NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Week 8 Recap

Episode Date: November 2, 2020

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler recap every game from Week 8 starting with the Steelers Ravens rivalry matchup (2:40). The Saints pulled off an OT win against the Bears (9:45), The Broncos came back against the Chargers (17:48) and the Patriots are 2-5 (24:56). Nick Shook stops by to talk about Dalvin Cooks explosive game and the Colts winning over Detroit. (1:02:06).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. Does workout videos in their underpants. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. That's true. Let you guess who it is. My name is Dan Hansus coming to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes. Greg Rosenthal.

And yes, that man, Mark Sessler. What's up, boys? What a day. You know, we came on and Mark gave me that kind of like, whoa, we had some games today, you know, not even on the show. So that's when you know it's a good day of games. Yeah, it felt like an epically long day, and I don't mean that in a negative way. There was just a flock of games that went right into the very end, right? And last night was Halloween.

And we, in our house, we tried very hard. to give the boys a nice Halloween and we have a you know I think a lot of people have this they have a little cluster of people that are in the trust circle the COVID trust circle and we have two other families with kids so they all came over the house and you know daddy's going to get a little loose in that situation it's been a long year so when daddy gets loose and then you have an NFL Sunday I'll put it this way. When we started this podcast in 2013, the bounce back was easier than it is in 2020 after marriage, age progression, COVID-19 pandemic, two children. But I'm a warrior. You are right, but I normally don't like to bring this up, but I'm about six and a half, seven years older than the two of you. And so, you know, I would just offer that it's seven seven years less fun to recover from things like that or just even staying up late you know we're here though and we're alive and that's a beautiful thing and why is it always the same

teams that the heartbreak happens to why is we're going to get to it are going to get to all the games in week eight as we reach the midwayish point of another regular season we'll go through every game but let's start with the premier aFC matchup of the afternoon. And here's the snap. He's back. Steps out, fires for the goal line, and the pass. It's broken up at the goal line. And that is terrific job by the Steelers' secondary

to close in on Willie Sneed the fourth. The ball game is over. Bill Hillgrove and Tunch Ilkin with a call WDVE. Lamar Jackson, man, he has not had the magic this year. The reigning MVP's final pass as time expired, fell incomplete. And the Pittsburgh Steelers escaped Baltimore. with a 2824 win.

The Steelers moved to 7 and 0 and now hold a commanding lead in the AFC North. Greg, the Steelers' defense was too much for Lamar. They were, they're a defense that has so many great players that on a day where they got steamrolled a little bit on the ground, you know, the Ravens put up 265 yards on the ground, you know, almost 180 in the first half, that they have enough good players

that they can make enough game-changing plays to escape a victory in a game that they really shouldn't. And I hate starting with Lamar because he did make a number of spectacular plays in this game too. So there were positives. And the Ravens' offense at times looked better than it did all year. But you can't get past the fact that his first throw of the game was a pick six.

His first throw of the second half, I believe it was the first throw, was intercepted. and that was at a time of the game where the Ravens were absolutely dominant and then he gets the ball twice in the last five minutes and the Steelers defense does a great job stopping him on fourth down inside the 10-yard line. You think that's going to be it.

They force a three-and-out and then we listened, you know, to the final sequence where the Ravens almost pulled it out again, getting into winning position. And you're right, they've just been a player too short on a day where they had a lot of positives if they had just made one more play, this is a devastating loss, not just to fall two games back,

but to lose Ronnie Stanley, their left tackle for the season. That is a one-two punch that I'm sure people in Baltimore are pretty depressed about right now. I mean, if you, this Ravens team, we've been waiting for them

to appear as they did last year and they just haven't. If you told me that on the flip side, that the Steelers would have 48 yards on the ground and no one other than Juju Smith-Schuster crossing 50 yards through the air, I would look at that ahead of time and think that Baltimore took care of business.

The Steelers just find a way. And I don't think this is a surprising result. It was my lock of the week, so I went in thinking it could happen. But suddenly you just start to look at the Ravens differently. And when we came into this season, so, like, crystallized to everyone watching football that the chiefs and the Ravens were that upper echelon. And we didn't really know what the Steelers were going to be. And I would flip those two teams now. The Steelers are right up there. I mean, it's funny because I remember in the

summer, people that follow the league very closely, people that travel on the road and did a lot of the camp previews. You felt like there was a lot of the sentiment out there. Watch out for the Ravens. They're even better this year, which always struck me as a little bit odd because it's so hard to do what they did last year, which was just to be so historically dominant. And that's what made that disappointment in January, all the more difficult to handle because that was such a special year. When you have those special years, you want to be able to take advantage of it. So there's just some, you know, pains this year, obviously, that weren't in the picture last year. And, you know, they ran for 265 yards in this game.

Right. I mean, that is, that's a huge number. They did that all the time last year. Against the Steelers. Against the Steelers. And to not do it. And yeah, you don't want to put everything on Lamar. But listen, when you're the defending MVP, much is expected of you.

If he plays better, they win this game. And the AFC North is a lot different right now. So I don't want to put all the focus on Lamar. But his play and his relative struggles this season are a big story around Baltimore. Yeah, and it's relative. I still think he's played like a top, you know, 12 QB this year and including in this game. I mean, that I don't. But that's a big disappointment, Greg.

No, no, it's a big step back. Absolutely. And the passing game is the bigger disappointment. But I also wouldn't, you know, look at this as like, hey, they're done. I mean, they're five and two. And they just kind of dominated the Steelers in this game. And you went into halftime with it being 177 thinking, oh, this is trouble for the Ravens because, I mean, they put one on. I mean, they absolutely ran them up and down.

The only seven points in the first half was that pick six. It was looking like varsity and JV to use a Tomlin expression. And it's not like even the Steelers' comeback felt like they were the ones dominated. The Steelers' offense is the one that looked rather limited. The Ravens' defense has played really well all year, and they played well today. But the Ravens aren't making plays in the big moments, at least in this game. They haven't had a lot of close games. It's been a strange season.

They also have, you know, some people getting upset. Hollywood Brown, I don't know if you saw his tweet that was deleted. He said, what's the point of having soldiers when you never use them? Parentheses, never double exclamation point. Yeah. The double slimmer is what got me. And of course, Soldiers, S-O-U-L-J-A-S. Actually, since you brought it up, Greg, hey, Ricky, I want to check Hollywood Brown's social media accounts

to see if he is untagged All Ravens content. I'm moving to Instagram. Oh, no. Stop. All right. There it is. Twitter. No, he has not removed Ravens-related content from either of his feeds.

So it appears at this time he intends to stay with the Ravens beyond the trade deadline. This was a classic, though. Thanks for the Ravens Steelers for delivering. I mean, Markis Brown, he can be upset. They'll figure it out. But there was five force humbles in this game. There were fourth downstops. There were pick sixes.

It was kind of everything. They were like huge hits. There was Ben Rathesberger saying after the game, the one part of the game where their offense looked good, they were kind of in that muddle huddle where it's like they're not really huddling and they're going five wide and they're just playing hurry up. And he says he was just calling plays, like making up the plays in the huddle. Like that was the only part of the game that worked.

It was fun. That's what I do feel about the Steelers, though. They seem to be just in this wonderful groove. And, you know, they're very dangerous when they get that way. I trust this team as much as I trust any team in the AFC. And I don't think that people have, like, figured out the Ravens. But to your point, Dan, asking for them to be tangibly more dangerous than they were when they were 14 and 2. And people were watching Lamar Jackson every week with literally no antidote on how to stop him.

Right. Well, there's a whole lot more tape now. They stopped them rushing. 15 for 64 on the ground today. That says a lot. All right. Let us move on. Snap looks good, holds down, kick is up, and it is through the uprights, and the New Orleans Saints are going to win one in overtime here in Chicago.

That is the end of the game. The official is a little bit of a glory boy there. We know. It's overtime. There were multiple possessions, and the field goal ends the game. unnecessary. What's the old word in journalism, you know, the saying? Like, don't say something in 30 words when you could say it in seven.

Sure. Brevity. Maybe the officials. And I'm going to get, I got some more issues with the officials later on. Talking about your brownies, that game, Mark. All right, let's talk about it. Will Lutz went straight down the middle from 35 yards out in overtime. The deciding points in the Saints 2623 win over the

Bears at empty Soldier Field. These empty stadiums. And I know there's people in some of them now. I just hate it. Never going to get used to it. The Bears wiped out a 10-point deficit in the second half. A minor miracle considering the level of play they're getting a quarterback right now. But the Saints got to stop an OT.

Then that final drive in overtime to set up the game-winning field goal. I don't know. An ugly, sloppy, kind of strange game, I thought. where it seemed at first the bears got off to a nice start and then they gave up for the fifth straight game the Saints have a touchdown in the final minute of the first half which is a crazy thing and I believe four of them have been inside 20 seconds or something insane

they gave up an uncontested touchdown to Jared Cook to narrow the game and then he got really sloppy in the third quarter, including one of the worst acts displays of behavior on a field. Did you see this? This was unbelievable to me. I am still trying to process it. Who is the wide receiver's name?

Javon Wims was who got kicked out of the game. Yeah, I guess the previous position, he stuck his, a defender stuck his finger in Vim's face. And then on the following drive, he went to grab the guy's chain, Gardner Johnson's chain, missed that, and then just two roundhouse punches. And Gardner Johnson was just like, what's happening? He never hit back or anything. So it was just like this, the game seemed to be spiraling and foals couldn't move the offense. So I guess I give them credit the Bears for getting off the mat because the game, once it got to a 10-point deficit in the second half, it felt like it had gotten away from them.

but they even the score but they don't have any ability to close out this game because it's the same old thing and there's one point where Troy Aikman boys said this is where you miss Mitch Trebisky that's where we're at. That's all a lot of that on Twitter too

where suddenly people were suggesting that maybe Trubisky could be doing things that Fools was not. I mean I think if you're the Bears defense and the whole season rides on the Bears defense and you know this game was close but Alvin And Kamara, I mean, and it's not a surprise or a stunner. I mean, he is a legit premier talent, probably the best back in the league.

But he lit them up through the air. And I thought towards the end, I mean, he just gave them signs of life. There was that one huge play that sprung them. And my one question for you is like with Sean Peyton, it's tempting, you know, lining up to do the field goal with a minute 40 left. He said that that was just his gut feeling. I don't have a big problem with that. But that was a lot of room and time left for the bears potentially.

Yeah, it was very dumb because I believe there's a minute 40. If they miss the kick, you give the bears a chance, obviously, to go down the field rather than, hey, it can accomplish two things, as long as you're not terrified of fumbling the ball and having a turnover of some kind. You get closer for Lutz and you effectively can only win or tie the game. So they went for it, got away with it. But that was just kind of the game in a nutshell. It was just a little bit sloppy by all parties. It's one of the dumbest decisions of the year. He should be killed for it.

I mean, just because he hits the kick. Like a mat not killed. I mean, like literally. I mean, that would be a lot. But like, I do think about that. Like, we should almost come with the same energy, even if you hit the kick when you make a ridiculous decision. Just because these coaches all talk about doing everything possible

to gain the slightest edge in like just like having a half a percent chance, better chance to win the game and like working in the offseason doing all this stuff. And you're like literally. like giving your team a chance to either tie or lose that game just by not kneeling. Plus it's stupid Lutz had missed the 27 yard or earlier that game like you have Camara just

run the ball three times. I mean kneeling would have been fine there too and running the clock out then I wouldn't be saying that he should you know be killed or anything but that but run the ball I mean I kind of felt like they deserved to blow that one at that point and this was a game I'm sure

if Chris Wesleyan was on this show and I know he was watching somewhat that uh the drew breeze arm strength um truthers with of which he's one uh he's not he's not built for outdoors you know in the cold uh in the playoffs i mean that it was rough many times in this game and he got away with a couple i agree with that this was their first outdoor game of the season in fact and um those some of those throws the outs when he had to push the ball down field it just hung up an extra second and that's all it takes in the NFL he got away with a few throws, actually, that could have led to total chaos. So it is, with the Saints, they're

five and two now, like realistically, and they're going to be hurt by the fact that the games aren't going to be played in full in front of a sold-out fan base. And are they still trying to move out of the Superdome potentially to play home games? I don't know what's going on. Trauma continues on. That was a threat. I don't know if they're going to do it. Yeah. But this team needs to have home games in the playoffs, because I think we can see how it's going to go if he has to go on the road. But Kamara, yeah, he's, he had almost, I think, 160 yards from scrimmage. And it's just, it's so free and easy with him.

He's been their MVP this year. And the Bears' defense kept being put in tough spots, whether it was special teams or turnovers, where they're getting three-and-outs and Saints are kicking field goals. Saints could have won this, you know, bigger. But they've got to be happy. They win a game without Emmanuel Sanders, Marcus Calloway, and Michael Thomas. I mean, that is your top three receivers. and just quickly a shout out to Alan Robinson,

who I feel like is maybe an all-pro and stuck on that team. Like he is a top two or three receiver right now. Like I locked this game up, and when I did, I thought he was out for this game, and he almost was the difference. He kept them almost single-handedly in this game. That's funny you bring it up, because I was going to say my Christmas wish,

because he's heading toward free agency, is Trevor Lawrence as the Jets quarterback with Alan Robinson. and Denzel Mims on the outside, and James and Crowder in the slot. That sounds pretty good to me because this dude, it doesn't matter what crap quarterback he plays with, he puts up big numbers. His touchdown catch is one of the highest degree of difficulty catches that you'll see. It's a beautiful grab. I like Daryl Mooney, too.

I think that he's, you know, he fits with Fools, but there was this one play towards the end where Fools, you know, needed to make a throw, and he's escaping the pocket. And it just reminds you that Nick Foles, the kind of quarterback that Nick Fools is, probably just won't exist. Can't move. 12, 13, exactly. It's like he just got ransacked by an active New Orleans pass rush, and, you know, that's the game. And his mechanics are clunky, and he just, he's not the same guy he was a couple of years ago.

All right. Let's move on. Locke rolls to his right. Lock throws a ball. In zone catch. Touchdown, Denver. No. No, what are they saying?

K.J. Hamler caught the ball. Now one official. Yes, touchdown. Touchdown. How Denver! Holy mackerel! I mean, Dave Logan, good job, K-O-A. The officials, again.

KJ. Hamler, he makes that catch. He gets two butt cheeks down. What he's calling incomplete for? That's the catch. Drew Locke rolled it to his right, found KJ. Hamler, who got his butt down. As time expired, tying the game with the charges, Brandon McManus, then hit the PAT.

And Denver had locked up a thrilling, well, I shouldn't say locked up, because Ricky locked up the Chargers. A thrilling 3,130 win over the Chargers at mile high. Greg, the Broncos have been your pet project all year, and they kind of showed all sides of themselves in this one. They did. They lucked out. They deserve, you know, to enjoy a win.

They've had some tough losses. But my God, this, I'm still recovering from watching this game. I'm just thinking of that, just like, no, no, what are you doing Chargers? It was more about the Chargers blowing it. I really feel that. It was as dominant a game as I've seen. At one point, it was about 300-something yards to 50, 20-something first downs to two. The score is 24 to 3.

It's midway through the third quarter. The fans are booing. The 10,000 fans are booing. You know when they booed the most, I think, was after a Drew Locke interception at the end of the third quarter. So Locke, who had been terrible through three quarters, to be clear, their one touchdown was off a 55-yard, you know, Lindsay run. That's where it started. And so that's the Chargers defense. And after that, Locke throws an interception.

So it's not even like Locke played well consistently until the fourth quarter where they go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. and one was a blown coverage. You know, Herbert has an interception where it's a jump ball and it ends up being a helmet catch interception. That's some charger stuff right there. But there's no rule that you have to give up this long drive at the end of the game to blow it either with a bunch of penalties.

And it's just like, even the offense was moving it throughout. I'm like exasperated. Even though the Broncos in theory were this team I was behind, they did not deserve to win this game. It's something special. what the Chargers are doing. It's crazy. Three straight games where they've blown 16 point leads, the Chargers. And it's

like, we talk about this every week because this is who they've been for under Anthony Lynn. And it's hard because they're fun and they're doubly fun with Justin Herbert. I viewed them as like one of these teams that forget the first two months of the season. If they get hot, they could maybe beat anyone

and yet they beat themselves. That's who they beat. Three straight games. It's four. It's actually four. it's a little bit of a weird stat because one of those they won against the Jaguars. But it's four straight games. And they also blew an 11-point lead in a loss to the Chiefs, too. That doesn't even count that one.

So it's outrageous. That's their nature. I mean, and it's been, yes, Anthony Lynn, it's been a part of his regime. But, like, this is Chargers football. This has been going on for years and years and years. They just find a way to do it. They, you know, they lost lead of 11 points to the Chiefs in week two. Right.

17 points to both the Bucks and the Saints in weeks four and five. They lost the 16 point lead to the Jaguars. They won that game. And now this. I mean, it just can't happen. And they have to find out. I know they've been hit hard by injuries on the defensive side of the ball, especially. Better now.

Better now. But at the same time, there's just no excuse this cannot be happening. It is a reflection on some level of the coaching for sure. It has to be. It's the look on Anthony Lynn's face, you know, just to set up. that game tying touchdown and they kicked the extra point with no time left. The only reason that happened is because there was a penalty on the play before that the Broncos ran for about the seven-yard line.

The Broncos mismanaged the two-minute drill horribly too. They're like calling runs in the middle of this and then they ran out of time. And there's a penalty on that play. And Anthony Lynn comes running and kind of looking down, looking at the official going no, no, no. And the look on his face was like, there's like a little child and telling him. I'm telling them that there wasn't Christmas happening this year. It felt like every Chargers fan.

I don't know. And they ran the ball for 200 plus yards. I mean, so they're doing what Anthony Lynn wants. And if you're running the ball, that well is like 5.5 yards per carry, you should be able to close out a game with a huge lead. Right. The thing that's crazy is it's not like the offense collapsed. There was that helmet catch interception, which was a little lucky,

but a nice play by Bryce Callan. And then Herbert went field goal, field goal, and took some time off the clock. The only reason why the Chargers won is because, these drives partly were so quick. They had a two-play 60-yard drive that took 27 seconds with like a blown coverage in the secondary. The Chargers looked so awesome. They're healthier on defense. They have Melvin Inger back. They're different within them. They have Justin Jones back. They were dominant and I'm thinking, wow, this Chargers team could be something. And then then this happens. Dan, I did ask for the money in DJ call of the Hamler touch. I have not heard it

yet. So we'll see if it's good, but let's hear it, Ricky. Well, here it is. This is the game. One second left get in and it will be tied lock in the shotgun gordon in the backfield fakes the handoff rolling to his right lock still looking throws caught incomplete incomplete he was out of bounds and now the referees discussing it signal on the field is incomplete now they say touchdown after a discussion they say touchdown k j hamler boy the chargers have found ways to lose games this season, but this is going to be the most painful of them all. How many more ways can money, you know, have to describe these laws? This was it, though.

This was another level. At least the other ones were against good teams and they blew the leads earlier. This was next level. A division opponent, everything was. I've gotten to no money over the past couple of years doing the power ranking show with him. And he's like other guys that work in the broadcast boosts of these teams. They're not homers, but also it's just a better gig when the team's winning because you're around the team so much and you know you're kind of part of the whole adventure so you know

money and DJ they're going through that loss too and the wreckage that comes from it it is just a tough situation we'll give the final word to linebacker drew tranquil who didn't play in this game with an injury but he tweeted insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results stick with us we will turn the tide hmm charges fans have been hearing that for about 50 years. Let's move on. Going to take the shotgun snap, takes it, going to keep it and run with it, left side, gets good yardage inside the 50s. No, ball comes out, loose ball. Who's got it? The bills may have it. It is Buffalo ball. Cam Newton fumbled at the 12-yard line and the bills recovered.

Game. It looks like Marlowe on the bottom of the pile comes up with the football. That is the game right there. Justin Zimmer got the strip, I believe, and the bills come up with the football with 31 seconds left. Oh, my goodness. John Murphy and Steve Tasker with a call for WGR. And yes, Ricky, being the intrepid producer that she is, also did pull the Zolak call. But again, Zolak is basically incapacitated now during Patriots games.

He was silent on that Cam Newton play. Squeeze it, Cam. The Patriots were driving for the go-head score in the final minutes against the bills. But Buffalo separated Newton from the football and fell on the fumble to clinch a 24-21 win at Orchard Park. Buffalo snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Patriots, just barely, locking it up for the old Zeus, by the way. Nice to eat tough of heroes.

Mark, how are we feeling about the bills after this one? They're kind of a tough team to peg right now. I don't feel a whole lot better about them. I think if you want to shine a positive light on their offense, their running game came to life with Zach Moss and Devin Singletary, Josh Allen. The three of them combined for other over 200 yards on the ground. Weather was a little bit of a factor in this one.

But I look at these two teams as sort of, which I wouldn't have said this a month ago, is almost mirrors on offense, save for the fact that New England lacks wide receivers that anyone's heard of or who are reliable. I mean, you got a little more star power in Buffalo. But Cam Newton and the Patriots fought so hard in this game. They came into it with one tight end, Ryan Izzo.

One. And this is a team that would probably like to use three if they had them half the time. And they, in the second half, they really imposed their well on Buffalo. It's their defense, Buffalo's defense, it has me a little more concerned. Demir Bird made a couple plays with Cam. Damien Harris was ripping through them. And I really thought that they were heading to win this game.

And then the Cam Fumble happened. And it's just like, it's an excruciating club to watch because there are no namers on offense, which makes me kind of enjoy them more or root for them more from an underdog nature. but Buffalo took care of business. But I come out of it, you know, I'm suspicious of Buffalo. I don't trust them to really be the offense they were earlier in the year. They just look very different to me. Well, they're a classic team to me that's six and two

and just has to be happy they're six and two that they have the components to be better because we've seen it to be the offense they were closer in September than October. If they play like this, you know, they're going to lose early in the playoffs. if they make it. I mean, Sean McDermott had a quote after the game that said, you know, this win made him emotional that he tries to go through it one day, one day at a time, process, process, but we know what this

means to our franchise. We wish they could have, you know, and our fan base, like what that we've been building to this, you know, for myself, it's like a validation, it's emotional win for the entire city. And it's like, okay, but you got, but they need to be a lot better than they are right now because you're just going to be a first round loser in the players. I think they can be. Like, they have the pieces to be better on defense and offense than they've played.

But it's been about a month now for the bills. Yeah, they lost their starting center. I don't like that for them. Mitch Morse, we'll have to see what goes on with that. But I don't know. Like, in terms of a transformative victory, it was just sort of like they hung on and got out of here with a win. Well, as someone that's had a front row seat for the AFC East and the worst way for the last couple decades, I think it is a very notable win.

in the fact that the bills, according to what you're saying, Mark, did not play very well and still beat the Patriots. Things have changed in this division. And it was something that people that despise the Patriots or were just sick of the Patriots waited for years and years and years. But it has happened. It's the changing of the guard. And I don't know.

The only thing that I don't know, and I think it's unclear, is like, is this now the Bills' division where it's going to be their realm for a couple of years? or do they have enough problems where, and I don't think we should be crowning anybody in that division right now, but they have surpassed the Patriots as the better team in this division and they have things to work out.

But the fact that New England is basically now just faded from the picture on a four-game losing streak is notable. And I think that's what I take out of this game that once again when the Patriots lose and they're now on an extended losing streak and the head coach, the legendary head coach, Bill Bill

Belichick, when he's at the Zoom podium, he's answering questions week after week about who is starting quarterback's going to be. Like, this is all stuff that just wasn't happening for decades. And I think it's just notable. That's where we are now. Well, that's why I think if, you know, your Belichick or Cam Newton, that's why that fumble is such a killer. Because this really was their chance. Needed.

They're in field goal range. They have the Jets next week. In theory, there's a route to go four and four. There's a lot of tough games at the schedule. This team doesn't not in any way look like. a contender, but if they win this game, it's like, well, it's just the bills, the dolphins, and them, and someone's got to get in. And so that's devastating. They've had these moral victories. Like, well, if Cam was healthy against Kansas City, what a defensive performance.

If Cam, you know, gets one extra yard in Seattle, they get a win. If this is another game where they had a position, but it's not happening for them. And there's not really a big reason to think talent-wise they're going to recover. Gilmore was out for this game. Julian Edelman's on injured reserve. JC Jackson got hurt. It's not like there's people coming that's coming to save them. I think the difference between the two teams is the front office right now. I mean, Buffalo, you know, their front office and their coaching staff are in unison.

And I know, you know, Belichick, I'm a career-wise, is up there with Ozzie Newsom, but you'd have to look at the way this team is constructed around Cam Newton and say, how is any quarterback can it come out of this season with five wins? You wonder if Gilmore was sat as a precaution if they are planning to make a trade as well with the deadline coming up in a couple of days. And one last note, and we'll study the bills more in the weeks ahead. But Josh Allen, the first four games, he was a leader in the MVP race. He had a 71% completion percentage, averaging 330 yards per game through the air, 12 touchdowns, one pick, pass rating of 123. the last four games the completion percentage is down almost 10 points he's down to 211.5 yards per game

four touchdowns and four games passing and a pass rating is sub 80 so he has kind of regressed in the last four weeks back to this being this enigmatic guy that nobody really knows what to make of him so that is to me one of the big storylines in the second half of the season in the aFC is like how does Josh Allen close this season where are we going to finish up how are we going to see uh him uh when the dust settles let's move on car takes a snap looks in that direction fires to renfro renfro's got it in the end zone renfro with a touchdown that puts the writers ahead here in the fourth quarter playing in miserable weather conditions that's brent musburger of course do i even have to say k r lv playing in miserable weather conditions

Starikar threw just one touchdown pass. Well, won the count it anyway. But it was enough in a 16-6 win over the Browns in Cleveland. Rain, sleet, howling wind, whipping around at 35 miles per hour. No joke. And obviously that's going to inform the pace of play. The Browns had five drops in this game. The weather played a role, I'm sure.

with that, not to make any excuses. And the Raiders used, they were just more physical than the Browns in this game. This was like a, it should have been playing to the Browns favor. They're the, they're at home. They're the rugged AFC North team. But it was the Raiders who ran the ball with authority, including Josh Jacobs, who had 128 yards and 31 carries. That's the most rushes for Raiders running back since 2007.

and they just hit harder. The play of the game was slot cornerback Lamarcus Joyner, who laid a clean punishing hit right into the back of Jarvis Landry. He was already playing with bad ribs to save a touchdown in the final minutes and essentially take the drama out of the game after a missed field goal shortly thereafter. So good on the Raiders for another nice road win. And I was texting with Mark. And we're both on the same page here.

The Browns are just okay, it seems. Like they're capable of having good weeks, like we saw last week, and they're capable of having weeks like this. So you don't really know what you're going to get week to week, and this was a bad week. Yeah, I mean, I was watching this on the side. And I think this is a Cleveland team that you can kind of tell pretty early into the game,

whether they're not, they're in their flow. Because when they have been, they've been pretty dynamic on offense. This was, I can't remember too many Browns games where Mother Nature wreaked as much havoc to your point. And it was like, look it, you don't have a leading receiver for Las Vegas with more than 28 yards. Cleveland wasn't far from that themselves. There were hideous drops. David Nijok who had one of the, I mean, you know, this is trade bait,

and you're not helping yourself get traded or helping yourself acclimate to a new coaching staff in Cleveland with some of his play. I think they really miss Wyatt Teller. I think they really miss Nick Chubb who would have been, this would have been a perfect Nick Chubb, kind of game. And Kareem Hunt is a wonderful back, but Nick Chubb brings something a little bit different than Kareem Hunt. And, you know, you're missing Austin Hooper. Miles Garrett was out for part of this, but no excuses, because both teams were dealing

with totally chaotic weather, and the Raiders were tougher. Right. The Raiders found out Sunday that Trent Brown couldn't play. Their great right tackle because of a mistake in, what was it, an injection, a Tyra Taylor-Taylor type situation. situation and he had to go to the hospital he's got air in his IV right which is a very dangerous situation so I think and this is I guess even more true because Brown wasn't there that it has to be disappointing for the Browns because of what Dan said that kind of like their identity is their

offensive line and kind of being a tough hard-nosed running team and the Raiders were better at that and that's that's to me that's the Raiders identity too I don't think people think about them that way That's how I think about them. And it was a game where it's 71 to 47 in terms of plays. So the Raiders kind of controlled that. And I give the Raiders a lot of credit at 4 and 3 because they have had the hardest schedule in the NFL according to their opponents, like winning percentage. And they're 4 and 3. They really are a good 4 and 3 team.

And, you know, they obviously they didn't play very well last week against the Bucks, but everybody that catches the Bucks right now is catching hell. But they've sandwiched that loss with the win and arrowhead. and then this nice win in a tough situation in Cleveland. So good on them. And bad job by the refs. That was, this game had three touchdowns that were led to reviews and two of the three were overturned. Henry Ruggs had a touchdown catch where they had a freeze frame on the telecast showing probably about two inches.

You see blades of grass between the end zone green and then the white out of bed. boundary, and they kept the call in the field ruling it that it was not a touchdown. Like that cannot, it cannot happen with the technology that we have in the league, what's at stake on a week-to-week basis in our league. I just was blown away that that call didn't result in a touchdown. Absolutely. And I didn't love the Landry one either. There's a reason you can make a case for the Landry one, not being a catch, and that's fine.

But that's different because they didn't have the angle on it. You could see the ball starting to move. But there was no Zapruder film angle to say, okay, it definitely was incomplete. The Ruggs one was, I don't know what, somebody's got to answer questions in the New York office after that. I don't know what else to be said. Miles Garrett was limited in this game. He was basically a specialist, a pass rushing specialist, and he's getting an MRI on his knee. So that is the last thing you want to hear because he's obviously the heart and soul of that Brown's defense.

And yeah, the Kareem Hunt thing. That was my last thought in the game. when Chubb was there and Hunt was there, that was becoming one of the big stories in the NFL, like they have an identity, they have a two-headed monster. And then even when Chub got hurt, it's like you still have a former rushing champion in Hunt

hasn't quite played out the way I think a lot of people expected. And I know there are some challenges with the offensive line injuries and Baker and the Odell injury, but Hunt has not really taken the ball and run with it. Yeah. I mean, he's attempted to run with it, to take the ball and run with it. It's not always work to perfection.

Yes. All right. Let's move on. Goes back inside. Ball is caught. It's Medcaf, who makes one man now, two men miss. 30, 25, 20, turns up field. They don't touch him.

Touchdown. Seahawks. How in the world did he tiptoe up the sidelines? Two defenders breaking on him and nobody touched him. Oh, yeah, D. D.K. deserves the Kong music this week. Oh, man. D.K. Mecca have set career highs with 12 catches, 161 yards, two touchdowns, including that unbelievable touchdown at the end of the first quarter that only a few guys in the league can do when you can turn the corner, you know, evade some tacklers.

And then when everyone else goes out of bounds, he just has these afterburners and he just jets the final 25 yards for a touchdown. He's unbelievable. Anyway, he led the way for the Seahawks into 37-27 romp of the. the Niners at the clinkmark. San Francisco did some cosmetic work here to make it look better, but this game is all Seahawks. Yeah, and it's, it's tough when you're covering like games with D.K. Metcalf because he does something and you're like, how can I continue to describe what this player is doing in a tweet to do him justice? I am so impressed with, he has, he had his six and seven touchdowns, touchdowns of the season. And the second one was this incredible show of

fire and might, where he ripped the ball away from a in a one-on-one matchup with Emmanuel Mosley. And he's just like a physical being that is going to kill people in matchups. You just can't deal with them. And the first touchdown was this incredible dance down the sideline, which we listened to at the top of this segment. I think he's a fascinating player. And it's like whether it's him or Tyler Lockett week to week, you can't really double.

You can't spend all day long doubling either one of them because the other will fry you. And so it's a pick your poison. And I think that probably the Seahawks listen to people like me that if they're, I'm not claiming that they're listening to me, but statements, you know, probably they have it hardwired into their complex. But, you know, saying that, you know, that Kyle Shanahan is going to do a better job than any coach in the league around injuries and my whole Kyle Shanahan thing. But the bow...

No, this whole, Mark, don't put it on yourself. This whole podcast was drinking the Niners Kool-Lade on Thursday afternoon when we recorded our preview show. And the Seahawks made a little bit of a statement. Yeah, I think they did. And it was an anti-Shannahan game because there's just two, they're too banged up on some level, and they're not the only team in that situation.

But this was the game where they ran for 2.4 yards per carry, 52 yards. Jimmy G., who, you know, and there is going to be a lot of Nick Mullins versus Jimmy G. We're back in that world because of what I don't take that seriously at the end of the game. But Nick Mullins just sort of does seem to see the feel a little bit better, And Jimmy G threw a terrible interception on an attempted pass to George Kittle in this that caused things to get out of hand early on.

And I feel like they just have to play around him and organize the offense in a way where he's given such safe throws. And it's just not the Jimmy G that I know from before. And the other thing that, you know, we all like Fred Warner, and I think Greg, it was you saying that this might be the game where Bobby Wagner maybe takes just a little bit of a step down. Bobby Wagner was a picture of utter dominance. He was listening. Yeah, I think he was. I mean, he was just, all the Seahawks pieces that we trust came today, and they totally, they shined as a group. The defense, too, I think they kind of said, look, we can, we can handle our business.

I mean, this was not, this is not to go the way that I expected on any level. Seattle finally had a big game on defense. They've been waiting all, and again, what happened in the fourth quarter when the game was already well decided, might cloud this for some people, but this is to me the first game where the defense played an active role in them winning. So this is, and you have Jamal Adams actually returned to practice this week. So that's a big guy that could be reentering the picture. Carlos Dunlop's in the fold now. Like, I think this is a highly encouraging win for Seattle.

Right. There's that Kevin Clark tweet that always gets retweeted that Seahawks never play a normal game. This was a normal game. They went out there and they took care of business and they put one. on them. And yeah, a lot of Seahawks fans. I did not watch this game, but a lot of Seahawks fans in my mentions bringing up that whole Wagner thing. Warner's not giving up that, Wagner's not giving up that belt. I mean, there's no argument to me that Warner's been the best middle lineback in the league, the first seven weeks of the season. But Wagner's line today, I think he's

got four QB hits, like three tackles for a lost couple seconds. I mean, he put one on him. And that's right, Dan, that them having a defensive type of game. And it reminds me, division games are just different. You know, it's like, I think the Patriots match up well with the bills, and they know the bills, they know how to beat. Like, that's why that partly even a beat-up Patriots team are in that game. Division games are different. These teams know each other well.

The Steelers, Ravens, like, we've seen that. I think it can sometimes, some matchups just are closer than you would expect. And right now, I think Seattle does, I know they had their troubles at points last year with San Francisco, but they know how to handle a Kyle Shanahan office. And this is a rough road ahead for San Francisco because they're 4 and 4. They have to play the Packers on Thursday night. George Kittle was hurt in this game. Obviously, Jimmy G. was hurt.

Tevin Coleman went out. Fred Warner was banged up at one point, but came back in. I mean, they have 13 players on IR, so it's not an easy job. The 49ers are a power rankings nightmare. It is so hard to figure out where they belong in the NFL landscape because every time you think they've turned a corner, something. like this happens, and every time you write them off, they deliver a big performance. But I think it is, yeah, George Kittle had x-rays on his ankle after the game.

It came back negative, but obviously he's hobbled. That's not good. And the Jimmy G thing is terrible. That is this, he has a high ankle sprain, and he's trying to play through it. It might be one of those things where he's not right again until March. And if that's the situation, like this is just going to be an issue that's going to lead to to struggles for him and problems for the Niners. because we, again, we were drinking that Kool-Aid

and we were saying that Shanahan is brilliant at the level that it almost doesn't matter the players. His scheme is so strong. Well, when you take away Jimmy G., though, that's the quarterback. It's bigger than anything. And it changes things. Yep. And he needed to win this game to get to 500 as a head coach.

And I totally believe in Kyle Shanahan, but his run in San Francisco has injuries have been a big storyline there. and it's, you know, it gets to the point where he can't overcome it. And I thought that he would and he didn't. I think the big takeaway here, though, gentlemen, is that our words can control outcomes in the NFL. Oh, yeah. That's what I took out of it.

It's intoxicating. Put me on the locker room. You know, what is it? The bulletin board? I can't think of it. It's like no one of the last day. I still use this bulletin boards, but that's where you put that. I'd like to blame it on my Halloween drinking,

but I have not had a drink in many weeks at this. this point sadly humble brag all right let's move on my body's a temple gregg rosenthal burrow fakes to bernard throws into the end zone touchdown tyler boyd the bengals score in the red zone and lead at 23 to 7 red zone on third down third down touchdowns in the red zone are killer oh show you know what charlie why he's called him. Four point place. Or was it Michael Lombardi?

One of those jokers. Dan Horde. What's that? Nothing. Dan Horde. Did you really say what I think he said? Dan Horde, Dave Lappam, W-C-K-Y with the call. Joe Burroughs threw for 249 yards,

two touchdowns, including that seven-yard connection. The Tyler Boyd in the fourth quarter of a 31-20 win over the Titans. How about that? We've talked about how since he has been competitive with just about everyone this season. On Sunday, they were dominant against the good, we think they're good, Titans team. Yeah, they were so good. And offensively, Joe Burrow right now is one of the better QBs in the league, I think, at extending plays and making plays on his own.

I see this game as like a two-part takeaway in that the Bengals offense really is getting better each and every week. If you watch them, you see it. T. Higgins is so good, and he made awesome plays for Burrow. Auden Tate made him awesome plays for Burrow. But he is getting better. The confidence is getting there every week. He said after the game, I heard his post-game interview, just like the game's getting real slow for me right now.

I mean, he's feeling himself. But I also think in a game where he would drop back, I think, over 35 times, the fact that the Titans hit him twice with no sacks. And there was a fourth down play where he had about 15 seconds back there. They had four new offensive linemen this week, the Bengals, that got hurt last week. And actually, I would say he was protected about as well as he has been in any game. So that's an indictment on the Titans and a great credit to Burrow. Well, Zach Taylor said that the offensive line this week brought great energy to the overall effort,

which is just simply not being the case. There were a couple weeks early on where they looked like the worst line in football. and they've been injured and all this stuff. And it's almost just been added to the credit to Burrow because there was a play today where I saw him zigzagging in between like 15 would-be tacklers. And he still, he escaped it. And he got away for positive yardage on a run.

And it's like he sees pressure and he sees behind, you know, in dark spots where other people cannot. And that is just going to make you, you're going to advance as a quarterback at double, triple the speed. You know what this game looked like? It looked like a game between two great offense. And Tannahill threw his worst play of the year in the red zone to start the game, started them off on a bad note. And the Bengals just kept scoring.

They had eight drives. They scored 31 points on five of them, on five of the seven drives. And then they put together a five and a half minute drive to end the game, essentially, to end it. They got a little break on a penalty that overturned a pick, but, like, they dominated. The Titans on the other end ran for 217. After the first quarter, the Bengals could not stop Derek Henry. They averaged 7.5 yards of play. They just didn't make as many big plays on, like, third down and third and long,

and there was that one Tana Hill pick, and the Bengals never let him back in it because their offense was just too good. The Titans had two QB hits on Burrow, zero sacks. Clowny and Clowny. He played 46 snaps and had one tackle. Beasley. I don't know where he was. They showed him on the sideline at one point.

I don't know if he was hurt or what. He was just kind of looking goofy over there, but man, their passers, is killing them. More like Jadavia and Clown. We don't need the E. I do think it's a problem. Nailed it.

This defense, moving on past that, this defense could be a fatal flaw for them, their pass rush. They can get a little healthier in the back end. That'll help, but the pass rush, I'm not sure. I pray I never see him in person. Having seen him in person, I don't need that to happen. Seems like a bad idea.

You'd probably get injured as he was coming to get you. Offensive rookie of the year race. This is going to be the best one since 2012. Andrew Luck versus RG3. Burrow v. Herbert. Who you got right now? Right now I'd give it to Herbert. He played great today, too.

Just because he's only played six games, and he's just, he's been on fire. He's been as good. I know they've lost games, but it's pretty close. How about a co-winner? You can have them both. Oh, stop it. Get off the fence, Sessler. No, I would go Herbert.

I mean, but Burrow, I think, could. It's coming on hard. He's coming on hard. he could say he's the best quarterback in the AFC North a year from now. I wouldn't say that timeline, that journey would not be shocking to me. I mean, he'd think he's already the second best. You know what would happen, Mark? Clowny, who would come after you with a full head of steam, and then you do, you know,

you're a quick guy. You'd make a little move, a little juke just to buy enough time and you'd escape. And then you'd be fine, but then everybody would be like, oh, yeah, but, you know, David and Clowney, he really does put pressure on. Right, right. He didn't get to Mark. No, man, does he disrupt? He is a big time disruptor.

And anybody that actually watches football and understands knows he did a great job chasing Mark there. Yeah, he affected Mark's planning and game planning, you know, with the unseen pressure that only true analytics heads notice. This is more disrespectful than you confusing Weiss and Lombardi earlier. Let's move on. Go!

The frog gets hit. It's a fumble. The ball's on the ground. It's Van Gogh. Eagle going to the end zone. Nobody's going to catch them. The Dolphins take the lead. What a defensive play by the Dolphins.

I mean, let's be honest. If I'm trying to figure out if it was Charlie Weiss or Mike Lombardi that said it, it was probably Bill Parsons. That's fair. Anyway, the debut of Tua Tuna Vailoa was a big story going into Sunday. But it was Miami's defense in San Francisco. special teams that guided the Dolphins to a comfortable 2817 win over the mistake prone Rams. Mark, the Tua show, has somewhat obscured the fact here that the Dolphins are playing as well as anyone over their last three games. I think they're playing with incredible confidence,

and I think that they really are a team that kind of shows you that when your coach is that way, when Brian Flores is going to, he's one of these Patriots offshoots that seem to have learned to Patriots thing, which is winning games in all three phases, and it was the special teams today. This, Joachim Grant, had an 88-yard punt return, the longest in franchise history that made this thing 21-7, and he had another 45-yard kick return. Their defense caused all sorts of problems, and we can get to two in a second, but they really, I think, remember, Brian Flores, and this was pointed out by Henry, and it was a good note,

that Flores beguiled Sean McVeigh and Foles in the Super Bowl. And it looked the same way today. They made life very uncomfortable for Jared Goff. Jared Goff needs to be getting out of the pocket, rollouts, play action, safe, open reads. And he was forced to just drop back over and over today. And they punished him. And he looked very uncomfortable. And they climbed back into this later on.

And, you know, the score doesn't look as awful as it was. but they caused big mistakes from the Rams. And the kind of stuff that we've sort of seen happen here and there with Goff over the last couple weeks where he is just not right on the same page as people. And the line maybe, if it's not, you know, pristinely protecting him, golf is not looking like the first overall pick. I mean, neither did Tua look like that either. I mean, Tua really, I thought, it's sort of an incomplete grade

because I think they wanted to set him up with first three throws and run the ball, but they ran the ball terribly. There was a crazy stat in this. there are the total plays run and I got to just check my sheet here the Rams had 92 plays the dolphins had 48 the Rams had 471 yards

the dolphins didn't cross 100 yards of offense until like six minutes to go in the fourth quarter the Rams the dolphins didn't have more than one drive over 15 yards so the offense has a long way to go and they wanted to give two of these sort of first read quick strikes but it never really

got together. And, you know, it's not like he played terribly. He just didn't really, wasn't a factor. And it was not an impressive debut. I'd like to see, I'd be concerned about that offense and that whole team with Tua, if he plays like this, if they don't get all these special plays from their defense and special teams, this would have been a Rams win otherwise and pretty convincingly. Well, it seems like a bit of a fluky game.

It was. You know, you'll almost never see a team outgain another 471 to one. 45 and the team with eight first downs a whole game was way ahead. But that also means that the dolphins, you know, could survive being in a shell because of those big plays somewhat. No matter what, though, averaging three yards per play is a disaster for the Dolphins' offense. But you're not worried about that if you're a Dolphins fan too much because you're just

thinking about how resourceful this team is, how they're winning different types of ways. And that is a reflection of coaching. And that is defense special teams. I mean, that is like the old Patriots playbooks. of you don't know which way you're going to win. You're going to win all sorts of different ways, and smart teams can do that. Yeah, 145 yards for Miami is the third fewest by any team in 2020.

So to have a relatively easy win with that level of offensive production is that's not going to happen often. Also, the opposing team committing four turnovers in the first two quarters, that's not going to usually happen. So, yeah, a weird, a weird game. The Rams, man, they're another team. They're not at the level of the Niners, but where do you place the Rams when you realize that they whipped up on the NFC East, which is one of the worst collective divisions

in modern football history, and have struggled against teams that are more competitive. I mean, it continues to be a narrative that's formed around them. It's a wait and see, because I do think they've had other quarters or quarters in a row where you look at them with total promise.

I love Daryl Henderson. He went out with an injury today. I don't know how serious that is. Jalen Ramsey did not. The dolphins were squelched on offense and Jail and Ramsey didn't miss the game because of an illness. So that should tell you something.

I just think there are maybe one of these teams in the middle world where you're a wild, because there's seven playoff teams, they could be a wild card team, but do I take them that seriously? To me, they're right there. To me, they're right there with the 49ers. Sure.

The 49ers and the card. November. Sorry. You got to ask in November 2020, what kind of illness does Jalen Ramsey have? Well, no, so they checked. I think they went through all the intense protocols to make sure it wasn't Corona from what I read. And it wasn't, but he was not well enough to play. It wasn't today. I like them being safe on that.

Right. Because, you know, when guys are getting sick now, they're playing it pretty safe, which makes a lot of sense. Like, let's not be the Los Angeles Dodgers. Let's be the Los Angeles Rams. Right. That is true. poor Justin Turner. All right, let's move on.

I thought it was sad for Justin Turner also. Bad job. Here comes a middle blitz. Confusing. Fade pattern. Nearside Tyree Kiltz. Catches the ball at the five. Touchdown.

Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes was casually dominant on Sunday at Arrowhead, throwing for 416 yards and five touchdowns and a 35-9 shalacking of the zombie-fied New York Jets. You would think that these games hurt me. These games do not hurt me. I feel nothing. It's just something I expect every Sunday.

The Jets to lose handily, and it happens, and ultimately it's not changing my life one way or the other right now. So I've kind of gone into cruise control, and I'm just waiting for January at this point. As for Kansas City, this always profiled as an ideal get-right game for Mahomes' stat sheet, because the last two weeks he's been kind of held at bay, and a lot of that had to do with weather conditions,

more than anything else but in this game it was just too easy for him I mean the the idea that sometimes you don't overthink it it's like if you have the best quarterback in the world and you're against a team that is poor in all areas

just let the quarterback absolutely savage the opponent and that's how you win that week don't need to get your running game too involved just let Mahomes do his thing that's what he did and I think what I'll remember about this game especially if the chief's offense starts to take off like we're used to, and I imagine that could happen here

because all the pieces are in place. We'll remember this game as Mahomes in the role of Mad Bomber returning. He completed five passes of at least 25 yards to four different receivers. Four of those completions resulted in touchdowns, two to Tyree Kill, so they got that connection going again.

And I know a big storyline, and perhaps the only positive for the Jets is that they didn't get humiliated by Labion Bell, who didn't do much at all in this game. But neither did Clyde Edwards-A-Layer. Like I said, this was really all Mahomes, 35 points, five touchdown passes, and obviously never really in doubt.

The Jets actually moved the ball a little bit in the first half. They didn't punt in the first half. They had three field goals and a blocked field goal. But same old story with Gets. Gase as a head coach. Once the two teams go in the locker room, one team adjusts, and then the Jets get adjusted upon, and they just do nothing for the final two quarters of the game.

Yeah, I saw they had, like, what, two first downs in the second half or something? The Jets. It's a joke. It's, you know, and I didn't watch a lot of this, but Dan, I, having gone through a one in 31 streak with the Browns a couple years ago, I think it's perfectly acceptable to not apply your passion to a team that probably just needs to be broken to be rebuilt. I mean, and they're getting there. And so you have to almost just root for the worst possible finish to the season

for the opportunities it could create. Yeah, we see the same thing every week with the Jets now. There's nothing left to say with them on some. I mean, there's stuff to talk about with the Chiefs, but it's crazy. Yeah, you know things are terrible when the opposing quarterback throws for 400 and five touches and you come out of the game as a fan thinking it could have gone worse. That's where the Jets are. And Sam Darnold is undeniably regressing,

and he injured his shoulder again in this game. We'll see how he wakes up tomorrow. So just everything going wrong, the Chiefs take care of business, and they will have more competitive games in the future. Seven and one, looking good for that. I know the Steelers are undefeated, but if you look at the Chief's schedule,

you know, they have a two-game stretch in a couple weeks at Raiders at Bucks. But other than that, it looks pretty manageable. And so that's going to, you know, they would still be my pick to get the one seed right now. And remember, remember, there is only one team that gets it by, effective the 2020 season. So getting the number one seed means everything in terms of setting yourself up for the playoffs. Let's now welcome in the yoked, the eternally yoked, Nick Shook. There he is.

The body, they call him. They call him the enforcer, the protector. and still not technically in a union with his living girlfriend. And we're going to continue to track that as this season goes along. You're just roommates right now. There's nothing holding you together beyond rent. And maybe that should change at some point. But beautiful background, Shook, I see downtown Cleveland behind you.

How are you? I'm good. Are there laws about that? I feel like after you're together in a place for a certain amount of time, And there's like, there's like a common law marriage. Well, you look, state by state. Oh, is that what you're going for here, Nick? Yeah, you look, sounds like you're looking to find out.

I mean, it's like 10 years, though. It's 10 years now. It's state by state. But I mean, it's not like, hey, we were hanging out for five months and now we're like legally married, no. No, no, it's not going to be that long. Like I said, there's a plan. We're just not at that point of the plan yet.

Everything takes time. We're following the playbook. The game plan set. We've done our scouting. We know what's out there. and we're ready to proceed forward. We're on to two or three years from now. It is awkward, though.

Do you have to like split, like ask her to split the rent? Like it's split? That just seems strange, too. Yeah, I mean, we've been doing this for like two years now. So it's very, in fact, today is November 1st. Today is where you do that, yeah. Yeah, you better bugger. You better bugger to send, you know, her half.

Yeah, yeah, you back then in. Sorry, Nick. When I was an aspiring sports writer, marginally employed from time to time in the late aughts. I found the good way to handle rent with your living girlfriend. Just have her pay rent. Yeah, that's clear. That's more clear.

There's a clear delineation of how that's handled. If you can get it, it's good work if you can get it. All right, let's get to it, Chuck, starting with a surprising outcome at Lambeau Field. Cousins, with a screen left to Dalvin, gets the 50, angles right, ambles to the first down, cuts right 35, makes a Packer miss, and he's loose. Touchdown! Four touchdowns today for Dalvin Cook. That's a 50-yard run, and Minnesota leads 2714.

That is one of the best in the business. Paul Allen, K-F-A-N with the call. Yes, Dalvin Cook, he is an N. NFL super star. The Vikings running back went nuts against the Packers, putting up 200, putting up over 200 yards from scrimmage with four touchdowns, including that catch and run score to aid his buddy's buddy Kirk Cousins's stat line there. 2822, the win at Lambo shook.

Cook really is a special talent. Yeah, very special. And today's game, I think, demonstrated the difference between the Vikings with Dalvin Cook and the Vikings without Dalvin Cook. And it's a good thing that they got him signed. before the season, which we knew was going to be kind of a looming issue, because obviously he's a massive part of this team's future and their success. I mean, when they didn't have him prior, they had no rushing game to speak of and no offensive momentum to speak of. Everything was on

the shoulders of Kirk Cousins. And we saw how that went today. He carries the load. And then when he carries the load, Kirk Cousins looks better. And like you said, he gets his stats inflated by a 50 yard screen pass that effectively won the game for them. I know it kind of came down to a force fumble in the last play and potentially another Aaron Rogers, Hail Mary. But for the most part, it was the Dalvin Cook show. It was Dalvin Cook Day. Last week was National Tight Ends Day. Today was Dalvin Cook Day. So, I mean, there's, there are a lot of good running backs in the NFL, but I think games like today really put Dalvin Cook in that upper tier where you're like, our team depends on this guy being on the team, being available, and utilizing him all of his

talents as much as he can. They did today. I think it's him in Camara this year. I mean, Cook's missed a couple of games, but this season, I think, I think those are the two. I mean, it's Mike Zimmer's dream. They threw 14 passes in this game. That's how you dial it up if you're Mike Zimmer. He's not based for 27 touchdowns from scrimmage, which would be the third most in a single season in NFL history. And he's missed games.

I mean, he's been, he's having a historically great season running back. Yeah, you know, it helps them out too because their defense has been pretty bad, especially for a Mike Zimmer defense, it's been bad. It dealt with a lot of personnel changes. They've got young guys in the back end. Today, Cam Dancer went out with kind of a scary injury. He left on a backboard and on a stretcher. But they had him and they have Jeff Gladney, both very young guys.

And Jeff Gladney got played a couple times by Devante Adams for touchdown. So being able to control possession and really rely on Dalvin Cook gives you a better chance to win games because the strength of their team, unlike past years, is not the defense. I mean, it leaves me, you know, I looked at the Bucks Packers game as not an aberration, but you just ran into a legit awesome defense and Green Bay bounced back last week and they had 19 guys on the injury report. They're not themselves.

I mean, they're banged up. I think they miss Aaron Jones a little bit. But that hit that Aaron Rogers took at the end was a reminder of how glad I am that I don't play sports right now at all because it's just like, I don't want my body feeling what he probably was feeling as he was bent into two pieces.

Wait, his body separated? Well, I mean, it looked like it did. I mean, still the skin was around. You're German. You can't, you get, that's fake news, as they say. There was a super slow-mo as he got hit and the ball came out where he's got his, he's like got his chest out because he's hit from behind his head's back and he's got this look of like despair and it looks like one of those old like Greek sculptures where the guy

is like, you know, he's got like one of the arms is in some artsy like a line, that kind of thing. That's basically it was Aaron Rogers in the final play today. And the thing is, is they're right. Like they didn't have Aaron Jones. and it really showed he tried to carry them to a victory. The Packers have this issue where when they play good teams, and I don't even think the Vikings are necessarily a good team,

even though they played like one today. But when they play teams that are competitive that are expected to be up at that level that we consider the Packers to be at, they always will. I mean, going back to last year when they got rolled in the NFC title game, they did it against Tampa Bay two weeks ago, and they did it again today. And the big issue is when they have the ball

and they get into a little bit of a rut, they can't get themselves out of it until they look up and it's 2814. and oh my god we got to get going and they woke up too late today and that's why they end up losing by six points it's a beautiful setup for thursday night i mean a rematch of that nfc championship game usually in a primetime game it's like you want the teams winning coming in not not this one i think this is one of the more the bigger games in the nfc so far this year that's a good tnf you know jimmy g's a little banged up that packers there's doubts two out of three like this is a huge it's a huge game for both things Packers' Twitter is spoiled.

When I see them complaining, I tend to roll my eyes a little bit for obvious reasons. They've had so many wonderful things gifted to them over the past 25 years. Today, a lot of Mike Pettenheat out there. People are very upset about Petton in the second year as the defensive coordinator there. Third year. Third year, sorry. And I guess this game seemed to rile people up again. Pat and Heat existed last year too

going into the off season there was some concern or not concerned but there were some people wondering whether hey is this guy going to get fired and you know you had to get the whole vote of confidence or no he's going to stay on our staff and everything else but I thought we were somewhat close after that NFC title game to Mike Patton going somewhere and building

himself a second cabin like he did after he got fired on the browns and maybe after games like today he might not be that far away he's a run funnel and that's again why Thursday night's intriguing like he begs the other teams to run I'm just saying, though, it's playing the team that ran all over it. He begs the other teams to run. From the side of the screen handed to Greg, Colleen's hand.

He begs the other teams to run, and then they do it, and they run all over them, and it drives you crazy because it's a little too extreme. All right, let's head to Ford Field. It's picked off by the Colts. Kenny Moore runs it into the end zone for a touchdown. How about that? A pick six for the Colts. Matthew Stafford was trying to go left side to the near flat,

and Kenny Moore steps right in front of the past and cruises down the near sideline for a touchdown. Kenny Moore's pick six was the nail in the coffin by the cults who overwhelmed the lines, 4120. Down the road, Phil Rivers had another efficient performance thrown for 279 yards, three touchdowns. Shook, the Colts seemed to be finding themselves a little bit here. A little bit, but you kind of wonder, I mean,

the Colts are, I think it's a tale of two teams defensively because early in the season, we thought about, hey, this is a team that statistically is one of the best in the NFL. And they met the Browns and they met him without Darius Leonard. And they didn't look like that team on defense. Darius Leonard is the key to them because he was on the field today. He made massive plays. He forced a fumble that led to a touchdown. And then before you knew it, that Kenny Moore picked six took a game that was a four point game or a six point game.

He was 2014 to a three score game. And it was how quick it was. And that's the impact that he has on that team. And as long as he's healthy, I think they're, you know, they're, they're, a formidable team, but you also can't always expect Philip Rivers to play like he did today. He had 23 of 33 for 262 yards, three touchdowns. He had a pass rating at 123.5. I mean, this is like vintage river stuff from five, seven years ago, not, not 2020.

This is not the- That's too straight. That's too straight, Schukey. And that coincides with Darius Leonard. I mean, I think it really does go back to their defense. Their defense gives them chances. They do capitalize, but if you need your offense to go win a game, this offense isn't going to do it. So they're very reliant on that guy and on that defense being able to be there and help them win games.

They scored touchdowns on five of their last seven drives. It gives me a little bit of hope because to me I thought this offense looked like it was heading in completely the wrong direction. A great quote by Rivers afterwards, or just a very Philip Riversy type quote. He said, you have moments where you go, dad gummit, we should be seven and oh. Well, there's reasons you shouldn't be seven and no also. But, you know, this was a nice move. I am a little down. Because we heard that quote from Philip Rivers.

Yeah, I'm just saying it's like that I can't think of another human being that still says Dad Gummit, but he does. Jonathan Taylor and DeAndre Swift combined for 23 yards off 17 attempts. I was like as excited for these two rookie backs as running backs as anyone out there and not happening. Jonathan Taylor to me has been underwhelming. The key detail, Mark, of those 23 yards, 22 were gained by Jonathan Taylor. DeAndre Swift had one yard on. on six attempts. I was trying to help Swift out there a little bit, but you unmasked it.

That's rough. This felt like a doomed day for Patricia to have that sort of defensive game and Ghaladay, who to me is kind of their addition of Darius Leonard is Kenny Goladay on that offense. They are just not the same without Kenny Goladay. And he got her. Another quote from Philip Rivers after this game, I guess he just was very quotable. He said, he said, I can't. tell you how dead it was in there and in terms of the stadium and talking about the crowd dan

um like i i talked to uh to chris you know west and keisha's neighbor j b long yesterday so i'm and you know we walked around a little and he was saying how unnerving it is he's the voice of the rams yeah thank you for pointing that and he said how unnerving it is you have to keep reminding yourself that this is a big deal because it feels sometimes like a high school game and i think i guess that's what Philip Rivers was talking about. That anecdote would have actually been so much better if Greg never qualified who he was, that it was just Wes's neighbor talking about football.

Yeah, it's just like Ned who's mowing his lawn and then he had takes. Ned had a really hot take about this stadium environment in 2020. Yeah, we talked about it on Thursday show. That was a big spot for the Lions. And what do they do whenever there's a big spot? They let their fan base down because if you find a way to win that game at home,

the schedule lightens up. And that means they're three and four. So they're still kind of in the mix, obviously. And I wouldn't be stunned if a month from now, they're still on the periphery playoff race. But at the same time, it's like, man, go, you know, win a third game in a row in your building. Get hot. Actually give your fans something to get excited about. They can't do it because some teams just don't know how to do these things.

Yeah, but you know what, Dan, here's the thing. In sports and not necessarily the NFL as much as other sports, but you don't want to languish in that middle area. and they're kind of in the bottom of that middle area. So as a football fan, you almost want them to just prove who they are with games like today so that they can accelerate moving on to the next stage and actually working towards being something. Because last year, the excuse for them was, oh, well, Matt Stafford was out for half the year. They were really playing good ball before Matt Stafford got hurt. Well, he's not hurt, and you're still not playing good football.

Maybe we should make a change. Well, the problem is they made about a million changes, and that never works either. There's not a lot of confidence. And look out and down and down he goes. Ball is out again. Which takes us to, thank you, Nick Shoeff, Sunday night football. On what appears to be a live ball, McLeod, is going to take it all the way to the end zone. Wow.

When Al Michaels retires, whenever that is, that will not be the call that he's remembered by it. But, you know, it was a weird play. Rodney McLeod scooped up a loose ball. after a sack of the great Ben Danucci. He ran it into the end zone. It was essentially the game ceiling score for the Eagles and a 23 to 9 win over the Morabund, Dallas Cowbonds. Boys, this, we worried that this was going to be a terrible game.

And Mark it was. Yeah, I mean, it's suddenly we're in that zone. zone where we're watching quarterbacks that we simply didn't even know we're human beings, you know, a month ago. And Ben Danucci falls into that category. The newch! I found it kind of deliciously amazing when they, at one point, they were hanging around, and they had that one drive where they ran the ball like seven straight times. I think Danuch has got some, you know, I wouldn't call them wheels, but he can move a little bit. So I kind of enjoyed that, but then it's just like, it's not sustainable. I mean, it's

totally unsustainable. And, you know, Wentz, I think he was, what, 0 for three on passes of 20 plus air yards, two of them for interceptions. I mean, he was a mess. I'm not convinced of either one of these teams, but no one was asking me to be convinced of them, and I remain unconvinced. Right, but you thought that maybe the Eagles, or I thought, like the end of that Giants game, you start putting things together.

My craziest takeaway here is these teams look pretty even, like their quarterbacks looked pretty even in terms of how they played, and the two teams looked pretty even. Like, they got so lucky. The Eagles averaged 3.8 yards per play tonight. So, yes, you turned it over four times, and Carson Wentz, that was a disaster. The only way they could have possibly lost this game was Wentz turning the ball over, and he did it four times. In two quarters.

But, like, with five minutes left to the game, the Cowboys were out gaining the Eagles and had the ball in the red zone with the chance to go ahead. It was the worst game anyone's had against this cowboy's defense by far. Yeah, it's hard to make sense of how poor Carson Wentz played in the first half of this game, considering, like we've talked about, he's shown flashes of snapping out of it, and he's had really good stretches the last couple of weeks, and the Cowboys have been historically bad, and they were running the ball well, the Eagles initially,

so it seemed to be well set up for Wentz to carve up Dallas, but he couldn't do it. I mean, I don't think the quarterback play was at the same level because the nuch, God bless him. He can't make that throw the Travis Holgham touchdown. Their numbers ended up being the same, which is a pretty bad. But Wens played a terrible game here. I mean, you cannot throw two interceptions and lose two fumbles in the first half of a game like that. That's just, that's just sloppy as hell.

And they're very lucky the Eagles to come out of this game with a win because this would have been a humiliating loss, considering that the Cowboys are just such a train wreck, so the Eagles should consider themselves lucky that their defense was able to step in. What are two things I really liked? The Greg Zerline kick right before the half that looked like an insane, like a, you know, sinker or something as it rocketed through the skies. What was that? 59 yards. I thought Mike McCarthy a couple times was going to completely,

his head was going to explode on some of the stuff that was happening to him, you know, flipping his hat or. around and looking like a madman on the sideline. And then they mathematically showed that it really wouldn't be that impossible for an Eagles team to finish 411 and 1 and host a playoff game. And I know that won't happen. They'll probably get to seven wins or something. But it's not that crazy of an idea with the team that we saw this evening.

Right. I mean, they're getting healthier, getting Jalen Rager back. Okay, he made a couple plays. Folgum is a guy. Goddard was out there. didn't do much. Maddox was back. Like, you would think they would get better, but they haven't shown it. They are the most, the luckiest and unluckiest team somehow at the exact same time.

Because, you know, they're unlucky with these injuries. You know, it happens year after year. It started during the Super Bowl year, and it keeps happening. They're unlucky. But they've pulled these games out of their ass. They could be 0 and 8 very easily. I mean, they really have. And their schedule is rough.

Right. And the cowboys. And the fact that they're in the NACs, FC East to me that's lucky too like all of this shouldn't really be so meaningful but they're a likely playoff team now so they're lucky that they've they've somehow skated by and might survive all of this i love uh what uh patrick dardy over at rhodo world i follow him at rhodo pat he writes a great fantasy column he writes a lot of great fantasy stuff uh but something he wrote a couple weeks ago really resonated with me and that it popped in my head again uh tonight he said that

Right now, Carson Wentz operates as an even more demented version of Ryan Fitzpatrick, which I just, like, I was jealous when I read it because it was so perfectly stated. That's where Wentz is in 2020. He's having a really strange season. I don't know where it can go. It could get a lot worse, I feel like. It could get a lot better. But Eagles fans are along for the ride, and he's up to 12 interceptions now. Wild.

And he leads the league in fumble. This is kind of who he is, at least with the fumble. He leads the NFL and fumbles since he entered the league. Some of those, I mean the... So him tonight is like that's part of the... Yeah, that's part of the drill. Holding the ball too long, getting his body caught in an awkward position, getting smoke. Like, these are things that rookies, mistakes rookies make.

And this guy's played in the league for half a decade. Anyway, we never have to watch that game ever again. Okay. Let's not even think about it ever again. Let's bring in Ricky Hollywood, because that's more important. Hey. Ricky. Amazing development. You know, this has been quite frankly, not just in the world, but also for this podcast because of what Chris is dealing with cancer for a second time and he's battling and it's an unreal fight that he's up against. And so it was really nice to have some good news, some joy sprinkled into the ATN podcast realm when you did your Beyond, Nancy-like surprise album drop, the great story article that came out in NFL.com, where you spoke about

kind of the journey you've made as a gay woman and kind of now it's out there to everybody. We obviously knew this as long as we've known you just about. You did? Well. Not as long. Not from the first minute. I mean, when you took us to the nightclub in London called Gay, I was like, okay, I think something's going on here.

but anyway we're all so proud of you and Greg wouldn't go that night I was watching the U.S. Open final Osaka one of the most memorable sporting nights maybe not so open Greg when you think about it

but anyway Erica the floor is yours we're so proud of you and it was an awesome read and everybody should check it out I imagine there was a lot of people that got in touch with you after you dropped the arms

Yeah it was absolutely insane like overwhelming I really didn't expect it to I figured it would it would be shared and kind of that stuff but on that that scale that it was and like I like am getting nervous even like talking about it like it just feels weird and it was also like I feel really good and happy but also like just the exposure and like the messages from people I've been getting from across the league and league offices emailing me like in our NFL database we have each other's emails and stuff. and I'm hearing from people that I didn't know existed, some that I did, and it's just a really, really flattering is maybe the word, humble. Like, I don't even really know because I don't really feel like I did anything that was like this huge thing, but I have, like, middle school teachers reaching out to me that I haven't heard. Like, it's just, it's just, it's been really, really overwhelming, but, but beautiful. And I can't thank you guys enough.

Because as you read the article, like you guys have been my backbone since the day that we met. And I really love and cherish you guys. And you're always championing me. And I appreciate it. We love you, Ricky. Thank you, Ricky. I mean, it is so exciting. And I think you outed yourself, too, as a good writer.

Now you're going to have to, like a really good writer, you're going to have to start doing bylines a little more regularly. I think that's a lot of com. that secondly a big thank you to mark because i he saw the first draft and it came a long way it didn't it didn't start off that way i think that you it was great it was you tapped into like your your heart and your real feelings i had an idea though i thought that you should make this announcement it caused such a stir you should make this announcement like every friday just to like get that that weekend vibe going because it seems to be quite an event so it was it was crazy yeah I mean, to get the most of this new found writing skill, newly discovered, I should say, maybe a little Eagles, Cowboys, what we learned.

Yeah. Yeah, that sounds awesome, you guys. That sounds so much fun. Yeah, we're proud of you. Great job, Ricky. Yeah, it's, it's, I don't know if Braves the word, but I can't imagine, you know, putting yourself out there and there being, obviously, knowing that you could get positive, negative, so. well I appreciate it there really hasn't been a lot of negative feedback which I was sort of bracing myself for and it's really it's really awesome a couple of like oh so does that mean I don't have a chance

like tweets and stuff which I guys be funnier at least I laugh but like come on be funnier exactly what about the opening line of the piece and again check it out NFL dot com and Ricky has it posted on her feed and we've all posted it you start with a quote that you someone said to you in the breakroom at NFL media, which lucky guy are you bringing to the holiday party? Why do you think Mark said that to you? Because that seems like it was a little out of bounds. Yeah, it was weird. It was, it was weird, you know.

That just, just for like the more dim-sided listeners, I actually did not say that just so that's going to be more. It was not Mark. Yeah, no, it was. That was a very, a warm, a warm, a whole thing. It's just like a warm hug because everyone we work with, you know, a lot of people reached out to you and knowing you as well as we know you. Obviously, this was special to be able to share this with this many people. So good stuff, Ricky.

And how about more good news to keep on coming in 2020 to close this thing out. Speaking of closing things out, it's time to close out today's show. We'll be back. But speaking of back, does anyone back at your apartment, Erica? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, good, good. Doors are locked, you can see the shades are closed. Smart. Yeah.

So no update on that front. That's also good news. See, the good news is flowing now. All right, we'll be back on Tuesday with another week of the Iran and the NFL podcast as we roll into the second half of the season. This is Dan Hansa signing off for the great Ricky Hollywood, the old boss, and The Quiet Stormer. Of course, I still don't have his nickname. Nick Shuck. Until Tuesday.

This is an I-heart podcast.