NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 13 Recap

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap all of the games from week 13 starting with the Cleveland Browns big win over the Tennessee Titans (2:43). The Rams defense made a statement against the Arizona Cardinals (12:47) and the New York Giants beat Seahawks (19:46). Nick Shook joins to recap the Lions win (1:12:18) and the Eagles QB trouble against the Packers (1:17:02). Stick around for the Chiefs/Broncos SNF recap (1:25:13).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. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Around the NFL podcast is a CIA cutout aimed at distracting us from Antarctica's inner belly. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. It comes to you from a virtual room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler. Great. Rosenthal and Chris Wessling. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. Hey, Wes. Now, that sounded like the rantings of a madman. And it might just speak to the fact that I think money will just read whatever's put in front of him. And keep that in mind, listeners, when you send in those money

tags to Erica, literally anything that gets put in front of Matt Money Smith, he will read and it will become the beginning of our show. Well, you'd think he might be losing a bit of respect for us after reading some of the copy, that being some of it. But don't sleep on Antarctica. I don't, you know, let's eyes open, please, on what could be happening deep below the earth. That's true.

At a sight, out of mind. Meanwhile, nefarious activities potentially down yonder. This is the week 13 recap episode. It is our flagship show every week where we talk about everything that went down, on the Sunday that was in the NFL, a Sunday that was gloriously low to nil on COVID-19 talk. Now, the schedule goes on because of COVID-19

in an unconventional way with two games on Monday and another game on Tuesday. But for this Sunday, you wake up this morning, and I'm sure you guys do the same thing. First thing I do when I wake up on Sundays now, I head over and I get online and I say, all right, what's horrible thing is happening in the league connected to the global pandemic? Nothing today, and that was nice.

Big win. I hadn't even thought about that. That's how I guess that's how nice it was not to have it. Knock on wood. All right. So, yes, in this COVID-free Sunday in the NFL on some level. Of course, there are players that miss the games because of COVID players that opted out of the whole season. So I guess no See, no Sunday is truly COVID-free. But that's it. No more COVID references for the rest of the show.

We're going to get into every game starting today's show with a game that I know Mark Sessler will treasure until his dying day. Mayfield from under center, play action fake, bootlegs it out to the right. He's throwing down the right sideline. He's got People's Jones wide open. He's gone. 20, 10, 5 touchdown. 75 yards on one play. Wow, Doug.

Oh, Mark, how it's some bongos to start the show. Browns, Browns, Browns, Browns, nine and three. We were waiting for a big Baker performance. We got it on Sunday. The former number one pick through four first half touchdown passes, capped by that gorgeous dime to Donnie football. 41.35 was the final over the Titans. Sessler, Cleveland didn't quite coast to the finish line in the way you would have liked, I imagine. But this was a huge win for a nine and three team. Nine and three.

Yeah, I mean, though, the second half got a little weird. And I had people tweeting at me saying, why aren't you tweeting during this game? It's like, I'm not touching this thing until it's over. Because Dan, the only person I communicated with was Dan. And I was not expressing confidence, even, you know, minutes after halftime. But the way that they built that first half lead, I thought, was instructive about Kevin Stefanski and the flexibility of the Brown's offense, which surprised me. They came out throwing the ball. And, you know, it was billed all week a certain way, and this is what we do with games. It's going to be, you know, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt versus Derek Henry. And it's going to look like something out of 1928.

and it couldn't have been more opposite. And it was the game that I waited for, Baker Mayfield. He's had a couple of these, but they've been in more low-wadage scenarios where he made every throw, and he threw aggressively. And they showed no fear in terms of their game plan. And I thought that they surprised most people watching the game, and they surprised the Titans. I think they, you know, last week the Titans went out and broke the cults with Derek Henry by halftime.

That didn't happen this time because the Titans, I thought came back with a lot of resilience. But Cleveland's defense, which was Missy and Denzel Ward and Ronnie Harrison, which I viewed as a death sentence. I thought that was probably going to mark the end of any chance to really win this thing. I couldn't have been more wrong about how this played out in the first half. And they made just enough plays in the second half to put it away. And to me, the Browns, I think, fairly were looked at as one of these teams that gets off to a start

where you look at the record and say, well, we're not buying your record because of who you've played. But now you add one to the belt that says, look, we beat the Titans, a team that I think they're pretty evenly matched with on some level. And they overachieved a little bit today maybe, but it kind of shows what the Browns can do and that whenever we count these teams out or look past them or discredit them, which I do all the time with teams with inflated records,

they can still surprise you. They beat the Titans at their own game. really coming out with the play action both teams used a lot of play action today and it was glorious. It was a fun first half and Baker Mayfield seems like every, I don't know, month or two has one of these games where every pass

is pinpoint accurate, his ball placement is uncanny and he should have five touchdowns in the first half. Donovan People's Jones dropped a layup on the opening drive of the game and Baker honestly deserved to have better stats at halftime. I mean it was 30, to seven. You can tell by Mark's kind of recap and just how he explained his day.

He's uncomfortable with all this success and all this goodness. I mean, they were up 38 to 7 in the game, as you mentioned, Mark, that like we were skeptical and we were looking at their record that Baker Mayfield had was touched one time. The Titans had one quarterback hit and it was on a middle linebacker blitz. So that shows you where. Right. That shows you where the Titans are and why I think they're going to lose. because of their past defense ultimately in the playoffs at some point,

whoever they end up playing. And it shows you that the Browns can take advantage of a past defense that bad. It's awesome. Yeah, it was a great performance. The Browns are a kind of strange team because when things are clicking for them, they look incredible. And I think they follow the lead of their quarterback, Baker Mayfield, because we've seen him have dog games this year.

We've seen him as recently as last week, miss open receivers and just be kind of so up and down but then every once a while the stars align and he looks like exactly the guy the browns thought they were getting when they took him number one overall a few years back and this was one of those days and i i find it here's the here's the key for because everybody is that listens to our podcast is fascinated by marks browns fandom and let me give you a little skeleton key to understand it when the when the browns are suffering and when they're going through their They're, you know, terrible phase, which was a long time for this podcast. Mark will ooze that despair. That will come often. That will come out of his pores and out of his mouth. And you can feel how upset he is. When the Browns are doing well, Mark, you tend to internalize it, I find.

And you, I know there's a lot of joy within you right now. You're not sharing that with us, but I know it has to be special that the Browns, and I'll say it again. The Browns are nine and three, Mark. Let it out. let out the joy it is it is special i think part of it is that it's happening this year in this time um which is a very weird time uh it's that like it feels a bit like a dream um i am happy in my honestly when i start to when it starts to um you know cleveland stacking wins is is not happen in 25 years so when it happens like i kind of like on sunday night

when we're done with everything and i'm sort of just sitting there watching like highlights and stuff. I'm like, whoa, this is going on. So I am, I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to downplay it. It also, like, it is. Stop withholding. No, but it's a, it is a vicarious experience. So it's like, I had nothing to do with it. I find it odd that people are like, great job, Mark. Like, I've been on these things great job. It's like, I had literally, I've sat in a chair the whole time. But it is awesome. And like, I, like, for me, everything starts with coaching. And I, it's like that it's not smoke and mirrors entirely. I think they're well coached. They're well prepared. That's the thing that I kind of

and most hopeful about that they haven't had a good game day coach since Bill Belichick. I mean, they really haven't. Here's the thing, like, your resume, how you played, like, in the first 11 or 12 games, we a lot of times think like you're as dangerous in the playoffs as like your aggregate good

things you've done during the regular season. It doesn't really matter that much. It's how you're playing when you're in the playoffs, when you get there. They got to 8 and 3 somehow. Can they play their very best here moving forward? with a good coach and a great offensive line like that. That is a team that you would not want to see

in the playoffs, and now they get to play the Ravens. And by the way, they're not totally out of the AFC out of the AFC North. If the Steelers lost against Washington, I'm just saying, that's a big if, but if they lost to Washington, the Browns still on the Steelers, always Rose-A-Law. Here's the thing. If the Browns still have the

Steelers on the schedule, they'd be back two with four to go, including a head-to-head. I'm just saying it wouldn't be totally over. That's all. Not mathematically. Big moment, and if people do want to know what it's like when Mark Sessler's in the moment, he was very nervous when the Titans put up 15 straight points to start the third quarter. I told them that Titans defense is bad.

Don't worry about it. And then we both agreed when the Browns were able to get that big Nick Chub run and they kicked the field goal, that calm things down. And then it made you feel better about things. And it never really was that dicey after that. You felt pretty good from that point on right mark i felt safer i mean i you know you we've all watched collapses and i i'm the someone that never trusts a team that gets up really really big at half time because there's so much time left and i thought cleveland came out real flat and some weird things were happening and the titans went hurry up um you know that field goal changed the demeanor of the game like you said well said calmed it down a bit it's like it was someone going absolutely nuts like a friend of yours

going absolutely nuts in a public setting you know maybe the bouncer hits him in the head once and it's down on a chair. It was Wes, a big bear in 2016. Well, that's been all of us at some point. All right, good stuff. And if you're Titans fan, you're like, what? I mean, they're kind of a tough team to figure out, Wes. We know their defense is an issue.

That's been on everyone's radar all season. But to lay an egg at that level in the first two quarters of this game, are they a team you struggle to take seriously in January? Or did they put enough out there in the past, and, you know, with the players that they have where you think they could shake this off and still close out this season the right way and be a team to watch.

This week hurts, and not just because of this loss because they had to put Jedevi and Clowney on IR and his season's over. I keep waiting for their defense to get better, thinking Adoria Jackson's going to come back and solidify their cornerbacks. Clowny's going to finally come alive as a pass rusher, but those dreams are over. Breon Borders got destroyed today at cornerback.

I don't know when Adoree Jackson is coming back, but as Greg has been pointing out, this pass rush is way too weak for the cornerbacks to even really matter that much. No tackles either, and they just suspended Isaiah Wilson after one of the worst first round pick seasons in memory for an undisclosed reason. So they're on their third and fourth tackles, and they can't play their first rounder because he's suspended. Isaiah Wilson does not seem super focused on football based on what we know about him. I mean, the first round pick looks like a knucklehead. You signed Vic Beasley. What a disaster.

Clowny has been a huge bust. They didn't get better with their big impact moves in the offseason. Let's move on. Murray throws behind it. It's intercepted. Troy Hill, the 35, the 20, the 10. Hill high step in. A pick six for Troy Hill to put it out of reach.

Oh. Wes, we know that, man. He's a hero amongst heroes. J.B. Long, KSPN with a call. Troy Hill jumped the route, snagged the Kyler Murray spiral, took it to the house, game clinching pick six, and the Rams 38-21 win, 38-28 win over the Cardinals in Glendale.

Great all-around effort by Los Angeles in this game. Jared Goff threw for over 350 yards, scored twice, didn't turn the ball over, obviously notable after his head coach, Sean McVeigh, put him on blast after last week's meltdown loss in which he turned the ball over repeatedly. You also got Daryl Henderson

ripping off a 38-yard touchdown run, Aaron Donald with a couple more sacks. And as I said, Hill capping it off with that pick six to seal it. The win combined with the Seattle's loss to the giant spoiler alert, moves L.A. back into a first place tie in the NFC West with four games to play.

And more importantly, this is exactly the game. And this is why I locked up the Rams because I know their defense is top level. If their offense can just move things up and be more consistent and stop turning the ball over, this team is going to win probably 11 games, and that might be enough to win a division title. Yeah, I think it's not just the fact that they won the game, it's how they won the game, that the Cardinals almost felt lucky to be in this, that it was, they doubled up their total yardage, the Rams against the Cardinals.

They moved the ball all day in their defense, except for a couple little things, you know, pretty much controlled things. and that's because the Cardinals are two one-dimensional passing. I know people think it's his shoulder injury with Murray, even though he's throwing the ball, awesome, and he's certainly running the ball fine. I think defenses are forcing him to hand the ball off, and they're doing whatever they can to stop DeAndre Hopkins,

who had 13 targets for 52 yards, which that sounds pretty bad. But then all the non-deandre Hopkins wide receivers there had, I think, a combined 30-something yards on 12 targets. So it's like it's Hopkins or nothing, and it's not a sustaining offense so it doesn't surprise me that like a great defense like the Rams just puts the clamps on him.

Dan, I did speak with J.B. Yesterday, Saturday, when we were putting up the Christmas lights outside. And for the first time since really I've met him, he was not 100% confident in his quarterback. Interesting. And I don't want to give too much away because it's his job sort of to be, you know.

He was like, Wes, this is definitely off. the record, but I didn't want to let you know how I'm feeling. He's a team employee. Ultimately, he's a team employee. It's his job to support the team, but I think when the head coach comes out and has doubts, it's okay for the play-by-play guy to say, okay, what's going on here? And I think we're to the point where it's like, is he the same way maybe Jimmy Garoppel is with the 49ers where you're on a year-to-year basis with golf now.

Is that what we're at? I mean, maybe, and maybe it's prohibitive with the contract that they gave him. And this is a marriage, I think that's going to go on. But if you just want to go off, and it is a week-to-week league, I thought he played really well in this game. He scored twice, once on the ground, once through the air, protected the ball, like I said. And, you know, he is never going to be maybe the guy they thought he could be. That's kind of where I come down on golf, that he's not a superstar or a star. I kind of put him in the similar class as Baker, that where you, they're the type of quarterbacks when things are going right.

and we have the right team around him, there may be like an Andy Dalton level or better, perhaps. That's kind of where I see golf. So I've never saw him as a huge problem for them. I know he was last week. And in this game, he certainly wasn't. I just thought, like Greg said, just a great all-around effort. And it was, I know the Seahawks are also a good team,

and they struggled a lot. But I am not going to be surprised at the Rams of the team that ends up winning this division. because I think if their offense continues to stay around this level, I just think they're the most balanced team in the West. It's such a tight division too that if the Rams are just going to play better down the stretch over the next four games, they will win this division based on what I saw from Seattle to you will get to that.

I mean, it just seems to me, while every third game from Jared Goff leaves us shaking our heads to your point, the defense finds someone or multiple people to step up every week. Troy Hill had a touchdown last week, too. I mean, they, you know, they seem to find different heroes on a weekly basis, and that's an awesome recipe to win a division and win a playoff game. So I, you know, I've been real hard on this team, not really so much because of the team, but because of other things, but I'm going to chill on it for a little bit. No one needs to hear it for me.

Well, on the Cardinals side of the thing. Until their next loss. Yeah. On the Cardinals, because, Mark, you were very high on the Cardinals a few weeks ago, but now they are one Hail Murray away from a five. five-game losing streak. Yeah, and the Patriots game cooled me on them a little, too. They were figured out, I thought, against New England.

It just seems like this was not a good matchup for them. And I thought, you know, just like Bill Belichick did, the Rams and their defensive coordinator, Staley. Brandon Staley. Brandon Staley deserves a lot of credit for the game plan, which didn't allow Kyler to get out of the pocket the way he wanted to. and then they have enough speed on defense where they can, you know, go one-on-one with a guy spying Murray, just taking that element of the game away.

And then if you're a defense that has a lockdown corner like the Rams do with Jalen Ramsey, it kind of plays right into their hands a game like this. So the Cardinals at 6 and 6, bye-bye division. And now you're just, you know, you're holding on for dear life trying to figure out a way to get your season back on track. I take a look real quick here. We don't need to play the look-ad game too much. much on the Sunday night recap show.

But you have the Giants up next, Eagles, Niners, Rams. I mean, I can't write a W on any of those right now with the Cardinals because they just are so inconsistent. They should beat the Eagles. But they're two and five in their last seven. I think they've been ahead of their skis all year. And I don't think people should be too hard on Kyle or Murray or the Cardinals if they win eight games after winning eight games combined the last two.

They're not that talented. Like, I just don't, I just don't think they're a talented team. So the Rams are a lot more talented. I think they're a little bit better coach to the Rams. And to me, it's not a surprise that it's going to be the Rams and the Seahawks playing for this division. All right. Let's move on. Wilson takes the snap.

He's back to throw. He's under pressure, flushed out to his left. Stands back there. Now he's going to moonball it down the middle of the field. High in the air, bat it down and incomplete. And the New York Giants are going to leave Seattle with a victory. Oh, we're hearing a lot from Bob Papa on this show in recent weeks of WFAN because the G-Men, the G-Men, they keep winning.

Russell Wilson frustrated all game long by the big blue defense, right to the very end on a desperation fourth down prayer that went unanswered in a 1712 win for New York at the stadium formerly known as the clink. Mark, with you boy, Colt McCoy behind center, the Giants, They looked like cannon fodder going into this game. How do they make everyone look so foolish? Well, I think it's two words, Patrick Graham. And, you know, Greg, I think you first mentioned him on our Thursday show

that, you know, he had been doing a good job that Dolphins-esque-type stuff happening with the Giants defense. They just, I thought, made life very difficult for Russell Wilson from the outset with all sorts of disguised coverages. zone blitzes. They just threw him off his game. They had a fumbled snap at one point, a lot of inaccurate throws.

I think they were bringing pressure. I mean, Russell Wilson sees the field as well as anyone. And I thought today they confused him a little bit. And they just, you know, I feel like in the course of doing this show, post the Super Bowl Giants team, that they were just this no-name defense. And I'm starting to see these guys start to play together with a lot of confidence. I mean, it starts with Leonard Williams,

who had two and a half sacks and was a month. monster today. But guys that I guess you would call no-nameers, like Carter Coughlin, Tay Crowder, Blake Martinez, who we know, but he was a little banged up today, but he's been consistent for them. James Bradbury made a couple huge plays. They're just a really productive defense and they're really sound. And their sacks on Russell Wilson accounted for losses of eight yards, eight yards, 11 yards, 15 yards. These came on third downs. They snuffed out Seattle and it came down like every Seahawks game to that final throw where you thought Seattle's just going to win this game, and it didn't happen this time. And to me,

it, like, gave me hope that there is a team in the NFC East that's really interestingly coached. I think there's a lot of, this team has a lot of confidence in themselves. And I don't really, I won't really point to the offense other to say that, like, Wayne Galman, week after week, does, does more than we would have expect someone named William Galman to do. He had a big 60-yard run today. Alfred Morris, there was at one point when Colt McCoy threw a touchdown pass to Alfred Morris to put them up by a chunk, and I thought, what is happening here? This is 2020, and it's beautiful. Call McCoy just did, he did just enough. You know, he's, he is who he is. We get it. Nice moment, though. It was a nice moment. It was a nice moment, Paul McCoy's McKeer.

I bet he was, he wasn't sure he was ever going to get something like a road win in Seattle ever again. Well, you're right. It's his first win since 2014, and he made a couple, a couple big throws, especially late in the game to help, you know, chip in one last field goal. It was a gutsy win for the Giants. And I think that like these teams or two or three teams over the course of a season, and they're a very different team than they were in September. It's funny because I remember talking on this podcast, I was talking about, you know, the different teams and looking ahead and the Giants were viewed as an also-ran and not a team to take serious. And perhaps there are still not. I mean, obviously they're the, they're leading the NFC East and their

sub-500. So we can't get too carried away with this. But I remember specifically a conversation, like name one player of merit, an impact player on their defense. And fast forward now to early December, and it's their defense that just went to Seattle and dropped a bomb on Russell Wilson. I think it's a testament to a couple things. I mean, number one coaching, well, number one, the players for their ability to execute. Number two, coaching. And three, there have been some moves here. And I know I tread carefully here, West. It's not safe space around these parts. Dave Gettleman made some moves that went under the radar, including Leonard Williams, getting him in the building, James Bradbury, Blake Martinez.

These guys have built, Jabriel Peppers, have built the foundation of a good defense now. Well, yeah, I don't think you want to really get into Dave Geddeman's draft picks. But his free agent hall has been magnificent. The guys you guys both mentioned, James Bradbury having a legitimate pro-ball year, if not all pro. Blake Martinez having a career year. Leonard Williams having a career year, if not a pro bowl year. All three of those guys were free agents. And Leonard Williams was as a priority.

for them. I mean, and the biggest pick he made was Judge. To me, Judge hires Graham away from Miami. That was a win-win. Miami didn't need to let him leave. That was kind of interesting. He was their coordinator. He had to ask for permission. They decided to help out his career. I think he's close with Flores. Both sides are winning with that. But hiring Judge and Judge hiring Graham, you've got to give Gettleman credit for that. They should be better than, I know they're five and but they they lost some brutal ones early and to me they're playing much better much better there are two losses in this stretch now they've won four straight the two losses before that were by one and two points so like this team could easily you could flip their record right now so

they really are i think they've established themselves what's that goes the other way they could have lost to the bengals last week too i know but they dominated that game that's okay that's they seem to me and this is also dangerous footing in this season to be the best team in the NFC East and they've made that clear but that's true right now but yeah by the way I'm you know I know we haven't done the fork all year other than your guys is regrettable premature forking of the 49ers but I'm I'm sticking a fork in in Russell Wilson's MVP campaign I think you tried to a week ago and I stuck got in your way but now two more turnovers it's probably like a two-man race now right

it feels like it's Rogers against Mahomes he's out of of it. Kyler's out, too. Stick a fork in Kyler as well. He's been out. He was never in. Well, I thought Russell was out a couple weeks ago, but apparently before it comes out now. I never know.

Any MVP talk, it's like, are we even allowed to have it? Because I haven't seen any people. I've just, Russell had played well enough that if he had gone on fire the last five weeks of the season, you couldn't have told me he wouldn't have been in the mix. Don't we trust that, like, some. Too many problems. Don't we trust some voters who watch, like, only the team on their, like, local TVs, probably throwing a few votes out there that don't make a lot of sense,

Or are they more sound than that at this point? You're saying you're not standing behind Tony Dungey voting for Bobby Wagner in 2017? There's that. I mean, I'm not allowed into the Pro Football Writers Association. So obviously, you know, they're afraid of what I might vote for. I don't want to glance over, though, the fact that the Seahawks got shut down at home by the Giants. Yeah. That is, that's strange.

This is a team at full strength. You had Chris Carson, Russell Wilson, Tyler Lockett, D.K. Metcalfe. You would think that points would rain down, and yet the offense is going in the wrong direction. As the defense is getting better, and ain't this life, the offense is going the other way. It was pass rush. I mean, like Wilson deals with pass rush really well, but they got to them. I mean, and they ended drives, and like I said, they confused them. And just don't see that happen too often.

It is, I think it's just more like, let's warm up to what this Giants defense might actually be. The Seahawks line's been bad for a month, though. They've been bad for a month. They were bad on Monday night against the Eagles, too. I mean, I think they've been bad for a month, and it's a lot to overcome. Their offensive line was bad today. Chev Wheeler got destroyed. He got killed.

Wilson doesn't usually express himself too much on the field, but you could, like Mark said, you could see it on his face. He was frustrated with the lack of protection he was getting. And the Giants, like the great Giants' defenses of yesteryear, getting pressure without needing to blitz, the front four doing the damage. All right. let's move up bailey from 23 to walk off snap spot bailey sixth win the Vikings win 2724 even Paul allen's like you really Vikings you really want me to get excited after that performance

paul allen and k f a and you know the jaguars have perfected the art of almost winning harrison smith intercepted mike lennon in overtime setting up a dramatic chip shot game winner from Dan Bailey and the Vikings 27-24 overtime win at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings once left for dead are now six and six, and I believe right now they sit in the seventh spot for the playoffs. So quite a season turnaround for Minnesota. Greg, this game, like the game up there in the Great Pacific Northwest, looked like a blowout on paper.

Why did it play out that way? The Vikings' offensive line more than anything, but man, they find ways. to not win games. I think that's been a trade of theirs. And I know they came back and won the game last week and Joey Slyb and missed the kick

or else they wouldn't have. But they've had times this year when they can put the game away. Even during this stretch where Cousins is playing well, like a couple weeks ago, you get two chances to go beat the Cowboys at the end.

Don't do it on offense. I counted six straight drives late in this game after they took over against an underman Jaguars team got the lead after being down by 10 points, to the Vikings credit, you score two touchdowns, you get a lead.

Six more possessions, the Vikings' offense doesn't do anything. A couple of those started in Jacksonville territory. So the Vikings' defense was keep setting them up over and over and either cousins missed the throw or they're running too much on early downs or the pass protection collapses. That was probably the number one thing, where you got to the point where the Jaguars had the ball

in overtime with a chance to. win because the Vikings blew their first chance in overtime. And you're thinking, wow, are they really got to blow this game to Mike Gledon who scored eight points on, you know, a game tying drive to get to overtime? No, no, the Jaguars are too good at losing these close games. Didn't happen. That was so disappointing because obviously, as a Jets fan, if you can get the, if you can get the Jaguars to two wins or even a win in a tie, you're feeling awesome about the Trevor sweepstakes. And when you get the three and out and the Vikings punting from deep in their own end. You're like, all right, we're cooking here. Just need a field goal. Then the

punt goes deep. And then there's a penalty that pushes them back to inside their own 20. And then they have an open DJ shark over the middle near midfield and Mike Glennon, Glennon's it for the INT. And it was all she wrote after that. I believe the last five Jaguar's losses have all been by four points or less, something in that range. And some good teams too. It's incredible how they, week after week, they hang in these games. You go leading into the week, everyone's just talking about how terrible their defense is and how the quarterback stinks and all this. And then in the fourth quarter, it's tied with two minutes to play.

I guess that would give you hope that, you know, if you're someone that's looking, they're looking to hire a head coach and a general manager after this season potentially, you add a quarterback, like a game-changing quarterback to that mix. They're not maybe that far away. I mean, something about them. Right, but none of these guys are going to be there anyway. So who knows what Jerry's up.

Are they going to dump the entire roster off a mountainside? I'm saying Marone. Well, I'm saying the new coach. For the new coach coming in or like the new regime, like there's something to sell here. I mean, they're not a total trash bag on fire. But I was looking to go ahead, Wes. I would say there's one beat scribe in Jacksonville

who's been saying all year since September that he's guaranteeing the Jaguars are a playoff team next year. He's that impressed with their young talent. I think they are talented. I mean, Shark made a couple great plays. Games Robinson's been awesome. You know, Miles Jack is in his prime. I don't know if they have a ton of talent on TV.

I mean, they lost. The crazy thing is you come out for this game, and it started as about as bad for the Vikings as possible. Eric Kendrix heard himself 15 minutes before the game, which you never hear, like, the post-inactive injury. It doesn't happen too much. So he's out, and the Jaguars are up 9-0 and have 13 first downs before the Vikings have three.

And then there's kind of a fluky interception that turns around. But it's just surprising to see them get dominions. for stretches, the Vikings. You've seen that where, like, they look like the inferior team here in the first quarter and in the fourth quarter. It didn't seem that fluky. Glennon had three turnovers and, you know, was not the solution. He also had a bunch of dimes, especially on that game-tying drive.

So that's what he'll do. That's the experience of them. I mean, Kirk Cousins, I see over his last five games, has 14 touchdowns, two picks. I mean, he's been clean. Today might, I mean, you're saying today was problematic to some degree, but, I mean, it wasn't on him. I don't trust their O line. But they're six and six.

They're in the playoffs right now. That's insane to me. Well, they have the Bucks and Saints as two of three opponents over the next three weeks with the bears and lions around that. So that's doable. You're going to have to pull off an upset there, though, I think, over one of these heavies. The Kendrick's injury, and it was a calf injury, reminds me, speaking of old Jets' misery, back in 1996, Neil O'Donnell was fumbling his way through his first season with the team.

And during pre-game warm-ups, he took a step. on where the helmet was painted in the end zone, and it was slick, and he slid and tore his calf muscle. So hopefully it's not something that serious, but whenever a calf muscle tears, I think of Neil O'Donnell. Any other thoughts on this game? All right. Good stuff.

Let's move on. Comes cars. Now he comes up, going to fire again. Oh, I've been waiting for this. Go ahead force. Ruggs has got it. Touch. Jackpot, baby.

Vegas touchdown. Vegas touchdown. Jackpot. And away. Must burn. Uncle Brent with the call for KRLV. Yes, the Raiders needed a miracle to keep their season from circling the drain. They got it in the form of a Derek Carr,

46-yard touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs with seconds to play. and a 31 to 28 win over the aforementioned New York Jets at the Jersey Meadowlands. The play, and you heard it, and everybody was Twitter middle school, was going crazy about the Jets tanking. The Jets are not tanking. Jets played really hard in this game, and they essentially, after scoring 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter were poised for a win. They got a fourth down stop late in the fourth quarter.

Oakland had to get a three-and-out stop from the Jets, which they got. Jets punted away. And essentially, all the Jets need to do is keep, did I say, Oakland a bunch of times, Vegas from beating them with a deep ball. And for whatever reasons, Greg Williams chose this moment. with the Raiders at midfield with no timeouts, down four, to bring the house on a blitz. And it's notable, everyone knows what happens. And you just heard it.

When you bring the house on a blitz, you leave three defensive backs to cover three players streaking down the field. And then you have to remember who the personnel is. And I think this is what the defensive coordinator missed as well, Greg Williams. You had Henry Ruggs, a gifted prospect with four-two. speed first round pick against Lamar Jackson, not that Lamar Jackson, the undrafted free agent Lamar Jackson, who was cut in camp and brought back when the Jets had injury issues. You leave him on an island and Jackson bites on the double move and it's a gimmee touchdown and no help over time from a safety because the safety is in one-on-one coverage with the guy in the slot.

It was it was amateur hour by Greg Williams in a terrible call. And after the game, Marcus May, who was on the field and you know he's a good player and uh he he couldn't help but uh take a shot at gregg william uh yeah i just felt like we could have been a better call uh at that time in that point of the game got to execute but you got to help us out at the same time just being a you know better call at that so you can you can tell me Greg that this is uh a good thing for the jets ultimately and maybe it was uh but if you are following this team and if you followed any team that's been through a season like this, you understand that this is weighing on them. It kind of becomes part of their identity. And to play this hard and to lose again and

now be staring at 0 and 12 with four games to infamy, I just felt so bad for those guys and just angry with the coaching. I mean, he's Greg Williams going to Greg Williams. There's a pretty, you know, logical belief that in a Hail Mary, situation, which this one wasn't quite, that you send pressure. In fact, whenever coaches don't send pressure in Hail Marys, everyone always yells, why didn't they send pressure? You also have a guy out there, you know, Lamar Jackson covering rugs who bites on a double move, when he can absolutely not, that's the last thing that he can do.

There's different ways to send pressure. That's crazy to say that you got to have a zero blitz, though. Right. I'm not saying you've got to have a... In that situation. it's he's gonna Greg Williams it's kind of like him and Gase I was thinking at the end of this game

are such poor matches because Gase is afraid of his own shadow coaches that way even when his team's good even when the Dolphins made the playoffs he was afraid of his own shadow there was no way he was going to let Sam Darnold throw the ball on third and six to go win a ball game like he just wasn't going to do it

that's fine you could you can say that's the percentage play that's the way to do it there's no way he's going to do it because he's just afraid whereas Greg Williams is like the total opposite it and is just like balls to the wall no matter what i saw don't go ahead west i was just going to say so dan does the the tank talk incorporate this decision to blitz with the game on the line well that's what the you know the jokesters on twitter were saying but obviously this is where that logic falls apart is that greg williams and adam gates for that matter aren't going to be within a hundred

miles of trevor lawrence if he's in the jet's huddle come september So they stand nothing to gain unless they have some type of loyalty to the team to the team that's signing their paychecks for the next month, which obviously is not the case. It was just a terrible call by a coach who should have known better with his level of experience that you have to coach to your personnel and he didn't there. And that's why I felt bad for Lamar Jackson. That guy's, you know, a borderline NFL player. And you're putting him in that position to get beat and have the goat horns. and really where they should be and where they deserve to be is on the coach.

And I think when you look at the rest of the game, you had Sam Darnold contributing three touchdowns, kind of breaking out of his funk, and the Jets running for over 200 yards, and speaking of Adam Gase being, you know, having issues with just all sorts of things in his role. It took Frank Gore suffering a brain injury to get him out of the game plan.

And as soon as he was, and they gave some young guys the chance to run the football, Ty Johnson and Josh Adams made play. So it's like, I don't know, like everything about this Jets team is broken, but the coaching, again, stepped to the forefront in this game. And on the Raider side of things, good job. You got the win that was, you know, gutsy being able to come back there. But at the same time, it's like, oh, my God, you barely beat the Jets

after getting destroyed by the Falcons. So it's not inspiring a ton of confidence going forward. someone like when it comes to this tank business like unless great unless they've found like a model of greg williams and he's just it's not a real person that they have like just playing greg williams he think he wants two oh and 16 seasons on his resume over the course of just a couple years i mean probably not he's never going to call plays again these are the last games and he's going to go out saying remember me i'm greg williams that's to me that's the through line of all greg williams calls is he wants you to know he's there. And so he did in this game and he wanted to end it with a

flourish. And everyone knows he was there. This league guys. It's about Greg Williams. Right. Exactly. It's about Greg. Wait, one little Brent Muskiger note. And I'm sure everyone here knows this, but if listeners do not, when he used to host NFL today on CBS and he would open the show by saying, you are looking live at Chicago's Soldier Field. It wasn't for us who were young at that point, football. It was to show last-minute gamblers back in a day when you had no access, what the field conditions looked like, what the wind looked like, so that those last-minute gamblers had as much information as they possibly could. This guy is way into the desert happenings. I'll tell you

that. He owns a gambling company. Right. In his final years, he's in his 80s now. He has found his perfect spot. I want a little shout out also, by the way, to Darren Waller, who's had, I would say a disappointing season on balance, but he was uncoverable in this game, 13 for 200 and two touchdowns. So Darren Waller, huge for the Raiders who have a, speaking of huge, huge matchup against the Colts next week, two teams vying for playoff spots. And you know what? This just shows the old Zeus are magnanimous as always. If this happened to another team, I'd like to hear the other teams, the losing teams radio call. I don't want to hear the Jets announcer for the

first time getting his heartbroken, but I think the audience might. Let's listen to Bob Leschusen. Here comes an all-out blitz. He steps up in the pocket. Unloads one down the left sideline. Looking for Rods, drops it in. Touchdown! Are you kidding me? Henry

rogues down the sideline and Carr finds him for a go-ahead touchdown with five seconds to go. Now that's unbelievable, Bob. Unbelievable how you can allow a receiver to get behind you. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, indeed.

Let's move on. Really torn about this. Was not even upset when I lost, but I also wanted them. It is picked up by the Colts. It's the Anthony Walker, and the Colts have a takeaway and a fumble recovery. It was a bad snap back to Watson, and then it ricocheted off of his hip. that it was a mad dash to get the football around the 10-yard line, and the Colts get an absolute gift.

An absolute gift. It was Matt Taylor, WFNI with the call. The snap was low. Deshawn Watson couldn't handle it, and the Colts pounced on the ball. The goal-line turnover served as the defining play in Indies 26 to 20 win over the Texans. Greg, the Colts got two early Philip Rivers touchdowns on that bad foot,

and then the huge takeaway when they needed it most. It was a fitting way for this Texan's season in terms of any hopes at all, you know, to end, which is that Deshaun Watson plays a great game overall, puts them on the doorstep of a stunning win, just a couple yards away, and one of his teammates lets him down because his teammates have been letting them down all year. Wolf Fuller let him down for getting suspended. The offensive line was terrible today, and he, he had as good a half as he's had all year, which is, you know, he's had so many of those, I feel like,

where he just is on fire for half in the first half of this game, because his offensive line was terrible. But they go into halftime, and it's 24 to 20. They're barely behind, and then you have the snap at the end of the game where they blow it. It was a strange game. More than 500 yards of offense, 24 to 20 in the first half combined. Neither offense scored in the second half.

The only score was a safety by the Colts. It was really hard to see. Are we at the point? Because Watson has been playing out of his mind. It's an Andre Dawson in 1987 year with the Cubs West to use a baseball reference there. But have we reached the point where there are too many weapons stripped away and Watson is going to struggle to put up points for the rest of the year? It reminds me of sort of the inverse of those Larry Fitzgerald teams

when they were dragging guys off the couch to play a quarterback. And Fitzgerald, you could tell this as a guy at the top of his profession and Deshaun Watson has reached that level too. I mean, he's a top-tier quarterback now, and he's just not getting the help from his teammates. To be fair, you know, to the Colts defense, DeForest Buckner gets a couple sacks. They get a safety on Watson

where they kind of surprise them with a stunt. They forced the fumble on Watson in the second half, so it wasn't perfect from him. But I would say, no, he's still dangerous, Dan, because Kiki QT had 141 yards, and someone named Chad Hansen had 101 yards. So I hope he played him. Summer in the band, Hansen.

I think he was the little kid with the long hair. I hope you played him in your DFS league because he can turn anyone, I guess, into a hundred-yard receiver. Justin Houston had three sacks, I saw. So, I mean, I guess the, you know, you can't look at the Titans game last week for the cults and say it's all because of DeForest Buckner and DeNico Autry. But DeForest Buckner has got to be as valuable top five valuable defensive player right now. Can that you picture? Remember Elliot Gould's glasses in Oceans 11 with the thick. frames and wearing the silk robe.

Can't you see Greg in Vegas in his golden years, essentially just running some type of book? And he dresses like that every day with those glasses. Greg, you could see that as maybe one outcome. I like the outfits. I don't want to be living in Vegas, but I'm totally into the robes and all of that. That put a smile on Greg's face.

There may be no Los Angeles by the time you're retired. Vegas may be all that's left, so don't, you know, Vegas could be the coast. You never know. Yep. Colts is lucky to get out of this one with the win. They're on their third left tackle. They lost their backup left tackle right at the beginning of this game.

JJ Watt had a monster game. They need to run, I think, to be effective. And Jonathan Taylor is running better, but they still couldn't even run when it mattered, even against the Texans. And so that worries me about the Colts offense. He evered eight yards per carry, and they couldn't run when it mattered.

In this game, first of all, they were so run heavy, I mean, so pass heavy for most of it. And yeah, they couldn't, you know, in the second half of this game, they had a million chances, kind of like the Vikings to put it away. And the offense literally couldn't score a point in the second half. I feel like I have less of a handle on who's going to win the AFC South than who's going to win the NFC East because the Titans, they just, they continue to play tricks with my mind, my mind.

And the cults are similar where I struggle to buy in on the cults. And we talked a little bit. We have more information than we had on Thursday. there was a report that the nature of this Philip Rivers injury, he's going to need surgery after the year, that it's something, it's like basically the equivalent of super turf toe, only it's on a nearly 40-year-old quarterback who already can't move and doesn't have the strongest arm. So it seems like something that could be a massive hindrance going down the stretch. The schedules are pretty close. I think the Titans are a little easier. I think the Colt I think they're both going to get in

Colts play the Raiders next week which is a big one All right, let us move on pulls it back, throws it and so Gisicki touchdown winning down throwing to Mike Gaseki in the end zone Jimmy Cepelo

WQAM with the call Welcome back toa Tua Tua Tago Biola by Loa Connected with Mike Gaseki On a pretty five-yard touchdown The Dolphins did what they needed to do in sloppy, you know, a lot of bad blood, a lot of people getting ejected,

but at the end of the day, it was a 19 to 7 win over the bangles. Mr. Sessler, how did Tua look in his return from that thumb injury? I'll say first of all, this song fits the tone of this game. This felt like sort of an old street fight. All right. Keep it rolling, Ricky. Yeah, it deserves to keep rolling. How did you look? First half, Dolphins' offense, very stagnant. Tua, I thought inaccurate. I thought at half time it was fair to ask, this team is in a playoff

chase, do you bench Tua and bring in Fitzpatrick, who the offense, frankly, has just looked better with, more in flow. Tua came back and played a better second half. I think Mike Keseki is like the center of their passing game half the time, and I like him, but Tua

to me just is not, you're not getting full games from him. He also had his hand and wrist wrapped, and I know that the The broadcaster said that he said to them that he hoped during the week not to have it wrap because it was uncomfortable basically to play with, which makes tons of sense. So that could have been a factor. But he had a better second half. This game, though, their defense, it was very Dolphins-esque.

The defense took over. And the Brandon Allen, who played an all right first half for Brandon Allen and what you're asking him to do in a lost situation, they had like negative two yards in the second half with like minutes to go. the game. Send them to the cornfields. Well, right. They, they were, that was the thing. Their offense just literally is a complete lost operation at this point. So the dolphins, their defense picked up. And to, and to your point on this bad blood, I mean, to sum it up quickly, because a lot of stuff happened. Early in the game, Xavier and Howard and Tyler Bored, Boyd got into it with some fisticuffs. They were, they were knocked out of there, ejected. Then in the second half,

two punt returns in a row, Jakeem Grant was whacked by. by Bengals safety, Mike Thomas. I mean, really rough, ridiculous hits. And this is something that showed me something about the dolphins that I really like. Sean Williams of the Bengals was ejected Devante Parker, Mac Hollins after basically the Dolphins team

left their bench and went and confronted the Bengals. And it wasn't just then. It was Brian Flores, right in the center of it, marching out into the field. And I think there's a bunch of coaches. I don't know if you're getting Vic Fangio to run out and do it. the middle of a melee. Maybe you are. He's a little bit cantankerous. He's a tough dude,

Vangio. He might be the guy. But Flores, to me, in afterwards he said, look, I shouldn't have done that. I should have kept my head about me, but I believe in my players. And it's another week where all the players are saying, like, Flores is that dude. So it was messy, but it kind of showed me something about how tight this team is. And they're 8 and 4. They're very imperfect. I'm not sure who their better quarterback is right now. Future-wise, that's a different story but their schedule going from here is an absolute mess it's the chiefs the raiders the patriots and the bills so we'll see what happens but it is a step forward from last year i think everyone asked would they make a step forward it was last year's ending a mirage it's not a mirage they're a

really well-coached team they just don't have all the parts well remember mark you have them going to the super bowl so you need more than just year over your improvement you need something very special here nobody will remember that prediction what was the prediction in Dolphins, too? Dolphins Cardinals. At mid-season. The Dolphins Cardinals. The way you said that felt like it was one foot off, the dolphins.

Who have only lost one game since you made that prediction, to be fair. It was previously the Cowboys from the NFC. So, you know, I did improve my standing some degree. How many predictions have you made? What you do, Wes, is you make 80 or 90, and then one comes through, and you trump at the one, and they're like, that guy keeps names. nailing these prognostications over... I feel like you have six Super Bowl winners.

They asked us. They asked us on the dot com for the mid-season prediction. I don't think you should have... I don't think that makes sense. You should just keep your precinct. Should I have stuck with cowboys, though? No, then I'm not your fault. I'm putting this one on the editors.

I'm putting it on bad coaching. And I'm not surprised these two teams fought. When the Bengals and the dolphins get together, the rivalry is fierce. There's a lot of feelings. Throw the record books out the window. You had the Cam Wake safety walk-off touchdown on Thursday night football.

You've had a couple other crazy Dolphins-Bengals games. It always just gets wet. What record books are attached to the Bengals? I'm not, I've not seen the positive record books. By the way, how does Mike Thomas not get ejected from that game? Was that in honor of, you know, former infamous Bengals' Gung? We had a soon not get ejected? Mike Thomas.

He did not. The guy that leveled on special teams twice, Dolphins player. On the weekend that former Bengals goon, Vantes Burfitt, got arrested. He should have been shown the gate, but he was able to stay in that game while everyone battled around him throughout the game. The one thing I would say is, like, I don't know about you, I would, the last job I'd ever, one of the last jobs that I want is to be a ref. I think it sounds like an absolute nightmare. And there were suddenly like 70 people fighting with each other. And there's like four refs with like little notebooks flipping their little notebooks trying to figure out who to toss.

It was like total chaos. Respect me. All right. Let's move on. Ryan takes the snap, drops back. He's going to throw one down the center of the field. The end zone incomplete. And the Saints defense holds on fourth down. And boy, what a big, big mistake by Todd Gurley to put them in that situation.

Oh, that never happens. Todd Gurley doing something stupid? Zach Streep with the call WWL. Yes, Tayson Hill through, through, yes, I said it. Two touchdown passes, and the Saints' defense stood strong once again, when necessary. In a 21-16 win over the Falcons, that is nine consecutive wins for the Saints. And for me, the big takeaway was Hill. This was progress.

Game one, start one, meh, for me. Start two, yeh, scary. start three he actually looks like a quarterback he drops back he looks he looks confident he steps up in the pocket he drives throws down field uh and completes passes and he's moving the chains on third down and when he gets in trouble and no one's open then he's taking off for a run this looked like a functional quarterback and uh other than one bad turnover in the red zone uh on a fumble i thought he played excellent in this game. So big time progress if you're living on Taysam Hill for the quarterback

and to the point, West, that we talked about on the Thursday preview show, I wondered slash lamented when Alvin Kamara would rejoin this offense in some capacity and he was back. He had close to 100 total yards and a touchdown. Michael Thomas was over 100 yards. The offense looked like a functional. offense on the same weekend that there's a report that Drew Brees will be ready in a week or so. So that's interesting now because the Saints, obviously, nine straight wins, three

in a row with Hill. Wes, I know you're our eye in the sky on Sundays. How much did you see of this game? And if you did, what did you think of Taysam? Well, first of all, you're a man who backs his commitments. You're going to take a stand on Taysam Hill and you, you're choosing these games every Sunday to report back to his boots on the ground. I admire that you're giving us a report every week. Thank you. You're invested. I am. I'm surprised that Greg let it drop to me at three overall, but I took the opportunity and ran with it. I have been in Tassum's corner for years now because of the way people have reacted to him. But I have confessed to doubts about his ability to read the field. And I don't think he read the field well in either of his first two starts. I

thought he did much better at that today. Like you said, drove the ball down the field, had to actually go through some of his progressions and it's something we haven't seen him do really well yet so um i agree with you i i put this on the progress side of the ledger you add in 80 yards rushing talking about a guy who's hard to take off the field and i know drew breeze is going to get his job back but i i imagine that that tasem hill has earned a bigger slice of the pie going forward yeah you wonder if they'll if there's any question about breeze's health they're playing the Eagles next week, whether they want to give him an extra week off. My guess is if he's ready to play, they're going to play him. You got the sense Sean Payton came out here, though, wanted to prove

a point with Tayson Hill. The run pass imbalance was so heavy for the pass early. And they weren't that efficient throw in early. Like he had 20 throws for about 110 early, but it was almost like Peyton was out there. Defenses are going to try to stop them from running. He wanted to show Tayson Hill. Maybe he wanted to see if Tayson Hill can throw. And it sounds like he he passed. that test. I mean, I don't hate that it took him a couple games to warm up on some level with some of the elements of this too. It's really, my thing is, like, what do you, what would he have to show for them to go into next season saying he will be our starter? I don't think we've seen enough of that. That feels real hazardous. And I like, I like the idea of Taysam Hill, but I mean,

this is a nice, this is a nice start here, but it feels like the future is a tad murky. What would the field be if the Falcons, you know, they're in the red zone second and two at the 13 yard line, under two minutes to go. And to me, that's like the Falcons nutshell of their season, girly for nothing, girly negative seven. They just are so bad running the ball and they end up blowing that chance. And they're bad in the red zone. That's been the case for most of the last couple of years. They're so frustrating to watch the Falcons on offense. you would think.

And, you know, we talked about it on Thursday, and the numbers back it up, that this is a totally different offense with Julio Jones on the field. But then a game like this happens, and it just feels like they should be so much more productive than they are. And that is something they have to figure out going forward, whether they truly want to blow this thing up or if they want to try to rebuild around Matt Ryan one more time. Yes, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Drew Briez could return in week 14. So that's going to play into this as well, obviously, Mark, because if we've already seen the last start for Taysam Hill this season, he didn't show you enough one way or the other to say that he should be absolutely their weak one starter next year. I think there's going to be a murkiness around the quarterback position in New Orleans,

barring them making some huge move to bring in a veteran, which I don't think they could do because I think there are roughly $7 billion over the salary. Well, right, which emphasizes the fact that this is a total go-for. broke operations. So their record is what it is. If they can get the buy, this team is as well coached as any. And they're winning games with backup quarterbacks. That's tough to do in the NFL. I mean, I give Sean Payton a ton of credit. Was that the yummy yummy, yummy put this game in my tummy game. I can't remember which one you had that. No, that was Bill's 49ers. Yeah, yummy. So you're going to be tasty. So are you going to fast in the morning for that game

so that when you do put the game in your tummy, it's almost more satisfied. Take us through the tummy scenario. You've got to build up a big appetite because now you don't want to fast too long where the stomach starts to shrink. You want to snack a little bit during the day so that when I have to swallow an entire stadium based in Arizona,

along with like, you know, 70, 700 to 800 people or whoever's involved with this operation, that's a lot to eat. But I'm ready to eat it. It's like a COVID risk too. Yes. If any one of them have COVID, it will be right, and it will be literally injected into my body.

There's a part of me that turned 15 and then stayed in that year forever, and everything you just said was hilarious to me, Mark Sessler. All right, now to Greg Rosenthal's fever dream. The snapback, the placement by Longley, kick is blocked. It's blocked. It's bouncing in the open front. It's picked up by the Patriots and running down the sideline is Devin McCordy, to the five to the end zone. Devin McCordy off the Blackfield goal attempt.

Picking it up and running it in for a touch. Touchdown Patriots. Special teams. Touchdown. And there's a party in the end zone. What a block. What a job on the jumper from the back left side. Foxogee. There he is. Scott Zolak, WBC. Wes, remember in Hard to Kill, Sneed and Segal, where Seagal gets shot eight times by an intruder. And he goes into a coma for close to a decade. And he survives. He comes out of it. And then he has to go into hiding with Kelly LeBron. to build back and become the man he was so he can get revenge. He can take Senator Trent to the bank, the blood bank. Do you remember any of that, Wes?

I have to confess I've never seen a Steven Seagalman. That's not important. All you need to know is that that's what I feel about Scott Zolak right now, that for the past like 12 weeks he'd been in hiding, trying to recover and licking his wounds after Tommy Boy left him, and now he feel he's coming back and then Scott Zolak's getting his juice back, just like Mason Storm did and hard to kill. storm. Devin McCordy scooped up the block field goal and took it to the house. Just one

indignity in a game full of them for the Chargers who were demolished by the Pats. 45 nil at Hollywood Park. New England is won four or five and they are in the race for a play off spot with four games to play. Greg, we knew there was a coaching mismatch entering this one. How much did that play into the absurd nature of this blowout? I mean, it It's everything. The Patriots had, their quarterback had 69 yards passing and they won the game 45 to nothing. I mean, it's outrageous. That's not right.

That is not right what you just said. They had almost as many points is passing yards. That is a fact. Well, that was Cam's passing yards. You know, Stidham came in for garbage time and got some more. But it's special teams, you know, first of all, the Patriots offense outscored their defense, you know, plenty. And the defense didn't give up any points, even without. all this special team stuff.

But, yeah, the charges have been coaching these special teams with Lynn at this level for three years. And they've had the same coach who they reassigned to a different part of the building and his assistant took over and it's not any better. I think they found him. Right. In the same game that the Patriots had a 70-yard punt return, a blocked field goal touchdown on the last play of the half.

And it was like one of those where if he got tackled, you don't get anything from it. So you have to score the 70-yard touchdown, and they got that. They got a 61-yard punt return. They, the Chargers also had a four-punt or a three-punt streak. What is this? Anthony, keep it down. Greg's trying to provide analysis of the game. It's not nice.

I don't think, yeah, I think this is the game. If there's any game that he can't survive, this is it because the defense cooked up Herbert too. And, you know, they had a three-play stretch, a three-punt stretch, rather, where they had 10 men on the field, give up a big return, 12 men on the field on fourth and five,

so the Patriots get to keep the ball. And then the next punt, they had 10 men on the field again, and they gave up a big return. I mean, that's, it's just too much. Greg, had the last seven days in general between the shenanigans, of Lynn the week before.

And on top of this, I feel like you might have sealed his fate here. Yeah, he reported this morning that he's on the hot seat. Yeah. Well, we just heard it. I mean, was that, Mark? Well, I was going to say, Greg,

is it possible that this is simply Gunnar Olshevsky, who had a touchdown last week, of return last week, a huge one against the Cardinals, called back. I mean, maybe he's just simply too powerful. But, I mean, how do you,

you know, there was a laundry list of blown, scenarios by Anthony Lynn a week ago to come in and outdo yourself in this fashion. That's hard to do and it is tough because we all like the persona. We like the person and it might be bye-by time. I don't like saying that, but. I mean, I'm sure you would like to hear it. I think that would be the worst way to possibly get fired would be to hear someone say it's

bye-by time. Well, I don't mean it insensitively, but it's, We don't even need to say more about it because I think it sort of speaks for itself the way it happened today. Yeah, Gunner Olshevsky, give him that special team's player of the week. He was also their leading receiver,

one catch 38 yards. Are you ready to apologize, Greg, to your beloved hero, Bill Belichick, for writing the Patriots off as a completely untalented team with a bad defense and never taking into account the idea that they would continue to improve and do Belichickian things

with or without Tom Brady, the floor is yours. At 6 and 6, I never said he was like doing a bad job. You were killing this defense for a month. Because they were one of the worst defenses, if not the worst defense in the league. But they have absolutely found themselves in the last four or five weeks the way they're using some of their young players. Stefan Gilmore returning makes a huge different. He is shut cornerbacks, wide receivers down, kind of back in his defensive player of the year for him. Shut down Keenan Allen today.

They have some young players. Josh Uche had some great pass rushes today. You just have not seen them win. Adam Butler was, you know, not a guy you would expect to dominate. It's kind of dominated the last two weeks. So they had a pass rush. Herbert had no chance early in this game. For all the special team stuff, it's like, you know,

the Chargers didn't score any points either. So there was a million ways they could have lost this game. And the Patriots are very much alive, like in terms of showing their fans a fun game every week. They also play, you know, three straight teams. teams with good records in a row. And they're much further out of the playoffs right now than the Lions are. So in terms of making the playoffs, there's not a lot of hope. They would have to win out and get a lot of help against really good teams.

But they're obviously been a lot of fun to watch for Patriots fans. The Dolphins. The definition of fun is a lot different than mine. Patriots fans, including me, kind of love finding different ways to win games. They, like, don't have a passing game. This team is so awful to watch. Damien Harris. When they win, they were so awful to watch.

I predicted this in March. Greg's going to be talking about this was his favorite Patriots team because they made so much of so little and what a coaching job. Well, they're not talented. They're not talented. But they're finding, it is fun to see a team try to figure out ways to win a game with zero passing game. And at this point, their passing game is just bankrupt.

But Cam Newton ran the ball. He was the key to running the ball in the red zone and basically capitalizing on the chances that they had. But they're so limited. It is hard to win without a passing game that it does limit them. I mean, sign me up to root for the untalented teams that are winning 45 to nothing. I'll take that any time. The cults currently sit in the seventh and final playoff spot in the AFC.

As of the recording of this podcast, they're 8 and 6. You have the Raiders behind them at 7 and 5. The Raiders, I just say. Then the Ravens at 6 and 5. And then the Patriots, as Greg said, they're still far back there. They're in 10th place right now at 6 and 6. They're either going to have to win out or one more loss and then get some help. I mean, they're going to have to win out and get help.

I mean, in this AFC, probably. Well, you got the Raiders and Colts playing next week, so one of those teams is going to have another loss. But, yeah, I mean, they have a lot of work to do, but they're going to be. They're going into this Thursday night against the Rams. You're making fun of me passing on Saints Falcons. I wanted to watch this Patriots game because I was hoping for something like this, I enjoyed every minute,

and they get into this Thursday night game against the Rams with some juice. That's all I wanted. I would love to think. I like when you show your fandom, Greg, because sometimes you try to suppress it, even though we know it's there. But right now it's more out there this year, and I think it makes sense because you feel more,

there's a little bit more on the line in the season. You're not just coasting to another 13 and 3. It must be a totally different experience for you both as a fan and as an analyst. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't agree with your assessment. I feel like I've been kind of tuned out. I've only watched a few of their games live,

but they are fun. They are fun. It is fun to be in the mix with a team like this with some obvious short ones. What if Belichick is, like, secretly on the phone with, like, Andrew Luck, who has been working out intensely for, like, the past 60, 70 days.

Please. They'll come rolling into the lineup next week. I'm sure the Colts will just hand them over. They own his rights. I'm sure they'll just be like, here you go. Do they? Come torture us again for another 10 years. And just so everyone knows, hard-to-kill ended with Mason Storm

knocking out the teeth of the antagonist that try to kill him with the butt of a shotgun, and then he made out with Kelly LeBrock as the credits rolled. So is that what Bill Belichick is going to be doing? He's going to knock out someone's teeth, and then maybe Linda is on the field with him last game of the year. You never know. That's why the NFL is a lot of fun We just watch and we see how the movie ends

Let's move on Wes I can't recommend that film enough Hard to kill in 1990 My dad was a Segal man That gene didn't get passed on to me I know I always bring up Segal to you Because I know Sessler and Rosenthal Aren't going to be plugged in

And I guess I'm just channeling the spirit of your old man Yeah Miyagi was a big fan All right let's move on Hey, what's up, Nick, Shook? Are you a fan? You're a little younger, so you might have missed the Seagal window, but I'll just check in.

Are you familiar with the work, the catalog of Stephen Seagal. I have not watched a lot of Stephen Seagal movies, but Bridget, my girlfriend, who you guys like to mention a lot, she is a fan of a lot of movies of that era. She's a big diehard fan, and she likes a lot of Seagal movies. Good for her. Look at that. Maybe you're like...

That's just one more reason to lock it up, Shook. We talk about locking it up on this show. How about you lock something up? That means that girlfriend that moved to the Midwest for you. Hey, man, you know what? I was shopping for rings this week, so leave me alone. Hey, now. How about that?

If you do get that rig and, you know, I think Dan, you know, deserves an assist on this. Well, she should know. She should know that I've been, you know, turning the screws a little bit. Hey, Wes, thank you, as always, for checking in. You made the show better. not just with your knowledge, but just who you are, buddy. We love you. Certain Genesee qua.

Exactly. Love you, Wes. See you, Wes. All right. See y'all. There goes one bald man. Here enters another. Let's move on.

Matthew's got it turns, gives to Peterson, left side, barreling his way down to the one-yard line, and in touchdown, Detroit Lions. He's into the house for the score, and the lions are on top. Dan Miller, WJR with the call. Adrian Peterson's five-yard touchdown run. His second score of the game was the difference for the Lions, who wiped out a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit and a 30-to-30 win over the free-falling Bears.

Shucky, the Bears needed their defense to be great this year to overcome their other deficiencies. And it seems like, based on what we're seeing here in the final score, they couldn't even be decent, decent, and it probably ended their season. Yeah, you want to talk about the free-falling Bears is their free-falling defense. Their offense is in bad all year, as you mentioned, but their defense has been really bad in the last few weeks, and this was probably their worst game of the year.

I mean, you give up 460 total yards of offense. You surrender a 10-point lead in under, I think, three minutes in the fourth quarter. I mean, there was a point in this game where the Lions would get within maybe 10 or three points, and then the bears would extend the lead again. Actually, the offense wasn't really that much of an issue this week, except for Mitch Trubisky's timely fumble, that then led to this turnaround in this comeback. But every time they got within 10 points, it couldn't really get much closer, and then all of a sudden the bear's defense wilted in the worst moments in the fourth quarter.

There was a 25-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones. And then there was the five-yard Adrian Peters and touchdown run, which came on a short field as a result of that fumble, but really just capped what I think has been a nightmare of six weeks and could cost Matt Nagy's job. And at this point, nothing is really working all that well, or at least consistently enough to have any confidence in the bears going forward. And then if you move beyond that, you've changed your quarterback.

the defense that you could rely on before that you're missing guys like, you know, they missed Akeem Hicks at one point. And, you know, if you can't rely on that group either, then you might be looking at massive changes. I mean, this also, this Bears defense wasn't getting the takeaways that were the signature kind of spicy element to an otherwise great defense in years past. And I mean, I can only imagine what books, not that I don't want to read them, but what books would be written about the way these players feel about what's going to be. gone on in Chicago this whole year. None. None are the amount of books being written about the

Well, I'm just talking about this. The amount of people that have to be, if you're a defender on that team that's had to, it's 2020 and you have to basically be the anchor of a Bears team that's going to score about 18 points a game. How annoyed is that defense by December? And at some point, the floor just falls in. Right. But to give the ball to the lions with less than five minutes to go up 10 inside the lion's five-yard line and give up a 96-yard touchdown and then Mitch a 96-yard touchdown drop and then Mitch fumbles the ball and you give up another touch over after that. I mean, Mitchell, that's a, everyone deserves blame. In the fourth quarter, I think they went, they went like three and out, three-and-out, three-and-out,

and then, you know, they didn't get the touchdown. But they then put up 30 points. You would think that would be enough to win against the zombie 49ers who didn't have Kenny Gallate or DeAndre Swift. So that's, it's just a total collapse of everyone. It's ridiculous. Oh my gosh. I can't imagine being a Bears fan watching that game.

I was just sitting back watching and thinking, there's no way they're going to do this, are they? And then they get the long touchdown pass. I'm like, well, they might do this, but there's not that much time left. This is kind of how the game's been going all day. And then the timely Trubisky fumble. And like you mentioned, you know, those possessions that, you know, three and out, three and out all those situations statistically for the day,

Mr. Trubisky had a pretty solid day, but that fourth quarter, I don't know if I would call it so much a meltdown as an implosion within the last few minutes because, you know, on the day, you still 26 to 34, you broke 260 yards. This past rating was over 108. I mean, that's a pretty solid day for a team that hasn't had any consistency of quarterback all year, and yet you find a way to lose in a fashion that you haven't lost many of your games except for last week when you let the Packers put up 41 on them. It just kind of reminded me of what we talked about last Sunday night, which was, it's a good thing this team's no longer in prime time for the rest of the year. Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness. Ricky, jump in here a second. Just want to say, I want to give you a little shine here, Eric and Tamposi. Shut the dog up.

I mean, right on time. You've struggled with various predictions this year. There's no, I'm not calling that out to be cruel, but just to point out that you deserve credit for your sandwich prop checking in by week 13. Adrian Peterson over 500 rushing yards. He crossed that barrier today. So we, or I doth my cap to you, my fair maiden.

Thank you so much. Yeah. I, you know, sometimes you got a hunch and sometimes they're all wrong. But this one, this one seemed to work. Well, this is the only, this one actually makes you sandwiches. So I guess in a way this was the most important of all hunches.

Congratulations. Thank you so much. She should share that with Daryl Bevel, who it seems obsessive. with Adrian Peterson. Let's move on. Give his Darren Jones up the middle, breaks through, 30, cutting left,

35, he's to the 40, 45 of the 50 down the left sidelines, still on his feet, cuts it back, 25, 20, he's got a chance to the 10 to the 5, to the end up, touchdown.

Touchdown, Aaron Jones, 77 yards, to the north end zone for the dagger. Great call. Wayne Larravee, Larry McCarran, WTMJ, and a great run by Aaron Jones,

who showed you all that ability that he has on a 77-yard, game-clinching touchdown in the Packers' 30 to 16 win over the Eagles at Lambo. Aaron Rogers threw three more touchdowns and another MVP-worthy performance. And shook. Carson Wentz finally got his ass benched. Finally, the day came. Yeah, glory B to the heavens and all the Eagles fans who've been calling for number two to take the field.

Jalen Hertz had a nice little moment or two and almost led them. It looked like for a second he might lead them to a victory, an unlikely victory, considering they were down, what was it, 23 to 3, I think was the score at the time. And the game was pretty much in hand. It was one of those things where, yeah, there was a ton of time left, but it looked like Doug Peterson was just throwing Hertz out there because, well, A, we can't protect Carson once at all. and our offense can't get anything of substance going. So why not throw them out there and let him get some reps and also appease the people that were going to fire 50 questions at why he hasn't put Jalen Hertz in consistently yet on Monday?

And we'll see how Doug reacts to that now that Jalen actually produce a little bit. But instead, it became a one-score game for a little bit. And then, of course, the Eagles offense went back to what it was before and couldn't actually push the ball on the field, punted, and then give up the touchdown run to Aaron Jones, which pretty much was the caper on the entire thing. And emphasized what this entire season has been for the Eagles, which is even when you start to get some good stuff,

going it all falls apart before long and you end up with dirt in your face and a running back running you know down the field the opposite direction for a touchdown i i thought uh peterson was telling after the game when he when he didn't go back to whence you know for next week you know they're playing the saints next week they said who's going to start and he he left it open and that usually means a change is coming and the way that he put in hurts yes the game was felt over but it was the middle of the third quarter. It was only after one drive after half time. And I thought Hertz had the best two drives that, and you know, I don't want to get too carried away because he was in the game for four drives and they scored seven points and he turned it over. So it's not like

the touchdown was on like fourth and 24. So it's not like they suddenly looked amazing. But he had some rushing first down. They had the only two really impressive sustained drives that weren't aided by penalties, like, on the first drive. So it's like, why not give it a shot? I thought he brought, like, he brought some energy and some life, and why not give Eagles fans a little bit of that? And I mean, I just can't figure out how mentally broken Carson Wentz is right now. I can't think of anyone that needs some time away more than Carson Wentz.

I mean, outside of maybe some of us at times, but why not do this? Roll with Hertz. See what happens. It just, like, show some flexibility. It was just a good moment to see that they finally did it. I mean, they should have done it weeks ago. This should have happened a month ago. Here's the thing.

Here's the thing. Yes, performance-based alone, I agree with you, Mark. But the idea of benching your franchise player, and that's what they thought Carson Wentz was entering this year. And who knows, maybe they still think that in the big picture he can be that guy, that is a huge decision to make. And I think they kept on putting it off. because it's like, we believe in him and we don't want to pull the plug on him

because obviously that has far-reaching implications on us. And what if we pull the plug and we take away the chance that he does find a way to get his game back on track? And I think they essentially, Peterson made the call just before it was way too long. I think it was within the acceptable window of rope to give Carson Wentz. And I thought where this game was at 23-3 and just the depression that had settled over this team that it finally was time. So I think Peterson made the right move. I think it would be the wrong move not to start give Hertz a shot now. And it's maybe not fair to Hertz too much because

now you're going to go against the Saints defense that just finished up a streak where they went 14 quarters without giving up a touchdown. But if nothing else, give Wence, sit him down, let him clear his head a little bit. And maybe you regroup and you have a chance to hang around at the end of the season, but it certainly feels like at this point, the ship has sailed on the 2020. I would agree with that. I exaggerated by four weeks, because I would say two weeks. And also, Hertz is not Gardner Minchu is a six-round pick hanging on the bench. Just a second round pick.

Like, I think they want to take a look at them. So I'm just glad that it's happening now. I mean, finally at least. Yeah, it's also kind of waving the white flag on the whole situation, which I don't really blame them for doing, considering the fact that their offensive line has no stability at all because of all the injuries that they dealt with up there. and that's the main reason Carson West is where he is. I know we can talk about his regression and everything,

but statistically and everything else, just watching him play. Dan, you remember the old Sam Darnold Monday Night Football clip that I'm seeing ghosts? That's basically Carson Wentz right now. No, he doesn't remember that. He was hit so many times. And it has been hit so many times over the course of this entire season. They're dead last and sacks giving up.

It's been an abomination when it comes to trying to protect him. The only time they ever got him to do anything of significance today was when they rolled him out. And you can't do that every play. especially when you don't have a legitimate, I mean, Miles Sanders is a promising back, but you don't have a legitimate rushing attack with that same offensive line. So there's only so much you can do.

And if that's your franchise quarterback that you're trying to keep healthy, which he's had an issue with over the course of his career, then maybe you do sideline him with not much more to play for, even though the division's still a garbage division. But he has no feel. Romo, who is so loath to criticize any quarterback, pointed out just the multiple times where he didn't kind of move to the open spot in the pocket to buy himself more time.

And then I thought it was very telling the moment he got benched was after the first drive of the third quarter when he missed two straight throws. Wasn't about the protection. It was two open throws and he just missed them. And you see that with him a lot. So how do you get that, how do you turn that around? I think you turn that around in the offseason

by trying to either get healthy at front. If it hurts is terrible, then play them the last couple weeks in fee. I'm with you shift off season. Like you're not turning it around in the middle of December. Especially when you can't send him out there confidently thinking that he's going to be protected well enough to play. There are one saints lost away from being in play out the string territory anyway. So you get the feeling that it just makes a lot of sense. I wonder if this, did this make Brian Greasy's head explode when Jalen Hertz finally took the field?

Good job, by the way. He probably fainted from happiness. He's like, oh, all these cronies that fired me over in Philadelphia. Now they all get to suffer. Classic Riddick. That run was one of the best plays of the year. I don't need to hear any more about how Rogers, it's a beautiful thing to see Rogers with so much support,

but we don't need to hear about Rogers not having support. With that running back, with the best left tackle, one of the best offensive lines with Devante Adams, who is the best short-yardage receiver I could remember. I mean, on fourth and gold, they just know you can throw it to Adams and get the touchdown. They had a couple other short-yardage thing. It's like, and the coach, I mean, the guys are open.

it's a beautiful thing. I think he's going to win this MVP. We even had our, you know, weekly 75-yard bomb drop by MVS to deflate Rogers' numbers just a little bit. Yeah, Rogers has been a joy to watch this year, and it's going to come right down to the wire with Mahomes out. It will be fun. On to Sunday night. Oh, Sunday night. There is.

Over the middle, and then we intercepted, and that's going to wrap it up. So, Tommy, Matt. Matthew does it again. There you have it. Al Michaels with the call for NBC Sunday Night Football. The Honey Badger with the second pick of the game of Drew Locke. Began the game with the pick, ended the game with the pick. And the Chiefs on offense do just enough in a 22 to 16 win over Denver.

The Chiefs improved to 11 and 1. And keep one game behind the Steelers for the. top seat in the AFC while the Broncos enter firmly into also ran running out the clock operation, see ya in the cornfields territory at 4 and 8. All right, Mark Sesson, your thoughts on this game. Well, I always look for a moment in Chiefs games where it seems to be over for the opponent. And I give Denver a lot of credit. There was the third quarter drive where they went 11 plays, 72 yards, to make it 1612, their favor.

And at that point, they offered no more offense. And you look at the fact that Kansas City, some people say they didn't play a great game here. It wasn't like their full octane operation. Their first five of seven drives, they scored. And one of them was the Tyreek Hill. turnover catch in the end zone that they simply did not review. And it was a punt. So I thought the Chiefs actually played very well here. And this is just a simple, it's a divisional game. They survived. And I know they're not blowing teams out of late. And there seems to be a lot

of cranky Steelers fans out there that I've noticed that are sort of... Put his name on it. You're friends with him. Come on. Well, no, it's many. In Damashek would own part of it. But I just think that there's some sort of aspect there where like we're upset that the chiefs are being seen as the class of the AFC. And my thing is this, go punish Patrick Mahomes, go take this team out

until someone really does. I mean, the Raiders did once, but until that happens, they are my AFC number one seed. They find a way to survive games. Tonight it was Tyra and Matthew making two huge plays. The picks, but also the stop on Noah Fant. Matthew.

I mean, this is a team that finds different ways to win. And I feel like I'm watching in the 1980s watching Hulk Hogan eight years in a row almost lose the belt every single Saturday night's main event. But then somehow in the final minutes, or even earlier,

he finds a way to win, and you kind of know the whole thing was pre-conceived. Shook, Hulk Hogan was a professional wrestler in the 19-A. I would imagine Shook knows that. He could probably, you could probably beat Hulk Hogan right now, Shish. I bet your girl was a big fan of him, too. I mean, she likes Seagal. She likes you, you're kind of her real life, Seagal.

You're a Hulk. And she's got, she likes a little Hulk Hogan, I bet. I can ride with the age joke thing. That works out. We can do that. That wasn't an age thing. Oh. I don't know.

I'd be a little concerned just that the Chiefs struggle in short yardage in that because it's not new. Like they, it sounds crazy because I think some announcers have said this too, that they leave points on the field, but they really do. Like they've been bad in short yardage all year. They haven't scored a touchdown in seven. straight red zone opportunity. So that's like stuff you need to work on.

When sometimes your coach keeps it a little closer because of some befuddling decisions, then you would like. The non-challenge was seven points, you know, kicking a field goal in the first half inside the five, and then punting it away at the end. Now it worked out, so Andy Reid will say that was the right decision. I want to use Patrick Mahomes as much as I can and get as many points as I can if I'm Andy read and it's not a major concern but it's a trend that when they're in short yardage they can't just run the ball they always have to pull out some crazy stuff and it hasn't really been working

for a while like at no point this season can they just hand the ball off and get a yard or two which is like a useful thing in the in the NFL especially when you're playing a good team like the Steelers in the playoffs yeah they've kind of proven that they're the reverse of a bend but don't break defense where they can get down the field quickly but all of a sudden when they're in that short-yard situation they can't score. But I think when you play them, you're in one of two situations that we've seen demonstrated with their division rival opponents this year, which is either you try to keep up with them in a relative shootout like the Raiders did in the first time they met and won them when

they did recently and lost, or you do what Denver did tonight, which was you try to basically bend but don't break defensively and avoid turnovers. Now, they couldn't do that. That hurt them. And obviously, it ultimately cost them a chance to potentially go down and take the lead on the final minute of the game, but this is essentially how you have to do it. You have to hope that you get enough from your offense,

and Denver just didn't tonight. But you do have to give, you know, tip the cap to them for doing enough to keep them in the game defensively, but you're right. I think it also, a lot of it has to do with when Andy Reid's done. Thanks for entertaining us, but you lost. How about go win a game? Right.

Your defense plays its balls off in this game. And it's just, you know, there's no sense piling on here. I just said it's time for the Broncos to go to the, cornfields until 2021, but Drew Locke, you know, for all his moxie and swagger and all that, can't play. The guy can't play.

I don't know he made some throws, but if you're going to tell me this guy's a solution after this year, you're probably John Elway lying to yourself. So I've seen enough of Drew Locke. This game was there for the taking. This could have been a major win for the Broncos,

even in a season where they won't be playing in the playoffs, but they couldn't find a way, to make use of all these weapons, including, again, Jerry Judy, one catch for five yards in the last drive of the game. How about Tim Patrick? I mean, they've got a good,

their offensive line played well, and you've got Tim Patrick's, their leading receiver, and most people would probably think he's their fourth most talented receiver. I mean, they've got four or five weapons. You're right, they've underachieved. And it does feel almost like a WWF match

from the 80s with the Hulkster where it's preordained, and the Chiefs. Sometimes they're at that like Michael Jordan Bulls place where they're just kind of coasting and they, when they need to make a play, they'll make it and they'll win the game because that has never really been in doubt. And then sometimes you'll have games like this where you can tell their foot isn't truly pedal to the medal. So, you know, good for the Chiefs, 2216. A win's a win. It's going to get the Steelers fans angry Mark, which is always kind of fun. they think they should be number one in the power rankings. Well, nope, cheese will still be number one, deal with it, and that's that.

Hey, Shook, does she know that you're ring shopping? No, the door's closed when I said that earlier. I wouldn't ever read that on that's open. But preliminary discussions, I got, you know, a tip or two. It's not going to be the conventional setup, I think, you know, the pairing of one with another. So now I'm not using this specific term because within earshot. But you've got to keep the surprise, but I did get a little hint or two. And like I said, it's not going to be a total surprise.

This has been on the docket. It's been on the plane for a long time. Well, you better hope none of her friends listen to the podcast. You better hope Daryl Bevel's not listening either. Yeah, he's going to blow my cover. I know. Daryl Beville or anyone from Scotland or, you know, Norway, like if she's in touch with anything. They don't know who she is at least.

Yeah. of it. Yeah, we don't need any internet sleuths going on to Shook's Instagram and finding his girlfriend and then reaching out, don't do it. I know you wouldn't. Our audience is cool. You know, some audiences are terrible filled with horrible internet people that are monsters that say bad things about women and are disrespectful to the hosts and all that. That's not our audience. So Shook, you have nothing to worry about. And actually, I appreciate how candid you're being, not just with us here. but the audience in this major milestone in your life and it's very exciting and i i know your girlfriend from our softball days that's a nice job you did a nice job there let's lock it up now

hey you know there's a reason i keep my instagram private but nick nick are you concerned at all that she doesn't even listen to your handiwork on this show she wouldn't even take five minutes to listen to you know what's happening here well it's fair question if she was trying to listen specifically to when I'm on, she'd have to scrub like the last 25 minutes of the podcast. It might be too much of an effort, so I couldn't blame her for it. Okay. But she deals with this every day.

Very well. Before we sign off, hey, Ricky, how did we do on the locks this week? All right, Ricky, we have some technical difficulties with Ricky. I could tell you this. Oh, you there, Erica? I don't know. There's something bad's happening with Erica's computer right now. So I will quickly say that Greg and I both did good work locking up the Rams over the Cardinals.

Mark fearlessly locked up the Saints who got that ninth win in a row. Fearlessly is the correct term. They were a field goal favorite. Less than that. I said he fearlessly locked it up. I didn't say anything was wrong with the lock itself. I don't know what Wes locked or Ricky. Wes Locked the Titans.

I didn't want to. And, you know, I didn't want to, you know. I'm not going to make that an issue on the show, but, Shook, you don't lock up against the Browns in a big spot like that. You know that as well as I do. I probably would have if I wasn't, you know, didn't want to just like disappoint you. I wanted to root for the Brown. It seemed like a good lock, actually. I thought West might be on to something, but I was a surprise to.

Greg started to say if I wasn't afraid of you, then caught himself and then said if I didn't want to disappoint. Yeah, I'm going to kind of be worried. I did pick them to cover too. Mark, I was on the Brown side. I picked them to only lose. Oh, Erica is saying she locked the Browns according to, um, Our chat here. Oh, no, I saw that. That's not a...

She locked them 45 minutes into the game. Well, that's absurd. You've got three games left, Ricky. You can still put a... I'm wondering if this is why she's having the technical difficulties. But you got three good games to choose from. Some heavy favorites. You can even take them.

You can pick one on Monday or... She locked up the 2016 friends. Did you lock up the rounds when they were up... Did you lock up the rounds when they were up 387, Erica? It was like 24-7. after the first story. She's shaking her head, furiously. This doesn't seem fair.

She can't talk. All right. We'll get into this on Tuesday. Shook, final words to you. I went on Cleveland radio last week and picked the Titans confidently. So I'm going to be watching my back when I walked around downtown this week. I did the same thing. Listen, you weren't alone.

I did the same thing. You were alone. Cessler picked the Titans. Me and Greg nearly locked up the Titans. And, you know, that's what makes football. No, it's mental warfare. It's mental warfare. I was like all, waterfall, Tennessee.

And then reality brings it right back. Ricky is posting in the chat room that she locked the Browns. It's nothing personal, Ricky. Even if you hadn't had the regrettable and middle of cheating the last time, something like this happened, we just have to play by rules. No one would out, you know, you can't pick the game after it starts no matter if you didn't know the score or not. You know, if it was like a Wes or a Mark, they wouldn't put us in this position. You just got to pick a game that hasn't started, you know, a man and a woman.

and they got to have a car. Erica, at ATN lockups on Twitter, who this man's been tracking this for years and he does awesome work based out in the Tower of London. You just got to get in touch with him before kickoff. It's basic. It's basic. Come on now.

All right. We don't know about Ricky's weekends. And again, I feel bad. You can't speak right now. Erica's weekends are rough and tumble. She got that age of Peterson sandwich prop. You got Thursday. You got Friday.

You got the lock. When do you think that weekend begins? All right. Okay. Another week in the books. Thank you to everybody for listening. Thank you to Chris Wessling. And, of course, Shook, you've been, you know, six men of the year.

You know, in the NBA finals, when your boy lost track of the score, that would never be you. I mean, he had some clutch shots in game seven a couple years prior. So it's all right. Yeah, that's true, too. This is Dan Ansis. Signing off for Quiet Storm, the old boss, the mailman, Nick Shook, six men of the year. Ricky Hollywood Until Tuesday

Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it.

Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.