's a tough loss because if you win this game, you're not necessarily in the playoff race. You would get to 4, 6, and 1, the Cardinals,

if they would have held on this game. But they would absolutely have, the vibes would be like, swarming in that building the positive vibes. Not quite at that level, but still, it's a good spot for hours on a row. We pushed a 9-1 team to the brink twice. I don't care. I get the record and I get specific little plays, but Cardinals fans who have been in the darkness for a number of years at this point,

to Wes's point, to just feel excited about the future. And it's a huge win for the 49ers because you lose this game to the Cardinals. That's a division loss. You've already lost to Seattle. You've got the Saints. You've got the Seahawks nipping at your heels. Your schedule is so tough that you couldn't afford this loss. Next three.

Well, let's go next four since Greg's favorite team is on here. Packers, Ravens, Saints, and then Falcons. Falcons are no gimme. Those two middle games are. Talk about a bizarre. That's my favorite team. Those two middle games are on the road. And we have seen now Jimmy and G.B.

Dominant against the Cardinals twice. Let's see if he can do it against some of this competition coming up. Before we go, one last note, one of the all-time Vegas disasters. scenarios unfolded on the final play of this game and Al Michaels is the king of Sunday night football in dropping little nuggets about what's happening in the desert and how it affects what happened with the final score. Let's just hear Chris Myers give his best Al Michaels in a big spot. DJ Reed takes it into the end zone as time expires. Now wait a minute this could mean a lot to a certain amount of people. This could

mean a lot to a certain amount of people. We all speak in code differently, and he's done it. Grade the ref, Greg, since you're the expert. Wait, grade what? His ref? I think it was solid. B. It's a number of people, not an amount of people.

Okay. Grammar-wise, it takes down, take it down to B-minus. All right, let's move on. Edamon motions into the back field. And it motions out to the right. Brady throws it to him. It's a lateral. Edamins looking to throw.

Under pressure. To the end-so for your set. A strike for a Patriots touchdown. A little razzle-dazzle, baby. You can see from up here? Perfect call by McDaniels, the execution of Brady just to take a slight step up to make sure Evelman

off the return motion is wide enough and behind him. He quickly gets him the ball, and Edelman throws a dart to Dorset, dragging left or right. Bob Sochi and Scott Zolak. I got a feeling your whole family's going down. Zolak, the Patriots Radio Network with the call. Oh, those tricky New England Patriots, Julian Edelman connects with Philip Dorset,

the go-ahead score with 1049 to play, and the slug-like Eagles' offense slugged its way to zero points in the final 42 minutes of game time. 1710, Patriots win. Greg, Tom Brady, and I mean no disrespect, was Blaine Gabbardt level. dangerous in this one. But the Carson Wentz-led Eagle's attack appears completely broken right now. It had a tough matchup. It was windy, as Tony Romo pointed out a million times in the game. But maybe it was worth pointing out, because this is one of the worst performances you'll

see out of Tom Brady and Carson Wentz. I was coming into this game hoping that you're going to learn something about these two teams coming out of the buy, how they're going to fix some of their problems, what they really are looking at with their strengths. But it was really more of the same for both teams. I mean, a million people are going to make the joke. The best spiral of the day was from Edelman. Oh.

You know? I mean, it was. I mean, that was a bullet. Factual also. A million people? Dorset's going to, yeah, one million people. Dorset was concussed on that play. There was a ton of injuries.

You know, in Wence's defense, Alson Jeffrey, didn't play in this game. They lost Lane Johnson after the third drive, which went, you know, about 90 yards. And they didn't have a good drive, basically the rest of the entire game. Jason Peters, their left tackle, went out with what looked like could be a C. serious injury very late in the game. And the Patriots defense was probably the group I've learned the most about just because they haven't played many even halfway decent offenses and to see them have a truly dominant performance against a good offensive line

and the Eagles was encouraging. But you didn't feel any better about the Patriots offense after this game. It makes me think, and you guys seem to think that my happiness lives or dies on the Patriots winning or losing in November. It does it. Not entirely. During the game, you were getting juiced. You're like, with 10 minutes left, you're like, this game is over.

And I was right. The vibe in the room is affected. It will always, I will always be rooting for the Patriots to lose. But at the same time, I watch this game and I continue now to watch his team as the schedule is tightened up a little bit. And these will be famous last words. But it just feels like I, you know, after what we saw with the radio, that the Patriots, they will handle teams like the Eagles.

They will beat up on all the bad teams just because they have Tom Brady and the best coach ever. But I would be, if I was a Patriots fan, I'd be a little wet in the underpants with a fear of the new guard, like a Lamar Jackson and even Patrick Mahomes and maybe even a wildcard team in this conference. I don't think the Patriots, when I watch them, I don't think they scare anybody. Right. Well, who's, I've been saying that since week, too, that it's not a great offense. I also don't think this part of the season is huge for them other than stacking wins. I just think they had this five-game stretch as a fan.

I went into it thinking you've got to get three out of those five. You start at Baltimore, at Pittsburgh. You're one-in-one right now if you want to get a buy. Now, you'd love to get the one-seat if you're the Patriots, but the big thing is getting the buy. And so this is a big road win, and the defense is coming together. I think Isaiah win replacing the worst left tackler, one of the worst left tackles in football.

football, Marshall Newhouse, at least gives you some hope. Well, I mean, there were still plenty of plays where Tom Brady had guys in his face. I mean, there was a lot of pressure today. He faced a ton of pressure the whole game. I thought so, too. And they said at one point he had 14. Get that pressure up the middle. And you will make Tom Brady uncomfortable.

Except it's true in this game because they were, I mean, they were creaky. True of every quarterback ever. They had 18 yards. You have said, Greg, that their line is an issue and that running the ball consistently is an issue. And today, that absolutely was the case. I think they just faced an Eagles offense that I think I fell asleep at my desk three or four times waiting for that offense to come. And I don't want a referendum every quarterback either. But there were a couple of chances for Carson Wentz to write a completely different story along with the rest of the...

Can't blame his receivers for some of those throws on the final draw. No, I mean, the wide receivers are no treat in this game either with Elshun Jeffrey out. I do wonder if the wind had the Brady and Wentz just throwing different types of passes. than they usually do because they both threw five to six low scud missile skitters that just looked

Bordels like as you mentioned Aguilar Gabbard. Yeah. Well, he was sub-Zabert zone at 4.6 yards. So was Wentz.

He's five. Yeah, five. Just pick a Jaguar's quarterback and compare him to me. Yeah, but Nelson Aguilar had a chance to come down with that ball and listen,

you could say he should have had it, but that's not Nelson Aguilar's game making great catches, contested catches. That would have been an insane catch. Yeah. So I, while it was in some ways very close to a target, though, and if he cracked it well from the beginning, maybe it wouldn't have looked at. I just mean where he was at the end where he's like forming a reverse C with his body. That's, you know, I've tried that. That's not easy. They have you. Ah, there's such a need to just remake this, this offensive playmaker

group around Wentz. I like, I like the young running back Sanders. But I think with, and Ertz, of course, is one of the best tight ends. But even with Alshon Jeffrey there, is there somebody on this team that scares you, like a playmaker? They need speed, right? They need speed. They just need to kind of reboot the machine a little bit here. Erts, but, you know, today he's still like 90.

Here's my favorite stat, because every time I looked up, it was either third and 10 and pass going to Jordan Matthews, who had one catch for six yards on six targets. I mean, they have a talent efficiency, and it's not excusing or absolving Wence, who's not playing very well. This year he's been very on and off. But they need help.

They need reinforcements. I think if you're the Patriots, though, style points, they really just don't matter. Like, this November stuff, if you're just playing for Super Bowls, you want to have everyone healthy. They're getting a little healthier. They brought back Nikiel Harry,

their first round pick, who did have a few catches today. What was it? Three for 18. Yeah, not much. You lose Dorset. For the most part, they're actually getting healthier.

You know, you get Matt Lacoste back. It's not going to be, like, here's a thing. Did you just do this when you said Matt LaCost? Here's a thing. They've won the instant replay of Greg's gallery. They've won Super Bowls early on and many teams have with weird days like today where their coaches do cook up like one or two key plays in the game that just ends up being enough. And I think Patriots fans just got to get used to.

That's what this is. Nobody's panicking. I'll panic when they're down by 40 points in the Super Bowl because 28 to 3 didn't get the job done. They host the Seahawks, the Eagles do next week. Dirtnap game, Mark? Not in the NFC East. Because they also, after that, have the dolphins, the giants twice, and the Redskins. So a bad team could make a late search.

They have a nice schedule. All right, let us move on. Second down at 11, Jackson will throw out of the shotgun. He's got Ingram wide open, far side 20, 15, 10, 5, and he's in. Touchdown Ravens. A blown coverage for sure by the Texans. Lamar Jackson saw Mark Ingram wide open on the flat, and when Ingram got the ball, he knew he had a touchdown.

Jerry Sandusky, W-B-A-L with the call. Lamar Jackson, four more touchdown passes. He added 86 yards on the ground. An MVP-worthy showcase once again, helping the Ravens, extend their winning streak to six games, a 41-7 win over the Texans. Mark, this was billed as a showdown between two of the great young quarterbacks, in the league, right, in our league.

But while Deshawn Watson mostly ran for his life, Lamar Jackson soared like a glorious raven? Yes, he did. I mean, I'd say one of the upsets of this show today is that this is our third build game because barring an absolute wipeout, which it was, it would have been up at number one. This was the clash that we were fired up about on Thursday

and it waited for... By the way, you called this. I was surprised that the confidence with which you were picking an absolute beat down by the Ravens? Well, I remember on my way home, I'm an Uber, I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to get bit on that one. I came out all excited about the Ravens, and it's probably going to be one of these overtime things.

By the way, when Wes said that, you should have just been like, yeah, I know. I know, but that's not real because I honestly, I am kind of surprised by... Take the W, bro. But the level of incompetence by the Texans in this game was somewhat stunning. And that's why when I look at the box score, if you just don't watch the game yet, no one on either side of the ball on offense stands out. No one had 250 yards. It wasn't a 400-yard performance like Jimmy G and some of the others. It was Matt Judon. It was Don Wink Martindale and the Ravens defense that caused utter havoc right out of the gate for Deshawn Watson.

And you could see right away. This was a game where it wasn't one of these ones that was over in five minutes, but the tone was set when Deshawn Watson on the first possession, two minutes is doing one of his figure eights, multiple figure eights where he's going in and out of Ravens defenders. You think he's going to escape and whip the ball to DeAndre Hopkins 25 yards down field. Instead, it is a strip sack. The Ravens go from there. And it really wasn't much later that the Ravens were up 21-0 on a beautiful catch and run by Mark Ingram, who was uncoverable at points in this game. Your friend. My friend, their tight ends, they're running backs. Everyone was doing it. This was basically putting the rest of the league on blast. I do believe.

leave at this point that the Super Bowl goes through Baltimore, not New England. And this is such a different looking football team than anything else out there right now. And the Browns fan of me has to just shed all preconceived issues with the Ravens because they're the most fun team to watch, and they are dominant on another level right now. With my dog, Mark with a C. We've reached the point in the season where you can tell that the whole city is going crazy for this team because it's just that exciting to watch this team. One of the great NFL cities. Yeah? Everybody's having fun in and around the Ravens, even in an extent, the post-game pressers.

Mark Ingram, after another quality game, he does his thing. And then Lamar Jackson is on deck at the press conference podium. And this is how the running back set up the quarterback. Now I would just like to introduce you all to the man, the myth, the legend, the MVP frontrunner. If anybody else got to say something different about that, then come see me. I'm right here and be more outside the bank. If you got an issue with that, come see me.

me about that. Big trust. Woo, woo. Lamar Jackson. In the flesh. Yes, sir. Be. The trust.

No error. On which. New era ate apparel. It is mad funny. That is mad funny. It's mad funny. I liked Lamar even tried to follow it up by introducing Matthew Judon

with the next. He didn't have quite the same deal. the reason, and if you have not watched the show that we make fun of, the fact that I went on this random off-season trip to obviously, I'm not telling, I'm not telling, well, it is, we point fun at it. We don't make fun. All right, well, whatever, we can deal with that later. Went to Italy and Germany on a USO mission, and Mark Ingram was, was along for the ride. And what I would say is that after dinner as a group of us, and that, like, he would order an ice cream Sunday, he would talk about the ice cream Sunday the exact same way, the details. Like, he couldn't have been more excited about

the chocolate sauce and stuff so he's just that dude can i just say was mark ingram along for the ride or were you along for the ride ultimately at the uso trip i think it would definitively is up in the air i mean you have to hear more about what happened on that trip definitively up in the air the uh it's not surprising that the ravens ran all over them what do they end up with 263 yards they are on pace to be the greatest running team in the history of the NFL ever at least in terms of 16 game schedules what is more surprising is their defense and scary i think for the and Chiefs and the rest of the AFC. If their defense can win games on their own sometimes

and that they keep getting better since they picked up Marcus Peters and they keep making changes. They benched Patrick Owasso, their middle linebacker today who's really been struggling. And they're tweaking it and it's all working as you mentioned, Mark. Mark, there was, and we're going to play the sound

from Bill O'Brien in a moment. This is a blowout game, but he's furious about a past interference that wasn't. Do you want to just set it up? Yeah, thank you for me, because that's the kind of thing where any time I was writing or tweeting about Lamar Jackson, Texans fans are saying this game is a ref manufactured nightmare. And I do, I will say this, it was the first, it was an opening possession pass where DeAndre Hopkins,

if you watch the replay, I would say that there were three separate arguments for pass interference. To the point where they threw it to their ref analyst guy, and he said, yes, the issue is when you're trying to challenge this and it goes to New York, it seems to hit some sort of robotic stone wall where they're unwilling to overturn what this would have been a clear-cut example to overturn. And it did change the game, but it's not the only excuse. Messy as hell. Let's hear from Bob on that.

I don't know, John. I have no idea. I got to watch the tape. I have no idea. I don't know how early passion appearance going on. I don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea what passing appearances anymore.

No idea. It's messed up, Wes. It's one and done. It's got to be. because this is like the prevalent takeaway on where we are right now. It's perfectly understandable that a referee would miss a call in real time at real speed. It's inexcusable to slow a play down, show it frame by frame on your television, to your audience, and then tell them they didn't see what they saw.

I love the sport, but I don't love it when a legitimate sport forces me to view the proceedings through the prism of professional wrestling, which is how I view any time they go under the hood for replay. Well said. All right. It is now time for Road to Victory presented by the United States Marine Corps. It's third down and seven at the lion's 17. Snap is back.

They blitz. And he flips it out right. Elliot picks it off the ground. 2015. 10. Touch left. Dance is in. That's a touchdown.

And Elliot comes up doing his impression of the Prescott hip swivel warm up. warm-up dance Wow, that was a desperation throw and Elliot virtually made a one-hand catch to keep the ball off the turf. Brett Sam, the sham got Turn up my ears. I like it.

Very Marine Corps like. The Sham God. Dak, Prevent. Scott given ample time by his offensive line, and he rewarded their precision with 444 yards and three touchdowns, taking the Cowboys to a 35-27 win over the Detroit Lions. Greg, we know the Lions defense stinks. We know Matthew Stafford ain't playing ball right now at the fractures in his back. Why is this game as close as it was?

Because Amari Cooper isn't healthy because the Cowboys defense continued, you know, a very mediocre season, but I still think it shows how this Cowboys team is different because with Amari Cooper not playing a full complement of snaps and the running game and Zekeo Elliott not really doing that much, they have Michael Gallup to go off for 9 and 148 in this game. They have Randall Cobb to make a couple big plays, four for 115 and a touchdown.

But Gallup especially in this game played like a number one receiver. I mean, he made plays in tight coverage, he ran great routes, he was doing it all. And in the past, you would have an injury or two, and the Cowboys would go kaput. And now you've got those two guys in a really balanced offense overall and a better approach by Jason Garrett, who knew his defense was struggling, even against Jeff Driscoll, who played pretty well, actually, and kept throwing the ball when they had a lead in the fourth quarter, and even through the ball on second down to go ice the game instead of running it three times and punting and trusting his defense.

So I am hoping that is Jason Garrett leaning into their passing attack because that is what this team is all about. One of the reasons I was so excited about this offense entering the season was because you could tell by the way Michael Gallup was playing in August and September, he was making the leap. And then he had a knee scope in September, came back and was not playing with confidence, started dropping balls. wasn't explosive. It looks like he's back now. And this, still the best offense in the league by

DVOA, I'm sure. Right. And they lose Lyle Collins late in the game, and Cooper's not 100%. So you're still kind of waiting for them to be 100% healthy, but they're close. I mean, to your point on Garrett, Jane Slater from NFL Network reported that he held a meeting with the team and basically took accountability. They didn't say what for, but we could put together some dots in what it might be about in terms of the offense. Yeah, I think it was him being conservative last week because he was self-critical that he leaned on the run too much in that game. And I meant to mention when I talked about death, Tony Pollard was huge in this game. Four for 44 as a receiver, including a touchdown.

But he made plays on his own. I mean, they have playmakers around Dak Prescott, who is also playing great. It happens sometimes in the NFL with head coaches, even guys that have been established. There could be a come-to-Jesus type moment or just the light goes on or for whatever reason. Maybe if you're a Cowboysman, that's what you're hoping, happens here because they have been, since Ezekiel Elliott came to town they're like this is our best player this is the engine of our offense and we're going to go through him perhaps west though it's it's better to have a more open mind about how you attack the opponent and just be more aggressive in general which has been a negative hallmark

if that makes any sense of the garad era well i think what you're saying is true especially when dac prescott has overtaken zeke elli as the engine driving this offense perfect and deck has just had a phenomenal year. There cannot be critics anymore of the way he's played. Yeah, I had him, I have to rank, you know, the MVP canets. I had him fifth going into this week. A lot of people thought that was... What do you guys?

Just go back and forth with the ranking of MVPs. It feels like it's every other week. Oh, really? I have to now. Every week, it's part of... It's Greg's now. It's part of the debrief, but... Okay.

He has to be that good, because I would be concerned about the defense. It's not a good sign when Jeff Driscoll runs for 51 and a touch. He should run more, frankly. He passed on it a couple times. both Scarborough is running through your defense. They ran in the red zone. The lines did pretty well. It was closer than it really should have been.

But here's a... We're worried about the Cowboys defense. Yeah, here's an unpopular opinion. Go ahead. You know, if Jeff Driscoll's playing on Thanksgiving, I don't totally hate it. I want Stafford out there, but Driscoll's got a little something.

I still, I would like to put it out there and stone me if you wish, people of Michigan. The ones that live by the lakes. That's a little harsh. Maybe we flex out the line. going forward. On Thanksgiving, tradition is great. We're not going to take away your game in that week,

the week 12 or week 13 game or whatever. But we're just going to slide it to Sunday and then put in something marquee in that early game. Yeah, or nay. Who's coming with me? It's all they have left. The family tradition you've had for 35 years. Sorry.

35? Whatever. I mean, like, you know, I just mean one particular. They've got grandparents who celebrated this. They basically added the third game is a permanent flex where you can wake up late or you can just get going early with the Thanksgiving party and maybe skip that.

How about a flex by the schedule makers? Like this is our game. This is what we're going to do. I hear you. I'm with you. I can't back you on this one. All right. Lions fans have been through so much.

This is all they have. Can I be honest? I love it. I love the Lions. Even when they stink, it's a big part of the holiday. It's in Detroit. Everybody's having fun. But, you know, sometimes you think,

Jeff Driscoll, or maybe I could see Patrick Mahomes at noon on Thanksgiving. That would be nice. Do I need to be a Lions fan? And it's not so much this year, but in, you know, countless years past, the team is one in 11, and we're about to get waxed 45 to 10 on Thanksgiving. Maybe don't affect my holiday if I'm a Lions fan. Just another from the wilderness. Why wouldn't you be honest the whole time, though, Dan?

You said, you said, well, okay, if I'm actually being honest. Because I feel like I'm going to get some heat. I'm trying to couch it, but also make my statement. Nice. Drag a few floodlights into that stadium, please. That was. You have a lighting issue there? So many critiques.

Yes. Their artificial turf looks gray, green. Like, that is not a color that occurs in nature. I like the facility. It's got a nice fieldhouse quality to it. More green, please. More light. Do you hear that people of Michigan?

Thank you. And that was the Road to Victory, presented by the United States Marine Corps. And we move on. set on a counter gives off to Marlon Mac cuts up field, patient run, spins out of a tackle still going to the 10, he's at the 5 looking for the pylon, and he

is in. Touchdown Marlin Mac. The best run you'll see all year. The Colts are in. It's 7 to 6 with a 13-yard run from Merlin Mac. Let's calm down on that one. Maddie Taylor with the call for the Colts Radio Network. And it may be the last time

you see Mack for a while. I had to check in. a fractured hand left this game in the third quarter anyway marlin mac and jonathan williams both went over 100 yards part of the colts best running day in 15 years 33 to 13 a win over the jaguars at lucas oil stadium the colts piled up 262 yards on the ground the jags offense unable to get much going in nick foals's return to the starting lineup they it started great actually their first possession they go down the field full six of six of six a great little pass over the middle to DJ Chark who takes it takes it to the house

and away we go. We're off and running. But then the game just switched. It just flipped and Indy took over. And this has been an issue for the Jaguars who are in very deep trouble now. This has been an issue for the Jaguars at multiple points this season,

an issue stopping the run. And it's not even the worst game they had this season. Christian McCaffrey and the Panthers, I think, dropped a 268 bomb on him. about six weeks ago so they don't do a good job against the run and they got into a situation where you know we talk about the cowboys doc prescott uh zeke elliott who you know who's running the offense well letter four net is the guy that makes the jags offense go he only gets five carries in the first half of this game and by the time they fall behind you're not going to go

back to them so essentially you're playing a different style ball they usually play and the game just slipped away. And to the Colts credit, they get Jacobi Brissette back. He doesn't do much in this game, but he stays on the field. He stabilizes the offense. And this is an important win, and it sets up a huge game on Thursday night

with the Colts traveling to Houston. Who are the Jaguars going forward? The Nick Fools Jaguars. I mean, they want to throw the ball deep. They want to get after the passer. They don't have a backbone on defense apparently. But if you're Tom, I

I mean, Tom Coughlin probably sold to his owner what type of team he wanted to have a few years ago. And I guarantee, I bet the words, we're going to run the ball, we're going to be tough, we're going to stop the run, came out of his mouth. And then you play the Colts and you have 29 yards rushing and they rush for 264. I know Leonard Fournett's season-long stats look pretty good, but they go halves and quarters at a time without running the ball at all. Well, I think that has a lot to do with the pairing of John D. Filippo and Nick Foles, which was not in place when Coughlin and crew hit the scene. Last year they were like this run heavy, we're going to run at all costs, and it costs them. Right. And Foles, you know, I was excited to see.

Tough opening spot for Foll's Nation here. They're at 4 and 6. They're not done in the division, but you're down two games now with a couple division losses, and you're in pretty big trouble. I do love the AFC South because it's just, it's, it's very messy in a fun way because you got the Colts and Texans, as I said, they're playing on Thursday night, great Thursday night game at six and four. The Titans hanging around at five and five. And then the Jaguars, who not feeling good about the Jags at this point, but even they're on the periphery, they're two games out and they're in last place. So I feel like there's going to be a lot of shifting and moving around in that division potential. I still like the Texans, even after today. I kind of, you know, You know, my feeling, because I was with you, Mark on it, Weston, and acknowledge it. But I thought that the Texans were catching the Ravens at a really bad time. Sorry, Dan.

No, it's fine. And that it was not going to be a good Sunday for them. But I also think, you know, throw it out. It feels like not to go back to the Texans, but it feels like with three weeks running, there's a playoff contender that just looks outrageously terrible. It was the Packers a couple weeks ago. Last week, it was the Saints. This week it's the Texans.

I'm trying not to put too much stock into that with the Texans and writing them off. But the division feels definitely a lot tighter now that it did before kickoff today. Texans have a different ceiling than the Colts and the Jaguars. But the Texans have showed that floor, not today's floor, but a concerning floor more than once. Right. And they've, they, this Colts team can say, okay, that's fine. But Thursday night football, we can sweep the Texans. So that essentially would be, it would essentially be a two-game lead.

And so you're right, that's a massive game. I also, while we were talking, got a message from the Ryan Pace Defenders Committee. It's a group that just like, and then they said to me. Loosely assembled. Yeah. What's their membership base? It's pretty big. It's in Chicago.

Ryan Pace and you. Yeah, they said, hey, can anyone mention that the Jaguars drafted Leonard Fournette, you know, when they needed a quarterback? Everyone's killing me. When I took Chubisky over Watson and Mahomes, you know, they take Four Nett. And Blake Bortles is their quarterback. Tushay. They kind of blew that in retrospect. Good job by the Pace Committee.

Pace Committee. Score a big dub. I mean, I don't like that that's what Pace is doing during an actual Bears game that we're watching. He's not part of that. Okay. Well, he's not a lot of fans. I also want to say, Wes, since you met Lakeisha,

your fashion sense has just gone through the roof, as we all know famously. You say it's more an awakening on your part. Other people, outsiders and critics say it's your wife that's dressing you and you don't deserve as much credit. Would you like a true breakdown? Can I give you? Let me finish my point and then I want you to take the floor on this.

Okay. But I just want everyone when you rewatch this game, if you're not watching it on Condense, to check out T.Y. Hilton's gigantic black diamond necklace that he's wearing on the sideline for four quarters. It makes a Mr. T necklace look, you know, frail and tiny by comparison. Wes, the floor is yours. Well, let me, you know, I've attempted to steer the narrative on this.

a little bit, as you all have. Let me go with complete candor here. It's harder to dress when you're overweight and you don't really care. Okay. But I dropped like 75 pounds during cancer and I came back and clothes fit a little bit better. The cheaters diet, I call it. But the problem, I would say having Lakeisha, like just to hear a few words, like, no, I don't know about that. Just during the week.

And then you, after a while, you start putting a few things together just because you hear it. And then you feel confident enough to put your own clothing styles. What does that have to do with the aggressive rips in your upper thigh jeans tonight? I mean, you're showing some nice. Can we stand up? Can we get the camera shot here? Wow. They're not really in the upper thigh.

What a peeve. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What was that, Mark? Oh, yeah. Oh, this one here. Not current, but. You got holes all over the place.

Oh, yes. Wes, can you just for camera one? Can you show them how high up it is on the thigh? Because it's aggressively. Camera 1 has never seen anything like this. I can promise you. Oh, yeah. This right here?

Right there. I mean, that's a little tease to the ladies. Contain yourselves with the vapors. All right, let's move on. That's why I have to watch the show and listen, folks. Now looks right, fires a strike downfield, caught by John Brown at the 15 into the end zone. Touchdown.

Touchdown Buffalo. John Brown, touchdown Bill's from 40 yards out. A great throw by Josh Allen. That was a laser throw by Josh Allen, up the sideline to John Brown. And that is exactly what Bill's fans wanted to see. Take that Greg Rosenthal. John Murphy and Eric Wood with a call for the Bill's Radio Network. Josh Allen ran for a score and tied a career high with three touchdown passes.

Take that Greg Rosenthal, including that 40-yard. Card connection to Smokey Brown. The Bills romp 3720 over the Dolphins ending Miami's two-game winning streak. That completes a sweep of the home and home for the Bills, who are in prime playoff position at 7 and 3 with 6 games to play. Mark, it was nice to see the Bills actually hammer a team, which is what they did here. One thing that I specialize on, if you're from the United Kingdom and you've ever watched us on Sky Sports, is they have us on at the end of the first quarter of games, and I went on

and defiantly announced that the big issue with the bills is they cannot close drives. They're a field goal offense. There's a lot to be concerned about, and they're looking like a sixth seed that's about to get bounced out of January play. They go on minutes later to unleash, seconds later, unleash the first of four long, many-played touchdown drives that dropped a bomb on a Dolphins team that I also oversold as the best, one of the best coach teams in the league. So, you know, sometimes things don't go right in the way that you view a goal.

Because we should talk so much. We should maybe just stay quiet. And I know some behind the glass would agree as well. But this Dolphins team, they hang around. They had that ability. But they were overpowered today by, I would say, I'm glad they used John Brown in that replay. Because John Brown is not someone that's going to get a lot of talking points and press because he's just not a dominant player.

But week after week for the bills, 137 yards today, nine receptions. He's been there for Josh Allen, week after week. They went back to using Devin Singletary a bunch. I think that's an up and down thing. I don't see him as someone that you can count on alone. They needed Frank Gore, too. And the Dolphins' offense, they ran into issues. I thought the Bill's defense, which has some of their own concerns,

gave Ryan Fitzpatrick a lot of issues up at the line. Ryan Fitzpatrick looked a little bit beguiled at times. And this played out in the second half the way you'd expect. The better team won. I don't think the bills are 37 points, a game team, by any stretch, but they flex their muscles a little bit today. Greg, I would imagine this is, will be a humbling experience on game pass.

It'll be good to see them put up some points. They, you know, yes, it was the Dolphins, but they needed a game where they scored points, where they had touchdown drives. And more importantly, that where their pass rush showed up, I think to me that's been as concerning as in their rush defense as anything going on with Josh Allen, because you thought this defense was going to be special.

And at least everything I read, and the stats certainly support that their passers that they were getting after it. They need seven sex. John Brown, who has been at times one of the best deep receivers in the NFL, on pace for 90 catches and 1,300 yards playing with a quarterback who cannot complete a deep pass. If he'll get hot. You know, maybe Josh Allen get hot.

Maybe John Brown should have been the Eagles target, not Deshawn Jackson. Can we talk about Frank Gore? Yeah, oh, who. It's now been over a month since he's averaged like over 2.5 yards per care. Well, in fairness, he only gets the ball seemingly in third and one and fourth and one situations, and he always like gets one yard. It's kind of true. That old trope.

It's true. It's true. Have you watched the last couple weeks? Hey, you're allowed to break through, drag a few with you. He gets that one. That's how you average one or two yards per carry. Third and one convert. They stack the box. That means there's no safety.

You can just keep cruising. Your defense system is weakening, Greg. So many rode off Frank Gore only three and a half years too early. Right, exactly. Frank Gore's a plane contributing role to us. a seven and three football team in the year 2019. Give me a break. The inconvenient, oof, what I call him.

No, I have respect for Frank. Everybody's got respect for Frank. I mean, he's going to Canton. Is he? He is. I think he will. Sounds like a juicy off-season topic. We'll get there in the off-season.

All right, then. Let's move on. This is for all the money. Alan, shotgun, snap. It's going to be. Fade right in the place. And the Minnesota Vikings have beaten the Denver Broncos. As the Vikings flood the field, they headed to the vibe with positivity and their eighth

victory of the season. They come all the way back on a sloppy Sunday from a 20-0 deficit, and they beat the Denver Broncos 2723. Paint the picture, Paul Allen, with Pete Burson. I think Bursich just went, that's a push-off! And Alan did all the heavy lifting there. Vikings Radio Network.

The Vikings wiped away a 20-to-Zip halftime deficit with touchdowns on each of their first four drives in the second half. I don't. Then held off the Broncos by forcing three straight incomplete passes in the end zone over the last 10 seconds. You heard the last one there. They preserve a 27 to 23 win. Wes, a comeback of this caliber,

is always going to be a team effort, but come on now. Kirk Cousins led the way, baby. Check that box. Well, he's running out of Dragons to Slay here with last week beating a winning team on the road in prime time. And in this week, let's talk about the things that he accomplished in this game. They were down 20 to nothing at halftime. Teams trailing by 20 or more points at halftime were 0.99

over the last five seasons before that. The Vikings are the first team in 40 years to score on. every second half possession and win after trailing by 20 points at half time. Whoa. They are doing some things, and this isn't a day where Dalvin Cook, all pro candidate, stuffed. Could not

go anywhere on the ground. Adam Thielen, out of the game, not playing. And Stefan Diggs, not a target officially in the first half. This all happened in the second half. And let's compliment Cortland Sutton. Remember the 1980s wrestling where you'd have, I guess it's still in wrestling now, the curtain jerker? Sure. He takes in

Barry Harowitz. You know, give him six minutes to kind of work the guy around. And then you know he's going to lose. Cortland Sutton was giving forearm shivers, kicking him in the chest, a little pile driver action, just taking care of the entire Viking secondary, specifically Xavier Rhodes. Cortland Sutton is a man among boys and would not, I would not have any problem with anybody putting him as the second all pro behind Michael Thomas.

Wooee! Every week against good corners, he is making unbelievable catches. And the Broncos emptied out. this was the old kitchen sink game. Empty out your bag of trick plays, your gadget plays, and they did in this game. And that's part of the reason why they got this lead, 20 to nothing, and then they ran out of trick plays in the second half. Think about this day for the Broncos franchise.

It starts with a report from CBS that the locker room is a little bit down on the Vic Fangio experience, that his gruff demeanor has led to some general unhappiness behind the scenes. and then you have what could be kind of not season saving because the season's kind of gone already, but something that would really make you feel good going into Minnesota and shocking a very good Vikings team. And then for it to end with

losing your fourth game of the season essentially in the final seconds in the fourth quarter, it has just been that kind of year for the Broncos and it would be very interesting to see what happens with them going forward. They have some players to build around in Alexander

Johnson, this guy, that they put their starting lineup at the end of September at linebacker and has transformed their defense had another big game today. Shelby Harris had a big game for them in the first half. They have some good things going for them, but you're right. It's just a series of heartbreaking close loss. I mean, no one loses a lead like the Broncos. But the crazy thing here was how little margin for error cousins had. This is not a normal 20-point comeback or two-touchdown comeback. Not only did they score every possession, they had touchdowns on all four possessions. And you figure, okay, well, the Broncos

offense led them back in it. Not really. The Broncos' offense only had four drives. They had a seven-minute field goal drive. They had two other drives, and that included a missed field goal. They almost scored to win the game at the end. The Broncos actually possessed the ball for over 17 minutes in the second half.

It was just the Vikings, every time they got the ball, they scored a touchdown as fast as they possibly could and put it back on them. That's pretty impressive. You look at the Vic Fangio resume. It also includes a pretty disastrous second half. against the Jaguars. Yes, it does.

A lot of disastrous second halfs. Right, yeah, this is really, yeah, four of them. And I know Brandon Allen is probably, you know, you're holding the spot here for them, for John Lowe to go draft another quarterback that's going to overwhelm us. Well, Drew Locke's going to play soon, I would have to imagine. Drew Locke, I'm not sure what the overall, what's going on there.

What the scope is there. But Brandon Allen's mobility, a couple games in a row, because he did it against Cleveland, too, and did it today. He had a big third down scramble that bought them time. I know they lost the game, but I'm not killing Joe Flacco here. He just, I think he gives this another little element to their offense.

I agree. I think that he is a better fit for that offensive line than Joe Flacco was. This game was, it's almost like the microcosm of this entire Viking season in one game. You know, they go, you have the early struggles. And you had one moment where you could see Stefan Diggs was clearly upset on a play that Kirk Cousins had a free play. But instead of going down the field, he, you know, threw it to the fullback, which is like the most Kirk Cousins thing ever on a free play.

Oh, let's just get two yards. But then that squeaky. We all got the grease because Diggs had a long touchdown on one of their quick drives later in the game. He also had a 34-yard play called back on a tic-y-tack holding penalty. He could have had over 180 or 150 yards in this game. Wes, you said that Mr. Cousins is running out of Dragons to slay. I got one for you. All right.

I haven't written down. Win a playoff game before 30-second birthday. That's fair. It's got more to do to prove himself. a true franchise leading quarterback. Go in this division. So you put yourself in a chance to, you know, go far in the past. I love that cousin's narrative.

He has played well enough to get everyone off his back, I think. I agree with you on that. To stop being like the Twitter go-to joke. It does feel like people are off his back at least for now. It's only one game. I hear you. Had they lost today, that would not have been the case at all. Let us move on.

I want to talk about a team that is at a blow a game. The 31, Atlanta releases. is late on the gunners. Pilarty right down the scene. Barner backtracks to the 20. Kenyon 25. Re-routes 30. 35.

Barner, 45, 50. Has a block on the perimeter. He's only got the putter to beat. Polardi is cut down, and Barter scores. Touchdown, Kenyon Barner, and it is 77 yards. How sweet must that taste the Kenyon Barner, who used to play here? And this is as pretty a turn return as you're ever going to see. Just a weaving, unbelievable return by Barner with a vision.

Got a few blocks, puts it in the end zone. Oh, yeah, the Kenyon Barner revenge game. West Durham and David Archer with the call. I feel like we're not seeing as many punt returns for touchdowns. Now, that was one of the best, if not the best, all year. The Falcons are suddenly soaring high above the mountains. Benjamin Barner returned a punt 78 yards. Well, if you sit next to Greg, you would.

feel that way too. Okay. High above the mountains is illustrious, but he returned that 78 yards. Just one of many highlights for the Falcons. Thank God this wasn't 283. We don't like that number in Atlanta. 293 win over the Panthers in Charlotte. Greg, makes sense of this for me. I mean, you guys have been making fun of me enjoying a team, you know, changing what everyone said about them, that they had given up on their coach, that they were unwatchable. Like, we all just kind of took them for jokes, and they've come out and they've beaten the hell out of two teams with winning records, the Saints and the Panthers on the road in back-to-back weeks. And it starts because he got a professional quarterback. On the first third down of the entire game, Matt Ryan sees exactly

where the Blitz is coming from with Ron Rivera hits a slant to Calvin Ridley. His slants to Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley are as pretty times play as any in football. And then he had three beautiful throws in this game downfield one to Julio Jones and two to Ridley where the pressure is coming on him he waits to the last second he throws that high arcing pass and it gets down beautifully

into his receiver's hands and that was one of many reasons they dominated in every phase but he was awesome and he's killed Ron Rivera's Panthers every time he plays him I mean anybody that's watched this Falcons team and it's been a tough season on balance knows that Matt Ryan's never been the problem

with I'm just trying to figure out still now is for eight games or whatever, arguably the worst defense in the league, complete lack of discipline, blown assignments, just getting destroyed week after week. And now against the last two weeks, as you said, against two playoff level teams, they've allowed four field goals and no touchdowns. They're looking pretty hungry, aren't they?

They're looking younger as hell. Rahim Morris gets on. Yes, the staffing tweak, apparently. I mean, some of that went, you know, apparently took place before the buy even, but yeah, the stats are just rare. They had four turnovers forced in the first nine games of the season. They had four today.

They had seven sacks in the first eight games of the season. They have 11 in the last two weeks. Desmond Truffant returned today and played really well. I don't think this is a playoff level team. I think this. Oh, yeah, you do. The Panthers. No, no, the Panthers.

Oh, of course the Falcons are. They're running through this NFC South. They have five straight games in the division and they're going to win all five. What's their record? They're three and seven, so they're in trouble. You got to win out and get some help. A lot of help. Defense is, I was thinking about this.

Like the East Coast falling into the sea. That would help. Like defenses, there's something strange in the alchemy. A lot of it's about energy, right? And you could just watch the Falcons the last two weeks, and they have played with incredible energy and athleticism and the speed that you think of when they put this team together. And you could tell that performance last week against the Saints,

the energy was so off the charts, and they were having so much fun that it did seem to be the type of game that would either be our Super Bowl and then they go back to normal or the start of maybe a big change. The only problem here, Greg, the only reason why it seems kind of pointless to really dig into the Falcons,

when you lose seven out of eight start the season, it's already too late. Yeah, it is, but I want to watch them, at least they'll be more watchable. If I'm a Falcons fan, I'm going, okay, Rahim Morris has been a defensive coach his whole career, made his name that way, and you had him stuck coaching wide receivers for eight games.

now he fixed your defense. Isn't that on the head coach for not having the coaches in the right spot? That's a strange assignment. Eric Manjini did something like that too. Right. Yeah, it's all brick on early downs, Rahim Morris on third downs. It's a lot. And yeah, I don't think Dan Quinn's going to save his job almost no matter what happens.

But what this did was it pointed out that the Panthers to me are not a playoff team in a deep NFC because what do they have that special? This is not a special Ron Rivera defense. And I think that that goes back to whether they keep Rivera or not. It's just an okay Ron Rivera defense. It's fine. Is Kyle Allen morphing into Trevor Simeon before our eyes? Kyle Allen had four interceptions today and they were almost all just awful.

Is it like really really tough? Winner was dragging that. Yeah, on one of them Truffon made, if you watch the replay, made an incredible play that I give him a little credit. But the other three were just terrible. And the rest of the game, you kind of move the ball, Allen didn't, made some nice plays. But the interceptions were brutal. Chris McCaffrey, nine yards away from 200. the day. But I'm assuming a lot of that came, because it's 11-1-21 through the air,

screen pass action when the team is down and out. It was a lot of in the catch-up mode. But no, even at halftime when it was the game, you know, he just gets these quiet 12-yard catches and 10-yard runs, but you can't make an offense out of that. You can't make an MVP out of that. We talked about it downstairs, Greg and I did, that the problem with what makes it almost impossible to win MVP as running back is you can't really control the game. You can't, what a quarterback, it's beyond, you talk about the narrative and Mark all the time with that, but it's also like the quarterback's in control of the game in a way the running back never can be unless it's, you know, Adrian Peterson 2012 or whatever, like those special, special

season. He's got to have 29 touches and three touchdowns and then they win the game by. I mean, he's got a chance to break the all-time record for yards in a season, which is a pretty wild record, you know, yards from scrimmage. He's still, I think he's a little behind pace. That's a rough turning point for the Panthers. They, it's over. Let's move on.

Then let's move on. Young way, Kookew gets it done again. I thought it was overhead. And Winston throws it right to the Saints. Coming back, Marcus Williams, the 30, the 20, the 10, the five. Tuck down. Marcus Williams. They're not going to come a lot easier than that, Duce.

James Winston drops back to throw, sales it about. 10 yards over the head of Mike Evans and Marcus Williams brings it back for a score. Marcus Williams with his fourth interception of the season. Ah, you got to love the dependability of James Winston. Zach Stripe, Deuce McAllister, Saints Radio Network. Marcus Williams removed any semblance of drama from the proceedings on Sunday in Tampa,

intercepting James Winston, 55 yards to the host. Clinching score, Saints 3417 win over the bucks. West, Drew Brees. threw three touchdowns in this game. The Saints, the game maybe got a little closer than they wanted, but this on-balance was a nice bounce back after last week's meltdown. Yeah, I think we can look back at that game against the Falcons, who are now the best team in the NFC South, according to Greg Rosenthal,

and say that was just a speed bump, that they came right back. And we've said that, you know, the first half of last year, Drew Brees of the MVP, starting with Thanksgiving of last year, Alvin Camer and Michael Thomas are the MVPs of this offense. Camara comes back, and he's the focal point again, whereas last week in his first game back from injury, he was almost an afterthought. He makes this offense go, and he was a huge difference early in the game. His numbers don't look spectacular, but he was the one doing the work early.

Michael Thomas cannot be stopped. He was incredible. And Jared Cook had another big play. His stat line doesn't look great, but I think Jared Cook is coming on as that third option for them. And, you know, Drew Brees, a few more sideline creepers. The arm strength just isn't there, but he does enough even without the arm strength that this team can still be a Super Bowl contender.

Can you get through the NFC playoffs with Drew Brees at this point? I wonder that. I don't know. I don't know. I just wonder that. I want to see more, first of all, just because he's barely played this year. I mean, this is what, four games?

I want to see their offense with them more. As long as they're functional, I mean, it's not like their passing game has been poor. last week was a strange game with a lot of penalties and every aspect of their team struggling. I think the level of concern, at least for me for Drew Breeze, is not that high. I don't think he's like a detriment to their team.

Come on. No, I agree with that. I think, but he's just not, I don't know. If they're playing against a Russell Wilson, do I trust Drew Breeze at this point to keep up with Russell Wilson? I don't know about that. You don't think he's a guy can keep up in a shootout? I think in his building, maybe.

I guess it depends on the problem. How many bubble screens and, you know, I don't know. I think this is about as deep a race for the buys in a conference that I can remember. Break it down, Greg. Well, at this point, you have the Seahawks, the 49ers, the Saints, the Vikings, and the Packers, and all of them have eight wins, right? Yeah, I mean, Vikings, I guess, have three losses of that group, but that's a pretty deep group of teams that all have a chance for the one seed. or, you know, you fall to five, that's a big difference.

For the Saints, they have a huge advantage over the rest of that group because you can give them the NFC South right now. They're three games up. I don't think you're going to lose that. I know it's redundant, and so I'll keep it quick, but the James Winston experience, I feel like he legit costs them five games a season with his mistakes alone. You know, we're killing Kyle Allen for throwing four picks, as we should.

But this happens over and over. How many four interception days did he have? He leads the league in these pick sixes. I mean, this is killing you. He's got 18 interceptions this year, the most through 10 games in a season since Jay Cutler a decade ago. On the other hand, you watch this game. He was hit 12 times by the Saints defense.

The Buccaneers had their fewest rushing attempts in the 44-year franchise history. Six for 13 by their running backs. They ran the ball only eight times today, total. And James had some plays where the offensive line. blocked fine he had plenty of time and he just threw worm burners i mean on the other hand the interceptions some of them were fluky so i mean but i think that's what interceptions are when you throw enough of them you're going to have every different kind imaginable the Winston eras come to an end i think naturally you know they didn't give them the extension they let them play on the fifth

year option and it's just run its natural course i mean and the bucks makes so much sense as one of the teams is that will get one of these veteran quarterbacks That just seems like with Bruce Ariens there, he's going to want his Carson Palmer-esque veteran that he could bring in. I just see them as being a natural team rather than going with a rookie. It could happen, obviously. I'm still just scratching my head about them giving their GM who drafted Winston an extension before this season started. Well, Bruce Ariens took the job because of James Winston. He thought that this guy was a franchise quarterback.

And the NFC South, you know, we'll see. Drew Brees will probably come back, although you never know at this point. he's over 40. Matt Ryan's not going anywhere at Atlanta, but are the Panthers sure that we're still going to just, as speculation goes, let Cam Newton walk? Is Kyle Allen the guy you're going to trust?

Or are they another team that will take one of these veteran quarterbacks that are going to be floating around? It could be a very different-looking division with some familiar faces. I'm not comfortable with the way we left the Drew Breeze conversation. I don't think, Greg, I don't think you guys are going to watch this and say, oh, he's a problem. He's an issue.

This was an awful game from him. I'm just saying I don't trust where his arm is right now. I don't think it's off this game either. Right. You have a general creeping sense of dread around Breeze. Not as like being washed up, but maybe not being a true difference maker like it used to be. I wouldn't say dread.

It's just more that you can tell when you used to watch something special, which the Saints offense reliably was. And now I just don't see it as special. I see it as more limited. All right. Michael Thomas, let's just. He's special. Let's just mention it.

He's up to 96 catches. You know, we're a week and a half away from Thanksgiving. He has 96 catches for 1,100 and almost 50 yards right now. I mean, his numbers are going to be. He's on pace, by the way. Be careful, Michael. It's outrageous. And every team facing them knows that Michael Thomas is basically their only receiver.

What's the record, 143? No, it's less than that, isn't it? 143. 142, let's just stay right there. He's on pace to shatter it right now. I'm just not sure that's why those events occurred. That's all I'll say. That feels like a perfect spot to land.

Let's move on. Oh, before we move on, breaking news. We have a trade. We have a trade in our picks draft. Mark Sessler sends Jets Redskins to the old Zusser in exchange for this game you're about to get a highlight from. So a little bottom of the draft, six-rounder goes back, you know, seven. rounder and maybe like a punt her in return something like that let's hit it here's your third down from the three yard line car is going to throw it steps up can't find anybody open he's

going to run with it stay on his feet he's got open dive in zone touchdown raiders what a move by derrick carr and second rushing touchdown ever oh my he went airborne everybody in a raider front office holding their breath, man, when your quarterback goes up in the air like that, we need that tune. Then Derek showed great awareness. You don't normally see this out of him taking off like that, but he wanted that touchdown so bad that he decided to go up on the one with nobody under him. Man, he did the helicopter, baby. That was Brent Musburger, of course. I just looked it up. 80 years old, turned 80 in May. That dude is having fun. He moved to the day. He moved to the day.

desert and he's having some fun okay as he should I mean 80 year olds they like the desert they like going out there they like going to Florida they like going to you know Palm Springs Florida not a desert just throwing that out there but I'm saying like different places they like to go okay

Florida the desert it's very moist there feels like some generalizing Derek Carr you heard it rush for a touchdown through for another just enough production for the Raiders to get the still winless Bungles 1710. Mark, the Raiders moved to 6 and 4

and are a Chiefs loss away on Monday night from first place in the AFC West. Hubba, Haba. Well, you looked over after we made this trade a number of times and asked, you know, what's going on with that Raiders, Bengals game over there? It doesn't look too intriguing, too interesting, not exactly a Barnburn.

And you're right, it wasn't. But if you're the Oakland Raiders and you're trying to recreate everything and you've got a really young team, You're going to have to win a couple games like this. And the Bengals played, I thought, desperate football. And it was one of the first games I thought where they were, like, refusing to go away. They kept hanging around, and a Josh Jackson fumble and a Derek Carr interception helped them to do that.

But the difference in this one, I thought, was, and it shouldn't be a surprise with Cincinnati's rather hideous offensive line. Max Crosby, four sacks. What? Five on the day for the Raiders. And that's been over the past two games. games, a consistent thing for them, and that's good. And they really also, down the stretch, it was Darren Waller, it's Hunter Renfro, it's Tyrell Williams, and two of those guys are rookies. They have the most productive rookie class in the NFL in terms of receiving yards,

rushing yards, and touchdowns, and it shows up every week. And so there you go. Mike Mayock did, what, 10 years for NFL network. And everyone was like, oh, it's a splashy higher, but it's easy on TV. Yeah, it's different now. that you're going to be responsible for these players, it could not have gone any better. It really cannot have gone better. I'd say that some team should say grab Chris Wesleyan as a GM because there's a high parallel there.

Or even better, take Daniel Jeremiah off our hands. They've tried. The bucks tried before they gave that job to Jason Light. Maybe it's time for a new challenge. Don't hire Chris Wesleying. Just offer him a lot of money. Leverge that, baby. Yeah, I mean.

As Musburger says, baby, leverage it. It's weird because Crosby is clearly better. as a rookie as a fourth-round pick than Cleland Furrell is, you know, the number four overall pick. Furrell's really struggled. What, two and a half sacks last week? Until last week, you know, had a better game. But it was really telling Paul Gunther, their coordinator, and this was a month ago, this was during the London game, more than a month ago. They asked him, you know, how are you holding up, not a lot of talent on this defense?

And he said, yeah, we don't have any pro bowlers right now, but we've got a future one, and that's Max Crosby. And it's pretty interesting that five games into Crosby's career, he's saying, that's the guy we're building around, a fourth round demon who just shows up every game. Are we to the point now? I see Derek Carr went 25 of 29. No more caveats. No more reservations. We just all believe that Derek Carr is, from now on, he's there are good hands at quarterback. He's efficient in this offense, but I wouldn't go that far. Is he kind of like what Jared Goff was before this season, like a decent to good quarterback in a great offense for him? I think that's fair. Yeah, I think I'm with Greg.

though, where I'm not ready to, I want to still see more, but he opened 11 of 11. At one point, he was 14 for 14 after they had scored another touchdown. He ran one in, and he's not making killer mistakes, and I think he's healthy. He has been through a lot on the injury front. He had a back injury, you know, which we never know what that feels like with gigantic people chasing you and tackling to the ground. Probably not great. A little concerning, though.

This team, the radar analysis. We were excited to watch them because they've been so efficient on offense. 5.1 yards per play last week was one of their worst offensive games against the Chargers, and then 17 points against the Bengals. They've come back to Earth a little bit on offense.

Yeah, that's true. Dr. Chow is going to be nervous, Mark, after that breakdown, you just said. Coming for his corner? Coming for the corner. The Chow corner. Like I said, I call him all the time. He does not necessarily answer the phone.

He's on the phone that Evan Silva. I know. Well, so that, you know, he's got that old rotary phone that just get a busy signal. Real quick, was Ryan Finley as bad as his numbers? I guess, you know, it's like I'm the last person that should comment on like benching Andy Dalton at this point but I don't understand what the overall mission is.

I just don't get what the mission is because Neither does anybody in Cincinnati. There's just not much that you're going to get from this type of player that's any different than a reduced version of Andy Dalton at some degree. We have our Road to Greatness segment. We should have a mission to nowhere statement segment with just the Bengals every week. I don't know if it's a help to their head coach.

coach either. All right, let's close it out with the other side of that trade. Blockbuster in the newsroom. Garnold in the shotgun belt to his right, Griffin tight right, three receivers left. Donald back to throw, looks left, has time. Fires one down the left sideline for Crowder. He's got it. Front left pylon and he's in. That's a jet touchdown. Jameson Crowder comes back to his old team. And for the third straight game, Crowder is able to score. Sam, Garnold with his fourth touchdown pass of the game. That's a career high, and the Jets extend their lead. Bob was choosing with the call for the Jets Radio Network.

Sam Donald slaying ghosts in D.C. Four touchdown passes, including that pretty 29-yarder. Some really nice touch on some of his passes. You guys will see, or you won't, depending on if you watch this game, on the old game pass. Jets 3417 win over the Moribund Washington Redskins. two wins in a row for the Jets who blew out an opponent three days after Christopher Johnson publicly announced that Adam Gase wouldn't be won and done in Gotham.

And this is what Gase has, like I said on Thursday, I didn't put too much stock into Johnson's statement that Gase will definitely be back in 2020 because what if they completely go in the tank for the rest of the season? It's going to be a much harder call and a much harder sell to your fan base in that situation. But, you know, after a game like today, you start. to think, okay, maybe they can go into the offseason with a little bit of hope and excitement because if you recall last December, Donald's hot finish is part of the reason why there was a lot of expectations around the Jets entering this season. And for the second straight week,

he's really showing some growth and progress. And he had one more turnover today, which was a bad interception. So it wasn't a perfect game, but you take that out of the mix. He really has kind of recovered from that really one-two-punt, well, it was one-two-three punch. He got the mono and then the game against the Patriots, the ghost game, and then the Jags game back-to-back where he just was having trouble protecting the ball, wasn't getting any, he wasn't getting any help from his offensive line. But he seems to be playing with some confidence, and that's really good to see. So Donald was very good in this game, and the Redskins are very, very bad.

This is a very bad Washington team. How did Haskins look? Haskins, I mean, I'll give him credit for this. He had one very pretty deep ball that showed his arm strength that went. He's got all the arm you want. Yeah, and it went for a completion, but I got called back on a holding penalty. In the fourth quarter, they scored two touchdowns in garbage time. It was up to 343 before they scored.

But they hadn't scored a touchdown at 16 quarters, 16 quarters before those two garbage time scores. In general, and this is never a popular sentiment in this room, and I understand that he's not maybe a guy that you ever want to root for. But Greg Daniels, Greg Williams has done a really good job with this Jets defense. They're one of the best teams in the league against the run, and they have such a talent efficiency in their secondary, and yet on a weekly basis, they are competitive on defense, and they, I think, confused Haskins quite a bit in this game.

So, Haskins, yeah, I mean, That's good to hear. I don't care. Who cares about the patrons? I'm sick of the Patriots winning and upsetting me. Just give me my favorite team winning, and I'm A-O-K on a Sunday. They're on a winning streak right now.

Are you okay, Greg? Give a good hack. I think you can see why I traded this game away and it even happened minutes into the game because this is your time to shine, Dan, and I'm glad they went your way today. Darnold threw an awesome pass right on the gate to Daniel Brown, their tight end.

two things I found quizzical. One, when they ran the ball to Levy on Bell on third and 11. Why? There's just no reason to do that in the situation they were in. Secondly, though, they were up 34.3 in the fourth quarter. Secondly, though, explain to me, unless I saw this wrong, why is Dowell Loggins carrying around the challenge flags for Adam Gase? Been doing that all year.

Yeah, he does that. I know, but explain to me what it's the upside to that. You're going to have to ask Gase. He said he likes to have someone else holding it. That's all I can, so he could say, throw it. sort of like part of the little quirks to Adam Gase that like because he did it in Miami too the whole the whole time he was a dolphins coach he never carried his own uh he knows more than I do but it just seems like a like a middle man unnecessary middleman do you want to go back to that third and 11 draw in the second

no no it's this well no it was it was it was a it was a fourth quarter it was a fourth quarter it was a it was a fourth quarter it was a fourth quarter it was a The game was not over at that point. My point is, it's been such a, before entering last week, the Jets were averaging 12 points a game on offense, there is some real growth you throw out, that was a bad play call, but there's been some real growth in the last two weeks, and that's what you need. You need to see positivity on that offense. And on the other side, this was a moment that the Washington Post wrote about and thought

it was the lowest moment that the Redskins have hit yet, Thomas Boswell, who's kind of, you know. That's saying something. And I get it, though. It's half, the stadium's half empty. There was a chance at one team at one time to sell the team, but it just sort of died out because there's no one there's no one there's no one there's no one there's going to it. There were tickets available in the lower bowl, which our friend Will Blackman, you know, tweeted out before the game for like 10, 15 bucks in 12th row NFL game and no one's going to it. And this is one of the, the franchises in the NFL. This is a team that won three Super Bowls that had a tradition that goes back.

And it hasn't all, it's been ugly a lot of the time, too, if you go way back with it. But they have a long tradition. And they're dying in Washington. I mean, that city is given up on them. They are behind, you know, they're the fourth or fifth team in Washington right now. Which is crazy to think about, A, who some of the other teams are there. but who, you know, the Redskins, when you talk about the fan bases that have been through a lot of pain, Dan, like the Redskins need to be,

their fans have been through so much. It's insane. Lions, Redskins, Browns, Jets. The Redskins are right there. It's gotten a lot worse, I feel like, in the last several years, where it's, the hope is just starting to just dissipate for them. Right now, I feel like they are at their lowest point. There was a little story, you know, within that column, he mentions how, you know, the

kick returner at one point. turns around and he tries to get the fans to get up and they just ignore them and then eventually like three people stand up and that's that's where they're at been a long time wild i mean it's since rg3's knee injury it's just been well they got to the playoffs once with cousins they've made the playoffs a couple times this century but i would put them and i think the win loss record would be there among the worst team certainly since the turn of century with with a low hope quotient because of who's running the team right now right and you haven't seen enough has only started three games but it's been pretty shaky well

you're a historian, you'll want to know this. Jamal Adams became only the second defensive back in the past 10 years to record three sacks in a game. Wow, I saw that he has the same number of sacks as Aaron Donald this year. I mean, he's got six. He can break the all-time records for defensive back. Is he on your all pro list?

Eight. Jamal? He was not, but that was before... Before they dangled him in trade talks and became Superman. Before last week when he stuffed the box going in today, it's exploded. All right. that that's that for that game let us now get into it to sunday night and now gop wants to go

no huddle from the five it's first in goal with malcolm brown behind him they give to brown straight ahead he charges in for six touchdown l a three thirty one to go in regulation and the rams take it back to a two-score league even our old buddy j b long seems just relieved found that end zone to put some distance between the Rams and the lowly Chicago Bears. Yes, a 17-7 win for the home team at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a game that Mark Sessler will be remembered. Well, I don't know if it will be remembered. It's a W for the Rams and they move on.

And for the Bears, what people will be talking about with three minutes to play, Chase Daniel entered. Mitch Trubisky exited officially. It was listed as a hip injury, but that's only officially. Is this the beginning of the end? That's the talking point for a lot of people coming out of Sunday night football. The beginning of the end for Mitch Trubisky has been beginning for a while. I don't think that something suddenly turned tonight because it wasn't like a low point

Mitch Trubisky game in general. The offense is plagued with issues. They have not had a running game around him for weeks and weeks. There are drops happening by wide receivers. The environment around Mitch Rubisky is not optimal. And I do, if for some reason we found out the injury is not nearly as serious as or at all, the timing of the switch is something that just creates a week's worth of questions for your team. When you didn't insert the, you didn't insert a first round quarterback that's been on the bench.

You inserted Chase Daniel, who is not going to hold anyone off. So it just creates issues for the bears. We'll see. Who gets bench with three minutes to? the play. That's what I mean. The timing is. The benching would have happened earlier if the Rams had gotten off the field. Right. I think the context is Mitch Trubisky, and look, I don't doubt that he was through an injury. They said he was on some level. But the reality is in his previous five drives, three and out, three and out, one first down that a punt, three and out. When

they punted the ball, they had been going back and forth punt fest. There's a three point game. There's eight minutes to go. You assume that's when he makes the decision to make a change. So that's thinking I can go win this game. Our season is hanging on a thread and I trust Chase Daniel more right now than Mitchell Trubisky. Now the Bears' defense,

it should be mentioned, does what they've done in some big spots this year, which is give up a touchdown drive at the absolute worst time. You can't kill them because they force punts. They forced two takeaways

in the first quarter and the offense didn't do anything. But it's kind of a script we've seen for a while and I've been waiting to see Chase Daniel for a while because I think they're just saying this is not our guy,

Trubisky. What a deflating season for that organization. I think the most deflating season of any organization to go from Super Bowl contender, you give up the farm for Khalil Mack, you have the coach of the year, a finalist for executive of the year, and now 10 months later, you might have to start all over at quarterback, you might have to start all over at coach, you might have to start all over at GM, and the Raiders own your first round pick. Ooh, forget about that. Which makes them, we, that's a good point, Wes. And I was I talked about earlier about which teams in the NFC South perhaps would be teams you look at that might get one of these many veteran quarterbacks on the market.

The Bears, especially without a first round pick, they might be looking for a stopgap an Andy Dalton type player or Andy Dalton himself, who knows. But it's now becoming increasingly clear. And we're doing this obviously Sunday night, 20 minutes after the guy went to the bench. So we'll get a clear picture of what's going around around that team. But just from where we are now, it certainly seems like this is the first. first real tangible step towards a separation of Trabisky and the Bears. And give the Rams defense credit, they did what you need to do against a bad offense,

and that just totally hold them down because the Rams' offense wasn't much better for most of the game, but Gough and Gurley made enough plays in this game. Goff had about two or three nice throws. He only had six total in the first half, and you got the win. If you're a Rams, like you don't care how you're getting wins these days. They are in the mix. And I don't totally rule them out because their defense is good. And if you were a total homer, you could say the O-line made some big steps today.

They blocked well for Todd Gurley and they protected well for Jared Gough. You just haven't seen any games like that out of the Rams. But that's like picking the most positive things in a pretty rough. I just say you don't rest for long. I mean, we were looking at the schedule coming into this recap here. Ravens next week, if you're the Rams, at the Cardinals, which is no, this is not last year and it's not week three. This is not an easy team to knock out.

Seahawks, Cowboys, 49ers, and the Cardinals again, if the Rams are even alive for a playoff berth in week 17, the negative things that I feel about them right now will have washed away because they will have earned that big time. Go ahead with. Their defense has not allowed more than 10 points in a game in over five weeks. It's a really good defense. And they have one of their best run defenses in the history of their franchise.

It's the best Wade Phillips defense in the three years. It's ironic because it's coming with obviously the worst offense, but it's crazy to look at the Bears box score, though. They ran 74 plays. Not one of them went for 20 yards. That's tough to do in the NFL. 74 plays, they held the ball quite a bit. And this was a typical Tribisky game in that, okay, it wasn't his worst game,

but he was indecisive. There were throws in the first half where he's always a beat late. You know, he has guys open, and he's just kind of a beat late. He has to see it, and then the play isn't there anymore. and Jalen Ramsey especially close. One quick thing, before we fly off on the Rams defense, they are playing well. That 10-point thing happened against the Bengals, Steelers, and Bears.

It's just you couldn't line up a better option for that to happen. Todd Gurley nearly gets his first 100-yard game. My big takeaway, if you're looking for positives beyond the defense for the Rams, is a killer. I mean, a team that really needed a big play to get excited about, they get the 51-yard touchdown from Goff to Reynolds in the first. fourth quarter wiped out by a really a clumsy illegal procedure with Whitworth being uncovered at the left tackle position.

And then how do they respond? Instead of going into a shell, they go six plays and 54 yards down the field to get that touchdown back 17.7. So they are far off. It was around this time last year that they won 55, 53 or whatever against the Chiefs. It's crazy how far we've come since then. And they have a lot of work to do. but they're six and four that's in the NFC.

That's not a great place to be, especially with that schedule. But they have a chance to save this thing still. Remember I said earlier in the pocket, Cardinals 49ers. That's a great matchup anytime you have it. To the schedule makers, we don't need another Bears Ram Sunday night special next year.

You know, let's not make this a tradition. You were warned. All right. There you go. That's the Sunday night recap. Two quick things. Number one, the reason you're hearing this podcast right now

is that we put it out there, not a challenge, a demand 10,000 followers on our Instagram account, the ATN podcast. We hit it. We hit it this weekend. Eric,

I know you were very excited to see that. As were we, as always, the fans of this podcast stepped up and we love you. We did not buy followers like some people do on Instagram. Oh, hell no.

Just throwing that out there because, you know, they don't have the money. Yeah, or the budget. They're legit, real people. Most of them from Europe. Who are you talking about?

I don't know. Plenty of people do that, don't they, Erica? I don't know how to operate. I think, like, some people with thousands and thousands. Sometimes they're bots, yeah. And as a gift, is a gift to all these listeners and the people that love the video content that we put up often on the Instagram handle. Let's take it back with a little instant replay of Wes and the Hot Boy jeans.

Let's take a look at this. This is for video fans of the show. Roll it. Ooh, la la. I don't feel like I'm in an E.L. Doctoro novel. A red time, baby. A good work by Ryan Bartlett, Erica Tampozy, the whole team back there.

Wes, you are quite a tease. Thank you. That's quite a compliment. We'll be back on Tuesday. We'll recap the Monday night football game that closes out week 11. And then we start looking forward to another week of NFL action. So thank you, everybody, for listening and watching. Oh, yeah.

And if you want to see that slow-mo of Wes lifting his leg over and over again to our audio listeners of that music. I know. I kind of feel bad for our audio listeners. If you didn't skip the head, come to the Instagram. and that will be there at the ATN podcast bang there you can't wait this is dan hans signing off for quiet storm hot boy jeans ink the old boss ricky hollywood ryan bartlett Zach everybody till tuesday I'm going to be able to be.

This is an IHeart podcast.