NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2024 Week 13 Recap

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook and Patrick Claybon to recap all of the Week 13 action from around the NFL. The show starts of with a break down of Eagles at Ravens (01:25), followed by Steelers at Bengals (11:30), Cardinals at Vikings (21:20), Seahawks at Jets (28:00), Chargers at Falcons (37:12), Buccaneers at Panthers (44:50), Titans at Commanders (53:48), Colts at Patriots (59:55), Texans at Titans (01:09:32), Rams at Saints (01:16:58), Raiders at Chiefs (01:22:39), a discussion about the Bears firing Matt Eberflus (01:33:00), and the 49ers at the Bills (01:39:18). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we already got our Christmas tree up. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesseling podcast studio with my friend, Patrick Claibon. My other friend, Nick Shook, joining live from Cleveland, where past Thanksgiving, football has officially started. And Patrick's looking around for the Christmas tree here. I know I'm talking about my house for the first time ever.

I got it up like the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm feeling proud. You cook Thanksgiving dinner. You're a real man before even coming into work, Patrick. Well, I mean, the objective, you know, is to get it done. And we were able to get Thanksgiving done, get into work, do some football. And also, Greg, go get a tree, although we didn't do it the next day. Yeah. But we did get out there Saturday.

Trees up. It'll be dead before Christmas. But hey, we're here. I also went, yeah, official real tree for the first time, too. We've got fake forever. So we did the whole thing. Shooki, we're waiting for him to get on the line here. I have a suspicion.

He was watching the end of the Cavs Celtics game, but I'm not going to hold that against you, Nick, for the rest of this show. We got games to go to. I checked the score and I was like, oh, a Cavalanch happening. Okay. I thought you just wanted to stick it to me. You got one win today.

Let's see if Patrick's team got their win. In one of the most important games of the year, two of the best teams in the NFL. Head to Baltimore. First and ten, Eagles. Ball at the 25 of the Ravens. Clock ticking. Hurts put Barclay to his left.

Hurts, this time, to Barclay. Off the right side, breaks the tackle. He's at the 15th of 10 to 5. Touchdown! Save Juan Barclay. He trope it. He's special.

He is special. Mike Quick. That's also Merrill Reese on the call. WIP. The Eagles win the game 24 to 19 in Baltimore, helped by a drive that was all Saquan Barkley. A couple runs for Saquan

Barkley. Pass the Saquan Barkley. A Jalen Hertz run where they faked giving the ball to Saquan Barkley. And then, yes, Saquan Barkley finishes it off. The Eagles have won eight straight games. They are 10 and 2. The Ravens

are 8 and 5. Saquan Barkley in the fourth quarter of games this year. 7.4 yards per carry. That's Pretty good. Leads the NFL in yards in the fourth quarter. Not a surprise there. Patrick, when they got that ball back after yet another Justin Tucker miss,

it did feel like Sequin time. It's been the most reliable, really, aspect to any offense in the NFL the last couple of months. And the Baltimore Ravens had been able to hold them to a couple of three and outs in the second half. Before that drive started, the Philadelphia Eagles had three yards in the second half. Wow. Against the Baltimore Ravens. They actually get a third down. Brandon Stevens can't quite get Dallas.

Goddard on a crosser. And from then, it was essentially over. The Eagles kept getting yards and chunks. And the Eagles doing this with Johan Dotson out in the pattern where Devante Smith would generally be. The Eagles able to use their talent to get past the Baltimore on the road in this game without one of their top five players in Devante Smith. Quignan Mitchell leaves this game. It's just a sign as much as I would love to make this about the Ravens and Justin Tucker missing kicks. Philadelphia is a very, very good team that is very very, very hot right. Yeah, we'll get to the Ravenside and Tucker, Nick,

but I don't need to see it anymore. This Eagles defense is playing the best in the entire league. Their defense, I mean, every week it's something. And today they just made everything hard. It felt like the only play Baltimore could make was Lamar just kind of improvising and making some magic. Yeah, they did a good job of containing the run. They did a good job of keeping Lamar contained in the pocket for the most part.

I mean, 39 of his 79 rushing yards came on that garbage time run late in the fourth quarter. that didn't really matter. I mean, it was an excellent job, but really what it has been is the Eagles defense doing a great job, Vic Fangio doing a great job of adjusting in-game. They've done this over the last three weeks. They did it against Washington, where they stack up points offensively because they keep getting stops defensively. Same thing happens today.

They go down nine to nothing. And just like that, they're back up 14 to 9 because the Eagles defense was getting the stops and affording the offense more opportunities. And in the second half, that was, I mean, it was a near perfect performance. Cooper Jeanne making that tackle on Derek Henry in the open field and third down. That's the clip you're going to see on the eight. internet, but that personifies this Eagles defense. Since

week six, they've allowed 29 point, that's the offensive side, sorry, we'll go back to the defensive side later, but they've allowed 15.3 points per game since week six. That's the second fewest in the NFL, according to NFL research. And before that, they allowed 24 points a game. So if you want some hard numbers to demonstrate the difference between then and now and the start of this winning

streak, it's right there. And they're playing the most complimentary football of any team outside of maybe Detroit. And they have a strong case. that they're playing even better than them. So this was a win that they need to get tested. Road environment, Baltimore is a good team. Now they've officially proven themselves. I'm taking them very seriously.

Right. And we're doing the thing where you talk all good about the winning team and kind of all bad about the losing team. But I watched this game. And these two teams seem very even to me for most of the game. Three, three and a half quarters. Justin Tucker's three missed kicks proved massive. But that doesn't change the fact that everything was hard for the Ravens.

Two of those field goals were from long distance. one because they got a sack to push Lamar Jackson back. Ravens started fast in the first quarter, but after that, they had three straight, three and outs. And like I said, just everything was hard. Even one of those missed field goal drives was a 14-play, 47-yard drive. And that's what the Eagles defense can do. They played zone on 88% of their staffs today.

That's the highest number that they've done all season. It's because you don't want to play man against Baltimore and Lamar Jackson in his running game. And they did a good enough job making Baltimore really earn it. Their offense was a little disjointed. It almost felt like they're waiting for the fourth quarter to get there and Saquan to do something. And then it happened.

Like it's a formula that's worked. Yeah. Just provide Seqon with the opportunities eventually. He's going to get there. But Baltimore, there were two drives in the first half. It was nine to nothing. Lamar had Isaiah likely wide open running a corner route. Isaiah likely kind of chops his feet, changes the angle.

Lamar throws. It was a bad throw regardless, but he misses him there. And then after a great punt by the Eagles, the Ravens are pinned deep. Lamar has Zay Flowers on a ball to the sideline and he short arms. Those two possessions wound up being huge for the Ravens there because, you know, the game script played out the way that it did and the opportunities really dwindled as the game went on where they realized that out wide, talent-wise, even with Reed Blanketship leaving the game, the Ravens don't have the talent necessary

on the outside. And then they lose a wide receiver in in terms of, so Zay Flowers had 73 yards. It's Rashad Bateman goes down with a knee injury. We don't even see their trade deadline acquisition for the remainder of the game.

He gone. I'm not sure if they don't trust him or what's going on, but he's not even involved and there's just not enough talent out there. I think we can add up the different Deonté Johnson teams that have gotten frustrated with him in Pittsburgh and Carolina. And then just look at what's happened when he's been on the field so far

for Baltimore where he's been a part of some ugly plays and surmise they just don't trust him right now because they're playing Thailand Wallace ahead of him. Nelson Aguilar got targeted on two deep passes, one of which was a dime and he couldn't pull it in. I don't know if I want to call it a drop. Maybe I'll call it a drop. It's good defense. They needed to play perfect football and they didn't. You mentioned that the Gene play

where they probably were going to get Henry down, but the fact that he piled drove him. That was special. Come on. Give him some love. It's third down. There's another defender in the back. Derek Henry just the back that you pick up Derek Henry. You got to celebrate the wins, Patrick in life. No, Cooper DeGine's a very good.

He got Jamar Chase in the open field. He doesn't, we don't need to celebrate like when LeBron tries to take a charge and somebody dunks. And it's like, oh my God, he dunked on LeBron. It's just like, okay, Derek Henry got got, it was a nice play by Cooper DeGine. It wasn't even the best play he made in this game. So Sequan's MVP candidacy moves forward. And it's not about just, oh, this team won this.

game and Lamar lost it. I do think Lamar has not been as otherworldly. The last three or four games, he's been good, hasn't been as great. And Sequin is just the engine of the hottest team in the league, the best team in the league. And so we still got a ways to go in this thing, but they're 10 and two and another big spot where Saquan in this offensive line, it's all together to me. If you gave a running back an MVP award,

it's representative of the offensive line and the whole team. And I think that would be absolutely fair. I thought Siriani might lose them this game. I really regret not taking the Eagles in it because they have been a better team. I mean, I think it's just obvious on balance and I picked the Ravens to win. And I was wrong thinking the coaching would make a decision.

But the difference, but the coaching has been fantastic for the Eagles this season, especially on defense. And Justin Tucker's miss, let's have the conversation quickly, his misses prevented the audience from really enjoying the fourth quarter of this game. We kind of got robbed because Tucker's miss kicks

could be the difference right now with Baltimore in big games. Now they're at five losses. We'll see how the Steelers did, but they're not doing as well in the AFC North here. Do you think about benching Justin Tucker? There's no way they're going to cut him, people. But do you think about bringing another kicker?

So I definitely think about working out another kicker because we've talked about this for the entire season now. I've written two separate posts about a month apart about Justin Tucker needing to work on his fundamentals and his technique and it's just something that he can clean up. And he's obviously not cleaning up. And the worst part, in my opinion, I'm no Jay Feeley.

I'm not a kicking expert here, but he's hooking kicks left. He's missing them to the right. Like there's no consistency in any, even the kicks he makes. They're like, oh, it squeezes in there. And this was a Ravens team that played well enough to win otherwise. They cleaned up a lot of their issues. They cleaned up the penalties. They only had four penalties accepted to him against them,

as opposed to usually landing the double digits in previous weeks. You know, they out gained Philly by 120 yards. They won time of possession, but they didn't get the points that they were in position to get because their kicker is not there. And if this team ends up making a deep run into the AFC playoffs, and it comes down to a kick. Are you going to regret not trying at another kicker beforehand? And if Tucker misses that kick and you lose that game in a heartbreaker.

Yeah, 120 yards feels misleading to me. You mentioned kind of the garbage time, 70-yard drive. But that does point out to me it looked like a pretty even game. It was. I do think that the Barclay Hertz combination, it's not quite as difficult in terms of the RPO's to deal with as Henry and Lamar. And Henry did have 82 yards in this game. but, you know, they were trailing there at the end.

But it's pretty darn hard because when Hertz decides to run up the middle, that's where he is at his best as a runner. They had some really important conflicts that they put the Ravens defense in throughout the day. I thought the Ravens defense played well. I think the Ravens defensive improvement is there. But, I mean, forget about the one seed for the Ravens. They have a lot of work to do to win the AFC North. Eagles, on the other hand, still got a shot at that one seed.

and they're closing in on an NFC East title. Let's go to the Ravens rival in the AFC North. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati. Is this the final? They better win this week, or it's really, really, really overgame for the Bengals. Yosovash, in motion to the left. Burl gets the snap.

Here comes to Steelers. Pressure and herbing the Stripzack is picked up by Wilson, and Wilson's going to go in for the score. Peyton Wilson, touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers on the Stripzack. Nick Herbig! What a great job. I'm coming around the court, getting the blitz, and being able to strip that ball. And you got the pain train, Peyton Wilson, scooping that thing up, scoop and score. And right now we're seeing an exodus of Bengals fans leave.

Nate Herberg, big-time play. Rob King, Craig Wolfley, WDVEE, on a day where the Pittsburgh Steelers went over 500 yards of offense. A couple defensive plays that felt like it might have been the difference in a game that's going back and forth and back and forth. Joe Burrow, awesome day, but was a part of three turnovers. And that score there seemed to put it away. The Bengals made another comeback in this game. It ends up 44 to 38, but Pittsburgh gets out of Cincinnati with a win. They're at 9 and 3 up a couple games in the lost column on those Ravens. And the Bengals officially buried here at 4 and 8.

Yeah, we can stop saying it. We talked about it before the show on game day view that it's been must win every single week. And the Cincinnati Bengals seem to come up short every single week, often in heartbreaking fashion. After that, Chris Boswell extra point, after the Wilson returned touchdown, it's a 17 point game. The Bengals come back, the final score, 44, 38. They had a late touchdown from Andre Yosevas after Jamar Chase got loose deep. But this was a game that started with a Cam Taylor Britt. pick six and that was essentially it in terms of bad plays for russell wilson and i'll even

give him that one because cam taylor britt got very physical with george pickens at the line of scrimmage grabbed the back of his helmet ultimately beat him to the inside on the saint on the slant because of that and took that interception all the way back to the house but russell wilson was simply unfaced in this game 414 yards the best throw i've seen him make this year kind of changing his arm angle and hitting pat fryer move up the middle of the field which russell willson can do everybody now not just not just on that play he hit calvin austin for a touchdown in the middle of the field as well but ducked under the rush changed his arm angle it rus cooking today i love to hear it i'd like to look in the pittsburgh box score sometimes just at the the long

reception for different receivers because they're they're a big play offense seven different receivers had a or eight different receivers had a reception of over 20 yards you you never see that George Pickens, Friermouth, Jalen Warren, Naja Harris, Van Jefferson, Corderole Patterson, Calvin Austin, and even Ben Scoronick got in there. When Van Jefferson's going off, that's when you know. Okay, even what Scorotic is getting the plus 20. I mean, even Michael Pruitt had a plus 18. So this is an old school deep down the field type of offense

that Russell Wilson was born to run. Let's listen to the Fryermuth touchdown. Russell Wilson steps to the line of scrimmage, communicates to his team. Has Harris to his right in the shotgun. 30 seconds remaining. Third quarters, Wilson gets the snap. Looking now, under duress will fling to his right. Find Friermouth inside to five and a touchdown for Pat Friermouth.

Oh, who's better to get Luth than the Friermouth? Oh, love that call there by Craig Wolfeley. When you're hearing the Mooth in Cincinnati, you know the division is over, right? Or at least the Bengals season is over. That's a rough one for the Bengals defense, Nick. Yeah, I gave a silent fist pump just because, look, we're at this point in the season now where these Bengals are who they are

and as much as I love Joe Burrow and think he's played outstanding for the majority of the season, they're never going to overcome that defense. And it's time to move on from saying, well, if they mount a run late, you never know. Because today was the type of environment which they had to prove themselves against the Steelers' offense that just continues to ascend.

And by the way, a Steelers' offense that if they needed a day to prove themselves, they were going to do it against the Bengals defense, which can't stop a nosebleed for most of this season. So, yeah, we'll put them to bed, happy to see that, but I'll tell you what, I knew I had a come to Jesus moment last, not this past Thursday, but Thursday before. Yeah.

And Huntington Bank Field in downtown Cleveland where I realized that Russell Wilson was going to be effective like this for as long as he's in a Steelers uniform. And it was when he threw that touchdown pass over the middle of Calvin Austin as like snow is just falling hard on everybody. He just throws it with ease. He made the same throw today in great conditions. He's good. Like he's good in this offense.

They're doing everything that they should to surround. around him with the right scheme and the right players. They're a balanced attack and they're liable to do something like this on a given week. So I'm telling you, man, watch out for them. They're a very good, another good, complimentary football team. 14 missed tackles for this Bengals defense, giving up 91 yards. They just are hemorrhaging on that side of the football. Let's listen to Jamar Chase after the game, answering them questions about that defense.

Did you feel like y'all offensively, y'all had to score every drive, given kind of how the game was going, especially early? Did you feel, yel pressing to get as many points as possible, given how the back of the north was? That's kind of high expectations now. How tough is that to play on a game-in and game-out basis, knowing you as an offense don't really have much of a margin for here? Got a fine way.

Tomorrow, you surprised your defense has struggled the way it has? Uh, I don't know, they need to find a way. We got to find a way. that's tough he held it through almost until the end he almost got out of there without being overly critical and then at the end

that's what they expect which makes sense that's how it's been they know it I mean I don't know what it means when a locker room is divided in such a way that like the offense is maybe blaming the defense for what's happening like how does that even

manifest or affect them negatively? I don't really know because the defense can't play any worse than they've played and they all know it. The defense all knows it. Louana Rumo shows up for work. He knows it. They all know that that's what's cost him what could be a magical season from Joe Burrow. He has some of the best numbers in terms of like over 30 touchdowns and five interceptions or less of any quarterback in the last like handful of years and they're freaking four and eight. It's absolutely outrageous. Now, his turnovers contributed. The offensive line did not play well in this game.

T.J. Watt had a monster game. Two sacks, five quarterback hits, a tackle for loss, 11 quarterback hits total and four sacks. So the Steelers defense made a bunch of big plays. The crazy thing, Patrick, and you watch this game closer to me, is that, okay, George Pickens is like always a main character. He was taunting. He's making plays down the field.

He was part of that pick six, actually, as the intended receiver. But I saw pretty early in this game, For a while, Russ's average depth of target was only 2.8 yards. So were they kind of hitting them with body shots early and then went over the top late? It's crazy to me that the Steelers' offense can be this good. I know it's against the Bengals, but I still think that's impressive that they can be this good against a bad defense. Well, the initial George Pickens touchdown after they came back to answer the pick six

was on a swing out where George Pickens made a guy miss around the line of scrimmage. It wasn't necessarily dinking and dunking earlier. It was just a balance offense. and Najee Harris left the game of leave with a hamstring. He would ultimately come back, but there was a good Cordero drive where Corderole Patterson was operating pretty well

in the run game as well, but you know, Russ finding Pat Fryer move. He targeted him seven times. He called six of those. It was just a balanced offensive attack against a defense. Well, you know, as Jamar Chase expects, that gives up a whole lot of... It's funny because everyone was saying, well, wait until

the Steelers get to the back end of their schedule. It gets a lot harder, and that's probably when they're going to lose this division lead or not be as much of a factor. And all they've done in the back half since their by week is beat the commanders, beat the Ravens, win in Cincinnati. Their only loss was attended by Nick Shook against the Brown.

So you just can't predict this stuff, but up to losses on the Ravens. They do go to Philadelphia next week, and then they go to Baltimore the week after. So as much as I'm just giving them some credit for playing well at this point of the schedule, two of the toughest games you could ask for coming up. If they can just split

one of those two games, they're going to be in great shape to win the division. If they lose them both, we will see. And yes, Cincinnati, even if you win out, you only get to 9 and 8 that probably will not get you into the playoffs. And there's no reason to think this defense can help you

win five straight games. On the Pickens Bananas Index though, this game was about a three. Considering the no call that led to the pick six. He gets hit for a taunting call, which I'm still looking for the first good taunting call in NFL history. And then he got finger guns. He got finger guns on another one. So it's not, you know, he didn't come off the top rope and hit anybody. A relatively

calm Pickens game. I mean, the fact that he's by far their best wide receiver, you can forgive a lot. And it adds a lot of enjoyment for me just as a viewer. So keep bringing it, George Pickens. You're making me look good for having you number two in that draft class coming out of the draft. Although I still don't know if you'd go number two. Let's go to Minnesota, where the Cardinals and the Vikings played a fun one. Here it is. The games on the line against the Arizona Cardinals, fourth and ten for Kyler Murray facing a five-man rush. Kyler, back to pass, throws right, intercepted. Jack Griffin has won the game. And it's a high five for the Minnesota Vikings. They've won five consecutive games. The final score, 23, 22, Minnesota.

Oh, great call there from Paul Allen on K-F-A-N. How does he roll that G there? I can't do that. Big-time defensive play by the Minnesota Vikings on a day where their defense just bending and bended and bended, but they didn't break in the end. And the more I watch this team shook. The more it's starting to remind me of the 2022 Vikings, where they win all those games at the end. It hasn't been as lucky as that season. Or maybe it's the 2017 Vikings with Case Keenham and a magical ride. You're making faces. Either way, this team is 10 and 2. And they're finding ways to win games they're supposed to. And then in this case, Nick, I would say they found a way to win a game that they shouldn't have won. Most of the day was dominated by Arizona.

Yeah, well, first off, the 2022 reference, let's hope it's not necessarily that, because we don't want them upset at home in the playoffs. But sure, we can get on board with this because they are finding ways to win these close games, and they're stringing them together, which is a very, you know, positive outcome. Of course, you want to stack wins.

Sam Darnold, you know, solid, you know, leveling out, not doing the little bit of rise and fall that he was doing it, a couple of clunkers along the way. Not today. Not today, but I got to ask Claybonne. What happened to the search bar, man? How do you, how are you up 19 to 6 in the third quarter? The search bar defense goes missing. Oh, how dare.

Yeah, well, the search part eventually it eventually gave out. Justin Jefferson's slow throughout the game, kind of funnel coverage his way. And Sam Darnold being streaky, Nick, like really, there was a point there in this game where I'm thinking about what we're going to say afterwards, and it felt like the difference was in terms of the quarterback play. But then Sam Darnold hits a plus. He has a great ball to Jordan Addison down the sideline with rushers in his face, hits Jefferson on multiple targets.

I think Justin Jefferson finished with 99 yards. And he beat the search bar. You got to make plays to beat the search bar. And Sam Darnold made those plays today. Well, it's funny to say how for a while it felt like the difference was going to be the quarterbacks. And then in the end, you might say the difference was the quarterbacks. Darnold faced pressure on 53.8% of his dropbacks today, which is an exceptionally high number. So the search bar was getting after it.

And like he's done all season, very against type to what. he was previously. He did well. 10 of 15 against pressure for 119 yards and two touchdowns. And Kyler Murray, who we noted in the preview show, has struggled against the blitz all year. Well, he ends up facing blitzes on 52% of his dropbacks. He only has five yards per attempt on those dropbacks with two interceptions. And that kind of was a difference because on the plays that they weren't blitzing, his numbers are great. And they forced them into a couple mistakes and they really bogged down in the red zone. I think they got down there. What was it? They settled for five Chad Ryland field goals and they were, a lot of them were just

chip shots, a 23-yarder, a 24-yarder, a 31-yarder, a 32-yarder, and a 40-yarder. So they were moving the ball. Kyler had some plays on the ground and yet they couldn't finish it off. This game, at 1916, with 417 to go, Nick, the Cardinals had a first in goal from the five-yard line, up three. And that was like it was all day. They end up moving backwards with a penalty, a bad run, and the Vikings end up forcing the field goal. At that point, they had a 91% chance to win, according to next-gen stats. Later, on the Vikings drive to go take the lead, they have. a fourth and seven. The Cardinals send the blitz. So it's one of those stats that I just referred to.

Sam Darnold against the Blitz. They didn't blitz much in this game. I think it was like five for seven, but against pressure. And he hits a perfect pass on fourth and seven to keep the drive going. Then he eventually gets a go-ahead touchdown. Let's listen to that. Second and two from the Cardinals five. Takes the snap. Four-man rush. Sam to the right. Caughtsdown. Showtime. And Aaron Jones saved his best for last. We're tied at 22. Oh, is Aaron Jones Showtime? Is that his nickname? It's Showtime 33. Is that on social? I should know this. I should have that memorized. Yeah, Aaron Jones had a couple

fumbles in this game. He got benched for a portion of it. He lost one of those fumbles and only ends up with 28 total yards or yards from scrimmage on eight touches. But he gets that important interception. This thing, this division's wide open in the NFC North. We get, we get the Packers win to, to stay afloat in the division. Obviously, they're going to the playoffs. And the Vikings here are at 10 and 2. Like, they have a chance to be the one seed.

They do. And because of late efforts and Aaron Jones had the fumble at the start of the game, that's why he's, you know, doing prayers in the end zone after that touchdown. Because, you know, the Vikings had a good start. Ended with an Aaron Jones fumble, but a good finish. and the defense made plays I think the biggest play in this game there was a third and ten

in the start of the fourth quarter where the blitz comes on Kyler Michael Wilson's running towards the sideline he sees Kyler in trouble and he starts to work back towards him well Kyler's dealing with people so he throws the sideline route Byron Murphy sees that

gets to the ball before he does intercepts and that's really the best opportunity that the Cardinals had late this Vikings defense just makes place the offense picking them up when they need to. Yeah, the Cardinals, this is a tough one because it's a road game against a playoff team

and you really felt like you outplayed them for much of the game. They haven't had many close losses. Like, their losses have tended to be decisive, but they fall to six in six. And after being in first place for a couple weeks, they are no longer because the team in Seattle, they got it done in a Gino revenge game.

Oh, he said it was a revenge game. Third down in seven from the Seattle nine. Blitz is coming. Throw inside. It's picked off. Leo Williams coming near side. He's running like a racehorse. He's at midfield.

Turns up field and has blockers. Holy smokes, are you kidding? Leo Williams is going to take it in for a touchdown. Seahawks. The Seahawks mess up a kick return. They dump it on the defense. And Leo Williams says, I got you covered. Picks it off as he's.

drops back into coverage, comes up the near sidelines, in front of the bench, picks up blockers, and takes it all the way in for a touchdown. Are you kidding me? K-I-R-O. Steve Rable, I think he was about as tired halfway through that call as Leonard Williams was. It made his voice crack. That's how good of a play it was. That was part of a 26-21 victory by the Seahawks, which was absolutely

keyed by that defense, and yes, a little bit of luck. That was the key sequence of the entire game, even though it came in the second quarter, because just one play before that, Aaron Rogers had what should have been a gimmy walking touchdown to Garrett Wilson, where I don't know if it was just inaccurate or he was confused on the route, but Aaron Rogers sails it out of bounds after Wilson absolutely toast the defender on that play. Very next play, pick six, Leonard Williams. Give this man a defensive player of the week award. You didn't give it to him last week.

I gave him the Captain Morgan's captain of the week. I couldn't believe he didn't get it. And he got two sacks in this game. This defense to finish the game shook in eight straight drives. Did not give up a point. They force two turnovers and two turnovers on downs. And this is really a month, I would say, where Seattle's offense has been good enough, but I would say up and down.

But their defense has kept them in games for long enough for Gino Smith to finally get the fourth quarter touchdown drive at the end. Yeah, that's where the Seahawks season has shifted toward the positive, at least in our collective opinion, is that Gino has not had to carry them. At times, he's put them in bad spots. and the defense has consistently over the last few weeks been good, been better, kept them in games. Now it's getting them back into games and affording them more opportunities to take advantage of it. And Leonard Williams, he is going to get that defensive player of the week, hopefully, after not getting it last week. But Greg, good call on you for spotting him last week and that he was overlooked because nobody's going to overlook in this week.

And nobody's going to overlook these Seahawks. I know they just beat the Jets. But the fashion in which they went to beat the Jets is what's going to resonate with a lot of people in a tightly packed, kind of messy NFC West. It seems like they're the team that's building steam late as we can. go into December, kind of figuring it all out and putting it together and playing balanced football well enough to go win on the road, to go overcome a 21 to 7 deficit when you just gave up a 99-yard kick return to be able to bounce back and still fight and fight and fight and

then end up dominating defensively to the point where the other team has no chance to erase even a five-point deficit and you come away with yet another victory and a big one considering what happened with the Cardinals. Yeah, having to fight in two phases because the third phase completely went out of the window. A kickoff return. They fumbled. They had two separate kick returns, two separate kick returners fumble on kick returns. They had the jets have that kick return for the touchdown. Then Michael Dixon goes down. They have to go for it on fourth and one because Jason Myers was getting ready to punt. Coach Mack didn't know who was going to be able to punt the ball. So they go for it deep in their own territory. Fortunately, a penalty bails them out.

they had a fourth in gold to go where Gino took a sack. So much went wrong for the Seahawks in this one. I do agree that they're a good team, but they don't escape if they're not playing a miserable institution like the New York. Yeah, they were lucky today. This game was so crazy. You mentioned so the kick return fumbles that they lost. They lost two of them and they fumbled another one for good measure and they gave up the kick return.

Touched out. And so people got like, wow, that is a. Absolutely brutal, special teams day. That ignores the other kick returns that they gave up. Xavier Gibson went two for 81 on his kick returns. Nwangwu, who had the touchdown, added another 57 yards in terms of kick returns. It is insane the field position that they were giving up, play after play. And yes, you mentioned the Dixon injury.

So it does remind you, like, when teams go for crazy fourth downs, like sometimes it really would help you because, Yeah, the exact scenarios that they went for it. On the game-winning drive, they went for a fourth and six on their own 33, in which the Jets committed a penalty. So that set up a fourth-in-one, which they converted. On the field goal drive before that, they also went for a fourth and six on their own 44.

And again, got bailed out. That was a play you're talking about by penalty. It felt like there were a lot of moments in this game where they were bailed out by penalty. See, Gino was solid in this game and certainly made some nice throws down the field to D.K. Metcalfe, who was in and out and banged up. Jackson Smith and Jigba had some really important catches. They do seem to play their best when it matters the most.

But it was more that their offense was competent, whereas Aaron Rogers and this Jets offense, which came out of the gates looking really good. They played a good couple first drives. I was like, this is the best I've seen Devante Adams and Rogers looked. Rogers looked a little faster today. and then after that first quarter, it was brutal.

12 targets for Adams. He has a terrible drop and a key penalty. Garrett Wilson had 10 targets and Rogers just kept missing him. Rogers averaged under 5 yards per attempt. It's just dink and dunk and missing everything deep, not accurate. And it's just rough out here if you're Aaron Rogers. After the game, Jeff Ulbric, the Jets coach, was asked if he'd consider benching Rogers. This was the week.

I mean, I know Aaron was looking forward to it. off theater report. He was healthy. You said he was the healthy. He's been in quite some time, and statistically didn't do well at all. Had some trouble with his accuracy to pick six. Would you ever consider making a change at that position now?

Not as of today. Good thing we got the preface in for that question. Yeah. I don't know. He was a little more certain about it, Nick, in the past. It makes you wonder if he knows that there's at least a chance he could get pressure from above.

according to Diana Racine at the athletic, the owner wanted Rogers benched at some point. Yeah, and that's the thing with this Jets team, is it's not that you're three and nine. It's not just that you're trudging toward a dark winter in a hopeless season and you lose games like this. It's the fact that the Rogers Cloud is now hanging over you. And you have no idea what the future looks like.

In fact, many Jets fans probably don't even want him involved. It sounds like the organization. Some of them might not want him involved. So where do you go from here? There's no way. And I thought he played better for Times State, but there's just no there's no way you know you bring him back and what do you mean you think there is he's he's been calling the shots the whole time and so like you give him that much leeway

it's funny because now they've lost so many games that i i do have to point out like this is one of the better three and nine football teams i've seen in a long while like they are in all these games and i can see them convincing themselves it's like we're so we're so close the banner yeah they had a good defensive game plan for most of this and they just they just lose they have Luser vibes where they find ways to lose. That is the opposite of what Gino Smith does every time he faces a team that let him go. Now, five and one, my favorite research note from Dante

in our next gen stats, research department points out, Gino Smith has that best record of all time against teams that have gotten rid of them. Five and one for quarterbacks that have played over five times. Let's see the tweet that Gino had. If you're watching on YouTube, you know which one I'm talking about. It's the meme.

the guy doing the fit check at his biggest haters funeral. Yes. And so that's how Eugene feels. That's why I assigned myself this game and I will forever more.

If Gino Smith is playing in the metal lands against the Jets, that's the ultimate revenge game. And he got the revenge for a first place Seahawks. So did Leonard Williams, by the way. Yes. Yeah, so did Leonard Williams.

Let's not forget him. Team revenge. I mean, yeah, I don't know if the Jets and Leonard Williams had a bad thing. And then he played pretty well for the Giants and really underrated career. Leonard Williams. Revenge against MetLife Stadium. Yes, Gina Smith, getting it done. Let's take a quick break.

And let's head to what annually is one of my favorite. Guilty pleasures, I would say. The NFC South. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel?

That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more.

What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape

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Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Robinson to his left. Looking middle of the field, no pressure throws, and intercepted. Derwin James ends the game. Do it, Derwin. And due to their defense, the bolts are going to get on a plane back to Los Angeles with a victory.

K-Y-S-R, Matt Money, Smith, our guy with a great call for the great Derwin James. Kind of nice to see Derwin James playing meaningful football in December and making big plays. Finally, he's got a better defense and a better team around him. The Chargers are 8 and 4. They win at 17 to 13, and that was Kirk Cousins' fourth interception of the game. And third, Nick of the second half, second in the fourth quarter, back-to-back drives. Kirko Chains, tell me it was better than the box score shows. Nope, it wasn't.

In fact, it might have been worse than the box score. I mean, they moved the football well between the 20s. They got to the red zone a number of times. And Kirk, he had a few really ugly interceptions, including that Derwin James Bond. But the one that he threw in the red zone prior, when they had their best opportunity to score a touchdown to take the lead was the worst, just most ill-advised throw. I've seen it a long time. He never had a shot of making it happen. That defined his day.

They wasted so many opportunities. And I don't want to talk about the losers first, but their defense played its best game of the season. They got five sacks when they entered the game with 10 combined as a team on the whole year. They got five today. Wow. And they did nothing with it offensively.

And a lot of it had to do with Kirk Cousins not taking advantage of the opportunity. Bejohn goes for 102 yards. He scores a rushing touchdown. They're up seven nothing. They'd already missed a field goal earlier. They could have been 10 nothing. And then they could do nothing with it from there. It was, it's a frustrating game for them,

but another good win for the Chargers whose defense, I think, made, you know, a statement after giving up 30 points in that loss of the Ravens. They come back, they hold the Falcons to 13. They stiffen up in the red zone a few times. You know, it's a bend-but-not-break group that really did a great job of confusing Kurt Cousins in the second half.

Jesse Minter's coaching really well right now. And they did just enough offensively, and Cameron Dicker made just enough field goals for them to win this game on the road and get to 8 and 4 and just prove that, hey, we're not going anywhere. Like, yeah, we lost the Ravens, but we're not going anywhere.

Yeah, Nick, you had eyes. on this closer. Explain to me how the Chargers had 187 yards on the game. That's outrageous. That's one of the most surprising things I've seen all day. And the fact that they could lose that game

must be driving them absolutely crazy because it's the opposite of how they've played the rest of the year of the Falcons, that is. Yeah, yeah. That's why I said wasted opportunities because they had a million in front of them. I mean, they were shutting down this Chargers offense. Justin Herbert had like no time to really operate all day.

It looked disjointed the entire day. The running game wasn't there. Ladd-McConkie was the only guy making plays. Then he left the game with a knee injury. I mean, they barely had the ball. They lost time of possession by nearly 12 minutes. It was 11 minutes and 55 seconds. It's just that the Falcons never finished off any of their drives.

A lot of it was the Kirk picks, but it was also just not finishing the drive. So that's how it happens right there. But you know what? If you come away with a win like that, you got to be feeling good because you kind of have to feel like you stole one with a lot of that being credit to your defense. Yeah, you saw David On Yamada got a sack. Arnold Ebikati got a couple of sacks in this game. a falcons defense that hasn't been able to sack the quarterback at all this season and hasan

Askins had a fumble to start the game which got the falcons that touchdown but it's this game it's one of those games where you can look at the box score and see exactly what went wrong those cussons four interception were brutal he has eight touchdowns and one interception against the tampo bay buccaneers this season he has 12 interceptions wow non buccaneers games where it you've really gone to a standpoint of we're talking about Rogers getting benched perhaps the Falcons

should go to the rookie quarterback at this point. Yeah, let's talk about it because I think it's very much something that needs to happen right now. Let's listen to Rahim Morris, who was asked about it.

But you'll stick with Kirkett quarterback. You don't have any question about that. Yeah, we got no issues with that, man. Like, I don't think that's going to be the issue around here. You know, that guys carried us. That guys got us to the point where we're 6 and 6th,

first place in the division, still got everything in front of us. But despite what happens today, it's up to us to bounce back could find a way to win football games, and there's no better man in 18 to go do that for us. Strong on it. I have a response.

Please. For you, Rahim. Okay, according to NFL research, since week 10, Kirk Cousins has posted three straight games with a negative expected points added. His negative 24.6 EPA in that span ranks third lowest among quarterbacks.

And I'm not done. Kirk Cousins is the first player with 100 plus passing attempts, zero passing touchdown, six or more interceptions, and at least one pick six in a three-game span since Brett Favre in weeks 14 through 16 of the 2005 season with the Packers.

Now, Brett Farr's in the Hall of Fame. Kirk Cousins isn't going to be in the Hall of Fame, but if the Falcons want to get to the playoffs, they may need to take a closer look at the situation right now because he's just not helping them. He's hurting them. I get all that, but I get why Rahim Morris is going to stick with him

for as long as he can. He's moved the ball well this year. He's been a turnover machine lately. That's what nine? picks in the last six games, but he's also fumbled quite a bit. You fumbled today as well. That would have ended the game, but the Falcons fell on the fumble, so they got some luck there. So I don't know what to think, because if the Falcons went into the buy week and came out with a much more competent defense and pass fresh, they might just win this division. Despite everything,

they're not a great team. These two teams define, to me, like, borderline playoff team. But the Chargers, as we talked about going into it, Patrick, we're just going to be kind of like the team less likely to shoot themselves in the foot. And that's exactly what happened. Yeah. This no, no J.K. Dobbins is a real issue. And then you take, as Shook mentioned, Ladd-McConkie off the field. And it gets to a point where it's hopeless for this Chargers team looking to make plays,

even with their generationally gifted quarterback. They need the pieces there. But to see, because I was. so pleased, right, with the boost that this Ravens Pass Rush had at SoFi Stadium against the Chargers but now I'm seeing the Falcons get off against the Charger's

of line and it's like, wait a second, perhaps what we saw was not necessarily improvement from Baltimore. Maybe there's problems on this Chargers offense. There absolutely are. It's on the interior especially but even the tackles maybe not quite as strong as you would expect it. It's just caving in and yeah, McConkey

went 9 for 117. The next closest receiver had 12 yards, quitting Johnson. on four targets. And yet, this Chargers team's got a little bit of magic. When I have an excuse to listen to Matt Money-Smith for a second time in a game, I'm going to do it. It was the defense scoring the points for the Chargers. Kyle Pitts left Bijon in the back field.

They take the snap. Looking right, throwing right, intercepted. Left sideline, 30, 20, Tarr, Heave, still touchdown, Chargers. Oh, fear the turtle. We looked it up, and Tar Heap still did go to the University of Maryland. Great win there by the Chargers to get to 8 and 4. It's going to be tough to keep them out of the playoffs. If you look at their schedule, it's a fun one next week against Kansas City.

We'll put a pin in that one. I think there's only one team making the playoffs from the NFC South. Is it going to be the Falcons or is it going to be the Bucks? It's time for the Sunday Drive presented by the all-new hybrid. Toyota Camry, let's head to Carolina. Lead a good snap. The spot a little low. The kick is airborne. It is airborne. It is airborne. It is good.

Box win. Box win. Box beat. The Carolina Panthers in overtime. Gene Deckerhoff, WFU.S. Chase McLaughlin. On a day where some kickers struggled in big spots, he was massive hitting a kick to force overtime after. a late drive. And then, yes, that short field goal to win it, 26 to 23 in a game. Frankly, I didn't think the Bucks quite deserved. I thought the Panthers outplayed them for most of the day. But the kickers were a huge difference. Eddie Pinheiro, who at one point in the day was the number one overall kicker.

Of all time. Of all time, according to field goal percentage, misses two short ones in the first half. There's bogged down in the red zone over and over again, included a drop by Adam Thielen on a potential touchdown. There were a couple drops on nice Bryce Young throws. Bryce Young leads what could have been a game-winning touchdown drive, maybe the best moment of his young career. And I don't care that they lost the game. That to me was the story. Very calm and composed. He gets the ball back with three minutes to go down four, needing a touchdown, gets it all the way down to the 25-yard line, but do they play it safe and go slow? No, did they get the game? Go ahead, touchdown to Adam Thielen. Let's listen. Bucks rush four. Bryce in the pocket, steps up, alludes the rush, throws

end zone, caught Adam Thelan. Touchdown, Carolina. The Panthers take the lead with 30 seconds. Awesome performance by Bryce Young. I was watching him and Baker Mayfield and thinking of all the similarities that they have and seeing Bryce Young outplay Baker Mayfield and this would have been a great win for them. But I got to think Panthers fans and Bryce Young fans like yourself

as disappointed as you must be, Patrick. Man, it's just cool to watch him play in this well. Stacking better weeks on top of better weeks every week. Yeah. And maybe the only issue with these past two weeks for the Carolina Panthers both at home is scoring too fast. Right.

In those closing moments, I mean, you can't blame him. That one happened with 30 seconds, just a brutal letdown to let Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans connect, eventually leading to that big McLaughlin field goal to send the game into overtime. But Bryce nails again. I think he's had highlight reels on his incompletions these past few weeks where he's baking throws, putting the ball in the right spot, making the right decision. I know people are going to credit, you know, him sitting down for it. I think just like, if we want to look at Kirk Cousins in these past few games, so Kirk Cousins was on a touchdown streak. He had seven touchdowns and one interception after beating the Dallas Cowboys.

And so, like, are we saying that the Dallas Cowboys defense is what led? I just think Bryce has talent. We're seeing it play out. The Carolina Panthers are playing better. Jonathan Brooks had his best game in his young career and his limited opportunities. Of course, our brutal fumble by Chuba Hubbard. but overall the team is better. And I think people have a better idea of what Bryce can do.

Yeah, they were in position to win this game a couple times in overtime. Or rather, a couple times in the game right at the end of regulation. As I mentioned, they played from ahead for a good chunk of the game before the Bucks made a fourth quarter comeback. And then, yes, he has one of his best throws of the year, Bryce Young, that is, on third down. And it really points out what he's been doing. well. The Bucks send basically a zero blitz at him. He stands in there, knows he's going to take a hit, throws a pass to Adam Thielen way before Thielen makes his break. And then Thielen, who ends up with eight for 99, this guy is ageless and the touchdown. That drop, you know, just a one

salty reminder of the day, but otherwise he was absolutely fantastic. Makes a ridiculous one-handed catch. And that's what Bryce has been doing. It's been next level, anticipation throws. They're in position to win the game and Chuba Hubbard fumbles on the very next play. Unfortunately, bucks go down and get the win. I do want to give a lot of credit to the bucks for hanging in there and winning a game that maybe in the past they wouldn't have. Bucky Irving, Nick, ends up 25 for 152, also 33 yards on the ground. What if I told you that Bucky Irving has 424 yards over the last three games? That's absolutely ridiculous. Three touchdowns. And he looks good doing it. And he looks good doing it. Like he makes so many people

miss. He's now better in the receiving game. He, to me, was the difference. When they came back in this game, it wasn't because of Baker Mayfield, who eventually made a few good plays, but otherwise had one of his worst games of the season. It was because their running game and their red zone defense kept them in it.

Yeah, it seemed like every time you looked up, you saw Bucky Irving ripping off a long run. And it's nice to see him taking the leadback role in this offense because for the first half of the season, Todd Bulls was like, I want to play both of them, him and Bershad I'm not sure. Bucky gets 25 carries Rashad gets 11 today. I think we know who the number one back in that room is.

But you know what, Greg, you are a true pro. You know how I know you're a true pro? Because you totally sidestepped on perfect opportunity as king of all Baker Mayfield haters to hate on Baker Mayfield in a game in which you through two interceptions that were both kind of predetermined, anticipatory throws. He basically gave the Panthers opportunities to build this lead and then came back and was able to lead them on that field goal drive.

Chase McLaughlin misses the first field goal in overtime, gives the Panthers an opportunity. Then they come down and Baker leads him down again. I can't believe you didn't swing for the fences on that. I would have gotten there eventually. Thank you, Nick, for setting me up. I did say it was one of his worst games of the season. And the interesting part of that is I would have said that before the interception. He was in Baker create mode and it was like Baker create mode gone wrong. And that's where I saw the comparisons between him and Bryce Young, because Bryce Young throwed with so much anticipation. And when he went create mode today and stepped up them in the pocket, he had such a good feel for things. Whereas

Baker was kind of doing the thing where he would spin around, but then spin right into a sack and create more problems than was initially even there. He got hurt at one point. It looked serious. He was in the medical tent for an entire Panthers drive and then missed a couple plays. And then he comes out on third down.

It's like, Baker Mayfield, the hero. And that's when he throws his second interception, which didn't have anything to do with his health. It was just he didn't see the underneath defender in zone coverage, which happens a lot with Baker. So it wasn't a good game for him. And you're really seeing that their offense is all about 10 yards and under. He was 6 for 13 on throws over 10 yards.

And that's been the case for much of the season. But the reason I didn't hit it hard, Nick, is those last couple of drives, actually, he was, he did the right. He did, he did well. Like, so it's like, his defense and his running game gave him a chance, but he did make some good plays at the end to win it. And they do have a knack of doing that. Including a big run. Yep. on that final drive in regulation to give Chase McLaughlin a chance to do it.

I think the leg might have had a little impact on his performance late, especially he comes back in immediately, throws that interception. He might have been better late, though. He was awful in the first half of this game. I'm telling you. Yeah, I feel like he got stepped on. I'm not sure. They showed the replay.

It looked like anything happened on the play. But then at the end of the play, he got stepped on. His ankle went in a weird direction. I was kind of gimpy on that big. run, but enough, enough to get a win. Huge win. I was thinking what a brutal loss it's going to be for them because

they don't have the tiebreaker against Atlanta. This would be another division loss for the Buccaneers, but instead you get this victory. You're 6 and 6. You're now tied with the Falcons. The schedule is more forgiving for them. And right now, you'd have to say the Buccaneers are the slight

favorite to win that division. But we got five weeks of sloppy NFC South football to go. Disappointing for the Panthers, because they legitimately could have felt like, are we in this division race? You never know. They are definitely playing better. And I think they're a tough out.

Sometimes it's not about your strength of schedule. It's when you play a team. And if you're playing the Panthers now, you're playing a reborn Bryce Young. Maybe we'll talk about him for QB Island this week. Oh. I'm just saying. He's playing that kind of football over the last month.

Just saying that. That was a Sunday drive presented by the all-new hybrid Toyota Camry. Whatever your vibe, Camry vibe. Learn more at Toyota.com slash Camry. So the Bucks, the Falcons, they're keeping an eye on the commanders because if there's going to be another wild card spot available, maybe it would be because of a commander's slide. We'll see if that continued in Landover. Tennessee's got six across the line, a quick throw.

To Terry McCorn, caught it. Touchdown. Touchdown, Washington. His Second of a half. Death, Texas, and Terry McCor winning on the slack. Look it. And that's exactly what he did to get into his zone for the second time in this game against the Tennessee Titans. Oh, London Fletcher.

One of the great Washington football team players. You know what I'm getting at. Yeah. Commanders get the win. 42 to 19, Brian Weinstein and WBIG, also involved there. Yes, Terry McClure, that was his second touchdown of the day. And look, Jaden Daniels came out.

He was accurate and they got a win with a 27 to nothing lead here, Shook, and never looked back. Yeah, the Titans did just about everything they could to put themselves in a very deep hole. I mean, essentially their first four possessions were not great. Let's go punt, punt, fumble. We're down 21 points. Let's fumble the ensuing kickoff return. Now we're down 28 points.

Oh, God, we're down four touchdowns. What are we going to do? You know, I felt like Will Levis never really had much of a chance to get going. By the time they were down 21 to nothing, they'd run 10 plays. Okay, they'd run 10 total plays by the time they were down by three scores. You know what happens to game script when that happens. And they did do a good job of fighting back eventually, but the commanders, man, back in stride. They take advantage of turnovers.

They produce points. Jane Daniels looks good again. He's ripping the ball over the field. He's fighting Terry McLaurin for two touchdowns in the first half. Everything's flown. Brian Robinson slices through that. defense like it's you know hot knife through butter for the first touchdown everything's rolling for them the the rumors of a cliff kingsbury late season slide oh they're way overblown because

they're playing the titans it was a good day for them it was good for them to get back on the right track and and play you know solid team football they did let the titans kind of back into it in the second half but it was never really in doubt and and finish strong and good for them to get to eight and five yeah that's a big win for them but cliff got the run game going or at least the players got the run game going. I don't know we have to put it all in the offensive corner. But Nick, for them to go for 267 yards on the ground and right off the bat when Robinson ripped that 40-yard touchdown. And that's on their first drive of the game. That was before any mistakes by Tennessee offensively. To me, that showed something a little different

because this has been a tough Titans team to run against. And Chris Rodriguez goes for 94. Robinson ends up with 103 Jeremy McNichols when he's out there, 5.3 yards per carry. They're not throwing the ball down the field almost at all. All of Jane Daniels' yards almost were on 10 yards and underthrow. So it's kind of back to their formula at the beginning of the season. But if they're running the ball like that and they did it against a good team, they have a chance to remain scary down the stretch. Yeah, and this is a necessary reset for them because I think they fell a little bit too

in love with throwing the ball downfield or at least trying to during that stretch of losses. So shortening the passing game was good. But you can only do that if you're running the ball well. And we can give Cliffs some credit because the Titans were one of the toughest teams to run against, like you said, they were allowing less than a yard per carry before contact on design runs today. They came up a ton. I mean, obviously, we saw the two 146 yards and three touchdowns on design runs, including 78 yards over expected. And get this, 2.8 yards before contact per carry. That's two whole yards per carry more than the Titans were allowing

coming in here. So credit to the offensive line and the scheme at least, I don't know if it's necessarily Cliff, to get that going, which really balanced out their offense, allowed them to operate in the short passing game and run away with the thing so much that they they kind of rested on their loyals in the third quarter before they woke up and finish the thing off future uh chicago bears head coach cliff thingsberry well who knows we'll hold that talk for a minute later uh they're eight and five they finally got to their by week i thought this was a big game for them because they have a couple games where they will be favored significantly against the saints and the cowboys down the stretch they probably just need

to get to 10 wins this was a big one to yeah and they keep their quarterback clean in doing so where I know we had kind of put the rib concerns away for Jaden a couple of weeks ago. But this clearly, like this rushing performance and passing performance, I think you only had five incompletions in this game. And I will give Cliff credit because it wasn't like a late game, Hail Mary type situation. We saw Terry McLaren on the right side of the field. Hey.

Another touchdown today in the middle of the game, like not in a weird scenario. I don't think it's a situation like in the Bengals game. where Terry called to play, I think this was Cliff. And so the adjustment in the late season cliff meter goes back down. And yeah, a plus performance by Cliff Kingsbury against the Titans team that was fun. And Dan Quinn's defense, as well as Cliff Kingsbury's offense, drained all the fun away from the late season. Yeah, Levis threw seven passes in terms of his attempts of over 20 yards on the day. Jayden only attempted six throws over 10 yards on the day.

So that's the different types of offense. And the score certainly was part of that. They didn't need to do more. Terry ends up with two touchdowns, eight for 73 through the air. He was fired up after the game. This is courtesy of the commanders on Twitter. Hey, hey, that's a good team win, man. That's a great team win.

Hey, we put the standard out there today, bro. Ain't no excuse for we don't come out every single week like that from practice, the energy, the practice, the preparation, all of it, man. That's what it takes to do what we do. Let's go. I'm ready to play. There's something about Terry McLaurin when he speaks. Just the look at his eyes, it's like, oh, yeah, I would follow that man anywhere.

That dude is the dude. And kind of like I mentioned with Derwin James earlier with the Chargers, even more so with Terry McLaren. It is cool to see him playing meaningful December football. So the commander is trying to get a wildcard spot. in the NFC. Same is true for the Colts in the AFC. Let's go to Foxborough and let's start at the end.

Fourth and three, 17 seconds left. Anthony Richardson with the game on the line. Shotgun snap for Richardson, backs the throw. Look, he's left. Fires into the end zone. He's a touchdown. Got him. Touchdown, Colts.

He's going for two, Matt. And it's Alec Pierce. And he's going for two. What great poise. And precision on the pass. Anthony Richardson to Pierce in the left side of the end zone. And it's now 24, 23. Anthony Richardson out of the gun.

Jonathan Taylor is his back left. Go to Pittman. Shotkin snap for Richardson. And he's trying to crash up field. He got it. And he is. He's in. He's in.

The two-point conversion is good. Two points for the Colts. An eight-point possession. Give it to your best player on offense. And he delivers. Culk back on top, 25, 24, 12 ticks to go. Oh, never a doubt. Matt Taylor and Rick Venturi, WFNI.

In ending so good, we had to play two plays. Anthony Richardson, yes, gets the touchdown when he needs it to Alec Pierce. Mr. Clutch this year, Alec Pierce. Spice rack was right all those years ago. on the Around the NFL podcast coming into the draft saying Alec Pierce was going to be a guy

and he's turned into a guy and yes, the huevos and the trust of Shane Steichen in that moment to know that two yards out Anthony Richardson running the ball you're not going to get a better chance

to go ahead and win the game. You don't want to go to overtime with Drake May anyways. Let's let Anthony Richardson run it in. Patriots actually got in position to potentially steal one but the Colts get it done in the end, Patrick.

And they get it done mainly with a lot of the supporting cast for Indianapolis coming up short. Late in the fourth quarter, A.D. Mitchell on Anthony Richardson's best throw of the day down the sideline had a drop. Kylan Granson on the final drive had another huge drop. And you wonder what was going to be the ultimate storyline, another game where the Colts coming into it. You look at the box score, say Anthony Richardson can't make these completions late. Alex Pierce comes up with that catch and then we heard the result of Anthony Richardson going in

in an up and down game that started with the Patriots having an incredible drive. I'm thinking in the back of my head I'm hearing Greg Rosenthal's voice talking about Alex Van Pelt a couple of weeks ago. He's dialing it up.

Ramon Jay Stevenson has a 32-yard run. Drake May goes Drake May. And then they get into the red zone and things clog up. They had a third goal on that first drive of the game, ultimately run mesh. You're playing against the Colts. So Gus Bradley's got everybody

sitting in the zone against all the crossers. Drake may has nothing going there, gets sacked. And that's a theme. The Patriots have a ton of red zone possessions. A lot of them resulting in field goals. When they do make the plays, Anthony Richardson and the Colts came back and ultimately got

this win on a great call by Shane Steichen and great play by the second year quarterback out of Florida. Yeah, the Patriots go two for six in the red zone. They have one of their best offensive games of the season, not just 24 points, which which for them is a big number, but 422 yards.

They outgain the Colts by over 150 yards, and that includes a final drive. And they almost left too much time for Drake May. They give him 12 seconds. They do the gutless, totally idiotic touchback thing. Coaches, this is just such an obvious mistake that coaches keep making. This is the exact scenario where you kick it short of the end zone. You might end up tackling them before the.

30 anyways and you burn some clock, but instead they give the ball to the Patriots at the 30. That gives them time to actually have an incompletion where it goes off Hunter Henry's hand, but then May sets up a bomb of a field goal attempt, Joey Sly from 68 yards out after a couple throws to Hunter Henry. The kick comes up short from Joey Sly. You know, we did check to see if that was a fun call from Zolak. He was subdued actually in that moment. But I am happy to tell you that the two-point conversion try that Anthony Richardson hit was a good one. So let's listen to that. The Colts, I'm going to go for it here.

Look at this. So scratch those remarks about an extra point at overtime. Shane Stike and the head coach of the Colts is playing for the win right here right now. 12 seconds to go. 24, 23, New England. Richardson and the gun, Taylor, to his left. A two-point try for the win. two receivers left to right

fake to Taylor run out the middle Richardson prying his way forward he breaks the plane he's in for the touch two point run and the Colts man it takes balls celebrating from the near sideline

as they've taken the lead 25 24 with 12 seconds to go credit to them that takes balls that takes big ones normally we use euphemism Scott but yeah I like it. I like it. And he was giving them credit in a big spot.

Game recognizes game, you know. Zolak. Six and seven, Chucky, they get to their buy both these teams. They both just felt like they needed a buy. And what a big victory for Indianapolis. Because it really would have felt like this thing's over if you lose in Foxborough. So it would have just been a much different feel going into the buy. But now you get a win.

And who knows, I've seen teams reset, especially with this late buy, where the last four games, they're a little bit of a different, team and they try to figure some things out and they're at 6 and 7 they're in the mix. Yeah, I was monitoring the score. I'm just like, man, this would be such a face plan if they lost this game today considering where they are. But it does set up for them really well. You come out of that by.

You go on the road to Denver. That's a challenging game, of course. But then you get Tennessee at home. You're at the Giants at MetLife where we know they're notoriously bad. And then they come home and they play Jacksonville Jaguars in week 18. You can win those last three games. Like, I'm picking you in those last three games right now. So if you can get past Denver and you go 4 and

oh, we know what we're talking about, baby. That's nine, what, 10 and seven, something along those lines? I can't even do math in my head right now because I'm so surprised by the outcome. Yes, 10 and 7. 11 and 7. Math, whatever it is. 9 and 8 might get it done. If you can win the division games, we will see.

We keep winning games here on NFL Daily. People said, people said Greg, you really going to go survivor pick against Drake? Isn't that tempting fate? you're really going to be that bold are the Colts really that good we had faith Patrick we did it yeah never in doubt there was so much doubt Greg there was significant amounts

of doubt I thought it was over and the other one we were debating was Seattle which they were in trouble all game too and you know what we were picking between two winners but sometimes in life and in NFL seasons you need a little bit of luck it's got some today it just it works out

I remember the two point conversion for the Baltimore Ravens late where they pull guards, the guards trip over themselves, and then Lamar has nowhere to go. Here, you get to see the other side where Quentin Nelson is the puller. He comes across to Christian Barmore on the two-point conversion and absolutely flattened. Anthony Richardson goes in the end zone. Just a great call, great execution by the Colts, helping us survive.

I'm looking forward to watching this closer on the old NFL Plus, maybe a little NFL pro, if any on how I'm feeling. Both. Dual screen it. Give me your very, give me your very. short, Drake Mae. I can't wait to find out. Like, your May review for the day. Because a good day, offensively

for them. I'm still, like, thinking like any time they're out gaining opponents by 150 yards and their two leading receivers by far are Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper. You must have something pretty good at quarterback. Yeah, and the, with the Austin Hooper touchdown, the streak continues of Drake May's

touchdown passes going to different receivers. What is the streak? I didn't know the streak. Almost every Drake, I think there's only one common recipient of Drake May touchdown passes, which has kind of been the story. He's spreading the ball around. Just a fun player to watch on a team that is lacking talent-wise, where you get a lot of consternation from a fan base that expects excellence.

And some of those excellent players are elsewhere right now. Yeah, they are. And they're 3 and 10. And I was trying to explain to my dad, Tom Rosenthal, who was probably watching this game at my house. great Thanksgiving visit came in for a little NFL daily and I was just telling him

don't worry about all this, this week to week stuff. The only thing that matters this season is Drake May. And I'm already calling the victory. This is a 10 out of 10 draft pick. You might as well get a higher pick for next year. As long as he keeps building and looking better each

and every week, that's all that really matters for this team. Let's take a quick break. We will see if the Colts division rival Texans came through in Jacksonville to me on the other side. Hey, this is Matt Jones. And I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL cover zero.

We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative. and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get.

Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from Scouting Reports and player development. To team-building philosophies, coaching trends

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we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. CJ will get up to the line of scrimmage, I formation, third down and five across the Houston 49-yard line.

Nixon, the tailback. Here's the toss to Joe, running left, has room. He's got it. Across the 42 to the 41. That's going to do it. The Texans will kill the clock, and they will beat Jacksonville today. They did it. Yes, Joe Mixon sealed a victory,

thought that was an important moment for this. team late. As the walls are caved in, you're blowing a big lead to Mack Jones and the Jaguars. More on that in a second. It was the running game, a revived running game in the second half of this game that got them over the finish line. Yes, Joe Mixin goes 1001 yards on 20, carries their success rate was pretty high, 45%. And throughout the second half of this game, Their offense did move the ball. No team in the NFL, I believe, needs a buy week more than this Houston Texans team to just reset,

get healthy, figure things out. They get into the buy at 8 and 5. And it was a little up and down, shook, but Nico Collins goes 8 for 119. And Stroud didn't look great to me. He wasn't pressured that much in this game, and yet he looked a little skittish, and yet I was really encouraged that even against the Jaguars,

at least you were able to run the ball in the second half of this game, which you just were not able to in the first half or really the first half of this whole season. Yeah, that's probably what prevented them from blowing this game if you think about it. I mean, it's beyond that last play that we just played. Which, by the way, shout out to Robert Woods, who's not much of a factor in the passing game,

but made a big block on that play to get the edge. Nice call. That's a veteran move right there. Good job out of Bobby Trees. Yeah, you're right. I think they definitely need this by week. We've seen how up and down they are this season. We've seen how they've struggled with the past protection,

and even on a day in which they really protected better than usual. They still struggled offensively. I don't know if a week is going to fix them, but it would have been much worse if you left Jacksonville with a loss, because then you're soul searching. Then you're looking at it and saying, how did we lose to a Jaguars team that lost Trevor Lawrence to injury in a game? And Mack Jones comes in and throws two touchdowns on us.

They have this frantic comeback. That would have been terrible. So it's good that you get out of there with that win. It's good that Nico Collins is still doing Nico Collins things, which, God, he's, I mean, even the most optimistic projectors for him hanging out of Michigan never would have seen him be this good in the NFL. He's awesome. But still, yeah, there's still a couple steps away from being the Texans team that I think we want them to be because of past protection, but really because of offensive rhythm and flow

in general. So good time to go into the bio with a win, and that's pretty much it. This reminded me of so many Texans games while Nico Collins was hurt, and I just was watching it thinking, oh, they'd lose this game without Nico Collins. It is that big of a difference Because on offense, they have six points at halftime, a couple short field field goal drives, but otherwise struggling. But like I said, in the second half, for the most part, they moved the ball and they moved it well. And so did Mack Jones. Let's get to the reason why he was in this game, though. Trevor Lawrence takes a really rough late hit from Aziz Al-Shayir, who was immediately ejected from the game.

Jarian Jones, the Jaguars quarterback, comes in and. tries to protect her, stick up for his quarterback. He ends up getting ejected, too. So there was offsetting penalties, the injury, and the penalty didn't even really hurt the Texans. It helped them because it took Trevor Lawrence out of the game. I am curious what the NFL will do with this one. It feels like he might get suspended beyond this week

because it basically is everything you don't want to see. A super late hit, and you saw Lawrence there in the fencing position. and it was a concussion after the game. Doug Peterson talked about it. Let's listen. Well, I was excited for Trevor to get back out there, you know, and start for our team and lead our football team, you know, this week. That was always the goal, you know, was to shoot for, you know,

the Houston game and getting back out there. And, you know, it's just, again, it's unfortunate. It's a play that really has no, you know, business being in our, in our league. Yeah, Al Shire, at this point, this is not his first time, right, in an involvement where people are questioning, right, his commitment to the type of atmosphere

that we would like to see in an NFL game. A clip of him taking Tom Brady out in the neck when Brady was on the bucks, that was flowing out there, yeah. And so I can understand people saying it's a difficult spot for a defender when the quarterback is in the sliding, motion there, but there's no reason to launch and to bring your arm up, which is protected by a giant

brace directly at the head and neck area. The quarterback is Trevor Lawrence's head gets bounced off the ground there. Issues with, because the fight, which is understandably, Evan Ingram, grabbed a hold of Alshire, did not let go for at least 14 seconds after that. Of course, Jones and Alshire get run after that, but it just took a whole lot of time to get Alshire off the field. or they came back from the break and he was still in the game and I was just wondering aside from breaking up the fight

why is it such a difficult thing to remove the player from the stadium at that point because things still went on Brandon Chiariff or him in him or jawing and a lot of this is going while Trevor's lying motionless on the ground it's just a real tough

way to go about watching this football game but yeah you could make all the excuses for Al Shai you're there it was just it was a very very unnecessary play and a dangerous one that we don't want. Especially when you have a history of doing it. And yeah, when he left the field, some of the Jaguars fans were let him know about it.

We're throwing some things at him. And it was ugly. Which is a circumstance, do you make worse by having him stay on the field for that amount of time? Yeah. And who knows what the game would have been like if Lauren stayed in there. It's worth noting they were struggling offensively. Both offenses were struggling when Trevor was out there.

He was a little off in terms of his timing. I would say with his receivers had one really nice throw that you were like, oh, that's a Trevor Lawrence type of throw, but also had some big misses and an interception on the drives he was out there. Doug Peterson said after the game that it's too early to determine whether he will be out for the rest of the season. But the fact that that question is even being asked, he's playing through this shoulder injury.

It'd be surprising to see him in the upcoming week, certainly. So a big win for the Texans, but definitely marred. on a day where, yeah, like I mentioned, C.J. Stroud only had, there was only one quick pressure for the Jaguars on the entire game. And I went back to make sure I was right about this. It was their very first play.

Because I was like, man, that first play, he got absolutely, you know, smashed by Devin Lloyd. And that was the one quick pressure. And it was such a big hit. I almost felt like it affected Stroud for the rest of the day. He's not as comfortable right now in the pocket. He made a lot of really nice throws, and he made a lot of just rushed throws

where he kind of sacked himself, and it's just not the C.J. Stroud, we are used to seeing. So like I said, I hope a biweek can help him reset. Let's go to the NFC where the Rams and the Saints were playing in a game. I dubbed kind of the, give us one more week bowl. Give us one more week where we feel relevant, whether it's the Rams or the Saints who comes out on top.

Stafford and the shotgun. Eighth play of the drive and a 14 all-toddive. Angle from the 7. They shoot it down the line. Right side. got it. He finds his way in, behind his blocks. Cooper Cup, Colby Parkinson, paving the way to Paterts. Touchdown, Pooka Nakua. Touchdown L.A. Oh, J.B. Long popping those peas. A little bit of alliteration. A little bit of showing the listener a picture of the blocking that goes

on. That's what makes the Rams special. What they have left, that is special on offense. They've been a little up and down. It is that blocking from the edge receivers and the tight ends. They get out of New Orleans. Rizzy Ball's Dangerous with a 21 to 14 victory. Saints had a 6-0 lead early in this game, and the Rams come out of halftime. And like, kind of they've been doing a lot.

Shook, have a big stretch of the game where it's just taking a while to crank it up. But then they do, and usually it's Pukunakua. right in the middle of it. And that was a very Puka Nakua heavy drive, which eventually gave them the lead. That was with a little under nine minutes to go. Yeah, it's funny because of their scoring drives. They had an 11 play drive, then eight played drive. And then in between there, there was a four play drive. It ended with the DeMarcus Robinson touchdown catch. But otherwise, yeah, that's who this offense is. They're not like this overly explosive big play passing game that you maybe would expect from a team with Cooper Cup and Pooka Nakua involved. But it's still better than

the alternative, which is what we saw when they played Miami. And what we've seen, you know, when they played the Eagles, which is, like, struggling to hit the throws that you expect Matt Stafford to throw. At this point, we can't pin him down. We really can't pin the Rams down unless Kyron Williams breaks 100 yards on the ground, which is what he did today on 15 attempts,

scores a touchdown. And you know, it's funny because you say, give us one more week. It's the give us one more week bowl. Well, Greg, they're six in six. They're right there. That's true. Nobody wants to win.

But my logic with that was, that is true. But my logic with that one was if they lose in New Orleans and likely fall two games back in the division, they're just not a team that we're taking seriously. Now, I thought they would win this game ultimately because we kind of call them the best bad team, maybe. Or like they're a good bad team. They're at 6 and 6.

I do feel like I can peg them. And they might change who they are. But to me, they are a 6 and 6 team. They are who their record says they are. They have enough talent on both sides of the ball that they can get it done against bad teams. And ultimately, New Orleans is that. Yeah, they can do that in a weird game script

where it starts off. And first of all, the Saints have lengthy possessions. We are late in the second quarter. And Matt Stafford has less than 30 passing yards. Wow. And Blake Corum is out carrying Kairn Williams. And then you fast forward to the end of the game. And they're electric in the second half.

And Kairn Williams goes 15, carries over 100 yards. I think averages nine yards of carry in this game, including the one that ices the game. Well, just, I don't want to say that ice the game because the, the rookie. all everything edge rusher winds up ice in the game on defense the Saints have a fourth and goal situation Derek Carr holds onto the ball way too long Jared versus able to get to him knock the ball away Rams win yeah I heard from Jordan who was there at the game you know saying he wanted to Jared verse wanted to hold himself accountable he told Jordan in the press there that after the game he ends up with seven pressures on this game and

And that was a big one. And apparently, McVeigh said he was really impressed with versus attitude throughout the week that he humbled himself after maybe feeling himself a little too much after, you know, really getting it going. This is a young team. They've had ups and downs. Apparently players and coaches were very vocal in the locker room at halftime to just start running the damn ball. And they did. And ultimately, you know,

Stafford gets it going enough. They get to 6 and 6. And I'll miss Rizzy Ball. We still got the rest of the season, Shook. But if they had won this game, it's like they would have been kind of back in the NFC South race. And they were not given one more week. One thing that'll stand out to me in this game is Tassum Hill left on a cart.

And the reaction of the fans there chanting Tassim Hill's name as he was helped off. Derek Carr spoke afterwards and it was a little emotional. just about that reaction that Tasem Hill got. So you feel for him and hopefully Tysam Hill, who we've seen is kind of the key to this offense. Weirdly, we hope he'll be better down the stretch. Decidedly before and after moments in this game, before the Taseom injury and after the Taseom injury,

because he's heavily involved in so many things that the Saints do, really an emotional hit to the crowd and the team as well to see Tasem go down like that. And NFL Network Insider Ian Rappaport saying that still got the MRI coming up, but they fear that that's going to be it for number seven for the Saints this year. That would be a big letdown

and a big subtraction just in terms of what a value ad Tayson Hill has been for these Saints games. Kind of a lost season for the Saints now almost officially feels like they're out of it. Although there's not a lot that's official, even after 13 straight weeks.

But there is one team, just one, that's officially eliminated from playoff contention. And there is one team that officially punched their ticket to the playoffs. That actually happened on Friday. Let's go to Arrowhead. This has got to be either on the sideline or a quick throw. They stopped that O'Connell wasn't ready.

The ball's on the turf, and the Chiefs have the football. There's a flag down. Please be a false start. Otherwise, this game is over. I think it's their ball. Yeah, first chance is celebrating already. The legal shift on the offense. The affidavitius decline.

The Chiefs did recover the backwards pass and take over first down. Oh, that is a heartbreaker. In a season full of cut-punch losses. This is the most heartbreaking. Oh, my goodness. Oh, you feel for the Raiders. Mason Crosby and Aiden O'Connell and even Jason Horowitz and Lincoln Kennedy there in the booth for KRLV. The Raiders fumble a chance on a bad snap in field goal range, in Arrowhead, as time was ticking down.

I thought they played well enough to win. Aiden O'Connell throws for 340 yards. The Raiders defense gets them the ball back. couple times late as the Raiders can't finish off those offensive drives, but the Chiefs are the first team into the playoffs in 20, 24. Get the win, 19 to 17. It feels like every week, Nick, the Chiefs win and they look worse doing it, and the vibes and like the conversation afterwards are almost probably more

frustrating for Chiefs fans and Chiefs players. it really is starting to give you 2023 Eagles vibes. I don't think it's like that, but the way these wins keep getting worse and worse, they really were outplayed. Like, the Raiders put up over 400 yards of them and easily outgained them on the day, but ultimately the Chiefs get the win.

I pushed back on that a little bit. The reason is the Raiders on the scoreboard were non-existent until the third quarter when Brock Bowers made that phenomenal catch for a touchdown pass, a reception, to make it 16 to 10. And then you had Trey Tucker in motion around the end for a 58-yard touchdown pass

and suddenly they're in the lead because before that this is one of those like rare moments since I've been remote over the last five years where I felt like I was sitting in the newsroom with Patrick again watching the games like in 2017 again

because he and I are both sending each other messages on social media about how Aiden O'Connell refuses to scramble and I'm just sitting there going he's got room to run he's throwing the ball really well and yet they're getting nothing out of it they get a turnover on downs and chief's territory

they're just a bunch of missed opportunities really And then suddenly they explode and they have the lead. But it felt that whole time like, well, that's not going to last. And then the chiefs get an opportunity and they have to settle for a field goal, which goes back to what they've been all year. Their red zone offense, by the way, guys, really, really concerning. Like, it seems to get worse every week just with the rest of their performances. And yet they're 11 and 1 because they still get the job done.

DeAndre Hopkins dropped a pass on third down that Patrick Mahomes made a heroic play. He gets out of a Max Crosby sack. He escapes. He's falling forward and throws into a wide open Hopkins. He drops it over the middle. They missed Xavier Worthy on a third down call where they tried to throw it over a defense that was very much prepared for the run. They did a lot of things to lose this game, but I didn't feel like the Raiders necessarily were in a position that they could say, hey, we outplayed you. We outplayed you for about 12 minutes in the second half, and we were in position to win.

But then again, we are the Raiders. And that last play really drove me up a wall because they break the huddle with like six seconds on the play clock. Of course there's going to be operational confusion. Of course that snap's going to happen early. And it points to the lack of experience for Aidan O'Connell and a rookie in center Jackson Powers, Johnson, just a tough scene for them. With the Turner contingency up upstairs, getting the play in, perhaps a touch second late for the Raiders. But my chiefs quite, it's not 2023 Eagles in the sense that, you know, there's blown coverages and weird stuff going on in the secondary.

They give it up a ton of points in December. Sincere McCormick, who I literally just had to Google again just now to remember his first name, had 5.3 yards per carry. Aiden O'Connell throws for 340. We saw the bills score 30. Bryson the Panthers almost did it. And then until he took the lid off the rim there shook, because we're tracking Aden O'Connell's scramble yards, which he has none in his career.

He had a scramble that got called back for a hold in this game, so he still hasn't done it. But after that, he was unlocked. He was unconscious the rest of the game because he hit the touchdown there. It's the touchdown to Bowers. He finishes with those two touchdowns, 23 or 35.

Bob, the Chiefs defense has a problem right now, Greg. Yeah, they do. The secondary, I think, got worse by putting McDuffie on the outside. He's a good outside corner, but he's not a special outside corner. He was special on the inside. That made the inside position worse where they're really struggling. The other outside position is getting torched. Some of it in this game was Brock Bowers just being special,

but he's beating their cornerbacks. He goes for 10 for 140. Bobby Myers had a strong game, started out really well in this game, especially in the first half. Tucker had that 58-yard catch. And so, okay, that's one thing. That's a problem. I saw the line of scrimmage, as you mentioned, getting pushed back against the worst running team in the league, although they have been better offensively overall since the turn I took over.

They really have turned this thing around. They've done a good job. And then the only reason I said they deserve to win is because in the key part of the game, After those two quick touchdowns, it's fourth quarter, you know, you bow up in the red zone to force a field goal by the Chiefs who keeps struggling in the red zone. You're down by a couple points. And the Raiders do get back in field goal range. Carlson misses one. It's one of three misses on the day.

They were all really long in cold weather. So it's not the field goals that you want. And so you give the Chiefs defense some credit there. But the Chiefs also go two and out, I mean, three and out twice in that sequence where a couple first downs win the game. And they just can't do it. And I'm glad you mentioned that D-Hop drop because I just haven't seen Mahomes so frustrated. He was so frustrated about a Wanyam Morris penalty.

That's another problem that's happening. A lot of pressure for sacks against the Raiders. A lot of pressure a week ago. And that sequence was crazy to me because Mahomes made two magical plays. One is under extreme pressure that he dumps off to Kareem Hunt and they end up losing five yards because his offensive line stinks, but he's magical. And then the next play, same thing.

The offensive lines thinks he's magical. and it's a drop, and you could just really see the frustration setting in a little bit. They did get some good news, Nick, back that Hollywood Brown is trending towards a week 16 or week 17 return, according to Ian Rappaport. So that's awesome, and they can absolutely, you know, play better, but they're not, they're not playing well, and they're lucky to have the number one seed right now. So last year, everybody's talked about this ad nauseum. Andy Reid mentioned it after they won the Super Bowl.

the loss to the Chiefs or to the Raiders excuse me on Christmas was the moment they needed to wake up. It was the moment where they realized, okay, we got to be better, we got to be tougher and they went on the run, they win the Super Bowl. I kind of got that same feeling in this game, but not for the same reasons, mainly because suddenly they were like, the Raiders were applying pressure

and it's almost as if they were shocked that the Raiders were suddenly in the lead. At one point they showed somebody in the sideline, I don't know if it was Juania Morris or somebody else who just said, wake the F up, like shouting at his teammates in the sideline. Like, hey, yeah, we're the Chiefs, we've won back-to-to-back Super Bowls, but just because we put these uniform on doesn't mean we're just going to go win wake up now so i wonder if this is going to be the

wake up call for them over the next five weeks going into the playoffs or not because there are so many other problems that you guys just described and explained that i don't think it fixed quickly but then again it's the chiefs and and i all i've been taught over the last two years and really over the last four or five years is that they're going to be there so until they're not i won't believe otherwise i just i need to see a more a greater sense of urgency from them than i Right, but I kind of thought, like, being a two-point conversion away against a really banged-up buck's team was the wake-up call. And then the Broncos game where they're trailing and need a block kick,

is that a wake-up call? How about when you lose by nine to the bills? Is that a wake-up call? You get at the end of the Panthers. It's like, this is a strange game where they're not playing their best, but we know that they can turn around. I just think right now it's absolutely fair to say that they're not playing at a Super Bowl winning level.

That's all. I just get concerned with the idea of turning it around when the players that you need to turn it around are Wanya Morris, right? Like, and Joshua Williams. Like, my concerns aren't Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones and the guys and Travis Kelsey that have won all these Super Bowls

and do the things that we count on them to do. It's the guys that we haven't necessarily seen executed at a high level. And with so much turnover, especially at the tackle position throughout Patrick Mahomes' career, I just wonder, why fight so hard to be cheap at this position?

with this quarterback. It just, it seems counterproductive, and it's a thing that has been going for way too long. Because they've gotten away with it. That's why. Well, you know,

it's one of the highest paid offensive lines in the league, including Juan Taylor, who's at right tackle, and is almost as big a problem as Morris. Morris and Sue and Matea were day two picks. It's not, I mean, those are real investments.

It just, they haven't worked. My issue is more that they're trying to plug a lot of different holes. The defensive backfield, now the run defense is struggling, the tackles, and I think team speed. That said, Pacheco gets back in this game, gives them a little bit of juice. I think they'll trust them to have more and more work. Hollywood Brown's coming back.

We don't need to panic either. They have some interesting games down the stretch. They're not playing any other superpowers, but they do have the Chargers and the Broncos and the Steelers down the stretch in their final five games. So they will be tested. Now, since we last talked, there's been a coaching change. And I guess we could have guessed on this. If you listen to my recap with Will Gavin, late on Thanksgiving night,

we wondered if Matt Eberflus would make it. And he went and at a press conference the next day. So we thought he made it. And then he didn't make it. Thomas Brown will be the interim head coach of the Bears. Not often we talk about a coach being fired on the. the Sunday night recap that happened a day before Nick, a couple days before Nick, but the timing of it was a first in Chicago Bears history. It's one of the most interesting

jobs that's going to be open because of Caleb Williams. And it just felt like from all the reporting there in Detroit that the situation between the players and Iber Fluse and their frustration probably made it untenable where Ryan Poles or whoever really made this decision had no other choice but to make a change for the last five weeks. was the fashion which they lost that game on Thanksgiving that really I think was the final straw for them to essentially make him walk the plank before getting rid of him, which is what they did on Friday. And now, you know, my friend at Fox Sports Carmen Vitale, I thought summarized it very well, which is that, you know, the Bears broke trend by, you know,

they broke the standard by firing coach in season for the first time in their 105 year history as a franchise. And they're going to have to continue to break trends in order to get to where they want to go. They have to continue operating in a fashion that they haven't over the last, I don't know, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. And maybe this is the first step. You know, Caleb talked about this last week about how, you know, if he had Thomas Brown as his OSE the whole year, where could they have been? Because, you know, the familiarity, the reps and everything that you get in training camp

and early in the season and just the time spent together, you can't get that back when you make a change in season and you've seen them take that jump. So I think we knew this was going to happen eventually. The fact that it happens in season doesn't really make a big difference for me. If anything, it buys you extra time to start searching the coaching market. You try out Thomas Brown. in this job, you figure out where you want to go from here and make the best of this season. It could have been worse.

You could have waited, I guess, until the end of the season and not gotten that head start, but we knew this was inevitable based on how they were playing. Yeah. Shout out to the flus, the season of flus glow up. It was fun while it lasted. Yeah, ultimately. The fashion of it all, the hair, the beard, all of it. It didn't necessarily mean anything, but it gave us something to be excited about.

And the idea that, hey, this is, this is, this is. going to be something different. But no, five and 19 during his run as the Chicago Bears head coach in one score games. And really, it wasn't just the way that it happened. It was the timeout and the not calling the time out. The fact that he finishes

his career without that final timeout going out there. And it seemed like between the quarterback, the coach, the play caller, the players standing next to him during that process, nobody knew what was going on.

Like the facilitation of how things are supposed to operate from everything, from the offseason in being able to evaluate Shane Waldron as a play caller. Decisions were always made too late. And Matt Eberfluse finally just ran out. I don't think he ever really had an idea of how to make the offense and coach up offense. And you feel bad because, like, yeah, I listened to Chris Long talk about this too. And I thought he was even handed talking about the Caleb Williams part of it too. And it's like, it does suck if your career, if you're Matt,

Iber Flues ends that way and it's going to be remembered forever. And Caleb Williams needs to know not to be changing plays with 16 seconds left. It's like it out. Like he will never do that again in his career. But you can also point to that being like partly on the coaching that, but no one was ready for that moment. Most, most importantly, Matt Eber Fluss was never ready for those moments, no matter who was the quarterback.

The quarterback's head just got bounced off the ground. He's getting a play call in his ear. He's trying to get guys set. with 10 seconds to go, players besides Matt Eberflus are jumping up and down screaming, four seconds elapsed after that before the ball gets snapped. During any one of those four seconds, he could have called time out. He chose not to. It's such a brutal way for a coaching career to end.

I'm curious if Ryan Poles will be making the next head coach hiring, the idea is he probably we will. I asked around about this. People don't think he has any chance that he would be gone. It's murky of how much was Iber Fluse his decision to hire or not. He was hired before him, but in the same, you know, round of cycles, and maybe he got a chance to kind of rubber stamp that hiring, but maybe it wasn't really his guy.

There was pretty reliable reporting that he stood on the table and said he believed Matt Iberflus was the man to do it coming back this year. And I think there is a case to be. made, that's a fireable offense and that you're redoing this whole cycle where the coach and the GM and the quarterback are not a line that just keeps happening over and over and over in Chicago. And so if you're going to let Ryan Poles stay, let him truly choose the coach. Don't be getting yourself involved that much on an ownership level. Let Ryan Poles do it because if it ends up being the ownership coach, then you're going to be firing Ryan Poles in a year

two, and the coach will still be there, and we're just going to keep doing this thing over and over and over again. It's happened for 15 years. It's an organizational thing. You can see certain organizations make the same mistakes over and over. And that's what worries me, even though Poles has had a solid track record and obviously had had the trade that got him, Caleb Williams, I don't know. I just let the GM do his job. That's going to be it for the Patrick Claibon portion of the program. Always one of my favorite portions of the program. The biggest portion of the program.

In terms of size. Yes. I guess the weight here in the Christmas. In importance, frankly, if we're only talking two segments and I had to lose either the whole thing before Sunday night football or Sunday night football,

I would lose Sunday night football. But I can't wait to talk a little Sunday night football with Nick Shook. You guys enjoy that. We will. All right. To Sunday night. First and a goal from the seven.

Allen Under Center. Takes a snap, quick hitter, thrown behind, but somehow caught. And now lateral to Allen and reaching for the pylon. Are you kidding me? It's a touchdown. Unbelievable. A catch by Amari Cooper, a lateral to Josh Allen, and he runs the remaining five yards for the score. Have you ever seen that one before?

I have not Chris Brown of WGR. in Buffalo. Josh Allen with a receiving touchdown and a passing touchdown on the very same play. He added a rushing touchdown later in the second half to complete the trifecta. He goes over 100 yards on the ground. No one is playing better football right now at quarterback than Josh Allen 35 to 10. The bills pulverized the 49ers in the snow. They are built for it. Shooky. I mean, a guy who can pass, a guy who can catch, although it was a lateral, a guy who can get engaged to a Hollywood starlet during his bye week and then show up and be the hero on Sunday night football.

I mean, what can't this man do? My guy's just winning in every facet, in every single way. Passing touchdown, rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown. He's just winning, and the bills are just winning. They're 10 and 2 now. They take down the 49ers with the ultimate home field advantage of incredible amounts of snow in Western New York. York and just how that's like kind of a neutralizer on the field except for people like

Josh Allen who are he is essentially a legitimate like buck like he's a deer running out there so he's built for the snow and to make plays like that a lopsided victory for them kind of could have anticipated it before the snow got involved now you just see the difference between these two teams one team heading up the other one heading down and that play I'll tell you what you said you've never seen it before I think Marcus marriota once did that off a deflected pass one time that's a little different though A little different. You know, that's the deflection.

I just didn't know the ruling that you get credit for a receiving touchdown after getting the lateral and the still shot of Allen flying through the air with the snow. It is just beautiful. And I know the people who say, I just want football to be played at its highest level. And ultimately, the snow is kind of a distraction and it prevents, you know, people from playing their best. I kind of get that in the biggest of spots, but I like variety shook in life. So sprinkle in these games. It's not going to be every single game, but sprinkle it in. Occasionally you find a team like the 49ers who just are not ready for it. They came out of

the gates looking ready for it, but they were slipping and sliding all over the place. Three huge fumbles in the game. Brock Purdy, not a snow guy game. Josh Allen and this bill's running attack, definitely snow guys. Yeah, which is crazy because Purdy, definitely played some nasty weather games at Ames, you know, Iowa when he was in the state back the day. God knows he was there forever. He had to have played at least one bad weather game, but it is. That's essentially what this is, you know.

This is why I think that football, you know, you talk about being played at the highest level. I think that it's not just for a variety. This is football in its purest form. That shot of Josh Allen diving with the snow all around him and there's a guy in an NFL Beanie. Looks like he's part of the like the ball boys or something, just

staring intently, watching magic happen before his eyes. That is football. How can you not fall in love with that? That's fantastic. That's going to be framed in Canton. I'm going to go to the Canton this summer. It's going to be on a frame somewhere. He's going to be on display and it should be because that's football at its core. You know what? It's crazy is the 49ers actually ran

the ball quite well in this game. Christian McCaffrey leaves with a knee injury. Kyle Shanahan announces after the game that it's a potentially season ending knee injury. Really disappointing for McCaffrey and really disappointing

obviously for the 49ers who get Purdy back, but did not have Bosa back. We're missing five starters on defense. We're missing Trent Williams. And yet, they actually ran 7.6 yards per carry when they gave it to McCaffrey. Jordan Mason had a number of positive runs early in this game. Ends up 13 for 78. Their success rate is really high. And they're setting up for a field goal to make it 7.6 about midway through the second quarter. And they're moving the ball. And it seems like a normal football game. They miss the kick. and the very next play, Cook takes it, what it was, 65 yards for a touchdown. And after that, it was just as one-sided as it gets.

And you just think if Josh Allen and the bills are hosting games in the snow or in tough weather, he really is built for it. Now, they didn't try to throw the ball too much. He only threw it 17 times, but he ripped a couple passes right through the air. Whereas Purdy, like, guys were slipping. He had a couple decent throws. but, you know, Debo's falling all over the place and fumbles it. Purdy fumbles it because he can't hold on to it.

He throws the ball 18 times for 94 yards. Any penetration by defense happened by Buffalo in this game. Their offensive line was much better. And they're just, they're just a tough team. And it's one reason why I think they have a real chance to win the Super Bowl this year. And make my prediction look good. It's because every aspect of the game they can excel in, whether that's running, passing, run defense, or past defense.

And depending on the week, they can do different things. And they've just been through so many wars that games like this, it's like no problem for them. They are the AFC East champions here with five weeks left of the season. It's crazy. Yeah, week 13 clincher, it's been a long time since that's happened that quickly, but that also goes to, you know, show what the AFC East is, the bills are the superior team, way more superior than any of us anticipated than being this year.

Yeah, that's who they are. But it makes me think about two things. I think back to when the Bengals beat the bills, in the playoffs a few years ago in a snowy game. And Bill's fans complained about the snow neutralizing their pass rush. And that's why the Bengals were able to beat them. That's the beauty of a snow game is that it neutralizes the pass rush. You look at the pressure rate here.

Five pressures for the nine years, seven pressures for the bills. There's a clip of Josh Allen, I think, in the third or fourth quarter, dropping back, and he's got all day to throw and just rips one right down the middle of the field for a completion inside the red zone. And I was, like, blown away by the fact that he just could stand there and just pat and bounce and bounce until he found somebody. It was because of the snow. it's also because of this offensive line, which is getting better and is coming around.

But it also speaks to their evolution as an offense since Joe Brady took over last year, which is that they figured out how to run the ball traditionally. Instead of just relying on Josh Allen is the only runner on the field, they can now lean on James Cook, 14 for 107, Ray Davis, 11 for 63. Each of them had a touchdown. Josh Allen Chipson, 3 for 18. He has a touchdown. This is a team that you just said can beat you in a number of different ways.

This is the way that they can win in a snow game at home of the playoffs if they get it. And right now, they're in one of the prime positions to get the AFC's top seat or at least being contention for it. So everything's coming up bills right now. It is a team that I look forward to watching. I don't know if they technically deserve to be AFC East champions. I'm just going to have like a little point of order. How can they be deemed AFCs champions if they've never even played against Drake May?

I mean, I just feel like they got two more games down the stretch. Everyone's saying the bills have an easy schedule down the stretch. They actually haven't played the Patriots. How can you be the division champ if you haven't even played the Patriots? Well, we're going to get that twice here down the stretch and I expect them to win both games. It can't go any worse than it did at the end of the Belichick era, even when they were making the playoffs. They literally didn't get a stop back then. This team is absolutely awesome.

I can't believe a thing that actually happened in Buffalo tonight was Josh Allen and Sean McDermick doing Snow Angels on the field after the game together. That's what you know. Things are going well for the Bills. Fun week, fun game. Yes, over, I believe, 20 inches of snow around the stadium. It was up to three feet in some areas of Buffalo. And yeah, a couple inches were happening. A lot of the fans at the game were just standing the whole time because they couldn't sit down. Very cool. And at this point, it's not, you can't even say long tortured Bills fans. We got Eric Robert. back here who's a fan of a Dodgers winning the Super Bowl. And he's been rooting for one of the best teams in the NFL.

I don't want to hear about tortured. You guys have been good for seven or a year. You've got to be talking about my niece and nephew. They only know Josh Allen. I was at the Nathan Peterson-Peterman five-interception game. I've been around for the next generation of Bill's fans, you can save. All I'm saying is this is an extended, beautiful run of success that should only continue. But I do know that until you.

Make the Super Bowl win a Super Bowl. It feels like something is missing. But these are the good old days, is what I'm trying to say. So enjoy it. No, I am. Trust me. I am. And I am as well.

This was a beautiful show. Chucky, I want to get you back to everything that's going on in Cincinnati. Celebrate your Cavs victory. Get ready for Monday night football because we're talking about your brownies in a big spot. Once again, I mean, I'm fine with the Browns being in prime time compared to these 49ers games. Are there any coming up that we need to get out? Week 17, they're playing the Lions. They're not going to flex them out of that.

We got week 15 against the Rams. It's crazy how done this 49ers team feels because of the injuries. It's the first time since 2015 that they've lost 25 by 25 points in back-to-back weeks. Only the fourth time in the history of this proud franchise that's ever happened. And they do not feel like they are coming back from this down to games and the injuries. are just too much. Yeah, they're mounting. Just the hits keep coming.

As soon as you get one guy back, you lose another, you lose another, you lose another. I mean, it's too steep of a hill to climb. I know that NFC West is still very much for the taking, but they don't feel like a team that's on the rise. And it's unfortunate for a team that made the Super Bowl and lost in heartbreaking fashion overtime last year, but that's just the fact that matter with them.

No, I saw the bears on the schedule next week, and I'm thinking, well, that's a good spot, but it's a good side for both teams. So that's it for our recap show. week 13 in the books. As I said, Shooki and I will be back on Monday night. Talk a little Browns. Talk a little Broncos.

Talk a little news of the day. I want to thank everyone that helped throughout the Thanksgiving week. A lot of extra hours. Eric, behind the glass. Chris doing a bang-up job. When Josh Allen is going snow beast, snow angels, you know football is back. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here.

And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on something. Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast,

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