NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2023 Thanksgiving Day Recap

Episode Date: November 24, 2023

In a virtual room full of heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, and Marc Sessler recap the 2023 Thanksgiving Day action. The heroes start by discussing the surprise win by the Packers over the Lions (01:50), followed by the Cowboys dismantling the Commanders (17:15), and wrap things up with the 49ers controlling the Seahawks (36:10). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Once the NFL to change the name of every holiday. Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. My name is Dan Hansis, and I have with me heroes virtually across the Southland and Beyond. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Zessler. Happy day after.

Thanksgiving presented by the National Football League in honor of John Madden. I don't think I have all the wording right, but probably close enough. Happy Thanksgiving day after, presented by John Madden. Did you boys enjoy enjoy the day? Yeah, had a great day. I noticed that the Black Friday Jets Dolphins ad that they ran came very close in tone and sort of authority to Dan's suggestion that it's some of, point we'll just be rolling games out on Easter Sunday they kind of like made it clear we now own

this day right they got it they got thanks you they've always had Thanksgiving and now they have Friday and that's coming up in a couple hours we're going to be watching that game and we'll have the recap of that on the Sunday show but for today and it was a very nice Thanksgiving we we hosted every year at our house and it's a friendsgiving but you know the friends are very close so it's like family. So it's a great holiday. And the one thing of the NFL really has nailed about it is, you know, you can't imagine Thanksgiving without football and especially without that first game in Detroit with the Lions. A game, boys that we're going to get to first, we're going to go in order that none of us kind of expected to playing out this way. And it kind of changed for me a lot

of my thoughts about the NFC underneath, you know, the big boys, which I don't care. count the lines among at this point let's hit it 2314 packers 345 to go in the third watson to the left snap to love lost the left side of the end don't get it touched out christian watson yes yes they make the lions pay 16 yard touchdown reception it's 29 to 14 Wayne Larravee with the call for WRNW. And, you know, we thought we were going to hear from Wayne, from Dan Miller of the Lions, because everything seems set up for the Detroit Lions

in this great revitalization period to announce themselves as a dominant force and kick butt on Thanksgiving. But it went the other way. The Packers win 2922, and it really wasn't that close. Things were, the tone was set on a Jordan Love, 53 yard pass to Christian Watson on the game's first play. Greg, we talked about it on the Wednesday preview show.

They lead the league and explosives like that. And they just kept taking it to the Lions, Greg, Lions team that on top of being flat-footed to start the game, just killing themselves with the mistakes throughout the afternoon and they could not put it together. They couldn't. I mean, on some level it starts with Jared Goff, you know, turnovers for the second straight week.

I really think it starts back in week seven. And that's when we saw the Lions play the Ravens. And that was a game. They were so comprehensively destroyed on every level. It did make you think, hmm, you can throw that out like a little bit, but let's see how that goes. Since then, they've played four pretty lackluster teams, five, if you want to count the Packers,

although they're certainly playing better now. And they're the worst defense or the second worst defense in the league, depending on what metric you want to use. They all agree. And that's a five-week sample size. And that's against some pretty good quarterbacks, you know, like Justin Herbert and Lamar's in there. But it's also against the Raiders. And Jordan Love, who is playing better and better every week, but it's not a top 10 quarterback right now.

And all these guys are having career days against them. And I'm with you, Dan. I think they can improve. But right now it's hard to see them in the mix with the truly great NFC teams. Hmm. I don't know. I mean, if we talk about them as a playoff possibility, I think they're going to test for that number seven spot.

I think yesterday, I mean, I'm with you, Dan. Who? The lions you think are going to test for that? I'm talking about the lions here. I'm saying Green Bay absolutely. No, yeah. I'm talking about the lions at eight and three. I'm not putting with the end.

You're going to a little high on that triptophan? No, I think the lions, like to me, like the... That's a good one. That's good. To watch how their strength was their offensive line. And I thought that their offensive line was one of the reasons that Jared Goff had been, you know, pristine going back to last. season in many ways and everything's changed over the last couple of weeks like three lost

fumbles yesterday six turnovers over the last two weeks they're lucky they got out of that bears game with a win and it you know in this division that seemed to be essentially just kind of handed up to them i'm looking to my point before i'm looking at green bay and thinking like wait a minute they're changing before our eyes their quarterback is um their passing game is and i look at that game and like i don't really remember matt lafleur having a better performance as a coach i think no one expected that to happen the way it did. He came in with a surprising game plan. They stomped Detroit at home doing what they do well now. And it's a different Packers team than before because of their quarterback, because of their young wide receivers. And I'm not really sure what the ceiling is for the

Packers at this point. It's like they're still kind of growing before our eyes. But it's like they absolutely like I thought a week ago, oh, the Vikings will take that number seven spot. I don't know anything right now. Green Bay like is kind of unpredictable. Well, listen, there's room for the Packers and the Vikings. lines in the in the playoffs and and the Vikings will get their game on on monday night to continue to build for them but yeah i think i don't think if the if detroit had a more difficult schedule if they had Seattle schedule for instance for instance and we're going to get to the seahawks a little bit later i'd be very worried about a tailspin for this team because you've seen the goff and the offense really kind of stumble and this could be a slump or it could be

the sign of an ugly come back to earth it's probably closer to a slump but the the schedule is so soft that I think Detroit is going to be okay and get to that, you know, 11 wins, you know, probably 11. They feel to me like 11 and 6. That's going to be enough probably to win the division. The Packers are now a team of fascination for me because of love mostly. I mean, and you're right about LaFleur because, you know, he was taking on a lot of criticism early in the season.

And I think there was some like, you know, kind of sideways glances like he was being exposed. now without Aaron Rogers, but instead you look at this team now as they have, as we head toward the final stretch after Thanksgiving. And he's got Jordan Love playing at a high level the last few weeks. He was an excellent quarterback. And that's a huge benefit or a credit to an offensive minded coach like LaFleur. So he has the offense cooking. The big plays continue to be a part of things. Christian Watson is coming out of his shell. I think he's going to have a big close to the season now. And yeah, I like the Packers as a team that that can make the playoffs. And I would not have predicted that a couple of weeks ago. I don't, did we fork them? I don't think we did no.

Okay, good. I have no recollection whatsoever of our forked me. They do have the Chiefs, you know, next week. But after that, all the games are winnable. And so I'm with you. But even if they don't make the playoff, whatever happens, this season is somewhat about Jordan Love. The GM I think he said that I don't remember if that was at the buy week or for it was after the biweek of like, you know, this is an important stretch here for Jordan Love. And I think back to that Rams game. And I do think that's when it all changed. I know that the box score wasn't crazy in that game. They won 20 to 3. But his decision making was really good. And then he played well again the next week against the Steelers. And I remember saying at the time of the show, I thought

those were his best two games of the season in a row. I know he had some nice touchdown interception ratio early in the season felt a little fluky felt a little fake to me to be honest like he had some nice throws but it wasn't him doing it and these last four weeks and you saw it yesterday was some next level quarterback stuff he's a very weird quarterback but he passes the test where if he's protected he can obviously make some big plays they cooked up the lions in play action they attacked their weaknesses deep down the field and they're not good deep down the field but the thing i like about him is you see that sidearm angle to heath early in in the game you saw that the accuracy on the touchdown to read, but if you kind of go through his snaps on a snap

to snap basis, he seems like a quarterback. Like he seems like he's making decisions. He's recognizing blitzes. He's getting the second and third reads. I think he makes some crazy throws and he's not the most accurate quarterback in the world. So there's a little ups and downs. But like the processing, the mentality of it all is like, okay, this is a quarterback. And if he keeps building off this, if he plays like this at all for the rest of the season, it's like, okay, we've got year two of Jordan Love in this very affordable contract. and we at least know we're going into year two with him still as our quarterback.

Yeah, I'd also, you know, on Thursday, we noted, like, the laundry list of injuries that the Packers had coming into this game. And so a lot of that play action happened without Aaron Jones in the lineup. And, like, earlier on in the year, when Aaron Jones was lost for a long stretch of time, like, it really handicapped and capsized the offense.

And, like, yesterday that just was not the case. Like, A.J. Dillon did just enough for him, but the aggressive nature of what LaFleur has loved I think is very exciting for Packers fans because I don't know about a month ago I was like I don't know about this Jordan love thing it's like we'll see like he seems very middle of the road and there has been like tangible visible growth and their young wide receivers are growing along with them the same way I felt about like the Steelers coming into the year with all these like young weapons and I don't think they're weapons at all happen across the board in Pittsburgh is how I feel about Green Bay now so it's

like I thought yesterday was one of these games like changed the way a lot of people feel about two different teams on the other side at the quarterback position we've touched on it briefly here but i thought golf was terrible and he was coming off a multiple turnover game the week before but this time the ball security was woeful it reminded me of the the late period with the rams uh he was missing throws as well there were miscommunications with his wide receivers they couldn't get on the same page uh he was an issue for them in this game and if goth is not going to be his pristine self he's been for the majority of his career with Detroit, then the defense is going to be what it is right now. That is the recipe for a lot of losses. Here's Dan Campbell on his team's sudden

swoon. Again, the easy thing is to get in panic mode and I know, you know, what it looks like and it wasn't good enough out there, but I'm not panicked. We got the right guys here. We know how to play. We got to clean some things up and we'll have six to go and we get back. And the fight's on, man. I mean, I think this is going to be some cruise control. We're going to have to fight and scratch and fight and call for everything man we have to that's the type of team we are that's where we're at all right any other thoughts on this game boys i um i thought i thought we saw a little bit from jameson williams but i want to just note that one of our listeners um chimed in with something i'd mentioned on the thursday show about i thought you know various uh matronly

aunts around the country would take a look at sam leporter who had a nice start to the game then the thing went sideways but um i don't know if we have this tweet eric let's let's let's hear it out loud. Okay, so another prophecy fulfilled my aunt. While not matronly definitely took notice of Sam Leporta during the Lions game, she's also not a football fan. They showed him, Ann Gough, in quick succession. So I verified, and she even parroted back Leporta's name.

That is a weird tweet. It is a weird tweet, but I appreciate it. That quiet storm. Like everything about it is, that is strange. What are you questioning whether this is, like, real or? Like it's a Mark bot, it's a Mark Shadow. Or a Mark burner. Mark, did you write that?

I don't, I don't even use like X myself, much less have a burner account. Come on Kaiser, Jose. Tell us the truth. No, I, I just saw it this morning and it caught my eye that, like, you know, I think it's just matching it up on, like, the aunt archetype individual with Sam Leparda, Leportez, like, physical being. He's a, he's a young, he's a young, a young gron. Wait, was your prediction that he was. Was your prediction that he was hot and the aunt would take notice? I thought it was that he would have a massive game.

No, it was more that like, you know, the aunt who's not football, like, enthused would be in the room and just notice him the physical specimen. Anything else? Yeah, you mentioned the O line. Like, there's a weird sort of almost analytics off about how good this O line actually is. Because like everyone thinks it's one of the best lines in the league. It's certainly like PFF, for instance, grades it as one of the elite lines in the league. pass rush win rate run block win rate not so great certainly the eyeball test the last couple of weeks not so great and jared goff more than any quarterback in the nfl is impacted by pressure and and

just turns into a totally different dude so it's like i don't they've had a couple injuries and vitai's not coming back i don't believe and it's interesting because i i think the whole idea with campbell was we're going to be great on the lines and their d line with hutchinson and mcneal even though those two players are both good, they're bad. And so now, like, they just don't get enough pressure and they're cornerbacks. They're bad. That's a bad combo. Not enough pressure and bad cornerbacks. So on one side, you got some issues on the other side. If the O line starts creaking, then you're right, Dan. But I'm not panicking. In both of these games, it's like, even in a bad game, they still get like 464 yards. They're going to move the ball. Like, I know it was.

There was some garbage lipstick on the pig there late too, Greg. Absolutely. But they were moving the ball when they're not turning it over seven times in the last two weeks or whatever. All I'm saying is like they're going to be getting first downs. They are a nasty running team. I'm not too worried about them there. But the defense is like legit bad. And if they're the home team and they're, it's all about, we're a ways away from the playoffs. But they are the team the five or the six seed might want to be playing here in the playoffs

because you could put up a 40 burger. If I'm a Detroit fan, I'm not letting it be known. I'm a little bit nervous right now. I'd agree a little bit analytics off Greg you said that sounds like

the worst time ever and by the way I did last night watched the Barry Sanders doc on Amazon and reminded you of his greatness and also the

you know the struggles of being a Lions fan especially from the perspective of Eminem Jeff Bridges and Tim Tooltime Allen I don't know

why are that documentary is always at the back We need to get these celebrity sports fans in. It's like Tim Allen was in this documentary for like maybe two lines. I watched the first hour maybe so far. I was waiting for Walker to get back on whenever night that it was. He went to the Lakers game with a friend. And I did not see Tim Allen.

I haven't gotten quite to the end. But I thought when Jeff Bridges said he identified with Barry. That was incredible. I loved it. That Barry was just a man. the life, the juice. It's all from when the whistle blows to when the whistle stops.

And anything other than that, he doesn't need. Just like Jeff Bridges, there's a certain type of actor. When they call cut to when they call cut, that's when it matters. And other than that, it's nothing. So Bridges,

Sanders. It is kind of crazy to watch Barry Sanders now and those clips don't age at all. And you're like, oh yeah, that would still be by far the best way back in the league. It's crazy. my Barry Sanders story, which I think I've shared in the show, but I was hoping it was going to make it into the dock, but nobody contacted me is when our old boss, Justin Hathaway, Mark, worked us 80 hours for that first Super Bowl in Indianapolis, Giants Pats 2.

Yeah. And he had me cover the flag football, a celebrity flag football game. And Barry Sanders is on the game. It was on one of the teams and was not involved with the offense. They were running the offense through Maria Manunos. and Barry Sanders is there and nobody's even talking to him and I'm like

that's like maybe the greatest running back whoever lived that's an odd that's an odd approach to offense feels like a Chip Kelly invention all right good stuff and the Packers by the way

thank you Eric Roberts 17 players were on the injured list in that game as well they had no business going there and bullying the lines in that spot so interesting all right let's move to the middle game and by the way we did

fork the Panthers There's Pats, Broncos, Bears, Cardinals, and then I belatedly, and my apologies, I forked the Giants. So those are the four teams. Maybe we'll revisit it in the upcoming week. Broncos, you know, making us sweat a little bit. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. All right. Let's head to Big D where the Cowboys were not in the mood for any type of competitive contest.

Second of 10 as a Dallas 43, Howells back, throws him. Oh, look out. It's planned. It's planned. Again. He's not one. He cuts left. He breaks the tackle at the 10th.

Stop it. He did it again. The whole defense is going to put land in the kettle. That is unbelievable. That's the most pick sixes in one season in NFL history. Five touchdowns. Where did you come from? Great call.

And if you watch on YouTube, you can see it or if you watched live yesterday. Dan Quinn up in the booth, the D.C., the Cowboys going absolutely apesh, celebrating Duran Blan, setting the NFL record for pick sixes in the season. I mean, his fifth, the fifth of the season.

Kyle Pitts has four career touchdowns in his whole, like, NFL career. Duran Balan is a cornerback. He's got five pick sixes this year. Unbelievable. And that was just the little like stamp at the end of the game because the Cowboys offense absolutely obliterated the commanders got their DC fired. We're going to talk about it, 45 to 10 from Gero World. This was Mark a total celebration of the Cowboys, the brand, and their standing as one of the very elite teams in the NFL.

It was. And, you know, I've been critical of the, cowboy experience over the years, but not in this version of what we saw because they have been doing this at home all year long. They are five and O at home and have outscored opponents 205 points to 60 in those five wins. That's insane. But it is not nearly as insane as what Duran Bland has done. It's like C.D. Lamb has six touchdowns. And he's a superstar. Like the degree of difficulty of what Duran Bland has done is wild to me. That was not, these are. aren't like, you know, picked off at the goal line, like what we saw in the Seahawks Niners game. It's like that's a 63-yard return. And it's done it over and over. And it's like, I don't,

there are certain football records that we can argue matter or don't matter. This matters because he's helping the team win. He's pouring on points at the end of the game. It's the kind of thing for me that it's like, I don't know if we'll ever see this again. This could be the kind of thing where you could go 50 years or for us. We're not going to be here for maybe 50 more years. You never know. Like it could be a long time before anyone touches this because it's such a confluence of insane things happening. It's not just being in the right place at the right time, but you also have to be the athlete to do what he's done. Like on that return, how easy would have been a 13-yard return? You get clipped. You're down at the ground. It's just kind of magical.

And I know that like it completely electrified that stadium, their owner, the whole thing. Well, are you saying I'm not going to live to 94? That's my. I did not. guarantee that, Greg. Well, the doubt is just not, I'm so much older than you, Greg, that, you know, according to the two of you that I was more suggesting perhaps I won't see that record. Well, you'll be triple digits. If you make it, you'll be triple digits. And that's, that is pretty wild.

That would be wild. That's a long time from now. This Cowboys team does feel different. Now, could they lose in the second round of the playoffs? Of course they could because, like, I don't, I don't think they're a step apart from these other teams. but they do have everything they need right now. And the most important thing is just DAC dots down the field. He's so comfortable.

And Romo, I know he gets over-excited, but I don't think he says things like this might be the best offensive line in the league right now, especially in terms of pass protection, willy-nilly. And they are just playing out standing up front. Now, everyone looks out standing up front against this commander's pass rush. It doesn't exist. But he's throwing the ball deep down the field that's 18. vertical throws for a touchdown this year according to next gen stats way more than any

other player and 14 of those are in like the last six weeks so this is a bombs away offense and i thought these last couple weeks it's almost like they're working on things that they'll need in bigger games they got gallop and cooks involved last week and then this week i thought pollard ran really well i know it was only 13 carries but from quarter one quarter two when it mattered they were consistently running the ball and that was excellent it was actually not a game they were dominating in total yardage through three quarters or anything, but they were getting everything they wanted to done. I think 15 of their first 26 plays were first downs. I mean, that's just stupid. This was in many ways the ultimate Cowboys game, at least

in terms of the regular season. The game on Thanksgiving with the Salvation Army Red Kettle out for the first time, you have a blowout of a hated rival. You have Duran Blan making history. You have Dach once again saying, I am a very. very real MVP candidate. You had a certain celebrity that I'll get to in a moment at halftime. Gerard Jones was over the moon with this one. This is a surreal day. I wouldn't even dare as much as I imagine or as big as I might dream or think.

I couldn't have drawn her day like today up. I couldn't have imagined it. It really had covered a lot of ground. don't you get the feeling that the just the atmosphere and maybe jane slater would be the best person to ask this question too but when things are going well for the cowboys it just seems everyone when you see those like group interviews and stuff around jara like everything is good everybody's in a good mood the cowboys are kicking butt and and spirits are high and if jerry's spirits are high you can tell that whole vibe around that team is glowing and that's certainly where it is right now i i'm totally with you i think he's really well liked i'll never forget actually being in Dallas a number of like thanksgivings ago that's like 2000 Drew Bledso era

and went with my uncle and cousins to the Cowboys game and I watched Jerry Jones before kickoff individually shake hands with I would say roughly 400 people like he took that time so it's like it is his baby it's his thing we've always known that and I've always felt like there's always like an air of like hyperbole to anything he says about the team. But in this case, this season, and yesterday, I did not feel that. I think it was like this is a different Cowboys team to me than one that we've experienced together on this show. He was quoted as part of that Scrum is saying, I'll put some Super Bowls in there. I don't know if I've ever had a better day with the Cowboys than today. And that's all about Thanksgiving.

Like I believe that he believes that in the moment. He's saying that in the moment. Thanksgiving is the ultimate Cowboys holiday celebration. Wes and I love this book. Billy Fountain's long halftime walk, which is a great book sort of about the NFL and military service and football and how, and it's set on Thanksgiving at these games. And there's something so American for good and bad,

like about all this. And the Cowboys putting a bang thing on the commanders is like, I'm sorry, what's bad about it out of the curiosity? well read the book i would say like some of the ways uh i was talking about just yesterday okay the book no nothing bad yesterday just the over the top sort of the way they used the it was written but from the perspective of a military guy yeah yeah because and gregg is very well known for putting myself in line on this uh the celebration of people being fired from their jobs uh because the cowboys decimated the washington defense to the point that the new owner of the team

Harris fired defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio after the game. They also parted ways with defensive backs coach Brent Wieselmeyer. So tough Friday. Here is a missive from the new owner of the commanders. We haven't heard from him, obviously a lot. He just succeeded Daniel Snyder a couple months ago. I feel exactly how our fans feel today, disappointed and frustrated. It's how our players and staff feel as well. I knew our first season of ownership would include challenges along the way, and we will not shy away from hard work, nor will we be deterred by adversity. As Coach Rivera and I discussed, all of our energy for the remainder of the season,

will be focused on playing better, more consistent football, and developing our players while intently evaluating the areas in which we need to improve this offseason. Our fans deserve a team that can compete with the NFL's best and win sustainably over the long term. I will not waver from that mission. Okay, so strong words. there from the new owner. And it did make me think when I heard this morning, guys, that you know, we talked about a couple weeks ago that the setting and environment in the league right

now is very, very ripe for mass dismissals at the end of the year. Head coaches in danger. And what do head coaches and dangers do when there's an issue? You start firing your assistance and you start reshuffling the deck. So I feel like we're seeing a lot of that the last week or so, and now Washington's doing it as well. But I just think it's a little unfair, you know, to Can Del Rio and the defensive backs coach, when you just traded away like your two most impact players on the defensive line, two your most impactful players.

And what did you expect in this setting, honestly? I guess you could be more competitive, but still. I think it's warranted only because this defense has been in its Ron Rivera's defense. So it's a weird move because like Ron Rivera is almost certainly going to get fired at the end of the year. It's almost a move that signals to me. Look, we, we want Ron Rivera to land this thing, but we want to show our fans. We want to do something now and we're not going to fire Rivera until the end of the season, maybe week 18, whatever it is. But this, this is a really poorly coached defense. I thought Del Rio was an uninspired hired to begin with. He lasted a while.

And no team has more like coverage busts over the last four years than Del Rio. They're either really awesome, like, or they're terrible. And there's nothing in between. There was a scout for the, that works, I think, for Cowboys.com, Brian Brodus, who pointed out on a Cook's touchdown, they've run that route a lot all season. But the only team that like fell for it, like a banana in the tailpipe and played it so poorly all year was Washington and they had a walk-in touchdown. Yeah, they were 32nd in DVOA.

It's weird because under Del Rio, they were seventh last year, 27th the year before that, and fourth so they've been all over the map um i'm with you dan in the sense that i just think it was more of a statement move or a try i look like what you just read it's like a signal to the fans like we're not just sitting pat um we see what you see we're as frustrated as you are i just part of me wonders that maybe ron rivera is allowed to to land the plane as you said gregg but i do wonder if maybe this would be an opportunity if you want to go interim to see what eric bennamy could do for a stretch of time here i think this i think this really signaled we're not going to do that i mean you know what i mean like today would have been the day to do it i would but i guess the problem

there then he's he'll get swept out too potentially it's like it's another thing i thought he's done a good job yep right um by the way let's give it up like McCarthy come on now he's got this team humming he does never when kellen more left in the offseason everybody with their little like, oh, he's going to run the offense. How imagine of Texas coast offense is humming. Okay. I mean, you're right. You're right.

And I like, I like, by the way, they've set up a really nice stretch run. Now, they'll be heavy favorites over the Cocks, but that's still an interesting game. And then Eagles, Bills, Dolphins, Lions, really fun stretch run. We got a lot of actually, I looked at all these contenders schedules. There's a lot of good regular season games left. The schedule makers did a nice job. Nicely done, Greg. And finally, I thought the best part of this middle game,

because it wasn't overly competitive, as you could see, was Tony Romo just, you know, basically losing control of his emotions when talking about Dolly Parton's halftime performance while wearing a cowboy's cheerleader uniform. She's like 80 years old. It's very impressive, Dolly, and she's a national treasure, and we love her. But nobody loves her. More like Tony Romo.

Please watch this or listen. And you could hear Jim Nance getting increasingly concerned as Tony can't move off the idea of Dolly Parton in a Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders' uniform. The field is all set after the Dolly performance. We are the champions. She was wearing the Cowboys cheerleading outfit. You saw that coming, didn't she?

I think she's going to go with a little cheerleading outfit tonight. I was like, wow, it's pretty good. What do you think we're going to see? I mean, she looks amazing. You never know what's going to happen here. Who doesn't like Dolly Park? No, she's absolutely an American treasure. That's for sure.

And you are too, fast becoming. As you look at the quarterback comparison. I've got like another take on Dolly that might even top this from our old friend on the show, Mary Kay Cabot. She's actually over indexed mentions. Here was a tweet from Mary Kate Cabot yesterday on Dolly. sitting on the couch watching some football like a big stuff turkey and then dolly happened hopped on the treadmill booked a consultation for implants and reassessed my life's goal LF let's let's F and go Mary Kay Cabot feeling no pain on Thanksgiving I don't know feeling

good feeling real good that is unlike any other Mary Kay Cabot tweet ever it's amazing The kind of the glow in Romo's face is really what takes it to the next level. He's not ready to get back to being an analyst at that point. Nancy's feel, Nancy tried so hard to get out of that. Man's desperately trying to pivot. But you know what? Like everybody's got to stop clutching their pearls.

And you know what? Tony's right. That was incredible. And Dolly Parton, you know, if you want to do some, and I didn't really know Dolly that well other than how everyone else. knows her but she is my wife loves dolly part and she is an incredible kind of humanitarian and the amount of charity she does in addition to being obviously very talented actress and singer and all that see now i'm ro-moing out to her no i think it's appropriate you've done a you've done a nice

job and we didn't try to sidetrack you off of that all right uh let's take a break just you know talk a little more dolly off mic and then when we come back we'll hit the primetime game all right we are back Mark Sessler in the V-neck there is one other Cowboys note

I don't know about you guys but this like this is more of like a parabolic mic item I think depending on you know game to game it's an island game in the middle of the day Dak Prescott's pre-snap cadence can we just play this producer Eric Please.

Producer Eric. Yeah, here we go. Did you not hear this? Mark? I heard this like, yeah, here we go. It was like 347 times this play during the game yesterday. It just seemed to get louder and louder. And it's like, I don't know.

Is it a tell as a pre-snap cadence? I love how he says it. It doesn't sound like a human almost. Well, it's his, uh, greet 18. you know it's his thing and he's been he's been going hard at it now for month plus i would say yeah here we go to the point i'm just saying that sometimes just in my everyday life just yeah here we go and i think it's a nice way to just set off a conversation it's like when like creed rips into my sacrifice in the encore and then half the audience does this

yeah here we go I feel like some of these quarterbacks like they know what we're going to talk about it and like do they lean in from an inflection or vocal point on some level to make it a little even more absurd that it needs to be I think we all know what he's trying to say well I got to tell you this Mark

I haven't released my top five Cadens rankings for the season it's an annual event people really look forward to but between his voice how strong his pipes are and the unique nature of yeah here we go i mean he's a he's a strong favorite for number one this year i'm gonna like go like with you with mvp talk it's too early to talk about the canine's rankings yet you're not allowed to i'm not i now it's it's by the way it's not too early anymore

my point now is that like whatever's happened to this point almost doesn't matter it's still going to be moving forward dack started it yesterday that was a nice nice one because everyone's watching that game that's it's like the most watched games as opposed to the other Cowboys games that nobody was watching right nobody watched any of those speaking of which as good as a sham god did with that call right sham the sham god you know we were talking nance and in and romo what a job by jim nance on the deron bland uh call there i i love seeing nance getting excited in a big spot let's hear it second and ten there it is this is history

If Bland can take it the distance, this would be the record. Bland for the fifth time has a pick six. It's never happened in the history of the NFL. And what a call by you. You got me with goosebumps, Nance. That was unbelievable. Excellent. You're right.

Excellent call by Nance. Who's a Hall of Fame broadcaster? And it's also a very Romo move to his first analysis is on the call by Jim Nance. I wish he didn't do that No, he didn't need to do that But he can't I think that's part of like The give and take with Roma

Like he just His exuberance He just He just says what's on his mind Like the Dolly Parton Situation from minutes ago All right, let's get to the final game This one was

Also a one-sided affair First and goal eight yard lines left Tost to McCaffrey coming left stacked up stays patient Squirts through And takes it all the way down to the goal line Touchdown CMC

What a run that one CMC, TCB A slow fuse on that one Because there was nowhere to go And McCaffrey taking care of business Man, I love the acronyms over there Greg Popper and Tim Ryan with the call Awesome

Awesome performance by Christian McCaffrey Who if now Greg has deigned that we're allowed to talk about the MVP race man where is he in the conversation producer Eric is Mark referred to you earlier I call you human Eric um just Eric's good

can you see or Eric can you see bud where Christian McCaffrey is in the Vegas MVP odds because he deserves to be there he ran for a buck 14 and two scores in the first half putting

the 49ers ahead and they cruised to a 31 to 13 win over the fading Seattle Seahawks who are in a lot of trouble, Gregi. The Niners did what they wanted on offense. And even the Seahawks touchdown came on a pick six. So yeah, this was dominance on both sides. It couldn't be one more one side. It I think has a lot of soul searching going on in Seattle.

But let's talk about the team that matters the most here first. And that's the 49ers. and watching this game, it occurred to me like Kyle Shanahan's 49ers system, essentially. This offense has now been there for seven years. It's been in an NFL where a lot of things change. Like, this has been an awesome offense that's brilliantly constructed and play called for a while now. It's been a great run. And to me, this is the best one.

And it's the best one because of purpose. First of all, because he elevates their offense in a way that Jimmy G and certainly any of the other backups never did. And because they're healthy, which they often aren't. Right now they are healthy. And that's when they weren't winning games a couple weeks ago, that was a big part of it. But also because these guys have been there now for a while outside of Purdy, Debo and Ayyuk and Kittal and Trent Williams. and even a lot of a lot of the line's been there for a while and it's all just coming together and they've they've been so close every year and I'm not saying they couldn't be close

in another year but man you look at this Shanahan thing it just feels like man this is the time this is the team this is the team to do it yep I absolutely feel the same way it's it it is so key that they stay healthy when all five of their offensive stars have been on the field together for full games. They've been undefeated. That shouldn't change. They're so dominant. I think it really mattered last night to see that you got Debo Samuel as the core element again. He's such a change engine. But it's like we talk about the offense, as we should, but their defense is an absolute destroyer. I mean, what they did last night, at one point in the first half, the Niners had 16 first downs and the Seahawks had run 18 plays. And it never really got better

for Seattle. And I mean, you know, the same way that, you know, the first game changed the way we thought about Detroit and Green Bay. I'm looking at a Seattle, you know, schedule where you've got to go to Dallas. You've got the Niners and then the Eagles. I don't know. It feel, it kind of feels like curtains to me and is as bullion as Pete Carroll is at all times, I thought the look on his face at the end of that game spoke volumes. I think they're in a bit of a dark corner that will be hard to escape from. Now, here are the MVP odds, by the way. Jalen at plus 250. What?

This is from Draft Kings. Lamar plus 350. Mahomes plus 425, 2 a plus 550. Dac plus 850. CMC plus 1,600. These are so annoying. Come on, bro. I think he was 16 touchdowns.

Why is Jalen Hertz the favorite? Dak was plus 3,000 a couple of weeks ago. So if you caught on any time, I think that's still value. And where is Tyree Kill, who's, literally my vote right now. Greg, nobody likes Tyreek Hill. I think that factors in.

That's just position by against McCaffrey, though. Yeah, I don't think that factors that he's plus 4,000. I don't think that factors into the draft king odds. But I hear you. I hear it's number 10 right now.

He has some rough stuff in his personal history. Let's see. Let's get back to it. So yes, McCaffrey, I believe he's got 16 touchdowns this year. And he's dominated.

Brock Purdy, statistically, not his best game. He threw that pick six, I mentioned, that briefly made the game somewhat interesting in the third quarter, but also kind of put a stamp on the game and put the game away with a beautiful throw to Brandon Ayyuk in zone coverage. And Shannon Han, after the game, made a point to really pump up Purdy in that spot. He said, you know, that is a play where we have something underneath, a little. checkdown that could have went for 12 yards. So when he decides to put it over the middle on a line from about 30 yards out, that is a high level throw. And I think it gets to, Mark, what we were talking about on Wednesday, about, you know, Purdy and the kind of season he's having. And this, like,

we act like he's, you know, this little boy that was plucked out of obscurity. That's a high level football throw. So, yeah, he might not have the armed talent of those other quarterbacks we mentioned just now, but he's got enough to make it happen when he's pulling the trigger and using his instincts for good. Yeah, I love that you brought up that throw because I think that's an argument in favor of the fact that this quarterback has elevated the play of Brandon Ayuk, who, I mean, Brandon Ayuk was for multiple years in a row talked about this will be the year he totally breaks out and becomes a start. It has a lot to do with him, but it has a lot to do with Purdy as well. And like, their connection has been essentially flawless for weeks on end. And that throw was not the kind of

throw that like a mid-tier quarterback that we do want to write off as a system guy makes. And I look at those MVP odds and it's like, where is Purdy to be honest? It's like I find that to be slightly absurd that he's not near like in the top five, top six of that list, if not higher. I think it's just we're looking at a perception problem when it comes to Brock Purdy in this offense. Here's the thing. If they get the one seed and I'm not ruling them out of that, like he's got a chance.

It's stupid the fact that Jalen's plus 250 because that's just like they have the one seed. And I just love the way they started this game. I think of NBA teams. You talk about two-man games a lot, just like the two stars kind of playing off each other. You know, poor Zingis and Jalen Brown right now. Beautiful two-man game. They got a two-man game going with CD, I mean, with Debo and CMC, where they're just using them interchangeably and matching them up.

And the Seahawks defense had no freaking clue what to do. the first couple drives of that game. Shanahan just owns this matchup. He owns Pete Carroll, who's a defensive coach when the 49ers have the ball. And the way they use those two guys is it's pretty beautiful. It's funny. And that's obviously credit to Kyle Shanahan, the offensive mastermind. I like this thing that's going on this year. I feel like there's been an uptick in it this year of just like shots to Mike Shanahan, Kyle's father, sitting stone faced in the stands with that shock of white hair and a lot of like younger fans don't even know that Mike Shanahan Kyle Shannon is who he is in large part because of Mike Shanahan who was a genius

in his own right and won multiple Super Bowls. And now Kyle has kind of taken the league over and it is that dude. Seattle, you're right, had no answers. It looked like Rick Wolland got benched in this game, although Carol downplayed it afterwards. I mean, he was. He was benched. He missed tackles. He said it, Carol said after the game that he had a bad shoulder, but he was playing special teams after they took him out of the game for Michael Jackson. So, I mean, you talk about Rick Wollin was one of the best young additions to the league last year. Now he's on the bench on the offensive side of the ball. Obviously, Gino Smith is dealing with the arm injury, but this offense just is not humming anymore, Greg. And if, if Gino is not physically

right, and we'll have to see he played that game with a big kind of like not on his throwing elbow, maybe it is that time to have a drew a lot conversation. But at the same time, like nobody was like pumping the brakes on the Drew Block experience harder than me a couple of years back in Denver. It's not necessarily a great second option, but the offense has hit a rut. There's no doubt about it. They're disappointing. Like everything about this team is disappointing. They're six and five.

And what you said about the Packers and the Vikings can get in is in large part because the Seahawks can fall right out of this thing. I mean, think about these two games against the Ravens where absolutely this game and the Ravens game where absolutely Gino didn't excel. But he and he's not going to be able to. elevate things going really wrong around him. But find a spot in this team that's not getting blasted. They spent their whole off season building up this defensive line, completely changing it, spending tons of money, draft picks. They got young guys coming up.

Jermont Jones. They trade for Leonard Williams. They get blown off the ball. They can't tackle anyone, CMC. Their defensive rookie of the year, Tareke Wollins getting benched. Their linebackers are slow. D.K. Metcalf is having one of the worst seasons for a quote-unquote superstar-wide receiver the guy can't make a catch i was gonna i'm telling you i'm out of the club i think greggie i had

i think so he's killing my guy gino jino's not great but two drops that killed drives and then when it's 14 to three and you're trying to change the game and that could have been a touchdown or at least a 50 yard play down the field and dk just drifts and drifts and trust me seahawks fans have been losing their mind over dk's play uh in this game and then they're a line stunk in this game most of those sacks were were quick sacks so it's like i just don't see what they're they're good at they Maybe they're average enough to win nine games again, but man, it's, it's pretty disappointing. It's very disappointing. This is also one matchup that they've, they've just, they cannot solve.

And I think like last year on Thursday night, like Charverius Ward versus D.K. Maccalf was physical and it went both ways. Like last night, he was just taken out of the game, D.K. Matcalfe. And then you got nowhere to go. I'll give the final word to Christian McCaffrey, who deserves to be way better than plus 6,000 because he has been 1st,600, buddy. By the way, 1600. Just for accuracy. Thank you. And 30s plus 3,000 number eight. So he's sort of in the max, but not really. Ridiculous. One of the things I like about the write-ups by the AP and others on Thanksgiving is like just like a lot of turkey talk.

It's just like turkey talks slips in there. And I want to hear this quote from McCaffrey because I'm reading it. And I'm like, man, this guy is really going into detail about this turkey. And it's a like slot it in between two like beefy graphs about the you know other like statistics about this win and then you have all right here's i'm going to drop in the CMC quote here and the guy just going on and on about the turkey that was awesome it was actually really good turkey too i have no idea how they kept all of the dishes were hot um i was bummed i didn't get the sweet potato with the marshmallows that i didn't i don't know if they had the they had a fork but then they you know we had to pick the turkey leg up by that time i was eating the turkeys

but the turkey was really good well cooked wasn't dry at all and like I said still hot which was impressive for being you know 20 minutes after the game I don't know where they kept it but it was good turkey somebody gives emce an update how they kept the turkey warm what did they use was it an oven kept on low was it just covered and kept maybe in a microwave with a microwave off like what what how did they keep it was there one of those burners underneath but they they were very careful not to to have the burner turned up too high. You know what I'm talking about?

Those things? I don't know. They got to have a kitchen somewhere in the bowels of that stadium. But I was thinking as we're listening to that, like, man, I've rarely heard CMC talk at length. And maybe that's why he just gets super nerdy about turkeys. He was spinning out there. That actually was a quote from July. I mean, the guy, it's all he talks about.

I got to say, I watched this game with, you know, friends and their families. And a lot of kids were there. And no moment all day popped to them, like George Kittle, throwing that turkey leg up into the crowd and running turkeys afterwards. That was huge in the 10-year-old set. They were talking about they wanted to throw some turkeys. It was just like that popped. So that was a nice, a nice moment for Kittle to really break through. By that, by that moment in my house, and I still have a family here that stayed the night, the princess bride had been turned on by that.

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. You skipped that. We had a late thing. as you wish anything else no all right i'm going to go play football with um some kids now really yeah dan i would be i hope people dominate them like that sounds like a good spot for you to really shine athletically yesterday we were we played also and it was tough because i had to be um i we used to call it automatic u b um yeah but i think my son

and correct to me and say now that they call it um all qb or something but anyway we had an uneven number so i played qb and it was it was tough when you automatic qb on both sides uh because it's like barry sanders in that flag football game like i'm trying to distribute to all these kids and there's so many mouths to feed and nobody's happy at the end of the game you can't win as automatic qb because everyone thinks they should have been targeted more and here i am i've completed probably about 60 or 70 percent of my passes to and half the kids can't even catch that's pretty high percentage and and after the game I'm being told that I was leaving people out of the game plan so we got another game about to play this now we have even number because some people went home and um I'm going to be playing defense um and I'm going

to be very physical and I'm going to send messages to those who complained about my quarterback play specifically my eldest son Jack who thought that I cost him um the game yesterday by not throwing it to him literally every time. So there's a lot going on here. I'm going to be hitting. I love all this so much. I want to be there. Kareem.

Who was it Kareem Jackson? Yeah. I'm hitting like Jackson in this game. Okay. I wish I was there. Not to sound like Sessler when he plays in tennis with his family, but we played a little football too yesterday. And I almost thought I was dominating the game so much that I had to back off and not not be

as show offy with what was going on. Like you said, distributed around. But the explosiveness was absolutely there. And I was, it was very proud of my son, though, to finish the game, had a key Charverius Ward like pass breakup on me. So in a big spot, I ultimately didn't come through for the team. And he knocked that thing out of my hands like Charverius War. I mean, we've, you know, we've played with Walker in the past.

And you've seen that those innate DB skills. So I'm not surprised to hear that update. I don't really, I like to keep my sons in games where I'm involved, but very rarely do they get the W. And that's the way I was raised as well. My dad in one-on-one basketball took me into, I was like a sophomore in high school to finally beat him. He did this back down move in the post where he would back me down. And then he'd use his left arm as a clear out and do a little jump hook. And it was total BS.

And I would tell him that. And I actually told him that last week, because we were reminiscing about it. And when I finally beat him, it was all the more rewarding. And it was a changing of the guard athletically within the family dynamic. And that's what I want the boys to do to me, you know, he still talks about that. So when they beat me, they'll beat me. And that will be a moment or they'll never beat me, perhaps as well. I'm like, now I'm like Barry Sanders is monster of a dad.

No, that's good dad work. I'm a tennis court. I keep the foot on the gas, though. I'll tell you that much. I know you do, buddy. never forget that barry sanders's dad on the day that barry ran for two thousand yards in 1997 um when the first thing excuse me not at not the 2000 yard when he went to the hall of fame barry sanders's dad uh for sanders's induction and gave the speech the first thing he said

was that jim brown was the greatest running back of all time and then he said that his son was the third greatest running back of all time and everybody He was like, who's, who, what did he mean? Who's the second? He called himself the second greatest running back a lot of time. Imagine. Now that's taking it to an extreme. Yes.

His dad was a handyman. Right. And he literally did not play professional football. Anyway, be nice to your kids. Just one day they'll have to take care of you. All right. Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everybody enjoy it. be back on Sunday with the full recap of both the Black Friday, Jet Stoppins

a pair. Can't wait. And everything on Sunday. Until then, you know what you got to do. Eat the car.