NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 3 Recap

Episode Date: September 28, 2020

A virtual room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap every game from Week 3 leading off with the Bills big win over the Rams (4:20) and the Seahawks/ Cowboys big scorer (12:25). We recap a few games that the heroes like to call "cornered animal games" (25:25) before Nick Shook stops by to recap the remaining games (1:16:30).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

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

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

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast is still waiting to find out about Latvia. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I come to you from a virtual room filled with Heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Sometimes I try to figure out what the money tag is, but then I figure there's more important things to talk about. So you just leave it. You take the L personally and you get onto the business at hand, which is we. three Sunday in the NFL. And isn't it strange, boys? When you take the Ravens and Chiefs out of the mix, they play, of course, on Monday night. Big spot for Brian Greasy there.

Ooh, doggie. Doesn't it how wide open the league feels through three Sundays? When you take those juggernauts out, like, I mean, there are some truly wretched teams. But even the 3-0 teams, you could definitely make cases against those teams for various reasons. And then everybody else is kind of fighting it out. This seems like in what's been a weird year, we could have a wild season heading our way. Yeah, it's got like, you know, mom and dad went away for the weekend. And, you know, the teenage sons and daughters think that they are full-fledged adults ready to, you know, flex their muscles and show their wares.

But mommy and daddy will return. That's all I'd tell you. It's all I'd say. Who's mommy and who's daddy? I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I mean, it also depends what kind of relationship that is. I mean, in some cases. Also, who's stronger?

Yeah, who's to say, one is the victor is this person and, you know. Right. You attempted to, but we got you out of that corner. I just steered right out of there. Yeah. It's interesting because last week at this time, I would have said there are clearly some dominant teams running away with things. And the difference between the good teams and the bad teams is even more stark bigger than normal. One, we can change a lot.

Well, but the games all look so similar. I think that to me is what's striking. That every game is in the 30s, that, you know, two guys throwing for over 400 yards feels totally normal. No lead feels safe. The lack of penalties and the amount of scoring is all historic. And so that is what is striking. The NFL cooked up a whole new sport here. This penalty thing is interesting.

It's interesting because it reminds me of last season when baseball, they juiced the baseballs. And they're like, oh, yeah, we're just going to completely change the sport by there being an uptick of home runs by about 30 to 40 percent. If they really are serious about lowering the level of penalties calls, that is juicing the ball. That's juicing the offenses. They've been doing that for, you know, 40 years. I mean, that's every rule change is geared towards offense. And actually, the penalties now just kind of brings it back to about 15. 15, 20 years ago.

Greg, don't hit me with it. It's not a big deal. Wes, jump in. Of course it's the big deal, but penalties are not back. The entire Jeff Triplett era in which he wasn't happy unless 73 penalties were called. This sport had reached a point where it wasn't even football anymore.

It's hard to watch because he couldn't get any rhythm into a game. Too many penalties. Right. Wes and I are agreeing here. They're just bringing it back to about, you know, year 2000 level of penalties. So it's not like breaking records. They're just bringing it back.

Penalties had risen and risen and risen. and risen and dial it back. No one cares about the zebras. Sometimes you have to tell the coaches to chill. These coaches get in the competition committee and they're like, we want you to concentrate on this this year. You know, call this all the time. And it's like, hey, no, no.

How about we think about the fans for once? The host starts the show and gets everybody nice and lubed up. See, everybody's warmed up to get into the games right now. Everybody's all hot and bothered. All right. Let's go. A lot of games to get to. So let's dig right in, starting with a really memorable.

showdown between undefeated teams in Orchard Park. Josh waiting. Now the snap. Josh going to throw it. Looks, looks, fires into the end zone. He's got Tyler Croft open. Touchdown! Touchdown!

Touchdown, Buffalo. Touchdown bills a four-yard toss. Josh Allen to Tyler Croft for the touchdown. Fifteen seconds left on the clock. Are you kidding me? John Murphy and St. Steve Tasker with the call for WGR. The Bills blew a 25-point lead on Sunday and lived to tell the tale.

The bills happily received the gift of a questionable P.I. call on fourth down, then won the game on a Josh Allen to Tyler Croft hookup with 15 seconds to play. Final score 3532. Wow. Greg, the Rams came this close to a comeback for the ages, only to let victory slip away. They left too much time on the clock. You know, when you come back from 283, you got to time that final touchdown just to go to overtime and then win the coin flip, which is probably the only way the Rams defense was going to get a stop in a big moment here

because Josh Allen did it all in this game in terms of the roller coaster, the whole experience. They had nine possession, and they scored five touchdown. So I don't want to hear anything about the Bill's offense being in any way a letdown. Now, he helped set up the comeback with a couple of turnovers. one of which came on a very questionable call, but was also a terrible throw by Allen. So, you know, he was at some fault. Aaron Donald took over the game as Aaron Donald does.

But my big takeaway is that the bills are an offensive team. You want to get on part of their team for blowing the lead. Get on the defense. I look at them more as a team that's going to make mistakes offensively, as we saw here and there, but they had two third and 23 situations with the game on the line. and they wound up converting them both. They got one into a fourth and nine.

They got that questionable call, as you mentioned, Dan. And if they didn't get it, we'd be talking about how they blew this game. But I still, as a global view, take a look at this Bill's team and think this offense is really dangerous. And Allen's going to have some ups and downs, but the conversion that they've had into an offense that can score over 30 regularly is massive. And they are going to be a tough team to beat when that's the case. Well, one thing that stuck out to me was the uproar over the controversial call at the end of the game. And to be honest, I caught a lot of this game. The only reason the Rams were in the game was because of a bad call in their favor in which there was a simultaneous possession interception,

which was clearly caught by the offensive player. And then once they hit the ground was wrestled out of his hands by the defensive player, it was a horrible call. And they tried to defend it afterwards Al Riveron did. and it didn't make any sense when he tried to defend it either. It was a terrible throw, though, too. And they gave up four touchdowns and four possessions very quickly. So I think it's giving the Rams a little, too little credit, saying that's the only reason. It was definitely a turning point, but it was a bad decision by Allen.

And more to the point, the Rams offense started cooking in the third and fourth quarters. I hated that call. It's funny, we just started the show talking about how the referees are keeping the flags in their pockets. That to me at the end of the game there, and I know Al Riveron got behind his boy there. but that seemed very tic-y-tack with the game on the line to call that. But, you know, what, that happens. Ultimately, I think if you're the Rams, yeah, you're smarting from that call. But also there are two third in forevers that they had the bills on.

And all you got to do is make a stop. And that was, you know, that was two opportunities they had and they let it go by the boards. And that is a credit to Allen. I didn't get a chance to see this game yet. So I can't really say too much about it other than his ability to just move this team up down the field for three straight weeks. He is passed for 300 plus yards in three straight weeks. And they are averaging, I believe, 430 yards total yards per game and 31 points per game

through three weeks, which is obviously franchise records across the board. There's something special happening with his offense. I just find it so interesting that, like, Allen continues to be, I mean, for basic reasons, an extremely polarizing signal caller. but, I mean, the idea that his production, that what he's producing weekly is not completely legitimate, that this offense isn't built really well by Brandon B, and their GM. I mean, Cole Beasley is making plays every week. John Brown, Stefan Diggs, you know, Zach Moss was not in the lineup today,

but you've got a solid backfield there. Tyler Croft, I just think that this Bill's team is well-run and well-organized. And, I mean, the Rams were down 21-3 and had not punted. They had kicked a field goal, thrown a pick, kicked another field goal, then it was the end of the half. And it's like, it wasn't just that the Rams were, you know, to Greg's point, it wasn't a Bill's defensive dominance. But I just think this Bill's offense is for real. And I let the doubters doubt. What happened on defense?

Let them doubt. What happened when it was 283 and then all of a sudden 32, 28? I mean, Gough made some great plays on third and long. Neither defense looked great the whole game. I thought the difference in the first half was Gopff. through a really bad pick, and the Rams missed the field goal, whereas the bills had unbelievable field position the whole game because of their kicking game, because of their return game, and because of the turnover, and Daible, to your point, Mark, I mean, guys were wide open.

And Allen made some tough throws, too, but there was also just guys streaking open the field, and that's without John Brown for most of this game. John Brown left with an injury, and I'd be remiss not to say that Stefan Diggs, I mean, has been such a transformative pickup. And you look at the stat line, and I don't think it ended up too flashy for Diggs. It was four for 49 in a touchdown. Well, his touchdown, he beat Jalen Ramsey one-on-one,

and that was one of the best plays that Allen made on a third and long under pressure in the red zone. And another touch pass that Allen threw on a key drive late in the game. Diggs just made an unbelievable catch on the sideline to keep it going. So when things were falling apart, And at no point did the Bill's defense look great. They really haven't this year at all. They've been pretty mediocre.

And, you know, they would have had the goat horns here if they lost, but they didn't. I mean, this game had everything with Allen, though. I mean, he also had two penalties in the fourth quarter. One for yelling at the official because he didn't know the rule book in terms of you can't have a horse collar in the pocket. And then another one for a face mask. I mean, this is your, if you were going to bet on a quarterback to have a face mask penalty, it's Josh Allen. I mean, he is young Cam New. and especially in the red zone.

They were five for five in the red zone. And that's to me the thing that's sustainable is that the Bill's team is so tough to stop in the red zone. And the Rams will be okay. They're going to be fine here. But when you come back from 283 down, take the lead, then lose. That's a tough loss.

That's a tough one. If he really has learned how to touch pass, and to me that's by far the biggest difference this year in last years, he's ahead of Cam Newton's development. Cam Newton wasn't throwing these touch passes in year three. He didn't have the rookie or second year that Cam Newton had, but certainly right now he is playing great. I like it, Wes.

And there are things Josh Allen can do on a football field that Cam Newton's never been able to do. Greg on the ropes. Rosenthal on the ropes. Let's move on. Hey, people are allowed to change their minds. Medcaf and lock it to the left side. Again, a four-man rush.

Russell, looks, sets, has time. Going to throw to the end zone. Locke. He makes the catch. Touchdown. Seahawks. I couldn't see him for a second, and suddenly he flashes in the end zone. And it's D.K. Medcalf.

And he, in fact, makes up for the play earlier. And it's only fitting, is it, that he's the guy who comes up with the big reception. The touchdown with 1.47 left to play. You knew that was going to happen. Metcalf makes one of those bonehead plays that happens every couple of years catching the bomb and then not paying attention and getting the ball knocked out for a touchback. It happened to him.

But you just knew he was going to score and probably score in a big fashion down the stretch of that game and that's exactly what happened. Russell Wilson's fifth touchdown pass to Metcalfe put the Seahawks ahead late and then Ryan Neal promoted from the practice squad had the game ceiling end zone pick. Seahawks 38, Cowboys 3rd, shootout at the clink.

Steve Raleigh and Dave Wyman with a call for K-I-R-O. This game certainly lived up to the hype. Two teams with great offenses and great quarterbacks and suspect defenses. And it played out exactly that way where the defenses could not get big stops. And every time it seemed like the Cowboys were about to get blown out, no. because Dak Prescott is kind of like playing out of his mind thrown for 400 yards of a game, although it should be said,

and it was rightly pointed out by Troy Aikman on the Fox call, the interception that ended the game. It shouldn't play it out that way. That was not fourth down in desperation, heave it up into the end zone. That was live for one more down if it's not there, but you know what? That's the way it went.

So the Cowboys now 1 and 2, and the Seahawks, who are the most entertainment, team in football through three weeks are three and oh well they're entertaining partly because their defense can't stop anyone they they had given up the most yards in the league going into today and then they give up 500 yards in this game and they lost jamal adams during the game and so they're going to have to cook up a pass rush it's just fascinating to see a ceilocks team you know so pass heavy and so offense heavy I mean it's it's obviously got the

the opportunity to have the best offense in the Russell Wilson era, their offensive lines playing really well, too. But it's just disarming. And I do wonder if there's going to be a correction at some point for a lot of these teams, the Bills, Seahawks, Cowboys, where, you know, the defenses do get better as the course of the season goes on. Because the Seahawks, they need it that way. I don't think they want to play this way every single week.

Might be hard to correct. I saw Chris Carson went down late in the game. It looked like a pretty bad knee injury. so that option to saddle him up like they have in previous years might not be there and you see such a difference in philosophy that last touchdown to DK Metcalf is third and short in a really tight game and they're going 30 or 40 yards down field and I think Russell Wilson might be the most consistently accurate deep passer I've ever seen he's just always right on the money from 20 to 40 50 yards of

downfield, it's always right where it needs to be. And they're talking about let Russ cook, and he's cooking for about 650 people at this stage per game. But same with Dak Prescott. He's the second quarterback in league history to throw 450 yards in back-to-back games. And they really are just, you know, you've got Zeke Elliott. You don't have an issue in the backfield. I thought the fact that Dallas suffered a safety and two missed extra points change that game a little bit down the stretch that little mistakes like that

in a game like this are killer. The Cowboys now backs against the wall, one and two. Well, you say that, but I think that are they in first place? Yeah, well, in a terrible division, but the larger picture is, who are you? They have so much time to get things right because the NFC East has been so bad

and we're going to get to it later in the show. So while you certainly, there's every reason to be very, very concerned about this defense, which doesn't have late in Van deresh, and did get a nice game from Alden Smith, who was very active. I think he had three sacks, in fact, which is pretty incredible considering the arc of his career. But overall, the defense stinks. I think that's kind of what we thought was something that was possible, Wes, entering 2020. It's certainly turning out that way. That's maybe not as big a concern, or maybe it was. Well, the Seahawks also

was a big concern, although they had gotten Jamal Adams, that the defense was going to be problem. And I guess that's the only thing I would say, like the Seahawks. I think, Mark, I saw you tweeted they're going to win the Super Bowl. Maybe they will. Maybe this is a magical season and Russell Wilson is that guy. But they need to figure out some things on the other side of the ball. Luckily, they have a lot of time to do it. One note that I will find a way to tweet that about 25 different teams and then retweet when I nail one of it. You know, I'll get one of them correct. And that's, we know your playbook, Sessler. No need to explain. You know. I saw a tweet that Greg pointed toward an article by, I think, Bob Stern from The Athletic

where he was saying, the best defensive linemen for the Cowboys is Tristan Hill, who barely got on the field as a rookie last year. Their best linebacker is Joe Thomas, who's an undrafted journeyman. Their best secondary guy is Trayvon Diggs, who's a rookie. And struggle with today. This defense just has nothing that you think we have. Those Tyler Lockett touchdowns. It was like pitch and catch.

It was like there was nobody else on the first. field between Wilson and Lockett. It shouldn't be that easy. Well, there was a big change. You know, they brought in a coordinator and Mike Nolan who's been out of the league for a few years. They've been in the same scheme under Rod Marinelli in some form for how long that was, seven, eight, nine years. And I don't know if these players quite fit where they're at. I'm impressed, though. I mean, Tyrant Smith didn't play in this game. It's maybe a future Hall of Famer. Lyle Collins is maybe the best right, you know, the Cowboys believe he's a top five right tackle.

They're playing without their two tackles and they're putting up points like this. They're a little lucky they got that onside kick or else they'd be 0 and 3. But it's pretty encouraging. They can put up this many points without either of their starting tackles. I would say one thing. If you're Alden Smith, it's like that would be essentially like one of us leaving sports writing for half a decade, returning. And in the first blog post that you publish wins a Pulitzer Prize. They have blogs still?

I'm just saying it that I don't know what the equivalent is. It's just that it's like he's vanished for half a decade. he returns he looks like the best defensive player on the field i again there's all these human arguments to take more time off away from work and toil yeah oh that's where you're going well i just i believe i was going to say i'll let others paint alden smith as a feel good comeback story that's someone else's profile to write but i see a greater point mark uh that maybe just walking away for five years and then walking back into a a seven-figure paycheck uh that is maybe the way to do things ultimately. Food for thought. Any other thoughts on this game? Doesn't sound like it.

Let's keep moving. Edelman on the right wing, Burkhead behind it, and takes the handoff, runs it left. Burkett, nice. Clisted into the end zone with a diving touchdown for the Patriots. Burkett for the second time today leaves his feet. It adds to the New England lead. Nice job, Rex. That's the healthy Rex Burkhead right there. See, Zolak isn't the same. more. It's like you deflated him. Bob Sochi and Scott Zolak with a call for WBZ.

Rex Burkhead had two rushing touchdowns and a receiving teetting. Part of a 250-yard rushing day for the Pats, a 3620 win over the ratings. Mark, I didn't see a lot of Cam Newton highlights today, so I guess you can see that as a good thing for the Patriots. That even when Newton doesn't go off, they can still score points. Yeah, I think the Patriots, you know, and this is the rare game where you get the matchup between two of the only head coaches around that have been traded. That was on my radar early and I enjoyed it.

Sell it, baby. Right? And Belichick, to me, I think they made a nice adjustment in halftime. Cam Newton was kind of struggling in this game. I wouldn't call it like a big problem, but it just the passing game was not what we saw last week against Seattle. And they went into halftime and I think they came out determined just. to run the ball with every single running back they had. J.J. Taylor, you know, who was he four weeks ago?

He's running the ball. Sony, Michelle, Burkhead with three touchdowns, and they were able to succeed that way, and the Raiders, to me, fell apart offensively down the stretch. This was just a case of where you can look at a Raiders team and say there's a lot to like. Early on in this game, the Raiders were one of the more intrigued, they were developing into one of the more intriguing teams

that I've seen in a while. Wes and I were tweeting about a little bit. This is a potential wild card type talent, the Las Vegas Raiders. But to me, New England is just kind of showed that you're going to hit a wall against this team. New England's defense is just too good. And it's interesting that we talked about Bill Belichick talking about Darren Waller during the week. And that's usually the death knell for that player. And Darren Waller, I think, finished with two catches for nine yards and had really nothing going

into the, what I think is Las Vegas' best weapon along with Josh Jacobs, who had a all right serviceable game, but not a difference maker. And it was a classic in an empty, totally empty. No stadium looks more empty to me than Foxborough. It has to do with the camera shots, I think, too, but it just looks empty and desolate. And New England made the Raiders look empty by the end of this game. Yeah, I called that one on Thursday show. The Darren Wall or the Kiss of death was the quote when belichick went out of his way to to paint him as a generational type talent you knew he was going to like quadruple team him from the first half and he'd finish with about nine yards is just exactly what happened getting that tony gonzalez coverage i'd be worried about

the raiders defense in this one sony michel couldn't make anyone miss last week and now he gets 13 yards a carry in this game that's eye opening first big place he's made uh since the super bowl You know, they they find different ways to win games. And you can hear Cam Newton in the postgame press conference just being like so impressed. I think they're just like it's a nice change of pace for him, how like everyone else is doing things too. Because you look, they had Joe Tooney start at center. I don't think he's ever played center before at the pro level. He's their franchise tag.

I mean, they have one of the best centers in a league who's now on IR that happened since we last talk. And Joe Tooney just moves to center. Everything's fine. You know, they run the ball. so while Chase Winovich has turned into a really good player for them. I don't think it's a great sign that he's by far the best player in their front seven. I mean, it's one of their worst defensive front sevens, I would say, you know, of the Belichick era. But they still find ways to make Carr make mistakes.

And those two fumbles that Carr had seemed to be marked kind of the decisive moment. Yeah, I'd be a little concerned. You know, Greg, you pointed it out to the skill position, depleted skill position talent for New England. and they didn't have a wide receiver with more than 28 yards at half. And like, they just don't have that guy they can go to. And that's why you're leaning on suddenly Rex Burkhead, who played probably the best game he'll ever play in the NFL today. But how can you count on that week to week?

I mean, they found a way to do it. The Raiders, to me, outside of Max Crosby, just don't have a whole lot going on on defense. And, you know, is typical New England sort of, they choked the life out of, out of Las Vegas. I would be concerned if they have to go up against the Kansas cities and the Baltimore's, though. Well, they're playing Kansas City next week, so that's a tough spot for them. John Gruden, by the way, you basically got on the plane when he kicked a field goal down 13 points

on the 7-yard line on 4th and 5 late in the game when their defense was not making any stops to cut it from 13 to 10. I mean, that was, they have like, what is that index? There's a Twitter account, like the gutless index. I don't even know what it was. Too many indexes. That's the most gutless decision I've seen by a coach at least in week three. The only index that matters to me is the QB index by Chris Wesley.

Oh, yeah. Doing a great job this year. You said that Rex Burkett or the Patriots choked the life out of Vegas? Well, I mean, I think Corona did that initially, but then, you know, you know. I was going to say it's been quite a 2020 for poor Vegas. but the team that plays there will live for another week. All right, we have a bunch of cornered animal games on the schedule. Ricky, let's get a drop there.

Very nice. Let's check out the first one from Heinz Field. Ben, feeds Connor, gets a block on the flank inside, the 10 inside to 5. Touchdown, James Connor. From 12 yards out, James Connor off the right side. But I defer to my offensive lineman in the booth. There's a lot Happened up. Matt Filer

hooked Whitney Merciless and he hooked him and that's why James Connor skirted it outside. I can tell you Filer took no mercy on the Merciless one.

Bill Hillgrove and Tunch Ilkin with a call for WVE. I like this. This is the old Damashek theme. Let's just play this with Steelers games. James Connor put the Steelers ahead for good, midway through the fourth quarter. The Steelers defense smothers Deshawn Watson in the final two quarters after the Texans quarterback had had a really nice first half.

But it was all over after that. 2821, the final. Steelers are 3-0 for the first time in a decade. The Texans, 0 and 3 for the second time in three years. You'll remember, or perhaps you won't, that in 2018, that Texan team had started 0 and 3. went 11 and 5, but you know what, this feels different. Probably didn't feel too good at 0 and 3 in 2018,

but it certainly doesn't feel good right now. And I think the most disheartening thing about this game was the way it played out because, yes, we're all aware by this point, Texans got screwed. The scheduling gods were not fair. Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, Weeks, 1, 2, 3. Those are three of the top five teams in football, you can say. and they just were outclassed in the first two weeks. But on Sunday, this did feel like the classic cornered animal game,

where the team that's 0 and 2 that desperately needs the win, they might not be better than their opponent, but they need the game so badly they just find a way and you maybe get behind your best player and he gets you the W you desperately need. And Deshaun Watson had thrown for over 200 yards in the first half. He threw two touchdown passes. He was evading tacklers.

making all those Deshaun Watson plays, all the wide receivers were back in the mix, and it just looked like the Texans had a real shot. And then it all got wiped away once the Steelers changed up their defense a little bit, got a little more aggressive. And from that point on, it was, there was nothing cooking. They had five sacks overall. They had less than 100 yards total, I believe, in the second half, Houston, no points. and the Steelers

grinded it out. Mike Hilton had an interception early in the fourth quarter which set up a long Pittsburgh touchdown drive. That was followed by a three and out by the defense and then another grinding drive

by the Steelers that ran out the clock. And that was it. So it wasn't a dominant effort by the Steelers. We really haven't seen that yet from Pittsburgh, but they're 3 in O and Houston.

When you lose the, when you lose the cornered animal game and you go 0 and 3, you're essentially on life support, and that's where they're at before we even sniff October. It typically means dead animal if you lose cornered animal scenarios. They have no identity. Second week in a row, they have no running game to speak of,

and second week in a row they could not stop the footprints on their back in the second half of the game, and you're going to think I'm crazy because he went over 100 yards for back-to-back games, but I think James Connor is a problem for the Steelers. I think he's the slowest starting running back in the NFL And I think for this last week He had a 50-yard run at the end That patted his stats this week

Steer's offensive line was blowing Houston off the ball Almost every fourth quarter run And James Connor had plenty of room to work with But I think you saw why they started to get their rookie I think his name is Anthony McFarland involved today For a change of pace rule Because they need a big play element And I think that James Connor's stats are

not reflective of the way he's playing. I mean, that's a good problem to have, though. You know, you can survive if that's your biggest problem. I mean, their defense puts up crooked numbers. If you look at kind of the ESS, you know, the box score. There's an issue here, too. Their secondary is not nearly as good as last year. And you asked me last week, after the Broncos played them closer than one might expect,

what was wrong, I went back and watched them during the week. And Devin Bush is getting dragged around the field by tight ends. He's a problem. Joe Hayden looks like he's lost a step. Stephen Nelson has been burnt a few times Hilton had the interception today but also got burnt by Randall Cobb pass rush is legit

I just worry about the coverage of their secondary right it's all pass rush 12 quarterback hits five sacks seven tackles for loss for you know past defense which is partly the pass rush it's like that pass rush and that offense that'll beat you beat some bad teams

they haven't played like a team I think off the top of my head that's had to win this year, so they haven't really faced tough competition quite yet. I'd be concerned with the Texans' defense, and they came in as the second or third worst defense against the run. And for James

Conner's deficiencies that you point out, West, that might be there, like, he's still putting up these numbers. And, you know, the Texans, to me, you can't count on them to really run the ball effectively and dominate that way, and they can't stop the run. And I don't think, oh and three against

these three teams, You got to sort of stop yourself at the door and see, let's see where they are, you know, a month from now. But they're 0 and 3 for a reason, too. I just think that they're a weird team that I don't trust them at all. Does someone trust them to, like, go on this run that they did two years ago after that rough start? I don't. You can't. I'll give you one stat that tells the story of Sunday and then one stat that meant some of its luck, but it's terrible if you're a Houston fan.

the exact figure is 51 yards in the second half today and just two first downs. That's it in the final two quarters. That's a Deshaun Watson team led by Bill O'Brien. And they don't have a turnover yet. The season. Zero turnovers. Not going to win.

If you don't have an explosive offense and your defense is only so-so and maybe less than that and you don't get turnovers, look out. And one difference between now and 28th, I was going to say, Between now and 2018, is AFC South is better.

I mean, you have the Titans of three, you know, the Colts are a solid team. AFC is a completely different conference, too. So, you know, it's not waltzing into the AFC title game based on a, you know, 11 and 5 record where you've got plenty of weaknesses. Speaking of AFC South teams, let's move on. His career long, not at altitude, 58, cornered animal. Right hatch for the lead. Snap.

Set. Kick. God! Holy Toledo. 55 yards for the lead. Wow. That was insane. Oh, I love the national football league.

Oh, come into the club. Mikeith, you come into. Drinks on us. Stephen Gaskowski has offered up the finest comeback story of this young season from the utter embarrassment of week one in Denver to the glory of Sunday

six for six on field goals including that 55 yard glass never a doubt but through the Titans ahead for good in an eventual 31 to 30 win

over the still winless still cornered still limping Vikings oh you got you I don't know we have to invent a new game because you know who plays? next week

the Vikings and the Texans is it the rare double road kill game where we just like poke at them with sticks yeah remember there's always like the one psycho kid cage match

there's always one psycho kid in the neighborhood that would be like interested in the dead cat on the side of the road that's who's going to be interesting in that game was that you Mark?

No I had friends they got into this thing which was really I didn't approve of, although I participated in first grade where you'd take a frog. We live near a pond. You'd take a frog and throw it up 15 feet in the air and it would land on the cement and suffer incredible bodily injuries. And I walked away from that contest after about a week of that thinking, this doesn't feel right in my heart. That's good. If that's what you're asking, Greg. So what happened to the rest of your

future serial killer friends? I don't know. Unaccounted for. Probably out on the run. Very concerning. All right. Wow. So, yeah, no, real deal. Gaskowski, good for you, man. It just shows you how with kickers, it's having that resiliency and that, it's like a good closer in baseball, Wes.

You know, you got to be able to put the failure behind you and the mental side of it is almost as important as what the power in the leg. So good for him. And as for the Vikings, I think we all have teams that we're wrong about, that we feel strongly about in late August and early September for me it's the Vikings I thought they were just I thought they were going to be a solid team I didn't think they were a Super Bowl team but I thought they were a team

that was going to be in the mix and taking a playoff spot but that's hard to make a case for and it goes back to their defense 446 yards allowed today I mean you wasted these are the two things you wasted Dalvin Cook career

best running day 186 yards and a touchdown Justin Jefferson I talked about it last week that one of the problems of the Vikings in the first two weeks was the offense looked like it had a quarterback that only trusted one guy, Adam Thielen. Well, here's Justin Jefferson, the first round pick, goes seven for 175 and a touchdown. And you lose because you can't get a stop on defense for the life of you. And now you're 0 and 3 with two home losses, and it's just grim.

So the Titans are 3 and 0 conversely, and they have their three wins by a grand total of six points. So try to figure out where they place in the pecking order. That's my job as Power Rankings guy. So I have to figure that out later tonight. But they are 3 and O and the Vikings are in a world of hurt at 0 and 3 with a roadkill game coming up. I'll take your closer kicker analogy one step further here, Dan. As a general role, both species tend to be overrated simply due to their usage. But the exception is that a lights out closer just like Justin Tucker.

is invaluable. Right. Just invaluable. Exactly. I saw some of the quotes. And Gus Kowski might be their MVP, by the way. Or at least Rabel's decision to keep him is. Let's contest that.

He was amazing last week. He missed an extra point last week, too, but he was better from field goal range. But he had two tough field goals at the end of, you know, the halves. And then today, or at least the decision to keep him is amazing. Mike Zimmer, on the other hand, I think, is losing his mind. I mean, he's not a guy who handles losing well. He called their last drive that the Texans said. I mean, they got the ball back down one.

Oh, it was a mess. And he called it chaos. And they asked Kirk Cousins about it. And he just said, well, I'm not sure what he's referring to. You'll have to ask Mike. So that's not great. Oh, watch the tape, Kirk, because they never even competed in that last drive. Zimmer also, you know, when they were kind of picking on his cornerbacks,

he then threw his two safeties under the bus and saying they're biting on play action and giving up these big plays. They got the big names. but they're making big time mistakes, talking about Anthony Harris and Harrison Smith. So it's like, it's tough times right now. I mean, the Vikings last drive was four plays for negative 14 yards with an interception. What is cloudy to Kirk Cousins about what was unpleasant there? In the defensive cousins, when you go back and watch it, I don't know what happened, but there was some type of egregious breakdown on the offensive line in that last possession

because he snapped the ball and he had three guys in a lot. his face, it felt like almost immediately. So that could sometimes be on the quarterback, too, for a variety of reasons. But it was in all phases, a total breakdown. It's just, there's no juice with this team right now. And like I said, when you get that game from Cook, when you get Jefferson stepping up, and you're 0 and 2, and you're at home, and you got to leave. They had a 12-point lead in the third quarter.

You got to win that game. And you didn't. And now you've got to pay the consequences. I enjoyed your tweets about Jefferson because very astute. He does change everything with this offense. It's exactly what they needed. It's what they haven't had. Cousins trusting receivers other than Thielen to even be open.

That's exactly what this offense needed. Do you think, though, inside the building in Minnesota, that there are people thinking we have got to think about the quarterback position. They just gave them a new contract. They kind of slipped under the radar, but they just gave him a second contract. I'm just wondering what they're thinking. If you watch it, I'm not, I'm not out to kill cousins. Maybe a second contract was unnecessary.

That was my vibe because you could have had him as a lame duck, you be, and then explored your options. But this game was not, they had more yards in the first half this game than they did in four quarters last week. And it seems like, especially if Jefferson is a guy who can put together multiple weeks, their offense with Gary Kubiak there, I think they're going to be back on track. But I don't know if there's a solution on defense. So far, it is no bueno. You can't just take Kevin Stefansky out of the building and think that you're going to seamlessly roll into the next season

as a playoff operation. He's feeling himself. It's very clear that you can't do that, so. He's feeling himself. Mark, it's a fair question about cousins and regret because go back to that division championship week against the Packers when they broke cousins. And in what, four or five games since then,

they have gone like three full quarters without moving the offense at all. downright dysfunctional, and you just don't see franchise quarterbacks go through games like that. Right. He feels like someone that could be broken. That is sort of my concern about him versus other quarterbacks out there. All right, let's move up. Quarterbacks break all the time. This could be the last play of the football game. Single high safety. Herbert on the back pedal, being pressured, throws underneath, and it's caught the hook and ladder, but it's dropped. The ball's loose at the 20. The Panthers fall on it. And Carolina is going to win this football

game. The first win, there are no flags, the first win of the Matt Rule era, and it comes almost 3,000 miles away from home, but what a joyous flight home it will be for these brand new

Panthers. Wake up. Mick Nixon, who only now, I realize, sounds exactly like famed wrestling announcer Jim Ross. Like, I thought it was In Carolina forced three turnovers, Joey Sly, kick five field goals.

Man, the kickers have really answered after the closed door meeting at the kicker club. The last two weeks have been excellent. And the Panthers beat the Chargers 21-16, giving Matt Rule, as we heard from the Jim Ross imposter, his first victory in the NFL. Mark, the Panthers' defense was a mess in the first two weeks, but a date with a rookie QB and Justin Herbert was a recipe for getting right, I guess. I think that would be the story of the game. I mean, you could have looked at the Panthers defense and with evidence and logic said it was a bottom three defense in the NFL. And that may still prove to be true.

But Derek Brown, who had not really shown up a lot in the first two weeks, the first round pick played well today. Brian Burns had a strip sack. You know, I just, Justin Herbert, I still totally believe in this quarterback. He still does some things that just make you think they've got something here. But, you know, I would imagine that the idea that he needs to come out and do what he did last week and just do it week after week is a tall order. Austin Neckler played a really good game for a part of this. But they struggled and, you know, they're like to me, they're just a team that they're limited.

They're just limited. I just, I don't love their passing game at all. I give the Panthers a lot of credit. I mean, this was their first win, by the way. He said of the Matt Ruhle era, their first win in three. 329 games. 329 days. So, not games.

Games would be notable. Games would be notable. Were we at the last win? The London game? Was that the last win? It was November, I believe. So I think it would have been a little bit after that. But Joey Sly, your boy, Dan,

he took your conversation to heart. He was five for five on field goals. He's in that. He's in that, you know, you've got your, you know, your butker. and those guys up at the top. But Sly is sort of creeping into that. Well, I call him those guys. He's creeping into that next tier, though.

And this is for the Panthers to build on. Yeah, Sly is, let me, he's money. I know. But Ty Chorbat's on the practice squad now, so he better not slip up. You could almost hear it in the call, though, from Mick Mixen. I mean, the story to me was the last two plays of the game. Number one, you have one-on-one, Keenan Allen versus Trey Boston. You throw it up.

Ooh, you like those odds. Trey Boston makes a play. The next play, they had it. I mean, that was the play of the year. It was all set up. It was perfect. Echler's scoring that touchdown. There's no one there on the edge.

Keenan Allen catches it. He makes a bad pitch to Allen, but it was drawn up. It was drawn up perfectly. No one was really on top of Allen. He sort of rushed the throw, you know, like, and, you know, this is easy for us to say on the sideline, but it was exactly how you draw it up. No one was really right on top of Allen, and all he has to do is, complete the pitch to Echler, and we are talking about that play as one of the

plays of the year. I mean, it was right there. It is going to be a brutal play to watch for them the next day. Well, right, it was that. It's also like that's how you're stuck having to try to win these games. I mean, there's just, they're not a dominant team that separates from anyone else on offense. But I, but you know what? Like, to be here in week three with Herbert as the starter, I will see what happens with Tyrod Taylor and Anthony Lynn and the rest of but I would stick with Justin Herbert. I just, I really would. Now that, and I don't know, the severity of the injury,

obviously unfortunate circumstances with a team doctor and the needle and the collapsed lung, but you're coming off a loss now where Herbert didn't light it up. If Anthony Lynn wanted to show Tyrod Taylor the respect and maybe avoid a lawsuit, I don't know. Would he turn to him in the upcoming week? The injury, the way they talk about it, it does not sound like something that,

he's going to quickly recover from. All right. Well, let's move on. More cornered animal action. Here we go. 39-yard attempt. Hashmark left side. Lions trying to pick up the victory.

Prater's ready. Mulebach to snap. There it is. Fox the spot. Kick away. It is up. And it is good. And the lions have won it.

The lions have gone to the desert and picked up victory number one. That's why you never corner a lion. Who corners a lion? Bad move. You're going to get those big old paws and the big old mouth and those angry eyes. Matt Prater's game-winning field goal temp was true. And the Lions beat the Cardinals. What was it, 23-20?

26-23. 26-23 to snap an 11-game losing streak that dates back to last season. Matthew Stafford put on a clinic on the final drive of the game, milking the better part of five game minutes before that game winning boot by Prater, who wears an earring in one ear. Greg, the lions, everyone associated with the lions, including Kevin Patrick, needed this one. They did. I mean, you don't corner the lion.

You say, you don't quarter a panther, those big cats, you don't corner them. Wouldn't do it. I should do it. I saw a lion at the Santa Barbara Zoo on Saturday. You wouldn't want to quarter that guy. No, definitely. He's going to come out scratching. I mean, Greg, Greg, he's in a zoo, so he's been cornered and beaten essentially.

Actually, he was kind of just like a life bar. She's kind of just chilling there, to be honest. It was actually a little setting. Brow-beaten. Yeah, he was sitting there. But he was a beautiful. Although zoologies come a long way, especially in their exhibits, where they try to at least recreate the setting of their natural habitat compared to it. You go to the old L.A. Zoo in Griffith Park.

It basically looked like an insane asylum from the 1700s. You'd stick a good hole in that thing. And it would just be like, my goodness, maron. Now at least, there's no progress. I appreciate your. pro zoo diatribe, but I mean, zoos are still essentially... I would not call that a pro zoo diatriot.

This was like a rescue. It was, you know, one of those... They always say, well, we rescued him otherwise he wouldn't survive in the wild. But, you know, Matthew Stafford, he can survive in the wild. You said it, Dan. And I thought he was...

I thought he's been erratic through two and a half games. Really, this game, too. Hasn't been quite what you would want. Missed a lot of throws in this game. You know, they picked off Kyler Murray three times. They dropped a fourth pick. They had great field position that they didn't take advantage of.

But on that drive, it was like so calm. Every decision was right. He saw where the blitz was coming from. He had one of the prettiest throws of the year that would have put the lions down at the one with just over two minutes left, called back by a holding penalty. I mean, this was an unbelievable throw to Marvin Hall. And you just figured, well, that's the lion's moment. You know, that was like they were going to win the game,

and now they're going to lose the game because of the lions. And Stafford, who has, you know, I think as many game-winning comebacks in the fourth quarter as just about anyone, just, like, showed you how it's done. They killed the clock nicely. And they got out of there in a game that I was, like, frankly surprised every time they got to stop. It felt like a little bit of a miracle every time they stopped the Cardinals' offense. Wow. So that's where we are with the Lions defense right now, because we can expect with Kenny Golade back that they might have a frisky offense.

But the difference between these two teams, and I don't think the Cardinals, defense is very good either, but the lion's defense is the worst unit in this matchup. I mean, J.B. Collins made a pick. Duran Harmon. Jamie Collins really forced two turnover, so he earned his big paycheck today. Duran Harmon, another former Pat had a had a pick. Murray, I don't know if he wasn't seeing the guys. That was Brady Quinn's guess because of Murray's height. I don't know. Bad decisions. I don't know. He made bad decisions. Probably the worst decision he made was late in the game on a third and nine. I'm telling you, they had a hard time stopping the Cardinals' Temple.

When it looked good, it looked good. But it was just turnovers. They didn't punt until the fourth quarter. He had a third and nine where he has Isabella wide open. And instead he decides to throw it 60 yards down the field, double coverage goes incomplete. And that's where Stafford goes and wins the game right after that. You know, some people tend to miss that Kyler Murray is not the tallest quarterback. But because of the size of his helmet, which is truly gargantuan, he appears to be 7 foot 6.

But when you take the oversized helmet off, he is only 4 foot 7. That is a fun fact for you guys. Struggling. Four foot 7. I mean, man, his good plays, though, are so good. I mean, his rushing touchdown, the move he put on Okuda was just outrageous. And the throw he had to Isabella for a touchdown was just ridiculous. I mean, his good plays are just so good.

They just make you believe everything's possible. But they're not quite there. I don't think their passing game, by the way, has been any better this year than it has a year ago with DeAndre Hopkins. It might be worse. So far, I would say it's worse. They've relied on him scrambling. And Hopkins has had another monster game,

has over 350 yards, but no one else is above 100. Or maybe Isabella just went over it. So they're just a little uneven. I actually thought they looked like the Cardinals I expected, except for the turnovers today, but that's a big exception. Right. No one had more than 47 yards outside of Hopkins. So the Hopkins things, it's working out, but you're suggesting that maybe he's getting

too much attention? No, no, just that their passing game as a unit has not been better this year. I don't think his passing's been better. I think it'll get better, but that's not the reason why they've been winning these games, at least their first two. I was thinking it was going to be the Ewing theory, and he's been. Houston, but it hasn't been that way so far. He's been phenomenal as a scrambler, like Lamar Jackson good as a scrambler, but

please stop talking about Kyler, Murray, an MVP candidate in the same sentence. It's September, first of all, and second of all, he hasn't passed well at all. Well, three picks, we'll help you out there. Plus Russell's in the league. Andy Isabella, by the way, was the pick, the Josh Rosen trade pick, and he has gotten off to a bit of a slow start, the former second round pick, but two touchdowns in this game. So that is, that's a positive on the non-Diandre Hopkins beat. All right, let's move on.

Good job, Patra. Running back is Rojo. Ronald Jones, tied in motion. Brady will throw a fade route near sideline. Caught ball. Mike Evans touchdown, Tampa Bay. Buccaneers get two catches in the end zone from Big Mike Evans, 52 career touchdown. And the Buccaneers lead, 23 to 3.

Jane Deckerhoff, WFUS, with the call. Tom Brady through three touchdown passes, including a pair of the eternally overlooked and underrated Mike Evans, in my opinion anyway. And Shaq Barrett celebrated his return to Denver with two sacks, including a safety. Sorry, Mark. The Bucks, 2810 win over the win. The hapless Denver Broncos. So you can corner a Bronco because the beast is so large

that it putting in a corner essentially paralyzes it. It can't move. And if you ever get nervous, Ricky, what do you do? You trank it. A lot of cruelty to animals here. What of aggression. West, Tampa Bay's defense against Jeff Driscoll felt like a mismatch. Apparently that was the case.

Yeah, and I fully expect everyone to keep talking about the buck's offense because of the names involved. But to me, the more fun unit to watch, and the better unit is the defense, which for the second week in a row, basically had a feeding frenzy at the expense of the quarterback, turnovers galore, sacks, blitzes from Todd Bulls, which Greg always loves. He's on fire right now. Levanti, David, one interception, almost had another. Devin White turned it into a great linebacker there in the middle. This is a really good defense. And in the offense, you can tell, they came out trying to get Grunk involved.

I think he had like six first half targets in this game. That's nice. Still moved the ball. They had a good. Well, did he do anything with the target? This was not a game in any way. He said just this week that he's here to block. Well, I think that was like his, you know how it is.

That's my, that's the feed me call. Like, you guys are going to, I'm going to act like I enjoy blocking, but still a few passes coming my way. be nice. Well, Wes, it's 20-20. He's got to go on to his Instagram and scrub all mentions to his team. That's how you get targets. That's what I learned. Should I had a TD too, but Brady overthrew him in the corner of the end zone. One of the few mistakes Brady had. Brady had a pretty good day passing the ball. Well, I was going to ask you, Wes, like, where are we with Tom Brady three weeks in? Where do you, I know, where is he in your QB index? Where is he in your QB overall world? He was 15th going into this.

This, he will climb a few spots based on what other people did and what he did. I don't see him as a big issue. Like the way I see Drew Bree's physical limitations are an issue. I don't think Brady moves as well in the pocket as he used to, but he's shown that he's making the throws. The throws are not a problem. If I know Wes, I feel like you probably like a little Antoine Winfield, Jr. They do have some defensive backs that Bowles really knows how to use Winfield Jr.

and then Murphy Bunting when he's healthy. Carlton Davis is playing well. It's like no one knows these guys yet, but I think they will know them eventually because I'm with you. It's early, but they look like one of the very best defenses in the league. The funny thing about the bolzisants,

Greg, is that you got on a little prematurely. I just like the friskiness, the aggressiveness. Blitz is looking ahead. Greg is looking ahead. But it kind of worked out for you. You were like a guy that like showed up at the movie theater seven hours before Bad Boys 3 or something, thinking that

you would need to do that and to get in, but it wasn't the case at all, so you had a front center seat. But the movie is great. Ultimately, it's worked out for you. Thank you. I mean, the talent and the aggressiveness, he calls a fun game. I know what Wes is talking about. At least, like, if you're going to just be

on defense, make it fun. You know, Blitz like freaking crazy. Oh, you got Vita Vaya, eating Lloyd Cushingberry's lunch. You got JPP making Noah Fant looked like a chump. This buck's defense is everywhere. Do you think that Ripian, the nephew of Mark Ripien, will take this starting job away for good?

Is it Ripon? Is it Ripon? I call him Ripian. Rippin came into play in garbage time. You can't really assess much. It was deep garbage time. There wasn't much of a pass rush. He got throws out early, but they were like four and five yards at a time.

It's really hard to tell. My sense was they figured Driscoll isn't moving the ball And he's getting killed He's getting hit like every series Let's just get some data on this other guy And help us make a choice next week But I don't think Rippin is like some high upside guy Former Super Bowl champion Mark Ripion

I have always said Rippian But I also like take that New York Times Survey they do about certain words And how you pronounce them And realize that like 98% of America does not say words that I say the way Well, there is like a right or wrong way to say a last name, though. I mean, so it's not like

it's an interpretation. I specialize in getting some of those way off. It's philosophical. Never. Like Brett Farr pronounces his name incorrectly, but who are you to tell to him that? Thank you. Tyrod Taylor. He doesn't even know how to pronounce his name. All right, let's move on. Mayfield, under center, gives the ball. Chubbs coming out to the left. He's getting led by

Wyatt Teller. He's at a 15-10. Five- Quarter touchdown to jump. He's done it again. He is amazing. James Donovan, Doug Deacon. You just haven't heard those names a lot on this program. WKRK with the call. Baker Mayfield threw two touchdowns.

Nick Chubb ran for a couple more. The Browns 3420 over the Washington football team playing without Margarbion. The Browns are over 500 for the first time since 2014. That's crazy. Mark, watching this game from afar, you see the ticker telling you Washington is up in the fourth quarter. I guess things changed in a hurry, huh? Yeah, and to your point, an incredibly depressing stat for the city of Cleveland was produced early in this game. It had been 84 straight games that the Browns had been at 500 or below 500.

That is years. Okay, that is years. that tells you a lot about my mood in dealing with many of you over the course of half a decade. I would point to... Not really an excuse, but that's okay. Go on. It's not an excuse. It's not a fair excuse.

Their better players are playing well right now. Miles Garrett's two straight weeks with a strip sack in a pivotal moment. Nick Chubb, you know, and I'm not trying to look at Nick Chub differently than I would other running backs. I just love the way that he operates. He's just fun to watch. He is a punisher. They are lucky to have basically lured in Kareem Hunt and then

resigned him, I think, at a very, very incredibly like affordable market value and have what I think is the best backfield in the NFL. And Mayfield, two games in a row, it wasn't the Bengals game. They were not perfect. But Odell and Mayfield had a connection again in this game. And to me, Baker Mayfield played another clean game with an ounce of confidence that I think was missing last year. And I think the difference is, and it's not to pile on the Freddie Kitchens business, but they just seem to go into the last couple of games. Baltimore, I think you just dealt with a Super Bowl-type team. But the last two games, they just seem to be more organized on offense to have a plan and to execute it,

which is a really unusual thing for the Browns. And when you look at Washington, Dwayne Haskins had three interceptions in this game, and they were killer. You know, he just, there isn't a, I'm not, I'm not seeing a lot from Dwayne Haskins that points to me and says if there's any way that Washington has a chance to draft one of these quarterbacks early next April, that nothing would stop them from doing it. It's not, he's not in a great situation. He's in a talent poor offense with a new regime, but there's just not much there that I'm seeing. And Cleveland, you know, they're learning how to win. I don't know what to take away from this. I think that they're a team that is beating up on lesser competition

and we'll see what they do when they face a real team. They play Dallas next week. That will be more of an acid test in terms of their defense, which Cleveland's defense is concerning. There are problems there. They're banged up, but they're also just not a very good defense. What's really jumped out to me compared to last year as their offensive line. and a guy like Wyatt Teller who they picked up for peanuts before last season

and the offensive line gurus on Twitter are writing him up every week talking about how improved he is and he's one of the better guards in the NFL now and you throw in one of the better centers, Joel Betonio, that is one of the best interior offensive lines in the NFL. There's no reason this team should not run every single week on defenses and if you can run, then there's no reason why Baker and Mayfield can't do play action fakes every week too. Right. They only seem to lose their way. They had a hideous

third quarter if you go back and watch this game. They got away from what they're good at. Just run the ball 60 times a game and see where it gets you. Well, that's not enough to go as far as they want. It makes sense when you're going against Washington. I'm with you, though, on the offensive line. I mean,

and I was wondering if I was seeing things. They checked PFF. They basically have the best offensive line in football through PFF's grading through two weeks in terms of the combined run blocking and pass blocking, especially, run blocking, but even past blocking, they were third. I mean, Baker, Mayfield, and you're right, they got to play better competition, although Washington's defense is fine. He's in a, he is in a great situation. And I'm, I'm eager to see, as you say, Mark, as they kind of step up in competition

the next few weeks. You assume they're going to continue to do well on offense based on what we're seeing from Dallas's defense. But yeah, this, once we get to jump up, this is a nice little pocket for them, Cincinnati, Washington. That's going to be a, that's going to be a hotly, Listen, Mark, I don't know where you draft next Thursday, but a lot of people are going to be want to watch that Cowboys-Brown's game. I don't know where your pick is. So that just get on your radar.

You think that one of you are going to be able to wrestle that game away from me? That's not how this works. The draft is its own thing, man. Even if you pull that off on NFL network or whatever, whatever platform you attempt to pull that off on, we will have backwater talks that remove that game from you in a minute.

I'm planning CNN, is where I plan to swipe the Browns Cowboys. I have another guest spot on CNN on Tuesday night, by the way. So please tune in at 7 p.m. Eastern. By the way, Chase Young, we all amped up about the Washington Front Four after week one. He left this game in the first half with a groin issue. That affected them. They were never the same.

I really think that Chase Young is such a difference maker on that defense. When he went out, and I'm glad you brought that up, they were never the same. Montes Sweat, though, that guy had one of the better games. I don't feel like he's been on my radar much during his career, had one of the better games I've seen. He looks better this year. I mean, if you win the turnover battle 5-0 against Washington, you better win by a couple of scores.

All right, let's move on to Bleaker Affairs. Sets up, throws right side. It's picked off 30-day for the Colts. The Colts are running the other way with it. At the 20, T.J. Carey, and Kerry turned it all the way in to a pick six, Two of them, two of them on the day for the Colts. Touchdown. I-N-D-Y defense, have a day.

The... Matt Taylor, Rick Venturi, WFN-I with the call. Sam Darnold threw three interceptions, including a pair of pick sixes. And the Colts, Cotes, to a 36-7 win. They improved at 2-1 on the young season. Philip Rivers, 17 to 21, 21, 21 17 yards. His first turnover-free game since joining Indy. He's also now, and I know this doesn't matter on this podcast,

but it matters to me, damn it. He becomes the sixth player in league history to throw for 400 career touchdown passes, and he's now over 60,000 yards. The fact that they were even debating on the telecast on CBS, whether he was a Hall of Famer, for all his failures to win the big one and get to the Super Bowl

I just think he's been one of the best pastors of his generation that should get a gold jacket you know the Jets actually move the ball well against Indy who entered this week with the top ranked defense in the first half but the wheels fell off and and things just kept getting worse

Darnold looked bad on the he made some nice plays as he does every week where he looks good and then he makes some bad decisions and it seems like when he makes a bad decision a bad decision. He pays for it. And the Colt's secondary was all over him when he put balls up for grabs and made him pay dearly. And as if it couldn't get worse, Mackay Beckton, who's been really the only shining star for the Jets in what's quickly becoming what looks to be a one in 15 type season. And they might be lucky there. He leaves with a shoulder injury. And he never want to hear a giant tackle having a shoulder issue because those things tend to be issues. So the Jets are the worst team in football.

The Colts took care of business as they should. There's not much to take out of Jets games right now. You know the Jets are terrible. You know they're going to fire their coach. But I mean more from the perspective of the team that's playing them. Like I didn't learn really much from the 49ers last week. I didn't learn anything from the Colts this week, other they could bully a team that really would be relegated

if the league was structured a different way. But nice job by the cults. got the W and stayed healthy, and they moved forward. Colts are in a weird spot after these two games against the Vikings, where the Vikings, I mean, Vikings are a better team, but just the way that game played out, they've had a strange season. The Colts dominated week one against the Jaguars, you know,

but they found a way to lose. They've played three of the worst teams in the league, certainly three of the worst defenses the way they're playing. It almost feels like their season hasn't started. I'm with you. I'm still not exactly sure what's up. up with the Colts, but that's fine. You're two and one.

They're my Super Bowl pick. So when that happens, Dan, then Philip Rivers will be an obvious skull jacket guy. What, you think they need to, he needs to win a Super Bowl? Well, I don't know. But when he does, because I predicted it so, that would do it. I don't think so. I think he's a Hall of Famer. There are a lot of people who hold his many, many seasons of high turnovers against him.

Sure. Sure. Okay. I mean, who do the Jet, the Jet's top three receivers? receivers today were Brax Barrios, Kaelin Belage, and Lawrence Cager. Yeah, there was a, there was an epically bitter. He made up that last guy. I had to, I had to Google his first name.

These are guys being pulled off the practice squad. There was an epically bitter Jets text thread that I was on with my Uncle Stu, Keith, my brother, a couple of my cousins, and talking about, all right, what are we going to do with the Jets? What are we going to do with Darnold? And first of all, Donald can't have too many more of these type of games because whether it's his fault or not, if things implode and they do go one in 15 and he finishes with 25 interceptions and four pick sixes or something.

And they have the one pick. Yeah, they're going to get the one pick and they're going to feel like, you know what, let's just reset this thing with Trevor Lawrence or whomever it is. But the bigger, the broader picture with the Jets is that they have so monumentally butchered these last three years that coincided with Darnold being drafted, they have so undermined themselves from an organizational standpoint that there is no way to accurately judge

if Darnold is good, bad, great, or terrible. So it's 100% on ownership to me. It has been the whole time. I've said that the whole time. There's been, you know, to me it's 100% on ownership. The way that they fired McCagnan, the way, you know, just the, the sequence of events how they decided to hire and fire and the decision they made, you know, by hiring Gase.

This is systemic and it's ugly as it is, as it could be, Wes. That's why your tweets about Dono lately make me really sad because you want so well, you want so much to believe that he's not the problem. He is fixable. And I think it's sad because he's impossible to evaluate. Three years into his career, you don't know what he is because everything Adam Gase was hired to develop. up and make sure isn't ruined is going ruined. Right.

And this may work out for Sam Darnold because he could get traded for a second or third round pick in April to a better organization that has more around him. And he could, and Jet fans don't want this to happen, but he can end up having a successful career elsewhere. And that will all be fine if it goes Kyler Murray for the Jets with Trevor Lawrence. But you know what it feels like if you're a Jets fan? It feels like you're just going to hit reset and you're going to take out the dirty laundry and then welcome in new future victims of your organization.

Right, because the other... I've been there before. Yeah, like the other half of... Right, we all have. Akely Smith ends up replacing David Klingler and it's, you know, the same routine all over again. Right. The other half of Kyla Murray is Cliff Kingsbury.

Right. Who had a total conviction on what he wanted a quarterback and had a plan. And they'll have a new coach. And they'll have a new coach that will be... 13 games to go, though. 13 games to go. That's a lot of tape and Darnold is in a tough situation. but I do think there's a way for him to show what a talented player he is.

13 games is a long time here. And you're right. His job, and that's the only thing left for this season, is he needs to convince the powers that be Joe Douglas specifically that he is the guy that the rebuild should continue around. So far, it's inconclusive at best. Let's move up. Here's a end-round to I-Yook with use checkout to block and also Garland.

Garland, a big-time block. Touchdown! San, Fran, Francisco, Brandon Ayukes, first in the NFL. Get that rookie the rock, and it's not even a reception. Greg Papa and Tim Ryan all sorts of fired up about Brandon Ayuk, first round pick. He led the Niners in all receiving categories and scored on the ground. And back up Nick Mullins through for 343 yards and a touch.

The Niners control action in all phases, 369 win at the. MetLife Stadium over the Giants. Greg, this East Coast vacation embarrassing the Jets, then the Giants, it's like, you know, a lot of family trips. Some bad things happen, sure, but a lot of good memories, too. Great memories. I mean, I'm so impressed with Kyle Shanahan. Your boy, Mike, Mark, when you make the case that he's like the best coach in the league,

I mean, show these last two weeks. This game reminded me of that Bear Bryant, I mean, that Bum Phillips quote, that West likes to bring up every once in a while. And it was about Bear Bryant, but the quote was, he can take his in and beat urine, and then he can turn around and take urine and beat his in. And I, of course I believe that. You give him the Giants Rathor.

He would have smacked this 49ers team around just like he did. And some people in my mentions going, well, they haven't played a real team. Give me a break with that. He's playing with like 12 or 13 backups. He's got Nick Mullins at quarterback, looking good, by the way, making some good, by the way, making some good plays

against pressure. His entire defensive line is totally wiped out. So you've got to give credit to Robert Sala. Sala, Sala, Sala. They dominated on defense, too. They did, you know, they scored every possession today. They scored every possession. The Giants did not get a single stop.

And if they make the playoffs, the 49ers, that is, I think you look back at these two weeks, maybe what comes up against Miami and Philadelphia, too. And it's like managing the schedule, because a lot of these players will come back. You're not going to survive forever this way. But I think that's impressive. To embarrass, to blow out actual NFL teams on the road with this array of injuries is something.

Something. Your boy, Mark. I am a huge Kyle Shanahan person. I always will be. I don't need to go deeper into that. But he finds a way, no matter who his quarterback is, to get production. Nick Mullins, 343 yards with a touchdown. and no interceptions.

They let them throw the ball 36 times. I mean, these New York teams, can I just say, though, these New York teams are not even really NFL teams. I get it, but they, okay, they played the Steelers way tougher. You know, the Jets played the Bills way tougher. It's like the Giants were in a game last week.

Like, they're a professional team. Oh, for sure. The 49ers scored every possession. I mean, I can't get past that. They're like in year four or five. We're like, when will they ever show us who they are? I mean, there's eight of those guys. In comes Nick.

Mullen's, Kyle Shanahan unleashes him for 36 passes, sight unseen, bang. I mean, they dominate. They dominated the Giants. I mean, what a statement against the giant secondary that Shannahan looked at the tape all week and was like, oh, yeah, we can attack these guys with our backup quarterback and all our wide receivers heard. It doesn't matter. And George Kittle out.

They just, I mean, they're better coach. They're better. Where are we on the Giants? They lost Jordan Reed today. Of course you did. Which I thought was a big... That was right on Q, though, Greg. The Jordan Reed injury is right on Q.

Hey. But the Jason Garrett... Who always have week two. Is it time for Jason Garrett to start getting some heat, Greg? You want to take a victory lap because the Giants' offense isn't doing it right now? Well, the line is no better. They're right back to where they were. The line's been terrible.

No, it might be worse. The Giants, the 49... That was what got me. I'm not shocked that Shanahan came up with some good plays. there were open receivers. I mean, Mullen's made a lot of plays against pressure, too. The Giants had more pass rush in this game than the 49ers probably did. But, yeah, I don't know.

They were the worst rushing team in the league with Saquan Barclay. So, yeah, they had 17 yards rushing on 10 carries. There was a couple fluky plays early. Jones has a bad pitch. He has a terrible interception, which wasn't fluky, to end the first half. And that just felt like curtains. But when your defense doesn't get a single stop all day against Brandon Ayuk, at over 100 yards, you know, looking good.

I mean, that's on them. That's pathetic. All right. Before we move on to our next game, it's time for the handoff. Unless, Wes, you want to stick around your call? I'll let Shook take it from here. All right. Nick Shook, fresh from the gym.

It's like he's about to explode out of that Nike shirt. Wes, thank you for joining us. We'll see you later in the week. Shook looks like the Rock about to endorse. Joe, Mike. All right, Wes. See you later, man. All right.

Shook, welcome back to the flagship show. It's the start of a beautiful tradition. We had two games on the schedule with you and Sunday night football. You ready to dig in, buddy? Yeah, absolutely, even though these games were less than ideal. All right, we'll knock them out. Here we go.

And now we're going to have a fourth and seven. Nothing personal. And Jake Elliott comes off. And this is going to be. A 59-yard field goal attempt for Jake Elliott. Well, we've been here before. We've been here before. Here it is.

And now penalty flags fly. Oh, no. Oh, don't tell me the Eagles are going to... I think there was movement by the Eagles. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. Oh, what a field goal to win it. A five-yard penalty.

I think that's inexplicable how they can't line up for a field goal that's what they did they backed Jake Elliott out of a 59 yard attempt it's it's oh Nick Nick's getting this treatment each week it's not just that you disappointed Merrill Reese I mean you disappointed of the whole city. Eagles. Jake Elliott lined up for a 59-yard field goal, 19 seconds left in overtime. False start on Matt Pryor forced Eagles to punt it away. Punting for the tie. That's how it ended. 23, 23. Kiss you, sister. Everybody loses. Shook, the saddest thing is the Eagles needed a mini miracle just to get to this.

What a disaster the Eagles have been. Yeah, I told Erica to choose that call because no moment in the game captured how bad of a game it was more than that. You know, you're already lining up for an improbable field goal, not impossible, but improbable, and then you immediately commit another error that then puts you out of field goal range, forces your coach

to punt so that you can avoid perhaps turning the ball over near midfield giving the Bengals a chance, and then going forward from there. I mean, it was, Carson Wentz was asleep at the wheel for the majority of the day. He still looked pretty bad except for that last drive that tied the game. It's almost like he woke up and was like, hey,

oh, I've got to go 75 yards here in under four minutes to tie the game. I can do this. And he did it just fine. And it kind of illustrated that the Eagles still have some talent and ability to do things. They just haven't done it consistently, and they couldn't do it in overtime, which is, you know, capped off by that false start penalty and just an ugly way. No tie is ever pretty, but this is an ugly tie. I mean, they punted three times in overtime. It's not like he didn't have a ball before.

Like, I think you could criticize Peterson for not going for it on fourth and 12 because there's only 19. seconds left. That play, that play itself is going to take six or seven seconds. That's fair. You know, but you understand it because their offense is the worst in the league in terms of yards for play entering this game. And their yards for play against the Bengals defense actually went down. And they got the ball at the 45, you know, at their own 45 with whatever it was, a couple of minutes left. They only needed 20 yards to go kick a field goal. Wait, how many seconds? 12? There was 19 left, you know, when they snap. it for the for the punt so you know it would have you know you do the fourth and 12 that takes another five or six seconds at least off the clock there there would have only been about 12 for the Bengals they would have been at the four you could do you could have done a hook and ladder type thing that runs out the clock you could done a hail Mary that's going to take 10 seconds off the clock and maybe you get a penalty or a catch just get 15 yards and kick a field goal and win the game they had no faith that they had no faith in it. Yeah if you solve a three place prize and kick a field and win the game that's they had no faith in it. Yeah if you solve a three place prize

They were crawling. I mean, they basically said, you know what? Okay, we're going to try and just get a yard here, a yard the next play, and then we'll just, like, there's the target line overlay on the field. They were inching toward the target line in the final minute and a half. They accepted that they couldn't get 10 yards, get a first down, and get closer. It was, they were playing not to lose in a tie game. Against the Bengals.

Against the Bengals. At 0-N-2. It's a surrender index. That's what it's called. Yeah, I do find it delightful that these two teams tied. I don't know what the anniversary would be, but back when Donovan McNabb, this happened with the Eagles against the Bengals,

and McNabb admitted after the game that he had no concept of the overtime rules to begin with. I would ask you this, though, Nick, what did you see from Joe Burrow? Because the pressure that he is under, and I think he's been pressured 42 times in the last two weeks, eight sacks today.

That was the huge question about his ability to progress as a quarterback, behind a terrible offensive line. They need to start hiring like just find some large men in the Cincinnati area that are nimble and can move. They're out there. You see it fly? I just, I worry about him staying like staying safe in that situation.

Yeah, well, so I was concerned last week being at TNF and watching him drop back over and over again and you saw the amount of passes that he threw. I was wondering. No, you were loving it. You were at TNF, huh?

Yeah, sure. I mean, it's down the road. Wow, you were like one of the 16 people there. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. But, I mean, the many times that he dropped back in that game, I understood because they needed to push the ball down the field to try to keep pace of the Brown's offense. That wasn't the case today. And he still had 44 attempts.

I know overtime was included. 52 total dropbacks today. The eight sacks, as you mentioned, Mark, the 42 pressures in the last two weeks split evenly, 21 today, 21 last week. If you're going to have a quarterback that you spend the number one pick on and you base your franchise around, you have to invest in protecting him better. that's not all done in one-off season. But how about limit the amount of times that he's going to take shots from guys? Today, he got destroyed by Malik Jackson after getting a throw-off. It drew a roughing penalty.

But, I mean, I felt that he were 500 miles away from Philadelphia. So I can't even imagine what he felt like and still gutted out the rest of the game. This is happening to him on a week-by-week basis now. They're going to crush the guy before they get to the end of the regular season if they don't at least try to shorten their offense or hand the ball if you got Joe Mixing back there. And you had a lead for a good amount of the second half today. and still, for some reason,

kept trying to throw the ball down the field. Your O and 2, the Bengals come to your building, and you're lucky to tie. Well, you caught up a half a game. You caught up a half a game in the NFC. Half a game back. In the worst division, football, the NFC. They're thrilled that no fans are allowed in.

I mean, that is one scenario where, like, you're thankful that Corona reared its head in March. They'd be throwing car batteries. All right. Next. Here's the snap. It's like, the Eagles fans, like, stop bringing up the battery stuff, bro. Into the end zone.

Touchdown. In the middle of the end zone. A beautiful throwball to Anthony Miller. And the Bears have the lead in Atlanta. Terrific comeback in the fourth. And Anthony Miller hangs on to this one. Nick Foles took a crunching hit as he got rid of the football. Oh, Jeff Johnnyack with the call.

The Falcons. What are you doing? doing surrender a 16 point lead in the final six and a half minutes of play and the bears get three touchdown passes from nick foals who came in for mitch travisky who stinks 3026 the bears are three and oh somehow and the falcons oh and three become the first team in NFL history to lose back-to-back games in which it led by 15 or more points in the final quarter shook dan quinn has He's had 18 lives, 27 lives, 36 lives. He's like worth four cats.

Where are we out here? Enough is enough. You know, he showed his frustration in the final moments and they had to call a timeout when he knew the game was out of hand that it was no longer in reach after Tashon Gibson's interception. And he just took his headset off and almost threw it down and stopped himself. But you could just see it. The look in his face, he was struggling with the fact that his team can't get a win even with, you know,

a huge lead. And, you know, I was texting my buddy who's a bearer. fan for the majority of the second half before the actual comeback really started. And I was like, hey, maybe your team's a two and oh fraud. You know, they don't look very good today. Mitch didn't look very good before he got pulled. Time for them to finally get a loss. And then you come back and, of course, they found their way back into the game.

So you wonder, is it Nick Ful's heroism, which we've seen plenty of in the past? Or is it the Falcons simply not understanding any concept of how to close a football game? Because so far through three weeks, they have no idea how to do it. It's a little both. that game-winning touchdown was foals kind of mad you know that was foals in a nutshell him getting hit in the arm it reminded me of the play he got hurt on last year and he's watching the game-winning touchdown from his backside had a couple other nice throws might give them a little more juice they are the first team to ever come back the bears uh from a 16 point fourth quarter deficit twice in a season and win and they've already done it

in week three like every different quarterbacks two different quarterback it's outrageous but you're right that about the falcons not closing because you're right that about the falcons not closing because you're You can't put it all on the defense either. The offense didn't score their last six possessions and had a bunch of three and out. Not to bring it up again, but just like the Super Bowl. So Matt Ryan is the guy behind center, both of those games. There's something wrong with this Falcons team, and it's screaming to be blown up. Let's face it.

Let's just be totally honest. How do you, your fan base is dying? You know, there's a difference. I don't know what's worse. Like to be a fan like I am of the Jets, a team that's hopeless, or a fan. the Falcons where you show that not only can you hang with teams, you could beat up on teams and then completely pee down your own leg during money time. I mean, that just can't happen. It can't happen once in a season, let alone twice in three weeks.

I don't know what's worse between the two, but I think I would rather, having been a Browns fan, I think I would rather be in the Falcon situation than having no hope at all because, like, Calvin Ridley had a nice day. Todd Gurley looked kind of encouraging at times. They did jump out. They've proven that they can at least play with another team. or jump out to a lead, they just can't finish a game. So you go to bed that Sunday night, upset that they lost but thinking, oh, if only they could just put four quarters together.

Or you can just give up. Or you could give up. That's an option. You can enjoy the sport more and not be chained to a miserable experience. Because the Falcons right now, I think they're number one in my pain rankings. Because as 28 to 3 goes further and further.

I don't need a Patriots fan laying out the pain rankings. Right. They are, you know, at least the Falcons are vaguely interesting. but I would say Dan Quinn was brought in to revolutionize their defense as a defensive you know, Seahawks defensive wizard and their defense has been the issue years in a row. I just, I mean, the issue is not Matt Ryan, who's been the best quarterback in that division. It's the defense. I wasn't plugged into the beginning of this game.

Did Trebisky just get benched because he was playing terribly or how did that play out? Yeah. It's a killer pick, didn't he? Yeah, I didn't see any sign of anything on the sideline that they were examining him for any reason. it just looked like he looked bad. He was really being risky early too, just kind of heaving the ball around the field and was not,

they had no momentum with him. And, you know, you get the classic coaching line when they make a mid-game quarterback change. Oh, we were just looking for a spark. We're just looking for a spark. Well, they got their spark today. So it's funny. And that felt like politics too.

Like, you know, there's all these teams that are stuck trying to like hoist up certain quarterbacks to make the front office look good based on bad decisions, past decisions. like the Trubisky two-game thing, two-plus games thing, was a political maneuver. And now they're stuck. The way to do it. It's the way to do it.

They're 3-0 now. You set them up to then pull-hand. Well, that's fine. They're not 3-0 just because of Trubisky. My point is they got there. I don't know why they did that. But if you're got to make a change like that, you know, you're happy to do it at 3-0 with a comeback victory.

I mean, he's still a heartbroken on the sideline. I mean, it's kind of funny how fading first-row head. It's kind of funny how it was with Tribisky, though, because if we if you would have I don't know if the desert does these things Greg would know better than me but if you would have had to set an over under for when Nick foals got into game action you probably would have set it around like two and a half two and a half games something like that and right on right on cue there he is all right let's move on Sunday night football oh Sunday night the midfield looking for a shot rogers sending it deep down field and Lazard brings it in to first round Round. Take that. Doesn't matter what round I was taking. Forty-eight on the catch for Alan Lazzard, the undrafted player. Aaron Rogers, having his way with yet another defense. This time, it's the New Orleans Saints. Alan Lazzard finished six for 146 and a touch. Rogers, 21 of 32, 283, three touchdowns, no interceptions.

125 pass a rating, another sterling effort from the future Hall of Famer in a 37 to 30 win. At the Superdome, the Packers moved to 3 and 0. The Saints fall to 1 and 2, and they have problems. Nick Shook, I'll start with you on this one. A lot of focus has been, and you get it, that's how football works. It's how sports fandom works. A lot of the focus on the Saints has been about Drew Brees. Is he in decline?

Is he this? Is he that? Meanwhile, the Saints' defense continues to be a major issue, slowing down opposing offenses, and the penalties continue to pile up. Yeah, and the penalties piled up late in this game with 200 Norris Jenkins that put the Packers in the doorstep of scoring the game, well, the game ceiling touchdown, really. I mean, I guess you can't discredit the Saints for, or not too severely discredit the Saints for not being able to stop an Aaron Rogers led offense. But this is a trend. This isn't just a one-week thing, as you said. And no matter how well Drew Brees plays, they don't have the talent, especially with Michael Thomas out, to really go toe to toe with a team that can really play. a high level offense if they can't get a stop on defense. So that's definitely concerning for them right now and the reason why they lost this game. I watched this with our son Luke, who's a Saints fan as of about a season ago.

Wait, what? Yeah, he's, that's the team he's chosen. And he was very upset to see Janoris Jenkins get flagged like 87 times for pass interference. At one point he said, him again, he's innocent. This was his quote, him again, he's innocent. He's probably so stressed. Well, I said, he's not innocent. He was clearly guilty of some of those infractions. Change the game. You watch your boy, Aaron Rogers, Dan. I know, you know, some things in this season not going your way 100%. But that all pro pick you have for Aaron Rogers is looking freaking amazing. And you watch them and you just think he's having so much fun. And I think about when Jay Sternberger caught a pass in the fourth quarter and he immediately starts

having fun with him because Sternberger had a couple big drops last week and that was his first career catch. And then he keeps going back to him. Early in the game, he's like wiping down Lazard's face after that amazing catch Lazard had, which was an even better throw from Rogers. I mean, just feeling himself moving to his left and like dropping it in the bucket from 55 yards away. It's just, it's fun to watch. I mean, he is, to me, him and Russell, Wilson, they would be the best to right now three weeks. That easy flick from Rogers, which you saw on that touchdown, that's probably my favorite throw in NFL history.

I'm not old enough to take in Peak Namath when he had an amazing fall through and he would zip the ball like nobody else. But Aaron Rogers, the way he can just on the move, square shoulders, and then just flick it. And then it's just perfectly precise, hits a target. I mean, the man, when he is right, is just so fun to watch. And Alvin Kamara from the running back position is like Rogers in that way. Like when Kamara's right, and he was in this game when he had just six carries, but for 58 yards.

And then as a receiver, stepping up with Michael Thomas out of the mix, 13 catches, 139 yards, two touchdowns, including that insane 52-yard catch and run where he got some help from, I believe, his center, who was motoring up the field. That was, it was special. It was kind of a fun game to watch, not just because it was competitive, but to see Rogers at his peak right now, to see Kamara healthy. These are some of the best players in the world at their peak. Yeah, you know, the funny thing is the similarity between both of them, while they're

very different players, the one thing I keep going back to with them is how light they are on their feet. I mean, Rogers just bounces around throughout the pocket, floating left, right, before flicking it, like you said. And then Kamara, of course, regaining his balance on that long run. And I like Greg's tweet about it, which is the Saints entire offense is basically built around Camara breaking tackles, which he obviously showed he's very good at. It's not really a reliable strategy, of course, and that was kind of what they leaned on tonight with him leading them and receiving and everything else, but it's still fun to watch. Yeah, I mean, Dan's favorite stat, average depth of target, A dot.

I mean, it had its night tonight. It was an A dot night. All they did was talk about A dot, I feel like the whole time. And it's because Breezes, you know, they made the point Breeze is always at the bottom of the league in that. category. So maybe this isn't that big a deal. But now he's at the bottom of the league by like a long shot. And this, this offense, it's been fine the last two weeks. It's taken a little attention away from their defense being even worse. I think Jeff Duncan pointed out they've forced one punt in their last 17 drives. So it's really the defense that to me deserves the L more than

anything today than the Saints. But it's also not quite the Saints offense. Even putting Michael Thomas back there. I don't know. Well, let's talk about the taste of Hill play. That really was the shifting play in the game. Rogers is not attacking downfield. His average air yards per attempt, I believe, is sub five in this game, maybe even closer to four.

And they bring Hill out near midfield. He fumbles, Zadarius Smith with the force fumble. Hill has not had the same success in this offensive as last year. I wonder how much of that has to do. do with Drew Breeze and how the offense is so one-dimensional right now that you bring Tayson Hill out there and there's just no fear in the defense that there's going to be a big play. It certainly hasn't happened yet. I think it's a small sample size at this point, but you're right that like the Breeze Tayson Hill combination is less effective. I mean, the one thing is,

if I were to wake up tomorrow and if people still read newspapers and I were to look at the Breeze box score, any other person would be happy if their quarterback had that box score. It's just that what we're seeing with Breeze is a little bit different. I still think that he's reading the field as well as anyone and made a couple really smart throws in that situation. But Hill is on there, Hill is in there for that play because they have comprehensive trust in him to not turn the ball over, first of all. So for that to happen, I mean, everything went completely sideways from there. I mean, 30 points wasn't even on the field. The Saints had 30 points out at the end Even that was a killer turnover.

It really doomed them in some ways. But that to me, to go back to how I set it up with you, Shook, this game is on the defense and a defense that a lot of people saw as one of the best in the league, potentially entering the season. And they just got to be a lot better. And I'll add one more point. And it connects to the defense. Not all home field advantages are created equal.

But that was a big deal. And Chris Collinsworth mentioned it during the telecast. that nobody in that stadium at the Superdome made life a lot easier for Aaron Rogers and company. And you just wonder if Aaron Rogers is as comfortable. He just was casually dissecting this defense if there's not 75,000 screaming Louisianaans down there tonight. But that's 20-20 football. And, you know, I wonder like what kind of effect that's had on other environments in the league.

But that environment, especially because of the way that the stadiums built. You're indoors, sound reverberates. They're famous for being very loud. We've seen this across sports in the time that we're playing these sports in right now. I mean, even the NBA, like you got the Lakers and the heat in the finals. And you wouldn't expect one of those teams to be making it. And it's because they're playing in a bubble. So you get kind of a similar situation in some of these stadiums where there's no fans.

You don't have that effect. And Rogers, like you said, toyed with them multiple times tonight with those hard counts that they would never implement in one of those environments when they typically be going with the snap count. And that kind of changed the game because they got a free play there. and threw up the past. It ended up in the past interference to set them up on the goal line. But again, you're right. That defense has not stood up and done its job.

Last week, it was Malcolm Jenkins getting victimized by Darren Waller or most of the defense getting victimized by Darren Waller. This week, when they had a chance to get a stop, get the ball back for their offense, down three, they couldn't do anything even close to that. And they did it without Devante Adams. To me, that makes this all the more meaningful. I mean, their offense is just in such a different. space than they were a year ago at this time when they were trying to figure

each other out. You know, Collinsworth made the point. A lot of times it's really Rogers calling the play. I mean, he has like a menu of a million different options that Lefleur is setting up. They're in such amazing sync right now. I mean, to do it without Adams, where there are three tight ends, titanium, Tanya and Sternberger, and Lewis were like their third, you know, second, third, and fourth leading receivers. I mean, that's amazing.

And the Saints missed Jedevi and Clowny tonight. I keep bringing it up. But like Marcus Davenport is a whipping boy for Saints Twitter. You know, two firsts. They were missing two firsts again. He missed his third straight game. They had zero pass rush. So Rogers does have weapons.

It's that offensive line. It's Aaron Jones. That's all he needs right now. And Maddie Lafleur, the little man. Right. We're all exactly. Beardy boy. Right.

We're only like eight, nine months away, you know, out from Dan's dad. delivering the little boy with a beard comment about Matt LaFleur that we all chuckled at and believed in because it made so much sense. He seemed like a small young man attempting to lead a football team into battle. But now, I think Matt LaFleur is one of the stories of this game that he has become a dude. And I was killing their record last year. The inherited Aaron Rogers. That was a good job by him. Well, that's, you know, that's fine. But I mean, Matt LaFleur, though, is adding value. And he just took down Sean Payton and Greg, I want to find out at some point.

I'm going to go through the accounting. What kind of profits are you making off of Saints Twitter? You mentioned it at least three times a week in various platforms. I love it. You in Saints Twitter. Well, you know, no one watched it on the network. You know, if people didn't see it on the network, you got to get the two first. I like, I like that as like a running thing.

The Packers won 14 and 4 in the bearded boys' first year. They're now 3 and 0. That's 17 and 4 did the math. and they have more points through their first three games this season than they've ever had in franchise history. And there's been some great offenses in the history of the bearded boy. I think that was more a general commentary my dad made on the youthful appearance of LaFleur. I don't think he was commenting on him as a coach,

but I'll have to double check with Keith on that. But let's stay focused here because there is a developing news story before we say goodbye. And I've been making a lot of phone calls and shooting a lot of text. Just trying to reach out to my stores and see who could figure out where was Al tonight. Al Michael's not in the booth. You know, last week it was Justin Herbert shows up for a snap one for the Chargers, catching everybody off guard.

Today, it's Al Michaels replaced by Mike Tariko along with Chris Collinsworth in the booth. Do we have any info on where Al was tonight? Ricky? Yeah. It was decided before the scene. season that he was NBC said that Michaels would miss a few weeks this season where Torrico would sub in for him as described as by weeks to limit travel. And apparently Al Michaels is, this is a great schedule for me and I'm all in.

I have a source that works high up is a major player in the broadcasting game, makes huge money, success, who feels that this could be a reaction to a potential Al Michael's pay cut behind the scenes, and he made the decision, I'm not calling every game if you're not going to give me the money I need. This is, again, conjecture. We're still early in the process. Why isn't Al doing a full slate of Sunday night football? Maybe by week, you know, he's up there years.

It's a pandemic. There's all sorts of reasons why that makes sense. Tariko's making a lot of money. Tarika, you've got to earn that. I mean, Tariko's, right, talk about, Triko's basically your tasome Hill that they have to find out, right let's get this guy into the lineup please here wouldn't have had a holding penalty and a fumble you know dan's like trico's not taseom hill taste some hill's not a real human being thank you for saying that so i didn't have to jump in mike tarrico is steve young and al michael's is joe montana

that's where we're at it's tasem hill stuff well no here's what i would say though that whole this whole idea of you know media people getting a bi week during the football season i'll come back so it makes a lot of sense you know we didn't what did we get about four days off this entire off season, like, you know, suddenly Cessleros week seven off to just completely vanish. And that means all shows for the entire week. It just makes a lot of sense. Shook could get involved

in that. Right. So we'll continue to track this, right? Where's Al? All right. What a song. Good stuff. All right. So, Nick Shook,

you said it all. Thank you so much. We love this new tradition. And also notice Shook behind him has the NFL helmet that they give you when you leave the company and then you sign it. And you say, oh, Shook, it's been so great. Best of luck in your journey. And then Shook goes to the Browns for about seven days and then comes back to the NFL. So he got the signed helmet and he got to come back to the NFL. So Shook, we're really gaming the system in a big spot.

You know, it's my third stint. So I figure, you know, five or ten years. Maybe it will be up to number five. Yeah, I don't know. How many helmets do you got the, you also got the real-life Browns experience, which is go in thinking that you're going to be there for 20 to 30 years and you're there for 20 to 30 hours. And that's probably about as long as it goes.

The big joke on Twitter when I left was, oh, you got off just as the ship was sinking when really it was a completely different set of circumstances. But we'll let the public believe that. Speaking of, yeah, speaking of deep dives, the old Zeuser has another expose in the can. And I just have to get a few more quotes and a couple more sources. What happened to Nick Shook and the Cleveland Browns? It's a secret that or a story that has not been told yet, but we hope to get it down the line. Another helmet I have here, if I can reach for it, is from the vaunted, the venerated desk of Mark Sessler.

Hang on. I can only wonder what this will be. It is Mark Sessler's old Brown's helmet before they changed their helmet. Did you steal that for Mark? because you're so much larger than him physically, or did he give it to you? He gave this to me after I left the first time. I gave it to him because he's so much larger.

The first time, you're the, you're the Billy Martin of NFL media right now. All right, good stuff. Thank you, Shook. It's getting grosser. We'll be back on Tuesday with the podcast, and the wheel continues to go around and around and around. This is Dan Hansis signing off for Nick Shul. get shook with nick shook the old boss quiet storm and of course the mailman and rickie holly

until tuesday In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here.

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

And I'm Michael Flawio And together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast Your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast

On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.