NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 6 Recap - The Win of the Weekend

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap every single game from Week 6. Nick Shook stops by to chat about the falcons win and Sunday Night Football. Ricky won her lock!Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast takes no responsibility for takes generated in the lab. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. Coming to you from a virtual room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosethall, and yes, the great Chris Wessling. What is up, boys? He is...

Hey, Dan. He's back. He's back. Wes, we missed you last week, buddy. But you look good right now. How do you feel? Oh, it's night and day compared to where I was last week. I have been in the stage for a while for a couple of months where as long as I could take my three or four baths a day and night, as you guys are well aware.

Oh, yeah. You know, I could keep the pain away for a while. and stay on top of it and get through my days. And then right about when I was starting radiation, and the radiation begins to tear down the cancer cells and their swelling. It reached a new level where I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't think about anything but pain, and it was dominating my life.

So I had to go into the hospital, get that under control, and got out Friday afternoon, and it's been night and day. It's been, like, the pain is almost non-existent now, which means to me it's not just that the new pain meds are working, it's that the radiation's working, and it's gone into the bones, and it has smashed some of that cancer that has been feasting on my bones, weakening my bones, and putting pressure on my nerves. So the radiation is doing its job, which is a more permanent thing that pain meds to me. that's great yeah that is legitimate progress and we could hear it in your voice there's that level of enthusiasm uh that you've already beat this thing once maybe west turn in the corner again momentum it's a thing best win best win a week six you know get is there is there momentum in big sea battles west i've experienced momentum and exist i think anyone who's experienced momentum

knows it exists. I do have, like, one quick question for you, Wes. Like, and I know maybe the bath time allotment is a little lower if you're feeling more comfort, but were there certain baths where maybe Lakeisha would come in and just sort of sit, you know, on the ledge of the toilet, or the ledge of the bathtub to, to hang out with you and just converse with you? Or was that, was it, was that alone time for you mostly? You know, like, Kermit the frog bump on a log sitting there.

You know, you like, you put the toilet seat down. You just sit there and hang out and, like, talk to the person and you're in the tub. doing your thing. Some of these marathon bath sessions were going on for like four hours, so plenty of time for everything, you know? Run the gamut. All right. Wes just sinks into the tub with the bubbles up to his chin and takes a deep breath and goes,

I deserve this. There's some wonderful bass. I have it down to a science now. All right. That's great. Well put, Greg. The biggest win of Week 6 is Wes is with us and feeling good and is on a winning streak in the big sea fight and we are going to get to the rest of week six which is inconsequential

in relation to west but we're going to talk about it anyway because that's our job that's what we do around here we talk about all the games and we had a full slate of Sunday action no COVID issues thank goodness especially in the early window and a ton of football to talk about so let's dig in and let us start with one of the best games of the year a back and fourth affair between AFC South rivals. It's the King Cat. Henry running to the left

into the end side. Touchdown. Tyke out! Yo! Pike's win. 42 to 36 as Arthur Smith comes with the King Cat for the final

five yards and the victory. Oh, that's a great call to start us off from, of course, Mike Keith and a highly elated Dave McGinnis of WGFX. Derek Henry finally busted out in 2020, and he did so in horrifying fashion. If you're a Texans fan, the NFL's reigning rushing champ took the direct snap and plowed into the end zone to clinch. A 42-36 overtime win, Henry also had a 94-yard touch. down run earlier in the game, stiff arming another defender into the abyss in the process. Wes, listen, everything's coming up west this weekend. You grabbed this game to focus on, and wow, what a treat it was. Yeah, there were a lot of big drama swings in this one,

and it started out the first three quarters before Taylor of the Wan, Titans left tackle, went down, and Johnny Smith went down in the third quarter. Gaskowski had some trouble with missed kicks. Until then, this was Big Brother versus Little Brother, and I just kept thinking this is how you play the lock game, Connie Fox. You find a team that doesn't belong on the same competitive playing field with the other and take advantage because you cannot expect the Houston, Texas, to come onto the same field with these Titans, a well-coached, mature, sophisticated team with an identity. And I think that analysis is on point until the same thing happened as, like, last year in the Bill's playoff game.

J.J. Watt makes a game-changing play. Strip Sack taking advantage of Ty Cimbrillo being in for Taylor-o-Law-Law-A-F-Tackle, really changed the game. And Deshawn Watson, two fantastic games back-to-back now. He was on top of his game again today.

And just like he led the team back against the bills in the playoffs, you just have those two super-duper stars that you can't count out. And the rest of his team is just frankly not very good. Hmm. Where do you put this, like, Titans Offense?

You're watching, you're doing the QB Index every week. Tana Hills numbers are bananas. They put up 611 yards today. I mean, that is outrater, 601 yards today on 70 plays. So they average 8.6 yards per play, despite having 70 plays. And it wasn't one of those games. Okay, I went to look to see. Well, maybe they had 14 or 15 drives, which is a big number.

It's like, nope, 11 drives, not that much, especially for overtime. I mean, like, where do you put this Titans offense, and they got Humphreys back from the COVID list today, West, and in Tannahill kind of in the NFL hierarchy? Yeah, they're right behind, like, the Chiefs in that group. I mean, you take the elite of the elite, and the Titans are just like a little bit behind, and that's going on 16, 17 games now. They were a little bit slow out of the gates maybe this year, but the last few weeks, they've been on point. And Tana Hill's MVP candidacy is going to be a split. vote with Henry. That's the way it should be because Henry is that valuable. But

Tana Hill's playing at an MVP level. And he keeps coming down after down. You can't keep him out of a game. He's always coming back in the fourth quarter. He's doing this without Corey Davis. They had some more injuries. And I do think this game ended up closer than it should have been because the

Titans are not at full strength. They've got some COVID issues still. They've got some kicking game issues. Their cornerbacks are banged up and can be easily beaten like they were today. and they have the fewest sacks in the NFL, I believe. They don't have a pass rush. I would point to the way that John Robinson handled the contract situation for Henry

and Tannahill in the offseason. And that was draped with questions of how could either one of them duplicate what they've done? And it feels like a lot of it, and the identity of the attack boils down to. And Dan, I know you find his name to be rather milk toast, as you all always mentioned. But Arthur Smith is basically, you know, authoring a stellar resume to become. someone's head coach about three months from now. Speedy delivery, I call him, though. Well, he's bizarre a gase right now.

Everyone has their, everyone reaches their ceiling. Everyone fully develops under him. Derek Henry goes from T's to rushing champ. Tana Hill goes to franchise quarterback. Their role players are phenomenal. Anthony Furkser had a great game today, and when Johnny Smith goes down, you need that to happen. This team, no matter who they plug in there,

he knows how to put guys in key rules. They're undefeated, and yet they, You know, four of these games came down to total wild endings. So they're doing it, you know, they're doing it with offense, which I trust. But, you know, they want to have more games like that Bill's game and not four of these, which have just been crazy games. Titans are a good first draft pick when we're picking games because most of their games are awesome. Can't wait to watch this game on Game Pass.

I had an eye on it because you saw what was happening going back and forth and eventually was able to switch over. it's incredible week after week. I'm saying it every week now, but it's continuing how great the Titans are in the Red Zone. I believe they actually at one point had 10 straight trips inside the 20 covering the last five weeks

where they had scored a touchdown and that carried over into this game. What do you guys think about Romeo Cornell's decision? They score the touchdown to go up 36 to 29 with a minute. 50 remaining. That's a seven point lead. He elects to go for two, which would have made it a two-score game, obviously, and effectively ends the game. However, they don't convert, stays at seven, which means when the Titans get the ball back and inevitably, inevitably, West score on an A.J. Brown seven-yard catch with four seconds remaining. All they need is the point after to tie it. It was aggressive. I don't know what the new age analytics say about it, but it seemed a little overly aggressive in that spot. I thought it locked common sense. I mean, it just lacked all common sense.

Why put, why give the conch to the other team? Try to win the game. Try to win the game with your best player instead of letting Guskowski go kick another one. That's not a lock that he hits the extra point, first of all, as the way you mentioned. And I like giving yourself extra chances to win the game. That wins the game with the Sean Watson, and then your defense has a chance to go win the game, you know, in regulation or overtime. It's about common sense. You make them score and get the two-point conversion just to take you out of the game.

It's about avoiding a loss. It's just as much as it is going and getting that win. It seems like sometimes if you're the interim coach, if you're Romeo Cronnell, these decisions don't stick to you the same way. You're sort of like the substitute teacher, but I didn't like it in that situation. I know some analytics heads would, but, you know, Jeffrey Simmons, nice job getting a hand up in the air and knocking that pass down. Analytics heads.

He had a big third down sack on Watson right before then, too. all right so that was a thriller in the early slate only two late games and one of them was a top nfc matchup that everybody was zoned in on because the jets were involved with the other game but this one did not turn out as competitive as we imagined let's check it out rogers takes the snap third and ten drops pressure coming as the pass it's intercepted picked off down the sideline 2015 10 5 touchdown tampa bay touchdown buccane Dean. First turnover of the season by the packet. It's a pick six. Wooee.

Gene Deckerhoff. W.F.U.S. with the call. The Boles Assants. You know, I saw a tweet today. In my tweet, I could flash real quick because so many messages are coming. It was like, the BolesaSense is real. And I'm like, oh, good for Greg. Not only is Boles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers having a big day. Now other people are tweeting about it. It's getting some steam. I go to check it out. It was Greg's tweet. with very little interaction.

No one cares about the Bulls of Sons. Well, you know what? Take the lap, though, Greg. You might have been a little early on it, but now it's right on time because Jamal Dean swung momentum with the second quarter pick six of Aaron Rogers and the Bucks

never let up after that. 3810 win over the previously undefeated Packers. Tom Brady through multiple touchdown passes, including his first post-PATS TD connection with Rob Grunkowski. And, boys, this was, once you got out of the first quarter, this was complete domination on both sides of the ball by the Bucks. And another pronouncement by the Bucks that they're a legit contender in the wide open NFC.

And, you know, we talked about it. They lost Vita Vaya last week. And what would that mean to their front seven and the importance that he has there? well, they showed off their depth and ability to adapt because really the Packers had no answers. And Aaron Rogers was pressured this entire game and making mistakes and never able to get anything going. So the defense just bawled out in a big spot and then the offense just cruised along. And it was just like I said, a total package victory for the Bucks who really have announced them in a wide open NFC as a legit, legit contender. Yeah, I love these defensive backs.

Like, I think their defense starts at linebacker with Devin White and Levanti David. Like, they set the tone. White keeps getting better and better. And Levanti David doesn't age. Like, he is still playing at that level. So to me, that's sort of where it comes from. But because of Bowles, you know, schemes it up well where they know pressure is going to get there a lot of the times, these defensive backs are so aggressive.

And we've been talking about it now for a while. And I think people are realizing, like Jamel Dean. Okay, he gave up a big play, I think, a week ago. He's top five in PFF right now. Carlton Davis is the guy actually gets a little more love from the Bucks coaches as their shutdown guy. Winfield looks like his dad. Murphy Bunting's good. And you add it off, there's no difference making defenses left anymore.

Like, it's them, it's the Bears, like it's the Steelers. That's about it. And what a great place for Brady to choose to go to. The O line is awesome and the defense is awesome. He can win a game, you know, 38 to 10 with 160, 6 yards. passing like that he he chose amazingly well well and they just squeezed the life out of green bay and we hadn't seen anything like that for an offense that was so entirely on fire they had five yards in the second quarter which is the lowest yardage output in any quarter in the rogers era and you go back

and you look at this possession chart in consecutive drives the packers had zero yards seven zero negative four two and five and that was like over that was like two-thirds of the game right there and And when David Boktiari went out with the chest injury, you got to look at what they can do and when you put pressure on Aaron Rogers, he'd only been sacked three times all year. And that doubled today, and it looked like it. And suddenly, it's like it's an mind-altering win for the Bucks because you're thinking about the Packers differently, completely differently than we did on Friday. I thought Green Bay was going to handle this game with ease way off on that one. Wes, I know you had the Packers as your lock of the week. Look, this is on me.

I overestimated the Packers' offense, which have been at times almost impeccable despite a few drops and mistakes, but the way they were humming, I mean, mowing down franchise records, setting paces that they hadn't set before, and doing it as a number one offense in the NFL, and disrespecting a Buck's defense, which Greg outlined pretty thoroughly here, level by level, fantastic secondary Colton Davis the linebacker play is on fire just to dominate one of those special offenses that looked like it was you know like the 2015-16 or whatever falcons offense it has one of those years and dismantle it like that what a performance by the bucks

Rogers was on tilt we haven't we haven't seen this in a while I wouldn't expect it to see it very often but whether it was Because, you know, the pick six, he's not used to that. And then Carlton Davis makes up another play. So suddenly it's two interceptions in a row. He's getting sacked. He hadn't been sacked all year. But he was doing things that you don't see.

I mean, he had Mercedes-Lewis wide open for a big play. Misses that. He takes a delay a game at one point. It just was, he seems scrambled. Whether it was Bowls or his own play or whatever it was, he was in a hole and he couldn't get out. He had two pick-sixes in his first 6,214 career attempt. then he threw a third today and then he threw a pick soon after so it was a it was a legit meltdown and you know fox was dying because they were like look at our luck we went from there was supposed

to be four late games and then covid med just knocked it down to two and nobody was watching jet dolphins well someone was i can report to you okay we'll get to that uh for it to end with a gabbert coil showdown boil boil showdown in the final five minutes of game time that that hurts Troy and Buck were bumming, but that's, that's the way it goes. How about Grunk? How about Gronk making a player too? The old man. How about Tom Brady and Gronk looking great while the Patriots offense goes up in flames up there in Foxborough? Not great.

People will spend weeks, you know, there'll be weeks when they slump this Buc's offense. A lot of things have to go perfectly for them. But hats off to them. Just in the year 2020, we get like Brady out playing Rogers and gronk like coming off the mat resuming his career and just an impeccable connection at several times in this game. Hats off to those guys for staying relevant. And the bearded

boy said after the game that he does not believe David Bactiari's chest injury is a long-term concern. That's a star left tackle of the Packers. So that is one silver lining in this game. Bactiari went out early. Let's move on a measuring stick game for

Mark Sessler's Browns. Mayfield shotgun snap throws over the middle intercept It is Minka Fitzpatrick 25, 2015, 10, touchdown, Minka. People have been asking, where's Minka Fitzpatrick? Baker Mayfield just found out. Oh, Bill Hillgrove. That's good. Body blow.

WDVE. Big, oh, there's the Sheck music. I'm sure Sheck was unbearable today, Sussle. Big Brother still rains. The Steelers bullied the Browns from start to finish on Sunday at Heinz Field, dominating in a 38 to 7 win. Baker Mayfield watched the end of the game from the sideline benched by Brown's coach Kevin Stafansky

after ineffective performance. Here's what Stefansky had to say about his decision to sit Mayfield in the second half. I just, I didn't want to see him get hit one more time. And that's, I put that all myself. Went into this game knowing we had to keep him clean and we didn't do a good enough job. So that that starts with me, obviously.

And he's a very, very tough player. I know he wants to fight, but it's a long season. We got a game next week, and I didn't feel like it was the right thing to put him back out there. Mark, Mayfield's going to get killed this week for his struggles, but perhaps more credit is due to the Steelers' defense, which put it together and showed you again how scary they can be when both sides of the ball are humming. Right.

This game is more about Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh emerging as a team to be taken very seriously. I mean, I think we took them seriously beforehand, but, you know, they went out and said, we're going to teach you Cleveland Browns where your ceiling is right now. The Ravens taught that lesson a month ago, so I think we kind of forget about that a little bit or think maybe they grew out of that.

You guys know that when I watch these Browns games, it's not completely unusual for me, even a minute or two in to say, I know this game is going totally south. And I picked that Minka Fitzpatrick play because you knew it was over. I mean, the energy around Cleveland offense was grisly out of the gate. And it had everything to do with Pittsburgh. They put

tremendous heat on Baker Mayfield, who came into this game banged up. And I think it was, you know, a benching for just get him out of there. He was not effective on any level today. They reduced him to salt the same way that Bill Belichick has done to rookie quarterbacks for so long. Mayfield looked lost. Case Keenham came in and looked lost. Mayfield was banged up. I give this, this Steelers team incredible credit because you talked about one of these defenses that can make a legit difference and completely take an opposing offense that's been on fire and make it look sophomoric like it's like they're still figuring on what they were doing and Pittsburgh's pass rush completely confused one of the better offensive lines I know Wyatt Teller was out for Cleveland but

Cleveland you know we saw oh are they going to be a run heavy team well they couldn't run they couldn't get any sort of flow in this game from any at all. And Big Ben, you know, you've got guys like Chase Claypool, and we all know at this point that like he is, to me, their number one receiver. I mean, he, and they're calling him for good reasons, MapleTron, because he's from Canada. He looks like Megatron. He looks like a lot of players from the past where you're thinking this could have been a tight end in a different era, but he's simply too freaky to almost categorize and they had a lot of tape on him after last week and couldn't do anything to stop it. And I watched someone like Joel Betonio, who is one of the more rugged, reliable left guards in the NFL,

get handled by Cam Hayward. They just did not, they did not show up to this game on any level. Now, look, they're really banged up. I mean, Kareem Hunt was not healthy. Baker was not healthy. You can list it up and down. Jarvis Landry, I don't really care. I think had they all been healthy, this is still the Pittsburgh Steelers telling the Cleveland Browns, you're improved. You moved up a tier or two, but there are various other tiers. And in Provin, football, and especially in the AFC North, if you suddenly want to, you know, hop scotch some of these perennial winners, these organizations that have been forged over decades of success, it's going to take a long time.

This was a stepping stone game. The stone got lifted off the garden and thrown over the fence and it landed through the neighbor's window. They aren't there yet. Long way to go. You know, Mike Tomlin has a way with words and he said after the game, we were varsity today pretty much across the board and thought that was well put. You know, putting them on the JV team as the basement of the AFC North compared to the Steelers,

a team which, easy to forget, had gone a league high 23 straight games without scoring 30 points until the last two weeks. Wow. The Steelers are now 17 and O at home versus the Brown since drafting Ben Rafflesberger in 2004. It's been since Week 5, 2003. a 33-13 Cleveland win that they got it done with Big Ben in the lineup. And, yeah, I think that other thing people are going to be talking about, Mark, and we can get to this later in the week. But four-game winning streak for the Browns this season,

sandwiched by a 38-6 loss to the Ravens in week one, now 38-7 to the Steelers in week six. They're going to be questions about who are the Browns. Yeah, and I think you could also look at who that four-game winning streak came against. We learned more about the Cowboys in the Weeks. So I just think they're one of these, and frankly, like, the thing that's most haunting to me is there's no team that annoys me more in the NFL than teams that are kind of like nine and seven operations that I don't believe in by like early November. And I don't want that to Cleveland. This is a step up, but it's time for anyone that was, you know, running their mouth from the brown side of things to go silent.

And just so that my words aren't misconstrued, I said that U.S. of Damashek was annoying and I didn't get to finish my comment. He wasn't at all. In fact, I visited a show last week, and he was quite a gentleman about the whole thing, but I get off of Twitter on days like this. I don't want to deal with anyone because it's like, you're right, Dan, like when you're Baker Mayfield and you create this environment around you, the persona, you're going to suffer broadly in the following week after a loss like this. Well, they haven't proven that they can throw the ball with any consistently, any consistency.

Right. And so it's hard to win as many games as you want if you're not a great passing team and you're not a great pass defense. I mean, it's a passing league. The only time OBJ has a big game is when Jarvis Landry's throwing them the ball and they're cooking up, you know, running rushing yards. Yeah, when I take him out of my fantasy lineup, that's when he has this game. That's what's happening.

So I just think you're going to lose a level of, you're not going to have a lot of margin for error until they prove that they can be a more consistent passing game. Steelers are awesome. They are awesome. I think that's a super bowl team. They lose Devin Bush today. That's pretty big. Yeah, for the season.

That was a big loss. Tor is ACL, so they'll have to adapt there. He's a big part of the middle of their defense. But you get the feeling the Steelers could pull it off. Well-run organization over there. All right, let's move on. The game snap is back. Here comes pressure up the middle.

He throws, and it is intercepted. DeAndre Houston Carson. Are you kidding me? Two weeks in a row. He's come up with a big play, and he threw it right to D.H. Wow. Jeff Johnnyack WBBM

Come on everybody Let's do it all at the same time It's time to give the bear some respect Just a bit I don't need to be a Super Bowl team in your eyes Just give them a little respect Give their defense respect All right

Part of the team Teddy Bridgewater never got comfortable Against consistent pressure from Chicago's front four And Nick Bowles and the offense did just enough That's what they've been doing 2316 win over the Panthers in Charlotte, Carolina's three-game winning streak is kaput, and the Bears are 5-1. The Bears are 5-1.

Mark, are you going to show some love to the monsters of the Midway? I am. I am. I don't have to look like half of their team, their offense. And if you look at the box score and you simply looked at the half that Chicago offered, you think they probably lost this game because they're just not a team that jumps out on you on offense at all. But they made Teddy Bridgewater, who I think has been, you know, embroiled in one of his best seasons. If not, I think flat out his best season up till now.

Is that embroiled in his best season? Well, that's, yeah, that sounds. He's wavy with energy. Embroiled maybe not the right word there, but he, they made him uncomfortable. And so this is a, you know, here we are. We're talking about the third of those maybe defenses in the NFL that are legit. And, you know, they did it to the bucks. You know, it seems like a long time ago, but that was their last game.

That was a legit win. And they did it today. And I do think this Panthers team has been flashy on offense. They made a few plays today, but they opened the game with the interception. They closed it with the Teddy Bridgewater interception. And right in the middle, Mike Davis, who's been really tough, had a killer fumble. And they just couldn't quite get their act together. And Chicago, to me, I mean, this team, I don't need to buy the record.

It doesn't matter. Like, they're going to win games like this. This was their dream script. They want to win games 21 to 18. And they kind of ran into the right opponent, I think, today. And I don't know. I guess this is one of those days where my real team lost, my fantasy team, which I'll never mention again

because nobody cares, got its ass kicked. And my lock here, the Panthers, after showing so much faith, I think I overextended a little bit. They got a long way to go. I don't know what else to say this, but this game is not going to fly off the field on game pass for you, but the Bears' defense, I think they're better than they were last year. Tom Petty said it, Mark, Tom Petty said it.

Some days are diamonds. some days are rocks. Yeah, I basically am going to eat a dinner of a plate of rocks tonight, which that's what I'll be eating for dinner. How about a little love for Chuck Strong? You know, Wes having a big weekend. Chuck Pagano, when's the last time we mentioned his name, I thought after Vic Fangio...

Right, when Vic Fangio went to Denver, we thought this defense was going to really decline. And you know what? They did last year. They were still good, but they weren't. you know, otherworldly. This year, where on paper, I don't think they quite, you know, I'm not sure the personnel is all there.

Robert Quinn has not given them that much, including in this game, at least according to the box score. And yet he's cooking out, you're seeing on more creativity. And your old boy, Barquevius Mingo's got four and a half quarterback hits in this game. You know the defensive coordinator and the team defense is playing well

when Mingo is flying off the box score, Mark Sessler. I agree with you. We talked about this entering the season. The only way the Bears truly contend, and it's not like we were, like, somehow ahead of the curve. I think a lot of people saw it. It's the only way they really contend and win games is if their defense returns to being that kind of force that makes quarterback's uncomfortable, and turns the ball over and gives the offense short fields. That's what's happened so far, and they needed their stars on defense to play that way.

Cleol Mack has three sacks in the last two games. He's a four and a half on the year. Rickon Smith, he leads. a team in tackles and tackles for loss. They're getting impact plays from the guys they needed from, which wasn't always the case last year, and they had injuries as well last year. So that's a difference.

And I don't know, the Nick Falls, Mitch Trubisky thing, is there a huge difference there in play? I don't know. It doesn't seem that way. You know what the difference is a little bit? I think this defense allows Nick Foles to work himself out of the little funks he gets into in games. And I don't know what

more you can ask from Nick Foles than at some points stringed together, like two scoring drives, and get out of these things with a win. And it was able to do that. It has more than 4.1 yards per play out of this offense. I mean, you're not going to go that far. Like I said, if you look at their half of the box score, you would have thought they got thumped. I will say one little thing for the Panthers.

Derek Brown, first round pick, is he's showing up game after game now. I think they've found something with this. Their defense is just really young, and there are moments where, you know, I don't trust them to close the deal. let's head to the former Throne of Ease See if Denver brings some pressure They do, safety blitz on the way

Newton in the pocket Hit as he throws, loads it up And it's incomplete Denver's defense With a huge stop Oh, I like this Anyway, Dave Logan Like Taylor Morris

It is It's got a little bit of a variety show From 1973 flair to it Dave Logan, K-O-A with the call Yes, the Broncos defense put the clamps on Cam Newton And they got a final fourth down stop To seal in 1812 Is that a Jumanji win or whatever they call it?

Origami, Skorogami? I do not know, but I would imagine 18. 1812 is not it's in play 1812 win over the Patriots in Foxborough that's two straight wins for Denver separated by 17 days due to COVID-19 issues for the Pats um what do you take from this game well the Patriots they hadn't practiced much at all in the past two weeks as they dealt with the coronavirus and I guess it could be an excuse to say that's why they were rusty or didn't play well in this game because we saw what the Titans have done over the last six days, piling up points and looking like a smooth machine in two wins.

But they managed just 188 total yards, three turnovers. Cam had a pair of interceptions in his return from the COVID-19 list. And I'll give the New England defense credit. They kept the Broncos out of the end zone. But the problem is the Broncos have the. the best kicker in the league, not named Justin Tucker, Brandon McManus, who hit six field goals for their 18 points. And when Drew Locke almost threw the Patriots, or he did, he threw the Patriots back into

the game with two late interceptions, which I put a little bit on the game script or the play calling as much as I put it on Locke for why they haven't this kid throw the ball downfield when he could just run out the clock of a little bit more conservative gameplay. They still managed to get the stop. And Greg, I don't know if you had a chance to watch it. game at all, but I thought it was telling that once it got to 1812, it was 18.3, they get the touchdown, they get a field goal, and now they're within striking distance to steal a win here in kind of classic Patriots fashion, or at least the old Patriots.

After a game in which Cam is unable to get anything going, his receivers aren't getting separation, you see Josh McDaniels start going to his bag of tricks and taking out these special plays and these trick plays to try to get down the field for that game-winning touchdown, and it didn't work out on a fourth down Newton, Aramel de throw. So that kind of was a bit of a, I don't want to call it a la Raville Magnifico, but it was I thought of maybe a statement about where McDaniels feels about this offense right now and its ability to just go down the field and win a game. Well, there isn't much offense other than the running game. And in this game, that was basically just Cam Newton. Now, they've been very

O-line dependent. And, you know, they lost another starter there today during the game Illuminaur. And, you know, Tune's playing center and had a snap over Cam Newton's head. But why would you have any faith that you could throw the ball when you haven't done it much all season you did for the Seattle game? And then you certainly weren't today. I mean, they're leading receivers today is James White, you know, on the dump-offs. And then it's Demir Bird and Ryan Izzo who got hurt during the game. I mean, it's rough. And that last play that you mentioned, to me was telling because I think you could read between the lines of what Cam Newton said after the game. And it's one of those option routes where the quarterback

and the receiver has to see it at the same time. And Nikiel Harry doesn't read the coverage the right way, essentially. Cam Newton didn't say that, but you could figure it out. And Nikiel Harry, who's been a major problem, I mean, they just need any receiver that can make a play and they just don't have one. And so their margin fair is going to be thin. And I think this Broncos team and their defense, and now that they got some players back on offense is going to be very dangerous. Their defense has been good all year. The people who came into this game thinking that this was a crazy mismatch, they haven't watched the Broncos. I really don't think so, because this Broncos team is pretty good. I think they will be good. I think it's notable that

like if you're the Patriots and you're right, they're O-line dependent. Shaq Mason is leaving the game with a calf injury. James Forens, the son of Kirk Forens, the Iowa coach, who was already your backup center, was tossed on the COVID list. The team's not practiced. I mean, Julian Edelman has completely disappeared from this offense outside of the Seattle game. He had eight yards today. It just seems like a- On the COVID list.

They lost three more COVID-list guys on Saturday alone. How many offensive linemen are even capable in that situation to step in? So, I mean, you know, their wizard, offensive assistant coach is no longer part of the mix. So you can't be spinning the magic on the Patriots offensive line in 2020. Left you breathless with that comment. Any other thoughts? Watch out for these, watch out for Wes's Broncos.

What are the weirdest stats? Fongio. Fagio. The Broncos did not punt until the fourth quarter of this game, but did not have a touchdown. How many times that happened in NFL history?

How many times has a team gone out in their first six drives? You mentioned he had six field goals, but they opened the game with six field goals. It's not a score of gami, but I can't imagine that's how to. happening more than once a year. Eight quarterback hits, six tackles for lost, six passes, defense, four sacks, three force fumbles.

I mean, they ate him up. Bradley Chubb is back. Got to score touchdowns in our league, though. It worked today, but, all right, let's move on. Burroughs is out of the shotgun. Here they come. He's going to back to throw, step some of the pocket, loft it over the middle. Intercepted by the Colts, Julian Blackman, and he's tripped up at the 22-yard line.

He's down there. and the Colts have a takeaway in interception by the rookie Julian Blackman, 39 seconds to go, and the Colts are going to win the ball game. Matt Taylor, WFNI with the call. Don't throw it there, kid. Don't throw it there. The Colts defense tightened up after an ugly start, and Philip Rivers delivered and much-needed vintage performance.

That's getting tossed around a lot. Calling an old quarterback. who has a good day, say, oh, vintage performance. You're getting a lot of that. I mean, I'm writing it a lot. I need to tone it down personally. How about this show? We're having a vintage show right now.

We've been around long enough. We're a veteran. In terms of podcast years, we're like, you know, we're a big time veteran having a vintage show. Anyway, yes, Rivers played extremely well in this game. 3127 win over the Bengals at Lucas Oil State. And Bengals have no idea how to close out games under Zach Taylor. And if we're going to kill Matt Patricia for that, maybe we should kill this guy too.

Anyway, Cincinnati was up 21 nothing early in the second quarter. And I started seeing those stupid tweets again. It's like, oh, right now the Bengals have a 92.6% chance of winning the game. I don't care. It doesn't matter. It doesn't apply to sports. Just play the game out. It doesn't matter.

It means nothing. Anyway, the rivers got hot. And I mean nuclear hot in the second. quarter. These were his numbers in one quarter of play. 14 for 21, 234 yards, two touchdowns. And that ate into the three touchdown lead. And it was strange because the game felt like it was never in doubt, like the Colts, even though they stayed Cincinnati close. And Rivers also delivered a vintage interception late in the fourth quarter that gave life back to Cincinnati, but they couldn't do anything with it ending with the borough pick.

But for a team to jump out to a 21-0 lead and then just basically in slow motion lose the game after that, it's got to be frustrating if you're a Cincinnati fan. And Wes, I know there are many of them in the West Cincinnati area seeing that game slip away. But a nice comeback for the Colts. And more importantly, getting the performance from Phil Rivers that you really wanted to see and he makes Frank Reich look good because when people like me and beat guys or questioning Reich after last week's performance against the Browns, and Reich said, you know, quarterback's the least of my problems.

Well, it literally was the least of his problems in this game. Yeah, I think Philip Rivers is one of the most misread players in the NFL this year. He does come with his challenges, and I think he and Frank Reich are still figuring each other out, a situation exacerbated by all those injuries there where you lose Pittman, you lose Campbell, today you lose Moe Alley Cox, guys who really help out in the red zone where Phillips River struggles right now.

But credit, like you said, Dan, he was on the mark today, and by and large he's moved this offense up and down the field this year. They just have to get used to how they're going to balance it, figure out whether they're a run team or a past team. And Rivers, he's sort of the flip side of the,

the coin to Drew Breeze. I'd rather have Rivers right now than Breeze. I'd rather have the quarterback who thinks his arm is better than it is than one who has no confidence in his arm, really. And Rivers is going to keep taking chances. He's always taking chances. There's just more

throws he can't make now that he thinks he can make. I'm looking forward to watching this closer, but to me there's some big type concerns. I mean, the Colts, I never thought they were the number one defense in the league. And so I think that idea has gone away the last two weeks.

A good defense is good, but it only means so much in the NFL. Their running game has been bad all year. Jonathan Taylor does not look ready. They didn't have much of a running game today. And then T.Y. Hilton with 11 yards on five targets, a whole lot of other receivers step up, and maybe they don't need T.Y. Hilton to be super productive. But that's disappointing, and it's surprising.

In T.Y. Hilton's defense, he had a really nice touchdown taken away by penalty, and then a huge gainer also wiped out by penalty. Feels like he's had a lot of bad luck, to be fair, this year. Yeah, he had two impact plays wiped out. But, yeah, he hasn't found a role in this offense and on the subject of veteran receivers in the twilight. We'll give a little love to A.J. Green, who was a punching bag this week after that video of his effort level on the borough pick against the Ravens. The video tweeted by you. Right, but he earned it, and I wasn't the only one.

but it looks like he up and Greg was like oh but his hamstring it was fine it was always fine and he was fine today in fact I mean he left the game he stopped playing and then they called it a hamstring injury I don't know right he stopped playing when he was still on the field on that interception but anyway I just want to make the point that for the first time burrow and green was a thing eight for 96 on I believe 10 targets so you know that's what you kind of were hoping the whole idea of the AJ Green experience with Joe Burrow was that he would kind of be like what Larry Fitzgerald is for Kyler Murray. And Wes, it had been nothing like that. So that was a positive sign for the Bengals in an otherwise frustrating day. Look, I don't think like Bengals fans, to me,

what an encouraging day. I thought that's how discouraging last week was. It had been a while since I saw a defensive coordinator take apart a rookie quarterback like Wink Martindale did Joe Burrow last week. He's supposed to be unflappable. That's supposed to be his number one trait. And he was the least thing from it. He was crumbling under pressure every single series. One of the worst physical beatdowns I've seen from an offense defense perspective. And to come back today off the mat like that and to get help from AJ Green, to me, just to be able to move the ball up and down the field, that's how discouraging last week was. So at least look for signs of progress there and Joe Burroughs not ruined. I am a little concerned about my Zach Taylor coach of the

year prediction. It feels like we're off to a little slow, bit of a slower start than needed. Well, yeah, we, like I said, we kill Patricia for the same thing, but the Bengals are now 11-1-1-in-one in one-score games. They've been in every game this year, except for last week. The Bengals are now 11-and-1 in one-score games this year. So they're competitive almost every week, but they can't get over the hump. Let's move up. Went to keep it on a read option and the Ravens stop them at the three-yard line. The Defense comes up big. L.J. Ford and Matt Judon blow up the read option.

Jari Sandusky with the call, WBAL. Yeah, that was the two-point try by the Eagles who had a chance to come back and tie the game against the Ravens late. But the tackle by Judon and LJ. Fort with 155 to play, allows the Ravens to escape with a 30 to 28 win over the Eagles. And Baltimore is now 5-1. Greg, I stopped even glancing at this game after. of the Lamar touchdown that made it 24-6. But what happened from that point on?

I was stunned to see the final score and that it actually came down to one play. It felt like the announcers, the Ravens coaches, everyone stopped like paying attention to this game. There was a long discussion of taking Carson Wentz out because you don't want him to get hurt because it was like Thursday night football is coming up. And then suddenly, despite the fact that the Ravens still kept forcing turnovers,

the Eagles scored 22 in the fourth quarter some of it was locked some of it was crazy you got the full Wentz experience receivers killing him with drops the offensive line totally falling apart and having more injuries Wentz making terrible throws and then it's you know

interceptions returned by penalties and then amazing throws and then just throws where he just throws it up in the air on fourth down and you get it but ultimately I you know it's amazing that he got them to that position because by the end of the game they were down to two of their original starters

from the off season. Because Zach Hertz left this game and Miles Sanders left this game too and Jack Driscoll who was starting at right tackle by the way also left this game. And so they were just down to Kelsey and Wentz and here it is in a game where they look terrible. This was kind of a game I think

whatever you came into it thinking about either team you could come out of it thinking that. Like any positive or negative you want to see, you can see it because the Ravens, they should have won. this game so easily, and they just sort of let their foot off the gas. But the Eagles, you know, it's like they, you got to give them some credit for sticking in there. It's like almost their entire offensive line is banged up or missing.

Wence has been sacked 25 times, which is the 14th most in NFL history through four games. I mean, that's absurd. And I saw that Mark Ingram left this game, too. This seems like this was a rough and tumble, back alley fight. Yeah. On the subject of Wentz being so up and down, I was checking out the football night in America pregame show before we started. And Chris Sims and Tony Dungey did a nice job diagnosing that final two-point conversion.

And they completely called out Carson Wentz. As a quarterback, he should have been able to read what the Baltimore defense was showing and check out of the read option play that had no chance of working. And he didn't. And it led to their demise. So, yeah, Wence, you know, the difference between Wence this year and last year is that last year, he was the guy, the steadying force that kept everybody above water, and they asked so much of him, and he delivered this year, when they need him to be kind of perfect again, he's just, he's not, and he's imperfect and he's making mistakes. And I can't speak too much more in the game, Greg, because I haven't checked out yet. But it's week after week that these mistakes kill them.

Right. If the Ravens' offense of last year had been here, this thing would have been 45 to 7. I mean, the Eagles got through their first six drives without a first down. Five three and outs and a fumble. And a lost fumble. It was very similar to the Bengals Ravens game where the Eagles defensive line controlled things against the Ravens' offensive line. And that's what I mean about like whatever you came into this game, you could leave it, you know, with it. If you're a Lamar optimist like me, you could say, well, you know, he hit a couple really nice third and longs and he ran for over 100 yards on scrambles. On a bad day, you know, you still put up 30 points.

Like, that's pretty good. On the other hand, like, their running backs got absolutely nothing. They punted way, way more than you would ever expect. Like, when they're getting amazing field position at the end of the game a couple times to just put it away, it's like they go three and out and kick a 55 yarder with Tucker, which, you know, great for Tucker. But it just, they've been uneven, that's been consistent. But their defense, to be fair, has been so difference-making that that's enough. Galeas Campbell today had three sacks on his own, four tackles for loss, four QB hits. I mean, he has been like the pickup of the off-season.

Who would have known that would have worked out for Baltimore? It's time for the ringer to do comparison between Carson Wentz and like junior high friendship patterns. He's got a new best friend every week. I've never seen a quarterback like this where he takes guys like Travis Fulgum who can clearly play and just like focuses only on him for a two-week period or Greg Ward Jr. for a two-week period or Dallas Godder just goes from one guy to the next and it feels like he's only ever got that one go-to guy. You trust him. I mean, how middle school of him. Right. And like in his defense,

Miles Sanders drops a touchdown. A high tower on the very first went's throw. The game could have been an 85-yard touchdown, just dropped it, it was right in the breadbasket. So it's like, it's been a comedy of errors. I think their defense has enough people that if they somehow got healthier, they could matter in this terrible NFC East. But what's the point? If anybody wants to enjoy some great, cringe-worthy memories of what it was like

to be a teenager in high school, I highly recommend Penn 15 on Hulu. That's my random television recommendation. Ricky loves that show too. I know a show. Ricky loves that one. Ricky, that's a great one. It is absolutely comedic genius.

And my wife... Go ahead. No, I was just going to say my wife is, obviously, once a teenage girl, it even connects more with her. She's like, this is exactly what it was. And I'm like, oh, my God, insane, but the best thing is, is that they're in seventh grade, and it's two adult women playing themselves as seventh graders, but they casted regular seventh graders for the rest of the cast.

So it's these 30-year-old women, like, acting like middle schoolers with real middle. Like, it is genius. That's why there's no kissing scenes in the show. All right, let's move on. There's the snap. Matthew wants to throw, does end zone card. Touchdowns with toy lions. T.J. Hawkinson.

And the lions add to their leave. Oh, they deserve the bongos today because you know why? A complete effort By the Detroit Lions today A complete I won't go over We haven't seen one of those yet

Matthew Stafford connected on a score to T.J. Hawkinson, as you heard DeAndre Swift announced his arrival in that backfield to 116 yards And two scores 34 to 16 win over the Jaguars Who are Once again, quote Tom Petty Free Fallen

out into nothing. Greg, this is the kind of game Matt Patricia needed to crank down his butt temperature. You know what I mean, bro. I do. I mean, it's funny that the Lions came out in this game, and they played like Matt Patricia was their favorite guy on Earth. Because there is kind of an unfair way that the media treats these situations, which is if the Lions came out and they were flat, we would be like,

they hate their coach. Well, if we're going to read into it that much, like, they love Matt Patricia, because their defense came out and they were just flying all over the field. They were hitting the Jaguars. They were making the Jaguars look terrible who could not move the ball at all early in this game. I was like, what, you know, to use Mark's word, bath salts are they on in this? I don't know. Just like the energy.

They're embroiled in bath salts. It was, they were embroiled. Like the energy was absolutely there. It felt like you could make a Sessler call early. Even though it's the lions and I know they blow leads every time, it was just like they are not losing this game. Their defense just cooked up. Minchu in the brain with the different zone looks that they were doing and everyone played better. The Lions' offense wasn't even that good and the

Jaguars made this look closer than it was. The Lions defense did all the work that they needed to do. Two and four, you know, or two and three. They're not that done. Because they had that by week, it feels like their season's been worse. I feel like the Lions, but it's like two and three. You're not out of it, Lions. No one's buying this. Well, I mean, I feel like I I went through my period where I was getting real hot on the Lions and I was unmasked for that on this show appropriately and I'm going to wait another week. But it is nice for the team to break out of its identity, which is like, we're going to kind of reel you in with an early lead and then completely embarrass you and ourselves. I mean, to close the game, I like the way you phrase that, Dan.

Like they've done something a little different this time. And Minchu looks a little worse every week. I'm getting a little concerned. His deep ball's a problem. I mean, it hangs up there like Philip Rivers throwing it now, except, you know, Minchu's 23. And he had a couple in this game, one where he had a completion,

but the guy had to slow up so much for it, like they ended up not scoring on that drive. And then another interception where he just doesn't have, he doesn't have that deep ball. He's probably playing himself out of a job because there's going to be four or five, you know, quarterbacks taken like they are every year. every year and he'd have to against all odds have been something more than we've seen up to this

point he's he's a weird mix of um skill sets um holds the ball longer than you'd think checks down too much um super accurate intermediate passer who like gregg says major issues on deep balls and when i watch him feels like um a savvy backyard athlete you know moving up to a higher neighborhood level where he can't keep up with guys like de sean watson physically I see him as like an evolutionary Ryan Fitzpatrick where he's going to end up playing for 14 teams Start for that would be a great result Well maybe not at the level of Fitzpatrick

In terms of putting up numbers and and having this level of longevity But like I could see him winning a big Thanksgiving day game in 2030 As someone's backup pressed into action Like he's going to pop up here and there for years I just don't know if he's their long-term guy That's the first time we've all agreed on Gardner Minshue We did it And D'Andre Swift, first lion's rookie with 100 plus rushing yards and two touchdowns in a game since some guy named Barry Sanders in 1989.

Maybe it's time, and I know Ricky has sandwiches on the line with Adrian Peterson, maybe it's time to cede the backfield in a totality to the kid and not the progress stopper. I think that's what they wanted to do in the summer. And then it just didn't pan out and he had injury issues and he had that awful week one moment. And then the offensive coordinator fell in love with Adrian Peterson again. hit two big plays, but he actually didn't play any different in terms of the amount of snaps in this game. So I hope that they start playing more. No, no. I mean, he hit big plays and he had a bunch of carries at the end because of the game, because of the score. But I hope they see this and they

see him. And then Goladay, who I didn't think looked himself before the buy, he was coming off a hamstring injury. He's got some juice. I mean, this offense needs juice. And so Swift, Goladay, all right, there's two juicy guys. Give it more. And let's get Hockinson to play like the number eight overall pick in the draft. There's room for internal growth potential with this offense just based on the guys we're throwing out there, Swift and Hawkinson and Gallaudet. Speaking

of Fitzmagic, back to throw, Fitzpatrick, throws it, touchdown, Smife, Durham Smyth, his first touchdown in the air. Jimmy Cephalo, WQAN with the call, Ryan Fitzpatrick, through three short touchdown passes, including

the one you heard there to Derm Smyth. It's Derm Smyth. lifetime, and the dolphins coasted to a 24-to-zip win over the Jets. It's Miami's first shutout of gangrene since the 1982 AFC championship game. Wow. More infamously known, Wes, as the Freeman McNeve game? Kind of, the mud bowl. Mark, this one wasn't pretty, but Wes is right.

We'll put a button on that one later. Mark, this one wasn't pretty, but the dolphins are above 500. And you know what? They're head of the Pats in the AFC East. Right. I mean, this is one of those games that got reshuffled because of Corona. And the dolphins, you know, it might be easy for people not watching these games to say, you've just smacked the Niners and taken care of a bad Jets team. What are the dolphins? I see a team that's getting to the quarterback better than they did last year.

They have a little bit of energy with their pass rush. I mean, it's hard to measure that this week against the Jets. I think we say that every week. What are you looking at with the team? team that plays New York. But Miami, after that early, you know, scoring flurry, these two teams combined, and I'm trying to think if I've seen this before, to go 0 for 19 on third downs before the Jets finally converted their 20th of the game's 20th third down attempt. And it looked like the Jets were going to maybe. Mark, we have that. I asked Ricky to pull sound of Fox calling

that third down conversion by my New York Jets. All right. Four down and four. Clacko, pocket collapsing, hands in there. And he completes it to Paramount. Our first third down conversion today.

I thought they might stop the game for a moment. Take that ball. Send it to Canton. Kirk Gibson. Good job. Good job, James Lofted. Here's the problem, though, Dan. Here's the problem.

And yes, that's a moment. There's a lot of problems. It's a moment to build off, I guess, if you're the Jets. But it's followed up by a 28-yard sack of Joe Flacko. Hey, it was only 26, Mark. It was only 26. I believe it was 28. Oh, really?

Yeah, it was. And the Jets, over the second and third quarter combined two yards passing. So we get it. And I think that, you know, Dan, you started tweeting about this. And I think that the patience that I would have for this entire coaching staff needs to end as soon as possible. One of the things that can seems to be most consistent on a team with, no consistent positive aspects of their offense, hideous penalty scenarios. I mean, they are awful with the flags, but it's not just that.

It's the personal fouls. They had another three of them today. One or two of them completely egregious and unnecessary. And that's, I don't think, that's a little bit of Greg Williams' DNA in there, I'm sure, but it just seems like a team that is devolving in terms of their interest in these games. And I think to make a change at this point now is not just like, hey, it's a luxury. It seems completely urgent to keep, I think, players safe, to keep players engaged in what is still a very long season to go during a really thorny corona scenario, right? And smack dab in the tri-state area.

Wes, headlock watch is on in earnest right now with the Jets before the game, Fox. Let's get ready to rumble. Welcome back. Yeah, and Fox is straining for the high notes on this, and I'll explain why in a second. But at one point they showed Gase and Greg Williams both with their masks on it. And it looked like Gase was giving Greg Williams a mouthful after Greg Williams and his presser earlier this week, basically hinted very clearly that the defense's struggles this year can be put on the offense in some part, in some part.

And so this is going to happen, Wes. I think the only thing for Jets fans, the only thing to give Jets fans, at least those two guys fighting to the death would be something fun. And on the subject of death, not literal death, you got to fire these guys. You can't keep doing this.

And I know when I say that on Twitter now, I have Jets fans that like, no, you don't get it. This is all on purpose because they want Trevor Lawrence, they want to go O and C. No, no, no, no. That's not how it works because you owe it as an organization to have some sense of level of dignity to when something clearly isn't working and you are the laughing stock of football and it's getting worse and worse. And like Mark's saying, it's devolving to the point where people can get hurt and it's just you're not even competitive. You need to make the move just to be an organization that is seen from the outside that has some idea of what's going on in the world right now. And if they keep Adam Gase employed, he should be fired right now.

And I kind of thought, he might be fired by the time you hear this. And frankly, that's too late. There's no way you should keep Gase through the end of the season. And you can't keep Greg Williams either. You've got to get them both out of there and promote from within to just to get through this hellscape of the season. But enough is enough. You cannot keep these guys in the building. You can't keep Adam Gase as the face of your organization any longer.

You can't do it. You've got Greg Williams as the biggest face of negative energy on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL over the past decade and Adam Gase is now becoming the biggest face of negative energy on the offensive side of the ball over the past decade in the NFL. You need both of them out of there. They're poison right now. They are poisoning your organization

and people don't need to come to work in that negative energy every day. This is a rivalry game or, you know, it was a rivalry. I mean, the teams haven't been good for a while, but Dolphins fans got to love the idea that Adam Gase comes back and that his career, you know, maybe ends in Miami against Galey and Fitzpatrick. It's all this strange AFC East Jets Dolphins thing. It's like how many more games?

What are the Jets have won over the last five years if they just kept Galey and Fitzpatrick? Probably a few more. I love the sorted underbelly of the AFC East. It's so bad. One little thing because this can't get lost in all the Jets stuff is there was no cooler sight than Tua, who came in at the end, completed his first pass, completed his second.

And, you know, they were just milking out the clock. But then after the game, you know, there's no fans there, so this is easy. Tua came out and just sat on the 15-yard line alone in a totally empty stadium, in his uniform, and FaceTime his parents who were at the game because, you know, we know what he's been through to get to this point, a sunny aspect to what was a really one of the gloomier football games I've watched in a while. That's awesome. And like Fitzpatrick on the sideline, because there was like 10,000 people in the building, raising his arms in the air, trying to get the crowd to be louder when Tua came in the game.

When you're winning 24-0 and the organization is going in the right direction, and you have the exact right veteran quarterback to be involved in that situation. Brian Flores and the brain trust there are doing something right now. You just need Tua to be able to play once he gets in there because you know who we know can play, Justin Herbert, who the Dolphins team pick. All right, this is the handoff. Speaking of handoff, Freeman McNeil, you were right, Wes, 1982 AFC championship game, Jets Dolphins, Don Shula. I had a dirty move, but also you've got to give him respect. Freeman McNeil was the best running back in the league or right there at the time. He ran the Bengals over.

It was a rainy, rainy weekend in Miami at the Orange Bowl, and Shula told the grounds crew to keep the tarp off the field overnight because they wanted a wet track and they didn't want Freeman McNeil to be able to get to. Get going. And when they did that, Richard Todd, the Jets quarterback, threw two pick sixes, I believe, to A.J. Dewe. Found to happen. Well, I do remember A.J. Dewey. Mark remembers him.

Always playing with the shirt, tail out, back and down passes all the time. He was a monster. Richard Todd was the first football card I ever had, by the way. Mud Bowl, Freeman McNeill game, A.J. Dewey game. Anyway, it was 14-0 Dolphins to the Super Bowl. All right. Here we go.

Chris Wessling, looking good, sounding good. We love you, brother. Now, another handsome, bald, white man will take your spot. It's great to be back. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Kevin. What's up, Shook? Hey. Let's keep rolling.

Ryan's stepping up. Matt thought about it. Now gives ground going to flip it. Down the field, it's caught Jones. Julio 10, 5. Touchdown Atlanta. Amazing. You hear it in West Durham's voice, WZCGC, good call.

They needed this. The Falcons are officially yungry. We have a Yungry alert. Falcons are yungry as hell under interim coach Raheim Morris. Matt Ryan threw for 380 and four touches, including that 40-yard stroke to Julio Jones. And the Falcons crushed the flatlining Vikings, 40 to 23 for their first win. Shook, the Falcons have taken big leads on their opponents all season. isn't, it feels like, but this time they actually held on to it.

Yeah, they held on to it, and it was powered by their defense, which if you're a fan of Dan Quinn, you wish that would have happened, I don't know, any of the times in the last five weeks they played a game, especially in the second half when you had leads in those games and just needed a turnover and maybe a substantial drive to put away one of those games. No, it happens the week after Dan Quinn gets fired, which adds the Falcons to an esteemed group that also includes the Houston Texans who won their first game following the firing of their head coach this year. But it was a game that, you know, the defense got turnovers early and the Falcons produced points off of it, notably getting a field goal in just before halftime to

build a 20 to nothing lead, going into halftime and really having the Vikings in a bind that they just couldn't get out of. And then, you know, for the majority of this year, the Falcons have had a pretty strong offense. Now, people wanted Matt Ryan traded after last week or or wanted people to dive into their salary cap to figure out how they could trade him, which would be a gigantic financial albatross and is really not feasible. And luckily for him, he came out and proved all those doubters wrong. And we had a great game, 30 or 40 passing, 3171 yards, four touchdowns, and a pass a rain that makes Greg Rosenthal dance, 136.6.

A good game. Greg doesn't believe in that. Yeah, I know. It's an antiquated stat. I know it is. But we use it anyways. And their first victory of the season, finally getting off the Schneide. One in five is better than O'N6, but it's still one in five.

well they i felt like they were really good they were too good to be oh and five so i just like it when like the football universe corrects things like for instance db oa they were better than about seven teams like they return they have in the last two weeks returned all five of the or five out of their you know six top defense effects like players do matter like it does matter when you get five starters back uh but you got to give rehem morris a little chance here to go on a wild run and win coach and i would say this you're rehim morris and you have to go into a game where both of your defensive line coaches did not join the team due to corona scare. So, I mean, that's a whole position. That sounds like something we would just brush off and be like, they'll be fine. But that completely changes your process during that day. Let's listen to Kirk Cousins, who was obviously had a nightmare game, cleaned it up with some meaningless scores, but still was the major problems here where Cousins had to say after

the game. The reality is if the pace, you know, that I'm on in terms of the. interceptions, if that were to continue, you know, I won't finish the season. I won't, you know what I mean? So there's a little bit of, you know, you got to improve, whether it's, you know, them telling me, hey, we got to improve or them pulling me. You got to get better. That's the fifth time in his career.

He's had at least three interceptions. Two of those five games have come this season. It happened in week two in Indianapolis. And Cousins has been a major problem. You talked about, I talked about in the preview episode on Thursday, Shook, that coming off that stomach punch loss Sunday night to the Seahawks, you kind of could see this going either way, where they were either going to kind of build off the positives from that and have some sense of, you know, understanding the moment that is our last chance to get our season back on track, or they were going to flatline. And that's what it seems like based on final score and Kirk Cousin's tone after the game. Well, not having Dalwin Cook definitely didn't do them any favors, but neither did. the deficit that they built very early on, it kind of took away the running game.

And if you look at their statistics, you know, Alexander Madison led them in rushing with 10 carries for 26 yards. I mean, it was non-existent. It was basically all on the shoulders of Kirk Cousins. And let's face it, when you're a football team that wants to win in the NFL, you more often than not, don't want to put the game on the guy that you fully guaranteed his contract. Even though you did fully guarantee his contract, that's not the guy that you want to necessarily put out there to lead you to a comeback victory at home or on the road,

coronavirus or not, you know? and so when they're in when they're in that situation it's an uphill climb and he just made it worse I mean and and you think back to last week and that loss that they suffered against the Seahawks and that was a team that was competitive that was a team that was in a game that was a team that was resilient I mean they came back from they had this huge lead they give up the lead they go behind they come back they take the lead you're like wow these guys are some fighters they were not fighters at all today and I think you're right Dan last week might have been that point where you followed up with a game like this and things could really go off the rails pretty quickly.

All right. Speaking of things that have gone off the rails, here's a recap of Washington at New York Giants. Transition. Alan calls out signals. Youngry. He's the snap. He's back.

Bring back Younger. He's running. Looking to run. Now stops. Now under pressure, he just throws it in the end zone incomplete. So the Giants stop him on the two-pointer. The SS Riverboat Ron sank in the swamps of Jersey. The Washington football team opted to go for two, down one point in the final seconds against the Giants.

But Kyle Allen's pass fell incomplete. 2019 Giants win. Same score at Super Bowl 25 mark. I know you remember that one. It is their first win of 2020. The first win for Joe Judge as an NFL coach. Shook, we seem to see this decision pop up. every year. I feel like it happens every year at exactly October 18th also for, I don't know why.

Where do you stand in the two-point attempt when the PAT assures you O.T. I mean, it depends on how much confidence you have. And considering the- Where do you stand, Shook? Considering the fact that Ron Rivera turned to Kyle Allen with some significant confidence, at least compared to Dwayne Haskins, I stand on going for the win, of course. And then if it fails, you have to. to own it. Let's be aggressive. I mean, if I was in that situation, I'd probably kick the extra point because Kyle Allen basically fumbled the game away of possession earlier and then led them on this drive down the field in the final minutes. They score with a little over 30

seconds left and suddenly you're thinking maybe I'll tweet, you know, jokingly and also not jokingly, Legacy Drive, Kyle Allen, redemption. And then he rolls out left and ball flutters out of his hand. I mean, this isn't Mark Rippian, 1992, behind center. You're putting a lot on the shoulders of Kyle Allen. That's a nice little jab at Mark. And in Mark's defense, I will say New York officially has a win this season.

It wasn't on the part of the Giants. It was the first win for it. Or it wasn't the part of the Giants. It was the first win for the city of New York. Well, fans in Western New York will tell you that New York has won many games this year and the Jets and Giants don't actually play in blah, blah, blah. Don't care.

Go on, Mark. Well, I was just going to say, I mean, this probably would be one of those games that forget the condensed mode. I'm just going to watch the full broadcast of this and just marinate in it for three and a half to four hours. But I do think that the Giants' defense has shown something the last couple of weeks. Guys like Kyle Fackerel, who is a real human being,

like he has produced week after week. Am I over rating them? Well, no, I think that's... Their defense has improved a ton. They're average, and they were one of the worst. Right. What does that mean? For years in a row for a good reason.

but, I mean, if there's something to point to, along with the victory, I mean, it's been pretty consistent. Shucky, though, don't you got to know your team? Ron Rivera, you're going up against a Giants offense that stinks, that your best player, your best play is Daniel Jones running for 74 yards. They don't have any offense. Otherwise, you're a defensive team. The La Reveal Magnifico for this entire Washington season to me was Ron Rivera's answer.

for why he didn't take timeout earlier this season when he said, well, you don't want to get players hurt. It's like, I don't know. That's all I needed to know about this Washington season. I just think he wanted to end this game. He didn't want anyone getting hurt in overtime. Yeah, I mean, it was an ugly game, but the Giants were able to take the lead on a Tay Crowder fumble return for a touchdown. Now, I would guess that 95% of football fans and most residing outside of New York City or wherever in Jersey they are, Depending on who you ask, yeah, yeah, depending on who you ask, didn't know who Tate Crowder was.

I mean, it's just like you said, know your team, go for the tie, expect them to make a mistake. It's a battle of two bad football teams. I understand wanting mercy and wanting to get off the field, but at this point in the season, we're not even near the halfway point yet. Go to overtime and try to play for the victory. It was good for you, Shuck. You didn't want to cover this game in overtime, so it was good for you. I mean, it made for an easier transition for sure.

This is how you get to the Meadowlands from New York. You get on the Garden State, you're southbound. Take it down to exit 153. Get off there, get on Route 3. That'll lead you right into the stadium. You could also get off at 163 or you can hop on Route 17. You have a lot of different options, but none of them are in New York. You know what's wild about that area?

When you're taking the highway, all you see is in the distant, these like just dilapidated, abandoned buildings that might have been, hotels or casino hotel combos in the past and there's just meadows around a little bit of swamp land you hit the exit you come around you think the bus might go off if you're on a team bus like i was with the browns and then you pull in you cross through the parking lot and you see scores of jets fans all flipping you the bird at the same time that sounds like a springsteen song you just uh gave us there shookie all right uh let us oh by the way uh our boy crowder tay Crowder. Did anyone mention he was Mr. Irrelevant?

Oh, no. He was. Not so irrelevant anymore, people, to Sunday night football. Oh, Sunday night. And the pass is caught and on the run. It's kindle off to the races for the touchdown. Brandon Staley falls for the blitz and gets burned on a 44-yard fourth down pass. How about that? Jimmy G. A week ago.

Hold from the game. Limping around. Can't make a throw. Well, he made three touchdown throws on Sunday night football, leading the 49ers to a 24-16 win over the Rams. The Niners get back to 503 and 3. And Mark, you know, it's cliche to say the NFL is a week-to-week league. But it really is.

And the Niners are the best example of that in this music's super distracting for some reason. I don't know if it's the violins or the entire instrumental orchestra. Anyway, Mark, the week-to-week nature of the NFL, the Niners look totally lost, 4317. In this game, Garapolo looks healthy. He's making big throws, and the defense really played well against the Rams. Yeah, and they mentioned it on the broadcast. number of times, but I think we talked about in our preview show that poor individual Brian

Allen, who was just utterly flamed by Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins a week ago, a practice squad cover guy. It helped a lot to get Jason Verrett played well. You get Emmanuel Mosley back. They just had their secondary a little bit more lockdown, but from the week-to-week nature of Jimmy G. And it made me think, like, watching this, like, I get, I get it. Our role is to come in and completely react to the most recent sample size of information that we have. And it's a big reaction. And last week, it's, is Jimmy G's starting material X, Y, and Z? But even tonight, there was a little microcosm where, you know, they were stuck. It was like four straight puns to open the game. And you see Jimmy G. and reminded me of that Baker Mayfield throw

misfired to O'Dell Beckham earlier in the year where he just missed a completely wide open collier's check. But he comes back and he converts with George Kittle. And then he has that, you know, he's hurt ankle. He runs into complete danger. on a scramble to set up a fourth down field goal that made it 24 to 9. There's some good, there's some bad, there's some missing plays, there's some courage that's going to win his teammates over.

They did enough tonight. They're still really banged up. They lost Trent Williams. We don't know what's going on with that. Rahim Mosher was on the sideline. Oh, did he come back? Right, and Moster was banged up for most of this game. So it's still really rough and tumble roster

with a rugged schedule coming up, but a gutsy win against a Rams team that hasn't beaten them three in a row now. But it's so different. when they are healthy and they are healthier by a lot. So Devo Samuel has been on the field a couple weeks. First week, he was not really Debo Samuel. Last week, he was getting there.

And now you can see it. I mean, he set the tone early. Like, it just reminds you of the 49ers from a year ago, a creative running game. And Kittle making huge plays on third or fourth down. And most, even though he sat most of the second half, he lit him up in the first half. and that's pretty much all the offense the 49ers needed.

Like, it just, it was a Kyle Shanahan game because Jimmy G. didn't blow you away. And at one point, he was 13 for 14 for 199. And it wasn't like he did anything out of character or had to make any crazy throws. They just won up front. They protected, like, everything that you were worried about if you're a 49ers fan coming into this game, you got rid of it. And you kind of like mind-tricked Sean McVeigh, too.

It's like they went away from some things. I don't know. They have to feel really good to sort of own the Rams. Yeah, I think as much as this is a Kyle Shanahan game, it was also a bit of a Robert Sala game because San Francisco's defense did a good job at bottling up an offense that had shown in recent weeks that it could get out to a hot start.

There's at least two occasions this season in which Jared Goff, not frazzled here, not frazzled. Jared Goff started the game perfectly, or almost perfectly, on two occasions this season. That was not the guy today. I mean, from the start, he had troubles. Now, you know, they went down the field with a nice touchdown drive

and an excellent pass to Robert Woods, but for the most part, they could never really get into a rhythm. So for as much as they touted on the broadcast, this is the matchup of two offensive masterminds. There was really only one offense that looked in the part tonight. And, you know, if you're a Rams fan, you're not too concerned, I guess, because you don't really know what this team is so far.

I don't really think we have a huge barometer for them or haven't really gotten a good litmus test for them. far. But this definitely wasn't their best showing offensively. And by the time they got it together late, it was too late. An annoying game, if you're a Rams fan, because this was there, this was certainly there for them. And the normally trusty combination, Jared Goff to Cooper Cup, I thought that was a big aspect of this game, their inability to get on the same page. Cup got behind the secondary in the second half for what could have been and should have been a touchdown and Goff was maybe a touch late with a throw and then Cup looked a long,

wrong way, got turned around incomplete, then a little bit later, the drop by Cup on a really well-thrown ball by Goff that then turns into an interception. I mean, just those two plays alone, we're talking about a totally different game. So I'm not panicking at all if I'm Sean McVeer. The Rams are four and two. They're still in very good position. But this was a game that it probably should have been closer than it was, and maybe even you should have won this game. So you're just frustrated by your inability to execute. Right.

It was set up for a comeback in the second half. The Rams defense came out, and as Mark said, four straight punts and then a long field goal attempt. That's when you come back in a game. And the goal line stand, you mentioned, Cup contributed it with a drop, but the play before that,

Greenlaw makes an amazing play. It's like, Drey Greenlaw only shows up. up to make like world changing plays on the one yard line. And then Verrette makes a great interception. And Verret, I'm glad they highlighted how good Verrette has been this year because he's playing like a Pro Bowl. And Fred Warner, I'm glad they highlighted too, because to me, he is the best middle linebacker in football. And they've got enough stars on their team that they can make up, make up for these injuries. I was watching the Verrett interception with Colton, who called it, described it as an epic play, which I think is about as high a compliment.

As you can get from a nine-year-old, eight-year-old, nine-year-old. I like when kids start dropping in their own slang words like Jack has been taken to saying things are sick lately. Oh, I guess you're turning into a little person now. How about that? All right. Good stuff. It's almost midnight on the East Coast and Adam Gay still has a job. I'm not thrilled.

I was really hoping that I would be able to take out of tonight. episode and week six the end of his reign of terror but it looks like it will last for at least another night in potentially another couple months it's also almost midnight and nick has work in about four and a half hours so thank you for hanging around no it's like eight hours nine hours so i thought you were doing the old five a m shift on the west coast no is that is your microphone shook like a r2 d2 or something star wars related what is that it's a it's a blue snowball Oh, okay. I got this off Amazon probably five years ago,

and it's worked pretty well for the most part of it. I know you're moving. Did you pack your actual microphone, and this one was just still out? No, this is the one I used for everything. And somebody commented on last week's show, that it sounded like I was in like some sort of metallic chamber.

So I don't know if that's my voice or the microphone or the fact that it's very spacious up here. We know people. Maybe we could talk to the podcast, you know, get your higher apps here and see if we can get you a microphone. mic expense. Hey, new place to live, new microphone. Upgrades all over. And Shook, we just so you know, we're not going to talk about the situation with your living girlfriend and whether you should be proposing to her because she moved from California, Ohio, and you've already been dating for four

years. Move from L.A. to Cleveland. And now you're, yeah, and now you're, you know, getting a place together downtown in Cleveland. We're not even going to talk about that anymore on the, on the, on the show, or at least not today. Yeah, we're definitely not leaving this topic out there to be discussed, no doubt. I'll say this. In due time, and by that, I mean, it's only a matter of time. It's not a question of if, it's just when. She moved to Cleveland for you, Shook.

And loves it. I've never been to Cleveland, so I shouldn't say anything like that, Shook. I would never disparage your beloved town. All right. Good stuff. thank you again show always acted with west right after the show when we took our little break and he is

feeling good and that was great to hear him in such high spirits today so yeah that again Greg you nailed it the biggest win of week six right there I'll be back go ahead Greg you got the haircut too you had the line of the night and the haircut this is Dan Hansa signing off for The unshookable Nick Shook?

We'll work on that. The Quiet Storm, the old boss, the mailman from Rick Hollywood. Behind a virtual glass until Tuesday. This is an Ihaught podcast. Thank you.